All Part of the Dance

"The Grey" (2012)

2012-01-28T05:00:00.005-06:00

The Big Bad Wolf gonna blow your house in, little piggy.

I caught "The Grey" after work. Had been impressed by the trailer for it, this gritty survival action movie. I liked it, although it is very much more than simply an action movie or thriller; rather, it's more of an extended meditation on mortality, honestly. This carries all the way through it, from start to finish -- "Don't be afraid." It's not really about man vs. wolves, even though the wolves carry throughout it, and are marvelously presented. Some folks have groused about the use of CGI for the wolves, but they are very effective, and the director makes good use of them. If anything, he uses them with restraint. I wished he'd had more howling with them, although in some scenes, it's done to great effect. Really, the wolves are a metaphor for mortality, or for the ineffable savagery of nature, the inevitability of death, and the futility of man's paltry and hubristic ambitions in the face of it, while at the same time the need for honor and compassion and kindness in the face of it. Death comes quickly and horribly to the characters in the movie, and in so many different ways. It's like the Angel of Death swoops in and *voila* you're gone. And for this to plague a group of men who survived a plane crash, no less, it's even more affecting/haunting.

This is not a comforting, comfortable movie, but it was a well-crafted and -executed exploration of mortality. The plane crash scene alone is devastating and effective, unadorned and devoid of sentiment. there is merely the will to survive and endure in the face of nearly impossible odds.

I don't think it's a perfect execution (pun intended) of the premise; I would have liked more characterization of the characters in it, in other ways than them having actorly talks around the bonfire (the kinds of scenes actors probably love, the chance for monologue), and at nearly 2 hours in length, they could have made more use of moments to bring out that characterization. I imagine people seeing this movie thinking that it's going to be an action flick will be pissed off by it, but the logic of the film is woven throughout it, and, as you reflect upon it, it makes perfect sense, and is as admirably constructed as it is grave. I left the movie feeling pretty down, which stayed with me awhile, and, having been bathed in this frigid Alaskan wilderness for a couple of hours, found the well-lit noise and human hustle-bustle of the streets of Chicago to be a jarring transition. Our culture runs and hides from death, as a whole -- the message of advertising is "enjoy today, forget about tomorrow" and "be young forever!" -- and having come out of that movie, this cognitive dissonance was very apparent.

All of the actors worked credibly within their roles, and Liam Neeson did a good job, as ever. He manages that gravelly gravitas that is well within his comfort zone, but which he brings to bear with that earnest, unadorned nobility. I'm glad that Neeson has managed a kind of late-era action hero status -- you can tell that he's the action hero for the senior citizens/Baby Boomers these days by the fact that he's risen over the years as the go-to guy for these kinds of "old guy kicks ass" movies. It's like as the Boomers take one last, long slide on the banana peel they've been standing on their whole lives, headed for the grave, they cling to someone like Neeson to make it alright.

Anyway, good movie, a serious movie, and one that'll leave you thinking, if you're inclined to think at all. Which means that many people will probably be disappointed and disillusioned, but I wasn't one of them.

Fabulous

2012-01-26T21:09:00.000-06:00

I love these vintage Chicago posters! They're so great! It's amazing to think that at one time so much attention was paid to illustration like that, to create these beautiful posters.

Quickly

2012-01-26T05:02:00.014-06:00

Can't believe January's nearly over. I wonder how it feels to old people, if time shoots by even quicker for them. When you're a kid, an hour can seem like an eternity, and a month might as well be a year. But nowadays, a month blows by so quickly, seemingly.

The boys are peacefully sleeping right now, very sweetly. I love that B1 sleep-laughs. That really cutes me out. He never remembers what made him laugh, but they're hearty laughs, whatever it is. B2 doesn't sleep laugh, but rolls around a lot.

I'm looking forward to "The Grey" coming out. Hopefully it's at least an entertaining movie. The trailer for it looked promising enough, but we'll see. I'm a little worried, since they sometimes bury crap movies in January, but because it's so snow- and cold-themed, maybe they ran with that. Not sure. But I'll find out, anyway. I'm guardedly hopeful, I guess.

Saw that we were having some solar flares recently. I wish the US would be smart about protecting its infrastructure, but it seems like forward-thinking things like that are not our country's strong suit, anymore. Maybe that'll change. Maybe having massive power outages in the wake of a major solar storm sometime will change people's perspectives. I dunno.

Was marveling that we have 50 million uninsured in this country. There was just an article in the NYT the other day, comparing the US system to the rest of the First World (and, yes, all of those countries have national healthcare), and how much more expensive our system of care is, relative to theirs. We have good outcomes in particular areas, but the cost differences are extraordinary. For the supposedly more efficient private system (with 25% of the overhead tied to the administrative paper-shuffling of the insurance industry *koff koff*), our system is terribly expensive. A huge percentage of personal bankruptcies in this country are tied to healthcare. It's like a slow-motion trainwreck -- more and more employers opting out of coverage of their employees, more and more people unable to get the care they need, more and more uninsured. It's a disaster. And, unfortunately, a preventable one. We'll just shamelessly lurch along with our 50 million uninsured, with politicians (themselves covered by national healthcare, mind you) busy trying to scuttle Medicare and Medicaid and push everybody into the private insurance industry, whether they can afford to pay or not. Disaster.

Although I will qualify it by saying that around 43% of those without insurance are non-citizens. But that still means we have 25 million Americans who don't have health insurance, millions of whom are children and the elderly. That's just a mess. And as more companies opt out of coverage, that number is going to continue to climb.

This is kind of a fun applet, tracking your food spending. According to what I input on this, I spend far more on groceries than most Americans, but I eat out far less than most Americans, too. Maybe it's because I enjoy cooking, I'm not sure. Still, it's fun to see that data compared.

Windy

2012-01-23T19:58:00.000-06:00

All of that snow we got the other day mostly got washed away in some thunderstorms. Now it's turning into a windy mess as the temperatures crash again and we're supposedly due for some more snow.

The boys were watching some Star Trek: TOS. B1's favorite episode remains "The Doomsday Machine," as I knew it would be. It was the first episode he ever saw (and I picked that one as the first one because I knew he'd love it so much). We were talking about the nature of the Planet Eater, and B1 had his share of theories about it, which cracked me up. The enhanced DVDs actually work well -- the CGI they used to update the special effects were really well done, are seamlessly woven into the story.

6 to 8 Inches

2012-01-20T18:09:00.000-06:00

Winter finally decided to show up properly in Chicago! We're getting a snowstorm right now, supposed to deliver 6 to 8 inches of snow. The city's grinding through it, as ever, but traffic's a mess. Our first real snowstorm of the year. Makes me glad I did my big grocery run last weekend, since it means I can just hunker down and not sweat the weather. And the new sleds I bought for the boys came in, just in time! I'm really happy about that; the timing couldn't have been better. They'll be super-stoked to try'em out tomorrow. Actually, I will, too! I'm curious to see how much we'll get, but it looks like there's already 4 inches on the ground. It's really coming down quickly.

Chillin'

2012-01-18T19:23:00.000-06:00

Man it was damned cold today! Beautiful light, but just COLD. I'm not complaining, just stating the facts of it. I'm pretty resistant to the cold, and even then, I still felt chilled by the winds nailing the city. Brrr! Still, less annoying to face the cold than massive snow and the cold; usually, when it's super-chilly in Chicago, we don't get much in the way of snow.

Sure

2012-01-17T18:31:00.002-06:00

Ever have a day like this?

Draconic

2012-01-16T04:33:00.000-06:00

So, I'm probably the only person in the world who hasn't read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (or wanted to, frankly), since it's like the bookfad of the past year or so. I call a "bookfad" any of those books that become bestsellers beyond their actual merit as works of fiction -- like the whole "Twilight" series (which people far and wide criticize as being terribly written, but it hardly seems to matter).

I saw the Swedish original movie was in a discount bin (figuring that they were trying to piggyback on the whole American remake of it being out), and so I watched it, and was bored by the movie. It's packaged as a crime thriller, but I'd call it a crime un-thriller, honestly. It was about the slowest-paced "thriller" I've ever seen, and at something like 2.5 hours, it took a long time to mosey where it was going.

Didn't think the characters were particularly well-drawn, and the one people seem to love, "Lisbeth," was even more boring to me. Surly wunderkind neo-goth, hairy-armpitted, overmuscled, photographic memory-having, motorcycle-riding computer hacker chick? Okay. I wasn't terribly convinced by the character, didn't find her particularly compelling.

And given the obvious themes of the movie, I did some background reading on this whole bookfad, and I guess the late writer's back story was something about how he saw some girl getting gang-raped a long time ago, and did nothing to stop it, felt guilt about it, and crafted this character (who was, allegedly, her namesake) as a way of atoning for his failure to do anything in the real world. Which is very writerly, of course, but I think it is also lame, in that the character is just hard to swallow (pun intended).

She's like the perfect girlfriend for Hellboy, honestly -- there's that same kind of arc between those characters. A disagreeable superbeing who has a bone to pick with the universe. It's so clear that the writer loved this character, without there being anything particular about her to love.

Obviously, it's the movie I'm critiquing, here, but many reviews I've read of the book point to the bad writing and the poorly-drawn characters, so it looks like they translated that well in the screenplay. But, where bookfads are concerned, it doesn't actually matter. Nothing matters, because people are buying it, regardless.

There were a couple of reasonably good scenes in the movie, but it was largely a snooze for me. I found myself getting fidgety and bored watching it, and even some of the "outrageous" scenes were kind of rote to me.

Now, one could claim that Lisbeth's militant neo-feminism might have been off-putting to me, except that it's just not so. I just didn't find the story terribly striking, didn't find the mystery so mysterious, and, following my general rules of thumb regarding suspense movies, was able to figure out who the killer was with ridiculous ease. All of the components of it didn't coalesce for me.

I read somewhere that the title of the original book was something like "Men Who Hate Women" -- and those themes are very apparent, which makes me think that the book is maybe for Women Who Hate Men Who Hate Women or something like that, which probably accounts for its success. But at least in the movie, following the character's progression, she's a flat line -- she starts out bad, she ends up bad (oh, with a whisker of feeling for another character in the story, but she still comes off as one badly damaged Pop-Tart).

Again, with bookfads (and the accompanying movies they inevitably inspire), actual criticism of them as books is ultimately meaningless. Adherents might say I should read the books and decide for myself, but the concept just doesn't compel me, and I've read enough reviews that rip on the writing to make me think it's not worth my time -- life's too short for bad writing. But I certainly watched the movie thinking "Wait, so THIS is what people are spurting about?? THIS??" and feeling ever more chagrin that this is what passes for edginess with the mainstream.

It's like the pop culture equivalent of a bunch of barnyard animals calling out in fear and awe from behind the fencing because somebody spraypainted a fox on the side of the barn. Oooh!

Getting the Sled Out

2012-01-15T07:49:00.001-06:00

I'm going to take advantage of the momentary snow on the ground to take the boys sledding today. They've been waiting for a proper snow for the past month or two, so I'm going to make the most of it, since I don't know how long the snow will last, honestly. But for the moment, there's enough, so we're on it!

Oscar Grouching

2012-01-14T05:29:00.003-06:00

I enjoyed "The Artist" the second time around, although, having researched it a bit, I was kind of peeved that the leading lady in it is the wife and/or squeeze of the director. They have a couple of kids together. That somewhat tarnishes her otherwise great performance, in my view. I never like when the squeezes of directors get plum roles that way. But she does a good job in her performance, so I don't complain much.

The attendance was very good, too. I was glad to see that. The movie should win some Oscars, but we'll see how that all shakes out, politically. It'll probably snare the Foreign Film category, maybe Costume Design or Cinematography or something. We'll see. It likely won't win Best Picture, compared with some of the others it's likely to go against. But it should win some Oscars, to be sure. And more than one. I mean, you'd have to be a total asshole not to enjoy this. Even John Goodman's very well-played producer asshole loved it! Baha!

It was frickin' cold last night! Outside, anyway. The apartment is toasty as ever, but outside, bitter cold. It's like the area remembered that it's winter, and Old Man Winter came in with gusto. Many months of this ahead, of course. I'm cool with that (get it? Winter? Cool?)

Once Again

2012-01-13T05:17:00.001-06:00

I'm going to see "The Artist" again this evening; it's the first time I've seen a movie twice since "Midnight in Paris." I'm greatly looking forward to it!

The winds are howling outside. Proper winter has momentarily arrived. Although, with the steam heat in my building, it's all toasty in my place.

I kept waking up last night, so I'm a little sleep-debted. Meh. I could try to wrangle a bit more sleep, I suppose, but I doubt it'll happen. When my brain wakes me up, that's that (almost always).

Gonna do a big grocery run tomorrow, my usual monthly foray, with the snow offering a slight complication to the mix, but no big deal. Just makes it a bit more of a PITA to park.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Snow, Man!

2012-01-12T20:27:00.002-06:00

Finally got a winter storm! Can't believe this is our first one -- that we're nearly into mid-January, and this is the first proper snow we've gotten! Amazing.

The boys are stoked, of course, hoping to take the sleds out. We'll see if we get enough snow (and if it stays -- supposedly the temps are going up again).

It certainly looked pretty, though.

Shout It Out

2012-01-12T06:02:00.007-06:00

Lost my temper the other day, which is a rarity -- this old guy blithely ran a stop sign at a pedestrian crosswalk I happened to be crossing, and the guy nearly hit me, had to swerve to avoid me, and I shouted at him "STOP SIGN. STOP. SIGN!" and then gestured, yelling "PEDESTRIAN! CROSSWALK! YOU [BLEEEP-BLEEEP] IDIOT!" The guy saw me and took off. He looked like he was afraid I was going to stomp on his car (and I was tempted, but I held back). I was so pissed, for like a minute, which is about how I operate. I so seldom lose my cool like that, but when somebody does stuff like running a stop sign and nearly clipping a pedestrian (who happens to be me), it pisses me off. The moment made me realize how rare it is for me to get pissed like that. I try to take most things in stride, and am largely successful at that -- I don't whine or complain, I don't get pissed very often. I do get annoyed from time to time, but that's about it. It takes something particularly bad to piss me off, I guess, and even then, I am probably likelier to laugh at the absurdity of it than to shout about it.

Speaking of shouting, I took the boys to their favorite pizza place, and we were in a nice corner booth, and across the room was another family -- dad, mom, and two boys, one of whom was very young, I'm guessing about 4 years old? My boys were kind of fascinated by that, because the little kid looked over at us and made noise, and my sweet boys waved to the kid. But the dad was this surly guy, and he actually yelled at his kids a couple of times (one of the exchanges was him yelling at his son "Go ahead! Take a bite of the pizza, you'll burn your mouth, and I guarantee you'll never do THAT again!"), and it totally upset my boys. They were like "Those poor kids; they have a mean, yelly daddy!" And the dad was browbeating the waitress, too, which was upsetting to me (he kept after her, kept carping about things, barking orders, like "Bring me another water. With lemon. Make it a FRESH lemon! And plenty of ICE! No, wait -- make it a LIME. Do you understand? A FRESH. LIME." -- and he's yelling this at her) and the waitress caught my eye as she went off to do that with a look like "Yeah, that guy's a fucking asshole!" B1 said to me later about it (I always know when something bothers him like that, because he mulls it over and will talk to me about it later) "Why'd he yell at the little boy? The kid was too young to know he'd done anything wrong. That'll just scare him." I just said that some parents thought yelling was the way to keep their kids in line, and B1 said "But that doesn't work; it'll just make the kids mad or scared of their own parents." B2 had his own opinions on it, mostly saying that he was really glad I wasn't a "Yelly Daddy." And I'm not, thankfully; I take most everything in stride where the kids are concerned. I think Exene yells more than I do, from what the boys say. I don't know; I think seeing a "Yelly Daddy" in action seemed very strange and unfamiliar to the boys, so they reacted to it with contempt and dismay.

Of course, if they'd seen me at that stop sign, they'd have been shocked by that, too. And if I'd had the boys with me when that prick had run that stop sign, I'd have probably broken his windshield with my invective.

The Artist

2012-01-10T19:17:00.005-06:00

I saw "The Artist" tonight, the black-and-white silent movie, and it was great! I enjoyed it mightily. It was everything I think "Hugo" aspired to be. Amazing achievement, and I'm so glad I saw it on the big screen. As a movie lover, it was just so much fun to watch the director's clear love of movies show in how he shot it. A picture-perfect period piece, and as a silent movie, no less! I was very impressed.

I really enjoyed "The Artist." Everybody about it was enjoyable -- the casting, the costuming, the shots, the situations -- it was both staggeringly self-referential and postmodern and incredibly entertaining. It's the first movie I've really enjoyed in a long time. It was a sweet lil' love story, an exercise in cinematic style -- funny, inventive, delightful.

And it was really weird for me, since I watched "The Shadow" last night, which was a fairly lavish, if somewhat empty retro movie (which had Penelope Ann Miller in it, among others), and tonight I watched "The Artist," which had a much-older Penelope Ann Miller in it!!! WTF? That was just very trippy.

Totally worth your time, and a trip to see a silent movie about silent movies in this day and age. Bravo!

Happy Birthdays!

2012-01-08T08:15:00.000-06:00

To the King...

And the Thin White Duke!

Remember the A La Mode

2012-01-07T07:21:00.000-06:00

I had a strange and amusing dream last night, which was in a kind of documentary style, about this decorative Alamo that was, for some reason, in Chicago, and this tycoon who had flown into O'Hare, and had seen that Alamo as he was coming in, and had asked one of his friends where he should stay, and one of them quipped "How 'bout the Alamo?" To commemorate this, the guy then hollowed out the decorative Alamo (which was about the size of a tool shed) -- he had landscaping around it, and had stairs leading into it from either side. Inside it was this very shiny, liquid-smooth black benches, with rose- and blue-hued neon and argon lighting. The whole effect was like something straight out of the 80s. You could just sort of hang out in this odd, Vegas-seeming Alamo, with, of course, a commemorative plaque recounting the story of this bizarre construction, which had become a kind of legendary tourist attraction. I was there with my mom, explaining that to her, so there wa the straight-up documentary voiceover part of the dream, and then there was me explaining the place to my mom, who found it amusing, as well.

Landa

2012-01-05T05:36:00.000-06:00

Having watched "Inglorious Basterds" again, the villain, Hans Landa, really stands out. The Austrian actor (Christoph Waltz) who portrayed him did a great job with the character. Definitely one of the best cinematic villains to emerge in years.

Landa Laughing

Landa montage (fake trailer)

It's not easy to take something freighted with baggage like a Nazi character and make him more than a caricature of evil, but Landa was a great character, combining a serpentine charm with a toadlike oddness and a diabolical intelligence to make for a perfect villain. Any scene he enters, you can't help but feel dread, and, to his credit, Tarantino uses him masterfully throughout the movie.

Radiator

2012-01-05T04:39:00.000-06:00

I don't know if the hissing radiators did it to me, but I dreamed I was driving a Mercedes and the thing was perilously close to overheating, so I stopped the car somewhere and checked the radiator, which was nearly out of water, and went about filling the radiator up. Some celebrity had a cameo in the dream, like the gal who was fetching the water. It was like Claire Danes or Naomi Watts or somebody equivalent. I can't remember, now, but I kept having her get water, before realizing that there was a hose nearby, and that I could use that, instead. Anyway, I took care of that, only to wake up to the sound of the radiators, so I think my subconscious was on task, trying to solve the problem of it being too hot and/or me being thirsty, etc.

New

2012-01-03T21:59:00.000-06:00

So, now it's 2012. Woo hoo! Nothing much exciting to say. It's frickin' cold out. Winter is finally, properly here, at least for the moment. True to form for Chicago, it'll likely hang on until March. We'll see if we get another mega-blizzard like last year. I think the pattern of the warm(er) temps and accompanying moisture in the air raises the risk of a big-ass snowfall. We'll see if it happens.

Here We Go

2011-12-31T05:38:00.003-06:00

Wow, the end of 2011. I won't get particularly reflective about the year, except that it was a much better year for me than the past few years the preceded it, no question about it. I intend to make 2012 even better, still. This'll be the year I turn 42, which is bizarre, truly. My 30s evaporated, dominated as they were with two wonderful boys and dealing with Exene. Still, it's weird to think that as B1 turns 10, how different my world was at 32 than now. A lot of the stress fractures were there between Exene and me back in 2002, of course. In fact, having kids was probably THE ultimate stress fracture. I think I enjoy parenting more than Exene, who faces the endless randomness, chaos and disorder of the world with much more stress than I do -- and if kids represent anything, it's endless randomness, chaos and disorder. My tendency to roll with everything was exactly what I needed to be able to handle parenting. Anyway, now ten years on, it's amazing how it all moves forward, seeing my boys growing up and becoming more themselves, growing into themselves. It's such a tender time.

On to a bigger, better, brighter future for us all. The end of this year will be whacked, of course, with all the loonies thinking the world's going to end. They'll be disappointed to find that, well, no, the world keeps on going. Funny, that. And wonderful.

The Boys are Back in Town

2011-12-29T05:33:00.000-06:00

The boys came back yesterday, and seemed to have a good time in Ohio. They got haircuts while gone -- I'm guessing Exene had her family pay for that. They were very glad to see me, especially B2, who kept hugging me and kissing me and telling me he loved me. Very cute. B1 was glad, too -- the first thing he did when he got in was he aimed his new telescope at the Moon and called me over to look at it. Sure enough, he'd zeroed in on it perfectly, and it was fun to look at it in detail. I can tell in his quiet, Capricornian way how much he digs that telescope.

Cannot believe the end of 2011 is nearly here. What a year it's been, too. I jokingly call it "The Year of the Dave" to my folks, just from all of the stuff that has gone on this year, and the contrast from 2010 to now for me. The last several years have been surreal, really. I'm tackling 2012 head-on, not with resolutions (because I really don't believe in resolutions per se -- that whole New Year's tradition feels contrived to me -- you should be resolute every day, not just one day a year, right?) but with a To Do List (TDL), stuff I need to get done. 2011 was very productive for me, across the board, but I want to get much more done, so I'm on that.

May the Farce Be With You

2011-12-28T05:42:00.014-06:00

I blame my Star Wars ruminations of late on the Playstation 2 Lego Star Wars games, which I'd taken out of storage recently and played with the boys, along with other games. I'd had a Playstation 2 that I'd effectively mothballed after B1 was born, just because who has time to play games when you're in the middle of Baby Boot Camp, right? It was amusing for me to see the save dates on some of the games (like GTA III: San Andreas and Vice City, more blasts from the past). Anyway, now that the boys are older, I decided to bring out the console and we've been playing a bit. They love it, of course, although hearing them squabble as they play is both amusing and disarming -- nothing gets the boys more pissed at each other than trying to play Lego Star Wars together! One pushes the other's character off a cliff, one takes the other's coins, etc. Of course, I try to communicate and/or demonstrate the value of teamwork to the boys, which, I think, is slowly seeping in, although usually they're like "I want to team up with Daddy!" since I can usually get through a level. We take turns, since there are three of us, so it'll be B1 + B2, or B1 + me, or me + B2.

So, playing those games (the original one being far more entertaining than the actual prequel movies) has made me philosophical about the Star Wars universe. Now, of course, the Star Wars universe is space opera central, isn't a place of deep thought or characterization, but it's possible to think about the Empire as a kind of revolt of the norms against the paranormal oligarchy of the Jedi. I mean, as Obi-Wan said to Luke, "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."

From a certain point of view, the Jedi could be seen as the hitmen for the Republic, who we're supposed to accept as innately virtuous. However, from the point of view of a norm, a Jedi would seem oppressive and frightening. Here is this person who has paranormal abilities and a lightsaber who will cut you if you cross them, or Jedi Mind Trick you. We're told the Jedi are a force (pun intended) for Good, because they have benign avoidance of Anger, Fear, and Hatred -- the tools of the Dark Side of the Force. But a Jedi is a warrior, remains a human weapon, at heart. And a weapon is always going to be an instrument of oppression, even if used for ostensibly good purposes. So, there's that.

And there is the sticky wicket of the Dark Side of the Force, the eternal temptation of the Jedi to go bad and become Sith Lords (of whom we only see a few, right? Sidious, Maul, Tyranus, and Vader). The bad apples that spoil the barrel, the indictment of the power principle, basically. The Sith are nowhere near as numerous as the Jedi -- again, we just see a handful of Sith -- but they completely overturn the Jedi-enforced order of the Republic. All those Jedi (multiple generations of them) are no match for Sith machinations, and are nearly wiped out by their dark counterparts. But that the Sith exist as a defined entity points to a larger infrastructure in place -- an entire shadow organization of Sith out to overturn Jedi order, which gets at my problem with the paranormal police force the Jedi represent: if the Jedi can't prevent the Sith from appearing, and the Sith are so great at overturning Jedi order, this is a fatal structural flaw in the system.

It points to the peril of this Force thing to begin with -- if your enforcers are perennially vulnerable to "going bad," and only a few Sith are capable of demolishing your order (or worse, are capable of flourishing in the shadows, creating a shadow conspiracy that will destroy your order), when what good are you, anyway? It points to the fragility of this seemingly long-lived order. Of course, all of this happened to serve the needs of the plot, but at the same time, it makes me wonder how Luke (and Leia) could possibly restore order to the Galaxy in the wake of the Empire. I mean, if legions of Jedi were mowed down, at a time when the Jedi order was at its greatest, how could those two right things? What's more, would they even be righting anything, or merely returning to baseline -- namely, Jedi as enforcers of the New Republic. What's to stop another bad apple from spoiling the barrel again? It's not like Anger, Fear, and Hatred are hard to come by -- even Luke nearly succumbs to it several times, and lord knows Leia's quite the angry one.

And since, as Yoda and others said, the Dark Side was "quicker, easier, more seductive" -- it makes me think that those who can get their hands on the nanites that let people channel the Force, sooner or later, somebody else is going to go that quicker, easier, more seductive route again and presto -- a new Sith Lord for the New Republic. And it all repeats. Now, in the short-term, obviously, with Luke and Leia being the only two sporting the Vader bloodline, who is apparently the strongest Force-bearing soul ever, that threat isn't realized, yet. But a few generations hence? And it's a big Galaxy, after all. Anything can happen -- and entropy always wins -- Order inevitably becomes Chaos.

In a weird way, it almost feels cyclical, ala "The Matrix" -- that the New Republic will stand for awhile, and then Chaos will intrude, and we'll get another Empire of some sort. Much of that hinges on the appearance of another Palpatine/Sidious, of course, who just sort of appears.

Even though the Empire was led by Sidious and Vader, it was really a melange of normal humans, clones, starships, and droids. That was the real foundation of the Empire, with Sidious and Vader at the top, acting as dark mirror Jedi, keeping this order in check through fear -- or a different brand of fear than the Jedi had been pimping. The norms really formed the backbone of the Imperial order, were its administrative and business class, with the Sith and the Stormtroopers as the muscle.

If I were a norm facing the devastation in the wake of the collapse of the Empire, I'd be like "To hell with the Jedi. We don't want anymore Jedi around -- the risk is too great. Sooner or later, they're going to go bad, and we'll have Sith on our hands again, and they're going to frag us."

This is one of those things that would have some scold friends of mine saying "You have wayyy too much time on your hands." But it's still fun to think about.

Boyo

2011-12-27T05:03:00.000-06:00

The boys reached Ohio safe-n-sound, although Exene said that B2 puked on her (and himself) around five hours into the trip. Knowing B2, who is prone to carsickness, they probably had some McD's or something at some rest stop point in the bus trip, then he hurled later. I know from hard experience (hell, B2 first car-puked in the White Donkey, years ago, in his baby seat -- from that point onward, I was always mindful of not giving him much in the way of food while on the road). Knowing Exene, she didn't pack any "barf bags" -- even though B2 bus-puked on their last trip. I meant to remind her to bring some barf bags when I dropped the boys off with her, but hadn't remembered until a few hours later, when they were already on the road.

But, aside from that, they got where they were going. I really miss my guys. Having them gone from the city, knowing that they're not here, makes Chicago feel terribly empty to me. It's kind of funny, really -- when they're with their mom, in the city, even though they're not with me, I at least know they're around, and take some comfort in that. When I know that they're actually in another state, and are nowhere near me, then it makes me feel terrible, it colors everything around me.

With kids, your focus shrinks, your world zooms in on your household, and it's a wonderful thing -- I mean, it's like your eye in the storm of life, this place of peace and safety, your home (obviously, with kids, everything's far from peaceful -- but there is a peace even in the joyful noise of childhood, at least I think so). It's why empty playgrounds are creepy -- playgrounds require children in them to be joyful places. Take the kids away, and all you see is this vacancy where kids belong. A home can be like that, too. B1 turns 10 years old next month -- I'll have been a dad for a decade when his birthday rolls around. That matters a lot to me.

Anyway, I miss the boys. They're supposed to be back in town tomorrow evening. I'm looking forward to that.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

2011-12-26T05:15:00.000-06:00

The boys enjoyed their Christmas; it was pretty casual, but the gifts were well-received -- B1 absolutely loved the telescope I got him, and we promptly used it to scope Venus last night. He was really tickled about that, kept saying how Venus was the first planet we'd seen with his telescope. The Moon was just a crescent, but when it's full, he's going to love seeing it. I could tell he was enjoying it, just how he kept revisiting it, and talking about it.

B2 enjoyed the Lego Garbage Truck and the General Grievous Starfighter I got him, among other things. He's all about General Grievous these days, so he dug that. He also enjoyed some other knick-knacks I got for him.

Exene is going to have the boys with her for the next few days, as she travels to Ohio with them. I'm a little anxious about that, since they're taking the bus. I just hope it goes smoothly, without incident, and the boys make it back home safe and sound. Exene won't drive, so she tends to opt for the bus (back in the day, any time there was any traveling to be done, I would invariably be the driver). I almost wish she'd opted for a plane trip for the boys and her, since it would probably have cost as much as the bus, and be far faster, but she'll do what she'll do. The bus station is the Mos Eisley of Chicago -- never will you find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. I told the boys (without wanting them to be nervous) to stay together and stick by their mom when they're there. Having caught buses there a few times in the 90s, I know it used to really suck. Hopefully they renovated it and made it better, but I doubt it. Anyway, I am seeing the boys off this morning, will miss their sweet selves.

Gonna take advantage of the boys' absence to clean the hell out of the apartment, so when they return, it'll be all clean and pristine, ready for them to mess it up again. Haha!

The ghost I don't believe in rang jingle bells outside our windows yesterday morning. B2 had gotten up, was rifling through his presents, and while we were sitting there, we heard these bells outside our window. B2 looked at me in wonder and surprise, like "Did you hear that, Daddy?" and I said "Yep. Uh, must be Santa and his sleigh." and then the bells sounded again, and B2 ran into the boys' room, told B1 about it. Meanwhile, I'm thinking "Uh, okay, so the kid heard those, too, so it wasn't just me." and B1 said he heard them, too, only that they sounded like they were in the room with him! So, I just rolled with it, said "Yeah, Santa's just doing a fly-by before heading back to the North Pole." It was surreal, though -- the Ghost of Christmas Past!

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-24T06:30:00.004-06:00

Another "Curb Your Enthusiasm" bit...

Larry Eats Jesus

*snicker*

"Ass Fetish"

Bahahah!

And one more...

The Flamboyant Kid

BAHAHA!

Chat & Cut

2011-12-23T06:23:00.000-06:00

Bahahah...

"Chat & Cut" from "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

This reminds me so much of my stepdad, it cracks me up. Larry David doesn't look like my stepdad, but his pet peeves and what-not are totally like him. Bahaha! That said, I hate waiting in lines nearly as much as I loathe line cutters!

Bandolier?

2011-12-21T22:34:00.009-06:00

So, since I'm busy quibbling about continuity in movies, something came to me while watching "The Empire Strikes Back" after seeing it for the umpteenth time -- in the torture scene(s), when Chewbacca is in the cell, being subject to sonic torture, did you notice that he's wearing his ammo bandolier?

Now, these are, we are to believe, power packs for his famed "laser crossbow," whatever that is, exactly. Some kind of glorified blaster. At any rate, it's an effective weapon he'd put to good use a time or two.

But the Imperials just chucked Chewie into the torture room with his bandolier. Huh. Given the Wookie's propensity for tech prowess, I have to wonder what they were thinking with that. Now, maybe it was a part of the costume and Lucas didn't want to have to redesign it or whatever. But, strictly speaking, from a continuity perspective, the presence of that bandolier is troubling -- there are likely any number of things a knowledgeable soul could do with blaster ammo clips/power packs, yes? We see him put C-3P0 together without much more than a hydrospanner, so surely he could do a lot of damage with a bandolier full of power packs.

Continuity. Are we to believe the Imperials are so contemptuous of the Wookie that they'd let him go into a jail cell packing his ammo like that? Especially when they are careful to cuff Chewie later, showing that they are clearly aware of the Wookie danger.

Just something I noticed. Maybe not as egregious as Leia rolling over for Jabba, but still a troubling bit of discontinuity in the movie. Lucas obviously didn't think of anything like that for Chewie, since he was only a secondary character, and wasn't going to have the enterprising Wookie bust himself out of dodge with some adroit use of the ammo clips he was packing; still, it would have been nice for Lucas to have given Chewie the benefit of a doubt and showed him without his bandolier, just to reflect the thoroughness of the Empire's detention policies.

Side note: It's kind of ironic, isn't it, those torture scenes? I mean, when that movie came out, what was it, in 1980? Torture was seen as synonymous with Imperial evil (which, of course, it is, yes?) But now, watching even those sanitized, PG-rated torture scenes, it's sort of creepy to think that torture is now officially part of American policy (as is indefinite detention and rendition of prisoners, including Americans). What used to be a cartoonish stand-in for the villainy of the Empire (Leia getting interrogated in "Star Wars" by the creepy Imperial Torture Droid; Han, Chewie and Leia getting tortured on Bespin) is now our government's policy. How times have changed! The outrages of 1980 are the official policies of 2011.

*cue "The Imperial March" as new national anthem*

Huh

2011-12-20T04:38:00.009-06:00

While watching "Captain America: The First Avenger" on DVD, I was bemused to see during the credits, when they did their medley of WWII-era propaganda posters, that they had doctored a rather famous one...

They'd replaced the USSR flag with the Russian Federation flag, which I thought was a rather curious historical revision. I mean, obviously, the movie's ersatz 40s vibe is fictional, and, I imagine, most Americans don't dwell much on paltry issues like history, but the Russian Federation didn't fight the Nazis in WWII, and didn't exist in the 40s; but the USSR did both. The Russians lost something like >20 million of their people in WWII (and, I'm sure, much of the blame can be leveled at the feet of Stalin and the Bolsheviks, who were woefully unprepared for what the Germans hurled at them -- at least at first). But if it hadn't been for the Nazis invading Russia, and for the quagmire of the Eastern Front sapping the German war machine of lives and men -- in other words, if not for the sacrifice of those 20 million Russians--the Nazis might have won WWII.

So, to have the USSR's role in WWII excised like that, even in a fleeting credit, is a weird kind of thing. The Soviet Union was not a nice place, and did plenty of bad things--but they did fight in WWII, and they were instrumental in the defeat of the Axis. Omitting them is a curiously graceless thing on the part of the moviemakers. And why did they do this, exactly? Who were they worried about offending by showing the poster as it actually was, versus the doctored one? And as they were making the rounds of propaganda posters, were they realizing that doctoring a propaganda poster was, itself, a bow to propaganda? Or did the Hollywood blacklist so thoroughly sterilize and scour the movie industry that it couldn't even allow a teensy little hammer and sickle appear onscreen for two seconds?

I just find it curious, one of those glimpses behind the mask our society wears. A small thing, yes, but a revealing one, all the same. And, yes, the movie's a fictional tale about a superhero fighting a make-believe Nazi menace--but just the same, if they are wanting to trot out the propaganda posters of the era as a kind of tip of the hat to the era, don't doctor them for whatever weird ideological needs of the moment. As I said: over 20 million Russians died fighting in that war; give them their due, don't be so chickenshit (and, weirdly, Stalinist) to rewrite history...

You can see the doctored shot at 1:40.

Leia

2011-12-16T20:59:00.004-06:00

Ah, Princess Leia. But for her "slave girl" costume, nerd girls throughout the universe would not have their go-to costume of choice. Something came to me, however, as I thought about it, having watched "Return of the Jedi" after not having watched it for a very long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

1) Leia is the biggest bitch in the cosmos, yes? I mean, that's not even a controversial point. She's a bitch's bitch. Grand Moff Tarkin understood this, which was why he tartly signed her death warrant.

2) So, granted that Leia is a supreme bitch, I ask you this: How'd Jabba get her in that slave girl costume? I mean, they do a screen wipe from the point when Jabba captures her to later, when we see her in the classic slave girl costume, chained to Jabba's throne/sedan chair.

I mean, we know why Jabba did this -- he was basically saying "You may be a bitch, but you're MY bitch, Bitch." (said in Huttese, naturally)

But what I want to know is how Jabba's minions managed to actually get Leia to wear that slave girl outfit, let alone a chain around her neck. Because if there was anybody in the galaxy who could not be made to do something she didn't want to do, it was Leia.

And yet, there she was, sporting that slave girl costume (not that I'm complaining, mind you -- that was one of the formative experiences of my burgeoning adolescent sexuality, Leia in that getup).

All the same, I only wonder how they got her to wear it. I mean, we know why Carrie Fisher wore it -- George Lucas was like "Wear this, we need to show a little skin, maybe, just to show what a dick Jabba is." But, as a character, it's hard to fathom how they got Leia to wear it.

I mean, even if Jabba's henchmen knocked Leia out and dressed her in that, she'd likely have gotten out of that getup the first chance she got, right? But Leia doesn't look roughed up -- rather, she's just lounging on Jabba's sedan chair, biding her time.

We know that Leia doesn't want to be Jabba's slave girl, obviously. But, how did Jabba manage to convince her? I mean, was Jabba a bigger asshole than Leia was a bitch? How'd he pull off the hat trick of getting Leia to be a slave girl? And in no time flat, mind you -- it's not like she'd been his prisoner for a long time; rather, Leia rolls for Jabba in no time.

Clearly, and this comes as no surprise, Jabba is a pimp. And not just any pimp -- Jabba is the greatest pimp in the history of pimpdom. He didn't even have to rough Leia up; we don't see how he did it, but, somehow, Jabba got Leia to don a slave girl costume and a leash, and, apparently, it didn't take much persuading to do so. Not just that, but the habitually mouthy Leia is silent when she's Jabba's bitch. I can't remember her actually saying anything when she's hanging out with Jabba. She just sits there, the shrew apparently tamed by Jabba's pimptacular skills.

Now, maybe Jabba told her to wear it or he'd kill Han. But, that's not very convincing, since Jabba was clearly intending to kill Han regardless of what Leia did. I don't know. It's one of those mysteries of "Star Wars" that one may never solve.

I mean, we're talking about Leia, here -- this is a woman who, rather than give up the Rebellion to Grand Moff Tarkin, risked (and lost) her entire homeworld, killing billions of people -- she's one seriously tough cookie. But Jabba rolls her in no time flat. How? Clearly, the Hutt race have some kind of Master Pimping power that rivals the Force in its awesomeness. It must be something like that. How else to explain it?

"Soon you will learn to appreciate me."
~Jabba the Hutt, to Leia Organa

Bahahahah

2011-12-15T19:15:00.000-06:00

Kirk finds himself in a very Aries guy kind of situation, here. Amusingly enough, both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are Aries! Btw, Yvonne Craig? Taurus -- that's no bull!

December Rain

2011-12-14T06:28:00.000-06:00

It's raining outside. One of those dismal December rains that really would prefer to be snow, but it's just not cold enough for that, anymore, which sucks, right? I mean, we're nearly mid-December, and have only had one day where there was even a whisker of snow. Not to say that things won't get rolling in deep winter, say January or February, but still, sheesh. My boys look forward to sledding, and right now, that's nowhere on the radar. I remember when we would get actual winters in Chicago.

Finito!

2011-12-13T19:12:00.001-06:00

So, I wrapped the last of the boys' presents, have them tucked away. B1 actually discovered one of his presents in the closet -- I know because the shirt I'd covered it with had been replaced with a different one. I had the thing wrapped, thankfully. I let him shake it once his brother was asleep (had to do that, because if B2 knew there were presents in the apartment, he'd be combing the place top to bottom). Anyway, B1 was stoked at the present (which is in a big box). He has no idea what it is, but he's going to love it! It's something he's asked for in previous years, so I made a point to get it for him this go'round. He'll be so excited to open it!

I was tickled that B1 successfully described the lunar eclipse the other day -- he knew it for what it was. Go, B1! Woo hoo! I told him about the theoretical possibility of diamond planets, too, and he was totally intrigued by that. I've said it before, but B1 is going to absolutely love physics. I can see that so clearly. I'm doing what I can to help him rock the mathematics so he can dive right into that, because he so clearly has a math-oriented mind.

Apparently Exene is going to take the boys to see her family after Christmas (like the day after, for a few days). That kinda bugs me -- even though I get Christmas Eve/Day with the boys this year, with that trip of hers looming behind the holiday that way, it feels kind of like the bum's rush a bit.

I need to bake some biscotti for the season. I love biscotti, especially around the holidays. No frickin' pizzelles or sesame cookies for me, Paisan -- gimme some frickin' biscotti! Which, in truth, I'll make myself, if you don't frickin' mind. And they will rock, because I make some damned fine biscotti. Mangiare!

Done!

2011-12-12T20:47:00.001-06:00

I think I'm well and truly done with Christmas shopping, now. Just got a couple more things for the boys. Shew. I picked up a couple of additional Lego things for the boys, was waited on by the world's cheeriest clerk -- I don't even know how she managed to keep that level of energy up in the retail hell of a Lego store, but she did it.

I'm amazed that both of my boys have grown 5 inches in the past 2 years! Lordy! I can tell they're getting bigger, but sheesh!

Jackhammer

2011-12-10T05:35:00.000-06:00

Somebody with a jackhammer started working streetside at 5:00 a.m. sharp! Haha! Life in the big city!

I didn't go to that show the other night, btw. Lame. But it was so cold and blustery, and that club was such a PITA to get to (that is, if it were summer, I'd have simply biked up there, but in winter, other transportation options = PITA), and since the ticket was only $15, I passed. Guess I'm getting old! Bahah!

Work has been crazy-busy of late. Which is fine by me, in truth -- I don't mind being busy at all. I never get people who complain about being busy; it's part of the deal, hello? You go to work, you work, right?

JACKHAMMEREREREREREERERERERRERERERER

Gonna do my usual morning write, now.

Train in Vain

2011-12-09T06:05:00.000-06:00

I'm not really surprised by this...

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technocracy/2011/12/high_speed_rail_is_dead_in_america_should_we_mourn_it_.html

To be honest, I never thought high-speed rail ever had a chance in this country. It's far too much of a First World kind of conveyance for our country to seriously consider it, particularly as we slide into post-imperial Second World status (and, sorry, but that's where we're heading, folks).

The kind of capital expenditure and infrastructure awareness high-speed rail requires doesn't fly in the land of car culture -- Americans like cars, like sprawl, like highways (hell, I like cars, too, although I recognize that a proper rail network would strengthen our country, not weaken it).

Only when gasoline is about $10/gallon will Americans begin (and I stress "begin") to wonder if alternatives are desirable. And even then, the politicians are likelier to offer non-solutions like hydrogen fuel cells or some other meta-contrivance to something like a rail service, let alone a high-speed rail service.

This article is also illustrative:

Why Conservatives Hate Trains

So long as our government panders to reactionary crybabies, nutballs, flat-earthers and whiners (mislabeled "conservatives" in our Gliberal Media), we'll continue to fail to see progress in things like rail. Frankly, it should be confined to blue states, rather than trotted out across the entire country. Let those who get it, get it (although maybe, even in blue states, people don't get it). I dunno.

Naughty or Nice?

2011-12-07T18:16:00.004-06:00

You better watch out! You better not cry! You better not pout, I'm telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town. He's making a list, checking it twice, he's gonna find out who's naughty or nice. Santa Claus is coming! Santa Claus is coming...

Here Comes Santa Claus! Here Comes Santa Claus! Right down Santa Claus Lane!

Santa's helpers will be coming in your chimney, ready to stuff your stockings, so be good, for goodness sake!

This-n-that

2011-12-06T17:44:00.000-06:00

Crazy-busy week. I've already had about 6 meetings in the past 2 days! Lots of stuff to deal with. But it's all good, for sure!

I've gotten the boys' Christmas presents mostly sorted out; I try to get them each three good gifts, plus stocking stuffin's, think that's sufficient. Each thing I pick out is well-chosen, based on what the boys actually have said what they wanted (ideally something they've said they wanted months ago, so they don't remember, so there's a nice surprise factor). I'm just glad to have it all (nearly) done. Then I just have to get B1 something for his birthday (his 10th -- oh, my), and then I'll be all set. One of the gifts I got for B1 is so perfect, he'll be super-thrilled. I know it! I'll just have to keep B2 from destroying it in a fit of little brotherly pique!

Amazing that there's not been any actual snowfall proper so far. We've had a couple of flurry moments, but no honest-to-goodness winter wonderland action.

I'm going to see a band tomorrow; or, at least, I've got a ticket to do so. We'll see how industrious I am, whether I go or not. It's at one of my favorite small clubs, but because it's a haul from where I live, if it's a rotten weather night or something, I may not go. We'll see. How jaded am I? Hah. It's only a $15 ticket, so it's not like a big investment or anything.

Speaking of that, I was amused to see a check in the mail, some kind of settlement for a class-action lawsuit I didn't even realize I was in on. Hah! $18, cash-money, out of the blue. Woo hoo!

Cipherpunk'd

2011-12-03T22:05:00.001-06:00

The latest book I'm writing is coming along very well; I'm about 20% done with it, after 3 weeks, which is a new speed record for me. I've mapped out the three parts of it, the chapters, the narrative arcs, all of that stuff. Am well-pleased with it. I even cooked up a cipher for a part of it, just having a bit of fun, tossing a puzzle into the book for the readers. Lots of folks use computers to craft ciphers, but the real problem with those is you can't ever get a truly random computer, so patterns can be discerned with computer-generated ciphers. No, the only way to get real randomness in the mix is to do it old-school, pen-and-paper, that kind of thing. Anyway, the cipher in the book is an intricate one, took me awhile to craft it. Just a bit of mischief for the reader. Good times, right? Bahah! It was just something that popped into my head while writing it, something one of the characters would definitely do, so I ran with it... F IIMF PRLBR DOSFKT OX

Lady Winter

2011-12-02T21:41:00.015-06:00

Work has been good. Have been doing my thing. I'm tired, though, just juggling plates and what-not (figuratively, mind you, not literally -- although my grandpa could do that; he was good at that kind of stuff). December has stalked into the frame, taking hold of the season, even though it's not officially winter, yet, it's making what's left of Fall its bitch.

Some of the boys' Christmas presents have arrived, which I've stealthily stashed and wrapped. Loving that. They're none the wiser. Muahaha!

Working on some new fiction, am nearly 20,000 words into it after about three weeks. That's going well. I still need to get more organized -- need to give away a lot of stuff to charity, like clothes and toys and books the boys never use, anymore. That kind of thing.

Dreamy

2011-12-02T04:33:00.001-06:00

I don't routinely post dreams, because nothing's more boring than reading about somebody else's dreams, but my dreams have been odd, lately, full of celebrity cameos and what-not. For example, I dreamed that I was in some kind of cop movie-type scenario, flying low across the LA River (if you really want to call it a river), with 90s-era David Bowie riding shotgun with me, and offering commentary on the chase. We were cops, apparently, and Bowie was keen to get the bad guys, who were racing down the LA River whatever-you-call it--concrete apocalypse?

Another was an "Avatar"-scaled kind of war movie thing, with massive amounts of lasers and explosions and what-not.

Stevie Nicks. Eyes UP HERE, Stevie.

Another was me chumming around backstage with young Stevie Nicks, who took me on a whirlwind tour of her world (there wasn't any other Fleetwood Mac folks around, although there were shadowy others around, but it was all about Stevie). And, ultimately, there was sex with Stevie Nicks, which both enticed and alarmed me in the course of the dream, because I was thinking "Wow, I'm having sex with Stevie Nicks!" and at the same moment, it was like "Oh, SHIT; I'm having sex with Stevie Nicks -- and I'm not wearing protection?!?!!" But the dream shifted before those thoughts went anywhere.

Still another had me in a protracted dispute with an Indian hair salon owner, who insisted that I owed her $800, and I as insistently pointed out that I didn't owe her place more than $20 for the haircut I'd just gotten, and we were going back and forth, and the stylist was embarrassed that their computer system apparently had no record of my transactions. I was arguing that I didn't have a running tab with the salon, that this was ridiculous. We both stood our ground, and the woman said she'd send me to small claims court, and I said "Fine. See you there!" and then the lady went back to her office and managed to find her financial records that showed that, yes, I had, in fact, paid my bill, and how sorry she was for the misunderstanding, and she wanted a hug to make things better. I was loathe to do so in the wake of the confrontation, but did so, while inwardly grossed out because the woman smelled like patchouli, one of my least-favorite scents in the world. Then I woke up.

Cool Yule

2011-11-28T05:13:00.000-06:00

B2 loved that I'd put up the tree. He had run right up to it, and was just thrilled. He gushed about how the Christmas tree was his favorite part of the holiday, and went about rearranging some of the decorations on the tree. I loved seeing him so stoked about it. He would periodically go on about it, just how much he loved it. We set up the boys' GeoTrax train around the base of the tree, too, which B2 enjoyed, too.

This Christmas will be much better than last year's, thankfully, although I'm still being very prudent about what to get the boys, trying to pick things that they'll really want, use, and enjoy. There's nothing worse than facing some "must-have" toy that they play with for about 15 minutes. On the bright side, since we never watch commercial television anymore, the boys lack that hardwired consumerist instinct so many kids cultivate. So, I have it comparatively easy.

As ever the Christmas commando, I pride myself on being able to get gifts into the apartment without the boys seeing -- Exene already had B2 spot a present she'd bought; I don't know how she talked her way out of him tearing into that one! What amuses me is that, thanks to my good hiding places, neither boys are the wiser for it -- B1 would never think of doing it, because he's so honorable; and B2 doesn't suspect that I've got various niches and hidey-holes for presents. If he knew where they were, he'd totally ferret them out! This is the kid who, at 3 years of age, would methodically pull a chair into the kitchen, climb atop it, and then climb atop the sink in an effort to get something sequestered atop the fridge.

I'm figuring on four gifts per boy -- I think that's more than sufficient. And that doesn't count anything I put in their stockings, which are hanging from the windows, so Santa can see'em -- they loved that, too. B2 was already grilling me about a present, like "Will you get this, or will Santa?" and I said "I don't know, yet. We'll see."

Hugo (2011)

2011-11-26T08:33:00.001-06:00

I saw Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" last night, after work. I'm a big fan of his, love his directing style, so I saw this one with much anticipation, and was disappointed -- not in his shooting of it. It's compellingly shot, of course, as I would expect from Scorsese, who can probably shoot movies in his sleep at this point. But I found the story lacking. Without wanting to go into spoilers per se, the movie is sort of deceptive -- despite the title, the title character really isn't the main driver of anything, so much as he's the catalyst. The movie is really about another character, and the boy is just a means of delivering some kind of creative absolution to that other character. I found the characterizations to be lacking, and the tone to be strongly sentimental and nostalgic, and Scorsese's own intense love of film-making to derail the story, itself. If it wanted to be a movie about movies, it needed to be that -- but there are other things thrown into the mix, and the result is that the movie doesn't convince or persuade -- at least it didn't do that with me (I say that because some folks applauded when it was over). In terms of the shooting of the movie, it was fine -- but in terms of the story, it was wanting.

They likely crafted the story of this cuter, cornflower-eyed waif boy in the train station to sell the real story, which was less marketable -- namely, this old film director who has, for some reason, lost his will to create movies. Again, because of the lack of deep characterization, the whole exercise felt less than convincing.

The movie will likely coast to some kind of Oscar nominations, but it's likely simply because of Scorsese's justified status as one of America's Last Great Moviemakers. It didn't work for me, however -- I didn't feel it exceeded the sum of its parts.

Holidays

2011-11-25T05:49:00.000-06:00

Got the tree up last night. I love Christmas trees. The boys will love seeing it when they finally return, of course, they'll be wondering where the presents are. All in good time. I'm tickled that both boys still believe in Santa, and that I've been able to successfully carry out Santa operations in my apartment without the boys being the wiser. Daddy the Christmas commando!

Fort

2011-11-24T11:32:00.001-06:00

I made a nice fort for the boys in their room, having cleared out the storage space where the Christmas decorations boxes have been. I made a nice fort in the corner of their room. They are loving it, are both in there. Forts are always fun!

Exene's family is in town, doing their usual "Thanksgiving for Exene" thing they do, where they drive up, cook the bejeebers out of a pile of food, watch the boys, and Exene partakes of it and then goes running. The boys'll at least enjoy seeing their relatives, and Exene will enjoy the repast that they serve up for her.

Me, I think I'll catch "Hugo" at some point. I work tomorrow, so I don't have a superlong weekend or anything.

Pepper Pike

2011-11-23T05:12:00.003-06:00

I admit I am amused about the whole "Cop Casually Pepper Spraying Everything" meme that cropped up in reaction to the UC Davis debacle. There's your 15 minutes of fame (or infamy), Slick. Some people are known for inventing things, or creating works of art, or writing, or any number of other things; you're known for casually pepperspraying protesters in the face (I wonder if he went to Pepperdine?)....

Umbrella Man

2011-11-22T17:59:00.009-06:00

Having forgotten my umbrella today, and, correspondingly, getting spritzed with rain (thankfully wearing my squall jacket, so only my slacks and shoes got reasonably wet), I saw this short film in the NYT, on this 48th anniversary of the JFK assassination...

The Umbrella Man

Which is pretty good, worth a watch!

Randroids. scoff

2011-11-21T05:10:00.001-06:00

Reading an article about something else, I saw this good piece on Ayn Rand from a few years ago...

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2009/11/how_ayn_rand_became_an_american_icon.single.html

Ayn Rand is one of America's great mysteries. She was an amphetamine-addicted author of sub-Dan Brown potboilers, who in her spare time wrote lavish torrents of praise for serial killers and the Bernie Madoff-style embezzlers of her day. She opposed democracy on the grounds that "the masses"—her readers—were "lice" and "parasites" who scarcely deserved to live. Yet she remains one of the most popular writers in the United States, still selling 800,000 books a year from beyond the grave.

She was nuts, too, apparently...

Her diaries from that time, while she worked as a receptionist and an extra, lay out the Nietzschean mentality that underpins all her later writings. The newspapers were filled for months with stories about serial killer called William Hickman, who kidnapped a 12-year-old girl called Marion Parker from her junior high school, raped her, and dismembered her body, which he sent mockingly to the police in pieces. Rand wrote great stretches of praise for him, saying he represented "the amazing picture of a man with no regard whatsoever for all that a society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. A man who really stands alone, in action and in soul. … Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should." She called him "a brilliant, unusual, exceptional boy," shimmering with "immense, explicit egotism." Rand had only one regret: "A strong man can eventually trample society under its feet. That boy [Hickman] was not strong enough."
It's not hard to see this as a kind of political post-traumatic stress disorder. Rand believed the Bolshevik lie that they represented the people, so she wanted to strike back at them—through theft and murder. In a nasty irony, she was copying their tactics. She started to write her first novel, We the Living(1936), and in the early drafts her central character—a crude proxy for Rand herself—says to a Bolshevik: "I loathe your ideals. I admire your methods. If one believes one's right, one shouldn't wait to convince millions of fools, one might just as well force them."

And a manifest authoritarian, too, a cult leader...

Her heroes are a cocktail of extreme self-love and extreme self-pity: They insist they need no one, yet they spend all their time fuming that the masses don't bow down before their manifest superiority.
As her books became mega-sellers, Rand surrounded herself with a tightly policed cult of young people who believed she had found the One Objective Truth about the world. They were required to memorize her novels and slapped down as "imbecilic" and "anti-life" by Rand if they asked questions. One student said: "There was a right kind of music, a right kind of art, a right kind of interior design, a right kind of dancing. There were wrong books which we should not buy."

Rand had become addicted to amphetamines while writing The Fountainhead, and her natural paranoia and aggression were becoming more extreme as they pumped though her veins. Anybody in her circle who disagreed with her was subjected to a show trial in front of the whole group in which they would be required to repent or face expulsion. Her secretary, Barbara Weiss, said: "I came to look on her as a killer of people." The workings of her cult exposed the hollowness of Rand's claims to venerate free thinking and individualism. Her message was, think freely, as long as it leads you into total agreement with me.

A fitting end...

She never really recovered. We all become weak at some point in our lives, so a thinker who despises weakness will end up despising herself. In her 70s Rand found herself dying of lung cancer, after insisting that her followers smoke because it symbolized "man's victory over fire" and the studies showing it caused lung cancer were Communist propaganda. By then she had driven almost everyone away. In 1982, she died alone in her apartment with only a hired nurse at her side. If her philosophy is right—if the only human relationships worth having are based on the exchange of dollars—this was a happy and victorious death. Did even she believe it in the end?

I would say that "Atlas Shrugged" is the "Mein Kampf" of American fascism, truly.

Q101

2011-11-19T05:26:00.000-06:00

I haven't regularly listened to radio since, I dunno, 1995 -- that was the last year I remembered hearing anything remotely compelling on the radio. After that point, I increasingly just listened to music on my own, followed my own interests and preferences, bought a lot of CDs. Of course, even that trailed off from about 2005 onward. That, in itself, is kind of curious for me -- I have so many CDs, but as I found fewer and fewer current bands compelling, my music purchases declined, and I just relied on my existing archive of music, stocking up my iTunes to the critical mass of music I needed, which was about 7000 songs. I have the good fortune to work at a job where I can "plug-and-play" and listen to music while I work. But while I listen to music, I don't listen to music radio. There just wasn't anything out there that was interesting enough for me, and the lack of control of the format was perhaps less appealing, after years of iPod and iTunes.

Now I read this article about Q101 being turned from an "alternative" station to news, and I'm very surprised. Q101 was a kind of musical institution in Chicago; it may not have played music that I considered alternative, but you could at least count on it to play rock music -- now it's news? I wonder where all of those orphaned listeners will go for music? Again, it's sort of a weird thing for me, because I haven't regularly listened to radio for over 16 years, but I'm still sad for the demise of a major local player like Q101. And since I'm admittedly no longer a radio listener, I don't even know where those people will go. It's just curious to think about it that way, how alien such an omnipresent medium has become to me (and, likely, so many others).

Walkin'

2011-11-18T19:51:00.011-06:00

Walked home from downtown tonight, just because the weather was relatively nice, compared with what it has been. Fun to see downtown light up for the holidays. Of course I snapped a few photographs of window displays and what-not.

Amazing that Thanksgiving is right around the corner, which means Christmas is that much closer. Lordy.

Koff

2011-11-16T19:26:00.000-06:00

So far, so good -- just had a sore throat yesterday, but it appears to have mostly abated since then. Hopefully my body fought off the cold. I've been pretty lucky with that the last few years. I had a sneezing fit yesterday, but that was it.

Found $.25 today, so I finally broke the $50 mark on found money for the year! A personal best!

Had conferences for the boys. B2 is rocking kindergarten; he's ahead of where he should be on all things, and is very well-behaved in class. His teacher was really glad to have him, and commented that she'd had B1 last year, and was amazed at how different the boys are, how serious B1 is, relative to his happy-go-lucky baby brother.

B1's teacher had less sanguine stuff to report; B1 is hit-or-miss on his schoolwork -- if he's focused, he rocks it, but sometimes he loses focus and the work suffers. He's particularly off-put by standardized testing. I suspect he's stressing about the time factor involved. So, Exene and I are going to work with B1 independently, help him navigate that stuff.

Scratchy

2011-11-15T20:11:00.000-06:00

I am catching a cold, irritatingly enough. I can feel it starting up in my throat. Hopefully, if it's been like the other colds of the past few years, it'll be comparatively mild for me. We'll see. Bleah.

The boys are with Exene the next few days; B2 didn't want to go, hid in the kitchen, crying. I had to pick him up and cajole him, get him transitioned to go to Exene's. They never fight about coming to my place; it's only when they're going to her place that they get down. B1 just grimly resigns himself to it, while B2 fusses.

I really need to clean the apartment, like top to bottom, front to back. Fall cleaning, I guess. I just want to purge a lot of the toys the boys no longer play with, but which are still around, cluttering their room. And vacuuming the corners, sweeping it up, all of that jazz. I'm going to do that the next few days, since I won't have the boys in the mix.

Weekender

2011-11-13T06:41:00.000-06:00

I've had the boys since Wednesday, and they are doing fine, having fun, of course. They haven't once asked "Where's Mommy?" I'm sure they'll be glad to see her when she finally returns (maybe tonight; I asked her, but she wasn't clear on it). But, as ever, I'm keeping everything rolling.

Did I mention that stores over here are starting to sell Graeter's Ice Cream? Wow! I stumbled onto that the other day, couldn't believe it. Of course, it's expensive: $5.49 a pint at Treasure Island (I have to see if they have it at Dominick's). But their Coconut Chocolate Chip and other flavors are fab.

Seeing Graeter's (and things like Great Lakes Brewing Company beers, among others) reinforces just how many Ohioans have fled Ohio for greener pastures. Under the withered hand of a Republican-dominated state government for the last 15+ years, pursuing Republican economic policies, the state has hemorrhaged jobs and population. I'm hoping that enough people are sick of that bullshit to try to turn things around for Ohio, but we'll see. As someone who grew up in Youngstown, I think Youngstowners saw that kind of stuff early -- that is, it appears that the rest of the state is catching up with where Youngstown was decades ago. And, by extension, what Ohio has been experiencing for decades is what the reset of the country has begun to experience from about the point of the housing market crash, onward.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-03-09-ohio-census_N.htm

Anyway, the result of this ongoing economic death spiral is that there is an Ohioan "expatriate/refugee" community in Chicago, to the extent that bars give themselves over to Buckeyes fans during the season, and you see a lot of Buckeyes jerseys and Browns jerseys peppered around. Of course, plenty of Miami of Ohio bumper stickers and so forth. There is a bar, too, I think it's called "Reds" or something, that is tailor-made for Reds fans (big shock, right) with Cincy fare at it. Ohio's loss has been Chicago's gain, to be sure (although it looks like Columbus has also benefited from the losses of the other cities in Ohio). It's just weird for me, since I was an early emigrant (1993), when almost nobody from Ohio was in Chicago. Now, they are all over the place.

11/11/11

2011-11-11T23:11:00.080-06:00

Of course, I think it's weird that there's a meme of people making wishes at 11:11 on 11/11/11, as if the entire universe bowed to our clocks, time zones, calendars, species, and individual wishes. Lordy. If there's one lesson life on Earth should teach you, it's that The Universe Doesn't Care About You. Not to be a cynical buzzkill, but there is an enormous amount of ego gratification tied up into the idea of a caring universe (and, by extension, an all-knowing, all-seeing, ever-present God). It requires ignoring all the petty cruelties and grandiose outrages that occur daily (I mean, 44 million Americans without health insurance; over 16 million children living in poverty -- how does this fit in with God's master plan?) In all the vastness of space, for the Earth to occupy such a singular and central position is ludicrous. I mean, for us to be a sand grain on a beach would be a promotion, in terms of the scale of the cosmos -- that's for the entire planet, people!

The cosmos doesn't care about us; that's why I think people have to care for each other. I mean, we have so-called Christians who could give two shits about the poor, the weak, and the downtrodden, and who actually think they are avatars and arbiters of morality! And, of course, because I'm an atheist, I'm somehow a bad guy, even though I can see this hypocrisy laid bare.

Wishes won't save you. What can save you is: 1) reason; 2) empathy; 3) action; 4) an open mind; 5) imagination; 6) hope. That'll save you while you're living. Be rational, be compassionate, be industrious, be adaptable, be creative. That will get you out of any jam.

And if you're a believer reading this, thinking "You're wrong, Mr. Atheist Man, only God and magical thinking can save you," I offer a simple proof: All evil (as we choose to see it) stems from the opposite of the 5 things I listed above. Just take the opposites:

Reason: Insanity, Ignorance, and Stupidity
Empathy: Cruelty, Ruthlessness
Action: Laziness
Open mind: Closed mind
Imagination: Lack of vision
Hope: Despair

Show me an insane, ignorant, stupid, cruel, lazy, close-minded, blinkered, despairing person, and I'll show you somebody who is not a good or worthwhile spirit, but somebody who is fucking evil -- or at best, somebody who is far from being an exemplary human being. And that person is likely to believe in magical thinking, and in wishes (and their dowdy, prim cousin, prayer). They can blow their qualms with atheism and atheists out their pious asses.

Sorry if this is more strident than you're used to seeing, but I got pissed off today when I saw that whooping cough is coming back, as is measles. There's an outbreak of it in McHenry County, one of the staunch, Republican "collar counties" around Chicago. *golf applause* Nice going, idiots -- you know why this is happening? Because you people aren't vaccinating your kids. You God-fearing, corporal punishment-loving, evolution-rejecting, science-loathing, atheist-fearing, hyperpartisan dolts -- you are endangering your kids, and you are endangering the rest of society with your ignorance. And equivocators, you can blow it out your asses, too -- me calling out ignorance and intolerance doesn't make me ignorant and intolerant, myself.

Track record of vaccination = good. History and evidence is on its side. Life before vaccination = BAD. Whooping cough = BAD. Measles = BAD. That this argument even has to be made is a testament to the pervasive power of ignorance.

And I say this because, obviously, I understand that a disease has no ideology, it has no faith, it has no politics, it doesn't care. It wasn't sent by a caring, benevolent God to smite thine enemies (or your faithful flock, for that matter); rather, it's an organism that will make you sick, because your life is bound up in your biology -- break enough rules of that biology, and you die (or if a disease breaks those rules for you). Vaccination is a means of using reason to find a way out of the deathtrap of disease, a way of gaming biology's grim calculus in our favor. And you want to reject that? Truly? Based on what? Oh, right, the misguided, evidence-free opinion of a former Playboy Bunny? Yes, magical thinkers, you're endangering us all with your fucking ignorance.

Anyway, enjoy your wishes today. And don't forget, you've got them in the AM and the PM, so there are two opportunities to make your magic wishes! Word them very carefully. And no need to vaccinate your kids, right? God'll sort it all out.

Seriously, that just pisses me off so much. Groundless, baseless, needless.

GRRR.

Eleven

2011-11-11T11:11:00.000-06:00

Happy Nigel Tufnel Day!

Crank it up to 11...

Big Bottom

Snow Foolin'

2011-11-10T22:09:00.000-06:00

First snowfall of the season -- no accumulation, but snow came down, regardless. Big, thick flurries. Today was oddly unsettled -- rain in the morning, then clouds, then snow, then sun, then snow. Now windy. I biked to work today, although, clearly, my biking days are numbered. The winds are picking up, and it's getting sloppier. Makes it something of a liability to travel. I actually fell over on my bike today, something that hasn't happened in years (not even when that wave swamped me). I was at a light, waiting for it to change, and went to put a leg out to step on a curb, but I misjudged the distance, and went right over, like a tree falling over! Whoopsie! Pedestrians, to their credit, came over to help, probably thinking I had had a stroke or something, the way I just went over. I thanked them and helped myself back up. I wasn't even embarrassed, although it was certainly embarrassing. It was just one of those things, like slipping on the ice or something. Gravity reminds you who's running the show in moments like that. I was just glad I hadn't torn my slacks or messed up my shoes or anything like that.

The boys are super-stoked to have so many Daddy Days in a row. They are loving it! I am, too!

RIP, Joe Frazier

2011-11-08T04:59:00.001-06:00

I saw that Joe Frazier died. He was one of the legendary boxers of the last century, never quite got his full due, just because he had the misfortune to be a heavyweight in the time of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in their prime. His ungainly slugger style and lack of charisma always made him the straight man for Ali's gleeful imp. But he was definitely one of the greats.

Joe Frazier Tribute

Sylvester Stallone effectively stole Frazier's story and turned it into "Rocky," which, I'm sure, had to make Frazier that much more embittered, to see his story turned into a white man's boxing epic.

32 wins (27 by KO), 4 losses, 1 draw.

I always had some fondness for Frazier, just because he was so clearly a great boxer who was forced to stand and fight with some incredible boxers, and who never flinched, never gave up, showed a lot of heart in the face of that.

Bizarrely, I was playing "Knockout Kings" with the boys on the Playstation last night, and I actually picked Frazier for a match against B1, who was playing Ali. I hadn't even known about Frazier's imminent demise until after playing, but that was weird.

I will be genuinely sad when Ali finally dies. Parkinson's has shut him down for decades, but he was an amazing figure in a brutal sport. Frazier's passing is a tolling of the bell. Of course, these greats have actually managed to overshadow the sport, itself, which has fallen to the canvas and will never really get up -- UFC , WWF and the other assorted man-grappling arena stuff has long eclipsed boxing, and boxing's own corruption and what-not has forever tarred the sport. But Frazier and those like him came from a time when boxing was a huge and compelling event. Boxing was always a brutal sport, and Frazier was a brutal boxer, but there was beauty in that brutality, as hard as it might be for non-fans to imagine. Boxing wasn't known as "the sweet science" for nothing -- there was elegance in a perfectly thrown set of combinations, in a boxer's heart, in setting up an opponent and taking them down.

Frazier was one of the last of boxing's true Greats.

Ali on Frazier

Musical

2011-11-06T07:40:00.004-06:00

I'm uploading some of my umpteen CDs to my computer. It amuses me, just because CDs were supposed to be THE thing -- I mean, decades ago, I remember when they were trotted out that way. Now, they are effectively obsolete. At some point, CD/DVD players will cease to be, and CDs will vanish as everything becomes MP3 (at least until the next proper storm of energy from the sun blanks out everything electronic -- haha). All the same, it's funny to wade through these old discs. Exene always wanted me to throw them out, said her usual mantra "What's the point?" with anything she didn't value or appreciate. I would say "I am keeping them so I can have an archive of the music I like, in case I need to upload them, or if a computer crashes, etc." She'd just shrug it off, as she did so much. All the same, I've got'em, and am loading them up to my new computer, something I hadn't done for years.

Say what you will about Hole -- their "Live Through This" was a good album for its time (1994 -- now squarely in the confines of "a long time ago"), and the album cover was killer. That picture was so damned perfect -- the snarly-smiled, Heathers-esque beauty pageant winner/prom queen from Hell? Masterful...

Model Leilani Bishop: "I WON! YAY, ME!"

Hey, you Fawkes!

2011-11-05T17:02:00.005-05:00

Happy Guy Fawkes Day! Not like it means much in the States, although Occupy Wall Street and Anonymous have certainly made the Guy Fawkes mask and, of course, V for Vendetta, more common sites. I remember reading "V" in the long-ago time -- like a year or two after it came out, since I liked Moore's "Watchmen." Anyway, I bet Moore is pleased to see the proliferation of V/Fawkes masks on the whole protest movement front.

Old Man Winter, on the march

2011-11-04T05:30:00.000-05:00

Halloween past, Autumn has definitely given up the ghost, and Winter is well on its way. I'm near the end of my biking season, just because it gets too sloppy and crazy as Winter comes on the scene. Yesterday I had 30 mph wind gusts hitting me on the ride down and back, which makes for a challenging ride (given that my top biking speed is about 12 mph!)

I have the boys the next two weekends, because of Exene's running ~~obsession~~ err, hobby. I'm fine with that, and the boys are fine with that; they love "Daddy Weekends." B2 always hugs me lots when he first sees me again, says "I love you, Daddy! I missed you!" which is always touching. When they found out they had a cluster of Daddy Days, they were stoked.

Exene is actually going out of town next weekend, on a trip with one of her "gal pals" as she puts it. Running another race. I told her I'd be fine with watching the boys, so long as I get equivalent "comp time" at some point. Not that I have any travel plans, but I just always have to be sure for reciprocity, where Exene is concerned.

Anyway, as biking season nears an end for me, it'll mean taking the CTA, which is fine, but it'll be an added expense I have to factor into my already-packed budget. That was the nice thing about the biking -- free transportation (and I worked my exercise into my commute). As Winter kicks into gear, it'll mean X expense, moneywise, and me having to block out more time for exercise. Ah, well. Not complaining, just aware of the options ahead of me.

Of course, I never actually complain about the weather; it simply is. And since Fall/Winter is prime Writing Season for me, I welcome it, honestly. If I lived in Hawaii, I'd never get a damned thing written, would just drink rum and walk the beach, collecting shells, or hike around the volcanoes and in the jungles. But living in Chicago, the bad weather is an incentive to create, honestly. And so, I will.

Olive Park, right near Navy Pier.

Scuffles, Sniffles, and Skittles

2011-11-02T20:09:00.003-05:00

Poor B1 tripped (or was tripped; still trying to suss that out) at the playground yesterday, and scuffed up his face. He has a scrape on his cheek and across the bridge of his nose. Poor lil' scamp looks like a boxer! He's okay, otherwise. I'm just glad that he didn't crack any teeth. Lordy. When B1 falls, he's like a tree being felled -- he never manages to get his hands out to catch himself.

Got a flu shot the other day. Woo hoo! We'll see if I get the flu. Any time I get that shot, I eventually catch the flu. Fucking flu!

The boys were too jaded to go trick-or-treating on Halloween! After hitting the business districts in our 'hood over the weekend, when Halloween came, I asked'em if they were up for it, and they were both "Meh." I'm old-school in my trick-or-treatery, so I was like "Really? Not even for more candy?" and they were like "Nah, we have enough candy." Wow!

Space Bridge Too Far

2011-10-29T12:36:00.000-05:00

Watching the original "Transformers" now and again with the boys, I keep wondering: why the hell did the Autobots never build their own space bridge? How is it that the Decepticons had no problem whipping one up, but the Autobots never were able to? Are the Decepticons more intelligent? I mean, who designed their space bridge, anyway? For all the engineering acumen of Wheeljack and Ratchet, who is their equivalent among the Decepticons? I dunno. All I know is that the Decepticons sure seem sharper than their Autobot enemies.

You Don't Know Jack-O'-Lantern

2011-10-28T21:32:00.000-05:00

I carved pumpkins with the boys tonight. Obviously, I do the carving, but B1 was great about helping scoop out the guts, and B2 was having fun hanging out and watching us and offering commentary. Here are our results, which the boys were well-pleased with...

I like to pretend that the green turban squash one is some kind of monster fish-man one.

Hello? Daylight Savings?

2011-10-28T06:39:00.000-05:00

Man, I really wish they'd shift the Daylight Savings Time date back to what it was before GW Bush set it for; it sucks to have everything so dark in the morning. It makes it hard to get the boys up and at'em.

I had weird dreams last night, like stuff with a ventriloquist's dummy (never a good sign in a dream, right? Sheesh) I can only remember some of it, but it was like being in the basement of this place with this guy with a dummy, and somebody walked up and muttered to me "You know, the DUMMY is the one doing the thinking, here, not the GUY." And then when the guy was talking to me, I was wondering that, and was keeping an eye on the creepy dummy.

Had some other weird dream that flowed from that one, but I forget what it was, now.

Gonna pick up some pumpkins today for the boys and me to carve. They're stoked about that.

Musica

2011-10-27T21:06:00.003-05:00

This was a good piece...

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/27/have_wilco_and_radiohead_become_the_new_adult_contemporary/

Birthdaze

2011-10-27T05:25:00.001-05:00

Today's Exene's birthday. She turns the big 42 today! I'm sure she'll celebrate with her "gal pals" and assorted running chums. I have the boys for the next few days, so I'm not sure what I would do with the birthday thing, vis-a-vis them. I mean, I know that were today my birthday, and Exene had the boys, I know she'd not do anything for me (in the sense of telling the boys it was my birthday, or having them sing Happy Birthday), so I guess I won't do the equivalent. It's hard to know the route to go with that -- all too often, I would "play nice" without a hint of reciprocity. So, in the wake of that, I'll just maybe mention it in passing. I'm sure Exene will be keen to remind the boys, one way or another, anyway.

So, it looks like the police are clamping down on OWS in many places. I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. Maybe the authorities realize so many people are pissed that they tried to let people let off steam before taking action. Not sure. The thing is, structurally, nothing has changed -- everything that has boned the economy, has mortgaged our future, has held all the politicians captive -- all of that is still in place. While it is good that people are actually bestirred to get pissed, the changes required for our country are huge. I've said it before, but a lot of heads are going to have to come out of countless asses for real progress to be achieved in this country. Much of that involves breaking the Beltway Consensus -- the staid duopoly that keeps 99% of the country screwed for the gain of 1%. The things that need to be done aren't getting done, and won't be getting done. And what that means for the future, in a democratic society, is more protest. A lot more. OWS is really just a preview of what's in store. I mean, the economy is still crap -- the Republicans have their anti-immigration initiatives that are already causing bad effects in their states (by scaring off the immigrants who were willing to work the shit jobs for low wages that Americans won't take because they don't pay nearly enough). The Democrats are nearly as captive to Wall Street as the GOP. Really, what we have seen in the past decade is the triumph of Capital over Democracy, and you have people finally waking up to that cold reality.

What do you do in a country where 400 people are worth more than 150 million of their fellow Americans? How is that democratic? It's not. It's plutocratic. You can propagandize those 150 million so they feel like they have something in common with the 400 -- but propaganda doesn't fill an empty stomach. That might only bamboozle, what, 3 million of them. What about the rest? No, it's untenable.

Americans never like to talk about class -- we like to pretend that we're all Americans, immune from history. But a system where 400 > 150,000,000? Democratically speaking, it's not sustainable. Especially when those 400 enjoy far more political and economic voice than the 150 million. Telling those 150 million "You suck. Go get a job, Hippie!" isn't actually going to solve anything. It doesn't speak to the daily reality for those people. And in an economy driven by consumer spending (around 70% of it), it's very clear that those 400 people cannot possibly consume enough to lift the economy up. At some point, those 150 million will have to be helped, and in a meaningful way.

I saw the other day that real wages have stagnated for 50 years. And this was in a business magazine. That means that the late time people enjoyed actual, tangible buying power for their dollar was in 1961 -- that pay levels have plateaued since then. It's why food costs crush people, housing costs, car expenses, all of that. It's why people went to two-economy households to try to make ends meet. It's reflective of the declining power of the working class relative to the owning class.

And, I know, a segment of the owning class likes to say "Tough shit. You suck, Po'folks." But it's not a productive or constructive stance to take. Not when you're outnumbered 375,000 to 1. Think of that. Each of those 400 equals 375,000 other Americans, in terms of economic power and clout. It's not sustainable. The amount of police and military repression required to keep those people at bay? Too much. It'll destroy everything our society thinks it's about.

Or, we just give up on the notion of having a democratic society entirely, or become a hollowed-out, democracy-in-name-only kind of nation. Really, we're there already; it's just that most people don't realize it. If we really move into a postdemocratic future, then all pretense toward justice, fairness, equality before the law -- that all gets tossed aside. The rich will hunker down behind their walls, with paramilitary protection, and the impoverished hordes will mill about outside said walls. The sad truth of that is that neither group is free in that situation.

No, OWS is just a preview of what's to come. A last, peaceful gasp of a dying order. Rough times ahead for the country -- and that goes for the rich few as well as the poor multitudes.

Damned Right!

2011-10-26T17:40:00.011-05:00

I saw The Damned at Metro last night, part of their 35th Anniversary Tour. Was glad to have caught them, since they still have it! They turned out a great show, covering their debut album ("Damned Damned Damned") and their "Black Album," their fourth album. They looked good, sounded good, and seemed to be having a good time, although, sadly, no Rat Scabies on the drums. I was right near the front and center, and it was slamdance-tastic! Yes, I still call it "slamdancing" -- moshing is what Metalheads and Grunge kids do, and only after Punks first came up with slamdancing! Bahah!

They were one of THE seminal Punk bands of old...

Dave Vanian, frontman, working his mojo.

Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian.

Amusingly enough, I got caught in this cellphone clip during the show -- I called out "Love Song," which they then played; you can see Captain Sensible pointing to me when they call out the title, and you can see me in the clip!

At the end of the show, this drunk-as-a-skunk guy was lamenting loudly that they didn't play "I Just Can't Be Happy Today," and I said "Yeah, I wanted that one, too." and the guy shook my hand, said "Thash MY theme song, Man." and he introduced himself, said "Jesh wanned to say yer a real snappy dresser, Fella." Bahah! I said "Thanks!" as I was leaving. I normally would never wear a tux to a fucking show, but for the Damned, it kind of demanded it, especially with it being so near Halloween. As I left, I saw one other guy wearing a bowtie -- his girlfriend pointed to me, and he said "Hey, I thought I was the only one!" and I just whooped and pointed to my skull-and-crossbones bowtie...

Yo

2011-10-24T21:22:00.000-05:00

Youngstown gets a nod in this SALON article (in fact, two out of three of the cities referenced are in Ohio...

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/25/occupying_the_rust_belt/

Occupation with an expiration date

Youngstown, Ohio, is an elegiac city a few hundred miles to the west of Allentown. What was once the manufacturing district is a mausoleum of industry. A brick smokestack stands sentinel over acres of cavernous shells that once poured out streams of goods. Crumbling brick buildings sprout trees two stories up, while inside pancakes of concrete drip toward the ground, suspended precariously by a bramble of rusted rebar.

Demolition is one of the few signs of economic life. Starting in 2006, the city tripled its budget for razing abandoned buildings. In an open-air yard in the industrial quarter, heavy machines whine and billow exhaust as they pound large concrete slabs, surrounded by small mountains of rubble sorted according to size.

With more than 43 percent of the land vacant, Youngstown is slowly being erased. In some neighborhoods boarded-up houses and empty lots island the remaining inhabited homes, which shrink behind spreading foliage lest they be next.

Since 1950, the population has declined from a high of 218,000 to less than 67,000 today. The poverty rate is a stratospheric 32 percent, and the median value of owner-occupied homes is a paltry $52,900. Manufacturing dropped from 50 percent of the workforce in 1950 to 16 percent in 2007. This includes a staggering loss of 31 percent of manufacturing jobs in the region from 2000 to 2007 – and that wasbefore the economy fell off the cliff.

At the downtown crossroads, Occupy Youngstown has taken up position in the shadow of three different banks, including a Chase branch. The occupation is a latecomer, having started on Oct. 15, with a rally more than 400 strong at its peak, according to Chuck Kettering Jr., an aspiring actor who has been unemployed for a year from his previous position as an HVAC technician.

“We were once a huge steel city for America,” says the cherubic, 27-year-old Kettering. “In the 1970s they started closing up all our steel mills, taking all the jobs and shipping them down south and overseas where labor is cheaper. Youngstown’s been a city that has been going through this economic struggle for almost 40 years now, and I think we have a valid voice of addressing these issues on a national scale.”

His family is living proof of the toll of deindustrialization. In a phone interview, Chuck Kettering Sr. calls himself “the poster boy for the Rust Belt.” A Youngstown native, he went to work in 1973 at age 19 and worked at two local U.S. Steel plants that shuttered, one in 1979, the other in 1982. Next, he landed a position with Packard Electronics in 1985 making electrical components for GM cars. After GM spun off Delphi in 1999, Packard was subsumed by the auto-parts maker. The company started moving jobs overseas.

“Local operations were pressured by wages, and most operations moved south of the border” because of NAFTA, he says. Following Delphi’s bankruptcy in 2008, Kettering and some co-workers were given a one-time chance to work for GM itself and keep their wages, benefits and pensions.

“It was a no-brainer,” he says, but their seniority did not transfer to plant assignments. Despite nearly 25 years at Packard and Delphi, Kettering says, “I found myself at the age of 54 starting at the bottom, working alongside 21-year-olds trying to keep up on the line. Many of us who transferred were not spring chickens and it was hard to keep up.”

His wife, hired by Packard in 1979, worked her way into management, was forced to retire after 30 years with a monthly pension that was slashed in half to $1,600 and with expectations of further cuts. Now he’s on disability.

“I’m really proud of our local guys,” he says. “The police and the firefighters really support the occupy movement. Our mayor supports it. We have a united front here in Ohio.”

Unlike the seven other occupations I have visited, Occupy Youngstown embraces electoral issues. Kettering and other occupiers wave signs and wear buttons opposing Issue 2, which would strip some 350,000 public sector workers of collective bargaining rights.

Karen Joseph, a soft-spoken 59-year-old mother of two whose family spends one-third of its household income on health insurance, is by no means the only one who is against Issue 3, which would exempt Ohio from the incoming national healthcare law.

Everyone is against privatizing the Ohio Turnpike, which is being pushed by Republican Gov. John Kasich. All the occupiers we talk to express dismay at the prospect of hydrofracking in Mill Creek Park, which Kettering describes as “the jewel of the area with waterfalls, streams and lots of wildlife.”

This occupation comes with an expiration date. The city asked the occupiers to “take down the tents before business hours on Monday, Oct. 17, when the banks were opening,” according to Chuck Kettering Jr. He says they complied, but Occupy Youngstown still maintains a 24-hour presence and has pledged to do so until Nov. 8, Election Day.

Tired

2011-10-23T19:37:00.014-05:00

I saw "Rubber" (2010) this evening, which was billed as a horror comedy, but it annoyed me. It's basically about a killer tire. A tire comes to life and kills and kills and kills again. Now, I'm willing to go with that, sure, but the way the director (who also wrote it -- always a potential danger sign: too much creative power concentrated in one pair of hands) ran with it, it was just pretentious, unfunny, and un-horrific. It seems ridiculous to complain about a movie about a killer tire failing to meet one's expectations, but I think that's what the moviemaker was taking refuge in, that the concept was so "original" and "ridiculous" that he would be given the latitude to make a bulletproof movie.

I mean, there were some good shots, good use of visuals, and even some decent enough characterization (I know, I know) of the tire. But there was so much absurdist bullshit the writer-director threw into the mix that it scuttled what was good about the movie.

First, it wasn't remotely scary. Gory, certainly, but not scary. The tire makes various things explode with this psychokinetic powers (yes). Again and again. Mmmkay.

Second (and more damning), there was this ridiculous "fourth wall" bullshit going on, with the director talking through some of the characters directly to the audience -- and some of the audience were themselves spectators within the movie, who were busy watching and commenting on what was going on, Beavis & Butthead-style. That was just beyond pretentious bullshit, in my view. Like the writer-director wasn't confident enough in his work to let it stand on its own merits, he had to create a Greek Choir of "Spectators" commenting on the movie-within-the-movie (until they are nearly all poisoned midway through). These Spectators act as mediators of sorts, trying to either shape audience reaction to the movie, or else lampoon the audience, the equivalent of the writer-director flipping the audience off.

Third, for a horror-comedy, it wasn't nearly funny enough. So, in addition to being un-scary, it was unfunny, to boot. Like an asshole onstage trying to juggle and not being able to do it, and saying "Wait, I'll get it this time" and dropping plate after plate. It wasn't funny. It was weird, might even had pretensions toward zaniness (always what people opt for when they can't find the funny -- just as people opt for gore when they can't find horror or terror).

Fourth, the movie forced the viewer to swallow far too many conceits -- it's why you don't see alien zombie movies, or racing movie family dramas where somebody dies of a lingering illness. Aliens, sure. Zombies, sure. But don't put alien zombies in one movie, because it's asking the audience to suspend too much disbelief. This movie had:

1) a sentient, ambulatory, killer tire
2) which developed psychokinetic powers
3) and characters that addressed the audience directly, breaking the Fourth Wall
4) and another group of characters as Spectators who were stand-ins for the audience

That's just too much to put in one movie. Too many concepts stacked atop one another. There's a reason why they call it "High Concept" and not "High Concepts."

Bullshit movie. It didn't have to be -- even with such a ridiculous premise -- but the writer-director made it so. I knew, even without seeing the credits, that it was a French director. I actually love French moviemaking, but I can tell a French aesthetic in a movie when I run across it, especially a French Absurdist aesthetic. But, as crazy as it sounds, there is Absurdism and there is absurdity, and it's like the difference between good wine and grape juice. This movie was grape juice that thought it was fine wine.

It wasn't as smart, funny, silly, or scary as it thought it was. Flat tire. It's that pretentious. Not completely bereft of merit, but only in terms of technique, not in terms of story or good moviemaking in general. The moment the writer-director had a character addressing the viewer, directly (and, the audience's proxies in the form of these Spectators), I was like "Oh. No." Complete bullshit.

Ridin' the storm out

2011-10-21T17:45:00.000-05:00

They opened the lake shore bike/jogging path in the wake of that gale we had (for lack of a better term). Pretty amazing damage was done all along the length of it, so those waves had to be something to see. At least 30 to 40 feet away from the shore, there was profound damage. A length of fence was crushed, too, all from the force of the waves (and, again, we're talking about 40 feet away at that juncture). Impressive and awe-inspiring amounts of force. There were big slabs of asphalt on the path, having been ripped out by the wave action. The city's been dealing with that pummeling for a long, long time, and the civic engineers know what to do about it, but it's still amazing to see the damage done. There's also an effective sand trap in place at Oak Street Beach, where copious sand had piled up along the path, making it particularly dicey riding.

But, in the wake of that big storm that blasted through here, it's a pretty nice day -- great light, and an imminent late autumn/early winter chill in the mix.

Today is B2's 6th birthday! Little man is becoming a big boy! B1 and I sang "Happy Birthday" to him this morning, which he clearly enjoyed (B1 was especially cute, hugging his baby brother -- B1's such an affectionate and loving big brother; B2 is so lucky to have him). The boys are with Exene tonight, so she'll likely do whatever birthday stuff she had lined up. I'm doing something for B2 over the weekend, including baking him a lemon cake, since he loves lemon cake. Also, I'm getting him a Lego set he's been wanting for, I dunno, six months. Perfecto!

Tomorrow'll be a busy day, as I'm doing a big grocery run, and, as I said, a birthday run for B2. Plus, I have some miscellaneous workaday errands to run, just stuff to take care of, that kind of deal.

Some of Chicago's homeless sell "Streetwise" -- it's a newspaper they sell in an attempt to make a bit of money. "Streetwise" vendors are ubiquitous in the city. Anyway, there's one who's a regular in my neighborhood, and he's clearly a guy who has had a tough life; you can just tell. Maybe a Vietnam War-era vet, that kind of thing. I usually give him a spare buck when I see him (that's the price of a copy of "Streetwise") but I always tell him to keep the issue. He recognizes me, usually says "Thanks, my big brother." One time, when I had the boys with me, and B2 was wearing his leather jacket and had his shades on, he called B2 "Hollywood," which amused me. Even now, B2 has that vibe. The kid has IT. He's got that presence. I would never, ever want him to be a child star, wouldn't be that kind of a parent, but I'll encourage him to do theatrical stuff while in school, and when he's 18, he's welcome to go do acting, if he wants. He'd be good. I still remember him role-playing a statue -- gosh, how old was he? Three? He let his face go blank, held himself perfectly still. It was so cute.

The other day, he was doing a voice for a character, and I said "Wow, that's great, [B2!] So actorly." and then he tried a few other things, and said "How about that, Daddy? Is THAT actorly?" Cracks me up to hear a kid asking that. Next I'll have him asking me what his motivation is for a scene. I can actually help him with that stuff, in my way, since I did some improv stuff in the 90s, have at least the rudiments of constructing a scene and what-not.

Really, B2 is too smart to be an actor. I mean, he might do it because he's good at it, but I can see him doing far more than that, down the road, because he's so sharp. His facility with language is amazing, and his understanding of people and situations is preternatural. And he knows it, the lil' stinker.

Anyway, this is his day, Birthday Boy. Same birthdate as Carrie Fisher. God help me. The Force is strong in this one! Bahah!

Another Ghost Walks These Halls

2011-10-20T03:14:00.000-05:00

The traumatic thing I alluded to the other day (10/17), well, the person who had triggered that died. I found out late yesterday. So, she died two days after I saw her. Out of respect for the person's privacy, I won't go into details, but I definitely can say that having been in the same room with that person two days ago, death was very clearly in the room. And a bad death it was. My stepdad would always say that death was either the fulfillment of your dreams (assuming paradise and afterlife) or, if nothing else, the cessation of pain and suffering. In the case of this person, I can only assume the latter, but it sucks, because that person was suffering pain for months before her end, and the collective failure of her significant other and her family to take care of her in that time hangs like a shadow over her last days. She was semi-friends with Exene, and had called Exene for help the other day, and Exene had done so, but had needed my help, too, because she wasn't strong enough to move the dying woman, so I helped. I ran into her significant other the day before yesterday, and he'd thanked me for helping out in an "Aw, shucks" kind of way, and I just choked out "Yes, it's a terrible scene." I wanted to ask him why he wasn't there, but didn't. The whole situation was bad, and I can't talk about it without going into a lot of context and back story, but I couldn't help but feel like the building had gotten itself another ghost with the passing of this woman. I don't believe in ghosts, but the pain and suffering of that woman haunts the hallways, all the same. I walk by their apartment and I grimace, because I can feel that. And since they have a child who is a year older than B1, who used to be a playmate of his, it compounds the suffering -- I can only imagine what that kid is feeling, how much emotional damage she's suffered from her father's criminal neglect (or, at best grotesque bungling) of the welfare of her mother, and how that all shakes out. The woman is dead, and I imagine they'll move out of there; I can't imagine them staying in that tiny apartment, now, in the wake of this.

I'm a compassionate soul, and my heart bleeds. I freely admit that. I feel every emotion keenly; I think it's part of my own artistic temperament. It informs my work, the ability to feel things keenly. But in matters of suffering and anguish, it's a double-edged blade, because I feel agony as much as the rest of the emotional palette. And to see what I saw the other day, to know that a person was in such dire straits, and with only so much I could do, it's haunting. Like I said, a ghost. Ghosts haunt that way.

Howling

2011-10-19T19:26:00.000-05:00

I think we're going to get hammered, winterwise, this year.

At least here in Chicago. It's been nasty all day, big-time howling winds, rain. A late fall monsoon, practically. Fierce. Seems like it's a herald of imminent winter! I was walking downtown and the wind gusts were nearly strong enough to stop me, which usually means the gust are at least 60 mph. People's umbrellas were pulsating, hyperextending and snapping back into shape, and then back again. Raincoats are a must in Chicago; umbrellas are always dicey.

Splashy

2011-10-18T17:42:00.002-05:00

Wow, it's getting kinda yucky tonight. I saw this weather bulletin, too...

Lakeshore Flood Warning issued October 18 at 1:58PM CDT expiring October 18 at 10:00PM CDT by NWS Chicago ...LAKESHORE FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM WEDNESDAY TO 4 PM CDT THURSDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A LAKESHORE FLOOD WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM WEDNESDAY TO 4 PM CDT THURSDAY. * WAVES...WAVES WILL BUILD TO 12 TO 16 FEET WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON...BUILDING FURTHER TO 17 TO 22 FEET WEDNESDAY NIGHT. WAVES WILL GRADUALLY SUBSIDE TO LESS THAN 15 FEET BY LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON. * IMPACTS...LARGE AND BATTERING WAVES WILL RESULT IN FLOODING OF AREAS NEAR THE LAKE...LIKELY WORSE THAN WHAT WAS SEEN WITH THE LATE SEPTEMBER STORM A FEW WEEKS AGO. WAVES COULD RESULT IN FLOODING ALONG THE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE PORTIONS OF LAKE SHORE DRIVE IN CHICAGO.

For sure, after getting creamed by those waves the other week, I'm going to stay the hell off the lakeshore path. Those waves in September were bad, so if this is worse, NFW am I going there. I mean, 17 to 22 foot waves?? Whoa!

I'm making a hodge-podge soup tonight -- using up various components I had around, like a big onion, some oyster mushrooms, fresh baby spinach, spices, and so forth. It's making my place smell so good right now. Must be patient, let it simmer. I love soup in the fall, and I love not wasting food, so soup is win-win!

Wakeup Call

2011-10-18T04:16:00.000-05:00

Some drunken Chad woke me up. Thump thump thump on door across the hall. I went to the peephole to check. The guy was drunkenly trying to key into neighbor's apartment. When his key wouldn't work, he tried to get into my place, threw a shoulder on the door. I opened the door and the guy stepped back, startled, muttered "Oh, shit." I said "Wrong floor. What floor are you looking for?" and he said "MY floor." The guy's pants were half-off, and he'd pissed himself, clearly. I said "Well, it's not this floor." Then he tried my neighbor's door a couple more times before he lurched down the hallway.

Laundryman

2011-10-17T05:41:00.001-05:00

Doing laundry this morning. Woo hoo! I put it off long enough. I don't honestly mind laundry; but I do tend to put it off, just because it's always a joust over getting to the machines at the right time and not having to contend with other tenants. Fortunately, as an early riser, I'm able to get down there in the morning, when it is (usually) clear.

Yesterday was traumatizing. I'm tempted to write about it, but shouldn't. Just end-of-life issues stuff, a dying person, and how one deals with that, or doesn't, and the boundaries of one's moral responsibility. I can't really write about it, it's far too fresh in my mind, too haunting. But I was definitely traumatized. I looked at the abyss, and the abyss looked right back at me. I'm not even being dramatic; I am calling it exactly as I saw it.

(taking a deliberate emotional step back)

B2's birthday is this week. Little man slowly becoming big boy. I'm going to have to punt his birthday present until the weekend, though, because of schedules and what-not. That'll be okay; he'll get extra birthday.

Fridave

2011-10-14T20:48:00.001-05:00

I have the boys tonight. They are very happy to have a Daddy Night for Friday. They're watching "Wall*E" at the moment, all snuggled in with blankets and what-not, keeping warm.

Autumn chill is definitely here. I'm in a sweater and some flannel jammies, keeping warm. Brrr!

I may catch "The Thing" prequel tomorrow at a matinee. Will let you know how it is.

Fall always gets me in Writing Mode in earnest. I get antsy if I don't work on something. So, obviously, I will!

B2 likes to mix and match Lego Minifigures. Love to see what he comes up with.

Left Out

2011-10-13T21:40:00.000-05:00

It's ironic that the Republican most-hated by the right-wingdings among the GOP's Brimstone Base, Mitt Romney, is easily the biggest threat to Obama. Because a mere conservative like Romney can stand just a whisker to Obama's right, which might confuse enough voters to thinking that there's little difference between them. In truth, yeah, there really is little to separate Romney from Obama, and that's largely Obama's fault, by his absolute refusal to tack anywhere near the left. What's worse is that HR Clinton was even more conservative than Obama, so the Democratic voters had a choice between somewhat conservative (Obama) and conservative (HR Clinton). And, if Romney wins the GOP nomination, the "choice" again will be between somewhat conservative and conservative. Lovely. Bringing yesterday's solutions to today's problems. What a mess.

Cannot believe B2's 6th birthday is next week. Oh, man. Little man will be SIX. Good lord. Am amazed that Halloween is right around the bend, too. That all feels so unreal to me.

Pezidential

2011-10-12T06:43:00.001-05:00

Next year's presidential election is going to be a debacle. What our country actually needs is a New Deal-style massive, Keynesian spending spree to get the millions of unemployed Americans working, get our demand-driven economy surging again (keep in mind: 70% of our economy is driven by consumer spending). This is what it needs. Those folks need jobs. Tax rates on the top 1% must go up. This is what will get our economy rolling again.

However, this is not going to happen. Instead, both parties will offer non-solutions to real problems. The Democrats will ape Republican economic thinking, leashed to supposed deficit hawks (which really translates into folks who don't like social spending -- since deficit hawks never balk at Pentagon spending and bank bailouts). And the Republicans will continue their "more of the same" stuff -- lowering taxes on the top 1%, eliminating regulation of industry, and outright subversion and suppression of non-Republican voters through intimidation and actual disenfranchisement.

Anyway, neither party actually will offer a way out of this mess. Our country absolutely needs new thinking. You know we're in trouble when actual moderate/centrist thinking qualifies as "left-wing radicalism" in DC. That's how skewed our country's become. Here's a little graphic:

[Left]=======================[Center]=====["Left"]=====["Center"]=====[Right]

Our system has an ideological ratchet in place -- we are allowed to hew ever rightward, but when anybody tries to tack left, the ratchet locks. It's impermissible. Anyway, the false centrists are really conservatives, the false leftists are really right-moderates. And everybody to the left of those right-moderates (Obama's one of those, btw -- and he gets called a "socialist"), anybody to the left of Obama (and that's a lot of people) is completely left out of the political system.

That's a reality not lost on those Occupy Wall Street (OWS) folks. They get it. They understand that they've been left behind. It's not like the astroturf, reactionary billionaire-financed false populism of the Tea Party (who are really just the shock troops for the GOP). Rather, OWS is something very different. It is a movement that actually doesn't have a place within the "Beltway Consensus" diagrammed above.

Sure, the Democrats will pay lip service to them. Hell, they have to, in order to feign some kind of credibility with these folks. But today's Democratic Party is completely captive to Wall Street and the banking industry; they will have exactly nothing to offer OWS except empty words of support.

And the Republicans can't even pretend to have anything to say to them, because it's so clear that they are hostile to actual, practicing democracy. They are marching along with "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength." as their political maxims, not even understanding just how Orwellian they are. Maybe some of their elite opinion leaders get it, but they have their own rank-and-file completely snowed.

So, going into 2012, we have a country on cruise control while driving toward a cliff. Barring a sweeping voting out of the Republicans and a massive change of heart on the part of the Democrats, neither party will offer a thing to improve things for the majority of Americans. And that is going to create armies of pissed-off, desolate, desperate people. Each election after 2012 is going to get messier and messier, until there is a proper political sea change and new thinking is brought in (or old thinking that has been disregarded because it challenges economic wrongthink).

Mulling

2011-10-11T20:38:00.000-05:00

Now, I'd already complained about the random and hard-to-believe Dualla suicide, and about the shitty ending to "Galactica." But then I realized that what they should've done to end the series would be to do a fade-out with Dualla killing herself.

That would've ended the series on a perfect note. It would've completely outraged their fans, but it would've been so worth it. "Earth" is a disappointment, everybody's sad, Dualla shoots herself, fade to black. Break for commercial. And the commercial with the above is pretty unintentionally funny. The end.

I concur

2011-10-11T04:40:00.031-05:00

Worst Ending in SF TV, Ever.

I agree with this, too...

Renowned fantasy author George R.R. Martin expressed his extreme disgust with the series' writers for producing this ending, saying on his livejournal: "Battlestar Galactica ends with 'God Did It.' Looks like somebody skipped Writing 101, when you learn that a deus ex machina is a crappy way to end a story...Yeah, yeah, sometimes the journey is its own reward. I certainly enjoyed much of the journey with BSG...but damn it, doesn't anybody know how to write an ending any more? Writing 101, kids. Adam and Eve, God Did It, It Was All a Dream? I've seen Clarion students left stunned and bleeding for turning in stories with those endings."

I think the "Danger, Will Robinson" moment to the show really came with some mix of the Final Five and, worst of all, when Ellen Tigh was revealed at the Final Fifth. Ellen "What the Fuck?" Tigh? She's the Fifth Cylon? Who could possibly give a shit about that? When that happened, I was like "Oh, no...." and it spoke volumes of what was coming down the pike. And really, the whole Final Five (hate that term for them, btw -- makes them sound like a playoff in basketball) plotline was a whole lot of nothing -- none of those Final Fivers really did a hell of a lot to justify the buildup surrounding them. Especially since all but two of them basically continue on being what they already were beforehand, more or less. Weak. The story got hijacked by the God(tm) shit and it gutted and filleted the story. And what's Starbuck? Is she a goddamned ghost? Or another of those fucking "angels" that get touted? Whatever. Lame. Weak. Bad.

Nothing worse than a bad case of Writer's Hand intruding on a story. I always avoid this in my stories, because it's annoying to have something happen because the Writer wants it to, or is at wit's end and cops out with "Because I said so." Lame. Some serious writer's fatigue must have set in on some level, or else the writers wrote themselves into a corner and decided to pull the ripcord and hope the cop-out wasn't caught by the majority of viewers/fans.

Seeing that ending made me very glad I didn't watch the show real-time, or I'd have been hugely pissed and would've felt cheated. Even when they were pimping out God(tm) in the story, I kept hoping that we'd see the robot God(tm) as some grand AI (and, let's be honest, the closest we'd ever come to a god in this world is an AI -- the combination of omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence that equals "God" would be a singular quality of a powerful AI).

But, instead, it's kept all mystical and behind the curtain, subsuming the entire storyline and all of the characters, scuttling "Galactica." Whatever. Big disappointment. The first two seasons are solid. Third season is entertaining, before Hell's Bells being sounding and drowning everything out.

Galactica

2011-10-10T06:39:00.000-05:00

So, I'm nearly at the end of the remake of "Battlestar Galactica," and have mostly enjoyed the series, even when the heavy hand of the writers intrudes here and there. In fact, when the characters talk about this great force manipulating lives and events, I half expect one of them to invoke this concept of "The Writer" -- this unseen entity who can make anything happen in their universe.

One thing I didn't like was the suicide of Dualla. I didn't particularly like that character -- she was just sort of there, didn't really do that much, but was part of the character scenery, for the most part. All the same, her suicide just came out of nowhere, which, on the face of things, was, of course, shocking. As intended. Like somebody lobbing a firecracker at you for no good reason. But that was part of the problem with that -- no good reason. Dualla had always been a stoic character, had always done her duty by the group, through thick and thin. And, of course, when the grand disappointment hits the fleet near the end, everybody is hit strongly by it. Just the same, her reaction to it felt contrived and I didn't buy the motivation for it. Was she really THAT disappointed that she'd take her own life? We don't get to see it in her characterization. No hint of the disappointment. In fact, she goes on a date with her estranged husband, Apollo, just 45 minutes before she commits suicide. And, at least there, she gives no indication of her intentions. She seems to be happy and at peace.

So, in light of the plot vacuum that claimed Dualla (maybe the actress had another gig coming up, and asked to be written out of the story?) I'm going to believe that her date with Apollo shattered her faith in humanity, and in a just universe. It wasn't the disappointment of Earth that hit her; no, it was Apollo's staggering lameness that made her realize that her life was no longer worth living. Of course, this is a darkly comic counter-read of what actually happened, but it at least offers some satisfying cause-and-effect for me.

I mean, everything Apollo touches, he destroys:

Blackbird stealth Viper prototype
Battlestar Pegasus
Lieutenant Dualla
The Quorum (just because his machinations with them ultimately led to their liquidation by Tom Zarek -- who, ironically enough, is played by Richard Hatch, the ORIGINAL Apollo)

I'm sure I can add to this list on a second viewing, watching for it.

Running, Man

2011-10-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

I had funky dreams last night, but fortunately for you, Gentle Reader, I've forgotten them (since there's nothing less meaningful than recounting one's dreams to a stranger). But at the time, it was at least entertaining, and I'd remembered them when I first woke up, but have since forgotten them, naturally.

This is Chicago Marathon weekend, so Exene is focused on that, of course. She asked if I could cover with the boys, and I was only too happy to oblige with that, since I love any time with the boys, and they were stoked, too, psyched about "Daddy Weekend." I just told Exene that I wanted to be sure to get equivalent weekend day swappage at some point. Have to keep a keen eye on that, because she's more inclined to take than give, and if I don't keep tabs on that, I end up getting screwed over. But she's been reasonably good about reciprocity on that stuff, and she knows I'm doing her a big favor by minding the boys so she can indulge her hobby heedlessly, so there you have it. Hopefully the weather'll be good this weekend, so I can get the boys out and about.

Found a dollar coin yesterday on my bike ride to work. Woo hoo!

Up and At'em

2011-10-06T04:33:00.001-05:00

My brain likes to get me up nice and early. Always has. Doesn't matter how little sleep I might've had the night before (and really, I had about 7 hours of sleep, so I can't complain). But I just always wake up early.

I'm out of sorts lately. Bleah. Hard to put words to it, exactly. Just a bit off the mark of late, not in the sweet spot. Might need to whip out the dreaded List(tm) and start doing that, just to tick things off my list and get'em done. I hate doing that, but feel like I might need to, just in order to get the stuff done, to know it's done, all of that. I'm already in the "My Lord, it's almost Christmas" frame of mind, and we're in early October. Argh! This year was surreal. Not as dire as past years, but still a trippy kind of year. I got a lot of stuff done, but it's still kind of wild to think of that.

I've been craving biscotti lately, may make some in the next few weeks. I used to have some great recipes for them, but have lost them to the sands of time. So, I grabbed three other recipes I found online that looked good, may make those.

Had this weird, unsettled feeling about the country, too -- like is this how the country felt decades before the Civil War? Like irreconcilable differences of national opinion? Thankfully, Americans are likely far, far too lazy to actually engage in another civil war -- can you imagine that? I keep getting my brain around the notion of evil as "militant ignorance." That just feels so spot-on to me. Militant ignorance -- "Don't know, don't wanna know. And I'll shoot anybody for asking. Love it or leave it. Zero tolerance." And so on. Ugly, empty sentiments. That's what we're up against as a society. America's seen itself toppled from the pinnacle of power -- our generation (Gen X) is entering middle age in the age of America's decline. I read the other day that 40 million Americans are illiterate, and something like 50 million more are functionally illiterate -- ~90 million Americans are illiterate? Holy fucking SHIT. This is a national disgrace, a cultural failure of staggering magnitude. We have over 40 million uninsured, 14 million unemployed (and another 8-10 million marginally employed). And the political class is completely captive to the status quo. Those Occupy Wall Street folks are at least drawing attention to this reality. Our nation is in dire need of forward progress, but is being held hostage by hidebound dullards who keep us spinning in circles because they refuse to actually face reality. I saw that the average American who can read reads at the 7th grade level. That conjures up images of people moving their lips as they read. Our political class is representing people who read at the 7th grade level? That is who they are appealing to? It makes it very clear why things like evolution aren't well-understood by Americans. Or the need for energy policy. Or why we can't cut taxes and fight three wars and have a social safety net and raise revenue at the same time. And so on. Lordy. We dumb. I mean, really, it was only Sputnik scaring the shit out of the American political class that spurred the teaching of science in this country. Look at where we were before Sputnik, and you'll see that ignorance is really the steady state in American culture. The push for high-tech in the latter 20th Century may, in retrospect, have been just a hiccup. Just like the middle class (which was made possible by the GI Bill, that swelling of soldiers coming back from wars and taking advantage of that to educate themselves). The American middle class is gone. Whether people realize it or not, it's true. It eroded over the past 30 years, and it's gone today. That's the economic reality of it. The political reality of it is only now sinking in, I think. A lot of people with 7th grade reading comprehension are gonna be pissed off. Pitchforks and torches. Meanwhile, I try to equip my boys with knowledge and the emotional tools they need to thrive -- to help them face challenges without fear, to feel hope and promise in the future -- even as I think at some point they'll leave this country one day, because the opportunities will be elsewhere. In a globalized economy, allegiance to nation-state is a quaint relic -- so very 20th century.

Koffin'

2011-10-05T19:52:00.000-05:00

Bummer about Steve Jobs dying. Obviously, he was on a downward spiral with cancer, but it's still surprising.

I'm still wrestling with the cold, which was lounged comfortably in my chest.

Too sleepy for a proper blog entry; think it might be an early-to-bed kinda night for me. I had insomnia last night, thanks to the cold.

So long, Tevatron

2011-10-03T05:26:00.000-05:00

The Tevatron is closing. The end of an era. I was explaining to B1 what the Tevatron did...

Hail and Farewell, Grand Colliders

He loves tech stuff like that, loves that it was in the Chicagoland area.

Click!

2011-10-02T18:39:00.008-05:00

Good light day again, so I had my camera handy, got some great shots of the boys. Their grandparents are going to be overjoyed at that. Other than that, pretty low-key Sunday for me, just fighting the frickin' cold. I'm worn out today. I was due for a cold -- it's been quite awhile since I last had one, so, I'm not really complaining. It's not in my nature to complain, anyway.

B1 has such a head for math. I can see it already, how effortlessly he processes numbers. He's got a keen insight into strategy as well -- like in games we play, I can see him thinking through things and assessing things. He's got a sharply analytic mind. I'm going to do what I can to help him with that -- both encouraging him to grow in that area (with stuff like chess and music) and also to help him emotionally, so he's able to effectively make use of his talents while remaining balanced, as well. He's going to love physics; I can tell already. I think I've mentioned that before, but as he's getting older, it's in sharper focus. That's good -- mathematics is a vital aptitude to have. It'll serve him well.

My folks saw "The Ides of March" in Santa Barbara, at some special screening, and Paul Giamatti was supposed to turn up and speak afterward, but the director had said that Giamatti couldn't make it, so they had somebody else to come speak (and the audience was like "Awwww" in disappointment), and the alternate speaker was none other than George Clooney! Can you believe it? The attendees were floored. My mom just about died. She was gushing about having seen him, said she was just a few rows back in the theater, said he actually looked younger in person than onscreen. Anyway, I'm sure that made her day.

Laundry

2011-10-02T04:52:00.000-05:00

Doing laundry this morning. Somebody left a bunch of celebrity tabloid mags in the laundry room, which leads me to ponder this question: do you think Jennifer Aniston is supremely annoyed with the whole "Poor Jen" storyline they always run with her? She's a famous celebrity, likely makes a lot of money from residuals from "Friends" and what-not she gets from whatever movies she's in. She's at least conventionally good-looking (not my type, but I get it). But the tabloids always run the "Poor Jen" storyline when covering her. She's got to be thinking "Oh, shit, let me not have another breakup and/or something happen to me, so those pricks won't run another 'Poor Jen' story." Sandra Bullock is in that place, too. Poor Sandra. It's just weird, and has to be annoying for somebody who wanted to be famous, and was lucky enough to have found a measure of success in that respect. Poor Jen. Bahah!

Plague Ship

2011-10-01T20:55:00.001-05:00

B1 had a cold earlier this week, but B2 is wrestling with one. One of them gave me their cold, as I'm fighting it off, myself. So, it's all orange juice, Mucinex, and Vaporub hereabouts at the moment. *koff koff wheeze-n-sneeze* B2 seems to be hit a bit harder than his brother was.

I'm just tired. If I can get B2 to sleep comfortably, all propped up, then I'll manage to sneak some sleep, myself. We'll see how that goes. Ran errands this morning, got cold medicines and what-not for B2 and me.

The quality of light today was beautiful -- it had that autumn crisp air, like cool but sunny, with big puffy white clouds and vivid blue skies.

Hard to believe B2 will be 6 this month, and before I know it, there'll be snow on the ground!

Unbalanced

2011-10-01T04:22:00.002-05:00

I have to laugh at this writeup of Catherine Deneuve in SALON, in the "Underacting Hall of Fame" section today...

While rewatching Catherine Denueve’s breakthrough performance in 1965′s “Repulsion,” in which she plays a transplanted Frenchwoman losing her mind in London, I was struck by the magnificent paradoxes of her lead performance. She’s at once numb and alert, opaque and transparent. She’s lost in her own thoughts, her own manias, and yet even though neither she nor the dialogue give you many specific clues as to what, exactly, is happening to her, you still feel it, and get it. It’s a performance that ought to seem boringly general but that instead seems achingly specific. It’s not “insanity” that’s being portrayed, but one particular character’s insanity. All this comes through because Deneuve has turned herself into a blank slate onto which the film’s environment can inscribe itself.

To me, this reads as textbook Libra. ;)

My Wave

2011-09-30T21:19:00.001-05:00

Man, what a day! First, I got slammed by a wave on the bike ride to work...

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Huge_Waves_Knock_Down_LSD_Bikers__Runners_Chicago-130845438.html

I'm not any of the people in this clip, but I got nailed by a wave, which nearly knocked me over and soaked me, requiring me to bike back home and put on some dry work clothes.

And then, on the bike ride home, I got caught in a storm and soaked again! I was wearing a rain jacket for that, but my slacks and shoes got soaked. Hail was falling, too! And there was a rainbow, and towering, dark clouds, and sunlight, too!

The lake was very wild this morning, about the wildest I'd seen it. All along the route close to shore, the waves were smashing all across the bike path, nearly reaching the street. And on that curve (the part filmed above), it was a deathtrap! I risked a ride for it, nearly made it, but got hung up and hit by that wave. Then I had to bike ahead to reach a higher spot (since I didn't want to bike back the way I'd come and risk another pummeling) and then I had to ride through the city all soaking wet. The wind was really blowing and it was about 52 degrees, so it was like the hypothermia express!

Still, it was fun, even if it's not something I'd want to experience again anytime soon! Musical interlude...

Beyond the Wheel

2011-09-29T06:07:00.000-05:00

Did I mention getting a new back wheel for my bike? A whole new rim? That frickin' tire would misalign every year, and this year, I finally had a spoke break, so I was just through with it, told the bike guys to replace it. My whole life of biking, I've never had more trouble with a bike than with this one. Anyway, they put on a nice, tough back wheel on it, although I haven't had much opportunity to ride on it, because it's been raining all frickin' week. This is about the rainiest fall I've seen here in Chicagoland.

My boys love the Bond movie, "Goldfinger." They love James Bond in general. Cracks me up. B1 loves the gadgets and the spectacle, while B2 loves the bad guys and thinks Bond's tuxedo is tops -- I actually filmed him singing the "Goldfinger" theme, which was adorable. If B2 saw me in my tux, he'd love that, would want his own tuxedo! Thankfully, he doesn't know I have one!

While looking for some appropriate "Goldfinger" images, I stumbled across this, which cracks me up. Bahah!

I'm in a pretty good mood today, as I managed to come up with a proper ending to a book I'd had written years ago, but had never quite gotten the ending I liked for it. I think I've alluded to it before in here. It's a Young Adult story, I think. That's my nearest guess. Now that I have the ending I like for it, I'll edit it and see if I can get anybody to pick it up. A tough sell in this market, but I'll try to find a home for it. I'm just relieved I got the right ending for it. It's very rare for me to get stuck on a story like that, and this one was like another albatross hanging around my neck (Exene taking the original honor for that, of course, the Lifetime Albatross Achievement Award), but this story was in second place. But I think I got it. On yet another read-through, we'll see how it goes. I shouldn't feel bad -- Tolstoy wrote something like 12 drafts of "War and Peace" -- which would have me going squarely out of my mind if I'd been in that situation. This latest revision will be a cakewalk by comparison.

My folks are seriously eyeing property in Florida. I think they're looking to sell their place in Santa Barbara and settle down in Florida. I think they were missing seeing the rest of the family (since nobody else in our family is on the West Coast), and they were also realizing that they could sell their place for a fortune and buy something particularly fab elsewhere. I always thought their trek to SB was quixotic -- there's a reason why it's like the retirement community for Hollywood. I mean, yes, it's beautiful, but it's also crazy-expensive out there, and if you're not coasting through senescence on residuals, it's a daunting prospect for everybody else. We'll see how Florida goes for them. The boys won't mind that, since they love the ocean (although B1 loves mountains as much as I do -- my Dwarvish boy. He was talking about that the other day, how much he loved mountains and hills. Cuted me out).

Bahahah

2011-09-28T21:23:00.001-05:00

So, I've been watching the remake of "Battlestar Galactica" on DVD, and have been enjoying it. I love EJO's take on Adama, who's a quiet kind of badass. And speaking of asses, I love his takedown of his son, Apollo, who they had looking particularly bad for Season 3...

That made me laugh out loud. I can't stand Apollo in the series, so this scene cracked me up.

Yum!

2011-09-27T20:47:00.001-05:00

I made a yummy dinner on the fly tonight: I grilled some vidalia onions in a pan with some olive oil,

and while that was cooking, I cooked some rice, and some black beans in some chicken broth. Then I took the onions out of the pan, put some turkey burgers in there, and sauteed them in some more of the chicken broth. Once they were cooked, I put the burgers on a plate, topped them with the onions, had the beans and rice on the side. Heavenly scent, delicious! The broth had the burgers nice and moist, great flavor.

Not fancy, but really delicious! Washed down with a beer, and even better!

Da Boys

2011-09-25T19:17:00.000-05:00

I could tell the boys were growing again, so I weighed and measured'em...

B1: 4'9" and 80 lbs.
B2: 3'10.5" and 44 lbs.

Both boys have grown a quarter inch in the last two months, and both of them have grown 4.5 inches in the past 2 years!! Amazing! B1 is definitely going to be taller than me, at the rate he's going. I mean, I was 5'3" in 7th grade, and I grew to be 6'3" by my senior year -- B1 is already 4'9" in 4th grade!

Overacting Hall of Fame

2011-09-25T04:40:00.000-05:00

This piece amused me, the Overacting Hall of Fame. Bahah! Pacino, of course!

Coconuts

2011-09-24T15:07:00.000-05:00

These are deadly-good...

Not my hand, btw.

I'm always buying the last couple of boxes before they're sold out. It's always a competition to score those before they're gone, so others realize that they're food of the gods, too.

Falling Leaves

2011-09-24T06:19:00.000-05:00

Went ambling through the city last night, since the weather was so good. Lots of people out, enjoying it. Already nearing the end of September, with October nipping at one's heels. This month flew by. I need to buckle down and get into my autumnal writing groove. I've got so many pieces to work on, it's going to be hard to choose. At this point, I'm tempted to just do them alphabetically, but I know that'll never work with me. I'll need to do them based on either how soon they can be completed or else which ones inspire me most. I just know how I am, especially for first drafts -- I have to go with inspiration, first, just to get that first draft done. Then the discipline part kicks in with revision.

Did you see that stuff about neutrinos? I am hoping it's corroborated, because that'll be awesome, will pull the rug out from under physics for generations, which'll make for a lot of excited/perplexed/enraged physicists. We'll see. Science is fun. Haha!

Bahah

2011-09-22T08:42:00.002-05:00

My favorite classic Bond moment...

Brrr

2011-09-22T05:39:00.000-05:00

Brrr. Cold this morning! Definitely flannel jammy weather nowadays!

I asked the boys what they wanted to be for Halloween. B1 wasn't sure, yet; B2 wants to be a gremlin, planned it all out, wanting a green shirt and green pants and what-not. It was cute, watching him plan it all out. Hard to believe it's a bit over a month away. Once Halloween hits, it's like the Holiday free-for-all, the rush to the end of the year. Amazing how 2011 has come and gone. And next year should be insane, with the whole presidential election stuff, and the 2012 Mayan Calendar crazies going loopy. And turning 42. What the hell is that all about? Ah, Entropy, you blithering bitch goddess!

Bird-watching

2011-09-21T05:14:00.000-05:00

I keep seeing goldfinches in the city, which is kind of awesome. I love goldfinches. Apparently they hang out in Chicago all year-round, but it seems like there are more around lately. Not sure if that's right, or it's just my perception of it, having seen a lot of them. Either way, I'm not complaining. I'm happy to see more goldfinches, less sparrows!

I bought some knit gloves to help for the bike rides, since it got chilly so quickly! Brrr! I also got B2 some really cute rugby tops. He's gonna love them, is gonna look fab. As ever, between Exene and me, I'm the only one who buys clothes for the boys. But I actually like getting them nice stuff they can use, what can I say?

1111

2011-09-18T21:37:00.000-05:00

Heh, this is my 1111th post on this blog. Not that this means anything, but it's still mildly amusing, I suppose.

I've been watching "Battlestar Galactica" (remake) on DVD, after having only seen the first season when that show was on real-time. It's an entertaining show, although the endless gravitas of it kind of wears down on me a bit. Starbuck is particularly vexing -- she's straight, but they play her so butch, she's like one step short of crunching cans of beer on her forehead and putting cigars out on her tongue. It's like they wanted her to be macho Ms. Badass, without having the greenlight to make her gay or something, which would've been the ballsier move, pardon the pun. So, instead, she's Butchie LaRue and digs guys. But the half-hearted thing they have with her and Apollo reads just so wrong -- no matter who many muscle shirts they put Apollo in, he's like a nancy boy next to Starbuck, who looks like she could break Apollo over her knee. Other than that, and maybe that urgent piano score they do that's like the Cylon "Jaws" theme (typically heralding Number 6's appearance), I'm enjoying the show a great deal. Glad I'm finally watching it. Some of their narrative conceits remind me of HBO's "Oz" or "The Wire" -- like the writers just pull a character and situation out of their asses, because they have "the fleet" to draw from. "Oh, that's from the Belisaurius, a Caprican ore freighter." Sure, why not? I love that Richard Hatch, the original Apollo, is a recurring character on the show. That amuses me.