The Schloss-Blog has discovered that "aimlessly wandering" can be good for you, as long as it's not while you're aimlessly drifting between lanes on a four-lane interstate highway, that is.
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We've been reading some lately about "aimless wandering," the practice of just going out there and walking, conscious more of letting your senses go to take in all that is around you as opposed to where you are actually doing that. Going out and walking wherever your instincts take you is one of the precepts of this practice.
It's a Daoism thing - to be aligned with the natural order of the universe.
Don't worry - the Schloss-Blog has not gone off the deep end (did that a long time ago). It's just that the frustrations of life can be so overwhelming (i.e., SCOTUS) that an escape is a good release and we like to go out for long walks, early morning, along the golf course outside our Arizona door. Either that or go the gym and attack a stationary bike or a cross-trainer while letting the mind do the aimless wandering as Stephen A. Smith aimlessly wanders with his off-the-wall rants about why the Knicks should've acquired Donovan Mitchell instead of Jalen Brunson.
Or perhaps both of them. Yes, the 'A' in his name stands for aimless.
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While aimless seems to define the Supreme Court of late (did away with abortion, likes guns, hates the environment, kisses Donald Trump's ass), you should try navigating HBO.
In Arizona, that is.
The indications that Arizona has been leaning blue politically do not apply to HBO. Yes, the Grand Canyon State has one independent senator and one Democrat. Yes, the state has a Democratic governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General. But both houses of the legislature are still red, albeit by just one vote. And every abortion-banning, gun rights-expanding piece of legislation they pass along gets vetoed by the governor (who won her seat by fraud - just ask that bitch she beat - Kari Lake).
HBO doesn't care. If it's liberal, it gets buried in Arizona.
Bill Maher, for instance, whose liberal-leaning and entertaining "Real Time" is on at 9 p.m. in our Illinois abode (that would be 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. in Arizona, depending on which side of Daylight Savings Time we're on), is not on until 11 p.m. in Arizona (or 10 p.m., again, depending on which side of Daylight Savings Time we're on - Arizona does not spring forward nor fall back). And 11 p.m. in Arizona is the other side of midnight in Illinois (again, depending on ... OK, you get it...). Which means that Friday night show is not until Saturday morning in the Grand Canyon State.
Apparently, Maher's liberal rants are too much for Arizona to absorb, according to HBO and Cox Cable, although he's had some pretty conservative voices (Ted Cruz) on the show, of late.
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But that's not all in Arizona and the oddity that is HBO. Liberal means late night in Arizona, very late, as in the next morning.
"Last Week Tonight With John Oliver," doesn't air on Sunday night, like it does everywhere else. Try Monday morning, after midnight. Try pulling it up on demand on Cox - good luck.
Oh, there's some good 'X-rated' and even 'R-rated' programming on HBO. Who doesn't like seeing a trim Jodie Foster getting banged on "True Detective: Night Country" or listen to Larry David and his frenemies go off with f-bombs on "Curb Your Enthusiasm?"
But even that is on Sunday nights at - you guessed it - 11 p.m. (depending on which side of Daylight Savings Time we're on), just before - you guessed it - what becomes the Monday morning telecast of "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver."
By now, you're saying, Schloss, get rid of Cox Cable and get - oh, say - YouTube TV, or Fubo, or one of those streaming services. But by the time I get all of the of the streaming services with all the shows I want (they're just not all on Hulu, Netflix or any one of them), I'd be spending as much on streaming - or more - than I am on cable.
And it's not just HBO. Gannett's Arizona Republic has joined the fray (full disclosure - I have been one of their sports correspondents since 2015 and an online subscriber since before then).
But Doonesbury, the politically insensitive cartoon strip, is now out of the Sunday paper, which, in our household, we don't read online - yours truly gets up early and goes out and buys the late edition on Sunday mornings (plus a Starbucks stop - remember when you could buy the Sunday paper at Starbucks as well? Not anymore.).
Hunt around for it on the azcentral.com website. I dare you. Doonesbury doesn't come up on an online search.
I have called and/or written to the powers that be on HBO and the Republic. No luck. No response.
You'd almost think an abortion ban and everyone toting AR-15's is next.
No, wait...
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Quick-hitters:
- If you think inflation-driven prices are bad, wait until Donald Trump becomes president again, slaps tariffs on everything and deports every essential worker in the hospitality and agriculture industries and see what happens to prices.
- Ukraine says it has lost 31,000 lives in the war with Russia. But estimates are that somewhere between 66,000-88,000 Russians are dead and another 412,000 wounded or MIA. Putin doesn't care who he kills.
- Bought tickets for a Cactus League exhibition baseball game (preseason game, my ass). Four tickets were - with service fees - $464 to go see the Giants play the Cubs (split squad) at Sloan Park. If we're lucky, maybe Cody Bellinger will be part of the split we get.
- Checked other prices - four at a Dodgers game against the Padres were $562. How about Olivia Rodrigo concert tickets? Try the neighborhood of $563 per ticket. Billy Joel? You could pay upwards of $1,200 for a ticket. The Stones on their Hackney Diamonds tour? Good luck finding something under $600 with a reasonable view.
Don't mention Bruce Springsteen or Taylor Swift.
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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you Mrs. Robinson.
More Sunday night as always on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.
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