as old as the hills

As much as I am looking forward to a new American President being inaugurated on January 20, 2021, I am absolutely dreading the electoral process between now and then:  the nastiness, the scandals, the lies, the distortions, the commercials, the debates, the lack of intelligent discussion...

Already numerous Democrats have declared their candidacies for the party nomination.  That’s fine, I guess, as long as they don’t form a circular firing squad and destroy or damage the party’s chances in the general election.

Of the declared candidacies, the one that has me pissed off is that of Senator Bernie Sanders.  Rightly or wrongly, I blame Bernie and his single-minded divisiveness in the 2016 campaign for helping to put Drumpt in the White House.

And, as many reasons as I could list for why he wouldn’t win a general election, there is another reason why he shouldn’t be running:  he’s just too old!  I say that as an older guy myself (but not THAT old).  I know the physical limitations that age brings!  Bernie, if he in some weird fluke won the Presidency, would be 79 when taking office.  And the relatively radical agenda that he promises would take years or decades to implement — if ever!

But he’s running... or walking.... I hope we can all come up with a better candidate.

souls for sale

Okay, I resisted writing about this, but this was the day that Michael Cohen appeared before the House Oversight Committee, and it’s on my mind...  It was a bizarre day...

Not to over-do a Faustian comparison, but it’s sad to see that some people, in their short-term illusions, can be willing to sell their souls to a “con man” like Drumpt — for Cohen, doing it for money and status; for the Republicans on that committee, for their re-election hopes.  Their hell awaits.

it’s good to be elsewhere

It’s not often that I post travel memories, and now it’s two days in a row.... four years ago yesterday at the Grand Canyon.... Now, three years ago today we were in Dublin, Ireland.  Okay, I’m done with my memory nostalgia posts.

See the world when you can!

me at the Temple Bar in Dublin

high above the Colorado river

Four years ago today, Jerry and Tom and I were in Arizona, at the Grand Canyon... A happy memory...

a hymn of promise on a snowy wind-blown weekend

"In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree; in cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!  In the cold and snow of winter there's a spring that waits to be, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see."

-- Natalie Sleeth, The United Methodist Hymnal.

small talk with a collapse expert

A few minutes ago, I was reading an interesting article on BBC.com titled "Are we on the road to civilisation collapse?  Studying the demise of historic civilisations can tell us how much risk we face today, says collapse expert Luke Kemp.  Worrying, the signs are worsening."

As fascinating and convincing as this topic is -- and I'm very much for Saving the Planet while personally hoping that you and I are long dead before climate change actually kills us -- I, shallow thinker than I am, find myself hung up on the term "collapse expert".  How the heck does one become a collapse expert?  Are there many collapse experts?  Are they fun to be around?

What do we talk about at a cocktail party, as we sip our gin-and-tonics?

ME:  So, Mr. Kemp, welcome to the neighborhood.  What do you do for a living?

MR. KEMP:  I'm a collapse expert.

ME:   [speechless]

Howard ranks the Oscar nominees

Breaking with tradition, there apparently there will be no host for Sunday night's Academy Awards telecast, but, in keeping with a tradition almost as significant, here is the annual ranking of the Oscar Best Picture nominated films from my humble, untrained perspective.

I still wish that the Academy would go back to five nominated films instead of eight to ten because I don't think there are more than five films that potentially deserve the Best Picture Oscar -- unless it's a really exceptional year.

This was not a really exceptional year.  But here we go:

1.  GREEN BOOK.  I loved this movie for its message of love and friendship, for the humor and the tears.  It's a film that I would watch over and over, and that's a major criteria for how I pick my favorites.
2.  A STAR IS BORN.  Okay, I realize that this is the third film version of this story, but what it might lack in originality it makes up for in excellence.  On the other hand, I have sort of a thing for Bradley Cooper, so how I could I not like it?
3.  ROMA.  If you see this movie on Netflix or on an airplane, you'll wonder what all the fuss is about.  If, like me, you see it in the fifth row center of a movie theater, you'll be blown away by the real-life grittiness and intensity.  It starts out slow and turns out to be amazing.
4.  BLACKKKLANSMAN.  Like Green Book, this story revisits an embarrassing and cruel era of my country's past.  This particular film also reminds us that it's not as much in the past as some of us wish.
5.  BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY.  Good story, well done, although some say it is too sanitized.  Great music if you like Queen (which I do, of course).  Rami Malek is terrific as Freddie Mercury (although the prosthetic teeth are overdone).
6.  THE FAVOURITE.  Speaking of Queen -- in this case, Queen Anne -- this film seems to be a costume display of woman's inhumanity to woman.  It took me a while to realize that this movie is a comedy, although the beyond-imagination wigs should have tipped me off.
7.  VICE.  Christian Bale is a quite convincing Dick Cheney, but I personally found it painful to be reminded of Cheney and the lies that led to the war with Iraq.  Not funny.
8.  BLACK PANTHER.  I'm not a Marvel Comics guy, so I was mostly lost and bored during this show, and, if it's about the special effects, I've seen better elsewhere.  I think the only superhero film that I ever loved was Superman II, which probably makes me pretty primitive in this genre.

Here are some of my favourites in other categories (although, truth be told, there are several nominated performances that I didn't see):

BEST ACTOR:  For A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper, for whom, as I said, I have kind of a "thing" anyway, but he did more than just act in this film.  He acted and directed and produced it and sang in it and deserves an Oscar!
BEST ACTRESS:  Glenn Close in The Wife.  And you're going to say, what about Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born?, who, admittedly, was great, but this is Ms. Close's seventh nomination (versus Gaga's first) and she finally deserves her Oscar.
SUPPORTING ACTOR:  Adam Driver for Blackkklansman.  He's good at playing a cool guy.  I used to like him in the HBO series Girls.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS:  I don't have a big preference in this category, but I'll say Emma Stone in The Favourite.  And I think her role was large enough to be in the Best Actress category instead of Supporting.
DIRECTOR:  Without question, Alfonso Curaron for Roma, although I admit that it would be kind of fun to see Spike Lee win for Blackkklansman.

That's it for this year.  Let's hope for some good 2019 films.  Be sure to watch the Oscars this Sunday night so that we can discuss the "winners", which, of course, we will undoubtedly disagree with.  After that, get out of your recliner sometime soon and go to the movies!

going for the gold

Well, we did it.

As of yesterday, the Twin Cities metro reached a total of 31.5 inches of snow so far this month, which makes it officially the snowiest February on record here... and there is another week of this February still ahead of us!

What I’m saying is this:  Considering how miserable this month has been and how sick everybody is of winter weather, we deserved the record!  What consolation would a second- or third-place finish have been??

And we survived it!  Only once did my car get so stuck in the snow that I had to get neighbors to push me out!

in a big dark room with strangers

Sometimes I wonder if movie theaters will always be around — as people design their elaborate home theaters, with enormous televisions and “all the comforts of home.”  But “all the comforts of home” includes all the distractions of home — the phone ringing, somebody at the door, the “Hey, can you put this on Pause while I go to the bathroom?”

I realize that if you’re watching something like Dude, Where’s My Car?, then who cares?  But it just doesn’t seem that serious filmmaking gets a fair shake when competing with the arrival of the pizza delivery guy.  Or maybe serious filmmaking would go away right along with the demise of the movie theater experience.

You might know that I always see all of the Best Picture Oscar nominees before the award telecast. Yesterday, it was my turn to see the current nominee Roma.  I saw it at one of the local theaters.

This film is also streaming on Netflix; in fact, it’s a Netflix production.  So I had some Facebook friends wondering why I would go to a theater when I could have watched it for free at home on Netflix.

Those same people who watched it at home didn’t like the film, and I understand that.  This movie needs full attention.  It’s in Spanish with English subtitles, takes place in Mexico City, and then it takes a while to figure out what the heck is going on.  I can see how viewers would be easily distracted and give up on it.

But in the dark movie theater, you’re committed!  You’ve paid for your ticket, you’re watching a big screen, you feel the intense real life that is taking place in front of you.

For this particular film, what a difference it makes.  It’s definitely worth the commitment.

another reason not to live in Siberia

As I sit here looking out at my patio — which I can’t actually see right now, but that I trust is still there underneath all that snow — I am thinking about an article I read this morning.  You see, there is a part of Siberia where the open coal fields and factories and pollution are so bad that snow, when it falls, sometimes comes down black instead of white.  Not only is it ugly but it’s physically toxic. I have faith that my patio will be back...  Until then, this isn’t such a bad view.

something political

Until I actually begin writing My Manifesto, I need to start writing SOMETHING to get that writer-mentality jump-start, so I’m thinking of reinvigorating my sleepy blog.  During those years when I was blogging every day, daily entries may have been nonsensical fluff at times (as you will see if you look back at my archived posts), but at least it was SOMETHING.

My concern is that my 2019 brain is too cluttered with political frustration to write without something political infesting even the most un-political origins.

Being located in the Twin Cities metro, I find that I naturally wrap myself in a cocoon of progressivism, and I shouldn’t be so taken aback when I see people outside that relatively liberal circle — people whom I otherwise like — being taken in by Drumpt’s obvious strategy of giving his adoring crowds comfort in their own bigotry, in their racist tendencies, and/or in their ignorance.

Fortunately, the Resistance is strong, and there are many that are writing and speaking out that are much more capable than I.  If I venture back into the blog world, I’ll try to stick to more mundane topics or pictures of my dog.

Just kidding.  I don’t have a dog.

'it was twenty years ago today....'

"It was twenty years ago today
Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play...."

*****
No, that Beatles lyric is not my twenty-years-ago-today story.  Here goes mine --

PICTURE IT:   20 years ago today.  December 31, 1998, New Year's Eve.  My apartment on the 31st floor of downtown St. Paul, Minnesota.

There I was, sitting at my computer, back when having a home computer was still a relatively new thing, probably debating myself whether I should turn on "Dick Clark's Rocking Eve" or just go to bed before 1999 even arrived.  On the computer, I was online on AOL ("America On Line"), back in those dial-up days, back when there was that awful sound when you connected, and I was mindlessly parked in an AOL Chat Room.  Remember those?

And then one of those moments happened, a not-a-big-deal that led to an adventure from which, thankfully, there was to be no turning back.  In the Chat Room, there was an IM ("Instant Message") to me from somebody with the "screenname" FOSSISBOSS (yes, it was all caps) asking if I wanted to chat.  I don't know what attracted his interest to my "AOL Profile".  Maybe it was my tag line -- "What good is sitting alone in your room?"  (borrowed of course from Cabaret) or maybe it was that hardly anybody else was online that evening because they were all out celebrating New Year's Eve, which made his choices limited.

The chat apparently went well, because he asked if he could come pick me up and we'd go out for a drink.  Well, why not?  I was a bit apprehensive, so I suggested my nearby favorite-at-the-time bar, Over The Rainbow, where I knew I'd be surrounded by friends in case this dude turned out to be a psycho.

He came and picked me up at my apartment building front door, and there he was, looking back in those days remarkably like the photo of him below (borrowed from my friend Deborah) -- dark, bushy hair; beautiful blue eyes; and that killer grin.  A life-altering moment.

So we rang in 1999 together somewhere Over the Rainbow, and after that the next 18 new years together, and what years they were!  As 2019 makes its first appearance tonight, I'll very much miss having him next to me recalling that first New Year's Eve, but now I need to picture him welcoming this new year alongside his mom, his dad, his dear friend Tomoko, his old dog Tango, and all of those angels who decided they needed his eternal energy up there.

THE POINT OF ME RE-TELLING THIS STORY?:  If I had dozed off with Dick Clark that night, I would have missed out on my best years.  Sure, I realize that instead of Jerry being the most amazing person that I have ever known, he could have been a serial murderer or a Republican or a totally forgettable dud or who-knows-what.  Maybe there is something to be said for keeping expectations low and hopes high.  Be open to possibilities, I guess.  Joy can come unexpectedly.  Life is very short!  Take chances!  After all, what good is sitting alone in your room?

Come hear the music play!

the year since Jerry left us

Sunday, September 9:  the one-year mark of the day when Jerry -- my partner, lover, best friend -- gave up his fight with brain cancer and passed into his next adventure.  While since that moment there has been no day with zero tears for me, he sends me messages -- through monarch butterflies, cardinals, dreams, and pennies from heaven -- letting me know that somehow somewhere he is okay.  I sure would rather have him right here with me.

Some people have asked me how I plan to observe that one-year anniversary (is "anniversary" the right word?).  The purpose of this note is to answer that question and to invite my friends and others who loved Jerry to share that day of remembrance with me.
*****
First, back to Bach:  September 9 will be a Sunday, so I'll be going to my church in the morning, and it will be Rally Day, which happens to be my favorite Sunday of the church year.  Rally Day comes the first week after Labor Day, which is of course the unofficial end of summer.  Morning services tend to be scaled down during the summers, when a lot of people are off up north at their lake cabins or on vacation or taking a break wherever.  But on Rally Day, the church year starts over.  It is sort of a "comeback" day.  The choir is back, all is refreshed and normal.  And my favorite part -- the tradition at my church -- the organist/choirmaster Philip Brunelle plays as the prelude Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on the amazing Plymouth pipe organ.

Feel free to join me at this service.  In fact, I'd be honored to see you there.

My church (very liberal, yet traditional, as I am):  Plymouth Congregational Church, Nicollet and Franklin Avenues in Minneapolis.  The service begins at 11, but, if you come, be sure to be there soon after 10:30 to hear the Bach prelude!
*****
Next, a sort of open-house at my home:  Starting at about 1 p.m. until probably into the evening, I would like to open up my house for friends and Jerry-fans to stop in and say Hello and/or hang out as they wish.  It will be no big deal, no RSVPing necessary, just a celebration of normal life.  You can bring a snack if you like (or not) and maybe we'll order some pizza or something.  The Vikings game will be on the TV off in the background, and, weather-permitting, we can drift outdoors Creekside.

If you don't know my address in Golden Valley, please messenger me or call me or something, and I'll get it to you.

Ideally, it will be one more day to remember Jerry's phenomenal life and -- for me, maybe for you -- to try to figure out how to emotionally maneuver the upcoming second year of him being gone.
*****
September 9, 2018.  Who knows.  Maybe it will be some sort of Rally Day.

Jerry & me:  Dublin, Ireland, February 2016

do you know the way to San Jose?

If you know me or if you were one of those people who read my blog during those years when I blogged every single day, you might remember when, back in 2011, Jerry and I brought my grand-nephew James here to Minneapolis from New Jersey the week after he graduated from high school.  We became “helicopter uncles” there for a while, helping him figure out college and work options and life in general.  The whole project could have flopped, but it didn’t.  James blossomed into a wonderful young man here in Minnesota.  Two years ago, he graduated from the University of Minnesota and launched himself into a career that seems to please him so far.

But life moves on.  He recently received an offer for a job in San Jose, California, and is moving there.  In the next few days, he is driving his car to California, and I’m going with him for that road trip, then I'll be flying home from San Jose, leaving him there to explore his new life.

I can’t help but feel sad to see him go and, at the same time, so proud. Jerry is looking down, I bet, and feeling the same.  Good luck, James.  We love you.

Howard ranks the Oscar nominees

I've been doing this for a number of years, ranking the Best Picture Oscar nominees from my own twisted point-of-view, and this year I found myself longing for the days when there were only five nominated pictures instead of nine.  For one thing, this hasn't been a normal year for me, so I had to sort of binge-watch as the Academy Awards got close.  Beyond that, though, I just didn't think there were nine films worthy of being nominated for the Best Picture of 2017.  Argue with me if you wish!

But the program is tomorrow (Sunday) night, and tradition rules my life – so here we go. My favorite to least-favorite:

1. 1.  THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI.  Of course you knew that I would love this movie!  It has an offbeat and compelling story, amazing characters, and, most of all, Frances McDormand!  There were a few unanswered questions – like, why didn't the doofus deputy (named Dixon!) get prosecuted for throwing the ad dude out the window?  And why wasn't it a bigger deal that the police department was bombed?  It is unlikely that this great film will win Best Picture – note that the director was not nominated for Best Director (But should have been!). 

2. 2.  THE SHAPE OF WATER.  This is a silly idea for a story – a cleaning lady falling for an overgrown reptile --  but it's really a terrific movie!  It feels like a cinematic achievement of some sort while still being a film you want to talk about afterwards with your friends.  I wanted to see it a second time but ran out of days! 

3. 3.  LADY BIRD.  How could anybody not like this movie?  It's a high-school coming-of-age sort of movie that has exceptional dialogue, especially the banter between Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) and her mom, played perfectly by Laurie Metcalf.
4. 4.  THE DARKEST HOUR.  London, 1940, Winston Churchill (played by Gary Oldman) becomes Prime Minister, and the country is faced with dreadful decisions in dealing with Hitler.  I'm not sure why this was "the darkest hour" compared with bombings yet to come, but whatever.  My favorite scene was when Churchill took the Underground to talk to real Londoners.

4. 5.  THE POST.  This true story – behind the scenes at the Washington Post during the Pentagon Papers drama – is obviously aimed at viewers like me who lived through the Vietnam era and knew who Robert McNamara, Daniel Ellsberg, and maybe even Richard Nixon were -- No explanations for younger, history-unconscious audiences.  Meryl Streep becomes Katherine Graham.  Tom Hanks is always Tom Hanks. 

5. 6.  GET OUT.  This is a weird horror-movie mix of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Stepford Wives, and Rosemary's Baby (three films, all of which I liked better than this one).  I just disliked the whole nasty premise of the story.  I did like Allison Williams (from the HBO series, Girls) as the evil temptress.  This could win Best Picture, but I hope not. 

6. 7.  CALL ME BY YOUR NAME.  Oh please, how desperate are we for Best Picture nominees?  This film, set in photogenic Italy, has some beautiful moments, but, to me, there is zero onscreen chemistry between the two main characters, and I just couldn't buy into any of it. 

7. 8.  DUNKIRK.  If the purpose of the makers of this film was to make a bunch of impressive-looking battle scenes and make you feel the personal tension for those in battle, they succeeded.  If their purpose was to tell history-ignorant American audiences the amazing, inspiring story of the Dunkirk rescue in 1940, they failed miserably. Even The Darkest Hour explained the significance of Dunkirk better.

8. 9.  PHANTOM THREAD.  OMG, this movie seemed to go on interminably.  Daniel Day-Lewis occasionally makes it almost palatable but not quite.  He says this is his last film.  I hope it isn't.
9. 
   
10. Some of my preferences in other categories (although -- full disclosure -- I didn't see a few of the nominated performances):
11. 
    
12. BEST ACTOR:  It's no contest.  Gary Oldman for his portrayal of Churchill in The Darkest Hour.
13. BEST ACTRESS:  Of course!  Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri!
14. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:  Sam Rockford, playing "Dixon" in Three Billboards.
15. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:  Laurie Metcalf for Lady Bird.
16. BEST DIRECTOR:  Guillermo del Toro for Shape of Water.
17. 
    
18. That's it for now.  Be sure to watch the program tomorrow night so that I have somebody that I can gripe about it to.  Thanks!
19.