Our mid 20's daughter offered as to how she is sick of hearing about the latest "sex scandal." A wise and sensitive young lady, she suggested that perhaps America's sexual dysfunction leads to this prurient interest. May be. Might also be the historic interest in seeing people in power revealed as having feet of clay or human foibles like the rest of us. And do you think there could also be a little truth to the adage "sex sells?"
But, I also wonder about the betrayed spouses and children. How do they live with the ignominy? May well be some less than happy thanksgiving tables at a few homes.
It could be a chapter in a book and maybe a turn in Cambria history.
A popular young couple work hard, invest a lot of sweat equity turning an abandoned restaurant into a new and modern pub and steak house but in the first week of operation depart, the result of a break with their business partner.
There had been high hopes for the prime location. Reviews were mixed. Now people are told the place will be headed in a new direction. What does that mean? What was behind the split? Locals are buzzing.
I've got an idea out of left field. Why doesn't Stephen Hearst, VP and General Manager of Hearst Corporation Western Properties, step in and create a real steak house, a premiere place for the world class Hearst Beef, grown just up the road? It could also be the perfect venue for the Hearst Wine vintages that are also making an impact on the market. Seems a perfect show place for their product, a unique dining spot in a somewhat crowded local restaurant scene. LA and San Francisco visitors beat a path to Cambria already, and a truly top quality steak house could add to the lure. Marketing and Ad dollars are not a problem for the Hearst Corporation and this is after all their true "terroir."
So from here in the peanut gallery, it's an easily offered option. BTW, for those who may not know. Stephen is from the same clan as William Randolph Hearst-he of the Hearst Castle that tops a mountain just 6 miles away. It is California State Parks most visited tourist spot. And the Hearst empires continues still.
FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS ABOUT A GENERAL
The headline is borrowed from my friend and fellow blogger Frank who send this interesting little bit of history.
Attention old surf rock fans-they may surprise you.
Thanks to those who either posted or emailed comments about Lana's first place award in the Cambria Allied Arts juried show. For those who said they'd like a better look-here tis-
50 years into the franchise, and the James Bond thrillers
are not only still entertaining, but perhaps better than ever.
Gone are the campy innuendo lines, gratuitous Bond and gorgeous woman falling into bed scenes and the over the top special effects and weapons. In it's place is a cleaner story line, real character development, cleverness and an aging Bond in a cyber security world. Daniel Craig continues his chiseling of a life like Ian Flemming created MI 6 agent. Where Sean Connery had charm, Craig has melancholy. Dame Judy Dench as M is wonderful and Javier Bardam as bad guy Silva is again deviously twisted and masterful. Albert Finney and Ralph Fiennes both turn in great supporting character roles.
This is the 23rd Bond film and director Sam Mendes provides you a thrill ride and taut drama. Thomas Newman's music is brilliant, especially his ability to reprise classic Bond themes at appropriate moments of historical vignettes. If you like big budget, big films that are pure entertainment, this is a great popcorn film.
HOW DID THEY DO THIS?
The Weekender Remaps time
Here is a video mind boggler, that demonstrates a special effect edit technique called time remapping. Thanks to Beverly for sending it along.
She takes it humbly with a kind of chuckle, but I'm a proud fan and bragging about it. Lana took first place in the Cambria Allied Arts Association juried show. It's a big deal because Cambria is an art colony and the competition is tough. The Plein Air oil was done near one of our favorite hiking trails.
FROM HERE
I am hard pressed to understand how General Allen could
produce 20 to 30 thousand e-mails and still be getting the job done.
Also miffed why guys as sharp as he and General Petraeus would engage in romantic conversations using DOD and CIA computers. Duh!!!
FROM THE ATTIC
Found this classic in an old photo file. This is from the way back machine. The lad in the T-shirt is Cris "Moto Groove" Conner, the Daliesque artist and social conveyer back in the day. The bearded gent is Bruce Taylor aka The Catalyst of Oddball Observations Blogger fame. The kid in the back is this blogger. This was taken in the old WIBC/WNAP Newsroom on what I think was Taylor's last day before decamping to Arizona. BTW-notice the typewriters, old audio board and the shirt and tie combinations? What were we thinking?
ANNOUNCER: And now to the Oval Office and the President of the United States.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: " My fellow Americans, the election is over and it is time to get to work addressing the very serious challenges that face us as Americans. So today I am issuing a special invitation which, if accepted, will help move this great nation forward, beyond our gridlock and stalemate.
Today I am inviting former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to chair a special working group at Camp David. The former Presidents will preside over the deliberations and will jointly draft the final report.
I am today inviting past Presidential nominees Romney, McCain, Kerry and Gore, along with Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi and Speaker John Boehner. I am asking the group to assemble the day after Thanksgiving and stay at Camp David until they have finished their work.
I am asking this group of outstanding American leaders to draft a roadmap. It is a roadmap to our future. I charge these great patriots to establish a structure for cooperation, a general strategy for a federal budget and a vision forward for America.
While these leaders meet I am asking a consortium of academic, research and public opinion leaders to convene as resource group to propose bold and new ideas for our national leadership to consider in their deliberations.
So far the following resource people have accepted this
challenge- Amory Lovin of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Elon Musk of Space X, Economist Paul Krugman, writers Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks and Tom Friedman, John Lechleiter, CEO of Eli Lilly, the new Purdue University President Mitch Daniels and Bill Gates of the Gates Foundation.
Invitation to others in medical and technological research fields have also been issued and I await their acceptance.
I am asking these great Americans, under the leadership of our former Presidents, to gather, discuss, debate, argue, resolve and then draft a document that will help to guide this nation to a greater fulfillment of its potential and its destiny as a world leader in the 21st Century. I would ask these Americans to present to us, by the end of this calendar year, what we can call a road map to our future."
Well, we can dream can't we? Who else would you invite?
AUTUMN IN THE VINES
REEL NOTES
THE SESSIONS
This unique film explores the deep reaches of intimacy with an honesty and clarity. It is fully entertaining while being charming, bold, heart warming and challenging.
The Sessions moves you to the edge of uneasiness but pulls you back to a comfortable place. It has moments where you wonder if you are trespassing too deeply into human relationships and sexuality, but writer and director Ben Lewin uses this as a canvas to examine life, love and faith.
Based on the life and writing of Mark Obrien, a Berkeley writer and poet who spent most of his life in an iron lung, the film is illuminating, but not for everyone. Those who might be squeamish with dialogue about premature ejaculation, seeing a sexual surrogate work with a quadriplegic, or watching a priest wrestle with granting permission for out of marriage sex might want to avoid it. However it is a sensitive and enormously well done film.
The acting is award worthy. William Macy as the flabbergasted priest, John Hawkes as Mark O'brien and Moon Bloodgood as attendant Vera are all superb. It is Helen Hunt as the sexual surrogate who deserves something more.
Acting must be a difficult challenge under perfect conditions. But to be told your role requires full nudity would, in my world at least, make your day at the office more demanding. Hunt, as Cheryl is full of grace, compassion and complexity. A mother, wife and surrogate she helps a client discover his full manhood, but against her better intention, falls in love. How that is played, resolved and passed along is the heart tugging appeal of this film.
Hunt's portrayal of her own inner conflict, along with Macy's counseling and Hawke's exploration, failures and desire to live full, though frail adds to a very special film. It is a unique love story.
Boomers will remember this from a time of discord and rancor when it became a kind of anthem. Posted here in two versions as a post election stress syndrome tonic.
Lyrics Version
Full Hippie Style
Good bye Big John
Photo Courtesy of Sherry Gillis/WIBC
It is fortune in life to know people who are unique, true individualists even delightful eccentrics. John Gillis is on that list.
1969 was a time of transition for the country and for me. Big John was a wrench man in my re-tooling. He was part of a revolution, FM Rock radio. He and a few renegade young men made history by creating something new. I was out of college, waiting for my bride to be to finish student teaching, working at a small market AM station doing the police beat and street news. John had heard me and showed up one day at the studio to evangelize the hip new world of "underground, counter cultural, history making" WNAP FM. The cultural history of that station has been captured in a film detailed in this January post.
On that day, John opened his ever present hard sided brief case, which he organized a couple of times as we sat in our little studio talking, and produced promotional literature, tapes of jingles, air checks and posters. He opened the door to my future.
A few months later, after returning from a spring and summer traveling in Europe, Lana and I settled into our new home and I walked further through the door John had opened. The News Director of the station group that operated both the radical FM and the old line AM news leader offered me a job to live in both worlds. Traditional beat reporting for the AM News giant and the on air voice of those "long haired fucking hippies in the back room." (It's funny, because the only long hair Big John had was his mutton chop side burns, being a prematurely bald man.)
It was the best of both worlds, the beginning of life long friendships, adventure and the launching pad for a career that would send me around the world. Some of that would have happened perhaps, but it certainly did because Big John came calling one day.
He was a radio legend in Indianapolis, the automatic host, toast master, emcee at thousands of events over the years. Colorful, always traveling to the beat of his own private drummer, a loving and lovable guy, John passed from this world yesterday at the young age of 65.
There will be great stories about John's vivid uniqueness-he truly was a character- and they will fill a space in our heart left by a life lived large. Big John, you left Big memories.
Take a moment this weekend to tell a friend how important they are to you.
Watch dog groups and the political press have calculated that despite the billions spent on obnoxious advertising, it had little or no affect on how we voted.
THE BIGGEST LOOSER
Photo courtesy of Patrick T. Fallon New York Times
Chump #1 ---Sherman Adelson, the casino magnate who dumped millions including on Newt Gingrich. The New York Times reports he spent tens of millions on 8 candidates, all of whom lost.
THE BIGGEST JACK ASS
I'm surprised a New Yorker has not flattened this idiot's nose. His team of body guards are effective. His latest tirade, including calls for a "revolution" make him the number one candidate for western civilization's most egotistical fool.
He's a con man and hustler who NBC should drop after his latest temper tantrum. NBC Anchor Brian Williams made note of Trump's tweets on election night.
"Donald Trump, who has driven well past the last exit to relevance and peered into something closer to irresponsible here, is tweeting tonight"
Maybe the Peacock network could stage an ultimate fighting match between the two.
OPPOSITION RESEARCH
I offer these thoughts realizing they may provoke a firestorm of response as did yesterday's post.
MITT ROMNEY
He was a shape shifter. A true moderate by Massachusetts standards who posed as a conservative to win the Republican nomination. Then he tried to shift back to the center and may be the only candidate in modern history who can claim a 360 degree position on every issue.
PRESIDENT OBAMA
Insular, self confident, trash talking in hoops cocky, and smugly detached from those he disdains. Extraordinarily bright and professorial but his disdain for the kind of one on one salesmanship or "backslapping" helpful in the job has diminished his power. Think of his personal style vis a vis Reagan or Clinton.
He's a great speech maker and had an incredible political organization. Now he needs to demonstrate an adroit use of power to guide "the ship of state through the shoals." He needs to stretch himself.
A CLOSING TRIBUTE TO ALL THE GAMBLERS-
THE SLOT ROCK
Fishermen try their luck in June Lake. Is there also a cache of one armed bandits?
The legend of the June Lake Slot Machines is told in this historical monument. Colorful, legend, lore and rumor. Presented by one of the gold country's historical players, E. Clampus Vitus. Learn more about ECV here at the wikipedia link
Before we leave this most expensive presidential campaign in history, a few thoughts from a self avowed political junkie-who got paid to cover politics. (Talk about larceny!)
WHAT NOW FOR THE GOP?
Lot of people are saying the GOP needs to "reform" or change, to shift away from being a party dominated by whites, males, conservatives and the wealthy. I'm not sure I buy those descriptions as being the complete sum total of the party. But if it is true, the party ran a very close race as it is. Charles Krauthammer says instead the GOP needs to look to a younger generation of itself, particularly to younger governors or members of the senate.
Aside from Jon Huntsman the other GOP candidates were extremists, flawed, whackos or unqualified. Romney won in a court of dunces. In truth he was a north eastern moderate who had to play to a party that is in the grip of a right wing, some of whom border on zealots. Old line republicans were not in evidence and frankly some held their heads down in shame.
The Republican party needs to do a few things. Throw off the control of social issue, right wing, moralizing and/or tea party extremists. It needs to move toward an historic moderate position where it could tolerate candidates as liberal as Nixon, Reagan, Dole and even Eisenhower. Many of the current crop of Republicans would dispute the policies of their own historic leadership. Just as Romney did with his own previous Massachusetts record. The GOP "base" is too far right. Let the right wing go start their own third party movement. The GOP needs to come to grips with the changing demographic of America. More about that in a moment.
WHAT NOW FOR THE DEMOCRATS & OBAMA
The Obama machine and the Democratic leadership has been terribly shortsighted. Yes re-electing the president was paramount, but should not have been their only interest. The Democrats, and even the Republicans, should both begin to rebuild national parties. Today the association is only nominal and temporary. National, grass roots based organizations should exist to hear local needs, respond to those issues, demand accountability, train and vet future candidates for state legislatures and federal office. Think of how much better off Obama would be if the Democrats controlled the House. Strong national parties, engaged in finding and funding strong candidates for the House are a lot healthier for this Republic than the big money of Super Pacs and special interests who now control who has the money and ultimately who gets elected. Those interests are beholden only to themselves.
Parties worked historically. But now if you've got enough money, a good organization and pollster you can declare yourself whatever you say you are and run, and may get elected. To a large extent Obama is a case in point. So, the newly reelected President should preside over helping his party to rebuild a true national party.
The President needs to bang Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid on the head, repeatedly, until they are ready to put partisan politics behind national need. (I mean the head banging figuratively, at least for Pelosi)
The Democrats need to hear what millions of voters think. People don't like taxes. Some of us understand that taxes are in fact necessary, but with bullies and simple minded people like Howard Jarvis doing their stupid oath taking, there is a lot of work to be done before Americans understand the relationship between accountability, accounting, needs, revenue and strategic planning. This nation faces critical financial issues that need something more than we've seen in the past 12 years.
The first trick Obama needs to clear is how to move forward-truly building a structure that will embrace the House Republicans and bring them to cooperation, or to bulldoze over them. Here again, if his guru David Axlerod had been more forward thinking the campaign would have rolled in a flood of House Democrats. Instead he faces a Republican majority who spent the last two years doing a dance of insanity and obfuscation. This nation needs genuine problem solving. That would be problem solving ahead of political advantage.
So someone needs to take Mitch McConnell to a heavy metal funk bar, dose him on some mind altering elixir and turn him into a roadie for 50 Cent until he cries uncle. The Senate filibuster rule needs to change.
John Boehner should be chained to a stake like a dog and spend a week in a Mississippi shack eating gruel and watching how people in poverty struggle to stay alive.
I don't know how Obama is going to transverse the perils that led us to gridlock, but he is the Chief Executive and he needs to evince a leadership that will lead to a new way of doing the nation's business. But it takes the other side willing to help.
The 2014 mid term could/should be a Democratic priority. They need to find a way to win the house and hold the Senate.
THE DEMOGRAPHICS QUESTION
African American, Latino, women and young voters are the apparent alliance that put Obama back into the White House. Republicans-how does that picture jive with your party? Truth is Latino voters will continue to play a powerful role in American politics. There are pockets of the nation where the Asian voting patterns hold power.
Many women have made it abundantly clear that their bodies, their health and their well being are theirs and that politicians who don't understand may not get their vote. I am not implying that women vote only on such issues, but some do.
It is healthy for all Americans that more women will now serve in the Senate. Again it is matter of perspective.
Don't be surprised to see the 2016 field fill with Latino faces of both parties.
AND FINALLY VOTER SUPPRESSION IS WRONG
Voter fraud and cheating is as old as the Republic. Still is wrong and this year we saw evidence of voter suppression. A political operative pal sent this along to demonstrate. BEWARE-this might make you laugh. But it might also make you think. Now there's a good start for the next cycle. Thinking.
THE NEW AUDIENCE FOR ALL OF THOSE CAMPAIGN COMMERCIALS
Well done complements to John King of CNN and Chuck Todd of NBC for their masterful work with touch screens that help crunch and illustrate the returns in last night's coverage. It was a great blend of interpretative journalism and technology.
Election night broadcasts were my favorite. It was all "in the moment," unscripted, spontaneous and adrenalin ripped.
Starting out I covered campaign or party headquarters, grabbing interviews and reporting on the numbers as received by the partisans. Later I would be at the anchor desk, cutting back and forth between field reporters, network feeds, interviewing candidates, moderating our analysts and reporting the numbers. Hundreds of people worked behind the scenes in a kind of full court press involving satellites, trucks, remotes, control rooms, computers, results and always the story was changing.
Some good journalists faltered in that kind of rapid fire circus, but I loved it. Ad libbing was no problem, and as long as the technology did what it was supposed to be, it was thrilling.
As a senior news executive I directed those hundreds of
people in that army of journalists and technology. I'd pace on the top tier of our multi leveled central control room, roam into the studios and work with our anchors and analysts or stand in my office watching 4 television sets and a computer screen. It was an ultimate adrenaline pump.
There was a time when I was brought back as the "senior analyst" meaning the old guy on the set who "had been there and done that." Think Tom Brokaw, today.
This evening I'll probably drive Lana crazy with my channel hopping, computer searching, texting, and phone calls with people around the country. It will be fun, with
no pressure, but I think perhaps the greatest thrill was my very first election night, covering a mayors race. At the end of a long night, our radio anchor had us all looped together in a "talk back" debrief where we shared our impressions. I remember driving home that night thinking, "Man, I've arrived in the big time!"
A GREAT CITY AND HOTEL
Yesteday's post was a bit of slap dash, iphone based view
of the Fairmont. Both it and San Francisco deserve a more deliberate treatment.
