Traveling the world, I’ve learned many things over the years. One constant however, is the influence that our movies and television shows have on the rest of the world. Warren Beaty talked about it (seemingly endlessly) last night when he accepted a Lifetime Achievement Golden Globe from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. I’m always amazed by the questions I get asked when I go to other countries and speak to people who’ve never been to the United States. When they hear I’m from Chicago, they ask about Oprah. When they hear I live in Hollywood, it’s all about who I’ve “seen” (and I’m never shy about revealing that information.  My friends will tell you I’m a star f****r, but they exaggerate!!). On a deeper level though, Hollywood (and unfortunately George W. Bush to a great extent) forms most foreigners opinion of America and Americans (see “Perceptions“). I can’t tell you how many people have asked me if I live close to “Melrose Place” or if “Wisteria Lane” is a real street (???). Speaking of Wisteria Lane, I just read that Desperate Housewives shows in 202 countries around the world, some of which are listed below (the names are amusing). It has been setting ratings records everywhere (except China, but more about that in a minute) in countries as diverse as Germany, South Africa and Singapore.

Country	Local Title	Literal Translation	Network
France	Desperate Housewives	Desperate Housewives	Canal +M6
Hungary	Született feleségek	Natural Born Wives	TV2
Italy	Desperate Housewives: I segreti di Wisteria Lane	Desperate Housewives: The Secrets of Wisteria Lane	Fox Life (cable tv) Rai Due (public tv – 6 months after cable tv end of season run)
Poland	Gotowe na wszystko	Ready for Everything	Polsat, Fox Life
Portugal	Donas de Casa Desesperadas	Desperate Housewives	SIC
Spain	Mujeres Desesperadas	Desperate Women	TVE
Latin America	Desperate Housewives	Desperate Housewives	Sony Entertainment Television
Chile	Esposas Desesperadas	Desperate Wives	TVN
Thailand	สมาคมแม่บ้านหัวใจเปลี่ยว	Lonely Housewives Club	Star World
French Canada (Québec)	Beautées Desespérées	Desperate Beauties	Société Radio-Canada (SRC)
Germany	Desperate Housewives	Desperate Housewives	ProSieben, Premiere
Austria	Desperate Housewives	Desperate Housewives	ORF1
Mexico	Esposas Desesperadas	Desperate Wifes	TV Azteca
Turkey	Umutsuz Ev Kadınları	Desperate Housewives	CNBC-e

Now I must admit that I do joke with my cousins who live in Orange County, that they should try out for the “The Real Housewives of Orange County“. But honestly people, movies and television take liberal artistic license. Shows like “Desperate Housewives”, “Lost” and “24″ and movies like “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” connect with most people in the world today who need an escape, and some mindless entertainment (though one could argue that “Lost” is hardly mindless. My head hurts trying to figure out that show sometimes, and many of my friends in Europe and Asia can’t wait to download the latest episodes, and ask me for spoilers.

Interestingly however, Desperate Housewives was a ratings failure in China. Some blame the timeslot, and the fact that they ran the whole first season in one week (dubbed with expressionless Chinese actors and much censoring), but Raymond Zhou of China Daily writes:

On a deeper level, life on Wisteria Lane, the fictional California community in Housewives, is too far removed from ordinary Chinese, even the burgeoning middle class. A Chinese teenager would never, in her right mind, advise her single mother on the etiquette of dating. When Chinese housewives get into an adulterous mood, they would not turn to teenaged gardeners, who are usually migrant workers in rags, but to people with deeper pockets and higher ranks. A Chinese woman may act as fastidious as Bree Van De Kamp, but she would not take on the arch-conservative stance of an American Republican. A Chinese super-mom, in a country with family planning policy encouraging for one child, faces challenges very different from tending four unruly kids. Simply put, the show fails to connect with the vast number of television viewers here because it implicitly requires prior knowledge of the US middle-class lifestyle, exaggerated for dramatic effect of course. That shouldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of those who crave for quality programming, but its target audience shrinks from the culturally curious to the culturally adventurous.

My friend Ethan from Taiwan recently made me watch one of his favorite Chinese dramas, a show called “Hana Kimi”. It’s all the rage in China and Taiwan, and I think I even saw it once playing in Koreatown Plaza, but this is the idea of Chinese melodrama:

LOL, and I thought American soaps were bad!  And the Golden Globe for Worst Acting goes to the boy in the shower with the nosebleed.

Speaking of worldwide phenomenons, American Idol starts tonight, so there goes the next five months of my life.   I don’t like the beginning as much as the end. I know it’s funny and all, but sometimes it crosses the line to mean or mean spirited. We all watch though, and the reason is certainly not limited to America. The Germans call it Schadenfraude, simply put it’s taking pleasure from someone else’s pain.

Anyway, I’m glad Jennifer Hudson and America Ferrera and Helen Mirren and Babel and Dreamgirls won Golden Globes last night. I actually won the pool we had. The only major category I missed was Forest Whitaker’s (haven’t seen the movie yet), who was really long shot, and obviously moved (literally beyond words) by his win. It always amazes me how our best actors give the worst acceptance speeches, but when someone wins an Oscar for “Best Lighting in a Documentary about Llamas” or something equally absurd, they give the most tear jerking eloquent speeches. What’s up with that??

I was a bit disappointed that Beyonce and “Listen” didn’t win best song, but it’s got to win the Oscar right? I was also really hoping that Will Smith would win best actor (and thank Tyson for teaching him how to solve the Rubik’s Cube  ); and Leonardo DiCaprio can never seem to get a break either, poor guy (cue the violins).

I didn’t go to the Golden Globes to take pictures last night like I usually do, because my camera is still out of commission. Plus Santa Monica Blvd. was a nightmare with all the limousine traffic. I would have walked to the Beverly Hilton anyway, but without my camera I was content to watch it at home.

That’s all from Hollywood.  Have a good week everyone!

Tyson made the front page of yahoo again. Check him out!

http://www.yahoo.com/s/482025

Everyone here is wishing him the best of luck at the Exploratorium today:

And finally, I don’t know if you’ve seen Beauty and the Geek this year, but my friends and I were a bit disappointed in Piao; for reinforcing some of the stereotypes that Tyson shattered.  But there is some hope, check out this:

I must confess though, that one of the funniest parts of the show this year was when Piao introduced himself by saying “My name is Piao, but some people call me Pi” and then he made the pi symbol, π, with his hands.  You’ve got to watch at least the first 4 minutes of this.  It’s really hilarious.  Sorry about the poor video quality, but it’s worth viewing, even if you just fast forward to about 3:25. 

Good day.  Good week.  The post holidays blahs don’t seem that bad this year.  The fact that is was 80° the day after Christmas probably helped, LOL.  We’re actually in a “cold” snap now though.  On the way over to Atwater Village tonight I heard that our “esteemed” governor has declared a “Cold Weather Emergency“.  I almost had to pull over I was laughing so hard!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today declared a state of emergency throughout California because of the cold snap gripping the state. “I have directed state agencies to activate the extreme temperature protocols established last year to assist the most vulnerable populations in the state and asked local governments and the people of California to take common sense precautions in the unseasonably cold weather,” Schwarzenegger said in his declaration.

“Extreme temperature protocols”???  That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all week.  It was about 60° F (16° C) today!  Granted it was colder up north and in the mountains, but geez louise, they’re used to it.  This state does crack me up sometime.  Arnold’s from Austria.  I’m from Chicago.  Newsflash:  This ain’t cold!

“It was so cold in LA today the people were huddled around the remains of Suzanne Somers smoldering house just to stay warm”  Jimmy Kimmell

Skyped and webcam’d with Daniel in Germany for a while tonight.  He’s really doing well in his internship, and I’m so proud of him.  It’s like my little brother’s growing up.  He was mixing a new song tonight.  It’s all in German, but it’s quite catchy.  Check it out:

Me and Daniel in Hamburg

After that I went to Seth & Jessica’s house for dinner.  We had a really nice time.  Hannah’s walking all over the place now (and has the vocabulary of a 10 year old!), and the dogs get so jealous when I pay her any attention!  Take a look:

After the baby went to bed we had a great dinner:  Rosemary chicken, wild rice and zucchini.  After dinner the conversation turned to the whole nature/nurture, doctor vs. ditchdigger discussion.  Seth seemed to side with Eva’s position, while Jessica and I were more in synch (as usual).  We also watched some of Tyson’s and Macky’s videos, because Seth got a Rubik’s cube for Christmas.  They couldn’t believe their eyes!  I told Seth about Tyson’s tutorial, but he had the right idea already, and wanted to see if he could do it on his own.

Check out: http://www.pbase.com/blaketake:

I discovered that website today after writing a response on Tyson’s blog.  To be such an amazing photographer at such a young age is quite impressive.  Lots of props to him!  He’s got a great eye (like Matthias and Perry).   I’m curious to know what kind of SLR he uses.  His twin brother is a photographer too.  Speaking of Perry (my college roommate), check out the new Hasselblad.  WOW.

It’s as cool looking as the iPhone…and it’s digital!

And finally: The Human Clock

I discovered this video after reading a post on Tyson’s blog. These kids never cease to amaze me!

Double click this:   button in the window below to play. (It took me a while to figure out the Korean embedding )

Take a loot at how Tyson did on Anderson Cooper’s show on CNN tonight.  He will tell you that it was awful, because he made one little mistake, but I think he did a great job!

Here’s a photo I took of Anderson Cooper (sans boyfriend) at Book Soup last year:

I just came back from this movie, and loved it.  I was curious as to why happiness was misspelled but now it makes sense:  The main character takes his son to Mrs Chu’s day-care centre in San Francisco’s Chinatown where the pre-school Chinese children have painted “Fun, Joy, Happyness” on the mural outside the building. (In a scene appearing in the screenplay, but cut from the finished film: when he points out the misspelling, Mrs Chu replies that it doesn’t matter whether “happiness” is spelled correctly, only that children have it (later he contemplates the concept of the “pursuit of happiness” as written into the US Declaration of Independence).  Tyson and his brother actually taught Will Smith how to solve the Rubik’s Cube for this movie:

Wonder where Will Smith picked up his impressive Rubik’s Cube skills in The Pursuit of Happyness? Thanks to one of the world’s top competitive Rubik’s Cube champions Tyson Mao, Smith was able to learn how to master the mind-boggling cube for his leading role.
When Mao’s younger brother Toby taught him how to solve the cube in July 2003, it was only a matter of time before Mao could solve the puzzle faster then his brother…that is in less than two minutes- blindfolded of course. When not covering their eyes, Tyson and Toby are ‘speedcubing’ wizards, solving the cube in less than 20 seconds and taking part in competitions all over the country. Twenty-two year old San Franciscian native Mao has only been beat by two of the world’s top 3x3x3 blindfolded Rubik’s Cube competitors. This and the fact that he was one of the ‘geeks’ in the hit reality show Beauty and the Geek last year, makes him a perfect geeksugar geek of the week.