esrosedotblog

ADVENT-URE

Tomorrow, we will launch our advent calendar. It is already up on the hallway wall; ready to go.

It's a bit worn. We have used it for many years.

There is an empty tree and, below it, 24 boxes. In each box is a small wooden ornament.

You hang the ornament on the tree a day at a time; almost a month of small pleasures.

We do it together. A family thing. One does odd and the other does even days.

There is an empty box. One ornament was lost long ago.

One day, one of us will open the top of the little box and find 'nothing'. Always a bit of a letdown. Talk about the glass being half empty. Try an advent calendar box!

I will also be doing a sort of advent calendar on the blog using the famed

Weebl Advent Calendar.

You can hog it all now and try out the boxes or just wait and see each day's 'box' on the blog.

I know. A lot of people hate the Weebl stuff. Too fucking bad. You get them for the holidays anyway.

They are better than a lump of coal in your stocking.

THREE AND COUNTING

I saw my first

Only three more years

button today.

I figure that this is the 'half-full glass' point of view.

I am usually an optimist but my optimism has been trumped by reality too many times in the last five years. I often see the half that is empty; as in

Three more years, aaaarrrrgh!

I suppose that anything you can stand for almost five years you can stand for three more.

We are more than 60% there.

KEITH

Still on the vacation from movie films.

Today I saw

The Art of Improvisation (2005)

featuring the life and work of Keith Jarrett.

I have been an admirer for many years.

This wonderful documentary focuses on Jarrett in a way in which I do not think he has allowed before. He is not reclusive but has never been 'easy' to interview or to talk about his work.

Of course, this is right in line with my opinion that actors should act, writers should write, musicians should play and that is that. We should not have to hear their political opinions or know about their personal lives. Most of all we should not make them talk about their art.

Here, Jarrett does not disappoint. He really does not talk about his work so much as discuss the works which we hear. He confines his insights to talk about 'the zone', 'the groove', and so on. We all know intutively what that means. We have been there, if only a little bit, whether in another field of endeavor or playing and listening to music.

I dabble and have dabbled more at improvisation and I know that anyone can do it.

What anyone cannot do is transmit a self that they do not have onto and through the music.

In this film, we watch very generous (and well done) film clips of Keith and his fellows at work. We can see directly that this is one extremely intense and fully realized genius.

We are not hearing the music as much as we are hearing him; his being. He says as much when he tells us that 'music does not make music; the musician makes music'. An obvious point which is often missed.

One only needs to hear two or three different interpretations of the same work; classical, pop, whatever, to know this.

Improvisation increases this reality by a power of 'n'. Where 'n' is the energy and artistry of the improviser.

There is some personal material. We see him as a boy. We 'talk with' his brother. We meet his wife. We see his progress over the years with the two quartets and the two trios.

We get to meet Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock his later collaborators.

This is one of those films that we do not want to end.

A 7 or 8 out of a Netflix5.

I will probably buy the disc.

STUCK

Dave Lindorff in his This Can't Be Happening blog:

Has anyone seen a car with one of those 2004 "Bush/Cheney" bumper stickers on it lately? It's been days since I've noticed one.

My community, which is about 50 percent Republican, used to be full of them, mostly pasted on the backs of hulking SUVs and brightly colored Hummers.

Suddenly, I'm just not seeing the things anymore. I suppose it's possible that they all just fell off, but then why am I still seeing Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers? Did Democrats use better glue?

No, I suspect something else is at work: buyers' remorse, or maybe shame.

I have not asked anyone who actually HAD one.

We would not be on speaking terms.

That is what it has come to. Polarization.

The great uniter.

DAILY DOZEN

New Zealand rugby star Dan Carter shows us proper form.

GO CHO

Today, we took a break from films and saw

Margaret Cho

doing her first 'packaged' show:

I'm the One That I Want.

I am weak from laughing. She is sooooo good.

We saw her second or third show live and, recently, I decided that I wanted to see her new one. Typically, I bought the whole set from 2000 to present. Four shows.

So we are watching them in sequence.

There is not a lot to say about Cho if you have seen her shows.

If you have not seen her shows than there is only one word to you: "DO!".

MEDICARE BLUES

I was among the 70% of Americans who remain clueless about what and how to go about signing up.

At first, I thought that I would just stay with my Blue Cross supplemental plan which has some drug coverage.

Then, the company itself said that it could not compete with the Medicare funded plans and that I should be signing up with one of them.

I began to read and scan the web and ended up with the medicare.gov web site planner. For awhile, it was not functional but now, it seems to be running well. It took our drug list (formulary) and listed our pharmacies and all.

And showed me almost 80 plans that I could choose from. Each was priced and laid out on total cost per year including premiums and the very strange deductible features of the plan (250 deductible up front and then no payment when I hit 2000 to 3500, then it resumes—the hole in the donut).

Eighty plans.

In parallel, I have been talking to the agent who got us into Blue Cross in the first place. We came cross country and found, contrary to assurances back east, that our insurance plans were not to be honored here. We had to start over. Both of us had a history of major medical expense.

The agent got us into a high-risk pool which is required in California, but did so with some good (relatively) rates.

As it turns out, Blue Cross has a pretty good Medicare D plan (C is the HMO plan, D the stand-alone. We won't do HMOs. Sorry).

It looks like we can get into that plan and stay with our present provider who will continue the non-drug portion of the supplemental.

I am going through this only to make a couple of points. Most people do not even know that there are agents (in some states) who represent the insurance companies. Ours reps Blue Cross, Blue Shield and some others.

Their commissions are paid by the insurance companies. They know the ropes. Cold.

I am pretty sure that this is going to work out for us. It will not be the cheapest plan or the most expensive but it will be workable and comfortable. I know that BC is as consumer friendly as the non-consumer friendly industry can get. And, my agent will help me when and if there is trouble. She walked a friend through a really hard time of cancelled policies and got him reinstated.

We have a lot of time to get the plan in place; May 15. After that it gets more expensive per month. If we can get it going before the end of this month, I will not have two deductible periods. The present plan has its deductible as of the first of the year, so we could get hit twice by making the change.

The whole thing is not as complicated as it seems but it is daunting. A lot of people do not have the 'net skills I do nor the ability to go to a rep. A lot of people are going to have to go through HMO's which are notoriously non-friendly.

I was daunted too, at first. Now there is some progress, I feel better about it.

Oh. Is the Medicare drug plan a good deal? Yes and no. Or, rather, I think so but there is no way to tell. It will be about the same coverage as I have now at about half the price. But there is that hole in the doughnut. As long as we do what we are doing with drugs we are OK. If we get over the 2000 mark, the benefits decline. Until we get catastrophic at 3500, that is. Confused? So are many hundreds of thousands of older people and not all of them non compos mentis.

CLARK BAR

I can't stand it.

Clark Arrives to Assist Saddam Defense

I thought he was dead.

Ramsey Clark

He is an advocate for 'lost' causes. Also, a tireless self-promoter. Possibly a little crazy.

He stands alone; a liberal progressive radical loner.

The best we can hope for is that he will be an abiding source of embarrassment to the bushies and their ilk.

The worst is that he has a history of being so over the top that he is over before he even gets started.

He has been around a long time. He is ten years older than me; 78.

SHOOTER

It has been very cold and clear out here.

Last night we got down to 41.

I know that isn't cold for you but our body-stat is set to warmer temps. We get normal 100 plus summers and falls, so when winter comes, we are as shivery as we were back east in the 10s and 20s.

Well, almost. You get my point.

The dry part of cold and dry means that the stars are extra sharp and bright. 4% relative humidity means there is nothing to bend or obscure the light.

Then there is an occasional bonus.

Franklin and I went out to pee this morning (he pees, I attend) and there was this great shooting star that went across the sky; just over the mountain. A thrill.

At that time, there is also no ambient light. Even more sparkly like.

I won't tell you about the long windy bike ride in the 'cold air'. That is a bit less enchanting than the meteor. With the low moisture, the cold cuts. No buffer.

But there was a great sunrise. No clouds. Just the blare of the sun coming over the eastern ridge.

IM-MATERIAL GIRL

I will alienate friends and perhaps a husband by this, but please; give me a Madonna break:

What Madonna Really Wants to Do is Direct

I just watched her prance around in her new show; from the AOL net-show. She is certainly a good entertainer. Repetetive and light weight lyrics not withstanding, she has a good voice and an envious middle aged body.

I especially like her choice in chorus boys; beefy, bare, and brown.

But, direct a film? Tell a story? I suppose you could say that she has been directing and telling with her public life.

At any level, she is a modest talent who has had a skill to re-invent herself and keep her name in the columns. Look at this! She got this bit of whimsy into the NYTimes. And now, esrosedotblog.

As for her hubby, if she wants to emulate him, it will be poor box office. He has not particularly succeeded to rock the world with his three films; a string of flops.

There are some who have extended her choice of name into believing that she is, indeed, the miracle woman of our time.

Like I said; give us all a break Madge.

SIGN ME UP

New crisis for Blair's War

It is also bushies' war.

So maybe we could hook a ride on the coalition that has formed in the UK.

THE WORKS

Having enjoyed Typee, I am half through with Melville's Omoo and am hooked on Herman.

So, I started to think ahead and got the whole list of 'works'.

I figured I would go through them one by one chronologically; all the way to Billy Budd which was not printed in his lifetime. Not by a long shot; 1929.

Then, I saw the American Library Edition; three volumes.

They are now Amazonned and on the way.

I am in for the long haul.

There is a strong homo-erotic tinge to Melville which is quite attractive. He is not naive. Sailors were and are not, as a rule. That gives it a bit of an extra tang to a lot of good reading.

I am about half way through the second volume of the Eragon Trilogy. It is as good as the first. I am going slow, though. The third volume is not even on the list to be published. A long wait for the finale.

But, we did it with Harry, we can do it with Eragon.

SPLENDED

We are long term users of Nutrasweet™ or its generic equivalent.

Recently, discovering that Splenda™ now captures 51% of the market, we realized that we had somehow fallen on the back of the wave.

I hate to miss anything.

So, I brought some home and, whaddya know, it is somehow better. Smoother, more gentle, more sugary.

I am not so sure that I like more. There is a longer taste. It doesn't go away right away.

But John likes it and that is enough for me.

I like the idea that it is made out of sugar. I read up on it. Of course, it is sugar that is bent and twisted to the nth degree.

You know, there is a long, long controversy over artificial sweeteners; mostly, arising from the mice who were loaded up with cyclamate back in the old days.

There was a carryover that tainted the Nutrasweet™ introduction too.

Now the tradition continues with Splenda™.

I am not going there.

If it kills us, well fine. We won't be fat.

I mostly posted this info as a cultural note.

One, we are now among the majority. Having missed the early wave, we conform.

Two, we are trying to have our cake and eat it too. Well, not cake. Just the other stuff we can stick the artificials in.

GOING NATIVE

Today's Best 1176 NYTimes Film was one of the Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala productions:

Heat and Dust (1983)

It is about two British women, one in the twenties, another now, who cross the cultural line and fall in love with Indian men.

The parallel stories flash back and forth.

Much of the action takes place on the same ground, so buildings and other artifacts appear in both times. This produces a bit of a game of 'can you spot this?'.

It is OK. Not riveting. A lot of the MIJ films are like this. Beautiful to look at and somewhat bland in the story line.

Greta Scacchi is the twenties woman and Julie Christie is in the now.

The men are incidental; many are cads. Brits. Men. Just what you would expect.

Just to round things out there are a couple of Indian cads as well.

I am not being nice. It is a good play and good to watch; not great.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5. Average good.

FILM SCHOOL

Today's Best NYTimes 1176 Best Film is a very early Brian De Palma production.

A very early Robert De Niro is the main character.

Hi Mom (1970)

is a broad farce-like experimental film; a satire.

Or, it has elements of being an experimental film with hopes of being an indie feature..

Or, perhaps, De Palma is mocking the experimental film movement of the time.

De Niro starts as a rank amateur film maker; a voyeur. He ends being the center of the action.

There is a film within a film; actually a black and white teevee documentary about being black and white. Get it?

I liked it. It was never dull. It was rough and amateurish and looked like a student film but I think that it was wiser than that. The devices of the student film were mocked and amplified and used to push the limits.

Here is another review in case you are interested.

This is a really obscure film. I am glad that I saw it even though I am only going to give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

GIVING THANKS

I do not have 'trouble' with the holidays anymore. But when I did, Thanksgiving was one of the vexiest of the Big Three.

It might be based on childhood stuff.

I remember a Thanksgiving when, to please my father, I went squirrel hunting alone; to no avail.

I just couldn't do it. I shot a few rounds off my 22 just to make some noise, But I didn't aim it at anything, let alone the few squirrels I saw.

I made the decision then and there not to hunt, not to carry a gun, and not to kill anything bigger than a large cockroach (revised in later years, to 'no larger than a rat').

Of course, being a loud mouthed kid, I announced this finally and clearly at the dinner table. This was the first traumatic Thanksgiving. It might have been the first 'alienation from parents' event for me. I was twelve.

It seems unlikely that I would attach this socio-political thing to the holiday; but then, the mind does not act rationally.

Think about it.

No, don't.

Thinking about not thinking rationally. Whew.

Much later in life, my first Thanksgiving with John, I cooked a goose. It came out un-done. Quite a let-down. I hadn't known him long at the time. I projected his telling others about me; "good sex, fun to be with, but his goose is not cooked".

I don't think it was that, actually. We had a few laughs over the body, ate the side dishes and went out to dance or something.

Another possible source of my aversion is that I do not like enforced behavior of any kind.

I do not want to be 'grateful' on command. I rebel by becoming un-grateful. It is the same thing as church. Coerced spiritual practice is not spiritual.

Related to this is the idea of 'premeditated fun'. I rebel against this as well. This is why I have to reduce all expectations when I go to a movie or play or amusement park or, worse yet, a party. Well, I don't go to parties.

The idea that I should go to something to have fun seems counter productive to enjoyment. It becomes work.

That makes Thanksgiving not much fun either; enjoying the food, for example, if you are 'supposed' to. Here I am stuffing my face expecting enjoyment and.........

Well you get the point.

I am a grateful person. I have fun. I do have a spiritual life. I do not kill squirrels.

Isn't that enough?

We have a friend who, for his own reasons, eschews the day and will not even utter its name. He traditionally eats a meal of macaroni and cheese and goes to a good movie. Well, he is not alone in the latter. A lot of people go to movies on Thanksgiving. Mass escape.

I am not that extreme. I made cranberry sauce and baked a pumpkin pie from scratch. We always have real turkey breast on hand. I did a Mrs. Cubbison's stuffing.

Was it fun?

Sure. I like to cook. Was I grateful? Sort of. I didn't put the pie on a cookie sheet so the bottom came out soft. Real life.

That is what a holiday should be; a day to slow down a bit and contemplate real life gratefully. If that is it, then, mission accomplished.

The engraving is of a turkey buzzard.

JOHN, RAOUL AND BOGIE

Today's Best 1176 NYTimes Film was

High Sierra (1941)

This melodrama about a crook with a soft spot in his heart was written by John Huston, directed by Raoul Walsh and starred (after the top line Ida Lupino) Humphrey Bogart. A winning combination, that.

It is standard gangster fare except for the soft spot in the heart and Bogart's tight performance as a guy with two sides who cannot win but might just lose well.

There are a host of B character actors in this film which held me from beginning to end.

There is a classic, no longer seen, eye rolling, black comic character which, I have to admit, is a guilty pleasure to watch; Willie Best playing along the lines of Butterfly McQueen.

And for the soft side, in addition to a girl with a bad foot who Bogie pays to get healed, there is a great dog who does it all; from tricks to pathos.

I liked it enough to give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Guilty pleasures and melodrama are important.

PURPLISH

Something to be thankful for:

The bluing of America.

I like the observation that bush HAS been a uniter. He has united the country against him!.

Thanks to the growing skepticism of the masses.

TEMPLATE

It is hard to remember when there weren't any 'disaster films'.

That would be a star vehicle with anthology plot (or plots); diverse people stuck in their powerlessness; and more or less heroic pilots or captains or whatever, who deliver the goods through difficult or 'impossible' situations. Lives are altered by the experience, not always for the good.

The High and Mighty (1954)

is one of the first of its kind; a grand-daddy of all disaster films that have followed.

I guess that is why it rates as a NYTimes 1176 Best Films film.

Its present triteness, arises from the fact that all others have flowed from this first one.

Shot in Cinemascope, we see a bunch of passengers start and end a journey with great danger in the middle.

It is a bit corny and a bit contrived and a bit slow; but, in parts, it works very well and surprisingly, the whole is greater than the sum.

What is quite surprising is that, in these relatively high-tech times, these people would be dead.

We have a four engine prop plane flying at low altitude. Baggage can be jettisoned. The plane flies low and slow enough that rescue is a real possibility.

Ernest K. Gann who wrote the original book and the screenplay, was a favorite author of mine. This was not one of his best books. I liked the books where there was a lot of flying info and a minimum of plot; where the reality quotient was very high.

I liked this film a lot because it was of my time and it starred John Wayne in one of his own template roles; the regular guy who finds himself in a difficult situation and who comes through. Low drama. Here he is a forty year flying vet with all the cool that can afford.

He gets to slap a psyched down Robert Stack which is nice to see.

Claire Trevor steals all her scenes and Jan Sterling is very affecting. Phil Harris, the band leader, plays Phil Harris. Many of the other passengers are well established B players that inhabited many, many films at that time.

I liked this movie more than it merits. I even sniffed at the end which was very low key. I guess that I appreciated it as much for the time and place and the memories as for the film itself.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix 5. It should be a 3, but for old times' sake..................

SAUCED

I made real cranberry sauce tonight.

Ocean Spray Cranberries.

I looked on the bag and these were packed in Massachusetts. I got a bit of a hit from that. You can't have spent 35 years of your life around cranberry bogs and not get a hit.

Another thing; in another life, when I did real work, I spent five years at the cranberry company.

I was the Production Planning Manager; a job to which I was not all that well suited. I did OK though. Chutzpah. The job description pretty much licensed me to mind other people's business. I am pretty good at that.

I loved working around the production operations. Noise. Work. People.

Before that I did similar work at another company; only more in the engineering line.

This period of time was my apprenticeship. I got into management training because I saw first hand how 'amateur' managers could be clueless about working with their staffs and subordinates. Ten years in the trenches made me a great trainer. I could beat the academics and the consultants hands down. Practical.

It was a great time with Ocean Spray.

And I learned a lot about cranberries! When I was there we had plants operating in Vancouver and Quebec in Canada. In the United States we were in Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Massachusetts which was the headquarters. It is still that way although they have added Florida citrus in recent years.

Ocean Spray is a cooperative. It was interesting working for that kind of organization. The growers were our bosses. Go to the link above and read the 'about us' part.

Anyway, I can still make a mean batch of cranberry sauce. I use a little less sugar in mine. You need some to get the gel; pectin plus sugar. Then, I cheat the sweetness out with some Nutrasweet. very good.

BENE-DICKED

Well, it is final.

I guess I won't be able to be a priest after all.

I had my hopes, but I am no longer qualified.

In Strong Terms, Rome Is to Ban Gays as Priests

It is a big let down but, somehow, I will manage.

This is going to be tough on the church though. Most priests that I have known are gay and, now, openly so.

It is said that 25-50% of the priests in the church are gay too. It is just not my small circle of acquaintances.

Some even say that Benedict is a closet case. I read the other day that he is a dresser. He has a pair of red Prada shoes and all.

But that is another stereotype. I wouldn't want to judge.

But, it is terribly sad that, once again, christian love and charity seem totally missing from the top of the biggest christer church.

So sad.

I suppose this is a smoke-screen for the pedophile thing which is an entirely different issue and includes a lot of hets.

I don't know.

FOLLOWUP

I wrote about the Ohio Second Congressional District this summer.

Paul Hackett, an active duty Marine, was running against an uber-bitch Jean Schmidt.

The District is deeply right wing, so it was a surprise that Hackett actually came close enough to singe the GOoPers' tails.

Anyway, Schmidt got the job and, as the youngest CongressPerson, has distinguished herself, early in the game, with a nasty diatribe against her better John Murtha.

She used, as it turns out, a fake statement by another Marine to call Murtha a coward. She even wore a 'flag' sweater for the occasion.

This all caused a firestorm on the House floor last Friday. Here is an update of how Schmidt has been faring since her setting off the firestorm.

Who's The Coward Now?

In less than three months, Schmidt has out-Harrised Kathryn from Florida for the title of GopGorgon.

I suppose Hackett could be pleased at this point but he has moved on and, we hear, will be thinking about running for the Senate.

ZEITGEIST

At my age, anytime that I feel as though I am running with the zeitgeististas, I am exhilarated and psyched.

Is that the same thing? No. I don't think so.

This appeared in the LATimes today and I identify with a lot of it.

In a losing Race With the Zeitgeist

I have not been going out and buying plasma screens and expensive sound equipment; just the same old Sony huge screen we brought from Boston.

But, I have made a clear decision that the cinema experience sucks and the home theater experience is very, very good for me.

We have Netflix. I watch from the world library of DVDs, not what is served up at all the theaters at the same time; the current pap.

I hate the rancid smell of the popcorn. I am bullshit over the ads. The trailers (also ads) are now interminable. I find the audience to be mostly aliens.

I used to argue that films needed a live audience to sit with; the sound and smell and energy of the crowd. But that is over for me.

We do have an art house right here in PS and it is not like the other places. But, they show three films for a week or two and are often empty. No audience at all. I don't know how they survive.

Actually, I don't know how any movie theaters survive and, it would appear that they don't and aren't.

Too bad.

JFK

Today is the day Kennedy got shot.

November 22, 1964.

We all remember where we were.

I was out for an illegal coffee break with John St. John.

We worked for Acme Markets in Philadelphia.

We were sneaking back into the building and saw a teevee in a bar; through the big window.

We went in and watched.

The rest of that weekend is a blur.

I suppose it is similar to seeing the smoke from the World Trade Center as I was walking past the cardio section of the gym.

There is an immediate denial reaction. Then a growing shock and pain.

I can still feel it.

We also saw Ruby shoot Oswald. We were going to the dedication of a church where I played the organ. I was doing a special work we had commissioned for the occasion.

It happened right before we left.

A lot of people have never seen the cleaned up Zapruder film.

You can link to it but be warned; it is very clear.

LESS THAN THE SUM

I don't know what to make of todays Best 1176 NYTimes Film:

Henry Fool (1998)

There are some great scenes. There is some wonderful acting. The settings are spare but real.

The story has a lot of muscle.

I think it is about friendship and art. Two streams.

This is a Hal Hartley film. I type that as though I know what I am talking about. He has made a lot of films and this is the only one that I think that I have seen.

Here is Hartley's description of todays movie.

I see what he is saying. Henry comes into everyones pedestrian lives and changes them radically, while he doesn't seem to benefit at all and goes downhill.

OK.

I am not doing very well here.

It is an indie film so it can't be obvious.

But I did like it and will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 even it, like life, its meaning is ineffable.

REPREHENSIBLEupdated 0900PST

I'll show you 'reprehensible'.

They have unleashed Cheney again. The attack dog is running to the end of his chain and barkin' good and loud.

In the meantime, the busher is talking about the value of debate and exchange of ideas, if any.

We have seen this act before. It is so cynical. It reeks.

What a bunch of shits. People die while they play their rhetorical games and run their political theater of the absurd.

There is no debate. Bush lied. Draft dodger chicken hawk Cheney lied even more.

OK.

That felt good.

I had been reigning myself in.

Just needed to get it off my chest.

Bastards.

UPDATE: I guess I am not the only one who sees through this bullshit. From the WaPo:

But the war has hurt Cheney's reputation even more. A recent Newsweek poll found that only 29 percent of Americans regard him as honest and ethical. The same poll found that more than one in four Republicans agreed with that dim assessment of Cheney's integrity -- a finding that surprised some top White House aides, who were already concerned about how the public views the vice president.

You can full all of the people some of the time and some of the people all the time but you can't fool all the people all the time.

Jeez. That is pretty good.

I'VE FALLEN AND I CAN'T GET UP

We were getting ready to go to the spa last night; the final family activity of the day.

Franklin got up to be the usual first in line—and sort of slumped back down into a pile.

I noticed, but put it down to his occasional lazy approach to bed-time. Like a little kid, he fights the last few steps toward the night.

Then, he got up, and went down again!

I checked him out and he got up again; this time all the way, with his left leg hanging in mid-air.

Now, he does get the occasional strain or pain. We let him take it easy and give him some aspirin and it passes.

But this came out of the blue. The last activity, after all, was his post dinner nap.

Some more rubbing. Some more trying to walk. I remembered that this had happened before.

His foot was 'asleep'. Pins and needles.

But it went on and on. He wouldn't walk it, so it didn't get any better.

We began to revise our prognosis. Maybe he did pull a bad strain. Maybe he had dislocated a shoulder.

Out at the spa which he made with some three legged effort, he slumped again. We continued to revise our prognosis upwards. Maybe had polio or MS or something like that. A stroke?

But night noises intervened. The call of the wild came calling. The primal urge and my reminder that he had to pee pee before we went to bed got him perked up.

He got up once and made ten feet. Then again and all the way back to the yard and lifted a leg; another leg, not the one he had been favoring. You can't pee while on just two legs!

Then a run to the opposite corner to remind his 'enemy', the Rottweiler up the hill, that he was still down here and ready to kick ass.

By the time we went in, he was OK; but did go right to bed.

When I got him up this morning, I cringed a bit, hoping it was all over. And it was. He was up and gone and out and running.

This flopping and waiting, a kind of conservatism, is something new. His former puppy self would take over and run through an injury without much concern.

Now, he is a mature dog. He can wait and test and be careful. A good thing.

After all, he will be three years old December 14th. At 7 years per dog, that is hitting the majority. Twenty one. He is, finally, a big dog.

Big dogs are more prudent. When things don't work they take it easy. You could see him doing it. We just didn't interpret the flops that way. He was trying it out slowly. Too slowly to get the blood going back into it, actually. That is what made it take so long.

Anyway, here we are, as John said when he got up to see if 'we' were all OK; "another crisis averted".

WAY OUT

This today in the LA Times:

Dieters, Step On Your Scales

This is nothing new to me.

I have always weighed myself every day.

For a long period of time, I also weighed myself at night; part of a body fat measurement step. I wanted the percent number (still do, but weekly) but I didn't miss the weight flash prior.

Sure it varies a lot. It is amazing what even taking medication will do (most pills will have you take on water). It is interesting to see the effect of very heavy exercise in a day. You gain some weight. Water again.

And so on.

I just figure it is a part of knowing my own body. Do you suppose that it satisfies my little obsessive-compulsive thing too? Maybe.

I know for a fact that it works to make me weight conscious.

It also serves over a period of a week or more to show a trend up or down. I don't want to lose any weight either.

For example, I am in a period of upward creep. I am gaining about a pound a month and I have let it go so that I am about five pounds over my goal weight.

Soon, it will be time to take action.

It will be simple enough. I have several big calorie items that will get dropped for a couple of weeks and that will do the trick. They are bonus items which nutrify with a high calorie 'cost'.

Whatever.

It is nice, for once, to see that swimming against the tide is working for me. I have been told and told by the non-weighers that I am on the wrong track.

Right. Wrong. What works?

BONO ME

When will this ego-driven mick pipe down? He is so tiresome.

Bono Says His Music Will Last 100 Years

I am sicker of seeing him with 'world leaders' than I am of hearing his tired 'hits'; accidentally, not by choice.

Ego rampant.

And don't tell me he is doing any good with the world 'issues' thing. Evidently, even he doesn't think so either.

I have already given him too much space in my head. End.

Jeeeezus. Bono.

And would you take those fuckin' sunglasses off?

OK. That's it. Enough.

DELON

It turns out that some young readers do not know about Alain Delon.

This is a sad state of affairs; perhaps a scandalous omission in their filmic education.

Here is his official site with bio, gallery, filmography and so on.

LYNX

I have added a few links at the right. None taken down.

I have been reading the Wall Street Journal on line for quite awhile now. I do not link to it in the blog because it is pay-for at a hefty annual fee. I do get a one week ride on links but a lot of people don't read me weekly and so there would be a blank.

I am also cutting down links to the New York Times. A lot of their op-ed is for fee now as are the movie reviews. No more 'at the time of release' film reviews. Sorry.

I now read the Washington Post on line every day. Or, I scan it. I also get the email headlines. It has a shitty op-ed page but the news perspective is different than my normal LAT and NYT.

A new lefty news site at Raw Story. They are working to be the Drudge of the right thinking world. They don't have nearly the headlines but they are good at their 'developing' stories.

HAMLETARAMA

Today, we had the Mel Gibson / Franco Zeffirelli

Hamlet (1990)

Gibson is a more muscular prince than Olivier; as if he is doing pushups a lot of the time.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. It is just different.

I didn't like him less or more. At the very bottom, there is no comparison. Olivier stands on a different mountain entirely.

The production, on the other hand, is much richer and has all sorts of pictorial advantages over the Olivier which was conducted in a lot of fog and mist as well as occasional smoke. The better to hide the modest sets.

Also, we had more support here. Sir Alan Bates is the uncle who killed Hamlet's father. I adore Alan Bates; although he is not very adorable in this part. King of Hearts it isn't.

Another favorite, Ian Holm, plays Petronius. He who gets it behind the aras.

Glen Close is almost as muscular as Gibson as the queen as the two of them bring the Oedipus complex right into the royal bedroom.

Helen Bonham Carter as Ophelia, looks half mad before her actual onset occurs. She is always just on the edge of annoying.

I enjoyed this more than the Olivier. I could understand more of the words. John says they moved the scenes all around. I saw some of that here and there.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. I suppose I should say a 5.

But, the bard just leaves me a bit behind.

All the help of the cast and production is not quite enough to lift me out of the lethargy of feeling lectured to half the time.

HAMLETATHON

I am watching two productions of Hamlet in two days. Both are NYTimes 1176 Best Films.

Today was the first restored Olivier version from 1948.

I am sure that I saw this when it was first out; a school assigned movie trip. I remember a lot of bored kids in a dark auditorium.

I think that killed Shakespeare for me.

But, after 57 years of acculturation, it seems I have mellowed a bit. I didn't hate it.

I am still not a Shakespeare fan and couldn't understand half the words; but I did my best. At least I didn't hit the FF button.

The restoration is superb.

There isn't much point in going through the story, is there?

The music was by William Walton, who I like a lot. It is mostly incidental and trivial. John thought the supporting actors were weak.

Olivier, on the other hand, is not to be missed in anything; no matter how obtuse and overblown.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 so they don't put me in the classical theater 'recommendations' algorithm.

Tomorrow we watch the Mel Gibson version (gulp).

I ordered the Ethan Hawk mod version but it is not yet on DVD. I saw it in the theaters. You could understand every single word.

Too bad we cannot see it at the same time. It is not on the 'Best' list.

MELVILLE

Today's movie is a vacation from the NYTimes Best Films.

Le Samouraï (1967)

It just came out on DVD and so I got it.

I love the work of Jean-Pierre Melville and this is 'supposed to be' one of his best; 'a masterpiece'.

Then, there is another point in its favor: Alain Delon stars. A dish; a pretty tough guy. What a combination. Pretty and tough, that is.

The opening scene and the 'samurai's' apartment is just astounding. The entire film is an eye feast.

The tight screen play works out with little dialog. The plot thickens as Melville shows rather than tells. The clock ticks. The suspense arises through induction.

And what comes out is a wonderfully tense drama where we root for the bad guy. I wonder how this is done? Getting us to empathize with a reprehensible character?

Delon's looks help; his demeanor; his discipline. We also see the entire story from his perspective. There are some exceptions.

An intricately paced sequence of opening and closing doors at the lineup where Delon is 'not' identified shows us some police work. There are a few other shots to let us know how they are working with the case.

But mostly, it is 'the samurai's' show. In this case, an urban contract killer who runs the show by his own code or standards.

I will give it a Netflix5.

Interesting about Melville. Not a French name, no? No.

He changed his name from Grumbach to the name of the American novelist.

Something to think about in his work, I suppose, but I am too besotted with the film right now to take the name thing apart.

Another weirdness; I am reading Herman, the original Melville, at this very moment; Omoo.

IRREGULAR

I have a new irritant in an otherwise calm life.

The delivery of the morning LATimes has become sporadic.

Some days, it arrives at a wonderful, easy, convenient time before 5:10 AM.

That is just the moment when I am finished meditating and am about to start my second breakfast stint with the paper.

Yes.

Note the disconnection between the goals of meditative practice and, potentially, the most disruptive experience of the day; politics, war, corruption, murder, bad movies.

Nonetheless, it is my habit to conjoin the two.

For a very long time, the paper arrived around 330 AM.

No problem.

Recently, with new delivery people, it has started arriving just before the time that I want it or, impossibly, as late as 6AM when I am out riding my bike!

This all sets me up to spend my meditation time listening for the roarrrrrr of the truck and the thunnnkkkk of the paper hitting the driveway.

This is an interesting experiment in mindfulness; to detach in the face of outward tension.

Breathe, note the discomfort, let it rise as a bubble and disappear, breathe.

I know that I could come to see this as another piece of grist for the spiritual mill: that the paper and the world that it displays is simply passing show; an illusion.

But, shit, goddam, hell; it would sure be easier if the nice boys who used to arrive at 330 AM would come back to the route. Or maybe I could get the current paper-person to get up a little earlier.

The holiday season is upon us and tip time is near. Maybe a short note with a generous tip would help my return to serenity and peace.

I know that bribery is a spiritual shortcut; a detour on the road to nirvana; buying my peace with a material solution.

But I am of the west, not of the east. Shortcuts are my game.

We will see.

As the waters pass under the bridge, perhaps I can speed them up a bit before I jump in and go with the flow.

TODAY'S DAILY SCRIBBLE!

MORE BILL

Well, we knew this, didn't we.

Esquire: Clinton is world's "most influential man"

Well, it is only Esquire. But I still believe it.

I saw this issue on the news stand. Take a look at his photo. It is great.

The great man.

MORAL CRETINS

Do you really think that they want headlines like these?

Lawmakers reject emergency bird flu funds

They are going to wait until later this year or maybe next year.

But they passed that goddam bridge in Alaska.

Yes they did.

They just unhooked the money from the bridge and (wink wink nudge nudge) gave it to that asshole Stevens to take back home in his satchel for any purpose they wanted.

Wastrels. Bounders. Thiefs. Shitheads.

NBA

Not the National Basketball Association.

I mean that award thing.

Books

This year's awards passed more or less silently without a lot of controversy. As it should be.

The idea of juries awarding anything is ludicrous.

I say this because the only book on the list that I read is only slightly better than mediocre; Doctorow's The March

Besides, it is fashionable to point out that this is all foolishness.

I like the people who won't kow-tow to it all.

I only found out today that when Thomas Pynchon won it, he sent Professor Irwin Corey to receive the award on his behalf.

I hope that you know who Corey is (as well as Pynchon) and that you have heard or seen him.

I would give my left nut to have been there.

I am delighted to see that he is still alive and working!

Corey. We don't know about Pynchon and that is as it should be.

I am a firm believer that the less we know about a writer the better. Actors too. All of them.

"By their works shall thee know them" and forget the awards already.

COMPLICITRevised 300PMPST

I have been watching Woodward's moth-like approach to the bush' administration flame.

Special, secret access is a killer.

Looks like he has stepped on his own crank.

Yeh. A mixed metaphor. Maybe not. Moths might have cranks.Washington Post urged to probe Woodward's role in CIA case

Of course, Joseph Wilson is not the most objective critic. But he has the motive and the balls to say out loud what everyone else is thinking.

More of the same from Editor and Publisher.

The WPO ombudsman speaks.

SINKING

This is another big loss for the bushies. Murtha is a leading Democratic supporter of the war.

Democratic hawk urges Iraq pullout

They need these Demo-hawks to keep their stories from sinking.

DE-HAUTE CUISINE Revised AM 11/11

I identify a lot with this column by Garrison Keillor.

Men, Turn Off Your Cuisinarts

I never actually had a Cuisinart but I did have a Kitchen Aid big bowl mixer. And a lot of other equipment.

I had a convection oven and a barbecue grill right next to my stove top. Lava briquets. Electric coils.

I grated my own cheese, ground my own beans, bought my groceries at Whole Foods and made as many things from scratch as I could.

And that was when I was working and more or less running a business.

A lot of that is gone now.

Before we moved here, we lived in a small apartment for a year. I couldn't take the stuff with me so it got sold in the 'estate' sale.

I never restocked. I had low storage space so I learned to make do.

Now, that has become a habit.

I buy the parmesan (both grated and shredded) at the super market. And I get the coffee beans (when I do brew it for visitors) pre-ground; the good ones; Starbucks and up.

I use Paul Newman marinara sauce.

I have an inventory of Stove Top stuffing and the rice mixes you see in the pasta/rice aisle.

I use prepped spice blends (McCormick et.al) for beef stew and chili. I found a new thing; paste. They make it up for sweet and sour and various barbecue concoctions.

I like John being away because I can have a Stouffer Lean Cuisine (I favor the pastas) and, like Keillor, though I make my own with the prepped mix, I enjoy eating chili out of a can (a blend of Dennison's Fat Free regular and vegetarian varieties).

I use a non-fat mix to make gravies; Knorr, which is a bit more expensive but worth it. I do not even think twice about using rubs and other blended spices out of the bottle; hamburger mix, mesquite mix, poultry rub.

We use the Newman salad dressings and I buy all the premixed and precut produce packs; greens, broccoli, cole slaw and the like.

I did keep my german knives though. I use them on the meats and other small cutting job and out of sentiment.As to equipment, I didn't re-up. No blender, mixer, grinder things. No convection. We use the oven (a Magic Chef just like my mother's) that came with our house.

We don't eat a lot of baked goods. Nine grain bread from the local bakery. I use corn bread mix (Marie Callender). That is about the only 'baking' I do now.

I will put together a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving though. Pumpkin is a vegetable!

I will use the time tested Libby/Carnation evaporated milk recipe. But I will use a frozen pastry shell.

What happened? What changed?

It wasn't just the location change. I guess I just got tired of making stuff that, while better than the pre-mixed, took too much time to make without a sufficient bump in quality.

I have transformed my skill at the haute cuisine to become adept at using the prefabbed and the premixed.

I do not hide this incidentally. I flaunt it. As you can see here.

A good cook is a good cook no matter what the raw material.

I had my high cooking period and now I am happy to be a clever shopper and prepper; adding a bit and adjusting here and there to make the pre-manufactured seem as haute as de-haute can be.

How do I know I am doing OK? We ate out enough in top restaurants to raise our palate standards. I learned and got my skills up to the same level.

Now, we seldom eat out. I cook at home every night and we eat better. I have a rotating menu of about 20 dishes.

I have a system. It works.

No complaints so far; and when there are, I can turn on a dime to make the alternative even better.

NON-PARTISAN

Republican Chuck Hagel warned the bushies today about partisanship over the war. An obvious response to bush' Veteran Day diatribe.

The Iraq war should not be debated in the United States on a partisan political platform. This debases our country, trivializes the seriousness of war and cheapens the service and sacrifices of our men and women in uniform....The Bush Administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them. Suggesting that to challenge or criticize policy is undermining and hurting our troops is not democracy nor what this country has stood for, for over 200 years

FINI

I watched the last segment of

Heimat: A German Chronicle (1985)

It has to have one of the best endings.

This film, originally a miniseries, has not been adapted into a movie. It was 15.5 hours on teevee and it is 15.5 hours as a film.

Nothing is spared.

There is no time when I felt as though it should rush ahead. Mostly, I felt that I wanted more.

I even broke a rule and replayed one of the last segments over again.

I cannot recommend this film more highly.

Through the story of an extended family in a village in Germany over a period from 1922 to 1982 we see a deeply layered story about the people, the culture, the times, the changes and the things that endure.

The entire enterprise is superbly done. There is no doubt that there is an autobiographical core. One character is clearly the writer and director Edgar Reitz.

Some actors are in for the long haul; that is, they live for the full 60 years! Many others change as their character ages. No matter. It all holds together.

Since I shared a bit of the time that this film covers, I could identify moments when they and I were in the same or similar places. To that extent, it transcends locale and culture.

This is a 5 plus out of Netflix5.

SAVAGE PROPOSAL

I like Dan Savage a lot.

I nominate him as our gay-spokesperson.

This in today's NYT and it is free!

This proposal makes the usual Savage sense.

Can I Get A Little Privacy?

CYCLORAMA

This is the painting that hung in the Boston Cyclorama building.

It has survived long past its 'life expectation'.

Long may it twirl.

A War Against Time for the Painted Soldiers of Gettysburg

We saw it in Gettysburg. It is quite an experience in this day of electronic ga-ga.

'Just a painting'; but deeply moving.

TOAD

Another crony bites the dust.

Why are so many of these guys fat and ugly?

Acting out of self loathing?

Broadcast Chief Violated Laws, Inquiry Finds

This Tomlinson was an especially egregious specimen as he flaunted his bullshit around.

He was working on the PBS programming. Not that it couldn't be greatly improved. But the stone age is not what we had in mind.

For his case, of course, Tomlinson screamed 'politics'.

This is the usual pot/kettle defense used by these moral cretins.

I get a bit huffed about all these guys but this one hit me more than the others.

'Arrogance while fucking up the system' ought to be in the penal code.

FUNDIE NEWS

Anti-Homosexuality Sermon Suspiciously Well-Informed

BLOWN AWAY

I had to call today's morning bike ride off on account of wind.

It was one of those northeast blows that won't stop; 20-30 mph.

It is OK to ride into the wind but not OK to get into turbulence or sand blowing in the face.

So, I took over the morning Franklin walk and we had wind-fun.

I am not sure that it is the same calorie burn but we walk very fast and I try to run a bit.

It feels like vigorous exercise and that is all they say is needed.

REVOLTING

There seems to be a mild revolt occurring among Senate republicans.

The moderates.

The Graham bill to bar terrorist suspects from US courts has been interestingly modified to allow appeals of decisions by the infamous tribunals.

They intend to marry that with the McCain bill to ban torture.

Then, they are passing a bill that asks for a regular report on the progress of the war and a timed withdrawal.

What gives?

This cannot be pleasing the bushies.

Implosion. Scandal. Back stabbing.

I promised.

The big thing is that these are 'benchmark' issues. The legal status of 'enemy-combatants' and the torture stuff cuts to the heart of the neo-con strategy and belief. This is to say nothing of the war and our reducing our presence. So much for 'democracy' in the Middle East.

So be it.

It would appear that it is not only the Democrats that are getting a spine.

FRESH OUT

I am beginning to really appreciate those bloggers who sit down every day and pound out a foot or more of copy.

I am a periodic. Or is it that I am a spasmodic?

I get a run on and can type down the page. I can have as many as five or six items on my little post-it note here next to the Mac.

And then, suddenly, the items are gone. The run off is shut down. The river dries up.

Part of it now is the goddam Heimat. Most of the discs have three one hour programs on it and I want to get the disc off to keep the cycle going, so I watch, you got it, three hours.

That takes a chunk out of the day.

But it produces no blog product. I committed to waiting to the end to write about it. The end is still about seven hours away. I am past the middle.

So, I am taking more film time and not writing about it. That kicks the shit out of blogging.

I know from experience that this will end. There will be a small freshet arise from the rock and soon a stream. Then a torrent.

This is not the freshet though.

Hang in. I will be in a flow any time now.

In the meantime take a look at this latest poll.

19%

Here is a guy who wants to work for a drop in bushie's approval rating to 19%.

He lists a set of 'how to's' that seem to be within the preznit's shallow grasp.

Rich Procter: 'The 19% project — we can do it!'

LUNATION

I didn't do much today. It is Sunday!

I had a walking threesome with Franklin and John; the usual Sunday substitute for the bike ride.

Then the papers.

Then just coasting some and a nap (everyday mid-day) and two chapters of Heimat. It is still a five.

Then the pm Franklin walk and now about to make dinner.

Pork chops, bread dressing, fried apples, and some sauerkraut to top it off.

A bit of Pennsylvania still.

Sunday.

We are going through the phases of the moon again. It is so bright here. No humidity. Gotta use the blinds beginning about now, for a week or more, until it stays east long enough into the morning.

This is what is going on. It will have to hold you as this is today's only post.

Lunation in Motion.

POST VET

I didn't post on Veterans' Day. I think out of pique that I didn't know or remember that it is one of the holidays that don't do 'as observed' Mondays.

It fell on a Friday and I was caught asking the kids and others why their school was closed on the day before the weekend rather than after.

I know this is boring but it shows my inattentiveness to holidays.

Of course, I went into a thing about it being a day without mail thus bumping my Netflix at just the time that I am midway through the Heimat saga which I am liking very much. A five.

But, once I got settled down, I started paying attention to the holiday and getting into it, as I am expected to, as a patriotic American.

Now, remember, I was a kid in WWII so we were keenly aware of how close war came to our shores.

In those days, it was Armistice Day because we didn't have a lot of veterans yet. They were still fighting men and women.

In school, we observed silence on the eleventh hour (of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) and prayed (yes, we had prayer in school then too) that the war we were in would be over soon.

My Dad was in it so I had some special prayers.

I don't remember when it became Veteran's Day. I do remember that I confuse it all in my mind with Memorial Day which is similar but not the same.

My Dad joined the American Legion. Somehow he had it in for the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). I think most guys from WWII went with the Legion. As I remember it, the VFW was older and by that time had become more of a drinking society. The American Legion was made up of the younger people. There wasn't any drinking until some years later when they got their own facility.

They had hats and so on. My Dad was Commander of his Post one year. I was sort of out of the loop. There wasn't much asked of the kids of veterans. We were just glad that the war was over.

John is a veteran. But, by the time I met him, he had been out for along time and didn't wear any organizations' hat. I may have asked him to wear parts of his uniform on an occasion or two but that is another story.

I am not a veteran. I am a member of the USAR; or was.

I did four years of ROTC in college including a six week summer camp between the junior and senior years. It was fun.

I did the deal where you went to active duty for six months and then had six and a half more years as a standby. Like the guys who are doing the Iraq thing now.

I was a piss poor soldier. I never qualified on the rifle range. They used a pencil to make holes in my target. Buddies.

I mostly skated. My active duty was in the Quartermaster Corps which did not exist for a number of years and has been reinstituted.

I new that the QM was likely to be farther back in the lines. They weren't, as it turned out, but they did have a higher percentage of pencil pushers than anyone else.

Why did I do this? To escape the draft!

My six months active duty was at the Fort Lee Officers Club. I was the assistant club officer.

My CO was a professional gambler and only wanted to be left to his game. We obliged. In turn, there was no hassle involved.

It was enjoyable.

Then, when I got out, I had made some connections and got to stay out of being assigned to a unit. I took a correspondence course and had to go to summer camp for two weeks (I think) every summer.

I had friends who went with me and we managed to skate there too. No one wants a two week reserve light 2 hanging around.

I had a close call once. The unit in Philadelphia, that I would have been assigned to, got mobilized for the Berlin Crisis. They were short some people and were casting around for bodies to fill out the roster.

My friend in the upper echelons alerted me to this and, once again, got me out of it. At least I never heard anything.

That unit was in Germany for more than two years doing nothing except having their careers and lives atrophy.

Eventually, I got de-listed. Not a bad thing. It just means that you can't get promoted to Captain doing correspondence courses.

This should make you feel good about the system anyway. You would not have wanted me promoted. Me neither.

Why am I not a veteran? Because a veteran has to do active duty sometime and I never did. I was not even in the active Reserve. I was in the standby.

I don't qualify for veteran benefits. I don't get a pension. I can't even join the American Legion. No hat.

That is my war story for this Veterans Day. Since, I am not one, it is more as an onlooker who got a little close to the firing line but not too close.