Out of the Darkroom

Where Do They Find These People?

2008-09-03T10:57:00.001-07:00

The first thing that raised my ire this morning was a headline from the on-line version of The Washington Post stating "McCain Strategist: 'It's Not About The Issues'." Then I saw this faux bumper sticker, but it seems to be missing Wife #1.

I feel like I'm watching a train wreck as the Republicans fall in line to get two more unqualified people into the White House.

A Hitch in Our Giddiup

2008-09-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

Both the Arabian Prince and I have been dealing with tweaks in our backs for the past two weeks.

Mine started when I went off to the barn after one of those days at work where someone had messed with my supposedly ergonomic chair and I couldn't get it back to where it worked for me. I had a huge muscle knot in my lower left pelvic area, that sent twinges when I walked. I was in a lesson, and started to trot, and suddenly, pain was radiating from my spine. I could barely work at the walk.

I went off to the chiropractor who said my tailbone was out of alignment. I haven't been back on Ace since. The adjustments aren't taking, because every time I go in to see the chiropractor is after an 8 hour day in the chair of torture and I can't figure out the correct adjustment.

The day after my back started to hurt, I got a call from Gayle telling me Ace's right back leg was swollen and badly scraped up and he was moving gingerly. We think he cast himself, but we can't figure out where. While I was out of town, we had the bio lights technician come on by and, while it helped, Gayle could still feel a problem when she rode him even when she couldn't see anything at the trot. The chiropractor is coming on Thursday, which should take care of the problem.

I saw him roll for the first time since this happened a couple of days ago. That was a relief. Before that, he kept walking with with his nose hanging low while he pawed at the sand in the arena looking for that special spot and not being able to bring himself to actually go down. It was pitiful. He is moving quite well without a rider on his back and did a good deal of bucking and galloping on Sunday, so, clearly, he's improving.

I despair that I won't.

Be Angry, Be Very Angry

2008-08-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

My friend Melinda Snodgrass, a recovered attorney and a true political junkie posted this link to what's going on in Minneapolis in preparation for the RNC coming to town. I would say "be afraid," but that's exactly what the Republicans would want. Instead, be angry and do something.

There are a lot of politicians to blame for warrantless searches and Nazi stormtroopers running amok in America. I'd start with that college campus radical I was in school with in 1970, now Republican Senator from Minnesota, Norman Coleman. Remember, too, the Governor of Minnesota was in theory on the short list of candidates for Republican VP. Are these the people we want in charge of our government?

On a slightly lighter note, I'd like to share my wordsmith husband's reaction to the Republican VP choice over on his blog, WeinWords.

West Wing v. Commander in Chief

2008-08-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

Let me get this straight. The commentators last night were comparing Barack Obama's speeches to those written by the gifted Aaron Sorkin for The American President and The West Wing. Then John McCain comes out looking like he's picked a Gina Davis from Commander in Chief.

One newscaster I heard this morning said "she's young and she's hot!" Please tell me what the message is with this choice? Do the McCain people honestly believe that women will vote for any woman in the White House? Or is it that men will vote for a hot chick over an intelligent leader?

Finally, the Candidate Speaks

2008-08-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

I have been glued to MSNBC all week, watching the process of the Democratic National Convention. I have been touched by the speeches made by Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Beau Biden, and Joe Biden. And tonight, Barack Obama's acceptance speech hit a grand slam out of Mile High Stadium.

This election is about the best of American values: that anyone can grow up to be president, that the promise of America is a better life for everyone, not just the wealthy, and that we help those who are worse off than ourselves.

After eight years of dispair about my country, my beloved Constitution, and the future my son, my nieces, and my nephews will have, I see a light at the end of a dark tunnel.

I am proud that this year two candidates of great intelligence and insight ran for the Democratic nomination (why is it only that the Democrats value intelligence in their candidates?) And while I was disappointed that Hillary Clinton did not win (I was also very disappointed that General Clark did not run), I will be pleased to cast my vote for someone who has worked hard to get to where he is in life, who could have landed a high-paying job with a big corporate law firm after graduation from Harvard Law School, but who chose, instead, to devote himself to public service. That's the kind of American President I want in the White House.

We Came, We Saw, We Shopped

2008-08-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

We're home again after our five day adventure to more northern parts of California. I must say, we really enjoyed the cooler weather of the Salinas micro-climates. It's going over 100 here in the San Fernando Valley today and we got a DWP alert by e-mail this morning at work asking us to cut back on our power use today.

We had a great trip up to Salinas, and a bit beyond. The drive from Paso Robles to Salinas took less than two hours on Friday and we were able to check into our hotel and head up to Gilroy for a pilgrimage to Garlic World
and the Gilroy Factory Outlets before we were expected to meet with friends for dinner at The Fish House in Santa Clara.
We bought a bottle of blue cheese stuffed olives and some garlic olives at Garlic World, along with the requisite garlic braid. The Garlic Festival was a few weeks ago, but the town does smell of the stinking rose. It's wonderful. Garlic World is a large roadside shop and the 101 is not a freeway at that point, so getting back on the road is an adventure.

The Oneida outlet store at the Gilroy Outlets is no more, so I was very disappointed. I wanted some more serving pieces for my stainless flatware. Len was disappointed because he was hoping to get some additional pieces for our Correlle everyday dishes and the Corning outlet store had sold all but one of the Frost White pieces to some people who got there an hour before us and bought $2000.00 worth of it. Fortunately, there is a Corning outlet shop in what we call "The Assyrian Temple" just south of downtown L.A. It takes about 40 minutes to get there on the weekend, so we might just take a run down Sunday.

Dinner with old friends was great. Len had met Chuck and Jewel about 8 years ago, but had never met my friend Steve, one of the physicists I hung out with at Stanford a million years ago. Steve's wife couldn't make dinner, but Christy and Randy rounded out the party. We saw Christy last month at Comicon, but hadn't seen Randy since they moved up north last year to go to work for the game company. As the evening wore on and the restaurant emptied out, we were able to hear each other a whole lot better. There was a good deal of laughter.

Saturday was our busy day. We had reservations for the Elkhorn Slough Safari at Moss Landing, which is midway between Monterey and Santa Cruz. Breakfast took a little longer than expected, so I felt like we were racing across the Salinas Valley to get there on time. The instructions for getting our parking pass were a little confusing, but we took care of that and still had enough time to use the facilities before getting on a pontoon boat for two hours.
It was quite overcast and damp, but that might be better than a day where the sun beats down. The boat seats about 30 and has a captain and a naturalist aboard. We saw something between 2-3% of the entire population of California Sea Otters on the ride. There was a huge raft of them at the beginning of the tripand a number of solitary hunters as we rode up the slough. It is a very rich feeding area for mammals and birds.
There were hundreds of sea lions and seals,
many brown pelicans, a great blue heron and snow egrets.We saw lots of people in rented kayaks (which we might try sometime) and even saw a boat of fishermen land, and then pitch back, an orange ray fish.The wind was stronger as we went back toward the landing, and that's when we found out why they recommend wearing hats that are attached to you in some way. When we docked, there was a woman selling fresh fish from her boat next to ours. If we'd been closer to home, we would have made a purchase. As it was, we bought the cutest stuffie of a brown pelican. I have a good collection of California Sea Otter stuffed toys already.

We went back to the hotel to get showered and changed for the surprise party and managed to beat the guest of honor's arrival. My friend Terri was duly stunned by everything and kept walking around the room calling out people's names as things clicked. She was stunned that we would drive up from Los Angeles for a few hours of party time. Her son Sam was still a teenager when I left Washington, D.C., and now he's 6'8" tall, with degrees from Tufts and NYU, married, and in his thirties. He used to keep Michael amused when we went to Terri's for dinner, even though he is seven years older than my son.

I enjoyed meeting some of Terri's other friends, about whom I had heard much during the many years we've known each other. We got together for brunch on Sunday with Terri, Sam, Rachel and one of Terri's college classmates and her husband, who had flown up from Orange County for the party and were staying in Carmel. Here are Terri, Sam, and Rachel at the party.
Len and I headed for the Steinbeck Center in Salinas for a few hours before starting the trip home.
John Steinbeck was raised in Salinas (his family's home, below, is now a restaurant where I must go for tea sometime) and so many of the locations in and around Monterey County play a part in his works.In fact, the road Terri lives on is plays a part in The Pastures of Heaven. I bought that book to read next, followed by Travels with Charlie. In the exhibit, Steinbeck is quoted as saying he went on this 10,000 mile drive around the country with his dog and was not recognized once. I think that would be impossible today. Writers are recognized, as we have often experienced. Someone like Steinbeck would definitely be noticed.

It did not take long to go thorough all of the exhibits at the Steinbeck Center, so we used the remaining time on our meter to check out an antique shop before getting on the road again. It was a short walk down a wonderful street in old town Salinas, a reminder of Victorian days.
We were in San Luis Obispo before 6 p.m. and checked into the hotel before going in search of dinner. We had no luck in finding a movie afterwards (we had similar bad luck on Saturday night in Salinas) because they started while we were eating and we weren't up to a late show. We did get a good night's sleep, finally, because we didn't have a loud fan blowing all night nor motorcyclists revving their motors at ungodly o'clock in the morning.

After a light breakfast, we loaded the car and headed into town for a stop at the olive oil shop where we had an oil tasting on Thursday night. We did a second tasting (the owner seemed to so want to do one) and bought two bottles of what he called "finishing oils" to take with us. One has a blood orange infusion, which would be bad for both my son and our friend Lorien, who are very allergic to orange. It was just too good to pass by.
I also found some really nice horse socks at the sock store. Since I've gone through the toes of a number of my older socks, these were great finds.

We headed to Buellton, where Len could satisfy his jones for Pea Soup Anderson's pea soup. There used to be a Pea Soup Anderson on the way to San Diego, but it is no longer. This is the only one left that is relatively close to us, but we don't get up that way very often. The soup is good (mine is better) and we ordered it, even though I think of pea soup as a winter dish.I got Len to stop at Flag Is Up Ranch, Monty Roberts' home base outside of Solvang (and only a few miles down the road from Pea Soup Anderson's.) Monty was in Australia, but the ranch is open to visitors every day. We signed the releases and walked around. On my last visit, I went with a group from Pierce College. The now-retired head of the horse program is an old friend of Monty's, so we actually got to see Monty work with a horse. Len and I did watch a young man work with a quarter horse in the round pen and now I've got some questions to ask Gayle tonight about some of the equipment that was used. Shy Boy was at home, but it was impossible to photograph him behind the lattice of his stall gate.We went into Solvang and realized we had reached the end of our ability to walk around. We groaned a lot as we got out of the car and started down the street. Solvang is a Danish-themed-and-designed town, with faux windmills and lots of bakeries and gift stores.
There was a "Jule" shop, which we went into, and I bought a carved wooden horse for our Christmas Tree and a gold-toned horse with rhinestones pin for my collection. We sat drinking water and the man from the visitors' center came out and chatted with us about the antique car show that had been there on Sunday. There was a trolley pulled by a pair of Belgian draft horses going down the street and a group of tourists peddling a multi-rider contraption with a canopy. It was quite laid back.We stopped at a Hallmark shop and discovered several ornaments we wanted for this season. Rather than risk being unable to find one in L.A., we grabbed this year's Star Trek prize: The Trouble with Tribbles ornament. David Gerrold, who wrote the episode, is the person who introduced Len and I to each other. I'm planning to have David autograph it, to go with the Harlan Ellison created "Guardian of Forever" from several years ago.

We managed to drag ourselves back to the car for the ride home, stopping briefly at the Camarillo Outlet Stores where we discovered that the Lenox outlet is no more. I'll just have to wait for the Christmas china to go on sale at Macy's, I guess.

It was really nice to sleep in my own, not too soft and not too firm, bed last night. But I'd be just as happy to be back on the road again today.

Vacation? What's a Vacation?

2008-08-21T23:05:00.000-07:00

For all the traveling that Len and I have done together and separately in the last 19 years, very little of it has been devoid of a business component. This little frolic and diversion through the central coast of California qualifies as a real vacation. I have no idea why we don't do it more often.

We left home just before noon and headed to Santa Barbara where we expected to catch lunch and do some walking. We made great time, getting there in about 75 minutes. So we found parking and went in search of a restaurant. I had a thought about seeing if a New Orleans-style place we had eaten at a number of years ago was still around. It was right across the street from the parking structure and we did eat there. First though we went shopping.

We discovered a great clothing store called The Territory Ahead. I'm not much for clothes shopping, but this place really had great clothes for travel--in some ways like Banana Republic used to be 25 years ago. Len wound up buying 3 leather jackets--they were having a 75% off sale, so we got some great bargains. Best kind of shopping there is.

We also went into a couple of antique shops on the main street. There used to be a lot more of them. I found a stirling silver "spirit horse" pin to add to my collection of horse jewelery. In another shop I saw a spectacular horse-head gold-tone pin about 3" x 3", but it was $195--for that kind of money, it should be real gold. I don't care what kind of an antique they claimed it was, it couldn't have been older than about the 60s. So it still sits in the display case.

We drove on to San Luis Obispo, where there's a huge farmer's market on Thursday night, so we found parking and walked the length of it in both directions. I bought a bottle of raspberry vinegar and one of blackberry as well. They tasted wonderful. We also went into an olive oil shop for a tasting, which was interesting.

I've been struck by the number of vineyards which line the 101. There are so many more than there used to be. We saw a new one going in over what looked like several thousand acres--brand new plants just starting to climb the guide posts that went on as far as we could see from the road.

We're spending the night in Paso Robles where there's a stock horse show going on right across the street from our hotel. I'm hoping to see if there's anything that looks like a shopping area before we head on to Salinas tomorrow morning. We'll be missing the olive festival that's going on here on Saturday, but we'll be having a good time on the Elkhorn Slough Safari that morning and going to a surprise birthday party for an old friend of mine that evening.

I am very annoyed that my pocket camera's battery was low and I didn't realize it when I left home. It died on me in San Luis when I tried to take a photograph of the line of olive oil bottles in the shop. I didn't pack the recharger, so I'll be using the "real camera" for the rest of the trip. The photographs will be better, but it doesn't slip into my purse quite so well.

Some Nature Here to See You

2008-08-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I wanted to be a nature photographer. I wanted to go off on those National Geographic or Life Magazine assignments to exotic places and photograph big horn sheep, elk, mustangs, bald eagles, Kodiak bears fishing for salmon, and buffalo roaming the plains.

I spent two summers traversing the United States and Canada with my camera and my now ex-husband in an old Dodge dart that had over 100,000 miles when we bought it (when we sold it, it had almost 180,000 miles on the odometer.) I did photograph big horn sheep, mountain goats, prairie dogs, elk, coyotes, bears, birds, buffalo, and moose. Some of those photographs have even been published (not, unfortunately, in National Geographic.) But I've got to say this video of a mama moose and her twins in somebody's back yard is better than anything I was able to get in Yellowstone National Park, where a pair of bachelor moose tromped by our tent every morning for eight days.

Remember, if you see a moose in the wild, keep your distance. They have poor eyesight and nasty tempers. They are very big and very fast, even at a walk. And don't ever get between mama and her babies. I still cringe when I think of the idiots in Jasper National Park in Canada who told their kids to run out into the field with the moose so they could get pictures. Some god was watching over them, because it was an incredibly stupid thing to do.

Many thanks to Janis Gelb, who passed the video on to a list serve on which we're both members. I promise it will make you smile.

A Toast to Bottle Shock

2008-08-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

I actually went to the movies today and it wasn't for a tent-pole blockbuster. And Len went along.

We saw Bottle Shock, based on the true story about how the California vineyards blew away the competition in a blind taste-test against French wine in 1976. Alan Rickman is, as always, wonderful. The film has a nice little score, plus a good selection of 1970s music. There are beautiful shots of Napa at sunset. The actor who gets to play young Captain Kirk plays Bill Pullman's son in the film. We really enjoyed it, although it did bother me to see the ways the wine bottles were handled after one of the characters actually says something about how they needed to be transported carefully.

The trailer for Viggo Mortensen's next film, Appaloosa, ran before the film. It's the first trailer I've seen for it. I think it opens in October. There was a big article about the The Road, the other Viggo film schedule for the fall, in today's L.A. Times. That one's going to be a whole lot harder to watch, I think. It appears to be covering some of the same issues as Kevin Costner's The Postman, without the upbeat ending. I've heard the young actor in it is amazing.

Team Dressage Observations

2008-08-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

I just watched the end of the team dressage competition. Has anyone else given thought to the fact that this is a sport where women were not allowed to compete for years, I guess because it came out of military moves, and now they dominate the sport? The German gold team had no men on it and the silver and bronze teams had one man each. Women had the very top scores--even one of the U.S.A.'s women is 7th overall. Stephan Peters (originally German, now ours) is #10 overall, which may make him the top scoring man in the competition, but I'd have to go back to NBC to be sure; one of the guys on a medal team may be higher, but the other is not.

I've got a theory about this: women do better with the partnership concept that is so important to dressage.

So why do I have to be up at 4 a.m. to watch this stuff live? You folks on the east coast have it easier than we do. I'm not complaining too much: I love the fact that we can watch all of the horse competition for the first time ever. And I did get to watch the final four riders and the award ceremony this morning at a reasonable hour. Good thing I went into work early. The high speed internet at home has had a few hiccups when I've tried to watch there.

Last night, I noted with annoyance that the Oxygen recap only showed portions of the first day of dressage, with the exception of the U.S. rider. Since she's in 7th place going into finals, that was not such a bad decision.

I'm planning on watching the many hours of replay of team dressage because I want to watch some of the other rounds, like that of the 67 year old Japanese rider. He had the team's top score, but he didn't make the finals. That's o.k. It gives all of us hope--and an argument when family members (like my mother) think I'm too old to be messing around with horses.

I think they should put medals around the necks of the horses. They did all the work. I'm just saying....

It Wasn't for Want of a Nail

2008-08-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

I got to the barn to take my lesson on Monday and had gotten Ace all cleaned up except for his feet. I did his off-side first, since that was more convenient and then I went to his near side. I picked up his foot and my first thought was "what the hell has he done here" before I realized I wasn't looking at his back foot, but the front one which should have had a shoe and pad on. Then I really had a knot in my stomach.

He still had a couple of nails in the hoof wall and a chunk of hoof taken off the inside. At first I was afraid that I had missed him throwing a shoe when he was turned out on Sunday night, but then I found the shoe in his stall. When Gayle got there with some tools a few minutes later, we realized he must have caught the hoof in the rail to his neighbor and yanked. I'm really lucky he didn't do more damage, since the shoe hadn't been loose in any way and the other one was solidly in place. I also felt really lucky when I reached my farrier and discovered that he had just gotten back from Colorado, so he could come out on Tuesday morning to reshoe my boy. Since I had expected Tim to come out on Saturday or Sunday anyway, it only pushed up this month's shoes by a few days.

Tim is the second farrier I've had for Ace since I got him seven years ago. My original farrier, Mike, was great, but he got pissed off when the barn manager at the college threw one too many arbitrary rules at him. It went from me scheuling Mike's next visit at the beginning of the shoeing session to him telling me that he wouldn't be coming back again as he packed up his things.

It can be really hard to find a farrier. Horse owners don't want to share names, it seems, and out here farriers can pretty much pick and choose their clients. I think I'm a pretty good client: I'm there when feet are done, I've always got my checkbook, and the checks don't bounce.

Fortunately, about six months before Mike quit on me, What's My Line Live on Stage had a farrier as a contestant (the panel didn't guess his occupation.) So I got in touch with director Jim Newman and asked for contact information. The farrier had stuck in my mind because he identified himself as being from Binghamton, not far from where I'm from. It has turned out to be a really good match.

Tim was trained at Cornell University and is a big believer in keeping horses barefoot whenever possible. We did it with Ace for almost a year until he got another nasty bruise on that problem left front hoof with almost no heel. The vet insisted that shoes were in order, pads were up to Tim. So, we've gone to shoes with pads in front (he's always been barefoot on his back feet) and we haven't had a bruise since.

A horse is his feet, and I don't mind paying for the pedicure that keeps Ace in good shape. Thanks, Tim. I'll be lost if your acting career takes off.

Wolverine Family Portrait

2008-08-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's a photograph of three people having a really good laugh at Comicon International: my husband, Wolverine's creator Len Wein, me, and the talented Hugh Jackman who brings Wolverine to glorious life on the screen. Many thanks to my good friend and colleague Kim Gottlieb-Walker for sending the photograph.

Before anyone asks, Len's cane is an affectation--until about day 3 of the convention. It has the head of the Geiger -designed creature from Alien as a handle.

Extraordinary!

2008-08-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

We're watching the opening ceremonies in Beijing. I'm flabbergasted by the ability of 2008 drummers to work together, the beauty of dancing a painting, and the LED screen being used as a floor. This is amazing.

And I love seeing the "Hank as Rocky" Budweiser Clydesdales ad.

"Massive scope, minute precision," says the commentator as the type makes the symbol for harmony. Exquisite.

Olympic Riding

2008-08-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are like me and want to know when the Equestrian events of the 2008 Olympics will be broadcast, I found this list:

Date: Program–Time (EST) on Channel

Aug. 9: 3-Day: Dressage–2:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. on USA
Aug. 11: 3-Day: Cross- Country–6:00pm-8:00pm OXYGEN
Aug. 12: 3-Day: Stadium Team Gold Medal Final–6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 13: Dressage–6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 14: Dressage Team Gold Medal Final–6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 15: Show Jumping–6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 16: Dressage Individual–5:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. MSNBC
Aug. 17: Show Jumping Team Gold Medal Final 1st Round–10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m on NBC
Aug. 18: Show Jumping Team Gold Medal Final Round–6:00pm-8:00 p.m. OXYGEN
Aug. 19: Dressage Individual Gold Medal Final–6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 21: Show Jumping Individual Gold Medal Final–10:00am-1:00 pm on NBC

For many of these times, it looks like things scheduled for MSNBC will run three hours earlier out here on the left coast (according to the schedule I found in The Equestrian News.) There's live streaming broadband of most of the events at http://www.NBCOlympics.com, including next weeks' dressage competitions. The OXYGEN times look like they will run at PDT at the indicated times. You can sign up for an e-mail alert for the NBC streaming video here, on an event by event basis.

Comicon 2008 Finale

2008-08-01T01:17:00.001-07:00

As promised, here are some of the hundreds of photographs I made during the five days we were in San Diego for Comicon International this year. I've just redone the entire post, so I hope the images are centered and the captions are in the right place.

We managed to get green "Exhibitor" badges on Wednesday, which got us onto the floor an hour or so before it opened for the preview. In years past, the preview was limited to the professionals in attendance. Now, unfortunately (she says in an elitist manner) it is open to anyone who has a four-day membership. It is just as crowded on Wednesday evening as it is on Saturday--at least it feels that way. Because we got in early, I had plenty of room to back up and photograph Len against this mural of the X-men. Len co-created Wolverine (behind Len's left shoulder), Nightcrawler (lower right), Storm (upper right) and Colossus (the metal man at the top of the mural.) I call them my step-children, since they all predate our marriage.

I ran upstairs to the mezzanine where I knew I could get a photograph of part of the showroom while it was still pretty empty. The San Diego Convention Center floor is about 20 acres, so this is a very small section of the floor.

The one thing I am very sorry I missed getting when we were on the floor without the crowds is good photographs of the Owl Ship from the Watchmen movie, about which a little more below. Len desperately wanted to get inside it.

The next image shows the Sideshow Collectibles booth. They are no longer doing any Lord of the Rings pieces, so my credit cards were safe this year. I own several of the pieces Sideshow did, including the fairly large Aragorn on Brego at the Black Gates. Len was given the 1/5 life-size Logan (Wolverine's non-code-name) figure they did as a gift after he raved about it on camera a couple of years ago. Sideshow ran the video on its website to advertise the figure, which was a pretty fair trade. It's more than we've ever gotten from Marvel.
The picture below is a view of the DC booth. In the lower left is DC Publisher Paul Levitz, who was given the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award at the Eisners, well deserved for his work at getting recognition and recompense for creators who preceded the days of creative profit sharing in their comic book creations.
Here we have Len with a Wolverine soft toy. If it was a DC character, we'd see royalties. In fact, if it was a DC character, we'd have half a dozen of them sent to us on production. But Wolverine is a Marvel property. Oh, well.
We had gotten word that we should be at the Fox presentation on Thursday morning. There were special tags for us to get to the Studio Seating section and our friend Jeff Walker got Len a backstage pass and made it quite clear that Len needed to be there. We also got the word that there would be a special appearance that we didn't want to miss. Len cut his autograph signing at the DC booth to get there on time. Fortunately for him, a mishap with the curtains in the auditorium delayed the start of the presentations.

Before the special appearance, we needed to sit through the presentations of promotion for the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. In this picture they are on the panel together, followed by a solo shot of Keanu.

The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Michael Rennie is one of my very favorite science fiction films. I remember the first time I saw it, on Saturday Night at the Movies, the day before my 11th birthday. I do not believe that it needed to be remade. There is so much good science fiction which has not been made into film, let alone made into a classic film, that there's plenty of opportunity to do something new. Unfortunately, Hollywood fears new.

Following the presentation for The Day the Earth Stood Still, we got to see the very loud presentation of Max Payne, based on a video game and starring Mark Wahlberg and Ludicris, who appeared on the panel and are in the eighth picture. We were invited to a party that night where Ludicris was supposed to perform, but we passed on it in favor of staying at a dinner with friends and good conversation where we could hear each other.

Just as most people thought the Fox presentation was finished, on came the surprise appearance of Hugh Jackman who flew in from Australia with footage from X-men Origins: Wolverine. The crowd went wild over both him and the film.

The photograph of Hugh is from right after he went back to the stage after coming into the audience to shake Len's hand. He was still addressing Len from the stage, which is how I was able to get such good eye-contact in the photograph (believe me, I would have waited all day for the moment!)
Following the presentation, Jeff Walker pulled Len backstage to talk to Hugh. Jeff's wife, my fellow photographer Kim Gottleib-Walker, got me past the security guards, so I was able to get a series of shots of Hugh and Len together, one of which is the tenth picture of this set. When Kim gets back from New York, I may have a shot of Len, Hugh, and me to post. This was just such a great moment and I cannot say enough about what a kind and gracious man Hugh Jackman is.

Later in the convention, Len appeared on a panel about working in comics in the 1970s. Here he is with Bernie Wrightson, the artist who co-created Swamp Thing. Bernie did the covers for Len's Batman-Edgar Allen Poe Else-worlds miniseries a few years ago and it looks like they will be doing some work together again in the not too distant future. Bernie's a terrific horror artist. He also does design work for Hollywood, including the villains in Galaxy Quest.

On Friday night, we went to the Eisner Awards. There were a number of surprise presenters, including Samuel L. Jackson, soon to be seen as Nick Fury in a full-fledged movie. For those of you who have seen Iron Man, you've already seen him show up as the character. One of the Go-gos made an appearance, accompanied by a platoon of Stormtroopers, but I don't seem to have exported one of those images.

And here is rocker Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, picking up his award for writing. He loved Len's dress coat.
The next picture is Len again, soon after he got back to our table after receiving his Eisner for his induction into the Hall of Fame. He's already adjusted things on our mantle to make room for it among the statues of the X-men and Swampy. He certainly earned the recognition after 40 years in a business where he has had a huge impact. If you skip down a couple of blog entries, you can see his acceptance speech.

After Friday night, our schedule was a little less hectic. Len did a spotlight panel on Saturday, which only managed to get through half of his career, so the moderator plans to do the second half next year. On Sunday, he appeared as the captain of the professional team in the Pro-Am Trivia Tournament, but the pros got trounced this year. It is supposed to be all in fun, but the questions have gotten absurdly difficult, making it not very much fun for the audience to watch.

As things wound down close to 5 p.m. on Sunday, when the exhibit hall shut down, I sat in the DC booth watching people walk by--like these far-from-home Spartans....
and the Wicked Witch of the West.

I managed to get this photograph of Dave Gibbons as he was signing in the DC booth on Sunday. Dave is the artist who created Watchman with writer Alan Moore. Watchman, which has been made into a film directed by Zak Snyder, who also directed 300, will be released in March. Len was the editor of the graphic novel, which was published as a 12 issue maxi-series about 20 years ago. Len finished writing the video game which is set up as a prequel to the movie just before we went to San Diego. It will be released around the time the film is. Len always pronounces Dave's name as "DIve," in deference to Dave's British accent.
The last photograph is of the banner which hung in the Convention Center foyer during the weekend. I had this strange desire to take it home with me, but this is the best I could do under the circumstances.

Looking over my pictures makes me want to go out and spend the money for the 18-200 VR lens for my digital camera. It won't do me any good on the new D700 I'd like to buy, but it will work just fine on my D70 or a D300. The problem with the 28-200 I was using is that it is just too slow in low-light situations, like the stage shooting, and I really needed to be able to use a faster shutter speed or something which would minimize camera shake for me, as a VR (vibration reduction) lens would. My fixed-focus lenses, which are faster than the zooms, are not auto-focus and have limited auto-exposure features with the digital body. Upgrading is just too darned expensive and I can't really justify the cost right now.

Balancing the Budget on the Backs of Workers

2008-07-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

Boy, I just can't wait to find out if my salary is being slashed by 80% today in the Guvernator's attempt to get the legislature to present him a balanced budget. It is a good thing that it isn't going to affect the last paycheck of July so I can pay Ace's board and training for August.

To be honest, my job isn't about the money. I can make far more in less time doing legal work. It's about the health insurance, which we couldn't afford if we had to pay for it directly. (It is also about not having to pay for legal malpractice insurance, another thing which is totally out of sight for a sole practitioner.) Nevertheless, I do have commitments that need to be paid and I don't know how long we'll have to wait to get the back pay once this stalemate has ended.

It really bugged me that the Gov is more worried about paying bills to third parties than paying his workers who have far less recourse when dealing with their creditors.

Kudos from Arlene

2008-07-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

I am always grateful for Arlene's comments on my blog, which remind me almost daily that I'm not just writing to myself. Arlene, who writes one of my "must read" blogs at Grey Horse Matters, just sent me the Brillante Weblog Award, for which I say a hearty thank you. Arlene has good tips for creaky riders like I am and she recently rescued an Arabian mare and her (now gelded) son, both of whom seem to be recovering from extended neglect under her care and that of Arlene's daughter. Kudos to them both for the good deeds they have done.

Now I get to pass this on to seven other blogs, which I hope you will go and visit:

My friend Gillian Horvath recently started writing her blog about television scripting and other things at Athena TV. I think she's doing a fine job, but then, she's a fine writer.

Melinda Snodgrass is a terrific horsewoman and even better writer. She posts not often enough about her beautiful stallion Vento, but she's acutely tuned into politics and she's got a lot to say about the craft of writing prose and screenplays at her Musings.

We first noticed Bob Harris when he was a contestant on Jeopardy! and then realized he also did occasional commentary on KNX radio here in L.A. We met just about a year ago when Bob and Len shared a panel on What's My Line and even though we don't get to see each other often enough, I stay in touch by reading his blog on his website. He travels a lot, and he's a one-man cheering section for the South American deer, the pudu.

Another blogger who doesn't post nearly often enough is Maria Rodriguez, another television writer friend who is a whiz in the kitchen. Last month, she had a wonderful post about her father making eggs for breakfast which I found incredibly touching. I think Maria and I may have met at a sword class in Gillian's back yard, but we really bonded over horses. Her blog is madriguez.

It looks like I can actually give this award to Victoria Cummings at Teachings of the Horse. I love reading about her adventures with Silk and Siete.

I've known Teresa and Patrick Nielsen Hayden since I was in law school. They're both editorial people in New York and their blog Making Light is well worth reading for their comments and those of their many friends.

And finally, my friend Adam Chester has started a blog which reminds us that, as my college adviser the late historian Robert Sobel once said to me, "every mother is a Jewish mother." Adam is a wonderful musician who provided the live musical accompaniment to What's My Line Live on Stage and has performed with Sir Elton John on occasion (and even more often rehearsed with the band instead of Sir Elton.) His blog is Please Don't Eat Sushi! Love, Mom.

To my friends that I've just tagged, pick up the award by copying it from here, paste it to your blog, put a link back to this one, and pass on the award and instructions to seven of your friends by letting them know about it. It's like a chain letter, but don't hold it against me.

Comicon in Motion

2008-07-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Caitlin sent this link to one of the videos on YouTube showing Hugh Jackman coming off the stage to shake Len's hand. I saw another one which had better sound, but Len is almost impossible to see because of the number of flashes going off and burning the video out. Thanks, Cait.

And here's another view of Hugh and Len, taken by someone from Empire Online who was sitting on Len's left side. I show up in none of these!

Although it is not the best video camera, I used my pocket Nikon S1 to record Len's acceptance speech at the Eisner Awards (this explains why I don't have any still shots.) These are actually the only full-body shots that give a sense of what his coat looked like. It's a little dark, but it preserves the moment.

I bought an actual video camera with low-light and digital still capabilities about four or five years ago. Unfortunately, it insists that there is moisture somewhere in the system and refuses to work. I haven't been able to get it to a repair shop and I've heard this is a common problem with the JVC minicams. I really wished I had it working and with me this time at Comicon.

That is the famous Mad cartoonist Sergio Aragones handing the Eisner Award to Len. They've been friends for about 40 years and Sergio is just a wonderful, funny man. Len likes to tell a story about tackling Sergio to prevent him from drawing on pastoral-scene wallpaper which had just gone up in Len's house in Queens. Sergio thought it needed people peering out from behind the trees. He was probably right.

I stayed up really late last night working on the still photographs, which I will probably be able to upload tonight. Hugh Jackman is a whirling dervish, and with low-light situations, it's hard to stop motion when using slow, long lenses. Nevertheless, there are a few shots I wouldn't dream of throwing out. Len's got a similar problem--he moves just as the camera goes off--and my friend Melinda Snodgrass likes to pick that exact moment to blink.

Earthquake Update

2008-07-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

The phones are working again and there's no discernible damage at the house, so we've survived the latest rocking. It does make me wish our carpenter had finally come back and put doors on the cabinets where my glasses reside and I'm hoping Len will run out for more Quake-hold.

It is the only topic of conversation here at the moment, and I think the television is having a field day covering nothing. So here's a possible story:

Today is the first day of the July 2008 California Bar Examination. Two of the locations, the Ontario Convention Center and the Anaheim Convention Center are a lot closer to the epicenter than I am. What happened? Were the students disrupted from the exam? Will they be allowed to make up time or will they be just as screwed as the five people who ran to help the guy having a seizure when I took the exam in Feburary 1993. That turned out to be embarrassing for the State Bar President when Jay Leno had a field day. I hope, if students had to abandon their exams, that the time will be made up.

In any case, on Saturday I'm having dinner with two recent graduates who are taking the exam this go round, probably in Ontario. I can't wait to hear their experience.

Earthquake

2008-07-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

We just had quite a rattler. It's the first time I've been in an earthquake this big while I've been at work. My phone isn't working and neither is the cell, so I can't check and see what's going on at home until I leave for lunch. That's why the 1994 quake, which was pretty big, didn't scare me totally--all of us were home together and I didn't have to worry about where Len or Michael was and if they were safe.

The USGS says that it was centered near Chino Hills and it was a 5.8. That's on the other side of L.A. from us. Here's a map. The aftershocks have already been as big as 3.8 and there have been a number of them since this happened.

Home Again

2008-07-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

We're back from San Diego, exhausted, but in a good way. There's little that can top what happened on Thursday and Friday, but Len said that Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance came up to him on Saturday and told Len that the coat he wore to the Eisners was the coolest ever. Imagine a rock star saying that to an old guy of 60. (Gerard Way took home a couple of Eisners on Friday, so he is no stranger to the comics world.)

Tonight I plan to get the digital images processed (if you shoot RAW, you actually do "process" the images) so I can get some pictures up tomorrow. I hear there is video with Len and Hugh Jackman on YouTube, but I haven't found it yet. My friend Kim has gone to New York for a week, so I don't expect to see the pictures of me with Hugh before then, but I do have Len with Hugh. The handshake shot, which I was not in a position to get, was caught in both directions by others and I've seen that all over the Internet. Here's a link to one on Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood.

Here's the version of the photograph from the Los Angeles Times by Spencer Weiner, from the opposite direction. That's my hand on the chair and my blond hair behind Len's back. You can see why I wasn't in a good position to take a photograph of the two of them. I did much better back stage.
It took us more than two hours to pack out of the hotel on Monday morning. Let me correct that. It took me about half an hour. It took my son two hours. He's the one who did all of the shopping and had a small fortune in anime-related statues to bring home. He also did a great job scavaging the floor for swag--free stuff--and had an amazing number of these monster bags advertising different television shows and movies.

Ace greeted me when I got to the barn last night for my lesson. He was also not eating--there was a mass of hay in the stall. Gayle and I figure he doesn't like the taste of the new batch or he missed me. There was nothing wrong with the hay, so I sprinkled some vinegar over it and he was eating it when I left. My concerns about colic were relieved by the way he took carrots from me and that there was fresh poop around. Plus his gut sounds were just fine.

He looked very nice in his new saddle pad from Mary's Tack and Feed and I'll put the braided reins on his western bridle tonight, so I can move the black ones back to his dressage bridle. Yes, I spent most of my money in San Diego at the tack shop, not the convention or even Nordstrom's.

I did get a nice little statue of Wolverine on a business card or post-it holder base on Sunday, but it's not like the years I ordered the Sideshow statue of Aragorn on Brego charging the Black Gates or the replica of Eowyn's Sword that now hangs in the living room. My biggest shopping regret from past years at the convention is that I couldn't afford the statue of Sam Gamgee with Bill the Pony that Sideshow did the first year they had Lord of the Rings pieces. It almost immediately sold out. What would have cost me $125 goes now for thousands of dollars on eBay. Lesson learned: if you really love it, buy it. The grocery money will show up.

Long Days with Happy Endings

2008-07-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

The longest day of Comicon is about to come to an end. I'm wiped out, but it's been just great.

I had breakfast with my friend Connie Willis and her daughter Cordelia after sleeping through my alarm. Fortunately, Connie called the room and I managed to get in and out of the shower and down stairs in 12 minutes. Connie is one of the other guests of the convention this weekend and it's been a couple of years since I've seen her since she lives in Colorado and I don't get to as many conventions as I did when I was the lawyer for the Science Fiction Writers of America. Connie is one of their most honored members, with a shelf full of Nebula and Hugo Awards to show for her career. I remember the night she won her first Hugo 25 years ago in Baltimore for Firewatch. She's a grand and very funny lady and had her audience in stitches today at her Spotlight panel. I recommend her book To Say Nothing of the Dog and her award-winning short story Even the Queen. Her most famous book is Doomsday Book, a story of time travel back to the days of the Black Death.

I managed to get to Nordstrom's today and bought a pair of shoes. The only time I shop there is during its summer sale when we are in San Diego and I usually go for shoes. These are a pair of Nike trainers that have what looks like red fishnet over white shoes. Very cool and I hope very comfortable.

This evening was the Eisner Awards. It's the Oscars of the comic book industry. Len was asked to give out the three awards for writing, so he had carefully planned his wardrobe. He was also nominated for a place in the Eisner Hall of Fame, which he didn't expect to win this time out. Much to his surprise, Len was indeed inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame. At 60, he's probably one of the youngest people ever inducted (60 with 40 years of professional comic book experience behind him,) and was one of only two living writers (of six) inducted tonight. He was the only one present for the awards. He looked great--and there will be pictures. He was quite the hit of the evening, in sartorial splendor with a coat that would not have been out of place in Regency England. I am so happy for him, and he did remember to thank me for putting up with "all his nonsense." Hey, it pays the rent and it is so much more interesting that most 9-5 jobs.

Also honored was DC Comics publisher Paul Levitz. Len met Paul when Paul was 12. Len was already a professional but he realized early on that "that kid is gonna run the business some day." Paul was honored with the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award for all of the things he has done to do right by comic book creators. Unlike Marvel, DC has gone back and righted the credit and royalties for its creators. He's done a great job and, frankly, one that helps pay our mortgage during times of little work. If Marvel would do the same, we'd be able to afford the horse property I want, but that is just not likely to happen. If you look in the dictionary under "corporate greed" there's a picture of Marvel's logo.

The Eisner Award, named after the wonderful Will Eisner, is a pretty hefty globe that does spin. Photographs will be posted when I get back home.

Like the Academy Awards, the presentations went on for over three hours. We didn't get back to the room until almost 1 and Len has now gone out for an after party on a yacht parked behind the convention center. My feet just couldn't take any more tonight--I've already walked close to 20000 steps today.

Tomorrow, I'll make my pilgrimage to Mary's Tack and Feed in Del Mar and buy Ace a present to make up for me being away so long. I'd love to find him a new dressage bridle with a noseband for an Arab, but I haven't had any luck so far. I'll probably pick a few things for me as well--they have a nice clothing department and I do need a new wallet.

I think sleep is in order.

Superhero Moment

2008-07-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been in San Diego for 24 hours now. The weather, as always, is darned near perfect. Our hotel has a view of the bay and whatever battleship that is in dock across the water on Del Coronado Island. And Len says he may never come back again because how could he possibly top what's happened so far. It is truly lovely to be a special guest and actually treated as...special.

This morning was the Fox presentation of upcoming films. Unlike a number of people in the audience, we knew there was a special guest showing up for a few minutes after the panels on the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and a game-based film called Max Payne. Len had a hot ticket to go back stage, but we both had Studio Guest seats in the front few rows. He had a signing at the DC booth that overlapped with the beginning of the program, which, as it turned out, wasn't a problem. The panel was delayed half an hour.

I got there first to save the seats and got tipped off about what was going to happen when the surprise guest arrived. When Len arrived, I told him to "de-Geek"--take off his cap and take the Bluetooth out of his ear. He grumbled a little and wanted to know what was up. I said "trust me."

To the screams of the audience, the special appearance of Hugh Jackman was announced and he came bounding out onto the stage. He had just flown in from Australia because they had finished principle photography for X-men Origins: Wolverine.

He started out by saying "I know what you are all thinking--he's just too tall to play Wolverine!" This has been a running joke because the 6'3" Jackman is playing a character who is only 5'3" or 5'5" tall, depending on which interview you happen to read. Len told Hugh the first time they met that he feels that Hugh does a great job of "playing short."

The audience went wild as Hugh thanked them for supporting the first 3 X-men movies and how he's grateful to have a career thanks to this character and the fans support of him and then he announced that there was someone in the audience without whom there would be no Wolverine and without whom he, Hugh, would not have a career (how generous is that?): Len Wein. He asked Len to stand up and before we knew it, Hugh was jumping off the stage to shake hands. OMG! Well, I'm proud as can be and can't stop tearing up. It was such a gracious thing to do. Entertainment Weekly Online and several other online news sources have done a good job covering the moment. As soon as I get ready, I'll have some pictures from back stage after the all too brief appearance. I should have brought the Mac with me, not the PC.

And yes, Hugh Jackman is even more beautiful in person than on screen.

Horse Show

2008-07-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure I get the joy of horse shows. Long dusty days waiting for a few minutes in the ring and not having the slightest clue what the judges are looking for I'm just not that competitive (unless playing Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit) and I've seen a bit of an attitude that's hard to take. Nevertheless, I went off to photograph the kids from my trainer's program at a schooling show on Sunday.

I enjoy the opportunity to practice action shooting. I didn't have as long a lens as I would have liked, but I still got some good photographs:
Leann and Charlie didn't have much of a chance against the bigger horses over the jumps, but later wiped their friends off the field in equitation.
Ashley and Curio won the timed jumping class and wound up as reserve champion for high point of the day.
Pebbles had a bit of an issue with an orange cone, but if you point her at a jump she's a very happy half-Arab. Very pretty, too.

The kids had a really good time, which I guess is the most important thing.

I rather thought I couldn't do much worse than some of the competitors, so we might take Ace to a schooling show one of these days. He has a lot more substance than some of the Arabians I saw. Too many of them looked incredibly unhappy at their fate. It was a long day for them, too,

Horsework before Housework

2008-07-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

I spent Saturday morning rebedding Ace's stall. Since the shavings aren't put in as regularly as I supposedly pay for them, the bedding was getting sparse and broken down to dust. I'm particularly fond of a product called DryNest because the shavings are very fluffy and soft. It also seems to break down to dust more slowly than other pine shavings. It is incredibly absorbent as well. DryNest comes compacted to 3 cubic feet which expands to 12 cubic feet. By comparison, the American Shavings the barn uses comes compacted to 4 cubic feet and claims to expand to 12. I don't believe it.

Gina came out to let me into the locked shavings room and saw that I had swept Ace's stall. "Wow. You really did mean clean." I put my two bags of DryNest in and then added the two bags of American Shavings from the barn's supply. I knew Ace would have the high pile moved to all corners of the stall by the time I visited again. I was tempted to lay down in the new clean bed myself.

I also spent time cleaning up the feed room and I went out and bought two bushel totes for his hay. I marked one A.M., the other P.M., and added his name, stall number, the kind of hay, the amount of hay and that the totes were for hay only in large letters. Then I weighed and filled them for his next two meals. That left an unopened bale of hay, which I expected I would break open on Sunday afternoon when I refilled the totes.

I also told Gina that it takes two flakes of the three-way to make 10 pounds. She had a look of shock on her face because they've only been feeding one flake at a time. Which is, of course, why the poor horse always has an empty manger when I arrive at 5 and he's been fed at 4:30. It is also why Gayle and I have been throwing in snack flakes. The one advantage to paying for your own hay is that you don't have to feel like you are stealing to make sure your horse is getting enough to eat.

I shouldn't be, but I am always surprised when people act stunned that horses should be fed by weight 2-3% of their body weight a day at minimum, depending on their work load. For Ace, who weighs about 940 pounds, that's 18-20 pounds of hay a day. Also, different kinds of hay flakes can weigh different amounts at different times of the year. "One flake" is a lousy way to determine proper feed. It should be weighed at least once a bale to be reasonably accurate. At least, that's what I learned in Ron Weschler's and Dr. Betsy Connelly's lectures at Pierce College.

On Sunday I found the P.M. tote was empty but the A.M. tote was filled--and the bale was hacked open and only about a single flake gone. No wonder Ace was so vocal when he saw me. There was not a morsel of hay in his stall to be found. He's never been a fast eater, he likes to take his time and will walk away from his food frequently and go back and eat at his leisure. It lasts longer and keeps him out of trouble.

I gave him his snack of Safe Choice with vinegar and carrots and a small amount of hay for nibbling. Then I went back to the feed room, weighed out his hay for the P.M. bucket, and did my best to confine my three-way to a folded up tarp secured with bungee cords. I'm hoping I will lose less hay to waste (or other people's horses) this way. Finally, I put both totes on top of the remaining baled hay, with the hope that the morning feeder will read the friggin' bucket and get the right idea. Starting this three days before I go away to San Diego is probably not the best timing, but I hope it will mean he gets enough to eat while I am gone.