Fleet Week

Snapshots aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. It's one massive recruitment tool for the Navy and the Air Force. As you stroll along, you can hop in to a flight simulator, climb up tanks and other aircraft on display, or suit up in a fire-retardant uniform and get your picture taken. What I found disturbing were children getting hands on with firearms on display. A tyke behind a machine gun? I'm too much of a liberal to find that cute.

1-866-IDOLS-0?

I've never seen day nurses give report so fast and clear out the station.
Didn't catch on until one of them said she had to leave NOW so she can be home to watch the showdown on “American Idol.”

Watched it this morning and the standout was Adam Lambert's rock and soul cover of “Change is Gonna Come.” (The Idol producer chose “What's Going On?” for Kris Allen to sing, which sounded so passe considering change is in the zeitgest compared to war protest.)

I had two people text me at work about how Adam “rocks” and that I should vote for him. However, they neglected to give me the extension to dial so I can participate in the “democratic” process of voting as many times for my candidate of choice.

"Only bad witches are ugly."

"The Wizard of Oz" was a movie my mother banned me from seeing because she said the Wicked Witch of the West was the work of the devil. Wasn't she the one who took my brothers and I to its far scarier sequel “Return to Oz”? Maybe she knew that watching Judy Garland would turn me gayer.

What is the queer appeal of “The Wizard of Oz”? It can't just be Judy Garland. Queer viewers most likely identified with Dorothy's yearning for “Somewhere / Over the Rainbow,” a place far from their oppressive reality. Or the campiness of the witches? Or the visibility of the Sissy stereotype in the guise of the Cowardly Lion.

This time, however, I read the film as a metaphor on movie escapism. Dorothy's journey mirrors that of a moviegoer's. Dorothy /Moviegoer is sucked into the vortex and transported from the harsh black and white world to a Technicolor fantasy land. Dorothy's time in Oz is a dream. The moviegoer's time spent in the cinema is nothing but a dream. The movie doesn't sell the fantasy. Since this is 1939 at the tail end of the Depression, the movie emphasizes the importance of family and home. “Lose yourself in a movie” it says. “But your real life, no matter how dull, is more precious.”

Kidney Now!

Long, exhausting night at work: a shift when I felt like a nurse, waitress, janitor, and unit clerk all rolled into one. Come morning, when the powers that be start nitpicking and screaming "Who's the nurse for _," all the things one does (within and outside of one's department) are unrecognized. One feels like s/he has not done any thing right in the past twelve hours.

To unwind, I curled up to "30 Rock's" season finale that served up an ending that chased the work blues away.

"WHEN YOU GIVE A KIDNEY
AND WE REALLY THINK YOU SHOULD
WE PASS THE CUP
THEY STITCH IT UP
YOU DO SOME GOOD."

"Be Italian" Again

Um, finally. The Oscar-baiting "Nine" trailer is finally out.
Not good enough for Cannes, I take it. A trailer is no way to judge a movie, but let's see: the numbers look like they're shot on the same studio as "Chicago" and the overall aesthetic is more "La Dolce Vita" than "8 1/2." Anita Ekberg seems to be an inspiration for the women. Daniel Day Lewis channels Marcello Mastroianni nicely. And Fergie's breasts, in true Fellini fashion, are big enough to scare and entice at the same time.
The irony of the song is that with the exception of Sophia Loren, none of its main stars are Italian.

"Mama"

I don't usually mark these Hallmark holidays.
I'm a bad son. I can't remember the last time I got a present for Mother's day.



Charice Pempenco sings "Mama" in Sharon Cuneta's (!) show.
The song, first sung by Smokey Mountain, was originally a hit way back when in the Philippines. It's sappy and hews closer to a Broadway melody than a pop song.
I recall adopting this as a theme song when it first came out since my mother was trying out her luck at a med-surg unit in Long Island at that time. I even called the radio station to request it.

Full Song: Smokey Mountain's "Mama."

Nurses Week

Happy Nurses Week!

I know I'm not the only one who looks forward to this week. We groan because we have to do another poster board. But in exchange for that, the hospital gives us some swag. This year was the cheapest gift of them all. It was a black eco-friendly re-usable grocery bag. At least they fed us cookies, ice cream, and breakfast.

None of this makes the job any easier though, only slightly appreciated for a week.
Let me vent: I picked a medical oncology unit to work in because I wanted to avoid psych, maternity, and pediatrics. But recently, I feel like I've been working in all those departments at the same time. I've seen more younger patients. (Naturally, as I grow older, there will be more patients younger than me.) I've encountered more bipolar patients, not to mention patients whose mental status are affected by their disease. There's not enough compensation from Nurses Week when someone curses you out, spits at you, and chews out their restraints. It's not a psychiatric floor, so we can't call the kind of code where security officers show up and someone gives Haldol, Ativan, and Benadryl to the patient. We've had new mothers as patients, too. Post-partum depression and cancer combined? I described the unit to my supervisor as "brutal." She said, "We prefer to call it challenging."

Background: National Nurses Week is celebrated annually from May 6, also known as National Nurses Day, through May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.

H1N1

Image from: NY Times, "American Epidemics, a Brief History"

Traveling in the subway yesterday, I was paranoid about every sniffle and cough I made. Will other people flee from me? Or will my fellow passengers kick me out of the car? Luckily the cough drop worked and I was inconspicuous. Can you blame me for the paranoia? There's a panic-demic going on. A friend told me how his company purchased masks in bulk so the employees in the office can wear them. How about staying home from work? (I know, it's a luxury not everyone can do.)

The NY Times ran the above chart and left out the current Influenza A/H1N1 outbreak. The scapegoats this time are Mexicans. No kerosene baths for them this time (See Typhus Outbreak.) But the dowsing they get from TV viewers calling in or e-mailing to news shows are as scabrous. Mexicans did not bring the swine flu to the U.S. by sneaking across the border! The first cases stateside were from U.S. tourists.

From New York Magazine: Swine Flu Is Turning Us Against Each Other

A & P

Remember in Anatomy and Physiology Lab when the TA's told us to treat the human skeletons with respect? Probably because of these cut-ups from med schools way back when. Their sense of humor was as morbid as ours.

The tableaus reminded me of a school project college students submitted at the nursing school my mother taught in the Philippines. The students had to present dioramas of frog skeletons as their final project. The dioramas I saw included frogs dressed as the Beatles in a concert, frogs in a fashion show, and frogs riding a car. Don't know for which class. Biology, maybe? Luckily, we didn't have to do that here. The dissecting part and the dressing up part, I wouldn't have a problem with. But hunting for frogs? Imagine trying to catch them in your backyard?

"A Student's Dream"

From NPR: Portraits Capture Life In Dissecting Class

Rome and Russia on TCM

A plus this past week as I'm nursing myself back to health is spending quality time with Turner Classic Movies. So I had the opportunity to see some movies again.

Re-watched “Roman Holiday” and I know I've seen it at least twice before. The Mouth of Truth scene is still as delightful. But it turned out I had forgotten how the whole movie ends! It's a fitting ending, anyhow. Rome's tourist sights still look the same now as in the movie. New sights to visit the next time in Rome: Palazzo Colonna, Castel St. Angelo, and of course, the Bocca della Verità.

“From Russia with Love” appeared fresher, wittier, and more enjoyable than the recent entries in the franchise (except “Casino Royale”). It's the second James Bond movie and more iconic than the first. Austin Powers spoofed practically every bit of this movie. The blatant sexism feels archaic. Bond sleeps with a lot of women here (at least four, I think, including a threesome). Bond beauties here are either simply pretty and easily fall for Bond or unattractive and villainous. Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb falls on the latter category. Her Sapphic caressing of Daniela Bianchi just adds another threat to Bond's masculinity. I can't believe that this is Kurt Weill's Lotte Lenya – the same one from Kander and Ebb's “Cabaret” singing about a pineapple.

Both delivered in escapism, allowing me to travel to Rome, Istanbul, and Venice - at least in my mind.

May Day

The first rainfall in May has healing powers.
This was a superstition I learned as a boy when I stayed with my paternal side of the family one summer. Of course I didn't believe that. The Baptist side of me said this must be a Catholic thing since they were Catholics. It rained that first day in May. I joined the other kids outside showering in the rain because it just seemed like fun.

Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have the same superstition: 

"You will have good luck throughout the year if you stroll under the first rain drizzles in May (las primeras lloviznas de mayo)."

"When the first rain in May falls catch the water with your hands and wash your face. This will get rid of wrinkles, and purify. Save some in a jar to use later for whatever ails you."

So, it must be a Catholic thing. Is May a holy month in their calendar?

My guess: Since May is part of summer in the Philippines and the above countries are also tropical, rain around this time of the season must feel like a blessing.

Could be worth a shot going outside and getting wet to cure me of this bad cold. It's better than going back to the island in "Lost" so I can get "healed" like Twitchy.