Month: February 2020

  • Don’t Eat Your Own

    Ung… That’s how I feel about people supporting candidates in the same political party.

    Forest for the trees, and forgetting who the real problem is, seems to be happening a little too much.

    I see it from supporters for all candidates. When trying to have a conversation about the differences and what that would mean if that person got elected, what I find is that everyone is claiming that the other candidates are the second coming of evil… after Trump that is.

    And then everyone ends with, “But I’ll vote for whoever gets the nomination.”

    Will you?

    Really?

    You can’t tell me how awful Sanders is, and then I am supposed to believe that you will vote for Sanders when it comes down to it? Even though you just told me that he will lose to Trump. You aren’t going to think that the cause is lost and just stay home?

    That’s what I fear, because Bernie fans did that in 2016, or they went for Trump… Which boggles my mind, but the more research I read up on, it makes a little sense now; Populism.

    The democrats need to chill out.

    No one is that evil, and the easiest way to make someone electable is to show up and vote.

    I can see Biden getting to nomination, and I see Bernie fans again staying home. And I can see Bernie getting it, and all the moderates then will think the game is over, and they will stay home.

    We need to think about this process as Thanksgiving; your family may annoy the crap outta you, but you are going to show up anyway.

  • Who Can Afford That?

    I can admit that two weeks ago, I didn’t think the coronavirus would be something that we in the United States would have to worry about. The world had done a very good job at containing Ebola, and with the outbreak in China, a nation not known for caring about the rights of its citizens, it would be quarantined just like they had done with SARS.

    So, I was wrong.

    At least in the sense that we here in the US need to prepared for the possibility of an outbreak of the disease within our boarders. I don’t see that as a fearful reacting, but more a matter of being logical.

    The one thing that has jumped out at me from the NYC and NY state press conferences (I won’t even get into the ridiculousness of Trump’s press conference) is that both the mayor and governor were telling people that if an outbreak happens, “just stay home, and don’t go to school.”

    Clearly, we should all do that.

    And…

    Clearly, half of us out that can’t afford to do that.

    Half of the people out there is this city and state live paycheck to paycheck, and if they miss a day of work they fall behind. Are landlords going to let people pay their rent late? Are banks going to let mortgage and credit card payments be late? How about internet and cable companies? (I know ConEd doesn’t care, coz they don’t shut off power to anyone.) Are all those bills going to wait until the threat is over?

    There is a domino effect here when large groups of people don’t go to work and don’t get paid. I see the how the world economy is grinding to a halt just by the way the stock markets are beginning to fall off a cliff.

    Again, who is thinking about the people that are just hanging on to the edges of this economy?

  • It’s Here

    My first February in New York was back in 2007. What I remember most was that the week leading up to Valentine’s, the temperature never got above 30 degrees. For a kid who grew up in Texas, where fridge weather was 40 degrees, I thought I would never be warm again. And I was running around the City in Black canvas All-Stars, so the fact that I still have all of my toes is pretty impressive.

    Now that we are back in New York, and February is drawing to a close, there has only been one day when the high temperature was below freezing. This is pretty shocking to me as February is the coldest month of the year here. And what it actually feels like is the start of Spring around here.

    We have to admit that climate change isn’t coming; its already here.

    It was apparent that the climate had changed in out 18 months in California. In that time, it went from, “Who odd that this weather disaster happened again,” to “We should just plan on this weather disaster every year now.”

    Australia knows that it is here.

    When we moved back, my daughter was excited that we would get to be around snow again. This Winter of 19/20 has a good likelihood of having no snow at all.

    I know that we can come together and stop this from getting worse. It will take commitment, political drive, and sacrifices from every corner of the world.

    I just wonder if we will ever return to the way the climate used to be.

  • Enablers

    I was nervous that Harvey Weinstein wouldn’t get convicted. I hadn’t been following the case closely, as I felt that it was only a 50/50 shot, he would be found guilty, and I had already decided that I believed the survivors. I didn’t need a jury to justify my stance.

    But Harvey is going to jail, and I hope that this brings about the beginning of the end of the idea that there are “untouchable” men in any industry that take advantage of their position.

    Now, it’s time that we start addressing the enablers that helped Harvey. The agents who sent women to his hotel room, and office. The directors who were ordered to put women in, or take them out of their movies, the assistants who heard what was happening and did.

    I know that there are people out there that want to punish all of these enablers, and I understand where they are coming from. And that may or should happen.

    From my experience, and I have spent some time in theatre education, it needs to start in all theatre classes, and be reiterated again, and again, all the way up to grad school, and supported by all the unions in the entertainment industry. There needs to be an ethical standard that everyone needs to understand and follow. And I’m talking about simple things like no more one on one meetings between actors and producers or directors. Actors/artist have the right to have an advocate present at all times.

    Harvey didn’t create this world of casting couches, and treating women as if they are disposable. And it is wrong for us to believe that even if these few men that have been outed by #MeToo all go to jail that this issue will go away. We have to start building the new acceptable culture of the entertainment industry today.

  • Thanks, Alex

    I think I need to take a break from the news. I could talk about South Carolina, or that Harvey Weinstein was just found guilty on two counts.

    But what I really want to talk about is listening to Parliament.

    What has brought this about recently is that we showed the kid “Guardians of the Galaxy, and Vol. 2” this weekend, and she completely latched on to the movies, the characters, and the music. (She’s been running around the playground telling the other kids that she’s Gamora.) We added both soundtracks to a playlist for her, which means we have been listening to it pretty much non-stop. That’s not a complaint.

    Vol. 2’s soundtrack has Parliament’s “Flash Light” on it, and this is how we get all of this tied together.

    I have some time for myself this day to work in the home office, and this would make a great time to start listening to Parliament again.

    I know the first time I heard/saw them, and that was on Saturday Night Live in 1986. (I know this only because I can look it up, not that the date was seared into my brain.) Watching George Clinton, Parliament-Funkadelic did leave me a little confused, as I knew it was a band, but the music and attitude on display was not like anything I had seen before.

    Jump ahead five years, and being in 9th grade I make that friend who loves Parliament, and my music horizons are broadened in a most needed way. The Mothership Connection, and Bootsy Collins, and the funk, and for a little white kid growing up in the suburbs, it was like getting invited to the party with the cool kids.

    I mean, I want funk uncut.