Bishops

Isn't there something strange about wanting the blessing of a morally bankrupt organization like the Catholic Church, especially when they hate you for who you are i.e. gay/lesbian...?

Epic Anomie

....  From Radiohead

Boots and shoes

I am wearing a pair of eight year old boots. I got a close out deal on them at an outfitters store back home. They're black leather hiking boots with Gore Tex and I paid fifty bucks (!) for them. I love wearing them and I hope I have them on when the zombies show up. I imagine characters in McCarthy's The Road murdering each other over boots like these. Sherlock Holmes, or Doctor House who said "shoes never lie" could probably tell you a lot about me from examining them. Recently the NBA had their All Star Game in Orlando and Nike celebrated by releasing a $220 pair of Air Jordan sneakers. Riots ensued. Now I'm a basketball fan but I don't get it. Who gets into a stampede over shoes? Upper middle class men who want to collect them? Sell them on ebay? Take them home and stick them on the shelf with your other dusty Air Jordans? That mentality is so alien to me. I want the kind of shoes that let you feel prepared for Justin Cronin's North American Viral Cataclysm, thank you very much. In a size twelve, please.

The View

... From my office window today

My Personal Award for Film of the Year...

goes to the Green Lantern movie I wanted to see, the one I had in mind when I saw the trailer and the alien says "What's your name?"
Hal Jordan was the answer and a childhood memory came roaring back to me at the start of the Harry Potter movie I had come to see, I think it was The Half-Blood Prince.
I had no idea they were making a Green Lantern movie.
In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight... I still recall the affirmation of courage and determination recited by the wielder of the most powerful weapon in the galaxy, the Ring of Power that will create anything your willpower and imagination can invent, protecting and giving the power of space flight to the members of the Green Lantern Corps, a grand mythology of the creators of the Ring and the power batteries that charge them and on and on. It's a wonderful comic book creation.
But why did they botch it so badly? Why was this Hal Jordan such a small person, a jerk, a loser who would never be allowed to pilot experimental jets?
Why did you do this to me?
The Green Lantern movie I wanted to see was the coolest movie of the year. The one I saw was maybe the worst.
Thanks a fucking lot, Hollywood.

The Artist

The Artist begins with a wonderful bit of dialogue, printed on a card in wonderful Hollywood circa 1925 text...    "I won't talk! You can't make me talk!" A man is being tortured for information in grand Hollywood style with electrodes sitting on his head and special effects electricity coursing through the air around him. 

We're watching a movie in a movie, the star of The Artist is playing an actor and we're watching his film in a grand theater with a great orchestra and conductor and the audience enraptured. We go backstage and see a big sign requesting silence behind the screen during the show. If you wandered in off the street in 2012 and didn't know what to expect in this film you would wonder, where's the color? Where's the audio? Why does that crazy (LOUD!) music keep playing? And the significance of the first line becomes clear, it's one of several very broad puns scattered through this very playful movie. Valentin won't talk for his captors and he won't talk for Hollywood. A chance encounter with an ambitious starlet leads to a professional relationship that turns into a love story between George and Peppy. His faithful terrier is a devastating scene stealer, John Goodman turns out to be a perfect silent film star and you learn that you don't need color, dialogue or sound effects to tell a compelling story, you just need a story. The downfall and resurrection of a great film star is told through the compelling artistry of Hollywood film. This is a feel-good, stand up and cheer film that will send you from the theater in love with this amazing storytelling artistic endeavor called film making. I loved it. I was so happy to see it get its due... Best Film, 2012 Academy Awards

Cronin's The Passage

The Passage is not a novel about vampires. The monsters -variously called virals, smokes or jumps- aren't very interesting characters. Almost all of them are stripped of personality, immortal superhuman killing machines who take over North America. The author tells Salon.com that they are suspended in the moment between life and death. But really the novel is about the little girl Amy who's destined to save the world and the other survivors. The enigmatic Amy is the beating heart of the story and the single chapter told from her point of view is a shimmering literary masterpiece. As a young girl who has lived a hundred years by this point, she has a unique point of view. Many of the novel's characters spend a lot of time either imprisoned or in hiding from the monsters and the theme emerges of the effects of isolation and being trapped. As a long distance trucker I can relate to this condition of existence quite well. There are times when you feel like you're seeing the world pass by through your windshield but you're not really living in it anymore. Also, I must admit to having certain fantasies of living on as a survivor of apocalypse or as a superhero.The characters who survive and even thrive in their captivity are the strong willed resistors who eventually escape and end the novel with a declaration of war against the monsters to be fought in the sequel.
The narrative is immensely compelling and Justin Cronin is a very engaging writer who leads you effortlessly through hundreds of pages. I hadn't ever heard of him before this novel appeared on the best-seller lists but he is a wonderful talent.

He tells the website io9.com "If I was going to place these characters in a great deal of jeopardy and send them across the continent, where many would die, I had to earn the right to do that to them. And you earn that by giving them the full dignity of their humanity." 


And so he truly does.

February 25

Dunn, NC

Disappointed

As a trucker, I get my news over the radio mostly, and from my smartphone to a lesser extent so I was disappointed that I didn't get to see television news coverage of Mitt Romney speaking this past weekend to 1200 people in Ford Field in Detroit. And then it occurred to me that images would be inadequate to the task of comprehending this failed spectacle. 64000 empty seats surrounding a midget of a Republican making a speech proposing that taxes be raised on the poor. I think maybe I don't really need to have seen this empty suit speaking to a cavernously empty football stadium. I reckon my Imagination is adequate for this failed sales pitch.

Clouds over Virginia

Stretching into the distance

writing and riding

Life on the road ain't easy. You're forced to go along with traffic, confront unforeseen obstacles and cope with pushy scheduling, long days and unexpected breakdowns, crazy weather and unmindful motorists. But the good news is you don't have to listen to a lot of BS about your TPS Reports from your Boss in The Office. I have a variety of music, news and audio-book entertainment options available to me. I have endless opportunities to indulge my addiction to news updates, political speculation, sunset photography and my beloved Red Sox. It's mostly a good life, mostly what I make of it and I try to squeeze a little fun out of it.