Lo And Behold!

Going to the flicks is one of the few (semi) affordable means of entertainment that The Wife and I avail ourselves to on a regular basis. And although we usually do not attend the Hollywood blockbusters, it's still not unusual for us to go to a local cinema two, three times a month. That has been a regular pattern for many a year- until this one. First, we blamed it on the usual bland Holiday megabombs, but the winter thawed, Spring came and went, and on came the Summer with the usual explosions, invasions- and no relief in sight. We've seen a grand total of maybe half a dozen movies since The Revenant, none of them particularly memorable. I don't ever remember this bad a movie drought, basically because... it's never been this bad! Why, I don't know...

And I didn't think I would be able to make it through Lo and Behold with Werner Herzog's Teutonic droning about our current state of technology (particularly when I now have trouble staying still in any seat for any length of time with my ongoing Shingles), but I once again sold the master short as he pieced together a very interesting collection of insights, interviews and anecdotes on where technology has been, where it's taken us, and what it may yet have in store- good, bad, and indifferent...

  

PS- During one interview, an entire family is composed as if sitting for a family group photo using a still camera with a wide angle. At one point the camera then shifts to a close up of the mother declaring something to the effect that the internet is... evil incarnate. And considering the circumstances this particular family endured- it's not all hyperbole.

Refresh

Try as I might, I just couldn't get that horrid picture of a nekid ol' Donald J outta my head. The comb over do and fake, spray orange suntan's just a little too much to take in all at once. Had to rejuvenate and reinvigorate the senses with something down home wholesome and au natural- fortunately, I had just the man and the photo to antidote things around...

Photo: © S. Banos

How Trump Dumbs It Down

Most people don't like being talked down to, most people don't appreciate being talked to like they're a bunch of... 4th graders. Most people, except- Trump supporters (breaks it down about 1 minute in)...

Trumped!

 Photo: © Lisa Wood

Curiously, taking the photo on the previous post was a rather rapid fire affair since people were walking up to the statue on a non stop basis, doing their thing for the camera and then

All that was left in NYC...  AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

making way for the next participant. I'm the guy in the pork pie, laughing when the guy crouching next to the statue whipped out a tape measure to place next to Trump's micro penis. Another guy brought a magnifying glass and yet another dressed it up in a Mexican sombrero, with a poncho draped over his shoulder and a burrito on his arm! It was all very casual and in good fun, but yours truly was having considerable problems... More than once, I'd draw my GR up to eye level and hold my F3 at arms' length (talk about awkward), and when I corrected the latter and got the shot off, I'd wonder why the shutter wouldn't go off again (oh yeah, the advance lever). How easy we forget...

Anyway, talk about funny- and downright insane...

TRUMP FOREVER!!!

     All photos: © S. Banos

There's an ongoing meme that Trump is so popular among (certain portions of) the masses simply because they are sick of being lied to by politicians, sick of having their middle class status further and further eroded without any hope of being bettered any time soon- socially or economically. They are voting for Trump because he is the only one who listens, the only one who cares, the only one who's telling it like it is. Trump was and is the one and only alternative... and we have just to give him that opportunity- no matter what he says.

And that is such an outright, obvious and complete crock of shit!

So let's set it straight. There was another alternative. There was someone who was for restoring a vibrant, working middle class; someone who was for a more equitable distribution of wealth; someone who was for keeping and restoring living wage jobs right here in America. His name was Bernie Sanders. And if restoring the middle class to prominence was the real incentive for voting among Trump supporters- they wouldn't be supporting a man who was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, a man who has never dirtied his hands (with actual working dirt) in his entire life, a man who has a long and sordid history of stiffing working stiffs every chance he gets throughout his entire career. This is a guy who looks upon ordinary millionaires as trailer trash, forget the working, middle class.

So yes, let's talk straight, as The Donald so likes to think he does- Trump supporters love him so because he is brazenly, unapologetically and whole-heartedly racist. He is that last, great desperate gasp at sustaining the White Supremacy mind set that has ruled America since its inception. That is his very simple, naked, and... only basis of appeal. He's not scared to talk the White man talk, and blame anything and everything on those who ain't. And when it comes down to it, that's what so much of White America so desperately wants to hear again, over and over again...

Trump, NYC

Yeah, it be nice to have good paying jobs with a more secure future and better all around economic, educational and financial prospects- but that takes a whole lotta work, and cooperation all around. Screw that! It was a whole lot better, easier and less complicated when Whites ruled by simple edict and everyone else knew their place and did as was told. 

That's the promise of Trump- and I for one gotta admit that there's more than a little part of me that wants him to win. Cause if he ever does become President, I want to look straight into the eyes of all the working class slobs who voted for him, as what remains of their world no longer slowly disintegrates, but implodes on the fast track to oblivion- and they finally, finally realize that Trump couldn't have ever possibly cared less about any of their sorry, fair skinned plights. 

And I won't stick around too long to gloat, cause I know who'll still get blamed... no matter what- and it ain't the guy at 56th and 5th.

El Pendejo Trump, San Francisco

WELCOME!

Photo: © S. Banos

Alas, someday, somewhere, somehow, some dedicated, digital forensic archaeologist of the future will rediscover the skeletal remains of Reciprocity Failure and ponder how yet another MacArthur Grant Recipient managed to squander his good fame and fortune. Or something like that. Last year was an all out disaster, this year even worse, and I just couldn't keep keeping on at the "scene of the crime;" hopefully at some point I'll get around to refilling say... my fave 20 posts with the missing photos for posterity's sake. Tried giving this new venue a different look, but that didn't work either- so here we are at the somewhat new, but surprisingly familiar... trying to look forward.

Welcome to those who remain, and those yet to come, and rest assured that all that follows is both irrefutably and undeniably Based On A True Story...

Shingles- It Shouldn't Rhyme With Jingle

First off- who the fuck named it... "Shingles." Certainly, no one (and I mean no one) who ever had it. In Denmark it's called "Hell Fire," and that certainly is way, way closer to the truth. "Shingles" sounds like something you get at the local hardware along with a Phillips Head to do some minor home repair. This stuff is serious- serious fucking pain writ large. I had kidney stones last year (which someone described as the male version of giving birth), that's a cool walk in the park compared to this shit.

Although specifics can vary from individual to individual, it can start with a general discomfort on a certain area of your skin usually covering one side of your torso- no big deal. Then after a week, a rash begins to develop, expand and redden- mine formed one  blood red, happy face from the front of my chest, continuing under my left arm and then up the shoulder on my back. In short, it looked like a Great White chomped me in half. Then came the blisters... and the pain. On a scale of 1 to 10... easily a 15. I got some calamine lotion, and it immediately cooled and soothed somewhat for about half an hour. Then it dried, and contracted and... burst practically every one of those damn blisters. Pain level up to 20... 25 now; we're talking bona fide 3rd degree burn pain on a very significant portion of your body! Let's get this straight- your body actually manifests the actual equivalent of 3rd degree burns... Holy Freakin' Stigmata!

I spent the night tossing, turning and generally making some pretty pitiful sounds till I finally fell asleep from exhaustion around 4AM. The second night was a repeat, and in desperation got myself to the ER around 7AM where they gave me two giant oxycontin, and... nothing. Finally, someone walked in with a needle, I didn't bother looking- but it hurt like a son of a bitch. Then... all was at peace, no pain, no strife, just universal love and happiness; and I just sat there with one serious, shit eatin' grin on my face! I was pain free till 3PM, and haven't been since- that was on July 26.

The rash itself is almost completely healed, but the pain persists and extends well beyond what was the visible rash; it has subsided- the equivalent of a first degree burn during the day, second towards evening. I do take a small dosage of oxycontin ("hillbilly heroine") at night which helps take the edge off the pain and allows me sleep (for some thoroughly evil reason, it hurts even more at night), during the day- off the counter stuff, more placebo than anything else.

Doctors say there is no real pain relief for this kind of nerve damage, and I'm guessing whatever was in that needle's a bit too potent for anyone's long term good. A friend tells me it can well last... six months. I sure hope not- I wouldn't wish this on anyone, not even my worst enemy (except for, ya know: Hitler, Trump, the Conservative/Republican trolls on comment threads who use the term "Libtard"). Oh, and it's caused by the Chicken Pox virus that remains dormant in your body for twenty, thirty, forty years... one in three of you will get it.