LIGHTS AT THE CASTLE and BETWEEN TAKES ON THE TODAY SHOW-BACK THEN

YULE NIGHTS

 We had the good fortune of an invitation to see the Christmas decorations at San Simeon, the Hearst Castle.

   It is a visual blitz of texture, detail and history.

 Halls are decked.

 The juxtaposition of the tapestries hint at multi dimensional story lines.

 The kitchen is a world unto itself.

  It was a windy and foggy night on the mountain as we moved around the massive grounds.

   

A visit to the indoor pool, beneath the tennis courts, 
before our drive down the mountain to reality.

Some nights as I stand gazing at the deep star field arching from the coastal mountains to the wide sea it's easy to imagine that six miles up the Pacific coast the Hearst Castle is a door to another world. Crossing the threshold is magical.

THROWBACK 

JANE PAULEY & TOM

   The Today Show broadcast live from Indianapolis in the mid '80s.  As the local NBC affiliate anchor we did live reports around the NBC Today Show live telecast.  During a break Jane Pauley and I chat.  We were friends from her pre television days in Indianapolis.  We shared a high school speech and debate instructor as well.  Jane remains one of the most authentic people who have achieved great celebrity. 

HUNGERING FOR MORE?

    The Hunger Games Mocking Jay is not as good as the first two films in what has now become a franchise. Jennifer Lawrence is still exceptional as is Donald Sutherland as the contemptible character President Snow. Julianne Moore was especially good in this installment. Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Elizabeth Banks continue in their well portrayed character roles. Same for Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth. Acting is not the issue, it is the thinning of impact and weakening of integrity that happens when a good idea gets overplayed.  

    Hunger Games was always about being a commercial success, but the narrative theme and social comment woven into the dystopian drama had more impact in the first book and films. Now it is beginning to feel like serial and as good as she is, we know Lawrence is capable of more than the script is giving her.

    Still, there are moments. The frightening politics of a too powerful state, of huge economic gaps, of surrendered liberties and a manipulative media are still vivid. I also thought of Syria, Iraq and Libya when viewing the affect of war on communities.  

    It's time to resolve this conflict, for liberty and justice to prevail and for Donald Sutherland/President Snow to get his smug face and well coiffed beard stomped in the muck, at least. On further consideration, it may be those widening economic divisions that undergirds the sense of justice that flys with the Mocking Jay.

   See you down the trail.

THE TORTURE OF NORQUIST & A CHRISTMAS GIFT

WHO HAS THE NERVE?

     A few Republican lawmakers are doing what should have been done years ago, telling the self righteous and dangerous Grover Norquist to go pound sand.

      Dangerous?  How else would you describe an ego freak who collects "pledges" from federal lawmakers to abide by his view of government or else face a challenge by a Norquist lackey, funded with millions of dollars. Norquist really believes that a pledge to him is more sacred than any oath of office, or the unfettered performance of the duties of the office to which his "pledgees" were elected. He likes to strut, bantam rooster like, before a weekly gathering of political operatives, mostly conservative and mostly Republican, who are there to kiss his keister.

PRIDE BEFORE THE FALL

      Really, where does Grover Norquist get off thinking that he alone can control Republican tax policy and votes?

Who appointed him to this extraordinary power?  By the way, Norquist is a bit of a fraud.

      He's been an associate of Jack Abramoff, the convicted power broker who found plenty of ways to use and divert federal tax funds.  He's also an associate of the phony Ralph Reed, who has ripped off and manipulated Christian rightists with his own brand of sleaze.  Why Norquist has not been tossed over simply because his association with those scum probably goes back to those pledges that he collects and his threats to unseat anyone who challenges his view.

      Norquist calls himself a boring Methodist. He is of a particular ilk of Methodist though, one who is married to a Palestinian Muslim who worked for the Islamic Free Market Institute. The Islamic Free Market Institute was founded by Norquist.  That's cozy isn't it?  The Institute also took money from two organizations that were linked to SAAR-the organization with ties to international terrorism.  Norquist should feel right at home since he employs a kind of political terror on the Republican party.  And Norquist's wife worked with USAID.  USAID of course pumps US tax dollars into foreign venues and initiatives. Boring Methodist hardly seems an apt description for such a master of double talk, phoniness, duplicity, sleaze, self aggrandizement and zealousness.  

       If the late director Alan Pakula were doing the film, Norquist would be brought down by his own self importance and fraud.  If the Wachowski's were directing Norquist would be vaporized by a drone  as he preened before the Wednesday gathering of sycophants.  But since this is real life it is men like Senator John McCain, Speaker John Boehner, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Tom Coburn and Senator Bob Corker who may be the founding architects of the movement to depose the self exalted would be dictator.

       Senator Tom Coburn called Norquist's pledge "a tortured vision of tax purity."  The inclusion of torture and Norquist in the same sentence seems to bring this screed full circle. What goes around, comes around. 

      

SOMETHING NEW

     Proprietors of the historic Cambria Pines Lodge have 

added to their already well visited Christmas lights display.

This year they have added a Christmas Bazaar. 

     See you down the trail.

TEXTURES OF CHRISTMAS

EVOCATIONS AND SCENES FROM A PARTY

 Do you find a kind of feel or texture 
in the scenes of Christmas?

 Beauty with dimension.

 Allow yourself to play director, pull back from

a view and discover surprises, like

Norbert the keyboardist in socks.

He needs that sensitivity for the pedals.

At this party, I was struck by the beauty, color and 

visual texture of the clothing.

 Each of the "Christmas scenes" we've seen so often

 offer a sense of feel.

 Being a sentimentalist I am warmed

by visions of peace, light and joy.

See you down the trail.