Category: Uncategorized
Two Gentlemen of Verona
I attended the premier of Two Gentlemen of Verona last night with my daughter, Bridget. It was a very fun evening. At the dinner in advance of the play, the director described his vision of the play, saying that he sought to depict adolescence in all its choas, raging hormones and irrationality. I think he succeeded.
The play was very creatively produced. The set was somewhat spare with metal stairs and bridges criss-crossing the stage. Lots of running about and up and down stairs. There were also hints of modern day like a huge Campari sign and and Apple logo. At one point, the familiar IPhone Marimba ring is heard and some of the lines are spoken into the device. At various points in the play, modern pop songs are either played or sung, including at the finale of play. In the director’s dinner remarks he seemed almost apologetic for the liberties he took. And I think sometimes these kinds of things can get out of hand and you lose the “Shakespeare-ness” of the play. But I thought it worked. There were many hearty laughs. And the real dog that had a role was a big hit, particularly with my daughter. I think I got the message Shakespeare intended, even with the all the non-Elizabethan elements, including the occasional gunshot.
So, I recommend the play strongly. It was fun and accessible. If you are a purist, however, you should probably stay away. As Bridget and I got on the elevator to get to our car, there was one other attendee with us. He asked how we liked it. Both Bridget and I said we liked it a lot. When I asked him what he thought, he paused and said slowly, “Different…”
Fairwell, Kayla
Kayla Going for a Ride
We lost a beloved member of our extended family yesterday. Kayla, a large, lumbering Golden Retriever who was a long time member of my wife’s brother’s family finally succumbed to time and passed on.
Honestly, Kayla and I were not close. She would greet me when I arrived at the house and I would dutifully pet her. But I was not one of those, like my daughter Bridget, who would roll around in the grass with her in her younger days. So, while I was not one of her favorites, she was unfailingly polite to me. Occasionally, she would nudge me with that massive head of hers, trying to take our relationship to the next level, but would give up pretty quickly. I guess I’m just shy around dogs
Nevertheless, I valued Kayla tremendously because of the huge role she played in my brother-in-law’s family, and particularly with my brother-in-law, himself. Kayla and he were inseparably, except when he was at work. They had an extraordinary relationship that was apparent to anyone within seconds of seeing them together. And this is not to suggest that others in the family did not share a similar bond. Everyone loves his or her pet, but Kayla’s place in that family was really special. She was both the source and the object of unconditional love every day of her life with them.
We knew her time was near, but it was still a shock to learn she had gone. Even from my distant place, the news struck hard. There were tears in my household for a number of reasons. Certainly, we will miss Kayla from family gatherings. We also felt for the pain endured by those closest to Kayla, who will miss Kayla so deeply. But, on a more cosmic level, I felt sad that something that is purely good has left our lives, a totally innocent, loving animal is no longer with us. Our lives are diminished in that something so good is now gone.
In the movie , The Lion King, we’re told that it’s all part of “the circle of life,” which is supposed to help us accept these kinds of losses. Maybe….over time. But for now, I grieve for Kayla, those she loved and those who still love her.
Jobs Report Boosts Obama’s Message
Bush Jobs Peformance Compared to Obama
I have not yet heard what the Republican reaction to today’s good jobs news is. On the surface, it seems they will have a difficult time spinning this negatively. Moreover, looking back over 2011, I don’t see how they can claim that their solutions (reviving the Bush policies) are superior to Obama’s. The graph at the left comes from Think Progress and makes the case pretty dramatically.
Most despicably, Romney has been assigning Obama responsibility for the job losses that occurred in the first months of his Administration, which were clearly left over from the Bush Economic collapse.
The big question is whether the media will let him get away with it.
I was recently asked what Obama’s re-election message would be and I facetiously responded, “It coulda been worse.” If the economy continues to improve, the burden shifts to the Republicans who will be forces to say, “It could be better,” without, of course, one shred of evidence that they could, in fact, do better. In fact, to the contrary, all evidence suggests they would make things worse.
It’s starting to get really interesting.
Movie Review – The Way
Martin Sheen is known to be a devout Catholic. I describe myself and an observant Catholic who aspires to be devout. So, I went to see Sheen’s new movie, which was written and directed by Sheen’s son, Emelio Estevez, with certain expectation and some concerns. My expectations were that it would be a religious movie, since it centers on a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. I’d never heard of this apparently well know trail along which pilgrims have traveled for hundreds of years. It is described in the movie in fairly mystical, but not religious, terms. My concern was that the religious aspect of the movie would be depicted in a smarmy, emotional way. I imagined this as a bit of a proselytizing project of Sheen, which was supported by the fact that Sheen and his son appeared at Catholic University last year on their promotional tour. Frankly, I enjoy watching Martin Sheen, but I have seen him in roles that are a bit over the top. Continue Reading
Economists on Obama
Interesting AP story that polled economists gave Obama a mediocre grade for his economic performance. The critiques were varied, but what is striking is not one seems to have criticized him for increasing the deficit. Many, in fact, lowered the grade because he didn’t enact more spending or tax cuts.
Interesting that the increase in the deficit is the major platform on which every Republican is running.
Ann Richards
One of my fondest political memories is the evening I spent with Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas. Her daughter Cecile’s family live across the street from me in Washington and Cecile invited me and my wife to dinner with her mother. It was just the five of us and what a night it was! I wish I could remember every moment, but I can’t. Mainly I remember Ann and her daughter ridiculing our Boston accents. But the strongest impression I came away with was her amazing authenticity. The Ann Richards at that dinner was exactly the same as the Ann Richards that electrified the Democratic National Convention in 1988, just a little quieter….just a little.
That’s the memory I brought to the performance of Ann last night at the Kennedy Center. The one woman play was written and performed by Holland Taylor, a very familiar TV character actress. It was a fantastic experience that not only captured Ann Richards extraordinarily well, but also explored some very important political and social issues that Governor Richard’s life epitomized. Continue Reading
Thank You Barney Frank
Barney Frank had more impact on my life than any human being outside my immediate family. I was 27 years old and adrift. I was in the final semester of UMass/Boston after an bumpy 8 year odyssey toward an undergraduate degree in political science. I had been working as a stock boy at the Stop & Shop for 11 years and was contemplating the exciting prospect of being promoted to frozen food manager at Store 431 in Roslindale, a blue collar neighborhood of Boston. Then, everything changed.
At 11 pm on May 4, 1980, I went to a night of work in which I would spend the next 8 hours stocking grocery shelves. During the course of that night, I learned through the news reports that were piped through the public address system of the closed store that Father Robert Drinan was ordered by the Pope to retire from his seat in Congress representing 4th District of Massachusetts. It was also reported that state representative Barney Frank would run for the seat. Barney had given a guest lecture to one of my classes at UMass and I was dazzled by his intellect, his humor and, most of all, his tough-minded, practical liberalism. Here was a politician that made me proud to be a liberal. I worshiped him from afar. Continue Reading
Let Them Eat Cake!
If you want to give your class-based moral indignation a big boost, read today’s front page story on Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder fortune. The lengths to which the Lauder family goes to avoid taxes is extraordinary. Clearly, this family believes that its wealth is divinely granted and it owes nothing to the country that has treated it so well.
Here’s just one example. A ten year fight over a piddling $90 million for a family sitting on billions:
When Mr. Lauder’s father, Joseph, died in 1983, family members fought the I.R.S. for more than a decade to reduce their estate tax. The dispute involved a block of shares bequeathed to the family — the estate valued it at $29 million, while the I.R.S. placed it at $89.5 million. A panel of judges ultimately decided on $50 million, a decision that saved the estate more than $20 million in taxes.
Cue the "Law and Order" Theme
There is a truly stunning article in the Financial Times that provides a “tic toc” of the event leading to and following the famous incident in the New York Sofitel Hotel between Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the chamber maid. It must be read in its entirety to get the full impact. It suggests the possibility that DSK may have been set up by political forces supporting French President Sarkozy.
Here are some of the amazing documented facts:
- The maid entered the room at 12:07. At 12:13 pm DSK was on the phone with his daughter making lunch plans.
- The maid made frequent visits, before and after the incident to a nearby room on the same floor. The hotel won’t reveal who was in that room.
- DSK was warned that somebody was monitoring his cell phone calls, which caused him to have his blackberry checked for bugs. He left his blackberry in the room and it was mysteriously disabled.
- There a a video of two security guards “high fiving” and doing a 3 minute celebratory dance after DSK was arrested.
- The head of security for the holding company that owns Sofitel Hotels was at a soccer game with Sarkozy when the incident occurred.
It’s a plot worthy of Law and Order.
Krugman on the 99.9%
Given this history, why do Republicans advocate further tax cuts for the very rich even as they warn about deficits and demand drastic cuts in social insurance programs?
Well, aside from shouts of “class warfare!” whenever such questions are raised, the usual answer is that the super-elite are “job creators” — that is, that they make a special contribution to the economy. So what you need to know is that this is bad economics. In fact, it would be bad economics even if America had the idealized, perfect market economy of conservative fantasies.
