Oakland

About 15 years ago when I was living in Oakland, CA, I shared a house with about five people.  One was a young Mexican man; he was about 19.

Like many young people in the Oakland/Berkeley area, he was very vocal about his views as well as being pretty radical.   He worked at Whole Foods in Berkeley under an assumed identity because he had come to this country illegally.  His assumed identity included several (four or five) fake dependents.  Even at the time, I was baffled that he was able to do this.  I have no idea who provided him with this identity or what if any legal repercussions followed him or ever caught up to him.  But he pretty much made his paycheck tax-free, lived a great life, and very soon married a cute Berkeley American-born undergraduate woman to become a legal resident.

Many young people (myself included) have ridiculous ideas about authority.  This young man never restrained himself while taking almost any opportunity to bash the USA.  He clearly felt victimized, “anti-American” and very much deserving of ripping us off.  He was a classic “punk.”  Whether he has outgrown this or not, I have no idea.  But it always bothered me for reasons that are probably too obvious to bear explanation.

Now, this is broad, and maybe stupid…but generally I really like Mexico and its people.  I love color.  I love art.  I love music and I love what I know of their culture. I have known many Mexican/American people, but none that well.  (I knew this young man better than I have known others).  And I am by no means in favor of aggressive, alienating Nationalism.

And I am no Trump fan.  Basically, to me, he is clearly mentally ill.  You might say it takes one to know one.  And I accept that.  It may.  As far as I can tell and based on my experience, he is not right in the head, clearly unstable and not fit to run the country.

That said, I see a lot of noise coming from California and others about Trump’s immigration policies.  But I keep thinking about that kid I knew.  It’s not that he just stole from “us," and I mean all of us, but most especially those of us who work hard for a paycheck we need.  He was such a punk.  Stealing from us with one hand and exercising his (his?) right to free speech out of the other side of his mouth all the while.  

Yes, just one example.  But also the only example I personally know of firsthand.

I don’t know what the answer is.  I think it is certainly not war, or anything like it.  But I feel like the truth has sometimes been understated, on both sides.

"Obamacare" not repealed March 24 2017

President Trump:  Here’s some advice.  Take “Obamacare” and fix it.  Leave everything in place and make it better. 

History will give President Obama the credit he’s due.  If you grow up, take the baton, and make something good/better for the people and country (notice, not insurance companies) you represent, maybe you will get some credit too.  

TV- two reviews in one

I’ve been watching The Feud / Betty and Joan for the last couple of weeks on tv.  It’s a mini-series depicting the making of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane with Betty Davis and Joan Crawford.  Jessica Lange plays Betty Davis and Susan Sarandon plays Joan Crawford.

(TV was different when I was growing up.  Every year we’d watch the same Big movies when they came on.  And it was usually a pretty fun ordeal.

• ·         Wizard of Oz
• ·         Oklahoma
• ·         Helter Skelter

And yes, I remember clearly watching Whatever Happened to Baby Jane several times.  Betty Davis is so terrifying.  And, who knows, maybe it was just on tv a lot.)

So, that said, I am enjoying watching the Making of this movie with these two great actresses – Sarandon and Lange playing Crawford and Davis.  It’s high caliber television, good acting, mixed with whatever cultural disease I too possess that makes me very interested in the private lives of celebrities.

The main premise of the series is that “the feud” was spurred on by the studio execs who thought the public would be more interested in these old washed up female movie stars if there were cat-fights and on-going caddy-ness involved.  So they leaked stories, etc to the media to really bolster and spread this idea, eventually causing the women to hate each other and really go after each other.

Anyhow, the series isn’t over, so I don’t know exactly what happens, but I am proud and moved by Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates (she’s in it too), Catherine Zeta Jones (she’s in it too) – for making such an amazing statement of what its like to be a female, to want to work, to want to succeed, to want to be independent in a man’s world.  And, as far as I can tell, it’s not that much different today, (at least not in my life) which is the real point, I believe behind the reason these actresses are telling this story.  

Quantum Leap.  That said, so I was slightly amused and, even, snagged like a fish, when I read somewhere this week that Reese Witherspoon is very angry at Nicole Kidman for not promoting their HBO series (Big Little Lies) as much as Reese believes Nicole should be.  The quote (which was probably BS) had Reese complaining that Nicole was only promoting her movie Lion and selfishly, she was letting Big Little Lies fall to the waste side.  Said Reese (something to the effect), I never would have cast Nicole, if I didn’t think she’d do her part.

Sounds like the studios are taking a play out of the old play book.  Let’s hype the personal drama between these ladies so people might start tuning in.  Call it serenditpity, a sign?  I decided right then and there I would watch it.

That said, I congratulate Reese and Nicole.  It’s another amazing series.  Again, it’s a feminist series.  More so then I can put into words.  I just feel like there’s been a lot of glossing over real issues and reality in my lifetime when it comes to feminism and life.  Yeah, maybe there has been progress.  But maybe, in a lot of ways, there has not.

Sometimes when I really like a show, I google it to read what other people are saying.  So this morning I googled Big Little Lies and the first thing I saw was a review in the NY Times.

Well, the guy, Mike Hale, panned it.  Basically, he said it was cliché, upper middle class angst.  But, honestly, I don’t think he actually watched it.  He was probably turned off by the location (Monterey, CA), the mostly white people, the drama of the story, etc., etc.  And, why did the NY Times have a guy review it anyway?

To me it’s not a story about rich people (which I’m not), or white people (which I am), but a story about women and how powerless even in this modern society we sometimes feel, and all the different means and through the different canals that powerlessness can seep into and out of our lives.  I know I have strongly felt that way.  And I can tell Reese, Nicole, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley, and even Alexander Skarsgard have felt that way (or have empathy for those who have).  It’s awesome.  It’s a powerhouse.

And that Mike Hale, the NY Times critic, so easily and casually dismissed the whole thing is like the joke inside the joke.  Really guy?

I hope Reese and Nicole (et al) know their show means something.  I saw it.  I got it.  And I appreciate it, from the bottom of my heart. 

Spice

For a long time, my cooking spices have gnawed at me.  They were a motley bunch of grocery store, international store, and some organic bottled spices.  I even had a spice rack that I filled with small glass jarred spices from World Market.

But, I always wondered, how old are these spices and where do they come from.  Honestly, most of them, even when first bought, felt old, or possibly so, and then, what, it would take me a year or more to wind through the whole bottle, only to purchase another questionable jar.  In the back of my mind, it was more than a gnawing, I was grossed out.  But it was one of those things I let simmer a long time, before actually doing anything about it.

Then one day I googled it and sure enough, like a lot of things that gnaw at me, those spices weren't anything I wanted to be consuming.  Evidently, spices aren't even FDA regulated.  They could be grown anywhere, with anything.  And then even when they are fresh they only have a short shelf life, like 3 or 4 months, after which they become rancid and basically you are eating stale bad food.

Something I should have done years ago:

One thing I will say, the bottles from World Market are cute.  So, I dumped out what was left of their original contents, ran them through the dishwasher, and headed to the local healthy food market to purchase just enough to refill my World Market bottles about 1/3 of the way up with fresh organic spice.

It's one of those little things you do in life (finally!) that can bring you (me!) such inexplicable pleasure.  Why it took me so long, I don't know.  But....it's done!

I'm no math whiz

But I think the shape of my face is a dodecagon or {12}, if you will.