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Bush’s Stimulus Package

Do we need any more proof that this president is a moron? O.K. so I don’t have a better plan, but then again I am not a graduate of Harvard business school. Isn’t Harvard ashamed of their graduate? Maybe they should revoke his degree. Is such a thing possible? Back in 2004 Bush received a letter from “senior business and economics professors” saying that the president’s “ economic policies are taking the country in the wrong direction”

My stimulus plan would be to drop all income tax for people making less than $35,000 and raise it some on people in the higher brackets. Doesn’t Warren Buffett pay a smaller percentage on his income than his secretary? He paid 17.7% and she paid 30% . I remember hearing once that people who make less money tend to save less money. And more money in circulation is good for the economy, right. So if the lower end of the economic scale has more cash they’ll spend it.

But what do I know? I don’t have and M.B.A.

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Hillary is not the Comeback Kid

John McCain, yes but not Hillary. First of all, she has not been behind long enough. As far as I can tell, she was only behind Obama for a week after the Iowa caucus. Behind for a week and then she beats Obama in New Hampshire. McCain has been way down near the bottom of the polls for weeks and then he wins New Hampshire. That is comeback. But behind for a week and then back on top…maybe that one week was an anomoly. (is that how that word is spelled?)

And can anyone explain to me why all the primaries aren’t on the same day? And why we have to vote one a Tuesday? Here in Germany the elections are on the weekend. And they have higher voter turnout. Hmm…maybe the powers that be in the States don’t want high voter turn out. But then again it doesn’t matter how we vote. Those voting machines are easy to hack anyways

“Voting holds no real power, he who counts the votes has the true power.” Joseph Stalin

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Inflation and the FDIC

I was at a Wells Fargo Branch recently in Walnut Creek. I noticed signs all over the bank saying how each account was insured by the FDIC. The FDIC was created in 1933 to provide “deposit insurance which currently guarantees checking and savings deposits in member banks up to $100,000 per depositor.”

Adjusted for inflation, the $100,000 you would receive if your bank failed in 1933 would be $1,428,225.34 in today’s dollars. So are we being ripped off, or not as well insured as we were back in 1933. $100,000 in 2006 dollars is worth only $7001.70 in 1933 dollars.

Why has the deposit insurance not kept up with the rate of inflation?

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Music is fascinating not just for its own sake, but also for its effect on the listener. And when coupled with visuals the effect can be intense. But sometimes music is over used. Take the show “Grey’s Anatomy”. The first few (I am ashamed to say it) seasons I watched, I felt bombarded by music. Almost more music than dialogue. And intense scenes were ruined by the added music. We were not allowed to observe the naked suffering but the director had to indicate to us that the scene was sad and intense by adding the music.

Such is the case with this scene from “Children of Men”, based on the book by P.D. James. I did not read the book, but have read her Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, which are damn fine. Read them. I meant to read the book before I saw the movie, but forgot that she had written the book. I do not like to read a book after seeing the movie. My mind’s eye is too influenced by the movie and I can’t build the scenes and faces of the character after seeing how the director of the film imagined them.
Anyways…the scene would have been much stronger, his agony more intense if there were no music. Too many spices spoil the flavor. Music is the MSG of movies. Instead of cooking well, directors, Alfonso Cuarón, in this case, just dump in some MSG to make it good. Too often the scenes are spoiled, the emotions indicated instead of felt.

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Children of Men

Music is fascinating not just for its own sake, but also for its effect on the listener. And when coupled with visuals the effect can be intense. But sometimes music is over used. Take the show “Grey’s Anatomy”. The first few (I am ashamed to say it) seasons I watched, I felt bombarded by music. Almost more music than dialogue. And intense scenes were ruined by the added music. We were not allowed to observe the naked suffering but the director had to indicate to us that the scene was sad and intense by adding the music.

Such is the case with the scene from “Children of Men”, based on the book by P.D. James. I did not read the book, but have read her Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, which are damn fine. Read them. I meant to read the book before I saw the movie, but forgot that she had written the book. I do not like to read a book after seeing the movie. My mind’s eye is too influenced by the movie and I can’t build the scenes and faces of the character after seeing how the director of the film imagined them.
Anyways…the scene would have been much stronger, his agony more intense if there were no music. Too many spices spoil the flavor. Music is the MSG of movies. Instead of cooking well, directors, Alfonso Cuarón in this case, just dump in some MSG to make it good. Too often the scenes are spoiled, the emotions indicated instead of felt.

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Ingrid Michaelson

Never heard of her until today. Heard her big hit, that I guess is part of an Old Navy ad (the new way to fame getting a song in an ad for cheap clothes made to last a season), “The Way I Am” Cute, catchy 2 minutes of fluff.

I was humming along with it until I heard the line about Rogaine. Any song that has Rogaine in it has got to go. And what the hell is indie-pop anyways. If it is pop, it’s not indie. Independent popular music makes no sense.

Some of the side effects of Rogaine include hair loss and difficulty breathing. I tried some free samples in highschool. A friend’s dad was a dermatologist. But after reading about the side effects of difficulty of breathing while lying down…forget it.
Be a man, take baldness in stride.

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Review?

Wendy Perron, the editor of Dance Magazine, wrote something on her blog about our performance Friday night, Nov. 30th, at St. Mark’s in NYC. Not exactly a glowing review of our work, and I think it perpetuates some bad expectations of improvisation, but still got my name in virtual print by the editor of Dance Magazine.

“Andrew Wass…willing to start his own trouble”