kyle+blog: July 2016

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Yeah, I know, I skipped day three. I really had big plans on blogging about every night, but I would get caught up in watching the commentary on MSNBC and CNN and reading papers and blogs and such, it just go to late. Plus I was a little over whelmed last night, Kaine, Joe Biden and then POTUS - just bang, bang , bang. Plus it is hard to fit that much tv into your day.

I LOVE watching these, watched close to all of both, well more of ours, but the sausage making of politics is something that I do just love. So, sorry about last night. I may come back and post some of the speeches. I do want to do more political writing on here. Funny, in a pre Facebook world I wrote so much more on here, now it seems that a sentence or so there does it.

As for tonight.. I think this tweet sums it up best

Day 1. Give it up for the Berners

Day 2. Ok we gotta give Bill a night

Day 3. Thanks, Obama

Day 4. DESTROY.

Just like every other night, it is late, and really, this roller coaster tonight wore me out, a night to sleep on my thoughts. Tonight was important to me-I have been a Hillary fan for a very long time. Neil makes the joke that I moved up here FIRST for Hillary, second for Wegmans and third for him. ( its not true ). You have to be exactly my age and have had exactly my life to understand what exactly the Clintons mean to me, and especially Hillary.

Beth and me in Little Rock, election day 1996

Coming of age in the RAH RAH I HEART AMERICA Ronald Reagans America, when you did not support President Reagan on ANYTHING - and add to that the specter of AIDS, being a young gay man, the full other - fear was everything. Twelve years of this.. my first three elections, lost, lost, lost .. and lost big. Then comes this nerdy SOUTHERN couple , one who talks funny, just like you do.. and are above all NOT REAGAN, and they do the best anyone could in 1992 of saying that gay people,- that I - was not only a full fledged human being but an American in good standing. It was as liberating a feeling as I have ever felt. I was seen for the very first time in my life, so yeah they are pretty darn special to me.

Oh, and they won! Anyway, stupid late again so much happened tonight - all tomorrow .

Movie Day ( yesterday )

Seriously, I think they already made this movie . It looks great, but really , what is the deal with blowing up the Enterprise ?

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

FIGHT SONG

Yeah, Im old, i know like five of these folks, maybe eight. Ok, everyone over thirty - but it's all about Ellen Greene anyway. ( Kristin AND Idina ! )

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION 2016

DAY TWO

For the most part gavel to gavel and I was as happy as a clam.

The chatter before the four o'clock kick off was nails on a chalk board, and I was way way hesitant about the coming roll call. The first roll call since Jessie Jacksons back in Atlanta in 1988. I thought the Clinton camp was bending over way to far for the Sanders folks - how dare he not just do what she did eight years ago. And then it started. " The great state of ALABAMA, home of football champions and ....." on and on. Fifty states and DC and territories - all the while Hillary winning, bigger and bigger.

A little peeved that there was no celebration when she hit 2382, ever thoughtful about the special snowflakes. VERMONT PASSES.... Bernie arose from his Cheshire Cat seat and made his way to the Green Mountain state - coming to them last and Bernie moved to suspend the rules and make Hillary the candidate - with the caveat that his votes be recorded. But I found the whole thing exhilarating , just a big pep rally for Hillary Clinton .

It seemed to calm the Bernie Bros down and there were no chants and protests in the hall tonight. Love all around.

So many great speeches tonight, capped off with soon to be first husband BILL CLINTON.

Its late and I am sleepy... we will pick this up.

FLOTUS full speech

This is grace. This is class. This is being so at ease in your own skin, so comfortable with your own power, that you can rise above so much horrible tactless, vile bullshit and make this speech. If you did not watch it, please do.

I did what I do and dove into the belly of the beast today, reading comments on The First Lady's speech in the Atlanta news paper, tv stations. Went right down the expected roll of basically " uppity nigger bitch " whether they said the words or not. I hate people. To dare speak the truth of her waking up every day in a house built by slaves, and watching her two beautiful black daughters playing with their dogs on the lawn of the White House. Fury rained down from the right... Im not going to link any of it, you know the Fox and talk radio types.

I feel it in my bones that hate will not win this time.

Lighter note " tell us about the dress, Kyle ! "

" Never was so much written by so many about one dress ". It's Christian Siriano, and it was for sale before Mrs. Obama walked out wearing it. ( he may have got some more out there...) Tom and Lorenzo covered it, even the NYT went all out on it.

Cory's Full Speech

Y'all know I have been hard crushing for years, " Mayor carries woman out of burning building " and all. Sure the football star at Stanford, Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law .. but I am more shallow than that.

Monday, July 25, 2016

DEMOCTATIC CONVENTION 2016

DAY ONE

In and out of the house today, I was not as glued as I wanted to be.

A rough start to be sure, with the leaked emails and Wasserman-Shultz walking away - the Bernie Burners being their obnoxious selves all afternoon. Pre gavel five thousand reporters set free in Philadelphia with nothing to do but talk to the nuttiest of nutty Sanders people doing their dog and pony show out in the streets of Phiadelphia. We settled in to watch full time about seven pm.

Touch and go from the start, Bernie Bros, chanting through the prayer, not showing ANY respect to the people on the stage, on and on - to the point of being ridiculous . Things were not looking good, and then SUPERMAN from New Jersey came to the stage. The pride of Stanford, Oxford and Yale Law School : CORY BOOKER. ( I have not looked for tonights speeches on youtube yet, I plan on posting them all tomorrow ) He was amazing , uplifting and on point.

Followed by one of the greatest convention speeches ever : MICHELE OBAMA, this one you have to see, and I will post in the morning if you did not see it.

ELIZABETH WARREN AND BERNIE SANDERS ended the night , Sen Warren did her job well and Bernie was Bernie, and we can get into that in the am as well,,

I think that tonight was a BIG win for the good guys.

Dinner

Wegmans Chicken Parm

Spaghetti

Green Beans

( Al Franken )

RAIN!

Real sort of all day long rain, first one in months... means I have to mow the lawn again, for the first time in , forever . I killed a good chunk of the front yard by mowing a while back.

Weeds seem to grow fine with out any water.

Out and About

Lots of running around this morning here and there.

Breakfast of Champions at Costco

24 deviled eggs at Wegmans.

As a rule, if you are not buying Kobe Beef or Caviar , Wegmans is a most reasonable place to get your work a day groceries. But, I ran across these today 16 bucks! I should go into business !

Then back and forth between two different Lowes that are almost twenty miles apart looking for a new refrigerator. Old houses are great, but buying major appliances for an old house are different. Your very standard refrigerator is 36 inches wide - our space is 35 and 1/2 inches , seriously. The one that I really wanted was a much more simple French door type, with no external ice/water maker. Something I am not a fan of . ( these new fangled ideas....)

SO went went this one, which is small enough - BUT not in this color, basic standard stainless steel.

If I had my whole kitchen to do over I would not go with any stainless , color or white, even black, but we are not going to swap out everything.

This is the dark stainless, which is NICE, but the sales guy talked us out of it, saying it would not look at all good with all stainless. The thing is , we dont get it for a couple of weeks, which is something I just hate. Buying stuff and not getting it!

Classics from the Classic City

Im not at all sure what this online magazine / blog is, but this is a fantastic little trip down memory lane. Pretending that you were as cool as this guy who went and saw all these bands while the rest of us were dancing to top 40 hits at O'malleys.

PYLON : A Sonic Reminiscence of 1980's Athens, Ga.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

CLINTON KAINE '16

FULLY ON BOARD !

And even more so after that fantastic speech he gave on Saturday. He was my second choice after Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown ( as much for him and his voice as for his wonderful wife, if you do not follow Connie Schultz on Facebook do so! ) .

But - were it Senator Brown, Gov, Kasich would get to pick his replacement in the Senate, making it that much harder for the Democrats to re take it.

I will find that speech and put it on here. I am fired up and ready - just need to stop fussing with the Berniebots. BE A GOOD WINNER, Kyle ....

Friday, July 22, 2016

Dinner

Rack of Lamb

Potato Salad

w/ dill

Tomatoes

w/ feta

This is Neil's plate, and yes, he likes his lamb that rare, I had the two end pieces that were more cooked. A busy weekend here, so I made us something nice tonight.

Daily Koda

SUMMER!

It is hot, this has to be the hottest driest summer that I have been though in New York.

Very Winder like!

The creek is so low that Koda can't even really swim

just walk around, which stirs up the bottom

but he does like it

Day Lillies seem to like it as well

Banana & Milk Chocolate Blondie Recipe | Cupcake Jemma

The Wizard and I

I sat though all , ALL six, seven hours of Donald Trump's GOP convention acceptance speech. Introduced by one of his brood of children , (who btw, the media can not stop fauning all over, I do believe they are the first offspring of a candidate to ever speak in public! )

The text of the speech was leaked way early in the day and a couple of the reports that I read had me a little bit on edge, suggesting that a tsunami of a talk was headed our way. White knuckling it, I sat down to watch the start and made it about thirty seconds. Night Four in Cleveland : Making America One, started off with Jerry Faldwell, Jr. Click - take Koda for a walk.

I had it on in the background until it was time from Trump to come on. Like I said, his daughter inrtoduced him by giving a full throated , bold Democratic Party speech, line for line. What? Lily Leadbetter, What? Free Child Care.. on and on. ( also, a wind machine keeping her limp blond locks moving... really ) Then it was time. It did not take long for my nerves to be calmed a little bit.

Loud, orange and scary - not understanding he was playing to the television audience not an airplane hager, Mr Trump declared it MIDNIGHT IN AMERICA, and " he and he alone " can save us. Jesus and The Batman rolled up into one.

David Brooks picked up on that

from the NYT

THE DARK KNIGHT

So many problems a long totally disconnected list machine gunned out of his mouth, seaways are for low energy candidates, just barrel on to the next one, volume at 11 , who needs to breath. BUT, all fixed so so quickly. The killer gangs of illegals behind every corner, gone by the time the inaugural parade it finish. ISIS, gone in a real hurry, a real one. Racial discourse ( or as white people call it, Law and Order ) might take till Wednesday evening, tops. MASSIVE TAX CUTS ( stop me if you have heard this one ) and MASSIVE SPENDING INCREASES ( planes, trains, automobiles ) It was manna from heaven acid raining down from the coal darkened skies of America.

In one wild moodswing he promised to protect the ELLLL, GHEEEE, BEEEE, TEEEEE, CUEEEE citizens of America from radical Islam. AND then congratulated himself and the convention for having the courage and strength to say those five little letters LGBTQ ( yeah, it is queer or questioning - you can stretch the letters out for as long as you want, but only angry new gays use anything other than lgbt ) So, protect me from ISIS but not from the leader of the Christian Talliban that you picked as your running mate. Protect me from radicle Islam , but do not protect me from the most anti gay party platform ever presented. Isis cutting off my head bad, getting fired from my job for being gay, not so much .

It was a very very strange Republican speech in some ways and in some ways not at all. After daring to say gay people existed he then went on to throw that same Christian Talliban all sorts of red meat including lifting the Johnson era ban on Churches openly politicking , Judges like Scalia etc.

The bottom line is this brought no one new into the fold, and we are still going at this basically 45% to 45%, Hillay's turn at bat next week. It should be much less painful , so maybe I can do some live blogging , or something...

We may come back to this in the morning, or I will at least post some more links etc.

Much Needed Distraction : PIPPA IS ENGAGED !

DIVE IN

Get Your Freak On

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Melania Trump Did Not Plagiarize Her RNC Speech

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Twenty Years Ago , Today ....

The Atlanta Games started ... I looked for some photos we took then, but could not come up with any, Ill look again tomorrow. But enjoy this very nice spread from the AJC.

Photos: Atlanta's Olympic Opening Ceremony

QE II , round two.

I finally saw this production of National Theater Live : The Audience with Helen Mirren. It was a re-broadcast of the show, I missed the original one by only finding out about it 15 min before it started, so was thrilled when the news came out that they were going to re play it this summer.

I very much wanted to go down to NYC and see the actual play, but we could not get tickets when we could get away, Helen Mirren and all. Just a delightful play! You are totally drawn in from the absolute get go, even not really knowing all that much about recent British history. It does not matter at all.

Sort of the same set up as with the Operas, you get a great seat to a wonderful show for what, a 10th, 20th? of the cost of the actual event . She is beyond brilliant, much deserving of both the Olivier and the Tony.

Daily Koda

Off and on storms yesterday all but cleared bringing in some much more seasonal air. Tuesday in Mendon means the Farmers Market.

Nice to be out on the trail again.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

7•17•16

How do we do this ?

How do we learn to live with the flag at half staff always ? How do we learn to just dread turing on any of the three news stations.Maybe is has just been this horrible, no good very bad month that July has been. Fro, Orlando to Baton Rouge with out a second to catch our breaths - and the two conventions on the horizons . ( the GOP clown college starts in the morning ) Anyone have a great idea for fixing this ?

I chose to temper my ills today with a lovely supper in my next door neighbors back yard. So very nice to not have to cook or plan a meal.