esrosedotblog

I am a sucker for anthology films.

You know, the ones that have three or four or more stories which the film guys can't develop further into a full screenplay? And, hating to do away with what they have created, the make an itty bitty version or three of them and string them together.

Hence:

Third Person (2014)

From Paul Haggis.

They aren't bad. They aren't good.

There are some marquee names. James Franco, Adrien Brody. The ever annoying Mila Kunis. (Professional bitch).

Even stars can be tempted into the jewel box.

But they do not come off or out of the box very well.

In this one, there is a connection between the three but I am too tired of it all to think about it.

They are good enough to amuse, mock a little, and possibly be remembered before I finish typing this.

I like all these people. They had to try it. Everyone does. I have yet to see one of these that turns out. That is not true, actually. Many do. I just don't remember them. Like television writing, the need to compress kills character and theme. About as interesting as a naked body which, as it turns out, is a lot like all the others even one's own. Just younger or older or fitter or fatter or leaner.

These are all kind of lean. Skinny. And, of course, short. (Is a comma supposed to go in there? I never know. A subordinate phrase or something. I just sprinkle them in and let you all worry about it)

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 but part of the problem is that I don't know who I am giving it to. Paul Haggis I guess.

Labels: films

We made the New York Times today.

In Mecca of Modernism, a New Pack of Devotees

Some magical combination of the climate, the beautiful surroundings (a huge mountain with the largest escarpment in the US) and just general "tone" converge on Palm Springs. Our town.

We came here partly for this reason. It is just a pleasure to be in the midst of this.

Even our condos have an architectural name behind them, a local, Don Wexler.

It is fun to drive around and name the names both of the owners and the architects.

I personally do not pay a lot of attention to this but am happy to have a husband who does. I am more in tune with the natural things and get fussed when the buildings interfere. But few of them do. Unlike many other destinations the natural beauty here dominates and the architectural scale enhances rather than detracts.

The photo is one I just took out of dozens in the Google image file for Palm Springs Modernism.

You might want to make your own survey.

Labels: Palm Springs

For years, the biggest entertainment in St. Croix was to watch the sunset.

Not so much for the sunset per se but to listen to the speculation about the so called green flash before the sun went down and then about whether we actually saw one occur when the sun set.

I saw this today.

Videographer Captures Elusive Green Flash

I always though that seeing it was a matter of expectations. I did see it. And it was fast fast fast. You could not say "SEE!" and expect others to get it. Because in that half second they either did see it or didn't and by the time I hit the second E, it was gone.

This is not the first film I have seen of it. But it does show that the arguments still go on.

I always figured that part of it was the atmosphere of the sunset watch. The bar had been open for at least an hour. The tooters were tooting. Even if there was none, and sometimes I did not see one, these people saw it.

This hurt the credibility of those who saw it and knew we had seen it.

So, here it is again.

Some of you will not see it. Tough shit. You are slow on the uptake. Get a little patience and open up those peepers.

Labels: nature

Black comics have become very popular in recent years.

But that has not always been the case.

And those who got "somewhere" often did so with some bowing and scraping.

But that changed.

A lot of anger transmuted to some great acts by young comics. But all of them followed in the footsteps of the few greats who came before them.

One of those was a courageous lady who masked the truth in absurd humor.

I remember Moms Mabley from way back. That is Ed Sullivan back. And her material was always the same. The stupidity of racism. Its cruelty.

She presented as a stereotype, her teeth out, her dress a baggy heavily flowered number, a knitted hat and, good lord, a shuffle in cartoonish sneakers.

But that was a ruse. Her mouth produced some pretty harsh truths and was able to be funny doing it.

Today, a documentary on her work.

She has come back as a historical figure but still, the laughs.

Labels: comedy, documentary, films

Today, the third part of

The Burning Bush (2014)

which was a television series on HBO produced in Czechoslovakia and made to document the time when they fought to save their country.

Actually, the country came apart in two pieces but that is another story.

This is a great film and I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

The time came when the so called Eastern Block of Soviet dominated countries had enough.

And did something about it.

This film depicts that time beginning with the self immolation of Jan Palach, a student who was part of the Prague Spring movement.

Burning Bush (2014)

Today, part 1 of three parts. The film is four hours long and was technically a miniseries but has now been welded together into one piece for a DVD audience.

This is rough stuff but beautifully handled. Edge of the seat moments.

It is a fictionalized version of the actual events so there is an interleaving of footage from that time. Very effective. Docudrama.

The suicide is over quickly and the film focuses on the people left to deal with it. The family of course, friends in the movement, and a few cops and government types who are not willing to sweep it under the table at the bidding of the government.

It provokes quite a dramatic emotional response. It is hard to be detached so I gave in to it.

Labels: communists, films, history

There is an unfortunate stereotype about gay men.

It is believed that they are mama's boys and that is why they are gay.

The truth is more that gay boys stick close to their mother because she will protect them from the hostility of the straight male world. Harsh but true, I think. I speak from experience.

Of course, this attachment is also at a cost. The mother can become possessive and smothering and all that. I speak from experience here as well.

Today's film is about Mom and her son and he son's boyfriend.

The Sting (2010)

I have seen it several times so it is a 5 out of Netflix5 that also happens to be a great movie.

The boys aren't bad either.

Labels: films, gay films

My Netflix crisis is still affecting my movie watching.

The crisis was/is that I had ordered a bunch of half assed films in my queue and had been reordering them rather than watch them.

So I went through and purged about half of them.

That left me with no inventory. I sent the ones I had back.

So I have been watching some films that I have liked very much in the past. And still do.

Today was Boy Culture which I have seen many times.

A gay hustler realizes his time is running out. Looks and buy ability. So, through some help from an older gay man, he re-evaluates and comes out the other side.

He has two room mates who encourage him. One is a love interest. I won't tell the rest. It is very good.

Labels: films, gay films

I went to the chiropractor today.

The news is pretty good.

I can pull back to a weekly visit for the next phase.

I can feel the difference in my back and legs and everything is stronger.

He says that I could go back to weight training at the gym and I am thinking about it.

I did do some ab work on the machines today. Working the other side of the deal. The front holds up the back and visa versa.

But at some point I have to be realistic about the weights. I am going to age out of it.

Everyone does except the phenoms who keep on going and probably use a few drugs here and there to keep their bulk.

Me? My bulk left a long time ago. Thankfully it didn't turn, too much, to fat like happens to a lot of ex-weight lifters.

I am still in good shape but I attribute that to the stationary bike and afternoon walks with the pooch.

Look at this old fart. He just looks silly to me. I can see his pacemaker!

But he does have the muscles.

I don't know.

Maybe I should consult someone. I do know a couple of trainer types.

Labels: gym

The pace of memory together with present reality is often quick and evanescent.

The magic of film is that a slowing of motion is possible. A time stretch in which memory can slide into reality and then move back and forth as in remembering a love affair or growing up or meeting someone or, as it happens here, losing someone dear.

Soundless Wind Chime (2011)

Meant as a tribute to the director Wong Kar Wai, Kit Hung weaves a magical tapestry of two men from two cultures who fall in love.

Time and scene shift and reassemble.

This is from our DVD collection. An interlude between Netflix shipments which were interrupted when I purged our queue and sent back some of the films I got that I didn't really want to see.

Labels: films, gay films

Spring pruning this morning.

It is a lot easier than it used to be. Our little condo plot has one bougainvillea at the garage, another at the gate to the patio. No one does those except me.

Inside, a few bushes which, so far this year, do not need work. There is a red flowered tree of unknown origin along with some hibiscus. Maybe later this month.

And that is it.

I still have my shears and clippers I used at the large house in the Mesa. It takes about twenty minutes here. Two hours there.

Here is obviously a lot easier. But it is also satisfying.

That lopping off.

And it is good for the plants too.

Labels: horticulture

Today's movie is iconic.

It is one of the best of the earliest gay films as well as all that come after.

Parting Glances (1986)

Steve Buscemi stars as a gay man with AIDS and his young friends who help him out. He, in turn, helps them come out.

I have seen it many times and do not get tired of it. It always seems fresh and pleasing at just about every level.

I am not sure but I believe it was the first of the happy gay films that celebrate the lives of happy gay men. Sure, there are problems. Certainly the prospect of AIDS is not a pleasant one but the film pretty much shows how most gay men are able to integrate living with this disease into an otherwise happy life.

There are a few closet cases for contrast. Out and about wins.

This was Buscemi's breakout film. He is true to the source and the subject and gets to the heart of how many gay men lived in the 80s.

I have seen it many times. Countless. I never get tired.

A 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films, gay films

Labels: Boston

I loved his restlessly urgent voice.

David Carr, Times Critic and Champion of Media, Dies at 58

I watched his little video features at the NYT site interviewing difficult subjects and having none of their bullshit. He was a four letter word guy and the impact of his probing was totally effective in disarming the con artists and the villains.

For a long while he did a video program with A.O. Scott and I would not miss any of them. Outspoken and blunt, he always saw another side to things.

Here they are talking about last year's Oscaars.

Labels: media, obituary

We each received a modestly sized candy heart today.

One of them was this very one.

Box of chocolates type of candy.

I have had one so far.

I sort of forget about them being there.

There is never any candy here. Ice cream. Other stuff. No candy.

So once a year, a spree. A binge. Then it is over.

It seems the right thing to do.

And if it is not, we will end the day happy for whatever reasons we can concoct. The chocolates will connect the dots.

John has been my valentine for 37 years. Imagine. And he still makes my heart go pitty-pat.

Time for the annual Palm Springs bike tour.

25, 50 or 100 miles. Take your pick. They all go by our house. I am looking at some of them now. This is the last gasp....er lap!

We went out to see them. The main thing is to stay out of the way and on the "other" side of the street.

Marcus and I were out in the middle and watched the proceedings as we walked.

It is a nice thing, bigger every year.

The weather is hot enough to have them know they are in the desert but not disabling. 86 degrees F. right now. But in the desert sun that translates to hot hot hot.

Labels: bicycle

I am continuing chiropractic therapy for my sciatica, which is much better, thank you.

Today, my chiro told me that MDs would call what I have a degenerative cascade meaning that, I think, one thing leads to another. And eventually, complete collapse.

He says that he does not accept this and that his job is to interrupt that process and to turn it around.

In any case, we are well on our way toward relieving the pain and discomfort and I will be down to a visit a week for awhile.

I have been here before. I like the guy who is doing the work. He takes it quite seriously. But not himself. That is a good thing.

Another thing that I like about him is that he chooses his clothes just like I do.

I admired his shirt and he told me that he didn't pick it out. It was next in line. He puts the clean on the right and takes from the left of the hangar line. Same thing. He is not "allowed" to change the order.

I love it when I meet someone who is as compulsively obsessive as me.

Labels: sciatica

Busy day tomorrow.

Hail to the Chief!

Roads will temporarily shut down for Obama's motorcade on Saturday, when the president lands and is taken to the undisclosed private residence where he is spending the weekend.

Traffic delays and additional closures also are likely to occur on Saturday, when roads will used for the Tour de Palm Springs bike ride and the Cathedral City Hot Air Balloon Festival.

"One more reason for me to stay home Saturday," said Shayla Arthur, a 35-year-old from Palm Springs who got stuck in traffic during last year's bike ride and during a previous Obama visit.

"It's not confined to one city and you need to be meticulous about where you're going to go."

But we are used to it. Despite the denials, it is rumored that they will retire here.

The main issue for me will be on Monday when AF1 will be parked on the inlet road to the airport. My short cut. Gotta go around.

It will be my pleasure.

Labels: Barack Obama

Labels: bad luck, holidays

I finished "yesterday's" movie today.

Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)

for the fourth or fifth time.

This is such a good film.

Coming of age. A buddy film. A bit homoerotic. It has everything.

And the breakout performances of the young Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal.

The two young men set out on a road trip and meet a young woman who, at the last minute, decides to come along. She has just broken up with her fiancé.

And so on. Great stuff. Including some very nice best friend sexing between the two young men. They decide, on the evidence, they are straight. Still, they will always have that night!

Labels: films

Old friends came for dinner last night.

I have known Rob for 37 years or more and then John got to know him. We also spent more time with him during our Provincetown days after he moved there. When we were there for summers.

Along the way he became Rob and Brian and now they have been together for 27 years.

Brian has a sister in La Quinta so they stopped there on a month long west coast trip. Out of the snow drifts so almost any weather will be better than where they came from.

It was nice to see them. Not too long. Just enough. If you know what I mean.

It seems to me that none of has changed. Well, I think that I may have but Rob has not. He wears rimless glasses now.

The funny thing with good old friends is that you can just pick up where you are, almost anywhere and still have a connection.

We do not know any of their friends now nor do they know any of ours. There are a few "what ever happened to" moments but I think there would be only three or four people that we got a rundown on. In a nice loving way of course.

Very nice.

John said he thought it might be our last guest dinner. I don't know why he would say that. Except that I will do almost anything not to do it. It is part of my introvert stuff. So be it.

On the other hand I do like to cook for more than two. So it is a tradeoff. A little visiting as the price for special cooking. Besides, I can hide out in the kitchen if I "need" to.

Labels: Introvert, visitors

Another thing to be proud of as a long (and only) time member of the Apple corps.

Apple Building Solar Farm to Power California Operations

Money where mouth is located.

I would never have called Steve Jobs a socially responsible guy but he was actually always including the environment in his obsessions and dedication. Same now.

Some cynics will say that it is just a publicity ploy or something. But where was/is IBM on stuff like this. Dell? Who?

And what's wrong with a little publicity to sell the things that a company believes in? The belief system can be as important as the product itself. They are intertwined. The beliefs are the product.

As has been the case from the very beginning.

Labels: apple, environment

Today's movie was the first episodes of a television series.

Parks and Recreation (2009)

I liked it but not enough to keep going with it. I quit on the fifth episode.

Put it down to snobbishness.

It actually did not do very well the first season but was renewed anyway.

Perhaps my test is unfair.

But I don't feel like going back to the well for more.

I will give it a Netflix 2 out of 5.

Well, I can't. I didn't finish it.

Too bad.

I don't think they will give a damn one way or another. They got some success and then some more.

Labels: television

Clarence Thomas: Supreme Court's Decision Suggests Justices' Minds Are Made Up On Gay Marriage

Clarence Fucking Thomas. Imagine. Well, what the hell. He got his.

He is such an asshole.

Sorry. Judicial asshole, deserving of the respect accorded to his position.

Labels: gay history, gay marriage, gay rights

It is surprising to find a cliché ridden picture that got good reviews.

So be surprised at

Words and Pictures (2013)

Two big stars and a good director. It is a schoolroom picture. I don't feel like talking about it. I should have known better.

I will rate it a 2 out of Netflix5.

I finished it and came up empty.

Labels: films

And in, of all places, Alabama.

U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Stop Same-Sex Marriages in Alabama The United States Supreme Court said early Monday that it would not stop same-sex marriages in Alabama, as gay couples gathered outside courthouses across the state. Justices on Monday morning denied a request by the Alabama attorney general to extend a hold on a judge’s ruling overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage. The attorney general, Luther Strange, had asked the Supreme Court to halt the weddings until the justices settle the issue nationwide when they take it up this year. Judge Callie V. S. Granade of Federal District Court ruled in January that the Alabama ban was unconstitutional, but she put a hold on her order until Monday to give the state time to appeal. Gay couples are lining up at courthouses seeking marriage licenses. But in a dramatic show of defiance toward the federal judiciary, Chief Justice Roy S. Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court on Sunday night ordered the state’s probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples on Monday. According to reports early Monday, probate judges in Birmingham and Montgomery had defied Chief Justice Moore and were issuing licenses.

Same-Sex Marriages Proceed in Alabama as State Judge’s Order Is Defied

These guys just got engaged! Let the fun begin.

Labels: gay marriage

There is nothing funny about terrorists.

Yet somehow, these guys figured out how to put it into a fierce scream against religious fanaticism.

Four Lions (2010)

In which a group of innocents get involved with a jihadist outfit and manage to provide suspense and condemnation at the same time.

It is pretty effective and almost impossible to stop watching. The laughs are very dark. And the slapstick is horrifyingly exciting. Somehow they turn the whole genré on its head.

I could not watch it again but I am glad that I saw it once.

I also worried that somehow the religious nuts would take offense and kill everyone who made this film.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Brian Williams, Under Scrutiny, Will Take Leave From ‘NBC Nightly News’

I have never thought very much of the so called "anchor" newspeople.

Mostly pretty faces, their commentary is vacuous and from another viewpoint than the one I ever hold. Or ever have.

It is interesting when one of them, the most vapid in my opinion, steps on his crank with over inflated ego and bloviation.

Every once in a while they will play a Brian outtake or comment on CNBC which I watch in the gym.

He hovers above the masses and certainly compared to the more rough and ready people who are on early in the day, definitely needs to get his hair messed up. He is the preacher's kid, the holier than thou good boy, the sneak and tattle tale all rolled into one.

Why do I feel that way? Hey, I don't have to justify my views anymore than he needs to justify lying. A lie is a lie. A vicious assessment is so personal as to be a simple rant.

These guys have dominated for a long time. Rather, who actually defends Williams I hear, was not a handsome guy. He worked his way up the ranks and had that rough and ready edge that actually got him in trouble with the suits. Brokaw was able to use the mid country boy look and he was/is smart. Brokaw was less supportive. Old Tom. He can't be happy this is happening to his old seat.

The whole thing is a tempest in a teapot. The dominance of network news is long gone and the impact of one guy on people's opinion of the news is considerably lessened.

I am sure he is stepping down with the idea that it will all blow over in a few days and maybe it will. But he will be the same Brian, smarmy smile and all. An empty suit.

It also seems as though it might not blow over so quickly.

Soldiers in Brian Williams Group Give Account of 2003 Events

They say he was nowhere near the shoot down. Not at all. Oh oh. Eyewitness news!

Labels: news, phony baloney, television

Things do not shut down around here just because it is Saturday.

But nearly eighty years into it, there are some signs that some things will not change. Retired or not.

Saturday is a Meeting day. Special because I see people that do not appear during the week. And visa versa.

Saturday is the day that I have the entire morning to myself in the house with my puppy.

Saturday is a day which for some reason, very few people call me.

Saturday is a sleep late day. Just after Friday. There is no gym to get up for on Saturday or Sunday.

And so on.

I used to make Saturday a light cooking night and that still holds. We can have anything prepared, precooked and mostly already sliced.

There is ice cream on Saturday morning!

So enough sets this day apart to still make it special.

Sunday will be even more so. We have the family walk, all three, for Sunday. I have a junk food breakfast. Well not junk. Pancakes or waffles. French toast. All frozen and just a drop in the toaster. The maple syrup fix.

A retirees weekend. It all starts here

Today's movie was part of the fifth season of The Big Bang Theory. I still dote on it.

Just back from our dog walk. It is in the 80s and sunny. Gorgeous. And of course, dry as a bone.

Labels: weather

Some places are a state of mind.

Such is the case with

Palo Alto (2013)

or perhaps someone's state of mind.

In this case Gia Coppola and James Franco who takes a lead role.

Teenagers in a rich suburban town. Nothing new. An old saw really.

But the film is fun to look at if a bit boring to behold.

There is some excitement, life and death. But not enough to pull the movie out of the doldrums of the Netflix2's. I watched the whole thing and resisted the FF but at times it was hard not to help the kids get over themselves.

A 3 out of Netflix5. Grudgingly. The more I think about it the less I like the whiny little girl.

Labels: films

I am torn about whether or not to watch the execution of the pilot by ISIS.

The horror of it is considerable. Would I feel "bad"?

On the other hand, this is what happens in the world. Should I shut my eyes to it?

There was a very good debate about this on CNBC this morning. Morning Joe. I notice that they did not show it. Nor did I want them to. Not in the gym.

I remember the day they hit the twin towers. It was showing live as I went from the cardio to the weight section. It was so unbelievable that we couldn't stop looking. We gaped. And then, the second plane hit and that was just too much. I can still go back and have some of the feelings of it.

I could show you where I was standing on the gym floor at the time with the television on the upper deck showing the entire thing.

I think that it is a good decision by the networks not to show it. The one convincing argument about it is that the terrorists seek to terrorize and this is one way they do it. Not showing it cuts that off.

The other thing is that there is no control over who the audience is. And that is what the CNN people were talking about. They have the concern that the television receiver is on and warnings are not enough. Not enough time for people to get out of the way or to have kids move away.

I suppose there is an argument that says we should not shelter or be sheltered. And there is the question of motivation. Do I need to watch it happen to be horrified? I doubt it. I am pretty stirred up about it.

We do not have television. I use the net for such things. In this regard, I have choice, more choice, than if I looked up and saw something terrible happen. No warning.

Then there is the point that the people being burned or tortured didn't have a choice either.

I don't know.

Will I go watch it after typing this? I still do not know. I am pretty sure that it would not be for a second hand thrill. That is pretty clear.

In the end of this, right now, I think that it is a private decision. I will not report on what I decided or, if that is the case, what I saw.

I am just reminded about our propensity to watch death happen when it is a racing car or some other event. This is not that kind of seeing.

From what I understand, this is up close and personal. They used three cameras it is said.

Don't know.

I am reminded of the old saw "if in doubt do nothing".

Today's film was not likely to please me.

I tried it anyway.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Mostly hi-tech balderdash.

It is me. I admit it.

I cannot suspend my disbelief in the face of such, well, nonsense.

True, it is amusing in the way that some projects hope to succeed by "kidding one's self" or the genre´.

Maybe one has to be grounded in the genré to appreciate such things.

I quit early. Bailed out.

My system says that a bailout makes it an automatic 1 out of Netflix5.

It has been quite a while since I was gulled into watching something like this.

All of Pratt's charm is not enough for me. It wears out in the first hour and I expect to have something more tangible.

Labels: films

In today's film, a young woman makes a choice between life and life.

Ida (2014)

She is on the verge of becoming a nun but gets one more visit into the world before the actual decision.

She goes to the only family she has, an aunt, mother's sister, who is a tough as nails alcoholic official of the state now retired. One gets she is retired because of her "drinking problem". Anything but nun like.

The whole movie gently walks us through issues of the young woman's choice including a test of the upcoming vow of chastity.

I like that she gets data on all fronts prior to her decision.

This is a Polish film with a Polish cast, obviously, and some of the mores are Polish and catholic. A bit strange on the outside but one can identify with the inside.

In black and white the film shows, rather than tells, in grays. No absolutes.

Finally Ida makes her choice. There is resolution.

This was a NYTimes Critics Choice. Very good. A 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

I am still doctoring or chiropractng my back.

An old ailment which has not been around, the chiropractor says, for nine years. Then he said six. Sciatica.

I think that I have the 1 and the 4 together. No point in doing it half way.

In any case, it is getting better but I have curtailed activities a bit.

No weights in the gym and John has been doing the pm dog walk.

I do have a few exercises he gave me which, somehow, I "forget" to do.

I am not a very good patient.

It is better today and I go back again for an adjustment.

This is one of those things that any anxiety about it seems to breed a bit of it hanging on. Or something.

I don't curtail well but I am learning a bit how to do it. Letting go. Enjoying the time of just sittin'.

Now off to the gym for the cycle, stationary, sitting. Stationery? I do not want to look it up, the e or a thing.

Labels: health

Environmental terrorists.

Well, at least trouble makers, until something goes wrong.

Night Moves (2014) with Jesse Eisenberg.

Jesse moving on to serious roles. Older, not wiser in this one.

What goes wrong is that one of their attacks, blowing up a dam, has consequences and he is on the run.

There is not a lot of plot. Mostly character study. Eisenberg and the other perps.

I didn't dislike the film. But I was not moved by it. The "moral" of the story is to balance the consequences of such acts before taking them.

Labels: ecology, films, terrorism

Today and yesterday, I watched a long, meandering French art film that features a zombie.

There was no distribution of this Jacques Revette film in America and it is not surprising. It is slow, slow, slow with the truth emerging late in the game when it reveals itself as film about the undead.

Emmanuelle Béart is the ghost or phantom. In an interview Revette plays coy with the difference.

This realization comes to us just short of the hero who is hardly heroic. Jerzy Radziwilowicz. An obvious stage name!?!

I liked it a lot but that is mostly because I watched rather than listened to the twisted plot.

Strange strange strange.

I had to look the word up. Zombie. And I am still not sure I am correct. The radical (then) psychologist R. D. Laing was fascinated with the idea.

"Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing highlighted the link between social and cultural expectations and compulsion, in the context of schizophrenia and other mental illness, suggesting that schizogenesis may account for some of the psychological aspects of zombification.[18] Particularly, this suggests cases where schizophrenia manifests a state of catatonia.

Anyway, it is pretty good if you like that kind of thing. A slow moving horror film with no one hopping out behind doors. Just plain old menace.

Another thing. She may actually be undead. Same difference, I guess.

Labels: films

Old Ernie Hemingway had it right.

The way to have a good life is to finish well. Otherwise it is a fart and a stutter which is unnecessary.

Today, one of the concerns is getting trapped in end of life scams masquerading as research.

Dying Shouldn't Be So Brutal

We chose our doctor because of what he told us of his philosophy which is and was to let the natural process unfold and, while he cannot prescribe suicide meds, he can help do the next best thing.

Not eating.

And some other stuff which I won't talk much about.

I want control over my death but I may not get it.

We filled out one of those living will things. But I am not convinced it is enforceable. There have to be champions in the family and society to keep it green.

Incidentally, kids, the paperwork is in the green plastic folder magnetically attached to the refrigerator.

Don't you fucking dare try to try to keep me going beyond that critical point.

But then, that is the point. How do we, they, know that we are there.

I think we live in a pretty good place for this. A lot of old people. But it is also a center of medical intervention and prolongation.

We see our doc three times a year for a look see and a talk through. Mostly he orders some routine lab tests. Since we both have "histories" I think that is prudent. And Medicare pays for all of it. Actually only part of it but the labs here don't collect the balance between their fees and the Medicare allowance. That is a game between them and the feds and they leave us out of it.

And so on.

On the other hand, I don't dwell on this. Both of us have had some shit happen and got it fixed. We both take a few pills every day.

I value the visit to the GP and the annual review of the nephrologist who is a non-doc. She works for a surgeon who doesn't pump the system. A lab test, a talk and I am on my way.

I chose well. Or, rather my GP sent me to this guy.

My urologist dismissed me. No annual needed. Three cheers for him!

In the end, which will come, the lucky ones die, asleep in the night. The almost lucky ones get to choose a doc who understands and will give palliative care as long as it is needed and then, help things along with a little good advice.

Choose these helpers well.

Labels: death