oh hey, yahhhh? you betcha... !

I noted a couple of days ago that it was 37 years ago to the day when I was standing on the front porch of my mother's house on Lexington Street in Woburn, Massachusetts.  I know this because the postman was delivering her her mail, and one piece for which she had to sign.  She remarked aloud, "Oh hey, today's '7.7.77!'"

The postman sounded surprised and nodded, "Oh yeah!"

My mother nodded too and asked rhetorically, "Isn't that interesting?"

Nodding some more, the postman acknowledged, "Sure is!"  Both still nodding, neither sure as to how to extricate themselves from this bit of comedy.

Years later, I would be able to compare it to a scene from the movie 'Fargo'--"Oh yahhh, you betcha!"

And a few years later, I can show you what I mean...

get off my lawn... !

Charles M. Schulz, it turned out, was a bit of a curmudgeon who isolated himself from friends and family, perhaps best illustrated when he said thru his avatar Linus Van Pelt, "I love humanity. It's people I can't stand!" I pondered this as I had an exchange recently on Twitter with a woman offering one of those soporific thought-munchies about expecting others to do unto you as you would do unto them, a reversal on the biblical golden rule from the Sermon on the Mount (I think), and which she's now deleted, wonder of wonders. My response was a simple: "But what if one is a misanthrope?" It was one of my many attempts at humor, but it also made me wonder subsequently if I wasn't in fact a misanthrope... or just a curmudgeon.

Food4thought!

life is cheap, you say... ?

I see American society spiraling toward a more volatile if not unrelentingly violent feudal system controlled exclusively by the obscenely wealthy who would without a care bludgeon the masses whose lives they deem as cheap. I am, at rest, progressive in thought, and did at one time fervently believe the motto engraved atop the Supreme Court's building facade: "Equal Justice Under Law," an ideal now proved to be at best beyond reach, or at worst a hideous fraud... all to my gloom and disillusionment.  Should one not then avail himself of weaponry with the expressed intent of putting it to useful purpose when the metaphorical balloon goes up and as he just happens to be in the way? Or perhaps just before... would he be a hero then or a villain?

fix it... !!

I *must* be getting old because I object to the beat-to-death incorporation of Neil Diamond's (a Brooklynite, not Brooklineite!) 'Sweet Caroline' for the 7th-inning stretch at Fenway. Oh, I get the fans love to jerk off to the 'So good! So good!' rhythms, and that it wakes them the fuck up to survive the final 1-1/2-to-2 innings, gahd forbid extra frames, but haven't they heard: it's a song about Caroline Kennedy at the age of 5, and the 'touching me/touching you' inspiration is way past creepy. And, Jesus Christ, it's been 13 years since 9/11. I mean, Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" is a lovely anthem and all, but group-nationalism TWICE a game is bullshit! Either get rid of it or the national anthem before the start of the game or both! And shove the flag-lapel pins up yer ass while yer at it!! And couldn't we just pipe in a recording of John Kiley's cover of 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame' for old-time's sake? And make the Sox wear knickers and SOCKS again. No more with the bell-bottom pantaloons!! This is BASEBALL, not 'Dancing With The Douche-cups!'

... movie review: Concussion...

A well-made independent film is the remedy to the malady that is Hollywood.  Predictability is lost in the Indie, as is the viewer's self-awareness.

Were I to fancy myself as one with an eclectic taste in choosing what to watch next, right or wrong, it is that discovery of a diamond in the rough that reassures the ego as having made the proper choice whereas box-office is rarely a proper indicator by which to go.  

Having said that, it's good to know what people like or do not when the sampling is significant enough to weed out the stand-alone.  At the other end of the spectrum, my Netflix queue, for example, is maxed out such that I cannot now add another film without subtracting something else.  The quickest and easiest factor to make that decision is the film's popularity.  Ultimately one must decide which to jetison based on mass appeal--who's already seen it and didn't like it?  Far easier to delete film No. 487 from my queue, which has 1.9 stars, vs. No. 325 at 3-1/4, the difference between the audience actually liking or not liking the thing.

Concussion, a story about a bored lesbian house frau choosing to bust a move to a more exciting lifestyle, is one such film and where I must depart from the group.  The people gave it 2.9 stars, although I give it 4.0.  I liked it very much.

I'd forgotten how it got onto my queue until I saw Maggie Siff enter a scene; she of Sons of Anarchy fame.  Then I remembered that one Salon critic recommended the film.  Couple that with the fact I generally like girl-on-girl activity.

What can I say?  I'm red-blooded and American.

I'm not into spoiler alerts; but suffice it to say Concussion is an intelligent character study with sound and tasteful production, direction, and writing values, and doesn't devolve into the typically maudlin estrogen-poisoning a la, say, The L-Word.  Ten minutes into it, I didn't think I'd like it, but I found myself being surprised at every other turn.

Shorter g.: I like that in my lesbians.  Recommended.

if you want peace, work for justice...

I wonder if this isn't what Venture Capitalist Perkins was on about when he threw out the word "Kristallnacht" (see post below on my wall) to the Wall Street Journal:

"Just before Christmas, a window was smashed on a Google bus in Oakland,across the San Francisco Bay. Last week, protesters doorstepped a Google engineer who they claimed was involved in working with the government to develop eavesdropping techniques and “war robots” for the military. “Anthony Levandowski is building an unconscionable world of surveillance, control and automation,” they wrote on flyers left near his house. “He is also your neighbor.”

Perkins didn't just call it a Kristallnacht, but a 'progressive Kristallnacht,' meaning anyone who dares question Corporate is a Nazi. But of course!

Yes, parallels there be perhaps. But let us consider the targets of those who would oppress us; not 'Jews' necessarily as Perkins and his Oligarchic friends would have it, but 'Plutocrats,' as in it's the Plutocrats who control Wall Street and the U.S. Media and the hi-tech industries, ergo the American government and, by extension, We The People of the United States... and the world! So, when they legislate and gerrymander our voting rights away from us, or when they steal our money from us and claim it as their own, showing little mercy or compassion and are kindly rewarded by the White House and Congress, one can only wonder what recourse? Short of a violent uprising as a response, or submitting outright, what is there for the have-nots to do?

The answer, again of course, is to die.