Thoughts On The 84th Academy Awards

Not sure why I even bother with the Oscars. The show and the nominees are usually not much interest to me. The show garners a lot of attention for Hollywood during the awards seasons. For some reason, the awards do give substantial boost to films that merit attention. Since I follow movies releases in the US, Taiwan, HK and Zhong Guo pretty regularly, I know what I want to watch. I've already seen the trailers, looked up the movies where possible, and made up my mind if I want to see them or not. In most cases, I'll miss them in the theaters and look for them on DVD/Blu-ray. Since I am from LA, I do not have problems renting US releases, I just need to be patient. However, the Taiwan, HK, and Zhong Guo releases require some hunting on my part.

Back to the Academy Awards. In general, the movies I've liked and the movies highlighted by awards do not align with my taste. The awards do not like comedies, sci-fi, and foreign films in general. This is a general analysis. I have no stats to back me up. However, I did do it for this year for some reason. The big four awards are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress. Of the pictures, actors, director, and actresses nominated, I have barely watched the films. Of that lot, I've only seen Moneyball and Tree of Life. Why? They are out on DVD. I've elected NOT to watch The Help even though it has Emma Stone and Jessica Chastain.

Why would I care about the awards if I haven't seen the majority of the films? And I doubt I'll watch the majority of them when they do get to DVD/Blu-ray. Comparing it to the Box Office totals to those nominated from the big four awards, only The Help was in the top 20. Looking at the top 10 of 2011 in box office totals, I've seen all but Cars 2. I liked the majority of these films. But they were largely ignored by the Academy.

So what's my point? My point is that I could care less about the Oscars and I'll continue to ignore taglines of "Oscar" winner. I'll continue to ignore any awards in general and just watch what I want to watch. There, I've said it, I will continue to be selfish and do my own thing.

First Lost Of Jeremy Lin Era

Jeremy Lin and the Knicks failed in there bid for 8 straight wins by falling to the woeful New Orleans Hornets, 89-85. Jeremy Lin had 26 points, 5 assist, 4 Steals, and 9 turnovers. Since Lin's emergence 12 days ago, Lin's battle with turnovers has been the glaring shortcoming for the breakout star in the making. Even he noted it with his tweet, "9 TOs wont get it done...gotta learn from my mistakes and move on to the next one. See you guys sunday!" A redhot Dallas Mavericks team makes their sole MSG appearance on Sunday. Better get those TOs down Jeremy!



On another front, Jeremy Lin's play has caught the US sports world by storm. Resulting in the NBA forcing Jeremy Lin into the NBA's All-Star weekend festivities. Jeremy Lin is set to participate in the Rising Stars Challenge and the Slam Dunk contest. I've been pretty disappointed with the All-Star game since it went to "cable" years ago. Even though I've been on "cable" since getting FiOS a couple of year ago, I still don't have much interest in it. BUT this year, me and my friends will get together during the weekend and make an event out of it. Yupe, the NBA did the right thing and got Jeremy Lin in there. He's not in the All-Star game, he's part of other stuff. So you don't have to get upset to call him an All-star, he's not yet. Maybe next year when he's a starter for the Lakers (HA! I can wish right?!)



In other news, Jeremy Lin will be gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. In the wake of the annual swimsuit issues making the show biz rounds, Jeremy Lin's cover stole the thunder!



Not to be outdone, the Asia version of the TIME magazine will also feature Jeremy Lin on its cover. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get my hands on one without some work. The Asia edition is sold in Asia and I live in Los Angeles. I asked my friends that might be traveling through Asia to find one, but they are primarily sold in airports.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - 暮光之城:破曉Ⅰ

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (暮光之城:破曉Ⅰ) is an 2011 film. The movie stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner. The rest of the cast is too numerous to name, but I do want to note Anna Kendrick and Justin Chon making cameo appearances during the wedding scenes. This is the fourth installment in the current Twilight film series. If you haven't been living in a cave, you might have heard of this book/film series.

The movie starts off with the wedding between Bella and Edward. Jacob makes an appearance during the wedding before his typical anger tantrum requires him to jet. Edward takes Bella to a remote island in Brazil for their honeymoon. On their first night there, they consumate their marriage, but Edward damages the room like a rock star. From that point on, Edward resuses intimacy with Bella for fear of killing her. Bella however pushes the envelop without success. However, 14 days into the honeymoon, Bella becomes pregnant. Which is an mystery to the rest of the clan and they bring Bella back to the safety of the gloomy skies of Seattle again. Jacob finds out about this and finds Bella. The wolf brood find out and make it a mission to destroy the child. After a extended stand-off between the Cullens and the wolves, the baby is born and gets an imprint from Jacob. At the end of the movie, Bella is turned into an vampire. The easter egg at the end of the movie is of the Volturi being informed of an addition to the Cullen Clan.

As for a fourth in the installment, this was the least entertaining. As much as I like Bella and Edward, the wedding and honeymoon were really boring. I presume they wanted to develop their "love" relationship more onscreen. The flashback to a certain period in Edward's life away from Carlisle was a highlight that I hope they dive deeper into. The wolves being unreasonable seemed forced and I didn't really believe any harm was going to happen. Since I didn't read the books, I rely solely on the movie to develop the story for me. But since I like the mytos of this film series, I enjoyed it noneless. However, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that hasn't seen the previous 3 film installments.

Jeremy Lin Leads Knicks To 7th Straight With 13 Assists

Jeremy Lin had another stellar night with 13 points with 10 points as the Knicks opened up a large lead in the second quarter and never looked back. Jeremy Lin did not even play in the fourth quarter in the blow out. However, Jeremy's nemesis, the turnover was hanging around as he ended the game with 6 turnovers.



I am actually extremely upset that NBA League Pass is whacked. Whacked because most of the games are NOT HD. Whacked because they didn't give me the MSG broadcast today, but the Sac town one. The production value was quite different and I was forced to watch "highlights" from the Kings.

Jeremy Lin Hits Game Winner! - Happy Va-LIN-tine's Raptors

Jeremy Lin adds another tag to his growing mystic. Cold blooded assassin. Last night in Toronto against the Raptors, Jeremy Lin had another ugly game, but calmed down enough in the second half to help lead his team from as many as 17 points down to a game winning shot with .5 seconds left. Yes, Jeremy Lin just added a game winning shot into his arsenal of weapons.



Just today, I went through mixed emotions about whether I should buy the NBA league pass. I can't watch the non-national televised games. With only 30 minutes left, I decided to purchase it. I was able to watch the second half and watched the first half on repeat. But it was the second half that mattered. Jeremy Lin rebounded from a semi-poor first half. Again, the critics will note his 8 turnovers as a black eye against what has been a great feel good story.



Because there was 2 days between the last game and now, there's been a lot of non game talk. Specifically about Jeremy Lin's ethnic background and why has he been overlooked for so long. Bad stereotyped jokes and the Larry Bird analysis were both thrown in his direction. Jeremy hasn't had to directly respond nor should he. The talk doesn't merit and good journalist asking him. And the third thing is the comparison to Tebow.

The history of racism against Asians in the US has a long history. The two major groups were the Chinese and Japanese. You have the Chinese Excursion Act and the Japanese internment camps. Both sore spots in US history. Subjects I studied and sought out while in college. In general, even today, when racism is evident against Asians in the US, there is little to no consequences. Many because the majority of those affect will not speak up against it or the numbers to make a difference are too little. However, with this generation, social media is now one of the major ways to get this stuff out there.

Back to the question of Jeremy Lin's ethnic background. As I mentioned in my other Jeremy Lin posts, it does matter that he's Asian. One born in the US, raised in the US, and educated in the US. Jeremy Lin is AMERICAN. Depending whom you're talking to, his ethnic background is either Taiwanese or Chinese. Because I also fall into that grey area of being both Taiwanese and Chinese, I see the arguments from both sides. But lets not forget that Jeremy Lin is first and formost an AMERICAN. And because he's the first ASIAN-AMERICAN in this generation to be doing this, it has and will continue to attract interest. Not only in the US, but throughout Asia. Taiwan and China are not the only countries in ASIA that have picked up Knicks games.

In general, I normally stay away from calling things, people, and anything American or even Western. Unfortunately, both terms are so ingrained into our nomenclature and culture lexicon that using either terms gets the message across.



Jeremy Lin has not only been a Godsend for the NBA, its been rude "look at us" to the rest of the US. "Look at us" is all of the Asians that had to endure generations of ridicule and stereotyping on the athletic fronts. In the next few generations, you'll see more and more Asians emerge on the sports front. By the numbers, it won't be a lot nor will it ever get close to a majority. You're more likely to see mixed ethnic individuals than for a lack of a better term, "full" Asian make it.



Sad that my jerseys are still weeks away. I don't wan the cheap cafepress junk with a various "LIN" stuff on it. I already regret never pulling the tigger on the Golden State Lin jersey.