Is There Something in the Air?

What is that streak across the sky?  In case you haven't noticed, there are many more planes in the sky than there used to be.  I wrote about it before.  We had a plane fly over the house the other night that was massive, meaning it was much closer to the ground and my neighborhood than it should have been.  I'm talking Twin Towers 9/11 close.  Like 1000-1500 feet above the ground.  That's it.

The above image was taken at 6 a.m. last week outside my house.  This trail extended all the way to the light at the top of the road a mile and a half away.  Again, I'm not one who usually buys into conspiracy theories, but I've read a lot about them recently.  There exists an alleged phenomenon known as chemtrails, not to be confused with contrails.

Contrails are what you see when a plane high in the sky speeds by.  It's the white trail from the plane, and it usually disappears. Chemtrails, on the other hand, linger and do not disappear.  Reasons for chemtrail spraying are unclear.  Some claim it is for ozone protection, while others claim that what is being sprayed is used to control the weather.  It's an interesting theory.

Snowstorm on October 30th?  Freezing weather now (we're almost in May)?

The following pictures were taken outside my school.  At first I thought they were contrails, but they lingered all day over the school, spreading out and eventually looking like clouds.  The line stretched from Center City Wilmington all the way across the Delaware Memorial Bridge into New Jersey, which is a few miles from where I work.

Say what you want.  But these trails, whatever they were, were done by three separate planes within ten minutes of each other.  And they lingered.  Observe...

First, notice the blocking off of the majority of our parking lot. This always happens when the planes are above.

As you can see, in the progression in the pictures, from three separate planes, we go from one line, to two, then to three, pretty close to one another.  The last picture was taken 30 minutes after I entered the building and went to my office on the fourth floor.  These clouds/contrails/chemtrails lingered all day and expanded.  Contrails would surely have been gone by then, right?  It's simply something to think about.  I don't know what's going on, but I also notice these trails near my house as well.

A plane flying lower than usual over my neighborhood.

A large plane, at night...over my house.

Speculation only leads one farther down the rabbit hole into things like biological/chemical warfare, the government's HAARP initiative (look it up--weather modification is one of the stated goals of the US military), and other interesting practices allegedly occurring.

Again, I'm not trying to make anyone nervous and I don't really know what I believe, but look up in the sky.  You'll see many more planes than you usually do.  Thanks for reading and speculate away!

For more information, do a google search.

It's a Mad Mad World

I don't think I've taken the time in this space to write about "Mad Men" before, but I feel I must.  The fifth season premiered two weeks ago after a too-long hiatus.  Does it really matter how long?  One year? Six months?

While some say that it is not quite up to its usual tightly constructed standards, it is still one of the best shows on television and it's something I look forward to every week. 

SPOILER ALERT
If you do not want to know what happens, stop reading.

Still there?  Good.  I'm sure we lost some people but if you've been watching "Mad Men" or have only casually seen it a few times, you know that it's a terrific show.

Season The Fifth

The year is 1966.  There are race riots in Chicago and New York.  Gillian Hills' "Zou Bisou Bisou" is still making its way around the airwaves, though released in 1961.  Women are demanding more respect in the workplace.  There is an airline strike.  The Vietnam War rages.



"Mad Men" is undergoing a cultural paradigm shift in toto, but I'm going to focus more on this past Sunday's episode.

"Mad Men" opened this past episode with Peggy's reporter colleague showing the copy writing staff pictures that "Time" magazine deemed inappropriate and too shocking to print. 

Turns out, the pictures were of the recent (in this episode he was still on the lam) crime scene of Richard Speck.  Who is he?  I'd never heard of him either, but apparently he wheedled his way into a town house shared by 9 nurses in Chicago, where he brutally raped and murdered all but one, who was able to hide under the bed for 7 hours without detection.  Goosebumps inducing, right?

 This episode showed almost everyone afraid of something.  This fear, primarily from the horrific acts of one Richard Speck, permeated the country and spread to our cadre of characters. 

Don was very sick and had a nightmare that a former flame came over to his house and would not stop trying to sleep with him (even though he gave in once in this dream).  So, he unleashes some of his pent up rage and strangles her.  He dumps the body under the bed.  He tried to hide it from his wife, Meghan, who had serenaded him with the aforementioned "Zou Bisou Bisou" in the season opener.  Did you know that the Mad Men soundtrack just released it as a single and I heard it on Sirius 3 yesterday?


But it was all a dream. 

The fear, whatever the cause spread.  Sally was afraid.  She frightens Grandma Francis in the middle of the night because she cannot sleep due to the Chicago murders. We see Grandma Francis sitting there with a butcher knife, afraid as well. However, in true 1960s fashion, at Grandma's suggestion, they both split a sleeping pill and fall into a deep slumber. It was so comatose that even Betty and Henry couldn't rouse them when they arrived home at the end of the episode.  She was under the couch, by the way.

Peggy, on the other hand, embraced her fear of being a woman in a man's world in the office by getting $400 out of Roger Sterling.  Apparently, he needed copy writing done for Mohawk Airlines and was completely out of options.  He asks Peggy, who took him for everything that he had in a gender and character role reversal.  Is Peggy the new Don?

Peggy, however, had this money in her purse after she invited a co-worker to stay with her for the evening (the first African-American hire at SCDP).  "They won't take me past 96th Street," bemoans the lone African-American. 
At Peggy's house, though, the two share some beers and Peggy turns to go to bed.  In the look heard round the world, Peggy eyes her purse on the table in front of her co-worker.  She grabs the beer bottles they shared but you can tell, Peggy is ashamed for thinking her co-worker might steal it and her co-worker knows that Peggy thought she might take it.  It was a very racially charged moment and well-acted.  Fear once again came into play.

Finally, the lone person who was not afraid was Joan.  After her husband returned from Vietnam, the two got cozy for a few days and between themselves, the baby (who's not her husband's but rather Roger's), and Joan's mother (welcome back to TV, Mrs. Huber from "Desperate Housewives!"), it looks like they have the perfect, all-American family.

At a dinner with both sets of parents, Joan, the baby, and her husband, it is revealed that her husband volunteered to go back to Vietnam for a year.  This destroys Joan and the dinner, needless to say, does not go well. 

The next morning, Joan wakes up to her husband, child, and mother eating breakfast.   The two exchange words and her husband says "If I go out that door, that's it."

Joan ultimately has this to say about her husband, Greg: "You're not a good man. You never were. Even before we were married — and you know what I'm talking about."  Ka-Pow!  She referenced what we all think every time we see Joan.  Are they ever going to reference what he did to her in Don's office before they were married?

And just like that, they did.  Last night's episode felt more like Seasons 1 or 2 in terms of its impact.  It was the best episode since perhaps "The Suitcase" whenever it was it aired before.

Yes, Mad Men is back and it's great.  And oh yeah, Betty doesn't have cancer but she's fat. 

Dan for Mayor

I was thinking of writing an entry about a couple of different things, but the ideas made me extremely angry.  I won't go into what I was thinking of writing about that made me so upset my breathing became shallow, and my fists and teeth clenched. 

I guess I'll have to work out when I get home or find some way to get rid of that pent up anger I have towards certain people at the moment.  So, I decided to write about the following.

Since I finished "Corner Gas" a few weeks ago (all 108 episodes!), I was lacking something good to watch on my iPad before I went to bed.  With "Corner Gas," I probably watched two or three episodes per week before I went to bed.  It took me a while to get through, and after I finished the episodes time just seemed to vanish and I had none.



So the other night, I had some rare extra time before bed so I took full advantage and began to watch another TV show.  This one is called "Dan for Mayor."

While the show is not as funny as "Corner Gas," it still is an interesting story revolving around the character of Dan Phillips (Fred Ewanuick).  Upon hearing news from his former flame, Clare (Mary Ashton), that she is engaged, Dan feels the spastic need to top her news.  He blurts out that he is running for mayor of the town of Wessex, where they live.

When asked by his best friend Jeff (Paul Bates) later why he made such an avowal, Dan replied that he wanted Clare to see him as serious rather than a slacker 30-something working as a bartender at Fern's. 

While everyone around Dan thinks his campaign is a joke, he tries to prove them wrong.  At the end of the pilot episode, he is finally able to scratch together the candidate's fee to get his name on the ballot.

As the pilot closes, the current mayor gloats to his aide upon walking out of city hall after Dan pays the candidate's fee.  As he steps down from the sidewalk to cross the street, thinking he's won another easy mayor's race, BOOM! 

Long story short, Dan is the lone candidate for mayor.  What'll he do?  Although this show is certainly not along the level of "Friends" or even "Scrubs" in terms of plots or laughs, the story is simple, the people are quirky, and it's fun to watch Dan's journey.  The writing is decent enough that you get a few chuckles in each episode.

If you're interested in watching this show, you can find, just like Corner Gas, all episodes of Dan for Mayor on YouTube.

 

Airplanes over Deacon's Walk

It's been said that movies try to prepare us subconsciously through subliminal suggestion to accept future events before they occur.  This way, the events will not seem as much of  a shock to us. 

Take 9/11.  Conspiracy theorists claim that some of the perpetrators had Illuminati ties and had foreknowledge of the event.  It was even allegedly referenced in movies, particularly with analog clocks, dates, and other appearances of the digits.  Again, pure speculation. I've no idea if it's true. Below is a screen capture of the episode "The City of New York Versus Homer Simpson" from 1997.

Similarly, people argue that the prevalence of alien invasions/contact made in science fiction movies is trying to subliminally tell us that this type of event will occur some day.  Again, whether this is true, I have no idea, but it certainly is interesting to ponder every once in a while.

That brings me to the title of this post, airplanes over Deacon's Walk.  For those of you who do not know, Deacon's Walk is the name of the neighborhood in which I live.  I have a great house that overlooks the Pike Creek Valley and I can see a long way from my deck.  The sky is open, and it's a great place to relax especially now that it's getting warmer. 

However, for the past six months, something odd has been going on in my neighborhood. Something strange. Something no one talks about. But the question is: do people notice? I think they must, given the in-your-face nature of what happens. People are for the most part home at 8 pm or 9 pm each night. So what gives? (This is what it looks like)

I have a legitimate question about what the hell these things are flying over my house every now and again towards the end of each month.  My brother has seen them.  My neighbors have seen them.  And when I researched them, other people have seen them too.  But no one knows what they are.

They fly low.  They are triangular.  They have four lights on them and if they were exact triangles, they would have one in each vertex, along with one in the middle of the interior. Unless you are standing directly below them, they are silent.  They can rise, however, very quickly.

These planes (I think they might be military, as Dover Air Force Base isn't too far away, nor is New Castle County Airport) fly extremely low and the first few times I saw them I felt like they were going to crash into one of the houses or my own.  I would say that they fly about 500-600 feet off the ground, which from a deck or an upstairs bedroom is slightly scarier. 

The pattern for the past six months is that they fly low and circle the neighborhood (not just the city of Newark, say) three or four times before they vanish.  I've seen them completely disappear on a cloudless night once.  I don't know if it's ever the same plane.  Sometimes the lights look a little different. 

I don't know what they are but it's very creepy.  After the once per month that we see them, they are gone and I forget about them.  But I do know for a fact that in January, February, and last night the same type of thing occurred.  Low flying.  Circling.  Gone.

In fact last night my brother asked if I saw a huge plane on my way home.  Truth is I did, and I slowed down my car to get a better look at it.  It was dark but I saw the distinct triangle and light pattern I'm familiar with from other times. Then I saw it once more after that from inside the house.

What are these things?  Why do they fly so low?  Does anyone know what I'm talking about?  If so, let me know your insights.   

Tourney Time!

Well ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year again.  It's time to get out those brackets and fill them in way you hope the NCAA tournament to go.  Although given that it's the NCAAs, don't expect your brackets to go as smoothly.  But don't worry.  It's not just you.

Everyone is going to pin their hopes on someone to either make the Final Four or win it all, only to have that plan go awry at the hands of a team who you've either never heard of, or by a mid-major that got lucky. 

The best team who I have losing to UNC though, in the Sweet Sixteen.

Nonetheless, it's still a fun enterprise, even for amateurs.  I've done it all with regard to the bracket picks over the years and if there's one thing I learned, it's follow your gut.  If you don't have a good feeling about a team or you find yourself picking a team just because they're a one seed, don't take them.  There's a reason it doesn't seem like you believe in them.  Listen to yourself.

That being said, here is an overview of some of the methods that people use each year, along with my thoughts on each...

1) Pick all higher seeded teams

This is a valid method and probability does suggest you would do quite well.  However, remember that some years all number one seeds have been gone before the Final Four.  It's usually a safe assumption that most will make it past their first few rounds, but that's not always the case.  I like this method, except for the fact that it takes the fun out of picking a few upsets here and there that allow you to get ahead of others in your pool who pick higher seeds out of laziness.

If you feel like you're picking a #1 seed or other highly seeded team just because the media and  your friends are, does not mean you should if you feel uneasy about it. 

I just picked Syracuse in the bracket from my buddy Pete (called UConn, if anyone is interested in joining) but I don't feel good about them and probably won't pick them in any other brackets because they haven't proven themselves and I don't think they will this year either.

2) Pick all lower seeded teams

People do this, but remember that probability does not favor this outcome.  No #1 seed has ever ever ever lost to a #16 team, and it's unlikely to happen in the future.  Sometimes history can be a good guide.

3) Pick based on the mascots

I know people, women especially, who do this.  I have no opinion or data on the statistical aspect of whether or not this works, but I do not recommend it.  It might be unique and a non-mainstream way to go about the bracket, but I don't think it pans out.  Unless you get a good combination of mascots associated with good teams.  Most people I know go for "cuteness" of mascot as their criteria for selecting each game.  This rarely is helpful to their chances.

I bet this person, who picked the St. Peter's Peacocks based on cuteness alone, didn't do very well since they bowed out in the first round.

4) Coin flip method

For this, pick all top teams from the beginning to the Sweet Sixteen, except flip a coin when you have the dreaded 8/9 matchup.  From the Sweet Sixteen, flip a coin for each matchup that you have.  Again, this worked for a friend of mine once, but I have never tried it myself.  Go for it if you dare.

5) The "More Famous" Method

Any school that's worth its weight will have some sort of celebrity alumni.  Do a little research. Pick based on that.  For example, let's say you're torn between Wichita State and VCU.  If you go on Wikipedia, look up their notable alumni.  Wichita State: most notable would be Dennis Rader (the BTK serial killer).  VCU: none were found. There you go!  Easy as pie.

6) The coolest method to picking the NCAA tournament bracket?

Cut out all the teams into their own piece of paper. Go to the top of the Empire State Building (or Sears Tower, but do not use the Statue of Liberty as the prevalence of water defeats the purpose) and toss them off.

Run to the bottom of the Empire State Building and fight past the doorman to find your shreds of paper. If you are lucky enough to find a single one, pick that team to win the whole thing no matter what. It is fate personified.

I hope everybody does a bracket and has fun.  Most importantly, go with your gut.  You can research all you want but at the end of the day, just pick who you want and have fun.  Also, did you know that most upsets occur in the 12/5 seed matchup?  You should have at least one of those.   

Good luck to Temple and also to Elena Delledonne and the University of Delaware women who won their CAA Conference Tournament yesterday.

It All Started With a Big Bang

So it's been too long, and I have decided that I needed to make time to write  a blog entry.  I debated about what to write about, and then the idea occurred to me.  I'd go back to my bread and butter, which is television and movies.

Recently, TBS picked up "The Big Bang Theory" and they run blocks of episodes a couple of nights a week.  I watched this show when it first came out, but as I got busier and busier with school, I was never home when it aired so I forgot about it.  That is, until I caught a few episodes on TBS, and now I'm hooked.  It's one of the few shows I look forward to each night and I think it's hilarious.

Granted, it's not for everyone and I understand where the nerdy personas and subject matter could be off-putting for some people, but I think everyone should at least give it a shot.

The show centers around roommates Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki, "Roseanne") and Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), their two friends, and their babealicious new neighbor, Penny (Kaley Cuoco, "8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter).  The friends, whose character names are Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nuyar) and Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), work with Leonard and Sheldon at CalTech where they are all scientists.

Being nerds, they lack many social skills that would help them get girlfriends and some of their hobbies tend toward the geekish.  Leonard has a crush on Penny, and their on again, off again relationship is one of the major plot points of the show.  I envision them as the new Ross and Rachel from "Friends."

While the episodes are typically self-contained and the action is fairly limited in terms of scope,  the dialogue is witty and quick.  The characters are also interesting and have their own quirks.

Sheldon, for example, lacks emotional intelligence and has an inability to empathize.  He has difficulty recognizing sarcasm, nuanced language, and has difficulty expressing affection.  This goes back to his repressive childhood with his born again Christian mother no doubt.  He seems to be most like Spock, where he uses logic in various situations to assess emotion or to guess what people mean when they speak to him.  He does so quite awkwardly.

Sheldon:  Leonard, I'm moving out. 
Leonard Hofstadter: What do you mean, you're moving out? Why? 
Sheldon Cooper: There doesn't have to be a reason. 
Leonard Hofstadter: Yeah, there kinda does. 
Sheldon Cooper: Not necessarily. This is a classic example of Münchhausen's Trilemma: either the reason is predicated on a series of sub-reasons, leading to an infinite regression; or it tracks back to arbitrary axiomatic statements; or it's ultimately circular: i.e., I'm moving out because I'm moving out. 
Leonard Hofstadter: I'm still confused. 
Sheldon Cooper: Leonard, I don't see how I could have made it any simpler.

Raj, on the other hand, is shy and has an inability to speak to women unless he is drunk.  Ergo, he constantly whispers in his companions' ears what he wants to say in the presence of women.  Drinks in his hand, however, are another matter.

Howard lives with his mother and is the only one of the four who does not have  PhD, and they never let him live it down.  He thinks he has swagger with the ladies but does not and is always embarrassing himself in the process of trying to hit on and get women to date him.

The show centers around your typical sitcom problems: breakups, problems with friends, parents, etc.  But the four core characters have excellent on-screen chemistry and I'd have to say Sheldon is my favorite and I see a bit of myself in him.  But I also relate to hopeless romantic (albeit nerdy, misguided) Leonard.

When you add in a parade of guest stars and other recurring characters, such as Christine Baranski as Leonard's mother, Laurie Metcalfe as Sheldon's, and others, the show is a great half an hour of tv to watch and I've begun to catch up on the new episodes.

My favorite newer character is none other than TV's "Blossom" herself, Mayim Bialik as Sheldon's new "girlfriend" Amy Farrah Fowler.  Say her name out loud.  A couple of times.  It's funny.  One of the other running gags is that her name is said in its entirety each time, again which I think is a riot.

The show also has had famous physicists as guest stars, and I hear that Spock himself, Mr. Leonard Nimoy, is going to have a cameo in the spring.  Can't wait!  Now get out there and watch yourself some TBS to catch up!

Sheldon Cooper: Good morning, Amy. 
Amy Farrah Fowler: It most assuredly is not. 
Sheldon Cooper: Are you experiencing dehydration, headache, nausea, and shame? 
Amy Farrah Fowler: Yes. I also found a Korean man's business card tucked into my cleavage. What happened last night? 
Sheldon Cooper: Oh, memory impairment. The free prize at the bottom of every vodka bottle. 
Amy Farrah Fowler: Sheldon. 
Sheldon Cooper: All right. Last night, you gave me some excellent advice regarding my problem here at home. You kissed me, and then vomited on and off for 40 minutes, following which you passed out on your bathroom floor. I then folded a towel under your head as a pillow, set your oven clock to the correct time because it was driving me crazy, and I left. 

Those Zany Talkies

I thought I would take a break from all of the economic gloom and doom I've been writing about recently to write about an excellent movie that I watched with my brother last night.  I'd been putting off seeing it.  I thought I knew what to expect, but at the same time I wasn't sure.  It's won various awards in the run-up to the Oscars, including ones for film and acting.  So here goes...


When I sat down with my brother last night to watch "The Artist," I had heard many things about it.  Some said it was boring and weird, while others said it was a work of cinematic genius. Having watched it only once, though, I must agree with the latter view.  In fact, I'm putting my money on it to win Best Picture at the Oscars, along with Best Actor for Jean Dujardin.  I saw "The Descendants."  Clooney was his usual...ok.  

Although I knew that the film was silent, unlike some idiots in England who didn't realize this, went to see it, were outraged since they didn't know it was silent and demanded their money back, I thought I'd give it a try.  I'd seen other silent films on TMC or AMC or one of those older movie channels and I usually watch them for a few minutes and laugh as the people on screen in black and white prattle on about something while a moment later, a sign pops up reading "Surely you Jest!" or something equally ridiculous that didn't begin to describe the conversation they were having.

But this film was different.  When I saw Jean Dujardin speak at the Golden Globe Awards to accept his award for Best Actor in a comedy or musical, I assumed that since he was French that the film was in French.  I assumed that it would be a silent film with french title cards subsequently subtitled in English. 

I was very surprised when the cards were in English, and not only that, there were some big names in the film, namely John Goodman and James Cromwell.  Penelope Ann Miller and Missy Pyle (I saw her on Broadway as the German part of the love quadrangle in the hilarious "Boeing, Boeing") also had small roles.

While I won't give away any of the ending or most of the plot, I will gloss over some of the main plot points to combat any doubters and hopefully encourage some of you to see the film.  The film opens with a wide eyed, soon to be starlet descending upon Hollywood/Los Angeles to make her mark (the lovely Berenice Bejo as the upstart, chipper Peppy Miller).

She ends up literally bumping into Dujardin her first day outside the studio as part of a gawking crowd waiting for him to exit the stage (he plays George Valentin, the era's star of the silents), and causes a stir that lands her on the cover of that week's Variety with him.  While initially embarrassing and causing those gossipy tongues around Hollywood to wag about Valentin's love life, it eventually lands her a part in one of his films in 1927.  

Long story short, we flash to 1929 with a rising Peppy Miller who has taken on lead roles in these new so-called talking pictures, while George Valentin remains locked in the past and soon is unable to find work because he refuses to let go of the silent film era.  He thinks that talkies are not the future and we see his self-doubt at making the leap from silent film era star to movie sensation.

The film chronicles Miller's and Valentin's careers, lives, and special bond that they form and ends with what I will term, something perfectly appropriate.  The film, in black and white, is nearly all silent.  However, if you can get past the first few minutes and let the musical score take you back to the era of Hollywood glitz and glamor, flappers and starlets, you will not be disappointed.  

The music guides the film, along with the title cards that pop up occasionally to alert the viewer as to what is transpiring.  It's all brilliantly done.  Is there any dialogue aside from the title cards?  I guess you'll have to watch it.  Plus, there's Dujardin's adorable dog who is right there throughout the film.  It clocks in at about an hour and a half, and if you don't believe me, it got a 97% on RottenTomatoes.com.  

Thanks for reading and if you're trying to decide which Oscar contenders for Best Picture to watch in anticipation of trying to see the film that won so you can talk to all of your friends about it, definitely choose "The Artist." It is beautiful, brilliant, happy, sad, heartbreaking, and it's something I think you'll want to see again.  Enjoy!