Ummagumma

Compare this pic of our Nandina with the ones taken September 27 last year and February 12 this year. It is bright green and shiny even with the recent series of 100+ degree heat index days we've had. Lush and green despite the recent intense heat and lack of rain. The nearby yarrow is doing splendidly. Compare this shot of our spirea with the one I took April 23. The heat is already burning it up.

My high school debate coach, who was a rather superstitious person, used to say " They always die in three's ." Meaning that whenever a celebrity dies, usually two more quickly follow. In this case we're talking about Ed McMahon , Farrah Fawcett , and Michael Jackson . McMahon and Fawcett were somewhat expected. Old age and a rare cancer , respectively, eventually get the best of anyone. Jackson's death was a shock, of course. He was in fairly good health as far as I know. ( Except for an addiction to prescription pain medications .) He was also my age. For me this apparent, sudden rise through the years of individuals dying that are either as old as me or younger is always sobering. I try to take care of myself but, as in the case of Jackson (and Tim Russert last year) that often doesn't matter. You can improve your odds but it's still a crapshoot . All three of these people are iconic from my youth. I used to watch Johnny Carson a lot. It was never q

The New York Times is giving outstanding coverage of the disputed elections in Iran on this blog , which I used extensively in my previous post. Today, two interesting items were posted that relate to what I said earlier. "Update 9:01 a.m. On The Guardian’s Web site, Matt Weaver addresses a problem that we discussed on The Lede on Wednesday night — that the Web is now flooded with video clips that have been given the wrong date by people uploading them to sites like YouTube and Facebook , and this is creating problems for journalists: There are several Twitter messages urging citizens journalists in Iran to video copies of daily newspapers to help authenticate the date of what they film. That is easier said than done given how chaotic the scenes have been. But it highlights a growing problem on the coverage of this crisis. The media keeps being sent footage claiming to be recent when it turns out to have been filmed several days before. ~~~ Update 8:34 a.m. An Iranian-American re

I have kept one eye peeled on the aftermath of the Iranian elections recently. Largely wondering if this was going to be a big deal or just a media event. I think I've figured it out today. The recent turmoil over the presidential elections in Iran underscored several things. First of all, US intelligence in Iran is practically non-existent . We don't understand the situation at all over there so it more or less paralyzed us. Not only were we not proactive , the US wasn't even reactive . Obama's response to the situation was the political equivalent of saying "duh" . Totally stumped. But, at least Joe Biden didn't say anything stupid. So that's something I suppose. Secondly, while there were clearly massive rallies in support of Mir-Hussein Mousavi prior to the election and immediately following the election , as soon as the Ayatollah Khamenei proclaimed "enough is enough", the intensity of the opposition dwindled . Rallies of thousands

Over the weekend my daughter introduced me to a film from 2008 that I had neither seen nor even known about. It is called Cloverfield and is basically a combination of Godzilla and War of the Worlds (the Spielberg version) and The Blair Witch Project . Cloverfield was produced by J.J. Abrams , the director of the recent Star Trek remake and the co-creator of the television series Alias , Lost and Fringe . The most entertaining aspect of Cloverfield is that the film makes no attempt to explain what the giant and smaller monsters are that are attacking lower Manhattan. As in "real life" this disaster is "just happening" to the characters in the film, without them (or the viewer) understanding any details. Where did they come from? Why are they even attacking? We don't know anything. It is all done in "shaky cam" - that hand-held style of film first made famous by Blair Witch . It attempts to achieve realism and suspension of disbelief by making t

Everything's a Go. My daughter gave me a collection of her photographs for Father's Day today. She sometimes takes the "teenage angst" mask off long enough to be thoughtful, conversant, and humorous. I'm proud of her. A friend in the pool. Her talents include: softball, tennis, photography, drawing, painting, and she's great with all sorts of technology. Her friends often phone her if they are stuck on how to do something in mySpace or with other computer software problems. She helps them out. I keep trying to tell her that, if she works at it, she can turn that knowledge and support ability into cash some day. I think she stops listening to me after the word "work". Anyway, her gift was very much appreciated by me. She has a real eye for things. She is the best thing I ever did in my life. Daisies in our front yard.

Snapback. As I mentioned in my December 18, 2008 post, a basic rule of technical charting and of Dow Theory is that the greater the gap between the Dow and the 200-day moving average , the more pronounced the snapback will be to the 200-day MA. Jennifer recently had a discussion with a financial manager who stated that we are in a "recovery" but it isn't a "typical V-shaped recovery." No shit. This is the Great Recession and it isn't over yet. Eddie Bauer just went bankrupt . Unemployment will continue to rise . Though there is some positive news . The worst might be behind us . It’s hard to tell . Regardless, the manager Jennifer spoke with, and all of his ilk, have mistaken the recent rise in the markets as the leading indicator of a recovery when, in fact, all that has really happened is that the markets have moved back toward the 200-day MA because they had fallen so far away from it. For example, on October 10, 2008, the Dow closed at 8451.19 but the 2

Although I consider myself a libertarian (and, therefore, liberal on a great many social issues) I must admit that few organizations seem more ridiculous to me than PETA . First of all, I grew up on a farm. I’ ve probably killed hundreds of chickens in my lifetime. (My grandfather and uncle had five poultry houses that I used to work in growing up.) During my youth I gutted deer and hogs. I herded cattle and forced them into pens to take all manor if pills and to endure all kinds of injections. I have even on occasion eaten veal with no trace of guilt. Show me all the youtube videos you want of the horrific ways we process the animals we eat. I'll still eat them. That's what the top of the food chain does . But, I am not a cold-hearted Neanderthal. I love all kinds of animals. To me, however, PETA people represent the quintessential neurotic development of the bourgeois, non-agrarian, intelligencia that has wreaked havoc with our justice system and our education system. The

After well over 25 hours of plowing through them in limited spurts of free time, I'm now ready to post my first impressions of the recent release of the Neil Young Archives, Volume One . My long-time reader (singular intentional) will recall that I bought a PlayStation 3 right after Christmas with the expressed intent of experiencing the Archives in their B lu -ray format. At that time, the Archives were slated for a February release which was delayed, again. The Archives have a storied history of never quite coming out . All that has now changed. The only reason I considered a PS3 was because Neil Young himself recommended it as the best way to listen to and rummage through his Archives . So, I bought the PS3 on faith. Faith in Neil's rather infamous discriminating taste. Blind faith as a Rustee . A Rustee is a self-proclaimed ascription to those who are the most devoted fans of Neil's career. The term refers to the huge phenomenon that surrounded Neil at the time o