Winter Solstice

Stonehenge is carefully aligned on a sight-line that points to the winter solstice sunset (opposed to New Grange, which points to the winter solstice sunrise, and the Goseck circle, which is aligned to both the sunset and sunrise). It is thought that the winter solstice was actually more important to the people who constructed Stonehenge than the summer solstice. The winter solstice was a time when most cattle were slaughtered (so they would not have to be fed during the winter) and the majority of wine and beer was finally fermented. -stonehengetours.com

   So according to stonehengetours.com, Stonehenge was built to remind it’s builders when it was time to party.

   The Irish monument Newgrange (Irish: Sí an Bhrú) referred to above also has a connection to the winter solstice (the word "Solstice" comes from the Latin words for "sun" and "to stand still."). It is about a thousand years older than Stonehenge, and about 500 years older then the Great Pyramids of Egypt, being built around 3200BC, making it about 5,000 years old. 

   It is a mound. That’s right, a mound, because that’s what we Irish do... we build mounds. They’re much easier to make than a freaking pyramid, and you don’t have to lug around a bunch of huge stones, just little ones... and some dirt. We’ve got plenty of dirt in Ireland.

   It was built by farmers who also had an interest in being notified when it was time to start partying. About 4 minutes after sunrise on the morning of the day of the winter solstice (today the first light enters about four minutes after sunrise, but calculations based on the precession of the Earth (a change in the orientation of the rotational axis of a rotating body) show that 5,000 years ago first light would have entered exactly at sunrise) the sun’s light would enter the mound through a fixture known as a  roofbox which rests above the main entrance. That light then shines along a 60 foot passageway into three small chambers off a larger central chamber. The light will illuminate the chambers for approximately 17 minutes.  

   Light enters this chamber a couple of days on each side of the winter solstice as the Earth’s orbit around the sun is slow and precise, yet it is only on the solstice that this light will point  to the spot directly above the chamber housing the long lost Ark of the Covenant.

   But don’t open it dear readers... oh no, don’t open it.    

   Anyway, around the globe the solstice has been calculated, observed and celebrated. “The Incans erected a monument to the event called the Intihuatana Stone, or Hitching Post of the Sun, at Machu Picchu and held celebrations. In ancient Pakistan, the Kalash Kafir celebrated Chaomos on the solstice which involved both ritual baths and a torchlight procession. In Rome, the midwinter 

feast of Saturnalia fell at the time of the winter Solstice. The Chinese have celebrated Dongzhi to mark the Winter Solstice since the Han Dynasty.” - Shannon Younger of the Chicago Tribune

   Shannon reminds us that “Pagans celebrated the solstice and Christians saw some significance in the celebration of light and in rebirth, which was marked by the start of a new year. In Scandinavia, The Feast of Juul was a pre-Christian festival celebrated on the Winter Solstice by the lighting of fires. The fires were intended [to] symbolize the heat, light and life-giving properties of the returning sun. The word "Juul" is the source of the word "Yule," which means "Christmas," explains TimeandDate.com.

   Christians sought to replace the existing pagan celebrations with Christmas as they found it appropriate to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus who is known as the “true light of the world” with the celebration of the days becoming longer.”

   In just a few hours, 9:11AM tomorrow, my time, which is the most important time that there is, the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth, the hemisphere I happen to live in, leans away from our Sun the most it will all year, marking the beginning of winter (astronomical winter. Meteorological winter is defined as December 1st through February 28th, the three coldest months of the year. Astronomical winter, however, starts with the winter solstice and is December 21st, 2013 through March 19th, 2014). 

   The Earth does not spin straight up and down like a top, but at an approximate 23.4 degree angle (currently decreasing at a rate of about 47  arcseconds per century) in reference to our orbital plane around the Sun. This is called the Earth’s axial tilt. Because the Earth’s axis is tilted as it is the Northern and Southern Hemispheres alternately receive the Sun’s energy (light and heat) most directly. Currently the Southern Hemisphere is receiving the lion’s share of the sun’s energy, and is experiencing summer. So while it’s cold and snowy in New York City right now, let’s say (overcast at 49 degrees actually), it’s nice and warm and toasty in Auckland, New Zealand, where the Hobbits live (mostly cloudy, but 69 degrees). It’s the axial tilt of our planet that causes seasonal change, not the distance from our Sun as it travels along it’s elliptical orbit 

   The axial tilt also affects the length of the day in the two hemispheres, or I should say the length of the amount of daylight each hemisphere experiences during different times of the year. 

   The length of each day is described as the time from the very moment the upper limb of the Sun's disk appears above the horizon during sunrise to the moment when the upper limb disappears below the horizon during sunset. Due to the Earth’s atmosphere (diffusion and refraction) light from the sun will appear when the sun is slightly below the horizon. The period when it is still somewhat light even though the sun is below the horizon is called twilight, which in the morning is the warning sign for vampires to head on inside... thus we have “The Twilight Saga,” and sparkly vampires. 

   The length of a day varies throughout the year due to that axial tilt and at what latitude (a geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the Earth's surface) you happen to be at. At the winter solstice... tomorrow at 9:11AM my time, the south pole is tilted toward the sun as much as it is ever likely to be, therefore the southern hemisphere has days ranging in duration from just over 12 hours in the northern portion of the Tropic of Capricorn ( the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point on the December solstice, the southernmost latitude where the sun can be directly overhead. Its northern equivalent is the Tropic of Cancer) to 24 hours in the Antarctic Circle, whereas the northern hemisphere has days ranging in duration from just under 12 hours in the southern portion of the Tropic of Cancer to zero in the Arctic Circle. 

   Conversely, during the summer solstice (occurring June 21st 2014, at 3:51AM my time (PST)),  the north pole, where all of the polar bears are swimming due to global warming, is tilted most  toward the sun, and therefore the northern hemisphere has days ranging in duration from just over 12 hours in the southern portion of the Tropic of Cancer to 24 hours in the Arctic Circle, while the southern hemisphere has days ranging in duration from just under 12 hours in the northern portion of the Tropic of Capricorn to zero in the Antarctic Circle. 

   For example, tomorrow the length of the day here in L.A. (34° 3′ 0″ N, 118° 15′ 0″ W) will be approximately 9 hours, 53 minutes, and three seconds (I’m not going to get into fractions of seconds. I’m sorry, I’m just not going to do it). The length of the day for good old Bilbo in Auckland, New Zealand (36° 50′ 25.5″ S, 174° 44′ 23.53″ E) tomorrow will be 14 hours, 41 minutes, and 32 seconds. Both cities lie at a very close corresponding latitudes so during the next summer solstice the length of the day will be reversed... sort of. 

   Isn’t it wonderful!

   So... tomorrow will be the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, and the longest in the southern. Starting Sunday, December 22, my dear late mother’s birthday, the day length in the north will start getting longer, and longer, and longer, and longer, until the summer solstice, when the process will reverse and the days will start getting shorter again.

   Not to confuse matters but during the autumn equinox (September 23rd, 2014. An equinox occurs twice a year, when the plane of the Earth's equator passes the center of the Sun), the poles are neither tilted toward nor away from the sun, and the duration of a day is generally about 12 hours all over the planet.

   I’m afraid it’s all going to come to an end though.   

   The Earth is constantly losing angular velocity (which every fourth grader knows is defined as the rate of change of angular displacement and is a vector quantity (more precisely, a pseudovector) which specifies the angular speed (rotational speed) of an object and the axis about which the object is rotating)  and rotational energy (the kinetic energy due to the rotation of an object) through a process called tidal acceleration, which leads to a slow lengthening of the day (in this case the time it takes the Earth to rotate on it’s axis). A century ago, the average day was about 1.7 milliseconds shorter than today, while in the late Neoproterozoic about 620 million years ago (when multicellular life first began to form) a day had only about 21.9±0.4 hours. Tidal acceleration also causes the Moon to move further away from the Earth... so one day in the distant future the Earth will stop rotating and the Moon will be far away... that is if the sun doesn’t turn into a Red Giant and swallow us first.

   Now I’m getting depressed.

   I think I’ll lie down for a while.

   Goodbye.

Happy Birthday Brittany O’Connell!

  It is my great pleasure and honor to be able to give a great big happy birthday shout out this morning to one of my favorite actresses, directors, economists, and philosophers of science, the lovely and talented Ms Brittany O’Connell!

   Brittany was born as a small, female infant at a very early age in Panorama City, California (34° 13′ 29″ N, 118° 26′ 56″ W), just about in the middle of the famous San Fernando Valley, a neighborhood I once lived nearby, lived in, and where I went to the movies at the also famous Americana Theater on occasion (I first saw “Billy Jack” there, with my buxom Armenian high school girlfriend, Michelle Meridian, who would soon dump me for some guy with a car), which unfortunately no longer exists (it now houses a beauty school and sporting goods store). My friend Steven Rose and his family lived in a house a few blocks away.

   Coincidentally, Brittany would more than likely film a large percentage of the movies she appeared in within the very confines of that San Fernando Valley.

   I lived just down the Street from Panorama City in Northridge during my Junior High and High School years. These two neighborhoods were connected by Nordhoff St. and Roscoe Blvd. Brittany was living there at the time, though I was not aware of that fact. She would live there until 1976, or so, two years before I joined the navy, then she moved to Phoenix, Arizona... I don’t know why. She was only four years old at the time. 

   After I got out of the navy I lived in Panorama City on Blythe St., with the love of my life, J.D. in a little one room house, while working for a veterinarian. Right across nearby Van Nuys Blvd. stood the largest General Motors Plant to date, which made automobiles. They closed it down right around the time I was living nearby, and replaced it eventually with a shopping center called “The Plant,” where a whole bunch of stores and restaurants like Regency Theatres, Ross, Babies "R" Us, The Home Depot, Hometown Buffet, In-N-Out Burger, and Starbucks Coffee exist today. It was at those Regency Theatres that one night in December of 2001 I saw “The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring,” for the first time, after which I took a bus to downtown Los Angeles, where I’ve been ever since.

   But enough about me, damn it!

   Brittany has lovely long red hair, is of Irish, Russian, and Swedish descent. She is absolutely gorgeous, in a pixyish, ball of fire (she’s 5 feet tall, weighs about 112 pounds, with lovely hazel eyes, dress size 3, shoe size 6) sort of way.

   As I’ve mentioned she was raised in Phoenix, Arizona (33° 27′ 0″ N, 112° 4′ 0″ W), and originally wanted to be an Olympic skater, and both taught and studied gymnastics, which requires a certain amount of stamina and flexibility, which would come in handy later in her career. She attended an all-girl private school and graduated from high school when she was 17.

   Favorite conspiracy: “I don't know if it qualifies as a conspiracy, but I'm a real “X-Files” fan [something we have in common... Brittany and I], and I really like stories about vampires and succubi. Succubi are demon women who have sex with men at night while they sleep. I sort of consider myself a succubi.” Well, well, well, that’s certainly interesting!

   She continues, “Most of my childhood was spent in an all girls school with ice skating and gymnastics keeping me busy after school. My parents wanted to make sure I was kept away from any distractions and therefore could concentrate most of time on my school work. They wanted the best possible education for me. I graduated at 17 with honors and went off the college. The plan was for me to go to junior college for two years and then off to University of Arizona for six years to receive my Ph.D in Astrophysics.

   After getting married in Vegas at the age of nineteen, my husband was 28, I was off to start my career... I soon gained a reputation as not only a good actress but a girl with no limits on what a director wanted... It got me leading roles in big budget movies as well as over 14 nominations for awards...” More here.

   At 19 Brittany began her film career, and was an instant success, her fresh, wholesome, Irish good looks, and immense talent propelled her into the stratosphere of the industry, and by the time she was 25 had appeared in over 200 feature films, was a successful model, started her own production company (Voodoo Daddy F/X), and had been nominated for those 14 AVN Awards. 

      I had the honor of seeing her very first film after she moved here (L.A.) from  Phoenix, but I can’t remember the title. Be that as it may, Brittany has starred in classics such as: “Radio - Active,” “From Brazil with Love (about a spy on a train),” “The Lovers,” “Working Stiffs,” “Who Killed Holly Hollywood?” “Virtual Reality,” “Untamed Cowgirls of the Wild West Part 1: The Pillowbiters,” “The Rehearsal,” “The Psychic,” “The Other Side of Chelsea,” “The One and Only,” “The Man Who Loved Women,” “The Hustlers,” “The Goddess,” “Steal This Heart,” “Slave to Love,” “Seven Good Women,” “Night Train,” “Neutron Man,” “Mask,” “Leena Meets Frankenstein,” “Jam,” “Ice Woman,” “Full Moon Bay,” “Flashback,” “Blue Bayou,” “Affairs of the Heart,” “Babydoll,” “The Coven,” “White Shadow,” “Tongue in Cheek,” “The Pink Lady Detective Agency: Case of the Twisted Sister,” “The Governess,” “So, You Wanna Be in the Movies?” “Public Places,” “No Motive,” “Never Say Never, Again,” “Into the Fire,” “Foolproof,” “After Midnight,” “The Savage,” “Visions,” “The Drifter,” “Stiletto,” “Sapphire,” “Promises & Lies,” “Hard Copies,” “Ghosts,” and “Corporate Assets.”  Classics all.

   All that was a lot of work, accordingly Brittany took a little time off from the end of the 90s until 2008, moving back to Phoenix for awhile, because who doesn’t like blistering white hot heat, and rocks and dirt. She spent her time working behind the camera with her production company (now "Brittany O’Connell Productions"), and spending time perfecting economic theory.   

   Six years ago she was instrumental in contributing to the new trade theory (NTT) (a collection of economic models in international trade which focuses on the role of increasing returns to scale and network effects), and new economic geography (the study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the globe) which paved the way for New York economist Paul Krugman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2008. 

   The Princeton bastard didn’t even mention her in his acceptance speech.

   In 2008 Brittany returned to L.A. and the big screen in such classics as: “The Cougar Club,” “Friends,” a rare appearance on television via FXs “Sons of Anarchy,” “Not Married with Children,” and of course “When MILFs Attack."

   She’s one of those rare movie stars that make any picture she appears in better just for being in it... like Alan Arkin.

   I wish I had clips from some her most famous roles, but none seem to be available on youtube. I don’t know why.

   Here’s a link to an audio interview with Brittany, and to her unofficial Facebook page. 

   It’s almost time for us to say goodbye for the time being.     

   I for one will never forget Brittany’s response when asked about the term “Theory of Evolution,” sometimes used by the political and Christian right to imply that evolution is not a fact of nature, using her chosen profession as a metaphor. 

   “The actress has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When an actress doesn’t know the answer to a problem, she is ignorant. When she has a hunch as to what the result is, she is uncertain. And when she is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, she is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Artistic knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty — some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain. Now, we actresses are used to this, and we take it for granted that it is perfectly consistent to be unsure, that it is possible to live and not know. But I don’t know whether everyone realizes this is true. Our freedom to doubt was born out of a struggle against authority in the early days of acting. It was a very deep and strong struggle: permit us to question — to doubt — to not be sure. I think that it is important that we do not forget this struggle and thus perhaps lose what we have gained.”

   Bravo, Brittany, bravo.

   All of us here at Joyce’s Take are very fond of Brittany, and wish her and her loved ones continued good health and fortune, and of course a very happy birthday!

   Happy Birthday Brittany!

Labor day 3, Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to some time between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power and the development of machine tools. It also included the change from wood and other bio-fuels to coal. It began in England and within a few decades had spread to Western Europe and the United States.

The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. In the words of Nobel Prize winner Robert E. Lucas, Jr., "For the first time in history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth ... Nothing remotely like this economic behavior is mentioned by the classical economists, even as a theoretical possibility." -Wikipedia

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions (i.e., more or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes (such as oceanic circulation), biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions, and human-induced alterations of the natural world; these human-induced effects are currently causing global warming, and "climate change" is often used to describe human-specific impacts. -Wikipedia

“All sorts of dung and compost contain some matter which, when mixed with the soil, ferments therein; and by such ferment dissolves, crumbles, and divides the earth very much. This is the chief and almost only use of dung. ... This proves, that its (manure) use is not to nourish, but to dissolve, i.e., divide the terrestrial matter, which affords nourishment to the Mouths of vegetable roots.” -Jethro Tull being wrong about crap

Industrial Revolution

   Humanity has benefited enormously from revolutions, and it seems now more than likely it will perish by one of them sometime in the near future (100 to 150 years). 

   The first large scale revolution our species experienced was the Agricultural Revolution, or Neolithic Revolution, wherein man (and woman), transitioned from the nomadic hunter/gatherer lifestyle that had prevailed for tens of thousands of years, into one which cultivated plants and animals, and were able to sustain larger, sedentary populations with the advent of villages and towns, around 12,000 years ago. With the advent of villages and towns (and later cities) hierarchical social structures emerged as various forms of government.

   Some say the next great revolution occurred during the Renaissance period roughly between the 14th through the 16th centurys. Inventions such as the the printing press, linear perspective in drawing, patent law, double shell domes (domes with double shells, like the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, in Florence, Italy) and Bastion fortresses (fortresses designed to resist cannon fire which was the new siege weapon of choice. The fortresses were very flat structures composed of many triangular bastions, specifically designed to cover each other, and a ditch, in order to counteract cannon balls). 

   The period of agricultural development in Britain between the 15th century and the end of the 19th century, which saw an increase in productivity and net output that broke the historical food scarcity cycles is sometimes called the British Agricultural Revolution (unfortunately this revolution did not carry over to Ireland during the Great Famine of 1845, that lasted until 1852, wherein approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated out, with the total population dropping approximately 25%, and is viewed today by a number of academics as a form of either direct or indirect genocide).

   For example, Jethro Tull (2nd picture above) invented the seed drill in 1701, the horse-drawn hoe, and an improved plough. He was educated at Oxford, England where he studied law, the  flute, acoustic and bass guitar, bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone, harmonica, and a variety of whistles. 

   Tull’s seed drill would sow seed in uniform rows and cover up the seed in the rows. Up to that point, sowing seeds was done by hand by scattering seeds on the ground, a method he considered  wasteful since many seeds did not take root. Tull was part of a group of farmers who founded the Norfolk system, an early attempt to apply science to farming. 

   Modern manufacturing began with steam engines replacing animal labor. The 18th century saw the widespread replacement of manual labor by new inventions and machinery.

   The British Agricultural Revolution coincided with the First Industrial Revolution which began in England around 1760 (lasting until some time between 1820 and 1840), with the advent of the water powered cheese straightener. Up until that time cheese had to be straightened manually, taking thousands of man hours to produce a gross mass of straight Cornish Yarg.   

   In 1764, an uneducated  British carpenter and weaver named James Hargreaves invented a spinning jenny, a hand-powered multiple spinning machine that was the first device to improve upon the spinning wheel (the spinning wheel is an ancient invention that turned plant and animal fibers into thread or yarn, which were then woven into cloth on a loom). Within a relatively short time period inventions such as the flying shuttle, spinning frame, and cotton gin appeared. These inventions facilitated the handling of large quantities of harvested cotton.

   It is interesting to note that these inventions of course facilitated a greater demand for cotton. In the United States the increased need for cotton also increased the need for labor to harvest said cotton, which at the time was produced mainly in the South, which utilized slaves to harvest the raw material. The northern United States and European countries banned slavery and attempted to force the southern states to do so as well. On March 25th, 1807 the United Kingdom abolished the slave trade, but it wasn’t until the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 that slavery itself was abolished in Britain. The British actively patrolled the seas off the coast of Africa with it’s navy in order to apprehend now illegal slave ships, effectively ending the trade. Yet as in Great Britain, slavery itself did not end. Ironically as the textile industry in the North drastically increased due to more efficient production methods, the demand for raw products such as cotton increased, meaning an increase in the South's demand for more slave labor as noted above. This increase of  industry utilizing slave labor allowed the United States to become a world power in commerce and bolstered it’s own economy, at the same time making it harder for the North to end slavery in the South (today cotton is harvested with the use of mechanical cotton pickers developed in the 1940s). This conflict between the North and South of the country was not resolved until May 10th, 1865, when the American Civil War was declared to have ended, and the adoption  of the 13th Amendment on December 6th, 1865 (watch Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”), which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude (except as punishment for a crime).

   This situation is exceptionally analogous to our country’s present day dependence on fossil fuels in relation to global warming. 

   The Republican party typically champions the continued use of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil) and ridicule those who promote so-called “green,” clean(er), renewable energy sources  (wind, solar, rain, tides, waves and biomass, hydroelectricity, and geothermal heat) in the face of  the continuing threat of human caused global warming. The Republican party is the party of climate change denial.  

   The Democratic party (yes Republicans, it’s the “Democratic Party” not the democrat party. There is no such thing as a democrat party, and it makes me cringe every time I hear a Democrat fall into the republican trap and call themselves a member of the democrat party. As a matter of fact, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, and we democrats should start labeling the republicans as members of the “Republican Asshole Party,” or the Republican Sociopath Party,” or is that being too harsh? I don’t wish to be criticized like MSNBC host Martin Bashir, who prompted by Sarah Palin making an idiotic comparison of public debt to slavery, recounted how slave overseer Thomas Thistlewood once punished a slave who’d been caught “eating canes,” by requiring another slave to defecate into the mouth of the transgressor. He said, “When Ms. Palin invokes slavery, she doesn’t just prove her rank ignorance, she confirms that if anyone truly qualified for a dose of discipline from Thomas Thistlewood, then she would be the outstanding candidate.” So am I being too harsh as well... Yes! And delightedly so.”) typically accepts 98% of the scientific communities assertion that human caused climate change is real and needs to be dealt with to mitigate dire, irreversible, catastrophic consequences to future generations, mainly be reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and the adoption of renewable energy sources.   

   Yet both parties are currently addicted to large amounts of money in the form of legal bribes, in the form of campaign contributions, and now after some unfortunate decisions handed down recently by the Supreme Court (Citizen’s United, being one of them) are susceptible to threats from individuals and organizations who extort politicians with primary election challenges, as they can inject huge amounts of money into their opponents campaigns unless these politicians bend to their will.

   The result being that if Democrats sincerely wished to reduce green houses gas pollution of our atmosphere they are unable to do so due to pressure placed upon them by oil and gas producers, our economy being dependent on fossil fuel consumption, with any attempt at fundamental change being extremely difficult due to cultural inertia and cost, and the continued abundance of fossil fuels (although their extraction has become increasingly difficult and environmentally hazardous) .  
   In other words, as our energy needs increase, so will our dependence on fossil fuels, making the reduction of fossil fuel use more and more difficult, similar to the situation our ancestors faced with the use of slave labor before the Civil War. 

   Not to get off point further than I already have, here’s something for our Young Earth Creationists. Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition (anaerobic digestion is a collection of processes by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen) of buried dead organisms (including phytoplankton and zooplankton). The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years.  These organisms settled to the sea (or lake) bottom (because they had died) in large quantities under anoxic conditions (depleted of dissolved oxygen), millions of years ago. Over geological time (millions or billions of years), this organic matter, mixed with mud, got buried under heavy layers of sediment (dirt). The resulting high levels of heat and pressure caused the organic matter to chemically alter, first into a waxy material known as kerogen which is found in oil shales, which Canada is currently trying to get rid of, and then with more heat into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons in a process known as catagenesis, which results in the formation of natural gas (mostly methane), coal, and petroleum. Fossil fuels are a nonrenewable resource because they cannot be replenished on a human time frame. This means two consequential things. It takes over 10,000 years to make the fossil fuels we depend on so much today. If the Earth and the universe were indeed only 6,500 to 10,000 years old, or thereabouts, we wouldn’t have any oil, or the gasoline which is derived from oil, or natural gas or coal, and we probably wouldn’t be experiencing the dramatic climate changes that we currently are experiencing, because we wouldn’t have released huge quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere which is a major cause of climate change, or global warming. So in one sense it is indeed a pity that God didn’t create our world recently, thereby avoiding the effect of human caused catastrophic climate change.

   Yet there does remain the argument that some might make, which is that God could have created the world, the Earth and the universe, to make it look like the Earth and the Universe were much older than it really was. I mean God is capable of all things, and we all know what a practical joker he can be at times (floods, plagues, avocado pits, and so on).

   The second consequential thing that results from fossil fuels not being a renewable energy source is that they are finite, and one day will inevitably run out.

   This indeed will happen someday. We are by necessity already having to devise ways to extract fossil fuels using more hazardous and complicated techniques (deep sea, shale refining) because reserves are diminishing.

   Anyway, the Industrial Revolution required an increasing need for energy which was met mainly by burning coal, and other sources including whale oil. The discovery that kerosene could be extracted from crude oil increased the demand for crude oil as kerosene was used as a heat and light source. By the twentieth century petroleum had become the most valuable commodity traded on the world market, as it remains today.

   The Industrial Revolution is marked by the production and utilization of a variety of inventions, such as the first reliable steam engine invented by James Watt in 1775, the  first commercially successful steamboat invented by Robert Fulton in 1807, the telegraph, invented by painter turned inventor Samuel F. B. Morse in 1836 (and probably of greater modern practical importance, the forerunner to the modern International Morse Code).

   The first modern mechanical cotton gin was created by the American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793, and patented in 1794. It used a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through, while brushes continuously removed the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. Whitney's gin revolutionized the cotton industry in the United States, but also, as we’ve noted above, led to the growth of slavery in the American South.

   Whitney is also famous for his advocacy of interchangeable parts (components that are, for practical purposes, identical, allowing easy and quick assembly of devices, easy repair of existing devices, while minimizing both the time and skill required of the person doing the assembly or repair, which in turn led to the concept of the assembly line (a manufacturing process in which parts (usually interchangeable) are added to a product in a sequential manner to create a finished product much faster than with hand-crafted methods).

   The Industrial Revolution set the stage for the advent of further inventions such as the sewing machine (invented by Elias Howe in 1844, and from which my maternal grandmother would spend a good part of her life using), the transatlantic cable (invented by Cyrus Field in 1866), the forerunner to the modern iPhone... the telephone (invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876), the forerunner to the modern Ipod... the phonograph (invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, and in order to see that iPod... I mean phonograph in the dark he invented the incandescent light bulb two years later. He was always an overachiever, that Edison), the induction electric motor (invented by Nikola Tesla (who can be seen in the film “The Prestige," via David Bowie) in 1888), the diesel engine (coincidentally invented by Rudolf Diesel in 1893), the airplane (invented by Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1903), and the Model T Ford (the first affordable automobile invented by Henry Ford in 1908, which was perfected by Ford’s utilization of the modern automated assembly line in 1913).

   There were lots of other inventions as well during this time period. And discoveries.

   In 1824 the French physicist Sadi Carnot published “Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire,” which historically established the thermodynamic principle which eventually became the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

   As any 4th grader knows the Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the entropy (entropy is a measure of the number of specific ways in which a thermodynamic system may be arranged, often taken to be a measure of disorder, or a measure of progressing towards thermodynamic equilibrium, (like a refrigerator that is switched off. The temperature inside will eventually equalize with the temperature outside, increasing it’s total entropy)) of an isolated system never decreases, because isolated systems spontaneously evolve toward thermodynamic equilibrium—the state of maximum entropy.

   And a system that is in thermodynamic equilibrium experiences no changes when it is isolated, in other words, the energy in the universe is gradually moving towards disorder.

   Carnot posited that the inefficiencies that are built into any system using energy can be described thermodynamically. This wasted energy means that the overall disorder of the universe,  its total entropy, will increase over time but at some point reach a maximum. At that moment in the far distant future, the energy in the entire universe will be evenly distributed and so, for all intents and purposes, will be useless. Cosmologists call this the “heat death” of the universe, an inevitable consequence of the unstoppable march of entropy (unless of course another universe pops up close to ours due to the inherent instability of our universe attributed to newly discovered  properties of the Higgs boson particle), and so the ultimate demise of everything was discovered in the midst of the Industrial Revolution.

   The factory system was a method of manufacturing first adopted in England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 1750s which later spread throughout the world. This system replaced the putting-out system (a means of subcontracting work, also known as the workshop system and the domestic system). The main characteristic of the factory system was the use of machinery, originally powered by hamsters, water, or steam and later by electricity.   

   Some of the characteristics of the factory system include, a fundamental change from specialized labor to mechanized labor, factories produced their products on a much larger scale than the putting out or crafts systems (referred to as Economies of Scale), a reduction of total manpower used per unit of product, access to available transportation modes, workers and machines were brought together in a central factory building or buildings specially designed to handle the machinery and flow of materials... on and on.

   I once worked in a factory making transformers, which as any 4th grader knows, are static electrical devices that transfer energy by inductive coupling between its winding circuits. 

   I spent 8 hours a day either winding the little devils (I made small transformers, some are huge. Winding consisted of taping a specified gauge wire to a plastic core which was mounted on a spindle device which rotated the core which allowed me to wind the wire onto the core a specified amount of times, in flat layers) or laminating them (lamination consisted of placing interlocking sheets of metal through the wound core and around it which induced an electrical current... I think). 

   The job was fairly (very) repetitive, quite often requiring the worker (me)  to do the same thing throughout the entire day, or days, depending on how large the order was for a certain type of transformer. The job was okay at the time (I was around 18). I didn’t have to think much. I could smoke cigarettes while working (this was around 1973 when tyrannical smoking laws within the workplace were a thing of the future). I had friends nearby who I could talk to... some were girls. 

   I was not a member of a union, and didn’t make a whole lot of money, and had no workplace protections, and no benefits like health insurance. 

   But I never felt I was being abused while working there. 

   With the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of the factory system, the exploitation of workers became endemic. 

   Professor Jane Humphries of Oxford, found that child labor was much more common and economically important during the Industrial Revolution than previously thought. Her estimates suggest that, by the early 19th century, England had more than a million child workers, accounting for 15 per cent of the total labor force.

   The Industrial Revolution was in part fueled by the economic necessity of many women who needed to find work outside of their home. For some, the Industrial Revolution provided independent wages, mobility and a better standard of living. For the majority, however, factory work in the early years of the 19th century resulted in a life of hardship.

   The working conditions in factories were miserable and harsh. Workers were often forced to work 12 to 14 hour shifts. It wasn’t uncommon that children as young as four to five years old were put to work in factories. 

   The factories, relying on coal to heat water to generate steam power for machines, caused a great deal of pollution, often blanketing entire towns in a thick layer of what we now call smog.  

   Factory owners built housing for workers but it was often overcrowded and as harsh and miserable as the factories themselves. 

   Soon cities such as London were overflowing with people who were drawn by the work to be found in factories. By 1851 half of the British population resided in London.

   A forerunner to unions, and The Fair Labor Standards Act in the United States, Factory Acts enacted by the British Parliament regulated the number of hours men, women and children could work. Imagine that happening in the present day United States. Republicans in Congress would rather gnaw off their own leg rather than increase benefits for the average worker (historically they are against any increases in the national minimum wage, and new laws are being introduced right now to deny payment for overtime work, and the reintroduction of child labor. Republicans given unlimited power, would negate all of the advances that have been hard won since the 1700s). 

   British workers dissatisfied with the social injustices of factory life quickly realized that there was great “strength in numbers.” Eventually these groups of workers began to rally and organize... organize themselves into officially recognized unions. The power of these trade unions increased over time, providing a strong and dedicated voice for the working class, in comparison to a government which may or may not have their best interests at heart. 

   In the concluding post to this series we’ll take a look at these unions, and the state of our national economy.

Skid Row Diary 19

21  August   2003    Thursday       Day 40

   I watched “Voyager” for about half an hour. Seven of Nine was marooned on a planet with the executive officer, the lucky bastard. I went back to sleep and dreamt I was marooned on a planet with Seven of Nine and Carly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard. She’s hot, I dreamt. We all walked around, picking berries and looking for muskrats.

   I got up at 6:30 and showered. John Manzano came by at 7:00 for breakfast, but I couldn’t go with him. I was fasting in preparation for the blood test. He came back after he ate and we walked to the V.A. Clinic together.

   I took a number after entering the lab waiting lounge. #11, but I was the 10th vet to give blood today. #5 chickened out and didn’t show when his number was called. It took two tough looking Asian ladies to hold me down while they took my blood. The V.A. is notorious for using blunt needles. 

   I won’t say Asian-American ladies because I don’t know if they were American. They spoke to each other in some Asian language... some language they use in Asia most likely. They were probably commenting on my rugged good looks.

   Women! They’re all the same. Sex, sex, sex, that’s all they think about.

   Of course the Radiology Department was closed, so I couldn’t get my X-ray. John and I then left and took a Dash to the Friedman Occupational Center, where I showed him where the Barber College was located.

   I had taken three pictures of John with my 99 Cent Store camera on the way to the clinic. Later, after he’d gotten all of his hair cut off to a slight stub, I told him, “Boy I’m glad I got those pictures before you got your haircut.”

   He looked like a short Mexican Uncle Fester with a bad hangover.

   I tried to call the State Appeals Board again after returning to the Weingart. After waiting 20 minutes on hold I got through. A Mrs Fong took my request for a hearing concerning my food stamps. As I was trying to talk to her, her voice became fainter and fainter on the phone. I noticed the connection between the payphone cord and handset was lose, and when I jiggled it the connection seemed to improve... until it disappeared all together.

   I got mad, not knowing if the lovely Mrs Fong had received enough info to initiate the proceedings, and kept jamming the cord into the yellow receiver hoping to hear her soothing voice yet again.

   No such luck.

   I’ll have to find another phone and call again, I told myself.

   I filled out and turned in an anonymous “Notice of Concern,” form about the phone, adding “During my conversation with the State Appeals Board, I was disconnected, and may now have to go to jail for 30 years. Please fix ASAP.”

   I embellish at times. 

   Just before 1:00 I walked next door to the Levi Center for a job search meeting. I was the first to arrive, and tried to get some work done on The Day the Earth Stood Still screenplay while waiting. I did get a little done, but only a little before my pen ran out of ink, and I had no other with me.

   It was just one of those days I told myself.

   Richard Cairns did not attend, but Larry, my job developer was there. He spent about a half hour talking about what all he would do for us. I arranged to meet with him Monday at 8:00, afterwards. We shall see.

   I returned to my lonely room. Gary Porch stopped by to let me know how his life was progressing. He was doing just slightly less worse than John Manzano, having stayed out last Monday and Tuesday night, after being warned that one more unexcused overnight absence would be cause for termination. He some how got away with it and is still here, but he’s walking on a short plank.

   I tried to tell him he needs to stop drinking. That it wasn’t helping him any, and that most of the time he didn’t even seem to enjoy it. He agreed with me, but that’s just talk. 

   I’m certainly in no position to lecture him even if I was inclined to. Even if I thought it would do any good, which I don’t. I’ve got my own problems with cigarettes and sex. My problem is that I still enjoy these things, until I temporarily tire of them, then I want to stop forever again.

   Forever is a long time.

   Gary’s going to have to want to stop before he begins to help himself. Any drug addict, and I include alcoholics (which is just a specialized label for a certain type of drug addict) and cigarette smokers, have to want to stop before they can help themselves.

   I’ve heard this in some 12 Step Meetings, “Here you can learn to not drink whether you want to or not.” Bullshit! That statement doesn’t even make any sense. People who don’t want to do things, and are so inclined not to do them, generally don’t do them.

  Anyway, I went to lunch with John Manzano who was now effectively bald

   Sesame Chicken.

   We walked yet once again to the V.A. Clinic. John to his Anger Management Class, me to the ASAP Phase II meeting where we discussed emotions.

   I don’t remember exactly what we said about them, but it was very sad.

   John and I walked back together. 

   I wrote in my room, and did a little yoga.

   After a while Manzano stopped by after completing a meeting with Labren and Richard Cairns. He’s pissed that he’s on a contract.

   “Well, you can’t really blame them,” I told him, trying to keep matters in perspective. “In their view all you’ve been doing here is going home every weekend and smoking dope.”

   “I wasn’t going home every weekend,” John said.

   “Yes you were. Almost every weekend.”

   “No I wasn’t,” he insisted.

   “Okay. Whatever. You weren’t going home every weekend.

   “Yes I was.”

   Jesus.

   He soon left but came back for dinner.

   He asked me if I had any oil.

   “Oil? No.”

   “You sure? The fan Pete gave me doesn’t spin very fast and I want to oil it.”

   “Perfectly understandable, and I admire and salute your vast problem solving capabilities, but I don’t have any oil. What do you think I am, AM/PM?”

   Chile Mac for dinner. I made myself a nice cup of tea afterwards, and because “Married with Children,” was preempted by a pre-season football game, I put “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” in my VCR, and watched that while reading Wednesday’s paper. A brilliant movie starring the lovely and talented Holly Hunter. John came in at about the half way point and watched it with me.

   “Thanks for telling me you were watching a movie,” he said.

   “You were watching the football game,” I reminded him.

   “Thanks anyway.”

   After the movie.

   “Can we watch Seinfeld?”

   “No.”

   “Why not? Please.”

   We watched Seinfeld. I read. John finally went away when he realized I was not, under any circumstances, going to watch Thursday Night Smackdown, a staged wrestling program on channel 13.

   “Why?” he asked.

   “I’ve told you a million times why... because it’s staged... it’s fake.”

   “No it’s not!” he screamed, desperate now.

   “First, bullshit! Don’t insult your own intelligence. Second, I don’t care to watch people beat on each other (unless it’s Bruce Lee, of course), and Third, I don’t want to watch almost naked guys prance around for two hours, you homo.”

   “That’s an exceptionally homophobic thing to say,” he admonished.

   “You’re right. I apologize faggot.”   

   “Please.”

   “Not a chance,” I told him.

   He took off when I put on space alien Dick Clark’s ABC “Bloopers.” I recorded some of the bloopers made by Katey Sagal and John Ritter from “8 Simple Rules.” I love to see people fuck up.

   Most people do.

   I then watched an almost incomprehensible documentary on channel 58 concerning Carl Jung’s work on dreams, a subject of singular interest to me at the moment. 

   It was probably comprehensible, I’m sorry. I was reading while watching, and stepped out once to brush my teeth, and didn’t pay much attention to it really.

   At 10:00 I watched and tapped a program on modern infectious diseases. I fell asleep while watching.

   I dreamt about being a hard working husband and living in a lovely home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, married to Katey Sagal, the beautiful and sexy star of “Married with Children,” with our daughters, Kaley Cuoco and Amy Davidson from “8 Simple Rules.”

   “Hey baby! want to go upstairs and fool around? Daddy’s hungry.”

   “Not now dear,” she said. “I promised the girls we’d go shopping for school. Maybe next week.”

   “Next week?”

   “Yeah. They need a lot of clothes.”

   “But they go to Catholic School. Don’t they wear those uniforms?”

   “Yes, but they need something to wear at the beach.”

   “The beach? But we live in Pennsylvania,” I reminded her. “We’re kind of landlocked.”

   “Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary,” she reminded me. “But I see your point, and that’s why we’re we’ll be going to Hawaii for a few days, maybe longer. A lot longer.”

   “Yeah daddy,” the girls chimed in.  

   “We’d ask you to come along, but we know how busy you are with work and all,” Katey said.

   “I can take some time off, I guess.”

   “I wouldn’t hear of it,” she said. “Besides,  Raul will be taking care of us, if you know what I mean.”

   “Raul?”

   “The new gardener. He’s been just wonderful the last couple of months. I told him you’d give him a raise.”

   “Raul? A raise?”

   “Yes daddy,” Kaley said. “His cousins are real cute too.”

   “Cousins?”

   On and on.

22  August     Friday   41

   John Manzano came to get me for breakfast at 7:05 exactly.

   “You ready?” he asked.

   “Am I ready? You’re five minutes late! How the hell are we supposed to get anything done if you can’t stick with the schedule?”

   John’s friend Pete was downstairs waiting outside. John spoke with him as I signed in at the front desk. He had been out all night because the security people thought that he looked high last night after returning from his warehouse job. 

   “You can’t come in until 7:30,” he had been told.

   Pete said he hadn’t been high, or anything like that, but what can you do?

   We all had breakfast together. Pancakes.

   I asked Pete, “So are you going to be on contract too, like this doper?” I was alluding to Manzano.

   “I’m not that stupid,” he said. “Give a dirty test and still want an overnight pass...” He shook his head. John and I laughed.

   “I’ll get another pass,” John said.

   I walked to One Stop and checked my E-mail. I had about 10 messages with the Sobig F Worm attached, hidden within innocuous looking letters. One was titled “Thank you,” and invited me to open an attachment. Another, “Your application.” One scared me as it came from a job site I had used, “Job Frenzy.” Strange. 

   I’ve learned that a computer worm is a standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers, and almost always cause at least some harm to a network, even if only by consuming bandwidth.

   This worm has been infecting Microsoft Windows computers for the last couple of days. I deleted all of the messages. 

   I brought up the Amnesty International Action Now page and submitted letters that would be sent to the appropriate authorities concerning the topics I’ve mentioned earlier, violence against women in Russia, and unaccompanied children in the U.S., plus one expressing concern over the violence now occurring within the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

    So much strife. So much pain and death. All unnecessary.

   One message in my voice mail, from Mrs Fong, who was nice enough to call back to let me know she had received enough information to initiate the hearing process. Very good.

   I returned to the Weingart, and wrote for awhile before leaving again for the V.A. clinic for Dr. Lo’s 11:00 meeting.

   The Dr, a short, very fit and handsome, young Asian gentleman, holds this meeting weekly, about how the ASAP groups function. 6 of them are required for new clients. One of the reasons I was there was to ascertain how many of these groups I had attended.

   Today’s group concerned “Feedback” and was 5th in the series of required groups. I had already attended one feedback group, so now I know more about feedback than anyone could ever hope for.

   I cornered Dr Lo after the meeting I asked him what groups I still needed to attend to complete the series. Groups 3 and 4 it turns out.. Accordingly I won’t have to come back until September 19th. I also asked for a one on one consultation. He said he’d talk to me later, or have Kathy do it. I thanked him and left.

   I took a very crowded Dash to the Arco Plaza. No mail for me. I walked across the street to the library to use their pay phone, but had to wait 45 minutes until 1:00.

   I used one of the Internet connected computers to find out all that I could about my choice for governor, Mary Cook.

   Mary Carey (born June 15, 1980) is an American pornographic actress and film director.

   She was born Mary Ellen Cook in Cleveland, Ohio to a mother with schizophrenia and a father with cerebral palsy. Well that certainly was unfortunate. Her grandparents cared for her from the time she was three months old. After her parents divorced, her mother moved in with Carey and her grandparents. When she was seven years old, she moved with her family from Cleveland to Florida, and the next year she was legally adopted by her grandparents.

   Mary studied ballet from the age of seven until she was 19 years old. Ballet is not easy, I know from personal experience. She graduated in 1998 from the Pine Crest School, a Fort Lauderdale private preparatory school. At 19, she joined the dance team at Florida Atlantic University, where she was a student in the theater department. Very good.

   After her grandfather's death, her grandmother's health worsened and Mary took a job as an exotic dancer to help support the family financially. Upon noticing that the "feature dancers" made much more money, she asked an agent how she could become one. The agent recommended that she become a porn star (the large fan base that successful porn stars have gives them superior drawing power when they dance in-person at strip clubs). She traveled to Los Angeles and made the rounds of producers and studios in the adult film industry, eventually landing a job with Playboy TV. 

   Well, she became a porn star, and has appeared in a whole bunch of porn movies in order to help her family. That’s all I need to know. 

   She’s got my vote!

   I made a call to the DPSS main help line, and after being disconnected twice, I was referred to another number to request an NSA evaluation with a mental health worker (who knew the National Security Agency was involved with evaluating DPSS applicants... not me!) I’d make that call later.

   I had forgotten to mail my 3rd request for a hearing for the cash benefits I’m supposed to receive. I returned to the post office and got that done. I bought a loaf of wheat bread at Rite-Aid before signing in at the SRHT office. They had been closed all week due to remodeling. They had nice brand new floors now.

   I returned to my lonely room and continued to write.

   Manzano has disappeared. He wasn’t around for dinner at least. Taco salad by the way.

   I returned to the lobby after dinner and took a seat, which bothered my friend Glenda Ponigura, who works behind the desk in the evenings. She began work just as I got there, and usually gets my key as soon as she sees me without my having to say anything. I fooled her tonight though. She had my key all ready as I sat in the back, and looked at me as if to say, “What the Hell?”

   We smiled at each other, and I shrugged my shoulders as to say whatever was happening couldn’t be helped. 

   I can tell that she wants me... desperately.

   My friend Ron McCree walked in at 5:05. 

   “Five minutes late,” I told him. “No one’s on time around here.” 

   “You gonna start off bitching at me, huh?”

   Ronald James McCree is a tall, bald black man, about 4 years older than I am. We first met back at the Pasadena ARC (Salvation Army, Adult Rehabilitation Center) when he came in as a beneficiary while I was working as the residence manager. I was working as the residence manager because the powers that be there wanted Robert Vasquez and I to switch positions because they were afraid he was going to retire soon, and they thought I might be a little bit more flexible to work with than Robert. That worked for a while. We got new administrators in the form of Captain and Mrs Strickland. I was very fond of Mrs. Strickland, probably too fond, which did nothing to further my relationship with her husband. Anyway the powers that be soon discovered that I could easily be as much of a pain in the ass to work with as Robert had been, repeatedly requesting emergency supplies in case of a disaster, and having evacuation drills, and adhering to rules, and stuff like that. The program manager used my addiction to nicotine to get me fired (I was smoking up in the Sample Room’s bathroom where no one was supposed to be smoking), and I promptly relapsed after more than 4 years at the center.

   Such is life.

   Ron had been the residence manager at the downtown ARC, and had been fired for similar reasons, except in his case he had been using cocaine rather than cigarettes. So he came to Pasadena and we became friends. When I got downtown, and into the Weingart, and into the ASAP program, I met him again, at ASAP, and we continued our relationship, such that it was. He had a nice room in one of Skid Row Housing Trust’s hotels, the Boyd Hotel, to be specific, and had gotten me to sign up for my own room with that organization, of which I was currently on the waiting list.

   “Well, you gonna take me to the movies,” I asked.

   “No man. I can’t do that tonight. You keep making it sound like we’re going together.”

   “I do think you’re kind of cute.”

   “Oh man...”

   He wanted me to help him move a big TV Monday morning from his office at the Service Spot, to his apartment. I told him I’d meet him at 9:00 that day. We also made plans to register for a job fair on the 27th.

   Then he took off saying something about him leaving his food out somewhere.

   I returned to my room just in time to see Mitch Pileggi, the “X-Files,” Skinner, make a cameo appearance on “Dharma & Greg,” which was very exciting.

   Hey, when you’re sober you take your excitement wherever you can get it.

   The song “Man of Constant Sorrow,” had been playing through my head all day. That’s what I get for watching “Brother, Where Art Thou?” last night. 

   I turned the radio on to KLOS and recorded Led Zeppelin songs all night. “Man of Constant Sorrow” couldn’t compete with Jimmy Page, and went away.

   I had a strange dream tonight (I know... it’s hard to believe), involving my friend from the front desk, Glenda, and Rosario Dawson, the beautiful and talented star of “Men in Black II,” 30 gallons of lemon jello, a centrifuge, 48 rubber bands of assorted sizes, 6 large ducks, and a trampoline.

   Very strange.

Happy Birthday Kathryn Bigelow!

Winning An Oscar

Picture Legend
1. Kathryn
2. Hard at work
3. Relaxing during a photo shoot
4. “The Loveless” with William DaFoe
5. The “Near Dark” Clan, with Bill Paxton
6. “Blue Steel” with Jamie Lee Curtis
7. “Point Break” with Patrick Swayze & Keanu Reeves
8. “Strange Days” with Ralph Fiennes
9. “The Weight of Water” with Catherine McCormack
10. “K-19: The Widowmaker” with Liam Neeson & Han Solo
11. “The Hurt Locker”
12. In heat
13. First woman to get an Academy Award for Best Director
14. “Zero Dark Thirty” with Jessica Chastain
15. On Time
16. Ms Bigelow

   It is my great pleasure and honor this morning to give a great big happy birthday shout out to one of my favorite film and television directors... and Gap models, Ms Kathryn Bigelow!

   Like many of us Kathryn was born at a very early age. She happened to be born in San Carlos, California (37° 29′ 57″ N, 122° 15′ 48″ W), "The City of Good Living,” located about 24.4 driving miles south of San Francisco, and 25.1 miles northwest of San Jose, where I was born... also at a very early age. 

   During World War II San Carlos was home to the US Army War Dog Reception and Training Center, which trained dogs for war. Approximately 4,500 dogs went through the facility during that war, and according to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum in Fort Lee, Virginia, these dogs “saved the lives of a number of soldiers in combat.”

   Last June 12th, Surf Air began regularly scheduled air service from San Carlos Airport to Burbank. They added two flights a day to Santa Barbara in August.

   Kathryn was the only child of Gertrude Kathryn Larson, a librarian, and Ronald Elliot Bigelow (whom Kathryn derives her surname), a paint factory manager. 

   I was a paint locker manager while in the navy, which is extremely interesting considering Kathryn’s most widely acclaimed film to date is entitled “The Hurt Locker.” The locker she was concerned with contained hurt. Mine contained paint, of various colors, but mostly white, red lead and haze grey. 

   We also had rain lockers which civilians call showers.

   Kathryn’s mom was of Norwegian descent, and her dad’s last name is probably English (Merseyside and Cheshire): most likely a habitational name from a place in Cheshire named Big Low in the township of Rainbow. This place name is not on early record; it means ‘big mound’, from early Modern English big + low ‘mound’, ‘hill’ (Old English hlaw). 

   Unfortunately her parents are no longer with us, Ronald passing in 1992, and Gertrude in 1994.

   Kathryn started out as a painter (her dad liked to draw cartoons. "His dream was being a cartoonist, but he never achieved it ... I think part of my interest in art had to do with his yearning for something he could never have."), studying at the nearby (24.8 miles) San Francisco Art Institute from 1970 to 1972, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, which is a lot more than I ever earned in college.

   While there she won a scholarship to the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of Art, which required her to move to New York City , which was also unfortunate, but one has to do what one has to do. While there she became interested in another artistic medium. 

   "My movement from painting to film was a very conscious one. Whereas painting is a more rarefied art form, with a limited audience, I recognized film as this extraordinary social tool that could reach tremendous numbers of people."  

   Kathryn apprenticed with artists such as Vito Acconci (an American designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist), Richard Serra (French literary critic and cultural theorist), and Lawrence Weiner (formulator of conceptual art, sometimes called Conceptualism, is art in which the concepts or ideas involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns, like when making movies. “In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” -Sol LeWitt

   During her time in New York Kathryn made some extra bucks by flipping apartments in Manhattan with the American composer Philip Glass, distant cousin of Seymour and Boo Boo. It is said she spent a good deal of time hand sanding wooden floors.

   She made her first short movie, “The Set-Up,” in 1978. It was 20 minutes long and explored the topic of violence, which just hasn’t been explored enough in this country.

   The famous Czech-American director, screenwriter, and professor, Miloš Forman, who you may know from films like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,” and “Amadeus,” and “The People vs. Larry Flynt," saw an unfinished copy of “The Set-Up,” while teaching at Columbia University and found it impressive enough to offer Kathryn a scholarship there. She earned her master's degree in film theory and criticism from Columbia in 1979, and then moved to feature-length projects.

   Do you know the actor Willem Dafoe? The one who seems to be in every other movie that’s ever been made... like Samuel Jackson, and has recently been playing Satan in Mercedes-Benz commercials?

   Well besides an uncredited role in one of the biggest flops in the history of film, “Heaven’s Gate,” Mr. Dafoe started out in Kathryn’s 1981 full length feature, “The Loveless,” a biker film,  which was partly inspired by her love of the 1954 classic, “The Wild Ones,” which starred a young, unfat Marlon Brando. The producer Monty Montgomery co-directed. Here’s the trailer. The film earned critical acclaim, but I have no idea how much money it made, if any. 

   Kathryn probably knows. Ask her.

   I became familiar with her work with her next effort, the vampire/biker/western “Near Dark (1987),” which she co-wrote with Eric Red (“The Hitcher”), and which stared Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton, who Kathryn stole from her future husband, James Cameron, when he finished using them in “Aliens (1986).” 

   Now I saw this when it first came out and really liked it. I didn’t realize at the time that the future director of “Zero Dark Thirty,” had made it. I wouldn’t know that for 25 more years when “Zero Dark Thirty was finally released. 

   But I really liked that movie. I saw it again Monday night as a matter of fact. 

   It cost $5 million (American) to make, and earned $3,369,307.19, exactly, but has made money no doubt through rentals and other distribution methods, and indeed has achieved the status of “Cult Favorite.” Here’s a scene compilation. Spoiler Alert, the vampires lose.

   That year she also directed a music video, “Touched by the Hand of God,” for the group, New Order, which I’ve never heard of.   

   In 1989 Ms Bigelow lost her innocence by entering the studio system, making “Blue Steel,”  starring Jamie Lee Curtis, and by marrying the future King of the World, director James Cameron. They divorced in 1991, and Kathryn has remained single since. 

   Hey Kathy baby. You’re hot! Come and see me.

   Anyway, “Blue Steel,” a movie about a rookie police officer who becomes entangled with a murderer, played by Ron Silver (I never did like that guy) got mixed reviews, and earned $8,217,997.34, on a budget of, I don’t know what the budget was. Kathryn probably does... ask her.

   Here’s a clip.

   Next comes 1991s “Point Break,” starring Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves. The story concerned a suffer gang headed by Swayze, who earn a little extra cash by robbing banks, and who are infiltrated and pursued by FBI agent Canoe... I mean Keanu. 

   Here’s the end scene. Spoiler Alert, Swayze gets wet.

   I saw the film, was unaware Kathryn directed it, and thought it was... okay.

   But a lot of people thought differently, and since its release has become a huge worldwide cult hit, and financial success. 

   Way to go Kathryn!

   In 1993 she directed one episode of the television mini-series “ Wild Palms,” which if memory serves was kind of science fictiony, starring James Belushi, Dana Delany, Robert Loggia, Kim Cattrall and Angie Dickinson.  

   Next she made one of my favorite science fiction films, 1995s “Strange Days,” written by ex-husband James Cameron and former porn star, Jay Cocks. It stars ex-Nazi concentration camp commandant Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore (before his career imploded via Heidi Fleiss), Vincent D'Onofrio, and blind radio astronomer William Fichtner.      

   “Strange Days,” is a simple tale, based on a true story, set in the future, which is now the past. Here’s the trailer. 

   As I’ve stated, I really liked the movie, liked the way it was made. The acting was top notch, as well as the production values. The story was fresh and unique, an epic film really. I was still unaware that Ms Bigelow was the director, but so what? I continue to be amazed that “Strange Days,” wasn’t received well, both critically and financially (it cost $42 million to make, and earned just $7,959,291 at the box office. Ouch!).

   Hey, guess what. “Strange Days,” has become another cult hit.

   “If you hold a mirror up to society, and you don't like what you see, you can't fault the mirror. It's a mirror. I think that on the eve of the millennium, a point in time only four years from now, the clock is ticking, the same social issues and racial tensions still exist, the environment still needs reexamination so you don't forget it when the lights come up. Strange Days is provocative. Without revealing too much, I would say that it feels like we are driving toward a highly chaotic, explosive, volatile, Armageddon-like ending. Obviously, the riot footage came out of the LA riots. I mean, I was there. I experienced that. I was part of the cleanup afterwards, so I was very aware of the environment. I mean, it really affected me. It was etched indelibly on my psyche. So, obviously, some of the imagery came from that. I don't like violence. I am very interested, however, in truth. And violence is a fact of our lives, a part of the social context in which we live. But other elements of the movie are love and hope and redemption. Our main character throws up after seeing this hideous experience. The toughest decision was not wanting to shy away from anything, trying to keep the truth of the moment, of the social environment. It's not that I condone violence. I don't. It's an indictment. I would say the film is cautionary, a wake-up call, and that I think is always valuable.”

   In 2000 Kathryn made “The Weight of Water,” which every 4th grader knows equals 18.01528 g/mol, which translates to grams per mole (g/mol) a mol being a unit of measurement used in chemistry to express amounts of a chemical substance, defined as the amount of any substance that contains as many elementary entities (e.g., atoms, molecules, ions, electrons) as there are atoms in 12 grams of pure carbon-12 (12C), the isotope of carbon with relative atomic mass 12. This corresponds to the Avogadro constant, which has a value of 6.02214129(27)×1023 elementary entities of the substance.

   That said, “The Weight of Water,” stars Sean Penn, suitably bikinied Elizabeth Hurley, our friend Sarah Polley, Josh Lucas and Catherine McCormack, and concerns  two women trapped in suffocating relationships while investigating a murder, and switches from the past and the present, and so forth. Here’s some scenes. 

   I have not seen this film.  It received mixed reviews, and made $102,622.85, which isn’t a whole lot of return for a film that cost... I don’t know how much it cost to make... Kathryn probably does... you know what to do.

   In 2002 she directed “K-19: The Widowmaker,” starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, based on a true story about the crew aboard the Soviet Union's first nuclear-powered submarine during a nuclear reactor malfunction. The film cost $100 million to make, and earned $65,716,126.31 worldwide, receiving mixed reviews (some liked it, some didn’t).

   I saw this film right here in my home, and it was... okay. Harrison played against type as a stern, disciplinarian, Soviet naval Captain who has no Russian accent, and the story certainly demonstrated it’s not as easy serving on a nuclear submarine as one might think.

   Here’s the trailer. 

   Returning to television, Ms Bigelow directed episodes of the crime drama “Karen Sisco,” starring the very lovely and talented Carla Gugino,  and “The Inside,” starring the similarly lovely and talented, Rachel Nichols.

   Next comes “The Hurt Locker,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival (the one in Italy, not the one next to Santa Monica) in September of 2008.  

   This is the story of a mild mannered  Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team in Iraq, and stars  Jeremy Renner, Brian Geraghty and Anthony Mackie, with cameos by Guy Pearce, David Morse and old buddy Ralph Fiennes. 

   Written by American journalist Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker,” was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won six, including Best Director for Kathryn, the first woman to win this award (as well as the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing, the BAFTA Award for Best Direction, and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Director), and Best Picture. Mr. Boal won for Best Original Screenplay. 

   "I was fascinated by his stories—by the idea that these bomb technicians are always walking toward the thing that everybody else is running away from. It's kind of an epic, lonely walk that only the man in the bomb suit performs," Ms Bigelow explained to Marie Claire magazine one day.

   “The Hurt Locker” won a whole bunch of other awards and honors from critics' organizations, festivals and groups, including five other BAFTAs ( British Academy of Film and Television Arts).  

   Kathryn was the fourth woman in history to be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, and only the second American woman (the others being Lina Wertmüller, Jane Campion and Sofia Coppola). 

   She competed with her ex-husband for the Best Director Oscar that year (2010, he was nominated for ”Avatar”), which marked the first time that (ex-)spouses were nominated alongside each other in this category. He already had one (for “Titanic”), so it was her turn to win.

   The film made some money too, costing $15 million to produce, and earning $49,230,772.47 worldwide... I’m sure it’s made a little more by now, which is always nice.

   It has been said that Ms Bigelow often utilizes slow motion techniques to emphasize dramatically certain aspects of her films, such as action scenes in “The Hurt Locker.” This is totally false. She just likes to see things blow up really slowly. 

   As do I.

   Here's a behind the scene look at "The Hurt Locker."

   Soon after Kathryn won her Oscar this article appeared in The Frisky:

10 Reasons we are Thrilled Kathryn was the One to Make Oscar History. -Kate Torgovnick/Kate-Book.com March 8, 2010

“1. For being a female director whose movies aren’t even slightly girly. “Point Break,” Kathryn’s first big movie, was about a group of rough-and-tumble surfers/bank robbers. “Strange Days” was about a futuristic, dystopian Los Angeles. “The Hurt Locker” showcased a bomb squad in Iraq. 

2. We so appreciate that romantic comedies and love stories just aren’t Kathryn’s thing.

3. For not squealing or goofily laughing once during her acceptance speech. “It’s the moment of a lifetime,” she said, seeming overcome with sincere emotion. Plus, how freaking sweet was it that she was backstage, having just given her speech, when “The Hurt Locker” won for Best Picture, too?

4. For beating her ex-husband, James “Avatar” Cameron, and not giving him another ego-tastic “I’m the king of the world!” opportunity.

5. On that note, for showing that ex-wives aren’t all bitter shrews and can actually get along with and still appreciate their exes, even if things didn’t work out.

6. For making a thoughtful war movie, period. “War’s dirty little secret is that some men love it,” Kathryn said in an interview. “I’m trying to unpack why, to look at what it means to be a hero in the context of 21st-century combat.” We also appreciated that she filmed in Jordan and used many displaced Iraqi actors in the film, rather than going the more “Hollywood” route and filming in Morocco. [Newsweek, A.V. Club]

6. For being a champ while filming in 135-degree heat. “There were a lot of macho guys on the set,” says Mark Boal, who wrote and co-produced “The Hurt Locker.” “I’m not walking this hill, no way in hell. I drive past one of the crew who’s literally puking on the side of the road. People are dying on this hill. I drive up, and Kathryn is already at the top. She’s beaten everyone up there.” [Newsweek]

7. For showing that life isn’t always a direct path from A to B. She grew up wanting to be a painter, and even was a fellow at the Whitney Museum. “My dad used to draw these great cartoon figures. His dream was being a cartoonist, but he never achieved it, and it kind of broke my heart,” she says. “I think part of my interest in art had to do with his yearning for something he could never have.” [Newsweek]

8. For showing that a woman can still be smokin’ hot at 57, without oodles of plastic surgery.

9. On that note, for showing that beauty and brains can come in the same package. In addition to her directing resume, she was also once a Gap model.

10. And for making a vampire movie, before everyone else did. Hers, “Near Dark,” came out in 1978.” 

   Okay, we here at Joyce’s Take were thrilled as well, however... Number 10 above is only true if you change the date to 1987, and forget about “Nosferatu (1922),” “Dracula” (1932, “Welcome to my home. Enter freely of your own will and leave some of the happiness you bring.” Technically this quote is in Bram Stoker’s book, not the film... but I love it so),” “Dracula's Daughter” (1936),” “Son of Dracula (1943),” “Dracula’s Cousin First Removed” (1944),” “House of Dracula” (1945),” “El Vampiro (1957),” “Dracula (1958),” “Blood and Roses (1960, Starring lesbian, communist, pro-choice vampires),” “The Vampire Lovers (1970, more lesbians),” “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” and Dracula (1948), “The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967),” “Vampira (1974),” “Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) The first Vampire/Western, a genre in which “Near Dark” is often placed, although with a “Biker” influence. Spoiler Alert: Billy wins),” “The Brides of Dracula (1960),” “Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966),” “Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968),” “Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970),” “Scars of Dracula (1970, appendectomy),” “Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972),” “The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973),” “The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974),” “Count Dracula (1970),” “Countess Dracula (1971),” “Blacula (1972),” “Leptirica (1973, The first Serbian horror movie),” the first “Bram Stoker's Dracula (1973),” “Blood for Dracula (1974),” “Zoltan, Hound of Dracula (also known as “Dracula's Dog” 1978),” “Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979, a Werner Herzog Joint),” “Dracula (1979, with Laurence Olivier),” “Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula (1979),” “Love at First Bite (1979),” “A Vampire Out of Work (1916),” “Fright Night (1985), “Once Bitten (1985),” “Lifeforce (1985, nude, space vampires),” “The Hunger (1983),” “Lost Boys (1987, premiered before “Near Dark”),” and literally hundreds of other vampire films.

   “If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. It's irrelevant who or what directed a movie, the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don't. There should be more women directing; I think there's just not the awareness that it's really possible. It is.”

   Ms Bigelow’s latest film was 2012s “Zero Dark Thirty,” which tells the story of the hunt, and eventual assassination of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and which stars the lovely and talented actress Jessica Chastain, who got a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her trouble. 

   Here’s a scene, and another, and another. And here she is talking to David Letterman about her movie.

   “I feel we got it right. I'm proud of the movie, and I stand behind it completely. I think that it's a deeply moral movie that questions the use of force. It questions what was done in the name of finding Bin Laden.”

   “Zero Dark Thirty," received wide critical acclaim, and was nominated for five Academy Awards at the 85th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay (Mark Boal again), winning for Best Sound Editing. The film also earned four Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, and Best Director, winning for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Jessica.

   “Zero Dark Thirty” cost $40 million dollars to make, and made $138,720,716.64 during it’s initial theatrical run worldwide, which continued Kathryn’s disgusting habit of making a lot of money.

   Who knows what she’ll do next? I don’t. She probably does. Perhaps she’ll comment on this post and tell us.

   “I always want to make films. I think of it as a great opportunity to comment on the world in which we live. Perhaps just because I just came off The Hurt Locker and I'm thinking of the war and I think it's a deplorable situation. It's a great medium in which to speak about that. This is a war that cannot be won, why are we sending troops over there? Well, the only medium I have, the only opportunity I have, is to use film. There will always be issues I care about.”

   Here’s a clip with Kathryn talking to Charlie Rose about directing.

   In the early 1980s, Ms Bigelow modeled for a Gap advertisement. I don’t know why.

   Her acting credits include Lizzie Borden's 1983 film “Born in Flames,” as a feminist newspaper editor, and as the leader of a lesbian, communist, pro-choice cowgirl gang in the 1988 music video of Martini Ranch's "Reach," (another band I’ve never heard of) which was directed by  Jimmy Cameron.

   And all of us here at Joyce’s Take wish Kathryn and her family and friends, continued good health and fortune, and of course, a very happy birthday.

   Happy birthday Kathryn!