Goodbye Year 2007

As I sit and reflect upon the end of one year and look forward to the next, a passage from Walt Whitman comes to mind that I am taking the liberty of quoting herein.

I Sit and Look Out (Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass)

I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world,
and upon all the oppression and shame,
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men at anguish
with themselves, remorseful after deeds done,
I see in low life the mother misused by her children,
dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate,
I see the wife misused by her husband, I see the
treacherous seducer of young women,
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love
attempted to be hid, I see these sights on the earth,
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny, I see
martyrs and prisoners,
I observe a famine at sea, I observe the sailors
casting lots who shall be kill'd to preserve the
lives of the rest,
I observe the slights and degradations cast by
arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and
upon negroes, and the like,
All these - all the meanness and agony without end I
See, hear, and am silent.

How little has changed in the 150 years since
this was initially published.

Sirens, Sirens, and more Sirens

I recently moved back into the big city of Philadelphia after living several years in the suburbans. I very quickly became annoyingly aware of police, fire truck, and ambulance sirens wailing several times during the day and night. Probably, does not help that I live about two blocks away from a fire station where all the 911 response vehicles are housed. Without fail, they seem to start up during a favorite TV/movie show, while trying to talk on the phone, as soon as I lay down for a nap or for the night, or at three in the morning. Annoying is not a strong enough word for how the noise intrudes on my daily life. My neighbors have said that after a time, I will have adjusted and not really hear them anymore but after four months that has not yet happened. Then I pause and think of the human tragedy that may be behind those sirens, a house fire, a car accident, a shooting, a heart attack, etc. and reflect "but for the grace of God, it could have involved me". Like just a couple weeks ago where there was a shooting on a street corner that I had been at just ten minutes prior or at a mall that I had planned to shop later in the day. Then my annoyance is tempered and I comfort myself further by saying well, at least it was not the mind piercing horrid noise of power lawn mowers and leaf blowers.

Blogging

Since I started my blog, one of the more enjoyable aspects is chain linking from one blog to another. Not only do I find many items of interest but educational as well. Recently, ended up on a blog of a friend of a friend. It is called Allogenes (do you know what it means - I didn't, look it up). Anyway, it contains some great quotes and with all due credit to the blog author, Jeffery, am reiterating a couple of my favorites herein. Classifiable as - wish I had thought to say that.

Tin Man (Sci Fi - mini series)

Part A - I know I promised myself and you dear readers that I would not comment on this series until I had seen all three episodes but last night when the sorceress released a swarm a flying critters from her heaving bosom >> P-L-E-A-S-E !! Although I am a bit of a purist when it comes to the Wizard of OZ, I hated the WIZ and the Muppet's fiasco, I am still always willing to give new ventures consideration (loved Wicked - please, please do not try to make it into a movie). And so I will reserve further comment until I see the remaining two episodes except to say, Richard Dreyfuss as Mystic Man a/k/a the Wizard was worse than Mickey Rooney stumbling and forgetting his lines in Wicked.

Part B - Sorry, could not wait to express a couple of thoughts after seeing episode two. For an adventure story, I must ask where is the adventure? Two hours of mostly slow paced dialogue that did nothing to advance the story. And we must not forget the lame line "shed light on the past to guide you in the future". Guess the quote " learn from history or you will be condemned to repeat it" was copyrighted. And then the redunancy of DG, DG, DG - we get it already - it is an acronym for Dorothy Gale - clever, not. And of course we could not end the episode without more sorcercess boob action For those who thought Return to OZ was dark, now there is even a darker rendition. Like my good friend Dan commented, why didn't they just make this a story on its own instead of trying to mimic WOZ. Finally, must not forget my pet peeve with the Sci Fi channel - too many commercials that go on and on forever.

Part C - Finally some adventure/action in the finale with the OZ turbine and the sorceress straining to plunge the OZ into darkness forever. However, even this could not overcome the wooden acting and monotone speech patterns. Upon the witches' demise, the line "She has melted" was delivered with such a total lack of enthusiaism as to be anticlimatic. And let us not forget other quips such as "Answers are questions, not yet asked", 'If you don't have a heart, you have nothing", "Courage is not about being fearless, it is about standing up to your fears". Over all was I disappointed, emphatically yes; and "I am so glad to be home". By the way, if you missed it, there will be repeat showings and a DVD release. The Great OZ has spoken.