(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Hi, everybody!
Oops! Again…sorry about being late…by a day, yet! I’ve been very preoccupied lately; my mind’s been absolutely racing, if one gets the drift. Lots of stuff on my mind; busy adjusting scheduled appointments gone wrong, missing my normal life of silversmithing work, TKD, bicycling, and whatever. Oh well, at least I’ve had the use of my legs, so that I’ve been able to take long walks for exercise afew times a week.
My Labor Day weekend was uneventful, except for going to see a screening of the mid=1970’s film, “Jaws”, which played to a packed house! I kid you not….they sold out, so it’s a good thing that I’d purchased a ticket for myself in advance of this movie screening. I have to admit that this is another movie, which, while it certainly doesn’t hold the special place in my heart regarding movies as West Side Story, that it, too, is an enjoyable film, although the fakery in it (such as the mannequin’s leg when they found the young girl’s leg underwater later after she’d been avulsed by the Great White Shark, plus the construction of the shark itself for the movie) was quite obvious. Richard Dreyfuss was quite good as the Marine Biologist, Roy Schneider was equally good as the Amity Chief of Police, and Robert Shaw was certainly cool as the rough, drunken seaman, Quint, who volunteered to go out in his vessel and catch the Great White Shark that had been terrorizing Amity’s beaches, attacking and killing people, to the tune of ten grand. There was much clapping, laughter and (some ribald) comments and joking from the audience, but it was a fun evening.
I wanted an aisle seat, but couldn’t get anything except on the left side of the theatre, in one of the front rows, so I had to be content with what I could get, if I wanted an aisle seat. I ended up sharing a row with three men from Boston’s Charlestown section, who seemed okay, and I had a pleasant enough conversation with one of them. So, I came to realize that maybe, just maybe, there were plenty of C-Town’s oldtimers who were decent human beings and not all racist yahoos, bank robbers or other criminals. We exchanged pleasantries prior to the movie, and, the guy I’d been conversing with asked me if I wanted anything before he went out to the concession stand. I smiled, thanked him, and declined the offer, since I’d already eaten before the movie. After the movie, another one of the guys said, pleasantly enough to me; “have a good night” Again, I smiled and said. “Thanks. You too.”.
That conversation re-enforced my opinions that the accents in Ben Affleck’s movie “The Town” sounded totally phony and forced, although I did not say so publicly.
The movie “Jaws” that was shown was a beautifully cleaned up, re-printed and re-mastered copy of the film, which, ideally, is the way to really see a movie, and that’s one of the purposes of coming to a movie theatre like the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Being a member definitely has its advaantages; I can get in on a considerable discount, and they often have special screenings of certain movies that’re absolutely free to members. Unfortunately, I don’t have the kind of membership at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in which I can get myself and a guest or two admitted on a discount, or for free during special screening events, first because most of the other types of memberships they have are too expensive, and secondly, my friends aren’t as much into going to the movies as I am.
One movie that I do not particularly want to see, however, is the new film “2016”. As everybody on here knows, I’m not a fan of Obama. This film, however, sounds like a real piece of propaganda, which essentially refers to President Obama as a left-leaning Socialist, which, imho, he isn’t even the next fucking thing to! Pardon my french, folks, but that’s how I see it. Anybody who’d extend, expand and ante up G. W. Bush’s policies such as our stupid-assed, illegal and wrongheaded foreign wars, attacks on Civil Liberties, start parroting AIPAC’s (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, i. e. the Israel Lobby) lines and caving into Benjamin Netanyahu the minute he takes office, and lacks the gumption to tell Israel to get the hell out of West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and allow the Palestinians their own independent, sovereign nation-state alongside Israel, and to pass an 20 y/o POS GOP-written healthcare “reform” bill into law and furthermore, allow abortion rights to be taken off the table to get it passed, is no goddamed Socialist. I mean, seriously…who are the people (including some of my friends) who call Obama a Socialist kidding? The fact that Obama took both Single Payer and Public Option off of the table for healthcare reform also disqualify him as a Socialist, among other stuff that would take too long to mention.
mplo :: Thursday/Friday Open Thoughts: Super-Random…since my mind’s been racing!
Last night, I had dinner with a longtime good friend of mine. As a general rule, I don’t like to get much into politics these days, but she had worked and voted for Scott Brown, who I’m not crazy about. I reluctantly voted for Elizabeth Warren, who I don’t trust, especially since she’s now on the board of AIPAC. The ads for her on the radio are laughably sad, if one gets the drift. because the Financial Reform program that Obama presumably created and asked her to be the head of is non-existent. The first thing that Obama did was push her into a corner. I mean it, folks…every time I hear that ad to vote for her on the radio, I feel like I want to burst into derisive laughter, because she allowed herself to get screwed over by Obama. My god, I find myself thinking, who the hell’s everybody shittin’? No such thing happened!
(Again, pardon my French, everybody!)
Anyway, my friend and I had a very fun, enjoyable dinner, with good conversation, as always, and I admitted to her that I’d not only switched from Democrat to being Unenrolled, but that I was voting for a third party this fall at the polls on the POTUS Election Day, because I could not stomach either one of the major POTUS Candidates. She understood, and didn’t comdemn me. Isn’t that what a democratic Society is all about?
Another thought: I’ve started Occupational Therapy for my elbow, and I’ve got two more appointments coming up. The two OT’s that I’ve been seeing so far are tough to get appointments with, so I’ve had to take what I could get. After a botched-up appointment due to the OT’s falling sick and calling in when I was already at the Clinic (because I took the earliest appointment, which was the only slot open…Grrr!), things began to fall into place. I rescheduled the appointment with the same OT that I’d seen the week before. She made me work even harder, and gave me other exercises to do in addition to the ones I already had, and then advised me to do them at home 3-5 times per day.
Anyway, Aziza’s doing well…she talks when she’s undercover, when she hears me typing and talking to myself, which I often do when I’m at home. Weird, isn’t it? LOL
My old friend that I’d met 33 summers ago while working at a sweater factory down near South Station and South Boston calls me periodically. He’s presently without a job, and says he’s going to have to move from his place in Foxboro (a town south of Boston), because his rent’s too expensive, and he’ll also lose his health insurance pretty soon. I wonder if he wants me to put him up. I can’t, for all kinds of reasons, but that’s a whole other issue here, although he often kind of hints that he’d like it if I would.
I also came upon a website that you guys may not like, which presents a rather unflattering portrayal of pitbulls, that, imo, can be rather risky and dangerous to work with and handle. Here it is:
http://www.dogsbite.org/danger…
I’ve talked to several people who either own or have owned pitbulls, who’ve said likewise and either don’t plan on getting any more pitbulls after the ones they have die, or who have gotten rid of their pitbulls because they’ve been extremely difficult to work with, and carry extraordinary risks. So, everybody has different opinions, and people have stridently disagreed with me on it, but, well…that’s another matter, as well.
As for the verdict on Rachel Corrie’s death, that her family went to Haifa, Israel, to sue the State of Israel, the Israeli Military and the Israeli Defense ministry in order to get some accountability for their daughter and sister’s tragic and untimely death by bulldozing as she was trying to stop the Israeli soldiers inside the bulldozer from demolishing an ordinary Palestinian family’s home in Rafah, a city on the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, near the Egyptian border, but the Haifa district Court, unfortunately, ruled Rachel Corrie’s death as an accident. That, imho, was no accident.
First of all, Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians, not Israel, and the sooner Israel pulls her troops and rightwing Israeli Jewish settlers back from those territories, the better things will be for everybody, meaning both Palestinians and Israeli Jews alike.
Secondly, imho, the soldiers driving the bulldozer that was about to destroy the house of the family of the Palestinian pharmacist , Dr. Samir Nasrallah, whom the late Ms. Corrie had been friendly with, should’ve been at least convicted of manslaughter. Maybe the Corrie family wouldn’t have gotten everything they wanted, but they would’ve gotten something and not come away empty-handed. I think Rachel Corrie’s parents and sister plan to appeal the ruling in the Israeli Supreme Court. Who knows? Hopefully, maybe, they’ll get somewhere. We’ll see. Sorry if I sound too flippant and glibe about this.
Yet, at the same time, part of me also questions the idea of the International Solidarity Movement’s leadership sending relatively inexperienced people who’ve had two days of really basic, rudimentary training at the most (Ms. Corrie admitted that she was unprepared for what she was when she arrived in Gaza, and that it was the hardest situation she’d seen.) over into one of the most, if not the most dangerous, unstable parts of the world and putting them right smack in harm’s way like that. When I first began posting here, I wrote an entire essay on this subject, so I won’t elaborate on it any more. I wish the Corries the best of luck.
So, anyway, I hope to resume my normal life soon, but I’ll have to resume it gradually. Right now, I’m running out of things to say. Good to see you all, and, again, sorry for the late posting.
Crossposted from firefly-dreaming.com and docudharma.com
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