Ana And The Papa

It was a distinct pleasure to see that one of the acts at the 15th Annual Sacramento Race for the Arts was a group called "Ana and the Papa": Ana Chan, with her father Dave, and William Chan. Renee Alarcon and myself hung out and applauded their mix of jazz and musical theater. Great time!

Various Performances At The Race For The Arts

Woodland Opera House's "Les Miserables".

The amazing Miss Chaney from Kids Dance and Fitness in North Natomas.

Crockett-Deane Ballet.

15th Annual Sacramento Race For The Arts

Stuck Horn

I had just finished texting my sister and had gone to bed, about 2 a.m., when there was a tremendous THUMP! and the blare of an automobile horn stuck on. Apparently there was a crash at 21st St. & Second Avenue, down the street. I called 911, but they were busy. After fifteen minutes, or so, the horn went off, and I went to sleep, anticipating waking up early for the 15th Annual Sacramento Race for the Arts.

Just Appalled About "Breaking Bad" Car Sales

Amazed that both "Breaking Bad" cars offered for auction on EBay by Mike Faris in Albuquerque sold cheap (Jesse's Toyota Tercel for $4,550: Mike's car for less than $2,000). I thought they'd go for $100,000+ each: that will be their eventual worth! Aaargghhh! I could have been a player, but I took my eye off the ball! I could have put both of them on my credit card, for chrissakes! Money DOES grow on trees, but you have to watch the right trees!

Will Durst Tonight!

At the 24th Street Theater.

Corina Is Having A Party Tonight

At Nex Nightclub for becoming a Sacramento King's Dancer!

The Security Guard Schtick

I was reminded, once again, of a co-worker's funny story.

In the early 80's, my friend was a cop in San Francisco. To make extra bucks, he took a night watchman job at the Burger King on Market Street (yeah, THAT place!) One night, a homeless man came in and became loud and unruly. My friend forcibly grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. The homeless man's arm detached and came off. While my friend looked at the arm in surprise, the homeless man clocked him in the face with his other fist. The brawl ended up on TV and embarrassed the police department. Turned out the detachable arm was a prosthetic. The homeless man was a veteran of Iwo Jima.

"The Grooveline" - Heat Wave (1978)

It's funny, the mental associations that pop songs evoke. I associate this song with desperate, doomed efforts to stay independent. Plus Ancient Greece. Yet the song itself is about the freedom of the dance floor.

When the song first came out, in 1978, I was at UNM in Albuquerque, studying Ancient Greek History, and the doomed efforts of city-states like Thebes to balance themselves between Sparta and Athens. On 9/11, my Ancient Greek history professor, Richard Berthold, made a tactless joke regarding the desirability of bombing the Pentagon, which would have been taken as merely cheeky in Vietnam days, but in the space of just several hours, was now considered intolerable by the authorities. Conservative thugs in the NM State legislature hounded him for years before finally forcing him out. So much for academic freedom! It was the ugly dawn of the 9/11 tyranny we suffer under to this day.

Yet the lyrics speak of escape:

So grab your friends
Get the train comin' through
Climb on board
Where you leave's up to you

Leave your worries behind (Leave your worries behind)
"Cause rain, shine
Won't mind
We're ridin' on the groove line tonight

"Sister Christian" From "Boogie Nights"

Scary scene!

Helping Sheriff Joe Out

Here's a real-life case that echoes "Breaking Bad" all too clearly. What do you do to avoid prosecution by Sheriff Joe Arpaio if you are a business in Phoenix that hires large numbers of illegals? Well, you become a heavy contributor to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Memorial Fund:

Here in Maricopa County, we are used to immigration raids Joe Arpaio-style, where deputies swoop in with cameras blazing and arrest a few cleaning ladies or maybe some guy who makes a mean taco.

Now here comes Immigration and Customs Enforcement showing how it should be done, with a sophisticated two-year investigation that has produced a 78-count indictment alleging a company conspiracy to build an illegal workforce.

Danny’s Family Car Wash stands accused of cleaning cars in the dirtiest way possible – by conspiring with immigrants who are here illegally to steal the identities of innocent people.

Thus far, 14 managers and supervisors – including the general manager of operations – have been indicted, with more to come. Whether the conspiracy extends to the owner, Danny Hendon, remains to be seen.

Hendon is well known in law enforcement circles, often using his car washes to raise funds for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Memorial Fund. Curiously, none of Arpaio’s 74 workplace raids have targeted Hendon’s operation.

Where, according to a 2010 ICE audit, nearly half the workforce was suspect.

...If only Arizona’s employer-sanctions law could also be used to go after the root of the problem. But since the Legal Arizona Workers Act became law in 2008, only three employers have been cited for knowingly hiring someone who is here illegally — one of them a water park that was already out of business.

Hoping The Storm Comes to ABQ

This summer's monsoon in NM has been pretty crappy. There is still time to mitigate it, though.

Last night, at Mike Leuthold's WRF forecasting page, they forecasted that storms from Ruidoso would head north to Santa Fe, and bypass ABQ. Today, those storms are there, but heading NNW, not straight north.

Hoping the storm makes it to the dry, dusty city.

[UPDATE: And it dies out before crossing the Manzanos.]

"Breaking Bad" January Visit To To'hajiilee

Yes, Fried Chicken, My Downfall

No wonder we Latinos never get anywhere: getting fatter by the minute:

“When you look at life expectancy, there are problems in the black race: sickle-cell anemia is something that comes up, diabetes is something that’s prevalent in the genetic makeup and you just can’t help it,” Marble said. “Although I’ve got to say, I’ve never had better BBQ and better chicken and ate better in my life than when you go down south and you — I love it.”
Marble went on to mention how Mexicans eat vegetables in Mexico but stop eating healthily when they immigrate to the United States.

“These things aren’t good for you,” she continued. “There’s so many attributing factors as to why these graphs look the way they do.”

Cougar Life Ad Hilarious

Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais Remix)

Ominous Phone Call

Joe the Plumber wants to offload Bella the Dog again. He says he's 'going on a trip', but it can mean only one thing....

Yielding To Temptation

I did TWO Step One classes last night. In addition to Zumba, I stayed for Beginning Hip-Hop. For some reason, Krystle chose to go through Minneapolis from Orlando, so she hadn't made it back yet, but Pepper had just arrived, so he subbed.

I didn't understand that supposedly-hour-long Beginning Hip-Hop had no real time limitation, so it lasted 1:40, plus 1:00 for a very active Zumba class. I nearly dance three hours last night!

Which is why I'm a couch potato today.

Will Durst Will Be At The 24th Street Theater This Friday

Thought this looked good!

Dear Friends of the Humor Times,

We're emailing you because we thought you'd want to know about this great comedy event we're presenting -- it's only four days until the big show!

The best political satirist in the country, Mr. Will Durst, brings his all-new hit show, "BoomeRaging: >From LSD to OMG," to Sacramento in an exclusive presentation, this Friday, August 23rd, 7:00pm, at the 24th Street Theatre.

If you're a Boomer, you've really got to see it! If you're not, come laugh at us -- we're laughing at ourselves, so we won't mind.
And with complimentary drinks being served at a hosted bar before the show (6:00pm-6:50pm), you can't really go wrong, now, can you?! ;)

Tickets are $20.00 in advance for assigned seating, or $25 at the door. They may be purchased securely online through Brown Paper Tickets at humortimes.brownpapertickets.com or by phoning 1-800-838-3006.
We are relying a lot on word of mouth -- we'd love to fill the hall for Mr. Durst, so please help us spread the word, on social media, Facebook, by forwarding this email, telling your friends and co-workers, and shouting it from the rooftops!

DMTC - Teen Dessert Cabaret 2013 - I

A series of videos will be forthcoming from the DMTC YPT Teen Dessert Cabaret, entitled "Triple Threats - an audition themed cabaret".

Corina Bianca Made It As A 2013-14 Sacramento Kings Dancer!

Corina posted this morning:

FAMILY!!!!! I AM SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY!!! LOL THEY MADE US ALL STAY QUIET UNTIL IT WAS POSTED ON THE KINGS WEBSITE BUT I MADE IT!! THANK YOU EVERYBODY SO MUCH FOR THE LOVE SUPPORT AND VOTES! YOU ALSO MADE ME THE #1 SACRAMENTO KINGS FAN FAVORITE DANCER! SO MANY BLESSINGS! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! I LOVE YOU!! ♥ ♥ ♥

Here's an introductory video.

Kathy McGrade - 9/11 Truther

Nostalgia time! Kathy McGrade attended NM Tech in Socorro, NM, the same time I was there (1974-75). She was, by far, the prettiest metallurgist in all of central New Mexico, and she had a fancy car too - a Corvette, or something like that - that we all envied. Now she is a well-known 9/11 Truther.

She bases her skepticism on the presence of metal microspheres in the building wreckage (although it occurs to me that those microspheres may simply have lingered from the original welding in 1971). I saw a convincing air pollution talk two years ago that described air quality monitoring at the Twin Towers that would have registered any trace of explosives present, had there been any present. They didn't register anything like that, so there is no reason to believe the 9/11 Truthers at all.

Still, it's nice to see what old schoolmates are up to.

Another former schoolmate, Dave Thomas, actually debated her publicly on the merits of her skepticism:

Having developed a reputation for my investigations of the Bible Code, the Roswell UFO incident, and other fringe beliefs, Tech officials asked me to present an opposing view at the upcoming event. The debate was on.

9/11 - Metallurgical Engineer, Kathy McGrade... by NLW911

Barrett Foa as Mitt Romney - "I Believe" - Book Of Mormon

Steve mentioned this video, and it's good!

Emblem3 - Chloe (You're The One I Want)

Saw this and immediately thought of Chloe Condon, but it works for Chloe Deamer too.

Kea - The Smartest Parrot?

These birds embarrassed me so much in New Zealand. I took Andrew's convertible to Arthur's Pass, and the keas got together and started punching holes in the soft convertible top.

Gin Wigmore - Black Sheep

In 2008, heading to Australia and New Zealand, I worried about how to pass the time on the tedious trans-Pacific flight. I was charmed by a video by Auckland's own Gin Wigmore. But I sort-of lost track of her since then. I figured she must be busy with Down Under things.

Fairly-lately she's done an East Coast American tour, and she has new videos out.

Black Sheep

Very clever!




Under My Skin

This is the quirky video that I found entertaining on the way to Australia.

Smashed Bird Patrol

Looks like another pigeon got squashed by a passing car at my feeding site. Two pigeons in two weeks. There were remains of another pigeon under my hedge. Was it the same pigeon, after being moved and tossed there? Dunno.

August is the Month of Death. Birds, people - any living thing.

Every morning, I've been watching the slow dismemberment, by traffic, of a crow on 21st Street, just south of the Sacramento Bee. What got that bird?

The New Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor

Giorgio's back! And Karina will soon be here! Apply that Latin to Roseville!

Not a real reflective sort of place. Almost manic energy. Here for Steve's birthday.

Softened up by the two hour wait. Crowded almost beyond belief. Hard on me, because I was operating on three hours of sleep the night before.

Good ice cream.

The Substitute

With Pepper and crew completely decamped across the country in Orlando, we needed an aerobics substitute, so we got Kristen from U-Jam Fitness, based at Diversity Dance and Fitness, in Elk Grove.

Fun, but very d-d-d-dub s-s-s-step.

Next week should be fun. I promised someone I would attend hip-hop class, 1.5 hours after Zumba, when I'd normally be winding down. I could break the promise, I suppose, but there's no incentive. You see, she's c-c-c-cute.

Woodland Sobriety Stop

Cop: Have you been drinking this evening?

M: I had some wine about 6:30.

Cop: Take off your glasses, look at my finger, and watch it.

M.: (He's sure moving it all over the place.)

Cop: Thank you. Proceed.

M.: (It's all that dancer training!)