Now THAT was what La Strada is supposed to be like... they transport you to 'somewhere'... In this case the Volksgarten nearby. There was a group of Italian women singing folk songs. It took me right back to Italy. Just wonderful things.
There were songs about dreaming of emigrating to America, with such longing, or about organising against fascists and building up the labour movement, or loss and lamenting during wars.
This photo... it was a children's song, being lost in the woods, telling mamà and papà not to worry, they would be home soon, they should wait. It was hauntingly beautiful.
And yes, of all the songs, I understood the lyrics, they were so clear in the enunciation. A lot of it was acapella. But then there was a bass player who doubled on guitar. The ladies were wonderful.
There were three songs which were in dialect, and then I was fully lost, but got the sense of what they were about by how they choreographed it. And they had a couple of 'chestnuts' that every vacationer in Italy has heard a million times, but put their own twist on it. Otherwise, it was a short overview of their culture in song. The audience went nuts at the end.
So it made for a nice emotional roller-coaster of a ride for me. I'd often heard a lot when I was in Italy... whether it be a demonstration, and they are ALWAYS demonstrating for or against something or other... or once at a street festival the communists held on Giudecca in Venice. That was something, all right.
The only sour note was seeing what used to be our living room windows opened. They seem to have very small pictures on those very high walls. It nearly killed me. Which is why I usually never go there. But it was only a small knife in the gut, and returned to enjoying that lovely performance.
And I have to learn to stop trying to use the zoom on my camera so much. I'd have had three really spectacular photos if I hadn't, and they got so blurred, there was no chance of salvaging them.
Just back from Italy... will wonders never cease...
Harumph..:
Last year I missed La Strada, but decided to see what I can of this year's. The first scheduled event was on the Main Square at eleven.
The performer was a young lady named Claire, from France.
She did a number I guess you might call expressive dancing, supposed to be lyrical and whimsical, I guess. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for expressive and whimsical, but it left me cold, nothing extraordinary about it. I did get the evils from two women when I lit a cigarette, though. Enjoyment factor nil, in other words.
And yeah, I'm a Broadway musical queen....
I love 'em. So of course I have a link to 'Broadway.com' and get glimpses of what is going on behind the scenes, and what is being developed for next season, and so on.
And yesterday, I was dumbfounded. There is going to be a full revival production of Steven Sondheim's 'Follies'. Now that is real news. And sent me right back to the early Seventies with a vengeance --- in my head.
When I was so young, and SO green, and so closeted it was criminal. And I had a girlfriend. (Faint all you want, you can read the rest later.) I wasn't even young, I was so naive, someone should have shot me or shaken me into facing facts.
My girlfriend was beautiful. When I was sixteen, I had my first job, saw her, and fell in love. Tall, auburn hair, incredible green eyes... something I have had an attraction to ever since... and just lovely.
Since 'da movies' sort of ruined me for life as far as what'cha DO when you fall 'in-lurv', I had my 'agenda', and we talked and talked and became friends, and I was saving up all the extra money I could to have 'the date to end all dates'. It had to be 'romantic'. I didn't have a car, never got a license to this day, so I had to do something.... She was funny, intelligent, and I loved making her eyes sparkle with amusement. Smitten, I was.
So I asked her out. To go to Bawston for the day. We were both film fanatics, but I wanted to top it. So we went to Bawston. On a Greyhound bus, please don't ask.
Once there, we took our first walk about the inner part of the city, and of course, looked for a restaurant near the theater district. And we saw this fucked-up neon sign and both read it as 'Dink's'. Except it was Dini's. We laughed so hard we were hurting, and said, 'oh, we have GOT to go there!'
So we did, and it was awesome... Fifties style leatherette booths with an aquarium in the side of each one with tropical fish. And the food was delicious, a fish fry. And I had tickets for the try-outs for 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown' at the Schubert, front orchestra seats. And we had a wonderful time.
Well, being successful, we did it a couple of times later, seeing premieres of movies, and what not, and exploring the city. And we were young and naive, and yes, there was some closer contact.... except I got more and more uncomfortable with it.
Which brings us to Follies. It was trying out in Bawston on the way to New Yawk. Now legendary stage and screen goddesses, a HUGE production.
So I was planning to surprise her with it. Planning to get tickets. At the time, I was starting to check out a magazine called 'After Dark'. Entertainment news with a huge gay slant to it. Except I didn't realise it at the time. And they said it was a train wreck, so I thought, 'well, no use wasting money on THAT...'
It turned out to be legendary, and my girlfriend dumped me for an older guy three weeks later. Because I remained a 'gentleman'. I was devastated.
Sondheim himself has said it is nearly impossible to stage a full production of that show since. It takes place in a ruined theater where the Ziegfield Follies were held, and there is a reunion of the beautiful women who were headliners, and their mates. You have to have a cast of still beautiful older women, and a full cast of their younger selves.
And it is really sad, as most of his work is. It is full of traditional Broadway razzamataz numbers, some of them classic. I love the number 'Broadway Baby', for instance. The turn of the coin was 'Going Out of My Mind'. It must have been really something, and SO STUPID that I didn't go anyways.
It was also about relationships, what might-have-beens, and the general public at the time wasn't buying it, but the music lived on.
And it ends with a nervous breakdown. Not what Broadway was reckoning with, but it's become classic, and near-impossible to stage. But they have Bernadette Peters as headliner, so I don't think that can go wrong..... she's a goddess.
What became of my girlfriend? She went into banking. And she'd hardly get a toe-hold, and the bank would get swallowed up, and she'd have to start all over again. Yes, we remained in contact, if sproradic, and diffuse.
And on my one visit home... I had one full day ONLY for her... and yeah, she knew about Peter. She came over for lunch at my parent's house. And they were so FREAKED, because they had no idea what was going on. And I cooked like a god. And we spent the rest of the day tooling around in her super-car, and visited her home, and a super-mall, and were comfortable with one another, and laughed so much. In the middle of it, her mother called me at my parent's house and said, 'I am SO sorry it didn't work out for you both, you were wonderful.' She was so lovely... but I would have caused them heartache beyond measure, and she knew that. Still, it was nice to hear.
I was in Venice a few months later and found a glass egg in Venice, when I still had money. It was the color of her eyes, so I sent it to her. I think it was appropriate.
We've lost touch since. It was complicated. I met her husband, and he was very nice, she has three grown sons. And the last thing she said was 'Kiss me.' So I did. In front of her husband, so it was chaste.
It only makes me understand the concept of the show and appreciate it more.
We all have our salad days, we all have things that would have driven us crazy, but bottom line? We do what we do.
I hope the people making this revival are successful.
I have heard this on cd, but never seen it performed...and it is funny
Sometime back in biblical times, Steven Sondheim composed something for a theater festival or something at Yale and it was performed in a swimming pool, and was Aristophanes' play, 'The Frogs'. I believe that Meryl Streep was a student and was in the production at the time. (And it's a good thing my brother never reads this, because he would run for the barf bags... he never recovered from Kramer vs. Kramer...) I love the lyrics and hilarity of it, and since theater audiences have become ruder by the decade, one should take the advice to heart.
Semantics again
Seeing as the news was disgusting as ever....
And not worth commenting on the amazing idiocy being commited in DC...
Was making a list of Yorkshire-isms have run across lately as I hear them and try to put them into context.
If you are 'winding someone up', you are provoking them to try to get them to be aggressive in turn.
If you are 'skinned', you are flat broke, not a penny to spend. Which seems to be my constant state of financial affairs.
If you are 'scabbing someone out', you are vilifying them in a really bad way.
A woman who is promiscuous in the extreme will be referred to by narrow-minded jealous women as a 'slapper'.
Everyone seems to be concerned with 'sorting' things.... making something bad right. Although I've seen that in UK personal ads in another context-- 'well sorted', meaning they have inner equilibrium, or in another venacular, have their heads together.
If you've messed up something badly, you've 'cocked up'. (which I find more humourous than the f-word version.
If you enter a pub after doing something that the locals disapprove of and they glare at you... you are getting 'the evils'. (Which tickles me as well... having received my share in my lifetime... but didn't have a word for it...)
And if someone 'tops themselves off''... well, they have committed suicide. I find that sort of, well, lame.
I had noted down stitched... but forgot the context. It's bound to pop up again.
So if you were to vacation there, some of the language mysteries would be solved for you, wouldn't they?
Well listen, it beats ranting on the current insane asylum aka Congress.... They really HAVE lost their collective minds...
I might have something interesting to see tomorrow... if I can get over the 1oo meters away from the house which I haven't acheived since April. We shall see.
This is fun....
Test your vocabulary here. I scored an estimated 40,700 words. Not bad, I guess... Scott at Bill in exile surpassed me with 2100 more.
Poverty in the US
Good overview....
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Ironic.....
I got news from 'Da Ven' that he's 'grounded' from going out to get his mail at his age in temperatures over 100 degrees F at his part of the world, and for the past five days, it has been so cold where I am, you can't go out for a moment without a sweater and still shiver, and today am needing one indoors. Grey, rain, wind, and just plain uncomfortable.
Was asked if I'd run out of things to say, as I've been quiet. As IF... The fact is, I decided on a short moratorium as far as the news goes for a week or so now. Am just too disgusted with all the grand posturing and shennanegans going on in DC, while most people are really hurting. I think there are going to be lots of surprises in store for both sides whenever the next elections are going to be held, if things don't explode beforehand. And the pols are too insular and short-sighted to see beyond their collective noses.
So there was that....
The other reason is a very personal dilemma, one that has me confounded as to whether what I (haven't) been doing lately is a good choice morally. Which has me tied up in knots inside. And yes, it wouldn't be me if it wasn't about Peter. Just shutting down inside and 'walking away' after thirty-five years? Makes me feel like I have PTSD. And I can't find any answers of late. And just feel empty inside.
This is going to sound 'ick', but spent most of last week re-tracing a story line on one of the UK soaps, because it was relevant. A year's worth. It takes place in a village in Yorkshire. And has subtitles, yeah, the dialect is that thick. However, you can't get subtitles on the internet versions so it takes concentration to get into it. It's very 'realistic'.
Whatever... following it has only raised more questions than provide answers. The crux of the story-line is about two guys, one out, the other in the closet and agressive. But they do come together, have a fight, and the out kid crashes his car onto some train tracks, just as a train is coming and ends up being a quadraplegic. And the closeted one wants to care for him, but often can't take it, and 'does a runner', but comes back, over and over. Which was the relevant part. Jackson, the out guy begs his lover to help him end his life, and his mother is in on it, they are at the end of their rope emotionally, and finally give in. Now Aaron is up on murder charges.
Those are the bare bones of the plot. Compressing over a year's worth of it, it is far more complex. But it has been very realistic, and affecting. There are about ten other story-lines which intertwine with about fifty main characters in the story, most of them engrossing.
But the Aaron leaving and coming back, and trying to come to terms with it all... well, I could empathise, and was very affected. Have nearly caught up to when I began watching it this year.
But as above, no real answers, it depressed the hell out of me. When that story-line is on, the station often gives out help-line numbers, for people in similar dilemmas.
Learned some colorful expressions while watching all this. If someone is banged up, they've gone to prison. If you grass someone up, you've ratted them out, or if you are the recipient, you've been grassed. If you're 'skyving', you are goofing off at work, or skipping school. There are a lot more, but they aren't coming to mind at the moment.
The most dead pan joke so far? 'Did you hear about the blonde turkey... who was SO looking forward to Christmas?' It took me a full five seconds to realise that it WAS the punch line, it was so dry.
Today's best line of the day? On OLTL. They have an imposter Todd (villain) and a 'real' Todd (a mess). The real one is trying to stay alive, some sort of government agents want to kill him. Mostly silent detective John McBain wants to hide the real Todd in his rooms at a hotel while he can figure out what the hell is going on after he's saved him from yet another ambush. The exchange is a classic, but it was in the delivery... Killed me.
Real Todd: 'I know you just saved my life, and I'm very grateful, and you're very attractive, and maybe I'm just vulnerable, um... near death experience, but you should know that I normally don't go to a gentleman's appartment until after the third date or so... unless he spends a lot on dinner...?' McBain: 'To be fair, you're not my type. Why don't you just tell me everything from the beginning?'
Pure snark.
Oh well. At least it was distracting, but nothing is resolved yet. And oh yeah, my one-stop site for watching all sorts of things? Shut down. Violations of the site agreements. So half of what I liked is back to off-limits. That's the way it goes.
Interesting
Keith Olbermann supposedly has free reign, but when he gets Cenk to tell it like it is, he has to cut him short. Media jackals, hey.
Sharks, and what you shouldn't do on the internets....
My favourite site which is the only thing keeping me sane at the moment is under attack. The person running it has just over two thousand registered members. And while the focus is on soaps, most of which you can find scattered about in one place or another, it was becoming much more ambitious, and there were series, and specials, and fun things to watch, which--- if you aren't on the continental US... is forbidden and blocked by the major networks, because they want to sell them at very high prices to nations abroad. Which is ok, but most of it is such junk, no one here would buy it anyway.
The set-up is such, you register as a guest, and you get a lot of something for nothing. So now, after about a year, there were restrictions, because few wanted to contribute ten Euros to be a VIP member and have unlimited access to everything. I saw that it was worth doubling down for two days, and did so voluntarily, because the people running it were diligent, fast, and it was a one-stop place to get my fix and see a mess of things I wouldn't have had access to.
Ten Euros for a year as VIP is NOT coming from someone out to make a killing and there are running costs for such a site, as it is connected to other storage sites.
Judging from the instant message box... a mess of the people who have been thrilled about it were members of service people in the armed forces stationed abroad, where their on-base stations aren't delivering their 'stories' (read: Soaps). And especially the horrible HORRIBLE analphabet mess called 'The Bold and the Beautiful'. They were so grateful to watch that monstrosity. And YES, it gets all the Emmys, but it's a train wreck in slow motion. But that is beside the point.
INSIDE the US, these poor people can access CBS.... which offer full episodes with ads.... BUT. You click the link--- and the strangest thing just happened.. typing, my window disappeared, and I was on CBS all of a sudden... who hacks whom, here? That was weird... (GOOOGLE! shakes fist).
Whatever, you click one of their links and get a message that you are not in a region where that is allowed.
So... from what I have read, it seems that members of US servicepeople feeling estranged and in foreign cultures could get their 'fix' and see 'their stories' and were very happy about it. That accounts for about two-thirds of one-thousand people, give or take a few dozen.
There ARE people who are Europeans and sort of crazy and enjoy their Soap fixes. And not having to wait ten years to see a series that finally got cheap enough for local stations to buy.
My all-time favorite 'guest' was a woman in Germany who couldn't use the pay-pal for ten Euros for a year of being a VIP because... her husband would see it on his credit card statement, and he had forbidden her to watch 'The Bold and the Beautiful'. So the owner granted her VIP status. I cannot IMAGINE... well, perhaps I can, thinking of HJ...a German so tyrannical and cruel as to do that. SHE must have a marriage made in hell if that is the only thing that keeps her afloat. Can you imagine this poor Hausfrau sneaking onto her husband's computer to watch that, and THAT is the height of her day???? Oh, the humanity...
Well, mistakes were made. The owner got 'ambitious', and began ripping dvd's of the soaps, mostly, for sale. And I thought, 'uh-oh...' It probably was that no one wanted to become a VIP member. A month ago, only 140 people had signed up for it. So I would guess it was a way they thought of to cover costs, but that is way dodgy.
The second mistake was trusting that people enjoy, but don't necessarily rat out anyone, especially on the net. And as far as I can tell, someone with cotton candy for BRAINS and the temprement of a 14 year old went onto a CBS fan board, and let people know where they could see full episodes.
And YES, a B&B fan. Who has no life of his/her own, and just needed to share.
Gewalt, hey!
This got the owner into so much trouble, it's a catastrophe. But it is interesting to see how the sharks work. It sounds like the person running it is having a nervous breakdown right about now.
And you know what? It won't stop. Other sites will pop up and give access to what people want to watch. Instead of making a deal, and letting people see what they want to see for ads, or stuff like that... hell, MSNBC has ads you can't skip, but I still go there... they want to take down someone who for over a year now has given a bunch of people an opportunity to tune into the window of US broadcasting that they block from the outside world.
I know that most of the people signed into it are US troops or their families. How does that support them?
Here's what it looks like when you break a conglomerate rule---and by the way, I can't watch most of the vids on Huffington Post, esp. Bill Maher, because 'it isn't available in my region'. But catch things anyway.
And on second thought... I guess I shouldn't be quoting that letter. Whatever, some of the decisions made just weren't wise.
Prime time Emmys? Really? Well maybe, but
I'm about to lay down a post that will sound so misogynistic, will have to apologise in advance, but it is how I perceive sound.
My site finally had yesterday's result show of 'So You Think You Can Dance' on. Have said below what I like about it, and it was eliminating two people, to get the remaining top ten. more on that in a minute.
The show is nominated for five prime-time Emmys in the dance category, which is fine, and Kat Deely was nominated as moderator.ess. Her voice is so irritating, I fast forward. Emmy? I don't THINK so... There are some women... I don't know what it is. They open their moufs, and I want to turn off the sound. There are also some men whose voices so irritate me, I want to throttle them, but usually drunk ones with rasping voices and damaged vocal cords, and they carry for a BLOCK.
But the worst is Mary Murphy on the judges panel, a former ballroom champeen with a face lift that has left her with a fixed smile that is scary, and is just a Tennessee 'bundle of enthusiasm'. And she squeals, and 'ya-hoos' till you'd think she was calling the pigs home, but it's all a facade. Her act is 'good-ole-country' girl and the epitome of the infantilisation of women in 'Murka, if you ask me... BECAUSE... if something really impresses her, she is well capable of modulating her voice, and giving very constructive criticism and being almost likeable.
Kat Deely is so superfluous, she grates on my nerves. And is often inappropriate.
In my student days, I would listen to AFN on the radio. Later, when I got to Graz, I didn't have a radio strong enough to pull it in, so I missed about ten years. Too many mountains between here and there. And one day, about ten years later, I did get a radio that could pick it up in the night-time. And I was floored. The TONE had changed. I explained it do Peter, and said, 'What do they think they are DOING? Everything sounds like Uncle Dudley's Story Hour. They're just dumbing them down....'
If you watch US series, what happens when mid-twenty somethings tell friends they get engaged? Scream like a fourteen year old and fanning fingers in front of their faces. Who the fuck DOES that? (Well, what should I know, maybe they do...) It's infantile behaviour. And people emulate it because 'that's what you Do...'
It isn't pretty, or worth emulating, if you ask me, and I never find anything funny about it.
As to Kat---well she's a six foot tall blonde Brit who is nasal and lets off suggestive adolescent stuff in her intros, wears heels so she can tower over everyone on the stage, and basically has nothing else to offer to the show other than looking like an over-thin Valkyrie popsicle with an annoying voice. Emmy? I think NOT.
As to the show... The elimination decisions have been fair so far. I've said I like the concept. Now that there are only ten people left, they are going to make them change partners to see how versatile they are, and make them do two routines per show, one with former winners. As I've said, I love dance, and they really put the contestants through a very strong repertoire of styles, challenge them. And mostly, it's a joy to watch. And the choreography is fantastic.
But I could really do without Kat and Mary when she is 'performing' and not being herself.
Maybe Obama is smarter than he seemed...
The friggin' debt ceiling. O'Donnell has served on House finance committees, so he knows his stuff....
As far as I know, the 1993 Medicare cuts pertained to wasteful spending.
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Jon Stewart
can slay me sometimes....
It's only excerpts, butcha get the idea...
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Nice that Keith is back... on the Murdoch scandal
a personal experience viewpoint.. not earthshattering, but insightful.
sick, part two
Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
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George Carlin
May he be laughing from the Great Beyond. Scott over at Bill in Exile thought he should re-post this gem. Because it's too sad, being so true. Don't play it if children are present. Carlin is the guy who got the 7 dirty words you couldn't say on tee-vee past the censors once, after all. But his truth was exact. And I think Scott is right. It should be heard.
Peter and an evening remembering...
Yeah, I'm hopeless, whaddaya want. I miss him, sue me.
Tonight I was so caught up on what I wanted to see and read on the internets, I decided to re-visit a dvd I hadn't watched in a long time. And chose 'Into the Woods', the Steven Sondheim musical.
It's three hours...or thereabouts. Original cast to do a tee-vee production before a live audience. I have never seen it live, unfortunately. First heard of it from my NY friend JR, who attended the premiere. Had I been there, he probably would have dragged me to see it, am sure, from what he wrote me at the time. Must've been an awesome evening for him. He loved it.
I met my cousins in Munich in the late 70's and saw that it was playing at the opera house there, highly praised, and would have gotten a standing room ticket, but was there on a Sunday with them, and the Monday, the opera was closed. Had to be in Graz by Tuesday, so I missed out on it. It annoyed me.
It was very difficult and took a long time to obtain a copy on dvd.
It is very deceptive, on the surface. Ostensibly a fairy tale. The first act is hilariously funny. It involves Cinderella, Jack of Jack and the Beanstalk fame, a barren baker and his wife, a witch who lives next door to them and had cursed them, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, two cad sorts of princes, and they all have to go into the woods to acheive their 'Happy Ever After'. It contains the grisly elements of the original Grimm stories, which were so bowdlerised in the volumes you could get in the US libraries when I was a child, I was sort of astounded when I found out that was how the originals were really like. As in the wicked step-sisters of Cinderella cutting off a toe to fit the shoe, and the other a slice of her heel. Grisly, but funny. For instance.
But it doesn't end with 'happy ever after', and the second act is brilliant and sombre, with flashes of the humour, but very sad, in the end analysis. The wife of the giant Jack slew comes down a left-over beanstalk and wreaks her revenge. The cad princes have a wandering eye looking to free Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. One of them seduces the bakers' wife, played by Tony award winning Joanna Gleason in one of the most amazing numbers in that act, esp. her reaction to it...upon which she gets stomped by the giantess.
Sounds simple? It isn't. The music sounds simple, but is actually complex. The lyrics reflect so many themes about human relationships, you could take years picking it apart, if you so wished. And the over-riding message is you can't do things alone, you have to be together, and work as a team.
In the end, only four major characters remain alive.
So why Peter? When I first got the dvd, I watched it alone and knew he would like it... I'd moved out of the Mühlgasse already. And on one of my days off, I made him a good lunch, and then we watched it. It blew him away. Shortly before the end of the second act, there is a number called 'No One Is Alone', and he lost it. So I just held him, and he cried, and cried. The text hit him hard.
I can't do that any more. Watching tonight made me remember, so I'm sort of predjudiced, but I love that number. It's just before they slay the giantess.
Have heard that that gets an immense amount of royalties from school productions, which is sort of amazing... as simple as the music sounds, there is nothing you can sing along with. Too difficult. Unless you can do three octaves, and minor key in a wink of an eye. I could only find a very down-key version on YouTube, by the legendary Bernadette Peters, but you'll get the idea... She played the witch.
And he lurved him some feisty Red Riding Hood.
Boring Sunday..... sundry things....
It's 'save as much as you can day'. So lunch was from the Turks across the intersection. I like a Lahmacun. Only € 2.50. Of course I mispronounced it for months without anyone correcting me. With the stress on the last syllable as I read it, but one day, I tuned my ear and heard the correct one. It's 'la MA chun'. It's fresh dough rolled out paper thin, with some sauce on it and freshly baked, then you get some kebap meat and salad stuff strewn down the middle with a dash of sauce, and it gets folded into a wrap. Very tasty. I like them better than a Döner.
There isn't any news to speak of on the major networks... everyone KNOWS that nothing ever happens, of course.
That we KNOW of...
There is a really cool series that comes up on my pay-for site on Sundays from the UK called 'Casualty', now in it's 25th season. It's sort of like ER, but throws some critical light on the NHS in Britain, and the stories seem very fresh and right up to date with current events. Interesting cast.
I caught up with two of my soaps which always seem to be posted last, which is aggravating. One is the US Days of Our Lives, which is 'da Ven's' poison of choice, and only watch so I can 'wind him up' about some of the characters on it. My US poison is One Life to Live which I can catch by ten p.m same day it airs, and is being cancelled... BUT... will live on, not on the tee-vee machine, but on the internets, last minute save, hey. At least the actors don't lose their jobs...
The other which turns up late is from the UK. 'Eastenders'. I thought it was just me, but I found a spoiler site this morning that was so snarky, I fell about laughing. It shocks the Brits, seemingly. And they said that this past week's story-line was probably the most perverse, perfidious ever in the series. The inhabitants of Albert Square in London are ALL certifiable in some way, but will agree that they are very entertaining. There is the skeletal faced Michael who I knew is sort of twisted, but this past week, he went so perverse and diabolical, I was spitless. It's the only show where I talk back to the characters. Not a good sign, but it means he's a fine actor. Better than a thriller, I tells ya... And one of the best ageing harpies I've ever seen. Sets my teeth on edge.
English is a living language, of course, and one thing I have been noticing for a while now is contractions have been going out of style in tee-vee scripts. 'Do you not understand', for instance. 'Have you not' 'Would you not'. It seems Dont'cha, Haven'tcha, Wouldn'tcha are out.... and I don't mind, it sounds better the new/old way if you ask me...
Slang terms in the UK slay me, find them funny. To abscond is 'doin' a runner'. For instance. 'Sling your hook' means 'get outta here'. If you're 'banged up', you're in prison. Colorful. Most of that is northern UK slang.
Whatever.....
It's too hot to think.
What I see of the 'culture' of politics in DC is so abhorrent, I would like to barf, and sometimes do. (Yeah, I have this regurgitation problem when I get upset..)
So... Just another Sunday... bo-ring.
I can still try to catch up with what all else is on the tee-vee-pc menu. Hot in Cleveland is suddenly on there. I'll watch anything with Betty White in it. It's cute. I tend to skip second season series. They can be as brilliant as they like in the fist, but the second is almost never as good... some get a big resusitation in the third, and become iconic.
Happily Divorced is on there. Fran Drescher of The Nanny fane. First season four episodes, and am wondering where it is going. Rita Moreno is always fun to watch, so will see....
Checked out part one of Harry Potter, The Deathly Hallows part one. And yeah, your eyes are SO going to glaze over. I wanted to catch up for the last one, which I 'might' see next month. It was an abysmally bad film. All build-up for the finale. The supsenseful scenes were so curtailed it had the 'feel' of hurrying it along, whereby the ones in the novel were so rich and imaginative, they could leave you breathless. I did not like having most of the color washed out for the entire thing. Too apocalyptic. And yes, have been re-reading it, because I 'might' go see it next month once the baby Muggles have gotten their fix. Saw a couple of clips on Huff-Po yesterday. More of the same, same director.
I would recommend the novels to anyone of any age. It's sort of like Lord of the Rings. You start and think, 'whaaa? This is for kids'. But it develops into something you never imagine it would have, and you get hooked on it. Rich themes. Nothing as it seems, and what you perceive is evil can actually be good. If J.K. Rowling never writes another word, her place in literary history is cemented in place with the great ones.
I think it's time for a nap... my fan is running and it is still thirty degrees in my apt.
Tja, Sundays.... and the heat fries your brain....
Sick, sick, sick
And I've SAID divorce will be nexr. Crazy-Eyes is certifiable.
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Wow, Zbigniew, REALLY?
I'm surprised. And someone should retire Pat Buchanan. First time I've heard anyone state the obvious.
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Thiis sums it up.... and the media is disgusting...
most of them..... This is worth watching.
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Well, there was a decision yesterday...
And a bunch of folks get really upset about it. But the FACT was, neither side had a case. Sorry, I listened to all the bullshit, and they had no case. Neither for nor against...
The Jury waa intelligent, and I am thinking they didn't have an easy decision. But they knew bullshit when they heard it.
In the end, I believe they went home with very upset stomachs, because from what I saw of that person I did not like. But they made the argument, and the evidence was miserable.
Well, there've been fourth of July repercussions... Internet hiccups...
I don't really get into all that. Other than memories of getting the hot dog and watching others have the sirloins... because we weren't so capable of GETTING that cut... and it cut. I upped it once much later... with a nice piece of lamb.... which was about as 'foreign' as you can get, hey.
Except for my maternal grandmother. Lamb was 'good'.
Jeebus, no WONDER I NEVER FIT IN..... If I'd scorned beef for lamb on the Fourth of July in Texas, I mibght have gotten shot. Or something....
The Fourth was also Aunt Charlotte's ninety-first birfday. She was surprised I remembered. (Uh-huh, you have your 'birfday' on the 'Fourth Of July', and not KNOw THAT AS FORMER Citizen I might forget that? Oh boy.... Not so fun.)
She wants to know how Peter is doing. Now how in the blue blazes am I going to know that. I've spoken to him ONCE since March. I haven't spoken to anyone excpt the cashiers at the supermarket, and then it is 'Good Morning' and 'Thank you.'
I'm 'afraid' of what I might hear next time I call.... and why doesn't SHE call him for cripes sake. She has the numbah....
I don't know, the Fourth of July took on some new meeanings some years ago. I wouldn't have thought they would go this far.
This is gonna sound so supercilious....
But has anyone ever seen 'Chicago', the musical? Oh man, they are on a break in the courtroom, no sound, but hell's bells, it reminds me of that to the n'th degree... The defense having to present the judge with the charts he is going to present, and I can only think of the shyster wanting to do the 'razzle-dazzle' them number. It is eerie to behold.
In case you don't know, Chicago... oh, they turned on the sound... this should be good. Or not. They keep turning it on and off. It was about real cases that rocked the city in the 1920's a woman named Roxy Hart. You can google it. Oh, seems the defense already did his thing. He so looks like Billy Flynn in the piece, it is amazing. Razzle-dazzle them... and they'll never get wise....
Yup.
It's travesty. They should have two ladies doing acrobatics on ropes in front of the proscenium.
Give ME a break, hey.... Uh-huh, the defense IS going to give his closing statement. He looks like a nerd. The prosecuter looks like the Billy Flynn guy, they flipped the roles. Interesting.
OOO... he's a razzle-dazzle-em.... I hate the term 'at the end of the day', it should be banned.
Yeah, he did... it was a crazy defense, but it was interesting....
Let's face it, the court system is completely on the side of money, and flim-flam.
In my opinion. I'd like to see some sort of guilty verdict, and Casey Anthony rot in jail.
Huh.... I normally could give a shit
about trials, they are slanted. But having trouble with Firefox for days, and have to use Explorer, which I totally hate. And checked into sites I don't normally visit.
Instead of my usual '48 Hours/Mystery', there is live streaming from the closing arguments of the Casey Anthony Trial in Fla. The prosecutor just finished. The evidence is flimsy, but I do think that little psycopathic lying horror did it. (Yeah it's been on my radar... as if it were so important. Simple entitled party girl offs her kid because it's a relief. And the family dynamics were sort of interesting... Her mother lying for her? Just great, did more harm than good. She should get the wicked witch award of the year. It's always about appearances, isn't it? Still, I don't think the prosecutor did a good enough job.
The other thing that has more interest here is the Amanda Knox appeal. In that case, I think she probably didn't kill her English roommate. I would never want to have to deal with the Italian justice system. Ever. Too much in that one doesn't add up.
Why is it always about young white rich bitches who go off the rails? I don't think it is so fascinating, to tell the truth. And I am WONDERING what those families are paying, just to get their little princesses off the hook. Who says the SOAPS are dead?
It ends up being disgusting whichever way you look at it.
Interesting Web-only discussion
Olberman and Dan Savage ran into one another at a showing of The Book of Mormon. I would so love to see that show.
Link here.
Ha! Mark Halperin indefinitely suspended..
You can read it here, and see the utterly hilarious take Jon Stewart had on it.
Sundry things...
Things that made me 'happy'.
Javier Colon won The Voice'. That was very nice indeed.
Forced ads to have to see between blocks when I am watching news on MSNBC:
The Dentafix commercial freaks me to the core with their dogs with human dentures in them... It's so weird I still laugh at it.
The Mayhem Man on Allstate announcing, 'I'm a teenage girl', 'I'm a random windstorm...shaky shaky', 'What, signs fall down all the time', 'I'm a torrential downpour and I love open sunroofs', 'I'm a hot babe out jogging'... The guy creeps me out. But he's good at it.
There are a couple of others, but I just had a brain fart.
Things I hate: Goldman Sachs commercials, and why are they buying up MSNBC time to show they are so 'helpful'? Ask the Greeks about that. I'm sure you'd hear a much different story, and whenever they tout how they are helping New Orleans, I have to leave the room, so as not to demolish my pc. Geld stinkt nicht. (Money doesn't stink.) I guess.
The noise outside... I now have two courtyards outside my building, and for two years, you can't open a window properly in summer without hearing half the world's music, drunks and bellowing people keeping you awake till all hours of the night. So I close them. Luckily, we are having a mild summer.
People ringing my doorbell, and then knocking. There is NO way I am going to open the door. I have no idea what that is about, but I know no one who would do that. I haven't gone outside since February, and do not want to. Other than to get my food for the day very early in the morning.
Yeah, it sounds paranoid, but is more deep depression... I sleep fourteen hours a day. And I don't want to TAlK to anyone any more. I'm mourning what even hasn't happened yet. So I sleep.
Whoever it was... I switched on the earphones even tho my pc is quiet, and it was very quiet. I 'wasn't here'. It wasn't the same people these past three times... We have wooden stairs, and the departing footsteps were light, medium and heavy. Probably Social Services. My phone has been off-hook since February. I refuse to have Peter running up costs he can't pay by calling me 'long-distance'.
So someone might be 'worried'. I'm going to empty my mail-box tomorrow, and might find an answer. I haven't done that since February. I never want to see what is in there.
I don't need even more depression, and I KNOW that my running costs are covered.
I had 'fun' watching two episodes of 'Hot in Cleveland'. How could anyone NOT like Betty White? Her delivery is immaculate.
I got to see 'Bridesmaids' on my site.... broad, too broad. Some funny bits, but predictable, and no surprises.
So glad I saved the money for a ticket.
So-so reactions: Da Ven's Soap got pre-empted for Wimbledon, and he was not a happy camper. My favourite UK shows got pre-empted for the same reason, but if they do that... they bring them in a double-pack the next day. So it wasn't the same. Can't bitch about it, can I????
So... tomorrow I open the 'vault' aka mail-box. It will be crammed with advertisements, and a couple of letters. It will make for 'exciting Sunday'. It will be interesting to see what sort of vultures have been swarming about.
I SAID it was 'sundry'...
Will see you when I get out of the other side of from under the bed...
Annnnd.... the long weekend in US broadcasting is UPON us.
The news cycle stops till Tuesday. Oldies will go into Soap withdrawal, and the WUURRLLD stops.
Happy Fourth to the US peoples. Tja, I got asked how WE celebrate that here. We do not. It is not our national horriday. Ok, the US Embassy and Consulate people will have events, that's clear, but---really?
Every country has their own national holiday. France is having theirs on July 14th, for instance. When the Bastille fell, and the Revolution began. Ours is on October 26th, when the second republic began in 1955 after the last of the WWII occupying troops left the country and turned us on to fending for ourselves... mostly...
I've never seen how the French do that. Here it was usually quiet, reflective, and people went hiking. To enjoy the beauty of the countryside. As of late, it is more 'ambivalent'. It's just another day off.
I've never seen anyone get 'excited' about it.
No barbeques, fireworks, or some arcane traditions.
But it raises the question... does anyone there really KNOW what the fuck it is they are celemabrating? Other than rabid tea-partiers, and then their knowledge of history is provably 'sketchy'. It's just another horriday with fambly you probably avoid the rest of the year.
With all that is going on, just another day to distract people, and not realise how thoroughly they are being fucked over, but go for it. A distraction for a day or so is sometimes a welcome diversion when people are hurting.
Mark Halperin sank his career....
He's a Republican ARSEHOLE. And it was nice to see him grovel. Check out Willie Geist's face in the second clip... John Stewart did a hilarious take on it.
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'The reaction must have been MASSIVE, because Halperin did THIS. His career is toast, and I've not liked him for a very long time.
Fair and balanced? Morning Joe... tools...
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