In the twilight zone of Before Hockey and Opera

I really do not like this time of year, very much at all.
Except, of course, for the build-up of anticipation.

Yes, waiting for hockey (at any level) and operas, too, to start is not unlike the feverish anticipation I get when planning a trip.

A Fahrt ins Blaue (no stated goal) or a detailed trip where everything is just SO.

If one likes brawls, that is...

Yes, that is the time, when one cannot really sleep because one's mind is so full of images (:-) like the ones here:





Or full of sounds like Samuel Ramey's version of a song soon to be heard resonantly (we hope) at HGO.

 

I know, I know some out there would want to have me also throw in the  coming elections, but as I posted before that brouhaha is, alas, less filled with anticipation, but more with annihilation. And so I will not give it much more than these few words.

And then there are those travel plans...
details, savoring possible sights along rivers,
in my case, the joys of reunions with friends and kin
OVER there and so much more:

And that brings me to another subject-yes, indeed!
And that is flying!
I agree, it is the  quickest way to anywhere.
Even with the numerous delays at airports due to the stripping of all metals (lol) to avoid pings. But, alas, THAT has not precluded my being padded down on every trip, on the back-to-Houston leg, we took in the last few years!
Guess I must I look that dangerous? :-)!

It is, however, most uncomfortable as most joints creak in unison after prolonged periods of inactivity. Sure, one can get up to stretch, or one ought to...
But that does impede the constant stream by others to the WC!

And by the crew to serve more liquids to increase said WC traffic :-)!

2 hours in a sardine tin of a plane is just barely bearable.
When one does not count hours spent in airports which, and that IS a beef- have too few seats- or so it seems to me! There are always so many crouched on the floors!

But those long overseas flights...already my wish dreams are turning to nightmares. This time I will try THE new AUA business class on one journey leg,


Greenhouse Spa - hot, bubbly, relaxing

the other will be taken in luxurious  (;-)! style on a ship.

With my luck, I'll have the worst stormy passage. Just kidding! I do hope, NOT!

Talking Heads

Listening to some 'experts' on the plight of the world, I cannot believe what I am hearing...or rather what NOT hearing.
Blah Blah, Blah Blah...soothing words purling from rosy lips and ultrawhite teeth!

How wonderful, that the media can find so many real experts to educate us know nothing populi ;-)! I feel truly enlightened by the wisdom spurting from their mouths.
I hang on their very words hoping for something, anything that clarifies the situation.

To paraphrase Kerouac:
“They had nothing to offer anybody except their own confusion”
And at the end I scratch my head because they talked, and talked, and talked
but really said

NOTHING!

Election Overload

Yes, I am.
Done with.
Reading and hearing slurs.
Exagerration on both sides.
Media's - oh so - obvious bias.
Mud and worse slinging by died-in-the-wool  partisans on both sides.

BASTA, I say.

GENUG, ENOUGH.

Chers Readers

An open letter to chers readers.

Have you commented on any blog lately?
Mine or anyone else's? If not ... why?
Are you that busy?

Too busy following the disastrous news in our world,
http://news.yahoo.com/villages-slowly-vanish-hispaniola-lakes-grow-165736021.html
including all political clap trap!
Maybe you are simply too busy flipping screens on your droids or ipads?

Or has school/college already got you down?
Although, chers Chicago readers, the teachers' strike gave you extra weeks (maybe) off to - ahem - improve your quality of life!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chicago-teachers-strike-could-distort-152500171.html

Perhaps it is the NHL lock out that has hockey fans boiling, because, of course, all those employees in the arena, and around the rinks, and on TV plus Tee shirt printers, jersey embroiderers, stick carvers, and puck molders, and mask painters, now have to go on the dole, just to make ends meet. Naturally owners, players and others (such as lawyers and union reps) need not fear that they, too, will have to visit soup kitchens.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nhl--nhl-lockout-watch--players-united-in-the-face-of-team-owners--clawback-demands.html
And the puck, oops, buck , stops there, we hope. Or Harry S. Truman WILL turn over in his grave.. again!

Then there are such divertissiments as naked duchesses;
and reports on foibles of other celebrities..
But you know that already, since you've been avidly flipping screens of your i-phones to keep abreast of all, duchess's included!

You did NOT miss reading about the STARBUCKS Diet? Did You?.. well, here is the link http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/starbucks-diet-one-woman-dropped-80-pounds-coffee-211600454.html.
Although if you ask me she looks a bit 'hungry' in the 'after pic ;-)!

Have you, as you ought to, been studying information - pro and con http://www.politico.com/2012-election/
- available everywhere, on the candidates for the elite life in Washington, DC?
No, really, it is of paramount importance that you do so NOW, so you'll not miss to check the right squares, after all we won't want a repeat of  re-counting!

But perhaps, you are applying for a new loan just to buy the latest Apple appliance?
Or maybe you absolutely have to have those iconic sneakers?

By Gucci

Or of course, those lame old steel kitchen appliances must go!
http://www.10news.com/money/dont-waste-your-money/stainless-steel-appliances-may-be-over.

And yes, replacing those dingy old shower curtains with an upscale=expensive product for which you will have to increase your debt load, is a real necessity.

And I could go on and on!

I shall not be surprised by any excuse you can serve up for not reading!

Go on,  sit back, turn off your i-phone, close the kitchen door, stop the bad and sad news,  read blogs and,  have at it - comment how you feel.
Want to be placed on a pedestal ?
Go ahead comment and bloggers will do that in a minute!
As would I...  Just saying!

Raining outside-reading inside

So I finished a long account by adventurer and naturalist Craig Childs, called HOUSE OF RAIN. 
This was a natural after our recent exposure to Mesa Verde and the high deserts of Northern New Mexico and SW Colorado.
After storming through it I wished I had had a chance to read it much earlier in my life, in a time when clambering among boulders and across rubble strewn mountain sides could have been rather easily accomplished by my  much sprier self. :-)

In the hours of reading about his hikes among the ruins, known and unknown, of vanished civilizations commonly referred to as Anasazi (not a 'good' name) or Salado, etc. with references to even earlier tribes stemming, perhaps, from Aztec culture, I was drawn back to my youth when becoming an Ethnologist seemed my real future. Of course, when I realized that there were few peoples and areas left to be discovered I switched to a medical career.

Ethnoarcheology, Ethnoecology, Maritime ethnology, study of middens, etc, just did not seem as fascinating as the discovery of unknown species, not adventurous enough, perhaps.

On the other hand, not having to fight off leeches, spiders, ticks and other creepy crawlies did seem much more comfortable, :-), as I aged!
In my heart I am still that one who would have loved to discover the unusual, and to delve into old mysteries.
Now, of  course, only as an armchair traveller (lol), who gives thanks for the abundance of books written by more intrepid men and women.

During the hours spend immersing myself in the presumed lives of these people, albeit only via the words - and how polished and poetic they were - by Mr. Childs, the question why did they vanish continues to be as fascinating to me as it appears to all those researchers. Numerous conjectures abound, none of which give really satisfying answers. Drought, wars, annihilation of complete tribes, barbarianism and, even cannibalism, in its purest (?) as religious cult offering, or circumstantial due to adverse conditions, all are named, but questions remain.



Acoma, New Mexico



Montezumas Castle, Arizona



Tuzigoot, Arizona



Manitou Springs Colorado

Spruce Tree House, Mesa Verde



Excavations of underground house with sipapu -airshaft? Mesa Verde

Montezumas Castle and Tuzigoot in Arizona, Acoma and Mesa Verde in New Mexico, Manitou Springs in Colorado....remain still books with many seals which may be broken little by little, but only with permission of Indian tribes on whose lands they are found.

Gedankenwirbelstuerme

Was so in der letzten Zeit in der Welt passiert, loest bei mir echte Wirbelstuerme aus. Was immer wir, die Amis, tun, wir werden verachtet, gehasst, angegriffen und ermordet. Auf schoen Englisch: Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

Oder so kommt es jedenfalls mir vor. Gedanken sind doch noch frei oder?

Warum geben wir Millionen, die wir uns eh nicht leisten koennen, an Aegypten ab? Wenn ueberall amerikanische Botschaften und Konsulate bestuermt werden.
Und Blut spritzt und die Feuer des Hasses ausbrechen.
Nehmen wir mal an, dass die Waffen der Anstuermer vielleicht sogar aus USA stammen, als sozusagene amerikanische Beitraege zum Erwachen der dortigen Demokratie :-)!
Das ist ja zum Lachen. Nein, zum Heulen.
Satirisches Gelaechter, bitte!

Und dann gibt es ein Tohuwabohu ueber die Photos einer unbekleideten Herzogin!
So, jetzt wissen wir 100% sie hat eine Haut, sie hat Brustwarzen, usw. und wem schaert das? Mir nicht!
Man bedenkt, dass wir Menschen alle von Adam und Eve abstammen :-),  ist es eh egal, ob sie mal nackt herumliegt oder nicht.  Freikoerperkultur gibt es schon Jahrzehnte lang. So warum der Aufruhr? Weil sie eine Herzogin ist? Geboren oder angeheiratet. Ist ja voellig wurscht!

Was mich so echt anfrisst, ist die Reaktion von religioesen Fanatikern. Die scheinen es nicht verkraften koennen, das Leute auch anders denken. Und so hetzten sie andere, wohl leicht beeinflussbare, Menschen auf, und schon gibt's blutige Gemetzel.
Sogar von den eigenen Kameraden.

Und was mich noch weiter aergert ist, dass es sogar noch Menschen gibt, die das Benehmen solcher Fanatiker entschuldigen. Wie bitte??

Und so frage ich mich, wollen sie denn, dass man sich nur DEM einen Glauben beugen soll? Wir sollen noch glauben an eine Versoehnung zwischen den Fanatikern und und anderen? Wie es hier der Papst erhofft?
http://news.yahoo.com/pope-tells-syrians-admires-courage-172440569.html

Dessen Behandlung von Frauen irgendwo im Nebel der Vergangenheit stecken geblieben ist? Welcher andere Religionen verbietet, und Angriffe an Kirchen anderer Glauben erlaubt?  Und das sind NUR ein paar Probleme, die mir gerade so einfallen.

Ich habe eine Freundin, die mit Worten drechselt und wunderbare Satiren schreibt, welche mich riesig amuesieren. Da bin ich stets froh, dass es, Gott sei Dank, NOCH moeglich ist so zu schreiben, zumindesten hier!
Obwohl - mir kommt es oefters vor, dass Big Brother oder, zum mindesten bei uns hier in den USA koennte es auch, Sister :-) sein, uns 24h lang beobachtet!

Und jetzt, die kontinuierende Debate zwischen Hockey Spieler Gewerkschaften und den Besitzern der Teams ist auch ein Beispiel unserer Zeit $$$$$ ueber alles.
Man, meiner Ansicht nach, zahlt den Sportlern und anderen VIPs einfach zu viel! 
Wer kann sich den heutzutage eine Saisonkarte leisten, die etliche 1000$ kostet, pro Person noch dazu?
Nun gut, man gab auch schon in Rom Gladiatorspiele, um die plebs vom Streiken abzuhalten. Laut Geschichte, gab man den Oesterreichern ihre Brathendel, damit sie gluecklich schweigen :-)! 
In Spanien werfen sie Tomaten und das erleichert den Stress, oder soll's wenigstens, LOL.
Wenn so viele keine Arbeit finden koennen? Und der Stadt mit Stempelgeld mehr und mehr Leute unterstuetzen muss?

Aber was soll's..
Gewerkschaften sind eben dazu da und ihre Mitglieder zahlen brav ihr Mitgleidsgeld, ob sie wollen oder nicht!
Und damit BASTA.
Morgen ist ein anderer Tag, hoffentlich ein besserer.

If the future really...

could be seen in a crystal ball, I'd be telling everyone what will happen on September 15.

Lock out or No Lock out that IS question.

But for AEROS fans, October 13 may just be a WOW occasion,
considering those hot and eager hockey players crowding on the ice at the TC ready for action.
As one can read here:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/Russos_Rants.html
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But hockey aside, the next few evenings will be dedicated to Wagner as perceived, more or less interestingly, by LePage and The Met.

One can love THE MACHINE, one can hate IT, but one must admit it IS a daring concept,

creaky maybe, malfunctioning at times, but surely daring!

 

*********************************************************************************

And now to what has been occupying my mind until the wee hours of the morning.. and I never even heard of this author. So here is MY take.

Jose Saramago's BLINDNESS.

Translated from the Portuguese in true fashion, including dialogues without the usual :"..." etc. Which requires one to read carefully to understand who is speaking to whom, which is especially confusing when 3 or more are talking at the same time.

Otherwise it is a stunningly written novel. 

 

Now maybe it is that I have had decades of reading novels of all sorts and kinds,

 that I often felt a sense of deja vu!

Take for instance:

people who are different because they have turned blind seeing nothing but white! As they are perceived as dangerously infectious, they herded into quarantine quarters, "protected for their own good" by solders with weapons, where they are told to fend for themselves ( as blind people???).

Sounds like the banishment of the lepers to Molokai! Use your stumps to dig soil and plant, eh!

 

Then bring in more, crowding them into spaces unsuitable for so many.

With no hygiene etc, and lice and filth flourish! 

Add to the frightened mix a bunch of criminals with their weapons who although blind themselves become abusers of the weaker ones to the nth degree

(Gulags, Concentration camps come to mind).

 

Add indiscriminate shootings by solders, who eventually succumb to the illness themselves but are transferred to the tender care of the armed forces elsewhere, :-), rather then crowded in with the others.

 

Next, add an "angel" in the guise of the seeing (she never lost her vision-just pretended to in order to stay with her beloved) wife of a doctor. Who kills the tyrant while he and his cohorts are being serviced by women, herself included, forced to do so in order to get their men food which the tyrant and his cohorts are hoarding. (reminder, as above)

 

Huge chaos follows and finally, the 'government' is gone, lost all control.

The doors are no longer guarded. Since everyone is blind now-we, the readers, need assume.

The 'tyrant group' is dispersed in confusion while running out of bullets to coerce the others.

 

The '"angel" and her group exit into a city, occupied by blind people who wander lost from place to place in search of food and toilets.

 

Since nothing works, no water, no lights, no heat,  no cars, no ...

you get the idea,

it is dog eat dog, literally, as feral dogs feed on fallen people and people kill and eat raw meat where found.

 

BUT the "angel" has found a 'dog of tears' who licked her tears off her face when she was distressed,  then attached himself to her;  and the group finds an unoccupied apartment where they settle, take 'rainshowers' and wash clothes, foraging form time time for food.

 

Until, one day they can see again!

 

"Then she lifted her head up to the sky and saw everything white, It is my turn she thought. Fear made her quickly lower her eyes. The city was still there."ibid

 



And thus ends the book.

What are we to see or not?

Why are all blind except her?

Woman is leader?

Group living - is better.

Does she, or doesn't she loose her sight at the end?

My feeling is NOT.

After all angels cannot fall prey to this seeing nothingness!

 

But  read for yourself.

The Conventions are past....

And I am sure most people have not changed theirs minds how they will vote in November.
Now come the seemingly eternal debates....will they be influential?
I don't think so.
That old saying "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts" still holds sway.
And then the moment of truth.
Am not holding my breath.
And neither it seems is the media.

http://news.yahoo.com/convention-conclusions--are-you-better-off-than-you-were-four-days-ago-.html?_esi=1

http://news.yahoo.com/us-national-debt-hits-16-trillion-republicans-blast-031301848.html

The usual biased hype is prevalent on both suides, IMO.

HOCKEY doings:
AHL will play, but NHL ist still on the cusp. May or may not! September 15 will be decisive.

Remember the Aeros?

OPERA doings:
Opera in the Heights opens the season with Otello - no not Verdi's, but Rossini's! With a new to OH! singers. Starting September 27!