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DEAN'S QUARTERLY NEWLETTER, Vol. 10, No. 1, 09/01/2006
HIGHLIGHTS OF SUMMER 2006:
Trip to Minnesota: I caught up with family and
friends in early June with a 12-day trip to Minnesota. My good buddy Gary Brown was visiting from
Germany, and we performed many enjoyable songs
together in front of small but appreciative audiences at my stepfather Ben’s nursing
home, my aunt Patsy’s and for a few high school friends Shelley,
Barb, Judy and Shelley’s family.
My mother
seemed well and it was great to catch up with family and various other high
school friends. Here’s
a good one of my nieces
and nephews. I will likely return
later this year.
Trip to San Diego: It’s become at least a
semi-annual event that I head to San Diego for the ESRI conference,
where 14,000 mapping professionals congregate annually. This time, I had a poster to show (among the
couple thousand on display). It was another wiz-bang week, and after days
filled with sessions highlighting the latest in mapping software, the evenings
were party time, and geographers really know how to party! Every night there were a couple parties to
attend, the biggest of which featured catering for most of the 14,000 attendees
and a big fireworks display!
The trip also
included a weekend visit to the home of my friend Hatem
and his new wife Ismet, and another weekend visit to the
home of my friend Kathy, Hatem’s former wife. Among other things, my visit with Hatem featured visits with his family and an afternoon at
the beach, and my visit with Kathy featured an evening concert with a Neil
Diamond imitator she knows. It’s always
great to catch up with everyone.
Movies: Several movies I saw over the summer seemed
quite worth the while. I’ve become a documentary aficionado, which makes sense,
since I’ve always preferred non-fiction to fiction. You are more likely to find these on DVD than
in your neighborhood theater, unless you are in a major urban center. Among the documentaries I’d recommend
are Al Gore’s global warming tome Inconvenient Truth ***, which although not an exceptional documentary and somewhat old hat
to anyone who’s paid close attention to the issue over the years, ought nevertheless
be required viewing for all – and I’d be proud to have Al as
President. Road
to Guantanamo ***1/2 is also must viewing about three British men
of Pakistani origins who get captured in Afghanistan and undergo cruel
treatment as detainees at Guantanamo before being
released years later. The War
Tapes ***1/2 is a
view of the war in Iraq from four gung-ho soldiers
equipped with video cameras and who turn rather cynical by the time they return
home. Who Killed the Electric Car *** is a whodunit documentary with predictable protagonists
and antagonists, but it is nevertheless fun for those who love to hate big amorphous
corporate villains.
For those who
like their fiction pure, Little
Miss Sunshine
**1/2 was a fun film, though somewhat less funny than the critics raved and at
times much more traumatic. “Subversive”
was an appropriate term I saw one critic use. Being from Minnesota, I had much
higher hopes for Robert Altman’s and Garrison Keillor’s
A Prairie Home Companion *1/2. Though enjoyable for me and other true
devotees of the weekly radio broadcast, I think those unfamiliar with the true spirit
of those programs might look at the movie and either get the wrong idea or just
say, “huh?” The Brazilian film Lower City *1/2 has both steaming sexuality and violence set in the context of gritty
survival among Brazil’s underclass. The focus is on a love triangle between two
men and a prostitute, and the film brings to mind the 1974 film Looking for Mister Goodbar
in that virtually every character in the film turns out to have some measure of
despicability.
All of these
films were worth my time, but may or may not be worth yours.
COMING UP NEXT QUARTER (Autumn): Trip to Toronto, Europe and visit
from mom
Check in and let me know what’s up with you.
You can contact me by clicking on this E-mail address: mailto:%20mail@deanoman.com.
My address in Maryland: Telephone numbers:
Dean
Oman Home:
301-931-1144
10405
46th Ave., Apt. A204
Work: 301-504-2317
Beltsville, MD 20705
Review previous newsletters:
Spring
06 – Dean’s News Vol 9, No.
4, 06/01/06 – Hanging around Beltsville, MD
Winter
06 – Dean’s News Vol 9, No.
3, 03/01/06 – Minnesota and Arizona
Autumn
05 – Dean’s News Vol 9, No.
2, 12/01/05 – Minnesota, Toronto, Boston
Summer
05 – Dean’s News Vol 9, No.
1, 09/01/05 – Washington, Oregon and Northern California
Spring
05 – Dean’s News Vol 8, No. 4, 06/01/05 – Joshua and
Dean’s Great European Adventure
Winter
05 – Dean’s News Vol 8, No. 3, 03/01/05 – Minnesota
and Bahamas
Autumn
04 – Dean’s News Vol 8, No. 2, 12/01/04 – Boston,
Orlando, plus new digs in Beltsville, Maryland
Summer
04 – Dean’s News Vol 8, No. 1, 09/01/04 – Toronto,
Minnesota, San Diego, Chicago
Spring
04 – Dean’s News Vol 7, No. 4, 06/01/04 – Italy,
Switzerland, Eastern Europe, New York City
Winter
04 – Dean’s News Vol 7, No.
3, 03/01/04 – Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Arizona
Autumn
03 -- Dean's News Vol 7, No. 2, 12/01/03 -- Minnesota
Summer
03 -- Dean's News Vol 7, No. 1, 09/01/03 --
California and Toronto
Spring
03 -- Dean's News Vol 6, No. 4, 06/01/03 – Minnesota,
Boston
Winter
03 -- Dean's News Vol 6, No. 3, 03/01/03 – Arizona,
California and Colorado
Fall
02 -- Dean's News Vol 6, No. 2, 12/01/02 – Balkans
and Turkey, Minnesota, Toronto
Summer
02 -- Dean's News Vol 6, No. 1, 09/01/02 --
Minnesota, California and Canada's Maritimes
Spring
02 -- Dean's News Vol 5, No. 4, 06/01/02 -- Nearly
arrested
Winter
02 -- Dean's News Vol 5, No. 3, 03/01/02 -- Arizona
and California
Fall
01 -- Dean's News Vol 5, No. 2, 12/01/01 -- Boston,
Minnesota, New York City
Summer
01 -- Dean's News Vol 5, No. 1, 09/01/01 -- Vietnam,
Laos, Cambodia and Minnesota
Spring
01 -- Dean's News Vol 4, No. 4, 06/01/01 -- Baltic
Nations, Poland and Czech Republic
Winter
01 -- Dean's News Vol 4, No. 3, 03/01/01 -- Boston
and Arizona
Fall
00 -- Dean's News Vol 4, No. 2, 12/01/00 -- Colorado,
Minnesota and Gettysburg
Summer
00 -- Dean's News Vol 4, No. 1, 09/01/00 -- Minnesota
and Washington
Spring
00 -- Dean's News Vol 3, No. 4, 06/01/00 -- Eurailing in Europe, and Minnesota
Winter
00 -- Dean's News Vol 3, No. 3, 03/01/00 -- Jamaica,
Arizona and the Millennium
Fall
99 -- Dean's News Vol 3, No. 2, 12/01/99 -- The
Middle East and Minnesota
Summer
99 -- Dean's News Vol 3, No. 1, 09/01/99 -- Minnesota
Spring
99 -- Dean's News Vol 2, No. 4, 06/01/99 -- Pacific
Northwest
Winter
99 -- Dean's News Vol. 2, No. 3, 03/01/99 -- Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Fall
98 -- Dean's News Vol. 2, No. 2, 12/01/98 -- Germany, Poland and Czech Republic
Summer
98 -- Dean's News Vol. 2, No. 1, 09/01/98 -- A summer romance
Spring
98 -- Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 4, 06/01/98 -- New York City and Minnesota trips
Winter
98 -- Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 3, 03/01/98 -- Arizona and Colorado trip
Fall
97 -- Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 2, 12/01/97 -- Venezuela and Trinidad
Summer
97 -- Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 1, 09/01/97 -- Toronto and Niagara Falls
Best wishes to all,
Deano
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