SAY GOODNIGHT HOSNI & NOTHING LIKE THE TRAIN

DANCE LIKE AN EGYPTIAN

     It'll make for a fascinating story to learn what finally convinced Hosni Mubarak to go. As it was the story line could do nothing but deteriorate.  Mubarak's departure does not assure sunshine and roses, but a longer delay would have made it worse. (See an earlier post.)

      The US team working on the transition will take comfort from the long and friendly relationship between the US military and the Egyptian army. The US has trained most of the Egyptian officers, they have spent time in the US and in many instances there are genuine friendships between US and Egyptian brass.  At a time of change, when the military has been given authority, this is a good sign.

      In this moment of hope, I urge you to recall the song refrain from this Post's title and to imagine the former strongman- dancing like an Egyptian.  Better yet-recall Steve Martin's moves to "King Tut."  Bye bye Hosni.

SOUTHBOUND ON THE SURFLINER

      This post comes from the Amtrak Surfliner south bound to San Diego.  The shot whizzing by above is south of Santa Barbara.

We have become fans of the route and find this brand of train travel preferable, in most ways, to flying.  Seats and space are more comfortable, the views are terrific and you avoid the angst and hassle of airports, gates, lines, x-ray machines and etc.

If you drive, you might save 1-2 hours on the trip from the Central Coast to San Diego. The   operative word being DRIVE. That means in and around LA.  Been there and done that. Simply sitting back, reading, snoozing and watching the view is vastly preferable.

Now others can take the freeway. I'll take the free time. 

And, it's pretty difficult to blog while you drive.

See you down the trail.

FILLING THE VOID & WHEN FRIENDS GATHER

THE EGYPTIAN WAIT

     Analysts can disagree on whether the sky is blue, so when you find convergence of opinion you pay attention.  The longer the Mubarak regime resists change, while a fervid anti Mubarak movement remains active, the more likely unfavorable trends can begin. Not the least of these is an impact on American influence.  

       The US is caught in a cross fire of interests.  Mubarak has been an ally, so we can not appear to throw him over.  Still, a timely, rational transition, acceptable to the masses and good for our strategic concerns is in our best interest.  The longer it festers, the more anger and resentment grows, the more appealing other elements will appear to those Egyptians who remain invested, emotionally, in the call for change. Those other elements are those who can both fan emotion and draw power from resentment and anger.  They include the Muslim Brotherhood.  The US must not publicly demean those who could assume power in a changed Egypt.  And that is tricky. The longer it remains a stand off, the more the US has to loose and the more the wild card players have to gain. 

      A defused situation, lowered voices, people going back to routine, less mass gatherings and media attention is a sound alternative, but who knows how that might play out, or who is in a position to steer it.  Certainly not the once peripheral voices, some extreme, who have been slowly gathering following in the mania.

      Thus, the alliance of thought by many western analysts.  Resolution, sooner than later is better. The options- demonstrations stop, Mubarak departs or lays out a framework for departure. Until then it is a wait, with uncertainty being the only beneficiary. 

NOW TO SOMETHING MUCH BETTER

FRIENDS AND FOOD

     Several months ago a group who share a love for food decided we would gather monthly and prepare new dishes, based on the theme of the month.  This month it was

Russian.

     As exotic aromas fill the hosting home, there is of course socializing and wine drinking-this is, after all, California.

and old fashioned ice crushing-a Russian theme meant some vodka of course

and the courses begin.  Here is the borscht and freshly baked Russian rye bread

another blast of activity in the kitchen

and a FULL PLATE.

Kasha Varniskas, lamb-raisin-bean Plov, beef stroganoff, Kartushnik with cheese and onions

and not pictured were the strawberries Romanov and Russian Tea cakes.

Cheers.

See you down the trail

we have calories to walks off.

YEA, YEA, YEA

THE BEATLES INVADE AMERICA

      I was one of the 73 million Americans who were tuned into the Ed Sullivan show on February 9, 1964.  We needed it.  John Kennedy had been assassinated just 3 months earlier and we were hurting, especially  boomers and even more so, the class of 1964.  

     In those days we studied civics and/or government and JFK was the perfect touchstone or conduit to ignite our interest.  He was young, handsome, played touch football, took on challenges, like going to the moon and he turned government from something gray and old to something vital, alive and dynamic.  And then he was murdered.  It couldn't happen.  Not in America.  Not to our President.  Assassination was something from history not from a modern dynamic on the move America.  We were devastated.  Hope, dreams, inspiration, beliefs were all shattered by the insanity of Dallas.

      Then came the Beatles.  We'd heard their music on the radio.  It was unlike anything before.  We saw their pictures in Newsweek or Time and they looked different.  And then they appeared on the Ed Sullivan show.

     If you were not apart of the age, it may be hard to understand how a Sunday evening variety show could wield such an influence.  But it did and on this day in history it exuded more influence and impact on America than at any other time.  

     Beatlemania had begun.  It was hype to be sure, but there was also an innocence about it.  It was the first time the boomers were seen a major demographic block.  We were a group to appeal to, but also by the sheer force of our volume, we were a rising power.  That power would later awaken and move to matters of race, war and peace, changing popular culture and human rights, but on  February 9, 1964 we were kids with broken hearts and dashed hopes who suddenly found pied pipers who thrilled our hearts, moved our feet and bodies and presented something entirely new and exotic.  It was the mojo  we needed.

     From those hysterical moments with mobs outside the theatre, screaming and fainting girls, the music changed us and arguably began an influence on larger history.  The playlist that night was I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, ALL MY LOVING, I SAW HER STANDING THERE, SHE LOVES YOU, TIL THERE WAS YOU. 

     They were different and on that night so were we.

      At the risk of legal peril, I share a series of shot I took from the MOMA in San Francisco during the Avedon exhibition.  You can see these elsewhere, but as a further tribute-

as Ed Sullivan said with a stiff bodied wave of the arm "HERE ARE THE BEATLES!"

     By the way, cameras were permitted in the exhibition. Sorry the capture is so poor.  These are just masterful studies of the four who led us from despair. Look at the eyes.

DAYBOOK

See you down the trail.

CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT IF TWITTER EXISTED IN THE 60'S

  MAKE TWEETS NOT WAR?

     No, I don't think so.  The original is so much more, healthy.  Still it makes for a great dinner party What If conversation.

        What would be the parameters of the May Day shutdown of Washington with social media? How would battlefield decisions in Viet Nam have been affected?  Woodstock? Watergate coverage?  Let your mind roll.

       I'm not a first line adapter, but I follow pretty quickly. I wait for those with better skills to get out, push the new technology and platform and learn from them.  

      I've been amazed at how quickly LinkedIn connections have grown, how advertising and marketing has evolved, how we can continue to organize streams of data and information flow. Twitter was vital in getting early information out of Egypt and apparently in organizing the demonstrations.

     So that makes this all the more preposterous.  Can you recall how you communicated in 1994?  Call this 1:30 video "What is the Internet anyway?"  

     Now repressive regimes seek to shut down those very forms of communication that even big legacy media utilizes, even if 16 years ago the anchor team didn't have a clue.  That also speaks volumes.  You run that conversation in your own mind.

REEL THOUGHTS

     When it is film or cinema, I like to think of myself as an early bird.  I love the medium and have for as long as I can remember, which is why there is always something I want to see or am more than happy to talk about.  

     You may recall several weeks ago my ecstatic thoughts about THE KING'S SPEECH.  Obviously I'm delighted with its trail of accolades.  I wonder why though, Lionel Logue's (Geoffrey Rush) adherence to Christian Science was overlooked?  It didn't need to be a significant story element, but I recall that scene when the Archbishop was so disdainful.  Just for the sake of historical "completeness" it seems to me there could simply have been a line to address it. I am not an advocate of Christian Science, not a critic either, but do love the complexity and nuance that real life bumps, twists and warts bring to storytelling.  Not a big thing, just a wonder why.  THE KING'S SPEECH is an extraordinary work.  

BASED ON THE TRAILER THIS LOOKS PROMISING

A hit at Sundance, it is beginning to get a lot of attention.  I'll be in one of those first lines.


WINTER CONTINUES TO DRAG ON IN MOST OF THE US
AND SO WE PROVIDE ANOTHER DOSE OF RELIEF IN 
DAY BOOK

SUN KISSES

AND UP CLOSE

See you down the trail.

INTELLIGENCE AND INFORMATION ON EGYPT

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY

     The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs tells Jon Stewart, "everybody" was taken by surprise as events seemed to spread from Tunisia to Egypt, while the President is said to be unhappy with the intelligence community. 

      Mark Mazzetti wrote in the New York Times President Obama "criticized American spy agencies over their their performance in predicting and analyzing the spreading unrest."

      As American news organizations have scrambled to cover the story, they have understandably focused on the action in the street and the hints of reaction by the Mubarak regime.  Missing from most reporting and analysis has been the role inflated food costs have played in fueling the public discontent that has been fanned and focused by social media.

       It is ironic.  Power changing political foment brews and and then storms in a viral way, but the big tools of intelligence and the media don't see it coming, nor understand its nexus?

        On Thursday the Senate Intelligence Committee heard a White House intelligence official say the CIA had warned the Obama Administration late in 2010 that trouble was brewing.  "Instability....unsure of the trigger mechanism" were part of the CIA briefing.

        Intelligence agencies and news organizations suffer similar problems, namely an inadequate number of people on the ground, in the environment and capable of gathering information to feed a larger mosaic and understanding.  Both intelligence shops and news groups have great technological capacity, but it requires humans, or in the parlance humint-human intelligence- to begin to probe motivation or sequence.

        American news organizations used to have bureaus in many cities, with people who's job it was to understand which way the wind was blowing.  Intelligence agencies used to have more "spies" getting deeper into the fabric of strategic nations or powder keg environments. That was before staff reductions, budget cuts,  changed priorities.  All are inexcusable to the extent those reductions, cuts and priorities have undermined the flow of vital information.

         Political agenda also plays a role.  The US has enjoyed a 30 year relationship with Egypt.  Our military has trained theirs.  The Suez canal has remained safe. Egypt has played nice with our ally Israel, so we have ignored the shearing policies of Mubarak that have now come back to bite.  The American media was so out of touch with reality on the ground they were in no position to know of the festering roots until mass protests and civil disorder exploded.  At the risk of sounding like Yogi Berra, you can't see something if you ain't looking at it.

         I hope both the intelligence community and the big time media have learned

that hints of rage and the steam that may roil into a force to demand regime change can now be found in tweets and postings.  That should make it easier to see.

PARTY DAY IN AMERICA

QUICKLY, BEFORE THE COMMERCIALS

    Some thoughts on Egypt, intelligence and media coming up, but first.....

I've got barbecue sauces to finish for the wings and jalapeno jelly to put on cheese before friends pick us up for the drive to the SB Party.  Even the President takes some down time right?

    Enjoy.  

THE WEEKENDER :) A LOVE AFFAIR

THE SEX LIFE OF GRAPES

     Just being in wine country, in this case the Paso Robles appellation, evokes a litany of feeling.  I begin to imagine aroma and the treasure chest of tastes, varied and rich in diversity.  There are days when those primer responses trigger companions like perhaps the fragrance of tomatoes and garlic in olive oil, or fennel and lemon sauteed in truffle oil.

    Isn't it a bit like the endorphins that fire when you think of your lover, or take flight in your mind to moments of passion.  The body follows the mind. 

Seeing the fruit on the vine simply intensifies it all.  Taste becomes luscious and from somewhere in the cosmos rushes in feelings of clear California light, Pacific breezes filtered by the mountain valleys of the Templeton Gap.  It is ephemera, but it is vibrant and joyous.  Like the hint of your mate's body revealed by a loose garment, or imprinted  by a physique revealed by the way a shirt or pants fit or cling.  Libido begins to smile.

     So, this is going somewhere.  By the time the fruit cluster meets the harvesting crew

ancient days and sexual ways have met.  There has been a cosmic romance that has danced through soil, sun, vine, leaf and grape.    

WELL, ON THE OTHER HANDS, MAYBE GRAPES HAVE BECOME, DEPRIVED. LINK HERE FOR THE SAD TALE   

I NEVER KNEW.

IF THIS IS SO, PITY THEN THE POOR RAISIN!

SO DELIGHT IN BEING HUMAN, WITH URGES.

CHEERS!

SEE YOU DOWN THE TRAIL