Tag Archives: movie

1/31/2020 – Jane Orton dies

Friday

Received this from Torrey:

This was a complete surprise. We’d been expecting a progress report from Jane at the end of January. Not her death.

Jonathan wrote this to Torrey:

Dear Torrey,

I just now received the news of Jane’s passing.

I’m overseas, far from others.

And I am thinking of the moments we’ve spent together in different combinations at different times across continents.

These include my first meeting with Jane in Australia…at her office … in 1997 I think … and all the times I’ve spent with her and you, and all of our times together, with Nan and the kids.

Your presence in our lives, together, has brought us warmth, confidence, and feelings of connection. We feel these now.

Nan happened to be wearing the earrings Jane gave her in May when she learned this news, sitting at our dining table in Leiden. The kids were by her side.

Torrey, there’s no way to describe the mix of love and gratitude I am feeling right now toward you both.

Such a beautiful, beautiful soul, Jane …I feel lucky to know her and to feel her as a part of my life.

Nan and I over the years have talked about you two, about how much we appreciate you both…

In other words you are a significant part of our lives and our sense of self and family.

And though at early stages in their lives, Jesse and Anna have experienced your love.

Vivid images of their interactions with you and Jane sprinkled across their past few years come to mind as I write these words…

We all treasure our time together with you both.

These are my initial thoughts.

Talk soon and in due course.

I’d be happy to chat with you by phone or mail as you see fit. A phone call might be nice at some point.

Love from us all,

Jonathan

Drove to Winchester to drop off photo books. Then dropped Karen at her Soup Group meeting at Ellen Feldman’s house. Went to library. Worked on DOG website. Ran into Andrea Geyer. Went back to Esther’s house then off to movie – The Gentlemen. Dinner at Amelia’s.

Tried to get ahold of Torrey. Left message.

2/1/2019 – Getting ready to be off to Cambridge

Friday 2/1/2019 – Very COLD

Setting off by noon for annual Super Bowl followed by trip to Florida for cousins’ dinner at Flo’s pad.

Checked in with UTMers. Packed. Left Hudson by noon. Arrived at Esther’s by 3.

Saw The Favorite at Landmark. Disappointing ending.

Then dinner.

Over-rated food.

Friday- 12/9/2016

Set up of shoulder scrunch w back against wall.

PT w Anna Marie Zietsman.

New reading and a DVD documentary at library.

Telecon w Matt Almeida.

Spent most of day in HAL volunteer management software selection process. Arranged demo next week. Finished use case.

Small amount of time editing Angry (Old) White Guy essay.

Went to movies. Saw Allied. Old fashioned but effective.

Friday – 1/1/2016 – New Year’s Day

Swearing in of new mayor in Hudson – Tiffany Martin-Hamilton

Also, Lauren Scalera, daughter of Rick, is sworn in to Council. Passing the torch. Michael O’Hara rejoins the Council.

Walk around town

Movie – mid afternoon “Carol”

Dinner in Albany

with Dave Drake and Liz Allen.

Saturday – 11/7/2015

Drove to Albany.

Along the way we stopped in Kinderhook at jack Shainman’s The School Gallery for the “Winter in America” show. Very diverse but in the end unfocused and not very interesting. Liked the di Suvero sculpture on the lawn.

At the Albany Institute of History and Art. David Drake joined us.

The Capital Region in 50 Objects – surprisingly good.

Horse show making machine

Lunch with Anita Harris & Dave near Pine Hills in a Junior’s sports bar on Madison.

Movie at Spectrum – Martian with Matt Damon – good Hollywood entertainment.

Dinner at Van’s Vietnamese Restaurant 307 Central Ave,. David and Dan Drake, Liz Allen, daughter Lena.

Great firehouse on Delaware Ave, near the Spectrum movie theatre.

Friday – 4/3/2015

Final snow.

Slavery Was Not Inefficient

Cotton picking productivity in The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward Baptist

Continuing to work through this book. Here is a graph that demonstrates that the cotton economy was in fact dynamic and enormously productive. Slave owners used detailed accounting of each slave’s production and regular beatings and other physical violence to enforce ever greater levels of production.

Movie – Wild Tales

Argentine film, Wild Tales. Opens with a scene in an airplane that is really frightening because since the movie was made, the German airliner was crashed into the mountain in French Alps by a depressed guy. Scene in the movie shows captain banging on the door. Then the plane crashing into backyard of the co-pilots parents.

Completely over the top story of two guys who get into a traffic altercation on a remote highway. Both end up burned to death in a wrecked car.

Tuesday – 3/24/15

Snow and ice almost gone from shady side of street. 8:38 am

Went to gym early.

Very good UTM meeting with Seth and Jan about developers.

Went to Harrington’s for paint. Very expensive $49 per gallon. Paint DOG rooms tomorrow. Continue reading →

Monday – 3/9/15

Spent most of day on UTM. Met with Jan at Columbia Memorial Hospital for talk with Katie Cullen, head hospitalist. She is enthusiastic about the app. Wants to bring more of her people into using it. Ran over to Fish & Game Rd. office of Chris Gorczinski. He had his admin, Kacey Quirk, with him. Similar discussion.

Went to Albany to meet up with Karen and David Drake for a movie, Leviathan, and later dinner with Dave’s new girlfriend Liz. Need to find her last name. Continue reading →

Men Landed on the Moon – I’m Depressed – another leg falls away from my world

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II

This book brings to light the extent to which the Jim Crow laws were in fact part of a totalitarian system of government that ruled the South for more than seventy five years. How these laws came to be called Jim Crow by historians instead of “a system of racist oppression and exploitation” is a mystery. The fact that historians and school textbook writers adopted this term,which is derogatory in its basis, points to a shameful lack of focus on the facts of life in the South during the period between 1876 and roughly 1965. Worse it aided the systematic cover up of the actual functions of these laws and their impact on African-Americans. If the word Apartheid had been invented earlier this would also be a useful term.

The research and the writing is compelling. Blackmon has a website devoted to the book and the production of a documentary movie on PBS that will air in 2011.

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II
Author: Douglas A. Blackmon Publisher: Doubleday, $29.95 (512p) ISBN 978-0-385-50625-0

Mr. Wonderful's World

“I might wake up dead tomorrow.”