They Tried to Scam Me Out of $300 and They are Scum, They're Called Berkeley Cardiovascular Medical Group

The Berkeley Cardiovascular Medical Group is a bunch of blood sucking parasites with no morals. Allow me to elaborate.

Last summer I went to my GP as I was experiencing occasional heart palpitations. She referred me to Stanford Health Care which placed a monitor on me for two weeks to record what my ticker was up to.

A few weeks later they called me in for an appointment and I was advised that I should get a pacemaker.

Subsequent to that I got an unsolicited phone call from a doctor with the Berkeley Cardiovascular Medical Group who somehow had gotten a hold of the readings of my heart monitor. I told him that I’d already visited with a doctor from Stanford Medical and a had agreed to have a pacemaker installed. He said that in that case he was offering a second opinion that I should indeed have the procedure. It was a pleasant enough chat of no more than twenty minutes.

All well and good.

In October I had the procedure and am now the proud owner of a hunk of metal in my chest. Joy to the world.

But subsequent to that I got a bill from Berkeley Medical Cardiovascular Group for $320. That was the cost of unsolicited phone conversation. Mind you, thanks to my insurance I paid only $200 for the entire operation in which the pacemaker was installed. And here I was being asked to pony up more than 100% more than that for a phone conversation. And I reiterate that it was not one that I asked for nor for that matter needed.

I suppose it is no surprise that I was shocked and not a bit outraged that a health organization would try to bilk me out of $300 plus. I gave them a call, chatted with someone who I told in no uncertain terms that the bill was ridiculous and I’d not be paying it. I asked to speak with someone who could try to explain the bill to me. 

I did not hear back and assumed that they’d realized their mistake and the charge would disappear. 

Nope.

A month later they sent the bill again. This was truly unbelievable. So I called back, talked to someone about how insane the bill was and asked for a call back from someone in authority. 

Never got one.

Instead, a month after that they sent the bill again. I then made my third and final call. I was told there was no one available who could help me and that I should call in a week or so. I pointed out that this was my third and final call and it was high time they called me back. 

No one ever did.

Time passed and a fourth bill arrived. I mailed it back with the following note:

I have made several attempts to talk to someone about this bill over the phone but no one has called me back. This is my last communication on the matter. If I don’t hear from anyone I’ll simply toss out any future bills sent from you. This outrageous charge is for an unsolicited phone call that lasted less than twenty minutes. It was also superfluous as I was being treated by another doctor with whom I’d scheduled a procedure to install a pacemaker. Incidentally for the surgery I was charged $200. Here I am being asked to pay more than a $100 more for a short phone call made to me that I did not request. You will never see a dime out of me for it. At least I have made the effort to talk to someone.

When two months passed with no word I assumed that they had FINALLY accepted the error of their ways and the matter was settled.

Instead I recently received a notice from a bill collector demanding the $300.

I can only conclude that the people at Berkeley Cardiovascular Group are greedy, money-grubbing monsters who prey on senior citizens and are not above trying any form of chicanery they can conceive of to separate people from their cash.

Imagine how low a medical group has to be to revert to scamming people out of their money. Imagine the guile of supposed health care professionals who have doctors call people and then charge them $300 for the privilege. Why not pick random numbers out of the phone book, call people and then send them a bill? Of course they never called me back. How could they have begun to justify the bill?

Berkeley Cardiovascular Medical Group is beneath contempt. They are soulless cowards who never even attempted to explain the bill they foisted upon me. 

Berkeley Cardiovascular Medical Group tries to take advantage of senior citizen with heart problems. That’s who they are. Scum.

Oppenheimer: A Worthy Epic

Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer

I saw Oppenheimer yesterday. Some thoughts:

The story was made into an epic which seems appropriate given the scope of Oppenheimer’s life, the significance of what he did, the personalities, many famous, who he encountered and how his story reflects the times in which he lived.

Robert Oppenheimer was many things. He was the guiding genius behind the most destructive weapon ever created. So destructive that it has altered the way we perceive war and engage in it. It is a weapon that risks life on Earth. Yet he did not set out to make such a device nor did he want there to be such power vested in the military or their superiors in government. He was a man of strong liberal leanings. Strong enough that he was labeled a Communist as were many prominent leftists of his era. Ultimately he was a victim of the McCarthy-like witch hunts that plagued the United States for nearly two decades after World War II.

He was also a large personality. Loved and reviled by many. He was brilliant, arrogant, a womanizer, an intellectual. He was — and the movie is very good in conveying this — an enormously complex man who was ever introspective. He spoke his mind but he listened to others who did likewise.

Today he is many things to many people. He is the evil who created the bomb, he is a victim of a red-hating bureaucracy. He is the genius whose efforts to stop Nazism were appropriated to wipe out hundreds of thousands of Japanese and make the world forever on edge.

The film gives us a complete picture of Oppenheimer, not aggrandizing or apologetic or critical. Audiences are left to draw their own conclusions. The picture works in large part because of Cillian Murphy who, contrary to my initial reaction to his casting, is letter perfect for the lead role. Mostly he has the face, that incredible face that told so much while keeping so many secrets. He also has the voice, which was so intelligent and interesting with its odd inflections. I can’t imagine anyone doing a better job.

It was nice to see Robert Downey Jr. and his prodigious acting talents back in a non-comic book movie. His talents were wasted (as are so many others’) prancing about in costumes in front of green screens. This film reminds us of the brilliant actor from Zodiac, Wonder Boys, Home for the Holidays, Chaplin, and Good Night and and Good Luck.

The supporting cast includes Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Casey Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Alden Ehrenreich, Kenneth Branagh, David Krumholtz, Gary Oldham, Matthew Modine, Benny Safdie, Rami Malek and Olivia Thirlby. That’s a lot of talent and together they were as one would expect. (Interesting to note that Oldham played Harry Truman. Previously he had portrayed Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, which means if they made a film about the Potsdam Conference he could play two of the three leads. For that matter maybe he could play Stalin too.)

I saw Oppenheimer at the Elmwood Theater in Berkeley. It is our city’s only remaining movie house (not counting the Pacific Film Archives which does not generally show first-run films). It is a classic old theater that used to boast a balcony. Sadly the upstairs balcony area has been converted to have two small screens which have walls thin enough that you can often hear loud sounds from the neighboring screens.

But the Elmwood (part of Berkeley’s Elmwood district where I lived from 1997-2013) still retains much of the charms of the old movie-going era. I’m so glad that it is still a going concern but there are fears that it is hanging on by the skin of its teeth. Two local theaters have closed in the last few months to go along with the several that shuttered during or soon after the pandemic. I was proud to bypass the huge AMC cineplex to see Oppenheimer and I was glad to see others do the same.

One of the draws for those of us in Berkeley is that several scenes were shot on the University of California campus (Go Bears!). The campanile was used as an establishing shot.

I went to the Elmwood about a dozen times last year and even for much ballyhooed movies that were just opening, the audience was sparse. Not so yesterday when the theater was about eighty per cent full.

Sadly two of the patrons sitting a few seats down from me were most unclear on the concepts of attending a film among other people. First the female got out her phone and studied it for a few seconds. Then she and her companion whispered and finally they whispered and both looked at her phone. I let my feelings be known before moving a few rows up thus avoiding any more of their rude behavior. Everyone else around me sat silently watching the film. Not a tough ask.

And it was a damn good film to watch. It’s three hours but breezed by. Compelling stories do that and full marks to Christopher Nolan who I’ve never been a fan of. Maybe this signals a new direction for his talents. I certainly hope.

I also hope for more thought-provoking films to come out of Hollywood, although the on-going writer and actor strikes may delay that.

I’ll sum up my feelings on Oppenheimer the movie by saying that immediately after seeing it I walked to a bookstore and bought a copy of the book upon which it is based. I couldn't have imagined not buying it. 

Starring in a Bio-Pic, Another Challenge for Actors

Sean Penn as Harvey Milk

It looks like I’m going to go see a movie called Barbie that is really and truly based on the doll from Mattel. (Margot Robbie in the title role.) Who’dathunkit? (I’m not going today, by the way, but eventually.) 

The reviews are in and they are overwhelmingly positive (a current 90% on the tomato meter). Also opening this week is Oppenheimer which is about the famous physicist. Robert Oppenheimer was a character in my novel Threat of Night. One of two real people in the book, the other being Fritz Weidemann the German general counsel in San Francisco in 1941. In including “real people” in my book I was diligent about research. Thus I got to know Opie a fair bit. Cillian Murphy seems an odd choice to play him but a lot of odd choices in bio pics have worked out well, see Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in The Aviator. Less of on odd choice is Joaquin Phoenix in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon; due in theaters this fall. I’m sure he’ll do bang up job. Odd to think that Phoenix will have portrayed both Johnny Cash and Napoleon Bonaparte.

I guess I’m on the topic of actors playing historical figures. Daniel Day-Lewis set the standard when he played Abraham Lincoln. None of us have ever seen Lincoln nor is there any existing film of him (not that there could be, given that he died in 1865) but surely, we all believed, that was what Lincoln sounded, looked and acted like. We were all convinced that Day-Lewis WAS Lincoln. 

Gary Oldham similarly won a best actor Oscar for his turn as Churchill in The Darkest Hour. It was damn good but we’ve all seen plenty of footage of Churchill so the delusion that he was perfect was not quite there. Still he embodied the character and it was a bravura performance. 

Bruno Ganz gave an incredible performance as Adolph Hitler in Downfall. The movie was controversial because some claimed it humanized Der Fuhrer. I thought that was precisely the point. Hitler was a human and it’s important to remember that true evil springs from us. This was not some monster created in a lab or that arrived from another planet. Hitler and all those who did his bidding were people. Just like you and me.

So far I’ve only mentioned men, let’s fix that. Cate Blanchett (in yet another Oscar-winning performance) was positively brilliant as Katherine Hepburn in the aforementioned The Aviator. She barely looked like the great actress — not her fault — but totally captured her voice and mannerisms. 

Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (yeah, she won an Oscar too) was mesmerizing. So too Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash (yup, got an Oscar) in Walk the Line opposite Mr. Phoenix. Singers are especially hard to do but great actors somehow manage. John Cusack and Paul Dano both excelled as Brian Wilson in Music and Lyrics.

I can’t believe I’ve gone this far and not mentioned Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in Milk (yes, he won the Oscar too, the Academy loves to reward actors for playing real people). It was one of the greatest performances in a film I’ve ever seen.

Ya know who else was good as real people? From the same film, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein in All the President’s Men and Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee. That was a helluva cast.

Here’s one that doesn’t get mentioned a lot, Joan Allen as Pat Nixon in Oliver Stone’s Nixon. That’s a tough one to do because you’re playing someone who is so publicly restrained. 

Damn! Here’s another I forgot and it’s another Oscar winner, Robert DeNiro as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull. In terms of portrayals of real people it’s got to be in the top five along with Penn as Milk. 

Shout out to Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I hope people realize that Robbie is much much more than a gorgeous woman, she’s one of our better actresses. Here’s an example: her portrayal of Tonya Harding in I, Tonya. Another stunning bio pic performance.

Here’s another for my top five (better make it a top ten it’s getting kind of crowded), Al Pacino as John Wojtowicz in Dog Day Afternoon. Surely one of the greatest performances never to garner an Oscar. Of course Wojtowicz is not a familiar figure (according to those who knew him or met him — like my wife— Pacino nailed it) so I don’t know if that’s the same thing as Penn’s Milk. Maybe there’s two categories: portraying familiar people and those who, while real, are not seared into the public consciousness. It’s a whole different deal playing someone that the public is less familiar with. It’s much easier for Warren Beatty to play Clyde Barrow (Bonnie and Clyde) and John Reed (Reds) than for David Strathairn to play Edward R. Murrow (Good Night and Good Luck) or Meryl Streep to play Margaret Thatcher (Iron Lady).

There’s a terrific performance in a film not widely seen that’s well worth mentioning here and that’s Michael Sheen as the great British football manager Brian Clough in Damned United. If you’re not familiar with Clough watch the film then check him out and You Tube (there’s tons of clips) and you’ll see how good Sheen was. Another lesser known but brilliant performance was Ian McKellen as the director James Whale (Gods & Monsters). Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce (Lenny), Denzel Washington as Malcom X (Malcolm X), Ray Liotta as Henry Hill (Goodfellas), Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth ( Schindler’s List) were also good. So too Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn (Coal Miner’s Daughter) and Diana Ross as Billie Holiday (Lady Sings the Blues).

I’m sure I’m missing a lot. Some haven’t been mentioned because I’ve not seen the movie or don’t hold it in high esteem.

I wonder from an actor’s perspective if it’s more difficult to play a historical figure or one who’s well-known in fiction like Henry Fonda playing Tom Joad (Grapes of Wrath) or the many women who have played Jo March — most recently Saoirse Ronan — in the many versions of Little Women? People develop pretty strong ideas of what a fictional character in a book looks and sounds like and the darn thing about it is they vary. If the actor’s version varies too widely from something resembling a norm, you’ve got trouble. Is it easiest to play a character who comes from an original screenplay? I would think so. Not only are you not dealing with the same type of expectations from the audiences, but you’ve got license to create the character pretty much as you see fit (though the screenwriter, the director and maybe even the producer might inhibit that process either for better or worse.)

Anyway I’m interested to see what Margot Robbie does with Barbie. Just hope she gets the voice right.

A Detailing of the Minor Surgery I Bravely Endured Yesterday

Yesterday I had minor surgery on my right foot (there are no minor surgeries, only minor surgeons — wait, does that mean that there are surgeons below legal age?). I was at the aptly named Surgery Center for just over three hours. During that time I was out like a light for maybe an hour and a half. As one does while in for surgery I was asked a lot of questions, what is your date of birth? Is a popular one. I guess they don’t want to forget to send me a card on that special day. I was also asked a few times to confirm which foot was to be cut open. Isn’t it more important that they know that? You also get your blood pressure taken a couple of hundred times. When I was overnight for my pacemaker “procedure” My blood pressure was checked with every breath I took. They could just ask, I could tell them it’s fine, it always has been.

Does it sound like I’m complaining? I’m not. Everyone was —despite the repetitive questions — very nice, totally professional and solicitous of my needs. I have — outside the psychiatric community — had universally excellent experiences with medical professionals, most particularly nurses -- the vast majority of whom are saints. 

I awoke from surgery only a little bit loopy (not the cockeyed drunk I seemed to be after the pacemaker business) and in a fine mood ready to greet one and all with a cheery hello, how are you. I was a regular hail-fellow-well-met. There were warnings of possible pain to be experienced in the coming hours and suggestions about over-the-counter pain killers to take but as I write this fifteen hours later and I haven’t felt a thing. The only thing I am feeling is a lack of sleep. I woke up at 2:37 to pee and never got back to sleep. Not even for a minute. This is an extreme rarity for me and it promises to make navigating the day a bit difficult and I’m sure there is a long nap awaiting me in the afternoon.

I’ll manage at work well enough. The crutches will just be for show for the next two days and by Monday I’ll have abandoned them completely. Meanwhile I'll garner some totally unnecessary sympathy and offers to help with small tasks.

The downsides so far have been fasting as I had to do yesterday, doing the hand-held shower thing to avoid getting the foot wet and the fact that I have to wait two weeks before returning to the gym. That’s two weeks if all goes well and I’m insisting that it do, er does.

So I’m delighted to have survived another bout on the operating table — I’m such a brave lad — and I hope not to have to visit one again for many rains.

I thank you for your indulgence as I’ve prattled on about this. You my faithful reader(s) (Lola Macaroni of Friday Harbor, Washington) make all my labors at the keyboard worthwhile. 

(Just occurred to me that maybe minor surgery refers to surgeries preformed by people who work in mines. No, that would be miner surgery. I'll have to get back to you.)

I've Never Met an American Named Nigel and Other Observations

Aubrey Plaza, a great talent

I’ve never met an American named Nigel, nor have I met an American named Basil. Surely there are some out there.

The missus and I went to a a film on Sunday that “started” at 10:45 AM (yes, rather early for a movie but there are fewer people and you get out at a good time to enjoy lunch). I put started in quotes because that was the advertised time. By the time coming attractions and all the other folderol they put you through was done it was 11:05. A full twenty minutes of loud nonsense. Ridiculous. It was an AMC theater. 

I saw an overweight couple and their overweight children at the theater carrying huge boxes of popcorn and gigantic sodas. They stopped to add butter and I’m tellin’ ya, they were not holding back. See you in the ER, folks.

If some things are unprecedented why don’t you hear anyway say, “that action was precedented”? Okay I admit that you hear there is precedent for something but still mundane actions are never precedented. Why is that?

You also hear that there is “no love lost” between opponents but never hear about there being “love lost” between friendly rivals. Wouldn’t know what it meant if there was love lost but that’s not the point.

Why do I continue to maintain a blog that no one but me ever reads? I’m really stumped on this one yet I’m the only one who can answer it.

It’s a pretty sad commentary on this country that the highest court in the land is full of corrupt jackasses. We can blame Trumpy for three of the aforesaid but then you’ve also got Alito and Clarence Thomas. They’re horrible.

It’s really sad that there are so many literate people who disdain books. I can’t even begin to imagine. If nothing else a good read is excellent food for the brain. When you read a book you’re entering into a whole world. It’s a great escape and intellectually stimulating. I not only have a book I’m reading but I have the next one, two, three or more lined up. Of course then I buy another book and it sometimes jumps the queue.

Queue seems a weird word to type. You start with your q which is not a common letter then you have — as the law commands — a u followed by — again as dictated by the rules of the game — a vowel, in this case an e then you’re back to another u and e. Which means that after your one consonant you do a u and e TWICE. Funky.

Hey there’s a word that’s fallen out of use: funky. Ya know I just realized I’ve mentioned that on this blog before. I must have a thing about funky. Great word. Bring it back. I think I’m going to vacation in Funkytown. Wonder how you get there.

Looks like we’re about to get an actor’s strike to go along with the writer’s strike. There’ll be no new movies or TV shows in the future. Pay the people who make art, you greedy bastards. 

I saw the other day that another racist person was caught on video yelling at people. In this case it was a woman in Colorado going on a poolside rant against “Mexicans.” Some folks on the internet immediately figured out who she was, where she worked and that fact that she’d once declared bankruptcy. The story has already started to fade and I wonder if anything worthwhile will come of the incident. Did she learn a lesson? Did exposing her teach her to keep her bigotry to herself? I have no sympathy for the woman but I don’t know that dredging up her past serves any purpose. I also didn’t see the point of commenters who criticized her physical appearance. As a society we don’t know how to heal. It’s also instructive that there are so goddamned many bigots still out there. 

I’ve finally started watching Parks and Rec, the sitcom starring Amy Poehler.  Funny stuff. For me Aubrey Plaza steals every scene she’s in. A great talent.

When the hell are we going to get Trumpy in prison where he belongs? My god look at all the laws the bastard has broken. If a poor person of color committed one of those crimes he’d long since have been behind bars. 

Check out this headline from CNN: “Tuberville refuses to denounce white nationalism in military, doubles down on past comments.” That’s Tommy Tuberville the Republican senator from Alabama. (Gosh, imagine a Republican from the deep south supporting white nationalists, who’d have thought?). So there you have it, a sitting senator who’s okay with racism. In the 21st century. What a country.

Couple weeks ago the missus and I saw Wes Anderson’s latest, Asteroid City. Think it’s his best since Moonrise Kingdom. As the kids would say: check it out!

It's Better to be Lucky Than Good

That's me with the ball after my team won the Noir Cal championship

If knowledge hangs around your neck like

pearls instead of chains - You are a lucky man!

Takers and fakers and talkers won't tell you.

Teachers and preachers will just buy and sell you.

When no one can tempt you with heaven or hell-

You'll be a lucky man! -- From O Lucky Man by Alan Price

I can’t believe I once shook hands with Muhammad Ali.

I can’t believe that I stood in the North Bank in the Seventies at London’s Highbury Park and watched Arsenal play.

I can’t believe I scored the winning goal in overtime of my sixteen and under soccer team’s state cup championship victory.

I can’t believe that my father sent me to Finland when I was sixteen to visit relatives and I spent a third of the time traveling alone around the country.

I can’t believe I saw a helicopter tear gas me and thousands of others in Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus.

I can’t believe I was a founding member of the Chico News and Review, a paper that is still a going concern over 45 years later.

I can’t believe I have two such intelligent, beautiful, loving and professionally successful daughters.

I can’t believe that I had the privilege of being a public school teacher for twenty years.

I can’t believe that I completed a two year master’s program in one year and graduated with distinction.

I can’t believe that I was at one of the most iconic college football games ever played watching Cal improbably defeat their arch rivals on a four-lateral kick off return through a marching band as time expired.

I can’t believe that I’ve been clean and sober for over 35 years.

I can’t believe that I’ve survived PTSD, drug and alcohol addiction, severe depression, devastating panic and anxiety attacks and yet managed a successful teaching career and been a good father and husband in the bargain.

I can’t believe that I saw Willie Mays play baseball, Joe Montana play football, Jason Kidd play basketball, Bobby Orr play hockey, Thierry Henry play soccer and Bjorn Borg play tennis.

I can’t believe that such an incredible man as Aimo Hourula was my father.

I can’t believe that as a child I saw Present John F. Kennedy speak.

I can’t believe that I’ve been married to the same incredible woman for 36 years and that we love one another more today than ever.

I can’t believe that for the last twelve years I’v been teaching English to people from all over the world.

I can’t believe that I’ve spoken to Liv Ullman, Ethan Coen, Jerry Brown, Willie McCovey, Jane Fonda, Joe Kapp and Pete Rose.

I can’t believe some of the incredible friends I’ve had such as Rick Grizzly Brown (aka Saad Muhammad), Paul Tjogas, Kevin Lindsey, Keith Bray, Carnell Broom, Ed Burns, Mark Norman and Phil Rosenzweig — to name but a few.

I can’t believe that I enjoy a loving and wonderful extended family that includes seven darling grand nieces and nephews.

I can’t believe that my second self-published novel found so many readers who enjoyed the book.

I can’t believe that I’ve been lucky enough to travel extensively seeing such places as London, Hawaii, Paris, Mexico, New York, Rome, Oregon, Berlin, Boston and more with a trip to Spain scheduled for next year.

I can’t believe all the great literature I’ve read, all the great music I’ve listened to, all the great films I’ve watched and all the great museums I’ve visited.

I can’t believe how lucky I am.