Sunday, June 09, 2019
E. At The Crossroads
Slow-growing breast cancer was suspected a year ago, and diagnosed last August, but nothing has been done. A second biopsy last month has confirmed that even slow-growing cancer grows pretty fast. And so, decision time. Hopefully surgery can be scheduled this week, but the endless delays so far don't give me reassurance.
Origins 1982
It would be nice to know a little more about the origins of the musical "Rent." It seems to me that Laurie Anderson, such a big sensation in 1982, was the inspiration for the character Maureen.
We're Coming For You, Trumpers
A fight broke out on highway 118 in California after a white couple allegedly called a Latino family “beaners.”
According to a Twitter user with the handle @PattyMonstercx, her parents were cut off in traffic by the white couple.
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An included video shows the white couple getting out of their SUV to confront Patty’s family. A fight soon breaks out, which the white couple appears to lose.
According to a Twitter user with the handle @PattyMonstercx, her parents were cut off in traffic by the white couple.
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An included video shows the white couple getting out of their SUV to confront Patty’s family. A fight soon breaks out, which the white couple appears to lose.
I Don't Know These Dogs
Dog sitting this weekend, so spending a lot of hours on Canine Standard Time.
Walking Molly and Blue, we passed Mormon missionaries talking to a homeowner. I think: “Not interested in talking to any kind of missionaries while trying to control all this dog flesh.”
Suddenly the missionaries are right beside us. One asks: “Can I pet your dog?” Sounding dubious, I say “I suppose so.” The other asks: “What kind of dog is that?” I say, “I don’t know, I’m just a dog sitter. A wire-haired setter, or something.”
I’m acting like I don’t even know the dogs, or how they’ll react to strangers. Slow to arouse, but still on cue, Molly starts barking at them, and Blue growls. The missionaries prudently backed away. And so, we headed off to more canine-friendly fun.
Walking Molly and Blue, we passed Mormon missionaries talking to a homeowner. I think: “Not interested in talking to any kind of missionaries while trying to control all this dog flesh.”
Suddenly the missionaries are right beside us. One asks: “Can I pet your dog?” Sounding dubious, I say “I suppose so.” The other asks: “What kind of dog is that?” I say, “I don’t know, I’m just a dog sitter. A wire-haired setter, or something.”
I’m acting like I don’t even know the dogs, or how they’ll react to strangers. Slow to arouse, but still on cue, Molly starts barking at them, and Blue growls. The missionaries prudently backed away. And so, we headed off to more canine-friendly fun.
Lucky The Pigeon
There was a crisis among the birds Friday morning. There was a huge commotion as every crow, scrub jay, mockingbird, and sparrow in the immediate neighborhood came flying through the treetops in pursuit of *something*. I couldn't figure out what it was, until I got up on the porch and could see into the neighbor's yard. A hawk had caught a pigeon. As the birds pressed in and distracted the hawk, the injured pigeon broke free and hid as best it could against a fence.
And so, needing recuperation time for the injuries inflicted by the hawk, Lucky the Pigeon joins other animals at the Wildlife Care Association, near McClellan Field. Thanks, Rachel, for the assistance.
And so, needing recuperation time for the injuries inflicted by the hawk, Lucky the Pigeon joins other animals at the Wildlife Care Association, near McClellan Field. Thanks, Rachel, for the assistance.
View From Orbit
I like these:Since late last year, nine different astronauts from four nations have rotated through Expeditions 57, 58, and 59 aboard the International Space Station, which is still orbiting 250 miles above Earth more than 20 years since its first component was launched.
Lights of the upper-midwestern United States at night viewed from the International Space Station on May 10, 2019. The brightest spot (at left) is the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, with Chicago visible in the upper middle.
Thursday, June 06, 2019
"Rocketman"
Really liked the new biopic/musical about Elton John. The Rocketman/Pool sequence is awesome. Very clever - "All this science I don't understand" referring to first aid:
The first rock concert I ever attended was start of senior year in high school - September 3, 1973 - when Elton John played at the University of New Mexico Basketball Arena (The Pit). Awesome!
Elton John counseled the audience to be patient, because he was about to play a series of still unreleased new songs from his new album “Good-bye Yellow Brick Road”. "It can be hard to hear songs for the first time," he said. Thus, I heard a series of fantastic songs for the very first time, live, like “Grey Seal”, and the encore song, “Saturday Night’s All Right For Fightin’”!
And who can forget how he captured the world's mourning hearts in 1997?:
The first rock concert I ever attended was start of senior year in high school - September 3, 1973 - when Elton John played at the University of New Mexico Basketball Arena (The Pit). Awesome!
Elton John counseled the audience to be patient, because he was about to play a series of still unreleased new songs from his new album “Good-bye Yellow Brick Road”. "It can be hard to hear songs for the first time," he said. Thus, I heard a series of fantastic songs for the very first time, live, like “Grey Seal”, and the encore song, “Saturday Night’s All Right For Fightin’”!
And who can forget how he captured the world's mourning hearts in 1997?:
Wednesday, June 05, 2019
One-Stop Gerrymandering Shop
It looks like the good guys got lucky here (although whether it's enough for court purposes is still unclear). For all their gerrymandering needs, the GOP relied on one person, and his files are now exposed:
And on Thursday, they dropped the first bombshell from Hofeller’s hard drives: A key portion of a 2015 memo written by Hofeller appeared in a draft Justice Department letter used to justify the Trump administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the census. Hofeller’s memo, which explains why the citizenship question would boost the voting power of “Republicans and non-Hispanic Whites,” indicates that administration officials lied about the reason for adding the question.
There are sure to be more revelations from the Hofeller files to come, driving home the downside of using a single consultant to mastermind redistricting across multiple states and decades.
Friday, May 31, 2019
Presenting My Atlas of Albuquerque Filming Locations
Many movies have been based in the City of Albuquerque, particularly in the past quarter century. Each film team has had a different vision of the Duke City: a hotbed of romance, a comedic home, a land of forgetfulness and regret, a drugged-out metropolis caught in cross-border realpolitik, a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Yet, it’s hard to recall all these visions while driving around the city.
Today, I unveil my latest project - an illustrated, online Atlas of Albuquerque Filming Locations, specifically for movies of an hour’s length, or more. I count about 385 such movies filmed in or around Albuquerque, through 2018.
Stage 1 of this project has been to tackle the easiest-to-identify filming locations gathered from DVDs of those movies that I was able to find at my local Sacramento Dimple Records store. I watched 89 such movies, exhausted the local supply, and gathered a total of 547 filming locations.
It’s interesting to observe where film crews have concentrated their efforts – Central Avenue is a big favorite – as well as those places filmmakers tend to avoid.
Stage 1 just scratches the surface of the cinematic richness out there. Stage 2 will consist of ordering more films to view, as well as digging deeper into the films that I already have.
The Atlas Introductory Page is here. Take a look. I hope this resource will prove helpful to fans of Albuquerque-based movies.
Saweetie x London On Da Track - Up Now (Feat G-Eazy and Rich The Kid)
We dance to this song quite a bit in Pepper's Fierce Funk class, but because it mentions Sacramento near the start, at first I wondered whether it had been commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce, or something.
I don't think it was commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce.
I don't think it was commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
The Sixties Live On
Stuff lasts forever:
Curtis recently undertook the project of restoring a vintage Buchla Model 100 modular synthesizer. According to San Francisco KPIX 5, the instrument had been sitting in a cold, dark room at Cal State University East Bay since the 1960s, so he lugged it home and began repairing it.
After opening a red-paneled module on the synth, he noticed there was “a crust or a crystalline residue on it.” Naturally, he did what any person tasked with fixing up an old instrument would do: spray some cleaner on it, pick at the residue with his finger, and try to dislodge it by scratching it off. But 45 minutes later, he started to feel some tingling. It was the start of a nine-hour acid trip.
...What was LSD doing on the instrument in the first place? Nobody knows, but there’s plenty of theories. Look no further than Don Buchla, the instrument’s inventor. Not only was Buchla part of the ’60s counterculture at large, but his synths ended up on an old school bus purchased by LSD advocate Ken Kesey and his followers in 1966. During Kesey’s acid tests at Winterland on Halloween, electronic sounds interrupted an interview with Kesey. Additionally, Buchla was a friend of Owsley Stanley, the Grateful Dead’s sound engineer and an infamous manufacturer of an extremely pure strain of LSD.
Flaming Chariot
On Saturday, I turned on the air conditioner in my pickup truck, and ended up with a fire in the ventilation ducts. Last November, I turned on the heater and also ended up with a fire. Not all is well in those ventilation ducts. Hence, I nickname my pickup truck the “Flaming Chariot.”
Monday, May 27, 2019
Day Trip To Clear Lake
I've been living in Sacramento for 29 years, yet have never been to Clear Lake. Time to change that situation:From Wikipedia:
Clear Lake is much older and is possibly the oldest securely dated lake in North America. Core samples taken by U.S. Geological Survey geologists in 1973 and 1980 have been dated to 480,000 years.
Mount Konocti.
Samples From Chloe Grace Moretz Movies
As part of my New Mexico film project, I watched "The Eye," a 2008 movie filmed primarily in Isleta, New Mexico, and "Not Forgotten," a 2009 movie filmed primarily in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and was surprised to learn Chloe Grace Moretz was doing her creepy best in both movies. I learned that she was apparently the go-to juvenile Scream Queen of the Aughts, similar to how Linda Blair and Sissy Spacek were the go-to juvenile Scream Queens of the Seventies. Chloe Grace Moretz certainly creeps me out in this video, in the scene from "Not Forgotten," where she has the cross painted on her face.
Of course, I really loved Chloe Grace Moretz in the 2014 film, "Clouds of Sils Maria"!
Of course, I really loved Chloe Grace Moretz in the 2014 film, "Clouds of Sils Maria"!
Sacramento Beats May Rainfall Records!
The rains on Sunday were just enough to push the entire Sacramento area over May rainfall records.
And for Sacramento Executive Airport, the current 3.17 inches of rain barely beats the 1948 record of 3.13 inches of rain.
Downtown Sacramento already has broken record rainfall numbers in May, with more than 3.42 inches of rain this month, according to National Weather Service forecaster Karl Swanberg. The previous record of 3.25 inches was set in 1889.
And for Sacramento Executive Airport, the current 3.17 inches of rain barely beats the 1948 record of 3.13 inches of rain.
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
Resembles "Atomic Blonde," but written for stupid people.
What a fucking waste of time.
What a fucking waste of time.
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