My City by the Bay....

Mixing a little business with pleasure this weekend - and since Deoborah's b-day and mine is a week apart (in a week's time) I asked her to come up to San Francisco where I had a meeting to re-meet the City we discovered while working for a major airline some 17 years ago.

In those days while I was in SF "doing deals" she could just come up on stand-by on the airline and meet me whereever. That's when we fell in love with California and spent many days out here in Napa, Monterrey et al. In fact I'll be in Monterrey for acoinvention in two weeks as well

We have an office in the Oakland area but it makes it very easy to blow into SF and up to wherever we want - so we're doing it this time. The typical sutff around town on Friday and Napa on Saturday.

And I just found out its Gay Pride week as well.

Maybe I can go boo Barry while I'm here.

The Masters

It’s Master’s Week and maybe most of you are going Wha? Why are your husbands/boyfriends huddled around the TV like the Pope just came into town – well maybe not exactly like that – but it is an holy deal – and you don’t know really why.

It’s because the Master’s is the Holy Grail of golf – if you win it you are a Knight forever. It is that special; and I think I just categorized it better than any other professional fucking sports writer.

I’m not going to go though the history - pick up your local sports page – they will tell you. What I will go though a bit is what happened 20 years ago to this day – the most amazing Master of all – and I saw it while reveling in the man himself.

Jack Nicklaus. The only really great golfer.

In college we would revere the weekend by donning green and drinking gin and tonics – anything to reflect the green jacket they would give the winner – it started for us that soon! Brad, Rock and Cecil.

I was in may apartment in Houston working on a golf flyer for a friend’s golf tournament when I saw 46-year old Jack Nicklaus come back from 6-down on the back nine to roll in a 20-foot birdie putt to birdie the 17th hole and win the “86 Masters .

One of the greatest sports wins of all time.

Nuff said. Watch on Sunday.

I wrote the above on Friday after seeing everybody crammed in the Oakland Airport bar trying to see who was doing what in the late second round. It reminded me of the universal appeal the tournament has. Some guy next to me said some no name was in the lead and that former Houstonian Fred Couples at 46 years old was still in the hunt. "In-fucking-credible" he said.

Now its minutes before the final round on Sunday. Saturday's play was delayed by weather so they had to finish the third early Sunday. Couples is in the final pairing with Phil Mickelson with Tiger only two back. Freddie can actually take over the title of oldest player to win the Masters from Jack if he wins today (by three months). They in fact just replayed Jack's win onTV a few moments ago - wow 20 years ago - that seems like a lifetime. And one of my favorite years. But that's another story.

This Sunday that has been set up for the Master's is one of the best in recent years with alot of names and storylines near the top of the leaderboard. Its shaping up to be historic again. The gin-and-tonics are ready. I can't wait.

Pride of the Yankees

On last Friday night two forces collided. Deborah’s love for anything black and white on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and my sports. Deborah would like to go asleep to TCM while I would be happy to go asleep to ESPN.

So on Friday night one of the greatest movies of all time came on – “Pride of the Yankees” - its black and white –its TCM and it sports. The greatest sports story of all time. No kidding.

If you don’t know – its about Lou Gehrig – the Iron Man – he got recruited right out of Columbia to play for the Yanks (in order to pay for his mother’s surgery). He replaced Wally Pipp at frist base (one of the all time trivia quesitons) and played a successive 2,130 games that was not surpassed on until Baltimore’s Cal Ripken surpassed it in adjulent applause in 1980 or something,

The movie is something else – what a great cut of the day this provides us. European
immigrants providing their son everything and wanting their son to be above all things – an engineer. Ohh god. Kiss of death – that engineering thing.

And because Lou’s Mom gets sick he decides to sign with the Yankees to pay her hospital bills. And the rest is history.

Lou Gehrig became one of the most prolific sluggers of all time – and teamed with Babe Ruth they formed the most formable batting duo known to man and the baseball world. And they kept the newspaper press world happy all of the time.

And one of the greatest thing of this movie is the REAL Babe Ruth was in it. You could see the greatest sluuger of all time in real life.

Hey Deborah – the Babe is in this movie.

Oh yeah – who plays him ?

No the Babe is in this movie.

Yeah but who plays him?

No it’s the fucking Babe and he’s right here. Gary Cooper is eating his hat right there. (Gary Cooper – what a great real life American).

Then he got sick.

And he gave the speech known around the world.

While knowing he was dying within months he told the Yankee stadium throng gathered that day that he was the “luckiest man” who ever lived. In probably the most televised and repeated speech of all time.

Never braver words have ever been told,

"Or Am I Standing Still?"

Don’t know if you’re catching the latest version of the Sopranos. When it first came out we watched it pretty religiously like the rest of the cable nation but then it got strung out and winded and we lost interest. And of course it was GONE for two years. That may have has something to do with it. Such that when it came back out a week or two ago I was fairly numbed by the hoopla. Sopranos is back – big deal. Show the game.

Well I read a review of the first episode where Tony got shot and I had to watch. In a TV way I’m sort of glued to HBO because I have to watch my boyze on Entourage (Yo Drama!) so I’ll go a round or two with Tony. But I thought Episode 2 was fairly fascinating.

After Junior, in an Alzheimer’s haze, shoots Tony in Episode 1 we know he’s basically going to be on death watch for awhile. But Episode 2 starts of with Tony as Joe Regular Bidnessman attending a conference in Costa Mesa (just down the road here). Seeing Tony attending a conference and wishing he can get in to hear the first speaker is a far cry from Bada Bing. Seeing him sit at the bar trying to wile away the hours of another boring business trip was a grand juxtaposition as well. And if even before he went through the missing identity bit in the program I turned to Deborah and said “He’s in purgatory”.

One of my favorite words – and a funny favorite word for a term that essentially means the holding place between heaven and hell. And growing up Catholic I should know it well. Hell, getting to purgatory would be good.

Or am I already there.

My mother thinks we live in hell already. Well maybe only 50.1% of her thinks that way. But the girl who was schooled by nuns likes to think that way at times. Especially when there's cork in her Cabernet.

If you hadn’t seen the show, Tony is lying in a coma but you see him dreaming in this alternative state that has him at this business conference in Costa Mesa which interestingly enough shows local (and typical SoCal) burning brushfire images on the TV in the bar. Hell or heaven?

Deal or no deal? (I 'm also kind of interested in the notion that Costa Mesa is potentially hell).

In this netherworld Tony also loses his wallet so he has no ID and cannot get on a plane and leave or check into a hotel and stay. He has to borrow the identity (credit card) of someone else to hang around. Admittedly he is no one.

No one and still hanging around.

Ever feel like that? (I mean that explains my last three weeks!?) Is my angst just dripping? For some of us who travel alot this is amost what it feels like - always going someplace but frankly not going anywhere. When Tony is sitting there at the bar I imagined myself just last week - and a thousand other weeks. He later tells a group of fellow conventioneers in the bar (fellow "purgators" - or should say "purgatorians") that he just turned 46 and he still didn't know where he was going. Hey I got two more years on that one Ton.

Aaah fuhgedaboutit.

I had planned a longer rant but college basketball still beckons - and I think you get my drift. Tony will do okay - he's still got two more seasons.

Dookies

Duke lost tonight. They have the best college basketball program in the nation. They do it right and Coach K. is the best coach in the land. He's gracious in winning and defeat and he gets guys who will play in his system. J. J. Reddick - the player of the year - had an awful game tonight - LSU got to him big time. Sad. Very sad.


Go Zags.

Okay. They lose too. Up by 17 and lose!? Unbelievable. Tragic. Horror. Unsettling.

I think I'm swearing off sports. I can't handle it anymore.

Safe Harbor?

Confused about the Dubai Port deal? Unfortunately everyone is - go to this place for one hard opinion.

Or go here.

"Cradle Your Head in Your Hands"

"...and breathe. Just breathe."

We lost a big project last week. The company had been following it for three years. The real hard work started last July. I spent three weeks in Houston in October working on the proposal. We were supposedly favored - teams actually dropped out because of our presence. It came down to us and another firm - we interviewed twice - sandwiched around Christmas. We answered four sets of official written questions and we were told last Thursday that the other guys won. And they still won't tell us why. I still had to go to City Council this Monday and give a few words on how it was a shame that City Council could not even SEE what we did or what the winner did since it will all be clouded as the staff spends the next several months negotiating with the other team while we are the back-up. Meaning something sort of smells.

So we just didn't lose - we sort of got fucked.

"Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable, and life's like an hourglass glued to the the table. No one can find the rewind button boys, so cradle your head ....."

And this sort of cost me - comissions, stature and blah blah blah. And this other company has now become somewhat of an archrival because we are the only two left in the industry who do all of the the things we do. Sort of like Ali/Frazier ("Down goes Frazier!"). So I have been in a bit of mild shock the past week- followed by depression and seemingly missing certain components of my personality. Today my sense of humour finally reappeared - after awhile the human psyche just naturally rebounds.

"And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd cause the words are my diary screaming out loud and I know that you'll use them however you want to...."

But what really sucked was having to spend all weekend knowing I would still have to fly up there for a City Council meeting and, without sounding like sour grapes, make a point as to how strange the procurement process was. That also meant I had to stay up there that night and fly back in the morning without much will to work or do anything else. And frankly when I get real depressed about certain situations there is only one thing I like to do at all.

And that's go to Costco.

I never discovered Costco or Sam's until I moved out here and it took me a couple of years to finally sign up but I became hooked. "Making a Costco Run" is one of my favorite terms of all time. And you have to because you cannot live out here by just going to the grocery store - going to the grocery store out here is like buying everything at 7-11 - it's horrible. So it makes great sense to buy in bulk - even if you are just buying for two.

I don't want to really go through the number of staples I rely on Costco for - except to say they are large and come in bottles - but really the meat section is the best in town and I love just buying pallets of canned goods that we can stash away. Being a former restaurant worker in high school and college I like inventory. I like knowing that if I want to make my world famous spaghetti at two in the morning I have Contadina tomato paste and pasta on hand. Thank God it comes in a 24 pack.

I believe in value. I love the grocery store also but I frown on buying a little bottle of A-1 there when I can get the double-value pack for almost the same price at Costco. I will however wait and wait until they put the Chunky Soup on sale at almost a third off and buy about a hundred - that's value - and when the locusts come we'll be set up.

Sing it if you understand.

And breathe.

Just breathe.

Oscars 2006

Ok – here we go with the Hard Place Boffo Bloggo Oscar Picks for 2006.

Frankly with all of the award shows that go on nowadays its is not really that hard to handicap “most” races. Golden Globes tells you one thing – I think SAG (Screen Actor’s Guild – and its only been around for 8 years) really tells you another thing. However, it has been interesting as I perused one entertainment periodical and I could not believe all of the diverse selections (and hackneyed reasons behind those selections) that various directors, producers and actors gave for their Oscar picks. Well, I’m neither so here goes:


Best Supporting Actor – Paul Giamatti. Frankly if it goes to anybody else it’s a travesty. The guy gave great performances in American Splendor (not nominated) and Sideways (nominated but didn’t win) so he’s beyond overdue. And regardless of that he was fabulous in Cinderella Man – which by the way is an excellent movie and if idiot whathisname didn’t throw a phone at a hotel clerk it would have been nominated as well – I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE GREAT INDIFFERENCE this movie received. Clooney? Get real. (You can’t give an acting Oscar to guy who started off in 1980’s “Hardbodies” (remember that kids?).

Best Supporting Actress – Rachael Weiss. Can’t imagine that they would give it to anyone else after the previous award shows – although I do like Michelle Williams quiet agony in Brokeback (but a Dawson’s Creek alum? Not yet mister). Rachael very much carries the film with her nobility and grace in a plot line that I had to nudge Deborah several times to ask what the hell was going on. That’s Oscar material like English Patient. Nice bath scene too.

Best Actor – Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I haven’t seen it yet! Capote was our last movie to go see among the best picture nominees but we had appliances delivered last weekend costing our last chance to go see it before this Sunday. Great Odin’s Beard! But the guy has been great in so many things (and SAG voted for him so we must be right) and I just want the guy who drove the TV/media van in Twister to win. And when he does and staggers up there to the podium I want him to turn to the audience and go “Losers!”

“Looo-oooosers”. (Welcome to the “suck zone”.)


Best Actress – Reese Witherspoon. Well I’ll have to admit I do think Reese is as cute as a button and I liked her ever since “Election” some eight years ago – so I’m pretty amazed that the Academy and all of these other groups have pretty much embraced her as a favorite – and she swept Golden Globe and SAG. So she would probably have to break a heel to lose. I saw “Walk the Line” on a plane (always a tough place to gauge a movie – and frankly I thought the movie was so slow and depressing I wanted to kill myself with a plastic knife) but when Reese’s June Carter came on she just lit it up – with that and her real life singing she gets the nod. Now if Joaquin could just lighten up himself.

Best Movie – Brokeback Mountain. Ok, I lied – I didn’t see Munich either but I feel it only got nominated because Spielberg called in every favor he had in Hollywood to at least get invited to the party. That movie got so vilified in the press here that it certainly lost its soul somewhere along the way. Liked “Good Night and Good Luck” for its smoke filled room feel and dramatic authenticity to the time but it was actually rather a light film at the end. Capote’s screenplay was written by the actor who played the engaged son on the great farce The Birdcage (and he actually might win) but no best film here. We saw Crash when it first came out and we really liked it – very cool feel, music, cinematography and a narrative web woven with articulate detail. I am very happy it got nominated and the buzz is that it actually has a chance. But I don’t see them stopping the Brokeback juggernaut – too much steam. Although a lot of producer director types might favor Crash instead. I’ll go with the movie about Wyoming filmed in Canada because of all of that rural starkness I spoke of before - but would be happy with either.

Like last year this is your “one” race. Enjoy it.

Looooosers.

A Pair of Queens

Speaking of Brokeback, did you hear the one about the two queens hanging out by the docks. Well we did because it was right down the hill from us at the Port of Los Angeles.

The luxury liner Queen Mary 2 came out to LA to “meet” with its predecessor the original Queen Mary that is now perennially dry-docked at the Long Beach Harbor. You may have read about in the papers. To those of us huddled around the great harbor this was sort of a big deal – similar to when the tall ships come in.

We live up on the hill of the Palos Verdes Peninsula on the harbor side – the one LA landmark no one knows about. When I first moved out here I lived near Century City in the heart of West LA in a fairly Jewish berg named Beverlywood (and I often think that residents would rent me their houses there because I could actually pass for being Jewish – dark curly hair , sometimes pasty white) – six blocks from Rodeo Drive. At night we could go party on Sunset Boulevard and glide home through carefully landscaped Beverly Hills streets in 12 minutes flat past Pico – my favorite LA street. In the mornings I marveled at the way I could take the I-10 out to the ocean on a wide-open Saturday morning and be on the Venice Pier instantly. I did that once and looked to the South and said to myself – what the fuck is that down yonder?

And I live there now – and we love the South Bay feel - greatly. Such that if a Port event happens we are right there. I drive by the bay on the way to work and could see the traffic signs out for a big QE2 event but I didn’t really know what was going on. I had been traveling so much I just wanted to make sure I made my Yoga class held at the old MacArthur military base located up the hill.

Meanwhile Deborah made a beeline to the shore with her friend Sharon - who, by the way, is our favorite longshoreman. A good time was had by all.

But while they were watching the historic boat I was doing Down Dog.

Dog, Yo.

(Stay tuned for my Oscar picks this Tuesday!)

"Not That There's Anything Wrong with That"

Saw Brokeback this weekend – and I am outraged.

Well, not at the film – I thought it was a thought provoking pastoral tale of angst-ridden love primarily set in the 60’s and 70’s. What I am a bit miffed at is that I could barely hear the first half of the movie over the constant munching, talking, paper-rattling and baby-crying that goes on at today’s movie theatres. Maybe I’m a bit thin-skinned about this but I do think this is the primary reason people may be “staying away” from the theatres (if you actually believe that is true - that's another post). Now if it’s a big action flick like Mission Impossible 14 maybe I can put up with somebody shaking the ice in their soda cup throughout the entire movie. But when it is relatively a quiet film, like Brokeback, well this behavior borders on the unruly.

The previous weekend we saw “Good Night and Good Luck” – another quiet film – so quiet I could hear the movie next door plain as day. Deb and I like to sit in about the fourth row back in the middle – this means generally no one in back of us (you know the last row before the walkway that separates the nosebleeds from us) and a lot of times no one in front of us – seems that most people do not like to sit that close. Well, at the last minute a couple comes and sits in front of us – which is not big deal, except that the guy has a big head and well….

What was interesting is that they are a part of a disturbing trend to me – and that is of the movie picnicker’s. I mean they had every food group that could be imagined: chips, sodas, water, candies, popcorn – and Deborah swears they had grilled Rueben sandwiches or shish-kabobs down there. This menu also entails a lot of movement and thrashing around in front of us while Edgar R. Murrow and his producer are trying to singlehandedly take down McCarthy. I wanted to say “Excuse me I don’t think this is how George Clooney imagined this movie going experience.” And yeah I could hear the space aliens attack in the movie next door.

Thankfully I got through that movie without making a citizen’s arrest. At Brokeback we are sitting in the same place when a couple again comes in at the last minute and shares our row – no big deal, at least they’re not in front of us. Now this movie is fairly slow and it starts out even slower – so you really need to soak in the solitary world that Ang Lee so convincingly conveys on screen to really see how this romance started.

But that’s pretty hard when you have popcorn lady over here to my left munching away (as we are visually presented majestic mountain vistas and canyons and lakes) and shuffling around making her own space over there. And then she’s got this move – the “I’ll just shake this three-pound bag of popcorn to – I dunno – move it around some more” – what is all of this shaking about? Seven times during the movie - out comes the bag – the seemingly endless supply of popcorn and the shake (well at least I can’t hear the movie next door over the shake). I just wanted to say, “Excuse me miss, but I just can’t hear Heath mutter that well over all of this...shaking.”

Then there is a new item that has just been introduced at theatres (or they were smuggled in but it seemed like a lot of them) soda in cans which means at any time of the movie – “metal scraping” and then “pop”! Sounded like a tailgate party to me. What marketing genius came up with this one?

And I haven’t even told you about the crying baby. “Hey Margaret – let’s go take our three-month old child to see Brokeback Mountain!” “Okay – and I’ll bring the beers with the poptops. And don’t forget the Ruebens!” That baby was in and out of that theater about four times.

As for the movie - it was good. In the early goings on I kept bracing for the gratuitous sex scene but it wasn’t that bad, but the anticipation was. And frankly I couldn’t pay attention because of popcorn lady anyway. As the mass eating died off toward the middle of the movie I was taken with the juxtaposition of these guys hanging out in a great natural setting and then, at least in Heath’s case, going back to a life of significant squalor. I enjoyed the rural depiction of this Wyoming setting and the simple life of that town. Much of it reminded me of the untold stories suggested by painter Andrew Wyeth in his stark rural masterpieces. Ang Lee shot a terrific looking film which shows both the magnificent and the plain. And the lovelorn.

The movie next door sounded good, too.

Outrage of the Week

Sort of pissed of about what happened this week? Me too. Check this out.

Valentine's Day Fable #1

Before I moved to Texas (in the middle of sixth grade) I spent my formative years on the East Coast: upstate New York, Baltimore and New Jersey - Westfield, New Jersey to be exact - fifth grade and half of sixth. My parents were both New Yorkers so when my Dad eventually got transfered back to New York from Maryland (oil man) we found ourselves in the perfect Jersey bedroom town of Westfield - complete with sweeping majestic bungalows, city parks and a picture perfect downtown village (I went back for the first time 25 years later in '95 and couldn't believe how much it had stayed the same over the years).

So that's right - my father took the train in every day to Manhatten and back (I can almost hear Sheena Easton right now). We lived on an idylic corner near the park in a two-story colonial with black shutters and a backyard that wrapped around the corner. Now do you now what this meant to little fifth-graders in the throes of a Northeast winter - say around February 14th?

Yup - snow shovelin'. That's alot of sidewalk for a kid with that layout I just described. And that was my job the previous weekend - and I thought I did good, but apparently not good enough.

So I think Valentine's Day that year was on a Tuesday also - Mom had prepared a special dinner and was even dressed up and all (pearl earrings, brooch, bracelet) when she ran to the door to welcome father - home from a long bruising train ride.

But it wasn't good ole Dad. It was a policeman. Mother swears to this day she almost kissed the guy - which would have probably made Officer Hanley's day. Seems old Mrs. McGillicuddy almost fell outside on the sidewalk which was now icing up on one of the coldest VD days I ever knew. Officer Hanley wrote Mom a ticket. Improper snow shovelin'. Not quite a candy heart.

Of course, when Dad got home this put a mild damper on VD festivities. I had a bit of responsiblity here, so I was sweating it - but the big point was how could anybody give somebody's wife a snow shovelin' violation ticket on VD day! We will have our day in court godwillin'.

And so we did - after a week or two of mapping out proper court strategy (and I know there was one but I can't begin to remember now) Dad waged a great campaign to the judge in court that day and only had to pay court fees - or half the ticket which I think came out to $12.50. A grand victory. But - it's the principle you see. And because of this I became very much an expert snowshoveler, pretty much by need - because this could never happen again, mind you.

We moved to Texas within a year. And I have never needed that skill set since. I'm a damn good sweeper though.

Happy Valentine's Day.

A Real Winner

Michelle Kwan showed what the Olympic spirit is all about with her fairly expedient withdrawl from the 2006 Winter Games due to injury - and in a time frame where the alternate, Emily Hughes, could prepare herself for a good run in 10 days time. Nine-time national champion Kwan has been recovering from injury and was not able to compete in the national trials for the Olympic team but was nevertheless selected by the national committee to compete primarily due to her professionalism and to hopefully see her through to the long-elusive gold medal (she got silver in Nagano '98 and bronze in Salt Lake City ' 02).

After participating in opening day ceremonies Friday night she hit the practice ice the next morning only to injure her groin. Almost immediately she knew her chances to compete at full strength were dashed even though the preliminaries were ten days away. That night she withdrew herself from the games so alternate Hughes could get on board. In early Sunday morning interviews she was asked about her quest for the gold and how could she give it up - and she responded "well you just have to have a love for the sport - and I respect the Olympics too much not to go at full strength".

Of course the press had sort of a field day with this. "Shake up at the Olympics" blared one local news team this morning! NBC's Bob Costas and others debated her place in ice skating histroy (because at 25 that is pretty much it) and although everyone wanted to give her kudos "she didn't win Olympic Gold". Exactly WHEN did this become the barometer for anything! What she did this weekend will be remembered more than any Olympic Gold. She didn't even flinch in taking herself out on the same day she got injured - didn't wait to dwell about it ad nauseum and create any drama - she just did it.

And that's the sign of a true champion.

Grammy Award Winner

Wow - our little Texas girl did it - she wasn't there for the big one but she won two big others - and beat the best. Wow - our little girl did it. There is a God. And he's from the big state.

And did anybody notice that Mary J. Blige cannot fucking sing?

Please see below as well (I spent alot of time on it expecting nothing).

And if you don't comment, I'll hunt you down - well you know - down to Chinatown. Fokker.