Tag: Hollywood

Twice the romance

For almost a century, we have gotten used to Hollywood‘s sunset scenes of the Pacific (they could even make Skid Row desirable).

Now, fiction is trumped by recent discovery of a two-sun planet.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/215013/20110916/planet-two-suns-star-wars-kepler-16-b-tatooine-seti.htm

Sunset scenes will need to be re-cut. Twice the work. But also, twice the romance.

As evolving species, we will adapt, both to adversity and austerity. Just eating in.

You might resent the new acronym (PIIGs), but wait until you have to go without pork (like in China in the time of inflation).

The Chinese are stepping up to the plate by offering to stabilize the Euro zone currency. with condition.

They failed to mention the arm shipments to Libya during Gaddafi‘s time (perhaps, already a market-economy exchange on that deal).

With every earth-altering discovery like that planet with two suns, we need to re-examine our assumptions.

What if we can also discover alternate energy out there? What if we can alter our attitude toward consumption and community?

Why would the damn vehicle always have to seat 4 people in “bowling alone” era (how about sidecar motorcycles; after all, Henry Ford was just tying two motorbikes together to make his first 4-wheeler, all in black, of course). As of this edit, Toyota concept EV is doing just that: three-seater enclosed vehicle.

What defines “hip” and romance (Gaga , the mermaid on wheels, w/ a “bad romance”).

What if we were given another shot at life, with our current macro-economic vantage point? (the rogue trader is doing it again, this time in the tune of 2 Billion).

Planet Bollywood.

Las Vegas in Macau.

Ford auto assembly plants mushrooming along China’s Eastern coasts.

We only transplant and replicate what works.

A tweaking here, a tweaking there. Not an overhaul. Not a paradigm shift.

Until, it’s in our face, at planetary level.

Two suns.

A discovery that should silence both Galileo and Copernicus .

Before we know it, we will adapt and take the two sunsets for granted. We will long for thrice the romance, two off-line, and one line.

Enlightenment turns entitlement again.

Turn off the telescope and turn on the microscope to look inside. We will find the thing called desire. And it’s unquenchable, and our last frontier to be conquered.

The happiest moment might not be a  Hollywood sunset. The happiest moment lies in our selective memory, wired in our deepest part of the brain. There, you will find twice the romance. More than provided by the two-sun planet’s. It’s a remarkable discovery nevertheless. Go NASA!

Last summer day

The academic calendar starts just about now.

A different season. Different drum beat.

Formula and conjugation.

Grades and test scores.

Cafeteria and classroom.

Principal and peers.

Pranks and punishment.

Same starting point, different finish lines.

Education is democratic in nature.

I admire people in wheel chairs, still being wheeled their way around the library, trying to reach up to the latest titles (Tillman or Unbroken).

I wish we could apply Moore’s Law to our cognitive development.

As it turns out, our brain capacity can process much more information, forming knowledge stream, and turning them into usable grains of wisdom (emotional and social intelligence).

The end of all learning should be to form a capacity for empathy, to see others in their historical and social context, from their frame of reference.

This is the underlining assumption of many art forms such as cinema and work of fiction.

In fact, we need escapism. During the Great Depression, Hollywood did quite well.

This time around, cinema still manages to stay afloat (without McCarthyism).

We also enjoy the news as presented live and downstream much faster thanks to broadband connection. Newsbreak has been more interesting than fiction (The Social Network, Arab Spring and London Summer – which BTW, an antithesis to the fairytale version of the Royal Wedding , same version as earlier centennials’).

This summer has been a summer of disasters, from environmental (drought) to economic *(drought), from political blunder to criminal assaults (Oslo).

But our kids are back to school. It’s a blessing in disguise. It brings back normalcy.

Or something like it. It reminds us that we have been there,and are still here years later.

Had we known then, what we know now.

That vantage point could only be viewed from hindsight.

It’s called exposure and experience. It’s called empathy. It’s called optimism, because the last summer day, actually signifies the beginning of a beautiful Fall, with foliage and cool fronts. In Vermont and Maine, Fall actually is the most beautiful and livable time.

Hopefully, it’s a start of a new fiscal year and fiscally restrained calendar for leaders around the world. Remember, they once started this season like everyone else: in an elementary classroom. Same starting point, different finishing lines.

Reality cross-over

In a  God-Father scene, the execution order was carried out as cut-away from the black-tie wedding scene.

Lately, President Obama in Brazil attending state dinner (while France-led air strike was carried out over Libya no-fly zone ), and two nights ago at the White House Correspondents’ dinner (while the takedown was carried out in Pakistan). Hollywood materials. (at this edit, Hurt Locker’s Oscar-winning director was slated to direct “killing BL”).

Then there was Tom Clancy‘s Dead or Alive just out late last year.

People are confused and intrigued more with reality than fiction. China news agency published a different version, and I am sure, in the dark corner of Islamic extremism, we will find a Moon-Landing type of  conspiracy to vent their anger.

Meanwhile, our Reality-Show star (as of this edit, he withdrew after the birth certificate debacle) wanted to run for President.

And our current one could be cut out of Hollywood billboard (with the God Father’s sound track, of course).

One reality that should overshadow everything else: Twitter rules the day, as far as  scooping.

140 characters is hard to beat.

Until some young guys in a garage  come up with another disruptive technology, Twitter is King of the Hills.

It jolts you out of your seat. Sparks a conversation. Triggers further inquiries into said topic.

To Tweet is now our 21st-century verb, as common as Xerox and Google (whose re-org charted a new course, that of “knowledge creation” as oppose to just Search, or document handling as Xerox).

Our attention span can always handle one more tweet. And one more.

Same 24 hours a day. Same sleeping pattern and daily habits. But a tweet can always enter and intrude our lives.

Until we can no longer do without it.

There are lots of  lessons in short-burst communication. Use imagery that strikes the chord, like :

“I will be back!” (in this case, the same actor, making a real Hollywood comeback after trying his hand at governing).

Reality finally has another way to creep into our lives, in new format.

No more newspaper on the train. Just me, and my tweets, 140 characters at a time. Until eternity.

No one wants to be left out of the loop.

Now, the meaning of “up to speed” just gets more refined, or should I say, re-calibrated. Up to the second.

We will sort it all out later. Is he dead or alive? The guy who broke the story had to tweet good-night “I did not kill him, now can I catch some sleep”.  Twitter is our 21st-century communication conveyor belt, and excellent source of materials for Chaplinesque school of comedy. Communication in short bursts. Think in chunks of 140 characters. I was told there was a margin of allowance, but the limits were set for optimal transmission and reception.

For sound bites such as “I’ll be back” or “Dead or Alive”, we don’t even use up all the Twitter’s allowance.

Last Sunday night, a short burst of tweets i.e. we’ve got him,  was enough to turn college students into monkeys. Catharsis it was.

Beauty, yes. Beast, no.

Elizabeth Taylor and Colonel Gaddafi. What do they have in common? Nothing, except for being on the cover of People and TIME, respectively.

The Queen of Tinsel Town once played Cleopatra, while the Colonel orchestrated his self-ascendency to be King of Kings (Africa). She was surrounded by men (husbands) he women (bodyguards).

Liz hung out with the King of Pop (incidentally, Michael Jackson was wearing uniform with white gloves, like the Colonel’s) in trying to support AIDS victims, while the Colonel welcomes back the Lockerbie‘s bomber.

Both lived through high times and turmoil (she was on a wheel chair, he bullet-proof golf cart). Perhaps the only brush the Colonel had with Hollywood was when former-actor-turned-Governor-turned-President Reagan almost got him from the air. (Obama on the other hand, was wearing black-tie on his Brazilian state visit when the second air strike was ordered, straight out of Hollywood’s script). The world mourned a passing Queen, and anticipated the fading King. TIME and time never does justice to anyone on or off cover (wrinkles, extreme close-ups, ill-lighted etc..) and easily turns beauty into beast.

That said, we expect drama just stop short of King Lear‘s. Modernity had a poetic way to march into cities past and present. It did in France back in the late 19th century.

It is doing it again, also by the French. First was Egypt’s dictator & son, then next in this Africa’s top-tier nation. However long the stalemate, the end will be eminent as a thief in the night, and all the female guards in the world won’t be able to fend it off.  All depends on logistics and supplies of arms. No arms-for-hostage deal this time, please.

Maybe Beauty knows best, when it’s time to go (they call it a wrap where she came from). It’s called D-day in war-time, and expiration date at Wal-Mart.

On self-repackaging

The age of frozen self has finally arrived i.e. you either update your web presence, or remain “frozen” in cyber space.

Years from now, people remotely connected to you will Google you  and mine all the intimate data about you or written by you. Personal digital archive.

At the turn of our century, Command-and-Control model dominated management practices. Now, with better algorithm, faster broadband and only a few degrees of separation, suddenly we all “footloose” like Kevin Bacon (who is purportedly connected to everyone in Hollywood by one film or another).

Mass media gave ways to niche media. And we start hearing voices from the fringe. It only takes a camera and an upload.

News personalities are not making nearly enough money as once thought. It’s an age of “do-it-yourself journalism” or Pro-Am.

People point, shoot, upload and save. Gone are the photographers, photo shops, post office and stationery stores.

With Wal-Mart moving in, we are just about to see a complete overhaul of small town America. The Age of Nextville.

No wonder the trend now is to move to North Dakota and the likes. As long as there is broadband connection, a heater and a Wal-Mart.

Online, it doesn’t matter where you live. Or that you are a dog, as they say.

As long as you can repackage yourself, brush up your web presence and leave behind well-orchestrated digital footprint.

It’s a new world. It’s a beautiful world i.e. a hybrid world of on and off-line, virtual and organic relationships. Charlie Chaplin was only partially correct. We are not just an extension of the Machine. It’s the Machine that has become us, shaped and repackaged according to our narcissistic image. I am beautiful. So are you. As long as there is still Photoshop. .

 

Maslow and Vietnam

Tocqueville saw in America a country full of contradictions.

He could say the same with Vietnam: people are moving up the Maslow scale, but some want to leap-frog security step i.e. basic needs to self-esteem need.

Nouveau riches switch companions like Hollywood celebs. Forbes or Swiss bank lists almost 200 Millionaires (USD).

Everything is bought in cash. The money machines are counting them non-stop (Zimbabwe-like inflation) .

Dizzying pace.

Traffic weave in and out, as if choreographed by an invisible and illogical conductor;  yet there have been fewer accidents than you might think.

Westerners are seen running a red light like everyone else.  We call that adjustment. When in Rome, do like a Roman.

People here are more aware of health issues than in years past.

My cholesterol result is available in a few hours.  If it’s good, then two eggs please.

I can now move to the next step in the Maslow scale: security.

Love and self-esteem can wait. They have been there since the beginning of time. A man’s glory reflects in the beauty of his woman, and vice versa.

I will leave those to the drama department. For self-actualization, we already got Bill Gates and Bill Clinton.  I have my level to attain to: staying here and surviving here. Traffic during peak hour draws out the best in us, gladiator-like. No wonder young men wear black. It’s their body signal to the world: “don’t mess with me”.

Meanwhile, young Americans are also wearing black, but for an entirely different reason: they are into vampires.  Twilight stuff. A stage of neither living nor dead. Here, it’s very clear to me that people want to get somewhere, preferably up, regardless how many bikes are in their way.

 

California Dreaming

TIME spotlights California on its cover this week.

As a country, California would be with the G8 ( between Italy and Brazil, thus displacing BRIC with CRIC  i.e. California, Russia, India and China).

Yet it has no world-class soccer team (despite having in-shored Beckham) just yet. That’s said, it is one of the brownest States in the Union. And it will stand tall, demographically and technologically.

I wrote about the up-trading Taco truck in my earlier blog. TIME also showed a Korean BBQ truck  using Twitter to announce its stops (high-tech high touch).

What surprised me was foreign students’ major in the State: more chose Business and Management over Science, Math and Engineering (exactly what the Chinese need to move up the value chain).

With 13 percent Asian, California has a natural inroad to Asia (just a plane-hop away).

Washington State has also capitalized on its geographic “proximity” to set up strong ties with the East (and sell some apples, Window and Starbucks while at it).

Who wouldn’t want to live in California: paradise and paradox, problems and promises, most congested freeways, yet greenest state. It has a underexploited Modesto and an overexposed Hollywood , clean tech and bio tech; gay and straight.

California is home to dream factories (Disney and Dream Work). So enamoured with the big screen that the State elected actors to be its Governor not once but twice. Its script keeps getting a rewrite even on location (budget cut? well, hold up a knife Governor. “This is a knife” the line last said by Crocodile Dundee on his first visit to the Big Apple). It’s used to be “Go West young man!” Now, it’s keeping going West and follow the sun.

I talked to people in the Orient and they wanted to come and live in California. To them, California is America (especially if they have a free account on Yahoo, own an I-Phone and watch YouTube, all California home-grown, like its wine and raisins). In up scale China, one can find new developments that were modeled after Newport Beach.

“All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray”. If the gubernatorial race is an early indicator of things to come, we are in great shape. After all, anything can happen in a dream, or when we “sit down and pray”. The truth is, my relationship with California has been a dysfunctional one, as is the State.

Despite its high costs of living, California is where you’ll find innovation around the corner, or in the garage .

Californians don’t do attic or basement like East-Coast counterparts. They compose music on wheels (Jewel), produce TV shows on wheels (Jay Leno), and of course, cater tacos on wheels. Year round, they don’t need the bottom half of their jeans (hence the cut off or zip out). This recession and recent gold price peak led a bunch of people to the high mountain, once again, creating a mini Gold Rush, California’s original raison d’etre.

Most listened to is its rush hour traffic report. Least visited is the downtown LA library, before or after the fire. When EReader and Kindle get full adoption, they will turn library into museum .  What’s hip in California (women volleyball, muscle beach) can’t be easily duplicated .  This Wednesday, Google will team up with Lala to help us search for that “California Dreaming” tune. Just a phrase, such as “I walk into a church” can trigger a bot crawl.

Or ” I’ll be back” to pop up the Terminator. It doesn’t hurt to have a Governor with sound bites or once picked up a dumb bell in what remained of  a LA fire.

And the media ate it up: light, camera, action (background lighting, actor, prop and audio). Keep dreaming California.

 

The New Low

Canadian University system has just introduced a new low grade (lower than F) for Academic Dishonesty (plagiarism or online essay service etc…).

At least, the University is catching on with high-tech trickery, and how these portable devices and outsourcing services can aid cheaters. TA’s will have to play cops, always vigilant and alert.

I suggest they install hidden cameras, thus fighting fire with fire, gadget with gadget.

And while at it, install some extra metal detectors in school. One cannot learn if one doesn’t feel safe.

(As of this edit, there was another school shooting whose perpetrator had been disciplined by school librarian).

Once the kids are going this route (short cut), they are slated to be future “madoffs”.

I sent a friend a link about “naughty in school, trouble in life” a social study in Britain.

And it is documented that people with penchant to get in trouble exhibit these traits very early in life.

That’s why we got transcript and track record. We got talent scouts but also talent screening (like Hollywood agents).

Natural selection.

Year ago, when they selected astronauts to walk on the surface of the moon, the committee worked through a pool of thousands.You got to have “the Right Stuff”.

Now , you have institutions that are “too big to fail”, and students who negotiated to have an “F” instead of “FD”.

Lesser of the two evils. Win-win negotiation.

When I graduated from HS with a Magnum Cum Laud, I remember coming home to my father who for the first time gave me some money to buy beers to treat my friends.Rite of passage.

I had my first “legalized” beer at the age of 18. Honestly.

It just the way it was back then: you pulled many all-nighters, then you were rewarded with beers and party in the comfort of  home.

“You touch drug, I will kill you.” Reward and punishment system was very clear back then.

Now, it’s “you touch that key pad, I will give you an FD”. The future is here. And some kids can’t wait to get caught.

That way, they feel at least some adults care enough to give them an “FD”. Go find some construction jobs. If they are hiring. This is a white-collar world, boy. We don’t get drafted, get our hands dirty or get caught, because we belong in Palm Beach Club. BTW, the Fool’s Gold plot was conceived in Boca Raton, not too far down the I-95. CDO’s and all.

Watch out for the “D” in any acronym least of which in a Canadian University transcript.

 

Heroes in our eyes

We got some footage about those Japanese astronauts now.

This brings me back to those endless summers when I watched all sorts of movies: French, American, Chinese and Japanese. Among the Japanese ones, the most memorable is the “blind Samurai”, who exemplifies the spirit of quiet strength.

We self-project, so our heroes tend to reflect our inner psychological make-ups. And of course, the spirit of the time

has something to do with it: Bogart’s line “frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” probably propelled him to the all-time

Hollywood endearment (but he smokes). While our Stallone of the Rocky series could barely utter a few lines, most memorable was his Rambo’s line “where they call Hell, I call Home”.

Another mesmerized experience was the Who in Woodstock concert film, where at the end of their performance, Pete Townsend, the lead guitarist, smashed his instrument to get the reverberation from the speakers (must be quite a buzz for those who were on drug at the scene).  The Japanese Samurai do more with less, while his Western counterparts do less with more ( over consumption and property destruction).

No wonder I was made to read those “Small is beautiful” titles when in college. It was right after the Oil embargo, and the social critics were having a field day. Some scholars even predicted the end of cheap oil as imminent, and this was in later part of the 70’s (I was more inclined to revisit their premises last summer when oil was up around the $150 mark).

Back to our heroes. To the millennial generation, those two guys at Google who rolled out their G Phones on roller blades, or the Facebook founder who refused to sell. These are today’s heroes: working from dorm rooms, and piggyback the University backbones. The next generation of heroes will be more likely to wear a turban or glasses

(slanted eyes). Mine, I must admit, are more feminine (my mother for one): O, J.K Rowling, Hillary and Swimsuit models (must be hard to keep up with the appearance for the shoot). See, I happen to be entrepreneurial, sociable and creative. My heroes got to possess all three attributes to make the list. Branson of the Virgin group made the profile also.

In seeking your heroes, you found your very self. We all live in a cave, and look up to our own shadows on the wall, that is, if we can make a fire. Sadly, I don’t find that many heroes in today’s business world . That is why they make the graduating class of MBA to take the oath (before they turn Wolves on Wall Street). At least, the biz schools finally own a bible or two, just for ceremonial reason.