Sunday, July 26, 2015

mick isn't old

I was just several years behind him, but I remember when Mick Jagger turned 30 and I had moments of wondering if I should listen to the Rolling Stones anymore.  After all, it was the baby-boomer era of "Never trust anybody over 30!"

But I kept playing the Stones and always will, and, as Mick Jagger turns 72 today, I'm still several years behind him, in a baby-boomer era of questioning whether anybody under 30 can trusted.

Mick is still spry and performing and in great shape and might still be doing "Jumping Jack Flash" at age 100.  We went to see him and the Stones just last month here in Minneapolis.  It's been great having him along for our ride through rapid decades.

"But what can a poor boy do, 'cept to sing for a rock-n-roll band?..."

Friday, July 24, 2015

the science of knowing when to drop 'em

As of this moment, I have 278 "Facebook friends", a term that a few years ago would have meant nothing.  To say that I have that many "friends" also means nothing, trust me on this:  A few of them I've never met, a couple of them are deceased, some are cousins that I haven't seen in 40 years, quite a few are high school classmates that I never had an actual conversation with in high school but with whom I am Facebook-conversing about seeing each other next month at our high school reunion.  It's weird.

Of those 278 real and pseudo friends, about ten percent of them are posting annoying crap non-stop, the worst being right-wing ignorant nonsense:  outright racism, Obama-bashing, Christian persecution-complex, gun-nut stuff, that sort of thing.

The casual observer of my plight would say, "Well, dude, if these misguided fools are annoying you every day, de-friend them!"

Hence this discussion.

Do I want to only surround myself with people who think like I do?  Do I want to know what "the other side" is thinking?  As I despair for this divided country, is it hard to look away from the current and oncoming trainwreck?

Since I started writing this post a few minutes ago, I have dropped no one....

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

it's going to be hard to keep my mouth shut

It's hard to not be a cynic and, as the US is bombarded with overload over next year's Presidential election, embarrassed to be on the world stage.

Full disclosure:  I'm ready to vote for Hillary Clinton for President.  I love Bernie Sanders, of course, but I'm a pragmatist of sorts, so Hillary is the best we can do.

But it's those 16 clowns chasing the Republican nomination that are capturing the headlines because they only make news when they say something stupid, which is always, and meanwhile who knows what the real stories and worldwide issues are?

The past couple weeks, it's about Donald Trump, a joke candidate who craves any kinds of attention and whose hairdresser I envy.  I mean, what do they talk about during the haircuts?  Alternate styles?  Alternate hair colors?  Or is Trump insisting that nothing change because it's so perfect as it is?  Does the hair stylist have other customers that maybe are impressed that he or she does Trump's hair?

Meanwhile, Trump the bigmouth attention-grabber is leading the other 15 Republican candidates in the polls.

The American nightmare.

As a realist (some of the time), I also recognize that whomever the Republicans nominate could actually win, and it scares me to realize that if I had to pick one of the 16 to be President, it would probably be Trump -- primarily because the others are so horrible (Ted Cruz as President??) but also because I have a couple of good nostalgic Trump memories that are distorting my reasoning.

For instance, back in the '80s, I enjoyed his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal.  The man at least used to be brilliant, and his whack-job status hadn't quite wiped out his accomplishments in real estate and business in general.

And then there were his three Atlantic City casinos, which I guiltily loved way more than I should have and which all went downhill and closed or are almost closed after he exited.  I make no excuses for having good memories of fun there with my mom and my sister Joan and my son Tom in places that had the gold-lettered TRUMP name everywhere.  How did I know that the dude would become so attention-consumed -- dangerously so -- that he would say anything just to be outrageous?

Owning casinos vs. running the U.S.?  Both are crapshoots, for sure, but we can do better than this.  I hope.
Trump Plaza, only a memory now.
As far as the really crazy stuff he says (immigrants, Mexico, birther nonsense, maybe even John McCain), I'd bet that most of his rivals at least partly agree with him, they just don't have that who-cares-what-you-think Trump mouth.  The next few months will be trying.
 

Sunday, February 22, 2015

MSP to LAS

As I write this, the temperature here in the Twin Cities is minus 6 degrees.  It's hideous.

We, along with my son Tom, are some are of the lucky ones, getting on a plane in a few hours to somewhere warmer -- Las Vegas, then a little road trip into northern Arizona to two places that are on Tom's "bucket list" -- the Grand Canyon and Sedona.  He hasn't been to Vegas before and is a Cirque-du-Soleil freak, so we are taking him to several of the shows there.

Without looking at the extended forecast and crossing my fingers, I am hoping that we arrive back in Minnesota next week to tolerable temperatures and that an early spring is more than a wild fantasy.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Howard ranks the Oscar nominees

Films come, films go, some we remember, some we don't.  I don't go to the movies nearly as often as I used to since the choices are generally pretty bleak (Remakes, sequels, overdone and tacky special effects).  Then comes January and the Academy Award nominees are announced and suddenly I'm bingeing in my annual quest to see all of the Best Picture nominees.  Some years, there are 9 nominees, this year there are 8.  The Oscars air tomorrow night, starting just about the time I'm stepping off a plane in Las Vegas.  I'll rush to my hotel room to see most of the program, I hope.

My friend Ward, another annual nominee-binger, was texting me the other day that none of this year's Best Picture nominees are grabbing him as outstanding, and I have to agree with that.  It's definitely not a Lawrence of Arabia year.  There are some close calls as I list my favorite to my least favorite. And remember, these aren't predictions, they are my quirky preferences.  Here goes:

1)  The Imitation Game.  A gripping story about the guy who broke the Nazi code in WW II and ended up being a "criminal".
2)  Birdman.  The direction, cinematography and Michael Keaton make this story about an aging former superhero movie star an excellent film.
3)  Boyhood.  The uniqueness of Boyhood is what makes it -- being filmed over 12 years with the same cast, watching this boy grow up before our eyes.  The story is kind of thin, but either this or Birdman will win Best Picture.
4)  The Theory of Everything.  Eddie Redmayne is a totally convincing Stephen Hawking.
5)  Whiplash.  An intense movie about "I'd do anything to be the best jazz drummer of all time".
6)  American Sniper.  Since I don't like war movies and since this movie had no context about "what the heck were we doing in Iraq anyway?", you might be surprised that I don't have this film listed last, but, hey, who wouldn't love Bradley Cooper in anything?
7)  Selma.  Considering the great topic of the 1965 Selma marches, this should have been a way better movie.  I personally couldn't get past the dragging dialogue and the totally unconvincing portrayals of MLK and LBJ.
8)  The Grand Budapest Hotel.  I'm sorry, guys, but I thought this was a really dopey movie.  It will win some technical awards, though.

Other thoughts:
Best Actor:  Michael Keaton in Birdman, although it would be kind of touching to see Eddie Redmayne win for Theory of Everything too.
Best Actress:  Julianne Moore will win for Still Alice, which I still haven't seen, but, gee, she sure looks good in the clips.
Best Supporting Actor:  No question.  J.K. Simmons in Whiplash.
Best Supporting Actress:  They all deserve it, although I thought that nominating Meryl Streep for her part as a witch in Into the Woods was kind of silly.  She was just having some fun.  Or maybe they just like having her in the Oscar-night audience.
Best Director:  Richard Lanklater will probably win because of his 12-year commitment to Boyhood, and I'm no expert in film directing, but I'm thinking that the best overall accomplishment in directing goes to the guy with the unpronounceable name for Birdman.

I looked back in my blog to my list last year, when I picked Wolf of Wall Street as my favorite, even though I pretty much knew that 12 Years a Slave would win.  A movie year goes fast.  All years go fast.

Who knows, maybe Imitation Game will pull an upset?

Watch the show tomorrow night.  Let me know what you think.

Friday, February 20, 2015

meditating with my eyes open

If I would have been blogging from November 8th until now, I would have been complaining and whining, so you didn't miss anything enlightening.  Now I'm ready to re-energize my blog (do people still blog?), partly because I have some things to say and partly because I need to give my annual Oscar rankings.

That's coming tomorrow, followed by continuous words of genius.  Stick with me.