Dentists as Butchers, Part the nth

You see the little bastard in the image above? The one I had pulled two weeks ago? Yeah, I'm still suffering the consequences of that bitch. The socket, albeit not "dry", is slow to close up and the area around it is quite tender; I can still eat only soft foods. But the truly weird effect is the lingering numbness in my right lower-jaw. And I have a place just below my lip that was rubbed raw during my sleep a couple of weeks ago and it seems extremely to heal. In fact, there is one point on my lower lip that burns intensely. My point to all this is four years ago I had a total ankle (right) replacement, was in surgery for approx. 6 hours, and still recovered faster than I can seem to from this "doctor's" ministrations. I'm calling my internist tomorrow to see how to get this pain to stop. Two weeks is plenty for me.

Saturday Night Soundtrack

A Winter Night's Entertainment

Back in college I was allowed, with faculty sponsorship and approval, to design my own degree program. It ended up being a fairly decent study of still and motion picture photography, with a little TV production thrown in for kicks.
I enjoyed my cinema classes, particularly film history. I quickly became enamored of a long-dead genre, film noir. I liked the immediacy of noir, with the gritty realism. It was usually the hero (the word used in its loosest sense: all characters in these films are flawed) against the world, sometimes literally, with no indication of whom or what to trust.
"D.O.A." is a watershed of the genre. It has an opening sequence (one long tracking shot) that one BBC reviewer called "perhaps one of cinema's most innovative opening sequences" (but that was before "Touch of Evil"). And the score by Dmitri Tiomkin is brilliant. So enjoy!

https://archive.org/details/doa_1949

 

 



 

 

RDFRS: Why this satanic goat statue has the Christian right so freaked out

RDFRS: Why this satanic goat statue has the Christian right so freaked out

Delightful.

Saturday Night Soundtrack

Pink Floyd. Coming Back to Life. That is all.

Thank you and Good Bye, number 31

This will go down as the week of non-stop dental pain. Up until just a few hours ago as a matter of fact. The tooth already had a temporary crown but ended up cracking. I must say the worst part of it has been the aftermath: severe, sharp throbbing pain right in the skull. For days. Doc finally gave a steroid pack yesterday and that seems to be doing trick. Nonetheless, my lower-right front lip is still numb (yes, from novacaine) and swollen.
Take care of your teeth kids, cause THIS SHIT HURTS!!!

Saturday Night Soundtrack

I don't think that word means what you think it does...

They call themselves the "Christian Right", or "Dominionists" or something or other, but whatever they call themselves they have been coopted by the Republican Party. Just try to win an election for just about any office in this country and you better be prepared to profess some type of religion; the more mainstream the better, of course. I have always found this one of the more ridiculous aspects of American politics. But lately there's been a breath of fresh air on this front in the form of the new Pope. Yes, the Pope.
The Supreme Pontiff has issued some statements lately that have rattled the cages of the one percenters. Essentially, he told the truth: that capitalism is a highly-unfair enterprise that wastes precious resources for the benefit of the few. As a Humanist, I find it odd but I can't help but like the man. Power needs to be pricked, made uncomfortable, and kept on its toes for the benefit of all of us.

Aging gracefully?

On Monday I turn 60. Enough said.

I'm back

After a long hiatus, I've decided to try this once again. I don't want this to be just an "aggregate" site of posts and links to posts, albeit there will be some of that because some things are too rich in pathos and/or irony to pass up.

So on with 2014.

My granddaughter Carly: hope springs eternal.