Wednesday, September 30, 2009
HALF A DAY
Today's Richard Linklater film was
They meet on a train. He is leaving tomorrow on a plane. Get's off in Vienna.
She is heading home for Paris.
They meet, talk and decide to have some more time together. She gets off the train and will return to Paris in the morning.
It is made clear that neither has any money for a hotel. A way of sending a message to one another about expectations. They just want to talk. And talk they do, until sunrise. And we go along with them.
Nighttime Vienna in the background. The city is almost a separate character. There are other people.
Simple, no? No.
Very nice. Very good talk. Very well done.
The structure here is a close cousin of yesterday's Slacker only these are not slackers.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 and look for Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy to get back together in 2005 in Before Sunset (2005).
Only I do not want to wait that long. It is the next film in line. Maybe Saturday.
D'UH
Dementia Risk Seen in Players in N.F.L. Study
I saw this guy on teevee this morning. He was pretty convincing.
The only injury I saw first hand, so to speak, was a son's dislocated shoulder which needed an operation.
That was enough of a game changer for us.
All that head to head. Just watch it.
Trauma city.
Labels: sports
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
DRUG COUNTER
I went to get a prescription today and it was just being prepared as I walked in.
The guy went to the back, got the big bottle and proceeded to count out my 60 pills.
I couldn't actually see him doing it but it seemed as though he was doing it by hand. I asked. Yes, he was.
There are automatic counters or, actually, weighers but they "drift" and tend to create errors. "Besides", he said, "it gives me the feel of my work".
How nice.
I told him that my first job was in a drugstore when I was 14 and that the job involved back room work with the pharmacist. Counting pills was part of it. Washing bottles. In those days we reused the bottles.
I remember the smell. I loved it.
My today guy wanted to know if it had a soda fountain and all. Yes. I worked there too. We made all kinds of drinks you would not see today. Phosphates. Things like that.
It was a great job for a kid. I learned a lot. I was really independent. They left me alone. I had a job and I did it and when that job was over they gave me another.
Eventually, I was allowed to wait on people.
The whole prescription thing was different then. There was a counter and the pharmacy was behind a high wall. You couldn't see in there. Good thing too.
Me washing bottles and them reusing them.
I remember clearly the first time a guy asked me for "rubbers". I went into the back room and went to the condom drawer. Tommy, the pharmacist, grabbed me and took over. They didn't want a kid to be seen selling rubbers.
There was a lot of that kind of thing. Kotex was wrapped in plain paper. That was hard to do and then, while I was working there, they went to prewrapped boxes. At the factory. Salvation. A kid wasn't supposed to see the customer buying a sanitary napkin either.
I guess I was a little over my head but that is a good thing. I was over my head throughout my work life. A trend was started. Never quite knowing enough to do the job I was doing but doing it anyway.
A happy work life. Always. And when it wasn't, when I knew everything, I got bored and walked.
Labels: life
LINKLATER FEST
I am going to be looking at a lot of films by
Today's film was his first feature
This DVD was a restored version by Criterion. He and it have hit the classic spot. He has an oeuvre.
Linklater is, perhaps, the only director who I have seen from his beginning through a relatively successful career. And liked his stuff from the beginning. A fan.
Tom and I saw Slacker when it was first out and playing at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline. Not even in downtown Boston or Cambridge. I had read a review and it rang a bell. I wanted to see it.
I loved it. So I watched for him and he has had a real reel career. He has gained the stature of one who can do "one for them and one for me" or even "one for them and two for me" meaning he gets his rep and the nut from some popular films and then makes more intimate films that he wants to see.
Me too.
Slacker is made up of episodes linked together linearly. The people we see never come back. They have their scene(s) and then they pass the baton to the next person or passerby. Actually less than that. They usually do not even notice the next in line who strides into our view and carries us to the next station.
All these people are "slackers". They don't do much. They have opinions on everything. The opinions run from small obsessions to wild ass conspiracy theories.
All of Linklater's personal, small films are based on talk. This is a good introduction to his work.
Up coming are the two matched films, Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004).
Today's film is a 5 out of Netflix5 by definition.
MORE GAY LEADERS
This today.
At German Chancellor’s Side, a New Political Power Broker Emerges
And they don't mention the gay part until three quarters down the page. It is an afterthought. Sort of.
Guido Westerwelle, started bringing his partner to public affairs in 2004. Not that he had been in, but bringing the partner to a high visibility affair is way out.
The thing that is remarkable about this is that there is nothing remarkable about this. And high time.
This could make Westerwelle the highest level gay political leader in the world. Well, the highest level known gay political leader.
Pretty good. Glad to see it. I hope that he is not a right winger! Well, he is conservative enough to link up with Merkel.
Labels: gay history, gay life, gay politics
Monday, September 28, 2009
ONE TAKE
This video is awesome.
173 people.
They put it together in two hours. Two takes. Used one. Unedited. The participants did learn the song before they showed up for the shoot. Université du Québec.
ENSEMBLE
Today's Alan Bates movie was Robert Altman's
This is not strictly an Alan Bates movie. It has a huge cast of first rate actors working together more or less equally in a hunting weekend estate whodunnit.
What is fun is to see Bates, late career, running the house as the butler Jennings. And run it he does.
Since this is an Altman movie there is constant action on all fronts. Perhaps 20 actors at one time in a room or out of the room. Half ladies and gents and half the downstairs help.
It is interesting to watch Bates stand in a room and take the whole scene. In one sequence he simply stands to the side during an evening's entertainment and in every scene he stands in background you see him. A move of the hand. A smile (which he is not to have, actually) and so on.
I enjoyed the entire film. It was a NYTimes Best 1176 film. I saw it before. I will see it again.
A 5 out of Netflix5.
And thus endeth the Alan Bates festival. On to the Richard Linklater Film Fest and Slacker. After a brief documentary. Coming attractions.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
DARK SHADOWS
Booker and I are having more trouble getting home before dark. We leave after dinner, about 615 and it is dark now by 700. Every day is a bit shorter.
The temps are going to drop this week so that will be the trigger to switch to about 445 PM and go out before we eat.
If they hadn't fucked up the Daylight Saving Time, we would be going out at this time next weekend. No problem. The dark would close in early. Early sunset.
But no, they had to go and fool around with it.
I doubt that there is any energy saving at all but it looked like something that could forestall really doing something about the climate. Just my opinion. I have no proof.
Labels: life
GETTING CLOSER
We haven't seen our best neighborhood friends for awhile. Not terribly unusual but still worth comment about it this morning.
Voila! They appeared not long after with the news that they have had the H1N1 flu and that it is/was a nasty time of it. But not dangerous.
Evidently, people of a certain age don't get it as bad as others because we were exposed to the swine flu back in the Gerald Ford period. Whether we know it or not we have some antibodies.
So, it is spreading around. The one who got it first is a local actor and is in rehearsals so he thinks he got it from the gang there.
We kept a distance although they are supposedly non-infectious.
They are the first people we know who got the bug. I think.
Labels: health
BROWSE AWAY
I just added this to my daily bookmark file: Letters of Note.
Wow. Where does he get these? And they are in m/s.
QUICK STUDY
I like this for two reasons. I miss making apple pie and I love Dave Brubeck.
Well, three. The methodology is unorthodox. A prebaked pie shell. No wonder mine were always a bit soggy.
A separate piece of dough for the side. A strong ring.
And paper liner in the pan? Wow.
And s/he leaves the skins on the apples. Well, I did that. The only way.
Love the drum roll!
I don't make any desserts any more.
Two people. Calorie counting. Cholesterol. 6 pieces of pie. Trouble. A young man's sport.
From Andrew Sullivan
UP TO DATE
I heard that the Yankees beat the Red Sox and wrapped up the AL East today. I sent off my condolences to my kids.
I was immediately told that the Sox have a shot at the so called "wild card".
I forgot about that. Actually, I never thought about it because I left baseball before it was thrown into the mix.
When I was a kid there weren't even divisions which is just a way to get playoffs which all run to the 7 game end to make more money.
In fact that may have been when I bailed out of baseball. Or maybe it was when the broadcasts all became giant cartoon graphics and shit. I go back to the old AM radio broadcast where the guy read the plays off the teletype and played crowd noise and bat sounds with his little 78 rpm record and wood block.
Back then the game was pure. The AL and the NL played it out and then had the World Series. That was it.
What next? A roulette wheel to tell which of five wild cards will be the actual WS team?
How about a reality show where the players on each side live together for the duration of the series and we all vote on who should play in the actual games?
Maybe a "Dancing With the Stars" kind of show.
Oh. They did that. It was called Damn Yankees. A winner.
Labels: sports
HOMO ALONE
Well, not alone. Booker and I are keeping bachelor hall together.
John is at one of the myriad film festivals they have in town. We live too fucking close to Hollywood for my taste.
This one is the "Diverse" fest meaning gay and lesbian films.
I like the "diverse" tag. I am so tired of all those initials GLBT. Maybe I will adopt that. Diverse. It is like "queer" which also serves within the community but is more tasteful.
I won't use the letters.
I remember when it was all gay and that was it. Lesbian, bisexual (we mostly think that they are in transition--they are certainly very gay when they are with us) and transgender. All gay.
The latter, transgender, is still a little confusing actually. Or, let's say I am confused about it. I am not sure how gender reassignment is a sexual practice or orientation. Really. It is gender. It is OK. They can be in my tent if they want to but I don't think it is the same thing.
Remember that transvestites are not in our tent. Some are but that is because they are gay men in a dress. Or dykes on bikes or in tuxes or whatever. Most drag queens and kings are mostly straight, those gals and guys. Yes. There are male and female cross dressers. And they have their own organizations. They have families and spouses and lead otherwise "normal lives". The dress doesn't come into play sexually. Well not interactively. I hear they get off on it but not that way. Or something. I guess I don't get that either.
Anyway, I blame the lesbians. They started the letter thing. In the beginning, near Stonewall, we were all gay and then the girls wanted their own designation. And there it went. Letters.
I digress.
Booker and I are at home in our confusion about the gay movement and enjoying not making supper every night for three nights. There are no other advantages. And, actually, no cooking is not an advantage for Booker who likes to cook along with Earl.
He comes into the kitchen as soon as I start to prep and sits or lies in the best spots which means out of the way of swinging cabinet doors and within easy reach of a taste of whatever I am prepping.
We thought Franklin was a moocher but this guy has been carefully trained in the art. We have brought him down a notch from his obvious sharing food at the dining room table. That is verboten in our house. But the kitchen. Well, what is the harm of a little cucumber or green bean or broccoli. No meat. No leftovers really.
I work it all into his calorie count. He is not getting a big ass again. He is a great companion. It is not all begging. We talk, we share our day's activities. When the handouts stop he lies down and either watches or rests until the next course.
With John out, all the handouts stop. I have frozen entrees and salad. No nibbles.
I pretend for him. A few pieces of broccoli here. A tomato there. It is OK with him, of course, but we both know it is not the same. Sort of drag-nibbles. Made up as a flourish or substitute for the real thing.
We have a good time anyway. We can also start dinner a bit earlier and take an earlier walk. Get home for some heavy reading.
It is all good.
Labels: gay history, gay life
A SORE THUMB
William Safire, Nixon Speechwriter and Times Columnist, Is Dead at 79
Safire is a contemporary.
I didn't like his politics.
I loved his language column in the Times. So that is what I will remember.
Wry, iconoclastic, serious and almost maniacal about proper use, he held the high ground against sloppy prose and sloppier usage.
At the same time, he was fascinated with slang and supported its inclusion in the usage.
I learned a lot from him. I am not sure that I still know how to do it all but he had an influence.
If you are interested, and you should be, listen to the "interactive" tape. It is very well done. Well, it would be. It is Safire. And, you will find out why I titled this "A Sore Thumb".
HOLY FUCKING JESUS
The record distance from "land" in a test of the new space suit navigation system. Read about it here at APOD.
FOR WHOM THE BOO TOLLS
This is fun.
The new R-rated Tosca at the Met got a mixed reaction this week. Bipolar. Cheers and jeers.
The first opera I ever saw, there was booing. It was a production of one of Mozart's operas, presumably fail safe. And on the road at that. They'd only play the safe things out of town, in the provinces. One would think.
But this was Erich Leinsdorf who had his share of conflicts with orchestra and audience. He conducted from a raised platform visible to the audience (we were way up with the gallery gods) and presumed to play the recitative on a harpsichord so that all could see.
They didn't want to see.
I didn't understand the problem at the time but it was explained to me by my mentors who got me there in the first place.
I was so fortunate. In my freshman year at college I had dorm mates who dragged me to everything: pre-broadway shows, opera, "foreign" films and so on.
Later, I saw the controversial Eugene Onegin mentioned in the article. The entire opera was carried out within a huge picture frame and the artists held positions as though in a painting. It wasn't that bad. I thought it a bit weird but no one booed.
Later in life, we went to almost all the productions of The Boston Opera directed by Sarah Caldwell whose whole career involved the controversial. Boston cut her a lot of slack and she did some great shows but there were occasional boos and walkouts.
A walkout isn't much fun really. They don't see you go and you eliminate the possibility of booing at the curtain calls if you don't like it. Actually, I have walked out but I have never booed at a stage presentation. I just couldn't. We once catcalled the intro-act for Rosemary Clooney (her niece, for gods' sake) but no booing. I don't know that cat-calls are better. She was awful.
This guy Gelb, the new director, is a fresh wind blowing through the Met. One of his innovations is the broadcast of productions on live digital television. Here, in Palm Springs, we see them as digital recordings but the effect is the same as live. This has never been done before. I haven't gone but John has and he reports positively. He didn't mention whether anyone booed.
Labels: music
A SOUND LOST
Alicia de Larrocha, Pianist, Dies at 86
When we subscribed to the Boston Celebrity Series, year after year, we would always pick an evening with Alicia de Larrocha as one of our season selections.
I read here that she was small of stature. Four foot nine. I am astonished to read it.
I remember a large woman full of energy striding across the stage, sitting and beginning almost immediately with great focus.
She looked a bit like a teacher. A formidable teacher.
But the sound. Rich, warm, engaging. It would reach out and wrap around us.
She was a formidable classicist first and an interpreter of the Spanish composers second. They didn't bring her in so we could hear Albanez with a spanish lilt. She had the whole repertory down.
You would bathe in the germanic sounds and then, magically, be brought into a different world with the spanish masters.
She was an annual visitor to us until she retired from touring just about the time we left Boston. She played her last concert in Carnegie Hall in 2002.
“There are two kinds of repertory Alicia plays,” Mr. Breslin said in 1978. “Things she plays extremely well, and things she plays better than anyone else. But what I think makes her a phenomenon is that she doesn’t give the impression of being a great personality. She’s cool as a cucumber. Onstage, she doesn’t even like to look at the audience. So what the public is responding to is something in the music.”
Saturday, September 26, 2009
RE UN ITED
I grew up to venerate the United Nations.
It was created when I was 8 years old.
I took field trips to the UN from where I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania. First to Flushing Meadow and then to the new site on the East River in NYC.
We believed that this was a turning point in world affairs.
I still believe that was what happened.
There have been many twists and turns since 1945. But always, the UN has made a difference.
It has had problems. It has gotten a bit bloated on the bureaucracy side.
It is not always effective.
Some think that it is dangerous because it does not side with the US on all occasions. Some think that it is useless. It can't be both.
We had a guy, Doctor Lorenz, an ex-military guy who took us on those trips. His eyes shone with the wonder of the united people. He was proud of the institution. He had studied it and knew more than anyone, including tour guides, very embarrassing, about what went on there and how it was founded.
I remember his dedication. Taking school kids there. Talking about it.
I am glad that we, again, have a President and an administration that venerates the UN and, while realistic about its effect, still has a deep and abiding dedication to using it as a tool for good in the world.
There was a time when the US would not pay its share of the UN costs. We had an ambassador, just before now, who hated the UN. He sat in sessions and showed his contempt for the organization.
He is gone. On the margins.
So are his sorry bosses.
Labels: United Nations
SORRY MESS
Today's Alan Bates film was really a filmed version of the Simon Gray play he did on stage.
The filmed version was directed by Harold Pinter.
Butley is a skilled practitioner of intellectual sadism which, when he gets his payback, fulfills his appetite for real life masochism. Yeh, I know. But they usually work both sides of the street.
He is such a bastard that people eventually do him in.
He is also an alcoholic. A separate but aggravating condition. And a closet homosexual. Actually, like most secretly gay men, everyone knows his secret. His closet has pretty thin walls. Everyone can see in but he can't get out.
As it happens, this being a Simon Gray play, the dances that go on are rather funny. Sometimes hilarious. There is a special blend of tragedy and comedy throughout.
The hand of Pinter is rather cleaer as well. Everything is close in. Close up. But toned down.
The supporting cast, which is excellent, includes Jessica Tandy. A special treat.
All very good.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
In the photo, Pinter coaches Bates.
HOARDE HOARD
We went through a period where we were immersed in early British historic novels. Regional kings and fights between tribes. Post tribal development. Anglo-Saxons.
In all these novels, particularly those of Bernard Cornwell, there is, invariably, a point at which all the riches are at risk and they are put away in a safe place. The band is defeated and the treasure remains unfound.
It is a dramatic staple of these books. Loss redeemed through the gains of land and power.
You know that some of this is true and people in the UK have been looking for this kind of treasure for quite a while.
Now, a great find. Real treasures. Buried just as we read that they were.
Experts Awed by Anglo-Saxon Treasure
The other part of this story is the guy who found the treasure, Terry Herbert. He and the owner of the land will split the value at auction 50/50. The stuff belongs to the Crown but it is mandated that the Crown sell it and split the proceeds.
This guy is one of those metal detector folks who you see on beaches and so on. Always being laughed at.
He who laughs last laughs best.
Labels: history
BAD HARE DAYS
Haste makes waste.
I have been a fan of Obama's restraint particularly on rancorous social issues. He has a large agenda and to do it all at once or push where pushing will get hard push back has not been his style.
Not that the economy or the wars or the deficit allow him a lot of elbow room to work the levers of power.
I have admired his ability to move slowly and with high quality results.
The recent spate of foreign policy adjustments is a good example. Lots of careful foundation building followed with temperate action.
With health care reform, he has let the winds of controversy blow and not tried to hard to deflect them. He has seen, rightly I believe, that the fires will burn themselves out and that people will come to their senses.
This is happening today as I type.
To the people who want faster results, I say, be patient.
Now I am joined by Charles M. Blow.
Update: My analogy, as you may recall, is that Obama is a chess player. Not checkers.
Labels: Administration Obama
Friday, September 25, 2009
NICE
Bill Clinton Explains Why He's Now For Marriage Equality
It is the same answer, time and again.
People change their minds because they meet gay people who are out and about and leading exemplary lives. They meet gay people who are in relationships. They meet gay people who have adopted children, in relationships or not.
It is up to us, in other words. When we come out it changes the perspective and opinion of straight people.
It relates to the heart as much as the mind.
Humanism.
Labels: Bill Clinton, gay life, gay politics
WHO ARE THE INMATES?
Today's film was Le roi de coeur / King of Hearts (1966).
I have not linked it because you cannot find a decent review of it anywhere on IMDb.
It is lost on the American public.
It is an allegory. Not meant to be realistic. It has an antiwar message which, unfortunately, today seems hopelessly naive.
A town is mined by retreating Germans during WWI. The town is evacuated.
The approaching British army hears about the mining from a member of the underground just before he is shot, unbeknownst to the British.
They send Alan Bates into the town alone to find the underground guy. What he finds is that the inmates of the town's mental hospital have been unintentionally let out of their asylum and have taken over the town.
Here begins the wonderful fantasy of a town full of crazy people acting normal. At least to Bates.
The fantasy of this film is gossamer but the truths that it presents about war are hard edged.
There is suspense from the fact that the mine is set to go off at midnight. We know this but Bates and the people do not until the last minute.
The actors in this film seem to be having a wonderful time and so will you.
This film played somewhere in Boston or Cambridge, continuously, for many years.
It is as alive and enjoyable today as it was in 1966 or any day since.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5. Well, I always have given it a 5.
ALAN BATES
I first saw Alan Bates, without knowing it, when I saw Lawrence Olivier's The Entertainer. He was one of the two erstwhile sons of Archie, the fading showman.
He had considerable impact.
Then, I would have seen him in Zorba which I saw again the other day. I certainly would have recognized him as a great talent at that time. From then on, I tried to see all his movies.
Bates was a successful stage actor who was plucked into films by Olivier and then went on to have a considerable career.
Sadly, many of his films such as The Caretaker, the Pinter play in which he also starred on stage are not available on disc or Netflix. He had artistic success but not popular acclaim until later with his appearance in Women in Love where he broke, with Oliver Reed, the ban against full frontal male nudity. Hardly a great accomplishment if he had not also been absolutely wonderful as one of the men in the two women's life.
I think that I saw in Bates a fellow traveler. He was gay all his life and stayed resolutely in the closet. I did not.
We had the honor of sitting with Bates every morning for a week during one of the early Palm Springs Film Festivals watching a group of his films. It was great fun. He was very accessible. We sat in a small theater, he in the first row. He laughed and enjoyed himself as though he had never seen the films before. After the show he answered questions. Very nicely.
The Festival does not do things like that any more. Actors are shoved into parties and awards shows for which the public has to pay lots of money. This cost us nothing except the time and our all shows ticket.
I am not watching all his films. Some that I have seen and are long time favorites. There is one play.
I don't mean this to be exhaustive. Just a gentle reminder of a great man who didn't stay with us all that long.
HOSTING
This is sort of fun to read:
Obama’s ‘Red Carpet,’ Up Close and Personal
I am a sucker for anything personal about them.
Labels: Administration Obama
BATTLE OF THE BULBS
I am a resister in the green revolution. I will not use the new CFL bulbs. Those twisty little things that cost too much, don't last as long as they claim and give out a cold nasty glow.
I am certain that there will be a satisfactory new bulb any time now and maybe even one that is like the incandescent that we have all been using. 50% of all lighting is 60 watt incandescent.
Now here is a breakthrough. I am a bit distrustful as it is LED but it looks like a bulb. They say that it acts like a bulb.
Build a Better Bulb for a $10 Million Prize
Labels: technology
GARBAGE AND SEWAGE
Maira Kalman is at it again. Wonderful.
I am not anywhere near NYC any more but I can relate to her optimistic view of things and enjoy her excitement.
Labels: civic pride
Thursday, September 24, 2009
EXPLODING HEAD
I cannot watch Glen Beck do anything. My head feels like it is going to explode.
Apparently I am not alone.
I read the Scarborough indictment a few days ago. Now it seems to be a movement.
Beck Faces Backlash...From the Right!
Labels: republican whack jobs
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
HEAD OF THE TABLE
I think it is very neat that they took advantage of what is basically a circumstance. It was the US turn to head the UN Security Council. They put Obama to be the actual president of the council for two days.
I have made up in my own mind that they decided to do this and then the other world leaders decided to make it a full deck. They were coming to the G-20 anyway.
This is the kind of production that takes great diplomatic skills and universal respect to happen.
Obama has both.
Played right, the USA might just be gaining some of the loss of the past administrations neglect of world affairs.
New UN resolution aims at nuclear-free world
It was only the fifth time the Security Council met at summit level since the U.N. was founded in 1945 and 14 of the 15 chairs around the council's horseshoe-shaped table were filled by presidents and prime ministers. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's name was on the U.N.-circulated list as attending but he was a no-show. Libya's U.N. ambassador spoke for his country.The U.S. holds the rotating council presidency this month and Obama was the first American president to preside over a Security Council summit, gaveling the meeting into session and announcing that "the draft resolution has been adopted unanimously."
Labels: ad
IN LAW WE TRUST
I have been trying to drag my ass to our will and trust lawyer ever since we got married.
It is a change of status for the good and might impact the documents that we have had in place for ten or more years.
I don't like to go because it will always cost me money.
We had a rapport with the paralegal over the years and we could just sort of call her and see if there was a change of law or whatever that needed inclusion.
She left the firm though.
Now it is back to the boss.
Which is actually not bad. She is affable and very competent and we are happy to have her on board.
I guess it is just that I don't much like spending a lot of time and money on something I won't be around to benefit from.
Yeh. I know. Peace of mind. OK.
We took Booker along to make it more fun. And it was. He is a good guy to ride with and to share around in a lawyer's office. I'm not kidding. You would be amazed where you can take dogs if you ask. Or just do it.
I am glad that we went. The husband thing does make some difference to the wills and such. It is just a retyping job with some word changes.
We also had included a clause for Franklin's care in case of our death before his. He beat us to it so we are taking that out of this version.
Booker belongs to the rescue people if something happens to us. Technically. I hope to outlive him but if I do not and there is no care for him in the family, then he goes back to Airedale Camp.
We don't plan on that happening but it is what they wanted and that is what will happen.
So now there is another version to be typed and we will have to go and sign the papers and all.
It is not done until it is done.
We also went to review our living will which will be beneficial to me directly if it is needed.
As it turns out, there is no change for these docs.
There is one thing that will come out of this though. I will use this opportunity to put together a "disaster package" that will have each of our living wills and the marriage certificate in case we have to go submit ourselves to the medical system. There is sometimes a lot of hassle for gay folks. Less so now. Still.
And listen. You should do this too. Anyone should have this ready.
For example, if you do not want to be resuscitated you better have it in writing and get that writing to the meds.
Incidentally, if you call 911 you are saying that you have abandoned that particular item. They will resuscitate and it will be all hell to get them to pull the plug after that.
Something to remember.
If I drop and I am not breathing don't call 911. Just let me be.
I mean it. Seriously.
No brain damage from lack or oxygen for me, thanks.
OUCH
Last night Booker and I were walking along nicely whenhe started to wipe at his nose frantically.
I thought that he had been stung but then I realized there was something stuck to his face. A piece of cactus. Actually a bud that had been knocked off the main cactus.
I got to him fast and the only thing to do was to pull it off with my hands. Ouch.
Two ouches. A dog ouch and a human ouch.
These little bastards sting. They feel going in and they leave a toxin.
I had to pull a dozen or so small barbs out of his nose. His fur pretty well protected the rest of him.
I don't have fur.
I needed tweezers and found that my teeth worked nicely.
It was all over in about a minute. Two.
It seemed longer.
This is the first time we have had this happen with either dog.
I think that Booker is familiar with cacti. He is careful. Now he will be more careful. So will I.
These were the little tiny spines. A quarter inch. The worse. I think a cholla cactus. We didn't go back to make a positive identification.
ABZORBING
I didn't write much about Zorba the Greek and why I think it such an outstanding film.
Sure, it was a vehicle for Anthony Quinn and he does his title job perfectly. But there is much more. The film is as rich with detail. It is high art.
At the core, there is the reliable conflict of id and superego. The unrestrained appetite and the uptight control.
Here it is the Greek who has the zest for living and the Brit, Alan Bates, who has the book learning and the rules.
Both are, in actuality, more or less, failures. They have not found a match for their temperaments in the world around them.
What is more, they lack friendship of any kind. They are loners.
They meet in a storm. By accident. There is the real storm. A delay of a ship. The internal storm of their own making. Emotional.
And so on.
This Freudian reading is very reliable. I learned it when I went to college and have applied it usefully ever since. None of us are immune from these paradigms because they are right. We identify with these characters because they are us. At war with ourselves.
Another layer we have here is Greek history. The old themes. Greek drama.
The village is the chorus. Life's realities are presented in stark form. Life and death.
OK. OK.
So this is all well and good but there are hundreds of films that have this shit underneath them. Why is this so appealing and so stirring?
Partly because of the story that binds the theme. The adventures. The little stuff. There is a lot of humor and pathos in the little moments.
There is also the counterbalance of the women. Both the characters and the actors.
Lila Kedrova comes in and out of the story as the frenchwoman who can tease the men away from their obsessions. She is light.
Then there is the widow. The great Greek actress, Irene Papas. All Darkness. The widow who will liberate Bate's sexually.
The women are characters with great depth.
Each has her own tragic story. Each could have their own film.
Like the men, the women, are loners. Not of the village. Apart. Almost outcasts.
Ah then, the village! The greek chorus. And a character in and of itself. The old women in their black shawls. The angry men with their stupid pride.
And on the surface? If you have not already had enough with the drama , we have a fascinating study of primitive Greece. The unforgiving nature of the land and its people. A wonderful travelogue.
All of a piece. Beautiful, beautiful film.
Labels: best films
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
HATE SPEECH
Some of it is very funny.
The Funniest Protest Signs of 2009
I like the sign that is the brownest thing on the entire block.
Labels: culture
MY THOUGHT EXACTLY
I just about can't stand Maureen Dowd of the NYTimes.
Here is Bill Clinton on her:
Quote of the Day
— By Kevin Drum | Mon September 21, 2009 10:29 PM PST
From Bill Clinton, on New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd:
"She must live in mortal fear that there's somebody in the world living a healthy and productive life".
More good Clinton stuff at the link from Taylor Branch's upcoming book.
Labels: Bill Clinton
END OF THE ROAD SORTA
With today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film, I have come to the end of the long list of films that are available on DVD and/or Netflix.
There are probably another hundred to see some of which will never be released. They are either too obscure or people have lost interest.
Some of these include The Conquest of Everest (the first one--no longer a thrill, I guess), Death of a Salesman with Lee J. Cobb instead of Dustin Hoffman, and so on down the list.
I keep asking for them on Netflix because I think that demand creates supply.
I have been doing this list of films since March 11, 2004. That means I have been doing this for fucking five years! Over five.
The first film was The 400 Blows.
In the first list of a thousand films they started with numbers. Now they spell them out.
If you want to see the current 1000 Best Films you can go toThe Best 1000 Films Ever Made
These do not include silents.
This is the second such list that was compiled. I joined the first one and this current one and that is why we have 1176 films. Some did not appear in both. I got them all.
So I have now seen a thousand, at least, of these and I am happy I did it.
What's next? I have some film fests to do.
I am going to take Zorba as a cue to do an Alan Bates series. Coming up. Then, many more. You will see.
And so will I.
Labels: best films
LIVE LIFE
Today's Best NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
with Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates
This is a fiver. I have seen it several times. It is always good and hard to watch. It does not flinch from the uglier sides of living life to the fullest.
Bates is formidable in this early role. He is up against the best in Quinn and he doesn't lose an inch.
Labels: best films
ENERGY TO BURN
This is so far beyond what bush ever did. In a month let alone a day.
Labels: Administration Obama
DATED
Today is "calendar fall" according to the local weather guy.
By this, he means that you wouldn't know it for being here.
We have to use things like the end of baseball season, the scalping of grass and replanting of annual rye. Things that have an autumn twist to them.
This weather guy is new. Barrone. He has a lot more detail. Even tells us what kind of clouds we can expect.
When you don't get much weather you have to wring out all the little details that you can to have it be even vaguely interesting.
Labels: seasons
Monday, September 21, 2009
A LIST
Today's movie was
Actually this is not about the A-lister. It is about the compulsive sex guy who loves them and leaves them. One night stands. Not much love. And proud of it.
He runs into a another guy who is different, not a hit and runner, and slowly, they get into a relationship. The rest of the story is not quite predictable but is very well done.
This film was made in Boston about the time we were fixing to leave. I remember them shooting it in our neighborhood but never saw the outcome. I forgot about it.
Then recently I read that this film still has "legs" after ten years of running so I rented it.
And, low and behold, it is the film we saw being made.
If you rent this and you see the scenes in the real estate office just look to the left and you will see, well the street that made the corner near our house.
It was nice to see the old city. The film is beautifully done. Nice camera work. The acting is about Boston level which is OK but a little rough around the edges. Still a nice piece of work. I am glad that they have kept interest in the work for so long.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
FILM PICKER
I have been interested in the Netflix recommendation algorithm for some time because the one they had was so bad at picking movies that I would like to see.
It occasionally picked films that I had seen and given low ratings to.
I guess that they knew their picker was broken too because they set up a contest and now it is over.
Netflix Awards $1 Million Prize
Things went so well that they are going to have still another contest.
I don't know if they have put the picker in operation but, today, it still sucks. I won't even bore you with the "movies you will love".
I won't.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
TRENDS
It isn't too unfair to compare. The Bush is a year. The Obama a little less.
Not bad.
Labels: Administration Obama
HOT PARTY
I went to a pool party today. A birthday party for a friend who turned fifty.
It was nice.
I did my usual circuit. People I knew and see regularly and a few that I wouldn't see otherwise. Two out of towners. Nice.
It was hot. It was 106 on the Jeep temp.
Unless I am going to go in the pool these things are always a physical trial unless I go into the house and then I am trapped. I don't know who is in there and what if they are people I don't know or know and don't want to be in the house with?
So I walk the circuit. Touch all the bases. Have some nice surprises.
A nice thing. I was the oldest guy there except for the guy's Dad. I sort of know him too. He looks way older than me but I don't think that he is.
I told him I just had my oldest son turn 50. We had something in common. He said "that means that we are getting older". I said "yup" and moved on.
I left home at 1:15 and returned at 2:15. Mission accomplished.
Labels: life
Saturday, September 19, 2009
FORGIVE AND FORGET
Some of us have gotten over our resentment of Hillary Clinton. We accept our leader's choice for Secretary of State and wish her well.
On the other hand, there is still just a hint of malice that makes us stifle giggles when we see this kind of job done on her.
U.S. Condemned For Pre-Emptive Use Of Hillary Clinton Against Pakistan
Labels: hillary
OUTRAGEOUS!!!
I just discovered that one of my favorite films, Diva is pulled from the Netflix rotation.
I know there was a new print made and an anniversary is coming up. Perhaps there is a new disc in the works. It is in the "pending" file. No available date yet known.
This movie is one of two made by the director Jacques Beineix. The other film is a mess. An interesting mess, but I would not want to see it again.
The lead actors were not in any other films. Some of the supports are french film regulars.
It is a one off.
So weird.
Labels: best films
THE WORLD IS NOT WHAT WE THINK
Today's film was the second half of
This is a great film. I will see it again.
Three generations of a family are shown interacting with one another, each trying to find a way for themselves through some life problem. For a few, it is a return to the past. Others jump into the future. Others find the more messy random approach to life is more suitable for them.
All of them discover that the world is not what we think it is. A line from the film.
Funny, sad, at times shocking. This is a compressed soap opera in the best sense.
The looks of this film are amazing. I am not sure about whether it is all digital or not. Colors jump. The composition of scenes is beautifully done. Simple conversations in complex visual settings.
I said yesterday that this family is globalized. It could live anywhere. But with one exception. These people are oriental and have the idea of "fate" working on them. Old traditions. Some superstitions.
It is a neat twist and not at all different from our own way of looking at things and working through them. Just different enough to identify.
I enjoyed this very much. There are a few loose ends but I will catch them next time. There are a lot of people and some of them "look alike" to me. I know. I know.
This is a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
I have diagnosed myself as having a case of Paronychia!
This is an infection of the cuticle. I know. This is a picture of a toe but it was the only one I could find that came close to my minor ailment. You should see how bad this baby can get.
If you keep your fingernails short, you might get this routinely as I do. Well, routinely every 6-12 months or so.
Bacteria gets down in the little space of skin when you cut the nail too close. Make that "me" instead of "you".
I use the old Doc method of cure. Immerse the finger in concentrated salt water as hot as you can stand it for a few minutes a few times a day.
This opens up the little pustule that has formed and drains the infection out. Do not stop this with the first bust. Continue for a day or two.
Now, I read on the internet that immersion of the fingertip in white vinegar for 15 minutes will do the same. And your finger will smell like a pickle.
In either case, it is recommended that one put the antibiotic ointment on the site and keep it there for at least half an hour.
I have already busted my pustule three times. A nice feeling of accomplishment especially as it relieves the pain of the infection. Actually, the bust was the first time. The two others were more opening the hole already made.
I once had one of these cut by a surgeon friend. It is still prone to infection because of the scar that was left. Poor treatment option. Ask a surgeon about something and s/he will always want to cut. Don't let them. Not until the last minute just as you are going out.
Today, they don't cut for any infection of this type until the very last moment. The fear of reinfection is too great.
This isn't cancer or anything. Not a stroke. But it hurts like hell and needs relief.
As it happens most of what we worry about doesn't happen or, if it does, isn't half as bad as a toothache, an infected digit or a hemorrhoid. I am just saying. These are the true aches and pains of life.
Add to that plantar fasciitis which I now am getting some relief from. Either the arch supports are working or it is just going away. I stretch too. Who knows?
I suppose that I could go to a doc or the easy to get to and deal with Emergency Care place that we have here (not an emergency room in a hospital where you would get infected worse, all over) but I like to do it myself.
My Dad once sutured his own foot when he hit it with a chain saw. The doc who eventually saw him when it got infected said he did a good job. On the sewing part. A role model there, huh?
Labels: health
LIGHTS OUT
When I was a kid, everyone listened to the soaps on radio.
Well, not everyone. My mother didn't because she worked from the time my Dad went into the Navy in WWII. Too busy. Too frivolous. I don't imagine she would have listened to them anyway. Improper behavior.
Although back then, the improper behavior was pretty "lite".
My Aunt Flora had the radio on all day. She did laundry for the hotel across the street. I stayed with her since, see above, my mother worked. I heard "Our Gal Sal", "One Man's Family" and many others. We also had, in between, if you can believe it, Paul Harvey who just recently, finally croaked.
When I got a little older, I stayed home by myself. I was a latch key kid. So, I listened to the soaps too. Not all the time. Just a little.
But when teevee came in and soaps went to pictures I watched all the time.
It was a lot more interesting than baseball and shit.
I have found, from gay friends, that most of us listened to the soaps. Another marker like lip synching or going crazy about broadway musicals.
The extension of plots was agonizing. Each show started with a shortish precis of the previous day's action and then there would be today's plot which we would more or less hear/see again tomorrow. Many of these shows were only half an hour and so, what with the commercials, there wasn't a lot new. But it was good to have yesterday's events to chew over again.
I don't know when I quit the soaps. Probably when I was 12 or so. I was alone with them, perhaps, from 8 or so. That is a lifetime for a kid.
I went back to soaps occasionally over the next years before college because of their soft porn value. Very slim for a gay kid. But shirts had started to come off and the guys were getting buffed up. It was a lot better than pro-wrestling or boxing. Swim sports only came along occasionally. So it was the soaps or nothing. Deprived.
Times have changed. These last few years we have had the fist gay kiss, embracing, even a fast fade homo-bed scene or two.
I don't think my mother ever knew I was listening to them. I never told. The beginnings of a double life.
Why am I writing all this? Because The Guiding Light, one of the very shows that I listened to and then watched, gave up the ghost this week.
Gail Collins writes about it.
I would have loved to see that last tear drenched extravaganza or happy resolution. Something always withheld in years, decades, before.
UPDATE:
I remembered, after I wrote this, that The Leading Light was originally about a minister who kept a light in his window for the troubled souls who passed his way.
As I remember, my Aunt thought this to be a devotional program. Her religious fix for the day.
Well, there was a preacher in it until he got in the way of the plot.
Labels: culture
Friday, September 18, 2009
SOUTHERN STRATEGY
I can remember when the GOP "southern strategy" drove the Democrats nuts.
It succeeded wildly.
And then, there is over shooting.
See Kevin Drum's
Labels: Republicans
LIFE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film is
Yi Yi / A one and a two.... (2001)
I watched the first half. It is three hours long.
One family, affluent Taiwanese, are individually and collectively facing many life decisions. The slow pace of the film helps us see the reality of day to day problem solving. Short scenes capture the essence of both the individual and collective experience. Funny, sad, just normal.
I am liking it a lot. The first thing is to realize how "global" it is. Globalization. We could be in any modern city. It is certainly not American. A good thing in many ways.
We don't make films like this here.
I left the plot(s) and people mid-way and I am looking forward to seeing them resume their lives tomorrow.
Labels: best films
IDIOTWITTERS
If you have nothing to do this should keep you going for awhile.
These are dramatic readings of some notable, well, Twits. Who apparently do not catch the tone of their tweeting. The readings may help. Among the chosen are some obviously self absorbed people like Jessica Simpson and Barbara Walters. Sean Diddy Coombs.
I am looking for something that will kill this evil social networking shit. This might just do it.
Labels: culture
Thursday, September 17, 2009
HE WON'T DANCE
Just as the race baiting increases, even in the face of Jimmy Carter's frank assessment of the matter, comes this observation from Ta-Nehisi Coates
The nut of it.
Barack Obama, bourgeois in every way that bourgeois is right and just, will not dance. He tells kids to study--and they seethe. He accepts an apology for an immature act of rudeness--and they go hysterical. He takes his wife out for a date--and their veins bulge. His humanity, his ordinary blackness, is killing them. Dig the audio of his response to Kanye West--the way he says, "He's a jackass." He sounds like one of my brothers. And that's the point, because that's what he is. Barack Obama refuses to be their nigger. And it's driving them crazy.Bold font is mine.
It's about time.
Labels: Administration Obama, race
STRAIGHT ARROW
Talk about your guy who seems harmless.
I watched the arraignment of Raymond Clark III.
He doesn't look like he would hurt a fly. On the other hand, watch his eyes.
Labels: crime
33%
Just to illustrate. Here is the bottom third of the hard core. Notice he has ACORN on his sign as well as a misspelled Nancy Pelosi.
Idiot.
The funny thing is that he seems absolutely sane and rational as he says all this shit.
That is why whenever there is slasher or sniper or serial killer everyone says he was a quiet guy. Not crazy. He seemed perfectly sane.
Labels: republican whack jobs
NOT TOO DUMB
Here is a Bloomberg poll on people's reaction to the scare tactics of August.
* Sixty-three percent said the claim that "death panels of government officials would decide how much medical care ailing individuals will receive" is a scare tactic, versus 30% who said it’s legit.These are about the same percentages that supported bush and every other right wing cause. They are solid. The rest of us are not fools. Even the 43% who worry about rationing could be cut if they were clearly shown how they are already rationed. Not by government but by private companies.
* Fifty-nine percent said the claim that "health care would be rationed" is a scare tactic, versus 35% who said it’s legit.
* Fifty-two percent said the claim that "health care would become socialized medicine" is a scare tactic, versus 43% who said it’s legit.
* Sixty-one percent said the claim that "government money would be used to pay for abortions" is a scare tactic, versus 33% who said it’s legit.
* Fifty-eight percent said the claim that "government money would pay for health care for illegal immigrants" is a scare tactic, versus 37% who said it’s legit.
AND there will be rationing. There should be.
Someone has to tell the old geezers that I see swamping Doc's offices that there is a limit. It has gotten so bad that some docs will now not take Medicare patients. Some. So it is a problem. People will try to milk it.
Labels: health
A MIGHTY OAK IS AILING
There sure is a lot of animosity towards ACORN.
So much, in fact, that I feel its effectiveness has been severely compromised.
It is true that a mighty oak grew from a small acorn. But there has been some blight. A nice metaphor..
House and Senate Take Aim at Acorn
Apparently the NYTimes doesn't treat the word as an acronym.
Of course most of this anger and scorn is from the right and I am sure that a lot of the drama is political theater.
But I do understand the upset and, in fact, I believe that ACORN should probably not be getting federal funds as long as it works so hard on the partisan issues. But maybe this is unconstitutional.
I guess my beef is that they are so big and so poorly manaaged that they are rife with bad decisions and scandalous behavior.
I would rather have them be advocates operating politically for their clients and let it go at that.
Or maybe I don't know what I am talking about. But that is where I come out after all this bullshit has been going around.
UPDATE: Well, that's the end of that.
House Votes 345-75 to Ban Federal Grants to Acorn
Labels: politics
POWER MOVE
This is a big deal:
White House to Scrap Bush’s Approach to Missile Shield
It is not an abandonment of the concept, it is a realignment. The missiles will really be focused on Iran. The bushies had them set up so they could be used on Russia. The old cold war ethos.
It is a big deal because it is Obama taking the reins of defense strongly and surely with a policy in place to justify the plan.
It is a big deal because it is the first time he uses Gates as a strong advocate. The Bush SOD. The anti-Rumsfeld.
It is a big deal because Obama is listening to the generals here and not to the cold war pressure groups. A military not a political decision.
And it is a big deal because everyone thinks of Obama as kind of soft on foreign affairs and defense and this is muscle. Not only in the world but within our own country where the GOoPer leader of the House chose to condemn the move without and briefing or real information.
Obama is the Commander in Chief.
I read that he got up about midnight to break the bad news to the Czechs. The old plan was a boon to the Czechan and Polish economies.
I don't write much about defense matters. I am for a strong defense. I am not interested in disarmament in the leftish way. In that sense, I am more in the middle. I have been interested in how they would come out on some of these issues.
There is some progressive pressure to cut the missile shield. He is having none of that. He is moving his chess pieces.
Remember. Obama is a chess player not a checkers player. This is true at home and, now, abroad.
Labels: Administration Obama
SETTING SUN
We had the annual fix of the solar pool heater the other day.
Lots of leaks and there is still one more. He will have to come back.
They used the opportunity to tell me that the system needs an upgrade. They have a better panel.
What upgrade means is replacement. 4500 dollars with a generous discount.
This one has been up there for 8 years or more. The summers kill the plastic and now the nylon. UV and heat. Sooner or later the calcium in the water will get to the system's interior.
It is inevitable that the panel will dim out and eventually not really do the job.
For now, we are staying with patching the holes and if the system goes down, so be it.
I suppose at some point the patches will cost too much or they will not do the job.
That is OK too.
We don't much use the pool when the air is cool and the heater is heating. Guests often don't know the difference. They are used to eastern temperatures.
I still have the pool cover. That gets us ten degrees and more if we leave it on during the days for a while.
Bottom line. Everything wears out including me and, sooner or later, you can't replace or fix it all. Some stuff will have to go. You can include me in that too. But not yet. I will outlast the solar system.
Labels: repairs
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
BIG MAMA
Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary Dies at 72
John and I met Mary Travers on a flight back from St. Croix through Kennedy.
One of us went back to the rest room and saw her. Said hello.
We were caught.
Yak yak yak.
But she was very nice.
When we got off to transfer to a Boston flight, nothing would do but to walk us to the gate and make sure that we were in the right place. She had "done it many times" and was going to see that we, goddamit, were going to do it too.
We didn't dare tell her that we were St. Croix to Kennedy to Boston vets.
She had a big heart. That was for sure. A big mother type.
I was never much for their music, the three of them. A little too folksy in the mannered way. Pop folk. And a little too self righteous. Making a lot of bucks but acting down home.
But she practiced what she sang. Kindness. Caring. Friendliness.
Goodbye Mary. Say hi to Puff.
Labels: obituary
LAWYER ABE
Today's NYTimes Best Film was John Ford's
This is a very good movie.
There isn't a lot of patriotic hooplah. In fact, it is sort of Perry Mason kind of courtroom drama.
Fonda is sort of made up to look like Abe and they hired smallish actors. And that is the extent of how it is Lincolned up. Fonda is very good in the role. He keeps it simple. I think that he always did. For those too young to have enjoyed his career, too bad.
There are great scenes of what I think of as Americana. County fairs, country life, the early politics, the system of justice or not. Even a near lynching. Of white boys wrongly accused.
I enjoyed that Ward Bond was in this. I think that Ford used him in every film he made. A great character actor. Good or bad guy.
I will give this film a 3 out of Netflix 5.
Labels: best films
