Thang Nguyen 555

“The town square belongs to me” repeated the homeless man in Cinema Paradiso.

Modern life has to claim its space, and the theatre itself got rigged with explosion to make room for parking lots.

And Alfredo, our blind projectionist, had sent of his squirt protegé to the city to make something of himself “never to come back here, never to give in to nostalgia”.

Alfredo was like a father to Salvatore (he was a war orphan, an altar boy and later on projectionist-turned-director).

Technology displaced a lot of jobs and people. Culture itself changes, and people are at a loss trying to find an anchor.

Just before I pen this, I read about Somalian gangs in Minneapolis (resonating the Cambodian gangs in Long Beach).

Early Italian immigrants had their shares of this American transplant (the Godfather).

In Paradiso, I found lost dreams, but also paradise regained (all the censored kissing scenes in a gag reel Alfredo spliced together as an inheritance for Salvatore, whose name also got changed so he could re-invent himself into a big shot in Rome).

Mama’s cooking, the familiar scent and sound of early imprints, and yes, the first kisses.

The story of the soldier and the Princess (who challenges his persistence to 100 days of waiting outside for her love)

had chosen its live subject: Toto never saw his first love materialize: Alfredo was making sure that it didn’t to protect Toto, as much as his girlfriend’s parents did her.

This movie got it all, yet not far from everyone’s lives: we continue to believe in a happy ending, despite all evidence against it in real life.  People move on, from farms to factories, from factories to phones (smart).

We will never have a shared experience of the old days, a theatrical  release which draws in neighbors, a network show which commands 50% shares of the available audience,  a voice or face that is most trusted in America.

Instead, it is increasingly a nation of niches, whose markets and products have “long tails”. It is as if the Sears catalog

gets torn into 900 separate pares, and get sent to each household in single business envelopes. That’s how compartmentalized the market or town square gets divvied up. ‘The town square belongs to me” said the homeless man. Little does he know!  He would be lucky if he can find a street corner to lay down. It’s all a big parking lot now: Park Paradiso.

Uncle Walter (Cronkite, not Disney) was heard utter “oh boy” when the first man set foot on the moon.

Besides his tears when pronouncing President Kennedy was dead, W.C. rarely showed “subjectivity” on air.

When that “on air” red light is on, journalists are supposed to deliver the news (and Walter Cronkite also delivered his newspapers in his neighborhood route) not influencing it.

40 years later, we see a reunion in space between International space station and the Endeavour team.

Transistor TV are now replaced by Net TV. And the network TV audience itself shrinks from the day of the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show (even with concert on top of the Marquee to push the product, Dave managed to get three million to watch the show, down from 73 million in the days of Ed Sullivan).

We reminisce the old days, or we look back and understand (Kierkegaard).  40 years ago or today, we all need to say a prayer for  “on earth as it is in heaven”, space walk or on-the-road-to-Woodstock walk, Sullivan or Letterman, Walt Disney or Walt(er) Cronkite.

A generation living in denial, with material possession its chief distraction.

Always asking for the changing of the guards, yet leaving old policies intact.

Maybe I am ignorant, but for the past few years, I feel like I have been played, along with billions of others.

The dollar is up, the dollar is down. Gold is up, gold is down. Oil price is up, oil price is down (after being sold and resold 27 times to get to the pump).

One thing I also notice. While the transmission speed gets much faster, and we have an abundant choices of cable channels to choose from, I am not sure we are more knowledgeable today than 40 years ago. I am not sure we are more connected than we were 40 years ago (watching the concert behind the barricade on Broadway is not the same as sitting shirtless on the grass in upstate NY). And certainly, generation Y doesn’t grow up trusting corporate America

as much. It’s good to know W.C. bounced around from (media) market to market on his way up, paying his due. He belonged to the Greatest Generation, a disciple of Ed Murrow and the good old radio days (jitter bug, anybody?)

Newscasters back then carried with them an aura, an unmatched authenticity (derivative power) knowing that there was a credible news organization behind them, and the multiple layers of editor who had fact- checked everything he said on air.

America needs to trust someone. That someone has now gone. We are now living in a Super Walmart of ideas and our time-money budget is quite limited. Those who are cleverest captures our eye balls. Might not be the best news source though. Oh boy! It used to be Big3Tube. Now it’s YouTube. No more “let’s twist again”, because I am busy “twittering”.

There is an Opinion piece today in the NYT by Paul Krugman titled ” the Joy of Sachs”.

It focuses on government bail out, and urges more reform of the financial system before seeing another bigger one

which might involve the whole system, not just a handful of institutions as seen so far.

There is also a Rolling Stone article covering Sach’s conspiracy in this whole mess as well.

It’s up to the readers to figure this out. I am sure Michael Moore is busy at work on his latest film about the same subject of conspiracy.

I already know long time ago that huge corporations managed to locate tax havens overseas and minimize their tax exposure here in the US.

How do you not notice a huge surge in donation to Foundations in the US?

Have people all of the sudden got conscience-stricken and/or woke up to find themselves flower-“em”powered?

All we know is that executive compensation at Sachs is at full throttle, and that whoever criticize them are either jealous or incapable of understanding talent retention.

I recommend informed readers to comb through the Rolling Stone piece (The Wall Street Bubble Mafia), then read GS’s rebuff, before making a judgment. The bottom line is the same: GS plays both sides of the fence, and taxpayers’ money has been used to bail out AIG, who in turn, pays out to GS. Whether or not they instigated other bubbles such as commodities etc… remains to be seen. But they, as middle merchants, will always make money because of their business model (casino-like) and method of operation (in the know, preferably from inside the regulatory entities).

Those of us from the outside, could only play “third world Slumdog”  role peering through the courtyard fences to get a glimpse of  their corporate 2 Q release. Hopefully, it’s summer time and they are allowed to wear business-casual. Being from the outside anyway, I would come there wearing my flip-flop. Good for blood circulation, good for Sachs!

2 Q figures are showing a Chinese recovery, with growth at 6.9 percent.

Wow!

The US and EU are all hoping for some green shoots, but in the East, we are seeing Bamboo Shoots.

I remember reading Harvey Cox’s Turning East as a part of my college assignments.

The author dismissed in conclusion that any “infiltration” of the Buddhist cults (people mostly saw Hari Krishna in the airports) wouldn’t do a dent to the entrenched Christian country i.e. the US during pre-moral-majority decades.

30 years later, we found that it’s not spiritual matters which are worth discussing when it comes to Turning East.

It’s their manufacturing and domestic consumption base. China  has been leapfrogging, from pedaling to driving,

from steam trains to space ships (not sure where the espionage case of an Orange County, California Chinese-born engineer would end up, but with evidence of Rockwell and Boeing sensitive rocket materials at home, he apparently signed the NDA, but his DNA are still Chinese).

While the Beijing Olympic events were to show case China’s strength (and mask its problems: pollution,  bad loans and regional unrest), it’s turning the corner in the current recession tells the true story of a resilient people. Mayor Daley of Chicago was quite a foresight when advocating Mandarin language classes in Chicago (along with turning the Second City greener. No more Sears tower, nor Mrs Leary’ cow). Windy City, turbo mecca?

Back to the China economic miracle.

What can we learn from its recovery? Both countries try to dig deep into its Treasury. Both apparently save more and spend less. And both are driving more and more, reinforcing Al Gore’s “inconvenient truth”.

I hope the UT governor is doing a good job representing the US over there, but mostly, what can he tell us during his tour, I am sure, sampling the multiple dumpling placed in front of him, the way Nixon was back in 72.

I am sure one of the dishes served before our ambassador would be bamboo shoots. Bamboo stands for resiliency, capable of withstanding hurricane pressures, and will bounce back after bending, but not breaking. I wish I had learned Mandarin, just to be able to say “congratulations” in their language “for turning the corner”, for making us Turning East.

We got O, the brand from Chicago.

Now PM for Paul of the Beatles.

This time, PM appeared on the balcony of the Ed Sullivan theatre, to reminisce the concert from the rooftop (Apple building in England, their last public appearance as a group).

45 years is a long time. Back then 73 million were watching the black/white show. Dave Letterman was joking about he wouldn’t worry about that problem (of having a huge network audience) any more.

It just so happened that I checked out the DVD Paul McCartney in Red Square last weekend.

And now to video stream his mini-concert in New York , to me, it’s like a serendipity.

Among his songs was Band on the Run. I listened to it when the 9 of us (extended families) were , on the way to US,

stuck in Wake Island (to this day, I still can hardly pinpoint its location on the map).

Band on the run. And we have been running ever since. It’s the best summer I should have had, but because of the context, I couldn’t make myself to enjoy the surf or the sand.

And Band on the Run did just that for me this morning.

PM was in his pink/white. Rest of the band in black.

It’s mid-July in Manhattan, the signature yellow cabs are still going back and forth.

New York onlookers stopped and enjoyed the impromptu “Woodstock”.

There was suspension of disbelief in the air: something stays the same, no matter what.

Gone John and George. Ringo is coming out with his new album. And PM is still singing, Helter Skelter among them.

For a moment, I am in touch with myself as well, knowing that the song, the performer and me, the audience are still here, even though time has flown on, since the beginning of Time. Something has been so “continuous” that I even if I wanted to, I simply couldn’t stand in the way of progress.

We need music and musicians, books and writers, films and actors. We need to suspend of our disbelief. We need to dream, again, and again. It’s a big part of being human. It’s better than swearing, just to feel better. Keep dreaming.

Band on the Run. Yesterday. Imagine. Dream #9. After all, what is life? My sweet guitar gently weeps, if I don’t.

The title happens to be one of my favorite films/books.

The protagonist, after many escape attempts from a French island prison, finally got away and resettled in Venezuela.

All I remember from the story is that there are two types of people: those who are hunters/gatherers (Steve McQueen) and those who are farmers (Dustin Hoffman).

The persistence which Papillon exhibited was amazing: waiting for the 7th waves which were mysteriously strong enough to pull his coconut-shells to float out to sea. This happened to be his nth escape attempt, but he made it by hoping against hope.

I read somewhere yesterday that President Obama requested a review of the space program, to evaluate the pros and cons of Progress (men on the moon) and its hefty price tag while resources could be put somewhere more earthbound such as health care for all.

Tough choices!  The Japanese,  meanwhile, is putting up a billion-dollar space station to advance their interests. Will the US be put behind in this new Cold Race? What if its citizens are denied basic care services so the nation itself can conquer this new frontier (I heard similar arguments before, although in some extreme versions, such as during the Aryan reign).

KnOwing, now released on DVD, ended with two kids chosen by E.T.’s to start a new Eden, away from our solar-consumed Earth.

Eden or Earth? Mc Queen or Hoffman? E.T. or E.R.?  The choices don’t have to be an either-or. But to be “both-and”, the country will need quick green shoots in the Economy (money will have to grow from trees).

With more than 10% unemployment rate  (and saving rate inching 10 %), we are talking about a huge chunk of tax revenue loss. The global sourcing folks are trumping that the accessories sector are still selling, because during the down turn, people still accessorize themselves, even though they stop buying new clothing. Shopping does make one feel better, confesses the shopaholic. Maybe the US, to feel better,  should also go on a Christmas shopping spree in July, leap-frogging Fall right onto Winter. And of course, to use Uncle Sam’s stars and stripes leather wallet would be preferable. It is often said that we vote with our wallets. And spend even faster with some else’s.

One piece of good news: inflation is tamed by default. The spin master at the Treasury department can always use that if all else fails. Be more patient, says Obama. Be patient but demanding, says Biden. Exercise “smart power” says Clinton.

P.S. I saw “the Great Escape” starring Steve McQueen again. There was a reason why Cheryl Crow named a song after him. If America is Steve McQueen i.e. keep on trying to get out of the rut we found ourselves in, we are going to be OK.

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During the first day of Supreme Court nomination hearing,  I heard the word Empathy in Judge Sotomayor speech.

Good to hear that word.  Empathy is to look from the other’s point of view, and hopefully to feel some subjective feelings as well.

Her mother, a single mother LPN who got her degree from night school, and went on to raise two successful children.

The stuff of the American Dream live from New York.

JLo watch out! The successful woman field starts getting crowded.

Judgmental people start from the right and wrong axis. It’s still miles better than prejudging.

Empathy has maturity as a prerequisite. Immature people could hardly empathize with others, since they are narcissistic at the core. Daniel Coleman says it best about empathy in his book, Social Intelligence.

He went so far to quote some studies which show that people who build great rapport could even match the other’s breathing rhythm. No wonder the shrinks get paid handsomely for “breathe-dancing” with us. It must be very exhausting after each session with different strangers coming straight in from the waiting room outside.

I would add here that friends are people who sit next to us, and see the world (and its problems) from our side.

Judges and other people sit across from us, most of the time, from up high. From their vantage point, we are very petite.

I watched Sophie Scholl two days ago. Real story of a girl on trial during Nazi time. And her last words to the court were ” one day, you will be standing where I am now”. She was beheaded a few minutes later along with her brother and co-conspirator for passing out anti-regime leaflets. The film concluded that later on, the allies dropped tons of these “letters to Munich students” before mopping up the whole Nazi regime to return Germany to its peace time as we now know it.

Empathetic or judgmental? Feeling vs moral standing. Hope we don’t have to make a forced choice every day but most of the time, we have to, when people try to lure us into their frame of reference, to seek assurance about their “judgmental” opinion of others and events. It’s up to us to invest our emotion and time on matters that maximize ROI.

Above all, keep breathing! With oxygen, we can think and feel better. It clears both our heads and our hearts.

At the closing remark of G-20 meeting, the President commented on having to attend too many summits during his first 6 months in office. He hoped in the future to appear in more productive ones.

And he also urged Americans, like myself, to be patient while awaiting the stimulus plan to kick in full gear.

A disturbing piece of stat shows that black share of unemployment rises to 13 percent, way above the national average of almost 10%.

And we are all watching the senate confirmation hearing of the vacant Supreme Court seat.

It’s been a long way since Thurgood Marshall.

He who holds the hammer in hand looks at everything and thinks it’s a nail.

Back in the 60’s, the solution has always been “taking people out”. Tumultuous time back then.

Progress has always been paved by pain.

We need confidence, for it makes a real difference between success and failure.

We need to imagine, because in doing it, we allow the free flow of thoughts and ideas, unhindered by three-dimensional confinement.

And we need to collaborate and co-create (2+2+10, trust me, just look up the binary table).

Generation Y in Millennial at least said that they still trusted people over 30 for their experience.

We all screw up at some point. But mistakes and failures are part of the process of growth.

Some decision makers won’t even hire people who haven’t failed. To them, these candidates have been to the school of life, at some else’s expenses.

Yet we fall back time and time again, to the illusion of invulnerability, of Superman and Charlie Angels, of politicians who “cannot recall” having authorized certain black ops. What’s good for GM is good for America. Let’s get a fresh start!

Paul McCartney started the song with “when we were young, our lives were an open book”.

Red Square, 2003. And the fans there ate it up. They had been buying bootlegged Beatles albums on the black market for years before that. Now he was appearing in person. Of course, they hummed along, with welling tears in their eyes.

I can relate to it. After all, early this year, I was allowed on stage in formerly Saigon to sang along with the live band (not karaoke) at a 70’s bar. It was a catharsis. In one’s life time, one can only count on a few moments which marked one’s journey: first day of school, high school graduation, first kiss, and wedding day. Some of us managed to pack in more: life-changing evacuation (no one was prepared for it, so they put us in the Army barracks, where if you would

like to come in today, you will need special clearance or invading them with a tank), repatriation and Recession.

I hate to have my life shaped by outside events. It shattered my illusion of control. Determinism or randomness?

Predictably irrational? Lately, there have been some wins in the circle of “bottom up” (open source) vs their counterparts (top down, i.e. Microsoft O/S). It must be hard for coders to toil day and night, just to see their brain child given away for free. Neil Gaiman gave free download of his American Gods, just to see his other books increase in sales.

Are we living in an abundant era, or shortage era? what happen if the third billion join us in the global economy?

Even Walmart can not be prepared for that contingency. It will have to be bottom-up, because the opportunities will be abound. Moore intersects with Metcalfe. E commerce and M commerce. More pollution, more clean tech opportunities. The possibilities are frightening, but the potential also inviting. And I think it’s already here,

at each person’s fingertips. When the third-world kids who are now playing games on the Net find something else to do, they might be inventors of more than just games. They will take over Infosys or Wipro. I understand the dare-devil of not having legacy and precedence. In fact, it’s a prerequisite for exploration and innovation: being fearless, especially when it comes to being wrong. So? When we were young, our lives are an open book, sings Paul in Red Square.