Saturday, May 31, 2008
RFK REDUX
Look at this wonderful slide show narrated by the photographer.
Robert F. Kennedy's Funeral Train.
I remember where I was when I heard that Bobby Kennedy had been killed.
I was driving across NYState with a guy who wanted to sell his apple processing plant to Ocean Spray which I worked for at the time.
Two careers ago.
Three if you count retirement as a career.
The guy was unmoved. I was amazed at that.
Perhaps my pain at the news doubled as I grieved for him too.
This was a terrible time in our nation's history. Jack, Bobby, Martin.
Things broke apart. Or seemed to. Perhaps they were already apart and we hadn't seen it yet.
These photos, though, show me that we are not broken. We stayed the same.
The America of that time is still here just peeping out under the rhetoric.
Maybe we can have it again in a new form.
There is always hope.
Here is the text that goes along with the slide show.
Labels: history
CHURCHISM
So Obama has broken with his church.
Sources tell ABC News that Obama felt that as the campaign continued, the media would continue to focus on the church, to the detriment of the church community, that Obama would be held responsible for what happened in the church, and that the Church would be held responsible for his campaign. It would be best, Obama felt, to simply cut ties. He has not yet joined a new church.Sounds right to me.
There is no end of trouble when you mix church and state.
Our media and our politicians continue to mix the two and get terrible results every time.
It is OK with me if Obama and McCain go to church or not.
But it is like their sex lives. I don't want to hear about it.
I certainly do not want it to get in the way of clear electoral choices.
Labels: Barack Obama, religion
EATING YOUR OWN
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Jonathan Demme's
This is a multi Oscar classic and I had never seen it.
I had read the book. You know the policy.
But, I made an exception. I think that it is long enough to break the spell, if any, and that was true for the most part.
I didn't remember very much that mattered and so it was a 'new' experience.
Scary, kind of thrilling, surprised that I like Hannibal Lecter which, of course, I am expected to.
To say that Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins are good in this begs a point which is that everyone is good.
I am not a Foster expert but I believe that this might be her last really good film although I liked her some in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
It is also interesting that Hopkins is almost totally disappeared from the scene after a period of high visibility.
I know that isn't about the film. I just wonder.
So I will give this a 4 out of Netflix5.
I liked it and would not mind seeing it again although I would not take the initiative.
Labels: best films
Friday, May 30, 2008
YOUNGER THAN SPRINGTIME—BUT THAT'S ABOUT ALL
I told you to bookmark 'Things Younger Than John McCain" two or three times.
Now, fucking, do it.
Here is the first video.
Labels: McCain
BACK TO THE LIST
I returned to the NYTimes Best 1176 Film list today with Ingemar Bergman's
What a heavy reentry.
I take this as one more opaque drama about the battle between the id and the superego.
It has a bit of everything in it and there are even some taboos broken. A child sees a bit more than a child ought to see to say nothing of being in the middle of a significant triangle between two women. Sisters I think. Maybe not. At least one is a lesbian with a crush on the other.
I broke a rule and watched the dubbed version. It didn't make a lot of difference, I think, because a lot of what goes on is, well, silent.
This is some hard shit to wade through.
I think that Bergman was appropriately big in his time. He broke through a lot of limits to cinematic expression.
But the work has no legs.
It is tired.
I looked at my watch many times and felt sleepy too.
I will give the old Swede a 2 out of Netflix5.
I didn't like it but I watched the whole thing.
Labels: best films
LABELING
I have changed my label from 'obama' to Barack Obama.
Due respect for our next President.
I don't know how to change all the old labels so you will have to use both for awhile.
If, in fact, anyone at all uses them.
I do not.
Labels: Barack Obama
McCAIN EATS IT ON YOUTUBE
This is not surprising.
Look at the contrast drawn between the types of videos offered and watched for each candidate.
You look like a loser bro'.
Just for the record.
By contrast, 4.5 million people have viewed a 37 minute long Obama video. The speech he made about the Wright mess. So, what a mess, huh? The gift that kept on giving to Obama.
Labels: Barack Obama, McCain
CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
I love shit like this:
Obama campaign used party rules to foil Clinton
This speaks well for the hard nuts and bolts electioneering that wins.
It also speaks of the attention to detail and allegiance to competent people that will mark the Obama administration.
Labels: obama
Thursday, May 29, 2008
UP TO DATE
Joel Stein has a great column in the LATimes today.
Of course, I concur with his suggestion that old timers get over it and vote for gay marriage.
But underneath this warmly pushy message is the exploration of how and why resistance to new things happen for people my age.
I can identify completely with the research that shows us, after a certain age, totally resistant to new things.
I am right there with hating rap music, an oxymoron if I ever saw one. I am not as bad as his dad who answers emails with a phone call.
But still, I understand how hard it is for people my age to swallow 'the gays' getting married.
Just to help things along with my own set, I expect that we will be getting hitched before the initiative trying to ban it. Probably October.
Perhaps I can send a message to people my own age that we are everywhere. Their own kids are going to do it too.
Labels: gay marriage
SURPRISING SUPPORT
Actually not. Murdoch is a pragmatist. He sells papers and news and is a business man who is hurting just now as much as any other business man.
He is smart.
He is worth listening to.
And he supports Obama.
CAMPAIGN PROMISE
"During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama --a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School -- was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.
"I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution," said Obama."
Labels: obama
FURST AND FOREMOST
Today's NYTimes on line summary features a review of Alan Furst's new book.
I cannot read the review because I have already ordered it.
Espionage and Dread, With War Offstage
I never read a review of a book that I intend to buy.
This makes it a bit hard going through the NYTimes Book Review which we still get hard copied every week.
What I do is scan. If it looks like a winner I stop dead and look at the last few paragraphs to get the overall judgement. Usually the first two or three are safe as well.
Back to Furst.
I have been reading him since I found his last book, The Foreign Correspondent.
I have now read all of his 9 novels.
I am reading them all again. 6 rereads so far.
Furst specializes in the period 1937 to 1942. The beginning of WWII in Europe.
All of his characters are 'normal' people caught up in abnormal situations caused by war. Some of the principals in one book will wander through the pages of another. Two novels have the same protagonist and can be read in order. Or not.
It is easy to identify with his characters. They must deal with new and mostly lethal entanglements, almost always involuntarily, ending up in the underground movements in the various countries.
I can feel my way through the possibility that I could be in and handle the situation.
This is not genré writing. It is literary fiction. The color is incredibly detailed and the atmosphere is totally created.
I am so happy to see him getting this recognition and I can hardly wait to get my copy of his new book which is due any minute.
Labels: book
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
AND FROM THE HINTERLANDS
In a race to keep up with their sister and brother states:
New York Begins to Alter Policy on Gay Marriage
An interesting first step towards the inevitable.
New York is the next most obvious state to allow same-gender marriage.
It is spreading like wildfire.
We had our first discussion of when, where and how tonight.
Let it be recorded here that I am the 'keep it simple' guy. The other one wants the full non-church monte.
See? We are like everyone else.
I do not want old shoes tied to the car(s). No honeymoon. Franklin wants to be the ring bearer.
Another thing. I can't reproduce it here but Macy's had its first obvious pitch to gay weddings. A full page ad in the LATimes that started out saying "Now that everyone can seal their partnership with a marriage ceremony......." all along with a huge photo of a pair of identically sized wedding rings.
Labels: gay marriage
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
The new memorial to gay victims of the holocaust is now open.
Here is a view of it as well as the tape loop that is inside.
Labels: gay history, gay rights
UTTER CONFIDENCE
For those of us who need continued reinforcement that she cannot win this by the numbers, today, we have Tim Russert.
Russert: Obama ‘will claim mathematical lock on nomination’
His math is pretty good, I know that.
And I have read elsewhere that Obama has at least 3 dozen supers ready to endorse on or soon after the 4th.
There have been few endorsements this week which, at the rate they were coming on, means to me that they are being warehoused.
We will see.
Oh.
The legal team to the DNC says that the Committee meeting Saturday cannot allocate more than half the delegates on their own power.
That would mean that another vote to seat all of MI or FL would have to wait until just before the convention.
AP has kept this item up all day. It does not bode well for Hillary but then nothing does. Would someone tell her?
Labels: Democrats, hillary, obama
PROGRESS
Today, the Field Poll, which is California's most accurate polling organization shows a majority in favor of gay marriage for the first time.
We also have word that marriages can begin to take place after June 17.
And to encourage the Governor to continue his opposition to an anti-marriage ammendment:
1) Call 1-916-445-2841
2) press 1, 5, 1, 1. It is that easy.
Labels: gay marriage
BAD CHILDREN
Against my better judgement, I subjected myself to watching the NYTimes Best 1176 movie
What a bunch of sick motherfuckers.
The film is almost incomprehensible given the noise and thrash of the punk sensibility and the ugliness of the people and their surroundings is unrelieved.
Other than that, it is a passable film.
It has an arc. Sid sitting in front of a NYPD detective after stabbing Nancy does a long, way too long, walk down memory lane.
The couple meets, they get high together, they get higher. They fight. The Sex Pistols become famous. Sid is the bass man not the singing star.
Nancy the ultimate groupie. Well, not so much that as Sid's enabler and heroin/booze buddy.
They trash one motel room after another. Their talent for vandalism is unparalleled. What a lovely couple.
She is a real harridan. It is a relief when he kills her.
There is a lot of bullshit in this picture and it was too much for me so I skipped. I admit it.
As it turns out, I saw most of the sequences mentioned in the review at the link. Maybe he skipped around too.
There is a fantasy reunion with the dead Nancy at the end. Spoiler if this film could, in any way, be further spoiled. And we learn that Sid OD's of heroin a while later.
What a surprise.
If the real life Sid and Nancy were anything like the film ones I would think that we are well rid of the little bastards.
Another thing. There is absolutely no background about these people. We pick them up in the middle of their drunk and they stay that way all the film through. We do meet Nancy's family but they are as grotesque as she is on the other, straight side of the spectrum. Another traditional family bashing. Cliché!
I am glad that Gary Oldman made a decent career for himself after this picture. But he has almost always been typed as the sick outcast. Too bad. You can see the acting chops here and they are formidable.
I do not relate to the punk sensibility. I did find Iggy Stooge amusing but he was/is more of a parody than the real thing. The Ramones were half civilized and some of their music shows the tongue in cheek aspect of the whole thing. A sense of humor.
So I am a poor target in the audience.
Overall, this film was nasty and repellent enough to earn itself a 1 out of Netflix5. I didn't see all of it and I would never, ever see any of it again.
Incidentally, I also resent, somehow, that I can write more about shitty movies than I can about the good ones.
I could do another paragraph but I am sure you have heard enough and so have I.
Did I say that this is a Netflix1? One.
Labels: best films
BETTER THAN WE THOUGHT
There has been so much bullshit about winnability that the facts have gotten buried.
Here is some truth.
Obama competitive against McCain with key voters
The fact is that with Clinton out of the race he gets back a lot of what we thought he was losing.
The other thing is that, as he gets more exposure, McCain looks less and less like a maverick to say nothing of his lost reputation as a straight talker.
Labels: obama
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR
I don't much like Maureen Dowd but she sure nails Bill Clinton on this one.
An imaginary conversation turns up the fact that Bill really cannot afford to be the Veep Spouse nor can he really take the transparency test without some major embarrassment.
Labels: Bill Clinton
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
NINE MONTHS
Today's movie was
the Indie hit of last year.
It is certainly a fine film.
There is hardly a false move in it and the characters are so genuinely uncommon that they engage from the beginning.
This would not work without Ellen Page and Michael Cera (who I really admired in, of all things, Superbad) in their roles as young lovers.
Everyone in the cast brings more than the average depth to their roles.
The main thing is that nothing bad happens in this picture.
Even when parents, yuppies and high school stereotypes are mildly mocked, it is in a gentle way.
I do not think that a film like this could be made before this particular time. It is a product of our present culture. As such, it shows us that, while bad things can happen to nice people, nice people have many ways to cope which even they thought they did not own. They can surf over life's waves with dignity and grace.
I think that it also shows that the future is in good hands.
Alison Janney and J. K. Bateman as the parents are superb. Janney is a favorite actress. Another possible film fest just for her.
I would gladly see this again just to get all the funny lines and to see the beauty of the performances one more time.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
LIFE AFTER DEATH
A belief in the hereafter seems to comfort many folks who face death.
I think this may be one of Hillary Clinton's problems in giving up on the bid for the Presidency. It is certainly Bill's.
She has no belief in an after life or cannot figure how there could be one nearly as attractive as the one she is in.
After years of power or running to power she has to face a rather bleak set of alternatives.
No Clear Map For Clinton's Political Future
I think it is interesting that there are all of these semi-obituaries being written for Clinton.
Something has tipped.
Here is another one.
Two Democratic Dynasties Near the Exit
Labels: hillary
AMAZING PHOTO
The first image ever of a spacecraft descending to the surface of another planet.
The Phoenix is terrific too. Feet the size of dinner plates.
Labels: APOD
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
I have mentioned that the real estate 'for sale' signs are at a record high.
More than there were when we bought 11 years ago at the height of the savings and loan disaster.
A broker friend says that there are 17-23 properties for sale in our neighborhood depending on where you draw the lines.
Some houses have been taken off the market unsold.
Now, there is a new phenomenon. The 'for sale' signs on private autos. Well, mostly SUV's.
They are everywhere. Some are parked. Some are being driven.
This is evidently the result of two things. One, the finance crunch and loss of income (we live in a predominantly service economy here) and, two, the sudden disdain for gas guzzlers.
It is amazing how $4.05 a gallon can awaken your sensibilities.
I am not too sympathetic.
Labels: automobiles, economy, neighborhood
BODY MAN
This is a great piece of human interest and Obama 'color':
On the Trail, One Aide Looms Over Obama
Labels: obama
ANOTHER OBIT
It looks like the Associated Press is catching the wave:
The Era of Big Clintons is Soon Over
When the AP starts on it, you know that the meme has taken hold.
Now the question is 'when will the Clintons get it'?
Labels: Bill Clinton, hillary
Monday, May 26, 2008
GOODBYE
We lost another one the yesterday. One of my favorites.
Sydney Pollack, Film Director, Is Dead at 73
I count 5 out of his 20 on the NYTimes Best 1176 Films List.
But what I most relish is seeing him act.
I would always, always see a film where he had a part. Never the hero. Sometimes just a short bit. But always memorable. The voice, the tone, the energy.
I just watched his last performance as the law firm elder in Michael Clayton and he was still had all his stuff.
I can't help but notice that he is my age.
We pick up on these things as we mosey along life's pathway.
We were of the same time and place.
That might have something to do with the affinity.
I will miss him.
Maybe I will have a Sydney Pollack filmfest.
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
As I type, the guys are here cleaning windows.
Why the guys? Because I don't do windows.
And we have a lot of them.
Three guys will be here for two hours doing all the glass.
We wanted an 'outdoor' house and we've got one.
You would think, since it 'never rains' that we wouldn't need all this cleaning going on.
But it does rain.
And when it rains, it rains dust and sand.
In fact, the guys were going to be here Friday until I called to head them off. It was going to rain as it almost always does around the time of glass cleaning.
And it did. Three or four times over three days.
So it is good they are here today when it is forecast that we are about to hit the dry season and it will not rain for, well, a long time.
The other thing that gets to the windows is, to put it inelegantly, is dog snot.
Franklin is a great nose to the glass hunter of flies.
Up to the glass, get your face right into it and, if the fly can be captured on the glass itself, then lick, bite and wipe the entire oral cavity along the glass to snag the fly into one's jaws.
He is very good at it.
Sometimes, we assist with a bit of fly swatting but, invariably, he gets the fly himself and seems to resent our intrusion.
Occasionally we do hit a fly first and then we simulate his catching it. We sort of throw the dead carcass along the floor and he goes after it. A dead snag.
So the glass is smeared all along about dog mouth height and here and there, at dog standing height.
While the guys are here, Franklin pays the price for his derelictions. We all do.
He is not fond of having all these (three) guys running around his space. Not only that, when they clean the sliders they pound the screens with a wet sponge and he really doesn't like that.
So, there is a price to pay for the hunting.
Me? I try to stay out of the guys' way.
They just moved into the kitchen and one of them has started yakking. So, I am outta' here.
Labels: Franklin
Sunday, May 25, 2008
TIGHT WHITE COLLAR THRILLER
Today's movie was Sidney Lumet's
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
“May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead”.
This is one of those movies that has a lot boiling under the surface and it all breaks out in the kind of suspenseful fits and starts that keep you on the edge of your seat.
I was anxious throughout the whole film and really could not see most things coming.
Mr. Lumet, who is 82, keeps us guessing with some false leads and little misdirections so that we don't tumble or even care to.
The acting is superb. Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Albert (gotta watch him) Finney and Rosemary Harris.
Did I say that this was tightly knit? It almost squeaks.
These are all nice people who have back stories they want no one to know. They live in Westchester County for god's sake.
Secrets are not a good idea. They all come undone sooner or later.
A special word for Ethan Hawke. He could have taken some turns and become just another one of those young male actors who are beautiful and have enough savvy to carry a role. The ones who latch onto the big money with superhero roles and the like and are then burned out by the time they lose their looks and vitality or fall into scandal or addiction.
This guy is the real goods. He inhabits his role in this picture and is a monster. Well, a cowardly, fucked up monster.
He can have a long career into old age. There is always a market for his brand of work. His co star Albert Finney is a good example of this.
Finney just barely caught the good curve in the early days and licked the demons. Now he is still with us working the magic.
He and Hawke are the stars of this thing.
Very good. I would see it again if you served it up for me.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
THE EXTREMES
No it isn't one of the Motown groups. It is our temperatures out here in the desert.
Last week we had a record high for one day. 114.
Yesterday, we had a record low for the day. 72.
As I have said, it is very hard to convince people that 72 is cold but it is. Our body thermostats are different anyway and the ten days before this cold snap really jiggered them in the wrong direction.
We had to have the heat on last night and I have had to reset the solar heating of the pool as it lost almost 15 degrees of heat in just three days.
I know. It is hard to get any sympathy for such quality problems but I am not bidding for sympathy.
Just saying that it has been so fucking extreme out here.
A dry extreme!
CIRCLES OF HELL
Today's film was
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2006)
This is a Romanian film, in real time.
Simple. A man is sick. He calls for an ambulance. We follow him through the hell of the health care system.
It is a Romanian system but not particularly so. I can see the same jumble, misdirection, non-caring incompetence in any country. Anecdotes from friends would confirm that it can and does happen here on a daily basis.
Not coincidentally, Mr. Lazarescu's fist name is Dante. I don't think that is Romanian but maybe. It is certainly symbolic.
At first, this film feels too amateurish. There is too much verité in the cinema.
Slowly, the story evolves until the frustration and suspense of the situation take hold. It is mesmerizing. An exercise in futility over which no one, least of all Mr. Lazarescu, has control.
It is too long. I could have let him go sooner than the film did.
It is funny. As there is little doubt of the outcome, the title 'spoils' it after all, there is still suspense. We do not give up on him as the professionals seem to.
Then, as I have pointed out, I give up as well. I feel a bit of guilt for it.
Not a lot. It is a movie.
But a good learning experience.
His sole advocate throughout this film is an EMT nurse who will not give up.
Don't count on this happening to you. Get a friend to go along. A must!
He has that chance and they muff it.
I will give this a 3 out of Netflix5. It was very good but I would not want to see it again.
Note that this is called a comedy in some reviews. Not a bit. Funny? Forget it. It has its moments but they are only dramatic relief from the unremitting pain.
Labels: film
HOW THEY DID IT
Evidently, AP has decided that the primary is over.
They are running post mortems of the campaign.
Obama's Political Team Out Organized Clinton
It is a pretty good article and shows how conviction and administrative skills can trump machine politics and experience.
Matching Obama's organizing background, the team has roots in conducting on-the-ground congressional campaigns across the country. Many top aides were groomed by former House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt and former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle instead of by the Clinton wing of the party. Clinton's team was built with Washington and New York operatives.They are already kicking McCain's ass along the same lines. They are out organizing him.From its experience in congressional races, the Obama team understood firsthand the extent of Clinton fatigue in the heartland and the lesson of the 2006 midterm elections: America wants change.
Obama's chief directive for hiring the more than 700 staff members who eventually came to work for him was: No Drama Allowed. Obama's even demeanor is reflected in the advisers closest to him. While Clinton's campaign divided into conflicting power centers whose emotional disputes leaked publicly, any fights in the Obama campaign were kept in the family.
This is also Howard Dean's 50 state strategy vindicated.
In some areas they have never closed the Obama offices down after the primaries.
Still doing business.
Labels: obama
Friday, May 23, 2008
OUR LITTLE FRIENDS
This article is about the essential microbiome that all of us carry with us all of the time.
Bacteria Thrive on Inner Elbow: No harm done
Two points here.
First: The 6 colonies of bacteria that live on your inner elbow is the same as mine. Imagine. Another thing in common. The inner elbow. Not just the inner wo/man.
These bugs live in colonies. They cooperate with one another. They process fat.
Happy to meet you guys.
Second: There is this phenomenal human microbiome that collectively possess at least 100 times as many genes as the mere 20,000 or so in the human genome.
The powerful ally or allies is essential to life.
I am not suprised.
I know that I have all these little friends who do help me with digesting my food but now, it turns out, there are many many more, some unknown, functions that make up their days on and in my body.
Fascinating.
Once more we can see how our obsession with cleanliness will probably kill us. Notice the headline. "No harm done" assumes we see harm whenever we see a bacteria. Such nonsense.
We shower and wash obsessively. We slather on skin products and constantly shield ourselves from the sun with chemicals that no one really knows anything about. They already found one sun screen that is toxic. PABA.
We take wide spectrum antibiotics when we really do not need them and, most recently, sanitize our hands and bodies with these gels and bacteria killers.
How human. If you don't know what it does, kill it.
We may be killing ourselves.
I still do not use any skin products with scent. I don't use much of them at all. I use a moisturizer that is 'natural', period.
No sun blocks. Another insanity. Shielding ourselves from a major "source" of Vitamin D—the UV that we have evolved to live in.
I recently wrote that I was beginning to wipe my hands and the cart handle in stores with the germicide rags that they have available.
Maybe I will quit that and go back to living 'dangerously'.
We were talking about this last night. John reminded me of the old saying that a kid would eat a 'peck of dirt' before s/he grew up.
Now we know why. We need the bugs that are in it.
Labels: health
YOUNGER THAN McCAIN
I told you about this site before. Did you bookmark it? You are missing some funny stuff.
Today, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs are younger than John McCain.
Scroll down and see that Alcoholics Anonymous is also younger. And look at the nonAnonymous cover boy.
A riot.
Sometimes three a day.
Labels: McCain
RUMOR AND INNUENDO
John Aravosis, a blogger with more of a conspiracist tinge than most, has two rumors.
One is that Obama already told Hillary that she would not be Veep and that is why she is acting out so strangely this last week.
The second is more of a surmise.
That is the apparent fact that Bill and Hillary would not survive the vetting process required for the second position.
They would have to show all their recent stuff.
Even though Hill likes to say that she is the most vetted candidate, that is true only up through 2000.
Perhaps since she first ran for the Senate whenever that was.
They would not want to be run through the necessary mill for the VPOTUS.
Bill's shenanigans are probably legal but they are not the kind of thing the Obamas want to have to explain.
I like the rumor though. That he already told them 'no'.
As someone else pointed out, if he can't stand up to Hillary and Bill how could he stand up to the worst of the worst dictators and evil doers?
Or conversely, if he can stand up to them he can handle anyone.
Labels: Bill Clinton, hillary, obama
IN MEMORIAM
The stories in here are wonderful and heartbreaking.
A side point. Look at the stories right in the beginning and then tell me that the immigrants are 'stealing' from us.
Profiling California's War Dead
500 kids.
Labels: Iraq
BIDEN HIS TIME
It looks like Joe Biden is the guy who has Barry's back these days.
Here he has at it with hapless Joe Leiberman. Remember him? The shit head.
Labels: obama
SONGS IN MY HEAD
There is always a tune in my head that does not want to leave.
Often it is something that I caught from the music videos at the gym. A viral infection.
The last couple of days it has been The Bangles' Walk Like an Egyptian which, if it is going to be stuck my your head, has the advantage of being funny.
Here are the Puppini Sisters doing a cooler cover.
If you want to know the words (irrelevant), click here.
Labels: music
NEW LOW
Clinton Cites Kennedy Assassination in Primaries
What is she thinking?
That maybe he will get assassinated and she will be ready?
Or is she just too tired and too distraught and too, well, fucked up?
Labels: hillary
PASSING OF THE TORCH
This is very nice. More than a gesture. A tangible handoff.
Obama to Fill in For Kennedy at Wesleyan University Ceremony
One of my sons went to Wesleyan. It is a wonderful outdoor ceremony with lots of great jubilant spirit.
A perfect place for this kind of thing to happen.
I have not written about the Kennedy illness.
I think that I am still processing it.
My life has always had Kennedys mixed up in it.
I lived in Massachusetts for decades.
I live in a state where one of them is the first lady.
You cannot be objective about them.
Ted is the last of his generation. He is the great lion of the Senate.
The last thrill I had was to see him endorse Obama. He sure sent me over the line.
Now it is twilight.
A lot of feelings come up and will, I presume, keep coming.
Labels: obama
VEEP OUT
CNN was all twittery with 'rumors' this morning that Clinton is making a hard bid to trade concession for the Vice President slot.
I got very upset with it all and then got quiet and realized that I could accept that if it happened.
I don't want it to happen but I can accept it.
Yesterday, a voter in Florida asked Obama whether he would pick a running mate whose spouse was a pain in the butt? Everyone laughed. So you can see that it is on everyone's mind as well as one of the major problems with it. Bill.
I have a take on all this.
Here it goes.
Hillary is still in the stages of grief. She hit denial and is now in bargaining with some anger thrown in.
But she gets it. She has lost. She is not going to get her way on Florida and Michigan.
She hears that Obama is taking steps to explore running mates.
She gets panicky. Meeting with the DNC is one thing. Looking for Veeps is another.
Bill is pressing her to go for the second slot.
She sees that Obama is already exploring. Has set up a committee.
She lurches into gear to save the bacon. Half a pound is better than none.
Sort of like that.
It is painful to watch this shit unfold.
Obama is conducting himself with grace and dignity and with a great deal of respect for the iron lady.
He is shrewd and smart.
That is why I would accept her as the second in line. He would not take a raw deal and he would see it as being the best route.
He is already my President and I am ready to follow his lead.
Even into the land of the 'little bit weird'.
OLD MAN SHUFFLING
McCain spends months on standby; Democrats rev up
They are in a lot of trouble. McCain's age and lack of vitality is part of it.
But they are slack and flaccid from being in power and using that power badly. Not only for the country but for themselves.
Corruption, negativity, the animus of nasty politics have taken their toll.
They have also been seriously divided for longer than anyone will admit. But the disaffected always repressed their opposition and supported bush.
That has sapped the party's energy and now is passive aggressive time. You can only sell out so long before you just give up and quit. Quiet revenge.
My theory.
The GOoPers are in a shambles with an old man at their helm.
Labels: republican whack jobs
Thursday, May 22, 2008
GAME CALLED
It has been so hot here for a week and that all fell apart today.
The high pressure system collapsed and a new low came in hard.
Clouds, wind, a 30 degree drop in temperature.
The clouds caused some more confusion with Franklin.
He takes sunset as his queue to go for the walk and so he started grrrring way too soon. Impatient.
We hadn't even had dinner.
He may not have been confused though. He may have had that prescience that dogs often exhibit.
As it turned out, we should have gone about the time he started grrrring.
It isn't often that we get rained out of a walk but it happened tonight.
Just as Franklin and I got down the street, it unloaded. The wind blew hard and the rain came down in pellets.
He turned around and wisely, I think, strode homeward.
I followed. Wisely, I think.
I will go with him as far as he wants in a rainstorm but I have to admit to feeling relieved that we would sit this one out at home.
So here we are looking out at the gathering storm.
It is supposed to last for two days.
I already called the window washers off from their standing appointment tomorrow.
They will come Monday. No Memorial Day for them.
I am just tired of getting the glass washed and then having rain every other time or so.
It is uncanny how often this happens.
The holiday is set for more heat and full sun.
I am not used to seasons any more but it would seem that we are beginning to have some. Every week or so.
BLOG LIFE
I read a many other personal blogs.
There is a lot of turnover.
Most of them have a short shelf life.
Today, one guy who I have read for a couple years, announced that he had shaved his head (he had long hair) and would be taking a long vacation from the blog. This is out of nowhere unless you had been reading along.
He has just been through a serious breakup of a year long relationship and, at his job, he has been 'forced' to move to a new location where they have (gasp) made him move into a cubicle. Shared. With his supervisor at the next desk.
Well, I wouldn't want to be in a cubicle either.
Too stressed out to write any more.
Another one got into a relationship, then an out of town job. Busy. The blog was too much.
I read between the lines. The boyfriend didn't like to have his life laid out on the blog.
An exception is the guy who was going to move from the Netherlands to France and three times, said goodbye to the blog, then had such severe anxiety attacks on the way to the plane that he couldn't travel. He did a comeback each time. He has, wisely, cancelled the move for now.
He chose to put all this into the blog!
Far more exciting to see the unfolding story.
This is the choice I hope that I would make.
Rather than fold the blog, I would think that life change would be an opportunity to dump and let it out and provide some real substance to the enterprise.
Otherwise the blog is pretty boring.
I want to know what it is like to be suddenly bald and in cubicle and trapped in their with his supervisor.
I would like to hear about the new job and the new boyfriend.
Of course, there is the privacy of others outside the blog to be considered.
Admittedly, there are times when leaving the blog world can be a good thing.
I followed a guy for a long time who had a live web cam as part of his site. Talk about being open to the world.
I learned a lot about honest blogging from him. He told virtually (!) everything.
He was a computer techie with a non-profit and dabbled in photography. Males.
Soon enough, he was posting his photographs on his blog. He began to offer prints for sale.
Later, he setup a parallel site where he had photos on line. Then video.
Eventually, he set up his own production company and now has a pretty good sized web site where he peddles, well, porn.
The blog is long past.
I don't pay to see him but I do look in every once in a while to see his progress.
It is interesting to see all this life on the web. It is not something that I would have thought would engage me. But it has. Surprises. Nice.
CATCHUP
I have been absent from the blog wars for a few days.
Let me catch up.
We had the guy come to fix the drier and he did it very nicely.
We bought all our appliances from Pacific Sales, a Southern California retailer.
They have their own in-house service for all appliances that they sell.
This is one more feature of this company which is to be admired. We had already enjoyed the skill of the sales people and the delivery folks.
I don't know of any other retailer who does this. It has to be good for repeat sales. As long as the service is goo, of course. Which it is.
The 'kid' who came has worked with them for ten years (since he was 18) and his dad worked for them before.
You don't see that kind of generational company any more.
It is great.
The heat.
We had a heat wave for a week!
And now it the heat has gone away and it is cold.
Well, relatively. If you live in the north, you would find it quite warm? 70?
We will have a cloudy and even, perhaps, rainy holiday weekend.
I was able to change the date with the window washers from tomorrow to Monday when it is supposed to be clear and warm again.
I got through Tuesday's primaries unscathed.
I got worried towards the end that Obama might not get his double digits in Oregon but he did fine.
I decided that I should steep myself a bit deeper in the Obama culture so I ordered and got his two books which I am now reading at a slow pace.
I am already very impressed with Dreams from My Father and I have only read the two Forwards in my edition.
The first Obama sign is up in the neighborhood. The guys down the street who live in the "transvestite therapist" house.
Let me explain.
We know a lot of our neighbors to speak to, say hello, pass the time of day. But we don't know their names.
So all the houses have names that are more about the house than the people.
There is the "bomb shelter house" which was reputed to have a dome ceilinged underground bomb shelter under it (we have never verified whether it does or not. I would rather think that it does than find out that it does not). There is the 'bartender's house' where, when we first moved here, two bartenders rented and made a lot of noise, then moved. Since then, there have been maybe 5 occupants (it is a hard luck house) but we only acknowledge the bartenders.
Now, the "tranvestite therapist's" house used to be the "motel house" because it looked like a motel (if you looked over the wall and through the hedge) but then we found out that the guy who lived there was a therapist specializing in transvestites and so, well, we had to change the name. we never looked over the wall to see the transvestites or the therapist. It was just enough to hear about it.
Another thing. The guys who live there now have modified the appearance some and so it looks less like a motel than it used to.
Another consideration.
Those are the ones with the Obama sign. Which looks pretty good! Good logo and all.
So there.
You are all caught up.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
DANCING WAR AWAY
Today's movie was the documentary
in which a refugee school in the war zone of North Uganda decides to participate in the national arts competition.
Four young people with horrendous stories are followed through the process.
The rebels recruited kids, killing parents and any others who got in their way. Many kids were forced to fight and kill.
The film follows an arc and narrative that is a bit too structured for my taste. Very controlled.
On the other hand, this is not so much about the past as the present and future. The kids 'revisit' their villages and talk about their experiences.
Then we see the rehearsals and buildup to the competition.
It is safe to bet that we have not followed these kids all through the process just to see then lose in the end. On the other hand, the finale is quite breathtaking.
During most of the film, the directors do not show much of the war dance that the kids will finally perform. We see bits and pieces, no costumes. They save it up for the grand finale.
When it is performed, the question of winning or losing is besides the point. These kids have already won. Their performance is breathtaking and there is no way that could have been 'fixed' or set up for the film.
It is quite exciting to see.
I will give this a 3 out of Netflix5. I am glad that I saw it and I would not want to see it again.
* The film is now titled more simply as War Dance but I like the original title better.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
Obchod na korze / The Shop on Main Street (1965)
This Czechoslovakian film shows a guy who has very little going for him ending up with a giant moral dilemma. He can collaborate with the Nazis or save the life of an old jewish woman he has come to love. In either case he will lose.
This is a gut punch film which I saw when it came out.
It shows the beginnings of the holocaust in a way that Spielberg with all his bucks couldn't get on film.
It is simplicity itself and so the evil it depicts is very clear and present.
There are many layers of the film which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in its year and is an unprecedented 8.5 on the IMDb web site.
Not to be missed.
It stood up very well to the second viewing (40 years later).
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Monday, May 19, 2008
MONEY TALKS
US billionaire Buffett backs Obama for president
Commenting on the US economy, the 77-year-old investor who is known as the "Sage of Omaha," stressed that fiscal, monetary and trade policies were of great importance.But not too much."I think that the US has followed and is following policies which will cause the US dollar to weaken over a long period of time," he said.
After voicing support for Obama, Buffett nonetheless noted the US economy had managed to do "awfully well" despite a depression, two world wars and many financial crises.
"They say in the stock market ... buy stock in a business that's so good that an idiot can run it because sooner or later one will," he added.
"Well, the United States is a little like that. We can take a little mis-management from time to time," Buffett said.
Labels: obama
OREGON
75,000 people, the largest rally so far, in Portland, Oregon, yesterday.
They had it in a park, on the water and people showed up in kayaks to listen
Today, Survey USA released a poll with 1% Undecided (most people have voted) , 55% Obama, 42% Clinton.
Public Policy Polliing (PPP) has it Obama 58%, Clinton 39%.
She says he shouldn't be taking any victory laps tomorrow.
We will see.
Labels: obama
HARD ON DEWEY
Today's movie was the mockumentary
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
There is not one cliché unturned in this rock pile.
The ups, the downs, the sideways. The drugs, the comebacks, the go-aways. The marriages, the friends lost. The reunions. The egos.
We have seen this film over and over with the likes of Johnny Cash and Ray Charles to say nothing of the Buddy Holly Story. The biopic of musical figures has always been around. When I was a kid, we had the films about Glenn Miller (death at the end), Cole Porter (a tragic accident off a horse), Benny Goodman (I forget the angle), and so on up to the actual documentaries of the Beatles and Bob Dylan. It is irresistible material.
John C. Reilly turns in a great performance as the fictional Cox who walks all the musical genrés over 50 years. Incidentally, the musical material is pretty good too.
The success of this very funny film is the absolute seriousness with which Reilly and the other cast members approach the material. It is done straight on. Non-smirk.
I was amused that, at the end, when I had seen all the jokes to bring the sheer corniness of things out in the open, there were still misty eyed moments and a tug at the heart strings as Dewey has a tribute performance and is reunited with his 42 (legitimate) kids. Clichés are very powerful.
Another product rolled off the line at the Judd Apatow fun factory.
I was totally engrossed. Not, incidentally, grossed out. While it was on, Franklin came into the room and John, who had seen it before, shut the door and all. I was oblivious. Sunk into the picture.
I liked it a lot and I wouldn't want to see it again. I am sure that I missed a few jokes here and there but the spell would be broken.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
ANOTHER THING
When I reviewed There Will Be Blood yesterday, I didn't mention one of the main themes from the picture.
Alcoholism.
It is clear from the beginning that Daniel Plainview is an alkie. Someone knew what they were doing in depicting it.
The boozing is progressive as is the mental and physical disease. We see it happen.
Daniel Day-Lewis also shows us the continuing loss of spirit and spiritual values. The worst of the ravages.
He may be a dishonest reprobate in the beginning but his spirit is vivid. He endures. He thrives.
By the end, he is dead inside. He has lost all his vitality. He has disappeared inside the bottle.
I just mention this while the disease of alcoholism is often portrayed in film, it is seldom that such an accurate portrayal is given throughout over the entire duration of the story.
Slow and insidious.
The last line is apt. "I am finished".
MEMORY
My Dad died 20 years ago today.
I was in Texas doing some work and got word that he was near the end.
My partner Dave rushed out so I could leave the Program.
I left the platform, the group went on an exercise and when they came back, Dave was in charge. Magic.
My plane got fogged out of Boston and I spent the night in Windsor Locks' CN airport, sleeping on the floor, but I made it into Boston the next morning and on to Pennsylvania.
I got there in time to be with my Dad in the hospital and to let him know that it was OK to let go.
I got into the bed with him and held him.
It was a wonderful moment in our lives. Mine. His, now over.
He was a great guy.
The other day I got one of those flashes, as we do, about how much he has given me. I am a lot like him. I can see that now. It makes me happy.
We had our arguments. The usual stuff.
He even came to realize that my being gay was not the big deal that he thought it would be. He told me he was glad that I was happy.
What else could a son ask? Forgiveness and happiness.
I love him very much and miss him every day.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
THERE WILL BE OIL
Today's film was Paul Thomas Anderson's epic
This is a real movie. It even has a full orchestra and a great score. Movie music.
And, of course, it has Daniel Day-Lewis in Oscar winning role as Daniel Plainview, the oil man who raises himself up from a single hard times pit explorer to a full bore villain exploiter.
His nemesis, a born-again preacher (Paul Dano), provides the good versus evil wrasslin' match that makes a great story. It is hard to tell sometimes who is more corrupt.
Watch this Paul Dano guy. He is a good match for Day-Lewis in this and will become a great film actor. Well, he is already. He will have a great film career.
There is a lot to see in this picture. Big open spaces. California desert. Lots of people. Oil wells. Gushers. And wonderful characters.
I love watching Daniel Day-Lewis. We first saw him in My Beautiful Launderette and have seen everything he has done since.
It is always a great, moving experience.
This is the second 5 out of Netflix5 day in a row.
I would very much like to see it again and I will some day.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
SIDESHOW
Today while watching the movie Into The Wild, there was a flash of black at the window curtain bottom.
It was 'my' really big lizard who lives around that north corner of the house. He was on some mission to the south side.
At about 8 inches long, he is really the king of the lizards around here and it is a real privilege to sight him. He is very fast and I usually get only a quick glimpse.
I think this happened during the desert sequences of the films. Perhaps he was taking a look to see if any of his relatives made it.
RE FUN
Just to put a nice topping on it, we got our first refund from the State on our first filing of a joint tax return.
Certified Domestic Partners.
It says right on the check.
Both our names.
It is the little things that count as well as the big ones.
Labels: gay life, gay marriage, life
A ROAD LESS TRAVELED
Today's movie was Sean Penn's
It is a road picture. With a difference.
First, it is a true story and has a feeling about it that separates it from a fantasy production. Most road pics stretch reality beyond belief.
Second, it has a terminus. You know how it will end before it starts.
That helps us be watchful from the beginning.
I was not mystified why this wonderful young man took the turn in his road. Naively and without good judgment and also intentionally and with some justification. No doubt he was a fucked up dude with a certain inner wisdom to the fucked uppedness.
This is a gorgeous film and that includes the wonderful actors who make the thing work. Hal Holbrook is priceless. Penn gives us lots to ooh and aah about.
Young Judd Hersh is so real that it is almost a documentary. We are with him even in his particular kind of craziness.
It is fun in a personal way when it shows my desert areas Slab City, the Salton Sea and even the Palm Springs Tramway. We see the wind farm just north of town and the 10.
I liked this movie very much and want to see it again. That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Read the last paragraph of the Ebert review at the link. It is a good connection. I think that I have known a boy like this as well. Many more than one.
A FIGHTER
Barack hits back hard against the McBush charges of appeasement.
There is a great video in this.
Obama Says Bush and McCain Are ‘Fear Peddling’
This is the kind of thing that Gore and Kerry would have let slide or, worse, would have nattered on about in such a way that even the most supportive of us would glaze over and nod out.
This guy has a punch.
Labels: obama
LIBERAL PARANOIA
I was talking to a friend yesterday and he asked me if I had figured out what was going on with the same-sex marriage decision of the California Supreme Court.
I said something to the effect of "yeh, it's great" and before I could ask him if he and his partner were going to get hitched, he said "no, that isn't it".
He then went through a brief exercise of explaining to me what was really going on.
"The California Supreme Court is almost all Republican, right"?
"Right".
"Then why would they come down on the side of gay marriage"?
"Because they think it is the right thing to do"?
"No".
"Oh? What"?
"The answer? It is a devious plot to get out a huge conservative vote in the fall to defeat Obama in California".
"In fact, it was all designed by Karl Rove".
I didn't know what to say. "You think"?, maybe. Or perhaps I could point out to him that it was a stretch to see the conspiracy.
But I didn't. I told him I thought the idea "interesting" and changed the subject.
I am interested in conspiracy theorists. They see the wolves that could be lurking behind every tree.
Never mind that Karl Rove engineered one of the worst administrations and poorest operating political machine in the history of the Republic.
Sure, we think he is/was an asshole but not a very competent one.
He will be lucky to get out of the next few years without a fucking jail term.
I never think like this friend of mine. Perhaps I am an innocent. Perhaps I am naive. But in my experience, while there are plots abounding all around us, few succeed without being unmasked for what they are. Because they take place in secrecy, they are doomed for failure. Someone always fucks up as they are sneaking around.
But it is useless to argue with a conspiracy theorist. They have a world view that is consistent and, I find, rather sour and unpleasant.
We are all well aware that the right will fight the court decision.
They will turn out in droves in the general.
So be it!
I had already decided the complete reverse!
With the landslide proportions of Obama's election, the wave of young people who will be coming out, the previously apathetic who will be energized, we have a very good chance of beating the people who want to amend the state constitution against same sex marriage.
In other words, there could not have been a better time for the court to make its decision!
I guess it depends on ones predisposition to optimism or pessimism.
The other thing is that I am quite willing to let the democratic process go on and to let the chips fall where they may.
I want the right to marry to endure but I also know that this might not be the time or place.
I can accept that.
I also know that there are a lot of good people (who even support the domestic partnership laws by which we are now almost totally protected) who do not really want marriage to be for same gendered couples.
I respect that.
And I will fight against it.
The marriage issue is not about the rite of marriage or its 'sanctity' (if any). It is about equal rights for all. It is symbolic as well as material.
So I am for it.
But I don't think that I am a victim of a Rovian conspiracy to think so.
I have thought so a whole lot longer than the GOoPers have been in charge of things. Karl didn't make me do it.
Labels: gay marriage
Friday, May 16, 2008
FARCED UP
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was the second in the Peter Sellers Panther series
It was thought to be better than the first one and the third and god knows how many more they made but it isn't very good.
Anymore.
It has been 44 years and a lot of stuff has changed.
Naughty bits are not naughty anymore. we have moved on. The scene in the nudist camp is excruciating with its prudery.
And so on.
I got sleepy from time to time.
It claims to be farce but it is really a compendium of sight gags wrapped around an impossibly complicated who-done-it. I am not sure actually who did it or why.
Not that I cared at the end.
I am questioning whether Sellers was really that good. Perhaps we bought into his small bag of tricks because we were so sick of the Fifties comedies with Doris Day and that bunch.
He and his small comedy troupe in England were the precursors for the Pythons who were really the shit.
I will give this a 2 out of Netflix5. That means that I didn't like it but not enough to skip ahead.
Labels: best films
Thursday, May 15, 2008
SUPPORT THAT COUNTS
Schwarzenegger's statement on the same sex court ruling:
"I respect the Court’s decision and as Governor, I will uphold its ruling. Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling."
Labels: gay marriage
FETISHISTIC
The variety of human experience delights me.
I don't want to have all that experience myself but I am delighted that someone, somewhere, somehow is having fun in a novel and exciting way for them.
Andrew Sullivan found this:
The Great Big Chart of Fetishes
Labels: life
WHAT'S IN A NAME
McCain's middle name is Sidney. With an "i".
I am just saying.
So watch the jokes about Hussein and all.
Isn't the "i" for a girl named Sid?
And he is a III!
I know. It is desperately unfair to mock someone for their name. But having been at the other end of it with both first and last names all my life, I am more than qualified to smirk. And I am a "Junior" too.
I decided not to make any III'ds.
Labels: McCain
CAMPAIGN TRANSITION
Bush' outrageous and totally off the wall accusation about Obama and other 'appeasers' in Israel this morning met with pretty solid push back from the big Democratic guns.
This is what happens when you are 'the man'. They have your back. Even Hillary.
Bush Attacking Obama Is Bush Attacking All Democrats
You would think that McCain would keep his mouth shut on this one but no, he actually endorsed Bush. So it strengthens the McBush meme. Eight more years of the same thing.
Although it is obvious that the straight talk man has seen the electoral light on Iraq. He has a withdrawal plan too.
Too bad that Iraq isn't the hot button now and the economy is.
Always a little out of step, our old man John. Shuffle along.
CLUNK
The new drier refused to open all the way this morning and displayed a message: "HELP! I Need Service. Fault Code 24. Please Call for Service"
Thank you for sharing.
So I called the dealer, Pacific Sales, who services all the appliance that they sell.
That part worked out well. They were nice. They had us on file. We will have someone here fucking Tuesday.
Well, it isn't the longest wait.
We will go on the 'cancellation' list. They will call if there is an opening.
It is kind of pissy to have the new appliance go bad. But we will have to adapt.
It happens. Bugs.
It is a new model.
I am not very patient.
It will be OK.
We have more sheets than the ones that are trapped inside there and we hadn't started the next wash. Mildew city if that had happened.
Labels: appliances, technology
HOT BREATH
This morning it was cool and at about 7 AM before the sun was really up, the wind shifted and we felt the first hot breath of summer.
It is well over 100 today and will be that way for the next few days.
We got the house cleaned today so the air went on for the workers but I figure we won't turn it off for the rest of the day.
MARRIAGE UPDATE
Technically, we could get married today but the County is not ready and is working on the details.
They expect to have it worked out in a week.
What's to be worked out?
They were very nice about it and ready to take the calls.
Labels: gay marriage
WEDDING BELLS
California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban
We will see, but I think that we can get married almost immediately and the marriage cannot be rescinded even if there is an initiative which there will be this fall in the general election to ban it again.
I don't know how they can do that but our Governator has promised that he would fight any such initiative. So will the Democratic Legislature.
In the meantime, we have to figure out who proposes to who. Whom?
We've come a long way, baby.
Labels: gay marriage, gay politics, gay rights, life
IT'S OFFICIAL
I went to the supermarket Tuesday and there were many more parking places than usual. Some were under shade trees.
Suddenly, Franklin and I can cross the big Palm Canyon Drive without waiting for traffic to pass.
There are no slow blue haired drivers hogging both lanes because they can't see the lines.
The snowbirds are gone.
Free at last.
Some businesses will be closing although less do each year. Mostly restaurants and gift shop type places.
Nothing I would worry about.
The main thing is the traffic.
So long for the summer.
We will see you in November.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
WIPE OUT
This is Kevin Drum's day. Three links.
I have started wiping down.
I noticed those wipes a few months ago.
I scoffed.
Then I read about some of the shit you could pick up from them and tried it.
A kind of peace settled over me.
I now wipe when I go in and again, when I go out.
And I wipe the cart and my hands.
I am a wiper now.
This has gone over to the gym. I now wipe down after I use a machine and the other day I didn't like the look of the fat lady who used my bike before I got to it so I wiped after her too. She did not.
I don't use the sanitizers other than that.
We have a bottle at the kitchen sink but I just use my Neutrogena soap.
I don't want to overdo it.
I think that a modicum of bacteria are important to get so I build up the anti-bodies.
But the shopping carts and other mass 'tools'? I have seen someone with MRSA and have seen a lot of illness here lately. I don't want it.
Labels: health, life, shopping
COAL KICKERS AND SQUIRREL EATERS
And, oh, about those racists.
Take a look at this.
I am a native Appalachian.
I am not surprised at any of this.
My Dad was a true blue red blooded Appalachian.
Oddly, I think that he would have voted for Obama but maybe not. My Mom? She wanted upward mobility and hated the Appalachian stuff. She would have voted against Obama too but more because Hillary is a Mom.
It is this mindset that chased me out of there and made it damn near impossible to go back and be in touch with my extended family.
Another word would be 'hillbillies'.
ONE OF TOO MANY MISTAKES
Note that these are 'attitude' and organizational errors at heart.
One more reason not to want her in the WH.
Forget the white, male, lower class racists.
Yeh. I said it. You wanna make somethin' of it?
We need some one who can organize and looks for opportunities. Inventive. And most of all, can take advice.
Labels: obama
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
JANITOR
Today's movie was
George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson and Sydney Pollack.
That is at least three actors that I love and I am coming to like Clooney too.
A pretty boy, wise guy type, he needs the right film to bring out his stuff.
This is it.
A lot of long brooding shots of him alone—in his car, on the phone. Like that. Very hard to do if you don't have something to show. He does.
I loved the look of the film too. It is classical. New Yawk City.
Some of it is worth seeing again—the shots. The cinematography.
Since I would be willing to see it again (not a must) I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
That is my new old rating system. A 5 is "I must see it again". A 4 like I said. A 3, "I liked it but once is enough thanks". 2 is "I didn't like it but watched it all anyways" and a 1 means that I probably skipped some. Or shut it down.
There is no zero on the Netflix scale although they do have a slot for 'didn't watch it' which I suppose would be appropriate for a real piece of shit.
Labels: film
GEEZER
I just put this site into my list of daily web visits.
Things Younger Than John McCain.
Today is LSD.
A few days ago, the Golden Gate Bridge. Great pictures.
I put it under the humor category but, when you think about it, it is not funny. Is it?
I told you. I am as old as he is and I just couldn't begin to think about being President.
I have watched him at campaign events. In the down time he has that same 'where am I and what am I doing here' look that I sometimes feel.
Ego feeds a lot of adrenaline to a guy but, at his age, there is only so much to go around. Adrenaline. He has plenty of ego.
There are a few non-thinkers my age who defend McCain in a sort of 'gray panther' way.
You know, the oldsters old activist organization.
Not me. I think that an old guy should act like an old guy. No tight clothes, keep your shirt on and don't run for office.
I don't even vote for the geezers who run in my local elections.
The world belongs to the young. Let them have their chance to fuck it up less than we did.
CAUTION: To get up to date there are TWO pages. If you have not found the naked Keith Richards (who is younger than John McCain) then you have not gone far enough yet.
Labels: McCain
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Public intellectuals.
PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL SMACKDOWN"
I read a lot of these guys.
In the comments they mention that the apparent dearth of public thought is that the bushies all but squash any such 'puttin' on airs'. Anti-intellectual. Anti-science. Anti-everything but them.
I think this is so. Republicans have a more fixed ideological agenda. Look how they slavishly follow the party line.
The Kennedy administration supported intellectuals to a fault.
Jimmy Carter less so.
Clinton to an extent.
No matter.
I think the point of the article is that you can't hold it down long.
The internet has aroused the intellectual rabble and their work is being published.
Many of the periodicals named are printing the work of former 'net heads.
SCHEDULE CHANGE
I moved my vacation time ahead last night.
I am staying at the Bay Club on Shelter Island in San Diego.
The place is next to a concert venue. I try to pick a time when there won't be any concert and then watch the concert schedule.
They just added an act on my first night.
So I am jumping it ahead to September 8-11. A good time to be on the water.
It will still be hot here and so that will be a plus.
I actually do not go to get away from the heat as the experience is not at that level.
I arrive in San Diego, say to myself "Oh! It isn't hot!" and then forget about it.
I come back home and as I drop down into the desert it gets hot again and I am happy to be home.
The trip is more about being alone and not doing anything. It is always successful. I am alone and I don't do anything and it is a nice place for that non-activity.
I am planning to stay on the marina side this year. Watching the boats and the boat people. Not the beach/bay side where I have been the last two times.
That is what counts for a radical change of pace/place in this kind of slow motion activity.
Labels: life
BLOWN AWAY
We are having a windy day today (again) and Franklin is taking his naps as far from any open door, slider or window as he can.
The back of the hall or even in John's office is a good place.
You don't want to get blown away in while you are sleeping.
It is funny.
He likes walking in the wind. He just doesn't like it blowing outside while he is in the house. Sheltered.
Go figure.
Monday, May 12, 2008
STUCK UP
It is funny that I have not seen an Obama bumper sticker yet.
Maybe he is eliminating them from his 'new politics' campaign.
I have seen a yard sign so I guess not. Some old fashioned political tools never die.
I will have to look around. In the meantime, this one looks good.
Labels: obama
NIGHTMARE
Don't put me down as supporting any 'dream ticket' with Obama asking Hill to be his Veep.
It would so suck.
Imagine all that worming her way around the administration to say nothing of Bill's meddling.
No.
No.
A thousand times 'no'.
Surely, the Obamas can't be lured into such a trap.
If so, they would undermine all that I have come to believe about their competence and political savvy.
Two words. Im possible.
Labels: Democrats, hillary, obama
VOX POP
There was a flurry of flak from the Clintons this morning about how she would win the popular vote and that should be the guidleline for selecting the party nominee, not delegates.
Other than moving the goal posts and changing the rules in the last quarter of the game, it is also probable nonsense.
Take a look at the numbers.
RealClearPolitics-Democratic Vote Count.
This adds Florida and Michigan and leaves out the caucus states, incidentally.
It seems rather improbable that Clinton can catch up on this metric, no matter how twisted, with the remaining primaries
It is the silly part of the primary season now. It is the Huckabee phenomenon. Stay in and claim anything just because you cannot stop.
UPDATE: I just found this.
Can Clinton Still Win The Popular Vote? No.
Labels: hillary
IN HOT WATER
It is getting to be that time of year.
The tap water is beginning to be hot no matter what tap you tap or when you tap it.
Desert living has a few downsides. One is that, in summer, cool water isn't all that cool and, if your pipes run across the roof as ours do, you get hot and hot and more hot until, eventually, you get tepid.
The pipes run across the roof because the ones that were installed in the slab corroded long ago. The water is very calcified and will corrode and clog up any pipes in less time than in other locales. The heat doesn't help things. Well, it helps the calcification.
So, any house older than 20 years or so, will begin to have water leakage problems in the slab.
You can dig up the slab and fix the leak but there will be more leaks down the road. Most people opt to take the pipes to the roof and down into the house.
Our house is over 50 years old. The slab pipes got fucked up long ago.
So, in the summer we get hot water when we don't want it. But with a little planning, you can minimize the problem.
The first ten feet or so of water is as cool as the inside of the house so, for example, when I fill Franklin's water bowl, I time it so there will be a cool column of water.
If the kitchen isn't cooled down, I go to the guest bath.
Actually, it is an easy thing to get around.
What is really bad about pipes on the roof is that in winter, when and if the night temps get into the thirties, we will have frozen pipes! It has happened twice so far.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
FLIPPERS FLOPPED
I wondered about this before.
I cannot imagine regular families and house owners just walking away from a mortgage. Keys into the mailbox and take off.
I am sure that it happens but just how can it happen?
The bastards would track you down. You would have to declare bankruptcy. They would have you by the short ones. You would have to have an identity change to get away from it.
Speculators on the other hand do not have such a tough time of going broke with a house.
First it is probably one of many. Second, it is a sheltering corporation. Three, it is probably a shell outfit set up for just such a contingency.
I live in the middle of house-flipper's paradise. Well, it was paradise. Now it is hell.
We have about ten houses in our neighborhood that are for sale. Many are being disposed of by banks or by people who have invested to flip and have flopped.
Even our neighbor who had a house he was living in and bought a second new one over in a new development and now has to sell one or both is really not a keys in the mailbox guy. He works in a local high profile business. He is eating his loss.
So, I weep for the people who got conned and all but I bet many of them are not just walking away. No one will let them. They are caught.
The flippers, though. No tears. Fuck 'em. They took a chance even when I said to myself they were taking a really risky chance and they lost. Tough shit and the same to the banks that loaned to them.
Hard for us too who will bail them all out eventually one way or another.
Labels: economy
LUBITSCH
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Ernst Lubitsch'
with James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Frank Morgan and Joseph Schildkraut.
This is light stuff but so well done that it comes across strong and compelling.
The editing and cinematography are surprising especially given the small, virtually one-set production. It is a smallish luggage/gift shop. Cameras swoop through doors, long shots move through the store, doors close in one cut and open in another.
The technique does not intrude. It is just noticable if you are looking for it. What it does is give the film a push and rhythm that keeps the energy going.
Lubitsch was very good at making great moment out of small situations and Stewart and Sullivan are particularly good at that here.
I remember Stewart from later films where his persona had been hardened but in this he is fresh and very much alive—and sexy too.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Much is made of the fact that this is the film from which You've Got Mail was made.
Mail can't hold a candle to the original. One more piece of data for the 'no remakes' rule.
SHE DIDN'T LIKE IT EITHER
And it was a hundred years ago today!
THANKS TO HILLARY
The Upside of Being Knocked Around
While I have not liked it, I have always believed that Obama could be strengthened from the primary and his Clinton experience.
This article explores the same territory.
Six ways that Hillary made him stronger:
The answer to that last one, I have to concede, is an emphatic 'no'.
Kerry and Gore were virtually coronated at birth. The results showed in the general election. Neither had the stuff to go the distance that was required.
Forget the Florida/Supreme Court excuse. A tough candidate would have beaten the bushies there and made the thing work the other way.
Al Gore gave up. Wimped out. Kerry flip-flopped and whined.
Obama will not do that.
Labels: obama
HIS STORY
This is a lengthy and illuminating review of Barack Obama's political history and what makes his bid for the Presidency such a novel campaign.
Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side
In our house, we marvel at the political dexterity and administrative genius of the Obama organization.
It is well run and incredibly well put together.
These guys are not amateurs. They are the pros who could transform the US political process from a highly partisan exercise to a collaborative experience for the broadest number of factions in the country.
Oddly enough, McCain offers the perfect opponent for this kind of campaign to prosper. He is malleable enough and has enough courage to try different approaches.
The two campaigns are already in discussions to eliminate the mediated debates of the past decades and join together in face to face dialogues throughout the campaign.
This alone would transform the process.
It is an exciting time.
Labels: obama
A SHORT HISTORY OF ABS
This is very good.
It explains the unexplainable and reveals the unseeable as, in many cases, abs are there but not revealed.
I am one of those who's abs are unseen.
Inner abs.
Here they are talking about outer abs. The shameless display of muscle infrastructure that now dominates our culture.
Abs through the ages. How the six-pack came to be.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
MOTHERS DAY
I have recieved about ten spam mails today for FTD and other florist outfits.
It is such a scam.
I always wired flowers to my Mom. Well, I called an old acquaintance in the same town that had a flower business and she made the delivery.
I hated myself for doing it, falling into convention, but commercialism had a vise-grip on me as millions of others.
Of course my Mother thought it was wonderful.
I was brought up on it. I remember getting a potted geranium for her when I was real little. My Dad probably helped me get it.
The geranium morphed into corsages. To wear to church. For people to see. Showing off. Another turn off for me.
Does anyone wear corsages any more?
Of course, bitching about the holiday is as much a cliché as the holiday itself.
What a situation comedy.
I don't know if my Mother ever gave her mother flowers. When did this start? In what century?
Father's Day has never really gotten off the ground in the same way.
I do pretty well at Father's Day. People call and so on. But I don't get flowers. Do I?
Now I am worried that perhaps some one of my kids has sent me flowers for Father's Day and I don't remember it.
See? Now I am on the other end of it wondering if I am going to have a happy fake holiday.
ENDING THE TAB/LABEL
I am looking forward to ending the 'hillary' label or tab in the near future.
Rasmussen Polls are doing the same. They will end their daily Obama/Hillary race figures in a short time. Probably after Tuesday.
Other signs of 'hillary' turning into a ghost abound on the 'net and in the other media.
I am just a little drop in the water but it will feel good to stop writing about her as a candidate.
Labels: hillary
MILLIONS
It is a national campaign now.
Obama Campaign Launches "Vote For Change" Voter Registration Drive
Labels: obama
HANGOVER
From Al Giordano, a political blogger:
Five Stages of Grief for the Winning Side, Too
1. Denial: “But Senator Clinton hasn’t conceded yet! She doesn’t admit that she’s lost! She keeps moving the goal posts, continues playing the race card, it therefore must not really be over for her. We need her permission to move on!“
2. Anger: “If the rest of you don’t lash out at what’s upsetting me in exactly the way I am, you’re as bad as she is!”
3. Bargaining: “This means that Obama has to put Clinton on the ticket (like Andrew Sullivan says, ‘hello again to all that!’). Oh, wait, scratch that: he has to put a Clinton supporter on the ticket. Or maybe he has to put a different woman on the ticket… or how about…”
4. Depression: “Where’d everybody go? God, I miss the adrenaline of when this was a real contest!”
5. Acceptance: “Oh, goodie: More adrenaline to come! A general election campaign! Of course Obama will choose his running mate according to his standards. I bet it’ll be as smart a move as those that got him here!”
We are at about Stage Three. I am tired of reading about 'the dream ticket'.
The 'dream ticket' is the one that Obama heads however he puts it together. The shadow administration is almost half way there as far as I have heard.
This is one prepared dude.
END OF AN ERA
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was the last John Wayne picture made.
As a kid, I saw every John Wayne movie that I could get to. The westerns and not.
This is the last and it is a eulogy at many levels.
The shootist of the title is dying but so is his world. He goes to the citified Carson City for a second opinion. He has "a cancer". From the symptoms, I can vouch for the fact that it is prostate cancer.
From there we have the story of his coming to grips and finding a way out that might not involve the agony of the disease's last stages.
There is an overlay here and that is the fact that Wayne had cancer and died from it three years after this film was made.
The story shows the shootists humanity arising out of the hard shell of a professional gunman. It is very well done.
Other older western stars fill out the bill. It is very nice to see them.
I liked this film a lot (once I got used to the hat) and will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
I liked it and I wouldn't mind seeing it again.
Labels: best
Friday, May 09, 2008
ALMOST BUT NOT QUITE
I paid 3.999 a gallon for gas today.
I'm just saying.
And I pumped my own.
And it was regular gas.
And not a brand name. Well, not a big time one.
This was for the Le Baron Woody Convertible for whom we spare nothing. He is our pride and joy.
But, fucking 3.999? He better run like a charm for awhile. We can't afford any 'work' on him.
Labels: life
MAKING A RACKET
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was a film version of a Damon Runyon story and play
A Slight Case of Murder (1938)
This is a period piece.
The world of the small time hood was Runyon's specialty. He got the thirtie's fascination with crime figures on the second bounce turning them into comic figures exemplified most popularly in the characters from Guys and Dolls.
This film is of the same genré. All the slightly bent thugs are here headed by another period piece, Edward G. Robinson.
This is not the kind actor that we would see in films today. The homely, intense brooder. Maybe someone like Broderick Crawford in the fifties. The closest today would be someone like John Goodman or John C. Reilly. But Robinson was not a comic actor. He was quite serious and scary in many roles. This film capitalizes on this stereotype and has Robinson mocking his own persona.
The vehicle here is farce. There are a lot of closets and doors and floors and characters to keep things humming for an hour and a half.
Many little jokes.
Constant motion.
In many ways it seems lame because it is of another time. Crime figures today are more of the corporate, political kind. There isn't anything very funny or quaint about them.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5. I liked it and it is OK if I don't see it again.
Take a gander at that double breasted suit.
Labels: best films
Thursday, May 08, 2008
CHANGING TIMES
All of a sudden they are all over him. Joe Klein! Imagine.
He is the cover story. Obama. Not Klein.
Labels: obama
YOU THINK WRIGHT IS A SCANDAL?
Look at this bit of religious pandering and sidekicking. Last week!
But the media won't pick this up and run with it. This along with the "great whore of Babylon" guy, Hagee, doubles down McCain's christer boot licking.
Labels: christist watch, republican whack jobs
TREADMILL
Note: The following post is indelicately written. If you are squeamish about the ass or its environs perhaps you should move on to the next post.
I took a friend to have a colonoscopy this morning.
It is not my first time as a designated driver for this procedure (and endoscopies). I am getting rather good at it including the waiting room banter, if any. It is pretty quiet in there and for good reason I believe.
It is an assembly line. They dope everyone now. I guess they got tired of the drama.
So, when you recover you have enough 'joy juice' in your system that you are a hazard on the road and anywhere else for that matter.
They have it down to a science. Even the robotic welcome and sign in.
These 'girls' have seen it all. They make you sign that you got your insurance card back as well as your credit card.
Most people do not remember the ride home let alone the anxiety ridden entry into the maw. I can see people patting themselves down and not finding their valuables. First reaction, someone stole them.
It is all as sober as a church. More sober.
You get there at 20 minutes to the hour and, first come, first serve, the lineup into the operating room proceeds on a 20 minute cycle.
At some point your ass gets reamed, pictures are taken, polyps (if any) are removed, cancer is detected or not and you are returned to a recovery area where your designated driver can pick you up and also (presumably) calm you down if you think that your credit or insurance cards were stolen during your anesthesia.
I think that it is funny that they send you out a separate door so the people in the waiting room don't get to see the sort of splayed out state of the reamed.
In the past folks have been kind of hazy when I got to them in the recovery room. My friend was pretty coherent actually. He even claimed to remember the procedure and seeing the screen during it but his doctor kind of treated that insight as more of a hallucination. Why do docs have to be right all the time?
I liked the doc though. If I ever have to have this or that done I will go to him.
Now, listen to this one.
It is amazing but true.
The reason my friend is seeing this doctor is that he wants some internal hemorrhoids removed. The doc runs a surgery mill called The Hemorrhoid Institute. No prep, no pain, no recovery. In and out and you are done. Lasers or rubber bands.
He is British. Even has Brit teeth.
But here is the thing. To get his piles removed my friend had to get the colonoscopy or the insurance company wouldn't pay for the depilization.
Weird that they would want to actually add to the cost of work but somehow there is a thing in here that they don't want to spend money on work on a cancerous ass or something like that.
I have tried out the various rationales but have not quite put it together. Of course, searching for rationality in the insurance industry is fool's errand. I know that it has to be about money. Everything in it is. It could not be just compassion or scrupulous medicine.
Anyway, we got home and I will call later to see if he remembers anything of the ride home. Often, people seem perfectly conscious when you take them home but then you find out that they don't remember a bit of it.
It was fun. I will do it again if asked. I got a lot of reading done and didn't have to chit chat but once with another person who was waiting. I was able to assure her with my vast designated driver experience that all would be OK at the end. So to speak.
Labels: health, technology
