Why So Serious? As of today, the fifth-ranked movie of 2019 is Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, the non-Marvel prequel to the Batman franchise. I went with my youngest son, who has been addicted to the Joker character ever since Heath Ledger made it his swan song for all intents and purposes. The trend in movies has clearly moved to a combination of Disney animation blockbusters for kids and Marvel superhero blockbusters for adolescents. In fact,…
Downtown Bombshell Yesterday was another day of rest for me. I was enjoying being back home after three weeks away, so I just lazed around opening mail, sorting through motorcycle gear, organizing stuff, watching a bit of MSNBC to catch up on the news (though I must say these days none of us is further away from it than our smartphones) and waiting for our evening adventure. Kim had booked us for another SAG/AFTRA…
The Small Wide World I am in Milan for a series of meetings with a small private Italian chemical company that is partnering with us on a small pilot plant to make hydrogen and/or ammonia. I have combined this trip with my return from my motorcycle tour of Turkey, so it feels like a bit of a drawn our return home. Nonetheless, I am rallying to the mission. I met up with my two colleagues…
Whistling Past the Maelstrom We’ve been planning this trip to Turkey for a year. We have a group of motorcycle buddies (couples and stags) that like doing an international bike trip each fall. In the recent past we’ve done Croatia, Greece and Sicily. While sitting on a terrace in Palermo last October, we agreed on a Turkey trip for this year. It started to take shape in February, came together as a committed plan in…
Keeping Secrets We recently saw a pre-screening of the Martin Scorsese epic The Irishman, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesce with a great follow-on ensemble including Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Harvey Keitel and Anna Paquin. It is probably Scorsese’s last great mob movie and it details the life and death of Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino) as seen through the narrated eyes of his surviving bodyguard, Frank Sheeran (De Niro). One of the great…
Putin Everything in Place This morning’s headline in the Financial Times is that Russia has come to an agreement with Bashar al-Assad\ of Syria and the Kurds to fight back against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey and its attempt to create a 20 mile-wide barrier between itself and Syria. This is all done by Turkey in the name of national security, presumably mostly against the Kurds, who have an historical habit of deciding which national…
The Table Tilts We try to keep politics out of the mix during our motorcycle rides of the last twenty-four years. We tend to fail miserably at that goal since feelings run deep and in opposite directions, just like on the national scene. In the motorcycling world nothing means more than the kind of metal you ride. While there are plenty of subcultures in motorcycling, the big rift is between people who ride Harley Davidsons…
A Man’s Character is His Fate I will be in Ephesus on the Western Coast of Turkey in five days. Ephesus is famous in world history for many things I expect to learn more about during that visit. As I sit here today, waiting to travel to Istanbul for this trip, I am trying to get my fill of impeachment news since I imagine I will be getting it all on some degree of time…
The Illusion of Control Control is what makes the world go around. We work our whole lives to obtain it. We are unsettled if we do not feel in possession of it. At times it allows us to go faster and at other times it slows us down to an excruciating crawl. “Get control of yourself!” “You’re out of control!” “You’re a control-freak!” Does it mean to rule or just to regulate? Is it…
Trending Towards Change Donald Trump is probably having a better morning today than you think. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that he has been inviting an impeachment inquiry for a long time because it will vindicate him in the Senate and thereby work for his electoral prospects in 2020. You’re thinking that the tactically brilliant Nancy Pelosi has finally been overwhelmed by irrational congressional pressure to punish Trump by sending him through…