Archive for the ‘Social Commentary’ Category
April 13, 2016
It has been a long day; I was up early because I am getting new appliances and the Columbia County Habitat for Humanity was coming early for my old stove. They came and went and I waited for the new appliances to arrive.
It all started with my dishwasher finally starting to give up the ghost which proceeded to all new appliances — a new stove, refrigerator, over the stove microwave and, of course, a new dishwasher.
When they arrived, the dishwasher, which started all of this, was the wrong one and so it had to go and the right one finally arrived. In the meantime, I spent the day preparing for tomorrow’s lecture on magazines for “Media & Society,” the class I teach at Columbia Greene Community College.
Term papers were due last week and I graded them over the weekend, sending three back for revisions as I was working to help them achieve their goals for “good” grades. One of the students got very upset with me for trying to help her get a better grade. She had too many other things to do.
Such is the life of a teacher. It was this way when I taught high school and it is now when I am teaching at a community college.
The good news story of the day is that a 72 year old woman, who was lost in the Arizona wilderness for nine days, was found alive after drinking pond water and eating plants. She spelled help in twigs, stones and bones and was seen. Suffering from exposure, she’s in the hospital in fair condition which is pretty good for an elderly lady who had been lost in the wilderness.
Paul Ryan has told the world to count him out. He is not, repeat NOT, going to be the Republican candidate for President if it comes to a brokered convention.
That is what Kasich is counting on; a brokered convention that will take him to heart as the only sane person in the party who could conceivably win.
The Governor of North Carolina is back pedaling on the anti-gay law he signed into law as he is, rightfully so, rocked by the backlash he has received. Hell hath no fury like corporate CEO’s who don’t agree with what you have done.
And that includes the very important banking community that has moved into North Carolina in recent years. Deutsche Bank, who was going to build a presence there, has said: no, not now, not because of this.
It was a year ago that Freddie Gray died in police custody in Baltimore and there is a feeling there that the mindset has changed. I hope so. It was one of those shocking moments in American life that leave you gasping.
What I have also learned in the last year is the passionate way people who live in that city have love for that city. My friends, Lionel and Pierre, moved there the week before the riots and are now huge boosters of the city, passionately engaged there and loving it.
David Gest died in London today. A successful producer, he married Liza Minnelli and that may be the thing for which he will be forever remembered. It was a huge affair with Elizabeth Taylor as a Maid of Honor and Michael Jackson as Best Man and in a year they were divorced with all kinds of ugly rumors abounding. He had been living in York in England for the last few years, far from the madding crowd, regretful for the cosmetic surgery he had, which did not turn out well.
Tonight, I am focussing on lighter things. It’s the mood I’m in — who wants to process that Boko Haram is manipulating children into being suicide bombers?
Yuri Milner, a Russian businessman, has joined forces with Stephen Hawking, wanting to send probes about the size of iPhones to Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to us. They need to raise ten billion dollars but it sounds interesting.
I have always been a great proponent of space exploration. “Ah, but man’s reach should exceed his grasp. Or what’s a heaven for?” Robert Browning…
Tags:Baltimore, Boko Haram, Claverack, Columbia Greene Community College, Donald Trump, Freddie Gray, IS, Kasich, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media & Society, Paul Ryan, Robert Browning, Stephen Hawking
Posted in 2016 Election, Boko Haram, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, Gay, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
April 10, 2016
It is one of my favorite times at the cottage; the sun is setting and twilight is arriving. As I look out the front window, seated on my sofa, the view slowly becomes very like a black and white photo. There are only woods, slipping away into the night, a few branches slowly blowing in the soft wind of a cool spring evening.
Touring Amazon Prime Music, I added a playlist of “Classical for Reading” while I sip a martini and type, laptop balanced on my lap. It had been my intention to go out and attend a gallery opening down in Hudson but after Nick and his father, Martin, left after completing a few finishing touches to my newly painted bath, I sat on the couch, read for a while and decided that, no, I wasn’t headed out; I was staying home to enjoy my cottage.
Last night, I did the same. Watched “Grantchester” on line and then drifted off, reading a book on my Kindle.
As I sat, as I normally do, having lunch at the bar at The Red Dot, reading and bantering with Alana, the owner, the individuals around me were chattering about the New York Primary, scheduled for the week after next. Bernie will be in Albany on Monday and one woman is calling in sick in hopes of getting into the rally. The once solid upstate affection for Hillary has seemed to cool this year and it’s Bernie that is capturing the attention.
Hillary is playing well downstate and I think is headed upstate soon. It’s a big contest for the two of them, particularly now that he has won Wyoming. “Pivotal” is the word newspeople are using to describe what happens in New York on the Democratic side.
Hillary herself says she needs to win big, according to the Washington Post.
Ted Cruz had a relatively warm reception in upstate New York when he spoke at a Christian school here but did not fare as well downstate, which finds his “New York values” statement more than a little offensive. He was, I do believe, booed in Brooklyn.
Donald is trumping through the state, playing on Cruz’s statement and is leading on the GOP side here in New York.
Arianna Huffington has become a great promoter of sleep. Yes, that’s right, sleep! She said in a radio interview that The Donald is exhibiting signs of sleep deprivation. It’s a point of honor with him that he only sleeps four hours a night.
Meanwhile, Turkey, a country I visited some years ago and was one of my favorite places, is facing warnings from the US and Israel about tourists going there; credible reports of potential incidents in Istanbul and elsewhere have caused the warnings. A bomb in a bag was exploded today in Istanbul by police, two slightly wounded when they did so.
In Brussels, “the man in the hat” was arrested. He has been ardently searched for by authorities for weeks and was apprehended. Mohamed Abrini admits to being there, being “the man in the hat” and while he has been apprehended the threat remains all over Europe.
It was a very good day for three sailors in Micronesia, who had been reported missing. They spelled the world “Help” in palm fronds and that was spotted by a rescue helicopter and they were picked up from the uninhabited island.
Tomorrow night there will be a documentary on HBO about the legendary Gloria Vanderbilt, done with her son, Anderson Cooper, the CNN anchor. She reveals in the new memoir accompanying the documentary that she seduced both Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, not to mention Errol Flynn and Howard Hughes. What a life she has led…
She is 92, by the way, and doing quite well, thank you! The book is called, “The Rainbow Comes and Goes.”
And now, outside, it is dark, the music plays and I will end and cozy up with a book.
Tags:Amazon Prime Music, Anderson Cooper, Bernie Sanders, Brussels, Claverack, Donald Trump, Gloria Vanderbilt, Grantchester, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Red Dot, The Man in the Hat, The Rainbow Comes and Goes
Posted in 2016 Election, Brussels terror attack, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Greene County New York, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
April 8, 2016
It’s quiet in the cottage; I haven’t decided on what music I might want to hear. For right now, the silence is good.
The snow is almost gone, what was left was melted by yesterday’s sun and today’s rain. When I woke this morning, I was in an awfully good mood for no good reason. Later in the day, with torrential rain falling, I was not in so good a mood. I followed the day into darkness and had to work to be out of it.
Last night I went to The Dot for an original one act play by a local writer. Actually, it is a three act play being played out over three weeks. So last night was really Act One. I’ll be back for Act II next week. And Act III the week after that…
It is a night when it is good to be cozied in the cottage. It is chilling outside though the day was warm, if wet.
While running my errands today, I heard Hillary Clinton talking and she sounded hoarse and exhausted. I felt sorry for her. Bernie Sanders is sounding chipper and he should be — he has won all of the last six contests. Now the focus is on New York State where Hillary and Bernie seem running neck and neck.
It may be a pivot point in the Democratic run for the Presidential nomination. We’ll see.
Ted Cruz is not doing so well here; it appears all New Yorkers, upstate and down, are having more than a little trouble forgiving him his “New York values” statement about Trump. From what I have been reading, his New York stumping is not doing well.
67% of Americans don’t like Donald Trump but that might now be enough to stop him from getting the nomination. Cruz desperately wants Kasich to drop out, something he seems to have no intention of doing. In a brokered convention, he might have a shot.
It is the wildest year in politics I have seen in my lifetime and I am watching it all play out. As a registered independent, I cannot vote in the Primary. I will follow the results avidly.
In the meantime, IS, driven out of Palmyra where they made ruins of the ruins, have kidnapped something like 300 in a suburb of Damascus, factory workers who have now entered a nightmare.
We have the Panama Papers. David Cameron, Prime Minister of the UK, has benefitted from an offshore company set up by him late father but it all seems inconsequential.
Many of Putin’s friends have been named. Putin says this is all a Western conspiracy to weaken Russia. He has not been named and he points that out. What the West is trying for is “guilt by association.” I wonder what future weeks will bring?
It is getting later and there is still no music in the cottage. I am ending for today.
Today reminded me of the wild ride of emotions we all live through on a given day.
Good night.
Tags:Claverack, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, IS, Isis, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Obama, Putin, Red Dot
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, depression, Elections, Entertainment, Greene County New York, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
April 6, 2016
Dusk is descending on the creek; I am watching the light fade from my dining room table while classical music plays.
And I am thinking over the day, one of seemingly endless frustrations with an email problem Apple could not seem to fix and a group of errands squeezed into a short period because of all the time Apple had consumed.
When they couldn’t fix the issue, I turned to the local computer guru, Jonathan Simon, who does not work on Macs but who solved my problem in about twenty minutes. My Apple Faith is shaken.
There was a meeting this afternoon in which one of the participants became so upset they walked out; unnerving for all. The rest of us retreated to a local restaurant, had drinks and food and attempted to continue.
In other words, a day that did not run smoothly.
Last time I wrote, the predicted snow had not fallen. The next morning it was all there and more; instead of three inches we had close to seven. Only five intrepid students made it to class. We called it early and went home.
Last night, I fell asleep reading a mystery and woke lazily into a sunny but chill day. Predictions are that tonight and tomorrow are to be two of the coldest of the season. What climate change?
“The Panama Papers” have exploded onto the world stage and the President of Iceland is no longer President, having resigned today after he was named in them. As were several of Putin’s closest friends including one who was once close but had a rift with Putin and is now dead after blunt force trauma in a DC hotel.
It seems the President of Ukraine, a chocolatier billionaire did not, as he said he would, divest himself of his holdings but transferred them to offshore companies. Prime Minister Sharif of Pakistan is distraught that relatives are named with having accounts. China has tightened censorship; one can only wonder what will happen there?
These leaks create messy, messy situations while one cannot help occasionally having a moment of schadenfreude, relishing the misfortunes of others; thinking these others deserve their misfortune.
While I am typing exit polls are being held in Wisconsin. Cruz and Sanders are both hoping to take a little wind out of the frontrunners’ sails there. Hillary has not had a good history in Wisconsin, having lost it in 2008 and Trump is facing a coalition of conservative talk show hosts who are determined to bring him down, exploiting all his wonderful gaffes to the fullest.
Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi signed into law a bill that allowed for anti-gay discrimination. As in North Carolina, he is facing a barrage of blowback. Long lamenting the lack of a Fortune 500 company in his state, he is less likely to get one now. Mississippi’s largest employers are not happy, including Toyota and Nissan and MGM Resorts.
Is the Civil War being fought again over gay rights?
As a gay man, I am astounded at the progress made in my lifetime. Gay marriage was something I thought would never happen and yet, here I am, not yet dead and it has happened. That states like Mississippi and North Carolina would attempt to turn back the clock is disheartening, if not surprising. They are setbacks, not defeats and they are not on the right side of history.
What is amazing is that the Governors of those two states are ignoring the businesses in their states; pandering instead to bigoted voters. Well, they do have to re-elected!
The soft classical music is mellow, comforting and encasing the living and dining rooms with a gentle feel. I’ve turned on the floodlights over the creek and am thinking it is close to time to curl up with my mystery and slip out of the night into the land of Nod.
Tags:Apple, Bernie Sanders, Claverack, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jonathan Simon, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mississippi Gay Law, New York, Panama Papers, Phil Bryant, President of Iceland, President of Ukraine, Primaries, Primary in Wisconsin, Putin, schadenfreude, Ted Cruz
Posted in 2016 Election, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Gay, Gay Liberation, Greene County New York, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political, Political Commentary, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
April 4, 2016
When I woke this morning, the grounds were covered with snow that had arrived in the pre-dawn hours, making the world white and wondrous. I savored it and checked that it had not covered the roads, which it hadn’t and predictions for one to three inches of snow have not yet been realized.
It is winter chill, a small fire burns in the stove and I am playing jazz. I was reading a mystery set in Provence when I decided I would do a short LFNY, as I have written nothing since my last one, in which I asked for suggestions on how I could improve. Thank you to those who did respond.
I’m integrating them and will do my best to make this an even better blog. As you might remember, I was doing a workshop at the Religious Communicators Conference in New York last Friday. The topic was: How to Build a Better Blog.
It went very well and it was, I think, a good dialogue. I headed north afterwards and am settled now into the cottage for most of the next two weeks with lots of things to do. My teaching, a freelance writing assignment and a few other things are going to consume the time.
Lionel and Pierre were here for the weekend and we went to a lovely dinner party at Matthew Morse’s house, always a treat as Matthew, in one of his many lives, was a professional caterer.
When Nick and I take our train trips we now travel with a special case for martinis. It has glasses, olive picks, a shaker, napkins, a vermouth atomizer, space for bottles, a shaker and a strainer. Last night, Lionel and I took it along because Matthew is not martini sensitive and so we brought the fixings for our own. Perfect.
This morning we had brunch at The Dot and then they headed back to Baltimore and I went down to Rhinebeck for a book signing with my friend Jack Myers, for his newest book, “The Future of Men.” As far as I can tell, the future of American men appears a bit on the bleak side. More women are graduating college than men by 10 to 15 percent now.
Men have been losing their way while women have been finding theirs. It’s, I suspect, an evolutionary thing and totally appropriate and the frustration of men in finding their place in this new world is being reflected in the politics of our time. All the anger against women displayed by so many is, I think, the result that some men are really, really p****d that women are marching full swing into the world and claiming their place in it.
Jack is a media researcher and discovered this subject when he was working on his previous book, “Hooked Up: A New Generation’s Surprising Take on Sex, Politics, and Saving the World.” People kept asking him about the role of men today and he tried to figure it out.
Kudos to him… You can find his books at Amazon.
Coming home, I graded papers and started working on figuring out my freelance assignment and started reading and now I couldn’t keep my figures from tapping on the keyboard.
Nice to be back.
Tags:Claverack, Hudson, Jack Myers, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Red Dot, The Future of Men
Posted in Claverack, Columbia County, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Television, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 29, 2016
It is Tuesday afternoon, late; my version of “God’s Little Acre” is bathed in golden sunlight with the temp in the 40’s.
How that really feels like, I haven’t a clue. Prepping for the Easter brunch took it all out of me, I’m afraid.
I slept most of Monday, drifting off at 5:00 last evening and waking at 8:00 this morning. My meetings out of the house were all, thankfully, moved to other days and I rested, doing conference calls from the warmth of my bed and my terry cloth bathrobe.
As that saying goes, I guess I’m not as young as I used to be…
It’s not bad and I’m not upset about it; it is just that I have to learn what my new limits are at this age. I can’t go almost straight for 72 hours and not feel some serious consequences.
Everyone has told me it was a great success and I’m glad. Sally Brodsky did a yeoman’s job of helping me even though she was under the weather. There would have been no clean-up if it weren’t for Katerina. Thanks to April, also, and a couple of others whose names have flitted out of my head.
Going to Christ Church with Lionel and Pierre started giving me a sense of community and after they left, I have continued going, making some new friends along the way.
Not so long ago, I did a call with Louise Rosen who has worked in television as long as me and has been doing that and producing the Maine Jewish Film Festival the last four years. We, of course, talked about the changes in the business and the differences of living in Maine and Columbia County and that of living in New York City or Boston or DC.
“It’s nice sometimes to be a bit removed from the chaos,” she said and I agreed.
On Friday, I am moderating a panel on “How To Build A Better Blog” for the Religious Communicators Conference and as I was prepping for my call and scouring the Internet for some topics to throw at my panel, successful bloggers all, I was wondering what I might do to improve my blog?
I find that I am in the group who blogs to give their voice a platform but perhaps there is more that I should be doing.
Do any of you have ideas? Let me know what I can do to make this better, to resonate more for you. I do it because I enjoy it and am glad that there are folks out there who read it and sometimes comment.
But seriously, what can I do to be better?
P.S. RIP, Patty Duke, aka Anna Pearce
Tags:"God's Little Acre", Claverack, Columbia County, Hudson, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, Gay, Greene County New York, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 25, 2016
Darkness has descended on the Hudson Valley; it is pitch black outside though I am heartened everyday by the weather person’s announcement we had three or so more minutes of daylight today than yesterday.
I’ve adjusted the timers on lights to accommodate the increasing daylight. I rejoice as I am sure everyone does.
My dining room table is scattered with recipes from which I will choose the ones being made for Easter. I am getting it organized. I bought upgraded plastic silverware for Sunday. Since I am doing this, I want it to be a little special — or a lot special.
In the morning I will winnow down the recipes and head out to do my shopping. My friend Robert has given me eight dozen eggs from the chickens who live at his house down in Rhinebeck. I had some for lunch. There is nothing like farm fresh eggs!
While I am typing this, Christ Church is celebrating Maundy Thursday and I wasn’t feeling very churchy tonight so I didn’t go.
Probably feeling more churchy than I do, or at least one would hope so, is Radovan Karadzic, the former Serb leader who was convicted today of genocide during the horrific Serbian conflict twenty-one years ago. Eight thousand Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in a town called Srebrenica. Justice finally has been done though it will not bring back those men and boys whose only crime was that they were born Muslim.
At the time, when it was revealed, I felt horror and I feel it today. There was a time when such things happened to Christians; indeed, they are happening today to Christians at the hands of IS. It is things like Srebrenica that make IS feel justified.
It’s been a happy day for me, feeling far from all the world’s troubles, tooling around Columbia County, collecting mail, a couple of meetings with organizations I am volunteering with, a haircut, bumping into people on the street and having a good conversation with them.
While I was doing those fun things, the police in Paris foiled an alleged terror attack in advanced stages. Obama apologized in Argentina for some of our policies and actions during their long and very dirty internal war. I suspect we turned too blind an eye to some things.
Belgium and Europe in general are struggling to balance freedom and safety in the fight against terrorist attacks.
In America, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are exploiting our fears in their campaigns; loudly criticized and, I think, rightly so, by Obama. And I think by Hillary and Bernie, too.
Syrian troops loyal to Assad are in the suburbs of Palmyra in the early stages of reclaiming the city from IS, which has this year lost 21% of the territory it controlled. The monuments destroyed are gone and it will be good if the city can be liberated. It has suffered terribly.
At the same time, Iraqi troops are advancing into Mosul, using lessons from the recapture of Ramadi to help them win back this important Iraqi city. Many of the historical treasures there are gone also, never to be seen again.
I do not live in their mindset and cannot come close to comprehending why it was necessary for them to destroy the heritage of the planet. But they did. It ranks up there with the killings at Srebrenica. Maybe it doesn’t. At Srebrenica those were living beings that were destroyed. At Palmyra and Mosul, it was the artifacts of the past that helped create the world in which we now live.
There are echoes of that world here in the cottage. I have treasured artifacts from the past and things that echo them. Someday, when I am gone, all this will be scattered, some thrown away but in the time they have had with me I have been grateful for their presence.
There is a small collection of masks, a recreation of a bust of Athena from Greece, a painting from India that evokes Alexander, a Renoir re-strike, a wonderful painting from a Provincetown gallery of Alexander.
We need the past to build the future, to connect ourselves from where we were to where we are going.
Tags:Alexander the Great, Assad, Christ Church, Christ Church Episcopal, Claverack, Columbia County, Donald Trump, Easter, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Iraq, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mosul, Obama, Palmyra, Radovan Karadzic, Srebrenica, Syria, Ted Cruz, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, Brussels terror attack, Claverack, Columbia County, Daesh, Elections, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Hudson New York, IS, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 23, 2016
The sun is setting as I sit looking out at the creek, the vista in front of me full of greying light and the still barren branches of the trees clawing to the sky.
Mahler plays in the background. He seemed right for the moment, a day in which I have been enraged and sad, felt broken and hopeless, contemplative and escapist.
When the alarms went off this morning, the screen of my phone was cluttered with news pushes from the BBC and AP about the tragedy in Brussels. I rubbed my eyes and attempted to focus, not wanting to believe what I was reading. But it was there, a truth that had entered the world, unwanted but present, never to be put back in any bottle.
I hit the snooze alarm and closed my eyes, staying there until I had to break into the day. Playing commuter, I made a round trip to the city today for a meeting I felt I could not miss. If I missed my train, I might miss the meeting.
It seemed inconsequential when I really thought about it, a media meeting balanced against the carnage of Brussels, another IS attack on western civilization. However, our worlds go on and we met and it was good and some business might develop from it and we never talked about Brussels.
We are becoming inured to the cadence of troubles that has burst upon the world. We are accepting all of this as the new normal, much as did the Russians did during the last fifty years of the Empire when anarchists struck again and again. You have to go on because what else does one do?
Perhaps we should take a break, think about what is happening, see what individually we might do to change the horrible road we’re on.
We don’t really know how to change the map, the road; we do our best, or our worst, and keep on going. We are, at this moment, caught up in the flow of history and we poor individuals don’t know how to do much to change it yet it is somehow, in democracies, in our hands.
Ted Cruz has apparently called for the patrolling and monitoring of American Muslim communities. I wanted to take my phone and throw it across the drive when I read that.
How do we make them our friends when we cast them all as enemies?
It is frightening and complex and every Muslim I know is as appalled by IS as I am. Monitor and patrol their communities? He is taking a page from the Trump playbook.
As I drove to the train this morning a commentator on “Democracy Now” which I do not often listen to, claimed that if there were a Brussels style attack in America just before the election we will be looking at a President Trump.
And I was afraid he might be right.
On my way out of town tonight, on the 4:40 heading north, I might have been imaging it but it seemed there were a lot more soldiers in Penn Station than there normally are. And I understood it.
Facebook notified me that Facebook friends of mine in Brussels were all safe, for which I was grateful.
I am frightened tonight. I am going into the city again tomorrow and that doesn’t frighten me. But the world in which we are living frightens me.
“The War on Terror” may not be the best option in dealing with this situation which is rapidly, I think, growing out of control.
We have failed to address systemic issues in the Mideast and are reaping the rewards. Just saying…
I am in the third act of my life. It is for my younger friends and relatives I am concerned.
It is for the world I was born into that I am concerned. It is slipping away from us. IS is taking our peace and our consumption habits seem about to take much else from us.
Scientists are saying global warming is worse than they thought.
No wonder I am playing Mahler tonight.
Tags:Brussels, Claverack, Climate Change, Democracy Now, Donald Trump, Facebook, Hudson, Imperial Russia, IS, Mahler, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Ted Cruz, The War on Terror
Posted in Brussels terror attack, Claverack, Columbia County, Hudson New York, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 21, 2016
A young, good looking man fell into his fifteen minutes of fame last month when he had sex with a strange woman on the Ferris wheel in Las Vegas, one of the biggest in the world.
Phillip Panzica III had had a falling out with his fiancé, went partying, drinking and gambling and got into trouble 550 feet in the air. His fiancé bailed him out two days later and they kissed and made up.
Back in Dallas, they were carjacked. Phillip was fatally shot while his fiancé was told to get out of the car once they had taken her money. It’s a tragic ending to a story that had me smiling a bit when I read about the Ferris wheel. As a sex scandal, it seems pretty tame in this day and age.
Vadym Kholodenko, a 29 year old renowned pianist, Ukrainian by birth and now Texas based, went to pick up his two young daughters from his estranged wife only to find them dead and his wife covered in blood from what appear to have been, according to police, self inflicted knife wounds.
Both stories remind me of the uncivilized ways we can behave in civilized places, that there are moments when murderous madness descends and death ensues. Phillip looked a bit like one of my students and Vadym and his wife appeared in earlier pictures as a textbook happy couple.
It is a stark contrast to my place in the world. I am in the process of replacing items in my bathroom now that young Nick and his team have finished their work, making my bathroom all fresh again.
It was so lovely today I could wander about with just a sweater for most of the day.
My friend Patrick and I met at Kozel’s Restaurant here in Claverack and had lunch in a place that reminded me of nothing so much as the best restaurant in Bemidji, Minnesota when I was a youngster and we stayed part of the summer at a lake nearby.
He and I chattered about the lot of things, from The Donald to the joys of life in Columbia County, particularly on sunny, crisp days like today. It felt a carefree day as a meeting in the city was moved and I could spend the day here, doing errands, some cleaning and visiting with friends.
Moments ago, Lionel texted me “martini time” which he does most evening when he is about to make one for himself. I’m going to join him, finishing this while sipping one.
A very civilized ending to a day when events almost everywhere reminded me that we have evolved but still are sometimes victim to our murderous souls.
The former Vice President of Congo was convicted at the ICC in The Hague of war crimes; murder, rape and pillage. It apparently is a landmark case.
Also a landmark moment is that death in the US from heart attacks is falling, continuing a forty year trend. That’s good and the result of work on the betterment of man.
My father had a massive coronary two years before he died from a stroke. He was younger than I am now when he passed, a moment I noted when I reached the age he died. We tend now to be healthier and more sensitive to our bodies and we have decreased the amount of smoking.
My father could never quite quit smoking. After his heart attack he had packs of L&M’s stashed here and there, like an alcoholic has his bottles stashed. He rolled his own, telling us they were better for him. Nicotine addiction contributed to his heart attack and his death.
So long ago…
But not so long ago, Governor Rauner of Illinois, said he would support whoever the party nominates, which means he will support Trump if nominated. Some Republicans have begun to move away from being party liners, saying, ah, no, anyone but Trump.
Kasich, however, has not ignited the fires of any Republicans, including the establishment, who I rather thought would choose him over Cruz. But apparently not…
Pink clouds dance on the horizon; I expect then good weather. Good night and good evening…
Tags:Columbia County, Congo, Kasich, Kozel's Restaurant, L&M's, Phillip Panzica III, Rauner, Ted Cruz, The Donald, Vadym Kholodenko, War Crimes
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Obama, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 21, 2016
It is quiet in the cottage; I am savoring the silence.
Today is Palm Sunday, a service I have not attended for a bucket of years. Doing so today, I read a small part in the Easter gospel. It was all faintly reminiscent of my Catholic childhood. The priest, however, was a woman.
After the service, Sally Brodsky and I did a tour of the kitchen and made a pact to touch base on Wednesday as to what we might need for Easter Sunday brunch. I am currently awash in recipes and will have to sort out which ones I will use before Thursday’s shopping.
Following church, I made a trip to Lowe’s for wall plates for the electric switches in my bathroom, freshly repainted by young Nick and his crew. The dark blue and white wallpaper is gone and a fresh coat of green and white glistens in the bathroom. The old vanity is gone and I am searching for a mirror that will fit beneath the new light fixture.
All pleasant diversions from the world with its rat a tat of news, a mixed bag this weekend.
Obama is in Cuba, hoping to nudge that country into being a bit more liberal. His critics say he should have waited until some liberalizations had made their way into Cuban life. As President, you almost never win; your foes will pounce on every move. Certainly that has been true of this president.
Starwood Hotels have entered into an agreement to take over three legacy properties in Havana and modernize them. The deal was made even as a Chinese Insurance Group is bidding to take them over.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, has reaffirmed that Merrick Garland will not get a vote on his nomination for the Supreme Court. Senator Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, has said that the Republican Senate should “man up” and give Mr. Garland a vote up or down.
Some Senators are beginning to break with McConnell over the vote, especially in contested states. They’re getting heat from their constituents. In this most unpredictable of years. it will, of course, be interesting to see what transpires.
Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are leading their party’s races to the nomination. Trouble is, no one much likes them. Hillary has a particular problem with white men in 2016, a group more sympathetic to her in 2008.
Fox News, to me almost a mouthpiece for the Republican agenda, has declared that Trump has an unhealthy fixation on their popular anchor, Megyn Kelly. They have defended her loudly and often from Mr. Trump’s “comments.”
Breitbart, a very conservative news source, seems to have thrown Michelle Fields, their reporter, under the bus after she alleged that she had been pushed and shoved by Trump staffer Corey Lewandowski. At first they supported her and then they didn’t and now she has resigned as have at least two other Breitbart staffers.
It makes me think more of Fox. Not much more but more…
President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil is in increasing amounts of hot water over the scandals racking the nationally owned oil company, Petrobras. There is talk of impeachment. Former President Lula has been welcomed into her cabinet, making it harder to for prosecutors to touch him. An attempt is being made to stop the appointment as a move to “pervert” justice.
Protests in the streets, nearly a million people marching. Rousseff is dealing with some tough issues: the Petrobras scandal, zika virus, a severe recession and upcoming Olympic games that may not be ready and, if they are, might take place in unprecedented conditions — some of the aquatic events are to be held in waters claimed to be dangerously polluted.
Ian Duncan Smith, not a household name in the US, but an important politician in the UK, has resigned from Cameron’s cabinet after declaring the Tory budget deeply unfair to the working poor. Some have said the Tories are now engaged in “civil war.” Not what they need as they are approaching a vote on whether Britain should exit the EU, “Brexit” for short.
It is still quiet at the cottage. I am going to wrap up now, contemplating that the market for legal marijuana will be 23 billion dollars within four years.
Tags:Brazil, Breitbart, Brexit, Claverack, David Cameron, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Ian Duncan Smith, Legal marijuana, Lowes, Lula, Mark Kirk, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Megyn Kelly, Michelle Fields, Mitch McConnel, Obama, Petrobas, Rousseff, Sally Brodsky, Starwood Hotels, Zika
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Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York 04 12 2016 Too hard to think about children suicide bombers…
April 13, 2016It has been a long day; I was up early because I am getting new appliances and the Columbia County Habitat for Humanity was coming early for my old stove. They came and went and I waited for the new appliances to arrive.
It all started with my dishwasher finally starting to give up the ghost which proceeded to all new appliances — a new stove, refrigerator, over the stove microwave and, of course, a new dishwasher.
When they arrived, the dishwasher, which started all of this, was the wrong one and so it had to go and the right one finally arrived. In the meantime, I spent the day preparing for tomorrow’s lecture on magazines for “Media & Society,” the class I teach at Columbia Greene Community College.
Term papers were due last week and I graded them over the weekend, sending three back for revisions as I was working to help them achieve their goals for “good” grades. One of the students got very upset with me for trying to help her get a better grade. She had too many other things to do.
Such is the life of a teacher. It was this way when I taught high school and it is now when I am teaching at a community college.
The good news story of the day is that a 72 year old woman, who was lost in the Arizona wilderness for nine days, was found alive after drinking pond water and eating plants. She spelled help in twigs, stones and bones and was seen. Suffering from exposure, she’s in the hospital in fair condition which is pretty good for an elderly lady who had been lost in the wilderness.
Paul Ryan has told the world to count him out. He is not, repeat NOT, going to be the Republican candidate for President if it comes to a brokered convention.
That is what Kasich is counting on; a brokered convention that will take him to heart as the only sane person in the party who could conceivably win.
The Governor of North Carolina is back pedaling on the anti-gay law he signed into law as he is, rightfully so, rocked by the backlash he has received. Hell hath no fury like corporate CEO’s who don’t agree with what you have done.
And that includes the very important banking community that has moved into North Carolina in recent years. Deutsche Bank, who was going to build a presence there, has said: no, not now, not because of this.
It was a year ago that Freddie Gray died in police custody in Baltimore and there is a feeling there that the mindset has changed. I hope so. It was one of those shocking moments in American life that leave you gasping.
What I have also learned in the last year is the passionate way people who live in that city have love for that city. My friends, Lionel and Pierre, moved there the week before the riots and are now huge boosters of the city, passionately engaged there and loving it.
David Gest died in London today. A successful producer, he married Liza Minnelli and that may be the thing for which he will be forever remembered. It was a huge affair with Elizabeth Taylor as a Maid of Honor and Michael Jackson as Best Man and in a year they were divorced with all kinds of ugly rumors abounding. He had been living in York in England for the last few years, far from the madding crowd, regretful for the cosmetic surgery he had, which did not turn out well.
Tonight, I am focussing on lighter things. It’s the mood I’m in — who wants to process that Boko Haram is manipulating children into being suicide bombers?
Yuri Milner, a Russian businessman, has joined forces with Stephen Hawking, wanting to send probes about the size of iPhones to Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to us. They need to raise ten billion dollars but it sounds interesting.
I have always been a great proponent of space exploration. “Ah, but man’s reach should exceed his grasp. Or what’s a heaven for?” Robert Browning…
Tags:Baltimore, Boko Haram, Claverack, Columbia Greene Community College, Donald Trump, Freddie Gray, IS, Kasich, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media & Society, Paul Ryan, Robert Browning, Stephen Hawking
Posted in 2016 Election, Boko Haram, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, Gay, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »