spreading the George Takei loff

"When I first met [Masi Oka], we started briefly chatting and I was commenting on how interesting it is that we are going to be working in Japanese," said Takei. "We talked about languages and I discovered that he speaks Spanish, and so do I. I was born in East LA. and I grew up hearing the language around me. I love the language, so I studied it in junior high school and high school. My minor in college was Latin-American studies, which included the language, of course. So we started conversing in Spanish. It blew the minds of all the people around us. We're two characters that are going to be playing people of Japan—our dialog is all in Japanese. Here we are off the set chatting in Spanish."

[His answer to Tim Hardaway (via Jimmy Kimmel's show) has been getting major play in my friends-loops.]

three notes

If you live in the Boston area, please consider attending the Peter Mayer concert that psongster has organized. March 10. $12. He's a fantastic musician (and also kinda hot, at least when I saw him four or five years ago) and psongster herself is of the awesome.

If you live in the Nashville area, please consider coming to "Vendredi Gras," an event being coordinated by some of the Vanderbilt Div School folk (announcement edited for space/bloggability):

Vendredi Gras, February 23, 2007, Friday, from 7:00 - 10:00 pm
"Why Vendredi Gras? Because it's too late for the Chinese New Year and too early for Purim..."

The GDR/Divinity School (PAN, AL's Pub, SGA) is hosting a fundraiser for the New Orleans Women's Health and Justice Initiative and Second Harvest of Middle Tennessee. ...we have a small army of bakers who are donating everything from baklava, pecan and sweet potato pies, brownies, cheesecake, chocolate cake, to Burfi.... We will also have live music and games (pin the Arabian Horsetail on the FEMA director) and a dessert auction and libations. This will take place in the basement of the Divinity School. We will be collecting canned goods as well.

Words to ponder, from Joan Acocella, quoted in the Sunday NYT Book Review: "What allows genius to flower is not neurosis but tenacity and the ability to survive disappointment."

(No, I'm not claiming to be a genius. I am, however, as stubborn as they come when I've a mind to be. Hah.)