Keep Up The Good Work Luke!

Much like his father Tim, Luke Russert is doing an excellent job covering news.  MSNBC under-

utilizes him to fill in for hosts like Andrea Mitchell, and each time Luke is on...  he impresses me with his acumen, his germane & timely follow-up questions, his delivery, his maturity, and his raw skill as a new anchor.  A chip off the old block, close falling apple & such...

In 2012 I opined about missing missing his father on JustJoeP (link here)
\http://justjoep.blogspot.com/2012/05/questions-are-better-asked-with-british.html

... now I get to enjoy listening to the son.  And hopefully, for the rest of my adult life, Luke will be actively broadcasting.  Compared to others on Faux News and CNN (the place for useless info, that the watcher provides, and the network regurgitates) his same age & older, Luke Russet continues to solidly deliver news, interviews, reporting.  Impressive.

How Many People Did Jade Helm Round Up?

The answer is simple: ZERO.
The right wing conspiracy machine was in full "crazy mode" to claim that the US military, Walmart, and President Obama were planning on declaring marshal law and taking over Texas & Utah.  Ridiculous and insane, but given full credit & weight by MANY Republican presidential candidates who want to play to the extreme right primary base who come out to vote like fire ants whose nest has been stepped on by a black booted Federal government thug.

If you don't know what "Jade Helm" is, the CS Monitor back in May laid it out nicely. (link here)
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2015/0505/What-is-Jade-Helm-15-and-should-Chuck-Norris-be-worried-video

If you don't remember how Cruz and Paul and most of the Republican field reacted back in May, the internet does.  (link here).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-stanford/the-pentagons-response-to_b_7251254.html

"J.E.Dyer" foretold of terrible things to come at "Liberty Unyielding".  Fool.

If you'd like to see a Map of "Operation Jade Helm" I've included one below.

To see how many people have been rounded up, and how many Counties and States have had marshal law imposed on them (staring today, July 15th, of course) read here (link).
http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/national/wire/civilians-begin-shadowing-jade-helm-war-exercise-in-texas/article_f3e54fa9-4b0d-5dbc-94e4-2ac1de1a6b0e.html

Yeah, "I've got some concerns" and "questions remain" ...  yes, like "how did you ever get elected, Ted?"

I am so glad I don't live in a backwards, regressive, insane Red State Dumbphukistan anymore.

Why Don't Coyotes Eat Peacocks?

The mystery that has been troubling us since we moved to N. San Diego county was solved this evening:  Why don't the coyotes eat the Peacocks and Peahens?  Coyotes are wily hunters... surely they must enjoy peacock or peahen delicacies, much as they do the chihuahua or shitzu or outdoor domestic cat.  The answer: coyotes cannot fly.

My mother in law swore that the peacocks were calling all night very near to the upstairs guest room in our home when she was here last month.  Perhaps, they were actually on the roof, as these pictures document they are well capable of reaching.  While flying clumsily, they do get the job done, and the peahens have peahen parties of 2 or more, aggregating / assembling for safety in numbers.

Flying past you, and then trotting off through your neighbor's lawn? I meant to do that!

This came after I was unloading bags of mulch from my Mazda wagon, when I noticed a peacock male with brilliant plumage eating from my neighbor's lawn.  SUDDENLY, his buddy flies past me, beside my garage and over my garbage dumpsters, after grazing in my back yard on fuchsia, seeds & bugs.  I am glad I can provide habitat for the massive fowl and the finest nectar drinkers in my neighborhood.

Had I not been trying to photograph these hummingbirds, I would have totally missed the in-bound peahens as they alighted on my roof and chimney this evening before dark. They stayed only a little while, before moving off to more camera shy roofs of my neighbors.

First 4th of July in N.SD For Us

I just finished hanging up my American Flag outside my home here in N.SD County, for the very first time.  Surrounded by lavender, hibiscus, mandevilla, palm trees, japonica, oleander, humming bird feeders, Allen's & Roufus & Anna's hummingbirds, and flapping gently in the 72F, 5 mph, intermittent breeze 3 miles from the ocean, it struck me as particularly beautiful... even with the gray over-cast sky.


I am appreciative that I live in a country where I can speak English, and not German (link here) - and English is Still spoken around the world by more people than any other language who control more of the world's capital and decisioning making  (even with nearly 1.4 Billion Chinese, not all of whom speak Mandarin), with the most influence internationally;

We hope to replace this grass with mulch and rock in the next 2 months, with the drought

[I once, while waiting for my company car to pick me up, observed a French business man try and check out of a very poorly run South Korea hotel in Changwon, "Hotel International" - a total pit, very unpleasant, highly NOT recommended for anyone who wants a pleasant stay -  using only French.  The poor man tried and tried, but the hotel clerk just looked blankly back at him, until in broken English, and with great venom & distaste in his pronunciation, he was able to pay his bill and leave the wretched hotel].

I have been able to live & work in multiple states, without the central government approving it (unlike my friends in China, who need central approval to relocate), [link here] going from Indiana, to South Carolina, then back to Indiana, then back to South Carolina 3 years later; then to Arizona for 5, OC California for 2.5, and now Northern San Diego County, where I hope I don't have to move again any time soon.

In this country, I don't have religious fundamentalists telling me how I can dress, what I can eat & drink, and what kind of music I am allowed to play in my home without head phones, like the Basiji do in Iran and the Mutaween do in Saudi Arabia.

In this country I don't have to worry that we are on the brink of national bankruptcy, as the Republicans & many Libertarians kept screaming we were when President Obama took office (yes months earlier, in the same financial conditions under Bush, no one on the right seemed to notice or care about a growing national debt - a debt which the Democrats have once again substantially paid down after the Republicans ran it up... again)... and it is not Greece with radicals on both the left and right rioting in the streets because their government has not had a spine to be able to make any hard choices and implement any austerity effectively for the last 4 bankruptcies.

America has its problems, but it is still a pretty damn good place to live & work and raise a family.  I am grateful to the men & women in the US military who have fought to keep us free, as well as grateful to the Federal leaders (Presidents, Secretaries of State, Senators, etc) who have kept us OUT of wars over the centuries making the spilling of the blood of our military unnecessary (Sorry Lindsey & McCain, we Don't need to bomb Iran and [what's left of] Syria and everywhere else that makes you wet your bed).  It's an English speaking, free movement of labor & capital (relatively, Joe M) =-) , pleasant country where peacocks can picnic wherever they please... "freedom baby, that's what it's all about!" [Freedumb Weekend Aloft, Greenville SC, 1992, yelled by a drunk redneck next to a fully armed A-10 warthog, at Donaldson Center].

Happy Fourth of July to everyone, no matter where you live!

Thank You Justice Kennedy

Swing Supreme Court Anthony Kennedy, thank you for being human, reasonable, and compassionate in your SCOTUS ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges on Friday.  All of my Gay friends can now enjoy the LONG LIST of rights and privileges that Dr Desert Flower and I have enjoyed for the last 28 years, if they find the love of their lives and want to get married as well.  Thank you.  You joined your 4 reasonable SCOTUS colleagues in making the right decision, and you worded your majority opinion so eloquently.

The hyperbolic fit throwing from the religious right - and their ridiculous predictions of being "forced" to act against their faith, or to "go out of business" as Huckabee said on This Week with Snuffleupagus - is amusingly stupid.  No chicken little, the sky is not falling, but legal barriers to basic rights are.

Thanks Justice Kennedy.

Gilfoyle Kills Me

If you've not watched HBO's Silicon Valley series, you've missed a hilarious train wreck, written and acted beautifully.  In my perspective, the BEST PART of Silicon Valley is Gilfoyle.  Martin Starr plays Gilfoyle, and delivers his character perfectly.  Gilfoyle is hands-on, practical hardware guy, dead pan, ingenious, insightful, ballsy (by-passing the meter, to power an impromptu garage server farm... !!!!!).  I wish that I've worked with Gilfoyle, and could spar with him if I ever worked in an office setting again.  So very funny.  = )

LOL LOL  LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!!!!

Biggest Hawk's Fan, Left Out In The Cold

I was amused by this Yahoo News story this afternoon (link), that the brachiosaurus outside Chicago's Field Museum (an AWESOME museum, in my book) will not be wearing the world's largest BlackHawk's jersey for the Stanley Cup finals (starting tonight) because the previous jersey 'took a beating from climate change and the harsh weather'.

I always loved the brachiosaurus as a kid...  it was...  back then...   the largest land animal ever (before Seismosaurus and other behemoths ousted it)... and Spielberg liked it so much he had it in Jurassic Park.  Too bad it'll be left out in the cold this year.

If I Don't Move, You Can't See Me...

Funny how bird brains, based upon motion, think everyone else's brains are based primarily upon motion as well.  Colors, object permanence, things that are out-of-place, beauty, sound, scent... these all play significant roles in human cognition and memory.  So when I chased out the mourning doves from the grape arbor before we moved out, because they were making a big mess with nesting materials and fecal matter and their utter stupidity as the slow-and-dumb bird species of my backyard, the pair of enterprising robins who had been jonesing for a nesting spot seized the day.  The robin couple had previously built a deep, mud lined nest, 1 foot away from my shiny, polished, stainless steel gas grill, and had already begun using the grill & its cover as a launching pad & toilet.  I did not want to move robin fecal matter, so before they laid their eggs, I evicted their nest wholesale, a week earlier.

So on moving-out day, I looked up, and saw Mrs Robin, sitting on her newly usurped home.  I am sure it was not as cozy as the big, deep, mud lined and fastidiously constructed robin nest I had tossed.  It was built by clueless mourning doves after all - the same species who built on top of my 8 foot ladder in Phoenix, and who (I've read & heard from biologists) are delicious prey for Peregrine Falcons.  Mrs. Robin didn't move... her tiny bird brain thinking "that clumsy bipedal nearly hairless ape can't see me, if I DON'T MOVE... no matter what you do... protect the nest...  DON'T MOVE".  Her orange breasted mate chirping angrily from the fence, about 15 feet away, trying to distract the clumsy ape.  I left her alone.   I'm moving out after all, and her and her children's fecal matter will be something the new owners will have to deal with.

That... along with 2 nests of house finches who immediately re-took-up residence on the Bose speakers mounted on the outside of the house pointing towards the pool, about 25 feet from where the robins had nested.  The finches are communal birds, with 4 to 6 adults caring for each nest, aunts and uncles working together to help the mating pair.  The first year we lived in the house, we thought they were cute.  Cute, until the babies fledged, pooped all over the pool furniture, and had fecal matter dripping down the outside of the kitchen window (yeah, ew).  So really, the "whole neighborhood was going to the birds!" once we left...  = )

Que Syrah, Syrah

Soooo many grapes....

When we moved into the house in 2013, the previous owners said the grape vines were Paso Robles Syrah.  They had Cut Them Back to just the main vine, that had taken 25 years to wind around the metal arched arbor they'd installed.  And when we moved in during October, the vines sprouted only a few little new shoots of growth.  Dr Desert Flower looked it up online, and she found where it said to cut back the new growth each year, so that the 2nd year's growth would produce fruit.  So we cut off the few little shoots in the winter of 2013, and then in the 2014 Spring, the vine surged in growth.

Dionysus (Διόνυσος) would be proud

In the Winter of 2014-2015, I cut back the vines about 1/2 way, and left the largest shoots still in place.  Wow... abundant production doesn't start to describe it.  Whereas we had about 10 bunches of grapes total in 2014, the 2015 out put will be over a 100 bunches, if not more.  They are hanging everywhere... and won't be ripe enough to pick or eat for at least another month or two at the earliest.

The birds & gnats got to the grapes in 2014, and of the 10 or so bunches, we enjoyed 1.5 bunches that were not pecked at by birds, swirling with gnat clouds, or being chomped on my lizards or insects.  Those 100+ 2015 bunches will make a real mess later this summer, if not promptly harvested by the new owners.

You can't see it, but there's a robin's nest, smack dab in the center of that arbor.  Two mourning doves tried to build a nest there, and I shooed them out, since they were going to poop all over my grill just 4 feet away.   Then, a pair of robins moved into the 1/2 built nest, finished it, and the female sits silently, paralyzed, "you can't see me" on it when I walk past to take out the garbage or do yard work. Persistent these birds are!

The Government Dole for OC Hummingbirds is OVER

As I sit in the NW corner of my home this Memorial Day afternoon, watching dozens of hummingbirds visit what used to be the locations of 8 different hummingbird nectar feeders in my backyard, I find it quite ironic and funny, that the era of Hummingbird Welfare has come to an end in Orange County - Laguna Hills specifically.  SO Many hummingbirds have grown so accustomed to visiting my backyard for high quality, fresh, consistently available sugar water...  that when I took down 3 of the last 4 empty - or - nearly - empty feeders this afternoon, the colibri boys and girls go to where they USED TO find nectar feeders, and look around... and look around some more...  hovering, pivoting... and then go to a nearby agapanthus or day lily or petunia, and drink from the lower-sugar-higher-protein sources of natural-and-not-human-provided food.  I took the first 4 down yesterday, and washed them all thoroughly - I've been making 1 gallon per week of sugar water, refilling the 8 feeders, since last Christmas when the last 2 feeders were added to the previous 6.

taken via iPhone 5S, through NW breakfast nook window (hence the shadow reflections), from 3 feet away

Dr Desert Flower has reassured me that in Carlsbad we will have many hummingbirds.  I countered, that the plethora of hummingbirds I've attracted here (Rufous, Anna's, Costa's, Black Chinned, Allen's) won't be able to fly the 40 mile commute down to Carlsbad, through the Camp Pendleton barren & hazardous landscape...  but she said new, San Diego County hummingbirds will definitely show up.  Il faut voir...   the backyard hummingbird paradise I created here in Laguna Hills may be difficult to replicate in the arid hills of Carlsbad.  We will soon find out.

Morrissey + Violent Femmes = Ski Patrol

Dr Desert Flower is playing Direct TV's "Alternative" station today as we throw things out and get ready for this week's move, further south in California.  I heard a song by Ski Patrol...  and I thought...  "I liked them when they were called the Violent Femmes".   Then..  the song got more whiney, and had more back-ground guitar music...  and I said..  no...   this is like if Morrissey and the Violent Femmes had drunken sex, and then 9 months later, they'd give birth to Ski Patrol.  (hard to do, since Morrissey & all the Violent Femmes members are all male...   but the analogy still stands).

I still do like the Violent Femmes.  I have never really liked Morrissey (too whiny, too self absorbed, too preachy for me.  I am undecided on Ski Patrol.

Esposito In Duck Territory

As I was working outside my house today, trimming away foliage that the Termite company had accidentally painted as they restored my home to a termite-free status before we move next week, I unexpectedly saw a package on my front porch, addressed to me, from Schereville, IN.  I was confused...  everyone I knew who lived in Schereville (my cousins Mike & Tom) had moved out of there many years ago...  so who was sending me something?

I opened the package, to find an unexpected surprise from my very cool little brother.  A customized Tony Esposito #35 Blackhawks jersey, from one of my little brother's friend's businesses ("he knows a guy" ... he's from Chicago).  Very cool!  When I was in Chicago recently, I inquired if such a jersey was in stock, and my brother called his friend who said no, it would have to be special ordered and take 6 weeks or so... so I told my little brother not to worry about it.  When my little brother called to ask me what my address is, and when I am moving earlier this week, I should have known something was up!!  Thanks little brother!!

Now, I need to find an Anaheim Ducks oriented sports bar to go to tonight and wear my new jersey...  heh heh heh!  Let's hope da Hawks even it up to 2-2, and don't let the Ducks go 3-1.

And I promise not to get into any fights with Ducks fans.  = )

The Good Ship Venus

My brother in law shared this with me...   it is hilarious!  (parental warning though, don't listen to it with small children around, unless you want to be asked LOTS of questions and have to explain a whole bunch of sexually explicit material to the young listener)



 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLotX3HE-4c 
Link again (since youtube removes it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLotX3HE-4c Enjoy!

14 to 1, LA tries to become livable

Today, I heard on NPR, that Los Angeles City Council voted 14 to 1, to eventually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, a dollar a year (it's $9 an hour now, above the national minimum wage standard).  In doing so, LA becomes the LARGEST US city to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

What's the matter with you New York and Chicago?  Falling a little behind, ain't ya?  I'm sure it's easy to raise a family on $9 an hour in both NE Illinois and Eastern New York State, no problem.  While Mid Western states are often heading back to the 17th Century, California added 350,000 residents last year (yes, we'll get Another congressman soon).   Sure, San Francisco will get to $15 an hour by 2018 (2 years earlier than LA), but LA is 5 times the size of land locked & peninsula'ed SF.

Sorry Mitchell, but my wife is far smarter & hotter than yours, and has a much more progressive world view.

It's the one aspect of moving further south, towards San Diego, that makes me a little bit sad... as we'll be farther away from tempted-income-equality-LA, and closer to Mitt-Romney-loving-San-Diego County.  But Dr Desert Flower's commute will be cut in half, and the onerous Camp Pendleton immigration check point will no longer have to be endured non a daily basis.

Mitchell Englander, the lone Republican on the City Council, and the only fool to vote against the minimum wage increase, you're on the wrong side of history, as is your party and your ideology.  Watch, as the City of Angels continues to grow and thrive, instead of wither, atrophy, and decay (as you and your party have predicted).  You're an anachronism Englander.  If you really hate income equality, move to China, where the disparity is so pronounced, you can taste it in the actual air you're trying to breathe.

First Lady Honorable Senator Madam Secretary Khaleesi

Catching up on my DVR'ed Daily & Nightly Shows this week,  found Larry Wilmore's Nightly Show last Monday to be absolutely hilarious!  Following Hillary Clinton's presidential run announcement on Sunday, along with the start of Game of Thrones, Larry's writers had a field day, graphically.

They're really not that different...

Hillary could use Khaleesi's campaign slogan

Both had their kingdoms taken away a few years ago

They were both married to horny warlords

They've both spent years dealing with spiteful, barbaric horse people

Their paths to the throne has been blocked by gold hoarding families

Those families have been guided by a patriarch in shadows, who has been positioning the family

With the torture loving son who famously choked at a banquet

And the brother everyone likes, despite the red flags... 

And the dark horse from the fringes, who might have a chance, but who's brain has been turned to mush by religion

And of course, there's Hodor

Hodor...   I laughed out loud!   Too damn funny!!!!  Highly recommended.

Delta, Zone 1, Isn't

I flew Delta Airlines recently, and I was surprised and a little bit amazed to be BOTH TSA-Pre-check AND "Zone 1" boarding group.  "Zone 1"? I thought to myself....   that's reserved for Diamond and Platinum level frequent flyers (neither of which I am anymore, nor have been for a decade), or military in uniform (thank you for your service) or people traveling with children under 2 years of age, or those "needing extra time / assistance in boarding".  What luck!  Perhaps, in the Monopoly Game of Life, there was a computer glitch / error in my favor...

No such luck.  On Delta, Zone 1 isn't one.  Zone 1 is ACTUALLY Zone 3.  FIRST they board "PREM" ....  "PREM" is first class, million milers, Delta employees (Pilots, etc, who are not flying the plane).   Then, next is "SKY" (short for "Sky Priority"), as the 2nd boarding group.   In Europe, where Silver matters on Delta, Silver status Frequent Flyers (which I am one, after flying to Bangalore and then to Warsaw in the last year, both in Coach, narrowly avoiding Deep Vein Thrombosis) are also included in "SKY".  But in the good ole USA, Silver means bumpkus.  Silver, ever since Delta bought Northwest and inherited more frequent flyers than their Medallion Club lounges and priory boarding queues could handle, have ignored and jettisoned their Silver status members as "nobodies".  Gold gets you 1 bag free, and a listing in the "SKY" queue.  Silver, "back of the line bud!"...  persona non grata.  One of the unwashed, sweaty masses.

After printing my boarding pass the day before travel, and seeing I was "Zone 1" I did not check a bag and took my 22" roller bag on, thinking "I'll have a place in the over-head, surely!  I am 'Zone 1" after all!"  [Printing, how archaic you say?  Why not get it emailed to me, and scan it at the gate?  Well... once you've tried to do that, and you're in Zone 3 or 4 and they're out of over-head room, so they have to gate check your bag...  the only way to do it with a cell phone electronic boarding pass is to walk with the gate agent back up the jet way, so she can re-scan your pass with you phone, issue you a gate-check baggage claim ticket, and then walk back down to the plane, wasting another 10 minutes of your life that you could have been AIS [Ass In Seat] and about to fall asleep for the 4 hour flight back home. Having a PRINTED boarding pass, you just give the gate agent the printed paper, and they come back to you with a baggage claim ticket.]

So all the PREMs boarded.  Then the HOARD of SKYs boarded.  Then, when "Zone 1" boarded, the plane was more than 1/2 full, most of the over-heads were already taken, and I had to find a place for my bag 4 rows behind where my seat was... which is such a joy when getting off the plane and no one is polite enough to let you go back 4 rows.  The poor bastards in Zone 2 were all screwed.  No more over-head space.  "Zone 2" on Delta = "Zone 4" on all other airlines.  Or "Boarding group D" on Southwest.  Despicable how Delta ineptly tries to manipulate language to get the beleaguered passenger to temporarily feel better. Just call it "Zone 3" and treat your passengers like grown ups, your stupid Georgia Peaches!

On top of this, I find out in April of this year that EVERY state in which I have to travel for work, will now have State Income Tax withheld, for each day I am traveling to that state.  So in 2016, I'll get to file 5 or 6 State tax returns, to get my money back.  Joy!!!!!!  So much incentive to be a happy traveling employee!!!!  So customer centric!!!  (at Accenture, where a friend of mine works, the COMPANY Files For the employee, in the multiple states to which they have been dispatched to do work for the company..   but not so at my corporate leviathan).  Lamer than a 2 legged dog.

Tomato, Tomato... Potato... Potato...

Tomato, Tomato... Potato...  Potato...

Have you ever heard this ring tone?  (Circuit)
http://www.zedge.net/ringtone/1689022/

= )

Play it on your iPhone...   and then say  "Tomato, Tomahtoe, Potato, Potahtoe...."

Blogger won't let me upload a WAV file.

Horse Manure First Class Farts

On Sunday afternoon, my flight to Atlanta was delayed, in-ordinately.  My connecting flight was lost by my late arrival, so Delta re-booked me on a later flight, and put me into first class, seat 1A.  "Great!" I thought.  And as I later sank into my 1A seat, at gate B5 in Atlanta, I smelled something vaguely familiar.

I've been to a horse farm.  I've smelled horse manure in the past.  In my 1A seat, with a bulkhead in front of me, an external fuselage frame to my left, and a large, obese man, reading his Kindle to my right.  My nostrils filled with the stench of horse manure.  Scent is one of the most powerful of human senses.  Wired directly into the ancient reptilian brain.  Far stronger than the other senses, from our primitive ancestry.

The passenger in in 1B, a "Mr Weisner" had apparently been eating oatmeal as if he is Wilfred Brimley's best friend, or if he's drank an entire keg of oatmeal stout.  But the stench of horse manure, of an animal whose majority diet is oats.  Before we took off, it wafted to my nostrils.  After we took off, it wafted again.   Then mid-flight, during the 22 minutes of flight to Greenville SC, again.  Once we landed, he let loose his last flatulence.  All of it, smelled of horse manure.  Had I not been on a plane, in a semi-confined space, I would never have known, it was the fetid passenger next to me.  Unmistakably horse manure.

Please, if you're going to fly, be cognizant of the senses of those around you.

My Dana Point Yoga Studio & Gym

DDF recently got a very nice job as director of research & development at a moderately sized bio-medical firm in San Diego, so we'll be saying good bye to the lovely environment of Orange County in the next few months after the house is sold.  As I type this late March blog post, I am sitting in my home's breakfast nook / drinking area that has glass on two sides and looks out over the back & side yards, where I can see all 8 hummingbird feeders, 3 hummingbirds drinking from various ones, and

an adolescent (and vociferous) mocking bird exploring one of the feeders under the white guava tree. The sun is setting behind the trio of king palms, and I am well rested after 90 minutes of yoga and 2 hours of stair running and beach parkour.  Started off the work day early, ended before 2pm, and made a bee-line for the beach.  4 and a 1/2 hours later I am feeling reflective and somewhat pensive.  The hummingbirds - who are chasing each other all around the 8 happy hour dusk feeders - are not pensive at all.

But I digress...  this post is supposed to be about my Dana Point Yoga Studio & Gym...  so we'll move onto the collection of photos I've taken in the last several weeks to help illustrate these abodes.  These are in contrast to the earlier locations I've illustrated here on JustJoeP, like Arizona Back Yards, Arizona Blue sky environments, Pool Sides, Group Pool Sides, Hawaii, Hotel Rooms (French Hotel Rooms, and Chicago Hotel Rooms), Mountain tops, grassy beach fronts (my first introduction to the Dana Point Beach) and next to Tide Pools.

There's usually lots of flowers and floral arrangements all around the studio & gym.  It's especially nice when laying on the yoga mat and looking up to see this brilliant coral tree, contrasted with the beautiful blue sky behind it - no gray pall here, typically.  Sometimes a California Phoebe comes up and proclaims his loyalty to K-Mart: "Cheap!  Cheap!" and then dives down towards the grass to snatch up some insect or another.  Other times an Anna's hummingbird male alights and flits all about the coral tree, claiming it as his.  Other times and ornery crow squawks at me: "get off my concrete pad!!!"  from one of the two symmetrical coral trees.   (I am fluent in Crow now, having observed them closely for 2 years in California)

My gym has showers...   which one can use to remove the sand from one's feet, if you've gone down to where the water meets the land.  People in wet suits frequently rinse off there - not something most gyms have (wet suits).

There's lots of very large whales who frequent my gym.  They're almost always on the move, and many times bring their small (10 feet long and a 1000 lbs...  if you call that "small") children with them.  Lots of grays, some sperm, blue, fin, and occasionally a humpback comes to the gym as well.   I wouldn't call them "obese", but they are very Big folks indeed.

And then you've got all the skinny white folks, who are always looking at food, but apparently never eating any of it.  They're down by the water's edge, gazing at their own reflections.  They're up on inclined slopes, tip-toeing through the succulent ice plants.

And there's those who try and hog all the equipment, and sing while they're doing so.  They don't sing too loud, even if they're trying to be fierce and menacing...  it's still pretty adorable.

And there's the flashy dressers...  in bright green & fiery red magentas.

There's a wide variety of equipment in the rock parkour area.  Big ones, little ones, solid ones, smaller ones that rock when you push off, sandy ones - but like most gyms, you have to be careful about those who don't clean up after they've used the equipment.  A little bit of Bird poop on rocks is still better than MRSA though, any day.

You don't have to have status to work out here... but there's lots of +$100K vehicles in the parking lot.

So I am going to miss my coastal gym that I've grown so fond of here in Dana Point.  It's a short 15 to 20 minute drive (if I get out of the house before the high school kids get out of class), and the parking is free, or nearly free.  The breezes are amazing.  The scenery, unparalleled.  Every Wednesday they do cut the grass and that makes it a little itchy...  - grass in Arizona was never really an issue as it was all burnt by the orange fiery ball in the sky.  I'm sure I'll find some kind of studio & gym equivalent in San Diego...  but Dana Point was nice while it lasted.

Whiplash - In Flight

On the way home last week, from seat 45F in the tail of the Delta 767, I watched Whiplash on the tiny screen in the back of the headrest of 44F from Charles de Gaul to Salt Lake City  Interesting movie.  Watched it because I am a drummer, and Skoda (J.K. Simmons) has always fascinated me as an actor - he's even good in the Farmer's Insurance commercials.  Also watched it because getting comfortable and falling asleep on a 11 hour flight is impossible while sitting in a coach seat on a turbulent trans-Atlantic crossing.  [Note: aircraft designs put the horizontal stabilizers in the tail on purpose, as that's the part of the plane that wants to bounce up and down the most in turbulence].

Simmons plays a complete and utter asshole, who is defective as a human being and as a band director.  He's an anachronistic ego-maniac who has drunk too much of his own Koolaid.  The mono-dimensionality of his character and the lack of any redeeming qualities puts him on par with a Bond villain for dislikability.   Miles Teller does an OK job as the protagonist "Andrew" I just never really believed his drumming in the movie.

If you're a drummer, watch Whiplash.  If you're not a drummer, and want to see a total ass hole band director paralyze his stage band with the utmost fear... then this film may interest you.

Birdman - In Flight

Birdman!

It took a moment…  but I remembered…   Birdman!   “Maybe I’m crazy…. “  has been humming through my mind in the shower, as I walk the streets and river-sides of Glasgow, ride in elevators, and  wait in lines at airports.

Michael Keaton was truly oscar worthy in this film.  I see now why he won the Golden Globe.  Ed Norton was very good, and showed he’s great at playing a total ass hole.  Big Eyes actress Emma Stone was both beautifully played and exhibiting a very dark and disturbing side that I hope she does not emulate in real life.  Zach Galifianakis finally played a character who was not an idiot or a child, and it was refreshing to see him being a useful grown-up - something I had not seen him do previously.

Perhaps it was my irritability from being unable to get comfortable in the “Premium Economy” seat, or the fact that Air France in-flight service crews really don’t give a merde about the Premium Economy passengers - except when passing through quickly on their way to coddled business class where my company no longer believes I am worth buying a ticket for - or that I was extremely dehydrated at 40,000 feet and -68C outside with not a single drop of water being offered by the absentee Air France crew… but I found the beginning of Birdman VERY funny.  Laughing-out-loud-funny.  

Ed Norton at one point strips naked - apparently someone in Hollywood thinks hairless, little-boyish, weak little Ed Norton shirtless and pastey will put butts in seats - all it had me doing was snickering “first rule about fight club, is be strong enough to actually fight someone, little boy” …  this guy played “The Hulk” … really?  But in the scene where he is naked, his girl friend is confronting him and telling him to put his clothes back on and he says to her, standing buck naked in front of her in the wardrobe section backstage “play with my balls” - how hilariously inappropriate!  

Michael Keaton running through Times Square in his whitey-tighties is kinda funny.  The jamming, syncopated, rhythmic drum track provided by (insert name here) through-out the film powerfully appealed to me, in a tribal, reptilian brain, primal sort of way.  It was awesome when the drummer finally appeared, on screen, drumming.

There were far too many scenes going up and down back-stage stair wells.  I don’t care if that’s an integral part of the “theatre experience” I found it about as annoying as Wes Anderson’s fixation on centering the camera on the scene’s speaking actor and close framing him.  Enough with the stairs already!   I get it, there’s lots of ups and downs, and it’s cramped.  SNL does the whole back-stage thing very well, once every 3 or 4 shows, and that’s enough.  Don’t dwell on it throughout the movie.

Keaton evoked the old Batman voice for his Birdman alter-ego, and that made it all the sweeter (to me).  His telekinesis ability was interesting, but )I think) under-played.  A levitation here, a dropped light there, an exploded bulb or 4… I would have liked to have seen a tiny bit more of this ability on-screen to know that he was not hallucinating, but I am not a Mexican director with my own agenda.

Birdman - if you have a chance to see it on Netflix or Amazon, I highly recommend it. (I wrote this 2 weeks before the Academy Awards gave it an Oscar)

Do Not waste 2 hours of your life watching 50 Shades of Gray as I did in Glasgow last month, in a theatre packed with over-weight, dolled up, Scottish housewives, who heckled the screen and who had to endure some of the worst written, worst acted, weak themed, mis-represented characters of any film I’ve seen in the last 35 years - literally since I began buying my own movie tickets.  A severe disappointment it was, and my expectations going into the movie were already very low.

The Judge, in flight

The Judge

While unable to sleep more than 1 hour in a non-reclining center seat on Air France last month, headed to Europe, I watched “The Judge” on the plane.  Robert Downey Jr and Robert Duvall gave superb performances in the film.  It’s a little heavy handed and stereotypical, but still a good movie nevertheless.  

A string of near impossibilities and absurdities made it less enjoyable for me as a viewer, since I prefer to see a story to which I can relate , that makes sense, and that doesn’t try to Force me to suspend disbelief to the nth degree.  Robert Downey Jr as the sleazy, successful lawyer-to-the-richest defendants, ok, I get that.  Duvall as the hard line, strict disciplinarian who only understands “tough love”, ok, I get that.  But 

- bizarre sentencing histories, 

- a strange small Indiana town that is faster to fly to than to drive to from Chicago

- a town so small that it has only 1 bar and everyone there knows everyone, yet big enough that it warrants multiple judges in its tiny little court house

- a distinctive lack of flying insects (I think they probably shot it in California somewhere) in any of the scenes (that Ain’t Indiana)

- Robert Downey Jr ramming a perfectly good garage door (his father’s), backwards, just to be an asshole 

- a sentenced judge not being raped or killed or severely beaten in a small county prison system where he put most, if not all of the prisoners, into that system

Billy Bob Thorton and Vincent D’onofrio have very under-stated, under-played roles.  I loved Billy Bob’s portable metallic collapsing water glass.  I used to have one of those when I was in Scouts many years ago.  D’onofrio could have done so much more with his part…  but maybe directing and editing threw a wet blanket over his excellent acting.

You know…  I saw another film while I was flying for 7 hours, sleeping for one 1, and tossing and turning for nearly 4… but I can’t think of what it was right now.   If I recall it, I will blog about it here.