The Prince Gets a Shower

The Arabian Prince finally reached the point where he really needed a bath a couple of weeks before I decided to give it a try on Saturday. Naturally, I was as wet as he was when it was all over, and he was shaking like he'd come within an inch of his life of dying--or as if I had washed him when it was 34 degrees outside. The boy hates, hates, hates water unless it's meant to drink.

He also doesn't do well in cross-ties, but that's all we've got for the wash area. I'm not supposed to wash him on the dirt walks--we are supposed to stay on the cement, which is quite slippery. He did try to sit back at one point and did go up, but he couldn't get loose and quickly realized he might get hurt, so he stopped. I won't say he settled in, because that would be an over-optimistic description of things, but at least he didn't do anything stupid.

I know Ashley's been spraying him off after Gayle works with him, but it has been so hot that he almost always has a few chevrons of sweat on his chest. His white socks have gotten splashed by urine since his pee hole is out on the DG instead of a pile of shavings (they just blow away outside, and, fortunately, he won't urinate inside his stall where the shavings are. If he'd just poop outside all the time as well, he'd have a nice clean bed of shavings to sleep on every day.)

I like to use the Rio Vista grooming products. I use the HiO Silver to bring out the white in his mane, tail, and socks and I use the shampoo for chestnut colored horses for the rest. It gives him an amazing, iridescent shine when he dries. Positively blinding in the sun. I also use the Rio Vista conditioner and the detangling shine spray. It makes for one very pretty boy when all is done, but it sometimes takes a few days for him to forgive me.

He looked very pretty when it was all over, and he went prancing past his neighbors' stalls in his "look at me" trot. He got to spend the rest of the weekend recovering in his fan-cooled stall, and was treated with a bucket of carrots and apples for his troubles.

A full-blown bath is a twice or three times a year experience, but Gayle has now decreed he gets sprayed off every time he is ridden. He tolerates the water better the more he is exposed to it (rather like his feelings about his winter blanket), but it will never be a joy in his life. Foolish horse.

Now we're in another heat wave. It hit 107 in Chatsworth yesterday afternoon, so we canceled my lesson. Today, it promises to be even hotter. Welcome to the San Fernando Valley in the summer. Ace, get your galoshes on.

He Left 64 in the Dust

Paul McCartney turned 66 today. He's three times as old as he was when we first saw him on Ed Sullivan. To paraphrase someone "who wants to see a 60 year old Beatle?" Amazingly, we do.

Unlike some of the other British Invasion performers, we've seen Paul age gradually, so it hasn't been a shock when I've seen him in pictures or on television (although the divorce did seem to put on a few years and lines that weren't there before.) This is in sharp contrast with watching Peter and Gordon or Gerry Marsden on the PBS British Invasion special. They were almost not recognizable and I couldn't tell which one was Peter and which one was Gordon.

Happy Birthday, Sir Paul. Still my favorite Beatle.

AFI's Latest List

We spent last evening watching the American Film Institutes latest list of 100 films: AFI's 10 Top 10. Naturally, as we went through it, we had a few "ughs!" some "wha?" some "where is?" and a few "wrong place." But we agreed with many of the choices.

I've now had a chance to look over the nominated films--50 in each category--and discovered most our "where is" queries are within the nomination list. I also discovered that some of the films I thought were in the wrong category also had nominations in what I thought were the correct category. For example, I think Bull Durham is one of the great romantic comedies of all time. It was nominated as a romantic comedy but made the top 10 as a sports film. Field of Dreams (what is it about Kevin Costner on the list?) was nominated as a sports film but made the top 10 as a fantasy film.

Only one of the Lord of the Rings cycle was nominated, and The Fellowship of the Ring came in number 2 on the fantasy list. If The Godfather Parts One and Two can both make the top 10 of gangster films, and Toy Story 1 and 2 are both nominated, there's no excuse for not even nominating the Oscar(TM)-winning The Return of the King. And, frankly, I thought they should both have been nominated in the epic category. After all, that fantasy The Ten Commandments was on the epic list.

I think that one less Marion Morrison film would not have hurt the western list in order to make room for The Magnificent Seven, a movie that even I have to stop and watch if I'm flipping through the TV channels and it is on. I cannot believe it wasn't in the top 10.

I've seen all 10 of the animation and science fiction winners, and eight of the gangster and epic films. My worst category (much to my surprise): courtroom drama, where I'm only certain I've seen four films. I've seen parts of many more.

While it did not surprise me to find that 2001: A Space Odyssey was the number one on the science fiction list, I'm still disappointed. While it is visually impressive (for the time it was made), it is boring beyond belief. A snore. I think that my friends who were on drugs the day we did a class trip to the Zigfield Theatre in New York to see it in 1970 were probably the ones who enjoyed it the most. I know I'm never getting those three hours back and I need them right now. I say this as someone who loved Sir Arthur's writing and I really like the short story "The Sentinel," which spawned the movie. But the movie is ponderous. I once heard someone say there's maybe 20 minutes of dialogue in it and last night Len said most of that is between Dave and Hal.

I was so pleased that The Day the Earth Stood Still was on the top 10 list. I remember when I first saw it on Saturday Night at the Movies and it still rates at the top of my science fiction list. For those who think science fiction is about ray guns--wrong! It is a way of exploring problems in this life when you can't address it with "reality." As a film, The Day the Earth Stood Still is closely related to The Crucible. It is about the communist witch hunts. I also recommend reading the short story "Farewell to the Master," upon which the film is based.

The other films I think should have made the top 10 lists are Inherit the Wind and Reversal of Fortune for courtroom drama, Lost Horizon for fantasy, A League of Their Own for sports, Iron Giant for animation (Lion King is so overrated) and Some Like It Hot, The American President and The Shop Around the Corner (which has spawned so very many variations) for romantic comedy. All were nominated (Some Like It Hot in the gangster category, not romantic comedy.) The Sure Thing was not even nominated for romantic comedy, but I suppose it is something of an update of It Happened One Night, which made the top 10.

I'm going to have Len and Michael go over the list and see if there are any films which none of us have seen to watch on a family film evening. I failed to mark 28 altogether, although there are many among those I've seen at least part of and some of which I've seen in remakes. A few of the films I've seen parts of, such as Al Pacino's Scarface, I'm not going to try and watch all the way through. Of the films I have seen, there are some I'm not interested in ever watching again. A Clockwork Orange is definitely at the top of that list. It, like Scarface, is just too violent. There's no point in spending all that time hiding my eyes.

I think that AFI should do a list of the top 100 books or stories adapted into movies. Maybe it would get people to read a little more.

A Satisfying Award Show

I seem to spend most of Monday recovering from the weekend. I really need to get to bed earlier on Sunday night. But last night, I had to watch the Tony Awards and I couldn't watch them until most of the guests had left the birthday party I threw for my spousal unit.

The Tony Awards were pretty entertaining, and the show moved along quite well. In truth, that was probably helped along by being able to zip through the commercials, since we recorded the show and started at the beginning about an hour into it. My sister had called earlier in the evening to let me know the answer to the BIG QUESTION--how closely we needed to watch--because she had the results two hours before we did. The answer was "watch closely" because August: Osage County won best play, which meant my niece Kristina Valada-Viars would be going up on the stage with the rest of the cast for that acceptance speech.

Unfortunately, the camera crew never did a sweep across the cast to get a good look at all of the actors in the very large cast. It was disappointing to us watching a home, but I can only imagine the excitement my niece had being on stage at Radio City Music Hall, a place so big Len once set an aerial fight between Spider-man and the Green Goblin there (you can do anything in comic books.) I'm dying to hear who she met--Harry Potter himself was one of the presenters for best play. Kristina: if you're reading this, post a comment and let us know how the evening went.

August: Osage County took five of the seven awards for which it was nominated. It had two nominees for lead actress, so only the actress playing the mother won, and it lost for lighting design. It also won for featured actress, director, and one of the other technical awards (perhaps for set design, which is wonderful.) I suspect my niece stayed out late and slept in this morning.

As the World Turns

What a great week. Dennis Kucinich introduced a bill of impeachment against the pretender in the White House and the Supreme Court recognized the strength of the U.S. Constitution (even if Scalia and the Chief Justice are embarrassments on the point.) One of my personal heroes, Vincent Bugliosi, has a new book out called The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder (of the more than 4000 U.S. troops who have died in Iraq.) Keith Olbermann called John McCain out for his callous disregard of the plight of our troops while the rest of the media lets it slip on by.

On the other hand, John McCain said he'd have Dick Cheney among his advisors when he gets to the White House. That's enough reason to vote against him, if there weren't plenty of others. Calling his own wife as Anglo-Saxon expletive and divorcing his crippled first wife are two more (although Republicans seem to have a pattern of divorcing spouses with health problems--can you spell Newt Gingrich?)

And Big Brown's trainer is calling pilot error the reason for the horse's poor showing at the Belmont. Ain't that just to be expected.

Olbermann Hits Another Nail on the Head

Keith Olbermann's got a great new graphic to illustrate part of the race to the White House. It was one of those things where I looked at it and said to my husband, "something's not right. Did McCain get a face-lift?" And then I realized what was up. The caption was "McBush" and the image was a seamless merging of the faces of John McCain and the pretender in the White House. OMG. It is priceless. I noticed it on Monday's show, but when I watched Friday's, it was used there as well. I don't think it's been in use very long because I'm pretty observant about things like this. Isn't Photoshop amazing when used by a skilled practitioner?

That's What Makes Horse Races

Well, the room was more than stunned as we watched Big Brown patiently run in the number three position for much of the Belmont and, as we cajoled the TV that it was time to make the move to the front, he just faded.

Of the women present, one was a classical riding trainer and three others ride regularly, so we all know that there are days when a horse is just not interested. My trainer Gayle says "that's why we call them horses, not motorcycles or bicycles."

It does raise bigger questions about what effect steroids do have on a race horse--and, in particular, what effect they had on this horse. It will be a better racing world when steroids are banned from racing and all the horses are on a level playing field.

I was sorry that Casino Drive needed to be scratched, but better a scratch then a damaged animal.

Sally Jenkins wrote a terrific article in the Washington Post, praising Kent Desormeaux for doing what was best for Big Brown when it was clear that something wasn't right with him. She is straight-forward about the unsavory people who own and train the horse, but recognizes that the jockey isn't one of them. Mr. Desormeaux left a press conference saying he will never doubt what he did was right, which is a good place to be for a man who seemed tortured by the press for his loss of the Triple Crown in 1998 on Real Quiet.

Prepping for a Day at the Races by Proxie

Things are in full swing to prep for the Belmont Tea at my house tomorrow, where I've got about 15 women showing up to watch the final leg of the Triple Crown. I'm looking for an exciting race without tragedy.

2007 winner Rags to Riches' younger half-brother, Casino Drive, is out to be the spoiler at Belmont and he would be Better Than Honour's third off-spring in three years to win the race if he prevails. Older half-brother Jazil won two years ago. That's one hell of a brood mare. She passes on genes from both Seattle Slew (her grandsire) and Secretariat (her great-grandsire) from her own sire, 1992 Belmont winner A.P. Indy. Talk about a royal family of racing as well as the convoluted inbreeding of Thoroughbreds. Casino Drive's sire is Mineshaft, son of A.P. Indy. Rags to Riches (retired after a hairline fracture that was reinjured) is two months in-foal to Giant's Causeway, sire of Better than Honour's 2007 foal.

Big Brown's runaway performance at the Preakness gives him the favored status tomorrow, despite that quarter crack. The news coverage about steroids does still put a cast over his performance, though. Not the horse's fault. It will be interesting to see if he races against Curlin, 2007's horse of the year despite his loss to Rags to Riches, as the article I read today suggests is in the works. A modern Seabiscuit versus War Admiral match up, perhaps?

I managed to find a bakery that makes pullman loaves, perfect for making tea sandwiches. They would even make them in color, but I decided to pass on that. I'm getting white, wheat, and rye, and I'll get two of the loaves sliced on the horizontal. I've got a wide variety of sandwich fillings to choose from, so I'll probably do an egg salad, a smoked salmon, a ham, and possibly the blue cheese with roast beef (even if I won't eat it.) I've found about 10 different recipes for making Maids of Honour, though none quite like the ones Marilyn Niven brought to the last Belmont Tea. My scone recipe is from the no longer existent Ticky-boo Tea Room in Carlsbad, a wonderful Victorian place that disappeared overnight, much to our chagrin. Fortunately, my friends had bought the self-published "Cookin' in the Kilt" the owners had written and the scones and a savory Stilton cheesecake are always a big hit.

My challenge tonight is to get the dining room table cleared to set up the tea trays, cups, saucers, and the good silver. I've also got to pull out all of the horse swag I've collected to decorate, including balloons with silks on them, the string of plastic horse lights, the teapots with horses, and my growing collection of Triple Crown glasses (for anyone choosing to drink iced tea or a Belmont Breeze.)

My friend Kay is doing a whirlwind trip to the east coast to watch the race in person. I suggested she call and give us a live report. I suspect we won't be able to hear a word if Big Brown wins.

Sidewalk Requium, Los Angeles June 5th & 6th

The title is from a Chad and Jeremy song on The Ark. It's about what happened 40 years ago today.

I was a junior in high school, days away from finals, and having a little trouble sleeping. I got up and read a piece in the previous Sunday's New York Times Magazine about Senator Robert Kennedy's run for the presidency. Martin Luther King had been killed two months earlier. John Kennedy's assassination was on people's minds. I didn't turn on the television for fear of waking my parents, and went back to bed for a bit before my father woke me with the news that Senator Kennedy had been shot in Los Angeles. It hit me hard.

I went to school in tears and kept a transistor radio (remember them) with me to check the news throughout the day. It wasn't good. My Republican social studies teacher had no sympathy (in November she would dance with glee wearing a Nixon button) and, in a town with few Democrats, there weren't a lot of people with whom to bond.

On Thursday morning, my father woke me with the news that Bobby Kennedy had died during the night.

It still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it. This morning when I was driving into work, KNX had a radio announcer talk about being there, interspersed with his actual audio feed of the time. I just started to cry, like it happened today.

About a month ago, people with whom I graduated from high school got in touch with me about a list-serve they set up for our class. The other day, several talked about where we were when we found out John Kennedy was assassinated. I learned about it when I went into my 7th period math class at about 1:45 in the afternoon and one of my classmates announced it. A bit later, the school intercom came on and we all heard a news broadcast that President Kennedy had died. It was a shock for everyone, on a par with Pearl Harbor or, now, the planes going into the World Trade Center.

Robert Kennedy's death didn't hit most people that way, but it did me. Perhaps it was because he had just taken the California primary and it was a matter of seeing such incredible promise smashed beyond repair in a split second. More likely, it was watching someone in a position to do great good being ripped from the scene just after he had worked to calm the country after the murder of Martin Luther King. It was the final crushing loss of hope for my country. Despite any flaws which have been revealed since his death, he had passion, drive, a great desire to help people who were less fortunate than himself, and I doubt he'd ever apologize for being a liberal.

I've got The Ark in vinyl, since I bought it close to 40 years ago, but it is now available on CD. I'd also recommend viewing Emilio Estevez's film Bobby.

Today, there were three lovely pieces by Bobby' children in the New York Times about their father and Patt Morrison did a piece in the Los Angeles Times wondering why the Ambassador Hotel wasn't saved as a place where history took place. Recommended reading, all.

And now, I'm going to take my friend Melinda Snodgrass' advice and have cautious hope for the future of a country where, in 2008, the two leading Democratic candidates for President of the United States were a black man and a white woman and it is still during my lifetime.

Keeping up with Big Brown

I've been thinking about finding the origin of the e-mail I got announcing Big Brown's signature deal with Nike for several days. A careful Google search turned it up so you can now enjoy it by clicking the link. It's a scream. And here's the one about his continuing three-year media silence. Of course, we know that horses can talk if we're just quiet enough to listen.

Here's an update on Big Brown's cracked hoof. This one is not a joke.

And here's the latest edition of Carnival of the Horses with a wide selection of blogs from all over about our favorite equines.