"No matter how cynical I get, I can’t keep up.” — Lily Tomlin
“It was beauty killed the beast.” — Robert Armstrong, King Kong (1933) Shine a Light (2008) I think the idea was that Martin Scorsese would turn a concert film into cinematic magic, and I must say the photography and staging is brilliant, but really it’s just another concert film and not all that memorable as […]
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into a giant insect.” – Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis (1915) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz I didn’t finish it, I’m slightly ashamed to say. It’s sort of a Dominican version of Catcher in the Rye. Four or five […]
Steve Benen comments on the Washington Monthly blog: Long-time regulars may know I have quite a few “conversation enders.” These are comments that lead you to know, the moment you hear them, that the writer/speaker is either clueless or intellectually dishonest, and there’s really no reason to engage the person in a serious dialog. He […]
I bought a used motorcycle wheel chock at a friend’s garage sale on Friday. It’s the kind you can ride into, but I decided to wait until Donna could be in the garage with me before trying it, just in case. Saturday I rode the motorcycle to a car show. When I got home, I […]
My friend Darrell gave me a free ticket and VIP parking pass to the annual Tucson Classics Car Show, so I spent a happy morning mooning over beautiful metal. Car shows and auctions these days are dominated by 1970s muscle cars (this one was no exception), but I’m interested in older, stock cars, the kind […]
I rode my bicycle down to the corner coffee shop this morning, my favorite mode of exercise (it’d be good exercise too, if it weren’t for those damn scones). A leisurely cup of coffee at an outdoor table, reading the book and movie reviews in the latest Tucson Weekly, makes for a great morning. But […]
Since everyone has so much to say about President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, I may as well have my say too. From Wikipedia: “The Norwegian Nobel Committee (Norwegian: Den norske Nobelkomité) awards the Nobel Peace Prize each year. Its five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and roughly represent the political makeup […]
Seven or eight years ago some guy veered off the highway and ran into a tree on the back of our property. I was mowing the lawn inside the fenced area of our yard and heard it happen, so I went to see if anyone had been injured and wound up keeping the driver company […]