Friday, January 22, 2016

Evanston: the perfect couple: Windyty resisted; a beast and musicians


        I wonder if John McCain does not often awaken in the middle of the night covered in a guilty cold sweat at the monster he unleashed upon this nation.  If not, he should.
        When Sarah Palin was on the ballet for Vice President I wrote that if she were elected I would apply to New Zealand for political refugee status as coming from a failed state.
        As you undoubtedly known, this week Mrs. Palin endorsed Donald Trump for President.  Of course she did.  They are a perfect couple.  If he is the Republican nominee, she should be his running mate.  It is a match made in heaven.  Tea Party heaven.  Or perhaps another place.
        If Donald Trump is elected President, the United States is over, and I will certainly be applying for refugee status in New Zealand.
        If that makes me sound like a Democrat, I’m not.  I don’t like Hillary Clinton either.  She is just another lawyer and wouldn’t even be considered as a presidential candidate had she not married Bill, who has charisma, but as President did nothing more than preside over an economic bubble and lie about sex.
        I am so glad I am going to be at sea most of the rest of this year.
        Good luck to the rest of you.

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        A year ago Suzanne—not the one I married twice, but another,  though I do like the name—emailed me about windyty.com.  I bookmarked the site and wrote about it in the journal, but I haven’t visited it lately.  
        Martin in England just emailed me that the site has recently undergone significant changes and improvements.  I checked and he is right.

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        Self-righteousness and outrage have become the new normal.  I suspect that the Internet is at blame, though perhaps the outrage was always there and the Internet just provides an easy means of expression.  But people have definitely come to believe that they have the right to be outraged.  I would write that people should calm down, get a grip, have some perspective, that stupidity multiplied a billion times does not result in wisdom.  But I realize that those of you reading this are not those people.
        According to what poses as the evening news, one of the things that causes outrage now is the absence of black actors and films nominated for the Academy Awards.  
        In the scale of the universe I doubt this is of much importance, but Carol and I watched BEASTS OF NO NATION on Netflix, and Idris Elba, formerly of the THE WIRE and LUTHER, did an excellent job of acting.  Certainly worthy of nomination.
        The film itself deserves nomination as one of the best of the year.  Set in an unnamed African country, because this has happened in many, it is about children kidnapped and turned into soldiers.  There is inevitable brutality in the film, but it is not exploited or overly dwelled upon.
        THE BEAST OF NO NATION is well worth watching even if it wasn’t nominated.

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        Also worth watching is MOZART IN THE JUNGLE, a series on Amazon Prime. 
        This jungle is not the Africa of BEAST OF NO NATION, but New York, where a new conductor, similar to the Venezuelan, Gustavo Dudamel of the Los Angles Philharmonic, has been appointed.
        One does not need to care about classical music to enjoy the series.  One does need to care about the passionate pursuit of excellence which is one of the traits I most admire about musicians, and others.
        MOZART IN THE JUNGLE is not going to make you laugh as much as SEINFELD, but it is an entertaining comedy about a serious subject.
        There are two seasons.  Both available, at least in the U.S., for free with Amazon Prime.