Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich

Movie Monday - Why We Fight review

(Small but major edit: It's WMD not WWD. I think I got the Worldwide Wrestling Federation (WWF) mixed up with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). And, it's Adelman, not Adelmen Sorry)
 

I'm going to start with the much publicized breakup of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson of Twilight saga fame.. Anyone not living under a rock probably has some idea that the heart throbs of millions of teen girls, who have been a real couple or a publicity couple for the past three years (Hint: No intimate photos of Robsten [as they are affectionately called] have ever surfaced but the "affair" photos of Stewart and her director, Sanders, hit the streets almost as they were happening.)

In order to be completely honest, I have been following the comments to this story all weekend. And, while it sounds like the excuse men gave for reading Playboy when it was first published ("For the great articles."), I've been following these comments because I think they will segue into my review of Why We Fight.

To digression for a sec, I'm going to plow in with my theory for Stewart's abject public apology for the affair. Breaking Dawn, Part II, is coming out in November (the horror!) and stars contractually have to promote these films since their presence insures big box office. Perhaps, KS's rep read her contract and said: Hey, KS, you're a mufti-million dollar star now and look here, if you commit acts of moral turpitude which harm the box office you can be sued. How about a big, over-the-top public mea culpa because I do like my 15 percent?

As one observant commenter said: But she is a performer whose career is affected by how moviegoers feel about her. She makes an apology because she or her advisors believe that it will improve the perception of potential ticket buyers.... Bingo!

Which segues me into the transference meme. Freud defined transference as projection. Loosely put, it's when the individual identifies so strongly with something outside himself that he "feels" what it feels; his identity is tied up in its identity and often, reason be damned.

The Twilight books and movies placed so many young girls in Bella's "shoes" and thus in Edward's arms. Perhaps they were in no relationship or a doomed relationship; no matter, when Edward declared undying love for Bella, he was declaring it to them.

Two comments I read this weekend sum this up: at the risk of seeming a bit weird, maybe its because I saw the twilight movies, but I thought they had some kind of special bond. the notion of their characters were in love and so were they in real life. that they actually had some kind of otherworldly bond that transcended the movies and:

Plus, now a lot of Edward/Bella fantasies are probably shattered.

The transference/projection I'm describing above probably occurs to all of us at some time. Intelligent and lucky humans move on into a logical, reality-based adulthood but that transition, in the modern world, is always a struggle. I don't mean in the area of love and fantasy but in the area of pushing back against a more dangerous meme: I am your government. Let me tell you the enemies you must hate.

Propaganda is a good way to start but transference is so much more permanent and unless the government slips up like KS, the results may last for lifetimes.

Which segues me into Why We Fight. WWF is not the pro-war propaganda directed by Frank Capra during WWII but a broad historical sweep looking at how the US has been convincing its population for decades that there is an enemy out there against which we must always be most vigilant. Whether it was the red scare of the 1920s (Yes, it started back then.), the atom bombs dropped to show Stalin we were really tough, the lying about the Gulf of Tonkin or the most recent (I think) lie about WMDs in Iraq, like movie stars, the government has played vast swatches of the US public like the proverbial violin.

Why We Fight (2005) should be viewed on two levels. First, it is a superb documentary using Eisenhower's warning at the end of his term (1960) regarding the danger of the military-industrial complex as a linchpin to explore how prescient but unheeded this warning was. To me, there was no question as to this movie's theme but it is not a screed and you hear from all major villains, Adelman, Bush, Perle, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Kristol, etc. in their own words. You get to see the millions of people worldwide who protested the Iraq invasion and, more importantly, you understand how such a vast world-wide protest was marginalized. (Hint: Vietnam was the last conflict where journalists were allowed to roam free. Government learned the lesson of media control from this conflict.)

But it is on the second level where the movie teaches a more important lesson. In order to invade Iraq, lies were spread and lies were believed. After 9/11, the US went bat-shit crazy. Flags were flown to "show" Bin Laden, french fries become freedom fries because the French were not bully-war enough and the Patriot Act was passed by a craven majority in Congress. The lies produced at the top of government were spun down to the US population and believed. The enemies of a powerful military industrial complex which runs our government became the enemies of average Americans so they were willing, once again, to send their sons and daughters to die on foreign soil.

In a cosmic way, the hatred of the enemies of the rich (who would not pay any price for their supposed hate) transferred to the average American who just didn't get that (just like with the fictional Edward and Bella story) they didn't have a dog in this fight.

Why We Fight brings this fact home poignantly by following a retired NYC cop who loses a son on 9/11. Seeking revenge but also wanting the boy's life to have meaning, he petitions the government to get his son's name printed on a bomb to be dropped on Iraq because he was told and believes that Iraq has WMDs. After a lot of traveling up the chain of command, his petition is granted and we get to see the bomb carrying his son's name.

But here is where the story gets its sad twist back to reality: As the Iraq invasion goes poorly and allies start to hang the US out to dry, George Bush finally admits that Saddam Hussein didn't have WMDs and we are left with the father who dutifully believed his government, disillusioned and angered.

Pundits write polemics about important issues on a national or global scale. Average people don't live in this world. They buy into a love fantasy as their own and they buy into a hate meme propagated by interests which really don't give a shit about them.

I'm not saying that Why We Fight will change the world. After all,  millions of protesters stopped nothing. But, as our founders said, a citizenry must be informed. You owe it to future generations to see Why We Fight. It is a superb movie. And yes, you will come away disappointed but hopefully enlightened.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Knitting Saturday, with pics

 

Rather than agonize over formatting, I'm going to add a second day of knitting and not bother to edit Knitting Friday. On the right, is a variegated cotton, purple, blue, green and white, knitted on the old Boye Needlemaster. I had originally knitted this top with a body of 120 stitches which was way too large. This one has 100 stitches in the body and a crab stitch (backward single crochet) across the bottom as a hem.

Done on old Boye Needlemaster

The picture on the left is a different pattern for me. a row of knit, a row of YO, K2tog across. Then comes the oh, so, slow row of: *P1, (P1, K1) in same st, pass 1st P st over the second two*. Then a last row of P1, K1 across. But it's that third row which is so long and laborious.

Four slow rows of pattern

I'm using Harmony US 10 and probably a metal tip would have been faster. I see using at least the skein pictured and part of a third skein. This is making a very heavy top so even though it's cotton, the weight of the yarn should have been no more than sport weight. As it is, the DK cotton I'm using is going to weigh like chain mail. This body only have 104 stitches but the pattern is pretty open and I think it will work.

Done on new Boye Needlemaster

 

As I said on Friday, with all my new WIPs I went to a US 10 in the new Boye Needlemaster I just got from Amazon for $30 and change. It's a simple pattern of knit one row, YO, K2tog across for one row. The yarn is a nubby cotton blend which lived as an never-used afghan for quite a while before it went to frog heaven. I'm very happy with my progress and I don't find the Boye needles in the least cumbersome to use. I have about 2.5 inches to go before I can bind off for the armholes and then I'm hoping I will start flying along.

Crochet cotton shawl unblocked

Finally, a shawl. Although the shawl on the left is captioned unblocked, it's laying on my dining room table being blocked as I type. The point at the top is not the bottom of a triangle, it's the top! But though it's difficult to believe, this shawl will block into a slightly wonky crescent. Trust me, I've made a bunch of these shawls. They are my anecdotal evidence of climate change. Why? Two reasons. One: I like a "little something" over the camisoles and two: because I'm having to wear camisoles all summer because even regular tees are too warm. So the more days I reach for a cami and shawl, the more days I know the end is near. Who needs scientific evidence when you can produce knitting evidence?

 

So these are the pictures I promised. Hopefully, next Friday, some of these WIPs will be finished. See you then.

 

 

 

 

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Knitting Friday

Short thoughts today because I have no pictures. I'll be back tomorrow with them:

Not only have I added more WIPs to my needles (remember I was down to only two recently?) but I have added two 1/2 hour stints on the treadmill to my schedule. Yes, folks, I'm on another diet. The good news is the iPad props up beautifully on the display section of the treadmill and finally 30 minutes of exercise have taken an interesting turn. The bad news is: How soon is my body going to catch on I'm depriving it of food and play that nasty trick of keeping the scale from moving down for months while making calorie laden foods seem more and more attractive to my brain? 

I can report that I finished the top knitted on the old Boye interchangeable US 10 and it came out as nicely and as easily as anything I've done on Chia Goo or Knit Pick circs. In fact, faced with all these new WIPs, I just picked up a US 10 from my new Boye Needlemaster and have started another top. That's working well also.

The way I look at it, I wrote my review last week to see if Boye Needlemaster works well enough to make my inexpensive purchase worthwhile. It did. But I also learned that knitting needle snobbery is alive and well. I don't know why I would be surprised but I sort of was.

Back with pictures tomorrow.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Website Wednesday

 

Short and sweet (I hope) today, because my day is going to get wonky in a few hours.

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/07/national-geographic-traveler-photo-contest-2012/100339/

 

Global warming, climate change, what ever you want to call it, is here. The only thing left debatable is if other countries in the world (because obviously the US is content to allow its energy guzzling economy to drive it over the cliff) can do enough, and do it fast enough, to give us a few more lifetimes of enjoyable living as a species.

 

The movie, Soylent Green, (still available at times on TCM) is relentless in its presentation of an ugly, gray, futuristic world of little food, overpopulation and welcomed state-assisted suicides. Edward G. Robinson takes this way out and Charlton Heston is with him at the end. What makes this scene relevant is that suicides are allowed the choice of a final movie and we watch as Robinson and Heston view magnificent scenes from nature. Heston says: I never knew it was like that.

 

Unfortunately, this could be the line our children/grandchildren may have to learn. 

So my pick for this Wednesday is the finalists in the 2012 National Geographics Annual Traveler Photo Contest. (You can see the link is to The Atlantic and not NG. That's because NG has a habit of closing down their sites so the link goes dead fast. I'm hoping The Atlantic doesn't do this.)

It's a good chance to see some amazing scenes from around the world. Scenes which may cease to exist in the not-too-distant future. Enjoy.

 

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

 Movie Monday

 

This may be the first Monday when I have no "new" movie to review. In fact, scrolling through my many, many Verizon movie choices I shudder more and more frequently at the dross  they offer.

 

I've mentioned this before, but do try:

 

http://archive.org/details/feature_films 

 

These are archival, public domain feature films from around the world. A lot of them are bad mysteries from the late 1930s and 1940s but even they are interesting just to see how people lived, what their interior and exterior world looked like before CGIs arrived to warp reality.

 

Right now, Intolerance by D. W. Griffith from 1916 is up. As a commenter said:  wow i downloaded this and sat and watched it and was gobsmaked,this film is as valid today as it was nearly 100 yrs ago or 3,000yrs ago. If you're not a movie buff, you may not know that Griffith could honestly (with no hype)  be titled the "father of the feature film." Sometimes branded as a racist today, he operated in the world as it was then and he never was striving for the appellation as "the father of civil rights." But if you are going to learn the history of anything you must study it as it is, not as you wish it to be.

 

These archives also have some pretty good movies: Shadow of a Doubt and And Then There Were None; and some mediocre mysteries I love, Charlie Chan. (And please don't go into the racism in them; it's endemic.)

 

 A lot of the movies come with ratings and comments so you get to know if the technical features of the film are poor (lighting, sound, etc.) You also get to know if that movie is a turkey (Manos: The Hand of Fate) but even turkeys can be enjoyable time wasters.  I like this site because I shrink its screen, watch the movie, cruise another site and knit. 

 

Before I slip away, I feel that I should mention Aurora, CO and the massacre at its move theater. People like Bill Moyers have spoken more eloquently than I could ever on our gun controlled society:

http://billmoyers.com/segment/bill-moyers-essay-living-under-the-gun/

 

I hope all the families involved are able to someday move back into the world with the horrendous psychic scars they'll carry forever. We, in the technologically advanced West, often forget: Shit happens. It's random, sudden and deadly. Whether by man or nature, ever so often, the world is thrown out of its natural orbit and we rediscover our fragility as a species and the tenuous hold we have on happiness.

Knitting Friday - Review of Boye Needlemaster

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Knitting Friday - Review of Boye Needlemaster

Something a little different this week; a review on Friday. I wanted to review the Boye Needlemaster interchangeable circular needle kit for a few weeks. As you know, I got re-introduced to Boye when I used a very old kit (generous gift from a deceased knitter's family) last week. I had too many WIPs on US 10 needles so I grabbed the Boye 10 and after using a wacky extra connector between the cable and the tip (this has been eliminated in the newer kits), I started a summer top and although I do have a better/more expensive US 10 available now, I'm still happily knitting on the Boye (pictures, next week.)

But what really got me interested in posting a full review of Boye is the discussions of interchangeable needle sets on Ravelry. Almost to a reply, every such forum thread has a few die-hard Boye users but mostly there are comments like "when I couldn't afford better........", "a starter kit", "save your money and get better." Which got me thinking: The US economy is very lousy for a lot of people who have to save their money for some other very basic needs (health care, food, rent.) Why don't I review Boye as an equal alternative to more expensive needles (over $200) and not as a poor sister? 

 

But the push I needed was the fact that Amazon is selling the Boye kit for $30.44 with free shipping. So, here goes.

Boye Needlemaster

The picture at the left is a present day Boye kit. The case is passable plastic. The needles are arranged by size with the size printed above each needle. At the bottom of the case, you see the cables. The weave through plastic holders on the right, left and bottom. I would remove these cables from the bottom holders and just weave them through the side ones since the stress to the plastic as you remove them is definitely going to break that bottom holder. On the top of the case, you can see accessories in plastic cases under the needle tips. This is all a good storage idea but you have to remove about 2 or 3 sets of tips to get to them. My suggestions: Remove the accessories and place them in a small ziplock bag in the case. Overall opinion of the case: some good storage and labeling; bigger would be better since the tightness of the compartments will lead to breakage.

 

Case in bigger case

 The picture on the left shows the Boye case in a bigger zippered case I found laying around.  (Moral: Never throw anything out.) This bigger case has one big pocket and that's where I'm storing tips which are connected to cables. The Boye case measures 8" x 7" and the bigger case is 8.5" x 10".

Traveling Loop

On to the needle tips and the cables. A big complaint about cables is that they are not flexible. Guilty as charged. They are really stiff but the traveling loop piece on the right was done with a Boye #8 and the longest cable which made tip to tip equal 35+". My biggest problem with knitting this circle was not the stiff cable (you can see that in the picture) but remembering how to work a traveling loop. So, though I don't knit socks, I imagine this would work for them.

At first the metal of the tips feels sticky but use makes them slicker than bamboo but not the "slipping off the needle" slick of many metals.

So far, all the tip to cable connections have tightened without a hitch and seem smooth. However, one cable has a plastic burr by the connection. That really felt snagging troublesome but I remembered that a Raveler had suggested sandpaper for such burrs. Too lazy to go into the basement, I used an emery board and it worked. In fact, the traveling loop was done with this cable.

The smallest cable length is 20" and I used the US 2 tips to make the lace on the left.

Lace on US 2

I can't say I enjoyed knitting this (At first I thought it was the 20" cable length but I think it was the yarn, crochet cotton.) but the tips were pointy enough to work the *YO, K2tog* without dropping a stitch; a frequent problem with even sharper points. And speaking about points. I don't know if you can see in the first and second picture, but I think the needle tips are very adequate in the area of pointedness.

My usual pattern

 

 

 And finally, a picture of my typical knitting pattern on 24" cables and US 10. I had no problem knitting this. Two things you notice with the picture: boy, is that knitting askew and you could garrote someone with that stiff cable! 

 

Would I buy Boye? Obviously, that answer is yes. Would I "go to" Boye for my knitting or is it a last resort? I look at  the Boye set just the way I would a more expensive one: if I needed a certain size needle, I wouldn't hesitate to use Boye. Is the unscrewing a problem? Not for me but I'm used to interchangeables and I do think the way you knit and the type of pattern you're working may contribute more or less to this problem. Do I hate the stiffness of the cables? I do like ChiaGoo-type flexible cables but I don't run shrieking from the Boye cables.

 

Bottom line: When I price interchangeable sets, I don't say I got x number of tips for x dollars, I count the number of cables and divide that into the price since you really can only make 4 or 5 needle combinations at one time. So at $84, the 9 Knit Picks Harmony needles with 4 cables cost $21 each and the Boye Needlemaster at $30 with 13 tips and 4 cables cost $7.50 each. Adding the extra 5 tips in the Boye kit, you have a steep savings.  I'm not even doing the math for Dyakcraft, Addi, etc. which go for $160+. If you're in it for the knitting (form follows function) and not the beauty/exclusivity of the product (Dyakcraft), I would definitely recommend Boye Needlemaster.

 

And a really final bottom line: Purchasing Boye replacements is crazy. The first picture shows an included replacement form which is so old, you can only pay by mailing the form in with a check. Also, I know it's old because shipping at the Boye online site has jumped from $1.50 (on the form) to $3.25 so you could wind up paying $6+ for one 16" cable which is more than 20% of the cost of the entire set.

Next week: the first top I knitted on my new Boyes. Happy knitting.

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

A fast posting because I must be somewhere at 8 and, though I awakened at 4 am, I fell back asleep. Or rather I said to myself: You're either going to lie down or drop onto the computer desk and break your nose. White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement by Allan J. Lichtman did the "nighty-nighty" trick once I lay down on the couch. I'm only up to the1920s but I like that Lichtman did the research and a lot of the political memes I believed about that decade, he's debunking.

Let's start with:

http://www.dumpaday.com/ 

which says of itself: :Dump a day is simple  collection of various pictures grouped together under a certain topic.   Pretty simple, nothing fancy.   I love the internet for it's ability to show me endless pages of random nothingness to help me pass the time that is my life.   This site is a reflection of that.  Just endless posts of pictures that I have found either interesting or bizarre enough to post. If you would like to use one of the posts on your own site, (or "take a dump" post…   *pun intended*)  please feel free.  A link back would be cool, but obviously not required.

It's a quirky, up-to-date site with a lot of pictures, most with captions, and some pictures with a lot of words (quotes section). It's a fun site but clicking on "Facts" will take you to factual information presented lightly.  Be sure to click all over the home page and bookmark this site for revisits.

Another site with food and much more:

http://picturetherecipe.com/

because I really, really am on a diet since the DDS said on Monday: See you in October. It was like he gave me a successful motivational talk with those words because I have 3 months to lose 20 pounds! And I will do it! Yes, I can!

I don't know if Picture the Recipe is going to help me lose weight but I do love to read recipes during my dieting stints.

Noreen says of her site: Hi! I’m Noreen and I’m the ultimate foodie. I love to cook, eat, read cookbooks, watch cooking shows and talk a whole lot about food. Food to me is an endless topic. I could learn, eat and talk about food every day of my life and not get bored….This blog is my passion and includes all things that I love…food, photography, dinking around with photoshop. I hope you enjoy the recipes and all I have to share here.
 

Noreen gives you beautiful pictures, easy recipes and great directions. You won't be disappointed clicking around this site and you might learn a lot about cooking. 

Gotta go. Enjoy! 

P.S. I made the font size large today; hope this is easier to read. 

 

  

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Movie Monday

 

I have a short time before I have to leave for a very short visit to the DDS to be sure the sutures all dissolved. What do I have for Movie Monday? Well, on a frivolous note, we had at least 5 mini power dips last night when the lights went out for a matter of seconds. However, in the new TV technology, your set does not just return to the program you had been watching. Oh, no. It has to go through all sorts of machinations before you get that screen which says: Hi dummy, click Menu if you don't want to spend the night staring at a black screen. Needless to say, I was at the end of Masterpiece Mystery on PBS. You know, that part where they say: And the murderer is. As a result, I have no idea who's the real culprit. Bummer.

 

I got to watch a good bit of I've Loved You So Long again yesterday and I'm still crying at the scene where Kristen Scott Thomas' character reveals to her sister why she killed her son.(No spoiler here; we learn this early in the film.) It's not a mystery but a tragedy in the true sense of the word; a mother who faces an ultimate horror and makes a heartbreaking decision. Watching Scott-Thomas, I was reminded of the importance of good acting, for such actors can take you to places and experiences where you would never want to go but, in order to be truly human, you need to learn about. Today, we get so lost in senseless CGI,  cartoon character plots, and red carpet celebrity that we can forget that acting does have an important purpose: to present the mirror of the world to us.

 

But my review movie is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I liked the irony of Daniel Craig (of James Bond fame) almost playing the feminine role to  Rooney Mara's ass kicking turn as the titled tattooed girl in this film. Like the book, the movie kept my attention for a while but I have to admit my patience is getting a little thin with plots re: serial killers. Especially in tiny Sweden. OK, it's 1/10th larger than California. With this trilogy (more movies are coming) and the Swedish cop Wallander series, I can't believe that Sweden hasn't taken a serious population dip.I'm like the mom watching the enormous elephants in TLOTR:TROTK who asked: How do they get the food to feed them? How do they handle all the poop?, I'm looking at TGWTDT and thinking: Am I supposed to believe any of this?

 

And I'm not just talking about the series of killings which go unsolved for decades. I'm talking about our tattooed girl, Lisabeth Salander, who is so superhero talented. A ward of the state since 12, by 23 she has amassed unbelievable skills. Physically, she can kick ass with the best of them but technologically, I don't think she has an equal. Is there a computer system she can't hack? This girl is the ultimate punk Super Woman. As a sop to reality, she is brutally raped (also in the book but did we really need this extended scene in the movie?) but then, in a sop to fantasy, her revenge is brutal, complete and long lasting. (also from the book, which may be one of the reasons my interest waned the more I read.)

 

In the end, it's only a typical mystery loaded with bells and whistles. More dead bodies, more tech stuff, more drawn out investigation. There's a back story thrown in to give it some flesh but if you have read or watched conventional mystery stories, you don't need a road map to figure out the villain early on. For all the elaborate developments and the bizarre presentation of our heroine, I just watched it, I never connected. However, this movie grossed double its production budget (don't forget, Hollywood movies never make a profit), so who cares about my opinion? But do be sure if you watch this movie at home, the kids aren't present.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Knitting Friday

 

Tooth area is finally feeling better; I'm finally feeling better. My advice to kids everywhere: Helmets are essential in bike riding but if you don't wear mouth gear, be sure to have excellent dental insurance as an adult.

 

What a color!

I have some crazy things to talk about this Knitting Friday: designing sweaters for crocheting, the double knot, and Boye Needlemaster interchangeable needles.

 

But first, a picture. There's nothing new about the green?, green-yellow?, ugly-ugly? colored top-down shell on the right. I'm posting it to show that you don't have to rip out a top after you have knitted to the underarm and realize that, in order to keep in your 12-stitch pattern, you must cast on 12 stitches at one underarm and 6 stitches at the other one. If ever I yearn for a better math education when I was a little tike, it's at times like this.  How could I make such a mistake? After all, I had been knitting in a multiple of 12 (144) stitches all along. 

 

I had two choices: throw in the proverbial towel and frog it or think out of the box. And, being lazy, I thunk!  The lace pattern is called Little Leaf and it's a 12-stitch, 24 row pattern. Knowing that stockinette and garter are the most forgiving of patterns (any number of stitches can be used), after reaching the armhole using the LL pattern, I decided to work some stockinette. So I CO 12 stitches for each underarm and worked stockinette on 96 stitches (12 x 8) for 5 rows. I repeated LL pattern followed by stockinette two times and reached my waist. So I changed to US 8 needles and worked 1" in seed stitch.

So while this was not the top I started out making (it was to be Little Leaf all the way), I'm showing it for "inspiration"; that is, don't get discouraged when you hit a snag over 5" into your work, you can be Mr./Ms. Fix-it!

Miss M

 So let's take a short intermission from knitting because I just found this picture of Miss M, the younger years. Did I mention that she has been placed in OK? Did I mention that we really miss her?

 

I know, I know, she is doing valuable work and we all have to be proud that we helped to get her there. But it hurts.

 

OK, back to knitting:

1. I was attempting to design a top-down crocheted shell a while back. Well, that idea is kaput. What was I thinking? You can't just crochet down from the neckband as you do with knitting. Well, you can if you want to make a 1970's poncho. It was a disaster. I will not be winning the Nobel Prize for a crocheting breakthrough. If you have any better luck with a crocheted, top-down shell, please let me know.

 

2. This a good trick; and it's not mine. 

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nq_7EXTWHE

 

This link will take you to a YouTube on how to make a double knot when joining yarn, especially of different colors. It's a trick which should be practiced unless you're a boy scout since knot tying is not second nature, at least not to me.At the end of the video, she cuts the yarn ends very, very close to the knot. Then she gives it some strong tugs to make sure it'll keep. I don't know if I would be this brave and I might spend all the time I'm wearing a garment with these knots worrying: When is this sucker going to unravel?

But this method does have testimonials in the comments and I'm thinking: How about using this instead of splicing with wool joins? That is, after you follow the directions in the video, you wet the wool knot and roll it in your hands to felt it. Thus making a very, very secure, very, very tiny joint. Once the colder weather and wool knitting sets in for me, I'll try this and report back.

3. Boye Needlemaster Interchangeable Needles: Apparently, in the world of interchangeable needles, Boye is the granddaddy of them all. I would never, ever consider buy Boye ("never, say never", you say) because they are roundly criticized in Ravelry forums because: the cables are stiff and the points unscrew. Boo! Banish them!

Recently however, I inherited an old Needlemaster set (The shame!) which was really a nice gift since I think it's older than the big store coupons and therefore cost full freight. But I would never, never sully my hands on Boye!  Oh, what a knitting snob I am! (I hope the sarcasm is coming across here.) That is, until I realized that I needed US 10 needles and all of mine were in use. So ever so reluctantly, I zipped open the Boye kit, figured out how to connect the needles and started in knitting.......

 

Let me just end this little knitting melodrama by saying that today I am ordering another Boye Needlemaster set. Perhaps because I know how to knit with interchangeables, the slight unscrewing I get with the Boye is not troublesome. The metal tips are smooth and the joins are not objectionable. A big plus is that needle size ranges from US 2 through US 15. Not any other interchangeable set has so many sizes. And, don't forget the low cost with coupons.

As soon as I get them, I'll post a detailed review. But, I am humbled. And you can each write your moral for my little tale.

See you next week. Happy knitting.

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Website Wednesday

 

First of all, sorry for the crappy editing you see here sometimes. While I love the new feature of being able to see how many hits I get, the trade-off is that editing the blog has become a bear. It's not WYSIWYG; that is, editing has become an adventure because the Preview screen is not always the Publish screen. So pardon the formatting errors and, of course, the spelling ones.

 

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/116500

What a great, easy way to learn history. John Green has created an assortment of videos where he hones in on important factors in history, like the agricultural revolution. These are history lessons with a comic twist that makes them engaging.

Mental Floss says of itself:

For the record: mental_floss magazine is an intelligent read, but not too intelligent. We're the sort of intelligent that you hang out with for a while, enjoy our company, laugh a little, smile a lot and then we part ways. Great times. And you only realize how much you learned from us after a little while. Like a couple days later when you're impressing your friends with all these intriguing facts and things you picked up from us, and they ask you how you know so much, and you think back on that great afternoon you spent with us and you smile.
And then you lie and say you read a lot.

 

Mental Floss was a Website Wednesday in 2010 but Green's videos are definitely worth a repeat mention.  I would put John Green’s Crash Course in World History up there with the Khan Academy lectures. What Khan is presenting in math and science, Green is doing for world history. With Green's presentations, there's is no reason for that age-old American plaint: I hate history. Try them; you won't be disappointed.

 

 OK, let's go light:

 

 http://www.nerve.com/movies/the-fifty-greatest-cult-movies-of-all-time

 

Take a look at these 50 cult films. You can check off the ones you've seen (I've seen far too many) and add the ones you think are missing (be sure to read the comments for more choices.) I don't know about the rest of Nerve but the Entertainment section looks interesting. (They do seem to like the word "sexiest".) Here, you can find Ridley Scott and Oliver Stone films rated worst to best. (Hint: Alexander by Stone was not a winner.)

 

So in these very hot days of summer (that term is fast becoming redundant), get a cool drink and enjoy these websites. To paraphrase Freud's famous quote: Sometimes fun is just fun. I'll add: And sometimes learning can be just fun, also. Enjoy.

 

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday

Sorry I missed Knitting Friday. I always have the guilt when I miss a posting but I was feeling pretty low due to dental work. When will this end? 

The 2012 US presidential election. Now, that's an abrupt switch but unfortunately,  mention of the 2012 elections does have a place on this Movie Monday. 

I have said before that I think one true legacy for Obama over the past four years is that he saved capitalism. So, by design or missteps, he is looking at a 2012 electorate he helped create which consists of the Romney-touting 1%ers, (who are doing very nicely, thank you), and the disillusioned and, many times misinformed, struggling rest of the country. And this could be very bad news for Obama.

Read this posting in TBogg:  http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/  

(The Obscure Charm Of The Plutocracy, TBogg Sunday July 8, 2012 7:08 pm)
to get a flavor of the thinking of the 1% elitests in the US.

Unfortunately, for Obama, those not cocooned in such wealth and status (the 99%) do not necessarily make up his constituency. Through chicanery, lies and missed opportunities by this administration, many in the 99% have bought into the meme that only by throwing this Kenyan, Marxist, tax-raising, death-paneler from office will their economic condition improve. And I really can't blame them because people who are struggling economically have no time for talk about how elitist and bad for the country the Republicans are. They're living in a real, scary world of doctors' bills, utility bills, kids shoe bills, and mortgage/rent payments. So many are dying by slow drips. Like it our not, Romney is the new broom and they just may believe he's going to sweep their problems away.

Which brings me to Anonymous (2011). It's a hatchet job on Shakespeare; a re-telling of that age-old controversy which says the Earl of Oxford and not Shakespeare wrote "the plays."  OK, I get it. Some scholars/historians think Shakespeare of the very, sparse biography and the cryptic will where he leaves his wife their second-best bed never had the ability to write works which have been labeled genius. You know, like the 1%ers of our era who believe that they alone are capable/worthy of great things. 

What's that quote from the Range Rover rider in TBogg: I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.

So how could Shakespeare, commoner that he was, ever "get it" and be able to think universal philosophical thoughts? OK, I'll accept Anonymous' right to present this theory (Oxford was too politically connected to be associated with some of the controversy in the plays so Shakespeare became his "front.") But to present Shakespeare as a drunken, avaricious  buffoon is sooooo 1%: How could our servants have genius?

Anonymous with this approach, lost me fast. And then it sealed my disapproval with an LSD fantasy where it presents Oxford and Elizabeth I as lovers, parents of the Earl of  Southampton and, hold on to your socks for this one, also as mother and son. Talk about the iconic line from Faye Dunaway in Chinatown: My sister, my daughter, my sister, my daughter....... That was tame compared to Anonymous.

On one level, Anonymous might be just an enjoyable, bad movie but it plays just too fast and loose with facts so that it descends into a laughable, unwatchable 19th century "You must pay the rent. I can't pay the rent." melodrama rapidly. 

But my major complaint with this type of movie is philosophical for it presents that hackneyed mantra: Only the rich have worth and talent. And then, in case you missed that message, it swift-boats Shakespeare. Sound familiar?

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

It's July 4th in the US which is a reason for going to parades and parties and swimming and eating too much, perhaps drinking too much, and completely pushing from our minds just what the 4th symbolizes.

So, I'll give you the US Declaration of Independence:

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

It really is a beautifully written document, a worthy representative of the Age of Enlightenment. Mrs. Jefferson should be proud of its author, her boy, Thomas. I know we couldn't produce such a document in the US of today; what a pity.

For while we may justly condemn the US Constitution as a rich-propertied-white-man-only guide to beneficial law and government (don't forget that the Bill of Rights was a paste-on which was later attached to the constitution), the Declaration of Independence still stands as a document which could be translated with pride throughout the world.

Just the logic of Jefferson's arguments is amazing. Of course, in the age in which it was written, the level of logical thinking among the intelligentsia was probably so high that this work might have been dismissed with a faint praise of: Nice work, Thomas. But, I just plugged a chunk of it into the Flesch-Kincaid scale and came up with a Grade 19.7. That's doc/post-doc level!

So I guess I'm pretty proud about this document which was used to present grievances against English rule in 1776. Especially proud since I'm also royally pissed about so many, many things this new country would do and is still doing to its citizens and the world. It's like the tiny glimpse of sun Sam points out to Frodo in The Return of the King: there is always hope.

OK, off the soap box. Here's a fun pick, I hope:

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/

This is the US Library of Congress' poetry site. If you scroll down, you will see a Project 180 link which will lead you to 180 poems for high school students. I'm working this summer to get the girl to speak more confidently in public forums so I'm having her and her brother read one of these poems aloud every few days. I hope it's a fun project for both of them (yeah, I know, kids love studying in the summer) and these poems can lead to some really interesting discussions.

Be sure to scroll all around this page. Check out the Favorite Poem Project. You get to read the text of the poem and see a video of its recitation.

This is not a summer fun and frolic site but no one can have too much poetry in his soul. Enjoy. And for those in the US, Happy 4th!

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Movie Monday

 

A short posting because an early morning, long, dental appointment is staring at me.

 

It's a new month and my Verizon movie package has cleaned house, at least this early in the month. I expect the same dross as the month advances but last night I could have watched The Help, Primary Colors or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  I picked up ESotSM too late into the movie so that one will have to wait for another day

 

I approached The Help with trepidation and it didn't let me down. Right up to the end where the black maid walks triumphantly down the street accompanied by the triumphant walking-down-the-street-music. That's a scene used so often in movies and, except in The Third Man where the final street walk is the necessary coda, most of these endings are just saying "Hey, I really got screwed but doesn't this music make you and me feel good?"

 

The Help's plot is a story which should be told; the relationship between the black maids and the white wives who employed them in the period before civil rights became the law of the land in the US. It wasn't told here. The Help succumbs to stereotypes early in the game: understanding young white woman. world-weary and wise black maids and over-the-top bigoted white wives. For me, it was directed and acted proclaiming the emotions I should be feeling as it went along so I didn't have to invest anything. It reminded me of The Nanny Diaries. These employers were and are bitches. Maids/nannies have had to and still have to put up with a lot of shit. (Hey, as the economy implodes for the middle class, we all have to put up with a lot of shit.) Unfortunately, I got the feeling with The Help, as I did with To Kill A Mockingbird that white racists are really, really bad and make life horrible for blacks (or minorities in general) but not to worry. A white knight will arrive for a rescue. In TKAM, it was Atticus Finch; in The Help it's the understanding good white "master" in the form of the young writer.

 

This ground has been tread so many times before. Show me something new. For example, show me Rosa Parks as the active civil rights worker she was, who knew exactly what she was doing when she refused to move on that famous bus ride so long ago. It's a shame that The Help can't rise above these stereotypes.

 

And finally, Primary Colors. Wow! After 14 years, this movie is still fun to watch with probably one of Travolta's best performances as Gov. Jack Stanton aka Bill Clinton. Ides of March gets stuck in banality but this movie doesn't let the treacle of well-worn themes bog it down. Both treat the same themes: liberal, idealistic Democratic candidate who can't keep his zipper closed, but that's where the comparison ends. In Primary Colors, we get an active relationship between a candidate and his family, we get strong roles and interaction with supporting players, Emma Thompson, Kathy Bates, Billy Bob Thornton, etc., and we get to see the seedy machinations needed to win a nomination. At 14, this movie is fresher and more innovative than the much newer Ides of March. And it's doubly depressing that the 1998 Primary Colors has blacks playing a large role (the Henry, the staff worker; the black family which owns the restaurant; extras) in a political movie about a Democratic candidate while in 2011, Ides of March has gone almost lily-white in casting.

 

OK, I have more to say (when don't I have more to say?) but the DDS beckons.

 

Next week: Anonymous. Subtitled: Shakespeare didn't write them, or: only the elite have talent.