Entries for the week of
Monday, October 3, 2022
through
Friday, October 7, 2022
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It’s Friday, October 7, 2022
Welcome to the 1,566th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Banned Broadbill
In Khao Yai National Park, Thailand
JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/) - Own work
Banded Broadbill (Eurylaimus javanicus), Khao Yai National Park, Pak Chong, Thailand
CC BY-SA 3.0
File:Eurylaimus javanicus - Khao Yai.jpg
Created: 2 February 2011
Location: 14° 17′ 13.81″ N, 101° 23′ 37.39″ E
About Media Viewer
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Commentary
My friends, after three years of consecutive daily posts, I am weighing what direction would be best for this blog to go in. As it has grown in content and contribution, I’m considering ways to widen its distribution.
My thinking is to reduce the frequency of its publication. So from now on I will publish on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, bringing the blog in the direction of a weekly digital magazine.
So don’t look for issues on this Saturday or Sunday. The next issue will come out on Monday. No changes to the format will happen at first, but changes are coming. Let’s have fun with it.
Love,
Dom
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Dr. Mike shares: “Pediatricians are definitely seeing a high volume of respiratory illnesses this fall. We are seeing more viral infections but also seeing slightly different infections for this time of year,” Dr. Mary Beth Miotto, president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in an e-mail. RSV is a common virus that usually causes a mild cold for a week or two. But it can be dangerous for infants, especially those who are born prematurely or have other illnesses. Nationwide, an estimated 58,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized with RSV each year.
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Screen time
On a friend’s recommendation I watched Kwaidan, ( 'Ghost Stories') a 1965 Japanese anthology horror film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. It is based on stories from Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folk tales, mainly Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904), for which it is named. The film consists of four separate and unrelated stories. Kwaidan is an archaic transliteration of the term kaidan, meaning "ghost story". The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
I loved the movie. It’s far more art than horror.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“If you were to open up a baby's head -
and I am not for a moment suggesting that you should -
you would find nothing but an enormous drool gland.”
~ Dave Barry
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I take care that my ‘off meal’ is plant-based. A whole fresh tomato. A bowl of cereal. Vegetable Soup. It’s a big help in maintaining my nutritional balance as well as counting calories.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Lucas Carton Kats 2nd Favorite Restaurant
It is a knockout.
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Short Essay
The banded broadbill (Eurylaimus javanicus) is a species of bird found in Mainland Southeast Asia and the Greater Sunda Islands. It is sometimes split into two species, one including only the nominate subspecies, E. j. javanicus, and one including all the remaining subspecies. It inhabits a variety of forests, along with forest edge, rubber plantations and Falcataria falcata groves, mainly in lowland areas. A striking, large-bodied bird with a length of 21.5–23.0 cm (8.5–9.1 in), it is unlikely to be mistaken for another species. The broadbill is mostly purplish-red, with yellow-streaked black wings, a bright blue beak, a blackish face and greyish chin and upper breast. Females can be told apart from males by their lack of a black neckband, although these are indistinct in Bornean and Javan males. Despite its conspicuous appearance, the bird is usually hard to see due to its sluggishness and is usually only noticed when it vocalises.
The species mainly eats arthropods such as orthopterans (grasshoppers, katydids and crickets), true bugs and beetles, but has also been recorded feeding on snails, lizards, frogs and figs. On the mainland, breeding generally occurs during the dry season; populations in the Greater Sundas have a longer breeding season lasting from March to November. On Java, the broadbill is thought to breed year-round. Their large, raggedy nests are hung from trees at a height of 6–21 m (20–69 ft) over clearings or water bodies. Clutches have two or three eggs. The eggs are usually dull white with dark purple or reddish-brown flecks, but those from West Java are dirty white with dense rusty-brown to lavender-grey markings. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which splits the banded broadbill into two species, classifies javanicus as being near-threatened and the other subspecies as being of least concern.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, October 6, 2022
Welcome to the 1,565th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
A kaiseki course
A kaiseki course prepared by Chef Seiji Yamamoto at Ryogin,
a Guide Michelin three-star restaurant in Tokyo
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Commentary
So I thought to book no more appointments until I left for Japan, just about 10 days from now.
But then I decided to hire a Japanese tutor and I had my first class.
What I wanted was to learn a few basic phrases.
She was fine with it and the hour sped past.
We didn’t cover much.
We covered a lot.
I told her of the restaurants.
She knew what I was talking about.
“So”, I said, “I enter the restaurant and what do I say?”
Class began and we went through the evening, step by step.
I took notes, then I transcribed them.
Then I went on You Tube to practice pronunciation and added more details to my notes.
Here are my notes and details.
Glossary for a Restaurant
I enter the restaurant and am greeted. I say:
Hajime mashi te
Sound is weak at end
How do you do?
A more respectful way of saying it
They are likely to say:
Ira sha i mase
Welcome.
Illa/shy/ I mas
I may say:
Kon ban wa
Good Evening
I may say:
Review
Sha shin
Photo
Ichi mai ii desuka
One= ichi
When do I use this?
Ureshii desu
I’m happy
Des
No ‘u’
Shii
Elongate the i
Food comes. I may say:
Tote/mo kirei desu
Very beautiful
Totemo = very; one syllable
kirei is beautiful; desu = is or are
Ita daki/Masu
Thank you for this food.
Or I may say
Tote/mo Oishii desu
Very delicious
Totemo = very; one syllable
Desu = is or are
To explain language deficiency:
Suimasen
I’m sorry.
Onegai/shimasu
Please
simas
No ‘u’, no ‘h’
Hanasu w a ‘u’ not an ‘e’
Nihungo-ga-hanasu masen
I do not speak Japanese
Masen is negative
To limit my sake:
Su/koshi
A little bit
Skoshi
No ‘u’, no ‘h’
On leaving
Is there a stronger way
It was a feast.
Gochi su/sama/deshita
I enjoyed this food. Thank you.
Desta: no ‘h’
Arigatou gozai/masu
Thank you very much
To agree,
Hai
Yes
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Dr. Mike shares: COVID-19 Vaccination Updates
The MMS joins forces to promote COVID-19 and flu vaccination this fall
The Massachusetts Medical Society, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association strongly encourage health care providers to offer seasonal flu vaccine in conjunction with bivalent COVID-19 booster doses in the primary care setting this fall.
In a joint letter, the health care organizations stated, “Please be aware that the bivalent COVID-19 boosters are widely available, and the vast majority of individuals are eligible and recommended to receive it. Additionally, we are seeing indications that the upcoming flu season may be severe, and we are counting on you for your assistance in mitigating its potential effects. Annual vaccination for influenza is recommended for everyone 6 months of age and older.”
For additional information regarding COVID-19 vaccine ordering as well as resources for your staff and your patients, please refer to the COVID-19 Weekly Bulletin.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“There comes a time in a man's life when he hears the call of the sea.
"Hey, YOU!" are the sea's exact words.
If the man has a brain in his head,
he will hang up the phone immediately.”
~DaveBarry
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
After four meals with it, I am tired of turkey.
I am making a stock with the rest of it. Then I’ll reduce it, add roux, and have gravy for my next turkey dinner.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Preparing lunch for LouLou
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Short Essay
MICHELIN GUIDE JAPAN
RyuGin
7F, Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, 1-1-2 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-0006, Japan
49,000 JPY • Japanese (is $339.72 in dollars, plus from $100.00 to $300.00 for the sake. Service is included, as is a 10% fee from Pocket Concierge for booking the seat for me. My application for the reservation, made 3 months before my trip, would not have been accepted if I had tried to book it directly.
MICHELIN Guide’s Point Of View
Seiji Yamamoto opened his restaurant near the Imperial Palace and pursues the essence of Japanese cuisine. To convey the richness of ingredients straight from nature, he greets his customers with a menu based on a map of Japan. The hamo and eggplant nimono soup is a summer speciality that was served to heads of state at the 2019 G20 Osaka Summit. The seasonality enshrined in the offerings, and their luxuriousness, make for memorable dining.
Three MICHELIN Stars: Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey!
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Wednesday, October 5, 2022
Welcome to the 1,564th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Adar with torches
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Commentary
“The Trip” is fast approaching.
On Sunday, two weeks away from departure, I executed a ‘Suitcase Dress Rehearsal.”
I had already been filling packing cubes suitcase organizers and had a pretty clear idea everything would fit. But I wanted to have a definitive answer now, while I still had plenty of time to modify without panicking.
Some decisions I made recently: I would pack a pair of rubbers against a rainy day, and a light winter jacket against the weather. I actually am going to wear it on my travel days, but that pushed my suit jacket into the suitcase and that extra bulk had to be tested. Also decided to take a hair blower, more bulk.
After all ready, I closed the suitcase. It zipped!
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Dr. Mike shares:
In response to my post that, after a sleepless night, I had my main meal (with a drink) at 5.00am:
Law vs. Liver—- I see no legal problem with drinking at 5AM if you began on the previous day and continued. But your liver may not agree with the law,
Particularly with starting at 5AM. Sounds like could be fun but beware.
Moderation is the key.
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Ageing
Biological Aging This is the type of aging most people are familiar with, since it refers to the various ways the human body naturally changes over time. ...
Psychological Aging This type of aging is largely related to behavior, but it also includes general perception and reactions to the immediate environment. ...
Social Aging refers to changes in a person’s roles and relationships, both within their networks of relatives and friends and in formal organizations such as the workplace and houses of worship.
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Can you define onigiri?
For definition, see below, immediately after the Short Essay
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“I would not know how I am supposed to feel about many stories if not for the fact that the TV news personalities make sad faces for sad stories and happy faces for happy stories. ”
~Dave Barry
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Tucker J:
Hi Dom,
I know I just wrote you a piece but I can’t help but write about RoP too!
This week’s episode was VERY good.
Blog meister responds: What fun!
And this, from Sally C, responding to my list of personal beautification in prep to my trip, e.g. tanning, pedicure, manicure, etc.
Dear Dom,
“Will that onslaught of beauty aids make this 80-year-old man more attractive?
Tom Cruise, man.”
With or without that onslaught of beauty aids, you are far more attractive than Tom Cruise. In my eyes, he is empty, and you are full – of heart!
Love,
Sally
Blog meister responds: Aw, shucks. Thank you, my dear.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Here’s a recipe I developed for Mac and Cheese.
I had a lot of turkey to use up.
Mac and Cheese with Turkey for 1
Grease baking pan with butter
Turn the oven to 375*
In a large mixing bowl:
½ cup Parmigiana cheese
1TB freshly ground pepper
½ cup half and half
¼ cup chicken stock
½ t each: thyme, rosemary, and fresh parsley (or tarragon)
plus garlic and onion powders
Stir well
Mix in:
8oz cooked turkey and 4oz pasta
and toss to coat
Into baking pan
Set in mac and cheese mix
Layer with mozzarella cheese
Bake until nicely browned
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Café in morning
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Short Essay
“I presume you are the Akashi entourage of Lord Naritsugu. By the order of His Shogun's subject Shinzaemon, we commemorate your passage with arrows!” – 13 Assassins
The sixth episode of Rings of Power has a clear precedent in the siege of Helm’s Deep, a centerpiece of both The Two Towers novel and film. But rather than any kind of remake of that thrilling sequence, the series puts its own spin on the multitude-vs-a-handful idea starting with completing destroying the presumed Helm’s Deep as a way of evening the odds. It also becomes clear fairly quickly that even though we are set in a fantasy universe, director Charlotte Brändström has seen some samurai films. In particular, Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins where a small number of warriors turn an entire town into a series of insane traps to better their chances of beating a host of hundreds. The 13 warriors create hell on earth for their enemies so it’s fitting that this episode’s title, Udûn, translates to “hell” in Sindarin Elvish. Though that title comes into clearest focus in its final moments, the entire episode is full of surprises fitting its title.
“New life. In defiance of death,” says Adar as he plants some seeds before turning to his Orc army and championing their liberation. As promised last week, Adar’s Orc army besieges Ostirith only to discover the place empty. One remains: Arondir, picked out of hiding by Adar due to his distinct Elven odor. With a few well-shot arrows, Arondir brings the tower down on top of the Orc army, buying the rest of the Southlanders time to set their next trap.
What they don’t know and we as viewers hope is that they won’t need to too much time because the Númenórean fleet has spotted Middle-Earth in the near distance. At least to Galadriel’s eyes. As Isildur anxiously awaits his first sight of land, he speakes with her for the first time. It’s more foundation laying for future episodes to be sure until Elendil enters and Galadriel asks him about Isildur’s mother. “It is strange. For most of my life, I looked east to see the sunrise over the sea and west to see it set over the land. We’re sailing into the dawn, and it feels like the coming of night,” Elendil tells Galadriel. “She drowned.” All the poetry in the world cannot replace his loss. “She drowned” is a shot to the gut, alluding to the reality check to come.
When the rest of Adar’s army besieges the village, the Southlanders are ready, trapping the Orcs behind a ring of fire, with a fleet of archers on rooftops to finish the job. For his part, Arondir takes on the biggest Orc they’ve got, downing a mouthful of black Orc blood for his troubles. After his fight, he surveys the dead in the city center, but only a few bleed black—Arondir notices that the sliced necks drip the red blood of Man. These were the villagers that Adar took in last week, the friends and neighbors of the Southlanders, leaving the victors in abject horror. If only that were the end of it. As the final Orc dies, enemy arrows fling into the village, forcing the crowd into a nearby inn. The Númenóreans are coming but not fast enough, and the spindly strings of Bear McCreary’s score signal an Orc invasion straight out of Night Of The Living Dead.
Things take a turn for our heroes, particularly Bronwyn, who takes an Orc arrow in the shoulder. Bronwyn’s been instrumental in rallying the troops, so it would make sense for the series to kill her in battle and give Theo and Arondir something to avenge. Thankfully, we are spared Bronwyn’s death but, unfortunately, there will be plenty more to avenge. Adar returns, demanding the hilt. After showing off how little his Orcs care about human life in a brutal display, Theo offers it to Adar in exchange for his mother’s life. Just then, eucatastrophe.
Coined by Tolkien in his seminal “On Fairy-Stories” essay, eucatastrophe is crucial to the author’s views on fantasy and fairy stories. Eucatastrophe is the happily ever after, the moment when everything turns on a dime and the heroes win the day. Prince Charming’s waking of sleeping beauty, Christ emerging from the cave, or Aragorn arriving with the army of the dead, these surprise, happy endings elevate joy into enchantment. Likewise, the Númenórean earth-quaking arrival in the Southland as Adar gets the hilt is a eucatastrophe.
Yet something doesn’t feel right about all this. It’s all been a little too easy. In fact, this whole season’s been going down a little smoothly. Galadriel had some early setbacks but was successful, thus far, in bringing the South and the West together against Sauron. Arondir and Bronwyn saved the village against overwhelming odds. Númenor won and Queen Regent Míriel can now return as a war hero. The Lord Of The Rings television show that for so long felt too epic and grand to produce managed to wrap up its eight-episode season in six installments, on time and under its massive budget. If only the credits rolled 10 minutes early.
In her interrogation of Adar, Galadriel learns that he isn’t just a fallen Elf but one of the original orcs known as Uruk. The Uruk were early Elves enslaved and tortured by Morgoth in the first age. Over the generations, they devolved into Orcs, who, as Tolkien writes in The Silmarillion, “loathed the Master whom they served in fear, the maker only of their misery.” This sounds like Adar, whose intentions aren’t to return the Orcs to Sauron and have his people enslaved once again, but rather to give them the dignity of other living beings.
Orcs have long been a major subject of criticism against Tolkien. Given that most adaptations and artwork based on the author’s work featured white Elves, white Hobbits, white Men, and white Dwarves, many saw the Orcs as negative representations of people of color, immigration, and race mixing, among other critiques. Their lack of dimensionality has supported this subtext because there are no Orcs to offer the contrary. Adar finally complicates the Orcs, giving them something resembling autonomy, which is an exciting prospect. Thus far, the show has deferred chiefly to Tolkien. Adar’s motives, however, feel like a critique of the author, allowing us to reconsider the Orc murder mayhem from earlier. The show goes a step further, though. Perhaps, Adar isn’t the only Elf corrupted by darkness. Galadriel’s speech about eradicating the Orcs makes Adar more sympathetic and spotlights the fascism of the Elves, a season-long thematic concern elevated to the center of the conflict.
As Arondir and Theo make peace with the end of the battle, Theo shares his feelings of loss over giving up the hilt. Like the One Ring, this hilt holds power over those who possess it. Yet, when Theo has it, something feels off. He unwraps the blanket to discover it’s gone. As the Numenór and the Southlands clank glasses and turn the battlefield into a victory celebration, Waldreg was sticking Sauron’s hilt, reforged by dark magic, in the stone, breaking the dams and sending water throughout the rivers and underground tunnels.
Now, for the final turn. When the rivers started flowing, it’s fair to assume that the Great Wave imagined by Míriel was coming to pass. But the ancient waters flow beneath the earth, causing a yet-to-be-named Mount Doom to erupt and envelope the Southlands in a cloud of ash and fire. Elves and Adar have the same pre-war ritual: Burying seeds. “New life in defiance of death.” But nothing grows in hell. There will be no new life. The episode’s title, Udûn, was once the name of the Southlands. That name eventually changed to what we all know it by now; Mordor.
.
Tucker
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Definition of Today’s Word: onigiri
a Japanese dish consisting of small balls or triangles of rice stuffed with a pickled or salted filling, and typically wrapped in dried seaweed:
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Tuesday, October 4, 2022
Welcome to the 1,563rd consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Jimmy Durante
Promotional photo of Jimmy Durante from the television show, The Hollywood Palace. This photo was produced prior to 1978 and has no copyright markings. It can be dated by the ABC information on the back of the photo which is shown in the original upload and the photo link above. United States Copyright Office page 2 "Visually Perceptible Copies The notice for visually perceptible copies should contain all three elements described below. They should appear together or in close proximity on the copies. 1 The symbol © (letter C in a circle); the word “Copyright”; or the abbreviation “Copr.” 2 The year of first publication. If the work is a derivative work or a compilation incorporating previously published material, the year date of first publication of the derivative work or compilation is sufficient. Examples of derivative works are translations or dramatizations; an example of a compilation is an anthology. The year may be omitted when a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, with accompanying textual matter, if any, is reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards, stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or useful articles. 3 The name of the copyright owner, an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of owner.1 Example © 2007 Jane Doe."
ABC-TV Uploaded by We hope at en.wikipedia - eBay item photo front photo back Transferred from en.wikipedia by SreeBot
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Commentary
Wow!
Wow!
After ten days of poor sleep I decided to return to melatonin.
Friday night I woke @ 1.00am and rather than wonder if I could get back to sleep I took 5mg of melatonin.
At 6.15am I woke, drowsy, but more rested than I’ve been in two weeks.
The melatonin was miraculous.
One of my fears re: the trip to Japan was my sleeplessness.
I am now hopeful that the melatonin will get me through.
Meanwhile, tonight I will reduce the melatonin intake to 3mg.
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Wellness
Wondering if my new drink, decaf genmaicha tea, has contributed to my difficulty sleeping so I looked it up and came up with this:
Judith C. Thalheimer, RD, LDN, managing editor of Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter, answers: “Decaf coffee has much less caffeine than regular, but it is usually not entirely caffeine free. One study that tested decaffeinated coffees from multiple sources found that most eight-ounce cups of decaf had 9 to 14 milligrams of caffeine, as opposed to 85 milligrams in an eight-ounce cup of regular coffee. For comparison, one ounce of dark chocolate has about 12 mg of caffeine.
“For those looking to cut back on caffeine intake, decaf coffee is a good choice. Studies have shown it has some of the same health benefits associated with regular coffee. But people who must avoid caffeine altogether should be aware of the caffeine in decaf.”
My genmaicha tea is not a good drink for me after 4.00pm.
That sucks.
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Ageing
While searching, I also came up with this:
Biological Aging
This is the type of aging most people are familiar with, since it refers to the various ways the human body naturally changes over time. ...
Psychological Aging
This type of aging is largely related to behavior, but it also includes general perception and reactions to the immediate environment. ...
Social Aging
Aging of this nature focuses on social habits related to interactions with everyone from spouses and other family members to friends and other people in society. Biological and psychological issues can play a role in social aging. For example, older adults may not interact socially as much as they once did if they’re living with mobility limitations related to age.
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Can you define onigiri?
For definition, see below, immediately after the Short Essay
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“Hobbies of any kind are boring except to people who have the same hobby.
This is also true of religion,
although you will not find me saying so in print.”
~ Dave Barry
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Today was my first effort at making onigiri.
Will report tomorrow.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Versailles w Will
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Short Essay
James Francis Durante (February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American actor, comedian, singer, vaudevillian, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and prominent nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s. He often referred to his nose as the schnozzola (Italianization of the American Yiddish slang word schnoz, meaning "big nose"), and the word became his nickname.
Childhood
Durante was born on the Lower East Side of New York City. He was the youngest of four children born to Rosa (Lentino) and Bartolomeo Durante, both immigrants from Salerno, Campania, Italy.[1] Bartolomeo was a barber.[2][3] Young Jimmy served as an altar boy at St. Malachy Roman Catholic Church, known as the Actor's Chapel.[4]
Early career
Durante dropped out of school in seventh grade to become a full-time ragtime pianist. He first played with his cousin, whose name was also Jimmy Durante. It was a family act, but he was too professional for his cousin. He continued working the city's piano bar circuit and earned the nickname "Ragtime Jimmy," before he joined one of the first recognizable jazz bands in New York, the Original New Orleans Jazz Band.[5] Durante was the only member not from New Orleans. His routine of breaking into a song to deliver a joke, with band or orchestra chord punctuation after each line, became a Durante trademark. In 1920 the group was renamed Jimmy Durante's Jazz Band.
Stardom
By the mid-1920s, Durante had become a vaudeville star and radio personality in a trio named Clayton, Jackson and Durante. Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson, Durante's closest friends, often reunited with Durante in subsequent years. Jackson and Durante appeared in the Cole Porter musical The New Yorkers, which opened on Broadway on December 8, 1930. Earlier the same year, the team appeared in the movie Roadhouse Nights, ostensibly based on Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest.
By 1934, Durante had a major record hit with his own novelty composition, "Inka Dinka Doo", with lyrics by Ben Ryan.[6] It became his theme song for the rest of his life. A year later, Durante starred on Broadway in the Billy Rose stage musical Jumbo. A scene in which a police officer stopped Durante's character—who was leading a live elephant across the stage—to ask "what are you doing with that elephant?", followed by Durante's reply What elephant?" was a regular show-stopper. Durante also appeared on Broadway in Show Girl (1929), Strike Me Pink (1934) and Red, Hot and Blue (1936).
Buster Keaton, Thelma Todd and Durante in Speak Easily (1932)
During the early 1930s, Durante alternated between Hollywood and Broadway. Outstanding among his early motion pictures was The Phantom President (1932), starring George M. Cohan with Durante as his gregarious pal. Durante then replaced Cliff Edwards as the comic foil in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Buster Keaton comedies: Speak Easily (1932), The Passionate Plumber (1932), and What! No Beer? (1933). The Keaton-Durante series was very successful and might have continued, but Keaton was experiencing personal problems including loss of control over his movies, alcohol abuse, and a messy divorce, so MGM fired Keaton and kept Durante. MGM gave Durante leads in moderately budgeted comedies like Meet the Baron (1933) and Hollywood Party (1934), but he couldn't carry an entire feature film; he was more effective as somebody's sidekick, and MGM released him in 1934.
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Definition of Today’s Word: onigiri
a Japanese dish consisting of small balls or triangles of rice stuffed with a pickled or salted filling, and typically wrapped in dried seaweed
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, October 3, 2022
Welcome to the 1,562nd consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Andor II
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Commentary
Vanity?
I’m leaving on the 16th of October.
I have scheduled the following:
2 applications of teeth whitening strips.
4 sessions in a tanning booth, 5 min per session
1 pedicure and manicure
and a haircut.
Will that onslaught of beauty aids make this 80-year-old man more attractive?
Tom Cruise, man.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base.”
~ Dave Barry
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
From our movie guru, Tucker J:
Hi Dom,
Again totally up to you but I had some thoughts on a new tv series called Andor that is set in the world of Star Wars. I hope I kept it interesting!
The Star Wars output hasn’t been interesting in quite some time and that’s coming from one of the franchises’ biggest fans. That isn’t to say the various films and tv series aren’t enormously popular, but they’ve taken on the appeal of primetime television.
Blog meister responds: We are so lucky. I can’t wait to start up the pilot episode.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I woke on Friday morning at 1.00am. After 20 minutes I knew I wasn’’t going back to sleep.
I got up and had my breakfast at 1.45am.
At 5.15am I made my main meal: Leftover turkey and linguini with Cacio e Pepe and a small plate of roast turkey, sweet potato, and asparagus. With a Bloody Mary @ 5.00am.
is that against the law?
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Versailles with Kat
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Short Essay
The Star Wars output hasn’t been interesting in quite some time and that’s coming from one of the franchises’ biggest fans. That isn’t to say the various films and tv series aren’t enormously popular, but they’ve taken on the appeal of prime time television. Simple stories told without much flash or skill meant to hit a common denominator demographic and increase subscriptions to Disney + and sell movie theater tickets. It’s been a disappointing time for someone who was raised on the magic of the original films and became a lifelong lover of the galaxy Star Wars presented. A place with unlimited potential for story telling thanks in part to its literally endless scope.
Andor, the newest tv series to fall under the Star Wars umbrella, is a horse of a different color though. It comes from series creator Tony Gilroy, who co-wrote Rogue One the film that serves as the eventual endpoint for Andor, who isn’t interested in telling a familiar story. Neither is he interested in stroking Star Wars fan’s egos by parading classic characters around on screen. Andor is about the birth of the Rebel Alliance but even more than the original films, this series sets out to show us the danger, terror, and potency of feeling it requires to stand up against the equivalent of Hitler’s Germany (if the Nazi’s controlled the entire world).
Working backward has not entirely worked in Star Wars’ favor recently. A pivot into spinoff series with predetermined endpoints has led to a frustrating feeling of narrative tedium (Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett) and, like the film series that inspired them, an over-reliance on the Skywalker name (The Mandalorian). Where’s the tension when you know that neither Princess Leia nor Obi-Wan is in any real danger? Where’s the heft when Boba Fett’s power struggle with a criminal gang feels so weightless? The secret to Andor’s success could be in the themes it chooses to focus on in its source material.
Rogue One’s impact stemmed from how it reminded viewers of the evil of the Empire as an institution outside of Jedi hunting. The Empire’s corruption and greed, its resource-stripping and dehumanization of worlds and peoples it deemed lesser-than — those qualities make it a threat to so many millions more than just those who use the Force. In centering that element of the Empire and those motivated to work for and against it, Andor opens a wealth of narrative possibilities for the world imagined in Rogue One and delivers them with intentional world-building, compelling character relationships, and gorgeous cinematography that proves that breaking away from fully computer-generated sets and locations, with which the other Star Wars series rely heavily on, was the right choice.
Gilroy and his team of writers have essentially made a version of his film, Michael Clayton in space, slotting Diego Luna’s Cassian into George Clooney’s fixer type — someone whose inspiration develops from personal survival to principled resistance — and the Empire into the role of a wealthy, lazy, and smug corporation pleased with its own ability to stamp out dissent. The allies who work with the resistance are creative, ruthless, and working-class: mechanics, junkyard foragers, refugees, and children of abandoned industry towns who organize networks of rebellion. The villains who work with the Empire are middle managers, administrators, and cops: authority figures who fret over whether the sectors and planets they control are meeting their arrest quotas and contractor security guards who yearn to be real Empire.
There has always been a line in the sand between the haves and have-nots in Star Wars, but too often of late, that differentiating point has been the ability to use the magic of the Force. Andor refocuses the attention back to a simple but effective idea of power in all its forms (occupation and colonialism, the illusion of democracy and the surrender to private industry), then weaves a web of characters who inject shades of gray into these binaries. “Special people are hard to find,” Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael tells Cassian in his recruitment pitch, but Andor, like Rogue One, actively rejects a “one hero to save us all” approach. Being miraculously gifted isn’t what’s needed most by the rebellion. It needs willfulness and willingness, and anyone, special or not, can have that.
This season seems to be structured in episodic blocks of three and each block is helmed by one director to build cohesion. That structure allows Gilroy and director Toby Haynes to set an initial sense of scale and scope before other writers and directors pick up where they left off and they lead us into Andor primarily through contrast. The lush jungle planet of Kenari, flashbacks to which show Cassian’s childhood, is oppositional to the Empire’s sterile Imperial Security Bureau headquarters, which is all gleaming glass and shades of white. The methodical way rebel leader Luthen disguises himself when slipping back into his life on Coruscant is at odds with the impetuousness of an ambitious cop Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), whose grudge against Cassian turns him reckless. And the series’ first scene, which evokes Blade Runner and Heat by opening with Cassian searching for someone in a brothel and ending in a double murder, is so comparatively serious for this universe that it instantly signals Andor’s intentions. Lives have been lost and will continue to be lost, because war isn’t on the horizon, it’s already here.
Luna was a scene-stealer in Rogue One and is mesmeric here in a role that requires Cassian to, at first, be a bit of a deadbeat — borrowing money from his friends and never paying them back; causing friction in the relationship between his presumed ex-girlfriend Bix (Adria Arjona) and her new beau, Timm (James McArdle); and worrying his adoptive mother, Maarva (Fiona Shaw), and droid B2EMO (built by Star Wars designer Neal Scanlan). The venom he imbues into anti-Empire dialogue — “They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine that someone like me would ever get inside their house” — is thrilling, but so is how Andor refuses to make Cassian noble right out of the gate. In Luna’s accomplished hands, he’s pricklier and more nuanced than that, and Andor gives the character space to expand who he can be while peering into his past, sketching out his present, and laying down a path for how he becomes the cunning spy of Rogue One. In taking time to grow its central character, Andor unveils an ensemble with characters who drive several intriguing subplots — in particular, Genevieve O’Reilly’s resistance-aligned Senator Mon Mothma and Faye Marsay as a rebel leader unsure of Cassian’s trustworthiness.
Those who have seen Rogue One know how part of this story ends, and Andor doesn’t rely on us forgetting that; But the series is better for that bluntness — and for the unapologetic way it rejects the reliance on nostalgia that has for so long defined this franchise. In Gilroy’s Michael Clayton, Clooney’s titular character insisted, “I’m not the enemy,” only to be asked “Then who are you?” Andor brings that same question to Star Wars, and the interiority and self-reflection it demands have created the most challenging and invigorating work in this galaxy in years.
By Tucker J
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Sunday, October 2, 2022
Welcome to the 1,561st consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Elaine Benes
photoshot of Elaine
bestuff.com
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Commentary
Kat and Will have had a great time in Paris.
They’ve learned a lot.
Have eaten well.
Had a wonderful time.
As the father, I am very happy for them.
I can’t wait for them to call me.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“Eating rice cakes is like chewing on a foam coffee cup,
only less filling.”
~ Dave Barry
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Wellness
After three months of excellent sleep without melatonin, my sleep pattern has degenerated into three hours sleep one night, and five hours the next. Not fun. Seriously thinking of resuming melatonin at a low level, like 5mg.
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Social Life
Now begins a quiet time before I leave for Japan on the 16th.
Only two meetings planned and both are business or technology driven.
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Kat sent a number of pictures.
I’ll be sharing them daily.
Blog meister responds: The pix are terrific.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I made a Grilled Brie Sandwich for LouLou and I ate a Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe with dark meat turkey chunks.
Awesome.
Giverney with Kat standing
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Short Essay*
Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend in the sitcom is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld, and she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer. Louis-Dreyfus received critical acclaim for her performance as Elaine, winning an Emmy, a Golden Globe and five SAG Awards. She reprised the role during season 41 of Saturday Night Live in 2016.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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