Wednesday, October 31, 2007
WIPEOUT
Today I saw Danny Boyle's
I am still a bit shaken.
It is a great sci-fi, thriller, human interest film with terrific production values to boot.
It was shot on video!
Not apparent in the watching but now that I think about it that would explain a lot of the immediacy of it.
Cillian Murphy (center) stars. We saw him in The Wind That Shakes The Barley.
Wonderful.
And Brendan Gleeson (left) who is in all the Doyle films.
Naomie Harris (right) is the rock.
You have to see it if you like this kind of thing.
We are going on to see the sequel (I know, I don't do sequels do I) which is the same idea only 28 Weeks Later.
Fun time.
A vacation from the Best series.
I will give this a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, DOGS DO
Iowa: Dog Shoots Hunter
A hunter is recovering after he was shot in the leg at close range by his dog, a spokesman with the Department of Natural Resources said. The hunter, James Harris, 37, of Tama, was hit in the calf Saturday, the opening day of pheasant season, said the spokesman, Alan Foster. “He took between 100 to 120 pellets in about a four-inch circle to his calf,” Mr. Foster said. Mr. Harris was hit when he put his gun on the ground to retrieve a bird, Mr. Foster said. The dog stepped on the gun and tripped the trigger when Mr. Harris was about three feet away. The dog was not injured.
Labels: culture
CONFESSION
This article reminded me of a time when I was a boy playing with matches.
Boy With Matches Started One California Fire, Officials Say
I was pretty much a latch key kid.
My parents both worked. I was often on my own after school.
On school holidays my Mom would take me along with her to work in a big general store and I would hang out around the store and in the neighborhood.
This is probably when I was 10.
Most of the time, I played with Phil Price who lived across the street from the store.
Phil, a year younger than me, was a hell raiser and we were pretty good friends all the way through school. Some of the best adventures I had as a kid were with Phil.
I think that I learned a lot from him that has helped me not take 'authority' too seriously.
One day we were fooling around and (I am sure it was Phil) had the idea that we could go to an upper field and have a camp fire.
I don't particularly remember that it was cold or anything but maybe. It was windy.
You can see this coming can't you? We couldn't.
I would do about anything that Phil thought of and so we went and stole some matches from his house (I do remember that his family had 'farmer'matches, the kind that you just struck on a rock. We had safety matches at our house; a lot less interesting).
There was a stone wall and a brush line along the field and this is where we set up shop.
I don't remember the details but we did start a little fire and then, remember it was windy, it got away from us. The field was dry and it caught quickly.
We ran.
Phil went to tell his Dad, and I went to the store, running hard, then walking in casually. I didn't say anything about the fire.
I didn't have to. It was engulfing the field.
Soon the volunteer fire company came and put it out.
Nothing burned much. No one was hurt except for Phil who got a licking from his Dad who, if I remember, was always a little proud of Phil's exploits so the thrashing wasn't ever that bad.
I said nothing.
I am sure that Phil's Dad knew I was involved and maybe he said something to me about it. But he never told my mother who remained oblivious.
Unlike Phil's Dad, my Mom was so sure of my goodness that she rarely even suspected that I had anything to do with 'trouble'.
I was a spoiled little bastard.
I remember Phil fondly. He took the rap for me and never complained. We remained friends for many years up to the time I left town to go to college.
He was a skinny little kid and I do remember that he grew up to be a strikingly handsome man. Trustworthy. A solid citizen.
He worked for my Dad at the A&P for awhile.
We would occasionally see each other and grin over past times. A friendship forged in fire.
Labels: nostalgia
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE
Close your eyes and guess who is the most valuable dead celebrity.
Well, maybe you picked Elvis.
But who else? In the top ten?
NEW YORK (AP) - Elvis Presley is still the King. Presley, who earned an estimated $49 million in the past 12 months, has reclaimed the No. 1 spot on Forbes.com's list of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities. He last topped the list in 2005.Would you have picked Albert Einstein? Could that be the posters and t-shirts? I knew about Warhol. James Brown doesn't count. He is hardly cooled off.
John Lennon ranks second with earnings of $44 million, followed by Charles M. Schulz ($35 million), George Harrison ($22 million), Albert Einstein ($18 million), Andy Warhol ($15 million), Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) ($13 million), Tupac Shakur ($9 million), Marilyn Monroe ($7 million), Steve McQueen ($6 million), James Brown ($5 million), Bob Marley ($4 million) and James Dean ($3.5 million).
Presley died in 1977. His estate continues to generate millions from music royalties, DVDs, licensing deals and tourism at Graceland, the rocker's mansion in Memphis, Tenn.
Tupac Shakur. Whew. Ahead of Bob Marley.
And, we will have to wait until Paul is dead to see if he beats John. He won't I think.
But the biggest suprise to me is that McQueen and Dean still have the goods.
They do resonate with me still.
So I guess there is life after death even if it is your relatives who get the gelt.
Labels: culture
DE GHETTO
When we moved to Palm Springs, we spent some time looking for the gay neighborhood.
We never found it.
Gays are everywhere in this city. So, of course are straights.
It is totally mixed.
We had lived in the South End of Boston where gays owned a majority of the properties and businesses. It wasn't the Castro but it was ours.
Before we lived there, we lived on Beacon Hill which was hippy-gay and then became yuppie-straight.
Now, we hear that the South End is much more hetero, many families, and that the gay population is dispersing throughout the city.
The ghetto is no more.
And that is a good thing I think.
No one puts us there any longer and we do now crouch in the corner for herd/pack-strength.
This article tells us that it is happening everywhere.
Gay Enclaves Face Prospect of Being Passé
The Castro is in a bit of shock we hear.
They don't want to lose what they have.
For a lot of older gay men, the idea of the ghetto is so comforting that they do not want to leave it and this has been the case in the Castro for a long time.
It shows.
The ingrown culture and the often trashy business scene has not been all that great a reflection of gay life.
I don't want to start any arguments but I would never have, nor now would, want to live there.
The South End was a quiet neighborhood and what commercial and cultural ventures were there were equal opportunity.
Boston's gay scene was always integrated with the city's culture and politics.
End of an era.
And, as I said, a good thing.
Labels: gay life
Monday, October 29, 2007
TIME BOMB
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Mike Leigh's
This is a great film.
There is not one thing about it that misses the mark.
It is all words and acting (the music) and the people are incredibly good.
Leigh uses actor participation in unfolding the play. I think this shows in every scene.
I don't want to say a lot about this dysfunctional family and how they unload some of the baggage. I will say that there is a clear and satisfying resolution but you will forget that as you begin to watch.
You will become part of the action.
This is a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Sunday, October 28, 2007
CHRISTIST BASEBALL
I was reading that the christian god is in the dugout of the Denver Rockies.
I saw a picture of a guy pointing up with two hands as he ran into home after a home run.
I read that they have bible study meetings and that you have to have some demonstration of christian faith to be on the team.
The article didn't mention any other faith. Or belief. Like atheism or something.
Goup prayer before games.
I have to say that it doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot of good.
But, I might be speaking too soon.
Sometimes the old testament god lets the sinners get all complacent before he smiteth them.
It is always a he.
Wasn't it god that lifted the Red Sox Babe jinx? The cardinal or someone? Novenas?
At least no one is pointing to the fucking sky when they hit a home run.
They do that before to show where they are going to put it.
No. I guess that was the Babe.
Never mind.
Labels: christist watch, sports
LA PHIL'S UP
The only cultural entity that we have become attached to since we moved west, is the LA Philharmonic.
I have to admit that is mostly because the Boston Symphony had become such a moth eaten instititution with the jap in the lead.
Yeh, I know that is racist. Wanna make something of it?
We have deeply enjoyed the work and vision of Esa-Pekka Salonen and now look forward to the new guy.
Christ. I just got used to spelling Esa-Pekka.
Gustavo Dudamel!
Not a bad moniker at all. Conductor of the people.
The thing is that , while I could not spell Esa-Pekka without looking, I could say it.
Now, I can spell Dudamel but I am not sure how to say it.
I think it will work out.
Labels: music
THE WORM TURNS
If you have the stamina, there is a great, long, piece in the NYT today about the dissolution of the Republican 'base'.
It provides a great schadenfreude experience for people like me who have agonized long and hard at the terrible toll this movement has taken on our country.
Christianism.
Labels: christist watch, criminal morons
GOOD QUESTION
Where does the title Jesus Son come from?
It is a line from a Lou Reed song—Heroin
I don’t know just where I’m going
But I’m gonna try for the kingdom if I can
‘Cause it make me feel like I’m a man
When I put a spike into my vein
Then I tell you things aren’t quite the same
When I’m rushing on my run
And I feel just like Jesus’ son
And I guess that I just don’t know
And I guess that I just don’t know.
Labels: culture
IF YOU HAVE TO SAY IT, IT'S TOO LATE
I said a long time ago that Obama didn't have the stuff.
The word was 'callow'.
This says it all.
Obama Promises a Forceful Stand Against Clinton
The thing is that he inspired a lot of hope in people with his talk of uniting the nation and all.
He has had no specifics himself.
It is a failed campaign.
And if you can't compete within your own primary then you sure as hell will be a pushover in the general election.
The GOP smear/hate machine would mow him down.
A punching bag.
And so on.
I have never liked him much anyway so it doesn't bother me.
I am just saying.
Labels: Democrats
Saturday, October 27, 2007
OBSERVATION
Observation in the review for Jesus' Son:
Like all good films, it is not for everybody (only bad films are for everybody).Roger Ebert
Labels: film
RECOVERY
Today's film was Jesus' Son (2000)
I watched this because it was adapted from Denis Johnson's book of short stories. Johnson is the author of Tree of Smoke that I just finished.
It is a druggie film. It is funny/sad/tragic. It is also a drunk's story. Over the top and way dramatic. Some magical realism.
Well, he is high. But then he gets high sober. Very nicely done.
Which makes it a pretty good film.
Think Coen brothers if they were addicts. Well, maybe there are.
What is also good about this is Billy Crudup who carries the whole thing on his shoulders. Samantha Morton helps a lot.
There are some walk on stars.
I liked it.
I particularly liked that it has sobriety at the end.
Yes there are Meetings.
Yes, for once, they are rather realistic.
I like Johnson. I like Crudup. I like Holly Hunter who shows up at the end.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: film
Friday, October 26, 2007
DOWN TO EARTH
We got the smoke down at ground level during the night.
I started my bike ride in the dark and after about 20 minutes realized that I couldn't see any land features on any side.
I had enough visibility. It was not blacked out. But there was no landscape beyond maybe half a mile.
There was some odor and I had a little eye sting.
I considered going back but that was as I was going down a pretty steep hill which committed me to going back up the same grade somewhere. Effort under a little lung stress.
So either way I was going to get some junk. I just kept going.
It was fine.
The sunrise light was way late though. I kept the headlight going on the bike for maybe half the ride.
This is nothing of course.
People on the other side of the mountain will be dealing with the fallout of this for some time.
A lot of places do not have water; all the reservoirs were used up.
Many, no electricity.
John's cousin who lives in the northern reaches of San Diego got evacuated but is back home. All is fine.
The weather guys say that we will have smoke through tomorrow night.
DIE TRYING
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Spielberg's
This long film is bookended with some of the most horrific and complicated battle scenes I have ever seen. I am impressed.
That said, I have to say that most of it left me cold despite S-berg's pulling all the strings on the emotionagraph.
John Williams music rising. Claptrap.
This is the 'berg's war film. He is doing all the genrés you know.
I don't think that it stacks up well with Platoon (they got Sizemore for this picture too and deballed him) or Apocalypse Now. I don't even think that its drama matches Catch 22
The concept is stupid.
They wouldn't get away with it in another war.
I don't mean the government, I mean the mogul.
It is hard to get by Tom Hanks in another role that is made for him and he not made for it.
There are moral dilemmas and he delivers 'talks' but they are not very convincing.
There is heroism. There is cowardice redeemed. There are rivals who turn into buddies. There is...............the same thing as any other war movie except the big budget.
It is hard not to think about how they did the work in the big scenes. Is it a total set? How much did it cost? How did they do that?
How many times did they have to shoot it? Did they just go through one big blowout with many cameras?
You can see that I had not suspended disbelief.
I have to admit that I was shaken by it all.
But I didn't like it. That I was shaken or the movie, basically.
It is like an amusement park ride that someone talks you into going on even though you don't like it and you go on it anyway and when you are on you really know you don't like it but you are on it and you can't get off so you make the best of it.
"Making the best of it" is a 3 on the Netflix5 scale.
And Edward Burns was a lot better in it than Tom Hanks.
Labels: best films
Thursday, October 25, 2007
CATS
I suppose that I should note the availability of Leopard, the new 10X system software for Macs.
Apple Offers New Goodies in Leopard System
I still have not installed the Tiger that I bought.
Given the 'features' of this one, I know that I will not spend the money.
I will wait until I get a new Mac.
Besides, it is iffy about whether this version will fit my three year old eMac. Four?
I know.
I am drifting behind in two ways.
I have the beginnings of an antiquated machine (my backup laptop is 5 years old or 6) and, most of all, or least, the new features available on computers in general are leaving me behind.
That is why I didn't install Tiger.
I don't care about all the stuff.
They say that Leopard has 300 new features. I read some of them in the review and also a newsletter that David Pogue puts out.
The only one that interests me is Time Machine which, with a small hard drive plugged in, will remember all the versions of the iPhoto and other files that you have dumped.
Well, come to think of it, I am not all that interested in that either.
I am a vet at saving. Three copies of photos.
I am pretty definite about my decisions to trash anything. So. Why?
My take is that the Mac is trying hard to be the ultimate system and beat the pants off Vista.
They certainly have done a great thing to make only one version at one price, or two if you count the family fee that no one pays any attention to except real MacTards.
Not only that, they don't require a serial number and they don't load you up with all kinds of un-needed bundling of other people's add-ons. And so on.
Apple is pure as snow.
And finally, to date, no one has created a virus that works on Macs. We are free of all that PC shit.
So, I won't buy the system.
I don't know when or if I will buy a new machine.
When I have to I suppose.
The browser on this one was getting cranky but switching to Mozilla and its updates have apparently solved that problem.
I am rambling.
Go Mac. Go Steve. Viva Apple.
Labels: macintosh
WIND TURNS
We finally have smoke in the Coachella Valley. Very high.
Up until today the strong winds were all off the coast and away from us.
Now that the high has weakened there is a mix up above and we are getting a back swirl.
That is the least of fire problems.
No ash.
No odor.
Just high altitude smoke.
Labels: weather
WOMEN IN FILM
This is interesting.
There is a jump at Audrey Hepburn. She is so different.
And from there, the mold seems broken.
There are a few more 'stops' and then it is really hard to put the faces together.
There is no male equivalent. I don't think that it could be done.
The standardization of the film female was almost total.
They 'all' had some work done. The nose, the chin.
Notice the eyes. Most are big. Globular. Even puffy.
And the eye makeup.
There is no film where the woman is plainly without extra lashes, extra shadow or mascara.
It was not until we began seeing European films that this anomaly was obvious.
Today, it is the teeth. Everyone, men and women alike have perfect overly white teeth no matter what the role.
I saw a zombie picture where the teeth were colored but still perfect.
It must be in the standard SAG contract. Don't fuck with the teeth.
HALF A WAR
I watched the first half of Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan today.
It is too long for one sitting.
For me.
I don't think that I will lose the arc of the story as it is pretty simple.
The production is not simple.
It is impressive. Certainly a new level in war movies. Reality and all.
John Wayne it is not.
But, then, Wayne's producers did not have the money to virtually reproduce the Normandy invasion.
I will reserve further judgement.
Labels: best films
MRSA
This is the article I mentioned below:
Drug-Resistant Staph: What You Need to Know
It is in our hospitals here.
I have a friend who got it through a 'bite' on his knee.
The bug ate its way down to the bone. They had to open his knee and scrape it down and out.
He still has pain from the operation.
You don't want this. I don't.
I laughed at the sanitary wipes supplied in the super market when they showed up. Now, I am not so sure.
Labels: health
MASSHOLE
Guiliani is caught with his fans down
There are so many entendrés in here.
Flipping them off. All that.
This was from Dave.
Labels: republican whack jobs
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
NO PROBALEM
For those who follow these things, I went to the ass doctor today and had the possibility of a polyp checked out.
No polyp.
No cancer.
Just a diagnosis of a problem long known of. One I can live with.
Unless my own doc says otherwise. But he has known about it too.
The whole experience was one that put me back in believing that there are good docs who care.
Let's face it. Or, take the other end if you will.
It is not easy to go and have your butt examined.
I don't care how brazen you are and I am up there on the b-scale.
Then add the threat of the big C and a bit of worry about what a polyp really is exactly (I looked it up in the Mayo Clinic site and was still not sure).
This guy has the comfort of the patient all down.
He started bang on time.
He was interested. Efficient but still a bit cozy.
Then the sigmoidoscopy.
Not a big deal.
It is like a dentists chair only you lie on your stomach and it turns the other side up.
A guided tour is given. "Now I am doing this, now I am doing that".
He gets in there with a balloon thing.
No pain.
It didn't take long.
We had our little talk.
He told me he could fix the problem if I wanted.
He did not say I had to fix it.
We parted friends.
He even spelled out the words "hypertrophied papilloma".
A normal bud that gets over blown.
The bowel is full of little buds soaking up all that nutrition.
I have not been to a specialist other than my eye doc (opthalmologist) for ten years and then for prostate cancer and no more.
Well, I had a skin doc once.
I am a lucky dude. A lot of people have a whole bouquet of attending physicians, especially these days of increasing specialty.
So that is it.
If I do decide to have this thing fixed, it involves a half hour out-patient thing and a bit of recuperation from cutting.
Cutting.
I am surgery averse. Did I tell you?
No MRSA for me, thanks. And I do not believe in malpractice suits. I have gotten off juries over that one so I have to maintain the position.
Would I have surgery if I absolutely had to?
Sure.
Last resort.
If not, no.
This ain't it.
Labels: health
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
A LITTLE PENIS ENVY
There is a lot of testosterone on the LATimes sports page.
Desk jocks.
I try to avoid the whole section if at all possible.
Today, they took on the Boston Red Sox.
You might remember that Boston beat the Angels' ass a couple of weeks ago.
This has not been forgotten.
In this article, they compare Sox pride to (gasp) Yankee's arrogance.
Take that you nasty Boston bastards!
Labels: sports
LAUNDRY LIST
I have a list of topics on my desk. Things I could write about for the blog.
I haven't yet.
So I thought today (it irks me to have an undone do list) that I could put them all together.
Here goes.
There. That's the crop.
No more list.
Magic.
There is no movie today. A friend is coming over.
Friends trump film.
Labels: life
Monday, October 22, 2007
TALKING!
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
It just came out on DVD.
Nicely restored and they got the record in sync with the film!
We are seeing this because it is a historic film not because it is, in itself, a great film.
In fact, it is not really that historic as many believe. We know that belief will trump fact anytime in our culture.
The link is a great myth breaker.
Nevertheless, my parents thought it was the first talking film and that is good enough for me.
There is a real thrill to hearing Al Jolson say "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!" if you can place yourself in a theater seat 80 years ago.
The story is melodrama and filled with jewish stereotypes.
There is black face. A really bizarre thing if you think about it.
But they were still doing some of it when I was a kid.
The other thing here is to see Al Jolson. He was on early teevee but he was past his prime.
He is a piece of work. Mugging and stealing scenes.
You can even see him doing a version of the 'moon walk'; also the kid who plays him as, well, a kid.
There is nothing new in show biz.
Watch for blackface to come back soon.
Women and all are playing Bob Dylan in the new film.
Only a step away.
I think any serious movie fan should see this picture.
It may not have been first first but it was the one that made the waves and changed the art of film forever.
I will give it a 2 out of Netflix5 but I really am glad that I saw it.
Look at this. When does any film get this kind of crowd today?
Never.
Labels: best films
FREDERICK OF HOLLYWOOD
More from the dog and pony show for the right wingers at the 'values summit'
I loved this line:
As the NYT's Gail Collins put it, "Thompson's tendency to look down and read his remarks provided the audience with some of the most prolonged views of the top of a bald politician's head in recent history. When you feel compelled to use an index card for lines like, 'We must have good laws. We must do our best to stop bad laws,' you have been spending too much of your life filming 30-second bits of dialogue."
Funnier and funnier as time goes on.
And what is all the jockeying for the right wing?
They keep forgetting their other base. Normal middle and upper middle class Presbyterians from Michigan or wherever.
Labels: republican whack jobs
SEEING RED
OK. OK. They did it.
All that talk about unraveling and they were just taking a rest before they whipped Cleveland's ass.
I am a Red Sox fan again if only for a little while.
Labels: sports
Sunday, October 21, 2007
HETERO CONFUSION
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was Ingmar Bergman's
This is said to be Bergman's best but I don't think so.
It is OK but filled with men and women missing the point with one another and only getting it after it is too late to resolve with the person—in life—instead mindfucking it and rehashing.
Liv Ullman and Erland Josephson play a couple who can't get it on and can't end it. They keep seeing one another through affairs and marriages with other people.
It is fascinating because it is Bergman and his actors but it is also nonsense.
Lives wasted on useless games.
And so on.
It starts with the 'men don't get women and v.v. and is complicated with 70's ideas about spontaneity which, in this case, ends up looking more like mental cruelty.
I can't get on board with it.
I see the individuals as basic failures in the spiritual and mental sense.
Maybe that is the point.
Settling for less.
If so, I ain't sympathetic.
And the movie is long. Almost 3 hours.
I will give this a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
NOSTALGIA
You might remember that I was/am a Howard Dean man.
I have had no reason to change my opinion of him over the four years that he has been 'gone'.
He is anything but gone.
His Meteoric Days Gone, Quiet Dean Leads Party
He is remaking the Democratic Party with the same competence that I think he would have been president.
He is a quiet force.
He is a worker. Tireless.
If they don't want him at the top of the ticket, he will move aside but he will not quit.
He will not go and collect his 'due' as a lobbyist or talking head.
I admire him.
He is a doer.
He is passionate.
I still love the scream.
But he is a quiet force now.
He may be paving the way for whoever they want at the top to win.
And you know what?
When they win, they will replace him with their on chairman/woman.
He has a thankless job for which I thank him.
I would still vote for him in a heartbeat.
Labels: politics
Saturday, October 20, 2007
FUNDIES UNITE
This is the right wing values guys who are meeting this weekend.
Rudy had hoped to get a spike in his rating with them.
Guess not.
Results from "Values Voter Summit" Straw Poll
Candidate Name ... Percentage
1. Mitt Romney ... 27.62 %
2. Mike Huckabee ... 27.10 %
3. Ron Paul ... 14.98%
4. Fred Thompson ... 9.77 %
5. Sam Brownback ... 5.14 %
6. Duncan Hunter ... 2.42 %
7. Tom Tancredo ... 2.30 %
8. Rudy Giuliani ... 1.85 %
9. John McCain ... 1.40 %
These are the weasels who eat abortionists and gays for breakfast, who are cretinists--oops creationists--and want prayer in the public schools. They want all sex banned but for babies and there will be nothing but abstinence for kids who are doing it anyway. Their own kids.
And as christianists, they love torture especially for those fucking muslims. And the commies too if the russian bastard putin keeps on going and our prescious bodily fluids, protect those tooandwegottaget theriflestokillthosegoddamitfuckingbastardshitstohellforthewhorehillaryandherdevilbill.
Those guys.
Labels: criminal morons
FRANTASTIC
Today's film was
Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003) / The Triplets of Belleville
French animated cartoon. Ronald Searlish.
It is pretty good. It held me for 80 minutes.
Totally bizzaro, in a good way.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Friday, October 19, 2007
REVELATION
I just finished reading a really big book.
And I mean that in every sense of the word.
The place is mostly Viet Nam.
Five characters or more.
A major work I believe.
There are echoes of Conrad, Heller, a few others. But it is definitely and absolutely an original work.
The central character is an innocent CIA man who has ended up in his rogue uncle's private war with the Viet Cong.
That said, it hardly captures the sense of it all.
Try reading the review at the link.
More.
Try reading the book.
I will send my copy to the first interested commenter.
Labels: books
ODDS
This morning, on my bike ride, I found myself riding toward a guy walking away from me and and a couple walking towards me.
We were all clocked to come together at the very same spot in the sidewalk/bikepath.
I slowed.
The couple slowed a bit. We missed each other by a couple feet.
What are the odds of finding 4 people at the same time in the same place at 630 AM when I have only seen maybe ten people in a ten mile circle? These people are scattered pretty evenly over the 10 miles except just at this point.
Pretty low odds, I would say.
And yet, this situation arises quite frequently.
I know that these events are not subject to 'random number' analysis.
First of all, we are on a path. So we are not talking about the full circumscribed area. Just the linear distance.
There are also places where there it would be unlikely to see any people at all.
But these do not really account for much. It is all walk/bikeway.
I know that there are clusters of homes along the route and, one would think, there would be more walkers near those areas.
But this occurred in the middle of a golf course.
And so on.
I like coincidence.
MELTDOWN
Today's NYTimes 1176 Best Films was Robert Altman's
This is a psychodrama.
One character.
Philip Baker Hall as Richard Nixon.
It is labeled as a 'myth'.
But, having lived through it, it had all the feel of reality to me. The historical benchmarks were quite familiar.
It is a tour de force by Hall. Not an impersonation. Somehow that makes it all the more powerful.
The one set play (which it was—in LA—before it was a film) is 'opened up' with the creative use of small security tv monitors that Hall plays with as he goes through his moves.
A bangup ending.
Highly recommended.
I will give this a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
NET GAIN
Franklin and I went out to pee this morning (him not me) and, as I went past the pool, I saw ripples.
A baby rat was doing the doggy paddle in the water.
Now, we have a long standing war with the rats. We are currently on top after some significant investment in metal containers and a little trapping here and there.
But this was a moment where mammals connect.
Like the dough boy and the kraut who meet in no-mans land. The indian that saves the wounded Texas Ranger.
I went and got the skimmer net and scooped him out.
He didn't stop to stay thanks.
He was gone so fast that I hardly saw him on dry land.
I had only the little flashlight I use for these pee sessions.
I feel good about it.
Maybe some day, when the baby is an adult, we will meet somehow somewhere and the favor will be returned.
Somehow.
Maybe.
Anyway, that is my good deed for the day.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION
This is fun:
No Shirts at Improv Everywhere
In the old days we demonstrated for civil rights, ending of wars, and hunger.
Times change.
On the other hand, it is fun.
I like seeing the firm in question getting its pants taken off so to speak.
Take a look at the whole site.
All in good fun. I am sure there is a greater social good.
Breaking down the codes and all.
TIE ME UP TIE ME DOWN
We have guests for four days.
They are marginal guests. Just using the room.
Yup. That's what it says here in fine print.
Anyway, I will be preoccupied for some times during this even though I am laying low.
I am just saying.
BIG QUESTIONS
I am a big fan of David Pogue.
I think that he knows everything.
He helped me get my great Canon SD800IS. A camera, incidentally.
He is a Mac guy of long standing.
But he doesn't know everything.
Here he lists some real posers.
Yeh. What about that?
PETERED RABBIT
From the spring and through the summer, the rabbit population was very high.
I would have to ring my bell as I went parallel to the golf course so that the hares would hear me and go to their bushes across the path before I got there.
I lived in some considerable fear that I would run over one.
Times have changed!
The number of bunnies on my morning ride has decreased dramatically.
The population is petering out.
This has happened before. There was a virus.
This time, I opine that it is the coyotes work. They have been driven down from the mountains because of the drought.
There are also more coyotes. I am not sure why they woulod fourish during hard food times, but there you are.
I think that they are at the top of the food scale here.
They take dogs and cats. Well small to medium dogs.
I am worried about the rabbits though.
There are still enough to make a new nest of babies.
But I worry. The ones that I see are separated by some distance.
I want to introduce them to one another. Start a dating service.
These are desert cottontails incidentally. Near relations of the guys I knew back east.
Labels: nature
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
MEDIUM RARE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
This film depends on Kim Stanley's performance to exist. And Richard Attenborough.
Without them, it is a wisp. Not believable.
With them it is a stretch but I went along with it to see these two play out the game they had started.
A kidnapping. A kid.
A well laid plan that somehow goes wrong.
How original is that?
The journey is the destination.
Stanley was a stage actress of great power. She didn't make that many movies. I don't think that they knew what to do with her.
She is not conventionally pretty and her energy is so strong that other actors get blown away.
Attenborough stands quite well in the gale.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
ALL RIGHT
I got all my blood tests back today.
A plus.
Now, if we can get that pesky polyp taken care of, I will be back into the "perfect" column again.
Labels: health
UNRAVELING?
I am sort of following the Red Sox but not with a lot of pleasure.
They kicked the Angels ass.
Was it the Angels?
I am not sure.
One of the LA teams.
We have three now because Anaheim doesn't want to be the Anaheim whatever. They want to be an LA team.
I have a limited grasp.
I am Boston loyal.
It is a reflex.
I don't follow the team at all during the season.
They catch my attention towards the end.
The end. Can it be near?
They seemed nearly over with Cleveland.
Cleveland. Right?
Maybe I shouldn't have bothered writing this.
I am so baseball lame.
Right now they are behind 4 to 1. Maybe they will pull it out.
There is still hope.
UPDATE: They didn't pull it out.
Labels: sports
28
This week I will celebrate 28 years clean and sober.
Of course, I did it one day at a time but if you keep doing "it" the days add up.
This year a group of close friends with the same sober objectives will have a pot luck dinner for me.
I never had that before.
I guess I am getting to the upper reaches; what we call an old timer.
I should point out that one does not do this kind of thing alone.
That is the fundamental problem of the alcoholic/addict; playing the isolation game and not asking for help.
What society calls self reliance.
It may work for some but for the drunk it is deadly.
Enough.
I am qrateful beyond words for a life second to none.
The life I got back.
Labels: life
RUDY VS HILLARY
I have decided that this is going to be the contest.
This shows how each is doing in their respective primaries.
I think that Kevin Drum is the only other lib-blogger that agrees with me; at least the big time ones.
When they get to the general, she will be right even or beyond him in every respect.
Right now she beats him in a lot of blue/reddish states.
I know.
Get a life!
Only the most devoted politiphile is interested in this kind of shit this early.
Labels: hillary, politics, Rudy
Monday, October 15, 2007
FEARLESS
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was the conclusion of
An improbable hero.
He doesn't even know how to run a business.
He is an operator, a hustler, a con artist, a womanizer, a man with very few scruples.
We do not see what changes him from an opportunist to a man who saves the lives of a thousand Jews.
We see gradual transitions. Friendship.
In the scene below, when they are making the list, he remembers people's names. Families. The list springs from his mind. The two men are on fire with the names.
Once committed he pursues the 'list' with the same fervor that he pursues money, women, good times.
He is fearless.
In peace time, he would likely end up in jail. In many ways he is a benign sociopath.
He cares nothing about consequences.
The war ends about the time that he runs out of money to pay off the germans and all the other business leaches.
Liam Neeson is Schindler.
Great.
And Ben Kingsley who is the factory manager who makes a lot of the machine work. A Jew. Their friendship is at the core of the 'how'.
Ralph Fiennes is incredibly evil as the commandant.
The care in making this film realistic is evident in each frame. There are no shortcuts.
It is a masterpiece.
I cannot say more really. The personal impact of it will be long lasting.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Sunday, October 14, 2007
HOME
We had company for the weekend.
Nice.
He went home this noon and I started watching the first half of Schindler's List.
It is one of those movies I have dread seeing but it is on the NYTimes Best 1176 List.
It is my duty.
And so far so good.
I don't have to take it all in one bite. It is over 3 hours long!
Hard to watch stuff.
It is prepping me for Private Ryan which I hear is even harder to take.
Where do these rumors start?
Why do I pay attention to them?
Never mind.
Labels: best films
IN THE DARK
As expected, our governator vetoed the gay marriage bill passed by both houses.
Schwarzenegger vetoes gay marriage bill again
He did it late at night on last Friday.
Too late for the Friday teevee news and too late for the Saturday morning papers.
Since no one expected anything different, I suppose that the stealth is more to avoid uncomfortable pressure from the press than anything else.
The fight is not over of course.
He says he is just doing the will of the people which I thought was the legislative's job.
Just remember that when his right wing critics call him a lefty that shows more how far they have gone to the right. Not how far he has gone to the left.
Labels: gay marriage, gay politics, gay rights
Saturday, October 13, 2007
NO CALL
They are such little people; we used to say "small". "Isn't that small of them"?:
"You don't have to get snippy about this"
Labels: bush. bushies
Friday, October 12, 2007
AUTO EROTIC
Today is the last of the Francis Veber comedies
La Doublure / The Valet (2006)
This one has the same character Pignon (a running joke as the stories are totally different) as an auto valet who is in the wrong place at the right time to get involved in being a double (la doublure) for a billionaire who is under tabloid scrutiny in an affair with a super model.
It is a farce.
You have to see it.
It is wonderful.
A 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: film
GORED
This will drive the bushies nuts. As it should, the bastards.
Gore and U.N. Panel Win Peace Prize
It is not only Gore that gets it in the face of the bush' obstructions (it is not denial, it is willful).
It is the UN too.
A stick in the eye.
I am happy for him.
On the other hand, some people have said that if he won the Nobel he should run for President.
How they make this leap of logic from a Scandinavian blessing to a US coronation I do not know.
I don't want him on the inside.
He has proven himself a good agitator.
Labels: global warming, politics
Thursday, October 11, 2007
NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY
I am out.
Keith Haring's famous logo.
Labels: gay history, gay life, gay rights
A MINUS
I had my semi-annual physical today but this is the big one.
EKG and a lot of other tests.
I usually get a pass on everything—A plus—but this year I have to go see the rectologist.
I have a polyp or a suspected polyp at less than finger length.
I guess it is an anal polyp.
I have already turned this into colo-rectal cancer of the advanced kind.
Do not send flowers, just money.
Of course polyps are routine if you have used your colon long enough.
I have already set up my appointment.
John went to this guy and he snipped a polyp out during the exam.
It isn't even a colonoscopy. He uses the funnel like in the picture. It doesn't hurt.
I really don't want it that simple.
I would like to have a second opinion.
Not really.
I will go and do the next indicated thing.
I don't have any other doctors like a lot of folks.
I know people who have their primary and then a bouquet of specialists.
I only go to my eye guy and that is because I don't trust optometrists.
So I am started on my collection.
Stay tuned. I won't let you miss a beat.
Labels: health
WEARING YOUR CALVIN
I am reading a great new novel by Denis Johnson called Tree of Smoke.
More about that later.
In it, a character is fixated on Calvinism.
Geeeez Louise.
I haven't heard anyone analyzing Calvin in decades.
John says that is because the fundies have overwhelmed all other religious thought.
And yet some of them derive from Calvin don't they?
No. Actually. He believed in predestination and that most of the prophecies had already happened.
I don't know.
It is interesting.
I have lived long enough to see fashions change in all respects.
You say 'calvin' now and everyone will think Klein. Whities. Wedgies.
I was never too hot on Calvin myself. A bit too dour and self punishing for me.
Labels: religion
WHOO WHO WHO
The owl is back.
S/he is out there about 4 AM when Franklin and I go out to pee. Old joke. Him not me.
We hear the owl.
I hoot back.
The owl gets closer.
We do it again.
Franklin is fascinated. He sits. Ears up. Cocks his head.
"What the fuck is going on? Will I have to have an owl in the house"?
No.
I quit.
It is a kind of manipulation so I stop.
The owl will get over it.
It is one of the most wonderful sounds in the night.
This is a barred owl and I think ours is a barn owl. We see him fly by some nights from the spa.
Maybe I will get close enough to see.
DEVELOPER BECOMES JUST ANOTHER GUY
We had the informal meeting with the guy (and wife) who want to erect a monument to themselves across from our pool.
I only have one objection. I don't want them to have two stories so they are looking at my bare ass when I go swimming.
Or more.
The upshot of the meeting was that there is some movement.
As it turned out and, as is often the case with these things, everyone developed some human dimensions and got a bit friendlier than before.
At the end, he was even marking his plans up with various alternatives that would make us happy.
They 'had to' ask 60 people to this—within 400 feet—and only four of us showed up. Three households.
That is normal too.
And good.
It let us all become a bit more relaxed and fess up to true and non-rhetorical positions.
I was not surprised at this.
I spent 35 years in a business that taught people just this fact along with the skills to make it work.
I would like to say that my abilities in team leadership came to the fore here.
Not so.
I also know that a participant with an axe to grind cannot lead or, for that matter, even do a very good job of being positive and helpful.
I can be an asshole just as well as the other guy.
But, we all took off our asshole hats and got somewhere.
Meaning that we got off our positions and maybe we can reach some kind of rapprochement.
It was a good exercise.
I shook hands with them at the end. Wished them luck.
Progress.
Labels: neighborhood
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
CUP OF HAPPINESS
I am not a hockey fan (actually no sports) but I loved this special section of the LATimes today.
Stanley Cup: A Day With Hockey's Holy Grail
There are 8 audio slide shows. Hear the narration!
The on-line version is not quite as affecting but I can't send the hard copy to y'all.
I really enjoyed the read.
Isn't it interesting that a real paper still can have a greater appeal than the net version?
There are editing and size considerations and the net is cold, not warm. Especially for something as touching as this.
You have to work a whole lot harder to come across on teevee and the net is the same.
The paper cuddles you in.
The net's hard computer surface and video inner light tend to distance.
Labels: sports
ON AND ON
We are going to a meeting today with the developer who wants to build a 'high rise' house next to us.
He was turned down by the Planning Commission then, when he appealed to City Council to overturn, they refused and told him to work with the neighbors and start over again with the Planning Commission.
This is his meeting with the neighbors.
He was also told to widen the 'net' by mailing notices to all owners within 400 feet.
This has almost doubled the neighbors officially affected. All of whom, it is presumed, are in opposition.
Actually, I don't need a meeting. If he goes to a one story house, I really do not care one way or another what he builds.
This is not true of my other neighbors however.
We share his 'back' and a wall. They will have to look at his way out of taste facade.
Another interesting chapter in the two-story story.
Labels: neighborhood
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
HOMOPHILIA
Today was the second Francis Veber comedy
Le Placard / The Closet (2001)
Again we have dogs and cats in a bag and watch them figure out how to be friends. Veber's metaphor.
It is farce. It uncovers almost every homophobic slur, attitude and utterance.
And it does the job hilariously.
The direct relationship between being a bigot and a fool is shown irrefutably.
This one has Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu in addition to some of the cast from yesterday's The Dinner Game. This one is a 4 out of Netflix5.
Tomorrow, Veber's The Valet.
Cheers.
Monday, October 08, 2007
ODD COUPLES
I am watching 3 Francis Veber comedies in series.
Today was
Le Dîner de cons / The Dinner Game (1998)
Veber says that he likes to put a cat and a dog into a bag and then watch how they end up being friends.
It is his specialty.
This one has a smart sophisticated guy belonging to a small club that has a monthly dinner for the idiots that each can find. A prize is given.
The guy finds his idiot through an acquaintance—a sort of third party find—and asks the idiot, who happens to make match models of famous buildings, to his apartment for a drink before the dinner so that he can brief himself on the idiot's particular idiocy.
I know.
It sounds complicated when it is written down. Farce always 'reads' that way.
Nevertheless, it is a funny film with a lot for the guy and his idiot to find out about each other.
A lot depends on the electricity between the two stars. Their timing is impeccable.
It is good, often Gallic, fun.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Tomorrow, The Closet. Yes. That closet.
It will star Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Autiel who we last say together in Jean De Florette. A different experience I am sure.
Labels: film
FOR CHRIS SAKE
You won't find anyone much celebrating Columbus Day out here.
There won't be mail and the banks are closed.
That's it.
They don't even close the schools.
Back east where there are a few more out Italians they had parades and all.
Yeh, I know all the politics and stuff. Poor Chris has nothing to do with that. He thought he was doing a good thing.
And I know that he really didn't discover it.
It wasn't lost in the first place. There were people living here.
And even if you buy that discovery by the Europeans was important at all, the Vikings got here first.
It is sort of a shit holiday when you think of it.
But, I like the story and the idea of it and so I will keep the myth alive in my heart. At least until they make it a religion like the other myths.
I will celebrate Columbus' birth here with what has become a tradition.
The showing of Salvador Dali's great "Christopher Columbus Discovering the United States of America
Labels: holidays
Sunday, October 07, 2007
KIDS
I went to the seminar today as an MIT Educational Council member.
My first time.
It was over in Claremont. Between Ontario and Pamona. 90 minutes. Easy.
It was not what I expected at all.
And it was great.
The orientation was for all the MIT applicants from Cucamonga (look it up) to the Colorado River.
Almost all of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.
Up to 200 kids plus parents.
It was orientation for me because I got to see the slide show and talk that the MIT rep does/did.
It was great.
It brought what I knew alive. Now I have the feel of the important message as well as what to do when I get stuck.
I will be interviewing up to 19 kids between now and December although' they' say that we will usually only see about 30%.
There are many who are just now deciding whether to pursue this or not. When you apply it costs some money.
So after I heard the spiel, he got 6 of us up to do a quick intro and then stand across the front of the room to answer questions that didn't get answered in the Q&A!
Talk about on the job training!
I got about ten questions. All of them good and all of them quite answerable.
My alumnus 'boss' to who coordinates for the entire area told me that he has rarely been stumped.
Besides, our job is to get a take of them, not they of us.
I can do that.
It was very worthwhile.
One mess up was that I thought there was a supper which was actually a luncheon.
I was not the only one.
It was interesting that the audience today was predominantly asian and multiracial. Well not that I am checking ethnicity or anything.
MIT has always been at the forefront of equal representation although the application is color blind, legacy blind, sports or other star blind and so on.
The other surprise is that the student body is now half women.
When I went there we had 25 co-eds out of a gang of 2500 undergraduates.
MIT is and has always been a meritocracy. Liberal in the sense that they do not discriminate.
The first campus gay group in the country started at MIT. After my time.
Another surprising thing is that they have so perfected their admission process and the support of undergraduate learning that there is no wholesale washout of the freshman class.
When I went, about half of us who started were gone before the end of the freshman year.
No longer the case.
They have only about 5% who do not return. Most of these are people who didn't feel that they fit in at MIT.
A few take a year off.
Less than 10 were asked to leave for academic reasons.
Wow.
Of course they get 12000 applications for 1200-1500 slots so there is a lot to choose from.
They tell the kids that they must have A's and B's but the SAT scores are not used as a filter. They are considered but the kids' personality and independence are more important.
Nice to know.
I think that I would have a lot easier time of it at this MIT and get a better education even though in 1958 it was the best you could get at all levels.
I would never do it another way.
Well, I might study harder and ask for help more. I really slid by but I had a wonderful time in the extracurricular and in the life in Boston.
I could have been president of the gay group if we had one.
Let's say that I was more well rounded than the average tool.
Labels: MIT
STUNNED
Even I was shocked to see the extent of SoCal sports' grieving today.
Here from an expert watcher:
SO CAL SADNESS....Yesterday USC lost to Stanford. UCLA lost to Notre Dame. The Ducks lost. The Kings lost. Today the Angels got tossed out of the AL playoffs in the first round.Jeez. Is this the worst sports weekend in LA history? Anybody have any other contenders?
—Kevin Drum 6:54 PM Political Animal
Labels: sports
COLLEGE BOY
When I applied to MIT they asked me to talk to an alumnus who lived close by.
He was on the Educational Council. A group put together for just that purpose.
It was a memorable event. I remember detail.
I got in, got out, became an alumnus myself. Next year will be my classes' 50th reunion.
I won't go.
I have never wanted to be at a reunion and that has not changed.
But I have, for a long time, felt ill at ease over my lack of contribution back to the school that gave me so much.
A couple of months ago, I got an email asking if I would be willing to be a member of the Educational Council; to talk to prospects and applicants in a number of zip codes close to me.
I said yes almost immediately.
So, today, I am going to a little seminar for ECs in my area.
Over to Claremont.
The head EC guy out here is putting it on and there will be a person from the Admissions Office.
There will be supper.
It is not my kind of thing but I will go and participate.
I have 19 kids in my list of prospects.
They say that about a third will ask for an interview.
We have to do it before the end of this year.
The next three months.
Just in time for the briefing.
Labels: MIT
PRINCE HAL
I think that Harold Pinter is one of the most interesting people on the planet.
I do not do remakes but a Sleuth by Harold Pinter could not be a remake in any sense.
Also, Michael Caine reverses roles from the original.
Well, the original film.
I think that Caine is pretty interesting too.
Labels: film
Saturday, October 06, 2007
CONSIDERATION
Now that I have panned the movie, I should say that, in its ham handed way, Sayonara has its heart in the right place. It may, at the time, have made a great deal of impact.
It was made only ten years after WWII and feelings were still very strong against Japan.
My father, whose ship was hit by a kamikaze, held a lifelong prejudice against them and used all the hate words.
It is easy to scoff now about the film's double standards and inherent racism but, I suppose, they should get an E for effort.
They show the cultural side and the hero does get a war bride despite all the opposition.
Now, it is brown people who are getting the racist going over.
People from south of our border and, of course, your average person of middle eastern extraction.
It is always something.
Hate is portable.
This image is a work of art itself. It is called "White Liberal Mugs".
It'll work for the two Sayonara posts.
Labels: race
KAMIKAZE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
Sayonara (1956)There is a type of film that preaches racial (or other) tolerance while at the same time demonstrating the most blatant stereotyping itself.
Here we have Marlon Brando, a southern bigot with a hopelessly over the top shit kicking accent, playing an Air Force Major who, in spite of himself, falls in love (lust) with a Japanese theater star.
Is this because the woman he is supposed to marry, a General's daughter, is such a hopeless shrewish military brat (like her Mom)?
In any case, I left before the magic happened.
Stereotypes chasing stereotypes.
As a side story, Red Buttons (in a serious role) marries a Japanese woman against military advice and the two are hounded into suicide. I didn't see this actually, but read it in a review.
This is the kind of melodrama that James Michener wrote over and over (see South Pacific) and Joshua Logan directed.
Brando is a parody of himself in this film.
It is so bad.
Did I mention that this also has Ricardo Montalban as a Kabuki actor? Taped eyes and all. I got that he was a homo to boot.
Another condescension into stereotype.
Oh. And Irving Berlin wrote the title song. Oriental music parody.
It is just fucking awful.
Another 1 out of Netflix5 in less than a week.
We are on a run.
Labels: best films
HISTORY LESSONS
Fort Hunt's Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII
They have nothing but contempt for today's interrogation methods which the bush so staunchly defended yesterday.
Labels: criminal morons
VERY EXCITING
Whatever slim interest I have in baseball is highly concentrated at this time.
My old town and my new town are engaged in a duel to the death.
Ramirez's Homer in 9th Lifts Red Sox
I have to admit I got excited about this.
In the last of the ninth.
Is it correct to use the Ramirez's or should it be z'? Ramirez'?
I love this picture. It is called "Manny being Manny".
I would guess that Manny being Manny is also the Manny who hits a homer in the ninth inning clutch.
Labels: sports
UNRAVELING
Sooner or later they are going to have to yield to the inevitable.
The process is fatally flawed and the center is not holding.
War-Crimes Prosecutor Quits in Pentagon Clash
The politicization of the justice system is beyond belief.
Now, it even invades the military.
Labels: criminal morons
Friday, October 05, 2007
FLOOED, BLOOED AND TATTOOED
We went to get our flu shots today.
Yup.
It is that time again.
Seniors are especially targeted to get them. We are vulnerable, after all.
Here, the Senior Center gets very aggressive about it. They have an Elder Expo with all kinds of booths and shit. An attraction.
There is one hitch. They make you walk all through the Expo to get to the shots.
It showed me that, one more time, this kind of Senior Center oldster life is not for me.
Wall to wall geezers.
I know. I know.
I may eat my words some day and be one of those yuk-yuk old guys hanging out at the doors to help get the line moving while actually impeding progress.
I would be that guy, I think.
It is the only way that I could see myself joining the gang.
We have an older friend who has spent much of her later years being a volunteer with the elderly because she has never identified with 'them' in any other way.
It has kept her young.
Me too, I hope.
If I have to.
You could go there and lead your entire life which is, for some people, a good thing. They have games and socials and all kinds of activities. Lunch.
So far, I am a member but not a participant.
I only darken the door once a year for my flu shot.
So I am free and clear for 2007.
Done.
Ticket punched.
See 'ya again next year!
Labels: geriatrics, life
TWO
Jeez. Two David Brooks recommendations in a week.
What is happening?
I hope that it is just coincidence.
Every blind pig finds an acorn once in awhile.
Who is the pig? Brooks or me?
Anyway, I like Republicans.
I really do.
I even was one once for a very short while but that is another story.
Local political expediency. I was asked to be someone's campaign treasurer and I had to be in his party to do it.
I would like restoration of Republican Ideals.
I like the idea of a two party system that has principles on both sides.
Labels: politics
ENDA BENDER
This is a bit arcane for the non-gays, the straights, but let me try.
Trans HRC board member tells why she quit
Years ago, the gay rights movement got way inclusive and added bisexuals to the title of parades and meetings and all. GayLesbianBisexuals.
Some of us were miffed at that but it caught on. The bisexuals screamed loud enough and we didn't want trouble.
Not to put too fine a point on it but there are many gay men and lesbians who do not really believe bisexualism exists except as an extension of the closet.
This is too politically incorrect to even mention but there it is.
I was one of those miffed. Still am.
Then, along came the transexuals wanting to be part of GLB and, again, PC to the max, they got added to the signs; GLBT.
Some of us were way miffed about this one.
Here we have people who, rightfully, seek rights and affirmation but in quite a different way.
I won't go into the issues here but they are formidable.
Now, Barney Frank took the T out of the ENDA bill so he could get it passed.
Someone finally got real about how the T's don't fit here.
There has to be an end to it.
What next?
Tranvestites who are mostly straight?
So here we are. Cutting the tail of the kite a bit shorter.
It would not be an issue had it been kept short in the first place.
It was hard enough getting gay men and lesbians together and, truth be known there is still a lot of friction over that in the movement. Women and men. Different issues.
It is like all special interests. Separation causes trouble from the beginning.
I have no particular solution for it.
It was done. It is being done.
I would like to see a time when we didn't need any movement at all.
But we are not there yet.
In the meantime, we have to say that shoving cows and goats and sheep together into the same barn may not always have the best result.
I know. That image probably isn't PC either.
I am so fucking tired of PC.
Labels: gay politics, gay rights
Thursday, October 04, 2007
ANJOY
Just for the record, my Anjou pears actually ripened!
Usually, the first of the season are a bit reluctant to do that final step.
So I had two today and they are pretty good.
The really get luscious after the full harvest gets going.
The problem about that out here is the lack of labor.
Let's start a second heading on that because I am rant prone on this subject.
UNPICKED PEARS
Last year about 20% of the fruit harvest went unpicked because of the immigration crack down.
First, less people got over the line and second, a lot of 'illegals' are taking jobs less prone to raids.
This is a reality in California.
You can believe what ever you want to about the rights and wrongs.
In this economy, as in many others around the country, the 'illegals'—undocumented workers who deserve equal rights—do the work that no one else wants to do and without them the work will not get done.
There are no unemployed citizens of any income class or race who are showing up or who will show up for these jobs.
Period.
The pears—my pears—will rot on the ground and I will have to eat fucking bartletts or bosc or do without.
There is widespread ignorance on the facts of the matter here.
For example, I live in an area that requires 'gardening'. Well, we could do without it and do it ourselves.
But we will not.
The gardeners and landscapers depend on 'illegals'. They could not be competitive without it.
We have house cleaners.
They will be largely illegal also.
We could clean our own houses. But we do not and that is not the point.
All the restaurants and hotels in this town use 'illegal' people.
How can this be?
How could national chains such as Hilton and IHOP and KFC and all be using undocumented workers?
They use contractors who take the risk. Or they take their chances.
That is the reality.
So if you have 'ideas' or 'positions' about this issue and you are staying in a hotel or having your coffee or eating out, think twice.
This is going on in every state of the union.
We are in a massive case of denial when it comes to our work force and we had better get our shit together about it soon.
This is a phony issue to distract from the terror mentality that has grown up all around.
Believe me, you are not at risk from some Mexican gardener.
There is a greater risk that some republican flag waver is listening in to your telephone and reading your mail. Or monitoring your purchases on line to say nothing of looking at the stops you make with the bloggers.
Now, do I really believe that this is happening?
No.
They are too incompetent to make that effort.
It is one more measure of the unlikelihood that any Central or South American working for subsistence wages is a danger to the republic.
That is enough.
I am getting a headache.
Labels: food, immigration
ALL GOOD NEWS HERE
I like that part where Bill has the reverse of the bush.
In Latest Poll Good News For Both Clintons
New, is that Bill is viewed as an asset in the campaign and as first husband.
New is that Hillary beats all GOoPers handily including Rudy.
Edwards is falling.
I was surprised that Obama's negatives are as high as Clinton's. The urban legend is that her negatives were/are too high to win but they all clock in around 40%; Dems and Reps alike.
Labels: Bill Clinton, hillary, politics, Rudy
BACK ON TRACK
My favorite bike route got closed a month ago. A new culvert system at the lowest of low points. Always water there after a storm.
It was supposed to take a month.
I waited. I found another neat route out to the Indian Canyons entrance. All uphill.
Monday, I went back to see if they were done.
No. But close.
A friendly foreman explained that they were compacting and would resurface Tuesday then finish up on Wednesday.
So, good as his word, I went this morning and it is finished. Done.
They and their many roadblock signs are gone.
The job looks good.
My friend who also bikes that route is critical of the design. He thinks the culverts (8 of them in a line) will fill with sand.
I asked "When"?
"Forty years", he said.
I pointed out that neither he nor I will be around to see it.
Mortality breathes on my neck.
Again.
Something I won't live to see.
FIGHTING HARD
One thing that I like about Hillary is that she is veteran of the partisan wars and she knows how to fight the good fight.
I despair that few Democrats have a backbone but she is demonstrating that she is an exception.
Here is an early skirmish that proves my point.
In Ballot Fight, California Gets a Taste of ’08
We have watched as the 'under the radar' GOoPer guys, a Guiliani donor group from outside the state, tried to mess with our electorals.
There was a swift and deeply wounding response from a wide swath of Democrats led by the Clinton campaign.
The measure is nearly dead and even the state republicans don't want to touch it.
It is radioactive.
This is the kind of fighting that will be necessary in the election and after.
These bastards simply won't let go.
Look at congress.
We won the majority right?
Well, the spineless have no defense against the wily and vicious bastards who have held the reins for 8 very long years.
This is one of the reasons that I am for Hillary, finally.
She is one tough lady.
Labels: California, hillary, politics
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
FRUIT COCKTAIL
My discussion of the Anjou pear led to the disclosure that I have the pears every other day alternating with mixed melon. For lunch
A reader wrote to share his fruit lunch strategy.
He had more fruit than I did. Well, greater variety.
I guess I need to get out the big guns and tell the full fruit story.
The pears and melon (alternating) are not my only daily fruit.
Listen (read) to my breakfast fruit cycle.
I have apple sauce every other day, just plain.
I do not like apples as apples.
But, I believe that one should eat them. Mine come mashed and cooked. Lightly. Unsweetened. Very good.
The other breakfast days involve a variety of frozen fruits in cycle.
Here is the sequence.
You can use this if you want.
It is not copyrighted or anything.
OK. Here.
Strawberries, bananas (fresh not frozen an exception), mixed berries, pineapple, cherries (bing), rasberries, peaches and then we start over.
These fruits alternate with apple sauce and are served in yogurt (low fat). The protein is important.
Apple sauce days I have hard boiled eggs.
Every day I have cereal after the fruit thing and that is in rotation too.
Do you want to know what that is?
I think that I have told it before.
Corn Chex, Shredded Wheat (bite size), Rice Chex, Grape Nuts (private label version Nutty Nuggets), Cheerios, and Wheat Chex.
If you do the math you will find that the wheat cereals always match out with the eggs and apple sauce days. This is by chance not calculation.
After all this I have 2.5 oz of peanuts. Source of fat in a relatively low fat diet.
Oh. There also the grapes which are kept open in a bowl in the refrigerator.
I eat about ten of those a day. No more. They are hell on calories.
There.
More is revealed.
Are you there? HEY! Wake up!
DOG SHIT
Today's film was
This is a comedy, of all things, about what it might be like to convert to PETA.
I thought I would like it.
It got a great NYT review (at the link).
But, I didn't like any of the people and as a dog lover I found the sentiments involved way over the top insulting. Actually.
I am surprised as I type that.
Insulting because she is so lame. The reasons to like the dogs are all humanicentric. That is not a word. There is no real bonding shown.
Yeah they sleep on the bed but any dog will do that.
We see people like this.
They HAVE a dog but they don't relate to it. It is an appendage.
She will be the same for the animals she saves. They are objects. Meat. Just like anyone else who sees them that way. An issue.
As a movie it is mildly amusing but I was never convinced of anything. Or anyone.
The only picture I liked is this publicity shot below.
Bummer
Make this a 1 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
THE ROAD TO OBLIVION
I don't much care for David Brooks' point of view but, from time to time, he surprises me. In a good way.
Today is such a time.
To celebrate the birthday, I am reading On the Road in the original scoll version.
The names there are still of the real people. There is a lot more sex of all kinds. It is pre-edit and great fun to read.
I am taking it easy—bathroom reading.
A nice slow take on a beloved book.
Here is Brooks' main point.
But the real secret of the book was its discharge of youthful energy, the stupid, reckless energy that saves “On the Road” from being a dreadful novel. The delightful, moronic, unreflective fizz appears whenever the characters are happiest, when they are chasing girls or urinating from a swerving flatbed truck while going 70 miles an hour.
Those parts haven’t survived. They run afoul of the new gentility, the rules laid down by the health experts, childcare experts, guidance counselors, safety advisers, admissions officers, virtuecrats and employers to regulate the lives of the young. They seem dangerous, childish and embarrassing in the world of professionalized adolescence and professionalized intellect.
SLAMMING BACK
For those old enough to remember the Clarence Thomas hearings it will come as no surprise that the controversy still burns.
Thomas has an autobiography out where he hopes to settle old scores.
Anita Hill answers in todays NYTimes OpEd.
I can still remember watching the hearings (yes I was watching teevee then) and witnessing the moment that Hill entered the hearing room.
Quite a stir.
Quite an entrance.
And then the testimony. Riveting.
This bit of history is still unwinding itself and it is not over.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
CELLULITIS
Some people think that Guiliani has some emotional problems.
Too much asbestos dust?
No. He really wasn't in the dust that much or that often. Just photo opps.
But the current cell phone thing is really weird.
Here is Kevin Drum in a funny summary:
As you may know, I have a fixation on Rudy.
I can't quit watching him go.
He is manic.
He is an egoist of the first water.
He is fucking right all the time.
We already have that. Eight years of it.
He was in Palm Springs last weekend talking to the 'worker bees of the party', the GoOPer women.
He pandered.
I don't know if the little woman called him during his speech there but I hope she did.
It would all fit together.
If he is scary, she is a horror.
Guiliani would not be the first candidate to stage informal, interruptive moments. Planned accidents to show his human side.
They never work. As this exercise attests.
ANJOU JOY
I eat two pears every other day for lunch.
The other days I have a melon mix.
Don't ask.
Most of the year I enjoy Anjou pears but they run out every August and I have to make do with Bartlett and Bosc.
Second rate.
Anjous are the best hands down.
You let them sit until you can just press your thumb into the flesh. Then into the refrigerator. Sublime.
Today, the Anjous were back.
I bought some even though I still have some Bosc.
I will need them.
The Anjou will probably not get ripe. The first ones never do.
But I will watch them like infertile eggs.
Then go get new ones in a couple of weeks.
It is just having them in the house which is important.
AVERAGE DESERT RAINFALL DECREASES
Of course, here it is all artificial rainfall through the sprinkler systems.
In the hot hot summer, I have three waterings a day. About five minutes per station.
Today, I cut it down to two.
Another sign that the seasons are changing.
Or, in the case of the desert, the season is changing. There is really only one.
Labels: horticulture, seasons
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
We lost our cable to the internet last night about 7PM and it is still limping back to business.
They blamed the power company which did have a big blowout down the street.
Not us.
We just lost the cable.
It is interesting to do without the 'net.
It used to freak me out when this happened but I have become inured to the absence.
I feel good about that.
I don't like feeling dependent on anything.
Sometimes that is a good thing.
Other times not.
But the net. I don't think I need it the same way that I used to.
After all, you didn't leave while I was away.
You didn't even know that I was away!
Those aren't our poles in the picture. I just liked the shot.
THE SAME
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Jim Jarmusch'
This is a series of sketches strung together. The bottom up view of Jarmusch.
Each scene is stitched to the next. One camera position. Go to black and then the next scene.
At one point a character says something like 'Cleveland looks like just where we come from'. That would be Newark or some place in the broken down metroplex.
It looks the same when they eventually get to Florida too.
There are many many dead pan jokes and situations.
It is hilarious.
Here are three people who are going nowhere and at the same time fully inhabit the space that they are in.
Oh. I forgot to include the Hungarian aunt in Cleveland. A great bit.
Jarmusch is totally unique.
I liked it a lot.
Oh. I didn't tell you the plot?
Go see.
It will get a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Monday, October 01, 2007
SAY EVERYTHING
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Cameron Crowe's
This is one of my favorite films.
Why is it so great?
John Cusack (along with his sister Joan). The story. The light and persistent hand of Cameron Crowe. Simplicity and honesty wins.
Most of all it is Lloyd Dobler. He is one of the most attractive characters I have ever seen.
He is a loser who is a winner.
What else?
It is so good that Ebert wrote a second review/appreciation.
This is a high 5 out of Netflix5. Surely and absolutely.
Labels: best films
ELEVATION ELATION
Despite the fact that what goes up must come down, here is today's boost from the material world.
Wall Street Rallies to Record Close
I know that, rightly, this does not matter to a lot of people.
It surely is not a gauge of the state of the nation or its economy.
The economy actually sucks; distribution of income and all that.
But I am on the positive side of that divide and so I have to be a little thankful that my fixed income is enhanced.
A lot of this is phony of course.
It is Vegas in NYC.
The betting is that the Feds will loosen credit some more and that every boat will rise.
Of course, so will inflation.
And so on.
Push something here and something goes out of whack there.
It is the nature of intervention.
I don't play the market.
I have a fixed fee managed account. Someone else plays it. And does so conservatively.
I hope.
And it is spread.
It is not all in stocks by any means. And not all in the US either.
So the NYSE is only a bit of the total.
Anyway. It feels good not to be seeing the downs today. Only the ups.
I love that picture. Look closely.
CHANGE
I found a nickel on my closet shelf today.
I can't imagine how it got there.
I don't do change.
I mean the nickel kind of course.
I haven't carried loose change in my pocket for so long.
I don't know when it started. Or ended.
It isn't too difficult actually. The no change thing, I mean.
I don't pay much with cash. And when I do, I put the little bit of coins in the penny jar. One store has a charity cup. Like that.
Now, the question is whether I should carry the nickel to one of these places and violate a policy of years' standing of not carrying any change.
I am not going to throw it away!
But it is a serious question.
Maybe I will leave the nickel where it is and wait for some little kid who really really needs a nickel and I will give it to him.
On the other hand, what would the kid do with a nickel?
It used to get me a popsicle, a candy bar, other similar treats.
Today?
It gets you to adopt a no change policy.
Did you notice? It is a buffalo nickel. When I was a kid there were a lot of them too.
OVER IT
Yeh.
I have been saying this for a couple of years.
Good to see others getting with the program and saying it out loud. Especially Friedman who is often a fervent supporter of the status quo and all.
He is one of those 'centrists'.
This is the guy who has become a joke with his frequent (every six months) declaration that Iraq would straighten out in 6 months.
Six months has become known as the FU or Friedman Unit in the libby blogs.
Good for him on this.
Labels: politics
PAVED
There is always someone to blame.
Now it is the planners.
It is a good point though.
Sometimes us lefties are a little too serious and waaaaayyy to pointy fingered.
Labels: environment
