Picture of the week!

Thanks to Damien for sending me this photo. Love it!

R.I.P. John Lennon

29 years ago today, John Lennon was murdered by a disturbed individual with no apparent motive. I still think "Imagine" is possibly the most perfect song ever recorded by a human being. On December 8th, 1980, the world lost a genius for whom there simply is no replacement. R.I.P., John. May you bliss out in strawberry fields forever.

Courtney reminds Britney who invented the term "Celebrity Trainwreck"

Oh, my goodness. With her second solo album "Nobody's Daughter" FINALLY due to be released January 1, 2010 (a most intriguing looking date, 1/01/10, let's hope it's binary code for MAJOR COMEBACK!), Courtney Love just made headlines by claiming that Britney Spears' dad molested her. The Spears camp has replied in an amusing fashion.

Bill Murray's brilliant cameo

I saw "Zombieland" at the Red Vic MovieHouse in the Haight the other night, and really enjoyed it. Not a work of high art, necessarily, but a very entertaining flick with an endearing "alternative family" message. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg (sort of "the other Michael Cera") make a most amusing contrast. (Interesting to see two men - well, one man and one boy - play a dynamic that would traditionally be portrayed by two people of different genders. Wellllll, OK...maybe they're not exactly Bogie and Bacall.) But the best part of the movie is Bill Murray. His cameo is so brilliant, it would make the movie worth seeing even if the rest of it was pure dreck - which it isn't! Go, Bill! This scene should be used in college courses on filmmaking under the title, "How to write a stupendously brilliant celebrity cameo."

Cirque in Union Square!

Cirque du Soleil, in the City right now with their new show "Ovo," made a public appearance in Union Square this afternoon. Since I work two blocks away, I took my lunch break at the right time to dash down there and catch them in the action. "Ovo" is insect-themed and the performers were acting very insect-like, copying the mannerisms of ants, praying mantises, etc. It was a fun sight to behold. Suddenly, without warning, they fled en masse to their tour bus (Bus du Soleil?) and drove away, waving from the top of the double-decker! A fun way to spend a lunch break.

I fell under the potent spell of Cirque when I ushered for their show "Corteo" in Portland early last year, before I went to work in Glacier National Park. As an usher - unlike the poor kids in concessions who had to spend their whole work shift in the outer tents hawking popcorn and hot dogs during intermission - I got to watch the show every night inside the Grand Chapiteau, which is truly grand. I never lost my sense of awe at the vast size of that huge tent, especially when we met before showtime for a pre-performance huddle before any audience members entered to fill the vastness of the space. The show was beautiful, something I'll never forget. Even after seeing it a dozen times, my heart always picked up the pace when the first act after intermission ("Paradise," the trapeze act) started. The amazing soundtrack, the dramatic lighting, and the perfectly timed buildup to the act's climactic moment, which always made the audience gasp. I didn't gasp, but I marveled, and felt proud of the performers, of how good they were, and happy to be part of something so magnificent, even in my humble capacity.

The Obama Deception

Today on BART I glimpsed the newspaper headline, "Liberals distance themselves from Obama." I'm afraid it's true. Cynicism is realism at this point. Obama is owned by the same people who owned Bush. They are people who make money off war (hence 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan! Although I think Obama's lack of emotion or enthusiasm during the speech at least shows his conscience is conflicted about doing the bidding of the Emperor), and engineered our recent economic collapse (and others before it). That's why Geithner is Secretary of the Treasury, Bernanke is being re-confirmed, and we haven't taken any serious steps to change our economic structure so that a major recession like this doesn't happen again. The bail-outs are a band-aid on a third-degree burn. Huffington Post, led by Arianna Huffington, has published one article after another on this subject for a long time now.

Fuzzy Little Drunks

From my Mom's favorite publication, SMITHSONIAN Magazine, Oct 2008: "Pen-tailed tree shrews [one pictured above...cute!] and at least six other small mammals in Malaysia imbibe naturally fermented bertam palm flower nectar, which is up to 3.8 percent alcohol, like beer. The animals are the only ones (aside from humans) known to drink regularly, say the researchers, from Germany and elsewhere, who saw no 'motor incoordination or other behavioral signs of inebriation.' The animals appear to have a high alcohol tolerance."