Friday, August 31, 2007

All Aboard the "Emo" Train



Apparently the new look for young men (and I DON'T MEAN like "hot young guys" - but more like high school kids) is the "emo" look.

Me I don't get it, per say. It just seems like a lot of work to get their hair this casual, but I was lucky and had great hair when I was young. But what I thought was a Brit thing has spread far and wide.

Look here.




Zac Efron from Disney's High School Musical.




David Flook (Gareth's son) from England. With his sister Rebbecca. Ah, I remember when they were just squirts.



The kids in front of us at the US Open.

It isn't a bad look, but I saw how much work this was for David. It is some serious time. And yesterday at the Open was like 12 Million degrees. I don't know how they take it.

Ah to be young and stupid again.

On (to) Wisconsin

We are on our way to Wisconsin for the Wisconsin v Wazu game. Even though Washington State is a Pac-10 school, I will be rooting for the Badgers.


Thursday, August 30, 2007

US Open Today

We took a day trip to the US Open today. We had a lot of fun. We saw some fun tennis with Andy Rodrick, we saw Lee win. It was a kick.

During the match with Andy Rodrick, we noticed he kept looking right near us. Turns out Jimmy Conners was there. Pics below:



Conners just past the camera (Ed is just out of frame to the right).



Andy Rodrick returning on the far side.


Feliciano Lopez from Spain in an outside court.

It was a really fun day. We had a kick bumbling around. Eddie had to work a little in the trailers, but I got to watch the Korean Lee beat Guillermo Canas (rated 14th). The Korean crowd went crazy.

Our new lawyer

So yesterday Eddie and I were getting our legal junk together again. (Our California wills, power of attorney, etc. are not transferable to New York – so we have to get new ones). Our California attorney recommended a New York one. Our California attorney, with practices in Santa Barbara, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, is one cool cucumber.

So I was expecting a professional New York hard hitting woman to come by the house. Imaging my surprise when a dizzy, clown-suited Rachel Dratch clone wandered through the hallways looking for 37G.


She was wearing a 2 piece business suit made of a heavy cotton with a wild print. It was white, with square dots of various colors splashed on. It, really, looked like something that your crazy aunt would make curtains out of, curtains for the summer house – not curtains you would have to look at every day. “Oh honey, I had leftover material and I made you and your dog matching outfits.”

She also sounded a lot like Rachel Dratch when she is doing the Barbara Walters impersonation. Not the lisp, just the quiet, interested, understated, ca(pause)dence.

In the end, we liked her. Ed and I are drawn to the interesting characters we bond with.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Albert Reed: Star?

So "Dancing with the Stars"includes Albert Reed (model). It actually says (model) in explaining who he is. So, of course, I had to look. Here he is from Diesel and a head shot.




Body shot




Head shot.

But he isn't going to look like this, is he? No. He is going to look like the drunk frat boy head case below where he is trying to "chill" with George Cloony.



(But those are some big-ass hands.)

I can't make this stuff up

Leona Helmsley left $12,000,000 to her dog. Which isn't that bad except she left only $5,000,000 to two of her grandkids and $0.00! to her other two grandkids (for reasons known to them - the mean old witch said).

She left the rest for upkeep of her mausoleum and to a charity in her and her late husbands name (which I bet doesn't do a lot of charity work!). You have to read the article. It reads like nincompoopery!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Trevor and the Computer

Ed is trying to teach Trevor to use the computer. We are all in trouble if he learns how to order treats himself. It's bad enough that Eddie and I are using the computer to buy our treats.

I begin to feel sorry for these guys

You know, take a look at Larry Craig.


He is a Republican from Idaho, arrested in a Minneapolis bathroom for lewd behaviour (he came on to an undercover cop for gay sex). Part of me is, of course, outraged and annoyed. These old buttheads vote against gays loudly proclaiming that we are unfit for marriage, the military or to be teachers. Yet, I have never come on to anyone in a bathroom!

But there is another part of me that feels sorry for these assholes. I mean can you image being attracted to men (or women in stilettos or whatever fetish he might have) and not being able to act on it. Forever! Even being told it was sick and disgusting. Maybe he was taught (and believes) he will go to hell for these feelings. That is really sad. And it would make you hate anyone who acts on it.

Well, I can say whatever I want about the parenting skills of my parents and grandparents, but they never beat self-loathing into me. They never made me hate myself. If fact, my parents were great about my choices. Maybe not happy :-) but great to me anyway. Ed and I are lucky to live when we do and be brought up in loving families.

So I feel sorry for Larry Craig, the man. And yet, I can still be pissed with Larry Craig the hypocritical fathead Senator.

Monday, August 27, 2007

So Long... Chief

He was a hack, a liar, incapable of remembering the most basic dates. He lied to Congress and treated Americans with contempt. He visited the bedside of a doped up John Ascroft to sign off on an illegal plan that even John Ascroft wouldn't approve of. On his best day he was an insult to Americans as the chief law enforcement officer in the nation.


He will go down as one of the worst Attorney Generals ever. Even the right wing hacks have not shed tears over his leaving.

He just never realized that he was Attorney General of the country and not a protector of Bush. And it is a sad legacy to leave to the country.

Vick found Jesus

Vick found Jesus. Was Jesus lost?

Did it take a dog-killer to find him? Isn't it a little convenient to find the big J right before you go to jail?

Here is a guy who has made over $22,000,000 easily and he is raising dogs to fight in a pit - and killing the pups that aren't good at it. I think he should have found Jesus a little earlier.

Like maybe when his talent opened the doors to a better life for his family and friends. Like maybe when he was idolized for doing what he loved.

I don't want to kick a man when he is down - but a big fat, "I screwed up and I am sorry" would have gone down better without the finding of Jesus in the same press conference.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Par- TAY

So last night we had people from work (plus Randy and Paul) over for cocktails. It was a great time. It went a lot better than I thought it would. Most of Ed's work mates were very nice. And they got nicer the drunker I got!

It was a lot of fun and a few people from my work came too. Since I work at home, I don't interface with quite as many peeps as Eddie does. But the people from my work got on really pretty well with the people from Ed's work. If they worked for me (which they don't) I could give them all A's for "Plays well with others."

Trevor had his hairs cut and was the handsome dog, but he clearly got into something. At first I thought he was sick, but we only served veggies and ranch dip, so I then thought maybe the sour creme wasn't good for him.

But he is really under the weather, so I think maybe he is hung over. You know he loves to drink cocktails, and I think he might have gotten into people's leftover Cape Cods. He looks like Gavin looks the day after too many Cape Cods.


Friday, August 24, 2007

David Levitt: Either You Love Him or You Don't


Here is a blurb for David Leavitt's new book: (David Leavitt is one of my favorite writers).


David Leavitt's magnificent new novel tells the story of the unlikely friendship between the British mathematician G.H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan, mathematical autodidact and prodigy who had been working as a clerk in Madras, and who would turn out to be one of the great mathematical minds of the century. Ramanujan reluctantly joined Hardy in England - a move that would ultimately prove to his detriment - and the men set to work on proving the Riemann Hypothesis, one of mathematics' great unsolved problems. The Indian Clerk, an epic and elegant work which spans continents and decades, encompasses a World War, and boasts a cast of characters that includes Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Lytton Strachey. Leavitt renders the complex mathematics in a manner that resonates emotionally as well as intellectually, and writes with crystalline elegance. The metaphor of the prime number – divisible only by one and itself – is beautifully apt for this tale of these two isolated geniuses. Leavitt's control of this dense, sprawling material is impressive – astonishing, at times – and yet despite its scope, he keeps us focused on his great themes of unknowability and identity. The Indian Clerk might be set in the past but it doesn't resemble most so-called "historical fiction." Rather, it's an ageless meditation on the quests for knowledge and for the self – and how frequently the two are intertwined – that is, finally, as timeless as the music of the primes.


It's hard to categorize David Leavitt. He is gay, but much of his work isn't gay. He is American, but has written a lot about England and England during World War II (The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer, While England Sleeps etc.)

I fell in love with an essay he wrote in Esquire years and years ago. He is my age, and he wrote it about the group of us that fell between baby boomers and gen-X. That was when they capped baby boomers in 1956 - since then they have just moved it up to 1964 to ignore our group - which is no big deal. But he wrote about an (almost) generation that wasn't baby boomers, didn't rebel as hippies. We were the Mary Tyler Moore generation. When confounded by a problem, What Would Mary Do? It was a beautiful piece of writing.


Then I read "Lost Language of the Cranes". It is dated now, but it is a 1984 coming of age about a young man who is learning he is gay. But the gay isn't the point. The point is a family that can't communicate. In fact the title refers to sounds mechanical cranes make. The screech and metal tearing of the building mechanics. A language that cannot be understood or reproduced, much like the soundless language of his parents. A secret he cannot be part of. The story is probably pedestrian now - but the image of incomprehension has stayed with me for 20+ years.


Anyway, read him if you get a chance.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Primary Follies

Now Michigan is thinking about moving their primary up into January. What a bad idea. We are going to know the candidates in Feburary (probably by Feb 5th). That leaves 9 months for them to campaign for President.

9 MONTHS!!!

I am already sick of it and I can't imagine 9 months of negative campaigning. Well, I can imagine it and it isn't pretty.

Oh my Phil Spctor


So, when I was in LA, I was treated to the Phil Spector trail shenanigans. Since Phil is only a minor celebrity now a days, you might have missed some of this.

Well, the defense doctor was on the stand. Mind you the doctor (a he) is married to Phil’s lawyer (a she) and the wife is examining him. There are discussing the actress’ death, and how long she lived (a question being how did Phil get blood on his shirt if she shot herself and he wasn’t close when the bullet was shot).

Suddenly (aha!) the doctor gets an idea out of the blue. “Maybe,” he postulates, “she lived a few moments after the bullet ripped apart her spinal column. Then as she breathed out to a consoling Phil Spector, she exhaled blood.”

Since he “just thought of this” the defense did not provide this theory to the prosecutor earlier (as say, required by law). The judge and the prosecutor threw a fit, but it got out for the jury to hear it.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Kozma: A New Pup

Whenever a friend gets a puppy you have to show it, don't you? Well, this is an awfully cute puppy. Kozma. My friend Kate just got him (or her?) a little while ago. You just know that when s/he sneezes the whole body shakes....

Monday, August 20, 2007

Seely Lake Montana

This is a place in Montana near my mom (although she is okay). Apparently so much of Montana is on fire that if it was a state it would be half the size of the state of Rhode Island. Freaky.


I don't really understand


So, this family in Arkansas has 17 kids. Seventeen. Is it just me, or isn't 17 a couple too many?
And they are homeschooling. I mean, good for them I guess. They are totally "going forth and multiplying", but I wouldn't want to have 17 kids, or be the 10th lost in there somewhere.

Totally Loved the Desert

Well, I was back in Palm Springs this last week. It was great. Hot hot hot, but great anyway. I sat in the pool, under the umbrella and read. It was so relaxing I loved it.

I had dinner with Muffin, who is moving now. She was back packing up her house in preperation for moving to Scotsdale for work.

I forget how great it is just to hang out there. It was really nice. I don't have a lot to say otherwise. I am thrilled to be back with my honey - but it was very cool being back out there.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Back (and Bunnies)

I am back from LA where I had no Internet access. I will give more tomorrow. tide yourself over with this piece of absolutely odd trivia.

Apparently the are re-introducing "Swamp Rabbits" into southern Illinois. Now when I saw the headline that the were putting up fake logs so the swamp rabbits could use them as toilets, I was amused and assumed a April Fool's joke. I mean think about the same headline with Jack-a-lopes. USA to build Jackalope toilets with fake logs in abandoned fields.

So obviously fake, no? No.


Headline from MSNBC

"'Bunny bathrooms' help track elusive species
Researchers set up 400, $2 privies to see where swamp rabbits have been"

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Small Time Mix Up

Occasionally the internet screws with those of us who skim rather than read details. For example, I am going to Palm Springs tomorrow to check on the desert house.

Well, today I got my notice to checkin online, so I did. But they I notice a serious problem with my tickets. The flight leaves at 6:10 AM, boarding at 5:40. Five forty in the morning! Well, I look at the web site, and no- it says the flights leaves at 8:40. Clearly a mix up.

And from LaGuardia. Okay, I probably blew that myself. There are probably more flights from La Guardia instead of Newark. Okay my bad there. But this time thing is their issue.

So I get my boarding pass from the printer and then read the AA site to find thenumber to call and complain. Well, in looking for the number to call, I see that my flight actually lands in Dallas at 8:40. Yep, sure as shit, my flight actually does leave La Gaurdi at 6:10.

Skimming can be bad.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Here comes.....

Football!!!


Weather tonight? Record low. Really.

Yesterday, record heat index.

This whole "weather" thing sucks.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

New York in the Rain

You would think this city would have the rain issues down pat. No, they do not. Heavy rain causes many problems for the city's transportation. This note is from Paul Kenny (a friend from LA who now lives in New York and we all hang out) to his buddy in San Francisco.

It was insane. I left for the train @ 7:50 AM and the sun was out, nothing was on the news about train closures, and the storm didn't seem to bad in the middle of the night. Got to the train and found out no trains were running in either direction. Lines were down the block already for the buses and you couldn't even get a "gypsy" taxi (illegal). I went back to my place and changed into shorts since it was getting hot already, called the office and TRIED to call our car service (good luck) Then got online and the MTA alerts started to SLOWLY come in. I wasn't going to, nor could I take a bus because people were fighting to get on and they were friggin packed!! I finally got picked up by one of our office Production Assistants about 12:30 and it took him 2 1/2 hours to get to my place (normally 1/2 hour drive). We dropped Randy at the last train stop in Brooklyn and he was able to get on a train to Manhattan. Jason the guy I work with said people were fighting and hitting eachother at Penn Station to get on the 1 train that never was shut down. My office flooded with raw sewage (Mr. Hanky.. the Christmas pooh) and my computer was on the floor....... it's dead and I didn't back up my files. When I finally did get home last night I wanted to take a shower with bleach so I drank 2 martinis and then showered. We have tarps layed out all over with wet paperwork trying to dry and slowly curling up. New York New York, so crazy they named it twice.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

I won't become one of those..

I won't become one of those people that point to YouTube Viedos, but sometimes you gotta share. Via Camille Paglina's Salon Column (and yes I totally agree that Camille has gone off the deep end of bitter and self-important) is this:


At least we have YouTube.com (a triumph of the improvisational Warhol aesthetic) to cop serendipitous doses of image and sound. Check this out (below) for a
delicious reveling in classic Hollywood iconography: it's Mazzy Star's dirgelike "Fade Into You" contemplatively set to a celebration of that dancing diva Rita
Hayworth. What sensual beauty and glamour!

Here is the URL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7e-CpDQdac&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Esalon%2Ecom%2Fopinion%2Fpaglia%2F2007%2F08%2F08%2Fclarkson%2Findex2%2Ehtml

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Scott's Ideas for the Pryamids: True


So get this. My theory with the Pyramids or Stonehenge or those Inca roads with giant blocks and they didn't have wheels - well I figured they knew how to control gravity somehow. It isn't, de facto, crazy. There are tribes that know more about some medicines than current technology. We know the ancients knew a lot about Astronomy - more than until the very recent times. The Aztec calendar is supposedly still more correct the basic calendar we use (not the atomic clocks, but the basic everyday calendar).

So why couldn't they conquer gravity? Well, the big reason is that we don't understand it (gravity) yet. But now, people in England have figured out levitation. Cool huh?

Turns out they can control levitation WITHOUT GRAVITY. Really. Here is the key paragraph.


The force is due to neither electrical charge or gravity, for example, but the fluctuations in all-pervasive energy fields in the intervening empty space between the objects and is one reason atoms stick together, also explaining a “dry glue” effect that enables a gecko to walk across a ceiling.


Totally fun.

Lovely Review Line: The Company

There is a review of the TNT tv event"The Company" in Entertainment Weekly. It is a good review (B+), but it has an amazing line deep inside.

It's amazing if you are snarky like me (I am speaking to you Lisa). Ihave watched some good actors morph over the years into scene chewing John Lithgows. (John Lithgow has always been a scene chewing monster - so I enjoy it with him.)

Here is the line.


Micheal Keaton scuttles around as CIA counter-intelligence guru James Jesus Angleton. Muttering intensely to his orchids, Keaton seems determined to win the William Hurt, no Such Thing as a Supporting Role award.

Those two lines are a thing of beauty. First William Hurt has gone crazy. I think he went into overdrive with "Kiss of the Spiderwoman" and hasn't stopped since. Below is a picture of William Hurt as Duke Leto in Dune (he was in the 6 hour miniseries for about 7 minutes of screen time in the first hour before he was killed. In the picture his is face shows the fear of a giant sandworm. Yikes!!!



Now let's talk about Michael Keaton's name; James Jesus Angleton. For a counter-intelligence guy looking at all the angles. Angleton. Get it? Do you get it, you rubes!?!? And James Jesus. That's subtle. It's like Stephen "here is another rock on the headstone" Spielberg made this shit up.

However I still plan to watch it, it looks great! I will ignore Michael "I am a serious actor, damn it!" Keaton.


Sunday, August 05, 2007

So... this week-end: Richard Serra

Eddie and I, in our travels around the city, stopped at MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) in New York.

There was a Richard Serra show. It was a show of giant rolled steel and lead forms. There were a number of "propped" items upstairs. These were interesting and the textures were cool. But ultimately they were a little "distant" for me. (I can't think of a better word.)




Then downstairs we visited to big spaces on the second floor. There these HUGE walls of curved steel bent in and out. They leaned into you and were claustrophobic, and then they would open up and you could almost fly. Rooms and spaces opened up into them. Even though it made no sense, I totally dug it.


Saturday, August 04, 2007

Totally Fun Bourne

I dug it!

MSNBC: Paying off Enemies

Headline:

In Iraq, a perilous alliance with former enemies
U.S. commanders offering large sums to enlist their former enemies

Details:
U.S. commanders are offering large sums to enlist, at breakneck pace, their former enemies, handing them broad security powers in a risky effort to tame this fractious area south of Baghdad in Babil province and, literally, buy time for national reconciliation.

American generals insist they are not creating militias. In contracts with the U.S. military, the sheiks are referred to as "security contractors." Each of their "guards" will receive 70 percent of an Iraqi policeman's salary. U.S. commanders call them "concerned citizens," evoking suburban neighborhood watch groups.

You may think I am going to bitch about this. You couldn't be more wrong. I think it is a great precedent.
I guess this gives future possible President Hillary's (possible) Secretary of Defense, Bill Clinton, the right to do the same thing in the future. You know, give cash to people that have been killing Americans - and get no promise they won't attack us in the future. Good job Bush.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Simpsonized Scooter, Eddie and Dora

Ed's brother and sister in law sent us the Simpsonized Web site (http://www.simpsonizeme.com/). Here is little Dora.




And so, of course, Eddie and I had to do it too. Here we are at KrustyLu studios.




Good for Goose, Good for Hillary?

As Republicans fight that Bush and Cheney shouldn't have to answer to Congress... That the President should be followed blindly... That a veto-proof Congress means the President governs with impunity... That "congressional oversight" is a quaint concept that can be mocked at will... That the President's ad visors and staff members are above the law... As Halliburton's profits rise and the people of New Orleans are still homeless...

As they spit on the Constitution; call any disagreement unAmerican; spend our troops off on multiple useless wars; ignore the will of people and laugh at those of us who call for ANY bi-partisanship - a thought occurs to me today.

Payback is a bitch.


Thursday, August 02, 2007

John Barrowman: Mascot of the Month



John Barrowman is an actor about to star in "Torchwood" a Sci-Fi show on BBC America in September. He had a five or six episode arc on Doctor Who Season 1, and he was so popular that he is the star of a follow on series.

John is a Scotsman / American (dual citizenship). I first saw him in London in Miss Saigon. He was in the cast because they could bring him to the US when the show opened without any problems. He has also been in the West End in Company and Sunset Boulevard. (John's Site)




John has done some amazing work on Broadway and screen.

Here he is in Miss Saigon with (a much thinner and younger) Lea Salong.

He was in the movie "Delovely" and "The Producers" as well as others. And now he is Captain Jack in Torchwood. Torchwood starts on September 8th.

And this is Scott Gill, his partner of 16 years. John is a pretty big star in England and his civil ceremony was news on the BBC. Scott is an architect in Scotland.



Remeber what I said about the Political Review...

Remember a few days ago when I said that the Iraqis were not going to meet the political benchmarks... Well the spin (lies) have begun.

Robert Gates our Secretary of Defense said yesterday:

"In some ways we probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together on legislation," Gates said. "The kinds of legislation they're talking about will establish the framework of Iraq for the future so it's almost like our constitutional convention ... And the difficulty in coming to grips with those, we may all have underestimated six or eight months ago."


Correct me if I am wrong, but six or eight months ago (you know, when they set surge targets) didn't we all know that Sunnis and Shias were blood enemies in the middle of a civil war? If you are the Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense and you really "didn't know" how tough this was going to be you should be fired. You are incompetent at a level almost unheard of in politics.

But the truth is they did know. They lied then. They are spinning now. And Republicans are blaming Democrats for being deafists for trying to hold them to some - any commitments. Any people (Americans and Iraqis) continue to die while we ignore it.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

And now, for something truely different

Bored, confused, dog days of August? Watch Filipino prisoners exercise by recreating the "I Will Follow Him" song and dance from Sister Act.



If you like that you will love "Thriller" with a prisoner in drag as the date.

Wow: Someone needs a little lesson in prespective

You thought I was harsh when UCLA lost...


NY baseball fan killed motheras team lost: Prosecutor

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York man has been charged with beating his mother to death with a barbell after losing his temper while watching a baseball game on television.

Michael Anthony, 25, was watching the New York Mets lose a game on Saturday from his home in the borough of Queens when he began furiously banging on the walls, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement on Monday.

His father Fred Fischman shouted at him to stop, but Anthony punched him in the face and threw him to the ground, according to the criminal charges.

When Anthony's mother, Maria Fischman, 61, tried to intervene, prosecutors said he stabbed her once in the head with a knife before chasing her into a bedroom where he struck her several times with the 20 pound (9 kilogram) barbell.

"It is difficult to imagine a crime more heinous than that of a son viciously attacking his parents and, in the process, fatally beating his mother to death," Brown said.

Anthony has been remanded in custody and faces a maximum of life in prison if convicted.