These are the devices that run my life (including the blond and, indirectly, her mother) in the background:

• Two MacBook Pro’s
• One Thunderbolt monitor
• One iPad with aftermarket keyboard
• Two Kindles
• Two VOIP internet phones

These are the devices that display and distribute artistic content:

• One 42” flat screen TV
• One TiVo (digital video recorder) to record TV shows, access Netflix, Pandora, etc
• One DVD/VHS player for DVD’s and old VHS tapes
• One home network wireless receiver
• Not shown – 42” flat screen (in the bedroom)
• Not shown – DVD player (in the bedroom

These devices are for music:

• One AM/FM/CD amplifier
• One CD player
• Not shown – one Apple iPod
• Not shown – three guitars and a kazoo

And these are the devices that control those devices:

• Two Comcast remotes for cable
• One universal remote to control input sources
• One Samsung remote for the bedroom DVD
• One Samsung remote to control the other bedroom remote
• One TiVo remote
• One Hitachi remote for the DVD player
• One ROKU remote to source all kinds of content from Netflix to Hulu to ESPN. (I don’t understand this one yet. It’s brand new from our techie son and daughter in law)

And this is what we use to call Jonathan for help whenever any of the other devices fail to perform as needed:

• Two iPhone 4s’s

I’m old enough to remember when the family crowded around a big old maple covered Philco radio to listen to Jack Benny on Sunday night, when we went to the Roycroft Theater to see Hopalong Cassidy for the Saturday matinee, and when everyone used the neighborhood library and struggled with the Dewey Decimal System to find a morsel of information. Those really weren’t the good old days but they were definitely simpler. read more

Book clubs are everywhere. They’ve been around since the days when monks were copying manuscripts. They got a big boost when Gutenberg made print more accessible, and they got another kick-start when Oprah Winfrey started one in the media age.

At the grass roots level friends and friends of friends organize them. Bookstores and libraries create them to promote reading and sales. Community centers use them to bring people together. There are online book clubs, church book clubs, and company book clubs. There are women’s groups (by far the majority), men’s groups, singles book clubs, gay and lesbian clubs and couple’s groups. read more

It’s been a week of murderous drama – Anna Netrebko as Lady Macbeth in the Metropolitan Opera’s HD version of Macbeth, Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet in the 4-hour film of that super-sized Shakespeare tragedy, and Ben Affleck, yes, in the same breath as Anna Netrebko and Kenneth Branagh, as Nick Dunne in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. It was a big week for murder, duplicity, troubled marriages, and regicide, making it an exhausting and troubling week.

I had no idea the murderous Lady Macbeth looked like this. Until yesterday I saw her as a pinch-faced, tight-lipped, stringy-haired shrew. After yesterday’s Metropolitan Opera performance I understood how Macbeth could be so easily manipulated. I’d probably do anything she asked too. read more

So many girlfriends, so many birthdays, so little time…

I’m in trouble. M’s extended birthday celebration is sending ripples through my social network. This morning our friend Julie, who helps us keep our lives in order, came over, and announced that today is HER birthday.

I can’t figure out why she didn’t take the day off, but she showed up for work this morning and started in by telling me she and her husband, Sean, were wondering how long M’s birthday was going to last. They have been closely following my Facebook posts about the BIG EVENT, and they think there are other things that might be of more interest to my extensive network of followers than Day 7 of my wife’s birthday celebration. I told her I thought it was just about over to which she responded with “it better be because today is my birthday and I don’t want any part of Marilynn’s birthday leaking into mine.” read more