Thursday, March 31, 2016

Thank You Georgia

Today in North Carolina

Today in North Carolina, the man in the middle could be thrown in jail for using the Men's Restroom in a public building.  He has to use the Women's Room - based on his birth certificate.
.
Look, I know that "trans" is confusing.  But the bathroom issue is a sideshow to prove that some people feel superior.  Spot it for the political sideshow it is at the expense of real people dealing with life.
.
Ben's Birth Certificate says Female (Ben is trans) -in the middle.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Yuck - a beard

So for my birthday we are seeing the Crucible.  With Saoirse Ronan and Ben Whishaw.
.
But look at this picture.  Ben's got a beard.  I hate a beard.  I love Ben, but I hate a beard.
.
So much for the cutie.
.
.
Ben- beardless as Forbisher in The Cloud Atlas
.
.
Even minimally beared  is okay - as in London Spy
.


It is indeed

It is my birthday.  And the web is a great source of entertainment about your birthday.  This being my birthday it means that:
.
1) I am an Aries by the Traditional Zodiac
.
2) My Chinese year is "Boar "  (okay most people say pig, but I found a Boar)

3) My Updated Zodiac is the Jackalope
(for your update sign, leave a comment: tell me your traditional sign and I will tell you what yoru Updated Zodiac sign is...)

.
For those of you not familiar with the Updated Zodiac, the Jackalope is quiet and shy, yet extremely showy and extroverted.  Sweet and fuzzy, they can be quick to anger if pissed off.  In an argument, they drop issues quickly, unless you won't drop it - then they are pig-headed and hold a grudge indefinitely.  PS - They hate meerkats, why did they get the damn TV show?
.
Jackalope Details
Favorite color - Valium
Ruling Sign - Keep Off the Grass
Best Relationship Mate - Hot

Monday, March 28, 2016

Gods of Egypt - Oy


.
Well there is bad / awful and bad / good.  Gods of Egypt is bad / fabulous!
.
So much, so very much that makes no sense.  I mean Jupiter Ascending was like Jane Austin compared to this.
.
Let me list the ways I love this.
.
Lizard women riding giant lizards.
.

.
They chased our hero God Horus and his man-twink Bek through a garden castle of his father's that has turned to this in less than a year.
.
Horus and Bek
Now, you might wonder what is with the angle here.  Well in Gods of Egypt the "Gods" are somewhere between 2 feet and twice as tall as humans.  The difference being how well the shot worked.  This is a semi-traditional buddy comedy / action movie except the buddies are a God and a Man (technically - although he looks about 16).  Which leans the odd homoerotic joke a little creepy.
.
But I get ahead of myself. 
.
Gods of Egypt tries to play it semi-straight until Horus, with one eye, goes up to see Grand-dad Ra.
Ra.
.
Geoffrey Rush, as Ra who lives on a space barge and daily fights the Chaos Worm of Evil.  Really.
It seems that Geoffrey Rush, playing to a paycheck, decided to say screw it, and went for laughs.  The movie is hard to take seriously as Geoffrey Rush asks "Why did you bring the mortal?" in the same way a hostess at a dinner party might say, "I think you have dog-shit on your shoe."
.
Then there is Gerald Butler.  Who normally plays the good beefy guy, but now plays the bad beefy guy.  He seemed to go to the Boris Badanov school of evil where the more evil you are the more you overact.
.
Ut oh, he's mad at her....
.
Then there was the embarrassment of the God of Knowledge, Thoth.  Even the name they made lispy.  One of the few Gods of color, Thoth (Chadwick Boseman - slumming after playing Jackie Robinson in 42) is the gayest of the Gods.  I don't know why, but it was a particularly odd choice that the only speaking actor of color was gay gay gay.
Thoth - Chadwick Boseman in a dress of green leather and sequins.  And that wasn't the gayest thing about him.
The good news that Chadwick didn't play it too camp, but just enough to make us all in the joke.  I loved him.
.
Finally I have to give GIANT props to Rufus Sewell.  No, he wasn't good.  He was the picture of embarrassed acting as the master builder for Set (Gerard).  But, you cannot find a picture of him on the web as the builder.  None.  Not on imbd.  Not on his website. Not on wikipedia.
.
The only one I could find was this - and you can't see his face.  I think he was the smartest of the group.
.
.
.
On the other hand, Elodie Yung, with a big part, found this wasn't her break out role.  She was stuck wearing this outfit over and over, through the swamps and everything.
.
.
This is, I found, a show where the trailer IS representative of the movie.
.


Saturday, March 26, 2016

De Materie at the Park Ave Armory

I saw De Materie at the Park Avenue Armory Thursday.  It was fascinating.  It is a Symphony / Opera  / Art as a reflection on the composition of "matter" both from a scientific and sociological viewpoint.  Much was in Dutch, and not "songs" but the founding documents of the country, the instructions on how to build a boat and a 16th century paper on atoms.
.
But it was also extremely visual - intertwined with the music which was a little (and therefore not too) Philip Glass.
.
Here are the amazing visuals...
.
1
This is the first movement. The singers on the left sang first the Dutch equivalent of the Declaration of Independence (from Spain), then instructions on shipbuilding.  The translations were scrolled on the left most building.  Then soloist on the upper right sang the paper on atoms from the 16th century.  Translations were scrolled on the zeppelin on the right as shown.
.
2
In the second movement this woman (an amazing soprano) opened a sack and sung (I had to look this up) the "Seventh Vision of Hadewych, a 13th century mystic poetess, and is a remarkable mixture of religious mysticism and eroticism."  While she sang that, and translations were scrolled on a screen at front, the sack people flopped, slowly, around.
.
The swinging colored pendulums.

3
In the third movement, the giant pendulums swing for a while before two swing dancers came out and danced.  About 15 other dancers would race on and off during this as well.

4
In the fourth movement 120 sheep were shepherded around the stage by music and a zeppelin.  It was oddly moving.

Finish (coda?)
The wrap up, with very little music, was Madame Currie's speech accepting the Nobel prize, interspersed with passages from her dairy about her husband (after his death).  This was in English.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Wow! Her God is Kind of An Asshole

So here is the LINK to her article (not summaries).

.
Michelle Bachman's God is kind of a dick.  I mean he kills people all around the world (except the United States) to make President Obama look foolish?  Seems ineffective and - well mean.  "Hi, I'm God.  Sorry you're going to lose your son today in an attack, but that darn President Obama - he just won't listen to me."
.
I think if God's plan was to embarrass Obama then a better idea might be to have a clown nose appear on his face miraculously during a press conference, right?  Doing this to the people of Belgium to make Obama look foolish is not something I would hope a "God" would do.
.
Per Machelle Bachman these bodies and body parts were used by God to embarrass President Obama.  That makes her God a Dick.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Enough of the fact that North Carolina hates fags.
.
Here are some other fun pictures I took at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (non-condor edition).  I like these animals because you get inside with them.  Both the birds and the lemurs have walk in cages.
.




The Lemurs were very playful when I was in.  Which is apparently unusual as they are big sleepers.



Thursday, March 24, 2016

Two Things That Saddened Me This Morning

Oy.
.
1 - The level of "political discourse" in our Republican Presidential nominating contest.  This came from Donald last night.
.
Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump tweeted this out last night
He did it in response to a political ad in Utah done by an outside group...
From an old British GQ spread - used here to scandalize Utan Voters.
Welcome to the Republican Primary for President.
.
2. North Carolina wants in on record: "We Hate Fags!"  So now we have to find a new investment banker (I won't use Bank of America / Merrill Lynch anymore).
.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

What Fantastic Bravery!


.
I suppose at the rate of what they have accomplished this year (I believe 4 or 5 Post Offices were renamed) this might count as success.
.
Of course they don't have the balls (or lady-balls) to vote on an aActual Authorization of War against ISIS - despite having that requested from President Obama over a year ago.
.
They only have the ability to whine that Obama isn't doing enough against ISIS, when they don't like what is going on.  OR That Obama is a dictator - when he does anything he doesn't like.  OR He is a lame duck when he is doing his Constitutional Duty.
.
FYI.
.
Obama is NOT a "lame duck".  Despite rocket-scientist Sarah Palin's idiotic thoughts and statements to the contrary, "lame duck" actually does have a definition.  A "Lame Duck" is an elected official in the period between when a successor has been voted into office, but before he or she takes office.  Not the entire last year of his Presidency.  The President will be a "Lame Duck" from the first Tuesday in November of 2016, until the Inauguration of the New President in January of 2017.

Why Does Science Fiction Kind of Suck Now?

Science Fiction - as opposed to Fantasy or Alternate History - kind of sucks right now.  Stories that are based on our timeline, but in the future are primarily dystopian.
.
I'll tell you why.
.
It's not (just) that the future looks dim - Global Warming, Global Terrorism, Donald Trump - it is that the "today" cannot be understood.
.
Arthur C Clarke's words never felt so prophetic.
.

.
I think there is no one alive today that can understand even most of science - it has grown so fast so widely that even the brightest minds can only imagine a sliver of it.  Cell phones have more computing power on them them acres of computers thirty years ago.  A Chevy Volt has more computer parts that Apollo 11.  We are starting to build quantum computers where the very measurement of objects changes them (back in the 80s we struggled to understand this in relation to electrons - now we are powering computers with this idea!).
.
Could any one person build a power station, a cell phone, an artificial heart, an electrical outlet (if you can build a generator).  We build more and more complex things by dividing them into parts that need cooperation - and we damn cooperation.
.
Meanwhile man's dreams have gotten tiny in relation.
.
We abandoned space because there was no profit in it.  We use the amazing powers of computing to play candy crush.  We use nanoseconds of time to create and steal value from a stock market ponzi scheme.  We leverage the wealth and power of the world not to fix age old problems but to buy lifesaving medicines and raise the prices 3,000%.
.
The one fear of the future in the old days was that we would be enslaved by it.  Turns out, we are insignificant in it.

Wooden New York Cube - From Bosnia

So, in my news feed from Bosnia Herzegovina (partially for my ngo work, and partially for my interest) I found this design winner of New York Cube in 2015, is actually from Bosnia.  Go figure.
.
It is cool.
.

link

My Grandmother Turned 100 last week


My Grandmother on my mom's side turned 100 this year.  She was recently in the hospital with a stroke and seizures.  I was lucky enough to be out at La Costa with Ed's work.  She lives less than 3 miles away, so I got to see her.
.
In the picture above is (top row) my younger brother, my Uncle (mom's brother), me with (bottom row), my brother's wife, my grandmother and my younger sister.  It was a nice visit, but tiring to her.
.
In many ways it is very hard for me to relate this older woman with the person I remember.  Below is a picture of her at 90.
.
"The Grandkids" on her 90th.
At 90 she was still the cantankerous woman I remember.  The woman who cursed loudly, harbored grudges for decades and drank bourbon on the rocks.  She was mean and nasty, but that is just who she was and you had to admire that.
.
The saddest part is that woman is still in there - giving shit to her son - but is harder for her to come out.  Happy Birthday Donna.

The Brussels / Michael Dukakis Dilema

The attack in Brussels, like the attack in Paris, like the attack in Istanbul - all by ISIS - is horrifying.  Those who did it are evil people, Islamic terrorists, trying to start a war between the west and Islam for their own purposes.
.
Oddly, then, I am reminded of Michael Dukakis in this moment.
.
For those of you not old enough to remember, or not Americans - let me explain.
.
During the 1988 Presidential Election Michael Dukakis ran against George Bush (the 1st) who was, essentially, running for Ronal Reagan's third term.  Bush had released a notorious commercial in which Massachusetts (Dukakis' home state) had allowed a black man inmate convicted of a violent offense, while out on a furlough from jail, had committed a murder while on that furlough.
.
It was the original "Democrats are easy on crime" meme that they have been trying to live down since - which was the origin of the Clinton's tough on crime response.  Anyway, Michael Dukakis was anti-death penalty, and questioned about it often.  It was a big deal in 1988.
.
In a famous interview / debate he was asked how he would feel if Kitty Dukakis (his wife) was raped and murdered, would he still not support the death penalty.  Apropos of what he thought would be a Presidential answer, he gave a dry response of why the death penalty wouldn't help.  It was, instead, the final nail in the coffin of his Presidential aspirations.  People wanted to vote for someone who was outraged and wanted to kill the man that killed his wife.  It was universally decided that after delivering a visceral, hateful answer - then, and only then, he could follow up with his reasonable answer.
.
I bring this up know because American Politicians have learned from this.  The Republican response (today) to any action is all id.  Hillary - and other Democrats - try to play id then ego, but are trashed by the conservative media that wants id all the time.
.
So, here is the subject change - stay with me.
.
Part of me, part of every gay person, hates ISIS members / terrorists with a passion.  And by passion, I mean passion.  They are rapists and killers who flaunt their hatred of women, gays, non-Islamic people (as they define them) and express no remorse in killing the most venerable or innocent.  If there was a bomb created that only killed ISIS fighters and killers, I would strap it on my chest and parachute into Raqqa setting it off.  But there is no such thing.
.
However, in our politicians stampede to display John Wayne-ish bravado, they tar over 1 Billion members of Islam with the ISIS brush.  And so those of us who value human life have to say, "No.  Every Islam follower is not a killer."
.
There are 3.3 Million Muslims in the United States. So, if they really were all as evil as Donald Trump or Ted Cruz said, there would be millions upon millions of deaths tomorrow.
.
Those of us who value the country over insane retoric - those of us who believe American means something - we must pull the Dukakis and say - into the face of hatred - you cannot blame every Muslim for what 3 or 6 or 30,000 are doing in Paris or Brussels or Syria.  In particular you cannot blame Americans who happen to be Muslim and follow the faith peacefully.  Even though, for the great majority of them, this means hating me as a gay person.
.
And I say that, still knowing in my heart that those that attacked Paris or Brussels or rape and kill in the name of God in Syria and Iraq are evil and deserve to be fought to the death.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Somethings are too fabulous not to share

i.e. - Boat McBoatface (link)
.

A Trip to the Condor-arium and the San Diego Wild Animal Park

It isn't The Wild Animal Park anymore, it is now the San Diego Safari Zoo.  Fine.  I can roll with it.
.
But it still has Condors.  And now (okay like for the last 10 years, but now for me) you can see them up close.  You have no idea how much this meant to me.  I was in living in LA when the arguments were going on whether to round up the last free Condors or not.  In 1987 they brought in the last few.  In 1987 there were 22 in the world.  TWENTY-TWO.
.
Now, my friends were dying of AIDS and the world was full of horrible things I couldn't control, and I was ready to give up.
.
But.
.
But, the Condors were successfully bred in Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Zoo.  I actually drove down once to see a chick.  You could only see the chicks, because they wanted Condors afraid of people. So the chicks were raised behind one-way glass, with a hand puppet of a mother Condor feeding them.
.
And then last week I went to San Diego with Ed, drove 31 miles, hiked up about a half mile and saw this...
.
This ugly / beautiful amazing bird won't be let out.  She is a prize of the breeding program.  This is one of those same 22 birds captured in 1987!  This is one of the group that made it!
.
There are now over 420 birds.  Over 200 in the wild.  The fly again in the California Coastal Mountain Range, the Sierra Nevada range, over the Grand Canyon and Baja California again.  Even over Zion National Park where some moved and established themselves from the Arizona birds.
.
In the picture below, in the upper left there is a second bird.  I didn't get the one that was farthest away.  He was a juvenile let into the aviary to get his skills up to speed before being released.
.
I cried.
.
Two of the Condors, sunning themselves in the morning.  
So people did that.  People who wouldn't take no for an answer, and who wouldn't be the ones letting a species die.
.
And, in a world where gun control is considered evil, California has banned lead bullets. Good for the NRA and the legislature to work together on that!  Condors are scavengers and the lead shot was poisoning them.  After a lot of work, California has banned those bullets.  New ones are more expensive, but the legislature, and the NRA(!) have agreed it is a price worth paying.
The Condor-arium from 2/3s along the hike.
Today was horrible with Brussels and the responses to it. 
I needed to remind myself that we can fix some things.
 
People with Condor puppet feeding chicks.
At first they had to take the chicks away from the parents because of DDT.  The shells were too brittle and broke if they were incubated by the parents.  That has changed with the absence of DDT.

Paul Ruggeri Breaks the Nincompoopery Mascot Curse

So Paul Ruggeri and the US Men's Gymnastics team broke the Nincompoopery Mascot Curse (they tend not to do well after they are featured).
.

The US Men's ream won gold for the team medal.  Paul himself won bronze in All-around - the highest placing US gymnast.

.
So that's fun.

I Wish There Was A Choice

It is times like now that I want to cry a little.  In this case over our choices for President.
.
link to article
Yes, I agree with Hillary 75% of the time.  But that extra 25% is killing me.  She is a Israeli suck-up war monger whose vision of the Middle East is a bigger gun and faster trigger.  A place with no room for Palestinians and a blank check for Netanyahu.
.
For example:
.
Clinton, without naming the president, tweaked Obama for his strained relationship with Netanyahu. “One of the first things I’ll do in office is invite the Israeli prime minister to visit the White House,” she offered to raucous applause.
.
Yes, invite the man that has approved thousands upon thousands of illegal occupation housing and expropriated land.  The man who promised during his election campaign there would never be a two state solution.  The man that came to Congress to trash the President.  In this, Hillary is no better than any Republican - and worse than Donald Trump and Rand Paul.
.
Does the US interests ever come first for these arrogant vote sucking money Hoovers?
.
As for anyone else who tries to use peaceful methods to express displeasure...
.
 She also damned the growing Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement, sidestepping the fact that some recent legislation targeting the movement includes language that also protects Israeli businesses operating in illegal settlements. Unmentioned was any Palestinian suffering under the endless military occupation.
.
I would scream against her.  I would rail against her. These comments - on top of the "Nancy Reagan opened a discussion about AIDS" comment makes me question her sanity, not just her opinions.
.
But then there is the 75% of her that I like.
.
And the Supreme Court pick that I don't trust to Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. And I realize I will vote for her.

My Review of Wolf in the River is up.

link - It's not for everyone - as it traffics in imagery in prose and visualization rather than a linear plot.  But some of the acting is great!
.

snippet

Sunday, March 20, 2016

The Positive Argument for Donald Trump

Although I am not a fan of Donald Trump, nor a supporter, I do understand his appeal.  AND, I think if many of us liberals think for a minute, we will also understand his appeal.
.
We liberals often have wondered why people vote Republican when it is not in their best interests. We feel they would be better served by a government that is on their side, not on the side of the richest of the rich.  Our understanding is (wrongly) limited to deciding that they are voting by hate.  "They" hate gays, or women or blacks and enough to punish them rather than vote their best interests - we assume.  President Obama's election has reinforced these assumptions.
.
So let's look another way - we are liberals and open to rethinking, right?
.
Let's assume you are a nice main street Republican.  You're a good person, you help your friends, contribute to charity and generally like your life.  Many voices; some churches, Fox News, talk radio, etc. - tell you over and over that people who are not like you, hate you.  Gays, Feminists, people dependent on the government (Food Stamps, Welfare, etc.) are willing to destroy your way of life to perpetuate theirs.
.
And when you talk to them, they are angry.  They (the liberals) sue people who don't want to bend to their way of life.  They can't live and let live . Now - I think this is not true, but look from their point of view.  They only see us through the prism of pride marches, ACLU suing against religion and people demonstrating against the police (who have treated everyone you know with respect and keep the peace).
.
For years, the Republicans have promised that if you vote Republican, things will change for the better.  Change will roll back and everyone (except welfare recipients and the "moochers") will benefit.  Immigrants won't take your jobs.  And you vote for these Republicans - but nothing changes.
.
George Bush didn't change much for you - in the end (except crashing the economy, which the Republican media has blamed Obama).  Electing a Republican House of Representatives didn't change anything.  Electing a Republican Senate didn't change anything.
.
Now comes Donald Trump who calls bullshit on the Democrats and Republicans alike.  You like that he says it like it is.  Now me (Scott) thinks that is crap.  I see him as another con-man and liar.  But for many people he is a different type of non-Politician.  Maybe it won't get better, but voting the same way over and over again is doing no good.  So our republican friends aren't crazy, they are simply trying something different.  The same vote for the same Republicans hasn't helped yet.
.