Monday, June 30, 2008
THE CENTER WILL HOLD
This is a pretty good analysis of whether Obama has moved to the center and, if so, why? As well as, if so, how will it work for him?
The nut of this is that, yes, he is moving to the center on some issues and has been pushed there by his party on others.
And no, it will not hurt and perhaps help him.
I like the thinking here.
You may want to bookmark this guy. He is a Democrat for sure and he is also honest to a fault about the problems and challenges of Democrats.
He is also a total tool. He has everything here and works it all.
Labels: Barack Obama, polls
WORD PLAY
This is funny.
The christist right falls all over its little censorship feet.
World's Fastest Man: Tyson Homosexual
It didn't used to be funny.
For many years, the NYTimes and other papers would not use the term 'gay'. They liked the phrase 'avowed homosexual'. Which gave it a little bit of hand in the cookie jar guilt.
More intense was 'self avowed homosexual. As in 'my GOD they are admitting it!".
Gay pride sort of kicked that one in the ass.
Eventually, at the Times, the change to 'gay' came when they got rid of Abe Rosenthal as the Editor and the queers on the staff rebelled and demanded they change the policy.
It's a strange world that we live in.
That's Tyson Gay in the photo.
Labels: christist watch, gay history
Sunday, June 29, 2008
POUTING BILL
Not pretty.
Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must 'kiss my ass' for his support
I just finished reading the Vanity Fair article on Clinton's increasing dysfunctional behavior over the last period of time, even apart from the election primary.
He is said to be angry and hard to get along with. His traumatic operations are cited as possible sources for this.
It would be enough to point out that he is an adult child of alcoholics and has certain behavior patterns that can run off the rails.
Whatever the case, it is a sad business.
I like that Obama is keeping his distance.
No one wants a pissing contest with Bill.
Remember, he didn't have a lot to do in the Gore campaign either.
It is surely a case of 'my way or the highway' with him.
I am less and less a friend of Bill as time goes on.
Labels: Bill Clinton
HOTTEST
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Billy Wilder's
with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon plus an assortment of classic gangster players headed by George Raft.
Monroe is at the top of her game in this picture. Actually, I have yet to see a film where she is not at the top.
She is funny. She sings. And she is very, very sexy. In a way that even speaks to the inverted among us.
This is one of the all time best films and does not require any boosting from me.
It never stops and despite the number of times I have seen it (3 or 4?) it still suprises. You simply cannot hear all the jokes or see all the business in one take.
I should mention Joe E. Brown. He is the innocent among the wolves.
I met him once when I was 14. He was a great guy. A showoff and a talker.
He was appearing at the local summer playhouse. I gave him a ride.
That is probably not very important to the film which was produced 8 years later but there it is. Who knows what influence I might have had on his bravura performance!
This is a 5 out of Netflix5. I will almost definitely see it again.
Labels: best films
esHUSSEINdotblog
This is great!
Mocking the mockers.
Obama Supporters Take His Middle Name As Their Own
I don't know if I want to go that far, actually. But look at the fun these kids and not so young kids are having.
They are making this election their own.
You cannot beat that. Period.
What is John McBush' middle name anyhow?
Labels: Barack Obama
Saturday, June 28, 2008
HANDWRINGING
Here we go.
It didn't take long. The lefties are already taking shots at Obama for moving to the center.
The funny thing is that I don't believe that he was ever that far left.
He is a giant canvas on which everyone projects their unique positions.
He is a politician.
And a great one. Perhaps the best we have seen in our lifetimes.
The thing here is that we do not need him to be a crusader right now. We want him to get elected.
He cannot change gun laws. He cannot single handedly prevent the Congress from giving immunity to the phone companies.
And he can not lead from the left.
So fucking get over it.
You must look at the man's character and his character is evident in his speeches and in his writings.
Look.
The liberals are the worst at figuring out how to win elections.
They are so critical. They eat their own.
The right wingers fall behind the party line and they stay there. They do not falter. It is what we hate about them but they keep beating us by having faith in their leadership and following the generalities.
They don't worry about the specifics.
OK.
It will happen. No one is going to stay at home or vote for McCain.
Obama needs the middle and they know that they need him. They have had it up to here with the bushies.
Let him run his campaign.
Oh.
And while I am at it, can I have a little less of this 'brand' shit? I am tired of it. It is everywhere and it is so crass. Obama is not a product. He is not a brand. Stop it.
Labels: Barack Obama
CRAZY
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
with Olivia de Havilland.
I saw this film when I was 11 and it had an indelible effect.
I knew I was going to see it today and had lightly bad dreams about it last night . Not nightmares. Just roiled up stuff.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest owes a lot to this film about a woman who has a nervous breakdown and is committed to a state asylum.
There is a Nurse Ratched and everything. The actual 'snake pit' scene is incredibly well played by a skillful ensemble of familiar B actresses.
The 'dance social' where the inmates sing together is a reach but we are ready to make the leap to sing along with them.
I am pretty sure that this clinical depiction was also responsible, in some respect, for the later decisions to deinstitutionalize mental hospitals.
The story is clean cut and straight forward while a reasonably accurate picture of psychotherapy and other modalities are used. Leo Genn is the therapist and Mark Stevens is the supportive husband.
It is a great movie and I would be more than happy to see it again.
That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Friday, June 27, 2008
INDEXED
I know that some of you will want to bookmark this funny site.
It appeals to the inner geek.
I have always loved graphs and matrices.
This is a pleasure palace for the graphically addicted.
I like the 'smells funny' one and the George Carlin.
GASSED UP
I paid 4.57 a gallon for gas this morning.
I don't like it, personally, but I am all for it publicly.
We have been getting a free ride folks.
My friends in France and the UK pay twice what we do and look at our situation with great glee.
After all, we are finally joining the great world market.
And market forces are doing this.
Supply and demand.
We use more and more each year. The Hummer society.
Now we are paying for it.
In the end, it is my opinion that only 7-8 dollar gas will have us face reality and cut down on wasteful use of petroleum. We will ride buses and trains. This is already happening in LA.
It is the only thing that will work.
Nothing in any politician's energy policy will save us, and the world, from asphyxiation. Only the market itself.
Of course there are some alternatives but not for cars.
The plug in vehicle plugs in to an oil based generation system. Maybe wind will do it. Or nukes. But probably not.
This is the first symptom of global warming that is eco-regulating.
The world is taking action where we will not.
Yeh, I know that's a stretch. But if we won't quit burning fuel, the world will just stop us from taking the fuel out of the ground.
I really do not mind paying the right amount for gas. I am not entitled to a fixed price.
Neither are you.
Labels: ecology, environment, global warming
UNITY II
6000 people in a town of 1700.
Well, I gotta say this for her. She has a way of putting it all behind her. A real pro. Maybe a bit slow. But a pro nonetheless.
Labels: Barack Obama, hillary
UNITY
Hillary got a good one off today in Unity, NH. She and Obama each got 107 votes there. So it is a ready made photo/speech op for the great coming together.
In the end, Senator McCain and President Bush are like two sides of the same coin and it doesn't amount to a whole lot of change.I hope they got more than 214 people to hear this one.
Very nice.
Labels: Barack Obama, hillary
A CUT ABOVE
Franklin has always had the standard show cut for his breed. Look right.
Left to his own devices his fur (not hair) grows out wildly in all directions. They say that he has five distinct kinds of fur in various parts of his body. Sometimes in the same part.
This is why the breed cut is severe. No one wants their Airedale to fit the 'wild as an Airedale' look.
But there is a happier medium between totally shorn and 'let it go' natural.
Today we took the first steps toward that happy medium.
The goal is to get him more or less evenly furred all over his body and to save his brick shaped face and beard. Sorta like the left.
We have pictures of what we want.
The groomer is on board.
Today, he got the first dose of the new design and, while he looks a little more shorn than I would have expected, his coat is even and he is one handsome dude. In a new way.
By the next cut, he will be in his new glory.
Labels: Franklin
STRAIGHT LINE
The Stonewall Riots occurred 39 years ago tomorrow.
There is a straight line between that event and our wedding on October 11, 2008.
Stonewall was not the first disruption over gay rights but it was the first action that received such an outburst of interest and sympathy from the public at large.
It was also an empowering moment for gay people everywhere. Even the ones who, like me, were hidden in their closets.
The riots precipitated the formation of the Gay Liberation Front in NYC and then spread nationwide. I belonged to the Boston chapter at one time before its demise. As always, internal conflict.
A host of other organizations sprang into being.
Over the years, we have made great strides.
We have not been quiet.
We endured the AIDS epidemic.
We fought for government support and got it.
We made great progress in human rights law.
It is a different world.
I show this picture every year because this is just the way I remember it. Those times.
I was back out in the movement in less than 6 years after Stonewall. This is what we looked like then. Well, I was a little older but still.
A moment of silence for all the comrades who we have marched with over this near forty years.
We will thank them as we say our own vows again in October.
Labels: gay history, gay marriage, gay politics, gay rights
Thursday, June 26, 2008
BETTER DANCING
I don't want to run this into the ground but the Matt Harding dance tape I got the other day was pretty bad quality.
Turns out he uploaded the wrong one on YouTube but once he realized it, it was already the number one tape and then a record breaker.
Here is the wide screen high quality version.
Besides, I don't mind watching another time. Some of the bits are great. I love the dance poses in Gurgaon, India.
You will not see everything the first time. Look for the little shit. It is wonderful.
Also great editing.
Watch his waistline move in and out.
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
Labels: culture, dancing, life
OK, I WANT THE RIGHT
The battle over the Second Amendment is over for awhile.
Citizens have the right to bear arms whether they are in a militia or not.
The Supremes sang their song today.
No surprise there.
I am OK with this, incidentally. I am not a knee jerk lib.
I want the right to bear arms for myself.
I do not happen to have any arms just now but I might change my mind and if I did I wouldn't want an impediment.
I would even like to bear arms openly in a holster.
Or concealed.
Why?
Because there are some crazy fucking bastards out there and, from time to time, they can get out of control.
Oddly, I am more concerned about the crazies of the right wing than I am about gang bangers or the random serial killer.
The wing nuts say some pretty scary things. Especially about homos.
I am not a paranoid kind of guy but I know when I am threatened.
I am about to get married in the midst of some controversy.
The controversy will come to a head on the same election day that I plan to vote for our next President.
I am not naive about the repercussions if the ammendment is defeated.
That is just one example.
I had firearms in my house once. My Dad's. They made me so uncomfortable that I gave them to my son to hold on to.
So, I don't know if that would happen again. Probably.
I don't expect to bear arms. I don't think that I will ever have to. I hope to hell I do not have to. I am a lousy shot.
But I would go down shootin' if I had to. Or not. I just want the choice. Me.
Labels: constitution
SURGE?
It is a long way to November, but this is sure a good start.
Obama Leads in Four Battleground States.
Labels: Barack Obama, polls
ALL WEDDING ALL OF THE TIME
Here is the thing.
You go through decades accepting that you won't get married.
Then, suddenly, the idea of marriage becomes a reality.
It is possible! You can do it! Your time has come!
I would have thought that there would be a mildly happy transition from "can't" to "can" and then a decision, rationally made, to go ahead and get married.
Frankly, I guess, what I had in mind was something akin to elopement. Pack some things, take off to a JP over the state line (or just within it) and get hitched.
No. That is not how it works.
First of all you think about the people you want to be there. The best men. The family. A few close friends.
Then you think about entertaining them.
Then you think about the ceremony. Where. How. All that.
Suddenly the cap is off the bottle. The genie is out. The wedding genie.
What seemed to be a rational, step by step process, a problem to be solved, is suddenly a torrent of little ideas, wishes, inspirations and, inevitably, arguments.
So. Where do we stand? Let's have a little freeze frame.
We are pretty close to being done with the plans.
Well. That is wishful thinking. It won't be done until October.
We have the guest list. Well 90% of it. There are those problem people. The ones who maybe would be 'hurt' if you didn't ask them. Then there are the people who, when they heard we were getting married, said "Oh! I hope you are inviting me!". When in fact we had no intention.
We will work it out.
It has to be 100 because that is how many little plastic folding chairs we have reserved. A few close friends, right?
We have someone to do the ceremony. A City Councilman who has been our guide as we worked to stop the MacMansion. He is gay and part of a couple and has worked hard for same gender marriage.
We have an outline of the ceremony:
Cake and drinks and socialization.
Done. Over.
We have made basic decisions. No gifts. People can give to Equality California.
Colors are white and blue. Don't ask.
Photos will be taken. Perhaps a video of the actual ceremony.
There will be a guest register where people can make their own pages with stickers and shit. I am not sure of this one.
What have I left out?
I don't know.
Somehow, when I write it all down it doesn't seem as complicated as when we were discussing it.
There are all those emotions that suddenly show up when you are able to do something you have been wanting to and thought you couldn't. Pesky little things.
Labels: gay marriage
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
LIBERAL GILT
This is fun.
“A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MIDDLE-CLASS REPUBLICAN”
Labels: republican whack jobs
ONE WAR TOO FAR
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was William Wellman's
This is really a sort of biopic of Ernie Pyle the war correspondent. It chronicles his time with a particular company of infantry and sort of follows his human interest news stories.
It is a compendium of WWII clichés.
It starts slow, has a battle, gets slow again. It is human suffering trivialized.
There is the company Romeo, the company hard ass, the sergeant with a heart of gold, the dog whose human is the first casualty and is taken over by the whole company (it is not a cocker spaniel as shown in the jacket art—more a mangy mutt).
To say that I doubt the veracity of all this is an overstatement. Actually, I suppose that some of it is true or the cliché wouldn't exist.
There is one tense battle scene in the first hour. All the rest is lying around talking about battle. And back home. And each other. And petting the dog.
That is all I saw. An hour of this kind of thing is tough enough slogging. I was beginning to feel as though I had it worse than the soldiers.
Burgess Meredith is Ernie Pyle and, oddly enough, he has a really passive role in this. He doesn't even seem to interact with the soldiers.
It was good to see Robert Mitchum though. He was pretty good when he got to do something.
I didn't like it and I didn't watch it all and so I will give it a 1 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
THE EYES HAVE IT
I went for my annual eye exam today.
I go to an opthalmologist. I figure that if there is something wrong, I am right where I need to be to get it fixed.
The good news is that I do not need a new eyeglass prescription.
This is the third year going on this set of specs.
The other good news is that my eyes are very healthy. No macular degeneration, no sign of glaucoma or anything else.
A little less happy is the fact that the cataract in the left eye is a little more developed than it was last year.
But, using the 21st century yardstick for severity, I do not yet qualify for insurance coverage to have the cataract fixed.
Never mind if it would be a good idea to do it now. Just that I would have to foot the bill myself.
The whole system runs on insurance, huh?
Anyway, I am surgery averse. So I wouldn't do it until I have no choice.
Which could be years. Or never.
I have had a diagnosis for cataracts for four or five years now. He says that I have lost a line of sight, meaning that I have had to move up to a bigger line in the visual examination.
Oddly, there seems to be now absolute test for the severity other than a reading of the standard eye chart.
Most people get to find there is a problem when they fail a driver's eye test.
I will try not to get that far. I don't want to get fucked with by the DMV.
My Dad had cataracts removed. He had a major surprise when he could see stuff well for the first in a long time.
Maybe I will get the same way. But not yet.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
THE ISSUES
Obama is clearly ahead on most issues, particularly those that count.
Obama Has the Edge on Key Election Issues
It is interesting to note that both he and McCain are down the scale on immigration conflict.
This is an issue that matters very much to me.
I have been worried that it would become a political football in this campaign but it will not.
If anything, McCain is more reviled on immigration reform than Obama. He is viewed as an ideological traitor by the knuckle draggers.
The fact is that he is from a border state and knows way more about the problems and opportunities of immigration than the know nothing racist shit headed bastards who are militantly opposed to either amnesty or any sensible citizenship program.
Labels: Barack Obama, immigration, McCain
OH, REMEMBER HIM?
The same LATimes/Bloomberg poll shows bushie down to 23% approval.
Unprecedented.
Labels: bush. bushies
POLL POSITION
I don't want to start looking at the polls. But I do. I read four summary web sites a day.
When I read about the Newsweek results showing Obama 15% ahead, I put it aside. Gallup is about 3% and Rasmussen is at 6%. Most other polls are similar.
Now we have the LATimes/Bloomberg, which has a good history, showing Obama with a lead of 12%.
Maybe the Newsweek isn't such an outlier after all.
Obama holds 12-point lead over McCain, poll finds
If you want a rundown of this from another angle here is the Daily Kos analysis including internals and other poll results.
Who Do You Believe? CW or the Polls?
Labels: Barack Obama, polls
DRIED OUT
We have been having trouble with our new Fisher/Paykel drier.
The washer is great but the drier seizes up and won't open automatically. Not every time. Especially when the repair guy comes.
So, today we had the second visit and this guy seems to know what he is doing. He even ordered a part.
When it comes, he will come back and finish the job.
We did learn what to do when it seizes up though.
It is simple enough but a pain in the ass.
We have 'never' gotten a lemon in any purchase we have made.
If this turns out to be one, it will be the first.
We are already on track to have it replaced if this doesn't do the trick.
We are not compliant consumers.
It is a great drier incidentally. When it works.
Labels: appliances
EVERYDAY DRAMA
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
This tight little New Zealand thriller is hard to watch but well worth the effort.
A race car driver who makes a living from an auto graveyard operation (its name is The Smash Palace), is driven to take the law into his own hands. He and his wife split, there is a restraining order, he takes his kid and runs.
It sounds melodramatic and, in its way, it is. The twist here is that the action is so realistic that we are drawn into it and we can see how, in the same situation, we might do the same things these people are doing.
The opening sequence is enough to rock your socks. If you don't watch closely, you might actually miss it.
It is a great metaphor for the story. Foreshadowing.
I liked this film although I wouldn't want to see it again.
That makes it a 3 out of Netflix5.
I didn't like it as much as Ebert did.
Labels: best films
Monday, June 23, 2008
SQUEEZING THE TUBE
I am trying to have something to blog about today but it is an effort.
The market has not moved up or down, the weather is slightly cooler, I found the new PETCO store in our neighborhood wanting and ended up at the old PetSmart where I can get what I need for Franklin without asking new and clueless personnel.
I have two appointments today that were put of another week.
I am still missing George Carlin a little. I just went to YouTube and watched some of his tapes.
I was going to put one of them up but it was non-imbeddable so no tape.
I think that I will go and read a bit.
I have finished Netherland which I enjoyed very much. New literary fiction. One pick out of a hundred reviews I read. I have an ability to find the 'right ones' for me.
They are delivering the new recycle bins in our neighborhood today but we didn't get ours yet.
We are usually at the ass end of anything like this as we are off the road. Kind of.
Only our regular trash men know for sure.
See?
There is a lot going on but nothing that I can squeeze out of the tube into a full blog item.
Yes.
I am going to read the book.
Labels: blog, blogging, gay life
Sunday, June 22, 2008
CURMUDGEON
George Carlin was a curmudgeon at an early age.
I listened very closely to him in his middle years. Recent years, not so much. Curmudgeon has a limited shelf life.
But it is sad to lose him on the march.
Hard not to notice he and I are the same age.
He was the master of the rant and the mocking, questioning of authority.
In the 70s he was a real gadfly. Effective, and I think, affecting society. He spoke to the core movers and shakers of the time. He hated hypocrisy.
The most famous bit were the 7 words you cannot say on television: "shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits"!
He read them out as though they were a kind poetry. As, I suppose they are.
His point was not to to shock, merely. His point was deeper , that words have great power. So much so that they need to be held prisoner.
George Carlin, a freedom guy if there ever was one.George Carlin, Splenetic Comedian, Dies at 71
Labels: obituary
SMILEY FACES
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Ingmar Bergman's
Sommarnattens leende / Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
There are three smiles to a summer night but there are four romances in this first Bergman hit. A romantic comedy.
It was the basis for the Broadway musical A Little Night Music.
In an brief introductory interview, he says that, after this film, he had a virtual blank check for his productions.
I have seen it a few times and would not mind seeing it again. It is a classic that never fades. Funny and wise and sometimes irredeemably hard hearted in its point of view about life and love.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Saturday, June 21, 2008
LITERARY FICTION
Today's film was
Starting Out in the Evening (2007)
with Frank Langella as an aging author with a sort of mid-level writer's block.
This is one of those films that creeps up and bites you on the ass.
At the beginning, I didn't much like the author or the young grad student who idolizes him and wants to make him the subject of her thesis. If not more.
I sure didn't like the May December theme. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I just don't want to watch it.
As it turns out, this essential tension is the crux of the film's point and the catharsis is quite satisfying.
The film is built as a fine novel which is what it is based on.
Parallel to this is Lili Taylor as the author's daughter trying to find meaning in life. She is the opposite of Dad. All libido and id. He is all intellect and brainpower.
There are a lot of nice spots in this quiet film and while I would not want to see it again, I enjoyed it while it was going on—particularly Langella's performance. He is not 70 years old incidentally. He is an actor.
That makes it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Friday, June 20, 2008
PERSONAL GAIN
Here is a comparison with McCain and Obama's tax plan and their impact on the authors.
John and Cindy McCain would reap $373,429 if McCain’s tax proposal were enacted.
Labels: Barack Obama, McCain
TOUGH OPERATOR
I used to think that Obama was a callow, inexperienced guy with good intentions.
Boy, have I had my opinion changed.
I now consider him to be a tough operator. A wolf in sheep's clothing.
I do not mean by this that he is a liar about his positions.
I think that he is dead serious about everything that he espouses. And that is the operative phrase. Dead serious.
In the 'thank you' speech to his Chicago office, he said that the important thing now is the people. The issues. The change. Not him.
And I think he believes that. I know that I do.
But I also see the steely politician beneath the surface that will make this happen around him.
Andrew Sullivan is on this today.
Here are some bits.
This guy is the whole Chicago package: an idealistic, lakefront liberal fronting a sharp-elbowed machine operator. He’s the only politician of our lifetime who is underestimated because he’s too intelligent. He speaks so calmly and polysyllabically that people fail to appreciate the Machiavellian ambition inside.Another one.
I never doubted his cunning or his charisma. It's the combo that's so lethal. Are the Republicans awake yet? The Clintons weren't.
As a Chicagoan who has watched Obama emerge on the national scene, I couldn't agree with you more about his cunning and charisma. Before things really started ramping up, people asked me whether he had a chance against the Clinton attack machine and I said "I look at all his opponents on both sides of the aisle and think, you poor, sad fools. You don't even know what you are getting into."
Every time I read articles about this I think about Herndon's statement about Lincoln:
"That man who thinks Lincoln sat down calmly and gathered his robes about him, waiting for the people to call him, has a very erroneous knowledge of Lincoln. He was always calculating, and always planning ahead. His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest."
That describes Barack Obama to a tee which is precisely why he is such an incredibly deadly politician.
Labels: Barack Obama
EXTRA TERRESTIAL
By that I mean some extra earth stuff.
I don't know that I believe in crop circles. But it is undeniable that there are such things.
I find it peculiar that they are all (but one) in the UK.
Perhaps the location of the plower. There is a certain sameness to the geometries.
I don't know.
But it is pretty to watch and nice to hear the Foo Fighters' Learn to Fly again.
I got this from Andrew Sullivan.
Labels: fun
FORD GALAXY
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was John Ford's
It is a striking film to watch and features one of the deepest John Wayne performances I have ever seen.
He is an uncompromising racist about the Indians and obsessive about finding a young girl, his niece, who the Indians stole in an attack on the family ranch.
His partner is the half breed brother of the girl (I never did get it exactly straight) Jeffrey Hunter (apt name) who provides some counterweight as an idealist, bumbling, good guy with a well cut set of pecs and abs.
There are parts of this film which are dated and now appear to be a bit silly.
On the other hand, the photography and artistic values of the production are breathtaking. Wayne is great to watch and the usual Ford stock company, including Ward Bond, an old favorite, is on hand for the side shows.
I am glad that I saw it and that is enough for me. That makes it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
SUMMER SOLSTICE
Shorter nights to come.
This is the crowd at Stonehenge in 2005.
I love the vapor trails.
Labels: nature
WHERE THE HELL IS MATT?
It has been over a year since Matt Harding danced across the world and now he has a new an vastly improved dance tape that is just released today.
Actually, not "vastly". Just a different take. More fun. More people. More stuff.
You can see that there are many people who have caught on to the past videos which went viral. They join him in his dance.
See more about Matt every day at Where The Hell is Matt
And you can take a look at the past years' videos as well.
WEEGEE
When I was a kid, we took the NY Daily News, a gritty tabloid that my dad read cover to cover.
And, as soon as I was old enough, I read it cover to cover too.
I remember particular parts like The Enquiring Reporter in which people in the street responded to the daily question. Some of the responses were hilarious. Some scary.
Years later, the comedian Steve Allen built a whole segment of his show around reading these in a highly inflamed, irate voice.
Before I could read the paper though, there were the pictures—sensational, sexy, sordid photographs. Not the kind of thing you wanted children to see.
My parents were remarkably liberal or naive about this. I read and saw everything in the paper and avidly searched for the grisly and outrageous.
There was a particular photographer, Weegee. His stuff was great. I always looked forward to seeing a photo to his credit. Without knowing it, I developed an awareness of his work. I could pick a Weegee photo out instantly.
I didn't know that he was great too. Perhaps even he did not know at the time—the forties.
Here is a great summary of his work. Do not miss the slide show that goes along with the article although the slides barely scratch the surface. I think because a lot of his stuff would still be copyrighted.
Here is my own slide show.
Couple in Trance
Speakeasy
Untitled: Dead Man
Tenement
The Critic
TWO
Just for the record, we had a 2% relative humidity yesterday.
It hits you right in the lungs. Dry. Drier. Driest.
I love it.
But for people who are not acclimated it is a bit of a jolt.
It is hard to figure the effect of being cooler when you get out of the pool. Even cold.
There is that funny nose thing that, if you don't drink a lot of water, will dry your mucous membranes out. Bloody noses.
The heat has been near or on record breaking level for about a week. That is why it is so dry.
We are under a strong high and it is keeping any cool, moist air out of the area.
In the meantime, I am enjoying it.
Franklin is less enthused. He really didn't want to walk last night and, once we were started, he had some 'turnaround' moments.
I think that I will begin to let him decide not to walk if the spirit isn't moving him.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
A friend asked to day if we were having a wedding or being married.
Stumped me.
He thought that since we weren't emulating straights, a political point which I am more or less neutral on, that we should be marrying and not be wedding.
I gave it some thought and looked the words up.
Marriage has a very long definition. Wedding, hardly at all.
I think that we are getting married and having a wedding ceremony to accomplish it.
We have, in fact, long considered ourselves 'married' even if we are living in sin, in the eyes of some churches, or living in civil union, in the eyes of the State of California.
I have often referred to John as my 'husband'. Some people, including some gays, wince. Fuck 'em.
Now, they have upped the ante.
I can't feel 'married' anymore until I am properly married in a ceremonial called a wedding which will be October 11, 2008 at 2 PM.
Now that we have the option we have to readjust the terms of the relationship.
So, for awhile, John is not my husband anymore. He is my fiancé! As I am his.
Of course, I take the second definition.
I didn't know that traditionally it was the guy.
Well, it still is.
Labels: gay marriage
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
We finally got our Obama gear.
Two signs, three bumper stickers, some buttons (which I don't plan to wear).
One sign is up at the south east corner. I will let John place the other one.
Two bumper stickers are on.
We are ready.
The other thing that happened to day is that he decided to not opt for public funding and so I sent my first check to them.
I figured a financial vote of confidence might be a good thing.
You can do the same!
Labels: Barack Obama
FOUR DOWN ONE TO GO
I got my two front crowns today.
I am a veteran. It was a breeze.
The root canal tooth wasn't even sensitive.
Now there is one more which I will do in August and that will be the end of it.
Well, this was supposed to be the end of it, but I broke a piece off #13 so that will be the end of it.
Or not.
Labels: dentist
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
LAUGHTER AND TEARS
Email to Andrew Sullivan:
My spouse and I were married today after 15 1/2 years together. The process was very smooth and easy. We had a 3:30 appointment; when we arrived at San Bernardino city hall registrar, there was a church advertising that it would marry anyone. There were no protesters. There were a lot of female couples, and one of the clerks even cried when she spoke to one of the females getting married.
We filled out the paperwork without complaint, but we hit a patch when we found out that we had to get a witness. The clerk said we could ask around. The one young man who would be the last person we would ask jumped up and wanted to do it. He said he wanted to be part of history.
When we were in the ceremony room, my spouse started laughing during the vows. He said it was a mixture of wanting to cry and not believing marriage was possible.
Labels: gay marriage
MORE GOOD NEWS FOR OBAMA
And bad news for the people who think that Hillary would help the ticket.
Labels: Barack Obama
EVERYONE LOVES A RACE AND IT SELLS PAPERS
I am amused by this headline.
Obama Has Narrow Lead on McCain
The lead turns out to be 5 %. Not very narrow, actually.
And what is more, his edge with Independents is 22%! To say nothing of women at 15%.
I read the same kind of headline in the Washington Post when its ABC/WaPo poll showed similar figures.
Obama is way ahead by any reckoning of electoral votes as well. Except at CNN and MSNBC, the electorals are shown as tied.
Gotta keep the race exciting. Which is really hard with Mr. McCitement running over there.
The media will not tolerate a landslide until it happens.
That's OK. It will happen.
Labels: Barack Obama
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
TOO FUCKING LONG
I have complained for a very long time about the increasing running time of films.
When I was a movie theater usher in the 50's all movies ran about 90 minutes.
Well, except for Gone With the Wind and a few other notable exceptions.
It was at this time that the 'road show' began. The 'spectacular'. The big production which even had reserved seats.
Cinerama. Which was actually short because it was so expensive to produce. Three cameras.
Slowly. Inexorably, our tolerance was tested and found malleable.
I have never had the facts to support my hypothesis before but, thanks to Andrew Sullivan, I have found a study to support my complaints.
One could argue, I suppose, that we are getting more for our money.
The fact is, we are getting less.
The long, bloviated movies of today are extravaganzas of directorial ego.
They serve no actual story telling purpose.
If I could just figure out the parts to skip ahead of time and do my own editing I would be very happy.
VISITING DAY(S)
We have company and I am visiting the hospital each day so there isn't going to be a heavy blog input.
It is very hot here.
115 F. 46.11 C. for our international readers.
It is very nice. Clears the head. I went out a while ago and left all the Jeep windows open.
Summer is here.
Hundreds of gay couples are getting married. I guess we will too.
It is something that I never thought I would see let alone do.
I am on a bit of a vacation from the election but I will be back soon. I am enjoying some of the byplay.
Each day, Obama shows more signs of a fighter. I like it.
Labels: gay marriage, life, weather
Monday, June 16, 2008
BEDSIDE MANNER
I used to think that I wasn't very good at hospital visits.
But then a friend ended up in the hospital for weeks while he had a serious but not fatal bout with throat cancer.
I went nearly every day at 8AM for all those weeks.
It wasn't a big deal really and I actually enjoyed it.
I probably enjoyed it because I discovered that I was good at it. I have a great bedside manner.
I do all the things that I would want and I don't do any of the things that I would not want.
I don't bring shit to the room. No flowers, no books, no candy. No shit.
I act as though it is perfectly normal. Which it is, really. Just a temporary normal but, if you think about it, there is nothing more normalized than a hospital. Nothing happens outside the established norm. Normal.
I don't spend a lot of time asking about the details. If the patient wants to tell me or ask advice I am there for it but I don't pry.
On the other hand, I can handle the grizzlies very well. I am not put off by blood, gore or schmatz of any kind.
I let death be in the room if it is what is 'in the air'. There is nothing more normal than dying. Unless it is a hospital. But we don't really talk about it in personal terms.
I bring it right along with me.
I do not waste the patient's time with lines like 'it will be alright' when I fucking know that it won't.
This doesn't mean that I am rude about it. I just maintain an attitude that takes in the whole realm of possibilities and I don't shut the door on the direst.
Another thing that I do is that I am willing to be an advocate.
People in hospitals get pushed around by the bureaucracy all the time. I am more than happy to make suggestions and urge them to act for their own recovery. I will even take up the cudgel if asked.
Nothing breathes life into the body like a little rebellion and acting out.
I try to keep 'em laughing. I don't mean standup comedy and jokes but, surely, it is worth a smile or two to see how we end up when we are ill.
So I am not ready to become a pro at it, a candy striper or anything. I am just ready to go there every day when a friend is in there and be of some kind of service.
That is what is going on now.
A friend is having some bad post surgical stuff going on and is in for days while they figure out how to correct the problem(s).
Oh. Another thing. It is better to go very often, daily, and stay a short time than to go less often and overstay your welcome.
My experience says that the longest anyone wants to have me in their face is about 20 minutes max and more usually it is 10 minutes.
Believe me. It is what I would want and it is what most other people I know want too.
Labels: life
Sunday, June 15, 2008
ON THE SCENE
I don't know if this gets votes or not but it sure gives the right message.
Remember Katrina?
Here is Obama doing the sandbag thing in his state.
I noted his website that features volunteerism the other day.
Labels: Barack Obama
END OF THE EMPIRE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
with James Mason (in his last role), Edward Fox and many other assorted Brit stars. John Gielgud, always welcome.
This is one of those quiet metaphorical studies of the English world just prior to WWI after which everything changed. These aristocrats are all at a distance from a reality which we know will soon sweep over them.
The hunting and the war and the levels of class all come into play.
The story is not all that new but the acting is superb.
I saw this when it came around and still it was 'new' for me.
I could easily see it again if offered and would enjoy watching the interplay.
That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
THE GRADUATE
We went to a graduation party for a friend who had just received her BA in history earlier in the day.
She had graduated with honors!
She is in her 60s.
She has had a successful life in almost all respects. But she had never finished college and, when she retired from business, it bugged her. So she started going to the local community college to get her degree.
She thought it would take 2 years. It has taken 6.
It was a nice gathering. Quiet. Codgers.
Do I look and act as old as my peers look and act to me? Come on. Tell me the truth.
No?
Gee thanks.
The wonderfulness of the celebration for our friend and yakking with a few other people we already know took care of my normal introverted party stance.
There was food so I could fill some of the time eating.
There was also someone there that I don't like but am 'nice' to anyway and so that helped with the entertainment.
It was a good time.
I do not think that I could ever go to school again. I am still dreaming about the last time I went.
I tried a few courses once—when I was in my twenties. I never went back after the first class.
One was an immersion language program—german. I walked in late and the instructor addressed me in a foreign language. Put me on the spot. Guten tag. I freaked. Didn't answer.
That did it. No more.
And it was my last class.
Of course, I took other 'courses' in the process of getting to be a management trainer. I gave a lot more.
Believe me, giving is a lot better for me than getting.
I am not a model student. I am intensely counter-dependent. That means I am rebellious.
Authority of any kind is an immediate challenge for me. I am highly Power motivated. Little on the Affiliation or Achievement modes. Those familiar with the model will get what I mean.
So, from my own experience, being a student at any age is a tough thing and being a student after a successful career is tougher.
My mortar board is off to our friend. A grand achievement in academic endurance and humble acheivement.
Labels: life
Saturday, June 14, 2008
SAGGING
I started to watch Woody Allen's
today because I watch all Woody Allen films.
This is the first one, so far in my life, that I have been totally uninterested in seeing any further than 30 minutes.
The action is non-existent, the plot is forced, the acting by Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor is tepid and there is no discernible setup or plot in the 30 minutes that I gave it.
There is a score by Philip Glass which is as unexceptional. Almost non-existent.
Sorry Wood-man.
You are losing it.
Come back to New York.
As I didn't finish watching it that give us a rating of 1 out Netflix5.
ALREADY RUNNING THE COUNTRY
The Obama website has an appeal for funds and volunteers for the flood victims in the midwest.
The McCain website, on the other hand, has, in addition to a cluttered and incoherent design, no mention of the floods whatsoever.
Labels: Barack Obama, McCain
DINKS
We are spawning an industry.
California Braces for New Summer of Love
The City and the Chamber of Commerce here are into full gear.
The promotions are lavish.
Of course, we only need walk out the door and we are there.
Nothing too special although it is getting a bit more complicated than I thought.
I liked the 'dinks' thing. Double Income No Kids. Well, that is not completely true. For us or for a lot of gay couples who do have kids. But most of us would not take our kids on a honeymoon/marriage combo in Palm Springs with rose petals on the pillows.
Labels: gay marriage
Friday, June 13, 2008
PLANNING IT TO LIFE
All the kids and most of the grandkids are coming to the weddding.
We are very happy about this. It is a real gift.
They have been part of our life together and now they will get to be engaged in this next phase.
As for the rest of it, we are working on the details.
There is far more planning going on here than I expected, myself.
Who will stand where. How we will cut the cake. Will there be a register. Fundamental issues.
Of course you know that it is not me that is thinking about all this. If it were up to me I would just walk up to the banana grove and get hitched and every man and woman for themselves.
Cut the cake, have a toast and send them home. 'Them' now being about 75 people. Expect 100 by the time the list is finalized.
But things do not work out that way here.
That is one reason for getting married. To have some cultured perspective and not just pull stuff out of my ass like I would do it.
As it says here in fine print, you can't get married if it just you who is doing it.
It takes two. At least.
Labels: gay marriage
HEAT
We are getting some heat in the 110 range but the nights are staying cool so I can open the whole house when I get up.
75 degrees is very very refreshing.
This is great weather for us.
Labels: weather
TRAVELOGUE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
Qiu Ju da guan si / The Story of Qiu Ju (1993)
This fascinating Chinese film adopts the techniques of Italian neorealism. Three actors working in large crowds with normal everyday people gives a detailed glimpse of Chinese life.
It follows the adventures of one woman who pursues a grievance through the Chinese bureaucratic system from her small village, up to the District, then the Region and finally through the civil court system. Beautiful actress. Gong Li.
The story is sweet and tongue in cheek. No one is a villain. It is also a tale of unintended consequences.
Very nice. It is an immersion in the culture with a slight bit of culture shock resulting. I was totally not prepared for the 'teeming masses'.
I enjoyed it and will consider it a done deal. I don't want to see it again.
That makes it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
LUCK OUT
Today is Friday the Thirteenth, in case you had not noticed.
Just to give the full story we have this from my old friends Snopes, the debunker of urban legends.
Labels: life
REFLECTION
We heard this morning that an old, long alienated friend has died from lymphatic cancer with complications of diabetes. Quickly.
This is always tough news when it involves someone who is still in your life. But the feelings are more complex with the death of someone who was once close and then left in a haze of anger and pain.
Should I have done more? Should I have stayed in touch even though the guy, in my experience, had become a complete asshole?
Then there are the really egomaniacal guilt thoughts. You knew that guilt was essentially a self centered emotion didn't you?
"Maybe because I told this asshole to get out of my life and stay out, I may have caused his early demise". He was only in his late forties, I think.
Then the more self serving thought. "See? Cancer strikes those who are unhappy and negative". This is harder to credit since I was diagnosed with cancer myself over ten years ago. But mine got remissed!
I don't even know if there is a causal factor between a nasty life and contracting cancer but a lot of people think so. I am not sure. But I still thought about it.
I am pleased to say that I did not feel happy to hear he is dead. No elation.
At the end of the string of thought and feeling, I have a bit of regret for the early loss of life. I hope there wasn't a lot of pain and suffering. I have a bit of sorrow that we could not have extended the good times that we did have together.
And mostly, a relief that I don't have to go to the fucker's funeral.
I guess the relationship isn't 100% over for me, is it?
I will have to pray for the removal of all vestiges of resentment now that he is no longer around to arouse it. No point in wasting enmity on a dead man.
UP IS DOWN AND DARK IS LIGHT
The McCains want to have it both ways. Pander to their crowd but not let anyone else know they are doing it.
Will the Real Tax-and-Spender Please ’Fess Up?
The genius of the Obama campaign (and I do not want to be caught making them too smart as they will fuck up) is that they have a tax plan that does exactly what most people want and that is to redistribute the tax take and to keep taxes relatively stable.
Sooner or later, of course, we know that there will have to be some increase in taxation but that will be offset, presumably, by savings in health care and the like for all ranges of income.
Labels: Barack Obama, McCain
Thursday, June 12, 2008
SMEAR ATTACK
The Obamas have put up a smear website:
Fight the SmearsI think that this is a really good thing.
It may not reach the really dumb ones but, as it names names, it might give some of the mudslingers pause.
It might also inform the casuals who are not ignorant or wing nuts but are more or less ill informed about this stuff. The ones who only think about politics when they are about to vote.
Or something like that.
Labels: Barack Obama
MAC IS BACK
Again, nothing found but they did repair permissions and rebuilt the hard drive directory which they did not do before. I think.
It is vexing.
I take it in and the problem will not present itself.
Soon, I will be writing an email to Apple.
Labels: macintosh
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
DOWNTIME
The iMac is in the shop today.
It did that seizing up thing again and fortunately did a version of it in the Mac place.
The last time I went, it would not reproduce the problem.
I don't know if they will get it this time or not.
Fortunately, they are not that busy as it is summer!
Maybe done tomorrow unless it is worse than they presently think.
In the meantime, I am at the laptop which has plugged along for me all these years. PowerBook G4.
Labels: macintosh
PREACHER
We got a preacher for our wedding. Actually, a City Councilman.
He is the same guy who helped us out with the mega mansion next door. The one we beat.
He was on the Planning Board when it got defeated there and then was a just elected Councilman when the appeal came up. So he got to vote 'no' twice on the project.
He is also gay and an activist for gay marriage in the state.
The licenses will start being issued next week. We will wait for July since there is a ninety day limit on using it.
People ask about a 'gift registry'.
We are asking that there be no gifts for us but a donation to Equality California, one of the main organizations fighting the anti-marriage initiative in November.
Things are shaping up.
Labels: gay life, gay marriage, life
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
I LOVE THIS
A quote from John Cole.
A lot is going on under your nose when your head is up your ass.
Labels: life
WORSE THAN DOLE?
I figure that McCain is a pretty bad candidate but this guy thinks there is a 25% chance that he will be replaced in the convention.
John McCain: the “Worst Presidential Candidate” in Modern History?
Jesus. Even I am surprised by this one. And I think McCain is really really weak and vulnerable.
God knows he is full of verbal farts. Look at this one.
Labels: McCain
ORGANIZING
Just when I have a worry about Obama, they seem to have thought of it already.
Barack Obama recruits team to tackle web smears
The guy running it is the head of FactCheck.
They will also be running offense by reviewing all the stuff the McCains are saying and doing as well as their surrogates.
Shit slides both ways on the web.
Labels: Barack Obama
SIDELINED
We have had company for two days.
So I have been sidelined with cooking and hiding out.
When people visit, I am happy to do some special cooking and work around the edges to see that they have a good time.
I don't want to spend a lot of time visiting or, worse, be much inconvenienced by the visitors.
Yeh, I know. Not a very gracious host but then I am an introvert.
I have an excuse.
John is great at visiting so I let him go to it.
Don't get me wrong. I like people to visit and to be around especially when they enjoy the pool and the weather and the amenities of Palm Springs.
I have learned over time that people are quite happy to let me continue my regular routine while they are here. There is nothing worse than visiting with someone (an introvert) who really does not want to visit.
I maintain my sleeping and eating schedule. I work the internet. I go to the gym. I continue to have people over with whom I have a regular appointment each week.
It seems to work out.
It is hard on the blogging though.
I just thought that I would explain.
Monday, June 09, 2008
THE LAW IS AN ASS
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Pietro Germi's
Sedotta e abbandonata / Seduced And Abandoned (1964)
This hilarious comedy is a near cousin of Divorce Italian Style in that it mocks the church and state laws that presume to govern the chaotic behavior of real people in real life in Italy, particularly Sicily.
The style is neorealism so the action takes place on the real streets with mostly real people in the 'extra' roles.
It requires two levels of observation. The comedy itself is based on an essentially tragic situation where people are badly hurt by arbitrary rules and customs.
Finding the thin line between the two extremes is a dance that Germi does very well.
It is, above all, operatic in its extremes.
The actors are great. A lot of farce and near slapstick comedy is interspersed with serious social commentary.
They do a great job.
I liked it very much and would watch it again if the opportunity came around.
So I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
INSTANT LEAD
Gallup has Obama ahead by 6 points and it hasn't even started yet.
As soon as the primary was over he got the bounce.
We are betting he keeps it.
Details:
Labels: Barack Obama
Sunday, June 08, 2008
MARRIED FOREVER?
Does it mean that our marriage in October will be invalidated?
The answer is that no one knows.
And there are more complex issues that are also unknown. It is conceivable that straight marriage would, by virtue of the original Supreme Court decision's wording, be outlawed as well!
Wouldn't that stir up a hornet's nest? Don't you think for one minute that it won't come up in the battle to overturn the initiative.
Here are some questions and answers and unknowns.
Calif. Battle Over Gay Marriage Raises Novel Legal Questions
So what does this mean for us?
Should we, like our friends at dinner last night, wait until we know whether the ammendment will pass or not?
Absolutely not!
It is even more imperative that we get married in this time period before the initiative is considered.
The more same sex couples that are married before November, the more complicated the post election problems will be if the initiative passes.
The more complicated the 'simple' amendment creates the higher the likelihood that it will not pass and, as happened in Massachusetts, we get more time for more people to marry and for doubters to discover that the world has not come to an end.
In addition, we should marry because the public needs to see stories about gay marriage. They need pictures of the people that are affected by this new situation. The matter must be humanized.
I don't mean just at the level of the press.
I mean that people on our street and in our circle should see that it is important to us. That we are gay and want to be married.
You would be amazed, as we are, at the reaction when we announce that we are going to get married. People whoop and shout and get excited.
We are affecting the community. These people will vote.
You know, the other thing is, that in the past, the Republicans have benefited from this as a wedge issue. People were motivated to go to the polls to vote against 'the gays' and also vote Republican.
This time, in California, it may work the other way. People are going to come out to vote for Obama and will vote for us. People who vote for us will vote for Obama.
It will all work together.
I do not want to be too optimistic about this.
I am fully prepared for the initiative to pass.
If it does, we will start, on the next day, to amend the state constitution to delete this prohibition and we will go to the courts to keep our married status.
It is a big deal.
They figure as many as 50,000 couples will marry. 100,000 people. I bet it will be more.
There are a lot of queers in California. You have no idea!
If we affect ten people apiece then our 100,000 becomes a million. If we affect the thinking of 100, then it is ten million people.
Viral politics. That is the new age we are in. It is how Obama got nominated. We are on our way!
Labels: gay marriage, gay rights
ORGANIZATION O
Andrew Sullivan calls it Generation O.
Watch how he quietly transforms the room from a person driven campaign to a joint mission with serious world consequences.
He is sure something to watch.
You can see his community organization chops very clearly.
Labels: Barack Obama
TRAVEL DREAMS
We went out to friends for dinner last night and so I got to bed late.
9:30 PM.
So, today was sleep catchup.
I had one of those naps that goes on and on.
My usual day nap is about 60 - 90 minutes but this one lasted 3 hours.
I had one of the classic travel dreams that I get.
Not all my dreams are memorable but some are classic and repeat themselves so reliably that I can remember details for at least a day afterwards.
For many years I dreamed about missing class or not doing the lab work for a course or having a final for a course I had never attended. The academic dream.
Then for a long time I would dream training dreams. I am leading a group of managers and I have no idea what the lesson plan is or, perhaps, I am being asked to speak and have no idea who the people are or what is expected. Sometimes I find that I have no clothes on.
Dr.Freud would have an easy time with those dreams.
Now, the memorable dream is about travel. All those years on planes, trains and in automobiles, almost weekly, are coming home to roost while I sleep.
There is always a border crossing. There are papers that are needed to get across. There are various flights that must be connected. There is always a problem getting out my passport. Sometimes I don't know where it is that I am going.
The gate is always hard to find. Sometimes there is a toll bridge and I do not have the cash.
Sometimes I actually get on the plane and the plane does not really fly but goes along the highway. Other times the plane does fly but only a hundred or so feet off the ground. Sometimes lower than the trees.
The interior of the plane is always more like a bus than a plane cabin.
I never have language difficulties.
There are complex schedules.
Today, I had to meet someone in England and then connect to Russia where the same person I talked to in England is going to meet me but I can't get there in time because the person at Heathrow checkin wants to see a travel magazine instead of the passport, tickets and other papers that I have in a very thick envelope sort of on the scale of a FedEx envelope. Maybe it is FedEx.
There are no motels on these trips. I often leap across time and end up meeting the person I am expecting to meet without an intervening trip. A bit like a time warp.
There is no real anxiety. There is frustration over the fact that I do not have the magazine that is required but I ask to see the clerk's supervisor and I am so effective in complaining that he simply lets me pass.
When I wake up I remember all of it. In detail.
The actual fact is that I traveled a million (?) miles and rarely had a problem.
My luggage was delayed once in Dusseldorf and another time, on vacation, in the Virgin Islands.
I always had all my papers.
I was a healthy road warrior who could take the bumps as well as the pleasures.
There was a lot of pleasure in being on the road. I always liked the hotels and the cities and the people.
Of course, those days are over.
Travel now is a vast wasteland of waiting, checking in, arriving late, being pushed around in crowds and so on.
I came in on the DC3 and went out on the jumbo jets. The DC3 was better, as much as it shook us around. It had a long glide path too. If the engines failed they had a long time to put it down.
I think that hotels and food are better now.
But maybe not.
When I first traveled it was mostly from Philadelphia to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and in a car.
There were no chain hotels or restaurants. Everything was local. You looked and asked for direction from locals.
At the end, I stayed in big chain hotels for the most part. I ate in the hotel a lot of the time.
The best regular hotel I stayed at was the Marriott at the World Trade Center. They had the best food too.
You know what happened to that.
Actually, it happened twice. The same building, under a different name, was right over the place the truck bomb blew up. They got my room and the restaurant that time.
I often asked to have the same room in a hotel I returned to. And got it.
The second best hotel was the Holiday Inn Royale in Geneva. Overseas, the Holiday Inn chain is a premium stay and the Royale is the top of the line.
They had terrific breakfasts. I would stay over the last day of the program, get up and go the two miles to the airport and ride back home.
The flight I took back and forth from Geneva to New York City was on the same plane. It went back and forth every day. About a year after I quit going to Geneva it blew up going out of Kennedy. Gas vapors ignited through a wiring flaw. Everyone died.
Is there a trend here? Things blowing up after I am done with them?
No wonder I dream about travel.
I can remember almost every place I ever stayed. Can you imagine? I think that is because when you work on the road you learn the shit fast and absorb it. You do not have time for getting lost. You get it right and keep it.
Obviously, I kept it better than I thought.
I am destined to fucking dream about it for the rest of my life.
THE INSIDE STORY
For diehard campaign freaks, there is always the post campaign story from the 'inside'.
This is that story for the Hillarys. It is pretty good. Some new stuff.
The Long Road to the Clinton Exit
There is more about Bill's role and a lot about how they knew it was the end before the end came. Good writing. Excellent reading.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
CONTROLLING THE MESSAGE
What a great way to put a cap on it!
These guys sure know how to run a campaign.
Labels: Barack Obama
SHE DID IT
I know. I said goodbye to Hillary but I can't resist.
I did watch the whole speech to satisfy my deep paranoia that she doesn't mean it and she is going to sneak the shiv in somewhere.
But I think that the shiv has been shoved and it is she that was the target.
She was given her marching orders and she has carried them out.
There was only a small amount of insincerity to detect.
It had to be very difficult to do this and so I will cut her some slack.
For now.
Goodbye Hillary.
I kind of go along with my 'friend' Kevin Drum in his review of it.
Labels: hillary
THREESOME
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
Three lost and very lonely souls find direction by leaning on each other.
The fact that one of them is a dwarf makes it all a bit dramatic. Take him out of the equation and you might not really feel too supportive of the other two.
There are a lot of clichés here. Even symbols. Trains. A town called Newfoundland. A little heavy but the production is very well done. Nothing gets overly dramatic.
Well, there is one section when the dwarf goes on a drunk but still.
I consciously stayed away from this film when it came out.
Now, I am glad that I saw it but I think I would pass if the opportunity came around again.
That makes it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
CRATE TRAIN
One more thought about the crate.
Some people could not resist calling it a cage.
It is not.
It is a den. A place to cuddle up.
Crate trained puppies virtually never, ever poop in the house.
They learn it early in the crate. It is an instinct. Don't foul the nest.
Then you just make the nest bigger so it becomes the house.
Peeing is another thing. Continence is much easier to achieve when the crate is used. But there will be accidents. It is organic. S/he is not mature enough to hold it.
The idea that the crate is a den also helps the dog feel secure. Especially if you allow the pup to use the space for refuge and alone time.
Families with kids are well advised to use the crate so the dog can have some occasional peace.
I have done without a crate in the past and I probably was one of those who thought the crate to be slightly inhumane.
Wrong.
It is the best way to go. Period.
COMING OF AGE
We took down Franklin's crate today.
He quit using it about two months ago.
It was almost as though a curtain had come down.
If we told him to go in he would do it but he wouldn't stay there for very long and we have not seen him enter on his own for a very long time.
Well, he is five years old.
At first, the crate was for potty training and night time hours.
When he was able, he started sleeping in our room on his big bed.
Then the crate became a place of comfort. If he didn't like what was going on he would go in there to find solace.
Our rule was that we would never bother him when he was in there. He figured that out very early and we stuck to our promise even when, occasionally, we would have liked to go right in there and grabbed him to play or pet him or, much more rarely, given him a swat for some misbehavior.
The crate was also a place for him to stay when we would leave him alone in the house. It got so that he would just go in there when he saw us 'dress up' or plan to leave together without obviously taking him along.
But we gave up that use of the crate some time ago. He became a trusted guardian of the house with full run of it and he has never, ever violated that trust. No fooling with toilet paper or anything else that we hear other dog owners talk about.
He is a really good guy.
He even quit using it for naps. It had been a long favored place to stretch out and take a snooze. No more.
So, the crate is coming down. The bed will stay in the corner in case he wants to use it for naps and to take the sun in winter.
We are keeping his puppy toys in the bed just for old times' sake.
Franklin watched the whole disassembly operation with more than the usual curiosity but he didn't seem to disapprove at all.
He followed John to the storage closet to see the flattened crate put away.
Then he came into the house, walked around on the bed that remains and went to finish his breakfast in its slightly new location.
Over and out. Done. Another life phase completed. A grown up dog.
Labels: Franklin
PAPER TIGER
I have taken a hard copy paper most of my life.
The term 'hard copy' should tell you where I am going with this.
When I was growing up it was the local Daily Record and the NY Daily News, the tabloid.
I don't remember Philadelphia. I guess the Inquirer.
In Plymouth, there were the locals and the Boston Globe.
In Boston, I read the alternative weeklies, the Globe and oddly, the NYTimes, well, just the Sunday.
When we moved to California, we took the local Desert Sun and the LA Times.
We quit the local when it became apparent that it was an undependable, innacurate and fitful reporter of the local news. It's national and world coverage would make you weep. And it was editorially republican.
I must admit that I still go on-line to the local for what is a weak but somewhat dependable coverage of local news. If you read between the lines.
That leaves the LA Times which I really like. I enjoy its features thoroughly and read it cover to cover every day.
But there have been some worries.
The Sunday section cut down the appearance of its very good magazine supplement to once a month.
A series of embattled editors came and went over the last three years. Newsroom morale plummeted.
Recently they have been doing some 'lipstick on a pig' kind of changes. A fashion supplement, another one that has to do with the 'awards' industry. Both are puff pieces meant to sell ads to local fashion and entertainment companies. Nothing there for me.
Now this:
Tribune Co. Plans Sharp Cutbacks at Papers
This is the new owner Sam Zell. A bastard if you ever saw one.
They said the company would aim for a 50-50 split between ads and news across all the news pages (excluding classified ads and advertising supplements). Mr. Michaels said this would mean eliminating 500 pages of news a week across all of the company’s 12 papers.“If we take, for instance, The Los Angeles Times to a 50-50 ratio, we will be eliminating about 82 pages a week,” Mr. Michaels said, leaving the smallest papers of the week at 56 news pages.
82 pages of news a week.
That is a cut of about seven pages of news a day!
Well. That is close to the end.
I have been trying not to think about the fact that we pay over $600 a year to get the paper delivered every morning.
Now, I will start thinking about it very ruthlessly. Just like the bastard Zell.
It will be a tough decision to let it go.
But the fact is that I get almost all my news off the 'net anyway.
I take the NYTimes daily email summary and then go through the paper itself on line.
I read the AP feed all day long.
I am not missing the news at all. I am up to my ass in news.
What I have been looking for in the hard copy paper are the features.
I read several LA columnists regularly. I read some of the comics. Well, just one. Zits.
I read the film reviews.
All this would not be too bad if the LAT had a decent on-line edition but it doesn't and, besides, if they cut down 50 percent of the news that means the on-line edition also.
I am ready for the new age of media. But I am sad about it.
I don't see it as the end of the world. I really do believe that on-line is good. I don't think that the loss of newspapers is a catastrophe for the culture or the fall of civilization.
It is and has always been just a business. But a business that is a regular part of my/our lives. I will miss it.
But it isn't too bad.
I am near the end of the course. I have had a daily paper for almost 70 years of my life.
If I live to 90, that means I will only do without it for about 20% of my time on earth.
A hell of a lot less than the fucking 50% that bastard Sam Zell wants to cut the news pages.
Labels: media
Friday, June 06, 2008
HUMOR IS PERISHABLE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Woody Allen's
This is an old time movie set in a dystopian future. The silent comedy conventions are kept (keystone cops, extra fast motion, a lot of slapstick) but the story is a Big Brother kind of thing.
Unfortunately, a lot of the humor is way dated. Topical humor is the most perishable of all.
In another decade half the jokes will be 'lost' to the ages.
It was a lot finnier to me when I saw it the first time 25 years ago.
The thing about Allen's comedy, even the wackiest, is the is undercurrent of anxiety that makes for nervous laughter.
Another complaint. Diane Keaton. In this, she is a shrill bitch and her entire demeanor is grating to the nth degree. I wanted her off stage every time she was on.
This kind of comedy is outside her range.
And remember, the old time movies were silent!
I liked seeing this movie again but I won't want to look at it another time.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Thursday, June 05, 2008
WORKING CLASS WHITE APPALACHIANS
Line Forms at 4:30 a.m. for Obama Event in Bristol
Yeh, they don't like Obama much.
In the event, 20,000 people showed up. This was at the Tennessee Virginia border.
I have been there.
Believe me. It is Appalachia.
Labels: Barack Obama
TRAITOR JOE
It is good to see that Obama is prepping the stage to put Joe Leiberman in his place.
How Much is Too Far on Lieberman?
I have hated Joe's whiney ass ever since he was our candidate for Vice President.
A real slimy bastard.
He has had it both ways for awhile but not for long. With the restoration of the effective Democratic majority in the Senate, Joe will be in the margins. If not before.
Labels: Barack Obama, Democrats
PART TIME FANDOM
So the Lakers are playing the Celtics in the playoff.
I came into any interest that I have in basketball as a Celtic's fan.
For four years that I went to MIT, I worked on the student dining staff and at our own dining table, I would hear the arguments about Cousy and the rest of the team. Red Auerbach.
Wicked arguments.
I left school and no interest in the proceedings stirred, though I lived in Boston for many years.
And over time the Celtics themselves eclipsed.
Now I have lived near the Lakers for ten years and some interest has rubbed off on me. Admittedly, it is more about the scandals and egos than any aspect of play.
Now, the two teams face each other.
Who am I 'for'?
Well no one really. But I know a few of the Lakers by reputation and none of the Celtics so it will have to be a local loyalty of sorts.
This will be, you understand, a blip on my pulse rate of about 2 or 3 beats a minute.
But it is a pulse, if only a weak one.
Good luck boys.
I was glad to see Kobe get MVP. He has changed a lot since the younger days and is, I understand, a better player as well.
I don't know.
It is just nice to see a well known person get better rather than worse.
The right direction, I say.
THE OTHER ELECTION
I have been so focused on the national that I neglected to mention that we more or less aced the locals here.
First, Proposition 98 flunked out. The people spoke. 99 won. The one which limits eminent domain without the trojan horse limitation of rent control in it.
That was the state.
In the local we got almost all our people in.
The Assembly candidate made it in. So did the judges. We vote for judges in California.
My vote is usually the kiss of death.
Hey. It worked for Hillary. I was still drinking the Koolaid in February. Or whenever it was.
Remember?
I thought Obama to be callow.
Well, he showed different. Anyone who can kick the Clinton machine's ass is a rough player as well as a smart dude.
Oops. We said goodbye to Ms. C. didn't we?
Labels: election
PALM THURSDAY
We had the annual trimming of the palm trees whilst I was at the dentist this morning.
A lot of trimming going on today.
The seeds started to fall last weekend. They are like sand underfoot.
You do not want the full seed storm. It clogs the pool filters and gets into the house.
We got to be first on the list this year because our gardener 'forgot' to spray the olive tree. We will have olives on the ground.
I told him I needed payback.
The trees done first on the list or I would be dumping the ripe olives over his fence at his home when they fall from the trees.
I am also getting the Zinnias put in a bit earlier too. Then I will have used up that particular blackmail.
Labels: garden, horticulture
MORE DENTAL DOINGS
So today was the life long dreaded root canal. I had never had one before.
I remember once telling a dentist to pull it before I would have the root canal.
Stupid.
The wages of fear.
Today's didn't hurt at all. He says that is might 'tickle' during the week after for recovery but it is probably manageable with ibuprofen.
And he did two crown setups. One with a post.
The temporaries are in and I get the permanent in two weeks.
Then, there is one more crown and I am done for 'now'. A relative term.
It was a lot of work but this guy is really good. Focused. Attentive. Fast. He has a team to help. It is very high tech. Digital x-ray.
I like him a lot.
BOBBY THE DAD
This makes for some really emotional and pleasurable reading.
Three Kennedy children remember.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
HILLARY GONE
I started to write an item about how smart it was of the Obamas to setup Caroline Kennedy as the head of the Veep search team.
It is smart because Kennedy is a Kennedy, a woman, and not a friend of Bill's or Hillary's either.
It also sends a message that the running mate will not be up for negotiation. The best will be found independently and absolutely. Obama will not be held hostage by the Clintons.
Then I started writing about Hillary some more and decided, 'fuck it'.
I want her gone so make her gone.
She is already disappearing from the newspages. She made a spectacle of herself last night.
That is enough.
I am done.
The Clintons thrive on attention so let's just quit giving it to them.
Goodbye Hill and Bill.
Thanks for everything.
There was a time I was with you and now I am not.
Labels: Barack Obama, hillary
NOT SO SIMPLE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was Sam Raimi's
This is a simple film. Step by step, four normal people make criminal choices that will totally fuck them up.
It does not hurt to know this outcome going in. The journey is the destination.
Bill Paxton and the very extremely excellent Billy Bob Thornton are brothers. They even look like it.
Thornton brings tears as the somewhat mentally and life challenged one. Trying to figure it out.
Paxton visibly alters from the good healthy brother to the scheming guy who has to pull things together for them, over and over again.
I liked it a lot. I wouldn't mind seeing it again just to watch the unfolding and the superb film making by all concerned.
That makes it another 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
