danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

Well, the 2004 Summer Olympics ended yesterday, and I can’t say that I didn’t watch my fair share this year. In fact, I probably watched your fair share, as well. I saw almost everything I wanted to, with the exception of some of the men’s three meter platform diving, archery and the fencing. As I wrote previously, I loved the women’s beach volleyball team of May and Walsh, and especially the rhythmic gymnastics, which are amazing. If I tried to pull my leg up over my head it would break off. Alina Kabaeva won the gold medal in this event, and I think she deserved it.

I moved into my old Gainesville apartment in the summer of 2000, right before the Sydney Olympics were set to begin. The cable TV was still connected from the previous tenant, and I was looking forward to watching. Alas, the cable was disconnected days before the games began, and I missed almost all of them.

The Republican convention is beginning today in New York City. I find it almost amusing that they repeatedly called the Democratic National Convention in Boston an “extreme make-over” in spite of the fact that almost all of the prime-time speakers appearing at the RNC are moderate, essentially socially-liberal Republicans, who oppose the core of the party platform. If the adopted party platform calls for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, why are speakers who support civil unions speaking in prime time? The same speakers also support abortion rights, sensible gun control, etc., while the bulk of the Republican party seeks to overturn Roe v. Wade. That’s the real “make-over”. Of course, they couldn’t have people like Rick Santorum or Trent Lott or Tom Delay up there in front of the cameras during prime time, network coverage. It wouldn’t do to have average Americans see creationists, racists, and homophobes as the face of the Republican party. If I have a choice between listening to someone who calls evolution a “theory” and wants to see the Ten Commandments posted in every courtroom in America or listening to some liberal peacenik preaching brotherhood and universal healthcare, I think my choice is obvious.

So, since the conservative media seemed to get such a kick out of John Kerry dressed in a clean suit on a tour of the Kennedy Space Center, and tried to make it out to be some kind of Dukakis-in-a-tank moment, here’s a picture of Bush touring a factory. Please note, also, that on the occasions when Bush is speaking at some sort of factory or union hall, the audience consists entirely of invited Republicans. The employees are given the day off, and are not present. Like the Republican National Convention, it’s just a show.

Filed under: Current Events, Photography, Rantings, Sports, Television on August 30th, 2004 | No Comments »

I have been watching a lot of Olympics lately. Pretty much every night for hours, actually. I am not a big sports fan, really, but the Olympics come once every four years, so I like to tune in to see events I never see anywhere else. When else, after all, can you see table tennis on television?

I am rather surprised, actually, at how I am enjoying events I didn’t think I’d be interested in, and having less fun watching events I had most looked forward to. For example, I have never liked volleyball, but I am really liking the beach volleyball, especially the American team, Misty May and Kerri Walsh. I am not enjoying the gymnastics as much as I would have thought. In fact, I am pretty disappointed with it all. The competitors don’t seem very good this time around. Nobody ever sticks a landing, it seems. The still rings still amaze me, though.

I like swimming, but I think I might have got a bit of an overload with NBC’s coverage. They showed almost every swimming event, including all sorts of non-medal trials. Will they show the synchronized swimming? I hope so. They are showing a lot of gymnastics, but will they show rhythmic gymnastics? That is the question.

Miriam and I went to see The Village on Saturday, August 21. It was scary, and I really liked the sets and costumes. The acting was good, as well. Unlike Signs, which pretty much kept up the premise all the way through, this one took a twist that I was less happy with than Miriam. Still, worth seeing.

Miriam and I have our tickets to the Vote for Change concert in Orlando on October 8. Bruce Springsteen: check; E Street Band: check; REM: check; $75 per ticket: cash, unfortunately. For the record, TicketMaster is awful. Their website could hardly be a bigger hassle.

I added a new section to the Archive called “Chats”. You can read excerpts from some AIM chats I had with friends. There is now a Contact Page, which has a form which you can use to easily send me an email.

Filed under: Cost of Living, Current Events, Popular Music, Sports on August 28th, 2004 | No Comments »

I had a dream last night about my old house at 3835 Pebble Court in Palm Harbor. I dreamt it was for sale for $70,000, and that I bought it. It’s funny – in spite of the fact that so many negative memories are associated with living there (if I really think about it), I still tend to focus on the good ones. I think it’s because it was the last real house I lived in. It was certainly the home I have lived in the longest. I moved in the summer after sixth grade, and lived there until a couple weeks after high school graduation. It was originally yellow with white trim, although I don’t have any photographs of it in that condition. I remember painting it inside and out. The master bedroom, which I took over when I was in 11th grade, initially had a wallpaper mural of palm trees and an orange sunset. It was awful.

I suppose my happy memories are the same as any kid has in a house. I remember playing in the back yard. I remember climbing the tree in the front yard in the cool, overcast winter months, taking along a small radio and listening to music while lying back, twenty feet in the air. My original bedroom had a sliding glass door that opened out onto a large deck that wrapped around the back of the house. In the summer time I would leave the door open at night while watching TV in my bed. Our house was at the highest part of the neighborhood, and in one of the highest points in the county. In the fall, during football season, I would climb onto the roof, from which I could see across the rows of other houses, all the way to downtown Tampa, about fifteen miles distant. The old Tampa Stadium was easily visible, and I would listen to the Bucs games on the radio while looking at the stadium. It had to do, since back then that football team was terrible, and their games were never on TV locally.

For a while, my mom moved away to Tennessee, leaving me totally alone. My sister would come by a couple times a week to make sure I had food. I spent a lot of time alone. I didn’t have a lot of friends in the early days that I lived there. In fact, I think the first time I ever had a buddy come over, I had already lived in the house for two years. By the time I was in high school, though, I had a couple good friends, and it was common for them to be at my house at all times of the day and night. One of my best friends from those years even lived with me for nine months after his parents kicked him out. My mom once had him and me climb into the attic to lay down extra fiberglass insulation. It was over a hundred and ten degrees up there, and when we got down, covered in itchy fiberglass, we saw a man walking by the garage window. He explained he was there to cut off the power for non-payment. So, instead of being able to cool down, we sat in a hot house in the middle of summer.

I have fond memories of playing hide and seek with Dan, Jeff, and Burt in the back yard until late in the evening. I have considerably less fond memories of riding my bike in the freezing cold at 6:30 in the morning to go to the bus stop. Later on, in twelfth grade, Jeff would come at seven o’clock to take me to school. I remember the embarrassment at having girls over to see the state of squalor in which I sometimes lived. I had my first kiss standing in the driveway at that house. My first girlfriend was excited because it was exactly seven minutes from her door to mine.

The Saturday before Easter, on the night of my first date, a “for sale” sign appeared on the front lawn. I remember that my girlfriend at the time packed up most of my stuff because I wasn’t very organized. My friends and I had a party there on the last night, June 30, 1995, and they stayed over. The next day, with all my stuff packed away, I pulled away from that house where I had lived for six years–six important years. I have driven down Pebble Court once or twice since then, though not in a long, long time. It’s funny how it’s been longer that I have been away from that house than it ever was that I lived there. And I know that I am happier now that I really was then. But, you know how it goes: “Time slips away, and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of glory days”. Anyway, it was a nice dream I had last night, but nicer still to wake up next to Miriam.

Filed under: Family, Friends, Nostalgia on August 25th, 2004 | No Comments »

So, it came to pass that a hurricane was heading for Florida, which, as you know, is where I live. Now, I’ll be honest, I have never really been through a serious hurricane, and I was born in Florida. Sure, when I was eight or nine, Hurricane Elena forced my family to evacuate from Oldsmar, and take shelter on higher ground. But I also recall coming home and seeing everything exactly as we’d left it. In fact, things seemed slightly cleaner, if anything.

My Precious, however, has been through a serious hurricane. And, in many ways, she’s more concerned about my safety than I am. Once, when we were walking along a mountain in Chamonix, she freaked out because she thought I was going to fall, and tumble down the slope. From where I was standing I could see that, even if I did trip, I would fall about two feet to a comfortable stop, and, if I were to trip again, I would fall another two feet to another large ledge, and so on. But to her I was in grave danger. I love her and appreciate her for that.

So she was understandably worried about Hurricane Charley, which was threatening Florida since the middle of last week. I was probably less scared than I should have been. Meteorologists had been predicting a path in which Charley would slam into Pinellas County, where I grew up, and move up the state, passing directly over Gainesville, where I now live, and which you can see in the aforementioned graphic, indicated by a big “H” for “Hurricane”. This forecast caused Miriam and to flee Gainesville for Orlando, which, as late as noon on Friday, was believed to be out of the path of the storm. As we drove down the Florida Turnpike, it became clear from radio bulletins that the experts had been wrong. Around two o’clock we heard a story suggesting Charley was turning east, and might be making landfall near Ft. Myers. This was way off. This would take the hurricane–which they were now calling a “Category Four” storm–directly over Orlando.

We almost turned around. Were it not for the fact that we had just driven through a county in the middle of a Tornado Warning, we might have gone directly back to Gainesville. As it was, we continued on to Miriam’s sister’s house. As the afternoon progressed, and I helped Miriam’s brother-in-law prepare the house for winds exceeding 100mph, Orlando seemed like a worse and worse idea. Category Four hurricanes scare even me.

In the end, this is the path Hurricane Charley took, directly over the house in which Miriam, her sister, her brother-in-law and I were huddled. Now, I am not angry or bitter for having been put in potential harm’s way. But millions of residents from Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties were evacuated, while those in areas around Punta Gorda were led to believe the hurricane would strike north of them. People from west-central Florida fled to Orlando, where they filled the hotels and shelters which should have been housing locals, whose homes were in real danger.

Hurricane trackers have a difficult job, no doubt. But, really, can anyone recall a time in which they were really right on the money about a storm? I’ve lived in Florida for almost twenty-eight years–my whole life–and I can recall many, many false alarms. When one group of people is told they are a target, another group of people is fooled into thinking they are not. Sadly, people lose their lives.

I guess the lesson is, be more like Miriam. Take every threat seriously. Even if people tell you otherwise, do what you think is right for yourself and your family. Oh, and avoid the Carolinas, because one thing I can tell you from a lifetime of keeping track of hurricanes: They ALL go to the Carolinas!

Filed under: Meteorology, Travel on August 14th, 2004 | No Comments »

From the OH MY GOSH! Department: Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, and others will be performing a series of concerts in key battleground states to mobilize progressive voters. Look at the schedule, and visit the America Coming Together homepage for more information. This amazing news comes as part of a massive assault of Bruce-related, anti-Bush sentiment apparently designed to speak directly to me personally. How else can you explain a Bruce Springsteen Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, a paper that I read every day? Or this excerpt from an interview in the Newark Star-Ledger:

I’ve been singing about the ideas of American identity and American ideals for 25 years. My point of view has been pretty clear. If you’ve been involved in my work, even a bit – unless you’ve done selective listening [...] it’s not a secret where I’ve stood on most of the issues over the years.

Indeed, if you are a Springsteen fan, as I certainly am, it is obvious that he has a deep concern for the working man. It’s the most dominant theme in his music, (and you can read more about it on the Rock! page under “Favorite Albums” and “Favorite Songs”). So, you’re thinking, “but, Dana, Bruce is incredibly rich, and hasn’t ever had a real job. He doesn’t really care about average people”. Bruce isn’t that way. He has quetly given to charity for years. My point is that he talks the talk AND walks the walk. And this time around he’s speaking his mind about politics. So go to the shows, people. And if Bruce isn’t your cup of tea, then maybe some of the other performers are more to your liking. The important thing is that we all come together to bring some much needed change to this great land.

Remember a couple weeks back when I wrote about all my friends getting together for bowling and Cranium? Well, here’s a picture from that night. Dana is very excited that Flair Lab now offers low cost scanning of C41, i.e., negative film. For $5.50, plus the cost of processing ($2.50), you get your images on a CD-R at 300dpi. That’s a pretty sweet deal.

Filed under: Politics, Popular Music, Rantings on August 9th, 2004 | No Comments »