Monday, May 31, 2010
IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG
iPad magic. I read about the apps. This seems to transcend card tricks.
Labels: fun
REMEMBRANCE
I love Joe Biden. He embodies the kind of patriotism that I remember as a kid and still feel myself.
TANGLED WEBS
Today's movie was Gotz Spielmann's Oscar nominated (foreign film)
This beautifully rendered psychological thriller is meticulously paced to show us the insides of the character's situation, their inner life.
As they meet one another and impact one another's lives we see how another can come inside and change the inner landscape around. There is a lot of love in this film which scrapes the bottom of the social barrel and skims the cream off the top.
Then, there is the outer landscape. The city in one half, the country in another. Nature in full bloom, healing.
I loved it.
I might want to see it again sometime. I am interested in this director's other work.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. Maybe a 5 the way I see it right now. I think this will stay with me for quite awhile.
Labels: films
TERRORISM IN UNIFORM
Deadly Israeli Raid on Aid Flotilla Draws Condemnation
I have blogged before about how Israel skates when it comes to acts which can only be described as terrorism. They are just state sponsored.
They are inflicted on civilians for the benefit of power and control over the Arabs in their country and in the Palestinian state.
Killing is just the end of it. Daily acts of cruelty and oppression abound for most Palestinians who must cross the borders to work or, particularly, in the Gaza Strip where Jewish settlements are raised as pressure actions.
This is an old story for this blog. They attacked Lebanon mercilessly and got away with it. It just totally pisses me off that we support this kind of shit and have for decades.
They will probably get away with this also but the world's patience is growing thin.
How long or far can you stretch Jewish victimhood and the pain of the Holocaust's as justification for the worst kind of brutality and torture of the Palestinians. The daily humiliations. Do you think this kid is going to grow up loving his neighbors?
No wonder Hamas wants to retaliate.
Once again, religious righteousness kills.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
BACK TO NORMAL
We are still a little behind after the week of buying and selling real estate but we are almost recovered.
I gave myself a haircut today. We watched the movie together.
Of course, John is already dismantling stuff. Mostly photographs, our photo shelf that has everyone who ever visited here on it. The photos will go in a book. We have no equivalent space in the new place.
I think that there will be a lot of that. No equivalent space.
Good.
We will get to remold our lives and routine. A healthy step for all three of us although Booker is not too sure about all the shenanigans. We told him we would take his bed and his kibble as well as lots of snuggles.
FREUD OVER LIGHTLY
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Hitchcock's
with Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman.
There is a lot of ridiculously outdated Freud in the setup of this film but once we get into the drama the film is gripping. You can't get out of it.
The performances are perfect and Hitchcock has the ability to play with our primal fears in a way that is irresistible. I fall into the trap in spite of myself.
This film contrasts sharply with Rebecca of the other day which never recovered from its datedness.
A wonderful part in this film is a series of dream sequences designed by Salvador Dali. Very nice. Very well done. Cinematic but Daliesque.
I would gladly see this again sometime.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
Saturday, May 29, 2010
DENNIS HOPPER
He sure grew up to be one crazy motherfucker.
There aren't a lot of his movies that I would care to see again but I will never forget Easy Rider which he made and which made him.
If we all get to do one right perfect thing then that is his.
Labels: best films
UTTER DISBELIEF
We sold our house today.
The buyer came back accepting our counter to their original offer.
And they will pay cash. No messes with banks and appraisers which are the main reason for all the trouble in getting houses moved off the market.
And the sale is not contingent on the inspections that may be done between now and closing.
Anything that is found will be absorbed by the buyer and not reduce the sale price.
Our goals for the financial part of the transaction less the cost of the condo we bought on Tuesday are satisfactory.
It is a shock.
I just wrote to the broker we used to ask whether it is really true that we have bought and sold in less than a week. He says yes.
Last Saturday at this time we had no intention of moving. We had certainly thought about this for a long time but it was back burner. We had not found anything that would fit our picture of a good condo to move to.
Sunday, John went on his normal open house rounds and went back to a place he had seen a year or more ago. It was open again and he went through and liked it a lot.
He forgot the notes that he had taken and wanted to go back when I expressed interest.
We went back to get his notes and as I walked in the front gate, I knew that this was "it".
The sweet patio garden with several small trees and even a cactus garden is a great welcome to a well laid out house which is just the right size for us.
It has clerestory windows for extra light. There is a small back patio which faces a quiet street separated by high wall and shrubberies.
We will use a planter to create a "fence" to remind Booker where his place is.
A friend who is a real estate broker had tried to sell the condo. He really liked it but the client didn't come back.
Anyway. This was it. We came home, thought about it and asked our friend and broker to represent us in the purchase and to sign up our house for sale.
Then the madness began.
The seller of the condo accepted our offer on the first bounce. 5 grand less than the hinted amount she would settle for.
On our house, it was listed on MLS on Thursday and by early afternoon there was an agent who wanted an early tour. He came with a videographer.
The next day we had an offer. We made a counteroffer. Today they accepted that number.
And conditions.
They know the house. They have friends who, it turns out, we know. They know the house. Aha!
They have still not seen the house but their agent and friends came to the open house today. After the deal was sealed.
Odd fact. I had not seen this house when John bought it in 1995. I had seen videos but did not get out here in real life until November.
It is amazing.
The open house went OK. People liked it. No offers.
Our broker thinks that this is a fluke. We think it is divine providence. The universe shifting to give us some space. A lucky break? Who knows.
When faced with opportunity, we jump. It has happened many times in our life together, John and I. We move fast. Take the breaks. Do the next indicated thing. Bolster each other when in doubt. It has happened again.
Today we went over to the new place and walked around. We went to look at the pool which they are restoring. Not rebuilding but doing it right.
There in the pool was a friend of mine who lives in Long Beach and has a place in the Rose Garden for weekends and summers.
Wow. I didn't know that anyone I knew lived there. Very nice.
The stuff just keeps rolling.
BIZZIER
Here it is Saturday and we are still in the little storm of buying and selling a condo and house (respectively).
An agent who got a preview of the house on Thursday brought us an offer yesterday and we made a counteroffer. It takes a while to figure how to respond.
Today there is an open house for two to three hours. That will keep some pressure on the negotiation with the prospect.
John and Booker and I will go out for lunch and then go walk around the new neighborhood to see the sights. We are also going to the consignment place for me to look at a dining set John found.
We have moved the closing dates on the condo forward to the middle of June.
In the center of the little storm there is some quiet. I slept through the night alright last night. That was not the case the two or three nights earlier.
It is draining.
But continually we are finding that it is quite worth it.
We are excited about our new living situation and think that we are making the right move. So to speak.
Oh.
The offer.
I can't say much about it except to say that it is in process. That means that we are in range of agreement. If we didn't like it we would have refused the bid.
One thing, last night, I realized that we are not paying enough attention to Booker who gets that something is up.
A little more hugging and attention will let him know that whatever is up includes him in a good way.
We will take the food and his bed with us and he will have some new spaces to sort out for napping.
There will be new grounds to explore.
And most of all, he will have his two dads and we will still be a happy family.
Friday, May 28, 2010
HOGWASH
with Lawrence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. Also, a boatload of familiar British character actors as well as Judith Anderson as the dour dykish house keeper and the professional weasel George Sanders type cast as the cad and something else I won't tell because it spoils.
Sanders is interesting. He actually comes across as a retro-pouf but was often cast as a het-cad. Funny cross wiring here. I always loved to see him in any role. I wonder why.
The spooky stuff here is all about Fontaine, the second wife, coming in behind Rebecca, the first and dead wife and finding weird happenings, not the least of which is the nervousness of her new husband about anything Rebecca.
This is the kind of thing that passed as literature (Daphne Du Muarier) and Hitchcock made a pass at it with Darryl Zanuck riding his shoulders and doing the final edit.
It is very soapy and long by half an hour.
Twisty at the end.
I didn't like it very much really.
I admit that I ran ahead rather than face the tortuous moments of Ms. Fontaine in the new household getting hazed and run around by staff and friends.
I will give it a 2 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
PROGRESS
House Votes to Allow Repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Law
Joe Leiberman, not my favorite guy, introduced and supported this bill in the Senate.
It is cautious and flawed and slow. But it is like all the struggle has been. An inch at a time.
We'll take it!
Labels: gay military, gay rights
Thursday, May 27, 2010
BIZZY
There are a torrent of "hits" on the MLS posting for the house and there is an agent who wants to jump the gun and look it over this afternoon.
I am cooking chili so the house smells good.
Back east it would be bread or apple pie.
It is all moving quickly. I have told the three "helpers" that we have, gardener, pool guy and housecleaner.
It was hard. But while this is not easy for them either we are not the first ones to move. In fact, the pool and gardener guys were here before we were. I am sure they will survive.
It is our intention to clean our own house. Something at least 90% of people in the world do. Why this causes us so much anxiety I am not sure. We did it for a year when we had the apartment in Boston.
What with agents visiting, making chili and handling the vendors, it has been a longish day.
I also pruned the roses and waxed emotional about saying goodbye to them but we are going to a place called The Rose Garden. I haven't seen it yet, but there must be some there. It doesn't count if I am not running the flower show though.
I also scraped off the suckers on the olive tree and finally said goodbye to the dried birds of paradise. Goodbye to that baby too. But I can start another one at the condo.
I started the right way though by working with another person on our Program.
Getting out of myself is a sure way of not dipping into the well of negativity.
I know. There isn't much negative in my life. But I am good at finding some if left to my own devices.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
CLASSY
Some Senators still have the old comity thing going. And one of those is Ol' Arlen.
Very nice.
Specter Escorts Sestak to Democratic Lunch
I have been around Arlen Specter since I lived in Philadelphia and took an interest in him as both a good politician and a "character". I was active in politics at that time in the State and I have always remembered that and him.
I have not always agreed with him. He has been infuriating to me at times.
But he is always interesting and always a gentleman.
He is good at the business and the business has been good to him.
I believe that politics can be a noble profession and that Specter has made a good try at doing the right thing.
In any case, he is going out in a very charming way. Godspeed and now let's beat the shit out of that awful GOoPer Toomey.
RESISTANCE
Todays NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Roberto Rossellini's
Roma, città aperta / Open City (1945)
This film was made before the War was over, during the German occupation.
They stole vehicles and signed up regular people to film it.
It is like a docu-drama.
Neo-realism. Gut wrenching.
I have seen this several times. I still cry at the end.
It is beautifully done and we get to see the earliest Anna Magnagni who became a super star, a pioneer in post-war Italian cinema.
Some of the scenes can be seen as trite today but they are not. Subsequent films in the last 50 years have stolen all of Rosellinni's stuff.
I have seen this before and could easily see it again when I feel like it.
That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.
The disc I saw is the newest Criterion restoration. It is extraordinary.
Labels: best films
DONE AND DONE
You can't take a photo around here without someone hogging the shot! But they are good looking intruders so I will let them into it.
As you can see, this is the "For Sale" sign. It went up this morning. A funny moment.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
Yesterday, we met with the real estate people (Dan and Debi-siblings) and signed them up as our buyers agent for the condo and our selling agent for the house.
We have always used a buyer's agent and not used the selling broker at any property. A suggestion. The arrangement really makes them "ours". In fact, through their advice, we saved 5000 dollars on the offer for the condo under what the selling agent had "hinted" would work.
But I am ahead of myself again.
Dan and Debi were no more than out of here and they heard back from the seller that she would accept our offer, as is, and she signed this morning.
We will settle on July 11th.
Gods help us do as well on the sell end.
It was all smooth.
I have had some craziness but not much.
This afternoon I was panicked that we had somehow bought the lesser house next door. Paranoia.
We started the day nicely. We went to our closest neighbors--in distance and emotional connection--and told them about the move before the sign went up.
They have lived in this neighborhood for 40 years and have seen it all. Very few houses and a horse trail running through way back then. They always tell the story. They are wonderful old timers and we will miss them.
Some teary moments.
Did I tell you that the name of the condo development, built in the 80s, is The Rose Garden?
See here
We are getting in the place Saturday while our house is having an Open House and will have some photos next week.
Labels: condo
SATISFACTION
This has been a long time coming.
New King of Technology: Apple Overtakes Microsoft
I have been with Apple from the beginning. Partly because of our company's use for desk top publishing, in which Apple has always excelled, but because it is a happier, friendlier, easier company that still serves its customers.
I have rarely heard a negative word about Apple products or service and never, at any time, the kind of vitriol that MS has elicited.
And yet people still stay on the PC platform and suffer. There is no accounting for it. It used to be compatability but no more.
Anyway. Yay Apple!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
LIFE LEARNING
Today's film was Adam Salky's
This unique teen age film is a convincing and heart filling exploration of growing up.
A trio of friends learn to be friends and take steps beyond friendship to test the waters sexually.
Beneath the bluster and masks are the true personalities. As they reveal themselves to one another they see themselves as they never did before.
Salky's hand is light an loving. This is not a genré teen film. These kids are actually innocents, loners, in the midst of a bunch of kids who could be in a regular teen film. They find each other and that, for now, is enough.
If I had these experiences as a teen I would have had a different life. I like the one that I have but it took a long time for the finding oneself part.
The actors are quite convincing and are very skillful in reducing their real age (twenties?) to teen level without becoming caricatures. It only took minutes to get over that they were a little too old to be kids. I am happy that these casting choices were made because I think it made for a much better film.
I liked this very much and would be happy to see it again. That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Monday, May 24, 2010
A CROSS TO BEAR
Booker and I rounded a corner at Palm Canyon Drive tonight and there, across the street, was this guy walking along in a brown outfit with what looked like a pole over his shoulder.
He was moving along briskly. As he got closer, I realized that the pole was a cross and the brown outfit was a monks habit. Two layers. He had a thing on his head that looked like it might be a crown of thorns.
The actual image is beginning to merge with other images like this that I have read about or seen pictures of.
I have never seen a guy dragging a cross along in the street.
He rounded a corner and he was gone.
The cross didn't look that heavy although it was certainly 6x6 or bigger timbers and it was long so he did have to drag it. I guess he could have shouldered it but it would have wobbled.
I didn't notice if he was barefoot. A lot of penitents are barefoot. Especially if there are a lot of rough stones. But this was on the sidewalk.
This isn't a very good picture as there was no hood and it was brown not black and the cross was more.......well never mind.
There is no doubt that Palm Springs is a hell hole and den of iniquity but not in our neighborhood.
Maybe he was starting out with sin-lite. Or just going home after a hard day of hauling his cross behind him.
It does give a new meaning to the phrase "doing drag".
What is this kind of thing all about anyway? Where did we go wrong?
Labels: christist watch
BLITZED
Today's movie was the Korean "comedy"
Naj sul / Daytime Drinking (2008)
I would like to find the good reviews that I read of this film and send the writers a terse note.
I think the deal is here that the film approximates the mood and feeling of a long light drunk. By that I mean the kind where there is a night time binge, a morning hair of the dog, followed by more hairs throughout the day. Not really loaded as much as lightly high and slightly confused.
If this is the goal they did well.
It is not surprising that I found this barely tolerable to watch. Of course, the title should have been a tipoff.
It is OK. My current method is to watch films that get a high--like 60% plus rating from Movie Review Intelligence and, so far, I have done pretty well.
There are clunkers. This is a good example.
I need to start paying attention to how many reviewers it took to get the cumulative rating.
Anyway, this one gets a 1 out of Netflix5. I didn't finish it. As far as I know he is out there somewhere in Korea still high and getting into the kind of random trouble that is the stock and trade of an alcoholic.
Labels: films
Sunday, May 23, 2010
DOWNSIZE?
We have known for some time that, sooner or later, we would probably downsize from our house to a condo.
The problem is finding a living situation that suits.
One floor. Enough space and privacy.
There is a point, coming soon, or even now where the expense and the trouble of a big house is beyond our interest or capability.
Now, it is more interest. Later, I assume, it would be capability.
So we are looking around.
Today, John found a condo in a nice development which is architecturally designed. Very nice. Very quiet. In a section of town which is mostly undeveloped.
Not too expensive. Maybe a good downsize which would spin off enough cash to extend our nestegg.
Today, we made the great leap of taking me to see the place. John has looked at it a few times over the three years that it has been for sale. Actually, there are two places. Next door to each other. Mirror images of one another. How weird is that?
When he gets me to go look you know that we are nearing a tipping point.
And when we tip, we roll.
Stay tuned.
Labels: housekeeping, life
LAMENTATIONS
Today's movie was the Coen Brothers'
The plagues of Job are nothing compared to what Larry Gopnick has to deal with.
Obviously autobiographical, this account of Jewish life in the Fifties viewed from the bottom of the deck, is at once dark and tragic and hilarious.
This has to be the most Jewish film I have ever seen. Larry and his family observe what seem to be moderate ritual and habit. It is all on display and up for satire. Way more than Woody Allen but on the same wave length.
I will not go into the ups and mostly downs. It is a Coen film. Even the worst plague is funny. If it isn't happening to me.
The son, is actually the point of view of the film as he would be the Coens rolled into one kid. He is very good.
We are at the cusp of the 60s. The Jefferson Airplane and marijuana play a considerable role.
Very good.
I will give this a 4 out of Netflix5. I would be more than happy to see it again. Maybe it is a 5! The next Coen-fest?
Labels: films
SUDDENLY THEY'RE GONE
It happens every year at this time.
We are crossing E. Palm Canyon Drive and there is no traffic coming from either direction.
We go to the supermarket and there are parking spaces. Under the shade trees.
We go by the Mexican restaurant down the street on a Saturday night and there are empty tables.
The motel parking lots are not chock full of cars.
We walk through some of the condo areas on our nightly walk and the silence of empty units, the quiet around the pools, makes for an eerie passage.
The snow birds have gone. Flown.
Booker's golden friend that runs around in circles has left.
The barkless dog, BIlly, is on his way to Provincetown.
Our friend Jane from out back is shipping her car back to Seattle today and she will leave next week by plane. She says it is too hot to play golf. Over 90 some days. Whew.
It will be like this from now until mid October.
We all get a break.
Our break is that we get to stay here where no one else is. No one but the other desert rats.
Nice.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
M IS FOR THE MANY THINGS SHE GAVE ME, O IS FOR........
Today's Christophe Honoré was
An estranged Dad dies, a son goes to live with his mother at the old family place, the mom is a dissolute sybarite. Is that the right word? She says she is a slut.
The son is shocked that the Mom wants him to get over his rigid French Catholic points of view and introduces him into kinky sex as a way to get him over his education as well as his longing for his father.
Call Dr. Freud.
The thing is that this film is quite beautifully done but it has a really rotten book or script.
The actors and the director do their best with this but the deal is that depravity had better be funny or fun or it is deadly boring. So serious. And they don't know which to be.
The kid gets to try everything although there is little enough homosexuality in it for my taste.
I skipped ahead and probably missed the "good parts". Well some of them because the bad parts were bad.
It is strange that Honoré who has such a light and loving touch in all his other films was unable to lighten this up to make it a bit more amusing or to be able to infuse one bit of love into the depravity.
Of course, then it wouldn't be depraved and the finalé would not make any sense at all. Not that it does this way.
Too bad. Every director needs a dud and this one is Honoré's.
But the Canary Islands are pretty and so are the young people that Mom gets to play with her son.
Isabelle Huppert is the Mom and she is, as usual, fine in a part that is on the edge and beyond. The review says that she has shot the moon on this one. I would say she jumped the shark. Over the edge.
I will give it a 1 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Friday, May 21, 2010
UNTORTUROUS
The questioning of the Times Square bomber continues apace.
Pakistan and the Times Square Bomber
He keeps on talking.
He took a pass on Miranda and so they kept talking to him.
He has given endless leads.
He now has a lawyer, has had for a while, and signs a disclaimer every day that he is OK and willing to talk.
Imagine. They haven't put him on the rack, no one waterboarded him, he has the supervision of the civilian courts, he is under professional inteviewing techniques which are state of the art.
Imagine.
Where is Dick Cheney?
Labels: Administration Obama
INHIBISCUS
We have been looking for a white hibiscus to replace our old, old half dead one out front.
It was a sort of centerpiece of the home's entrance.
They don't make white anymore. Not many. Not easily available.
What we wanted was a bush/tree big enough to take over the space from the first day.
The other day, I thought, John should go to the local high end nursery and just find a replacement. Which he did. Two replacements.
Yellow. Hula Girl. Imagine.
There was not Hula Boy.
So, today they were delivered (they were big) and our gardener Paul came with his guys and supervised the planting.
It was/is a professional job. Right depth, proper fill of dirt and water. And so on.
The entire production was John's except for the managing the planting part.
They look pretty good huh? The big one with a single trunk could go to 7-8 feet and the little one which branches out would be a bit lower but wider.
Labels: garden, horticulture
FAMILY SECRET
Today's movie was another film by Christophe Honoré
Tout contre Léo / Close to Leo (2002)
The oldest of four sons, Leo, gay, comes up HIV positive and it is decided that the youngest brother, Marcel, will not be told. He finds out anyway and the story as such revolves around his bonding with his sick brother as well as the rest of the family around this sad event.
There is a lot of family love in this film. It is one of Honoré's trademarks. The affection between the brothers is wonderful.
It seems to be that this is just about how it would be in a family if this happened. Or could be.
The parents are stricken and come together with each other and the family.
The last act is of Leo taking Marcel to Paris for a time together. It is quite wonderful.
The linked review is a little dim and wrong on some items. But it is the only review that I could find that covers the story.
It is a fine film, made for television, and should be seen.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 as I would not mind seeing it again at all.
Labels: films
MARKET TERMS
OK.
This morning on CNBC and in the NYT, they are talking about how yesterday's market plunge is a "correction".
That left me in the dark.
I have heard this term before but just pretended to myself, the ultimate form of delusion, that I knew what it meant.
I looked it up.
It is when the market drops 5-20% and no one has a specific reason why it happened so they just call it a correction.
I suppose it is like when my bank book doesn't balance and I can't figure out why.
Quicken allows me to "adjust" the register.
I suppose it is the same thing.
A formalization of "I don't know".
There is a small "recovery" today. I am not going to look it up.
STANDARDS
Some thoughts about the Military Academies and their lowering standards.
The Academies’ March Toward Mediocrity
I am pleased to see the record of ROTC training as superior to the Academies.
I am an ROTC man.
A 6 month wonder under the old serve six months reserve for six years deal.
I never really served much and was my own military mediocrity.
I won big points for dressing well, even excused from guard duty in summer camp as a result, but I couldn't qualify on the rifle range without my buddies doing a pencil job on the targets.
I guess that is why my active duty was as duty officer at the Ft. Lee Officers' Club.
I dogged it in the reserve portion going only to summer camp and doing correspondence courses rather than attend weekly meetings.
So I would be at the lower rung of the ROTC ladder and not on any rung at all with the Academies.
I have trouble with authority. A sure disqualifier in the military let alone the "elites".
I was defrocked as a First Lieutenant at the end of my time. I am not a veteran. Only a "did serve".
Labels: gay military
CROSSED OUT
OK. Bear with me.
The Mojave cross which the christers put up there years ago was banned as a violation of church state stuff.
So the cross people appealed on the basis that it was a soldiers' memorial not a religious thing.
Whereupon, the Supremes, led by the christian Scalia (Scarpio in the opera) agreed that it was a military memorial and decided to let the cross stay.
Someone stole the cross within the month. Removed it.
Then, this week, someone else put the cross back. A new cross. Taller.
The National Park Service has removed this because now they fall under the general rule of no construction in a national preserve.
Skunked. Caught at the pass.
The christian soldiers will have to find another ruse to get their religious symbol put up. But they probably will not make it. This is the Obama Administration. Non affiliated.
Not the christer bushies.
Labels: christist watch, desert
Thursday, May 20, 2010
A PAT ON THE ASS
I don't much write about my interest in jazz music which is now more or less dormant as we have no resources here to listen to.
Yes, there is computer radio. No, it is not worth too much as it is rarely mediated and when it is mediated it is mediated very badly.
Dave sent me this and it perked me up a bit. Some of the old jazzadrenaline kicked in.
Metheny is a jazz god and he is one of the few artists who has a whole album on my iTunes songs.
I just like this because it is a great rant. A wonderful right-sizing of the seriously limited and lame Mr. G.
Gorelick.
So, whether you relish jazz or not you might relish the rant.
Labels: music
DROPPEDupdated an hour later
Jesus Christ Almighty, look at the stock market today.
No.
Don't.
The Greeks went on strike. Unemployment seemed to increase. The bank regulation pill made it onto the floor of the Senate. All bad news for the pillagers and rapers of Wall Street.
So what am I doing there? I have 70% of my nestegg in equities.
It took a hit.
But I am OK. It is on a par with February now.
Here is a summary of the "volatility" problem.
Panic?
Here is a better one.
I don't know. I am not up there on the fear thing really.
It just comes on a day that I found out that with our current level of expenses the nestegg will be gone in, well, never mind. Sometime before I intend to die.
I have known for a long time that, sooner or later, we would have to trim the expenses seriously. Or change our life style.
We think maybe we will give up dog food first. That will be a start.
Oh OH. Booker is whining. Take that back. Not dog food.
Maybe books!
Go to the library. Sure.
It is nut crushing time again.
We will see. I am getting some tables in the mail.
If we cut down just 15%, we would get another five years. 30%, another ten. And so on.
Look at this.
I will translate.
"ABOLISH RETIREMENT FUNDS FOR AMERICAN GERIATRICS--ADD 15% TO OURS!!!!"
NOT UP TO "THE SHOW"
Rand Paul.
The face of the Tea Party.
I guess I will pick on him for awhile.
He was lifted from the minors to the majors on Tuesday when he won the GOP primary in Kentucky. Not your most centrist state to begin with.
He has stumbled out of the dugout pretty badly.
And stumbled over The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Not your most current actual issue but certainly the one thing that seems to underly much of the energy of the anti-Obamists. Racism.
The single thing the putative leaders of the baggers do not want to have stuck on them.
Rand Paul just stuck it on them.
Paul’s Views on Civil Rights Cause a Stir
He further broadened his whitey creds by defending his use of a pricey exclusive (no blacks) country club by an allusion to Tiger Woods.
Sort of that if they let Tiger into a country club then it was a sign of fading exclusivity. Or something.
Hey. Look at what he said.
They don't even get when they are being racist.
Now, I know Paul is not a member of the so called Tea Party. What an unfortunate moniker if he were. He is a Libertarian campaigning as a Republican with a strong support from the baggers. That is hard talk to say, let alone walk.
The Demos are going to have fun with this, I think.
I know that the bloggers will.
And it has already started. A group of GOP Senators weighed in against Paul's statements including Jeff Sessions! A noted racists. Here is more:
Paul apparently has said the same thing about the CRA in numerous interviews over a period of time.
Labels: tea party
PEAK
I just trimmed the roses. They are at their peak. It is one of the most rewarding parts of what little gardening I do.
They will go dormant when the real heat hits and then recoup in the fall but then winter will slow them down before they get luscious again.
So we get two seasons. But this one is the best.
I have to watch the watering. The buds will droop if there is even a bit too little water. If there is too much I believe they do not do as well. Too much foliage.
My theory is that they will bloom if you keep them a little worried about survival. Too much water and they get all fat and happy.
Labels: garden, horticulture
VETTED
Booker went in for his annual checkup. We had our favorite Dr. B do the work.
It seems that Booker is one healthy specimen. The only complaint was two pounds weight gain. A few too many dog biscuits and "tastes" of the people food. We can fix that without starving him.
We got the distemper shot and passed on the kennel cough vaccine.
As usual, we forgot to bring the stool sample after extremely diligent collection and refreshing of the sample.
Booker did very well. He enjoys most of it. Not the rectal temperature nor the shot. He is friendly and draws the crowds. He doesn't pander and primp the same way that Franklin did. He is more subtle about it. He had him eating out of their hand! Dog treats.
So much for losing weight. That will have to start at home.
After the doc, we went to PetSmart for his food and dog biscuits (also food-same formula) and let him look around and be looked at.
He is such a good guy.
Labels: Booker
PUT UP OR SHUT UP
Mixed results from the primary.
The biggest news is that the Democrat took Murtha's seat in a very red district in Pennsylvania. I guess maybe the meme about the Dem's demise might be a wee bit overrated.
And I wrote about Ol' Arlen's demise. Sestak is good and the Obamas know it. They backed the hack to get his vote.
Then we have Rand Paul, named for Ayn Rand, and son of the libertarian Ron. Evidently Rand is cut from the same cloth as his Dad and, on top of it, has no thought behind it to say nothing of a nasty streak.
He is the Bagger's champion of the moment.
But what of his positions? As usual, general, angry and right off the road.
Timothy Egan has a good piece in the NYT today about how it is time for the bagger's candidates to put some meat in their red. Some specifics. Yeh, Rand, what ya' got that you are going to do if you get there?
It's pretty good. See how the Medicare, Social Security folks feel about cutting entitlements and spending to say nothing of ending government handouts.
And no, old timer, you are not getting what you put into Social Security. You are going to get a whole lot more and the young people are going to pay for it.
Socialism!
Fascism! This guy has them on the same sign as though they are the same thing.
Dumb nuts.
Labels: republican whack jobs, tea party
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
1988
My Dad died 22 years ago today.
He had been sick with occasional pneumonia. It kept coming back.
I got a call while I was working with a group in Houston.
His lung had collapsed and the Docs thought it was the end.
I called one of my partners, it was his client, and he got on a plane.
I stepped off the platform as the group went to work in a session. There would be lunch after the group did its work.
He stepped on the platform when they came back from lunch.
I was on a flight back to Boston where I hoped to get a car to drive to Pennsylvania.
Fog closed the Boston airport and I spent the night on the floor in Windsor Locks airport (Hartford). I got into Boston about 7, John met me with the car, I went home and took the car to my Mom's house and was with my Dad that afternoon. Late.
We spent a couple of hours together. He was on a respirator and not conscious to the eye. But I knew that he knew I was there. Or, I was certainly willing to assume that he did.
I told him that I loved him and that it was OK to let go. I was there. I would be there for my Mother. No worries. No regrets.
I mentally forgave him for anything I still thought he had done that I was pissed off about. I told him that.
I forgave myself for stuff that was unfinished between us.
There wasn't a lot. We had been through all that.
A year or two before he told me that he knew I was happy in my life and that he was pleased about that.
That took away all the stuff about me being gay, about my doubts that I measured up for him. All that.
When I was done with the small crumbs of regret, I got into bed with him and held him tight.
Then I went to my Mother's house.
He died during the night.
John and my son Dave drove down the next morning. It was raining hard.
We did the arrangements. Got the funeral guy all our family had used.
We made it a family only thing.
Most of his sisters and a cousin came. It is the first that I saw them in thirty years. And the last.
The "girls" were in their nineties by this time.
And then, he was gone back to the earth.
We got him one of those veteran stones. I have not been to visit him for quite awhile. He is in my heart. I visit often there.
There is still an ache.
My Dad was a wonderful man. He grew up with nothing, left school in the 8th grade, found a job with a food chain and became a manager. He stayed with them for 45 years.
He ended up in some politics. He was Treasurer of the School Board and when I graduated from High School he gave me my diploma.
He saw me through MIT and into my married life.
He was upset at the gay coming out but he held his position as my Dad. He loved me through it as I loved him back.
He became a wonderful grandfather. Beloved by his grandkids.
He did for and with them what he somehow could not do with and for me in the affection department. Open and joyous. I was happy to claim part of it as my own as well.
That's it.
Thoughts about my Dad. God love him.
EARLY VOTER
I voted in the California Primary this morning.
4:00 AM
There weren't any flags or balloons.
Just me and a pen and the absentee ballot. And the cheat sheet based on the booklet we got a few weeks ago.
It is depressing. I liked the whir of the machines and the mumble of the crowd. I enjoyed getting my "I voted" sticker.
Alas, that is all over now. They have so many people voting absentee that they have combined precincts and made it more annoying.
So here I was. At home. No whir, no mumble.
Here is what I did.
I voted NO on all the propositions. I usually do this as a default to protest propositions but this time I voted out of conviction too. You have to be careful of the names. They sound good.
There is Prop 13 which would place limits on tax assessment of retrofitting of buildings for earthquakes until the building is sold. NO. It improves the value of the building. Pay now.
Proposition 14 is basically an open primary law. No parties. Anyone can vote for anyone. NO. Actually, this does not create open primaries. It only requires that the name of the party would not be on the ballot. I don't want GOoPers messing with my party. No, goddam it no!
Prop 15, the California Fair Elections Act which would repeal bans on public funding of political campaigns. It would allow the Secretary of State to make grants to individuals who signed off on raising any money. The Con for this is that it is a trick. It raises taxes with no accountability for the expense. It also allows politicians to raise money from special interest groups. NO. Hell, NO.
Proposition 16 imposes a two thirds voter approval for the establishment of local public electricity providers. NO. This is sponsored by the power companies and make it almost impossible for municipalities to build their own power facilities as the City of Los Angeles does. The private companies have spent millions on this campaign. NO. Fuck NO.
Proposition 17 allows auto insurance companies to base their prices in part on a drivers history of insurance coverage. No. This is sponsored by a big insurance company so they can raise insurance premiums as much as a thousand dollars on new customers after an initial switch over from another company discount. NO. I am a member/customer of AAA.
The candidates are the candidates. I voted for Brown as Democratic candidate for Governor, Gavin Newsome as Lt. Governor and Boxer for Senator. I want to see Boxer clean Fiorina's clock! If she is the Rep-nom.
I voted for the Hispanic, the female and the new face (sometimes all in one candidate) for any office I didn't know about. I skipped two because I had no idea at all.
I am all for the amateur Latino women to take over the State.
There were a lot of unopposed candidates. I voted for them anyway.
That is it. The ballot is in the mail with the usual worry that I did something that would invalidate it. There is a hole in the envelope and, somehow, I think that maybe there is something I am supposed to do about that but I can't find anything about it so I didn't do anything but look through it. Worries like that.
The primary date is June 8th so I have plenty of time to await results.
Labels: election
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
AN ENQUIRING MIND ASKS
From Steve Benen, the Political Animal:Michael Kinsley had an interesting thought this week: "Now that the sex lives of Supreme Court justices have become grist for commentators, we are finally free to discuss a question formerly only whispered about in the shadows: Why does Justice Antonin Scalia, by common consent the leading intellectual force on the Court, have nine children? Is this normal? Or should I say 'normal,' as some people choose to define it? Can he represent the views of ordinary Americans when he practices such a minority lifestyle? After all, having nine children is far more unusual in this country than, say, being a lesbian."
Labels: christist watch, republican whack jobs
CAUGHT IN THE PARK
Another republican hypocrite got his dick caught in a scandal today.
Report: Souder And Mistress Allegedly Frequented State Parks
Just the kind thing that finger pointers like him would accuse gay men of doing. We call it "the bushes". No not that bush. Or that one either!
This guy is a family values guy. And one of the staunchest supporters of abstinence education.
What is it with them?
And he is an ugly fucker as well. Pun intended.
Labels: christist watch, republican whack jobs
FAMILY
Today's movie was the documentary
This is a basketball story but you do not have to know shit about basketball because it isn't really about that. Somehow they convey the thrill of it without the boredom and do not ask more of me than I sit and watch the wonder of growing boys at play.
I am drawn to documentaries where the work started a long time ago and as life turned out the work came to fruition in a great story.
This is a story of the five kids who started playing together because they had nothing else to do, their coach who changed from football to basketball because his son wanted him to and a team that went on to become national champions. The group also happened to include Le Bron James. The superstar.
What luck for the makers.
What skill to tell a human interest story that transcends sport, race, cliché and manages to avoid the pitfalls of the myth of sports as a maker of men.
These are basically homeless kids except for the coach's son who is too short to play in any team.
They form a family together.
The construction of the story is very skillfully done. And warmly.
These people have faults. You can see them. They have troubles, we get to share them for a short while.
Very good. The whole thing could not be done better with a fictionalized story.
I would happily see it again. that makes it a 4 out of Netflix5. And I still don't know shit about basketball.
Labels: films
Monday, May 17, 2010
FIRST SIGHTING
Booker and I were walking and this guy with a clipboard comes roaring toward us full speed.
He was big.
And he had a "census taker" hat on. I like the "because you exist" part. I don't think that it's a joke. Well, it is but I mean not a satirical thing.
Does the government have a sense of humor? His hat was red. Maybe this photo is a fake.
I was surprised to see this guy. A live sighting. My first.
As it happens, a friend of mine is doing the census and I did not really have an impression of him walking along with a clipboard.
I more saw him driving up tp a house, getting out and going up to the door. Perhaps a pit bull grabbing at his pants although he says this has not happened yet.
Most people are nice.
But the guy Booker and I saw did not have a car. He was humping. Going to the next place I guess.
It is true that the neighborhood is filled with apartments (transient) and condos (stayed put) so he had to walk to all the doors.
They subdivide the city into a grid and put most people to work in their own neighborhood. A good thing perhaps. Maybe not.
There is training. They have a quota. 20 names per week I think. It doesn't sound like much until you start realizing how many people are not at home or are uncooperative. Also, they are to be part time so they can't work more than 20 hours.
Each interview takes up to 3/4 hour. Wow.
My friend has done OK. No antagonists. No right wing nuts refusing to be counted. No pit bulls.
My friend does not have a hat.
He has even made some acquaintances in the neighborhood and has seen some of the people since he counted them.
So, they are out there doing it and I saw one on his route.
Happy counting.
Labels: life
MASTER CLASS ON GOOGLE STREET VIEW SHENANIGANS
Done right.
Thanks to The Daily What.
How did they know it was going by?
Labels: fun
DON'T FUCK WITH PEOPLE WHO FUCK WITH THE BAGGERS
I missed this but I like the guy's balls to fight back.
And all his friends.
Labels: republican whack jobs
CHANGE ARTIST
Today's movie was the documentary
in which a writer undertakes to live for one year without making an impact on the environment.
I know. It sounds dull and ploddy and preachy and it is not. It is delightful.
If he does it, so must his wife and daughter. The talk between the two adults is priceless. Wife is not so enthusiastic. She actually has to withdraw from caffeine and retail dependence at the same time! But there are also other issues.
I am sure we do not see all of it but there is enough to illuminate these young people and their commitment to one another and their community.
We meet some more interesting people along the way. A Village activist socialist who is the only vegetable gardener in the community garden. Everyone else grows flowers!
A family that lives in total independence on the land in upstate New York. And so on.
This film is beautifully paced and it is funny. They guy reads out the really nasty flamers on his blog and in response to a really snarky NYTimes article.
We see him being interviewed. And we see him being taken seriously.
It is very good. I would see it again any time. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
The very dead serious message about this is that it shows a lot of the fallacy of recycling and other gestures to the world problem. Even if we do what we can and even if we would go as far as No Impact Man it is not enough. Institutional and governmental change is critical. We are dying. Will we do what we need to do?
Labels: films
Sunday, May 16, 2010
GROUNDED
We have covers for our living room skylight. They need to be taken down in the fall and put back up in the spring to block the sun halfway.
This means getting on a ladder and climbing up.
I think that I reported that I was self grounded two year ago. I got up there and I felt "funny" and I really didn't want to come down and I got shakey on the rungs and, as my feet hit the ground, I said "never again". And it has been that way for me.
Last fall, John reached the same conclusion.
The day that happened a young friend was here and he said that there was "no reason for you guys to do that". He and his partner would come and do the job.
And so they did just the other week and they did it without any serious instruction from us.
In the fall, they will also clean out the gutters to get ready for the winter "rains".
And we will stay on the ground. Feet firmly planted. End of an era.
BROTHERLY LOVE
Today's film was Christophe Honore's
Dans Paris / Inside Paris (2007).
Two brothers and other family members. The beginning is the mental breakdown of one brother in a breakup with his lover and her son. It is chaotic.
He comes home to his father and brother who take him in and begin, in their way, to help him heal.
The means are quite traditional but the methods are very contemporary.
And very French, I suppose, although I read it very clearly.
Honoré embellishes the story, towards the end with a quiet singing between the two estranged lovers. A foretaste of his wonderful film Love Songs which I watch from time to time because it feels so good.
This story feels good too, eventually. A very sweet closure although I am not sure I should say that as it seems necessary to go through the angsts to get to the good feelings.
I enjoyed it very much and would not mind seeing it again at all.
That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.
I am heading to see two more Honoré films in the next few days.
Labels: films
ABLOOM
Our yucca plants out front have burst into bloom. And not just one per plant. This year we have three bloom stems for each yucca.
The blooms do seem to burst. The first indication that they are coming is a stem that shoots out of each branch over just days. Then little branches grow on the stem and, before you know it, flowers all over.
They go as fast as they come but while they are here they are showstoppers. People ooh and aah. So do I.
In the same patch, we have the ocotillo doing its annual show.
It started green leaves about a month ago and then slowly put out blossoms at the tip which soon burst into bright orange color.
Another short show.
Somehow the infrequency of the bloom on this cactus (hard woody stems, long and tough) add to the excitement of its arrival. Something about the less we have, the more we want.
Neither of these plants actually belong in this elevation of desert. They are more high desert plants. The yucca has done well here. When it first came, we had asked for and thought that it was a joshua tree.
The joshua trees are also yuccas, but we are told that the joshua tree would not grow down here. It likes the cold weather too much to give it up. Besides, the space the plant would have had is too limited for the reach of the tree.
Labels: desert, horticulture
CLOSED INTO ITSELF
More about Facebook. This time about its retrogressive character and lack of open access.
World’s Largest Social Network: The Open Web
in which the reporters point out that the World Wide Web is the social network and that Facebook is a poor encapsulation of it.
Facebook users remind me of the people who used to belong to CompuServe and AOL. Even I once belonged to Compuserve.
We were fed a predigested diet of news and other bits of the web in a kind of safe form so that we didn't have to venture out in the cold clear air of the web itself.
Sooner or later most of us got the picture and took the leap into faith and space and gave up our "memberships", a nice word for cash flow. It took me months to sever the account and then only with the aid of American Express.
Now, Facebook is looking inward and holding on to its members by offering games and limited internet access. No wonder it is mostly teenagers and people who have been "afraid" of the 'net.
As I have been pointing out, they have something else to be afraid of as Facebook mines their personal data and steals their friends.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
YOU CAN TAKE BOY OUT OF PENNSYLVANIA BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE PENNSYLVANIA OUT OF THE BOY
I am still interested in politics there. My birth state.
I was once a campaign treasurer handling lots of anonymous money for a particular candidate. I worried for years that they would come and get me, the patsy in the deal.
Last election cycle, purely by "chance", I ended up making all my calls for Obama to the Keystone State. So they can't take me out of there either.
Interesting to see that the old fox Arlen Specter is about to get his ass kicked by Sestak.
Obama supported Specter because the fox vacated the GOP and voted with the Demos a few times.
When Sestak wins the primary on Tuesday, maybe, it will take a heartbeat to seal the small wound and have Obama hugging the nominee. No one will look back. Except, maybe, ol' Arlen. He may have finally cheated on his last game of cards.
I am an old admirer of the slithery Arlen who was once a Democrat, then defected to the GOP, now back again. He is a horrible hack but interesting to watch.
I started watching when I lived "in" Philadelphia for a few years in the late fifties.
Labels: Administration Obama, election, Pennsylvania
NOT BUSH LEAGUE PLAYERS
Today, Steven Chu, the Energy Secretary, "signaled" no confidence in the efforts of BP to heal the spill and appointed a team of scientists to move in on the task force currently flailing in the Gulf.
When All Else Fails, Bring in the Scientists
The nut of it is that this administration plays an entirely different game. Not only have they had a superb emergency response, they have the guns to move in on the perps and take over if they have to.
There is a funny story in here about Chu actually knowing something about gamma rays. Imagine. A bureaucrat who knows about, gasp, gamma rays.
To say nothing of having a scientist as a Cabinet Secretary.
This is what he was talking about. Gamma rays coursing through his and the reporter's head as they spoke.
Labels: Administration Obama, science
CHEAP DATE
Today's movie was the gaysploitation, direct to DVD
This is of a class of cheap films made for a gay audience that panders, panders, panders. It is soap opera. With some skin thrown in for titillation but not much.
I don't know why I rent them. In hope of finding a good one? Maybe.
If I wanted porn, it is right here on my computer downloaded and ready to go. And some of it is quite dramatically satisfying. Not that plot is the point in porn.
If I want erotica, there is more in yesterday's Frears' film or the one the day before with the hets doing their thing very sexily. With grace, dignity and good acting.
This genré movie adds in the East Side of LA story of gay gentrification in the Latino section of town. So it is a culture clash film on top of a coming out film.
There is a hero and a round of defective friends, relatives and boyfriends.
Dreary and totally unrealistic.
We get to view other people's racism, homophobia, eating disorders, alcoholism and what not. There is even "underachieving" to say nothing of mother fixation.
And, sadly, very little love or, for that matter, sex. At least not any that is attractive.
I am going to take the pledge and quit ordering this kind of thing.
The review said "better than average for this kind of thing". That is not "better" enough.
What astounds me is that the movie business is made up of at least 50% gay people. You would think that a few of them could come up with a decent queer B film.
I ran it ahead with FF so it is a 1 out of Netflix5. I didn't even look for the faux sex. It was so faux it wasn't worth calibrating the remote.
Labels: films
