Somebody warned me off Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt because it’s depressing. I still might have started it earlier but the print in my paperback edition is small, and anymore, print size is one of the deciding factors in whether I’ll read a book or not. But I started it anyway a few weeks ago and, slow reader that I am, just finished it, and I would have missed something wonderful if I hadn’t finally picked it up.
This memoir of growing up in poverty in Ireland, “utterly heartbreaking” as one reviewer wrote, leaves me feeling far from depressed, though I admit to reaching for the Kleenex frequently as young Frank finally sails to America at age nineteen and the book comes to an end with me wanting much more. Although it’s a very personal narrative, for me it was impossible to read without a profound awareness of how truly wealthy we are to live in this country and in this time, the recession notwithstanding. At the same time, McCourt enjoyed a kind of protected youth, growing up in a brief era when poverty and violence were not so linked as they are today.
A quick look at Amazon confirms that I’ll have more to keep me busy as I try to find ways to pass the long afternoons in the deserts of Southern California and Arizona this winter. McCourt, who ended up teaching high school English and winning a Pulitzer Prize, has several other books, all of them again memoirs it seems, and his brother Malachy has a few of his own.
Angela’s Ashes was copyrighted in 1996, so as usual my “discovery” is over a decade old. It’s been a best-seller ever since, so my belated recommendation adds little to what has already been said, except perhaps to the few readers of this blog who haven’t yet come upon it.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Monday, November 09, 2009
What a difference
a day makes. . . .
Punditry on the chances for health care reform now seems to be focusing on obstacles, suggesting that it’s not at all clear that Obama will have a bill to sign. This is a complete reversal of what I was hearing just a day or two ago, when is seemed like we’d moved into the realm of forgone conclusion, even before the house voted.
An excellent reason to shit-can the filibuster: Joe Lieberman pontificating on why he would, in an act of moral conscience, prevent the bill from coming to a vote. One man can do this? One man who just last week was announcing that he would vote against the public option purely because it would be bad for the insurance industry concentrated in his state?
Oh, that Soupy Sales were still alive to hit this dick in the face with a pie. How about a nice piece of dick-face pie, Joe?
POW!
So now I’m going back to my cartoons.
Punditry on the chances for health care reform now seems to be focusing on obstacles, suggesting that it’s not at all clear that Obama will have a bill to sign. This is a complete reversal of what I was hearing just a day or two ago, when is seemed like we’d moved into the realm of forgone conclusion, even before the house voted.
An excellent reason to shit-can the filibuster: Joe Lieberman pontificating on why he would, in an act of moral conscience, prevent the bill from coming to a vote. One man can do this? One man who just last week was announcing that he would vote against the public option purely because it would be bad for the insurance industry concentrated in his state?
Oh, that Soupy Sales were still alive to hit this dick in the face with a pie. How about a nice piece of dick-face pie, Joe?
POW!
So now I’m going back to my cartoons.
Our word for today. . . .
“Mumblecore is an American independent film movement that arose in the early 2000s. It is primarily characterized by ultra-low budget production (often employing digital video cameras), focus on personal relationships between twenty-somethings, improvised scripts, and non-professional actors. Filmmakers in this genre include Lynn Shelton, Andrew Bujalski, Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Aaron Katz, Joe Swanberg, Todd Rohal, Ry Russo-Young and Michael Harring.
“The term "mumblecore" was coined by Eric Masunaga, a sound editor who has worked with Bujalski. Masunaga coined the term one night at a bar during the 2005 South by Southwest Film Festival, but it was Bujalski who first used it in an interview with indieWIRE.[2] The directors of the films are sometimes referred to collectively as "mumblecorps," as in press corps. Film journalists have also used the terms "bedhead cinema", "postgraduate naturalism", "Myspace Neo-Realism" and "Slackavetes," a reference to independent film director John Cassavetes.”
All of this, of course, from Wikipedia, getting to be the only reference tool you’ll ever need.
I mention it because I watched the film Quiet City last night, and although I initially found it shambling and pointless, I was rather quickly won over. It’s a very pretty film with engaging characters and only a hint at the developing romance between them.
“The term "mumblecore" was coined by Eric Masunaga, a sound editor who has worked with Bujalski. Masunaga coined the term one night at a bar during the 2005 South by Southwest Film Festival, but it was Bujalski who first used it in an interview with indieWIRE.[2] The directors of the films are sometimes referred to collectively as "mumblecorps," as in press corps. Film journalists have also used the terms "bedhead cinema", "postgraduate naturalism", "Myspace Neo-Realism" and "Slackavetes," a reference to independent film director John Cassavetes.”
All of this, of course, from Wikipedia, getting to be the only reference tool you’ll ever need.
I mention it because I watched the film Quiet City last night, and although I initially found it shambling and pointless, I was rather quickly won over. It’s a very pretty film with engaging characters and only a hint at the developing romance between them.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
It's enough to make you sick, but in a good way. . . .
Around here in the Klamath Basin, it just feels like another beautiful fall day, a Sunday; not much is changing except the weather, which is mixing in more cold and wet days, and next week we should have our first real snow, though not a big one will be my guess. It's so quiet you might think you were deep in the woods and there wasn't another living person within miles.
But really, it’s quite an extraordinary Sunday since last night the house passed health-care reform legislation. Let’s call it landmark. Even one Republican crossed over to vote for it.
From the little I know, it’s not perfect. We should be moving away from employer-provided health care since it puts a burden on American companies when trying to compete with foreign companies from countries where health care isn’t connected to the workplace. Still, a lot will be worked out over the next few years. For now, history has been made which should have been made a generation ago.
Now the Senate has to pass its own version, and a lot could still go wrong there. From what I’m reading and hearing, though, Obama will have a bill on his desk to sign, maybe by Thanksgiving. How appropriate.
Wednesday on PBS, Frontline is rerunning its program “Sick Around the World,” which originally got me thinking so much about all this over a year ago. I hope all our Senators will watch it as they prepare to debate and vote on their package. And I hope even Republicans, elected and not, will watch it. They may react the same way I did, which is to be struck with how uncomplicated reform might be and with how badly we need to do it now.
They might come to understand that full-coverage healthcare with a public option and even a single payer is the moderate position. Socialized medicine means every hospital and clinic belongs to the government and every health care worker, from doctors to LPNs, is a government employee. Socialized medicine works well in some countries, though it probably wouldn’t be a good choice for us, nor is it one that would ever be considered here for a very long time to come. But look to a time in the not-too-distant-future when the teabaggers and other assorted wing-nut loonies are still railing against socialized medicine while they and their families are fully enjoying its benefits.
I wonder if this will be seen as Obama’s great achievement or if he will be seen as having been aloof from the process and mostly an observer.
But really, it’s quite an extraordinary Sunday since last night the house passed health-care reform legislation. Let’s call it landmark. Even one Republican crossed over to vote for it.
From the little I know, it’s not perfect. We should be moving away from employer-provided health care since it puts a burden on American companies when trying to compete with foreign companies from countries where health care isn’t connected to the workplace. Still, a lot will be worked out over the next few years. For now, history has been made which should have been made a generation ago.
Now the Senate has to pass its own version, and a lot could still go wrong there. From what I’m reading and hearing, though, Obama will have a bill on his desk to sign, maybe by Thanksgiving. How appropriate.
Wednesday on PBS, Frontline is rerunning its program “Sick Around the World,” which originally got me thinking so much about all this over a year ago. I hope all our Senators will watch it as they prepare to debate and vote on their package. And I hope even Republicans, elected and not, will watch it. They may react the same way I did, which is to be struck with how uncomplicated reform might be and with how badly we need to do it now.
They might come to understand that full-coverage healthcare with a public option and even a single payer is the moderate position. Socialized medicine means every hospital and clinic belongs to the government and every health care worker, from doctors to LPNs, is a government employee. Socialized medicine works well in some countries, though it probably wouldn’t be a good choice for us, nor is it one that would ever be considered here for a very long time to come. But look to a time in the not-too-distant-future when the teabaggers and other assorted wing-nut loonies are still railing against socialized medicine while they and their families are fully enjoying its benefits.
I wonder if this will be seen as Obama’s great achievement or if he will be seen as having been aloof from the process and mostly an observer.
Friday, November 06, 2009
I just can't watch. . . .
“But barring astoundingly self-defeating behavior by Democrats, a decent bill will get to Obama's desk." So said E.J. Dionne a few days ago predicting a health-care reform bill would pass, and so quoted I a few entries back. But, I added, never underestimate the ability of the Democrats to engage in astoundingly self-defeating behavior.
Which, of course, is exactly what they're doing. Republicans have completely opted out of any discussion, so if the crazies want to get heard, they have to find forty or so blue-dog Democrats who have nothing better to do than to howl at the moon and call it music. In this case, they have two demands: no federal health-care dollars can go to illegal immigrants, and no tax dollars can go toward abortion.
Simple enough. Write that into the bill, but then exactly how are you going to enforce it? The Blue Dems don’t say, except basically anything you can come up with isn’t good enough. Simply writing these restrictions into the bill doesn’t even start to cover it. How do we know Jose’ is really a citizen, even if he was born in Pasadena and went to Harvard? The looney right doesn’t even believe the President is a citizen since his father was born in Kenya and he was born in Hawaii.
This only makes him a citizen of Kenyawaii.
And it’s not enough to say any public-option plan can’t cover abortions; any private health plan that has any publicly subsidized enrollees can’t either.
Why stop there? Why not prohibit private individuals from paying for their own abortions if they are unemployed and collecting insurance, or getting disability, or in the military, or working for an agency that has a government contract? Those are tax dollars they’re spending, and if they want to spend them to kill babies, they need to give them back and start standing at the exit to Wal-Mart with a “Need abortion, Please help” sign.
Or they could just get a job at Wal-Mart, since they probably won’t ever get health coverage there either.
Despite all this craziness, the Dems still probably have the votes to pass a bill this weekend, especially if Obama will come on down to the hill and meet with some Dems who are still sitting on the fence. Which is exactly what he was going to do until the tragic shootings at Food Hood, Texas, so now he’s not.
Huh?
Huh?!
Really, I just can’t watch anymore. I’m going back to my cartoons. Let me know how it all turns out.
Which, of course, is exactly what they're doing. Republicans have completely opted out of any discussion, so if the crazies want to get heard, they have to find forty or so blue-dog Democrats who have nothing better to do than to howl at the moon and call it music. In this case, they have two demands: no federal health-care dollars can go to illegal immigrants, and no tax dollars can go toward abortion.
Simple enough. Write that into the bill, but then exactly how are you going to enforce it? The Blue Dems don’t say, except basically anything you can come up with isn’t good enough. Simply writing these restrictions into the bill doesn’t even start to cover it. How do we know Jose’ is really a citizen, even if he was born in Pasadena and went to Harvard? The looney right doesn’t even believe the President is a citizen since his father was born in Kenya and he was born in Hawaii.
This only makes him a citizen of Kenyawaii.
And it’s not enough to say any public-option plan can’t cover abortions; any private health plan that has any publicly subsidized enrollees can’t either.
Why stop there? Why not prohibit private individuals from paying for their own abortions if they are unemployed and collecting insurance, or getting disability, or in the military, or working for an agency that has a government contract? Those are tax dollars they’re spending, and if they want to spend them to kill babies, they need to give them back and start standing at the exit to Wal-Mart with a “Need abortion, Please help” sign.
Or they could just get a job at Wal-Mart, since they probably won’t ever get health coverage there either.
Despite all this craziness, the Dems still probably have the votes to pass a bill this weekend, especially if Obama will come on down to the hill and meet with some Dems who are still sitting on the fence. Which is exactly what he was going to do until the tragic shootings at Food Hood, Texas, so now he’s not.
Huh?
Huh?!
Really, I just can’t watch anymore. I’m going back to my cartoons. Let me know how it all turns out.
Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-bu
Nation,
I’m no fan of South Park, but when a cartoon show for twenty-somethings devotes an entire episode to bashing Harley riders, I have to say “Tip of the Hat.”
You can see it here:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/251889/
(btw, I don't know why blogger isn't letting me paste in hot links anymore, but it's not. You can, of course, get there from here by copying the link and pasting it into your browser. Meanwhile, I'll have my crack team of tech-savvy interns get on this problem.)
I’m no fan of South Park, but when a cartoon show for twenty-somethings devotes an entire episode to bashing Harley riders, I have to say “Tip of the Hat.”
You can see it here:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/251889/
(btw, I don't know why blogger isn't letting me paste in hot links anymore, but it's not. You can, of course, get there from here by copying the link and pasting it into your browser. Meanwhile, I'll have my crack team of tech-savvy interns get on this problem.)
Monday, November 02, 2009
(Next) Monday night at the movies
Here's the announcement for the next Monday Night at the Movies film at the local Ross Ragland Theater. I like the note at the end about submitting questions in advance, which at first seems rather ridiculous but then you have to consider some of the questions you get otherwise. I'll probably go.
Skye Borgman is yet another Klamath Falls native who is making it in da movies. Prior guests included directors James Ivory and Chris Eyre. There's no accounting for a jerkwater town like this producing such talent. Unless there is.
("Jerkwater": adj. Informal
1. Remote, small, and insignificant: a jerkwater town.
2. Contemptibly trivial: jerkwater notions.
From jerkwater, a branch-line train, so called because its small boiler had to be refilled often, requiring train crews to "jerk" or draw water from streams.]
**********
Monday Night at the Movies Presents Junk Dreams
With Cinematographer Skye Borgman
Monday, November 9th, at 7 p.m.
Click here to watch the film trailer!
The Ragland presents Junk Dreams, with introduction and lecture by Cinematographer Skye Borgman, Monday, November 9th, at 7 p.m., as part of the theater's Monday Night At The Movies free film series.
Junk Dreams is a documentary adventure that chronicles one magical journey of two ageless brothers. Ernie and Charlie Borgman board a 29 foot Chinese Junk and set sail for a 1,500 mile journey from Port Hadlock, Washington to Valdez, Alaska. The two and a half month adventure takes them along the Canadian and Alaskan coast and into the icy waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Through torrents of rain and raging waters, engine troubles and broken masts ... the two men come face to face with adventure, their true fountain of youth. This is a documentary about family. It is a story of passing along the passion for life for our children. It is a story of aging but never growing old.
Skye Borgman was born in Alaska, raised in Oregon and is a Klamath Union High School graduate. She moved to Los Angeles in 2000 with the intention of fusing photography, travel and momentum. She received her MFA from USC's Film Production program and has been working as a cinematographer, on both narrative and documentary films, ever since.
To help The Ragland shape and define the pre-screening lecture and post-screening question and answer session, please submit your questions and comments on the following film topics and themes to media@rrtheater.org before the screening on November 9th.
1. Family bonds
2. Passing along passion for life to our children
3. Aging but never growing old
Skye Borgman is yet another Klamath Falls native who is making it in da movies. Prior guests included directors James Ivory and Chris Eyre. There's no accounting for a jerkwater town like this producing such talent. Unless there is.
("Jerkwater": adj. Informal
1. Remote, small, and insignificant: a jerkwater town.
2. Contemptibly trivial: jerkwater notions.
From jerkwater, a branch-line train, so called because its small boiler had to be refilled often, requiring train crews to "jerk" or draw water from streams.]
**********
Monday Night at the Movies Presents Junk Dreams
With Cinematographer Skye Borgman
Monday, November 9th, at 7 p.m.
Click here to watch the film trailer!
The Ragland presents Junk Dreams, with introduction and lecture by Cinematographer Skye Borgman, Monday, November 9th, at 7 p.m., as part of the theater's Monday Night At The Movies free film series.
Junk Dreams is a documentary adventure that chronicles one magical journey of two ageless brothers. Ernie and Charlie Borgman board a 29 foot Chinese Junk and set sail for a 1,500 mile journey from Port Hadlock, Washington to Valdez, Alaska. The two and a half month adventure takes them along the Canadian and Alaskan coast and into the icy waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Through torrents of rain and raging waters, engine troubles and broken masts ... the two men come face to face with adventure, their true fountain of youth. This is a documentary about family. It is a story of passing along the passion for life for our children. It is a story of aging but never growing old.
Skye Borgman was born in Alaska, raised in Oregon and is a Klamath Union High School graduate. She moved to Los Angeles in 2000 with the intention of fusing photography, travel and momentum. She received her MFA from USC's Film Production program and has been working as a cinematographer, on both narrative and documentary films, ever since.
To help The Ragland shape and define the pre-screening lecture and post-screening question and answer session, please submit your questions and comments on the following film topics and themes to media@rrtheater.org before the screening on November 9th.
1. Family bonds
2. Passing along passion for life to our children
3. Aging but never growing old
Another thing I never thought I'd see in my lifetime, except for awhile there
Predictions about the chances for health-care reform have all been mostly off the mark for the last few months or so, which is one reason why I haven’t had anything to say about it recently. But E. J. Dionne today makes a remarkably sure prediction:
“But barring astoundingly self-defeating behavior by Democrats, a decent bill will get to Obama's desk. He and his party will then own the most sweeping reform of the American social safety net since the passage of Medicare in the 1960s and, arguably, Social Security in the 1930s.” He goes on to list all of the immediate benefits that will be implemented, as well as the more sweeping reforms that will begin in 2013.
You can read him here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110101703.html?wpisrc=newsletter
You can never count out astoundingly self-defeating behavior by Democrats, but the momentum favors Dionne’s prediction, and if he’s right, my head will probably explode. Imagine: The United States might finally rise to the level of, say, Cuba, in its availability of good-quality and affordable health care for everyone.
As Ma says in the Faulkner novel As I Lay Dying, “Thy will be done. Now I can get them teeth.”
“But barring astoundingly self-defeating behavior by Democrats, a decent bill will get to Obama's desk. He and his party will then own the most sweeping reform of the American social safety net since the passage of Medicare in the 1960s and, arguably, Social Security in the 1930s.” He goes on to list all of the immediate benefits that will be implemented, as well as the more sweeping reforms that will begin in 2013.
You can read him here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110101703.html?wpisrc=newsletter
You can never count out astoundingly self-defeating behavior by Democrats, but the momentum favors Dionne’s prediction, and if he’s right, my head will probably explode. Imagine: The United States might finally rise to the level of, say, Cuba, in its availability of good-quality and affordable health care for everyone.
As Ma says in the Faulkner novel As I Lay Dying, “Thy will be done. Now I can get them teeth.”
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