Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, July 10, 2022
through
Saturday, July 16, 2022
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It’s Saturday, July 16, 2022
Welcome to the 1,503rd consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Lord Byron
Lord Byron
by Richard Westall
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Commentary
The Jan 6 Committee is as well-directed a hearing as we citizens will see coming out of Congress. Step by step, clearly and methodically, the committee is fitting a net over Donald Trump. The trap is proving not the overly ambitious accusation that he led the charge on Jan 6, but the much more provable charge that he was derelict in his duty to act to prevent others from violating the many laws broken on that day.
Most importantly, US citizens are being swayed by the testimonies. The regular hearings are slowly draining strength from Donald.
So potential Republican Presidential candidates have life. The country would gain immeasurably by a primary battle for the Republican nomination among truly conservative candidates. That esteemed party has a plethora of heroines waiting to be
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Screen time
I am really enjoying the Netflix Series called Borgen. It’s a political drama out of Denmark.
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Wellness
I am still in recovery from the bike accident. I made one mistake yesterday while lifting and I saw stars. I was more careful after that.
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Understanding aging
Here’s the thing. I understand ageing. I just never thought it would happen to me. This has not been a good year. My legs, my balance, my memory, my steady hands, and my strength have all taken noticeable hits in 2022. And they ain’t coming back.
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Social Life
I really enjoy my friends. I’ve had a half-dozen ‘hang-outs’ in the past few days. All edifying.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I came from a real tough neighborhood.
I put my hand in some cement and felt another hand.
~Rodney Dangerfield
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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
I received a bunch of well-wishes from friends and family.
Blog meister responds: Thank you very much.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Jim Pasto and I had lunch at Ga Ga. We had four items, all of them were terrific: Jumbo Shrimp with Walnuts, Crispy Fried Chicken, Sizzling Short Ribs w Black Pepper, and Tofu fried with Vegetables. I am delighted to find this place.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Granddaughter Grace in studio
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Short Essay*
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron FRS (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), simply known as Lord Byron, was an English poet and peer. One of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, Byron is regarded as one of the greatest English poets. He remains widely read and influential. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular.
He travelled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years in the cities of Venice, Ravenna, and Pisa. During his stay in Italy he frequently visited his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in life Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire and died leading a campaign during that war, for which Greeks revere him as a folk hero. He died in 1824 at the age of 36 from a fever contracted after the First and Second Sieges of Missolonghi.
His only legitimate child, Ada Lovelace, is regarded as a founding figure in the field of computer programming based on her notes for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. Byron's extramarital children include Allegra Byron, who died in childhood, and possibly Elizabeth Medora Leigh, daughter of his half-sister Augusta Leigh.
* 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, July 15, 2022
Welcome to the 1,502nd consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Viktor Mihály Orbán
EPP Summit, Brussels, December 2018 (cropped)
European People's Party - EPP Summit, Brussels, December 2018
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Commentary
See ‘Short Essay’ below
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Screen time
I signed onto Scout Tafoya’s site on Patreon.com. It’s under the name Scout Tafoya. If you’re a movie buff, this is one educational/entertaining event you don’t want to miss. Plus you’ll be encouraging a young artist in his work.
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Chuckles
My wife can't cook at all.
She made chocolate mousse.
An antler got stuck in my throat.
~Rodney Dangerfield
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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
From our friend, Jim P:
Dom,
On leg strength, you can do leg lifts lying down. It helps.
Dr. Jim 😊
Blog meister responds: Thank you, Jim. We do know that although you are a doctor, your degree is not in the right specialty. We love you anyway.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday’s dinner was a Tuna Fish open-faced sandwich.
I made a paste of canned tuna in olive oil chopped with mayonnaise, a dill pickle spear, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper.
I used that as a spread for the bread.
On top of that I added a slice of tomato and red onion and some chopped celery and romaine lettuce, followed, of course, by some excellent tuna filets from a jar.
All this on a Tatte baguette.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
doms salade nicoise (reprise)
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Short Essay*
Because of Orbán's curtailing of press freedom, erosion of judicial independence and undermining of multiparty democracy, many political scientists and watchdogs consider Hungary to have experienced democratic backsliding during Orbán's tenure.
Orbán's attacks on the European Union while accepting its money and funneling it to his allies and family have also led to characterizations of his government as a kleptocracy.
Between 2010 and 2020, Hungary dropped 69 places in the Press Freedom Index and 11 places in the Democracy Index; Freedom House has downgraded the country from "free" to "partly free." Orbán defends his policies as "illiberal democracy." As a result, Fidesz was suspended from the European People's Party from March 2019 until March 2021, when Fidesz left the EPP over a dispute over new rule-of-law language in the latter's bylaws.
Viktor is the darling of the extreme wing of the Republican Party, Team Crazy, led by Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson. Both men are avid supporters of Viktor. I imagine we can find some Jews are among these crazies.
To those lost Jews let me say this. I don’t know Viktor. But I do know some Hungarian nationals prominent in his party.
I have never met anyone more filled with an aggressive irrational hatred of all Jews than these people. Given their prominence in Viktor’s party, I can only surmise that Hungary is well on the road to becoming the first Nazi state in Europe since tens of millions of people were killed and quadrillions of dollars were spent to defeat Nazi Germany.
Carlson and Trump embracing Viktor? It’s philosophic ipecac.
* 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, July 14, 2022
Welcome to the 1,501st consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Webb's First Deep Field
NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute - https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet / https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/038/01G7JGTH21B5GN9VCYAHBXKSD1 / full-res : https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G7JJADTH90FR98AKKJFKSS0B.png
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground. This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks. The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features.
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Commentary
Wild.
Recommended dose is 1 to 2 tablets every six hours.
On Monday evening I took a single Tramadol @ 7.00pm and another at 11.00pm.
I slept fitfully, but certainly better than I have been sleeping for the last several nights.
What’s wild?
I had an awful dream.
I’m not a dreamer but I had a dream.
Awful.
Something was in my microwave and it was running.
I opened the door and six critters jumped out and began running all over the place.
I recognized the rear ends of two piglets.
But the dominant image was a large rooster whose feathers were burned to charcoal, running in mad circles.
I woke looking round for the rooster, wondering how it survived the microwave.
It was 4.30am so I got up. I got enough sleep and I didn’t want to risk the reappearance of that rooster.
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Wellness
I lifted on Tuesday, my fourth go-round since my accident. I am happy to report I was able to smoothly get through my routine. Although I am only lifting at 50% my new normal levels, I should return to normal within two weeks.
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Understanding aging
My accident teaches me that serious exercise contributes to our health in a variety of ways. Most recently, preparing my body for a physical trauma. No matter what your age, go for it. Ease into it. But start it.
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Social Life
I have four social appointments in the next eight days.
Happy to see friends and family.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is
to steal with good judgment.
~Josh Billings
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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 the brilliant pair: Dave and Tucker.
Hi Dom,
We released our penultimate episode today. In this episode we examine what we’ve dubbed “late Ridley” the current artistic period that Scott is working in. After Tony’s death Ridley essentially reinvents himself as an artist and the films that follow are some truly great works.
The End of History - Chapter 9 on Vimeo
And of course, all previous episodes - The Home of The End of History | Scout Tafoya on Patreon
Thanks again for watching!
Tucker
Blog meister responds: This the ninth in a most welcome, most brilliantly done series of ten.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had an asparagus frittata for dinner on Monday. A delicious change of pace.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Mino look-alike.
Walking home this ad caught my eye. He looks a lot like my son Mino.
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Short Essay*
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed primarily to conduct infrared astronomy. As the most powerful telescope ever launched into space, its greatly improved infrared resolution and sensitivity will allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. This is expected to enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observation of the first stars and the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.
JWST was launched in December 2021 on a European Space Agency (ESA) Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, and entered orbit in January 2022. As of July 2022, JWST is intended to succeed the Hubble as NASA's flagship mission in astrophysics. On 11 July 2022, NASA and US president Joe Biden revealed the first image from JWST during a White House event, setting a new standard for high resolution images of distant regions of the Universe.[8]
NASA led JWST's development in collaboration with ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland managed telescope development, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore on the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University operates JWST, and the prime contractor was Northrop Grumman. The telescope is named after James E. Webb, who was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.
JWST's primary mirror consists of 18 hexagonal mirror segments made of gold-plated beryllium which combined create a 6.5-meter (21 ft) diameter mirror, compared with Hubble's 2.4 m (7.9 ft). This gives the Webb telescope a light-collecting area of about 25 square meters, about 6 times that of Hubble. Unlike Hubble, which observes in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared (0.1–1.7 μm) spectra, JWST will observe in a lower frequency range, from long-wavelength visible light (red) through mid-infrared (0.6–28.3 μm). The telescope must be kept extremely cold, below 50 K (−223 °C; −370 °F), to observe faint signals in the infrared spectrum without interference from other sources of thermal energy. It is deployed in a solar orbit near the Sun–Earth L 2 Lagrange point, about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 mi) from Earth, where its five-layer, kite-shaped sunshield protects it from warming by the Sun, Earth, and Moon.
Initial designs for the telescope, then simply named the Next Generation Space Telescope, began in 1996. Two concept studies were commissioned in 1999, for a potential launch in 2007 and a US$1 billion budget. A major redesign in 2005 led to the current approach, with construction completed in 2016 and many years of testing before launch, at a total cost of US$10 billion. The high-stakes nature of the launch and the telescope's complexity were remarked upon by the media, scientists and engineers.
* 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, July 13, 2022
Welcome to the 1,500th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Pete Panto
As in “Who killed Pete?”
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Commentary
1500.
1500.
That is a lot of posts.
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Screen time
Just watched “House of Gucci,” a Ridley Scott movie. Well done. I’ll save a review for Tucker J.
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Wellness
I have so much all-over pain that I haven’t slept more than 2 consecutive hours since the accident. Today I asked my doctor to prescribe a pain killer for me.
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Understanding aging
Do you believe I’ve never taken pain killers? Why start now? I want to investigate that world because as I age I expect to be more needy of such help and I want to know more about my options. Plus I’m no longer considering what such drugs might do to my long-term health.
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Social Life
Starting Wednesday with two on the same day, I have four social engagements in the next eight days.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
A girl phoned me the other day and said...
'Come on over, there's nobody home.'
I went over.
Nobody was home.
~Rodney Dangerfield
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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 Victor B:
With Pat Cipollone being the prominent name in today's news, I thought I might remind myself and my Italian-American friends that 'cipollone' in their ancestral language means 'big onion.'
VB
Blog meister responds: And Victor also caught a misspelling that he corrected for us.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Last night I fried some chicken wings and served the remnants of Chicken Pot Pie as a side dish. Delicious.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Mino and Kat and grandchildren and one of our family get-togethers.
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Short Essay*
Pietro "Pete" Panto (September 13, 1910 – July 14, 1939) was an Italian American longshoreman and union activist who was murdered by the mob for attempting to revolt against union leadership.
Panto was born in Brooklyn and at an unknown date he left the United States, returning on June 3, 1924, on the S.S. President Wilson that sailed out of Naples. He left the United States again, returning on March 22, 1934, on the S.S. Sinaia that sailed out of Palermo. Both ship registries list 198 Sackett Street in Brooklyn as his address.
Pietro "Pete" Panto was the leader of a revolt against Joseph P. Ryan and his colleagues, many of them allegedly mafia, who ran the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA). Corruption was rampant among ILA leaders and working conditions were deplorable. Panto attempted to expose this corruption via the Brooklyn Rank-and-File Committee, a group of "left wing" dockworkers. He and the Rank-And-File Committee held open air assemblies attracting over 1500 longshoreman at a time. This was a serious threat to Ryan, Anastasia, and other corrupt officials. Panto was lured from his home on July 14, 1939, following a phone call from an unknown individual and was never seen again. His body was later found during January 1941, in a lime pit in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. Albert Anastasia was suspected of ordering the execution but Abe Reles, the chief witness, died in 1941 while supposedly trying to escape from custody. He either "jumped or fell" from a room where he was held under guard by six police officers.
Panto's murder was allegedly carried out by Mendy Weiss, Tony Romanello and James Feraco of Murder, Inc. Although Anastasia, Weiss, Romanello and Ferraco were never indicted, Weiss would receive the electric chair in 1944 for a separate murder, whereas Anastasia was murdered by rival mobsters in 1957. Romanello was arrested and questioned in 1942. A few months after his release from custody his dead body was found along the banks of the Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. James Ferraco had vanished without a trace and was most likely killed in 1940 or 1941. Ryan resigned in 1953, following New York State Industrial Commissioner Edward Corsi and Governor Thomas E. Dewey's investigation.
* 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, July 12, 2022
Welcome to the 1,499th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
“There Will be Blood.”
This is a poster for There Will Be Blood. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to Miramax Films.
May be found at the following website: IMP Awards
Read the Mail and the Short Essay, both in this day’s post.
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Commentary
"Red flag" laws — which allow judges to confiscate guns from people who threaten violence — not only do not strike me as being a vigorous answer to gun ownership but sound limp. Incentivizing states to implement red flag laws is a centerpiece of the gun bill President Biden signed last month. I asked Eeyore his thoughts. “Pathetic,” he said, and I’m quoting. “Pathetic.”
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Reading
Trying to learn to go from reading the book on my Kindle and to listen to it on my cell using Whisper Sync which bookmarks the page for the reader. It’s exciting.
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Writing
Not falling behind but struggling.
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Screen time
I binged on Shogun, Richard Chamberlain’s mini-series that does a splendid job translating the book into a screen event. Very pleased to find the series on Internet Archive.
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Wellness
My right side is in pain. After five days, still hurting. Am having trouble sleeping because I can’t turn over on my left side. My muscles won’t permit it. So I sleep an hour on my right side and then wake up. It hurts but I cant change sides and I only sleep on my sides. Weird. I end up sleeping in my Mistral chair. That chair’s been a godsend for me.
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Understanding aging
My legs can hardly carry me. Some of the weakness is from my bike clash but some is from ageing. I have returned to my weightlifting which I paused after the accident. It’s a very slow process because so many muscles hurt. But I’m good at this. Doing it many years. My weights are sl low right now that it’s more like massaging my muscles than building them. Did I say building? No. It’s slowing the deterioration. But that’s what’s left for me so I go to it.
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Social Life
Wednesday I have two social appointments. Both are with people I care a lot about.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to
saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.
~Josh Billings
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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 our brilliant friend and movie critic.
Hi Dom,
Thanks again for having us over for the movie. It’s absolutely my favorite film and I’ve never written any thoughts on it until now. Publish or not. That’s fine. You’re always so encouraging with my writing that I like to share!
Blog meister responds: We are very fortunate to have Tucker as a regular contributor.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I’ve been working on a Miso Soup recipe. Wanting it for breakfast. I have these Japanese fish stock packets. One packet, three 12oz bowls of broth. To which I add 1 TB miso paste, muddled in a small bowl then added to the broth. Then I add tofu, seaweed, scallions, and peas. It’s delicious and nutritious.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Sunlight and shadows in the garden
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Short Essay*
Despite its daunting scale, George Stevens’s Texas-sized 1956 melodrama Giant doesn’t exactly loom large over American cinema. It earned Stevens an Academy Award for best director, but he’s better remembered for A Place in the Sun (1951) and Shane (1953); James Dean, meanwhile, will always be associated first and foremost with Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Like so many massive monuments erected via the backbreaking labor of countless hired hands and artisans, Giant has endured mostly as a dusty relic. Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood (2007), another oilfields epic, might better stand the test of time. It’s also filled with its share of big bodies and objects suffering from hard falls. The silhouette of wildcat prospector Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) crashing down a dug-out mineshaft is echoed by the shot of a massive rig toppling down on another man as he stands neck-deep in crude.
What goes up must come down, but it’s just as true to say that There Will Be Blood illustrates the reverse. In its most purely beautiful passage, a shot of two children hopping off a church porch is cut seamlessly into a close-up of a woman raising her arm during her marriage vows: two leaps of faith collapsing fifteen years of screen time. And at its midpoint, an oil well erected by Plainview’s company in the middle of New Boston, California, erupts suddenly and violently and catches fire, billowing smoke into the night until the rigging collapses and burns away.
Anderson shoots this flaming column like it’s Jacob’s Ladder—the perfect symbol for a movie about ascent and descent. In There Will Be Blood, the two trajectories are interlaced like the symbol for infinity. The deeper that Daniel Plainview digs into the Earth’s core, the larger his dominion grows on its surface; as his ambition (and profit margins) spiral ever higher, his soul sinks further into the muck. Another eloquent down-is-up tableaux: as preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) tentatively approaches Daniel to top up his fledgling congregation’s collection plate, he crosses a muddy pond turned resplendently blue by the reflection of an afternoon sky. Heaven, it seems, is indeed a place on Earth, but it’s also an illusion.
In addition to being one of the most visually striking of Anderson’s movies to date, There Will Be Blood might be the most visually striking American feature of the last two decade. Or three: the money shots here are all big spenders, splashing across the widescreen frame like gushers or else slow-burning themselves into the viewer’s brain, as when Daniel reunites with his estranged adopted son H. W. (Dillion Freaiser) and cinematographer Robert Elswitt pushes their embrace to the back of a vanishing-point vista and draws our eye to a small break in papa’s pipeline. It’s a little fissure that anticipates a larger rift between the characters.
It’s a critical cliché to say that the landscape is a character in a movie, but the sun-baked exteriors in There Will Be Blood have a definite star quality. They have to, because Day-Lewis’s presence in the movie is as big as all outdoors; rather than being dwarfed by the canyons and badlands around them, he wrestles them to a draw.
When the film was released in 2007, reviewers reached—or grasped—for comparisons that could help to establish a sense of scale for both the movie and its lead performance. For the former, they came up with Citizen Kane and The Godfather (All-American tales of entrepreneurs rotting from the inside out) or 2001: A Space Odyssey (a film whose score became as important as the visuals); for the latter, they went with John Huston (in Chinatown) and Charles Laughton (in any old thing), although one could just as easily have cited both men as directorial influences. Depending on the scene, There Will Be Blood evokes the magic-realist drift of Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter just as surely as the greedy fever of Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
The landscapes, however, are straight out of Giant. Never one to pass up a chance to show off his cinephile credentials, PTA chose to shoot his own oil-baron melodrama in Marfa, Texas, in effect turning Stevens’s old stomping grounds into his own Monument Valley. In outline and incident, There Will Be Blood is very different from Giant, which is first and foremost a movie-star romance between Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor: when the subject of female companionship is broached in Anderson’s film, Daniel Plainview bites his tongue and goes on talking about other things. Hudson’s deep-pocketed tyro Jordan “Bick” Benedict gladly shares his fortune and his spread with Taylor’s debutante Leslie Lynnton, whom he regards as his true life’s work and enterprise: in the famous final lines, the now-aged baron smiles affectionately and tells his wife, “If I live to be 90, I will never figure you out.” But as played by Taylor, Leslie isn’t all that much of an enigma: she’s so steadfast, in fact, that she can resist the thick-tongued charms of James Dean’s cattle-hand Jett Rink, whose designs on the ranch’s prim and proper mistress dovetail with his desire to coax forth some black gold from the ground beneath her feet.
Viewed from the right angle, There Will Be Blood plays out as a sort of West Coast remake of Giant, with an established titan pitted against a usurping upstart, and the oil fields themselves as the fertile leading lady lying between them. Except that Daniel Plainview actually has more in common with Jett Rink than he does with Jordan Benedict, whom we never see earning his vast wealth and exalted status: he was born into his own looming shadow. Daniel, though, is a self-made man, building an empire from the ground up (from under the ground actually; the first time we see him, he’s tinkering in a cave in search of silver) and then refusing to rest on his laurels for even a moment. (There is a running motif of startled awakening in There Will Be Blood, as if the watchful Daniel is always surprised to find that he’s allowed himself to fall asleep in the first place). If Jordan Benedict is defined by his commitment to his stately status quo—and finally redeemed in the eyes of his wife and the audience by one small, progressive gesture in protest of his native state’s history of racism—Daniel Plainview is an agent of change, forever trying to reshape the world in his own image.
The portrait that emerges from his efforts is plenty ugly, of course: Anderson’s literary source is Upton Sinclair’s 1927 wild-catter novel Oil!, but his climax is redolent of The Picture of Dorian Gray, as Daniel is revealed to us in his dotage as a prematurely ruined husk who wears his sins like a Halloween mask. Day-Lewis’s slouched posture, simian gait, and marrow-sucking line-readings in these closing moments are either the apex or the nadir of his all-stops out performance—the middle ground crumbles when you’re dealing with scorched earth—and there’s no way in Hell (or Heaven) that Paul Dano is going to be able to match him. “I told you Eli! I told you that I would eat you up!” bellows Daniel, and he’s surely speaking for his actorly namesake, who, not content to simply chew the scenery, is happy to snack on the other actors too. It’s the exact opposite of what happens in Giant, where Dean’s unique form of actorly jiu-jitsu reclaims the character’s weaknesses as strengths and draws us into the very same emerald-eyed passions that Day-Lewis’s turn makes so strangely enigmatic.
We thus feel something when Giant contrives to shrink Jett Rink down to almost nothing in the home stretch: even after striking it rich, he’s reduced to a shambling alcoholic, succinctly disparaged and then nobly smacked down by Bick en route to the latter’s happy ending. (That Dean died before the film was released renders his character’s fate in even more melancholy tones). If Anderson did take anything from Giant beyond the location, it’s the way that Daniel, like Jett Rink before him, is diminished and destroyed by his success. Where Giant lumbers on past this sad state of affairs to consolidate Bick’s genteel victory on the field of political correctness, There Will Be Blood doubles down on the topsy-turvy contradiction of a man brought low by his own climb up a very tall ladder. We see the depth’s Daniel has plunged too but he doesn’t. His triumph is unqualified because he doesn’t seem to mind or comprehend what has been lost in order to achieve it. The final show of the film shows Daniel Plainview sitting with his back to the camera, spent and elated, at once an emblem of success on one’s own terms and a figure of ellipsis, defined as much by what he’s earned as by what he’s pushed away, buried, forgotten, and repressed.
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 Monday, July 11, 2022
Welcome to the 1,498th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Green SVG of Image:Syndicalism.svg
Co-op_activism4.svg: *Co-op_activism3.svg: *Syndicalism.svg: Vladsinger Co-op_activism.svg: user:Al Maghi - original work by user:Vladsinger derivative work: Al Maghi (talk) derivative work: Al Maghi (talk) derivative work: Al Maghi (talk) - Co-op_activism4.svg
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Commentary
I would rather see the economists scramble to cool inflation than to see people out of work.
So I like the continuing demand for workers even though wages are marching towards a goal of $25.00 hourly pay for all experienced workers.
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Reading
I am getting used to Whisper-Sync with my Kindle. But this is a great improvement in my ability to spend time reading.
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Writing
Not pleased with the time I’m spending writing. Got to get more organized.
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Word of the Day:
For definition, see below, immediately after the Short Essay
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Screen time
Watched “There will be Blood” for first time. Loved it. Like “Godfather II” it’s a study of power, which corrupts absolutely.
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Wellness
While I am healing, I am concerned that my legs have lost a lot of strength that they may not regain.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Reason often makes mistakes,
but conscience never does.
~Josh Billings
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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
I made the mistake that required my sending out a second link to the blog.
Friend Jim P wrote:
No worries. Two are better than one as they say! 😊
Blog meister responds: Thanks, Jim.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I made Goat Curry for the first time.
On Saturday.
It was delicious.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Hawk at Public Garden
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Short Essay*
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any other entity, pays the other, the employee, in return for carrying out assigned work. Employees work in return for wages, which can be paid on the basis of an hourly rate, by piecework or an annual salary, depending on the type of work an employee does, the prevailing conditions of the sector and the bargaining power between the parties. Employees in some sectors may receive gratuities, bonus payments or stock options. In some types of employment, employees may receive benefits in addition to payment. Benefits may include health insurance, housing, disability insurance. Employment is typically governed by employment laws, organization or legal contracts.
Wage labor, as institutionalized under today's market economic systems, has been criticized, especially by both mainstream socialists and anarcho-syndicalists, using the pejorative term wage slavery. Socialists draw parallels between the trade of labor as a commodity and slavery. Cicero is also known to have suggested such parallels.
The American philosopher John Dewey posited that until "industrial feudalism" is replaced by "industrial democracy", politics will be "the shadow cast on society by big business". Thomas Ferguson has postulated in his investment theory of party competition that the undemocratic nature of economic institutions under capitalism causes elections to become occasions when blocs of investors coalesce and compete to control the state plus cities.
* 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, July 10, 2022
Welcome to the 1,497th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Pat Cipollone
President Donald J. Trump is joined by associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and deputy White House Counsel Kate Comerford Todd, as they watch as Judge Amy Coney Barrett signs the oath certification in the Cross Hall of the White House following her swearing-in as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, on the South Lawn of the White House. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)
The White House from Washington, DC - The Swearing-in Ceremony of the Honorable Amy Coney Barrett
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Commentary
What a fun night! Fridau night my friends Tucker and Dave came over for a movie night. We watched “There will be Blood,” taking breaks to refill our plates with good food. I greatly appreciated their running commentary. We laughed and traded comments, some intelligent, some fit for nine-year-olds.
Only when you’re in close contact with knowledgeable people can you understand how pathetically ill-prepared we older people are understanding concepts.
e.g.
I wanted to watch the Shogun mini-series made some 20 years ago. I went to all the sites like Netflix and Prime. Then I asked Xfinity to find it for me. I gave up deciding it simply is not available. It took my friends Dave and Tucker all of 15 seconds to have it up and running on my large screen home computer. Wow!
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Reading and Writing and Word of the Day
I am reading Shogun. But Friday night I signed up for Whisper-Sync which permits Kindle users to listen to the book in audible mode while advancing the place in the book where the reader should continue reading. Amazing. It adds a new dimension to my reading, for example, listening to the book on the T or when I cook.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
You'd better not know so much,
than to know so many things that ain't so.
~Josh Billings
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Wellness
Returning to full eighty-year-old health after that bike crash will be painfully slow. But I happy to have restarted my weight-lifting regimen, even if I am using baby-weights.
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Social Life
Friday night we had a great movie event. Monday, the 18th, my son Dom and I are going for lunch. On the 20th, I’m having coffee with close friend Cindy. And several events are floarint around waiting for finalization.
And I’ll be seeing coffee mates every day I visit my cafes.
I’ll receive a lot of emails.
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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
I received this on Friday, so far the closest I’ve come to an agent stepping up.
Dear dom,
Thank you for submitting your project, THE MYSTIC WARRIOR: REMIT TO HELL. I read your materials with interest, and did find a great deal to recommend the project, but ultimately, I just wasn't as enthusiastic about the concept as I had hoped to be.
Naturally, this is a highly-subjective opinion, and I'm sure other agents will feel quite differently.
I do appreciate you thinking of me with this project, and I sincerely wish you every success.
Regards,
Gina Panettieri
Blog meister responds: I’ll keep at it.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night I baked a loaf of bread, I made guacamole and hummus, Pasta Marinara, Feijoada, and whipped coconut cream served with delicious strawberries.
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Community Photos**
Chinatown sf
This is perhaps the most exciting street in San Francisco and ranks internationally as one of the world’s great streets.
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Short Essay*
Pasquale Anthony "Pat" Cipollone (born May 6, 1966) is an American attorney who served as White House Counsel for President Donald Trump.
Cipollone was named White House Counsel by President Donald Trump in October 2018. He succeeded Don McGahn who left office on October 17, 2018.Emmet Flood served as counsel until Cipollone's background security check was completed. Cipollone officially assumed the role on December 10, 2018.
In his role as White House Counsel, Cipollone was the public face of the White House response to the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. In October 2019, he signed an eight-page letter to Democratic House leaders stating that the White House would not cooperate in any way with the inquiry. He laid out a broad view of executive authority and said that Democrats' actions violate "the Constitution, the rule of law, and every past precedent". This letter has been cited as evidence for the charge that President Trump was obstructing the House's impeachment inquiry. In December 2019, Cipollone wrote two letters in response to an invitation from Jerry Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, for the White House or Trump himself to participate in its hearings. He said the White House and Trump would not participate because the planned hearings do not "provide the president with any semblance of a fair process" and the inquiry is "completely baseless".
On January 14, 2020, Cipollone was named to the team of attorneys representing President Donald Trump in the impeachment hearing case. During the Senate's impeachment trial, Cipollone misled Congress on a number of issues, including falsely claiming Republican congressional members were not allowed into the secure facility where classified information about the impeachment inquiry was being stored.
On January 31, 2020, it was reported that Cipollone was present at a May 2019 White House meeting where President Trump directed his national security adviser John Bolton to "extract damaging information on Democrats from Ukrainian officials."
*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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