Conquering Paradise It’s Monday morning and another great day in Paradise. Yesterday I started watching the 1992 movie 1492: Conquest of Paradise with Gerard Depardieu. I was prompted in that direction by a National Geographic article on a great new Mayan (more likely Toltec) artifact find in Chichen Itza in the middle of the Yucatán jungle. That reminded me of the Mel Gibson directed film Apocalypto about a manhunt by tribal people though the jungle.…
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday I don’t mind outing myself as a Monkees fan. In the 60’s everybody my age was a Monkees fan. And then for thirty years or so I had to secretly hanker for a little Daydream Believer not to mention Another Pleasant Valley Sunday . Now that both Davy Jones and Peter Tork are dearly departed, only Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz are left and between the two they have over 150…
Family-in-Law I have what I consider to be a strange relationship with most of my family. I am not so egotistical as to think my relationships of this kind are any more or less strange than most peoples’ but I am blessed/cursed by a willingness to write about it in an open and hopefully honest way. Trust me, I am well aware that at this moment in this story, every one of my family members…
World Gone Mad This Sunday morning I am feeling ill at ease more so than normal, even for this new normal in the time of Coronavirus. I would point to three specific things that are troubling me. Yes, I am watching MSNBC while I update myself this morning and yes, I know that has a liberal bent to it, but I am a thinking person who can filter things that seem logical, things that seem…
Keeping Busy Yesterday, Kim and I made the trip from our home to Ventura, which, for those not familiar with California geography, is 175 miles north of here on the Pacific coast north of Los Angeles. I had ordered that new motorcycle seat for the new bike and I didn’t want to trust or suffer the over-burdened package delivery services since I had to both get my new seats and drop off my old seats…
Needless Mark-up I hear that Neiman Marcus is likely to declare bankruptcy soon as the latest signal that the retail business sector is the next in what promises to be an ongoing array of zombie business segments in the new normal. This morning I heard a retail analyst talking about it. He was actually quite balanced about it all. Clearly Neiman Marcus is an iconic brand that has been around for 113 years. It originated…
High Plains Drifter I look nothing like Clint Eastwood. I think nothing like Clint Eastwood. I’ve heard about his politics, so I want nothing to do with Clint Eastwood. But damn, does that guy know how to make movies that appeal to us all. I am my own version of a high plains drifter. I’ve spent my life parachuting into new places and figuring out how to prevail. Now comes the ultimate test of that…
Donut Holes I can tell that this quarantine has gone on too long or at least long enough. It’s been seven weeks by my count and any way you slice it, that’s a long time to be at home. The problem is, I can’t reasonably expect any sympathy for that since the entire world considers staying at home the least troubling of the three choices. The first choice is to be sick with COVID-19 and…
Haircuttery I think of my quarantine as having started after returning prematurely from New York and having swung and missed on my trip to London (a trip, I might add, which would have been a complete waste of time and effort because that expert witness case settled favorably). I flew back to San Diego on Wednesday, March 10th with a prickly feeling on the back of my neck like I had just escaped the Coronavirus.…
Ghost Writing More than two years ago a friend of mine sent me the first fifty pages of a manuscript that he had “written” than chronicled his career and life. He had put together some 230 pages of thoughts and notes in somewhat random order and had hired a ghost writer to help him bring it all together as a book that would be both readable and compelling. He sent it to me to read…