One thing I learned from The Eagles

"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device."

No truer words were spoken. 

Or sung? 

One thing I learned from Leonard Cohen

The body -- your body, my body -- is an "engine of grace." Graceful, maybe -- but an engine nonetheless. 

Feeding the engine, 2015. 

One thing I learned from my mother

Be forthright. 99% of people are afraid. Don't be -- or at least don't act afraid. 

My mother loved Americans. In America you could be standing in line next to the most interesting person in the world; in Canada you were just standing in line. 

The things we do for love:  My mother playing croquet in the aughts. 

Related: my obituary of my mother. 

GODLESS, dir. Scott Frank

During the first episode I was afraid this was golng to devolve into another "Woke"-lahoma, in which we were lectured just how bad the white man is. Don't get me wrong, we've got a lot to apologize for -- and apologizing is just the beginning. But if I wanted to feel badly I'd go to church (and I'm a church-goer -- you should be, too (see?)). Hey, I'm just watching TV! 

I needn't have worried. The show is Godless, it's a Netflix mini-series directed by Scott Frank and it's perfectly bingeable. 

"Best consumed on a Sunday morning, acksh-lee,"

Scott Frank also co-created a little thing called The Queen's Gambit. Both can --  and should -- be binged on Netflix. I'll remember this interview; maybe you will too. 

"Regrets, I've had a few... "

I was fat when they rolled me in here. You wanna lose weight and be a cheap date? I recommend the liquid diet being fed straight into your stomach. But I don't understand the presence of HFCS -- it's not like I have to taste the darned stuff (and what I have tasted ain't very impressive).

I used to love pub food -- salty! I would've been SO FAT. And I wish I'd done more upper-body exercises. There was a week when I was expected to give blood and I just didn't have the veins. And I wish I'd been nicer. But that's about it.  

Hey, when did My Name Is Earl jump the shark? Nobody in this family wanted to watch the fourth, final season. And I, who insisted on Spock's Brain, didn't fight them. But Earl used to be #1, man. 

"Brain? What is brain?"

Rattling in my brain-pan...

 Okay, I have to ask: Norman Mailer on Gilmore Girls? 

With Adele Morales, whom Mailer stabbed with a pen-knife. 

I'm spending a lot of time at this site and this site. I ask you, Dear Reader: am I the D-A-D-G-A-D sort? 

I have a soft spot for Ralph Macchio. Maybe you do, too? 

Influential filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard dead at 91. 

Looks like I will have to add Michael Scott Moore to my list of surfers-turned-writers. 

Elizabeth II, 1926-2022

Dead at 96. Elizabeth II was a big deal, to my mother and most of her generation. When she was a girl growing up on the Canadian prairies Lois kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings of the Queen. It's where I first saw this picture. 

My mother couldn't wait  to see Helen Mirren in The Queen. Looks like it can be watched on the usual platforms -- I recommend it. When I let my voice be heard I, like Cherie Blair in the film, rather squeekily advocated for the abolition of the Monarchy. I don't recommend that. 

Princess Elizabeth plays "tag" aboard the HMS Vanguard. 

On the platter

Poor Paul Hewson — he and his band mates have had to wait for me to slowly figure things out. Hey, maybe they’re even, as the kids say, “Your jam. ” Farbeit from me to impinge on the fun. Knock yerself out. Here’s what I’m listening to (Before I go any further — you’re using Firefox with NoScripts, yes? It’s even a Windows thing. And don’t worry — They still keep track of you!): 

Gary Clark Jr., LIVE. The bloke who rather famously inspired Eric Clapton to pick up the plectrum again. No more need be further said. 

Paul Butterfield Blues Band An Anthology of the Elektra Years. Inspired absolutely everyone, from Bob Dylan on. And I know why “Love March” was included, but it is 60s in a bad way. Skip it, please.

Marvin Gaye, What's Going On?  60s in a GOOD way (technically this was released in May of 1971, but you know what I’m sayin’).

Aaron Parks Little, Big II. Hey, read the book, woncha? And listen to the music. 

I own three copies, but not this...  yet!