LFS: The Storyteller

©2008 by LeeZard Seattle welcomed the Dalai Lama to town this past week, for something called the “Seeds of Compassion” conference. While I recognize the almost rock-star quality of the world’s most famous Buddhist monk, the conference was a bit too esoteric for LeeZard. Apparently LeeZard missed the compassion canoe; more than 150,000 people attended the series of events, workshops and concerts spread over several days at a variety of venues. Oh well. OOPS! WRONG DOLLY Hey, we can all agree that more compassion would make for a better world but I’m not convinced a five-day conference in Seattle – even with the peaceful aura of the Dalai Lama – is going to make it happen. Hallloooo Beijing? Are y’all listening? Which gets me to the real point of this particular rant. While I sympathize with the fight for religious freedom and tolerance in Tibet, I am troubled by the debate – here we go again - raging over the upcoming Olympic Games in China. Boycott or not? Who do we think would be hur...

©2008 by LeeZard Last Saturday I attended my legislative district caucus as a delegate for Hillary Clinton. My heart wasn’t in it and, you know, it had nothing to do with my alleged advanced age. I can still be passionate about issues and people. I can still light the fire in my belly and join a crusade. Today I just feel let down. When this presidential marathon began, I was excited. I remembered being mesmerized by Barack Obama’s keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic national convention and, while I didn’t know much about him, I was thrilled at the prospect of a truly viable African American presidential candidate. No disrespect to Shirley Chisholm, Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson but, not one of them was ever a front-runner for the nomination. As for Hillary, I always thought she was the real brains of the outfit, even in Bill’s White House (That’s not to say the former president isn’t brilliant in his own right; I just think Hillary’s brilliance outshines his. Debate on that is for a...

©2007 By LeeZard “No, it won’t kill you.” I was sitting in the office of a surgeon I’d only met 30 minutes ago, listening to him recommend – what else – SURGERY. “It won’t kill you,” he continued, “unless it twists around and cuts off the blood flow. Then it’ll kill ya.” I had a double hernia. My regular physician referred me to this particular surgeon because this was his specialty. “He’s the best in the city,” my doc assured me. “It’s not a major procedure anymore,” the surgeon went on. Now, it’s day surgery, just a small cut below your navel, a scope and a micro-tool, that’s it. Three day recovery, max.” So, one week later, lying on a gurney in the hallway outside of Operating Theater A, I was inhaling the ever-present eau de antiseptic and staring blankly at the green painted walls. I found myself reflecting on how I got there. It was like the newsreel of my life rolling in my brain. ----------- Most people travel life’s highway with tools to deal with its hazards a...

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band in Seattle. Another AWESOME Bruce show but, is "The Boss" slowing down? He 'only' did a two-hour show and one - 30 minute - encore! (NOTE: Sorry about the photo quality here; needless to say, the lighting was tricky and I admittedly grabbed some shots from the video screen. The Key Arena "camera police" were out in force.) What a show! It is the only time anyone ever sees LeeZard dance fast - can't help it; I just get happy feet. Some concert notes; Clarence "Big Man" Clemons seems to be suffering from some serious (back?) pain. He sat in sort of a throne when he wasn't playing and, when he did play, he could hardly move. Luckily, whatever ails him did not affect his sax playing but, gone was the gleeful interplay between Clarence and Bruce. Too bad. The rest of the band - sans wife Patti, who was home "guarding the house" against the teen-age kids - was in fine form. Nils Lofgren had one...

©2008 by LeeZard Will the real Obama please stand up? Something has bothered me about this guy all along. Maybe it’s the lack of substance beyond his messages of change and unity. Nice rhetoric but (Gawd, I hate to invoke Ronald Rayguns) “Where’s the beef?” Events of the last 24-hours have only added to my reticence. Now we have his daring speech on the Race issue. It troubles me. Is it a desperate move by a savvy politician or a bold statement from a true leader? Obama had to do something to blunt the damage to his campaign wrought by the inflammatory rhetoric of his “former” pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jr. In case you missed it, Wright over the years has sermonized in his (and Obama’s) Chicago church about the United States unleashing the AIDS virus and crack cocaine to kill Black people. He’s also damned our country for “a corrupt foreign policy that invited the deadly 9/11 terrorist attacks. He’s called this nation the “U.S. of KKKA.” In his address to local supporters, e...

©2008 by Leezard .......Doing in a mess like this? Moreover, what’s a nice Jewish governor doing in a high priced brothel? More moreover, what the hell kind of sex is worth more than $4,000? Didn’t Governor Spitzer ever listen to the Beatles (“Money Can’t Buy Me Love…….” Dumdeedumdee DUMB!!!)? Eliot, Eliot, what the hell were you thinking? Were you thinking, “It’s okay; Thomas Jefferson was shtooping his slaves?” Or, “It’s okay, JFK did Marilyn Monroe?” Or, “It’s okay, Bill Clinton got away with ‘I did not have sex with that woman (Thereby causing a huge national debate over what is and what isn’t SEX)?’” As Bill Clinton learned the hard way (Ouch, no pun intended. Okay, pun intended), these are different times. In Thomas Jefferson’s day, everyone was shtooping their slaves. In JFK’s day, the adoring media protected Sir Camelot. Today, any politician is meat for the media machine and, I think, justifiably so. Here’s a guy who was “Mr. Clean,” the hard-assed prosecutor who built his r...

This piece was written about Seattle highways - home to some of the worst drivers in America. If you don't live and drive here, please indulge me. You may still recognize some of these folks from your neighborhood. © 2008 by LeeZard I don’t drive like everyone else around here. Even though I’ve lived in the Seattle area for 34 years, I still retain some of my old New York City cabbie habits. It’s not that I drive aggressively. I prefer to call my driving style “assertively defensive.” I try to anticipate what everyone around me will do. I constantly check my side and rearview mirrors. I watch the front wheels on other vehicles; they will tell you what’s going to happen a split second ahead of time. The front wheels move or turn before the rest of the vehicle. As such, I try to keep my vehicle in a constant envelope of safety so I can navigate around and through whatever – or whoever – tries to keep me from my appointed rounds. Aggressive drivers act out of anger. (Which r...