Daily Archives: January 7, 2008

Art and Culture, Politics, Woolly Mammoths

The Buddhist After-Life and the Killing Fields

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25  93%  27%  omph NNW bar 29.77 windchill25  Winter

                  New Moon

Had a summary of our gathering (Woollies) at the Istanbul Bistro, but lost in a multiple cascading of Internet Explorer browser pages.  Probably a sign I should go back to Firefox.  I used to use it, then I abandoned it, used it again, and abandoned it again.  Just like Darth Vader I keep coming back to the evil empire.

Mark, Warren, Paul, Tom, Frank, Bill and Stefan showed up.  We spoke of politics and Rome, of Green Knights present and long dead. A brief comment was made about the Istanbul not being a sportsbar, a positive.  It’s quiet and it has a round table around which this latter day collection of Knights Errant can sit.  That does mean knights in error, doesn’t it?

Mark has a gig in Bangkok designing teen sex exhibitions for Unesco/Thailand.  It’s a campaign to promote safe sex in a nation where AIDS among youngsters has become a problem again.  After that he will return to the US, then go back to Cambodia to construct an exhibit near the killing fields, one dealing with the Buddhist afterlife.  To continue the international theme Paul Strickland will host a trip to Syria in November and his organization will co-host a trip with the Hindu Temple of Maple Grove to Southern India.  Stefan chimed in with the fact that he’s taking his kids to Rome to visit a person he knows who works in the American Embassy there.  Makes for good dinner table conversation.  Those who’d been to Rome all agreed the most memorable moment was the first coffee. 

We discussed the political scene.  All of us were happy with the real choices represented by the candidates.  Of course, SuperTuesday will eliminate any chance for us to pariticipate in candidate selection and after we will have 7 months of attack ads, but right now it is glorious.  Tom wondered if any of us had supported any candidates financially.  Frank said, yes, he and Mary had sent money to Obama.

Warren reported good news about his mom and dad.    

 The retreat and a theme came up, but we put it off until Paul’s.  Mark will not attend since he’s got to be in Thailand the first week of February.  I’m leaving early for Hawai’i.  One of those years.

 Forgot to mention here I watched Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast the other night. It’s one of the Janus Films collection I got for my 60th birthday, 50 films from 50 years of their distribution of foreign films in the US.  This movie floats across the mind like a dream, a fairy tale given form and substance.  It’s images have remained with me.  It sat in my DVD player for a long time because I didn’t want to watch it; but, like each one of the films from the collection I’ve watched it had its own unique charm.

Art and Culture, Family, GeekWorld

Lovecraft Meets Sigurd Olson

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39  74%  29%  0mph NNW  bar29.59 steady 39windchill  Winter

               New Moon

New technology takes some time to absorb.  This setup has optical links, which I’ve never used before, and the cables I have don’t work with the receptacles situated on the DVD player, TV and audio receiver.  So, back to Ultimate Electronics.  Then, since I’m using an HDMI connector with the cable HD service the box Comcast has with the HDMI cable is the DVR which costs more.  Of course.  And so on into acronym chaos.

As luck would have it, however, the Woollies meet in Minnetonka tonight at the Istanbul Bistro.  The route to there from here takes me both both Comcast and Ultimate so I should have all the supplies necessary to put this puppy to bed by tomorrow.  The speaker connections are all in place, the subwoofer is ready to woof and I’m ready to hear the damn raindrops.

No joy on the Asia tour as a result though I do have a plan:  faith traditions of Asia.  I’ll hit the Ghandara Buddha, the Mandala (tour requested), Poet Contemplating the Waterfall, Confucius, Kuan Yin, Pocket Buddha, Jizo and the Divine Rainmaking Boy.  

The Gunflint story progresses nicely.  Sort of HP Lovecraft meets Sigurd Olson.

Kate’s off today.  Nice having her around.  She’s finishing up the second curtain for the living room, a red brocade with a pale gold dragon fly motif.

General, Politics

Is Obama the Liberal Reagan?

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33 90%  31%  1mph  NNW  bar29.75  falls windchill31  Winter

                     New Moon

The speakers first, then the short story.  Then my Asia tour.  May take until Tuesday with the Woollies tonight at the Istanbul Cafe and my workout.  Made a decision last night to shift the resistance and flexibility work to T/Th/Sat which will put aerobics only on Monday and Friday, the days I have the most conflicts with working out.  The aerobics are easier to time.

This chilly, humid weather I left Indiana to avoid.  I feel about this in-between weather the same as Martin Luther did about sin.  He said, “If you’re going to sin, sin boldly.”  I say, “If it’s going to be cold, let it be cold.  And snowy.  And all the other appropriate winter stuff, not this melty coldish yuck.”

Tomorrow New Hampshire.  A Gallup poll release yesterday showed Obama out in front of Clinton 41% to 29%.  He will probably do well in South Carolina, the next primary.  I can feel the optimism of the African-American community viscerally.  The analysis I’ve read, however, says even wins in all 3 races may not be enough.  The SuperTuesday primaries are states where the Clinton organization has built solid leads, according to reporters on the ground.  We’ll see. 

David Brooks, of all people, suggested what might happen.  If enough independents find Obama to be the liberal Reagan, an optimistic voice helping to redefine America in a time of shattered national confidence, and African-Americans and young people do, too, then it will become Obama with the sense of inevitability, knocking the dull, hack-type politics of Hilary out of the race.  As far as issues go, I’m a Kucinich guy, and in the three way race, Edwards gives voice to what I believe, but the prospect of electing an African-American or a woman moves me, too.  Feels good to have legitimate choices for a change.

Speaker wire here I come, awake and opposable thumbs in the right places.