The All New (Brief History) of the Rise and Fall of Ten Minutes Ago

>! >! >!

2011-01-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

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Diary of a Young Girl

2010-03-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

Just want to spend a minute to pat myself on the back for reading Diary of a Young Girl. I was impressed by Anne Frank's writing; it was remarkably clear for someone so young. I read the "complete" version after starting the traditional version that was edited by her father in the '50s. The traditional version, I think, hits harder because its focus is on the horror of the war and also because there is no writer alive that doesn't benefit from good editing. I also want to add that I picked it up after revisiting Neutral Milk Hotel.

The brutal tragedy of her time in the secret annex and eventual murder, I can't begin to process. What a waste...

Holy Cow, an Award!

2010-02-23T18:16:00.000-08:00

Thanks Amie for the award! I've been so bogged down in work that I haven't been able to blog. I guess I have something like a real job now.

I can't say that I've never won anything. There was that science fair exhibit with Geoff Herbst (he did all the work, I came up with the idea of using Alka Selter tablets to represent teeth in soda pop). The signed comic strip I won from the UN-Reno paper. And there must have been something else... but I can't think of what it must have been.

I seem to have to do some things to claim my prize. Here are the rules.

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the award & place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Share 7 interesting things about yourself.
5. Nominate 7 additional Beautiful Bloggers.

CHECK
CHECK
CHECK

Now is the time that I share seven interesting things about myself.

1. I've never seen Avatar. You can have that crap.

2. I am almost 38 and I'm only just now learning how to work and compete in the rat race. I was hampered by the expectation that I would make it big in Hollywood and the refusal to believe that any work in an office could be interesting. And also by the fact that I studiously avoided and declined leadership or responsibility of any kind. Not to mention that I never trained for any "job" nor did I even have the expectation that I might want to work after I graduated from college. All of this is compounded by a pair of extremely poor roll models in my parents, both of whom expressed nothing but disdain for their work. As a consequence I've spent much of my life working retail, scraping by, enjoying the occasional time of plenty, and not caring much how I'd get paid. But now I have a kid with another on the way, and wife and I have obscene student loans - I've got to figure out way to get by.

3. See the story above about Geoff Herbst.

4. I will watch DVD bonus features for just about any movie I get. Right now I'm going through the bonus features on Leatherheads, the George Clooney directed George Clooney vehicle. It's a good film that's destroyed by an extra half an hour.

5. This is the time of the year when I wonder what the "hotel" I'm doing in Wisconsin. I've started to worry that I'll never leave here. I dream of both returning to California - preferably the central coast - and moving to Europe. Most people have things to do on their "bucket lists" that are traveling. I don't enjoy travel as much as I want to move and live other places. The snow and cold are oppressive here. The apartment is getting smaller. We don't have a yard that we can garden. I will give Wisconsin the gardening. It's so easy here. Regardless, I want to live other places before I get old.

6. I nearly flunked out of high school. I had to go to summer school and just got by with a D average. It was all part of my plan! Seriously. I could have done much better if I did homework.

7. I am incredibly lucky. And pretty smart. I'm broadly educated (despite what both my diplomas say) and I have this feeling that something really great is coming. Like I've been preparing my whole life for a particular role that I don't know what it is, but will be a perfect fit for me.

I can only throw this award at bloggers I know. So that's Amie, EW, Ali, and... really that's it. Wait, I do know one more - Infurriated Squirrel!

Big Bang, baby

2010-01-25T18:39:00.000-08:00

I've posted about reading lately. But I do watch TV, and my favorite show is probably Big Bang Theory (in the category of everything-that's-not-Mad-Men, which I love). I originally got into it because the characters live in Pasadena not far from my old home in South Pasadena (which for you geniuses out there is just south of Pasadena). It was really fun to hear them reference Old Town and see the Pasadena town hall out Sheldon's window. But soon I came to love the brilliant joke writing, and last night I watched the apex of the show - the episode from last season titled "The Maternal Capacitance." Christine Baranski as Leonard's mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, was astounding. The central character of the show, Sheldon, met Leonard's mother and both of these characters are tacitly undiagnosed with Asperger's/autism. Now this wasn't brain science, but it was solid joke writing. The joke that sold me on the show last year went like this:

Sheldon: What are the odds that two unique people such as ourselves would meet?

Leonard's mother: Is that a rhetorical question or would you like to do the math?

Sheldon: I'd like to do the math.

Sublime.

Then of course there's this classic sequence:

There IS a Zoo in Las Vegas

2010-01-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

This is the kind of thing I'm talking about!

2010-01-14T08:51:00.000-08:00

Here's an example of Legos for girls then:

and now:

http://belville.lego.com/en-us/default.aspx

It's a credit to them that Lego has learned to nail their demographic, but it's a loss to children - boys and girls - that what was a great non-gendered toy has become hopelessly gendered. Presumably boys won't play with girl Lego blocks and vice-versa. And let's not even get into the "crappyness creep" of the modern Lego play set as compared to the more utilitarian sets of blocks of my youth.

http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/i-miss-legos
http://www.feministing.com/archives/019627.html

Some great recommendations

2010-01-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

So I think what I'm going to take up after Pat Barker's Regeneration is Diary of a Young Girl. It's a crime that I missed this until now and with Miep Gies death I feel it's a must. I'll buy that and the Royall Tyler Tale of Genji.

Torn

2010-01-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

I'm torn between writing about our visit to church today or continuing the reading thread a little longer. I want church to ripen a little before I pluck it. Reading it is.

Thanks Ali, Amie and Hallie and Infurriated Squirrel (and darknessatnoon, an internet hero) for all your great reading suggestions.

One reason for the women-only guideline is that I want to limit my pool of available books and further I want to limit the pool to an area in which I am weak. I somehow managed to not read a novel for any high school English class and so I am struggling to catch up on the classics and the canon. (I don't think I'll ever read Silas Marner or Wuthering Heights, though, and won't get to them even this year, sorry.) I also want to read women authors because I've bypassed them for so long.

There is a long, cogent argument to be made that one simply doesn't have the time to read all the great books anymore. Since the fifties books have blown up and the numbers of great books, for many reasons, have increased by an order of magnitude. But I don't have the capacity for argument. I have to take two naps and then go to bed.

My list so far:

Patricia Highsmith The Talented Mr. Ripley
Banality of Evil
Little House on the Prairie
Queen Bees and Wannabes
Zadie Smith On Beauty and White Teeth
Stella Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm
PD James Children of Men
Marisha Pessl Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Lydia Millet

I'm also planning on buying Tale of Genji in the Royall Tyler translation and reading it throughout the year. I like having a bulky classic in reserve although I don't much like reading non-English books anymore. I got enough of that in college. But for Murasaki Shikibu I'll make an exception.

Oh, word, I'll go to bed now. I'm tired.

I don't read books

2010-01-09T18:40:00.001-08:00

That's not true. I do read books. I just don't derive as much pleasure from reading as I once did. When I get a good book, I become completely obsessed with it and I have to read it all in one sitting which means, since I don't get any reading time until after 8PM, I am up until 4AM and then I am vaguely hung over the next day and can't even remember the book. I get one of these books once every three or four months. The rest of the time, I start a book and something about it makes me hate it and I stop it and take it back to the library. I hate not having a book to read, I feel like it is such a waste of my free time not to have something to read but I seem completely incapable of finding something that I can just enjoy over a week. I tried to join a book group last summer to help me develop a better, more casual relationship with books but I got tired of it by the fall.
I do not keep a list as my husband does of the books he reads. Only one book stands out as a truly satisfying read and that is Patricia Highsmith's "The Talented Mr Ripley" a really brilliant character study. Please put that one on your list, darling.

Girls, girls, girls! I mean women.

2010-01-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

Years ago I had a conversation with my brother-in-law. He said the most shocking thing that I have ever heard. We were in Halfprice books. He said, "I don't read women." He didn't read women authors. To this day the baldfaced openness of that statement astounds me. Now I don't know if that is still true of him, if he was being hyperbolic at the time, or if his attitude has changed, that's not important. What is important is that it was very freeing for me. I had been laboring to want to like women authors and failing. I could read the occasional Margaret Atwood book - if it was short. I read freely for about three years - mostly men - but since reading Mating, which was written by a man with a strong female narrator and point of view I've had a change of heart. The contrast of male writer and female narrator made me think very deeply about the sex of the authors I read. I have been missing a lot by not reading women. Since my conversation with my brother in law I've read few women and haven't made an effort to work women authors - or authors of any particular stripe - into my reading menu. Until now.

My goal for 2010 is to read only women authors. The whole year. Now I know you might be thinking that it's patronizing, and it is. But it's also going to be a fun experiment. My hope isn't to like every book that lands on my plate but rather to attempt to read women without the pressure of any one woman author standing in for all others. If I simply can't get into a book, there is always another waiting in the wings.

I will only complete books by women authors, but I am still free to read magazines and articles and whatever else comes along by who ever, of whatever sex, writes it. This doesn't apply to reference either, I'm still going to read Dr. Sears Baby Book (that it's a child-rearing guide written by a man is something I am not even going to try to unpack).

I like fiction. I'm not looking to read the best management books by women, for example, but even my non-fiction will be women. I do want to taste the some of the best books by women authors, but I'm not in any way interested in gender theory or women's studies or any other academic viewpoint of reading. I want to read classics and and also modern. I'd like to find living authors that I like. The best analogy would be to cuisine - I'd like to find a cuisine of women authors (please don't unpack that it's a consumption metaphor). Every cuisine has appetizers and entrees, desserts and snacks. This is what I'd like to uncover.

To kick off the new year I've started with Pat Barker's Regeneration. That's staying close to home for me - a modern British Booker winner - that's just what I look for.

The only requirements for the year are Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf. Northhanger Abby has been suggested and To the Lighthouse seems like a good one.

What else have I on my plate?

Banality of Evil
Little House on the Prairie
Queen Bees and Wannabes

Who's our Wodehouse?
Our Twain?
Our David Foster Wallace?

Any other thoughts?

What should I read that my daughters should read? YA recommends are fine but please leave your J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer at the door. I'm still an illiterate bougie snob.

Books in 2009

2010-01-04T07:15:00.000-08:00

I tried to keep this list on Facebook, but it didn't work. I forgot to update it. There was at least one book in between Tim O'Brien and Kingsley Amis, but maybe not, I can't remember. I'm coming back to the blog to keep track of these things.

This is about par for the course in terms of quality and quantity of books. I'd like to increase both, but I'm pleased for the most part. I try to read what I like and also what is well regarded and I try to avoid trash.

The Winner!

Mating was the winner of the race - by far - I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading. Just an amazing work.

In Defense of Food is required in order to unclench and get shit correct about food and eating. Fiction runners-up in a pack were Amis, Price, and Chabon. I like all these authors. But Chabon lets genre have it's way with him. Amis, I've come to believe, is... overrated is the wrong word, but my how people like him! Lucky Jim is a very good book though. Price surprised me and could have taken the top spot except that Mating was just too strong a runner. I look forward to reading one of Price's more well regarded books, like Clockers.

I have to point out Michael Perry. This book - Population 485 - is funny and bittersweet and is a good take on "real Wisconsin." Like "real" anything, "real Wisconsin" doesn't exist, but Perry comes close to describing it. He's a literary celebrity in Wisconsin and he'll probably come up with a national break out book soon.

Books I Read 2009

* Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
* ????
* If I Die in a Combat Zone... by Tim O'Brien
* The Battle for America 2008 by Haynes Johnson and Dan Balz
* In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
* Home Game by Michael Lewis
* Population 485 by Michael Perry
* Matter by Iain Banks
* Tokyo Financee by Amelie Nothomb
* Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
* The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
* Brainiac by Ken Jennings
* Fun Home Allison Bechdel
* Lush Life by Richard Price
* Election by Tom Perrota
* Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
* McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes Editors of McSweeney's
* Mating by Norman Rush (!)

In my next post I'll reveal a startling goal for my reading 2010!

Ack! My Wife's Ultrasound Was Very Stressful for Me

2009-12-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

We went in to get an ultrasound today since my wife is pregnant. At this point in her previous pregnancy she'd already had two, so this seemed like it wouldn't be very difficult. But she's a little older now, so the perinatal clinic at Meriter requires us to get "genetic counseling." Honestly, I probably shouldn't have gone. I should have just stayed home with the kid and let Monica go on her own, but I went - I want to see my child. I want to know the sex (And isn't it "sex?" Everyone at the clinic was saying "gender." I thought this was settled a few years ago. Unless they were going to tell me something about the choices the baby was going to make about clothes and which restroom the baby will want to use then they should say sex.). Anyway, I went.

The very nice lady counseled us for half an hour in a small room with a beat up old three ring binder with drawings of chromosomes. She took, very skillfully, our family history. She showed us a table of risk percentages for down syndrome and overall genetic problems. Wow, they certainly do go up after the mother gets to be thirty years old! My wife and co-blogger is 36. Then we sat in the counseling/scarifying room for fifteen minutes while they got the ultrasound room ready or whatever they had to do. Keep in mind I'm entertaining a three-year old the whole time.

Eventually we got to go into the room where they do the ultrasound. So we continued to wait in the ultrasound room. The tech came, he wore a collared shirt and very nice glasses - no scrubs - and he rubbed the jelly on my lady's belly and started the ultrasound. The ultrasound tech said, "I can't tell you anything except the gender and point out the parts of the body." Certainly all the parts of the baby were there. It took nearly forty-five minutes. He asked Monica to get up and go to the bathroom to help the baby move around. Then he gave us the pictures of the little darling. We waited another 10 minutes for the doctor. The doctor came. She was a very nice lady. So by this time, the initial frightening session was two hours in the past. I was ready for answers. Amelia was ready to go home or do anything but be in that dark room with the computer monitors. That's when the doctor mentioned something about "umbilical artery" and "we used to think that this might be a sign of heart problems" but... Amelia started screaming and whining, and she opened the door to go out. I jumped up and grabbed my daughter and shouted at her. I brought her back to the chair next to Monica in time to hear the doctor say, "...perfectly healthy baby. I don't see anything of concern here at all."

Why did we have to go the genetic counseling/scarifying session? I still don't get it. I just want to say again that the doctor said that the baby is totally fine, but why did they have to spend so much time preparing us for some remote possibility. It was just stupid.

But I do have a picture of my new baby girl.

P.S. I typically find these "4-D" ultrasound pictures creepy, but that obviously hasn't stopped me from posting it.

Plastic Toys and Licensed Characters Are Like High Fructose Corn Syrup and Hydrolyzed Oil.

2009-12-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

I recently had this email exchange with my dad:

My dad wrote: "Question about "Licensed" toys. It appears that a more & more toys have some character or personality on them. Not that you can not find some without, but sometime the item you really like does. Anyway what are your suggestions as to what would be OK if it came to that?"

I replied: "We try not to get toys with characters on them. If you do get
something, Sesame Street is usually fine. Dora the Explorer is okay.
Hello Kitty/Sanrio is okay, too. It's easier to say what we shun
altogether: Barbie, Bratz, Hannah Montana. Please don't buy Barbie or
any of those. We also try to stay away from Disney princess stuff, but
among the bad, Disney princess is better."

The exchange highlights something that I think about A LOT - toys and television.

It's very frustrating to me that toys and television are so closely linked these days. Every item that is available for children is available in as some kind of licensed product. The insidiousness works both up and down. We went looking for a toothbrush and all the toothbrushes are branded. I let her (3 yo) pick out her own toothbrush. From among them all she chose a Disney princess toothbrush - despite having no exposure to the princess movies or other products at home. Since she doesn't know that there are princess movies or other toys she hasn't asked for them, but I am sure it will happen sooner than later. She has friends, they watch TV, they play with princesses, she's smart, she'll figure it out and then she'll want to watch princesses. And then there's the hook that works the other way, from TV show to licensed product. If she watches the TV show of say Curious George (which we allow her to watch, mostly on DVD) then she'll be more inclined to want toys with Curious George on them.

I know that there is a futility to all this. She will get older. She will watch TV that I don't like. She will own toys that I don't like. Yet, I have to feel that pushing against those things and holding them off as long as possible is a good thing. The truth is that I find her toys that aren't covered in cartoon characters. Not all toys must be made of molded plastic. The point of this is to avoid training her to consume what she sees on TV.

For Dottie

2009-12-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

You were a very good cat. You came to us a little kitten with a big purr and you left us a very big cat with a big purr. You put up with a lot from us over the years but you were always so gentle and sweet and soft.
We will miss you.

Miracle of Christmas

2009-12-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

We put up the tree this weekend. After moving to the wilds of the upper Midwest, where evergreens grow in multitudes, we decided that we could not handle brutally cutting down our friendly trees so we bought an artificial tree on super post christmas mark down last year. It sat in our basement patiently waiting until this weekend. Here is what it looked like when J and little A unpacked it:

Not terribly glamorous. But after a few short minutes and a little plumping and primping and decor, it turned out to look like this:Look at those happy tree engineers . It still didn't look quite as full and luscious as the picture on the box but nothing ever does I guess.

As J mentioned in a previous post, I am working these days. It was a hectic first weekend but now is settling down to be a fun little gig. It is for these guys:
http://www.reducedshakespeare.com/wp/

If they are ever in your neighborhood, try to check 'em out. They are very goofy but I have never heard an audience laugh more from beginning to end. It is a nice place to work. I get to sit back stage and listen a wide variety of laughs: titters, belly laughs, guffaws, chuckles, screeches. It's awesome.

No we have not gone to church and we probably won't until after the holidays. Joining a church at Christmas seems like a little too much pressure, doesn't it?

Coffee

2009-12-08T06:28:00.000-08:00

I had thought that I might take opportunity to quit drinking coffee since I stopped drinking it while I had a cold. The coffee tastes too strong and has too much acid. I could not do it. I have poured myself a cup of the swill they make here at the office, and now I have taken a drink. Ah, brown teeth, fetid breath, and the jitters.

Church

2009-12-07T10:36:00.001-08:00

For those of you keeping score at home. We did not go to church this Sunday.

List of Modern Novels as Re-imagined by a Parent with a Small Child

2009-12-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

Everything's Sticky, Everything's Cruddy

All Over But the Screaming and Crying and Banging Fists on the Floor and Flailing Around (and Oh, My God, Tears and Snot and Saliva All at Once - What Kind of Parent Am I?)

The Emperor's Children Have Much Better Toys

Poop Meridian

Infinite Jest

Snow for the first time again

2009-12-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

It snowed for the first time this season yesterday. It is a very strange phenomenon. First it gets very cold. Then small pieces of frozen cloud come down from the sky. I had heard about it before and even lived through a winter last year, but I did not expect to be confronted with it again. It is all so odd. It is surprising to me that it snows, but I am surprised that I am surprised. I lived through my first winter in New France last year and it was brutal. Would it ever end, I thought? Indeed it did end. Would I ever thaw out, I thought? Sometime about August I did thaw out (we had a very mild summer). Along the line I forgot that it would happen again. And here it is.

The kid and I were home together as the snow started to fall outside our window. Eventually we decided that we needed to go out into it. Eating snow is her favorite method of playing in it.

She was playing with playdough. She made a big heart, and then she put the little heart on top, and she said to me, "I'm going to put my heart in your heart." My heart melted.

Apostrophe?

2009-12-03T06:14:00.000-08:00

Lets see clearing the cache... didnt work. I still cant type an apostrophe.

Ill try step two. Hold on a second. Hmmm Lets try again.

I still cant make it work. Oh, well. I will have to type around the apostrophe.

In other news I will be with the munchie from noon today as Squirrel goes to work. My cold is a little worse. My hair is a mess. It was snowing just a tiny bit as I came to work this morning. Just a dusting.

Happy Ending

2009-12-02T14:21:00.000-08:00

I've been reading Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. The best part about the book is that I know how it ends. I'll give it away right here - as knowledge of the end only increases the pleasure the reader gets from the rest of the book - it has a happy ending. The book ends wonderfully happily, in fact. He get's the girl, moves to London, and leaves the university - all through no fault of his own. It's what I would wish for myself. One of the three isn't bad. I got the girl!

green eggs and ham

2009-12-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

I read Green Eggs and Ham to little A before nap today. Here is a video that we saw when we went to storytime at the Library a few weeks ago. Just when you thought you couldn't make the story any trippier, hey, let's add back up singers!

I am glad the muppets are making a comeback. Just as long as it isn't in Coke commercials or Super Bowl specials (it is bad enough they were featured on the finale of Dancing with the Stars)

My Cold

2009-12-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

My boss hardly had any reaction at all when I told him I came to work with a cold. Such a difference from my last boss who would have made me go home. Both ways are fine I guess. He did ask me if I had the flu, so I guess hes looking out for the other staff. [Just so you know I cant type an apostrophe on this computer in Firefox. If you know why that is let me know. Ive even changed keyboards but it doesnt help. What happens it that Firefox performs a find instead of typing an apostrophe.]

I feel pretty lucky. I get about one cold a year and I hope this is it. I hope that I dont start getting more colds now that the kid goes to preschool.

As for the muppets, I think theres going to be a comeback. Yeah. That sounds about right. Probably a web-only show.

When do want to try to attend church? This week? Or do you want to wait till after Christmas?

Also you should watch this. Its really neat after about a minute.

church isn't so bad

2009-12-01T12:37:00.000-08:00

I know I know, I admit it makes me woozy, the declaring of one's devotion to Jesus when one goes to a Christian church. I don't know why but it does. That being said tho I am willing to give it a another shot. Contrary to your belief I have no designs on the Unitarians. It definitely has the strong community/education/social justice component that I am looking for but the worship does absolutely nothing for me. There is no ritual, no mystery, no mysticism. Unitarians are about the intellectual exploration of faith. Which is fine but it's too much like going to a lecture or a city council meeting. It's all business. The thing is I want the Jesus-y bits, the prayers, the coming together sharing a common faith, the wondering about God and all of God's glorious work. And I have nothing against Jesus really. He was a great teacher. I think it is just the semantics really. The declarativeness of some of the prayers.
Also, this is not just about having the kids go to church. I do want to have someplace to go to, a community to be a part of, something that we can all engage in together and then have questions about and talk about to each other. And I want it to be something that is relevant to us, to our history, to our culture. This is why I am having trouble inserting Buddhism into this slot. I enjoyed going to my mom's Sangha but 1)it is not something that we can all do together and 2) I just can't envision us as a family of Buddhists, it just doesn't fit. I know it works for some people but I can't see how it would work for us.
I can't do the Friends meetings. It is too loosey goosey for me.
There are no churches near us that we want to go to, honey. Bapist? Lutheran? Eastern Orthodox?

What is up with the Muppets these days? First the Bohemian Rhapsody thing which was brilliant and now this

A church part 2

2009-12-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

We tried the Episcopal Church in New Spain [California] once. I really liked it, but you thought it was too Jesus-y. And it was Jesus-y but it was nice. This guy was there (yes, at the service, in the forward pews). We never went back. I really wonder if you can go to church or if you just want the kids to go. I know you have that whole Catholic thing in your background. What I really think is that you want to go to Unitarian church, but I can't go. I just can't. I can deal with the Friends, I think, but I'd give the Episcopal's another shot if you would.

I actually like the Episcopalian service. It's like the Catholic service and it has lots of ritual and color, and they're gay and women friendly which leaves one with a clear conscience. The only thing that I'd say is that I'd prefer a church close to our house.

Guest Blogger?

2009-11-30T17:32:00.000-08:00

Infurriated Squirrel - my wife, Mrs. B. - will be guest blogging here from time to time.

This past weekend, my in-laws very graciously hosted our daughter at their house overnight. If you have a kid you know what kind of treat this can be for parents. We enjoyed our grinders at the dinner table together and we heard no shouting. We finished sentences. We asked questions, listened to answers, and asked follow up questions of each other. All without a small person shouting at us or dumping the salt shaker on the ground. It was very fine. We're going to attempt to keep that vibe going here.

A church

2009-11-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

(A visit from guest blogging person, I. Squirrel, aka Mrs. B) I dreamed last night about going to church (I spent a good portion of the evening looking at the website of a local Episcopal church) I liked the church in my dream because it was decorated by "William Mackintosh" (A dream hybrid of William Morris and Charles Rennie Mackintosh I think). One thing I know about William Morris is that he was a big proponent of posessing things that are useful and beautiful. An important sentiment.

I want to find a church. Our kid(s) needs to have some kind of religious education. If we are going to celebrate holidays like Christmas and Easter (which we are) we need to have some kind of spiritual basis otherwise it is just awful. Should we try the Episcopal Church downtown? I liked everything that I read on their website (I know that sounds incredibly cheesey but hey how else do we screen things these days?) I know I have said that the Jesus-ness of a church like Episcopalian has made me a little woozy but I realize that the thought of continuing through life especially life as a parent without some kind of religious grounding makes me woozy too.

Here's another question for you: Is there anyone in the world right now who wishes they could trade places with Pres Obama? Sarah Palin might be making noises about it but seriously....Ugh! When is he going to be featured on "Dirty Jobs"?

Dream about PEN

2009-11-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

I dreamt that I was walking down an incline through a shiny new UW campus building. I walked by a center of PEN housed in the campus building. On the TV there was a story about PEN Center USA in Los Angeles. The story was that PEN Center USA had taken in a group of refugees. It was all very heroic and I felt proud by association, and I let everyone know that I had worked there in the past. At the same time I knew that I had nothing to do with the heroism.

Photo Tag

2009-09-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged by Girl in the Room to do a picture tag! Here it goes: open your first photo folder (She took this to mean oldest digital pictures folder). Scroll down to the 10th photo. Post that photo and story on your blog. Tag five others (or more) friends to do the same.

Monica's brother took this one while he was in Santa Barbara for our wedding. What's remarkable about it is that it's just the kind of thing that guy from Minnesota would take a picture of when he's in California. I only understand now that he was in California in February. Let me say again, he was in Minnesota in February, and then he flew to California. I don't think I could have understood at the time what a shock that must have been. Especially to come to Santa Barbara. It must have seemed freakish or like coming to heaven. He left a land that was slushy and frozen and beaten hard for three months by winter with at least a month or more of snow and subzero temperatures and he came to the Southern California coast. What must our verdant desert have seemed like? Among some of the other pictures he took was this one:

And this one:

This one was also on the roll:

Here he is with his sister, soon to be married she is, running into the Pacific Ocean - in February - I can't stress that enough - February. Just as they ran into Lake Michigan as children.

I'll tag you back and add Blueprint Blue.

http://girlintheroom.blogspot.com/

http://blueprintblue.blogspot.com/

Too Late For Crime?

2009-03-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

Is it too late for me to fulfill my life ambition of being a professional criminal and cat burgler?

This reminds me of my current favorite pitch - Go Team Ninja! - it's City Slickers meets Beverly Hills Ninja. A motley crew of middle aged misfits are thrown together during a work team building exercise. They bicker and complain until their beloved ninja master is kidnapped and they must band together and use the ninja techniques that they've gleaned along with their office skills to find him and bring him home.

Who Am I Here? Addressed More Fully.

2009-03-05T06:33:00.000-08:00

I spent many years doing one kind of thing - working toward creating a screenwriting career in New Spain. Now I feel like that has come to an end. Not a bad end, but still an end. I still write. But now writing scripts seems pointless - not pointless, but purposeless. Why write scripts? Am I really going to sell one? Certainly I enjoy it, but there are other more reader-ready forms of writing than scripts. And, to tell the truth I was never a natural at it. Now of course I have a family and I am the guy who is going to work and making the money. I do that well. I'm good at it. Maybe I've spent the last ten years as Michael Jordan trying to play baseball. I like work. But my picture of my identity isn't of someone who works in an office, my picture of my identity is of someone who is an artist - a creator rather than a manager or a helper. Who can I blame for this? Ha! I can't say I regret my choices. I would much rather be in the position I am now having done what I wanted without too much regard for practicality than looking back with regret at not having goofed off more.

Who Am I Here?

2009-03-02T07:16:00.000-08:00

This is the question that I've bumped into frequently since we've moved to New France - who am I here? God, there's so much to say about this I can't write it all now. Later.

Why Today?

2009-02-27T07:37:00.000-08:00

Why have I picked today to start posting again? Who knows? It could be the sheets of ice over the streets and sidewalks. It could be because I'm wearing corduroy pants with a corduroy sport coat. (Some out there would be surprised, and I hope proud, to see how well I've cleaned up since my stay-at-home dad days.)

The real reason is because I miss typing and writing. I had a day off yesterday and did no writing at all. None. A completely free bonus day - with no writing done. What does that mean? Have I given up on my script? No. No. I refuse. I'm incubating it. But man, I need some outlet. Some venue for my thoughts.

If you're looking for a good read, try Norman Rush's Mating. Top shelf fiction. I must have read something else since then, but I can't remember what...

Airport

2008-11-21T19:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, so the only thing I haven't been able to get my head around is the airport. The only thing that I can't think is quaint or homey is the airport. All I want to do is drive to the airport, board the plane, and get off at my destination. I'm not to be convinced that it's somehow a minor inconvenience to have to change planes every time I fly. Every single time. And many times through O'Hare. O'Hare! Many good men and women have been lost there. I can deal with the cold. I can handle the food. The falling leaves, Packer fans, snow, Badger fans, North Face wearing students, the "traffic" on the highway, the constant search for winter clothes, rural jurors, farmers, hunters, fishermen, and all of it, but man. Why can't there be a direct flight anywhere that I want to fly?

Here's the list of cities that are served by flights from MSN. So I have family in two of those cities, but I'm disregarding that since I have yet to fly from here to either of them. My point is that it's like flying out of AOL Online airport. It's severely restricted. I suppose this is the sign that I need to start loving New York.

# Atlanta - Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL)

# Chicago - O’Hare International Airport (ORD)

# Cincinnati - Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)

# Cleveland - Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE)

# Dallas-Fort Worth - Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)

# Denver - Denver International Airport (DEN)

# Detroit - Detroit Metro Airport (DTW)

# Memphis - Memphis International Airport (MEM)

# Milwaukee - General Mitchell International Airport (MKE)

# Minneapolis - Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP)

# New York - LaGuardia Airport (LGA)

# Newark - Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)

# St. Louis - Lambert/St. Louis International Airport (STL)

# Washington DC - Reagan National Airport (DCA)

Goodness

2008-11-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

We Made It!

2008-05-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

We've successfully made the move. Monica's mother, Suzanne, came and watched the baby while we packed up the house. Her brother, Jeremy, came and took charge of packing the truck. The ladies flew to Madison, and Jeremy and I - and my dad - drove out here. If I had a laptop I could have live blogged the whole thing, but it was probably more efficient and less annoying to everyone around that I just did my part to help the move.

Here's the recap of the drive in the car and the moving van. (This is a lift from an email to South Pas Ian.)

"We left South Pasadena and drove up to my dad's place in St. George, UT. He took us out to dinner at the Elks Club. My brother in law thought that was a real hoot. We left Utah on Thursday intending to drive all the way to Cheyenne, Wyoming, but after a few hours we decided to take it easy and stop early since our next planned stop after Wyoming was Omaha, NE (an easy drive from anywhere in Wyoming). We stayed over night in Rawlins, WY, about a hundred miles short of Cheyenne.

We woke up on Friday to snow and wind. We were able to drive about 60 miles to Laramie, Wyoming before the highway patrol closed interstate 80 due to high wind and ice on the road. Jeremy said that the short drive from Rawlins to Laramie instantly made his "top 5 of his most harrowing drives ever." It certainly was tough. We were driving at 40 mph at some points because visibility was so low. We stopped in Laramie and had breakfast. It was only about 10 when we stopped. It really made my father upset. He couldn't quite accept it. Regardless we sat around the restaurant and played cards for a couple hours. We kept one ear on the highway advisory radio channel, but nothing changed. Finally my dad drove up to the highway and he saw some trucks moving (semi-trucks had lined themselves up on the shoulder of the interstate, waiting for the road to open). He thought that the road had opened. We drove ourselves up there, but the road wasn't open yet. We parked at Wal-Mart and killed some more time there. Then we parked the moving truck and the car in the line of semi-trucks lined up on the road. And waited. I read. We listened to the advisory channel in the car repeating the same messages over and over.

About three o'clock Jeremy and I started trying to talk my dad into giving up for the day, getting a hotel room and maybe seeing a movie, but he refused. He was convinced that the road would open soon. His misunderstanding was that he thought it was the snow that was causing the problems. He thought that they would have the interstate cleared of snow soon and that we could pass. However the problem wasn't the snow. It was the wind. Up to 70 mph according to the advisory channel message. And it wasn't letting up. The trick is that there is kind of high pass on our route on the interstate between Laramie and Cheyenne. The wind in this area gets up very strong.

We drove to the last exit before the road closure and could clearly see the highway patrol car sitting in the middle of the road with its lights on. Then we circled around and got back in line behind the semitrucks. Eventually, sometime after six oclock, we convinced my dad that we had to get a room. It would be dark between eight or nine, and even if the road was opened it still wouldn't be actually safe. And neither of us wanted to drive in those conditions in the dark. He finally agreed. We got a hotel room. According to the radio the road coming west (opposite the way we were traveling) opened about 8, and the road going east opened about nine, well after dark. Thank god, we didn't try it. It would have been scary as hell. Jeremy and I ended up going out for a beer and watching Atlanta beat Boston in game 6. Downtown Laramie is pretty happening. It's a college town so there were lots of people out on a Friday night.

The next morning, Saturday, my dad woke us up at 4:30 am. We were on the road at, I remember, 5:22 am. Light, but not the disc of the sun, was just appearing over the mountain pass that we were going to travel over. We got going with the intention to try to get all the way to Madison in one day. Dad had a plane to catch Sunday, and Jeremy's wife, Tracey, was having a birthday and we needed to get back to have lunch with her. We'd have to leave Wyoming, cross the length of Nebraska, cross Iowa, and then surge into Wisconsin. We took it as it came, switched drivers around, ate quickly, and ultimately we made it. We pulled into Monica's parents place about 10:30 Saturday night. It was exhausting, but also exciting and challenging.

We unloaded the truck pretty quickly the next morning. Then celebrated Tracey's birthday. Took my dad to the airport."

Whew!

The Next Step

2008-03-14T07:13:00.000-07:00

Now that we're back from our trip two things will happen. I will start looking for work, and we're also going to B'shire in two weeks for a long weekend to look for a place to live (and love) when we move out there.

We've already got a line on a house (for rent) that sounds wonderful. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa K! We'll also look at a couple apartments for the sake of due diligence.

The job is another thing. I am intimidated to look for work without actually being there, but I am sure that I'll find something great. The kind of thing I'm looking for right now is nonprofit oriented, especially in development. Development is a euphamism for fund raising. I'm looking on Idealist.org, the city of Madison website, craigslist, and a couple arts jobs sites. I see a new development job opening up every few weeks, so I think I should be able to find something.

Back from the Continent

2008-03-14T07:04:00.000-07:00

Me and the family got back from our trip abroad the other day. You can check out the slide show here.

Our Trip to Italia

What was I talking about...?

2008-02-18T13:15:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Kubota is back from her week in Italy. I am so pleased and happy. Both Kiki and I are elated to have her home again. Next: we all go to Italy as a family in two weeks. It'll be a lot of fun. Wish us luck!

The Badgershire list. It's the same as below. Although now we've added "have a garage sale" to it. April will be very busy.

Oh, Today

2008-02-12T19:51:00.000-08:00

Nothing like being the sole caretaker of an under-2-year-old to get one focused on the moment.

Today we watched Sesame Street at from 7am till 8. Tidy-ed up and played till 10. Went over to the neighbors (Amelia was not into playing in the sprinklers with the other kids). At 11 we went to the park till noon. I drove a few extra minutes and she fell asleep. I wrote a little during my lunch hour (pizza crusts, faux-chicken sandwich, and a piece of cake). Talked to my brother; we're going to visit him tomorrow. Amelia ate lunch (pizza pieces-no crusts). Played with Ian and Quinny (Quinny started walking last night!). Dropped tickets off at D and A's house. Watched a little 'Babe' and 'Elmocize' from the library; ate dinner. Amelia took a bath then read for like an hour and I just dropped her into sleepy land where she is now.

She, of course, peed on the couch after this photo was taken.

Monumental

2008-02-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

I rode the train from our little suburb into Union Station yesterday. I have been through some of the great train stations of the world and while Union Station doesn't do the traffic of Tokyo or Victoria Stations it is a wonderful, ambitious place. It is monumental as the main train station of a monumental city should be.

It is that "monumental-ness" that is among the things I will miss in Badgershire.

On the other hand, the country is right there in Badgershire. You could drive two hours and still not be in the country here.

"The Move to Badgershire" - Intro

2008-02-07T20:46:00.000-08:00

We've got a map of Badgershire on the wall. With a to-do list. And job opportunities for Rabbi in a clip board. The plan is for Mrs. Kubota to stay home with Baby Kubota and I, Rabbi, to go to work.

On the to-do list:

Sell car - posted an ad on Wednesday. Actually having trouble unloading thirteen year old Toyota. I blame George Bush and the weak economy.

Buy tickets for April - This is a trip to look for apartments in Badgershire. This is done. We're going for a long weekend (thursday to monday) the first weekend in April.

Set up job interviews for April trip - Hmm... Better get cracking on this...

Find apartments to look at - Mrs. Kubota's aunt has offered us a free apartment, but we will still look for a place that we really like since our pet cats pay more rent than most residents of Badgershire.

Find POD, or moving van - I'm voting for getting the moving van, sending Mrs. Rabbi and Baby Rabbi ahead on a plane and driving out myself with whoever I can get.

Next time... What job opportunities are posted in the clip board? Who will drive with Rabbi? And how will Rabbi and Baby Kubota fare while mom is in Italy?

Milton!

2008-02-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

Yeah, that's right. I'm reading Paradise Lost. Just finished Part I. It's not so hard if you don't worry about understanding it.

Reading

2007-11-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

So, true to my word, I've read the last Harry Potter and I'll be reading Ford's Independence Day next.

I've also just finished Dodson's biography of Ben Hogan. I recommend it.

Leaving Los Angeles

2007-09-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Rabbi and me are going to leave Los Angeles in May of 2008. We'll be moving to Madison, WI. It's a sad thing. And a happy thing. It is hard to imagine live somewhere else. No Thai food. No friends. No sunshine. But we'll have grandparents and aunts and uncles. "Real" weather. Lush green golf courses eight months out of the year. Maybe we'll get to buy a house!

Not sure what else to say about that except that I'll miss LA terribly. I already do.

Notice of Change to Service

2007-09-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

So, this post represents the renewal of A Brief History of the Rise and Fall of Ten Minutes Ago, the RabbiKubota blog.

WhatShouldIDoJason.com is no longer in service.

You can still look at videos of my baby here.

And you can see what I've been reading over on the right. Next on my literary plate is the Dodson biography of Ben Hogan, Ford's Independence Day, and the final Harry Potter book.

New Posts

2007-05-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

If you've found your way here you should know that the only portion of this blog that is being updated is the lists of books I've read in 2007.

My current project is this advice column blog:
http://www.whatshouldidojason.com.

or you can look at videos of my baby here.

J.

Books I Read in 2006

2007-01-14T08:38:00.000-08:00

Clean slate now. So I'm going to publish this here for my own reference. It's heavy on the golf books, but otherwise I think I did okay this year. My recommendations from this list are Eyeing the Flash, Peter Fenton's memoir of his teenaged life as a carnival con-man, and, if you like golf, Curt Sampson's biography of Ben Hogan. Also, you'll see that I won't be listing videos or movies this year. They're boring lists, and hard to maintain.

State of the Art by Iain M. Banks
The Scheiber Theory by David Kipen
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (book on tape)
The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England edited by Antonia Fraser (book on tape)
The Swamp Thing Saga graphic novel
Uncle Sam (!) graphic novel
Eyeing the Flash (!) by Peter Fenton
Consider the Lobster(!!) by David Foster Wallace
Q School Confidential by David Gould
Los Angeles Diaries (!) by James Brown
Rebuilt by Michael Chorost
Who's Your Caddie by Rick Reilly
The Big Show by Steve Pond
My Dark Places by James Ellroy
Hogan(!) by Curt Sampson
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
The Tent by Margaret Atwood
How to Learn Golf by Harry Hurt
England, England by Julian Barnes
In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders
The Truth About Babies by Iain Sansome
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The Giver by Lois Lowry

Here's what I've been working on lately...

2006-12-12T19:57:00.000-08:00

Eating

2006-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

So, the bride and groom have bought us two Italian dinners so far. The wedding is tonight. Three free meals! This trip is paying for itself already.

Vices #3

2006-10-07T05:38:00.000-07:00

I borrowed the in-law's car and drove over to the Monona Golf Course yesterday and hit balls on the driving range. Absolutely beautiful. The earth is so lush here. The grass seems to grow with a banzai mentality as if it wants to somehow out-run the coming winter. The clubhouse starter directed me to the driving range, "Just head out past the ninth green. It's out there," he said. I walked out that way, but had trouble finding it, because, amazingly, there was no path through the grass. The grass grows so fully and quickly that no path is formed. I used a bag of old clubs that my in-laws found after someone moved out of a condo in their complex. They were standard length and so an inch shorter than my long "plus ones." I had a hell of a time hitting the ball. I blame the clubs. I want to go play a round on Monday or Tuesday, but I may not have the right tools. No glove. No tees. No balls even. No balls? Maybe that's the key. I'll do everything the same. Just not use a ball.

"Did you see that one? A hundred and fifty yard eight iron. Damn. I don't hit like that at home," I'll say after watching the imaginary ball soar down the fairway.

Anyway. They have beautiful municpal golf courses in Wisconsin seven or eight months out of the year.

Today

2006-10-05T07:08:00.000-07:00

So we are in the land of leaves of a thousand colors. Even with autumn just having come the weight of deep winter already bears down on me here, I think because I am so sensitive from having lived in the land that winter forgot.

Anyway. Madison is nice. We ate at Olive Garden last night.

Vices - Part 2

2006-09-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

My exploration of reasons I'm transfering my vices to golf continues...

#2 It's beautiful. A golf course is a wonderfully beautiful place. Many times I have been overwhelmed with a feeling of peacefulness while standing in the middle of a fairway. The warm sun shines down on a greensward that is maintained for the very reason I am there. I am with my friends and we have no obligations for that time other than to do the thing that we came there to do. The feeling is something like the feeling from childhood of arriving at the park and having no goals or needs except to play. You want to run to that tree and back as fast as you can? Do it. It's similar. The many thoughts I've had throughout the week of wanting to hit a great shot will now finally be set free. It's also like when George C. Scott stands on the ancient battle ground in the film Patton. This is where it happened and this is where we will be tested. Of course men compare anything they do to war. But compared to war and vices, golf is beautiful.

So this isn't the most beautiful course in America.

However this is.

Vices

2006-09-25T05:52:00.000-07:00

As the Coming of the Baby nears I find that I am moving my impulse for recreational vice into, yes, golf. Who would have guessed? There is a reason stereotypes exist and the Dolfing Gad must exist for a reason. Let's think about why.

Dangerous! Highly addictive!

#1 Addiction. Golf is hard. But rewarding. In that small space is the mating bed of compulsion. Golf rewards compulsive, repetitive, mindless practice and execution. Like a slot machine or blackjack table, one can sit down time after time with little success until hitting a jackpot or a good hand, or, may we all be so lucky, a streak. In golf terms this becomes playing a round and hitting that one perfect shot or putting together a string of pars (or bogeys or birdies, you know, better than your usual). It just feels so good. If this happens once, maybe you'll try to play again and not repeat your success, you never get another "hit," but maybe you do. Maybe you love getting that hit. Watching the ball fly through the air and land far, far away. Launching it from the fairway until it lands softly on the green. Then, miracle, just attempting to putt the ball close to the hole and watching and hearing, unbelievably, as the ball drops into the hole for a birdie. Once something like this happens you are hooked. It may not be fun for you as you may not reproduce it for a long, long time and like any junkie you walk around with a "jones." You jones on the practice tee trying to put a ball through the window of the poor demolition derby truck stranded, crucified by driving range balls. You jones while reading books and magazines packed with the "latest" tips. And, of course, you jones on the course as your tee shots fly off to the right ("for a right handed golfer"), your approach shots land pin high - twenty feet off the green ( add an extra shot or three for skulled chips and chili-dips), and you jones as that three foot putt that you just want to sink to get the hole over with becomes a six inch putt. Was that three putts? Or four?

work

2006-09-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

here I am doing what I swore I'd never do - blogging from work.

all alone again. the others will soon return.

who am I? the puppet or the puppet master?

Dream

2006-09-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

I dreampt [East of the River spelling of that word] last night of preparing for LitFest at work. However, instead of getting ready at the hotel where the event takes place I was with Gore Vidal and a woman in a aquatic reptile holding tank. We walked on wooden beams just above the level of the water. The tank was filled to beyond capacity with alligators, crocs, small poisonous snakes, and large constricting snakes. Every step was tenuous and spider webs hung in my path. The keeper of the reptiles waded through the water. He, Gore Vidal, and the woman didn't seem to mind. I told them I had to leave and they told me that this was just the rehearsal. It took all my concentration to walk on the beams to leave the reptile area.

I came into an old shed. Still filled with cobwebs. Then, I walked out of the shed into a suburban neighborhood.

2006-09-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

Someday

2006-09-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

In the future, I wish for a reality in which I never step on another cat's tail. Man, that really makes one unnerved, especially at 6:30 in the morning. The shriek, the cry, the jump, the potential for violence. Why do they just leave their tails laying around everywhere? Maybe I need a Manx cat or just have the tails of the cats I've got chopped off. Is that something you can do at home?

What would the Croc Hunter do?

My new goal is to allow myself to have more than one dream.

I played solid bogey golf yesterday at Studio City. Monica and I went over there. She didn't play, but just walked around and kept my scorecard. I had 7 bogeys, one double bogey, and a par. The three putts were killing me. I blame the greens. The greens were crap. Monica seemed to have a good time. I really liked having her there. We got to the course and there were four or five groups in front of us, but since I was the only one playing we got paired with a nice couple, Bill and Lori. They run their own catering business. We had a great time. Our new agreement is that after the baby comes and we're able to get out and about and Monica is a hundred percent again that I'll run with here while she does marathon training and she'll take up golf.

You'll see that I've just watched Taps on video. (Look to the right.) That was a crazy movie. I never saw it before. Timothy Hutton takes over his military school as they're about to close it down. It was Shakspearean in its ridiculousness. The plot relys on at least two accidental gun discharges that result in deaths. The film goes from believeable to bonkers in a scene and a half. I had to watch just to see how it would end. I mean you kind of know how it would end, but to see exactly. I wonder how they would end it now?

A Scanner Darkly is also very good.

Also, I didn't go to the Golden Oaks community meeting. I'm a lame-o. Sorry old folks.

South Pasadena Seniors Evicted from Golden Oaks

2006-09-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

Read the Pasadena Star-News story here:
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_4231263

I called the Golden Oaks yesterday and spoke with a woman who identified herself as a manager. She said that the Star-News story was not true, and that "most people [will] stay" at the Golden Oaks after the remodel and rent increase. I'm skeptical. She also told me that the Star-News was wrong and that there is not a new owner, just that the new owner has hired new management. Star-News gets gigged for that one, but even so, isn't that worse in some ways?

What I haven't got information on is the eviction of folks who are on Section 8 housing assistance, and whether those people have been evicted or not, and whether it's legal or not. Certainly it's immoral.

I'm going to call City Hall today and see what's going on over there with regard to this.

The manager at Golden Oaks told me that there will be a community meeting at the Golden Oaks on Saturday, September 2 at 4:30 pm to 5 pm. If you are concerned about the plight of older Americans then you should attend this meeting, learn what you can and share your view.

Late Summer Blahs

2006-08-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

What's missing from ch ch?

UR!

Ha ha. That was a funny one. I saw it on a sign at the Presbyterian Church on the corner of York and Eagle Rock. I like it cause you can't tell it verbally.

I missed the end of the Bridgestone this weekend. The match went to four playoff holes. This is my fate. To miss the best golf. I need to do something about that. Make a commitment.

Tiger's looking for what?

And I can only say, is this this what I think it is? Where is it? How is it?

Mujahadeen on the tee

2006-08-26T01:01:00.000-07:00

The world would be a better place if we could get golf courses in there. Introduced to the consumer benefit of American style capitalism, no country can help but devote itself to economy. It's the consumer benefit - McDonald's - that will bring the world to us. But it has to be given not forced at gunpoint. McDonald's and golf, that's what will bring world peace. Yes, I'm kidding. What it will really take to bring about world peace is an extra planetary goal, like moving an asteroid out of the way or defending the earth from evil space aliens.

It's a crackup.

Here's my swing

2006-08-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

Below you'll find video of my swing. This was at the driving range at Wilson/Harding in LA on August 19. Aaron Bowen operating the camera. Read previous post (below) to understand my humiliation and anger.

Ugh. My gang sign at the end is me indicating that I was hitting an eight iron.

My Golf Swing...

2006-08-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

I have been told in the past that my golf swing looked unconfortable. I just chalked it up to every one not being me. "Hey how can you judge my golf swing if you're not me," I thought.

What I did not know is that my golf swing is horrible. Was horrible. I will change it. I looked like I was trying to play with those little clubs you can buy at Target. My god. I looked like I was trying to play on that extra-short floor in Being John Malkovitch. Why didn't you tell me I looked foolish? I blame everyone but me. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't see myself. I heartily recommend that everyone video themselves swinging. It's a great help.

Cipher

2006-08-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

I'm a blank. I feel dammed up. Not writing. Blah. I have been reading quite a bit however. Take a look to the left there.

Of the books I've read recently, I really recommend this one:

Eyeing the Flash. One of you Hollywood types should make a movie out of it. It's about this kid who becomes a carnival con man in the early sixties. Not great literature, but well written and true.

2006-08-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

According to this website, I am...

Yao Ming
Take Which NBA player are you? today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

I have never played basketball however, so I don't know... I probably should be Mad Dog.

Da Skills

2006-08-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

So much change flowing in and out. I said that before.

The baby is coming in a couple months. We've changed the office into what is now the proto-nursery. There's a small bookshelf with kid's books, a cedar chest, a console table, and a fish tank. The fish tank, like the seas of the just born earth, has water, but no fish. How long would I have to wait for the fish to evolve in it? I suppose we'll go out and buy some fish to put in there before the baby comes. As it seems now she'll be a kind of female Buckaroo Bansai, except instead of being a brain surgeon- scientist-rock star, she will be a world-saving biologist-golfer-rock star.

I've got to go now, but the thought for the day, and I'll come back to this later is: is it enough to, as Jack Kornfield says, "love well" or do we need some success, money, trappings of capital in order to feel fulfilled? Remember Buddha was a wealthy prince before he gave it up to look for enlightenment. Would he have become enlightened had he been born poor?

Work

2006-08-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture from the awards ceremony last November.

Every picture tells a story don't it?

If Cute Overload Won't Do It...

2006-08-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

Here's the best photo of an animal from the Orange County Fair

And here are the best photos of a person eating a deep-fried treat at the Orange County Fair

OMG

2006-07-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

It's cloudy. Nice.

So Long, Hello

2006-06-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

So many people changing.

Chris Kamen is...

2006-05-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

The Vanilla Gorilla

Chris Kamen is the Vanilla Gorilla.

2006-04-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

2006-04-08T04:11:00.000-07:00

2006-04-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

2006-04-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

2006-04-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

2006-04-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

Sarcasm

2006-03-18T07:34:00.000-08:00

I have only sarcasm left in my quiver when talking about the screwed up political situation in the United States right now.

"Thank God major combat operations are over with."

"I'm glad we have Republicans in office. They may be greedy, but at least they know how to balance the nation's checkbook."

"How can you not trust the administration? These aren't the kind of men (and women) who act against the interest of the American people."

"I just thank my lucky stars every day that we have a government that respects the Constitution as much as this one does."

In other news, I am starting a new script. It's kind of like building a jet or an aircraft carrier. It takes a long time. Except that after I build it I have to take it apart and put it together again. So it's like building a jet or an aircraft carrier out of Lego Brand building blocks.

Pax Republicana

2006-03-10T22:48:00.000-08:00

Just imagine everything you watch on the news blazoned with the motto: Pax Republicana.

Jack v. Chuck

2006-03-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

- When Jack Bauer was a child, he made his mother finish his vegetables.

- If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.

- Jack Bauer did better than Zack Morris on his SATs... he got a 1503.

- Jack Bauer won the Tour de France on a unicycle to prove to Lance Armstrong it wasn't a big deal. He thinks yellow wristbands are gay.

- If you wake up in the morning, it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.

- Upon hearing that he was played by Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer killed Sutherland. Jack Bauer gets played by no man.

- Jack Bauer's calendar goes from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Jack Bauer.

- Every mathematical inequality officially ends with "< Jack Bauer".

- Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas.

- Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.

- If it tastes like chicken, looks like chicken, and feels like chicken, but Jack Bauer says its beef. Then it's freakin beef.

- Jack Bauer once double teamed a girl.. by himself.

- 1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.

- Lets get one thing straight, the only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.

- Jack Bauer was never addicted to heroin. Heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer.

- Jack Bauer played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.

- Jack Bauer is the leading cause of death in Middle Eastern men.

- When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer hates lemonade.

- Osama bin Laden's recent proposal for truce is a direct result of him finding out that Jack Bauer is, in fact, still alive.

- If you spell Jack Bauer in a Scrabble game, you win. Forever.

- Jack Bauer once won a game of Connect 4 in 3 moves.

- Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.

- Jack Bauer killed 93 people in just 4 days time. Wait, that is a real fact.

- Jack Bauer once killed so many terrorists that at one point, the #5 CIA Most Wanted fugitive was an 18-year-old teenager in Malaysia who downloaded the movie Dodgeball.

- What color is Jack Bauer's blood? Trick question. Jack Bauer does not bleed.

- You can lead a horse to water. Jack Bauer can make him drink.

- Jack Bauer's favorite color is severe terror alert red. His second favorite color is violet, but just because it sounds like violent.

- When you open a can of whoop-a**, Jack Bauer jumps out.

- Simon Says should be renamed to Jack Bauer Says because if Jack Bauer says
something then you better do it.

- Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.

- If Rosa Parks was in Jack Bauer's seat, she'd move to the back of the bus.

- When Google can't find something, it asks Jack Bauer for help.

- Jack Bauer does the Sunday New York Times Crossword Puzzle in ink.

- Sun Tzu once wrote, "If your enemy is weaker, conquer him. If he is stronger, join him. If he is Jack Bauer, you're dead."

- Most children slept with a teddy bear and blanket when they were young, Jack Bauer did the same thing but with a real bear.

- Jack Bauer can get McDonald's breakfast after 10:30.

- Jesus died and rose from the dead in 3 days. It took Jack Bauer less than an hour. And he's done it twice.

- In kindergarten, Jack Bauer killed a terrorist for Show and Tell.

- When the boogie man goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Jack Bauer.

- In 96 hours, Jack Bauer has killed 93 people and saved the world 4 times. What have you done with your life?

- Jack Bauer got Hellen Keller to talk.

- Jack Bauer once killed a group of Samurai Warriors with only a ball point pen. This lead to the phrase "The pen is mightier than the sword."

- Your attraction to Jack Bauer in no way affects your sexual orientation.

- It would only take 1 bullet for Jack Bauer to kill 50 Cent.

- People with amnesia still remember Jack Bauer.

- Jack Bauer has been to Mars. Thats why there's no life on Mars.

- When Jack Bauer watches a pot, it boils immediately.

- Jack Bauer once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink.

- Guns dont kill people, Jack Bauer kills people.

- If Jack and MacGyver were locked in a room together, Jack would make a bomb out of MacGyver and get out.

- If Jack Bauer was gay, his name would be Chuck Norris.

- Jack Bauer literally died for his country, and lived to tell about it.

- Jack Bauer once bowled a 301.

- Jack Bauer can hit two birds with no stones.

- Jack Bauer's family threw him a surprise birthday party when he was a child. Once.

- Jack Bauer doesn't play the game SORRY. Jack Bauer apologizes to no one.

- Jack Bauer makes onions cry.

-Vic Mackey suck Jacks balls.

- Jack Bauer played eighteen holes of golf. He scored a seventeen.

conclusion - Jack Bauer is the master

(Thanks Ben and all the folks at http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/ who got this out of China!)

Hey, Dick - part II

2006-02-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

So rumors behind the Attempted Murder Scandal are:

1. Dick Cheney was drunk/stoned when he shot his hunting partner.

2. Dick Cheney was with his lover, the ambassador to Switzerland, when he shot his hunting partner.

3. Dick Cheney was drunk/stoned and with his lover, the ambassador to Switzerland, when he shot his hunting partner.

2006-02-13T07:35:00.000-08:00

I dreamt last night that I visited my childhood bookself – I mean bookshelf. Wow. That’s was a weird typo.

I haven’t done any writing since the middle of December. That’s a really long time for me. It’s not atypical, I guess. Every year I seem to have a period where I stop for a while. Usually after a particularly fertile period. I remember being so motivated and full of energy in December, but now, all my thoughts are gone. I can’t remember what changes I wanted to make to the script I want to work on. Inertia has come and pressed its sticky thumb down on my brain. What to work on…? Funny, how at one time it was obvious to me what to work on and if anything I had too many ideas, but now they have all gone. But I am at least beginning again to follow the time honored formula for success:
butt + chair = writing .

I want to follow the dream thread from a moment ago. It had been my desire for a year or two now (since I left Barnes & Noble) to open my own bookstore. And in the best tradition of catering to the market, I’d call it Required Reading and stock mostly children’s and young adult books from middle and high school students required reading lists. We’d have stacks of Salinger and Aristotle and Shakespeare and Cisneros and Hesiod. Maybe not Hesiod. Anyway, with low overhead, it could be do-able and profitable. Especially around here with all the many private schools and obsessions the local parents have with education. We’d carry some other books as well, mostly young adult and those books popular with the kids. Maybe a little place to hang out. A small newsstand… Ah… Fun.

Hey Dick, Shoot Anybody in the Face Lately?

2006-02-12T21:04:00.000-08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cheney_hunting_accident

He's just living the dream. He's gathered so much power to himself that now he's blowing guys away just for the fun of it. Awsome.

Here's my Sundance post. A bit late.

2006-02-08T08:05:00.000-08:00

Above you can see a photo from Sundance. This photo will serve as a representation of the three days/nights DS and me spent there. It's blurry because we didn't get any sleep. There are no ladies in the picture because we are both married. There was a big head in the shot because it was really very croweded. There is Sam Shepard in the picture because I drank every night (Although not too much and not really every night. In fact only one night, now that I think about it.). The other fellows in the photo are Wim Wenders, Harry Dean Stanton, and the guy (now grown) who played the kid in Paris, Texas.

To the right you can see my updated list of films. I think you can figure out what I saw there. Probably you will have heard of This Film.... It's good in that sloppy Michael Moore sort of way. Oh, you'll be shocked! Shocked! Really. You will be shocked. ...Seasame Street will make you quit your self-serving day job and force you into the non-profit child saving sector. I really liked it. DS and I went to a party hosted by the people who made Flannel Pajamas. Buy me a drink and I'll tell you about the party. Ask about the bloody girl playing the guitar.

Overall, I got 10 hours sleep over three nights. Yeah.

New Post

2006-02-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Ganesha. He's the remover of obstacles. He removes obstacles to success and fortune.

Go Ganesha, go!

Picture him sweeping away doubt and hesitance in the minds of all those development executives. Sweep Ganesha, sweep! Picture him guiding the hands of the lawyers drawing up the contracts. Guide Ganesha, guide! Ganesha delivers six figure deals to those who are kind. Thank you, Ganesha.

2006-02-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

I think someone was right when they said that blogging gets in the way of one's legit writing output. Seems to be getting in the way of mine. Output low. No power. (No focus is more like.) What to work on next?

The Monkey, the Turkey, and the Wagon

2006-01-23T06:57:00.000-08:00

So, I haven't written anything since before Christmas. There are many people and animals to blame for that. I blame Internets. Bastard. I blame this blog. I blame work. And the YMCA. I also blame the internet and email. I blame malaise. I blame Sundance and Sandow. I blame the winds at night and the roiling sea. I blame the doubt and the worry that come in the dark. I blame France and the President and the Vice President and the Democratic Party. I blame the English language. I blame a watch in my car and milk and Ganesh and Durga. Oh god and so much more. There is so much blame to go around.

Now what/who do I thank for support and encouragement?

I thank Sweetie. I thank golf. I thank Otto, Dottie, and Spooky P. I thank Elton Brand. (But I do blame Mark Madsen!) I thank Steve and Suzanne. I thank the Culver City Dynamic Duo. And I thank all my folks on the east side of the LA river. And my Santa Monica and Mid-Wilshire peeps. I thank all living beings and I thank all non-living beings. And I also must thank all non-beings (living or non-living). Thank you. Your support has not gone unnoticed. The work will continue soon. Not today. But soon.

Peace to all beings and non-beings.

Chuck

2006-01-18T07:57:00.000-08:00

1. Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
2. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
3. Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are
trademarked names for his left and right legs.
4. The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.
5. If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck
Norris, you may be only seconds away from death.
6. Chuck Norris has counted to infinity. Twice.
7. Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting infers the
probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.
8. Chuck Norris is 1/8th Cherokee. This has nothing to do with ancestry, the man ate a fucking Indian.
9. In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone else has ever gotten.
10. There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.
11. There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live.
12. When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.
13. Crop circles are Chuck Norris’ way of telling the world that sometimes corn needs to lie the fuck down.
14. Chuck Norris doesn’t churn butter. He roundhouse kicks the cows and the butter comes straight out.
15. If you say Chuck Norris’ name in Mongolia, the people there will roundhouse kick you in his honor.

Thanks to Chander and the many Bothans who died to bring us this...

P.S. Don't forget to Ask Internets .

Winter, Sun

2006-01-15T08:35:00.000-08:00

Looking out the window next to the desk where I write, I see a young oak tree across the street. Formerly proud, now after a day of rain he is barren - leafless. But he'll be back.

Now for some real news. I'm going to the Sundance film festival. I wanted to go, but I didn't want to go alone. A month ago I asked a friend of mine if he was going and he was all like, "No. Probably not." So it looked like I wasn't going. Then last week he called me up and said,"Did you still want to go to Sundance?" I was all like,"You bet." So we booked the flights and hooked up some floor space with a fellow that we know who will also be going. It's a "bring sleeping bags" sort of scenario. I am looking forward to it. Mostly I'm going to a) hustle Sandow, b) meet people, and c) see movies. I'm looking forward to it.

The sun is coming back after a gloomy day. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some golf in tomorrow.

Peace.

P.S. Check out the New Feature on the sidebar. I'm keeping track of all the Books, Films and Videos that I watch this year. I'm working right now on reading the Culture sci-fi novels of Iain M. Banks.

New Year

2006-01-07T09:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everybody. Please give Internets a hand. He did a wonderful job and we may see him again sometime. Thank you, Internets.

I am sensing huge changes coming this year. Some of those changes had their seeds planted in 2005, and some even earlier. Already two of my co-workers have left our little non-profit, one voluntarily, one not. What these changes mean for me is hard to tell.

I would like to share with you some of the phrases that I'm using this year to keep the energy in and around me flowing in a positive direction:

We always have plenty of money.

I always get paid lots of money for my scripts.

I always acknowledge and follow signs and take advantage of opportunites.

I always get everything I want.

There are a couple of others, but they are more personal and not to be shared with the public. As you can tell I spend time thinking about my writing career and making money. If I spend so much time thinking about these things, I figured, why shouldn't I think about them in a positive way, rather than a negative way? Negativity wasn't doing me much good.

And my primary goal for the year, among (but slightly above) my many others goals, is to write professionally so that I can leave my job.

ASK INTERNETS

2006-01-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

Hello, my name is Internets. You can ask me any question and I'll give you an answer.

Stuff on my Frickin' Cat!

2006-01-04T07:33:00.000-08:00

I thought all you bloggers might like to see what I'm up against everyday.

Project Log

2006-01-03T18:11:00.000-08:00

Here is the hit list of projects that I'm currently working from. Enjoy.

SANDOW -- Currently at 119 (118 pages with the action margin expansion). A rewrite would involve possibly emphasising his conflict with society. Currently out to NK and PC. Need to follow up with both of them.

CONSTANCE DE BEVERLEY -- Script could "lose 10-12 pages". Although I cut 3 pages since NK told me that so the new numbers are 7-9 pages. The most obvious change for me now is have Henry at York when Marmion, Constance and Co. arrive which would remove some of the ponderousness from the script. Also would allow me to change some of the more ridiculous dialog sequences. (How many times can she ask him "Who's my daddy?") I also need to address the problem of her father. Does she leave because of her father or because she's smitten with Marmion? I don't feel the energy to do this.

CHRONIC PSYCHO – DS has it right now. We should send it out after Sundance. (Sundance ends January 29). JL. also has it. Must follow up with her on it before giving over TGTS.

(The one about the guy who's cursed) -- Still don't have the handle on this one....

TGTS –- Need to do draft 2 on episode 1. Need to do draft 1 on episode 3.

AUTO SALVAGE –- Fermenting. This will be the next feature. About Tetley in Las Vegas. Like the story I wrote meets Paul Auster's SMOKE, with more humor. [I'm adapting my own short story here folks.]

MACHINE 000101 (Machine One-Oh-One) -- Step 1) find any robot. Step 2) Shoot some footage. [This is a short film about a little robot named Machine 000101.]

Superheroes et al. (Holiday Report – part 2)

2005-12-28T09:50:00.000-08:00

Sweetie and I spent a week with my father and step-mother. Activities involved were: golf (only once), hiking (twice), watching TV (every day), eating pie (four times [twice for breakfast!]), [redacted] (twice), hot soak in the rec room hot tub (twice), and eating out (twice). It was a good time and my folks were very generous, but we overstayed by a day or so.

We went out to the links the day after we arrived and I popped my shoulder out on the first tee. It’s an injury that occurs when I’m tired and nervous, haven’t played for a while, feel rushed and haven’t warmed up properly. Some of you may remember that I did the same thing during a golf excursion as part of a certain Las Vegas bachelor party. It hurts and is a bummer. Regardless, I hit some good shots, and ended up having fun. Dad, my stepmom and I tried to go back out the day before we left, but a crazy storm blew in and we decided against it. I have, as you might guess, a desire to compete with my father at golf. The dream of every son is to thrash his old man, and the golf course is our squared circle.

-- Post script to our first day of golfing: there was a pack of teen-agers on a mesa above the course who were shouting mockeries through a PA system at the golfers. For example: "Good show, old bean!" And, " I like your pink shirt." It was very distracting and also totally surreal. --

Sweetie and I drove up to Zion one day. We spotted a Golden-crowned Kinglet and had to stop for an adult deer crossing the road to meet it’s brothers. We hiked up a trail (the Hidden Canyon trail, if I remember correctly), and found ourselves alone hundreds of feet over the canyon. I hung my feet over the drop-off and laid down on the trail. Looking up the vertical walls of the canyon in to the sky I had ten seconds or so of transcendence. Amazing. That’s why people take drugs, man.

We watched Spider-man 2 with the parents and also The Day After Tomorrow, which my dad called “really good science-fiction.” I guess he just wanted us to know that he didn’t endorse the film’s lefty politics.

We ate cherry pie with strawberry ice cream, and pecan pie with whip cream.

[redacted]

The rec room pool was very nice. The “weight room” was a treadmill, a stepper, a stationary bicycle, a small rack of chrome dumbbells and a tower of weight machines assembled, apparently, by Spanish Inquisition. The rec room hot tub was great.

Now, if you get to southern Utah, you must check out the Blue Bunny. Blue Bunny is a sit-down ice cream parlor and so much more. We went there during the “Santa Claus Pajama Party” and, as a former professional Santa, the Blue Bunny Santa is as close as you get to the real thing. This guy was good.

Anyway… There’s so much more to say about the trip. We were visited by the superbeing D-Nyal, whose power to pretend ignorance, regift presents, parrot his evil masters, and self-medicate is far greater than that of moral men. He can only be defeated by the parakeet Paraclete - David Allen Sibley. Thank you, David.

Holiday Report

2005-12-26T13:08:00.000-08:00

Writing to you from Utah today. Please enjoy a classic Free Media Report article from a few years ago.

Starbuck Finalizes Uni Deal

2005-12-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

LOS ANGELES – Coffee giant Starbucks Coffee Corporation announced today that it has finalized its purchase from Vivendi Universal of subsidiary Hollywood movie studio Universal Pictures.

Howard Shultz, Chairman and Chief of Global Strategies for Starbucks, announced the acquisition today at a board of directors meeting in Seattle. Starbucks bought Universal Studios and its lucrative film library outright for 5.2 billion dollars, nearly half a billion dollars less than the French company spent to purchase Uni from Matsushita in 1995. The move gives Vivendi a much need cash infusion that will help the beliegured company avoid bankrupcy.

Running of the studio will be supervised for Starbucks by current Executive VP of Merchandizing, Marketing and Brand Development, Melvin Hartwang, who will be promoted to Overseer of Studio Operations and will report directly to Shultz. Shultz said that Starbucks has been contemplating a move into the entertaiment industry for some time.

“We have the ability to make more films, cheaper,” Shultz said.
Changes in studio operations, which were outlined in an investor’s packet, include closing down Universal’s offices in Los Angeles, firing all household, clerical and writing staffs and moving essential employees to “film production plantations” in South America, East Africa and Indonesia.

“We can merge our current network of coffee producing real estate with our new film production business quite seamlessly. The cost for us to shoot in Costa Rica versus Los Angeles or even Canada will be pennies on the dollar. Using digital technology, we will be able to pump the footage Stateside for ‘roasting’, and then serve it up fresh at theaters or new micro-theaters in the stores,” Overseer Hartwang said.

When questioned about the ethics of runaway production, Hartwang said only, “Starbucks is very proud of its role as a good corporate citizen and we will continue to act in strict accordance with our own Corporate Social Responsibility Statement.”

Vivendi Chief Jean-Rene Fourtou, who replaced former head Jean-Marie Messier this summer, said after signing the the papers on his yacht anchored off the Grand Cayman Island, “good riddence.”

Starbucks trades on Nasdaq as SUBX and closed up 2 1/2 at 23.25 Friday.

Um, dude, it's take your pick day...

2005-12-18T09:41:00.000-08:00

Door Number 1 – Fascism

Door Number 2 – Big Brother

Door Number 3 – Imperialism

I have a coworker who thinks that Bush is going to be impeached after the 2006 midterms. I think that’s wishful thinking, but, god, I’m wishing real hard. What’s scary about the neo-conservative philosophy is that it’s largely based on fear. Fear of poor people, fear of brown skin, fear of The Other. It’s especially hard to take that the White House authorized warrant-less domestic spying on behalf of protecting the people of the United States. His actions make us less American. It’s good that he’s still relatively young. There’ll be plenty of time for him to face the firing squad.

***

I want to throw some crazy props out to J.C. Coates. You are a baller among bloggers. Your stats are amazing. Double doubles on the comment boards. And a behind the back slam dunk with two dead dogs. All net!

RE: my use of “ludacris.”
I just didn’t know how to spell “ludicrous.” And I was too lazy to look it up, but I did know how to spell the rapper's name.

RAVE

2005-12-12T21:08:00.000-08:00

As I see from my console, it has been nearly two weeks since my last post. I am sorry to all of you who were looking for some follow up. I sent ME a thank you card. NK is in London for two months. I have a few phone calls to make. One to a pair of writers, the S's (a strictly a get-to-know-you call). Another to an agent, PC, she's reading Sandow. Also to the fellow I ate Thanksgiving dinner with. My friend JTK and I are working on a pilot spec - a ludicris endeavor except for the fact that I know somebody who knows somebody who wants to look at it. I need to write a regular spec to make it fly. I don't have one. I'm thinking Scrubs. DS wants to send out Chronic Psycho after Sundance. That's the summary from the writing front.

Sweetie wants me to tell everyone that I beat her with a foam bat. I have never beat her with a foam bat.

My rave:

I am a huge fan of the redesign of the US currency. I love the new twenties and the overall look of the new bills. Classic with some modernist talking points. But it is in the realm of coinage that the new currency design is really taking flight. The state quarters have been, till now, mostly novelties (with the exception of the gorgeous Connecticut). However, the scheme has come of age with the introduction of the Kansas quarter. The new Kansas state quarter, if you haven't seen it, is beautiful. The usual image of Geo. Washington on the obverse, but on the reverse a humane and amazingly transcendent image of a buffalo among wild flowers of the plains. Absolutely sublime. Simplicity as art. After the confusing, inelegant jumbles of such quarters as (backstabber that I am) California and Minnesota, the Kansas shows the power of coinage as a venue for public art.

In addition, the new 2005 nickels are wonders of cutting edge design. The enlarged and slightly off-set image of Thom. Jefferson on the obverse brings a "cents" of motion to this piece. I particularly enjoy the way the scripted word "Liberty" seems to be flowing out from his mouth. Together with the buffalo reverse (which is a tribute to the original buffalo nickel and which the Kansas quarter evokes) these new nickels show that US currency can be both beautiful and meaningful.

Kudos to the U.S. Mint and the Department of the Treasury!

Out.

No title this week

2005-11-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

The “holiday season” has come. Sweetie and I spent a nice day at home. She made pies and I went to the driving range. Then, we took one of Sweetie’s friends up on her invitation to Thanksgiving dinner. Very good food. I missed the traditional formal accoutrement of the holiday celebration, however. Would a table to sit at have been too much to ask for? Also, Sweetie’s friend’s boyfriend was a great and friendly guy, but a screenwriter. He’s made about as much money at it as I have, which is to say not a lot (maybe he’s made a little, I don’t know). Regardless, I almost always feel an awkward jealously thing when meeting other screenwriters. A big plus is that he has the potential to be a golf buddy.

(You thought I was going to get all introspective about my jealousy, but no.)

Typically, this time of year I feel a malaise. An ennui. I get grumpy. Why? Could it be that I don’t like to spend money on others? Maybe. Is it that the sun doesn’t provide the nourishment that it usually does? Could be. Is it lingering memories of my youth? Definitely. It sucks to have to pick which of your parents to spend Christmas with and that stuff sticks with you. (If you’re reading this and you are one of my parents, don’t beat yourself up about it. You did the best you could. I’ve got my issues, and I’m sure you have your issues.) This holiday grumpiness thing will come up in future posts. So be warned. But that's all for today.

Briefly:

- Walter, the guy who lived in his van on the street behind our house, has moved on. His truck and van are both gone. Where did he go? Did he migrate? Did the cops force him to go? I can’t say and I can't say I’ll miss him, but I’ll never forget him. Go with God, Walter.

- I had my meeting with ME at his house. It was cool. He made me coffee and we hung out. Just two writers shooting the bull. He didn’t want to read Chronic Psycho, but I didn’t care.

(Special to Sweetie’s mom, you could also send your support over the ethereal wires for me and DS to sell Chronic Psycho for low against mid to high sixes. [that’s Hollywood talk for “enough money to pay off all of our student loans and have enough left over for half of a house”.])

Chronic Psycho Qu'est Que C'est

2005-11-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

The Chronic Psycho reading was last night. Had a good turn out. Sweetie and me were the only ones not to read. The script has come a long way since I batted it around with the other CP, our friend in Singapore. The script is, in descending order, a stoner-comedy-horror-sex film, although it’s clearer to say stoner-horror comedy with a couple short episodes of explicit sex, nudity and phantasmal genitalia.

All the readers were exceptional. People were laughing throughout the reading. Sweetie and I worked hard to set the right tone for the evening. If I had had my druthers it would have been in the afternoon, but it was difficult to find an afternoon that was good for everyone. The trick is that it seemed like it would be a party because it was at night, but really it needed to be more like work, because it is my work. I debated getting some weed for the reading, but ultimately didn’t. I didn’t want to put out alcohol either at first, but we put out some beers and a bottle of wine and it all worked out fine. My big worry was that people would get drunk or high and not have good feedback or not read their parts well. That turned out not to be an issue.

The most gratifying thing was, and this is corny, I know, was that people seemed to be genuinely entertained by the script and to enjoy it.

The next step is to start getting some attention to it. I’ll show it to ME (a big time comedy writer), perhaps he’ll read it. My friend DS is very interested in it, and in fact, he has been a driving force behind its development. He read the first draft and encouraged me to continue to work on it when most of the other comments were ambiguous or reflected confusion with the script. The script had an uneasy birth. Anyway, I believe that DS wants to send it around with the intention of getting it produced. My goal is to get paying work. That’s my mantra: Chronic Psycho brings paying screenwriting jobs.