Dave's Journal / Jan2020
If you're having stomach acid problems, listen up. A gastro-doctor put me onto this. Bottled waters are not all the same, in terms of acidity. "Mineral water" is generally non-acidic (it tends to be alkaline). Any bottled water with a pH below 7 is acidic, and the lower the pH, the more acidic.
Here's a chart ....
Sadly, acidic waters generally taste more refreshing than mineral or alkaline water.
My current favorite is Aqua Panna from Tuscany (not on the list above). It tastes very good and the advertised pH level is 8.5.
Back a few months, Keely M., my auditory therapist encouraged me to explore listening to music and working hard to re-calibrate my brain to what it's hearing. I got some decent hi-fi speakers, reorganized my Jazz CD collection, bought some new ones, and have been working on this diligently - just sitting down and listening to music with no distractions.
I am extremely happy with (I'll call it) the new experience of music. I am listening to one CD almost every night, and just letting the music flow into my head without complaining about how different it used to sound. Giving my brain a chance to relearn listening (I'm living in a whole new sound universe now).
In addition to using the implants' accessory mini-mic, I am now using the cell phone bluetooth gizmo. It's a trick to get the implant processors and the cell phone and tablet computer connected, but trying the instructions a few times, I got it done.
This setup is very nice because there are no wires or connectors involved as with the mini-mic setup. Works pretty well so far - I can watch videos or play MP3s and audio books on my tablet now with direct-to-brain sound !!
This morning, Catherine woke me up to Kindle audio books for my tablet PC, and I signed up for a test run at Audible.com; downloaded and started listening to P.G.Woodhouse's "Jeeves" stories and the first one reminded me of a true event from 1960 or thenabouts.
The parents of my friend Roger F. were educated and sophisticated people, and had memberships in various things like the New York Classical live broadcast radio station, and his mom got the idea that Roger should take a few of us into town for a live studio audience broadcast.
So .... we (Roger, Jan O., John P. and I) put on suits and ties and trained into the city, found the studio and took our seats.
The air was stuffy and we looked about for guys our age and there weren't any.
The announcer introduces, in a smooth baritone voice, the string quartet they were live broadcasting that night. Sadly he looked just like Clark Kent and we all noticed it and we all smirked and John P. giggled and we knew there was trouble in the air and we had John move over a few seats and down a row.
Quartet tunes up, we start looking at each other. Definitely trouble ahead.
Lights dim, red "On the Air" light turns on.
Things were good for a while then for some reason, John P. snorted a laugh and Jan O. had to duck down and stifle his laugh. After a bit, John lost control again and was kind of snorting louder trying not to completely burst out laughing and Jan could not get up from under his seat.
Roger and I got up and dashed out to the lobby.
Listening to the radio broadcast in the lobby, you can hear John snorting. The usher says "Is that one of you people in there?", but he knew without asking. He goes in and flashlights John and Jan out, and we spent the night cruising around Times Sq. and tried to help Roger with a pleasnt explanation to tell his parents.
Well .... you had to be there I guess; it was very funny and we laughed about it for the rest of our high school days.
Roger's parents let him off the hook because we dumped all the blame on John and Jan, who never showed their face at Roger's ever again !
Roger, Jan and John (from 1962 yearbook)
Footnote: His name was Sebastiano and Grandma called him "Iano".
Many more details here: Grandparents
Started today with an email from GoogleMaps telling me that my 2019 "Timeline" is available for viewing. "Timeline"?, I asked myself. "What's that?" Well it's Googles record of where I have been every day of 2019.
"Gee", I thought, "isn't that great? Someone is keeping a record on their computer where I go every day". . . . doesn't the misuse of technology make you feel cared for and loved?
Looking at it positively ..... you can't accuse me of committing any crimes in Pittsburgh or Albany or Philadelphia last year, can you.
Well, I dropped the thoughts from my mind and, since Deb was out and about, I got the library pass to the Worcester Art Museum and spent some time there. Excellent exhibit of edgy photos from 50's - 80's. I didn't take any photos of it. Then I drifted into a room of classical art . . . .
I am always amazed at the talent it takes to actually paint something like these. It's just incredible.
I never much liked Frank Sinatra, as a singer. He had a great style for delivering lyrics when he damn well felt like it, regardless of what the band was up to, but his voice had little range and not much variable emotions and his style often came off as pretentious. So I was surprised to find myself downloading 2 of his albums onto my tablet, and then actually enjoying them.
Then I realized that it was not the music I liked so much but that it reminded me of my parents (who adored Sinatra). My Dad especially.
Here's the deal. Similar to "The Price is Right", political candidates will bid for votes. "If you vote for me, the federal government will give you XYZ$/month, as long as I am in office."
Voters will sign their ballots, and (similar to Social Security) will receive $$$ deposited into their bank accounts, tax free every month.
Think about it. Seriously ....... the money could come from corporations, rich investors, Russia, wherever. They throw $$$$ into the politicians pool to raise the amount he can promise the voters.
There are no losers! Everybody wins !!!
Feeding my vintage postcard habit, I got this one that shows people running trotters along the Harlem River in New York City. It raised a lot of questions.
(The Harlem River runs between Manhattan and The Bronx.)
So I did some searching.
...the Harlem River Speedway was very much a rich mans project.
As early as the 1870s and 1880s, New York City had become a mecca for "wealthy roadites" fabulously rich men who enjoyed racing along the city's streets. Harlem Lane, which later became Seventh Avenue, was widely considered the best of the city's roadways for racing, and wealthy men from William K. Vanderbilt on down had sprinted down the road at breakneck speeds.
As the city grew, the excessive speeds of both these horsemen and their carriages sparked growing alarm among many of the city's residents. Trolleys and congested traffic ways simply compounded the dangers caused by these sportsmen.
Yet even as residents complained, both the police and the city's judges were reluctant to sentence or fine these "wealthy roadites" for their bad behavior.
In 1893, the city's mayor offered a compromise location, a 2.3-mile track along the Harlem River. The new speedway was to be carved out of the bluffs overlooking the river. Varying in width from seventy-five to one hundred feet, the road would allow for several carriages to compete on the speedway at one time.
The full story is well worth your time: The Harlem River Speedway
Still can't believe I'm doing this.
Technically, a great piece of writing, directing and film making, but .... watching 4 intelligent-but-neurotic New Yorkers make absurd, stupid life decisions had me so twitchy I could barely watch it through to the end.
Dave's gone back 100 years to Paris. Lunching with Hemingway and F. Scott F. - listening to their stories and fantasies and dreams and failures.
He'll be back in a few days.
The best ever stop-motion artist. Here he is (in stop motion!!) creating that skeleton army scene for "Jason and the Argonauts". Keep your eye on the skeleton model. It was being photographed frame-by-frame here to simulate motion.
Now imagine doing this to a dozen models for a 5 minute scene at 24 frames per second !!! (that's 5 X 60 X 24 X 12).
Here is a short clip of Ray's handywork in "20 Million Miles to Earth"
