Wyclef visit

I was excited when I heard last week that Wyclef would be visiting at work and was going to talk, introduce his new CD, and even perform a bit. I'd been a fan of the Fugees (a long time ago), and even went to a Lauryn Hill concert one summer at Jones Beach.

Anyway, I put the visit on my calendar, but as usual, when the time came around, I was swamped and felt like I couldn't leave my desk. I finally dragged myself over to the cafe about 20 minutes late, and I'm really glad I did.

Wyclef was funny; kidding around with the sound guy and challenging a random employee to a push-up contest (the other guy started doing clap pushups so Wyclef did one-armed pushups). He was interesting; he talked about collaborating with other artists and played some clips from his new CD. Most of all, he was entertaining; he played several acoustical pieces, and followed that up by freestyling for a good 10 minutes or so.

I don't buy a lot of CDs these days, but now I'm tempted to buy one.

jolie

Yesterday, while some people were over, I was flipping through channels and ran across one of the Lara Croft movies. We only watched it for maybe ten minutes, but even in that short time, I found it interesting, how many people have emphatic opinions about Angelina Jolie.

One person pointed out how she likes to watch Jolie's movies because she feels like indirectly, she's doing something good (1/3 of Jolie's income goes to charity). She mentioned Jolie's hands-on charity work with international refugees, and her adoption of two children from "Third World" countries.

Another person criticized her for having broken up Brad Pitt's marriage to Jennifer Aniston, and for having previously broken up other relationships.

A third person didn't really care about her personal life, but thought she was hot, and a fourth person promptly disagreed and said she was too weird looking.

As for me, I think she's a good actress in some cases (Girl, Interrupted) and bad in others (Gone in Sixty Seconds). I admire what she has done for charity, and how she appears to care very little about public opinion.

Perhaps it's that a strong personality that elicits strong reactions, in which case, I would imagine she is quite happy with her public persona.

congrats to Ang Lee!

I was really happy to hear that Ang Lee, one of my favorite directors, won an Oscar for his work on Brokeback Mountain. I've yet to see this one, but I've enjoyed most of his previous movies, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm, and The Wedding Banquet.

As a side note, I am somewhat amused by the reaction by the Chinese press, who really had to do a number to spin this story. Not only did they claim Lee as "Chinese", even though he was born and raised in Taiwan, they censored any mention of the movie's subject matter. I guess it's probably a blow to national pride that Taiwan now has an Academy Award winning director, while China does not.

I wonder how they felt when Taiwan blew out China last week in the World Baseball Classic?

John Spencer

Wow. The news about John Spencer today really freaked me out. 58 doesn't seem that old to me anymore, especially now that my parents are almost that age.

On a more selfish note, this is a huge loss for The West Wing. I'm a very big fan of the earlier seasons, and even now I still watch it (mostly out of loyalty), but I imagine the show will deteriorate even further without "Leo McGarry".

the RZA

There was an article in the Chronicle about an interview that RZA gave recently at Koret. Where do these events get publicized? I would have thought about going, at least for a couple of minutes.

I find RZA a thoroughly fascinating character. He's obviously a talented musician and composer, as he's demonstrated since his Wu-Tang Clan days, and more recently with his work on the Ghost Dog and Kill Bill soundtracks, as well as The World According to RZA, in which he collaborated with French and German musicians. His IMDB profile states that he's an "influential producer and hip-hip MC" and lists a half a dozen aliases. Indeed, he seems to embrace the idea of having multiple public personalities, including the more lighthearted "Bobby Digital" alter ego. Judging from various interviews, including a recent appearance on the Daily Show, the RZA also appears knowledgeable (and often philosophical) about an assortment of topics, including martial arts, Islam (although he is Christian), chess, vegetarianism, recreational drug use, and 20th century history.

Perhaps I just find it refreshing to hear a popular hip-hop artist converse intelligently and profoundly about subjects unrelated to his music.

Doug Christie's wife...I mean, life

So, most NBA fans are aware of the whole situation with Doug Christie and his demanding and paranoid wife, Jackie. During games, Christie signals an "I love you" to his wife after anything resembling a good play (for the longest time, I thought he was calling plays, which didn't make sense, since he's a shooting guard).

Widespread rumor has it that Christie is forbidden from speaking to female reporters, that Jackie follows the team bus everywhere in a car, and that he changes in a closet when female journalists are in the locker room. It's known for a fact that they re-enact their wedding every year (rings, vows, guests, and all), and that Jackie once smacked a female fan who touched Doug on the arm.

I've been told that among guys, a popular "you're whipped" gift is a Doug Christie jersey.

Anyway, now that Doug Christie has been traded to Orlando, I wonder if his wife is going to be able to continue with her plan to have them star in a reality TV show? It's my morbid curiousity asking.

GQ Taiwan

My sister, my brother, my cousin and I stopped by the new Mitsukoshi department store in Tien Mu today, and my sister bought a copy of GQ Taiwan.



Our aunt (more specifically, our uncle's wife) has a friend named Lin Chi-ling, who is a model here in Taiwan. Apparently, her career has really taken off recently, and my sister spotted her on the GQ cover in a really nice dress.

celebrity sighting

Yesterday, Jimmy Carter waved at me, but I wasn't paying attention. The person I was sitting with said "Hi!" back, just as I looked up.

Madeleine Albright visits, and I visit Hooters

Madeleine Albright was here yesterday, and she answered a lot of questions about her new memoir, Madam Secretary, and about her life and foreign policy in general.

One of my questions to her was whether or not she agreed with Senator Kerry's position that the US does not have an obligation to defend Taiwan, should China attack or declare war. I won't discuss her answer, since her visit was off the record.

However, it was interesting to me that several of my coworkers were surprised to learn of Kerry's opinion. I directed them to this transcript of a speech he made to the Senate, in which he clearly states:

"The Taiwan Relations Act does not commit the United States to come to the defense of Taiwan in the event of an attack."

I mentioned before that Senator Kerry's comments on this issue made me seriously reconsider voting for him. I wonder, were his position more widely known, how many people would do the same?

On a lighter note, we went to Hooters (at Fisherman's Wharf) for a birthday party yesterday night. It was amusing enough, especially when the birthday boys got decked out with strategically placed balloons and danced with the Hooters girls, but people certainly do not go there for the food. Ugh.

steve young sighting!

i was eating lunch on the cafeteria patio the other day, when the door opened, and out walked our CEO, with steve young, my second favorite football player of all time (and a bunch of other people who i didn't really look at). they sat down with their lunch trays at a nearby table.

so i promptly regressed into crazy niner fandom, turned around and hissed to a co-worker, omigod, it's steve young!

to which there were several replies:

- are you sure? (yes, he's wearing a visitor badge that says, "Steve Young")
- he's in a car commercial, right?
- which sport does he play? baseball?

i conclude that the sign of a true geek is to not know who steve young is...or at least not know what he looks like.

but now that i think about it, maybe the reason steve young likes to eat here is that no one knows who he is.

and that's not even the coolest celebrity sighting this month. apparently gwyneth paltrow was here last week with coldplay.

this can't be good for productivity.