When you ain’t got nothin, you got nothin’ to lose – Dylan The San Francisco Giants are going to the World Series for the second time in three seasons and I’m reminded of a lunch my father had a long time ago with his banker Chad Ertola and a story Mel Brooks told on The […]
Category Archives: Posting
Semi Masterful
Monday, September 24, 2012
I saw Paul Thomas Anderson’s film “The Master” over the weekend and am still working it out. That it merits this consideration is no small victory. I went in under nearly ideal circumstances having forgotten whatever hype I’d read or who the actors were. When Philip Seymour Hoffman appeared about a third in it was […]
Yay Our Side
Friday, September 21, 2012
work on harmony and diction, play your banjo well and if you have political conviction, keep ’em to yourself – J Cash I hate this time of year, every four years. It’s worse in the wake of ‘social networking,’ which becomes a euphemism for mass polarization. People who would normally reserve opinion on subjects as benign […]
Pedro & Puck, Dusty, Billy, & Frank
Thursday, September 13, 2012
What’s the deal with San Francisco? Such an undeniably beautiful place yet it can get on top of you in a big hurry. Perhaps as Spinal Tap’s David St Hubbins remarked about the “authorities’” take on the mysterious death of his group’s drummer, it’s one of those things ‘best left unsolved.’ The place is an enigma […]
With Autumn Closing In
Thursday, August 9, 2012
–Seger Been slogging through another New York City summer. I realized I was in the middle of it yesterday when I started out for a run and passed two guys working construction on my Brooklyn street. “They got restaurants on Court?” asked the one. “Yeah they do,” the other answered. “But more on Smith – […]
Don’t Think, Do.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
I was thinking about Tim Lincecum recently, the Giants’ two time Cy Young winner, all-star, and World Series champion. He’s been struggling in spectacular fashion for the first half of this season and has the worst earned run average in baseball. He’s getting his first start of the second half tonight, and depending on how […]
Kindling Ebert
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
I’ve been reading Roger Ebert’s memoir, Life Itself, on my Kindle. The Kindle is a device I was slow to embrace. I purchased it for the same reason I buy most electronic crap – it looked cool and those I saw using one on subway appeared to have their act together more than I do. […]
Happy Independence Day
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
No man is an island, but some are pretty darn fat – R. Monaco There are many decent songs for commemorating tomorrow’s national holiday, some of them uniquely American and others simply noting the idea of independence. For patriotic pride I’ve always been partial to Ray Charles’ America The Beautiful, which gets it right without laying the bullshit […]
Essence of Camel
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Croquet lawns, village greens Victoria was my Queen – Ray Davies I was in Scotland last week, having arrived just in time to enjoy the full one hundred and sixty eight hours of non-stop television coverage devoted to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Elizabeth herself was a bit further south in London, floating around the Thames […]
To Build A Fire
Thursday, May 24, 2012
This is the now-retro 60’s style Preway fireplace in our family cabin in Lake Tahoe, California. Apparently these things are all the rage and can fetch in excess of $1000 in decent refurbished condition. If you look at ads from the era, they often depict a classy-looking woman in form-hugging evening wear, standing beside the […]