I'm repeating stuff I did 25 years ago. Case in point 1:
In 1982 we took a trip to Arlington, VT and spent a pleasant time at the West Mountain Inn. I remember the inn dog, a basset hound named Frodo. Covered bridges [before THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY made them popular], memorable skunk smells, and a side trip to the Grandma Moses Museum in Benington are still fresh in my memory. In 1988 actor Michael J. Fox married actress Tracy Pollan at the West Mountain Inn. I imagine this gave the inn a boost so we were glad we discovered this place before it got too popular. The happy couple also have twins like we do, so there might be something in the syrup. Of all the places to which I've traveled, Vermont water has been the best on my insides.
This year we returned to VT, to a two-day wedding extravaganza in Ludlow. We stayed at the Jackson-Gore Inn, where the receptions [Welcoming, Wedding, Sunday breakfast] were held. First class in every way, except the two bathroom door locks [we had a suite] did not fit right and would not lock. Saturday morning I hiked up the hill, past the ski trail and the train tracks. It was exciting to see the train barrel through the mountain grading. I tipped the valet five bucks and am never sure what to tip a hotel valet.
Case in point 2:
In the 1980s we saw Richie Havens in Prospect Park. I'm pretty sure it was 1984. Richie did a number from a new album that reminded me a lot of Marvin Gaye, who had been killed that year by his father. I was thinking that Richie's agent was setting him up to pick up some of Marvin's audience for sexy soul.
Over the weekend we saw Richie again at Governor's Island. I learned that even though the island is closer to Brooklyn than Manhattan, it is legally part of New York County. Richie played the same songs since he hasn't charted in a long time and was well received.
If you're planning a trip to GI, take the free ferry next to the Staten Island Ferry. Bring food and water is the warning as there isn't much more than a hot dog stand or two on the island.
Case in point 3:
I'm taking a class in InDesign next week. I haven't been in a classroom, except for a first aid orientation a few years ago, since the week Reagan was shot.
The older you get it's harder to find things to do for the first time.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Vets Screwed Again; No Justice in NY City Council; Clinton and Truman
True or false: All service personnel earn lifetime V.A. care.
False.
Because of the high demand, the gov't. made this asset and income dependent in 2003. Bob, our co-op board vice-president, told me he was denied V.A. care so I researched it and it's true. This used to be gospel--you served, you got what you earned.
Another casualty of the Iraq war? Yes. The money's gotta come from somewhere.
Bob was drafted too so this beats the needy greedy what's-in-it-for-me program-abusing non-patriot argument that Republicans give when one of their blondes denigrate true heroes and regular guys who did their duty.
Bob's a real guy by the way. He sounds like one of those phony examples politicians have to dream up because they don't meet enough real people like I do. The co-op is like a small town of 500 people except it's only on a couple of acres in three buildings. New York City Councilman Lou Fidler shows up at our annual meeting every year. His kids played with my kids in the playground when they were little.
Speaking of City Council, they have a staff member who has called for the assassination of a council member. This staff member's mentor [another councilman] wants to run for borough president [Marty Markowitz is term-limited out of office]. Got a feeling this will hurt his campaign. He has given her his full support. [Imus gets fired for a joke; this woman gets full support for a felonious death threat.] The president of the Council tried to fire her today but the legality of her authority to do so is in question.
Anybody see Clinton on C-SPAN2 last night? He gave a [long] speech at the 50th anniv. of the Truman Library. Great stuff, Tom enjoyed it too. Clinton said Truman, except for heroic service in WWI, didn't have much foreign experience but he was a voracious reader. He made reading and the quest for knowledge a running theme in the library-setting. Couldn't help but think of Bush when he said it.
He had some notes but he didn't need them. He'd still be talking if C-SPAN hadn't turned off the signal. He was always charming but now has reached a Will Rogers level.
False.
Because of the high demand, the gov't. made this asset and income dependent in 2003. Bob, our co-op board vice-president, told me he was denied V.A. care so I researched it and it's true. This used to be gospel--you served, you got what you earned.
Another casualty of the Iraq war? Yes. The money's gotta come from somewhere.
Bob was drafted too so this beats the needy greedy what's-in-it-for-me program-abusing non-patriot argument that Republicans give when one of their blondes denigrate true heroes and regular guys who did their duty.
Bob's a real guy by the way. He sounds like one of those phony examples politicians have to dream up because they don't meet enough real people like I do. The co-op is like a small town of 500 people except it's only on a couple of acres in three buildings. New York City Councilman Lou Fidler shows up at our annual meeting every year. His kids played with my kids in the playground when they were little.
Speaking of City Council, they have a staff member who has called for the assassination of a council member. This staff member's mentor [another councilman] wants to run for borough president [Marty Markowitz is term-limited out of office]. Got a feeling this will hurt his campaign. He has given her his full support. [Imus gets fired for a joke; this woman gets full support for a felonious death threat.] The president of the Council tried to fire her today but the legality of her authority to do so is in question.
Anybody see Clinton on C-SPAN2 last night? He gave a [long] speech at the 50th anniv. of the Truman Library. Great stuff, Tom enjoyed it too. Clinton said Truman, except for heroic service in WWI, didn't have much foreign experience but he was a voracious reader. He made reading and the quest for knowledge a running theme in the library-setting. Couldn't help but think of Bush when he said it.
He had some notes but he didn't need them. He'd still be talking if C-SPAN hadn't turned off the signal. He was always charming but now has reached a Will Rogers level.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Radio Roundup: AM, HD, XM; Phillies Save the Day; Rick Monday Saves Old Glorious
There are a few AM stations where time stands still. Try picking up 740 CHWO [this is the old CBL, formerly a CBC station] after sunset from from Toronto [big band and standards] or 900 CHML from Hamilton, Ontario [old-time radio around midnight]. Locally, WHLI 1100, a daytimer, still plays a mix of new guys like Bublé, old standards, and Sid Mark's Sinatra show from Philly on Sunday. There was another standards holdout I used to pick up, 950 AM from Phila., who finally gave up and went to sports talk. Some big markets now have two sports talkers. Whouda thunk?
AMs are going to HD and that is creating noise at both ends of the carrier if you listen on a current receiver. I hear that HD will have less range than regular AM and this could hurt WABC and WOR, who sell ads based on their mighty overnight signals, if the government ever mandates HD and turning off the old analog signal as they have done for television's conversion* to digital. It would also give people in fringe areas less choices.
Real life intruded in Denver, CO as the Mets lost to Houston today in the last game before the All Star Game break. I turned on the XM to find out how the Phils were doing in Colorado [they won]. A major downpour occurred before the seventh inning and a lot of Phillies who came off the field after the bottom of the sixth must have still been in the dugout. The Rockies disappeared except for two players. The grounds crew was being rocked by the tarp and it sounded like some men fell under it and others were being carried aloft as they held on. Seventeen Phillies charged onto the field and along with the two Rockies and two umps manfully helped the Rockies crew. Good job Phillies!
In 1976 two filthy rotten bums tried to burn the flag as they ran on the field at Dodger Stadium. I can hear Vin Scully say at the beginning of this radio recording, "Now wait a minute, there's an animal loose." This was to deincentivize anyone from running on the field back when games were on the radio with no TV [common in the 1970s]. No one except the people there and fans of the Police Blotter would know about it. Rick Monday [who I heard on XM today doing the Dodger-Marlin game with Charlie Steiner] snatched the flag from the bums.
If you can watch this and not get duck bumps, you must, like Dick Cheney, have other priorities. I got the bumps, stifled a tear, and then watched it again, biting my lower lip. Rick Monday says anyone in that situation would do it. Nah. Tom Glavine? Yeah. Jose Reyes? He'd just watch, like he did against Houston on a recent dribbler up the third base line. Paul LoDuca? Most def, and with prisoners taken.
Rick Monday saves Old Glory was selected by MLB as one of the top 100 moments in baseball history.
One more note: Charlie Steiner, who I like, called Jeff Kent "a banged up warrior." Since we've been in Iraq, most broadcasters have stopped calling ballplayers warriors unless it's V. Guerrero.
__________
*Yup, Bush signed the bill making Feb. 17, 2009 the day your old TV becomes obsolete. Don't worry, the gummint is subsidizing converter boxes that will turn your old TV into a monitor for the box.
AMs are going to HD and that is creating noise at both ends of the carrier if you listen on a current receiver. I hear that HD will have less range than regular AM and this could hurt WABC and WOR, who sell ads based on their mighty overnight signals, if the government ever mandates HD and turning off the old analog signal as they have done for television's conversion* to digital. It would also give people in fringe areas less choices.
Real life intruded in Denver, CO as the Mets lost to Houston today in the last game before the All Star Game break. I turned on the XM to find out how the Phils were doing in Colorado [they won]. A major downpour occurred before the seventh inning and a lot of Phillies who came off the field after the bottom of the sixth must have still been in the dugout. The Rockies disappeared except for two players. The grounds crew was being rocked by the tarp and it sounded like some men fell under it and others were being carried aloft as they held on. Seventeen Phillies charged onto the field and along with the two Rockies and two umps manfully helped the Rockies crew. Good job Phillies!
In 1976 two filthy rotten bums tried to burn the flag as they ran on the field at Dodger Stadium. I can hear Vin Scully say at the beginning of this radio recording, "Now wait a minute, there's an animal loose." This was to deincentivize anyone from running on the field back when games were on the radio with no TV [common in the 1970s]. No one except the people there and fans of the Police Blotter would know about it. Rick Monday [who I heard on XM today doing the Dodger-Marlin game with Charlie Steiner] snatched the flag from the bums.
If you can watch this and not get duck bumps, you must, like Dick Cheney, have other priorities. I got the bumps, stifled a tear, and then watched it again, biting my lower lip. Rick Monday says anyone in that situation would do it. Nah. Tom Glavine? Yeah. Jose Reyes? He'd just watch, like he did against Houston on a recent dribbler up the third base line. Paul LoDuca? Most def, and with prisoners taken.
Rick Monday saves Old Glory was selected by MLB as one of the top 100 moments in baseball history.
One more note: Charlie Steiner, who I like, called Jeff Kent "a banged up warrior." Since we've been in Iraq, most broadcasters have stopped calling ballplayers warriors unless it's V. Guerrero.
__________
*Yup, Bush signed the bill making Feb. 17, 2009 the day your old TV becomes obsolete. Don't worry, the gummint is subsidizing converter boxes that will turn your old TV into a monitor for the box.
Friday, July 6, 2007
CONVERSATIONS WITH THE GREAT MOVIEMAKERS OF HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE at the Amercian Film Institute: Part 1
This Vintage Books paperback from 2007 edited by George Stevens, Jr. was originally published by Knopf in 2006. Containing transcripts of American Film Institute seminar interviews with the greatest film makers of the 20th c., it is a must read for anyone who wants a greater understanding of how movies are made and the kind of personality it takes to get it done. The only shortcoming for me is that some of the technical explanations of things like lighting effects were hard for me to understand.
First among the 32 subjects:
HAROLD LLOYD (1969 seminar)
I remember watching silent movies with Charlie Chaplin on Channel 13 during the summer in the '60s and maybe some Buster Keaton. Why was the third master of the form, Harold Lloyd, never shown? Lloyd reveals that he wanted $300,000 for two showings so this certainly kept him off PBS. Lloyd retained control of his work and actually financed his own pictures.
Bill Irwin's great silent characters, Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent, these are the descendants of Lloyd's brand of comedy, the man who unexpectedly gets the jump on his persecutors.
Like most comedies, his films play better in a theater as I witnessed in a showing of GRANDMA'S BOY, AN EASTERN WESTERNER, and FEET FIRST at the Film Forum. GRANDMA'S BOY is about a cowardly boy in 1922 who is given his grandfather's lucky charm by his grandmother. Gramps was a Civil War hero and this lucky charm made him invincible. Harold finds out that it takes more than a lucky charm to make a man brave and strong. To put the Civil War in historical perspective, the woman who played Grandma was an actress named Anna Townsend, who was born in 1845!
In 1969, Stevens asked Lloyd about rereleasing GRANDMA'S BOY. Lloyd thought that the general public didn't want to see his pictures so he took them to colleges, where the "response was tremendous." Like the lady who was asked how she like Hamlet ["it was nice but there were so many cliches"], Lloyd's gags, such as climbing buildings, hanging from heights, and getting the upper hand on bullies are timeless and show up in just about every successful comedy, whether it's Lucille Ball, the Home Alone kid, or Adam Sandler.
First among the 32 subjects:
HAROLD LLOYD (1969 seminar)
I remember watching silent movies with Charlie Chaplin on Channel 13 during the summer in the '60s and maybe some Buster Keaton. Why was the third master of the form, Harold Lloyd, never shown? Lloyd reveals that he wanted $300,000 for two showings so this certainly kept him off PBS. Lloyd retained control of his work and actually financed his own pictures.
Bill Irwin's great silent characters, Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent, these are the descendants of Lloyd's brand of comedy, the man who unexpectedly gets the jump on his persecutors.
Like most comedies, his films play better in a theater as I witnessed in a showing of GRANDMA'S BOY, AN EASTERN WESTERNER, and FEET FIRST at the Film Forum. GRANDMA'S BOY is about a cowardly boy in 1922 who is given his grandfather's lucky charm by his grandmother. Gramps was a Civil War hero and this lucky charm made him invincible. Harold finds out that it takes more than a lucky charm to make a man brave and strong. To put the Civil War in historical perspective, the woman who played Grandma was an actress named Anna Townsend, who was born in 1845!
In 1969, Stevens asked Lloyd about rereleasing GRANDMA'S BOY. Lloyd thought that the general public didn't want to see his pictures so he took them to colleges, where the "response was tremendous." Like the lady who was asked how she like Hamlet ["it was nice but there were so many cliches"], Lloyd's gags, such as climbing buildings, hanging from heights, and getting the upper hand on bullies are timeless and show up in just about every successful comedy, whether it's Lucille Ball, the Home Alone kid, or Adam Sandler.
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