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Bowling 1, Health Care 0 Chapel Hill, N.C.
FOR the last month, news media attention was focused on Pennsylvania and its Democratic primary. Given the gargantuan effort, what did we learn?
Well, the rancor of the campaign was covered. The amount of money spent was covered. But...the information about the candidates’ priorities, policies and principles — information that voters will need to choose the next president — too often did not make the cut...
Why? Here’s my guess: The vigorous press that was deemed an essential part of democracy at our country’s inception is now consigned to smaller venues, to the Internet and, in the mainstream media, to occasional articles...every analysis that is shortened, every corner that is cut, moves us further away from the truth until what is left is the Cliffs Notes of the news, or what I call strobe-light journalism, in which the outlines are accurate enough but we cannot really see the whole picture...
View the full article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/opinion/27edwards.html?th&emc=th
So I say, eff u "Earth Day" because we should think about climate change, resource management, reducing waste, decreasing emissions, conserving energy etc etc etc EVERY SINGLE DAY and not just once a year. Therefore, I get a little pissy on Earth Day and it's tokenism. Every day should be Earth Day -- and can be, so easily...
I thought the script was a little weak. I would have liked some more story development. It seemed rushed. BUt, if you like Masterpiece movies, then you'll like this one, too.“Have you news of my boy Jack?”Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind—
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!
Great Balls of Fire - (missed beginning) Yeah, it's been decades, and she's probably in her 60s now, but I still can't believe Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 year old second cousin. Dennis Quaid and Winona "the shoplifter" Ryder did a good job, though.
A Prairie Home Companion - (missed beginning) after all this time, I finally saw that Lindsey Lohan movie my sister was talking about. I wonder if it will be as good as the live show? I'll let you know after I see it up in Bangor in May (Christmas Present from Cindy & Sadie). It was as quirky as funny and folksy and cutesy as any other PHC experience, and Virginia Madsen looked so pretty.Lucky You - (entirety) In the marketing for this movie, it looked like Drew Barrymore was the main character and she was struggling to deal with her gambling lover. It turns out this is a movie about a poker playing man, the legend and legacy and tumultous relationship with his poker player dad, his gambling problem and --oh yeah-- he likes Drew Barrymore. This was the second Eric Bana movie I saw that week. It was a Bana week for me. He's mighty handsome. I think I smell yet another phantom husband...
Primary Colors - (halfway through) This movie is even more interesting now that Hillary is running. But, oddly enough, I saw Obama in the "Stanton" character -- played by John Travolta. That Emma Thompson played Hill spot on though.
Stranger Than Fiction - (last third) speaking of Emma Thompson...to see these movies in one day just shows her range: from rigid, decisive, strident First Lady ToBe to nutcase, chain-smoking, gloom-and-doom fiction writer, she does it all very very well. I love this movie. It's so tender, so funny, so smart. I love the anarchist baker and the IRS auditor falling in love. The linking of lives, the calm yet weird side characters (Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah). It's just a lovely movie, that I happily re-watched. I need to buy this DVD. Now I want Bavarian sugar cookies.
I Love My Wife - (first third) after such good movies, I couldn't bring myself to finish watching this slow-moving, not funny, repetitive movie with meandering story line and underdeveloped characters. Sorry Chris Rock, but this was a major major miss.The Science of Sleep - (entirety) Gael Garcia Bernal, just to be up front, is on the list. (Obv.) This is another one of those movies that I would like to own because I've now seen it 3 times. Michel Gondry is one of my favorite movie makers (Iused movie makers instead of just director because he also wrote the script for this film.) I saw him on Conan when he was promoting "Be Kind Rewind" (which I haven't seen & will now have to wait for the DVD). His mind is absolutely fascinating -- the way it works so non-linear. It reminds me of this quote I just read, that there is a strong
- Abraham Lincoln was assassinated
- The Titanic hit the iceberg
- The Okies fled from the worst dust storm in their history, on what is now called Black Sunday.
I was all about the blockbusters of the mid-aughts. (That's what I've decided to call this decade: "the aughts". Spread the word, let's start this trend. --Someone prob already has though. --But, anyway, I'm calling it. I say you put that in Wikipedia and attribute it to me.)
One of my best moments teaching was when two girls cried after reading about Odysseus and Penelope sleeping in their marriage bed for the first time in 20 years. That was a neat-o moment (for Odysseus & Penelope and for me...in very different ways) -- that the girls were so involved, so touched by the story and I had introduced it to them and all that. It's pretty much the moment you live for as a teacher. So, thanks Brad Pitt, for the trip down memory lane. And also thank you for being so ruggedly handsome.
August 10, 2006 @ 1:01 pm
Mom is up in The County. The County is Mainespeak for Aroostook County. It’s called The County because it’s ginormous and about four people total live in the County. My mother goes up to visit a friend who used to work with her down here. The friend lives in TS16-R4 or some other alpha-numeric town. (Township 16, Range 4: these are large areas of Maine that aren’t populated enough to have formal town governments. They are mostly forest. Seriously.) (Side note: To create the link that had a Maine township, I googled “maine township” and it turns out there’s a town in Illinois called “Maine Township, Illinois” and one in Minnesota! Weird.)
She called on Tuesday.
“What have you done?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said.
This is what the County is good for. “Nothing” is actually: taking walks to the St John and coming back; swimming in a lake; reading a book; playing board games, like Scrabble, which my mother is psychotically good at.
“Actually, we went to Governors in Presque Isle,” she said.
“Oh I know that one. I’ve never been, though. I was outside of it.”
It reminded me of my one visit to the County when Jenny was dating Br ad, and B rad, M ilo, Jenny and I stayed at Bra d’s parents’ house. B rad’s family had a family reunion at Governor’s and me and M ilo weren’t welcome, which I still find weird. That would never happen here.
In the really rural parts of Maine, there’s a palpable (unwarranted?) suspicion of people that aren’t from there. It’s like they’re part of an ancient African tribe, so they put up a wall for outsiders that one must work decades to chip away at.
People in Boston aren’t very friendly to strangers, especially strangers in cars Side Story as Example - If one more mofo beeps at me when I don't turn on the red arrow red light, I'm going to get out of my car and beat them. This caravan beeped at me today for not going right on the red arrow red light. THE COMMUTER RAIL WAS DRIVING BY. I rolled down my window and pointed at the red arrow. Then, I pointed out the train going by. Then I gave her a nasty look when she passed me when the street went to two lanes. THEN I SAW THE "BABY ON BOARD" SIGN ON THE BACK OF HER CAR and lost my shiznit, gyrating and swearing into my dashboard. 'Baby on Board: must run red lights and get run over by speeding trains.' WTF WTF WTF I HATE BOSTON DRIVERS!!!!!!!!!)
However, in Boston, as soon as you're a friend of a friend, you’re a best friend. If it were the reverse and Jenny, Mi lo and B rad had come to Weymouth and my family were having a reunion, they would welcome my friends at the party and engage them right away.
Somewhere in the middle is every-day Maine: mostly rural, slightly urban, where -- generally speaking -- people are friendly to start off and really kind once you know them, AND KNOW HOW TO DRIVE. Hence the motto, Maine, The Way Life Should Be .
Blazing in Gold and quenching in PurpleBeauty, ain't it?
Leaping like Leopards to the Sky
Then at the feet of the old Horizon
Laying her spotted Face to die
Stooping as low as the Otter's Window
Touching the Roof and tinting the Barn
Kissing her Bonnet to the Meadow
And the Juggler of Day is gone
=sighing=
Still, I wonder how it is that Elinor deals which such news...
Maybe I'll just read one more chapter.
Today is the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. I've collected websites and radio stories and documentaries to share with you for the occasion: King's last speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop"
The radio documentary on the events and "mood" of King's last year
If you haven' the time for the entire documentary, this story from Weekend America is a good summary and gives you a good feel for what the documentary is like:
This story, which I had never heard, about how James Brown played at the Gahdin on the night MLK was assassinated, and how that show helped "keep the peace" in Boston, unlike other major cities, which went into turmoil.
James Taylor's tribute song to Martin Luther King "Shed a Little Light"
Having bought bought second-tier Print-on-Demand (POD) publisher BookSurge, Amazon is now working to shut down its competition. (Full Blog Entry Here)
