shake_it_up

I love the Independent Film Channel, can't really keep up with its programming. I was looking for the much-hyped Monty Python doc, but I guess that doesn't start until Sunday. I came across a pile of great movies I can recommend over the next week.

On Sundance, Queen Margot is on late, 1:35 am PST tonight.  This is my all-time favorite historical drama, starring Isabel Adjani and Daniel Auteil, but with a great cast including Virna Lisi, Miguel Bosé, and Claudio Amendola as the big lug executioner.  No, it's not very funny, but it's sexy. 

Mon Oncle Antoine-tomorrow at 7:30 am on IFC.  I saw this on its release in 1971, so my memory is hazy.  One of the worthwhile coming of age movies, and the uncle is quite a "dad".  Or so I thought at 18. 

Saturday, I am going to record Samurai Part 2 at 8 am, PST on IFC.   I have seen this before, I believe it was on a double bill with Part 1.  However, the programmer (Orson Welles? Brattle? Cambridge folks have any idea?) didn't have the grace to show Samurai Part 3 in the same century.  So I am going to freshen up on Part 2 with the expectation of seeing Samurai Part 3 the following week, same time.  My recollection of 1 and 2 is hazy, but there's lots of cherry blossoms. 

Smilla's Sense of Snow is more or less a mystery set in Denmark.  But Julia Ormond's performance sets it apart, her character is unique.  It's also got Gabriel Byrne, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Harris, Tom WIlkinson... great cast.  I see this movie whenever it comes around and it stays fresh. It's coming up next Wednesday the 21st at 11:15 am and 3:15 pm. 

Me, an elephant and a panther, just lying around they yard.

Pretty peaceful, me reading, the panther basking and the elephant foraging. I'm lying on my belly with reading in hand looking at the scene.

The elephant gets a little frisky, maybe horny, and tries to hump the panther. I was just a little concerned until he rolled over on his side and grazed me. The actuality that my cheek was cradled in my hand made it seem more real.

Elephants rolling onto me trigger my urge to flee (wake up) so this dream didn't get more exciting.

No, not a sale.

I was having a quick snack at Costco last night, sitting at one of the bench/tables they provide. A guy passed by my table and went to another directly in my line of sight.

I couldn't help notice, 3 feet away at its closest, that his jeans had slipped down revealing a full, round butt in grey boxers. They hung off the front of his crotch and his thighs- I know how to do that too but it's hard to maintain. He was overall interesting- dark latino, bearded, broad shouldered, with a large purple t-shirt and matching baseball cap worn backwards. The pants were "held up" by a kind of studded belt, and were partly weighed down by a large bunch of keys danging out of the pocket.

Walking towards his table, he adjusted the pants up, to the middle of his butt. Now he showed 4 inches of grey under his undies rather than 10 inches. He maintained that all the way to his table, and adjusted a little (not too much) to sit down.

Legitimately eating my chicken log and hot dog, I looked at my paper and at the scene in front of me. Mr. Saggypants was very cute, and voluble. The woman with him was plumper, with hair coming loose. A smaller guy with thick crewcut was sitting with his back to me. I had fantasies that the guy in bright purple with pants falling off might be the gay buddy (though- honestly, why do we care, what does it matter, would anything ever happen if he were?).

Not stalking, I finished eating a little after the trio. They got up and it seemed like maybe the other guy was a tall son, maybe middle school age. Maybe.

I figured I'd savor and blog, and that was it. Finished my meal and went back to my car. On the way, Mr. Saggypants and the woman (I'll call her "his wife") came out of the parking area walking in front of me. No kid along. I slowed down a bit to observe. His right hand compulsively adjusted the jeans to be "just so" hanging off his butt. The belt might have comfortably stayed on top of the nicely rounded butt, but no, they needed to teeter right there at the equator. Hanging in front, basically, off his junk.

If I'd had a camera this would have been done in a click, but instead it took 15 minutes to paint the picture. So there it is.


NB Icon (the Hives) shows how wide I can open for a fat dick.

A good friend from Flickr has joined LJ and I'd like to introduce him. There is called Carl78759. Here we just call him carl78759 . (Personally I refer to him as.... well, that's a secret.)

Is Carl a blast? Just check out the cut. And his page- his first couple of posts are both revelatory and funny. Just like him.

Tomorrow is a holiday for some, and others (who have cable) can record shows while at work.  So you should check these out.

8 1/2 is a movie that seems to offer more on every viewing. So I watch it at every opportunity. It's on at 10:45 am PST, check your local listings.

The Model Shop had a showing in LA last spring and I missed it.  As I recall, the reviewers were impressed by the fabric of the city which was caught by Jacques Demy.  Sounds interesting.  1:15 PM LA time.  

These are followed by a famous disaster, "The Appointment", with Anouk Aimee and Omar Sharif.  And later, "Fanny" is on, with Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier, this is a good adaptation of a 3-film series from the forties, "Fanny", "Cesar" and "Marius".  The remake is worthwhile. 

I have a boxful of old Mac disks of my mother's.  I'd promised myself to transfer them to the hard drive and organize the information.  

I am running Tiger, 10.4.  I have tried several of the disks and they don't show up in Finder.  When the USB is connected, it does activate the reader, but it never shows up.  At first I connected through a hub, but moved it to its own USB slot.  

I'd return the reader, but I got it at Fry's over a month ago.  Maybe they'll give store credit.  However, I'd still like to retrieve the data.  

Any thoughts? 

 

 

Well, my uncle died yesterday, I heard at about midnight last night. He lived in Yokohama, and had lived in Japan since the '60's.  He leaves a wonderful wife, a little older then me, and a daughter I am not in touch with.

I feel ambivalent, I idolized Uncle Ken as a kid but we'd drifted apart.  He had gone from a high school dropout who lied about his age to go to Korea to a principled pacifist who went to Japan to establish an institute for language, culture and interneational understanding.  He had a BA from Harvard and a PhD from Yale- I went to both graduation ceremonies.  

My mother prodded and pushed him as she did her men, and he looked up to her as a mentor.  I remember the moment when they both noted that he had grown out of "baby brother" status (they were in their 40's then).  They loved each other, and when e-mail happened, they were in daily contact before her death in 2000.  

The last time I saw Ken was at my grandmother's funeral.  Once my mother died he kind of dropped out of communication.  He was a strong force, might have helped with some of the bad dynamics that happened on my mother's death, but I think he lost interest.  The last time we spoke, my close friends who had studied at his Institute called with him there, we talked about 15 minutes.  Maybe 2 years ago.  

My mother and grandmother were our mutual tie.  I was supposed to send him the carved bear that belonged to my grandparents after my mother died, but he decided he didn't want it.  It's an odd feeling, that this intense tie and family connection just tapered off.  

I haven't written much about my birht father here, but he is still alive and not doing well.  In the same way, he once loomed over me, in absence.  And now, I am attentive just to make him feel good.  But not that interested.

Passed away too young.*   Here is a performer who deserves the term "artist".  Great singer, great songwriter.  Songs.  Back when that mattered.




*  Shit, he was just my age.  

I love this whole record by the Watson Twins, without Jenny Lewis. Heart Songs, maybe my favorite record of the year.

I thought of this song by the Fugs:





It starts with "boobs" ,you have to wait awhile for the references.

Guess not.  I got this from reslbear 

Neat freak? - (Slob)
Gym bunny? - (No, I go, sometimes.)
Computer geek? - (semi)
Sci-fi geek? - (in 7th grade)
Comic book geek? - ('til about 25)
Fabulous cook? - (I would say, "pretty good")
Showtunes? - (Not really.  Some, from "Oklahoma" to Cabaret.  I can't think of one after that)
Opera? - (I've seen a few)
Midler? - (Small doses but I'd love to see the show)
Streisand? - (I liked the song "Guilty".  Does that count?)
Cher? - (When she showed she had talent and intelligence as an actress, she impressed me)
Madonna? - (Not really)
Pull off drag in public? - (My adam's apple is too big?)
Pull off pants in public? - (Does this make me gay?)
Able to quote fabulous movies? - (No)
Witty repartee? - (Witty, maybe, but I have kind of a speech impediment that precludes repartee)
Fashion-forward? - (I prefer classic styles and a kind of comfortable California aesthetic. )
Well-groomed? - (Probably not)
Perfect hair? - (I never believed in perfect hair)
Good dancer? - (Sometimes)
Disco bunny? - (I am not a disco bunny)
Bathhouse buddy? - (Well, it's been awhile, but that can be fun. I think that makes me GAY)
Wine connoisseur? - (I'll just say no.)
Fine dining connoisseur? - (I like the high, and the low)
Green thumb? - (I hide it)
Judgmental queen? - (No, not at all)
Buy Perfect gift for perfect occasion? - (Interesting criterion)
Interior decorating? - (Not yet, but when I settle down I'd like an environment that expresses "me" better)
Protest queen? - (Protest queen?  Is this list homophobic, or what? )
Sew/knit? - (I went to a job interview with a ripped pocket tucked into my belt!)
Dated Leigh Chapman? - (Is that a man or woman?)

Sorry this was so shallow.

I got this from shirtlifterbear on here, and Pete Chvany on Facebook:

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

1. The Deptford Trilogy. I've read it a couple of times. Three books that reveal why Boy Staunton dies with a rock in his mouth. (3 books, I'm cheating already.) It's by Robertson Davies, and it's not just the fancy marketing.

2. The Sotweed Factor by John Barth. My friend Dale suggested I read 5 Barth books in preparation for reading Letters. Set in different times and places, characters from the different books all converge in Letters. The Sotweed Factor was by far the best, loads of fun. Susan Lawson also suggested I read this, way back.

3. Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor. This is an epic tale of two children who migrate from Mexico, barely grow up, and meet and marry. It is so detailed and personal, I forgot it was nonfiction.

4. On the Road . I reread this last year, in the original "scroll" version (copied from the unedited manuscript Kerouac wrote in five weeks in 1953). Forty years after my initial reading I realized that K was a coward, a drunk and a liar. Also, the book is constructed as a denial of his love affair with Neal Cassidy. Still, it's seminal and I'm trying to figure out its power.

5. The Iliad, Fagles translation. By Homer.

I got the Odyssey and the Iliad from a book club. I wasn't particularly interested in The Iliad, and asked my mother (alive back in '98) if I had to read it before reading the Odyssey. Of course, she said "YES". Not only is it thrilling and deep, but I marvel at its being transmitted orally through the centuries before writing was invented. I finished reading it on a cross-country train ride, and it was really exciting.

6. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. Every novel by Louise Erdrich is crucial reading, but this hit me hardest. Love, religion, spirituality, sexuality, grounded in Chippewa culture and spirituality. This one is hard to describe.

7. Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson. Interlocked stories narrated by F*ckhead, a slightly demented druggie in the 70's and 80's. The writing is clipped, observant and hilarious. Johnson is a serious writer, but if he took a tenth of the drugs his narrator took, how did he remember these events? That's the mystery of this work.

You can get the flavor of this book by watching the movie. But Johnson is major: I've read all his works before and since "JS". This is short and worth picking up.

8. Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy. I was about 18 when I read this. This was my first inkling that love and optimism might not conquer the world. It was a good lesson.

9. Triton by Samuel Delany. I thought I'd toss one in by a favorite writer who is on my Facebook list. This is not my favorite or the most fully realized of Delany's works. (That would be Dahlgren or a Neveryon book or Mad Man or.. ) But this sci-fi novel stands in my memory as unique in a couple of ways-- the setting is so abstract: one man chasing another through a shifting landscape. The protagonist is unique in having few sympathetic traits. He/(eventually she) stalks his loved one, and it shows that it's "all about him", all to do with obsession and nothing with love and caring for the other.

That's what I thought when I was 22. I'll have to revisit it.

10. This is taking longer than 15 minutes.

The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing. I've read a lot of Lessing, not much since this book. Showing how a bourgeois woman can "mother" a revolutionary cell in a council flat in London and nurture them along to a fabulous disaster of a "revolutionary act", this is a really useful book.

11. Walden I pick this up and read pages once in awhile. Makes me happy I grew up nearby in New England.

12. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I am going to reread this next, I think it may be a remedy for my disappointment in On the Road.

13. The Sunlight Dialogues by John Gardner. This is like Triton, it breaks molds. Gardner is a really fun writer with a multitude of characters and a playful approach to the novel. This stands out with the main character, a cop who is decidedly not "hot", and his wife, a blind woman who is spiteful and narrow-minded.

14. Assembling California by John McPhee. It's an extended essay about the geology of California and the West Coast, told as a gripping story even older than The Iliad. I'd recommend this to anyone.

15. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs is writing as subversion. In the 1920's, the surrealists projected jarring juxtapositions in order to subvert the superego in the bourgeois mind. That's how Naked Lunch works for me. Burroughs' writing is clear punchy sentences, but the sum of it is devastating. We need that once in awhile.

AND Dave White is off in New York letting people know about the compilation he's got a piece in, http://www.loveisa4letterword.com/home.html . I bet that's good, too.

Why now?
Not because I have more time now. Because I hear nobody reads on the weekend, but they catch up Monday morning.

What's been up?
Some work for a change. Two whole clients. One is a startup but they are paying me more. My old Venice organization is cool, and they have hooked me up to other work. It's a holding pattern, but we have lots to do through August.

Simi Valley
It's okay but Ill be out of here by the fall.

Gym
I have been going to the gym. Oh yeah, with the right mix it might get just a little cruisy even if it's Simi Valley.

Weight
From the 280's last winter to 260's now.

The Gay Generation Gap
mattycub and e_ticket linked to this article on Facebook and here (I think). It kind of pissed me off. I listened to the author on Weekend All Things Considered and, for one thing, he was more openly gay than in the article, a lot more "we" and a lot less passive "they". But the piece seemed very shallow, and I am dubious about the sources, mostly barflys. I think we should be above this shit.

Sonya Sotomayor
The hearings have been fun but nothing compared to the Clarence Thomas or Robert Bork hearings. I'm not asking for the return of the right wing.

I would like to point out that two of 110 Supreme Court justices have been female, although women constitute 51% of the population. What is the statistical likelihood of this? How many have come from poverty? how many from Hispanic backgrounds? White males of privilege have run this country for most of 135 years, and have made some awfully stupid decisions, many of these wreaking havoc on others while benefiting themselves and their class.

Bring on a Wise Latina- or five!

Fun Week
I went with my friend Mike to see the Future Villain Band pre-San Diego Pride rehearsal at the Guitar Center rehearsal studios. It was a blast.

Saturday, I went to Venice to the car rally put on by Venice Community Housing. I was stationed at a corner to make sure that cars didn't drive through the barricades to get past. It's not a through street, so not many cars tried. Got a nice tan, had a two-hour chat with my buddy Jaimie from Wisconsin (old classmate from Satya School) and saw lots of hunky neighbors checking out the cars at the contest.

Then I hotfooted it home for a nap before the show by Marc Manning and Dorian Wood. Yes, that's a link to all of Marc's recorded music. It is fascinating stuff, especially to see live how he sets up tones and chordal progressions, and sings beautifully against them, sometimes looping his own voice and then harmonizing with himself. Old buddy Brad was there too, and I got to meet his daughter Hayley. Also spotted: djmrswhite!  That makes it a cool event. 


Fun Date
A couple of weeks ago.   An out-of-towner.  I think there's a followup sometime.

Comicon
I'm not going to the event, but I am taking Wednesday off to go and hang at the beach.  Suggestions for a cool beach near the event, if we don't go to Black's? I  have a meeting in Lancaster Thursday afternoon, so it's a quickie.

( Courtesy cut- man in white undies )

	One Husky Nation Underbear bearpawly's meme

Both dreams were very lucid and came to me in the morning.  I have been sleeping in to shake a cold, so maybe that contributed to the clarity. 

Dream 1
Thursday morning I dreamed that I was under threat.  Two guys were around me asking me questions in a threatening way.  Not Dick Cheney type torturers, but kind of gang bangers.  I wasn't going to give them what they wanted.  One of them put two pins into my pants leg and was about to slam down on them, into my thigh.  I brushed them away.  Then the one guy put two more on my arm.  In the dream, the effect would be to drive them straight into the bone and crack it.  I wasn't going to put up with that, so I woke up.  

Dream 2
The next dream was much more welcome. I was at my friend Greg's house in Newton.  He had to put down Tucker, his dog, awhle after I left Boston.  I had put my dog Woby to sleep at age 14, before I left Boston in 2006. 

In the dream I went upstairs in his house and got the dogs out of a room.  Woby and Tucker's replacement, a male yellow lab about 10 months old, were happy and wagging their tails. 

I went downstairs and there was a party forming.  Woby came up and really threw herself at me, licking me in recognition that it had been a long time since she'd seen me.  It was a great dream, very healing.