My brother David, with Grandmother - Kate (Dollie) Kanouse.

December 1944

Battlestar Galactica

Season three concluded Sunday night, and what a finale it was! I don't watch much television - some news, the Daily Show and Colbert Report on occasion, Bill Maher on Friday nights, Angel games during the baseball season - but three long-running shows have hooked me in recent years: The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and Battlestar Galactica. Battlestar is a remake of a mediocre series of the same name from the 1970s, with vastly more interesting characters and complex, nuanced takes on current issues.

It's also downright fun. This is a future (or past?) of warp-speed space travel and dazzling high-tech war rooms, but not cordless phones; radios and pop-up toasters are right out of the 1950s, and people still smoke cigarettes in the workplace. And now we have "All Along the Watchtower" (what's with that?!?). Unfortunately, we have to wait until January 2008 to find out what happens next.

Marijuana

Andrew Sullivan has a link to an interesting report on drugs and toxicity - and once again, marijuana ranks as the least addictive, most benign substance.

My sentiments exactly

Photo by Nick Calyx. Thanks to Harry Myhre for both title and link.

For Slatkin / Zlotkin friends and fans...

Review from the New York Sun:

Fashioning a Lyrical, Fluid Line Classical Music
BY FRED KIRSHNIT
March 14, 2007

Cellist Frederick Zlotkin had the honor of introducing the most beautiful melody ever written by Robert Schumann, the main theme of the Andante cantabile from his Piano Quartet, aboard the chamber music barge Sunday afternoon at Brooklyn's Fulton Ferry Landing. Mr. Zlotkin is most likely tired of being described as Leonard Slatkin's brother, so let's introduce him instead as the son of the fine cellist Eleanor Aller. This day, he teamed with another local celebrity, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic Glenn Dicterow, along with violist Karen Dreyfus and pianist Gerald Robbins.

Mr. Zlotkin made the most of his opportunity, fashioning a lyrical line notable for its fluidity and grace. He did not employ a great deal of vibrato, but did include a delicious portamento slide toward the conclusion of this infectious melody that brought to this reviewer a flood of memories and at least a trickle of tears. The other two string players each had their turn at this type of gorgeous music making and each acquitted themselves admirably.
...
Although it was the third movement of Brahms's Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor that grew out of the aforementioned Schumann Andante cantabile, it was the Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor that the quartet performed this day. The piece has a special place in the history of the California ex-pat community so dear to Mr. Zlotkin's parents, as it was this mighty work of chamber music that Otto Klemperer convinced Arnold Schoenberg to orchestrate so that he could conduct it with his Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

My son with his daughter

Darryl with Kaitlin at a family picnic in Griffith Park.

Joining the world of hybrid cars

We bought a brand spanking new car today, a Honda Civic Hybrid. It has an EPA rating of 49 city / 51 highway, and a cool cockpit with GPS navigation and XM radio. What fun! What a huge car payment! (photo by Robin)

Old friends

The Jerveys - my B.U. roommate Bill, his wife Pam, and daughter Allie - are in town visiting their son Chris, who lives in Santa Monica. Bill and I have always said that no matter how long it's been since we've last seen each other, or even written, it always seems like just yesterday - and today was no exception.

We met at the Getty Center, where we walked through some of the galleries, but mainly enjoyed the setting, and the view, having snacks and beer on a terrace overlooking West L.A. From there, we drove to Yamashiro restaurant, overlooking Hollywood, joining Chris (now in his thirties!) for two hours of appetizers, drinks, and great conversation.

Photo: Robin, Allie, Pam, and Bill

Thoughts on Oscar Night

Best Picture: The Departed was certainly good, but not as good as Letters From Iwo Jima. But Clint’s won plenty of awards, and Scorcese was due, so it was no surprise. I didn’t see The Queen or Babel, and thought Little Miss Sunshine was vastly overrated.

Best Director: What goes for picture goes for director.

Best Actor: I can’t quibble with Forest Whitaker taking the award for The Last King of Scotland, which Robin and I saw just earlier today – but I had hoped Peter O’Toole would get it (talk about being due!) for Venus. But then again, I haven’t actually seen Venus; the old-man / sweet-young-thing subject matter is shopworn and unappealing, and a lot of voters may have felt the same. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was good in The Departed, and excellent in Blood Diamond; he’s finally matured enough to inhabit his characters, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win an Oscar in the years to come.

Best Actress: I hadn’t seen any of these performances! Robin and I usually make a point of seeing most, if not all, of the top nominees, but this year we blew it. By all accounts, Helen Mirren deserved the Oscar for The Queen.

Best Supporting Actor: I’ve always enjoyed Alan Arkin, and he was certainly the highlight of Little Miss Sunshine, so I’m happy to see him get the award. But I would have flipped a coin and voted for either Mark Wahlberg (The Departed) or Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond). I haven't seen Little Children or Dreamgirls.

Best Supporting Actress: The only performance I saw in this category was that of Abigail Breslin, the kid in Little Miss Sunshine. She was fine, but it wouldn’t have occurred to me to nominate her for an Oscar.

Other awards: Why do they keep torturing the viewing audience with the 5 “Best Song” performances? Why does the Best Song category even rate inclusion in the live telecast? This award, along with Best Makeup, should be relegated to the banquet where they award Best New Camera Lens. It’s been years since there was a halfway memorable song in this category, and to give the songs more air time than any five other categories is ridiculous. The medley of three boring, overwrought songs from Dreamgirls was enough to send everyone I know to the kitchen for snacks, and as much as I liked An Inconvenient Truth, and Melissa Etheridge, her song didn’t make the least impression on me during the movie.

The ceremony in general: Ellen DeGeneris was okay, moving things along, doing her job – far better than the disastrous turns by David Letterman and Chris Rock – maybe even better suited to the task than last year’s John Stewart (who I prefer in every other way). But the master emcees of Oscar history remain Bob Hope (as much as I hated his politics), Johnny Carson, and Billy Crystal.

R.I.P. Our Red Elantra, 1997 - 2007

Robin's Elantra gave up the ghost in Pasadena tonight, almost ten years to the day from when we bought her new in Bloomington, Illinois. 'Twas a great car - she just ran and ran, getting 35-40 mpg. Then, last year, some transmission problems - and now it's the engine. I'm sure our neighbors will miss her colorful presence; some may even heave a sigh of relief.