Please Sister

I did not read the news today - oh boy.

I've steered away from papers, on-line or hard copy. No NPR. No nothing. I made the mistake of engaging in political 'banter' on FB and realized early-on that was a mistake.  I couldn't stand people lauding John Bolton with praise. He's done nothing noble.

So anyhooo........why not just change direction entirely?

David Sedaris has a new essay out centered on his sister, Amy.

It's good. It's not great. But it's not BLOTUS & Co., so.......that's a win.

And it is linked here.


FYI - as a general rule, I don't read Elle........not that there's anything wrong with it.......



Song by: the Cardigans

People Talkin'

Friday night, we went to see David Sedaris.

The evening certainly didn't start out well.

We had dinner reservations at a would-be snooty-ish restaurant at 18:00.  710, caught in traffic got home at 17:45.  ....and yes, we do live more than 15 minutes away from where we were to meet friends.

Of course before leaving the house, Blobby got distracted by one Sophie cat who wanted her treats before we departed - as she is apt to do. I complied as I am apt to do.

In said distraction, I left the tickets and the pre-paid parking voucher on the kitchen counter.  Curses!

I realized this about 10 blocks from the parking garage. I couldn't get through to the box office, so 710 drove around the block while they nicely reprinted my tickets.  We were only 10 minutes late for dinner.

The restaurant wasn't nearly as snooty as anticipated, at least in decor. Granted, save chicken livers, there was not much on the appetizer or salad menu I'd want. I'm not a frou frou kind of guy when it comes to food. Or some would say my food tastes are "unsophisticated". So be it.

We had a decent meal with great friends. Then we headed over to the show.

My lord, I've never seen so many people I know in one place from different walks of life:  yoga work, neighbors, friends. All to see Sedaris. None seemingly to see the show next door: the Diary of Ann Frank. (psssst!  That one doesn't end well.)

Sedaris is just like how I thought he would be - in person. Clearly, good writing is an art, though I will admit that a few of his later books didn't even get me to crack a smile. His diaries are wonderful though. Reading is possibly a higher and harder art form. He did a great job with the reads - the inflections, pauses, et al.

He read four essays - lengthy ones. One on insulting phrases people use from other parts of the world - which was quite hilarious. One that was way too much about people who shit their pants, though the crowd of 2000 seemingly loved it all.  Then he read a number of diary passages, some from his current collections, some from the one in process - all funny.  He'd chat between the essays.

Then he took some Q&A.  Eh - that was alright I suppose.



Song by: Lucinda Williams

World Leader Pretend

A few rows back and with an iffy iPhone shot and you'd think I was watching Dick Cheney give a speech.

As if!

No, it was Bob Woodward. Yes, that Bob Woodward.

He was at the Town Hall series and one of my former bosses called me on Saturday to axe if I wanted his tickets.

Sure. It beat going to see the Capital Steps.

I thought Woodward would be more interesting. He had the potential to be, even without ever mentioning Watergate.

The man was there to talk about his new(er) book the Price of Politics.  Woodward may be a good author but he's only a so-so speaker. But being an investigative reporter doesn't necessarily make him objective about what he writes.

This book is his second (!) on Obama. Two books in just over one term in office (it came out in Sept 2013) - so I'm not sure (well, actually I am) that there is time for perspective. But he had few nice things to say about Obama, or Hillary or Carter and Harry Reid. While he didn't praise Boehner, he certainly had nothing bad to say about him. Ditto for Reagan, Bush and Bush.

I mean, this is a book about gridlock in DC. To not even acknowledge that the GOP is  part of that gridlock is absurd. But he puts it all on Obama not being able to pretend to be nice to both GOP and Democratic congress folks. Though he thinks Obama is, at heart, a very nice man - but he doesn't use the power of the presidency to get things done.

The one decent thing he said, but I think was too late into the talk to matter was talking about Obamacare. He asked how many in the audience thought it would and would not work. It was about half and half.

But Woodward equated it with the Cold War. It took 40 years to work through until it was resolved. He shot down both the left and right on their claims that Obamacare has succeeded or failed. He said it won't be years until we know.

Of course, if the Dems don't win in 2016, the GOP will dismantle the ACA (that is me speaking, not Woodward).

I was more put off that he basically, but nicely, trashed Obama and never really talked about true gridlock. He did nothing to make me want to go get or read his book.

Before the start of the program, you're asked to submit questions for the Q&A afterwards - and only a fraction of people submit and they never ever ever get to four that are read. And they didn't read my hastily written one.

I really do have horrible handwriting and printing.

I also meant to put quotes around "bug".  It was a little Watergate joke.

Well, it was free and it was a night out with 710 - and on a Monday. I can't really complain. It was something different to do.  And it wasn't the Capital Steps.




Song by:  R.E.M.

Sister of Mercy

How do I say this nicely....

I can't imagine ever going on a family vacation with my parents and sisters.

I'm not entirely sure we ever have.  Honestly.

Maybe a day trip to Cedar Point, but that's it.  I think the closest we ever got was going to Florida in 1975, and even then, my oldest sister was on a high school trip to Russia, so it wasn't everyone.

AND it was New Port Ritchey, Florida. Not Metropolis, FL. New Port Ritchie is only the hotbed of excitement if you're the 70 year old moving into the complex where everyone is 80 and up - since you're the young whippersnapper.

Oh yes, our parents took us to Disneyworld....on Easter, where my mother promptly left us, she was so upset with the four of us - the reason being unknown, though I somehow blame my little sister.  How she ever found us again is beyond me - except that we were dressed in matching striped rugby shirts.

Oh, the horror!!!!

So it is beyond me that David Sedaris took a trip to the beach with his sisters, brother and father - as full grown adults.  But it is an excellent essay. 

I don't say that lightly.

His book, Me Talk Pretty One Day, almost had me peeing my pants as I flew from Atlanta to Cleveland 10+ years ago.  Srsly, the people sitting near me must have thought I was insane the way I was laughing.

Dress Yourself Family in Corduroy and Denim was good too (as was Naked and Barrel Fever).  But Sedaris started to lose me on When You are Engulfed in Flames.  I smiled once (once!!) during that reading, and never laughed at all.

To be fair, maybe his last two books were better, but I admittedly didn't run out to buy them and they've just kind of gone by the wayside. I've forgotten about them.

But a few months ago Sedaris wrote another great New Yorker piece on his sisters visiting Hugh (his partner) and him for the holidays.  So, maybe the man is back on track.

This essay that is highlighted above has humour (I'm still laughing at the name choices for a purchased property), but it goes way beyond that, which is partly due to the subject matter.

If you have a few minutes, take a read.



Song by:  Thompson Twins

In a Manner of Speaking

If you have HBO and you haven't seen it, I highly suggest you watch Martin Scorsese's documentary, Public Speaking which focuses solely on Fran Leibowitz.

The HBO website is horrible....I my "humble" opinion. It is horribly slow to load, so I don't really know, because I'm horribly impatient to wait for it to come up and play or read through it.

Instant gratification takes too long!

You'd think I have dial-up with a 2400 baud modem. (some of you might have to think about that one for a while.)

But the program is anything but horrible. Sure, Leibowitz is great - smart, droll, outright funny, very well spoken. But don't overlook Scorsese. You see him sitting there, but how he sets up her monologue - or what is edited to seem like one - is actually quite well done. I guess it is Marty Scorsese, and it's to be expected from him. His movies can be heavy-handed (I think), but he knows what he's doing.

Rarely do you hear an actual question, the edits are so nice you know exactly what she's answering/talking about but it never feels like an interview.

We've had HBO forever, but there is rarely anything on it I ever want to watch (sorry, the over-hyped, over-advertised Boardwalk Empire sucked for what little I saw), but Public Speaking makes it totally worth the weeks we never even surf through the 12 HBO channels (yes, 12 of them!).

Leibowitz covers a lot of ground on culture, herself and politics. While never mentioning her sexuality, she does talk a lot of 'gay'. One of the more interesting pieces is on gay marriage and military service. She thought being gay was the bonus for not having to do either of those things. Or as she points out - people pretended to be gay to get out of military service.

She also has a very interesting take on what AIDS has done to the arts, and not just the artists, which most people focus on.

It amazes me that Fran hasn't written a collection of anything for decades, due to writer's blockade, when clearly all she has to do is write down her thoughts - as is. It would translate well.

If you have HBO, I suggest finding a way to watch it or at least DVR it. Totally worth it.



Song by: Martin Gore