1984, 20 years late

I rounded up my posse of bleeding heart, knee-jerk reactionary, left-wing, politically-correct, Communist-Pinko friends to go see Michael Moore's new magnum opus, Fahrenheit 9/11. Opening night at the cinema, we were joined in line by like-minded citizens and those who wanted to watch White Chicks. F-9/11 was a good movie, but as an avid Bush-hating, rage-blinded Socialist, it really adds little new information. I was, however, very shocked to see the war-profiteering that is taking place with Halliburton and cronies. I realized that even if Iraq does acheive freedom, America has already planted corporate parasites in that country to plunder its natural resources and money from future Iraqi generations to come. Companies in the States will no doubt be exploiting cheap labor in that nation while swimming in profits made from indigenous oil. Moore shows us some interviews with business men looking into profits from Iraq, and there was no way they could disguise their greed-lust with any humane motives.
The movie also shows a lot of parallels. First we see the reactions of people against the terrorist acts of 9/11. Then we see innocent Iraqis being bombed shitless. An Iraqi mother invokes Allah to punish the people that bombed her house and family; an Iraqi man who was carting dead bodies of children vow revenge. If the death of 3,000 people in 9/11 can mobilize the occupation of 2 countries, and the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, what can killing these innocent civilians wreak in the future? Mathematically, at least 3-4.5 times the damage.
Moore ends the movie with an apt comparison to Orwell's apocalyptic (well, I think now it can be deemed as visionary) 1984, where totalatarian regimes revise history, bamboozle people in the name of freedom and demand complacency from denizens through fear and the rescinding of their civil rights. There were more war casualties than I anticipated, but if one can't stand 3 seconds of a shot of an amputated child, how can one allow an indefinite war to trudge on?

Avatar

By the powers of the internet, an article I wrote 5 years ago for the Avatar, a one-hit-wonder magazine from Wesleyan, has made it into Model Minority, a discussion forum for Asian Americans and empowerment. Since it was posted, it has been read by hundreds. While I am delighted that the article, about stereotypical portrayal of Chinese Villains in the media, has recieved a few chuckle, one of the forum-goers lambasted me for being insenstive to the realistic violence that Hong Kong gangs (aka triads) put on citizens. I want to respond that this is the first time that article was taken seriously, and that it is kind of unfair that I am critiqued without being known. The poster ends with an ad hominum attacks: "mr yee is the kind of guy who really wishes he was [sic] the star of ......shakespeare in love....running around in tights some where [sic] in europe." What is that suppose to mean? If being a witty, literate, world-travelling jogger is wrong, I don't want to be right.
On the plus side, this forum does report on a lot of current on-goings that are insensitive and sometimes racist against Asian/Asian-Americans. This will give me plenty reason to be incensed for future references. William Hung: Gay or Asian?

Post-its

Here are some things I could have invented: felt-covered Buddhas, raglan t-shirts, Live-Journals, rotoscoping, vegan leather, Tivo and cialis.
I just watched Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, in preparation for my own 5th year. My life somewhat parallels theirs. Since I graduated from high school, I have lost weight, graduated from college, got into a grad school, got a cooler haircut, hipper clothes, and also acquired a love for punk and underground music. I even have an interracial girlfriend. I have every reason to go back and see what my status-seeking colleagues have been up to. Unfortunately, I don't have any unrequited love to look forward to meeting (they were in a different class).
How do you know if mustard goes bad? Would it taste even funnier?

Add it up

I've seen the Dresden Dolls cover the song, but I actually fortuitously got to see the original band play the song live. I was biking on my way home, when upon passing the clubbing district which is near my home, I heard music. It was the FNX Best Music Poll festival, where they have 4 clubs in the clubbing district (Avalon, Axis, Bill's Bar etc) and a street stage filled with yesterday and today's hottest alternative music. And so I rode to the side of the stage, as I couldn't afford to pay the ticket price, but the backstage area is right to the left of the stage, and I got a pretty good view of the rockers, if it weren't for giant stacks of speakers. It was the Violent Femmes, live in person, old and looking goofier than Al Franken. After Gone Daddy Gone, they played one of their top three hits -- Add it Up (their other hits are Blister in the Sun and Kiss Off) . They can still sing it spot on, and I was so happy I ran into the Violent Femmes like this. Add it Up was thier last song of the set, and the crowd went wild, and cheered for an encore. Being backstage, I watched the Femmes ignore their fans and stroll back to their trailer. As the crowd yelled "One More Song", I knew they would be leave unquenched of more Femme Violence. Then, some doofus told them there will be no more songs, and asked them to party elsewhere. Well, he really redirected them to the other four venues, where groups like Presidents of the USA and the Rapture was performing.

Bush eats Paltrow's Baby

I spent most of Memorial weekend working on the Curtis Cover Project, which turned out to be a magnificent project, in terms of Flash advancement, at least. Unfortunately, the only way of advertising it is through Criag's List, but classified ads asking for help has been posted around this country, Canada as well as London. So far, the response has been tepid, lukewarm at best. Ack, who am I kidding, there was no hoopla at all, and no one really submits anything. Does anyone have any idea how to attract more traffic to the cover project? I even tried putting up the Hot in Here cover.
In other news, Marisa visited Boston, and Becky and Katy went to Las Vegas.