esrosedotblog

WHAT, ME RACIST?

Here is the ultimate rundown of the unravelling of white America over its not-white President.

I know that a lot of people don't want to see racism behind a lot of the shit that goes on but this will help you get over your denial. The opening para alone is worth the trip.

White America Has Lost Its Mind

Of course, no one wants to be a racist. So, remember. What we are talking about is behavior.

I gave this lecture awhile ago.

If you are with someone who uses the N-word or says something really stupid about our President that has a tinge of the race bait about it, point it out as racist commentary. Do not accuse anyone of being a racist. No one is. Not anyone who you would say that to.

The wide open racists will probably not be worth having within your designated area. It is the marginals, the innocent, who need to see what they are saying and putting out is racist.

And so on.

Labels: Barack Obama, race, republican whack jobs

WHITEBOARD

So many people don't get the issues around the continuation of Bush' tax cuts.

My man Austan Goosbee gives it a try and does a great job.

Labels: Administration Obama

ALL UNHAPPY FAMILIES ARE NOT THE SAME

Today's film was Kiyoshi Kurosawa's

TOKYO SONATA (2008)

A salary man loses his job and, through shame does not tell his wife or two sons. He goes to "work" every day with many other unemployed men who are in the same situation.

There is another film we saw with this same starting idea but this film does not plow the same ground.

In this one, Kurosawa shows us how each family member has a repressed goal or idea or role to play and has stifled it.

We begin to see beneath the surface as the sons begin to rebel however slightly and then take action for themselves despite the parent's opposition.

Each of the four characters reach a crisis point. Which liberates them.

This is a fine film. The ensemble acting of the family members is beautiful to watch. Kurosawa has a deft hand with the camera. It is unobtrusive but all seeing.

Somewhere in the final third, the film runs off the track that it seemed to be on. There are somewhat wild happenings which almost challenge our credibility but Kurosawa keeps control and we get through the chaos to the other side.

The final scenes are beautiful. Peaceful.

The whole is like a sonata.

A two theme piece which intertwines the musical, or dramatic, ideas and comes out with the sum greater than the parts.

I enjoyed this film. The time flew.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 with a promise to look for Kurosawa's next film when it comes out.

Labels: films

CLEARING AWAY THE BRUSH

Last Thursday, I did a lot of trimming around the back patio. Our plants. Within the border.

A big part of the trim was the encroaching grapefruit tree from the dividing wall--right over the line but neither my neighbor's or mine.

It was at the end of a good deal of work and I was tired and vulnerable to my lazy side so I got a brainstorm.

Watch out for brainstorms.

I called the complex manager and asked if he could bend the rules some and have the gardeners take away the big hard to trim and bag branches. We are supposed to do that. The gardeners have a routine and are not available for private work unless contacted directly then they do it off line and we pay them something for it.

The manager asked a few questions, reminded me of the policy and said that he would make an exception and tell the gardeners to pick the stuff up the next day. Tell them the next day. Not necessarily to pick them up the next day.

So I waited. And waited. A week.

The branches were still there.

By yesterday or the day before, I was able to admit to myself that I had, one more time, tried to get away with something, be entitled, get over or get around a rule or an authority.

The workability of such maneuvers has been obvious to me for a long time and I thought that I was over it. In this case passive aggressive. Ignore the "order".

So. I am back to basic principles here. Take responsibility for yourself and do the work you generate. Clean as you go. Don't try to con others. Don't be selfish. All that.

I am not against rule breaking when the motive is "right". But that is not the case here. I would get no support from my neighbors on this or, for that matter, even a disinterested observer.

And I did it without one iota of consciousness that I was trying to do what I was trying to do.

The world works when we follow the rules and the world was not working. I thought first, still a bit entitled, about calling the manager back and telling them they hadn't done the work. In other words I would repeat the same behavior and expect different results.

I considered going to the gardener directly and talked to him about trimming our trees out front and, incidentally, asking about the derelict branches. Another con job and, not only that, it is too early to prune the trees. Too hot.

Then yesterday, I just relaxed. I decided to go and cut the branches up, bag them and put them at the curb like everyone else.

In the end, the job was not nearly as bad as I had imagined the first day. It took about 15 minutes. The garbage men came in time for me to get one of three bags onto their truck. And, get this. I had the time because the power went out this morning at 530 in our neighborhood and I had no diversions. No blog. No news. No email. No, well, anything but to do what was in front of me.

It is done.

I feel good.

The manager will forget about this. Even I will forget about the incident but, I hope, not the lesson.

It is the same one I got from my Dad. Clean as you go. Clean up your own mess. Don't fuck with other people or they will fuck with you.

Later I learned how this kind of stuff builds resentments in relationships and clogs the arteries of social intercourse.

I try to pull a fast one and the other rebels or refuses or doesn't respond at all, I get pissed and push harder and then, war.

So some character building occurred this week. Some old repairs and a new lesson about this group living in a condo association. Follow the fucking rules.

Labels: life, spiritual life

UNDER THE WEATHER

We have had two days of cloudy weather. Moisture up from the Baja. It is not a monsoon but there is some ground humidity.

I am so used to seeing the sun now that this feels oppressive.

On the other hand, the mornings have been spectacular. The clouds clear a bit during the night and give us a show in the early sunrise.

I have missed going to the pool two days in a row. Will my tan last?

Jeez. I went years without worrying about a tan and wasn't very. Now, since we moved and I go over for a swim and lie out for 20 minutes, I have a tan and I am worrying if it will fade.

Always obsessive. If a thing is worth doing it is worth doing intensely.

No. I do not slather that chemical shit on my body.

That is worse than the UV and is mostly fake.

When I was in Boston and had a dematologist she was all in favor of sun on the body within reason. I had some chronic dermatitis and the sun killed it.

Why do people think that some manufactured, mass produced product loaded with chemicals is good to put on their body and leave there?

I don't know. You tell me.

Labels: health, weather

NOSTALGIA

Today's film was

My Favorite Year (1982)

with Peter O'Toole and Mark Linn-Baker.

This is a nostalgia movie about the 50s made 30 years ago in the 80s. I saw it when it came out and I wanted to see it again.

That is a lot of nostalgia.

The story is basically about how a lowly writer on a live comedy show baby-sits the alcoholic guest star for the rehearsal week and the final show.

It is based on the experiences of Mel Brooks who had the job of wrangling Errol Flynn for the Sid Caesar show.

It is very funny. Directed by Richard Benjamin.

O'Toole plays the star and it is pretty close to type casting.

This movie introduced Mark Linn-Baker. In those days they got an "Introducing" line at the bottom of the credits even though he was the star. A bright young comedic actor. He was on more than O'Toole but he didn't go much further than being "introduced". He is still working but has had a smallish career.

I like the film because it shows some backstage stuff to a favorite show when I was a kid. Sid Caesar was/is a great comic. The shows were chaotic and a little crazy because of all the wild energy found in live performance. They were always over the top.

Unlike SNL, they were not overly rehearsed. They had an on-the-edge quality. You expected the scenery to fall over and sometimes it did.

There is another film about this called Laughter on the 23d Floor. I may have to get it.

I will give this a 3 out of Netflix5. It is not likely to pass my way again.

Labels: films

ENERGIZING

If my email in basket is any indication, the Democrats and the left are getting energized.

I am not just getting stuff from the Obamas and the DNC but I am also getting the more progressive people like ActBlue and Daily Kos.

I am getting videos.

The local race for Representative is hot, hot, hot.

Now. Are these voters getting energized? Or is it just the pot stirrers?

I don't know but I do know that when the pot gets stirred it often works.

I have been invited to go to a GOTV (get out the vote) seminar or take the course on line. I have not done so.

I might still sign up. For now, it is money. A monthly commitment plus I helped them make their August quota--self declared.

It is all good.

Labels: Democrats, politic

TOTAL COMFORT

We have been in the new home for three months now.

I was reflecting this morning on how comfortable it seems to me.

I realized that a lot of this comes from the fact that this particular space enfolds all our important stuff that we have accumulated into its own design. It makes all the parts into a new whole.

We have always been comfortable. Even when we lived with rented furniture in an apartment before moving out here. But this is different.

I am sure that it has to do with me and where I am at but I think that there is also something about the design of our place. Its height, 13 feet. Its light. Several clerestory windows. Its layout. Just uses every inch and somehow makes all our art and possessions stand out.

There is also a flow to activities. No retraced steps. Good design.

We are also located in a quiet corner with good neighbors. We feel secure outside as well as inside.

I suppose that, with time, there will be some glitches show up. Some sore spots. But so far, no. Not yet. Only total comfort.

Labels: condo, home

STANDUP

I am watching the first big rally at the University of Wisconsin. He has a folk singer for the opener. Ben Harper. Not bad.

Here is what he said to Rolling Stone about those on the left who are thinking of sitting this election out.

Just what I think about it.

It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election. There may be complaints about us not having gotten certain things done, not fast enough, making certain legislative compromises. But right now, we've got a choice between a Republican Party that has moved to the right of George Bush and is looking to lock in the same policies that got us into these disasters in the first place, versus an administration that, with some admitted warts, has been the most successful administration in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward.

....If we want the kind of country that respects civil rights and civil liberties, we'd better fight in this election. And right now, we are getting outspent eight to one by these 527s that the Roberts court says can spend with impunity without disclosing where their money's coming from. In every single one of these congressional districts, you are seeing these independent organizations outspend political parties and the candidates by, as I said, factors of four to one, five to one, eight to one, 10 to one.

We have to get folks off the sidelines. People need to shake off this lethargy, people need to buck up. Bringing about change is hard — that's what I said during the campaign. It has been hard, and we've got some lumps to show for it. But if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place.

If you're serious, now's exactly the time that people have to step up.

Labels: Barack Obama

MANEUVERS

Today's film was the late Cristian Monescu's

California Dreamin' (2007)

with Armand Arsante and Jamie Elman along with a host of Romanian actors too good to be left out of the billing but, well, they aren't known to us.

Assante is one of those actors you have seen over and over and do not remember his name. He is great.

Here he is the commander of a small detail of US/NATO soldiers taking a top secret piece of equipment through Romania and on to Kosovo (Clinton is President).

The small train gets sidetracked when a local, corrupt station master demands the paper work which they do not have. The station master also has a thing about Americans which we get to see in WWII flashbacks.

The station master has a daughter who is hot and restless. She and the young sergeant get it on.

The town is a backwater. The arrival of the Americans is a great opportunity. For what, no one seems to know.

This is all a set up for a tragedy or a comedy or both and that is what we have in this ingenious first feature by the young director who died in an auto accident before he was actually finished with the film. It is still a bit longish.

But that gives us plenty of time to relish the country side, the bumpkins who aren't all that bumkinish and the many culture clashes that ensue.

It is high not low comedy.

Very good.

Romantic interests, wartime love. The corruption and power of a small town thug who has a heart. Sympathy for the villain.

Very complicated.

Asante, as the frustrated commander, keeps stirring the pot almost unwittingly on long settled town intrigues and power balances.

As he blunders into territory which he has no idea nor comprehension of he provides a gentle analogy to US interventions in places like this.

There are a lot of layers. It is a very good film.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5 with a promise to see it again someday when I have my Romanian film fest.

Labels: films

THIS IS GRAPHICS DAY

Genki Sudo and his World Order entourage perform the retired mixed martial artist’s signature faux-slow-motion “entrance dance” to a mesmerizing song off their self-titled debut, aptly titled “Mind Shift.”

I copied this word for word and picture for picture from The Daily What.

Labels: dancing, music

LEXICON

I have never said "fucking stochastic" although I have thought it. I just didn't know I could use that word for "random".

But maybe all the others. Even "fucking ineffable". In my more airy fairy years. Artsy fartsy. Light in the loafers.

Labels: fun, language

GRAFFITI REVISION

One, two, three. From top to bottom.

Labels: fun

I HAVE ALREADY RESERVED THIS ON NETFLIX

The Coen Brothers and Jeff Bridges reunite and bring along Josh Brolin and Matt Damon. Jeez.

A remake of True Grit

Yeh. I don't usually watch remakes. Wanna make something of it?

UNPOTTED

We have two pots on either side of the back patio.

I want to put something perennial in there.

Problem is that three or four months out of the year the sun peaks over the roof there so the pots are in bright shade half the time and sun the rest.

There is always the two plantings a year solution.

But I am looking for the flexible plant that can handle both things.

So far the ficus is the only thing that comes close.

Any ideas?

Labels: horticulture

TWO IN A ROW

I am aware that I have seen two films in succession which are wild kick ass thrillers and feature two men and insignificant women. Both have more than a tinge of the homoerotic as they are buddy films but buddy films with a wink.

Almost all buddy films have a queer subtext.

I know that most people don't see this or care but it is a sort of closety satisfaction to see it unfold as it has over the last fifty years. Or more. I am only talking about the films that I have seen.

Some have involved cross dressing. Tootsie and Some Like it Hot

Some are in the form of musicals. The national song book of gay men.

And, of course, there is the western.

Film noir? Absolutely. When Adolph Menjou and Humphrey Bogart stroll off together in Casablanca a million closet queens silently cheered.

I do not mean to point out that all buddy movies are gay-ish. I do not find the Paul Newman, Robert Redford films at all homo-erotic. Perhaps the opposite. And that is fine.

Clint Eastwood? Never had a buddy.

John Wayne. Well, I can tell you that I found Red River riveting every time I saw it. Montgomery Clift and the old man have a bond that goes beyond mentor and student, father and son.

In the same way that most gay men have superb gaydar about other men, they also have it around the movies that they see and see again.

Try those sailors in On the Town.

Of course Frank Sinatra was straight but he was sexy across the board until he aged out of it. Gene Kelly? Hmmm. Rumors. Jules Munshin? The jury is out.

But that is not the point. It is the direction, the acting, the closeups and the banter. The actual orientation of the actor is secondary. Or totally unimportant.

End of lecture.

Tomorrow's Romanian comedy is relentlessly heterosexual.

Labels: films

RULE BREAKER

Today's film was Patrick Allesandron and Luc Besson's

District 13: Ultimatum (2009)

This is a sequel to the beloved District 13 (2004) which I have seen several times and will, almost certainly, see again.

As always, the sequel is thinner. Why? Same writer, director, stars. David Belle who invented parkour and shows some great stunts here as well as his buddy Cyril Raffaelli. Belle plays a "rebel" leader in the sealed off District and Raffaelli is a cop. They have great chemistry together. More than a lot of romantic duos.

The formula is pretty much the same. We see both guys do a routine separately and then circumstances bring them together for the main caper.

It must be in their contracts or, perhaps, the creators are holding us off from what we all want to see which is their working together. Very nice. Actually, they are great alone too.

This is all action. Don't look for much in the way of new situations here. It is all character. The bad guys are mostly good. The good guys are mostly bad.

This is a sequel that starts with very strong characters and premise from the first film and succeeds on its own. It is only by comparison that it seems weaker. Comparisons are odious, huh?

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. The first one has all fives and, when I watch it again which I almost certainly will, I will run them together.

Labels: films

NO SHIT SHERLOCK

I just finished watching Guy Ritchie's

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

It was great fun.

Not your father's Sherlock. It is actually old wine in new bottles.

The newest bottle is Robert Downey who, in his charming way, deconstructs Doyle'e detective and makes him his own.

I did not know that this was based on a comic book story. I thought perhaps Ritchie figured this out for himself. But it works. Whoever figured on the Holmes remake.

Jude Law is droll as Watson and the rumors of homoerotic threads between the leads is there to see if you want it to be there. It is at least a "bromance". The two work together wonderfully well. Watson is taken out of the straight man role and placed more as a good partner.

There are villains and women and various chicaneries but the main show is the deductive reasoning and the clever use of slo-mo to let us see things like Sherlock's martial art. Normally this stuff happens too fast to really get. This way is better.

The review at the link is from The Tech (Thee-long e-Tech), MIT's student newspaper. They liked the science and engineering and so did I.

There is a lot of tech in here but the crucial clues are a little extreme for us to believe as they rely on a kind of bribery that is very hard to pull off. Nevertheless. These things should not deter us from having a good time.

And we are teased to enjoy the prospect of a sequel, This would be against my rules to see but given the enjoyment of this one might tempt me in the exception. Good luck to them. Franchises usually suck.

I would not mind seeing it again. That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

HE HEARD ME

Apropo of the comments I made this morning, it looks as though Jerry Brown heard me!

The ad is called "Serious".

And he is.

I like the "this stage of my life" part. No axes to grind. An elder statesman. But vigorous in the presentation. He has a great voice.

He just won my vote. I was so close to voting for smiley meg the millionaire.

Labels: California, Democrats, politics

PULLING AWAY

Apparently by spending millions of her own dollars, or their own dollars, to buy the election, both Whitman and Fiorina have only convinced the California citizenry of their incompetence to govern.

Brown leads Whitman 49%-44% in poll

Or maybe it is something else entirely. Like that phony grin of Whitman's. A grimace really.

Or Carly's total self regard and lack of humility.

I was surprised by this result because, as I have written, I don't think Jerry Brown has been trying very hard. H is an old California pol. He knows the lay of the land a lot better than I do.

Boxer, on the other hand, has attacked Fiorina with the yacht and jets ad which paints Carly as an entitled princess which, of course, she is.

In actual fact, Fiorina is improving Boxer's position every time she opens her mouth.

Also interesting here is that the two GOoPer campaigns have diverged. Different positions on various issues.

It is said that the women do not like each other at all.

Well, neither is likable. It figures.

As I like to remind myself, there is a long period of time between now and November 2d. Anything could happen.

Fiorina could get just a smidgeon of humility and Whitman might run out of money.

Labels: California, politics, polls

ABBREVIATED HORTICULTURE

I didn't mention that on the trip to the nursery and thence to Lowes, I did not get two things I wrote about.

No petunias. No Bird of Paradise.

Sometimes the Universe cancels my vote for me.

In this case, it came about that it is still too hot for petunias. October. I fail to remember this every year. I was also reminded that petunias often fail in the winter when and if it really gets cold. And finally, John fessed up to not liking petunias. We have "always" had them.

So it is chrysanthemums which Lowes had for 3 bucks today and they looked great. I didn't get any though because I was at the end of my gardening rope for the day.

I will go over Monday and fetch them.

The birds? No. The woman at the nursery suggested I not plant in the bed of horsetails but let them be. Maybe even take the bird that is there out.

They had some magnificent horsetails that were six feet tall!

Man, I would like to get that way. But probably not in our scope. She says "lots of water". OK.

This is a lousy photo. They don't ever photograph well.

Labels: garden, horticulture

MYTHOLOGY

I have been adding up the erroneous memes perpetrated by the MSM (main stream media, you know, the one that Palin keeps pissing about).

And how wrong they are. Here is a small recap fresh out of the oven.

Shocker: Media narrative about health reform is wrong again

It turns out that the GOoPers idea of flushing the Affordable Care Act is totally unpopular. The thing is that while a plurality of people are not satisfied with the Act, that is because a lot of them are Democrats, Independents and just plain folks who don't think it went far enough and are still pissed about it.

Asked if it should be eliminated, the answer was an emphatic "no"! People want it fixed and built into a more comprehensive plan.

This just adds to the misapprehensions promoted by a lazy media. There is the one about Obama's sinking popularity. No it is not. And the preference for Republicans in the generic ballot. No there is none.

See the charts.

I liked Obama's line today. The new Republican "Pledge" is nothing but an "echo of a disastrous decade".

The other day I saw one of the promoters of the pledge asked if he could name one thing he would cut from the budget. He couldn't name anything specifically. Or even generally. They are a bankrupt concern.

Labels: Administration Obama, media, republican whack jobs

BOTANICAL EXCURSION

My husband is going to call in a few minutes to let me know he is on his way.

He will pick Booker and me up and we are going out to lunch at the local Panera which is in a failed shopping center and, therefore, under-attended. It is one of the few fast food places that I will go. The food is healthy and good and the service is fast. They bring the stuff to the table. You can sit outside. Which means that Booker can be with us. Did I mention that the people are nice too?.

Then we are going on down Valley to Moller's Garden Center to pick up some plants for the courtyard (front) and patio (rear) of the condo.

Mollers is an upscale nursery which has a larger variety, healthier specimens and all around more enjoyable surroundings than the other alternatives. Lowes. Homo Depot.

And they are locally owned.

Sure it costs more but it is worth it.

We need a bevy of small potted cacti for a table that was given to us in the courtyard. And another collection of "regular" plants for a second table that we brought with us and has always been meant as a potting table because that is what it is.

I won't be potting on it but there will be potted plants.

I am also going to get two bird of paradise plants to match the one that sits smack in the middle right of the horse tail bed against the house.

I cut down all the scraggly horse tails. To the ground. I read that will encourage rooting and new sprouting and the new stalks will not try to be gargantuan. Merely tall.

The bird plants will help fill in the empty space which now yawns there although not too badly. We could almost leave it alone.

For the patio, remember, in the rear, there will be plain old petunias for pots, big ones, that were already here for us to use.

I have been doing a lot of pruning and cleaning up. It is now cool enough that will not stress the plants.

I cut away a huge encroaching grapefruit limb from the neighbor's side which had all but overcome an old, beautiful hibiscus.

I am waiting for the HOA gardeners to drag the limb away. I called and feigned ignorance about the policy. You are supposed to dispose of your own cuttings in the trash. The Super bought it or, more likely, granted me a one-time wish and says they will take the limb away. It is still there but I am patient.

OOPS! John just called. We will finish this later.

OK. We have been to Panera (very hot today and had to ask for the misters to be put on) then to Mollers where we got succulents and cacti.

As it happened, we didn't have enough cactus so I went to Lowes.

You really cannot tell the difference and they are the same price. Maybe Mollers isn't really worth the drive except that you get great advice and help.

Here are the two tables. Left and right.

And that is the whole afternoon.

Labels: condo, garden, horticulture

THE RACE IS ON

Will The Congress or The Federal Judiciary be responsible for the demise of DADT?

Margaret Witt, Air Force Major Discharged Under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' Ordered Reinstated

"Today you have won a victory in that struggle, the depth and duration of which will be determined by other judicial officers and hopefully soon the political branches of government," the judge told her, choking up as he recalled Witt's dramatic testimony about her struggles.

Further that the policy itself violates first amendment rights as well as others.

Why it has taken so long for these suits to churn through the system is a mystery. One thing is that it takes money and guts to take this as far as it needs to be taken.

Another is that the judicial path had to be found that would break through the barriers constructed originally by Congress.

it has been a long, hard and rewarding road.

Labels: gay military, gay politics, gay rights

NOT FUNNY

I saw some of this cringe inducing performance.

Colbert Knocks Democrats Off Message

I have been uncomfortable with Colbert's schtick from the beginning.

His faux wing nut personna is confusing and, often, not funny.

I hated the monologue that he did at the National Press Club a few years ago to embarrass George Bush.

Today's performance might have been a useful event had he stuck to the plan and talked about his actual day with immigrant workers in a straightforward way.

Or maybe he didn't really spend that day.

Not one of his lines hit the mark. As far as I am concerned they were all clunkers.

And now, he and Jon Stewart are going to try to one up Glen Beck with National Mall events.

Get this guy out of serious discourse.

George S. Kaufman, a successful and witty playwright said "satire is what closes on Saturday night".

Today it closed in a few minutes in the congressional hearing.

I would be glad never to see this guy again. He is trying to take advantage of the already nasty rhetoric on the left. By pretending being on the nasty right.

I had thought about putting the video of his appearance on my blog but I am so pissed I don't want to give it space.

Labels: comedy

UNIVERSAL CONVERGENCE AND DVD JUNK

So one of the reasons that I quit going to the real movies, other than the stink of popcorn and the yapping of people, is the previews and ads. Goddam ads! Over 20 minutes of it.

So now, today, I look forward to seeing Sherlock Holmes (2009) and, at the start, I get shanghaied into preview hell.

It will not stop. It will not go to the menu. It will not skip.

Relentless.

They took fucking 20 minutes of my life, the shits. Warner Brothers. Bastards.

So, I let it run, got it to the menu and stopped.

Now, I can go back Sunday (tomorrow is booked) and see the film from the menu on.

Another reason to not watch Hollywood "product". Cocksuckers. Ooops. That isn't an epithet we use around here. Actually can be a compliment.

They don't want people to pirate or copy their stuff and so they do shit like this.

Now you might wonder what the rant is about. It is about my schedule. I have a nap, have lunch and at noon launch the movie. It ends at two or earlier most days. Then I move on to the next thing. Scheduled. Routine.

I don't have time for fucking previews.

None.

That is my story today.

Now, having said that, I have to admit that, just about the time I hit the actual menu, I had two phone calls that I would not have wanted to miss. One took half an hour to unravel.

So maybe I wasn't supposed to see the movie today.

I am OK with that. Providence. Karma. The Universe in action.

But why the fuck did I have to endure 20 minutes of previews to get me off the film watching and available for a phone call. Since, truth, if I had been launched into Robert Downey and Jude Law I wouldn't have answered the phone until 2PM which would have been too late to have been of help.

Couldn't the Universe just have sent me a note? A text message? No. It had to be previews.

Labels: films

JUNK MAIL GENERATOR

You want junk mail?

Then move.

We are getting loads. All my work, over the years to wipe it out, for naught.

I am willing to work my way up the mountain again though.

Everything we get, I send the biz reply with a request to take us off the list.

If there is a free postage envelope then, OK. If not, I send it back without a stamp or return address. They will have to pay anyway.

In the email world, answering is not recommended. It only tells them that you are alive. But real mail is different. It is expensive and I have made it twice as expensive.

For catalogs we use Catalog Choice

Works like a charm.

Labels: life

IMAGINATION

Today's film was Terry Gilliam's

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2010)

Well. It is the usual Gilliam show. Sets that unfold like popup books, huge heads that emerge from the ground, clashes of culture.

Gilliam's style is instantly recognizable. The emerging head is as old as the Flying Circus days.

Now he has CGI to play with and play he does.

It is exhausting and must have a story with characters one cares about to hold up the scenery.

Unfortunately this is not happening here.

The Doctor is eternal and has a "daughter" who he has promised to the Devil for it. The eternist is Christopher Plummer. The Devil is Tom Waits. Posturing squared. But that is the Gilliam style.

This is the Heath Ledger final picture. Heath apparently did himself in, voluntarily or not, between the real life scenes and the CGI stuff so it makes a nice break to have the other three Heaths, Depp, Law and Farrell, fill in. It is smooth. I bet there was still a storm of rewriting.

Gilliam has always had this kind of bad luck. We saw a documentary of his first filming of a long planned film about Don Quixote with Johnny Depp and the disasters that beset those days, killing the film. Plague of locusts.

I got tired of it. I wasn't really into it from the start. Unfortunately I did FF. That takes a point off.

Normally a 1 out of Netflix5.

But for Gilliam and his fantasies I will give a 4 so 4 minus 1 equals 3. That is what I will rate this.

FED EX SOUNDS

I got a FedEx package today.

I didn't know that it had a sound life.

A recording dictaphone is placed inside a FedEx Express box and shipped from London to Helsinki in Royal College of Art graduate Lauri Warsta’s award-winning animated short, Dictaphone Parcel.

I love this kind of shit. Love the drawings.

Full screen as always please.

Labels: fun

IT IS WORKING

And the Republicans want to chip it away.

Labels: Administration Obama, health

OLD WAR STORIES

Today's movie was Roger Spottiswoode's

Under Fire (1983)

with Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman and Joanna Cassidy.

Three journalists in the middle of the end of the Nicaraguan revolution. Trying to remain objective.

This is a great movie. I saw this when it came out. I somehow remembered it the other day and ordered it up for a review.

It is as interesting now as it was in 1983. The war is made quite real with hand held and in-the-middle of action scenes. They are quite immediate and "realistic". Scary.

Of course, we have the CIA. We also have soldiers of fortune for sale to any side, Ed Harris.

It is a modern war movie. And the guerillas win!

It is as true as possible to the real history.

Since I saw it before and still like it now, it will be a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

HAPPY GEEZERS

This should please the old folks who are pissed at and scared of Obama and The Affordable Care Act.

Medicare Advantage Premiums to Fall in 2011

Since most of us vote our personal interests rather than any loftier goals this bodes well for the Obamas.

Money talks. Bullshit walks.

And the GOoPers are talking about trimming at the Act. Hah!

Labels: Administration Obama

STUDY

Today's film was

In Search of Beethoven (2009)

It is a follow on for the same kind of search for Mozart which, for some reason, is not available at Netflix while this later one is.

It is way ambitious and mostly succeeds. There are a lot of "best of" performances and interviews, talking heads, which are pretty good. The performances are sturdy.

They interweave the chronology of the music and the life which is pretty well known but there is depth here and a greater opportunity to understand Beethoven's emotional life and situation. They use his letters to good effect. We hear from his own thoughts and feelings.

Musically, it is necessarily made up of "selections" which I am against but in two hours we would only get to see and hear two or three sonatas. Snippets are essential. And they pick very good ones.

I liked it. It got a bit longish at the end and I was ready for him to die and for them to play the Ninth Symphony which, of course, is an obligatory ending.

It was thrilling and chill inducing nonetheless. He wore his soul on his sleeve. This work helps us see how much and how deeply.

I would be happy to see the film again so I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

OK GO GOES TO THE DOGS

Labels: fun. music

TV WORK OUT

I have given up in the videos in the gym.

The sets keep conking out and I finally realized that I was taking all too much energy worrying about "missing" a news show.

I go there to work out, actually, not watch the television.

This is an old complaint. It keeps coming up.

So, I have quit the teevee entirely. I have moved to the center of the stationary bike ranks where there are no television sets and I am reading a book.

As it turns out, this is far more time-melting than the televisions were. I am making good progress, now, on a novel that I enjoy very much. I do not have to fret about whether or not the set will be working and, if it is, what idiocy is pouring out of it at any particular time.

Labels: gym, reading

WAR CRIMES

Today's film was the Dutch (in English for the most part)

Storm (2009)

This is about Serbia and Kosovo and those Baltic places we don't want to hear and see much about.

It is also about the World Court at the Hague. Same thing. Know little, care less.

A great setting for a thriller. Be informed and get a strong dose of war crime trial manipulation and political intrigues while you also get a very tight thriller. Edge of the seat.

The protagonist here is a woman. A lawyer for the prosecutor's office who runs down an apparent dead end and, well, kicks up a storm.

Kerry Fox and Anamaria Marinca keep us guessing as to what will happen and how. Stephen Dillane, who I saw yesterday as a complete thug, is a bureaucrat that tries to slow them down.

I liked it a lot and would be happy to see it again.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

RECORD BROKEN

The longes kiss in history by anyone and, this time, it was two guys.

They made it with ten minutes to spare.

Very nice.

See below. I have been following this since yesterday.

Labels: gay life, gay rights

MENACE

Today's film was Malcom Venville's

44 Inch Chest (2009)

This is an ensemble piece with Ray Winstone at the center. A vehicle.

John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, Ian Macshane and others gather 'round to help their good friend punish the man who stole his wife's love.

This comes off like a play. Not a bad thing at all really.

The drama is so thick you can cut it with a knife. Very well done. Think David Mamet.

The finalé is quite good.

There are "dream" scenes.

I enjoyed it thoroughly although there is some strong language and violence. Menace.

I would see it again if it came by. That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

HISTORY

When we see the young men kissing, think of this.

There was a time in my lifetime when the act of coming out was incendiary. This is about the first gay minister. The first to come out publicly.

Haunted Man of the Cloth and Pioneer of Gay Rights

It is a sad story in some ways.

Many of the early pioneers had difficult lives.

But the glory of this life is that his coming out led to the early acceptance of gay rights by the Unitarian Church. The first denomination to do so.

James Stoll. A pioneer and forgotten trailblazer.

Labels: gay history, gay life, gay rights

24 HOURS

The young men who hope to break the Guinness kiss record have been at it now for almost 24 hours. Nine more to go.

What is surprising is that they are really into it.

It is not a passionate kiss at the ten level but it has a lot of love and physical affection in it.

They embrace, touch each others' faces, touch hips and legs.

It is very sexy.

You might ask, what is the point?

One point is that gay men cannot kiss everywhere. I don't mean that in the sense that there is disapproval. That comes for straights too. "Go get a room", kind of thing.

I mean in the physically dangerous violent reaction sense. You can get your ass kicked.

Now someone is saying "well, it isn't as bad as it used to be" or the more hateful passive aggressive "I don't mind what they do in private but there is a time and place". Meaning not now and not here and not in front of me.

These guys are going for it.

They are political activists and they understand attention. Attention is being paid.

Is this making the NYTimes? AP?

No.

Maybe it is only making a few people (now 50 in the parking lot adjacent) aware. Aware of their own feelings. Positive and negative. Aware that men do love one another enough to be in lip-lock for a very long time and enjoy it.

Maybe that this is not a choice. Sure, the display is a choice, but it has to be nature not nurture that has these guys holding on to one another so sweetly and genuinely. You can't fake it.

So. It is interesting.

This is how revolutions get made. One little step at a time.

We can't kiss everywhere. John and I hold hands, kiss goodbye and hello and do as much as we can wherever we can and don't think about it.

We are lucky. We live in a very permissive environment. And we don't give a shit what people's reaction is.

Not everyone can afford such detachment from the world around them.

Watch the video if it is still on. See some love happening.

Sure it is a stunt but the guys love it and I like watching it.

Labels: gay life, gay rights

TASTE OF THE PAST

A friend was in New Jersey this summer. At the shore. I asked him to bring me some salt water taffy when he came back home.

He did.

I had my first piece yesterday.

I can't eat it. I have partials now. Like any other old geezer, I sucked my way through the piece. Let it melt in my mouth.

Memories flooded back.

This was the real deal, incidentally. You can find what they call salt water taffy anywhere these days. But it doesn't count unless it is made on the board walk in one of the many Jersey Beach towns.

They have these big taffy pull machines. It is quite a spectacular operation.

There has to be the tang of the salt air folded into it. Of course, they don't put salt water in. It is just the air.

My Mom and Dad went "to the shore" every year from before I was born until I was about 12.

They went the week after Labor Day and stayed in a rental house, one of two, that belonged to a preacher that had served in my home town.

We went to Ocean Grove which is an old Methodist encampment, the same deal as Martha's Vineyard. There was a huge church and the town was liquor free. They closed it to autos on Sunday. Asbury Park (wild night life) was right next door and Bradley Beach on the other side (Jews) but all the towns had continuous and contiguous board walks with plenty of concessions on the Asbury side.

I used to have "utopia" dreams based on the pavilions and concessions there. The rides and carousel.

We would go to the beach every day good weather or bad and then walk the boardwalks at night. And/or go to the movies.

I saw Cagney in White Heat. The Thin Man. Others a kid probably shouldn't see. In those days, my parents would go into the movies at any time and sit through the end and then watch the next show until it came around to where they had started. Can you imagine that?

The boardwalks were wonderful.

There is a new show in HBO about Atlantic City. I read about the set they have built in LI NY with photos. It is the same thing. Perfect reproduction. Even rolling chairs to ride in along the walk. And amid the games, the greasy food and the other amusements were the taffy places.

Where we went, the taffy was long and cylindrical. The ones my friend brought back are sort of round. Bigger extrusions chopped off.

A blast from the past. All those memories. How evocative can you get than a little piece of genuine salt water taffy?

Labels: history, life

HOMONIZING

Matty Daley and Bobby Canciello, students at The College of New Jersey, attempt to break the Guinness World Record for Longest Continuous Kiss. They are doing this on their college campus.

The currently stands @ 32 hours, 7 minutes, 14 seconds.

The record has never before been held by a homosexual coupling. Matty and Bobby plan to be the first pair of men to change that. They are bent on queering the Guiness Book.

Can they do it? Visit their website for more details on the activism campaign.

There will be commercials on this live broadcast so watch out.

There is a narration. Because of the length of the livecast it is not continuous but you should turn up the sound.

At this writing they have ten hours and are expected to make the record tomorrow, Sunday, evening.

Representatives of Guiness are not there now but will be then.

Some FAQs. Matty and Bobby are not lovers. They are close friends. Bobby is in a committed relationship and his partner is part of the team.

They are not allowed to eat or go to the bathroom. For this event, they purged for four days. And so on. Go to the site.

Labels: fun, gay liberation, gay life

RIGHT WING HATE

I thought this was settled law.

But hate is never settled.

Bastards.

Montana GOP Policy: Make Homosexuality Illegal

This would bring back laws that were struck down 12 years ago.

But there it is.

And in Brokeback territory too. Of course that film was a tragedy of homo-hate and violence.

Labels: gay history, gay politics, gay rights

WHINY HEROES

Today's movie was the documentary

Tales From the Script (2009)

in which up to 50, they say, film writers talk about their craft and the process of selling and seeing a movie come to pass.

One insight that really hit home with me was that a film writer is the only writer who has his or her work cut to pieces and reassembled by someone else.

By this she meant the method of filming pieces predicated more on scene and location and then taking all those scenes and putting them back together in a coherent whole.

By that time the writer has left the scene completely although another writer learned acting and actually has appeared in a number of his own films. He studied acting to get more of a feel of the actor's view of things but ended up in the cast.

This movie is also cut up into bits and reassembled. The writers appear and reappear in different sections devoted to some aspect of the business. Each section is illustrated with a scene from an actual movie about movie writing. Some of them are hilarious. My favorite is Joan Cusack as a producer with Alec Baldwin in a film called The Last Shot.

It was fun and a bit longish. A good movie for anyone with an interest in movies to see. There are some big league people with some really minor league strugglers.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

MARKING

I am a secret admirer of graffiti.

Secret because there is a lot of disapproval surrounding the practice.

I am not fond of poor graffiti scrawled on the walls of the flood channels here or on sidewalks or buildings.

It is a public scandal and disgrace.

But there is a fuzzy line. There is good graffiti. I can't really describe it, but like pornography, I know it when I see it.

In a way, graffiti is like pornography. Transgressive and, if done "well", thrilling.

I used to relish the train ride into New York City partly because I would get to view the sometimes wonderful work of "taggers" on the embankment walls of the railroad cuts.

So, I was really interested in this.

An Artists Al Fresco John Hancock

An eight mile long graffiti and signature.

It is only one line.

There is a film about it. Beautiful.

It is here.

Lovely.

Labels: art

PRODUCT

Today is cleaning day.

I do the "wets".

That means, in order, getting the toilets wettened with the Lysol toilet cleaner, apply upside down into the rim. I like squirting the thing. I use the kind with bleach.

After that, I wipe down of tile, baths, counters, and finally the toilets, brush with the Lysol stuff inside and the 409 outside.

Then the glass.

The kitchen counters (Windex) and sinks (Comet).

And then the floors (Fabuloso, a local product for the Latins), by hand, on my knees with my new knee pads. I can't stand mopping and it doesn't do a very good job.

It all takes about an hour.

I do my desk, dust and Windex for the black formica. Works best.

The materials I am using need revision. I just picked up on using the same ones our housekeeper used at the old place.

The tile cleaner, 409, is choking when I am cooped into the tub and the shower doors are closed.

Maybe an organic thing would be better.

The other stuff is OK.

The best is the glass cleaner she/I use on the mirrors. Sprayway.

It is like the old glass wax. No streaks. It sprays on with a huge frost on the glass and wipes off easily. It is probably as toxic as the 409 but I like the effect. I make grand sweeps with the spray on glass.

I am sure this is boring to read about but it is a new experience for me. We haven't cleaned our own house since we lived, for a year, temporarily, in the apartment in Boston.

And maybe never before that although that couldn't be true.

When I was a kid, I cleaned the house for my mother. She worked. I couldn't have done much of a job but everyone seemed happy with it.

I like the cleaning actually. The process and the good smells afterwards along with the good feelings of having done the job.

Labels: housekeeping

MIRACLE CURE?

Today's film was the documentary

The Horse Boy (2009)

A family which includes an autistic five year old takes a long trip to Mongolia when the boy shows interest in horses. Mongolia is the land of horses. And shamans.

This is a disturbing but touching film. My glimpses of autism didn't prepare me for the arduous examination of this child's life and his family's commitment to see things through with him.

His particular symptoms include delusion, temper tantrums and the inability to toilet train. Even one of these would be upsetting enough.

The trip is beautifully photographed and the intimacy of the family's affairs are dealt with in a respectful way.

I think that it is a setup for us to feel the same frustration with the kid's behavior and it works.

By the time they get to the shamans I would be considering just dropping him off on the wilderness and keep on going. Not really. But close.

Then things change as he changes. Or does he change as things change.

We do not know.

The trip changes the family dynamic. The shamans change the paradigm of autism the family has lived with. The exhaustion of the trip brings all to their knees in surrender. The kid gets to play with other kids in a non-judgemental situation.

It is all up in the air which is the case with autism, a complex disease with many "causes".

Fundamentally, no one knows anything. The drugs this kid takes would be enough to make anyone go under. They have forgotten why some of them were given in the first place.

The parents are appealing and loving and show their own weaknesses.

This is a very fine gift of a film. And once is enough.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

CRANK

I haven't been paying attention.

We are too distracted out here by Whitman's money flying around. I have been missing the fun in NY over this guy Paladino who actually won the GOP primary for Governor.

Here is an introduction.

Governor? Paladino Gazes Higher

The write up suggests that the combative Paladino might want to check out how that worked for Elliot Spitzer.

I would also suggest a visit with our Arnold as well. Our Governator is blustered out.

He was going to bang heads. Well, yes. His own.

Politics is always interesting but this is a special time.

All these angry people.

The GOP cranks.

Labels: republican whack jobs

ALL HANDS ON DECK

So while we are looking at fun music, take a look at this. Tom sent it along. It gets better as it goes. Really.

Labels: fun. music

VERY WOW

Archy and Mehitabel. And it ain't the old comic strip by Don Marquis.

These are Broadway musical caliber voices. And the songs, the same.

Callisto is a moon in Jupiter.

Is that what this is about? Or not. Hmm.

Still like it very much.

Labels: music

IT IS COMING AROUND AGAIN

When I was a kid the whole scene in education was science and engineering.

Now it is coming around again.

This is a really nice video by the Obamas and their education policies.

Labels: Administration Obama, engineering, MIT, science

THE FAT LADY IS STILL SINGING

There is a lot of doomsday shit in the air about the Demo's chances in November. But the fact is that, if you dig into the polls, there is a lot to be encouraged about.

An Ambiguous Landscape

Despite the general anti-incumbency mood, which would hit the majority Demos worse, in specific, there is a lot of split.

People still blame the GOP and bush for the economy. They approve more than disapprove the way that Obama is handling the economy. And so on.

People way more believe that the GOP will take them back to bush policies and that is not good for the GOP. The Demos are hammering on this one and it is working.

If you are in the blues over this, read this link.

Sorry Aretha, I couldn't resist. You came up fifth in the Google image of fat lady singing. It is not my fault. And, you are one who sings the blues. A natural for this item.

Labels: Democrats, music, politics, polls

WE HAVE A WINNER

The best election that money can buy.

Meg Whitman breaks US campaign spending records

Well, there's no law against it.

But it is discouraging.

But not nearly as discouraging as Gerry Brown's almost non-campaign campaign.

He is behind in the polls.

Labels: California, politics

BUSY DAY

Thursday is an easy day at the gym which is good because I had a lot to crowd in today.

I got back and did my routine stuff and then met with a friend for quite awhile. She has been away for a couple of months escaping the desert heat.

Then, I had to have my nap which was perfectly timed for a call, right at the end, from the appliance repair people that the service man (the same one who did the refrigerator) was due to install the igniter in the gas range broiler.

A bit of excitement there. The gas line was too short to allow him to pull the stove out far enough to unplug it. So we had to find the circuit box.

I had no idea where it was but we found it outside. It has a lot more breakers than our house at 325 did. And they are nicely labeled. I always worried that there was too much power on a few lines. And there were weird pairings on each switch. We might have turned the stove off and it would also shutdown the lights in the back yard.

He did the job and I had lunch and wrote a long overdue email to a friend.

No time for a movie today. My movie was the igniter and the letter.

Got set up for tomorrow, clothes and stuff. Fed Booker. John is not here. He usually has the pm feed. He is having a busy day too.

Then it was time for the pool. Into the pool (no diving, I fall in), sun on the front for ten minutes, into the pool (fall in again, no diving), then sun on the back for ten minutes, into the pool again and home.

On the bottoms up part, I read. Time goes fast.

I walk home, all of a hundred yards, and by then the mail has come and I get to come home and sort it.

Then, this with a coke and pretzels to share with Booker. I say "I'm getting a coke" and he is right there.

John came home with some furniture left over after a friend moved to North California. Good Will got the rest.

Now it is blogging and cruising through the intertubes and on to supper which tonight is pizza. Home made. Well, assembled. I am good at picking out the pieces and handling the ground beef.

A typical day.

The water in the pool is in the high 80's. Very nice.

What a life.

We love the new home. It is just perfect for us. A great gift.

We have lots of circuit breakers.

Labels: appliances, food, life

ONE

You might wonder how our "one family car" plan is going. Or, more accurately, the "one car family".

Surprisingly well, actually.

I mention it because this morning, for the first time in a while, we had a conflict which was easily resolved.

I had a Meeting and John had a doctor's appointment at overlapping times.

So he took me to the Meeting and I got a ride home with a guy who I was going to see after the Meeting anyway.

Like I said, easy.

We have been pretty good at scheduling because rightly or wrongly, from a pet discipline view, we have had a long time reluctance to leave our dogs alone. So, the idea of not being away at the same time has always been close to mind.

We also, John first, realized that we have a lot of people around us who are more than happy to give us a lift. The only problem here is the unwillingness that we may have to ask for help.

Since I suppose that we are in for a long period of asking for help ahead of us then this is good practice.

We are quite prepared to rent a car for a day or more but, so far, that has not been necessary.

Labels: automobiles, life

LUCKY BASTARDS

Dave sent this.

I have seen a few of them before but en masse they are overwhelming.

Again, it is suggested you go to the big screen for this.

And DUCK!

Labels: fun

CHARMING

Today's movie was

The Young Victoria (2009)

Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend play out the romance between Queen Victoria and her Prince Albert while showing the constant balancing act required with the political side of British government. It also illuminates palace intrigues.

None of these are new but the romance between the young Queen and her Prince has not been shown as a highlight in a film before. It is a delightful romance and, while perhaps "romanticized" is still a nice entertainment and a quite enjoyable take on the inside of "Victorian" morals and sexuality.

The point of view and the acting is decidedly 21st Century but that does not matter.

The acting is so effective both by the principals and supporting cast (Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany and Jim Broadbent, especially) that one is carried away from critical thinking and into some wishful thinking which, in these times, is a good thing.

I would not mind seeing it again and not just because Rupert Friend is so attractive. Totally.

That would make it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

COOL

We got the refrigerator fixed yesterday.

It had been out over the weekend.

A control board that regulates the baffle between the freezer (which supplies the cold air) and the warmer, temperate part closed down. So the freezer froze up and the cooler got no cool at all.

We lived out of the ice chests for a couple of days. Like a picnic.

It wasn't too bad.

But it is nice to be back to regular business.

Labels: appliances, housekeeping

TWO IN ONE

Today's film was

Uncertainty (2009)

with Joseph Gordon Leavitt and Lynn Collins.

A couple, uncertain about their future, meet in the middle of a bridge and decide to each run to the other side to figure things out. To meet each other at the opposite ends.

They do meet the other and begin two parallel stories together, one a thriller, another a family problem.

Surreal. Yes. Very movie movie. You couldn't pull this off with a novel. Well you could but not so cinematically. Yuk yuk.

The thing here is the photography and a lot of the dialogue is improvised. The directors take a lot of risk.

Even though the two stories do not meet I expected them to. Even when I read that they didn't. They do have touching points however. Very nicely done.

I liked it. It was great exercise.

The film was in limited release. It didn't get to wider distribution. Too bad.

I really, really like Joseph Gordon=Leavitt. He has taken a lot of risks with his career and many have paid off. In some ways like James Franco. Gordon-Leavitt must be quite satisfied with himself. I hope so. At least one of his fans is quite happy with him.

I will give this a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

WHAT'S DIRTY?

We had a friend in Boston who did a lot of public meeting and greeting.

I remember her being stunned to read an article like this one.

For Many, ‘Washroom’ Seems to Be Just a Name

She had found out that "most men" didn't wash their hands after they used a urinal.

She was shocked.

I remember asking whether she knew how many women washed after doing. Here it says "more".

She wasn't interested in that. She was upset at the men for being so duplicitous. Shaking her hand just after shaking their dicks.

We laughed. But not at her. And not while she was still standing there.

The penis is actually quite clean, most of the time. It is like any other body part. Perhaps prone to a bit more sweating and all because it is enclosed. And it is its own dispenser. You hold it and it does the job out of its business end. Until you get older then you have sit to do it. Guide the stream.

Holding a dispenser doesn't make your hands dirty.

As for urine, it is drinkable. Sterile. You may not like the taste of it, although some people do, but it is safe as the glass of water you just drank.

The caveats here are laid out in the article.

So if she was shaking hands with a guy who peed on himself it was probably still OK. But not quite kosher.

Her objection was aesthetic. Perhaps sexual disgust. Maybe antiseptic.

I don't want to go into too much detail but for those of us who have experience in these matters, there isn't much to object to as far as the genitourinary system is concerned.

Now, to the core of the problem. It is basically feces that people are concerned with. Shit.

And it is certainly considerate to wash your hands post-dump. For yourself as well as others.

Think of yourself. The bacteria that exit your body don't work too well when re-introduced into the digestive system. They have prospered. Many have changed.

I am not just talking about the runs here. I am talking about people who "don't feel right" a lot of the time. They might be reintroducing the same, more mature, organisms that the body is trying to eliminate. Their self-innoculation is chronic.

OK. That is enough about washing in the restroom.

There are other, perhaps as important, washing procedures. Equipment at the gym for instance. Before and after. I always use a towel if I can and, if not, I wipe down where I am going to or have already sweat. I use the spray they supply on a paper towel.

Then there is the supermarket where, here, they supply wipes at the door. And so on.

Spitting. I saw a guy spit on the sidewalk outside a shopping center the other day.

A slimy sticky hocker. Shoes. Think about it.

One more thing.

The same person who didn't want dick on her hands kissed almost everyone she saw either on the cheek or on the mouth. Hugging.

And she was worried about hands.

I am a kisser and a hugger too. On the side of the cheek, the kiss. On the mouth for close friends. I never get sick from it. Never.

Of course, it is the same people all the time so perhaps we have immunized our cohort. I will have to ask my readers with a PhD in Biology or Nursing to advise on this.

Labels: health

QUEER CARDINAL TO BECOME SAINT

Pope breaks own rule to hold up Anglican convert Newman as model for Catholics today

Sorry the news is from Fox but you take it where you can get it.

It is pretty clear from accounts of the time that Newman was a homosexual.

How do I know this? I read stuff that the RC hierarchy does not or, if they do, they suppress.

Actually Newman, like most homosexuals, was an interesting guy. He was a founder of the Oxford Movement which he later recanted. It would not look good on the resumé. The Oxford Movement provided a spiritual boost to the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Later, the movement went kind of radical and weird and became Moral Rearmament. Basically a con.

No matter. This is about closet queers in the catholic church.

Of course there are the same rumors about Benedict.

I am sure that Newman is not the first queer to be canonized.

It is just the utter hypocrisy of the whole thing which stuns. The hate and venom these closet queens have had for gay men and women is beyond belief.

But then that is the power of the closet to maim and distort minds.

This is not, incidentally, about child molestation at all. Somehow there has been an unfortunate conflation between the two things. This confusion is fostered by the vatican's attempts to cover up the molesters by claiming that they were homosexuals.

Sure, there are homo-molester-priests. Also hetero-molester-priests. Different deal.

Newman is not a contemporary incidentally, in case you have not read the link, he is a nineteenth century faggot. It is an old tradition. He even looks gay doesn't he?

Labels: christist watch, gay life

BEAT UP

We saw some of these photographs in Provincetown a decade or more ago. They are quite something to see.

Poet With a Kodak and a Restless Eye

Allen Ginsberg took many snapshots of his friends when he was young.

Many of the friends are now iconic.

What is more, he wrote on the prints, by hand, commenting on the time or place or situation that the photo represents.

One feature of this collection is, sadly, the price that many of these guys paid for their "experiences". Over time, there is a kind of fall from grace that occurred. Only a few survived unscathed. Ginsberg for one.

We saw him in the hallway at Boston Symphony Hall shortly after seeing the photos. He looked pretty good and was almost totally ignored by the crowds. His time had passed, icon or not.

Now he will have a movie about his life and he is James Franco. I will be watching with interest.

Take a look at the slide show.

I think that the show we saw had as many photos in them. Fascinating.

Labels: art, history, photography, photos