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Holznagel's First Shoot

My friend Fritz Holznagel was trying to get a start in photography (as a way to meet girls I think), so I volunteered to pose for him at Lake Tahoe so he could test all the fancy gizmos on his camera. This was back when I was an infant. Well... toddler, I guess.

My Presidential Award

When I was in college I registered to vote as a member of the American Communist Party, even though I wasn't one and had no intention of ever becoming one. It was the one mistake of my youth, and I thought it would be a stain on my dossier forever.

This week, however, I was flown to Helsinki, where President George L. Bush (shown here) presented me with the highest non-military award a non-military citizen can get in the U.S., the Not A Communist Anymore Medal. You can't see the award in the photo, but you can see my stunned look as I realize its actual size (I had only seen the medal in photographs before). There's really no way to transport the medal home, as it weighs around four tons (not tonnes).

Anyway, it was a great honor to be among the 11 U.S. citizens who formally renounced communism. It was a grueling process, and I have my family and pastors to thank for helping me through it.

Though I had the chance, I forgot to ask the president "WTF?" on the whole Iraq thing.

Stencil

I cut out a stencil in some cardstock. The whole thing is only about six inches tall. I spraypainted it on my tee-shirt, on the wall in the shed as a test and another place in the shed just for the heck of it. Tonight I carried it around and held it up in front of things, including (here) our orange fireplace mantel and the plastic mannequin, "Best Form," which currently has a red light inside it. Then the photos were tweaked in iPhoto.

This way you can really see how poorly I cut out the stencil.

Basic Instinct

Last night we watched the 1992 box office smash Basic Instinct, starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone. (We were also delighted to see Mitch Pileggi in a small part -- he went on to play FBI Director Skinner in The X-Files.) It was pretty good, in a popcorn movie sort of way. Amy and I hadn't seen it since it was first out, and this was the first time around for the kids. It pushes the boundaries of that R rating, by the way.

After the movie was over we checked out the special features. In the short "making of..." movie we were reminded that the movie caused quite a stir even before it came out, the target of protests from the activist gay community in San Francisco, where it was filmed. I'd forgotten all that. The issue is over the fact that Basic Instinct has homicidal lesbians -- it was targeted because it was a big-hype production and because it was filmed in S.F.

While watching the movie it didn't occur to me that the depiction of lesbians was negative. In fact, the depiction of pretty much everyone in the movie is negative. The protagonist is a drug and alcohol abusing loose cannon cop who's just killed some tourists while hopped up on cocaine, and he's the guy you're supposed to root for.

The other special feature must have been put on this DVD (which I purchased for $4) as some kind of pet peeve or statement: it was a comparison of scenes from the original movie, compared to the version when it first aired on television. We thought this might be a boring featurette, but it turned out to be hilarious. The voices they used for overdubbing don't sound anything at all like the actors' voices, which made the dopey substitutions even funnier.

From the Thanh Thao Market

My Own Baby

End of Ze World

Espresso

Saturday Amy and I were in the Starbucks on NE Broadway, underneath the McMenamins there. A woman named Chrystal Lee helped me, and while I was staring at the espresso machines on sale she started telling me of some great sale, how she had already done her Christmas shopping... in the end she talked me into buying a demo of a $399 espresso machine for $80 (and it came with a pound of coffee). This despite my sort-of attachment to the cheap one I have had for at least ten years.

The demo machine came with no instructions, but after a stop at another Starbucks (in Hillsdale) to explain my situation, I had a video of how to use it. It was a great video, as you can imagine. Mainly it taught me that I didn't have the most important part, the coffee basket.

But Chrystal Lee wasn't in the store until Monday, and efforts on Sunday to get help from other employees were dead ends. This morning I stopped in after dropping off Ashes (cat) at the groomer's. Chrystal Lee just happened to have a coffee basket that would fit -- it was in her car. She got it for me while another customer (eavesdropper) told me at length how much she enjoyed having the same machine.

I got home and wow, it's great. My old one used to take about four minutes to make an espresso. I often let it sit there for up to half an hour, adding hot water if I wanted to drink it hot. This machine makes the same amount in less than 90 seconds from a cold start, and in less than a minute if the thing has been on recently. I'm not an expert, so I can't comment on the finer points of the espresso's quality. I think it's great, and just right for me.

For a photo I opted against one of those delightful, warm shots of the rich cremá with fancy designs. Instead I'm showing what the machine means to me:

Walkers in September

The walkers on the Hawthorne Bridge.

3:10 to Yuma

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Cleo was off on her bike with some pals and Amy went into her office in the morning. Around 11:30 Iris and I drove to the east side of the Hawthorne Bridge and parked, then walked across the bridge and into town, passing thousands of walkers for the "D'feet of ALS" on the way. We met Amy for lunch and she decided to quit work for the day.

She and Iris went to the Glenhaven skate park, where Iris smashed up her elbow.

Later in the afternoon we all went to the movies, to see 3:10 from Yuma, starring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe (and Peter Fonda and Gretchen Mol). It was a good, old-fashioned western and pretty good.

The night before we had watched Empire of the Sun, starring Christian Bale -- when he was just a lad. He looks pretty much the same. It was a little startling at first, seeing him so young. Another surprise in that movie is that Ben Stiller has a small role.