Saturday, June 30, 2007
A LOT OF BULL
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Scorcese's
More Scorcese vitriol about his own people.
The biopic of LaMotta. Robert DeNiro. With a variably sized squashed fake nose. I think they cauliflowered his ears too.
I endured half of it.
Scorcese alternates between scenes of ring violence—very loud, smoky and bloody—and unbelievably trite and almost inaudible home scenes with the Bull and his Miss Vicky.
OK. I get it. He is violent and a force to be reckoned with in the ring. He is a total flop as a lover or husband. A shit.
Scorcese loves to show us these half wits trying their hand at life.
And the very annoying Joe Pesci. Again. Has he been in anyone's films but Scorcese's?
There is no dramatic tension. The fight sequences are brief; the trite flipping of calendar pages. The at-home scenes are boring to the extreme only enlivened by some occasional wife beating.
What is Scorcese's preoccupation with low class Italian behavior all about? The macho posing. The violence. The immature responses to life situations. The impotence.
Movie after movie.
He has embellished on the stereotype. He has created a new cartoon version of his own people. The post modern wop.
I have the same reaction to the fascination with the Soprano family.
What is up with this?
Why is there an audience for it?
I am not in the fan base.
This will get a usual Scorcese 1 out of Netflix5.
Actually. there is a new rating on the Netflix site. A circle with a cross bar. It means something like 'no way'.
Are there any more of Marty's films left on the list? I hope that I have seen the last of him.
Labels: best films
CRUISE CONTROL
I have to admit that I view any bad publicity about Tom Cruise as a good thing.
He is so annoying. I greet any new bad news about him with pleasure.
Schadenfreud.
And in the right language too.
Tom is pissing off the Germans!
The interesting thing about arrogance is that it is no proof against blindly stepping into controversy.
In fact, in Cruise' case, the arrogance almost assures getting his dick in the wringer.
“Scientology is a totalitarian ideology,” said Berthold Graf von Stauffenberg, the eldest son of Colonel Stauffenberg and a retired West German army general. “The fact that an avowed Scientologist like Mr. Cruise is supposed to play the victim of a totalitarian regime is purely sick.”.
Of course, TC's religion wouldn't be much of an issue if he did not wear it on his sleeve, jam it down others' throats, and pose as the poster boy of his movement.
If you care to join in the bashing, here is the whole thing.
Plot Thickens in a Tom Cruise Film, Long Before the Cameras Begin to Roll
Friday, June 29, 2007
DOG SHIT ON ROMNEY'S SHOE
This has been brewing all week.
I was enraged when I first read the story.
It appears that I am not alone.
He is such a fucking dork.
Next is 'dog bites man back'.
What is reprehensible is that he thought (or his campaign did) that this was a good example of his resourcefulness and cool.
Like I said. A fucking dork.
And a criminal one as well. What they did is legally inhumane.
There is no doubt about Romney's IQ or business acumen. But he is totally tone deaf around issues that matter to real people. Like dog lovers.
Labels: criminal morons
FOUR TIMES A'READY!
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Kurosawa's
This classic, a masterpiece, is still hot stuff after a half a century.
The question of truth and its versions has been addressed by other directors since then but the template is still Kurosawa's wonderful film.
And the wonderful actor Mifune. I notice that in many shots he looks like James Dean! Really. Obviously not the one shown. I will have to find one.
The Criterion restoration is quite wonderful.
A 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Thursday, June 28, 2007
SOPHISTRY ON A BUN
From The 77% Weekly
The 40 Out Of 52 Weeks A Year Newsletter
of Rabbi Brian & Religion-Outside-The-BoxSame Sex Marriage as a Bacon-Double Cheeseburger.
Many Americans will not eat pork.
Many Americans site biblical injunctions as their reasoning for not eating pork.
And, many Americans will not eat pork for other religious or health reasons as well.
Nonetheless, in America the sale of bacon is still legal.
Labels: gay marriage
VOICES FROM THE PAST
I got an email from one of my MIT room mates today.
He wanted to know if I was going to the fiftieth reunion next year.
I haven't heard from him (or he from me) in 35 years.
Just a lost connection.
I started to write the email reply and then stopped.
I had the number. Why not call?
So I did.
He was there and sounded much the same.
We ran through some history; brief profiles.
He worked for big corporate America then quit and started his own company. Plastics.
I did somewhat the same. Management training.
Both of us have done OK and do not regret a moment of our lives.
It was pretty nice.
But it is clear that we could only take so much. After about 10-15 minutes we started to flag.
We said goodbye with a promise to stay in touch.
I don't know if we will but it is nice to think so.
I took down his email address and phone.
I will put a note on the calendar that we talked today.
Maybe 6 months.
We have something in common. I am going to start working with the MIT Educational Council and interview young people interested in applying to the school. He has done it for 15 years.
Maybe I will call him after I talk to a few kids.
I am not going to the reunion.
Like I said to him. It isn't a matter of principle as much as a matter of interest.
It used to be a matter of principle. Anti war stuff and all that. Not now.
Keerist, we are all anti-war now.
Labels: nostalgia
GETTING A HEAD
I cut my long hair off today. Four years worth.
Well, I didn't do it.
I went to a barber that I used to attend. He didn't remember me but he is something of a jerk so I didn't take it personally.
He is a pretty good barber though. You just have to steer clear of the rapids when canoeing down his conversation flow.
Block that metaphor.
I ordered the traditional. Number two thing on the clipper, no taper, no ear lowering, natural at the back of the neck. No powder please. No mustache trim.
It looks good. I am used to it. It is my default haircut for my entire life.
I got my first buzz when I was a freshman in high school. It had started as a thing to do among the seriously hip (meaning the seniors and jocks).
I remember that my barber almost refused to do it. Called my mother. We told him we would go elsewhere. He did it.
When you go for something that strong, you stick with it.
I have had the long hair several times.
John has the pony tails. I saved mine from this time too.
I am happier without it. It is time for a change.
I was beginning to get all fussy about getting my hair wet in the pool. Just like my mother.
It was also getting long enough to come over my shoulder.
There is a serious line there that you need to cross. At a certain length we get to the doper/outcast/serious rebel look. Shit kicker. Trailer trash.
Now that is where I come from so it is not that big a stretch.
In the past I would have embraced it but at 70 I am going a bit soft on the rebel look.
And, I am tired of hairs in the sink and drains.
I cycle.
Everything has to change every three or four years.
I wonder what will be next.
Hair today. What tomorrow?
Labels: coming of age, culture, nostalgia
THE RETURN OF TED
The reality of the JFK phenom was the people he gathered around him.
The man had an uncanny ability to make use of the brightest minds. Some too bright for their and our own good but that is another story.
One of the best was Ted Sorenson.
Here for the Washington Monthly, Sorenson does for the 2008 Democratic nominee what he did for his most famous boss. An acceptance address that lays out a new path.
We are all tired of the road we have been truckin' down.
This 'speech' captures the excitement and energy that we felt (those who are still standing) when his first speeches hit the air through Kennedy's lips.
Labels: Democrats
FAINT PRAISE DEPARTMENT
Damning nonetheless.
Bush is unpopular abroad, but other leaders catching up
According to the latest Pew Global Attitudes Project, international support for President Bush and his foreign policies are low, but others such as Ahmadinejad and Chavez are not looked upon favorably by the rest of the world either. (McClatchy)
It is comforting to know that our fearless (to a fault) leader is more revered (if only slightly) than his nearest enemies.
Labels: bushies, republican whack jobs
TIPPING POINT
Today is the 42d Anniversary of the
in New York City.
I have had the unique privilege of living through the post-Stonewall period during which incredible change has taken place in the lives of gay and lesbian people. That's me folks.
Incredible change.
In the world and in me.
Look at the headlines in the sample news pages at the link.
The 'frame' of the news changed overnight.
I have seen many changes during my longish life but none has been as deeply personal as this one.
I love this picture.
Labels: gay history, gay life, gay rights
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
JUST CALL ME AL
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Al Pacino's
This very clever documentary shows the exegesis of the Shakespeare play by Pacino and a group of actors. Then, they do scenes for real. Finished.
It is like watching someone bake a cake and then eating it.
The editing intersperses the prep and the product quite skillfully.
I liked it a lot.
I like him a lot.
You do not have to like Shakespeare to enjoy this backstage view of putting a 'play' together.
God knows, I don't!
I recommend it highly to any anti-bard person such as me. I?
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
THE EYES HAVE IT
So I got through my eye exam today with a 'no change' prescription. No cataract growth.
No 'other stuff' which I don't think about as it is too painful to consider.
Can you spell macular degeneration?
A clean bill of health.
I go to an opthalmologist because I don't trust optometrists. I have had three bad experiences. Once, an eye infection. Twice, a missed prescription. Third time, selling glasses. Hype.
Come to think of it though, I had an opthalmologist make the wrong prescription once also and my optometrist caught it. At the time, I was only using him for an optician.
The outfit here is so determined and serious. They are very very careful.
I got to them on the second bounce.
The first guys I went to (a neighbor at the time) made me wait in an exam room for too long. I went out in the hall and collared the Doc. Made a scene. They don't like scenes in opthalmologists' offices.
Or any medical office. Try it some time. I once had a dentist by the collar who had made me sit while he and his staff had an audible 20 minute coffee and donut session out behind the partitions.
20 minutes is the limit for me. Anywhere. Anytime. Period.
That is why I take 'first thing in the morning appointments.
I had my eye drops in so I skipped the bike ride after I got home.
It was a good day.
One impending item taken care of.
Labels: health
RAVE
Proud Poppa.
I am not going to get one but I am very happy to see that the iPhone has won the heart of David Pogue (and many other reviewers).
The iPhone Matches Most of its Hype
I have a long time affinity for Apple and it is great to see it busting up another business with innovation.
I don't use my cell phone enough to get wild about it one way or another but I do know that the innovation quotient has been pretty low.
There is not a whole lot of difference between the service I have now than the first brick shaped Nokia that I got from the old Cingular service (which sucked—phone and service). I remember when our land lines went out. I had to drive down three blocks to catch a signal so I could make an emergency call.
I am on Verizon now because it has the best tower coverage here in the desert—not an easy achievement with all the coves and mountains and such. Empty spaces too.
It also has a great family plan and free calls to other Verizon users. All the family back east has it.
Sure, other phones have cameras. They have other tinny shit too. But none of it comes in anything like the amusing, hip package of the iPhone.
Good for Steve! Good for all of the Apples.
I have a friend who works in the LA Apple Store. They are bunkered down for the lines and the craziness. What a buildup. Even if we don't get the phone, we have to admire the show around the introduction.
Labels: culture, macintosh, technology
IMPENDING II
I thought of some other things that are in the interim. Is that redundant?
All this indeterminacy.
No wonder I haven't had anything to write about in the blog. Nothing is fucking happening! It is all in the in-box.
Labels: blog
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
PENDING
You may have noted that the blog is on the slim side, personally.
There are times like that in blogging.
I think that it means I am on 'interim' mode.
Here are some interim issues.
So that is why the blog has been slim.
Too much interim and not enough finish.
We are on the cusp of heavy events and exciting detail. Just wait.
Labels: blog
Monday, June 25, 2007
GENRE TWEAK
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Sam Peckinpah's
This is an early Peckinpah work. He is beginning to rebuild lm western conventions.
Moral ambiguity, tarnished heroes and serious violence beyond mere gunplay (rape) mark the ways that tradition gets tweaked.
Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea star at the end of their careers. The charm and sparkle of these old horses come through as perfect casting. Their relationship is great to watch. They hit all the grace notes.
I was very pleased to see a young Warren Oates and an old Edgar Buchanan who I always loved to see as a kid (and still do).
Still there was some vacant space. The obligatory furniture breaking fist fights always pall. He kept those in.
I liked it anyway.
It is a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Sunday, June 24, 2007
FAMILY FEUD
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Visconti's
Rocco e i suoi fratelli / Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
This high-drama story of a family, mama and five sons, who come from the country to the city is frought with emotional conflict between the young, good Rocco and the older, pretty bad Simone.
Their conflict over a woman (of easy virtue) frames the piece and we see all the other brothers and mother in relation to it.
The mother is great. A real Italian Mama; full force.
The very young Alain Delon is Rocco. Renato Salvatori is the older brother Simone.
The music is by Nino Rota!
This is a long film and sometimes Visconti drills the story into your teeth but it has some great parts to it.
It is a necessary stop on the tour of Italian cinema.
Visconti directed Delon in The Leopard which we enjoyed very much. We have also seen Ossession the first neorealistic movie (he invented the genré) and La terra trema.
I liked this movie and am glad that I saw it. I am not sure that I would want to endure it all again. I mean that in a good way.
That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
SUNBATHING
Always something new.
Franklin has taken up sunbathing.
Most days, for a few minutes, he can be found in the living room under the skylight basking in the sun.
Sometimes he will do the same thing when we go out to get the mail; go roll on the grass and lie in the hot rays.
Occasionally he takes a run to the back yard and a sits down in the grass looking for all the world as though he is in a solarium.
He stays at it for about five minutes and then goes into the shade and rolls around or, if inside, does a kind of face/body/snuffle rub all over the carpet as he does when he gets eardrops or has somehow (horrors) gotten wet.
It is quite a thing to watch.
He has never done this until the last few months.
Just updating you on his latest moves.
Labels: Franklin
Saturday, June 23, 2007
AMNESIA
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Mervyn LeRoy's
This is an improbable story that seems probable as you watch it.
It is very well done. There are scenes that are quite abstract and the restoration is very good.
Greer Garson and Ronald Colman deal with his post WWI amnesia and then his recovery.
It is touching in its way.
The resolution is quite modern. Freudian. Believable.
There were a lot of amnesia movies there for awhile. This is probably the best. No pat answers.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 because it is very romantic and I am somewhat immune to the hearts and flowers thing.
Labels: best films
CRATERED
The APOD site has a picture of the
today in 3-D.
You need the blue/red glasses to get the full effect.
But here it is without.
I went there a couple of years ago. It is a tourist trap in some ways. But there is no denying the impact of the site.
The APOD picture does a great job showing the immensity of it.
Labels: astropix
DRY HEAT
It is time to write the annual 'summer is here' piece for the blog.
Summer is here.
We hit the 112º mark yesterday. 5% humidity. Dry heat. Like a sauna.
This means that if you stand in the sun you will feel it. If you go in the shade, you will get a marked cooling.
That is because the heat is carried by the radiant energy, only a smaller part by the air itself.
When the sun goes down it begins to cool and, often, that cooling goes down as much as 30 degrees.
I just looked. It is 78 outside now. We have the house open.
I really enjoy the sharp feeling of the hot, hot sun. It has an edge. It cuts.
Then I go into the shade.
People work in the heat. They wear a lot of clothes (self shaded) and their body thermostats are set for it.
We don't sweat. The dry air carries off the moisture very quickly. If you are sitting, your ass will be moist because there is a wet air pocket but it will be gone as soon as you get up.
Of course, we do need air conditioning although a lot of people get along with evaporative coolers. These run water over a rotatating drum and run the dry air through it. Cools it down.
We don't use it because it gets mold in the air. Allergies.
We are all straight air. Two units. One traditional and another a heat pump.
And we keep the cooling 'warm' by normal US standards. Most people keep their houses at 82. Remember, it is dry. You don't need as much cool to make it feel cool.
I try to get out in the heat every day.
Many people live in air conditioning all the time. A big mistake.
The sensitivity to the heat is increased and you need more cooling. A viscious cycle.
I do some chores in the afternoon. Franklin and I walk as soon as the sun goes down in the evening.
Most mornings are cool (80s) until noon.
The only time that the heat gets to us is when there is humidity. The monsoon season. Moist air rotating off the Gulf of California or the Gulf of Mexico. So far this year we have had no days like this at all.
So we are happy to see and feel the heat. That is what living in the desert is all about. That nice sharp sauna feeling that makes your eyeballs feel funny. Alive.
Labels: weather
Friday, June 22, 2007
SEXTETTE
I have just finished reading David Mitchell's
Mitchell is the author of Black Swan Green which I read earlier this year.
In this book there are six novellas which interconnect. The first half of each novella is read in turn with the central story all of a piece in the center.
We then read the second half of each story in turn down the other side.
This structure matches a musical piece that is involved in some of the stories.
Each novella is a particular genré; a travel journal, a set of letters between two lovers, a crime thriller, a science fiction piece and so on.
The themes are universal.
It seems tricky to tell about but it is not tricky in the reading. It is fun and very satisfying.
I enjoyed it a great deal.
Labels: books
RETURN
Today we watched Pedro Almodovar's most recent film
This gentle and amusing film (volver means 'to return') is as different from all the other Almodovar films as, well, each of them are from one another.
He writes originally and directs beautifully.
This one, as many are, is about women and how they keep things going.
It explores reincarnation and the shadow world of the dead.
It definitely shows that men are no good.
It is a joy to watch.
Now I understand why Penelope Cruz is so valued an actress in her native country. She has had a tough time fitting the Hollywood mold. I didn't like her much.
Here, in her native tongue and in the hands of Almodovar, she shines.
Carmen Maura (center in the photo) plays Cruz dead mother. She does not look like her picture here. She is great.
And I agree with almost all that Ebert says about it at the link.
It is after the 'best films' list was put together but I am sure that it would be on the list.
A 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Thursday, June 21, 2007
IPHONE FRENZY
I have a friend who works in the LA Apple Store.
They are hunkering down for next week.
In the meantime, fun.
Labels: appliances, macintosh
YOUTUBE REVOLUTION
Andrew Sullivan found this.
Hilarious.
Or totally scary.
YouTube’s 5 Sorriest Questions for the 2008 Presidential Candidates
I think that this is legit. That they only got 120 submissions and these are, well, not the best.
Labels: politics
FIRST HAND
When it comes right down to it the most important and largest support comes from our families.
We are everywhere and so are they!
Gay Marriage, a Touchy Issue, Touches Legislators’ Emotions
Labels: gay marriage, gay politics, gay rights
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
RATING
This blog is rated
Mingle2 - Online Dating
It's all bullshit of course but interesting bullshit nonethless.
WHO CAN WIN
LIke I said. I am going shopping for another candidate for Demo-Prez.
Richardson has left me through an incompetent campaign. He is rock solid on the issues but has made some disastrous errors on the political side. And what is a Prez if he is not political. A wonky workman. A high cabinet member or maybe Veep.
One criteria for picking a new one would be 'who can win?'. Not a very ideologically pure basis for picking but realistic.
Right now, that is not going to help winnow it down for me.
Apparently, according to Gallup, the answer is 'everyone'.
Gallup: Dems Lead in Every Head-to-Head Permutation
Interesting to note that Romney is the weakest and yet leads the GOoPers in the first three states we will hear from. He leads in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.
He is an empty shell, a clone, a Stepford candidate.
But he has a smart campaign.
Fun to watch.
WHO'S ON TOP?
Today I watched Pedro Almodovar's
La Mala educación / Bad Education (2004)
with Gael Garcia Bernal and Fele Martinez.
This is another warm up for the newest Almodovar film, Volver which we will see next.
A mini-Pedro festival.
I did not see this one when it came around. It is a wonderful puzzle of identity and who did what to whom?
It will take another viewing to get it all straight although I don't think that I missed anything.
It is not as straight forward as all the capsule reviews make it out to be.
I really liked it a lot and I am going to have a Gael Garcia Bernal film fest soon so I can see it again.
This is a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
FULL STOP
The sun stops tomorrow.
It has gone as far as it can go.
From here on, the days get shorter again.
I am ready.
It is just a little too sunny when Franklin and I walk after dinner.
It is aleady a little too sunny when I take the bike out in the morning.
All that will stop.
Did you know that solstice means 'sun stop'?
I didn't either but I get the point.
I always use these times—equinox and solstice—to show a photo from Stonehenge.
I like this one with the contrails.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
WHO?
I am out in the open again about the Dem-nominee.
I still like Richardson but he keeps fucking up.
I decided to look around some more.
Now, here, Obama pulls his Iraq rationale right out of his ass for the most direct and clear policy statement I have heard any of them make.
Hillary goes all opaque about it as she does about many issues.
And I think that Richardson's immediate pullout is not, in any way, a practical solution.
We have made the mess and we have to tweak our way out of it.
Monday, June 18, 2007
WEBBS
We need more Democrats like Jim Webb and we need more visible families like Webb and his son.
MANIFESTO
Cheer up progressive liberals or what ever you call yourself.
Lefties.
Take a look at this:
Stop Bitching, Start a Revolution
Listen:
Look, liberalism has a lot of problems. FDR isn't walking through that door. And so on. But America's liberal political party just scored an enormous political victory, taking back both houses of Congress from what was supposed to be an invincible GOP machine, and there are plenty of reasons - from electoral math to fundraising numbers to, well, the polls - to think that 2008 is going to be a banner year for liberals/progressives/whatever. The right had the left on the ropes for a long time, but for now, at least, it's the other way around. Public opinion is going liberalism's way on everything from gay marriage to taxes to health care to poverty to global warming, and the Iraq War has temporarily undone conservatism's long-running advantage on foreign policy. There's more money flowing into liberal coffers than ever before; the left is well ahead of the right in internet organizing; the rising generation is having its political views forged in the crucible of the Bush years, with predictable consequences - and for once, the right-wing coalition's intellectual contradictions are more pronounced than liberalism's divisions.
Labels: politics
PROGRESS
I started my half-way measures diet three weeks ago. Maybe four.
Since then I have lost over 10 pounds and have broken through the dread plateau every dieter reaches.
The plan is simple. I just eat a half of everything that I would normally eat on a rather well planned diet. My normal diet isn't too complicated but there is a rigorous consistency to it.
For example, breakfast.
I have an two eggs and bread and a dish of apple sauce every other morning or a cup of low fat yogurt and fruit the other days. Every day, I have cereal (6 kinds in rotation) and some peanuts.
I have similar plans for lunch--four kinds of sandwiches, two types of fruit.
Evening meals are similar. About 15 different menus.
I gain just a little weight on it and eventually have to take it off.
Hence, the halfway measures. One egg, half the fruit, yogurt, cereal and nuts. Half a sandwich for lunch and half the normal fruit.
Since I still have the same food, the balanced nutrition, I am not deprived. I just take half of it.
I hit the wall or plateau after I had lost about 8-9 pounds. Days of no weight loss.
The body 'gets' that it is starving and so it ratchets down on the metabolism.
There are several ways around this effect.
One is to quit the routine for a day or two and just eat 'normally'. The body relaxes and lets go of the metabolism.
Another approach is to increase the exercise.
I did the one day of 'normal' eating.
That did the trick.
I also am taking a less dramatic approach to the half way thing and eating a normal portion of dinner. No starvation there.
This week I am starting a routine that will give me one hour more of bike time. I will go on the longest route every day. That is about 15 minutes more than any other route. At the end of the week I will have added 75 minutes of exercise.
My goal is to lose at least another five pounds and get back to my normal eating in a couple of weeks.
Don't want to go too fast because the body will take back control again. And I don't want to get all woofy and weak from not eating.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
FODDER'S DAY
In a way, I am not interested in made-up commercial white bread middle class holidays.
Nonetheless, I always participated in the holidays when I was a son.
As a father, I am ambivalent.
On one hand, it does not matter to me. Every day is a dad-day for me.
My kids treat me special enough on a regular basis. I don't need added or compensatory attention.
On the other hand, I sort of sit and expect the phone call from each of them all day long.
One cannot ignore the inner insecurities that make us want even more attention than we already get.
Fortunately, none of my kids make a big deal about it.
There is no fuss.
It is just a phone call with a 'hi', a report of the day, and an 'I love you'.
The 'I love you' part is very important actually. As an orphan I can report that we never, ever say it enough when the parent is alive and kicking.
I don't feel guilty or anything but I do wish that I had been more frequent in my saying that I love my Mom and Dad.
They knew anyway just as I know that I am loved.
It is just that saying it makes it stand out in bolder type somehow.
So. It is just another day but it is not just another day.
I am thinking about my own Dad right now.
A great guy.
I am just now looking at a few of his pictures.
His love still warms me even though I have not been with him for almost 20 years.
And I love him back.
So I suppose that this day is important if it prompts such exercises in love.
Happy Fathers Day.
Labels: fathers
OH WELL. MAYBE NEXT TIME.
Dallas chooses businessman as next mayor
Gay Councillor loses.
Labels: gay politics
Friday, June 15, 2007
PEDRO
Today's film was Pedro Almodovar's
Carne trémula / Live Flesh (1997)
I had to work a bit to find a review that liked it as much as I did.
It has had a very mixed reception but some believe it is his best.
It is very sexy and that is true no matter what your orientation is.
There are very few het films that can make that claim; Body Heat with Kathleen Turner and William Hurt, Don't Look Now with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. A few others. The Big Easy. Eileeen Barken and Dennis Quaid.
We have seen almost every Almodovar film at one time or another.
Now, I am building up to see Volver
This is an earlier later film. Soon, we will see a recent film. Then Volver.
One whets one's appetite.
It is a mini-festival.
This gets a 5 out of Netflix5 anyway.
Labels: films
CHANGE
This is very powerful.
One lawmaker, in her own words, who changed her vote on same-sex marriage
I recommend the entire statement but if you must rush skip down and catch the para that begins
"For me, what all this comes down to is this................
Labels: gay history, gay marriage, gay politics, gay rights
PAUL POTTS II
I know. This kind of thing is awfully 'wet' but there he is and the magic happens with the audience and the pros.
Labels: culture
RIGHTS
Greg Kimball and Brian O'Connor kiss outside the State House June 14, 2007 in Boston, Massachusetts. A special convening of the congress voted to kill a referendum that would have placed the Gay Marriage issue on the ballot in 2008. BY Darren McCollester/Getty.
Labels: gay marriage, gay politics, gay rights
QED
The odds are pretty good for him and if he does lose it will not be from being (gasp) gay!
Labels: gay politics, gay rights
REVOLUTION
Kevin Drum on Michael Kinsley on gay rights today in Political Animal:
Gay Marriage and The Quiet Gay Revolution
Read the entire Kinsley article if you have time. It is pretty good.
Labels: gay life, gay marriage, gay rights
Thursday, June 14, 2007
GOOD TO GO
This brought tears to my eyes.
Bid to Ban Gay Marriage Fails in Massachusetts
John and I were participants in the early stages of this battle.
It is won.
Done.
Over.
Good job.
Labels: gay marriage, gay rights
LINKED
I didn't put the link in WIPE THAT SMILE OFF YOUR FACE below.
It be there now.
Labels: corrections department
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
BARR
I like Bob Barr.
He is an almost rabid conservative who comes around the corner meeting us from the other side.
He is against torture, against the Patriot Act, and now he is against 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'.
Former Congressman Bob Barr Calls for End of Don't Ask, Don't Tell
In the WSJ no less. Op-ed.
He takes the GOoPer candidates to task.
Labels: gay military, politics
PAYBACK
I am not ashamed to say that I have never, ever done anything as an alumnus of MIT.
On the other hand, I am not proud of it either.
We became estranged during the 60s and 70s about matters of war and peace.
They didn't close the notorious war machine at Lincoln Labs just because a few of us objected so I bailed.
I have never even paid for my subscription to the bi-monthly magazine although I read it avidly for class news and the deaths.
But recently, I got an email from a woman in the Admissions Department.
They lack what they call an Educational Counsellor in my area.
An EC is really just an adjunct to the admissions process. S/he is someone to talk to when an applicant or even an interested kid wants to know more about the school.
I still remember my interview; Edward Flynn. Pittston, PA. Great guy.
Amazingly, he lived just down the street from the ex-Principal of my school who had moved to Pittston to become an Area Supervisor.
An EC also is available and can even canvass local high school counsellors.
I hemmed and hawed and wrote them an email entitled "hmmmmmm".
I had some doubts and disclosures and wanted them out on the table.
Then I didn't hear anything for awhile.
I figured maybe some of my disclosures or concerns or absolutely desolate record of contact had gotten me out of the possibility file.
Not so.
Today I got a followup and some more information and now I have sent an email saying (not hmmmm) but Yes!
I will conduct some interviews, go to an autumn workshop and, well, who knows.
I thought I might be too old.
It turns out that there is another guy in my area who is already on the job and he is Class of '46!
12 years older than me.
Anything the Class of '46 can do, well, '58 can do as well or better.
We shall see.
It is interesting that, as one ages, some bills come due for payment and the willingness to pay them is suddenly present and urgent!
This is not the first time something like this has happened to me.
It feels very good. The call and the response; both.
Labels: MIT
WIPE THAT SMILE OFF YOUR FACE
This is an interesting test.
I graded myself as extremely optimistic.
I didn't do too well at it. 55%. Better than half.
Maybe I should be more cynical/pessimistic. But I can't figure out how it hurts me that I am fooled by people's actual or feigned good will.
I just figure everyone smiles automatically when you meet them.
It is the nature of our culture.
There are a lot of people who do not smile when they are off-stage.
There are some people who smile all the time. Be careful of them.
Try it. It is fun. Be sure to notice that on each face you have to press 'go' to get the video smile.
It is a moving picture.
I got it from Andrew Sullivan.
Labels: culture
THE WIZ
Don Herbert has died.
Don Herbert, ‘Mr. Wizard’ to Science Buffs, Dies at 89
Buffs. I don't know where they get that.
Don Herbert kept millions of kids interested in science by presenting a program that never pandered or talked down. He showed how things worked and his whole tone was one that assured you that you would 'get it'.
I can hear his voice now, as I type.
I know that he was instrumental in my interest in science. That got me to MIT. MIT got me out in the world, not so much with science as with the scientific method of thinking and a sharpened ability to problem solve.
I owe him a personal debt.
I just bought a book that Don Herbert would approve of: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science.
Lifetime interest.
Don Herbert.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
NO LOSS
I am not surprised that the 'no confidence' vote for Fredo didn't go all the way.
And I do not consider it a loss.
Read this. Yes. They say 'failure' Not to me.
Gonzo No Confidence Vote Fails.
They didn't have 2/3 to bring it to the floor. They never voted on the actual bill.
No GoOPer wanted to have his name on such a bill voting yes or no.
In my book, a majority like that is a vote of no-confidence.
Not one person has spoken for him in this debate other than the sad Orin Hatch.
Oh. And the sad sack whiner Lieberman. Whatta shit.
Labels: gonzales
TRIPS
We took a trip back in time to see Stanley Donen's
with Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn.
It is pretty good. Not 'dated' at all.
It is uniquely edited to go back and forth in time to various road trips a couple have taken over their ten years together.
We see the rocks that they have hit along the road.
It is only occasionally forced and only a bit unbelievable here and there.
Hepburn, for once, is not such a weirdly exotic creature. More normal.
Finney is in his prime and we see a lot of him.
I am glad we got it although we forgot what had prompted our interest in the first place.
It will be a 3 out of Netflix5. A nice 3.
THE END
I am amused at the reactions to the end of The Sopranos.
At least they got Paris Hilton off the front page.
I have never seen this show.
I have read about it from time to time.
As far as I can tell, all the writing is by faithful watchers and their appreciations seem, to me, a wee bit self absorbed.
What, after all, do most of us have to say about a bunch of thugs loose on the world killing and mauling and betraying each other.
Now the non-end end.
50/50 on whether people like it or not.
Today in the LAT other television writers are interviewed.
Normal people having run out of their opinions.
I briefly considered renting all 86 tapes or however many there are but I had to remind myself that would mean looking at the Gandolfini's ugly puss for, whoa, how many hours?
Best to let it rest.
Broadcast television and I have a treaty. I won't bother them if they don't bother me.
One of the terms of the charter is that I never, ever, watch a 'show'.
I will keep my side of the bargain.
Labels: television
Sunday, June 10, 2007
SCREWBALL
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Howard Hawks'
The script was by Billy Wilder and it stars Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper.
I have trouble with the 'screwball comedies' because many of them are out of date or somehow don't hit my funny bone; so contrived.
This is a major exception.
It is funny. The plot mechanisms are well oiled and all fit into place.
The star pairing works. The supporting cast are all very well known and exceptional at doing their bit.
Stanwyck is an interesting personality. She started out sexy and funny; a tricky combination for a career.
She is not really pretty and never had work done.
Her energy is compelling. She works with the other actors very intensely. She is with them.
We most recently saw her doing a tough broad thing in Double Indemnity. Anything but funny in that one.
She had great range of parts and could do them all very well.
I will give this a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
DOGS LIFE
If you like dogs, this will get to you.
Our Franklin is now 4/28. No slowing down yet.
I am 70. Not so much slowing; more a bit of creaking. We will hit the same age in about mid-2018.
It does make you think about 'things'.
Labels: Franklin
Saturday, June 09, 2007
POT AND KETTLE
Two guys who don't deserve our respect gettin' it on.
'Yes sir,' Bush says to His Holiness in Vatican gaffe
Shit, I'm surprised he didn't call him Benny.
I love it.
Both monumental egos competing for each others' respect.
You know that Benedict hates bush' methodist ass.
Similar from george.
Crossed legs. "Texas style". What's that? I suppose crossed at the ankles. Same as kid-style.
This is the kind of disrespectful behavior I once developed as an art form.
I might still do it from time to time.
I can't stand the pretentiousness of any of it.
What a joy to see the balloons burst.
Labels: bush, christist watch
ANNUAL SHOWING
Today was the annual viewing of Jacques Beineix'
What is it about this film that keeps giving to me?
It is a NYTimes Best 1176 film but so are 1175 other films that I do not watch over and over.
It is a really nice romantic love story.
It is a nasty, suspense filled, chase-down of an incriminating audio tape.
There is another illicit tape of a singer who does not want to be recorded.
It has some really nice insights in the modern dilemma of artistic performers in an electronic age.
The main hero is passionate. He is unique. An oddball. But a well loved one. He has many friends.
There is a guardian angel!
Not really but like that.
The city of Paris is turned upside down in all the on-location scenes. There is no 'falsity' about how the film was shot but everything that it shoots is artificial; the urban infrastructure, a lighthouse, ancient autos that are not really that old.
Are you confused?
Good.
You ought to see this really generous film at least once. You do not have to become an annual visitor although you might want to be.
There is so much in it that, in a year, I forget wonderful details and am surprised all over again.
Interesting that this film was not critically welcomed. It was trashed.
Only 100,000 people went to see it in its first year.
Then it began to take on a life of its own.
Millions.
For a very long time 800,000 people a year saw it in Paris.
The director Jacques Beineix has not been all that successful.
Only two of his films have made it to disc.
We will be seeing the second one soon.
Betty Blue / 37º2 le matin (1986)
Labels: best films
FAME FOOTNOTE
While we are talking about our two or three or four tiered legal system where the rich and/or famous get a ride, here is another one.
I missed this.
The Libby judge commented on the many letters he recieved from the famous about the sentence The Scoot was going to recieve.
The judge, Reggie B. Walton of Federal District Court in Washington, said he would be pleased to see similar efforts for defendants less famous than Mr. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.“The court trusts,” Judge Walton wrote, in a footnote longer than the order itself, that the brief for Mr. Libby “is a reflection of these eminent academics’ willingness in the future to step up to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this court and throughout the courts of our nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions.”
“The court,” he added, “will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries.”
As we now know, Walton (a GWBush appointee incidentally) had another point of view.
Labels: criminal morons
PARIS IS BURNING
Not to get all caught up in the gossip columns but it is rather hard to avoid coverage of Ms. Hilton.
From what I am reading, I can imagine that she is in real psychological and physical pain.
It is not fake.
She is in withdrawal!
This is a commonplace result of many a drunk/addict's incarceration.
No booze, no drugs. Pain.
The way she acts it out is amusing for the tabloids; another bad little rich girl.
She certainly is not endearing herself to anyone.
On the other hand, it could conceivably be the best thing that could happen to her.
She might 'bottom out'.
This could be the beginning of recovery.
The recovery record for someone so insulated and pampered is not very good. But many make it.
Most who do are supported by others who used to drink and use and live the same kind of high flying life. People that she can identify with.
I personally pray that this happen for her.
Her judge could be one of those 'angels' we hear about. Someone who comes into our lives and changes everything.
He is sure not enabling her.
I just thought I would mention that what we have here is just another garden variety drunk having a normal low bottom experience in the 'the system'.
Labels: alcohol, culture, recovery
Thursday, June 07, 2007
FRATERNITY
Today we completed the
with
Trois couleurs: Rouge / Red (1994)
Krzysztof Kieslowski's three film masterpiece.
It is wonderful.
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Iréne Jacob are an unlikely pair of friends.
There are dogs!
There area parallel universes which never seem to touch.
There is a grand finale to the Trilogy itself.
A 5 out of Netflix5. And then some.
Enough said.
Labels: best films
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
EQUALITY
Today's film is the one in the middle. Krzysztof Kieslowski's
Trzy kolory: Bialy / Three Colors: White (1994)
The middle of what? The middle of the
Colors of the French Flag.
Themes of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
Ebert says, also, that the three are the anti-tragedy, anti-comedy, and anti-romance.
All this is very analytical while the films, so far, are just wonderful to watch.
I am looking forward to seeing the third tomorrow.
Red
Meanwhile, this one is a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
NEW CLICHES
OK. Here is one making the rounds.
Everything is now 'robust'.
Condoleezy uses it a lot.
It showed up today in a PR spin about the firing of a music critic from NY magazine. "Our classical coverage will remain 'robust'.
As in both these cases one should take the use of the word as a 'tell'.
It means either that what is being said is a lie or as a coverup.
Robust.
Listen for it.
Labels: culture
WALL TO WALL
If this doesn't make your head explode nothing will.
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan
Labels: politics
LIBERTY
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was the first film in Krzysztof Kieslowski's
Trois couleurs: Bleu / Blue (1993)
This is a beautifully rendered film about a woman who has lost her composer husband and their daughter in an auto crash. Now she goes to work to find herself.
Juliette Binoche is the woman.
The film is beautiful to watch. Great cinematography. Beautiful angles. Always some blue going on.
The idea of the three colors is to honor France; Kieslowski's new work-home.
Each color will be presented. The themes will be liberty, equality, fraternity.
We saw this director's work earlier in the ten one hour films of The Decalogue which was innovative and riveting.
I am looking forward to seeing the next two in this 'package' over the next few days.
Incidentally, this film was the NYTimes Best. Others find that Red is their favorite and others White.
Whatever.
This gets a 5 out of Netflix5.
HAM FISTED IDIOT
From the WSJ online:
Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin will have a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the G-8 gathering, and speaking to the media in Prague, Mr. Bush said he would tell his Russian counterpart that "the Cold War is over. It ended." He said, "My message will be: 'Vladimir -- I call him Vladimir -- you shouldn't fear a missile defense system. As a matter of fact, why don't you cooperate with us on a missile defense system?"From our London correspondent (an ex-pat):
Just when you think, as an American, that he cannot plunge you any lower into despair and embarrassment, there is his fucking howdy doody puss on the BBC Ten O'Clock news tonight, arguing the case against him for rolling back U.S./Russian relations thirty years by saying 'I call him Vladimir, that's what I call him'.
Oh.
We see.
We can sleep well tonight then.
Keeeerist!
Labels: bush, criminal morons
THE HYPOCRITES GET THEIR COMEUPPANCE
The Court finds against the FCC on 'fleeting vulgarities'. Meaning isolated 'fucks' and shits' and the like.
The judges said vulgar words are just as often used out of frustration or excitement, and not to convey any broader obscene meaning. "In recent times even the top leaders of our government have used variants of these expletives in a manner that no reasonable person would believe referenced sexual or excretory organs or activities."Adopting an argument made by lawyers for NBC, the judges then cited examples in which Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney had used the same language that would be penalized under the policy. Mr. Bush was caught on videotape last July using a common vulgarity that the commission finds objectionable in a conversation with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. Three years ago, Mr. Cheney was widely reported to have muttered an angry obscene version of "get lost" to Senator Patrick Leahy on the floor of the United States Senate.
POSTER BOYS AND A GIRL
This is a great story.
Behind all the posturing and pandering and demagoguery, real lives are making a difference every day.
Baby Makes Three for Coach and Partner.
Be sure to scroll down for the great photo.
Labels: gay marriage, gay rights
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
I got cool to Bill Richardson last week but I am blowing a bit warmer today.
This article in Salon has the detail.
I don't think the headline is apt.
I just don't think that he is ready for prime time in that slick way that 'they' have to have.
He is a drip dry candidate. He keeps getting back on the beach and the water runs off. Then he gets going again.
Nothing seems to phase him.
There is also no doubt that he got sandbagged in the Meet the Press debacle. Tim Russert is a weasel.
But so be it.
I don't see anyone else I like.
From what I saw of the little tapes, I see Clinton as slippery and Obama as callow.
The rest can go to the back of the line.
Labels: politics, Richardson
Monday, June 04, 2007
DEFLATION
This is funny:
And For Five Thousand Bucks More, You Can Get Your Picture Taken Without Me In It
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan
Labels: bush. bushies
ROYAL GORE
Today's New York Times Best 1176 Film was Kenneth Branagh's
William Shakespeare again.
But somewhat more palatable this time.
Higher production values than the Olivier version we saw earlier yet parts of that film came to me as the scenes were played out.
I liked it better in some ways. The battle scenes were quite dramatic and realistic. Blood and thunder.
The accents were a bit more comprehensible.
The rhetoric was still deep and heavy and a shovel would have helped to dig out from under some of the talky scenes.
Why do they still have to speak these lines with Elizabethan fervor.
The film had Branagh and the young Christian Bale. Emma Thompson, the wife at the time. I liked Ian Holm as always.
Branagh has a bit of an underbite. Interesting.
It was a lot better than I expected. I am so not a fan of the bard.
But I got through it and only looked at my watch only once. That is pretty good when you have 138 minutes of film to wade through.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
FULL BLOOM
The white hibiscus bush out front got its share of frost damage in January but it is back with a vengeance.
Look at these hardy blooms.
And it gives me a chance to demonstrate my prowess with the new camera (all set on automatic).
Labels: flowers, horticulture
CHILL
Putin says that he will turn his missiles back towards European targets if the US continues to promote a missile shield over there.
I guess he figures the shield won't work but it might.
So much for looking into Putin's eyes and seeing his soul.
Bush will have us back in the Cold War in another year.
The WSJ Question of the Day was whether relations with Russia would be better, worse, or the same a year from now.
63% and I said 'worse'. 25% the same. 12% better.
They have so fucked everything up.
Labels: bushies
Sunday, June 03, 2007
STOOGE
I forgot to mention that Iggy Pop wrote the title song for Repo Man.
James Newell Osterberg, Jr.
Very good too. Apt.
Almost the entire scenario.
Labels: best films
BOWLED OVER
I was ready to mix up some tuna fish and reached for my smallest stainless bowl. The tunafish salad bowl.
It wasn't there.
Shit.
Where is it?
We looked and looked.
Fucking everywhere.
Even out in the garage in Mari's cleaning supplies. In the tool closet. I mean everywhere.
No luck.
I made the tuna salad in the next bigger bowl. Not so good.
It is hard to do the reduction of the mass with the fork. I need the small bowl.
Goddamit.
We look again.
I even go out and look in the trash and the recycling bin.
I did throw out some plastic bowls the other day. Maybe.
No.
I have had those metal bowls for half my life and all of my cooking life.
They are even better than the ones in the picture. They have metal loops dangling on the side to get a grip.
They have seen me through it all. Souffles. Whipped cream. Tuna salad.
They are always there.
Now not.
How do you replace such a thing?
I gave in. Surrendered.
The first step is denial, then bargaining, after that anger, then depression.
Denial when we were running all over and looking in the same place three times.
Bargaining when I started thinking how I could get a new bowl set and throw out the bigger bowls.
Not a lot of anger. Too much bargaining.
Depression. Mourning seeping in.
Then bang!
Right before acceptance, John said 'ice'.
When that ice maker guy was here the first time we saved some of the ice cubes out for the few minutes (yeah, five days) that we would be out of making ice.
I went in the freezer, pulled out the frozen yogurt, and there was my bowl.
The long moments of pain were over.
The ice cubes were also all melted together.
I went and had lunch.
Tuna salad. Not as well mixed as usual but quite tasty. Especially knowing that next time it would be made the right way in that perfect sized metal mixing bowl.
Happiness is really based on some trivial shit isn't it?
MAN OH MAN
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 movie was
It took me a few minutes to get out of my chair when it was over.
It is relentless.
Considered a cult film.
Emilio Estevez chases aliens.
But in between those two poles are—naturally—a bunch of repo men with Harry Dean Stanton (yeah!) in the lead, a gang of serious juvenile delinquent convenience store robbers, a cadre of black bikers, some Hispanic gang bangers, and some fundy christians.
There are more but those are the main players.
This film is off the charts and off the wall.
Very good.
What it lacks for big production values and some professionalism here and there it more than makes up with shear whackiness and clever ideas.
There is a lot going on here. Some of it right at the edges. It would probably benefit from a second viewing.
There is no dull moment.
If we had any time to think we might get up and leave. Such is the nature of 'cult' films. You are either on it or off it.
A 5 out of Netflix 5. There are no categories for this totally original movie.
Labels: best films
OVERNIGHT RIGHTS
The implications of California's domestic partners law are just beginning to seep into all our heads.
I have friends who suddenly realized that they held community property between them. They had been keeping separate books.
Things like that.
Divorce? Yup.
Now a new, larger application of the law. Very nice.
Gay Inmates to Get Conjugal Visits in California
Together is together. Even in the slammer.
Labels: gay marriage, gay rights
Saturday, June 02, 2007
STUFFED SHIRTS
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala's
with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Also James Fox and Christopher Reeve.
It is their version of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel which I read when it came out.
My rule is not to see movies of books I have read or books made of movies.
Now, I have broken that rule.
It is quite an accomplishment to unravel the novel and screen it. The book is an internal narrative on the part of an older butler. A lot of his thoughts are self serving and evasive. You have to figure out for yourself what is going on.
They have preserved some of this for the film.
My main complaint is that, as usual for this team, the thing takes about 20 minutes longer than necessary.
It is all dressed up and conveys an era as well as a story so we amble along and see it as well as learn about the situation.
I have a limited taste for Sir Anthony but Ms. Thompson manages to get the scale back in balance.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
TRIMMED
Pisses me off.
I like to be the first in the neighborhood to have our palm trees summer trimmed.
Right now, Mr. Perry is having his done.
There goes my record. Five straight years of 'first'.
Mr. Perry is usually the last to trim.
(He is Mr. Perry because he is a lot older than I am and he has not invited me to use his first name—how I was brought up. And I don't know his first name anyway.)
Shit. Mine should be done by now.
What's up? Why is Perry in such a hurry?
Maybe our's will get done this week.
I called Paul about it.
The seed is coming down like rain and is all over the patio and pool.
OK.
I am over it now.
The palm trees go through an annual cycle.
The under-palms, out of the sun, take about a year and then dry out and drop to the side of the trunk.
At the same time, seed pods grow out from the trunk in long arcs. These dry out and open, releasing seed.
On many palms, a berry forms.
We have palms that we do not trim at all.
They are up on a bank and don't drop on the yard/patio.
They have a skirt that goes all the way up the tree. Home of the rats and bats that inhabit our neighborhood.
The skydusters and the palm outside the wall, just adjacent, are another story.
They are messy.
We trim those. All the way back to only 3 or 4 fronds.
It takes a year for them to need a trim again.
We could actually let them go too but we would have the seeds, then the berries, and the fronds would blow off in heavy winds.
In town, they let the tall palms grow out and down about twenty feet and after a storm the trucks have to come out and clean up the streets.
The palms we do not cut—the ones up on the hill—are close together and don't lose their fronds in the wind.
There are two ways to cut them. Chain saw and machete. Some guys use a cherry picker but most use chains and pole climbing cleats.
I like the old fashioned way. No gas eaters on my palms.
Perry's guy is using a chain saw.
Bad form.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You know? I don't think that it is Perry's yard after all.
It is that guy on the other side of my neighbor Bill.
I wouldn't even know him if I saw him.
That is the whole story about the palms and a few of my neighbors.
I tell the same story every year.
Hey!
Are you still there?
Labels: garden, horticulture
SHAKE UP
Easterners like to know when we have an earthquake.
It balances their envy of our climate.
Somehow, snow and freezing rain are more bearable if you can say 'well, at least we do not have earthquakes'.
So this is for the back-east crowd.
We had a 4.2 shaker last night.
Just down the road at Indio.
John felt it. I was already in bed.
I am sorry for that.
I really like them. So far.
It is good reminder of my size and relative importance in the world. You are really helpless when it happens.
Humility is a good thing.
It is also a nice shock of adrenalin and a natural wonder. Awesome.
Go see.
It will only be up for a week.
Labels: California, nature
CAN OPENER
There is a great picture in this story.
Inches Too Tall for Tunnel, Rig Plies It Anyway
They used to do this on the Boston Storrow Drive tunnels every so often.
Those clearances were even lower.
I remember running along the Charles River one day and hearing a loud bang. As I turned to look, there was a cloud of white paper flying up in the air. It was a windy.
It was a plume of envelopes from a truck that had just tried to put its big nose into the tiny tunnel.
When we went to look, the truck was stuck in the hole but enough of the back had peeled off to let the snowstorm of paper out.
Labels: auto accidents, nostalgia
MORE RON PAUL
I liked this article.
Ron Paul is Blowing Up Real Good
Paul is a libertarian. A lot of me is too I guess.
I am so far left that I meet myself coming around the other end.
He's the only Republican candidate who wants to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and withdraw the U.S. Navy from the waters off the Iranian coast. He wants America to pull out of the United Nations, NATO, the International Criminal Court, and most international trade agreements. He wants to abolish FEMA, end the federal war on drugs, get rid of the Department of Homeland Security, send the U.S. military to guard the Mexican border, stop federal prosecutions of obscenity, eliminate the IRS, end most foreign aid, overturn the Patriot Act, phase out Social Security, revoke public services for illegal immigrants, repeal No Child Left Behind, and reestablish gold and silver as legal tender.
I don't know if I would go that far.
But I sure like the impulse behind all this.
He has found a platform and he is going to use it.
Rudy tried to smack him in the debate and it backfired.
Paul came up with some books for Rudy to read and got a lot of interviews.
He did something others seem loathe to do which is call Giuliani on his shit.
This will be interesting.
Wait until we get the canned ham Thompson in there.
Friday, June 01, 2007
OUT
I am off Richardson.
Turn the thumb the other way, Bill.
I like him.
But he has done some really creepy shit over the last couple of weeks.
The biggest disappointment was his appearance on Meet The Press last Sunday.
I have watched some of the tape. Flop sweat.
If he cannot defend himself there then he is toast.
I like the guy. I have sent some money.
One word. Squandered.
Here is a rundown from Daily Kos about his cratering numbers. When you are falling within the second tier, you are not doing very well.
Damn, Richardson's star has nearly collapsed these past six weeks. His embrace of Roe dissenter Justice White because he was a football player, and his subsequent ignorance as to the decision (he thought it took place in the 80s) was embarrassing. His use of right-wing talking points to describe Democrats was infuriating:I am not ready to jump to anyone."Democrats, whenever we have a solution, we want to tax," Richardson said. "I'm different. I'm a tax cutter."
His appearance on last Sunday's Meet The Press was an epic flameout, unable to handle Timmeh's questions. And no, you can't be both a Yankees fan and a Red Sox fan. The sports gods and common decency do not allow it. But on the more substantive matters, a candidate who can't handle a tough interview doesn't deserve to be president.
After six straight gains in the Daily Kos straw poll, his support cratered this in May, from 13 percent to 8. It was clear the flirtation many had with him (including me) was over.
Richardson's efforts to break into the top tier have taken a serious hit. On the other hand -- and this might be a lagging indicator -- he has crawled up from "asterix" territory to the 6 percent range in the Iowa, NH, and Nevada aggregate polls. Another month will tell whether his debate and MTP messes have further impacted his candidacy.
I still think that Obama has too many crosses in his photo ops.
Hillary is beyond the pale. Still dancing on both sides of the war line. Talk about 'slick Willy'.
I might go for Gore if he was going.
No on John Edwards. He has been out of the game too long. And he was hardly in it.
So.
I am available.
Who wants to buy my early California vote?
Labels: Democrats, politics, polls, Richardson
HANDYMEN
We seem to have emerged from ice-maker hell.
The guy came for his third visit and did the whole deal (still bitching all along about how the water line wasn't right—not his territory).
I think that, fundamentally, he is an asshole and we will not have him back again.
Alex.
I am loathe to complain at this point beyond that.
I vote with my feet.
He apparently did a good job though. He retubed the whole thing, put in a new valve. Like that.
It is making ice.
It was disappointing because I had so liked this appliance service company.
If I have this problem again, my dentist told me about another outfit here in the valley.
Handymen are another problem.
We have various small chores around here which we are not up to either physically or from expertise.
You cannot get anyone to come and take care of them. Not big enough or they attract the ne'er do-well to this type of job.
My father-in-law called them 'hatchet carpenters'.
I have been aware of franchised handyman businesses that have all the bells and whistles; licenses, liability insurance, guarantees, reasonable rates. That kind of thing.
So, we got to one through an on-line clearing house. Yet another level of insurance and assurance.
It is a branch of an outfit called Handyman Matters.
We needed someone to seal the skylights over the living room.
So I put in a call.
The guy called right back and we had a man here the next morning; prompt at 8AM.
Prompt is a big thing with us. Remember the mason we fired the day he didn't show at the appointed time?
And, as far as we can tell, he did the job very nicely. It was a bit complicated and he was not cowed by it.
So we will call them for other small stuff.
Labels: appliances, repairs
BLARNEY
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was John Ford's
A plethora of Irish stereotype which is not a bad thing at all. In its place.
And I guess this is the place for it.
John Wayne and Maureen O'hara try to get married the old fashioned way even if Wayne is an American who doesn't 'get it'.
They are supported by Barry Fitzgerald—inventor of the Hollywood-Irish brogue—Victor McLaglen, Ward Bond and Mildred Natwick.
There is some ferocious sexisim here which would never get on the script today.
It is explained by 'tradition'. OK.
If you can get through that, it is a fine film to watch and mostly enjoyable.
I saw it when I was a kid and loved it. I was looking forward to seeing it again. 55 years later?
Two things. The now non-PC stuff and the color, which won an Oscar and probably landed this on the Best list, is a mess on this disc. It is not bad bad but annoying just the same. Mushy looking Technicolor.
I am comparing this to the flawless 3-strip restoration we saw the other day with The Red Shoes.
So, it is a 4 out of Netflix5 for the movie that I saw when I was a kid and a 3 for this one.
Labels: best films
