America...the Beautiful!

    Sorry Sorry Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. For someone with an excess of free time, I sure manage to not find enough of it.
    The finger is doing well. Well, it's OK anyway. They may have to cut it again to get full motion, but it doesn't sound like that big a deal. I'm at least able to ride my bike and stuff like that. Just don't know about surfing yet, since the finger is still stiff and seems like a bend the wrong way could cause trouble, and after two months, I figure I can wait a little bit longer. Still, I was in the ocean for a little bit yesterday and today, and there were some decent waves, and it made me a thing like homesick, but sick for the sea instead of home. Seasick, I guess. It'll be nice to surf again when I do. And I probably won't have to wear a wetsuit again until fall.
     Jeannine and Erin had the grand opening of their store School of Vintage yesterday, and it went very well. Thanks to all who came out, and if you didn't, come out now! The store is on the Boulevard in Surf City between 15th and 16th, across from Callahan's (aside: a recent dining experience at that restaurant may be the catalyst to spark the rejuvenation of my esteemed blog I'll Never Go There Again. Stay tuned.) Get there.

    So, it's Memorial Day. The beginning of the Summer season, and of all the wonderful things that come along with it. But the day is also a lot more (see above photo). For the past few months, for one reason or another, it has become increasingly important to me, when looking for a product, to seek out a U.S. manufacturer of that product. This is not just a jingoist pursuit, because if something is made better in Switzerland, I'll buy that thing from the Swiss. But, I feel that during the recession, the country (maybe every country) adopts a pseudo-isolationist point of view. It does make sense that if everyone bought things made in the U.S. instead of things made by our red brothers across the Pacific, the economy would do a bit better. I'm not against international trade, that would be stupid, but the fact of the matter is, while American made stuff may be generally more expensive, it is also generally much better quality than the "equivalent" made in China.
     So, during the patriotic season, which lasts from now to the magnificent 4th of July, I'm going to try to post some of my Made in the USA findings. By no means a definitive list, these are just things that I have a use for. Here we go...

MADE IN THE USA:

Darn Tough Vermont wool socks - Some of you know about my wool-only sweater policy. Well, I've expanded it to other garments. Socks, especially in the cold weather, must be wool. Darn Tough has been making wonderful wool socks in Vermont for 30 years, and so far, the pair I have has lived up to the name. A little more expensive than garbage cotton blend socks you'd buy at Walmart, but I prefer warm feet in the winter as opposed to frostbite. But that's just me.

EXPECT LOTS OF SOUSA!

Classical

     Within the past 6 months or so, I have developed a liking for classical music. It's not that I hated it before, but I just didn't feel it. My previous attitude being that it was more cerebral, whereas other forms of music, rock, jazz, &c., were more emotive, and that's what gets me with music: the almost indescribable "soul" of it, the compounding of human experience, emotion, and other indefinable mysteries coalescing to become these moving works of art. And to me, the music I listened to had that, and classical didn't. It was equatable to a mathematical equation, a sum of parts put together just so to please the old kings, aged queens, pious pontiffs and other ancient patrons of the arts.
      But, of course, that was stupid. Writing a good rock song can be just as formulaic as composing a symphony (albeit the symphony will have a vastly more complex equation), and a classical piece can stem from, and extract, emotions just as deep and strange and human as that favorite piece of contemporary music that grabs your heart and squeezes and doesn't let go, ever. Both types of music can be composed of mind and magic.
      Still, though, classical music doesn't do it for me in the way that the music I've grown with does, and I don't expect it to. I listen to it mostly in the mornings: it's good music to clear your head and think to. It helps keep me calm when driving, something that I find more difficult each time I get behind the wheel. I'll never scour classical record bins or prefer this conductor's treatment of a classical masters opus vs. that conductor's, or be put off by a certain piece being played on not-period-correct instruments, but I like classical music now more than I did before. And if I hear a piece that really gets me or that I think is interesting or fun to listen to, I'll write it down and, if you're lucky, I'll share it here.

P.S. If you get a chance, listen to Towe on Thursdays w/ Teri Towe onWPRB Princeton 103.3 FM, 6-11 AM on Thursdays. His DJing is extremely passionate and entrancing and is almost more of a joy to listen to than the music, but I find he always plays good music, too.



Franz Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (1847)- You'll recognize this from 'toons of old. Do today's cartoons introduce children to music that will endure for hundreds of years? Probably not.

Still Ill...

     I hope all of you people with fully-functioning appendages have been enjoying the beautiful weather, while I sit in solitude in my "drug den," as Jeannine has affectionately called the living room since my injury. It's not bad now, but before, when I was on the pain pills and drowsy and all the blinds were closed all day, I'd say her label fit. Now the blinds are open, my bike is set up on the trainer so I can start to get some exercise again, and the sleeping bag is away (well, on it's way to being away. It's tricky impossible to roll up a sleeping bag with one hand). I've been reading more now that the percocet fog has lifted, revisiting Hemingway  (if any one has my copy of The Sun Also Rises, gimme!) and continuing my stay with Raymond Chandler.

     Also, I have been gardening some. In fact, I was just doing that when I came inside to check some planting info out, and in just the few minutes I was inside that monster above (Henry) proceeded to take advantage of the fence being momentarily down, obliterating one whole square of the garden. Casualties: 16 lettuce, 8 spinach, 18 beets, 2 collard greens. Fortunately, they were just little seedlings, but still. What a monster.
     I'm still watching an inordinate amount of movies, too, so here:

3:10 to Yuma (1957) - Pretty exciting if you like westerns, which I do, but only good ones. I'll probably watch the new one soon.


Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Just watched this last night. It's been a while since I read the book, but from what I remember, this film got it pretty spot on. The story is incredibly heartbreaking and heavy, but not without its many moments of light. This was one of those films where you don't say much after, and just let the credits roll for a few minutes and think.

While the movies I've been watching see to be all over the charts content-wise, there is a theme to some of them, and this fits into the "become more acquainted with Audrey Hepburn movies" category. This may be my favorite so far, but that also might go to Breakfast at Tiffany's. Directed by Billy Wilder; also starring Humphrey Bogart and William Holden.

A classic, but I hadn't seen it in a while and came across it on my netflix queue.

Went to see this in the theatre and was completely blown away, basically because all I knew of it was this trailer, which doesn't begin to touch on what the movie is really about. Woody Allen has come out with a lot of great films the past few years, but this might be my favorite. Just as good on the second viewing, and I kind of want to watch it again. If you don't know anything more about the movie than the information in the above trailer, see it that way and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Quicksilver - 1986 - If a young Kevin Bacon with a tiny mustache as a super-successful 80s Wall Street-type guy doesn't exude smug jerkiness, I don't know who does. Of course, he loses everything, and decides to become a bike messenger. Not a bad movie. Roger Daltry does the theme,"Quicksilver Lightning."

Also, I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie yesterday. I am a huge fan of detective fiction, be it hard-boiled or Golden Age or otherwise, but am ashamed to say that up until now I had never read any Agatha Christie. This novel is, according to some, one of her masterpieces, partly owing to the huge convention-defying twist of an ending. Great, colorful, well-fleshed characters throughout. I'll be reading more Christie, someday.

Roman Holiday

Roman Holiday - 1953 - Starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. About a ago we watched Breakfast at Tiffany's, which was such an excellent movie that it got me wondering why I hadn't watched more Audrey Hepburn films. So now I am.

     I think the content on this blog will be limited because A) I'm not doing much and B) it's annoying to type with one hand. But I will be watching a lot of movies, so I will continue a tradition started in the last entry, and post the trailers.