Howdy. I'm 57. Been around since late 1961. Not the oldest person I know of, for sure, but old enough to have "seen a few things," as current Farmers Insurance advertising goes.
What a state of heightened confusion we live in now. A good bit of the world, certainly, but I'm going to focus on America for this writing. The government, or certainly some integral parts of it, is shut down and has been for 33 days or so. There doesn't appear to be any easy way out of this one, largely due to the current leader elected to be President. Even if he hadn't owned the shutdown on national television, I think you'd be hard pressed to find another person to directly blame for it. Over a wall. Literally.
I've found other writings stating a lot of these same things, but I boil the current state of affairs down to two main instigators, the commercialization of the news and the internet. Kurt Andersen, a writer I admire tremendously, likes to point to the 1960s and technological advances as these instigators, and I think he's largely correct, although I tend to think of the 1960s separately as a social phenomenon. Andersen looks to the 1960s as a time where people began to feel freed of "the way things were" in previous American time periods. And it's an interesting point; I just like to look at more immediate causes, perhaps.
When I was a kid, there was no cable, or at least, we didn't have it where I lived. We had three networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC. (When I lived in the Rio Grande Valley in the late 60s/early 70s, we only had two channels to choose from. One network's prime time programs were shown amidst some late night programming; "Mission: Impossible," my favorite, for instance.) Each network had its evening nightly news program, 30 minutes, and each local affiliate had its nightly news program, 30 minutes. That was it. Maybe a special report would cut into programming if something really devastating happened, somebody's assassination, for sure. Other than that, the news was done.
The evening network news carried the really heavy stuff, such as the death toll from Vietnam that day. That stuff's burned in my brain. As many have pointed out, that was the first televised war, and I arrived just in time to see it. Bloody soldiers lying on the ground, some wrapped in makeshift tourniquets or whatever was available, was a common visual accompaniment to my dinner. The local news generally contained a recap of important national news but was more fixated on what was happening locally, including weather, but also included sports news and human interest stories. Not a lot of bite in the local news, usually, and people probably preferred that.
But that was it. In late 1979, things changed. The Iran Hostage Crisis began. In an attempt to keep people informed, networks would broadcast after the late local news with any updates on the crisis. After a while, there wasn't much in the way of updates, but people were watching. So, ABC decided to create Nightline, a 30-minute rehash of what had happened in the crisis (if anything). Soon, this format expanded to take on other topics and brought in people to provide opinions. The next thing you know, we had CNN, debuting June 1, 1980, a 24-hours news channel. Now, from an advertising point of view, with a crisis going on, this made sense. Unfortunately, from a hardcore true news point of view, this was terrible. You don't have to have too high an IQ to realize there just is not 24 hours worth of news to report, not on any day. So, what do you fill the news up with? You fill it up with "news." And by that, I mean a continual repeating of the day's headlines, followed by panel after panel of qualified and unqualified people commenting on these headlines. What does it mean? What's next? How does this impact your Aunt Sally's tomato garden? And on and on. Gradually, we had more and more news networks, some more committed to actual news programming than others. Some networks had their opinion people drive the overall tenor of the network (I think you know the ones already). All of them kept real news reporting in there somewhere, but for most of them, it constitutes the minority of their airtime.
As a sidebar (or maybe not), one of my favorite movies of all time (in the top three, for sure) is "Network." Although the movie was made in 1976, it's completely relevant today and shows how damaging commercialization of news is. Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote the original screenplay, was one prescient person. It's chilling in a way.
And then you have the advent of the internet. Information without any sort of knowledge or integrity check flying anywhere and everywhere. I don't think I even have to elaborate on this too much, but it's easy to see the negative effects of this, even if the internet (and technology) have brought us some wonderful advances. One thing the internet has done is made everyone a star, even if only in their own little world. I mean, look at what I'm doing here; writing in a blog I don't even publicize (yet), writing just because I can. And like to.
And so, if everyone's a star, egos rise. And then, everyone starts to think that his opinion is vital, important, and perhaps original. But mostly, that that opinion is the correct one. Humility has gone by the wayside. I'm right, you're wrong. Read the comments section after any online news article for a full examination of that (once you wade through the obvious trolling).
Now, if you put all this together, with commercial news channels spewing mostly biased opinion, and people free to spew the spew online....well, you see where we are. My mother often says "I liked it when we had three networks." Although I like watching Netflix as much as anyone else, I have to agree with her when it comes to certain things.
I don't know if I have much else to say on this issue; certainly, I have no ideas to correct course. In the meantime, I mostly watch PBS for news. But then they have sponsors, too. Sigh. Back to the drums....
Showing posts with label government shutdown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government shutdown. Show all posts
Friday, January 25, 2019
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Shutdown Continues / "Singapore Sling"
So, the government shutdown continues. On and on. And on. And on. I'd really thought by now I'd be back at the ol' day job, but Washington, DC has become an utter circus of dysfunctional personality. All it took for someone as unqualified (in every way) as Donald Trump becoming President to see this to its ultimate lockup. Good God.
A few folks have suggested that Trump becoming President may be a good thing in the long run and instigate a reset of our entire government (its officials, not the Constitution). I'm starting to think that just might be the case. But it'll be a long, painful process. In the meantime, I just try not to think about it too much. The annual tattoo convention I work for is next week, so that'll keep me occupied for a few days. And make some much needed scratch toward impending property taxes. Now, we federal lackeys are supposed to be paid when the shutdown ends, per bills passed in the House and Senate. So that'll be money for doing nothing; I couldn't blame people for people being pissed about that one. Yep, one fucked-up situation.
In the meantime, I finally watched a film I've had in the ol' collection for several years but had not watched - "Singapore Sling." This is the kind of movie that's hard to write about. I would even suggest visiting other websites to read about the film; not sure how my synopsis will turn out, but here goes.
There are only three characters of note in the film (you see glimpses of a couple of others at times): a man who's apparently a detective, and a mother and daughter, who look very close in age. The detective speaks Greek, while the mother and daughter speak English. The mother lapses into French at times. But there is so little dialog in this movie, I would say that even if you have an allergy to subtitles, there's nothing to worry about here.
The movie is gorgeous to look at, despite what happens on screen, being shot in black and white with very interesting noir-y lighting. That may be the best thing about the movie - it's simply beautiful. The plot? Let's see. The detective is looking for a lost love named Laura and has just been shot somewhere, somehow. We see the mother and daughter burying a body, during which some the body's internal organs fall out along the ground - in gorgeous black and white. Sometime after this, the detective, after sleeping in his car for some time, makes his way to the women's house. They bring him inside, and things pretty much stay there the rest of the movie. The women alternately take care of the man, masturbate with fruits and each other, torture the man, torture each other....let's see, what else? Whenever the man starts talking about Laura, we see the daughter dress differently (there's also a portrait of her in the same garb). Music from the 1944 film "Laura" plays whenever this subject comes up.
So, you can see this is one interesting film, and it's arresting to watch, even if not much happens during its 1:51 runtime. In fact, one of my major criticisms of the movie is its running time. You could easily cut 20-30 minutes out of this and not lose a thing. The atmosphere of the movie is thick; it's established in the first 2-3 minutes. An hour-fifty-one was not necessary and I think works against it. Still, I would recommend this movie to certain art movie afficianados. Myself, not sure I'll watch it again, but I'm glad I did. I'll just put it that way. I'll also say that I've already forgotten how the movie ended, and I just watched it two days ago. So, again, plot is not important here.
Michelle and I actually made it out of the house for the second Saturday in a row. We went to the Parlor for We Are The Asteroid (missing Sabbath Crow....waaah!), saw a play at Ground Floor Theater and then went to see The Beaumonts at DaveFest at Kick Butt Coffee. Busy night for us! Other than a weird interaction with a very unsavory door person at Kick Butt Coffee, all was a lot of fun.
I suppose I should write about this weird interaction, just to get it off my chest. It turned out Kick Butt was crazy busy when we got there, and that was great to see. Dave Prewitt has long deserved this sort of respect. Michelle and I walked into Kick Butt. I didn't see anyone checking any IDs, anything like that (I hadn't been there in a while and couldn't remember what their protocol was). After walking in, we walked by a table which two women were sitting at (neither of us saw them when we first walked in). One of the women looked up at me with a really shitty look and said something I didn't understand. I bent down, and she said something about the show taking donations. I said okay and then asked what folks had been giving in general (just to get an idea). This woman then actually yelled at me "well, first I need to put an X on your fuckin' hand!!" I looked at Michelle who gave me a "yes, she did that" return look. So, I extended my hand so she could put the X there; she did the same to Michelle. I reached in my wallet and gave some money to her, but I was pretty stunned. I realize after writing about it here, it all seems rather benign, but I was pretty steamed inside. I saw Mike Flannery talking to her later, so I suspect she works at Kick Butt. I have a feeling I'll be boycotting that place for a while. I did mention it to Dave when I saw him later, and he seemed concerned, but that was not the time for me to tell him about it. So, for now, yay, The Parlor! Yay, Ground Floor Theater! Fuck Kick Butt Coffee. And all hail Dave Prewitt!
Life goes on....
A few folks have suggested that Trump becoming President may be a good thing in the long run and instigate a reset of our entire government (its officials, not the Constitution). I'm starting to think that just might be the case. But it'll be a long, painful process. In the meantime, I just try not to think about it too much. The annual tattoo convention I work for is next week, so that'll keep me occupied for a few days. And make some much needed scratch toward impending property taxes. Now, we federal lackeys are supposed to be paid when the shutdown ends, per bills passed in the House and Senate. So that'll be money for doing nothing; I couldn't blame people for people being pissed about that one. Yep, one fucked-up situation.
In the meantime, I finally watched a film I've had in the ol' collection for several years but had not watched - "Singapore Sling." This is the kind of movie that's hard to write about. I would even suggest visiting other websites to read about the film; not sure how my synopsis will turn out, but here goes.
There are only three characters of note in the film (you see glimpses of a couple of others at times): a man who's apparently a detective, and a mother and daughter, who look very close in age. The detective speaks Greek, while the mother and daughter speak English. The mother lapses into French at times. But there is so little dialog in this movie, I would say that even if you have an allergy to subtitles, there's nothing to worry about here.
The movie is gorgeous to look at, despite what happens on screen, being shot in black and white with very interesting noir-y lighting. That may be the best thing about the movie - it's simply beautiful. The plot? Let's see. The detective is looking for a lost love named Laura and has just been shot somewhere, somehow. We see the mother and daughter burying a body, during which some the body's internal organs fall out along the ground - in gorgeous black and white. Sometime after this, the detective, after sleeping in his car for some time, makes his way to the women's house. They bring him inside, and things pretty much stay there the rest of the movie. The women alternately take care of the man, masturbate with fruits and each other, torture the man, torture each other....let's see, what else? Whenever the man starts talking about Laura, we see the daughter dress differently (there's also a portrait of her in the same garb). Music from the 1944 film "Laura" plays whenever this subject comes up.
So, you can see this is one interesting film, and it's arresting to watch, even if not much happens during its 1:51 runtime. In fact, one of my major criticisms of the movie is its running time. You could easily cut 20-30 minutes out of this and not lose a thing. The atmosphere of the movie is thick; it's established in the first 2-3 minutes. An hour-fifty-one was not necessary and I think works against it. Still, I would recommend this movie to certain art movie afficianados. Myself, not sure I'll watch it again, but I'm glad I did. I'll just put it that way. I'll also say that I've already forgotten how the movie ended, and I just watched it two days ago. So, again, plot is not important here.
Michelle and I actually made it out of the house for the second Saturday in a row. We went to the Parlor for We Are The Asteroid (missing Sabbath Crow....waaah!), saw a play at Ground Floor Theater and then went to see The Beaumonts at DaveFest at Kick Butt Coffee. Busy night for us! Other than a weird interaction with a very unsavory door person at Kick Butt Coffee, all was a lot of fun.
I suppose I should write about this weird interaction, just to get it off my chest. It turned out Kick Butt was crazy busy when we got there, and that was great to see. Dave Prewitt has long deserved this sort of respect. Michelle and I walked into Kick Butt. I didn't see anyone checking any IDs, anything like that (I hadn't been there in a while and couldn't remember what their protocol was). After walking in, we walked by a table which two women were sitting at (neither of us saw them when we first walked in). One of the women looked up at me with a really shitty look and said something I didn't understand. I bent down, and she said something about the show taking donations. I said okay and then asked what folks had been giving in general (just to get an idea). This woman then actually yelled at me "well, first I need to put an X on your fuckin' hand!!" I looked at Michelle who gave me a "yes, she did that" return look. So, I extended my hand so she could put the X there; she did the same to Michelle. I reached in my wallet and gave some money to her, but I was pretty stunned. I realize after writing about it here, it all seems rather benign, but I was pretty steamed inside. I saw Mike Flannery talking to her later, so I suspect she works at Kick Butt. I have a feeling I'll be boycotting that place for a while. I did mention it to Dave when I saw him later, and he seemed concerned, but that was not the time for me to tell him about it. So, for now, yay, The Parlor! Yay, Ground Floor Theater! Fuck Kick Butt Coffee. And all hail Dave Prewitt!
Life goes on....
Sunday, January 6, 2019
"Rojo Sangre" / What Else? / Roy Haynes
Hello. The government shutdown continues with no end in sight. I've started to lose track of what day it is for the first time in my, I suppose, working life. Weird. Guess I know what retirement will be like now. Except I'll be prepared for that. But really, I have no idea how long this is going to go on. Especially with this utter madman in charge. Ugh. I'll start to feel the real effects of it in another couple of weeks. I have enough money to see it through for quite a while, but still.....
Anyway, the only movie I have to write about today is "Rojo Sangre," which for some reason I thought I wrote about years ago. Apparently, I didn't. I was in a discussion with some friends a couple of nights ago about Paul Naschy, and I recommended "Rojo Sangre" as a good late example of his work. After thinking about it some more, I thought I should watch it again to make sure I was remembering correctly. To my relief, I was.
"Rojo Sangre" is from 2004, putting Paul Naschy at about 70. He wrote and starred in the picture, the plot having to do with an aging actor looking for work in a cruel, young person's world. The early scenes of him at an audition and on a set are pretty painful to watch. But I like how Naschy tempers the character by making him pretty crude at the same time. It gives the whole thing a nice balance. Anyway, Naschy's character ends up being recruited through his agent to be a "doorman-entertainer" at a nightclub specializing in, let's say, interesting and fleshy entertainment. He accepts and begins a new chapter in life, including the "removal" of people he sees as undesirables. That's as far as I'll go into the plot. Quite interesting, and it's nice to see Naschy's screenplay made into a movie as this late stage of his career. This could have been the type of film where it becomes "oh look, isn't it cute, Paul Naschy's on the screen again!," but it's definitely not. Kudos to whoever got behind this project to see it through. The direction is effective, although it contains plenty of the early 2000s variety of "ooh, look, we can create this effect digitally, and this effect digitally, and...." I still recommend it.
One last thing about "Rojo Sangre," though....currently, there's only one domestic DVD version of this around; it was put out by Shriek Show and Fangoria. Unfortunately, it's non-anamorphic, and if you need subtitles (I do), you can't zoom it on your screen without losing the subtitles. An annoyance, for sure, but I keep thinking this might see a better release sometime down the road.
It's kind of funny - after years of spotty writing in this blog, the government shutdown has given me the motivation to write almost daily. With the exception of Friday, I think I've posted every day this week. Good exercise, but now I find lacking a bit in topics....let's see.....
Recently, I picked up an interesting box set dedicated to one of the greats of jazz drumming, Roy Haynes. It's titled "A Life In Time," contains three CDs and a DVD, and has an interesting concept. The first two CDs cover Roy's career playing with many different folks, interspersed with occasional tracks credited to Roy alone. The third CD is credited to "Roy Haynes' Hip Ensembles" and is a bit more "fusion-y," I guess. The DVD has a documentary and some filmed performances. I enjoyed the set more than, as a drummer, I thought I would. The career CDs are pretty fascinating. Most of the tracks feature Roy in some way or have a brief solo, that kind of thing. But then there's one song, where he's playing in Sarah Vaughan's band, and he's basically just keeping half note time on the hi-hat. A really great sampling of a really great drummer's career. Roy's in his early 90s now, and I don't know if he's still playing. He was in his 80s, for sure; there's plenty of video evidence out there. Fascinating, and inspiring.
More information about future Hickoids touring is coming in. We're going to play the Muddy Roots festival in Tennessee at the end of August and then shortly after, hightail it to Europe to play a Spanish festival the next week. It's looking like we'll spend the bulk of September playing in Spain and France, perhaps Italy as well. There's a chance Michelle might join me at the end of the tour, and we can continue gallivanting in Europe. We'll see. Again, this shutdown might play havoc with whatever sort of leave situation I have. Ugh, again. The uncertainty.....
And I'll close with that for now.....
Anyway, the only movie I have to write about today is "Rojo Sangre," which for some reason I thought I wrote about years ago. Apparently, I didn't. I was in a discussion with some friends a couple of nights ago about Paul Naschy, and I recommended "Rojo Sangre" as a good late example of his work. After thinking about it some more, I thought I should watch it again to make sure I was remembering correctly. To my relief, I was.
"Rojo Sangre" is from 2004, putting Paul Naschy at about 70. He wrote and starred in the picture, the plot having to do with an aging actor looking for work in a cruel, young person's world. The early scenes of him at an audition and on a set are pretty painful to watch. But I like how Naschy tempers the character by making him pretty crude at the same time. It gives the whole thing a nice balance. Anyway, Naschy's character ends up being recruited through his agent to be a "doorman-entertainer" at a nightclub specializing in, let's say, interesting and fleshy entertainment. He accepts and begins a new chapter in life, including the "removal" of people he sees as undesirables. That's as far as I'll go into the plot. Quite interesting, and it's nice to see Naschy's screenplay made into a movie as this late stage of his career. This could have been the type of film where it becomes "oh look, isn't it cute, Paul Naschy's on the screen again!," but it's definitely not. Kudos to whoever got behind this project to see it through. The direction is effective, although it contains plenty of the early 2000s variety of "ooh, look, we can create this effect digitally, and this effect digitally, and...." I still recommend it.
One last thing about "Rojo Sangre," though....currently, there's only one domestic DVD version of this around; it was put out by Shriek Show and Fangoria. Unfortunately, it's non-anamorphic, and if you need subtitles (I do), you can't zoom it on your screen without losing the subtitles. An annoyance, for sure, but I keep thinking this might see a better release sometime down the road.
It's kind of funny - after years of spotty writing in this blog, the government shutdown has given me the motivation to write almost daily. With the exception of Friday, I think I've posted every day this week. Good exercise, but now I find lacking a bit in topics....let's see.....
Recently, I picked up an interesting box set dedicated to one of the greats of jazz drumming, Roy Haynes. It's titled "A Life In Time," contains three CDs and a DVD, and has an interesting concept. The first two CDs cover Roy's career playing with many different folks, interspersed with occasional tracks credited to Roy alone. The third CD is credited to "Roy Haynes' Hip Ensembles" and is a bit more "fusion-y," I guess. The DVD has a documentary and some filmed performances. I enjoyed the set more than, as a drummer, I thought I would. The career CDs are pretty fascinating. Most of the tracks feature Roy in some way or have a brief solo, that kind of thing. But then there's one song, where he's playing in Sarah Vaughan's band, and he's basically just keeping half note time on the hi-hat. A really great sampling of a really great drummer's career. Roy's in his early 90s now, and I don't know if he's still playing. He was in his 80s, for sure; there's plenty of video evidence out there. Fascinating, and inspiring.
More information about future Hickoids touring is coming in. We're going to play the Muddy Roots festival in Tennessee at the end of August and then shortly after, hightail it to Europe to play a Spanish festival the next week. It's looking like we'll spend the bulk of September playing in Spain and France, perhaps Italy as well. There's a chance Michelle might join me at the end of the tour, and we can continue gallivanting in Europe. We'll see. Again, this shutdown might play havoc with whatever sort of leave situation I have. Ugh, again. The uncertainty.....
And I'll close with that for now.....
Thursday, January 3, 2019
The Thursday Report / "Evil of Dracula"
Now that I have more time on my hands in ol' Manchaca here, I'm having more time to write, which is I suppose a good thing. More practice, etc. I'm practicing more drumming as well, on the at-home electric kit. After a good couple of years plus of owning that kit, I finally added a cowbell to create a new "kit," in order to run through some Swishbucklers stuff. The cowbell is paramount for that band. As I've really only used the electric kit for physical practice, I hadn't bothered go beyond preset drum kits yet. Nothing earth-shattering, but making a little progress here and there.
So, yes, the government shutdown continues. I'm cracking up at the way the media usually make sure to say "partial shutdown." I believe all of these shutdowns have been partial shutdowns, as there have always been government workers who were essential and had to show up. And that's the case this time as well. It's just funny to me that the phrase "partial shutdown" is crucial to accurate news reporting now. Oh, well. I'm just now seeing some news stories about how an IRS shutdown will delay tax refunds. Maybe that'll get some outcry started. Again, this whole business just has me feeling in a state of limbo, although I am taking the opportunity to get more in shape again. And practice drums, of course. And watch movies.
I finished that "Bloodthirsty Trilogy" set with "Evil of Dracula" today. What an enjoyable set of movies. As I might have mentioned in my "Lake of Dracula" review, these are not movies of any great import, but they are easy to watch, and have great cinematography and sets/locations. They're also all around the 80-minute mark, so they're definitely no slog at all. No dead parts (pun not intended). I recommend 'em.
I suppose the biggest news I have today is that I hit the Bowflex for the first time in.....maybe two years? It's been awhile; ever since I began having the "mystery leg pain" in 2016 or 2017. As I may or may not have written, when Michelle and I were in Italy in October, I wore my knee brace every day without fail. We walked quite a bit, particularly in Rome and Florence. At the end of the day, my feet were hurting (even with my comfortable sneakers), but the right leg was completely fine. As a matter of fact, some of the residual pain I still had in the leg when we left for Italy had completely disappeared!! I'm still amazed by that. And the pain has not come back. So, I keep that knee brace on anytime I leave the house. No pain. I cannot believe it.
Now, I'm not a doctor (😝), but I think my final diagnosis has been determined. I must have, after my 2002 knee injury and four years of occasional hobbling due to pain until the ultimate torn meniscus surgery, learned to walk a little differently. I remember my knee surgeon telling me how the tendons on both sides of my knee were stretched and would never bounce back to original elasticity. So, I've had instability in my right knee for about 16 years now. Which means I've had to be careful about how I walk. For those first four years before the surgery, if I bent my leg too much and then straightened it, my knee would pinch that torn meniscus. And that hurt like, if you'll pardon the expression, a motherfucker. I'd be limping for a few days after that. Well, after the surgery, I no longer have any pain from, really, anything that happens with the knee, but it's still pretty unstable. So, this is of course where the knee brace comes in. I bought the brace a couple of years ago, but for some reason, almost never wore it. So, this diagnosis has come through trial and error. A lot of error. I really need to tell my physical therapist about this, as while I appreciate everything he did for me, the situation I had was never actually cured. Until I went to Italy and walked endlessly with a knee brace on. That certainly wouldn't have been anyone's prescription, I bet. I'm just glad the pain's gone. Really, really glad.
So, I got on the Bowflex tonight to resume some resistance training. Especially since I've been doing well with the stationary bike riding lately. I didn't really let up on the amount of resistance used...I believe I used the same resistance amounts as before. (Was it two years off? It could well have been.) Anyway, I did the standard 30-minute workout, including rowing before and after the exercises as a warm-up and cool-down. I didn't experience any pain at all, although during the rowing and leg press exercises, each bending of that right knee caused what I think was three clicks in the knee each time. When I was rowing, the knee sounded like a cuica. Perhaps I could start playing Latin music with it. But there was no attendant pain. And four hours later, there's still no pain. So I guess all is okay. We'll see, I guess. Still happy about it all.
Let's see how long I can keep up these daily musings......
So, yes, the government shutdown continues. I'm cracking up at the way the media usually make sure to say "partial shutdown." I believe all of these shutdowns have been partial shutdowns, as there have always been government workers who were essential and had to show up. And that's the case this time as well. It's just funny to me that the phrase "partial shutdown" is crucial to accurate news reporting now. Oh, well. I'm just now seeing some news stories about how an IRS shutdown will delay tax refunds. Maybe that'll get some outcry started. Again, this whole business just has me feeling in a state of limbo, although I am taking the opportunity to get more in shape again. And practice drums, of course. And watch movies.
I finished that "Bloodthirsty Trilogy" set with "Evil of Dracula" today. What an enjoyable set of movies. As I might have mentioned in my "Lake of Dracula" review, these are not movies of any great import, but they are easy to watch, and have great cinematography and sets/locations. They're also all around the 80-minute mark, so they're definitely no slog at all. No dead parts (pun not intended). I recommend 'em.
I suppose the biggest news I have today is that I hit the Bowflex for the first time in.....maybe two years? It's been awhile; ever since I began having the "mystery leg pain" in 2016 or 2017. As I may or may not have written, when Michelle and I were in Italy in October, I wore my knee brace every day without fail. We walked quite a bit, particularly in Rome and Florence. At the end of the day, my feet were hurting (even with my comfortable sneakers), but the right leg was completely fine. As a matter of fact, some of the residual pain I still had in the leg when we left for Italy had completely disappeared!! I'm still amazed by that. And the pain has not come back. So, I keep that knee brace on anytime I leave the house. No pain. I cannot believe it.
Now, I'm not a doctor (😝), but I think my final diagnosis has been determined. I must have, after my 2002 knee injury and four years of occasional hobbling due to pain until the ultimate torn meniscus surgery, learned to walk a little differently. I remember my knee surgeon telling me how the tendons on both sides of my knee were stretched and would never bounce back to original elasticity. So, I've had instability in my right knee for about 16 years now. Which means I've had to be careful about how I walk. For those first four years before the surgery, if I bent my leg too much and then straightened it, my knee would pinch that torn meniscus. And that hurt like, if you'll pardon the expression, a motherfucker. I'd be limping for a few days after that. Well, after the surgery, I no longer have any pain from, really, anything that happens with the knee, but it's still pretty unstable. So, this is of course where the knee brace comes in. I bought the brace a couple of years ago, but for some reason, almost never wore it. So, this diagnosis has come through trial and error. A lot of error. I really need to tell my physical therapist about this, as while I appreciate everything he did for me, the situation I had was never actually cured. Until I went to Italy and walked endlessly with a knee brace on. That certainly wouldn't have been anyone's prescription, I bet. I'm just glad the pain's gone. Really, really glad.
So, I got on the Bowflex tonight to resume some resistance training. Especially since I've been doing well with the stationary bike riding lately. I didn't really let up on the amount of resistance used...I believe I used the same resistance amounts as before. (Was it two years off? It could well have been.) Anyway, I did the standard 30-minute workout, including rowing before and after the exercises as a warm-up and cool-down. I didn't experience any pain at all, although during the rowing and leg press exercises, each bending of that right knee caused what I think was three clicks in the knee each time. When I was rowing, the knee sounded like a cuica. Perhaps I could start playing Latin music with it. But there was no attendant pain. And four hours later, there's still no pain. So I guess all is okay. We'll see, I guess. Still happy about it all.
Let's see how long I can keep up these daily musings......
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