Wednesday, February 28, 2007
BLACKOUT REDUX
Another windy day yesterday and damned if we didn't lose power again for about 90 minutes. Those pesky branches falling on the wires.
So, it is another round of resetting the clocks and so on.
But it is good practice for the 'big one' or the apocalypse. Even 'the rapture' as I expect, as one of those that will be left behind, we won't know how to run the fucking electric company or anything else.
For now though the main problem was that I got behind on my computer work and there was no blogging to be done at all, at all.
The winds are over for now. All is quiet. I don't expect a third day outage.
Labels: blackout
WIPEOUT
I got a reduction in my nest egg yesterday as did everyone else. They didn't single me out.
Wall St. Tumble Adds to Worries About Economies
Anyone with half attention would have known it was coming.
I remember noticing a negative comment by Alan Greenspan yesterday, in a speech. I thought at the time that things might not be so certain.
I sure have enjoyed the runup, announcing how much we 'earned' this week and all.
I don't think that I will be running to my mate and saying we much we lost.
It comes and goes.
What goes up must come down.
More importantly, what goes down must come up.
This is good advice for many downers, not just the market.
I have been here before.
Each time there is a gyration I get less exercised about it.
It is all paper numbers anyway.
All I know is that I started retirement ten years ago with a certain nest egg and I have been taking out of it ever since and, today, I still have about the same amount in my fund as I did then.
That is the goal after all. Ain't?
The ever-normal granary. More or less, of course.
Labels: doomsday, market, retirement
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
BLACKOUT
High winds today, gusts up to 50 mph.
As far as I could tell we got only one gust. A ficus plant blew over and a lot of shit went into the pool.
But at 215 PM, the power went out for 90 minutes.
I did all the things that I can do without the electric: walk the dog, pay the bills, water the garden.
I was down to reading a book and the power came back on.
When we were walking, the guys were out there in the trucks and we kept seeing them as they cruised around trying to find the branches that had fallen on the lines.
A long process for a minor problem.
Labels: blackout
NEO NOIR
13 Tzameti (2006)
I took a leap of faith in the Netflix 'recommendations' algorithm today and watched
It was recommended highly based on my past rentals so I ordered it.
This thriller will have you at the edge of your seat.
It is not for the faint of heart.
Superviolent.
Only not.
It is fully in the noir tradition and is great to look at while the puzzles are being solved and the suspense is spinning along.
It even has the requisite noir ending.
On the other hand, nothing about the film is conventional.
I will give it a high but yet undetermined rating.
I want to think about it and I don't want to get in trouble with my viewing partner for liking it immoderately when he did not.
I should add that the suspense was jiggered by a short power failure during the viewing.
I had to go back and flick the chapters to get back to the spot we fell out.
OH. The film is in black and white. Perfect.
READING LIST
I have not book reported in awhile.
You know that I read in rotation, eh?
Literary fiction followed by pulp followed by another kind of literary fiction followed by another kind of pulp.
On the literary fiction front I am well armed with the complete works of Ward Just.
I have read a lot of them long ago but my interest in this fine author was revived by his latest; Forgetfulness which, ironically, made me remember how much I appreciated his work.
I am currently launched into reading another favorite author's latest; Jim Harrison's Returning to Earth.
I suppose that this reading is going to stimulate me to reread all of Harrison's stuff but not for awhile. I just completed the task four or five years ago.
I have standby novels for each of these when the rotation hits.
On the pulp front, I am nearly done with the 25 volume Richard Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell.
These wonderful books chronicle the career of a British soldier through his career in the early 19th Century; first in India, then Spain and, finally, France at the end of the Napoleon era.
I had been alternating Sharpe with the works of William Gibson but he has fewer than 25 novels so I ran out.
I was thinking of going to Phillip Dick but have decided not. He parallels Gibson too closely.
I am working on finding a detective series and think that I may have found one in the work of Robert Crais.
I still have a lot of Bernard Cornwell's novels to read. I am not sure whether they are literary fiction (whatever that is) or not.
But, when Sharpe is done I will put them in the rotation.
What else?
Hey!
Wake up!
This is important stuff!
REMAINS
This ought to be fun to watch:
Raising the Titanic, Sinking Christianity?
They think they have Jesus' DNA and proof that he was married and all.
And, oh! No resurrection.
It has stirred the christists up for sure.
Here is one early fact based reaction:
“Every Christian knows that Jesus the son of God and man died and rose again on Easter Sunday,” a New York Archdiocese spokesman, Joseph Zwilling, told The New York Post on Sunday. “No alleged DNA test or Hollywood film is going to change that.”
How can you argue with that logic?
Labels: christist watch
Monday, February 26, 2007
GOING POSTAL
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
Il Postino / The Postman (1995)
This film is held in awe by all but the most cynical viewers.
It is relentlessly, originally positive right to (near) the end.
The actor/writer in charge delayed a heart operation until the filming was over then died the next day.
Tearjerker.
I must, however, weigh in with just a bit of that rare cynicism.
The characters are charming, the story inviting, the acting gentle and sweet.
I love Phillipe Noiret.
But give me a break on the ending which I won't spoil in case you haven't seen it and want to.
Concocted and cooked.
That said, I enjoyed the film throughout and would not hesitate to give it a 5 out of Netflix5 if they just hadn't had to mess around with the unlikely premise of the ending.
But you might like it.
I think it is a good idea to see this film without any idea of what it is about as I did.
When it came around I didn't go because of all the gushing.
It is good. But not that good.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
EVERYTHING IS PERSONAL
What struck me in this article
Nation of Islam at a Crossroad
is that Farrakhan's health problems derive from his radioactive implant treatment for prostate cancer.
I am so happy that I didn't go that way. I had direct beam radiation.
I remember calling the hospital in Boston that was licensed to 'do' the seed thing. I was immediately subjected to a sales talk. On the phone!
I hung up.
Direct radiation was no picnic but locking those 'seeds' in your body and letting them radiate over time didn't seem right to me then and sure doesn't seem right to me now.
Farrakhan sure has to agree.
Oh. I am sure the Muslims will move to the center. Farrakhan did and the next guy will too.
Everyone does eventually.
Even me.
Well, not yet.
YOSARRIAN!!
I am very pleased that
won an Oscar last night.
Best Supporting Actor.
That has been his career. Brightening a film's entire aura; often from a corner position.
I would always go to an Alan Arkin film. He is that bankable.
I just do not think that he appears in any film that is half rate.
Maybe he chose to be in winners. Discerning.
Perhaps, by his presence, the film jumps a level of quality.
Whether he made me laugh/cry in Catch 22 or freak out in Wait Until Dark he has been a happy companion in films for all these years.
It is wonderful news and couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
PHASE I REHAB
I have been doing pretty well with my ice-bruised left leg.
A few days of pain free traveling had me plan two phases of recovery.
I would launch Phase I by taking Franklin for his walk today.
Mission accomplished.
The leg got a little tired but nothing serious. A good time was had by all.
I had planned to launch Phase II tomorrow. I would get the bike ready today and take it out in the AM for a modest spin.
My plans got waylaid.
I put some air into the tires and, on the second one, I could not get the pump gizmo off the valve stem. When I pulled, I pulled the whole valve stem right out of the inner tube.
Whooooossssshhh.
55 pounds air pressure let go in an instant.
My hair blew back.
I took this as a possible sign from the universe that perhaps Phase II was too ambitious.
At least too ambitious for tomorrow.
John helped me load up the bike and I took it to the Cyclery. On the way, I remembered that I was having some noise from the 'bracket'; the bearings that support the pedals.
When I got help taking the bike out of the Jeep, the kid noticed that the back wheel might also have a hub problem. Simplest case is a loose clip.
Could be. That is the side of the bike that hit the ice and I have not been on it since I rode back 6 weeks ago.
Gotta take a look.
So, with the tire, the bracket and the wheel hub we got a week in the shop.
Now, I do have Randy's bike all set to go. His seat settings are the same as mine and all.
But, I reconsidered my Plan II schedule and decided that it might be better for me to get the dog walk muscles all set this week and then work on the bike next week.
The universe notwithstanding; it would probably be a good idea to be conservative anyway.
I do not want any more setbacks.
It has been 6 weeks.
That is enough. Enough.
PLOT TWISTER
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was the film version of the James M. Cain novel
The Postman Always Rings Twice
with John Garfield and Lana Turner.
It is an encyclopedia of bad behavior; a classical noir template.
We saw the same story earlier in an Italian version; Obsessione (1942).
The film is famous. It is considered one of the best.
There is no denying that there is a lot to it but the plot twists keep coming back to bite themselves in the ass.
If you can get over that, the acting is quite good. Cecil Kellaway is the husband to be bumped off. A stretch. He and Lana? Come on!
Leon Ames and Hume Cronyn are battling lawyers and the sublime Alan Reed is a thug. Reed seemed to be everywhere when I was a kid; radio, television, movies. I loved the sound of his voice.
His later career was a voice artist and he ended up being the voice of Yogi Bear!
If you just let it all go and sit back and watch the thing the movie works pretty well. It is hard to believe some of it but a little wishing will make it so.
I liked it. I especially enjoyed seeing John Garfield who had a brilliant early career cut short by trouble over his politics and an early death from lifelong heart problems.
Lana Turner is a pretty good actor but you have to overlook the platinum hair and makeup. No hash slinger ever looked like that. Ever.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. It has great pieces yet the whole is wanting.
Labels: best films, noir
GIULIANI
Rudy G is way high in the GOoPer presidential nominee polls.
He won't make it.
Not only does he have three marriages, gay friends, and questionable business associates, his name is not easily spelled.
The name shouts out his national origins.
The republican party just could/would not go for it.
They want white bread.
There will be a lot of posturing over his record as a 'hero' (no snickering) of 9-11 and the like but the fact is that the average republican will not pull the lever for a person they consider their inferior.
If he wants to get nominated, he should have been born a Democrat. But it is too late.
You heard it here first.
AND THE WEINER IS.......
You probably inferred that the Oscar festivities are not on my 'must do' list today.
First, we do not have the cable hooked up to the teevee yet (12 years and counting). That is pretty much a show stopper.
But John has been known to mooch a watch at someone's house.
Not me.
Another thing. It is past my bedtime. And that is PST!
I would miss the best of the best or whatever it is.
Another reason that I will not witness the ludicrous exercise of naming the best of anything in a media so diverse, is that I have seen only one of the films being touted for best.
Little Miss Sunshine.
So, of course, all the nominees from that film (and there are a few) are my sentimental favorites.
Now, if that is not a recipe for heartbreak I don't know what is.
Finally, the awards have nothing to do with the popular cinema. The nominees are all from films that didn't do very well at the box office.
The industry gets to pat itself on the back for not producing and promoting the good stuff. They will hide behind these nominations while they produce the pap/pop that makes the money.
Not that there is anything wrong with this. Hypocrisy is a high American value. As is making money with the worst motives behind it.
I just don't want to go to the party.
Labels: films, oscars, weiners
THE CENTER DOESN'T HOLD
No. Wait a minute. This is the right we are talking about not the center.
Christian Right Labors to Fine '08 Candidate
What a sorry assed bunch of losers.
They are so undemocratic and so dogmatic that they have isolated themselves.
They are losing their puppet bush and can find no one perfect enough to meet their rarified principles.
Or compliant enough. Shall we say evil enough?
So much for the universality of the christian message.
Couldn't happen to a finer bunch; Dobson, Falwell. All the good guys.
Labels: '08, evil bastards
Saturday, February 24, 2007
EXPLOSION
Our orchid tree is totally so abloom!
Or, in plain english, it is in its second abundant season this year; its normal quota.
It didn't get any frost damage.
It is somehow compensating us for the other losses; as though it is trying harder!
Labels: botany
PRE-TEENY BOPPER
Today's Best NYTimes' Best 1176 Film was Louis Malle's
with Brooke Shields as a 12 year old prostitute, then bride and Keith Carradine as her bf and husband.
Susan Sarandon is Brooke's mom.
They live in a turn of the century whorehouse in Storyville (NOLA).
This film will push your moral buttons. No doubt. It stretched my 'progressive' tolerance as well as my ability to sit still as a 12 year old girl gets naked and does the dirty. Well, there are no sex scenes per se but everything but.
This film could not be made today. The 70's were a different time entirely. In a good way.
It easily surpasses the cringe levels of Lolita and Baby Doll.
The story unfolds against the background of the bordello life and is really quite good in that respect.
It is not an easy film to watch but it is very satisfying. The 'life' is rendered beautifully and the whole film smells of the bayou and magnolia blossom.
There are long stretches that are also sort of boring.
He needs the spice to keep the interest up. So to speak.
Good art has always supported good pornography to keep the cops off the porno producer's back.
Louis Malle was no pornographer but he did like to push the boundaries.
To give some perspective here, at least to the age thing, I can attest that my grandmother was a mother at 15 years of age so I presume that there was sex involved.
This was also at the turn of the century. My dad was the last child and I came along when he was 27 so we span the times.
But, I digress.
The point is that 'youth' is less the issue than the prostitution. I counted six rather explicit assignations with the clientele.
Ouch!
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. I don't think that I could watch it again although I am glad that I did see it.
If I were to meet Brooke Shields this afternoon I would blush.
Labels: best films, child pornography
Friday, February 23, 2007
AFTERTHOUGHT
Upon reflection, I have downgraded todays Best Film from a 5 to a 4 out of Netflix5.
Streep is just wrong in the film.
Watery eyed and weak, as usual. She doesn't come close to playing the tough mouthed heroin we expect.
Not up to it.
There are lots of good things about the movie but we are always looking at those things when Streep is on the screen.
I thought it telling that we never, ever see her having sex with Dennis Quaid.
She couldn't hack the competition.
Labels: best films, weepy streepy
Thursday, February 22, 2007
GOING POSTAL
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Mike Nichol's version of Carrie Fisher's
Postcards From the Edge (1990)
It is pretty funny and, at times, touching.
The acting is superb and there are a lot of stars who show up for short scenes.
Meryl Streep is only slightly miscast as the Fisher standin and Shirley Maclaine is super as the Debbie Reynolds Mom.
It is hard not to see the real people here. Maclaine, in particular, seems to have taken her cues from Debbie. She channels her.
Ebert is miffed that there is not more about recovery in here. I think that there is a lot.
It happens with the good people that Streep encounters; a movie director, Gene Hackman. A doctor; Richard Dreyfuss.
I dreaded seeing another Hollywood version of an AA Meeting and there are none. At all.
Great.
I see the film as being a lot more about the 'business' and relationships in it. The drugs and alcohol are a symptom.
Nichols keeps it moving and the jokes are really good.
Dennis Quaid is pleasing as ever as the sort of full time stud. Always great to look at and many scenes with only a few clothes.
Hey. It's better than looking at Meryl Streep's body.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films, weepy streepy
WATER TORTURE
This one is doing the rounds.
I got it yesterday and then Dave sent it to me from his channels.
I got the email version which Snopes corrects.
Labels: conservation, cuteness, felines, toilets
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
SLOWLY BUT SURELY
Rhode Island to Recognize Massachusetts Gay Marriages
Reciprocity.
A neat recipe to step around the referendums and all. Go direct to the altar in the other state and then come back home.
Labels: gay marriage
FACT BASED PROPAGANDA
I know that we do not want more facts.
Facts distort and bend reality.
The truth is contaminated when facts are brought into the picture. Pollution.
But, perhaps you might be amused to know the facts about the 'flypaper' theory.
That is the idea that if we fight the jihadist overseas on someone else's territory we will draw him to that site where he will be zapped and pinned down and destroyed.
While the site you choose may be a scene of mayhem, murder, and mass destruction, the rest of the world will be pristine and safe.
This theory, it would seem, is not supported by the facts.
Not that the facts matter at all. Convoluted rationalization will easily destroy the facts and disperse them to the wind.
But, for a moment, let us enter the land of facts.
Labels: facts, fool's paradise, Iraq
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
HIGH PRESSURE
We have had magazine crews in our neighborhood.
Often, there is one kid at a door saying he lives in the neighborhood; a student visiting his parents if you say that you don't recognize him.
A few times, I have 'caught' them up the hill, on another street, hanging out with the rest of the crew.
They are very good at what they do.
We bit once.
That was it.
The subscriptions were good. It is just that the lies that set the stage are hard to swallow.
Now, it turns out that this method of door-door is even harder on the kids.
For Youths, a Grim Tour on Magazine Crews
This is a very interesting article.
Another way that business has found to grind some victims down to make a buck.
Labels: scams
Monday, February 19, 2007
JAMESIAN
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was William Wyler's
This is an adaption of a play based on the Henry James novella Washington Square
Olivia de Havilland is the plain jane heiress in question and Montgomery Clift is the suitor who does/does not want her for her money.
Ralph Richardson is the critical father and Miriam Hopkins the adoring, complicit aunt.
Somehow the plot seems to write itself and then, before we know it, the film's plot is not what we had in mind at all!
I have a bit of an attitude about this type of film. I expect a film version of Classical Comics or Classics Illustrated. Watered down, popularized, bowdlerized, bland.
Not so in this case at all. Despite any effort to sit outside it, this movie grabbed me and held me down until it was through with me.
The acting is great, the story a surprise, the production is rich. What more could we want?
This is a 5 out of Netflix5. I started with a 4 and then decided that I was being unfair.
It is a great movie.
Labels: best films, films
Sunday, February 18, 2007
INTERIM
You may have inferred that, at the moment, we are without visitors.
We had a movie today. There are postings on the blog. Some clues here and there.
The folks are on the other side of the mountains for a few days; Orange County—the mouse place.
They will be back Tuesday night and stay here until early Thursday morning. Then back home.
So we are in the interim. Resting but not quite resuming normal activity.
Nice.
It is a bit like being on vacation myself.
HIGH TECH STRESS
Andrew Sullivan found this.
All of us have been caught in a beta test at one time or another.
Labels: comedy
TINSELTOWN
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Robert Altman's
This is a great movie. It not only exposes the hypocrisy of Hollywood; its shallowness, its banality (are they all the same thing? No).
It also revels in these things and flaunts them. It gets right down in the dirt and wallows in it.
Altman surely knows whereof he films. He is a maverick in a conformist town and he has seen both ends of the stick.
As it turns out, both ends are probably shitty.
Tim Robbins is totally watchable as the Player.
He is surrounded by a depth of walkon stars and cameos that are breathtaking. This could be a devastating trick to try in a film but somehow Altman makes all the star watching work.
We are drawn into the same empty game that all the people in the story are playing.
In the end, we are all players raving over the other players.
There is a great film within a film at the end. And a really neat ending that turns us on our heads once again.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Great movie.
This film will bear repetition.
Labels: best films, films
MORONS
No wonder we are about to go under as a 'civilization' and as a nation.
We are just too fucking dumb to continue as a life form.
The stupidity of moralists is astounding.
The earth warms while shitheads like these debate the use of correct anatomical words for the human body.
With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar
And these are librarians who are often found defending 'banned books'.
They don't want to find themselves having to explain the meaning of the word 'scrotum' to kids.
What retards. What boobs!
Oooops. Another word to be explained. I didn't mean tits, I meant stupid oafs.
Goddam. What is the world coming to.
Cretins!
My head is about to explode!
Labels: censorship, criminal morons, Idiots
Saturday, February 17, 2007
BUMMER
GM-Chrysler merger rumor picks up speed
I can't think of anything worse for the world of US autos.
We became enamored with/of Chrysler when we got the Jeep Cherokee 10 years ago. We still love it.
We bought the woodie '84 Le Baron off a gas station lot after we got here; the same year, 1997.
Then we bought our favorite rental car, the Sebring Convertible a few years ago.
We love the service department in our local dealer.
Now this.
G-fucking-M?
You gotta be kidding me.
It was shameful enough that they melded with the 'krauts in their present un-holy alliance but GM?
Oh. The ache. The pain.
Friday, February 16, 2007
MID POINT
The family has been here for a few days and we are doing OK.
They are off to other Southern California points today (the land of the mouse), so we will have a break before they return for their last two days next week.
There are many high points in the visit but one, certainly, was the attainment of an 80 degree swimming pool temperature yesterday afternoon.
I have been shooting for this since early December; maybe November.
We have solar heat for the pool and it works well but we must cover the pool at least at night to prevent serious radiation cooling.
There is often a thirty degree drop in temperature from the day to night.
Then, we had the record (44 year) freezing one week in January.
Hard to keep the warm when everything around it is freezing.
But, in the end, we made it.
The test was the first morning when the kids actually jumped in to try it out.
You didn't think that I was going to do a body test did you?
They went in and stayed in for quite awhile without too many trips to the spa which I keep tepid for warming up.
They have lucked out with the weather. They just made it out of New England during a nor'easter and have had weather in the 80's here while the folks back home suffered low temperatures.
There is a high smug factor to that kind of thing.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
ESCAPE
It would appear that our kids made it out through the teeth of a nor'easter today and will arrive in Ontario (CA, that is—50 miles away from PS) pretty much on schedule.
They left from Providence, not Boston. So they got rain more than snow.
I think.
Anyway, we will be having visitors for the next week, on and off, and so the blog traffic may be spottier than usual.
Labels: back east, family, nor'easters
VICKIE LYNN MARSHALL
I had hoped to remain above it all.
Anna Nicole Smith meant little to me in life. Why would I bother with her in death?
It is the prurience that got me.
Others' first; then mine.
What is it? What attracts people to this kind of sideshow?
The tales of the media's fixation are unbelievable at one level and then not at another.
In life, Smith thrived on the coverage. It couldn't end.
There have always been, usually blonde, bimbos who attract the attention of the multitudes.
In my lifetime there was the A-list including Monroe and Mansfield. And then, there were the B's.
In this most current case, there is even a bimbo intersection.
Zsa Zsa's husband, Count something or other, claims paternity for the Smith nee Marshall baby.
Zsa is a B. Even two Zsas did not elevate her status.
The train wreck is on going.
The will left everything to the recently dead son. OD.
The new baby gets it all.
All the money. Inheritance from the oil man who took Vickie Lynn in and made her a star?
The oilman's son who sued to stop Smith from getting the payday is dead and now Smith herself.
The permutations and combinations of this story are endless.
And why do we care?
For me, it was just plain curiosity. I am slowing down to take a look at the wreck.
I held out for days before I started linking into the news items.
I just couldn't stay away from it.
I have to admit that this tops most of the other similar stories that I have seen. It has everything.
Sex, of course. Geriatric sex.
Outrageous social behavior. Drunk and disorderly. Drugs.
Always tits.
Lots of tits.
Serial monogamy with very messy interfaces between one monogamy and another.
The will. The money. The legality of it all. The underground, illegal, outlaw nature of the rest of it.
Money. Money. More money.
And it is self fulfilling. The notoriety becomes a perpetual motion machine of its own.
Some 'stars' have managed to live through a bimbo stage and re-enter polite society on the other side. Liz Taylor comes to mind.
Some die with their boots on. Zsa.
There are some who are trying to make it into the bimbo hall of fame. Lindsay Lohan is coming close. Britney Spears.
There.
That is what I think about it.
A side bar: Gay men are thought to be particularly drawn to bimbos because, as we all know, they are 'women hating' and......well, I will spare you the details.
If any of this is true, it is because gay men identify with the downtrodden, the sexual outlaw, the flamboyant, the camp.
The gay crowd likes a bit more tragedy in their mix. Alcoholism will do for a start. Rejection by other men. Continual tries at a 'straight life' and failure each time.
But, for the most part this is old-time, older, drag queen interested gay man.
I think, today, that gays are equal opportunity voyeurs like anyone else.
A tragic spiral downward attracts all our attention. It is a cautionary tale, of course; a moral lesson. And, at the same time it gives a bit of a frisson at seeing the forbidden acted out. The dissolute. The sordid.
Who can't get a little bit interested in that and at the same time get a hit of moral superiority out of it.
All very interesting. And absorbing.
And who cares about global warming, Iraq, the environment, education, all that, anyway?
BOXED IN
When I was a kid, we had a Valentine's Day box in every grade up to high school.
Kids brought in valentine cards for each other and put them in the box.
Then on V-day, the box would be opened and the valentines delivered.
It was fun but it also had its edge.
Some kids got a lot of cards. Some kids didn't get as many. Some didn't get any.
Some kids couldn't afford cards and had to make their own. This was sweet and actually more of a real gesture of affection but was viewed as a lower class option. Consumerism is born. The machine triumphs over the artisan.
And then, there was the cruel edge of the 'comic' card which was a valentine insult. Some kids got a lot of those.
I suppose that this was good practice for the slings and arrows of the social system that we would all grow into.
Sad, nonetheless.
I was not a popular kid but I was also not unpopular.
I got some cards.
I don't remember any nasty ones. But, I wouldn't. I had a good healthy ego which would bounce that off.
I dealt with it. It formed an attitude towards life.
I came to understand that living to please others might seem profitable at the valentine box but that it exacted a high price which I was unwilling to pay.
I opted for medium or low popularity. Conformity was not a goal.
We were talking about this in the spa last night.
John suggested that PC would prevent such a thing happening now. Maybe everyone has to make their own cards and send them to everyone. Maybe there is a drawing!
I am glad I don't have to be a kid today.
I am going to ask Randy if his class has a valentine box.
BIG DADDY
Take a look at this.
Sperm Donor Father Ends His Anonymity
What a wonderful story.
Labels: fathers
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
DARK ANGELS
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
Careful. Ebert's review is basically a spoiler so just scan it.
A four year old loses her Mom in an auto accident.
It is utterly original and is exclusively from the child's point of view.
We see it all. Well intentioned 'christian' adults. Curious and misinformed (as well as cruel) children.
Little by little the loss adds up. The little girl begins to accept the death and to see how it fits in her own life.
I was apprehensive about seeing it. I don't like 'weepers'.
I am quite willing to weep but I don't want the formula used on me.
This has no such trick of the trade.
It is all cooked up au naturel.
I will give this a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films, films
EDDY ARNOLD
I found myself humming and yodeling Cattle Call this morning (hear the sample at the site). I was loading grocery bags into the Jeep.
It was his theme song.
I had a crush on Eddy Arnold for many years.
I think that I still do.
I would stop and listen to any cut that was playing.
He was not strictly country and western. He was beyond genrés.
If you want to hear him sing (including the 'call') try this:
There are two other similar bits adjacent.
He has a website which is a little ramshackle.
But, I imagine Eddy is a bit ramshackle too. He is 89 years old and, as you will see, absolutely retired.
He is a phenomenal artist and had world wide success.
By some measure, he is figured to have sold more records than anyone else.
But his career was longer than anyone else's.
Fifty years.
But none of this matters to me. He always, always gave me a shiver which had nothing to do with his artistry. He was a very sexy guy. And I had a crush on him.
Labels: country, crushes, heroes
Monday, February 12, 2007
ICE SIMPLE
I know we live in a high tech world and all but we take the simple things for granted sometime. There is an endless satisfaction for me in examining the low tech.
Consider the ice maker in your refrigerator.
It is a slick little device. Elegant. The most bang for the simplest buck.
I watched the repairman work on ours today.
It is an intricate little mother. And, it goes and goes and goes.
Our refrigerator is over ten years old. The ice machine is still going.
The whole refrigerator is like that. Very simple.
The guy says not to get a new one. It is not worth it.
There is no brand differentiation anymore. All of them are made off shore.
The one you have that is an old war horse is better made and will last forever. It is easily and cheaply repaired.
Labels: appliances, ice, technology
BLOCK OF ICE
We had to call in the refrigerator people to fix the ice maker.
Suddenly, last Thursday, there were no cubes tumbling out of the machine.
I considered pulling the refrigerator out to look at the little tube running from the cold water line but just couldn't do it.
Actually, when the service guy came, the first thing he did was try the water spigot right next to the ice spout.
Shit. Why didn't I think of that?
So. No water supply problem.
We never did pull the refrigerator out.
This guy was like a surgeon taking the machine apart. He even had a large version of the dentists mirror (a dental surgeon of course) to peer into the interior.
He diagnosed a faulty water valve or a frozen delivery line.
He checked the line first. Voila! Ice.
Did we have any water shutoffs recently?
Yes, over three weeks ago.
Did we shut the ice cube machine off first?
No we did not.
Aha!
We should have!
I never knew that.
So he just let the machine go with an un-iced line and if that doesn't work we will get the valve.
We already have about 3 dozen ice cubes.
I guess it was just blocked.
I swear, if I live long enough, I will know everything I need to know like when to shut the ice machine off.
And just at the moment I know it all, poof! I will have my ticket punched.
I told the guy that.
He said 'think of me'. I spend my whole life learning how to be a perfect repairman; practice makes perfect. I learn more every week. Just when I have it all together, it will be time to retire.
And so on.
Badinage with the repairman to keep things moving along happily.
This 'experience' and 'wisdom' cost me 65.00. He didn't charge any more than the basic 'come to you' fee.
Nice.
Labels: ice, repairman humor, repairs, wisdom
OH
It is Lincoln's birthday too but we have always celebrated that.
The City of Palm Springs offices are closed today for Abe.
You can bet your ass that they will be closed for the rest of the Presidents next Monday too.
Awful.
Labels: birthdays, civic pride
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Charles Darwin—February 12th, 1809
He was 22 when he went sailing on The Beagle.
He published Origin of the Species in 1859.
It sold out immediately!
SECOND
It would be neglectful of a long standing rivalry not to mention that MIT has had a woman, Susan Hockfield, as President for several years.
What is more, she was not appointed in reaction to a political / cultural scandal within the august bodies of its faculty.
She got the job because she was good and it was time.
Harvard has always been the second class university in Cambridge, MA.
Too little too late.
Drew Gilpin Faust: Coming of Age in a Changed World.
Congratulations and best wishes to the new comer.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
IO PLUME
I don't care much about what or why the plume is there.
I sure do love this picture though.
I look at the APOD every day and usually yawn at the latest universe shot.
There are so many of them. They all look the same to me.
But, I live for one of these photos. Something totally unique. Beautiful for itself.
Today, a winner.
Labels: APOD, photography
LONG LIVE THE KING
If you have never seen Eddie Feigner pitch softball (live) then you have missed one of the 20th Century's great phenoms.
Known as The King And His Court, Feigner and his pals toured the country for years beating the shit out of every other player of the sport whether amateur, professional, whatever.
When I was a kid, The King and His Court came to our town and did a show.
They were at the caliber of the Harlem Globetrotters.
You saw it but you could not believe it.
Now, no more pitches. The King is dead.
Eddie Feigner, 81; showman of fast-pitch softball's 'King and His Court'
Somewhere, a new King is arising.
Eddie Jr. toured with his Dad for many years but he has aged out as well.
Fertile territory for some young man.
But, those days may be over. I would like to think not.
But, I fear we are at the point where the idea of getting up and going to a ball park to see a man fast pitch every comer into the ground is an anachronism.
Eddie was the King of his era and both he and the era passed together.
Good timing.
And what a great last name for a pitcher!
They have one thing wrong in the obit. Feigner was not an 'ex'-Marine. There are no 'ex'-Marines.
He was, for the record, the spittin' image of a marine drill sergeant.
NOIR
So, I wondered where the term 'film noir' came from but was always afraid to ask.
As it turns out, few people know the answer as the term is retrospective.
It was invented to categorize a whole class of films made in France and then here; the dark, the pulpy, the downer.
According to the Book Section of the LATimes, the term derives from from the paperback editions of hard boiled crime fiction that Gallimard published in postwar Paris under the title Série Noire
Many films were made or influenced by these books. The 'film noir' category was formalized with Paul Schrader's 1972 article "Notes on Film Noir".
I have cribbed this from a review of another book on the subject.
Go here if you want to know more:
John T. Irwin's 'Unless the Threat of Death Is Behind Them'
Labels: best films, noir
LABELS
I have not been using my 'labels' feature.
So I just went back and added some from the day that they offered the service.
I don't take it too seriously as I don't think the tool applies to this type of blog. But, it is fun to play with.
Labels: blog, features, fun, labels
SHOTS
Today is the last part of the party we held two weeks ago.
Did I tell you about it?
Yes. Go see January 28th.
I turned 70! We had a few people over.
Huge. Including a wonderful east coast kid contingent.
We had pictures taken. Professional.
They are pretty good.
So I went through them and picked out one or two or more for as many people as I could and had them printed.
I ended up with 175 prints!
I will send them out today to the 120 or so who are pictured.
I thought it a nice touch to finish off the whole event.
Labels: me me me, Party, photos
Saturday, February 10, 2007
BILL COMING ON STRONG
Look at this:
National Journal asked its insiders: Which long-shot 2008 presidential candidate has the most potential to emerge as a serious contender for your party's nod? The results were as follows:I will grasp at any straw.
Democrats:
Bill Richardson: 46%
Tom Vilsack: 25%
Chris Dodd: 23%
Wesley Clark: 4%
Joe Biden: 2%
Mike Gravel: ---
Dennis Kucinich: ---
Labels: election, polls, Richardson
RECOVERY
If you will remember, we had a severe freeze about three weeks ago.
It hit a lot of our shrubs but, we believe, not lethally to the plant. The leaves got burnt but not the wood.
Now, there are the little beginnings of buds on the hibiscus and the bougainvillea. Just the barest little sign of them.
Spring.
We will have our own version this year.
Labels: horticulture
MACMANSION
We are about to have our own personal moment with the new social plague; the greed ridden bastards who build monster houses on little lots.
The kind that have no yard and no sensitivity to the surrounds.
Since we are on a hill, they can do two stories. Don't ask.
This monster will overlook our pool.
I, for one, will not stop swimming naked. That is determined.
Of course, by then, we will also have a high enough hedge or trees so that we won't have to look at their bare asses either.
There is a hue and cry in the neighborhood about it.
There is a hearing before the Planning Commission next week.
I don't expect much help.
Their hands are tied by underwritten, lax, developer-centric regulations that make this kind of thing almost unstoppable.
It is too bad.
They might send them back for a re-do. It severely impacts the neighborhood of simple homes. Where there are big ones they are set back on large lots.
Respectable.
Sensitive.
I won't get too into all this.
It is our time.
We have potential construction lots on three sides; this one, a tennis court to an estate which could be subdivided and a potential tear-down just across the drive.
Hell, we think that ours could be a tear-down someday.
They might get two lots out of it too.
It is a plague.
One of those modern ones that you know are part of the deterioration of social responsibility.
It has something to do with the fucking republicans too, I am sure.
Labels: evil bastards, greed
SPOOKS
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was
I don't even want to write about it.
It is so manipulative that I watched the whole thing.
But I am not happy about it.
It is one of the 'best' because it has Spielberg's fingerprints all over it.
Everyone kisses his ass.
A good horror flick needs to be gritty and this is not gritty. It is overbuilt.
High production values.
The family is too nice, they have too much stuff, there is a lot of diversion by 'cute'.
In short, it sucks.
I will give it a 2 out of Netflix5.
There is not one thing that I didn't see coming. Well, mostly.
Labels: best films, stinkers
STRAINING TO BE FREE
You can feel it in this large state; a strong momentum toward independence from the confines of national identity and policy.
We have long been held as 'different' than the rest. Now it is indelibly true.
We are working to have our own air standards.
We have established our own stem cell research.
We are at the forefront of the immigration question.
In these and many other policy areas there is a desire to go our own way.
It is an interesting process.
Others have noted it.
Here is a nice summary.
Labels: California, geopolitics, states rights
Friday, February 09, 2007
BLADE RUNNER
We watched the 'platinum' edition of Blade Runner today.
That means that we saw the director's cut without the narration and the 'happy' ending.
I don't know what else was different but it still held up.
It is a 'best film' and so I have broken the rule and seen one twice.
Oh well.
We did it because the last issue of Los Angeles Magazine had a great 8 or 9 person group interview on the making of the film (unavailable on the web).
It piqued our interest.
I don't think that I will watch it again though.
Labels: best films, dick
BOBBLEG
I am now in my 4th week of recovery from the ice spill.
I gave up the cane a week ago or more.
I am no longer limping.
I have just a slight bobble now.
Sometimes not even that.
Another injury chapter closing
I am starting up the afternoon dogwalk again. John has been a good trouper to stand in for me.
I hope to be on the bike next week but a lot depends on my strength on the down stroke. I am doing some walking up steps with the leg just to get it ready.
Onward and upward.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
RICHARDSON SPEAKS
Here are some planks for the platform:
Richardson: Out of Iraq This Calendar Year
No quibbling or waffling from this candidate!
For those who have not heard him, there is a great little video at the end.
Labels: election, Richardson
CATCH UP
Just for starters. If there is catsup and ketchup why can't there be catchup?
That said, I realize that I have hit one of those dry spells in the blog.
This is not because there is nothing to write about.
It is more a matter of ambition.
Since the party I have been 'sleepy' a lot. Perhaps depressed some?
I lack focus and energy. I fall asleep during my interenet reading. I nod over books.
Last night I went to bed an hour early and woke up a little later than usual.
Just now, I am typing well but there is a sandy feel to my eyes. I am about to nod. oooooooooohhhhhh. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Hey!
So.
There has been a lot going on.
We had the Jeep in for some work.
I didn't tell you (or, for awhile, anybody) that I had an auto accident a couple of weeks ago.
It was dark. I was turning from a right to a left middle lane prepping for a turn. There was a car in the lane.
We touched.
The bumper of the other car hit my left rear wheel.
Skinned the bumper and left a mild dink in my wheel.
Yes, it involved insurance.
Yes, I had to be found at fault because I was.
This is not the first time I have been at fault for a minor accident. But it is the first time we had to make it official.
Only with the insurance company. The other driver and I both have AAA.
So, I will have to lose my safe driver discount on my insurance bill I guess. No one will tell me how much that is worth.
I can wait.
Anyway, the adjuster suggested that I get a new wheel for the Jeep as the ding could cause trouble with a sudden blowout. Is that redundant?
I have been working with the photos from the party.
I want to send prints to everyone who has a reasonably good shot in the 210 or so that he culled out as the best.
It has been fun to go through and copy them out to the disc.
Reliving the party.
Today, I will go and leave them for reproduction; 4x6. Then I will send them off.
The camera here is a Brownie Hawkeye. It is the first real camera that I owned.
It had a flash with bulbs! The blue bulb is for color film.
It did a great job.
I am doing pretty well here.
I have given myself a smart slap on the back to get my blog breathing going again.
Or, in this case, a good thump on the chest to get my heart pumpin'.
I have conveyed some news--even a deep secret.
I would say that I am probably back in the swing of the thing.
It never fails.
When I am down in the dumps, the best way out is to start walking.
Watch all the metaphors fly around!
Labels: auto accidents, condiments, health, me me me
NOT GOING DOWN WITH THE SHIP
I gotta hand it to the 'serious seven'.
Is it possible that some good Republicans can save their own party from the horrendous embarrassment of quashing debate on the Iraq War?
May be.
They are going to stick it out and attach their bill to every piece of legislation that comes up.
7 GOP Senators Back War Debate
I figure that the one of our biggest problems is the mindless, lock step, compliance of bush' own party in backing whatever he does.
The line has wavered before but now seems to have broken.
Good for them.
It is also clear that the 'press' on stifling debate was not good and that this time the public has really, really, had enough of this shit.
Will the GOoPers who lead the party listen?
Only time will tell.
Labels: politics, republican whack jobs
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
MULE TRAIN STOPS
When I was a kid, I loved to listen to
He had a big voice and seemed to have a generous heart. There was not a time that he did not have a hit going on the charts.
He was also cool when cool was not something crooners had.
He got tagged as a singer for western television shows and movies.
One of his best bits was as the voice over the theme in Blazing Saddles.
I am writing about him because he died today at 93!
Good for him.
I aspire to that ripe age or its environs.
He comes alive on his website
PARTY PIX
We have been having fun with the photos from the birthday party 012807.
The photographer delivered the disc Sunday night and I now have them installed on two computers and a backup disc.
I have sent a few email photos to people who are close.
This is a wallow in good feelings.
Very nice.
I plan, eventually, to get a photo to everyone who came and has a photo in the deck.
I think that he missed only a very few.
I am not going to put them on line and you will not see any of them here.
I like the anonymity in life and I try to preserve it for the people who I interact with when I write or work with the blog.
Actually, I don't think that I have ever put my own photo on here either. And do not intend to.
Franklin has made an appearance here. He craves attention.
The house has appeared from time to time. A car.
But no people.
I can tell you about the photos though.
What fun they are.
Labels: me me me, Party, photography
WAR
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was Oliver Stone's
This is an anti-war war movie. The issues are generic. You could show this today and get about the same resonance with current affairs.
Stone was intimately involved with the Viet Nam War; a middle class kid who volunteered to be in an army drafted up from the unprotected strata of our society—the poor, the minority, the badly educated.
They turn out to be, also, the brave and the good.
The themes here are fairly simple. There is Charlie Sheen, (paralleling his Dad's performance in Apocolypse Now). He is the innocent. Tom Berenger, with that nasty scar on his face is the devil. I could not stop noticing his resemblance to george bush. Really.
Willem Dafoe is the good guy/hero christ figure. If you think that is too heavy, take a look at the billboard on that carton.
Both play on the recruit throughout while we see the 'realities' of a war that we never understood and still cannot comprehend.
Even those of us who were against it didn't really articulate completely why it seemed so evil to us.
Stone helps with this in very specific terms.
There is nothing heroic about this picture, although it does have heroes.
It is a 5 out of Netflix5 as far as I am concerned.
Labels: anti-war, best films
Monday, February 05, 2007
GREAT SCRIBBLING NEWS
The Illustrated Daily Scribble
has returned!!
Charles Pugsley Fincher.
This is the bar-none best political commentary sites that exists.
His Cheney is a classic.
Evidently, he is not daily but 'every so often'.
Whatever is great for me.
Labels: bushie, cartoons, scribble
EEEEEEK!!!
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
Clint Eastwood stars and debuts as a director for this cautionary tale about a groupy gone gonzo.
It is a thriller and we saw it before so a little of the spin was taken off it.
He looks a little dumb about what is happening but I accept the argument that a stiff prick has no caution and that he gets into this mess as a result of his cocksman ways. His brain does not engage.
The 'filler' is beautiful; long walks along the Monterey coastline, lyrical love scenes, the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Most thrillers rely on a second plot or some other distracting device. This film just takes the scene and the scenesters and lets them weave the spell which helps us forget Evelyn and her magic blades. She is a cutter/slasher. The worst.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. It is good but not that good and Clint's heavy handed way with the direction is a bit obvious at times.
Still, it is a good head cleaner.
Look out! Here she comes!
Labels: best films, Carmel by the Sea, Clint Eastwood
Sunday, February 04, 2007
THUG LIFE
Here. This is the article that I read about the Bear who had too many guns.
The thing is that it is not remarkable.
He is just one in a series.
Labels: criminal morons, football, sports
DEPRESSION
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Robert Benton's
This is a boy's memory of his mother (Sally Fields); how she becomes a widow close to financial ruin and barely pulls out of it with the help of a black man (Danny Glover) and a blind man (John Malkovich). East Texas in 1935.
There is also a subplot with Field's sister Lindsay Crouse and Ed Harris.
Ebert doesn't see how these two story lines come together but I do not think that is the point.
This is a story of rememberance and fidelity.
The coming apart and back together in the subplot provide a balance to Field's loss.
I don't want to debate it. But, I don't feel the same way.
Benton's films wander. Nobody's Fool with Paul Newman is such a film. It is a different take.
There are great scenes including a tornado that will pick you up and put you down again with great force!
The ending in this film is quite spectacular.
I liked it a lot and will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films, films
NEW LOOK
New Blogger offers the possibility of a new look.
I just stuck my foot in the water and it felt too hot but I will try again later and see if I have the courage to continue.
Labels: Self Absorption
NEW BLOGGER
I have finally moved to the New Blogger run by the new owner, Google.
I was in the countdown and did it just before my 'last chance'.
I hate to make these changes. I have been caught in cyber-space a fwe times when stuff got switched or changed. I feared this one. I have over 3000 entries at stake.
But, they made us do it. We were warned.
I had a lot of time to get mentally ready for it.
Today was the day.
So far, so good.
The only thing that I see new new here is the ability to use labels.
A feature of dubious value. I will try to keep it up though I will not go back and label past entries.
Will I?
Labels: Self Absorption
REAL SPORTS
When you have had enough of the big guys in pads having at each other and you want to see a real sporting event, take a look at this video:
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for link
Labels: sports
SUPER BLOW
The world will stop today as two teams meet and pummel the shit out of each other to move an obloid inflated ball to one end or another of a field.
They will play according to a mess of rules which I do not comprehend.
They will celebrate violence.
They will triumph in their egos as they dance in the touchdown zone and act like fucking idiots.
There will be ads.
The ads are part of what the world stopped to see.
And so on.
Horseshit.
I will not be watching.
We do not even have teevee hooked up.
No internet peeks either.
There is a new wrinkle this year though.
The true criminal element of the player roster is higher than ever. There is this guy who has all kinds of weapons charges and so on? I was too bored to even read the article in the sports? section.
This big criminally minded moron is considered a star and role model for young black men.
No wonder young black men are in so much jeopardy right now.
Don't get me started.
Oh.
I did get started.
I have to admit that there is a bright side. Two black coaches for the first time. See photo.
For those of you watching and 'enjoying' the 'fun' of this wonderful event, don't take my remarks personally.
Labels: criminal morons, football, sports
Saturday, February 03, 2007
LEZBO POLITICOZ
Dan Savage has at the Cheneys for their non-political baby.
Mary wants it both ways.
I like the last para.
Yeh. What about the kid?
OUR MAN GOES TO NEW YORK
There are conductors who compose and composers who conduct but our guy does both fabulously.
This is refreshing. In Boston, we had a conductor who couldn't really do much of either and when he wasn't doing it he wasn't there but in Japan someplace.
A Conductor’s Concerto, Influenced and Inspired
Here Esa Pekka is the star and deservedly so. He is of the community. A public presence.
It is great to see him shoot his arrow through the Big Apple.
I read that the piano work is fiendishly difficult.
BALDERDASH
Today's NYTimes Best Film was George Stevens' torquing of Dreiser's American Tragedy
Dreiser's complex story about the corruption of values in the capitalist system boils down to a love triangle between Montgomery Clift and a lower class dame (Shelley Winters) and an upper class dame (Elizabeth Taylor).
Of course, I have reduced Steven's complex story down to a single sentence and there you are.
It is mostly horseshit.
But, it does present a cynical view of 50's values. I can't object to that even if it is watered down.
Dreiser was raising his literary eyebrow to the same kind of thing in the 20's.
Life goes on. History repeats.
Clift is stunning. Young and dewy and as yet uncorrupted as his character is.
Taylor is Taylor.
The heavy lifting in this film is by Shelley Winters.
She was a great actress who was often asked to play troubled women. She did so sympathetically and powerfully.
I can only make a 3 out of Netflix5 for this I am afraid.
It has some great stuff in it but the fundamental romantic stuff is too icky to let go.
Maybe I just don't like Elizabeth Taylor.
She is the opposite of Winters. All glam, eye shadow, lip gloss. Shallow. The rich bad girl who never gets taken down.
Well, that is what they let her play. Of course there was National Velvet. She is a long way from that here.
Later, there was Virginia Woolf.
Pretty good.
It is the interminable mid-career that I don't like much.
AFTERGLOW CONTINUED
I am still seeing people who were at the party last week and they all say that they had a great time!
I didn't mention one 'gift' that we found after the party.
There were two Sacagawea dollars left here and there. They had 'happy birthday' stickers on them.
Anonymous gifts. So sweet.
It makes me feel a lot younger.
When I was a kid it was not unusual for someone to give you a silver dollar or half dollar for your birthday.
But they never had stickers on them.
Very nice.
Friday, February 02, 2007
PROGRESS
My leg is getting a lot better from the bicycle-on-ice accident that I had on 011507.
I plan to go out sometime soon; Monday? Maybe.
I was told that I had to get a new helmet since the old one hit the pavement first.
I can see the crack in the foam from where it hit.
The deal is that the old one is no good after it has a hit; like an air bag in a car. It has been deployed/crushed/cracked—done.
I went into the bike shop yesterday; my neighbor's. He wasn't there.
But I got this young whippersnapper who had it all down; the facts, the details, the right way to fit it and all.
He was the height of knowledge and enthusiasm.
Just when I think that young people are losing their marbles something like this happens.
A smart young man or woman shows up to prove that things are the same as they always were; competent, bright, positive, personable, attractive people coming on-line.
I didn't ask him if he listened to rap music or not. I didn't want to spoil it.
But, I digress.
I got a Bell™ from Canada. $50.00. Second tier of quality.
Nothing special. Slate grey.
They have a lot of easy does it technology on the straps. I liked that.
I learned that I wore my old helmet too tight. There needs to be some play.
It should be tight enough, though, to fold your forehead skin when you turn the helmet left or right.
You should not be able to push the helmet off in any direction.
And, when you have an accident, you should go get a new helmet especially if it is cracked.
For $35.00 US, Bell will send you a 'free' replacement. Huh?
That's it. Another adventure in shopping.
PREVIEW OF COMING ATTRACTIONS
We are loaded with bluebirds, robins and other birds headed north.
They are stopping over just now for r 'n' r in Palm Springs.
They aren't stupid; they, and 30,000 snowbirds, are hear for the 'waters'!
I have a note that we saw a huge flock of robins in the Canyons on January 31, 2001.
I suddenly found myself thinking of robins. We turned a corner and there they were.
I know now that their song had invaded my brain subconsciously and so I was ready when I saw them.
There are no robins here year round; nor other birds that we would see in the northeast or northwestern parts of the country.
I saw few bluebirds when we lived up north. Here, we see them for a few weeks every year; more than we have ever seen in just one season. Beautiful.
This is mocking bird country. Hummingbirds. Doves. Quail. Roadrunners. Tough sumbitches that can handle the heat.
There is a mountain version, larger, that lives up on San Jacinto. More like a blue jay but not. Big.
Birds. When I lived in the city I didn't think about them much at all.
POINT MADE
The craziness in Boston over a PR campaign for a teevee cartoon is a good example of how the terrorists are winning their war.
People are stricken stupid by their fear of attack.
And there are enough Barney Fife's running around to make a scene out of it.
Mayor Mumbles Menino didn't help a lot either.
Meanwhile, the same campaign was run in 9 other cities. The worst thing that happened is that the displays were stolen and then auctioned on eBay (1500 clams).
It is an embarrassment to a former resident.
But not too much.
When it comes to 'chicken littling' Boston has no monopoly.
POTTERING AROUND
I have ordered the new and last Harry Potter due out July 21.
We started reading these ten years ago, and goddammit, we are going to finish reading them this year.
All in all, the readings have been enjoyable but, I must admit, my attention has wandered a little.
I don't like all the characters and I get annoyed at the repetitive nature of some of the 'business'.
But, it is a major achievement to have done this and the appropriate way to honor it is to slog on.
I never go to the movies incidentally. Basic rule: no books where I have seen the movie; no movie when I have read the books.
There are a few exceptions to this (Empire of the Sun) but there is nothing in Harry Potter that would have me break the rule.
There will be a big fanfare. Amazon will deliver all the books on one day via FedEx. We will put it in the rotation to read and then we will have at it.
A long project will be over.
If I feel like this, imagine how Rowling feels!
Now, she can go spend all that money!
Thursday, February 01, 2007
A SAD GOODBYE
to Molly Ivins, the happy warrior.
I love this picture of her.
This is a better than average appreciation of her life.
I have read her over the years. She used to be on NPR. She was hilarious.
But hilarious to the point; a lesson, a point of view, a thoughtful criticism of 'well ordered' society.
She gave me courage to be an outspoken progressive, a liberal, a critic of the establishment.
Well, I was the latter all my life. She helped me to be more focused about it. I knew there was something wrong, I just wasn't able to articulate it very well.
In that respect, she gave a lot of folks a voice.
It is a great loss.
Sometimes the good do die young. But the good do so much more than the rest of us that the impact of their life is not in any way diminished.
BILLIONS
I don't know why people are so upset about Exxon making record profits.
(Disclosure: they used to be clients of my former company)
What with the administration pushing the ways and means for them we are seeing the power of capitalism at work.
I think that oligarchy is a fine form of government.
I, for one, am proud to have been one of the many Southern Californians who supported their march to the record.
This is like the Super Bowl of greed.
They be d'winners.
BILLIONS
I don't know why people are so upset about Exxon making record profits.
(Disclosure: they used to be clients of my former company)
What with the administration pushing the ways and means for them we are seeing the power of capitalism at work.
I think that oligarchy is a fine form of government.
I, for one, am proud to have been one of the many Southern Californians who supported their march to the record.
This is like the Super Bowl of greed.
They be d'winners.
