Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, August 21, 2022
through
Saturday, August 27, 2022
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It’s Saturday, August 27, 2022
Welcome to the 1,543rd consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Joan Didion
Uploaded at: Dec 25, 2021 11:40PM flag
Profile photo.
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Commentary
I applaud the President’s efforts to ease the burden assumed by our student population in their struggles to advance themselves. His decision enriches the lower economic strata.
Too often and by too large amounts we pass bills that enrich the richer and richest.
However, the President must address our fundamental public education problem. We provide public education to our citizens for twelve years whereas our economy and social structure demands free public education for sixteen or eighteen years. Individual efforts to attain that level of education for themselves or their children strain family finances.
Speaking of which, we talk about negotiating prices with Big Pharm, what about negotiating prices with schools of higher education to rein in the unfettered raises in tuition over the last thirty years?
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Reading
Today I will begin “The Convenience Store Woman.”
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Wellness
My right side needs rest from lifting. I’m sure that my last lifting session was too ambitious for my healing from the bike collision. I’m hurting.
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Social Life
I have one more day alone before a meal out with a lovely family whom I’ve known for forty years.
Then, I’m six weeks away from Japan and plan on a quiescent time.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
"Skiing combines outdoor fun with
knocking down trees with your face."
~Dave Barry
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from childhood friend, Victor P:
Hi Dom,
I enjoy reading your blog and therefore am aware of your sleep issue. I subscribe to Web MD's daily newsletter and this was recently posted. I thought you would be interested in reading it. I hope it's helpful. Let's continue "to grow" gracefully.
Victor
Melatonin: The Sleep Supplement (webmd.com)
Blog meister responds: While I’ve been sleeping well for two months now, without needing the help that melatonin provided me for two years, any discussion of health aids is welcomed and helpful.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I ate from the carcass of a roasted chicken.
It was fun.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Swan Boats at rest
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Short Essay*
Joan Didion (/ˈdɪdiən/; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Her career began in the 1950s after she won an essay contest sponsored by Vogue magazine.[2] Her writing during the 1960s through the late 1970s engaged audiences in the realities of the counterculture of the 1960s and the Hollywood lifestyle. Her political writing often concentrated on the subtext of political and social rhetoric. In 1991, she wrote the earliest mainstream media article to suggest the Central Park Five had been wrongfully convicted.[2] In 2005, she won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for The Year of Magical Thinking. She later adapted the book into a play, which premiered on Broadway in 2007. In 2013, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.[3] Didion was profiled in the Netflix documentary The Center Will Not Hold, directed by her nephew Griffin Dunne, in 2017.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, August 26, 2022
Welcome to the 1,542nd consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Floating World
Onnayu[1] (Ladies' Bath), a colored ukiyo-e print by Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815) depicting a male sansuke (upper left corner) attending on women at a public bathhouse
Kiyonaga_bathhouse_women.jpg: Torii Kiyonaga, 1752-1815 derivative work: Torsodog (talk) - Kiyonaga_bathhouse_women.jpg
Onna yu (Bathhouse women) 1 print : woodcut, color.
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Commentary
Another genius bill from the desk of Joe Biden.
A well-thought-out moderate approach to a societal failure.
Our nation provides twelve years of public education.
Twelve years when what’s needed is from sixteen to eighteen years.
We omit pre-k and at least two years of higher education or vocational training.
A blatant failure.
Biden’s proposal rectifies a substantial part of that failure.
Not 80%, not even 50%.
But a substantial chunk.
His proposal certainly provides a solid platform from which to build and grow.
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Reading
I’m nearing the end of Shogun. It’s a long book but I love it.
My daughter has my next book, Japan-related.
Can’t wait.
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Word of the Day: washuko
For definition, see below, immediately after the Short Essay
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Screen time
I watched Kurosawa’s Ran.
A wonderful interpretation of King Lear.
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Wellness
The pain on my right rib cage, fading for the last three weeks, has returned in spades. I’m thinking I must have strained it. I could not go lifting. Perhaps it was my last session at the club that caused the recurrence.
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Social Life
I had a lovely dinner on Tuesday night with LouLou and Patti, friends of thirty years.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“Camping is nature's way
of promoting the motel business. ”
~Dave Barry
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Jim P:
Hi Dom,
Have you seen any Japanese ‘crime’ films. Here is a list: Japanese Yakuza & Crime Movies - IMDb
I really liked this one: Brutal Tales of Chivalry (1965) - IMDb
This is a part of Japanese history, culture, and the film industry.
I’m not sure how easy it will be to get any of them. Just a thought I have been meaning to pass along.
Love,
Jim
Blog meister responds: While I did indeed have trouble locating specific titles, the list inspired me. So far I have watched or rewatched three Kurosawa’s films: High and Low, Ikiru, and Ran. All brilliant.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday night we had a variety of tastes, dressed lupini, heirloom tomatoes, brie, taleggio, apple, crackers, pizza, and multi-grain bread, we had lentil soup, and we had roast chicken.
Good food.
Good friends.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
From the Georgia O Keefe exhibit at the New port Art Museum
O Keefe Abstractions was the theme
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Short Essay*
Ukiyo (浮世, "floating/fleeting/transient world") is the Japanese term used to describe the urban lifestyle and culture, especially the pleasure-seeking aspects, of Edo period Japan (1600–1867). Ukiyo culture developed in Yoshiwara, the licensed red-light district of Edo (modern-day Tokyo), the site of many brothels frequented by Japan's growing middle class. A prominent author of the ukiyo genre was Ihara Saikaku, who wrote The Life of an Amorous Woman. Ukiyo culture also arose in other cities, such as Osaka and Kyoto.
The famous Japanese woodblock prints known as ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world", had their origins in these districts, and often depicted scenes of the floating world itself such as geisha, kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, samurai, merchants, and prostitutes.
The term "ukiyo", when written as meaning "the floating world", is also an ironic, homophonous allusion to the earlier Buddhist term ukiyo (憂き世, "sorrowful world"), referring to the earthly plane of death and rebirth from which Buddhists sought release.[2]
In its modern usage, the term ukiyo is used to refer to a state of mind emphasising living in the moment, detached from the difficulties of life.
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Definition of Today’s Word of the Day: Washuko
Washoku is, at it’s heart, a simple preparation of rice and side dishes made with a variety of seasonal ingredients. It’s this wide variety of dishes that allows the meal to become a palette of flavors and colors attuned with nature and the Japanese aesthetic.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, August 25, 2022
Welcome to the 1,541st consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Better Call Saul
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Lead Picture*
Better Call Saul
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Commentary
I was greatly concerned that I wouldn’t be able to book spots in Guide Michelin restaurants: my primary goal for the trip. Visits to shrines being next in my hierarchy. But so far, I am two for two on reservations.
Nearly 70% of home sellers in Boise, Idaho, cut the asking price on their house in July, Emily writes, a remarkable turn for the once-hot real estate market. Definitely not boosting inflation.
Georgia GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker blasts the new climate law: 'Don't we have enough trees around here?'
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Reading
I am 92% through Shogun and am really enjoying it. I think I’ve learned a lot about Japanese culture. Good prep for my trip.
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Screen time
Watched Ikuri. A Kurosawa film. Lovely.
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Understanding aging
I felt fatigued for an hour on Monday.
Fortunately I was home and could rest back into my chair.
More of these moments are likely to afflict me as I get older.
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Social Life
I spent two hours with Kat on Monday and then she boarded her bus, ending her three day visit.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“Nobody cares if you can't dance well.
Just get up and dance. ”
~Dave Barry
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
We are so lucky to have a dedicated film critic as a contributor. Here’s a note from Tucker J.
Hi Dom,
I stopped watching the final season until all episodes were available. Once they were I blew threw it very quickly and found myself a lot more engaged with the story when I didn’t have to remember tiny details from week to week.
I wrote a piece on the ending which I actually think was truly gorgeous. Not sure if you finished the show or gave up.
It certainly mentions a lot of things that happen so I don’t want to spoil anything for you but if you’re at all interested I’d love you to take a look when you have the time. It’s a little long and for that I apologize.
I truly hope you’re well!
Blog meister responds: This is wonderfully inciteful. Congratulations.
Readers: be sure to scroll down to the Short Essay section for Tucker’s great review.
He’ll give you more tools to use to appreciate the work of the film crew.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
For dinner on Monday I had a plain egg salad salad.
And it was delicious.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Niece, Great Nieces, Great Daughter at Newport, RI August, 2022
What a nice day we had!
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Short Essay*
“So, you were always like this.”
That’s what Walter White says to Jimmy McGill after hearing him describe an event in his youth where he hurt himself trying to pull a con. The single line of dialogue is a whole lot more poignant when you take the entire 14-year run of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul into account. Both of these series, at their hearts, are about who Walt and Jimmy are fundamentally and whether they have the capacity to change.
Breaking Bad’s finale, though satisfying, didn’t offer Walter White redemption. He was too far beyond any form of absolution. The final episodes of Better Call Saul felt like we were going to see a similar character arc for Jimmy but the finale, aptly titled “Saul Gone” took a more hopeful turn. This is because BCS is a show about Kim Wexler, too, and her inclusion in Jimmy’s life is what kept the man from slipping entirely passed the point of no return. Their love is a guiding star for them both but for Jimmy it is the only thing that can make him be truly honest about the choices he’s made, the man he is, and the life he could have if he would just allow himself to listen to other people’s advice.
Time machines are notably alluded to on three occasions in this final episode and each requires a time machine to reach. The episode opens with Jimmy and Mike talking during their experience in the desert in season 5. We get another time machine conversation between Jimmy and Walter that takes place during the final season of Breaking Bad. The final time machine chat occurs in an unknown time (though sometime during the first 3 seasons of BCS) between Jimmy and his brother Chuck. All three scenes tell us something about Jimmy’s personal evolution but they also highlight how moving through time has informed the way Better Call Saul operates within its own world and as a corollary to Breaking Bad.
Better Call Saul is typically described as a prequel, and that’s both correct and not entirely true. While the series spends most of its time exploring what happened to Saul Goodman and other key characters before Breaking Bad, when Saul was still living life as the flawed, conniving Jimmy McGill, it also depicts events that occurred post-Breaking Bad. It has jumped as far back as the 1970s and ’80s to revisit moments from Jimmy’s and Kim Wexler’s childhoods and as far forward as the mid- to late-2010s, when Jimmy transforms from Cinnabon manager into incarcerated criminal. In a sense, Better Call Saul itself has functioned like a time machine, zipping to different moments in different years that give us deeper knowledge of the characters and greater context for what we’ve already seen on Breaking Bad. In its finale, and throughout its run, the show does this with elegance and a sense of purpose that too often eludes lesser shows that clumsily toggle between time periods. It also goes about this time travel with little to no care for what you as a viewer may or may not remember. Many of the flashbacks and forwards arrive without any preamble and it’s up to those watching to slot these scenes into their proper order chronologically. The final season was challenging because of this but seeing how it all finally tied itself together was as satisfying as TV watching gets.
Knowing what happened before or what happens after has always added a richness to this series, which so often calls back to things we’ve seen before on either Saul or Breaking Bad. The sight of that fancy Zafiro Añejo top rolling near the gutter during the extended sequence that opens season six means nothing if you don’t remember the con job Kim and Jimmy pulled while drinking that fancy tequila. When Jimmy makes that long heartfelt speech in the courtroom in “Saul Gone,” it becomes a much more complicated moment when you remember how easy it was for him to persuasively lie during the appeal hearing to have his law license reinstated in season four. And in the final moments of the series, the cigarette that Jimmy and Kim share when she visits him in jail is much more meaningful when seen as a bookend to the one they shared in the pilot; this is a black-and-white scene, but the flame and ember of the cigarette glow in color, quietly evoking that initial spark between Kim and Jimmy in their colorized past. Our understanding of so much in Better Call Saul is based on either memories or a prescience granted to us by all the flashbacks and flash-forwards.
What Better Call Saul can’t do is alter the course of events already canonized by Breaking Bad. Knowing how things pan out for some of the characters — that they can’t go back and do things differently no matter how loudly we may yell at the TV — is one of the things that gives Saul a kind of poignancy that Breaking Bad could never achieve on its own.
Consider the back-and-forth between Jimmy and Mike at the beginning of “Saul Gone,” when they’re lost in the desert, following Jimmy’s misguided effort to act as Lalo’s bagman. Exhausted and parched, they pause to rest, and Jimmy, after joking that they could take part of the money they’ve “inherited” and build a time machine, asks Mike where he would go if he could travel to any moment in the past or future. Mike offers a thoughtful response: First, he says, he’d revisit the day he took his first bribe as a police officer, presumably to undo that decision. Then he’d zoom five or ten years ahead to make sure certain people in his life — likely Stacey and Kaylee, his daughter-in-law and granddaughter — are doing okay.
It’s an honorable and good answer that reflects a desire for redemption that Mike’s resigned himself to never achieving. It’s also a deeply sad response because we’ve seen Breaking Bad, and we know what would happen if Mike tried to beam himself five years into the future. He’d realize he never lives to see Kaylee grow up because Walt kills him before he gets the chance. This is what time travel via a spinoff like Better Call Saul is able to do: display the whole wide arc of a life, including the tragic fates that can’t be avoided.
Jimmy’s answer to the time machine question is less reflective: He says he’d go back to May 10, 1965, the day Warren Buffett started working at Berkshire Hathaway, so he could invest money in the fund and become a billionaire.
“There’s nothing you’d change?” Mike asks him, but Jimmy avoids the question. He’s not prepared to face his demons or even acknowledge that such demons exist.
When the episode jumps forward several years to when Saul and Walt are briefly in hiding together, Saul raises the time-machine question again, which infuriates Walt, a man of science who doesn’t believe in flux capacitors and the like.
“If you want to ask about regrets, then ask about regrets and leave all this time-traveling nonsense out of it,” he says. The best meth-maker in New Mexico then confesses that his greatest regret is resigning from Gray Matter Technologies, the lucrative company he started years ago with his best friend, Elliott, which would have made him a wealthy man if he had stayed onboard. In the end, it’s money and power that drive Walt and consume his thoughts.
This time, Saul is capable of answering the question about regrets, sort of, and ruefully recalls the time he flopped too hard doing a slip-and-fall outside of Marshall Field’s and hurt his knee. He doesn’t feel bad about trying to pull a scam outside of a department store — it’s really the injury that bothers him. This is progress for Saul, albeit small. But it’s progress we wouldn’t see if the episode didn’t feel so free to skip back and forth through the years.
The third time-travel reference, in the Jimmy-Chuck sequence, sneaks its way into a spat between Jimmy and Chuck. As usual, the McGill brothers struggle to connect. Jimmy looks after Chuck by delivering groceries and Chuck attempts to take an interest in Jimmy’s law practice, yet neither is able to recognize the love behind either of these efforts. Their sentences fly past each other, never lining up on the same page.
“If you don’t like where you’re heading, there’s no shame in going back and changing your path,” Chuck advises Jimmy, referring to Jimmy’s less-than-illustrious law practice.
“When have you ever changed your path?” Jimmy responds defensively, instead of recognizing that Chuck is, in his way, trying to reassure his little brother.
“We always end up having the same conversation, don’t we?” is Chuck’s rhetorical answer. After Jimmy leaves, the camera rests on the book Chuck has been reading: The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells. The two brothers never talk about time machines, and they never will, because we know Chuck won’t live much longer. But the presence of that novel implies they both would have derived great pleasure from having that discussion. Another path never traveled.
That’s what Better Call Saul is: a show about the patterns people can’t break and how hard it is to actually go back and change the path one has already taken. As slippery as Jimmy has always been — he comes damn close in this last episode to getting a ridiculously light sentence for his crimes — even he finally accepts that the only way forward in life is to acknowledge that you’ve done wrong and that there’s no way to make it right, which is what he does, in typically audacious fashion, by lawyering himself into spending the rest of his life in jail. In a way, it’s a comment on what a good lawyer Jimmy is: The only person capable of prosecuting him is himself.
Though the two of them never discuss the concept, it truly feels like Kim is Jimmy’s time machine. She travels backwards and forwards, in and out of his life and her appearance at his court date is Jimmy’s final realization that he doesn’t need to go back and change anything. He can do that now in the present and this person, this woman who has loved him like no one ever has before is the only thing he needs to finally break away from every mistake he’s ever made. Living with those mistakes will be difficult but not facing them and losing Kim in the process would be a regret he’d never recover from.
Tucker
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Welcome to the 1,540th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture
Dave Barry
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Commentary
Jim Pasto sent me a list of Japanese crime movies to supplement the research I’m doing for my trip to Japan. The book he sent a month ago was a great aid: Japan - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture. And the movie list has already proven a huge incentive to my screen time. I have already watched three Kurosawa movies: High and Low, I kuro, and Drunken Angel. They were wonderful.
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Screen time
I watched “High and Low”, an excellent 1963 police procedural crime film directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai and Kyōko Kagawa. The film is loosely based on the 1959 novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain (Evan Hunter).
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Social Life
Monday at noon my daughter leaves.
I have two social engagements this week then I have nothing yet scheduled until Oct 16 when I leave for Japan.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“The leading cause of death among fashion models is
falling through street grates.”
~Dave Barry
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Hi Dom,
Have you seen any Japanese ‘crime’ films. Here is a list: Japanese Yakuza & Crime Movies - IMDb
I really liked this one: Brutal Tales of Chivalry (1965) - IMDb
This is a part of Japanese history, culture, and the film industry.
I’m not sure how easy it will be to get any of them. Just a thought I have been meaning to pass along.
Love,
Jim
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
My daughter and I had dinner at Saltie Girl’s.
It was very good.
We had a great time.
She leaves at noon on Monday.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
musicians entertain in Boston Downtown
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Short Essay*
David McAlister Barry (born July 3, 1947) is an American author and columnist who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comic novels and children's novels. Barry's honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1988) and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism (2005).
Barry has defined a sense of humor as "a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge."
Barry's first novel, Big Trouble, was published in 1999. The book was adapted into a motion picture directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Tim Allen, Rene Russo, and Patrick Warburton, with a cameo by Barry (deleted in post-production). The movie was originally due for release in September 2001 but was postponed following the September 11, 2001, attacks because the story involved smuggling a nuclear weapon onto an airplane. The film was released in April 2002.
In response to a column in which Barry mocked the cities of Grand Forks, North Dakota, and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, for calling themselves the "Grand Cities", Grand Forks named a sewage pumping station after Barry in January 2002. Barry traveled to Grand Forks for the dedication ceremony.
Articles written by Barry have appeared in publications such as Boating, Home Office Computing, and Reader's Digest, in addition to the Chicken Soup for the Soul inspirational book series. Two of his articles have been included in The Best American Sports Writing series. One of his columns was used as the introduction to the book Pirattitude!: So You Wanna Be a Pirate? Here's How! (ISBN 0-451-21649-0), a follow-up to Barry's role in publicizing International Talk Like a Pirate Day. His books have frequently appeared on The New York Times Best Seller List.
On October 31, 2004, Barry announced that he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence of at least a year from his weekly column to spend more time with his family. In December 2005, Barry said in an interview with Editor & Publisher that he would not resume his weekly column, although he would continue such features as his yearly gift guide, his year-in-review feature, and his blog, as well as an occasional article or column.
In 2005, Barry won the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.
On Sunday, September 22, 2013, the opening night of the 15th annual Fall for the Book festival in Fairfax, Virginia, Barry was awarded the event's highest honor, the Fairfax Prize, honoring outstanding literary achievement, presented by the Fairfax Library Foundation.
Dave's World television series
From 1993 to 1997, CBS broadcast the sitcom Dave's World based on the books Dave Barry Turns 40 and Dave Barry's Greatest Hits. The show starred Harry Anderson as Barry and DeLane Matthews as his wife Beth. In an early episode, Barry appeared in a cameo role. After four seasons, the program was canceled shortly after being moved from its "coveted" Monday night slot to the "Friday night death slot," so named because of its association with low viewership.[
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Tuesday, August 23, 2022
Welcome to the 1,539th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Nora Ephron
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Lead Picture*
Nora Ephron
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Commentary
Inflation is slowing.
Let the economy follow it’s own lead for the moment.
Minimize any increases in interest rates for a bit.
Locate areas most susceptible to price rises and pinpoint fixes to suit.
Keep Americans employed.
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Understanding aging
On Sunday I experienced a near-faint moment.
I left the café on Newbury Street with one heavy shopping bag and a backpack.
I walked about a half hour to Whole Foods and bought some things that amounted to a second heavy shopping bag. It was 90*.
When I started the last phase of my walk home, I was near a faint.
I cut my walk short and barely walked over to the subway.
It was cool.
I was able to sit for 11 minutes while I waited for my car.
When I got to my stop I slowly made by way home.
At my building, I dropped the bags and backpack at our concierge station.
I needed help.
I took the elevator up.
I ate a peach with a touch of ice cream; and an apple with a tough of ice cream.
I lay back in my chair and felt much better.
This near-faint a lifetime first for me.
I have got to be more careful.
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Social Life
Saturday in Newport fulfilled its promise of greatness.
From sociability to weather to a sweet visit to the Newport Art Museum to dinner, the day was perfect.
We finished at 8.30pm and, being active since 5.00am, a felt finished.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
You can only be young once.
But you can always be immature.
~Dave Barry
_____________________________________
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
From our friend Jim P:
Hi Dom,
Have you seen any Japanese ‘crime’ films. Here is a list: Japanese Yakuza & Crime Movies - IMDb
I really liked this one: Brutal Tales of Chivalry (1965) - IMDb
This is a part of Japanese history, culture, and the film industry.
I’m not sure how easy it will be to get any of them. Just a thought I have been meaning to pass along.
Love,
Jim
Blog meister responds: Thank you, Jim. I’m looking forward to checking out the list.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
We had an excellent dinner at Forty 1 North in Newport. We had four courses with three different food items in each.
Everything we had was delicious.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
A rural New Hampshire cemetery
Visited as part of an overnight with niece Lisa/David
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Short Essay*
Nora Ephron (May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for both the Writer’s Guild of America Award and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Silkwood (1983), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), and Sleepless in Seattle (1993). She won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for When Harry Met Sally..., which the Writers Guild of America ranked as the 40th greatest screenplay of all time.
Ephron's first produced play, Imaginary Friends (2002), was honored as one of the ten best plays of the 2002–03 New York theatre season. She also co-authored the Drama Desk Award–winning theatrical production Love, Loss, and What I Wore. In 2013, Ephron received a posthumous Tony Award nomination for Best Play for Lucky Guy.
Ephron also directed films, usually from her own screenplays, including Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You've Got Mail (1998), both starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, August 22, 2022
Welcome to the 1,538th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Newport
Newport Rhode Island Aerial View
MVASCO - Aerial Photo From Robinson R44 Helicopter by Michael Kagdis
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Commentary
It’s been sixty years since I last visited Newport.
I’m with the right people.
It's a perfect summer’s day: sunny and 82*
I’m looking forward to it.
What can possibly go wrong?
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Wellness
Am I getting a toothache?
It's Saturday.
My tooth is beginning to feel achy, like a 2 on a 1-10 scale.
Monday I’ll make an appointment to have the dentist look at this.
I am eight weeks from travel abroad and a health issue is not welcome.
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Social Life
Today is another big day for my role in society.
My daughter is visiting me and we are joining with Lisa and David to drive to Newport to join with Tessa and Savannah for an afternoon and evening there.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
May the forces of evil become confused
on the way to your house.
~George Carlin
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
While we exchanged several emails, the gist of the conversations between myself and the concierge service is best illustrated by the restaurant’s website:
At Nakashima and Katsu Ya of Japan, we are honored to share our love for family and culture by offering a gathering space where our guests have a unique opportunity to taste the flavors of Japan. In the Japanese culture, acts of kindness, appreciation and hospitality are expressed through the comfort of food.
Beauty of Space Newly renovated into a counter-seating-centered dinging space in 2015, our counter table made of a solid piece of award-winning, Yoshino Hinoki welcomes you to the world of Nakashima. We created a space that chefs and patrons can have a same eye level and share the dining experience together, creating the feeling of live performance. Our dishes are composed to ensure that the most basic, innate characters of seasonal ingredients persist. With our carefully curated collection of antique and modern dishware, we hope you enjoy the sensibility of seasons and most of all, the finest flavor of ingredients through your dining experience with us.
We serve full-course dinners using seasonal and local ingredients, perfecting each dish by bringing out the most basic, innate character in taste of each ingredient. Please feel free to let us know any food allergy you may have or food you don't favor of at the time of reservation. We accept credit card payment.
Blog meister responds: Count me in!
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Omg!
I got my first reservation in Japan confirmed!!!
Called Nakashima
The only 3-star restaurant in Hiroshima.
I’m only in Hiroshima for the one night.
Wow! Wow! Wow!
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Thursday and Friday weekly bazaar in Downtown Boston
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Short Essay*
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately 33 miles (53km) southeast of Providence, 20 miles (32 km) south of Fall River, Massachusetts, 74 miles (119 km) south of Boston, and 180 miles (290 km) northeast of New York City. It is known as a New England summer resort and is famous for its historic mansions and its rich sailing history.
It was the location of the first U.S. Open tournaments in both tennis and golf, as well as every challenge to the America's Cup between 1930 and 1983. It is also the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport, which houses the United States Naval War College, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and an important Navy training center. It was a major 18th-century port city and boasts many buildings from the Colonial era.
The city is the county seat of Newport County, which has no governmental functions other than court administrative and sheriff corrections boundaries. It was known for being the location of the "Summer White Houses" during the administrations of presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. The population is 25,163 as of the 2020 census.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Sunday, August 21, 2022
Welcome to the 1,537th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Kaiseki
Kaiseki consists of a sequence of dishes, each often small and artistically arranged
Chris 73 / Wikimedia Commons
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Commentary
I am reading about Japan’s restaurants. During the fourteen-day trip to Japan, two meals are in transit and seven of the meals will be up to me to book. I’m using the online Guide Michelin rankings as my key resource.
Here is my early effort at gathering info:
HIROSHIMA
Tucked to the south of Honshu between the Chugoku Mountains and the Seto Inland Sea, the humble Hiroshima Prefecture is known for its oysters and freshwater eel, as well as local okonomiyaki and sake produced in the revitalized capital of Hiroshima.
Hiroshima seeing (Michelin) stars | Get Hiroshima
KODAMA RESTAURANT
A Michelin-starred kaiseki meal in Hiroshima, with some of the most delicious fried oysters you’re ever likely to have in your life!
Oysters are a local delicacy, and they’re treated with extra care here. The signature dish is oyster cooked with yuzu citrus fruit, served with miso in the skin of the fruit.
Other favorites include prime Hiroshima beef (roasted with miso) and sweetfish from the countryside around the city.
The atmosphere is calm and luxurious. The staff will match the pace of the meal to you, so feel free to take your time and savor every moment of this fine Japanese dining experience.
City
Day of Trip
Day and Date
Time
Language
Pay
Smoking
Hiroshima
4th
Wed, 19th
7.00pm
English menu
Amex/ MC/ Visa
Non-Smoking
Phone
Cancellation
Guide Michelin
Price
Dress Code
082-221-8678
050-3816-1664
(+81-50-3816-1664)
1 week prior
*
Lunch: ¥6,000-7,999 -
Dinner: ¥10,000-15,999
Casual, Formal
BTW: On your next trip to NYC, use the Guide’s NYC rankings to choose your restaurant. For a less expensive meal, skip the starred restaurants and use the category they call the Bib Gourmand: very good restaurants at very reasonable prices.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I always wanted to be somebody,
but now I realize I should have been more specific.
~Lily Tomlin
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Wellness
Getting enough sleep is a godsend. It’s been a month now that I have slept better than I ever have in my life. Without melatonin or any other sleep aid. I’ve been sleeping very well, indeed. It’s a godsend.
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Understanding Ageing
Is it possible that I’ve reached an age that impacts my sleepiness at night? I don’t know but I have no explanation of my sudden excellent sleep habits.
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Social Life
I am in my busiest social week of the summer.
Kat, my daughter, here for three days.
During her visit, we will hang with my niece, Lisa, David, and my two grandnieces, Tessa and Savannah, twins, they. Delightful.
Tuesday I will have dinner with friends LouLou and Patti, and Friday next, a dinner date with dear friends, Alexa, Millen, and children. Great fun.
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
A reader sends this:
Did you know this? I didn’t.
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/solar-cycles/en/
What Is the Solar Cycle? | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids
Our Sun is a huge ball of electrically-charged hot gas. This charged gas moves, generating a powerful magnetic field. The Sun's magnetic field goes through a cycle, called the solar cycle.. Every 11 years or so, the Sun's magnetic field completely flips.
spaceplace.nasa.gov
Blog meister responds: So much about our lives is fascinating.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I enjoyed a repeat of a meal I ate earlier: ribs and lasagna.
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Community Photos**
So beautiful. Boston’s Public Garden.
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Short Essay*
Kaiseki or kaiseki-ryōri is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner. The term also refers to the collection of skills and techniques that allow the preparation of such meals and is analogous to Western haute cuisine.
There are two kinds of traditional Japanese meal styles called kaiseki or kaiseki-ryōri. The first, where kaiseki is written as "会席" and kaiseki-ryōri as "会席料理", refers to a set menu of select food served on an individual tray (to each member of a gathering). The second, written as "懐石" and as "懐石料理", refers to the simple meal that the host of a chanoyu gathering serves to the guests before a ceremonial tea, and is also known as cha-kaiseki (茶懐石). The development of nouvelle cuisine was likely inspired by kaiseki principles.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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