I paid the new Tarantino film a second visit, this time with the THC Son who is visiting for a few days. My original review.
Seeing it a second time allowed me to pay more attention to the period details, which are so precise and so right, and the general atmosphere, appreciating all of Tarantino's little touches. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are even better than I thought. And the musical choices are spot on. I particularly liked the use of Out of Time (The Rolling Stones), Twelve Thirty (The Mamas & The Papas) and the Jose Feliciano version of The Mamas & The Papas classic, California Dreamin, as well as a perfectly using an edited version of the intro to You Keep Me Hangin' On by the Vanilla Fudge. I rate it even more highly now.
Tarantino finally made a movie with heart and warmth (and yes, there is violence). A great film.
Monday, August 12, 2019
Friday, August 9, 2019
Politics Without Substance
I came across this political quiz at the New York Times.
Using eight questions it claims to be able to predict your political
affiliation. None of the questions have anything to do with policy or
ideology; all are related to race, sexual orientation, education and
religion.
I took the quiz. Party affiliation strength is rated on a scale of 1-100 for both parties. I scored as a +48 Democrat, which means right now I should be deciding whether to support Bernie, Handsy Joe, Granny Warren, or Willie Brown’s [redacted] in the primary. Long ago, before the last Ice Age, I used to be a Democrat but the last time I voted for a D presidential candidate was 1976 and the last time for any office (other than local) was around 1990.
Where did I go wrong?
My Democratic parents raised me to believe America was the greatest country in the world and we were fortunate to be here. They taught me Commies were bad, really bad. They taught me you needed to work hard to succeed, though they also knew it did not guarantee success. They taught me we had an obligation to help those who couldn’t help themselves, though admittedly their definition of being unable to help themselves was much narrower than that of today’s progressives. They taught me to treat everyone decently, unless they proved they should be treated otherwise, and they taught me that something needed to be done to improve America’s treatment of what were then called Negroes.
I believed then and now they were right in what they taught me.
So maybe this is more about where the Democratic party went wrong.
There’s always been a cottage industry among progressive journalists and intellectuals seeking to explain why Republicans are so racist and xenophobic (and if you read the text surrounding the Times quiz you will see it is dripping with progressive assumptions about how and why people vote Republican), which has exploded into full-time work with the Trump presidency. What is most striking about these musing is their lack of insight into their own belief system and how it looks to anyone not immersed in their world.
In both my personal life and in thirty years in the corporate world where I hired, managed, promoted, and mentored many people I’ve always been the same; treat people fairly, and I'm confident that's how others see me. I’ve seen people discriminated against, been outraged, and objected. For that entire time it has not mattered what my political affiliation has been, nor what anyone else's political affiliation was.
I'm not happy with the overall trend in American politics, regardless of party, but I've witnessed the old Democratic party disintegrate over the decades and now transform completely in the 21st century into an organization that manufactures divisiveness, suppresses dissent, seeks to punish its enemies by denying them a livelihood, and wants a permanent one-party state in which identity defines ones belief system. It’s a party that devalues ideas and an individual’s ability to make decisions. I feel like I’m watching the scene in Alien where the creature bursts from a crew member’s chest and seeks to devour everything in sight.
Or, as Joe Walsh put it, “Everybody’s so different, I haven’t changed“.
It’s why the social justice crowd and white nationalists, race realists or whatever they are calling themselves now, deserve each other. They have the same analysis of society and our political system. Their only difference is in who they think should be on top. Actually, there is one more difference – one is a fringe group of crazies, the other seems to have seized control of one of our two major parties.
I think this best sums up my reaction to the Times quiz:
I took the quiz. Party affiliation strength is rated on a scale of 1-100 for both parties. I scored as a +48 Democrat, which means right now I should be deciding whether to support Bernie, Handsy Joe, Granny Warren, or Willie Brown’s [redacted] in the primary. Long ago, before the last Ice Age, I used to be a Democrat but the last time I voted for a D presidential candidate was 1976 and the last time for any office (other than local) was around 1990.
Where did I go wrong?
My Democratic parents raised me to believe America was the greatest country in the world and we were fortunate to be here. They taught me Commies were bad, really bad. They taught me you needed to work hard to succeed, though they also knew it did not guarantee success. They taught me we had an obligation to help those who couldn’t help themselves, though admittedly their definition of being unable to help themselves was much narrower than that of today’s progressives. They taught me to treat everyone decently, unless they proved they should be treated otherwise, and they taught me that something needed to be done to improve America’s treatment of what were then called Negroes.
I believed then and now they were right in what they taught me.
So maybe this is more about where the Democratic party went wrong.
There’s always been a cottage industry among progressive journalists and intellectuals seeking to explain why Republicans are so racist and xenophobic (and if you read the text surrounding the Times quiz you will see it is dripping with progressive assumptions about how and why people vote Republican), which has exploded into full-time work with the Trump presidency. What is most striking about these musing is their lack of insight into their own belief system and how it looks to anyone not immersed in their world.
In both my personal life and in thirty years in the corporate world where I hired, managed, promoted, and mentored many people I’ve always been the same; treat people fairly, and I'm confident that's how others see me. I’ve seen people discriminated against, been outraged, and objected. For that entire time it has not mattered what my political affiliation has been, nor what anyone else's political affiliation was.
I'm not happy with the overall trend in American politics, regardless of party, but I've witnessed the old Democratic party disintegrate over the decades and now transform completely in the 21st century into an organization that manufactures divisiveness, suppresses dissent, seeks to punish its enemies by denying them a livelihood, and wants a permanent one-party state in which identity defines ones belief system. It’s a party that devalues ideas and an individual’s ability to make decisions. I feel like I’m watching the scene in Alien where the creature bursts from a crew member’s chest and seeks to devour everything in sight.
Or, as Joe Walsh put it, “Everybody’s so different, I haven’t changed“.
It’s why the social justice crowd and white nationalists, race realists or whatever they are calling themselves now, deserve each other. They have the same analysis of society and our political system. Their only difference is in who they think should be on top. Actually, there is one more difference – one is a fringe group of crazies, the other seems to have seized control of one of our two major parties.
I think this best sums up my reaction to the Times quiz:
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Historic Greatness
Today Mike Trout turns 28. He's on his way to his eighth full season in the majors and is probably the best all-around player in baseball over the past 50 years.
Mike began with a spectacular rookie season in 2012 and has only gotten better since, improving every weakness in his game. He used to strike out a lot and walk less. In 2014 he walked in 11.7% of his at bats and struck out in 26.1%. Last year he was 20% in both categories. He had trouble with the high inside fastball but changed his stance and now you can't throw it past him. He was criticized for a weak throwing arm and had only three assists in his first two full seasons. After working on his throwing strength he's had 30 assists over the last five years and measurably increased the speed of his throws.
He covers a lot of ground as an outfielder and has made any number of spectacular catches. As of now he is the fourth most successful base stealer in major league history with an 84% success rate - actually, apart from a period in 2015 where pitchers and catchers seemed to have found something in his approach and caught him 7 times in 11 attempts, his success rate is 87% which would be the highest in history.
He hits for average, he hits for power and for the fourth year in a row he's leading the league on On Base Percentage, for the third consecutive year in OPS, and for the fifth time in a row in OPS+ (he plays home games in a pitcher's park).
In seven full seasons he's won two MVPs and finished second on four occasions. The year he missed a third of the games due to injury he only finished fourth.
In the new fangled stat of Wins Above Replacement (WAR) he is #1 as of age 28 of the almost 20,000 players in major league history, displacing the former #1, Ty Cobb, and is already #60 in career WAR for position players.
What a treat to watch someone perform at this level!
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Routine Traffic Stop
August 1 in Parkland, Washington. I wonder if the cop asked him for his license and registration?
Monday, August 5, 2019
This Life Is More Than Just A Read-Thru
True words. Take it from me.
One of the best from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And a loony video.
One of the best from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And a loony video.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Sandford Hall
Just returned from Tampa where we visited my 97 year old father-in-law. While there we got on to the subject of how much he used to love dancing.
As a teenager, growing up in depression-era Alliance, Nebraska, his mother insisted he learn how to dance. His instructor was the daughter of the local banker. On Saturday afternoons he would go to their house and for 25 cents she would give him a lesson.
He told us how in the late 1930s he and his buddies would drive two hours to a dance hall on Saturday night and then two hours home after midnight. Mentioning that he'd heard all the Big Bands play he lamented that the dance hall was probably long gone.
Turns out that after asking him some details on location, we were able, thanks to the miracle of the internet, to find the dance hall and learned to our surprise it is still standing!
Sandford Hall in Mitchell, Nebraska is located at the Scotts Bluff County Fairgrounds and been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1997.
Sandford Hall was built in 1934, replacing the Mitchell Dance Hall Pavilion which burned down in January of that year. 1934 was a very tough year in the Nebraska Panhandle; not only was the Depression in full swing but it was the first year of the Dust Bowl sweeping across the Great Plains. The Panhandle was big, lonely country. Take Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, west of Worcester, and then remove 4.9 million of the 5 million inhabitants in the area and you've got the Panhandle, with its biggest towns in 1940 being Scottsbluff (12,000) and Alliance (6,000). In 2019 the Panhandle's population is down to about 85,000.
Thankfully, JL Sandford, one of the owners of the First National Bank in Mitchell, was able to arrange a line of credit to finance the new building (and have it named after him!). The dance floor in the new building was made of hardwood and measured 120'x50'.
And just as my father in law remembered, many of the famous big bands played there, hosted by the American Legion, including Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Harry James, Artie Shaw, and Lawrence Welk. In those days the bands toured nationally by bus. There was no interstate highway system so traveling took much longer and Mitchell and Scotts Bluff was a natural overnight stop between Denver and Omaha. Mitchell's population was only 2,000 but the bands often drew more than 1,000 people to their shows as folks like my father in law and his friends would drive hours to get there.
Today, the recently renovated hall is still used for events ranging from dog shows to weddings.
As a teenager, growing up in depression-era Alliance, Nebraska, his mother insisted he learn how to dance. His instructor was the daughter of the local banker. On Saturday afternoons he would go to their house and for 25 cents she would give him a lesson.
He told us how in the late 1930s he and his buddies would drive two hours to a dance hall on Saturday night and then two hours home after midnight. Mentioning that he'd heard all the Big Bands play he lamented that the dance hall was probably long gone.
Turns out that after asking him some details on location, we were able, thanks to the miracle of the internet, to find the dance hall and learned to our surprise it is still standing!
Sandford Hall in Mitchell, Nebraska is located at the Scotts Bluff County Fairgrounds and been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1997.
Sandford Hall was built in 1934, replacing the Mitchell Dance Hall Pavilion which burned down in January of that year. 1934 was a very tough year in the Nebraska Panhandle; not only was the Depression in full swing but it was the first year of the Dust Bowl sweeping across the Great Plains. The Panhandle was big, lonely country. Take Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, west of Worcester, and then remove 4.9 million of the 5 million inhabitants in the area and you've got the Panhandle, with its biggest towns in 1940 being Scottsbluff (12,000) and Alliance (6,000). In 2019 the Panhandle's population is down to about 85,000.
Thankfully, JL Sandford, one of the owners of the First National Bank in Mitchell, was able to arrange a line of credit to finance the new building (and have it named after him!). The dance floor in the new building was made of hardwood and measured 120'x50'.
And just as my father in law remembered, many of the famous big bands played there, hosted by the American Legion, including Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Harry James, Artie Shaw, and Lawrence Welk. In those days the bands toured nationally by bus. There was no interstate highway system so traveling took much longer and Mitchell and Scotts Bluff was a natural overnight stop between Denver and Omaha. Mitchell's population was only 2,000 but the bands often drew more than 1,000 people to their shows as folks like my father in law and his friends would drive hours to get there.
Today, the recently renovated hall is still used for events ranging from dog shows to weddings.
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