Saturday, December 31, 2022

Suddenly, So Much Rain!

San Francisco may record its wettest day ever recorded, today, the 31st of December! Problems are multiplying in the Bay Area. 

It's pretty wet here in Sacramento too. 1.76 inches have fallen so far today (at Sac Exec Airport), which puts the rainy season 130% of average for the date. Street flooding is an increasing problem, and traffic accidents are occurring. 

The current storm will end soon, but there are three other storms coming next week, and more storms are coming the week after that. After so much drought, we may get sick of so much rain.

A Tribute to Bobby Foster Road

 

 John E-Mailed with this:
Bobby Foster Road. I've never heard of it but an amazing number of scenes have been filmed there.
I replied:
Oh, this is quite good! The fellow here is very proud of a “Better Call Saul” Season 5 scene he was in. I happened to be at Tractor Brewing Co. in ABQ when the scene aired, and the fellow was there too, so I was able to congratulate him in person.
The fellow also identifies several new films I haven’t heard of. I looked closely at ABQ films in 2018-19, but newer films have come out since then, and he names them.
Yes, Bobby Foster Road is just a short distance from Q Studios, and it’s not quite a public road either, with gates that can be closed to limit traffic anytime one desires, so it’s the filmmakers’ cheapest, go-to road for desert scenes. Dozens more films and TV shows have used that stretch of road. Probably TV commercials too. Every one has been there, at least virtually. 
Bobby Foster was a reasonably well-known boxer, most-famous for getting his ass kicked by Joe Frazier back in the day. I don’t think Bobby Foster spent any time on Bobby Foster Road, however.

Andrea Nowak's 2022 Albuquerque Visit's Tribute Video

It's always so much fun to be a part of someone's excellent year! The best to Andrea Nowak of Essen, Germany, and to "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul"!

Thursday, December 29, 2022

Atmospheric River




















I was skeptical when I heard the term "Atmospheric River" applied to the series of storms that will come to California over the next week, so I checked out the GOES Infrared Longwave picture. Yup, that band of moisture, that Atmospheric River, is at least 4000 miles long, and California will receive a good flow from it. Currently, rainfall in Sacramento is 94% of average. We need a good bump of rain, and it looks like we'll get it.

Russian Bank Run and Economic Collapse

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Miss Ukraine
























Effective!:
Victoria Apanasenko displayed the costume she'll be wearing to represent Ukraine at the Miss Universe contest. 
According to designer Lesya Patoka, the outfit symbolizes "Ukraine's struggle with darkness" and at the same time "carries light".

Monday, December 26, 2022

RIP, Tony Ashby

 Such a nice guy!  I think everyone who knew him will miss him.

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Bad Environmentalist

I guess I'm a Bad Environmentalist.  Like many earnest liberals, I donate to as many environmental organizations as my feeble budget will support.  Among these donations is $15/month to The Nature Conservancy.  I appreciate that sometimes it is insufficient to place land under federal supervision to actually preserve it.  It is sometimes necessary to buy the land outright, working with nearby stakeholders and land owners, and that is the mission of The Nature Conservancy.

I joined The Nature Conservancy in 1987 as part of a membership drive in southern Arizona.  At the time, a number of Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) were under consideration for Wilderness status.  We were encouraged to adopt a WSA and track its progress.  I adopted the Dos Cabezas WSA, but in typical Bad Environmentalist fashion, I never spent any time there, but sometimes waved hello from my VW Bug as I passed distantly by on Interstate 10 on trips to Albuquerque.

But I kept donating to the organization.  So, after 35 years, unbeknownst to me, I slowly bubbled into view of Conservancy leadership.  I received a nice letter:

"I am writing to share my sincere gratitude for your 35 years of support....  [I]t would be my privilege to learn what inspires you to be a champion for nature.  If I may, I shall call you in the next week, or so, to say hello... We are so fortunate to have you as part of the conservation community."


The phone call was SO nice!  It was very flattering for a small donor like myself to get this kind of lavish attention.  But little doubts arose in my head.  Why were they being so nice?  Eventually, they got to the point.  As I approach the oblivion of death, I need a Legacy.  Would I consider The Nature Conservancy in my final arrangements?  They already have benefitted from magnificent legacies, such as a large ranch in Southern California.  I could join them.

Well, I have my house, but I don't it will be worth so much as to preserve all that much land.  Maybe enough land to get idle teenagers into trouble, but not enough to extricate themselves.  And I still need the house to live in.  I'm not dead yet.  And what about other legacies to my family?

Still, I was getting distracted by my "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" books, so I put all this and much else out of my mind for several months.  In that period, my credit card was replaced, which stopped the automatic $15/month donation to The Nature Conservancy.  I wasn't paying attention, though.  I'd get around to fixing the problem when I had time.  And I stopped reading my correspondence.

So, I finally noticed I got a letter:

"I'm writing to confirm that your Conservation Champion status and $15 recurring gift have been canceled.... If there is anything we could have done to make your experience as a Conservation Champion better, or more rewarding, I hope you let us know."


Ow!  I hurt their feelings!  But I wasn't trying to throw shade, I just wasn't paying attention.  I didn't read my correspondence, so I didn't even know I was a Conservation Champion.  It sounds exalted, like a green superhero, but somehow I never noticed.

So, now I'm trying to restart my $15/month donation.  I'm no longer a Conservation Champion, which I guess confirms that I'm a Bad Environmentalist.  But I feel a weight has somehow lifted from my shoulders.  I take it all as an omen that becoming a Bad Environmentalist means I won't die after all, so have no need for a Legacy.  I'll just keep rolling down the freeway, waving at WSAs I'll never visit, and ignoring earnest letters.

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Tricycle

On Dec. 21st, I took Jasper on a walk that also stopped at the local post office, where I had to buy some stamps and drop off some Christmas cards.  At first, I tied Jasper up outside the post office on a bike rack, but he looked so forlorn and vulnerable out there on the urban sidewalk that I decided to bring him into the lobby instead, come what may.

The lobby was jumping with Christmas-shipping traffic.  Jasper was nervous about being in close quarters with so many strange people, so he pulled me on his leash over to a ceiling-to-floor window, silently pleading with me to take him outside instead.  I was determined to keep him there, though, so he settled into a uncomfortable sitting pose, as people buzzed all about him.

The fellow ahead of me in line was trying to ship an unusually large box.  I understood from his conversation with the postal clerk that there was a tricycle in the box.  The postal clerk quoted a $90 charge to ship the box.  Crestfallen, the man asked "is that the cheapest possible rate?"  Indeed, it was.  His options were take the box elsewhere, to FedEx or UPS, where shipping rates would be higher, or not to ship the box at all, or to accept the charge.  Explaining further, the man said shipping the box was his wife's idea (I bet the tricycle was hardly worth more than $90), but since there were so few days left before Christmas he had few options, so he surrendered and paid the rate.

When I reached the exhausted postal clerk, she looked at Jasper, and quoted the rule, "dogs are not allowed in the lobby," but uncomfortable Jasper had already been there for some time.  Best to quickly finish my business. I smiled, bought some stamps, handed over cards for mailing, and left.  I finally took Jasper out into the sunshine, where he ecstatically resumed his mission to sniff and mark every single bush in the neighborhood.

The Calm Before The Storm


After an extended dry period, rainfall for the 2022-23 rainy season in Sacramento is only 83% of normal for the date. But no fear. We are about to enter a roller coaster week of storms, starting late on Monday evening, the 26th of December. A week after that, by Tuesday, January 4th, we will be well above normal rainfall for the date. 

This rainy season appears to be more-or-less normal so far, which is something we haven't seen much of for the last decade. Water deficits are so great in California and the American West, however, that normal rainfall might not be good enough to prevent crippling water restrictions come next summer. Still, normal will have to do.  That's all we have.

Friday, December 16, 2022

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

'Aningaaq' (Gravity)

I rewatched one of my favorite movies, 2013's "Gravity," directed by Alfonso Cuaron and starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. I didn't realize this short film was included on the DVD. One of the most hallucinatory moments of the film comes when desperate Mission Specialist Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) manages to enter the still-functional Chinese spacecraft and tries to use its radio to reach Houston Mission Control, but reaches someone else instead. That someone is Aningaaq:
Aningaaq presents the other side of that conversation, introducing Orto Ignatiussen as the title character, an Inuit fisherman on a remote fjord in Greenland, where the short was shot on location. The connection to Gravity is seamless, as Bullock's dialogue is included in full here and Aningaaq's side is heard in the film. The short reinforces the impact of the scene in Gravity, going far beyond a tie-in gimmick and adding to the artistry of the movie in a unique way.

Kmart In-Store Music: Christmas 1974

The algorithm at YouTube decided I needed to listen to this, and of course, the algorithm is right.

 

Monday, December 12, 2022

A Normal Rainy Season So Far

For the last decade, the California rainy season (as experienced in Sacramento) has been like dystopian sci-fi. This rainy season, however, seems normal. In general, rainy seasons start about November 1st. This year, the rainy season started - on November 1st. The storm that just passed through was strong, but it didn't produce as much rain as I had hoped. Still, Sacramento is about 10% above normal for the season. We'll fall behind again next week as dry weather rules, but there are more opportunities on the horizon for rain on the 21st and the 26th. So, let's have more rain, and more snow in the mountains with cold weather, so there isn't an early snowmelt, so the fish can have more than dust to breathe next summer.

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Maybe They've Crossed The Frontier For Fusion?

So tantalizing close for so many decades. Are we setting up an energy revolution?:
Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but no group had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes — a milestone known as net energy gain or target gain, which would help prove the process could provide a reliable, abundant alternative to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear energy.
The federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, had achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks, the people said. 
Although many scientists believe fusion power stations are still decades away, the technology’s potential is hard to ignore. Fusion reactions emit no carbon, produce no long-lived radioactive waste and a small cup of the hydrogen fuel could theoretically power a house for hundreds of years.

Ukraine Targeted the Wagner Group

I hope the news is accurate!:
"They had a little pop there, just where Wagner headquarters was located. "A huge number of those who were there died."
...Gaidai did not give casualty figures, but he said those surviving faced inadequate medical services to treat them. 
"I am sure that at least 50% of those who managed to survive will die before they get medical care," he said. "This is because even in our Luhansk region, they have stolen equipment."

Funkanometry Dances

Kate sends this clip from Funkanometry!:

Pyramid Scheme

It sounded irresistible, so I bit. 

I listened to a hour-long webinar about how to get rich quick by making audiobooks for Audible.com. They need so many audiobooks! Content is so-o-o lacking in today's fast-paced economy. 

Except you don't really make the audiobooks yourself. You hire a mystery company ghostwriter, because you are probably illiterate. And you don't do the voiceover work yourself, because you probably sound like a frog, so you hire someone from their voiceover team. And you market your audiobook using their team of specialists, turning your audiobook into e-books and print books, and scatter them on multiple platforms across the Internet, and get multiple income streams going, and retire to Vail or Palm Springs, or wherever suits your fancy. 

Which begs the question, of course, that if they are doing all the work, why do they need you? Why not cut you out of the loop altogether and make the mystery ghostwriter rich instead? More efficient that way. But if you act today, you can enroll in their audiobook academy for only $2K and learn the process from the pros. 

I didn't really understand this audiobook pyramid scheme. Is content all that hard to come by? Fake authors peddling fake content to people on exercise bikes, who barely pay any attention anyway because ambient Hi-NRG music overwhelms their earbuds? 

With today's rain, Jasper the Dog had been cooped up all day, so I took him for a brief walk around the block. It was still too rainy, and it looks like we are about to get hit by the low pressure center tonight, so the rain will only increase. 

Then Jasper noticed the mysterious construction on the doorstep of the local art gallery. Was it? Yes, it was! It was a pyramid - a pyramid of donuts! Rich, chocolatey donuts too. So many sprinkles! Why was this pyramid of donuts here? 

I didn't understand the pyramid of donuts any better than the pyramid of audiobooks, but I do understand chocolate. So, I waved Jasper away from the pyramid, and took a donut for myself. 

I just hope the donut is pure, and doesn't have anything like strychnine in it. No use in spending $2K down at the Emergency Room. They get you coming and going these days. But maybe if I start an academy of doctors and nurses down at the ER I don't really have to know anything about medicine at all, but can live off the income stream, and can retire to Maui or the Gold Coast.

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Finding Rare Plants With Drones

Where even the goats can't get:
In the case of W. hobdyi, there was thought to be less than 600 individuals growing along the Na Pali Coast. Many of Kauai's endangered plants sprout only from the steepest cliffs, where goats can't reach. But the foliage now spread out before Nyberg amounted to more than 100 plants. He flew the drone within 5 meters (16 feet) of the greenery, snapping high-resolution photos to confirm his findings back in the lab. 
Nyberg and the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) team, working with the State of Hawaii's Division of Forestry and Wildlife, have rediscovered three species thought to be extinct or locally extinct from Kauai and uncovered larger populations of many other critically endangered species with populations smaller than 100 individuals.

"Ain't No Sunshine" - Hattie & The Moon Howlers

They played this last night. I appreciated the 1971 vibe.

 

David Corn's Take

All true:
Please stop. Enough with this talk of whether the Republican Party will finally rid itself of Donald Trump. Drop this speculation that the GOP, due to its poor performance in the midterm elections or Trump’s latest outrage (dining with a Nazi, calling for the “termination” of the US Constitution, or whatever), will pull the plug on him. You can call on Republicans to take a courageous stand of principle against Dear Leader—and, of course, they should—but don’t do so expecting that will have any impact on Trump’s standing and his future prospects. The party cannot de-Trumpify by decree.

Updates to My Two "Breaking Bad"/"Better Call Saul" Filming-Location Books

At last, after the last episode of Season 6 of "Better Call Saul" was aired in September, I have finished the latest updates to my two "Breaking Bad"/"Better Call Saul" filming-location books.  Here they are!  The first book focuses on where the locations are, and the second book focuses on the symbolism present at the filming locations.

--------------------------

To avoid unnecessary friction, I have redacted the addresses of all single-family homes in these books. (These addresses are still available at Marc Valdez Weblog, however.)  The pictures in the print editions are black-and-white, in order to keep costs down. 


"A Guidebook To 'Breaking Bad' Filming Locations: Including 'Better Call Saul' - Albuquerque as Physical Setting and Indispensable Character" (Sixth Edition)

Purchase book at the link.                                                                                                                  
This book outlines thirty-three circuits that the avid fan can travel in order to visit up to 679 different filming locations for "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" in the Albuquerque area.  Some background is provided for each site, including other movies that might have also used the site for filming.

"‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols: Reading Meaning into Sets, Props, and Filming Locations” (Second Edition)

Purchase book at the link.                                                                                                        “‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols,” aims to understand some of the symbolism embedded in the backgrounds of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” in order to decode messages and stories Vince Gilligan and crew have hidden there.                                                                                                    A series of tables are used to isolate how certain (particularly architectural) features are used: Gentle Arches, Tin Ceilings, Five-Pointed Stars, Octagons, etc. Daylighting innovations that were either pioneered or promoted in Chicago are examined: Glass Block Windows, Luxfer Prismatic Tile Windows, and Plate Glass Windows.

Certain symbols advance the plot: foreshadowing symbols like Pueblo Deco Arches, or danger symbols like bell shapes and stagger symbols. Other features, like Glass Block Windows or Parallel Beams in the Ceiling, tell stories about the legacies and corruptions of modernity, particularly those best-displayed at Chicago’s “Century of Progress” (1933-34). 

In addition, a number of scenes in the show are modeled after Early Surrealist artworks. The traces of various artists can be tracked in both shows, including: Comte de Lautréamont, Giorgio De Chirico, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, René Magritte, Toyen, Yves Tanguy, Remedios Varo, Paul Klee, and in particular, Salvador Dalí.
--------------------------

“None Shall Pass,” Sayeth the White Cat

Hattie Craven and the Moon Howlers - Dec. 9th


























Wonderful evening watching Hattie Craven and the Moon Howlers perform at the Side Door in Curtis Park. 

It's been a decade since I last saw Hattie perform at her first album's ("Eleven") release party (together with her father and her brother, Cody) at The Palms in Winters (arranged by her bandleader dad Joe Craven), on the occasion of her 11th birthday. 

Hattie's great! Her bandmates Jessica Malone (who works with Girls Rock Sacramento) and Grigori are excellent too! Watch as they become top draws on the Northern California folk/rock circuit.

The Flaming Chariot is Fixed

Life with the Flaming Chariot! The mechanic took quite a while to finish repairing my pickup truck's gas tank. About a week. They said the gas tank was both corroded and partially-crushed: which sounds a little disturbing. I went to pick up the repaired vehicle Thursday evening, and the truck wouldn't start. The fuel line had popped off the tank and as I cranked the starter fuel was pouring out into a pool beneath the truck. Another opportunity for self-immolation in the Flaming Chariot! So, they kept the truck another day as they corrected the new problem. And so I now I have the repaired truck, but it makes me nervous. I'm afraid to put gasoline in the tank or drive it anywhere. But at least it's repaired!

Interesting Conjunction of the Full Moon and Mars on Dec. 7th

   Mars is at the Moon's 8-o'clock position.

Kind of a Rough Day For Jasper


I took him to the vet for a teeth cleaning on Monday, Dec. 5th, and they went further and extracted an incisor. 

Jasper’s nighttime walk was also a challenge. Late at night, the northeast corner of Castro and 24th becomes the domain of the White Cat, who must live nearby and who stalks any creature that comes too close, particularly if their name is Jasper. Tonight, the White Cat was charging Jasper in abrupt mock attacks. For the first time ever, I was able to pet the White Cat, but the cat kept its laser focus and tried to enlist my help against my intrusive canine. Jasper mostly got weirded out by the feline attention. 








We proceeded further in the dark and saw a man in the distance at the Dog Park. The man had a light on a strap around his forehead and was fiercely squeezing a squeak toy for a tiny white dog playing at his feet. So cute! For whatever reason, however, Jasper panicked and for the first time ever aborted the nighttime walk and started heading home. which once again put us at the tender mercies of the White Cat hiding behind bushes and trees. More mock attacks ensued. 

Just a challenging day for the pup.

Tuesday, December 06, 2022

Interesting Flamenco Video

Albuquerque has become increasingly well-known in the flamenco world. According to the video: "Yjastros is the first American flamenco group invited to perform at Spain's prestigious Festival de Jerez."

 

Sunday, December 04, 2022

Nice Rain Totals With This Last Storm!

Nice 3-day rain totals (in inches) with the recent storm. Just need to keep it up. Next forecast storm is Friday.

Gofundme For Anaiyah

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is Pepper Von's granddaughter who was gravely-injured. Help if you can.

Saturday, December 03, 2022

Just Another IED Rolling Down The Freeway


It’s the fifth anniversary of the car accident that led me to buy this pickup truck. I affectionately nicknamed the truck the Flaming Chariot because fallen leaves trapped in the heater duct would sometimes ignite. 
Thursday night, driving down the freeway, I had some kind of gas tank failure and was spilling so much fuel that I could watch the gas gauge go to empty in just a few minutes. The vehicle reeked of gasoline. 

Nevertheless, I did not become a Flaming Chariot for real, and I hope the mechanics can avoid that fate too. And I liked the towing nerd who picked me up - very few social obligations in his life that might distract him from the important business of towing.

I Can’t Imagine Where They All Went

Stepping out my back door, I turned right to Jasper and said, “Well, the bird seed is out, but there are no birds in the yard.” Turning left to address the hawk in the tree, “I mean, there are always doves here. I can’t imagine where they all went.”

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

RIP, Jimmy Ning

Sad to hear that "Duane Chow" from "Breaking Bad" has passed away. I met him once. Nice guy:
It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that our beloved actor James “Jimmy” Ning passed away on Tuesday, November 29 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jimmy was best known for his recurring fan-favorite role of “Mr. Duane Chow” on Breaking Bad. As a veteran stage and screen character actor, he had memorable roles in The Ridiculous 6 (2015) and Perception (2012), among many others.

Jimmie Ning as Duane Chow at the Unofficial Breaking Bad Fan Tour (UBBFT) Dinner at Garduño's on September 28, 2013.


Jimmie Ning as Duane Chow.

This Is My Dog Park!

The park was designed as an athletic field and not a dog park, so the drawbacks mentioned here are real. We'll see how the dog leash requirements are followed by people who have been skipping them for years:
Though many people bring their canine companions to Curtis Park’s Sierra 2 Center, the city of Sacramento intends to start enforcing leash requirements. Signs are set to go up within the next two weeks telling park-goers that off-leash dogs are prohibited.
John Malin, a Curtis Park resident, comes to the park with Toby the puppy once a week. He doubts the city policy will stick. “I have a hard time believing anybody’s gonna follow that.”
But Sierra 2, the city said, is an off-the-books dog park. While the grassy field was cleared for use as a dog training area during specified hours more than 20 years ago, civil servants never intended it to be the full-fledged dog park it has become.
“The park in its current state does not meet the requirements of a dog park for off-leash use and continued use presents health and safety issues that (Youth, Parks, Community & Enrichment) must address,” the city said in a statement. 
The area where dogs play is not fully fenced and it’s the wrong size, said Gabby Miller, a spokesperson for the parks department. Sierra 2 also lacks the double-fence gates that help prevent dogs from scampering out onto the street.

Got My First Paycheck This Year From Working With Dan

The money is beginning to help out with my disastrous finances. May the money continue to flow for awhile. Here is a celebration song:

 

Can't Believe I've Managed To Avoid Covid

It's around every corner and it's getting harder to avoid. November has been difficult.

The Extremists Totally Own Trump Now

Sad, naïve Donald fell right into their trap with his "dinner":
[Ali] Alexander also used the livestream to issue a surprisingly curt warning to Trump: "I need the former president to know that his Truth post was inappropriate, it was unbecoming and I'm not going to allow it, frankly," Alexander said, referring to a post in which Trump referred to Ye as a "seriously troubled man, who just happens to be black." Alexander continued, "You gotta watch your mouth when you're talking about my Christian brothers in an un-Christian way."
"Ye is completely enamored with Nick [Fuentes] because Nick is very talented at articulating ... the third way in dealing with the challenges that Christendom faces with Jewish power."
Continuing on to argue that the Mar-a-Lago dinner served as a reminder to Trump not to neglect his white base, Alexander continued, "Trump's got to choose: Which way, Western man? Which way? Are you going to try to do a toned-down, subdued announcement so you can run acceptable to Rupert Murdoch, or are we going to bend Fox News, bend Newsmax, bend [The] Post Millennial, bend Steve Bannon into realizing that this party is permanently the America First party?" 
That seeming ultimatum resonated with the observations of other commentators, who noted that the entire story of the Trump-Fuentes dinner points to a larger shift on the right: A growing sense that the Trump coalition or movement of 2016 is gone, but that Trumpism as a movement should continue not only to survive, but push the party further rightward.

Sunday, November 27, 2022

The Smart People Seem To Be Moving To Mastodon

Twitter is doomed, but maybe not all is lost. Mastodon may flourish.

Lizzo - About Damn Time

People are cautiously trying to start up the Disco fad again. I say cautiously because 2020 was a tad early. Still, I love Disco, and it needs reviving bad....

 

Friday, November 18, 2022

Maybe No Covid This Time

I don't know how I escaped getting Covid this time, but I appear not to have it. So, good news. I was in a compact space for four hours with someone who got Covid the next day. Somehow escaped....

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

On Covid Watch

So, I was exposed. But I'm vaxxed up too. Feel more-or-less OK.  So, do I get it, or do I escape?  We'll see!

A Stroll Around Groovy Berkeley

Rachel, Ia, and Larry had tickets to see "The Great Comet of 1812." I didn't have a ticket, but I agreed to drive them down from Sacramento, because I like walking around unfamiliar neighborhoods. While they watched the show I walked around two neighborhoods: Elmwood, south of the UC Berkeley campus, and in the vicinity of Adeline and Ashby Avenues, near the theater, and near the Ashby BART station.

 

A building under construction.

Rachel, Larry, and Ia enter the Ashby Stage theater, where the Shotgun Players are presenting the (fairly-new) musical (dating from about 2012, so a Leo Tolstoy bicentennial show) "The Great Comet of 1812."

Parked over by Malcolm X Elementary School. No CRT here, no sirree.

Elmwood neighborhood.

Mmmm, curries.

Obscure movies.  I like the title: "Triangle of Sad Tar."  Like the La Brea Tar Pits, but with fewer mastodons.

"Sweet Dreams!'

I ate a grilled cheese and ham sandwich at Baker Commons.

Nice place.

Interesting outfit in a luxury store window.

The library was closed, but looked nice.

From a mural on Ashby Avenue.

"First They Came For The Homeless."

Community pride.

Nothing less.

Groovy Berkeley.

Free training for Insurance Agents?

Ashby BART Station.

Ashby BART Station.

Mural on the side of a liquor store at Ashby and Adeline.

A Lace Museum.

Interesting Pacific-looking stuff.

American Haircuts.

Back at Ashby Stage.

Peace Wall that-a-way.

Larry, Ia, and Rachel after the show.

Saturday, November 12, 2022

A Fake Pollster Likely Invented the Red Wave

A dumb person's idea of what a smart person looks like:
What’s going on here? Well, Trafalgar founder Robert Cahaly is a longtime Republican operative (one who, as you can see from the TV screenshot above, lends himself an air of intellectual authority by wearing a bow tie). Many Republicans believe that independent polling operations are among the mainstream institutions biased against conservatives. During the 2012 presidential election, that feeling gave rise to a concept called “unskewing the polls,” which were said to be understating support for Mitt Romney.
They weren’t—Romney lost, and most polls actually overestimated his support—but during the next presidential cycle, Cahaly’s operation began putting out its first polls, which consistently suggested Donald Trump had a very good chance of defeating Hillary Clinton. Most other polls did not say this, and when Trump won, Cahaly became a polling celebrity. 
In 2020, Trafalgar’s polls said the same thing—that Trump was going to win. Of course, Trump did not win, but Tralfagar retained much of its influence, including among mainstream reporters. This was partly because Nate Silver’s site FiveThirtyEight continued to give the group an A-minus rating for its overall accuracy despite some concerns about its transparency. (Many other polls in 2020 were off in the other direction, i.e., overestimating support for Joe Biden.) Cahaly’s outlier optimism about Republican chances continued unabated this cycle, and was arguably instrumental in creating the narrative of a rising red wave that never materialized. (Presumably, that A-minus is about to drop).

Poke it Harder

Yes, Arizona Rejected This Guy

I've hiked out where he was shooting. And I would have been dodging his bullets had I still been there. 

Strangest campaign ad ever.  And somehow Arizonans said no way.

Imagine that!

Evenly-Divided

Friday, November 11, 2022

RIP, Leo Gallagher

He of watermelon-smashing fame, and a candidate in the 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall:
Comedian Gallagher, best known for his watermelon-smashing comedy routine and many popular specials in the 1980s, died Friday morning, according his manager Craig Marquardo. He was 76.
According to a statement provided to CNN by Marquardo, the comedian died “after a short health battle” and “passed away surrounded by his family in Palm Springs, California.”
Gallagher, born Leo Gallagher, became a household name in the early ’80s with a comedy special titled “An Uncensored Evening,” the first comedy stand up special ever to air on cable television, according to an obituary shared by Marquardo. 
Gallagher’s most famous bit involved a hand-made sledgehammer he called the “Sledge-O-Matic,” which he would use to smash food on stage, spraying the audience.

Near-Collision Over Orlando Airport

I hadn't seen this, around Labor Day. Scary.