Movie Mondays!

Surprisingly entertaining. Seen recently at an outdoor venue I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but found I really enjoyed the film, an exciting and different take on the staid Holmes. Guy Ritchie manages to deftly bring the detective into a version that appeals to today’s audiences. The pair of Downey and Law as Holmes and Watson worked exceptionally well together and the movie breezed by holding my attention throughout, a real popcorn flick, lots of fun.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Flowers

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

Messages from the Fringe.

You know, every once in awhile I am really surprised by my fellow Americans but then again, I really shouldn’t be.

It stems from a really simple premise that only a fool believes... any reasonably intelligent person believes the people around them are reasonably intelligent as well.

BIG MISTAKE!

If you ever had a job where you had to deal with the general public, you quickly realize the flaw in this kind of thinking. And to illustrate that fact, I ask you this simple question: remember back to the days when you were in school, maybe that wasn’t long ago, maybe that was quite a bit back but, in every class without fail there was always one, two, three, four maybe even five of your fellow classmates who may have been nice kids but to put it simply were (and not to mince words here) dummies.

I mean, where do you think grading on a curve first came from?

So, every class had a few... of... these... DUMMIES!

Now, what do you think happened? Do you think they disappeared?

Chances are, they didn’t and not only that but they bred even more dummies because dummies don’t think about what it costs to raise a kid or the impact it will have on household economics.

And smart people?

They hold off having kids because they are worried about being able to raise them and also providing a good life for them and making sure they get a good education and in a couple of generations what happens (rather quickly when you think about it) is that there are more dummies than there are smart people.

And what do we get?

We get Sarah Palin as an actual vice-presidential candidate – a former weather girl (and I keep flashing on Ted Baxter from the Mary Tyler Moore show).

And now, we have a new round of people who you just stand with your mouth agape and wonder how it is possible the people in this country can seriously consider electing them as the commander in chief. Case in point - Michelle Bachmann. Mother Jones just ran a great story about Michele Bachmann and if you are a smart person and you don’t regularly reaed Mother Jones I have to ask you why you aren’t?

So take a look at this article because really, they did a great job on the article about George W. Bush back in ’99 and no one seemed to read it and we really need for things like this to get a much wider audience.

Movie Mondays!

Very enjoyable romp for the Justice League up against their Earth 2 counterparts. Some viewers may bring the albatross of comicbook continuity through the door with them but, if you leave your assumptions behind and view this on its own merit, its a lot of fun. It’s a tight, well-paced tale that gets high marks for the quality of the animation and also for voice acting. I enjoyed it a great deal and it’s a good watch for a family night (maybe 10 and above) holding the interest of young and old alike.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Threesomes

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

Some things just defy words.

Things like this music video which I came across when I was looking around to see what was on the web regarding the late, lamented Kiev.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program...

So, it’s been quiet around these parts because I’ve just been too busy, too stressed and not really inclined to write for awhile.

So, what I’m going to do is start going through the drafts queue of the blog and emptying everything out. Getting all those unfinished thoughts and bits out and into the interwebs because you know I just shit jewels baby! JEWELS! Anyway, this is from early August

Talk about a comeuppance.

Stocks posted a severe drop today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 4.3% and the Nasdaq crumbling over 5%.

By the end of the day there were few places left to hide. Gold, silver, crude and yields on Treasuries all fell sharply as traders looked for safety and were met by nothing but falling prices. Over the last 10 trading days stocks have lost more than 10%, the traditional definition of a market correction.

Today’s selling started in Europe and picked up steam as American investors, already twitchy in the wake of the debt ceiling debacle, suddenly preferred cash over all other assets. The selling began overseas, but we have more than our share of problems in the U.S. as well.

There’s a growing realization among even the most optimistic investors that the United States is entering a new recession—a dreaded “double-dip.” Adding to the pain is the sense that the government and Federal Reserve are out of both ideas and ways to stimulate the economy.

 You know, there are people in this world who are just plain crazy. These are people you can’t even remotely reason with and there is no shortage of them on either the right or the left.

When Bush was President all the fringe people on the left were running around up in arms about everything and now we have people on the right in the form of these Tea Party idiots.

And using the term idiot in this case is appropriate because the Tea Party people believe
it’s so important to make a point about the size of government and government spending that they are more than happy to drive the bus right off a cliff to drive that point home.

Consequently, just when the economy starts to get better, just when consumer confidence is starting to return... well let’s put the brakes on all of that by making sure we can politicize and draw out the debate on government spending to the point where it looks like a very real possibility that the federal government will default on its obligations.

And that’s just what they did.

So, you know what the upshot on all of it was, do you know what the end result of their proving a point was, they cost the US taxpayer (that‘s you and I brother) so much more money as the cost of government borrowing went up because the credit rating of government debt was downgraded.

Thank the fools in the Tea Party for that.

I’ve spoken with a couple of people over the last few weeks, people whose opinion I respect but also people who are all too ready to buy into the propaganda that is being spewed forth under the guise of facts. It’s the kind of thing that would make Josef Goebbels proud. This thing about the government spending being greater than at any other time in history or of any other president combined...

D’uh!

Let’s measure things in 1776 dollars morons.

Anyway, I’ve been accused of a lot of things over the last few weeks. Today, I was accused of being a Democrat even though I’m a registered Republican. The fact that I am more moderate, the fact that I believe in compromise and working together as the only way to move the country forward simply doesn’t sit well with the ‘True Believers.’

You know the other thing that is worrying to me? What worries me is underlying all of this rhetoric, there is this veiled racism. I don’t think I’m the only one that senses it but I get this sense that it is there. Like some kind of Great White Hope the Tea Party people hold out for salvation against the President.

It’s sad.

It’s sad because there are times I can readily see some of these morons donning white sheets (and it’s not all of them but there are a couple who are really out on the fringe). And me, I’m creeped out by it. I’m creeped out by it and I’m embarrassed too – you would think better of us.

I keep thinking to myself about all the things the President has done that have gone well. He wasn’t handed a good situation by his predecessor but he managed to steer the ship of state in the right direction and the economy had begun to recover. He got the first part of health care reform pushed through Congress (which reminds me of all the people who derisively call it ObamaCare without ever having read the actual bill). They even managed to finally get Osama.

I was talking to a friend the other day and he made a good observation. He noted how there were a few detractors who wanted to try the President for treason but the interesting thing is that you have members of Congress on the extreme right who knew they were doing harm to the country but stood fast rather than compromise to prove their point.

And my friend said, ‘Shouldn’t they be the ones who are tried for treason.’

And I’ll be damned if I didn’t agree with him.

Movie Mondays!

Everything ends, even things we love - as is the case for David Tennant’s turn as Doctor Who. Why is it not a surprise the actor’s run ends on such a high note? Russell T. Davies hands off the reigns on a franchise he revived (to the delight of Who fans everywhere) and one only hopes his successors will mirror Davies’ efforts. John Simm reprises his role as The Master, who we thought we’d seen the last of but, is he quite the villain we really believed him to be? Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins) features large in this finale. Any fan of the Tenth Doctor will not want to miss this. The finale is all at once exciting, heroic, suspenseful and of course a little sad as we say our goodbyes to the characters who we have grown so fond of over the last few years. If you haven’t seen any of the Davies’ Who series, I urge you to go back and watch from the beginning of Davies run because they are entertainment for both the young and old.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Murder

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

Movie Mondays!

A laughable movie which reinforces in scene after scene the dysfunction of many Middle Eastern societies. Depicting the events after a man’s death, the viewer is given a view of how his surviving family deals with that death and their daily lives in Iraq. Of course, Americans are the villains of the piece, being infidels and responsible for the world’s evils. Yet, out of the subjects’ mouths, time and time again, spew all manner of hatred, bigotry and sexism. This is a movie laden with irony and is meant to fuel the anger and passion of apologists everywhere but it I found it to be a perfect example of just how naive and ignorant the average Iraqi is. Of course, it’s not just Americans who are villains - it’s Jews, it’s Kurds, it’s non-Muslims... it’s even fellow Muslims if they belong to a different sect. Everyone is guilty but their own leaders, the same leaders who do their level best to whip the crowd into a frenzy by directing anger and dissatisfaction at external forces in the tradition of dictators and tyrants throughout history. We even are treated to a speech by Muqtada al-Sadr, more propaganda spewed under the guise of religion. It’s a very biased view of some very biased people and their daily lives in Iraq, not worth viewing unless you are suffering from a malady sometimes referred to as liberal guilt.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Daddy Issues

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program...

So, it’s been quiet around these parts because I’ve just been too busy, too stressed and not really inclined to write for awhile.

So, what I’m going to do is start going through the drafts queue of the blog and emptying everything out. Getting all those unfinished thoughts and bits out and into the interwebs because you know I just shit jewels baby! JEWELS!

And on the heels of the last post, out of the archive I came across this unfinished thought from August 2010:

Change.

Sometimes, we are fixed in place and there is a vague sense underlying our days and minutes that hints at some dissatisfaction or ennui. In those moments, we think about how we would change our lives and change ourselves, whether it is possible and what form that change would manifest itself as.

I’ve been having those moments lately.

With them is the sense of wanting to do more, to be more, to get involved in ways there doesn’t always seem to be the time to do. The big problem more than anything is I’m an incredible time waster, left to my own devices, I can hole up and while away the hours quite comfortably very happy with my own company and taken voyages along whatever path catches my interest.

I’ve seen it happen too often and it’s something I’m starting to tire of.

Still, I wonder if we can ever truly change our nature.

There was a time I believed it was parents who had more influence than not in the adult a child becomes and while I know they do I’ve come to the realization that there is just so very much about us that is hard-wired, things that have nothing to do with external forces, things that nature put there in the womb in an amazing alchemy. These equations become readily apparent after watching so many of my friends and family have kids, raise them in the same household, only to watch how very, very different their personalities can be even though they are exposed to the same environmental forces.

I’m very lucky though. I’m lucky in ways I couldn’t even begin to pass along and I often realize that. That amazing luck is what keeps me going when things look their bleakest and time and time again it has manifested itself, even though it is...

AND THAT’S WHERE I TRAILED OFF.

But thinking about it now, I do consider myself quite lucky. I’m waiting to hear on something that will tell me in many ways just how lucky I might be. I’ve got my fingers crossed you might say.

I spend too much time worried or unhappy it seems (at least to me) and then I always flash back on that old saw about ‘counting your blessings.’ And I have to think how lucky I am in so many ways. Things I guess other people take for granted but again flashing back on my upbringing and the whole being poor thing, I consider myself very lucky indeed.

But should we settle?

Does there come a point where we should be settling for anything in life when the time we have allotted to us is so very precious?

I wonder about that a lot because as I said back in ’10, I’m a big time waster and thinking about it now I really have to fix that...

stay tuned.

Change.

I’m not a big fan of change.

Well... maybe I should qualify that. I’m a big fan of change FOR THE BETTER, it’s just change all too often doesn’t seem to fall under that heading.

And the truth of the matter is, for the earlier part of my life I had a lot more change than is good for a person. We moved around a lot, a lot more than even those so-called “military brats” and when we moved it wasn’t for good reasons because we were so very poor.

I don’t talk about how poor we were when I was growing up and really I only have a true appreciation of the situation now as I’m older but, man! Dirt was rich compared to us.

So, as I’ve racked up the years, change isn’t always something I cotton to.

And when I talk about change, it isn’t just about places, it’s about people as well. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve been steadily employed for the most part over the last year with the same client and the truth of the matter is I like that even though there are times people seem to go out of their way to make you feel like the bastard stepchild simply because you’re a freelancer.

But not everybody is like that.

And some people aren’t about lording over others just so they can feel better about themselves, some people approach the rest of the world just as people and you can deal with them on an one to one basis and that’s the fertile ground where friendships can be formed.

I’ve been lucky too because my business is a young business. The business I’m in (which it seems is not too dissimilar from most American businesses these days) favors youth and part of that is economics but another aspect is also because there is a sense that youth can be a well-spring of fertile and creative ideas (although I’m coming to the conclusion there is nothing really new, just a regurgitation of the hackneyed in a new form).

Even though I am surrounded by young people, every once in awhile I am surprised. I am surprised by the quality and calibre of their personalities, their integrity, their intelligence, their grace. I’ve been fortunate in that over the last year there have been two people who I have shared space with – what I would call office neighbors — who I have just found delightful (a descriptor that seems very uncharacteristic springing from my lips).

They are though and in each case my neighbors have gone on to greener pastures, one left a few months back and one will be leaving by the time it posts to the blog. I cheer their successes, I really do but I also have to say I miss (will miss) them because they make coming to work so much nicer for me.

You know, in many parts of life the one thing you have no power over is who your neighbors will be and this is whether we talk about work or where you live (maybe I should say the place you stay when you’re not working because so many people’s lives today are their jobs). It seems so simple but it can have a big impact on how much or how little you enjoy life and thinking about it now I have been very lucky because I have been blessed with some very good neighbors.

I hope when the new people move in they’re just as nice.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program...
So, it’s been quiet around these parts because I’ve just been too busy, too stressed and not really inclined to write for awhile.

So, what I’m going to do is start going through the drafts queue of the blog and emptying everything out. Getting all those unfinished thoughts and bits out and into the interwebs because you know I just shit jewels baby! JEWELS!

Anyway, this is from 2006 (wow five years!)

Women I Love, Wednesdays.

Disclaimer - Everyone is supposed to have a type, at least that‘s what I’ve been told. This is a trait which is attributed to women and men alike. I have tried to figure out if I have a ‘type’ and have found myself at a loss to come up with a single distinguishing characteristic which is common to all the wonderful women I have been blessed with to have as partners. The only common factor I could think of was they were all beautiful (to my eye), intelligent and pleasant company.

Even now, though we may have gone our seperate ways, I consider myself fortunate to have enjoyed their time and attentions.

So, I was going to use this as a regular content bucket. I still might. Basically I was going to post pictures of women I found attractive and write a few lines about them or link to some stuff about them but then I got to thinking it may come across as overly pervie or sexist. The weird gray area you get into as you get older and all of a sudden you are supposed to stop having sexual thoughts.

I may still do this though, first I have to get all 241 drafts (and diminishing) out of the drafts queue.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program...

So, it’s been quiet around these parts because I’ve just been too busy, too stressed and not really inclined to write for awhile.

So, what I’m going to do is start going through the drafts queue of the blog and emptying everything out. Getting all those unfinished thoughts and bits out and into the interwebs because you know I just shit jewels baby! JEWELS!

Anyway, this is from 2006 (wow five years!)

How I spent Yom Kippur.

You notice things like a Jewish holiday in and around New York more than other places. Probably because we have a nice healthy-sized population of people of the Hebrew persuasion. It makes me wonder sometime what it is like in other cities where that is not the case.

Living in New York, you have to be acutely aware of these things in a way other Goyim are not. It’s part of the heritage of being a New Yorker and it’s a good thing. Thinking about Yom Kippur makes me think about the first Shiva call I had to make over the summer. I had never made a Shiva call before and the circumstances surrounding this one were quite sobering.

I was about 12 when I first met Jackie.

It would be around 1972 when Flo, Jackie and Laurie became a part of my life. They would be a big part of my life from 72 to around 76 or thereabouts I think. Jackie was the older daughter of a very sweet woman (Flo) my father was dating then. It was through Flo and her family I wound up meeting a wonderful group of people. People who would become important to me throughout my years as a teenager. I got exposed to a lot of things I would have otherwise missed out on and been a lesser person for it.

There was Flo, Jackie and Laurie - we wound up spending a lot of time together for a period. Me, a boy on the cusp of being a teenager, an only child to boot, it was a bit of an adjustment being exposed to this household of women. It wasn’t a problem so much as being a kid in a candy store with two very beautiful girls in close proximity to my own age.

Jackie, two years older than me and Laurie a year younger, our parents dating and as a result, all of us thrown in together because of it. We would go out with our parents and have a wonderful time. I saw Gilbert and Sullivan plays because of Flo. I remember going to see Ben Vereen in Pippin on Broadway and seeing Gigi and the Desert Song as well. Also, I can recall dinners at La Crepe and the Hawaii Kai - vaguely mind you but, with fondness nonetheless.

Laurie would have been my first girlfriend and Jackie... well Jackie was the cool, good looking, older sister young boys always dreamed about. She was that unobtainable woman because even though only seperated by two years, I was very much considered a kid.

Life through memory’s prism is a highlight film, all the best moments there for you. It’s the magical times and magical people who made a lasting impact on you. They are fixed in your memory and if you grow out of touch they remain there unchanged by time. You look back on life and it’s funny the things which stick with you. Memory is interesting. You block out a lot of the bad stuff and the past takes on a rosy tint. It’s a wonderful glow, free of the suffering and trauma that may existed when it happened.

A lot of my memories are of those people and of those times because they were good times indeed.

Flo was always considered in and around the family as the one my father let get away. She was a nice outgoing and attractive woman, people liked her, I liked her. I’ll never know what the reasons were for the rift between the two of them (my father and Flo), it was just a matter of one day my father had a new girlfriend on his arm - she was just another of many of the good partners he let slip from his grasp but, that’s a tale for another day.

As the years went on, while we all moved out of each other’s lives for the most part - we would still encounter each other in an almost comet like fashion briefly coming in and out of each other’s orbit. Jackie, while she got older and changed, was ever the very lithesome and pretty young woman of my teenage fantasies.

Earlier this year, in the maelstrom of cleaning up and dealing with the storm of the EYOC’s many affairs, I came across some old letters from Flo to him. She had obviously made her mark in his heart and he had saved those things she had written to him long after they were apart. I couldn’t throw them out and I had to admit to feeling a bit of an interloper having chanced upon them. Thing was, the letters (cards) made the passion between my father and Flo a very concrete thing.

As it was, it got me thinking how I hadn’t talked to Flo in a long time and how it might be a good thing for the EYOC to have a visit from her. So, I called and it was wonderful. I wound up meeting Flo for lunch and then accompanying her on the visit to EYOC and overall it was a very good day. ‘The girls’ would be glad to hear their mother had news of me and they were doing well.

Five months later, I got the call that Jackie was gone...

There is a bench in the New York Botanical Garden now that has a plaque on it with Jackie’s name. I contributed to it but the bench doesn’t begin to attest to the woman she was. And since I started this five years ago, I’m older than Jackie was when she passed and her passing was so very sudden. It speaks to the nature of how there are no guarantees of tomorrows or that we will even be remembered for the time that we had here.

I miss her. I didn’t see her much as the years progressed but I still miss her. And I carry within me a whole host of memories of her time here so she lives on in that way.

A year or two back, Flo invited me over to share in her Passover Seder and I felt both privileged and honored to be extended the courtesy. Laurie was there with her husband and two children and she turned to me at one point and made note of the fact her daughter is at the age now that we were at when all of us first met. And we commiserated because, could it really have been that long ago? And seeing her daughter, were we really that young and innocent (because surely at the time we knew it all).

But that’s the way things go and the one thing that’s assured is life changes, the world changes all around us each and every day. It doesn’t stand still for any one of us so you better make use of what is allotted you.

That Jackie though... boy, she was a peach.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program...

So, it’s been quiet around these parts because I’ve just been too busy, too stressed and not really inclined to write for awhile.

So, what I’m going to do is start going through the drafts queue of the blog and emptying everything out. Getting all those unfinished thoughts and bits out and into the interwebs because you know I just shit jewels baby! JEWELS!

Anyway, this is from 2006 (wow five years!)

Apologists and you.
I try to read a healthy amount. Most of my reading isn’t what one would could attest to the most prestigious of sources but I still make the attempt nonetheless. I grew up in a family and environment where reading was encouraged and I find it is something which has served me well through time.
I like picking up both of the New York tabloids each and every day. Each comes at the world from a slightly different vantage point even if tabloids are held in the highest regard. There’s also the Village Voice which I enjoy picking up when I have the occasion. Along with these print media outlets, there are a smattering of blogs and different online news sources I read on a regular basis too. Finally, I watch the news fervently, having no allegiance to any source, it’s more about soaking up the information wherever it comes from. Oh, and NPR, let’s not forget the wealth of great shows on NPR I love too.

Aside from the NY Post and Fox News neither of which I bear a fealty to and admittedly sources I view with a bit of reservation given their editorial leanings - the news as it comes to me does not come from outlets in lockstep with the views of our current administration. Neither do they share the views of my party of record.

I don’t proscribe with blindly falling in with the party line, it never made sense to me.

One thing I have noticed and have commented on in the past (and will continue to do so) is how news, events, and rhetoric is painted in the most starkly black and white terms so as to be the most incinidery and the most divisive. Once again, I will issue my caution, if you are going to engage in any kind of dialog with me, if you even begin to want to convince me of your argument, you had better do it without falling into the easy ploy of absolutes. Once political bigotry starts spewing from your orifice, everything issuing forth thereafter lessens in impact and significance because you have already made it known you are a propagandist.

Case in point:

The perception of our country in some quarters of the world. Among all the things I read is a continuing litany of the failures of our foreign policy. Once again, people around the world seem to like us as people but hate the steps our government takes. Even if a large segment of our own population isn’t in agreement with the government’s actions, the media and populace in other countries cannot resist the urge to point out our failures, to question our judgement and to harp on our shortcomings.

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of material coming from certain parts of the European community commenting on what failures the US has blundered through over the last half of the decade.

Why am I not surprised?

Well, I remember a time when there were these enormous protests against US policy in Europe, just gigantic. If you’re around my age you’ll remember them too - they were the protests over the US placing cruise missiles in what at the time was West Germany. You remember West Germany? The result of the Cold War where the victors of WWII split up a nation to use as a battlefield by proxy?...

You know I finished it there but the truth of the matter is in the 5 years since not much has really changed. Our foreign policy though well-intentioned is sometimes vilified by the very people it ultimately winds up benefitting.

One has to question our motives but at the same time I often get a sense the U.S. is like the clingy friend in the community of nations that will go out of its way to make sure the other nations like it. Even to the point of doing something that is self destructive.

And we really have to remember that because there are times when our own interests as a country are not served by putting another nations interest before our own.

Things are changing around us all the time but people don’t recognize trends in history until they are well past them. There have been a lot of things going on in the last year, a lot of things I truly believe are pointing to the underpinnings of our society and how weak the foundation that society is built on. You see different facets of it, different players in the conflict that will take place coming onto the stage and introducing themselves but you have to wonder where they will be positioned when the dust settles and who the victor will be.

And right not I’m speaking purposefully in the vaguest of terms because what I have to say would be better put off until another day. Needless to say there is a conflict brewing on the horizon, you are seeing it in the demonstrations that happened across the Middle East, you are seeing it in the economic calamity that is happening right now across Europe, you are seeing it in the demonstrations that recently took place in England and you are seeing it in the formation of the Tea Party. Lots of different agendas bubbling up across the globe pointing to a desire to change the status quo. It’s happening now, the signs are there but I can’t predict what will happen next.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program...

So, it’s been quiet around these parts because I’ve just been too busy, too stressed and not really inclined to write for awhile.

So, what I’m going to do is start going through the drafts queue of the blog and emptying everything out. Getting all those unfinished thoughts and bits out and into the interwebs because you know I just shit jewels baby! JEWELS!

Anyway, this is from 2006 (wow five years!) when Corey Lidle flew into a building in Manhattan with his small plane – in his defense the building must have moved.

The plane, flying north over the East River, along the usual flight corridor, came through a hazy, cloudy sky and hit The Belaire — a red-brick tower overlooking the river — with a loud bang. It touched off a raging fire that cast a pillar of black smoke over the city and sent flames shooting from four windows on two adjoining floors. Firefighters put the blaze out in less than an hour.

At least 21 people were taken to the hospital, most of them firefighters. Their conditions were not disclosed.

Large crowds gathered in the street in the largely wealthy New York neighborhood, with many people in tears and some trying to reach loved ones by cell phone.

“It wasn’t until I was halfway home that I started shaking. The whole memory of an airplane flying into a building and across the street from your home. It’s a little too close to home,” Sara Green, 40, who lives across the street from The Belaire. “It crossed my mind that it was something bigger or the start of something bigger.”

I guess I’m a bit of a sc*mbag because while I’m sorry Corey Lidle flew his plane into the side of a building, I don’t find it the earth-shaking tragedy the media is trying to make it out to be. I feel bad for the people in the building more than anything else, people who were injured and lost their lives. I feel bad for the Lidle’s family because they lost a father and a husband (and even then in a rubber neckers kind of way when you see a really bad accident alongside the road and know someone was fatally injured). Lidle as a person, doesn’t affect me that much.

Lidle was a Met a long time ago, hadn’t played for a New York team in quite a few years and only came back to play for the Yankees after a trade made at the trade deadline in late August. It’s more along the lines of Corey we hardly knew you he wasn’t a favorite player of mine or anything.

Actually, the odd and slightly ironic thing is on Monday, I was listening to Mike Francesa and Chris Russo take Lidle to task for quotes he made to the Daily News amidst the firestorm over Joe Torre and the possibility of him being fired. I’m not crazy about Mike and the Mad Dog to begin with and they were being purposefully obtuse throughout the conversation. They were being difficult to make a bigger deal out of something which was probably a fairly innocuous conversation.

Lidle: Well, that’s what I’m saying. My comment... the way you guys are taking my comments are just out of context and twisting it and you know, I... I’m sitting here trying to enjoy my day in New York and I get a... a text message from a friend of mine, says you better call and defend yourself.

Chris Russo: First off, first off, no... if I’m a Yankee... no... no Yankee fan should enjoy the day in New York, that’s number one. I mean, the Yankees just got embarassed. You got a manager whose... on... who might get fired who has been here for 11 years. If I’m a Yankee right now I’m in hiding! I’m not enjoying any day in New York! That’s number one! Yankee fans aren’t enjoying...

Lidle: Yeah... that’s, that... okay... hold on, who’s that talking?

Chris Russo: That’s Chris!

Lidle: Chris. Okay, so, I’m not allowed to enjoy this day in New York?!?

Chris Russo: Well, I don’t know many Yankee fans...

Unfortunately if you go to the link, it’s long since been removed by CBS which is a shame because it would be great to hear in retrospect.

Also, in keeping with the underlying and prevalent idea in our society that should you fuck up, it’s not your fault and someone else should be to blame (because we should never accept responsibility for our mistakes in this country and thereby never grow and learn) – Lidle’s widow tried suing the plane manufacturer:

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and a flight instructor did everything they could to save their lives after the small plane they were piloting malfunctioned, causing them to crash into a Manhattan building, a lawyer for the men’s families told a jury Wednesday at the start of a civil trial.

California attorney Todd Macaluso said he will prove that Lidle and his instructor were killed because Cirrus Design Corp., of Duluth, Minn., failed to properly design the aircraft, allowing a deficient flight control system to remain in the aircraft even though there was a better and safer alternative available at a reasonable cost.

A federal safety panel concluded that the crash occurred because Lidle and his instructor misjudged a turn.

Lidle’s wife, Melanie, and the family of Lidle’s instructor, Tyler Stanger, filed a $50 million lawsuit, blaming Cirrus for the crash.

Way to go!

Movie Mondays!

Did you know? The original title of this special was I Kinda Like It When a Lot of People Die but the title was changed as it was recorded shortly after the attacks of 9/11. Nonetheless, George Carlin does here for the Ten Commandments what he did for the Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television three decades earlier - in essence, he performs a routine that codifies language, familiar language, universal to us all. And while his performance is a bit uneven at times, there is no denying the edginess and brilliance behind Carlin’s work. If you’re a fan of George Carlin, this cannot be considered his best but it is still quite a worthwhile performance and if you're not familiar with Carlin do yourself a favor and watch his specials in chronological order. Solid work by a comedic genius whose voice is missed.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Giving Birth

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

Bad anniversary.

Some things you don’t want to remember then, they sneak up on you and there you are. You’re not at all happy about it either. These are days where something bad has happened in the past and you’ve got a few years distance. You don’t really like thinking about it but, something reminds you and you’re feeling crappy all over again. You get older, you find you can have a lot more of those days if you let yourself, perhaps the best line Stan Lee ever wrote was Face Front True Believer!

Anyway, the fourth anniversary of the Mike Wieringo’s passing fell recently – it’s funny, I never met the guy but boy did I love his art!

I used to herald it to friends (these are guys who worked in comics as pencilers or inkers) and I’d hear crap about his work being ‘manga-influenced’ but to me there was no denying the beauty of everything he drew. The perfect line, the gesture, the expression all combined to amaze me at times.

When Mike Wieringo drew Spider Man... HE LOOKED LIKE SPIDER MAN. He had the body type Spider Man should have! His run on the Fantastic Four still stands head and shoulders as one of the best runs on the book over the last twenty years but the thing I’ll always remember him for and the thing that endeared him to my heart the most was Impulse.

I love Impulse, Impulse was a breath of fresh air in comics.

Something happened to comics during the eighties, something the industry still hasn’t recovered from. Great works like the Miller run on Daredevil, the Watchmen, the Killing Joke, the Dark Knight, Arkham Asylum all came along and suddenly everyone was working their hardest, doing their damndest to imitate those works more often than not failing miserably at it and taking all the fun out of comics.

But there during the Johns run on the Flash, teamed with Wieringo they were working so very hard to reverse the trend – not by turning the book into something it wasn’t but just by putting together a good comic book, just by being this great creative team.

And here’s the funny part, I started to write this a few weeks ago and had to stop! I used to love going to Mike Wieringo’s blog, I would go every day and just marvel at his process. The great thing about Mike’s blog was that day after day after day he would post a warm up drawing. The funny thing is how much I wish I could even draw as well as his ‘warm ups’ but, they were always fun to look at and there was always a story behind them. Maybe Mike had been rolling something over in his head at the time, or maybe he was geared up because he had just seen the previous evening’s LOST but, it was a treat because it was a chance to have a connection with someone whose work you appreciated and you also got a chance to ‘know’ them through their blog.

In a way, the blog recaptured some of that magic I used to get from reading the old Marvel comics I grew up with, back in the sixties and the seventies. If they had had something like the internet back then, Mike’s blog is the form it would have taken.

Mike has been gone now for over three years, but his brother Matt has kept the blog up and that’s a wonderful thing because in a way, Mike still lives in that one small corner of the internet that he called his own. I urge you to go check it out, some wonderful stuff that’s a real treat for the eyes of any fan of Mike’s work. Four years on and he is still very much missed.

Movie Mondays!

I probably would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if the disk I received had been in relatively decent shape but it was so full of skips and stops the magic here was in how a bad disk edited this documentary. Overall though what I did see I liked, it wasn't new ground for me but for someone unfamiliar with film it will be a real eye-opener.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Anal Sex

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

Movie Mondays!

NO LIGHTS!
This really isn’t a documentary as much as it is speculation on the life and motivations of CS Lewis. It is plodding, monotone and downright boring. I would venture to say it’s an example of how not to make an entertaining documentary. CS Lewis gave the world some truly beloved literature and was a contemporary of Tolkien. When the viewer finally gets to this point the film becomes slightly more entertaining but oh... what a slumber inducing voyage it is to that point. The incidental music is something better served to one of those tacky shows dealing with the prophecies of Nostradamus and the narrator has the cadence and tone of an undertaker. If you’re truly desperate and a die hard fan of CS Lewis looking for anything and everything on the author then watch it otherwise save yourself some precious hours and stay away. Better still pick up one of Lewis’ books far more entertaining than this piece of tripe.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Online Dating

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

An afternoon at the gallery.

Daredevil_i134_p11_Brown-Mooney

Matt Murdock is stunned to hear a news clip proclaiming Daredevil as responsable for the senseless murder of three policemen! He forgets the sudden betrayal of his hero, however, as his relationship with Heather Glenn takes a sudden turn for the romantic. Little does he imagine that Daredevil is innocent, and will soon be teaming up with another superhero wrongfully accused of murder! Can the two of them bring the Chameleon to justice... or will they end up behind bars themselves?

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© All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 -
may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.

You know, last week I was talking about Gene Colan being THE Daredevil artist (unfortunately, things kind of went off the rails and while I had begun this entry to run in a certain sequence, all that was thrown out of kilter) and Colan did enjoy an exceptionally long run on the title. Did you know that Colan started on Daredevil on issue #20 dated September 1966 and worked on the title fairly unbroken until issue #98 in April 1973.

The only other person to pencil the book over this six and a half year period was Barry Windsor Smith (issues #50-52 and #83).

Now Sam Kweskin and Syd Shores did issue #99 before Colan returned to pencil issue #100 but then things went awry for ol’ hornhead and a series of artists came and went on the title but it reads like a who’s who of the industry with names (and some names that might not be so familiar to people) John Tartaglione, Don Heck (pencils and inks), Rich Buckler, Syd Shores, Frank Giacoia*, Sal Trapani*, Don Perlin*, Sal Buscema (pencils and inks), John Romita (pencils and inks), Paul Gulacy*, Frank Chiaramonte*, Jim Mooney*, Vince Colletta*, Jim Starlin, Al Milgrom*,

Bob Brown came on the title with issue #107 (January 1974) and stayed on the book right up until his death with his last issue being #143 (March 1977).

Today, while it might be hard for people to believe, Daredevil was very much a secondary character in the Marvel pantheon. After Colan left, Marvel played musical chairs with artists until Bob Brown took over. When Bob Brown passed away, Marvel would play musical chairs with the creative team on the title until Frank Miller came along and picked up the book with issue #158.

Brown would have the second longest stint on the book before Miller.

The shame of it is, today Bob Brown is a bit of a footnote. He has largely been forgotten by fans and it‘s simply a shame. Also, Klaus Janson would come onto the title as inker and when he did the artwork sang. It was truly one of Marvel’s better books of the period.

Check out my Comic Art Fans Galleries! © All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 - may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.

Movie Mondays!

This is the next to last of fourteen specials (performances) Carlin recorded to ultimately be aired on HBO and truthfully it is not his best. Carlin was one of the most talented and intelligent comics of his generation and his humor was biting and hilarious letting none of society’s trappings escape his cutting wit. He spent a lifetime pointing out the irony of the human condition and throwing “stones” at the world around him but here, there is less humor and more the anger mixed with the bitterness of a man who has tired of the battle. Aside from the opening 15 minutes where Carlin shows his amazing prowess with language, juxtaposing hackneyed phrases in an almost sing song mantra of self definition, the performance descends into a darker territory from which it fails to emerge. If you’ve never seen any of Carlin’s work, don’t start here - seek out his earlier performances. If you’re a longtime Carlin fan, you’ll see a great talent nearing the end.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Swinging

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

Well, things have been a bit sparse around here lately, haven’t they?

And that’s alright with me (as the song goes). I’ve been fairly busy and I don’t mind it. The days rocket past with alarming frequency and I look up and realize we are already halfway through summer.

One of the things I’ve been focused on more of late is age.

And I can say that I haven’t been focused on it in a good way because I am coming to grips with the whole mortality thing and realizing that the time on the clock is running down and I am now faced with less ahead of me than there is behind me. It is a reminder that if I do want to make some sort of significant impact with my existence, we are in the third quarter and I need to run up the score a bit.

Unfortunately something else comes along with that feeling... namely worry. I wonder if it is something that is part and parcel of age or if it isn’t an indictment of the times we live in but everything feels a lot more fragile to me than it ever did at any point during the course of my lifetime. Consequently, I am finding more of my focus each day is given over to worry.

And the thing about worry is that it never does a person any good – the time that you spend worrying about something is often time that would be much better spent addressing the thing it is that you are worrying about and trying to address the situation to alleviate that worry.

I’m not alone in this though because I see quite a few people around me in the same state. What’s that old thing... misery loves company?

And really... I can’t complain too much because when I look around I find myself thinking how much better off I am than so many others but then there is this feeling that I should be having more, wanting more out of life than I do and this isn’t really a discussion about material things because frankly material things are factoring into the equation less and less as time goes on. I don’t have this overwhelming desire to have some big fancy car, or any other symbol of status. More it’s about the way I spend the day, how I spend the day, what effect I have on the world around me and whether it is a positive or a negative one.

I’m really lucky because I’m working and right now there are far too many people I know who are out of work, who can’t pay their bills, who are facing untenable decisions about their lives. And much of the time, I really like my job which is something to say considering all the people I encounter who can do nothing more than complain about work.

I don’t know but something is percolating, I’m just waiting to see if it comes to a boil.

An afternoon at the gallery.

Daredevil_i290_p20_Dwyer-Fredricks

Matt dons the Bullseye costume to take down Bullseye wearing the DD duds.


Here Foggy has a conversation with his absent friend (Matt Murdock).

You know sometimes pages can be good even if they’re not necessarily by fan favorites. Here is a great page by Kieron Dwyer and Fred Fredericks and when you look at it, it has all the hallmarks of really good storytelling.

There are a lot of good choices that were made here, in terms of camera angles, body language, expressions – everything is just spot on. This is to me what good comic art is all about and we really don’t see quite as much of it as we once did probably because the generation of people working in comics today are regurgitating things from comics of the past.

Maybe I’m getting to that grumpy old man stage of life but, a lot of people in the business at one time actually read things other than comics, looked at art other than comics, before they actually went in and worked in comics.

Check out my Comic Art Fans Galleries! © All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 - may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.

Movie Mondays!

SEASONS 2 THROUGH 7

Unlikely to be packaged on DVD anytime soon and that's a shame because MITM is one of the funniest sitcoms in recent memory. If you’re curious as to why it hasn’t come out already it’s simple really... the show never secured the rights for much of the music played in the background and the additional cost has prevented FOX and the shows’ producers from issuing anything other than the first season. It’s too bad too because this really is a show to enjoy.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Manscaping

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

An afternoon at the gallery.

Daredevil-Shi_i01_p14_Igle-Williamson

Ana is of the Kyoto sohei, descendant from the warrior monks of Mount Hiei. She has spent her life mastering the art of combat. Never in all that time has she met an opponent like this one. “The Devil-Man seems to know where she will strike even before she has launched a blow. It is as though he sees her even when his eyes can not.” The dramatic crossing of Shi and Daredevil.This page has Daredevil (Matt) having a conversation with Ben Urich the reporter and sometimes confidant.

Sometimes, it may not be a penciller that makes the page great it may well be an inker. Not to say Jamal Igle didn’t do a great job with this page but any page that is graced by Al Williamson‘s inks becomes great just by him working on it.

Plus, you’ve got a really nice page with Daredevil and that essential character from the Daredevil universe, Ben Urich. You really can]t ask for much more.

Check out my Comic Art Fans Galleries! © All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 - may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.