Vichy Water – Author's Blog

June 14, 2011

A World of Barbed Wire Last Friday. More on Living to 100 to 150 years. More Absurdities and Extinctions. ‘Widiculous’ Wisconsin. A Movie Review: “An Unmarried Woman” (yup, it’s from 1978 but….) June 14, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: amusements, asbury, jackie, quotes, robinson — earthood @ 3:07 pm

South Pacific. It was quite controversial back in the early 1950's

It’s dizzying; all the input, media, social networking, cable news. And speaking of cable news, one of my favorite musicals was ‘South Pacific’ and the character, ‘Lt. Joseph Cable,’ a Marine who arrives on a fictional island from Guadalcanal to take part in a secret mission. Last winter, I saw the musical in Newark at NJPAC. In 1947, James Michener wrote a short story collection ‘Tales of the South Pacific’ which of course became the musical. What is it, when I hear Michener’s title, something pulls, fills me with deja-vu, and takes me there in the mid 1940’s. I’m on that island; beholder of glorious sunsets, pastel waters, enemy low flying aircraft, loading up supply ships, and sneaking off to Bali Ha’i when no one is looking. How enduring the musical memories; my parents sitting on the sofa listening to their new Hi Fidelity recording, planes flying low and noisy into Newark Airport (prop planes, by the way) and the ‘Good Humor’ ice cream truck with ringing bells, hawking their new ‘Toasted Almond’ bar.

a barbed wire world last Friday.

I’m dizzy now and was last Friday when I went back for the fourth time to this place of barbed wire and incarcerated non-violent human beings, all American citizens. An ongoing phenomenon for me as I travelled to the shiny wire; was how I seemed to notice the most minute details of my surroundings, as if preparing my senses for hard, dull abstractions of life etched in cold bitter blood. The Jersey Turnpike is undergoing construction and adding more lanes; I wondered why, when roads are originally built, extra few lanes are not built when costs are so much cheaper; anybody with a Texas Instruments calculator or slide rule can compute extreme population growth and road usage leading to vile Jersey bumper to bumper traffic. Cumulous clouds were fluffy and white overhead as I passed a few farms with an occasional silo; how I always wanted my own silo and barnyard. I’m tight walking on a fence just before falling into the mud by the pigs. A hand reaches down to help me up. Good old ‘Huck’ is such a reliable, loyal old friend to me and Dorothy. As I got closer to the barbed wire, my mind kept firing away into strange random streams of consciousness. A motel on the left had five rooms; no air conditioners protruded from shaded windows and a sign on the dirt apron said, “Welcome Home Soldiers.” A newspaper blew in front of me; I could swear the headline read, “Japanese Bomb Pearl Harbor.” A patch of blue sky appeared overhead, just as I thought, that within six months after our troops leave Afghanistan, that mountainous country could all fall down to the insurgents; so would everything be in vain? Next thought was the same for Vietnam. Government/military ‘no- trespassing’ signs were affixed to barb wire fences. Speed limit signs were strictly adhered to by me.

its amazing what a wig and shades can do for ID photo or a Halloween party. autographed pictures on request.

Credential check point time; I knew the routine. Picture ID. I wanted to use (as a joke) my old ID pix from twenty years ago, when I looked like Howard Stern (long hair). Gun in a holster of a mean looking officer made me show a current ID; then I drove down a black brick road. On either side of my SUV were strange two story barrack buildings and an eerie silence beyond the walls of wire that I could almost touch. Another photo ID check; I was in a large room with metal seats and stools in three long rows; a far wall was lined with vending machines (vending White Castle Hamburgers could be micro-waved). Hugging was allowed. TastyKake, a Cherry Coke and a strained smile next. I heard that his friend, a couple beds over had died a few days ago amidst complaints about chest pains and no medicine (takes weeks to get a prescription filled); no voices anywhere (no one cares) or “7 on Your Side.”

What bothered me the most; the strained smile implicit of so much he couldn’t say. And you’ll notice how little I say. An 82 year old mother, grey and frail, drives down from Connecticut every week to visit and play cards with a son. They sat a few dark green benches away from us. No air conditioning at all; no fixing of broken fans and no complaints or they’ll shut them all off. No humanity and dignity. Strange fear and sadness, invisible; an infant born after incarceration, visits a young father. Then I asked myself, what was I doing here? Then I was about to answer myself, reaching to touch my friend’s forearm. They say if you’re doing a survey on the streets of Manhattan and you want to get respondents, just reach for someone and gently touch and ask for their help. If you touch, they’ll probably help. If you’re about to shoot a foul shot, and a team mate gently pats your butt, you’ll be elevated to play harder. The subtleties of human relationships and kindness; for me I was visiting because loyalty is such a wonderful human condition and too often, I feel far out west, near California’s Death Valley and there are no people around, no extant family, only strewn bones of carcasses from random indigenous animals. It’s just lousy not to have anyone that cares. Mendacity is mind stifling and bending.

I thought I saw a covered bridge in New Jersey

Homeward bound, I took a slow route, and stared at agrarian New Jersey landscapes, small ponds, more silos, imagined wheat fields and pretend Bridges of Madison County (I’m a guy but one of my favorite bitter sweet movies) and most of the time, I felt it was 1943, simpler times, when America didn’t have more people incarcerated than the rest of the world combined. Next time, I bring a camera like Clint Eastwood in the movie and take show and tell pictures. Do I need to buy a pick-up truck? Hey, ‘Life Magazine,’ I’ve got a whole bunch of your mildew magazines in the basement. My mother said they’d be worth a lot of money one day. Of course she threw out all my comics and baseball cards.

Once upon a time in Michigan, I went to a lecture about equal justice; what I learned was, it’s better to be rich and guilty than poor and innocent in America. A bit of heartening from my perch of solitude and reflection: California will release or transfer 46,000 inmates from their prisons over the next two years as the Supreme Court upheld a decision form the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to alleviate overcrowding; I saw for myself last Friday here in New Jersey under white cumulous clouds.

Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative

On Saturday, I took yet another webinar on aging and living long. Of course, I tongue and cheek it, when talking about living to 100 or 150 years old. On the other hand, in thirty years, many Homo-sapiens will live that long; of course, politically speaking, with shortages on food, energy, water, drugs and plastic garbage bags, who’s going to get the opportunity? A white dove, fighting a blowing wind, just landed on my newly shingled garage roof, and cryptically told me, that the very rich and powerful (the ones who pay the least taxes, coincidentally) will live the longest. Practically speaking, there are a few things we should all be doing. Treat your telomeres right. Telomeres are the tips of the chromosomes which protect it from damage. As you age, the tips get smaller and cells eventually die. Studies have indicated that a 70 year old who exercises massively, has telomeres as long as a thirty year old. Exercise may be the fountain of youth. Diet right. Take supplements. One of my futuristic idols (RK) takes over a hundred supplements a day; I take forty for the last forty years. Look into anti-aging medicine. Develop the right life style. Manage stress. And yup, you need the right attitude. I could write 200 pages right now; perhaps I’ll take a slow metered approach and continue to throw some things out every week. Top foods to eat: Spinach, salmon and fatty fish, nuts, olive oil, red or purple grapes, tomatoes, green tea and garlic. I take daily supplements of green tea, garlic, omega 3,6 fish oil, lycopene (tomatoes) and resveratrol(skin of grapes). Here’s Dr. Oz’s age calculator. I nailed 97 years.

DR OZ’S AGE CALCULATOR:

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/how-long-will-you-live?sp_rid=MTQzNDQ2MjY0S0&sp_mid=1709699

‘More absurdities and extinctions’ is a favorite part of the blog; like a Barrett Browning 43rd sonnet, I’ll count the ways and fire away. While writing this last night, I alternated between glimpses of the Republican Presidential candidate debate all the way from my den, eating a small bowl of new Cinnamon flavored ‘Cheerios,’ (perhaps its not that healthy overdosing in oats. ‘They Shoot Horses Don’t They?”) and mediating daily comments about this blog.

Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann managed to sneak in the much anticipated announcement about her earlier declaring for the Presidency while she was answering a different question; seems a bit tacky and opportunistic. Every candidate attacked the President but no one really mentioned a definitive plan how to succeed in business without really trying; too much of nothing said, for my tired and worn pair of neutral, non-committed auditory canals. Tell me something substantive not stupid.

Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus. I have to bite my lip

Speaking of stupid segue; not ever in my earthly journey to ocean jetties of meditation or red mountains in Arizona for spiritual enhancement, have I ever witnessed a more despicable display of a double-standard thinking clown in a suit as Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus. I’ve got no political party affiliations. Priebus was outspoken calling for Democrat Anthony Weiner to resign. Weiner committed no crime. But when asked on Sunday why he didn’t call for Republican Senator David Vitter to resign when Vitter solicited and paid for a prostitute (indeed a crime) he just evaded. As an independent voter, I get so turned-off to double standards and evasion.

And Priebus went to the University of Wisconsin, the same state that is governed now by ‘King’ Scott Walker of the end of micro-breweries and collective bargaining Walkers and where the end of Medicare (Paul Ryan) breathed a first breath. More from the wacky world of ‘widiculous’ Wisconsin (a governor gone wild?): There’s a proposal that revises child labor laws to end the prohibition on minors under age 18 working more than 40 hours or six days a week. So a sixteen year old can work 66 hours/week for below minimum wage in a secret munitions factory? Absurd?

Governor "King" Scott Walker of Wisconsin

Before I slip into a rabbit hole this morning, I’d love to see the end of investment banks trading oil. And Pennsylvania is looking for a law to prohibit teachers from striking. But I like Ohio’s Governor Kasich, who wants a state resolution making the Dallas Mavericks honorary Ohioans for beating ex-Cleveland Cavaliers Lebron James’s Miami Heat for the NBA title.

When I was a kid growing up in Newark, New Jersey, some of the older, cool, tough guys, with cigarettes dangling, used to tell nerds like me, stories of how they played chicken with a bus, when they were bike riding or later in a car. Go head-on towards a bus and see who veers away first. Nerd-hood kept me from entertaining thoughts of duplicity. “Rebel Without A Cause” had a ‘chicken scene.’ I’ll never forget James Dean or that scene. Why bring it up now? “Cause,” I just thought about the debt ceiling getting raised or not and how skillfully the two parties will play chicken with us and not a bus right up until the ‘which-ing’ hour. Larry Summers, economic advisor, said we need more stimulus and Greece has just achieved the lowest credit rating of any nation. What if they go bus(t)?

More absurd but good (I think): A pool-playing robot has been developed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. The robot has two arms that can move in seven different ways. Cameras mounted above the table track the position of the balls and cue and feed this information to the robot’s computers. Then it decides on the best move and calculates how the arms should be oriented to complete the stroke. To get into position, it rolls around the table using predetermined coordinates. It had an 80 per cent success rate. I wonder what ‘Minnesota Fat’s’ success rate was? And it is a brave new world. Apple plans to build a new campus with a circular building that looks like a spaceship, big enough to house 12,000 employees, scheduled to open in 2015.

almost extinct Sumatran tiger. it hurts.

almost extinct Bactrian camel. it hurts too.

Now to serious stuff. Only 400 Sumatran tigers are left in the world; fewer tigers than sheets in a package of all purpose paper. The Sumatran tiger is classified as “critically endangered;” on the brink of extinction and barely hanging on. They’ve lost 93% of their habitat because companies like Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) are destroying their forest homes. I wonder who buys their paper products. Nestle? Kraft? Unilever? Tigers are left to roam where they are easily slaughtered by poachers for their body parts or shot by the people moving in; perhaps Google “Greenpeace.” There are 300 Asian lions and 950 Bactrian camels left on Earth. And yup, by the end of the century fully half of all earth’s animal species will be extinct. Why do I dwell? Well, I just finished reading an article on ‘The Science of Optimism.” It’s actually built in for us to think everything will be alright.

Mount Rainier is one of the most iconic landmarks in the Pacific Northwest. Like many other world mountains, this volcanic peak is losing snow cover at an alarming rate. A new study has revealed that Rainier has lost 14% of its permanent snow cover over the last 38 years. And I think of Joplin, Missouri and intense storms and global warming and all the skeptics who think warming is fiction or a game of chicken. I think we need ‘Cher’ to slap us all hard and say, “Snap out of it!” Hey, go watch her do it. Take five seconds. Love you tube.

Mount Rainier. its snow is almost extinct.

Cher and Nicholas Cage from 'Moonstruck' snap out of it

Finally, my movie review: On Sunday night, in the throes of restlessness at 1 AM, I flicked the channels with my remote (I think the remote ranks right behind Penicillin) and found “An Unmarried Woman” starring Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates and Michael Murphy. Oh, I’ve seen it many times before, but each time another rivet to my appreciation on what a timeless, dare I say riveting, breathtakingly real story of a perfect life being shattered when Jill’s character, Erica’s husband leaves her for a younger woman in New York City.

a 5 second video of Cher telling Nicholas Cage to “Snap out of it”

When I watch a movie I try to suck in every minutia of timeless scenery; trucks passing by, people in a park stopping for ices, a jogger, the east river, an art gallery or the faces of brunch people in a brunch place. Every detail of city life and Erica’s pain and growth is wondrously painted by the director/artist Paul Mazursky. I love that movie and city.

Here’s what really got me. Erica had a fifteen year old daughter in the movie, Patti, beautifully played by Lisa Lucas, who’s now really 52 years old. And I had just begun my second marriage when that movie came out. But that little teenage girl is now 52 years old! So I thought lying in bed, it felt like ‘Cher’ slapping my face and telling me to “Snap out of it!” My head swirled and I couldn’t get back to sleep. This blog was brewing. How not to age, use every moment to grow and think, to ponder loyalty to friends, animals, Earth and to wonder, what if I met Lisa Lucas somewhere, would I know what to say? Right now, I can say to her, she helped me grow up (not older) a bit.

CONTACT INFO:

website: http://vichywater.net

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

Book Trailer(65 seconds) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2ko9gcC_M

Comments (1)

June 7, 2011

Synchronicity, Spirit and a Wooden Beam in a Brooklyn Apartment Building. A Politician’s Career Should Begin in the Womb (foibles) Chocolate. HBO Film Review: “How To Die In Oregon” DDAY. June 7, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: jackie, john, manila, quotes, robinson — earthood @ 6:05 pm

DDAY landing. June 6, 1944

Iwo Jima Flag raising

I’ll never forget. June 6th, 1944. DDAY. Fourteen months later I arrived. Fourteen hours ago, I walked outside under New Jersey stars; a clear, cool late spring night. Last year, during one of my late night walks (I call them constitutionals. Just like President Truman did) a shooting star streaked overhead. Last night, thoughts of my late parents streaked; strangely, I thought about what they were thinking when it was time to conceive me. The world was still in a terrible war. What if? Phillip Roth wrote a novel about that.(‘The Plot Against America’) Were my parents concerned about my future being born into a world of war and uncertainty? Was the notion of ‘me’ postponed because of Pearl Harbor? They did wait, practicing birth control, until DDAY and the beginning of the end of the war. When war news continued to get better, then it was my time. But every year at DDAY, I remember the greatest generation and their sacrifice

I see Iwo Jima and the flag rising; Normandy, Juno and Omaha Beach and the greatest invasion. For inexplicable reasons, sometimes I’m on the beach at Guadalcanal and Tarawa, digging in, holding the position until reinforcements come. More strangeness; I’ve been saying for a long time how I’d like to visit Guadalcanal and personally thank our soldiers who are buried there. I even wrote about this bucket thing in my novel. John Basilone (1916-1945), who was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame Sunday night, also fought on Guadalcanal.

John Basilone, Medal of Honor, Purple Heart and Navy Cross

Esther Williams swimming in black and white water

Sometimes it is a hard rain and just as hard to find a way to begin writing my weekly blog. Frankly, it’s this input thing. Virtually 24/7, my auditory and visual senses and processing lobes are over-absorbing from things plugged into the wall (both floors of my house have sockets); so my head is constantly swimming; what the hell do I talk about?

When I was around eleven years old, Esther Williams, the actress and swimmer had a television special where she was swimming in black and white pool water. My grandmother, in a wheel chair because of diabetes, wheeled herself over to the TV and touched the screen to see if it was wet from the water. She couldn’t understand why the water was not leaking onto our carpet; all of which leads me to a couple of my favorite ‘if only;’ if only George Washington and my Grandmother could see us now (with all the plugged in appliances, air travel but not necessarily the state of politics).

Speaking of George Washington (segue time) and of conception (mine, five months after DDAY) here comes the judge and the blog topic about a politician’s career beginning in the womb. I’ve got a toy holster (with extra long belt) that I just ceremoniously strapped on to make a creative point. Pretending to be eleven, I’m just going to aim the toy gun at the Rio Bravo saloon doors, hoping the bad guys and robber barons come out with their hands-up. Political aroma seeps out of the air vents and electrical sockets all over Jersey.

Firstly, recently, I went to a fund raiser for “Big Brothers Big Sisters” at a local country club; $30 ‘donation’ at the door was for a buffet of fancied-up chicken nuggets, mozzarella cheese and Jersey tomatoes and some kind of pasta that got lost in translation. A local mayor (political person) arrived for the photo op and when he was told about the $30 admission for the fund raising benefit, he said something about being Mayor; he was told he still had to pay. Mr. Mayor abruptly left with a small entourage and went next door to a local bar and drank the night away; so much for Big Brothers Big Sisters and donating to a good human cause.

Last year, I attended a Jersey shore environmental conference and met the mayor of a Jersey shore town which coincidentally was featured in my recent novel. I told him that. He said I should send a copy (free of course) to his office. What ever happened to images of starving authors? Are there starving mayors in New Jersey? Next up, John Edwards who ran for President; but I’m done.

Newt Gingrich. Presidential. Timber!!

Governor Christie and the Helicopter(almost sounds like a children's book)

Then there’s Newt Gingrich who’s now running for President who dumped wife #1 for wife #2 while wife #1 was actually still in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. He eventually dumped wife #2 for wife #3 shortly after wife #2 was diagnosed with MS back in 1999. And he was having the affair on wife #2 with wife #3 while he was rampaging all over America trying to drive Bill Clinton from office during his ‘thing.’ Then, there’s Arnold Schwarznegger. Then, there’s Donald Trump (In an earlier blog, I said he’d never run even though I auditioned for ‘The Apprentice’). Trump said, “I employ a number of people that happen to work in this country. I don’t send it overseas.” During the June 6 edition of ‘Fox News and Friends’, he also said: “We’re destroying our country. We’re destroying our economy. We’re outsourcing our jobs. We’re not making products any longer. If you look at products, they’re being made in China and many other countries. And it’s really very sad what’s gone on.” Trump’s own line of men’s wear, the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection, is manufactured in China. Other pieces are made in Mexico and Bangladesh. Oh, then there’s Senator David Vitter who solicits a prostitute (illegal?) and gets re-elected and Senator John Ensign who resigns because of a mountain(of problems).

Then, there’s Elliot Spitzer, former Governor of NY and Jim McGreevey former Governor of New Jersey. Speaking of New Jersey, we’ve got Governor Chris Christie who campaigned and delivered an almost heartless and brutal, take no prisoners, cut spending, and leave the rich alone, austere fiscal policy. The State Supreme Court last week yelled and told him to give back funding to poor school districts. Last week, he took a state police helicopter, at a cost to taxpayers of $2500/hour, to his son’s little league game and back to his governor’s mansion to meet with rich Iowa people who want him to run for President; State business, right? Some of Christie’s fiscal toughness I liked. Could he really be a genuine politician/leader? Is he for real and honest, a refreshing example of a new breed of get-tough politicians who might run for President someday? Far from being a political analyst, I was comically disappointed but not surprised when his image ‘team’ including the State Police chief tried to smooth over this embarrassing episode(so much for Presidential timber), even having the temerity, to say it didn’t cost the state taxpayers anything as the helicopter pilots need the practice flying time anyway. Christie is just another windy, what’s in it for himself, politician; no magic in them there hills. Confession: I wondered about a President from New Jersey; our last one, Woodrow Wilson.

Video of Sarah Palin(33 seconds) and how Paul Revere warned THE BRITISH

Then, there’s Sarah Palin, who said over the weekend, Paul Revere warned the British on his famous ride (no further comment). Then, there’s beleaguered Governor Scott Walker (last week’s blog) of Wisconsin who’s now pushing new legislation that will destroy the micro brewery industry in Wisconsin – thanks to the mega donations that Anheuser-Busch, Coors, Miller etc. made to his campaign.

Governor "King" Scott Walker of Wisconsin(trying to take away micro-breweries to help big breweries?)

Congressman Anthony Weiner (no comment)

A few minutes ago, Anthony Weiner confessed having on-line relationships (twitter) with six women he never met. And he probably had a wonderfully promising political career. I’ve said enough. Point of all this being; if I were starting a family and entertained the notion of my child going into politics, I’d begin training and molding the embryo about two months after conception; child still in womb. Enthusiastically, I’d whisper to baby in womb, that for the rest of your days in life, you need to do and say everything right. You must think about every word, action, cause and effect. You must be consumed with fair play, morals and leadership. Every second must be to build and grow as a leader. Think of every consequence and constituent. Don’t ever throw all that hard work away; a career is born when you are. Never give Newt Gingrich and the media an opportunity to throw (cast) first stones.

This blog has been around for 18 months; (in 12 countries) sort of like two human gestation periods back to back. Elementally, (my dear Watson) I’m a stream of conscious purveyor of words, yet I’ve managed to stream clear of a critical component of my cellular composition; a confounding, haunting spirituality. Truth be told, I’d need about 300 pages now to bring you all up to date with this spirit stuff. Much happened to me innocently, virginally (in that regard), partly beginning back on February 24, 2004. I was taken into another world (sounds like a television soap opera, which one day soon will become obsolete, making room for ‘enough already’ reality shows). This is all I’ll say right now about spiritual origins (I don’t want to over stay my wordy welcome), but within the walls and confines of my second novel, which I’m working on, I’ll have the lay of land and time and space continuum to tell ‘this haunting story.’ But and it’s a significant ‘but;’ I’d like to throw a spiritual synchronistic teaser out there; my head is still spinning, digesting the meaning of a celestial message. Remember part of the title of this blog: “Synchronicity, Spirit and a Wooden Beam in a Brooklyn Apartment Building.”

An ascension of sorts took place last weekend for me and my gal (wife). We ascended the tree of life, climbed to our nest, gently lifted our son out of a computer, video game and television laden nest and cast him to a summer west wind blowing towards Brooklyn, New York. Alas, Mr. De Mille, I’m now a central Jersey empty nest denizen. We moved my son (had him around for 1/4 century) last Saturday into his apartment in Williamsburg. The apartment building is a completely renovated three story edifice in an area inhabited by only ‘under thirty-year olds;’ a living futuristic novel. The three room mates and families were busy carrying a myriad of boxes, computer paraphernalia, speakers, dishes, guitars and enough blue jeans to supply ‘Old Navy’ for a month. At the end of a long hallway is a new elevator. Next to the elevator was a very old thick wooden beam, probably from fifty years ago, seemingly supporting the building; the owners opted stylistically to leave this relic of a beam intact creating a blend of old and re-new. I walked by the first time and slapped it, to test endurance. Eleven trips later, waiting for the elevator to fetch me up, looking all around at my son’s new surroundings; I noticed writing etched on the beam. In strange disbelief, I stared at my son’s name, Neil and my name, Cal and a few other undecipherable words. I don’t even know what to write anymore about that; its way past odds and coincidences; its part of the story of my life, hauntingly witnessed with goose bumps on the side.

The magical mysterious old wooden beam in Brooklyn. I'll never be the same.

Late last week, sort of late in the afternoon, psychic energy doing a number on my premature power nap REM sleep patterns, ‘tossing and turning'(in 1964, this was also the name of a British album by the Ivy Leagues) I remote controlled the television on, flicked channels until ‘something’ made me stop on a HBO channel, and saw a movie/documentary just going on, “How to Die in Oregon.”

Movie Trailer for “How to Die in Oregon”

Trying to compose a tune after discovering that beam.

Did you ever watch the first few minutes of a movie and know you may have to see it; I was glued, stuck, intrigued and then joined by my wife. A few more minutes, we looked at each other and I said, “Do you really want to see this?” She said, “No.” I said, “Me too.” But we continued to watch. She went downstairs but I still watched. The story was about death with dignity; people in Oregon, with a new progressive law, can take their own life legally, if their medical situation warrants. So the lives of several memorable people (late term cancer) heading down that road were documented. Notably, the film making was poignant, detailed and wonderfully sensitive. I can’t stop thinking about Cody Curtis, real, alive, warm and now gone. I ran downstairs for a spot of seltzer; my wife was watching the movie. One scene towards the end, filmed at dusk, a dark black-blue sky, voices from inside a house, a lone leaf blowing gently in an invisible wind, moved me the most. Enough said. Here’s the movie trailer. Oh, a few days ago, Dr, Jack Kevorkian (Dr. Death) passed away.

Dr Kevorkian

How about chocolate time? (a Calvin euphemism for lightening blog things up). Back to the future and my aspiration of living to 150: A fair amount of research suggests that the ‘flavonols’ in dark chocolate increase cerebral blood flow, which in turn may trigger the creation of new blood vessels and brain cells. And a new study showed that older adults performed better on cognitive tests after eating small portions of the dark sweet stuff. That’s why, before writing my blog, I munch a bunch of 70% dark chocolate. (The piece I just ate was flavored with Chili, making it spicy; go figure) A new study showed that regular chocolate eaters who had heart disease were less likely to die following a heart attack compared with the people who didn’t treat themselves to dark wonderful chocolate.

Also major new research findings about treating nasty cancers: A drug made by pharmaceutical giants Roche and Daiichi Sankyo reduces the risk of death from melanoma by 63% – if the skin cancer tumor has a particular mutation. A Pfizer lung cancer treatment awaiting regulatory approval keeps lung cancer patients alive longer, if they are in the small minority and have a very specific genetic defect. Two clinical trials that have been presented at American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago showed it is possible to pick drugs for patients using a panel of genetic tests. This is a huge giant step, like the real moon landing. A few blogs ago I talked about living to 150(after seeing Dr. Michio Kaku and hearing Ray Kurzweil).

Dr Michio Kaku("Physics of the Future") and me

We’re getting closer; just that we’ll need so many more tennis courts. Of course, I worry about the survival race (not reality television) we’re in (on a lot of fronts). How about the race to sustain food production on a warming, demanding, over-crowded planet? Or the race to move to high ground as ice melts. Did I hear about a sewage treatment plant near Boston that moved to higher ground in preparation?

Now some ramblings: Last year the oil spill in the gulf; a few months ago the disaster in Japan (and admitted meltdown in 3 reactors); both now out of the news and our consciousness and replaced by Anthony Weiner. Now Chile has a volcanic eruption, Iceland, a few weeks ago (my nephew ‘J’ cancelled a trip there) and I recently watched a video with a scientist predicting a “9” earthquake in the Pacific Northwest; a 30% chance in the next fifty years. More ramblings: the flooding in our mid-section, the tornadoes in the same mid-section and I thought I saw a locust in my backyard this morning.

Iceland Volcano

I’ve got notions and potions about all this stuff in the news thanks to the crystal ball of my friend Ruth in Seattle. I just took a huge deep breath. Suddenly, I thought about an old friend, ‘Reckless Ostrich.’ It’s been a while. I’m such a sentimentalist, hopeless romantic and dreamer. I took a hard look at this empty nest situation. A breath of synchronicity eased me down the yellow brick road and out of the tree where the nest was perched. Now I ponder cycles of life; an embryo that I can whisper to and teach how to become a good leader. Does the concept of empty nest presume that next ‘grand’ stage in life? Then I can get back to teaching and going to see ‘Santa Claus’ in the mall. I just hate waiting in long lines.

CONTACT INFORMATION

website: http://vichywater.net

email: earthood@gmail.com

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

Book Trailer (65 seconds. please check it out)

‘Vichy Water’ Book Trailer

Comments (3)

May 31, 2011

Memorial Day: “Taking Chance.” Book Expo America NYC: Michael Moore and Me. Jeffrey Lyons( “Stories My Father Told Me”) Joe Pantoliano(“Asylum”) Mike Holmes(“Make It Right”).Governors Gone Wild. Should I Write a Coffee Table Book About Smoke Stacks? May 31, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: fever, ideas, night, saturday, themed — earthood @ 9:20 am

Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day, started by a Civil War general, John Logan in May, perhaps because lots of flowers bloom in May. We always, in all ways, need to remember. Several years ago, on a brutally cold, windy February day, ‘something’ pulled me off the Garden State Parkway on the way home and led me to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I’d never been there. The conditions were so harsh, no one was around. I walked in strange solitude around the memorial, consisting of 366 panels representing each day of the year (leap year too), reading every name (on the day they died) and finally committing two random names to my everlasting memory; Arthur John Abramoff and Albert Potter.

NJ Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Fourteen minutes ago, I finished watching the HBO movie, “Taking Chance” starring Kevin Bacon as Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl, who accompanies (a military escort) the body of Chance Phelps, a twenty-year old Marine who was killed in Iraq, back to his final resting place in Dubois, Wyoming. I’m an older guy, sort of, but I don’t mind saying that I had a hard time fighting back tears; some did escape and I pretended a cough to stifle/hide my sniffling sounds from my wife, several inches away on her side of the bed.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I hopped on my favorite train again (you should know by now; the Jersey Coast line), Norah Jones displaced Simon and Garfunkel on my ipod, and for the first time, I brought a camera to document my fixation with the smoke stacks of coastal Jersey. Passing by the Raritan Bay and close to one of my favorite abandoned factories with four prominent erect smoke stacks, I was overcome with a sense of romantic curiosity; who worked here in the 1940’s; did some guys at the factory get to Normandy Beach and did they have kids; what chemicals came out of the smoke stacks; are edible fish in the water near this ghost factory; why no broken windows; why can’t I hear voices if it was a ‘factory of the damned’?

A NJ coastal factory with proud sleeping smoke stacks

The train shook violently, probably switching gears, but I thought intervention; ‘something’ wanted me to pursue this fascination with smoke stacks. Jersey’s loaded. ‘Kramer’ from ‘Seinfeld’ made a coffee table book. Maybe I could too, but in a serious way. I posted the thought on Facebook. I had a few takers. We’ll see.

The purpose of these weekday train rides was Book Expo America in New York City at Javits Convention center; my third straight year in attendance. With red ruby slippers, I briskly walked up miraculous 34th Street towards Eleventh Avenue and then into Oz, a magical wondrous place of publishers, authors, literary agents, fresh aromas of black printing ink and newly printed books, endless snaking lines for celebrity autographs, eloquent readings by a few authors; thousands of book lovers, bloggers, sellers, sales reps, and mysterious secretive people whose revealing name badges were facing their chests, all crowded narrow precisely numbered aisles for as far as the eye could see.

A main aisle view from a bridge at Book Expo

Big publishing companies had fancy booths with soft carpeting but few places to sit. I found a bench by a down escalator; a stranger from Montana without a hat, sat down next and asked me why there were so few places to sit in this massive exposition hall. I answered right away, “For the same reason casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City have no windows or clocks.” Then I walked away satisfied that I was again misunderstood (without pontificating at this blog juncture, it seems I’m always misunderstood. Perhaps destiny. Perhaps Catherine Earnshaw from ‘Wuthering Heights’).

The night before, I outlined my Expo strategy and goals; simply, to meet five people who were appearing. Michael Moore(film maker), Diane Keaton(actress, author), Jeffrey Lyons(film, theatre critic and author) Mike Holmes(author and expert on home renovations) and Joe Pantoliano(actor and author). Why was I so anxious to meet this group? Well, I’m also an author, blogger, networker and I live in New Jersey, the most densely populated state, that is now fighting with the federal government over a cancelled new train tunnel to New York City. The feds say Jersey owes $241 million because Governor Christie cancelled the started project because of rising costs. The governor says no way we pay. I like his toughness. The lawyers defending New Jersey cost $300,000 a month. What if this case drags out for a decade?

Mike Holmes and me discussing rock stars and home repairs.

Back to Expo. First up, Mike Holmes. A long line waited to see him; I was near the front standing behind three twenty-something girls who perseverated for thirty minutes on how infatuated they were with Mike Holmes. So I thought to myself, a home renovation guy is having the same effect as an aging Justin Bieber or Paul McCartney. When I met Mike, I recanted the story of the three girls and he said something about forgetting he has that effect. What a really nice, genuine, warm guy I thought and explained that I really need his help. I never owned my own tool chest; chests in places where I’ve lived have been a pastel pink color.

For me to meet film maker Michael Moore, who wears a ‘Rutgers’ hat as I do all the time and documents injustice and societal abuses as I do from time to time was akin to a wide-eyed small child waiting to see Santa Claus, Batman, Babe Ruth, Oprah and Dr. King all wrapped up into a cool composite granite-like image; my waiting position was very last on a long line (long story on my position) to get his autograph after his talk to 200 people. I did actually tremor in anticipation. What do I say to him in those few allotted seconds? Time was on my side to prepare. Finally I said, “I admire your work. I write a growing successful world-wide blog which I think you’d like. A few weeks ago I compared Congressman Paul Ryan’s Medicare elimination budget to three movies, ‘Rollerball,’ ‘Logan’s Run,’ and ‘Soylent Green.'” He said, “I like your blog already,” and asked for my business card. And I flashed dreamt that I have a new loyal reader.

Michael Moore and Me(it almost sounds like another movie)

As I write this blog on Memorial Day, I think about folks who don’t like Michael Moore‘s politics but I also think about all the brave Americans who gave(and still do today) their lives so we may have the freedoms to speak out. And then I wonder about the evils of some American corporations, if left alone, what they’d be doing if there weren’t Michael Moore’s around to alert and make us aware.

In my novel, ‘Vichy Water,’ there was a paragraph about some American companies since 1945 that collectively have killed more people (50 million) than the Nazi’s during World War II. Perhaps not too far fetched, when you think of tobacco companies, or drug companies not recalling a ‘bad’ drug(recent diabetes drug) or car companies being told by actuaries to leave a ‘bad’ car on the market an extra year without recalling; extra sales would more than pay additional law suits for those that died in crashes. Throw in movie theatre companies that load popcorn with copious salt or fast food companies that just ‘load’ or cell phone companies who might one day face a global epidemic of brain cancers or coal burning companies spewing carcinogens into our air. It all adds up to a lot of deceased people. Michael Moore alerts us (heightened awareness and thought/debate provoking) as a free society. Anyway, what’s bad about universal health care or getting out of Iraq or knowing about the excesses of Wall Street or standing up for the little guy (300 million of us in America)?

A view of Joplin, Missouri (and global warming?)

I was hungry after waiting in lines, the tremors of excitement easing, but curiously, images of tornado damage in Joplin and Alabama suddenly thrashed around my cerebral outposts. I wondered why thoughts about these tragedies just hit me while walking to the food court for a tuna fish sandwich. The sun was shining brightly through clear Javits center glass; actually an epiphany about the reality of global warming with its intense storms that scientists said would eventuate, hit me hard. I passed on a $9 tuna sandwich (thick bread and hardly any tuna fish) and decided on a carrot-beet juice drink. It was nearly 2 PM and time for Jeffrey Lyons. Better carrot juice than tuna on my breath, I thought smiling, walking briskly to see another idol of mine. Readers of my blog must know by now my fascination with movies.

Jeffrey Lyons and Me(another movie title?)

Jeffrey Lyons is an amazing movie and theatre critic, front and center for me the past forty movie viewing years, adeptly guiding me what to see (His critiques always work for me. I either go or don’t go usually based on what he says). He wrote, ‘Stories My Father Told Me. Notes From “The Lyons Den” ‘ published by Abbeville Press. Jeffrey’s father, Leonard, was one of the most incredible ‘gentle’ journalists in history, writing an ‘institution’ of a column for forty years (1934-1974) for the New York Post. I couldn’t wait to get on the train and start reading it. The anecdotes from his father’s years (and his) and friendships with the likes of basically ‘the world’ we call celebrities is boundless and priceless. I never jump into a book on a train. I am glad I did. As I exercise bike ride my way through Jeffrey’s anecdotal heaven, I’ll keep you all posted.

Joe Pantoliano

And where was Diane Keaton? I’ve been quoting her from ‘Annie Hall’ when she says, “La De Dah” for a generation but I couldn’t find her and of course I never ask directions. Next up; another favorite personality for me and closure of my time at Book Expo; Joe Pantoliano (Joey Pants) is as riveting and intense a character actor as ever in history. I marvel at his acting and I told him just that. His memoir, “Asylum” is coming out in 2012. There was a forward to read from this memoir about Hollywood, mental illness, recovery, and being his mother’s son; it was potent and engaging. He writes like he acts, with a textured reality and he was perfectly charming in the few minutes that I told him I used to sell eyeglasses to his cousin. We laughed heartily (mostly an ‘inside’ laugh) and his warm smile kept hanging around so I took my camera out.

The governor bit from this blog title is my cherished musings time on this Memorial Day night. ‘Taking Chance’ is on again. What’s the deal with Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin (home state to Paul Ryan and his Medicare killing budget) and a bill making Wisconsin’s voter identification requirements the toughest in the country. Walker (the end of union collective bargaining Walker) reminds of those videos from spring break, “Governors Gone Wild.” Better news is that his approval rating has dropped about 10 points since November to 44%. New Jersey Governor Christie’s approval rating is tanking too, down to 45% and the NJ State Supreme Court recently yelled and told him to give back to the poor school districts in New Jersey the funding he took away. Christie also withdrew New Jersey from the regional treaty on climate change and recently took a state helicopter to see his son play little league baseball. And pending law in Florida would make it illegal for pediatricians to ask families whether guns are being safely kept in their patients’ homes (‘redolent’ is a really good word to use in another sentence here). Florida Governor Rick Scott’s approval rating dropped to a new low (29%) following the annual legislative session and passage of an austere Scott-supported budget.

Governor Scott Walker from Wisconsin

Of course I don’t think that has much bearing on the fact that this generation of kids will be the first in Earth history to have less life expectancy. I wonder if there’s a correlation to the fact that $1.6 billion is spent on advertising junk food to children. Remember last week’s blog, when I thought my son had a shot at doing 8000 chicken nuggets? We had a serious talk the other night as he finished a plastic container filled with spare ribs while I woofed down brown rice and vegetables. I said calmly, “Nutrition is the area where I failed you as an instructional father as you spread your wings and fly.” I need to now find myself a rocking chair and build an old fashioned porch and rock away the hours; this makes me remember a poignant scene from ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy,’ towards the end, when a grey-haired James Cagney (George M. Cohan) confronts a bunch of ‘kids’ singing ‘Jeepers, Creepers;’ a defining moment of the essence of generation gap for me. I guess you have to see the movie.

Memorial Day is winding down. At the end of the movie ‘Taking Chance,’ there’s a powerful thought about the wonderful quality of the young deceased Marine, Chance Phelps. A message unfolds towards the end: If there were more people like him in the Marines, there wouldn’t be the need for Marines. It’s a nice way to finish a holiday that remembers all our Armed Forces right back to George Washington and the Minute Men. I need a long minute to collect myself.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

website: http://vichywater.net

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

email: earthood@gmail.com

Book Trailer (65 seconds long) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2ko9gcC_M

Comments (3)

May 22, 2011

The Late Great End of the World. Future Grandchild: an Oil Co. Exec? Scared of Cell (sell) Phones, I Started Wearing Pajamas (“someone is going have to answer for Sonny C.”) Bad men. Bad Sugar. A Medicare Election. May 22, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: fever, ideas, invitations, night, saturday — earthood @ 6:59 pm

it’s 5:36pm on may 21, 2011 as i start to write this blog. 24 minutes until the end of the world. i’ve decided to take literary style liberties; why bother with capitals and proper form; after all, i probably should pursue economy of effort, so i can finish and submit this blog to the cosmic gatherers of epitaphs. content wise, i’d like to throw out a sampling of latest observed absurdities which include a few political jabs; couldn’t resist. well, its 6:02 pm; i get to play a few more sets of doubles tennis tomorrow morning. my take on all this end of

Hugely endangered species.

world stuff; why would divine intervention even bother to waste time? we earthlings are doing such a thorough job of deleterious things on our own; case in point, by the end of the century we would’ve helped to make extinct fully half of all earth’s animal species; no further comment.

my son just walked into my office with his second beer. he quoted, ‘bluto’ from ‘animal house,’ “my advice to you is to start drinking heavily.” “knowledge is good,” is what the bottom of the statue proclaimed in the beginning of ‘animal house.’ i know it is. i live by those words.

this year at the cannes film festival there are four female directors among the 20 nominees for the best picture( that’s a record. last year there were no women for top prize) i loved when newt gingrich called paul ryan’s medicare budget “radical.” so much for his candidacy. oh, newt’s announcement of declaring for the presidency got 149,000 hits on youtube. my aunt edith’s recipe for sweet potato yams with marshmallow got 249,000 hits. republicans did not like newt’s comments on ryan’s budget just like mother nature didn’t like margarine commercials hinting that margarine tastes like butter. newt’s second ex-wife said there is no way he can win. i’ve been incensed about ryan’s budget which wipes out medicare; you can go back and read some of my latest past blogs. on tuesday may 24, 2011, new york’s 26th congressional district is holding a special election( upstate) which has been solidly republican since before george washington. all eyes are focused. ryan’s medicare budget is a major issue and if it’s a close race, republicans nationwide will be masticating a lot of tums for the tummy. here’s a link to a rather brutal 1:22 second tv commercial that’s running there, called the ‘agenda project, america the beautiful.’

controversial ‘America the Beautiful’ political commercial (Medicare)

Newt Gingrich.

reminder; i have no political party affiliation; never did, even when lyndon johnson wanted to draft me and richard nixon wrote a ‘personal’ letter congratulating me on being named to outstanding young men of america in 1973. i loved watching the face of donald trump absorbing the endless barrage of verbal jabs from seth meyers from saturday night live and president obama at the 2011 white house correspondent’s dinner. imagine, the donald never cracked a smile which solidified my resolve and earlier blog that donald would never run for president. you’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself on the way up because one day you’ll be on the way down. ed norton said just that to ralph kramden from tv’s ‘the honeymooners’ about working in the sewers of new york city. here’s a youtube excerpt of president obama slamming donald trump at the correspondent’s dinner. i still haven’t seen donald smile since: (note: this is my blog. i do not have to call donald, mr. trump. i met donald once at a party for cindy adams, the gossip columnist. long story) VIDEO:

President Obama slamming Donald Trump at Correspondent’s dinner

with trump and perhaps newt out of the race, perhaps watch the candidacy of jon huntsman, former republican governor of utah, who acknowledges global warming, was ambassador to china in obama’s administration and could be one of the the most formidable republican presidential candidates. “well,” i think i sound like samantha stevens from ‘bewitched’ now. and maybe it’s time to go back to the other writing style. the world is alive and well. my son just stopped drinking the second bottle of mexican corona beer.

my son's end of the world bottle of beer

i love their commercials showing footballs bouncing in front of two bikini clad women drinking beer from a bucket filled with bottles of corona. point being; duh, i can’t remember. and there was no hole in the bucket.

Back a few years ago, did the U.S. Department of Labor give millions of dollars to a joint venture that included a Yemeni charity with extensive links to Al Qaeda? The stuff you find on the internet. Sometimes I feel like a little kid on Christmas morning. Hey, kids spend nine hours a day on media; so I think it’s time to admit, that with all that input, today’s kids are perhaps smarter than my generation. Growing up, I had a branch library in Newark with a few thousand books and two working encyclopedias (do kids today know what that is?), a television with seven black and white channels and two delivered Jersey newspapers(one is left). My mother sent me for a tub of butter and a white bread once a week; both items now virtually extinct in my house although drive-thru $1.00 chicken nuggets has achieved iconic status homeward bound. Some dude just ate his 25,000th Big Mac and produced cholesterol reports around 150 to 170. With a calculator in hand, I computed that my son will have a shot at 8000 chicken nuggets in a few more years; he wasn’t amused and didn’t care. And a simple cell phone today is more powerful than those NASA computers that put a man on the real moon.

chicken nuggets. invented 1950's 400 calories and 650mg sodium(poison)

John Demajanjuk, a 91 year old former Nazi concentration camp guard is finally going to jail. And there are strange reports coming out of Venezuela, that Iran will be putting missiles into that country. A little Cuba deja-vu? At the height of Cuban missile crisis, we did atomic bomb drills in high school by hiding under our desks(another end of the world gone by, but that was awful close) The U.S. State Department said last Saturday that it reviews all information pertaining to Iranian military involvement in the hemisphere, but that it could not vouch for the report.

duh. a gas pump and profit chart.

Perhaps a good segue to oil. 74% of all Americans are in favor of eliminating oil tax credits. No tears here. A recurring dream I experience since 1973, is that the American government finally nationalizes the oil companies, citing security and national emergency concerns. Can you imagine? I do every fourth night. Meanwhile, between 2001 and 2010, the main oil companies made $ 309 billion in profit. And they ‘own’ our Senators especially (recent Senate vote) Ah, the profession for my yet un-born grandchild is to become a CEO of an oil company, way down in the future, wielding all that power and money, to be able to afford the price tag of trans-humanism, medical and technology advancements which will allow rich and powerful to live to 150 or forever; not poor middle class people who’ll wear white togas and wait in endless lines for a glass of orange juice, a few crackers or perhaps some ‘Soylent Green’ and probably be asked to die right after they turn thirty. (‘Logan’s Run’/ the movie?)

a future citizen in the year 2050 without his orange juice. TOGA!

I’m confused. The price of oil is so high when seemingly we have more supply and less demand; not one car has left my suburban Jersey street all day. But 30 to 40% of the price of oil is determined by speculation. Who the hell are these speculators; Bernie Madoff relatives? I don’t know. We all know oil companies make a lot of money, pay hardly any taxes and get rebates. One of the saddest sounds I know is a train whistle fading away. I just heard a freight train, going so fast and curiously it wasn’t carrying any commercial cargo; strange shrill sounds emanated.

I want to live to 150 and still be playing tennis but you all should know that if you’ve been reading my blogs all these months. I’d like you all to live long with me. Recent blogs, I’ve panned the nuclear power plant industry; it’s a dangerous energy and I’ve got this aversion to being irradiated.

Resveratrol. this is not a commercial. go google it.

However, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have concluded that drinking red wine (contains resveratrol) can help prevent death from radiation. Forgetting to drink a glass of red wine every night, I take resveratrol 300 mg capsules. Some stand-up comic scientist hinted at needing to drink 600 bottles of red wine a day to get maximum effect; he used to work for an oil company.

Robert Lustig gave a lecture in 2009 on Youtube called “Sugar, the Bitter Truth.”

Here’s a link to the lecture which has over 1.3 million hits.

Robert Lustig. “Sugar the Bitter Truth”

He persuasively makes the case that sugar is a “toxin” or a “poison.” And by “sugar,” Lustig means not only the white powdery stuff that we put in coffee and cereal but also high-fructose corn syrup, which has already become, without his help what he calls “the most demonized additive known to man.” Enough said. Go check it out.

one of my favorite, favorite, graphics. priceless.

What’s the deal with my wearing pajamas because of cell (sell) phones? I’ve blogged about this subject before but everywhere I turn lately, like looking for the Susquehanna Hat Company, I see more evidence just how bad cell phones are. Pajamas are for emphasis; a desperate soul searching for Catherine Earnshaw of ‘Wuthering Heights’ and a castle at Penistone Crag. Ready for Walley World, a vacation, and a roller coaster ride?

One recent cell phone study had no conclusive evidence but on the second page, buried, was a scary fact; instances of glioma rates, a brain tumor have doubled. And there are no studies at all involving children whose brain is not as protected and developed. Radiation penetrates deeper in children’s brains. Some mothers stick musical cell devices under a baby’s pillow to help them sleep. I think you have to add cell phones to cigarettes and leaded gasoline danger lists. Cell phones are non-ionizing radiation; like food in a microwave and our blessed FCC says there are no risks. Thalidomide was a safe tranquilizer drug to take by pregnant women in the 1950’s (but caused terrible birth deformities); tobacco/cigarettes were advertised on television and asbestos was supposed to be a safe wonderful insulating substance. In a preliminary study, the NIH (National Institutes of Health) did say cell phones increase brain activity. Duh! Forty years after Hiroshima, they are seeing increases in cancer from those exposed. Not funny. But there are billions times more radiofrequency waves around since earth was banged (big bang). But the good old FCC is so sure cell phones are safe and they won’t be interviewed. Cell phone company heads are also sure phones are safe. Thing is, where will the FCC and cell phone company heads be in forty years just in case they have to answer for ‘Sonny Corleone.’ Is a global epidemic coming? Get yourselves a head set.

Oh Arnold, Arnold, Arnold and Strauss-Kahn and all this sex scandal stuff. To be a fellow man sometimes? Imagine, for Strauss-Kahn, the power/prestige of becoming the socialist President of France is probably out of his realm no matter what. Imagine, Republicans back when they wanted Arnold to run for President and entertained thoughts of a constitutional amendment allowing a foreign born Austrian to run for the highest office in the land.

arnold s. as mr olympia.

On the way, Arnold became California governor. Funny thing on the way to the forum; people sometimes get what they deserve so all voting should become this intense careful introspective exercise not a two second impulsive lever pull. I suspect if there wasn’t any recall vote of then Governor Gray Davis, California’s deficit would be half of what it is today ($28 billion) When Arnold was winning Mr. Olympia body building contests for seven years in a row in the 1970’s and 1980’s, I ‘assume’ anabolic steroids and testosterone were used. Perhaps some of that nasty stuff hung around in his aging body until ten years ago causing unrelenting urges or perhaps power and money does corrupt and seduce the soul with notions of invincibility. I wouldn’t know.

This has been a trying week; no, a trying year; no, a trying generational crossing. On several occasions, I apologized to my twenty-five year old son for messing up the world for him, environmentally, socially, culturally. Chicken nuggets were invented by my generation. My generation produced religious fanatics that preached the world was going to end today. Big shot I am, but I’ve got a blog confession to make. Who’ll hear me? But that last half-hour before 6 PM, I was a bit nervous. When a big truck rumbled down the cross street outside my office, and I felt quake like reverberations, there was a brief sick feeling, what if? We all have a lot of things to do and miles to go before we sleep. So in the final analytical review, I wasn’t worried about the end. I re-gripped my tennis racket at 5:30 PM and formulated a question for someone out there. You can’t yell ‘fire’ in a theatre but why can you yell ‘end of world’ all over Times Square. Hey, we’re still here so forget the question.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

website: http:vichywater.net

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

BOOK TRAILER link:

‘Vichy Water’ Book Trailer 65 seconds link

Comments (0)

May 17, 2011

NJ Environmental Federation Conference: Governor Christie. Dr Michio Kaku, ‘Physics of the Future’ ‘Spiderman.’ ‘How to Live Forever’ (a film). ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ Neuro-chemistry of Love. The End of the World. May 17, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: fever, ideas, night, saturday, themed — earthood @ 12:20 pm

Orange juice mixed with a hint of cranberry juice and a mouthful of blueberry yogurt constituted continental breakfast an hour ago. From the USSR (Soviet Georgia) in 1977, Dannon Yogurt had a TV commercial showing people living to 100, who also happen to eat yogurt every day. My hero (some of you may remember him) was ‘Bagrat Topogwah’, 89 years old, who ate two yogurt cups, which pleased his mother, who patted his cheek on screen.

yogurt. nice presentation

Next, a glass of cold coffee, a chunk of 70% dark chocolate to get blood flowing to my brain as I jump into the saddle of this blog mindset. Rutgers University had graduation at their football stadium on Sunday morning. No invitations needed. Toni Morrison gave the commencement address. Commencement is a funny word. Graduation is an ‘end’ to a big part of life. Next year, I’ll go and listen to my favorite bittersweet musical march, ‘Pomp and Circumstance,’ remembering I graduated from the same stadium and listened to Pearl Buck talk about the Viet Nam War and world uncertainty. Are times a changin?

Just in. The cost of Japan’s disaster may be at $300 billion. And I’m still trying to comprehend the human tragic toll. Any number of times, I thought if I could be of use, to go there. What positively scares me is radioactive plutonium. On Saturday, I found out that used (spent) radioactive fuel is stored on site (for up to 120 years) at New Jersey’s Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant; I could ride my stationary bike there in about ninety minutes and use a sling shot from Route 9. The owners of this old Oyster Creek Nuclear plant may close it because of profitability amidst new regulations. But the spent fuel stays until George Washington comes back.

NJ Oyster Creek Nuke Plant. a bad dangerous old place by Barnegat

In a never ending search for truth, justice and the American way, I was heartened to hear about the conviction of hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam; a breath of new life into the government’s campaign against insider trading and the obscenity of Gordon Gekko’s greed worship and deficit enhancement; quite a verbal mouthful as I now masticate a ‘flagel’, a Long Island, imported, flattened, pounded, thin excuse for a bagel. Did you ever notice how a bagel store advertises bagels as ‘fat free,’ conveniently forgetting to tell you that it throws enough sugar into your blood stream, to injuriously spike medical test results the next day and move you inexorably closer to the big ‘D.'(diabetes)

an everything flagel. a lot of sugar in the bloodstream.

As I’m a ‘Rambling Boy,’ in my rambling streams of consciousness, now listening to Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger sing the song in 1965(Youtube)

video link Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yNfnqueYQY&feature=related

Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger sing “Ramblin Boy” 1965

Rambling: I need to mention that in New York State, if you’re on medical assistance, they’ll buy you a special wheel chair for $37,000(the cost of a BMW?). Meanwhile back on LBJ’s New York ranch (I was never invited there) the wheelchair’s wholesale cost is $15,000; so with all the budget cuts and layoffs, somebody out there in the ‘Twilight Zone’ of New York is making one stupendous profit. Do I want to put in my wormhole passage order now to come back in the next universe as a purveyor of wheelchairs in New York? Hey readers, a few vocal religious fanatics insist May 21st (in a few days) will be the ‘End of the World.’ Having been at the New Jersey Environmental Federation’s 25th Annual Conference on Saturday(more later), I do believe that divine intervention does NOT have to do that to us here and now on Earth, we’re doing quite an efficient a job of it on our own. Donald Trump is not running for President. I said that a couple of blogs ago. And to be or not to be a small replica of the Jeff Goldblum character in ‘The Fly’ on the wall of French Socialist, banker and Presidential hopeful Dominque Strauss-Kahn’s hotel room in New York after a maid accused him of rape; on the other hand, what an easy way. Never mind. And ex-Governor Arnold S. confessed fathering a ten year old child. On a happier note for me, this has been a special rarified uplifting educational mind-expansive week.

Last Monday, I hopped on my favorite train in the world, the Jersey Shore Coast line, secured my over-sized headphones, ipod streaming from two days stored worth of 60’s folk rock music and almost drifted away, heading into New York City, while faint impulses of recently revealed bin Laden terror plans to derail trains, kept me from falling completely asleep. I remind my son every day, how incessantly I watch the news and stay on top of everything. Actually, I was taking the train to meet my son for our night with Dr. Michio Kaku, world renowned astro-physicist and futurist, who was speaking at Hayden Planetarium on ‘Physics of the Future.’

A quick walk from Penn Station, thirty blocks up Seventh Avenue at rush hour invigorated. Then nearly thirty more blocks with my son up to 81st Street and the Museum of Natural History, stopping briefly for a sandwich and beer on Columbus Avenue, passing an array of busy, crowded sidewalk cafes and trendy everything boutiques(no bagel stores). The street looked like Paris and I wore blue jeans; my son wore black. What a remarkable street in the most remarkable place on Earth. Ah, the UWS (Upper West Side).

Columbus Ave. sidewalk cafe

It was a sold out lecture and early birds catch wormholes (which Dr. Kaku spoke about) and sit in the first couple rows. One of life’s ten best night’s main characters was talking five feet away from us. The future was unfolding; my son’s eyes were burgeoning. I alternated between watching the animation of Dr. Kaku and my son’s facial responses to the practical side of the future. A month earlier, we were at Hayden learning about quantum physics, string theories and mysterious algorithms. Knowing that computer chips in thirty years will cost a penny and cars will drive by themselves and that Dr.Kaku’s favorite movie as a kid was ‘Forbidden Planet’ was so much more fun than the ‘Theory of Everything’ from that quantum lecture. Coincidentally, I made my son watch ‘Forbidden Planet’ a month ago. Who knew?

Here’s a quick array from Dr. Kaku. People will wear glasses (contact lenses) already linked to internet; you’ll blink access to the data base of the whole earth. In your living room, you’ll really talk to the wall (imbedded with thousands of computer chips) and it’ll tell you who’s available to go out on a date; perhaps the best matchmaker ever. Cloud computing will be everywhere. No more PC’s; poor Hewlett-Packard, who now make PC’s and expensive printing ink that runs out too quickly. Even sitting on a toilet, DNA chips will diagnosis, analyze and pick up individual cancer cells; nano-particles will kill them all. You’ll have a genetic owner’s manual, so you’ll be able to grow a new heart, bladder, bone, nose (the end of nose jobs?), liver (maybe in five years). And wait until future Olympics when athletes can custom grow (untraceable) whatever they need to win (“win Rocky win”). Somehow I think those staid Olympic officials are now pondering this in between watching the Yankees being swept by the Red Sox this weekend. Enough with the future. I did get a chance to photo op with Dr. Kaku and ask him “are we going to environmentally make it to your future?” He unemotionally said, “I think we will.” That made my day.

Dr. Michio Kaku and Me

Nearly 10pm, we walked out of Hayden onto 81st Street only to see a massive display of movie making paraphernalia, trucks, people, actors, artificial lighting and stunt cars. My son’s face burgeoned again with joy and disbelief; a purist comic book devotee was witnessing filming of a scene from the new ‘Spiderman’ movie. “Dad, I think I’m in heaven and we can’t leave.” For two more ‘standing’ hours, I continued to be that fulfilled father.

filming a scene from 'Spiderman' on West 81st Street

Here’s the deal on ‘How to Live Forever.’ As you all know by now, one of the recurring themes of my blog is living forever, living to 150, life extension, anti-aging practices and healthful choices. This is a new important film by producer/director Mark Wexler. Enough said. Here’s a link to an article and movie trailer. Make time consigliore.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-live-forever

pix from movie 'How to Live Forever'

Now to the neuro-chemistry of love: We probably all remember that feeling of intense emotions as a new love and romance begins. Despite the ongoing debate that intense love fades through the years, there are still many couples who claim to have that intense feeling years after marriage. In a new study published in ‘Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience,’ researchers have discovered similar neurological responses in those experiencing new love and those in long-term and passion filled relationships.

The other night, sleepless in New Jersey as I’m often, I started watching the third go-around of CNN’s Anderson Cooper, when I flicked the channels telepathically (it was the remote control, truthfully) and wound up back in 1977 with Tony Manero (John Travolta) bopping down a Bensonhurst street in the opening scene of ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ So I drifted, watched and gained insight into myself and one message from the movie. The maturation (aging) process helps us see things differently from a first or second or twenty-third viewing. Here’s what riveted, then saddened, then slapped me around.

Bobby C.’ played by Barry Miller was a troubled teenager, close friend of Tony Manero and member of the gang but got his girl friend pregnant and was faced with abortion versus getting married. He reached out to everyone in his world for help, understanding, guidance, including Frank Jr, Tony’s brother who was leaving the priesthood. No one gave him time or cared yet he was smart enough to know he was really alone in the cold world. Nobody ‘gives.’ Mendacity is alive and well; timeless as ‘Heathcliffe’ and ‘Cathy.’ Overwhelmed being alone in an unfeeling world, he eventually fell off the Verrazano Bridge. And I’ll never, not in this universe or the next, be able to dance like Tony Manero.

On Saturday, my special week continued in Newark, New Jersey (my hometown) I was burdened with the dilemma where do I go, what do I do? The City of Newark was host to ‘Newark Peace Education Summit’ (The Power of Non-Violence) featuring H.H. the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King III, Deepak Chopra, Mayor Cory Booker(whom I met at Rutgers once and talked to about Life-Extension), and Russell Simmons, among others. This conference was three days and 100 speakers worth of intensity and magic, excepting there was a $300 charge; so to my sensibility, this wonderful conference became somewhat of a ’boutique’ event and those that may’ve needed its message the most; might not have been able to afford it. In my final analysis, I belonged at the New Jersey Environmental Federation’s 25th Annual Conference a few blocks away at Rutgers Law School, where I’ve been going the last five years. Peace versus the environment. If we don’t have sustainability, clean water and a place to eventually safely store thousands of tons of radioactive spent Plutonium fuel, what good is non-violence or the air we breathe? The environmental conference’s keynote speaker was Governor Christie. He admitted not knowing enough to make certain decisions because he didn’t understand/believe global warming. To his credit (I’ve criticized the Governor on his teacher union bashing); he arranged a meeting (with help from the folks at NJ Environmental Federation) this week with global warming scientists to teach him ‘things.’ Does this kind of global reach, beyond local ‘shores’ cryptically mean something? Scariest part of the day was learning about radioactive spent fuel that’s stored on nuclear plant sites for a long time; perhaps someday, one single underground safe place will be found. The spent radioactive fuel takes 24,000 years to half decompose.

Tongue and cheek time: I’d love to have the franchise for making signs that warn people in 24,000 years to stay away because stored nuclear spent fuel is still dangerous. I’d have to come up with a sign that stays intact for 24,000 years. Of course, I wouldn’t be worried about residuals. By the way, nuclear energy is nasty stuff. A book to read: “Carbon Free and Nuclear Free” by Arjun Makhijani, an amazing intellect as was Arnie Gunderson, who bravely spoke out years ago about nuclear dangers and was blacklisted for a while.(Sen. Joe McCarthy?) Favor time: go to: http://fairewinds.com/ Enough said. More conference tidbits: Regarding solar energy. 12% of the area of Nevada (if fitted for solar) could supply the entire country with electricity. The arctic was 15 degrees warmer last winter. New Jersey has the toughest fertilizer bill in the country and with that, its time to wind down the blog, except for the buzz word of the conference, ‘transparency.’

And I still wonder who wrote the book of love and why so few ‘kids’ and twenty or thirty something’s don’t find their way to this or any environmental conference. Why some psychologists say you can’t talk to this generation of kids; they think they know it all and maybe they do. Input going on is 24/7 for them and for me too. Every which way we turn; fingers are bringing us the data base of the whole planet. Globalization is a kind word. But why am I so involved in all this? My father’s father and him; both sat in a rocking chair at my age and read newspapers, helping to harden arteries. Last night, I was at another lecture; a journalist told how his newspaper laid off 1/2 the reporters. When I got home from the lecture, I listened to Bob Dylan sing ‘The Times They are a Changin.” And I Cheshire smiled. I’m glad that I decided to live to 150 years. That’s a lot of tennis yet to play. But if we all go to 150 years, how will I ever get court time?

CONTACT INFORMATION:

website: http://vichywater.net

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

‘Vichy Water’ Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2ko9gcC_M

Comments (3)

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Vichy Water – Author's Blog Just another WordPress weblog

June 14, 2011

A World of Barbed Wire Last Friday. More on Living to 100 to 150 years. More Absurdities and Extinctions. ‘Widiculous’ Wisconsin. A Movie Review: “An Unmarried Woman” (yup, it’s from 1978 but….) June 14, 2011

June 7, 2011

Synchronicity, Spirit and a Wooden Beam in a Brooklyn Apartment Building. A Politician’s Career Should Begin in the Womb (foibles) Chocolate. HBO Film Review: “How To Die In Oregon” DDAY. June 7, 2011

May 31, 2011

Memorial Day: “Taking Chance.” Book Expo America NYC: Michael Moore and Me. Jeffrey Lyons( “Stories My Father Told Me”) Joe Pantoliano(“Asylum”) Mike Holmes(“Make It Right”).Governors Gone Wild. Should I Write a Coffee Table Book About Smoke Stacks? May 31, 2011

May 22, 2011

The Late Great End of the World. Future Grandchild: an Oil Co. Exec? Scared of Cell (sell) Phones, I Started Wearing Pajamas (“someone is going have to answer for Sonny C.”) Bad men. Bad Sugar. A Medicare Election. May 22, 2011

May 17, 2011

NJ Environmental Federation Conference: Governor Christie. Dr Michio Kaku, ‘Physics of the Future’ ‘Spiderman.’ ‘How to Live Forever’ (a film). ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ Neuro-chemistry of Love. The End of the World. May 17, 2011