1970 Rolled In

I keep seeing all the 40th anniversary commemorations of stuff from 1970, including Kent State coming up.

I'm old enough that I remember seeing 1970 roll in at midnight on New Year's Eve, preceded directly by 1969 rolling over the hills and out of sight.

Yes, I remember just where I was when I saw this spectacle. I was in the dining room of my parents' home, which at that time was also my home. Back then we had a garage just to the south of where I stood, which has since been replaced by a newer and nicer garage.


As I stood there, I remember distinctly seeing the '70s rolling in from the East, making a very pretty sight. The number '70 sounded very "mod" at the time, although the '60s set the standard for the "mod," which was then enhanced (it seemed) by the more up to date and "mod" '70, the 7 in that number. I've always liked new beginnings...

Anyway, as I saw the '70s rolling in from the East, I also glanced over at the West and saw the '60s rolling that directly, virtually at light speed or maybe a little slower. It was definitely slow enough that I could see it clearly.

And of course nothing has been the same since, with the '70s no longer sounding "mod," but sounding like something from a long time ago. It's the same thing we'll be saying someday about now. Those who remain alive will say it about now. I might also say it in the future, from whatever point in the future that I'm able to live to.

The Peanuts Of A Drumstick

I just had a store brand version of a Drumstick, the delicious ice cream cone you get in your grocer's frozen section.

They're good. They have peanuts on them, of course. And invariably, like in cereal, some settling occurs. In the case of peanuts, the peanuts fall off in transit, some of them, and fall to the bottom of the bag.

That's bad and that's good. It's bad, because you'd just as soon they were on the chocolate where they belong. But it's good, because after you get done with the rest, you still have some nuts to clean up. An extra bite when it seems like there shouldn't be any more bites.

Juno And The Paycock

I finished the Alfred Hitchcock film, "Juno and the Paycock."

It's part of a 4-disc DVD set I got at Walmart for $5.00. It's been nearly two months since I bought this set and I've been watching them ever since. It has 20 movies. I'm on the last disc. "Juno" is the first movie on the fourth disc.

It's really been a fun education for me, I guess I'd call it, in the early films of Hitchcock. I would definitely like to see them all at this point, and maybe go through them again or a few more times.

This one I wasn't too sure about. I started watching it without having any idea what was going on or what it was about. So it seemed like nothing but a slice of life for a family of Irish folks. Then I read a little about it and even read the plot and accidentally read about the ending, so I knew what was coming up. It actually made it a lot more enjoyable to watch.

It is based on a play by Sean O'Casey, and according to those who know, it's a very faithful adaptation. It really does seem like a play, more or less, filmed. There's a few variances from that.

Anyway, I had no idea what a "paycock" was so I was a little put off by that. Turns out it's just a way of pronouncing "peacock." And Juno and the Paycock has an Aesop's Fables connection, which I also read about online.

There's a family of Irish folk, the Boyle family, with the woman, Juno, the man (can't think of his name, but he's the peacock in all this), their daughter Mary, and their one-armed, very moody son, Johnny. Johnny seems to be in with the wrong crowd and is doing something that gets him in trouble. I'm not sure what. I need to watch it again.

Mary ends up pregnant in the movie and that's a shame for her. Johnny ends up dead. Juno and the Paycock end up broke and fairly in despair. So that's the ending, sorry to ruin it for you.

As to the dialogue, you can make out most of it if you really try, but it's tough, with a very pronounced Irish accent. I love the acting and the characterizations. The husband is very irascible. He has a drinking buddy who's fun to watch too.

The family thinks they inherit a bunch of money, proceed to spend on credit, oblivious to the possibility that something could go wrong. This is exactly what I would not do. I need to know the money's there. So that was kind of dumb on their part, but that's the movie.

As it went on I became a lot more interested. Knowing what was going on really helped.

Grandma Piledhigh

I had a great pizza today from Pizza Hut. That's news, because the ones I've had lately have all had something wrong with them, in my opinion. Usually the problem is the crust isn't completely done. It's not browned, it's as soft as my Grandma's upper arm always was.

Today I felt it and at first I thought it was more like her forearm, which wasn't quite as tender as the flabby back stuff on the upper arm. Then I noticed it had much more firmness, like the bellies of some of those volleyball playing girls you see in the Olympics. They're no one's Grandma, yet.

There's a slogan that one of the pizza makers has, "Pizza pie piled high."

So I said, "This is just like my Grandma Piledhigh used to make it," since I have a grandma for every occasion. And nothing says quality pizza in my mind than the phrase "piled high."

Grandma Piledhigh liked to stack things up, as far as they'd go. She loved Jenga, let's assume. And she liked to go to Denver, since it's called the Pilehigh City.

Thanks To Hitler

Thanks to Hitler, no man should have facial hair. Because what's the one thing we think of when we think of Hitler, his idiotic mustache.

That and the rigid arm salute, which is another good reason to let your arms go limp as much as possible.

The Best Of Geoge Harrison

There was a "The Best of George Harrison" CD at Goodwill today and I got it.

This isn't an album I would support by a long shot. I've never had it before even though I've seen it many times.

It makes me wonder who approved and put it together. Because I always thought it was weird that George's "Best of" CD (at that time) would be half filled up with Beatles' tracks.

I remember some of his solo albums pretty well, and it would not have been hard when they made this album to come up with 13 tracks off his solo work to be a "Best of" collection. Come on.

It seems insulting to him. If he was the one who wanted it this way, well, that's weird. That would be different though. Otherwise...it was a bad way to do a George album!

The Names Of Toilets

I just saw an ad on TV for a major hardware, home improvement store in the area.

They were advertising toilets, with the models of toilets having names. The two they advertised were "The Calloway" and "The Diplomat."

I get the Diplomat. It's just a name. Plus when it's constantly got people exposing themselves to it, it would have to be diplomatic in order to keep a roof over its head. But the Calloway, that seems like it'd have to be named after someone. So who would Calloway be? A beloved ex-employee who went to the bathroom more than normal?

They also advertised sewer pumps but these didn't have names. Just this sewer pump and that sewer pump.

Library Of Congress To Archive My Tweets

This is awesome. I've just made the Library of Congress! Since I and a few other people have used the popular site Twitter.

They have made arrangements to archive every public tweet since Twitter's beginning. According to the article, Twitter processes around 50 million tweets a day.

I'm going to have to come up with something interesting to say ... since I've now gone high class.

How My Move Is Going

I was busy virtually all day today preparing for my move next week. I have a house full of stuff, so I'm busy packing it and getting it to the ground floor in an orderly way.

That means that lots of heavy boxes and totes need to be lifted one after the other and put in place. It's a terrible job, but I'm getting it done. I still have a lot to go ... but I put a serious dent in it today. I completely emptied the basement of my possessions. Now I have the upstairs to go, and I made some great strides at that.

It's a lot more work to move than you think it would be. The key thing is not to accumulate so many possessions. Unfortunately I learned that lesson a little bit late. Now I need to spend the next several years downsizing, so that any future move will be more handy for me.

This Is Evergreen Stuff

I've been doing some serious reflecting on blogging. And what makes an "evergreen" post.

Of course it wouldn't be a post on the latest news headlines, such as Michael Steele doing something wrong. That's evergreen in the sense that he's always doing something wrong, but one of these days he'll be gone and then the post would be dated.

There's even more obvious examples, such as "Congress voted on health care legislation today." When "today" is past and Congress has moved on, no one wants to read that five years from now.

But an "evergreen" post could very well be me saying that "I tore a couch apart today with a butcher knife and ax," as I did yesterday. Because who knows? Five years from now, still no one's going to know me. So it's just a story about a guy who at some point tore a couch apart with a knife and ax. It'll still be just as interesting and full of delights for anyone reading it in five years as it was yesterday!

So thank you for your attention. Whether you're reading this today or five years from now. It doesn't make any difference!

Reflections On Tearing A Couch Apart

One, I didn't want to tear the couch apart. I definitely believe in the idea of passing it on to someone else who would get some good out of the thing. But in the time frame allowed, with it being offered to the public for FREE, no one took it. And I can't dilly dally around with a heavy couch in my room forever. I'm moving and it needed to go.

Now, watch, though, I'll get a call about it tomorrow and I'll have to say it's "gone," even though it's still in my car, but in a hundred pieces.

All along the way in the tearing apart process, I kept thinking I was going to be injured. There truly are lots of nails and staples holding a couch together, as well as springs. They build them to stay together, meaning you have to do a lot of prying and bending, and, in this case, whacking with an ax.

The part where I really thought I would get injured was the whacking the longer slats in half so they'd fit well in my car. I leaned them up against something and came down in the center with the ax. Some of them flew a bit. Then I had one more slat and I thought This will be the one I get injured on, but thankfully I didn't. It whacked in half and that was it.

It's a nasty process. But the alternative is that I needed a truck and then I show up at the recycling place with an entire intact couch. I didn't know what they'd think of that. So being completely taken apart will probably be better.

Conquested

The angel of love looks and shines on over all my conquests. And all the times I'm conquested.

Boogling Out To "Low Rider"

The song by War I've got playing. They're the only War I like.

Don't make love, make War. "Low rider is a real goer."

Some kind of pipes sounding. Instantly hummable and boogieable.

I'm a Warmonger. Too bad they dumped Eric Burdon. Or something.

The pipes boogie in this song is sort of like in "Spill The Wine." The two songs are boogleagues. That's supposed to be a mash of boogie and colleagues. Heh.

Why couldn't they be friends?

Easy Virtue

I watched the Alfred Hitchcock movie, "Easy Virtue."

It is a silent one, with the DVD I have having a nice music soundtrack to keep it from being completely silent.

I believe the date was 1926 for this film.

In the film, the main character, Larita, was accused of cheating on her husband and found guilty. It didn't appear to me that she actually was guilty, but maybe there was a little dalliance there somewhere. I frankly missed whatever it was she was supposed to have done wrong, even though I was watching closely.

Anyway, found guilty, the old coot who was her husband, divorced her. So she's off to lose herself at the Mediterranean somewhere. While there she meets a guy named John Whittaker, a young man who falls in love with her. They have a grand old time and eventually get married.

Then for some reason, which I couldn't figure out either, they go to live with his parents and the various other folks of the household. The mother is a terror to Larita, and she scared me too, looking very imposing and mean. The father is a nice guy, and most of the rest of the family is fairly decent, including John's ex-girlfriend, who's a real champ. The mother and one daughter seem to be the worst, especially the mom.

Eventually the mother turns John against Larita. He admits as much outside and Larita, behind a bush, overhears him.

About now the family learns Larita's terrible secret, that she was involved in this scandalous divorce. Mother confronts her, and it's a mess. Especially since they've already invited everyone in for a big party in honor of John and Larita. Things are fairly uneventful at the party ... and it drifts off from there ... with the ending being that the happy couple get divorced.

I was amazed at how much smoking Larita did in the film (I can't remember the actress' name.) That might've seemed scandalous too but no one mentioned it. Even though I don't recall other women smoking.

I was looking at a book on Hitchcock's films, "Hitchcock's Films Revisited," by Robin Wood, who says in a footnote (p. 242), "The figure of the guilty woman occurs already -- if not very interestingly -- in Easy Virtue..." That's right about the "not very interestingly." It seems like for being so scandalous, Larita kept it all very sedate and under control. I was expecting her to go mad at the party and to shame John's family beyond reason. But it didn't happen.

It's interesting to a point ... I watched in an interested way. But mostly because I kept expecting something big to happen, and it didn't. The menacing mother was a real joy to watch, very yucky. And I sort of liked Larita, although she wasn't all that interesting. I liked Sarah, the ex-girlfriend, who told John he needed to stand by Larita (great advice and very gracious.) But I hated John for giving in to his mother and turning on Larita. He should've taken Sarah's advice, and stood by Larita in true love.

It might not have been a great ending for Hitchcock to do it that way, of course, but I like to see love prevail!

A Cheerios Dinner

I had something unusual for dinner tonight, the generic store brand of Cheerios, with a bunch strawberries cut up in it and a banana cut up in it. With milk of course.

That was very good and felt healthy for me.