Thursday, June 11, 2009

Keep your Olympics Beijing, Taipei has the Deaflympics!

Taipei is hosting the 2009 Deaflympics!

Beijing spent millions and had Zhang Yimou direct the Olympics opening ceremony to much fanfare, but not to be outdone by its sole adversary - Taiwan went all out this year.

Even commissioning aboriginal Taiwanese singer, A-mei (the same singer that was once banned from singing in China) to sing the DEAFlympics theme song, "Dreams You Can Hear." (Cruel irony or spiteful Taiwanese humour?)



Suck on that, commie bitches!


While the oppressive neighbor to the north gathers the world's premier athletes from around the globe, the mini-island below does one even better! Taiwan has gotten the world's deaf athletes to gather in the polluted Taiwanese capital to compete in athletic events ranging from cycling to swimming.

"To qualify for the games, athletes must have a hearing loss of at least 55 db in their "better ear". Hearing aids, cochlear implants and the like are not allowed to be used in competition, to place all athletes on the same level." (Source: Wikipedia)



P.S.: If you think I typed any of this with a straight face you're a damn idiot and don't deserve to be reading this blog entry. The fact that I even include this note at the end shows how much faith I place in the mental acuity and reading comprehension of my astute readers. Cheers.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Suffering from a Palestinian perspective

"'I know that suffering is the truth,' Khaled said quietly His teeth were clenched. 'I know that suffering is the sharp end of the whip, and not suffering is the blunt end - the end that the master holds in his hands.'

'If you'd been born and raised in Palestine, you'd know that some people are born to suffer. And it never stops, for them. Not for a second. You'd know where real suffering comes from. It's the same place where love and freedom and pride are born. And it's the same place where those feelings and ideals die. That suffering never stops. We only pretend it does. We only tell ourselves it does, to make the kids stop whimpering in their sleep.'"

Note: This is copyrighted material that belongs to the author of Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts. I transcribe these passages on to my blog out of sheer admiration for his writing. I found the passages on suffering to be especially moving and powerful. I may include other quotes in due time but I may not since there are just too many gems in this fantastic novel.



The context:

"'I was in love with a Jewish girl once, you know?' Khaled asked. 'She was...she was a beautiful girl, and smart, and maybe, I don't know, maybe the nicest human being I'm ever gonna meet. that was in New York. We were students together. Her parents, they were reform Jews - they supported Israel, but they were against the occupation of the territories. I was with that girl, making love to her, on the night my father died in an Israeli prison.'

[...]

'Anyway, I went back home, and I was just in time for the October War - the one the Israelis call the Yom Kippur War. We got smashed. I made it to Tunis, and got some training. I started fighting , and I kept on fighting, all the way to Beirut. When the Israelis invaded, we made stand at Shatila. My whole family was there, and a lot of my neighbours from the old days. All of them, all of us, we were all refugees, with nowhere else to go.'

'Were you evacuated, with the other fighters?'

'Yeah. They couldn't beat us, so they worked out a truce. We left the camps - with our weapons, you know, to show that we weren't defeated. We marched, like soldiers, and there was a lot of firing in the air. Some people got killed just watching us. I twas weird, like a parade or some kind of bizarre celebration, you know? And then, when we were gone, they broke all their promises, and they sent the Phalange into the camps, and they killed all the old men, and the women, and the children. And they all died. All my family. All the ones I left behind. I don't even know where their bodies are. They hid them, because they knew it was a war crime. And you think...you think I should let it go, Lin?'"

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Warmth

I could write reams about all the things that have been coursing through my mind or about all the issues I've been struggling with. Instead, I'll just quote a few lyrics from Incubus, which succinctly and effectively lays out what I keep trying to remind myself:

So don't let the world bring you down.
Not everyone here is that fucked up and cold.
Remember why you came and while you're alive
experience the warmth before you grow old.



Thursday, March 12, 2009

"Eating sushi has become the new Russian roulette."

*

So recently I got wind of the illness that Jeremy Piven, the actor who plays Ari Gold in Entourage, acquired. He got mercury poisoning from eating sushi twice a day for two years. He had six times the allowable amount of mercury as advised by the FDA!

Now I had known about the carcinogens and pollutants that accumulated in the flesh and fat of deep-sea fish and bottom-feeders for many years, but I had pushed it to the back of my mind for the sake of my palate and out of negligence. However, the news of one of my favorite characters on one of my favorite television shows being stricken by such an unusual and serious injury abruptly pushed that knowledge back to the fore.

I just did a quick Google search and numerous studies and articles highlight the dangers of eating seafood nowadays, particularly sushi/sashimi.

While I don't plan on giving up on eating sushi or all seafood, it does make me much more wary. For instance instead of getting that tuna sub for lunch, I'll probably get a smoked chicken or beef instead. It's just a crying shame that seafood is so damn tasty!

(Does eating raw seafood as opposed to cooked seafood somehow make mercury, PCBs, etc. more toxic? Can someone post an answer to this because I don't see how cooking it would get rid of the mercury, PCBs, or other toxic chemicals present, but most articles only point out the dangers of eating raw seafood.)

Here's a handy, compact list for the cautious eaters out there.

I had been eating red snapper, farmed U.S. salmon, and orange roughy for years! Who would have known?

It's official. Man-made pollution is encroaching on my state of well-being and happiness!

*(Photo belongs to 'joonelovesfood.blogspot')

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Empire's Greatest Movies of All Time


Empire Magazine compiled a list of 500 of the greatest movies of all time. Now I usually abhor these types of lists by authoritative organizations/magazines/whatnot because they usually comprise of black and white movies by Bergman, Frtiz Lang, Godard, etc. For instance, AMC's list placed "Citizen Kane" as the most important movie ever made. While we were all forced to watch CK in high school and I found it to be decent, in no way would I place it in the top ten list of my favorite movies. The problem I have with lists that put movies like "Casablanca," "The Third Man," "Maltese Falcon," and "Chinatown" at the top of their list is that they are extremely pretentious and completely disregard crowd-pleasing favorites that are masterpieces in their own right. I'm referring to films like "Aliens," "Indiana Jones," "Dog Day Afternoon," "The Godfather," and "Scarface." Beloved classics for the masses but too 'mainstream' for the critics.

What I like about Empire's 500 list is that it combines art-house, foreign flicks with blockbuster, nostalgic favorites. It also does a good job of incorporating great films from abroad into the list as well like "Cache," "Old Boy," "Layer Cake," and "Yojimbo." Instead of the traditional Godard, Truffant, etc. they also include well-known directors of my generation like Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Ang Lee, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Sidney Lumet, etc. This list even has populist favorites like "The Goonies," "Lord of the Rings," "The Matrix," "Donnie Darko," "Network," "Kill Bill," "Transformers," 300," "Lost in Translation," "Fight Club," "Dazed and Confused," "28 Days Later," "Batman Returns," and "The Breakfast Club."


While, a lot of my favorite movies are in the 300-500 range, I'm just glad they even made it on the list. One of these days I will have to compile my own list, which I think will be more representative of our generation. For starters, I was pleased with the plethora of Kurosawa films sprinkled throughout the list but I would definitely include more of Alfonso Cuaron's, Park Chan Wook's, Danny Boyle's, Zhang Yimou's, Luc Besson's, and Federico Fellini's works.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Whole grains are bad for your health?

So I watched the documentary, "Food Matters," yesterday. It largely advocated a raw food diet. The documentary made a lot of sense and had the current head of the Gershon Foundation speaking in the film as well. Dr. Max Gershon also figures largely in the film, "The Beautiful Truth" (2008), which I plan on watching soon.

Anyway, I did some online research out of curiosity and the caveman or paleolithic diet actually conflicts with the raw food diet even though they both seem to agree on a lot of points like how humans evolved over millions of years not eating whole grains and raw vegetables, which contain toxins and 'anti-nutrients' prior to cooking or fermentation. The problem with cooking is that it denatures the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes present in the raw vegetable or grain.

Also, I was surprised to learn that soy in its natural state is highly toxic and needs to be fermented to render the toxins inactive (i.e., traditional soy sauce, miso, tempeh, 'stinky tofu'), and that regular unfermented tofu, edamame, modern soy sauce, soy milk may pose adverse health effects since they aren't fermented.


Oh and back to the point, I read a really interesting article asserting that the hunter-gatherer diet is what the human body is most suited for. The author argues that a vegetarian diet is unnatural and leads to a host of health problems, since vitamin B-12 is mostly present in meat for instance.

I just found it really interesting and surprising that the popular raw foods diet and the paleolithic diet both espouse that whole grains are bad for your health when so much of mainstream media is telling everyone to buy whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat whatever, brown rice, etc.


So red meat may be more healthful than whole wheat bread? Some food for thought.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Aaron McGruder is a genius at satire

The Boondocks Season II was straight up brilliant.

It had been awhile since I'd watched any episode and season 2 just reminded me why I love the Boondocks so much.

This is one of my favorite seasons (example of "a nigga moment"):





Uncle Ruckus always makes me laugh:

It's shows like this that restore my dwindling faith in TV.

Monday, February 2, 2009

"Clazziquai Project" is a gem amidst the K-Pop refuse

I know this band has been around for quite awhile and that they're popularity has waxed and waned with the concurrent popularity of the K-drama, My Name is Kim Sam Soon aka My Lovely Sam Soon, but I've recently rediscovered them (as I was negligent and forgot to transfer my CP collection from my old Dell to my new Macbook).

Anyways, I normally don't like the assembly line J-Pop wannabe style characteristic of K-Pop, but I really dig the acid jazz music from Clazziquai.



While I like the original the most, it's also nice to understand the lyrics (English version of Dance):


A fan made MV of Be My Love and She Is, with scenes from My Name Is Kim Sam Soon:

Monday, January 5, 2009

"Zodiac" had an amazing soundtrack

The opening to "Zodiac" was absolutely brilliant.
The audience sees the evening views of San Francisco set to Three Dog Night's "Easy to be Hard":



Donovan's haunting voice in "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and the psychedelic melody really complemented the chilling scene and uncertainty in the "Zodiac.


If after hearing this song, you were as curious about the meaning as I was then check out this website.

Pay special attention to 'jonchapple' and 'flipFLOPpitaj's comments (Obviously, I didn't know how to correctly punctuate the user names, indicating proper nouns and possessive qualities...correct me in a comment if you know the correct punctuation).