Archives for August 2025

If you haven’t Noannas, the movie, now available on Netflix, please do. What follows here gives away some of the key points of the Movie, read on at your own peril. This essay could have been called, “The Wisdom and Lessons Learned from Noannas”. 

First off, some of the great Italian actors and actresses of the last half-century are in this movie. The wife of one of the Sopranos (Drea de Matteo). She’s was the one who snitched on the family and the mob killed her. Rocky’s girlfriend (“Hey Adrian!”, Talia Shire. She plays a nun in Noannas.) The psychiatrist in the sopranos (Lorraine Bracco is one of the noannas. And I have a bone to pick – in the movie she’s in an old folks home, in a wheel chair and she tells Vince Vaugh she can’t cook for him because she’s too old. She say she’s 73. And here’s my bone to pick – I was 74 when I hear her utter those words. I’m 75 now. My thought? “Get the heck out of that chair! 73 isn’t old. Come on.) And lastly Susan Sarandon. She’s the pastry chef and the bombshell. If you don’t recognize their names you will the faces.

The movie is based on real life. It’s about a man who wants to honor his mother by opening an Italian restaurant in Staten Island and have Italian grandmother cook. His Best friend, a construction foreman, says you don’t know the first thing about opening a restaurant. to which he replies, “What’s there to know? You have menus, you have grandmas cook good food.” It’s super simple idea. But, as the movie illustrates: he had to learn a lot of things along the way. For instance, how do you deal with a crooked building inspector? How do you pay your bills? What is an ansul system? (Fire suppression, I just looked it up.)

It reminds me a lot of the movie The Founder which is about how Ray Kroc created McDonald’s as a nationwide chain. He ran into similar problems as Vince Vaughn did in Noannas and got bailed out at the last minute when someone appeard with the answer.

But there’s something else in the movie. Something more than overcoming hurtles to bring a project to fruition. The movie reveals simple truths about life. The most poignant was when the shy noanna, who had been a nun, (played by Rockie’s girlfriend) revealed she had left the Nunnery because she was in love with a woman. 

She asked the question of her fellow noannas:  how can you be who you are knowing it’s a sin? 

That brings up one of those questions that has plagued societies throughout history. Somehow, a civilization develops based on shared norms. However, not all these norms are shared by everyone. And what happens to those who don’t share those values? And what happens if the person believes, or is, intrinsically that the society is opposed to? What happens to them? How does the society act or react to those people?

This movie also makes me think about The Great Gatsby. When I first read that book I was in seventh grade. I wanted to skip the boring stuff get to the action. For Instance I asked myself – Why the big scene in the apartment in New York? I didn’t understand. It was boring. It got in the way of what was happening. I didn’t realize that the action was only a magnification of those problems. “The rich are different than us.” is as true today as then.

Saturday, August 16, 2025

Sixty years ago yesterday The Beatles played Shea Stadium. And so began the transformation of musical performance. No one was ready for it. The Beatles and everyone who was there said they couldn’t hear the music over the screaming. Now, I’ve learned they plugged their 100 watt amplifiers into the PA system. That was it. I heard Bruce at RFK Stadium 30-40 years ago and I marveled at the huge sound poles he had placed on the field. Now? Metallica brings 50-70 trucks and takes up the sod to erect sound and video poles, and a stage.

The Beatles walked out from the 3rd base dugout to a riser on second base.

A few years after the Beatles played Shea I heard the Doors play on a baseball diamond with a snow fence strung from first to third base. They were on a riser at Home Plate and we sat in the outfield bleachers. Same place I heard Blind Faith. I heard Led Zeppelin play at the Wolman Ice Skating Rink in New York City.

They either weren’t very good or we didn’t understand. It was one of their first shows. 

I heard Janis perform at the Yale New Haven Bowl. She was in the End Zone facing the bleachers at that end of the stadium. I heard her again at the Baltimore Civic Center (now The Mariner Center). It’s basically a larger high school multi-use cafeteria with a stage. Except, the center part is a hockey rink. I heard her a third and last time at Cole Field House at the University of Maryland, performing on a riser.

When I went out west to look at colleges in ’68 I heard Steppenwolf play at The Avalon Ballroom. Now only remembered in the beginning of their Cheap Thrills album. You walked up to the second floor on a wide switch back staircase. Most people were sitting on the floor zoned out. There was a light show, which projected from the balcony onto the stage. It was a series of overhead projectors and people were using two sheets of transparent plastic material that they had squirted food coloring in between and were lifting and depressing the top sheet.

Felix Cavalierie of The Young Rascals was in the third base dugout that night at Shea. When I was in high school everyone was playing the Rascals music. Also, The Stones. Satisfaction was huge. I went to a dance (remember them? Sometimes it was a sock hop in the gym; sometimes a band on a cafeteria room stage). The band on the stage played Satisfaction. At the end of the song the crowd was stamping out the beat. The band wasn’t quite sure what to do. They looked at each other with that What do we do now? look. The bass player just began the bass line and the band played the whole song again. We went crazy at the end clapping and cheering.

This was before drugs had taken the grip they developed later. Yes, there were people who zoned out, and dropped out, but it wasn’t considered a huge thing. Free Love. Peace, and pot. It was tame compared to the stuff that can destroy you today.

I heard Eric Burdon and the Animals at The Philmore West. A huge flat hard floored room. Eric had a big tube billowing out smoke. The next time I was in that space was two years ago for a Van Gogh light show, and it was only in part of it.

I spent a lot of time going to New York to the Philmore East. a multi-tiered theater. I heard Sam & Dave, Ten Years After (for ten years after Elvis), The Super Sessions with Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, Arthur Brown (Fire!I), many more that I can’t remember at the moment (but I will!)

Music has changed. Or rather noise has changed. Rap? Eh. Taylor? Interesting because of her huge appeal. Some of her songs have stickiness in that they stay in your head, but range? Not so much. It’s okay. Same with Sabrina Carpenter. I prefer the powerhouse singers: Adele, Whitney, Christina. Beyonce tries, and her showmanship is great, but when it comes to the big note? No, she dodges it. 

I miss being able to go to a record store and thumb through the bins, flipping albums. Picking one up and looking on the back for the songs and maybe a bit more. Now? I’m not even sure where to find an album. I mean if it’s announced that someone has “dropped” an album I ask, “where? On the floor?”

If they are really really huge you might find a cd at Target or vinyl at Barnes and Noble. Yeah. It’s different today and I hear kids think the old man is out of it. They can’t dance. They don’t even know how to pay attention (“What?” is the typical response.) 

The beauty and the chaos of a James Brown show, or the Stones, is not around. Well, yes there’s Tay-Tay, and Olivia and you can go to hear thousand of screaming women screaming the lyrics. That’s a different dynamic than what I experienced.

When I heard The Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden in the fall of 1969 Mic was walking to one end of the stage and the first notes of Satisfaction rang out he leapt in the air and turned 180 degrees before landing to run back to the mic and sing the opening words, “I can’t get no…satisfaction.”

Or watching Alvin Lee of Ten Years After strumming his guitar, Big Red, while lazily having a cigarette in his mouth. How was he going to put that cigarette up and make it to the mic in time to sing? I wondered. The answer came soon enough. Two big strides and he screamed out the opening line. The cigarette shot from his mouth to a corner of the stage. Yeah. Those were different times.

Friday, August 15, 2025

Trump has done an amazing job. Amazing how fast he has taken an economy that was the envy of the world and sunk it. It’s not sunk yet. We’ve just heard the tear as the ship has hit the iceberg and some are asking, “What was that?”

That was the economy starting to stutter and shudder as it begins its grind to a halt.

What we will experience is higher prices, lower wages, fewer jobs and a general economic malaise, clled “stagflation.”

Last time this happened two Republican presidents tried to reverse the effects and failed (Nixon and Ford.) It took a Democrat (Carter) to end it. It cost him a second term. Then Reagan came in increased the debt, destroyed unions and it has been downhill for the middle class ever since. And the poor? Forget about it.

We are now at the point where Republicans are not even hiding their contempt for – well – just about everyone. They continue their policies of cheating and pushing outrageous lies. It’s hard to understand how people who went to some of the most prestigious universities have become so stupid. It’s hard to believe they believe what they are saying. Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. It doesn’t really matter. The fundamental problem is that their theories, if you can call them that, are nonsense. As are their solutions. I can’t think of a single thing this administration has done to help people. The problems they whined about in the campaign aren’t being talked about. Other that to perhaps quote on exstent data and to say everything is fine.

Imagine the ship is sinking and someone come to the captain and says, “the ship is listing to port.” And the captain replies, “Close the ports.” Thus demonstrating no understanding of nautical terrminology. That’s where we are with the economy.

People are running from side to side on the decks below and the captain gets on the public address syste and announces everything is fine, just a little rough water.

At some point, reality delivers the truth. And the truth is this President has done his utmost to ruin this economy, our government, and the health of our nation. 

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

I read a statement that said Trump had made over 4,700 wire transfers to Jeffery Epstein worth $1.1B.

Turns out it’s attributed to Senator Ron Wyden, and that Wyden wanted access to more government files.

Someone in the Trump administration said that it was interesting that this comes out now, but Wyden never asked to see anything when Biden was President.

There was also a Leon Black who paid Epstein $170M for tax advice. Black is a billionaire so yeah he could have paid Epstein for tax advice, but that’s a lot of money for that sort of thing and he could have gone to the best accountants in the world for cheaper. It seems fishy.

NONE OF WHAT IS ABOVE IS THE WHOLE TRUTH!!!

Let me start with Leon Black. Along with looking him up I got lists of the top black billionaires. After ten seconds of consideration I came to the startling conclusion that AI or Google or some computer linked the name “Black” to black people. Part of my careful analysis was due to looking at a picture of Leon Black and thinking, “He doesn’t look black to me.” Turns out he’s Jewish. And there are black Jews (Sammy David Jr.), but Leon Black looked more like Leon Panetta than Sammy Davis Jr.

So, Black is white. Also Jewish and ancestors from Poland.

How about the $170 million? Yeah. That’s a big question.

Turns out old Jeffy used Russian banks to deposit money and move it around. Especially, in regard to importing young women and girls from Eastern Russian and its former satellites. People like Melania. Hum.

I had never heard of Epstein being a tax whiz. So the question of why Black was paying him is still hanging out there.

Now why didn’t Wyden ask the Biden admin? Well, he kinda did. What do I mean by that. Wyden had been looking into Epstein and wire transfers for three years. He did say that there were 4,715 wire transfers totaling $1.1B. These are in the form of SARs, which are Suspicious Activity Reports, that banks file. During the Biden administration, the Treasury Department allowed Wyden’s investigators to look at the reports but they could only write hand written notes. So the claim that they did’t ask ain’t exactly true, and if you got to do it all by hand it’s going to take some time. (Sounds like the ATF gun reporting.)

Now, possibly mixed in those 4,715 SARs maybe some that Trump made. But Wyden never said they were all Trump’s.

There are four Russian banks involved in many of these transfers and those banks are now sanctioned.

Lots of drudgery and icky stuff to go through.

However, several questions are raised in my mind:

Why didn’t more of this come out during the campaign?

Was Trump involved in helping Epstein? I mean Trump had a Miss Universe pageant in Russia where he admitted to walking into the girls’ dressing rooms. And Melania was brought over by Epstein (I think that’s been verified, if not it should be.) How many of those transfers were Trump’s and if so what were they for?

(Trafficking?, Services Rendered? ie sex, Blackmail?)

And speaking of why didn’t more of this come out during the campaign. I saw an interview Barbra Walters did with a younger Donald Trump. Back when he was playing at being a real estate mogul in New York. I say playing because he was losing close to a billion dollars a year. In the interview Trump was going on about what a great deal maker he was. Barbra cut him off, “You’re broke.” Trump countered with “if you check with my bankers.” Barbra replied, “I have. You’re broke.”

Why did the Epstein stuff and the Walters’ interview not been played over and over again during the campaign? Damn it.

Here’s Barbra:

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Yes, it’s my birthday. I’ve been working on trying to get my back to stop hurting and I’m happy to report that I’ve figured something out that seems to work. Maybe, I should post to Facebook and call it a “life hack”?

Before I get to the main topic let me note that Trump’s tariffs and his Big Ugly Bill put a huge burden on the middle class and especially the poor. I can write more about that at another time. I have to wonder do the people around Trump understand this and are they just covering so they keep their jobs?

Which is worse knowing and lying? Or believing and telling lyes?

The first is evil, the second is gross naïveté.

Moving on to archaeology. Joe Rogan has been speculating about one ancient site – Göbekli Tepi. What he did and seems to do on most of his shows is to sit there and wonder, then arrive at some pull-it-out-of-your-rectum conclusion. Oftentimes aided by a guest who claims some knowledge of the subject. Or in the case of Tucker Carlson it’s more like Beavis and Butthead.

Göbekli Tepi is a site in Turkey, discovered by a German archaeologist in the 1990s. It’s a sunken round area with benches carved out around the perimeter and interspersed with rectangular T shaped pillars. In the center are two larger T-shaped pillars. Many of the pillars have depictions of animals, either in very flat bas-relief or in well shaped 3D. There are also elongated arms with hands that seem to wrap around part of the blocks. The site is 12,000 years old and has upended all that we know about the start of civilization.

So what does Rogan do? Besides sit on his rear and wonder? He brings in Graham Hancock. Who is Hancock? He’s a guy whose schtick is basically, “We don’t know how they moved these stones. They must have had help.” The help is either from a more advanced Lost Civilization or Aliens. Cute stuff, but dangerous. Better for a Saturday morning kids’ cartoon show than adults discussing things. Rogan brought in another person with other wilder ideas who claimed there were more hidden pillars and the archaeologists were dragging their feet to uncover them.

Here’s the thing. It’s been shown quite convincingly how the blocks for the pyramids were moved. How the stones of the Inca were so perfectly cut. How the statues of Rapa Nui “walked” to their locations. All these were claimed at one time to have been the work of gods, aliens, or lost civilizations. And yet, these wild claims persist. Why? Well, it’s more interesting than grubbing in the dirt for twenty years, and more spectacular. But it adds to the shitification of the subject. Now with AI, we can generate hundreds and thousands of BS similar things. We’ll get buried in it.

Göbekli Tepe is a site with a lot of questions and things we don’t know. There are a few things that can be ruled out. For instance: “Was it an ancient observatory?” Uh. No. Why? It appears that the circular structure had a roof with a hole in the center for smoke. So you wouldn’t be able to see stars. (Because there’s a roof in the way! OMG, do I have to spell it out? No? Okay, sorry.)

Why haven’t they dug more, faster? Answer: Once you dig through a layer it is gone for good. You want to take your time and tease out as much as possible. Also, the current archaeologist at the site said that he thought it important to leave some for others – possibly of another generation. Ken Weeks thought the same when digging KV5 in The Valley of the Kings. (That and digging out chamber after chamber could become boring.)

And lastly, a little tidbit from my source of all truth – Facebook.

There’s a picture of a kangaroo. Beside it is some speculation on his where it came from.

“You mean to tell me that after he got off Noah’s Arc he hopped all the way to Australia, and never left a sign of the journey?” Obviously, the kangaroo got teleported by aliens to Australia