Jesse Eisenberg (star of "The Social Network") on SNL with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg

No Tabatha tonight...

But there's a new Anthony Bourdain, and I didn't even know it.  New season crept up on me.  Was at the grocery store and would have been back by 9:00 (in time for it), but my truck wouldn't start, so I had to leave it in the parking lot and walk home (three blocks).  Fortunately I hadn't bought a lot of groceries.  I mainly went there to get some cash.

This is the second time in the past three weeks or so that the truck hasn't started. First, it wouldn't turn over in the garage here. One of the board members, who's handy with cars, heard me trying to start it and said it wasn't the battery (battery's not that old, anyway). (Obviously it's not the battery, since it started up when I tried a few days later.)

The board member had said it sounded like the fuel pump. Meanwhile he gave me a business card for a mechanic within walking distance, whom he recommends and whom I'll call tomorrow.  Even if the truck starts up tomorrow (after I return from work), something needs to be fixed.  I can't deal with it in the morning since I have a doctor's appointment then.  It'll have to go into the shop on Wednesday at the earliest.  If it has to be towed, I'll call AAA.  I told the people at Publix about it and they gave me a piece of paper so I could write a sign to put in the windshield.  (They said I didn't have to worry about it getting towed, but still...)

Tomorrow morning they're drawing blood for testing, so I had a Boca Burger and a few handfuls of Cheerios for dinner when I got back from the store.  (Had some Del Monte grapefruit with Truvia when I got home from work.)  Healthy stuff for my blood test.

Anthony Bourdain was in Haiti (show's over now).  I'll have to watch it again from the start, maybe later.  (Not a lot about the food there, mostly about the recovery from the earthquake.)  Above is the Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince.  (Click on the photo to enlarge it.)  Anthony talked with the owner there at the hotel.  Looked kind of nice.  (But see here.)

[Later] Watching Anthony Bourdain's Haiti show from the start. Starts with the Hotel Oloffson-- he's staying there (has no complaints). The hotel listed in the earthquake but remains habitable.

A cartoon from last week's New Yorker

Oscars over (I didn't watch them)

CNN story here

Armie Hammer

Armie played the "Winklevi" on "The Social Network"

Sunday evening personal

Just got back from having dinner at E.'s restaurant. Picked up a tall cup of Pike at Starbucks on the way home. (I was on foot.)

About the BF's leg: He had knee surgery and the surgeon left some gauze inside the incision. The BF was in the shower and asked E. to come take a picture of the wound -- they could see the gauze through the incision, knowing it wasn't just the stitches. The BF then went to the doctor and the doctor wasn't there. Someone else removed the gauze from the wound. Now the doctor is denying he'd left the gauze inside the knee. E. said the doctor's afraid of being sued, but all they want is to get the thing taken care of once and for all. Meanwhile it's been swelling and the BF generally hasn't been feeling well and has no energy. (He's taking antibiotics.) As I was sitting there eating, the BF called and told E. he was driving to the emergency room for treatment. It's that bad.

I really didn't go there to have dinner, but I was hungry by the time I got there. I brought photos of the cats I'd taken today and printed out. I was just going for a cup of coffee and ended up having a house salad, chopped sirloin with sauteed onions, and mashed potatoes with gravy. Good stuff. And lots of iced tea.

E. said that our running into each other last night was some kind of signal that we should keep in closer touch. (I'd never heard him say anything like that before.) I think the BF's not being well is really getting to him and he needs the friendship and moral support.

I told him I'd watched "The Social Network" last night. He said someone had lent him the DVD and that he might watch it tonight. (He may be home alone, with the BF's two dogs -- miniature dachshunds.) (I didn't know about the dogs till today.) I'll call him on Tuesday to find out how things are going. (Monday is one of his days off.)

Mark Zuckerberg on "The Social Network"

Short and sweet and to the point

"The Social Network"

Really enjoyed watching it. Very good. "Spoilers" follow.

Sean Parker said: "We lived on farms, and then we lived in cities, and now we're going to live on the Internet." That may be true, but I don't want to live in a glass house on Facebook.  Maybe because I'm alone and live on the Internet moreso than most people, I like my privacy and the anonymity such as life in cities provides.

Mark Zuckerberg, at the very end of the movie: "Farm animals...  I was drunk and angry and stupid and blogging." Even Zuckerberg knows the pitfalls of "letting it all hang out" on the Internet. (This is probably made up, but good point.)

Loved the part where Eduardo Saverin's girlfriend lit his trash can on fire (with the scarf he'd bought her in California inside it) because he hadn't changed his Facebook relationship status from "single" after they'd been together so long. (But she was a psycho anyway.)

See Jeralyn at Talk Left here ("Winklevoss Twins Still Chasing Zuckerberg"). The "Wincklevi" (as Zuckerberg, a Latin student, called them, employing the masculine plural) come across to me as poor losers in this. Zuckerberg came up with his own, better idea and ran with it.  He had a bigger picture, and Sean Parker goaded him on.

Eduardo Saverin, Mark's "only friend," fell into a trap (or was "ambushed," as he put it) after he'd threatened the viability of Facebook by freezing the bank account. But he ended up getting a good chunk in his settlement.

I think it was wise of Mark to move to Silicon Valley to really get the thing off the ground. That's where the creative energy is for this kind of venture, not New York City (where Saverin was focusing). New York is not for dreamers. It's all about money and power (and flaunting it). Not Zuckerberg's motivation. (Zuckerberg lives in a modest rented house in Palo Alto.)

Saturday night personal

Just ran into E., my immediate past ex, at the grocery store. What a surprise. He was coming in as I was finishing up at the check-out and walked up to me. We stood aside and talked for about five minutes. The BF is not doing well and can't work. ("Things aren't good.") He had some kind of leg surgery that went wrong, but the doctor won't take responsibility, even though they took photos, etc. I wasn't following it that closely since I was in somewhat of a state of shock to see him; he works on Saturday night (managing a restaurant up the street from here) and was in his work clothes. But it was slow at the restaurant since a food festival is going on up here somewhere, so he'd driven down to the store for something. He asked about his cat and told me not to be a stranger (or words to that effect). His mother is doing well -- he'd just seen her yesterday. (She'd lost her mother around Christmas.)

I'll have to pay him a visit and find out more about what exactly happened to the BF. Maybe I'll go see him tomorrow, since the BF won't be at the restaurant (where he's been working the past few months). I miss him but don't miss the mess. I've been totally alone, except for the cats' company, since he left, what, three years ago? (Long, messy, painful story.)

Not much on TV tonight. Watching SyFy now

[Later] Ended up watching "The Social Network" on Comcast On Demand.

Just in case you're interested...

You can find The Miami Herald's ongoing coverage of Real Housewives of Miami here.

Pill mills thrive as Gov. Scott nixes database

Is Scott out to protect Rush Limbaugh?  From Carl Hiaasen at The Miami Herald here.

Thirty-eight states use databases to keep track of oxycodone and other painkillers that are now the most widely abused (and lethal) drugs in the country.

Florida is the largest state without such a database, and the undisputed epicenter of the sleazy illegal pill trade.

In the first six months of 2010, doctors in Florida prescribed nine times more oxycodone than was sold in the entire United States during that same period. Pain mills here have prospered wildly and proliferated – in Broward County alone there are 130. . . .

Top law enforcement officials, legislators and even the governor of Kentucky (which has been tragically saturated with pills from Florida) have asked Scott to reconsider, but he won’t budge. . . .

According to a federal indictment, seven clinics in Broward and Miami-Dade were controlled by a model citizen named Vincent Colangelo, a convicted heroin dealer.

Apparently pharmaceuticals now offer juicier profit-margins than smack.

Over a two-year period, Colangelo allegedly distributed more than 660,000 oxycodone pills, enriching him and his partners to the tune of $150,000 a day. . . .

About Big Tent Democrat (Armando Llorens)

Armando is one of my all-time favorite bloggers.  He and Jeralyn Merritt, a criminal defense attorney in Denver, together produce Talk Left.  Armando's bio:

Armando Llorens writes on TalkLeft as Big Tent Democrat. He joined TalkLeft in July 2006. From late 2004 to mid-2006 he was a front-page poster at Daily Kos writing under the name "Armando."

He is a litigation attorney in San Juan, Puerto Rico with a practice focused on intellectual property, media and Internet matters and antitrust and trade regulation (including for Wal-Mart, Shell and Unilever as well as smaller local companies.)

Armando won a precedent-setting case in the First Circuit Court of Appeals for The Clorox Company in which the Appeals Court reversed the dismissal of a Lanham Act false advertising action brought by Clorox against Procter & Gamble. This decision, The Clorox Company Puerto Rico v. The Procter & Gamble Commercial Company, 228 F.3d 24 (1st Cir. Oct. 3, 2000), was the first false advertising case decided in the First Circuit.

He also won a landmark case in 1998, garnering a permanent injunction against a company illegally using the name of former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres in the first "right of publicity" action brought in Puerto Rico.

Armando is at far left (Clinton in the middle)

Can Rick Scott Be Compelled To Greenlight Florida's HSR Project?

From Big Tent Democrat here (with detailed legal analysis).

Orlando Sentinel:

The high-speed train between Orlando and Tampa got an unexpected one-week reprieve Friday, just hours after Gov. Rick Scott again rejected $2.4 billion in federal money for the project. The sudden shift may have been triggered by a possible lawsuit against Scott contending he has overstepped his authority by killing the train. The suit, which could be filed as soon as Monday, is expected to argue that a law passed by the Legislature during a special session in 2009 compels Scott to pursue the train. Two sources close to the situation said the suit likely would be filed with the state Supreme Court in Tallahassee. It was unclear who would sign on to it.

* * *

Rick Scott, however, appears to be mercurial, to put the matter kindly. I imagine bringing on a constitutional crisis in Florida would be right up his alley. Time will tell.

More from the Million Dollar Listing website

(Here)

A Guide to the Fake Faces of Real Housewives

From Gawker here.

This one I do recommend

Thursdays at 9:00.  Also on Bravo. I'd never watched it till this season, and it's in its fourth already. (The premier episode aired on 4 February.) Three cute guys selling high-end real estate in LA. (Beats "Selling New York" any day.)

The vested one is Madison Hildebrand. He's gay, and Malibu is his specialty. "When Hildebrand finds time to play, he focuses on his much talked about love life, exploring his newfound sexuality with some surprising twists and turns."

Videos here. (First off, someone gets his chest waxed.)

Real Housewives of Miami ('Pass the hot sauce')

Tried to watch this last night only because it's about Miami. Nice scenery, but otherwise not a lot to it (not that I had high expectations). Judging from previews of next show, it's about to get trashy. E Online review here. New York Times review here.

Apparently the show was shot over a year ago. One of the wives (publicist Marysol Patton, third from left above) got a DUI before it aired. (So did her mother, who's also on the show as some kind of psychic.) Story here.

[The mother] got arrested back in October, but had the charges dismissed when the officer failed to show up to court. Patton Claims [sic] she wasn’t drunk at all and the police just wanted to get her because she is old. She does have a handicapped tag because of a bad knee.

(It seems almost everybody in Miami has a handicapped tag. Not me.)

'Florida police list man's religion as "Redneck" on arrest report'

"In Some Parts Of The U.S. 'Redneck' Is Actually Considered A Religion." From The Smoking Gun here.

Please note:

I transferred a bunch of older posts from a previous blog of mine into this new one, since I thought they were a good fit. The posts imported fairly well, but some of the formatting got botched. (Not my doing.)  Sorry about that. I tried to fix some of it to no avail. Also, I can't vouch for the posting times.

Beach gets fab new symphony center

Had a dental appointment at the end of the day and got home in time (i.e., before 7:00) to have a tall cup of Pike at Starbucks, across the street. As a rule, I don't drink coffee after 7:00 -- especially the strong stuff -- lest it keep me up past my bedtime.  (This doesn't apply on the weekends.) 

Pleasant weather. Sat outside reading an article in The New Yorker on the new Frank Gehry-designed New World Center on (off?) Lincoln Road on South Beach, new home to the New World Symphony ("Schubert on the Beach: The New World Symphony’s radical new home"). A glowing review. Makes a native proud.

At one point, I walked around the edge of the park, which is called the SoundScape, watching passersby as they registered this musical mirage in the Miami night. Three teen-agers stopped on the sidewalk. “This is so gay,” one of them said, unenthusiastically. But they stood there for a good minute before checking their phones and moving on. . . .

Even more important, the hall is explicitly designed as much for the projection of images as for the projection of sound. The fusion of film and live music is so mesmerizingly seamless that I felt I was witnessing not just a technological forward leap but the emergence of a new genre.

I also recommend this slide show from The New Yorker.  "A spectacular new performance complex." Photos by Iwan Baan.