Albert Brooks' book '2030' shows a hopeful - and real - future

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - Adm. Fox and I took a hiatus from Seneca Lake life this past week and spent most of our time at the North Glen Avenue house, catching up on 'city stuff.'

For me, that meant a lot of writing, but also reading several books that I have been wanting to spend some time with. The best was a first novel by actor/director Albert Brooks called 2030.

The fact that the weather was less-than-nice made our in-town chores easier. And reading Brooks novel showed me one vision for what life could be - not quite 20 years from now.

The book contains plenty of angst, action, and enough funny social moments to make it a fast read. It also is a relatively  hopeful vision of a future that could come to pass.

After weeks of debt limit shenanigans and outright lies by Tea Party (and other) wing nuts, a hopeful vision was definitely called for.

Parts of the novel might seem as if they were written by a first-time novelist. But the style is excellent, fast-paced and the storyline true right to the last page. Brooks is a scriptwriter, too, and I think 2030 would make a very interesting movie.

If you are anywhere near senior-citizen status, this book is a must read.

Here's a video of Brooks in May talking with Jon Stewart about 2030.

                       

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Back from D.C., avoiding all the 'conflictinators' for right now

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - There were many lessons learned on last weekend's wild ride to Washington, D.C. to cover the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

Perhaps the most important is that I should never attempt to write a story on a laptop computer when sitting in the middle seat in the coach section of an Airbus 320. My shoulders still hurt, 48 hours later. ?Donde esta el Motrin?

But the experience of attending the rally, and hearing Jon Stewart's wrap-up - and rap-on - the cable TV conflictinator machine is something I'll carry with me for a longtime.

A student who watched the rally on television from the comfort of his home, here in Sacramento, told me that it seemed, well, not very organized. Perhaps. And that view, from the receiving end of the television, actually says a lot about our TV/media culture.

If it doesn't play well on the tube, well, how effective could it have been?

As the expression goes, you just had to be there.

I came away with a feeling that I had been standing in the shadow of the nation's capitol with 200,000  people who understand that the intense fear and hatred that pervades so much of what we read and see and hear in the media is just dead-ass wrong. And that same media machine has helped create a national sickness among extremists at both ends of the political spectrum. Cable TV has made the situation worse, but print journalism doesn't get off easy here either. When the hate, lies and misstatements of cable television's commentators and talk radio 'hosts' spills into newspapers and magazines, it validates it.

That a big admission for someone who has spent the last 37 years as a journalist (and teaching journalism). Starting today, I supposed I should add media critic to my resume.

Of course, within hours of the end of Saturday's rally, the conflictinator machine was already hard at work, trying its best to minimize what I had observed. At one point, after reading a half-dozen generally inaccurate news reports online, I shifted to the television and watched pseudo-journalist Geraldo Rivera dissecting the rally with three conservative commentators.

About the only thing they got right was that the rally was held on Saturday at the National Mall.

My sanity - a little shaky before I left for Washington, D.C. - came back not only intact, but refreshed. Was it an historic event? It might prove to be. Already, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC announced that he was dumping a regular segment called Worst Persons in the World in response to what Jon Stewart had said.

Are you listening out there Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck? (There are plenty of others, but waaaaay too numerous to list here...)

You can watch the entire Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear at this CNN LINK:
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

The last 13 minutes or so is Jon Stewart's wrap-up speech. If you haven't already listened to it, take the few moments to do so. It's refreshing, and it might help restore your sanity, too. And if you have heard it, maybe listen again, especially before turning on any television news.

The deafening roar of - silence? Life along the Kern River

KERNVILLE, Calif., USA - Except for the ever-present whooshing sound made by the Kern River (about 75 yards from our door) our cabin in this high desert campground is nearly as quiet as Valois, New York on a hot summer day.

And that's quiet, considering last summer, sitting on the end of the dock, I often could clearly hear the flapping of ducks' wings as they flew overhead. And once, very early, I could make out the sound of a butterfly's wings in motion, as it hovered near my ear.

That's quiet, amigos, quiet.

The nearby campground does resonate on and off at times with a buzz created by the upcoming wedding of Greg Retkowski and Cherie Sogsti. After Friday night's hillbilly themed party, tonight we are looking forward to a pizza, beer and mustache event.

Mustache? Yes.

Everyone will receive a stick-on mustache of some kind. But where you choose to wear it, well, that's your choice. There's a rock band set to play, too. Last night people danced until past midnight - and that was to a hillbilly band. (Photos to follow later tonight...)

Admiral Fox and I have made many forays out and about, first to breakfast at a store within walking distance, then a trek along the river, and most recently, a wine-and-beer run into Kernville itself. We bought Mexican beer, of course, though we forgot the limes.

Carumba!


Scene along the Kern River this morning

And besides the sightseeing (and beer and mustaches), I have been trying out my new Panasonic video camera in anticipation of our Washington, D.C. trip Oct. 30 to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity. We are going to be writing stories about it. The video will be a bonus and a trial run for using more multi-media.

If anyone reading this knows someone who is going to attend the rally, please send their name along to me. Adm. Fox and I want to hook up with folks from NY, California and, well, wherever, before the rally. And maybe after, too.


Jon Stewart announces the rally

Here's a short video of the Admiral at work in her Kern County office this morning.