Thursday, March 31, 2011
SCHADENFREUDE
More weakening. CNN poll says they lost 20 % approval in just the last few months.
So Much For the Come to Jesus Moment
No one shows up for the big tea bagger do today at The Capitol.
Labels: republican whack jobs, tea party
BOY AM I GLAD THAT HE IS MY PRESIDENT
He doesn't take any shit from anyone and in a most charming way.
Labels: Administration Obama, Barack Obama
NO FOOL LIKE AN OLD FOOL
John and I met 36 years ago around this time. Under the steaming kettle on City Hall Plaza, Boston.
I put an ad in a paper and he answered and we got together. That was it. A quick drink then back to my place and the rest is history.
Of course, we were the last to know that was it. We tried hard to make it not happen. Oddly, we had the idea that being newly out gay men meant that we should ignore the great gift of finding a soul mate and to keep rutting around either looking for someone better or to have a "good time", the time that time had somehow taken away from us.
So foolish.
So it was stop and go, over and over, for those first years. Up and down, in and out. Together and not.
We even lost the date. We do not know when the actual anniversary is but we chose April Fools Day as a way to commemorate the situation as well as the time.
One final separation in 1979, when I got sober, ended with the beginning of being together, just us, for the rest of our lives.
It took us a while after that to admit to one another that it finally felt like a lifetime deal and, when we did, we got a commitment ceremony and stuck with it. It was our third one.
It was that bad. The first two didn't take. But there was no way we could be settled and sustain our love in action with me drinking or he reacting to it.
Then, once sober, we had peace and focus and could mend the tears (and tears) that were sustained in the early years.
There is a bit of confusion about anniversaries now.
After that third commitment that took, we were able to get married many years later in 2008. So that is an anniversary too. Two.
But this one is the first one and we are sticking to it.
Some people ask if it was the first time we met or the first time that we did it. We answer "yes". The whole focus at that time was on doing it. That was what the ad was about and that is what we set out to do but both got hooked.
There was another "date" and then another and then, probably, a real one. And then more than a date. Time spent doing other things.
And so on.
It is interesting to have seen the film Johan (1976) today. It depicted the gay life so clearly at that time. There is no intention on these guys parts to stay together. Well, there is intention about getting together with the guy Johan but, as it turns out, there are many "Johans" and many Phillipes. I get that.
Now, gay men go on dates. They have dinner, they go to movies, they court one another. My observation is that it doesn't work any better or, perhaps, worse. This approach has so much deferred gratification that others' turn the guy's heads.
Of course, there are many men who do what we did. Have sex first and ask questions later. Like in that time, the guys, after sex, decide to become friends and quit the sex, keep the sex but as a sort of buddy thing or, they connect, smack! Like John and I did. And things are never, ever the same again.
Happier times are ahead and, in many cases, look at us, the happy time kept rolling for years and years and we became lifers. So happy this turned out for us.
Labels: gay liberation, gay life, gay marriage
FIRST AIR
I know. I make a big deal of this every year but it is a big deal, sort of.
I turned the AC on for the first time today. It is 102 on the new thermometer that John installed in the shade in the courtyard. The official temp at the airport is 97 something. All F. obviously.
After sundown, it will plummet to the low seventies and we will open up for the night. Then close in the early PM. And so on. Life in the desert. Boring, I suppose, for the back east crowd but still fascinating to us. I guess we are still newbies.
PRE LIB
Today's film was Phillipe Valloise'
Johan - Mon été 75 / Johan (1976)
This mid 70's look at Paris gay culture is very good.
It is a "remember when" for anyone who came out around this time, me. Although they say that Paris was behind the US a bit, there is still the under-cover cruising and, of course, unsafe public sex that marked the time. Also bell bottoms. Did we really wear those clothes? I am afraid so.
The sex is quite explicit, even a bit too much for some present day sensibilities, gay or straight, but they do not miss the romance and the happiness of being open. Doing a film!
The film is a conceit. The writer, director Valloise wants to make a film about his romance with Johan, starring Johan himself. But Johan has been taken to jail for something unspecified. Valloise, impatient to get started, makes the film anyway with a new Johan stand-in in each sequence. Sometimes a friend, another time an audition guy. Sometimes the film is a film of a film showing the history leading up to meeting Johan. Other times it depicts the current situation with Valloise reading letters that he and the jail bound Johan are exchanging.
Valloise does not stop seeing guys while he is waiting for Johan, in fact he sort of tries out the audition people as well as others. It is all quite fun if a bit confusing as many of them look alike. There is even a Johan twin. Ha!
To add more levels, there are also two actors playing Phillipe Valloise. If this sounds confusing it is not and that is a strength of this film.
So there is this absurdist tinge to the whole thing. Very sexy in a gay way.
There is even the kind of fag hag that we used to see everywhere at that time. A cruel word used by all involved including the hags for which there was no shame in being and doing their thing.
I was never around one very much. They had a mouth and an attitude that would have one steer clear. Often caricatures of an over the top queen. Very strange. But it is not at all about her. It just includes her and all the other kinds of gay that one might be aware of. We are as different as other people, being people.
What else? The film was accepted into the Cannes Festival that year and then got an X rating but the Cannes audience got to see the uncut version. Later, after a lot of infighting and cuts made of erect penises, they gave it an NC18. This DVD brings the dicks back.
Valloise made many films as writer and director and was active at least up to two years ago according to IMDb.
I liked this a lot but once is probably enough. I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
BATH
One worry I had about moving is that we would lose the bird show that we had at the fountain there at the old place.
I needn't have been concerned. There are more birds in our new complex than we have room for at the old fiber glass fountain that was here when we arrived. It has three tiers! Well, four with the top bubbler. Just like the one pictured.
The biggest and dumbest bathers are the doves whose feet are big enough that they can roost and drink, bathe and cool off, in the lowest, biggest level.
Then the mocking birds which use the next tier up.
After that, everyone else on the penultimate pool and the smallest, mostly the hummingbirds hovering over the top which has the bubbler.
A lot of the smaller birds like to sit on the bubbler and let the water run up over them. It is allowed. The pump doesn't care.
I cleaned the fountain out yesterday. Once a month.
I can get almost all the dirt out as I siphon. The hose end just lifts all the junk out.
At the end, all I have to do is mop up with a big towel or rag. A rag is an old towel.
I also pressure clean the line between the pump and the top. Run the hose backward, backflush.
The bubbler on top really gets going. All the silt and little leaves are out and not blocking it.
Birds are very happy.
You don't see any in this picture because we scared them away. Let's get out of here so they can get a bath and a drink.
SLIPPING
Nate Silver has some comments on the new CNN poll results.
Poll Shows More Americans Have Unfavorable Views of Tea Party
The party is certainly not over but the first guests have left and the hangers-on are about to decide that, except for the heavy drinkers, there isn't really much left at the bar. Outrage, accusation, extreme positions, culture warriorism and the like are poor substitutes for responsible governance.
A lot of voters got high on the first phases of the party but soon found the heavy hitters too much to handle.
Labels: polls, republican whack jobs
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
I haven't gotten a lot of "that kind" of spam for awhile. But this one is a doozy. There is so much wrong with this, one wonders how anyone could respond.
World Bank Auditors
African Regional Office,
Abuja,Nigeria.
Phone--- +234-7067453175
Attention:Valued Beneficiary,
After a protracted scrutiny,vetting and investigation into your Payment File
in this First Quarter of the fiscal year 2011,the Presidency in conjunction
with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network [fencen] has given an
irrevocable order to this office to release your payment via Automated
Teller Machine System (ATM) to the tune of US$10.5M within 72 hours as in
accordance with the recently transfer order of the International Monetary
Fund.
The VISA CREDIT CARD which is in partnership with Visa International and can
be used through any e-payment channel(ATM and POS terminal) where visa is
accepted.
Your Personal Identification Number is 0920.The ATM Visa Card is Valued at
US$10.5M Only.You are advised to with the under listed information's for
clarity and avoidance of error;
FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
CELL PHONE NUMBERS:
OCCUPATION:
SEX :
AGE:
COUNTRY:
A COPY OF YOUR ID
Prompt response recommended for immediate attention on the delivery of the
card. Call me irrespective of time difference for more details on the
delivery +234-7067453175
Regards,
Rev.Williams James
(World Bank Auditors)
I suppose the "Rev" is on there for trust building. Little do they know about my level of trust for the Reverend business.
MORE DANIEL CLOUD CAMPOS
This is with Shakira. Keep your eye on the guy.
In this one he goes a bit beyond Astaire and Kelly. Nicely.
But the moves are all there plus the gymnastics.
He has also toured with Madonna. A young guy on the cusp of a big career?
Labels: dancing
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
REBORN
I have bemoaned the fact that there are no dancers today that even begin to capture the magic of Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly.
That bemoaning is over.
Meet Daniel Cloud Campos.
Thanks to Boy Culture
Labels: dancing
IT'S COMPLICATED
But Obama made the best of a "messy" situation last night.
I think the distinction from Iraq was clear. I get that we must, at times, intervene because of our interests at stake and for humanitarian reasons. I also get that the UN and NATO are major players as well to say nothing of various Arab countries.
It is interesting that the GOP is divided over their reaction. McCain and Lindsey Graham are in support. Others jerk their knee. Even flip flop.
Reaction to Obama's Speech on Libya
Me? He is my Commander in Chief. He doesn't flinch. They were worried about him in this regard. Steely eyed.
And he sees a lot of things that we are not privy to.
I trust him.
I once called him callow. That got left behind when he beat Hillary and now the balls are there. Vindicated.
I am not a warrior but I am supportive of war efforts in just causes. I feel OK about this one. I wrote about it the other day.
I would like to see Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's ass kicked.
Labels: Administration Obama
Monday, March 28, 2011
BLOOD OATH AND POLITICS
Today's film was
Tau ming chong /The Warlords (2007)
I watched this because is stars Takeshi Kaneshiro with Andy Lau and an older Jet Li.
Three allies swear a blood oath to stay together and to conquer the regime.
This is based on a 19th Century event but builds the three guys' story into the history so, at the cumination of the story, we are also at the end of the oath brothers.
I watched this for the star but stayed for the story and production which is excellent.
This is a NYTimes Critics Pick.
The big scenes are here but it is the intimate details of the men's relationship that keeps us glued to the story. Very well done.
Jet Li is especially good. He has matured. Gotten to be a middle aged man. It plays well. He brings his maturity into the mix very effectively.
I really like these Chinese films. They have an abundance of extras and are able to afford great sets and sweeping countryside.
This is not, incidentally, a martial arts film like yesterday's film. This is straight history with some heroics but there is no flying or dancing. Nothing over the top at all. It could be a serious western or historical drama taken from our own culture.
I would not mind seeing this again. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
I have set up a week or more long retrospective of Kaneshiro films. Some modern, some not. It will come out of the queue in about 30 weeks. I can't get enough. Matinee idol.
Labels: republican whack jobs
IN YOUR SEATS PLEASE
I know. It is awful. But I couldn't stop watching. I tried. And I tried. And I saw it to the bloody end.
So what is the deal with Richard Simmons?
He has perfected a persona which is irresistible. Even though there is a lot of stuff that I really do not like about him.
He is the stereotypical fag and he flaunts it. Well, come to think of it, didn't we want to be free to do that if we wanted to? He may have done more for the acceptance of gays than many other more serious spokespeople.
He is not good looking. Sure. But he doesn't care. There is a spiritual message there. The power of self acceptance.
He is what we call a screamer or a flamer, which is not the same thing as a stereotype. It is an ear grating thing. Yet, he is heard. And like most screamers, he is funny and sharp and gets his points across.
His body is totally not fit looking, anti-fitness. But he has turned more people on to fitness than anyone else going. More or less.
So what is not to like?
When I get over myself and my tut tutting about him, I can enjoy him for what he is. A fabulous showman who doesn't hide out. He is there. Up front and Richard.
I bet people got the message too. Very well written.
Labels: gay life, gay rights
SWORD OPERA
Today's film was Yimou Zhang's
Shi mian mai fu / House of Flying Daggers (2004)
The main point here is to see Takeshi Kaneshiro, mission accomplished.
And, as it turns out, I also got to see a gorgeous martial arts film along with a really compelling romantic story. Really.
The effects and the natural setting are astonishing.
The work of Kanseshiro along with Andy Lau and Ziyi Zhang to complete the eternal triangle. Great.
There is a lot in this film to like and very little to criticize. While bowing to the required fisticuffs of this kind of film, the poetry of motion and the innovation of the setups are breathtaking.
The rivalry between the men, the double dealing between "sides" and the attraction between the three principals, well the two guys for the girl and vv, are very engaging.
What color. What beautiful settings. Great horse action.
The battle in the bamboo forest is breathtaking.
I might even see this again some day.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Sunday, March 27, 2011
HORSE OPERA
Sliders open, we are offered a stereo blend of sound today.
On the left, we have the rodeo and western show occurring at the convention center and adjacent lots.
On the right, we have the annual Opera in the Park, young opera singers having a go at a fund raiser for the something or other.
Booker and John went to see the rodeo setup. They didn't see much. Booker gets very excited around horses as he lived at Airedale camp for a month where they also had horses around. He will get all up on his tip toes if he sees a horse trailer.
He did see some live sheep who, apparently, are used as a kid ride.
But the rodeo has caused some shit to be stirred here at home. Two evenings, they have opened the evening festivities with fire crackers. Not good. Booker hates this.
The first night he paced and wanted to go into the interior bath tub. Last night, we had just left the house for the evening walk when they went off again and nothing would do but to go home. We went out later and did a short walk and a poop but then back home again where the FM was turned up loud enough and the sliders had been closed. He was OK after that.
The opera, by contrast, is rather quiet. You have to really, really listen to hear anything.
I don't know what Booker's reaction would be if we were up close. I know that he howls when he hears a fire siren so maybe that would be his reaction to a high C.
A friend is the new President of the Opera Guild here and he is already beset with egos and temperaments. He would not need an Airedale's drama on top of everyone elses.
I hope he is doing well today. He is an old hand with singers as he is, himself, a tenor who has sung at the Met in NYC. Aida, the Messenger.
Good luck Ken.
Labels: animals, Booker, fun. music
Saturday, March 26, 2011
A VOICE FOR US WHEN THERE WEREN'T MANY AROUND
I love that the presenter is her step-daughter. Carrie Fisher.
Labels: gay history, gay rights
ROLE MODEL
I do not know when it was but, when I read Montaigne's Essays, it was a turning point in my intellectual life.
It is amusing to see that some call him the "first blogger" today. Here I am, blogging about him.
I was, as a kid, a reader. I scoured out the local lending library. All the kids stuff first and then the young adults. All the Oz,s, all the Tarzans, and then it was on to the adult novels. The detective novels. The librarian was a neighbor and never blinked when I took the grown up sexy stuff.
But I let most of the non-fiction on the shelf. I dipped in when I had a school assignment. Then I found Montaigne.
He was accessible. He had a life, which is what he wrote about. He had a point of view. It was not auto biography, it was talk. Thought on paper. Wonderful.
Clear, lucid. I suppose his critics meant that when they called him superficial.
Where did I find him? In the Random House series of great books? Perhaps. I read all of those that I could get. They were in the local, county seat, department store.
Maybe freshman year at MIT in the survey, required, Humanites Courses.
But I think before that. When I was in college, everything affected me all at once.
Montaigne came to me quietly and with stealth.
He was widely read. So, his quotes and citations led me to other reading. I became an autodidact.
He was a role model for me for that very reason. He was a magistrate who informed himself. Widely read and independent thinker.
I am grateful for that important breakthrough and happy that the old man still shakes people up enough to write about him, even if they are being snide and snobby.
Labels: life, philosophy
CUTTING EDGE
Today's film was
Two brothers, one an unsuccessful avant garde artist (music) and the other a successful kitschy artist (painting) find themselves unfulfilled and unrecognized in the way that they wish to be. The kitsch wants artistic success and the avant garde wants, well, understanding, at least.
This is not about sibling rivalry though. The brothers are more a setup for the two sides of art, popular and "serious" and what constitutes art. Is commercial success the goal? Or, if not, is lack of recognition satisfying?
And what about art? What is it? How do you tell?
An old composer, in the final reel, gives a good answer.
In the meantime this film has fun with the whole thing.
Avantly speaking, we have a Damien Hurst type artist as well as a minimalist. We have the avant garde musician brother spoiling gigs with his refusal to play for pay. Or play what the pay wants him to.
It is satirical but not over the top satirical. Just quietly so.
There are a lot of serious discussions, cogent and to the point, about the artistic questions. Some good bon mots.
Adam Goldberg is the composer musician and scowls through the entire performance. Nicely so. He will not lighten up, goddamit. Eion Bailey is the painter brother. All schmaltz in his attitude toward art and life. A romantic.
The music is very interesting. Composed by the Pulitzer winning David Lang. It takes some skill to compose bad atonal music and he does so with some audible relish. The 'serious" music is quite good.
Another thing. When Goldberg the musician is on screen, the sound track is cranked up to pick up all the ambient noise as well as some that is obviously put in for effect. You hear everything from sirens to footsteps to breath and movement. It is quite astounding. And raises the point of Goldberg's character that ambient sound is music that has not yet been organized. And so on. Very neatly done and not hammered in, so to speak. You do have to listen though.
At the beginning, I thought the artwork to be incredible but then I thought Damien Hurst and, while I was even offended by it, I got the point.
There is also some good talk about galleries and their operation and purpose. Having spent a lot of gallery time in my life, I can attest to the veracity of these attitudes and expressions. Even the caricature of the collector. Have been there and done that.
There is very little story here. There is wit and wisdom and a lot of talk. What drama there is is quite light No one is sending a message. The point is more the discussion not the conclusion.
This movie made me think and laugh. Now how many times does that happen when you watch a film? I enjoyed listening to Lang's music. Very much.
Also, Adam Goldberg is a babe when he is shown to advantage which happens when he begins to see the light late in the film. Bailey does not need good lighting. He is a shiner at all times.
I would not mind watching this another time. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Friday, March 25, 2011
REAL CATHOLICS
6 minutes worth listening to and staying to the end.
I guess I gotta re-evaluate my bias.
Labels: gay marriage, gay rights
WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?
Here it is. Just in. Penis size by country.
So, we are shorter than Canadians? Is that the French or English speaking Canadian?
And Mexicans. There is some reason to believe this is true from local anecdotes. Nothing personal. I would assert that there is strong incentive here for more liberal immigration laws so that we can, over time, raise our average.
Look at China. What happened? Big country, small dicks.
It seems to me that releasing this kind of information without any explanation or analysis is irresponsible.
When I was a kid, I was sure that I was smaller than anyone else. This only shrunk me up further.
They don't mention here how they measured. There is such a thing as a grower, not a shower.
Put me in the latter case. Proudly average.
How does come about that any discussion of penis size comes down to the insecurities of the person reading or passing on this information.
The male is still concerned about the eternal question. Does size matter?
My experience is that the answer is "sometimes". That means that sometimes not.
Just something to think about over the weekend.
And oh, someday this will not matter for most men in the survey. Once you reach the age of 30 or so, you are invisible, no matter how heavily you might be hung. Or not.
Labels: biology, fun, geopolitics, not fun
CELEBRITY ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE
Today's film was the documentary
This is the story of Ron Galella who single handedly invented the American paparazzi (swarm of bees).
This interesting film delivers a lot. Discussions of the freedom of the press, the right to privacy and the value or not of the celebrity culture which Galella helped invent. Well, not really. We have been celebrity obsessed forever but he is the guy to get behind the masks of celebrities and show them as they are off stage. And they don't like it.
His famous years long duel with Jackie Onassis is shown in detail, perhaps a bit too much, but is fascinating. Who led who on?
Galella is an egomaniac with a single mission. Photos of people who don't want to be photographed or, at least, not that way.
The thing about this film is that it is a slice of history. Many of the celebrities that he photographed are no longer known by young people. We see this at the end as we follow a stupid young woman through the gallery. She doesn't know fucking anybody.
But also how, today, any event is setup to play to the papps and instant photography has made the type of photograph that Galella made with real film a thing of the past.
He took hundreds of films of thousands of people. We go into his archives. He chose the best shots. He developed and tweaked the photos himself.
Side benefit. We see hundreds and hundreds of beloved photos of my time. These are images which I grew up with. I did not know they were Galella's.
I would not mind seeing this again just to see all these faces.
Oh. And there are talking heads to love and hate the guy. But the film makers never let any of this get in the way of the pictures.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Thursday, March 24, 2011
LIBYA
Have I said anything about Libya?
No. I don't think so.
Democracy for America, (as if there isn't any), a lefty organization that I support, sometimes, emailed to see if I thought they should take a stand on Libya and what it should be.
I told them that I thought that it was not an issue that was in their portfolio, so "no", they shouldn't take a stand. They are domestic, this is foreign.
But if they did take a position, it should be in support of President Obama, our Commander in Chief, who was participating as a part of our membership in the UN and NATO and not as a unilateral bomber.
Obviously, he is exercising influence over the moves that are taken but, really, if anyone is pushing it is Sarkozy which is right as Libya is historically of major French interest.
Colonial interest, but still.
And I am still there. I think that he is doing pretty well and, if we can believe the unidentified sources at a high level, and I think we can with the Obamas who do stay on message, this will be short and brutal for the dictator and then we are out and NATO takes over.
Of course, we are not without influence in either the UN or NATO so I suppose we could say that we could veto and restrain and all that.
But Libya was given a very long leash by the previous administration and basically abused the situation. They are the perps of Lockerbee. Bush took them off the terrorist list but the country is still a haven for terrorists and Ghaddafi even warned he would turn them loose on us if we intervened.
I say we should go to it and give 'em hell and what for and do it as cleanly as possible and get out. And that is what I think Obama is doing.
Is it moral and right to do this? Fuck, I don't know. They are in a state of rebellion. He is kicking his own people's ass. Is it our business? Sort of. We have interests there. But primarily it is the interest of the UN which is designed to look at this kind of thing and they did. So be it.
Labels: Administration Obama, United Nations
MOSTLY NORMAL
Today's film was Nicole Holofcener's
This is a nice little ensemble picture about mostly nice, normal people having life happen. Holofcener, who gave us Lovely and Amazing as her last picture, is gentler here, a bit funnier and mellowed out.
The humor is subtle and more the kind that we encounter in daily life. There are no outrageous situations. This is what situation comedy might be without the laugh track, the pratfalls, the constant one liners and real people.
All the actors are quite good and work together for a seamless whole.
I normally do not like Katherine Keener but she is great in this and the same with Oliver Platt. They have been very well directed here.
What else can I say?
It is not a big picture, it is not breaking any cinematography ground and it is not going to get an Oscar or an anything awarding.
It is a city picture. These people live in Greenwich Village in New York City and are confirmed urbanites. I can relate to that. I was until I wasn't.
I will give this a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
THE LEONARD P. ZAKIM BUNKER HILL MEMORIAL BRIDGE
So I found out that the bridge in Boston is named after a local civil rights guy who died young from bone cancer. The bridge was named for him but, true to Boston's tradition of intramural fighting, it wasn't easy.
This from Wikipedia.
The bridge's full name commemorates both Boston civic leader and civil rights activist Leonard P. Zakim, who championed "building bridges between peoples",[4] and the Battle of Bunker Hill. Originally Massachusetts Governor A. Paul Cellucci sought to name it the "Freedom Bridge". In 2000, however, local clergy and religious leaders, including Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, requested the Zakim name shortly after Zakim's death from myeloma. Although Cellucci agreed to the naming, community leaders from Charlestown objected to the name as they felt that since the design reflected the nearby Bunker Hill memorial, it should be named the "Bunker Hill Freedom bridge". Allegations of antisemitism were leveled against members of the mostly white, Irish-Catholic community as reasons for resistance to the Zakim name, based on some comments quoted in the Boston Globe. In response, several community leaders spoke out against the allegations in a press conference, stating that the claims, made by Professor Jonathan Sarna, were his alone and not reflected in the Jewish community at large.[5]Me? I am not an anti-Semite. I just don't know anything about Mr. Zakim at all. But I do know about Bunker Hill and Freedom.
Eventually a compromise between the Boston City Council, the Massachusetts State Legislature and community activists brought about the current name. As with the Hoover Dam, however, different communities will call the bridge by different colloquial names. Many people in the Charlestown area refer to it as the "Bunker Hill bridge", while most, including the local press and traffic monitoring services, refer to it as the "Zakim Bridge".
At the time of the naming and sponsoring of the Boston Garden an article discussing appraisals of the other Boston landmarks suggested the probable amount that the naming of the bridge would have cost a sponsor would have been US$100,000,000.[citation needed]
It seems to me that this was a short term sentimental decision. I go with the Bunker Hill or Freedom Bridge.
Zakim had a lot of money and I am sure that had something to do with it. There are funds and trusts. But they didn't pay for the name.
But no one asked me. And it is too late. It is a pretty bridge though.
They were putting it up when we left.
I used to run by it.
Labels: Boston
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
APOD IN BOSTON
Today's APOD picture has the big moon rising behind the Boston Skyline.
We missed the entire show. It was cloudy and rainy here on the opening night and even the next evening. Now it is gibbous.
The skyline has changed a lot since we were there, most notably the cable bridge across the Charles. The Zakim. A fine old New England name if there ever was one.
I had read that this will not happen again for 18 years but, right here in the APOD, it says next May.
What a relief. A second chance.
The photo looks a lot like a drawing. I guess the lens.
I know. It is too big for your computer page. Scroll left and right.
HEROES
"The first photos of the so-called Fukushima Fifty — the fifty heroic nuclear reactor employees working around the clock to prevent a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant — have finally emerged.
An additional 150 workers have since joined the original fifty, of which five are believed to have died. Many of those inside the plant readily admit that, while they are still alive, they know radiation poisoning will eventually kill them."....The Daily Mail
see more The Daily What
I wondered about this. Now I know.
More information here
Labels: disasters
WATER WATER EVERYWHERE
Today's film was the documentary
This is a beautiful film marred by a superficial script mouthed by the plummy voice of Pierce Bronson. He is Irish but he is trying to sound like a Cambridge don with a stick up his ass.
This film has been "disneyfied" which is not a good thing. Somewhere, outside US distribution, the original film is available but not on Netflix.
The guys who made it are the ones who did the bird movie with the incredible photography that made you say "how did they do it"?
Here the photography is great but not that dramatic. The sea animals are wonderful. But there are limits to underwater photography and so we won't compare. Just enjoy.
If you can get over Pierce and the script which is incoherent.
We get whales, then seals, then little fish, then the ocean floor and then whales again. Then seals. Dolphins? Yes. See them twirl.
Just when there is a point to be made, the narration swims away to see something else.
Maybe our attention span is so short that this is required but not for me.
I was almost to the point of shutting the sound down but then I would miss the wonderful sound effects, both real and simulated, of the creatures that I was seeing. Very good.
But the sound is overwhelmed at times by the overripe musical score. Bring up the violins, the chorus. Yes. A chorus. Of fucking people!
Jesus.
So I wish this was better. I couldn't watch it again. I am sure that there are better films about the ocean somewhere other than this. Maybe the film that the guys made pre-diz.
I would give it a 4 for photography and then poor, plummy, Pierce and his overripe music brings us down again.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5. It is pretty good but not nearly as good as it could have been or as it thinks it is.
Labels: films
HOME TOWN
My cousin Mike sent me this.
Barrett Township Historical Society ArchivesThis is where I grew up in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.
Barrett Township. Five towns all sort of stuck together separated by mountain ridges and hollows.
If you click on the village names you see photos that are, in some cases, contemporary with me!
If you go to Cresco, you will see Seguines "department store" where my mother worked and I hung out with my uncle who lived across the street next to Henry Price's garage, another photo.
Then the RR station where I used to go watch them switch cars and see the trains come in.
In Mountainhome, the Acme Store and the Onawa Lodge are right next to my Aunt Flora and Uncle Pete's house where I stayed a lot of the time. My mom worked. I was a latch key kid.
Then on Buck Hill, a huge "cottage" colony, big big cottages and an Inn. I ushered at the daily movies at the Inn. The Forks, where Donnie Dougherty lived, my first gay encounter.
Canadensis corner, with Browns and the first A&P my Dad managed. I used to go with him Sunday and fill sugar bags while he did, well, something. I can still smell that store. The coffee. Cheese. Oiled wood floors.
And so on.
Post cards from my youth.
Labels: nostalgia
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
INTERNAL ALARM
I woke up on time this morning.
2:55.
And I was awake. All the way.
So I went to the gym.
Yesterday, when I slept late, I thought a sign that I should take the week off.
And I am glad that I did not take time out. I got quite enough guff for being out one day from my friends.
And I saw an old friend, Chuck. Just a minute or two there but that was enough to reconnect well.
It felt good to be back after all of three days out. The normal two day weekend plus Monday.
I don't work that hard. The idea of getting a rest is ludicrous.
I would gain three pounds and be unhappy every morning and a lot of the day.
The other thing is that I read on the bike and would miss my latest, I am really liking it, Your Republic is Calling You which is about a North Korean mole living in South Korea who, after twenty years, has gotten notice that he must come back and to rendezvous in 24 hours.
He has a wife and a life, a history. He has not been an active spy for a very long time since his minder and the string he was on was purged.
It is a mild thriller and is full of interesting shit on spy craft as well as Korean culture in the north and south.
It takes place in 24 hours with many flashbacks as well as the concurrent activities of his wife, daughter and a hapless SoKo intelligence guy who has finally traced our hero down.
Very good. Tasty.
Young-Ha Kim. An up and coming South Korean writer who, while writing in Korean, has a very contemporary American voice. And why not. South Korean is very westernized.
Monday, March 21, 2011
ILLUMINATING
Today's film was the animated feature
a New York Times Critics Pick.
I didn't know anything about the Book of Kells manuscripts. I am not sure that I know much about them now.
The whimsical film is a sort of mythologizing of the origins of the Book with a lot of fairy dust thrown in. And evil Vikings.
What is fascinating about the animation, in traditional drawing form, is its abstraction and beauty. Two words that do not always go together.
It is distinguished by a variation in style for humans depicted. Some are edgy, some round, others black or arabic. A melting pot. I am not sure what to make of this. Universality?
The art style is similar to the old UPA which produced abstract animated shorts, most famously, Mr. Magoo.
There is a simple story of a simple boy monk who wants to draw and then and then and then and then.
One of the voices is Brendan Gleeson. A favorite of mine.
I found out about the Kells here in Wikipedia, so God only knows what really happened but the entries there do not mention a boy or a cat or a girl/spirit in the forest. But it does mention the Abbey at Kells, vikings and the book itself which seems, in reality, to be a bit less psychedelic or mandala like than we saw in this film.
Oh, yes. The film.
Quite nice. It was nominated for an Oscar. It is pretty and not too long and the story is engaging.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
DOUBLE DEALING
Today's film was a NYTimes Critics Pick
I was really looking forward to this. Good twin, bad twin. Edward Norton, Susan Sarandon, Tim Blake Nelson. Pruitt Taylor Vince. I love 'em all. Richard Dreyfuss.Tim Blake Nelson directs.
The first half or three quarters is great. Then all hell breaks loose and what had been a gentle comedy about a brother who grows pot and a brother who is a philosophy prof goes all to hell in a series of violent turns which felt to me like a betrayal of the audience.
I hate when this happens. I don't mind seeing violence per se. It is when I am gulled into believing in the characters and they turn into something else entirely that I feel left behind and tromped on.
So I can't give this a high rating. I had to FF. That makes it a 1 out of Netflix5. Very disappointing. Which version of this film did the critic see?
Labels: films
LOSING IT
I do not use an alarm clock.
I wake up at 3 AM pretty much automatically.
Until the last week, that is.
All week, I was up late for the gym which needs a drive out at 4:17 AM. Yes. I am that exact.
I made it every day I woke up late it is hectic to do so. A push.
Today, a week after DST started, I woke up an hour late at 4 AM.
I just threw in the towel. No gym.
I am not going through the wrench of slamming everything into 20 minutes and I am not going to get there late.
I am just going to relax, accept the inevitable and have a nice start to the day.
Well, I did that. But I still missed a half hour of bike.
I can handle it.
Maybe I also need a gym vacation. I used to take one, as prescribed by a trainer I paid, every ten weeks. Necessary for the body to catch up with itself.
I realize that I have not had a gym break since last August when I went to San Diego for four days. that was seven months ago.
Maybe this is the week to just drop the gym, sit in my shorts and have a leisurely morning and rest. Get back to the action next Monday.
I will meditate about this.
I am happy that I didn't get on my own case about this. In the past, I would have done so. Good.
FOR JDS WITH LOVE AND SQUALOR
This is funny and, if you are a J. D. Salinger buff, interesting. It has a tid-bit about Salinger's famous ability to smoke out any form of exploitation of his name or reputation and quash it. He wanted no memorials if he could help it.
J. D. Salinger Slept Here (Just Don’t Tell Anyone)
I think that it is interesting that no one here reads Salinger much anymore.
I can understand that. He is a hard nut to crack for many people.
It is hard for many folks, young or old, to get beyond Catcher in the Rye and even that fails to register with many as more than a story about a boy walking through New York City after he has been expelled from school.
Me? It all hit me like a ton of bricks. Or books.
I am Holden, I am walking New York streets and I have been expelled from hallowed halls. No more of those for me. I share his general contempt for the world and for himself. But I also revel and exalt in his spirit which will, after he fesses up to his family, lead him to a brilliant set of experiences which are his alone.
I don't buy that he is suicidal or any other goddam theory about what will happen next. He is where he is and is. That is enough.
Later, I joined the Glass family and I still belong to it. I can pick up Franny and Zooey, turn a page, and I am home. The home that I wanted for myself and have found.
People are bothered by Salinger's zen like writing and life. Not me. I get it.
Kids today need a different sound in their head. The memory of Seymour Glass' life and times, his thoughts for others, would not suffice. Maybe.
Actually, if you even try to compare Dave Eggers with J. D. Salinger, you must have your head at least partly up your ass. I like Eggers too but not that way.
Try this voice, below.
More "odd" strivings for humility.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
CASH OUT
I am friends with a guy at the gym who owns a few gas stations in town. Mostly Shell.
When the prices went up, we were fascinated with how he justified jumping the price of gas just like that. Bang. Four dollars a gallon. Same day.
Of course, he blamed the supplier and the Middle East and Muammar Gaddafi, the soon to be ex-dictator of Lybia. But I knew better.
They will do fucking anything to put a few more cents on the gallon all the way up the line. Wait for the higher world price to hit this region. No way. Get it now.
The fact that most sweet Libyan oil goes to Europe plays no part in it.
We do not take our arguments seriously. Besides, I have my friend Gene, a retired dentist from Portland, a bona fide liberal, to help me with the discussions, short as they are.
I don't chat at the gym. I stop by their bikes and exchange a few shots over the bow and then proceed with my workout.
I came in the other day and asked how much he was charging now. $4.05, I think.
I told him that I just bought gas for less down the road from the gym. Valerio.
He said that I probably didn't. Did I use a credit card? Yes.
That price I am quoting, he says, is the cash price.
If you buy the gas with a credit card it costs eight cents a gallon more.
No!
Yes.
So I checked it out. He is right. There is one sign there that has both prices. It is not lit and it is at the edge of the property. On the big sign and on the pumps it does say "cash" but I have never seen it. The price that comes up on the pump is the cash price. The eight cents a gallon is a surcharge for the card.
Fuck. I hate to be wrong.
I went in the other morning when I filled my tank and paid cash. It isn't the eighty cents really. I have wasted that much in the last hour one way or another. It is the principal.
And I found out that the guy who is in there is short, handsome and latino. Bingo.
These prices, incidentally, are a lot higher than you back east folks. Be grateful. Of course, your gas station attendants are not in the same class so that is the downside.
See that guy standing at his car? Looking at the prices? He is about to go in and kick the shit out of the Shell gas station owner.
EXCEPTIONAL
Today's film was the animation feature
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)with Jay Baruchel voicing as a young man who doesn't quite come up to his father's or the Viking tribe's expectations. He is witty and clever and mechanically adept but he is not big and is definitely a lover not a fighter.
The Vikings are beset by dragon attacks. The young man finds an injured dragon and finds ways to make friends. The rest is a familiar animation story arc. Unique talents brought to bear to save the tribe and the boy's reputation. A mild love interest. A pact of love between man and beast. Conversion of the world view of Vikings and dragons to find a way to coexist and triumph over the monster who sort of causes it all in the first place.
This one is unique in many respects. There are little triumphs that grow into the final denouement. There is not the visible attempt to adult-erize a kid's story. It hits all ages at the same level. This takes real expertise. No one gets left out.
Universal themes hit the emotions hardest and this one hits them all. Fear, doubt, insecurity. Joy, relief, love and kindness. Good acts. Without straining. No agony for them or us.
Just effort. Perseverance. Practice. Focus. Self value.
I laughed and cried and did all the stuff the expert animators wanted me to just on time.
I really, really like Jay Baruchel. We do not see him but he carries the character of his image. And the image carries his character. Beautifully integrated. He has a kind of off hand style which is very engaging. A Canadian, he is not after the big star thing but has settled for a series of small, beautifully produced films, mostly Canadian, and is devoted to his work.
This film has spawned the sequel, the games and so on. He will make a good amount of money out of this. Good for him for being good.
I wouldn't mind seeing this again sometime. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Friday, March 18, 2011
CRAZY AS A FOX
Today's movie was the weird and wonderful
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
with Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore and George Clooney who also directs.
This is the story of Chuck Barris who was a big deal in my time and more or less invented the precursors to reality teevee. The Dating Game, Marriage Game and so on. The infamous Gong Show. Which I thought totally hilarious.
It is based on Barris' book in which he also claims to have been a hit man for the CIA. 31 hits.
The movie is made as a memoir but also gives a lot of light around the story. A lot of it is very funny. Some of it is not. I mean that it is upsetting.
It is written by Charlie Kaufman or adapted by. Therefore another level of strangeness.
All of which is like catnip to this cat. I have seen the film a few times and never have tired of it.
That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Two less serious things, he almost always appears naked and he invariably gets to do a crazy dance that is his trademark, somewhere in the show. This film is no exception. I comes right at the end.
Labels: films
Thursday, March 17, 2011
RONALD REAGAN COM SYMP STOOGE
Ronald Reagan Loved Unions and Collective Bargaining
And this is not a micro-outtake. Reagan was the head of a union. The Screen Actor's Guild.
There are a lot of things that I liked about Ronald Reagan and this is one of them.
Labels: republican whack jobs, Republicans
FAMILY TIES
Today's film was Victor Nuñez'
This is a prodigal son movie. Kuno Becker, a professional poet, comes home, New Mexico to be with his dying father, Rubén Blades.
This is Blade's film although everyone in it does a terrific job. Intense.
I used to listen to Blade's records and really enjoyed them. He is an actor as well and, in this, he is fiercely tender in the love he has for his sons.
There is a brother who is tight assed and conventional and there is an evil influence in the town, a club owner who the prodigal used to work for. Our poet is in the middle with his dad.
Part of the problem here is the club life which entices the son who had escaped that life when he left home.
There is great tension in this film. It is difficult to watch. There is violence, drug use and alcoholism. It is the underbelly of the Southwest small town life.
I could not watch some of the using scenes. It was just too difficult. Somehow with the father stuff it all cut too close to the bone for me.
Yet, I am very glad that I saw it. Blades is unforgettable. The reconciliations of the story are very emotional and cleansing.
Nuñez also directed Ulee's Bees with Peter Fonda and found sides to Fonda that we had never seen before. I could see the same effort made here. To bring out the insides of very intelligent and sensitive actors.
I would not mind seeing it again and would probably still FF past the few tough drug/alcohol parts but it would be well worth it. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
This is a NYTimes Critic's Pick
Labels: films
FIRST INSTALLMENT
Yesterday the dam broke and we got our first refund from the IRS for the first year of our domestic partnership refiling. Under a new regulation or ruling, domestic partners (not married couples or the same gender) may file for community property in a "community property state" which California is. (A backward running sentence if I ever saw one).
This is very good news. They had been bombarding us with misinterpretations of the refilings for months including thinking that we owed them a lot, I mean a lot, more money.
Now, at least for one year, we are resolved.
We have the check.
Working with the IRS, as most people know, is very difficult.
I bet you got a knot in your stomach when you saw the logo over there. It is a nameless, faceless bureaucracy and almost all of its business is conducted in writing and little of that off forms. The way you know you passed muster is that you get a check.
No one apologizes. The front line personnel are not well trained and a new regulation either throws them or pisses them off. There is a kind of willful ignorance. Or, perhaps, more charitably, a practiced ignorance in the face of fraudulent claims and dumb filers.
We were neither.
The other problem is that the process for filing under the community property laws is not perfected. It is very clunky for everyone. We have to file separate returns and a worksheet. They have to pull up both returns. The same official has to do it. And so on.
In any case, it is very much in our interest to have pursued this. A lot of money is involved.
So, this is a relief. Sigh.
Now let's see what happens with the other two years.
THE TIMES HAS COME
I knew it was coming. And it will arrive March 28. The New York times will cost money to use.
The Times Announces Digital Subscription Plan
We will be able to see 20 articles per month for free. Then, at least for my situation, there will be a charge of 15 dollars per month.
Shit. I could read or open up to scan 20 articles in a day.
I think that the freebies are really going to go to the people who use other site's links. You know, like here. I put that article up, you go to it, you get to see it free if you don't use more than 20 links in a month.
I think that, on the blog, it means that I will not be using NYT links anymore or, if I do, I will provide an alternative. You may not be a NYT subscriber.
That would mean totally Ebert reviews instead of the NYT.
As for my own use, the Times IS my newspaper. I am on it everyday and a lot during the day. I get the emailed summaries and the afternoon political and general postings. I get the general news Alerts. I get the Technology, Health, Money and Movie Newsletters.
I am a NYT tool.
Am I happy to pay 15bucks a month for the "paper"?
Hell, yes.
I would have gladly paid that long ago.
It is nothing compared to the value received. The Times saves money just by informing me. I can make better life and financial decisions. I can find out how to make best use of my time with books, movies and other pursuits.
Credit to the Times for the balls to go ahead with this. I wish them luck and good fortune.
The survival of the "paper" depends on it and a world without the New York Times is too bleak to contemplate.
UPDATE: I just found out that links from blogs will be free. So, if I link a NYT review or article it will not cost you anything. I have already paid for it.
This is similar to the deal at the Wall Street Journal which, incidentally, costs somewhat less at 13.00/month. But is not worth it. To me. I only miss Carl Bialik. Someday he will leave and write elsewhere.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
SPECIAL DAY
Today is my Dad's birthday. He would be 103.
He had to share the day with St. Patrick but they did make birthday cards with shamrocks and all. He had to endure that association for a long time and then we just quit St. Patrick and turned all our attention over to my Dad.
We aren't Irish at all. Not a speck. So why play that tune?
I still miss him very much and mark the day with some Dad thoughts.
He was always there for me even if I didn't know or appreciate it.
This is not revisionist history. My Dad had a different kind of son in mind as I was growing up. He was looking forward to having a fishing and hunting companion. I wasn't that kid.
To his credit, he recognized this very early and just let go of the expectation. I didn't realize this actually. I thought he did want me to do those things but he didn't. He wanted me to find my own way. Which I did.
We did connect at work. He hired me to work in his A&P grocery store when I was 16 and that provided a lot of the companionship that I craved from him. And recognition.
He was my boss and he kept the boundary up. Hard to do but invaluable for many life lessons. Get the job done first and do it well. Everything else will work out. Stuff like that.
He encouraged me to go away to college. One of the most expensive ones, then or now. He knew that I belonged somewhere else. He did not have enough money to help me beyond the first term but the experience of being his kid stood me in good stead. I knew by then how to work and get a job done. All the way. So I worked my way through four years and made ends meet. I never lacked for anything. I saw and did it all.
He knew I was a good student, of course, and he believed that I would get "somewhere". Which I did.
I actually think that he joined the school board of our little town to contribute to my education. To somehow touch the process and make sure that it worked.
I never had, for a minute, the idea that he was interfering or influential in how I was taught. But you had to know that teachers and others did make the distinction. I benefitted.
It was hard for him to accept my living out as a gay man. But he got it. Early in the process.
When I first made the move, he wrote me a letter. It was not bitter. It did not blame. He had strong feelings and he expressed them. And then he let it go. He took the situation as a given and continued to be my loving father.
When he met John, he immediately took him into his care and keeping. They shared the experience of the Navy and it was short time before my Dad had the old picture albums out. The war souvenirs. The endless stories. My John was smart enough to let it happen. In that, they were soul mates. My mother and I were bored silly by it all but John was there to be an ex-navy man just like my Dad.
On one of his last trips to Boston, John and I took my parents to the places we went during WWII while he was in the service. While we were walking together he told me that he knew I was happy in my life with John and that made him glad for me.
He could not have said anything to me that was so important.
I am very much like my father. I even have characteristics that used to piss me off and annoyed at him. Today, I am proud to see myself doing these things.
I view his life as a great gift to me. A power of example. The good times and the bad.
He is still alive in me.
Happy 103, Pappy.
Labels: life
DISASTER PORN
At first I, understandably, wanted to see what had happened.
The tsunami. The aftermath of the earthquake.
Then, I found that I was looking at the same footage on various web sites, again and again.
I couldn't get enough cars rolling over end to end. Buildings floating and crashing into other buildings. Water pouring over dikes. The power of it all.
It was similar to the films we saw of the tsunami of a few years ago but much, much bigger.
I felt the same fascination that I used to have as a kid when I would build sand castles and let them be enveloped by the sea. Or go down to the stream below our house and watch objects float to their "destruction".
Then, I saw the people. Not only the people who were still, foolishly perhaps, filming and spectating but bodies. Real people floating by. In the cars, in the houses, in the water.
Suddenly there was a new dimension. This was not so attractive. These people were dying. I was watching it happen.
I recoiled.
The attraction to keep watching was undeniably strong.
And I broke off.
I could see myself looking for worse, more dramatic, closer in views.
Disaster porn.
Yesterday, I saw a video labeled something like "the plight of Japan's animals" with a photo of a dog sitting waiting for a master who would not come back.
That did it.
Done. Over. Finished.
Now, the living and bereaved would be in the next wave of vid-hunting. No. I won't go there.
And I haven't.
Today, the NYTimes did have a feature on the shelters and the readiness of Japan for events like this. Very prepared.
But not for this much. Not for the nuclear. In fact they are unprepared for the final blow and understating the threat.
There are no videos for radiation. It is just there and it will have its effect and we don't know when or how so far.
There is a decency involved here. The voyeurism, maybe that is it more than anything, doesn't reach as far fs there is no visible suffering.
So I am on a moratorium. I have not sent my contribution. Where? No one can say, yet, where and how the money will be used. If I give to the Red Cross they still would not say that it is going to Japan. It is the old Red Cross trick. "Give for events like the Japan quake and flood and so on. Into the RC coffers is more like it. The Red Cross is a near racket.
How to respond. If not with morbid curiosity, how?
Just be a witness. Read. Be careful about looking. Meditate and pray. Learn from it. The power of nature. The weakness and arrogances of man.
Labels: nature
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
SKEERED
I was shocked/not surprised that the NRA has refused to visit the White House to discuss gun legislations.
Like Kevin Drum, I believe that Obama scares the GOoPers on a face to face, joint forum basis.
Until he got his dick into the wringer, they were the same with Bill Clinton.
The thing is that both men mastered the art of mediation and compromise. They damp out the extremes and embrace exchange and conversation. Which means that they control it. That along with the fact that they are the President.
The militant right, largely, works in the margins, firing up the base, exaggerating or lying outright.
LaPierre is a dick in any language so it is not a surprise at all. On the other hand, he is a guy who is afraid of nothing. Except, perhaps, Obama.
The Obamas have been embracing their "enemies" a lot lately. Very good strategy. Get close and show their fault lines. Take the high road and show their tendency to stay on the low.
When you can, love the bejesus out of them so that the wing nuts will reject them. Romney and Pawlenty.
Labels: Administration Obama, republican whack jobs
DESERT SPRING
The mountains are green. The desert floor is filled with little buds. Flowers. Thousands. Tiny.
It rained enough this year.
At the condo, things are breaking loose. The cacti pots are still going nuts with the little flowers getting bigger and other cacti just budding now.
The succulents are getting into gear as well.
In the regular garden that we put in last fall, the garlic is blooming and the lavender is going great guns.
Outside the wall, a series of big shrubs turn out to be spring flowering and the blooms are quite pink. Very nice. This is new for us. We haven't been here for spring before and so every development of the prehistoric plants is a nice surprise.
Hibiscus are coming too.
Soon the Palo Verde tree and the Bird of Paradise bush will be starting. By summer they will shade the patio.
It is warm. It is beautiful. It is spring.
Labels: condo, desert, horticulture
NADA
Not one of "my" kids got into MIT yesterday.
They announce it on pi day. Of course. All the way to the minute and hour. 3.1415927. The 1415 is because of the international dateline. The 927 PM is because that is the 927 when the divide divides that way. Soooo geek. But fun.
I had six applicants this year. Only two interviewed. They were nice kids and I recommended them but I knew it was unlikely that they would be selected.
First the shear numbers. 12 to 1 odds they say. Also, while one school is very highly rated locally, it is not very big and that does count against them. It is believed, in some circles, that such places "make" their own high ratings. Only 19 in the graduating class.
The other one had transcript problems unique to California. Shifting from other states almost always leads to point loss. Unfair, but there it is.
So, I am getting hardened to it. It is my fifth year at this.
In the beginning I took it personally but no longer. They wrote me a nice letter when I told them that. I am a kind of pen pal of the woman who runs the interview stuff.
Last year, I was cured of personal bias and hurt when a kid I gave a lousy rating got selected.
I emailed him immediately and congratulated him and we exchanged numerous emails running up to his decision to accept the admit.
By that time, I was rather convinced that they were right. He was a good admit.
So, this year, I only pouted a couple of minutes.
Of course, for those who did not interview, I am only distantly disappointed. Serves them right for not taking the option. 95% of admits have had the interview. Poor choice on their part.
They did admit one a few years ago who did not interview. She sent me a thank you letter! I wrote back and mentioned that it had been a shame that I didn't get to meet her. Slipped it in.
So.
I will stand for another year. I think that my appointment lasts until 2012.
I had a lot less kids this year than I did last. I still do not know why. No one else does either. Several schools who had been represented in the past did not have any candidates this year. Of course, I thought it was my fault. Then my counsellor boss told me I was lucky. A lot of schools "make" them apply to MIT and we are wasting our time. I did get that impression actually with some of them.
We now only interview those who have sent in Part Two of the application. That means they have put some money on the table.
But I get time off from it all. The first feasible interview would be in late August. I get the summer off.
Labels: MIT
VOTE
Today's film was Laura Poitras' Oscar nominated documentary
My Country, My Country (2005)which documents the Iraqi vote and the weeks and months leading up to it.
One Sunni doctor is followed along with his family. Various scenes here and there about the elections. All show, no tell.
It is not a tract and does not take sides. There are so many.
No violence. Not close up anyway. A chicken gets slaughtered.
Iraq. Forgotten. In the backwater of history. But still trying very hard to be a country again.
There is no use in going over all the wrongs and rights, if any, about the war.
It is up to the people there to pick up the pieces.
That is what this film is about.
The ending is quite emotional. Those long lines in defiance of the terrorist threats. The purple fingers. Worth watching.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
HYPOTHESIS PROVEN
I know, for a fact, that having a dog wakes us up and takes us out of ourselves.
He also takes us outside and into exercise. Walks. Lots of walks. Two a day that go up 40-50 minutes. Often an hour. Sundays more. Big dogs need more time to stretch it out. Best to have a big one anyway. More to pet and snuggle with.
John takes the morning walk which is usually longer as Booker is more energetic and excited in the morning. I take the afternoon or after dinner now that DST is in place.
Now this.
Forget the Treadmill, Get a Dog
What is fascinating to me is that people would rather walk with a dog than another person. That is certainly true for me. I never much liked hiking with another person. But a dog? Absolutely. A great companion.
I think that one reason for this is that the dog doesn't talk back. I like to talk to Booker continuously. Some people stare but fuck 'em.
Some of the talk is for him, like "come on", "that's enough sniffling" "no! don't eat that", "stay with me" and so on.
But most of it is just stream of consciousness aimed at the dog but basically he ignores it.
Well, he ignores "that's enough grass" too.
He does his routine while I do mine.
I believe that I am way over the government recommendation anyway as I do bike work at the gym, hard, sweaty work at the highest resistance setting, for half an hour.
But walking is different. It relaxes. There is scenery. Air. In our case, light. Last night the sun streaming into the pass from the west at sunset was just totally cosmic. There was enough "fog" , actually silica, in the air to catch the light and display its peach/pink colored beams.
Another thing. With the dog, the point is not really exercise. It is beyond that. We are walking but we are also doing something rather primitive and basic. Two animals communing in enjoyment of the elements.
I am glad that it fulfills my exercise requirements though.
Yes. And one more reason that it works. The dog will not relent. Booker is there at the appointed time and letting me know that it is time to go. There could not be a personal trainer who is more relentless. And most of them don't have the big brown eyes.
Monday, March 14, 2011
SHEET MUSIC
When I was a younger jazz pianist and even younger rebel from the straight jacket of my piano lesson music, I played popular music off of sheet music.
When I was a kid, this meant that I went to a store. Everything from a music store to, for more popular stuff, a five and dime, to buy the publisher's full urtext version of the song. Words, music and chords.
Sheet music was everywhere. I remember buying it at news stands. You remember news stands don't you?
Later, I went to various copy shops to buy so called "cheat sheets" under the counter. Big books of standards, jazz and otherwise, with simple melody lines, no words, and chords.
From these, one would deduce the general "picture" of the work one wanted to play or improvise upon.
These were often a bit raggedy andy and did not include the subtleties that one might hear on a record, so the next thing to do was to go to the record itself. This involved a lot of needle dropping and scratch of the record.
Then tape! I could stop the tape and RW and do the thing over. I could even take a section or even a phrase and repeat it over and over.
CD's pretty much fucked this up although there is still tape, it requires a bit of scavenging to find tape blanks and keep a machine in working order.
A teacher that I had, the last one, taught me to improvise and work out my own charts. He also had me sing the song in various versions. Sing with a vocal artist or two. I could even sing non-lyrics da-da-da.
I haven't done a chart in a long time. I sold the piano in Boston a year or two before we moved and bought a keyboard which I never quite warmed up to.
I kept up the work but dropped the study.
Now, even the keyboard is gone.
But LOOK!
I recently asked Tom how one goes about doing a rock work for a band. How do they study it? Both he, his brother and some grandsons have bands or are in them.
In some respects, they do it the same old ways. Get the record. Replay. Not tape apparently.
But mostly they have a new resource.
Suppose my band wanted to do Van Halen's Unchained. Which I would definitely want to do.
I would go to
and there it is. The full Van Halen charts and the sound track and a moving green line and there you are.
You can play like Eddy! I guess you can also get Alex on drums and Michael on bass and become a tribute band. Maybe not.
Well, not exactly. You could get close. But there is always that live factor that no one but those guys can do.
You would not, I am sure, be able to do anything like the singing of David Lee Roth. That is not on the charts. And uniquely David Lee's.
Labels: music
LESS ONE
I am a near lifelong fan of Dave Brubeck.
And that means that I am also, necessarily, a fan of the Dave Brubeck Quartet which I saw ca. 1956 at the Boston Arts and Jazz Festival on Boston Common. Later the George Wein Newport Jazz Festival.
They were all there and, I believe, in their trademark suits.
The other day, March 12, one of the Quartet died.
This is an excellent Obit, saying more than I can about the essential nature of the rhythm to the Quartet and Morello's contribution to it.
Even more, here are two "cuts" to listen to.
There's Morelli in the second frame still. Trademark shades.
I picked these two because my fellow fan, Dave, did. There are so many. Check them out at the YouTube site.
It brings tears to my eyes and a smile to my face.
Brubeck, himself, still tours and is in hero territory. 90 going on 91 in December.
Labels: music
AMENDS
The other day, I wrote insensitively about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Or, rather, I diverted the conversation into stuff about myself.
The ongoing tragedy for the Japanese people is unspeakable.
Such loss.
I grieve with others over this terrible situation and am sorry for acting otherwise.
Labels: blogging
WORTH SAVING
I think that this is an insightful analysis of what the Obamas are up to just now and, perhaps, into the next two years.
I give it credence, as well, because it is pretty well known that they feed to the Times.
The GOP is in charge and are just discovering that they have stepped off the platform and on to the tracks. They have yet to get into the train to drive it because they have been doing all their promised "dirty work" for the base, knowing full well that none of it can or will pass. Ever.
They have made, in my mind, some dumb moves. They almost put their foot on the "third rail" issue of SS and other entitlements without a feasible plan. Rubber boots required on the third rail to walk it.
They also, still, have a divided leadership and no spokesman worth his or her salt to tell "the American people", what is going on.
Governing. Get it? Governance!
No skill, no ability, no leadership, pandering, still the party of "no".
Paul Ryan, who used to be a saner voice in the Republican Party holds the GOoPer budget. It slashes a lot of stuff that will never get slashed.
Education? Day Care? Head Start? SOCIAL SECURITY!
Even Obama thought Ryan might stay sane. No. He has slipped into the mind meld.
Labels: Administration Obama, Republicans
Sunday, March 13, 2011
OUT OF THE CAGE
Today's film was Luca Guadagnino's
Lo Sono L'amore / I Am Love (2010)
with Tilda Swinton and a wonderful Italian cast which includes Marisa Berenson.
This owes a lot to Viscont's The Leopard, much beloved. There is even a character whose first name is Tancredi.
I super rich Italian family folds into itself closely but change is in the air, not the least of which is that the Grandfather is passing the ownership of the company to the son and also the grandson. A surprise.
From there things devolve.
Swinton is the Russian born wife of the father and mother of the grandson.
It comes about that she falls in love with the Grandson's best friend.
An affair ensues.
Trouble comes visiting.
This is a simple story wonderfully told. The photography and the editing/direction are exciting. The score is by John Adams. Strikingly modern!
Talk about change.
This is a great movie. It is worth seeing over and over and I will.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
I could do a separate writeup for Tilda Swinton who learned Russian accented Italian to play this role. She is nothing if not a complete prep artist.
The results show. She is always different. A mega star who keeps topping herself.
Labels: films
BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO
Today's film was the little indie that could.
This film, made for $15,000 dollars, has a million dollar (and more) wallop.
Funny, incisive, fresh, real, wonderfully acted. This is about a couple who have staled out in their relationship but can't, somehow, end it.
What we see is how they manage to breaaaaak it off with a sort of slow motion energy that is hilarious and a little heart breaking.
They do this in front of their friends and family.
This film features, not one, but two Jewish mothers. The two wonderful actresses manage to cover the gamut of this category. One darkly funny and the other manically hilarious.
It is interesting. It took me awhile to like this young couple but I realized that they became more attractive to me as they began to move apart. Each individual came out of hiding as they broke up the formidable "performing act" of a couple who are dancing as fast as they can to survive.
It felt genuine to me.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. I wouldn't mind seeing it again for all the really deep belly laughs that it offers.
Labels: films
I AM WITH THE TEA BAGGERS ON THIS ONE
Give Up Familiar Light Bulb? Not Without Fight, Some Say
Even a blind pig will find an acorn once in a while. Stopped clocks tell the correct time twice a day. And every so often the tea bags find an issue I can agree with.
I am down with repealing the incandescent light bulb law which is really a performance requirement law which most incandescent 100 W bulbs can't meet.
I will not use the mercury loaded curly cue bulbs that are made outside the US.
Look at this if you doubt their safety. Un-fucking-believable.
Air the room. Get kids and pets outside! Keerist!
When we bought the condo they had some of the CFLs in place. They have been removed. I just bought a bunch of 100W incandescents. I might stockpile some more.
It is probably too late. GE just closed their last US plant for the grand old bulb.
We shall see what we shall see.
Here is another set of ten steps. You don't have to clear the room for this one, I guess.
Labels: environment, tea party, technology
Saturday, March 12, 2011
TRANSGRESSING
I love seeing people do shit that freaks other more tight ass people out.
Particularly when the guys are hot.
Labels: fun. music
FILM BIZ
Today's Almodovar film is the last in the series
Los abrazos rotos /
Broken Embraces (2009)
although I am tempted to get Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown since this film, about making movies, refers to the plot in that film.
Or parts of it.
This one is a who done it and why and has tricks of memory and a blind film director and lots of Almadovar bits of fun. Great photography. Interesting and mysterious plot. All of it.
Almodovar loves movies and there is a lot of evidence of that in this film. In one scene, a young man sifts through the films of the movie director and names names. Favorities.
Another thing is that he puts in themes that are right out of genré films. In this case the blind artist. There are others.
Penelope Cruz leads the cast of Almodovar regulars. I do not understand how these people can appear over and over again in different of Pedro's films and always seem different and not a trace of their past work remains. The magic of good direction and great acting.
I will give this one a 5 out of Netflix5. He can't seem to miss. I did see it before but didn't remember the details.
Labels: films
Friday, March 11, 2011
NICE
Lyrics hey now take your pills and
hey now make your breakfast
hey now comb your hair and off to work
crash land no illusions no collision no intrusion
my imagination run away
i know i know i know what i am chasing
i know i know i know that this is changing me
i am flying on a star into a meteor tonight
i am flying on a star
i will make it through the day and then the day becomes the night
i will make it through the night
hey now take the u-bahn
5 stop change the station
hey now don't forget that change will save you
hey now count a thousand million people
that's astounding chasing
through the city with their stars on bright
i know i know i know what i am chasing
i know i know i know that this is changing me
i am flying on a star into a meteor tonight
i am flying on a star
i will make it through the day and then the day becomes the night
i will make it through the night
i don't mind repeating i am not complete
i have never been the gifted type
hey man tell me something are you off to somewhere?
do you want to go with me tonight?
i know i know i know that this is changing
we'll walk the street to feel the ground i'm chasing
uBerlin
i am flying on a star into a meteor tonight
i am flying on a star
i will make it through the day and then the day becomes the night
i will make it through the night
"Uberlin" from R.E.M.'s upcoming record "Collapse Into Now", out March 7/8th worldwide.
The U-Bahn is the Berlin subway. Other than that you are on your own with Michael Stipe.
SIDEBAR
Here is an interesting fact. From the NYTimes.
A spending plan approved by the House of Representatives includes cuts to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, among other spending reductions to the National Weather Service.
Labels: Republicans
ROCK AND ROIL
Quake and Tsunami Leaves Wake of Destruction Across Northern Japan
Of course, nothing we know compares to this.
I have been watching the videos.
It is interesting that, as practiced and prepared as the Japanese are about quakes, not one person heads under a desk or away from heavy objects. Not one ducks and covers in a low corner against the wall.
Most were in offices and were holding onto desks. Many in the midst of high file cabinets and other crashy stuff just stay put. I saw a scene in a super market where clerks were trying to hold the cans and bottles from crashing off shelves. A useless effort. And very unsafe.
I know the feeling.
I have never been able to take any of the advice. It shakes. I just get low down. Lower my center of gravity. Wherever I am. Usually I go to the dog who is barking and worried.
I know. I should head for John and save him but it is every man for himself. And usually we are not together when it happens.
I don't stand in a doorway or go near glass but that isn't to difficult here.
The most shaking I have had was a 6 that went off up north. We were there on a trip but in bed. It shook. So did we.
Our first quake when we moved here was in the Westfield Shopping Center in Palm Desert.
We were in front of Structures, a defunct mens clothing place. They had big classical pillars in front of the place. Almost cartoon like. The floor shook and I looked up to see the pillars shaking. I felt like Victor Mature. Samson.
My first one ever was when I was traveling many years ago and was staying in a hotel. We had a shock and I ran outside to the court of this really nice motel. There were only two of us out there. The other guy was also from back east. Another quake virgin. Not one other person came outside to see what was happening. It was old stuff to them.
Queue the questions now from people who don't live in an earthquake prone area. Here are the answers.
An earthquake is much shorter than a hurricane.
An earthquake does not have uniform damage. Better on sand than rock.
An earthquakes comes in one of two flavors. Slip/strike is like a truck hitting the house. Bang. A tremblor is wave like and lasts longer. We get both kinds but not at the same time. So far.
An earthquake isn't cold. No one dies of exposure.
And an earthquake is actually a bit of scary fun if it isn't too bad and you get to ride it.
A guilty pleasure.
You will see a lot of positive excitement on the faces of people after the quake. These are the survivors. A kind of glee creeps over you that this one didn't get you and that some other people had it worse. It is unavoidable.
Labels: earthquake
