Tuesday, September 30, 2008
What a glorious LA evening!
I remember July nights that felt like this when I was a kid. Fourth of July I would take a sleeping bag and sleep outside under the stars in my backyard, long after all the fireworks ended, snuggling with my Boston Terrier.
Nights like these make me want to stay outside and enjoy the glorious warm weather for as long as possible. If only I still owned a sleeping bag...
Monday, September 29, 2008
Black Monday
So my husband e-mails me with "Bailout Package defeated. Dow down 700 points. Wow."The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive into recession without it.
Stocks plummeted on Wall Street even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.
The S&P 500 posted its biggest loss since 1987, and the Dow Jones industrials were down nearly 780 points in their largest one-day point drop ever.
The selling was so intense that just 162 stocks rose on the NYSE — and 3,073 dropped.
It takes an incredible amount of fear to set off such an intense reaction on Wall Street, and the worry now is that with the rescue plan's fate uncertain, no one knows how the financial sector hobbled by hundreds of billions of dollars in bad mortgage bets will recover.
While investors didn't believe that the plan was a panacea, and understood that it would take months for its effects to be felt, most market watchers believed it was a start toward setting the economy right after a credit crisis that began more than a year ago and that has spread overseas.
On the other hand we've seen how rushing without a well thought out plan, making decisions in haste under pressure and duress from the Bush Administration, and without weighing the consequences has worked out in the past:
1) The Patriot Act
2) Invading Iraq (weapons of mass destruction)
3) Funding the Iraq War (outside of the budget)
It's definitely an eerie feeling to be living in these times of history in the making. The only two things I can compare it to in my lifetime is the dot com boom and bust (although the Internet is still booming) and 9/11. We survived both. But each day with more banks closing and financial instability and gloom and doom, it's a very strange time period indeed. I'd love to be able to look into a crystal ball to see how all this will play out in the future. Time will tell.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Californication Season 2
Californication is back for Season 2! Showtime Series on Sundays at 10 PM ET/PT. The entire 1st season is also available through On Demand in case you missed it. Highly recommend it.It's shot in LA and is about a screenwriter Hank Moody, who moves to LA from NY after his novel gets picked up for a movie, and all the debauchery that takes place that ruins his relationship - while he's a very sweet, good guy underneath it all who is still in love with his ex girlfriend.
Hank Moody (played by David Duchovny)
Karen (played by Natascha McElhone)
Mia (played by Madeline Zima)
This sexy siren upends Hank's life in a way he could never imagine. Their one-night stand after meeting at a bookstore sends Hank's life into a tailspin. How could he know the hot chick who liked his novel was the 16-year-old daughter of Karen's ex-boyfriend? While Hank tries to conceal their romp from Karen, Mia is off promoting the manuscript she stole from Hank and has passed off as her own. It's a huge hit and Mia is relishing in her new found, totally unearned fame. Will Karen discover their affair? Will the world discover the book was plagiarized? Will Mia stop Facebook-ing herself long enough to care?
Becca (played by Madeleine Martin)
Hank and Karen's thirteen-year-old daughter has seen it all — watching her parent's bad breakup and her father's once promising career take a hit has made her wise beyond her years. But, unlike her mother, Becca truly accepts her father for who he is. The women come and go, but Hank's heart truly belongs to his daughter. But Becca's heart is now facing a bit of competition — it's Dad versus her new boyfriend who, coincidentally, is the spitting image of a young Hank. Whether that will be a good or bad thing remains to be seen... 
Charlie (played by Evan Handler)
Hank's best friend and agent lived life on the straight and narrow path and spent his free time trying to get Hank to kick his various habits and settle down with a good woman. But it all blew up — cataclysmically — in his face when an affair with his receptionist (among other peccadilloes) was caught on tape, earning him a pink slip and an uncertain future. A chance encounter lands him a new job as an agent to a budding porn star and a new Charlie is born. But his new star client's needs are proving a distraction from trouble brewing in his own home.
Marcy (played by Pamela Adlon)
Marcy Runkle never minces words — she's a brash, hard core, unapologetic salon owner who loves her man above all. While Charlie plays it safe as a ten-percenter, Marcy is happy being way out in left field — they are the yin to each other's yang. But life stresses force old habits to re-emerge and Marcy hits a proverbial bump in the road. She trusts her husband unequivocally, but is too busy wrestling demons to notice how involved he has become with his hot new client.
The Amazing Race Season 13
The Amazing Race is one of my favorite shows on TV, and I'm looking forward to this new season #13. Show times on CBS Sundays 8:00pm ET/PT.The show travels around the world showing the beauty and uniqueness of foreign countries and cultures, it's got the game element, it has the big brother reality TV component (how well do the teams work together under pressure?), and then there's the once in a lifetime factor that you get to experience with this group of people. Most of the couples even when eliminated will tear up and be thankful for the experience. And of course us viewers can go along for the ride sitting on our couches (and hopefully get motivated to travel and experience those things first hand).
What's the show about?
Saturday, September 27, 2008
LA Library limits book loan time
I had meant to write about this in July when our neighborhood librarian notified me, but you may have already noticed that LA's public libraries are only allowing books to be checked out for 2 weeks at a time (vs. the 3 weeks that they gave in the past). The reason for the change being they felt it would free up more books to be available. (Plus all those late fees wracking up).Wine
"...in moderation is a vital element in the fellowship among human beings and a sense of enlivened connectedness."-noted on the wine description sheet at last night's wine tasting at Colorado Wine Company
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Ever have one of those days...
Random stuff I stumbled upon this morning:
- A virtual tour of my ex-bf's house in Chicago - of which he put on video, narrated and posted to YouTube.
- An essay submitted by a friend of mine to the Paris essay contest.
I've got to get to sleep. Sheep...1, 2, 3...anvil.
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