UPPITYBLACK

What's going on

2010-05-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

May 21st 1971 Marvin Gaye released his 11th studio album. The record was made at in the Motown studios in Detroit. Berry Gordy, the man behind Motown, didn't approve of this record containing counter culture messages. He thought this was too politically charged, and while he gave in to Gaye's record, he was certain it would flop. Whats going on shot to number one where it stayed on top of the charts for 5 weeks. If you have not listened to all of it, you are missing out on some of the most beautiful, moving songs ever made. I was listening to this record this morning and even to this day it moves me to tears when I hear "God is love".

As I was listening to the rest of the songs I couldn't help but think "are things as bad or worse today as they were in in the early 70's when Gaye sang "whats going on?" His songs were done from the view of a soldier returning from Vietnam. Would a soldier returning from Afghanistan today not mention all of the things the Gaye sings about in his record. Ecology, War, Pollution, Unemployment, Poverty, Drugs. The record could have been released May 21, 2010, yet if I tune in to MTV or surf the radio for pop songs of today, there is not a hint, nor whisper of whats going on. Songs today are way out in fantasy land. I caught a disturbing video of two of the biggest pop stars today, Lady Gaga and Beyonce, where Beyonce springs Gaga out of prison, they go to a diner and poison everyone (I'm not making this up) and dance around them in red white and blue outfits as they die. Whats going on? Why is it no one is singing about Haiti? Why are we not singing about ending THIS war? Has there been one War song in the last 10 years we have been at it? Its truly mindblowing. Thousands of People are losing their homes every day to foreclosure, and unemployment has not been this high since the 30's, yet no is singing about it. It used to be the silver lining in the cloud about bad times was, the music got better, as it did in the late 60s and early 70's. Instead, in this "the worst of times" we have Beyonce singing about "All the single ladies". Its actually quite fascinating to me we could have so much trouble in this world and pop culture today seems to have put a blind eye to it. Maybe in this day in age people do not want to be reminded of their problems... instead they want to escape them. I believe there is a song racing up the charts now call "Billionaire by Travie McCoy" about a guy who dreams of being a billionaire". We do have pockets of passionate people trying to bring awareness to some of the problems in the World. (Sean Penn's all out effort to help those in Haiti comes to mind), but by in large there is little or no outrage over much of anything today. Too busy listening to Travie McCoy I guess.

What's going on?

With wings like eagles.

2010-03-13T10:36:00.001-08:00

Hi Gang.

I didn't write this particular blog. I didn't take the picture. I did though stumble on it and felt it was so beautiful, it needed to be "re-blogged". Enjoy.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
(Isaiah 40:28-31)

Say Goodbye to... - Further thoughts on what's next, and some less than perfect predictions from the past

2010-01-02T13:50:00.000-08:00

In my obsession with 2050 and beyond, I could not help but add more thoughts on the future. I have always loved reading about the future and enjoy looking back on what people thought the future might look like. For some reason the oo's did not hit me as living in the 21st Century. 2010? Now that seem futuristic. So bummed the Jetsons appear to be so much farther out. How many of us believed we would have flying cars some day? I did. While it does seem in some way things have not change that much at all ( Air travel and Home Interiors for instance), things indeed are a changing. I was thinking about a Top 10 list, but after reading so many over the last week, I've become sick of all things "Top 10"- So instead, here is a peek at what I see years from now.

Say goodbye to - Payphones- Phonebooks - Checks -Cash -Privacy - Lying - US Mail Service, Newspapers - Books - Magazines - Big Cars -Commuting -The US Dollar -Marriage - Signatures CDs and Blue Ray DVDs- Blackboards- Car Crashes - Driving - DUI's -Getting lost - Amber Alerts - Car Chases - Real Movie Stars - Suburbs - McMansions - Oil and Gas

Say Hello to - GPS/Personalized Advertising (Walk by a store and the store will text you or send you information) -100 Percent E-Bill/Pay - Working from Home - Global Currency - Vacations in Space and Under Sea - Stem Cell Organ/Teeth/blood replacement- Biometric IDs - Privacy Consultants (Will have to pay for Privacy) - Driver-less Cars - Robots as Chefs, Servers, Police, Soldiers, Nurses and eventually, Friends - Thought Police for crime prevention - Digital Movie Stars - Africa as a major tourist destination - Greater influence of Asian and Chinese Culture on the World (and US) as China grows to become the #1 World Power and as the US works its way out of debt - The continued development of the North American Union (US, Mexico and Canada further align, benefiting all three Nations) - The Dead (Family members images and memories brought back to life in 3D) - A New Reality show that gives practically EVERYONE 15 minutes of fame - An even greater view of real time War -Green Homes (Tiny Green Homes)- and my boldest prediction... the Queen NEVER dies.

And for fun, here are some past predictions that didn't pan out. (Hopefully mine will not be as bad as these)

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” — Western Union internal memo, 1876.

“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” — Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office, 1876

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” — Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

“There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” — Albert Einstein, 1932.

“There will never be a bigger plane built.” — A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that holds ten people.

. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

“Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1.5 tons.” — Popular Mechanics, 1949

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” — Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.

While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it is an impossibility.” — Lee DeForest, inventor.

“So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’” — Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer.

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” — H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

The 2000's - and whats next

2009-12-26T12:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays to all! I hope everyone had a wonderful Hanukkah and Christmas. My five year old loves it at this time as most kids do. She is especially lucky in that she gets both a Hanukkah and Christmas. She seems very comfortable with both celebrations. Its organic to her and she embraces both with such enthusiasm. Being a 5 year old digital native, she is also very comfortable with computers. Don't you wish you had such ease with a computer the first time you ever used one? For her, using a computer was like my first trip to the playground. No one had to tell me what to do, I just played. That's how my Daughter is with technology. The first time she pried my iphone from me, she just KNEW how to use it. Have you given any thought to the impact of technology on our lives in the last 10 years? Its really amazing. With our phones and the internet, many of us now have "friends" all over the World thanks to social networks... many we have never met. (probably never will) I expect this to continue in a big way. More and more friends (1000s of them) as we build our personal Network with people who share the same likes and dislikes as us... and the friends we have known?, we may connect with them more, but less in person. Speaking to my Nanny, she felt she is "more" in touch with her friends, calling and texting, but I told her there was a time when you hung with your friends endlessly, in person. Our very definition of "friends" and "close friends", oh boy that's going to change, if it hasn't already. Even the modern design of most streets (made wider so 2 fire trucks could pass each way) in some suburbs took away the natural connection with your neighbors. (Think when you were a kid, you knew everyone pretty much on your block) I barely know my neighbors today. So now we are making connections and friendships so easily over the Web leaving our shyness at home, and the time of these interactions (some lasting only seconds) with lots of strangers the World over. Think of the long range impact. "Face to Face" might be reserved for family, very important business affairs, and the closest of friends. (and even that will go away - I'm waiting see one of my friends get married online" Seriously, this stuff is coming (for those who cant make it to the wedding in person please visit John and Jessica get married.com ) Our definition of face to face may be with Avatars and not in the flesh. Yes, technology had its biggest impact on how we interact within society over last 10 years and it seems it will only be more so in the next 10 years. So I know... I only focused on one aspect of technology's impact over the last decade. And yes we will make more connections, and yes, it will redefine our friendships, but with new technology we also we will find ways to live much much longer (Only if you are very very rich). I do think the impact of Stemcell research over the next 10 years will be mind-boggling. In 20 years, growing organs for replacement will in common almost commonplace for those rich enough to afford it.

I think in addition to saying goodbye to face to face friendships, say goodbye too to all Newspapers and Magazines in paper form. And everyone knows about the death of the Newspaper, but did you know, we will also see the beginning of the end of meat consumption? (and it may take 30 years but its decline will begin). Its going to get too dangerous (Swine flu is not the end, but just the start) and it will become too expensive for most. (strangely enough as it began, when meat was only consumed by the very rich) In this decade we will see the 100 dollar Steak and the 20 Dollar hamburger. Meat substitutes (many today are amazing) will go mainstream as "becoming healthy" really healthy becomes the next big status symbol. Older people will look younger and younger people will look older as the environment takes its toll on those who fail to take care of themselves. There will be a further divide not only between the rich and the poor, but between the healthy and the unhealthy. Living healthy is a lifestyle choice and healthy lifestyle will be marketed and product-ized of sorts as boomers get even older.

I think the one thing as I ramble through my thoughts about this decade and the next is, the 2000's took away our ability to be shocked. Nothing seems shocking anymore. After 9/11, Katrina, Tsunami's, earthquakes, Virgina Tech, The bailing out of AIG and other financial institutions that helped caused the financial crisis, and then to see everyday people lose their homes (with no bail out), the events in and around War in Iraq and the 4,282 US Soldiers and Sailors who have died in combat, its very difficult to shocked by anything anymore. And I don't know if we are just numb to all of these events, but I think most of us are just about ready for anything.

And with that, lets say goodbye to the double OOs and say hello to the next decade~!

Peace to you and happy 2010!

Good Times!

2009-11-20T21:26:00.001-08:00

Good Times! I was watching reruns of this hit show from the 70's and couldn't help but think of how desperately America needs another "Good Times" kind of show. You know, a family with some legit struggle, real struggle... ALL the time... and making the best of it. I think Caucasian folks in particular need this the most. My Dad told me this week that in NYC "White is the new Black". The struggles that Black people have known for far too long, now belong to a new class of people, and I'm not talking about "Rosanne" either. Some folks I know are struggling for the first time in their lives, and they need lessons on living "day to day. This is nothing new to us. Just ask people in Detroit. Detroit has been in a permanent recession since the 60's, maybe earlier. Double digit unemployment? Nothing new. This recession feels like a depression to some because they never felt struggle. Enjoying simple pleasures, like playing monopoly, the board game and not MONOPOLY, buying and owning 2 or 3 real homes (odd how that felt normal - the summer home, the winter home yada yada)... appreciating non material things like your health, and not getting a shoppers high from blowing thousands on a pair of shoes (ok, a couple of nice pairs of shoes) with your Amex Platinum Card. What was great about "Good Times", was we could relate, but we were never as down and out as they were. My Mom once said, look, you got it better than JJ (Jimmy Walker, the ultra skinny dude on the right in the Blue hat) you should thank your lucky stars you have it so good". Guess what? I bought it. Why not have a show of a once prosperous family that fall victim of the economy and find happiness with each other. But instead of a Super poor family in Good Times, how about a Madoff like family? (without the crime thingy) I was thinking about the remake of "Fun with Dick and Jane" with Jim Carrey, Téa Leoni. The only problem with that movie, just like real life, Dick and Jane lost stuff, but the stuff is what gave them happiness. Some of us have not let go of the "stuff" it seems. The great American Consumer's appetite for more has taken some serious hits, in the last year and a half, but like the creatures in "night of the living dead" the shoppers come back from the brink, looking for SOME way (like Layaway), to get more stuff. (and ok, maybe not layaway, that involves patience). And lets not pretend that a recovery is just around the corner. Pa-lease! I see this thing lasting another 15 or more years. Its going to take a long time to get this economy back in shape. The tricks that propped up American Consumption for so long (Cheap credit, corporate thievery in the stock market, and an ultra inflated housing market) those gimmicks are mostly played. I'm not go any further on it in this blog the ills of the Nation, but its crazy ugly. What the Country needs is to see the cast of say Dynasty, or Dallas, pulling themselves together, and getting by on less and having fun along the way. I'm serious, the Country needs this. There has to be a reason people are lining up to see Sarah Palin. She has that fallen from grace, going from Vogue to Rogue thing going for her. Ok, that just messed up my blog...nevermind the thought.

Just imagine, A family that had it all (or so they thought) and found it all by losing it all and having each other. Loving each other for who they are and not for how much money they make. I'm sure JJ Walker would say DYN-O-MITE! to that. I know I would. Its a good lesson for everyone. Good times!

Health Care for all....what is there to debate?

2009-08-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan plans to increase the rates for about 163,000 people under certain plans by an average of 22 percent. Blue Cross is also increasing certain supplemental Medicare policies held by about 210,000 Michigan seniors by an average of 4.7 percent.

In Southern California, The billionaire chairman of Los Angeles-based Mercury Insurance Company is sponsoring a ballot measure that would legalize surcharges of hundreds of dollars for automobile insurance, penalize good drivers for accidents that are not their fault, and lead to more uninsured motorists. Under the proposal, aimed at the June 2010 ballot, people who stop driving for more than three months or were previously uninsured would be forced to pay more when they restart their insurance. These include laid-off employees, recent graduates, retirees forced back to work, people buying insurance for the first time and residents who move away from cities with good mass transit systems. Such surcharges are currently unlawful under the 1988 insurance reform law, Proposition 103, but Mercury has repeatedly violated that and other state insurance laws.

These are few two of MANY examples of how quietly Insurance companies are out (as much as they can) to minimize claims and maximize profits. The bizarre thing about this sleazy business is somehow in the Press, the current state of the Nations Health Care is being made to look as if it actually WORKS for YOU! I am simply dumbfounded by the tone of the National "Debate" on health care. Who are these freaks speaking up for the Insurance companies that are out to do as little as possible, charge as much as possible, and eliminate as many risks as possible? Who are they? A Government option will force the insurance companies from continuing their "mission statement" to rip off insurance policy holders as effectively as possible. "Big Government" is being blathered on right wing talk radio as a bad thing. Its NUTS, absolutely NUTS! Wasn't the strategic National response to Pearl Harbor "Big Government"? Wasn't FDR's New Deal "Big Government?" Those projects like the Hoover Dam, Tennessee Valley Authority, Social Security, the Interstate Highway System and don't forget the Space Program, yes Virgina, we got to the MOON with the help of "Big Government". How American and Patriotic is THAT??? And if we do not ALL participate and ALL pitch in, what is the opposite of "all"? Wouldn't it be "one person" and wouldn't that be a Dictatorship?

The fact that the press (and insurance companies, and right wing nut jobs) have convinced many that we should keep this rigged system as is, should be a wake up call. As the so called debate goes on, I think the masses will wake up to the facts and wake up to the truth, the Insurance companies don't care about you, only that your premiums and your Employer's premiums, are paid on time. That's it. They are in it for the money. No pretty ad can cover up the stench of these sleazeballs. Let your Congressman know where YOU stand. Let them hear your voice. scream louder than the loonies...and let's fight back!

Once we GET a public option, the next thing we should do is go after the FDA. The Food and Drug Administration is the flimsiest Government body ever. Its RUN by the Food Corporations! Colonel Sanders and General Mills call the shots baby! and there is no governance. Anything and everything that can fit in a tube, bottle or box, IS made for human consumption in the USA. I would say that 9 1/2 of 10 Aisles in the average grocery store are packed with ingredients that will kill you and end your life sooner than it should. These ingredients cause cancer, heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease. Its a mess! and the odds are stacked against the avg. fast food eating, grab some more chicken wings and beer American. The Worlds Greatest Country deserves better. Our kids deserve better. Don't you think? Preventative Doctor visits, diet and exercise, all the things suggested as the optimum American way of life, Corporations, are out to eliminate. There is more money in "treating" everyone for being sick. And if your not sick, there is a VERY strong media to convince people they just might be. Come on, who are you kidding? You HAVE to be sick, you ate Twinkies!!! Lots of them! They have a shelf life of 600 years!...its going to get you. Its Jet Fuel! There is NO money in a cure...the cash is in treating the symptoms. The big money is in the testing, but only after its too late. With so called "Modern Medicine" You would think things might get better, but the recession, (The GREAT recession) oh it set us back, big time. cheap "comfort" food "dollar menu baby!!!" Staying home and "cocooning" is in. Reality TV (which had nothing to do with the recession), the reality, many people stay in and watch people live so called "real lives" on TV (Who in the Hell is this "Kate" person anyway? and WHY don't they call HER the Octomom??? How did she get center stage on "People", and who reads this crap? You know who? Fat Americans, thats who!!! when in actuality, the new reality is a trip to the couch (is that couch paid for? ok that's another story)... a trip to the fridge, back to the couch and then back to the fridge... to the couch... to the fridge and off to the bed. (and the modern American cant sleep anyway) There is a pill for that, too!

When and where does it all end? I'm counting on you to do something about this mess. I'm sick of writing. This subject, ah it makes me sick to my stomach.

I promise a happy story next blog.

An iTunes kind of life?

2009-07-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

Oh our ipods! Dont we just love them?! Me, I have a older ipod with over 9000 songs (yes Nine zero zero zero and counting). At first thought you would think that all this electronic access to music would be great for the music business, but we found out it actually hurt sales, and changed the way we buy music forever. I could go into all of the terrible byproducts of downloading music (the biggie being stolen music downloads), and this is has also hit the movie business, but I wanted to focus on one aspect.

See when I was a teenager, I went down to the record store. My little shop actually wasn't a record store, it was really a Smokeshop that sold records. The owners Son was really into music, and he gave his son some space to sell records, and over time the Son sold more records than his Dad sold pipes and cigars, but it still went by the smoke shop name. I spent a LOT of time in the smoke shop talking about music with the owners Son and anybody who would walk into the store and wanted to talk about music. The thing we were all trying to find was the next big band, and those hidden gems on the B-side of the records. This was SO fun. I remember running into the store to tell Sam (the owners son) about this killer song "Train in Vain" by the Clash. "Train" wasn't even listed on the record! A gem! later a HIT!

I guess since the music that came out in the late 70's and early 80's was so fantastic, for me, it was magical. Unlike today, there wasn't an easy way to preview music, unless you heard it on the radio, OR in the record store. (Off topic, I'm still waiting for that great recession music to arrive, as the way it has gone, the worse the economy the better the music (that is until now, and I have a few theories, but I digress) The records didn't cost much back in the day, and even a teenager could take a chance on a band you didn't know. Literally, I bought a record simply for the cover (and beautiful covers they were (sob)) or read about it in Rolling Stone. For me, Rolling Stone was the music Bible, the good book! I remember buying "Dire Straits" sight unseen. RS said it was good and that was good enough for me. "The Clash", "Blondie", "Talking Heads", "Devo" "PIL", "Cheap Trick" "The B-52's", "U2" and "The Cars" It seemed almost like a new must -have band came out every week! When I listened to all this wonderful music on my Sears Special record player and my Koss Headphones, all bought on McDonalds wages, I listened to ALL the music on one side of the record. flipped it and listened ALL of the flip side (aka the B-side). Looking back, some of the BEST music ever was found on the flip or B-side. It was too difficult to pick up the needle and go from song to song although, people did try (usually at parties). This was where you heard the big scratches (RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP!) when the person changing the song had been drinking too much and would utter something like " Oh you GOT to hear this song...Ugh let me find it") (Ah, you younger kids will never know how your Parents lived before The Internet, Facebook, ipods, iphones, Tivo, and cars with AC, OnStar, and Navigation. trust me, you had think on your feet every now and then. ;))

Fast forward some 35 years later and look how we buy and listen music today. Itunes sells music by the SONG! Little kids with Itunes accounts are cherry picking Jonas Brothers songs. (of course that may not be a bad thing). No really, this IS a bad thing. If at the end of the day, Sally Sue only buys so called "hit" songs, plenty of Artists works will go without a listen (Songs back in the day a person would discover on the B-side) Many of these songs became hits. "Train in Vain" a hit song by the Clash, wasn't even listed on the record! The only way you found it, was listening to the entire record. Who didn't listen to ALL of London Calling? Those who might buy it on iTunes and may not know better. I'm certain "Thriller" would not be as big had it been released first on iTunes...even the best selling record of all time is being cherry picked. Oh yes. When was the last time you listened to an ENTIRE record, er, gee, I mean downloadable collection of songs that would have been a record or CD?

The World spins just as fast as it did 40 years ago, but things "appear" to be moving much faster. In all this hectic living, are we cherry picking more than songs on iTunes? Are we not taking the time to listen to an entire conversation, message, Class or Meeting? Do we cherry pick some of what we hear and tune out the rest? We are missing out on some "life's" greatest hits! lifes greatest little moments....the B side. Immerse yourself into whatever your doing. Listen to the entire conversation. Stay until the end of the game. Buy the entire download! Listen to your kids! Finish the book! Be in the moment...and stick around and smell the roses, the coffee...you just might find a Gem!. :)

Good Happens!

2009-06-23T18:40:00.001-07:00

Wow, its been light years since I wrote in my blog. I've been truly struggling to come up with something I felt was worth writing. I wanted to write about hard work and faith. You know, we are in such a "Haves" and "Have Not" Society. I know so many people who are doing just fantastic right now in the midst of this Global Recession, and I know people who are having a very tough time. I wanted to be encouraging to those who are having a tough go at it, to lean on your faith. I mean LEAN! I'm amazed how the combination of effort and faith results in the incredible and Amazing . You must have both. Every day, every task, every situation, You have to give it 110 percent. You must give it your all. My Soccer Coach (Mark Hilty) told me and my teammates to "Leave it ALL on the field" He said if we could run off the field at the end of the game we didn't work hard enough. So give it your all, and then pray like crazy and believe in the positive possibilities...the unlimited abundance. If you cant see it, if you cant picture the optimal outcome, how can anybody else? You gotta have faith. Especially when you get setbacks. Don't quit. Don't give up. Faith and works...its works. In the end you may not get exactly what you want, but a light will be set out, and a path will be made... and you will get exactly what you need. I wanted to give a few words of encouragement. Whatever it is you are seeking, it may it be closer than you think. Chin up, smile. Appreciate the sunshine, your family, and your friends.

Good Happens!

A note to my Grandmother.

2009-04-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

Once again I have been slow on the Blog front, and I want to apologize to the wonderful people who have reached out to me to tell me they enjoy my writing. Its quite a joy to get that kind of feedback and it's greatly appreciated. Ive been thinking a lot about my Grandmother. She was such a special influence in my life, perhaps a little more so than with most. She was more like a "Co-Mom" to me. At one point I lived just across the street from her for about 8 years growing up. Ruth Ann gave me some tremendously valuable lessons. Not all of them I took to heart, but most of them I did. She was really big on learning, and she cut zero slack on school. I had no choice but to produce, "or else". (I never found out what "or else was, nor did I want to know". My Grandmother grew up during the Great Depression. She owned two homes (the other was a rental) and was comfortably retired at 63, after being a Superintendent at a Reform School for Girls for over 25 years. She did quirky things like Christmas shopping in June (all of it). She would always give me one of the best presents, and even better, I always got it a day before Christmas. (I never knew exactly why she gave it to me early, but I loved it). I know this is sounding like she was just spoiling me, but that really wasn't the case. Because of her, I worked nights and weekends at McDonalds. She made a big deal out of the value of work and money. My Grandmother was always pretty focused on whatever she did, and at 82, she hardly lost her edge. She was a tremendously fun person to be with, and she loved her Grandson. When I got a VP promotion, it was pretty much a joint promotion. She was extremely proud and even at this stage of my life, continued encouraging me to "keep on keepin on". She did everything she could to live in her house until she could no longer, and moved to a Assisted living center. She wasn't there long before she passed away. I was so sad and torn up about losing my Grandmother that I convinced my wife to "pull the goalie" so that we might have a kid. Before her death, for whatever reason, I had this "logical" (like Spock on Star Trek) view of kids as a line item expense and way too much trouble. I wasn't a "kid" type of guy at all. But losing my "Rock" made me so want to be a parent and grow the family. 14 months after she passed away we had a baby girl. I guess you could also say that I became "The rock" for my family. And Since we were married in Italy, and since Rome was our favorite city, we name her Romi (Rom-ee) The R is also a nod to Ruth Ann. In a lot of ways my Daughter has a little "Ruth Ann" in her. She is pretty focused, a hell of lot of fun, and she loves her Dad. Now the reason for this blog, I wanted to share with her some of things that has happened in the six years she has been gone and let her know I miss her. So here is my note to you.

My lovely Grandmother. We miss you SO much. I know you are in heaven and hope they are giving you a glimpse or two of your Great Grand Daughter. (tell me she isnt a chip off the old block). She knows all about you and knows you're in heaven. She is a GREAT kid (see her picture). She is so bright, and kicking butt at Montessori school. She is also at 4 an amazing swimmer. She can swim an entire length of a pool. She has this built in "will to win" She doesn't like to be 2nd in anything (almost to a fault). Every time I look in her eyes, I can see you. More big news. I know you wont believe this but America has its first Black President! You would love Obama and his family. Its like the Cosby show moved into the White House. The Country is going through some very difficult economic times. Epic/Depression level stuff. This President could not have a more difficult job. I would say work is tougher for most everyone now, including me, but I am doing my best to "keep on keeping on" like you taught me. But truly, I wish you were here so you can see this changing World. The World is changing Grandma. and its getting smaller. I can watch TV on my mobile Phone. I have buddies all over the planet. Oh yeah, and I stopped eating meat of any kind. I can no longer have your famous chicken. The last thing I'm going to leave you with, and its a bit of a shocker. They are going to cancel your favorite soap opera, "The Guiding light" after 72 years. Maybe they wont do so in heaven. I miss our "small talks" SO very much. You are in my heart, always and never forgotten. Love, your Grandson.

New pitcher to the field of dreams

2009-04-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

Just a kid. 22. Hard working pitcher from Silver Springs Maryland. The kid really loved baseball, and had a gutcheck journey to the bigs. It began with some seriously bad luck as he injured his elbow just before the 2004 MLB prep draft. The injury dropped him from a projected 10th in the 1st round all the way to 413th in the 14th round! Nick had to have tommy john surgery, and a ton of therapy to get back to form. A lot of kids would have quit after falling so far off the baseball draft radar. Not Nick. They guy kept working, kept at it. Bobby Knight said it this way "Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win. Nick was a winner. He did what it took to not only make it to "the show", the guy made it as the number 3 pitcher into the Angels starting rotation. In his first game of the 2009 season, Nick pitched six innings, giving up no runs, striking out 5, earning a no decision. A solid start to a long season. Then, the next morning, a drunk driver speeding in a red Toyota Sienna minivan runs a red light, hitting a gray Mitsubishi Eclipse in which Nick was a passenger. The Mitsubishi then crashes into a telephone pole...and just like that. A wonderful kid and his two friends are dead. Senseless. When you hear this stuff on the news, you go "so sad" so so tragic". I couldn't shake Nick's sudden death. What struck me about this was the sheer randomness of it all. So random. That could have been anyone of us. Later I was thinking "what if"? What if, they stopped and had coffee, or what if? Nick couldn't find his wallet and took an extra minute or two to find it, thereby missing the speeding idiot drunk driver ?. What 30 seconds, few minutes could have kept the two vehicles from colliding. Gosh, how does this stuff happen? Its tragic EVERY DAY! drunk drivers kill. Everyday, someone just as special to someone, dies or is badly hurt from a drunk driver. When will we get serious about drunk drivers, really serious? When will the madness end? Rest in peace Nick. And if they play baseball in heaven. If there really is a "field of dreams", Boy, their team just got better.

Free thinking

2009-03-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

Once again folks, I have been struck with "writers block". I have started numerous stories, but never got them to a state where I felt they should be published. I just didn't like them. Darn, if I was a writer in a newspaper, I would be toast! I'm like a lot of people, kind of frozen...kinda like "wow" all this crap is going on "bad stuff...really bad stuff". All I want to do is eat snacks and watch "the View". Today, I had to comfort a friend today who felt like she was about to be let go from her job, even though there wasn't any specific event or series of events that would suggest she was going to lose her job. (except the "News" talking about all the jobs that are being lost) People are scared. I do have some friends who are oblivious to all of this negativity, and are living like its 1999. They are truly above the "Debbie Downer" mindset and are not too concerned about anything. We really do seem to have two very different Worlds. Every day I try to convince myself I am not going to be a "part of the mess" Forge ahead and move about without worry. What will worry do for me? Nothing. There is no comfort in worry. Yet some days I can do it, and some days I cant. Friday I spoke to a guy that gave me some advice. He said "Don't embrace pop culture. Don't engage in "the mess", it will only mess you up. You know what? The guy is right. You have to pull back and rethink things and come up with your "own" plan. Too many of us are rolling with the herd... from birth to death, we are manipulated like puppets. Free thinking is real freedom but few of us ever pull it off. I've felt I have been a free thinker, but honestly, my mind and my thoughts are too polluted with the "World" I have been caught up with things which are not important in the big scheme of things. All is not lost, but I have to get real and get imaginative. In the end, I truly need to do my own thing. What about you?

The start of a Dream Season - Sounders FC

2009-03-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

On April 19, 2009 at about 6pm, 32,000 fans came out for the very first Seattle Sounders FC game as a MLS club (They played the New York Red Bulls). This was no ordinary kick off. Quest Field, the home of the Seattle Seahawks, was converted to a full on regulation Soccer Pitch, that look amazing. The fans came out in green and blue, and each had a Sounders FC Scarf, compliments of the team. It was a sea of scarves in the air waving, so impressively, you would have thought you were in England, or Spain, or Brazil. What in the world was going on here? Soccer has been the ugly stepchild of American Sports. Forever it seemed like the Big 3 (Football, Baseball, and Basketball) would rule America for the next 225 years, and in all likelyhood it will, BUT perhaps things are changing a little. Seattle has gone Soccer Mad. If they keep winning, things will really get crazy. It's interesting to point out that right now, there are more Sounders season ticket holders, than there are season ticket holders for the Seattle Mariners baseball team. And oh yeah, the M's will have their sellouts, but with only 16 home games, compared to 81 for the M's, the Sounder's games seem more special to me. The M's will have a little competition, and OMG, the nights where both play, will be a zoo! -

Fast forward to July 2011! The Seattle Sounders are STILL big and winning even more games this year. Tomorrow they host a friendly with Man United! Man Fricken United! Arguably the most popular team on Earth! Amazing, the Sounders ownership has kept this franchise on the right track. Let's hope they continue to pull all the right levers!

Death of a Newspaper

2009-03-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

I have been reading the Seattle PI since January 1993. Not a super long time compared to the 147 years the paper has been around, but its not a short period of time. So much has happened. The PI has been my personal companion the entire time I have been in Seattle. Nothing else has made it with me this long. I'm one of those goof balls that "saves" newspapers. I didnt save them all, but I did manage to keep a paper every time something "big" happened. I pulled some of these old PI's out to look at today, and wanted to share a few headlines. June 28, 1999 "Dome goes out a winner!"Ms beat the Rangers 5-2. Dec 20th 1998 "Impeached!" Then, President Clinton was impeached and the PI gave us 6 pages of coverage. Oct 8, 1995 "The Magic never ends!" M's rally to beat Yankees to force a deciding game. The M's had never been in this position before. For Seattle, this was crazy and insane all at the same time. Yes, the Sonics had won a Championship in 1979, but the baseball team had never made it to the playoffs. This was silly, wonderful, stuff and the PI covered like we lived it, in a very fun and celebratory way. Not like the New York Times was covering the Yankees...they were stuffy. We lived it up and the PI lived it up with us. Like a friend, the PI was there to tell everyone who would pony up the 25 cents, the entire story....all the details. Oh, but I didn't just collect the paper when they had made it to the payoffs. I saved a paper from September 21st, the day the M's pulled into first place tie with the Angels with a 11-3 win over Texas. The M's went on to beat the Angels in a one game playoff. (I was there for that one). My Oh My, one of the best days of my life. The PI put together special editions to celebrate it over and over. I honestly think the PI helped keep the Ms success story afloat to allow the city council overturn the stadium vote, making Safeco field possible. Maybe Safeco field is was the house that Griffey, and the PI built. Now years later, I can look at these papers, and it all comes back to me. I just don't know if going online to see old editions will have the same feeling. Probably not. But this is the World we live in. I "get" news real time now...it comes to me over my iPhone or my blackberry, or on Twitter. Reading the paper in the morning is merely a ritual. I already know whats in there, I just wanted to see how the PI was going to cover it. The impressive thing about this, is the PI writers always kept my attention. I wanted to get their spin on things. September 14th "10 trying to board jets in NY held" A Nation, still shell shocked, is desperate to make sense of the unthinkable. March 1, 2001 "6.8 SHOCKER". Strongest quake in 50 years. The PI was there to help us sort through these big stories with details, not sound bytes. At the end of the day, you cant beat a paper for getting the details. No TV, Radio, or Twitter Tweet can compete with a great writer. Whats sad about this, is people seem to be finding comfort with knowing less. The headlines alone seem to suffice. The sound byte IS the story. No wonder a company like Enron or World com could get off the ground. By 1999, America had moved clearly into "sound byte" Territory. Details were fuzzy, but it was ok, the "bigger picture" was clear as day.

Maybe there is a bigger price to pay for losing our local paper, and other cities losing their papers, and I hope I'm wrong. Either way, I'm going to miss Seattle PI. I'm going to miss it a bunch. The PI was always there. Come Wednesday, it wont be in the driveway, but instead, it might be in my inbox.

I don't know about that.

The year of being MAD!

2009-03-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

Aren't we PISSED OFF!!!.....at Something? Oh yeah, let it rip, we are angry. This is the year of being MAD! We are so mad at a lot of stuff in 2009. Mad at work... Mad about Pay freezes, or worse, the sense we are not going to make as much as we did before...or worse Mad because we lost our Job. Mad because we cant FIND a job. Mad because we cant get the money for school. Mad because our homes are worth a lot less (remember bragging about all the equity we had?) and no one wants to buy them. Mad because we cant pay the rent....cant pay our bills. Mad about the Stock Market collapse. Mad because (for some) our taxes are going to go UP AND deductions are going away. Mad because now retirement just got put off until like... never. Mad because our 401K now looks like a .4b. Mad because we cant do all the things we did a few years ago, like buy a latte. We are mad because we cant SPLURGE like we used to. Like a little kid on a big giant financial TIME OUT.... this sucks wind! Put into to the corner and shut down from our crazy spending sprees. WTF I thought that card was good!? Ok, so maybe it was Nuts to buy a new car EVERY year. Or a HOUSE every 2 or 3 years ( Think about that one) Buying Stuff...Shopping Nordstoms/Barneys/Tiffanys/Prada - Living La Vida Loca! ....That's what the weekends were for... Ugh! That impulse weekend trip to Vegas just ain't in the cards. The annual girls week trip... the week with the Guys ...cancelled. The family trip to Europe...Ugh, no. Even the trip to Grandma's house was a little "lite" at Christmas time. Family Reunion? Sorry, cant make it. Everything is being scaled back. So quietly, we are boiling inside. Steaming about this F***ing economy and waiting to explode about something or on somebody, with the realization this is way more than a recession. Worse, this thing ain't going away anytime soon. So we are mad at anything and everything. The person driving slow in the right hand lane. The CIO who just walked away with 300 Mill... A-Rod... The Octomom.... The Bachelor... we are even pissed off at the weather. Normally, we can tolerate a little snow, a little rain, but this year, the weather seems worse (and maybe it is) and it does because we don't feel good about everything else. We just want to sleep this off and call it a bad dream.

So. What now?, besides playing the lottery. (Oh come on, don't tell me you haven't bought a lottery ticket, a LOT of lottery tickets). My Dad says this is recession is a "good" thing..a time for cleaning house. Look, America (and it seems the World) got too carried away, as we have done many times over the years (late 1800's and of course the roaring 20's and the ga ga 80's). Caught up in a orgy of materialism and money worshiping. The Party was even BETTER than Prince said it would be in 1999, and we went BIG!... Sometimes, I feel like after those Towers came down, people said "Better get my living in, like TODAY!" and we all went a little crazy. We were all like George and Weezy on the Jeffersons, and baby, we were "Movin on UP!!! and UP and UP....and UP!!! In the end, the bills had to be paid, and boy the bill was a Whopper!!! There is not enough Tylenol in the World to cure this financial hangover.

BUT!.....I'm Optimistic for the future, and believe we are on the brink of a new age. A lot of amazing things are in store, and the opportunities will be many. The last thing we need is a downer attitude ( as easy as that is to have right now). Yep, we took a big hit, big as we have ever taken in our lifetime, but come on... we have to get off the mat, dust ourselves off, roll up our sleeves and get with the program!!! Being Mad isn't going to help anyone. If anything, be Glad. Be Glad you're alive! Be Glad for your friends. COUNT your blessings. Be Glad for your family. Be Glad for today. Be Glad for what CAN BE. Collectively we can have positive mojo, and the faster we will get out of this thing. Really. Be Glad! Spring is around the corner, and better times are ahead. ...and hey, lets enjoy these prices. Stuff may never be this cheap again

OSCAR TIME!

2009-02-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

The Oscars. I read somewhere that The Oscars is the "Superbowl" for women. You know, I don't get that. I think men...and even straight men like me, really enjoy watching the Oscars. The Oscars IS a must see event for a LOT women AND men. I love it. Love the red carpet. Love the Kodak theater. I love the tension, the show itself. I especially enjoy some of the Oscar hosts. (Billy Crystal is my all time favorite). I promised my wife I would take her one day to see the Oscars in person. (We have been to the Kodak Theater, but not during the show). (And don't bet against me, I've been to some pretty big events...almost a Zelig kind of attendance to big events in my lifetime, but that's another blog for another day). I have had two decent chances to go in the last 15 years, and can count one acquaintance, Tom Whitlock, (who won an Oscar for co-writing the song "Take my breath away") as the only Oscar winner I have met in real life and "hung out with". Tom is a humble, down to earth, great guy. I met him first back in 93'. And not to veer off the subject of Oscars, I met a couple at a dinner last night who are the proud parents of a daughter who won an Emmy. She did the opening visual effects for the TV show "Dexter". They were talking about the care of the Emmy, and just how sharp the wings are on the statue. Cool stuff. But...back to Oscar. I will pull it off and go one Year. Winning an Oscar is a life changing event. If you think about the money and the eternal status that goes along with one of these things, its mind blowing. You can see why anyone in Hollywood, or beyond, would love to be one of the privileged few to give an acceptance speech and go through the roller coaster ride that is Oscar. To put your heart and soul into your work like ALL of the nominees have, and to NOT win, has to be a heart breaker, I dont care what they say. So much "Pop" goes along with winning the Oscar, that just being only a nominee has its rewards. You get the title of "Oscar Nominee"on all of your future work. I wonder if that "Nominee" tag, helps you or hurts these Stars? Is it a continuous reminder of what was missed? OR is it a "tip of the cap" for doing such an outstanding job, that they were in contention. Meryl Streep hasn't won since 1982! 6 Nominations and counting. I wonder what she is thinking. At least she has won. Kate Winslet has never won, and she has been nominated many many times. You gotta think this is her time. But, it may be Anne Hathaway moment. Her Ex Boyfriend however, will be listening to the Oscars on a radio... from Prison. Doh! Back to the show. The Oscars. Have you seen all the movies??? I hate watching the Oscars and being short on seeing all of the nominated movies. Its part of the fun. I haven't seen "MILK" or "The Reader". I will probably get to see "Reader" this weekend.

Ok. Soooooo here is my predictions on who will win, and should win. Best Director - Should win David Fincher for Benjamin Button. Who will win - Danny Boyle "Slumdog Millionaire". I just felt Button, even though it felt like "Forrest Gump" 15 years later, was slightly better than the rags to riches, fairytale like Slumdog.

(Toughest Category of the night because they were all so amazing) Best Actor - Should win - Frank Langella for his role as Nixon in Frost/Nixon. Stunning, simply Stunning. Who will win - Brad Pitt. (Since Forrest won, then so should Ben Button - Is that wrong?) Brad did a great job, and he is joined at the hip to another Oscar winner. Winning would make things around the house easier to deal with, no? Best Actress - Will and Should are the same here. Kate Winslet. I haven't seen the reader, but since didn't get nominated for Revolutionary Road, then wow, she must have killed it in "Reader" Kate was amazing in RR, and she is DUE! Best Supporting Actor - No drumroll for this one. Just think if Heath Ledger DOESN'T win? The worldwide Grown would be off the charts. Michael Shannon in Rev Road was just as creepy as Ledger's Joker...maybe even creepier...and he had no clown makeup. That would be a spooky scene. Its not gonna happen. You know, there is something to be said for giving the award to the "living" nominees. And no disrespect here, but the guy did kill himself. He took himself out of the game. No? Best Supporting Actress Should win - Tariji P Hensen. She was amazing in Benjamin Button. She is my dark horse pick. Who will win? Penelope Cruz??? She was just screaming in Spanish. So Naaaaa I am sticking with Hensen. Best Animated Movie - "Wall-e" Wall-E could have been the first ever Animated Best Picture. It was THAT good.

So who will win Best Picture? Should win I didn't see Milk, but Frost/Nixon was my pick for best Picture (and is not going to win) Will win? - The Upset of the night. Slumdog will lose to... Benjamin Button. Its going be a shocker!!!!

Enjoy the Show!!!

The JOY of Checking Out

2009-02-16T16:57:00.000-08:00

Joaquin Phoenix is a REALLY good actor. "Walk the Line" is one of my favorite movies. The guy WAS Johnny Cash. But America is not talking so much about what he is doing on screen but rather what he is doing off screen. No one exactly knows. He says he has quit acting to do Hip Hop. Yeeeah Boooouy! His stint on Letterman is being called the most spaced out guest appearance of all time! Was it an act? Was he on DOPE? Its goofy...and its a very funny. Joaquin is living the dream... just "checking out" in a public way. I love that. I'm really surprised more of us haven't done this. I can tell you this. The guy is feeling NO stress...no pressure. The foot is off the gas pedal. Mr Phoenix is zoning...and I am SO jealous. I can't even zone out on the weekends... there is always a "honey do" or some unfinished work just waiting for me. That once in a blue moon "vacation" is no different, really, its just another exercise with barely enough time to just "chill". It seems its tough for most of us to just jump off the giant"wheel of cheese" for not even a moment. I think this is why this is such a big deal. The is guy is doing what most of us cant do... which is, step off the bus of life and CHILL~! Take a breath. ... take it all in and reflect. ...and to be completely misunderstood, like a walking "Stonehenge".

I say....stay funky!!

Somewhere, Andy Kaufman is cracking up.

The Caveman and the Valentine

2009-02-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

I've found a little game about a month ago to take my mind of "stuff" you know, things like paying bills and keeping my job... Online POKER! And this isn't a blurb on Poker, although I could tell you a bunch of stuff about the game that I have learned from playing it online these last 3 or 4 weeks, but I wont bore you with it. There is a connection though between Poker and Dating...many connections. That is, people see what they want to see. They really do. As we approach the Holiday that men fear and women love... Valentines Day...I guess, depending on where your love life is this time of the year, we have a movie coming out this weekend about going through life with the blinders on. We all do it...we see what we want to see. The shocker to many is really just coming to grips with the obvious (obvious to everyone but you). When He or She, is just not that into you. Now its not always the case. Sometimes people play a little poker and not try to show their hand too quickly, and play hard to get. When we see what we want to see, we sometimes come to this conclusion. We send out our "spies", (friends) to help us read the object of our affection, look for tid bits...and if we don't have the luxury of a buddy who can snoop for us, we draw our own, sometimes way off base conclusions on just how much so is into us. For those of us who are married, this intrigues us to share in the mystery of it all with our friends who are in this spot. I completely enjoy helping my Nanny read these guys she is dating, and helping her "de-code" all of the things they do and what it all means. I don't know why uncertainty of this sort is so much fun, but it is. Some mysteries we like. There is no mystery to Valentines Day. Its is one big giant, unavoidable WHACK! that women like to think will tell them EXACTLY where they stand...and I guess they are right. You cant blow off Valentines day if your dating, or if you are recently married. Few guys can take a Holiday from the V Day, oh noooo. I will let you in on a secret. 98 percent of all guys think its SUCH a scam, but we give in to all the baloney and buy the chocolates...the flowers...the tacky pink thong....the dinner of "insanity"...all of that to avoid going to the doghouse. The pressure and the stress for some guys is unbearable. I've seen guys do all sorts of goofy things for their girlfriends, using this day to "make up day" for their mistakes... (The Hail Mary) This ONLY works in the movies... and then I know guys who go in the other direction and break up with women just before Thanksgiving and don't date again until March. We call them Cavemen. Those Cavemen who brave the Holiday season with a girlfriend, they don't sweat Valentines Day... The Caveman V D strategy kicks in at about 4pm ON Valentines Day. I come from that school and I will see my fellow Cavemen at the card shop on the night of the 14th...the NIGHT of th 14th. , or even better, a Supermarket, where they sell cards, flowers and beer all in the same place! (Nirvana) Its so funny to go to the Card area to see all these guys doing the pseudo mad scramble over the cards that are leftover. They don't care what it is...they do a quick scan and buy it! Buy the card and check -the -box! Buy the flowers online and "check -the- box" Its out of the way...done. Over what? 5-10 minutes of fun in the dark? No wonder!.. And so it goes. Enjoy the card... the roses... the candy...enjoy the little teddy bear...enjoy it ALL. We love you! Really... we do!

Been there done that...No really!

2009-02-04T15:05:00.000-08:00

My wife has finally agreed with me... I'm officially a Nut. See, I let her in on this hunch I've had for about Ten years, but never had the nerve to bring up. The hunch? I've been here before. No, I'm serious. I am 100 percent positive, this
is not the first time I have been on earth. I'm not
sure how many times I have been on the planet before, but I'm certain I was here (either in the UK (London) or the US (and East Coast City) sometime in the 30's and 40's. I may have even made it to the 50's. I simply have this connection with very old things, and especially with things centered just before and during WWII. Not exactly sure what I did for a living, but it involved a lot of travel. I spent a lot of time on trains. In dreams and with these "flashbacks" or is it Deja vu?, when I see old movies from this time. On a trip to Hawaii a few years ago when I went to Pearl Harbor, it seemed so much like I had been there before. Not sure if I was there during the attack, but wow, it just felt like I had been there. The same thing hits me when I go to New York. More Deja vu...I stayed up in times square on New Years Eve in 2001, and it hit me there as well. "I've been here done this before". Going to the Carlyle the night before to see Bobby Short play the piano... it was like wow, man I have been here before. Now I have only been to England once, and unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to go into to London, but I feel this connection, this vibe and it grows more and more as I get older

Its all so odd. I love this city I've never been to, and I only know it from TV and Movies and books...OR, who knows, maybe I did live there before and during the War. Maybe I did hole up in a place to avoid the constant Bombing...Or maybe (and I don't think this is the case), I was in the English Army. I do know that I rode a motorcycle and had the chance to drive a convertible...maybe it was mine. I have this HUGE reprint of the "Casablanca" Poster. Its once of my favorite movies....is it all so strange to think this? I guess the belief that some of us lived more than one life cant be as crazy as thinking a loving God will send almost 98 percent of us into some fire filled Hell, and reward a tiny few angelic peeps with a trip to heaven? Have you ever felt that you have been here before? Have you ever seen an old movie and thought, "Maybe I did sit around the radio and listen to all those shows, or grabbed bottles of milk from the from porch and put them in an "icebox"?.. "OR Maybe I did live without AC on hot summer night or stand in line and had a hot meal in soup kitchen"... "Maybe I did do the jitterbug or voted for FDR" Or perhaps watched a baseball game in old Yankee Stadium with Babe Ruth at the plate? No?, well I have. OR, maybe I'm like Michael Phelps, and I've hit the bong to many times this week. . ..Ugh..I wish. But really, I'm telling you... I've been here before. ;)

You want to move HERE???

2009-01-30T16:47:00.000-08:00

Did you know that half of the U.S. Population would move if they had the chance? Try to guess where 38 percent of you said you wanted to live? Seattle!!! My city is the third most desired city for folks wanting to move. Imagine that... All I can say is...

Just what are you people SMOKING????

Seattle????

Let me let you in on some facts about this place. There is no such thing as GREYS ANATOMY HOSPITAL. It doesn't exist. Matter of fact the show is shot in L.A. Another thing, this picture on the left was taken during one of the 6 days when it didn't rain or lately SNOW. The weather is GREAT 6 days a year over the summer. We have a tradition of celebrating the 4th of July with umbrellas. Memorial Day? Rain. Labor Day ? Rain. Easter ?, Rain. Chances are REALLY good it will rain on your birthday. If you like wearing sweaters, then you will LOVE it here, as you can wear them almost all year. Employment??? We had about a GAZILLION layoffs in Seattle in the last few weeks, with Starbucks, Boeing, WaMu, and Microsoft, all had HUGE layoffs. No one has a Job in Seattle now so even if you could move here, chances are you couldnt find work to save your behind. Want a house? Home prices in the right neighborhoods will set you back close to a Million bucks. (The homes that have this "Frasier" view (I always called it the "Frasier view"), start at 3 Million and go up from there) and that's AFTER the recent drop in home prices. Before the price drop, I couldn't write down the numbers because I personally cant count that high. The "reasonable neighborhoods are about an hour a way from downtown, which means you will have a two hour commute because the traffic is some of the worse in the Nation. Sports? The Seahawks won only 4 games this year. The Mariners lost over a 1oo games last season. Our NBA team was so bad, they MOVED. The Washington Huskies in football lost every game they played this year. The Washington State Cougars won only one game...they beat the Huskies. We are the Anti - Boston of sports. We haven't won a Major Championship since 1979. Its LOSERVILLE Death. We lead the Nation in Suicides. We have owned that title for decades. Kurt Cobain (a native of the State) killed himself right here. The worst Serial Killer in history is Ted Bundy who was tried for 25 murders but had 10 other cases that didn't have enough Evidence to get conviction, but was said to kill anywhere between 25-300 victims...of course he is from here. Even the history of Seattle is DIRTY! Skid Row came from Seattle. Back in the day this was a city of Prostitution, Gambling and drinking. You can still tour some of these places in the "Underground Seattle tour". Gold Diggers came back from Alaska and blew their new found fortune right here. It was sin city before Vegas was around. Even our most famous schoolteacher is well... her name is Mary Kay Letourneau and she married an ex-pupil 10 years after she raped him when he was just 12. I blame this all on the cloudy days.

But Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! People are caught up in the "Sleepless in Seattle" fantasy. They think this place is like the set of "Fraisier" or the cult hit "Singles". Most people who visit, REMARKABLY, catch it during the 6 days dryspell, and they tell everyone how nice Seattle is, and make a big deal about our Space Needle (Yawn) our Mountains and our BIG Mountain (Rainier) Its a VOLCANO My friends and its going to BLOW! one day and its going to be UGLY)!!! or the Starbucks on every corner (and they are on every corner in YOUR town, too) or the local Salmon (they are disappearing and pretty soon will be all farm grown) you can treat yourself to at one of the many Seafood restaurants down on the waterfront. Its fantasy!!! Its not all THAT. You would have WAY more fun in Florida, or Hawaii, or Southern California. OR, the two cities that beat Seattle / San Diego (#2) and Denver (#1). Now I can see why someone would want to move to these places, but

Seattle?

To quote Tony Soprano... "Foggetaboutit!"

Private Jets and Fancy Toilets

2009-01-28T08:26:00.001-08:00

Ah, to be in Banking. The Government has given you Billions. (45 Billion to Citigroup....FORTY FIVE BILLION DOLLARS!!!!) 45 Billion with no strings attached and no rules or even need to tell the American people what you're going to do with the money. The Person who sold Congress on this was a former member of Goldman Sachs. So this is like getting money for your pals. So Citi was on the way to the candy store to buy a 50 Million dollar Dassault Falcon 7X jet (pictured), actually they were going to buy multiple Private jets. The Detroit Automakers got burned at the stake for showing up to Washington in leased Jets. They agreed to not even lease Jets in return for their 14 BILLION dollar bailout. Is anyone outraged at the complete SCAM going on here??? Banks got 300 Billion dollars THREE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS and they are still not lending. When they do they get 8 to 36 percent interest. More on the higher side in interest on the backs of the poor with totally BS Credit Card "Adjustments". I have been a huge fan of Obama, and I appreciate that he supposedly personally made the call to Citigroup's Executives to halt their purchase of the private jet, but my questions is, WHAT ELSE are they doing???? If I was Obama, I would force them to lend, and I would force them to forgive some or all the debt and interest they have on Americans and do a one time "wipe the slate". Lets face, many Americans are NEVER going to get out of their debt to banks, and I cant blame it all on them. How can you pay your bills when you don't have a job? The downward spiral has only just begun. Had the Banks used FAIR terms and conditions, they would not have put so many consumers in a hole. Credit Cards and Real Estate was the "Golden Calf" for Banks. Banks like WaMu pushed the envelope of greed. GREED! In a post Reagan deregulated World, the Banks got a license to steal and rip people off ...and they did. I would also force them to make loans at 1% to 2% interest, not 8 to 36% Who says Banks have to make so much money on people??? The average margin in a grocery store is only 1%, why do Bank Margins have to be so high??? If the President is serious about changing the direction of this recession, its going to take SIGNIFICANT kinds of steps to get the Country going in the right direction. I would suggest the President also LOWER TAXES. I applaud the Republicans for fighting for lower taxes. I do not feel that Billions or in this case, Trillions of dollars in Government spending in more Government programs is going to do anything to effect what is going on right now. We don't need new Govt programs, we need regulation in the Banking industry. Banks have had a free pass to rip off consumers. The Banks are still scamming us. Its not rocket science. It doesn't have to "Take a long time to turn this around". America does want action. We want a fair deal. President Obama, go after the Banks and bring some real accountability to this bailout. Make them earn the Billions we gave them, and don't give them a penny more! Stop the wasteful spending going on RIGHT NOW. Do we really need to go into space right now??? Do we have to keep giving BILLIONS to Israel and North Korea???? Wise up! Put America on a real Budget and Stop printing money. Its obvious the Lobbyist, with their control over Congress are still running the Country. Congress is watching out for their contributors and not their constituents.

Its SUCH Bullshit.

Oscar, blows it...again!

2009-01-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

I would like to thank the Academy...for nothing this year! What in the World is going on in Tinseltown? The Dark Knight and Gran Torino got hardly a nomination this morning. I happened to be in the city of Angels and was up at 5:32am to see the results live, and boy was I disappointed. The 15 years after Forrest Gump re-do "Benjamin Button" (and although I saw it as practically a remake, it is a good remake) got an astounding 13 Nominations. (and I am thrilled to see Taraji Phenson get nominated for best Supporting Actress) What interesting to point out about the Forrest Gump connection, Gump back in 1994, beat the modern classic "Pulp Fiction" for best Picture. Pulp Fiction is one of the best movies of all time. Now how many times have you seen Pulp Fiction? And how many times have you seen Forrest Gump? (I rest my case!) Could there have been a movie like "No Country for Old men" (which won best picture) or "Snatch" or "True Romance" the 100's of other movies with its roots ultimately from "Pulp Fiction"?????

So you Academy voters, I don't know how you came up with these picks. I cant be the only one so disappointed. Just like Quentin Tarantino was in 1994, Clint Eastwood and Christopher Nolan, this year... you was robbed!

Its all Good.

2009-01-21T09:16:00.000-08:00

The 44th President of the United States was sworn in yesterday. An estimated crowd of 2 Million people watched in person, and Billions of people watched all over the World on TV. This was HUGE! Its going to look even bigger when we look back on it 100 years from now. Something changed yesterday. Even if you were not sucked into "Obama fever", something changed. I cant put my finger on it, but it appears the 800 pound gorilla fell off our back. Now, it doesn't mean that the economy isn't going to get better anytime soon, or the two wars we are fighting are going to end soon, but a wave of optimism hit us yesterday like a lighting bolt. America and the World got a good dose of, well, GOOD! That's it...We got a good dose of good. We have this beautiful family in the White House, and they are young and smart...and they are GOOD PEOPLE. Good people matter. At the end of the day, the World just wants to be lead and with, and work with, and live with, good people. The first family are good people. They are out to do good for America and good for the World. I am even more happy and hopeful about the Obama's being good people than I am about them simply being African American, because at the end of the day, had Obama been a black version of Bush, what would we really have to celebrate? This is why everyone can and did celebrate the new first family. This is not just a special day for people of color, its a special for day for everyone. All over the globe, people from all over, saw the America that IS the America that the World has loved all along... The America of hope. The America of opportunity. The America of equality. The GOOD America. God bless this family, and protect them, and give them the strength and the courage to do good...and God Bless America for making it happen.

Its all Good!

Golden Globes Update - Ugh! and Wow!

2009-01-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Its the show no watches on the last place network. 30 Rock is not even the best show on NBC on Thursday night, yet for some reason, critics fawn over 30 Rock and Tina Fey. Once again, she, and Alec Baldwin won Golden Globes. WTF? How does this continue to happen? This is THE MOST overrated show of all time!!!! Tina Fey is its most overrated star, followed by the one dimensional Fattest of Baldwin Brothers. He makes even Kevin Costner appear to have range. But back to Tina...she is not all that. I don't want to see her on another magazine cover (she was on as many covers as Obama!), telling us how "awesome" she is. She is DULL!!! Full of HYPE!!! Lets move on to something else. Can we even put TF's Palin NEXT to Chevy Chase's President Ford???? I think not. Its not going to hold up over time, because Palin is going to be long forgotten in a nano second, and we will be like (who was she mocking???).

The Tina Fey moment ruined my Globes Show. The 30 Rock acceptance speech by Tracy

Morgan was embarrassing. I was happy to see Kate Winslet win for her role in "Revolutionary Road" and that's about it. I felt Gran Torino and Mr Clint Eastwood did not get its due. Hopefully Oscar will notice. I'm going to have to see "The Wrestler" It will be interesting to see if Oscar bites, too. Man, I'm proofing at my blurb and I'm clearly not in the best of moods on this thing. I guess there is too much to be cynical about when your watching a bunch of "Stars" fawn over their work at an awards show... its an easy target.

But on a much brighter note, IMO, the best moment of the show was the Steven Spielberg tribute, and his moving, yet humble speech (receiving the Cecile B. DeMille Award). Steven Spielberg is an American Treasure. I cant imagine the movies without his movies...its unimaginable.

Turn back the clock to 60's TV

2009-01-04T22:53:00.000-08:00

As I looking at Gran Torino, I couldnt help but think about these old TV shows I saw as a kid in Detroit on (I think) channel 51. This channel played all the shows. Monkees, I dream of Jeanie, My Three Sons, and Petticoat Junction... and a local favorite, Sir Graves Ghastley. The dude had the original "Creature Feature" and showed great horror movies on Friday night or was it Saturday night. It was THE BOMB!!!! This guy was doing music videos years before MTV. I ate this stuff up.

If you remember the start of the Monkees http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0FUvLfxyp0&NR=1 There is this scene where they moved their feet in unison left and then right. I used to do this with my sister back when we got along. ( I would say we were maybe 6?). Thanks to the magic of U-Tube, you can see ALL of these show intros and go back in memory lane, too. Petticoat Junction?, Man I didn't have a clue what the show was about, but I knew three girls took their dresses off at the start of the show and I always wanted to see more. This may have been one of my very first of many infatuations with girls on film.

Too bad TV is not the centerpiece of pop culture. Now its the Internet. TV, with an additional 1000 channels, lost its consolidated audience. The consolidated audience moved from the newspaper, to the radio, then to TV, and then in all sorts of directions. The consolidated audience now sprinkled all over the place text, e-mail, and video. The crazy thing is information travels faster now than ever, so we all know about things... we just get our information from different sources. I wonder what will fill this massive TV void with my Daughter when its time for her to go back to memory lane? I guess Dora is big enough that kids will be able to talk about that... or I don't know, American Idol? I don't think its the same, but maybe it is... Maybe it is.

Gran Torino - Best Picture of 2008

2009-01-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

Walt (the lead Character in Clint Eastwood's movie "Gran Torino") is a familiar one to me, so my absolute bias for this picture is from its roots . You see, I was born in this kind of neighborhood in Detroit. In my life I have met several "Walt's" and they have had a significant influence on me. Now perhaps nothing that I am saying here will make sense until you see the movie. I for one don't like going into a movie knowing too much about what I am going to see, so I am not going to break the movie down in detail for you. I don't think that would be fair. I will say that you absolutely should see it, and if anyone doesn't like it, (this is only for my super 6 followers on my blog), I will send you your money back. (that's a promise). We are in a tremendous time of change...a real changing of the guard so to speak. Just like when a high pressure system hits a low pressure system, you get a storm. Right now we are in the beginning of an cultural -economic tsunami that may take another 20 years to sort itself out. We are witnessing one of the great changes in time not seen since the 2nd industrial revolution. This movie really isn't about these changes , but you can clearly can see (and so well done) the collision of ideas and beliefs on some individuals in a city block. Walt is as American as apple pie...as American as his Gran Torino...as American as Archie Bunker. See this movie and you might see somebody you know.... or knew. I will do a real review for this come Oscar time.

But officially, this is my pick for best picture...and Clint Eastwood - Best Director.

The Overrated list for 2008

2009-01-01T15:59:00.000-08:00

2008.... ba bye!!!! Glad to seee you GO! 2008 was one of those crazy crazy years. We had the meltdown of the housing market across the country, an expanded Global financial collapse and worsening recession, the likes we have never seen. Our 401ks became 4ks. Equity in our home became, well, what is equity again? Never mind. To cut to the chase, the shit finally hit the fan. Oh but it wasn't all bad.. We had a MEGA shift change in the Whitehouse, with the election of a young charismatic Senator from Illinois. There is also a real possibility we may have seen our last Bush of any kind in the Whitehouse. There was a ton of compelling stories, but in the hoopla was even MORE things that, in the end, really didn't matter. Things that were simply overrated. I'm going to take you through my list of things I felt were very much overrated in 2008 and in general. Lets start with this family to my right. The Palin clan came out of NO WHERE as the possible future leadership of the New Republican Party. For the life of me I can not explain their popularity. I would put Sarah Palin on the same level as Paris Hilton. (Maybe even a notch below). Todd Palin, who Sara proudly calls the "first Dude". There is nothing more to say, this is a easy target. I'm also going to leave the "kids" out of this one, too. Any fan of "As the World Turns" or "All my Children" needs to follow this family's stories online. There are some juicy things going on in Wasilla. So if Sara is overrated, then the mocking of Sarah is just as overrated. Tina Fey is not THAT funny. Her Star shot to the MOON over these repetitive impersonations she did on SNL. She can thank her lucky stars for the entire set of circumstances. It took her ALL the way to the bank even though SNL drove the skit into the ground. Also, few people actually watch 30 rock no matter how much they pimp the show - no one watches or cares, yet the network folks keep pimping it
because they think a show about a show is funny . No one is laughing ...no one cares , yet she gets awards ...and gets paid!!!

Music

Is there any band short of Vampire Weekend that can match the full on Blather of Coldplay? Coldplay was good back in the day, but the band has turned into a sad mix of Air Supply + Creed. Ive been wanting to say this all year... COLDPLAY SUCKS! Totally overrated. And to think Chris Martin is married to my crush of 10 years, Gwenyth Paltrow (who is not overrated), Ugh, it makes me sick. Its all a big bowl of wrong.

Lil Wayne - Please, the guy is overrated. My worst nightmare is my daughter growing up to like this drivel. The entire scenario scares me.

Carolyn Kennedy for Senator. This is Sarah Palin II. Worth north of a 100 Million dollars and heir to Camelot. Dont expect Tina Fey to be dissing on Ms Kennedy anytime soon, although I see every reason for SNL and Tina Fey to mock this joke of an idea. If the House of Lords does exist, then put her in and lets be done with it. Kennedy is not qualified to be Senator. The sooner we wake up to reality the better. This is EXACTLY how someone like George W Bush became President. Do we want to make that kind of mistake again????

Penn State Football.

There is NO WAY Penn State deserved to be in the Rose Bowl against USC. Penn State is simply not that good. They beat a "ok" Ohio State team that's much better today then they were earlier in the year. They then went to Iowa and got thumped. Penn State benefited from a very kind schedule and now they are paying the price. This is the first real top 10 team they have had to play all year and USC is taking them to the woodshed. Time for JoePa to call it a day. Thank you for your 120 years of service. The game is no longer played with leather helmets and they have this thing called the "forward pass". Oh well. I think they just signed JoePa up for 3 more years, so we don't have about Penn State doing ANYTHING for a while.

Dallas Cowboys and the New York Yankees - Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Both Iconic teams for their leagues are spending HUGE sums of money NOT to go to the playoffs. Vegas had the Cowboys favored to go to the Superbowl. I even had them early on in my fearless Superbowl Predictions. They suck. The star is not shinning. The New York Yankees have not won it all since 2000. This pretty much means that unless they go from worst to first this year, they were all but a non factor the entire decade. That's amazing.

Movies

Lots and Lots of Bad/overrated movies in 2008. I'm just going to roll through the list The Love Guru, Step Brothers, 10,000 BC, Speed Racer, Australia, Drillbit Taylor, Smart People, Sex in the City (yes I said it... it SUCKED!!!) Rambo IV, The Happening (this movie was disturbing and yet so retarded all at the same time, I really wanted my money back) and last but not least.. Fools Gold.

To end my whine fest of all things overrated, Id like to add a few other things to my list. Carly Fiorna, Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Congress. The Senate. Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac. CNN, Nancy Grace, Dr Laura, Rush Limbaugh, Real Estate, The Nasdaq, Hybrid Cars, Green Products, The Chinese Olympic Team. England's National Soccer team. The LA Dodgers and Anaheim Angels. and last but not least... Snow.

Happy New Year! Lets hope the list is shorter next year.

Christmas morning....

2008-12-26T18:01:00.000-08:00

Is there any day with more hope than Christmas? Christmas is a walk with your childhood. Christmas is about giving. Christmas seems to bring out the kid in all of us no matter what stage of life we are in. Its like a wedding day, and a funeral, and a birthday all at the same time. Like a wedding, things happen at Christmas you NEVER forget. Like a wedding, you have nerves and excitement. Like a wedding, somehow, something doesn't go exactly as it was planned, and its the imperfections that "make" days like Christmas so special. Like a wedding people laugh... and people cry. Like a wedding, Christmas is about family. The family that's there, the family you miss. Like a funeral, Christmas is a time when you look back and think about good times and bad. Like a funeral Christmas is a time for reflection. Like a birthday (and it IS a birthday, somehow this is forgotten sometimes) there are gifts, and there is celebration. Like a birthday, Christmas is one of those days where you really try to get the most out of the entire day, where throughout the day, something special is planned ....sharing gifts, and the meals are all special...like a birthday, everything is just THAT much better at Christmas. But... Like some birthdays, sometimes the entire day is a Huge disappointment. Like some Birthdays, they are not always so pleasant. And like a lousy birthday, you don't forget the lousy Christmas days. And I don't want to say they are a badge of honor or anything, but if you start sharing you "bad Christmas stories, everybody has them to share... But I don't want to end this on a sad note. Christmas is special. We celebrate the birth of our saviour, and we share gifts and time with those we care about. I wanted to share this special moment when my 4 year old came out to see what Santa left for her.... she counted every day leading up to Christmas, starting the day after Halloween (who needs Thanksgiving??? Kids don't get that day. For a kids calendar, its Halloween, then CHRISTMAS!!) She was so grateful for her gifts she wanted to go back to the Mall to see Santa on Christmas day to thank him.

I don't think there is anything to add to that. She gets it.

Merry Christmas!

Hope you had a great and special day.

The BIG DUMP of 2008

2008-12-26T17:38:00.000-08:00

Snow Snow Snow... EVERYWHERE! It has fallen...and fallen... and it seemed like it would never stop. The big dump of Seattle, will be fondly remembered for how it kept our little family firmly planted in our house (like a mine version of "the shinning" except no one got crazy...yet. Even our uber expensive SUV got stuck in a snowbank right in front of our house (the snowbank showed up the next day after the trucks came to move snow to the side of the road, pretty much sticking us to the side of the road. (I couldn't park in the driveway because that little black gate in the picture...it locked up. I was pulled out of the snowbank by a friendly neighbor with a Hummer, who used winch ( I think that's what you call it) It was a thing of beauty. I cant remember a white Christmas THIS white, EVER. It snowed and snowed on Christmas. Very cool. So I guess be careful what you ask for. We got more than our share of the white stuff this year in Seattle.

Merry Christmas to all!

BE cool.

2008-12-13T21:17:00.000-08:00

So long to the cool. As we say goodbye to 2008, it wouldn't be right if I didn't give props to one of the coolest guys EVER... Paul Newman. Mr Newman was a bad ass dude and sadly, he passsed away this year. He made some amazing movies. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963) and Cool Hand Luke (1967). In 1968 his debut directorial effort Rachel, Rachel (1968) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) The Sting (1973) The Towering Inferno (1974) The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) to a now cult classic Slap Shot (1977). The Verdict ( The Color of Money (1986). Besides all of these great movies, he was married to the same woman (Joanne Woodward) for over 50 years!! How cool is THAT??? Paul Newman started The Hole in the Wall Gang Camps, an organization for terminally ill children, and the guy gave and gave and gave some more with his famous salad dressings called "Newman's Own". Newman's Own (business) earned over a 100 Million dollars!!!!, and he gave away every penny to charity. He also raced cars, starting the famous Newman-Haas Racing team. Paul raced competitively up into his 80's. You can read more about his racing here http://blogs.courant.com/autoracing/2008/09/the-racing-passion-of-paul-new.html THIS is a role model in an age when there are not enough role models to go around. We could all learn from his phenomenal generosity.

2009 is going to be a tough year for a lot of people. Its going to be a rough. I think it would be wonderful if we (especially this year) try make our families a little bigger, and go out of our way to help those who are less fortunate. THAT would be cool, and I'm sure Paul Newman would would love it....For generous people I know like LR... he IS loving it.

Pass the cool around!

If four bucks is dumb....

2008-12-11T12:35:00.000-08:00

McDonald's has put up 140 billboards in WA State, going after Starbucks in an UGLY way. The sign says "four bucks is dumb". They even put one up across the street from Starbucks HQ. About a month ago, 10,000 Starbucks (Employees) "Partners" they call them, went to New Orleans for their annual meeting. They also spent 50,000 man hours painting and fixing homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Starbucks has no plans to play in any "Ad War" with McDonald's, and are choosing to take the high road.

However, I would like to make my own little billboard to counter the McDonald's message....

"Eating food from McDonald's is STUPID".

On 2nd thought.... NO!

2008-12-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

2nd time around for the Big Three. A trip to D.C.

This time not in a private jet, but instead...they drove from Detroit to Washington in a Hybrid Ford no less. This time the CEO's brought a 30 page plan. Doing their own analysis, seems they need even MORE money than they originally requested a few weeks ago. 6 to 8 BILLION more! They even offered to reduce their CEO pay down to a dollar if they get these loans. The Unions have changed their tune, offering to let go of Billions, earmarked for a better healthcare plan ...again, contingent on a bailout.

All this makes me wonder. Why didn't they think about these critical measures in the first place?

It was almost like when were kids asking our parents for money ONLY because we saw our siblings getting some cash from them moments earlier. The thought wasn't about WHY we needed the money, the thought was only that Mommy and Daddy were GIVING it away.

So now the same CEO's are saying that if they don't get their money, this may be THE catalyst for another Great Depression.

I'm sorry, I am not buying. I'm not buying Detroit's new plan, and I'm not buying the Union's pitch...and worse, I am not buying Detroit's cars. (But I have tried several times to buy American) The only cars I wanted to buy, the dealerships wanted $25,000 OVER sticker for a Shelby Mustang (2005). new Dodge Challenger $10,000 over MSRP, and the Corvette ZO6, $15,000 over MSRP. This price gouging for "In demand" cars is a common practice with American dealerships. Ask anyone who has tried to buy these cars off the lot. PURE INSANITY! Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, they don't do this stuff. Few if any of the American Car dealers think about the lifetime relationship of the customer, instead, they are only thinking about now. Even "average" cars, Car salesmen try to game you. (No wonder people hate Car salespeople)

Folks, they are going out of business for a reason, they do LOUSY business!!! Most American cars are not what Americans want, and when they come up with a winner, they price gouge. Are these the type of Companies we want to SAVE? Detroit has been getting it mostly wrong since 1970. Wrong with Labor, Wrong with design, Wrong with the Sales process, and Terribly wrong wrong with service and warranties. I cant imagine wholesale changes in a matter of weeks. Bad business is bad business. Propping up a bad business IS Socialism. It certainly isn't Capitalism. So this is my revised answer to Detroit... NO!

No way we should keep these guys afloat. The Detroit model is BEYOND broken.

Bring back "The Little Drummer Boy"

2008-12-02T21:33:00.001-08:00

If your four years old like my Daughter (Romi), these are great times. She is so PSYCHED for Christmas ...I mean she is about to explode with excitement. She is like a little jumping bean of anticipation right now. Although we read plenty of books every day, and we have been reading a few of the Christmas books over and over since October, its the Christmas cartoons that she is truly excited aboout (and didnt we all get excited about the Christmas cartoons?). The cartoons were a sure sign that Christmas was CLOSE! Tonight we saw "Santa Claus is coming to town", and I believe tomorrow we have another one. Next week we have the classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and then we see "The Grinch". (although Romi is not so sure about the Grinch, she say she doesn't like him because "he takes Christmas away". Taking REAL Christmas away is exactly what CBS did in taking "The Little Drummer Boy" of the air. In the wacky world we call "Political Correctness" they chose to take LDB off the air because it was about JESUS!!! Of all things silly, to NOT air this 23 minute classic is a CRIME! Its sad. The good thing is, its still available in DVD. Its also a pretty easy book to get. Too bad though, this classic, about a compassionate little Boy, unable to afford a gift for baby Jesus, plays his drum for him. I've tried (with some success) to make the connection between Jesus and Christmas with my Daughter, and its not as easy as you might think. She is dialed in on Santa, and you don't want to mess with that, yet trying to weave in the real meaning of the season with the focus around giving is a lot to take in when your four. This little gem of a show was a PERFECT companion to the other Christmas classics.

How about bringing it back?

The Death of Kwanzaa

2008-11-30T16:04:00.000-08:00

Its almost about that time of year when you might start hearing about the Holiday that isnt. Nooooo I'm not talking about Black Friday, I'm talking about Kwanzaa!!!! Kwanzaa is the Holiday you cant really talk about because no one wants to be politically incorrect. Some of us though, really DO want to know "whats the deal with Kwanzaa? About 5 years ago,"Kwanzaa" showed up on hallmark cards, and in local and National television news stories. How did Kwanzaa make the jump from 60's radical idea, to "Hallmark" type mainstream celebration?

Kwanzaa was created by an American, Maulana (Ron) Karenga in 1966 to symbolize African family values...and to give blacks an alternative to Christmas. Karenga was also founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers and a dupe of the FBI. The roots of Kwanzaa are nefarious indeed. I dont care how benificial the concept of the Holiday is to some. The very essence was/is to create an "us vs. them" divide, around arguably the World's most unifying Holiday. How wrong is that? The answer to my question about how Kwanzaa has been legitamized over the last 5 years in America's National Psyche is, "I have no idea!"

Enter President Barack Obama. What do you think Obama will do with Kwanzaa? Can you say "Cant touch this"? America will follow Obama's lead on small matters like this, and Obama will leave Kwanzaa A-lone. I'm guessing in about six years it will be completely dead, as it should be. So Hallmark, are you listening? Mainstream Network News, let it go! We dont need any more made up Holidays to divide us. We have Christmas, Hanukkah, ...and Festivus for the rest of us.

Work for you?

Last FM is the BOMB!

2008-11-25T21:51:00.000-08:00

Elvis Costello. Elvis Costello rocks my world. I feel lucky to have been around the same time EC wrote his songs, to the point where listening to his greatest hits feels like a soundtrack to my life. Allison, Pump it up!. Whats so special about peace, love, and understanding? Watching the detectives, Shipbuilding, Love for tender, Radio, Radio, and So like Candy. But hey, I feel the same way about Prince, too. Party like its 1999...and the Boss! Jungleland and Born to Run. Tom Petty, "Wont back down"... and lets put on a little John Mellencamp -Pink houses and *Poof* I'm instantly a hell of lot younger as I hear Mr Mellencamp say "Aint that America"... and I can track time and places with the one hit wonders like Nick Gilder's "Hot Child in the City" (Who doesn't like this song? and did you know Nick is a GUY? Always sounded like a girl to me ) and Steely Dan's Aja - I close my eyes and I'm on the beach in L.A. OK, so where the hell am I going besides memory lane towards Manhattan Beach? The mother of all applications for the iPhone (The World's BEST Gadget in the history of gadgets), LAST FM. magically and wonderfully plays your favorite music. You put in your favorite artist or song and LAST FM finds the artist and the song, and then it goes one better, it keeps playing the genre of songs from other artist... without a commercial!!!! Its CRAZY cool awesome all at the same time. Its like having your own little DJ playing your favorite songs. There is also a nice detailed "Bio" on the artist that brings back the long lost idea of learning something about the band, something peope used to do, and also spinning the record on my finger (that you still cant do that anymore). If you really like the song, just add it to your playlist. (I just added the English Beat "Tears of a clown" Boom!... AND GET THIS, it shows the band's TOUR dates, for like RIGHT NOW. Attending the concert?, there is a tab to indicate if your planning to go..or you might go, and then it takes you to a map of where the concert location. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? It THEN links you to your BUDDIES, where you can see who is going to the concert!!! Lets say you just broke up with Zack or Mia... no Problemo, LAST FM gives you a list of other peeps hitting up your tunes, and also GOING to your SHOW!!! (Hey... the Killers - December 14th at the Gibson in LA OR Dec 9th at the WaMu in Seattle (I saw them last summer, and the Killers R-O-C-K!) I mean, you could get a date for a concert AND meet your SOULMATE, all at the same time ! This is one unreal application for people who like music and gadgets, and people with gadgets and music. Its the motherload of music! You can also send songs to your friends!!! Better than the shuffle on your iPod - I like it that the next song is a total mystery, BUT it will likely be in your "wheelhouse" - Like Al Green's "Love and Happiness" its makes you do right, and make you do wrong...make you come home early, and stay out all night long...its the power of love". Now who doesn't love AL Green!!! Babies born last night, instantly move their new booty's to Al Green. I LOVE this gadget!!! Last FM is da BOMB!

The World's Ugliest Porsche! - The Panamera

2008-11-24T21:38:00.000-08:00

There are ugly cars...and then there are UGLY cars! Shockingly, Porsche's long awaited four door sedan, the "Panamera", is a BUTT UGLY car! This is a really tough pill to swallow because (if anyone cared to read my earlier blog on my favorite cars), you would know that I am a Porsche enthusiast, big time! I'm at a point now where it would feel strange NOT to have a Porsche in the garage. Porsche makes special cars... er, well, they used to make them anyway. This is a car that was targeted for a guy like me. (Mid life crisis family guy cornered to "do the right thing" and buy a four door family car, passing on a 2 seater Porsche and becoming a grown up with a *uber* fast Porsche Sedan. But Noooooooooooooooo! I wouldn't touch this car if they GAVE it to me (and please Porsche, dont try to give me one, I will trade it for a Maserati or a Jaguar. I'm not sure WHAT they were smoking in Stuttgart, but they were smoking something good! These are not the engineers that gave us the sublime Carrera, or the understated Boxster, or even the curvy Cayman. WHAT were they thinking???

There is a silver lining with this four door disaster. Maybe Porsche will give up on trying to design a Sedan (unlikely), OR, they will go back to some of the "teaser" designs leaked earlier and "tweak" some beauty in it. As it is today, this is one Edsel of a car, and I can bet you that the auto world is not going to do the typical Porsche "cha cha" over this Autobahn stinkbomb. Its a modern Edsel, no matter how fast it is. In this Global free fall economy, how in the WORLD could Porsche make a sedan, so hideous from every angle?

Kinda bigger than the first Black President...Disney's First Black Princess!!!

2008-11-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

By Arifa Akbar, Arts CorrespondentThursday, 17 July 2008

When Disney announced it was casting its first black princess for its latest animation film, the African-American heroine was hailed as a positive role model for little girls and an ambitious marketing ploy, not to mention an attempt to ward off the allegations of racism that have lurked since the heyday of Walt Disney Productions in the 1940s and 1950s.
But now the film studio finds itself fending off a chorus of accusations of racial stereotyping in its forthcoming big-budget cartoon, The Princess and The Frog: An American Fairy Tale, which marks a return to hand-drawn animation.
A musical set in 1920s New Orleans, the film was supposed to feature Maddy, a black chambermaid working for a spoilt, white Southern debutante. Maddy was to be helped by a voodoo priestess fairy godmother to win the heart of a white prince, after he rescued her from the clutches of a voodoo magician.
Disney's original storyboard is believed to have been torn up after criticism that the lead character was a clichéd subservient role with echoes of slavery, and whose name sounded too much like "Mammy" – a unwelcome reminder of America's Deep South before the civil rights movement swept away segregation.
The heroine has been recast as Tiana, a 19-year-old in a country that has never had a monarchy. She is now slated to live "happily ever after" with a handsome fellow who is not black – with leaks suggesting that he will be of Middle Eastern heritage and called Naveen. The race of the villain in the cartoon is reported to have also been revised.
The film studio began making changes a year ago, first to its title, The Frog Princess, which some had interpreted as a slur. Amendments to the plot followed.
Rodney Hinds, features editor of The Voice newspaper, said: "We are talking about a big company who has had to go back to the drawing board. It's disappointing... Some of the stereotyping of people from our community is still rigid in people's minds. We have our own dreams and stories like everyone else, and we want them to be portrayed positively. This is about how people are perceived and a princess is normally a positive character who most people aspire to."

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Uppity's spin...

Now this is pretty Amazing Stuff. We are getting our first Black President BEFORE we are getting our first black Disney Princess. I guess better late late late than never (They opened the first park over 50 years ago). My 4 year old has already been to Disneyland a number of times already, and she has punched her "Princess" ticket for "Ariel", the redheaded Mermaid Princess. She is all about Ariel (She was Ariel for Halloween (meaning she is STILL sporting the Ariel duds till they fall off of her)) and she relates to her above of all other Disney Princesses because of her great love for the pool. She even told me she is intent on becoming a mermaid and a mommy when she grows up. Not sure if Tiana/Maddy will draw any mindshare with my little Princess, but I do think its interesting that Disney took sooooo long to make this addition. However, digging into the "Disney way" and its history, its really not all that surprising it took so long. Part of Walt's vision fantasy of Main Street USA, involved zero things Black. Even the audio-animatronic "Great moments with Mr. Lincoln" completely skipped any mention of slavery. There was only one spot in all of Disneyland where you could see a black Star, and that Star was Aunt Jemima. Yep, from Opening day in 1955 until 1970, the only Black star at Disneyland (Not counting Mickey) was Aunt Jemima. (See a picture of her from the Park below) The Frontierland restaurant that is now the River Belle Terrace was the Aunt Jemima Pancake House from 1955 until 1962. After absorbing the adjacent Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue Restaurant, it became Aunt Jemima’s Kitchen, a name which it kept until 1970. That was also the year the Black Panthers sat down to dine at Aunt Jemima's, and that pretty much ended the Aunts gig at Disneyland.

So it appears Black folks are "movin on up"! Now even Disneyland is stepping into 2009 with a new Black Princess. All I can say to that is...Woo Hoo!

Dare to be GREAT!

2008-11-22T17:23:00.000-08:00

Next time you're in a conversation with someone, talking about a crazy idea you simply don't understand, where you don't see how its "going to work" or you "can't get your head around it", Don't be so quick to dismiss the absurd. The silver lining in this down economy is there will be tons and tons of new opportunities....Opportunities we cant even imagine right now. We all have a little Bill Gates, or Larry Page in us... The key is, you have to be open to new ideas, and you have to ready for anything.

BHO - LBJ or JFK?

2008-11-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

Obama will be sworn in as our 44th President on January 20th, 2009. Already he is being compared to LBJ, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy!!! I cant ever recall, nor have I been able to find such comparisons being laid on a President Elect! The chances of President Obama coming near earshot of the transformational policies of the "New Deal" in the next four years are so unlikely. Clearly, big changes are desperately needed, but I'm doubtful we will see transformational changes (such as) overhauling, and completely reforming Credit card companies legal right to insanely charge whatever interest rates they like on the backs of the poor. (and look for the Credit Card Companies to be the next big Industry to go bankrupt (and boy did they have it coming...and Oooooooooooooooh No bailout for you!!))...but real change in this toxic and still Lobbyist driven political environment??? The People voted for Hope, but come on... will the people get their due ahead of AIG, Wallstreet, Ford, GM,??? We are in the back of the line.

I don't want to say Obama isn't capable of becoming more than simply being the first African American President, but how in the world can you say Obama's name in the same breath as Roosevelt (Either TR or FDR) or Lincoln, before he has even been sworn in??? We desperately need a"get things done Politician like LBJ. I'm not sure people can appreciate just how extraordinary a politician Johnson was, nor how much he contributed to the American way of life. In many ways we would not HAVE an Obama some 40 years later without LBJ.

Talk about a game changer...

LBJ as a CONGRESSMAN. gave Electricity, (yes Electricity!) to his West Texas district as part of Roosevelt's New Deal. The people of West Texas suffering through the great depression, didn't have power in their homes nor on their streets. In 1957 as a Texas SENATOR and Senate Majority leader, he convinced Southern Democrats and Northern Liberals to pass the first Civil Rights Bill since reconstruction. Compared to LBJ, BHO's "Pre-Presidential" resume is kind of weak, wouldn't you say?

So in reality, it was LBJ who led the charge for Civil Rights in the Senate, not Kennedy, yet it was Kennedy who won the 1960 Nomination. LBJ became JFK's #2. LBJ and "#2" Never quite went together. Bobby Kennedy didn't like him, as did most of JFK's Cabinet... He was the outsider. And then one sad day in November (exactly 45 years to this day in 1963), LBJ became the 36th President of the United States. Remarkably, he convinced the entire Kennedy Cabinet to stay and help begin the end of Segregation after suffering an eight-month-long filibuster, with the Civil Rights act of 1964. I'm not sure (and many others also believe) Kennedy could not have got it done by 1964, or perhaps at all!. Quoting a Historian "This Southern President broke the Southern system of racism".

As President, LBJ declared war on Poverty. 35 Million Americans lived below the poverty line at the time. So, with that, the "Great Society" was born. This was the son of the "New Deal". LBJ wanted to help everybody, not just the poor. He won in 1964 in a landslide. LBJ gave us Medicare, Medicaid, and federal education funding, which continue to this day. (Of course, those programs years later have been sliced diced, marginalized and minimized).

For all LBJ has done, he simply does not get the love, appreciation, and respect he deserves... On the other hand Kennedy gets all the Glory in a revisionist "Camelot" and all the Kennedy Moxi. At the end of the day, What did Kennedy do while he was President? He had about 1000 (1036 days to be exact). He gave us the Peace Corps, one hell of a inaugural speech, and yep, he gave some of us "Hope" (Play Twilight Zone Music and insert Charismatic Black President here). But I digress. Lets Hope (and you gotta have Hope) President Obama will achieve greatness and rise to the Zenith of the unappreciated greatness of an LBJ, and not the hype of a JFK.

Peace Out!

Four wheels of Love... My Car Obsession

2008-11-19T21:48:00.000-08:00

Some people love cars and others tolerate them, but I think most people "like" cars. Since I wrote about the Motown Meltdown, I thought I would share with you my car obsession.

Lets start with my FIRST car. The four door, lime green, 1972 Buick Le Sabre. (ABOVE) Every teenage boy LOVES his first car. I loved my Buick. I picked up girls with this car...I got around town, I listened to Cheap Trick and Queen (with some really bad speakers I paid for with my afterschool job at MacDonald's. I drove all over Ohio in this baby... and I also forgot to put oil in it. (No one told me about the oil). One day, the engine exploded. And that was the end of my first car.

Move a decade later and I am r-o-l-l-i-n-g in a Suzuki Samurai! I'm (amazingly, picking up girls with THIS thing) , I am all over Houston with this puppy. I even remember to add oil once in a while. This was not a comfortable car. The AC barely worked! Slightly cool air coming out along with mostly hot air from the engine and Mercury like Houston, Texas. It was like a motorcycle with four wheels...No, skip that, it was like riding a horse through the desert...but I was happy.

And life got better... way better. I was blessed to drive some of my dream cars (which I'm about to share). At the time, the Samurai was a dream car to me, and it got me around town, and come to think of it, the little thing was great on gas.

This was my first 911. This was like my "Barack Obama" moment of Cars. "Yes I can!" When they gave me the keys, I simply couldn't believe it. I wanted one these things since I was a kid, and this one was mine! I was only 30, so you couldn't call it a mid-life crisis. I have had cars much nicer than this since, but very similar to the feelings of getting my first car, my first Porsche was crazy exciting...I couldn't wait to drive this thing. Remember Tom Cruise driving his Dad's Porsche in "Risky Business"? Tom did donuts in an empty parking lot. Just like Tom in the movie, I drove to an empty lot and did donuts (driving the car backwards in a continuous circle of joy). I really did that...and probably shouldn't admit it, but, it was one of the happiest moments of my life. There is a smell that these older Porsche have, that the new ones seem to lack and Purist call it the "Porsche smell". This 911 also sounded better than the newer ones I bought. It had what they call a "Whale tail". Truly, this was a street legal race car. Worth every penny. I didn't try to pick up girls with this car, it WAS the girl. I was in love with this car, and she was not a cheap date. I didn't mind.

And then we come to the most Beautiful car I've ever owned. This is a 1963 Porsche 1600 S. Mine was silver (like this one) with a red leather interior. The only car I ever bought on e-Bay, and the ONLY car I sold for more money than I paid for it. As beautiful as it was, I could only drive it to a few places. I also had to carry jumper cables and it leaked oil a little bit. I didn't have the mechanical skills, and I take that back. I had the skills, I just didn't enjoy working on the car. Looking back, I think I would really enjoy working on the car, just like now I enjoy cooking. At the time, I wasn't ready to own this kind of car. I regret selling it though. Oh do I regret it. Maybe one day, I will get another one. Super special car. Stunning... A Stunning car.

The 1998 Ferrari F355 Spider. This car was my Dot Com Car.

The Nation was on a giant drug called the NASDAQ. This was my gift to day trading. I didn't tell my friends about it because I was never comfortable "owning" a Ferrari. The stereotype associated with owning this car is so not true. The Ferrari folks I have met are the nicest people. Not arrogant, not flashy. They just loved these cars. I've had two Ferrari's. (Not at the same time but over time) The silver 355 and a Rosso Firoano 360 Coupe (a very rare colour) I even made the trip to the Ferrari factory in Maranello, TWICE to tour the plant and the public Museum nearby. In the end, I couldn't stomach the constant attention. The attention was constant. I did like that I could park this car just about anywhere and not worry about a ticket, but I didn't like there were almost ALWAYS people near the car when you would come to drive off. Maybe if I lived in Cali it wouldn't have been an issue. Who knows? In Seattle, its an attention grabber.

This was the best sounding car I ever had. There is the unmistakable whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine" of a Ferrari, and the 355's had that sound DOWN! The car was a rock star of sound. No need to listen to the radio...the car made its own music.

So what the hell am I driving now?

I'm not going to say. We all need a little mystery...and I'd like to hear your guesses. But what ever "it" is, I'm still driving around town, and I'm still rocking to Cheap Trick and Queen, and ok some Kanye, (this time on some really fantastic speakers). And instead of picking up girls, I will pick up my wonderful girl of a Daughter, from Montessori school.

Ah, progress. :)

Motown Meltdown

2008-11-18T22:18:00.000-08:00

Ah man! I'm having writer's block. I cant get a blurb going and I cant harness my thoughts. There is SO much to write about and I honestly don't know where to start...or where to finish. Lets start with the economy. Things are not looking good in Motown. heck things are not looking good in "Yo-town", either. Detroit, the city that gave us the first car, Aretha Franklin, Kiss and Madonna, is going through some difficult times. OK, lets get real. Detroit has been in a funk since 1970. We traded Passion and style for a K-Car. Goodbye to those cars that were inspired by America's Optimism. Those fabulous fins... the incredible curves. The cars that looked like they could fly (even though they couldn't) to us, seemed like they did. In the 50's, and 60's, America was flying.

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So do you bail out Detroit? I say yes, but with some serious conditions. #1 End the Unions. Union agreements amount to a burdened cost of $1600 dollars per car. Honda and Toyota has a burdened labor cost of only $200 dollars. There was a time and place for Unions, but they have ultimately negotiated unsustainable labor contracts. In the long term, reasonable labor agreements will mean MORE American workers. Lets get real with Unions. #2 Fire the current CEO's and leadership teams. They drove GM and Ford in the ditch with Big SUV's and uninspiring designs. Giving them 25 Billion would be a total waste of taxpayer dollars. #3 Make a serious commitment to Beautiful, fuel efficient (in the short term) cars, and (in the long term) next gen alternative fuel vehicles, that would be viable to sell not only in America but in Europe and Japan. Yes, let America own the Automobile world again. We CAN do this. #4 Make cars AFFORDABLE! In India, they came up with a car that retails for $2500. A $5000 car is not impossible. Make affordable cars, and they will sell. It should not take 60 months or something crazy like 72 or 78 months to pay for a car. THIS is the kind of conversation they should be having in Washington and Detroit.

Word!

Meatless in Seattle

2008-11-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

One year. Its been one year now since I've eaten chicken, or beef, or bacon, or any meat. And this isn't another lefty speaking against cruelty to animals (although the idea of eating dead flesh seems especially barbaric to me now) I was gladly chomping down MOSTLY meat every day until one day I felt sick. I thought I had food poisoning since the day before I ate at an authentic dim-sum joint in downtown LA. I was in the Bay Area and I was feeling like I was going to puke. I and puked...and I puke I did...and I puked some more. And I had this crazy headache. It was September 5th. So with these symptoms, and like any other guy, I tried to shake it off and go about my day....Not a good idea. It wasn't until 8 or 9pm that I decided I would go to a local ER and get checked out. I told them I was still very nauseous, so they could catch me in the bathroom when it was my time to be called. They finally brought me in about 30 minutes later and they guy took my blood pressure. Right after he took it he called a doctor and said something about a "code". Before long I was in another room and they had put an IV in me. They were worried about me having a stroke. My blood pressure was 230 over 140, a crazy number. I was told later that this was the highest number anyone in the ER had seen in a patient. They had given me Nitro to bring my BP down. I was on the phone with my wife, telling her what was going on when they took the phone out of my hand. I felt like I couldn't breath, and for a moment I thought "this is it....this is how I am going to die". Turns out my BP was going down too fast and that was a problem... I blacked out. I woke up sometime early the next morning. I was moved from the ER to ICU where I stayed for 3 days. I had more IV's in me and I had oxygen tubes in my nose, and I had the MOTHER of all headaches. This wasn't good. The Nurse had told me my boss was there to see me, and something about my wife being on the way down. The next day they did a bunch of test and scans. Turned out my kidneys were failing. I had about 15 percent use of my kidneys. The Nephrologist said I would need a kidney transplant, and she had the bedside manner of Dr, Kavorkian. Listening to her, It seemed it was just a matter of time before I was going to die. She was terrible. Not hopeful at all. It was that moment that my headache went away, and I havent had a headache ever since. So what does this have to do with my eating habits? As I began to prep for the long process of getting a kidney transplant, (we were targeting April of 08'), I did a evaluation of my diet and I did lots of reading on kidney disease. It was clear to me that eliminating meat protein would give my kidneys a long overdue break. So I gave up meat. Since my life depended it on it, it wasn't very hard to stay with this plan. Sure, I wanted to eat a burger or a steak at first, and every now and then I still get a craving... but it passes. So the combination of diet, meds to lower my blood pressure, and faith (yes, faith), brought some amazing results. Within 3 months, my kidneys were at about 20 percent use. (Btw, 20 percent is the threshold for needing a kidney transplant. You cant go on the list for one unless you are at 20 percent or less. In 6 months I was at 30 percent. I probably have about 35 percent use of my kidneys today, well about the 20 percent transplant threshold (which is awesome!). I will need a transplant one day, but it could be 5, 10, maybe even 30 years from now. The move towards becoming a vegetarian (I do have cheese, but I do try to limit my dairy) has brought some other great benefits. I lost about 20 lbs. I sleep through the night, and I feel really great...better than I felt well before my kidneys started failing. I've also have become quite the cook these days!

The point of my post is not so much to highlight the benefits of "skipping the cow", but I wanted to point out just how critical it is that everyone take ownership of their own medical circumstances, and not let your Doctors decide your fate. One of the people I am following is doing a blog on the Middle Ages. As much as we have progressed since then, so much of our medical decisions are still "best guesses". We cant forget that.

Rocky 6 - America fights back!

2008-11-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

You know, this is totally strange I know, but I LOVED the ending to "Rocky Balboa" which is unofficially Rocky 6. I'm not sure how many people saw it, but it was the real deal. Sly shows a humility in Rocky he hasn't shown since the first Rocky. This humble character is a shadow of the 80's Gordon Gecko/Ronald Reagan type "Greed is Good" Rocky's that took over the lovable lump, who used to punch beef in a meat locker. This is an older, almost uncertain Rocky who doesn't have the snap and the pop, but the cracks and Kringle's of old age. This movie is about America and the American dream. America is about coming back,...Its about coming off the floor when you've been knocked down,...its about coming back when your doubting yourself. The ending credits, People from all over the city, young and old, black and white, run up the steps like Rocky, and shadow punch and put their fist in the air to celebrate VICTORY! Its such a powerful moment, you cant but help to get emotional about it. Even the "Philly Fanatic is running up the stairs (and folks this is 3 years before they won it all) America is like that. Just when you count us out, BOOM! we come back with a big giant SHOW ME THE MONEY! That's why I love America, and this is why in this darkest of times, you cant count us out. America will be back, and it wont be long... and Nobody will celebrate our being "back" like me. I'm going to buys something BIG, like a Jet, or a baseball team. Hey, you never know...

In America, ANYTHING is Possible!

Aint that right Rock?!

The Next Blog - What happens when you search at random

2008-11-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

So its a Sunday night in Seattle (Close enough, its right across the 520 bridge) and I'm looking at my umpteenth football game as a FF junkie, the players I'm playing aren't doing squat, and the ones I sat are tearing it up = I'm LOSING. So, I surf the Blogger Bogs and and I surf some more, and... its magical. I was looking at Blogs of folks who enjoyed the same movies as me. I'm amazed there are almost 300 people who listed "A Place in the Sun" as a favorite movie. The Stories! The Pictures! Who needs HBO? Who needs Football? (Alright, I didn't say that) Unlike Twitter, you really get to learn more about people...way more than a "quick blurb". I found some extraordinary stories. You just never know whats going to show up in the NEXT BLOG!

Post Racial America?

2008-11-09T12:54:00.000-08:00

Let me say first that as a Political Junkie, I'm having a bit of a hangover from this Election actually being over. Its over! The Good Guy won, but I've noticed in my lingering Euphoria, the Sunday News shows, talking about a Post Racial America. WHAT is THAT? I mean, I am ecstatic we have the first President of Color...I'm walking on AIR! But does this wipe out the Silent Elephant in the great room of our Society? Did we become a colorblind society overnight? No...Not even close. Yes, a Black President is a dream most of thought we would never see... its hopeful, its wonderful, amazing and unbelievable all at the same time. But we cant say we live in a Post Racial America. I will say there are "Pockets" of "PRM" in cities like Seattle (and I can vouch for Seattle), San Francisco, and parts of Manhattan. I've never been to the great State of Vermont, but I'm guessing Vermont is a "Post Racial "State". I also imagine the 6 black people living in Vermont must love it. Children, like my four year old, are "Post Racial", as were all of us until some of us were tainted by society. No one is born disliking people because of race, it has to be taught. It appears we are not teaching our kids to hate these days. So yes, there are pockets of a post racial existence, and we can see "PRM" in our kids. That said, this is NOT the time to become complacent and ignore all the evidence that the Elephant is still in the room...actually several of them. Poverty, Crime, Education (lack thereof), and the broken black family. Clearly, we still have a lot of work left to do. So while we wait to greet our First African American Leader of the Free World on January 20th 2009, lets not mistake this remarkable sign of progress as the beginning of a "Post Racial America". I hope that when we sober up from the hype, we will see our work is far from done, and we can't expect to put everything on our new President, to get us the rest of the way home.

History lesson #1

2008-11-07T23:28:00.000-08:00

Presidential Speech....

"In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next 5 years will be worse than the past 5 years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.
As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.
These changes did not happen overnight. They've come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.
We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Water gate.
We remember when the phrase "sound as a dollar" was an expression of absolute dependability, until 10 years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our Nation's re sources were limitless until 1973, when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.
These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.
Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our Nation's life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our Government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.
What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.
Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don't like, and neither do I. What can we do?
First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this Nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.
One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: "We've got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America."
We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars, and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.
We ourselves and the same Americans who just 10 years ago put a man on the Moon. We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality. And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process rebuild the unity and confidence of America.
We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.
All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our Nation and ourselves. We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem.
Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this Nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our Nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.
In little more than two decades we've gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous tool on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. It's a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our Nation.
The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our Nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.
What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.
Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this Nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 -- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980's, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over 4 1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.
Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my Presidential authority to set import quotas. I'm announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.
Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our Nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the Sun.
I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace 2 1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. The corporation will issue up to $5 billion in energy bonds, and I especially want them to be in small denominations so that average Americans can invest directly in America's energy security.
Just as a similar synthetic rubber corporation helped us win World War II, so will we mobilize American determination and ability to win the energy war. Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this Nation's first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.
These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. It will be money well spent. Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans to Americans. These funds will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment.
Point four: I'm asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our Nation's utility companies cut their massive use of oil by 50 percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source.
Point five: To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the redtape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.
We will protect our environment. But when this Nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.
Point six: I'm proposing a bold conservation program to involve every State, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford.
I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I'm asking you for your good and for your Nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense -- I tell you it is an act of patriotism.
Our Nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it is the most painless and immediate way of rebuilding our Nation's strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives.
So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our Nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.
You know we can do it. We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on Earth. We have the world's highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.
I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our Nation's problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort. What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty. And above all, I will act.
We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively and we will, but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice.
Twelve hours from now I will speak again in Kansas City, to expand and to explain further our energy program. Just as the search for solutions to our energy shortages has now led us to a new awareness of our Nation's deeper problems, so our willingness to work for those solutions in energy can strengthen us to attack those deeper problems.
I will continue to travel this country, to hear the people of America. You can help me to develop a national agenda for the 1980's. I will listen and I will act. We will act together. These were the promises I made 3 years ago, and I intend to keep them.
Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science. But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources -- America's people, America's values, and America's confidence.
I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy-secure nation.
In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God's help and for the sake of our Nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.
Thank you and good night."

- Jimmy Carter July 15, 1979

Ronald Reagan's first official acts of office included removing Jimmy Carter's solar panels from the roof of the White House, and reversing most of Carter's conservation and alternative energy policies.

I dont want to rub it in BUT....

2008-11-07T20:34:00.000-08:00

Its HAS to be a bummer to drive your own car again (especially when your 72!) or to lose your Secret Service detail. Wouldn't you like to have a Secret Service detail? I would. I mean, I wouldn't want them 2 feet away from me or anything, but to have them "around" would be Bad Ass. I imagine you could be a pretty tough guy when you got armed special agents around you. I guess it would be even better to be a Kid and have the Secret Service detail. I bet Palin is missing those Guys and their guns... and their credit cards (maybe they bought the clothes??? No?) and I bet Todd (the nauseating "First Dude") is glad to be alone with his "snow machine".

I'm just so glad to see these guys ride off into the Sunset. McCain "McMeanie" and his wife the "Ice Princess" with insane amounts of beer money. Sarah, Todd and 15 kids and that preggo one. Tell me, you think that pregnant teenager is going to Marry that boy NOW? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! All bets are off! The strange thing is, you would think Palin returned to Alaska, we would have seen her ONCE with that special needs baby. ONCE! Who is watching that baby? Ironic and SAD... it seems the baby got more "Mommy Time" during the election, than afterwards.

I didn't want to rub it in, but... Ba-Bye! and to use their own words... "Thanks but no Thanks!

There are a LOT of UPPITY BLACK PEOPLE!!! (Who Knew?)

2008-11-07T10:39:00.000-08:00

Gosh, (and I do say "Gosh" a lot because I have a 4 year old), just when I thought I was on to something, I look up "Uppity" and found a butt load of Uppity black people. Maybe I should have done that first! "The Black Snob", the "Uppity Negro NETWORK", and more. I guess with our new black President (NBP), a lot of Uppity Blacks will come out of the woodwork. Damn! Props to the Snob as it appears she has been snobbing it up for a while. I will do my best to bring a Pacific Northwest Spin to my Blog... Or my Technology background to this discussion. To my knowledge, the Snob is a writer, and UNN is (looks like) more writers. Clearly, I'm not a writer. I work for a Huge software company out of Germany (and you thought I was going to say Microsoft). I'm in Technology. I promise to do my own thing...and do the right thing. I may not be the first to cover this subject (and I damn sure wont be the last), but I hope to add to the conversation PEEPS! Here we are, only three days after the "Moment", and I'm already used to having a Black President. I'm ready for his first Press Conference. I can already tell that following President Obama will be like following the Seahawks, or the Sonics (OOPS, skip that). The Lakers. And how WONDERFUL it will be that some of these little black kids (Future Uppityblacks) will be following President Obama, and NOT the Lakers.

Uppityblack - What is it?

2008-11-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Uppityblack - So what is Uppityblack? Its not what you might think. Its not a black thing. Its not a snob thing. Its the voice of People who don't exactly fit in to the Ebony/Jet scene, yet they are Proud of their African American roots. UB is not only for Black People, its for ALL People, because People, there wont be black people and white people in 300 years...we will be ONE people. Its about people who actually don't see race first, or even second or third. Its about issues, Sports, and Pop Culture, in a rapidly changing World ... and oh yeah, it is about our new President, Barack Obama, and how this extraordinary Man in this shinning moment, has shattered everything we used to know about race. So Uppityblack is about NOW.

Welcome! - Shelby