esrosedotblog

MINI-GLOAT

Someone praised me for not gloating too much when the GOoPers got their asses handed to them.

But I can't resist passing on this little film.

THE YEAR OF REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION

CITIZENSHIP

I am on standby for Jury Duty this week.

It is a short week so I have a lesser probability of being called in.

I have already been passed for Tuesday.

Now, I only have three days to sweat it out.

No, I do not like it. I think it is my duty to stand (I could get a medical leave I think) but it is not written anywhere that we are to like it.

IRRESOLUTE

I am sure you won't be surprised to learn that I am not about New Year's Resolutions.

Anything this traditionally entrenched is grounds for rebellion on the face of it.

Beyond the general, I am specifically against an annual goal setting just because it is annual.

I like goals; modest ones.

But don't get me into the impractical or anything that stretches much beyond a month or two.

Plans, sure.

But the onus of NYResolutions is so strong that they become punishing yokes to drive us in a direction which may, in fact, turn out to be the wrong one.

I like to improvise.

I like situational management. I even had a company by that name I felt/feel so strongly about it.

I get my guidance from meditation and feedback. Or the other way round. And act accordingly.

When I was a gym rat, we used to laugh at the annually resolute fatties and flabbies who came in to do their best the week after New Years and then were seen no more.

I cannot even imagine the pain of that kind of failure. It has to be a deterrence to any trial thereafter.

Anyway, you get my point.

I will not be drawing up any lists this year or any other.

It is bad enough that we single out the day as a holiday when, in fact, it is an imperfect mathematical construction from the natural cycles of the sun and moon.

ROCKET SCIENCE

Today's NYTimes 1176 Best Films was

Operation Crossbow (1965)

This obscure British film dramatizes the real deal on the WWII espionage of German U-2 and buzz bomb rockets. I suspect that it takes a lot of liberties but it is all 'secret' stuff so we would not know would we?

It is pretty good. Suspenseful. Good acting.

There are a lot of Brit-stars in it; John Mills, Lilli Palmer, Anthony Quayle, Tom Courtney and one American hero, George Peppard.

There is a maudlin bit in the center with Sophia Loren which is a bit too distracting from the main business but then I am no Loren fan—all eye makeup and big tits. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it disturbs ones suspension of disbelief. This is WWII and she has been through some tough shit.

The DVD is a lousy print. Sometimes it is being squeezed from wide screen. Other times the cuts to left or right leave stuff out. It is also fuzzy and a bit underwater looking in the beginning but quickly resolves.

I am not sure why they chose this one as a 'Best', really.

The technique is very good. Almost documentary.

You are really into it.

I liked the whole thing enough to give it a 4 out of Netflix5 despite the glitches.

FINAL PERFORMANCE

James Brown lay in state in Augusta GA yesterday.

The last time we could see him.

Beloved former band members like Bootsy Collins and Bobby Byrd were there, as was Danny Ray, Mr. Brown’s announcer since the late 1950s, whose job description included the “cape routine”: covering Mr. Brown as he collapsed on-stage in mock exhaustion, only to throw off the cape and begin another song.

He won't be coming back to begin another song.

THE MELTING POT

Very nice story.

The Latino South: Hispanic Teenagers Join Southern Mainstream

The American dream still works a lot of the time.

I have a lot of faith in our young people.

FEEL BETTER?

I read all the detailed accounts of Saddam Hussein's death in the Times.

I have a macbre interest in those kind of things.

I liked that there was hostile banter back and forth. It put some humanity in a barely humane situation.

It seems as though there was everything but a little pushing and shoving.

I have to say that I didn't feel any better after the deed was done. I don't feel any better now.

It is all a shameful and tragic business that will cost countless more lives.

No. We are not the agents of all of it. They are doing quite a good job of killing themselves off now.

But, we are the catalysts and the puppet masters.

Well, we. Who is we? Not anyone I elected or have any loyalty too at all.

The people who never get any blood on their own hands.

RATS!!

We have rats in the house again and have been laying traps for them. Rather unsuccessfully, I might add.

But this morning we hit the jackpot. I heard the trap spring just as I got up.

Then I heard struggling. The worst thing that could happen. No clean kill.

I came out and there he was on the floor--fallen from the high cupboard where they frolic. Struggling.

I gritted my teeth, got on my leather gardening gloves, pulled a plastic garbage bag and put him and the trap in the bag.

Out to the garbage in just my shorts—fast!

I whacked the bag on the side of the container hoping for the worst.

I didn't check it out; the coup de grâce. I hope it worked. I just couldn't do any more.

I have reached a point in my life where any animal's suffering just freaks me out.

Trapping for rats is getting near my threshold.

I know that this is not a humane trap. But the humane ones are so good that they don't work! The rats get to walk.

A guy told me that he uses the sticky pads and the rats get stuck. That is the worst. I can't even write about that without cringing. I am surprised that you are still reading about it!

Soon, we will seek other remedies. Especially if I get another botched job or there is more trouble too long with the rodents.

There is a guy called the 'Rat Master' who is in the phone book. His ad says 'Had enough?'.

Almost. Yes.

What do you suppose the Rat Master does? Put their little feet in shackles and bind their teeny hands with string? Then give them a working over? Rat B&D?

Does he keep on with the exquisite pain until they have 'had enough'?

Bad jokes. I am sorry. I am trying to divert my mind from the poor little rat that I found this morning.

But it is them or us. Down to that.

GIBSON LIVE ON FILM

Today's movie was

No Maps For These Territories (2000)

They put William Gibson in a limo and drove him from LA to his home in Toronto.

On the way they shot a lot of film of him talking about his work and the cyber life we lead today.

The film is full of neat effects that really enhance rather than detract from Gibson's spiel.

For example, the scenes outside the window sometimes reverse. Gibson appears and disappears in the seat.

The car window serves, from time to time, as a slide show with words and shit. It goes up and down to change the picture.

I know. It sounds infantile but it is not. It is all rather sophisticated use of actual cyber-techniques.

I enjoyed it. I think that a familiarity with Gibson's work is mandatory to really get down and wallow in it but I think that anyone would enjoy the thoughts and the effects.

I have read all Gibson's work so far except the short stories which I am working through slowly.

He is a unique voice and a shaman of the cyberpunk fiction movement.

I am not sure that he invented it but he sure made it work.

This would be a 5 out of Netflix5 for me.

FORD

I haven't written about Gerald Ford.

I have to admit to no grief. He was a man who lived a full life ands lived a long time. No complaints there.

He did very well by himself. He played fair and was honest about who he was and what he believed.

I remember his presidency and I don't think that I disliked anything about him. In fact, I admired his courage in pardoning Nixon and getting the country back on track.

He was the anti-Reagan and Bush. He felt as though they took his party away from him.

He spoke out against the war in Iraq posthumously. Some said too late but that was Ford's style.

All of this is overshadowed though. He was a valued citizen in my own community. He gave his time and attention unstintingly to local affairs. He and Betty were a part of the community.

They did the AIDS walk, he supported local charities. He showed up at City Council hearings and often just listened.

They appeared in restaurants and shows at the local theater, they went to church, they never, ever failed to be kind when people gave them attention.

It is a testament to his personal values that no one I know ever thought of him as the ex-President first. He was always Mr. Ford and then his history followed. He had none of the ego-gleam of the self obsessed.

I never saw or met him. I get all of this second hand. But I know that it is true.

He was, as they say, a good guy.

HUNG

I noticed that I was avoiding doing the news this morning.

I just do not really want to think about Saddam Hussein getting hanged.

I suppose that on a scale of villainy he rates pretty high. On the other hand we have the usual descent into barbarity to take our revenge.

Add to this the fact that his death may be the only goal that this administration will 'successfully' complete in bush's war and you have a dismal, horribly expensive disaster for all involved.

WORST AND WORSER

I suppose that I have to cop to not liking the work of two directors, period. Martin Scorcese and David Lynch.

Scorcese's Mean Streets sets the stage for his later work. I didn't like it at all. I couldn't even finish Goodfellas.

I endured Lynch's Mullholland Drive for about an hour and then walked. What is it? How is this art? What's up?

Another category is revealed! I can't really stand anything James Bond. This year we had Moonraker. Keerist. Idiotic. Wooden acting. Terrible. They are all like that.

Other low points were found with Moulin Rouge (the first one with José Ferrer walking on his knees); The Man Who Fell to Earth (incoherent); Lolita (just embarrassing); Leaving Las Vegas (downer); and the absolute bottom of the barrel was scraped with Elaine May's Heartbreak Kid in which Charles Grodin's capacity for unlimited cruelty was explored as he married an ugly duckling instead of a swan.

May's real life daughter played the duckling and it was so sad to watch. Immensely mean spirited.

The very very worst of the whole lot.

THE ROSIES

This is my end of the year list of best movies I saw.

This is out of a total of 250 DVDs; mostly NYTimes Best Films. Some exceptions.

I was going to have ten but I can't really reduce it.

Here are the top......uhhhhhhhh.......15?

FEAR OF IMPENDING DOOM

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Alan Pakula's

The Parallax View (1974)

This is a lefty paranoid fantasy movie.

It works.

There was this feeling of dread throughout.

There is an entity—not the government—that is killing off Senators and other people and there are investigative commissions who are a lot like the Warren or worse.

It is fast paced and there are a few bumps but it gets there in a way that makes you very antsy. It is very skillfully done in this respect.

And, when you get 'there', you won't like it.

No spoilers here but it does not pay to be too optimistic.

Warren Beatty stars as a rather naive, 'third rate reporter' who stumbles on the activities of the Parallax Corporation. Hume Cronyn (love Hume) is his boss/editor.

He decides to go undercover and go to work for the Corp.

In the process of this there is a great 'visual' test like a lie detector thing. A series of film clips that make a neat little film within a film.

The title has a double meaning of course. Everything is seen from a certain angle and with a parallax effect. Sort of side-long distortion.

I think that it is difficult to view these older films from today's perspective; subject material, production values, that kind of thing.

Judged from that standpoint, this film probably has a number of faults or comes up short.

Nevertheless, it is not dated. The only jarring moment is the appearance of a Pong game.

I try to put myself in the movie seat without the bias of today's fraught high digital, fast paced, action films. They are aimed at a different sensibility and a certain tolerance for ambiguity. There isn't much of either today.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY

When some loved one dies, a space opens up.

The slowly emerging realization that their space will never again be filled is astounding.

It is as profound and awesome as looking at the stars or thinking about the ocean depths.

The mind cannot comprehend it.

We do heal from grief. Time is the great physician.

But the emptiness of the space continues.

Though one grows used to it, there is no compensation.

It is pure and constant loss.

We know that death is a part of life. Each death reminds us of our limited time in this form, on this planet, in this lifetime.

I have no strong beliefs in other forms or other lifetimes. I flirt with the various notions that man has constructed to soothe his feelings about death; its absoluteness.

Fundamentally, I only know the space that is left.

Times such as these remind us our own mortality; our own uncertainty about its meaning.

I sometimes think of the space that I will leave.

I know that I will be mourned. I believe that I will be remembered for awhile.

I also know that a time will come when no one will remember my name or what I did here.

That too is a vast incomprehension. The ego strives for more assurance.

But, there are no answers to the great mystery that awaits all of us.

We will lose loved ones and be left with the space.

We will be lost to all our loved ones and leave a space.

I like what Marcus Aurelius has to say about death.

Death, like birth, is one of nature's mysteries, the combining of primal elements and dissolving of the same into the same. Nothing about death should shame or upset us, for it is entirely in keeping with our nature as rational animals and with the the law governing us.

Book Four—The Emperors Handbook; a new translation of The Meditations by C. Scot and David V. HIcks.

MIXED BAG

Today (and yesterday's) NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Paint Your Wagon (1969)

This is an improbable combination of elements. Some work. Some do not.

First improbable: It has Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin in singing roles. It works! And it is them, no dubbing. Incredible.

Second improbable: the limited Jean Seberg singing and all wifey. Doesn't work. Her singing is dubbed and that doesn't work either as it is obvious.

Third improbable: adapting a Broadway musical (Lerner and Loewe) to film and taking out the dancing. Works. It is all outdoors. There is a lot of running and fooling around by vast crowds of miners in a boom town all wildly 'choreographed' but there isn't one dance step. Not even in the dance hall!

Final improbable: the original plot and music are padded to string the thing out for a 'road show' kind of film--three hours and an intermisision--and it sags because of it.

Too bad.

As it is, I would give it a 3 out of Netflix5. If I just count the good parts, and there are many, I would give it a 4.

It is, sadly, never a 5. It has some great songs and the 'singers' do a great job with it. André Previn arranged the music brilliantly to accommodate Marvin and he has some of the best bits.

So. A mixed bag. But too baggy in spots. Too many spots.

Jean Seberg is probably not remembered much. She was discovered by Otto Preminger and appeared in two of his films before going off on her own. She was not a great actress and her appearance in a film was often a marker that the film wasn't very good.

She had a sad end; a mixed paternity/mixed race child scandal (well, the kid had one dad but there was a tossup over who it was) and a lot of booze and drugs did her in.

You could say that it was a case of a lot of talent squandered but there wasn't much talent to begin with. Which makes her career mostly sad.

THE MUSIC MAN

Godfather of Soul, and C.E.O. of His Band

I love the last line:

"No one could ever do all the things Mr. Brown did. But here is what’s more impressive: musicians are still finding new ways to do some of them."

THE GODFATHER

James Brown is dead but he still rocks in my head and heart.

There are film clips of him all over the web.

He invented so many forms of music.

I loved his great finalés; encores where they would have to 'drag him' off the stage and put his huge cape on.

It was so great.

Of course they could not restrain him and he would manage at least one more riff than you expected.

A great showman. Innovator. Sex machine!

I stole this whole from the on-line WSJ newsletter including the link to a loving New Yorker piece in 2002.

James Brown Dies at 73
The soul-stirring power of James Brown's music could perhaps be measured by just how difficult it is to keep still when the likes of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" or "(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" come on the radio. The secret behind his longevity and dominance in the American music scene may have been that whatever the genre -- and he helped originate so many -- Mr. Brown was rhythm personified. And he even looked the part. Philip Gourevitch, writing in the New Yorker in 2002, said Mr. Brown "makes the stage look small, and wears his years with a survivor's defiant pride." He was, "after all, pretty universally recognized as the dominant song-and-dance man of the past half century in black-American music, perhaps in American popular music as a whole: he is the source of more hits than anyone of any color after Elvis Presley," Mr. Gourevitch wrote. Mr. Brown died Christmas morning in Atlanta after being hospitalized with pneumonia. He was 73 years old.

Look at him dance in this clip.

Michael Jackson stole it for the moonwalk stuff. Couldn't hold a candle.

James Brown, ladies and gentlemen, James Brown!

PARTY BOY FOUR

We had a 'last minute' invitation to visit and old friend and his lover today and we took them up on it.

We have been out of touch for a while and this was a great opportunity to see his new place and inspect the partner of three years.

That long out of touch.

The place is a horse ranch in the high desert and the event was a holiday party from noon until sundown.

We had a great time. All three of us! Franklin came too.

There were ten horses, about six dogs (other guests and the neighbors'), and about twenty people.

We had a great time. I think that I already said that.

We were analyzing it on the way home. What makes this one good and some of the others not good.

Well, start at the top with the fact that we want old friends to be happy and so we behave better than usual. That is my part.

The other part is the setting. It is lovely. Settled on a hill (only hundreds of yards from the bad fire that they had there) you can see out over the valley. Typical California desert hills. Meaning that they are just gorgeous in the afternoon sun.

Then the crowd which, we decided, were real people. All kinds.

I used to work with a man who used the term 'regular guy' as in 'he's a regular guy'. Meaning, I think, no airs or pretensions. Just there. Available.

That is what these people were.

We knew no one and were completely engaged and comfortable.

Of course, they are friends of my friend, so uhhh, well, they are only one step away from being my friends.

The guys have a great house which they restored from being a dilapidated shack unlived in for four years which is a desert eternity. Things go bad fast.

Now, the ground is all cleared on the lower level for paddocks and exercise yards. The house overlooks this scene with a wide veranda. Beautiful.

Franklin had a great time too.

He has seen horses but never close up. He was OK with it. He spent a long time watching one in the nearest holding pen. He barked once.

And there were chickens!! Some running loose. You know that a chicken can take a dog down if it wants to. There was no trouble. Franklin was just curious and wary.

The best thing for him were the people. This was a good rehearsal for our party coming in January. He was a social success. I would see people petting him and appreciating him the way that we do.

I found some really interesting people to talk to. The kind of people who it is OK to be silent with.

And we stayed four hours! Unknown. Never. What a surprise.

Chalk this one up to as a social success for me as well as Franklin.

One more to go New Year's Eve.

READY FOR A NEW DAY, NOT!

Why is this not a surprise?

Flaws Are Detected in Microsoft’s Vista

I don't want to get into some smug Mac vs PC thing but it is quite tempting.

Or did I just get into it?

I was just saying. MS is still the same MS that it always has been.

HOMOSEXUAL PANIC

This guy has an advanced case of homosexual panic.

At Axis of Episcopal Split, an Anti-Gay Nigerian

Listen to this:

The way he tells the story, the first and only time Archbishop Peter J. Akinola knowingly shook a gay person’s hand, he sprang backward the moment he realized what he had done...............

“This man came up to me after a service, in New York I think, and said, ‘Oh, good to see you bishop, this is my partner of many years,’ ” he recalled. “I said, ‘Oh!’ I jumped back.”

What a creep! Some spiritual leader.

This kind of shit just makes me feel like my head is exploding.

There is nothing; nothing that will change someone like this.

The real conundrum is why a bunch of wealthy white Virginians would cast their lot with this guy.

Take a gander at them sitting all uncomfortably in a row. Wound up tight.

None look like they are getting any themselves.

But, I have ceased to wonder at the source of such people's preoccupation with my orientation.

Let God handle them.

INVINCIBLE

What a great name for a movie about a guy named Vince who became a professional football player when he was thirty by showing up at a PR stunt 'open tryout'.

Mark Wahlberg plays Vince. Greg Kinnear plays his coach.

This is an excellent movie and you should see it.

Yes.

It is about jocks.

No. You do not have to understand about football.

You must know that I do not know or care diddle about it.

Yes. It is one of those 'inspirational' films. But, it is OK. It is a true story.

Great escapism. Some wonderful son/dad, friend/friend moments.

Mild romance does not get into the way of the story.

This film is a perfect fit for Mark Wahlberg who(m?) we adore anyway. But even if we didn't, still a 5.

I am not even going to bother with a link here.

Just rent it. Now.

Go on. Do it.

At the end, they show the two real people and some game tapes. Goose bumps.

It is a light 5 out of Netflix5.

BUST

I watched my second portion of 1900 today; the Bertolucci film.

It began to unravel when the guys come home from WWI. Still beautiful. Some great set pieces. But the characters are all 'off'. The story is beginning to be lost in the mass of images. The actual story line is pretty simple but, well, I was losing interest.

It died with Burt Lancaster, the old padroné.

I got done with the first disc and put in the second.

Goddam. It is Disc One mispacked in the Disc Two envelope.

You know how sometimes things build up and then there is a defining moment?

This was a defining moment.

I reported the mislabeling to Netflix but didn't ask that a new order be sent to replace this one.

The invisible hand reached down and said "here, you have had enough of this. I will help you bail out".

This will be a 3 out of Netflix5. Great to look at but way over the top long and I don't like the people.

Ebert didn't like it very much either.

PARTY THREE

In my effort to attend more parties, I signed up for five this holiday.

I think I last said that it was 4 parties but one was added.

Last night was a neighborhood cocktail party up the hill. Nice guys, nice house.

Dog walking acquaintances. Our pooches are friends. They probably know more about each other than the four humans do.

The house was decorated for the holidays from top to bottom; inside and outside. They have the biggest and best (not necessarily the same) outdoor lights on the hill. Nice.

Better them than me. We used to do this kind of thing. They are the right age for it.

So, it was OK. I stayed for 35 minutes which is good for me.

We went with the neighbor out back of us on the same drive. She liked the idea of escorts and we got a free ride up the hill.

The crowd was OK. A lot of other neighbors. People whose names we do not know (and probably still don't) who we see on our daily rounds.

I had a water. Walked around. Stood by John as he socialized. I nod. Smile. Not too interested in the small talk.

It is mostly of the 'which house is yours' category of conversation.

I suppose we/they worked a bit on the neighbors who were not there. Who is up and who is down.

No surprise that in this group there is unanimity on the question. We all got invited by the same guys.

I suppose the 'other' neighbors were having a party and talking about us.

They had some food but you can never be sure so I had a smoked turkey sandwich and salad before. Never go unarmed or unfilled. You may not get to eat at all or, if there is food, it will all be high calorie/fat choices.

Besides, I don't much care for other people's food.

So, I left John to continue his visits and came home by myself. An easy walk down the hill.

Franklin and I finished the night together out at the spa looking at the stars—Orion is just overhead now—and seeing the lights on the house I had just left.

I am going to collect this holiday party series in one volume and call it 'Diary of an Introvert'.

THE EMPEROR'S CLOTHES

This is the guy who used to be CIA and wrote an op-ed piece on Iran for the NYT.

It passed CIA but the White House intervened and eviscerated the piece which had actually already been printed in a longer version.

So what does the NYTimes do? They print the eviscerated piece complete with the black marks and then show through links that every bit of the blacked out stuff is already public.

What We Wanted to Tell You About Iran

One more demonstration about how these bastards control the information. Or try to.

I like the new-found spine of the media in things like this.

EPIC

Today's and tomorrow's and the next day's NYTimes Best 1176 Film is/will be Bertolucci's

Novecento / 1900 (1976)

Bertolucci's career is quite controversial. We have seen Last Tango in Paris and, most recently, The Conformist and liked both.

This film was a commercial and critical flop. It is the victim of high expectations and a radical cut when it was released in the US.

We saw it when it came out. I remember it fondly; all 245 minutes of it. They had cut out an hour.

But the 'real' film is 5 hours and 15 minutes long (315 minutes) and that is the version that we are seeing.

I have 'cut' it into three parts; two ninety minute pieces and a grand finale at 2 hours and 15 minutes.

The first section cuts neatly at the end of a chapter. I am hoping for the same tomorrow.

So far so good. We have seen Burt Lancaster and Sterling Hayden as the patriarchs of two families; noble and peasant respectively. They are great patriarchs!

The whole movie is about their grandsons born at the same time; Robert De Niro and Gérard Depardieu; both young and steamy. They will age during the picture, I assume.

So on to the second part tomorrow. I like it at a 5 so far. Very pretty and grand peasant scenes. Very good.

UNBLEEPED

Dick in a box uncut!

No. Not THAT way.

I mean with no censorship.

This made it out before the 9 second NBC bluenoses got to it.

I still think that it is funny.

Sophomoric, huh?

WHERE DO I SIGN?

From town halls to the state house, Vermont activists push for Bush impeachment

The start of a national movement? Grass roots?

THE OTHER BILL

OK. Here it is. The start of the wave.

Time to get with it.

Campaign launched to draft New Mexico governor for president

As you know, I really like this guy.

He has grit. He has savvy. He has governing experience.

He is ethnic; far more than Obama, if you want it.

He is a sold guy who has a good heart.

I can't get interested in any of the rest of them.

Hillary is shrill and tight. Obama is shallow. Did Kerry, had that. Same with pudgy sad Al Gore.

The front runners are going to cancel each other out.

Someone from the second tier has a good chance and that can be Richardson.

I am down with him.

Interesting that as time goes on there are many more images on Google for Richardson. Bill II.

GAY WARS

This, the latest, on 'don't ask-don't tell'.

Poll: [Most] U.S. troops fine with gay soldiers

You gotta watch out for those 29% though.

I was surprised that 1 out of 4 know a gay person who is in their unit.

Amazing.

You cannot keep us down. We want to serve.

And, of course, that is where the men are!

MY FATHER'S OLDSMOBILE PART TWO

Dave, the family archivist, came up with this film clip. It is not too cringeworthy.

I think that I would be about ten in this picture. I don't know. I look older than that. 1947-48?

The Family Oldsmobile

I am glad to see that my memory was correct. It is a four-door model.

I knew that this film existed.

In fact, when I think of the car, I think of this film first.

He made us do it over and over to get it right. You will notice the incontinuity of the house door closing and opening.

Then, over the years we had to look at it over and over again. It feels a bit like the movie Groundhogs' Day. It is in Pennsylvania; only it is me and not Bill Murray.

Mostly I remember being in the back seat of that Oldsmobile, dreaming away, while 'they' drove around.

My Dad was great on taking 'rides'. He loved to drive.

We would get in the car and who knew where we would end up.

He did this all his life.

I remember when I was living outside Philadelphia looking out the front window and seeing my Dad and Mom pull up to our curb.

They had driven about over a hundred miles, one way, on a Sunday ride.

Not too unusual out here for a lot of people. Some do that going to work!

But in those days and in that situation it felt like an invasion. No place to hide.

I am pretty sure that they drove back the same afternoon.

SOLSTICE

I am always late with the winter solstice.

This year, I will be a day ahead. I want to be ready for it.

It will be December 22 (barely) at 0:22 AM UTC

I don't know how that translates to PST.

I might be up when it happens.

I know that I will not be at Stonehenge or any other of the henges that were set up to mark the date.

The big thing for me is that this is the darkest it will be for the morning bike ride.

We are right on the cusp.

I left at 6:10 AM this morning and did not have to use my headlight once.

When I leave at 6:05, I need it some.

We do not have any city lights and I do not want to hit a skunk or something.

I turn it on at odd situations when I want to be seen but that is different.

I always have the tail-light. You can see it for a half a mile.

RIBBON ON YOUR SUV

The Asylum Street Spankers

TWISTS

Today's NYTimes 1176 Best Film was Clint Eastwood's

The Outlaw Josey Wales

This seems like a conventional western/revenge plot. It has the usual Clint Eastwood loner character.

But there are many twists and turns in the plot. You do not always get what you expect.

It is enjoyable.

Eastwood says in a blessedly brief introduction that it was during the time of the Viet Nam War and he wanted to say something about it.

I am not sure that he met that objective, actually.

Incidentally these brief intros are getting more common. I really like them. They are surprising and sometimes, even, fun.

I don't know what to say about the film. There is a lot of action. Eastwood is an extraordinarily good shot.

Oh! Chief Dan George is in it. Always enjoyable.

I will give it a 4 out of a Netflix5. Maybe a 3 as I think about it.

MY FATHER'S OLDSMOBILE

Yesterday, Franklin and I were walking along and WHAM! There, in the Stein Mart parking lot was a fully restored 1939 Oldsmobile; two tone!

My Dad's car!

We went over the wall and took a look.

Man, it was totally restored. Everything.

There are times when some iconic template hits the brain and there is a warp of immense proportions.

This car did it.

My Dad got it used, but not too used, and we drove it all through the war and up to about 1947 or 8.

This was way past my Dad's tolerance for car age.

He went out and bought the cheapest fucking Ford he could find. Black. What a comedown.

I have never gotten over it.

His next car was Uncle Pete's Hydromatic Dodge (my first Chrysler product) and then he went home. He got a big Oldsmobile that had to be the best car he ever had.

When that rusted out, he went to a Chevy. I think his first new car.

He turned them in every three or four years after that. He was car-rich in the same way that some people are property-rich.

He would tell us that 'this is my last car' and then, three years later, he would have another new one.

He wanted an American car; always.

It near killed him when he found out that GM was using parts made outside the country.

Near the end, he found out that a Chevy factory in Baltimore used more USA parts than any other. He insisted the car come from there.

I doubt this was true. A salesman told him about it. But there it is.

He bought me a Ford for my first car, 1954; the 50th Anniversary model. It was 1958. It was a great car though.

Then we got a Chevy station wagon. The Ford was the second car.

I traded it in for a brand new Volkswagen. It was a wreck. When I shut the door at the dealership, the drivers window broke down inside the door panel.

I never bought an American car again until we came out here.

John and I had graduated to SAAB convertibles and there was no dealer out here. We sold the best car we ever had—a 1995 SAAB—and bought a Jeep Cherokee to drive cross country. We thought we were going to ride around on dirt roads in the desert.

Well, we did once.

It has been a great vehicle. It is still 'my car'.

After that we went Chrysler all the way.

The 1984 LeBaron; Woodie.

The new Sebring Convertible—well three years old.

We are with Chrysler for the service which is really good in the local dealership. Not something that people think of when they buy a car especially with the very long guarantee periods they have now.

How did I get started on this?

A man is the car he drives. Isn't it? Or, isn't he?

I do not plan to buy another car. Ever.

These are my last ones.

NO ONE WILL WANT HIM

SMU Groups Oppose Bush Library

Listen to this

"We count ourselves among those who would regret to see SMU enshrine attitudes and actions widely deemed as ethically egregious: degradation of habeas corpus, outright denial of global warming, flagrant disregard for international treaties, alienation of long-term U.S. allies, environmental predation, shameful disrespect for gay persons and their rights, a pre-emptive war based on false and misleading premises, and a host of other erosions of respect for the global human community and for this good Earth on which our flourishing depends....[T]hese violations are antithetical to the teaching, scholarship, and ethical thinking that best represents Southern Methodist University."

I gotta agree with that!

While you are at this link take a look at the Christmas card and see the Wonkette link for the whole story.

BUMPER CROP

The stores always have tangerines this time of year.

When I was a kid there was always a tangerine in my stocking (parental cheating).

All my life, the holiday season has meant tangerines.

There is a good reason for this.

Somehow, through the miracle of genetics (phototropism?), the tangerine's blossom to fruit cycle ends in December, wherever it is grown. We have Israeli tangerines in our stores now!

And, in our backyard, we have the same thing happening. The tangerine tree is filled with fruit which is ripening fast and will be at its peak just about in time for 1225 and the New Year.

The tree is loaded this year. It alternates; fat year, lean year.

I think about sending the fruit to all my friends but reality bites.

There are a lot of tangerine trees here in the valley. Everyone is getting their crop in.

And we cannot really ship them.

The first year we were here, we were all excited about sending our citrus back east.

The shipper guy told us 'no dice'. They would not do it.

The fruit will freeze.

Yeh, I know that they do it from Florida and all but those are professional packers, highly insulated. And most of all, none of the shippers here want to be bothered with it. Hard to pack. No insurance.

We gave up.

So there they are. We will eat some. A few people who we know don't have a tree will get some.

In the meantime, they are great to look at.

Very very orange.

SIRENS

I haven't heard it for awhile.

The sirens' song.

"You don't have to ride the bike this morning. It is a little windy. It is pretty cold. You have done a good job all this time, you could relax a little. It is a holiday week. You have a little bit of a cold. Ease up."

I know the verse and refrain rather well.

I started running when I was—what—19? Running to get in shape for ROTC summer camp. Around the Charles River Basin—Boston.

The song got so strong that, after I got married and 'settled down' (?!), I gave up running. ("You are too busy, you have responsibilities, you get enough exercise")

But, I took it up again when I was 32 or so. I used to run down around the harbor—Plymouth MA.

Then I stopped again.

I was a binge runner. A few years on and then a few years on.

But, ever since I was 50, I have always had running, then biking, and also the gym—weight training. Intense.

I have not listened to the sirens.

I took time off. Sure. But not because they sang to me.

Of course, the sirens have been there for many other things; work situations, times when I am afraid; "Give up". "It is not that important".

But it is the jock times that they stand out.

They are the loudest when I think about putting on my sneakers.

I have pretty much quit listening to them.

I guess because I have learned about the rocks that the sirens live on. Once you hit them and get stove up, it is all hell to get going again.

So, I pulled on my tights, put on my shoes, went out for the bike and it was not cold.

It was not windy.

When I climbed on the seat and rolled down the drive I got the rush of riding.

It is a holiday week. There are not many cars. It is dark and I get to see the sunrise. My cold symptoms went behind my consciousness.

The sirens were silent.

They will be back but I ain't listening. I don't have time for the rocks. I am up for the rolls.

LAST MINUTE GIFTS

If you are tired of shopping and want to make a handi-craft gift, here is a good idea for you to try.

Dick in a box

It would be good for certain boys too.p>This is a great video from SNL.

NOT SO GREAT

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Preston Sturgis'

The Great McGinty (1940)

This has two things going for it; the jokes and Brian Donlevy.

Donlevy was not a big star and ended in westerns and crime films but he had great timing and the air of the rascal. He is wonderful to watch in this film.

We also have Akim Tamiroff and William Demarest in supporting roles; always a treat to watch.

The cinematography is first rate; lots of shadows and neat framing.

The story is just the barest structure to hang the jokes on. Political corruption; an easy target.

The ending is bitter sweet and not all that sweet when you come down to it.

The restoration of the print is beautifully done.

I just was not that keen on the whole thing so I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

HOLIDAY COLORS

Aurora Over Iowa

READ ALONG WITH ME

Todd suggested this graphic novel/comic book

Shooting War

I couldn't take it all in at once so I started reading a chapter a day.

I am only on Chapter 4 but I am liking this enough to point it out.

Note that it takes place in 2011. During the McCain administration!

Read on.

I would give you some panels but it is all on Flash. Damn.

FORGETFULNESS

Not about me; about the book!

Forgetfulness, by Ward Just, is a subtly written survey of post-9/11 issues, oddly, outside America but not outside Americans.

Expats run into trouble. Their history catches up with them in ways that are surprising both to them and to us.

There is no doubt that the current 'war on terror' has all of us doing some inner gymnastics.

This gently tough book slowly brings a lot of these mental currents to the surface. At least it did for me.

I have read Ward Just for a long time. I am about to get all his books and read him over again.

He is a great writer with a wry and knowing voice. One feels that he has been there and done that.

When he writes of some CIA friends, I believe that he really has some.

All that aside, the story is great, terror or no terror, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Not that it matters a whole lot, but this book is on a lot of top ten lists right now.

NEO NOIR

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Luchino Visconti's

Ossessione (1943)

This was Visconti's first film made from James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice; a popular source for movie directors. We will see the first American version which was made in 1946.

Here, Visconti invents the unromantic neorealistic look that became the standard for Italian film after WWII.

The whole thing is 'in the rough' including the charismatic anti-hero, Massimo Girotti, who may or may not have been bamboozled into killing the husband of a woman he gets obsessed with.

It was Girotti's 3d film. He went on to make 122 more. We saw him in The Leopard and Last Tango In Paris.

See how he looks in his 'golden' years.

There is some clunkiness to various parts of the picture. A child who we have never seen before becomes an important plot device to get us from one place to another.

On the other hand, most of the story is riveting and there is a homosexual slant to it when our man finds a 'friend' on the road who helps him sort out his options and get his feet on the ground.

There are a lot of really nice parts to it.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 because it was disturbing and involving and did the job even with subtitles and some nits here and there.

PARTY TOO

So I went to my second holiday party last night.

It was a hybrid. 'Bring Desserts' for passing around. Sweet tooths and all.

Actually the title said 'Sugar Plum Fairies'.

Yes. The double entendré.

A weak premise for a party. Perhaps there was going to be food.

Perhaps not.

I decided to go because I really like the guys who were putting it together and I assumed that they would invite others who I liked. They did.

It was pretty good. Thirty or so people, most of whom I knew; a few that I got to know better. Very good.

The decorations were great. I have not seen their equal. There was a small train running around the drinks table. (This was a no-alcohol party; another reason to go).

The tree was incredible. Real.

It was so good looking that you knew it was not artificial.

How the times have changed. It used to be impossible to get a 'better' live tree than artificial.

Now the tree guys have beat the phoney ones at their own game.

In addition to the tree, they had hung strings of blue lights across the 'ceiling' of the patio where most of the party took place. Tight. The lights were lined up like little soldiers. No sag. Nothing random.

Gay people know how to go the extra inch. So to speak.

There were two fires outside too. I came home with real smoke smell on my clothes. Very country.

I had a great time and spent an hour and a half which is an eternity for me at a party.

Was there food? No. Just desserts. Ha Ha. We got our just desserts.

I didn't have any.

But it was OK.

The social time was great.

I came home and built a sandwich and made a salad with half a bag of mixed greens.

This is the party that I went solo. John had a similar thing going on in the afternoon so we balanced it out.

Interesting. I don't think I saw anyone really eating any of the desserts that were brought. The party was a social success and a theme 'failure' but that is OK. Whatever it takes to bring my friends together, I am more than happy to go for it.

What did I bring?

I had thought of a number of things and finally settled on unmessy finger food.

I remembered my favorite sweet snack. Well, one of them.

Rice Krispie Marshmallow Treats.

Tasty. More or less healthy. Easy to make.

I don't know if anyone had any but they did evoke comment.

I had one. It was pretty good even if today's marshmallows suck.

ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN

And have a happy 236th Birthday

OUT OF PATIENCE

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Out of Africa (1985)

It is beautifully tedious with heavy acting by Meryl Streep (a variable accent, scene to scene, but she has to do it doesn't she? ACTress!) and Robert Redford (opening eyes and nostrils wide to emphasize his lines).

You know that neither of these are my favorite actors and, in this one, they are coupled through thick and thin.

Fortunately the 'epic romance', as Ebert refers to it, takes place in Africa at the start of the last century.

It is gorgeous. The people are great. The story is pretty good and even causes a lump in the throat despite one's best intentions.

But, goddam, it takes a long time to get where it is going.

I sat through the original. And I sat through this until after the wonderful plane ride. Then, I have to admit, I cut my own 30 minutes out of it which Sydney Pollack out to have done when he edited the film.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5. It is not nearly as good as it thinks it is or wants to be.

HOMO HORRORS

This video from The Daily Show's Ed Helms is priceless

Romney's Nemesis

This is the guy who has been actively 'exposing' Romney's homophilic past.

LANDMARK

Today's film was not on the Best List although it should be.

Parting Glances (1986)

is the quintessential post-AIDS film.

It is a comedy! That means, by 1986, we were getting over it and getting on with it.

It is a beautiful story of a loving triangle of men, one of whom has 'it' and the other two who do not.

All the bases are covered.

The men are sweet and real and the women who love them in a special way are not fag-hagged into stereotypes. All very very nice.

This was Steve Buscemi's second film. His breakout.

We loved it when it came out and loved it again.

This is especially recommended to younger gay men who were not there at the time.

Anyone with a gay friend should see it too.

Hell, everyone ought to see it!

A 5 out of Netflix5.

BOOM

From the on-line Wall Street Journal:

Adieu to the Human Cannonball
Duina Zacchini Norman, who was born into a circus family and took over her brothers' human cannonball act when they were drafted to fight in World War II, died at the age of 82 in Nashville, Tenn. Anyone who chooses to fly out of the barrel of an enormous cannon on a regular basis might be expected to have a shorter lifespan than most people, but Ms. Norman was made out of tougher stuff. She started out in the family business as a trapeze artist, and was trained to be a human projectile by her father when her siblings went off to war. She kept the act up for 20 years, appearing on the cover of Life, in a few movies, and even on The Ed Sullivan Show. "She was the queen of the circus. She was probably one of the greatest women trapeze artists that's ever been,'' said ex-husband John Norman. After retiring from the circus, she settled into a quieter life running an antiques store.

THE HONEY WAGON

We had the annual visit from Hammer Pumping today.

They come to see us and, at the same time, to remove the years 'leavings' from the cesspool.

Franklin and I look forward to the event.

The guys who visit are always interesting talkers. Maybe you have to be good at diverting conversation for this job.

For a couple of years now our pump guy has been Tim.

He hooks up, lowers the hose into the deep and makes small talk which, in his case, is large.

Or, if you don't have a topic to offer, Tim is OK on just letting the hose suck it up.

It takes about 15 minutes.

A thousand gallons. Low this year. It has been as high as fifteen hundred.

I theorize that it has to do with runoff; wet years, dry years.

It may also be that we are more full of it in some years than others.

Whatever.

The best part is when you give Tim his check (discounted for some arcane reason every year running—this year is about there was a load on there anyways) he signs the receipt and enters 'tanks a lot'.

OK.

FOUR

Franklin was four yesterday.

I missed posting it.

We have much stronger memories of his joining the family in March. We weren't around when he was born.

I am not even sure that he was a gleam in our eyes then. He happened pretty fast.

We sang 'happy birthday' though and spanked him four times (in a nice way, if you know what I mean).

We didn't have anything like these biscuits. Not on his diet.

He needs to be quite svelt or, as the vet says, near-anorexic.

And, he likes to keep things simple; no big fuss.

BOYLING POINT

Peter Boyle was one of the best character actors of the past decades.

I have seen him over and over.

I am particularly fond of his playing with Robert Mitchum in Friends of Eddy Coyle.

Most memorable, maybe, is the way he made the monster so unmonstrous in Young Frankenstein

He took the movie away!

Puttin' on the Ritz

I am glad that he had teevee success in his later years but I never saw him at that.

The great film roles stay with me. I am sure that he is some of the Best Films, even if he isn't.

PLUTONIUM CAPERS

If you are following the plutonium investigations carefully, as I have, you may still have missed this important nugget (so to speak) of information.

This stuff is not only hot, it is hot.

The Polonium Connection: We have to find out where it came from

it is only made in Russia. It doesn't last but a few months! It is very rare.

We pay the Russians to make it so that it does not get into the wrong channels! Can you fucking believe it?

Is that blackmail or what?

Well, some of it is used; maybe all of it.

I love that it leaves such a trail.

Obviously, whoever has used it or gotten it or is carrying it (for only a few months) didn't know how hot it was.

I gather that the chances are good one of the people, now sick from it, may have been the perp who did it.

Stay tuned.

THE NO LIST

I waded into the 2008 battles the other day with a yawn about Barack Obama. I gained some 'comment' phase for finding the word 'callow' to describe him.

Let me also go on the record about Kerry.

How dare he?

Rhymes, you see. Kerry—dare he.

You know, he writes long, long letters to me every week or so. I just 'delete'.

Here is some more about these letters:

The Virtual John Kerry

Well, there it is in a nutshell.

It is not their meaning but Kerry is not real! He has not been real.

He was not a real candidate. He carefully tread the boards during the election and never made a bold, confident move. He talked in mumbles and misspoke himself and fuddled it all.

He lost to fucking george bush, man.

There are no second chances.

And so on.

Don't get me started.

You probably know that I don't want Hillary to run either.

So, here I am. It has hardly started and I am against three prospective candidates in 'my' party.

I read the other day that there are some who are thinking about starting a Liberal Libertarian Party.

Where do I sign up?

CAFFERTY SPEAKS

The Decider Has Chosen Not to Decide

Amen.

POST MODERN

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

The Opposite of Sex (1998)

with Christina Ricci, Lisa Kudrow and a great looking bunch of guys.

It is self referential to the extreme. Ricci is a smart ass voice over commenting on the story line of which she is the main part.

On the other hand, it is a wise and life affirming story with very positive, yet knowing and honest, things to say about gay men and their families.

We saw it when it was around and really liked it and I like it still.

It might take two viewings or subtitles to get all the jokes which flow like honey from start to finish.

Parts of it were filmed just down the street from us at the Royal Sun hotel. We have been to look at the room!

That is not why I love this film.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Oh. It is worth the viewing to find out what the opposite of sex is.

WHITE OUT

We had our first snow yesterday morning; just a trace on the mountains—maybe 5000 feet and up.

Pretty.

COLOR CODED

Don't you think it is funny that we used to call the commies 'reds' and now the 'red states' are all the ones that are thought to be right wing?

How fads go in and out of fashion.

CUSP

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Roberto Rossellini's

Roma, città aperta / Open City (1945)

It is on the edge of the end of WWII, at the point of cinema verité, at the time of great change in the art of cinema itself; Fellini is one of the writers.

Look at the link to see how it was made. It is believed that a few shots were actually filmed during the wartime.

It is tough and grainy to watch and the subtitles are way incomplete but its impact holds even today.

Of course, I am in the middle of a lot of reading about the War and the times running up to it so I am highly sensitized to see this now.

Its impact is very deep.

There are a lot of analogies about superpowers then and now; torture to get 'what we have to know'; the ways of collaborators and so on.

A lot of lessons are here, most of which would go over the student's heads.

There has been some criticism of the film because it is 'communist'. Well, the hero is/was. He was part of the Resistance.

That is about all of the party line that I saw but back then we were super sensitive about that shit. But then, I have been called a commie too here and there in my past so who am I to judge?

The kids are used as a kind of greek chorus throught the film; the future of Italy.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

OBAMA NO

OK. I will be the first to say it.

Barack Obama is not qualified to be President of the United States.

'Callow' would be the word.

Inspiring? Well, it is easy to be inspiring when you have no executive responsibility.

I think that he has had an easy ride because he is glib and because he has the one drop of black blood that qualifies him for PC restraint of criticism.

I don't want to get into anyone's racial history but it seems that he puts it on the table. He is a Tiger Woods. Biracial. Multiracial. The way we will all be in a hundred years or so.

So what?

Aren't we supposed to be color blind?

Well, we are not.

The race card has and will be played over and over again.

Race is irrelevant.

I don't want to be too hard on the man. He seems nice enough. He is an outspoken Democrat.

He will have an advantage. Unlike Kerry and the other Senatorial candidates, he has no record to trip him up.

I, myself, like the Governors as a pool for President. And don't tell me that is what we have in Bush. We do. But. Well. Stammer.

Let me stick to the point.

A few years in the Senate do not a leader make—no matter how much he may be a pretty speechifier.

I say no to Obama.

PARTY BOY

I have spent a long time perfecting the 'regrets' part of RSVP. Well, there is no 'regrets' part of RSVP but you know what I mean.

Given that I am turning into a party giver and all, I figure that it is time for me to turn a new leaf.

I plan to perfect the 'yes' part of RSVP or at least the 'yes, but' which is a little more complicated.

I am aware that once you give a party you start to get invites in response.

It has already started.

I have four events that I have booked now.

Two are definite yes's. People I know will be there and the event is managable which means that I can leave anytime I want to.

I will even be going to one party alone!

Stag.

Tonight was a 'yes but' party. A guy down the street foolishly gave me the invitation while I was walking Franklin.

I could have dumped it along with the dog poop and never told John about it at all.

But, I did not. It was the point when I made the decision to say yes. I even said yes when he gave it to me and I called with the positive RSVP almost as soon as I got home.

It was a holiday sing-along. Yes, but I don't sing any religious carols. I have had quite enough of christianity in my life—particularly in the last 6 years—and the baby has been thrown out with the wash.

The time was from 5-8 PM.

Yes but I reserve the right to arrive a bit late and leave a lot early.

It said 'holiday wear'. I said yes to that. I have lots of red and white and wear them all year long. John got out our Santa hats and we wore those.

The invitation said 'hearty snacks' so I didn't eat before I went. I hate unhealthy food and that is mostly what is at this kind of thing. Hearty means fat and carbos but I figured I could reverse the sequence.

If the food was not up to snuff, I would eat when I came home (early). I think that would be a yes but.

So we went.

Let me start with the crowd. We knew no one. I thought there might be some of the neighbors there; at least of the gay persuasion. None of any persuasion.

Then the carols. There was a bar pianist who was knocking out the standards. I thought I was back in Napoleon's bar in Boston. No carols. Not to worry. Good.

No one else, except for the women, wore holiday outfits and what outfits!

Hearty snacks. Yes. Sort of. But a little hard to decipher.

We went. I said that. We looked at the house. Nice. We paid our respects to the host. He is a nice guy.

I spent quite a bit of time with his mother with whom I share a lot. Let me put it this way. We were both drinking soft drinks.

I cannot bitch about any of it really. It was nice. But I am limited as to my small talk and there was no one to lay my miniature mots on.

We came home after half an hour.

Mission accomplished.

We made a neighborly gesture. I got to try out my introvert-stress levels in a relatively disconnected situation and we got to see the house. Nice but very professional decoratorish.

Mostly, going and coming, we got to see the neighborhood at dark and the holiday lights that were up.

Once people start putting lights up on a street it starts others lighting up; chain reaction. We are looking good here in The Mesa—our section of Palm Springs.

And, best of all, John wanted to come home pretty much when I did. We do have a deal, when possible, that I can leave before him. We arrived and departed together.

The piano guy had still not played one holiday song. Not even Jingle Bells or White Christmas which isn't really a christian song.

We both had a nice supper of 'hearty' smoked turkey sandwiches with greens and Franklin got out of his crate after only an hour of isolation.

A happy family.

OK OKIES

Today's film was a musical.

Not having enough from the film of the same name, I rented the British National Theatre production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's

Oklahoma (1999)

with Hugh Jackman.

The production was mildly adapted for television with a mix of studio and live performance which is seamless.

Well, there are little seams here and there but they are not disruptive.

This is the entire production, word for word, as the movie was not.

The R&H Trust is obsessive in this regard and that is a good thing.

Jackman is arresting to say the least but all the other roles more than match.

In this production there are no standins for the ballet. The principals do everything.

And everything is more than OK.

If you really want to see the show, see this. It is three hours long and it is a flawless production of one of the most perfect musicals in stage history.

This is a 5 out of Netflix5.

THE 'I' WORD

I took a Zogby net survey today. I mean I was a respondent.

For the first time I was asked, point blank, whether I thought bush ought to be impeached.

It gave me pause.

I am split on it.

Sure, I think he is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors but can we stand more divisiveness and the diversion of interest from critical issues?

The Clinton circus told us the answer to that one is 'no'.

My party's leadership (as much as I have either) is not going to put it on the table, Pelosi says.

OK with me.

How did I answer?

I gamed the survey.

I said 'yes' so there would be a high vote for it, knowing that it ain't going to fly no matter what Rep. MacKinnon has to say about it as the door hits her ass on the way out.

A VALLEY DIVIDED

As you might expect, we are deeply involved in the debates about legal/illegal immigration.

Up to now, I had assumed that, for us, there is a net benefit to having so-called 'illegals' in the economy.

The right wing GoOPer local paper agrees with me and has some facts.

Economic benefits of valley's undocumented outweigh costs: economic analysis: Underground labor contributes $1.5 billion a year, costs county $220 million

Interesting. Not that it will change any minds as this is not an economic issue. It is an ethnic prejudice issue. Those pesky brown people again.

To me, we happen to be living in the Mexican's country. It is ours only by wars and the drawing of arbitrary lines.

There is plenty of room here.

Well, a lot of people don't think so.

These are the same people who hire the gardeners, laborers, and housekeepers with under-the-table cash.

Hypocrites are the most hostile of advocates.

WALLA WALLA WASH

I don't suppose anyone remembers Walt Kelly's Pogo.

Well, some of you do.

Every year, at the holiday time, the Pogonians would sing their own version of Christmas Carols.

So did we. A bunch of us would run around to college holiday events and sing them raucously (the only way).

Here, for example, is Churchy La Femme's unique version of

"Good King Sauerkraut, look out! On your feets uneven..."

More famously, the Fa La La La La song, thusly (sorry about the 6 verses but he added new ones each year):

Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!

Don't we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!

Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker 'n' too-da-loo!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloupe, 'lope with you!

Hunky Dory's pop is lolly gaggin' on the wagon,
Willy, folly go through!
Chollie's collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo!

Dunk us all in bowls of barley,
Hinky dinky dink an' polly voo!
Chilly Filly's name is Chollie,
Chollie Filly's jolly chilly view halloo!

Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Double-bubble, toyland trouble! Woof, woof, woof!
Tizzy seas on melon collie!
Dibble-dabble, scribble-scrabble! Goof, goof, goof!

I THOUGHT HE ALREADY HAD

Nicolas Cage plans to cut back on acting

He was so good in Moonstruck. Well, maybe it was the shot in the muscle shirt that got me.

Then he did Leaving Las Vegas. Very good and disturbing.

Then downhill.

Sold out.

Oh well.

Living in the Bahamas?

CULTURE VERSUS SCIENCE

Of course, not everyone is fascinated with the Genographic Project.

In the film that came with our kit, we saw Australian people rejecting the entire notion of descendancy from another place than their own country.

Politics are everywhere.

DNA Gatherers Hit Snag: Tribes Don’t Trust Them

WHERE DID I COME FROM?

This is a great little film on the Genographic Project which we participated in this past summer.

The Genographic Project

There are two parts so stay tuned at the end of the first one.

I find this stuff absolutely fascinating.

PROGENY

THE FIGHTING FIRST FAMILY OF AMERICA

INTERNET POLITICS

I have thought a bit about this:

The YouTube Revolution

I realize that I am almost totally engaged with the internet for my political interests and reactions.

We have no television and, while I cherish my run through of the morning paper, all the print news comes up a day late.

In the LATimes now and, to some extent, in the firewalled NYTimes, the op-ed is a bit quaint and irrelevant.

I savor the political blogs, look at the video out takes. All of it.

I am not worried about politicians becoming overly pr-sensitive; always on.

I think that they are that way anyhow. The amazing thing is that they are often 'on' about really stupid shit and show their stuff without any level of self awareness. The ego takes over and all balance is lost. You do see the man or woman for what they are.

All you have to do is watch the overly earnest george bush and you will get what I mean about this.

Anyway, Pandora's box has been opened. You can't put it all back in.

I like that there is always something new coming around the bend. That alone has to keep the cheats and liars on their toes.

LIFE, DEATH AND OTHER STUFF

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Thornton Wilder's

Our Town (1940)

adapted from the Broadway play and starring, the original Emily, Martha Scott and, in his fifth picture, William Holden as George.

Yes. They are very young.

This play often taken as an exercise in nostalgia but the play, which won a Pulitzer, is deeper than that; a meditation on life. It is not particularly a christian meditation either.

The period-ness of it helps see our modern lives in some perspective that we might not ordinarily have. We may think ourselves special but we are not. Well, perhaps especially human.

It is a little corny here and there but it is quite enjoyable to watch even in this technically awful DVD presentation. It badly needs restoration.

There are a host of great character actors from the period: Thomas Mitchell (who has been in everything lately), Guy Kibbee, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter and Frank Craven. These are the actors who made films work at that time.

What else?

It is fun to see William Holden in his first screen role. The distinctive voice and personna are just forming.

I liked it. I will give it a 4 out of 5 even if I had to squint a lot to see what was going on.

Oh. The film is distinguished to have Aaron Copland's undistinctive score. I am not a fan of Aaron who sounds the same no matter what the theme and wrote a lot of it.

SHOULDER TO THE WHEEL

GP-Jim, told me that it would take six months for my left shoulder to heal.

I had fallen on it around the middle of June and it was pretty badly bunged up.

Well, it is six months and he was right!

Amazing.

It is still a little tight but I take pains to use the arm to reach and to do other tasks. I am right handed so this takes a bit of thought.

I get occasional twinges if something tugs on it.

But my right shoulder twinges too. It is hard to tell whether a twinge is an injury twinge or an age twinge.

I have a lot of those age twinges in various joints.

I normally pay no attention to them—the price of living to a ripe age happily paid.

I have been through this rotator cuff stuff before. This is the 'worst' that I have had meaning the most prolonged.

I am glad that it is over.

A nice holiday present.

IDENTITY

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Bertolucci's

Il Conformista / The Conformist (1970)

an Albert Moravia story of Italy in the 1930's.

Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a man who wants to conform and finds too many sides to make a clear commitment to any of them.

As an avowed fascist, he is unable to complete the one task he is given to perform for the movement.

He seems like a real shit but there is a bit of the conformist in all of us. Sometimes, whole nations. Imagine.

The film is layered in memory; taking place in the mind of the un-hero as he rides to his dreaded assignment.

The scenes are lush and the effects extraordinary.

It is a beauty of a film to watch.

This reconstruction is gorgeous. Snowflakes melting on windshields gorgeous.

The emotional impact is also strong even though, at times, one is not totally sure what is going on. The memory we are seeing has fleeting flashes. Time is in bits, sometimes minutes apart. It all comes together but it takes awhile.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

DID YOU THINK HE WOULD BUY IT?

The wanker in chief basically told them to stuff it.

Bush Backs Away From 2 Key Ideas of Panel on Iraq

To this guy it is all about winning and losing.

The other day Al Gore suggested to Bush that he change his attitude. "It is not all about you".

Well, unfortunately it has become all about george.

And us too.

Don't blame me. I didn't vote for the sumbitch.

REALITY TEST

Have I mentioned that we are giving a party on January 28th? My 70th birthday and the 10th year of our life in the desert.

We started a list. People I thought would like to come. Short.

Then I switched to people that I would like to see there. Long.

I just started listing people who I had enjoyed being with or had connected with in some way (not always peacefully) or just admired or looked forward to seeing although we might not be close/close.

The listing process went on for quite a while and now it is over.

We got the invitations from the printer earlier this week. I had addressed most of the envelopes last weekend and yesterday did the stuffing, sealing, stamping and return-addressing.

As predicted, there are about 150 people we are asking. 130 actual invites, some of which are for couples.

Whew!

I had a restless night.

I think that, up to now, the theoretical prospect of the party has insulated me a little.

Now, I look at the stack and those evil thoughts creep in.

Suppose no one wants to come? (There are reply cards in each invitation).

What will people say to me about it when they see me?

Does the invitation look lame in any way. God forbid lame. Politically incorrect, radical, funny, grotesque—all right.

But please, not lame.

That kind of shit for which I have no patience at all; my less healthy mind in some sort of doomsday committee meeting.

But, this morning things seem brighter.

I got the invitation out and looked it over once again; the thirtieth time?

It is fine.

Well, a little grotesque here and there but not lame.

So, John will take the things to the PO today and that will be it.

No.

I guess it won't.

I was not prepared for the mental stir up that this is causing.

It is a good stir up.

Us codgers need to keep it moving and rolling around.

I have six weeks to practice my stage smile for all those 150 people who are going to come and have a great time.

INFAMY

December 7th, 1941. I was four years old.

I am sure that we had been to church and maybe had the Sunday noon day meal.

All I remember, really, is that my Mother was on the couch lying down and sobbing.

Had she fainted?

The radio was on and my Dad was listening intently.

That is it.

I didn't know what had happened but I think that I had it figured that our lives had changed somehow.

I was right.

In two years, my Dad would be off in the Navy serving as a radar man on a destroyer-escort across the North Atlantic and then in the Pacific.

My mother and I would do the wartime thing; saving grease, flattening cans, saving up ration coupons.

I look at those years and see that I was kind of fat and bloated. We ate a lot of starch.

The war itself? I don't think that I really got any of it except the home stuff.

I sure remember when it was over.

There were two celebrations; the war in Europe and then the war in Japan.

The inside stuff—the runup in Europe—is coming to me now as I read the novels of Alan Furst. As to the war itself, we had lots of picture books. My Dad relived every minute hundreds of times. He could not let go of it until his last years.

We are now longer in Iraq than we spent on a world wide war involving virtually all nations; even some neutral ones on the side.

And no progress.

Imagine. We started from a dead stop in 1941 and had them by the balls in 1945.

Those were the days.

Then we had leaders and followers. Now we have neither.

FLY BOYS

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was Howard Hawks'

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

with Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Donald Barthelmes, and the film debut of Rita Hayworth as 'the other woman'.

This is about men who fly the mail over the Andes. Melodrama.

On the other hand, it has some great characters and a lot of man on man love—buddy love—the kind of thing that Hawks excelled at. Friendship.

The women are not incidental but clearly do not share the bonds of the fly-guys.

The story is not too predictable. There are twists and turns so to speak.

The flying scenes are a bit gut wrenching; this, of course, without digital interference. All real, even the model planes.

I liked it a lot.

It is nice to see Grant in a non-comedy role. He works out just fine.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5; not great, but good.

GREAT MacMOMENTS

I have never seen this clip.

If you are a MacLifer like me, this film is a wonderful, teary experience.

Steve Jobs Introduces the Macintosh Computer in 1984

Just look at it and be amazed at what has happened in a short 22 years.

I remember my first Mac. It was stunning.

I never used a PC. Mac was my first and only love.

Well, I did have a Sinclair before that; the one you had to feed with a tape. The office had a Radio Shack machine for accounting. TR? I forget.

Now you know why I am a MacLifer.

I was there.

SICKENING

Here's to the Unpatriotic Act:

Joseph Padilla in Chains

Still photographs from the videotape just released by the Feds to his attorney.

This is for him to go to a dentist for a root canal.

Holy shit.

This man was marginally mental when he was arrested. He has been kept in super solitary. No one in his cell block. Tortured.

He has PTSS. He is probably mentally incompetent to stand trial. Most of the charges against him have been dropped.

This is bush's amerika not my America!

How can these Darth Vader assholes live with themselves. All three of them with a barefoot mental patient.

COOL WAR

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Billy Wilder's

One, Two, Three (1961)

with Jimmy Cagney as a Coca Cola executive trying to get product behind the iron curtain. I cannot imagine why Coke lent their name and their facilities for filming this great mockery of corporate greed and stupidity.

The film was made instantly obsolete by the erection of the Berlin Wall during its filming and was not a commercial success. Not only were the Reds not funny anymore but the premise changed overnight.

That will tell you how perishable topical humor can be in a fast moving world.

Never mind that many of the fast paced jokes are old standards dressed in Cold War trappings, it still takes someone in their 60's to get it. We understand the history and the wall is far enough behind us to be of no consequence to the humor.

Nevertheless, based on a play by Molnar (they do not say which one), this is a very fast paced farce with barely a moment to stop and think about what is going on. It might appeal to the 'younger crowd' even though it is based on yesteryears news.

I had trouble getting into it and didn't like the ingenue very much but I caught up with it in the second half.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Cagney is a great actor to watch. He did everything and we will see many of his films in this series.

In this film he is nearing the end of his career but holds every scene. He is a force of nature.

Rocking on his heels and gesticulating in his peculiar way he just barely escapes parodying himself. Red Buttons, in a very small part, even does a Cagney impression. Cagney, himself, wields a grapefruit to shove into someone's face.

He was quite a dude.

HOW LONG, DEAR LORD, HOW LONG?

I just read about this.

Backwards Bush

is a countdown clock that tells us how much longer we have to endure this.............well, I have used up all the epithets.........bush in our White House.

You can even get a key chain that you can carry when you are away from home and do not have internet access.

I know that this is a version of the glass-half-full-or-empty syndrome.

It is also related to 'a watched pot never boils'.

Obsession over time remaining only lengthens the perceived time.

So it is not for me but it sure seemed like a good idea when I first heard of it.

MAGIC

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Oklahoma (1955)

I grew up with this musical.

When it opened on Broadway, I was 6 years old and so its sound has been in the air for me since that time.

I never saw the show but as a young and apiring gay boy I had plenty of time to study the score, which I played on the piano—and sort of sang—as well as the original cast album which I mimed to endlessly.

It was to be the first of the many musicals that I saved up and bought the piano score and the original cast album.

When I got to Boston and real, live pre-Broadway shows were available almost weekly, I was primed. Second balcony seats were cheap especially at student rates. I saw 'everything'

Oklahoma blazed a new trail for musicals. It is hard to believe that this was the first show to have the music follow the story. Every song advances the plot.

It is still vibrantly alive. A revival with Hugh Jackman ran successfully just a few years ago.

I was not impressed with this film when it arrived in 1955. I was in college and too smart for my own good. I was seeing live musicals.

They opened this as a 'road show' film. Hollywood was scared of television and they ran some big screen films as events; reserved seats, limited engagements, intermissions and all.

I remember having a seat too close so it was actually torture to watch.

Now, however, 50 years later, I really enjoyed seeing this restored film in its anniversary edition.

They have restored the complete film (including the frequently chopped from the print Agnes DeMille ballet in the middle) and it sparkles and shines.

I am sure that my 'lump in the throat' reaction is a product of lifetime exposure but also, it is a damn fine film.

A small voice within still says that it is not the live show either but time does heal all wounds and the issue is really beside the point.

This is a 5 out of Netflix5.

I had forgotten what a hunk Gordon MacRea was. He and Howard Keel were the default replacements for all the uncinematic Broadway guys.

They were both very good.

WHISTLING DOWN THE PLAIN

John is in Oklahoma City where the wind comes whistling down the plain.

He got there after a snow storm and didn't mention any wind.

But, we have it here.

A new front (warmer) is coming in and there is a lot of air going by.

In fact, I started typing this post and the electric went out for a second.

So I started over and here I am.

Franklin is dubious about the wind. It is fun to get your fur ruffled and your ears stood up straight but there is too much overhead shit going on; palms swaying and so on.

We will have a good walk though.

Then, this afternoon, in one of those weird Netflix coincidences, we will be watching the 50th Anniversary Edition of Oklahoma with Gordon Macrae.

Believe me, it is just a coincidence; John being there and Gordon being here. I have my Netflix queue and it delivers the Best List on autopilot.

When the discs get here I show them in the order they arrive.

I tweaked this one a little because it is a long bugger so better on Sunday. But it would have gone on while John was 'there'.

I know that I am making way too much out of this but I am a coincidence nut. Some go for conspiracies. I go for coincidences.

I hope that the wind calms down. John is due in at 6 tonight. No delays please.