Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Hindu Halloween... well, not quite!

I love, love, love THE OFFICE... Got hooked on it, thanks to a marathon of episodes courtesy of iTunes video downloads. I can't wait till this Thursday's episode. Dagnamit, I still have that infuriating Cardigans song running in my head ("Love me, love me, say that you love me, fool me, fool me...").

From Watch with Kristin:

Happy Diwali! Any scoop on this week's Office episode?
Happy Diwali to you, too! I just watched it this morning and nearly fell off the treadmill laughing. This Thursday's episode is written by Mindy Kaling (Kelly); it centers around the Hindu holiday Diwali (which Michael, in all his cultural sensitivity, describes as the Hindu Halloween), and I think you'll all be more than a little surprised at what goes down in it. Funny, funny, stuff. Mindy's real-life parents are hilarious as her TV parents, and most importantly, Pam wears her hair down!

The reason why I'm so interested in Diwali is because my close friends own their own food line, and every year, it's the time that they are nowhere to be found (on the social front). One of the traditions is to give away Indian sweets (hence, why THE OFFICE's Michael refers to the holiday as the "Hindu Halloween").

Anyhow... TRICK OR TREAT, kiddies! Have fun and be safe out there!!!

Lastly, a birthday shoutout: Happy 30th to Teethwriter!

Monday, October 30, 2006

truly inspiring

I was fortunate enough to attend the GLAMOUR Women of the Year event at Carnegie Hall this evening. Not to be mistaken for any other awards show, the evening was attended by celebrities, regular folk such as me, and over a third of the audience were young high school girls from the city.

The GLAMOUR Women of the Year are: Sandra Bullock, Laurie David (wife of Larry David and the producer of the Al Gore documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth"), Iman, Queen Latifah (the high school crowd's favorite -- perhaps because she's so relatable), Tammy Duckworth (a war veteran who lost both legs and is running for Congress in Illinois), Billie Jean King, the Missoni family (three generations of fashionistas), Rachael Scdoris (a legally blind athelete who just completed Alaska's Iditarod), Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori (the highest ranking female religious leader who actively supports gay and lesbians, the first woman to be named presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church), America's servicewomen, and perhaps the most emotion-filled honoree of the evening is Somaly Mam, a woman who survived a childhood as a sex slave and who has rescued over 3,000 children and women from a similar fate in Southeast Asia.

Presenters included Gloria Steinem, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Marianne Pearl, Stephen Colbert (random but funny), Angelica Huston, Marian Wright Edelman, Rosario Dawson and Barbara Walters. There was a special tribute to a fiery politician, Ann Richards, who recently passed away, and the crowd was treated to a musical performance by Carly Simon and her daughter.

What surprised me was how inspired almost everyone felt to be a woman and to be among these shining examples of strength, activism, faith and courage. The energy was so positive and it was a truly remarkable experience... It certainly puts the dramas and frivolities that tend to overwhelm us on a day-to-day basis into a certain light.


UPDATE -- 11/02/2006 -- EVEN NEW YORK MAGAZINE'S DAILY INTELLIGENCER GOT A BIT WEEPY!!!


‘Glamour’ Awards Reduce Winners, Audience, Our Reporter to Tears
We're not the type who cries during Extreme Makeover: Home Edition or Verizon commercials or when that diamond-ad music starts playing. (Duh duh da da, duh duh da da.) Still, we had a hard time fighting the stereotype during Glamour's tissue-fest of an awards show Monday night at Carnegie Hall. The magazine's "Women of the Year" honorees ranged from three generations of Missoni women to Queen Latifah — who, judging from chorus of screams that greeted the mere mention of her name, is the most popular person in the world — and all of them, plus nearly everyone in the audience, had wet eyes through much of the evening.

Not even tomboyish Sandra Bullock — who knelt down awkwardly to put her award on the floor ("There's no cool way to hold that thing") and interrupted her speech to ask the audience if her dress was see-through — could keep it together. She cried twice, once when Barbara Walters presented the award, highlighting the millions she's donated to disaster relief, and again a few minutes later, during her acceptance speech, when she acknowledged the dozen or so American servicewomen in the audience. And touching moments kept on coming: a tribute to Ann Richards; an acknowledgement of Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman who's rescued 3,000 girls from sexual slavery; and a video of female athletes thanking lifetime-achievement honoree Billie Jean King. "I've only seen my husband cry twice in fifteen years," Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive told us later. "Once was when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1993, and the second time was watching that video about Billie Jean King."

When the men present weren't crying, they were offering case studies in sensitivity training. Even Larry David got it right when he introduced his wife, Laurie David, an environmental activist and producer of An Inconvenient Truth. "I'll tell you this," he said, "if the people working on a cure for baldness had the same passion and commitment as my wife, I would be sitting here tonight with a full healthy head of hair."

The night belonged to the women, and despite a State of the Union–worthy number of standing ovations, no one owned the audience — the top two tiers of which were filled with hysteria-prone girls from local high schools — like Latifah. Catherine Zeta-Jones introduced her friend Queenie (cue screams from the rafters) in possibly the showiest, most dramatic reading of a TelePrompTer we've ever witnessed. "Aw, that's so nice of Catherine," said Latifah when she took the stage. "I didn't have to pay her but a hundred bucks to do that." Then she thanked her sick-and-stuck-at-home mom "who taught me that every girl is a queen," pledged $150,000 to Somaly Mam's efforts, and led the girls in a chant: "I can … do anything … If I believe … in myself!" The chorus of squeals went supersonic. We covered our ears. And then we cried.

-— Jada Yuan

Thursday, October 19, 2006

today's quote

"All change is not growth; as all movement is not forward."
--Ellen Glasgow

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

bruiser's bday outing: small and tasty

 
We celebrated Su's belated 30-something birthday on Friday the 13th at a small but swank foodie haunt, Fig + Olive, in the Upper East Side. Pictured here is the birthday girl's tasting entree -- yum. Posted by Picasa
 
the birthday lady Posted by Picasa
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the evening's crew: me, tom, brian, su and mark
 
canoodling Posted by Picasa
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sumo's OTHER men Posted by Picasa

Friday, October 13, 2006

poseur vs. poser

Just posting for the sake of posting... Check out my buddy's blog, too, if you have a moment... Word of the People

Trizzy: did you know that you have 7 blogs linking to yours?
Trizzy: your blog ranks 445,372 in the world of technorati
Trizzy: i just added you as a favorite
teethwriter: awwww, thanks
Trizzy: mine is like 1,235,747 or something random like that
teethwriter: really?
Trizzy: but then again, i don't really write about anything
Trizzy: i spend my whole life at work writing
teethwriter: I rate on top of yours?
Trizzy: harhar
teethwriter: cause you update more than I do
teethwriter: I'm serious
Trizzy: rank is based on how many people link to you and read your pub
Trizzy: if you sign up for technorati and "claim your blog"
Trizzy: it will help publicize your site
Trizzy: www.technorati.com
Trizzy: i suggest that you do
Trizzy: seriously, you have a lot to say in the world
teethwriter: I think i did already
teethwriter: anyway it doesn't really matter, I mean to make it blogging now, even if you do it 24/7 is nearly impossible
teethwriter: they had a really good article about that in the new yorker
Trizzy: new yorker - you're such an intellectual snob
teethwriter: oh wait, I mean New York
teethwriter: intellectual hipster my dear
Trizzy: oh, well, i subscribe to new york
Trizzy: i guess i am, too
Trizzy: a hipster not a snob
Trizzy: not sure about the intellectual part
teethwriter: well I think by def hipsters are supposed to be intellectual
Trizzy: you think?
Trizzy: i guess that's what differentiates them from just being trendy posers
teethwriter: exactly
Trizzy: actually, the correct spelling is poseur
Trizzy: a person who pretends to be what he or she is not : an affected or insincere person
Trizzy: wait, i'm such a nerd. i checked -- they're both right.
teethwriter: lol
teethwriter: I didn't even notice
teethwriter: maybe that doesn't make you a nerd, maybe that makes you anal
Trizzy: and on that note... i think i'm going to post this chat on my blog. just for the sake of posting. haven't done it in a bit.


Happy Friday!

Sunday, October 08, 2006

perfect ending

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next."

-- Gilda Radner

Saturday, October 07, 2006

melville on strength and beauty

"Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic."

--Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 86 "The Tail", 1851

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

one of my few vices...

Sad to say, but I really am addicted to television…

I’m currently hooked on these TV blogs… Waiting for a decent one to emerge for Studio 60 (which will probably be any day now!!!).

From the writers of Grey’s Anatomy

E’s Watch with Kristin (especially for spoilers!)

Entertainment Weekly’s TV Watch

Classic snark (have loved this since it launched with Dawson’s Creek)

On the upside, I still choose to have a social life over TV... I have yet to catch the new season of Gilmore Girls, and that will be postponed for another week since I have plans with Liz and Kar tonight. Dagnamit, I need to get DVR or TiVO! For now, I only have Darth Miggy at home with our trusty VCR (old school).

Sunday, October 01, 2006

seems like old times...

 
in honor of niel's visit and in memory of hansen, who passed away suddenly that morning in an unfortunate car crash... Posted by Picasa
 
g and me Posted by Picasa
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mark and su
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wolverine and possum
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mark and sach
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