G is for: Gloom and Geology

William "Strata" Smith. The first Geologist to identify the rocky underpinnings of England. Gloomy weather. We need rain. We got rain.... Computers. I have two that will not work. I take to the couch. Crawl into my sleeping bag. I do not want to do anything. Just contemplate. What have I done the first 70 years of my life????? A gloomy prospect. My birthday was Thursday. I entered that 7th decade... Oh gloom! Dispare. Agony on end!!!!

Space and Time

This is from the Orion nebula. Known to science as M-42. Swirling dust clouds. Many light years away. Below Orion belt, in the stellar constellation, is a fuzzy area, the sword, it is called, there is a cloud mist, which they say is a star factory or incubator, sometimes it is called. This looks quite beautiful through field glasses, and any telescope. The photo is by Nasa, taken by the Hubble Telescope. I guess there is a team that puts together the Astronomy Picture of the Day, with commentary by a "real astronomer" they assure you. It is worth a visit, and often jump-starts my day, a visit to the site. Http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

I got the astronomy bug back in High School. Saw an ad in the back of a Marvel Comix for a telescope for something like $2.90. I talked Garren Tate into going in with me on it. The thing came to our surprise in a tiny box, and consisted of two lenses, about a half inch diameter!!! No instructions, except a blurry printed note, thanking me for my savvy purchase and hoping I would enjoy its use forever! Well, using the technology at hand, I got a large cardboard tube, spool from a carpet, from the trash of a local furniture store. (They make good stage props also. Columns and lamp posts, etc.)

Orion, the hunter. The most recognizable constellation, with the great red giant Betelgeuse and the brilliant blue Rigel. And, impossible to ignor, the near-by dogs. Canis Major, the big dog with the bright eye Sirius, the brightest star we can see here in the northern hemisphere. Orion seems to be shooting Taurus, the bull, for some reason, with it mean bright eye, red giant Aldebaran, charging the twins, Castor and Polux, the Gemini twins. The little dog, Canis Minor, with its brigh star Procyon, yapping near by.

And the continuing wanderers. The Planets, our siblings in the Sun solar system. Right now, Venus, our near neighbor, is rising in the East as the moon is setting in the west. Stunningly bright. At night you can see Jupitor, Saturn, hanging very close to the Pleiades, sometimes called the little dipper, more correctly, the seven sisters, like diamonds on black velvet when seen through a telescope, even field glasses. Naked eye shows a fuzzy patch.... and Mars, bright red, back in hard to make out Cancer. I think.

Check out http://www.earthsky.com/ For the moon, a great sight is http://www.inconstantmoon.com musical, and not updated the last time I looked, with more info about our closest celestial neighbor than you may want to know. It has some music if you like. Guess what? Moonlight Sonata, Clair de Lune..... Blue Moon!!!!

Looking back to the origin of our universe through light years, light minutes, light seconds..... Makes me humble. Makes me tremble. How important we make ourselves out to be, when we are such an infinitesimal speck in the overall and increasing size or God's creation, and how unlightly we are to be here in the first place, and how we cry and moan and curse our fate to no real avail except to make ourselves feel miserable. I like to look to the stars for hope and confidence. And feel the warmth of our closest star and praise the God of creation, and thank fortune that I have been endowed with life, a little lower than the angels, it says in some sacred text or other.....

Want to know about the new health plan the government has rigged up? This is what GWB told a lady who expressed confusion:

Verbatim Quote:

WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: 'I don't really understand. How is it the new plan going to fix the problem?'

PRESIDENT BUSH:

'Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to that has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, supposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.'

That ought to get it. I think he has been hanging with his Dad recently.

On another note, Chaney has been hunting again. Ronnie informed me at 5:00 AM this morning that our VP had shot someone hunting. My first thought was, "Damn! I hope it was Scalia!" I do not think Ronnie knows who Scalia is, or even why I thought someone would take him down. But it was an Austin lawyer, and if he were hunting with Dick, well, he probably deserved it as well.



I spent yesterday with friends doing income tax and watching the best movie I have seen in several years. About three burials of an undocumented Mexican laborer on the border. Tough old Tommy Lee Jones, of San Saba and Harvard, turned in a great work of a film. Ah, the spirit of Peckenpah returns. I must write and think about it, one film I will definitely see again. "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" is playing now only at the Angelika in Dallas, but it will be making some buzz, I feel sure. Must see again. Mel Estrada is killed and nobody seems interested, especially Dwight Yokum, the sheriff who should, except Tommy Lee, who has become friends with the Mojado. He takes on the task of returning the body to his chosen burial spot in Mexico, with the captive killer in tow for the hard labor, this hapless border guard with sexual hang-ups, played by Barry Pepper, to find the perhaps non-existant place.... Well, this tale could be out of one of Cormac McCarthy's Border novels. Jones, known only as Pete, takes on the job of Charon, in Greek myth and the killer becomes enlightened though great suffering and agony.... and Melquiades, looking and smelling worse and worse, is laid to rest finally at his chosen spot.... Beautiful film with all sorts of references from several Spaghetti Westerns. Filmed in Big Bend, Van Horn, and other quintessential West Texas locals, even a scene in the Monahan Sand Dunes.

Bagdad on the Hudson

Oh Blog. Just read Matt Broyles elegy to his four years in New York.



Yes, go to New York where everything can happen and if you find something up there you cannot do without, stay and remain part of the great kaleidoscope dynamo. It grinds the gifts of the gifted and ambitious into little pieces and adds it to the ever-flowing river of life that flows from it’s bowels. He quotes REM’s Michael Stype:

....It's easier to leave than to be left behind (it's pulling me apart)
Leaving was never my proud (change)
Leaving New York never easy (it's pulling me apart)
I saw the life fading out (change)
Leaving New York, never easy (it's pulling me apart)
I saw the light fading out (change)
Leaving New York never easy (it's pulling me apart)
I saw the life fading out (change)

- R.E.M., Leaving New York


Oh it is there for all. Hardly even part of the United States, a separate urbanity, like Hong Hong or Singapore. It’s own place, and a place for everybody. Black hole and super nova. Depending. If we went there to find ourselves, we only got more lost. If we went there to conquer the world, we found we had to get in line. Every man is Alexander the Great up there!!! And what you find is all about you.

And twice, the lights went out.

Reminds me of the two blackouts I was on hand for..... The first in 1965, in my 40 dollar rent controlled flat with Jim Carter, the violinist, not the future President. Jim and I were problem drinkers from North Carolina at the time and I had just lost a good job in the Davidson College Art Department and headed for NYC, hoped to go to Germany or somewhere and do art, until Jimmy, who was genius violinist studying at Manhattan School of Music in East Harlem, about 20 blocks north of our First Avenue/91st Street digs.... which he found in this German Town area. I could goof off a lot with that kind of rent. And besides, he knew and associated with these beautiful Alabama musician bells, Sister and Ceci Carter (no kin!) When the lights went out, we watched from the fire escape, as they went out all over town. Then you could see across the East River to La Guardia airport, the spans of the Triboro bridge.... It was exciting for a small mill town guy, still quite green to big city life.... Going dark, quite disarming.....

That November night, Jimmy playing his fiddle to the Avenue out on the fire escape, wanting something to happen. I went down to the car and listened to a local station on the radio, the announcer getting into more and more panicked.... finally giving up. Nobody knew if it was the end of the world. Or what. The bars were serving by candle light as we went up the hill to the Carter girls’ Lexington Avenue flat. I found some Scotch whiskey somewhere. Andy Warhol's place was on the next block.

The lights did not come back on till the next afternoon, and NYC under the full moon that night was quite a sight!!! Tranquil, calm, citizens taking charge of the traffic and all.... They finally announced around midnight, that the trouble had been found, the grid, near Canada, or something, and everything would be better soon..... The city is at it’s best in time of peril. Did not see many cops for some reason. The whole North-East and New England was dark.

The Rupurt Brewery was still in operation, and we drank a lot of beer. We watched a lot of underground movies in the East Village and made a few too.... Jeff Tate and Tanky Ritzman came and went. My brother Chal came home from the Army and stayed mostly. He is still there, but not at 1773 First Avenue. Brother Maury came with all his earthly affairs in his van. But when he saw the number of cockroaches in the flat, running amock among tooth brushes etc.... Would not hang. He left early the next morning, doing a 600 plus mile round trip in a little more thatn 24 hours. New York is not for everybody. But one of his girl friends had given him some high dollar Theater tickets. I got to use them, seeing things like Tosca and Salome with Birget Nielson, and the wonderful play: Marat/Sade. ("the Persecution and Assination of Jean Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Clarenden Assylem under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade".... whew!) I gave a ticke to Beethoven's Fidelio to a friend at work, who slept through it!!!! It was the last season of the old met.

Mark de Mello showed up with his Nikon. He took the above photo. And Broadway was every bodies' Boulevard of Broken Dreams....

rambles

There is a fact that Ronnie keeps pointing out to me, you can not process two sources of information at the same time. The brain cannot multi process. That can be argued with. The simple part of that is: you cannot do two things at the same time...... I can but not very well. You can talk and drive at the same time. But why is is harder to talk on a cell phone and drive at the same time, even if both hands are free????? Does only hearing a conversation over the phone, headphones, whatever, different, and more distracting than talking to someone in the car with you?????

I am listening to TWIT as I start this blog. If you are not familiar with TWIT, you have probably not checked out podcasts, maybe. Since podcasts came into being, and easy (kinda slow for dial-up) to download, I’ve started listening and downloading, more downloading, especially at Ronnie’s fast broadband connection. My iMac G5 is being used a bit like a lap-top. I have not taken it to Starbucks yet, but any day now..... ITunes makes it possible.

Doing the TWIT. BABY. The Week In Tech. An hour plus of discussion of the latest computer/silicone valley gossip with an energetic bunch of young execs who overlap their ideas and comments, and know oh-so-much about what is going on with Google, Yahoo, all the young dudes, the start-ups... and especially what Jobs and Apple are up to or down to!!! Steve Wozniac was on one of them. In fact several. A good one on MacWorld, and the PC annual at Las Vegas. The cast comes in once a week. Leo Laparte is the moderator, if that is the word......

Other pod-casts I subscribe to, and hardly ever watch Anime Network ads, episodes of a viscous, nasty, cartoon with the innocent name: Happy Tree Friends, who do all sorts of viscous, painful things to each other. Another is the Al Franken Show, which put out a lot of podcasts last year, but stopped in the fall. They are fun for a rainy day. The Diane Rehm Show weekly Friday round-up comes in every week...

What I really wanted to write about while it is fresh is the Coretta King funeral, or rather the Memorial Service, with George 1 and 2, and Bill weighing in for tributes. Bill was the best received with Hillary beside with a bittersweet smile. Like a rock star, as ABC said, he was received. And when he silenced the crowd enough to be heard, he drew attention to he lady in the box.... said just the right things in that charming, relaxed, friendly, knowing manner that made him so popular. He never lost an election, we know. That manner of his. That way of explaining things. Makes sense. We have yet to see what Hillary can do, but you bet she is going to try.

George the 1st, was short and sweet and funny. George the 2nd, had down a very impressive tribute, which must have been written for him. He does have that awkward grace, and can get involved with the language and words, tripping over some metaphors and dangling all sorts of participles and ideas, like his Dad. But today it was smooth, and I feel sure, sincere.

*****

Keira Knightley is Elizabeth Bennet in the most recent filming of that ever-green tribute to 19th century matchmaking, "Pride and Prejudice".... The days of well supervised courting, at least in the houses of gentility. You have to go to Defoe to get the picture of the underbelly of that scene. But who will get Mr Darcy? This story about 5 lucious daughters, and a pushy stage mother, trying to direct traffic to advantage in rural England, has been often told, but this one is so lush and seductive, so well cast, it is deserving of any oscar it gets. I saw it at the UA yesterday. My cell was on vibrate, and could monitor the calls that came in without answering. Does it seem that progress is out-running sensibility? Well, that is another Jane Austen great, "Sense and Sensibility".... same problems in another house. But on the screen, while I was checking who was calling, letters and notes were being passed back and forth between several elegant dwellings by pony express.... The lushness and wild-ness of the rural landscape, filmed at maximun times of beauty, clouds, sunsets, sunrises. The huge trees framing shots of the Bennet house. The reflecting pond at dusk before a rain at Lady Caroline's palace. People really lived like that!!! 200 years ago. The kind of film I would cherish when I was a kid and living among the scenes and actors. The more "Hollywood" and "technicolor" the better. Tastes change, but some things remain. Is that what Shelley meant??????

"....the many change, the one remains,
Earth with all its shadows flee,
Life like a dome of many-colored glass,
Stains the white radience of eternity"

not an exact quote.... a remembered sketch. will look it up later...

*****

Things to look up, I heard on TWIT:

valleywag.com

dvorak.org

utube

flower time once more

The time has come again. I saw a single paralena blossom sticking up through the gravel on Zack's driveway. Back in 1994, I worked for Johnny and Maggie Langdon, sort of gardner, lawn keeper, antique restorer, you name it. But being outdoors most of the time on their beautiful acreage, fields sloping down to Mary's Creek in a hide-away in Benbrook, stable with goats and a donkey, many dogs in and out of the house, cats, tropical plants in great urns, paintings by Nancy Lamb and a Dallas folk artist, Bob Wade, and more.... Quite an establishment. But the wild flowers. I got to examine first hand and conceived this plan to learn the names of one of Texas's most abundant resourses, it's wild flowers.

I started in March, when a flower popped up I took a photo, checked in my guide book, found the name and pasted the photo on a 36" x48" piece of card board, with a calender page of that month. All the flowers I saw, and the date I noticed them in bloom. I sort of added some other info. I went to the Hill Country, through San Saba and Llano to Enchanted Rock, mainly to be amoung that red cristaline granit. Pictures from that trip, and the unique flowers blooming down there, made it on the April page. I think I will do the same on my blog this time. With photos. The photo above is of course the familiar Indian Paintbrush which blooms later when the bluebonnets come along.

Maggie took me along on a expedition trip to Austin and vacinity before Christmas that year, with a morning at Lady Bird Johnson's fine Wildlife Center. We took her huge Airdale, Honey Bear. (Who embarassed us by peeing on the Creche outside the Johnson City Babtist. Almost got cought by the pastor!) We also went to Fredrichsburg and through Johnson City, and Marble Falls, admiring the Christmas light displays, examining rocks and furniture, and sculpture by Bob Wade, personal friend of the Langdon's. Yes, Daddy-o came to visit often, and I snapped a picture of him and two friends, writer brothers, as they were putting together his book. Bob liked my photo and used it on the dust jacket. The major work of his, the Langdon's owned, was his "art car", a laundry van painted bright orange and riddled with bullet holes, Bob and friends I am sure enjoyed preferating the vehicle with. And the title of this work of art? Why, "Bonnie and Clyde Mobile". It sat nobly in the pasture, and Bob gave it to them for a wedding present.....

I still have those 13 months of flower calenders. Sorry, but they are not really works of art, just flower diaries.....

The time has come again. I saw a single paralena blossom sticking up through the gravel on Zack's driveway. Back in 1994, I worked for Johnny and Maggie Langdon, sort of gardner, lawn keeper, antique restorer, you name it. But being outdoors most of the time on their beautiful acreage, fields sloping down to Mary's Creek in a hide-away in Benbrook, stable with goats and a donkey, many dogs in and out of the house, cats, tropical plants in great urns, paintings by Nancy Lamb and a Dallas folk artist, Bob Wade, and more.... Quite an establishment. But the wild flowers. I got to examine first hand and conceived this plan to learn the names of one of Texas's most abundant resourses, it's wild flowers.

I started in March, when a flower popped up I took a photo, checked in my guide book, found the name and pasted the photo on a 36" x48" piece of card board, with a calender page of that month. All the flowers I saw, and the date I noticed them in bloom. I sort of added some other info. I went to the Hill Country, through San Saba and Llano to Enchanted Rock, mainly to be amoung that red cristaline granit. Pictures from that trip, and the unique flowers blooming down there, made it on the April page. I think I will do the same on my blog this time. With photos. The photo above is of course the familiar Indian Paintbrush which blooms later when the bluebonnets come along.

Maggie took me along on a expedition trip to Austin and vacinity before Christmas that year, with a morning at Lady Bird Johnson's fine Wildlife Center. We took her huge Airdale, Honey Bear. (Who embarassed us by peeing on the Creche outside the Johnson City Babtist. Almost got cought by the pastor!) We also went to Fredrichsburg and through Johnson City, and Marble Falls, admiring the Christmas light displays, examining rocks and furniture, and sculpture by Bob Wade, personal friend of the Langdon's. Yes, Daddy-o came to visit often, and I snapped a picture of him and two friends, writer brothers, as they were putting together his book. Bob liked my photo and used it on the dust jacket. The major work of his, the Langdon's owned, was his "art car", a laundry van painted bright orange and riddled with bullet holes, Bob and friends I am sure enjoyed preferating the vehicle with. And the title of this work of art? Why, "Bonnie and Clyde Mobile". It sat nobly in the pasture, and Bob gave it to them for a wedding present.....

I still have those 13 months of flower calenders. Sorry, but they are not really works of art, just flower diaries.....

Leonardo

A friend asked me about Leonardo Da Vinci being gay. I wrote this back after some investigation inspired by
"The Da Vinci Code"

Three out of the four Ninja named turtles (remember them) Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo were homosexual. Raphael was quite straight and very randy. The bio I have of Leonardo is by one Serge Bramley. It is endlessly detailed, bringing up every scrap of info about not only Leonardo, but his family, his fellow artists, associates and bosses. This was an age of extreme creativity and genius talent. And so much of it was crammed in the city of Florence, the hotbed of the Renaissance. Homosexuality was wide spread, and not much was made of it, in spite of the preachers and Bible thumpers, and laws against it. The ideas of Socrates (Plato and Aristotle his students) were brought back to light, translated into Italian (English Spanish Etc...) And revered. All these philosophers were gay, as you probably know. Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander the Great, who had some male lovers as well as the hottest babes in Jerusalem. or was it Damascas? I was quite shocked to find all this out about the greats in our civilization.

About Da Vinci, according to Bramley, he was accused, along with three other Florentines of having sexual debauchery with a youth of 17, connected to a famous family. The boy was a known prostitute hustler, and the case was finally thrown out of court for lack of evidence, or too much evidence or something like that. It was thought to bring discredit to the Medici family. Leonardo was 24 and still working in Verrocchio's studio, where he had been apprenticed since 15 or so. It caused some embarrassment, and his well to do father and unwed mother, (he was a bastard at that, also).... we do not know how they took it. I was told in an art history course that he was expelled from the studio, but this was not mentioned by Bramley.....

After he left Florence to go to work as chief military engineer for the Duke of Milan, where he designed implements of mass destruction, and entertaining shows with puppets and exploding pumpkins, out of which danced sugarplum fairies.... for the Duke's parties and celebrations .... well almost....

Later he came back to Florence to paint a mural on a wall in the town hall. Michaelangelo was to paint one on the opposite wall. Neither of them were finished, due to rough times. The two were not friends. Ego's clashed. The paintings of battle scenes fell apart, bad paint, poor care or something, and now known only through drawings they made. And other admiring artists who studied the exciting scenes.

It was in Milan that Leonardo hooked up with a partner, who I believe stayed with him after the French conquest of Milan. Which ended his job there, as Lodovico was overthrown. Then, Francis 1st, king of France, invited the aging Leonardo and his servant/lover to come live and paint in one of the famous chateaus. He brought with him the unfinshed Mona Lisa and the other paintings now in the Louvre in Paris. (Henry the 8th was King of England, and played in Jousting Tournaments with Frances, a fierce but friendly rivalry, and I think Henry bought the Leonardo's that hang in the National Gallery in London, and Windsor Castle to this day. There are so few of them around the world.

Your eMail and the Da Vinci Code book sent me into all this last year. You can find other books, biographies, in the library, the more modern ones do not bother to white wash the "sin that dares not speak its name"..... Even Bramley points out in Leonardo's writings, warnings against over doing it sexually, and thinks he was maybe impotent, but liked to hang with pretty boys, for aesthetic reasons. He drew a lot of old men too, and loved to contrast on the same page a handsome youth and a grizzled old fart, warts and all..... And he hid his own handsome face with a long beard.....

Today I sailed off to Dallas early, after walking the hills in the cold with Alice and the dogs. Had to go by Salvation Army to try to get the package of teeth and CD to Ross. They did not take them, but let me leave him a note. Then on to Dallas for the Opera. Handel's seldom performed "Rodalinda". When I got to Fair Park and found my favorite parking spot on Expsition, I noticed not many people about, except this artist looking fellow with a big digital camera taking close-ups of a fine looking foreign car, of a make I did not recognize.... I look at my ticket. It is for January 29th... last Sunday. Shit. It is the second opera I missed this year for just pure dumbness!!!!! And mis-management.

And now must get my seat for next season, before I loose it. Hope I can remember when the operas are next year!!!!

Called Sixto, and got up with him early. We headed downtown to the Library. A great show of very retro art was on view, black artists dowing black-themed art... One fellow was doing Picasso influenced cubist imagery. Looked real good!

After getting the forms for Six's incometax, the 1040EZ, and finding that his withholding covers things real well, and he will get more than a grand back!!!

We head for the movies, find that we both want to see "Walk the Line". And sure enough, the critics had it pegged pretty good. Reece was a great June Carter and Phoenix did a nicely nuanced Johnny Cash.... They managed to sound like the stars, singing. The film was not as tightly edited as it should have been, but it covered lot of emotional territory, and brought in a lot of characters. Many of the rock and roll originals were presented. Notable was Jerry Lee Lewis....

We ate at Jack in the Box. My turn to pay, and I only had plastic by that time!!!! We talked about Mexico. Taking two months for a mid winter spree....

Errors

I am so screwed up. This post for yesterday got in three times because of stupid miscalculations. Karl got his shit together and we went to the Stock Show, even trying to get Ross's teeth and CD to him at Salvation Army and the Jazz club on Montgomery, which we could not find. But in the bright lights and wild rides of the midway, we strolled. Karl had a hotdog. I desisted. And all the things he wanted to see like big cows, we missed. He wanted to leave after a tour of the rides and fun houses. Nobody rode. On the way out I insisted on going into the exhibit hall to gaze and admire the big ranch equipment, especially the fancy tractors and four wheelers..
a lot of other fancy things. Beautiful boots, gear of all kinds.... bright gigaws gadgets of all kinds..... I could have spent hours... but humoring Karl like a good boy... so much for our trip to the Stock Show.....

Prestoni'sPlace

Prestoni'sPlace

This afternoon, Saturday, the hazy sun and all. Listening to the Met's performance, Cyrano de Bergerac, by Franco Alfano. Radvanovsky as Roxane, Antonio Barasorda, Cyrano. First hearing. Sounds sort of like movie music, but Radvanovsky soars. Heard her in Pique Dame in Dallas a few years back.... First performed in '36, not done in the US, at the Met last season. Attention divided. Went to get a burger for Debbie, who is home bound and hurting!!!

Karl wants to go to the stock show. He wants to see big cows for some reason. I want to go to the Rodeo, but we do not have the money. But this morning, he too was hurting sick and put it off. Now we go, he says. Must take Ross's teeth. He is playing at a jazz club on Montgomery tonight. Cut a disc for the man also. Times rough for Mr Talent. Salvation Army, 6 bucks a night. Better than the whore motel I left him at the other day!!!! Maybe he will make it this time.

Prestoni'sPlace

Prestoni'sPlace

This afternoon, Saturday, the hazy sun and all. Listening to the Met's performance, Cyrano de Bergerac, by Franco Alfano. Radvanovsky as Roxane, Antonio Barasorda, Cyrano. First hearing. Sounds sort of like movie music, but Radvanovsky soars. Heard her in Pique Dame in Dallas a few years back.... First performed in '36, not done in the US, at the Met last season. Attention divided. Went to get a burger for Debbie, who is home bound and hurting!!!

Karl wants to go to the stock show. He wants to see big cows for some reason. I want to go to the Rodeo, but we do not have the money. But this morning, he too was hurting sick and put it off. Now we go, he says. Must take Ross's teeth. He is playing at a jazz club on Montgomery tonight. Cut a disc for the man also. Times rough for Mr Talent. Salvation Army, 6 bucks a night. Better than the whore motel I left him at the other day!!!! Maybe he will make it this time.

Prestoni'sPlace

Prestoni'sPlace

This afternoon, Saturday, the hazy sun and all. Listening to the Met's performance, Cyrano de Bergerac, by Franco Alfano. Radvanovsky as Roxane, Antonio Barasorda, Cyrano. First hearing. Sounds sort of like movie music, but Radvanovsky soars. Heard her in Pique Dame in Dallas a few years back.... First performed in '36, not done in the US, at the Met last season. Attention divided. Went to get a burger for Debbie, who is home bound and hurting!!!

Karl wants to go to the stock show. He wants to see big cows for some reason. I want to go to the Rodeo, but we do not have the money. But this morning, he too was hurting sick and put it off. Now we go, he says. Must take Ross's teeth. He is playing at a jazz club on Montgomery tonight. Cut a disc for the man also. Times rough for Mr Talent. Salvation Army, 6 bucks a night. Better than the whore motel I left him at the other day!!!! Maybe he will make it this time.

Day after Ground Hog Day 2006

There was rain today, and I did not work. Read some blogs and decided to do one..... Maybe no one will read it. I do not have much to say these days, except some vague and disperate rambles, maybe but I have written a lot, and if I do not keep on, my thoughts may stop coming, and I will achieve brain death before my time. People do live longer these days, if they take care of themselves, or if they are just lucky! Both probably applies to me.

This is the day after Ground Hog Day 2006, and I am haunted to remember the Bill Murray movie, waking up over and over in that little Pennsylvania town, until he got the message: the message of love....