A RANDOM SELECTION OF PHOTOS OF SOME FAVORITE FRIENDS

the late Kenny Graham, friends since boyhood

John Godfrey, friends since c. 1974

Annabel Lee, friends since c. 1975, Don Yorty, good friends since c. 2014, Simon Pettet, friends since c. 1975

Mindy Thompson Fullilove, good friends since 2015

Jim Coleman, friends since c. 2012

Angela Lockhart Aronoff, friends since c. 2007

Mike Winch, friends since c. 1995, Terence Winch, friends since 1969

Jeanne Donahoue, friends since c. 2006, Sue Brennan, friends since c. 2004

Rachel E. Diken, friends since c.2014, Jeff Coleman, friends since c.2008

[I have no idea if these dates are accurate, nor do I remember who took the photos]

YAY

The best thing about the elections yesterday was that the Dems showed they have returned to their roots, using the strategy the Repubs got from the Dems after the Dems abandoned it, and that is to work for victories at the local level first, then the county, then the state, and then the national...seeing all those Dems taking over as mayors and other municipality political positions, and as school board members, and county execs, and state legislators, made the governorships that were won an even sweeter victory...and establishes a new generation of leaders ready to move up to greater levels of government in future elections...

NEW FAVORITE QUOTE (AND DON'T FORGET TO VOTE IN YOUR LOCAL, COUNTY, AND STATE ELECTIONS, THAT'S WHERE IT ALL STARTS)

“Please exercise caution when calling these mass shooters mentally ill, or insinuating it is to blame. If mental illness is to blame... I wanna know why mentally ill women aren't going to schools, churches, movie theaters, and concerts with assault rifles and slaughtering people?

Cuz it's not mental illness, it's white male entitlement to terrorize and use violence to oppress. When they don't get their way, they use violence to oppress. Again and again and again and again.” ~Val Stephens

REPOSTED FROM A YEAR AGO

Thanks to friend, poet Don Yorty's reposting this on Facebook today and reminding me to remember my own analysis.

FECK THE NRA

WONDERSTRUCK

Todd Haynes-directed movies are hit and miss for me. I loved CAROL and came to appreciate I'M NOT THERE. As for his latest WONDERSTRUCK, it's a mixed bag. Brian Selznick's script, adapted from his novel, is extremely contrived and full of holes, but the filming of it by Haynes' and his crew is original and at times dazzling in its authenticity (as in the most realistic depictions of New York in the 1970s I've seen in a long time in any film or TV show).

The main reason to see it, for me, is the lead young actress Millicent Simmonds who plays a deaf girl in 1920s New York (some very creative uses of vintage footage and other devices make her black and white experiences seem of the time), and also happens to be deaf. There are not enough deaf characters in movies and on TV and never has been (as can be said about a lot of minorities mostly missing from films and TV), but here's one who should have more characters written for her unique talents.

Julianne Moore plays a few real, as well as a few stage and movie, characters entirely (as far as I can remember) without ever using her voice, quite an achievement too. Other actors, like the two male child actors Oakes Fegley and Jaden Michael in the color parts of the movie set in the 1970s, do pretty good jobs as well. All in all a daring attempt to make a unique film out of a pretty contrived and manipulative script.

FAVORITE RECENT QUOTES