Department Of Somebody Got A Screenwriting Credit For This?
Dateline: last Saturday, Manzanita OR. Pondering the recent news re the death of actor Peter Fonda, I wondered how it was that moiself had made it through life as a movie fan (including taking a film class in college) without having seen that supposedly ground-breaking classic, Easy Rider.
Friend JWW was visiting MH and moiself. JWW and MH each claimed to have seen Easy Rider and, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, agreed to watch it with me that evening.
You know That Thing ® when you get embarrassed for people you don’t even know and/or who aren’t even in the room with you? That’s the thing I felt, watching Easy Rider. As (a cartoon version of) George Takei might say,
Now I know what it feels like to have a bad trip, despite never having dropped acid.
Anyone who has watched older, “classic” movies has probably noticed that many such classics, however groundbreaking and/or interesting they may have been when they were released, just don’t hold up over time. This is the case, IMHO, for Easy Rider. I’ll just leave it at this: if ever there was a movie which turned out to be an inadvertent Public Service Announcement [1] for the idea that Drugs Makes You Stupid ® ….
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Department Of Apologies I Don’t Quite Believe…
A.K.A. Why I Love Walking On The Beach Early In The Morning
Dateline: last Saturday circa 7 AM, walking north along the beach at Manzanita. The beach is fairly devoid of other bipeds; then I espy a figure dressed in shimmering, vibrant green attire walking south, about 50 yards in front of me. Woman In Shimmering Green heads in my direction when her two Corgis leave her side and do their funny-odd, scuttling dwarf-dog, crab-run towards me. She calls to them in vain as the scamper in the sand in a circle around me and beg for pets, which I am happy to provide.
Woman In Shimmering Green approaches me, shading her eyes against the morning sun. She is barefoot, slim, with thick, shoulder length platinum gray hair styled in a manner reminiscent of Lauren Bacall.
“You know how to whistle for a corgi, don’t you? You just put your lips together and blow.”
Speaking of Bacall, I note that Woman In Shimmering Green has that classic movie star style bone structure which ages well even when wrinkled – she appears to be in her late 50s or early 60s, and she is a knockout. The shimmering green reveals itself to be a rather stunning silk pajama ensemble with an elaborate, dragon pattern stitched in gold thread on the sleeves and legs.
She laughs, pointing at her bare feet and then at her pajamas, and says apologetically, “I didn’t even bother to get dressed.”
“This is the beach,” I hear moiself reply, thinking of my own beach walking “ensemble” (workout shirt and pants and knee high waterproof boots). “You look fine to me.”
We exchange a few sentences of small talk before she moves on; she says something along the lines of how she just got out of bed and the dogs demanded to be walked so she came out here figuring no one else would see her “looking like this.”
Which, I want to call BS on. I mean, c’mon – she looks better at 59 than I ever did in my prime (assuming I had a prime, maybe for 15 minutes when I was 19 or 20). She is one of those “natural beauties,” and I think she knows it. She of the expensive dogs and designer pajamas wants me to give her the benefit of the doubt and believed she just rolled out of bed looking that way? Yeah, right, fuck that exhibitionist bitch…
Never mind. I decided to stick with my initial, more generous assessment: she’s just another early riser enjoying the beach.
And so it goes. That is, she goes her way and I go mine, with moiself laughing aloud as I imagine the scenario wherein I do the same as she allegedly did: roll out of bed and just come to the beach without altering anything about the way I look and/or dress in the morning. I picture someone from the local beach cleanup committee following behind me, wielding an enormous butterfly net which they are attempting to place over my head. Please stop it. You’re scaring away the tourists.
I don’t have a picture of the woman in the green dragon pajamas, so Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and his legendary dragon stage outfit (circa 1977) will have to do.
* * *
Department Of Looking On The Bright Side
So many Democratic Presidential candidates…so many podiums on the debate stage. According to what I’m reading and hearing, many people find it easy to get confused or even discouraged about that fact – they figure what with so many candidates there is a dilution of interest, money, and time for serious examination of issues that require more than gotcha sound bites.
But I’m starting to think, it’s all good. The winnowing process has already begun via the debate committee qualifications; also; some of the lesser known/funded candidates have consulted their Magic 8 ball and dropped out…even as others remain in the race despite not qualifying for the third round of debates (someone please copy Bill De Blasio on the if-you’re-polling-at-less-than-0.05%-this-is-pointless memo).
As for the debate qualifiees (which moiself assumes will include the eventual nominee), we started with twenty-plus and are now at ten. They are, in alphabetical order:
* Former Vice President Joe Biden
* New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
* South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
* Former San Antonio Mayer/Obama Cabinet Member Julián Castro
* California Sen. Kamala Harris
* Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
* Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke
* Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
* Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
* Entrepreneur Andrew Yang
There are positives about every nominee – a lot of energy and optimism and experience. I think that exposure to this many serious candidates is win-win for the country, because the Also-Rans are quite a talented bunch; you could fill the President’s cabinet with top-notch talent. And I am, in fact, hoping that when the proverbial dust settles and the President/Veep slate is chosen, that that is what will happen.
I’m already imaging a Presidential Cabinet Roster, along the lines of the Also Rans‘ experiences and interests. For example, for Office of Management & Budget Director I’d nominate Steve Bullock, the governor of Montana, who has long expressed an interest in campaign finance reform. Michael Bennet, the Colorado Senator, has a zeal for education – and there we have the position of Secretary of the Department of Education filled.
So, let’s say the ticket is President: Elizabeth Warren and Vice President: Corey Booker . My fantasy cabinet for the moment might include the following as secretaries and/or administrators of their respective departments:
White House Chief of Staff, Pete Buttigieg
Department of State, Joe Biden
Department of the Treasury, Bernie Sanders
Department of Defense; Kirsten Gillibrand
Department of Justice, Attorney General, Kamala Harris
Department of the Interior, John Hickenlooper
Department of Commerce, Andrew Yang
Department of Labor Beto O’Rourke
Department of Health and Human Services, John Delaney
Department of Housing and Urban Development, Julian Castro
Department of Energy, or the Environmental Protection Agency, Jay Inslee
Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary Tulsi Gabbard
Department of Homeland Security, Amy Klobuchar
It’s fun – try it yourself. What might your fantasy Presidential cabinet look like? Also, there may be some kind of board game potential in this.
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Department of Epicurean Excursion [2]
Featuring this week’s cookbook, author and recipe:
How To Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman
Recipes:
* Sautéed Eggplant With Basil and Chilis
* Barley Salad with Cucumber And Yogurt-Dill Dressing
My ratings, for both recipes:
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
Recipe Rating Refresher [3]
* * *
Department Of The Never Ending Fight Against Maturity
Dateline: last Wednesday eve, at McMenamin’s Rock Creek Tavern. We are having a belated birthday dinner for MH while enjoying the tunes of one of our favorite performers, singer-songwriter Billy D.
Apropos of…something…I got son K to agree that, should the “natural” order of life proceed and I predecease him, [4] he will lead my memorial attendees in singing and/or reciting rousing renditions of two of my favorite childhood songs: “Scab Sandwich” and “Beans Beans the Musical Fruit….” To be followed by a pass-the-microphone session wherein attendees share their favorite, Robyn-would-have-liked-this fart jokes.
Y’all been warned.
* * *
May you pick a memorable sing-along for your memorial gathering; [5]
May you waste spend precious neurological energy constructing your own
Fantasy Presidential Cabinet ® ;
May you never experience Easy Rider flashbacks;
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
* * *
[1] put out by The Man, as one of the movie’s characters might say.
[2] A recurring feature of this blog, since week 2 of April 2019, wherein moiself decided that moiself would go through my cookbooks alphabetically and, one day a week, cook (at least) one recipe from one book.
* Two Thumbs up: Liked it
* Two Hamster Thumbs Up : Loved it
* Thumbs Down – Not even Kevin (a character from The Office who would eat anything) would like this.
* Twiddling Thumbs: I was, in due course, bored by this recipe.
* Thumbscrew: It was torture to make this recipe.
* All Thumbs: Good recipe, but I somehow mucked it up .
* Thumby McThumb Face: This recipe was fun to make.
* Thumbing my nose: Yeah, I made this recipe, but I did not respect it.
[4] The “natural” order – parents dying before their children, is something I am no longer taking for granted, given the events of this year: two longtime friends each suffered the deaths of one of their young adult children (one in January, the other just this month).
[5] Remember, if you don’t, someone may do it for you.
