Out and About
Sunday, October 14, 2007
You know how you make resolutions each year and stick to them resolutely…for a while? Sure, you hit the gym for a month or two, but then work / life / reality intrude and you miss one day. Then another. Then a week. And so it goes.
Pretty standard stuff right?
Well, one of our initial plans when we moved to the Bay Area (at least for me) was to make a point of playing tourist. Taking advantage of the abundant natural beauty of our new home. We’ve seen much of the area, having seen a decent amount of California from the Los Angeles area a couple of times, to the coastline drive up PCH / Highway 1, day trips to Big Sur, regular visits to Santa Cruz, Monterey and now and then visits to San Francisco and points north. We’ve been to Yosemite and Tahoe and still plan to see the Redwoods and Death Valley sometime. Not too shabby, but despite our efforts many weekends have followed weeks of repetition of home / mall / errands and life.
Thankfully, we’re taken time the past couple of weeks to explore nature close to home. My regular motorcycle rides take me (rapidly) past some amazing locales. After having seen just the paved portion of Russian Ridge (off Skyline Boulevard) and Big Basin State Park (on Highway 236) we actually went hiking in both. Wow. There are simply no works that capture the majesty of redwoods. Cliché I know, but standing next to a living tree that preceded not only the Constitution but quite likely the Magna Carta put one’s daly worries in quite a perspective. Humbling. Even more so was the 2 or mile walk around the foothills on Russian Ridge. For experienced hikers or mountain bikers it is probably as pedestrian as you can get. I was left panting…but exhilarated. Can’t wait to go back later in the winter or early spring when the rains will bring flowers back.
Lesson? Well nothing more profound than to suggest that you look at your home with curiosity. You may not know what you’re missing right around the bend.
Books:
The Words That Work – Frank Luntz
Fascinating insight into the choice of language that works (and fails) and how they profoundly affect positions and color perception. To wit, the 1994 “Contract With America” and how it shifted the dominance of Congress…and then how failure to adhere to the strategy that worked turned it back the other way. While I respect Mr. Luntz’s knowledge of language, his stressing the importance of credibility while repeating (4 times by my count) the utterly inaccurate story that Al Gore claimed to have “invented the internet” showed his obvious conservative bias. I don’t mind bias, but to repeat a long-ago discredited smear? Sloppy. Still, a worthwhile read.
Freakanomics – Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt
A long pending read and worth the wait. Challenging and uncomfortable analysis of economic phenomenon offer an intriguing new perspective on conventional wisdom. The crime reduction of the 1990’s – proof of better policing or side effect of a boom economy? Perhaps. But it also paralleled the teenage / early adult age of babies that were NOT born in the aftermath of the legalization of abortion in the Roe v. Wade case. How much crime was not committed because unwanted babies were never born? Certainly something to bounce around the ol’ noggin…and that is just one of the points of analysis. Worth reading, at least to see a radically different angle.
Movies:
30 Days
The “Supersize Me” guy goes serial and creates a fresh concept – take on a dramatically new life for 30 days. Making minimum wage, living as a devout Muslim and following a risky anti-aging medical therapy. The changes seen in just 30 days are astounding. Eye opening and thought provoking. Check it out.
Unknown
Guys wake up in a desert warehouse with no clue as to who they are, what they are doing there or what to do. Some weak spots in the main plot device, but Jim Caviezel, Joe Pantoliano, Greg Kinnear and more carry it off. Fresh writing in an industry that has gotten far too formulaic and lazy. Ignore the gaps (and some obvious money saving measures) and you’ll discover a solid effort.
Police Squad! The Complete Series
Brilliant. Silly. Campy. Subtle. ZAZ’s 1982 masterpiece that somehow failed to capture an audience it so richly deserved. Leslie Neilson as the straight-man detective shooting a .38 and non-sequiturs from the hip with a fantastic progression of guest stars making very brief appearances. Love it.
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Nicky Amuses Himself!
Posted on November 6, 2007
Nicky Playing 11-6-2007
http://web.archive.org/web/20141112011026/http://iriberrifamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Nicky-Playing-11-6-2007.mov
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
This is what Nicky does when nobody is looking. Enjoy!