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(I KNOW I’M two weeks late getting this posted, but I work on a non-linear timeline.) My oldest friend Garth and his husband David have a terrific Academy Awards party every year. In the old days they would send out fancy invitations and it was a big affair. But the last couple of years it has distilled into a group of eight hardcore participants who confidently toss their five dollar bill into the golden orb and play to win. We exchange ballots and at the end of each category go around the room to see who got it right. Points are tallied on a whiteboard.

Cakes are my specialty

The food is always thematically consistent with the movies. This year we had Slumdog Curry, Pat Nixon Salad, Tropic Thunder Punch and The Curious “Cake” of Benjamin Button. We always sit in the same spots on the couch, Garth, Ed and I take turns winning or tying for first place.  David is in the kitchen whipping up another batch of “crack popcorn” — named because it is so addictive. Here’s the recipe: Make popcorn in heavy pan with oil, add lots of real butter, Parmesan  cheese and salt. Don’t expect to fit into your skinny jeans the next day.

These guys look scared

A FRIEND OF MINE mentioned that when the market gets to 8,000 he’s going to liquidate his portfolio. That’s what is different about this ‘Great Recession.’ In prior downturns, people understood that they needed to hold onto their distressed stocks in order to ride the wave back up. Otherwise they would sell at a loss. Now there seems to be a generalized feeling that the Dow was irrationally inflated at its peak on Oct. 9, 2007 when it hit 14164, and that it needs to be recalibrated to a new baseline. Where is that? The “Clinton bull” high was 11723 on Jan. 14, 2000. Weren’t those the good old days? Peace, prosperity and a bull market.

So my sad theory is that this recession will last a very long time. As soon as the market starts to get some momentum people like my friend will sell their shares and drive the Dow back down. Then the next burst of confidence will result in a  small spike that will quickly be deflated by another round of sell-offs. People are living with terror and loss on an unprecedented scale, so they don’t want to risk waiting for a return to prosperity. The aggregate of this is that the recovery will be extremely protracted as the dow bumps along the bottom.

My colleague Randy Goldring argued persuasively on his blog that the markets are voting against the stimulus plan and President Obama in general. He cites an editorial in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal saying the same thing: that the Dow has fallen 25 percent since Obama took over, that the markets have lost confidence.

While the Wall Street Journal is railing against Obama in the Op-Ed section, the polling wing of the paper shows a different result.

President Barack Obama enjoys widespread backing from a frightened American public for his ambitious, front-loaded agenda, a new poll indicates. He is more popular than ever, Americans are hopeful about his leadership, and opposition Republicans are getting drubbed in public opinion, the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests.

How did they ever rebuild this place?

TIMES MAY be tough now, but any student of 20th century European history will tell you — this ain’t nothin’.  Imagine living through either of the world wars and having your city completely annihalated. Or being Jewish and facing the unspeakable. Or witnessing your Jewish neighbors getting rounded up by the gestapo and reaching deep down inside yourself to ask, do I resist or do I keep my head down and go along? Then the war ends and Soviet tanks roll into your town square.  Bombing raids, rallies, death camps, airlifts, fire-bombing — kinda puts a foreclosure mess into perspective.

The exhibit at LACMA features the work of German Expressionists who are clearly working through some extreme post-war anxiety. Each piece is more visceral than the next.

One of my favorite German Expressionist artists is Hannah Hoch, a dadaist and feminist who launched photomontage as an art form. Her work is not for the faint of heart,

No lilly pads and haystacks for this sad lot

I GOT SOME criticism yesterday regarding my comment on Brendan Flowers, lead singer for the Killers. Who am I to judge his level of commitment to the Mormon church? How can I say he’s not devout?

Well, people, a picture tells a thousand words. In the photo below, Brendan appears with his wife. Now, if you are a devout Mormon, you get married in the Temple and afterwards vow to wear “temple garments” which are always to be worn under your clothes. They go from knees to V-neck, with a capped sleeve. The goal is to remind oneself of the sacredness of the human body (created in God’s image) and to protect one’s chastity.

C’mon kids, is Mrs. Flowers wearing her temple garments under that sassy gold shift? Do you imagine Brendan is too? The answer is no. At most, my take is the BF is Mormon lite, which is fine, but that’s not the same as devout.

Also, Mormons are not exactly down with the eyeliner androgyny look. It’s a conservative faith that vehemently opposes gay marriage. They’re not cool with gender-bending makeup.