Leather Egg

Marlin and I caught the latest installment of the Indiana Jones movies last weekend: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I purposely avoided any reviews before going, but after checking out the metacritic score, I’d say it’s right about on target: 55/100. I would give it a thumbs up, but just barely. It’s great to slip back into this iconic action movie character, and it’s an enjoyable ride. But there are far too many truly awful groan-inducing moments. Not only do you have to suspend disbelief, you have to suspend logic as well. For instance, a crystal skull of that size would surely weigh a good bit, yet Karen Allen is tossing the thing around like it’s a basketball. I don’t think so. All in all, the best thing I can say about this outing from Indiana Jones is that it’s much better than the Temple of Doom.

We’re going to another movie this evening, and I look outside and look at the movie listings and cannot believe it’s the first weekend in June. The high temperature today was only in the 50s! And where are the good summer blockbusters? Our choices at the local theater tonight:

• Sex and the City: Mediocre reviews (at best) and 2.5 hours long (that’s like watching 5 episodes in a row). Plus they don’t serve cosmopolitans at the megaplex … um, I think I’ll wait for PPV/DVD.
• You Don’t Mess With the Zohan: Not a big Adam Sandler fan. Not a big fan of mainstream comedy, most of which is silly or stupid.
• What Happens in Vegas: When Ashton Kutcher does a porno, let me know. Otherwise, no interest.
• Kung Fu Panda: I’ve outgrown cute animal animations. Perhaps that’s not a good thing, but it’s the truth.
• The Strangers: Touted as a terrifying suspense thriller … which is code for formulaic drivel that is anything but suspenseful. The first one that screams will die, I’m sure. How’s that for suspense.
• Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull: see top paragraph.
• Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian: I didn’t see the first movie, and still I get it mixed up with The Golden Compass (which I did see). I could probably find a quick summary online of the first film, but I’ve already sat at the computer long enough today, and I’m a completist so I don’t like seeing part 2 of anything before I’ve seen part 1.
• Iron Man: Marlin’s already seen it twice.

The winner is: Iron Man. I hope that means it’s really good, because Marlin seems very happy to see it for a third time.

And a followup from yesterday: the poppy bloomed this morning! Unfortunately, the weight of the bloom was too much, and the stem snapped. I propped it up to take photos, but the big bloom is now sitting in a salad bowl in the kitchen, mystifying the cats.

A few years ago, in an effort to get a little more variety in our flower beds in front of the house, I planted some poppy from seed. The first year saw several plants take root and produce a bunch of spindly flowers that lasted about a day, it seemed. The following year, the results were fewer plants with fewer flowers, with the flowers hardier than the previous year. Last year, what was left of the poppies produced bigger plants and a couple nice size blooms. And this year, it seems the few poppy plants that have finally established themselves are going to produce at least 7 flowers, and a couple of them are going to live up to their name of giant poppies. One of them will bloom any day now, and I snapped a photo this afternoon.

The phrase I said most often last night that was directed at the television: “But you lost!” This is just like that time when the Arizona Cardinals and Detroit Lions played in the conference championship. It was historic these two long-suffering franchises were one step away from the Super Bowl. And remember the final score?! Detroit won, 54-51. Wow! It was the most points ever scored in a conference championship game. But what was really odd was when the Clintons Cardinals refused to leave the field. Even though the game was over and they had 45 points on the scoreboard to the opponents’ 48 points, they argued they were still the better team … because they were favored before the game, because they scored more touchdowns rather than field goals, because their head coach had won a Super Bowl before, blah, blah, blah. Late addition, since I almost forgot that strange part where the losing team’s quarterback felt entitled to go on to the Super Bowl as the backup quarterback for the winning team.

It’s been a slow month around these parts on the blog front, but that’s not to say it’s been a slow month in my life. When the month of May is said and done, I will have spent about the same amount of time here at home in Massachusetts as I have spent in Pennsylvania. One trip was planned — my annual Pittsburgh weekend (for baseball games) this year also coinciding with my niece’s 21st birthday and (the following weekend) the annual somewhat-infamous Newton spring shindig. But the first trip was not at all planned: the death of my paternal grandfather, Russell H. Yeany Sr., or as I called him, simply “Pop.” I’m not going to try to describe how close a relationship we had, but to give you some idea here’s a photo showing how close I lived to my grandparents’ house when growing up. And I often ran that distance as fast as I could with mom yelling my name because I was late for dinner (or “supper” as I would have called it then). Pop was a gentle giant, and he lived a life full of love and cherished memories. He was 86 years old when he died peacefully at home, in his Lazy-boy, watching a ballgame on television. He had spoken recently to my grandmother about the fact that his father (my great-grandfather M.M. Yeany) died when he was 86 years old. Which of course lead to an interesting conversation between me and my dad, who just turned 66 in May. But in all honesty, I can’t think of a better way to go — at an age old enough to have enjoyed it long enough before your body totally starts falling apart, with little warning, at home, with a spouse of 50+ years at your side. I’ll miss you Pop, but a part of you is always alive in my heart for as long as it beats. (The beautiful portrait here was taken last summer shortly after Pop got his new Cub Cadet. The photo is courtesy of my cousin Susan Matthews.)

On both of these trips to Pennsylvania, I did something I should do far more often … take along the friggin’ camera. So here are some various photos I took, strung together in a bit of narrative, in lieu of a more detailed blog entry. (A picture tells a thousand words and all that …)

The daffodils (or what’s left of them) were in bloom when I was unexpectedly called to my parents. The trip for the funeral also coincided with my sister’s birthday. We had a belated birthday dinner the day after the funeral. Me with my niece. The birthday gal and her hubby. Mom and dad. On the second trip of the month, I have no pictures from the Pirates games this year. It was cold. It rained. A Sunday game was cancelled which meant a Monday doubleheader, and thank goodness we could duck inside the club box area to get warmed up. Pirates win 2 of 3 games I attend, but still can’t get back to the .500 mark. Now some more pictures … Sled, Barb, and I went to the Mattress Factory, a Pittsburgh art museum. Back home to my parents for my niece’s 21st birthday dinner (family pics) followed by a bar outing with my niece, and a surprise gathering of her 21+ y.o. friends. I also walked around in the woods and took some photos. Then it was off to New Castle, where the first night was spent around the fire with Jack, Jan, and the Rev. Bob. Then Jack burned some of Jan’s things. Then Jack appeared to become the fire and we ran like hell. Not really. The next day (day of the shindig) it rained. It poured. We kept the fire going and the umbrella steaming. But the clouds parted, it became a beautiful afternoon, and we all ate and drank too much. After Jack fell in the pond (HA! HA! You knew I had to get that in here, Jack!) and Ryan (the official pyromaniac) left for the evening, I took over fire duty and burned everything that wasn’t nailed down and went to bed when the daylight was nudging night. Then I flew back home and have been trying to get caught up ever since. All links above lead to gallery photos, and the pics within this entry also click through to larger gallery versions. More photos to be posted from this trip … eventually.

I’ve long suspected CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was a robot, so when he says something really stupid, we need to file bug reports. Tonight, as America hangs on the edge of it’s seat over voting results from Lake County in the state of Indiana, Wolf Blitzer informs us that Lake County is the second most populous county in the state (correct!), is the county closest to Obama’s hometown of Chicago (correct!), and is the closest county to the state of Illinois. Wha??? How is Lake County any closer to Illinois than any of the other 9 counties in Indiana that also border Illinois? Clearly a programming error in CNN’s silver bear automaton, most likely in the Lake County array for the Indiana primary plugin module.

“Screw ‘em,” she told her husband. “You don’t owe them a thing, Bill. They’re doing nothing for you; you don’t have to do anything for them.” Hillary Clinton, in 1995, talking to her husband about working-class Democrats. (5 Things at salon.com)

Yep … that’s the same Hillary Clinton who is now out throwing back a shot and a beer with the working class folks of Pennsylvania.

So which is the real Hillary? Is she the presidential campaigner of today who can relate to the working class, is not elitist, and is in touch with working class voters? Or is she the same old politician who will do anything or say anything to get elected, and who once in power governs by what people can do for her, instead of what she can do for the country?

UPDATE: Harvard Professor Theda Skocpol, who also attended the 1995 meeting referenced above, weighs in at Talking Points Memo: “Hillary Clinton was among the most cold-blooded analysts in attendance. She spoke of ordinary voters as if they were a species apart, and showed interest only in the political usefulness of their choices — usefulness to the Clinton administration, that is.” Also: “I think this whole angle of ‘gotcha’ politics about snippets of speech transposed from one context to another is ridiculous and pathological for democracy in America … it is particularly despicable of (the Clintons) to criticize Obama for the sort of observation/analysis that was routine in and around the 1990s Clinton White House.”

“Despicable” indeed.

When I hear “Columbia” the first thing that comes to my mind is Rocky Horror, so I got a chuckle today when Arianna Huffington asked that same question in her blog post: The Clinton-Colombia Connection: It Goes Back a Long Way. Rocky Horror wasn’t one of her answers, but I started laughing because I was picturing Bill and Hillary Clinton as Riff Raff and Magenta. Just think: Time Warp. Elbow sex. (Gong!) “Master! Dinner is prepared!”

But we’ve seen this movie and we know how it ends. Can’t we just send the Clintons back to Transylvania now, please?

While on vacation in the Keys, a couple of my Pennsylvania friends asked me why they should vote for Obama instead of Clinton. Well the Pennsylvania primary is a little over a week away, so here’s another reason I’m passing along to my friends. Please read Arianna’s blog (linked up there in the first paragraph) and then we’ll discuss.

OK, you’re back. To summarize: Bill Clinton snuck a lucrative and controversial aid package for Columbia through Congress when he was president under the auspices of the “war” on drugs. (A “war” that’s been a huge success — nobody does drugs anymore!) Since leaving the White House, Bill Clinton has made tens of millions in speaking fees worldwide in places like Columbia where he was paid $800,000 from a Columbian pro-free trade group. Now Hillary is running for president and says she opposes the Columbia free-trade proposal. All this, plus a senior Clinton campaign advisor, Mark Penn, has been consulting with Columbian officials trying to help them pass the proposal Hillary says she opposes. Columbia fired Penn, but in the Clinton campaign, he just lost his title (but still remains as a senior advisor).

I think the Clintons are playing all sides of this crooked fence, and I think Hillary’s supposed opposition to the Columbia free-trade proposal is only political posturing. I know all politicians posture, including Obama. But with Hillary, this is more than just for expediency. This is more of the same revolving door politics where the consultants and lobbyists and advisors are all interchangeable parts getting rich by fleecing the U.S. taxpayer. Poor old Bubba Clinton and his doting wife have made over $100 million since they left the White House, including big-bucks speaking engagements in countries that received a lot of U.S. aid while Bill Clinton was president. It’s not as blatant (or as lucrative) as Bush-Cheney war profiteering, but it’s hard to see where the interests of the American public are benefitting from these arrangements.

I know Hillary connects with a lot of people, but I look at her actions and her motivations and I don’t like what I see — a politician who will do or say anything to gain more power. And it’s a power she would not hesitate to use for her long-term personal gain when it’s politically feasible.

And for today’s bonus reason to vote for Obama over Clinton, let me throw out a few thoughts about the Clinton campaign itself. Hillary likes to say she’s ready on day one, but was her campaign ready on day one? Here’s what I saw the past couple months: a campaign that was expecting a coronation on Super Tuesday, and when that didn’t happen they didn’t have a game plan and lost a dozen straight states over the next month. She regained her footing with a couple wins in big states, but she’s still behind in all counts (delegates, votes, states) with virtually no chance of surpassing Obama. Now it’s been weeks of say anything, do anything Hillary — whining about the rules she agreed to (Michigan and Florida), asking the superdelegates to overturn the lead Obama holds, and going negative and with her kitchen sink approach of distractions, distortions, and stale allegations with a fresh coat of lipstick.

Clinton has quite simply run a terrible campaign. Why should she be entrusted to run the country?

Mark the calendar … Thursday April 10th was the day the last bit of snow finally disappeared here at Leather Egg central. The last remains of Wicked Witch of Winter Past melted, leaving a trail of gritty salty sand and anti-skid in her wake. We’ll have lots of raking and sweeping to clean up the yard, driveway and street. I don’t know why, but the city seems to have dumped a LOT of salt and sand on the streets during this past winter. Yesterday also marked the first day since last fall we had any windows open in the house. I love that first warm-ish day of spring when you can finally air out the winter doldrums, and the cats were thrilled to have their window seats back. The crocus is in bloom and daffodils are only days away from blooming. All in all, it finally feels like spring here — and not a day too soon.

I love the Pittsburgh Pirates, and I had fun following their wild opening night win in Atlanta. But despite how crazy a game this year’s Pirate opener was, it still doesn’t top the wildest baseball game I’ve attended — April 21, 1991 Pirates vs. Cubs in Pittsburgh, a game Andy Van Slyke predicted he would never again see anything like it.

So after 3 games of the 2008 season, the Pirates are 2-1 and have a winning record (I just wanted to type that because it’s been such a long time). They are hoping to avoid a 16th consecutive losing season, which would tie the major league baseball record for years of futility (the 1940-50 era Phillies spent 16 years in the tank). I’m not so optimistic they will turn things around dramatically in 2008, but flirting with a .500 record would be a big improvement. The only big changes from 2007’s underachieving team is off the field — new management in the dugout and in the front office. It was a long-overdue change, and it may take a while to undo the damage from the past few years.

As for the icon … I found a great high-quality desktop icon for my other favorite team (aka the Red Sox), but the Pirates get no love in iconland. After an exhaustive search, I decided to create my own Pittsburgh Pirates icon to match the Red Sox icon I found. And I’ll share it for personal use: here’s a zip file with both Windows and Mac versions enclosed.

While testing Aperture, Apple’s professional answer to iPhoto, I imported some old photos that include the sea plane trip Marlin and I took to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas in March 1999. I’ve posted them all in a Dry Tortugas Gallery over in the gallery section. These photos were all taken with my old Minolta XG-1 and scanned from 35mm negatives a long long time ago. I didn’t do any more color manipulation, so the color correcting I did nearly 10 years ago remains. I sort of like the beautiful saturation … it fits the trip. Aperture was fantastic in cropping and straightening these, and I was extremely impressed with the program while organizing several hundred other photos I imported. After extensively playing with early and recent versions of both Aperture and Adobe Lightroom, Aperture wins my endorsement (and my business).

Fort Jefferson is the largest masonry structure in the western hemisphere, and served as a prison during the U.S. Civil War. It’s one of the most beautiful places you can visit, if you can get there — it’s only accessible by boat or sea plane.

PS: The new banner image of the sunken ship also comes from our sea plane flight to the Dry Tortugas. There are several sunken wrecks in the area.