Talk about making me happy. Never had anyone like the Sweet One before in my life. The way she treats me, a great listener, always taking care of me, just finding little ways to make me happy. Given the other major ongoing situation in my life just now, being unable to find a job for 15 months, her love is an amazing contrast and allows me to be happy when otherwise I would not be. Especially the hot breakfasts every Saturday and Sunday and the foot massages.
Thanks Vivian, this Bill’s for you!
Woody Allen’s 1999 release, Sweet and Lowdown is the portrait of a man to whom everything comes so easy that he is unable to appreciate any of it until reality turns him smack around. Makes one wonder if, or how closely, Allen identifies with this character.
Sean Penn, who takes roles I can’t appreciate all too often, plays this man, adrift in the 1930s, a virtuoso guitarist who keeps reminding people he is probably the second greatest player in the world, only that gypsy Django Reinhardt ahead of him. Instead of putting his head down and seeing where his talent might take him, Penn’s Emmet Ray fritters away his time on schemes, alcohol, and emotions he is unwilling to understand or develop. Samantha Morton is also superb, playing his mute lover, going the whole movie without a word of dialog other than what she can convey with body language.
No doubt that the movie has a great soundtrack. Dick Hyman assembled an all-star line-up to make fresh takes on the sound of the small group swing era featuring guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli as the lead instrumentalist. Much of the music comes naturally in the structure of the film as being played by Ray’s combo, rather than just being background to other scenes.
Allen is, to my mind, one of the top five American moviemakers in my lifetime. In Sweet and Lowdown, he gets away from his obsession with young women to return to a time he adores and writes a complex, meaningful character. In many interviews he has expressed a certain level of dissatisfaction with his work; even this month when he was honored with a major European lifetime achievement award he called himself a mediocre artist. So there is some truth to my thought that Emmet Ray is a commentary targeted at himself, though I believe in the last 10 or so years Allen has learned to be satisfied with who he is and what he’s done (so perhaps all his years of therapy did pay off).
I was a little disappointed in the ending, it was not as conclusive as I would prefer. But Allen’s own life, his career, has not yet ended so perhaps he isn’t ready to write that scene.
Recommended
More about my life, as if you need the extra thrills:
When he was young, a pretty typical teenager in New Jersey in the late ’70s, he did take up the vile and noxious habit. He followed both his parents, his younger sister, and several close friends into the addiction. This was at age 17, about 14 years after the Surgeon General came out with his landmark report explicitly stating that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer. But Bill had been around the smoke all his life and never really thought of it as so bad.
His first experiment in smoking was at age 13. A few months past a terrific Bar Mitzvah (and into his manhood), one sunny afternoon he was standing in the kitchen with Mom. Who was smoking at the table. Bill looked at the window and then asked her for one to try. She laughed, but he was insistent and she gave one over, even lit it. After two puffs, standing over the sink turned out to be a good location because he began coughing and choking and dropped the burning stick. Mom had a really good laugh then and figured that was one lesson learned. If only.
One Saturday night four years later, while staying the weekend at a friend’s house out on Long Island, he was left alone in the car for a few minutes. Just Bill and a red and white pack of Marlboros. When the friends came back to the car, he was sitting there trying to choke down a few puffs. No way were a few coughs going to deter him from entering that cool world. So he kept at it. The next day he bought his first pack.
At home, standard practice was for dinner to be eaten but before clearing the dishes both adults would have a cigarette while we finished the conversations. Being 17, Bill though of himself as pretty manly so when his folks took out their’s, he reached into his pants pockets and did the same. Even asked his Dad for a light. Of course there was quite a reaction but what could they do? The next night his younger sister, who’d been smoking for about two years already, lit up as well. Amusingly, Sis thought the folks didn’t know about her surrepticiously smoking but of course they did.
Anyway, Bill smoked for several years before kicking the habit. Kicking it for awhile, at least, but in the 24 and a half years since that probably means about half on and half off. He is glad to report that he took his last pull over 16 months ago, on June 12, 2001, and is fairly confident that this time it’s for good.
Most people now regret giving in to the glamour and rebellion. The huge quantities of advertising, the celebrity endorsements, the movies with James Dean looking so cool with a pack rolled up in his sleeve, all made it so hard to resist. Bill’s father, who started smoking at age 12, in 1940 and quit about ten years ago, even now says “Actually, I wish I’d never started. But who knew? It was glamorized so in those days.”
This nostalgia all was inspired by the latest medical news: Nicotine ‘Cooks’ Proteins in the Body. So swell, as if potentially giving ourselves lung cancer wasn’t enough… Another reason to be glad we’ve quit! You have, right? Karl, this question is pointed at you.
As Karl says, I used be from there. My parents still live there, outside Princeton. I gave trying to explain why there is no such thing as an honest politician in the state long ago, though I don’t know how different any other state is in this regard; probably fairly similar. Still today’s headlines hit home: the County Executive of Essex County, where I grew up, was indicted today on some serious corruption charges. Of course, Treffinger came to office in 1995 as a corruption-busting Republican, after his Democrat predecessor, Thomas D’Alessio, was convicted on federal corruption charges.
According to the New York Times, “In the last two years, the United States attorney’s office in Newark has obtained convictions of more than 20 public officials. Most of the investigations began independently but have come to intertwine, officials say.” Just shocking, eh?
| The Sweet One and I have a Sunday ritual. After a tasty breakfast lovingly she prepares, today low carb pancakes amd coffee from Hawaii, we head over to the award-winning Mountain View Farmer’s Market. Not only do we get a variety of lettuces for our lunches, we also usually buy hardy green veggies like bok choy, kale, and broccoli. And since tomorrow is a pot luck lunch at the office, she put together some fresh-picked ingredients for a salad. Here she is getting the cherry tomatoes |  |
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One of my favorite vendors at the market is the mushroom man. Unlike some of the stands I never noticed a name sign for this one, so I have my own pet name. Here he’s seen waiting for a woman to hand over the money, presiding over luscious piles of fungus, of which I’ve bought a bagful already. There’s always some live, generally acoustic, music at the market, this morning provided by a very eccentric looking woman, or, on second thought, a woman dressed as a green witch for Halloween. |
There would have been more photos but someone’s digital camera ran out of battery power.
Do you take advantage of your local farmer’s market?
Some photos from the week in Asbury Park, back in July when he was on Today, courtesy of Belmar Beach Cam:
Phew! Too much time has passed since we saw a movie in the theater (The Tuxedo four weeks ago) rather than on the home screen. Just hasn’t been anything compeling enough to get us to come across with $6 or more. The price is too high for my pocketbook unless I really think it’s going to be good. Except for CinemaSave over in Milpitas, of course.
We both wanted to see The Transporter since seeing the trailer. This looked like a good European take on the Hollywood martial arts action flick. Luc Besson, who co-wrote and produced, is the man behind La Femme Nikita and The Professional, two terrific films. Cory Yuen is one of the top Hong Kong directors and this is his English language debut. Jason Statham, the star, looked very impressive in the trailer. And Ric Young is always good as a sleazy bad guy.
For the most part, the movie delivered. Faltered a bit with the plot resolution but that’s probably the most difficult element to pull off, and plot isn’t the reason for seeing an action film, is it? My big question was why the bad guys had two 18 wheelers when one would have been better for the plot. Statham, though, is a more refined version of Vin Diesel, the year’s other big new action star. Even though Transporter isn’t doing the box office of xXx, it is a launching pad for the Englishman and you should expect to see him again and again starting next year in caper flick The Italian Job with Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Edward Norton.
Qi Shu is the love interest here and this is her first big Hollywood role but she’s another Asian cinema star attempting to make it in our market. She’s pretty, sexy, of course, but also funny and a good actor; younger than Michelle Yeoh and older than Ziyi Zhang. Her character is the reason Statham’s Frank Marks gets into trouble, Shu has found out that her underworld father is trying to bring 400 Chinese to France as more or less slaves and wants to stop him.
Yuen and Besson open the film by showing the transporter doing his job: he picks up a gang that have robbed a bank and by way of some vicious driving, very well staged, gets them out of Nice. That’s the only major scene to show off driving skills but then we get to see some very creative martial arts fights. Plot is not ignored here, not in a Besson movie. Frank Marks has a life priot to the film, he once was a very good man whose innocence dissolved in bureaucratic politics; the events not only give him love but restore his true nature. This film brings what baseball calls the high, hard one, with energy to spare.
Recommended
Karl asks some questions about Wal-Mart and it’s impact on jobs, especially in his little commonwealth. Specifically Karl was looking at the loss of traditional industry jobs in Pennsylvania and the rise in jobs at the retailing behemoth. I have a few words for him:
Technology has replaced manufacturing jobs, even though the specific positions may not be with companies that sell tech products. Wal-Mart is probably one of the best examples: aside from possibly Amazon, it is the most tech-obsessed company in retailing and most others are doing their best to copy everything Wal-Mart has done. This has been true for at least a decade. Every store’s computer systems were linked via satellite and private network to headquarters long before the rise of the Internet; all the data was processed nightly to maximize inventory turn and better the purchasing department’s understanding of what sells best where–very early adopters of data mining, essentially.
Most successful companies today, regardless of industry, are essentially the same. They’re sophisticated information processing systems focused on one particular market, or set of markets. I realized this while working at a commercial insurance firm in the early ’90s–I doubt this observation is original to me and I make no such claim. These days, for most industries, competitive advantage lies not in designing a better good, since most innovations are easily reproduced. The advantage must be made in the overall system, being faster to develop new products, understanding how to stay closer to customers, hiring the best people. This is a major reason why new innovations in computing can sweep through the economy with such massive impact.
Okay, Kevin Garnett is a good basketball player, a very good one. And he has led the Minnesota Timberwolves to better results each of the past few years. So his current contract, signed four years ago and paying an average of $21 million a year (with two years left), is not necessarily out of line given that he was the only All-Star on the team when negotiated.
Now the two sides are talking extension, hoping to get a deal done before the NBA season starts in a week, and this is where I just lose it, and the whole deal loses touch with reality. Garnett is eligible for an extension worth $139 million for four years; given basketball norms, the whole deal is probably guaranteed, bad performance, injury, whatever. That’s $32.25 million per year, friends, and more than Kobe or Shaq ($19,2M/year, going up to $22M in an extension that kicks in next year) or Iverson makes. By a lot.
Of course, being eligible for that amount and getting it are two different things; The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the T-Wolves’ initially offered a four-year extension worth “only” around $75 million. Also factoring in are the need to resign fellow All Star Wally Szczerbiak and point guard Terrell Brandon’s big money deal. Since the team and Garnett’s agent are still negoatiating, one has to believe the final number will come in well over $75M.
i used to believe “is a collection of ideas that adults thought were true when they were children.” Visitors are encouraged to add personal memories to the collection. A cute idea. [via garret]
My contribution:
When I was about five, and already a bit of a science fiction fan, my uncle told me that Jews were really Martians and that our family’s space ship was in a cave underneath his garage. His house was on a hill, so the explanation seemed perfectly reasonable.
He promised that once I passed my Bar Mitzvah, he could show me the ship and teach me to fly it. Sadly, he passed away when I was about seven and so I never got to see his spaceship.
Now, our family is Jewish, so my uncle was putting me on in a good natured way, he was a total kidder, and this is in no way meant to be anti-Semitic.
As mentioned here last Saturday, I wrote a very cranky Letter to the Editor regarding a silly article the newspaper put on their front page that day. But give them credit, they printed my letter today, directly above a similarly criticial letter from Gov. Davis’s press secretary Steven Maviglio.
Or, as one friend put it, the editors are seriously cynical and realize that printing such letters keeps people reading. And buying the newspaper. So they purposely write articles that will attract emotional responses because the sell more product. I believe this is what they mean by sensationalism and tabloid journalism. The Merc isn’t that low. Yet.
The lack of new posts to the weblog here over the past two days is not intentional nor do I have pneumonia (sorry Glenn). Blogger has simply refused to transfer my generated files from its servers to my web server. Then gives up with a generic Transfer Error. I’ve filed a trouble ticket and emailed TPTB, hopefully we’ll get a fix soon. I’m jonesing to update already!
Dave Winer had something kind to say about Bill Kearney. Without being overly dramatic, these two have been going at it, and not in a friendly way to the best of my knowledge, for years on various mailing lists and discussion boards. When I say going at it, I do mean that there were lots of nasty words strewn about, not just technical disagreements.
In a completely unprecedented move, 20 to 30 armed Chechen rebels took several hundred men hostage in a Moscow theater today. The rebellion, for Chechen independence, has been going on for years with massive amounts of violence, probably tens of thousands of deaths, on both sides. Though the rebels have taken action in Moscow before, I can’t ever recall such a large scale hostage taking in any conflict. I hate, despise violence as much as anyone, I think, and would love to see everyone get out alive. But the rebels seem to be missing a few screws: the gang is apparently demanding that authorities “resolve the situation in the Chechen republic.” So yeah, the Russian government is just going to cave in to the whole conflict over 700 hostages. Since President Vladmir Putin is not one of them, nor is any member of his family, think again.
Update: Apparently I was mistaken in saying that this was an unprecedented move. Chechen rebels, in June, 1995, took approximately 2,000 hostages for five days in a hospital in Dagestan. More than 100 of the hostages died when Russian commandos stormed the hospital. In the end, the rebels were allowed to leave peacefully when the remaining hostages were freed.
Um, but would an adult want the essence of sweat? Scott Broadbent did a little experimenting in his home chemistry lab and made some 3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid. He will sell it to you, $40 plus postage for 20 mL. Oh yeah, that’s on my holiday shopping list!
After the last NFL season, spent a bunch of time looking at the head coaching changes in the NFL (and a couple of colleges too) in the 01-02 CoachingGoRound. With a third of the season gone, and some amusement coming out of DC, this seems like a good time to see how well the new boys are working out.
The six changes: Steve Spurrier left the University of Florida, where it seems he was more important that people realized, for the Redskins. The man he replaced in D.C., Marty Schottenheimer, took over in San Diego. Tony Dungy left the Bucs for the Colts, prompting the Glazer Brothers to trade draft picks and cash to the Raiders for Jon Gruden, and the Raiders promoted Bill Callahan in turn. Finally, the Carolina Panthers replaced 49er retread with the Giant’s defensive coordinator John Fox.
If we had held this review a few weeks ago, you might have mistakenly thought all these teams’ owners and general managers were geniuses. Carolina, coming off a 1-15 season, was 3-0. So were Oakland and San Diego, Indy and Tampa Bay were 2-1, and the Redskins were 1-2 but coming off a very potent pre-season. So what happened after that?
The Panthers got the biggest smack in the face–zero wins in the four games since. The biggest issue here is injuries. First and foremost, Rodney Peete was turning in a Comeback Player of the Year-level performance until he hurt a knee which required a month in the trainer’s room and surgery. His replacement, Chris Weinke (who was last year’s starter as a rookie but lost the job in training camp to Peete) suffered a concussion early in the next game. Stanford rookie Randy Fasani came on next, playing most of the Panther’s last game but he was not nearly ready and the Kitties went down 30-0 to Atlanta; Fasani looks likely to start this Sunday against Tampa Bay. The remainder of the schedule looks mighty tough–hello, NFC South–and the team will be lucky to end the season 6-10. Which, come to think of it, plus five in the win column in one year is not so bad
The ‘Skins put up another 1-2 trilogy and Spurrier seems to be playing musical quarterbacks. First Danny Wuerffel had the chair, but he got hurt and is now apparently third on the depth chart. Second, Shane Matthews got a turn but, as he’s shown throughout his pro career Matthews is pretty mediocre and so was benched after two starts. Rookie Patrick Ramsey, a strong arm out of LSU, got the nod after a strong relief effort in Week 5. What next? Ramsey has a lousy Week 7 (what a surprise coming in a game at Green Bay, possibly the league’s best team so far this year) and is benched in favor of Matthews. Clearly, Spurrier is just killing time until he can draft Rex Grossman this Spring. In the meantime, Steve wants more control over personnel decisions. Speculation has already begun in the D.C. media over whether or not he’s already anxious to get back to a college job.
Oakland also went 1-2, the two losses coming in the last two games. Without a lot of help, the loss to San Diego at home, is going to relegate the Black and White to wild card status on no more than 11 wins. Jerry Rice is still a great receiver but he isn’t good enough to be number one any more, Tim Brown never was, Jerry Porter is going to be next year’s, and Al Davis made a big mistake keeping James Jett over Reggie Barlow. The defense came out rock solid, with nine new starters, but injuries to Charles Woodson and Philip Buchanon have opened huge holes for Marshall Faulk and LaDainian Tomlinson; reminder: Priest Homes and Garrison Hearst/Kevin Barlow are coming to play the next two games. And let’s face it, Sebastian Janikowski just isn’t getting the job done, missing a 27 yarder that would have won last week’s game.
The Colts repeated the 2-1 result. And they do play in the surprisingly weak AFC South. But the loss, this past Monday night to Pittsburgh, showed some surprising weaknesses from Peyton Manning (is he looking over his shoulder at younger brother Eli?) and the defense. Indy does have a decent chance to take seven more W’s and with them, the division title. An opening round matchup against probable wild carders Denver, Oakland or the resurgent Bills will prove too difficult, though, and send these boys home early.
Tampa Bay is a toss up. They’re 5-2 with a solid shot to capture at least a wild card slot and maybe even the division if New Orleans falters after a strong start. The Saints look like they’re for real, though, with the heartbreaking 22 point comeback win against the 49ers last week. The Bucs’ offense has struggled, as usual, and now starting QB Brad Johnson has a broken rib. Where was Keyshawn and Mike Alstott in the loss to Philadelphia? Will QB Rob Johnson make a difference? The last four weeks have seen the team scoring 35, 20, 17, and 10 points. Looks like another one and out trip to the playoffs unless Chucky boy gets a Johnson hot.
San Diego has to be the surprise team of the year–but that was what everyone said last year too, when the Bolts finished 5-11 by losing their last nine. This year’s model seem much more mature and aware of how to do their job, as evidenced by the way they hung on to take the overtime win against in a major statement game against the Raiders. Drew Brees and Tomlinson are growing into a powerful combination, receiver Curtis Conway is having what could be a career year and the defense already has three players with at least four sacks each. The Chargers should battle the Broncos for the division title and could easily go 12-4 if they avoid serious injury.
Forecast: Schottenheimer, Dungy, and Gruden are safe bets to return in 2003 barring complete collapses. Fox should not be in trouble as long as he ends up 5-11 or better. Callahan is a question mark: was a he holding the spot for a year until Davis could make a deal with someone he really wants, like Dennis Green? He needs to at least reach the AFC Conference Championship Game, if not the Super Bowl, to guarantee his job. Spurrier has to contend not only with his own expectations but also with those of petulant, immature team owner Dan Snyder; even Vegas bookmakers should be hard-pressed to put a line up on this one.
According to My Virtual Model, below left is an approximation of my current size and to the right what I’ll look like at target weight. Doesn’t seem heavy enough for now or slender enough for later. Or take age into account. I am, of course, much more handsome.
Zack Bronson broke a foot in last Monday’s win against Seattle and is out for probably two months. This lead directly to New Orleans’ going 10 of 14 on third down conversions, many of which required seven yards or more for first down and came on 12-16 yard completions by Aaron Brooks. Jamie Winborn and John Engelberger were out on injury as well. I knew Bronson (and the other two) would be missed but not this badly. You get outscored 22-3 in the fourth quarter, when the 22 could have been more but for two missed two point conversations, and you don’t win.
Tai Streets had six receptions for 80 yards. Sounds nice except that Streets is not supposed to be the leading receiver on the Niners. TO is and he only had four catches (61 yards including the first touchdown) plus one piddling gain on an end around. We’re not winning when the best offensive player gets the ball five times the whole game. Garcia was 23 of 39 for 275 yards but that’s a dinky 7.05 yards per plus a crucial fourth quarter interception that sealed the loss. Add in Barlow’s fumble and this was another example of “lose the turnover battle, lose the game” with the team going negative in this category for the first time all year.
The Saints did not punt once all game. Both teams had 159 yards in kickoff returns (the one SF punt was for no yards on the return) but the Saints got theirs on two fewer returns and had better starting position all day. Terry Jackson, special teams captain, was put on injured reserve four days with a torn ACL suffered in Seattle.
Arizona (3-2), Oakland (4-1), Kansas City (3-2), San Diego (5-1), and Philadelphia (3-2) are the next five games. Seems like the 49ers will need at least three wins to have a shot at the playoffs and four to match last season’s 12-4 mark. Good luck to us.
I put this short list together for friends of my parents and decided not to let it go to waste.
The Man Himself
Elsewhere
Have some more good ones? Let me know.
This was a nastier than expected 10 day break for the Reds. Stephen Gerrard injured his hip and Emile Heskey had groin problems from their duties with the English national team and neither played today; both are questionable for the mid-week Champions League matchup against Moscow Spartak in Moscow. Defender Stephan Henchoz missed another game due to his injury in the last Premiership outing against Chelsea.
M. Houllier put a very different lineup on the field in response: Salif Diao took Gerrard’s place, Jimmy Traore took Henchoz’s defensive position, Bruno Cheyrou was on for Heskey, and, giving Michael Owen a rest after he played both England matches, El Hadji Diouf got his first playing time in a while on the forward line. Owen did come on in the 69th minute for the other striker, Milan Baros.
Rejoice, you LFC fans. Even though this was an away match at a hostile grounds against a very good Leeds United team, the Reds won out 1-0 on Diao’s 65th minute put-in via a tight cross from Senegal teammate Diouf. Keeper Jerzy Dudek, who signed a nice contract extension during the week, had yet another strong effort resulting in a clean sheet. Dieter Hamann, making up for Gerrard’s absence, controlled the midfield play.
A win is good news, continuing the club’s undefeated EPL march, but the cause for real cheer is the first loss in 30 EPL games dating back to last year by Arsenal; the Gunners went down 2-1 to Everton, the other club based in Liverpool. Which means that after 10 games the Reds are in first place, one point ahead of their archrivals.
On to Moscow!
BillSaysThis 
