esrosedotblog

MEDIA WHORES

Let Them Eat Catfish.

Mike Signorile calls 'em as he sees 'em.

CAMP BUSHY

Bush: Vacation Ruined By 'Stupid Dead Soldier'.

WHAT A GAS!

Yes, I used this gag photo before but it is pretty good, so why not again.

I read this morning that we could expect $3.00 gas nation wide very soon.

Shit, we routinely pay that much for the stuff out here at the end of the supply line. The special blends and 'maintenance problems' at the few local refineries play their part as well.

We have been the champs at gas prices more than a few times this year. I paid 3.03 this morning.

So what is wrong with that?

A friend in London chortles at our outrage. They pay at least 1 pound per liter (four liters to a gallon; $1.85/pound) or $7.40 per gallon. And, they pay a lot more for taxes as well as use of their cars in the inner city. Funny too, that they still drive all over so they don't have to go into the tube. Terrorism trumps the pocketbook.

Now, granted I do not have to drive. But if you push it to the extreme, neither does anyone else. It is just that we have decided to live way far from our work.

It is well known that in LA, people routinely drive across the County to their jobs and to visit friends and all. No one considers buying or renting a home near the job. Laughable.

Price is not a consideration until it hurts. Evidently the big three hurts since now there is talk of capping it out at that price and so on.

Then there are the SUV's. What about the 8 mpg guzzlers? At freeway clogged speeds, or crawls. it is a lot more.

There is a fashionable turn to the Prius and other hybrids out here but that is mostly ceremonial. The cost of buying and maintaining is a near break even with any cost saving.

I have a friend who is all freaked about the cost of gas. He does not commute. It is all discretionary driving. I suggested that he might cut down on the driving if it was costing him so much.

Did he ever give me a look.

So here we are. The problem is the miles and the vehicle. And the Hummer 3 is turning up here as often as the Scion.

And so on. Scion/so on.

People.

Now the WSJ has a prediction in its bulletin today about $4.00/gallon. Maybe that will do it.

BIG MUDDY Revised

It is very hard to watch the slow motion horror in New Orleans.

I find it difficult to imagine what people are going through whether temporarily displaced or permanently and tragically without a future.

I, for one, am pained by any inconvenience or delay or disruption.

I suppose when a 'big one' hits, the reality, cushioned by a bit of shock, moves you to the next square and then the one after that until there is some stability and comfort.

In the meantime, there is suffering.

I have been to New Orleans several times on business and only once for pleasure. That trip was in cold, damp, January and I had a bad cold. We still had a good time.

We stayed in the French Quarter not too far, but far enough, from Jackson Square and Bourbon Street. We were on the second floor (good) of a guest house with a big porch to sit outside and watch whatever action there was. (not too much).

We saw the wild and grungy side on Bourbon Street but soon realized it was tourists watching tourists.

We hit all the famed spots and some out of the way places. I remember the old street car rides fondly as well as the paddle wheeler that had a steam calliope.

We took a tour of a warehouse and factory where they make Mardi Gras floats. And, we had some good food, but, to say the truth, it was all pretty fat and unhealthy. Beignets.

As the hurricane approached the other night, we thought about the minutiae of the trip. They were good memories.

Now, under water.

Another way to fondly remember—The American Red Cross—apparently the way to go with a desire to help.

ROTH

This overlooked Philip Roth novelette/adaptation is dated to some extent. But, having been there, I can see how

Goodbye Columbus (1969)

fits in to the sixties canon.

There are two story lines: the sexual revolution and Jewish middle class excess.

One certainly clashes with the other and, in this case, the bourgeoisie win. Guilt will trump orgasms almost every time. Post-coital regret and all that.

Richard Benjamin and Ali McGraw are pretty good in this.

The sweet romance gets dunked into some of the most anti-semitic stuff you could see on the screen.

I guess it is OK to do it if you are one. The same as queers. We can bust ourselves but don't let any of the hets do it.

I liked it. I would not want to see it again.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

This is early Roth. He went on to work this theme in great bold strokes (so to speak) with Portnoy's Complaint. Richard Benjamin played Portnoy in the movie version. A Roth regular. As far as it went.

I have never much liked Roth's later stuff.

I think he has his head up his ass.

But the early things were charming and enjoyable and a bit daring for the time. Philip Roth. A minor major writer.

LONG

Today's Best 1176 NYTimes Movie was

Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il / The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966).

You can add to that 'the Long'. Weighing in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, it is an endurance tester.

I would have cut it down. They did actually. This is the DVD restored version.

Ebert has two reviews. His second one is more instructive of Serge Leone's process in directing this film. You can read it all for yourself.

There are a lot of improbabilities, but I think the film is a mold breaker.

There are no good guys. Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, and Lee Van Cleef are all after each others' ass. They have the words wrong in the cover art. Clint is the Good, Van Cleef the bad, and Wallach the ugly.

I liked all three. Van Cleef is always a good surprise; all steely eyed and dangerous. Somehow Wallach manages to harness his usual overacting to a consistent personna. Eastwood. Well, I have enjoyed Clint since his Rowdy Yates days. Rawhide.

All the dialog except for the stars is dubbed. The other actors are all virtually extras and were clearly chosen for their looks. They are well-weathered. Almost Falliniesque.

The closeups are magnificent. The entire framing technique is unique.

I liked it. Like Ebert, I am more fond of it now that it is over and I have some distance.

This is the third of the 'dollar' spaghetti westerns. The first two didn't make it to best films. Dunno why.

But it is so fucking long. Tedious at times. Lengthy. Drawn out. Slow. Very arduous in places. I can't think of any other ways to say it. Whew. Aren't we there yet?

This film has one of the highest IMDb audience ratings incidentally at 8.8.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

RODDICK

I don't follow tennis all that much but I have watched Andy Roddick move along.

He is Number 4 in world tennis and Number 1 for the Americans. Whatever all that means.

My interest, in a world of overblown sports egos, is how this young man appears to be handling his fame.

Humility comes to mind.

Now, I am probably missing something, but I found this nice article in the NYTimes validating my impression.

One always likes one's hunches to be correct.

Andy Roddick's Fine Line.

I would read the 'fine' as doing fine.

WHISTLING IN THE DARK

You knew it would happen.

The thing is that they do not even have enough shame to wait the process out.

The shits.

Army Contract Official Critical of Halliburton Pact Is Demoted.

You can only hope that they have shot themselves in the foot. But probably not.

The news-cycle is against it.

TELEDILDONICS

What will they think of next?

Just as porn sites are being savaged by the new 'child porn' laws (which are actually repressive to all sexual material), the tech-heads have come up with this: Single, white, with dildo.

I have had reservations about on-line sex. There always has to be one hand typing, or something. And the technology (laptop, keyboard, mouse) is somehow cooling.

But this seems to have the problem solved.

With on-line video there is no typing and with the right mouse in the house you are all set up for business.

Thanks to Salon. Sorry you have to read an ad.

GIVE A DAMN

So, we finished Gone With The Wind today.

It is a tough two hours with a lot of fightin' and dyin'.

While there is a large dollop of melodrama to it, it is still very good.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

I think I can also say, safely, that this is the last time I will see it.

The fifth time is the charm.

ERIC E. SCHMIDT

This is a fine piece of irony:

Google Anything, so Long as It's Not Google.

Seems a reporter thought it would a good idea to try to Google down the head of Google.

Wrong.

It turns out that Eric E. Schmidt was not at all pleased to have his Google results published.

I guess I wouldn't either.

But still. I always thought that if you live by the sword you should be willing to die by the sword.

Schmidt himself said recently that "When we talk about organizing all of the world's information, we mean all."

Well, not quite all.

They have my house on the map. Soooo, all!

Think how many people are now Googling him as a result of this article.

Go ahead. Be my guest.

He has 7,700 items on his Google.

NEWCOMBE

The LATimes has a nice tribute to Don Newcombe today:

The Dodger's Brooklyn Bridge.

When I was a kid, I was a Dodger's fan. Then they moved to LA.

I dropped out. LA was way too far away to even think about.

Anyway, Brooklyn was the golden time and that is when so much happened, and didn't happen, with the black players Robinson, Newcombe, and Campanella.

There is a lot said for the great breakthrough but it had a lot of heartache built into it.

Some of it is in this story.

But, it is a story about victory also. And dedication. And doing the right thing.

Not to mention that the Newk is 40 or so years sober as well.

A day at a time.

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE

We have smoky air.

It smells nice, actually.

Last night there was some ash coming down.

It is all from a fire that is not very far from us; five miles?

Fire Scorches 1800 Acres.

I have figured out that there is scant chance of its coming over our way.

On the other hand, the mountains are so full of dried up vegetation from the wet winter and hot summer that it is possible.

I am getting out our hoses.

Not really. Don't send me worried email.

WINDED

"There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind.''

Gone With The Wind (1939).

Today, I watched the first half; up to 'I will never go hungry again'.

I have seen this film at least four times and so it is hard to get any distance. Amazingly, it draws me right in from the very beginning.

The first time I saw it was in a revival when I was 8 or 9. I remember it as rather scary.

Later, when I went to see it, it became a form of 'camp'. We learned the lines and saw through some of the fantasy/camelot stuff.

This time, it seems more genuine somehow. I think it might have to do with the awareness of its sexuality. Leigh and Gable do scorch some of the celluloid. It ends up being about the people and not the events of the time.

Whatever we might think in whatever time we view it, it is certainly a landmark film and while often imitated, it has never been surpassed.

It is almost four hours long. That is a long time to hold an audience, especially me.

ANOMIE

Today's Best Film was Ghost World (2000).

I saw it when it was around.

It is funny in a snide way with all of this immense sadness just under the surface.

Two teens, so alienated that they only have each other's emptiness to lean on, run the very small gamut they have left.

Based on a comic series (I think it is a series), the film looks and feels like its source material; colors, graphics, pace.

Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson are the girls. Steve Buscemi is a guy they pull a prank on and then develop a relationship with.

You know the kind of movie it is when you see Buscemi in the cast although he is somewhat subdued here.

The ending is the best. No Hollywood soppy resolution for these guys.

I liked it both times I saw it.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

GREEN CHEESE

This shows the green matter we have always referred to when asked what the moon was made of:

Full Moon, Green Rim.

There is also reference to the 'green flash' which visitors to the Caribbean Islands have seen for eons. Some claim never to have seen it. It is a matter of a chronic argument long ago settled by photos.

Yes, I have heard of PhotoShop.

AGGRESSIVELY FRIENDLY

I say 'hello' or 'good morning' or 'howdy' or something to everyone I pass on a walk or on the bike.

I often wave, if I am on the bike.

It is a nice neighborly western, small town, resorty thing to do.

Most people wave back or say some equivalent of a greeting.

I don't ask for much.

But this is where my friendliness ends.

I can be a real bitch about people who don't respond or react.

I know.

It sort of spoils the goodness of spirit that I sought in the first place.

A snub can get me riled pretty good.

I often give them another stronger 'hello' or whatever. And sometimes even a third. That one is a real snotty, sarcastic, snide, and aggressive one.

There are a few classes of snubbers.

First the women. Some of them. I think they are scared. I might be what they used to call a masher.

Maybe I should wear a T with 'Harmless Homo' written on it.

But it often goes beyond feeling threatened I think. It is just the gnarly bad temper that some women seem to carry around with them. They would do the same to any man.

I don't know. I am mind reading.

Then there are the earphone people. They are somewhere else. I am here.

HELLO!

HELLO!

HELLO!

HELLLLOOOOO!!!!

You earmuffed motherfucker!

See what I mean? I get caught up in a frenzy of friendliness and then when I don't get an answer, the wave crashes. I get carried over onto the beach of hostility.

So I am as bad or worse than those who ignore me. I am a hypocrite.

But a friendly one. I start out with good intentions.

There is only one other category of non-responders (well, other than the old and infirm) and that is the beautiful young man who, indeed, thinks I am cruising and importuning. The haughty indifference of youth.

This, I forgive. For, to him, I am invisible. I have reached the age of irrelevance.

For this one, I chuckle, and look ahead a few years when he will be helloing the air to a younger, prettier (and temporary) masterpiece.

DEAD

OK. So, the busher says that 'we owe it to our war dead' to stay the course in Iraq.

Whew. So. We got the dead for WMD's which weren't there. We got the dead for the mistaken idea that we would be treated as liberators. We got the dead because of the myriad fuckups of the administration.

Now. All these dead have become the latest irrational 'rationale' for (gulp) staying the course.

Quagmire.

RUDYARDED

Today we watched the 1939 version of Indiana Jones or, perhaps, a good western wrapped in more exotic trappings.

Gunga Din (1939)

is a nearly two hour gloss on a small Kipling poem. The writers Hecht and MacArthur did their Front Page best to give this adventure comedy a lot of story and, of course, excitement and laughs.

It is a little dated, but the front end and the back end are pretty good. George Stevens directs and the scenes filmed mostly in Lone Pine CA (eastern Sierra) look like India to me.

There is a huge cast headed by Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Poor Sam Jaffe (who starred years later on TV's Ben Casey MD) gets fourth billing in the title role as Gunga Din.

It is interesting to note that Fairbank's fiancé Joan Fontaine gets flushed so that Doug can stay with his (uh-huh) buddies.

I liked it. It was fun to watch and some of the battle scenes were a lot more convincing than yesterday's Gangs of New York which I like less as I think about it.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

ON THE OTHER HAND

Just when you think there isn't a hope, here we have a huge ray.

This is a VFW guy!

Bill Moyer, 73, wears a "Bullshit Protector" flap over his ear while President George W. Bush, on screen at rear, addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their 106th convention Monday, Aug. 22, 2005, in Salt Lake City.

Moyer served in Korea and Vietnam, and in the post- WWII occupation of Germany. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)

GOD'S SIDE

Today there is just a lot of disappointing stuff out there about the right wing christers and their gaining a foothold on American culture and intellectual life.

The one ray of hope is that the moderate and liberal christians recognize what is happening in their name and do something about it.

People like me are sure not the ones that are going to be doing anything about it.

I am a sinning atheist commie homo punk and not be be listened to. I am a heathen to be converted. They fucking love me but hate my beliefs and about ten other things about me.

So lets get with it all you moderate and liberal christians. Take back your churches.

I know. It is a vain hope. They think that you are all going to hell too.

Cretinism.

BIG

I am not a Scorsese fan. And I don't much like Leonardo DiCaprio.

That said, I have to admit that the epic scale of Gangs of New York (2002). swept me in and made the exorbitantly long film time pass quickly.

The key is Daniel Day-Lewis who I do admire. His performance here is rich and full of twists and turns and he steals every scene he is in. Poor Leonardo. Poor Cameron Diaz.

That is him in the center with the mustache. See him stealing the scene?

I think that there is some playing loose with history. The ending is shocking. The draft riots and all. Rendering the gang rivalries moot. News to me. Boss Tweed. Horace Greeley. I don't know.

It is so big and extravagant that you/I cannot help but worry about how much it cost to fill the Cinecité sets. All those extras. Could it be that they are all Italian?

We are never outdoors. Even when we are outdoors.

I guess this is the shit that an audience worries about when there is too much time on their hands.

I want to give this a 3 out of Netflix5 but then I think that is too low but I don't want to give it a 4. The website won't take a 3.5 but that is what I will give it anyway.

OLD MEN

I finished the new Cormac McCarthy novel

No Country for Old Men.

I was disappointed.

The first part is true to his famous style. I was held by the views of the desert and the landscape. This was the glue that held all his earlier novels together and I enjoyed them. Savory reading.

Somehow this one stops dead with the color about a third of the way in.

It is very violent. There is a point to it. Not the plot point which is sort of undecided and incomplete. No one is caught. No one pays for the carnage.

Which is the reason it is not a country for old men. In this case the old man is a sheriff in Texas who watches all this shit happen and is helpless against it.

Dope wars.

And so on.

A lot of the action and talk is laid out Elmore Leonard like along the page. There is no redeeming humor either.

I liked the old man and his soliloquys.

Spotty.

Maybe the old sheriff is not the only old man who doesn't have a country anymore.

And, oh yes, it is written almost perfectly as a film scenario.

KEEERIST

I have a lot of god stuff today. Here is another one. Well, jesus.

Grooming Politicians for Christ.

Boy. This kind of shit is just scary as hell.

GOD, SCIENCE, AND THE DNA

Interesting: Scientists Speak Up on Mix of God and Science.

I guess this is all swirled up over the creationism, intelligent design stuff.

I liked the story of Dr. Francis S. Collins, who headed the genome project. He believes in God and evolution.

And while we are at it, take a look at this:

Grasping the Depth of Time as a First Step in Understanding Evolution.

I have never understood how anyone could believe in creationism or, now, intelligent design when they had to truncate the obvious expanse of time and space over which nature has evolved.

It is just plain impossible to see a dinosaur footprint and believe it was created on Monday. Or whatever day it was.

But, then the thinking or non-thinking of the vast boobeoisie has always been a mystery to me. And to them apparently, as well.

Adam must have been a grower and not a shower.

MOOG

I always thought that, if you were going to invent an electronic something, you could not have a better name than Moog.

It is as though the Dutch family name Vroom were attached to an inventor of motorized vehicles of some kind.

The Moog synthesizer and all it's children revolutionized pop and classical sound.

Now, the Moog who did the invention is gone:

Robert Moog, Creator of Music Synthesizer, Dies at 71.

FRED

It is interesting to me that no one, and I mean no one I knew, questioned Fred Astaire's presence as a romantic figure in film.

Here is the deal. The dude is just not very good looking. And as a romeo, he has significant limitations. There is never any chemistry with the women except on the dance floor.

I know that these are musicals and that we are supposed to suspend disbelief but, in retrospect, I think that it was a real challenge.

We always liked Gene Kelly first and the others after that.

Now, once again, this is a homosexual reaction. Straight women have some pretty surprising preferences and I suppose that these films were made for straight women.

Today's Astaire vehicle was certainly setup for the female audience. It is all about the fashion scene.

Funny Face (1957).

I am also not an Audrey Hepburn fan. So, as she is the female lead (doin' her own singin' and dancin') I guess that leaves me way out of the potential fannery for this 'classic'.

Audrey is torn between being an intellectual beat existentialist on one side and a fashion model on the other. Not an everyday conflict.

I think some of the problem is that the film is awfully dated. French intellectuals are so over. And fashion. What?

On the other hand, we have Kay Thompson as the magazine editor and she is pretty good. It is amazing to me how much she looks and sounds like Eve Arden.

Sadly, I am going to have to go thumbs down on this. I will give it a 2 out of Netflix5.

OPERA

So, Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinsky take on the jungle again.

Only this time it is to get a ship from one river to another, over a mountain, so that we can get rubber-rich and bring opera to our small home town in Peru.

This is, no doubt, a wild and even insane vision but it is tailor-made for great film making and the guys do not miss the opportunity.

I really enjoyed Fitzcarraldo (1982).

It is long—157 minutes—but it flies by.

Kinsky is great as the visionary Fitzgerald. He tones it down a bit here which still leaves a lot of room for his rolling eyes and dramatic postures. It is odd. Taken out of context, his style seems old fashioned and over the top. Yet, in the film, it works in an extraordinary way to create an emotional connection with the viewer and with all that is going on around him.

I loved the indians who help get the boat over. Oh. Claudia Cardinale plays Kinsky's friend, who floats the boat financially! She runs the local whorehouse but is sort of his girlfriend.

It is all good.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

LAYERED

We get quite a few lenticular clouds.

We had never seen them before we moved here.

They look like space ships. Encounters of the third kind.

You gotta have high mountains to do it.

We didn't have any of those back east.

92

Franklin and I rounded a corner today and way way way at the other end were two guys.

One of them was waving his hands and gesturing vehemently to the other.

From the distance of a long block, I knew.

It was Leo!

I had not seen him in a year or so.

Leo is one of those people you get to know if you stay on the same loops with the bike or on a walk. You don't get to be phone call friends or anything but you stop and chat quickly and then move on.

The last time I had seen him he had made the age of 90 and was working on 91.

But when I didn't see him for awhile, I assumed he was no longer with us; dead.

But no, as we got closer, it was surely Leo. Leo here and in the flesh.

We said hi and hello and all that. We couldn't hug because Franklin was very lively and jumpy. You don't want an airedale jumping on a nonagenerian.

And, of course, he told me that he was 92!

I had not done the math. With Leo the math is not required. He always volunteers his age. I would too.

It was great to see him but I missed the hug. He has a grip that you would not believe. He grabs your arm and pulls you in. Killer.

I think maybe he has lost some weight but he is very lively and in great shape. He had his big black shorts and a white tee.

All the time we talked he waved his hands and pumped the air. And smiled! A mile wide.

What a great guy.

I want to be like Leo when I grow up.

FIRED

(Updated 082205)Hunter Thompson's remains got blown out of a cannon yesterday as he stipulated:

Ashes-to-Fireworks Send-Off for an 'Outlaw' Writer.

RICH AGAIN

The Swift-Boating of Cindy Sheehan.

Rich's point is that the smear has failed. And he tells Casey Sheehan's story in a way that I had not heard before.

It is a powerful piece.

CIRCUS

You gotta go and look at this.

There is a great slide show with wonderful pictures:

The Family Business, 163 Years Under the Big Top.

My first circus was a one-ringer like this one.

It came to Mountainhome, Pa. and pitched a tent in the field opposite our church.

They had a lot of acts as I recall. There were souvenirs. A prize in a box of popcorn. They said you could get a pair of nylons in some of the box. That was liquid nylons. Makeup in a bottle.

I do not think there were any animals in that one.

Then, years later, it was the Ringling Brothers. Pretty exciting stuff for a small town kid. We saw it in Boston and we took our kids there.

Then on to the Cirques shows which aren't really circuses. They are great but not circuses.

We also saw a one ringer on Cape Cod one summer and years later my own grown up kids saw the same one on the South Shore.

One time, our first year in Palm Springs, there was a one ring circus that came and we saw it. We have never seen one since.

I have never forgotten being in the bleachers of these shows. The emotions of it are unprecedented.

It was great reading this article and watching the slide show. I was back in my seat again and ready to see the clowns!

BATCH

Yes. Franklin and I are batching it this weekend.

John is away and we are left to our own devices.

John left Friday morning. Franklin is used to that.

He is used to John going out after dinner some nights too.

But in this case, the times connected.

So, I went to bed last night with Franklin waiting at the front door, as he often does, to meet John.

I knew this was going on but I just let it go.

He was still there when I got up to pee. I suggested that he might want to go to his own bed out back with me.

He went. Sadly.

Then this morning when I got up and was playing with the modem emergency, he went back to our bedroom and when I went back to get ready for the walk, he was lying next to John's side of the bed sort of waiting.

I guess it is like he does with kitties. If one has been in a certain location, he returns and returns and returns until the cat is actually there which starts the whole cycle up again. Or he gives up.

I think he thought if he sat there, John might appear just like the kitties do.

What do I know about what he 'thinks'?

Nothing.

But, it is fun to speculate.

POOF

I picked up the email at 3 AM and then tried to do a link from one of them and 'nothing'.

I looked at the cable modem and saw 'nothing' on the light labled 'cable'.

Sinking feeling. Goddam! It was just there a second ago.

How dependent I have become on the little winking light.

Now what?

OK. If the cable is truly dead there is no point going through the 'turn-it-all-off-in-order-modem-router-both Macs.

Then turn back on in the same order.

But, I do it anyway because if I ever do talk to someone that is the first fucking thing they are going to ask me and I will not lie. I did it. OK?

Right. Nothing. It is the cable.

Call TimeWarner Cable service.

Aha! No answer. They are swamped. I am not the only one who is out.

Of course, there is no way to know this absolutely.

But, I am better at this than I used to be. I just wait.

Now is the hard part. I got up early this morning so I could get all my 'stuff' done (mostly the net and meditating) before I walked the dog. (John is gone for the weekend so I have all shifts); so I could go to my Meeting where I was to give someone an anniversary cake.

But now. I have all the time in the world! No net work. No blogging. No NYTimes-on line. No Salon. No Yahoo headlines. Shit. Time on my hands. The opposite of what I feared. But worse.

Sinking feeling.

And then I just sobered up and got to it. Today is the day that I clean up cookies and repair 'permissions' and check the auto-repair software called MACaroni. Get it? So I did that in the AM.

Then I did the meditation.

Then what with one thing and another the paper took a little longer to read than normal.

I did the walk with Franklin. We gave that a gentler pace.

I went to the Meeting.

I came home and the cable was back on.

This has happened before. Off at 3 AM or so and then back on about 9 AM. I think they shut it down to get stuff done. It might be the slackest time; Friday night and all.

End of emergency.

I just wanted to cop to how prone I am to the 'sinking feeling' and believing that I might never get back on the www at any time. It is a bit sick but then once I get it out and over, I might get better with it and gain a little perspective.

Sigh.

I bike about 100 miles in a good week.

But I wear none of the gear. Just a red and yellow hi-vent helmet.

It starts with the lycra. All that pressure down there. Ugggh.

Then the shirts and the silly stickers on them. No. I do want to be seen, but a white tee is just the ticket.

I had not thought much beyond these items. Certainly not about the sox! I wear a tasteful white and grey Thurlo anklet.

But look at this. Dave sent me this photo entitled "The Joy of Sox".

These are worn by cyclists? Lance? Do they wear these to psych each other out? Do they stop aside the road and admire one anothers' anklets?

In any case, I am thinking that this is one item of bike-wear that I might look into. I like the Ches and the red hot peppers. Well, the skull and x-bones aren't bad either.

WAR IS HELL

Stanley Kubrick again; a Best 1176 NYTimes Film.

Another triumph of style over substance in

Full Metal Jacket (1987).

Don't get me wrong. There are great bits in this film and it is certainly one of the best looking war movies I have seen. Kubrick's devotion to the perfect set gets in his way here though in the war scenes.

Even I could see that we were going around the same wreckage for the third time. That the squad was lost didn't read. I knew where they were; somewhere on the other side of the big burning building we saw in the first battle in the other place--what fires--hell, huh?

The best part of the movie is the Parris Island training stuff. It is fascinating. We have seen it all before but not so thoroughly rendered. Vince D'Onofrio as the fuck up each platoon requires and Lee Ermey as the DI are superb.

Matthew Modine, who tells the story, is somehow very bland and yet the center of the story? No. He is telling it. But then, he is in it too. Doesn't work too well.

My comments are all in pieces because that is sort of what the movie is like. All over the place.

I think Stan got caught up in the fog of war.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 and save you a rant about Kubrick's inconsistent performances as an auteur.

MIKE

Here is a nice salvo from a good italian catholic boy, Mike Signorile:

A Monsignor's Closet.

A quote:

Standing in one Sunday for the befuddled and hiding Cardinal Egan – under attack for having ignored abusive priests – Clark, rector at what is arguably the seat of the Catholic Church in America, ranted that homosexuality is a "disorder" and said it was a "grave mistake" to allow gays into the priesthood, blaming them for the sex abuse scandal. Clark has long upheld the Vatican belief that homosexuals – and the liberals who support them – are bringing down society, and, of course, want to destroy the institution of marriage. He also attacked those who are critical of celibacy.

Now here is Monsignor Clark, three years later, at the age of 79, exposed last week as engaging in an adulterous affair with a married women 30 years younger, proving that the greatest threat to marriage is in fact pompous, hypocritical, heterosexual men who can’t keep their dicks to themselves even as they become octogenarians.

There is a God!

HAPPY

Bill Clinton is 59 today.

Congratulations and many happy election returns.

HEALTHY

Why blogging is good for the mind!

Brain of the Blogger.

I think that one aspect of this study (or is it mere speculation) is the aspect of blogs which I do not and do not want to engage in; the message boards.

I have occasionally participated in this part of the scene and always, always, always come away feeling downed or downed upon.

Of course, I am not gregarious by nature; an introvert.

But the other parts of blogging; reading, linking, moving around, making fast connections; this all has to be good for a mind, particularly an aging one.

Another thing. Typing is good!

Coordination and all.

I do know that creative writing is good and the use of images is better and that my blog work becomes 'timeless'.

So, even though this article will make it seem that blogging is the ultimate in mental health, it is sure good for you.

IN THE MAIN

One of the treats in watching Friendly Persuasion was to see a sizable segment featuring Marjorie Main as the widowed head of a homestead.

Her three marriagable daughters are all over poor little homosexual Anthony Perkins! You can see his panic.

Main was often featured in films just to show off her incredible comedic talent. She could bug her eyes and roll her head and grimace enough to steal any scene. A sort of feminine hillbilly rastus. Think about it.

We last saw her in Dead End as the long suffering mother. She was in many many westerns and finally got her own features in the Ma and Pa Kettle series with Percy Kilbride.

I loved her as a kid and yesterday I found out that I still love her.

Marjorie Main.

FINE MAN

Tapes of Richard Feynman's wisdom (in short bursts) at:

Feynman Videos.

I like "Is the world an onion" and "honors suck". And the others too.

Feynman. He is known for:

I found this because they answered his question of why spaghetti breaks in pieces when you break it in half.

Go see:

Scientists Unravel The Spaghetti Enigma.

It has something to do with waves, of course.

It is said that Feynman was second only to Einstein. But he would not care as 'honors don't mean anything'.

WANT ONE

Elephants, lions to roam North America once more?

We would be happy to take an elephant for our neighborhood!

PEACE?

Friendly Persuasion (1956)

is a fantasy but a rather good one.

Part bucolic study of a quaker family and part pacifist tract this family story is humorous, informative, a little scary and good at showing the dilemma of a young quaker man and his parents in wartime. The twist for them is that the war is just creeping up to the edge of the family farm.

Got it?

It held me pretty well. It is a William Wyler enterprise and has Gary Cooper and Dorothy Maguire as the parents.

I enjoyed the presence of Robert Middleton who I had forgotten about. A good second level actor who brings good non-religious values to the process.

The very young Anthony Perkins is a little wide eyed as the young man in an identity crisis. It is hard not to see him ripping away that shower curtain.

A small complaint. It has too much mood music and a theme song by Dmitri Tiomkin. Annoying. But that is what they were doing then.

I will give this period piece a 3 out of Netflix5. It held me in the action and I even got a little sniffly at the end but I don't think it will be on my list of repeats.

CLOSE SECOND

Special fuel blends, state taxes, location at the end of the transit loop and tourism (trap) all conspire to make the Top Gas Prices in US Right Here.

Well, second place to some place in Hawaii.

But, like Avis, we will try harder.

I wrote below about my 3/4 tank fill-up for 40.00.

THREE DEE

These street drawings are just amazing (when viewed from the right angle of course): Virtual Street Reality.

HEAR HEAR

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid:

"All this talk about whether Democrats will support the Roberts nomination is laughably premature. The hearings have not even begun. The White House has so far refused to produce relevant documents, and the documents we have seen raise questions about the nominee's commitment to progress on civil rights.

John Roberts must still persuade the Senate and the American people that he is a worthy replacement for Justice O'Connor and the jury is still out on that."

RUNNING

Kevin Drum at Political Animal has this:

THE NEXT PRESIDENT....I haven't been paying close enough attention to this, since the next presidential election is still 39 months away, but there sure are a lot of people who appear to be actively running for the Democratic nomination already. Off the top of my head, here are the people who have either said they're considering a run or are routinely talked about by the press:

Joe Biden

Hillary Clinton

Bill Richardson

Evan Bayh

Wes Clark

John Kerry

John Edwards

Who have I missed? And is it my imagination, or is this awfully early for so many people to be in serious contention?

Biden's head is so big it is a wonder he can hold it up. He is dead meat.

Hillary. Maybe. The lore is that Senators can't make it but she was nearly POTUS. That middle of the road move is putting me off. We need a, say it loud and proud, liberal! There is the family connection but she is not near-Bill enough for me.

The near-Bill is a real Bill; Richardson. I am getting all interested in him. He is a governor;good. He is a pragmatic progressive. Outspoken. Combative. A great record. UN Ambassador.

Evan Bayh who? Unknown senator.

Wes Clark. Too late for generals.

Kerry blew it.

And Edwards has no qualifications beyond his accent and his hair. He does not currently even hold office. A one term senator. Sorry.

So, it is Bill and Hill as far as I am concerned.

HITCHED

There are a lot of Alfred Hitchcock films in the NYTimes Best 1176 Films series.

Today, we saw Frenzy (1972).

This is not one of the better known thrillers as it has no 'stars'. An all British cast plays out the story in a real, all location shot London. We felt as though we were there.

Although some of it is just a bit contrived, the thrills and scares and grisly humor are all purely Hitchcock and work. We rarely get an opportunity to step out of it to take a break.

There are a few camera routines that are breathtaking. In the longest one, we precede the killer up the stairs along with his unsuspecting victim; we see them into the room and then, the camera reverses and moves back down the stairs and out the front of the building; across the street and then holds.

Not a sound. Not a person in the receding shot. Stuff like that which has great effect. A good picture is worth many thousands of words.

Again, it is an the innocent man accused. This time we know who the killer is almost from the start. The question is which man will be caught.

It was pretty good. Tight as a drum.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

FELT GOOD

I just finished The Secret Man but Bob Woodward with an add-on by Carl Bernstein.

In it, both men reflect on the contribution of W. Mark Felt, the man unveiled as the famous Watergate source Deep Throat.

If you are a Watergate nut and have followed this story for thirty years, as I have, it is a great read.

If you wonder what 'Watergate' means and never heard of it, this is as good aplace as any to start finding out.

History is repeating itself as we reflect on the Nixon period.

I was in my impressionable thirties when this all came about. The thirties are like the teen years. All willowy and caught in the wind. Trying to find ones self in the midst of contradictory impulses.

And it was the 70's! Talk about contradictory impulsess!

I had actually, believe it or not, voted for Nixon once. Maybe twice. It was either when he ran against Kennedy who I thought was a fraud (and still do) or maybe it was the second time. Again, I was just so disenchanted with the Demo candidates at the time. McGovern. Keeerist.

The vote for Nixon is a stain on my political record. The deep shame of it has driven me to be a more ardent liberal/progressive than I might have been. Like all born agains, I am called to rise above my past.

Once the layers started coming off the onion, the most ardent Nixon fan could not maintain any loyalty to him.

It was fascinating to watch. A slow motion train wreck.

The duplicity.

The trademark of the GOP.

SPACE ODDITY

Space Station From Orbit

I don't think that I have ever seen the whole real thing.

I am not particulary a space fan. But I found this photo quite arresting. I wanted to see more.

CHASE

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was the famed

French Connection (1971).

Of course I have seen it before. Can it have been 34 years ago? Yikes.

Of course, numerous car chase films have dimmed the extravagantly scary race between a subway train and Gene Hackman (Popeye Doyle) in an auto. Actually, Hackman is the one who is racing.

The nastiness of the cops and the way that they worked has also been appropriated into so many cop shows that have followed.

But the classic chase and the gritty cops aside, the film still works as a piece of cinema verité.

The director Friedkin and his cinematographer Owen Roizman used handheld cameras throughout, often 'in public' meaning that the actors were working the street and the cameras were mostly hidden. Tough to do. For one thing, they were working without a permit.

There is hardly a plot at all. It is really one long police procedural. Waiting and pouncing on the wrong guys at the wrong time. More waiting. Punctuated by some more running and following.

Waiting is cold blue. The good life of the bad guys is all warm and orange. It is a treat to watch it work. And, it is difficult to keep any distance. The technique overwhelms the viewer so that it is forgotten and all the buttons and levers get pushed. Exciting and almost painfully tense.

There is surprisingly little dialog. It is almost all Hackman's story. We know a little more than he does but that only heightens the tension.

This is Hackman's breakout picture. His career as a 'character star' is unusual. Actors often get to be one or the other but not both.

It is a 4 out of Netflix5. I would give it a 5 but it is so depressing and negative; so relentlessly downbeat, that it is hard to get

The LAT has more about Bill Richardson:

A New New Democrat Looks West and Forward.

This guy has Clinton-like power and charisma to say nothing of his ability to lead. He may not be THE man for the Demos but he is sure the kind of man that is needed.

And remember, more Governors have been Prez than have not. Or something like that.

How can you beat a guy who is half-Latino whose last name sounds like New England?

RICH

Someone Tell the President the War is Over.

TERRY GRIMM

I have had my ups and downs watching Terry Gilliam films (see my last Fisher King rant) but I have great interest and sympathy for what he is trying to do.

After all, his favorite actors are Jeff Bridges and Johnny Depp. Me too. So how can I be totally upset with him?

I got even more interested when we saw the documentary of his disaster-inflicted attempt to make a Don Quixote film; Lost in La Mancha. It read like the perils of Job. This is Gilliam and Depp watching the cameras being washed away by a flash flood.

This NYT article nicely tells the Gilliam story and updates us on his latest efforts.

The Grimm film opens next weekend.

Terry Gilliam's Feel-Good Endings.

ID TEST

You know you are a redneck if you identify with this really really great film.

I knew that I qualified before I saw it but it was great to see the pig butcherin', the deer huntin' and all.

I grew up in the Pennsylvania part of Appalachia.

Tourists know it as the Poconos. A place for honeymoons and second homes.

I know it as a place that my legs could not carry me away from fast enough.

DESERTED

We went off the NYTimes Best 1176 Films List today to see

Flight of the Phoenix (1965).

A plane crash lands in the desert and the guys build a new plane out of the pieces to fly out.

Yes, you have heard about it. Last year there was a remake with Dennis Quaid.

This is the original with James Stewart. Also, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, George Kennedy and others.

It is a 'disaster' film with a 'guys on a desert island' twist.

While in retrospect much of it is implausible (read the savaging contemporay review by Bosley Crowther) none of that 'reads' while we are watching it. The action and interaction are engrossing enough to have us suspend disbelief.

We enjoyed it a lot.

John says it is better, and different, than the remake.

It is a bit long but the time passes well. The actors are fun to watch.

We enjoyed it and will give it at least a 3 out of Netflix5.

I had hoped that it might be a missed gem on the NYTimes Best Film list but I am afraid not. We still enjoyed watching it.

So far, we have only added Blade Runner as its omission was grievous to the extreme.

EXCLUSIVE

I would like to cite the source of this article but it was leaked to me before publication and is for my eyes only. No matter that my eyes are watching it as I type this blog.

Just do not pass it on to anyone else.

It would also help if you would close the screen after reading. Even better, how about rebooting your computer after you close the screen?

Do not make any copies please.

Do not forward as email if you do.

Unauthorized copies should only be for your personal use. At your desk.

And if you do forward, make sure that no one knows where you got this link from.

Leak Probe Update No. 137—Officials Say).

STICKER SHOCK

I just paid 40.00 for under 3/4 tank of gas. 3.99 a gallon. 10 plus a little more gallons.

OK. My friend, Lynda in London, would laugh. They have been paying this and more for years.

Now it is our turn.

See, I figure that it isn't just about the reserves. It is also about keeping it cheap enough that people will buy it but still buy it. The tipping point on price.

We are being tested.

According to the LA Times, it hasn't tipped yet. There is a bit less driving going on. But not on mass transit. Just bikes and walking where the car is really not needed in the first place.

Well, it all counts.

We aren't driving much less, and if we are, it is not because of the cost.

We aren't really using less electric or gas either.

Fill 'em up.

Somewhere there is a limit but it is not for us. It is for the other guy. Like those commuters.

GENIUS BEHIND THE STUPIDITY

Harlan McCraney.

Thanks to Wonkette.

TAKEN FOR GRANTED

Today's Best 1176 Film requires that you forget you ever saw Hugh Grant before.

This is the picture that he first appeared with his then winsome, confused, awkward boy act. The act which he has never, ever dropped. The one which has become so boring and a caricature of itself.

That having been said, and the idea of Hugh Grant suspended, you can thoroughly enjoy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) as a comedy of bad and good manners. After all, weddings and funerals bring out our best and worst.

You can scratch horseface Andie McDowell too. She is actually not all that attractive as Grant's love interest. Harsh.

I started this thinking a 4 but now I think a 3 out of Netflix5.

Sure, I laughed and cried. It is guaranteed. Don't we all get all emotional at weddings and funerals? Well, maybe a 4. I will wait and see. I don't have to decide until they get the disc back. Is it disC or disK? DVD.

LIGHTER THAN AYRES

I just finished reading War Reporting for Cowards.

The LA Bureau Chief (it is a one man 'bureau') gets assigned as an 'embed' in Iraq.

Ill equipped in every respect, the ramp-up and final tour of this hapless recruit is written in a jaunty and self-deprecatory way that makes it a fast and amusing read.

In addition to the war experience, this guy has the distinction of also living and being blocks from 9-11 ground zero when the planes hit and to be one cubicle away from the anthrax letters recieved at the NY Post.

This disastrous trifecta is astonishing and provides dramatic backstory to the eventual Iraq tour.

I had a good time reading it and I have no pictures of Ayres but if you go to the link at Amazon and enlarge the cover you will see a thousand words just in this guy's nerdy being.

"NOBLE CAUSE"

Grieving War Mother's Protest Draws Notice

And in her own words: This is George Bush’s Accountability Moment.

None of my kids went to war.

One went into the service and had a good experience as far as I can tell. The Navy. I will have to ask him again. It is a long time ago.

Losing a child in your own lifetime is particularly tragic.

To lose a child to war has to be devastating.

To lose a child to a war that a leader cannot or will not 'explain' is—words fail.

I know that some parents channel their grief into the idea of patriotism and a higher cause. I don't quite know how they would be able to do this in the present circumstance.

I know. "Ours not to reason why; ours' but to do and die". It is a hard thing to contemplate. I think that is why many people do not even think about it. They compartment.

But, if it is your kid, the compartment has to crumble a bit.

These are not easy questions to answer and I do not want to be facile. This doesn't stop some from painting Sheehan as a traitor. Some have had the gall to say that her son would be ashamed of her.

I don't want to fall into the same trap of moralizing from the other side. It is just that there are unanswered questions for all of us. And, to parents, the lack of answers may be particularly painful.

Ms. Sheehan, it seems to me, is putting her question in a most simple and direct way.

I hadn't known that she was a part of a parent group that had an interview with bush. He would not answer the questions asked. The ones that fell off the script.

He didn't even refer to her son by name when she asked him to. He called the boy her 'loved one'.

Distance.

Did you know that there is an anti-war movement ginning up? I think it took a lot longer for the Viet Nam actions to begin.

I don't know. I am rambling.

And this doesn't even begin to address the uncounted deaths of Iraqis.

It is so fucking sad. All of it.

BALLOONS

You will like this: Balloon Bowl!

Thanks to zefrank.

CLINTON LUCK

It took about ten minutes for the Hillary senatorial campaign to make this commercial.

It is an out-take of the debut speech of her new GOoPer opponent:

Jeanine Pirro is Speechless.

Thirty-two seconds is a long time.

There is more about Pirro here: Hillary Lucks Out.

NASSA

It is good to have old friends return for a visit.

Hal sent us The Old Negro Space Program for another turn on the merry-go-round.

It is well timed actually. We heard the space shuttle's sonic boom the other morning as it went home to Andrew's Air Force Base.

A good time to take a look at the other space program.

This is a great site. As you will see, an almost-award winner.

FADE

It is no news that the days are starting to get shorter.

They began that slide around the 21st of June.

But today, it became official when I had to turn my red rear bike blinkers on for the 6AM ride.

Granted, it was cloudy and there was no direct sun, but still.

The weather is still very humid. This is 'the longest' period we have seen here; weeks. They keep moving the time forward for clear, dry air.

We await with great anticipation.