esrosedotblog

GETTIN' THE FINGER

Repubs are running around with inked index fingers to show their solidarity with the Iraqis, I guess. It is a nice gesture. But before anyone gets too happy about the 'success' of it all, it might be useful to take a look at this:

The Real Meaning of the Iraq Elections: A Closer Look at the Details of the Abu Dhabi TV/Zogby International Poll in Iraq

If the Sunnis ain't in it there is no victory lap to be done. And they ain't in it.

OATER

Destry Rides Again (1939) is a film classic of such renown that it feels a bit foolish to write much about it.

Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Deitrich star with a big cast of great character actors. The story is short and sweet and the morals are all in the right place for the 1930's. Or for now, for that matter.

I think that it stands out from other westerns because, in many respects, it is not a western. There are no chases. There are no long gun battles. The hero does not even use a gun until the very end. It has a lot of singing in the saloon.

We know that we are in for a fun ride when the titles run over a long track shot down the store fronts of the town of Bottleneck. There is wild chaotic rioting from one end to another. There have to be more than two hundred extras are in this wonderful shot and, because it is under the titles, it is almost a throwaway.

We had fun watching it and will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. It is already on the NY Times Best1176 Film list. My rating can only add to its luster.

NOTHING

We live two hours from downtown LA but still feel a part of it. We 'take' the LA Times which is now recognized as one of the top three papers in the country (NYT and WaPo are the other two).

I mostly read the National and State news as well as all the opeds and features but it is impossible not to get swept into the other stories. Most days I even read the SPORTS! Unprecedented.

Today, we see that LA continues to be one of the last holdouts of cities that will not kiss the NFL's ass to get a team. It has become a mark of honor.

See LA's the bait; the NFL still hasn't switched.

I just read of the outlandish moves being made in New Orleans and New York City to pay the way for the helmet heads in a time when there is not enough money for basic municipal services. Forget the starving babies, let's put up a stadium for the multimillionaires. And so on.

DID YOU?

Did you go look at the video I mentioned yesterday:

Dancin' round the world?

If not why not?

You are missing a real treat.

I have never ever mentioned a link two times.

CIMINO

I finished The Deer Hunter today and it was suprisingly rewarding and stirred up a lot of emotions; more than I expected.

I did a lot to shield myself. I can be such a sissy. I took a phone call. I talked a bit with John. It made no difference. Within a moment I was back in and swept away with it.

It is quite a picture. I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Which brings us to Michael Cimino who never made another movie as good as this one. That is the conventional wisdom.

Given carte blanch after Deer Hunter's great success, he went on to make the infamous Heaven's Gate which flopped dramatically. It was universally panned and pulled from theaters after three days.

Oddly, there are people who have seen it in recent years who say it is not that bad; a few think it ranks even more highly. It is not on the NYTimes 1176, but I am going to get it and have a look for myself. It is on top of my 'queue' at Netflix. Soon.

Oh. The guy I link to above gives a totally different review of Hunter. Interesting. He wanted it to be about politics instead of people. He didn't get De Niro's character at all. And so on. Scroll down if you wanna see a rant.

DANCIN' FOOL

This is a great video: Dancin' Round the World.

THE END

I was walking with Franklin today and got a call from Dave. In the midst of the call, my battery gave out. I had forgotten to rev it up the night before. Dead silence.

This is not a big deal. It happened before. I know that it is just the phone's way of protecting my data and all. It shuts down before all the power leaks.

Knowing this does not still the nervous quaver I feel at the possibility that it is a goner for all time. The other thing I thought today was that Dave might think a car hit me or something.

Back home again, I called him back on John's phone and put myself back into play. He had not considered vehicular manslaughter; rather that I had run out of my 'zone'. Anyway, I am charging the phone as I type.

I did not remember how to turn the phone back on again, so I looked it up. Get this. To turn it back ON you hit 'END'. Same to turn it off. But somehow, 'end' doesn't fit the otherwise ergonmetric ease the TG offers. I think this may be why I don't remember it. It is so counterintuitive. But I have the book and a few more lapses in battery discipline will groove it in.

END is ON. I can get used to it.

HALF

Today's movie was the first half of the three hour Deer Hunter (1978).

I saw it when it came out. It was devastating. I went again and took two friends. We came out of the theater crying and had to sit together on the lawn behind the theater to get composed.

The thing about this film was the time and place of it; three years after the end of the Viet Nam War. The collective experience of the audiences ramped the emotions up even further. We knew people whose lives had been drawn into the maw and affected forever. We were all, in a funny way, victims of post traumatic stress.

Today, with distance, I can say that it is just as harrowing to watch. On the other hand, the collective angst of the Viet Nam dilemma is not immediately at hand. The emotional screen is different.

If you read the Ebert review linked above, you will see that he does not view this as an anti or pro war movie. I sort of agree. It does not, as other films of the period, Apocolypse Now and Platoon for example, have a point of view about the events themselves. It focuses on these particular people in their times.

I am splitting the film in half because three hours is just too goddam long to sit and watch a film. I suppose that I am also loathe to fall into the emotional wallow that the first viewings precipitated. Now that I am past some of the toughest stuff, I guess I needn't have worried. The smaller screen, a different time, the absence of a peer group who is having the same shit come down about the war, all buffer the experience over 25 years later.

UNTIL THEN

No matter how you feel about the war, this has to grab your heart.

68

Today is my 68th birthday and I am celebrating it by not celebrating it.

As a born contrarian and counter dependent, the idea of making a big deal about birthdays goes against my grain. No surprise there.

It has nothing to do with age. In fact, I am quite surprised to find that I enjoy and am proud of my seniority. I have some misgivings about the decade turn just around the corner. Seventy sounds BIG. But, I am not there yet.

I think what I like about keeping a low profile on my birthday is that I can sneak up on people. I can casually drop a conversational pearl and switch the focus to me me me. Or, I can leave it alone. There is no premeditated celebration. No organized fun. Spontaneous.

I have had all the party combinations in my life; the well planned extravaganza, the surprise, the small but tasteful dinner with friends at a good restaurant. One year we had entertainers milling in a big crowd. Another time, we had a bunch of closer friends to dinner at a restaurant we loved. Then there was the time we took a bunch to the skating show followed by dinner at home. Brian Boitano. Limos.

See? I told you I had it all. But enough is enough. Now, it is time for some humility and quiet. Once is enough. I am not one to redo events or trips or whatever. We ran out of ideas for parties I guess. We also moved 3500 miles and left the party list behind in Boston. We have never cultivated the social circle here that we had back East. And that is fine too. Downsizing.

Have I said enough about this? For someone who is not interested in making a fuss, I have made a long column out of it. I guess it is still important. It is just that the ways and means of noting the occasion have changed. Is that part of being 68? I dunno. I never been here.

SCREW IT

My friend Allan has sent this item.

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb. Its condition is improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?

YO THE WOLF!

HUMPIN'

I am reminded that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee:

City council articulates new vision.

And this is after months of talking about it. I wonder when the potholes will get filled.

I used to be in the vision game. I was not really a consultant. I would help groups articulate their's; a facilitator. Worse than a consultant in a lot of ways.

Looks like they got one of 'me' to do the work with them. I never milked it and our groups did better than this; but, in the long run, visions are more or less useless and divert energy from the task at hand.

Horseshit. No. Make that camel shit.

MORTAL

I am not much of a fan of architecture but I live with an architect so some appreciation of it all has rubbed off. He notes, at times, that I am a visual illiterate. I would agree with that.

So it is no surprise that I am mostly interested in the business mechanics and the people. Among the latter is a man who, until today, I regarded as immortal.

Philip Johnson died yesterday at 98. There is complete coverage including a great slide show in the NY Times today.

For my money, Johnson gets his points for being a charismatic tough guy. He had a long contentious life. He stood up for stuff. He was an institution.

He was also openly and sometimes flamboyantly gay. He won't go down as an advocate for gay rights or anything but he is living proof that if you shove it in their face and do your work, they will leave you alone. Of course, they will talk about you but that was Johnson's thing; to be talked about.

As for the 'immortal' part, there are a few old farts who keep on going until a late age. I want to emulate them.

A lot of the time, I think that I am immortal too. But, when one of the great ones dies, I am reminded that I am not. I will settle for second best then. Live as long and as tough as possible. Shove it in their face if you have to; but do your service and have a good time.

Incidentally, Johnson died in his famous glass house. It is all glass. I think he lived in it all his life that he owned it. Look at it. You would have to be tough to live in the open like that.

ONE MORE

reason to get a Mac: They're Off to See the Wizards from the NYT.

We have no store nearby but I would go there if we did.

We do OK. There is a local authorized service; same level of niceness and competence. You gotta wait. And we have fast advice from our techpal Todd.

The whole Apple package is so appealing and the competition' (huuuuge competition) is so bad. We gotta get more people to take a bite.

Yet another friend tells me about an entire morning consumed with working the spyware out of her PC. We Maccers don't have spyware stuff; nor viri. And when something goes wrong, we can get it fixed fast with an authorized techie.

Wake up people! Throw off the MS-chains that bind you! And now it only costs a fast 500 bucks+ for a MacMini. Or is it MiniMac? Whatever. Get one.

ESTEEM

For a long time, I have thought that all the fuss about self esteem was bunk. I have noticed that a lot of people with high SE are a pain in the ass. I have seen enough low SE people use it as an excuse as well as a weapon.

In any event, it is one of those catch phrase pop-psych things that support a major industry of self help books and seminars. The school systems are clogged with its myth-ticism.

My worry is not so much that it does any direct harm. It is a diversion; a waste of time which could be used for grabbing your bootstraps and getting on with it.

This article from the LA Times covers the matter of self esteem, low or high, in the proper perspective and shows some data to support my long term hunches.

Take a look at The Lowdown on High Self-Esteem: Thinking you're hot stuff isn't the promised cure-all.

SKETCH

Woody Allen is a blocked author. All of his success has come from using his life experience in thinly veiled humorous short stories. Not a way to win love and friendship.

But, it is a way to build a film with lots of sketch comedy. Short, mostly hilarious, vignettes with star cameo appearances (Tobey Maguire, Robin Williams, Richard Benjamin, Stanley Tucci) standing in for the fictional writer. Billy Crystal, Bob Balaban, Kirstie Alley, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Shue are key players. The rest of the film is also chuck full of walk-ons by people who we have seen over the years in Allen films.

Deconstructing Harry (1997) is filled with Allen's patented jokes but adds a level of vulgarity and smuttiness which we do not usually see in his work. Some of it seems over the top; but that is the deal with vulgarity. Its goal is to go beyond the accepted limits.

I liked this Best NYTimes 1176 Film and will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

BTW

I passed on a BestFilm that I had already seen; Dead Man Walking. I thought that I could handle it a second time but when that time came, I realized that once was enough. It is a splendid film and way too hard to watch just now. I will give it an unseen 4 out of Netflix5 based on my memory of it the first time (and only) time out.

THEY THAT SUFFER

More on this Sponge Bob thing. If you think it is pretty silly and beneath contempt, I think that you are right; but still there is a darkness about it.

Mark Worford's report on the moral minority, from The San Francisco Chronicle, is pretty funny and, at the same time, upsetting. He sees the deep danger of these morons who have so much power.

I used to work with a guy who said that 'this motivation stuff is OK but be careful; be sure you never motivate an idiot'.

These idiots are motivated.

Read: SpongeBob, Evil Gay Heathen: How sad to be a right-wing Christian in a world full of homo cartoons and scary nipples.

GLADWELL

I am reading two little books by Malcolm Gladwell: The Tipping Point and Blink.

I really wanted to blink but I could get both for a deal at Amazon.

Gladwell writes for the New Yorker and I like his stuff. These are really long NY articles and may have started from that source.

The premise of TP is that social change occurs in fits and starts. It is similar to a contagious virus. There are lots of case studies to support this.

The new book, Blink hypothesizes that one's first impression is often as valid as a long studied research into any situation or decision. This also has a lot of interesting case studies. Since I am one who takes his intuition seriously, it is nice to have some assurance that it is not nuts to do so.

I am mid stream in the books and I like them. Even if they are bullshit, their anecdotal richness makes them entertaining.

BAIL OUT

Today's movie lasted about a half hour. Just like Sam Neill, who has to escape a sinking boat, I bailed.

Dead Calm (1989) was a breakout film for the young Nicole Kidman (still with baby fat).

A young wife and an older husband (Sam Neill) are on a sail to heal their grief after loss of a young son. They encounter another boat with Billy Zane on it. He is a psychopath.

It was obvious that there would be a bad time for all and I didn't want to be a part of it.

The circumstances are not totally improbable; just a little contrived.

I would have shot the sonofabitch in the first half hour and had it done with but Sam and Nicole are going to suffer extensively for another hour.

And, I was sure that the cute little black dog was going to end up in a bad way. I could handle Nicole, Sam, and certainly Billy getting mauled around but not the cute black dog.

I will give this NYTimes Best Film (why?) a 2 out of Netflix5. I know why they picked it. It is very tightly edited and beautiful to look at. The horror stuff which starts early is pretty graphic and, I hate to say, innovative. But it is too much for me. I think I am just out of the genré and not the film.

GOODNIGHT JOHNNY

1925-2005

Johnny Carson was not a big part of my later life, but there is a segment there where I watched him a lot. As most people, I found myself drawn to his integrity. He was funny. He had a good show. And, you felt a kind of strength and purpose behind his work. He had principles; values.

I learned about retiring on time from him; not overstaying one's welcome. I was enormously impressed with his discipline in staying out of the limelight. It continues. There will not be a memorial service.

Someone wrote that we lost him twice; when he retired so completely, and now.

I liked Art Fern and Carnac. I enjoyed the monologues. It was fun to watch him work the guests. He gave a lot of new talent its start.

I understand that he was a tough guy too. He had opinions. He didn't let people push him around. Good for him.

Emphesema is no fun. But there were no press releases. No self pity excursions. He did it all and finished it all with grace and dignity.

WHITEOUT

Every time there is a blizzard in the northeast, I have two conflicting reactions.

The first is a deep gratitude that we are not having it first hand; that we moved out of harm's way.

Second, I have a twingy kind of nostalgia to both play and suffer the hardships of such a storm.

I get fond memories about the time in 1978 when Boston was closed down for a week, and more, by a blizzard that put ten foot drifts on Charles Street.

John and I had plane tickets to Ft. Lauderdale and, luckily, were able to catch the first train out of Back Bay station, get to New York, then Newark which had been hit, but not as badly. It was SRO on the train and the plane out of Newark was very late.

We got to Lauderdale at 4 or 5 in the morning. People we knew were stranded there because the planes were not flying into Boston either. But, they had a room for us and we had a great time riding out the rest of the recovery period in the sun.

I remember walking through Beacon Hill area in the snow with our suitcases and people yelling at us. "Where are you going?" "South!" And getting snowballs thrown at us.

Today, blizzards are out of the picture; although, we did have a 70 year rain storm here in PS last week; floods. Then very high wind when the new weather front came in; broken trees. Just to top it off, a day or two later, we had an earthquake big enough to shake the complacency a little bit. All in a few days.

But none of that is like a blizzard. Days in the house, events canceled, life put on hold, shoveling yourself out, bitter cold, blowing icy snow down the neck, and, of course, snow angels!

DRUGGED

And while we are on the subject of geezer-care, the new guidelines are published for the drug 'benefit' bush will give us in 2006.

They are a monster hair ball. A goat fuck. There is no way that seniors are going to be able to work through the mass of data (surely misleading in the main) that will be necessary to choose a plan that will fit them. And so on.

So far, few have taken up the temporary program started last year. We did not even get all the literature.

My guess is that, without amendment, the new 'benefit' will actually end up being a failure for all, including, I hope, the drug companies who have most to gain from it.

ROTTEN EGGS

This was the third consecutive week of losses in the US stock markets; the first time since 1982 when both blue chips and NASDAQ both had losses over the first three months of the year.

This is normally considered a time when the market chirps up and buys for the new year. Not so this year.

I am not much of a day to day follower of these things. I am in for the long haul and only a part of my nest eggs are in stocks, but I can tell you that this kind of thing makes old placid me nervous.

If I were a guy who had another piece in the market through my social security, I would be very concerned. This is just the INsecurity that people will feel if the bushies get their hands on SS and privatize it.

You know, they hate that word. Bush has used it a few times and now denies it. But that is what it is.

Actually, this is not an issue that worries me in the least. It will not come in my time. But I think that young people who think putting their most fundamental nest egg in the hands of the wall street predators will give them anything but grief are going to be woefully disappointed.

PUZZLE

This is an interesting chase through the web: The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript.

Be sure to link through to the on line discussion which somewhere links to the Wikipedia item on the subject which has a list of possible authors including Voynich himself; a possible hoaxter.

There, I did some of the chasing for you.

I never heard of this one before but then I am not in the stream. Interesting.

POOOF!

Talk about magic though, did you see this?

In today's NY Times:

Mystery in Iraq as 300 Million Dollars is Taken Abroad.

Some disappearing act. Now, in addition to the chaos of crime and counter-revolution and near civil war, we have the almost complete corruption of the interim government. Can the new government (which will be the same) be less corrupted? Noooooooo.

It appears that this is not our money. Well, it used to be. No one knows actually whose money it is now.

And, what a surprise; the ex-stooge of the bushers Chalabi has his hand in it somewhere. Charges and countercharges.

HUH?

It is still a blur to me as I avoided direct connection. The inaugural address and all the flummery around it just pained me so much, I averted my eyes.

It is pretty hard to avoid the fallout though. Most of the media and a lot of blogland is consumed with interpreting the speech and extracting meaning that has a practical effect.

My take is that there is no practical effect. It is all flummery. Smoke and mirrors. A little bread and a lot of circus. Now you see it now you don't magicianship.

Because the republican position has always been 'watch what we do not what we say" (John Mitchell:AG/Nixon), there isn't much point in trying to figure it out. I prefer to watch neither.

They will continue to do what they have been doing and try not to let us catch them at it. It has already started in the second edition of the same original book. Money and power first, then some decommissioning of the New Deal and any part of the Johnson and Clinton legacies they can get their hands on. I didn't forget Carter, I just don't think there was a legacy.

The problem underlying all of this is the utter ineptness of the bushies in almost all they do. The war, the economy, the bureaucracy. They have even managed to fuck up the unfuckable. Look at the FDA debacle; incompetence and riddled with undue influence. The same for the National Institute of Health. These used to be untouchables. Now they are just a part of the 'game'.

STONERS

Today's movie was Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).

Another teener film by Amy Heckerling who went on to do Clueless; based on a book by Cameron Crowe who went undercover as a high school student to get the nitty gritty. Crowe went on to direct his own movies.

Gritty it is and funny and a smiler throughout. It is amazing that this film is not based on rich kids in a sort of perfect high school. These are all lower middle class kids who are being themselves and the distortions of the story teller do not wander too far from the reality of it. At least, that is how I felt throughout.

There are a bunch of young actors starting out: Sean Penn, Forest Whitaker, Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh. Then there is Ray Walston as the teacher and he is not really the cartoon seen in most films. He even helps stoner Penn pass a test by coming to his house and running a tutorial.

One of the NY Times Best Films, and I will give it a 4 out of Netflix 5.

Note: The film, an 'F' is out of order so I can watch Penn's early performance and then see Dead Man Walking which is quite a different role, to say the least. Bracketing.

MATH

I am not usually a Maureen Dowd fan but in this tour de force, she manages to pin Condie's ears to the board and also demonstrate that women know a lot about math, Lawrence Summers notwithstanding:

Don't Know Much About Algebra.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that Dowd is the snarkiest of pundits (pundettes?) and turns it in all directions. She is not a partisan but an opportunist. Nevertheless, I like this one and, while that is one out of five, I will be happy to take it.

DEAD HORSE

So the head of the House Ways and Means, a Republican, says that the prez' reform of SS is a 'dead horse'.

Perhaps, but I will believe it when I see it carried out to the boneyard.

For people interested in this sort of thing, there is a discussion of why SS reform is dead in The New Republic On-Line. I do not know if you have to be a subscriber to read: Boomerang.

What it says in essence is that the goopers are hoist on their own petard. They have sufficiently pissed the Demos who went a long with them when junior was all bi-partisan and working his reputation as a uniter in Texas (2000—remember)? They got double crossed and will not do it again.

Not only that, but the very Democrats who got gerrymandered out in Texas are gone. They were co-opters. Delay may have won the battle and lost the war. The gooperlike Senators who have retired (Robb, Breaux) are all sucking on the lobby tit and not available for cross aisle voting.

By way of followup; the other day, I was all exercised because I had read in blogland about the Social Security Administration, a non-political outfit, was cranking up propaganda for the bushie proposals. I whipped out a letter of complaint to the SSA on their website.

In all fairness, I should say I got this email today:

The following is a quote from Jo Anne Barnhart, Commissioner of Social
Security regarding Social Security reform:

"Thank you for your inquiry. There has been a lot of misinformation in the
media lately and I am glad to have this opportunity to set the record
straight. I have never, nor will I ever, ask or direct Social Security
employees to promote or advance any specific proposal for Social Security
reform. Our job at Social Security is to provide services and benefits and
to educate the American public about the programs and finances of Social
Security. Again, thank you for your inquiry. We look forward to continuing
to serve you. "

I hope. I will be watching the mails.

BLUR

I am doing a lot of eye-blurring today to avoid reading the heavy load of bullshit being written about the first day of the rest of our four more years.

Yes. Let us all come together. Uniter not divider. All that crock.

Sigh.

Tomorrow it will all be back to business as usual. Until then, blur.

NOTHING BETTER TO DO

The fundies and holy rollers have found a new target for their homophobias:

Conservatives Pick Soft Target: A Cartoon Sponge.

Now, I, for one, am not part of the gay cheering section for this cartoon. In fact, I am not enthusiastic about having him as an icon for impressionable FFA's (Future Faggots of America). He is hardly the kind of role model that I would recommend to the young and aspiring.

From my point of view, what little I have seen of him, SpongeBob is pretty obnoxious and not very sexy at all. If anything, he would appeal to the frog crowd. In fact, I suppose he does, as he inhabits the shallow waters as well as the deep.

I wasn't too happy about the furor over Twinky Winky either. That purple smerf or what ever he was. What are these bigots thinking?

If they were really interested in censoring homoerotica, they should be worrying about all the action cartoons and most of the movies that kids go to see; lottsa lottsa muscle and heavy male bonding.

I blame Paul Newman for a lot of my early gay inspirations; the first actor to show a good pec. Brando was a 'contendah' but he mostly stayed t-shirted. Enough of course, but not all the way. I remember sitting in a theater with my cousin Barbara waiting for the inevitable shirt removal; both of us going ga-ga over the prospect.

I guess that was a signpost, huh?

Come to think of it, I relished a lot of the bible pics (Samson and Delilah, The Robe, The Ten Commandments and so on) because they were a sure thing in the skin exposure department. These were considered, and probably still would be, exemplary films for the young, budding male, christian. Little did they know. I was budding all right.

Which reminds me! Why aren't they interested in hetero-porn? I want equal blue nosing! You can't get more kinky (S&M department) than the Mel Gibson Christ biopic they all ran to see. Talk about twisted.

NASTY

We have not had any nasty toilet humor or similar weirdness in here for awhile.

Today, I offer the debut of Robo-Dump.

I don't linger in men's rooms much anymore so I forgot the terrible tension that can come from going into a one-holer and finding it 'taken'. Then there is the wait. And then the wait. And then the rest of the wait until the present occupant is done.

In a business situation (I was often an outsider), it is doubly bothersome as one wonders who might be the person sitting on the throne so long. Your client? The big boss who will OK the deal? When I was training, what about participants?

This is so funny. I warn the sensitive and easily disturbed to look quick and get the funniness of it and then click off. Don't play the audio.

And if this is your idea of having a good time and you work in an office, try this one: The Pressed Ham Project.

I am probably amused by these practical jokes in some sophomoric way because when I did regular work and had the usual boring jobs that a lot of other people have, I perpetrated a lot of less complex but, nevertheless hilarious, practical jokes.

Most played with people's heads about corporate matters; posting fake memos and the like. There was always a small group of guerrilla fighters in the places I worked; just as there were always some closet homos.

Sometimes they were the very same people. I always joined up and soon became a leader. This may be one of the reasons I always got low marks for 'attitude'. It may also be why I ended my career in normal business environments rather suddenly after about ten years.

HIGH ANXIETY

Yeh, it doesn't make me feel too comfortable either:

Four More Years: Bush Makes the World Feel Anxious.

SIT

I enjoyed this article on training dogs Train in Vain in Slate. This guy pretty well nails it.

Anyone who reads this knows that we have an Airedale; a unique animal that has its own independent personality. They are bred to work alone hunting and killing rats and otters. The Airedale has an inherent understanding that his own opinion is superior to any human who may have wandered into the scene.

We were told about this and accept it. We have a kind of contract with Franklin. He gets a vote. We each get two votes. Most days, decisions are made collegially. For example, in this photo we may have asked him to sit and he decided to lie down. Typical joint decision. He is still, just not in the prescribed position.

Yet, there are boundaries and we know that he is a dog and he has to learn some basics. Because of their proved independence of spirit, Airedales are difficult to train. In fact, many professional trainers will not work with them. They will not do tricks. They do not respond to 'treat' or reward training and we do not support that if it worked.

Our life with Franklin is second to none. He is abundantly friendly and more than willing to please. We have used his good nature to learn to work with him. He was crate trained and has a large understanding of the human vocabulary. He is pretty good at letting us know what he needs.

He is a clown and a rascal and will trot across the boundaries for fun and games. Getting him to come in on a cold morning when he wants a game of tag can be a bit trying.

He has never chewed anything up. Well, there was one small carpet piece and yesterday he had John's sandal for awhile. That is it. He does not always 'obey' but he does if the cards are down and our lives depend on it. He has to think things over.

There is a lot of horseshit out there about training dogs. We found some of it useful, just as some horseshit, aged and cured, can be used for fertilizer. But it comes down to a basic understanding between the dog and the man; or, in this case, men.

BALLS

I am trying to stay away from any inaugural coverage. I don't want to even think about it. 40 million and counting. But, it didn't cost the taxpayers anything. It is being paid for by special interests--whoops--private donors.

Yeh, that isn't going to cost me anything.

And they are honoring the troops, just like those little magnetic loops on people's cars honor the troops. What horseshit. Well. That is my inaugural coverage. I am not even going to bother finding an 'image' for this one. We don't call them pictures anymore; images.

FOUR WINDS

When I was a runner, they used to tell us to run out against the wind and run back with it. The idea is that you will have more oomph going out than you do coming back. Also, if it is an icy wind, it won't be blowing on your sweaty front. Your back would be running away from the wind and it doesn't sweat as much anyway.

Same principle now that I am a bike rider.

Trouble is, where we live, there are four winds. No matter which way we go, it is going to be against the wind; going or coming. The reason for this is that we live in a mess of hills and mountains. When there is any breeze at all, the irregular terrain forms eddies and those come and go in all directions. It is good exercise, but tough to follow the wind rule.

No matter which way we go, we are always facing into the wind; going or coming. It is good exercise though.

COMPETITION

While I am thinking about biking. Yesterday, I was cruising along and suddenly a guy in black passed me; on the right, no less. No bell, no hello, no nothing. I let out a whoop as it startled me.

Normally, I take this kind of thing for granted. There are a lot of bikers here. But none are discourteous or as risky as passing silently on the right.

Well, OK, I was probably doping off. I was thinking about whether to take a right turn, up the golf course parking lot hill for an added bump. Good that he wasn't passing just as that happened. It makes his infraction worse in a way. Didn't he know what I was thinking? Shithead.

But even worser than that, when I looked at him, I realized that he was an old guy; maybe my age. That did it. OK to pass on the wrong side; OK to sneak up. Not OK to be going faster than me in the same age bracket. I turned on the steam. Drag racing on bikes.

I quickly realized this guy was on gears and there was no way I could really catch him. That irked me more. I worked it for awhile than let go of it.

Gotta watch those hot-dog geezers on their gears going for speed rather than safety. Amazed that I still have that competitive thing going after all this time. I wanted to kick his ass.

EPIC

Today's movie is so beautiful that it brings tears to the eyes. I saw it when it came out and it was still fresh in my mind. Knowing the tragic outcome is less important than the setting and the beauty of the Texas plains where it is filmed.

Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1973) won an Oscar for cinematography. That is the half of it. The editing and the interweaving of the plot is wondrous. The dialogue is spare. Almost inconsequential except for the narration. It is almost like a silent film.

The narration is a tale told by a teenage girl for whom the term 'hard knock life' is an understatement. We see, through her eyes, a great break in the difficult life that she has lived. For a time, she is in days of heaven.

The young girl is Linda Lanz who only made a few films. Her brother, the almost painfully young Richard Gere is at odds with Sam Shepard over their love of Brooke Adams. A triangle.

We saw Mallick's The Badlands earlier; Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek on a crime spree. We will see The Thin Red Line. He hasn't done a lot of work but what he has done is great.

This is a NYTImes Best1176 Film and I will give it a five out of Netflixfive.

PRAVDA

I have been 'off' NPR for a long time because of their patronizing approach to the news and because they like themselves too much. Think Cokie Roberts.

Lately, though, I have had news of a more compelling reason to stay away from them and that is the increasing turn to the right that they have taken.

Actually, it is more their turn to the non-controversial. There is ample evidence that this is and has been happening. It has been made clear by the management and the gooper congress that their funding depends on being positive about the administration.

Throttling the money stream is more effective than any other form of coercion for this overblown bureaucracy of blow hards. They evidently have no trouble dancing to the piper's tune.

I did make an exception during the election to get up to date info. I gave up. Attitude and commentary of the most superficial kind was abundant but no hard news. I ended up watching the debates on C-Span just to avoid hearing their silly post debate analysis.

My dropping out is certainly not a death blow. Every authoritarian government needs a state sponsored radio network. Now they've got it. Lots of people will be listening, especially those who don't like to hear bad news or independent, contrary opinion.

SHOP

I am a mild agoraphobic. I do not like to shop. I am not someone who 'looks around' for things to buy. When I need something, I prefer the internet. If I have to go 'out there' to get it, I make my plans, reconnoiter the area and then swoop down in one fast mission to snag the item I need or want and get the hell out before I get any thing on me.

The one exception to this though, is grocery shopping. I love it. I am still not a 'shopper'. I am immune from the sales, I don't mess with any coupons or discounts, and I do not do impulse shopping. I just make my list, go into the store and do the job. And I enjoy every minute.

Perhaps is because I grew up in the grocery business. My Dad was a manager for A & P. I worked in the store when I was a kid. As chance would have it, my first job after college was in a food chain headquarters (a competitor of my Dad's outfit). So it is sort of in my blood. I know that I take a lot of history into the supermarket with me when I shop. Maybe that is why it is so enjoyable.

I shop twice a week and do it methodically. I have a routine. I go to the same store. I know a lot of the clerks. It is a social occasion; a light one, but social nonetheless. Tuesday and Friday. On Fridays, which is usually lighter, John and Franklin usually go along. They sit on the tailgate and charm the people going in and out of the store. A family time!

Today is a shopping day. I am smiling at the prospect. It is Tuesday, so I will go alone and relish the moments as I move from produce to dairy to groceries to meat to frozen and on to the household stuff. What a rush!

34 COUNT'EM 34

I know that there are still a few people who read this who still think bushie is, well, not that bad and that the sky is not falling and all. Try this one.

Yeh, it is in that terrible left wing Salon which is soooo biased but, what the hell, give it a try fellas! Suppose this guy is even half right: The Scandal Sheet.

Even I didn't remember all of these occasions of greed, deception, malfeasance, and, well, scandal! So even if you are well on the other side of outrage and objection to the current state of affairs, you will be surprised at how many of these items you forgot!

How long, oh lord, how long? Long in time and long in list.

Oh, and while we are at it, for those who thought the big dick would be less active this time and really doesn't run things, try this one in that soooooo biased left wing New York Times: Cheney Exercising Muscle on Domestic Policies. I guess the puppet master is still holding the strings.

STILL

Michael Rennie comes in a spaceship to tell the world that all the fighting and weapon shit will eventually kill the planet. This will be done either on our own, or if we are a menace to the extraterrestrial world, they will zap us out.

Here, Rennie is about to make his speech. Patricia Neal is one of the few earthlings on his side. The big lug in the metal suit if the robot programmed to do the wipeout.

The film ends with the warning and Rennie takes off. Neil stays behind. This was 54 years ago. Obviously no one paid any attention. Things are worse here on earth. I wonder when the zap comes.

The movie of the day is about The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). No. It does not stop spinning. You will have to look for yourself to see how this is accomplished.

All good science fiction film is plot and not special effects driven. There is not a lot of good science fiction film today. The effects are gratuitous and mostly there because they can do the stunts; not because they put the drama forward.

This film is very low tech. Look at the pants on the robot. But it is compelling and very well done. It still works 54 years later. The message is still apt. The robot would be very convincing.

Robert Wise is the director. Look at his credits. Jeeez. He is still alive; 90 years old.

It is a NYTimes Best1176 film and I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

NAUGHT

This is one of those mornings. A walk through the news of the day on Salon, Yahoo and The New York Times has yielded little for me to get started on.

I thought of mentioning that the young President of MacDonalds who had to step down in November had died. The point in the AP that caught my eye was this:

A charismatic leader who said he ate a McDonald's product most days, Bell was diagnosed with colorectal cancer just weeks after being named to the company's top job in April.

It seemed to me that the article was making a point. I sure got it whether they meant to or not. Then I decided it would be bad taste (hmm) to put it in.

Then there was another article, again AP, that said most people were hopeful about second term bush. After a little digging, it turns out that it is not most people but more like 6 out of 10 and then goes on to show that half the people (more than 6 out of 10) are also worried. Hard to put together. An asskissing article I believe. The press has a way of doing that somehow.

I also saw that bush-bartlett says they will not really ask SSA employees to shill for their privatization program. Uh huh. And incidentally, they do not want the word privatization used even though bush, himself, used the term three times in one sentence last fall. They are such dipshits.

William Safire said in his NYT column that the media should not be such pantywaists. They should speak out more; exercise their responsibility to question government and to balance power. Oh boy. He is retiring.

It is all just so lamentably lame somehow. Same old shit different day.

The Golden Globes didn't move me either.

But I have not read my LA Times yet. That comes later. Perhaps there will be something in there to talk about.

MLK

Too good to be missed: Today's Boondocks.

I read this strip every day along with Zits which is always a laugh.

PROCEDURAL

Today's movie is a wonderful 'police procedural' on an international scale. It is beautifully filmed almost exclusively on location and, while it is longer than my normal attention span, it kept me going for two and a half hours.

The screen title says, aptly and appropriately for a change, "Fred Zinnemann's film based on Frederick Forsythe's The Day of the Jackal (1973)".

Take a look at Zinnemann's credits; he made four or five Best Films.

The plot is a bit complicated and yet it is made clear and the parts assembled beautifully for involvement throughout. We get to figure things out at about the same pace as the police and the jackal. Both sides are shown working each other.

It is not violent in the usual sense. There is some tough stuff. It is about an attempted assassination after all. But the film is perfect proof that a lot of sensational chases and gut spills are not necessary for a taut and exciting story to unfold.

I liked it a lot. James Fox is a fox. I will give this NYTimes Best 1176 Film a 5 out of Netflix5.

BACK AGAIN

We had a great time with the family for three days. Now back to business.

I have an idea. Do you suppose that the bushies bullshit (bushit for short) and lies about the social security 'crisis' could be a smoke screen?

Well, "what for"? you might ask. I would answer in a word: "I-rack!".

First of all, let's assume that the chances for passage of the revisions being proposed are about the same as the Clintons' health care initiatives. The forces against this one are formidable and I do not mean the Democrats. I mean AARP, the unions, almost all the advocacy groups for the elderly.

Of course, with the SSA itself now doing politicized propaganda, they might be able to scare enough people on SS to worry and write letters to their congress people; but I doubt it. We pensioners are far too secure to be budged from the status quo. Borrow money to pay my benefits? No way. I already wrote to the SSA and complained about my money being spent for the bushit agenda.

I am not too worried about that one though. We get the mailings and I can tell you that the stuff we got on the 'new' drug benefit program was ineptly written and confusing and incomplete. Poor work. I suspect that the SSA employees who are against doing this kind of thing undermined it.

Now, the smoke screen. Things are way bad over there for the 'coalition forces'. We are coming up to the elections which no one can campaign for without getting killed. We are abandoning the military strategy and looking for options like the guerrilla force and the snatch squad and counter terror and above all, squeezing the genitals of every gook that we capture until s/he tells us what we want to hear. The whole thing is a failure of monstrous proportions.

I can hear Karl and Dick (the big one) now. "Gotta get their attention on something else. Let's go with this crazy self management thing in social security. That will take up more print and air time and keep the fucking liberals busy; the pinko fags. Make it look real. Give junior his script and keep him on message--no problem there--just tell him god is speaking to him. We are gods, huh? Two fat old men. Who would have thought?" And so on.

Sure. Let's dismantle or disarm the most successful federal program ever devised to keep the heat off the failure in I-rack.

OFF/ON

I am more off than on for a few days while we have family visitors.

ANGORA

In one of those Netflix queue coincidences, today's movie was, as yesterday's, about movie making!

Of course, Ed Wood (1994) is as far removed from François Truffaut as one could be. The common thread is their total wild abandon love for film. Orson Welles plays a significant role in both pictures too.

I did not see this one when it came around. Johnny Depp, as usual, inhabits a character so totally that you forget that it is the Depper. He is so far removed from other 'stars' who are really celebrities who continue to play themselves (read Cruise, Pitt, the other biggies).

Martin Landau won best supporting actor for his role as Bela Lugosi. Another job of total immersion in the part. Sarah Jessica Parker is so funny; pre-SexintheCity and probably before her last nose job which I succeeded in forgetting eventually. Bill Murray pulls off a really offensive gay/transexual bit which somehow works as it was pre-Stonewall although this film was not.

All tied up in a pretty package by Tim Burton who is just amazing. He gets to throw some of this signature haunted house stuff in here; the Disney ride thing and it works OK.

One of the Best Films, I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 because I thought that it went on a bit longer than it should have.

AGE BEFORE BEAUTY

Bush “Town Hall” Tidbits:

Dubya had one of his patented invite-only “town halls” yesterday, with all attendees die-hard backers of Social Security privatization.

How scripted was this event? Check out this exchange:

MS. STONE: I would like to introduce my mom. This is my mother, Rhoda Stone. And she is grandmother of three, and originally from Helsinki, Finland, and has been here over 40 years.

THE PRESIDENT: Fantastic. Same age as my mother.

MS. STONE: Just turned 80.

Of course, the script probably told Bush to say, “same age as my mother” after Ms. Stone mentions her mom is 80.

From the The Left Coaster

PULLIN' OUT ALL THE STOPS

We had the rains, then yesterday a lot of wind that tore out trees throughout the area. The ground was wet and the roots let go in the over 50mph gusts. All we lost was a banana tree - about ten feet - which would have gotten trimmed out on the next cycle anyway.

Then this morning at 1201 AM there was a 4.1 earthquake nearby. Not the big one but big enough. I don't think that we felt it. I remember getting up at that time but it wasn't for the shake. What's next?

I don't know, but the sun is out, we will be in the seventies in another day and there is no more rain. End of a cycle.

SEQUEL

I did not mention one of the most fascinating aspects of La Nuit Américaine, yesterday's movie.

Because you are watching a crew of filmmakers in the process of shooting a film, you are treated to a continuous flow of 'how do they do that?' answers. There are all kinds of technical solutions being worked out while both stories unfold. Because Truffaut himself is cast as the director, we get to hear his thoughts and even see his dreams. We get to see him answer the hundreds of serious and silly questions that he is barraged with all day long.

Here, Truffaut works with Jacqueline Bisset to work out the proper light angles for a closeup with the wonderful Jean-Pierre Léaud.

In the story itself, we are treated by seeing how 'people problems' are dealt with: an aging actress with a drinking problem; a peter-pannish male lead (Léaud); a highly professional star (Bisset), who has had a nervous breakdown prior to this production; a cast member's unknown pregnancy, which will 'bloom' throughout the shooting to create a continuity problem of the worst kind; a crew member whose wife comes along with him to keep other women away (no chance); a famous screen lover (Jean-Peirre Aumont) who is preoccupied with his young male companion; and so on. None of these side visits sap the strength from the main plot; they are very brief, polished gems.

I feel as though all the participants in this film had a wonderful time showing how it is done and how the frustrations of such an enterprise are dealt with. It is an enormously generous film in that regard as in all others.

I am, of course, a Mac diehard and I am pleased to death (two 'death' figures, huh!) to see both the hardware and the pitch or sales impetus behind the new Mac Mini.

It is the quintessential Mac except for the keyboard, the mouse, and the screen. As Steve Jobs says "BYODKM". At first, this seems a bit dumb. Who would buy a computer without these essentials? Well, think about it.

Every time we get a new computer, these bits, which are pretty much indestructible, get tossed with the old computer. And, further, everyone who has a PC already has these things. They just don't have the guts that are the best you can get. They have a goddam PC! Windows, for shit'sake.

So, now for 500 bucks they can make the break and get the real deal. A Mac. Only a mini.

I think that, as a business approach, this is brilliant. But, we will see. People have ignored the virus-free, user friendly, fast, well designed and damn near ultimate available technology for a long time. It must be masochism. Why else would anyone beat themselves silly with the frustrations of the MS world?

Go on. Buy one now. Do yourself a favor! Join the happy band.

Why am I always swimming upstream?

DELICIOUS

What a great movie of the day:

Truffaut's La Nuit Américaine (1973) / Day For Night.

It is a movie about making movies. The original French title refers to a shooting term: American night; filming in the day and using a filter.

We have many of the usual Truffaut players working a story side by side with the plot of the film on which they are working. And Truffaut casts himself as the director!

It is just great stuff. Very funny. Tragedy. All of it. Some of the parallels between the film and the real life of the crew and cast are fun to work out.

I always enjoy movies about movies being made. One of the best is The Stuntman but there are so many that it constitutes a genré. This is the best that I have seen.

It is one of the NYTimes Best 1176 and I will give it a 5 out of Netflix 5.

OR

Try this one if the last one didn't move you: tokyo plastic.

Both videos from Internet Weekly.

SMILE

OK. Watch this and see if you can keep from smiling. It is so weird.

WHITEWATER

It is still raining here. We have made the front of the NY Times for three days running. They love to print bad news about California.

This is the most rain that we have seen here. Our first year was wet; but not this wet, this long.

This morning we both walked Franklin. It was just a drizzle; not bad. We took the route along the base of the mountain; almost all desert. Toward the turn-around we began to hear a roar. The closer we got the bigger the roar. It was the runoff; a huge valley long ravine that carries this kind of water away to—well, hell, I don't know where it goes. Maybe to the Salton Sea.

It was spectacular to see the rapids and the white water. This ravine is almost always dead dry and overgrown with little trees and such. Those will be all gone.

The wash actually goes through a couple of golf courses. They figure that using the land most of the time is a good payoff for the occasional re-hab.

The rain is big local news too, of course. For one thing, it is playing hell with the tourist business. As I mentioned. the story is being played for all it is worth.

Our stance is that it is nothing and it will pass and some perspective is needed. Here is the local version with all the history:

We're Wet But It's Been Worse.

GRIM AND BARE IT

Our passports run out this year. While it is not likely that I will be leaving the country, it is always good to have some mobility. Suppose the worst case happens in the next four years? I will need it.

You can do it all in the mail now. The forms are on line. You send the old one in with photos and they send the new one back. I am sure that this is only for renewals. In fact I am surprised that, in these red alert times, they even let you do it by mail.

There is one new step though. I guess that it has been taken to thwart terrorism. I am not too sure about the theory behind it. You are not permitted to smile in the passport photo any longer. This news was delivered just before the flash: "Don't smile!"! It sure is effective. I not only did not smile I look absolutely scared in the photos.

I guess the thing here is to set a tone. Homeland security is a serious business. (Boy, I hate that H-word. The Nazis used it; as do all dictatorships. It drips with xenophobia).

Anyway, none of us should be smiling in our pp pictures. And not only that, what are we thinking? That we would be smiling at the immigration officer?

What will happen if we come across the borders laughin' and scratchin'? Will we be admonished? Strip searched. Held in solitary? Sent to an undisclosed location; another country that has no laws against torture?

Well forget that. We now trump any other places as far as twisting the nuts is concerned.

Anyway, wipe that fucking smile off your face. This is the future. Totalitarianism is a serious business. Our leader sets the tone, the humorless bastard.

FREEDONIA

Today's movie was Duck Soup (1933) with the Marx Brothers; all four of them in this one. Zeppo was a hunk and could sing but was the least interested in show business. That, aside, it is one of their best pictures.

There is not too much to say about it except that I saw Edgar Kennedy who did some bits with Chico and Harpo. Kennedy did a lot of one reel comedies. I laughed my ass off at them. That was back when we had 'shorts' as part of any movie experience; a long time ago.

A 'show' used to be a standard 90 minute feature, a few trailers, and shorts. There was a usually a short newsreel and sometimes a travelogue; comedies and cartoons were standard fare. Most theaters even had a curtain that opened and closed. The golden years.

This is a NYTimes Best1176 Film and it also has a very high IMDb rating. I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5. How could I differ?