By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Nov 5th, 2009

I am only two days behind on posting, not bad, considering.  With all of the interesting elections going on in other states, I was busy reading, and forgot to simply say hi, and that we voted locally here in Pittsburgh, and no, we did not vote straight down-the-line Democratic, in the photo below, I am just goofing around.  Don’t act surprised.

We are happy because we did a lot of research on all of our local politicians, and every one we wanted won.  No crazy carrying on at the polling place, unlike, oh say, Upstate New York….but I promised I would not say anything about a person who causes that kind of divisiveness, we all know who started the ball rolling that ended up with a Democrat in a seat that had been held by a Republican for over one hundred years.  Good job, Palie!  Good job!

Anyway, it was very calm and uneventful, Tomas and I got a nice walk in, it was a beautiful fall day, although a bit on the chilly side.  Even walking up the steep hill to the polls didn’t really warm us up, so we both look like we are doffing our Santa Claus layers in the photos below.

Got exercise and voted!  Who says we cannot multitask?

photo by Tomás Hradcky

Just goofing off, like I mentioned.  There were a few very interesting moderate Republicans, and we figured we should vote for them not only because they had the best looking record for our city and state, but because the fringe right-wing is trying to kill them off, so let’s get the good ones in while they are still alive.

Photo by Kelly Mahan Jaramillo

Tomas is freezing, and I can hear him thinking about the warm stew on the stove at home.  I was, too.  We traipsed back down the hill, down the stairs, and got back to work.

It's much more steep than it looks, trust me

And these go way, way far down until you just....disappear.

A good day.

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Nov 2nd, 2009

I am going to be honest – I am not a Halloween fan.  For many reasons, too boring to go into.  Tomas is not, either, and luckily, we live in a hidden neighborhood where there are very few children.  Except for Alex, the two year old down the street, our neighbor John’s son.  Below is Alex and John’s Halloween front yard.  Perfect.

Woe to those who dare touch the Terrible Towel...just ask the Titans.

photo by Kelly Mahan Jaramillo

photo by Kelly Mahan Jaramillo

Photo by Tomás Hradcky

Photo By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo

Herbert Walker - Loved his country, his family, and dancing. A good life.

Photo by Tomás Hradcky

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Oct 31st, 2009

You know, I have sort of ignored Liz Cheney this past year, due to my other unhealthy obsession that I think I am breaking free of. However, Liz decided to comment on the really terrible transgression she felt President Obama displayed, when he went to Dover Air Force base on Thursday to honor the deceased American soldiers coming back from Afghanistan.

Liz says she doesn’t know why he went over to Dover, with the cameras. She says it is important to honor our fallen soldiers, but it should be done in private at Dover, just like her Daddy and Mister Bush did it for the last 7 years.

Does Liz look like Meghan McCain to you? Someone who can fall back on her “but I’m only 25 years old” line when she says/does something stupid?

She does not to me.  She looks like a 43 year old woman who was thirty-five when Dad was elected Vice President, and either she was just shopping, doing her yoga and and enjoying gazing at the family Picasso’s that are hidden in the basement to protect the grandchildren (because, you know, they’re nudes!), and paying absolutely no attention to what was up with Dad’s job, and therefore has absolutely no business blathering about politics on a radio show,

OR) her parents have surgically microchipped her into not remembering what went on during any presidency other than the Bush years, in which case, she needs medical help, and has absolutely no business blathering about politics on a radio show.

Liz, honey, Daddy and Mister Bush never once, once, in seven years, went to Dover Air Force Base. There were no cameras there because there was nothing to see except for caskets of dead soldiers, and Daddy and Mister Bush had banned the press from covering those kinds of events.

No wonder, as you say, “it is really hard for you to get your head around why President Obama would show up with cameras” – something seems to be terribly wrong with your poor little head – it seems to be filled with a lot of misinformation – and I am being kind using that word.

May I stand in line along with thousands of others, to inform you that President Obama made no special request of the 18 families at the ceremony? The one family that approved cameras on their dead son/daughter’s casket made that request of the military – or had been asked by the military, whichever order this particular protocol goes in, before they knew President Obama was going to attend.

Your “really hard for me to get my head around it” insinuation that President Obama showed up as a photo-op, is beyond offensive, especially when your Daddy managed to wrangle 5 deferments out of serving his country (the last one was because Mommy was  pregnant with you – guess he wanted that chip installed early), yet had no problem starting two wars, and no problem staying home making sure no cameras were at Dover, when the dead American Soldiers started flying in.

Maybe that fact is what you are really having a hard time “getting your head around”.

In our country, where the families who go to Dover Air Force Base to pick up their dead, we have gotten used to not seeing the Commander-in-Chief and the Vice President, the men that sent these families loved ones to their death, actually show up to pay their respects.

Your Daddy, Liz.  Your Daddy and Mister Bush never went, and you are blathering about it somehow being inappropriate that President Obama, who did not start these wars (again, that was Mister Bush and your Daddy, Liz – I will keep repeating it so it might get into that little spun sugar ball you have floating on your neck), but inherited them, doing what is honorable, American, moral and right.

Watch Lawrence O’Donnell talk about how he feels concerning the disrespectful drivel that came out of your mouth this October 29th, 2009.

Liz, it is time for you to get your facts in order before opening your mouth again.  For some reason, you are considered a bit of an expert on politics, and although I am not an expert on politics, I have a tip for you.  Don’t fact check with Daddy, okay?  It not only makes you look really, really stupid, but clueless and, well, kind of sad.

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Oct.28th, 2009

It was a last minute decision, but off we went to New York, in the middle of the night, to represent Tomas’s film “American Dumpling” at the Chashama Film Festival. The day started like this:

Are we packed? Did we forget anything? What does this button in the rental car do?

The “decider” was the always correct Magic 8 Ball, which said, emphatically, yes! It was a dark and stormy night, and we had not had any sleep when we began the drive from Pittsburgh.

All went well, we met up with old friends, and made new friends, left at 6 p.m., where we got lost on the New Jersey turnpike.  It was a bit like this:

Look Out! It's another huge pothole! Oh No! That was our turnoff!

Luck was on our side, and after forty hours of no sleep, we made it home, hallucinating, but physically intact.

Another beast wrestled to the ground!  Another day to tell the tale!

Life is good.

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Friday, October 16th, 2009

I cannot quite believe I am going to pull out Nancy Reagan’s 1982 drug campaign slogan “Just Say No”, but I believe it might be appropriate here.  Mrs. Reagan tried, in the initial stages of her drug campaign, to use education as a preventative tool, but quickly realized that more was needed, and she started working with addiction and drug rehabilitation facilities.

That was the ticket, and I believe we have to start using her slogan against the Democratic Party’s latest addiction:  Sarah Palin.

Let me be the first to stand up and introduce myself:

“My name is Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, and I am a Sarah Palin addict.  I need help.”

(Room responds, “Hi Kelly.).

This is my first step in recovering from my unhealthy interest in a person who lost the 2008 Vice-Presidential run, who quit her job as governor, who is not being asked to stump for any of the GOP nominees at the time of this writing, and whose only presence at this time is a book coming out in November that I have no intention of buying, although I am on a slippery slope – if it were lying around, I would have, at this point, an almost impossible time not picking it up.

I do not want to waste any more precious hours of my life  with what I consider drivel, in writing about her, reading about her, anything at all about her unless it is truly earthshaking.  I believe we all need to get over our unhealthy interest in Sarah Palin.  The only way she will go away is if we stop caring about what she is or is not doing, what she is or is not saying, and what others are or are not saying about her.

It is not going to be easy, I will be the first to admit it, but I have to start somewhere, and unless Sarah Palin is running for President in 2012, or something equally as disturbing and hilarious, this is the last post I am going to be writing on Palin.

I do not consider her “writing” of ridiculous op-eds for the Wall Street Journal or The National Review earthshaking.  That nonsense appears to be nothing more than the desperate move of a person quickly slipping into irrelevance outside of her marginal rabid fan base.

If you wish to follow solid information concerning the mess Palin left behind in Alaska, or the continuing probe into her ethics violations, I strongly suggest you bookmark the mudflats blog, Or Shannyn Moore’s blog.  They both live in Alaska, and pay close attention to and report accurately on what is going on up there politically.  All politicians, not just the now absent Palin, despite the silly rumors that either of the above mentioned sites are “Palin Hatemongers” – they are not.  They are political blogs, and Palin was a problem they wrote about long before the rest of us knew who she was.  If you read the blogs now, they are moving along with what the new Governor and other elected officials are and are not doing.

So, for my few readers who were looking forward to my silly satirical “Palin Family 2019″ story, I have decided against it.  If I need to, I will write it and print it myself, and send the three copies of it to my three friends who want to read it.

In the meantime, I am going to write posts of substance when needed, and humor when I feel like it, but no more on Sarah Palin.  She is an addiction that has become a bore, and at this point, the habit is not worth the hangover.

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Oct 8th, 2009

Our role model this week is author Sarah Palin.

She has all of the attributes a publisher looks for in a fiction writer.  She can write such good fiction that people actually believe that she is writing about real events and real actions!  Not only that, but she can bang out a sublime piece of work such as this so quickly that her release date gets moved from Spring of next year to Fall of this year.

She is that amazing.

In honor of Sarah Palin, I am going to write an eight part fiction story right here on this blog:  It is going to be called,  ”The Palin Family, 2019″.

This will be fiction, everyone, as I am sure you will be able to tell upon reading the very first page.  Sadly, I do not possess the divine gift Sarah Palin has – the ability to turn pure fiction into fact for over a million people.

Stay Tuned!

Our first installment, coming soon!

Oh, and the first person to comment on an installment will be part of an Ebay auction to have dinner with me and receive a signed copy of “The Palin Family – 2019″, with all proceeds from the auction to go to my favorite charity – me!

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo

First off, the Summit is over and we all lived. Tomas and I went downtown on Wednesday and took a few pictures of the pre-preparations, on our way to the health food store.    Below is one of my favorites.  This sign was HUGE!!

this from the front seat of the Volvo, driving by.

We have a lot of them, and I just have not had time to post.  I will sprinkle them throughout posts down the line.

It was really interesting to be downtown, watching all of the preparation, and seeing how deserted the city was.  I love this city.

HOWEVER – on to personal pressing business – I am writing this because Tomas had requested that the International Movie database get his name and aka in the correct order, and somehow there was a mix-up.  You can only find Tomas Hart, and the film he worked on as a music element creator.  You cannot find Tomas Hradcky, the film composer, anywhere on the Imdb.

It is the same Tomas – he changed his name to Tomas Hart when he went to Los Angeles 23 years ago.  The last five years of his stay there, he  went back to the original family name, Tomás Hradcky.   He has scored over a dozen films, and until the Imdb fixes it, Tomás Hradcky and Tomas Hart are not linked as the same person.  But they are, and I am writing this on all three blogs so as to clear up any confusion until it all gets straightened out with the Imdb.

He is in the middle of composing a film right now, and does not have the time to re-contact the Imdb, so for now, this will have to do.

Partners on a Dime is the blog where you can read about past films he has scored, and what he is currently working on.

American Dumpling is where you can read about the documentary he scored that is making the film festival rounds.

Tomas Hradcky is his home page, which is in dire need of an update.

And below is a picture of him from two days ago, driving through the Fort Pitt tunnel.

Driving through the the Fort Pitt tunnel, the day before the G20 summit

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, 20th September, 2009

From the Front Page of the Sunday Edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Obama calls Pittsburgh a model for the future

It is funny, some people I have spoken to are irritated at President Obama for hosting the G20 Summit here in Pittsburgh – if you want to be irritated, blame the Mayor, Luke Ravenstahl.  He accepted the invitation.  President Obama cannot force a city to host the G20 Summit, okay?

Second, yes, it is a slight inconvenience, but the pro’s far outweigh the cons.  If you live here in Pittsburgh, I hope you get your Sunday Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  You should be very proud of our city and how our President feels about it.

For those of you who do not live in Pittsburgh, and have the impression of it as a smoggy, dirty, polluted, mill city, well, you have been asleep for about thirty years concerning one of the oldest and most important cities in the United States.

If you are inclined to update your impression of Pittsburgh, please read this article from the front page of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette – just click on the picture below.

The below video goes out to my friend Rosa Gamarra-Thomson.  There will be much more written on Rosa in the upcoming days, and down the road a bit, there will be a link to her page.  At this point, she is Pittsburgh’s best kept secret. But not for long – the secret will be out soon.

But this is just a personal post for her, and anyone else who wants to enjoy it.

However, in the spirit of her love of animation, life, and laughter I thought of her when I saw this video below.

Blend that with my love of music, and who better to dedicate it to?

To Rosa, with love,

Kelly and Tomas

Tomas made a joke on August 22nd.  We bantered the joke back and forth, with a lot of “what if’s….”,  ”and then it would…., ”  ”it would turn out to be the government….”, and “people who bought one would turn into zombies…….”

On and on, for easily a half an hour, when I became semi-serious, and announced that yes, it was possible, and no, probably not zombies, but something else, and oh yeah, definitely the government!

Out came the battered notebook and pen that is always with me, and I hoped my frantic scribbling down of the original joke and ensuing banter would be legible in the morning.

It was, it is, and I have started a new fiction novel.  It has been over a year of living with fiction lying at the bottom of my brain, dormant, taking a really long nap, to the point where I was afraid it had died.  It did not die, it woke up, and woke up screaming, on August 22nd, 2009.

Made itself a pot of extremely strong coffee, got onto the computer, and as of today, we are 21 pages in, plot outlined, characters jerking the reins and galloping off on their own – it’s mayhem!

Oh joy. Fiction is alive, and that nap must have been needed, because it has been going non-stop for almost three weeks.  My hands cannot keep up with it’s hectic pace, but I am trying.

Good clean fun.

We’ve already killed one poor fellow.

And we know who’s next……..