Table of Contents:

General News

• Miss Marlow Goes To Los Angeles
• Paul Gets A New PC
• Lieberman's first zinger

Computer Industry News

• None this week

Web Site of the Week

• Jumping The Shark

Humor

• New York Joke
• The Lost Coast

Movies

• But I'm A Cheerleader!
• Cecil B. Demented
• Coyote Ugly

Letters

• Political Analysis, Bottled Water, Misc.

General News

Miss Marlow Goes To Los Angeles

Saturday night I drove Marlow to Oakland airport to begin one of the biggest adventures of her life--her first political convention.

Those of you who have been paying attention realize that Marlow has been interning for Senator Diane Feinstein this summer, and getting real substantive work to do (drafting constituent letters, researching position papers, advancing a speech in Oakland).

She missed her chance to be an intern at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles, but she's gone as a volunteer, and will be a "floater" in "external affairs," whatever that means. She's been cleared by the Secret Service for access to the convention center. She's sleeping on the floor of a friend's grandmother's house. She promised to keep a convention journal. Let's hope she does.

I attended three Democratic conventions, the 1976 and 1980 conventions in New York (when I still had enough UPI connections to get in that way) and 1984 in San Francisco (courtesy of Edwin Diamond). In 1976, Ella Grasso, then governor of Connecticut, greeted me on the convention floor--I'd been covering her for six months. In 1980, no one knew me and I knew no one. In 1984, I was standing on the floor when Ted Kennedy gave his excellent speech in support of Mondale's losing cause.

There is nothing like being on the floor of a national political convention. Nothing. I am thrilled past description that Marlow's getting a full dose of this experience. I hope she catches a couple of good speeches.

At least she's at a convention where the diversity on the floor will reflect the diversity on the stage.

Paul Gets A New PC

For the first time since the end of the last Bush administration, my employer has supplied me a new personal computer. I am a home office worker (have been since 1979), and up until 1992, I supplied my own computer. Then I got one from the company, a 133 MHz pentium machine that was hot stuff for its time.

Because of my job, I have a lot of non-standard software that isn't included in the standard corporate hard-disk "image." And there's a lot of standard corporate software in that image I don't use. I have had to do enough hard-disk recoveries, and have moved program data from desktop to portable often enough to realize how extraordinarily and gratuitously difficult it can be to move a complex Windows installation from one machine to another. Believe me, it isn't just a simple matter of moving your data files. I wish. You basically have to reinstall all of your programs. P.U.

And you always forget something (I found two files just today, my custom Word for Windows toolbar and my custom dictionary) that I had to recover from a backup disk.

As I put it in a note to my colleagues:

So far, they've been replaceable.

Lieberman's First Zinger

Credit to Phil Gill for spotting this:

I'm so glad I'll have a chance this week to watch a convention whose delegates don't spend most of their time worrying about their country club dues, or where their next white belt is coming from.

Computer Industry News

None This Week

Web Site of the Week

Jumping The Shark

Why do other people find so many more interesting things on the net than I do? This week, it's my long-time friend and associate Tom LaSusa: (by the way, I agree with those who say The Simpsons hasn't yet jumped the shark).

Humor

New York Joke

Stephanie Salter, A columnist in the San Francisco Sunday Examiner notes that when she lived in New York during the 80s, there was a joke about tourists. After a few days in the city, a tourist would walk up to a native and ask, "Can you tell me how to find the Empire State Building, or should I just bleep myself now." Salter's point was that things have changed and New York isn't like that anymore--that in fact, SF is now less polite than New York. I'm not so sure…

The Lost Coast

Regular correspondent Richard Dalton has a nephew, Hugh, who is trying to sell a comic strip. Check out The Lost Coast, then insist your local paper carry it.

Movies

But I'm A Cheerleader!

You want the facts? Go to the Internet Movie Database.

Marlow and I found this hysterical Your reaction will probably depend on how you feel about lesbians, and efforts by well-meaning parents and friends to "cure" them of their sexual orientation. Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is suspected of being lesbian (hates kissing, is a vegetarian, has a Melissa Ethridge poster in her room) and is sent to a camp (True Directions) to "cure" her. The actress Mink Stole and Bud Cort (yes, of Harold and Maude) play her well-meaning parents. Cathy Moriarty leaves no scenery unchewed as the camp director, Mary, and RuPaul, without the drag, plays one of the counselors. Well, of course she discovers she is a lesbian, falls in love, is rejected… if this were about straights it would be trite. But director Jamie Babbit has done a wonderful job with difficult material.

Adult themes, adult language, one soft-core lovemaking scene. Be warned.

Cecil B. Demented

You want the facts? Go to the Internet Movie Database.

The description from the IMDB site: "A lunatic indie-film director (Stephen Dorff) and his renegade group of teenage filmmakers kidnap an A-list Hollywood actress (Melanie Griffith) and force her to star in their underground film."

Well, if you know John Waters, you know that the old Hollywood cliché, "and then the fun begins" is never truer. The movie is violent, foul-mouthed, smutty (without being pornographic) and utterly careless of civility, human decency or basic values. Cinematically, tight as you could ask. In other words, classic Waters. Marlow and I loved it. Thumbs up. If you like Waters, you'll love this film. I've been taking Marlow and Rae to see his films since Hairspray, and we've always enjoyed them.

Waters clearly gets a lot off his chest in this film, including every nasty thought he's ever had about mainstream Hollywood, A list movie stars and state film commissions. For a Maryland native, he commits sacrilege with a scene about crabcakes. And insults the audience too, by grossly stereotyping viewers of family movies, action films and porno flicks--well, OK, he probably isn't far off with the porno audience. And he has Patty Hearst in this film, which, considering its theme of "kidnapped rich girl makes common cause with her captors" shows she's either a really good sport or wasn't shown the whole script.

Coyote Ugly

You want the facts? Go to the Internet Movie Database.

Another nominee for "most deceptive advertising campaign." You've seen the trailer, the print ads, the TV ads, right? And you couldn't figure out what this film was about, could you? I know I couldn't. It appeared to be about a bar full of beautiful women dancing in front of drunken men, possibly fully clothed. And it features Tyra Banks among others, right? WRONGO!

It's about Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) escaping a dead-end life in South Amboy, N.J. to become a songwriter in New York City. Banks is on screen for a total of five minutes, and you couldn't tell from this film whether her decision to give up modeling for acting was a good one, because you can't tell yet if she knows how to act.

Guess what--she overcomes her stage fright, gets together with the good boyfriend and becomes a successful songrwriter. Now you don't have to waste your time like I did.

Letters

Political Analysis, Bottled Water, Misc.

Political analysis from Anonymous (and I don't mean Joe Klein of the New Yorker either):

I remember Richard Dalton snickering when we had our first drink together in the fall of 1979 after an interview. I ordered Calistoga. He's been dubious about my bottled water habits ever since. Here's his latest shot:

To which I might only add that British taste buds have obviously been ruined by years of eating British food.

One of my correspondents wrote me this without clearly indicating it was OK to use his name; good stuff, so I print it here. I'll replace this graf with a credit if you give me the OK.

Harpers recently (December 2001) posted the article. A search at the nytimes.com site (you have to pay to read the full text) turns up the first piece in the Times, the editorial it spawned and the July followup which was based on the Harper's article. If you like teapot tempests, follow these links.

I'm going to look for it. In the meantime, anyone else see Kiki?

Never found the address. Does anyone else know?