MAKES SENSE

The right has managed to scare people into rejecting their own beliefs and desires for jobs, more affordable and better healthcare, secure Medicare and Social Security, etc. with the idea that the debt ran up by the previous rightwing Republican administration, and compounded by their destruction of the economy and neutering of regulatory agencies and laws, is the new administration's fault and our biggest worry.

Most economists disagree. Many believe the problem was and is that the stimulus package was not big enough. Some on the right (see the comments threads on any political posts I've made here in the past few months) point to China as some kind of example (!) of how to grow an economy, when in fact the Chinese government made a much greater investment, i.e. stimulus package, in their country's economy (including infrastructure projects that will end up giving this recently "third world" power better bridges, faster and more efficient trains and railway system etc.) than we did!

In light of that, and the fact that often the McClatchy news service has been scooping the mainstream press, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, I thought I'd share this editorial on the national debt that makes a lot of sense to me.

[Here's a more recent article by the Nobel economist Paul Krugman from this morning's, Monday's, NY Times]

THE LAST STATION

Well worth catching. It's one of those small movies, like BRIGHT STAR, that's one interpretation of a literary legend (in this case novelist Jay Pairini's take on Leo Tolstoy's last days) that though a "small movie" is maybe better appreciated on the big screen.

The opening shots of rural vistas (whispering birches, inviting summer meadows, endless farm fields, etc.) and the lightly fleeting music playing under these scenes sets the stage for the turn-of-the century radical experiments based on Tolstoy's ideas that rhymes in cinematic mood and rhythm and imagery with many movies of the early 1960s, a time that was inspired by many of those ideas. (One of my first encounters with what would become known as "hippie culture" etc. was at "Tolstoy Farm" in Washington state, not far from where I was stationed in the military at the time.)

Those rustic scenes also give resonance to the epic scope of Tolstoy's "genius" and his beloved Russian countryside. It's a creative cliche but it works, showing the contrast between the grandeur of what Tolstoy stood for and the daily struggle between he and his wife of many years (and mother of his thirteen children) over his legacy.

It's one of the great ensemble acting movies of the past year as well. (Credit goes to director Michael Hoffman who also directed two old favorites of mine RESTORATION and SOAPDISH, talk about variety.)

Helen Mirren totally deserves her Oscar nomination for her role as Countess Tolstoy, and at least tonight, after just seeing it, would get my vote.

As for Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy, he has been a little problematic to me as an actor over the course of his career. Captain Von Trapp was the exception until now as Plummer's talent always struck me as better suited to the stage, and THE SOUND OF MUSIC is a very stagey movie.

But what he does with his characterization of the aging writer in THE LAST STATION is without a doubt his greatest performance. It's nuanced and realistic and hits every point on the emotional spectrum with at times a surprising restraint and at others a well-earned—i.e. justifiable in terms of character and story—intensity.

He's nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and deserves to get it, especially since he's in his eighties and probably won't get another chance. But the odds are on Christoph Waltz who plays the Nazi caricature in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS (talk about a deliberately stagey movie) as if he were updating the classic Hollywood Nazi for our "reality TV" sensibilities.

But the actor who's been overlooked for an incredibly effective performance in LAST STATION is James McAvoy, who I'm sure we'll see receiving an Oscar in the future if just to make up for his being overlooked in these early years of his careere when he has proven himself to be not only amazingly versatile, but heartbreakingly competent. (e.g. in ATONEMENT and THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND).

I would see this movie again immediately, just to watch McAvoy's performance, really all three of these actors' performances.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER TWO FEET OF SNOW

Or maybe less, buy definitely more than a foot and a half. It's hard to tell. But beautiful.

I lived in Southern California for almost twenty years and I missed the seasons terribly, ALL the seasons. One of the reasons I moved back East.

Of course the "seasons" haven't been the same as when I was young thanks to "global wierding"—(it's actually global warming but those too ill informed or unable to grasp scientific facts get confused when they see snow in winter and think that disqualifies any idea of "warming" etc.) so we haven't had the kind of winter we're having now, but still the seasonal changes, however they manifest now, give me great pleasure to experience.

And this snowy winter has been a great pleasure to me. And today is no exception. The snow has been very light, and blue sky even broke out during the afternoon with sunlight shining on the clean powdery white soft curves covering cars and bushes etc.

I know a lot of folks are anxious for winter to be over, and I'm looking forward to spring too, but taking a break from shoveling my car out of the public parking lot I left it in last night, because I assumed it would get plowed sooner than the private one I pay to park my car in every night, I paused to watch my young guy jump off the snow-covered roof of a long garage behind a small apartment building into the drifts below it on the edge of the parking lot. What a gas.

And that muted sound of an older, slower, less noisy world that a big snowfall always creates. What can I say, I dig it. Though I admit my back aches and I'm pretty tired from what little shoveling I did do (I did a lot yesterday when it was mostly slush and much heavier) today (I gave a couple of men walking down the street with shovels a small fee to finish off the walk in front of this old house where my apartment is).

It'll be spring and then summer soon enough. As most of us know, the older we get the quicker times goes by. So for today, I'm content to look out at the ways in which the new snow has made the world seem cleaner, quieter and softer. And be grateful for it.

[And then I came in and watched the news followed by a repeat of The Daily Show from last night and thought if you haven't seen it this top of the show bit by John Stewart should elicit a few laughs...and possibly some amens, but you have to watch the almost ten minute clip to the end to get the full impact.]

YET ANOTHER LIST!

I still don't have what was my normal lifelong compulsion to make lists, but in my post-brain surgery listless bliss (actually I miss it) I noticed yesterday while I was working around the house, folding laundry after getting it from the coin machines in the basement etc., that the random selection of songs coming from the shuffle mode of my iTunes library on my laptop (connected to the compact but terrific speakers that were a gift from my older son Miles) was really interesting, in both what was included and what kinds of music were missing (since I now have a pretty extensive and eclectic music library on there).

So I thought I'd share it, as an excerpt from the mostly uplifting soundtrack of my days (or part of one of them):

CREPUSCULE WITH NELLIE Thelonious Monk
ANSWER ME, MY LOVE Nat King Cole
I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU Clifford Brown & Max Roach
MINE Bing Crosby and Judy Garland
RACE WITH THE DEVIL Gene Vincent
DARK MOON, HIGH TIDE Afro Celt Sound System from GANGS OF NEW YORK
ONE FOR MY BABY (AND ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD) Johnny Mercer
BIDIN’ MY TIME The Blue Jeans
BE CAREFUL, IT’S MY HEART Frank Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
TEA FOR TWO Willie “The Lion” Smith (someone I should have had on my recent favorite piano players list)
A TEMPO (POCO PUI SOSTENUTO) from the ON THE WATERFRONT section of THREE DANCE EPISODES FROM ON THE TOWN, FANCY FREE AND ON THE WATERFRONT Leonard Bernstein
STUCK INSIDE OF MOBILE WITH THE MEMPHIS BLUES AGAIN Bob Dylan
STRANGE Patsy Kline
AT LAST Glen Miller and His Orchestra
SUMMERTIME Janis Joplin with Big Brother and The Holding Company
PRELUDE #2 George Gershwin
I WANT YOU, I NEED YOU, I LOVE YOU Elvis Presley
LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE Chet Baker
WATCHA GONNA DO? Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters
MY BUDDY Chet Baker
DEAR JOHN Hank Williams
YOU’RE GONNA SEE A LOT OF ME Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra
GOING HOLLYWOOD Bing Crosby
ZING WENT THE STRINGS OF MY HEART The Skyliners
HELPLESSLY HOPING Crosby, Stills and Nash
AL-LEU-CHA Miles Davis
MANHA DE CARNAVAL from BLACK ORPHEUS soundtrack Luiz Bonfa
HOW HIGH THE MOON Les Paul and Mary Ford
A HARD DAY’S NIGHT The Beatles
COUSIN MARY (alternate) John Coltrane
MOVE ON from SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE Bernadette Peters & Mandy Patinkin
COSI FAN TUTTE The Swingle Singers
SHIMMY SHE WOBBLE Othar Turner & The Rising Star Fife & Drum Band from GANGS OF NEW YORK soundtrack
DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY Cream

BETTER PS

I can't tell you how much pleasure being able to read again and listen to music I love and watch movies that have layers of subtleties and complex plots means to me, even though when I couldn't do those things only weeks ago I totally accepted the possibility that I might never.

But just to clarify. I still tire more easily, become anxious when there's too many demands on my attention, like a ringing cell phone when I'm already busy talking on the land line or to someone in person, etc., and when tired find it almost impossible to write, which pre-brain surgery I almost never tired of (as I've written on this blog I sometimes would start writing in the morning and not realize the day was over until I looked up and saw it was dark out), etc.

And some things just don't appeal to me anymore, some music, some writing, some kinds of conversations, etc. There's other changes too, some too seemingly minor for anyone else to notice, but I am an observer, including of myself, and it interests me no matter how small the changes are.

Which I meant to list some more of, but it's late and I'm tired and I forgot what I started out to relate, so as an example of my new mind's working, or my old mind's new workings, I'll just stop.

BETTER & BETTER (POST BRAIN SURGERY ONGOING RECOVERY)

The past few days have been busy and rewarding. All weekend with my youngest, though Saturday he spent a good deal of at an indoor skateboarding park about a half hour away.

Driving there and back again (did it a few times in recent weeks), the return trip after dark, on a relatively busy highway without getting too anxious at entrances and exits or dealing with some traffic (moments of super attention and no radio to distract me) felt almost "normal"—as did going to the mall fifteen minutes away where he and I used gift cards from Christmas we hadn't cashed in yet (I couldn't handle a mall or dealing with books back then).

I picked up a couple of all-prose books because since I started reading the new Thelonious Monk bio I've gotten more and more into the old rhythms of reading and am almost as voracious about it as ever (and picked up books recommended by others in recent months that I had no interest in until now (like my old friend Tom Wilson's pitch for Patti Smith's JUST KIDS (and the new bio of Nina Simone) and Terence Winch's for David Lehman's A FINE ROMANCE, etc.))).

While there and searching for non-bank-breaking pair of new sneakers for my little guy (who goes through them in a matter of weeks, not months, because of the rigors of skate boarding) we stopped to watch a pretty big gathering of young Chinese-Americans in various Chinese costumes playing Chinese music and coming together in small groups to dance or put on large dragon heads and tails and do that Chinese New Years celebration winding movement through the center of the mall.

I thought how cool that when I was a kid there was only one or two Chinese families in our area and now there are tons of Asians of all kinds everywhere in this part of Jersey. There were probably a couple of hundred at this event in a mall that was fairly run down when we moved here but since has gone through some improvements and then more recently vast emptiness when the Great Recession hit but seems to be coming back to life these days.

On the radio coming back from the gym yesterday, where I have gotten back to my pre-brain surgery routine, I caught a bit of an NPR live program from Manhattan that had Ethan Hawke and a couple of actors from the Sam Sheperd play he's directing in the city and was struck and delighted by how incredibly intelligent and articulate he is (I met him on the set of WHITE FANG back when he was still a teenager and was impressed then more with myself I suspect than him, though I liked him immediately and we had great discussions about poetry and discovered I dated one of his aunts in high school!).

I notice how people speak (and write) these days, in ways I didn't used to. I pay so much more close attention to the details and the simplest of elements that go into speech and writing. Maybe because for weeks and even months after the operation I couldn't (like not being able to watch John Stewart back then because of the layers of irony and subtleties etc. and now not being able to watch the idiotic disregard for what words mean and how they come together to build more complex meanings in the simplistic illogical nonsense (literally: non-sense) of the right (like excerpts of Glen Beck's completely incomprehensible—in terms of the actual language and how he used it—gibberish at the recent so-called "conservative" gathering in DC etc.).

So with my reading and driving skills having returned (though changed, so maybe it's more like transformed into something new but almost equal to what I was capable of before the op), and my appreciation of the simplest things (like how well some people can express their thoughts and feelings and taste and opinions), and now writing becoming less difficult just in recent days (less "typos" if I'm not tired, but continued deliberateness in my less rapid typing and more varied choice of words since there continue to be gaps in what I can call up in the moment so have to reach for less frequently, if-at-all used terms in the past but still in my vocabulary) I feel enormously grateful for how well my brain has dealt with being incapacitated (and messed with).

The ultimate outcome so far is so positive, even including the changes that seem more permanent (like the lack of my old compulsion to make lists, or my return to home cooked meals (not just microwaved or prepackaged) so much so I bought a new stove-top, wok-like, iron frying pan and me and my little guy have been having my own version (after my older kids or friend Sue etc. have shown me the basics again) diced potatoes or whole asparagus or spinach or yams sauteed in olive oil etc.

Not bad for going into my fourth month of recovery from having part of my brain removed.

TODAY'S QUOTE

"...praise does not spring from a delusion that things are better than they are, but rather from the human capacity for joy." —Kathleen Norris (The Cloister Walk)