Bueller...Bueller...Bueller

Jason was Ducky; Larry was possibly the not-so-smart jock; Brenda was the alternative rebel chick; Chris was totally Bender, spray paint and all. Hong was the token Asian; Paul was the nerd turn cool with age white guy, Diane was the sweetheart, Katie was the one who wore too much makeup, Amy was the teacher's daughter...and me...well, let someone else describe in a Hughesian definition.

Was I Bender, nah...not even close. Ducky? Well...I wasn't that nerdy? Jake Ryan? No that was more Diego but he didn't go to school with us. Keith Nelson? Maybe a combo of Keith, Ducky, some of Ferris humor, and a little bit of Bender mixed in (well...thats a leap!) Who knows...maybe the guys above should describe me in not so nice terms. There was the girl I couldn't have, the musical soundtracks to those sweaty spring nights at NIOSA, the great parties where I tried to climb a flag pole with the then Mayor's daughter, the girls at Driver's Ed, gosh...so much. Our lives were Hughesian.

Oh, there was also Sant was the crazy Asian exchange student. Oscar was the heartthrob, Diana was the heartbreaker, who else? We could go on forever.

I guess we kids of the 80s all had our Breakfast Club/Sixteen Candles/Ferris Bueller moments. I had just broken into my self awareness period when Hughes was hip and Ringwall was hipper. I still remember Molly dancing on the staircase during detention. I mean she said it all...well at least all I wanted to be and wanted when right before the start of Thomas Jefferson High School.

I do remember seeing Ferris Bueller's Day Off at Santiko's Northwest 14 (or was it 12) Theater with Steven Mayer. I don't think he fit into our Hughes definition as he was a Jehova's Witness. Never bore witness to me. Cool guy, I guess.

I remember watching the Breakfast Club at Jess's house. It was recorded from HBO onto a video tape. I think Lisa someone or another gave it to me. And God knows how many times I've seen Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink in recent times. Its like on TV constantly. I actually saw an episode of Whatever Martha and Molly was a guest. Her and Martha were making something...again, God only knows what.

So on to the picture...

We walking east in midtown when my jaw dropped open. My heart rate spiked. My god...its Ferris Bueller. Well I knew not to call him Ferris as he was in the middle of great success with the Producers musical. But still...this was Ferris Bueller to me. He wasn't anything else.

I fumbled for my then Yashica T4 point and shoot and gave it to Yukako to snap a photo. I was so damn happy. I still am. Diane loves this picture. It took me a while to find the neg as it was buried under a ton of other negs. I knew I had to find it and scan it as my small memorial to John Hughes. Hughes make Broderick into a superstar.

He knew the drill He put his arm on my back. I think he was filled with a mild annoyance or maybe depression as he knew from my age that I only knew him as Ferris, nothing more. Well what the hell did he expect? So I joked with him, took the photo, and sent him off. Typical New Yorker. We just kept walking away but chatting. I told him he should have named their kid Ferris. HA. I got the last laugh.

Out of all the celebs I met, photographed, talked to or just ran into, this is the only guy that really had me star struck. Major. I saw and worked with all sorts of celebs in New York and Hawaii. I was once in a room with Bill Gates. Alone. I mean I could have been in the history books. I also remember standing on 43rd and 9th Ave next to Harrison Ford. He had a beard, wore a baseball hat, and glasses. Sorry Indiana, you were so recognizable. I was only a few days into New York on that cold winter morning. He looked a bit homeless. So did I. For the first few months in Manhattan, I wore two coats as I wasn't sure I was gonna make it through the following winter. I wore a green wind breaker and some Goodwill Special tweed coat. I was a mess.

Sadly, Hughes, the guy who set the definition of high school and teen life for me and millions died a year short of my 20th high school reunion. Going? Hell no. Not even close. All the people I know and want to see are where they are. I don't need to find them. And I surely don't want anyone finding me.

Check out this great Hughes youtube vid.

Safety First

Had a interesting job on the Big Island at a geothermal plant. It uses geothermal energy to produce electrical energy. A bit controversial as some native Hawaiian groups are upset their god Pele is being used as a source for energy and thus, taken advantage of...but its also controversial as the power plant sits atop an active volcanic area and the active rift zone. Earthquakes and possible lava flows could disrupt or even destroy the plant. The plant is very stable yet in a way, very unstable.

Well, at least my toes are protected. As we got access to shoot the plant, we were made to wear these steel-toe slip ons as well as other protective gear...helmets, googles, etc. But the toe protection was a really cool thing. I'd buy them.

McContinue Pt II

FASCINATING!

I watched Monday's edition of Democracy Now on Olelo Ch 54 and the entire episode was dedicated to the food industry and how, funny, "Bacon as a weapon of Mass Destruction."

No, not bacon... but all bacon consists of is fat, salt and sugar. Kinda sounds like what all fast food is, no? Actually sounds like what all food we eat consist of...

So the program discusses how the food industry is processing food and we are getting fatter and so forth.

You can listen to the Democracy Now podcast off of Itunes for free or go to their website at www.democracynow.org.

The show is linked here.

What struck me is their description of McDonald's Chicken McNuggets (yes! our preserved friend!) as...

highly addictive product, pumped full of all sorts of flavorings and chemicals that you would then dip in this fat- and sugar-, salt-laden sauce. And on average, a Chicken McNugget has twice as much fat as a McDonald’s hamburger.

Ouch. And they don't begin to discuss the preservatives that keep our little friend alive.

After toss and turn night of deep thoughts of MrMcfriend, I couldn't help but wonder what I am going to have in that zip lock a year from now. Two years...might I have a heirloom to pass on to my grandchildren? Might future explorers find McNuggets buried in archeological sites?

People will dig up old New York and find undigested McNuggets in the skeletal remains of someone in Harlem?

McContinue....

Its already August...the McNugget is still going strong. To recap, I found this escapee behind the flatscreen in May and it was from a batch of McNuggets I brought home one evening after a fun night of carousing around town.

Read my last few post to get more of the info on how he (maybe she) escaped. I took a look at the zip lock where I placed it and still no change. I decided to get radical with it. I took it out and gave it a good squeeze. The outer crust began to crumble...quiet nicely, as if it was still fresh. The cooking oil oozed onto my fingers coating them waxily (is that a word?) and I had to wipe my hands.

So after a few squeezes, I decided to dissect the bugger and tried to snap it in half. I figured it would go as the crust was cracking and crumbling but it wouldn't break. I had to get a pair of scissors and actually cut it in half, with lots of force. I mean I really had to squeeze those scissors to make that Mcdud snap in half. Now I got a McTwo.

The mystery chicken meat seems dark and greasy. Bits of fat glisten and from the looks of it, still seems edible. It did not give any distinct odor other than a lightly stale smell from being in a zip lock since May but that's it. No obvious fungus or any type of organic material has formed either.

Now this is whats bothering me. After a week, bananas bruise and begin to rot. I've found tomatoes in the bottom of the crisper that have rotten through and through. I've had milk convert to yogurt and papayas brewing themselves into alcohol. But McNothing on the McNugget. The McNugget is not growing fungus or mold. This is really odd and to think we eat this stuff...its really scary. Might this not digest in our belly?

A quick search online lead me to a few sources on what McNuggets really are...whether this stuff is true or not I don't know. I am just quickly noting a few things...

This one article noted McNuggets are actually 56% corn...which does make sense in a way as the nugget is coated in batter. It also notes the meat is pulverized chicken and all these other nasty bits of industrial might. What is odd is that this article note the McNugget does have traces of tertiary butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ) which is a petroleum product used for stabilizing various foods etc..."thus retarding development of rancidity...increasing shelf life.

Article can be found here...

Rense

Seems that preservative can be found in lots of other food products so its probably very difficult to stop ingesting this stuff. Could it be bad? Well, obesity increases around the world as globalization takes hold. People stop eating home grown stuff for packaged stuff. No one has time to sit down and cook any longer so we let big business feed us.

Does big business have our best interest in heart? Doubt it...just look at how long this McNugget has lasted.



Lets see what happens in a few more weeks now that I've McCut the McNugget.