Love it or leave it

Posted on by

That was a popular “establishment” slogan back in the sixties, aimed at those protesting the war in Vietnam. The idea being expressed was, if you didn’t support the war in Southeast Asia (it was a lot more than Vietnam), you should leave America. (We lost that war against Communism but gained a new trading partner.) The notion that if you don’t agree with the current administration’s foreign policy you’re un-American and should leave, was as lame then as it is now. But that’s not my point here.

I’ll be 57 next March. White male. Married. Two Golden Retreivers. Our house is paid off (Barb has a spare in Florida) and we have money in the bank. This country has been “berry, berry good to me.”

And for the the first time in my life, I’m not completely convinced America is the best country in the world. It might be. I hope it is. But I’m no longer positive. I haven’t traveled much so I don’t know much about other countries. But Canada seems like a good country. Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand. They all seem like pretty nice places. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not thinking about leaving. I like it here. But I’m sad to think we might not be the best country in the world. Maybe we never were, but it was nice to think it was true. I’d like to think so again.

Pattern Recognition, the movie?

Posted on by

“Peter Weir wants to direct it, there’s an option deal in place, and Weir has a contract with Warner to…well, not to go ahead and shoot it, but to go forward toward that end. Toward which he’s hired a screenwriter — whose name I’ve forgotten (which is actually a good sign with regard to Weir’s choice) — and has gone to London, Tokyo and Moscow to look at locations.”

— From William Gibson’s blog

Old TV, New TV.

Posted on by

A friend who had seen Jon Stewart savage the Crossfire weenies called to tell me about it and I remember thinking, “Crap. I missed it.” Then, I remember thinking, “I’ll be able to find it on the Net.” And I did. Jeff Jarvis calls it “the future of TV”:

“In old TV, a moment like this came, and if you missed it, you missed it. Tough luck. In new TV, you don’t need to worry about watching it live–live is so yesterday–because thousands of peers will be keeping an eye out for you to let you know what you should watch, and they’ll record it and distribute it.” [C|Net story]

Friday Night Lights

Posted on by

Hard not to come away thinking of Hoosiers. Billy Bob did a very credible job but he’s no Gene Hackman or Dennis Hopper. Still, I can’t recall a better movie about high school football. I think I’d be a little embarrassed if I were from Odessa. All of the beautiful, aerial views of desolate, empty desert must have been to help us understand that “football is all they have” in small, West Texas towns. My favorite line (this probably isn’t verbatim) was: The future is getting ready to start in a few minutes. “Forever’s about to happen in just a few minutes.” Sound track was great. And the movie was shot in what I’ve come to think of as the “Saving Private Ryan” effect. Very effective. [IMDB]

Radio-Guy

Posted on by

Steve Erenberg collects stuff.

“Oddball & scary scientific stuff, globes, industrial masks and helmets, motors, contraptions, electrostatic devices, salesmen’s samples, anatomical models, x-ray tubes and early radio equipment.”

I’d love to see where he lives. Erenberg is a creative director at a NY advertising agency but was trained as an architect. He designed the five-story globe in front of Trump Tower.

Bed and Breakfasts

Posted on by

“Bed and breakfasts are “honey, let’s go away” punishment detention camps for men who owe their extremely furious wives some stab at romance every few years. It’s a way station for dead marriages trying to get it up one last time before that long deep dive into marriage counseling.” — Halley Suitt

Cholesterol

Posted on by

A year ago my LDL was 130 (HDL 73). That’s boderline high and my doc encouraged me to watch my diet. By April this year, my LDL was 114 (HDL 72) so he started me on Lovastatin in an effort to get it under 100. My LDL is down to 75 (HDL 75), a reduction more than 40% (just like it says on TV). You can exercise and eat right but if heredity is working against you, go with the drugs.

The Long Tail

Posted on by

The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson (Wired) explains why you can’t find movies like Sorcerer (Roy Scheider) at the corner Blockbuster but can at Netflix. Anderson’s easy-to-follow-explanation is a tad long but an informative piece. In the (near) future, everything will be available online. While nobody cares about everything, somebody cares about every thing.