An interesting top ten best albums list

I ran across this top ten list today.  It made me realize that I am keeping up with music less than I used to.  In the past, I would have heard a lot of the albums on the list, and probably owned a couple.  Not so with this list:

• Miles “Live in Europe ‘67:  Read reviews, but have not listened to it yet on Rhapsody.
• Jarrett:  Didn’t know anything about it.
• Raphael Saadiq:  Have one of his albums in my Rhapsody library, but did not know this one had been released.
• Ambrose Akinmusire:  This one interests me a lot.  I have read several reviews of this album, all of which were flat-out raves.  Gonna download it to my Rhapsody library ASAP.
• Black Keys:  I have listened to some of their stuff but have not really gotten into them as much as other bands of the same ilk.  I’ll get around to giving this one a listen.
• PJ Harvey: I’ve read a lot of reviews of this one, all very positive.  I’ve not been a big fan in the past, but maybe this will get me on board.  Gonna check it out on Rhapsody.
• Saturn Never Sleeps:  Never even heard of this group.  Obviously, I will check them out.
• Mason Jennings:  Never heard of this guy either.  Ditto on checking him out.
• The Kills:  Heard of them but never listened to them.  Another one to check out on Rhapsody.
• North Mississippi Allstars:  Oh my, another group I have never heard of. 

You get the picture.  I’m really getting out of touch.  The joys of aging and slipping into curmudgeonhood.

~ Tom

Homeland: Outstanding!

Last night we got around to watching the season finale of “Homeland,” which I had recorded on Sunday. The finale was one of the most tense, exciting drama’s I’ve ever seen on TV. If you have not been able to see Homeland, you should purchase or rent the DVD when it is released – or maybe you can check it out “on-demand” on Showtime.

I won’t even hint at what went on in the finale, because spoilers would be terribly unwelcome for this one. Suffice it to say that I was on the edge of my seat through the whole 90 minutes (gloriously commercial-free on Showtime), hardly able to breathe in a couple of scenes. I was still thinking about it this morning.

This series cements my belief that Claire Danes is one of the top two or three female lead actors working today. To sustain what she did over 12 episodes in which she was the focal point was an amazing feat. And Damian Lewis, while terrific throughout, was especially riveting in the finale. The rest of the casting is pitch-perfect. The writing, direction and production value are superb, again especially so in the finale.

In reading all of the “Best of 2011” lists published in the various magazines or Internet content that I read, I have not found even one that does not list “Homeland” as in the top 10 TV shows.

Simply put, Tom says five out of five stars! You gotta see it.

The grim truth

Two headlines from this morning’s Huffington Post speak volumes:

• U.S. CEO Pay Jumped At Least 27 Percent Last Year
• Census Data Shows 1 in 2 People Are Poor Or Low-Income

Newt’s revisionist history

The next time you are confronted by a right wing Newt supporter who claims that Newt’s ethics violations were the result of a partisan witch-hunt, you can use this article to set matters straight. 

Crazy, Stupid, Love

We watched the Blu-ray version of “Crazy, Stupid, Love” over the weekend.  Eileen really liked it very much and so did I.  It is one of those “comedies” that has a lot of serious and rewarding drama woven in throughout.  I’m not going to mention any of the plot points because they are so fun to experience with no warning or spoilers to take away the surprise and delight.  The cast is absolutely terrific:  Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone,Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon, Analeigh Tipton, Jonah Bobo,Joey King, Liza Lapira.  My special kudos go to Emma Stone who just gets better and better and Jonah Bobo who almost steals the movie.  Two big thumbs up.  Rent it now!

WTF! How can this possibly be for real??

This You Tube clip is going viral.  You will see why.  Is this trick photography, or what!?  If you have a theory, please let me know.

 

Special weapons and tactics (SWAT)

The “occupy” movement has been the proverbial “pebble in the pond,” causing ripples across the political and civic ponds.  I have followed it with considerable interest, but as time has passed I have begun to feel a worrying unease.  The movement defines the “one-percent” and has done a great service in pointing out the utter, unforgivable immorality of allowing such a disparity.  But, in the back of my mind (cynicism at full volume) I worry a lot about what will happen if the one-percent ever really feel threatened.  At present, they are “annoyed,” but what happens if they truly feel threatened?  I know for a fact that they will react with oppression and violence that will mask as being “justified.”  And, when that happens I predict that one of two things will happen:  1)the movement will shrivel as citizens fear loss of their current station in life  (average as it might be), or even injury and loss of life, or 2) a true violent revolution will ensue.  

This belief of mine was brought into frightening focus when I read this article a few moments ago.  I usually don’t ever share a link to an article over a page long, but this three-pager is a required, and very scary, read. 

I hope I’m wrong, but I fear that I am not.

Geek treasure

Here is a great Lifehacker page listing some terrific single-purpose web sites.  Some nice stuff with links to get you there.  I was happy to learn that it would take a desktop PC 169 days to hack my password.

~ Tom

Paul Motian–R.I.P.

I just got the news that Paul Motian died yesterday in Manhattan.  In my mind he was one of the greatest jazz drummers ever.  I first became aware of him when I was still in high school and getting into jazz.  My favorite album at that time was the Bill Evans Trio’s “Waltz for Debby.”  Paul was a founding member of that spectacular amalgam, with Bill on piano and an amazing young Scott LaFaro on bass.  I literally wore that album out, having to buy a replacement copy somewhere down the line.  As I write this I am listening to that group, just honor Paul.  I’m blessed to have the exquisite boxed set of the complete Riverside recordings by Bill. (12 discs!)

I saw Paul a few times over the years with different groups.  He was always so clean and precise, yet swinging the whole time.  To this day I can’t think of any drummer who is better on the brushes than Paul was.  His brush work was especially wonderful on the work he did with the Bill Evans Trio. 

Dang, I’m really sad to see him go.

~ Tom

Some thought-provoking art

Check out this art work.

It’s all excellent, but I particularly liked the Washington Monument as Pinocchio’s lying nose – took me a few seconds to figure that one out.

Jazz on the Tube

Check out this site for one of the coolest things I have run across lately.  This will keep you fulfilled for a lifetime.  BTW, it is possible that some of the links will have been removed, e.g. “Song For My Father” by Horace, but most of the stuff is there waiting for your hungry eyes and ears.

On the subject of Horace, check out “Cool Eyes” on the “Jazz on the Tube” site.  This was Horace’s quintet in 1958.  What it brought to mind was how when I first was getting into jazz, literally all the cats dressed in suits and ties and looked very sharp.  Not too many do any more.   I kind of miss that.

Ciao,

~ Tom

Toles’ weighty observations

As those of you who read this blog know, one of my biggest political fears is voter suppression.  I wrote about it here, and my friend Michael added a timely comment to that post.  Believe me folks it’s real, and worse, it’s very effective.

Toles summed it up oh so effectively today:

Click to enlarge

Why don’t they just enact a poll tax

Voter suppression is the only hope of the GOP.  As I have noted several times, these Republican governors and their lackey state legislatures are passing laws making it so hard to register to vote that votes are clearly suppressed.  But what I had not tuned into was the at least in Florida they have gone a step further and  passed laws that hamper or forbid third party entities from conducting registration drives and the like.  I heard on Thom Hartman’s show this morning that the League of Women Voters has ceased all their registration efforts in Florida out of fear of being prosecuted for breaking the new laws!  Here is a good article discussing the problem. 

I am thinking seriously about drafting a letter to the U.S. Attorney General urging him and his office to determine that this law is not in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

~  Tom

The primacy of being over having

I never cease to marvel over the hypocrisy of so-called devout Christians who espouse selfishness and greed, while abandoning the poor and less fortunate.  That is why I was gratified to read that the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace issued a strong and thoughtful critique of the global financial system this week.  E.J. Dionne has a great article on the subject in today’s WaPo,  Here is a taste:

The report spoke of “the primacy of being over having,” of “ethics over the economy,” and of “embracing the logic of the global common good.”

In a knock against those who oppose government economic regulation, the council emphasized “the primacy of politics — which is responsible for the common good — over the economy and finance.” It commented favorably on a financial transactions tax and supported an international authority to oversee the global economy.

The article goes on to explain that conservative Catholics are apoplectic over the report and are trashing it.  In response to that, E.J. makes the following cogent and telling observation:

 My, my. It is always entertaining for those of us who are liberal Catholics to watch our conservative Catholic friends try to wriggle around the fact that, on the matters of social justice and the economy, Catholic social teaching is, by any measure, “progressive.” Conservatives regularly condemn liberal “Cafeteria Catholics” who pick and choose among the church’s teachings. But the conservatives often skip the parts of the moral buffet involving peace, social justice and what Pope John Paul II called the “idolatry of the market.”

E.J. also weaves in the “OW” demonstrations.  All in all it’s a worthwhile read.

More true than I’d like to admit…

These posters are supposed to be humorous, but I’m afraid they are more true than most of us would like to admit.

~ Tom

Some fantastic photos

These photos really moved me for some reason.  They were all taken shortly before I was born in 1944.  I can’t stop looking at them.

At last! Rick Perry makes some sense.

Save a pretzel for the gas jets…

Rick Perry making perfect sense.

60’s vs. now–some comparisons

I have been trying to avoid just posting links to articles that, while interesting to me, probably don’t ring the bells of many others.  However, the Insight section of yesterday’s SF Chronicle contained this terrific piece by a guy previously unknown to me: Paul Saffo.  After reading it over a couple of times I found myself nodding in agreement, and in the end hoping  that a lot of the possibilities he outlines will come true. 

The article is short, so you can read it without sacrificing a lot of time.  Here is an excerpt early on that set the tone for me:

Comparisons of this movement-in-the making and the '60s are as tempting as they are obvious. Now as then, it is well-educated, restless youth who are in the protest vanguard for the simple reason that the actual downtrodden are too busy trying to survive to devote time to a cause. However, the '60s student activists marched against a backdrop of prosperity and low unemployment. The Establishment had jobs waiting for the anti-Establishment protesters whenever they decided to hang up their love beads. Today's new grads are faced with diminishing salaries and jobs in areas that do not employ the skills learned at university. Occupy's activists aren't just marching to save others - they are marching on behalf of their own futures.

The current economic climate contrasts sharply with that of the '60s, when an affluent and complacent middle class acted as social ballast against radical change. The middle class today is smaller and buffeted by underwater mortgages, unemployment and disappearing 401(k)s. This is an insecure population likely to agree with the sentiments of the demonstrators and, as the Tea Party has already shown, likely to protest as well.

Tony belongs on “Birth of the Cool” ‘cause he’s so cool

I am hoping I can make it to eighty-five.  Here is something that inspires me to do so.

I saw Tony at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2005, and he just captivated the entire crowd.  He was so delighted at the reception he got that he danced around like a little kid when he got the “standing O” at the end.

Beatles “1”

We were up at the Tahoe-Donner place this weekend getting it ready for winter.  On the way home today we decided to play the Beatles album “1,” which contains 27 of their top selling singles. 

As I was listening to hit after hit rolling out of the speakers I was struck with what marvelous song-writers Lennon/McCartney were.  Almost all of the tracks are less then three minutes long, but what I realized is that each of them did not need to be a second longer.  And, I noted that each of these little gems was distinctly different than all of the others. To be able to consistently write such wonderful songs without being totally repetitive or derivative was an amazing feat.  (And of course they wrote many more, which can be found on their albums.  For example ‘Norwegian Wood” is not on this CD.)

Of course the other result of playing the album was a huge, continuing jolt of flashbacks and contact highs, tinged with a bit of regret over the loss of what once was.

If you really don’t have a lot of Beatles albums and want to have just one CD that has “all the hits,” you should snag this CD.  Even if you have a lot of Beatles stuff, this CD is worth buying and throwing in your car for the long and winding road.

~ Tom

The Lincoln Lawyer

Over the weekend I watched the Blu-ray version of “The Lincoln Lawyer,” starring Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Philippe, Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy, Michael Pena, John Leguizamo and Josh Lucas. I had read the book a while back an enjoyed it quite a bit, so I was reticent about checking out the movie. My fears were ungrounded. Actually, I think I like the movie better than the book.

Because the plot is full of twists, shocks, and surprises I will only say that the film worked for me on every level. I thought it was well directed, giving off a real “Los Angeles vibe” that was essential. I like McConaughey, but feel like he has been miscast in a lot of his movies. Here, he is absolutely perfect to the point of me thinking at the end, “no one else could have played that part as well as he did.” The script is snappy and smart, but serious and weighty when it needs to be.

In short, I really had a good time with the film, and I’ll bet you will too. So, next weekend, rent the DVD (Blu-ray if you’ve got a player), pop up a batch of popcorn, grab a Coke, plop down on your couch, and have a fun evening. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

~ Tom

*****************************

"A narcissist is someone better looking than you are."

Gore Vidal

Mick puts Dixie in its place

As I have noted in the past, Mick LaSalle is currently my favorite film critic.  In addition to his reviews, he has a Sunday column titled “Ask Mick LaSalle,” which I always look forward to reading.  This week, in answer to a fan’s question: “Which Civil War movie would you recommend?”, Mick uncorked the following, which is pretty awesome, and which needed to be said:

Dear Mick LaSalle: Which Civil War movie would you recommend?

Martin Vesely, San Jose

Dear Martin Vesely: The treatment of the Civil War in our popular culture has been fairly peculiar. For reasons that are understandable, the North has felt it necessary to act the way you do when you win an argument with your spouse: "No, honey, you weren't completely wrong; you had a point." After all, if you win completely, it's always smart to make the other party feel as good as possible. And so our national culture has turned itself inside out ignoring that the Confederacy was a disgrace - that the leaders who brought it about were uncomfortably close to Nazis, willing to ruin the Earth's last best hope for the sake of perpetuating an absolutely evil institution, which they not only wanted to maintain but also to extend all the way to the Pacific and into Central and South America. For all their noble cavalier posturing, they were greedy, cruel, power-driven and yet somehow convinced of their own superior honor and virtue, and they came closer to obliterating this great country than Adolf Hitler ever did in his wildest dreams.

Honestly, I find it astounding that schoolchildren are still taught about the Civil War as though it were a misunderstanding between two equally worthy sides. Such misinformation helps to perpetuate and give sanction to much residual psychosis in American life. Anyway, for these reasons, I just like straight-up Civil War movies that give you the facts and are biased toward the North and sanity. "Gettysburg" is particularly good along this line.

The fat lady has not sung

I’m loving the President’s latest positions and speeches whereby he is making the right wing look like the crass, greedy, and hypocritical trolls they are.  Two simple examples:

First, after the President made the speech calling for the rich to pay taxes at a rate at least equal to the rate being paid by their secretaries and housekeepers, the right wing noise machine launched the “talking point of the week,” which was that Obama was engaging in “class warfare.”  This was  a ludicrous argument in view of the stark, undeniable fact that the right has been at war with the middle class for the last 30 years.  Even average citizens without a lot of political savvy were almost laughing at these cry-babies.   Hence, the word went out to abandon the class war talking point and move on to something else, as explained next.

Second, now they are blaming the President for taking extreme non-negotiable positions – “he’s taking his ball and going home before the game is finished,” etc.  This is even more ludicrous than the class warfare nonsense, in view of the fact that the Tea Party and the Speaker have said over and over that increased revenues/taxes are off the table, end of story!  And, that little twerp Eric Cantor actually walked out on the President in the debt ceiling blackmail episode.  Talk about taking your ball and going home. 

Once again, I think the President may be a lot smarter than I am.  While we were all on his back for trying to be reasonable and deal with the intransigent righties, he was laying the trap for them.  He had to keep the country from defaulting on the debt, but once he cleared that up until at least after the election, he was free to take the actions he has taken in the last few days.  The righties are now looking a lot like Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) in “The Caine Mutiny” at his trial, melting down while rolling those steel balls around in his hand.

I think the Prez is fired up, and the cry-babies can’t handle it. 

Some simple relief

This is something that should cheer you up and bring you a little fun. And, it’s totally trippy!

P.S. You can grab the lines by either end to move or re-size them.

Can I get a break here?

Man, I am getting depressed over all the bad news for the President.  His predicament seems to me much like that of a pro football coach whose owner has given him a losing team.  Even though the coach was highly regarded by the fans when he was hired, they are now souring on him because the team keeps losing games.  The coach, who is really top-notch, would clearly win almost all of his games if he just had better players.  But, the fans don’t care about that.  Inevitably, they start calling for his head.  The latest polls regarding the President seem to support the analogy. 

Then, on top of all that I spotted this article from Mother Jones.  It’s worth reading it all, but you should at least scan it to understand what the right is up to on this front.  This threat is all too real, and goes hand-in-hand with the right wing’s blatant attempts to suppress voting by those likely to vote for Democrats, particularly the President. 

I’m hoping the President can right the ship because the thought of a president Rick Perry terrifies me.  It looks like the President will have to wait for the next election to get some better players, but in the meantime he needs to come up with some trick plays.

I’ll take today

I was stumbling around on the Web and this popped up. I’m not gonna discuss the 1,000 or so entries that are listed.  Instead I want to riff on the lamentations of vinyl devotees.   Even then, I’m not venturing into the ongoing squabble as to whether vinyl or digital produces the better sound. 

No, having lost everything in the Oakland firestorm in ‘91 has let me know what it feels like to loose everything, and equally importantly how to replace it.  I lost thousands of negatives (as a semi-professional photographer,)which (by definition) can never be replaced.  And, I also lost a shit- load of LP’s.  Were it not for CD’s and digital media, I would have had little chance of replacing those LP’s.  In the era in which I acquired all of those LP’s, the only way you could replace one of them was to find it new in a store, like Tower Records.  Later, one was reduced to finding it  in a used LP store, and even then it was hit or miss as to whether you could find it, and then whether it would only have even a tolerable level of scratches and other surface damage.

After the fire, I was prescient enough to realize that most all of the LP’s I had lost would eventually come out as CD’s, and I did not want to buy a new turntable. Moreover, to be quite honest, there were a lot of the LP albums that I had no urge to replace, having “moved on” from what they once had to offer. It turns out to have been a choice I do not regret. 

So, getting back to the attached file, I love having lived as long as I have.  Now, I can hear pretty much all of these albums on Rhapsody, and  if I want, download them at a reasonable cost. Equally important I do not have to endure the scratch that occurred when a girl at my party fell into the turntable, or the pizza damage that occurred when a dude (or possibly moi) made an ill-advised transfer of dinner to media.   Nope, these days I can get it on CD or digital download from Rhapsody in pristine condition. 

There are quite a few albums on this list that I have not heard, so eventually I will jump on Rhapsody and check them out at no cost to me other than my subscription.  If I like them (or  just certain tracks), I will download them and make them part of my current collection.  What I WON”T be doing is going to Berkeley or San Francisco record stores and buying old vinyl “ears unheard,”   vinyl, and that’s even assuming they would have  the desired platters in stock.

~ Tom

My Dog

I’ve had dogs off and on my entire life.   I’ve loved them all and mourned their passing, but the dog I have now is the best so far.  He is a pure-bred Border Terrier whose grandfather was judged “Best of Breed” at the Westminster Dog Show.  We got him from Skyline Border Terriers in Los Angeles.   If you are familiar with the movie “Something About Mary,” the dog in that film was a Border Terrier from the same breeders. ( Obviously the scene where the Terrier attacks Ben Stiller uses a stuffed dog for a lot of it, but you can see the real Border from time to time.)

The story of how I came to choose a Border Terrier as our next dog is interesting.  We have small grandchildren, so I wanted to make sure the dog was going to get along with children.  I found a Web Site that listed every breed of dog for its compatibility with children, “1” being the best and “5” being the Wild Dingo!  Prior to that we had been thinking about a Jack Russell Terrier because we both wanted a terrier this time around.  It turned out that the Jack Russell was rated a “4” so that was out.  The only terrier rated “1” was the Border Terrier, and that was the first I had ever heard of the breed.  Anyway, we then did a bunch of research on the breed and went to some dog shows to see them in the flesh.  Based on that we decided we just had to have one.

We named him Spenser after the character in Robert Parker’s novels.  (Eileen has read every one of Robert Parker’s books, including the “non-Spenser” ones.)  Because he is a terrier he must have a lot of exercise every day or he will just drive you nuts.  So, we walk at least two miles or run 3.5 miles every day.  The point here is that I know that I would not be getting that much exercise if it were not for Spenser – I would be making all kinds of excuses to avoid taking a walk or running.  So, I figure he is going to add another 10 years to my life from the exercise he makes me do and the joy that he brings to me each and every day.

Here is a great picture I took of him recently, which is now the wallpaper on my computer.  Click to enlarge it.

Arf! 

Another “I wish” photo

Here is yet another photograph I wish I had taken, developed, and printed.  For those familiar with the subject of composition, this photo is an absolutely perfect implementation of “The Rule of Thirds.”

Wolf Suschitzky. View Notre Dame, Paris, 1939

Eagles

On our recent trip we went on a picnic with my daughter and the grandkids out on Puget Sound.  While there we noticed a pair of bald eagles who had a nest far up in the trees.  They were quite a distance off, but I did have a 300mm telephoto lens so I gave it a shot in hopes that something would turn out.  Here is the basic  picture taken with the 300mm lens.  Click on the picture and you can see the pair of eagles if you look closely.

Now here is a blow up of the part of the photo with the eagles.

Aren’t they magnificent?

Later, one of them took off and I was lucky enough to catch it.  Here is the basic shot taken with the 300mm lens.  Click the picture and you will see the bird taking off.

Finally, here is a blow up of the flyer.

A day I will never forget.

Looking back–I was a bit of a prophet

By now we all know that the right wing Republican party cares not a whit about the welfare of the country or the majority of its citizens.  All they care about is making sure that President Obama does not get re-elected.  Anything he is for, they are against, even if it makes them look like unabashed hypocrites or dangerous luddites.   Unfortunately, I pretty much predicted this turn of events less than a week after the election in November 2008.  Check out my blog for that day.

~ Tom

GOP Hypocrisy: You expect anything else??

I just don’t understand how the average American cannot be insulted and outraged by the continuing right wing Republican hypocrisy.  Here is the latest.  Yet, these jokers remain in office, ruining our once-great country.

~ Tom

A bit of “double” talk

Let me explain how this post came about:

Yesterday I was listening to the latest “Film Junk” podcast and learned that Armie Hammer played both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in “The Social Network.” Before that, I had just assumed that Fincher had dug up some identical twins for the role.

Then, today, I was reading Michael Lally’s blog entry on Jane Fonda/Charlie Rose and one of his commenters provided this link, which turned out to be a hilarious rendition of Charlie Rose interviewing Charlie Rose.

So this got me interested in the art of an actor playing two people. First I followed the Winklevoss story and dug up this fascinating video showing how Fincher did it in “The Social Network.”

Before technology became so advanced, the only way filmmakers could achieve the desired result was to never show the two characters full-face on the screen at the same time, or use a “dummy actor” whose face was never shown – remember those “back of the head shots?”

The first movie that I recall where technology allowed credible side-by-side, full-face presentation was “Dead Ringers,” (1988) the overlooked Cronenberg film starring Jeremy Irons as both of the twins.

On Dead Ringers - the latest chiller by horror impresario David Cronenberg — optical effects supervisor Lee Wilson worked with Balsmeyer and Everett and Film Effects of Toronto to create a new generation of split-screen opticals that enabled actor Jeremy Irons to play scenes with himself as twin brothers without the customary restriction of stationary splits or even locked-off cameras.

I also recall the1998 version of “The Man in the Iron Mask,” with DiCaprio playing both roles.

As I sit here, I have a fuzzy recollection of several other recent movies with dual roles appearing full-face on screen at the same time, but I’m not remembering them at the moment. Help me out…

Note: The Film Junk podcast has added a new regular: “Dirrrty Frank,” who makes the show even better.

Debt ceiling musings

Somehow, on my own,  I realized during the debt ceiling blackmail episode that there was one non-negotiable goal that the President had to achieve:  Extend any deal through the end of 2012.  If he caved in and made a short-term deal, the blackmailers would not relent and the continuing crisis would endanger the country, as well as negatively impact the President’s re-election bid. 

Today, I read this terrific article by E.J. Dionne in WAPO, which validates my instincts, and lays out the thesis far better than I ever could have.   

Some rules for conservatives

I just ran across this terrific post from the blog “What Would Jack Do.”  I’m gonna print this out and hand it to my conservative friends (or foes), asking them if they disagree with any of these “do nots”, and if so, how they can justify such disagreement.

~ Tom

A Supreme reason to support Obama

I just got back from 14 days of vacation, during which I got bits and pieces of what was going on in the news.  With the sketchy news I got, and a little catch-up today, I can see that the progressive wing of the Democratic party is jumping salty all over the President for his handling of the debt ceiling blackmail fiasco, as well as other pent-up gripes.  I could go on and on defending the President with links to articles by respectable left wing pundits who are not Paul Krugman, but I know I won’t be changing any minds and hearts by doing so.  From my own perspective, my biggest disappointment in the President is his decision to keep us at war.  I think he was mesmerized by high-ranking officers, which I can understand but not endorse.

However, there is a higher, much more important issue that is often overlooked, which mandates that you vote for Obama in 2012 even if you think he is a total disappointment, or even an outright failure:

• John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, age 56:  Corporate toady who lied his ass off during confirmation hearings.
• Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice, age 75:  The Darth Vader of American jurisprudence.  Evil incarnate.
• Anthony M. Kennedy, Associate Justice, age  75:  The current “swing vote” on the court, but never to be trusted or relied upon to swing the right way.
• Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, age 63:  Scalia’s “Mini Me.”  Has never uttered a word during sessions.  Probably the least qualified justice EVER. 
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice, age 78!:  A wonderful justice, who carries the progressive banner into battle every day.  Writes blistering dissents rebutting the horrible opinions rendered by the right wing zealots on the court.  Could she live through the term of a Republican president elected in 2012?  Not likely.  Will she retire if Obama is re-elected?  Almost a certainty.
• Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice, age 73 in a few days:  Another crucial progressive vote on the court.  Pray that this guy lives if a Republican is elected in 2012.
• Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr., Associate Justice, age 61:  Of all the trolls on the court this is the guy I hate the most.  I watched his confirmation hearings and if the guy had been hooked up to a lie detector it would have been pegging out with practically every answer he gave.  Also, his performance during the President’s “State of the Union” address is telling.  (The President had the audacity to scold the Majority for their ridiculous ‘whore” opinion in the Citizens United case).  I see this troll living to be 90 and spreading his poison until then.
• Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice, age 57:  You go girl, and live a long life.
• Elena Kagan, Associate Justic, age 51:  As with Sotomayor, we wish her a long, liberal life.

Listen up all you disgruntled lefties.  If a Republican gets elected in 2012 it is likely that there will be one or more Supreme Court appointments for the new president to make.  If Kennedy or Bader, both very aged, go down, you will get another right wing troll and thereafter every important decision will go 5-4 against us.  Or, God forbid, if  Breyer, Sotomayor, or Kagan die or resign, the same scenario occurs.  On the other hand, if Obama is re-elected and any of the troll brigade dies or resigns, the balance will be tipped in our favor.

So, even if you despise Obama, you have to vote for him.

~ Tom

Back in the USA.

Crossed into the US yesterday and stayed the night in Coeur d Alene, Idaho. Heading out to Burns, Oregon on first leg of the long drive to our place in Truckee. Taking U.S. 395 all the way to Reno, then I-80 to Truckee.

castlegar

We are in Castlegar, British Columbia. Last night we were in Osoyoos, BC.  Amazing mountains and beautiful scenery. And of  course the roads and infrastructure are clearly superior to ours. Back to the USA to tomorrow.

Port Angeles

Spent a great two days with my cousins and their families in Port Angeles. Heading into Canada today.
Check out Alec Baldwin's 7/30 post on the Huffington Post. It's brilliant.

Seattle

In Seattle visiting daughter and grandchildren. Our dog and the kids have a love affair going. Another day here tomorrow, then on to Port Angeles to visit my cousin John.

Longview, WA

Got into Longview yesterday. Visiting my aunt, my late mother's sister. My daughter and the grandchildren also are here. Tomorrow going to Seattle to visit daughter and grandchildren for a few days (they are going home tonight).

Ashland

We are in Ashland, Oregon. Seeing Shasta Lake brimming full for the first time in many years was a special treat.

Cenk Uygur Out At MSNBC

According to this article, Cenk Uygur is out at MSNBC with Al Sharpton taking over that time slot.

Dang!  Sharpton is OK, but I thought Cenk was really, really good.  I’ll miss him a lot.

Testing mobile app

We are going on a two week vacation starting on Saturday. I am not taking my laptop so  I am testing this blogger app for my cell phone. assuming it works I will blog our travels in realtime.

My own “Avatar” dream trip

I turned 67 this year. When I was about 12, I first became interested in track, largely because of a kid my age who lived in my neighborhood, Artie Heineman. Artie’s passion was track and field, and he even had a genuine stop watch to back it up. We measured off the distance around our block and devised our own quarter, half and mile distances based on block-sized laps. We even built our own high jump pit, which in retrospect was pretty damn good. We spent hours and hours running and jumping.

Sadly, when I was about 14 Artie and his mom (a widow) moved away. But by that time the track bug had bitten me. In a true moment of serendipity, Floyd Strain moved into the area and started a track club (an amazing event in 1958!). Floyd was the real deal. He had actually been an alternate in the quarter mile for the U.S. Olympic team, and he was this beautiful, totally buff guy who came out in his Olympic gear and ran right along with us. It was exhilarating! (Floyd was one of the first coaches in the U.S. who used “interval training” and also one of the first to use film, albeit 8mm at that time).

It was inevitable that I would run track in high school. My race turned out to be the half-mile, even though I could run a pretty good quarter, and was able to grudgingly gut out a respectable mile when called upon. I was the first guy in the history of our high school to run a sub-two-minute half. In college, I got even better, eventually achieving a personal best of 1:52.2, a mark that would still win in a lot of junior college meets today - and remember that 880 yards is a bit farther than the 800 meters they run today!

The point of all of this is to let you know that I know what it feels like to run very fast, very far. In those days, I literally ran everywhere I could. I remember looking down at the ground as I ran and seeing it speed by in compressed form. But now, my running is slow and plodding, even though I am still in pretty good shape. I take a 3.5 mile run about 3 or 4 times a week now. When I run, I can’t help but think of what I once could do, and how it felt. But that is a conscious moment, and thus pretty limited.

No, the point of all this is my dreams! I guess a lot of guys my age might have sex dreams. I don’t. Instead, on a few lucky nights I am able to dream of EXACTLY how I felt when I could run far and fast, with the ground compressing under me for miles and miles. And the dream usually goes on and on, with lots of running in its script, and with me undoubtedly smiling in my sleep. It’s awesome and I love every second of it because it is absolutely real in that universe.

So you can see what is coming next. When I saw “Avatar” for the first time, and the paralyzed Jake Sully got to run for the first time in his alien body (so what if it was a bit of running amok) I knew exactly what he was feeling. He, even with his paralyzed body remaining in the pod, was getting to run again,resulting in moments of pure joy and freedom. Once in a while I get to do that too, in my dreams. I say: keep it coming as often as possible!

~ Tom

An absolutely must watch!!

Wow!  I just watched Lawrence O’Donnell analyze this whole debt ceiling mess, wherein he posits that the President has done a masterful job of rope-a-dope, and knew what he was doing all along.  It’s 14 minutes long, but the time will just fly by.  The analysis is cogent yet breathtaking, including a clip of Lawrence on election night 2010 predicting the very debt ceiling crisis we are now in.  The guy is brilliant.  (Among many other things, he was  executive story editor for The West Wing, wrote 16 episodes, and also played Jeb Bartlett’s father in flashbacks.)

Now I’m just hoping that Lawrence is right.

Check it out for yourself here.  Sorry about the 30 second commercial you will have to endure, but it’s a small price to pay.

~ Tom

Prez not having fun?

I am not enjoying listening to “Green 960,” our progressive radio station for the San Francisco Bay Area.  All of their hosts (except Stephanie Miller) are piling on President Obama.  And on the TV side, Rachel is not being as kind as she used to be, and Ed Schultz is breathing fire.

I hear all this and wonder:  what exactly was he supposed to do?  Then today, I read a column by Fred Hiatt, the editorial page editor for WaPo, which sort of mirrored my thoughts.  I felt better after reading it, but I still don’t feel that good.  I am beginning to really despise the entire Republican party, especially Eric Cantor and  Mitch McConnell.  They represent everything that is making this country a mean and ugly place.  I have always been proud to be an American because on the whole we were generous, socially minded people who took care (most of the time) of those who needed a hand.  But after 8 years of Bush, and 2+ years of anti-Obama machinations, I am ashamed of what we have become, and fearful of worse things to come.

Help.  Somebody cheer me up!

GOP has become a cult

Of course we all know about the scary and sad state of the Republican party, but this article does a nice job in summarizing the whole sordid state of affairs.

Ever try to argue with a cult member?

ad meliora

If you do quite a bit of reading, it is inevitable that you will run across Latin phrases.  Sometimes the author will provide the translation either directly or through a character’s dialog, but all too often you never do really know what it means. 

Well, I ran across this Wikipedia entry that is really handy.  Bookmark it in your browser so that you will have it handy the next time you encounter the undefined Latin phrase.

An insidious truth

These days it amazes me that the President still has positive approval ratings and is beating the Republican candidates in the polls.  I expect this to remain the same, or even improve right up to the 1012 election. 

So, you ask, how can the Republicans have any chance of winning back the White House?  The answer for them is to keep as many of Obama’s base supporters as possible  from voting at all.  This process is well underway as evidenced by new laws passed by Republican State Legislatures requiring voter identification cards at the polls, limiting the time of early voting, ending same-day registration and making it difficult for groups to register new voters.

They’re getting away with it too!  Read this article for a scary look at this whole sordid subject.

Yet another photo I wish I had taken

[Click on image to enlarge]

Paul Strand, The Court, New York 1924

“Maroon” II

In my last post I observed that Bill Clinton and Anthony Weiner were “Maroons,” in the parlance of Bugs Bunny, for getting themselves into sexual imbroglios.  My friend Michael Lally commented that indeed they were Maroons, but that: “they weren't thinking, that's the reality, they were impulsing.”
This got me to remembering the classic Lenny Bruce riff on this whole subject.  I dug it out and listened to it and sure enough, Lenny pretty much nails it.  What is really interesting, as you will hear, is that he actually uses the word “moron” several times.  According to the Urban Dictionary, Bugs’ use of “Maroon” is a mispronunciation of “moron.”  Anyway, enjoy the late, great Lenny Bruce riffing on the subject.

Weiner–What a maroon!

Geez, it’s Bill Clinton and the blue dress all over again.  This Anthony Wiener thing is just like the Clinton fiasco with Monica.  I really respected both of them, and in the end still (mostly) do, but I keep coming back to the question of “what the hell were these guys thinking.”  Sort of like walking down the main boulevard with your junk hanging out and then being surprised that anyone noticed.

For each of them, I still say, “What a maroon!”

Definition of “Maroon” from the Urban Dictionary:

A term of derision often uttered by Bugs Bunny when referring to an interaction with a dopey adversary. It is a mispronunciation of the word "Moron"

"What a Maroon!" "Will ya get a load of this maroon"

~ Tom

Heart breaker… just like my kids long, long ago.

Okay, I got this from Rachel Maddow’s Facebook page, but who cares.  You WILL get the hang of it!

Another photograph I wish I had taken

[Click to enlarge]

Arabesque, les Baux

photo by Rutger Ten Broeke, 1964

Climate change, indeed!

That’s what I’m sayin’ ……

Toles nails it.

(Click to enlarge)

“Hereafter” redux: Clint, get a composer…

Back in October I devoted a post to Mick LaSalle’s enthusiastic review of Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter.” I did not carry through with my hope to see it in the theater. However, I finally did watch it last night on Blu Ray on our big screen TV. I thought the movie was very good, but I didn’t like it as much as Mick LaSalle did.

That being said, it is worth a viewing just to see the incredible set piece depicting the onslaught and aftermath of a massive tsunami. It was awesome.

However, the main purpose of this post is to tell you what I really did not like: Clint Eastwood’s self-composed score. Ouch! I have tolerated his composition in his other movies, but let’s face it, he is not a naturally gifted musician. Anyway, in “Hereafter” we get a further ration of Clint’s melodic musings, which are passable, but nothing memorable. The huge problem is that the music simply does not fit at all with what is happening on the screen, or with the over-arching theme of the film. It’s like someone found a can of film, then went to his CD shelf and with eyes closed picked a CD and declared it would be the sound track for the found film. That would never happen if someone like James Horner had written the score.

Oh, I know, you are going to say “hey, Clint wanted something jazz-oriented and Horner can’t lay down that shit.” No, that’s not it. It would have been far, far, better if Terence Blanchard had done the score, and his jazz cred is unassailable. (I count over 30 film scores in his filmography covering widely different themes and styles.) [I love Terence Blanchard’s work, aside from this discussion. ] Oh, and one other guy who would have written a great score is Hans Zimmer, whose versatility amazes me – can you believe the range of what he has done?

So, Clint, swallow your pride, rein in your ego, and hire a real pro to write the score for your next flick. (But by all means keep making movies!)

Stewart waxes O’Reilly!

Dang, I missed that debate between Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly over whether Common should have been invited to the White House.  Fortunately, Lawrence O’Donnell had a great segment about it on his show; just click to play the video after you get the link loaded.  The whole segment is fascinating, but the money shot was O’Donnell’s revealing the results of the poll taken of Fox News viewers after the debate.  I you want to skip the whole video and only see him discuss the results, click ahead to five minutes and thirty seconds.  Or you can read about the poll results here.  WTF?!  Is there actually some sense to the universe?

Will I ever get to be a junior?

You’ve heard of sophomoric humor, right.  I tried to keep from laughing at this video, but I couldn’t help it.  For me, it’s hilarious.

Freddie Mercury

I was stumbling around the Net the yesterday and I ran across this great phot0…

Although I’m not gay, even I can tell that Feddie Mercury was hot! 

And he was a great singer and performer.

Credit where credit is …

I am getting a big kick out of listening to the right wing trying to torture (I use that term advisedly) the facts into an interpretation of history that gives Bush all the credit for ridding the world of bin Laden.  Of course it’s is hard to get around this:

I had forgotten what a dufus he was…

And then there is the fact that in 2005 Bush completely shut down and disbanded the unit that had been responsible for finding bin Laden.

Of course, this cartoon says it all:

Kicking and screaming! Contemplating the unthinkable.

You are hearing it here first.  I am probably going to join Facebook today.  I have resisted for a long time, but it has gotten to the point where so many of the people, pundits, writers, and entities that I truly dig are putting everything up on Facebook, I am going to have to join.  Couple that with a lot of my family and close friends bugging me to join and it seems like the time has come. 

Facebook will never supplant this blog.  In fact, I may be able to get more people to read it by putting links to it on the Facebook page. 

For those of you who are already on Facebook, look for me there in a day or so.

~ Tom

Bin Laden–Rest in Hell

"I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." – Mark Twain

Despite Twain’s nifty quote, I can think of a few that I would have “wished dead.”  Of course Hitler is a “no brainer,” and Osama Bin Laden would be on the top of the list.

From what I have read so far, the immensely satisfying result of the operation that finally ended the life of OBL was in no small part due to the leadership, patience, intelligence, and tenacity of our President.  No leaks, no mistakes, no large civilian casualties, and lots and lots of training, including building a full “set” of the compound and rehearsing over and over.

Of course the right wingers, tea baggers, and assorted trolls will “pooh pooh” the plain truth and claim that Obama had nothing to do with it,  he was just lucky, the military did it all without his help, and so on.  It reminds me of something I heard a couple of days ago that is funny, yet sadly so true:

“If the President walked on water, the right wing would criticize him for being too lazy to swim.”

Peace out,

~Tom

Miles will always be cool

This blog is named “Birth of the Cool.”

Here is another photo of Miles that I had not seen before.  It can only be described as “cool.”

O’Donnell wipes the floor with Rush, much to the delight of Jesus

I was raised in a religious Christian family, but long since have drifted away from it.  While I still have a blurry recollection of things biblical, I am at a loss when I want to confront right wing religious nuts with their hypocrisy.  I know Jesus said this and did that, but I can’t rub the right winger’s nose in the New Testament. 

That is why last night I was mesmerized  and delighted over Lawrence O’Donnell’s rant against Rush Limbaugh’s lame attempt at weaseling out of the “What Would Jesus Do” question.  You have to see this.  It’s well worth the 10 minutes you will spend, and I guarantee that you will come away armed with all the biblical ammo you need to confront the next hypocritical phony Jesus freak you run into.   And be sure to memorize, and then use,  Lawrence’s challenge to Rush to find anything in the bible where Jesus sympathizes with rich people for having paid too much tax, or for having been too generous, or forced by anyone to be too generous.  

I’m really getting to love Lawrence. 

~ Tom

The Civil War: Thoughts

This month marks 150 years from the start of our Civil War with the attack on Fort Sumpter.  I had not really focused in on that fact when by sheer coincidence I began watching Ken Burns’ epic nine-part series on the Civil War.  It was being presented on Amazon’s streaming video service and I had not seen the whole thing before so I gave it a shot.  The series had a pretty deep effect on me because it made me put today’s bitter political conflict in context.  Sure, I may get apoplectic over the right wing’s callous, selfish, often racist positions, but I’m not trying to kill them in an all out war between our competing views.  That really happened in the Civil War and it makes me pause mightily to imagine how much hatred I would have to conjure up to be able to maim or kill my own countrymen.

The series also made me want to learn much, much more about that conflict.  Thus I decided to read about it in great detail.  A big part of the Burns series was the commentary of Shelby Foote, who is considered a true expert on the Civil War.  Plus, I really dug his accent, his humor, and his gravitas.  So, I ordered the paper back boxed set of  “The Civil War” by Shelby Foote, which arrived today from Amazon.  It is comprised of three fat volumes in an attractive, sturdy sleeve, and it weighs 9+ pounds!  I can hardly wait.  (More on that later). 

I wanted to make a comment about Foote.  Many of the Amazon reviews I read said that Shelby Foote had sympathy for the Southern cause, yet was fastidiously objective in writing about the War.  I tumbled to that right away in his commentaries in the Burns series.  He reminded me of a mother whose son is in prison for awful crimes that she does not deny.  Even so, she loves him and can always come up with an anecdote about something funny or praiseworthy that he did before “he went down that road.”

As I said, I can’t wait to get into this massive tome.  I’ve always been like that.  When I was 16, I got into Thomas Hardy for some reason, even to the point of actually reading “Jude the Obscure,” much to the amazement of my father.  I liked to read dense, long works, which is still true today.  For instance, I am one of the few people I know who actually read and enjoyed Yukio Mishima’s “Sea of Fertility” tetralogy, which consists of four lengthy novels tracing one protagonist from 1912 to 1975.   When I was younger, I think it was the joy of getting into a world where I never wanted it to end, and I was sad when it did, and I had to say goodbye to all those characters I had come to love (or hate).  Now, it’s a bit different.  Added to the prior feeling is a new overlay, which is that long, dense books are an affirmation of my intent to live longer than I though I would.  That is, no one with a diagnosis of 3 months to live is going to order Shelby Foote’s “The Civil War!” 

~ Tom

Obama: Unsung hero as usual

This latest budget/shut-down saga left the Tea Party people referring to the Speaker as “white flag Boehner,” and the left calling for the President’s head because he supposedly gave away the store.  Knowing Obama as I have come to know him, I am certain that he truly believed that a shut-down would be disastrous to the economic recovery, and that he deeply cared about the suffering it would bring to hundreds of thousands of citizens who would not receive a paycheck, along with all the services the whole country would lose.  I had a feeling that there was a deeper, untold story that the main-stream press was missing in its insatiable quest to highlight conflict and criticism.

So, when I opened the main section of today’s S.F. Chronicle and saw this article, I was elated, and also vindicated.  I was so excited  that I practically had to read the whole thing out loud to my wife, who is not nearly as rabid as I am when it comes to politics.  But she was a good sport about it and in the end agreed that this is something that everyone should read and understand.  People, especially our friends on the far left, need to remember that George Bush and his cronies left our President with a horrible mess, but the President, while pointing that out, has never complained or shirked what he believes needs to be done to save our country.  Again, this article is a “must read” that needs to be widely disseminated.  If any of you are blogging, “Face-booking,” or tweeting, please pass the link on.

Vocabulary lesson

ol·i·gar·chy

1.  a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few.

2.  a state or organization so ruled.

3.  the persons or class so ruling.

~ Dictionary .com

Oligarchy

1.  government, or State governed, by a small group of people.

2.  members of such a government.

~ Pocket Oxford Dictionary

Oligarchy (from Greek ὀλιγαρχία, oligarkhía) is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people. These people could be distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, corporate, or military control. The word oligarchy is from the Greek words "ὀλίγος" (olígos), "a few" and the verb "ἄρχω" (archo), "to rule, to govern, to command". Such states are often controlled by a few prominent families who pass their influence from one generation to the next.

Throughout history, some oligarchies have been tyrannical, relying on public servitude to exist, although others have been relatively benign. Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as a synonym for rule by the rich, for which the exact term is plutocracy, but oligarchy is not always a rule by wealth, as oligarchs can simply be a privileged group, and do not have to be connected by bloodlines as in a monarchy. Some city-states from ancient Greece were oligarchies.

~ Wikipedia

“The King’s Speech” and some other stuff

We’re up here at the Tahoe place for some skiing.  Going back down to the Bay Area in a couple of hours.

We did not ski on Friday because there were 90 mph winds over the ridge tops.  Instead we drove to Reno and saw “The King’s Speech.”  I thought it was a wonderful movie – perfect in every way.  I like the way that they did not make the story come out to be an unbelievable triumph – just an “ordinary” triumph was better.  What I am getting at is summed up in the final scene where the King at last gives his speech.  I was sort of expecting that he would pop up to the microphone and rattle off the speech like Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton combined.  That would have been the unbelievable triumph.  Instead, he still had serious trouble getting through the speech and even his loving daughter said he was “halting” at the beginning but got better as he went alone.  A triumph to be sure, but an ordinary one.  Let me close by saying that often times the favorite wins because it is the best.

On Saturday on the way to ski, we had to get gas.  The price for REGULAR was $4.49 per gallon.  It cost me over $68 to fill my tank.  The oil companies have us right where they want us.  We are the classic captive market to be preyed upon by a truly heartless monopoly.

I’ll close by pulling your coats to this excellent column by E.J. Dionne in today’s WaPo.  To the barricades folks, lest our country be taken over by the super-rich while the poor and needy circle the drain.

Your interpretation?

Check out this photo that I ran across a while back.  I have been looking at it off and on since then and each time I get a different take on it.  There is something about it that is powerful and a bit mystical.  Your thoughts?

Mash: Oh my, I’m ancient

Rummaging around on the Net I came across this photo:

Folks, Mash was released in 1970!  I felt a surge of youth when I chuckled over the picture, then realized how old I have become since it was taken. 

Alda and Wayne Rogers were nifty in the TV series but let’s face it, these guys are the only Hawkeye and Trapper I’m opening my front door to.

Elizabeth, R.I.P.

From today’s Chronicle obit:

In her twenties, Ms. Taylor’s looks went from light and lilting to voluptuous, and she cut a fine figure as Maggie in the screen adaptation of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958), though the play was sanitized beyond recognition in its move from stage to screen.

Still ……

Remember, this was 53 years ago!

A not so politically correct quote, but probably true

“Translation is like a woman.  If it is beautiful, it is not faithful.  If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.”

~ Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Russian Poet)

Private (self-destructing) note

Even if you are not the guy handing out assignments to the Mission Impossible crews, this may come in handy at some time in the future.

~ ??

Presidential approval ratings

I have been reading some comments on other blogs wherein right-wing trolls are smugly claiming that President Obama’s approval ratings are in the toilet and thus he is the worst president in modern times, will be a one-term president, etc. 

Well, here is a terrific site to disprove all this hogwash.  Note that in the first part, “Current President Barak Obama” the polls are  listed in reverse chronological order, and that as of February of this year all the listed polls show that Obama’s approval rating is higher than the disapproval rating.  And, note that among those polls is Fox News, which gives him 51% approve, 43% disapprove, and 6% “other.”

Then scroll down to the cool graphs and click on Ronald Regan, and you will see that after two years in office his approval rating was only 35%!  The graphs for the other presidents are also very interesting.  Bush Junior got the high ratings in the first years of his presidency because of 9/11, and finished under 40%, having dipped below 30% just months before his term ended.  By the way, the graphs are a bit confusing with respect to disapproval percentage.  For the disapproval percentage you have to read the scale from the top and treat the 100% line as zero, 90% as 10% and so on.  It took me a while to figure that out.

The guy who is fascinating is Clinton.  Click on his graph and you will see that his approval rating was well over 50% from early 1996 until the end of his presidency.  Mind you, this was in the face of constant trashing by the right wing haters and a full-blown impeachment!  Amazing.

Huge kudos for “The Adjustment Bureau”

It is storming and very, very windy today in the Tahoe region.  The ski resorts were all either closed or on “wind hold” so we went to Reno to catch the 11:30 am showing of “The Adjustment Bureau,” projected digitally. 

This the best movie I have seen in a while.  In my mind everything about it is perfect. 

• Cast:  Not even one miscast actor.  The leads, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have some of the best screen chemistry I’ve seen.  The main Adjustment Bureau cats are perfect and include the great John Slattery from “Mad Men” and the incomparable Terence Stamp – also an actor I’m not familiar with, Anthony Mackie who plays “Henry.”
• Love story:  Every review I have read notes that this is one of the best love stories to come along in a while.  I heartily agree.  I admit I was tearing up in places and my wife gave me a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek at one point.
• Script:  Snappy and intelligent.  Best of all is that unlike a lot of sci-fi stories, they did not bog down the plot with “talking head exposition.”  Instead they worked the exposition into the plot a little at a time so that you hardly noticed it, but on the other hand you don’t leave the theater saying to yourself, “what was that all about?”
• Production:  Top of the line direction, cinematography, and design.  Digital projection was an added plus.
• Music:  Original music by Thomas Newman who also did the music for Wall-E, Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty and tons of other films and TV shows.  The music is very effective in this movie as you will see.
• Story:  Hey, it’s Philip K. Dick, need I say more.  You will be on the edge of your seat a lot of the time wondering what comes next and savoring it when it comes.

Tom says five out of five stars.  Go see it.

Gas prices & corporate welfare...

Wow, I did not realize that I had not posted on my own blog for a while. I have been writing fairly long comments on other blogs so I have neglected by own.

Anyway, we are back up at the Tahoe/Donner place for a week's vacation. We got here on Friday and we don't have to go home until Sunday!

While we were driving up on Friday we had to stop for gas. The price per gallon? $4.07 for regular. This gets my blood boiling. These tea party party people and the right wing are forever pushing to cut welfare for the poor and disadvantaged who truly deserve it. Yet, they defend (or at least ignore) the huge subsidies that we, that's right WE the tax-payers, shell out to the oil companies. Of course these are the same companies charging over $4.00 a gallon for their product. How can this be justified?

On a more mellow note, I went out snowshoeing the other day after another snow storm. It was cloudy and cold, but truly stunning. Here is a photo I shot that proves it.

Late February snow storm

We took off for our Tahoe Donner place on Thursday at about 2:30 pm, just ahead of a snow storm forecast.  It caught up with us just as we started to head up the pass.  That meant some white-knuckle driving at 25 mph, but we made it in and up the driveway and into our garage at about 7:30 – five hours for what usually take a little over three hours.  It snowed very hard all that night and all day Friday, so we did not get out of the house to go skiing.  It would not have made any difference because almost all the ski resorts did not open because of gale-force winds.  We ski at Squaw Valley USA, and the winds over the ridge tops there were clocked at well over 100 mph!!

We got out today, and got some nice skiing in but because it was a Saturday after a big storm, every powder hound within  300 miles was there.  Too crowded for my tastes.  Anyway, when I got back this afternoon I took some pictures to show you how much snow fell on us:

This is a shot from above our place, which shows that the snow is up to our first story.  The pickup belongs to a neighbor and it broke down a couple of weeks ago.  He still hasn’t been able to get it started.  Obviously the plow had to work around it.

This shot shows the front of our place and when you are looking out that lower window you cannot see above the snow!

Another shot of the ill-fated pickup.

Bob Parlocha gets well-deserved kudos

Is seems to me that most people will tell you they are from somewhere.  It’s the place of their roots, the area on earth where they feel grounded and most fulfilled.  Me, I’m a west-coast boy, specifically the San Francisco Bay Area.  Where ever I go, I always get that sweet, comforting  feeling when I return to my home in Alameda on San Francisco Bay. I spent some time in Europe and on the East Coast, and enjoyed it, but my soul was always ready to fold up the tent and return home. 

Part of “home” here in the Bay Area is Bob Parlocha.  We used to have a renowned jazz station here, KJAZ, and Bob was one of the best DJ’s on that station.  I listened to him and the sounds he played for all the years I was “home.”  KJAZ shut down in 1994 because of the money woes of its rich owner who had lovingly run it at a loss for many years.  But KCSM, a public radio station in San Mateo County filled the void and went to an all-jazz format, where it remains today.  Parlocha continued his “Dinner Jazz” program under KCSM’s auspices.

So I was pleasantly surprised today to find this article/interview in today’s SF Chronicle.  It turns out that Parlocha is recording his show in a garage studio in at his home in Alameda,  sending it to WFMT in Chicago via the Internet, where they download it to CDs and then upload the program to satellite. Then the satellite beams it to some 260 stations around the world. A number of stations put it online, including KCSM.

This revelation made me all warm and fuzzy because I live in Alameda too!  In all these years I don’t recall ever seeing a picture of Parlocha, so who knows, I may have walked by him dozens of times in the local Safeway store, or more likely one of the coffee places like Peets at the corner of Park St. and Central Ave. in Alameda.  If that happened I can assure you that he was not speaking during those moments because I would recognize his voice anywhere.  Now that I have recent pictures of him from today’s article/interview I’m going to be on the lookout for him!

If you are interested in hearing him and the music he plays for you tune into this station from 12am – 6am or 6pm – 12am; just click on the “Listen Live” button.   Or you can start here.

I’ll close with Bob’s terrific answer to the last question in the interview:

Q: What one CD would you take with you?

A: "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane. It came at a time (1960) when the door was open and my mind was seeing the universe.

Where are the Smiths? (as in “tune” and “word”)

On occasion I hear “main-stream” FM radio and I have realized that virtually all of the popular artists are singing songs that I call “slab compositions,” a term I have coined myself for lack of a better identifier. What seems to be going on is that composers (even some of the better singer/songwriters) just take a bunch of chord changes and then sing only notes that fall in the chord and what comes out is this “slab” of a song. If you want a sample of what I am talking about, just check out “The Pulse,” channel 26 on Sirius/XM satellite radio. And, the lyrics, when sung in this monotonous, often-single note repetition, come out boring and lifeless. (I actually can write one these type songs pretty easily by just getting out my guitar and working out a nice chord sequence and then simply singing some notes that fall under the hand).

The problem is that we have pretty much lost the tunesmiths and the wordsmiths these days, at least in pop and modern rock. It’s difficult and tricky to write really cool tunes that don’t come out as simple slabs, and it’s just as hard to write lyrics that have some soul and zest yet aren’t corny or cheesy. I could give you a hundred examples “the real deal,” ranging from pretty much anything Paul Simon wrote more than 10 years ago (“American Tune” is sheer genius) to the songs from most of the great traditional musicals (“I Loves You Porgy” indeed). But one example that just popped into my head as I was thinking about this was this:

“And if you should survive to 105
Think of all you’ll derive out of being alive
And here is the best part
You’ll have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart.”

Of course this is from the great song “Young at Heart” written by Carolyn Leigh, lyrics, and Johnny Richards, tune, popularized by Sinatra in the mid-fifties and covered hundreds of times by other artists, including of late none other than Tom Waits!

Perhaps I will weigh in further on this subject in later posts with actual links to the music I am discussing, but that will have to wait for another day.

~ Tom of the young at heart