A Karmic Trip

The trip we took to Silver Lake was truly one of those karmic events. The day before we were to leave, we looked at the weather reports for the Sierras and saw that there was a real possibility of thunder storms. Not wanting to get caught in such storms while on a motorcycle, we decided to take Eileen's Infiniti FX-35. We had a great drive up to Silver Lake (of course no thunder storms) and spent a very relaxing two days at the Kit Carson lodge. On Thursday we hiked into Granite Lake. It was just a little over a mile in, but worth the walk. I'm including pictures of Silver Lake and Granite Lake.

Silver Lake

Granite Lake

We then went to our place in Truckee, and on Saturday we went into Reno to look at the BMW X3, which Eileen was thinking about leasing to replace the FX-35, her lease ending in September. To make a long story short, we got a tremendous deal on an X3, including them buying out Eileen's lease so that we could take the X3 home and be done with the Infiniti (which was a great car, by the way).

Anyway, the point is that none of that would or could have happened if we had taken the motorcycle as originally planned. It's so weird and wonderful when that kind of stuff happens. When we left, we had absolutely no idea that we would be driving a brand new BMW home. Life is such a gas sometimes.

~ Tom

M. C. Escher quotes...

M. C. Escher has always been one of my favorites. When my children were each about six or seven, I showed them many Escher prints and watched with awe as the "child mind" grooved with M. C. on a level I was never going to get back to.

Here are some neat quotes from the master himself from the official website.

" To have peace with this peculiar life; to accept what we do not understand; to wait calmly for what awaits us, you have to be wiser than I am"

" I don't grow up. In me is the small child of my early days"

" So let us then try to climb the mountain, not by stepping on what is below us, but to pull us up at what is above us, for my part at the stars; amen"

See ya!

We're taking off tomorrow for a motorcycle jaunt up into the high sierras and won't be back until Sunday. We'll stay tomorrow night and Thursday night at the Kit Carson Lodge on Silver Lake. Then up on Friday to ride to our own place at Tahoe/Donner for a couple of nights. We'll take a nice long ride on Saturday using our place as a base. No computers and no blogging until Sunday at least.

~ Tom

It could happen!

The background, from Salon:

... it was reported that the Bush administration upped the ante in the ongoing executive privilege battle by warning that if Congress issued contempt citations, the White House would forbid the Justice Department from enforcing them.

My fantasy: Congress issues contempt citations against Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten and sends out their Sergeant at Arms to arrest them and bring them before Congress. Getting wind of this, Miers and Bolten flee to the White House. The Sergeant at Arms is denied entry and we have a very real Constitutional stand-off, if not a crisis.

Hmmm.

Watch what you say!

Here is Bush's latest executive order, which he tried to fly below the radar. However, people like Thom Hartman have brought it within anti-aircraft range. Be very, very, very careful about what you say about Iraq or you could lose your house, your bank accounts, your car, and anything else you own.

Even Orwell would have not believed this...

~ Tom

p.s. Since I posted this, I have read it more carefully. Don't be fooled by folks who might say "this requires and 'act of violence' or threat of violence." Check out this portion of the Order: "...or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order."

Now how in the hell are we supposed to know whose "property and interests in property are blocked?"

Ghosts of the Flatbush

We were on a 3-day motorcycle trip up the California coast, staying at The Inn of the Tides in Bodega Bay (where Hitchcock filmed "The Birds" many years ag0). The Inn had HBO, so I turned it on and got to see a great documentary: "The Brooklyn Dodgers, Ghosts of the Flatbush."

While I am a San Francisco Giants fan and hate the current Los Angeles Dodgers, I couldn't help but love the Brooklyn Dodgers by the end of the documentary. There is so much history outside actual baseball that is tied up in the story, of course Jackie Robinson and race being the foremost example. But I learned all sorts of other things that I did not know, being a "West-Coast Kid" my entire life -- such as this cat Robert Moses who was the dictatorial urban planner for all boroughs of NYC. Also I just loved the reminiscing of the fans, many of whom were kids at the time and who are now prominent like Lou Gossett, Jr. and Tom Oliphant. Plus, many of the Boys of Summer who are still alive give some great, often funny, insight.

I have good friends who grew up in New York who are always waxing nostalgic about the Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, and the whole scene at that time, but I really didn't get it. Now, having seen this fine documentary, I TOTALLY understand their unabashed love and passion.

I just checked the HBO schedule and see that the show is being re-run many times in the next couple of weeks and well as being available "On Demand." And, if you would like to read a good review of the program, check this out.

Even if you think you don't like baseball, I highly recommend that you check out "The Brooklyn Dodgers, Ghosts of the Flatbush" on HBO. My wife, who hates to watch sports or go to baseball games, watched the whole thing and really enjoyed it.

~ Tom says five stars.

Always love a nice chorale...

I have sung in a few choirs and a top-notch male chorus, and every once in a while I regret that I didn't keep it up.

Check this out for a very solid choral effort with a funny, yet ass-kicking message.

~ Tom

John From Cincinnati

My friends call me "gadget man" or the like because of my unabashed love of technological "toys." My wife Eileen kids me about it, but there is one gadget that we both embrace and would be hard-pressed to give up: our TIVO. (More on that and some of my other favorite gadgets in a coming post).

Anyway, I had a bunch of episodes of "John From Cincinnati" backed up on the TIVO and finally got around to watching them all in the space of a couple of days. The great thing about such a process is that unlike those viewing the episodes on a weekly basis where it literally takes "time" to find the riff and dig it, a TIVO orgy lets you get the groove with immediacy and clarity.

Anyway, hear this: John From Cincinnati is a great show. David Milch is truly a genius, and obviously a bit crazy in the good way. He has a great knack for "argot" (a specialized idiomatic vocabulary peculiar to a particular class or group of people, esp. that of an underworld group, devised for private communication and identification: a Restoration play rich in thieves' argot. ~ Dictionary.com), where he reached his zenith in Deadwood.

But in "John ..," he is certainly carrying the argot banner forward. I could give tons of examples, but one only has to TIVO back and forth over the dialog between Bill Jacks (played by Ed O'Neill) and his parrots to realize that Milch and his sterling writers are at it again in a different milieu. The cast is outstanding - too many for me to mention, but they're all spot-on, down to the smallest parts.

For the same reason this show "TIVO's" so well, it will be wonderful in a DVD release where those of you who don't have HBO can see it all unfold at your own pace. Tom says five stars.

P.S. My friend Michael Lally had a small part in Deadwood, and here is his early take on "John..." from his wonderful blog.

Olbermann rules...

Yeah, yeah. I know this is preaching to the choir, but God I love it.