Monday, December 27, 2010

The Brown Paper Bag

Saturday night’s Christmas dinner at our place was sparked with lively conversation at the table of twelve bright people, early twenties through mid sixties. As often is the case, we zeroed in on movies and TV that each of us was passionate about. The palaver circled around to “The Wire,” one of my absolutely favorite pieces of entertainment of any sort. As soon as “The Wire” was tossed into the ring, I piped up with, “do you remember Bunny’s ‘brown paper bag’ soliloquy?” One other person at the table lit up like a Christmas tree and knew exactly what I was talking about. Other people who had seen The Wire and were fans still could not quite place it. In my mind, it was one of the great moments of the series, although there were literally hundreds of great moments. But this one always sticks in by brain. So, I wondered out loud whether YouTube might have a clip of the Brown Paper Bag. Sure enough it does.

Check it out. It’s pure genius.

Happy new year…

~ Tom

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Prez is still my guy

My daughter's family just blew in last night from Seattle, so I am busy entertaining grandkids and the like.

However, I just saw that the Senate ratified the nuclear arms treaty 71 –26, which was negotiated by Obama.  Then I thought about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell being thrown out by permanent legislation passed by Congress rather than a risky, non-permanent executive order, as orchestrated by Obama.  Then I thought about the first health care bill EVER getting passed, which was Obama rolling the dice big time.  Then I thought about the healthy nutrition for kids bill getting passed which was Obama and the First Lady’s doing.  Then I thought about the great credit card consumer protection bill that Obama championed.  Then I thought about all the smaller, but “good-for-our-country” bills getting enacted over the last two years, all of which were shepherded through by Obama.  Then I remembered this poster from the campaign ….. 

Chill Out

Remember that?  All the gnashing of teeth by supporters who were convinced that he was blowing his chance to get nominated by doing this or not doing that? 

I’m still on board and proud of it.

~ Tom

Monday, December 20, 2010

Feelin’ old, feelin’ young

Ever have one of those moments when you really start to realize you are getting old, but the cause of that very moment makes you feel young again?  This did it for me:

Dylan1965byAvedon

Saturday, December 18, 2010

A plug for “Film Junk”

Over a year ago I discovered the “Film Junk” weekly podcast, which I have been listening to since then.  I listen to it when I’m walking my dog and other times throughout each week. It’s a bit of an acquired taste, but I have really gotten to like the guys who created it.  Sean, the sort-of leader is a video game programmer and is the webmaster and editor of the whole Film Junk site.  Jay is a film school grad who has been making movies since he was a kid and is now making a feature length documentary.  Greg is a broadcasting grad who made a name for himself on FM radio.  Frank is a computer science grad who is on the podcast and also contributes content to the Website.  They get a bit profane and silly sometimes but its all tongue-in-cheek and in good fun.

There are two personal reasons why I like the podcast so much.  First, these guys are all Canadians and the show comes from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada (about an hour away from Toronto, 15 minutes from Niagara Falls).  This gives a different perspective, especially for political and “values” content.  Second, they are all half my age or younger, which keeps me plugged into new and often exciting discoveries.

I think they just finished episode number 298 and they are planning a cool show for number 300.  They record the podcast every Sunday at Sean’s house and it goes up on the site for download on Monday.  I really like the structure of the podcast:  They start with news from the film business, followed by review of one or two movies that they are all committed to seeing so that they can all participate.  Then they do a segment called “Trailer Trash” where they discuss and critique the various trailers they have seen in the theater or on the Internet. Then comes my favorite part: “What I Watched,” where each guy talks about what he watched over the past week, including television shows.  I find out about all kinds of cool stuff from this segment, especially from Jay who discusses all kinds of obscure films.  Then they close with a segment called “Junk Mail” where they read email comments and questions from fans.  Because this is a podcast that can be downloaded anywhere in the world, they get email from all kinds of places like Australia, Denmark, Germany, Brazil …. you get the picture.

Even if you don’t get into the podcast, the Film Junk site is really great.  Put it in your Favorites/Bookmark pages.

~  Tom

Thursday, December 9, 2010

At last, a clear eye on things

As you know, I have been pretty depressed over the state of “politics” these days.  Everything I have been reading and hearing has made it sound as if Obama has committed political treason, and that he is going to be a one-term President ala Jimmy Carter. 

That is why this article by the sage, veteran columnist David Broder really, really cheered me up.  Take the time to read it.  It is what I have been thinking all along. 

~ Tom

Monday, December 6, 2010

Question answered…

Hey all.  I have been sick as a dog for the last few days with a flu that has been going around.  Eileen had it before me so I have be following in her footsteps.  No fun for either of us.  And I got a flu shot!  What’s up with that?

Anyway, I wanted to provide the answer to my last post:

The composer of “Don’t Fence Me In” was Cole Porter.  Of course my good friend The Stallion nailed it, which only makes sense because he is the most erudite of all my friends.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Can you guess the composer?

Okay, let’s have a little fun.  Here is a tune that I know that you know.  Question is, who wrote it?  I have been giving people this test for years and only one person knew the answer without having to look it up.  There are lots of versions, but I like this one by Harry Connick, Jr.
If you  knew the answer without looking it up let me know – now be honest!  I will reveal the composer in my next post.
This is a really nifty song, structure and chord wise.  I learned it for guitar and was amazed at how many chord changes there are for such a seemingly simple song.

Monday, November 22, 2010

“Collapse”–a challenging watch.

A while back (December 2009) I read several reviews of the then just released documentary “Collapse.”  They were all favorable, with some squirmy reservations, so I dumped it into my Netflix queue.  I wasn’t paying attention to the queue and “Collapse” eventually migrated to the top and got delivered about a week ago.  I was not that enthused about watching it, but I figured I might as well check it out rather then return it unwatched.

I’m glad I watched it.  It is very difficult to describe but it is basically a weird, passionate, educational, scary, riveting  82 minute rant by a guy named “Michael Ruppert.”  He got his start on the conspiracy beat in the seventies by outing the CIA on its drug dealing and he’s gone on from there.  I guess you could say that the cornerstone of his current views is the world’s dependency on oil, and the eventual collapse of life as we know it.

Here is a quote from the SF Chronicle review of December 2009, which should give you an idea of the tenor of the movie:

And that's exactly his belief: There will be no tomorrow because of our alarming dependence on oil, which is about to dry up, and because our economic system has become one big pyramid scheme. Electric cars are a smoke screen, clean coal is a joke and ethanol is an even bigger joke. You better start saving organic seeds, because they'll be the real currency when (not if) the apocalypse hits.

Ruppert may seem like a kook, but he's the Cadillac of conspiracy theorists - looking and dressing like the guy who does your taxes, while delivering his beliefs in nonpartisan assaultive bursts that defy the possibility of selfish interest. Who would want to buy this guy's book or visit his Web site? After hearing 82 minutes of Ruppert, who would want to do anything except hug the kids extra tight and start tilling whatever land you have in the backyard?

What that quote says is true but don’t let that deter you.  Everything he says makes perfect sense to me, but it’s something I suppress because of the enormity of its consequences.  

An excellent review of the movie is Roger Ebert’s take.  It’s pretty comprehensive, but here are a couple of short quotes from the review that I think are right on:

I have no way of assuring you that the bleak version of the future outlined by Michael Ruppert in Chris Smith's "Collapse" is accurate. I can only tell you I have a pretty good built-in B.S. detector, and its needle never bounced off zero

And

I don't know when I've seen a thriller more frightening. I couldn't tear my eyes from the screen. "Collapse" is even entertaining, in a macabre sense. I think you owe it to yourself to see it.

Tom says, “check it out.”

Monday, November 15, 2010

Never pass up a Miles article…

Probably the one universal, unifying figure shared by me and all my friends, and even extending out to “good acquaintances,” is Miles Davis.  I could just go on, and on, and on, and on, and on about how Miles and his music guided my life and my love of life.  (Notice how I used the term “guided” rather than something like “influenced.”)  My early age 15-18 year old LP collection was a quarter Miles for sure.  It would have been a higher percentage, but there were only so many Miles platters I could find and/or afford.  Mind you, you had to make room for a lot of Ray Charles, Trane, Bill Evans, and the like.

So, I stumbled across this great Miles article moments ago, which I just had to share with you all immediately.  I usually don’t use this blog to refer to articles any longer than a screen page in length.  However, this one deserves reading.   There are so many great observations about Miles in the article that I can’t take the time to list them all.  That is why you need to read it.

But as teasers try these: 

Kind of Blue “is the most singular of sounds, yet among the most ubiquitous. It is the sound of isolation that has sold itself to millions,” says Richard Williams in his recent study The Blue Moment.

The pianist Keith Jarrett once observed: “I think that Miles would have preferred to have a bad group playing bad music rather than to play as he did before.”

Tom says check it out.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The dilemma–How can we solve it?

Many of us on the left have commented on the sad fact that the right wing/Republican propaganda machine is very effective.  They lie and lie and somehow get away with it.  We constantly take the “reasonable” position, which says that the truth and the true facts will win out in the end.  Know what?  I don’t believe that any longer.  The problem is that rebutting the lies takes ten times more thought and effort than promulgating the lies.  Here is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.  I don’t expect you to read it all – I couldn’t do it myself.  The point is that even though Media Matters is meticulous in their rebuttal, few will really take the time to read it, especially the folks who are being duped by the right wing propaganda machine. 

There are lots of analogies to our dilemma.

  • Pulling the thread that unravels the sweater is easy.  Knitting it back together takes a long, long time.
  • Knocking down a house of cards takes no time at all.  Building it takes time, attention to detail, and steady nerves.
  • Starting ugly unfounded rumors about someone is easy.  That someone getting back his or her reputation is really hard and often impossible.

Frankly, I don’t know what to do about this.  The closest I can come for now is to say we need someone on our side who can do this.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Life indeed does go on…

Leading up to the elections I became more depressed each day.  But fortunately, in a parallel arc were my beloved San Francisco Giants.  The closer they came to their Holy Grail of a World Series victory, the less attention I paid to politics and the downers the world will always have to offer me.  And you know what?  I felt the best I have felt in a long time.  The Giants winning it all on election eve was perfect timing.  I had not watched even one MSNBC show, or any other “news” show since the playoffs began with us facing down a tough Braves team in an always-dangerous “best of five” series.  It got even more intense with the best of seven series with the heavily favored Phillies, which we won in six!  At that point I had not even a glimmer of interest in the whole political landscape.  And when we made it to the Big Show, my focus was Giants, Giants, Giants, 24/7.  I was listening to all the local sports talk radio shows, whereas a month earlier I was listening to Stephanie Miller’s podcast every day, with Keith, Rachel, and Jon Stewart sprinkled in. 

It was a great ride culminating in a parade yesterday that only San Francisco could conjure up.  Crowd estimates range from 500,000 to a million.  People were coming down from the far reaches of NoCal, with lots of old Giants hands like me coming with their children and grandchildren.  My Dad took me and my younger brothers to see the Giants in 1958 when they played that first year in tiny Seals Stadium (and many more games after that after they began to play at Candlestick park.)  [Now we play at AT&T Park, downtown, right on the Bay]   If my son Jesse, (also a devoted, knowledgeable, Giants fan) had not had to work and if my daughter and grand kids were not up in Seattle, I would have probably taken them all to see it live.  As it was, I watched the parade on TV.  Seeing that many people just blissing out was undeniably infectious.   Believe it or not, there was not even one arrest. 

I’m reaching the final arc of my life now, and the above events have made me realize that the so-called big things in life are not that big, and the so-called small things are often unnoticed  miracles. I’ll still follow politics, and even comment on things from time to time, but I’m definitely going to ignore the downers and look for those miracles.

image

^^^The coolest and beautiful yard in the world^^^

~ Tom

p.s.  Spring training is only about 4 months away…

Friday, October 29, 2010

A short quote, long on meaning…

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

~ Isaac Asimov

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A fount of font

Most of us, except for my writer friends, don’t pay that much attention to fonts.  We should pay more attention.  Here is a fascinating beginning.

~ Tom

Thursday, October 21, 2010

A quote

Well, this certainly makes sense, even for an aging curmudgeon like me…

[Click on the quote to blow it up for your tired eyes]


f6c4674e-2e94-4c16-be79-85cdc40c5ab9

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Fired up for Clint’s latest

I have been seeing the fascinating trailers for Clint Eastwood’s new film, “Hereafter” and reading bits about it here and there.  But in today’s San Francisco Chronicle there is a great review of “Hereafter” by my favorite film critic, our very own Mick LaSalle. If you are not familiar with the Chronicle’s rating system, it is a “little man” sitting in a theater seat.  Depending on how he feels about the film/play/event, he will be totally gone from his chair (the absolute worst), asleep in his chair, sitting in his chair exhibiting normal interest, sitting in his chair and clapping, or leaping out of his chair and madly applauding.  For “Hereafter” the little man is leaping.

Here are the opening two paragraphs of Mick’s review:

That Clint Eastwood has become a great filmmaker is something few would contest, yet the nature of his greatness is as surprising as it's little understood. You can talk about the pristine technique - the new film, "Hereafter," provides lots of examples. But what's much more fascinating and enriching is Eastwood's Olympian vision, the sympathetic and all-encompassing understanding of the pain and grandeur of life on earth.

This vision is consistent in Eastwood's late work, no matter who is doing the screenwriting, and it boggles the mind to realize that this is coming from a guy who, until he was about 60, was best known as an action hero. Make no mistake, Eastwood's directorial output, from "Mystic River" on, constitutes the 21st century's first cinematic marvel, and "Hereafter" is among the best things he has ever done.

And the closing lines:

The ironic result of all this meticulous care is that we don't see Eastwood's hand but rather have the illusion that this gallery of humanity is telling the story for him. It's the most self-effacing way to do great work, and it's an approach that couldn't be more suited to this material. The film's notion that people share a common destiny, that they're participating in some overarching order, that they're being watched over by a benevolent all-seeing understanding, doesn't need to be spelled out. It has its analogue and expression in Eastwood's technique.

He just tells the story, and we get it.

These days Eileen and I usually wait for films to come out on BluRay DVD and then watch them on our big screen.  However, we do venture out to see films whose special effects can only be appreciated on the big screen, and for films of special importance that need to be shared with a committed, rapt audience.  “Hereafter” is obviously in the latter category.  We’ll be making the trip to the theater.

~ Tom

p.s.  Do yourself a favor and start reading Mick’s reviews.  You can find them here.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Whose looks would you like?

I was surfing the net a few days ago when I came across this photo. 

Marcello

It gave me an instant trip to the long ago past.  Shortly after I married my first wife, our friends Michael and Lee got hitched and we got together at their basement flat in Spokane just about every weekend.  One time, we all got on to this kick:  If you could wake up tomorrow and have someone else’s looks, who would it be?  For me, there was, (and still is) not a nanosecond of doubt:  Marcello Mastroianni.  It’s funny that I cannot for the life of me remember who Mona, Lee, and Michael chose, but I still wish I looked like Marcello.

Here is another one I’ve always loved.

Marcello_Mastroianni

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Maher: Cogent, compelling, and very, very funny

I keep wondering why so many people in America act against their own best interest.  They can’t just all be morons.  The phenomenon was brilliantly explored in Thomas Franks great book, “What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America” published in 2004.  If you haven’t read it by all means do so if you have the time.

This article by Bill Maher raises the same issue by begging the question: ‘if someone reads this, how can they be opposed to Obama’s tax cuts” and “why do they have any sympathy or tolerence at all for the rich?”  Beats me.

Oh, and it’s quite funny, especially when he starts namin’ names.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Encouraging news from the health care front

There are many trying to blow up the health care reform bill and/or repeal it.  From the beginning I have believed that for the upcoming election the Dems need to be proud of what they and the President were able to accomplish in face of powerful, moneyed forces.  Of course the main stream media, looking for its fix of controversy, has been trumpeting the alleged fact that all Dems are running away from health reform.  This is why I was buoyed by this column from E.J. Dionne in today’s WaPo.

The final two paragraphs:

Yes, some Democrats in conservative districts voted against the bill and display this as a badge of their independence. But is that any surprise? This is exactly the sort of position moderate Republicans (when they existed) would take to survive in more liberal districts.

The real test is whether Democrats who supported the bill think they have an interest in defending a genuinely historic accomplishment. More and more, they are deciding that they do.

~ Tom

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Jesse Winchester - “If Only”

Okay, you all know that I have a very special place in my heart for Jesse Winchester.  (See my previous post on the subject.)
About a week ago I had the rare privilege of seeing Jesse at the “Freight and Salvage” in Berkeley, with several hundred devoted fans.  As in the past when I have seen him live it was just he and his guitar, and two sets worth of wonderful songs.  We all pretty much  knew every note of every tune and every word of every song, but there was one song in the second set that I had never heard before and it so moved me I got a bit teary-eyed.  The tune is “If Only.”  I found it in a live album of Jesse’s and duly paid Rhapsody for the download.  I love this song.  It is so great to hear it as a live performance, just as I heard it a few days ago.  It is pure Jesse.
So take the time to enjoy it yourself.
~  Tom

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Boardwalk Empire

Last night we watched the premier episode of the new HBO series, “Boardwalk Empire.”  Fifteen minutes into it I was totally hooked.  I love it already and I know it is just going to keep getting better and better as the future episodes unfold. 

The episode began in 1920, three days before Prohibition became the law of the land.  I’ve always been fascinated with the twenties.  In many ways the twenties were like the sixties (which was probably my happiest and most exciting decade).  HBO must have spent a TON of money on this series as the production values show. boardwalk-empire Everything from the great old cars, to the ambiance of the supper club, to the shabby row houses of the hoi polloi, to the signage on the streets, and much more, is amazing.  And, the icing on the cake is that the first episode, (which is extended to 75 minutes) was directed by Martin Scorsese. 

The casting is excellent, with Steve Buscemi  being the only really major star.  This makes for great television because you are not distracted by the credentials of the actors – they seem like real people whom you are getting to know for the first time. 

If you have HBO by all means jump on the band wagon.  If you don’t have HBO, put it down on your wish list for when the DVD comes out.

~  Tom

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Biden on Maddow show

The buzz today on progressive radio was the Vice President’s appearance on the Rachel Maddow show yesterday.  It’s worth watching, so check it out.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Another Pic worth 1000

The political landscape is getting weirder and weirder. This whole Tea Party movement is putting the Republican party on its head. With more of these "nut cases" ousting viable Republican candidates in the primaries, the outlook improves for the Democrat candidate in the general election. I just heard some Republican operative opining that Tea Party victories yesterday in New York and Delaware just cost the Republicans at least two Senate seats. Mainstream Republicans (and the polls) are pretty unanimous in agreeing that there is no way these right wing fringe candidates are ever going to appeal to anything other than their rabid base.

As for the politicking going on in the more traditional arena, here is another one of my example of a picture being worth 1000 words.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Shrewd Obama

I have said that it would be a mistake for Obama to seriously take on the right wing too far in advance of the fall elections. I believe I wrote a post a while back analogizing it to why attorneys never give the other side the trial brief until they are absolutely required to do so. The longer the other side has it before trial, the more they can rebut it or figure out strategies to get around it.

Obama has started his push, as described in E.J. Dionne’s column today. In this excellent column Dion says:

“Suddenly, there's a point to this election. Obama is late to this game, but at least he's finally playing it.”

I agree with the first sentence. I disagree with the second sentence. I think the President knows what he is doing and is right on time. Time to kick some ass.

~ Tom

Monday, September 6, 2010

Jimi is truly timeless

Greetings from our place at Tahoe Donner.  We drove up here yesterday (Sunday) and will be going back to the Bay Area on Wednesday. But on to the point of this post.
I was on a run Friday, and as usual listening to my MP3 player, shuffling over 1000 tracks.  This time I was fortunate enough to hear “Highway Chile” by Jimi Hendrix, a track off his great RU Experiencedalbum, “Are You Experienced.”  I would venture to say that more weed has been smoked to that album than pretty much any one you could think of.  You may recall that this album is loaded with what came to be many of Jimi’s masterpieces such as:  Purple Haze, Foxey Lady, Fire, Hey Joe, and many others.  Believe me, this stuff more than holds its own when compared to today’s offerings.
Anyway, as I was running along, “Highway Chile” came on and I was just blown away.  I had not heard it for a long time because the other tracks I mentioned get all the play.  That’s a shame because “Highway Chile” is also a Hendrix masterpiece.  It is unique in its style and content.  First of all it is the only shuffle I can recall Jimi ever writing and performing.  Second, the lyrics tell a little story that you can play out in your head, thinking of the sixties as you are unspooling that reel.  Third, I love, love the tricky hook Jimi uses for the referencing the song title, which is a double delay, with the delivery coming at last on the BACK BEAT!  Fourth, the “what’s up brother” coming at one minute 38 seconds makes me smile every dang time.  And fifth, while not on the level of some of his other jaw-dropping guitar solos, Jimi tosses off a beauty at about a minute and 48 seconds in.
Anyway, I just have to share it with all of you.  I don’t think Jimi would mind.  So by all means, crank up the volume and enjoy Highway Chile.
~ Tom

Sunday, August 29, 2010

E = MC2

My kind of guy!

image

The older I get the more I look like this – especially the sharp wardrobe. 

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Whoa! Crash test, dummies.

A friend of mine sent me this amazing video of a crash test of a head-on collision between a 2009 vehicle and a vehicle of the late fifties.  This is yet another example of the “good old days” not being that great.  Stick with the video to the end so that you don’t miss the overhead view and the assessment of what would have happened had there been real drivers. 

Thursday, August 26, 2010

“Kick-Ass” kicks ass!

Last night we watched the blu ray version of "Kick Ass" on our plasma big screen. What a guilty pleasure it was. I absolutely loved it. Sure, it has loads of stylized violence and requires a suspension of belief as to the laws of physics (i.e. the speed of fire/explosion and the ability to dodge bullets), but that's not the point. The movie has tons of sly humor, an intelligent script, and the over-arching theme of a nerdy, good-hearted guy who thinks he can become a super-hero just because he wants to. (More often than not, Kick-Ass does get his ass roundly kicked.) The actors all put in terrific performances, but the whole movie is stolen by Chloe Moretz playing "Hit Girl." She is simply amazing. (Of course it doesn’t hurt that she gets to play off Nick Cage as her father “Big Daddy.”)

image

Lest you think I’m crazy, Mick LaSalle, the lead critic for the SF Chronicle gave this film his highest rating. His review will tell you most of what you need to know. Here is the opening paragraph of his review:

"Kick-Ass" lives up to the promise of its title, but it's better than its title, too. It's not an innocuous comedy. It doesn't talk down to audiences. It brings together several popular strains of contemporary moviemaking and combines them into one big, shameless, audacious, compulsively watchable, irresistibly likable piece of pure entertainment.

~ Tom

Monday, August 23, 2010

More sad truth…

image

This excerpt from today’s E.J. Dionne column in WaPo fits perfectly with the above cartoon.

But there is something far more troubling at work: the rise of an angry, irrational extremism -- the sort that says Obama is a Muslim socialist who wasn't born in the United States -- that was not part of Ronald Reagan's buoyant conservative creed. Do Republican politicians believe in the elaborate conspiracy theories being spun by Glenn Beck and parts of the Tea Party? If not, why won't they say so? Liberals who refused to break with the far left in the 1950s and '60s were accused of being blinded by a view that saw "no enemies on the left." Are conservatives who should know better now falling into a "no enemies on the right" trap?

When Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert warns, with absolutely no proof, of the dangers of "terror babies" -- children whose mothers allegedly come to the United States to give birth so their offspring can have American passports for later use in terrorist activities -- have we not crossed into never-never land? Where are the responsible conservatives who should be denouncing such crackpottery?

~ Tom

Saturday, August 21, 2010

I needed some cheering up…

I have to admit that I have found the last couple of months to be very depressing on the political front.  The constant, unremitting assault on President Obama by the right wing, coupled with mainstream media’s utter abdication of its duty was grinding me down.  I was to the point where I was saying to myself, “he’s going to be a one-term president.” 

Then today, I was perusing the July 30 issue of “The Week” which referred to this article by Charles Krauthammer.  Krauthammer is someone I rarely agree with, and in fact I get my dander up over a lot of the outrageous stuff he writes.  Thus it was with great pleasure that I read him warning that “Republicans underestimate him [Obama] at their peril,” and observing that Obama is playing the “long game.”  It made me remember how I went up the walls during the primary fight against Hillary, only to see Obama pull it off to my amazement.  This is one time I am rooting for Krauthammer to be a prophet.

~  Tom

Monday, August 16, 2010

This says it all.

Most times, less is more. So I say, read this.

Sadly,

Tom

Friday, August 13, 2010

Quote for today

Genius creates, and taste preserves. Taste is the good sense of genius; without taste, genius is only sublime folly. ~ Alexander Pope

Monday, August 9, 2010

Dinah & Amy

Way back in December 2007 I wrote a post in which I observed that Amy Winehouse reminded me a lot of Dinah Washington. So today, I decided to see if I was imaging things.

First I listened to a lot of tracks by both. Next, I picked out one 0f each for my little project. Then I went to Rhapsody and played the tracks while recording those streams in real-time with the "Total Recorder" software, which gave me a *.wav file of each track. Then I loaded the tracks into my Mixcraft multi-track recording studio and got down to some serious business. Here is the result.

Comments please...

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Take your licks! * Neil Geraldo

Hey, sorry I have not posted for a while.  I was working on a big trial brief, which consumed most of my time and wiped me out for the remainder.
Anyway, I’ve been meaning to start a new feature on the blog.  The deal is that I hear cool things in the midst of a music track, which stick in my mind and make me want to share it with friends.  So I have decided that whenever that happens I am going to engineer an excerpt of the “cool licks” and share them with all of you.
My maiden offering is the great guitar solo in Pat Benatar’s “Promises in the Dark.”  The guitarist is Neil Geraldo, who has been with Pat from her beginnings – they eventually married.   Anyway, I’m fading into the track about a minute before the solo because you need to hear how the whole thing builds up to the solo.  Then I give you a fade out at the end.  So with out further ado, Neil Geraldo’s solo in Promises in the Dark.
By the way, standing on its own as a whole, “Promises in the Dark” is one of the great rock tracks of all time.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Due credit to Stephanie Miller

Hands down my favorite news/pundit show, be it radio or TV,  is the Stephanie Miller show.  You can read about her and her show here. 

Stephanie’s father was William Miller, the Congressman who ran as the vice presidential nominee with Barry Goldwater in 1964.  She was raised by Republicans, but has long been a progressive liberal, who by the way is a hilarious comedian.

Her show is nationally syndicated and if you pay about $54  a year you can download the shows and put them on your computer or MP3 player and listen to them while you are driving around, walking your dog, or vacuuming your floor (all of which I did today).

But Steph is no lightweight.  Because she is so genuine, smart, funny, and attractive, she gets great guests.  Some of them are recurring by day of the week and I won’t try to list them all, but on Monday you get Lee Papa (the Rude Pundit), on Tuesday you get Charlie Pierce (author of Idiot America), on Wednesday you get Hal Sparks {takes a while for this to load}  (a brilliant comedian and actor who bravely played “Michael” on “Queer as Folk” even though he is totally straight), on Thursday you get “Face the Grayson” with Congressman Alan Grayson (truth to power x 10).

She also often appears on Larry King, the Ed Show, CNN and the like. 

Anyway, I was listening to the podcast of her show today, after downloading and transferring to my MP3 player,  and in the second hour she interviewed Frank Rich, as she often does.  The segment was just perfect, giving lots of humor but allowing Frank to lay on some very profound stuff.  It was so good I wanted to share it with all of you, so I edited it out using  my recording studio programs.  Here is that interview in full.  You will hear Steph, and the other voices (besides Frank Rich) are Hal Sparks, Chris Lavoy (her producer), and Jim Ward (a voice “deity,”  who does all the voice impression on the show, which are always hilarious.)  Check it out and enjoy. 

~ Tom

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Sigourney Weaver

I have always dug her immensely.  When I ran across this photo, I remembered why.

Sigourney Weaver

Friday, July 23, 2010

Some eye candy

I’ve always been good at quite a few things, including photography, but one thing for which I have zero talent is “fine art”  -- drawing, painting, sculpture and the like.

That is why I am constantly amazed and humbled by work such as this.  I cannot imagine myself being able to paint these scenes, let alone conjure up the brilliant, surrealistic ideas on display in the paintings. 

Enjoy…

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Charles Bukowski giving an interview

bukowski

Nuff said, ‘cause it pretty much says it all.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Bobbie McGee was a woman! - Songfacts

I just tripped across a really fun music web site:  Songfacts.  If you like music trivia as i do, you will love this site.  Having just found it, I have not had a chance to explore all of its myriad features, but the “Random Songfact” button is a gasser.  A great number of the random facts deal with unfamiliar (to me) groups and songs, but a plethora of great stuff pops up more often than not.  For instance, here is the result for “Me and Bobby MeGee” (sung by)  Janis Joplin.  Of course we are reminded right away that Janis did not write the song – it was Kris Kristofferson.  And, among many other fascinating facts we learn that Kris got the title (originally “Bobby McKee)  from the founder of his record label (Fred Foster) before he even started writing the song, and that the “hook” was to be that Bobby was a she.  Also, as should be obvious, Kris thought Fred had said “McGee” instead of “McKee.” 

How can you not love this stuff?

Let me know of any great “Random Songfacts” you unearth in Songfacts – I’m all ears.

~ tom

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Satire only works when there is a fragment of disbelief!

This gives credence to my title to this post. 

The scary thing for me is that the polls are showing that the public is actually prepared to put such abominations in office, e.g. supremely insane Sharron Angle (and I am NOT exaggerating) is actually leading Harry Reid in the latest polls!)

Is America going insane?

Glumly,

~ tom

Monday, July 5, 2010

More on activist judiciary

A couple of posts ago I brought up the subject of the importance of the judiciary in our daily lives.  Here is a further take on the subject  by E.J. Dionne from today’s Washington post, discussing forces at play in the Kagen confirmation hearings.  I’m cheered by his thoughts – maybe we, the great unwashed public, are finally realizing who the activist judges really are, and why they must be stopped.  A cogent excerpt from E.J.’s column:

Yes, Republicans seemed to be admitting implicitly, it is conservatives who are now the judicial activists. That's why they moved on during last week's hearings to a new attack line against liberal jurists as being "results-oriented."

Let’s keep the heat on.

~ Tom

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Nicholas Brothers can dance, big time!

All these dance programs on TV these days…

So they think they can dance?

They don’t even come close to this excerpt from the 1943 musical “Stormy Weather.” Fred Astaire supposedly said that this was the greatest dance number ever filmed.

Enjoy this. You won’t regret it.

p.s. In watching this again, I noticed that the band is playing live, in real time. How cool is that!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Activist judiciary? Who are the real activists?

I just got the news of the Supreme Court decision today “upholding” the so-called second amendment right to bear arms. I have not had a chance to read the full opinions yet, but from the initial news summaries, it looks like all existing state and local gun control laws are in peril. My wife, Eileen (a very sharp lawyer), wonders whether the import and effect of the decision will allow any fracking yahoo to have a fully automatic weapon. I don’t know the answer to that yet, but when I find out I’ll let you all know. If you want to read the actual opinions [majority decision + concurring and dissenting separate opinions] jump right in.

Anyway, this ruling is yet but another sad chapter to the shameful saga of the rightwing attempt to dismantle our Constitution. By no means do I mean to criticize “laymen” for not realizing how important the courts are in shaping our society and individual lives, but I think it is fair to wish that the public as a whole would collectively tune in to the issue. In this regard, you must watch or read the great speech that Al Franken recently delivered on this subject. While many still write Franken off as some sort of gadfly, he is for real – believe me. Anyway, I usually shy away from giving you long watching/reading assignments, but this is one that is required.

Upshot: We need to be worrying as much or even more about who our Judges are as we do about who represents us in the Senate, Congress, and state/local elective offices.

[Post script: After publishing this post I thought that I might have been a bit presumptuous because I had only read the text of the Franken speech and not taken the 35 + minutes to watch it. So, I just watched the whole thing, and it fares even better in that milieu. It reminds me of FDR's great "Economic Royalists" speech. It's all great in the watching, but here is a portion that jumped out at me:

It’s important to recognize that, for some conservative legal activists, this is the whole point. Do they want to undercut abortion and immigration and Miranda rights? Sure. But those are just cherries on the sundae.

What conservative legal activists are really interested in is this question: What individual rights are so basic and so important that they should be protected above a corporation’s right to profit?

And their preferred answer is: None of them. Zero.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

A delicious envy

I just finished watching the final episode of season 7 of “MI-5.” This series is by far the best spy genre programming that exists in today’s TV milieu. It is a British production, which goes under the title “Spooks” in its original incarnation. I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone. Start with season one and go from there. The series has so many jaw-dropping moments I could not even begin to chronicle them. And, you have to be on your toes for every moment of dialog lest you miss a crucial fact or clue. The cast has been top-notch over all 7 years.

The point of my title to this post is that whenever I find a great TV series to recommend to my friends, I have this sense of very strong sense of envy, thinking of them getting to see it for the first time, unknown and pristine. I truly do envy them because I know that as much as I love each series, it would never be as good as the first time even if I chose to re-watch it.

By the way, this motif works best with TV series as opposed to one-off movies. Think of it as an intense affair of the heart as opposed to a one-night-stand.

Other series that make me have the same feeling of delicious envy when I recommend them:

Deadwood – Six Feet Under – Sopranos – Queer as Folk (US/Canadian version) - Rescue Me – The Shield –The Westwing - I, Claudius - Elizabeth R. (Glenda Jackson rules!) - Brideshead Revisited (the BBC series with Jeremy Irons, not the recent movie) – Battlestar Galactica (new funky version, which is fracking great) - Friday Night Lights (a true sleeper)

Watch on brothers and sisters,

~Tom

Saturday, June 19, 2010

It brings a smile every time…

I’m up at our Tahoe/Donner house this weekend.  Our neighbors across the way put something up on one of the lodge pole pines growing behind their place.  Every time I walk by and look at it I smile.

DSC00421

A bit of Tolkien, right?

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Checking in…

I’m on my way to the Tahoe/Donner place tonight for the weekend. I was out of town last weekend in Los Angeles at my nephew’s wedding. I will post something more significant while I’m up at the Tahoe place this weekend. Stand by…

~ tom

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Gotta laugh to keep from cryin’

This BP gulf disaster is so outrageous.  It’s a wonder Mother Earth hasn’t told us all to get the hell out.  The whole situation is massively depressing.  Having said that, I can also observe that laughter is a good antidote for depression.

Thanks to my friend Josh Feldman for pulling my coat to this hilarious and amazingly creative video

~ Tom

Monday, June 7, 2010

Complicated Crazy Heart

I just viewed two movies on Blu-Ray CD’s from Netflix:  “It’s Complicated” and “Crazy Heart.”

As readers to this blog know, I’m pretty much a sucker for most romantic comedies.  I like them because they make me feel happy and because they have a predictable, comforting formula.  One constant is that in one way or another there is always a monkey wrench thrown into the gears of the blooming romance, be it a seeming betrayal, an antic mix-up, or a dark secret revealed.  And, almost always, the romance ends up back on track in the end. 

With that said, “It’s Complicated” doesn’t quite follow that the formula, which makes it all the more interesting.  The twist on the formula is the that main protagonists, Streep and Baldwin had been married for twenty years or so and then divorced for ten.  They had no secrets, they had already gone through the betrayals, and they knew each other’s quirks so well that mix-ups didn’t really phase them that much.  So, what the writers did was shunt  the blooming romance to a third character, Steve Martin.  That way they could work in one of the all-time great betrayal, antic mix-up scenes ever:  the web cam fiasco.  I’m still cracking up over it.  But the other interesting break from formula was that the blooming romance did not get back on track.  I fully expected that Streep and Martin would have the usual formulaic make up scene, but instead, Martin decides he cannot take the risk.  True, the movie ends with the two of them under an umbrella, but we know it ain’t gonna happen.  Anyway, it is a terrific movie in my book.  If you want to read a good review of the movie, check out Michael Lally’s take.

“Crazy Heart” was also a surprise of sorts.  After Bad Blake suffers the truly terrifying experience of losing his girl friend’s kid while he is drunk as usual, he hits bottom and cleans up in rehab.  Now according to the formula for these types of movies he either gets back together with the girl friend (redemption), or is rejected and relapses (destruction).  The nice, and surprising, thing about “Crazy Heart” is that after the beautiful rejection scene at the girl friend’s screen door, (with him naively expecting to resume the relationship), he does not fall off the wagon and go into a tailspin.  Instead he stays sober and experiences happiness and prosperity in the end.  Nice.  My only criticism of the movie is casting Colin Farrell as “Tommy.”   I just could not buy him in the role of a successful country western singer.  But in the end, the movie IS Jeff Bridges, who certainly deserved his Oscar.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Sade – my first CD

I was out taking a 3.5 mile run yesterday with my dog. As usual, I had my MP3 player on, shuffling a base of well over 1000 tracks. One of the tracks that came up was “Smooth Operator” by Sade, and it knocked my socks off. It is one of the tracks on “Diamond Life,” Sade’s debut album. Though the album was released in 1984, it’s totally fresh today.

But there is more to this story. “Diamond Life” was the first CD that I ever bought. I had just purchased one of those new-fangled CD players and the knowledgeable guy at the audio store said that there weren’t that many CD’s to choose from at that time, but that the Sade album was the one to buy to show off the new “CD sound.” He wasn’t lying. The sound was, and still is, immaculate, and the musicians are so tight and balanced it’s a pleasure to hear them even now. And of course, Sade is so laconically sexy! Every track on that album is terrific, but my favorite is “Hang On To Your Love.” Check it out if you have not heard it for a while. You can get the original remastered version (I guess it has gotten even better) on Amazon for a mere $7.98.

sade

By the way, her new album “Soldier of Love” (released almost 10 years since her last album) is excellent. The lady just keeps bringin’ it.

A question: Do you remember the first CD you bought?

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Spreading the word …

I was just reading a nice post on Lally’s Alley regarding these lines from the poet Geoff Young:

"Only when

things fall apart

can you see

what they're

made of."

That prompted me to leave the following comment in “The Alley:”

Lal: The ending five lines are genius. Very reminiscent of the following stanza from the great Leonard Cohen song, "Anthem:"


"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."


And here's Leonard's take on it from an interview:


In another song you also say "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in". It is not a very happy thought to believe that something will always have to break, to open a crack, in order to the light gets in...


It is a happy thought if we enjoy the truth. There is always something that will have to break. Usually it is our personal pride. A Buddhist thinker said that disappointment is a great way to illumination. Other masters said: "from the broken debris of my heart I will erect an altar to the Lord".
The idea that there is a staircase of gold and marble, which leads to knowledge is seductive, but seems to me that the idea of something needing to get broken before we can learn anything is a more true idea. It is my experience, maybe you can escape it, but I doubt it. Unless the heart breaks, we will never know anything about love. As long as our objective universe doesn't collapse, we'll never know anything about the world.
We think that we know the mechanism, but only when it fails we understand how intricate and mysterious is the operation. So, it is true, "there's a crack in everything", all human activity is imperfect and unfinished. Only that way we can have the notion that there's something inside us that can only be located through disillusion, bad luck and defeat. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Miles

image

Here is a picture of Miles that I don’t recall seeing before.  Sweet!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Beatles on the brain!

A few days ago I realized that I had not heard any Beatles tracks for a long time.  So, I hauled out my copy of “The Beatles 1” and popped on the CD player.  Since then I simply cannot keep various Beatles tunes from playing in my head all the time.  I forgot what great song-writers those guys were and I am amazed at  how well their songs hold up today.  Well, they are part of the lore of our times, aren’t they.  The “One” album is great because you get 27 singles on one CD.  Here is the playlist, which should make a few of the tunes start playing in your head without even hearing them. 

1. Love Me Do

2. From Me to You

3. She Loves You

4. I Want to Hold Your Hand

5. Can't Buy Me Love

6. A Hard Day's Night

7. I Feel Fine

8. Eight Days a Week

9. Ticket to Ride

10. Help!

11. Yesterday

12. Day Tripper

13. We Can Work It Out

14. Paperback Writer

15. Yellow Submarine

16. Eleanor Rigby

17. Penny Lane

18. All You Need Is Love

19. Hello Goodbye

20. Lady Madonna

21. Hey Jude

22. Get Back

23. The Ballad of John & Yoko

24. Something

25. Come Together

26. Let It Be

27. The Long and Winding Road

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Kagan: The right choice

Midst all the wailing and gnashing of teeth by both the right and the left over the President’s nomination of Elena Kagan, a few of us are sitting down and calmly assessing the choice.  I have been an attorney, working in the law for 40 years now and have appeared before hundreds of judges in scores of courts.  Here is my take on this nomination:

A.  When it comes to monumental, historic cases, the Supreme Court is presently a four-to-four affair, with an arguably malleable fifth vote from Kennedy. 

B.  The seat that is open is one of the four liberal seats.  Thus, the best any appointment can provide is to maintain the four-to-four present make up of the Court.

C.  Therefore, putting an aggressive, outspoken liberal on the Court (assuming he/she could even get through the Senate) gains absolutely nothing as far as the vote count goes.  So what could be gained by a given appointment if any appointment only brings the liberal count to four? 

D.  The answer is an appointment of someone who is a reliable left-leaning jurist, and is more likely than other candidates to sway the fifth vote to the righteous path.  This is essential.  The appointment of a fiery liberal doesn’t improve the count, and well might push vote five the wrong way.  Kagan is renowned as a person who can broker commendable resolution of difficult disputes. 

E.  As an ancillary matter, ginning up a big ugly fight over a controversial appointee will be politically bad for the Dems in the upcoming elections.  Kagan is predicted to sail through with little controversy in her wake.

Just sayin”

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

What if …. the Tea Baggers were black (gasp)

This is weird. I was going to compose a post for this blog pointing out how different things would be if all the stuff the Tea Baggers, and gun totters are doing these days was being done by black people.  Before I got around to writing it I came across this article on that very subject.  How true it is. 

Friday, April 30, 2010

Quote for the coming weekend…

Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to fashion.  Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

  ~ Franz Kafka

Thursday, April 29, 2010

New Arizona immigration law – the real agenda

A couple of days ago I heard the great investigative reporter Greg Palast being interviewed on the radio.  He theorizes that the real reason behind the Arizona show-me-your-papers law is not to stop illegals from crossing the border, or even kicking them out.  The real reason, says Greg, is to discourage, impede or outright prevent Hispanic CITIZENS from going to the polls in Arizona elections.  Here is his recent article on the subject, which should be required reading for everyone.  As I heard another pundit say yesterday: “ There are going to be an awful lot of ‘reasonable cause’ stops of citizens who look Hispanic made on election day in Arizona when those people are on their way to vote.  Gee, a lot of them may never make it.”  (Or they will never even set out for the polls for fear of being stopped and humiliated/hassled even though they are legitimate registered voters).

Palast’s theory makes complete sense to me, and it is scary.  As the white, rightwing base shrinks father and farther into minority status, they are going to figure out every possible way they can to keep the “people of color” majority from voting and having their votes counted.  Even now the white, rightwing base simply cannot accept the fact that there is a black man in the white house.  To them, elections that do not go their way don’t mean a thing.

~ Tom

Monday, April 26, 2010

Obama playing the hand he was dealt

From “day one” I have been saying that President Obama is making the best out of a very bad situation that he inherited.  I have read many pundits who point out that when the Republican are in power their “MO” is to completely ignore the best interests of the country and the planet and literally rape the country and the planet to lavish obscene profits and spoils upon the very wealthy and corporations.  Because this irresponsible course is no more than a giant Ponzi scheme, it is always inevitable that the whole thing will come crashing down.  The anger and frustration of the people who lose everything in the Ponzi scheme results in Democrats getting elected.  But then the Republicans try to blame all of the misfortune on the new leader, and even if most of the people don’t buy it, the leader still faces a giant pile of manure in his oval office.  He has a choice of trying to shovel it all out immediately (by definition impossible) or shoveling out enough of it to clear off his desk and a workspace around it so that he can enact laws and strategies that will allow him to eventually bring a bulldozer in to clean it all out.

That choice, and the President’s facing of it is well described in this article from the Washington Post.

 

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Check out Pomplamoose

Surfing around on the Net I just discovered Pomplamoose.  I am pretty much in awe of the music they are making and the way they are doing it.  You can read about them here.

But more importantly you can listen and watch here.  Aside from putting together the clever, winsome arrangements and playing all of the instruments, they are doing an amazing job of audio engineering and video composition.  Having dabbled in the audio side I know how difficult it is.  Don’t miss their cover of Mr. Sandman.  And oh ya, I’m in love with Nataly. 

Monday, April 19, 2010

“big change with small actions…”

Check out this article concerning yet another of scores of positive changes the Obama administration has been implementing. Of course you will never hear or see a story about these quiet successes on Fox News, but that is to be expected. What is perplexing is why we see little, if any, reporting of these mini-triumphs in the mainstream media.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Some killer B&W photographs

I think I mentioned my photography background in a previous post.  Thus, suffice it to say that I know a little about the subject, especially shooting in black and white, developing negatives, and making prints in a good darkroom.  It goes without saying that I am always interested in new photos in the black and white milieu.   This morning I was surfing around and found this collection of 17 photos by Juha Arvid Helminen. 

This work blew me away.  First, the set pieces and costumes are insanely arresting, but the photography is truly inspired (and inspiring!).  Look at the use of light and shadow and appreciate how the blacks seem even deeper than they are.  Then pay attention to the textures of various materials and objects.  Every one of the photos is a masterpiece, but I keep coming back to “Faith II” – it is so simple but oh so complicated.  Great stuff.

~ Tom

Sunday, April 11, 2010

My Foolish Heart

I was surfing the Net today and ran across this listing of the “Top Ten Jazz Standards.” It’s very cool because you can actually see and hear each tune by clicking on the start arrow. Enjoy.

I think a lot of the selections would fall in my list (if I were to take the time and thought to put one together), but I know for sure that these list-makers left out one of my absolute favorites: “My Foolish Heart.” I first fell in love with the song on hearing it on Bill Evans’ great, great, great album, “Waltz For Debby.” That album was recorded in 1961 when I was still in high school. I literally wore out my first copy and bought another later.

Later, I heard a vocal version (sorry I can’t remember who was singing it) and was impressed by the lyrics, which only enhanced the incomparable greatness of this tune. Here are the lyrics:

(N.Washington, V.Young)
The night is like a lovely tune, beware my foolish heart!
How white the ever constant moon, take care, my foolish heart!
There's a line between love and fascination,
That's hard to see on an evening such as this,
For they give the very same sensation.
When you are lost in the passion of a kiss.
Your lips are much too close to mine, beware my foolish heart!
But should our eager lips combine, then let the fire start.
For this time it isn't fascination, or a dream that will fade and fall apart,
It's love this time, it's love, my foolish heart!

There are several nice Bill Evans versions on YouTube, which actually feature video of him and the trio. But the definitive Bill Evans version for me is the one I feel in love with.

There are also tons of vocal recordings, (but not that many on YouTube) most of which are terrific, but you can’t go wrong with Tony Bennett’s version with Bill Evans himself.

post script: I got a bit choked up putting this post together. It brought back a lot of memories. I miss Bill a whole lot.

Winter is hanging on here in California

We were up at the Tahoe place on Friday and Saturday.  On Friday I strapped on my snowshoes and took my dog out for a hike in snow.  We found a place to cross the creek, and then hiked around by what is a big meadow in the summer.  On the way back home, we got stranded on the other side of the creek and had to trek an extra distance to find a place to ford – we didn’t mind because it was just great to be out in the snow.  Here are a couple of pictures to show you how beautiful it was.

DSC01693

Looking out at the big meadow …

DSC01695

Confronting the creek ahead!

We skied on Saturday and we were going to ski today (Sunday) but the weather forecast was for a huge winter storm to come in (1 – 2 feet of new snow, with 100 mph winds on the ridge tops!!) so we drove home yesterday. 

At the moment, the storm has hit Alameda in the form of rain and wind.  This whole season is a good indicator of why it is unfortunate that the term “global warming” got coined, when the proper term is “climate change.”  It’s still winter here in California, while in the Northeast it has reached 92 degrees recently as recounted by my friend Michael Lally.  Go figure.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Whoa! This is trippy…

Time for a little fun.  Check this out and then click on “Next” in the upper left corner.   Keep going until you get back to the starting image – there is much to enjoy.

~ Tom

Sunday, April 4, 2010

April snow!

Just a quick post before we leave for a day of skiing at Squaw Valley.  It has snowed here the last few days and now we have 12-18 inches of new snow.  It is supposed to snow more today.

We are heading back to Alameda this afternoon after skiing.  I’ll catch up with you all tomorrow.

Cheers,

~ Tom

Sunday, March 28, 2010

George Clooney

I watched “Up In the Air” on Blu-Ray a couple of nights ago. I strongly recommend it to all of you. I can’t add much to spot-on reviews like this, but I want to echo what several of my good friends have noted: George Clooney is a “movie star” in the truest sense. About half way through the flick, Eileen noted that nowadays there is no one like him and we tried to think who in the past he reminded us of. We both agreed that Cary Grant is a pretty good model: Don't think so? Then you'd better check this out.

Eileen was out of town this weekend at a conference, and I noted that I had recorded “Michael Clayton” on my DVR so that I could have a second viewing. Clooney is fantastic, and the film making, script, and other actors are superb. There is a scene that I had forgotten about that is so strange and compelling I must describe it so that you can watch for it if you decide to watch “Michael Clayton” again, or for the first time. It’s the scene where Michael Clayton is driving his Mercedes through the countryside and he stops, gets out and starts walking up a grassy hill to where three horses are standing. The way it is shot is ethereal and gripping even though it seemingly has nothing to do with the plot. And when Clayton actually gets to the horses and starts to stroke one of them we soon find out that his eerie journey to the horses has everything to do with the plot.

If you are interested in a nice review of the film, check here, although the "C+" grade does not seem to be correct in that the review itself yields an "A-" or at minimum a "B+."

Clooney rules!

ps About 3 weeks ago I was flipping through the channels and came in on the middle of “Oh Brother Where Art Thou.” Even if you don’t like the flick you have to admit that Clooney is a riot.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

A civil debate to be found!

I was listening to Hal Sparks today, who is sitting in for Stephanie Miller while she is on vacation for this week.  My first exposure to Hal was his role as Michael in the Canadian/US version of “Queer As Folk,” which remains as one of my top 5 choices of any television series.  (Hal is straight, but played a gay man with such conviction that I never knew he was straight until I read an article after the show had finished its run) .  Anyway, now days he is doing his stand up comedian act and playing/singing  (for real) in a metal band.  The man is brilliant, funny, and has a level of “coolness” the immediately qualifies him for mention on Birth of the Cool.

Today, he made an excellent point that I had never thought of before:  Hal noted that these days there actually is a cogent, civil, and thoughtful debate taking place over legitimately important issues, which gives voice to all relevant views.  Where is this debate to be found – in the Democratic party!  He is absolutely right.  We Democrats truly are the “big tent” party, and instead of giving “lip service” to the concept of tough debate, we embrace it.  Of course by doing so, we often attract the people whose views on certain issues vary greatly.  But, we allow for talking out our differences, and (almost always) when the debate is over, we adopt a united front.  We don’t impugn or threaten each other.  No more graphic example of this anomaly is the Bart Stupak episode.  The man stood up for his belief – a belief which if taken alone would have placed him squarely outside even our big tent -- but in the end he made a courageous defense of the health care bill.  For his actions he is now receiving death threats from the right wing crazies.  Go figure. 

Hal’s point was that we are clearly not seeing anything remotely resembling legitimate debate in the Democrat vs. Republican milieu.  Instead, we have the party of “no” unleashing its slavering minions upon our political process. 

As for the Democrats, good for us.  I would start feeling uncomfortable if  my fellow dems and I agreed on everything.

Peace out,

~ tom

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Lady Gaga & Beyonce video

Every week Entertainment Weekly features a “Must List” highlighting 10 cool things to dig.  The March 26 issue:

1.  Lady Gaga and Beyonce “TELEPHONE” video

2.  The T.A.M.I. Show: Collector’s edition on DVD

3.  “You Belong With Me” same-sex-crush version (on You Tube)

4.  Breaking Bad season premier on AMC

5.  Just Cause 2 video game

6.  Fantastic Mr. Fox on DVD

7.  PS22 Chorus sings “Lisztomania” (Kids’ choir from Staten Island N.Y.

8  The Irresistible Henry House, novel by Lisa Grunwald

9.  “Nothin’ on You,”  B.0.B.

10.  Sheryl Crow on Cougar Town and Amy Sedaris on The Middle.

I checked out the Lady Gaga video on You Tube, and dug it immensely.  One thing I’ve always been able to do is appreciate most new art.  When my kids were young, their friends always thought I was the coolest Dad, and I’m still that way. 

Anyway, you might want to give the Gaga thing a try.  The worst that happens is that you don’t like it.

Rock on…

~ tom

Monday, March 22, 2010

Frum on Waterloo: Required reading!

In the midst of my 14 hour marathon watching of the health care vote unfold, I saw David Frum interviewed on CNN or MSNBC, (I can’t remember which). He summarized a recent article he had written in which he scorched the right-wing crazies, Limbaugh/Beck, and the GOP leaders who have caved in to the same. This was refreshing, if not astounding considering that Frum is an avowed conservative who was a Ronald Reagan speech writer.

The article is here, and as far as I’m concerned it it required reading.

An excerpt from the article:

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

I’m just hoping things are really as bad as Frum paints them.

~ Tom


** Correction: Frum was a speech writer for Bush 43, not Reagan.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Jon Stewart does (in) Glenn Beck

I record the Daily Show every evening on my DVR and watch it the next day.  Today’s watching of last night’s show was truly epic, and simply hilarious.  Jon spent the entire first half of the show doing a truly amazing impersonation of Glenn Beck’s insane ranting.  I was laughing so hard tears were coming to my eyes.  I’ve since watched it again here, and laughed just as hard.  Lawrence O’Donnell, subbing for Keith Olbermann, showed a large segment of it on tonight’s Countdown show. 

The thing has spread like wildfire all over the Internet, and rightfully so.  People do not realize how talented Stewart really is.

Dig it…

p.s.  Because of spamming on my comments I have added the “word confirmation” thingamajig that you must type in to leave the comment.  I hope it works.

Friday, March 12, 2010

A simple plan for the mid-term elections

Here is the message I just sent to President Obama:

Dear President Obama:

I have a simple plan for the mid-term elections:  Stress over-and-over-and over that if a voter is tired of nothing getting done in Congress and/or the voter believes you are not fulfilling your campaign promises, the last thing the voter should do is vote in more Republicans.  You, and all Democrats running in 2010 need to hammer home again and again the stark truth that the Republicans, and they alone, are the reason nothing is getting accomplished.  Keep pointing out over-and-over that electing more Republicans will surely bring more of the same, only magnified.  Ironically, the best way for the voter to vent his or her frustration with the status quo is to keep all the Democrats in and elect even more of them.  With a rock-solid majority, you will be able to do all the great things we elected you to do.

I have been truly troubled over what I perceive to be the defeatist attitude in the Democratic party, which seems to be publically predicting the loss of significant Democratic seats because “that always happens in mid-term elections.”  I have even heard hints of such concessions among your own staff.  To quote Popeye, “Sez who!”  With the abysmal performance of the Republicans over the last 10 years, I cannot accept such a premise.  I believe if we take the simple approach I suggest above, we can change history.

Thanks for you time.

Tom Wilson of  Alameda, California

If you agree with me, you might want to send a similar message to the President and you are certainly welcome to just cut and paste my message indicating that you agree with it.  Here is the site where you can send your message.

~ Peace out,  Tom

Monday, March 8, 2010

We’re at Tahoe/Donner

Sorry I have not posted for a while.  We are on our week-long break and I had to finish a lot of work before we took off last Thursday evening.  We’ll be up here at our Tahoe/Donner place until Sunday afternoon when we head back to Alameda. 

We’ve skied Squaw Valley the last four days.  Sunday was fantastic, with bluebird skies, no wind, and great snow.  Today?  Not so good.  Heavy, cold winds, bad visibility and the like.  We knocked off early. 

It is about 5:00 pm and snow is coming down pretty good. Here is a shot from out bedroom window that I just now took!

DSC01688 

Oh, and let’s hear it for “The Hurt Locker!”

~  Tom

Monday, March 1, 2010

Peter Beinart nails it

I just read a brilliant article by Peter Beinart that explains how with the advent of the Clinton presidency, Republicans began a campaign to debilitate the government.  As Beinart points out:

All that changed when Bill Clinton took office. With the GOP no longer controlling the White House, a new breed of aggressive Republicans — men like Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay and Trent Lott — hit on a strategy for discrediting Clinton: discredit government. Rhetorically, they derided Washington as ineffective and conflict-ridden, and through their actions they guaranteed it. Their greatest weapon was the filibuster, which forced Democrats to muster 60 votes to get legislation through the Senate. Historically, filibustering had been rare. From the birth of the Republic until the Civil War, the Senate witnessed about one filibuster per decade. As late as the 1960s, Senators filibustered less than 10% of major legislation. But in the '70s, the filibuster rule changed: Senators no longer needed to camp out on the Senate floor all night, reading from Grandma's recipe book. Merely declaring their intention to filibuster derailed any bill that lacked 60 votes.

And a little later:

In 2009, Senate Republicans filibustered a stunning 80% of major legislation, even more than during the Clinton years. GOP leader Mitch McConnell led a filibuster of a deficit-reduction commission that he himself had demanded. The Obama White House spent months trying to lure the Finance Committee's ranking Republican, Chuck Grassley, into supporting a deal on health care reform and gave his staff a major role in crafting the bill. But GOP officials back home began threatening to run a primary challenger against the Iowa Senator. By late summer, Grassley wasn't just inching away from reform; he was implying that Obamacare would euthanize Grandma.

The article is a bit long but it is worth reading the whole thing.  It’s a bit depressing at the end as Beinart sets forth some ideas and events that might solve the problem – the ideas all make sense, but I cannot get myself to imagine any of them happening.  I sure hope I’m wrong.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Avatar - thoughts

Well, I finally got around to seeing Avatar, 3-D version. My first time seeing any 3-D movie.

Special effects and CGI: The best I’ve ever seen.

Alternate universe and lore: Impressive.

Sound: Hats off to Dolby for a soundtrack that was crystal-clear with no muddying even in the most saturated moments.

Script and story: Dances With Aliens.

Battles and chases: Perfect if you are a “battle/chase” devotee, too long if you are into plot and story.

Creatures: Australia times fifty.

Villain: Outstanding! Stephen Lang was awesome.

3-D: I was very disappointed. The effect was not that impressive and sometimes made me think I was back in second grade looking into my ViewMaster. But the worst aspect was that the glasses really darken the raw image. I kept wanting more light -- it was sort of like wearing your shades in a bar. I know it was not the raw image because when I took the glasses off the light balance was just perfect. The glasses were the official Dolby 3-D glasses so obviously the theater wasn’t handing out a fly-by-night product. I guess it’s an acquired taste but I gonna stick with good old two dimensions in the future. (I never could wear my shades in a bar).

Still, big kudos to Cameron for taking a monumental risk and pulling it off.

~ Tom

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Uncanny parallels

Today, reading the news of obscene Wall St. profits and bonuses paid, I was reminded of the famous “economic royalists” speech that FDR gave before the Democratic convention in 1936. I listened to the whole thing again just now and it brought shivers down my spine, and in parts, tears to my eyes.

Just listen to it yourself, and remember that the country had just emerged from the Great Depression. Consider this excerpt occurring early-on in the speech and wonder at how different things were in those days, and yet how similar.

For the sympathy, help and confidence with which Americans have sustained me in my task I am grateful. For their loyalty I salute the members of our great party, in and out of political life in every part of the Union. I salute those of other parties, especially those in the Congress of the United States who on so many occasions have put partisanship aside. I thank the Governors of the several States, their Legislatures, their State and local officials who participated unselfishly and regardless of party in our efforts to achieve recovery and destroy abuses. Above all I thank the millions of Americans who have borne disaster bravely and have dared to smile through the storm.

But here is my absolutely favorite part of this speech. It’s wonderful in the reading, but you really should listen to FDR actually (and bravely) laying it down!

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.

Turn your friends and others on to this speech, which I consider to be one of the greatest of all time.

~ tom

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

One I’d never seen

I’m always conflicted when I see photos such as this one.  On the one hand, I’m just jazzed at how cool John was, but I’m simultaneously downed by the senseless waste of his death.

John Lennon

I keep sayin’ it, but wouldn’t it just be more than cool if he was still alive?

~ Tom