Or, maybe I'm wrong and Thursday-Saturday are all equally good options? I'm easily confused. Anyway, I'll show up anyplace, I'm easy like that.

Th less convenient than Fri Sat but perhaps marginally so! Th I'll be in mid town, Fri Sat in Brooklyn.

I initially read the post title as suggesting a location for the meetup, which did seem a bit surprising.

Elitist.

I thought that maybe they were opening a Dairy Queen in NYC. I'm irrationally confident that there are no Dairy Queens in NYC. Am I right?

3: same here. I was going to say, might be fun but you can't be sure a Dairy Queen location will even have enough tables for everyone to sit. Why not the Red Robin in Times Square?

You don't need much space for a Dairy Queen. They joined up with Orange Julius so there are a lot in malls now.

NYCDQs:
2005 Forest Ave, Staten Island
Staten Island Ferry Terminal, Staten Island
54 W 14th St, Manhattan
Mall at Bay Plaza, Bronx

Then surprisingly none to the east untiil you reach Levittown and Massapequa.

7: Thanks, Ned! I was wrong again! So, obviously the meetup with DQ should be at one of those DQs.

Does Staten Island count?

9: Definitely not as a meetup location. Gotta be this one. LizardBreath lives around the block, I can only assume.

9: I've heard they've figured out how to count their fingers and toes, so now they're up to 20.

5 I worked at a Dairy Queen on LI when I was 15

I'm assuming 12 killed the conversation by causing a horrified silence.

We're all trying to work out what the next line of the song will be.

"You were working on the counter of a soda bar, when I met you..."

Or alternatively "I Love Rock And Roll":

"Saw him working there in a Dairy Queen
Long Island summer when he was just fifteen"

JM and I can do Thursday.

So now we just need a Midtown bar. Which is tricky -- they run super crowded and noisy. DQ: east or west? Forties or fifties?

To the tune of "Dancing Queen"

He is the Dairy Queen,
Serving ice cream
Barry's the Dairy Queen....

I never heard of a fifty ounce.

You've got to include something about doing whippets in the back room

Bestiality, the scourge of the Long Island dessert scene.

The other kind of whippet

The small tank? Kinky.

W 35th. Tempted by show @ neue gallerie but will ditch that for you lot!

It's not e kuhlman, my dream cabaret show @ neue gallerie, so.

I really wish I were in town for this one. I will be back from the 7th to the 29th though so I may be looking for another meetup if anyone's game.

DQ - what time are you around? Right after work, later in the evening?

All right, decision: Oyster Bar in Grand Central at 6:30 tomorrow. I could ise some oysters. Not the main room, which is uninhabitably loud, the smalller Saloon Bar off to the right.

Oysterise.

Look, I've had a rough fall. Expecting me to spell three-letter words correctly is unreasonable.

31: Good luck picking yourself up.

I'm always dreading my mom will start to have falls. That was the start of things with dad.

33: I'm sorry my horrible joke reminded you of your actual worries.

It happens. But probably my mom won't be out alone so it won't be random strangers taking her to the ER.

Anyway, do not go quietly into that good night, but maybe listen to the PT when they suggest a walker.

The kind with the seat/storage area is the best.

35: With my mom it will be random strangers. But that's her choice.

Ever since the state all voted for Trump, I'm fine with giving Mom her car keys back. But the DMV said no backsies.

39: I am grateful that my mom decided on her own that she shouldn't drive.

Just landed, plan is grand, see you there-then!

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The chair of the California Dems - who won very narrowly over a more Bernieite candidate in early 2017 - is now being outed as a harasser, mostly but not exclusively of younger men. Stories are flying on FB and elsewhere.

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Well, that story sounds pretty conclusive.

As chairman, he is the face of the Democratic Party in California and helps guide its campaign efforts, fundraising and policy positions.

I don't think the "face of the Democratic Party" is someone who has never run for office. Anyone ever heard of him before?

I just looked up "chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party". It's a rich woman from Moon Township who nobody has ever heard of. The previous chairman, Marcel Groen, who also nobody has ever heard of, was ousted in 2018 for failing to respond to harassment complaints! A story that nobody noticed. Maybe things are different in California.

At least we're lead by somebody who lives close to the airport.

I think they're very important for fundraising.

One of the days I drove to Manteca to canvas for Harder, one of the most populated days just before the election, Harder himself, attorney general Becerra, insurance commissioner candidate Lara, and Bauman all spoke to the assembled volunteers before it started. Bauman went on the longest and was the least inspiring, talking purely about stopping Trump.

The current chair of the Maryland Democratic Party is the wife of Chris Matthews! Who knew.

Check your own home states, everybody.

I will. It's a rich woman I never heard of from Moon Township.

OK good, keep checking though.

I had to look it up, but in retrospect I knew that David Pepper is the Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party. He is always very positive about how well the Ohio Democratic Party is doing, even though the party loses nearly every state-wide election, and the Republicans have super-majorities in the state legislatures.

And Bauman has just resigned.

The chair of a state party is its public face in the sense that they directly represent the party as an organization in a way that elected officials don't, really. They tend to get quoted by local news media a lot to get the official party stance on whatever is going on currently. Otherwise it's mainly an administrative and fundraising role without much public visibility.

51: Better put, thank you.

And I think it also makes a difference that the chair are (at least in my state) the top official elected by party activists - specifically, the state committee that elects the chair is made up of about 1/3 elected officials, 1/3 county central committee members (elected by party members at the ballot every 4 years), and 1/3 assembly district delegates (elected by party members who care enough / know enough to go to the single location they can vote every 2 years).

chair _is_

Now that I am, could you tell me how to get a message to one Mr. Neil Diamond?

We are sitting directly under the clock in the Saloon.

We are sitting directly under the clock in the Saloon.

Am standing confused in what I think is the saloon

Do you see a clock with two people under it?

If there's people getting their hair cut, you went to the salon by mistake.

And if the waiter brings you the head of John the Baptist, a larger mistake has been made.

We have a chair too -- I was a delegate to the convention that elected her -- but the public face here is really the Executive Director. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Keenan

She's retiring, and I think you guys have one more day if you want to apply for the job.

I don't know the chair, but I do know Sen. Bryce Bennett, the vice chair, who was also the first openly gay man to serve in our legislature. I have one of his Bryce for Vice stickers somewhere.

Instead of liveblogging, all the NYC people went to see this.

Everyone was lovely i had to leave early hopefully they are all still there. The belons were nice and metallic, yum!

62 is hilarious.

Belons are great. I need some oysters.

Belons have a mineral quality (some describe as sucking on a copper penny) that has notes of hazelnut.

Sounds like the perfect food for me since I always douse my pennies in hazelnut syrup before sucking them.

https://www.pangeashellfish.com/blog/history-of-belon-oysters-rare-or-not

Maybe I've had the wrong kind of oysters, but the rest times I had them raw, they were good, but not like great. Possibly I'm just too far from the ocean.

Or possibly you just don't need any help in that department. IYKWIM.

||

Well fuck me, depression is back big time. It's been years and I can't exactly say it snuck up on me this time, I know the signs well. Shit.

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So sorry to hear that Barry. Do you have a doctor/therapist there? (Or in the US?)

No, no one here or in the US anymore.

I spend the weekend in bed, what's worse we're on day 3 of a 6 day film festival here and I've yet to go. At least I made myself leave the house for a weekly breakfast with friends.

The drinking certainly doesn't help. At least next week I get to go back to NY for the rest of December.

I was going ask if you're still seeing movies. Can you still get to this festival?

I'll try to get out for it tomorrow.

Tell us what you see.

Will do.

Another bad sign, camping out in my bedroom constantly even though I have a nice apartment and plenty of movies to watch on disc or even video games to play were I so inclined.

And your happier self would be so inclined?

I'd make more use of my living room.

Very few people remember to take a protractor to their happier self.

Have you seen Cronenberg's Cosmopolis?

80 I have not and I really should.

It's probably almost as good as Airplane!

Yes! If you can't make it to the festival stream that if and I'll rewatch it and we can argue strenuously or whatever. Moby too.

I don't even own a television.

Or require information to argue.

So you're good to go, is what you're saying.

Sometimes I have to work. Other times I'm sleeping.

But stand ready to pun at all times?

As long as there's a straight line to abuse.

Anyway, can I recommend either Pokemon Go or shitting on the seats of convertibles parked with the top down. The occasional walk is good self-care, but at least I need some kind of prompt to get me started.

One is less subject to legal sanction, but the other has more dignity.

90 I would do that but I think I'd need heebie's superpower if the clean pinch to pull it off satisfactorily.

If s/b of

Healthy eating is the foundation for any exercise program.

i feel pretty helpless from afar but am thinking of you barry. solidarity and warm wishes.

Thanks dq!

Good noontide Barry! Don't be flaking on us now!

Thanks Mossy, that was the kick I needed. On my way to catch a few films starting with an anime "Mirai". The medicine I need.

I'm looking forward to hearing about what you see, Barry! And like everyone else, impressed you recognized and called attention to this. Good work getting it to people who care!

Going to see Weldi too but unfortunately Capharnaüm is all sold out

I'm going to see if I can fix my basement drainage.

Drainage is in the other thread.

That was cute, I think I'll make it just the one though. May head to the book fair.

I have everything I need to knock a hole in the basement floor: a heavy ball-peen hammer and a wife who is out of the house for at least four hours.

What was it about?

I am about to tackle the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for the first time! Recs welcomed.

If look at the art if I were you.

106 The Islamic art galleries are amazing. Don't miss the Persian miniatures from the Shahnameh of Shah Tamasp if they are on view (they have about 20-25 of them and show 3-4 at a time). They are exquisite.
There's also the temple of Dendur, all the Greek and Roman galleries, etc. And I'm personally a big fan of the Arms and Armor galleries.

105 A family picture, toddler gets jealous when the new baby sister comes home from the hospital and he's no longer the center of his parent's universe. More than a bit of fantasy thrown in (he has an encounter with the personification of the family dog, who experience a similar jealousy when he came along. The dog is personified as a prince and the spirit of the house, at one point the toddler steals his tail and impersonates the family dog; also meetings with future teenaged baby sister, his great grandfather, etc). Not heavy or great but good and satisfying and cute.

I think that's the same plot as the movie of "Lost in Space."

I used to say the only dogs I like are hyenas, then I found out they aren't actually dogs. Downer.

108.1 Oh, I was wrong, they have 78 pages of it.

Anyway the Met is one of my favorite places anywhere, enjoy!

111: I bet the same recipes would work.

Hyenas don't need to cook. That's like the whole point of hyenas, they just eat everything.

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Some other relatively-good news: the number of people missing in the California fires has dropped to 49, but the death toll has only risen to 88. (So back when there were thousands of people unaccounted for, that was mostly disorganization, not a sign of many un-found dead.)

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99 Thanks Thorn! I'll update on the blog. I think when I get back from my December trip it'll be time to take up Tai Chi again, get back into shape, and also get my car back on the road. That will help.

And I did see A Passage to India and, meh. The Davis and Ashcroft characters seemed to me just windblown nonentities and Dr Aziz such a lickspittle I just despised him. He just has the one scene where he says "I am a Muslim" where he seems like an actual person, then reverses himself again. Which I guess is the point (haven't read the book) but left the whole thing feeling really sterile and pointless.

And there are lots of close shots of Davis and Ashcroft where they're supposed to be reacting to caves or moonlight or temples or the soul of India or something, and I just was not convinced.

Did they have the "I farted but if I don't react maybe you'll blame the dog" expression?

119 Like I said, it's been decades since I've seen it but I love David Lean and I had a huge crush on Judy Davis back in the day.

I got the feeling, but would have to watch it again very carefully to confirm, that the whole editing and photography style is subtly different. Long takes and a very static camera, like in those waify closeups.
(I have nothing against long takes. Like Shyamalan's Unbreakable frex is full of them and they're great. But those takes are full of action, even if just dialogue, and the camera moves, even if very slowly.)

I'm all about the long takes:Tarkovsky, Bela Tarr, Miklos Jancso, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, etc.

Like I say, stasis rather than length. And some of the cuts to those close shots seemed kind of jarring, as if they didn't quite cut together.

I'd need to see it again, he edited it himself and got an Oscar nom for it.

106: If it's not too late, absolutely check out the Central Asian art, and they have Tanner's Flight into Egypt in 766, which is one of my favorites.

Oh, and I love the Ethiopian and Byzantine sections, but that might just be me.