1022

 Saturday, October 22, 2022

In bed a bit after 10, up a bit before 5, 5 pss, 1 and 1/2 glasses of red.  Woke up thinking of the Lincoln Project and thinking of doing some work on the hands and/or hair on the large portrait in the basement. Cynthia Ozick, whose name I couldn't conjure up, no surprise. . . . .In the afternoon I confirm what I feared about Cynthia, it's an oil, not acrylic.  Not ready to get back into oils and the need for turpentine, solvents, and good ventilation.  Not doable in the basement.  Can't paint acrylic over oil.  Sad or glad?  Big expensive canvas, bought on sale.  To cover and repaint would have to be oils, smell up the basement.

The Lincoln Project

We finished watching the 6 episodes of this fascinating and informative Showtime series last night.  I had a vague recollection that the project had ended and that there was a scandal connected with the breakup, but never knew how deep and emotionally charged the fractures within the group were.   These folks were kind of heroes to us when they were cranking out ads on TV during the 2020 election season, and writing and appearing on TV talk shows excoriating Trump and his people.  Steve Schmidt was especially prominent because he was so eloquent in denouncing Trump and Trumpists on his very frequent guest appearances on MSNBC and elsewhere.  We tended to temporarily at least forget that he was a true blue Republican, mastermind of John McCain's failed presidential campaign and responsible in large measure for McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate.  Rick Wilson wrote the book with the magnificent title "Everything Trump Touches Dies" and Stuart Stevens wrote "It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump" in which he admits, from the inside, that the Republican appeal in elections is based on race, white fear and white resentment. John Conway, Kellyanne's husband and prominent Washington lawyer, was a founder who brought his legal expertise to the project and many others brought marketing and other communications skills to the effort to defeat Trump.  It all blew up after the election after the disclosure of homosexual predation on interns by founder John Weaver and secret financial self-dealing by Schmidt, Wilson. Reed Galen and Stevens (?). Wilson and Galen and Schmidt are still with what is left of the Lincoln Project, but Schmidt, Conway, Weaver, and Jennifer Horn have all severed their ties.

Our Town

There have been 185 homicides in Milwaukee so far this year, 24 more than last year's record-breaking rate.  Few than half of all Milwaukee homicides result in someone convicted of a crime.  The Journal-Sentinel graphic of homicide locations shows no homicides east of the Milwaukee River, all homicides west of the river.

RIP Schatzi

Jimmy's cat Schatzi, renamed Jane Fonda by Steve and Maggie, died yesterday after only 2 months or so as a Californian.  Jimmy was so concerned that the cat not survive him, worried about what would become of the cat if Jimmy died first.  I miss him, his sensitivities, his quirks, and his terrific sense of humor.

WTWTMW

Tall gangly fellow, sitting upright on his bicycle, wearing bright yellow stripes on a black cycling outfit, a la Tour de France.  Judging from his stately posture atop his bike, not likely a competitive biker.  Wondering why the outfit.   Debbie McGregor is out walking their white lab Armand, our decidedly unfriendly neighbor dog.  Small leaves or bits of leaves fall gently on the front lawn.  Sun shining, bird feeders unvisited in midmorning after busy early morning rush.  Two more days of unseasonal warm weather are expected.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, John Kenneth Galbreath, Charles Healy Clausen

Why is it that some of us go by 2 names while others go by 3, or even 4 with hyphens?  Women with maiden/married names of course but men?  The Brits seem to be really into it, at least the haut bourgeois.  I thought Camilla Parker Bowles was using her maiden name and married names but not so.  Her husband was Andrew Parker Bowles, son of Derek Henry Parker Bowles - 4 names, no hyphen.  Wassupwiddat?

Me and the Poet Laureate

Donald Hall, A CARNIVAL OF LOSSES; NOTES NEARING NINETY: Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.  "Last night I went to bed at 10:30 and got up at 7, a good night's sleep.  During the night I woke three times, but I didn't lie there twitching.  When I woke I looked at the clock's illuminated hour, turned on my reading light, took a sip of water, stood up to piss in a bottle, took another sip of water, read a paragraph in The Economist, and went back to sleep.  Each waking interlude - at 11:57 p.m., 2:12 a.m., and in the wee August light of 5:15 - took four and three-quarters minutes.  I follow this script seven nights a week, sometimes two wakes with pees and a page, sometimes four wakes, and once I didn't wake up until 8 a.m.  I feel fine, sip some coffee, smoke an electronic cigarette, eat breakfast, read the paper, do an eighty-seventh revision, an eighty-eighth . . . After I married Jane, . . . . during the night, I got up to scoop ashes from the cast-iron stove and got up again, I hung up my nightshirt . . .

Ballet Nu,  Ballet Blanc

Watched Petite Mort by what I assume to be a Russian company, probably Kirov Ballet, modern work by Jiri Kylian.  Identifying script in the Cyrillic alphabet.  Mind-blowing, exquisite movement and music by Mozart, including 'Elvira Madigan.'  Dancers appear to be nude.  Also watched the opening sequence of Clavigo by Roland Petit with the Paris Opera Ballet, and music by Gabriel Yared, one of my favorite composers of movie soundtracks.  Both works are very erotic, a bit shocking.