Winter is here. I made a visit to New Orleans, more below, but one of the purposes was to run a half-marathon. I have been running halfs for quite a number of years now. Usually it is my goal race for the year. I tend to slack off training in the winter then when Spring comes I slowly build up, through a few other races, eventually doing a half marathon in the Fall. It's how I know I haven't backslid. But I can't do it anymore. My poor knees suffered greatly during the extended training runs. I was never built for running and age hasn't helped that. This was not standard fatigue and over-use pain. This was wake up at night, borderline debilitating pain. So that was my last half marathon. I'm setting a hard limit at 10 miles and a preferred distance of 8. I'm shifting away from endurace and towards weight-training for my main exercise strategy anyway. Age is no longer something I can deny, I just have to adapt. Like I said, Winter is here.
Draft 2.0 of my next book is moving along nicely. We are soon approaching the point where I begin to feel it is inevitable. That will be a good feeling.
Is this decade really almost over?
[Rant] A Nice Place To Visit, But...
[Travel] Down Nawlins
[Movies] Flick Check: Spiderman: Far From Home
Wednesday, November 06, 2019
[Rant] A Nice Place to Visit, But...
California has a lot of beauty. Virtually the entire coastal area is the stuff of legend as are the National Parks. It's the home of bikini-clad women, laid back surfer dudes, and Hollywood hoi polloi. The weather is gorgeous. It's a great place to visit. But I would never want to live there.
I have seen a lot of expensive beach communities in my travels and Southern California qualifies as one big beach community. One thing you quickly learn about such places is that once you move inland, you are confronted with the back-of-the-house; the support sector for the consumer and touristy enclaves. These are filled with folks fighting to get by, working a couple of service sector jobs for a buck over minimum wage, fighting ungodly traffic jams in both directions. You'll know you're there by the proliferation of pawn shops and junk yards. California does this one better by having a further back-of-the-house to support their agriculture industry. Visit places like Bakersfield and Barstow and Yuba City to see that. It's not pretty.
But that's not why I wouldn't live there.
The Bay area, Silicon Valley, is flush with tech money. Of course since nobody will let anybody build more homes, all your six-figure salary goes to rent for a 12x15 studio apartment where you'll have a 2-hour, stop-and-go to get to your cube in the morning. Don't have the scratch to stay within reach of town? There's always the Modesto-or-Stockton-and-carry-pepper-spray-at-all-times option.
But that's not why I wouldn't live there.
Did I mention the traffic is apocalyptically bad?
But that's not why I wouldn't live there.
California appears to be knocking on the door of something called Anarcho-tyranny. Anarcho-tyranny occurs when an authority has abandoned the difficult task of trying to maintain order and common welfare, instead demonstrating authority by punishing and penalizing easy targets to maintain the appearance of power.
We see the thorough degradation of San Francisco -- residents report there is feces everywhere. People are apparently just dropping trou and leaving souvenirs at will. Housing is unaffordable due to supply restrictions. If you're lucky, the homeless just pester you rather than something worse. And as they need to relearn, there is a reason we enforce hygiene standards in the rest of the country: Down south in LA they've seen an uptick in positively medieval diseases such as Typhus and Bubonic Plague.
The State's fixed payout pension fund is pretty much a lost cause. It's promised payments are so large that tax jurisdictions, from cities to school districts, are often paying fifty cents or more for every dollar they pay in salaries. Imagine trying to increase taxes enough to cover that or keep salaries low enough not to go bankrupt and you'll get an idea of the kind of financial havoc it will wreak pretty much forever. Businesses won't be able to afford to pay anything more than the soon to be $15 minimum wage and at that rate, no one can afford rent. A spiral will begin.
The latest horror is the imposed blackouts. Evidently the power grid is, for some reason, responsible for starting wildfires and needs decades of upgrades, which means residents of many areas will have periodic blackouts for years to come. Folks with critical needs for power (like hospitals) are scrambling to prepare. A World Lit Only By Fire, indeed! Evidently, wildfires are caused by electrical equipment that sets the dried out vegetation on fire. The company line on this is that global warming has made California hotter and drier than in the past and so it's really kind of an act of God, not the fault of the power companies or their government overseers. Of course, this raises the question of why it's not happening in Nevada or Arizona or Utah. Who knew those States had solved global warming? Decades to fix the power grid sounds about right. That is to say, it may never get fixed -- money could run out (see above re: pension), or it could get bogged down in regulation and graft.
You can't help but feel like California is taking the first baby steps towards a kind of dark age, where the feudal lords in Silicon Valley and Hollywood bray about while the poor folks can't afford a home and never get raises and live by candlelight, stumbling about in human waste while dying of the plague.
OK, I engage in hyperbole for effect. But the quality of life in California has degraded, and not just in the sense of a temporary economic recession like we all get from time to time. There is really a sense of degradation of Civilization, albeit small, which might just be unprecedented in the nation's history. If they can't arrest it, they'll achieve the "Anarcho" part of the equation.
What have the leaders of California done in the face of this? Well some have banned plastic straws and bags. Some are busy trying to find a gas price conspiracy. Some are working to kill the hated gig economy. Some are banning college admission tests. Some are releasing seven-time felons who go on to murder innocent women in the interest of supporting immigration.
You can see how these are baby steps towards the "Tyranny" part of the equation.
And that's why I don't want to live there. Anarcho-tyranny.
Speaking as someone who saw the city of his birth, Detroit, degrade into a third-world hellhole, the pattern is familiar. California has lifetimes to go before it approaches Detroit, but that is the vector it is on. I will certainly be dead before it resolves one way or another, but I predict California continues to lose native born residents and only maintain its population through foreign immigration (people coming from places where California looks reasonable by comparison) for the next 10 years. I also predict that before my time is up, California will experience its first population drop. Children born today may live to see California's financial default and its governance turned over to the Feds.
I further predict that I will visit California at least three more times in my life and each trip will be delightful.
Addendum: A great counterpoint to California is Texas, specifically the Houston-Austin-San Antonio region. Massive, productive growth. Yes, infrastructure there is struggling to keep up, but the priorities are correct and there is no degradation of civilization. Hell, at Buc-ee's they brag about the restrooms -- take that San Francisco. If I were young and inclined to make my mark, that's where I would go.
I have seen a lot of expensive beach communities in my travels and Southern California qualifies as one big beach community. One thing you quickly learn about such places is that once you move inland, you are confronted with the back-of-the-house; the support sector for the consumer and touristy enclaves. These are filled with folks fighting to get by, working a couple of service sector jobs for a buck over minimum wage, fighting ungodly traffic jams in both directions. You'll know you're there by the proliferation of pawn shops and junk yards. California does this one better by having a further back-of-the-house to support their agriculture industry. Visit places like Bakersfield and Barstow and Yuba City to see that. It's not pretty.
But that's not why I wouldn't live there.
The Bay area, Silicon Valley, is flush with tech money. Of course since nobody will let anybody build more homes, all your six-figure salary goes to rent for a 12x15 studio apartment where you'll have a 2-hour, stop-and-go to get to your cube in the morning. Don't have the scratch to stay within reach of town? There's always the Modesto-or-Stockton-and-carry-pepper-spray-at-all-times option.
But that's not why I wouldn't live there.
Did I mention the traffic is apocalyptically bad?
But that's not why I wouldn't live there.
California appears to be knocking on the door of something called Anarcho-tyranny. Anarcho-tyranny occurs when an authority has abandoned the difficult task of trying to maintain order and common welfare, instead demonstrating authority by punishing and penalizing easy targets to maintain the appearance of power.
We see the thorough degradation of San Francisco -- residents report there is feces everywhere. People are apparently just dropping trou and leaving souvenirs at will. Housing is unaffordable due to supply restrictions. If you're lucky, the homeless just pester you rather than something worse. And as they need to relearn, there is a reason we enforce hygiene standards in the rest of the country: Down south in LA they've seen an uptick in positively medieval diseases such as Typhus and Bubonic Plague.
The State's fixed payout pension fund is pretty much a lost cause. It's promised payments are so large that tax jurisdictions, from cities to school districts, are often paying fifty cents or more for every dollar they pay in salaries. Imagine trying to increase taxes enough to cover that or keep salaries low enough not to go bankrupt and you'll get an idea of the kind of financial havoc it will wreak pretty much forever. Businesses won't be able to afford to pay anything more than the soon to be $15 minimum wage and at that rate, no one can afford rent. A spiral will begin.
The latest horror is the imposed blackouts. Evidently the power grid is, for some reason, responsible for starting wildfires and needs decades of upgrades, which means residents of many areas will have periodic blackouts for years to come. Folks with critical needs for power (like hospitals) are scrambling to prepare. A World Lit Only By Fire, indeed! Evidently, wildfires are caused by electrical equipment that sets the dried out vegetation on fire. The company line on this is that global warming has made California hotter and drier than in the past and so it's really kind of an act of God, not the fault of the power companies or their government overseers. Of course, this raises the question of why it's not happening in Nevada or Arizona or Utah. Who knew those States had solved global warming? Decades to fix the power grid sounds about right. That is to say, it may never get fixed -- money could run out (see above re: pension), or it could get bogged down in regulation and graft.
You can't help but feel like California is taking the first baby steps towards a kind of dark age, where the feudal lords in Silicon Valley and Hollywood bray about while the poor folks can't afford a home and never get raises and live by candlelight, stumbling about in human waste while dying of the plague.
OK, I engage in hyperbole for effect. But the quality of life in California has degraded, and not just in the sense of a temporary economic recession like we all get from time to time. There is really a sense of degradation of Civilization, albeit small, which might just be unprecedented in the nation's history. If they can't arrest it, they'll achieve the "Anarcho" part of the equation.
What have the leaders of California done in the face of this? Well some have banned plastic straws and bags. Some are busy trying to find a gas price conspiracy. Some are working to kill the hated gig economy. Some are banning college admission tests. Some are releasing seven-time felons who go on to murder innocent women in the interest of supporting immigration.
You can see how these are baby steps towards the "Tyranny" part of the equation.
And that's why I don't want to live there. Anarcho-tyranny.
Speaking as someone who saw the city of his birth, Detroit, degrade into a third-world hellhole, the pattern is familiar. California has lifetimes to go before it approaches Detroit, but that is the vector it is on. I will certainly be dead before it resolves one way or another, but I predict California continues to lose native born residents and only maintain its population through foreign immigration (people coming from places where California looks reasonable by comparison) for the next 10 years. I also predict that before my time is up, California will experience its first population drop. Children born today may live to see California's financial default and its governance turned over to the Feds.
I further predict that I will visit California at least three more times in my life and each trip will be delightful.
Addendum: A great counterpoint to California is Texas, specifically the Houston-Austin-San Antonio region. Massive, productive growth. Yes, infrastructure there is struggling to keep up, but the priorities are correct and there is no degradation of civilization. Hell, at Buc-ee's they brag about the restrooms -- take that San Francisco. If I were young and inclined to make my mark, that's where I would go.
[Travel] Down Nawlins
Since I'm on a kick of passing judgment on various regions, let's do New Orleans. I'm going to say something that may raise hackles. Post-Katrina New Orleans is better than Pre-Katrina New Orleans. There I said it. I'm sure the devastation and struggle caused by Katrina were horrible, but it also washed away much of the creeping ugliness that was growing in New Orleans once you left the French Quarter. Bourbon Street was always a blast, but the smell was frightening. Between the Katrina power-washing and the new sewer upgrades, it's set for another century of debauchery.
Some may see the same gentrification that's going on throughout the country, but it has a very different feel to me. With garden-variety gentrification real estate gets a renovation and prices rise and the new money comes in and works hard to gate themselves off from the very diversity they praise (see previous post re: the Bay Area). In Nawlins, you aren't gated off from anything. You have chase the junkies out of the doorway of your seven figure condo. You may be part of the gentry, but you are bumpin' elbows with a bouillabaisse of humanity.
That said, the money part of the gentrification equation is still in tact -- in real estate, of course, but other things too. Get caught needing to Uber to the airport during surge pricing and you could be dropping $70-80. That's pushing Manhattan level. Trying to find even a nothing-special hotel room near the Quarter for sub-$300 a night is a problem -- and tack on an extra hundred per night for taxes and valet parking. Yeah, New Orleans is definitely not a budget destination.
Crime is broadly down in the city as you'd expect from the gentry -- excluding the worst areas where nothing changes and nobody goes -- but the city hasn't lost its soul. It's still one of the friendliest places you can visit; folks are quick to laugh and offer good thoughts. The Quarter is still a party. The Central Business District is getting to be very nice.
And then there is food. You could spend a lifetime exploring food in New Orleans. I will admit I don't have the greatest affiliation to Bayou cuisine. For example, many people have deep and fervent opinions about po' boys. I think a po boy is, essentially, a bad sub. A muffuletta is better, but so many places drown it in olives. A beignet is fine but nothing more than a donut to me. I like jambalaya and etouffee, but not to die for.
Still, the culture of cooking yields all sorts of gems. For brunch at the Court of Two Sisters I had an omelet that was flawless -- no strange ingredients, just loaded with veggies like I usually get, but perfectly cooked and served in a wonderful setting. At Mother's I had fabulous green beans and cheese grits for the side dishes. Unexpectedly wonderful baked ham at both places. Souffle potatoes at Antoine's were another great find. Cocktail culture is second to none.
So have a seat at the bar order something tasty and a sazerac to start. You'll find the folks on either side of you are your new BFFs. Cheer on the Saints, even if you're not a fan. Let the good times roll in the Big Easy. The sticker shock will be worth it.
Some may see the same gentrification that's going on throughout the country, but it has a very different feel to me. With garden-variety gentrification real estate gets a renovation and prices rise and the new money comes in and works hard to gate themselves off from the very diversity they praise (see previous post re: the Bay Area). In Nawlins, you aren't gated off from anything. You have chase the junkies out of the doorway of your seven figure condo. You may be part of the gentry, but you are bumpin' elbows with a bouillabaisse of humanity.
That said, the money part of the gentrification equation is still in tact -- in real estate, of course, but other things too. Get caught needing to Uber to the airport during surge pricing and you could be dropping $70-80. That's pushing Manhattan level. Trying to find even a nothing-special hotel room near the Quarter for sub-$300 a night is a problem -- and tack on an extra hundred per night for taxes and valet parking. Yeah, New Orleans is definitely not a budget destination.
Crime is broadly down in the city as you'd expect from the gentry -- excluding the worst areas where nothing changes and nobody goes -- but the city hasn't lost its soul. It's still one of the friendliest places you can visit; folks are quick to laugh and offer good thoughts. The Quarter is still a party. The Central Business District is getting to be very nice.
And then there is food. You could spend a lifetime exploring food in New Orleans. I will admit I don't have the greatest affiliation to Bayou cuisine. For example, many people have deep and fervent opinions about po' boys. I think a po boy is, essentially, a bad sub. A muffuletta is better, but so many places drown it in olives. A beignet is fine but nothing more than a donut to me. I like jambalaya and etouffee, but not to die for.
Still, the culture of cooking yields all sorts of gems. For brunch at the Court of Two Sisters I had an omelet that was flawless -- no strange ingredients, just loaded with veggies like I usually get, but perfectly cooked and served in a wonderful setting. At Mother's I had fabulous green beans and cheese grits for the side dishes. Unexpectedly wonderful baked ham at both places. Souffle potatoes at Antoine's were another great find. Cocktail culture is second to none.
So have a seat at the bar order something tasty and a sazerac to start. You'll find the folks on either side of you are your new BFFs. Cheer on the Saints, even if you're not a fan. Let the good times roll in the Big Easy. The sticker shock will be worth it.
[Movies] Flick Check: Spiderman: Far From Home
Spiderman: Far From Home is probably the last Marvel movie I will anxiously anticipate. It wasn't bad. It's essentially a pastiche of a lot of previous Marvel films, though. We re-hash the immature boy has to grow up theme of the first movie. We re-hash Ironman 3 in that the villain is somebody that Tony Stark dissed years ago. We still have Tom Holland and Jacob Batalon (Ned) and Tony Revolori (Flash) being dead on perfect for their roles. Zendaya does alright but the script struggles with synthesizing her supposedly fierce and rebellious personality with having actual feelings for Peter. The adults are a mixed bag. Marisa Tomei and Jon Favreau are wonderfully fun as always and actually have a great chemistry. The business with Nick Fury feels tacked on to remind us that there is still a broader Marvel narrative going on, but it's not too intrusive. All in all, mostly good fun.
It falls down on Jake Gyllenhall. He does his best with a difficult role that requires him to be sincere, but not too sincere. When you have a hero that turns out to be a heel, you want to be able to look back on a rewatch and say, I should have seen it coming. But in the end, as I said, it's just Ironman 3 all over again, and quite frankly, Jake Gyllenhal is no Michael Keaton.
Good movie. Glad I watched. Will probably stop flipping when I stumble on it in the future. So where does that leave us with Marvel?
One place it leaves us is with Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola railing against Marvel movies and superhero blockbusters in general. I am not entirely unsympathetic to their views. I admit that if I did not have such powerful childhood memories of the Marvel comics, I would likely be much less enthused about them. I have no delusion that these are among the great works of humanity the species has produced. But then, they are not supposed to be. Scorsese called them "theme parks." Well, that's kind of their goal, isn't it. Did you watch is expecting something like Taxi Driver? Coppola called them "despicable" which is preposterous. However much you may dislike them, they are in no way despicable.
Here's the thing. I would love it if more movies were made about humans. It would be great if there were more movies that match the best of Scorsese and Coppola, even from Scorsese and Coppola. For that matter, it would be great if every TV show was as good as Deadwood. The Marvel movies don't stop that from happening. So why such fervent objections to them? If Scorsese and Coppola want more great movies, they should make them. Or finance them. Doesn't Coppola have his own studio?
Action movies are almost never humanistic art. They are a craft. A skill. I have suggested they are the defining works of the 21st century so far, for better or worse. Appreciate them for what they are. Or would you prefer the level of action movie we back in Scorsese and Coppola's heyday -- say, Tron or Logan's Run?
Another place it leaves us, or at least me, is with no childhood comic book connection to anything that is going on now. There are apparently movies planned about "The Eternals", a thing of which I have no childhood memory or ever heard of before, but it is supposedly the next big enduring theme. Honestly the upcoming TV shows featuring the Avengers characters sound more appealing to me. TV is a writer's medium so we may actually get some character-based, serial story-telling, which would be nice.
It seems obvious to me that the heroic age of superhero movies is over. Perhaps that will make some people very happy. In the spirit of appreciation, I'm just glad I had the opportunity to relive a rare happy slice of my childhood. Going forward I'm sure I'll catch Marvel movies in the normal course of things, when they come to streaming channels I subscribe to.
Maybe the next Spiderman movie should be titled Spiderman: Let's All Move On.
It falls down on Jake Gyllenhall. He does his best with a difficult role that requires him to be sincere, but not too sincere. When you have a hero that turns out to be a heel, you want to be able to look back on a rewatch and say, I should have seen it coming. But in the end, as I said, it's just Ironman 3 all over again, and quite frankly, Jake Gyllenhal is no Michael Keaton.
Good movie. Glad I watched. Will probably stop flipping when I stumble on it in the future. So where does that leave us with Marvel?
One place it leaves us is with Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola railing against Marvel movies and superhero blockbusters in general. I am not entirely unsympathetic to their views. I admit that if I did not have such powerful childhood memories of the Marvel comics, I would likely be much less enthused about them. I have no delusion that these are among the great works of humanity the species has produced. But then, they are not supposed to be. Scorsese called them "theme parks." Well, that's kind of their goal, isn't it. Did you watch is expecting something like Taxi Driver? Coppola called them "despicable" which is preposterous. However much you may dislike them, they are in no way despicable.
Here's the thing. I would love it if more movies were made about humans. It would be great if there were more movies that match the best of Scorsese and Coppola, even from Scorsese and Coppola. For that matter, it would be great if every TV show was as good as Deadwood. The Marvel movies don't stop that from happening. So why such fervent objections to them? If Scorsese and Coppola want more great movies, they should make them. Or finance them. Doesn't Coppola have his own studio?
Action movies are almost never humanistic art. They are a craft. A skill. I have suggested they are the defining works of the 21st century so far, for better or worse. Appreciate them for what they are. Or would you prefer the level of action movie we back in Scorsese and Coppola's heyday -- say, Tron or Logan's Run?
Another place it leaves us, or at least me, is with no childhood comic book connection to anything that is going on now. There are apparently movies planned about "The Eternals", a thing of which I have no childhood memory or ever heard of before, but it is supposedly the next big enduring theme. Honestly the upcoming TV shows featuring the Avengers characters sound more appealing to me. TV is a writer's medium so we may actually get some character-based, serial story-telling, which would be nice.
It seems obvious to me that the heroic age of superhero movies is over. Perhaps that will make some people very happy. In the spirit of appreciation, I'm just glad I had the opportunity to relive a rare happy slice of my childhood. Going forward I'm sure I'll catch Marvel movies in the normal course of things, when they come to streaming channels I subscribe to.
Maybe the next Spiderman movie should be titled Spiderman: Let's All Move On.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)