The Hobbit thing is happening again.

Martin Freeman
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

When “The Lord of the Rings” was released, I became a hard core “Lord of the Rings” fangirl. I became a fan of Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd. I had already liked Sean Astin. I went into the deep end of the pool with the boys – you know the drill, following their TV shows, appearances and movies, downloading pictures, watching their TV shows and movies (by the way, “Wilfred” with Elijah Wood is hilarious). And I was like that for years. It didn’t wind down until a few years ago, and I told myself, my Hobbit days are over. I won’t turn into a fangirl over “The Hobbit”. Right. I told myself that.

It was the whole “Doctor Who” thing that lured me in. Since “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock” shares producers and writers, I gave “Sherlock” a watch. I was instantly wanting to watch all of its episodes, and I followed Martin Freeman to “The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and loved the movie, and I’m reading the book.

And when I see Martin Freeman dressed up like Bilbo Baggins? Lets just say I turn into a Japanese schoolgirl. The Hobbit ‘thing’ is happening again. And it’s good. It’s so, so good.

Occupy

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.”

U.S. Sen. candidate Elizabeth Warren, speaking in Andover, Mass., in August.

Some of my favorite Christmas programs

1.  “The Bells of St. Marys”

2.  “A Bundy Christmas” – “Married With Children”

3.  “The Little Drummer Boy” (claymation with Greer Garson’s narration)

4.  “Regional Holiday Music” – “Community”

5.  “Die Hard” (it’s a Christmas movie!)

6.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s PBS Christmas special

7.  “A Charlie Brown Christmas”

8.  “The Christmas Toy” (the Muppets) and… It’s on Netflix!!!

9.  “Santa 85″ – “Amazing Stories”

10. “The Nutcracker” (with Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov)

11. The “Gavin and Stacey” Christmas special

12. “A Christmas Carol” – “Doctor Who”

13. “A Christmassy Ted” – “Father Ted”

Random Considerations

It’s cold tonight.  And raining.  And we might possibly have snow in Albuquerque.  I remember growing up in northern California, rarely seeing snow in Sacramento.  There was one time I remember, when a light sheen of the white crystals could be seen on a neighborhood driveway and hoo boy, did we not think that was just about the most exciting thing we had ever seen.  You could drive to Lake Tahoe to see snow from my home town, or you could drive to the Sierra Nevada to see snow.

And low and behold, now that I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and get snow, sometimes when I talk to people out of state and tell them it’s been snowing, they don’t believe me.  Flat out.  It doesn’t snow in New Mexico!, they inform me.  It does snow in New Mexico, I am a living witness.  It’s the high desert.  It’s so different here, the geography from New Mexico to California and the Sierra Nevadas.  We have the Sandia Mountains, and I love them.  They are incredible, and when topped by snow, breathtaking.  And, if you’re in Albuquerque and you can’t see the mountains at all?  That means you’re looking at some nasty weather coming your way.

I use the Sandia Mountains for guidance in Albuquerque – spiritual, like Maria von Trapp going to the hills… and for navigation.  If you can see the mountains, you can figure out where you are.  Albuquerque is built on a grid.

I’m voraciously watching “Sherlock”, the BBC Sherlock.  And, I’ve become a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch.  I mean come on, how can you not like a guy with a name like that?  I watched the Christmas episode of “Family Matters” this week, the one where Laura told Steve he couldn’t come to their home for Christmas.  And, in the end, Steve did come to their home and I cried like a baby.

The Christmas episode of “Community” was just so clever!  It is a smart comedy.  Troy and Abed did a rap about Troy infiltrating as  Jevohah Witness to find out what Christmas was all about, and Shirley singing gospel with the little kids?  Genius.

I watched “Cowboys and Aliens” and found that the most powerful aspect of the movie was one about reconciliation.  Enemies became friends in the end, with a common enemy – the aliens.  And the older Harrison Ford gets, the hotter he gets.  This doesn’t happen to every man, but God has made an exception in his case.  One of the characters reminded me of Junior Rennie from “Under the Dome”.  When they make “Under the Dome” into a movie… Junior Rennie is going to be t-e-r-r-i-f-y-i-n-g.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Photo – David Tennant

Britcoms Rock

Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding
The Mighty Boosh

My Self Induced Hot Flash

Richard Ayoade

Moss, “The IT Crowd”

Be

Sing

As a song in search of a voice that is silent

 

Neil Diamond

Norma Rae

Remember “Norma Rae”?  Sally Field standing courageously for worker’s rights.  I haven’t seen it in forever.  It’s time to watch it again.

 

Random Considerations

I had a great time hanging out with my son today.  He always sparks such interesting conversations/debates.  He’s a good, kind man.  I’m very proud of him.

That being said, the word “Hippie” comes into play when my son thinks of me.  It comes up when other people who know me think of me.  I’ve known I was one since the 1960′s really.  The thing is, I was born in 1959.  I was born into the movement.  I was born into that time of change between the restriction of the 50′s and the free love of the 60′s.  Add to the mix, the fact that I was raised in a conservative Republican household.  (My grandpa who raised me changed his voter registration to Democrat days after he retired).  The way I grew up was very white bread in affluent neighborhood, but I was, even then, a flower child – volunteering to sew diapers for homeless kids, volunteering to play the piano for the elderly in senior citizens homes, volunteering to visit the disabled in the hospital.  I started early, loving peace.  War was out of the question to me.  Those people I heard bits and pieces about on the evening news (back when that’s the only news sources I had) – the Hippies – they were my people.  My high school social studies teacher was a Hippie, and one of my favorite teachers.

And what’s so bad about peace, love and understanding?

For me, systems of government and banking around the world are corrupt and dysfunctional.  Back then, it was “the man”  Hippies railed against.  Now it’s the government and bankers.  Still the man.  And I think back to my Hippie high school teacher talking about renewable energy and I thought then, in 1977, how exciting, and yet, at my tender age knowing no one would seriously go for it.  No one seriously has all these years later.

As a self identified Hippie, that’s what I want people to do:  I want people to get that children go to bed hungry.  I want people to get it that the elderly often can’t afford a place to live and necessary medical care.  I want people to get the fact that jobs are so hard to find for so many, many people.  I want people to get we’re wasting lives and money in American imperialism worldwide.  I want people to get it that our rights are being eroded every day.  I want people to get it that if we keep on this path, the outcome will be devastating in many ways.

Bring on the peace.   Bring on the love.  Bring on the understanding.

Remembering where the Arab Spring began

Tunisa

Photo Credit: Al Jazeera

Nob Hill Art

 

Occupation

I want to give a shout out to those people who are occupying around the world.  Their taking to the streets has renewed my faith in my fellow man, and in the system.  Because, the system, whatever it is, whatever country it is should be flat.  And, by flat I mean, it should be BY the people and FOR the people.  I’d like to know with the corporations and governments and mega-rich around the world, how the people fit into the equation.  They don’t.  And the people have risen up.  The people want a system that’s flat.  They want everyone to have a voice.  There are so many times when I feel as though I don’t have a voice in the United States.  The people who are occupying around the world want to be able to express what they want out of their country.  It is, after all, their country.  Somewhere along the line, the train slipped the track and the wants and needs of mega-rich persons and corporations hijacked the system.  This is an occupation.  Perhaps the United States government, after checking the history books, can see how they are prone to occupation – holding the ground (however for vastly different reasons, and that is a different topic).

 

A tractor, in Nob Hill

This tractor sits about a block south of Central in Nob Hill in Albuquerque, New Mexico – promotion for a tractor themed bar.  It’s an odd place to have a bar, a block from a residential neighborhood on one side and retail/restaurants on the other.   We’ll see how that’ll go.

“A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.”

Nelson Mandela

Beautiful Women

I’ve been informed by some that, as a lesbian, I don’t talk enough about attractive women, and I offer this post in rebuttal to that observation.  The ladies of “Pan Am” are drop dead gorgeous.  I’m a loyal viewer after one episode.

Rocky and Cindy Lou on a restful Saturday morning

The writer’s nemisis and lover are one in the same.

Quote for the Day

“I don’t have the time or the energy to beat the shit out of myself anymore.”

Marc Maron

Revolution

The Beatles