i wonder what a depression feels like

They're finally starting to say that our economy is in a "recession". I've been dealing with business clients for 30 years, and I can honestly say that I've never seen businesses struggling like they are now. Meanwhile, individuals are dealing with foreclosures, work layoffs, massive debt, and financial fear. None of our leaders or would-be leaders are inspiring confidence. I think it's going to take a lot more than a feel-good tax rebate.

another acid flashback

Yeah, I'm kidding, I never dropped acid. But I do find it easy to time-warp back to 1968 as if there'd been no in-between times. The past week, I was reading Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris, a new book about the dramatic changes in American filmmaking in the 1960s. It makes its points by focusing on the five 1967 Best Picture Oscar nominees from each of their conceptions several years earlier to Oscar night in April 1968. Two of the nominees, Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate, were cutting-edge masterpieces, nothing like Hollywood had seen before. Two, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Doctor Dolittle, were more standard, old-Hollywood stuff. One, the eventual winner In the Heat of the Night, was somewhere in the middle. This book, Pictures at a Revolution, was great, one of those books that I honestly didn't want to see end, a book made only for time-warp freaks and history-of-film buffs. Because it pitted old-Hollywood against new-Hollywood, it was one of the most interesting Oscar races ever, certainly the one that I've ever had the most interest in, and I remember it well -- being so disappointed, in my case, when The Graduate didn't win. Looking back, ah - April 1968 - it seems like a fine time, a "more innocent" time, as they say - hence my time-warp tendencies. Then I realize that the Oscar ceremony that year was just a day after Martin Luther King's funeral and only a couple weeks before I was drafted into the Army for two years, facing an immediate four months of intense jungle training and Vietnam potentially looming over me. Maybe not such an innocent at all. Maybe there are no innocent times.

the governor of new york

I know I'm in the minority on this, but I think prostitution should be legal (I also have the radical opinion that most "street drugs" should be legalized, but that's a topic for another day). It isn't. I realize that Elliot Spitzer broke the law by hiring prostitutes and that he knew that he was breaking the law, but what I hate is how in America the inclination is to jump on somebody when they're down, to humiliate and degrade a whole family, especially when it's just for one of these "victim-less crimes". This should be an issue only between the accused and his wife, it's a personal matter. I admire her for sticking by him, even encouraging him to stay in office, and I think it's too bad he resigned as governor today, under incredible pressure even from the hypocrites in his own party. Meanwhile, we have elected officials that are war criminals, responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, and they still hold their positions.

working my way back to you

When you're working all the time, sometimes you need a few moments away from the work, even if it's just to a different kind of insanity in the outer suburbs. We had a coupon for a free night at Mystic Lake Casino hotel, made the reservation for last night, had a surprisingly beautiful room, gambled a little, ate some good food, slept in a different bed. Woke up, had some breakfast, gambled a tiny bit more, bought some tickets to see Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons (May 17), then left that soft, cozy world to face reality again. It was -5 degrees outside (in March!!). The half-hour drive back into the city, not as nice as the drive out. Back to the office, where the work was impatiently waiting and multiplying. oh well.

grisham, again

Finished reading the latest John Grisham book, The Appeal, a couple days ago. He hadn't written a legal novel in several years, so I was kind of excited to get back to one, sort of a 90s nostalgia thing. I was really disappointed. It has a good subject -- how big business is buying the U.S. judicial system -- which I totally agree with him on, but the story is so contrived, so lazy, so lacking in any subtlety, that the message is lost. It should have been a non-fiction book about the real problem.

on the street where we live

It was the 50th anniversary London touring company version of My Fair Lady that we went to see last night. Great sets, casting, Matthew Bourne choreography, all that. But Joan and I, being the trivia nerds that we are, wanted to see Marni Nixon playing the non-singing role of Henry Higgins' mother. Normal people may not know that Marni Nixon, decades ago, was the "singing voice" of Audrey Hepburn in the movie version of My Fair Lady, as well as the dubbed singing voice of Natalie Wood in West Side Story, Deborah Kerr in The King and I, and others. One of the oddities of movie musicals in the 50s and the early 60s was that a marquee-name actor would get the roles, not actors that could actually sing. Marni Nixon finally got her face (and voice) on film as one of the nuns in The Sound of Music.

Before the theater, Jerry, Joan and I had a wonderful dinner, Cuban cuisine, at Cafe Havana. It was sort of our "farewell, Fidel!" dinner. Say what you will about Castro, but he outlived all his contemporaries and overlapped ten U.S. Presidencies.

happy birthday, leap people

Today is one of those quirks of the Gregorian calendar, the 29th of February, and I want to wish all of you with February 29 birthdays a happy birthday, and I guess I won't have to do that again for another four years. ... For the rest of us, let's enjoy our "extra" day.

More worthless knowledge: I of course had to look up and find what "famous" people had a February 29 birthdate and only came up with two people whose names I even recognized, now both dead -- bandleader Jimmy Dorsey and singer/TV star Dinah Shore.

can't decide

Well, we saw the last two Best Picture nominees, and I have to say I've never had this much trouble deciding on a favorite. These last two, Atonement and There Will Be Blood, both of which I had low expectations for, were very good movies, so I'm thinking that any of the five nominees could win Best Picture and I'd be okay with it. I usually have somebody to at least root against. OK, let's see. Maybe I'll pick Juno, which I enjoyed the most and would see again, as my favorite, even though it's the kind of small movie that is generally just happy to be nominated. Then there is Atonement, which to me was way better than the Ian McEwan novel (and when have I ever preferred a movie version to the book?). And of course I like the Coen brothers. And George Clooney. :-(

My other (selected) picks: Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood; Best Actress: Julie Christie for Away From Her (I love Julie Christie); Directing: the Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men (they should have won for Fargo); Best Supporting Actor: Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton; Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton; Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody for Juno (she wrote it here in the Twin Cities at coffee shops); Best Cinematography: Atonement.

Anyway, I'm glad that self-imposed pressure is off for a while. No more movies for a while. But I might be seeing three plays next week.

a Wild night with Tom

Tom and I had a great evening tonight at the Minnesota Wild game... The Wild beat the Nashville Predators, 5-4, with 4 seconds left in overtime. Exciting finish! (How the heck did Nashville ever get a hockey team, anyway?)... Tom has become an avid hockey fan... but, after all, he has lived his whole life in Minnesota ("The State of Hockey").

*****

Check out this video -- the Wild score another goal:

cupcake anguish

For the past week, I've been on a sort of half-assed diet, which might help explain why my blogsite is suddenly more active (typing instead of eating potato chips) and which is another reason why I'm not reporting what I had for lunch. But then yesterday a friend showed up with a cupcake for me. Immediately, I am thinking, if I'm going to ingest empty calories, I'd rather have a Pepsi, but what was I going to do -- throw it in the dumpster? And my friend said she had spent a long time in line at the cupcake shop because it was Valentine's Day and everybody was there buying cupcakes for their possibly-dieting lovers. So with guilt whichever way I went, I sat down with this unbelievably killer cupcake. I mean, it was chocolate with frosting and then six additional swirls on icing on top that looked to be in the shape white Hershey kisses. It was the most sinful cupcake I've ever eaten. I spent the rest of the day making up for it.

Meanwhile, my sister Joan, if she read my blog on any sort of regular basis, would be yelling at me right now, "Why in the world are you on a diet??", obviously worrying that I might be turning into the Karen Carpenter of brothers. Hey, I'm just trying to avoid some winter/tax-season fat. We might be going back to Hawaii in April, you know.

Off the subject: Another blog content thought. Have you ever, when you're looking at my blog or somebody else's Blogger blog, clicked on that "Next Blog" button on the bar at the top of the site? There is some really weird stuff out there! I am so normal.

no movies for old men

In our annual quest to see all five Oscar Best Picture nominees, we went to see Michael Clayton the other night and No Country for Old Men last evening. They were both pretty good (as all Best Picture nominees should be), but is it me or are movies getting harder to watch? My mind might be going, but it seems like so many movies are not so easy to follow. Who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, what the heck is going on? No Country for Old Men is also super-violent, in a Coen Brothers sort of way, but after you see a few people get shot in the throat, you learn when to look away from the screen. Neither of these are movies to relax to.

Two more to go.

Happy Valentine's Day

I would write Jerry a special Happy Valentine's Day greeting, but he's another person who never reads my blog. Really! It's like typing into dead air!

:-)

words like daggers through my heart

My sister Nancy in North Carolina, in her emails, is always asking me if i've checked her daughter Michelle's blog for this news or her daughter-in-law Cris's blog for that news or this video, and I always say yes because I like both of their blog sites. But then yesterday I asked Nancy if she ever read my blog. Her brutal response: I've read your blog a few times. I usually forget, but it's not near as interesting as reading about my grandkids.

OUCH! Et tu, Nancy??

A Later Note: Nancy wrote back and said she had caught up on my blog, but she seems to think that it is too political, which she finds dull (agreeing with Tom). So I was amused when I checked Michelle's blog later in the day and found on this very day Michelle's blog had gone at least momentarily political -- Michelle has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

SuperTuesday burn-out

OK, I hate to be back to this, but I went to my caucus the other night, and it's still on my mind, and I need to think about other stuff. Isn't this whole Presidential race (which started way too early, as everyone knows) getting eerily similar to American Idol? I mean, think about it. The only thing missing from those endless debates was Paula Abdul as moderator. It's a popularity contest-- it's not about issues, ideas. Who is electable? Someone we like. Should we add a talent contest and swim-suit competition?

Hillary, Barack -- I'll vote for either of course, but Barack's "rock star" status (which doesn't last long in this country) makes me nervous. McCain is scary, but it freaks me out that the media love him, and the media shape the election. Shake me, wake me when it's over.

and my next post will not be about either politics or football. or the weather. or what i had for lunch.

nobody's perfect

OK, I take back everything I said... It was a great game, and I'm glad we didn't go bowling! The Giants 17, the less-than-perfect Patriots 14; Eli Manning looking super and Tom Brady probably feeling really beat-up this morning.... and no more football blogs for 6 months (maybe?) :-)

SuperBowling

You know I like football, the NFL especially, and I like the playoffs and all that. The SuperBowl, though, has always been sort of annoying for me, unless the Eagles or the Vikings are in it, which of course is hardly ever. The game is nothing compared to all the corporate hoopla and the hours of commercials. Everybody has parties to "watch" the game and get drunk. It's usually a good time to go to the movies or go bowling, since everybody else is at home watching the SuperBowl.

We're invited to friends' house to watch the game this year, so we'll socialize while the game is off in the corner on the hopefully-muted TV. It's hard to get too excited with the New England Patriots and the New York Giants going for the championship anyway. Remember I predicted in my September 8th blog that the Patriots were going to have a phenomenal year? But who wants to see them have a perfect season? Hardly anybody. If the Patriots win, I wouldn't mind seeing Randy Moss finally get a Super Bowl ring, but I would mind seeing Tom Brady getting another one, so I guess that means I need to be rooting for the Giants, which is not easy for an Eagles fan. Would be fun to see "little Manning" win the big one, I guess, after all the abuse he takes from the New York fans.

And, if you watch, try to avoid the halftime show. This year, it's Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers... (are there still Heartbreakers or is it just Tom Petty?)... The way they do the SuperBowl halftime shows is just plain awful. They will have hundreds of people brought in from who-knows-where to jump around in phony hysteria around the stage while Tom Petty plays a couple of his greatest hits (did Tom Petty have greatest hits?). Then they'll truck Tom and his fake fans off the field, the teams will come back, one will win, one will lose, followed by idiotic locker-room interviews and a phone call from bush (unless he is choking on pretzels).... and football is suddenly gone from our lives for the next few months.

whew. it's no wonder everybody gets drunk.

Juno, Junot and Juneau

Mainstream movies have generally gotten so bad, or at least not suitable enough to my taste, that movies aren't really as much a part of my life as they used to be. One thing I try to do, though, for which I have no good explanation, is see the Academy Award Best-Picture nominees before the Oscars are announced. That gets a little harder every year, but I keep doing it. So when the Best Picture nominations were announced a couple weeks ago, I was a little dismayed that I had seen none of the five, which means I have to see all five by February 24th... Plus the event might be really a letdown if no stars show for the award show because of the current writers' strike. Oh well!

So Jerry I went to the see the first of the five the other night -- Juno, which turned out to be a wonderfully funny and well-written little movie.. I say "little", meaning no stars, very little budget, so no chance of winning the big prize... But see it! You'll like it! The other films to see before the 24th: No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, and Atonement. Stayed tuned!

Meanwhile, when not working or going to the movies, I've started reading a very good 2007 novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I've found very few goods novels the last couple years, so this one is a good find (although, actually, I'm only on page 60 so far).

and I hate to do something so stereotypically Minnesotan as mention the weather again, but this morning after walking (somehow surviving) to work this morning, I checked the temperature and it was -13 with a -32 windchill. At that same moment, it was 9 degrees in Juneau, Alaska, with a -6 windchill. Sounds like a vacation spot to me!

nightmares do end eventually

one year from today, bush becomes an ex-president (if he doesn't get impeached before then), and then the debate will start: whether he was the worst President ever -- or merely the worst President of the United States ever.

the bad-hair days of January

My sister Joan, who has an all-Phillies blog, casually accused me of having an "all-Vikings" blog... I looked back through my entries to date and found that my Vikings comments comprised maybe ten percent of my ramblings. That's not bad. And now no more Vikings til late summer.

My son Jon, who has no blogsite at all, gave me a book for Christmas called No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog. And you can't believe some of these suggestions. Let's see how desperate I get for ideas.

And, being in Minnesota, with no Vikings in the playoffs, the number one conversation-piece is usually the weather, which for conversation purposes has been very cooperative lately. Temperatures (not including wind-chill) when I got up yesterday morning: -14 degrees. Today -11 degrees. The kind of cold where your heart stops when you walk outdoors. Even walking to my office, which is only two blocks from home, can be a killer. This week has been so cold that I've actually had to wear gloves and a stocking-cap, the latter of which I resist doing because it means wrecked-hair for the rest of the day. One day it was so icy on that two-block walk that I slipped and landed flat on my back and cracked my head against the cobblestones. Luckily, I come from a family of very hard heads.

And, speaking of family, it was good to get back to New Jersey last weekend (where the temps actually were in the low-60s for part of the time) for my brother's wedding. It's always good to see family that I don't get to see nearly often enough, even though we had some mishaps with us almost becoming car-jackers and my brother-in-law buying A Roll. Besides the wedding stuff, we got to do the usual Jersey things I like doing -- going to Jim's Lunch in Millville for breakfast, visiting Ocean City and Atlantic City, eating cheesesteaks (which Minnesota sorely lacks) for lunch.

I know, I know... No one cares what I had for lunch.

another year shot to hell

New Year's Eve?.. Didn't we just do this?.. Oh well, I guess we gotta do it again!

I hope 2008 is a great year for you and me and all of us. Cheers!