Pilot's Log

I saw on Motorweek that Shell is adding compressed natural gas to its fuel offerings. So if I converted Moonshine to run on CNG, I wouldn't need to get a new credit card to pay for refills.

Must ruminate upon the plan. Need more technical information.

http://livewellnetwork.com/Mexico-One-Plate-At-A-Time/episodes/El-Sumo/7240733

For after the end of the Bandwidth Month.

This past week on PBS, POV's documentary, "My Perestroika" was about the last generation of Russians to grow up under the Soviet system, who witnessed the fall of the Union and the subsequent confusion, desperation and strangeness that followed and continues for them.

Meanwhile, TH¡S had shown the William Hurt/Richard Burton version of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. I've never read the novel, but I own a copy of Gyorgi Dalos' 1985: What Happens After Big Brother Dies and a Scholastic weekly magazine that has a condensed drama script version of the Orwell story.

I'm sure you're wondering where I'm going with this train of thought.

I'm not sure myself.

I think America is approaching the kind of historical crossroads that many nations have faced over the centuries. Perhaps by this time six years hence, we'll be talking about the Former United States of America...all a nation has to do to fall apart is for its citizens to doubt the premise that the system to which they have been born is morally superior to all others in existance. Maybe the falling-apart has already begun and the majority doesn't see it happen. Perhaps they'll wake up someday to empty Wal*Marts, no burgers at MickyD's and TV footage of tanks on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Or the opposite happens--the masses see their predicament, stand up...and the shotgun sings its song. And the United States stays what it is, in name only, for some generations.

Either way would be a nightmare.

* Egypt. Al-Qaida disappoints me. I would have thought they'd take advantage of the "political speech" going on in Cairo to storm/bomb/wreck the American Embassy there and and so on.

Remember, Egypt is our indispensible ally in the region. If their government changes, the Camp David Peace will be burned to ashes, and we can expect regular wars in the Sinai and Suez--with the possible new wrinkle of nuclear strikes. Mubarak goes and we have Armageddon.

* Afganistan. When was the last time the mainstream sources told us how the war is going in general terms? Nobody seems to be interested.

I wonder if some Republican/Tea Party state governor is going to say, "Now that we've deployed our entire National Guard contingent to Afganistan, I'm giving them die-in-place orders. They'll only return if they win the war--and will have to pay their own way. No resupply, no support, and not one more penny from the taxpayers."

* Media Technology. On my post the other day about the possibility of computers understanding tone-of-voice...it turns out that Avatar Creators Like This Man have been coming at the solution from another direction. By making virtual homonculi capable of modeling the full array of human emotion, a computer intelligence can, in theory, work backwards and recognize the meanings of human expression through the settings of the model.

Meanwhile, I saw an advertisement on TV for Shirley Temple movies that had been remastered and colorized for DVD last night. Colorization of monochrome movies has been around since the Eighties, and while it can be great if done correctly, I haven't exactly been impressed by it.

I think it has to do with our basic level understanding of photography in general...how we see the world through our own eyes. When I saw the sample footage on the commercial, I couldn't help but notice the gray zones underneath the color. I guess the technique will improve in the years to come, but I still have my doubts. *shrug*

...Every minute they spend watching is a minute they CAN'T spend running power tools.

Yes, if life only had a mute button option...

On the PBS show Soundstage one of my music superheroes was on tonight--Billy Idol. The concert set included a few new songs but was centered around his signature hits from the Eighties: "White Wedding", "Rebel Yell", "Flesh For Fantasy", "Dancing With Myself"...

...and "Eyes Without A Face".

That song was a hit when I was a Junior in High School. My yearbook from that time has no signatures or well-wishes from my classmates...only a doodle of a pair of eyes, without a face, on the front endpapers.

That season, in English class, our assignment was to read the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby, and the novel and the song fit each other. Gatsby's visible life of excess and its hidden emptiness. His scheming towards trying to win back Daisy, and her betrayal of both Gatsby and her unfaithful husband. The violence that leads to Gatsby's final reckoning. And throughout, the loneliness that comes even in a crowd and won't let go. Those who have read the book also know about the eyes without a face.

I don't know if my sister still has my copy of Great Gatsby. She swiped mine after I left High School and I haven't seen it since.

The CBS, ABC and PBS local stations have been off the air today and tonight for reasons unknown. I missed this week's episode of Criminal Minds...and wonder if the stations will be back on-air tomorrow. This place just got that much more boring.

Sagittarius Horoscope for week of September 25, 2008

Many Americans regard the Pledge of Allegiance as a supreme oath of loyalty to the United States. When I was a kid, we used to recite it to start each school day. Members of Congress still make it their opening salutation at every session. It's not well-known, though, that the Pledge was composed by a Socialist, Baptist minister Francis Bellamy. Republicans might swoon in apoplexy if you presented them with this proof that an extreme left-winger was a fervent patriot. But doing that would be right in alignment with your assignment in the coming week, Sagittarius. You will receive encouragement from the cosmos whenever you seek out and express facts that disprove prevailing biases and mistaken beliefs.

I've already posted elsewhere my views on yon Pledge so I'll move on to other things.

Just came from watching the first two hours of PBS American Masters' history of the Warner Brothers movie studio. It's great that the iconic movies of the times are given the context that adds another layer to our understanding of them as entertainment/cultural artifacts. And now I'm seeing the parallels between the Warner stars of the past and our current crop of celebs. Will we look back generations from now and see Heath Ledger the same way we see James Dean now? How about Will Smith...our age's James Cagney? Tom Hanks as the modern Humphrey Bogart? Which current actresses would you compare to Joan Crawford, or Bette Davis, or Lauren Bacall?

More to come...

I ask this question because last night PBS had the first half of a two-part SoundStage program with Stevie Nicks. Among the songs she performed in part one was everybody's favorite Fleetwood Mac song of hers ("Sara") and two covers: The Dave Matthews Band's "Crash" and Led Zepplin's "Rock-N-Roll" (a.k.a. "Been a Long Time"). Remix the latter two into duets with the originals, or live versions thereof? Need to ask the Lip Service about it.

Stevie is taking better care of herself now than she did when she started her solo career--and it shows.

FP

The PBS program Great Performances is presenting this week the opera "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny". Some of the hands behind the Broadway production of "Sweeney Todd" are behind this production as well. And yes, there is a song in this play that was made into hit rock records by the likes of David Bowie and the Doors.

Check your local listings.

FP

PS: Producers Are Money-Grubbing Scum.