Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday?

I can't believe that my Verizon movie package (Starz, Encore, etc.) advertises a new movie every Saturday and then fails to deliver. It's been about three weeks since they have had a new move touting like: The Saturday, for the first time on TV, Pirates of the Caribbean, XXXVVVI.

But the girl and I did see Salt on Saturday. She loved it and was mesmerized by all the twists and turns. It's always fun to watch a movie through the eyes of a child. (Though I would swear to the death that "child" was a misprint if she ever reads this.) It's a still a ludicrous movie (we did have a mini physics lesson re: falling onto the top of a moving truck) but it's still good fast-paced adventure and as technically well-made as it is physically inaccurate.
I did get to see a 5 minute clip from the end of WWII on C-Span on Saturday. I got to hear Harry Truman and listen to the narrator intone about the people of Europe going to church to thank god for ending the war and watched old women kneeling in pews and blessing themselves in a synchronized fashion. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday! (The boy taught me this delightful way to curse.) They were praising god for ending a war! What were they doing for the 6 years he was allowing it to continue?
So without a movie to review and this being Memorial Day in the US (when we remember our dead in wars), I thought it would be fitting to depress everyone with Kevin Drum's piece in AlterNet:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/151108/why_the_democratic_party_has_abandoned_the_middle_class_in_favor_of_the_rich/

He basically tells the American voting public why their votes don't really count to either party since both have hitched their stars to the real money in this country.. It's a good insightful analysis and you get to see a glimpse of how the US might have been different if things hadn't changed in the early 1970s. But they did and I doubt the genie is going back into that proverbial bottle.

Drum offers no glimmer of hope, just explains how the world of the "average" American has changed and not for the better. Pretty depressing. But, hey, that's why god was invented.

Enjoy the day.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Knitting Friday

Joe Zee, the creative director of Elle magazine, has a reality-type show called All On The Line on the Sundance channel. Now, I'm not a fan of reality show (confession time: I did suffer one season of Project Runway) but I like this show. Not so much for what he's trying to teach his "pupils" but for what he's teaching me.

The premise of the show is that Joe uses his years of experience in the fashion design business to help new designers or older designers who have lost their "hotness" or good designers who just haven't been able to make a splash in the business. It's not all smooth sailing or happy endings and I know that there is editing for dramatic effect.

Designers are creative people and their ego can get ahead of their talent but Joe meets the challenges with good grace. And what has he taught me? To stretch. OK, that might sound trite but I've always considered myself a creative person, not an artistic one. That is, I can load the needles with stitches and produce a praise worthy garment but being creative, I can then reload those needles a thousand times and reproduce the same garment. An artistic person, I believe, makes the one-of-a-kind product.

So, in honor of Joe Zee, i present my first "stretch":
Wow, you say, it's a top-down summer tank. How original! But the pattern is different. I used a Japanese Pierrot lace stitch and modified it to work as *K1, YO, SSK, YO2TOG, YO, K1*
I know, it's a simple 6 stitch pattern but I'm writing out the pattern for next week.
So, thank you Joe Zee. Now, I'm looking at the zillions of skeins I got for my b-day/Valentine's Day present and I really think I'm going to go something artistic, not creative, this time.

See you next week. All On The Line has a new episode on Sundance every Tuesday at 10 pm.

Oh, what's with the $5 bill? That's for scale. I hope it's effective since my husband insists I know nothing about scale. This is 2011 so, in the future, if they shrink that bill, I guess the scale changes.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday

Although I had high hopes for a new movie (well, new in terms of my Verizon movie package) I only managed to watch The Fall from 2006. At first, I thought I was watching a Camus novel but its title is literal: a movie stunt man in Los Angeles with girl friend issues injures himself in a stunt fall which was really too dangerous to attempt. Directed byTarsem Singh, the hospitalized stunt man tells a fantastical tale to another young patient (ala Baron Munchhausen.) The little girl is enchanted by him and his tale, however, the stunt man has an ulterior motive. Weaving events and people from the hospital into his story, we and the little girl hang on to this fantasy as it plays out. Does it all end well? I'll let you decide. Definitely worth the IMDb rating of 7.9 and perhaps that was even too low.

The week started with my reading:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/philip-roth-booker-prize_b_864536.html

Apparently, Shivani criticized Philip Roth's Booker Prize and this article delves into the richness of foreign literature vs. the shallowness of US lit. I guess I as I think, the best foreign literature writes metaphor; even the best US lit still writes in simile. Shivani titles his article: The Insularity of American Literature. It's a worthwhile read and discussion point. Of course, the American insularity has been on the radar of critics for generations, even centuries.

Which, in the same vein, brings me to a Roger Ebert mea culpa piece:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/05/my_mighty_hammering_over_thor.html

Ebert had the umbrage to criticize the new movie, Thor, and did he get flak for that. He was royally "taken to the wood shed" for not realizing (and thus forgiving) that the plot holes in the movie are all explained in the Thor comics. Talk about insular! Talk about rabid fans! Poor Roger. I guess the movie-goers give a lot of slack to their comic heroes. And, their movies-based-on Disney-World-rides considering Pirates 4 with a Rotten Tomato rating of 33% (now, that's rotten though not as rotten as Priest at 15%) is #1 at the box office.

Maybe Shivani should add "insane" to his adjective choices for American media, culture and (based on the ballyhoo over the recently wrongly predicted Rapture) American society in general. Enjoy!

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

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Website Wednesday

I'm in the middle of listening to a class on Measure for Measure and I'm loving it. It made me take another look at this play and I can't believe it is such an easy read. I have an hour plus left to listen on this play and then I have to get started with Othello for the next session. This is the free Harvard course from 2007 I mentioned last week.

Then the boy has to memorized the Mountain West states for Friday. At least there are only 6 of them so with states, capitals and postal abbreviations he will only have 18 blank spaces to navigate this time. He seems to like the studying (read that as memorization) for these test thought I don't know what the retention rate is going to be.

My pick today is wacky and fun:

http://www.oddee.com/

Oddee says of itself: Oddee™ is an entertainment blog on oddities, attracting well over two million unique visitors each month. Focused on the odd, bizarre and strange things of our world, its daily articles and sections explore subjects from Science to Advertising and Technology; over 15 million pages are read at Oddee™ every month.

I look at it as a "grab a cup of coffee during a few spare minutes and check it out" type of site. There are a lot of annotated lists and that's a real favorite for me. You can read presently about tattoo, chairs, urinals, or fruit carvings - and that's only a small section of the lists.

Take a look. It's worth it. Oh, 60% of their traffic is male. Should I say "beware?" Enjoy.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday - Salt

OK, I know it's too late but I should have posted this earlier because I knew as soon as Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan that they would find a stash of porno. I just knew it because anything concerning sex freaks out Americans so we always drag out a sexual "indiscretion." A porno discovery is an Instant Vilification card, as valuable as the Joker when you play cards.

Of Salt, let me start with one word: ludicrous. I could probably end with the same word. It's James Bond in drag and Angelina Jolie does a good job with this genre (she did have practice with her Laura Cross movies.) Apparently, the role was first to star Tom Cruise and that fell through so Jolie gets to endure the logical-defying stunts and emerge unscathed (well, unscathed is probably the most logical defying part of that equation.)

The premise is: Salt (Jolie) is a CIA agent who is accused of being part of an uber-talented Russian mole army. You know, they train them as kids, plant them in American jobs and then wait.....for it.

Having written the above, let me also say: Watch it for the fun. It's fast-paced so you won't be bored and Jolie always has a presence which is interesting to watch. Along the way: 1) remember Burt. He's a dog we meet briefly in the beginning but the minute he appears again and plays a part in Salt's escape plan, all I could think was: PETA. No way was that dog going to left in harm's way. Watch to see how that's resolved. (ASPCA restrictions on animal use are becoming as restrictive as the Hayes Code.) 2. watch Michael. He has a small role as Salt's husband but he glides through it seamlessly and the final scene with him is shockingly sad. 3) watch Salt's truck bounce. OK, I could have chosen the scene in the church or on the freighter but this scene is the height of action insanity. By this point, I was wondering if the movie shouldn't have been forced to flash periodically: Kids, don't try this at home. 4) see if you figure out the twist. Every movie like this has a twist. I didn't see it coming and I should have.

It's Jolie's movie. Everyone else just rotates around her. It's probably not worth movie prices but it's worth a rent or the Netflix queue. I also think it's OK for kids. Kids to whom you explain this is all over-the-top violence and stunts, that is. Also, I don't think there was one "bad" word.

Salt is just another progeny of the Saturday movie cliff-hangers. Look at it this way and you'll like it. Enjoy.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

Apparently, the entire knitting world is trying to duplicate a shawl Kate Middleton wore food shopping in England and I must admit that my addiction for the last few days has been following Ravelry postings on this subject.

Plus, I'm really enjoying my Harvard video course (online, of course) on Shakespeare's later plays (Measure for Measure at the moment) and my University of Houston course on the Enlightenment poets.

The girl said something which had me thinking on Saturday. She has always been interested in medicine; first it was animal operations then people operations. She was fearless with this type of stuff from a very young age. So, I thought she might be interested in some video courses and I hooked her up with an Anatomy course, thinking to leave the Dissection course for later. I walked away from the computer as the lecturer was saying as she opened a box: Oh yes, there's a brain in here. Minutes later, she had stopped watching and I thought: Finally something too gross for her? But when I questioned her, she said: She (the lecturer) talked too much.

And that got me thinking: When did the modality of learning through lecturing start? I'm thinking the Middle Ages and I'm envisioning it as an extension of the priest's sermon when he tells his congregation what they should believe. After all, we know the Socratic method of engaging the student in the learning process so this was probably not the modality from ancient Greece.

Just a thought, but I think I'll research it. Just as soon as I'm done with Shakespeare. Oh, and before I get to my website picks: Troilus and Cressida is a hard read. This may be Shakespeare's most anti-heroic play and divergent thoughts are flying wild.

My picks this week have a design theme. I like to see creative designs and Yay Everyday:

http://www.yayeveryday.com/

fits that bill. I can't find an About for this so click around for a wild design ride. There are all sorts of links to designer blogs, some in languages I can't understand but all worth a look.

From Up North:

http://www.fromupnorth.com

is : a design blog focusing on delivering high quality design inspiration to creatives all over the world.

Also very interesting stuff here. You won't be bored.

And finally, be bored with Press The Space Bar:

http://www.zimm-co.com/PressTheSpaceBar/pressthespacebar2000.html

That's all you do. But be sure to click on your score. Those pages are pretty clever.

Not much reading this week but good places for creative ideas. Enjoy.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Knitting Friday

I have a picture and a pattern (look at end of the pattern for some Saturday morning additions)! Oh, the guilt because my last few posts have been awful on Knitting Friday. Not that I haven’t been knitting - and frogging. It’s just that my computer uploader (now there’s a new job title) has been too busy to upload my knitting pictures.

But yesterday, I took pictures of my latest two tops. Let’s look at them first. These pictures evolved because I was in Michael's one Saturday and they had clearance on some Patons Classic Wool and I was wearing a multi-peach-colored silk blouse. It was still that cold then and that a plain blouse was not a wear-alone option. But, a wool vest over a silk blouse would do the trick. In the store, this color was a perfect match. Now, in real people lighting, I’m not so sure. But I did find that I have a Land’s End long sleeved tee which matches perfectly.

The original plan was to make the vest on the left as a long sleeved pullover. However, even with making a notation as to what row I had to begin on with the sleeves, I was getting a line of demarcation at the joining point, like I had changed needle size.

Now to back-track a bit: the original plan was to buy three skeins to be on the safe side and return one if necessary. Before I started my ill-fated sleeves, I had used a little less than 1 and ½ skeins. OK, I told myself after the sleeve problem, why not start Plan B and make two vests.

Here’s where I learned something: You will not get more mileage out of yarn with a one row *YO, K2tog* pattern in the round. What you will get is a very, nice looking rib with little stretch, not lace. I first started my second vest (pictured on the right) with this rib pattern but a few inches after starting the body, I was looking at a ball of yarn the same size as the picture. No way was I going to have enough to finish.

So I ripped back to the neck and started this lace pattern: Row 1: K Row 2: *YO, K2tog.* Worked like a charm; what was so unbelievable was the openness that just adding one K row brought.

The pattern I’m giving you is for the second (right side) vest. Once again, it’s only for my size but this is a very stretchy pattern. I cast on 60 sts and then doubled to 120 for the yoke so I think it would be easy to just increase the CO to 70, 80, 90.... sts as a fast way to go up sizes. Take a look at my bind off for the arms. I was trying to get the most inches possible from a bind off of only 20 stitches. I think I may have invented a new stretchy way since I haven’t come across this one yet.

At the end of the day, I guess I was trying to prove that you could take three skeins of Patons Classic Wool with its 693 yards and using US 8 (neck) and US 10.5 (body) needles get two wool vests in S or S/M size. Enjoy.

A good pattern for minimum of DK yarn (346 yds of Paton Classic Wool) Size: S to S/M
Neck Border: With US 8, CO 59 sts (you want 60 sts on last row but 59 is easier now for working seed) Join, work seed stitch for a neck border of at least 1".
Last row of border: *Kfb (front and back)* in each st across for 120 sts (1 inc has to be Kfbf to get 120)
With US 10.5: Start Lace pattern:
Row 1: K
Row 2: *YF (yarn forward), K2tog*
Work for at least 5" (includes neck border) in pattern.
Next row: (you will reduce the body stitches to 80)
1. Keep in Lace pattern on 40 sts.
2. BO 20 sts as:
K2, bring these 2 sts back to LN & K2tog *K1, bring it and previous K2tog back to LN and K2tog* work across all stitches - this makes a stretchy BO.
3. Keep in Pattern on 40 sts
4. BO as above on 20 sts.
Next row: (you will increase the body stitches to 100)
1. Keep in Lace pattern on 40 sts
2. CO 10 sts
3. Pattern on 40 sts
4. CO 10 sts
You will now work in your Lace pattern to the bottom hem.
Bottom hem: For a knitted hem, change to US 8 and work a seed st hem (1" or more). Don’t BO tightly.
Or: BO on a K row with even tension and crochet a few rows of sc/hdc/dc (your choice.).
Addition: It's Saturday morning and the top is finished. At the bottom hem, I repeated the bind off I did for the armholes and I went from 33" to 36" (a wise move.) Then I used an I hook (my favorite size for some reasons) and worked a row of single crochet, followed by the crab stitch. Looks good. Not tight and not baggy. I ended up with very little yarn left, which made me happy.

Why this works: This pattern is very stretchy so less becomes more. 100 sts on US 10.5 for the body gives a 33" bust w/o any stretch. If you have a lot of yarn, just work Row 2 of the pattern for a swirl rib effect which knits up much tighter.
Tip on finding mistakes: the pattern makes mini ladders looking like rungs between two ladder sides. When you work the lace row *YF, K2tog*, for the K2tog you should always pick up the “rung” st followed by the “side” st. If it’s in the reverse order, you know that you made a mistake no more than 2 rows back. (Probably forgetting to make a YF.)
YF really equals a YO but this way I found I wasn’t making a dreaded double YO. Your choice.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

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Website Wednesday

Osama bin Laden is assassinated, killed in "cold blood" since he was apparently unarmed, not captured and brought to stand trial in the famous American justice system we tout about, and I'm supposed to be happy? This brings closure (whatever that is)?

This is just more violence and will bring more violence and hatred . And, as I discovered at a meeting on Monday, this killing also bubbles up the just-below-the-surface hatred of Muslims.

So, I've decided two things:
1) America does not have a loony fringe anymore; we have a loony core. It's logic that's moved to the fringe. And
2) We need so much more education in the US, especially education in logical thinking.

I decided to start with my website pick:

http://www.khanacademy.org/

The Khan of Khan Academy is Salman Khan, born in New Orleans in 1977. Wikipedia also tells us that: (he) is an American educator and founder of the Khan Academy, a free online education platform and not-for-profit organization. He has produced over 2200 videos elucidating a wide spectrum of concepts, mainly focusing on mathematics and the sciences, in his home.

From other sources, I discovered that he made his money in venture capital and he got the idea to go global with his educational system after tutoring relatives using internet resources.

I don't know if it's Khan who's explaining "Jack is 5 years younger than Bill. In 5 years he will be 2x Bill's age......" but the presentation is done so you watch the invisible teacher talking and solving the problem in pen on a board.

These are not college level courses, and some are not even on the high school level. And that's what makes it so valuable.

With my experience teaching Adult Basic Reading and with my lack of long term memory with math, I understand how important starting very basic with the basics is in education.

My website pick is more personal this week because I'm looking at the Khan Academy as another chance (and perhaps this time a successful chance) in learning beyond basic math and science.

I hear some of you scoffing: Why do I need this? At my age?

I guess I'd answer that you're going to live a long time and learning is a life-time process. Your teachers were wrong if they told you that learning was about testing. It's about expanding your knowledge and stretching your abilities. It really doesn't end with a diploma. And, I know it's trite to say but: learning is fun.

So take a look at this site. See if you can find areas for your kids to use. (There are basic math videos and I mean basic in 2 x 2 = 4.) See if you can find refresher stuff for yourself. I'm looking to finally understand the time, distance, rate puzzler of : If a train leaves NY at 5 am and a plane leaves CA at 7 am.........

Maybe if we all spend more time at the Khan Academy we can bring logic back from the fringe in the US. Enjoy.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday - Remember Me

OK, I'll start off banal: I liked it. It's boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl - with originality. First, it has the usual modern touch: the boy (Robert Pattinson) is really fucked up. He's the son of an uber-powerful NY attorney, works in a bookstore, audits college courses, and lives in an apartment with a roommate, of which he says: We live like pigs. His demons include finding his hanged older brother and watching the negligence his divorced dad (Pierce Bronsan nails this thankless role, aptly stating: I know I'm a prick, but I have my uses.) visits on his young sister, Caroline. Tyler blames dad for a lot and, being fond of the Greek myths, he writes to his dead brother that he would like to metaphorically castrate dad.

The girl Ally (Emilie de Ravin) is traveling with her own demons after witnessing her mom's murder in the subway when she was eleven. As an adult, she takes cabs everywhere and eats dessert first.

This might all sound hackneyed and so, been there, done that, but director, screenwriter and actors jell this into a very fine film.

For example, the roommate Aidan (Tate Ellington.) Early on, Aidan and Tyler are picked up when the police (including Ally's father, Neil Craig) respond to a street fight. Although they are both released immediately, Tyler objects to Craig''s treatment of others rounded up, mouths off and winds up having his face smashed into a car. Both are then arrested. It's Aidan who gets the plot moving. He calls Tyler's dad to get them out and then, by chance, he sees Craig and Ally together and suggests a way for Tyler to get revenge. Tyler is reluctant, saying he doesn't want revenge but showing the driftlessness of his life at this stage, he's talked into approaching Ally for a very charming, first-meeting, hitting-on scene.

Aidan will continue to play a big role in the film and I'm honing in on him because this is a major side-kick role which if played or written poorly can sink the movie. Neither happens here. All the supporting actors, support well; down to the scene where Les, Tyler's step-dad, takes a step back and puts his hands in his pockets; a minor gesture which "talks."

The movie flows well. Watch the scene where Tyler walks across the room to Ally, just before they have sex for the first time. It's a long walk for an actor but Pattinson takes us across the room seamlessly. Then watch Pattinson trying to get Ally to stay after she learns about the "bet." The screenwriter keeps him clueless with responses which are sure to make her move out. There's no: But I love you moment here. And there shouldn't be.

There are other small subtle moments: when Janine, Hawkin, Sr.'s assistant, sees Tyler at the coffee shop or when both of them are looking at the photo gallery on his father's computer and Tyler realizes his prick of a dad has surrounded himself with family memories. The movie is filled with such vignette moments which work through their subtlety and good acting.

So much of this movie flows by without the usual Hollywood trumpet. You come into it where so many scenes have played out before you arrived. In a flash, you know who knows whom and who hates whom that it can chock itself full of a lot of story and themes in what seems like a very short time. You're in the middle of the story, waiting for this fairy tale to end. And then, a chance recognition on a train explodes everything. And you think: OK, the lovers split, what now?

Caroline's bullying by classmates provides the catalyst which reunites the lovers but with this reunion any discerning viewer has to be thinking: What's next for our lovers? Are they now both going to live off the rich prick, dad in that messy apartment? (With Aidan, I might add, since it's his apartment.)

Spoiler Alert: Stop reading if you don't want to know the ending.

I think it happens about the same time, the teacher in Caroline''s school walks past the chalk board and you see the date and the music changes into a softly pounding one-note beat. That's all.

But, of course, that's not all for Tyler has biked to Wall Street to meet with his dad and his dad is delayed because he's driving Caroline to school. You see the smile on Tyler's face as he gets that call; you see him happy as he takes the elevator up to his dad's office. And finally, you see him dwarfed in the window of a World Trade Center Tower as he looks out at that gorgeous late summer morning. For, of course, the date on the chalkboard was 9/11/2001.

I've watched this movie four times now and I, cynic that I am, have teared up every time at this ending as I watch Tyler become one of the victims in NYC on 9/11. For the first time, the human emotional toll of those deaths hit me. So often 9/11 has been draped in symbolism but real people's lives ended that day; dreams died, promises stopped, glass and lives shattered.

And I remembered from Cymbeline:

Golden lads and girls all must,

As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Hug those you love and eat dessert first, if you want.