Strange Fascination

Nailin' Palin

2009-11-21T11:34:00.001-08:00

Something about Denali -- Picture courtesy of HarperCollins

by blogSpotter
Apologies in advance to anyone who thought my blog title was in reference to a porno movie. Am only using the word “nailin’ “ in the sense that individuals are caught doing something questionable (in this case, being a shameless publicity hound). If the porno sense of the title is what focused your attention, by all means read on.

Many men think that Sarah Palin is a hottie. I look at her with her Grammy glasses and school marm hair and have trouble seeing her in that light. Is she sexier than Barbara Boxer or Madeleine Albright? Well, yes but that’s about as far as it goes. She could be Miss November on a calendar of female politicos that need to stay dressed. Now one might ask – is she Presidential material? Could she be the GOP nominee in 2012? Back when John McCain made her his 2008 veep candidate, I wrote a softball article about her, “Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington”. I didn’t really have a lot to go on – I thought her rustic, Alaska moose-hunting background made her seem like a feisty, tell-it-like-it-is Annie Oakley character. As things moved along, I became aware how very, very wrong she was for any place on anyone’s ticket.

Many people have poo-poo’d the now infamous Katie Couric interview as a “hit job”. In retrospect, Katie asked softball questions like “What magazines do you read?” and “What Supreme Court cases have made the biggest impressions on you?” For someone aspiring to the highest or 2nd-highest office in the land, these should’ve been gimme questions. Instead, Palin became tongue-tied. Not only could she not answer the questions, she gave rambling, incoherent replies that might even make you think she went off her medications.

She was credited in her veep debate with Biden for (at the very least) not stepping in it or making a total fool of herself. The bar was set very low. That she makes Dan Quayle look like a Nobel contender went largely unnoticed by her “core” GOP supporters. McCain’s campaign advisor, Steve Schmidt was on pins and needles the whole time – he has since said unequivocally that we dodged a bullet on that one.

Palin has rewarded the McCain camp (most recently in her magnum opus “Going Rogue”) by lambasting them. Apparently they gave her coaching points on how to talk and dress for public appearances. Wonder why they might have thought it necessary? Palin has most recently been embarrassed by the Playgirl modeling career of Levi Johnston, her (no longer) potential son-in-law. He has come to the fore with several juicy tidbits about the Palin family dysfunction. It’s “he said/she said” but still we have to ponder – do we want Jerry Springer episodes staged in the White House?

And where does all of this leave us? I hate to say that Palin could still be viable in 2012 if blacks and Latinos sit on their hands as they did in 2004. Then, the same crowd who deemed George W Bush as a weighty intellect can install Palin and clan into the White House. How tragic, both from practical and symbolic viewpoints, that would be.

I must now close with a passage from Palin’s gubernatorial farewell speech – a speech so fraught with poetic malfeasance that Conan O’Brien had William Shatner do a dramatic reading on the Tonight Show:

“Denali, the great one, soaring under the midnight sun. And then the extremes. In the winter time it's the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty, the cold though, doesn't it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs? And then in the summertime such extreme summertime about a hundred and fifty degrees hotter than just some months ago, than just some months from now, with fireweed blooming along the frost heaves and merciless rivers that are rushing and carving and reminding us that here, Mother Nature wins”.

Say what? Mother Nature wins, but speech-writing loses big-time. You have to credit her with having a fertile imagination. Fertile, but not at all Presidential. A poll done here in Dallas (NBC5 I think) indicated that even a majority of Dallasites think that Palin should return to private life. Let's hope that she takes the clue and does just that.
 
© 2009 blogSpotter

Pelosification II

2009-11-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

Pelosi at the 2008 DNC -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
On November 7, 2009 the US House of Representatives passed bill H. R. 3962, more generally known as the Health Care Bill. Key provisions:

• A public option will be offered for small business and the uninsured
• Individuals will face a fine if not covered, and so will businesses if they don’t offer coverage
• Insurance companies cannot deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions
• Individuals making more than $500,000 and couples making more than $1 million will get a 5.4% additional tax to help pay for the expanded coverage
• Overpayments to doctors who treat Medicare Advantage patients will be cut back.

There are quite a few other details, but this is the basic package. The Senate is now deliberating on its own version – presumed to be more conservative than the House version.

After Ms. Pelosi steered the House version through its perilous journey, she aptly likened it to Roosevelt’s enactment of Social Security. Health Care is every bit that significant – it was a major concern of Harry Truman as far back as 1948. Conservatives are now restaging tea parties and town councils to reiterate their opposition and their blinders-on mentality.

Is Health Care a redistribution of wealth? It certainly is, and much needed. In the current market, health coverage would cost $700/month per person, minimum. Such a cost is completely unaffordable to the poor as well as the lower middle class. The only option now is to damn these “children of a lesser job” to public hospitals where they can die waiting 4 hours for an evaluation.

One of my conservative friends asked how the 4 hour ER wait would be any different with public health care. I would speculate that an expanded health industry will accompany the advent of increased care -- more hospitals, clinics and medical personnel. A greater percentage of our GDP will go towards health care, which it logically should for a growing and graying population.

We consider parks, libraries, super highways and schools important enough to pay for out of the general tax fund. Universal health coverage should be no less important. It shouldn’t be a consumer extravagance for the wealthy – it should be a basic entitlement like a public education. It somehow makes us a more civilized people when we don’t say, “Devil take the hindmost” to the less financially blessed.

Back in 2006, I published a blog titled “Pelosification” when Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House. I did it with a sense of mischief knowing that she is seen by some as a “pushy broad” – an ultraliberal broad no less. I’ve now come to admire her as a feisty fighter and someone who barely, rarely ever takes “no” as an answer when she’s looking for a “yes”. Here’s to Pelosification II – and this time there’s no irony intended. Just lots of admiration.
 
© 2009 blogSpotter

Hollywood Vacation

2009-11-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

Eric near a Venice Beach emporium -- Picture by blogSpotter

by blogSpotter
I’m at the Knox Street Starbucks as I write this, sitting on the outside patio. We’re having a beautiful late Indian summer day -- 80 degrees outside. Have been feeding the sparrows; they appear to like peanut butter cookies. They almost seem more like pets than wild birds -- very cute.

I’m WAY overdue for my LA trip report. My brother Bryan, friend Eric and I went to Los Angeles and Palm Springs two weeks ago. While there, I had the “bizarre allergy attack from Hell” where my nose ran like a faucet and my eyes stung as if someone had thrown acid in them. Everyone speculates that it was the pollution. Mercifully that attack (and ensuing head cold) didn’t come ‘til about halfway into the trip. In spite of all that, I had a very good time -- especially in LA.

NOBODY SLEEPS IN LA
We actually landed in Laguna Beach, a luxury enclave where $5 million haciendas occupy green hills, overlooking a teal blue Pacific Ocean. I have total envy of these people, and had a really good peanut butter milk shake at the Orange Grill on their main drag.

In LA, we stayed at the West Hollywood Ramada on Santa Monica, perfectly situated near the most popular bars, cafes and gyms. The Santa Monica Starbucks has 10 people in line all day long. The unemployed actors need their $4 lattes. The cafes start to get crowded at 3PM and stay crowded ’til 3AM. This is a town I could love. The people are superficially beautiful which is absolutely terrible except to look at. Popular shirt: athletic fit tee shirt with plunging Vee neckline (for men). Popular car: 2010 convertible Mustang in red or silver. We dined at various places -- the Tango Grill, Bossa Nova and Skewers were all great.

THE ABBEY
This is THE most popular bar in West Hollywood. It’s a former restaurant, bakery and bar in a large court yard enclosure. There are different rooms with generous fireplaces and couches -- it looks like somebody’s sprawling Spanish Villa where you’ve been invited for the weekend. To keep with the religious theme (it is called The Abbey after all), there are some iconic statues of the Virgin Mary. The crowd is an amazing hodgepodge of West Hollywood habitués, groups of young ladies, and middle aged couples (maybe film producers and their wives?). Everyone is festive and I likened it to a crazy prom night where you’re not sure who will walk through the door next or what they might do. I could probably just live at this place, it was that fun. Maybe I’ve been in Dallas too long.

We did many of the touristy things (Farmers Market, Getty Museum, La Brea Tar Pit). We didn’t do Universal Studios because it was expensive to buy the tickets and an all-day commitment. We enjoyed window-shopping on Rodeo Drive also, but the standout for me was Venice Beach. This lengthy stretch of boardwalk has every imaginable thing you might see on a garish carnival midway. There were jugglers, musicians, magicians, weight trainers, skate boarders, contortionists and vendors galore. The LA weather was gorgeous, balmy high 70’s, so this was a perfect afternoon.

Alas the LA leg of the trip came to an end and we went to Palm Springs for the last 3 days. At this point I was battling a cold, so in fairness to Palm Springs I wasn’t feeling well.

PALM SPRINGS
Palm Springs is a sleepy retirement community of 42,000 people, one hour east of LA. In its “hey day” it was a second home for movie stars. Nowadays it’s known for golf and occasional white parties offered up by the resident gay community. It reminded me of a military base with it’s grid-like streets, and sterile look-alike Spanish-contemporary buildings. Our guest house (La Dolce Vita) was nearly a ghost house with few other visitors -- understandable since we were there in an off season.

We did a few touristy things (mountain aero tram, Palm Canyon tour) but mostly just flaked out while we were there. I was battling my new cold, and the desert air was all I really wanted for my convalescing efforts.

CONCLUSION
My cold and allergy problems impacted some of this trip, but the LA portion made a big impact. I’m currently shopping for some vee neck shirts and looking at Mustangs. I wonder if any bars around here have that Spanish Villa ambience? In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy the Knox Street crowd here in Dallas and think about what to do on my next trip to LA.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Halloween at the Bijou

2009-10-31T20:11:00.001-07:00

I don't think Mommy likes me -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
I just returned from a week-long vacation in LA and Palm Springs. As soon as I gather my thoughts and notes about all that, I may post a travelogue; I caught a bad cold halfway through the week and it has slowed down my thought process. That doesn’t stop me from doing a movie review (triple-header) however...

ORPHAN
This morning I watched a movie made for Halloween -- Orphan. The movie is basically a retelling of 1956’s Bad Seed which has Patty McCormack as the evil, possessed child. Orphan features less well-known actors, and has a very talented 12 year-old named Isabelle Fuhrman in the role of the disturbed 9 year old orphan, Esther. The movie has received some bad press because it seems to cast shadows on the whole adoption process. The movie company had to change it’s ad campaign as a response. "It must be difficult to love an adopted child as much as your own," was switched to "I don’t think Mommy likes me very much."

I wasn’t too keen that (early in the movie) she was singled out as potentially evil for being precocious or having a large vocabulary for her age. What are we implying? Must you be a dunce to not be evil? There I went and used a word like “dunce” -- hoping that doesn’t put me in the evil category. The movie has you believe that the step siblings wouldn’t report Esther’s bizarre, violent behavior to the parents. I guess movies need incredible events to proceed. Have to confess that I enjoyed some of the sillieness -- it's easily worth a $1 redbox rental fee.

WHATEVER WORKS
This small-budget Woody Allen movie challenges our assumptions about what normal really is, when a “normal” family from the deep south dissolves. The daughter seeks life’s answers in Manhattan, rooming with an old, acerbic retired physicist played by Larry David. The mother tracks her down, soon followed by the father. I won’t divulge what happens but each person experiences self-discovery in the unfettered setting of the Big Apple. I can’t say that the movie is ground-breaking since Allen and others have done similar topics in movies like Annie Hall and Manhattan.

MAIDEN HEIST
Can’t help but think that this was a “straight-to-video” movie since I never saw theater ads for it. It features three museum guards who scheme to keep a new curator from moving some of their favorite exhibits off to a museum in Denmark. They work up a plan to substitute forgeries for the real items and all manner of buffoonery ensues. With Morgan Freeman, William H Macy and Christopher Walken, even this “B” movie was an enjoyable use of time while I was answering the door for trick-or-treaters. I am reminded of what Carrot Top said on Jay Leno: “I make my movies right in the video store, and cut out the middle man”. While that makes no sense it still made me laugh out loud.

OK, I’ve had my 3rd dosages of Wal-Phed and still feel like crapola. Have done all the usual things -- fluids, rest, chicken soup. Maybe about three more movies will bring me around. I have a busy week at work next week, as well as my first on-call rotation so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that everything works out OK.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Fear No Evil

2009-10-22T12:52:00.001-07:00

Nurses in training during the 1918 Pandemic -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
With all of the attention being given to H1N1 in the media, it’s interesting to compare this pandemic to the notorious Spanish Flu of 1918. The Spanish Flu was named for Spain because Spain (which remained neutral in WWI) is the only country that would give flu updates during the war-time news blackout. Spanish Flu was actually world-wide. It was a form of influenza A and a subtype of H1N1 – the same lovely bug we have now.

There are lingering arguments about whether it was avian or swine, and how exactly it started. Spanish Flu raged from 1918 to 1920 and is thought to have killed 50-100 million people worldwide. A third of the world’s population was infected and it’s deemed by some to be the worst epidemic in medical history. In the USA, 500,000-675,000 people died. The statistics are sketchy because some people struck by the flu actually died from more immediate causes – like preexisting diseases or accidents.

It’s thought that the disease originated in China, came to Boston, MA where it mutated and then forged on to Brest, France. The ongoing World War I abetted the virus due to frequent troop movements, and troops living in close quarters. Some historical perspective has probably been lost, because so much more focus was given to World War I (another kind of “pandemic” where humans kill humans for territorial reasons – another blog entirely).

There are some things about Spanish Flu that were oddities in 1918 but mirror the situation today. Many of the 1918 victims were healthy young adults. Half the fatalities were people between 20 and 40 years of age. A rapid response (called a “cytokline storm”) from a healthy immune system caused young peoples’ lungs to fill with fluid. Other symptoms differed from now and were quite alarming -- bleeding from mucous membranes and the ears. The Spanish Flu was at its worst during summer months where “normal” flu outbreaks more typically happen in the winter. Spanish Flu came in two waves. The first wave was more innocuous – the second wave of late 1918 was far deadlier.

Very oddly, the Spanish Flu ended as suddenly as it started. In Philadelphia, 4,597 died one week in October; one month later there were no fatalities and almost no one with any lingering illness. Some people speculated at the time that treatments improved dramatically – but there’s no real evidence of that. More recent speculation is that the virus might have done a “self-limiting” mutation to quit killing its human hosts. It’s actually in the interest of the virus for its host to live a long life (for viral reproduction) – hence the non-fatal staying power of viruses such as chicken pox and various herpes strains.

There is a long list of well-known people who suffered from the 1918 pandemic including Walt Disney, Lillian Gish and English prime minister David Lloyd George. The Spanish Flu has resurfaced in pop culture – in David Morrell’s If I Die Before I Wake (1997) and Thomas Mullen’s Last Town on Earth (2006) which both speak to the impact on small American towns. The H1N1 that we have now is alarming by 2009 standards but has taken a comparatively paltry 5000 lives worldwide. Still, we have to wonder “what evil lurks” not just in the hearts of men, but in ordinary proximity to poultry, pigs and other well-meaning humans.

© 2009 blogSpotter

DART Has Arrived

2009-10-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

Look a-yonder comin'... -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
DART is the Dallas Area Rapid Transit – it came into existence in 1983 as a regional replacement to the more local Dallas Transit System. Featuring 45 miles of track (not counting another 45 miles under construction) and 115 Kinki Sharyo rail cars, DART is the nation’s largest and most rapidly expanding light rail project.

DART had a dodgy beginning; many Texans didn’t think that light rail would work for a Texas maverick state of mind. Coppell and Flower Mound even voted themselves out of the project early on. With the advent of the blue/red lines in the mid-1990’s and the green line in 2009, the rail system has proved the naysayers wrong – daily ridership is currently at 228,300 and going up as we speak.

I’ve already shared my feelings of civic appreciation and amazement in one of my earlier blogs (“Dallas Under the Wrecking Ball”). In that blog, I lamented the destruction of Dallas’s historical landmarks but held DART as a saving grace for an otherwise commercially oriented city. Also, I marveled at the fact that a Bush/Perry-loving red state could have such an exemplary mass transit project. Mass transit after all, is vaguely socialistic in its goals. It’s the ultimate democratization of transportation. The irony, the irony.

How do I love light rail? Let me count the ways….

ECOLOGY
Clearly, the fewer cars on the road, the less the air pollution. Even beyond that, you can reduce the need for highways, parking lots and parking garages. Also fewer unsightly auto-related enterprises – service stations and oil change shops. In Dallas, that should be no great loss to our suburb-oriented economy but a great boon to the visual appeal of the city proper.

ECONOMY
Transit oriented development is a fact in established Northern cities like NYC and Chicago. Dallas has had major transit development at Mockingbird Station, City Place and Eisemann Center in Richardson. To borrow from Kevin Costner: if you build it they will come. People who dread parking downtown or fear having their cars towed at the State Fair will now hop on a train.

TOURISM
I’ve traveled to Paris, France and Sydney, Australia. In both cities, I must confess that I didn’t do my homework and figure out a visitor itinerary. Each city’s subway map gave me an excellent start in spite of that. The city’s promoters make sure to put a stop at anything remotely interesting. Museums, parks, historical monuments, trendy bar areas and shopping districts will all get a stop as well as informative blurbs in the maps about what all to see at each station. People can get off at a station, explore the local ‘hood, and hop back on.

STRUCTURE
A transit system gives structure, even meaning to a city suffering from urban sprawl. A “what are we about” and “where are we going” discussion is the very literal precursor to any new track being laid. What’s that you say? There’s no DART train going to Lancaster Avenue or La Prada in Mesquite? Well, it could be that those areas lack the potential ridership or places of interest. Also, could be the member cities cheaped out on the DART tax. Planning, discussion and more discussion – all are required to put rail into place.

CONCLUSION
What to make of all this? It’s very nearly socialist in nature. Every committed DART rail user is flipping a finger at Ford, Audi or Shell Oil. Any opportunities lost to the auto or oil industry are gains to transit-oriented construction, general retail, the arts and tourism to name but a few. If you haven’t already, set aside one sunny afternoon to check out the exhibits at Fair Park in Dallas – and by all means take the Green Line to get there.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Redbox Killed the Video Store

2009-10-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

The little red box that could... -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Redbox LLC is a company that specializes in vending machine retail of DVD's. I recently started seeing these "red boxes" popping up at various familiar places around town -- HEB, Walgreens and Wal-Mart to name a few. Thought nothing much of it; I currently rent movies from Apple TV which is the ultimate in butt-on-the-couch convenience if you don't mind the $2.99 rental fee for a standard-definition movie. Netflix offers a similar service with the Roku set-top box -- customers can rent and stream a movie to the TV without leaving the house (or even the couch).

Not everyone can afford Netflix or Apple TV -- both of these services have hefty entry fees (purchase of the set-top box) or a monthly service charge. When I recently visited my Mother in Round Rock, she lamented that her favorite Hollywood Video was being shuttered. She doesn't have Netflix or Apple and the nearest Blockbuster is a ways away from her house. We were in a bit of a quandary until we saw the Redbox summoning us at a nearby Walgreens.

Several things amazed me right off that bat. The vending machine has an easy, intuitive interface with a huge selection of recently released movies available for rent. More amazing is the price structure:

$1/movie per night.
$1/night late fee.
After 25 nights, you’ve purchased the movie for $25.00.

All transactions are Debit or Credit card; you can get a receipt and track late fees if you supply an optional email ID. My Mom and I rented 3 movies (Wolverine: X-Men for me, Management and another chick flick for her). Total cost with tax, for 3 new movies: $3.25.

That same 3 movies would run about $9.71 from Apple or Blockbuster. They’d be cheaper on Netflix but since most of Netflix movies are mailed you have a very delayed movie gratification. Apple, Blockbuster and Netflix have the advantage of selection depth. If I want Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Redbox won’t have it. I discovered one other Redbox drawback when returning my movies; there can only be one person served at a time. All I wanted to do was return 3 movies – had to be patient and let the customer make his careful choices. It was lightly misting so I got to get wet while I waited.

Redbox had a little hiccup when 3 movie studios (Universal, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers) thought that Redbox’s cheap prices would eat into their own sales. The studios put in a 28-day delay for new releases, prompting a suit from Redbox. As of this writing, the suit is still active, advantage Redbox. Looks like the studios’ actions could be seen as monopolistic although the jury is still out.

CONCLUSION
If you are a person “of means” you might like Apple TV best of all. You have a huge selection with instant streaming delivery to your TV. You don’t even have to put down the popcorn or the remote control. Netflix is a middling choice – I personally don’t want to wait for a movie to be mailed to me. Blockbuster is becoming less and less relevant (except for their own DVDPlay vending machines which compete with Redbox). Very shortly the only customer base for Blockbuster will be technology-challenged old people or the economically disadvantaged who can’t afford broadband.

What does that leave at the “economy” end of the DVD rental market? It leaves Redbox of course. People will brave the wind, rain and occasional waits to rent fantastic movies at $1 a pop. Chances are, you have a Redbox machine at the end of your street. And chances are, after you see the amazing convenience and selection to be had, you’ll be a Redbox convert.

ADDENDUM
This blog has some erroneous info and I need to amend it. First a simple factual correction -- the Netflix box is Roku not Roxio as stated earlier.

Also, Apple appears to have the 20+ day delay on current movie releases. Several movies now on redbox won't be available for rent from Apple until mid-November. Frequently the Apple movie server is slow and your movie selection isn't available to view until hours after it's been rented. This makes the "instant gratification" factor cited above way less important and less accurate. Apple is still great -- when it serves up the movie quickly or it's the exact movie someone is looking for. But redbox is looking better all the time.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Stupid Human Tricks

2009-10-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

Say what? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Before tackling the Letterman topic, I'd like to talk about Obama. A letter today in the DMN described this term as "Yes We Can't". Obama's health care initiative stalled out in committee, he was rebuffed on his quest for Chicago Olympics, and according to Paul Krugman (in today’s op-ed), we still have a recession and need more stimulus. Also, Afghanistan is getting uncomfortably close to a quagmire status with no end in site. If I were a Sunday pundit, I’d be giving Obama a “C” right now. It’s still better than Bush’s “D-“ but not much. Obama needs to lead now, and quit speechifying.

LETTERMAN
I was really surprised last Thursday when David Letterman told his Late Show audience that he had just been victimized with blackmail and extortion. It seems Robert Halderman, a producer on 48 Hours, was threatening to disclose information about a series of sexual affairs Letterman carried on with staffers (including recently). Halderman was seeking $2 million to quiet the story and was justifiably arrested for his actions.

The story did pique my curiosity because a successful producer at the same network hardly seems like your average extortion artist. Why would he sacrifice so much for really so little? It turns out that there’s quite a bit more. Halderman was having dire financial problems, facing bankruptcy. Still, that wouldn’t necessarily push someone to do something desperate and illegal. But on top of that, Halderman and Letterman were romancing the same young woman. Apparently Letterman maintains a “stabbin’ cabin” right there at the Ed Sullivan Theater for all his staffing dalliances. This woman was a “dalliance” to Letterman, but a serious love interest to Halderman.

Now we’re talking. In the “what I did for love” annals, this could be an entry. Maybe Halderman’s defense could be “crazy in love” or “insanely jealous”. He had both a romantic and monetary motive – neither one sufficient to justify blackmail or extortion.

What of Letterman’s career and marriage? Well, he’s not a politician so the bar is a little lower for showbiz types. That a talk show host diddles around isn’t nearly as momentous as for politicians who are supposed to be perfect. He made a public apology yesterday to his wife, Regina, and one just has to hope that it takes. When I look at Letterman’s bespectacled, slightly befuddled picture I have trouble seeing him as a Don Juan. This old grandpa with heart trouble was breaking hearts?!

Whatever. I still like Letterman and could care less about his private life. Hope he works it out with the wife and doesn’t let up on the Elliot Spitzer jokes. We care about the sex lives of presidential candidates and attorney generals. Talk show hosts? Not so much.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Family Stoned

2009-09-26T20:28:00.001-07:00

Mackenzie Frenzy -- Picture courtesy of Imdb

by blogSpotter
Before I dive into the subject of Mackenzie, I'd like to talk about my weekend ...

Whole new worlds …

This has been a Lewis-and-Clark weekend for me. Searching for the Forest Lane Krogers, I came across a beautiful, bodacious new Wal*Mart at Forest and Greenville. It's been open 11 months! I grieved when they closed the Midpark store, not realizing they'd given us a nice replacement. That's what I get for ignoring newspaper inserts -- better late to the Wal*Mart party than never.

Then this morning, I channel surfed on my HD TV, only to discover that my basic cable is giving me music channels 80.5 thru 80.40. Does basic always include that?? We won’t ask questions -- we will just enjoy the beautiful music. Last but not least, I took the new DART Green Line to Fair Park for the State Fair. The train ran perfectly on schedule and we were packed like sardines on the way down. Deep Ellum, Baylor and Fair Park were all beautiful stations -- the Green Line is a smashing success if Saturday was any test.

Now to our fair Mackenzie

I loved Mackenzie Phillips on One Day At A Time back in the 70’s. I wondered why my favorite raspy-voiced, mouthy teen was kicked off of the hit sitcom midway thru its run. Now it turns out she was canned for her drug and alcohol issues in 1980. According to her latest bio, that is when the 18-year old began an incestuous relationship with her father, rocker John Phillips of Mamas and Papas’ fame. He apparently took advantage of her in a drug stupor and things snowballed from there. The on-again, off-again incestuous relationship continued “consensually” for the next 10 years.

She says that the relationship was because of drug-addled thinking on the part of her and her father. She did feel like she had been initially raped and emotionally coerced into the affair -- she also emphasizes that she forgave her father on his deathbed in 2001. You might think that Mackenzie’s confession would shed light on a verboten but relevant topic but judged on public reaction -- you would be wrong.

You’re as sick as your secrets …

The public reaction has been revulsion, outrage and anger -- all directed at Mackenzie. In looking at reader/audience responses from various articles and TV interviews, I see two general tendencies, both (I think) misguided and wrong.

“You should take this to the grave -- it hurts your family” -- She was never seeking revenge or vindication. She was trying to focus light on a deeply affecting, family and personal problem. Her aunt and Mother already told Mackenzie to take it to her grave, and mostly what that did was help to bedraggle the sick affair another 10 years. Nobody was suggesting that John should “do time” but family counseling was certainly in order -- circa 1980.

“It never happened -- Mackenzie made the whole thing up”. Total strangers presume to tell Mackenzie what happened in her own experience. The affair is so horrifically bizarre that small minds can’t wrap themselves around it. People who are not Mackenzie, or even related to her in any way have to insist that it never happened.

As someone from a dysfunctional family (albeit no incest), I can attest to lots of weirdness -- truth can be stranger than fiction. I don’t doubt her story in the least, nor do I begrudge her the freedom to speak her truth. On the Today Show, Mackenzie pointed out that many incest survivors were coming “out of the closet” to her, thanking her for the honest soul-searching and frank retelling of the events. Mackenzie isn’t writing Mommie Dearest -- she’s owning her part of the story. Let’s let Mackenzie be Mackenzie and let the truth eke its way out. If the truth hurts, sometimes we have to bear the pain.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Do Ask, Do Tell

2009-09-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

Tom Dooley, Navy M.D. -- Picture courtesy of Wikpedia

by blogSpotter
Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a term used for the 1993 Clinton-era policy which asserts that "Sexual orientation will not be a bar to service ....excepting individuals who engage in homosexual conduct". The law was the bastard child that came of Clinton's campaign promise to allow gays in the military and Senator Sam Nunn's dogged opposition to that same idea.

Throughout American history, gay men have been drummed out of the military based on accusations of "sodomy" or morals charges. LGB people were given discharges labeled blue, undesirable or dishonorable -- all with various degrees of censure and denial of benefits. There has always been some ambivalence within the military. Navy M.D. Thomas Dooley was a noted humanitarian hero of the 1950’s -- he was allowed to resign honorably despite a general knowledge of his homosexuality. The 1957 Crittendon Report was even ahead of its time in stating that gay people were no greater a security risk than heterosexuals.

Up until 1981, military personnel could choose to retain people suspected of being gay if it was thought that the behavior was a temporary aberration -- a basically straight person acted out homosexually. This was dubbed the “queen for a day” policy and points up major problems of fairness, enforcement and consistency surrounding these types of policies.

How has Don’t As, Don’t Tell worked? In years since it went in to effect, the number of gays discharged soared from 617 in 1994 to 1273 in 2001. The number has settled down some since then, but still -- no significant reduction in the discharge of gay people. The Government Accounting Office conservatively estimates that roughly $180 million dollars was spent recruiting and training the replacements of gays being discharged from 1994 thru 2003. In the Iraq War, highly valuable Farsi translators (among other critical functions) were sacrificed to the cause of "Heterogeneity".

If you’re not gay, you might wonder what all this has to do with the price of tea in China. It does tie back to things relevant in your own experience after all. President Obama pledged to allow gays in the military as part of his 2008 campaign rhetoric. After being elected, he promptly scuttled DADT discussions to 2010 and said that the Joint Chiefs of Staff would need to formulate any new ruling. Then more recently the Obama White House stripped the National Defense Act of a provision that would end funding for DADT enforcement. Effectively, Obama reversed his position. He didn’t just exhibit “weak sister” behavior, he did an about-face.

All of this is being said with an eye on the health care debate. Obama has already shown that he’s willing to concoct an unholy compromise as a way of conflict avoidance. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is already a monstrous political byproduct of the Clinton days -- a half-assed solution that arguably made things worse for LGBT’s.

What kind of fish-nor-fowl, half-baked solution will the Obama team give us for health care? If we’re lucky, it will be something so heinous to both left and right that it never sees the light of day. Sometimes a compromise is just that -- a hobbled hybrid that serves nobody’s purpose. Obama has shown us that he has the silver tongue of an Am-Way salesman. He needs to show us that he has the cajones to stand on principles and follow his ideas to fruition. Bush 1 (Herbert Walker Bush) was somewhat of a conciliatory man who looked for compromises; he was also thought of as a human weather vane and was a one-term President. We have to hope that Obama can help to shape our opinions with intelligence and clarity rather than simply react to them.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Music Revolution

2009-09-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

A Rock and Roll Tour de Force -- Picture courtesy of Wikpedia

by blogSpotter
How is it that we have devolved so much in 40 years? Think back to 1969 -- a man walked on the moon, Ford had came out with its most kick-ass, muscular Mustang, and the Beatles gave us Abbey Road. Come back to the present and what do we have? We have a stultified space program featuring a backed-up-toilet Space Station, the questionable rap lyrics of R Kelley and blandified cars from car companies going out of business. Maybe we shouldn’t fault ourselves too much. The decade of the 60’s was a hard act to follow, especially in music.

The entire Beatles catalog has been recently digitally remastered and I just availed myself of 3 albums missing in my collection: Rubber Soul, Revolver and Abbey Road. These albums represent the middle-to-end of the Beatles’ amazing trajectory and each album (from 1965, 1966 and 1969 respectively) represent logical phases in the evolution of the group’s style and message. Rubber Soul gives us more folk guitar with intimations of things to come … sitar music and “ooh la la” background vocals – things that hark to a psychedelic future.

Revolver is considered the 3rd best rock album ever made, in a poll conducted by UK’s Guardian. With a cover featuring the beautiful line-art collage of Beatles artist friend Klaus Voorman, Revolver is considered to be one of the first (if not the first) psychedelic record albums. It featured innovations in sound effects, backward sequencing, electronics and instrument experimentation. Not only that, the topics of the songs were more cryptic and sometimes couched in symbolic wrappers. "She Said" is supposedly a direct repeat of a conversation with Peter Fonda, where he discussed a near death experience.

Abbey Road is remarkable as a finale to the Beatles’ short tenure (short compared to the venerable Rolling Stones anyhow). The album has the gorgeous guitar riffs of George Harrison; "Here Comes the Sun", is probably one of the best songs ever written by anyone, anywhere. But what gripped me on my most recent listening was the sequence starting with "Polythene Pam", followed by "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", and finally "Carry That Weight". Each segment blends seamlessly to the next, almost like a rock opera. I listened to this on the way to work – nearly had to pull the car over to digest and comprehend the beauty and complexity of what was delivered.

Once upon a time, I thought the Rolling Stones was a better group. The mundane sex themes of the Stones somehow seemed earthier and more accessible to my adolescent mind. While I still love the Stones and think that they rule over a certain realm, the Beatles are unquestionably the best rock group of all time. I sincerely think they’ll be in the realm of Shakespeare and Mozart – standards for all the ages. If you haven’t done so yet, go to Starbucks or Target and pick up the remastered editions of these musical legends.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Sweet Little Sixteen?

2009-08-30T18:42:00.001-07:00

A brat never looked so good -- Picture courtesy of A.A. Productions Ltd

by blogSpotter
TCM showed Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita (1962) last night -- a very black, splendid comedy about 20 years ahead of its time. Based on Nabokov’s novel, the movie tells the tawdry tale of Professor Humbert Humbert, a 50-something college professor rooming with a ditzy widow woman and her flirtatious beautiful teen daughter, Dolores (aka Lolita). He falls in lust (and even later into love) with the gum-chewing, hula hooping teen temptress. I’m not going to replay the whole plot line -- by all means rent this fantastic movie and wrap yourself up in the weird sequence of events.

There is so much to love in this movie, where to begin. Some misguided souls may see it as a drama or tragedy but it's very much the opposite -- it’s a smoldering, black comedy. The wordplay and names have double entendres that would shock and amuse David Lynch:

Cherry pie -- (Charlotte Haze bakes prize pastries, or is this what Humbert refers to?)
Camp Climax -- Where the bratty Dolores must go -- and why a camp with such a name?
Clare Quilty -- His strange last name is only one letter removed from “Guilty”
Charlotte Haze -- The ditsy 40-something has a last name that sums up her state of mind
Humbert Humbert -- A first & last name which may reflect upon the duality of Quilty and Humbert

The movie evokes Alfred Hitchcock in places. The road trip in the ‘58 Ford station wagon might call to mind Janet Leigh's character in Psycho, running from her embezzling crime, conscience in tow. The stark black and white photography also brings Psycho’s type of sleazy grittiness to the fore. Another great director who deals heavily in symbolism, irony and dream sequences is David Lynch (of Blue Velvet fame). He might have even gotten his Twin Peaks “cherry pie” pun from Lolita.

Here are a couple of interesting side notes about the movie. Pedophilia was such a forbidden topic that the novel was first published by a pornographer in France. In America, Lolita had to be advanced 4 years in age, from 12 to 16, so that the public wouldn’t be appalled (too much) by what it saw on screen. Sue Lyon played Lolita well and might even come across more as an 18 or 20 year old. Even so, the movie barely squeaked by the Hollywood ratings board and the Catholic Morals Council adamantly rejected the movie.

BlogSpotter has his own bizarre take on the movie. The Clare Quilty character played by Peter Sellers is portrayed as both a romantic rival and tormentor of Humbert. His character is most improbable -- throughout the movie he dogs Humbert and impersonates a state policeman, a German Psychiatrist and an uncle of Dolores. He shows up at strange but convenient moments when Humbert is feeling especially stressed and guilty. I think an argument could be made that Quilty isn’t even a real person -- he is in fact the guilty alter-ego of Humbert. The movie ends in suicide, not homicide. Discuss! OK, even the Nabokov screenplay has Humbert serving time for a homicide in a final note -- even he puts a literal take on his weird character(s). Movies like Fight Club and Sixth Sense have used “imagined” characters in years since Lolita was made; it might work in a rendition of this movie.

All said, the movie is excellent. I’m in a quandary as to whether I should ever erase it from my DVR, it’s that good. Please rent a copy of Lolita and see how far Kubrick had already advanced the state of cinema by 1962.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Time to Get Tough?

2009-08-25T14:46:00.001-07:00

Where's the change? -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
In today's paper, Richard Cohen has an op-ed piece, "The President Seems Lost". The article talks about two gathering debacles in Obamas first term -- the health care overhaul and the Afghan war. Neither one of these were prominent issues under George W. Bush; of all the many things we want to hang on Dubya, these can’t be included. We were only shin, not neck deep in Afghanistan when Obama came to office.

In analyzing the problem, Cohen describes Obama’s style as a deliberate coolness, maybe “too cool for school”. Obama wants to be seen as some kind of ultimate, unifying force – always above the fray. The problem is, we have a barroom brawl on our hands (with health care) and a punch may need to be thrown.

If we travel back 8 years to 2001, Bush came in describing himself as a “uniter, not a divider”. Events quickly disabused us of this idea, and Bush himself pretty quickly disposed of it saying, “You’re either with me or against me”. From 2001 on, Bush had a partisan presidency – there was no mincing of words whatever else there might have been. Virtually every turn made was rightward lurch, with no dilly-dallying.

Pundits other than Cohen seem to reaching similar conclusions about Obama. Bill Mahr was a guest on Conan O’Brien last night and must have been reading Cohen’s notes. He said that because Obama seems to emphasize cool style over substantive actions, he risks being at the helm of a failed or disemboweled health initiative. Using words that sound very nearly insane (if taken out of context), Mahr suggested that Obama take a page from Bush and press his own agenda. Be as forceful as necessary.

The thing is, Republicans don’t want health care reform in any fashion. They are happy with the private insurance setup that we have. They would also like to hang a health care failure around Obama’s neck. Blue dog Democrats present a large enough problem, pressing for private co-ops as a half-hearted alternative to a public insurance option. There is no compromise with the GOP and barely a compromise with the blue dogs. What is a highly charismatic, young President to do?

Mr. Cohen says that Obama runs the risk of seeming hollow, stylistic, even light-weight if he lets the tail wag the dog in either health care or the war in Afghanistan. As we speak, the President’s family is enjoying a much-needed vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. When he comes back, Obama needs to reject the role of a glad-handing, Chambers of Commerce cheerleader. He might have to square off with somebody, he might have to be tough. He might even have to be brutally direct. He might just have to be President in every sense of the word.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Socially Relevant Sci-fi

2009-08-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

Wikus bullies the "prawns" -- Picture courtesy of Key Creatives

by blogSpotter
District 9 has been done to death in a recent rash of movie magazine reviews. I can toss in my own layperson views, although I don't know that I can approach the insights of Time or Entertainment Weekly. I went to see D9 last weekend at the urging of various geek friends. Geek by the way has expanded in meaning -- it really includes anyone who likes high tech gadgets or sci-fi pop culture. Doesn’t have to be an unfashionable nerd by necessity anymore.

I digress from this interesting sci-fi, socio-commentary that was directed and written by 29 year-old newcomer Neill Blomkamp. D9 is set in contemporary Johannesburg, South Africa. In this story, it seems that an alien space ship has been stalled over the city for some 25 years. The crustacean-like aliens (derisively called “prawns” by humans) have become ill from space toxins and waylaid helplessly. They’re rounded up and held in a detention camp called District 9. Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), is a human field operative charged with evicting the prawns to a more secure environment called District 10.

Wikus is a likable, blustery, over self-confident man unaware of the dangers involved -- he’s in way over his head. In one home raid, he handles a cylinder full of alien “fluid” and becomes infected. This begins a bizarre process whereby he starts to mutate from human to alien. When his fellow humans see what’s happened, they see him as no longer human -- they want to harvest his organs and use him for ghastly experiments.

At this point, the hunter becomes the hunted and Wikus forms a necessary bond with one of the more in-the-know prawns. It turns out that this prawn was the ship engineer and knows how to restore Wikus to human form -- if Wikus will help him recover the fluid cylinder and reconnect with the hovering mother ship. I will leave the synopsis here to avoid spoiling the ending. The movie is fascinating in the way it turns the mirror on ourselves. The prawns look surprisingly decent and moral; the humans look greedy, manipulative and blood-thirsty by comparison. In some ways, the treatment of the aliens calls to mind the Nazi experiments of Dr. Mengeles.

I hyperbolically told a friend it’s “the best sci-fi movie ever”. Upon reflection, there is probably a roster of movies that could contend for that title. But District 9 is certainly in the running. Note -- for a “low-budget” 30 million dollar movie, there are spectacular special effects. And this low-budget sleeper already surprised the honchos of the entertainment industry by bringing in $37,000,000 its first weekend. Not bad for a first foray by the extremely young director, Mr. Blomkamp.

© 2009 blogSpotter

The Disturbing Democracy Index

2009-08-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

Where are we free to be? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
I hear you asking, "What is the Democracy Index?" Well, probably not. But I'll tell you anyway -- the Democracy Index (DI) is an index of political freedom, assessed by country for every country in the world. The conservative British magazine, The Economist does this assessment once every year using 60 questions across 5 categories (pluralism, civil liberties, participation, culture and government functioning). Independent scholars employed by The Economist offer expert opinion but objective survey results are also used in answering the questions.

If you look at the map above, you’ll see there are 4 classifications indicated by color (this will also test you for color blindness :-)):

Light blue / Medium blue -- Full democracy
Canyon blue -- Flawed democracy
Royal blue -- Hybrid regime
Cobalt blue / Black -- Authoritarian regime

It’s a bit jarring to see that 50% of the world (by population %) toils under some type of regime. You might be surprised to see the USA languishing at #18 and United Kingdom (home to this survey) at #21. Russia and China, two great powers of the world show as a hybrid and an authoritarian regime respectively. The DI has been criticized for neglecting popular opinion of citizens; another factor that appears missing from the DI formula is standard of living. Thus it might be very possible that citizens of Saudi Arabia, China and Vietnam live under generous tyrannies that give them comfortable livings.

If you look at the map, there are ample (albeit politically incorrect) conclusions to draw. The authoritarian regimes are depicted with dark colors, which roughly correspond to the ethnicities of the people in those countries. As an advocate of Church-State separation, I can’t help but notice that the regimes are dominated by authoritarian, intolerant religions (like Islam) or indigenous religions that promote things like female circumcision. The countries with the greatest democracy attributes seem to be Scandinavia and the British Commonwealth (but not Britain itself). The USA has a history of racial strife (Jim Crow laws up until 1965) and anti-immigrant movements so our #18 is probably deserved.

Other things are note-worthy. Democracy apparently cannot be dispensed like aspirin at a vending machine. Liberia in Africa was founded as a nation for freed slaves, using much of our Bill of Rights and legal precedents. No matter -- it still is a hybrid regime at #98. Democracy is something that needs to be absorbed, sponge-like by an educated and appreciative populace. Other analogies spring to mind…Democracy is a delicate, beautiful instrument which must be tuned and maintained by a caring populace. It doesn’t maintain itself.

What is the future prospect for the authoritarian regimes shown above? Should we be cynical and say that some people don’t mind being told how to live, don’t wish to hassled with things like town council meetings and voter registration? More likely, the voice of freedom hasn’t reached everywhere it needs to be heard. We ourselves are marveling over our 1st black President and a Latina Supreme Court justice. Religious and sexual preconceptions generally come bundled with political packaging. When Afghanistan decides that women can go to school, when Saudi Arabia decides that Christians can worship openly in Mecca, things will move however glacially toward a free and freedom-loving world.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Waltham Adventure

2009-08-08T12:33:00.000-07:00

Waltham on the Charles River -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
I don't usually do trip reports as blogs, but am running so far behind on things it'll have to suffice. This has been my summer of extreme events and unusual business. As all the dust settles, I should be back to my sedentary, sit-behind-a-computer lifestyle and catch up on things.

Ab Initio Training in Boston 8/4 thru 8/7 -- Mini-trip report

I attended the 4-day Basic Training for Ab initio (data warehouse ETL software) in Waltham, MA. Waltham is a suburb @ 13 miles NW of Boston. It has affluent homes, office parks, hotels to the north and a blue collar neighborhood to the South. The south part also has Waltham's downtown which has a very lively avenue called Moody Street. Moody Street has a lot of hustle and bustle -- ethnic restaurants, Indian grocers, used book stores and Tapas bars. It reminds me a bit of 6th Street in Austin.

Ab Initio HDQ

The facility looks like it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright -- ultramodern, built into a wooded hillside. The grounds look like a botanical garden. The facility is fairly small -- looks like they only have parking for @ 300 employees. (SWA has 2000 at HDQ alone). My class only had 3 (!) students and I was the only external student. The other two were Kim from documentation and Nancy from testing. Felt a lot of pressure on me to pay close attention and ask intelligent questions, being essentially the "student guest of honor". I held up my end of that bargain, except after lunch when it's normal for me to have a sleepiness attack.

Ab Initio provides gourmet-quality snacks throughout the day, and gourmet lunches at lunch time. The dining room is about as big as one of our conference rooms -- no more than 30 people can be seated at once. The dining room overlooks the gorgeous outdoor hill view.

The class was pretty much a boot camp -- giddyap time. The instructor was a no-nonsense 40-something guy who vaguely (to me) resembled Phil Silvers. If you don't know who Phil Silvers is, it's a testament to your youthfulness. Anyhow he covered every damn chapter in the book, we did every damn exercise and he kept us a few minutes late most days. Whatever happened to the slow, gentle approach?

Hotel and Car

I rented a bright red Ford Fusion from Enterprise -- it rode very smooth and had a V6 engine which gave it lots of power. These cars are in high demand right now in the "Cash for Clunkers" program -- I can see why. Manchester NH Airport is only 45 minutes away from Boston. The airport is small and no-hassle; the ride is scenic and beautiful. I'm not sure but what Manchester isn't a better way to go even after SWA opens Logan next week.

I stayed at the Waltham Extended Stay. The room was like a small efficiency apartment with a kitchenette. It was nicely decorated and overlooked the pool. My only kvetch was with the girl at the front desk ignoring my phone calls -- maybe she had a needs-to-talk-to-a-friend emergency. (That's what she was doing when I came down in person, when the calls were ignored). After I got my coffee maker (missing at first) and settled into my room, all was forgiven and it was a really nice stay.

BOSTON

I'm very happy to say I had a good, touristy visit of Boston 5 years ago. This visit, I drove to downtown one night during the week. Parking and traffic are a nightmare even in non-rush hour. Also I was tired from a day of boot camp training anyway -- so the Boston tourism didn't really happen on this trip.

In general, it was a great trip -- I enjoyed seeing Waltham, Manchester and the surrounding area. The temperature topped out at 82 degrees, so I know I wasn't missing the Dallas weather. All things considered, it was a great experience and a little bit of an adventure for an old-timer like me.

POST SCRIPT

Forgot to mention -- I used the Nuvi extensively, it saved the day. (See previous blog, below). I fear that GPS navigators may have the same effect as pocket calculators. I quit doing even simple arithmetic in my head once I had a device that would do it for me. I noticed in Boston that I was ignoring landmarks, failing to remember street names and basically letting Nuvi take over. If I could've given it the steering wheel I probably would've. There were a few glitchy things due to the odd layout of some old Boston 'hoods but overall Nuvi worked like a champion.
© 2009 blogSpotter

Nuvi Newbie

2009-08-01T20:15:00.001-07:00

Nuvi is groovy -- Picture courtesy of Garmin

by blogSpotter
OK, at one blog entry a week, I’m still running a little behind. I dealt with family issues last month; this month I’ve been wrestling with a job transition and a bathroom remodel. I guess that God thought my life was too boring so He gave me seven things to deal with at once. I hope to be catching up before too long.

NUVI

Gadget nut that I am, you might be amazed that I’ve gone this far without buying a GPS navigation device. I could drive a cab in Dallas, I know the streets so well. Usually when I’m in another city I’m with friends who’ve already mapped out the metro and planned the whole itinerary. Thus, why spend $300 for a trinket I’ll use only once? Well circumstances have changed…

I have to go to Lexington, MA this week for a class. It’s a suburb 13 miles west of Boston and I’ll be in a rental car. It’s a golden opportunity for me to get completely lost. Shopping at Sam’s this weekend, I saw where a NUVI 250 could be had for only $115 (plus tax). Okay, here is the chance for me to play with a new toy. I bought one -- had it mounted in my car and working within 30 minutes.

Now here is what I have to say about Mr. Nuvi. Overall, it’s really a great convenience and it will help in Boston. But I have a few quibbles and observations. I wouldn’t be a proper nitpick if I didn’t…

Red Sea Routes -- When you try to turn left onto a busy avenue in rush hour traffic, I call it a “Red Sea” turn. You need traffic to stop for you in both directions in order to pull out. Not likely without lots of Christian traffic charity. It’s like parting the Red Sea. Nuvi must think I’m Moses, because the test Dallas routes I entered had me turning left onto busy streets -- where there is no traffic light. Nuvi, I want controlled intersections, especially for left turns.

Crummy roads -- On my test Dallas route, Nuvi had me going on two-lane streets (Mockingbird) and other streets that for me are sub-optimal. I’m fairly picky about the quality of roads I take and Nuvi seems to be ignorant of things like pot holes, bad ‘hoods, one lane roads and such. You can build in “via” stops and that becomes pretty essential to avoid going where you don’t want to go.

Voice in the car -- A couple of times I completely forgot I was using Nuvi. On a long segment, it goes silent. Then the woman’s generic sounding voice suddenly says, “Turn right in 200 feet”. I nearly had a heart attack and wrecked my car the 1st couple of times this happened. Who the hell has stowed away in my car?? At some point, especially when you’ve opted to go a different way than Nuvi suggests, the woman’s voice will keep “recomputing…”. At that point you just want to say, “Beyotch, shut up!” They need to add that feature.

Another feature (I swear someone said it’s available) is to specify a voice (maybe Rodney Dangerfield or Jerry Seinfeld) to make humorous remarks, especially if you miss a turn. At the very least, Nuvi could call you a boob or a knucklehead. The nasty asides might wake you up and make you pay close attention…

CONCLUSION

This is a truly cool device -- think it could be a life saver in a strange city. Even if it gives you a bum suggestion on a particular street or turn, it puts you in the neighborhood and you can turn it all around if you know basically where you are. As a Nuvi newbie I can tell I have a lot to learn -- what are the extras, what maps are available? I may have more to report after next week, when I’ve received my Boston education.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Post Racial Pipe Dream

2009-07-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

Arrested development -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
After reviewing the entire brouhaha of Harvard professor Henry Gates (a black man and highly regarded expert on race relations in America) I have to say that I was amazed. He was arrested “breaking in” to his own home when the front door became stuck. He was arrested by a white Cambridge police officer, Sergeant James Crowley for disorderly conduct. It seems that the men’s encounter at the front door escalated into a heated verbal dispute when Gates assumed that the questioning was racially based. Crowley asked for Gates’ ID and Gates replied, “Why, because I’m black?”

From here things degenerated into name-calling and challenges -- “What’s your name and badge number young man? ”. Not only did Crowley not comply with the request, he brought Gates in for a disorderly conduct arrest (charges since dropped since the story went global). The story was simmering down until Obama’s health care news conference late last week. The news conference went well and Obama was about to leave the stage. A reporter asked a highly combustible question about the Henry Gates affair. Obama responded that he thought the Cambridge police had responded “rather stupidly” and the whole issue reignited with supernova strength. American police groups demanded an apology while Gates himself mulled over a lawsuit.

Here’s what blogSpotter makes of it… Both men seriously overreacted. When Henry Gates was asked for I.D., his first reaction should have been as a citizen not as a black man. (I know, easier said than done). “I’m sorry you were called out for this. That was me and a cab driver unsticking my door. Here‘s my license with my address”. Gates eventually did produce the license but not before scorching verbal invectives against the young white man. Men being men, the testosterone plays a factor (on both sides of this equation). Police are supposed to roll with a certain amount of verbal taunting but apparently Crowley couldn’t roll with it.

This is where I think Obama was right. When it was obvious that Gates, a slight older man who walks with a cane, was the resident of the house that should have been the end of it. Either of these men could have defused the situation with a measure of politesse and common sense. I, an Anglo man, recently set off my home alarm. I was listening to my iPod on high volume when I walked in and neglected to notice I’d triggered the security alarm (and accompanying high pitch beeps). My alarm service summoned the police and they were there in 5 minutes. I yanked the door open and nearly gave the investigating policeman a heart attack -- he thought maybe I was Freddy Kruger with my aggressive (but friendly) door answering. I was nice and assured him I was the owner -- most burglars wouldn’t open a front door or dawdle for a conversation.

Would the Gates arrest have happened if any other color combination was involved? Probably not. Obama decided to put the controversy to rest by speaking to both men. It should be noted he did not apologize to Crowley -- none was required. Instead, Obama described the incident as a “teachable moment” and invited both men to commiserate together with him at the White House. Some people have prematurely described America as “post racial” (even before Obama was elected). America is still a racial stewpot and sometimes it reaches the boiling point. When that happens, we need to set it back to simmer and make sure the seasonings are agreeable.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Illuminating Cinema

2009-07-19T14:44:00.001-07:00

Commencing a Rigid Search -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Let me preface this blog, as I did recently, by saying that I’m behind on my blog-writing. My stepfather passed away from a very aggressive brain cancer last month, so we had to deal with funeral details and all the sadness of that. Now I’m dealing with associated ‘family issues’ of relatives who’ve presumed to move in (already) with my recently bereaved Mother. Family is such fun. But enough of my personal travails… on with the blog!

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED

Jonathan Foer is the extremely gifted, young novelist who penned the novel, Everything is Illuminated. He took a creative writing class from Joyce Carol Oates, who told Jonathan that he has the gift of energy. That he does, because the 2006 movie based on his novel is full of comic charm and energy. Illuminated is a fictional story, loosely based on the novelist himself -- the title character has the same name, Jonathan, and is played to obsessive-compulsive, deadpan perfection by Elijah Wood. Jonathan is a young Jewish American writer on a quest in the Ukraine -- a quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather from Nazi annihilation in WWII. He hires the elderly, anti-Semitic Ukrainian Alex and his young adult grandson, also named Alex to take him to the village Trachimbrod where the atrocities took place. The younger Alex serves as the English translator, hilariously so -- with his fractured and misapplied idioms.

They travel through the scenic countryside in a tiny blue East German Trabant station wagon. They’re accompanied by the boarder collie (and “seeing eye bitch”) Sammy Davis Junior. The elder Alex is a Sammy Davis Junior fan and the young Alex is a break dancing, womanizing Michael Jackson fan. (He is frequently “carnal” with the ladies). The young Alex reminds me a little bit of the “Wild and Crazy Guys” done by Steve Martin and Dan Ackroyd on SNL, albeit with more color and dimension than the SNL actors.

The movie takes a sad, weird, quizzical change in tone when they finally reach Trachinbrod. The village is now simply a farmhouse surrounded by sunflowers -- it was essentially wiped out by the Nazis. The elderly woman living in the house is the last survivor and conveys some vital information (and corrections) to Jonathan’s understanding of things… His grandfather was never rescued, he’d already debarked to America. (Spoiler Alert) … The elder Alex recognizes the old woman as one who saw him crawl out of a pile of dead bodies. He is in truth a Jew (in denial of his Judaism) who was only wounded and then feigned death. He lived out his remaining life pretending to be Christian, long after the war.

The movie has a shocking (and not quite logical) ending where the elder Alex commits suicide by slitting his wrists in a bathtub. Apparently he has too much internal strife over his denial of his birth identity. Illuminated also uses extreme literary license to have such a coincidence -- that the man Jonathan hires as his driver happens to be complicit in what happened those many years ago in that remote village of 1,000 people. Movies frequently have such plot gimmicks, although if you’re willing to play along you might get a good cinematic payload. Everything is Illuminated is one of those movies -- the Ukrainian (actually Czech) countryside, the music and cinematography, and the gentle cultural interplay between genial Alex and uptight Jonathan make for an enriching experience.

Elijah Wood received top billing in this movie and he was very good. East European Eugene Hutz plays young Alex -- the jocular translator and tour guide. His compassion, humanity, energy and good spirits really carry the movie to its height. No matter the order of the billing, Everything is Illuminated is an excellent movie -- rent it now or see it on Apple TV’s summer selections like I did.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Bruno Sets Us Free

2009-07-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

More famous than Hitler? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Last weekend, I decided to throw caution to the wind and go see Bruno -- the documentary-comedy featuring Sacha Baron Cohen in the title role. He plays an over-the-top, gay Austrian fashionista who seeks fortune and fame however he may come by it. To some extent, his character is a standing satire of superficial celebrity personae like Paris Hilton and her wag namesake Perez Hilton. Bruno is a pompous, preening self-absorbed drama queen seeking to inject his face wherever he can. The most biting satire is when this ridiculous person interacts with the denizens of Alabama and Arkansas. However silly Bruno might be, he has a right to existence and self-expression -- rights that the USMC, Exodus and Lebanese terrorists would just as soon revoke.

Cohen isn’t even gay in reality but is willing to submit himself to all the humiliations an openly gay man might experience in dealing with “heterodoxy”. I won’t do a tedious play-by-play of the whole movie, but will hit some of the highlights. Bruno entraps 2008 candidate Ron Paul for a faux interview. He puts the moves on Paul, who runs from the room in terror …”That man’s a queer!”. Bruno enlists in the Army, and reports for duty in a standard issue uniform accessorized with Dolce and Gabana. Two butch drill sergeants are no match for Bruno’s fashion sense. He joins on Exodus (gay conversion group) in Alabama only to tell the minister in charge that he has beautiful BJ lips.

Other encounters are with a karate instructor, a group of deer hunters, a straight dominatrix and straight swinger’s club. He also tries to broker peace in the Middle East (not kidding) and tries to get himself kidnapped by Islamic terrorists. Through all of this, he is met with gape-jawed outrage from the straight people with whom he interacts. In truth, some of the people figure he’s crazy and show the same type of apprehension you might have for an escapee from Belleview Hospital. I think the straight people end up looking just about as silly as Bruno in the end.

I’ve left out big chunks of plot and dialog but suffice it to say, the movie is an eyeful. It ends with Bruno in a cage fight where he and his opponent engage in a make-out session instead of a fight. The audience (a sea of Arkansas mullets and tank tops) roars in fury but can’t rush past the chain-link fenced stage. I myself envision a future world like the downtown San Francisco I saw a few years ago. People wear costumes all year long -- it doesn’t have to be Halloween. Bruno would almost be conservative by their standards. Our day will come … and Sacha Baron Cohen helps to make it so obvious how much better a place it is when overbleached drama queens lead us to love, not war and hatefulness.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Fallon by the Gallon

2009-07-06T21:52:00.001-07:00

Fallon being Fallon -- Picture courtesy of NBC

by blogSpotter
Let me preface this by acknowledging I’m behind on my blogs. My wonderful stepdad succumbed to cancer July 3rd last week, and I’ve been in Round Rock helping deal with funeral details this week. John Latchford was a man who loved life and lived large. He will be missed by all of us; his comparatively quick, unexpected passing makes me realize how precious each day really is. That said, let’s proceed with a review of a surprisingly good show…

LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON

Let me say, when I saw that Jimmy Fallon was replacing Conan on NBC’s Late Night, I was perplexed. My only impression of Fallon was his stint on Saturday Night Live, where he played mostly dopy, juvenile, silly roles. He didn’t seem to have the gravitas or tenacity to be helming a 5-day-a-week talk show that involves a constant flow of comedy monologs, celebrity interviews and skits. In my mind, he didn’t seem to have enough material, substance or talent to come through on it. Mind you, I like him jut fine as a sketch comedian on SNL but could not see him in such a substantive role.

Now, I must confess that I couldn’t be more wrong. His monologs are halting and nerdy in their delivery but somehow deadly hilarious in their content. You don’t hear belly laughs or guffaws from the audience but more like a wave of gentle chuckles. The audience genuinely appreciates the jokes but the reaction is sometimes as low-key as the laid-back delivery. Fallon does a lot of celebrity impressions and he’s also very effective in the comedy sketches. They do a soap takeoff called “7th Floor West” which makes me laugh my a** off. His acting style varies between semi-serious or campy as the skit may require.

Fallon’s show has a lot of youthful (Gen X?) appeal … there are gratuitous sex ploys like “Lick it for $10” where audience members are paid $10 to lick something (inanimate but nevertheless suggestive like a mirror). They also do guest web surfing where each guest is furnished a Mac Book and they all surf to a particularly interesting web site. More that might appeal to the college crowd -- little-known iPhone apps. Fallon was actually a computer science major prior to his comedy career, so his technical savvy is impressive for a late night comedian.

What else might you come across on this fun night cap of a show? How about Obama facial expressions where the Prez is caught giving a sneer or an evil eye. There are also “conceptual” gags similar to what Conan did in the same time slot -- shared audience experiences where everyone eats an Atomic Sour ball at the same time. One of the best things he did recently was the Fallon Dance Contest where people could send in video clips of original, improvised dance routines (done to a jazzy “Fallon Dance” tune). The submissions were hilarious; the two winning high school boys got to come on the how and show Jimmy how it’s done.

Am I still perplexed about Jimmy Fallon? You bet …. I’m perplexed that I didn’t have adequate appreciation for his comedy acumen and interviewing ability. He has surprising historical and pop culture awareness for such a young man... Sometimes a new dog does new comedy tricks, and this old dog has to admit that Jimmy Fallon is funny as hell.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Gone Too Soon

2009-06-28T19:35:00.001-07:00

Michael's HIStory statue in Europe -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
When news of Michael Jackson’s recent death reached me, I was shocked but not entirely surprised. In the 80’s, People ran an MJ byline that said, “Is this guy weird or what?” At that point, he was just known for harmless eccentricities -- an Elephant man here, a chimp over there, maybe a hyperbaric oxygen chamber next to that. By the 90’s, his behavior verged upon reactionary neurosis and mental melt-down. He veered from child molestation charges to weirdly arranged marriages and then baby-dangling episodes. His odd plastic surgery evolution had to be (at least in part) outwardly indicative of his inward mental implosions.

Probably in part as a reaction to all his bad press, he had been treated for pain killers and rushed to the hospital on various occasions. Now if TMZ and various tabloid sources can be trusted, it appears that Jackson was getting daily Demerol injections from a live-in physician. How much emotional or physical pain do you have to be in to require such dosages from a Dr. “Feel Good”? This drug is potent, and Jackson probably cheated death innumerable times before the grim reaper came and stayed.

His death reminded me in some ways of other tormented celebs -- Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Judy Garland to be sure. Marilyn was found in “barbiturate coma” a time or two by agents and housekeepers prior to her actual death in 1962. At 42, Elvis was a bloated vestige of his youthful persona -- chowing down peanut butter & banana sandwiches and popping tranquilizers. He also had a Dr Feel Good in the wings at the time of his 1977 death.

What to make of these things? Marilyn was 36, Elvis was 42, Judy was about 47 and MJ was 50. All were around mid-life but still young enough for reinvention and new career moves. A modest being might just be content to do like Greta Garbo -- retire at 38 and live happily off of investments. You’d have lingering mystique and privacy to boot; she certainly did. Somehow with others, the out-size fame and fortune brings out-size expectations… “I’m famous and beautiful, how can I be so alone?”

Michael and Elvis in particular created insular, make-believe worlds even similar in name -- “Graceland” and “Neverland”. Both were surrounded by sycophants, servants and doctors wielding needles and vials with mighty elixirs of sleep and relaxation. One supposes that out-size egos might want out-size medications that exceed the limits of ordinary budgets, FDA laws and even common sense.

It’s a mighty shame, because all of the aforementioned had so much more to give the world -- in spite of low self-esteem moments they might have felt at the times of their demises. I was very much looking forward to a Michael Jackson comeback -- musical redemption was in the offing. We (and they in the beyond) can settle on the weird consolation that the world will never see their bodies buckled with age or faces withered like leather masks. To the athlete (or entertainer) who died young -- we will miss you terribly. Thank you for what you gave us while you were here.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Sweet Little Lies ...

2009-06-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

Sweet little lies that I tell myself -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
“Just the facts sir”. OK, I’ll have to lay it out for you Mr. Webb. I’ve struggled with my weight for about 15 years. I’ve tried fad diets and gimmicks -- nothing ever seemed to work -- then or now. I did finally join 24 Hour Fitness in 2005 and thought a 3 times-a-week cardio workout would keep me safe from excess poundage. I was wrong about that, even after 4 years of a pretty steady workout regimen.

How did I recognize the problem? The “fat suit” that I purchased at Joseph Banks in 1999 no longer fit me when I put it on for a funeral last month. When I went to Men’s Wearhouse for a new suit, I was dismayed to have my waist measured at 38 inches. How did I not know that? Self delusion -- I found an off-brand of jeans at Kohl’s where the sizes run large. A Kohl’s 36” is probably a 38” by anyone else’s measure. But I kidded myself that Levis and Wrangler ran “too small”.

Mind games with Alli -- Picture courtesy of GlaxoSmithKline

So how do you think you added on the weight sir? More mind games -- I don’t play any greater games with myself than I do with weight loss strategies. Two years ago, I started taking the Alli (Orlistat) pill as soon as it became approved for over-the-counter retail. The pill blocks fat absorption (and it really does), but here is the rub… It doesn’t block everything; if you continue eating fatty foods, it won’t block enough. Even worse, I would eat a 3 enchilada dinner at El Fenix and justify it by popping a couple of Alli pills. Not only did I not change my eating habits, I went further in the wrong direction. Alli was helpless to battle my gluttony.

CHARLIE’S RULE

A newly recovered alcoholic should not have a fully stocked bar, or a fridge full of beer. Why then do I, a seasoned food-a-holic, think It’s OK to have a pantry full of sandwich crackers, Oreos and pop corn? The snacks initially snuck into my house as afternoon “work snacks”. I was merely “warehousing” them at my house -- that is except when I wolfed them down late at night as snacks at home.

My friend Charlie a few years ago pointed out something very helpful and relevant which I ignored at the time:

“Don’t bring fattening food into your house”.

If you know you have a problem with it, don’t have it around. Charlie, how right you are. I’m still not out of the woods -- I need to navigate special occasions and work lunches. We don’t go anywhere at lunch where you don’t get chips, biscuits, rolls or bread sticks as complementary fare. Not that many places have a good “Lite Fare” menu. I’ll have to pray for the strength to resist the carbo-temptations.

I asked a trim, athletic friend close to my age, “Do you ever have an evening snack, while watching TV?”

He responded, “Oh yeah, every once in a while I have a popsicle.”

A … popsicle?? That wouldn’t get me through a commercial. I’m hoping that fruit and zucchini chips can see me through the night. And maybe, just maybe I can quit telling myself the sweet little lies that got me into this weighty situation.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Why be NORML?

2009-06-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Cannabis reaching skyward -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Let me preface this article by saying I don't use marijuana. That being said, I'm a socially progressive person who believes in "live and let live". If a crime is victimless, and it's arguable that the perpetrators have not damaged themselves any significant way, I have to wonder why society is so intrusive about it. Cards are on the table, let’s proceed.

I don’t have to tell anybody what marijuana is; it’s the popular herb cannabis that releases a psychoactive chemical called THC when smoked or ingested. It’s been used to that effect since prehistory, but in modern Western society it’s been criminalized and maligned – users can face felony charges for using or selling it. Favorite arguments against it fall along a couple of lines:

ALLEGED DRAWBACKS

Apparently smoking cannabis can draw ammonia, hydrogen cyanide and nitrogen oxide into your lungs. Similar drugs may also be induced by smoking tobacco, though not as concentrated. Cannabis causes no such problems if ingested with food. Other studies indicate that cannabis might lead to anxiety, psychosis and depression. Alcohol, which is legal does the same thing only to a greater extreme and in a shorter period of time. Why the discrepancy?

A second argument frequently given is that cannabis is a "gateway drug". There is no widely accepted study or proof that cannabis leads to harder drugs. Whatever it may lead you to is very similar to the path established by tobacco and alcohol. A study in Europe suggested that cannabis when smoked was indeed a gateway – it led to the smoking of tobacco as well.

WHY BE NORML?

The hypocrisy and double standards surrounding cannabis have confounded progressive people for years. In 1970, the Playboy Foundation seeded a group called NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) with a mere $5000. The organization has grown to 135 chapters, including 550 lawyers. NORML claims that marijuana is the 4th largest cash crop in America, despite 32% of new seedlings being seized each year by drug enforcement. NORML has been credited with medical cannabis being allowed in some limited situations and also the lightening of some sentences related to it. However much work is left to be done. Their latest campaign was a boycott against Kellogg's for dropping Olympian, sometimes toker Michael Phelps as a product spokesperson. This leads us to …

WHO IS NORML?

Politics makes for really strange bedfellows I must say. To look at NORML’s advisory board is to chuckle, nay to laugh outright. I’d love to see one of their meetings. We have: Willie Nelson, Barbara Ehrenreich (feminist author), Woody Harrelson, Bill Maher and Tommy Chong (of Cheech and Chong fame). I’ve read Ehrenreich’s editorials in TIME – she’s kind of an unfunny tight-ass on other things. Who would imagine she likes to get high? Hunter S. Thompson, gonzo journalist, was a former member – he may not be such a good spokesperson since he offed himself with a shotgun. The other living members are celebrated for their love of the weed, and bringing them together would be a hoot. I can only imagine what the pastries would be.

In conclusion, I can only say there is a certain collective obsessive compulsion with our punishment of cannabis users. We have as a society, such a slight grip on things like abortion, Iraq, gasoline prices and property taxes – we have to clamp down with a vengeance on something that’s “controllable”. Only, is it really that controllable? 4th largest cash crop in America? Why don’t we bring the hammer down on people and situations that actually do harm – and leave Woody and Chong to their own hemp-loving devices.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Patton Oswalt: Insanely Funny

2009-06-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

I watched a man shave his what? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Curses to Patton Oswalt! He almost made me fall off my elliptical machine at 24 Hour Fitness, from laughing so hard. His humor is so left-field edgy and sardonic, it makes me want to listen to the routines repeatedly on my iPod. Such an honor hasn’t been extended to Wanda Sykes or Louis Black. Who is Patton Oswalt? He’s the 40-year comedian, actor (sitcom and voiceover) who may have shocked, appalled and amused you variously playing lovable losers on shows like King of Queens or movies like Failure to Launch. He also voiced the lovable albeit sarcastic Disney mouse Remy in Ratatouille.

In person, Oswalt is sort of cute and cherubic (others might say roly-poly or jovial and round). He grew up in Sterling, Virginia and was an English major at the college of William and Mary. He started doing standup comedy in 1996 and then evolved into character acting. Oswalt is somewhat a renaissance man -- he also is a skilled artist and comic book author. He’s also done voiceovers for video games like Grand Theft Auto; he offers his creative touch to virtually every popular form of media.

What strikes me about this man is his enormous command of language, combined with fearless insights into the sociopolitical foibles all around us. His topics cover an enormous range -- the idiocracy of George W. Bush, liquor ads, Stelladora breakfast treats, on-line porno spam, gay pride parades, and ball-shaving (don’t ask). He unflinchingly goes places that other late night comedians dread.

Like most geniuses, he borders a bit on pure lunacy -- in one sketch he refers to Israel as “Biblevania” and in another set he compares the smell of a woman’s nether regions to a “baby’s coffin”. These are not words that would spring to my own mind, but I neither am I best-selling published author of screenplays and adult comics. I have only one quibble so far -- he's used "gay" as an insult word in a couple of bits. He's very progressive and pro-Human Rights so I doubt he really intends it as an insult; LGBT's probably make up a significant portion of his fan base.

Where might you catch him now, after I’ve done this big build-up? You might see him on Comedy Central, roasting Flavor Flav or William Shatner. You might catch him as the voice of Carl, the Corndog Mascot on SpongeBob. You might catch his upcoming film, Big Fan (another lovable loser role).

Oswalt’s first daughter, Alice was just born in April 2009. He may be caught up in the tasks of fatherhood, although this delightfully demented man may have trouble diverting attention away from his hundred creative projects. It must be nice to be Patton.

© 2009 blogSpotter