Sunday, September 27, 2009

A quote for today

I, and the people I value have had much beauty revealed to us.

I don’t like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn’t of much value. Life hasn’t revealed its beauty to them.

~ Boris Pasternak

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Wonders really do never cease

I was Stumbling around on the Internet this morning and came across this extraordinary short video.  It is just a little under 10 minutes, so make some quality time to watch it. 

The site that it appears on, Visual Things, looks like it offers a lot of high-quality content.  I’m definitely bookmarking it for further exploration.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Bill Maher has it right…

Sometimes I read something that just rings of simple truth. Here is a good example.

This is one of the best parts:

We weren't always like this. Inert. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law and 11 months later seniors were receiving benefits. During World War II, virtually overnight FDR had auto companies making tanks and planes only. In one eight year period, America went from JFK's ridiculous dream of landing a man on the moon, to actually landing a man on the moon.

Each day I wonder how things would be if we had a parliamentary system where bozos are turned out on their collective ears if things don’t get accomplished in a reasonable, but rapid manner.

~ Tom

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Some very nice Freddie & accompanying lore.

I’m up at our place at Tahoe-Donner this weekend. About to head down the mountain in an hour or so but I thought I would throw in this post before I leave.

Checked my email this morning and found that my friend John Burke had sent me and others a link to a terrific performance by Freddie Hubbard.

That got me thinking…

Freddie won a Grammy for “First Light,” a copy of which I had on LP and played a lot. I was going to look it up for this post just to make sure that it had indeed won a Grammy, but I started looking in the 80’s and could not find it. It turns out Freddie made the record in 1971, the year I bought it. Man did that make me feel old.

Anyway, about the early 90’s I realized that I hadn’t heard anything from or about Freddie in quite some time. I feared he had died and I had not gotten the news. The Internet was in its infancy so I couldn’t do the quick on-line research we all do these days. Finally, I happened to read a magazine article that indicated that Freddie had cut his lip and it had become infected, preventing him from playing his trumpet/flugelhorn at all.

I confirmed this just now on his Wikipedia page:

Following a long setback of health problems and a serious lip injury in 1992 where he ruptured his upper lip and subsequently developed an infection, Hubbard was again playing and recording occasionally, even if not at the high level that he set for himself during his earlier career.

Anyway, take a hike back to ‘82 or ‘83 and enjoy this cool performance that my friend John was kind enough to send our way.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Patrick Swayze, R.I.P.

Dang, I was truly saddened to just learn of Patrick Swayze’s passing.  I unabashedly admit that he was one of my “guilty pleasure” actors.  Sure, he didn’t win any academy awards, but I could not, and still cannot, resist his movies such as Dirty Dancing (just a sweet movie), Roadhouse (a terrific “ass-kicker” with Ben Gazzara as a fabulous villain), and my favorite of all the guilty pleasures, Point Break (tell me a better flick to sit back and watch with a bowl of popcorn).   While I really like Ghost, it was a tiny bit too serious/sappy to make my guilty pleasures list.

If you haven’t seen Point Break, I say dig it now in honor of Swayze – or watch it again in tribute.  The flick has absolutely some of the best stunt stuff you will see packed into one movie (surfing and sky diving scenes are epic), with Swayze at the height of his buff, athletic prime playing a yin/yang bad/good guy.  Keanu Reeves is the supposed star, but it is Swayze’s movie.  Gary Busey steals a few scenes and Lori Petty is a sweetheart in her role.  Check it out…

And off-screen Swayze was a stand up guy:

 Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.

Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center, People magazine reported in a cover story.

I’m gonna miss him.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The adult in the room…

I’m sure all of us Obama supporters agree that his speech was superb.   While it admirably covered all the “wonky” stuff that needed to be discussed, I was more interested in the motif running through the speech that was  brought to a head in the final 10 minutes.

A moral issue defining our national character.  He waited until the end to expostulate this dictate, which made it all the more powerful.  Playing into his hands were the dour elected Republicans,  making their distain childishly evident, including an outright verbal attack calling the President a liar.  I may be wrong, but I believe there are a lot of citizens who truly long for a moral compass in their lives.

A quick story:  When I was a very, very young lad about 7 or so, during summer vacation, I was alone at my school while construction was going on.  For the first time in my life, from the construction crew,  I heard street profanity, which frankly exhilarated and empowered me, even though something deep inside signaled me that it was not universally accepted.  Anyway, the following day, I was back, only this time a new crew was on the scene.  I remember shouting out the previous day’s “new cool words’ thinking I would get approval  (remember, I’m 7!).  I’ll never forget, this big, gentle guy who was the crew chief of the new crew registered sheer repulsion at my words and told me that I should never, ever say them, especially in public.  (Looking back on this, I’m thankful I did not try out my potty mouth on my mom or dad!).  Anyway, I hope you get the point.  These Republicans are like 7-year-0lds who think that they can disrespect the office of the President without consequences.  Because of the President’s powerful speech and their total lack of respect for him and his speech, it is clear that they need a big, gentle crew chief to let them know that good kids don’t go around shouting obscene lies and trying to subjugate the country’s good for political gain.  So far they have no such crew chief advising them, even assuming they would listen were such a person extant.  Unfortunately for them, most of the country is finally beginning to see this clearly.

Told ya so…

The President’s speech last night was even more satisfying  than I predicted. 

Please refer to my blog entry of  August 20. 

I want you all to think seriously about what would have happened had the President had made a similar speech in late July or early August.  (When a lot of supporters were getting their undies in a bunch over his supposed wuzzing out).  It would have given the other side all of August and up until now to bang away on him.  The result would have been crippling, if not disastrous. 

I trusted him, being confident enough to write the above-referenced post, even knowing that I could later look like a fool if the President did not “come through” on his own schedule. 

Well, he did come through, exceeding my expectations.  (More on that in a coming post.)  The man’s timing is impeccable.  Let me just include again the poster that we should all keep on our walls …

Monday, September 7, 2009

This and that …

I’ve been pretty busy over the last week.  So, all I can offer is some random thoughts:

  • Season tickets for many years for University of California football, with my brother Steve and son Jesse.  Season opener was Saturday vs. Maryland.  Cal 52 – Maryland 13!  There is nothing like a college game with 70,000 fans to make you feel young and happy.
  • Running a lot these days with MP3 player on shuffle.  Just realized how good the Dixie Chicks really are after they popped up a few times in the queue.  Also was great to hear some old “Joshua Tree” U2 stuff, in particular “In God’s Country.”
  • Saw “I Love You, Man” on DVD last night.  A very nice “Bro-mance.”  The scenes with Peter (Paul Rudd) and Sydney (Jason Segel) in the “Man Cave” were especially hilarious for me, having been there myself in one form or another back in my younger days. 
  • Still reeling from the season finale of “Rescue Me.”  That was a true stunner.
  • Just received the Criterion Collection, Eclipse Series 6 special edition of “Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Trilogy,” which consists of three discs:  “Blood Wedding,” “Carmen,” and “El Amor Brujo.”  “Carmen” is one of my favorite movies, and probably one of the most sensual and erotic films one could ever see.  The flamenco dancing is arresting, and the likewise the music.  I had been moaning about the fact that Carmen was only available on VCR tape and then I found out about this collection, which I got on Amazon for less then fifty bucks.  I can hardly wait to watch these great movies again, especially Carmen.  

Peace, out.

~tom