Month: January 2011

  • I’m Entering Rehab

    The following, appeared in the Washington Post last week:

    Though it is embarrassing to admit this in public, I can no longer hide the truth. I have a Sarah Palin problem.

    I have written about her in 42 columns since Sen. John McCain picked her as his vice-presidential running mate in 2008. I’ve mentioned her in dozens more blog posts, Web chats, and TV and radio appearances. I feel powerless to control my obsession, even though it cheapens and demeans me.

    But today is the first day of the rest of my life. And so, I hereby pledge that, beginning on Feb. 1, 2011, I will not mention Sarah Palin — in print, online or on television — for one month. Furthermore, I call on others in the news media to join me in this pledge of a Palin-free February. With enough support, I believe we may even be able to extend the moratorium beyond one month, but we are up against a powerful compulsion, and we must take this struggle day by day.

    I checked, and I have written 39 posts about Wicked Witch of Wasilla, since that fateful morning of August 29, 2008, a day we wish we could all forget. So today, I declare a:

    So starting tomorrow, no posts about the Queen of Darkness. Like Mika Brzezinski, I will not give her the publicity she so craves:


    The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
    Mika Brzezinski Experiences Palin Fatigue
    www.colbertnation.com

    “Mika, you need to buck up! Now I know you think that this story has no purpose other than keeping Sarah Palin’s name in the headlines for another news cycle. I know you think that she has nothing to offer the national dialogue, and that her speeches are just coded talking points mixed in with words picked up at random from a thesaurus. I know you think Sarah Palin is at best a self-promoting ignoramus, and at worst, a shameless media troll who’ll abuse any platform to deliver dog-whistle encouragement to a far right base that may include possible insurrectionists. I know you think that her reality show was pathetically unstatesmanlike, and at the same time, i know you believe it also represents the pinnacle of her potential. That her transparent desperation to be a celebrity so completely eclipsed her interest in public service so long ago, that there would be more journalistic integrity in reporting on one of the lesser Kardashian’s ass implants. Now I know, I know when you arrive at the office each day you say a silent prayer that maybe, just maybe, Sarah Palin will at long last shut up for ten fucking minutes. I know, I can see it in your eyes.”

    I hope my friends and family support me during this difficult time.  During my stint in Palin Rehab, I will occupy my time and blogs with more dogs, kids, and sunsets.  Enjoy!


    I dog-sat for Anjali this past weekend.  Doesn’t she look like the dragon from Never Ending Story?


    I also lost my camera last weekend, so I’m using my old one :(


    Chazz & Rio loved Anjali.  BTW, this is how they sleep with me!


    Reflections of Chazz & Rio at the beach…mirror images. Sorry for the lousy cell phone video!


    We had another great dinner at Unphogettable. It’s Claudio’s new favorite restaurant. Thanks Thai & Phil!


    Boys will be boys…


    A visit from the Oxelson’s early in the week was delightful!!


    Tommy & Andy still growing like weeds!

  • My Junk Got Touched!

     
    My 3rd annual trip to the Sundance Film Festival almost didn’t happen this year, due to my choice of attire at the airport last Thursday:

    When Lisa gave me this sweatshirt for Christmas, I don’t think anyone believed I would wear it to the airport.  The look on the TSA agent’s face says it all.  He was not very happy with me.  He had no sense of humor.  It didn’t help that people were taking pictures of me (and I was posing) as he rifled through my luggage.  He opened everything; even smelling my toothpaste and hair gel.  He was determined to make me miss my flight.  I prevailed though, and made it through security without incident.  I still believe that the entire process is theater of the absurd, and this experience proved my point.  I made it to Salt Lake City though, and the fun began.  The first year I went to Sundance, Drew & Christine’s baby Lance was just a few months old and we partied with Paris Hilton.  Last year when I went, Christine was pregnant with Ty and we reveled in the art of Banksy.  This year, along with 2 bouncing baby boys, we saw lots of excellent films (and a few duds) and spent quality time with old friends!  Ty even spoke his first word yesterday:

    We were hoping the word would be “Carey” but oh well….”Mamma” will have to suffice!

    As Matt pointed out, even at an internationally acclaimed film festival, my photos & videos still revolve around dogs, kids and sunsets:


    Ty plays with his rubber duckie in the bath while I entertain (?) him with the classic Sesame Street tune,
     ”Put Down The Duckie” (which is sung MUCH better by this incredible cast of characters and celebrities    ).

    All in all it was a wonderful trip.  A special thanks to Vonda & Nate for their generosity and constant smiles.  It was great seeing you guys.  And ultimate gratitude to Drew & Christine for their amazing hospitality and non stop laughter.  I’m already looking forward to next year.  Here are some photos:


    Betsy is such a good sport, and she adores Ty!


    That face!!


    Lance calls me “Careyah”.  It’s so cute!


    The views in Salt Lake are stunning!


    Beautiful Park City, home of the Sundance Film Festival


    It was so great seeing Vonda & Nate!


    The weather was cold, but amazing!


    Best of the rest…click here


    Here’s a video compilation of the entire weekend. 
    Watch it full screen for high definition.
    Music in this video is from the Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid soundtrack,
    as well as Big Love and Exit Through the Gift Shop. 
    It was the first time Christine and I used iMovie, so I hope you like it.

  • The Dog Days of Winter

    No politics this week….my family has forbidden it:

    So without Sarah Palin to bash again, I’ll have to resort to the other main topics of this blog:

    “Kids, Dogs & Sunsets“

    I was dog-sitting for Roscoe the Rottweiler all weekend, and we had a nice time.  Chazz & Rio came by for a play date, and the beautiful weather made for lots of outings:


    Winter in Los Angeles…dogs in the hood prefer fashion over function


    Another satisfied guest of The H.C.


    Ryan’s holding up the present I got him for Christmas


    Hot dogs in Beverly Hills…where’s the Perrier?


    At the dog park around the corner from my house


    Hooray for Roscoewood!


    The dog that ate Hollywood…in 3-D


    At the dog park under the Hollywood Sign


    Click here for more photos…


    Self Portraits

    Oh, and as for kids, Andrew always delivers.  Here’s how he responded when, instead of asking him what he learned at school, I asked him about the questions he asked at school.  Why this hasn’t gone viral yet, I don’t know:


    “OK, I think that’s enough Carey!”

  • Sarah Palin Charged With Accessory To Murder

    OK, admittedly a sensational headline…but I did dream it!  Let me explain.  Saturday, my “wife” Sabine flew into Los Angeles from El Salvador on a short layover before returning to Germany and eventually Africa.  We had a wonderful lobster lunch on the marina:


    Back to LAX for the long trip home…as shot from my sunroof

    And now for the reason you clicked this…the dream headline in the title.  Before I left for the airport to pick Sabine up, I posted the following on facebook:

    After 1 day, the post had nearly 60 comments, so it clearly struck a nerve with people.  The lone right wing gun advocate who commented however, was no match for my liberal friends.  After a while, I left the fray, and let the interwebs duke it out.  I devote plenty of space on this blog to my views on Sarah Palin as well as gun control.  My positions are well documented.  Regular readers may remember the eyewitness accounts that Sabine and her friends provided from the Virginia Tech shootings several years ago:

    I stand by my original statement on facebook above.  I even blogged about the lunacy of Sarah Palin’s use of gun crosshairs in my April Fool’s Day post last year.  While Sarah Palin is not directly culpable for the actions of a lone nutjob, her words do have meaning and she should be held accountable (if only to never be elected to public office).  She’s clearly backtracking, as evidenced by the removal of certain tweets and messages.  Meanwhile, bigoted teabaggers like Rush Limbaugh, are pulling out all the stops to direct attention away from themselves and their dangerous rhetoric.  Kudos to Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for having the balls to call out these cowards on their vitriol.


    Here’s the victim of this attack herself, Gabby Giffords, prophetically admonishing Sarah Palin on her evil actions and how they have consequences!


    Who’s next Sarah?

    As psychologist and neuroscientist Drew Weston said, “Saturday was not the first time Gabby Giffords — or countless other lawmakers, candidates, and elected officials, including President Obama — was confronted at a campaign rally or town hall meeting by gun-toting bullies [sic, Republicans], whose primary goal (at least until this weekend) was intimidation. That bringing a concealed weapon within that proximity to an elected official could be legal in the world’s longest-lasting democracy is both surreal and shameful — and now it threatens that democracy.“

    In my opinion, Keith Olbermann summed it up best:


    Here’s a smattering of the nearly 60 comments from my facebook page.  They speak for themselves:

    In the Daily Beast today, Howard Kurtz says “Don’t Blame Sarah Palin“, but as John Cory points out:

    “Mr. Kurtz is wrong.  The killer is not “a lone nutjob.” He is one of us, clothed and fed on perpetual war and the dialog of destruction.

    We have become a nation of, by …and for perpetual war. Perpetual war is our addiction and our language, and as Kurtz so chillingly admits – war is the metaphor of politics and business and daily discourse.

    But I tell you that a nation of perpetual war and constant fear eventually succumbs to self-hatred and self-loathing. It becomes consumed by the value of extremism in the maintenance of empty empire through the deceit of language. A nation of perpetual war numbs itself to violence by constant repetition of the rhetoric of death and mayhem and the slogans of militarism. A nation of perpetual war does not value human life – but rather the hollow rhetoric about human life.

    Mr. Kurtz and others would have us avert our eyes and avoid looking into the mirror and facing the reflection of our words and deeds.

    I can only imagine what Mr. Kurtz and others would have written had the shooter been named Mohammed Abdullah.

    Christina Taylor Greene was 9 years old. She was born on a day of death and madness, September 11, 2001, and she died on a day of death and madness. She is, in the flippant jargon of perpetual war – collateral damage.

    Words have power.

    Yesterday, 20 human beings were shot and 6 human beings were killed.”

  • Snowy California – A New Year Detour

    “Southern California began 2011 with a traffic jam for the record books, as a powerful snowstorm stranded and stymied thousands trying to get between Northern and Southern California at the end of a long holiday weekend.  Some motorists said drives that normally took four hours lasted 12 hours or longer as they inched through blinding snow, gridlocked roads and slippery black ice as well as a succession of accidents and stalled cars…“  So said the LA Times today, and they were right.  After a wonderful week in Madera ringing in the New Year with GLY’er Eva and her wonderful family, my trip home was anything but uneventful, due to that snow storm in the mountains.  In the 11 hours it took me to get home, I saw rain, hail, snow, black ice, freezing fog, a rainbow and a most beautiful sunset.  Take a look:


    The first rainbow, hailstorm and snowstorm of 2011…all taken while driving on I-5

     
    It’s 2011.  Shouldn’t we have teleportation by now?

     


    The last sunset of 2010 and a joyous reunion with Eva’s family and Meghan’s new baby


    The first sunrise of 2011 complete with frosty oranges!


    Daniela still needs a little help staying up on her rocking horse from Mom and Aunt Eva

     
    All bundled up, enjoying a walk in the Madera sunshine


    Mugging for the camera!


    New Year’s Breakfast


    I love the way Mom & Grandma are looking at her!


    A hearty breakfast before what I thought would be a four hour drive.  Little did I know!


    Best of the rest…Click for slideshow
    Happy New Year!