5 June 2010 Odds and ends intellect, hope, beauty, and anger

5 June 2010 Odds and ends


Last night we went to hear and see Donna The Buffalo. We left home during a severe thunder storm. The dog was not at all pleased to be left alone. We received 0.75 inches of rain yesterday evening. When we reached Highway 107 the rain, for the most part, stopped; allowing us to travel at highway speeds without fear of hydroplaning off the road or into something. We had dinner reservations at a new Japanese restaurant and met a friend of Gloria’s from the contra dancing community.

Dinner was quite good, service was good to excellent and the restaurant surprisingly empty for a Friday evening. Perhaps all the festivals in the area were responsible for the dearth of customers. We found no fault at all with the food. As we left, the staff actually bowed us out the door. I’ve never had this happen at any Japanese restaurant in the CONUS. We plan on returning.

While we were eating, the thunderstorm we left in Chuckey, or a close relation, caught up with us and we worried about being able to see the band. But the storm moved on and we had no more rain to deal with last night.

We managed to find parking spots within 300 meters of the stage where we wanted to be. We sat up our chairs and waited for a decent zydeco band to finish and for DTB to set up.

The band is a well known jam band, with roots similar to The Grateful Dead, String Cheese Incident, Leftover Salmon, etc. They are well worth the travel time to hear them. Last night they were, unfortunately, lacking a good sound person. The mix was atrocious. The drums were far too forward in the mix, the bass also too heavy. The vocals were down in the clutter and muddy. Since the band has interesting lyrics and good vocal performers, half the performance was substandard. When they opened up and jammed, the mix became tolerable but still lacking with respect to being able to hear all the instruments and voices. The practice of using local sound people, who tend to mix everything like Country or Rap, is detrimental to a good band.

The rain never returned the crowd was reasonably innocuous; no one spilled beer on us or fell over us. The music was, all-in-all, worth the trip. The evening cooled off nicely, breezes kept it cool. The band is always worth listening to, catch them if you can.

Practicing magical thinking of my own, I flipped the switch on the pool pump this morning and it brought the pump into operation. While it may be the pump motor, I’m going to buy a replacement switch and keep it on hand for the next failure. Every day without having to buy a new motor is good. If it continues to work, we’ll open up the new solar blanket and let it stretch out before cutting it to size.

This is the beginning of a movie review from the Washington Post. I rarely read movie reviews and even less seldom find them causing me to become interested in the movie reviewed. This one caught me. I want to see “Agora.” I hope it goes to cable soon as I don’t think it will play in this region at all. The review is long but worth reading. I offer it to you.

Reason is the star of "Agora

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/spirited_atheist/2010/06/agora_a_rare_movie_with_reason_as_its_star.html?hpid=talkbox1

By Susan Jacoby
June 2, 2010; 4:31 PM ET



Also long but worth reading is this history and commentary on one of the great pieces of sculpture. I became aware of this sculpture in a “Classics” comic book. The link provides history of the work and comparisons to other “messenger” themed works of art. I have my friend, Dr. Paul Scotten, to think for directing me to the marvelous archeology web site that provided this link.

A closer look at the Victory of Samothrace

http://www.louvre.fr/templates/llv/flash/victoiredesamothrace/victoiredesamothrace_acc_en.html



Last, this link from the Washington Post to an article by Dana Milbank is worthy of the time it takes to read it and become outraged. The GOP apologists for the damages caused by greed in today’s corporate structures are now claiming that the BP ravages to the Gulf of Mexico are “acts of God.” This is in keeping with the legal view declaring corporations have “rights” equitable to those of actual persons. If so, they also have responsibilities and should serve prison sentences. I have no problem with jailing BP’s corporate officers and executives, as well as their board of directors for the ecological damages they are causing due to their corporate policies, practices, and greed. They can blame this on a divine causation if they like. I don’t buy it.

In fact, I want to see all the corporate sky pilots and televangelists trying to mesh the science and geology of sub-oceanic oil deposits with the theocratic fundamentalists insistence that the world is only a few thousand years old. I’m sure it is only a matter of time until the GOP theocrats and Tea Party mobs start blaming this spill on gays, lesbians, atheists, Jews, and socialists.

If oil spill is 'an act of God,' BP merits divine retribution



By Dana Milbank

Sunday, June 6, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/04/AR2010060402701.html?hpid=opinionsbox1



Shabbat Shalom!