esrosedotblog

LONG SLOW CONFLICT

Today's film was the documentary

The Art of the Steal (2010)

This is about the long train wreck that involves the Barnes Collection, one of the worlds' most outstanding collection of post impressionism and other modern art.

Barnes was a millionaire with an eye for art and, as it happens, he knew what to buy and who to buy it from. By that, I mean that he bought the best of Picasso and Mattisse and the rest and put together a unique collection which was exhibited not by artist but grouped in themes. Very nice.

He wrote an iron-clad will leaving the collection to a Trust.

But, the place was mismanaged and it was made vulnerable to a lot of people who wanted to have at it.

I enjoyed the film but it was quite one sided. In fact, many of the talking heads are shown demonstrating at the groundbreaking for the new building in Philadelphia where the collection will be housed beginning in 2012.

This has been going on so long that I remember it from the time I lived and worked in Philadelphia. 1958-63.

I am sad to say that I never went to see the old location or the art. I was too "busy". Sad. Missed opportunity.

The film is even handed about the general history and Barnes himself. I learned a lot.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

MOREOVER

John has been slowly repacking the decorations. Over a few days. I see the deletions. By Monday they will all be gone except for the poinsettias. We are still planning to grow them. Maybe it will work over here. There is some gardening space on the patio, north. Maybe they won't get burnt.

Labels: holidays

OVER

I did the christmas cards today.

That means that I went to the spread sheet and entered either "s/r", meaning sent and recieved, or "s/o", meaning sent but not received.

I am one of the few people I know who keeps a five year spread sheet on this. My friend, Lynda in London, does the same. This is not surprising as we are basically spiritual twins.

After two years, if you are an "o", then off with you.

There is the phenom of us sending a card a year or two ago when they did not and then the next year, they did but we did not. Decisions, decisions. But usually they go off the list too.

We have cut our list from about 150 at one time to about 40. we send very few locally. This year we added three or four of our old neighbors who we will not see during the year.

And we added some new people who were off the list before. One last chance. No one, I mean no one, took it. See?

Actually, we sent NO one christmas cards. We sent a Thanksgiving card with the address change and a few headlines on the move. Hence, we thought a few of the banished might want to know. Well, maybe, but no one who had been dumped wrote back. I don't blame them, actually. Done is done.

I love the cards, I really do. But why fool around with people who don't want to play the game.

Interesting that we have relatively few relatives on the list on either side. The serious christians who disapprove of our marriage and all, to hell with them. The ones who don't care, the same.

It is mostly me that doesn't care to be honest.

I quit staying in touch many years ago. About the time I went to my sophomore year of college. But my wife and I sent cards to all of them regardless of whether they sent or not. But then I purged. We purged. Somewhere along the line, most people grow up and realize that there is a minimum of contact to be in the circle. On both parties part.

If they aren't in the mood, I am not. And if I am not in the mood, then I hope they get the hint and back off.

I am finally in deeper touch with one cousin. The son of the cousin who was my line to the family for many years. He has taken over for his Mom. It is nice to stay tuned. He and his wife have always sent us a card. See?

Labels: family, holidays

PERSPECTIVE

When we bemoan the fabrications of the hugely successful (by comparison) Fox Network, we forget some basics.

Here is a neat analysis that shows that Fox has some glaring holes in its numbers. It mostly good because CNN and MSNBC are so bad.

The Cable News Numbers are In

I sat on a gym bike for about six months watching CNN and the financial and conservative CNBC which is actually light hearted and funny. Balanced as well, most of the time. But financials. No one watches it.

CNN is a wasteland. Its morning news show with John Roberts and Kiran Chatry is a disaster of small talk and dumb reporting. Roberts seems mostly asleep at the wheel. Someone writes their questions for them and often they are at a loss to follow up or even get the fucking question right.

It is also horribly late with a lot of its news. I have seen stuff on the internet a day before they pick it up. Two days.

I moved from the bikes away from the teevee mostly for the recumbent bike exercise. And, I couldn't take it anymore from the formerly formidable CNN.

So one has to allow for the fact that Fox wins on the failure of CNN to attract anyone who is interested in news.

And so on.

The networks still rule on news. Yea!

Labels: media

DREAD

Today's film was Roman Polanski's

The Ghost Writer (2009)

I have been watching Polanski before he was well known at all. His Knife in the Water (1962) had three characters but the fourth character was a mood of impending doom.

Most of his films, over the years, I have seen them all, have a similar character behind the curtain. This film is no exception.

Ewan McGregor is the innocent ghost writer. He has no name. No one calls him anything except Pierce Bronson, perfection as a former British Prime Minister, who calls him "man". OK good enough. Everyman.

Bronson has the Tony Blair content and the Ronald Reagan process, all smiles and wide grins and bon homme. With a few anger issues on the side. He is so good you want him to come back for more but, alas, there is a story to tell.

McGregor is selected to rework Bronson's memoirs and hardly gets to the first pages before there is a crisis and a mystery and soon he is over his head in international intrigue.

This kind of thing is almost genré grist for an old mill but Polanski renews the lease and does a substantial remodel so that the plot keeps going and the actors are enlivened and always on their toes. A bit menacing. Threatening to the hero.

It is quite a trip which held me riveted most of the time. We are often a step ahead of McGregor but then there are times when we are caught with our assumptions down and get a jolt of a surprise.

I think that there is a lot of play in here with scenes that replicate other similar films and Polanski almost defies us to yawn and rightly so.

Oh. There is a walkon by Eli Wallach as an old man of the sea type and he walks away with the scene. You can't keep an old actor in his character. He is great. It is his next to last appearance.

I liked this a lot and I will see it again when I have the next Roman fest.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5

Labels: films

DICK

You would imagine that with a majority population of gay people, our police chief would at least be smart enough to keep his mouth shut and if not smart enough to do that would "cop" to the truth and admit his error rather than deny and lie about it.

But you would be wrong.

Palm Springs Police Chief Apologizes for Homophobic Remarks.

Actually, I am not sure that "motherfuckers" is a homophobic remark but I will take it as one.

This has been tearing up the local papers for quite awhile and is getting worse for the chief because all these "cocksuckers" are coming up for trial and they are going to charge entrapment and hate crimes on the part of the police as there is ample evidence that the cops were on a tear to show the fags a thing or two.

Needless to say, this is bad for tourism, the gay kind. And bad for the politicians of the town.

I hear that the defense in the case will be very much focused on the chief and his mouth. This is why he is remorseful.

These guys who are charged have a serious reason to fight back hard. If convicted they will go on the sex offender's registry.

Labels: gay rights

DON'T ASK DON'T TELL BEHIND THE SCENES

Labels: Administration Obama, gay history, gay military, gay rights

RAIN AGAIN IN THE DESERT

It is winter.

Weather.

We are going to get cold over the next few days. Some say critically cold. I suspect this will be out in the eastern valley. 24 degrees at night. That is cold.

We will see.

Labels: weather

HISTORIC

Today's film was the documentary

Word is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1977)

This is a thirtieth anniversary of a film that helped change my life.

I had already come out enough to live in Boston and be around gay life. John and I had met but were still bumping off each other a lot of the time.

This film showed me real gay people with real histories and lives in a variety of forms that gave me great inspiration to stay the course and make a life for myself as a gay man.

I mean, I was doing that, but I was still in a lot of fear and uncertainty about where I was going and what had gotten me to this point.

This film is as relevant today as when it was made.

it got a huge showing around the country and, importantly, many straight people saw it.

It does not sand of the corners. The message is that out is good and the sooner you can get there the better for you, your family and the people you need to have around you. Community.

The people are very appealing and quite articulate. They interviewed 188 people to get 26 to be in the film.

They have restored the film and done some editing as a celebration of its anniversary. It is a 5 out of Netflix5 and I will come back to it again in time to keep those early years' experience green for me.

Labels: films

NEXT YEAR

Having started with the 19 LED icicles, this is what we are thinking of next year.

Of course there is the problem of the stacked stadium speakers pissing people off who don't like the same music as us.

And the matter of epileptic seizures from looking at the lights.

Labels: fun

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

Today's film was Steve Pink's

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

This is a loud, profane and excessive comedy with a very poignant heart.

Three close friends who have ended up unhappy in their 40's are transported back to the 80's when "we were happy". Not.

The comedy situations are sometimes tough to take, some homophobic, but then I realized everyone was getting the shit kicked out of them and that these guys were pathetically threatened by sexuality at all. And as close friends, they were even more leary about anything "along that line".

Straight, so to speak, out of the asshole manual that they talk about.

I knew John Cusack but not the other three. One is Cusack's nephew. Also a pathetic loser at 20, scared of his own shadow.

Here is the power of this film.

Just when the absurdity of all the jokes and horseplay reaches a max, the film takes off in another direction. It gets funnier, it gets genuinely sadder and then, well that is the payoff.

Friends, guy friends, can love one another and be caring. And all for one and one for all.

I was almost ready to pull the plug early on but stayed to have more and more fun. The last ten minutes is great. And makes the first 90 minutes mean all the more.

The layers come together. Hints from the past are sewn up. Very nice.

There is a nice touch with Crispin Glover, the original Marty McFly, as a key character in the time machine routine.

I didn't know the 80s were so mockable. At first, like these guys, I didn't even get that they had gone back. It all seemed normal to me!

So, I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. I would get more out of seeing it again. I think I got most of the jokes but a return would be nice.

Labels: films

POSTLESS

Today will be without a post except for this one.

I have had a long day of real life.

I went to see a friend's new apartment this morning. Pretty nice. In a great complex.

I stayed in touch with relatives back east who are under the blizzard's influence. All are OK.

I also stayed with a data dump from one of my cousins who is the genealogy guy for the one side of the family. I had written to him for updates on relatives. Mostly who died.

This was prompted by the death of my youngest cousin of cancer.

Otherwise, everyone is still alive and kicking.

I left my childhood community the second year of college and, basically, never went back except to see my parents.

I did stay in touch with one relative, the current contact's Mom. He has inherited me.

He is quite an interesting guy and I enjoy the connection.

So I have been wading through his most recent update of the family tree which now is beginning to include little history pieces. Footnotes.

He has added John as my husband to the official roll for our branch. Very nice.

I had to put all the history stuff aside though. Too busy to get deeply into it.

I gave my second MIT interview of the year (and last) this afternoon. A nice kid.

I wrote up his report to the Admissions Department.

No movie today. Tomorrow.

So, you will have to do without.

Actually there is a lot of info in here, huh?

Labels: blogging, family, history

FAMILY STORY

Today's film was the documentary by Kimberly Reed,

Prodigal Sons (2008)

A transgendered woman returns to her home town in Montana for a class reunion and takes a camera along.

Presumably, the intent, at the beginning, was to film the courageous act of return and to make a document of the fallout.

I have seen docs like this before. I am always wary when the resultant film is pat and leads to the objective stated. Life is messier than that.

Such is the case with this film. The results are messy. And anything but expected.

As it turns out, the return to the city and the class reunion is a yawn. Everyone there is happy to see Kimberly Reed and she is accepted quickly and with apparent ease.

I am suspicious of this but that is the superficial result.

End of project, eh? No drama. No flying drinks. No walkaways. No scenes.

What Reed does not count on is the drama inherent in her relationship with her brain damaged (auto accident) adopted brother who she was peers with growing up.

Why she thought this would be smooth is hard to tell but with this meeting, the film shifts rather abruptly to the story about her brother and his current state.

Later in the film the other younger brother, who is gay, comes on the scene.

The camera keeps rolling. And rolling.

Of course, much of what we see and understand of what happens comes from the editing.

It is thrilling enough to transcend any original intention to see others' reaction to her gender change.

Then, another revelation. And another.

This ends up being an astonishing film.

If Reed was trying to put the story of her big life change into perspective then this really happens. The change of focus in the film helps reveal to her and to us the inconsequential nature of her life decision in the scheme of things.

This helps her in what is obviously her biggest problem, self acceptance.

It is a pretty good film and except for some reservations I have about invading the sick brother's privacy, quite engaging.

i will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

BY THE BOOK

I have an appointment with the DMV for renewal of my driver's license the 11th of January.

I will have to take an eye test, leave a finger print for the new tight ID cards and take a written test.

The license tests here are notoriously tricky.

They help you as much as they can with on-line drills, sample tests and a drivers ed book from which the questions are taken.

When I got my CA license I failed the first test. I didn't really take it seriously and I thought it would only pertain to driving issues. Wrong. It pertains to the entire motor vehicle law including deadlines for applications for licenses and arcane shit like that.

"Arcane shit" because I didn't know the answers.

There is relief though. You can miss three questions and you can take the test three times per visit to the DMV. Then you have to make another appointment and pay the fee for the test again.

So I am beginning to study now. I have the book.

John got his renewal a couple weeks ago (missed one question) and he suggested that I take a yellow marker and ink in those parts that were new to me, that I didn't already know.

The part I have read is already a sea of yellow marks. Like pissholes on the snow.

I am not a good test taker. I fight the process. These will be multiple choice answers. The worst. I can't bullshit my way through it. There is a right and a wrong answer. It is one or the other. No "in-between" to weasel around with.

OK. It is only once very 12 years. The next time I go I will be 85.

I will report in on my progress or lack thereof as we ramp up to the test day.

Labels: automobiles

IN HOT WATER

I got John a go-to-the-spa white terry robe--thick turkish cotton--for his birthday the other day and so we went the hundred yards to the spa to try it out.

The spa was cold.

Bummer!

A first.

I am sure that it will be fixed as it gets a lot of traffic from the old and young folks over here. One neighbor calls it the "therapy pool". That takes it into a whole different class of activity. Not for pleasure but for near medical reasons.

John and I are not obtuse about it. We go to the spa because it feels good and it is a good unwind at the end of the day. Stars, heat, mountains. Palms. Gorgeous.

The big pool still works fine so that means they are not on the same heater. Good.

I did not meet my goal to take a swim on christmas, it was too hazy cloudy for good sun. But I did go the day before and it was glorious.

We have never had a heated pool for winter swimming.

I am all for it.

The water temps are more than the air. But if I stay in the sun when I get out after my laps, I warm up in minutes. The air can be in the 60s but the radiation of the sun feels like 90.

If there is any cloud cover, though, I am screwed and I get cold like everyone else.

The pool here is largely unused. I use it more than anyone as far as I can tell. There is another woman who comes down to our side of the complex to use our pool. She is almost always there when I am.

Otherwise, it is usually people who are leasing the income units. And not all of them by any means.

I will be in the pool any day that it is sunny enough.

This next week will be in the high 50s and "mostly sunny" or "partly cloudy". Not a good combination for pool time but I will be there if the window opens.

Labels: pool

WATCH THIS

The Obamas will achieve their objectives administratively.

For example.

Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir

As a consumer of Medicare, I want this.

I would get it anyway, indeed have it as an understanding with the family doctor and relatives.

On a personal level, I have no wish to be tubed up and in with the dying under constant care and pain.

As a class, we oldsters are costing a huge percentage of Medicare benefits just for relatively short term life extension.

So, on a personal basis and for the good of the country we must begin to face mortality and quit the torture of old folks at great cost. Some sense has to come into the process.

And the baby boomers haven't even entered this cycle yet.

Labels: Administration Obama

LOST AND FOUND

I love this. It used to show up on a semi regular basis on the hipper FM stations.

I don't have access to any of those out here. The desert is beautiful but its culture is pretty white and thin.

It just showed up on The Daily What.

The definitive rendition.

John Spence

Labels: fun, music

CHRISTMAS MORNING

The kids rounded up all their Dad's videos of them coming down the stairs Christmas morning.

It got to me. Teary. In a wonderful way.

Hey. If you can't get weepy on Christmas, at least a little, you have to be dead to it.

And my gaydar goes way off the scale as our boy grows up.

Labels: holidays

DECK THE HALLS WITH BOUGHS OF HOLLY

There are holly bushes up our road a bit and in towards the pool . The developers filled the our grounds with beautiful shrubs and trees. A wide variety. Back in the eighties. Some are dying back now but they have been kept up and the replacements, while there are more desert friendly plants, keep up the fine plant tradition. We even have crepe myrtles. But the point is the holly. Traditional.

Then there is snow from this week's rains. Up high. The other morning we had a peek of sun and moonglow at the same time on San Jacinto. The big boy right in front of our view. 12000 feet. Snow.

We had some stollen. I wrote about it the othr day.But not really very good. He put in too much fruit. A common mistake. This is Southern California. Not a place where that kind of thing is understood. But we had it anyway.

I roasted a turkey breast both for the holiday and because it has run out. It is a staple of our normal diet. But we will have stuffing and cranberries. I know this sounds more like Thanksgiving but that is what we have always done.

I cancelled the mince pie. I have made one every year only to really want one piece so we put it on the nostalgia list.

Our schedule was kind of weird. I had volunteered to sit at a 24 hour event and that was from 530 to 630. Then I had a regular 7 AM Meeting, Saturday. Every week.

I got home just in time to see John go to his Meeting.

We actually gathered, all three of us, at 1PM.

We had a gift stocking from a friend which we opened and that was the day.

We buy anything we want when we want it so we don't exchange gifts. Besides, John got his present on his birthday Thursday.

All in all it was an entirely happy holiday.

I enjoy the runup as much, actually more, than the day. The cards, the advent calendar trimatree thing we have, the house decorations that we have had for years and still carry from one place to another and so on. Even the LED lights if the truth were known.

Then the day is here and it is all over. We will keep the stuff up for awhile and then retire it all until next year.

Merry Christmas.

Labels: holidays

DANISH GOTHIC

Today's film was the Danish thriller by Henrik Ruben Genz

Frygtelig lykkelig / Terribly Happy (2008)

A cop gets assigned to the hinterlands as a punishment? A chance to start over? Both.

He lands in an ingrown toenail of a place where everyone is in on something but it will be the (handsome) young cop's business to figure it out. And ours.

There are mysterious goings on. A disappearance. A beaten wife. A town bully. Intimations of the mysterious bogs nearby where cars, cows and people can disappear without a trace.

There is a town bully, the wife beater. He has everyone buttoned up. Secrets.

Funny, the bully is not ugly but rather good looking as well. But mean. And you can see the menace.

Genz has this film very much in control. We learn stuff as our cop does, usually too late.

But there are twists and turns.

I said gothic. Well, also noir. And, for that matter a western theme that is familiar. Newcomer to a town in fear of the villain and before he knows it he is enmeshed in the evil that pervades.

Maybe this is a psychological thriller.

Why am I intent on classifying it?

Because Genz wrestles with the genrés, mashes them all together and comes out with a neat little piece that would be right at home on the old Rod Serling show Twilight Zone

I liked this a lot. There were points, incidentally, when I did not like it. I wanted to bail out because this film made me so uncomfortable. One of the things it does is to change perceptions of people you either detest or become attached to in the progress of the story. In other words, it is a mindfuck.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

PS: This is no christmas movie. But it was the perfect antidote to any lingering sentimentality.

Labels: films

A SAFE PLACE

Today's film was Ursula Meier's

Home (2008)

with Isabelle Huppert. What a wonderful actress.

This is a story / allegory about the encroachment of civilization or its opposite in the form of pollution.I think. But put that aside.

There is family that has found a home isolated at the side of a four lane highway which, once constructed, was never finished and lost in bureaucratic never land.

The family leads, for them, an idyllic life. In a way they are misfits but they have each other. We become part of the family.

Then the highway logjam is broken. The road is opened. Slowly but surely the house by the side of the road becomes a prison.

These people are wonderful. A little fucked up. But they have found a way of life that works for them and then it does not.

Most of this is a comedy. A family comedy. Until it turns dark. But even then there are rays of light. A member leaves. Another wakes up out of the self induced torpor of the home. Eventually they have to leave. Liberated.

I really like this.

I have watched her all my movie life.

But she has aged so beautifully and soulfully that I am encouraged and uplifted by her power to stay the course. She works hard in this film. So do the others. The ensemble is quite awe inspiring. And the cars!

I will give this a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

THESE GUYS ARE NUTS BUT VERY GOOD AT IT

This is funniest at the beginning and then in the last part where they introduce a whole new act, rap carol. Extraordinarily hilarious.

Labels: fun

THE AMERICAN DREAM

Today's film was Paola Mendoza'sEntre Nos (2010)

Between us.

A woman and her two children are left behind in Queens NY when the restless husband goes to Miami looking for better work.

He is also leaving his family.

No money, no language, no resources at all, afraid of police and the government, the mother tries to find ways to get money. She finds cans. She finds dish washing. She scrapes by but loses the apartment the husband was to pay the rent for.

This is a tough story of immigration. In fact, it is the story of Paula Mendoza's mother. Mendoza wrote and directed and plays the role of her mom. She is vulnerable but tough at the same time.

The two kids are not too cute, not too good, but work with their mom only slowly comprehending that there wouldn't be any more dad time.

This is a positive story. We know that it is because of the way that it is told and that Ms. Mendoza has ended up where she is, making a movie about it.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the woman gets a grip. Makes a few friends. Things begin to work out. Eventually she is able to get slightly ahead.

This is not a film about any miracles or good breaks. It is about hard, persistent work.

It is also a story, although it is not made totally clear, about illegal immigrants making their way.

It is not a message movie. But there is a message.

I was leary about watching this. I don't like too much sorrow or pain in a story like this. There is enough but it is pain that leads somewhere. Very often films are made in which there is an arduous path only to end in tragedy or no end at all.

Immigration is tough no matter what the circumstances but a woman alone has to find and use the breaks that she gets.

I liked this film a lot. I admire all the people in it. No one is cruel or brutal. No one is uncaring even if they start out to be so.

I am an optimist and I believe in the goodness of people and it is comforting to find a truish story that has the same outlook and which optimism is vindicated.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

IT IS DONE

You may not have time to watch all of this but it is historic. Watch at about 6:30 for a story and toward the end for the grand stand up and cheer finale. About 22.

The room is full of people who were drummed out of the military for being gay. Very moving.

Labels: Administration Obama, gay liberation, gay military, gay rights

HER STORY

Today's film was

The Runaways (2010)

with Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart as Cherie Currie and Joan Jett. Michael Shannon as Kim Fowley, their producer who pretty much created the act out of thin air. The first all girl rock band.

Somehow, they took an unpredictable, unique story and bent it into the familiar musical biopic arc.

Unknowns, and in Currie's case even unknown to herself, are thrown together to form a band under the guidance of a Svengali agent and take to the road. Quick success. Records. Tours. Drugs. Alienation. Burnout. Recovery. In this case, Jett who also produced this film from Curries biography, surmounts the obstacles and finishes the film with the anthem "I love rock and roll....".

That said, the arc is a pretty good one and, in this case, the performances, the music and the pace of the story outweigh the familiarity of it.

The true story as told in Wikipedia is instructively different than the film. Surprise! But probably not as interesting. The film is Currie's story and is told from her POV.

Good things. They do a lot, I mean a lot lot, of the music. They move the thing along. There isn't any foot dragging.

I liked the treatment of Jett which was not always complimentary or supportive. On the other hand the relationship between the girls is very nice to see grow and flourish.

Shocker. These were minors. Teenage kids. Finished as a band almost before they are able to drink legally.

I enjoyed it. Fun. I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Image is the real Runaways.

Labels: films

QUOTE OF THE DAY

From Kevin Drum.

Quoting Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–SC), on the Democratic victories of the lame duck session:

"When it's all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch."

Labels: Administration Obama, Democrats

QUEUE TIP

Why am I always in the slowest line?

Queuing theory made simple.

Labels: mathematics

CLOG DANCE

My bathroom sink has been clogging up.

We each have our own bathroom more or less and so I have somehow figured that it might be my fault. At least my responsibility to fix. I have funny ideas about going it alone, to this day.

The same thing happened in our old house. My sink clogged, John's did not. Both on the same line.

Over there I used Drano. It didn't really work very well and I hated the toxicity.

So, when you are ignorant and don't want to ask anyone for help, where do you go?

The internet, of course.

And here is what I found.

Clear a Clogged Drain with Vinegar

Wow. Natural. But is also involves baking soda. And scalding water. And other considerations.

So I looked at the movie they have there.

They suggested scalding water so I tried that. No dice.

It turns out that it is vinegar and baking soda, a controlled explosion. And if you use both and later want to used Drano, you are warned that the residues could interact and produce cyanide.

The other thing is that the plug in the sink won't come out. I would have to stuff the baking soda down into the gap and into the drain.

So, I thought about it for awhile and the sink got more cloggy.

I remembered the plunger part of the movie.

You plug the drain holes (duct tape) in the sink, fill the sink with water letting the clog be immersed and plunge!

If there is a geyser in the toilet there is a plumber drain line problem.

But, if not, it might break the blockage.

So, today, I got energized and thought maybe the plunger would work without the baking soda/vinegar thing.

I went to get the duct tape, I got the plunger. Sealed the holes and plunged.

Son of a bitch!

No geyser in the toilet and when I released the plunger a bunch of gunk came up out of the drain and into the sink.

I plunged again.

I ran some more water and repeated.

By then, I couldn't get enough water to stay in the line to plunge. The clog was removed.

Wow.

I felt so handy!

Not a frequent feeling.

When I went to get the image for this post, I found the same solution in a picture.

I have to do everything backwards. Start with the complicated solution and end up where everybody else already knows the answer. I guess. I didn't ask so I don't know if "everybody" knows or not.

TRADITION

I went and got my holiday fruit stollen today.

They don't do it right.

It is puffy. But it has the fruit.

Since I ordered it ahead I stipulated powdered sugar which they find preposterous. No icing?

No.

I haven't had the kind I grew up with for a few years.

My dad brought an A&P stollen home every christmas. Actually as many as he could get from the day-old.

Then they were gone along with A&P.

When I was first married and had the wherewithal, I made a pretty good copy of stollen. It was braided which most are not.

But I gave up baked goods along with cholesterol and butter and the stollen went into eclipse.

Ever since, it has been a sort of sad version of the original until just a few years ago, a guest came for the holiday and brought the exactly correct stollen which he got in a Jewish bakery! Cross cultural.

In Long Beach. A long way to go to get a stollen.

We have invited the friend back repeatedly and once he forgot the stollen and then the bakery was gone.

Eventually everything passes. Even stollen.

I suppose that, if I wanted it badly enough, I could make it again. But as much as I relish it, I do not like it that much.

So I will do with the puffy stuff. If I let it sit a day it will stale a bit and get appropriately dry. But it is only a gesture.

Stollen. Powdered sugar.

Here is the real thing. Close up. Made in Europe. Too far to go.

Labels: cooking, holidays

HAPPY HOLIDAY

Solstice today.

Whatever you particularly worship right about now, there is a tinge of the winter solstice to it.

The darkest days.

The time of anxiety.

Looking for a bright spot, people started having a feast of lights.

They found the sun.

Some guys saw a star.

And it just kept on rolling along.

And, here we are.

LED icicles.

Labels: seasons

POTHEAD

When I moved out here, I invested in several pieces of non-stick utensils. Pots. A roasting pan.

Almost every problem this writer describes has happened to me.

How Not to Wreck a Nonstick Pan

From what I can gather, not only has all this happened to me out of ignorance on my part but also because of the original decision to go to a non-stick pot.

I got good ones. Anolon. Thick aluminum bodies, conduction. Coated with non-stick polymer, bad.

I have also done some things wrong (no tempering, use spray oil which makes a residue) but I have also done some things good (no metal stirring, no dishwasher and so on).

Net net, I got about what she says, five years, life out of them.

When the second pot gave out recently, I just went to the default position that I knew a long time ago. Stainless clad aluminium (thick). It is what I had in Boston. It is what I still have for "clean" sautee pans. By "clean" I mean that the iron skillets, that I use more than anything, put iron into all foods and don't interact well with others. Eggs. Some herby things.

Stainless clad aluminum is not cheap, especially the right kind. But it is indestructible (although they now recommend no dishwasher for them either to maintain the very smoothly machined interior). And if they are used correctly, sticking is not a problem. Besides, who ever cooked something in a pot that had to released out stick free. Usually it is just burger and such that get cooked first before other ingredients (onions, chili, beans, tomatoes) get thrown in.

The cost is offset by the frequent replacement of non-stick cookery items.

I am about to go for another, bigger pot this time. The surface of the non-stick is failing. Pock marks. A little rust. There must be some iron in that "aluminum" core.

That will leave the roasting pan as the only non-stick item. I don't use it much. Turkey breast. I do all other smaller roasts right in the iron skillet. Yeah. I know. I should have a rack. Not really. Try it.

I blamed the sticky roasting pan on John all these years. He washes. But it is the spray oil that interacts with the non-stick. I can live with it.

Labels: cooking

NEW NICKNAME

I read an attack on Obama fans the other day.

The guy called us who are uncritical of the President, "Obamatons"

Guilty.

Then I found out this was a leftover from the primary.

The lefty wars are still with us.

They will cease soon though. We will be on the defense.

I hope the "Obamaphobes" can keep it to a dull roar.

They have already started to criticize him on the DADT repeal because they are sure that he will drag his feet.

He hasn't even signed the bill yet.

And I suppose there will be foot dragging too. It is the government, after all. And the military to boot.

Hurry up and wait.

Labels: Barack Obama, lefty fringe, professional left

UNDERESTIMATED AGAIN

So Kevin Drum is amazed that they pulled these rabbits out of the hat.

I always thought that the Obama critics on the left suffered from too high expectations. Maybe not.

Lame Duck Not So Lame After All

It is clearer all the time that this President does have a strong hand on the legislative wheel. And he has demonstrated, to some extent, what he can do in the compromise sessions that will be necessary in the new Congress. Because, don't forget, the GOoPers will need 60 votes to quell a filibuster too and there is the veto.

I am proud of my President and happy that he is having such great success.

Labels: Administration Obama

MYSTERY STORY

Today's film was Bong Joon-ho's

Mada / Mother (2009)

At its heart is the bravura performance of Kim Hye-ja as Mother. Primal. The mom who would do anything to protect her son.

Who in this case is a mentally challenged young man who finds himself accused of murder and signs a confession in his grilling with the local, more or less, friendly but inept cops.

The film is about her finding the real murderer and working with other likely and unlikely allies to do so.

This film is rendered in wonderful cinematography. The music is superb. The production values are very high.

It is like the difference between a pulp novel and a literary novel. The same story could be told in simpler brush strokes but in the lit novel as well as this film, the life is in the many little side paths and the depth of the characters and events.

We are with Mother throughout. We see what she sees. Nothing else. And she doesn't miss a thing.

There are twists and turns. There are red herrings. It feels at times, with Hye-ja's furious performance that we are in a greek drama. But is is very contemporary. She is quite beautiful in a wild way. Striking. Handsome. Surely intense.

Why am I shocked when "foreign" films look as familiar to me as the village downtown right here.

This is a dead serious movie with a lot of funny stuff in it too. Again. The many layers. Novelistic.

Very good.

I will want to see this again and, if I can get some more Bong Joon-ho's films I will have a small fest.

Labels: films

EXCITING MESSAGE

Today's film was Paul Greengrass'

The Green Zone (2009)

with Matt Damon, Brendan Gleeson and Greg Kinnear.

We are in Iraq just a month after the shock and awe invasion. The WMD's have not shown up, the looting is in high gear, Brimmer has just started taking over the government and the US puppet, Ahmed Chilabi, has just arrived after 30 years out of the country. Two hours later he is out of business. It took awhile in real life.

Damon is in a WMD search unit and isn't finding any because the intel is faulty. As it turns out, the intel is faked. Gleeson becomes his CIA ally and, together, they piece together the events that led up to the debacle. Here they are, plotting away.

This is a thriller wrapped around the facts of the matter and it is interesting to watch how the action shows the confusion, wrong thinking and outright mendacity of the people in the Green Zone. And the infighting.

It is very good.

We are treated, ironically, to a video in the cafeteria of Bush going on the carrier to announce "mission accomplished".

And all the while there is a tightly directed chase movie including a hair raising night time raid where we see just about as little as the participants.

If this was an attempt to get the true story out through the Trojan Horse of a war thriller, it succeeds admirably.

I liked the film a lot and was on pins and needles throughout.

I don't think that they missed a beat. There is a lot of show and tell here. The almost tropical paradise mood in the Green Zone. The crush of the press and the eye to eye enmity between bureaucrats.

This is a perfect role for Damon who has this earnestness. His discovery that they are fucking with him is devastating but rather than pack it up, he runs a counter offensive against the lies.

The ending would be a lot more satisfying if we didn't know that the war went on and on and now is winding down in another year. They want us out of there just as most of them did at the beginning.

One more thing. I love Brendan Gleeson and to watch him struggle with an American accent (he wins most of the time) is a sight to behold. He has the flat back of the throat thing down cold but every once in awhile a burr creeps in.

I wouldn't mind seeing this again at all. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films, Iraq

WEATHER OBSESSED

This morning on the local weather.

A synchronized, almost 1968-1969 weather pattern has set up. Very cold, huge, intense upper low spinning like a top NW of
Washington State, and storms still training in from W-SW in a long pineapple express extending from all the way from Hawaii.
Models still intensify these mid latitude storm systems, as they are going to pound the southland with heavy rain next 4 days,
finally letting up around Thursday AM. Heavy rain shown for the San Bernardino & San Jacinto Mtns. Possible mud & debris
flows for the east side of the mountains by tomorrow, and again on Tuesday & Wednesday. North end of valley where the
White water area feeds into the drainage channel very vulnerable for a surge of mud & debris flowing down into the center
of the valley.

When weather gets this intense, there are worries about flooding and runoff rapids that can carry a lot of stuff away from where it is sitting right now.

That stuff, big rocks and mud, tend to muck things up in the water management channels that are dug from the bottom of the mountains out into the valley where the surge dissipates.

We have been here for one bad one, maybe 2001.

We are safe enough where we are. In fact, no one builds in the flood plain. Some are close.

It is mostly wash away problems like roads, golf courses and the like.

Of course, that is because, up to now, no one has wanted to build on or around the aluvial fans that lie at the bottom of the mountains.

The fan is, incidentally, the result of ages of flooding! Here from the "Friends of the Mountains".

Although the threat of flood may seem preposterous in a desert environment currently suffering from extended drought, the potential for flooding and the resulting debris flows is very real. As recently as 1985, 3/4 of a mile of the Tram Road wash washed away in a flash flood. Stranded Tram passengers, whose cars were buried in mud in the Tram parking lot, were airlifted to safety. Flooding of the Whitewater River in 1938 left Palm Springs stranded for a week, with multiple fatalities. In 1965, Cottonwood Creek overran Interstate 10 and washed out sections of Highway 111, also with fatalities. In fact, flooding poses such a grave danger that California Governor Arnold Schwartzeneger has convened an alluvial fan taskforce to protect against deaths and damage caused by building in alluvial floodplains like Chino Canyon.

Labels: desert, weather

SHOCKER

I suppose it was inevitable but I still wasn't prepared for it.

We found out that our old house had been repainted. A deep brown. Chocolate. With black borders.

People seemed to enjoy telling this and watching my response.

I kept up a pretty good front.

But, I was dismayed to hear it.

This came in a covey of other stories about the new guy who seems to be doing alright otherwise.

When I picked up John, he suggested we go by the house and we did.

Awful. Worse than I had pictured.

I have gotten pretty good about letting go of the place. Someone else is with the plants I left behind. Someone else is painting the newish kitchen cabinets red. He told me that and I asked him to stop telling me about it.

But the outside of the house.

It was very retro-fifties. Tannish stucco with a "California turquoise" trim. I know it sounds garish but it is original. The color the house was painted in the 50's.

There are a few houses on Farrell that still have this color scheme.

But "my" house is now shit brown. Forget "chocolate".

Of course, it was night and not at its best.

And I notice that he has put his recycle bin and garbage cans right up front in the carport. Ugly.

There is more but I won't go into it.

A close friend told me that whenever I felt homesick or thought about "my" stuff being ruined by the new owner, I think of the money we got from selling it.

So, this morning, I am thinking of the money.

Chocolate money but still, money. We did OK. It isn't our house anymore.

Labels: nostalgia

PAARRRTEEE

We went to our one holiday party last night.

It is the one we go to every year.

But it is the first time that we are not "neighbors". We moved during the summer so I haven't seen most of these people in about 6 months.

It was OK.

The few folks that I hoped to see were there, mostly. A few not. I could always visit them I suppose.

I have been through this a hundred times here. I do not enjoy parties.

Every since I designated myself as an introvert I have felt OK about this.

It is normal for me to drift off into a corner or sort of fade out in a conversation that I am not interested in. I am happy to talk for a few minutes and then, well, I would rather find a book and browse.

Last night, I did pretty well. I was able to sustain an interest and maintain my energy for about an hour. It used to be 20 minutes. Of course, I had not seen some of these people for awhile. I could vamp longer.

In the old days, when we lived in the neighborhood, I walk home when I was "done". Now we don't live down the street. So I drove.

When John was ready to leave, he called and Booker and I went over to pick him up. It was fun. Booker loves night time drives. Well, any time drives but night is somehow very exciting. Maybe because we rarely do it.

The food this year wasn't very good. A lot of cheese and no vegetables. Everything in dough or fried. Or both.

When I got home I had a few broccolis, a couple of carrots and an apple. Cleansing.

I went to bed an hour late but it is Sunday so I could stay in bed a bit this morning. Late hours. Nine pee emm.

Labels: food, Party

OK. I AM JUST SAYING THIS ONCE

I got sucked in to reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

It was hard going at the beginning. A lot of grinding detail.

But, I stayed with it and I ended up liking it.

Now, I have started the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire and my block is implausability.

I am trying to get over it.

I suppose that if you are going to have a pot to stir you have to put something into it.

John says to keep going.

It is not as though I am committing to reading one book. There are, actually, two more and, because of someone's slip with a spoiler, I am not happy about what I hear happens at the end of this second one.

Like the first, there is no climax.

This is similar to other long books these days. It is really one long novel that they broke up into three parts for marketing and other purposes.

That's OK, but it makes for some tough sledding here and there.

I broke my no movies of books I have read for Tattoo. There are two more Swedish movie versions of these books that I will break my rule for.

I will not, absolutely, not go to see the American movie version(s) which promise Daniel Craig as the male star. No way. No how. Absolutely fucking not.

My images are set. The Swedish film was quite close to my idea of what people looked like. Daniel Craig is not in the ball park.

Labels: books

Labels: gay liberation, gay military, gay rights

THE INNER CHILD IS NOT TOO DEEPLY HIDDEN

Today's film was the cartoon/stop motion Belgian

Panique au Village / A Town Called Panic (2009)

This is a wild film. Very fast. Funny. For adults.

But here is what I realized half way through. It is built on a kid's way of fantasizing stories for his toys, particularly the plastic figures we all accumulated.

This film stars a horse, a cowboy and an indian who are room mates and have a life together. I had a cowboy and indian and a horse.

I figured out all kinds of improbable stories for them to act out.

This film does the same.

I was able to get my figures into and out of situations readily. There was no barrier of language. Some of the fantasies were wild and wooly. Same here.

That is the story level of the film.

The dialogue, however, is hilariously adult. Four lettered and adult.

There are so many LOL moments.

And the action is very fast. It is in subtitles and, at times, I felt that by reading, I missed some salient point or joke. After awhile, I began to get the French language enough to skip the reading. i am convinced I could learn a language through subtitles if I would apply myself to it.

Some of the jokes, or words are American slang or "dirty" words. Slipped in.

There are many other characters than Horse, Cowboy and Indian, some right out of the plastic figure cast of characters (another horse (female, the love interest), a policeman, a grouchy farmer and his Heidi like wift, farm animals and the like, vehicles, cars trucks and of course blocks. Lots and lots of them).

What is so appealing is that there is no stopping to consider shit. It is pell mell head on. Just like a child.

I liked it a lot and wouldn't mind seeing it again just to review the jokes.

The whole idea of adult play as a child would do it is ingenious.

Imagination.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

THE PROCESS COUNTS

Obama held to his wish to have a good process to institute the new rules on gay and lesbian military. He wanted the full Congress to repeal the act and he wanted the Services to agree that it was OK. They didn't have to like it although some of them do.

The NYT summarizes his victory thusly.

More than 12,500 service members have been discharged since
the policy was mandated by Congress in 1993. A Pentagon
report released on Nov. 30 concluded that allowing gays to
serve openly in the armed forces presents a low risk to the
military's effectiveness, even at a time of war, and that 70
percent of service members believe that the impact of
repealing the law would be either positive, mixed or of no
consequence at all.

There could not be a finer foundation.

And what now? I am sure that the whiny bastards will say that it is his fault that it took so long. Fuck them.

Progress takes awhile.

I was turned on by boys when I was four or five. I got into trouble for hugging too much.

In 1951 or 2 when I knew that I liked boys better than girls there was nowhere to go. When I went to college I had gay experiences within the first month. He hid.

In 1975 when I had a boyfriend/partner it was risky to be seen as intimate in public. We danced at the South End Historical Society Ball and got the tsk tsk from the old queens.

In 2008, we got married.

Fifty years.

Take a breath you guys. Be grateful. Now that you have bitched so much, how about some of you enlist!

Labels: Administration Obama, gay liberation, gay military, gay rights

THIS JUST IN

Repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Advances

This is very exciting.

I think that I had decided that it was a goner when the bills started to back up in the Senate.

Obama wanted START, there was the DREAM act for illegal immigrant college students and the Omnibus budget bill.

The Omnibus bill failed for GOP political reasons and so the way was opened up. Today they didn't go for DREAM. And so the doors opened to the DADT vote.

This give plenty of time before START.

There is sufficient support that the DADT will be repealed. But it hasn't happened yet.

A lot of people worked very hard for this. It is a good thing that has happened.

Obama took a lot of heat for not pouring it on but he is not King. And he had other priorities. Mostly that START get done.

What happened here is that a number of GOP Senators had their heads turned by the relentless work of the "gay lobby". I know. There isn't supposed to be one but there is.

We wait. It is a big day.

Labels: Administration Obama, gay liberation, gay military, gay rights

VERNER DECONZTRUCTZ CLEMENT MOOREZ

He is nuts. In a wonderful way.

He has been a bit lost since the death of Klaus Kinske but still makes great films.

Labels: holidays

INTO THE SHIT WEATHER

Well, here we are. Winter in the desert.

A week of clouds and showers and temps in the 60s at day. 50s at night when there is cloud cover. 40s when it clears. At night. There is a reason we get it all in the day time but I forget.

This is the result of a battery of wet weather coming off the Pacific. Not all of it will get over the mountains but some will. We had some showers today.

The people on the coast are getting hammered. And will, for the foreseeable future.

Yah. I know. Where you are is cold as a witches tit, either male or female witch to be PC about it. Or both, this being a witch.

But you are used to it. We are not.

Here is the impact. I am out of business at the pool. The water (It is heated) is warmer than the air but you have to get out sometime. No sunning in between dips.

On walks with Booker, the rain is quite indeterminate. You can look to the mountains to see showers coming but that is no help in the immediate vicinity. Wait until a good time if you can find one or just say "fuck it" and take an umbrella and make amends to your dog for dragging him out.

There are other bad things. What? I don't know. It is depressing. We only have 38 days a year without sun but they count the five minutes we had this morning as sunny. It doesn't just close in here. It has patches of sun and clear weather. Last evening the stars were very clear. Last night.

See the blue in this picture? And the clouds down to street level? And the rain. We get it all in one package.

This will last, oh, about a month. Sometime in January, the barrage of storms will slow and stop as the jet stream moves north and we get less off the water. By the first of February I will at the pool daily again and I won't be apologizing to Booker.

A friend came down from his perch up in Idyllwild. He moved there permanently. We call him "Heidi". He says they had snow but none now. That is some consolation. We haven't seen snow for a few years when we went up for Christmas dinner. That was before we had Franklin. A few years? Jeez. That would be seven or eight.

Maybe this year. It is cold enough. I haven't looked up there (12,000 feet and down to 6000) to see.

We will get in the car, drive up. Run around. Let Booker feel the snow between the toes to prove it was a good move to get out of Reno even though it wasn't his choice. Then come back down to our cold but unsnowing desert.

That is it on the weather front.

Happy Holidays.

Labels: desert, weather

REALLY BIG LEAKS

Today's film was the documentary

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

I lived through this. The Pentagon Papers were, in themselves, an indictment of four Presidents for their lies about Viet Nam.

But perhaps even bigger, was the resulting coverup of the Nixon Administration, the invasion of Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office by the famous "Watergate plumbers" and the proceedings to impeachment of Richard Nixon which led to his resignation.

And even bigger than that was the decision by the Supreme Court that the Pentagon Papers themselves, which had been suppressed by the lower courts, could be published. An unprecedented, landmark decision for the First Ammendment.

One of Ellsberg's enduring disappointments was the people didn't actually read the papers and were unmoved by them. But Congress held hearings and a new Senator read the papers aloud as part of a filibuster and they became part of the Congressional Record.

The hearings were so rowdy, Ellsberg testified, that in just nine months, the War was over. Congress had refused to fund it. Cut off the money.

The man behind all this was a hero. Courageous. Wiley and clever in the way that he worked to get the material out.

I have never seen as thorough a rundown of Ellsberg, the man, although, as narrator, it is probably not the most probing film for that purpose. But we get to see him from his time as an advisor to Lyndon Johnson, through his work at the RAND Corporation, a government think tank set up to hide the situation in Viet Nam as well as other secret operations.

He began to question what was happening as he visited Viet Nam and learned that many of the news items were faked.

He saw the devastation of the people.

Ellsberg is a Marine and had commanded a Company in Viet Nam.

He was not a peacenik although he ended as a spokesman for a lot of peace movement activities. He was a pariah among his former associates except for a few who worked with him on the Papers.

This film is very high quality. They use reenactments to heighten the drama. Ellsberg is used to good effect throughout as are a few talking heads.

The use of news and video clips is very creative. They even have cartoon drawings to show some of the covert action the papers used as they tried to avoid prosecution for printing the papers.

It has the same impact as a feature fiction film. It is quite emotional. The impact is visceral.

I liked this film very much and would like to see it again. It might go well with The Fog of War, the McNamara doc in which he recants.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

ELMO VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE

Sam Kass, one of the White House chefs, talks with Elmo about food at school.

While he is doing that, I am watching Sam Kass.

More: In the garden.

Labels: Administration Obama, food, gay life

MORMONMANIA

Today's film was the documentary/diatribe

8: The Mormon Proposition (2009)

We really took a screwing from the Mormon "church" on Prop 8. Latter Day Saints (LDS).

If you, like me, have lost some of your anger about it, this will stoke it up.

It does seem like two films in one. The first is really all about Prop. 8 and the hateful campaign that the Mormons ran covertly, The second is a sad document of the rash of Mormon suicide and homeless teens. Utah. Also the behavioral modification conducted by police on young mormon men which the church claims is no longer done. Which means that it was done.

Shameful.

Featured are a few outspoken Utah political figures who have built a career out of gay hate and the ex-Mayor of Salt Lake City who is an outspoken critic of the church and a champion of gay rights.

The opening is thrilling, a marriage of two young mormon men and their mom who is one of several mormon apostates who hate what the LDS are doing. Beautiful. Teary.

I liked it for the most part although, at times, there is a little too much document scanning and voice over. I am willing to take their word for the role of the organization. It is hardly a church. More of a cult with really outlandish views about our origins and "god's" word. They even have and oracle or "prophet".

Still, I did get revved up and pissed off all over again.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

PAPAL WET DREAM

Watch this through just for the Papal reaction. Is that a bit of drool?

And the nuns. They had to sponge the seats.

Sorry. I am not being nice. They are hot men.

And who's the chick?

Where is this? Look at the expanse of that marble. It looks like a scene from Flash Gordon or any number or places where the evil villain hangs out living an upbeat lifestyle built on the backs of the poor.

Well. Of course.

Labels: christist watch, fun

MACMANIA

Labels: computer, macintosh

IDENTITY

Today's film was the Australian coming of age comedy Hey, Hey It's Esther Blueberger

I am not sure where I got this. There are very few reviews.

It is funny, in its way. But that is not my way.

It is obviously designed for pre teen Australian girls. I do not fit the demo.

I will give it a 1 out of Netflix5. I didn't watch the whole thing.

Labels: films

SHADOW ART

Labels: fun

OUT AGAIN

The internet vendor crashed again today. Time Fucking Warner. This is three times in as many or less weeks.

It took three hours to get service back.

I am trying to decide whether to take an hour or two to catch up and scratch the gym tomorrow or not.

It is 7:39. I guess I am scratching the gym. I will catch hell from my friends. I never miss. But once, right? To catch up on all the news and shit? I don't know.

I have about half an hour to decide.

Labels: blogging, computer, internet

TRADING PLACES

Today's movie was Darko Lungulov's

Here and There (2009)

In Serb and English. Do you cap those?

It is a very simple story. The Serb wants to get the American to go to Serbia, marry the Serb's girlfriend and help her get back to the States to join the Serb.

The American is the strikingly odd but handsome David Thornton.

He carries the weight.

He is depressed and broke. He will use the money for this service to find a place to live. And so on.

I liked it very much. It is sweet in all the right places and funny in others. Quite funny. No one gets what they expect but it is still true that immigrant energy and optimism will save the day no matter what.

i will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

THE RELIGION OF NON RELIGION

This is interesting.

Atheist Bus Ads Rattle Fort Worth

This is pretty mild stuff.

It has been a long time since the atheists have had a field day playing around with the christers.

Madeline Murray O'Haire would be the last perp in this area. She had a genius for choosing the softest but most vocal underbelly of the religious and a lot of her work was in Texas.

She kept the heat on for a very long time.

Of course, this is old stuff. Voltaire was an atheist and tweeked the believers quite effectively. Many others.

You can't say that the christ guys aren't vulnerable, taking on all sorts of "enemies" in their own ways. I have been at the other end of their bat for being queer.

This says that the black christians are more fomented than the white ones. That came to proof in the Prop 8 fiasco in California.

I am amused that the athiests are becoming as organized as the religionists.

I like the slogans. All of them.

They have a certain sensitivity to them which somehow edges out the fire and brimstone that usually goes along with something like this.

I AM SO PROUD OF THIS!

I used to live on East Campus. Right there on the other side of the trees. First floor.

Mike Nawrot and Romain Teil of MIT’s East Campus constructed a fully-functional wooden roller coaster track in just two weeks for Rush 2010. They named it the “Reverse Cowgirl.”

This is so typical.

Even the music. So Techie.

Labels: MIT

GETTING READY

We think about Booker being homeless sometimes.

Boy, are we all glad that he is not.

We aren't sure who found who when he needed a home but the stars worked right. He was looking for us while we were looking for him.

I would ask him about it but he is busy making holiday cookies right now.

Labels: Booker, dogs, holidays

SHAKE THAT THING

When the "kids" were here in October, we made a change in the traditional pizza night.

There is a Shakey's Pizza in our neighborhood and we sent them there to get the goods.

Unless you ask for thick crust, and pay extra, it is all thin crust pizza. The sauce is a bit hotter and just a tinge sweeter than our old Pizza Hut favorite. (I know, shameful, but there it is. We used to have Pizza Hut pizza when we visited my parents and so the old tradition stayed).

And it is crisp. Great.

What is more there is a thinner sauce ratio at the sides and maybe in the middle. Mysteriously, the dough bubbles in some spots. Delicious.

So, when I recently suggested that we have take out or take in every so often, Shakey's made the pizza.

We had some last night. Great.

I used to make my own pizza. Crust and sauce from the store and hamburger. The Shakey's helps twice. No cooking and it is a hell of a lot better.

The other take out or take in night involves oriental food from Panda Express. It isn't as good as the pizza but it is better than I could do. And it is a change of pace.

Labels: food

LIT HIS FIRE

Today's film was Tom Dicillo's documentary

When You're Strange (2009)

about Jim Morrison and, tangentially, the Doors.

Morrison was a might myth maker. This film seems to be much closer to the truth.

He was a very troubled alcoholic who had a lot of talent and managed to hold it together during a time when he and the Door's fit the zeitgeist.

This is not to minimize him or his contribution but to simply tell the truth.

The truth is important because truth is hard to come by in the world we see in this doc. In some ways, it is a familiar arc. The rise and fall of an idol. But it is interesting to see how everyone stood back and enabled this guy's demise because they did not want to jeopardize the show, the business, the record. Whatever.

He is dying and killing himself and they sit and watch, sometimes for days, for him to come out of it.

This is a remarkably good documentary. It does not use talking heads. It shows what is going on behind the scenes. The Doors left an enormous store of tape, movies, photos and their own narratives about their times.

You can see all of it. The great performances and the troubles. The times and their fit to the Door's artistry. Morrison's tantrums, his drunken condition in the studio, his collapses in concerts.

Johnny Depp narrates unobtrusively.

There is a film that Morrison made of a long ride in the desert. Right near where I am at the moment. It is crazy beautiful. Like him.

I would gladly see this film again.

I will give this a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

LEFTIES LEFT BEHIND

The Progressive wing of the Democratic Party do not like the Tax Cut Deal.

I have written about this and believe that they have their priorities confused or, perhaps, have not read the entire bill which, today, even the Tea Parties think gives Obama a victory.

Now the first polls are in.

Everyone agrees with me! Yay,

Tax Cut Deal Wildly Popular

This is the beginning of Obama's work to achieve bi-partisanship too. What the lefties do not want. Or the Teas.

Good news indeed.

Labels: Administration Obama, bipartisanship, lefty fringe, professional left

LONG SLOW DEATH

Dave sent this sad news.

Grocer A&P files for Chapter 11 reorganization

My Dad worked for A&P for 45 years. He was a store manager and then joined the union and worked as the most senior employee in his region.

At first he ran a "service store" where you went to a clerk who delivered all your stuff to the counter. Then a small self service store.

I started working for the company in his store while I was in high school and then did one summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college.

It was a family owned company and didn't get out of the family situation fast enough. Heirs ran it into the ground and then a German outfit bought it.

I last saw an A&P store in Provincetown, MA. It was a crazy place to have a store, at the end of Cape Cod, with no stores between it and someplace in Connecticut. A distribution nightmare typical of the waning management skills of the Hartford family.

It is too bad. They own other stores now. So the brand is even more diluted.

Of course, they blame the unions. I was there when the union took over and was a member.

It wan't the unions. It was entrenched, unwilling to change, management.

Once a brave leader, now a sad spectacle. An old story.

Too bad.

Labels: family, food, history, life

DEARTH

I am the Educational Counsellor for MIT in eastern Riverside County, California.

That means that I am available to interview every applicant to MIT from my area. The interview is optional but they are highly advised to have one. A huge majority of acceptances are people who had interviews as part of their admission process.

Last year, I had 56 applicants and conducted 16 interviews. One student was accepted. He interviewed with me. I was able to follow along with him through the next steps up to his first day of the first term. It was nice.

Actually, all of the experience is nice.

This year, unaccountably, I have only 21 applicants with only a few who actually completed their first application phase. I have given one interview.

That one was today.

We are at the end of the period for interviews. Their last day to make an appointment was two days ago. There were/are two stragglers who say they want an interview but have not made arrangements yet. I am not too sympathetic with this kind of foot dragging and I always comment on it in my report.

A few more days and they will probably be better off not having an interview as they are running the risk of pissing me off.

So.

I have gone through some wonder about what has happened. There are several schools who have "always" sent some applications to the Institute and they are not even represented on the panel I have assigned to me. I thought perhaps they had set up another EC in my territory but my nominal "boss" tells me that is not the case.

So it is a puzzlement.

The interview today was fun though.

We got through it pretty well and I told the kid that I was done and asked if he had anything else.

He said yes and took out a pack of cards, regular cards as far as I could tell, and proceeded to do some table top card tricks.

His patter needs some work but the tricks are pretty amazing.

This has never happened before, a grand finale.

It certainly will earn him some points with me.

Then we walked to the 1983 Mercedes sedan that he has restored before he even had a drivers license. 1983, a classic. And he and his Dad have traveled cross country four times in it.

Another first. A show and tell interview.

I thoroughly enjoyed the session.

So if this is the only one I am going to have it is a brilliant one and well worth my time and energy.

I don't know if the stragglers will show up or not. They have until January 9th to get to me and set up a date. But I am running out of time.

And, as I said, I might get pissed off. If that happens, even card tricks won't save their straggly little asses. Such sloppiness shouldn't attend MIT anyway.

Labels: MIT

ANGER IN BLACK AND WHITE

Anger is not "progressive", yet that is what a lot of lefties want Obama to be.

Read this to understand why that is the worst advice they could give.

What Progressives Don't Understand About Obama

Most of the pundits and bloggers who want Obama to get mad and shout are the same people who believe in a kinder, more caring government. Less war. More understanding welfare. Kindness to us gays. And so on.

But now they want an angry President.

Yeh. OK. Pipe down and let him do his job.

Labels: Barack Obama, lefty fringe, professional left