Movie Season

It's that time of year where movies get good. Of course, I don't have time right now to watch movies, but that doesn't stop me from viewing trailers to see what's coming out and what I might like.

Imagine my surprise upon seeing a picture of an Asian man next to the button for the Green Lantern trailer. "WHOA," I thought. "We're finally getting an Asian lead in a major movie." I quickly clicked on the play button.

Imagine now my disappointment upon seeing that the lead wasn't Asian, but white, just like every other movie Hollywood produces. My disappointment wasn't too great, since it's Ryan Reynolds, but I was disappointed nonetheless.

I started going through my mind to determine how many minorities were in these major super hero action films. ... ... ... Halle Berry. Oh, and I guess Will Smith. ... ... ... There are others, but they're either villains or their roles aren't even memorable enough for me to know their characters' names.

I suppose I should celebrate the fact that Asians are no longer portrayed by a buck-toothed Mickey Rooney, and blacks are no longer relegated to the positions of household servants. I do recognize this, but I'm not satisfied by it. When do minorities play lead roles? When the role itself requires a minority, or is targeted to that minority population. I realize that the majority of America is still white. Census estimates whites at about 65%, Hispanics around 14%, blacks around 13%, and Asians around 5%. We mixies are about 2%. One would think that on the west coast, these Hollywood power houses could realize that there are other races running around.

The fact that a minority isn't playing the lead doesn't mean that I won't watch the movie. If it looks good, I'll watch it, and if it's any good, I'll enjoy it. Putting a minority as a lead probably won't garner more money, or turn a mediocre movie into a blockbuster. But, perhaps, if we put more minorities in lead roles, roles that could be filled by people of any race, all Asians wouldn't have to look alike. Perhaps blacks wouldn't have to be athletes. Perhaps minorities can be accepted as entrepreneurs, accountants, bums, doctors, farmers, heroes, jerks and nuns. Perhaps they wouldn't have to be placed in their predetermined roles.

Come on, Hollywood. Minorities can fill lead roles in films that don't involve kung-fu, barbershops or Disney. You have a whole color palette to work with; learn to use it.

September update

Fine, Austin, I'm posting. It's been a busy 8 months? Classes, finals, moving, boredom, work, boredom, and classes.

I finally got around to unpacking my last box this week. It was mainly driven by desperation; I had invited some friends over for Chuseok, and really needed to clear the boxes out so they wouldn't know the extent of my patheticness. The move was...interesting. I went from a furnished studio to an unfurnished one-bedroom, so most of my time was spent between looking on craigslist for furniture and visiting Home Depot so I could build my own. And to be honest, 'my own' didn't turn out quite so bad.

The first item on the list was a place to sleep. I decided on a platform bed. It arrived in pieces of wood, and wasn't that hard to put together. The problem was that the wood underneath was cheap particle-board, which would show since I decided to forgo a mattress in favour of a pad which I could fold up during the day. So I bought some contact paper, lined the boards, and also took the time to line the night-stand near the furnace, just to add some continuity to the room.

The next projects were my shelves. There isn't a lot of storage space in the house, since the fireplace takes up a large portion of one of my walls. So it was necessary to install, and on two occasions build, storage space in the form of shelves.

My last project was to find some more room for my clothes, since I still had two 'winter' boxes left over. Of course, 'winter' means coats, scarves, and sweaters. I managed to fit most of my sweaters onto a shelf in my closet, but I still had some long-sleeved shirts that needed a home. So with some creative engineering, I fashioned t-shirt cubbies out of pvc pipe & spray paint, freeing up some dresser space for the sleeved shirts.

So now I'm officially done with my unpacking, and in light of it all, I don't think I want to move for quite a while.

Travel Plans

Law school has many downsides. (Honestly, at this point, I'm having trouble thinking of many upsides.) You go from being top of your class to hoping you're in the upper 50%, but not really knowing. You start to realize that you're squinting a lot more. You read not til the wee hours in the morning, but to when 'real worlders' are getting up to take showers. Most of all, though, unless you're independently wealthy or your parents are ridiculously wealthy and crazy generous, you don't really have much disposable income. So I don't know if I'll even be able to head anywhere this summer, much less anytime in the next 2 1/2 years, and my K-Deutsch friends aren't helping my any bit. :)

Anna posted pictures of Heidelberg and Hamburg. And I facebook stalked Tanya's brother and went through his whole Germany album. And I WAS JEALOUS. I miss the quaint red-roofed houses, and the gothic cathedrals, and the rustic mountains. I miss armour-filled castles and schnitzel and real bratwurst. But then I miss...Koreanness: serene, sloped-roofed temples, mountaintop fortress walls and towering apartment skylines; I miss $5 비빔밥 and 소주집 and 떡복기 at midnight.

So, the question is, what's going to be at the top of my list in 2.5 years? Will it be Korea? Or Germany? For me, they're both D-land.. heh heh. Or...are we going to go with Africa to fulfill noraebang dreams? I'm accepting votes.