Author Archives: JimArnoldLA

Please make it stop: Five Most Overrated Exercises You Can Stop Doing Now

Well, you looked.

Well, you looked.

I really did enjoy this little piece on the Five Most Overrated Exercises — usually with things like this I feel there’s not much good information on weight training, but this one is spot on.

Maybe we’ll see an end to people doing those odd static plank positions in the gym – which I only remember seeing fairly recently (perhaps creeping out of the yoga studio?).

I’ve known for a long time that quad extensions weren’t the best exercise, that they are non-effective as well as bad for your knees so it’s nice to get some validation on that. Also with the traditional crunch – I don’t know about you, but after 30 years of doing these, it feels like abs-olutely nothing is going on down there! Best to make the movement more challenging.

As the article says, you can injure your shoulders doing bench presses from the same flat angle all the time. I’ve done that. I’ve also noticed most people doing hanging exercises of any kind have really bad form. Isn’t it great to know we no longer have to concern ourselves with these? What do you think?

daddyhunt_folsom250x70

 

 

Some local fitness links I like:

InYoga Studio (Valley Village)

Gold’s Gym Hollywood

Bodybuilder’s Gym (Silver Lake)


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Jim Arnold Communications: A Communications Rescue?

Jim Arnold Communications March/April 2013 News

March/April 2013 Newsletter

Please click on the link above or the newsletter photo on the left to access the March/April edition of my newsletter.
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There’s many many things a freelance writer can do, other then the usual suspect projects. Also, a couple of interesting links for marketing types.

Hope you enjoy. I love feedback as well (but not as much as I love your business).

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Learning About about “Entitlement Programs” — and the Lies Surrounding Them

8354674107_134a97e135I’m just a few years away from being able to start using one of the two social insurance programs I’ve paid into all of my working life. So, this time the spin from the right wing, referring to these programs as the loaded “entitlements,” is personal. I thought Mike Hiltzik (disclosure – I’ve met Mike, he did a great piece on my former boss Ray Dolby when I was PR Director at Dolby in the early 2000s) really nailed it with this list of lies published in the Los Angeles Times.

First of all, a tax restoration (instituted to help avoid a depression) is not a tax hike — one of the Right’s favorite lies. Also, that temp payroll tax cut left out certain categories of people who don’t pay into the social security system anyway – teachers, for one.

Then there’s the problem that millionaires and billionaires also get social security – it’s a huge drain! Wrong again. Have you ever gone to the soc sec website and punched in different scenarios for your retirement benefit? I have – and after a certain point there’s not more than a hundred dollars or so month difference between what someone making $25K per year would get vs. someone making $250K per year would get – Social Security is set up as a baseline income for seniors.

Also, one shouldn’t think of these programs and the deductions that go into them as retirement funds like an IRA or 401-K. They’re not. They are insurance. Everyone’s ultimate benefit will be different, depending on circumstances. It’s more helpful to think of the situation along the lines of car insurance or homeowner’s insurance.
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The last lie is the tendency of the critics on the Right to lump social security together with Medicare – which does have some very serious problems going forward. Medicare is hampered by a huge external, i.e., the for-profit, American carnivorous health care fiasco, aided and abetted by Congress on all sides – and as long as that’s the case, costs will rise much faster than inflation or premiums could ever keep up. But don’t take my word for it – read Mike, he says it much better than I can.

Perspectives from AARP on Social Security

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10 reasons to salute L.A.s transportation future — liveable city, here we come

Meredith Portnoff and Jim Arnold (Jimbolaya) in front of City Hall at CicLAvia 2012.

Meredith Portnoff and Jim Arnold (Jimbolaya) in front of City Hall at CicLAvia 2012.

As I embark on my second car-free experiment – or maybe it’s car-light, seeing that I am driving to Santa Monica for some work-related meetings during it – it was heartening to see the Los Angeles Times put this slide show together on reasons to love L.A.’s promising transportation future.

I especially love the shout out for Union Station. Every time I’m walking down those halls I wish I had on my fedora and a nice broad shouldered double breasted suit – or some nice open-toed pumps, depending on the day. But I digress.

As for my car-free experiment, it’s a place in life I’ve been leaning to for quite a while. I actually have convinced myself that it’s perfectly reasonable to live the life I currently lead in Los Angeles without owning a car, and I’ve proved it on several previous car-free periods.

It’s cutting that cord finally (which would mean selling the car) which I haven’t quite been able to do.

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L.A. transport has certainly come a long way from the days when I first lived in the city, where the unreliable buses were part of the Southern California RTD (rapid transit district, or reason to drink, you take your pick). Since then, among other improvements, Metro has built subways and light rail, with more on the way, started their Metro Rapid bus routes, the Orange and Silver Line busways, etc. Although Angelenos will have a hard time believing it, our city has mass transit coverage right up there with New York and San Francisco.

Add to that walking, biking and the occasional cab, and it’s actually an option. I suppose it helps having grown up riding the bus, walking and biking. Those things I still do! Sometime in 2013, definitely.

Find the Walkscore where you live.

 

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Fake Book Reviews, How to Spot Them

ADL 1 - Version 2

I thought this past editorial in Reader Views was instructive  (RIP, beloved Irene Watson) – as part of the marketing deal, self-published (as well as traditionally-published) authors need to find some reputable reviewers who will, hopefully, give a book a good, thoughtful review. But like with so many things in cyberland, what looks legit to all appearance may be anything but.

Since Amazon is the main go-to place on the internet for books, we focus on that site, though others are similar in their treatment of peer reviews. One thing that’s pretty darn brazen: authors writing their own reviews, sometimes in the guise of adding information about the plot, etc! I’m surprised I didn’t think of that!

Also, look for, in a legitimate review: detailed descriptions of plot and character, and how the reader felt about them – a sure indication he or she read something.  Be skeptical of 100% positive or 100% negative reviews, both categories being somewhat unlikely for most books out there, and possibly hiding reviewers with an agenda or an axe to grind. Also, beware of plot summaries disguised as fake book reviews, and check the reviewer’s other reviews, to see how many, their tone, etc.

Irene also has some concrete suggestions of what you can do if you’re an author who’s received a scam review.

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The New York Times did their own story on this issue awhile back, reporting on how Amazon was starting to try and crack down on fake reviews, and the inherent problems in deciding what was fake and what was legit. Still, if you didn’t read the book, that wouldn’t stop you from posting a review. As their spokesman said, “We do not require people to have experienced the product in order to review.”

Most enlightening of all, however, is the book review career of Harriet Klausner, an apparent speed reader with over 25,000 (28,611 when I checked right before posting today) Amazon reviews. I’m not quite sure how she does it, but it’s pretty awesome, depending on how you look at it. A lot of cojones, verdad? What do you think?

If I could read a novel a week, I’d be thrilled.

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Older and Out of Work: What to do, what to do. . .

Boomer convention. Flickr photo copyright Dr. Darm

Boomer convention. Flickr photo copyright Dr. Darm

For anyone who’s interested in the topic of unemployment – such a huge problem in our country, and truly, worldwide right now – and which will get worse with this sequester – this New York Times Room for Debate opinion section will be of interest.

Specifically, here, “experts” weigh in on the older demographic, those over 50-55 and older who still want to work and can’t find work. A number of approaches to this problem are discussed, for instance, having Baby Boomers go back and work at internships (unpaid?) and a rebuttal to that argument; a plea for a generic Baby Boomer skill upgrade;  an argument that it’s not “senior” jobs that are needed, but good jobs in general; and one other opinion that’s mostly a denial that there’s any specific problem at all with older workers, except for the issue of once having been laid off, it’s much more difficult to return to work at an older age.

As in, age discrimination! It exists; we are an ageist society in so many ways, but especially in terms of hiring. Of course, it’s officially illegal, so no one ever says they’re not hiring you ’cause you remind them of Mom or Dad or because of your gray hair you didn’t dye, they say you’re so “overqualified” or “not the right fit for us.”

For me, what was most instructive were not these solicited editorials, but readers reactions to them – if you do go to the section, be sure to read some of the comments. I’d say that personally, I agree with the opinion that internships are for kids who have no job experience. Let’s face it, after 35-40 years in the workplace, you’re not an intern. There’s that thing called transferable skills – believe me, if you’ve worked at jobs for that long a period and have kept them, you’ve got plenty of skill to offer an employer.
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Another thing that’s always irritated me in the standard stereotype of the older worker is this idea that we’re not technologically sophisticated or leery of tech in the workplace. Oh, really? Who do you think it was who was at the forefront of all those changes, when all those machines were introduced, and then upgraded, over and over, into the workplace?

Somebody would show up with a PC and put it on your desk and plug it in to a network and say, “OK. Here you go!” And there was no training class. There might have been a manual; likely not. You had to show the ingenuity to figure it all out yourself, because nobody else had any ideas either. So we did that. Over and over, from word processing machines to faxes to PCs to smart phones and tablets – so please don’t tell me the older worker is afraid of innovation in the workplace.

Related story, also from the Times:

Older isn’t Better, it’s Brutal

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More Downton Abbey: Matthew’s shocker, then again, you knew it was coming

Dan Stevens

Dan Stevens

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Another Dan Stevens photo

When I first saw the final episode, where new dad, Downton Abbey heir Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), dies in a horrible car accident (ah, those long ago days of convertibles without either seat belts or air bags or roll bars or anything like that – can you just imagine all the blood and guts spilled all over the world’s nascent highways) – must admit, I was pretty shocked they’d kill off one of the main characters in the show. And right after, I mean right fracking after, his first child is born.  

Lady Mary was a f.c.* handful when she had her man, can you just imagine what she’s going to be like now?

I suppose, even though we were shown a long, lingering shot of Matthew under said convertible, lifeless eyes open, a trickle of British blood making its way into the verdant moist earth of the colorful English countryside – there’s always the possibility of a TV-style resurrection – he’s not really dead after all, it’s some horrid dream sequence, it was his evil twin all along, that sort of thing.

But we know from the linked article here that the actor is leaving the show. And the creative force behind Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, tells us it’s pretty normal in an English series when an actor leaves a show, to kill them off in some horrendous fashion.

Geez, Julian, we’re so not used to that over here!

But it was necessary, wasn’t it? It really had to happen, didn’t it? I mean —

we couldn’t let Matthew get away with being Matthew for much longer.

Especially after innocent Lady Sybil’s demise. Not to mention the convenient death of former fiancee Saint Lavinia to the 1918 flu pandemic.
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I mean, really, have you ever known a TV character to be so blessed by Fortuna? Plucked out of obscurity by being the gazillionth heir to the Downton title and fortune – because the person who was supposed to get it died in the Titanic sinking – or wait, no he didn’t, he was just burnt to un-recognizability but very much still alive (and perhaps coming back in all his horrid scarring to reclaim his mansion and his fortune . . . unlikely).

Matthew gets the girl, loses the girl, finds another girl yet realizes he’s in love with girl #1, the one who has the most money anyway, and then there’s that convenient flu. And let’s not forget about the War. The Great War. Surviving it at all is pretty unlikely, so our poor Matthew is injured, and he’s paralyzed from the waist down. Which also means that nothing down there is working, i.e., no sex, no little Granthams. But wait — no, he’s not really injured after all, and he’s going to be able to walk, and he’s going to be able to f***! Yay!

So, everything’s hunky dory. Oh wait, no it’s not. It’s not because that old fool Lord Grantham has invested the money – that Matthew would inherit – in an actual, real-life Ponzi scheme! So the money is gone, and the Downton Abbey world is now land-poor. Unless something big comes to save them, well, they’ll be boring B&B hosts and Matthew will be spending his time making scones and clearing pathways through the woods for rich Americans. Unimaginable horrors!

But then, oh, wait again! Turns out Lavinia’s (you remember her, the Saint who died of the flu so Matthew and Mary could be together, dontchaknow) father has died and left Matthew (again, the only heir around) a whole boatload of money to save Downton Abbey!

The foolish boy is not going to take it, he feels so guilty (as he should) but you know he ends up taking it like we knew he would all along. Cause once you’re rich, well, you get used to it. I mean, the show’s called Downton Abbey, not Downton Townhouse.

So you see, things were just too good, and not just good, they were really unfair. That karma had to come back and bite Matthew Crawley but good.

So, I think he’s really dead.

* fairly c***y

** and thank you cousin Mary C. for the “oh, wait” meme. So good I stole it.

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The piano junkyard

For President’s Day — not that there’s a relation to Washington or Lincoln that I’m immediately aware of. I never knew what happened to unwanted musical instruments. Here’s a helpful New York Times video. . .

I have a piano in my home, it’s probably the largest thing in it – maybe the bed is larger, but certainly that doesn’t have as much impact. And it’s revered.

My Wyman piano

My Wyman piano

I’m a recreational player, and that comes in waves. What I mean by that is that I’m a creature of habit, and when the habit’s going strong, I’m playing for a bit every day, when I’m reasonably sure most of the denizens of Broken Arms (the apartment building I live in) have gone off to work or school or whatnot.

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And I get better, I do notice the dexterity returns somewhat, certain pieces I work at get better sounding. Then, for some unknown reason, I stop practicing. And I have to get myself going to start the process once again. Then I remember how much I love piano music.

I’ve moved this piano (when changing residences) at least three times now, which requires a separate company and special care. I’ve wondered if it’s worth it; there’ve been new scratches each time. But when I hear the sounds it can be capable of, I don’t doubt my decision to get it, and keep it.

 

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Chasing After Straight Boys: Downton Abbey’s non-doubting Thomas

My totally biased, non-professional and likely hugely flawed – yet fun – psychological reading of the character of Thomas Barrow (played by actor Rob-James Collier) on Downton Abbey.

nm1674947-1 urlSPOILERS, perhaps, if you haven’t seen all of Season 3 of the show, so don’t read. Unless. You need to know. Minor plot things.

Guess I’m majorly fascinated by a portrayal of a character, a male who is sexually and emotionally attracted to other males, in a land before time had invented homosexuals or gay people.

Of course, I don’t mean that same-sex attraction wasn’t around then, it was. It always has been and always will be. But there weren’t the cultural conventions we have now, or the language we have now, to describe these things. In Thomas Barrow’s time (on the show so far, roughly the years 1912-1921), there was no such thing as a “gay man” or a “gay community.” These things came later, and in the particular understanding we have now of them, not until after WWII (though there were beginnings of a strong gay life in Berlin later in the 1920s, until the Nazis destroyed it, and the English had their own fey traditions and languages [polari]).

So there we have Thomas, this man with homosexual tendencies without a country of his own in a hostile environment. Can you imagine how lonely that must have been? No wonder he’s been portrayed as both someone who desperately needs approval as well as a likely rival to Machiavelli.

With his usual partner-in-crime, Miss Sarah O’Brien (played by Siobhan Finneran) Thomas is at the forefront of not only class warfare with the Granthams, but also the masters of dirty tricks and deceit among the rest of the downstairs staff.

I have to admit that at first I didn’t like this portrayal of “the gay” on the show. I thought it was negative, to show the man as so nasty just because he wasn’t getting laid. (Can’t blame Thomas for thinking that the Turkish diplomat Kemal Pemuk in Season 1 was also enchanted, I mean, he did have those good manners and nice shiny black hair and all – but as we all know, lusting after men with weak hearts just isn’t smart).

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So there is a point to all this. A modern, liberated gay man does not chase after straight boys – there is no future to this. But the absolutely perfect note here is, that this, is not a modern gay man. This is a rudderless character in 1921. So it is authentic.

My thought is even though it’s so totally NOT liberated, however, it IS totally accurate for the time. So even though Thomas was so thoroughly rejected by Jimmy when he sneaks into his room that night – it makes sense for his character to still be enthralled and to follow him around – kind of like a puppy dog, maybe hoping that the evidence of rejection was not true (after all, the evil Miss O’Brien has insisted that Jimmy is interested in Thomas, further confusing the issue). That Thomas will accept not only the beating he takes to spare his friend but also then accepts a platonic friendship from his bandaged recovery bed – when that’s not what he really really wants – that does make sense in this time of self-loathing. So I think that Julian Fellowes got it right here, and a more modern reading of the situation would have been dishonest.

Finally, I did like the protectors who come to Thomas’ defense on the show, esp. Lord Grantham, but also Mr. Bates and finally Jimmy himself, who offered his friendship to Thomas. I also found that believable, as they do present the universe of Downton Abbey as united, us against the world.

Knowing Thomas as we do, I bet there’s more to come in Season 4. Will true love find him, and will he become a kindler, gentler man? One can hope for the love but want to preserve the nastiness (please!).

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Dennis Bogorad: Finding Support, Gay Men with Prostate Cancer *

prostate ca ribbonCongrats to friend Dennis Bogorad for writing this great piece for Huffington Post (Dennis Bogorad: Finding Support). *

As a prostate cancer survivor, I can attest to the simple fact that a PSA test did indeed save my life. Prostate cancer runs in my family; I had it in my mid-forties (very early for this kind of cancer) and one of my younger brothers has unfortunately followed in my footsteps, so to speak. If I hadn’t had that test at 46, my doctor probably wouldn’t have ordered one until age 50, at which point it might have well been too late. Once prostate cancer metastasizes, it’s incurable.

With the proper treatment, which, in my case included surgery for prostate removal followed by two months of external beam radiation, I’ve now been (knock on wood) cancer-free for over ten years.

Also in my case, there was a support group for gay men with prostate cancer in San Francisco, where I lived at the time. Going to those bi-weekly meetings over the course of about a year was crucial for me to get a sense of how my recovery was progressing, as well as for firmly understanding that I was not alone — the sense of which can be absolutely crushing.

Prostate cancer is awful and people don’t want to talk about it. Even totally successful treatment for the disease often involves various levels of erectile dysfunction and incontinence that can linger for years or forever. It’s not a shock that no one wants to think about it – believe me, especially those of us who’ve had it.

The medicine increases cialis line prescription the blood flow in penis, which invites sexual erection in a desired quantity. Hawthorn berry is one among the best herbal male enhancements used for stimulating the sexual http://www.learningworksca.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/CBD_Concept_paper_.pdf buy cialis levitra health of body. Since, it is a solid pills one need to consume one or two pills daily with water or milk after meals. learningworksca.org purchase viagra online How to increase your female libido naturally? The good news is there are natural ways to boost get viagra cheap your libido. That’s why it’s so great that these small support groups are there in Los Angeles, at the LA Gay Center at the Village. In a population that has a lot of other issues, not the least of which is the heterosexual assumption in medicine (as in, healthcare pros assume you’re straight until you tell them otherwise; many gay men never mention it) and the lack of any training to address this population.

As more of us “come out” about these aspects of our lives, one can only assume that the quality of our recovery will improve, as well as be an example for the world at large in discussing male cancers.

That simple blood test, once a year. PSA.

Oh, and by the way, I wrote a novel very loosely based on my experiences of that time. You can find out more about “Benediction” here. 

* UPDATE March 26, 2013 – Very sad to report that Dennis unexpectedly passed away in his sleep on March 24. I’m honored to have known him and to have been a part of the important work he was doing around gay men’s health issues.

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