Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

Another short post because I am heading back to the DDS soon. I feel bad I missed Movie Monday because I had a review of Breaking Dawn Part 1 which was a surprise, even to me.

But Monday a.m. also saw a trip to the DDS (I have got to rent a room there.) in pain and loopiness since I had not been able to sleep in three nights. As my husband quipped, I walked into the dentist's office writing my will.

Today, I have to tell my DDS ever so diplomatically, so as not to give him a swelled head, that his drilling on Monday was a miracle. I can eat; I can sleep and I have very little pain.

My motto has always been: Stay out of the courts; stay out of the hospitals. However, like Thetis failing to uncover Achille's ankle as she dipped him into the river of immortality (Get it? Achilles' heel = your one weak spot) I forgot to mention: Stay out of the dentist's office.

My pick is rather mundane this Wednesday, compared to last week:

http://tech.lifegoesstrong.com/

Unfortunately, every click on "About" gets me an error page but it looks like an interesting on-line magazine with a lot of techie stuff but also your life, health, style, home, etc. sections. I have a feeling it could be aimed at the over 40?, 50? crowd but I can't do any research on-site and I'm too lazy at the moment for googling. But it's definitely worth a look. It seems like a site I would enjoy with my morning coffee when I was trying not to explode the top of my head off by reading the news.

Enjoy.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Knitting Friday

A short post today because I may be back at the DDS or just nursing my poor teeth until I get there on Monday.

I'm starting a KAL (Knit Along) or rather more a LAL (Look Along) for a while.

At right, is a sleeveless pullover I made for my mom when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I remember nothing about it except it's yellow wool and obviously I followed a pattern because it has an overlay of crisscrosses which are knitted as you go along.

Mom gave the sweater back to me a while ago and what you see in the picture is a right side sleeve opening where the original ribbing (which matched the hem, I'm sure) had been pulled out and replaced with a crocheted crab stitch. (The left armhole is different because I pulled out the crab stitch before I realized I was going to do this KAL and needed to take photos.) The neckband probably originally matched the hem but that also was replaced with the crab stitch.

So looking at this picture, it looks like that at some time after the sweater "walked" back to me I decided to salvage it. Obviously, I didn't replace the ugly hem because that would have taken some major work, perhaps cutting.

Well about a week ago, I decided to frog the whole thing and see if I could recycle it into a top I might wear. (No way was I wearing the beauty pictured above.)

What you see in the left picture is the sweater unraveled and separated into skeins. You can see that it's very crinkly; not good for much except the ever helpful trinity stitch.

I put the skeins in cold water and Tresemme hair conditioner. I use Tresemme for soaking all my shawls before blocking. (I happen to have a lot of it.) This time, I soaked the wool for about an hour; supposedly longer is better.

This final picture shows the wool after it dried and you can see that it unkinked somewhat.

That's it for today. Next week, I hope to start the new sweater and I'll post the pattern as I work it.

Back to teeth sitting. Happy knitting.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday

I had nothing, nada, zilch for today until I saw Melvin Van Peebles, Classified X in the very early hours of yesterday morning.

Wow! What a coalescence of racism, unbridled capitalism, and general hypocrisy as it exists in the US and is portrayed through Hollywood. It's a 53 minutes long film made in 1998 and it's just Pebbles and clips from other movies and documentary footage. He laughs at the indictment of The Birth of a Nation (1915) as a low point in America with its portrayal of blatant racism and shows all the other Hollywood films after BoaN depicting blacks as dumb-asses or villains. Among other clips, Van Peebles shows the scene in the toted first talking movie from Hollywood, The Jazz Singer, 1929, where Al Jolson is getting ready to perform in vaudeville by smearing on the black face makeup and facing the camera with the stereotypical big, white lipped smile. But then Hollywood is like that; the whole country is like that; you put up one straw dog to beat up on while you continue your business off camera.

For any person, either too young, too ignorant or too new to the US who thinks: Why are minorities always grousing, that's past history? take a look at Classified X. From the footage of the smiling faces looking up at lynched blacks or the screaming white girl reacting to a black entering a previously segregated school, you'll see the hatred that is, unfortunately, still palpable today. (Anyone remember the yahoo carrying the Obama labeled monkey toy to a McCain rally?)

As a special bonus, you'll always get the lowdown on how Hollywood works. I've written about how Hollywood controlled the message during the 1930s Depression. Peebles talks about how Hollywood still controls the message. Perhaps not as completely now since the rise of the indies (and a mean excellent indies, not cheap bodice rippers or mysteries) but he points out that they still control access since they control distribution. (Trivia quiz: How many excellent indies can you name that died on the vine because no one could see them since they were never in theaters near you?)

So in Black History month watch this movie. You'll also get a lesson is US history. It ain't pretty.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Knitting Friday

I'm really into hats. Right now, I'm finishing a black winter hat, because, we all know, that black goes with everything.

Here are pictures of recent hats, and a peek of my ugly toes. They are all top down, starting with a crocheted circle. All except the green one on the right increase to 64 stitches. That green one is only 48 stitches, which in a K2, P2 rib works fine. The black one I'm finishing now has 72 stitches because it's a twisted K2 so the ribbing is tighter.

All the brims are in seed or moss (K1, P1 or K2, P2) on needles two sizes smaller than what's used on the rib section (US 8 to US 6.) Most of the tops have that spiral "pom-pom"; some worked on 20 chains, some on 10.

My b-day present came yesterday; 14 pairs of DPNs with 5 needles in each size. While the bamboo is not the quality of the Clover bamboo (it's a step up from chop sticks), I've used the size 6 to work the seed stitch on my black hat. It worked very well until I decided to try the hat on (the beautiful of top down knitting) and I had to switch to circs.

OK, let me post the pattern for these hats again. As I said last week, you can use any pattern for the body of the hat so it's a good pattern for thinking out of the box.

A Simple Hat (edited from last week with more explanations)
Materials: US 6 and US 8 needles circular needles, US 8 wood DPNs (5), I crochet hook, DK weight yarn
Crochet Set-Up:
With the I crochet hook, make a loop, chain 1 and work 4 single crochets (sc) into the loop. Join with a slip stitch, ch 1 and then work 2 sc in each of the 4 sc for a total of 8. Join with a slip stitch.
(You can now start working with DPNs or you can repeat the above and work 2 sc in each of the 8 sc for a total of 16 sc.)
So either with 8 or 16 sc, pick up 1 stitch for each sc around with your DPNs and divide evenly on 4 needles. Start Knitting Set-Up:
Row 1: K or P* around (16 sts)
Row 2: K front and back of every stitch (32 sts.)
Row 3: K or P around (32 sts.)
Row 4: K front and back of every stitch (64 sts)
Row 5: K or P around (64 sts)
*Purling these rows create a garter rather than a stockinette look. Your choice.
You can see the pattern - 1 row straight K or P; 1 row increases in every stitch
(I stop at 64 sts but you can keep increasing. You don't have to increase in every stitch [the next such increase in every stitch will give you 128 sts] but you can decide how many stitches you need for the width, divide them by 4 and increase evenly on each DPN.)
Start Pattern: (Note 1: Your last row should have been K or P evenly around, no increases. Note 2: You make want to switch to circular needles now and use the traveling loop - just google the "How To". I am going to give you the pattern I like to use but the sky's the limit with creativity here.)
Row 1: *K into back loop of 2nd stitch on left circular tip, K into the front loop of the 1st stitch on that tip, P2*
Row 2: *K2, P2*
Repeat these two rows till the brim.
Brim: Change to US 6 needles and work the seed stitch or moss stitch for your desired width. BO loosely but not very loosely.
Tassel:
1. With I or larger hook and leaving a long tail, chain 20. (Note: Not enough yarn left? Chain 10.)
2. Starting in the 2nd ch from hook work 3 sc in each chain to the bottom.
3. At the bottom, ch 2o and repeat the process above. (The chains will curl into spirals.)
4. Make about 3 spirals and then slip stitch them together at the base, cut yarn leaving a long tail.
5. Using the tails, work the spirals through the top of the hat and fasten securely.

Next week: I just had another knitting epiphany, the first being seeing a pattern for a top down pullover which was not done in raglan (you just K front and back in every stitch once you finish the neckband to double the stitch count.) My present epiphany was seeing a pullover knitted in lace weight. I was naive enough to think lace was only for accessories, like shawls. That may be my next project. More next Friday.

Happy knitting.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

The present government of Israel so wants to "take out" Iran. A wish that Americans could shrug off if they wanted to be blind to world events except for the fact that the Israel/AIPAC lobby has such clout in US politics. Nothing new here; this has been going on for years and has gotten worse to the point of the bizarrely surreal in the last 20 years.

But I'm not bringing this information up to discuss the Middle East but rather because, at this moment, wacky Republican presidential candidates are performing more and more cartwheels to persuade the wacky fundamentalist right of their party that he is "their man."

And that's what has gotten me spooked - again. For this wacky fundamentalist, vocal, millions+, right wing group in the US would be perfectly fine with the "war to end all wars" especially if it begins in the Middle East because that's where their "holy book" tells them the battle at the end of the world will be fought.

Think about it. There are influential people in this country who would welcome war/ Armageddon since they believe it will bring them swiftly into the heaven where the god they invented exists. (Of course, in their anthropomorphically inhabited paradise they see themselves among the saved and all their enemies among the damned.)

This is serious stuff, folks. Sort of like we're living the Marat/Sade movie (1967, Peter Brooks directed and worth renting) where the liberals are the insouciant audience of this play, the fundamentalists are the inmates and the outcome is.......... Well, you watch it. It ain't pretty.

I sometimes feel like a farmer in the late Roman empire, working in my fields, looking up and spying hordes of Goths/Visigoths/Vandals/Mongols (take your pick) riding towards me and knowing I'm facing my doom with no way out.

Which brings to me to my controversial website pick:

http://www.thinkatheist.com/

Not that I think I'm saving the world by posting this but it's like being a bystander watching a bully in action; sometimes you just have to take a stand.

Think Atheist has an insightful purple, talking unicorn as its video today. He makes some good points.

I love what they list as their purpose: Think Atheist was created to help people "come out" about being atheist. Our vision is to encourage everyone who is atheist to get involved with changing stereotypes and misconceptions regarding his or her decision to abstain from religion or a belief in deities of any kind. Bigotry against atheism is still very rampant in our communities, our schools, and even amongst family members. Think Atheist aims to give our members the proper tools to fight anti-atheist hate and discrimination.

Especially that last line: Think Atheist aims to give our members the proper tools to fight anti-atheist hate and discrimination.

I do believe it may be easier to come out as a gay than atheist in the US because bigots can "excuse" gays by saying they were born that way; but atheists? Atheists "thought" themselves into non-belief and that is inexcusable.

Take a look at Think Atheist's forums, a lot of interesting questions are poised. Scroll through their Featured Photos (912 of them) They're not all photos so be sure to hit "pause" to read some of them. They may make you smile, they may make you angry but I hope they make you think.

And don't miss the 977 Featured Videos including ones from Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Colbert, the delightful purple unicorn, Richard Dawkins, and Newt Gingrich!

OK, enough of my palaver, go take a look. It's well worth it.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday

Woody Allan said that producers today only want to spend $100 million in order to get a $500 million return. Therefore, they have no interest in "little" movies in the US.

There has always been something wacky about the US and when movies became the popular form of entertainment outside of the home, they reflected this wackiness. Take for example the review I did a long time ago of the US movies during the economic depression of the 1930s. They really weren't an indictment of the rich (Oh, they did throw a few very bad rich to the lions; usually in the form of Edward Arnold.) but rather they were the gatekeepers for the rich; that is, their protectors. In My Man Godfrey, we're given the frivolous rich but no one except the mean sister Cordelia even comes close to getting her comeuppances. Why, even the butler turns out to be rich. The same with Holiday, The Philadelphia Story....... it's a long list.

So I guess I can't be surprised that over 80 years later, Hollywood is still taking giant steps away from everyday reality. Hollywood has never been good at nailing the reality which happens after their swelling denouement music.

This was all brought home this weekend when I watched Priest, so bad as a movie that it's almost mesmerizing in its stupidity. I have to assume Priest is based on a comic (forget the graphic novel crap.) A popular comic I hope because I shudder to think that some screenwriter pitched this story as his original idea.

Priest has everything and nothing. The everything is: unrequited love by a priestess for a priest (priests and priestesses are superheros who fight vampires); a niece who is really a daughter; doomed love between a priest and a "mere mortal"; super weapons; funky motorcycles; really, dripping-looking vampires, the frantic search by the priest for his daughter/niece to save her from vampire-hood and, of course, the music.

It was the music which got my attention fast because really nothing happens in Priest without this stirring music. Whether it's blowing up a train or riding a motorcycle, the music informs us that this is important. For crying out loud, the priest prepares for his journey and then goes to get on his means of transport and............ it's a big motorcycle! Cue the music.

What surprised me about this movie was the religious theme. It sure looked like a Roman Catholic or high Anglican church which controlled this futuristic city and its inhabitants. The church in Priest is controlling a 1984 world, complete with slogans for submission.

But the mantra repeated often by our priest and priestess heroes is that you don't need a church to communicate with god. Was this movie aiming at a fundamentalist religious message? Why did they take a simplistic man vs. vamps, good guys vs. bad guys, hunt for the virginal maiden (well, virginal in that she wasn't a vampire - yet) themes and tack on a religious message?

If you strip away the religion, you're left with the typical story of the authorities who don't believe there is a danger of vampires ("Vampires were wiped out ages ago."), the lone warrior priest who knows they're wrong and starts his vampire quest, and finally the presentation of vampire evidence to the authorities. Of course, Priest, probably eying a sequel, has the movie end with the hero priest's story being rejected by the authorities in the church So, with fellow priests, he continues the search for the queen vampire.

I just described a cheesy SFT3000 movie plot. Did they think a religious theme was going to uplift it? Or, was there really a religious message in Priest?

It's a lousy movie but a good knitting one. You can look up occasionally and see all you need to follow along. Paul Bettany and Karl Urban are brave and ruthless from their different moral perches. Maggie Q has a perfect beauty but has only one scene of honest emotion. Cam Gigandet, the ugly vampire, James, in Twilight, cleans up very nicely and looks handsome as the lover of the kidnapped girl.

On the IMDb discussion board, there is a topic on the religious tone of this movie. Priest had a budget of $60M and grossed $78M worldwide with $49M coming from abroad; not the 1:5 ratio Allan was talking about.

Final note: Rent The Searchers with John Wayne after you see Priest. I'll say no more.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Birthday Saturday and Guilt about no Knitting Friday
(See 2/17/12 Knitting Friday for the Simple Hat pattern with more explanations.)

OK, it's my birthday. Are the only two songs about birthdays, Happy Birthday and It's My Birthday And I'll Cry If I Want To? Oh, there's Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday which Marilyn Monroe crooned to JFK and into history.

Whatever, I was all ready for Knitting Friday with pictures but then yet another gum infection leveled me for most of the day. Today, I'm ready to roll but the pictures are on another, occupied at the moment, computer but I'm going to give you a B-day present: a simple hat pattern. (Pictures will follow next week.)

A Simple Hat
Materials: US 6 and US 8 needles circular needles, US 8 wood DPNs (5), I crochet hook, DK weight yarn
Crochet Set-Up:
With the I crochet hook, make a loop, chain 1 and work 4 single crochets (sc) into the loop. Join with a slip stitch, ch 1 and then work 2 sc in each of the 4 sc for a total of 8. Join with a slip stitch.
(You can now start working with DPNs or you can repeat the above and work 2 sc in each of the 8 sc for a total of 16 sc.)
So either with 8 or 16 sc, pick up 1 stitch for each sc around with your DPNs and divide evenly on 4 needles. Start Knitting Set-Up:
Row 1: K around (16 sts)
Row 2: K front and back of every stitch (32 sts.)
Row 3: K around (32 sts.)
Row 4: K front and back of every stitch (64 sts)
Row 5: K around (64 sts)
You can see the pattern - 1 row straight K; 1 row increases in every stitch
(I stop at 64 sts but you can keep increasing. You don't have to increase in every stitch [the next such increase will give you 128 sts] but you can decide how many stitches you need for the width, divide them by 4 and increase evenly on each DPN.)
Start Pattern: (Note: Your last row should have been K evenly around, no increases.)
(You make want to switch to circular needles now and use the traveling loop - just google the "How To". I am going to give you the pattern I use but the sky's the limit with creativity here.)
Row 1: *K into back loop of 2nd stitch on left circular tip, K into the front loop of the 1st stitch on that tip, P2*
Row 2: *K2, P2*
Repeat these two rows till the brim.
Brim: Change to US 6 needles and work the seed stitch or moss stitch for your desired width. BO loosely but not very loosely.
Tassel:
1. With I or larger hook and leaving a long tail, chain 20.
2. Starting in the 2nd ch from hook work 3 sc in each chain to the bottom.
3. At the bottom, ch 2o and repeat the process above. (The chains will curl into spirals.)
4. Make about 3 and then slip stitch them together at the base, cut yarn leaving a long tail.
5. Using the tails, work the spirals through the top of the hat and fasten securely.

That's it. You're done. Enjoy.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

Apparently, Rick Santorum won the latest three Republican primaries/caucuses/whatever. I can't believe the money masters of the Republican party will allow him to be the candidate however. (But, you say, look at Reagan, he was a conservative. No, Reagan ran on the platform which won. He was never a true believer. Note: Reagan was also a lousy president.) The real Republican party (I love me that capitalism with all the tax breaks I can get.) knows it can't win with Santorum; not on the national level. It would be interesting to see Obama vs. Santorum bout though. Santorum would spout his absolutely insane beliefs on everything: government, women, sex, probably even little puppies and Obama would move more and more to the right as seems to be his doctrine of governance: meet the enemy and arrange a golf game.

But enough grousing, go to http://www.peachygreen.com/ and read about the good people are doing to save the planet: We’re here to tell you that amazing things are happening right where you live and all over the world, which make the earth a kinder, cleaner place. It’s time to put aside the doom and gloom and think positively about the people places and things that are making the world Peachy Green.

I know I don't believe the world is doing enough to save the planet and I haven't dug deeply enough to find the sponsors of this site; but there are good ideas here for going green and that can't be bad. That is, as long as you don't come away from the site believing just buying recycled goods, etc. will turn around climate change. But it is a start.

Then there is: http://www.twofoods.com/ where you compare two foods and get the calories and nutritional value of each. Yes, I plugged in apples and oranges and they are both very good for you. Then I plugged in dinner roll and doughnut. and all the types of rolls they showed were at least 100 calories less than the doughnut and had more than 3xs less fat. A bagel is a much better choice. However, a cinnamon raisin popped up with 273 calories while a multi grain bagel appeared with 2379 calories. I think some data entry person skipped a decimal.

These are fun sites. Be sure to click "Wildlife" in Peachy Green; adorable animals abound.

See you next week.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday - Red Riding Hood and more

I've been thinking a lot of thoughts lately and that's probably why I was AWOL all last week. That and the fact that movies in my Verizon movie package have been pretty horrible lately. So I started the week staring at nothing for Movie Monday and the rest of the week just tagged along.

Of course, last week in the US, saw the drama of Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity vs. the very, very evil Planned Parenthood (whose evilness apparently SGK just discovered) play out.

I've never gotten on the SGK bandwagon because experience has taught me to be leery of mega-"charities" with mega commercial tie-ins. In the end, I don't believe the "left" took Komen down (although we surely could use some victories) but rather big business capitalism did them in. Capitalism will give loonies just enough rope to play with and make pretty knots but no way will they hand them the rope so they all can swing in the wind together.

SGK is a billion dollar money machine and it's perfectly all right for their new leaders to twist to the far right as long they do nothing to disrupt this cash flow. That was Handel's (SGK new anti-abortion VP) big mistake. That and the fact that apparently 23 cents of each dollar donated to SGK goes to research; the rest to salaries, overhead and generating more dollars. Sounds like a scenario ripe for demands for one of Congress' time wasting public investigations. I'm sure the charity backers didn't want that.

Unfortunately, the SGK brouhaha brought back into focus the billion dollar generating health care industry which is allowed to exist in this country. This industry is backed firmly by SGK's pink ribbon charity which went ape-shit crazy when the recommendations for starting mammograms was pushed up from 40 to 50 years old a few years ago. Of course, medical science blinked and women were allowed to return to the radiation giving, breast torturing mammograms starting at age 40 again. For, after all, to paraphrase Calvin Coolidge: what's good for business is good for the country.

I did get to see Red Riding Hood last week. This movie was royally trounced by the critics (5.1% out of 10 in IMDb and 11% in Rotten Tomatoes.) It was directed by Catherine Hardwicke who directed the first Twilight and the only Twilight I can ever watch. As I've said before about Twilight-1, I think Hardwicke did a more than serviceable job introducing this modern day Gothic tale and moving it and the audience along to a romantically plausible (I did say "romantically" plausible) conclusion. It's just a pity they didn't end the series then.

Regarding Red Riding Hood: As some people on IMDb have said, I was surprised at the almost universal rejection of this movie. Hardwicke is a good storyteller of implausible plots and I think she and the cast more than just "come through" in this mythical/metaphorical tale of the young girl living in a medieval god-fearing village which is plagued by the unknown, this time in the shape of a werewolf.

I liked the atmosphere and tone of this movie and I didn't feel as though I was in a Hollywood set medieval village. The myth/metaphor of the virginal young girl facing the dangers of her community and the "dark" outside with all its unique dangers is one of those "down through the ages" tales. I think Hardwicke and her cast do admirable work with their take on this myth. Watch it and see if you agree.