GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Notes

  • Turning Red, Domee Shi (2022)

    We watched it half a year ago and I can’t remember anything from it.

    It was quirky and fun to have an Asian-American protagonist (we are so spoiled relative to the lily-white days of the 80’s!). Red pandas are super cute, especially when Pixar-fied. I wish I had a crew to hang with like the girl (moving across the state in 6th grade did not help).

    But yeah. Not much here. I’m not sure what “it” should be, but “it” ain’t here. The movie was better than I expected from the trailer but my predominant memory is feeling slightly bored.

    It doesn’t hit like the classics like Toy Story or Monster’s Inc., which we just rewatched the other night.

    I wonder if one can pinpoint this decline halfway through WALL-E when it went from an avante garde film without words to that silly fat human spaceship.

    At some point Pixar chose to pursue technical proficiency over crafting a great story. And the results — both good and bad — are unavoidable.

  • Sacred Verses, Healing Sounds I & II, Deepak Chopra, 2007

    It’s fine. The production is nice and the selected passages are properly inspiring. Chopra is a fine reader and the Indian music is atmospheric. I don’t know much about Hinduism, but I presume this combines best passages out of the Bhagavad Gita and Rig Veda with a dash of explanatory text.

    But I can’t shake the feeling that this is just a basic offering. Mix a few ingredients that feel truthy across all cultures, coat it with woo, and sell it to America.

    I’d be more charitable if this three hour production was marketed as an introductory taste of Hinduism, but I was put off by its inflated self-importance. I don’t care for a program that dilutes spirituality and sells it as more than a mere starting point.

    As a pan-theistic atheist who is skeptical of all forms of systematic formal religious structures, I am the prime target audience. Slap on an ancient spiritual sheen and I’m intrigued. But I also spent my teenage years as a Reformed Baptist steeped in the intellectual cathedral of Calvin. Don’t pretend you got more unless you’re bringing it.

  • STORROR Street Parkour Competition, 2021

    I got sucked into this video while brushing my teeth, before realizing it was 45 minutes long. I went to sleep late that night.

    It was fun to watch the guys take ridiculous risks and challenge each other. There’s all the vicarious thrills you’d expect from a Parkour YouTube video.

    Beyond the stunts, the charm was in watching the guys enjoy each other’s company. Who knows if the mutual affection is true, but they made it work on camera.

    It reminds me of the late 2000’s before UFC transitioned into a mainstream sports league. Back then, the fighters made a show of respect to each other, which created a screen camaraderie that intensified my enjoyment of the matches.

    Unfortunately, I might be out of step with popular culture since the UFC’s heel turn with outlandish promotions has made them a billion dollar business. I get how the physical brutality of football or MMA leads to war analogies, but we need to cut that shit out.

    When it comes to games, we ought to think of our competitors as “partners”. In joining the challenge, the players are committing to a constrained set of rules striving towards a mutually agreed upon goal. Unlike the endless slog of reality, a game is a measure of marginal advantage with a set end point.

    We need to stop mixing the (potentially high stakes) infinite struggle of life with the (relatively meaningless) competition of these finite games.

    If we do, maybe we’ll enjoy each others’ company as we play together.

  • Arhat Orphan Brotherhood

    When I moved to Vegas, I attended to the Lohan School of Shaolin for almost a year until my daughter arrived to fundamentally rearrange our lives.

    I was primarily studying Tai Chi, but I got to know the Kung Fu guys, even dabbling a bit in sparring.

    A couple years ago, I slid into a YouTube rabbit hole and came across several videos that included the Arhats. I had watched their earlier work when they were starting up, and it was impressive to see their progression.

    This is the path of Kung Fu (功夫) — to work hard and maybe (or not) succeed.

    ~

    It’s odd watching a video when you know the stunt actors. The dramatic actors are naturally the focus of the film but one’s eye is immediately drawn to the individuals that you know. So I’m rooting for those guys as they get slaughtered by the protagonists. Unsettling.

    ~

    Even though the short only has two actors, the behind the scenes video shows a large team is involved throughout the process. Normally, my mind quietly ignores the background crew, but you can’t when you’re personally acquainted with each person. It’s a good reminder of the massive effort behind each of these productions that are indiscriminately published on YouTube.

    ~

    As I finally publish this post, things are a bit quiet on the social media front, but I ran into one of the Lohan teachers and was told things are going well. The films are flashy, but the foundation is the school and the temple. Everything comes from training the mind, heart, and body.

  • OPM.48 (notes on) What your CEO wants you to know, Ram Charan, 2018

    I listened to this book three years ago, and all I remember was his obsession with cash flows. Which isn’t particularly relevant to a guy who has no plans on going back into private practice.

    However, in updating this draft, I was reminded about his last chapter on “synchronization”. It sounds like a gem to revisit. This section is all about sharing information so the team can work together in unity.

    Charan emphasizes the concept of a “social operating mechanism”. It could be a regular update letter, some sort of webtool, or a recurring meeting. The key is that important information is shared and that people walk away energized to tackle the key issues in their responsibilty.

    Charan identifies four key aspects for a good dialogue:

    • Openness – be honest in the search, don’t pre-decide, listen to everyone.
    • Candor – be willing to speak and be honest about the conflict.
    • Informality – encourages candor. don’t be stiff and prepackaged
    • Closure – once done, be disciplined to ensure that follow through happens.

    I’ve tried to adopt this attitude during my time as OPM. With some folks it can be difficult, but I find that acting otherwise just makes it even harder. Social lubrication is real and has earned good feedback from my project mates (admittedly they are all financially incentivized to butter me up).

    However, this past year, I had gotten lax about the regularity of these meetings. I had a few projects with long lead times where I skipped the recurring meetings until things got started in earnest. Unfortunately, I found out on the back end that things just slipped through the cracks until we started meeting regularly.

    So until I find a better solution, I’m resorting to requiring regular (virtual) meetings on my projects. I hate the distraction of having a meeting on the calendar, even if they are for a few minutes. However, I don’t know of a better way to ensure my teams are keeping pace on their jobs.

    Even if I can’t recommend this book as essential, I’m a fan of Charan’s Leadership Pipeline which I have recommended multiple times.

    ~

    Some Links

    A few years ago, CGP Grey went on an information diet to reset his attention habits. My purge won’t go two years like Project Cyclops, but I started July by unsubscribing from news podcasts and YouTube channels.

    One immediate side effect of this cull is that the algorithm has been feeding evergreen comedy, such as British comedy skits. One of my new favorites has Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie as competing psychiatrists analyzing each other.

    Weston Parker is a (mostly retired) carpenter who has been sharing lovely poems on A Carpenter’s Point of View. It’s fun to find other industry folks who are practicing the arts. A recent poem includes the line “with good drainage”. I feel seen.

    ~

    Town Hall, Halmstad, Halland, Sweden, 1939

    ~

    Thanks for reading!
    Justus Pang, RA

  • Gudetama, An Eggcellent Adventure, Motonori Sakakibara, 2022

    What a strange little kid’s show.

    The characters aren’t particularly likable, but they aren’t hate-able either.

    The chick is kind of cute, but the egg is kind of gross.

    They are memorable — overeager and lazy.

    And it’s fun to watch the humans overact.

    Their journey covers a lot of ground.

    An amusing (and certainly distorted) peek into another culture.

    We’ll watch season 2, if we still have Netflix when it comes out.

    Oh and shoutout to the 1000 year old eggs!

  • Ultra Flex Steel Nib, Fountain Pen Revolution

    After reading a post by Ashlyn, I purchased a pen from Fountain Pen Revolution.

    Here are a couple before-after images.
    The “K” was drawn with a Pelikan 14k Medium nib
    The “L” was drawn with the FPR Steel Ultra Flex.

    This “L” doesn’t take advantage of the power of the flexy-flex, but the The nib pops when I’m doodling hard, as I did below.
    (The top two alphabets are the flex nib, the third one is the Pelikan Medium nib.)

    Understandably, the steel isn’t silky smooth like the gold nib, but it’s a great value at $30 (half for the body and half for the nib). Plus I’m willing to push a $15 nib to the limit, while I doubt I would have the courage to do that with one that costs 10x).

    Time to start practicing if I want to wield its power and breath life into my lines.

  • Little Mermaid, Clements & Musker, 1989

    An hour of horrific life choices followed by twenty-five minutes of consequences with a miraculous rescue in the last five minutes. Happy it worked out for the couple, but I remember why I’ve never liked this movie.

    The fact this movie is so popular makes me wonder if dominant American culture is just more optimistic than those with Asian cultural backgrounds. It felt hollow without consequences (aside from Ursula’s fate)

    Maybe that’s why I’ve always been too timid to contemplate life as an entrepreneur? I don’t think folks would accuse me of having an abundance of moxie.

    But dammit, Disney knows how to make song and dance numbers like nobody else! You go Sebastian!

  • Cinderella, Geronimi, Jackson, & Luske, 1950

    • Shocked (not shocked) that Disney+ used a single scene with cigars as an excuse to move this movie to the parent’s (ad-supported) page.
    • The king is an abusive boss.
    • Love that they named the cat Lucifer. Different time then!
    • Strange propaganda film for Chinese foot binding.
    • Biddidy bobbidy boo!
    • Amazing animation. I didn’t realize that the technique was cemented by this time. The craft of Cinderella and Bambi hold up to anything made today.
    • The backgrounds at the dance are mid-mod sumptuous.
  • Tangled, Greno & Howard, 2010

    Disney has a formula that works. It can get old, but they know what they’re doing.

    Years ago, I had low expectations when I first watched this film. It easily cleared that bar.

    Last week I came in with fond memories of first watch. It still easily cleared expectations, though I must admit to being biased for any film that extols the virtues of a cast iron frying pan.

    Unlike many Disney films, Tangled doesn’t have a truly surreal standout musical moment, though the showtune at the Snuggly Duckling is awesome.

    Also not to be missed is Rapunzel’s wildly fluctuating internal turmoil when she first touches grass.