Archives for March 2022

Tuesday May 29, 2022

When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock it was a transformative moment for the Oscars, or maybe it was just a verification of what we already knew.

Gone are the days of savoir-faire, of the suave and debonair, of the gorgeous and sophisticated. Now we are treated to the rude and the vulgar, of the coarse and the side boob. No more elegance, instead it’s the gross, the uncouth, the nasty. 

The false macho of Smith and the rudeness of Rock are just the slippery slope we have been on for a long time. Ah me. 

I am reminded of Johnny Carson talking about making jokes about the size of Dolly Parton’s breasts. He said he would do that but never Phyllis Diller, who reportedly had similar sized mammares and had several breast reductions. Why? Because Diller was self conscious about them, while Parton was not. Had Rock been more sensitive to the possible situation beforehand, that Jada Pinkett was self conscious about her alopecia, then maybe he would have refrained. I think the worst Oscars show was Seth McFarland’s Broadway style song about seeing various actresses breasts in movie scenes.

It wasn’t really funny, or clever. It was awkward and inappropriate. The after comments were, “Well, what did you expect?”

Transgressing the line or lines seems to be a way to get noticed.

How unfortunate.

And now a post that never made it to the website:

Day 428 – Realizations and Such

Sunday, March 20, 2022

I’ve been interested in going back to Angkor Wat. Cambodia had shut its borders due to Covid. Most tour groups cancelled their plans for the year. I learned that the country reopened on March 17th. Having done the standard tour of the area I thought going on my own might be a better option. The problem is flights. They run from 36 to 54 hours. Prices are all over the place. Eh, maybe not.

Another thing – Ukraine, no fly zone. The problem was finally made clear to me. The problem with a no fly zone is it’s an act of war. Lawrence O’Donnell did a very good job of explaining this. The question shouldn’t be “do we initiate a no-fly zone?” but rather “Are we prepared to have American pilots shoot down Russian pilots?” If so under what legit reason? To do so would require an act of war. Has anyone asked their Senator or Congressman to introduce an article of war against Russia? And if we start shooting down Russian pilots and or attacking missile launching sites in Russia would they believe they are they allowed to shot at targets in Europe? Or in the U.S.?

Hum. Problem.

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I think we have to consider as General McMaster said, “What will we do when Putin has killed a million people?”

The danger of having had Donald Trump in office are glaringly apparent to me. Had Hillary been President I am sure she would have realized the severity of the situation and done a lot more to arm Ukraine ahead of time. Hell, I had been saying that all along. Maybe, I should be President?

Yeah! … No.

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Two tidbits then a connection:

TB1 – I heard a retired U.S. general saying that he thought Russia had about ten days worth of ammo left. That was yesterday so we are looking at March 24th when they run out of missiles and sh*t. (If he is correct.) Also, he pointe out that if Putin has to go back to the country to get more conscripts people are going to start to wonder what is going on.

    This makes it clear why he is trying to get mercenaries from Syria and weapons from China.

TB2 – A buddy of mine told me about a show on Apple TV entitled, “1971 The Year Music Changed Everything.” 

That was the year of the Kent State shooting, mass protests against Vietnam, Nixon talking about the Silent Majority and his thinking that the young people were a bunch of dirty hippies or Commies, etc.

What a strange parallel, imagine your a 19 year old in Russia and you’re being conscripted to fight in Ukraine?

Sunday,March 13, 2022

My wife went to Virginia Tech. I am therefore a Hokie by marriage. The mascot, the Hokie bird, came into being because they needed a rhyming word and Hokie fit the bill.

Every year with the football team there is a cycle with VT fans. It starts after the season is over with discussions that start with, “Did you hear who we’re going to get?” Then there is discussion of player ratings, etc. This builds throughout the off season as the question is asked, “Do you think this is the year?”

Then the season starts and something happens – ie they lose a game they should have won. All hope is lost.

However, if you haven’t witnessed it make a point to try and catch it. Just before the Football team comes out to begin a home game the loud speakers begin to play Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” This is not “Rocky Top” or any of that garbage. From the opening chord the place explodes in noise. It is the loudest I have ever heard at a sports event. VT fans don’t screw around.

After the football season ends there is basketball. Tech has never been a powerhouse basketball school. They’ve done okay, but not great. A decade or so ago they joined the ACC, The Atlantic Coast Conference. The preeminent basketball conference in the nation. Some may question that assertion, but that’s just wishful thinking on their part.

The ACC boasts such perennial national champions as Duke, UNC, Virginia, Syracuse, Louisville, Georgia Tech and NC State. Virginia Tech joined the ACC in 2004. That makes them relative newcomers. They have done okay, but they’ve never made it to the finals of the tournament. Winning the tournament means you get an automatic entry into the NCAA National Tournament, ie “March Madness.”

This year in the first round Virginia Tech was down to Clemson with 7 seconds to go. Clemson had just scored a two point basket in a tie game in overtime to go ahead. Things did not look good for the Hokies. They inbounded the ball to freshman Darius Maddox. He dribbled up the court to the left side of the court, passed the ball to his other hand with a behind the back pass, made a jump shot with .7 seconds on the clock. The shot went in for three points and Tech won at the buzzer by a point.

In the next round they beat Notre Dame 87-80. In the third round powerhouse UNC fell 72-59.

Then came the final against Duke. This was coach K’s last ACC game. He had 15 championships. He had a guy, Banchero, 6’ 10” 250 pounds. The guy had moves and strength. He could muscle through you. He could spin. He could dunk. He was unstoppable. 

Then there was Mark Williams. At seven feet, 242 pounds, he could stand with feet planted, raise his arm, and block shots.

Tech had three guards that looked like they had just gotten out of middle school: Storm Murphy, Hunter Cattoor, Sean Padulla. They ranged in height from 6’ to 6’ 3” and looked like kids compared to the men on Duke’s team.

They also had two forwards: Mutts and Aluma at 6’ 7” and 6’ 9” but they gave up 20 or 30 pounds to the Duke big men, and looked skinny in comparison.

Not an auspicious set up heading into the ACC Final Game, a place VT had never been, and Duke, under Coach K had been there many many times.

At the tip off Duke went down and scored an easy unstoppable layup. It looked bad.

Tech came back  Cattoor put in a 3 pointer.

Duke did something.

Cattoor put in a 3 pointer.

Duke did something.

Cattoor put in a 3 pointer.

Duke did something.

Cattoor put in a 3 pointer.

Duke did something.

Cattoor put in a 3 pointer.

Duke did something.

Cattoor put in a 3 pointer.

Yeah. Cattoor had the game of his life, in the biggest game of his life. Six three pointers without a miss to open the game. He also did a 2 point layup.

One wag before the game gave his analysis which was for Virginia Tech to win this game they needed to score more points than Duke. His hashtag: “analysis.”  Brilliant.

I think he then changed his strategic outlook to “Cattoor should continue his 100% shooting of 3 pointers.” Double Brilliant.

As the game progressed Tech got out to ten point leads and more. At one point Duke started to close the gap, only to see Tech widen it again.

Typically, Tech goes dead in the second half for a certain period of time. Also, Duke is known to close big gaps in the 3rd quarter. Neither happened this time. 

I don’t think after the first quarter Duke ever got the lead.

In the 4th quarter Duke tried to trap the man with the ball, to no avail. Tech broke the press on almost every occasion. With five minutes to go we were hanging on wondering if Duke was going to roar back. They didn’t. Their big men weren’t much of a factor. When you are under the basket waiting for the ball and your team can’t get it to you – well, too bad.

Likewise, if you are on defense waiting to rebound or block the lane and the other team is shooting lights out 3 pointers. There’s not much you can do.

The Hokies won the tournament and in the end it wasn’t even close.

Now, onto Ukraine. 

When Michael Jordan was in his second or third year in the NBA he told his trainer that he was tired of taking the pain. He wanted to deal the pain. And so he went on an off year training routine to be able to do that.

In Ukraine, all the talk is “what if we piss off Putin?”

I agree with a friend of mine who wrote that instead of worrying about what Putin thinks; it is time for him to worry about what we will do.

I now understand some of the reluctance to send more MiGs to Ukraine. MiGs are considered offensive weapons and they could fly from Ukraine to Moscow.

Frankly, I think Mr. Putin ought to worry about that possibility.

Meanwhile, some of these big super yachts are scrambling. One turned off its tracking device. Others have tried to go to safe harbors. Hum. I think the seized yachts should be outfitted with weapons and sailed into The Black Sea to “observe” Russian naval ships. Or perhaps, loaded with explosives and sailed on auto pilot toward the Russian ships.

I read today that the first western news correspondent was killed.

I also dream about a pilot taking a fighter plane and attacking one of the Russian convoys. When asked, the pilot should say, “Sorry, my bad.”

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

I watched a display of our government officials BSing. Pulling it out of their rear ends, saying whatever they knew from old scripts. It was an amazing display of not knowing, and making it up as they went along.

There were shots of the CIA Director, The head of DNIA, and some army general saying old scripts.

The general was asked if Kyiv was cut off how long before they ran out of food and water. The general looked up in the air and said basically, “I don’t know. Maybe, ten days or two weeks.”

When you roll your eyes up in the air you are searching for an answer. You don’t really know. None of them seemed to know much.

Then a reporter was asked what the thinking was about giving Ukraine the MiG jets that Poland has. The latest idea was that Poland would fly them to Germany, turn them over to U.S. forces who would get them to Ukraine somehow. The reporter said the U.S. had turned that idea down and there was a long explanation as to why that would be difficult. Who would fly the jets? What if one got shot down and a U.S. Pilot was in the jet? etc. etc. etc.

Then they went to Colonel Vindman. Here’s a guy who knows what he is talking about. According to the expert panel that knew nothing they had said the Russian military had 95% of their capacity still. Vindman said no way. He then went on to go through numbers and reports and death counts. It’s much worse than that for the Russians. He repeated what Ukraine needs from the U.S. and the west. The reluctance of the west seems to be based on they don’t want to give Putin an excuse to do whatever. Hey, got news for you experts. Putin is like Covid. He doesn’t care what you think.

After Vindman, they went to another woman who seemed to know what she was talking about. She pushed back hard on the report about the MiG jet deployment. One of the arguments about sending the jets to Ukraine was that the air space is contested and they couldn’t be assured of their getting there. Not true, she said. The air space where they would go is controlled by Ukraine. It’s a twenty minute flight and is easy to do. The reason it is not being done is simple. “The U.S. doesn’t want to do it.”

Earlier in the day I was reminded of how this mess was created. The biggest factor seemed to be that Putin thought he could get away with it and that it would be quick and easy. Why did he think that? He got away with it in Crimea, in Georgia, and in other small Balkan territories. He had met with Donald Trump multiple times and Trump was parroting Russian disinformation talking points. So was Tucker Carlson and the rest of the Fox crew. So why wouldn’t he think that? Remember, Trump tried to extort the president of Ukraine by holding up military supplies. Imagine if we had a real President at the time? You know, like Hillary Clinton, who from the beginning of her campaign said she would stand up to Putin?

I daresay we would not be in this mess.

Now for a change of pace. And some good news.

I have been buying CDs from British singers. It started with a Facebook ad by a couple touting British rock and roll called When Rivers Meet. Their CD is named “We Fly Free.” It’s good and definitely British rock and roll. Not sure what makes it British, but I can tell it is. I think it’s the chord groupings.

Then I saw a couple of Facebook videos of a woman named Allie Sherlock singing on the streets of England. I thought she was very good and I bought her two CDs. It turns out she’s only 16. The first CD “Allie Sherlock” is very screechy and not like what I heard in the Facebook videos. I think she must have done it when she was younger because the next CD, “A Part of Me” has a much better tone. 

Then I saw a video of two women called The MonaLisa Twins. They were playing at The Cavern Club in Liverpool. The video is great. They were singing, “You Can’t Do That.”

It’s an early Beatles song and one I grew up on. To be singing it in the Cavern Club where the Beatles played was really cool. The video features three or four different camera shots including one camera mounted on the head of one of the ladies’ guitar. You get a shot of the band looking down the neck of the guitar. Very cool.

I got their double CD the other day, “Live at the Cavern Club.” It’s great. They are playing the songs I grew up on. Besides playing early Beatles: “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “She Loves You,” they are doing early Stones “Paint It Black” and classics from that time period: “For What It’s Worth,” “Sunshine Superman,” “I’m A Believer,” and “My Generation.” 

How refreshing to hear music where you can actually hear and understand the words, where the music has a discernible beat, and chord progressions. I am so sick and tired of this fast talking mumbling incoherent stuff that is out today. But then again the Super Bowl Half Time Show was hip hop stuff from 25 and 30 years ago, which wasn’t that good when it was out then. I guess music has gone in the direction of painting from realism of the Renaissance to the extended gestures and garish colors of the Mannerists to the dreamy landscapes of the 1700 and 1800s then to the Impressionists and then to the modern and post modern abstractionists to the “What the hell is that?” of today.

Mona and Lisa Wagner front the band where their dad plays bass and keyboards. What a pleasure to hear something up beat and fresh that you can listen to and not get a headache.

I buy CDs to support the artists and I like to read the liner notes.

Monday, March 7, 2022

Help me to understand because I don’t get it. Not that I have to, but why?

That is what links the two things mentioned in the title of this piece – why?

I watched Charlie XCX on SNL and I kept wondering – why?

Why does, what appears to me, to be a 30 something so-so looking woman of probably Italian descent from I’m guessing New Jersey or Queens or Long Island dress up in thigh high white rhinestone platform heels wearing 6 to 8 inch bejeweled nail covers with a white lingerie panty and a top that looks like she ripped down a long curtain from one side of an Empire window? And that’s just the beginning of the bizarreness. She has two guys dressed in white body suits dancing around behind her. Kind of a Janet Jackson rhythm nation style move together punctuated with a few Megan thee Stallion type side hip thrusts. Why?

Where did this all start? I can think back to some of Sia’s weird performances where she’s singing with that huge haystack like wig covering the top half of her face and a few dancers moving bizarrely around like they were trying out for the Woody Allen movie where he pretended they were sperm. Or the series of black women singers on SNL with two black women dancers gyrating around behind them. When did this become a thing? And why? 

The music and the singing were nothing much, except when old Charlie held a note at the end of a line, which she did in each of her two performances that night. The second performance she wore black instead of white and had nail covers on, only an inch and a half. The getup was a cross between a bikini and a sexy criss cross strappy cover up with a black kind of kilt bag with fringe on the bottom centered over her crotch that covered up her pubic parts when she did her wide horse stance pelvic thrusts.

Again I ask, why?

Then we get to Ukraine and why?

What’s the point?

Putin is remembering the glory of the Russian Empire or the USSR. He seems to have forgotten the history of how the Ukrainians hated the oppression by Stalin and then the Nazis and then the USSR. That seems to have slipped his mind. Many suspect his mind is slipping.