Monday, January 31, 2011
PLAY WITHIN A PLAY
Today's film was
This is a film about a slice of the great playwright's life which gets turned into a play. Well, there, I let it out of the bag.
You only need to hear the name Tartuffe in the real life segment to see that it is raw material for a play.
I got this because I am a fan of Romain Duris and have rented a couple of his films just to watch him.
But beyond that, this is a delightful light comedy which, at times, stretches credulity but then that is the nature of comedy.
It also has romance.
I liked it a lot. More than I expected to.
Duris in a costume flick is as effective as Duris in modern dress or undress. Not much of that here however.
I would not mind seeing it again. It was very nicely done.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Sunday, January 30, 2011
BREATHTAKING
Full screen view absolutely.
And the song isn't bad either.
Labels: California, fun. music
ROCKUMENTARY
Today's film was the documentary
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (2010)
The title is the title of one of their songs and is the nature of this wonderful documentary.
Rush has failed to get wild critical acclaim or achieve enshrinements in the various museums and such but they have had a solid continuous career together for 20 albums, many platinum, and still draw enormous stadium crowds.
Most importantly of all, they are genuinely nice guys who love one another in a really wonderful way.
The focus is on relationship. I am not a fan nor particularly like heavy metal but their metal is not as heavy as many others.
There is a lot of concert footage but it is all germane. There is a good look at the record business, the music business and life on the road.
The guys are quite engaging and have given the film makers a lot of access. The talking heads are very good and an impressive lineup of other musicians for whom the Rush guys are heroes. Big stars who do have the critical acclaim.
I am not making these guys out to be sad failures in the rock business. They are more than happy with their lot. They believe that by dodging superstardom they have saved their friendship and, perhaps, their lives if not just the life of the band.
I would gladly watch this again. It is quite emotional and very uplifting. These are very good people.
A 4 out of Netflix5. Maybe a 5. Time will tell.
Labels: films
SUBTITLES
A.O. Scott today in the NYTimes:
A Golden Age of Foreign Films, Mostly Unseen
One of the saddest results of our culture is the almost total exclusion of subtitled films from prominent view.
I have bemoaned this before.
One of the gladder results of our culture is that these same films, ignored by the big screen distributors and audience, are available on disc and most prominently on Netflix.
More than a third of the films that I watch are subtitled and another third are independent films shown only, for the most part, at the few art cinemas left.
In our Valley of desert cities and numerous cinemas, only one features art films and few of those are subtitled. This is for a population of 200,000 people. And movie addled people at that. The viewership here is very high. We are, after all, close to the industry and many industry people live here.
But still, the so called foreign film does not exist.
This is not to knock US product, but the quality is pretty low.
I only watch a small percentage of Hollywood films. Most are crass and superficial. Violent and obsessed with potty words and sexual clichés.
Scott describes how the Hollywood apparatus, most prominently the Oscars, keep non US films down and out of sight.
I can see someone raising their hand to tell me that there are films that do make it through.
The Kings Speech for example. But this is Hollywood product and of a shiny ornamental kind that is quite familiar in the run of things. Foreign actors imported into the Hollywood machine and away from their national ciinema. This is not a bad thing. I am happy for Colin Firth who I admire, but it doesn't help art cinema much.
When I moved to Boston in 1954, I fell in love with art film. In that city there were at least ten good sized theaters showing subtitled and old films.
When I left, there were only one or two for a huge city.
Too bad.
Labels: films
Saturday, January 29, 2011
NO MEATING TODAY
I have been so hungry for a hot dog and then I go and look them over and the fat content is so daunting that I just fade.
For a long while we used turkey sausages to simulate a hot dog and even had turkey bratwurst before they pulled it for non-performance in sales.
So, the other day I was standing in the cheese and what not /packaged deli section and there were these Litelife dogs. Jumbo.
I brought them home and we tried them tonight.
They cook up a bit timidly. Light brown. No good grease burn because there isn't much grease.
The texture is fine for me although John wanted a bit more of a bite. Crunch.
But the taste is fine.
Of course, if you bury your dog in relish and mustard the dog taste is really only an incremental part of the satisfying whole.
There were five in the package so we each had two (too many, one and a half would suffice) and Booker got his own. He also did a paws up for them.
FALLING FOR US
We got a letter from Anthem Blue Cross yesterday. I have hardly recovered from the results on my nervous system.
The letter announced a cut in our Medicare Supplemental medical insurance.
Thet harumphed and took credit and all, but the fact is that this reduction is a direct result of passage of the Affordable Care Act.
I knew that it was coming, or should come, but I was prepared for some kind of trick result. But, not.
We will pay a small percentage less this year, about 0.2% less. Considering that it was getting bumped one or two percent up each year this is a nice trend starter.
I don't know why people oppose this act, although more and more are approving of it. There is money in the pocket and better care. Less hassle. And no pre-existing conditions. To say nothing of the fact that other people will benefit from this.
And the act is not a job killer as predicted by the liars on the other side. It will make new jobs. And lessen the deficit.
I know that you already know this but I am repeating it to amplify the fact that OUR MEDICAL INSURANCE PREMIUMS HAVE GONE DOWN!!!
Labels: Administration Obama, health, medicine
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Today's film was the live version of the widely read kid series
This film is all kids. It is funny. There are no farts, no shit, no four letter words. There is only wit and identification for anyone who has started in Middle School and had serve for the first year of a confusing, baffling often hostile new world.
Nothing here is too over the top. Well, some stuff. The cartoons are sometimes blended into the live action but only to illlustrate what is happening to the kid and his view of it. They are, after all, his diary.
What is funny is that the diary is not, in the movie, something anyone likes. But in real life it is a successful series.
In addition to the school stuff, there is a long study of character, taking responsibility for your own actions and being honest with others. Honoring friendship. Being someone who does not lie.
I could go on and on. Everything a kid this age should hear is in this movie. And it is funny and palatable.
The parents, one of whom is a low profile Steve Zahn as a loving dad, are very good. They give the kids room to maneuver through their own dilemmas. The older brother is a classic little brother abuser. The baby is a classic attention stealer. Very good.
The school kids are stereotypes in a way but not in another way. I can't explain. I even spotted an FFA (future faggot of america) although, perhaps, neither the director or the kid have any idea. Gaydar. Identification.
The visuals are through the Wimpy Kid's eyes. Bright colors, exaggerated perspectives. Fast action.
Teachers are not dolts. Some are a bit of a cartoon but that is my experience with some teachers.
There is a through story, the school year, but the action is more episodic. Like cartoon panels. Short bursts. Great for limited attention spans like mine.
I liked this film very much and would be willing to see it again in a heartbeat.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Friday, January 28, 2011
THE KILL SWITCH
This is a much better review of how a country can turn off the internet within its borders. From Time.
How Egypt Cut Off the Internet
Labels: dictatorships, internet
HOW DO THEY DO IT?
John asks how the internet can be shut down in Egypt.
I say that I don't know but I can find out.
Here it is.
Egypt's Internet Shut Off--But How? The Blackout Explained
You plan ahead and turn off the routers on all ip's in the country. Or the servers.
If a guy shows up with a gun and says to turn it off, well, you turn it off.
Labels: internet
NO COMMENT
The first meeting of the Senate Tea Party Caucus on Thursday attracted just four senators — out of 47 GOP members — willing to describe themselves as members. The event was as notable for who wasn't there as who was. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), once a tea party favorite, has for now declined to join the caucus, whose first meeting was organized by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican whose campaign sprung from the small-government movement, has said he's unsure if he'll join. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) showed up to address the group of activists, but then hustled out of the room, ignoring reporters' questions about whether he was in or out.Well, why not.
Some comment.
There are two ways to look at this.
One is to exhibit a bit of schadenfreude but I will eschew that as I just finished emailing with a friend who is inclined towards tea and I want to keep some comity going.
The other way and more common visionish, is that this is the typical reaction of professional politicians. Use, pander to, lie to win over and then, after election, abandon.
This is an old story in the Democratic Party.
Senators are institutions among themselves. The Senate is a collection of fiefdoms. They are a black hole of self interest for the most part.
Gay people know this. All the happy horseshit at election time and then foot dragging once elected.
Welcome to the party, Teas. Mark Rubio? A member of the club already.
Labels: Democrats, politics, tea party
COOL
We got the new refrigerator delivered today.
A Jenn Air. French doors with a lower freezer. No ice port or water spigot on the outside. Inside. It has a "floating glass" finish. Shiny.
It is about the same capacity as the other one. A little less freezer space but I can handle that.
It is all about looks and just to have a new unit.
There it is.
Step right up. If you want some ice go to the lower freeze chest. If you want water there is a little nozzle inside the french door.
It works. We are waiting for the ice cubes to work their way out. Three sets to clean the system and satisfy Jenn Air's lawyers.
It is a Whirlpool really. Same company. The difference between a Chevy and a Buick.
It is not a birthday present. I repeat. It is not a birthday present.
I am getting the disposal unit which is awaiting installation in the garage. A hundred bucks plus whatever I can press onto the two guys who will put it in. They do all our handyman stuff. They don't want money. It is a good strategy. I overpay them. But it is in the form of a dinner out or something.
I still have trouble accepting something that someone wants to do for friendship.
Someday, maybe. I am saving it up until I am old and infirm and need someone to help me out.
Labels: appliances, condo, life
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME
I woke up late this morning and decided to sleep in. That, with the pajama thing yesterday make me wonder if I am aging out. But maybe, I am just loosening up.
A long weekend from the gym won't hurt and it isn't like they are going to throw me a party or anything.
How does it feel to be 74?
Pretty much the same as being 73 but I can't deny that the realization of the pileup of years is a little more with me than it was before.
I have recently been in touch with a long lost cousin back east. We have been ploughing through a lot of family history together.
I am older so I know some stuff he doesn't remember or own up to. He is an amateur family historian and genealogist so he has a lot more information, in general, than I do. But it is a fairly equal swap.
None of the stuff weighs heavily but it is a bit tiring to bring it back into my awareness.
In a way it seems a short time between here and back there. In others, a fucking eternity. A different world.
In general though, I am happy and proud to be happy and proud at an age I never considered as even being possible. I almost burnt out my wick a lot earlier in my life and I was saved from that. I am quite grateful. That is 31 years ago. A good bit of extra milage.
So, it is a reflective birthday and not one that I am rushing through.
As chance would have it, there is a new refrigerator coming today. Not a present for me. More an improvement in our functional and aesthetic lives. The one came with the condo is butt ugly and kind of cramped. The new one has the same space, better arranged, and is terminally pretty. A glass front. Not see through. Just shiny.
Then tonight out to dinner with John and Booker and some coconut boiled frosting cake.
Happy Birthday to Me.
Labels: life
Thursday, January 27, 2011
HEARTFELT
I am heartened when I find a politician who speaks from the heart. Joe Biden. Look.
You Can Beat it Just Like I Did.
See what Branden Brooks did with his life because Joe Biden took some time.
Labels: Joe Biden
FIGHT ON
Mb>Statement by the President on the Killing of David Katos I am deeply saddened to learn of the murder of David Kato. In Uganda, David showed tremendous courage in speaking out against hate. He was a powerful advocate for fairness and freedom. The United States mourns his murder, and we recommit ourselves to David’s work.
At home and around the world, LGBT persons continue to be subjected to unconscionable bullying, discrimination, and hate. In the weeks preceding David Kato’s murder in Uganda, five members of the LGBT community in Honduras were also murdered. It is essential that the Governments of Uganda and Honduras investigate these killings and hold the perpetrators accountable.
LGBT rights are not special rights; they are human rights. My Administration will continue to strongly support human rights and assistance work on behalf of LGBT persons abroad. We do this because we recognize the threat faced by leaders like David Kato, and we share their commitment to advancing freedom, fairness, and equality for all.
Ugandan Who Spoke Up for Gays Is Beaten to Death
This is a story that has deep roots in the United States with a right wing/fundamentalist group who went to Uganda and stoked the fire with workshops and their hateful, despicable rants.
Ms. Kalende was referring to visits in March 2009 by a group of American evangelicals, who held rallies and workshops in Uganda discussing how to turn gay people straight, how gay men sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” intended to “defeat the marriage-based society.”Bastards.The Americans involved said they had no intention of stoking a violent reaction. But the antigay bill was drafted shortly thereafter. Some of the Ugandan politicians and preachers who wrote it had attended those sessions and said that they had discussed the legislation with the Americans.
Labels: gay identity, gay liberation, gay rights
DIY
I bought a new battery for my mobile three months ago.
I have been loathe to open the case and exchange it with the old one because "I didn't know how to do it" and the battery had no instructions.
I can get struck dumb over this kind of thing, I mean stupid not speechless.
But the last few days my recharge has lasted about a day and then out like a light. Out like a dead cell phone.
So I was going to take it to a meeting and get one of the young guys to put the new battery in there for me but then Igot some balls and opened the back of the phone. It is easy. The back comes off frequently by accident.
And there is the battery. Just like the new one I have.
I snap the old battery out and put the new battery in.
Voila!
I am not as ham handed as I thought.
Of course it is as easy as, well, putting in a mobile battery.
It took awhile to charge up. A friend told me 6-8 hours. I wasn't there at the end but that was about it. And the phone works. Nothing is erased. No explosions. Brilliant!
Labels: technology
LYING LOW
I haven't done it since, well, I can't remember.
Thursday is an off day for me and today was really off. I got back from the gym and had breakfast. Went to the computer for some internet. Got and sent some email. Farted around in general and never got dressed beyond my boxers after the shower. Then a robe.
I hung out for the morning. John was gone to "work". And Booker and I just relaxed. A nap. Then I dressed.
I used to take days like this when I was really working. Between trips.
It was nice.
I might do it again sometime. I don't even do this on my annual retreat to San Diego.
Maybe it has something to do with it being my birthday tomorrow. 74. I have been telling people that is my age for a few months now.
Is this the beginning of the decline. Pajamas (I will have to buy some as I don't own any) and lazy mornings. I don't think so.
Well, not often anyhow.
GRAND GUIGNOL FINALE updated*
Today was the last installment of the Red Riding Trilogy.
Red Riding Trilogy-1983 (2009)
There is some reconciliation but not along the lines that would be easy. Some open ends have been closed, others remain open.
There is a lot more torture of suspects in this one and the results of torture are seen.
I think that this is meant to be a bit about the results of torture in the grilling of suspects beyond the north country of England.
It certainly shows us the side where confessions are worthless except for finding a goat to hang.
The corruption of the police as shown here is eye popping.
But one finally gives in and lets go and the son of one of the original cops, now a lawyer, has a hand in bringing the conclusion to a grizzly end.
We left the original star Andrew Garfield long ago but he is here in some flashbacks. He still shines through all the action. Very charismatic.
As I said yesterday, the enduring roles from one episode to the other are the villains and one addled hero, a gay boy.
Spoilers all around here, eh. Don't worry. I have told you nothing.
I would like to see this again someday so I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5. It is certain to be a best for me this year, I can feel it.
*I changed this to a 3. The first episode was great. A 5. The second two not so much. I thought about it during the night and realized that I don't want to watch it again. It is brutal and the pieces don't really fit together in some respects. The graphic violence is sometimes gratuitous.
Funny, huh? I have seldom gone back and down graded a film.
Labels: films
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
SOON
We read that the branches will be given a three month deadline for getting it done.
He gave it all his stuff last night.
Labels: gay history, gay military, gay rights
REAX
The internets is full of post SOTU reflection, punditry and the usual assholery as well. The libs didn't like this the wingers didn't like that.
I will not get into the game. I liked all of it.
I have drunk the ObamaAde. As they say.
Fuck 'em.
I think he hit all the bases, he pulled the rug out from under them on a number of issues (freeze the budget, root out lobbying flim flam, the earmarks) and he took it to them on a select group of issues that he will get a lot of national support for.
He did not drape himself in the flag. He was conciliatory. Tough love is how I saw it.
He is climbing in the polls again. This will not give him a bump, it never does for any Prez, but it will provide a great platform for the rest of this term and the term to come.
OK.
That is all.
He is my CIC and I am saluting with enthusiasm.
Labels: Administration Obama
ANOTHER DISASTER
Extreme police corruption continues today in the second installment of
Red Riding Trilogy--1980 (2009)
Four years later the police are still corrupt and a young cop is brought in to clean it up.
It does, in a way, pickup on the first film with another director.
The difference in look is tangible. Some actors the same. I reflected on the fact that the villain actors will have more screen time than the featured heroes. But that is a spoiler and I won't go into it.
It works OK but is not as frought as the first one which had me on my feet and verbal in spots. Watch those ear phones when you stand up fast.
Very good. I like the concept.
The cleanup cop is not as attractive and we expect the lies and deceit. We are now as corrupted and cynical as the system. Or, I am. All trust is gone. Someone is going to fuck you over and you don't know who.
If it rested on this one, it would be a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
SOTU TONIGHT
I will be there.
I love this video. The first time on the White House site. How they do it.
Labels: Administration Obama
LET THEM SHOW THEIR COLORS
I am with Kevin Drum,
There have been a lot of flaps about "partisan" appearances by members of the mostly conservative Supremes.
To act as though the Court is not partisan is a major case of denial.
The Warren Court was partisan.
So is this one.
Let them show up wherever they want and keep it open. Better to have the lights on and everyone walking around than to be in the dark.
Let's even take pictures.
And I am serious about it. Show the liberals too.
Labels: Supreme Court
GETTING A ROUND
This from Dave.
IMMERSION
Today's film was the first installment of the
Red Riding Trilogy--1974 (2009)
which is ostensibly about a "ripper" serial killer but really a deep exposé of police corruption in the north of England.
Andrew Garfield (the new Spiderman and excellent in the film Dr. Parnassus, also in Network a new star bursting) is a very young, callow, crime reporter who gets in too deep. He ages rather quickly in the face of mounting pressure to stop his investigation.
Each installment, three separate years (1974, 1989 and 1983), of this story will have its own director, a strange choice or approach, and we will see how that ends up working. The director here was Julian Jarrold and bleakly beautiful. Sometimes horribly or grizzily beautiful.
There is a lot of violence here. But the action is compelling and it is over before we know what happened.
And of course that is the point as it is not done happening. There are three episodes to go.
It is not necessary, incidentally, to see all of these but if you do it would be wise to see them in succession. The first is a piece unto itself but I want more.
So far a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
HERO
Jack LaLanne, the Father of Fitness Dies at 96
I took a day or two to decide whether to write about LaLanne.
I have a hero category for people who I have looked to emulate and have reached the age of 90 as I hope to do.
LaLanne is a question mark because he got his foot in his mouth over some gay talk that wasn't nice. Bodybuilders have long been sensitive to any hint that they might be just a little bit light in the g-string and so, as most insecure men would do, go on the offense before anyone can call them a fairy for admiring their own and other men's muscles.
LaLanne's great contribution comes after his body building days anyway.
I can't find the data, only the implication that he did this but I have gotten over it anyway.
Look, LaLanne had a television show about exercise and his force of belief and his winning personality got people off their asses and doing stuff in front of the teevee. Then they went out and got themselves to a gym. The rest is history.
I watched him. You know, a lot of us have our total impression of him on YouTubes or when he was kind of over the hill. He kept going to the end.
I remember his little talks most of all. Between exercise sets. He would pull up a chair, take it easy for a minute and exhort.
He does look a litte excessive in these old kinescopes but it is kinescope and in those days you had to overact to get across. Most people's television sets were very poor soundwise and you had to continually adjust the antenna or tuning to get a good picture.
Look at the Lucy shows. Over the top and loud. They had to be.
LaLanne was not the only one to innovate with exercise shows. Vic Tanny and others too. They were often tied into a gym enterprise that had questionable sales tactics and membership agreements that suckered a lot of people into lifetime memberships. Such was the case with a lot of shows like this. Arthur Murray Dance studios.
The stars had turned their program over to a franchising business and the hucksters had a holiday with it. But the stuff was still good.
He lived to a ripe old age. I think he was OK down to the end and not vegging out. Lifetime exercise. A testimonial.
Labels: fitness, heroes, nostalgia
Monday, January 24, 2011
SAD BUT TRUE
Today in the NYTimes, a fair, non-gloating rundown of the problems at the LA Times.
Los Angeles Times Has Lost Its Standing at Home
For sure.
When we moved here, we became delighted subscribers to the LAT. It was much better than we were used to with the Boston Globe. It had depth, interest, personalties (star writers and columnists), a great weekly magazine and first class coverage.
Then, trouble came.
It got smaller, the magazine became a monthly, the writers we liked took off (Dan Neil to the Wall Street Journal with the same automotive column) and so on.
Finally, when it was so thin that I could get through it in ten minutes, we gave up.
Mournfully.
Economy, lost readers, a downward spiral of pissing its readers off, losing readers, having to cut more.
There is no California section, one of the best. Folded into the front fold.
Cut, cut, cut. It is all here in this article.
I usually brace myself for any NYTimes article about LA or Southern California because they are often snooty and superior acting. But, in this case, they are mournful too.
The quality of the paper is not in dispute. They have the bureaus and the writers but no muscle.
Then there is the on line version of the paper. It was terrible before the print version came down and so they were behind from the get go on their email summary and the web site. Now, it is improving but it is a shade of the other papers I look at on line.
Like I said, sad.
THINGS I WONDER ABOUT
Why are the guys who defend the literal Constitution the same ones who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible?
Isn't there a lot of rigidity here?
Where is there anything limber in their life.
I am just asking.
I have been one of those who feels responsible to always question authority.
Especially something put together 4000 years ago by a bunch of sheepherders who barely lived in tents.
Or something else put together in a collaborative style such that editing occurred until the very last minute and whose signers had doubts about from the beginning.
I suppose these are the same people who believe that you should spank disobedient children and shun anyone who is different like queers and especially blacks although we have code words for both of those things. Now the muslims. And, of course, jews.
What are their lives like? These certain ones who tow the line?
Well, boring. And dangerous.
Labels: christist watch
DICKHOOD
More is revealed about the petulant Keith. I am just including this because I took a bit of a stand about it. Now it is over for me. Until he comes back.
Olbermann Split Came After Years of Tension
Labels: media
BORDER WARS
Our first bit of tension with the next door neighbor.
He got an OK from the HOA Board to regarden in front of his unit. Our units stop at the inside of the garden wall.
We had talked about this a long time ago. He said that he was going to a desert planting. And asked about the bushes that were between our two sidewalks. Two big prickly plums, which are ubiquitous here, and a beautiful, tall purple sage which has bloomed three times since we came.
We said that we would rather not change them and he sort of passed on in the converstion. That was our input.
A qord about "desert" plantings. The plantings are water conservative but not desert. The standard here is to scatter the plants with pipette sprinkers and put stones between the plants. The stones are from non-local waterways and look a bit dumb but that is beside the point.which is not really desert but that isn't so much the point as that he tore out all the larger, older, well developed bushes in front of his own unit and also on the east side of our walk outside the gate including a beautiful old heavily blooming purple sage bush.
While we had discussed the general topic and had expressed our pref for not touching that part he did it anyway. So. We talked about filling it back in again which he has done with dinky little Lowe's prickly plums and a faux sage bush. Yellow. All these are desert plants as they were before he hacked them down.
SO we offered to get four or so larger plants like the one that was there and put them in. Get them at Mollers, a nursery down valley, which is much better stock than the cheap shit he put in his place.
We talked about this and I called and made the offer to do it today.
He called back and said it was too late, we would have to take it up with the Board as they had approved his plan.
Oh.
In my training business we used to call that "bureaucratic avoidance". Push it off to other unavailable authorities. And today he is madly installing the irrigation, repiping it, covering the dirt with "fabric" and now the stones are going on.
We have retreated. We are letting it go.
Sort of. You can tell I am still pissed.
We know that the "board" gave him an OK in general because that is what their ultimate aim is, desert planting. Just so they don't have to spend the money. The HOA.
It is too bad. One of those "neighbor" things. The people who have to cut down and reconstruct and repaint everything in their new home. And the fucking stones are not desert stones. They are from some stream somewhere or perhaps dug up in China and polished by high tech machines for export to the USA for the upward striving bourgeoisie who can't leave fucking well enough alone.
See? I am over it.
Labels: condo, life, neighborhood
BREAKDOWN
Today's film was the ESPN documentary
This is the story of two guys from Colombia named Escobar who are not related in any way by blood but whose stories merge in a violent outcome for both.
One of these guys is a player on the Colombia soccer team, a star, and the other Escobar is the Medellin drug king pin.
The overall story is about the corruption and breakdown in society in Columbia over drugs, the way that its soccer establishment became engaged in the corruption and the impact on the players, especially Escobar. His personal story is the arc around the writer/director Zimbalist brothers have built this suspenseful film.
I do not follow any sport, let alone soccer, so I knew none of this. As a dramatic tale the Zimbalists have constructed their film from all sorts of video bits and create an ominous and suspenseful experience, for this viewer anyway.
This disc is the most popular in Netflix library and I had it on queue for 6-8 weeks as number one before it was my turn. It is an edge of the seat experience.
Some of the video is great. The older stuff is pre-digital and so blobby on my screen. But you can see the plays and, mercifully, these are kept short enough and have some repetition so that a person like me, with no eye for sports coverage, can tell what is happening.
I would not want to see this again since it is so depressing. And scandalous.
For once, the US is not implicated and the tragedy of the story is very human. Evil type human.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 because it is so good even though I will not watch it again. Grisly and sordid and sad.
Remember the ratings. 1 is that I didn't like it and skipped. 2 is that I didn't like it and did not skip. 3 is a good average high rating. A good film and thank you. A 4 is that I would be willing to see it again. 5 is that I definitely will see it again.
Labels: films
Sunday, January 23, 2011
QUICK AS A FLASH
I would have had more time today if I had used some of these hints.
Actually, I can use the boiled egg one and the banana one but the knife would get dirty even if my hands were clean. Fun though.
The ketchup one is good but they have these squeeze bottles now which actually have thinner ketchup so maybe I will try that.
Definitely the potato if I don't have to dice them to cut cooking time. The skins are good for you though.
The one I would love to do but am too scared to is the parking one. Let me know if you try and be clear about where to send the bail money.
Labels: fun
AARGH!!!
Today was supposed to be a smooth day with lots of time to do lots of things.
I started with a haircut. That went well. So well that I took a nap.
Then I went to the pool for half an hour of sun and swim. This is a good goal except that it is impossible if I jump in for three laps, take ten minutes of sun on the front, jump in again for a walk through the water and then take another ten of sun on the back. Then come home and take five minutes to hang the towel, get out of my suit, change into regular clothes and go to my lunch. This didn't screw up my day but it took longer than 30 minutes. More like 40. And there is the walk over there and fucking around.
This is the butterfly that starts a tornado on the other side of town.
When I get back to my desk dressed, John says there is a phone call. OK. Ten minutes.
Then make lunch. It is Sunday so tuna fish for both of us.
John says "let's eat outside". OK. Nice day. Too nice. Sit longer. Booker is there. More attention to John and Booker than time.
I go to see my movie but it is 1245 by this time. won't be out until 245 and I have three long emails to write.
So I flush the movie so I get more time than I planned to have but the letters are also longer than I expected.
Shit. I lost control of the day.
And I didn't get to see a movie.
But, I did get off a few really good emails and I am now on time again and I can see this film tomorrow and that is my day.
We are having pizza in tonight and then I can finish up my web cruise.
It was another gorgeous day here. We are having perfect weather. Great.
NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
This in the NYTimes:
Read some, then take a test. Read some more and take another test.
This is the method that I used to relearn the motor vehicle code for my recent driver's test.
The DMV provides sample tests on line and also a programmed instruction QandA that teaches as you the material.
If you are right or wrong with your answer, a slide shows up to give you a brief correction, if wrong, or a short reinforcement if you are wrong.
Programmed instruction was a huge craze when I joined the management training industry. Xerox Learning Systems had paid lots of money to get it off the ground as a mass teaching vehicle.
It was all very scientific, based on the work of B.F. Skinner, operant conditioning.
They had invented books that did much the same thing as machines.
Some of it was cumbersome. You really needed a teaching machine. The books were to limited in what they could handle.
A good revenue stream but difficult to manage.
Now they are reinventing it. Another cycle. Computers make it quite feasible to do the job.
For me, rote learning is not possible. I need action. It is my learning style. I do not / will not memorize. But I can integrate learning with my experience.
Labels: training
Saturday, January 22, 2011
THUMP THUMP THUMP
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Today's film was
The thump is my heart some time after the thing was over. A thriller. But a particular kind.
It is one of the few films that there are no heroes. The leads are fuckups from the beginning. The trick here is that the writers/director, let's name them; Director is Nash Edgerton. Written by Joel Edgerton and Matthew Dabner based on an original story by Joel Edgerton. Brothers and a friend. It is edited down so that every scene, I said "every scene" matters. There is no wasted time.
It is weird because we don't want to cheer for these people. On the other hand we somehow hope that they get out of it. Perverse. Clever hooks.
Part of it is also that they stay just ahead of you but not too far. I am trying to figure what has happened and who is coming for who and what the strands are and I grasp it but just enough. On edge. It is like a roller coaster where you think you have gone over the worst of it and then something else happens.
I laugh in this kind of movie to release tension but it is not funny. But it is. I yelled out loud. loud-loud, two or three times. The laugh didn't break the tension enough.
I did not look at my watch except once to figure how they were going to get out of this before the end.
Well, they did what they did and there is closure.
The star is David Roberts who I have seen before. He is everyman. With a twist.
Did I mention that this is an Australian film, subtitles not required here, they play the accent down a degree.
It is also a NYTimes Critic's Choice. Here is what A.O. Scott said:
If you’ve seen “No Country for Old Men” or “A Simple Plan” or any number of other, similar movies, you probably know that nothing good is likely to come from taking somebody else’s bag full of cash. Perhaps Ray and Carla, the adulterous couple at the center of “The Square,” haven’t seen these films, or have drawn the wrong lessons from them. After Carla comes across a satchel full of money that her loutish, vaguely criminal husband has stashed in a crawl space in the laundry room of their house, she and Ray concoct a plan to snatch it and get out of town. What else would they do? And what could possibly go wrong?And he is giving away nothing!
I would not mind seeing it again. Even knowing how it turns out. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
KEiTH
Everyone, well not everyone, but you know what I mean, is puzzled by the sudden extermination of Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show.
I have to say that despite my sympathy with his politics, sort of, his methods left me cold.
I, for one, will not miss him nor, do I suspect, will many other people.
Keith Olbermann abruptly leaves MSNBC: Was he fired for being a jag?
My thoughts exactly. That is "jag" as in "jag-off". An asshole, a jerk, a pain in the ass. A person who takes up your oxygen with his ire and drama. A douchebag!
So with Comcast denying their involvement, the question keeps coming back to why KO was fired? Was it because he’s such a dick? Seriously, I agree with many of KO’s political views, but not his methods and not his personal attacks and unyielding arrogance. That’s why I stopped watching his show - KO is an exhausting bastard. Could it be that KO just shot himself in the foot by being such a jag?I have to say that when I would try out one of his little video clips, he exhausted me with his ego and intensity. His righteousness.
Of course it was amusing to see him take it to George Bush and the rest of them but, actually, I found most of his performances to be cringeworthy.
So, I suppose we will find out what happened someday. We may even care when the inside dope does spill out.
And I suppose that he will back in some other form.
I won't be there waiting for him to return.
Labels: media
Friday, January 21, 2011
PARALLEL LIVES
Today's film was Abdel Kechiche's first film
L'esquive / Games of Love and Chance (2005)
Actually, L'esquive means "dodging". More like it.
Paris teenagers put on a classical play at school and, without knowing it, live out the idea and story of the show in their own lives.
Very clever, very funny and poignant, very well acted by near amateur actors and a sprinkling of pros (I think).
I got this because I enjoyed and in awe of Kechiche's most recent film The Secret of the Grain.
No adults in this one. Close in photography. Very good.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Thursday, January 20, 2011
VISITORS
This is an amazing hour of raw tape as Michelle Obama and Bo welcome regular visitors during their tour of the White House. This is an hour long. Watch Bo as he reacts to what is going on. It is great Americana. Some people are just dumbfounded, others seem to just take it in their stride that she would be there.
Bo does the dog thing. If Mom is here than I will be here too and keep an eye on all these people. He has been thoroughly socialized.
It is fun to graze through the tape to see various interactions. And to watch Bo.
Labels: Administration Obama
DYSFUNCTION ISN'T FUNNY
Today's film was
A comedy with Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies overacting as parents of a fucked up family and so and on.
I didn't like it even though Ebert did.
It is one of those films that stretches credibility at every edge. Extremes. The youngest son has sex with fat women while eating. Come on.
And the film has nothing to do with City Island which is a nice little waterfront sliver of the Bronx. But for this family there is no peace. Only turmoil until an unlikely ending.
I used the FF which means it gets a 1 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
MORE REASONED AND....WELL READ IT
Gail Collins does her usual good job of evisceration without using the words fuck, asshole or dick. But she does as good or better than I did.
Goodbye to a Guy Named JoeI like the part where we move to another line so we don't have to talk to him.
You know, all this fun is premature. The bastard has two more years to go.
Labels: criminal morons
THE BUZZ ISN'T THERE
This is about the Stieg Larsson books about the girl and the investigative journalist and the tattoo and the bees and the really boring, difficult read that they are.
It is unaccountable to me why these books have been successful.
They are banal, incomplete, boring. Situations dangle.
Mini-plots seem concocted and inserted for sheer effect, neither story telling or advancing the plot that is at the core of the books. The dialog is wooden. Even the sex scenes are sexless.
Of course, in a culture where over half of the best sellers are sausage ground from the same old meat, Danielle Steele and so on, the quality issue is at a par. What I don't get is that the two principals are so unattractive and unlikable and, indeed, foolish and the girl nearly insane, that they would not be the kind of heroes that make for a good read in the first place. They are lousy characters.
When I read the first one I nearly doubled over with boredom at the interlacing financial network of the family that, well, never mind. It turns out that the story is really about sadistic murders and a missing person. None of the huge financial corporate superstructure is important. It is not even a red herring. It is filler.
Filler and anecdotal episodes of traditional thriller tropes.
The second book wasn't much better and by the time I was through with it and had seen the trimmed down story in the first Swedish film, I was done with it.
The film was pretty good actually. They threw out huge chunks and made the characters at least intelligent and only neurotic enough to be interesting.
So. I am going to see the second Swedish film and, when it comes out on DVD, the third and that is it.
My rule of not seeing a film on a book I read or reading a book about a film I saw has already been sullied.
The mystery remains.
Why have these been so popular.
I do love this kind of fiction when it is done well. We read every Robert Crais and Lee Child book published. But even these only stay on the Best Seller list for a few weeks.
I have found that others share my puzzlement. At last, a critical essay appears in The New Yorker by Joan Acocella,
Another interesting thing is that even the provenance and the editing of these books is shrouded in mystery. Larssen died 7 months after he wrote the books and did not really work hard on editing at all. The ownership of the copyright is all screwed up,
Time will tell, I suppose. There are going to be American films. They will have to edit the stories and, of course, Hollywoodize them. I will not see them. I will not buy the possible next volume that is said to be in Larssen's computer that he left.
I will not participate.
It is bullshit. Group buzz. The good part is that so many people are reading. But if they are reading trash then what happens next? I can't even go there.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
FAREFUCKINGWELL JOE
I have given it 24 hours. The news that Joe Leiberman will not run again. The sorry bastard.
I have been a long anti-fan of the Senator who has never let a moment pass without grandstanding his piety or his obnoxious attitude. A world class back stabber. I do not allow the C-word in the blog but it would go right here.
I was working on a suitable item for the blog but I found this at Bill in Exile. A blog that is NSFW or much of anything else but hot opinions on a narrow range of subjects. But he has Joe to a tee.
SO LONG ASSHOLE:I couldn't have said it better.Holy Joe Lieberman, The Last Honest Man, has announced this morning that he will retire from the United States Senate when his term expires in 2012.
Joe Lieberman is a duplicitous weasel of the very first order and his work on getting DADT repealed, although admirable, does not in any way make up for the twenty years worth of offenses he’s perpetrated while in office.
It takes a lot for a politician to be loathed by both Democrats and republicans, but that’s Joe in a nutshell and its why he decided not to run for a fifth term.
Because basically everyone in his home state of Connecticut fucking hates him.
From his incredible sanctimony, to endorsing John McCain for president, to opposing a public option in the health care reform bill simply because doing so pissed off Liberals, Joe Lieberman rarely passed up an opportunity to act like an asshole.
So long Joe, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, you fucking scumbag.
He is a prick. But, let's not go ad hominem.
And let's be polite.
Thank you Joe for being the stalking horse for a lot of resentment we have had for the blue-doggers and DIROs that will now be more exposed for the hypocrisy in the coming years. Do you hear me Ben Nelson?
They are no longer "better than that fuck Joe Leiberman". They will now have to stand on their own.
Labels: Democrats
COVERED
I got a text message with the name and number of my Representative Mary Bono Mack. The number was hot linked on my mobile so all I had to do was hit send and it is an "inside" no waiting number.
This was about asking her to vote against repeal.
Of course, she wasted all our time and energy by voting for it but I did my part. Later I got a live phone call to do the same. The Obamas are well organized early in the game. One word. Plouffe. David. The guy who ran Obama's campaign.
They are running it from the White House. Great.
And today, a white board presentation. Not my buddy Alstan Goolsbee but still pretty good.
If you think you know everything about this issue, find out now and watch.
Like me, you probably do not.
When you get the text or phone call to contact your Rep or Senator you will be well informed.
Labels: Administration Obama, health
VICIOUS CIRCLES
Today's film, the Israeli
which is a section of Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv.
This film is constructed in six chapters which interlink. A few are out of sequence but, as in a good novel, they illuminate the present. Show not tell. A group of characters are connected in what is basically an underground life. Illegals, drug dealers, arab tribal vendettas, along with police and army make a rich stew.
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What seems to be disconnected is finally connected.
The style is docudrama. Quite realistic. Nothing, not even death, is glamorized or made unreal.
The actors are not professionals for the most part. It all works.
This was a candidate for the foreign film Oscars and is a NYTimes Critics Choice.
I was deeply engaged. There are shocks and some degree of consolation in the situations shown in this totally fucked up section of the world.
There are no sides in this. Only the people whether Jews or Arabs or Christians or Muslims.
A taste of the complexities involved there.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
CATCHING UP
Not much blogging today.
No movie.
Just a trip to see a refrigerator and a washer/drier combination.
We are evidently not done primping up the condo.
I will get back on stream tomorrow, I hope.
In the meantime guest performers.
Labels: blogging
Monday, January 17, 2011
PC OR NOT PC
Today's film was a documentary
This is about a black girl adopted by a lesbian, observant jewish couple with two other racially mixed siblings.
It is hard to judge this film directly as it is told by the girl, a runner, and is written by her and the film maker. I don't know how much is re-enacted and "made up" or is actual filming.
In one way it doesn't matter as it is a story. One might view it as a fiction piece without missing much.
The thing about it is, that this girl is seen making some decisions and alienating herself from her adopted mothers in ways that seem wildly self indulgent. Is this intentional for the "story" effect? Or is this a real story with a real examination of the impact of, what we learn to call, transracial adoptions to say nothing of the gay factor although it would seem that any white couple would serve as foils for the girl's dilemma and angst about being black on the outside and white in.
That said, it is nice to see someone point out that there may be some problems with transracial adoption that need to be examined. We have several acquaintances that have or are going through this. Lesbians, mixed race kids and so on.
I think that there are a lot of re-enactments here so we do not see the actual pain that all parties are having over this girl's search for identity. It is certainly not something anyone signed up for but could they have not foreseen this?
I don't know.
My experience watching the friends has led me to believe that it might have been better to stay with the race you are. But then that would not begin to make a dent in the number of mixed race kids that need to be adopted.
No matter how "real " this "story" is, it does ask some probing questions about what is frequently assumed to be a good act. Adoption.
It made me think. I liked the people a lot. I could see where this was going before it got there though. Didn't they?
Spoiler.
At least we are not allowed in to a reunion at the end. These people get to have their own private moment to yell, scream, rant and rave if need be to get back on track without the PC need-to-be-nice overlay of much of the film.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Sunday, January 16, 2011
PERSONALITY CHANGE
I just found out that they are changing the astrological signs and the dates which they cover. Or something. I don't actually get it.
I was an Aquarius and now I am a Capricorn.
I suppose that, now, I will have to not pay any attention to being a Capricorn instead of ignoring my Aquarian side.
Does anyone still believe this shit?
I read somewhere that "trained" astrologists were not at all discomfited by this. Somehow, it turns out that they have only been reading the planets and something else. Asteroids? The sun.
Whatever it is they are reading they are going to keep on doing it.
In the Aquarian age of the late 60s and early 70s it was cool to be an Aquarius. I am glad this didn't happen before now and that I was able to be the center of attention then.
Is there an age of Capricorn? What is the symbol for that anyway? The general characteristics?
Well, I am a goat. I used to be a hunk in a bikini or not. Bummer.
The general characteristics are on the card imaged here. They have the old dates though. I think that maybe they tweaked these a bit. As much as I would like to have them. Maybe.
Here is a different take.
It is very difficult to get close to a Capricorn guy. He is always enclosed within a strong wall, which is not too easy to breach. He is not too gregarious & outgoing, but his personality traits include determination and patience. He has fierce ambitions, which he pursues with a strong resolve. If you look at him casually, it may seem as if he prefers solitude to company. Now, look deeper, inside his heart. Though he doesn't show it, he wants admiration as much as other people. It's just that a Capricorn male is too shy to express his feeling openly.Pretty accurate, huh? I like that last part.
Even though it looks as if the compliment hardly moved him an inch, his ears will turn pink and his eyes will carry a sparkling glow. But then, you will have to come close and see all this happen. A careless look will do no good. Another problem with him is that he doesn't know how to handle compliments. If and when he gets any, he becomes too embarrassed and may pass it off as a joke or ignore it altogether. So next time, don't be fooled by him. Tell him that he is delightful, intelligent, good-looking and attractive. He needs to know it.
There is more but my gag reflex is acting up.
I think that I will continue to ignore it all. Is that a Capricorn trait? Denial? OK. I am on board.
Labels: astrology
With A WHIMPER
Schwarzenegger hands out lucrative jobs on way out
And a pardon. To say nothing of the 33 pardons he refused to endorse from the Parole Board.
He always was a shit head first, last and, I suppose, always but I don't figure on watching his future much.
Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out, Arnie.
This is the guy who was going to clean house. Blah blah blah. The governator.
Of course we believed none of it so this is no surprise. I am surprised that he didn't give himself a job.
I think that this is the wax museum version of the guy. No difference actually. He has an underbite.
Labels: California
PARTY PARTY
We are going to a birthday party today.
80. A birthday girl.
I thought to myself, "how old"!
And then realized that Ruth has only six years on me.
OK.
We are taking Booker. He will be a distraction for the in between times that I have trouble with. I am good at the arrival and departure. It is the middle I have trouble with.
Walk the dog. Booker needed some air.
There is no food involved. Cake and coffee.
Then home.
I hope to be on the ground about an hour at most. Hopefully, less. We get there at 230, cake at 300, out on the road by 330. It is way out in the boonies.
Home in time for dinner and a short poop walk. Booker. I use the occasion to have Stouffers Pot Pies.
No work and lots of calories. Comfort food.
I got the large because the small seems too small.
We only have pot pies about once a year because they are so rich. But the one time. So good.
Sun today. Went to the pool. The party makes it a sort of fucked up day as far as my routine is concerned but I have framed it well.
STORM CENTER
Jeez. Now it's the "superstorm".
If Quakes Weren’t Enough, Enter the ‘Superstorm’
I know we have the drainage for the 100 year storm. The sluices and waterways are huge.
They say that there was a hundred year storm in the 60's. It took out the Bogert bridge, parts of Indian Canyon Drive and a piece of 111.
Here is more than you need to know about the Flood Control District and flooding in Riverside County. Some of it is about our part of it here in the eastern section. The "rivers and creeks" referred to here are largely dry and small except when it rains and are natural flood courses off the mountains.
A big problem here are the boulders that are rolled down the sides of the mountains and into the courses in any storm. They break dams and bridges and, occasionally, some people.
So, if it already happened in the 60's, doesn't that mean we are safe for fifty more?
I guess not.
Somehow the yahoos do not get that the effects of global warming are not simple temperature effects. They will be storm effects. Weather patterns will shift and become more fierce.
Our condo has a pretty high ceiling. If we can rig up something we will stay above the ten feet.
But I don't know about the boulders. We are in the middle of our four unit section. Lee and Francis will get it first. Then us.
Labels: condo, desert, global warming, weather
Saturday, January 15, 2011
LIFE
I finished the film
La graine et le mulet / The Secret of the Grain (2007)
The second half.
More life, more family, more detail of a kind of French life which we do not normally see. Small town, sea coast and not Marseille.
The leads here are very powerful as is the intricate story.
A last chance at success, in the world, for and old man is shown in parallel with his family life and what he has done so far. The successes and failures.
Wait. That sounds pretentious and is way off the mark.
This is a real work of cinematic art. It is the only way that it can be understood. This is the advantage of film over theater or books. It is close up. Gritty. In our faces.
And in our spirits.
I would like to see this film again. It had a hold on me that very films do have. Its unconventional structure stretched on the frame of classic tragedy is deeply moving.
So, a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Friday, January 14, 2011
CONVERSION
It is interesting to watch some of the anti-Obama people do some scrambling this week after the obvious success of his speech.
Steve Benen in Political Animal cites this example.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) writes for the Washington Post that he disagrees with many of the president's policies, but considers the president "a patriot sincerely intent on using his time in office to advance our country's cause." That couldn't have been easy for McCain.It must just klll McCain to see this kind of thing.
Never in this world would he have been able to handle the trials of this Presidency or done as much to solve them and, beyond that, innovate to get passage of critical landmark legislation.
I just think that he is an old fart in need of some sun in Phoenix.
Labels: McCain
THE SPEECH
I couldn't stay up for Obama's speech in Tucson the other night.
But when I got to the gym in the morning, a friend, for Obama but not an especially ardent fan, raved about it.
I came home and watched it immediately. I had not other commitments, a Thursday morning.
I was in tears. I felt a part of. I didn't know that I needed catharsis.
The reviews were tremendous. Even the usual critics praised his work.
This is what I would expect. I am a deep, deep admirer and partisan for Obama, as you know, but I do not often get this moved by his communications. I expect high quality. This surpasses almost all the speeches that I have heard. Certainly since he became our President.
Have you listened to the whole thing? Do not miss the experience if you have not yet seen this.
Full screen, please.
Labels: Barack Obama, patriotism
FAMILY LIFE
Today's film was the first half of Abdel Kechiche's
La graine et le mulet / The Secret of the Grain (2007)
This is Kechiche's third film just available on disc in the US. A Criterion selection, a Cesar award winner and a NYtimes Critic's Choice film.
I guess I should see it, huh?
It is wonderful. Teeming with life. A family with many disparate parts and a 61 year old Tunisian emigre, the patriarch, who seems depressed and silent amid the bustle but is the spiritual core of the family and the film.
This is a wonderful, neorealistic (see the review) film which puts us right into the center.
It is longish, why I am taking it in two parts, but the time moves very quickly.
I just wanted a swim more than I wanted to see the second half today.
I know this will be a five. I have already ordered Kachiche's two other films, one is not available on Netflix yet or ever.
The photo is of the two brilliant stars. He is not her father but the daughter of his lover. See? I told you it was disparate.
Labels: films
Thursday, January 13, 2011
SEASONAL
We are having some warm weather so I got to swim and sit in the sun for a tan today.
It will be in the 70s through the weekend. The pool has settled at 80 degrees with the cold 40's nights.
Very nice.
This is why we came here. We are against the mountain so there is little rain and we are dry so the sun heats with radiation during the day. UV. The ground takes the energy in and transfers it to IR. Warm days, peak in the pm.
I go at 11-12 AM. There is still a bit of a chill but since the water is warmer than the air and being in the sun is almost as hot as any other time of year, it works beautifully for a mid day swim. Not so at sunrise. Although I guess you could do it.
I was alone. Not many people use the pool or the hot tub anyway but when "winter" strikes everyone, except for a neighbor and usually anyone who is leasing a condo for the month, stays in and shivers. Not me. I consider it healthy to get out there and be in nature.
The only thing missing is nude swimming which is prohibited. But so is diving and I dive so I am considering doing bare ass if no one shows.
OLD AND HAPPY
Today's film was a documentary by Andrew Jacobs and filmed by a team led by one of the Maysle brothers. Very good.
26 years ago a group of NY Jews bought a Catskill's cottage colony. One of an original 500 such institutions now diminished to 50-100. A unifying factor was the fact that every one of the people were survivors of the holocaust.
They made their own family from the ashes.
All of them are now in their later years and the colony is up for sale. Or not.
This is the last season that they will come together for all or part of the summer.
No narration. Only the people. A Maysle feature.
It is very very good.
In a way it involves a number of stories. The history of cottage colonies, the survival stories, the individual stories and the story of aging out.
It is the latter that I can most identify with.
I would not mind seeing this again.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
CROWNED
Another dental checkup, another crown.
Today the teeth got cleaned and I had a seance with my dentist.
I had been resisting new work as some of it seems to be a bit too close to his cash flow but that is only my perception. If I take it a tooth at a time, this one clearly needs to be taken care of.
It is a long story but the basic reality is that I have lousy teeth.
He has taken good care of the entire bottom, restored, and now is headed for the top. And if I want to live a long time I better take my teeth with me. I don't want to be eating pea soup in my declining years. Which have not started yet, incidentally.
Labels: dentist
SITTIN' PRETTY
We got a new suite, sweet, for our living room.
We had to get rid of the leather stuff we have had for all the years we have been here. It had faded and the leather, a finished leather, that was not very rugged in the first place, was giving out. Not cleanable any more without flaking the finish. And it sat under a desert skylight all that time.
The new furniture, this is two out of four pieces, another love seat across the room and an upholstered bench or double ottoman, is heavy fabric. It is darker than it shows here. It is tough.
There is a small herringbone pattern in it.
And Booker loves it!
John found some towels at Target that absolutely, purely, match the furniture. And so the Airedale is invited to come aboard. He has done just that and especially loves the cushions to rest his head on.
We are very happy with it all.
It is grown up furniture. Serious. But with a gentle spirit. If you get my drift.
Sturdy. It will certainly live as long as we do and probably a lot longer.
And it "sits" well in the high ceilinged room. On the matching medallions of the rug and next to the grey blinds that were here when we came.
Blah blah blah. A picture is worth a thousand words so I will shut it up.
PASSED
I passed my drivers license renewal today.
The eye test was nothing.
The written test was hard. But I went slowly and carefully read the questions. A lot of them are inferential. If you know the regulations, OK, but you have to think it through as well. They say that there are no trick questions and that is true. They are, however, tricky.
The guy ahead of me, another old crank, flunked so badly even the marker was amazed. He had not read the book. And worse, he kept coming back to the counter to verify that, indeed, he had flunked and why some of the answers were the way they were.
When I last took this twelve years ago, I didn't take it seriously and flunked the first test.
But you can take it three times. Or test three times. Not the same questions.
There are pretty much the same issues. Right of way for pedestrians, the inviolability of keeping intersections clear, distance questions and questions about turns. Blind people. They are almost always in the tests. Smoking in cars with lower then 18 years of age people. None.
And so on.
But, the questions are thought problems for the most part. Not rote.
It is amazing what relief I had after it was over.
Our DMV incidentally, is marvelously well organized.Computer controlled queueing. They know where you are all the time.
You go to reception, state your problem, get a number and wait, not long, until the number is called. You go to the first station to pay for the license process, have identity checked and so on. Then to another station to have a picture taken, no glasses. Then the same guy gives you the test. You work the test in a special area. It is NOT open book. Then hand it in. The guy checks it and then, pass or fail, sends you out the door or for more study and another test.
I did not have to wait more than two people at any station and there was no bullshit. No cranks. Nice people wanting to help.
The line into the place was a bit long maybe five people in front me because it was right at opening time.
I had an appointment and so I got out of there in an hour.
People are in the place for myriad reasons and the sorting process helps get everyone to the right spot in the right order.
Nice.
Labels: automobiles, government
RESIGNATION
The police chief is gone and it took the LATimes more than a week or two to get the story, but they did a pretty good job.
Palm Springs police chief resigns over gay sex sting
They give the whole story, more or less, in one place.
Amid all the good intentions and stated support, the fact is that homophobia is alive and well around here.
It is like race. Always lurking under the carpet or around the corner.
Do I feel at all paranoid or threatened? No. Not for an instant. I expect respect and I get it. I have never had an "incident". And I wouldn't put up with one.
I have had some "looks" and some evasions and a few slights. But that is the way life is. Those might come because I am a cranky old man and not at all because I am gay.
The city administration is full of two faced assholes who bend to the PC rules but do not believe them.
Sensitivity training does not lead to enlightenment. Dumb is dumb. Bigoted is bigotry.
But we move slowly. But irreversibly. A strong front.
Labels: gay life, gay rights, Palm Springs
Monday, January 10, 2011
