This Blog will be on vacation until September 4th. Please feel free to
leave comments for the previous 2 or 3 entries as the Comment section is
finally up and running again! Any comments on the James Carville/Ann
Coulter 'comparison'? (Weekend Strategies). Great Stuff Dave! Anyway
I'll blog to you again when I return. Have a great Holiday, Peach
All curiosity roads lead to the Internet. The time you waste may be your
own. Beware of 'clockmovers', there is no reality to 'clockstoppers'. If
your fingers have been tapping on the keyboard and your hand has become
a permanent arch on your mouse, have you turned around to see that the
clock has somehow managed to get to 2:00a.m.? But for me the time is not
wasted; the time I have invested has been an education; for someone who
knew zero about the care and feeding of websites less than five months
ago. It is always a challenge, and a frustration. Because despite
everything, I still am not a techie. So patience is my mentor and I must
remember that. In time my Blog will change in direct proportion to my
knowledge. Yes I feel guilty because my work has been neglected. No work
equals less money. This balancing act is difficult because I don't want
to be a sometime contributor to my blog. I'll just have to hone and
tinker with my schedule to make it better. A schedule whereby I can get
the blogging, Blog hopping and my work all in and still get to bed
before midnight. That would be so cool! To accomplish my primary
goal............work and have my Blog cake and eat it too! Please be
patient, the comments are still (up and) down. Please keep checking back! Peach
Three people were arrested for desecrating St. Patrick's Cathedral in
New York City. Apparently there was a local radio program sponsoring a
contest for couples who were adventurous and were 'greedy' enough for
getting the highest number of premium points. The couple was to inform
the radio station what sexual stunt in a public place they would
perform, and the one who could be the most outrageous would acquire the
most points. One couple called in to inform the radio station that they
were going to have sex in St Patrick's. The broadcaster followed them
there, and in the middle of a very important Mass, the radio D.J.
proceeded to broadcast the 'plays' as if he were commenting on a live
Football Game. Another scenario of Life imitating Art. I have seen
almost the same episode in an old Woody Allen film. All of them were
arrested for lewd conduct. William Buckley Jr-
article that the couple had been only a few yards from where the much
revered Bishop Sheen used to conduct Masses. Besides the desecration,
this is another example of total disrespect for a place that is holy and
meant for meditation and a connection with spirituality. Well, there are
many 'children adults' out there who haven't got a clue. Democratic
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has lost the primary. There has been much
controversy over the funding of her campaign as a majority of it was
financed by individuals of Muslim organizations. There also has been
debate as to whether these individuals had any connection to terrorism.
As the Aipac(Support Israel) lobby is so powerful in Washington and
donates millions, it is safe to assume that some Arab Americans do not
sit well with this. Another reason for implicating Jews as usual as a
scapegoat. Well that's exactly what Cynthia's father was propagating.
When asked why he thought his daughter's campaign failed he
exclaimed:/It's because of theJ.E.W.S!/ Well Mr. McKinney, if you keep
this outrageous stupidity up, you are definitely contributing to more
hatred of the Jews by Blacks. Besides being a total lie your
encouragement of Racism will only dampen your daughter's future
prospects worse than they already are. She will lose Jewish Democrats as
well. What I find so inane is that the truth is, that Jews have a
persecution commonality with African Americans. Many were long time
supporters of the Civil Rights Movement and were killed for their
support of and standing alongside their Black brothers. MUSH to you Mr.
McKinney!! Peach
Luigi gave me three options for what movie we were going to see in the
last minute Saturday Night. He got his info from the L.A. Weekly. We can
see /Merci pour La Chocolat/, or an Italian movie about unfaithful
husbands or the one with Jennifer Anniston. We were running very late so
basically the choice was made for us. The closest theater was the French
movie. I scarfed down some cold chicken and avocado, brushed my teeth
and raced down to my car. ( wonderful on a full stomach) We arrived on
time. Luigi got to the ticket window and fished around in his wallet for
the Lammele passes. He was fishing around so long the ticket guy said he
was going to take the next person and the next . He didn't find the
passes so he shelled out $9.00 apiece for the movie. We don't go that
often and usually we have some kind of passes from Luigi's employee
benefits. I swear, paying $9.00 for a movie is outrageous. Especially if
you don't like the movie. The movie was kind of a mystery, but very slow
and somewhat tedious. At some level, thinking back, it was also
predictable. The only outstanding feature of the movie was the acting.
Isabelle Huppert is usually always in top form. The other notable was
the young actress who played the 18 year old daughter. She looked like a
young Ava Gardner. The story is about a weird, female C.E.O of a
chocolate company in Switzerland who is spiking her young stepson's hot
cocoa with a sleeping drug. And about a girl who may really be the
daughter in that family and not the son as they may have been switched
at birth. Get it? Enough tedium................the movie had potential
but never quite lived up to the promise. I think in this case you really
feel the $9.00 each. Ouch! The Italian movie or /The Good Girl/ were
probably better. Sunday we went to Costco. We looked longingly at a
Panasonic flat screen, beautiful resolution, 32 or 37 inch T.V. for
$1500. Maybe next time. (A lot of next times) I usually hang out for a
long time in the book, and DVD section. I was looking at a photography
retrospective of L.A. then and now, when I noticed Luigi had picked up a
copy of /Slander/ by Ann Coulter.(Oh no....not her again!) "I thought
you didn't like her?" Luigi assured me that in fact he did not. He was
just curious about what she had to say. So was I, so I began to skim
through it but managed to end up on the first page. The end of the
second paragraph read something like this:/ It's all the Liberals
fault./ Please, what kind of factual gathering is that? Making
generalizations like that ain't kosher in scholarly pursuits. You know I
always said she was attractive and that was why the Republican Males
liked her and for nothing else. (They have absolutely told me in my
comment section that it helps, but that it is for her wondrous
enlightening writing and her many honors as well) But I must say when I
saw her picture, she looked very ordinary to me. There are so many women
out there, celebrity or not, who make her look so plain in comparison.
Luigi said he thought she was ugly. He said that if he saw her 'au
naturel' he would then decide her worthiness. "What the hell does that
mean?" I said. "Well, there's nothing else about her that's worthy, so
that's the only thing left." Well those are Luigi's unique thoughts. But
I was surprised because Luigi is a Gentleman and it sounded so raw. But
then again he must really dislike Ann Coulter for speaking like that. I
told him someone had said that JFK Jr. had stated that she was one of
the 20 most fascinating women in politics. Luigi replied:" that's
probably because he slept with her."...........Well enough of Ann
Coulter bashing( I don't feel guilty.....she does it to us liberals as
clearly stated above) I was happy over at the DVD's, picking up about 10
of them and showing them to Luigi. I was only going home with one and
decided on /Sunny Dayz/ a film about surfing with Sunny Garcia, the
world surfing champion. I love surf movies. Luigi wheeled the cart up to
the long lines at the registers. "What's that?" I asked picking up two
video games. Hmmmm.........Blow up the Aliens and Kill the Green Army.
Heck, I don't remember the real names of the Video Games but the content
probably matches those names well anyway. I told him no more of that and
said that I wouldn't even get the DVD. I cheated though, because I hid
the DVD behind my back and didn't let it materialize until we got to the
check- out stand. He was not too happy about it. But I told him he
didn't need those stupid video games anyway. I was elated to have my
surf film . I'll admit that was a very juvenile trick to pull. But hey,
there's always next time. Word to the wise, don't see /Merci Pour La
Chocolat/. If you have any comments about /The Good Girl/ or any recent
film, let me know. Anyone see /Possession/ this week-end? p.s. For some
reason Enetation (Comment Section) is down tonight. I hope it will be up
again tomorrow. Please e-mail me if the comments are still out when you
read this. Peach
Sunday we headed down to Laguna Beach to meet up with some fellow Blog
Geeks for a 'BloggerCon' dinner meeting arranged by KMRZoom,Kevin of
Dilittante fame
been a 'regular' at his green martini Blog for a few months now, and I
was looking forward to meeting him and all the others who frequented his
website and stayed to leave comments. We had spent the entire afternoon
traipsing through the Laguna Art Festivals
taking in all that Laguna had to offer in as much time as we could
before our 5:00 meeting time. Around 4:00 or so we headed over to the
Laguna Beach Art Museum
convenient as it was right next to Las Brisas. Luigi changed his mind
about going into the Exhibits when he learned it was a special exhibit
called "Surf Culture". He's not from California and could care less
about surfing and said after looking through the Museum Book Store, he
would meet me over at Las Brisas at the appointed time. I could not let
this exhibit pass me by. After all I am from Southern California and
grew up with surfing all around me. Hailing from Santa Monica and living
very close to the coast my whole life, I had always either had
boyfriends or friends who surfed; and saw many of the new and old Surf
documentaries that I managed to find playing in some museums, art houses
or colleges. With all this fascination with surfing, I now wonder why I
never learned how to do it. The museum docent who took my ticket told me
the exhibit would probably take about an hour and was on three levels.
She never told me which level was to be viewed first. So I ended up
doing it backwards by viewing the first floor first which seemed the
logical thing to do. Most of the exhibit was a display of old and new
surf boards;how they were made, video documentaries and 'surf art'. There
were pictures of Andy Warhol and Orson Welles.( Don't ask... I'm not
sure why they were there except Andy Warhol was involved with California
Art Culture in the 60's). I really found most of it very
interesting;especially the surf video documentaries which I spent the
most time on. I always marvel at the size of those monster waves and
comparative small figures of surfers trying to navigate them. It is not
only a sport in my definition, but a true art form. All athletes have a
certain style and grace that is fascinating to watch and I find that so
relative in watching surfers do their stuff. They make the gliding
through the water seem so effortless as though they could do it in their
sleep. A Huge wave starts forming and lifting to 15 or even 20 feet. The
white foam starts curling at the top of the wave as it starts breaking
toward shore. The surfer positions his board right below the crest and
seems to glide through the center of the wall of water, almost
sometimes, seemingly defying gravity. He becomes one with his surf board
as he rides the white tipped wave, always just ahead of the breaking
crest moving toward the beach. Have you ever seen a film or photograph
of a surfer who actually gets right underneath the curl of the wave so
that he is inside the 'tunnel' ?(the space inside the top part of the
wave as it curls over and touches the water) It is truly an incredibly
awesome sight. If he manages to 'hang' all his toes over the point edge
of his board you could say: "Hang 10 Dude!" One of the most interesting
and disturbing of the exhibits was a display of moving mannequin dressed
in Hawaiian Hula dress. There were about 25 or 30 of these Hula Girls
with mechanized torsos that would move and sway their hips to the music.
When you first walk in, you would think it was just a bunch of life-size
moving hula dolls. As you got closer you realize that they are all
holding weapons . Most of them are automatic weapons used in war. Some
were holding knives. I looked closer at their faces. It gave me an eerie
sensation to look at them, because it looked as though they were staring
right back at me,and they had strange and very disturbing expressions on
their faces. They were Asian women and I believe they were Vietnamese.
That's how it appeared. As I walked around the entire exhibit to the
other side I was confronted with some of the women who looked like they
had gone through some war themselves. One of the 'moving mannikins' had
a very realistic black eye, swollen and purple. Another moving hula girl
had her face hidden behind messy and tousled hair as though she had been
in a fight. There was no explanation for the exhibit, only the name of
the artist which I have forgotten. This particular 'art display' was a
bit unnerving and I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to say.
Anti-war maybe, but with hula women? Going downstairs was actually where
the first part of the exhibit began, displaying the history of
surfing;from 19th Century Sandwich Islands native surfers to Duke
Kahanamoku(sp),to modern day surfers. I finished "Surf Culture" just
before 5:00 and left to meet everyone at Las Brisas
thought maybe I was a bit too casual in my knee short capris and
sleeveless t-shirt and no make-up.( I don't wear makeup on week-ends.
Because the rest of the week I have to look professional with suits and
pantyhose and make-up. And it's so nice to feel 'free'on week-ends)) I
brought a change of clothes but it was in the car. Luigi was waiting
outside and I pretended to pick him up. We walked inside and almost
recognized Kevin right away from his Blog photo. He was dressed very
nicely in a red silk shirt and levis. As a woman I don't like being
mistakenly overdressed or underdressed but Kevin assured me it was o.k.
He had to give up the table by the window with the beautiful view of the
ocean, because that table had been reserved for eight people. It turned
out that we were the only ones who showed up. But we were still given a
great table, just for the three of us. Kevin was a great host and we
really enjoyed having dinner with him. I just felt badly that he had
gone through all the efforts of getting this together and then no one
showing up . One of my other Blog friends in Tennessee said a similar
thing happened at their Blog Meetup. Well, whoever told me there are
only flaky people in California is wrong. It exists all over. Hope you
don't run into any freaky hula mannequins out there, Peach
