Good night!

And, what is so funny about peace, love, and understanding, anyway?




Mwah, ... 

Oh dear, some folks be sad.

Pardon my French, but I'm gonna get my schadenboner on.  (h/t to the brilliant Veep, natch!)

And, on a different sort of topic altogether,

For fun, here is Lena Dunham's Criterion Top Ten, and I will be unveiling my latest newest Top Ten films very soon.  (It is considerably different that my list last year.)

Great to see Fish Tank on her list.  And, her comments are great.








Mwah, ... 

What a fantastic crazy past twelve hours, right?

First, this is what a badass democrat looks like:

Ms Davis conducted a thirteen hour long filibuster yesterday, in order to thwart a nasty piece of anti-choice legislation that would have made it nearly impossible to get an abortion in the state of Texas.  She was not allowed to lean on anything while filibustering, or take a bathroom break, or eat, either.  She was told she would have to stay on topic, and she was given three "strikes" re the filibuster.  The third time she broke one of the rules, the filibuster would end.  When the GOP controlled state Senate saw Ms Davis might make it, and they would not be able to vote (the session ended at midnight Texas time last night) on SB5, they hastily claimed three bogus violations on her (two of which were she mentioned Planned Parenthood, which they claimed not germane, and another was when she had a colleague adjust the back brace she was wearing) and tried to organize a vote at about an hour and a half before midnight.  The Dems stalled as long as they possibly with motion after motion until at about a quarter to midnight the GOP had had enough, broke the rules, and tried to organize a vote anyway.

The gallery crowd went ballistic, and made it nearly impossible for the Senate to conduct business.  The vote happened and the Dems lost 19-10, but it was after midnight.  The nasty GOP changed the time stamp on the legislation to two minutes before midnight, and claimed it had passed.  But the thousands watching online and at the Capitol knew better, and the GOP finally had to call it a night, saying the session was over and SB5 was dead.

Asshat Gubner Haircut will most likely call a special session, and this drama will play out all over again, but as my friend Jill T said on friendface, "Ms Davis, I would like to buy you a drink."

Here is some of Ms Davis' story.  And you all know Barbara Jordan and Molly Ivins were watching from the beyond, raisin' hell, and fighting with her.

(And, hey, do something to support Ms Davis today:  Donate to Planned Parenthood here.  I did!)

************

And, then, of course the internets and friendface exploded at a couple of minutes after seven AM Cali time when Justice Kennedy killed DOMA.  It went just as I predicted, scenario two on the chart I provided last week, a narrow victory on Prop 8, and a resounding victory on DOMA.

A great flipping day for our country and democracy.  There are major battles still to be fought, on both these issues and many others, but the good guys won today.  Big time.

It is going to be the greatest Pride evah! Enjoy it you crazy kids! Be safe and make out with like a dozen people each for me.  I love you all,











xxxoooxxx,
Ardent

The Bling Ring was alright.

It was not awful, it certainly was not great, and it was not good bad either.  It just kind of ... was. The Wife and Meghan R liked it much more than I did.  They laughed a lot more, too.  And, the young crowd behind us laughed a good deal more than I did, as well.  Frankly, I was bored for stretches.

I thought Ms Coppola was gonna go for it.  I thought she was going to pound these vapid kids, and our vapid culture for all it was worth.  She did not really do that.  She almost seems to find some sympathy for the Bling Ring, and played it pretty damn objective for a good portion of the film.

This is a grave error, as far as I am concerned.  It is this kind of culture bullshit that deserves so desperately to be satirized, and have the piss taken out of it.  And, where were the consequences, or the suffering? And, why did she totally drop what could have been a thrilling arc, that of the Blingleader, if you will, totally stabbing her faithful lieutenant in the back? Who cares if it did not happen like that? It would make for great drama.  And, my gawd, so much slow motion! Drives me crazy.  There are other cinematic techniques out there for storytelling.

Ms Coppola seems to suggest that these naughty rich kids are so in thrall to our disgusting culture, that they have no control.  Society did it.  Bullshit.  There are tons of fantastic young people out there perfectly content with their bodies, and smarts, and know the difference between right and wrong.  Of course, society has an affect, but, I suspect there are plenty of young folks out there ready for change.  I know some myself.

Anyhoo, the one great thing about the film is it introduced me to the band, Sleigh Bells.  (Yeah yeah yeah, I know, I am always way late to the party.)

Skip the movie, and watch Pretty Wild instead.  (If you can stomach it.) At least Pretty Wild is entertaining and funny.























Mwah, ... 

The decisions on DOMA and Prop 8 will be handed down tomorrow.

The speculation is that Roberts is reading the Prop 8 decision, and Justice Kennedy is reading the DOMA decision.  I repeat, that is only speculation.

My personal gut reaction to those rumors, is Prop 8's defenders will be shown to have no standing for the case, meaning a narrow victory for Marriage Equality in California (or not.) Good grief! Lawyers and Judges, the law! What a mess!

And, as for a Kennedy majority decision on DOMA, who the frick knows? Literally, it could go either way.  Although one SCOTUSblog expert seems to suggest that Kennedy could be writing the decision in favor of destroying DOMA, preferring that Marriage be a strictly state by state issue, wanting the Federal Government out of it, altogether.

Meanwhile the Supremes did some slick dancing around and over the Voting Rights Act, saying that section V of it is constitutional, and needed, but that section IV is not.  Section IV is the part that made some states have to get their new voting laws checked by the federal government before they could apply them.  That is all gone now as of today.  The Supremes insisted (5-4, Ginsburg dissented, and she is pissed) that it would be up to the Congress now to make new laws re keeping a watchful thorough eye for any racist voter suppression laws.  Which ain't gonna happen of course, so, that was a big big victory for voter suppression today.

Tomorrow be the day, folks!

All my love,
Ardent

Hoo-ray! It is Pride Week here in the Bay Area.

And, even yesterday, when the Wife and I were in the City, there was just an amazing friendly vibe, particularly at some of the cool shops and restaurants in The Mission.

Anyhoo, in honor of Pride Week 2013, here are some highlights from things I wrote last year:


Pride Week starts today, of course.

Pride Week is when San Francisco nearly turns in to Disneyland, The Happiest Place on Earth.

I remember way back in the late nineties going to a dyke bar with Nadja K and a bunch of her friends and kissing and hugging every single girl or guy on our way to the bar to order drinks. When Nadja and I finally got our drink orders in, Nadja looked at me and said, "I love Pride Week, everyone loves everyone."

************

"You will feel so much better."

"To the gay community all over this state, my message to you is:  So far a lot of people joined us and rejected Proposition Six and now we owe them something.  We owe them to continue the education campaign that took place.  We must destroy the myths once and for all, shatter them.  We must continue to speak out, and most importantly, most importantly, every gay person must come out.  As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family.  You must tell your friends, if indeed they are your friends.  You must tell your neighbors.  You must tell the people you work with.  You must tell the people in the stores you shop in.  You ... And once they realize that we are indeed their children, and we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed, once and for all.  And once, once you do, you will feel so much better."

Harvey Milk

************

Everyone out there on Sunday, have a wonderful loving VERY SAFE time!

xxxoooxxx,

Ardent

Yes, that is right,

Veep went there last night -- its final episode of season two -- and used the c-word on American television.  Good for them.  And, it was perfectly appropriate, and, honestly, a pretty accurate description of our "public servants" at "work" in our nation's capital, when Vice President Selina Meyer finally told us all what D.C. really stands for.

This was an absolutely smashing -- if you will pardon the expression re Veep's penultimate episode of season two -- season for Iannucci, Dreyfuss, Chlumsky, Hale, and all the writers and other "veeple" involved with this incredibly smart and swear-y series.

My favorite thread, or arc, this season was the brilliant depiction of sexism, and the objectification of powerful attractive women.  There was a run of episodes near the middle where so many of the male characters could only relate to the very attractive Vice President in a sexual way.  Women have had and are still having to deal with this "Axis of Dick" issue forever.  Everything a powerful woman does in so many cultures always ends up being reduced to the lowest common denominator of how "hot" she is doing it, or whether she plays up her "hotness", or plays it down.

The Axis of Dick described by Meyer really does exist, and it is our mission to tear that shit down once and for all.  (A little more every day.  A little more every day.)

I also liked how they gave Meyer more power, more responsibility, and let her succeed a bit more this year.  She is a still a typical In the Loop/The Thick of It Public Servant type, saying the wrong thing so often, hot mic problems, terrible advice, rash judgements, etc, ... But, this year, you more got the feeling that Selina might end up on top when all is said and done.

I do not even know if I could begin to track down all the great insults, and nicknames that season two produced, so, I am not even going to bother.  Maybe I will find a link for you guys.  But, no, now that I think of it, I will not.

Just watch the show.  However you can, whenever you can.  Veep is hands down, by far, my favorite television program in years, since The Wire, actually.

Great great stuff.  See ya next year, Veep!

Ciao!

P.S.  The video above will most certainly be taken down soon.  Watch it while you can!

mds

The Wife and I are going to go see Bling Ring tomorrow.

I do not have high expectations for this film, and if it is bad it will break a neat little streak the Wife and I are on, seeing movies in theaters these days.

We liked Trance (a massive flop); Ginger & Rosa was really really good; The Great Gatsby was not awful; and then the streak really got going, watching Frances Ha, What Maisie Knew, and Much Ado About Nothing over three consecutive weekends.

Renee and I have a kind of morbid curiosity about Bling Ring, because we were faithful watchers of Pretty Wild, perhaps the worst reality show ever.  One of the thieves in the Bling Ring was a "cast member" of the program, along with her two sisters.  The show was practically soft core pornographic, and was sickeningly entertaining; a legitimate Guilty Pleasure (that expression is over used I think.)

Pretty Wild most certainly should be considered the ne plus ultra example of all the worst things about Capitalism and 21st Century North American/Western Culture.

If we end up appreciating Bling Ring in a camp good bad sort of way, I think we would consider that a victory.

Whatever.  Gonna be with the Wife in the City on a beautiful Summer day, trying out a new restaurant.  Tomorrow is going to be great.

Whoa! Just saw this, looking for images of whatsername, ...

xxxoooxxx

This one goes out to Nick C

Insanely brill!

I am starting to believe the decision is coming next week.

Pride Week in the Bay Area.  Hoo-boy.

I do not know how on earth I missed this:

Good god almighty, when will these guys

Figure out to keep their frickin' mouths closed?

Our esteemed House of Representatives are debating and voting on their ever so important anti-choice bill today, a bill that even if it passes (which it will), that the Dem controlled Senate will not even consider.

These are our elected Public Servants.

Gosh, I am proud.  Are not you?

(Serious h/t to ABL at Balloon Juice.)

Thank you again, David Thomson,

And it took me forever (way too long) to finally see it, but Céline et Julie vont en bateau, a film by Jacques Rivette from 1974, is everything you have claimed and/or promised, and is an absolutely delectable, magical wonderful treat that everyone should see.

And, myself, I even had a magical dream like reaction to it last night.  The film is long, over three hours, so I was watching it in pieces, and I fell asleep during a certain part, and when I awoke, there was a funny taste in my mouth, and, and as I lifted my body to a sitting position on the sofa, and leaned my head forward, I had the strangest but v real sensation that something had fallen out of my mouth and onto the carpet.  (A sweet?)

Dominique Labourier as Julie

I do not know how Rivette and his amazing actors, Dominique Labourier as Julie and Juliet Berto as Céline, do this.  The film seems so simply made.  I am not completely in touch with how the spell is cast, so much as still enchanted by the spell itself.

I v easily caught on to the Alice in Wonderland reference, and understand the power of magic, tarot, and telepathy in this film; and the melodramatic mystery that plays like a film loop in the haunted house (7 bis, rue du Nadir-aux-Pommes) makes perfect sense to me, coming from a filmmaker who makes extremely long films, of a theatrical nature, suggesting that cinema is life, life is cinema, and that if we find the magical key (a sweet?) we can enter the picture and change cinema, and change our own lives.

 Labourier as Julie and Juliet Berto as Céline

Yet, still, I do not know if I am seriously fully able to examine this motion picture.  In fact, I know I am not.  But, I will say this:  This is a childlike motion picture that is very grown up.  This is a Woman's Picture.  This is a murder mystery.  This motion picture is literally an incantation, a movie spell cast upon all of us.  It is a very real and human film that forcefully suggests in the slyest sort of way that magic is real, and we only need to find the key within each of us to make magic alive.

Once again, Thank you David Thomson, for a couple of books you have written, that have been my personal key to a whole new magical world of cinema that I had no idea existed before I "met" them, and "you".  

xxxoooxxx

One of the coolest things about my Dad

Is his absolutely impeccable taste in music.

It was always wonderful to wake up on Sunday mornings and listen to all those great records that Andy would put on.  

Plus, one of the greatest mix tapes I ever made (now, sadly lost) was strictly from his amazing collection of R&B, soul, and Blues.  He turned me on to BB King, Booker T & The MGs, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers, and a dozen more besides.

So, these songs go out to Andy today.

Happy Father's Day to a truly hip (and great) Dad!

Mwah, ... 

This looks very good to me,

Even though I also am willing to acknowledge it could be really awful as well.  And, gosh, if it does not seem to dovetail exactly with my belief about the Disco Sucks movement.  The Disco Sucks folks were merely some of the loudest jerks of the Trad White Male Power Structure in the midst of their Backlash moment -- all this happening around the time of Carter's Iran tragedy, and Reagan's rise to power.  This Backlash took on the normal forms of American backlashes; it was misogynistic, homophobic, and blatantly racist.

I have been telling the Wife, and any one else willing to listen, this for years now.  (Although, it is going to take a lot of convincing for me to believe that Saturday Night Fever is some kind of Feminist Manifesto.)

Plus, there is just a magical personal numerology thing for me at work.  My key numbers are 68 (the year I was born), 77 (a year I associate as the last truly great year, for reasons I will discuss in a moment), and 9 (John Lennon, Mike Modano, and, sure enough, my age in 1977.)

I could be completely wrong, but I see 1977 as an absolutely exquisite wonderful year for our culture, and as also a sort of anti 1968, one of the most tumultuous years for Western Culture in the Twentieth Century.  Women were riding as high as they ever had before, Gays were enjoying a massive liberation party, and African Americans were dominating the music charts.  (Beware: Those were some massive generalizations I just down laid down there.  But, we are talking about my rosy colored feelings and impressions.) On top of all that, in 1977 you also had the greatest Situationist art project in history, the Sex Pistols, careening and wrecking their way through America's Deep South, offering their own personal critique of Western Capitalism at the same time.

Of course, the party has always got to end, and this one ended horribly.  Reagan aligns himself with the new South based GOP base, and the Moral Majority, and gets elected.  One month later John Lennon is murdered in front of his wife, in front of his own home.  The official new GOP's War on Women™ gets instituted and trademarked, and soon after that we start hearing this thing about the new Gay Cancer.  In a lot of ways, I was born at a really bad time.  Nothing I can do about that, right?

Anyhoo, I am v excited about the film.  At the v least it might spark some insightful conversations and arguments, yes?

Mwah, 
Everybody have a fantastic disco Friday!

Songs for June 2013, Special Spy Edition, Pt II

"Maybe she will do a bit of spying/With micro cameras hidden in her hair"

Songs for June 2013, Special Spy Edition, Pt I

Now lots of people have recorded drums this way,

But nobody to quite the brilliant effect that Stevie Wonder has done here.

The genius Wonder is playing drums here, and he has created a stereo picture with the hi hat on the left, a crash cymbal on both the left and right channels, and the snare and toms are in the center of the picture, the snare slightly to the right, the toms slightly to the left.  If you close your eyes and listen closely to the track you can begin to "see" the hands moving across the kit, playing the drums.

And thus, the blind genius Wonder, has masterfully created a way for his record audience to "see" a performance from a piece of plastic entitled Innervisions.  (Look at the album cover artwork!) Words can not express his true magic.














Mwah, ... 

Top priority of the Summer.

Yup, forget about a new jobs bill, or working in good faith with Dems on Immigration reform. Forget about a new stimulus, which the country could definitely use -- think about all the jobs we could create rebuilding this country's crumbling infrastructure.  Naw, forget about all that, because our fantastic GOP controlled House of Representatives and a clutch of their bff Republican Governor buddies really have our best interests at heart, especially the ladies in the house. Ladies!

And, this time it is the wonderful Trent Franks who has decided to finally enlighten us all about how all that birthing stuff happens.

But, hey! Govs Perry and Walker has got to get in on this good stuff, too!

Makes you ill, doesn't it?












mds

Perfect listening for today,

A gorgeous blisteringly hot Walnut Creek day.

Hoo-boy! (No Matter Who You Vote For, The Government Always Gets In)

Flame away, I do not care.  I am going to stand by my positions:

David Simon, and TBogg, and others have got this right.  It was us, you and me, and our numbskull "public servants" who signed off on all this PATRIOT ACT/FISA bullshit.  Why everyone is clutching their pearls, and/or rending their garments in the Trad Media/blogosphere and on both sides of the aisle politically is nearly as disgusting as all the spying.  We, you and me, signed off on all this shit! By either approving it, or allowing to happen.  Why the heck is anybody surprised here? The spying does not even constitute a crime.

Daniel Ellsberg, his friends, and wife.

But heads must roll, and that knucklehead GED kid (who somehow lucked in to doing the right thing) will most certainly have to pay.  And, while I have your attention, too: 

Just saw Gibney's We Steal Secrets, and Assange is not the amazing hero so many portray him to be.  Why the heck is nobody talking about Bradley Manning? But, then again, no one seems to be holding the NYT or The Guardian responsible, either.  Just Assange.  (And, it appears he sold out on a few of his own personal Core Values, too.)

Man, watch The Most Dangerous Man in America again.  Ellsberg; Chomsky; and Zinn, those guys are the badasses.

Those in power will always hate the whistleblower, and they will always collude with other people or institutions of similar power to find the most vulnerable link in the chain to publicly humiliate, incarcerate, torture, or kill said weak link.  Why is any of this so shocking?

No Matter Who You Vote For, The Government Always Gets In.

This was fantastic, and it was

A real joy to see it in the City w/ a young-ish Buffy crowd.  They absolutely adored the film, and applauded at the end.

I have never been a fan of Buffy, so, there were even some moments where the kids were laughing at some inside jokes, I assume, about their old Buffy characters or inside references to the show that I did not get.

Fabulous version of the great Shakespeare play.  And in black and white!

Highly recommended.

Gotta love Texas.

You guys all saw this, right?

Dude's a real winner.

Dude shoots Craigslist escort and gets away with it.  Man, that chick had it coming.








UGH!

In my experience the best issues of Vanity Fair

Are the ones w/ a dude on the cover, like this most recent issue w/ Brad Pitt as the cover star.  I figure that they put all the really good writing in to the dude covers b/c they definitely never sell as well as the ones with hot young actresses out front.  (Or any of the issues w/ Jackie O or Marilyn on the cover -- lord, am I over the frickin' Kennedys and Norma Jean.)

Anyroad, over the last few weeks I have been reading aloud to the Wife all these great articles in the most recent Brad Pitt Vanity Fair.

She has learned all about the Manti Te'o kerfuffle -- we both think he is a closeted gay, who perpetrated the "catfish" himself w/ the other dude, so as to garner publicity for himself and Notre Dame, and to hide his personal sexuality; and we do not think Notre Dame was complicit in the scam, but most def had a bit of a cover up themselves until after the National Title game and the Heisman Trophy announcement -- and about Pistorius, the "Blade Runner", who we both think most certainly murdered his girlfriend, and will almost certainly get away with it.  We also learned that South Africa is not a good place for women, w/ astronomical "femicide" and rape rates.  (Note to self, Renee sed, Never go to South Africa.)

Ms Bethany McLean, my badass Wall Street Muckraker

Plus, we learned about how Steve Cohen needs to be taken down, and thrown in the slammer for insider trading.  (My girl, Bethany McLean, was a co-writer on that great, v easy to understand article.) And, we learned about this huge cubist painting donation coming to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

(I have not even read her the Instagram article yet, either.  This weekend!)





xxxoooxxx

Yeah yeah yeah, I am posting the Instagram video

That everyone has seen already.  So sue me.  It is hilarious, and one of the best tests for a great sense of humor is the ability to laugh at yourself.

I am totally the "clouds" guy, or the take pictures of "random shit on the street" guy.






Mwah, ... 

In just a little over three

Weeks it will be Pride here in the wonderful Bay Area.

Which could prove interesting, because do not forget, that sometime v soon, around the time that SCOTUS will completely eviscerate the Voting Rights Act, SCOTUS will also rule on Prop 8.

Literally, any day now.

I am sticking by my original positions:  They will either rule that the Prop 8 folks have no standing, meaning that the most recent court decision will be upheld, i.e. Prop 8 was unconstitutional in the state of California, and the Prop 8 folks would have to launch yet another appeal using a different method of attack -- and we would desperately need the California Supremes to lift the stay on Prop 8, so that could Marriage Equality would be the law of the land until the Prop 8 folks get their sorry act together for another stab at hatefulness.

Or, it could play out like this.

This could be one of the greatest Prides ever.  Or, an ugly depressed angry one.

Stay tuned, kids.

Mwah, ... 

This song has been in heavy rotation

At work lately.  I love it.  These guys did some recording on their own, like this.  But, they also wrote tons of hits for other artists, most notably The Monkees.

Kisses, ...

What Maisie Knew comes

Extremely highly recommended from the Wife and I.  Starring Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan, and six year old child, Onata Aprile, as Maisie, this is one of the finest films the Wife and I have seen in years.

The film is a modern update on Henry James' novel of the same name, and is remarkable for the superb method of forcing the audience to see the entire action through the naive, extremely objective eyes of a six year old.  This is accomplished with a masterful panache, appearing nearly artless.  The audience does notice that much of the action is shot at Maisie's eye level, but there are also things that the script does, like leaving out key details of incidents in the plot, details that Maisie prob would not have heard, or even understood or cared about if she did hear.  I also think that some of the acting choices that the directors and the actors came up with, notably sequences where Maisie is overhearing an argument or a discussion amongst the adults in her life, are played flat, as if to reinforce the feeling that Maisie is hearing a type of language she recognizes, but does not fully comprehend at her tender age.

The film also projects a subtle, yet definite sense of dread or fear for Maisie's personal well-being throughout.  Renee and I were particular invested in the action of the film, reacting verbally at many of the twists and turns as the story unfolds.

I loved all the performances in the film, including all four adult leads -- Steve Coogan really stood out to me, as a completely self-involved art dealer, who has absolutely no ability whatsoever to connect, comprehend, or communicate with his own daughter; and the Wife was particularly taken with Ms Moore's performance -- but, the real star of this picture is Aprile.  There is even talk that she might garner an Academy Award nomination.  I am absolutely flabbergasted how they found her, and coaxed such a sweet, frankly European objective performance from her.  She is amazing. Even if she never acted again, she has this under her belt.  She could retire right now, literally on top.  (Perhaps she should.)

I know next to nothing about the directing team that made this extremely touching and honest film. It was directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, and Maisie is their fifth film.  Perusing their cv, I notice that they have done a few thrillers, and that definitely comes across in very subtle shadings in this movie.  I really can not compare this film to many others in style.  The closest comparison I have would be to Cary Fukunaga's excellent Jane Eyre of 2011.  Both are adaptations of famous novels,and both are expertly told through the eyes of their lead character. Plus, both films are seamlessly layered with fraught moving moments of suspense.

I am going to rifle through McGehee and Siegel's previous work, and keep you updated.

Definitely see this film, folks.  Of course, catch it in a theater if you can, but see it.

It is the organization, Stupid!

I know it is an SSSS (Super Small Sample Size), but here is the number one prospect in baseball, Texas Rangers' infielder, Jurickson Profar's top line slash so far this season, since being called up from AAA Round Rock to fill in for Ian Kinsler -- who is on the DL -- .324/.350/.514.

(h/t to Rooster at Lone Star Ball) Look at that smile.

The Rangers are in an interesting situation.  They just extended Kinsler to a big time deal, and are not excited or eager to move him off of second base.  They also extended their SS, Elvis Andrus, to a big time deal, and he is absolutely not going anywhere.

Profar, meanwhile, is twenty years old, and his first position is SS, but has been playing mostly 2B with the Rangers in The Show.

The Rangers, barring some horrific sudden collapse, look to be in contention all season long, and are expected to be buyers at the trade deadline.  The Rangers need bullpen help first, and probably a boost to their rotation, as well.

What do you do?

I would much rather trade Kinsler and keep budding superstar Profar on the cheap.  (He is still making the minimum right now.) But, is there any one out there who wants Kinsler bad enough (and be willing to pay his large salary) and still be willing to give us something of value.  It would prob have to be something like a one for one deal, a starting pitcher with a large salary of his own. (Cliff Lee?)

There were so many years in the past where I would have loved to have problems like these.  The Rangers are truly a great organization now.  The 2013 Texas Rangers continue to maintain one of the best records in baseball despite serious injuries to its' rotation, and a below average bullpen. Plus, Beltre is day to day now; Kinsler is on the DL, and A. J. Pierzynski has spent time there, as well.  You might think it was luck (we are only one third of the way through the season) but the Rangers sport one of the best run differentials in the Majors, too.

I remember a time back in the Aughts when the Rangers stunk, and the Oakland Athletics were so good.  It seemed no matter who the A's brought up, or traded for -- especially pitching wise --  they would perform so well for the ballclub.  Whereas, it was the exact opposite for the Rangers.  It is the organization, Stupid!

No matter what business you run, sports or even Whole Foods Market, if you have great training (coaching), and you instill a sense of passion or ownership in your players (team members), and put them in a position to succeed, then they will.

The Billy Beane Athletics have been doing that for over a decade now (with some ups and downs, for sure.) But, so have the Nolan Ryan/Jon Daniels/Ron Washington Texas Rangers, too.

We finally figured it out.  What great problems to have.

Watch the MLB Must C video, please. He sprints around the bases. It is beautiful.









Ardent

And, these songs go out to everyone

Who kicked out the jams last night.

All my love,
Kisses on the bottom,
Ardent Henry

This one goes out to everyone

Who is kicking out the jams tonight on this beautiful sweltering hot Northern California night!

"You're dirty sweet, and you're my girl"

There is a great moment in a not very

Good documentary film called Two for the Wave that stands for one of the two political poles that I will always be switching back and forth between, truly torn.

Two for the Wave is a documentary about Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, their friendship, and how it was fractured, and completely fell apart.

After Truffaut and Godard busted up the 1968 Cannes film festival, ending it prematurely in order to show solidarity with the rioters and strikers all across France in May '68, Godard made a conscious decision to only make Maoist Socialist motion pictures from then on in his career.  Truffaut, who was on the side of the angels, but did not make "political" pictures per se, kept on making the same type of pictures that he always had.

Godard was never big news at the box office, and Truffaut only did a smidgen better.  (Melville crushed them both, one of the reasons prob that Truffaut and Godard both dissociated themselves from someone they had once thought of as a personal hero.) But, when Truffaut finally had a giant box office smash with Day for Night, Godard lashed out at him in a very lengthy personal letter, lambasting Truffaut as a counter revolutionary sell-out hack.  Truffaut's response was near as long, but much more elegant, and prob much more to the real truth that made the middle of their opposing positions.

The beautiful moment is in that letter Truffaut wrote.  (I am seriously paraphrasing here.) Truffaut wrote that Godard should stop seeing every work of art through a class system prism.  Consider Matisse, Truffaut suggested.  Matisse was one of the world's treasures who had lived and worked through the Dreyfuss Affair; The Great War; the Soviet Revolution; the rise of Fascism in Germany, Italy, and Spain; WWII; the Holocaust; the atom bomb; and the beginning of the Cold War.  And yet, Matisse continued to paint flowers, water lilies, window sills, gardens, portraits of beautiful women, and never let the absolute horror of all the things he had seen in his life intrude upon his art.

But, there is another great moment in an excellent documentary, The History of the Eagles (much more on this film in the near future) that absolutely captured the other side of the spectrum, the Godard side, for me perfectly.  It happened when Glenn Frey is describing why he believed the Eagles first record was such a smash, a record whose two biggest hits were Take it Easy and Peaceful Easy Feeling.  Frey suggests that after the Vietnam War, the assassinations of 1968 and the Democratic Convention of the same year, and Altamont, the Manson Family, Kent State, Watergate, whathaveyou, that all American wanted to do was take it easy, man.  Well, fuck you, buddy was my first thought when I heard that.  I was furious. The Eagles are actually on the side of the angels, too.  Frey later fired a member of the band because he was not gracious to Senator Cranston and his wife after playing a fundraiser for him.  But, like Truffaut, the Eagles preferred to separate their lefty politics and their art.

Those are the poles I will always be torn between:  The one that insists that every single act, incl art, is a political act, and the notion that art and politics are almost always best left to be independent of each other.




Kisses,
Ardent