"Urinetown" Opens At DMTC

"Urinetown" is open! Audience reaction seemed very favorable. Here are some of the fabulous Bramlett photos of final dress rehearsal (just some of the photos that have me in them in some capacity).

I tell you, I have never gone into a show sicker and more disoriented. It was a massive struggle just to get through it. Not surprisingly, I was sometimes slow, and a beat behind the music: particularly "Cop Song", where I lost my place in the music after 'don't be like them' and basically thrashed around a lot, and "Run, Freedom, Run", where I was slow, and hit the floor after the dance along with most of the others, instead of remaining standing, as I was supposed to do.

I feel a bit better today. Maybe tonight won't be so bad.

I've been striving for a look of uncomprehending stupidity in the show, and based on the pictures, I seem to have succeeded.

The Goat Version

This fellow seems to like putting goats with various pop stars. Here's Taylor Swift: Usher is out there too.

Final Dress Rehearsal Tonight For "Urinetown"

Heh.... I took some cough medicine for the cough, but ended up addling myself with the drug. I hope reflexes recover!

Now, I have 'loose stools'. Bad for dancing, but should go well with the overall theme....

Should I go to aerobics? I did poorly last night in the "Cop Song", probably because I wasn't sufficiently warmed up. Nevertheless, too much exercise might sap energy. But there are potential audience members there, so go I must.

Run With The GOP's New Sequester Plan!

The GOP's sequester plan is very clever - too clever, by half:

The GOP’s emerging legislative fix to the sequester is both counterintuitive and clever.

...Senate Republicans along with influential conservative commentators are proposing to provide federal agency heads the flexibility they currently lack to allocate the sequester’s cuts at their discretion.

Per the conservative National Review: “In the face of poor alternatives, it is best to accept the new spending levels for 2013, including decreased defense spending, and to focus on ensuring that the slightly smaller pool of money is managed slightly more intelligently — by, for instance, giving agency managers discretion about where the cuts come from in the near term and using the appropriations process to allocate future cuts in the out-years.”

Karl Rove proposes a similar idea.

One of the problems with the sequester — which this proposal would attempt to address — is that its spending cuts come uniformly, from almost every government account. That’s why they’re often called indiscriminate and across-the-board. Under the sequester it doesn’t matter if one part of an agency is bloated and another part is lean: both must be cut.

The GOP proposal would give the executive branch more discretion over where to make those cuts for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which ends in September. After that date, congressional appropriators would make decisions about where the specific cuts would come from, while still adhering to the sequester’s new lower spending baseline.

The irony is that in the near term, the GOP’s proposed fix would delegate a great deal of authority to the executive branch — and thus to President Obama. And for the GOP that would come with the risk that the administration would target the cuts at GOP constituencies, which would undermine the political rationale for their own plan.

But aside from that potential flaw it’s a clever idea.

It's not a bug, it's an opportunity! Federal spending supports innumerable, extraordinarily-whiny, federally-dependent, FOX News fans. Aim the cuts directly at them! Teach the whiny bastards a lesson!

For example, the reddest state in the last election was Oklahoma. The place is full of FOX-News thralls (who fancy themselves as 'independent thinkers'). They've got the lowest hanging fruit - Tinker AFB. Shut the whole place down! Shut down every other federal facility in Oklahoma too. Send the Oklahoma unemployment rate to 30% (sorry, John - hope you understand)! Whiny, effin' bastardos!

deadmau5 ft. Gerard Way - Professional Griefers

Trying To Communicate With A Hologram Of Ned Roscoe In Oregon

Haven't puzzled this out yet - a clunky E-Mail-like system to communicate with Federal prisoners. I guess I'm 'Pending'. The communication is likely to be stilted since it won't be the least be private, but once I get through, Ned will be able to hear silly stories about people skidding on I-80, and the like:

This is a system generated message informing you that the above-named person is a federal prisoner who seeks to add you to his/her contact list for exchanging electronic messages. There is no message from the prisoner at this time.

You can ACCEPT this prisoner's request or BLOCK this individual or all federal prisoners from contacting you via electronic messaging at www.corrlinks.com. To register with CorrLinks you must enter the email address that received this notice along with the identification code below.

...By approving electronic correspondence with federal prisoners, you consent to have the Bureau of Prisons staff monitor the content of all electronic messages exchanged.

Once you have registered with CorrLinks and approved the prisoner for correspondence, the prisoner will be notified electronically.

Sleazeball Domenici

Should have known all the time, the fellow was a Class-A jerk:

From Daily Kos:

Former New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici told the Journal on Tuesday he fathered a son outside of his marriage over 30 years ago, revealing a secret kept for decades.

Statements given to the Journal by Domenici and the son’s mother, Michelle Laxalt of Alexandria, Va., identified the son as Adam Paul Laxalt, a Nevada lawyer. Michelle Laxalt formerly was a prominent government relations consultant and television political commentator in Washington, D.C. She is a daughter of former U.S. senator and Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt. [...]

Michelle Laxalt said “one night’s mistake led to pregnancy” and she chose to raise the son as a single parent.

Now, far be it from us to judge what happens behind closed doors between consenting adults. After all, it's really no one's business if the former senator of New Mexico was diddling a colleague's daughter behind his wife's back. Clearly, such a private matter is nobody's business, and we should all stay out of it.

Oh, unless that senator happens to believe that the government has a vested interest in what happens behind closed doors between consenting adults, women have no right to privacy at all, and adultery "rise[s] to the level of impeachable offenses that the Founding Fathers envisioned."

Like Sen. Pete Domenici did when he was wandering the halls of the Senate in his pajamas. In which case, all bets are off.

See, while Domenici was keeping his dirty little secret out of respect for his baby mama and his out-of-wedlock offspring, he was whistling a slightly different tune in public. Like when he voted to convict President Bill Clinton in the Senate impeachment trial because, among other things, "[t]ruthfulness is the first pillar of good character in the Character Counts program of which I have been part of establishing in New Mexico." Also, something about the president's "tawdry" sex acts, although it totally wasn't about that at all.

In fact, when he was a senator, Domenici was perfectly happy to invade the privacy of others and legislate what happens between consenting adults. Like all his votes to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Like all his votes to regulate vaginas—because while he believed that the woman he impregnated had a right to privacy, that right does not extend to women he didn't impregnate.

But at least, classy guy that he is, Domenici has finally come clean—decades later—to his family, and he's very sorry:

I deeply regret this and am very sorry for my behavior. I hope New Mexicans will view that my accomplishments for my beloved state outweigh my personal transgression. I only ask that everyone respect the privacy of my family and the son’s mother. None of them wanted this publicity, none of them deserve the hurt of this revelation, and only I should bear the brunt of this matter.

Yeah. Sure is awful when people think what happens in your private life is somehow their business, isn't it?

Out-Of-Control Condor

Looks Like Rain For Southern New Mexico

Keep it coming!

A Plethora Of Pretty Peacock Spider Images!

Native to Australia. Plus a mite, or two, and a few other assorted pretty creatures.

ABQ Is A Small World!

From Marq- Ed Smith -Candelaria at UBFFT:

wow this is getting weird with all the WTF stuff going on. So today I (ed) am training a couple of new people at my office. One of the women there said "I heard your a BrBa fan" (obviously its a known fact among....EVERYONE there); I said yes I am and I told her about our FB page and what the tour is about etc etc. well she said "I have a brother who loves BrBa too he has a blog and lives in California"...again before she could comment further I asked "Marc Valdez? and she was like "yeah do you know him?" with her eyes wide open lol. I said "yes hes the go to guy we use for our tours with his awesome blogroll". so again I say it like I mean it....we brba fans are always ready with the facts. and as a plus i am going to be working with Marc's sister. how cool is that?

Chelyabinsk Meteor Size Upgraded

(h/t John) Based on infrasound data, NASA is upgrading the Chelyabinsk meteor size:

But late Friday, NASA revised its estimates on the size and power of the devastating meteor explosion. The meteor's size is now thought to be slightly larger — about 55 feet (17 m) wide — with the power of the blast estimate of about 500 kilotons, 30 kilotons higher than before, NASA officials said in a statement.

...The meteor was also substantially more massive than thought as well. Initial estimated pegged the space rock's mass at about 7,000 tons. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., now say the meteor weighed about 10,000 tons and was travelling 40,000 mph (64,373 km/h) when it exploded.

And one teacher is being honored for doing the correct thing:

Overshadowing these misfortunes, a fourth-grade teacher in Chelyabinsk, Yulia Karbysheva, was being hailed as a hero for saving 44 children from glass cuts by ordering them to hide under their desks when she saw the flash. Having no idea what it was, she executed a duck-and-cover drill from the cold war era.

Ms. Karbysheva, who remained standing, was seriously lacerated when glass severed a tendon in one of her arms, Interfax reported; not one of her students suffered a cut.

Good Wishes To Jabriel

On his appearance last week (center, in green sweater) on "The Big Bang Theory":

"Urinetown" Tech Week Starts

I notice in most tech weeks that there is one day, usually the first use of costumes day - generally Tuesday - that is the hardest to push through. I felt the hardest day was actually Sunday this time. We have more time than I thought to perfect things.

Bambi Meets Godzilla

Digitally-restored and remastered classic animation short from the 1960's.

Assembling The Profile Of The Typical Porn Star

For the first time, a massive data set of 10,000 porn stars has been extracted from the world’s largest database of adult films and performers, and carefully analyzed, to provide a typical profile:

Blonde, presumably, if my friends’ guesses were anything to go by.

Apparently not. Dark-haired porn stars outnumber blonde ones almost 2-to-1.

No Wonder So Many Russians Were Hurt!

Plus, why all the dashboard cameras?:

The dashboard camera craze has really taken off in the past couple of years, but for the dullest of reasons: Insurance.

According to Radio Free Europe, the craze began as the cost of cameras dipped and citizens began fighting back against corrupt traffic cops. They quickly also proved their use in proving fault in an accident and capturing viral videos.

Animal New York also notes that the cameras are excellent in catching other drivers involved in hit-and-run accidents.

As with everything else, though, what started as a personal safety fad began to produce local celebrities. There are now television shows and entire websites dedicated to capturing the best — and even reviewing – dashboard cam videos from across the country.

I think I want a dashboard camera. Years of mind-numbingly-dull video, but every so often (like last week on I-80) it would prove its value!

The Definition Of Insanity

So, if the Will and Trust proves itself as useful as an empty box of tampons, then it's back to an attorney.

New attorney is puzzled by the old Will and Trust - it's incomplete character, and a trace of evidence revealed by a failed Search-and-Replace in the Questionaire made him think it was aimed at Arizona estates.