Sunday, March 31, 2013

And So, the Birthday Retreats into Memory

Fifty-four.
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Nope, it doesn't look any better written out.  Be that as it may, I am now 54.  Thank you to all my facebook friends who sent wishes, and to those (both FB and non-FB) that sent a card.
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What did we do?  Well, Eddie and friends gave me a grand day out.  Aldona, Ed and I went to see "Oz, The Great and Powerful"  and I liked it.  Although it might have been called, "Oz, The Great, Powerful and Overly Lengthy".
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Then the 3 of us, plus Simon and Ben, went to Blue Water Grill.  Very nice dining experience.
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Then Eddie and I went to see "Breakfast at Tiffany's."  How was it you ask...
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Cory Michael Smith and Emilia Carke
Well, I went because I loved Cory Michael Smith (who played Fred) and was very very good.  It was very true to the novella, not the movie - which was actually a bit of a problem.  Too much expository and bizarre gay / not gay activity.
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Her expression in Game of Thrones matched her performance in Breakfast
But the bigger problem was Holly GoLightly as played by Emilia Clarke.  She was no Audrey Hepburn.  She was no drag impression of Audrey Hepburn.  She wasn't even a drag Better Davis.  She held the stage with grandeur of George W Bush at an ACLU convention.  She was (as once said of a better actor) a charisma-free zone.  And, in the big bathtub scene went way way out of her way to hid her boobies, which is odd considering that everyone that HBO has scene her boobies often.
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Much to the chagrine Emilia's fans (both of them?) we got a much longer look at Cory Michael Smith torso, nakid backside and a little full frontal.

Friday, March 29, 2013

41 Cooper Square

The Cooper Union is school for Art, Architecture and Engineering.  I have posted some pictures of the building before, but last night I was out at a perfect time for the building to be in dusk and lite beautifully.
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This building (41 Cooper Square) was designed by Thomas Mayne of Morphosis Architects.  He also did the Caltrans building in LA.  However, I met him when Morphosis was just a pipsqueak firm and they were working on the Gorilla enclosures at the LA Zoo.  He  taught at SciArc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) where I was putting Greg through school (we are going way back).
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A good shot because the trees are still in Winter mode.
Anyway, I thought the night shots of 41 Cooper Union were beautiful.
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The building below is the Original Cooper Union (which is still there).  Abraham Lincoln address an audience in its Great Hall in a speech opposing Stephen Douglas and federalism allowing the expansion of Slavery.  If you go to Wikipedia, you will see other Presidents and dignitaries have spoken there over the years.
You can't building them like this anymore, but it is also stunning in its own way.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

My friend JJ is in Kinky Boots

My friend JJ is in Kinky Boots.  He invited Ed and I and Shelly after we saw a preview of the show.
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Well they have big new signs of all the cast in the Subway Station in Times Square.  He looks great.

Quite the Disparate Responses

The Flick is an off-Broadway show I reviewed and didn't like (my review here LINK).  Outside of me,
From The Flick.
the reviews were fairly rave.  It is an interesting show, but it didn't work for me at all, the silences were too long and, at 3 hours, it took a long time to say too little.
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Not only did it get great reviews, but the playwright (the EXCELLENT Annie Baker) won a Blackburn Prize and a Horton Foot award - big deals in the art world.
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Well today we find that the audience feels a bit, bamboozled at all the accolades.  Today, the NY Times ran an article on the play about how the Artistic Director of the Theater sent a letter out apologizing to the patrons.  The show has annoyed season ticket buyers by being so long, so slow and yet got amazing reviews.   The Times critic (the wonderful Christopher Isherwood (not that one)) worries that audiences for Off-Broadway are making demands that force pablum to them.  Off-Broadway should be the source of new and tenacious works.  I agree, but that doesn't mean they are all good.
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I didn't like The Flick, but I have seen about a million shows that were worse.  Playwrights Horizon shouldn't be apologizing, but reminding them that their stated business purpose is getting new works from authors.  Sometimes it is going to be amazing (they premiered Driving Miss Daisy, Sunday In the Park With George, Next Fall and last year's best play Clybourne Park two years before it went to Broadway.

Override Veto's in Arkansas, Kentucky and North Dakota

Three states voted in laws by overriding the Governor's Veto.  They have entered Crazy Zone.
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First in Arkansas, the legislature voted to restrict abortions to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy - and then overrode the Governor's Veto.  This is  clearly lined up to go to the Supreme Court.
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Current law holds that a fetus must be viable outside the womb, and no one thinks a 13 week old fetus is viable.
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Next, in Kentucky, the legislature voted to say the government cannot infringe on "any person's
sincerely held religious belief".
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Which I think gives Southern Baptists the right to have slaves (did they ever rescind that, their reason of being in the first place?).  It would also protect those people who beat their children according to Biblical validation, it will protect passer-bys from saving anyone who might be an unmarried woman ("harlot") or gay person ("devient") and of course will allow children of Jehovah Witnesses and Christian Scientists to die from lack of a blood transfusion.
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Of course, the real reason is so they don't have to allow faggots inside their business or give whores the morning after pill.

Finally North Dakota was not happy that Arkansas beat it for crazy title and overrode the veto of 3
different abortion bills.  The key one is that there will be no abortions after the fetal heartbeat is detectable - about 6 weeks.  They will use the Transvagial-Ultrasound device to check on any woman.
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They also said that a clinic that provides emergency pregnancy termination services in any case (including Rape, Incest or the Health of the Mother) cannot operate unless they have hospital admitting rights.  This is a clone of a Mississippi law that says the same thing. Both states will close the single state clinics that still provide abortions because the local hospitals will not grant the clinics admitting rights.
One aside....
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In California a bartender can be prosecuted if he serves a pregnant woman - I don't know if they have that law in North Dakota, but if they do ladies, prepare to be wanded every time you want a drink.
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Kathy Hawken who is Pro-Life in the BEST Sense
Finally - I do want to give giant props to North Dakota Representative Republican Kathy Hawken.
 She is anti-abortion, but has introduced bills to provide pre-natal care and early child care.  She has seen they all go down in defeat.  She doesn't understand why the legislature in resource rich North Dakota stops carring for a fetus the minute it is born.
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That is a pro-life position I understand and admire.





"Intimate" Wipes - and Ad Nincompoopery

From Adweek....  (Yes - I did check these are real).
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Playtex has a new product called "Fresh + Sexy" intimate wipes, designed for men and women to freshen up before and after sex. New ads for the product, from Grey in New York, have a hard time addressing the issue directly, so they use suggestive wordplay. "A clean beaver always find more wood," says one ad showing a clean beaver finding more wood (or possibly just floating in a stream). "A clean pecker always taps it," says a second ad showing a woodpecker tapping it at least temporarily. There are two other ads: "A polished knob always gets more turns," showing a shiny doorknob, and "A clean peach always gets picked," showing a glistening peach. BuzzFeed has questioned whether the headlines are factually true, while Jezebel focuses on the woman-shaming aspect of the ads. What do client and agency have to say?
"This product was designed to address an important consumer need. Sex isn't always a planned event that can be prepared for. With Fresh + Sexy wipes, couples now have a way to be clean and ready for even the most spontaneous moments. They can be ready for intimacy whenever—and wherever—the mood strikes." —Erik Rahner, group marketing director at parent company Energizer Personal Care
"We wanted to be fun and playful and bold all at the same time. And the campaign lets us be all those things. … When you're clean where it counts, you're ready for anything." —Elaine McCormick, creative director at Grey New York
See the woodpecker ad below.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Photo Ark

Joel Sartore is an amazing photographer.  He is doing a series called "The Photo Ark" with National Geographic.  He is taking pictures of rare and endangered creatures.  On his site he tells you how to buy the prints and help the animals - and how to help the zoo or facility he photographed them at.
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He does "portraits" of zoo animals in this project.  And they are cool.  Here is the LINK.
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Below is a picture of a Clouded Leopard.  There are decreasing in the wild.

What would Ryan Lochte do?

The question is, is he for real or is he an amazing actor?
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Colombia University?

When I was a yute in Los Angeles, I assumed the entire world was just like Southern California.  I am sure most children think this, but I was convinced.  Furthermore, I was convinced it only "really" snowed in the mountains, it never rained in the summer and that all cities sprawled.
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I was not a dumb child.
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But you have to make assumptions from input given.  And, back in the 60's, TV and movies were all shot in and around Los Angeles.  So yes, I assumed that France and England looked like the mountains above Malibu - after all, every car chase on TV was done in those hills.  Monaco, from the hills above it, looked suspiciously like the high rent area around the Malibu Pier (often seen in the distance).  And New York, it looked like downtown LA of course.
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Before you laugh at me, let me take you to Monday night at 8:30 with Rules of Engagement.  This is a current (2013) prime time, big bucks show.  And in this particular episode, there was quite the kurfuffle  about Columbia University.  Audrey was on the waiting list (#400), but didn't get in, so she went to Syracuse, where she met her husband, blah blah blah.  Anyway, they were going to Columbia for a lecture.
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Here is the picture of Columbia University from the TV show Monday.
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Paused on TV.  "Columbia University"

And now you see why a boy from SoCal would assume the world looks like LA.  Right there, to the right of the building are Eucalyptus Trees - common to LA, but unable to take a hard, snowy winter.
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It looks like that, of course, because it is Haines Hall.  I went to UCLA and know that.  Below is a picture of Haines Hall on the plaza.  You can see the side where "Columbia University" was shot.
Haines Hall - Various Cultural Studies Programs- UCLA
(look down the right axis)

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

It was Prop 8 day at the Supreme Court

Today was Prop 8 day at the Supreme Court.  Trying to read the Tea Leaves is a useless.  We'll hear
Ed and I (and a Bear) with Mike in Park City
Mike actually performed the service and his wife stood up for us.
the result in a few months.
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The anti-Proposition 8 argument is threefold - with some unique differences between the California case and other states.
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1) California allowed Gay Marriage for 8 months before the Proposition (Prop 8) was passed.  So it wasn't the same as other states that never allowed it.  Since California had Gay Marriage and 18,000 couples were married, they have a higher bar to meet in order to allow discrimination (in marriage) against gay people.  (Allowing gay marriage had passed in the Assembly and State Senate, but was declared legal by the court before it was signed.)  ps - Eddie and I were one of the 18,000.
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2) Prop 8 was challenged in the courts and no one wanted to defend it.  The Governor (first Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Democrat Jerry Brown) didn't want to defend it, they both disagreed with it.  If the state doesn't want to defend a statue, others can.  But, in order to challenge a Proposition or the overturning of a Proposition you have to show direct harm - and no one could show direct harm.  So no one had "standing" to defend Prop 8.  Ultimately the people who put it on the ballot were allowed to defend it, even though they don't have "standing" (from a harm point of view).  To allow the lower court decision to stand (which would nullify Prop 8) or to say that the defendants can't mount a legal challenge is one way that they can reinstate Same Sex Marriage in California, but not any other state.
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3) California already has a "civil partnership" law, that grants all the rights of marriage at the state level, but withholds them at the federal.  Laws defining "separate but equal", have to pass a big legal reason hurdle, and most people think it does not.  This probably will NOT be the argument that prevails, because that would force the other 8 states that have civil partnerships, but not marriage to allow gay marriage.
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Best guesses right now (although it is a sucker's game) is that the Supreme Court will throw out Prop 8 based on standing  - and/or maybe a higher bar to retroactively discriminate.

Visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art a few weeks ago

When Shelly was here, one of the things we did was go to the Met.
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I love the Met.  I posted one picture of a dress that was painted in a French Impressionist piece (LINK).   It was a great show, but in reality, the Met is always great.  Here are a couple of my favorites.
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I have always loved Vincent van Gough.  Here a couple of pictures that are interesting.  The first is "Flowering Orchard" which I don't recall every seeing before.  If I did, I missed the beauty of in.
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The second is a shot from a room across with 5 van Goughs lined up in a row.  It is just amazing.  If it was a traveling show, I would have waited forever to see these.  Very cool.
 
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The center picture in detail.
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Finally, here is a statue called "Mourning Victory".  It was commissioned by a Boston Business man in 1897 for his two brothers, killed in the Civil War.  He allowed the Met to make a copy in 1903.  It is unique because it showcases Victory's duality.  The flag is raised above her in success, but her eyes are downcast, contemplating all the men that died for that success.  So very cool.
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Monday, March 25, 2013

The Jackalopes' Favorite

You would be hard pressed to find a less obvious place for a whiskey distillery than Park City, Utah.  I mean, Utah - home of the no drinking brigade.  However, I can attest to the fact that High West ;son of Bourye (a mixture of Burbon and Rye - both distilled there) is the smoothest drink ever.
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Gail and I went to lunch at the distillery and I had a small (.5oz) taster.  It was great.  I mean, if you like Burbon, it was killer.
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Here is the story of the Jackalopes' favorite. (select to enlarge and read the story).
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Well... you don't have to be a fan of Homeland, but it helps

Poor Chris...

Saturday, March 23, 2013

This is me getting ready for the big ski day

So I went skiing today with Eddie, Mike and Gail.  Mike was my teacher and did a great job.  I actually had a really fun time.
After the day or skiing  we took a little time in the hottub
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Suddenly aisles across not so great for Ed

Saw a Great Small Show Yesterday: Red Valley

I saw Red Valley yesterday.  It was a great, small show with an interesting point of view.  It plays through March 23rd. See it if you can.  It is a look at the Kenyan Mau Mau rebellion from the point of view of both the British settlers and the peaceful Kikuyu tribe - both attacked and killed by the Maasi.
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My Review...

Some pics...
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Matthew Vitticore as Jack and Aimee Marcelle as Beth in Red Valley

Joanna Kasamba as Flora

Matthew Vitticore, Joanna Kasamba with Brian Clancy as Jenkins

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A Great Read


An Amazing Read From The Daily Beast

America’s Lost Decade in Iraq: A Marine Officer Looks Back

A Marine officer who served two tours in Iraq looks back at 10 years of war, death, and destruction and asks what we learned: nothing. By Benjamin Busch


“Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure.”
—President George W. Bush, March 19, 2003
IRAQ
Jerome Delay/AP
Today marks the 10-year anniversary of our second invasion of Iraq, and the questions that were never answered about our nearly nine-year occupation are no longer being asked. Americans, our allies, and the Iraqi people are still owed an honest answer from the leaders who created the war and kept us in it: why were we there?
Hundreds of thousands of Americans protested at the start of the war, but bombing inevitably began on March 19, 2003. The next day U.S. and British forces drove through a breach in the high berm dividing Kuwait from Iraq. I entered as part of the invasion force sent to disarm Iraq. Colin Powell told the U.N. that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and was linked to 9/11. Rumsfeld said we would be done within a few months at a cost of around $50 billion. Paul Wolfowitz said Iraq could pay for its own reconstruction with oil revenue. Dick Cheney said we would be greeted as liberators. President Bush declared an end to major combat operations 44 days later under a banner that read “Mission Accomplished.” We were not briefed on a post-hostilities plan, and even Saddam Hussein managed to evade capture for another seven months.
IRAQ WAR
Bruce Adams/AP
Iraq was to be made a democracy, by force, but I quickly felt our ideological irrelevance. Saddam’s state fell apart into tribal factions, religious sects, and ethnic divisions under our cosmetic stewardship. The country murdered and looted itself as we watched, hopelessly ignorant of causality and cure. We spent the early years telling Iraqis who they couldn’t be but never deeply sought an understanding of who they already were. A strange symbiotic bond formed between us; their increasing dependency on our resources justifying our continued occupation. The State Department was largely restrained, leaving our military under the control of political appointees like Paul Bremer, who dictated policy by decree in a series of missteps without any comprehension of consequence. It was he who disbanded the Iraqi Army, flooding the country with unemployed militants, and it was under his rule that all former Baath Party members were banned from ever holding government posts again, decapitating Iraq of its only experienced managers. Our military, in turn, divided into sects of its own, the initiatives of regional commanders entirely dependent upon their personalities and situations. Iraq was reinvented all the way back to where it had been before our invasion, only with dysfunctional corruption installed where functional corruption had been. 
This war, which was never even a declared war, went on for 4,101 days, sent more than 1 million U.S. service members into the desert, left 31,926 troops wounded, and brought 4,409 of them back in flag draped coffins. The cost ballooned into an incalculable sum over a trillion dollars, a considerable amount of it impossible even to account for. The money was borrowed, and what we haven’t printed is still owed with interest. There has been no political contrition for the war’s false necessity, myopic approach, or inept management. We kept context out of the discussion, refused to exert wisdom over rhetoric, stripped the conflict down to catchphrases, and finally just stopped talking about it.

The Indignity of Age

This morning I was walking Trevor to day care.  It snowed last night and because the gods have decided to make the butt of all jokes today, I slipped on the ice.
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Just as an aside here for a moment.  I wear Merrels - great tennis shoes ("athletic shoes" sorry - when I was young - about a 100 years ago they were tennys, so shoot me).  Merrels are great looking, comfortable shoes.  And, since they are British, function particularly well in rain and much.  On ice, not so much.
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Anywho... I am walking Trevor, slip and stumble - stopping my fall with a hand so as to not end up ass over tea-kettle.  None the less, some nice 30ish man walks up and says, "Sir?  Sir, are you okay?"
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I explained I was fine and as I am extracting the dog leash and getting up - all the while, again with the sir.  "Sir, please let me help you up."
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Like I was Betty White's boyfriend!
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Arggg.  Anyway, I get home and decide to head back to Bikram Yoga.  The teacher yesterday said you should go right back to acclimatize to the temperature and all.  Okay.  So I do.  Now this is a different teacher at 9:30.  And I went without having breakfast (although I did have plenty of electrolytes and water).  I only made it 60 of the 90 minutes.  I was dying and at some point took off my shirt, as I was instructed to do.
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Even though I weighed less this morning than I have in 6 years (except for the pre-colonoscapy morning) I am extremely self-conscious about my looks - REALLY self-conscious.  And, she probably was trying to give me good advice, so she kept saying "Scott, pull your feet together.  Stretch tall.  Scottt, lift your chin."  But all I heard was the stomach notes - and in Yoga they call it your belly.  All I heard was "Scott, pull in your belly."
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And thus ends our experiment in Bikram Yoga.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Pushing Daises is on Chiller

Chi McBride, Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Swoozie Kurtz, Ellen Greene and Kristin Chenowith
who can argue with that cast
I loved Pushing Daises.  It was a great great show, killed off too early for me.  Luckily (for me) it has made a return on Chiller - which is a TV channel that I get (but I did have to add it to my "favorites" line-up, which it hadn't made before).
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So I am watching one of them now and I was talking to myself as I went to the bathroom. Talking to myself, FYI, because it is snowing here (again) and Ed is somewhere in the air between Fort Lauderdale and Newark- home who knows when, so there was no one else to talk to except Trevor.  And to be honest, Trevor hates it when I talk as I am going to the bathroom unless I am saying, let's go in the shower.  Which I wasn't.  Doing or Saying.
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Anyway, I find that Pushing Daises, like Sports Night or West Wing or anything else by Aaron Sorkin (except that horrible show Newsroom on HBO) makes me talk differently.  There is a surfit of exposition on those shows that I do so very much enjoy.
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Not that it is bad, but it is odd to have long detailed conversations by yourself on the way to the bathroom because of a 3 year old TV show.
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Just saying.

Bikram Yoga Kicked My Ass

This is the room.  The newbies (ME) sit along the back near the toilets
because that's where cold air blows in from under the door.
So, if you don't know what Birkam Yoga is, let me fill you in.  It is a 90 minute Yoga session in a room with the temperature turned up to 95 or 100.
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Which, having been in Palm Springs for years, I assumed I would be okay with.
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I was not.
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It was 100 and humid and Scooter nearly keeled over. I ended up taking a lot of breaks and almost walking out with 10 minutes left.  The instructor was very positive though and told me just to sit and stay to find out what the remainder was like.
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My session wasn't nearly this crowded at 11:30 AM.
I almost puked.
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And almost all the guys go shirtless, which is intimidating AND gross at the same time.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Random Nincompoopery

Some random Nincompoopery from this evening.
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I was watching the Amazing Race and an ad came on for some new video game (Assassin God Of War?).  Anyway it is all this bloddy graphics from the game, then a shot of this little girl totally digging it - then the voice over "Rated M for Mature".  She doesn't look M for Mature.
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These are our dog poop baggies.  They are sold all over New York in the pet stores (because its the law, you have to pick up the poop).  Anyway, I love how they are "Biodegradable Bags! except as defined by California."  Because California law says to be labelled "biodegradable" it has to actually compost in a landfill within 10 years.  I just wonder what their definition of biodegradable is.
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I don't think it really matters thou, doesn't New York just take it all out to the Atlantic anyway?

Ah... You Knew the Job was a Bitter Bitch when You Took It

(from the LA Times - highlighted sections my emphasis).
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LAS VEGAS — Despite the sudden loss of one of its best young players, the UCLA basketball team showed up here Saturday night determined not to throw in the towel.

The coach's suit coat was a different matter.
Ben - I am not a recent convert to the I Hate Howland Group
I was a charter member after he lost in two consecutive final 4s to Miami (watch the freaking tape!)
(...)
It was Howland's first technical foul in 10 years as UCLA coach. Then again, he's rarely been backed up against such a wall, his job on the line as his team heads into next week'sNCAA tournament without Jordan Adams, its second-leading scorer who broke his foot in the final moments of the Bruins' emotional semifinal win Friday against Arizona.

In a title game that really did churn the stomach, the Bruins missed Adams' scoring and defense as much as Howland missed a wooden hanger in a 78-69 loss to the Ducks at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Ron vs. Rand

I think it odd that somehow I find Ron Paul more acceptable than Rand Paul.
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I mean, I kind of like cranky old Ron Paul.  Yes - I know he published a bunch of anti-gay stuff in the 80s and 90s, but it was the 80s and 90s.  I mean, compared to today it might as well have een 1880 and 1890.  He outsourced his newsletter and one of the few things Texans could agree on in 1980 was that gays were awful.  Fine.
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But Ron Paul - he has convictions which he stood up for and a clear message of a Libertarian.  He gave horrible speechs and direct answers and you believed him.  And his answers didn't change over time.  He is against Middle East escapades and always has been.  He is for pot legalization on libertarian grounds, and always has been.  He is very anti-abortion and always has been.
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I like a politician that let's everyone know where they stand.
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But his son, Rand Paul ... Rand Paul is, well the best way to put it is that he is a politician.  He is all that goes with that.  Better presentation, better outfits, smarter answers to questions, more aware of how his mugs plays on the tube and the feeling that he doesn't really believe any of it.  Too bad.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Good Luck Pope Francis

There's a new Pope in town, kids.  I don't know if you heard (it was a very low key affair).
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I wish him all the best.  There are some grumblings that he isn't progressive enough, but he was a Catholic Cardinal - you're not going to gay and feminist loving dude no matter who you pick.
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I do appreciate his focus on the plight of the poor world-wide, because I think that is something the church was / should be based on.  That is great.
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And I like he is a Jesuit.  To me (as opposed to reality) they are focussed on education and out-reach. I think that is important.  I mean a Jesuit Pope is much more palatable to men than the ex-Nazi Youth Pope.
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Most of the Catholics I have actually met, in my 50 plus years have, been Latin Americans living in the United States, so I think it is wonderful that the church has embraced this group by choosing a Latin American Cardinal as pope.  They are a pious and usually good people that look to God for moral guidance and a sense of family.  So I like Francis for that.
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Also, father Junipero Serra was a Franciscan Jesuit - he founded the missions in California.  I have been to the Missions and to the Vatican.  If anything, I feel the gift of God more in the Missions - although the Vatican is beautiful and expensive!
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Below, some pictures of Mission San Juan Capistrano - the first Mission I visited, and the one I have visited most often.  This mission was destroyed in an 1812 earthquake, and then rebuilt over the years. Then one picture of Mission Santa Barbara, my second most visited Mission.  It hasn't been destroyed by an earthquake and has functioned pretty much as a mission since the 1700s.
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The Chapel - rebuilt after the 1812 Earthquake.



It used to be most famous for the swallows that live there .
So what happened to the famous swallows...  When I was young we used to go see them all the time.  But withe urban sprawl the swallows don't show up in the massive numbers they used to.  At least it isn't the fault of climate change :-).
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Mission Santa Barbara, where the Franciscan Friars still live.
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