Sunday, July 30, 2006


Nel vino la verità.

Nel vino la verità is an Italian proverb meaning, "in wine, the truth." This couldn't be more applicable than in the recent case of the drunk driving arrest of Mel Gibson, during which Gibson showed his true colors by hurling misogynist comments against a female police officer and threats of retribution, as well as anti-Semitic epithets, against arresting officer Deputy James Mee.

According to the original 4-page police report filed by Mee and available for viewing at www.tmz.com, Gibson attempted to resist arrest by bolting for his car after being instructed to get into the deputy's car, after which Deputy Mee handcuffed him in order to keep him under control. Once inside the car Gibson began banging himself against the seat. The report says Gibson told the deputy, "You mother fucker. I'm going to fuck you." The report also says "Gibson almost continually [sic] threatened me saying he 'owns Malibu' and will spend all of his money to 'get even' with me."

The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: "Fucking Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"

At the station, to a female sergeant, Gibson reportedly yelled, "What do you think you're looking at, sugar tits?" and continued to yell and scream at station personnel.

Gibson was released on $5,000 bail. Firstly, I ask, would an "ordinary" (read - non-famous) citizen have been released on $5,000 bail after such an incident? Probably not. But that's not the point of what I am writing about today.

The point is, as I stated up top, that Gibson showed his true colors, publicly, under the influence of alcohol. Gibson, who claims to be a devoutly religious man and who claims that his movie "The Passion of the Christ" was not anti-Semitic, but rather, in his words, a factual account of the death of Jesus Christ, in the absence of the restraint of sobriety, blamed the Jews for just about everything that anti-Semites have been accusing the Jews of ever since Jesus died, and certainly for as long as I've been alive.

Gibson has since apologized for his statements, claiming that they were "untrue" and "despicable" and made under the influence of alcohol. Gibson has acknowledged his ongoing battle with alcoholism and is claiming that he has already taken steps to returning to health; he did not elaborate what those steps might be.

An apology is nice, and according to Jewish tradition we are supposed to forgive someone who apologizes. However, was the apology truly sincere? I think not. Has he offered to do anything with the power he wields as a public figure to improve relations between Jews and other religions? Has he offered use any of his millions of dollars to, perhaps, fund education and awareness training for religious tolerance? Of course not. As stated up top, he did not offer to use his money for any good, rather he threatened to use his money to 'get even' with Deputy Mee. Shame on him. And, while I am truly sympathetic that Gibson has a problem with alcohol, I don't want to hear him blaming his anti-Semitic remarks on the influence of alcohol. As the Italians say, nel vino la verità. In wine is truth. Or, in plainer English, liquor loosens the tongue. And this time, the wine brought the truth out of Mel Gibson's liquor-loosened tongue - sober or drunk, he is a sexist, Jew-hating neanderthal (note - no offense meant to pro-feminist neanderthals who don't hate Jews - I'm sure there are some nice ones out there.)

Put your money where your mouth is, Gibson. Publicly acknowledging your alcoholism is a brave step, but only the first step. Try acknowledging publicly, as well, that you are not as devout as you claim to be, and that you ARE as anti-Semitic as you've always claimed not to be. And, then, do something about it. You've got the money, and you've got the name recognition. Educate yourself, and while you're at it see if you can educate others not to hate people who practice a religion that is not their own. You really could make a difference, if you acknowledge that your behavior the other night is not to be blamed on alcohol, but instead on sexism and religious intolerance, and that you need not only help, but education as well.

By the way, to the best of my knowledge Mother Theresa never got drunk and made anti-Semitic comments or called another woman "sugar tits." In fact, I'd lay money on that. But, that's another story, for another time.

Nel vino la verità. In wine, the truth, indeed.

Thanks for listening, have a great day.

Sunday, July 23, 2006


Forgive me, Jennifer, part two...

Holy crap, she really does have great hair! If you don't have a clue to what the heck I'm talking about, go to http://kennyaltman.blogspot.com/2006/07/forgive-me-jennifer-aniston-i-have.html

Thursday, July 20, 2006



Two minutes and eleven seconds of some of the coolest, hippest music ever recorded? The Shangri-Las, "Sophisticated Boom-Boom." Bless you, George "Shadow" Morton, your work with these gals was sheer magic and eternally enjoyable.

Thanks for listening, have a great day,

KA

Monday, July 17, 2006


So many reasons to love San Francisco - here's just one...

Sunday evening, July 16, I was grocery shopping at Cala Foods in my neigborhood, and thought it might be nice to buy flowers for myself for my apartment. There were no prices on the bunches of flowers that were on display, so I asked one of the clerks if she could help me. The security guard happened to overhear our conversation and he came up to me and said with a smile, "it depends on how much trouble you're in." I was not sure what he meant, so I asked him to explain and he said "it all depends on how mad she is at you, that's how much money you spend on the flowers." And I looked up at him in mock indignation and said "She?! This is San Francisco!" And he replied "Oh, he/she, it doesn't matter, we're all the same... someone's mad at you, you gotta buy 'em flowers!"

You gotta love that. If only George Bush could understand the same thing, that basically we're all the same. Perhaps he'd stop lobbying to write discrimination into the Constitution and start focusing on real issues instead. Perhaps, but I'm not holding my breath. Shame on him.

Thanks for listening, have a great day.

KA

Wednesday, July 12, 2006



One minute and fifty-eight seconds of sheer joy? "Stay," as recorded by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, 1964. E-mail me for an MP3 file.

Two and one-half hours of sheer magic? "Jersey Boys," currently playing at the August Wilson Theatre, NYC.

Thanks for listening, have a great day.

KA

Tuesday, July 11, 2006


Forgive Me, Jennifer Aniston

I have been badmouthing Jennifer Aniston for the past 10 years, and I need to apologize.

First it was her hair. I have no idea (nor do I still) what was ever so special about that damn hair of hers. It was blonde, with streaks, and it was long, and it was sort of this 70s layer cut. Did something get past me - was there something about that hair we had never seen before, or was this just a public relations rep working his first job, looking for an angle, and this was the best he could come up with? The hair angle?

Then it was the whole Ross/Rachel thing. For goodness' sake, that show was funny in its first two seasons. Aniston as Rachel, a spoiled princess finding her way in the world after a botched wedding, working as a waitress, learning about paying rent, etc., that was kind of cute. She went from being a whiner to being a young woman learning to live with both her strengths and her weaknesses, and she did it well. Ross' friendly but sarcastic relationship with his lesbian former wife was done really, really well and very respectfully. But then they eased the lesbian out of the show, along with the lesbian's partner and their child, and every episode turned into this great big hetero Ross/Rachel fest. Rachel stopped being a woman finding her way in the world, and she went back to being a whiner. And it was really annoying.

THEN it became the whole Brad/Jennifer thing. For goodness' sake, the woman married Brad Pitt. In plain English, a woman married a man. It happens every day (and of course in Britney Spears' world it actually does happen every day). What was the big whoop? Two relatively good-looking heterosexuals hooked up with each other? Did I need to see this played out in public every where I turned? For goodness' sake, you couldn't swing a dead cat in this town without bumping into another story about Brad and Jennifer. Yuk. I hated Jennifer even more. (And, yes, I hated Brad, too.)

And through it all, I kept saying "Jennifer Aniston? What is the big whoop with Jennifer Aniston? I have a big problem with Jennifer Aniston." Etc.

But then... Brad left Jennifer for Angelina. And I started seeing Jennifer in a more human light, as someone who was thrust into the spotlight against her will, only because of who she had married, and because she allegedly had great, unique hair.

And then... it all started to turn, in Jennifer's favor. She announced that she was moving to Chicago, to get away from the ugliness of Hollywood. Good move, Jennifer, I'm impressed, although I'd have preferred for her to move to San Francisco so she and I could hang out at Cocoro Sushi on Geary Boulevard and eat spicy chirashi and drink cold sake together and laugh with each other over green tea ice cream about how good-looking men aren't always all they're cracked up to be. (Note to Cocoro Sushi, you are welcome for the plug. I love you guys.)

And then... I rented The Good Girl because I was jonesin for Jake Gyllenhaal in the worst way, and renting anything he has ever been in (including the worst movie ever made in the history of the world - City Slickers - although it's worth suffering through the first 15 minutes to see one scene with adorable Jake at age 11). And I realized something that I had never realized before, something that unfortunately never made it through the hair/Ross/Brad hype - that Jennifer Aniston is a seriously good actress.

In The Good Girl, Aniston plays Justine, a 30-year-old woman working at a dead-end job in a one-horse town in Texas, dealing with a dead-end marriage, afraid that no one is ever going to understand and appreciate her for who she is, or in her words, "get" her. She meets Holden (real name Tom), portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal, at work. They seem to "get" each other almost immediately, and they begin a short but, of course, ill-fated affair. The Good Girl is about as real and honest as an indie movie can be, and Aniston's acting is nothing short of brilliant (as, of course, is Gyllenhaal's). Not much more to tell, other than I saw Jennifer Aniston in a completely different light and I am glad that I did. About 20 minutes into The Good Girl, when she told her husband, Phil (portrayed by the always great John C. Reilly), "every time you smoke one of them doobies you're killin' off another one of our unborn children," she won me over 100% and I'm never looking back.

Jennifer Aniston is a wonderful actress who does wonderful work - she just happened to marry the wrong guy and she paid for it dearly in the tabloids, and she apparently happened to have a publicist who thought it was more important to focus on her hair instead of her acting talents in order to get her press coverage. Bad move, pr guy, concentrate on her acting.

Forgive me, Jennifer, I was wrong. Call me next time you're in SF and we'll go for sushi - my treat!

Thanks for listening, have a great day,

KA

And you wonder why I have no interest in "professional" sports? Case closed.

Monday, July 10, 2006

I submitted this letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 10, 2006

Anyone who visits the Web site for "Campaign for California's Families," www.savecalifornia.com, will see that this is a bigoted, right-wing organization dedicated to denying equal rights and civil liberties, let alone any form of positive visibility, to homosexuals and their families.

So, why do you bother to quote someone representing their organization in your articles about same-sex marriage? Would you quote a KKK member when covering stories about race discrimination, in order to present a so-called "fair and balanced" perspective? Of course not.

Please stop passing off these discriminatory organizations such as Campaign for California's Families, Focus on the Family, etc., as having legitimate "opposing views," or at least when you do quote them, please call them what they are - organizations opposing civil rights for homosexuals and their families.

Thank you,

Kenneth Altman
San Francisco, CA