Marc Valdez Weblog: 07/06/2014

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

CSN, and Y (as Played By Jimmy Fallon) Cover Iggy Azalea's "Fancy"

Daniel - Breaking Bad (Hip Hop video)

Chumps At Work

It figures that chumpy conservative media are good for something, like acting as agents of the Cuban regime.

Tucker Carlson, editor in chief of the Daily Caller, said in a phone interview that it would be a major shock to him if the Cuban government spooled out a story that his reporters ran with — but that it’s also a hard claim for him to verify.

More Commemorations Regarding Tevye Ditter

Sigma Phi Epsilon honored Tevye in their newsletter:

Tevye Ditter, a graduate of the University of California-Davis and the California Eta Chapter, was known for his larger-than-life presence, made manifest in his height, his voice, and his legacy of serving others. Tevye's funeral service was at standing room capacity as family, friends and theatrical colleagues came from all over Northern California to give their condolences. Those in attendance included the Sacramento Choral Society, the Sacramento Philharmonic, the deputy director of the Department of Social Services and many other prominent leaders.

Why Are We Afraid Of Spiders?

I like the explanations given here:

There was also an effect from family. Those people fearful of spiders reported having a family member with similar fears, but the study was unable to separate genetic factors from environmental ones. What is surprising is that Davey found that archanophobia wasn’t the result of specific “spider trauma”, which means there was no support for the conditioning view.

So what makes spiders so terrifying? Surely it must be the threat of being bitten? Davey looked at that issue too. It turns out that it is not so much a fear of being bitten, but rather the seemingly erratic movements of spiders, and their “legginess”. Davey said.

Myself, I like the idea that the small, complicated shapes of spiders trigger fears of unanticipated attacks. Interestingly, that means the largest spiders are the most approachable, because they are more intelligent, move more slowly, and you can see them better. I really enjoyed meeting Breaking Bad's tarantula wrangler Christopher Lim because his spiders are shy, tentative around strangers, and lovable.

Great Images Of Storms

At the link.

I'll Never Find Those Statues

Trying to adequately respond to Linda Longmore Hayes' post (on Facebook) about the strange 8-bit Venus statue in Rhyolite, NV, I spent a fruitless hour paging through Web pages regarding Las Vegas from the Seventies. I remember a weird casino driveway being demolished on the Las Vegas Strip in about 1978. The driveway was lined by grotesque, chipped, gold-painted cement statues of muscle men. The bodies weren't anatomically-correct even, but full of inexplicable lumps, like the men had broken tendons, or something. They had gargoylish faces too, like their exercise regimens must have been way over the top. It seemed to be part of a Body Building fantasy land from the Sixties that had fallen on hard times, but it was erased so swiftly and completely from history, I can find no trace. It's only real impact was to make me fall in love with Las Vegas. I mean, where else on Earth would it occur to someone to make something like this? In any event, here is a video of 70's history, that emphasizes that the plot to the movie "Casino" was based on reality:

Noa Solorio In Today's Sacramento Bee

Pleased that DMTC YPT'er Noa Solorio (10 shows in 2.5 years: 2011-2013) gets such great ink in today's Sacramento Bee!:

The family is bolstered by young local actors Noa Solorio and Ben Ainley-Zoll, who play children Jane and Michael Banks.

“These kids are better than any kids I could have found around the country,” Casale said. “They’re so professional. They’ve been here eight hours a day, doing every job every actor does, and these are local kids and I forget that.”

The two have been rehearsing their parts since March and have had a dialogue coach helping their English accents. They’ve worked at Music Circus before with Casale in the chorus of “The Music Man,” but now they are featured actors.

“They’ve got to hold this show together and I can’t say enough about how prepared they are,” he said.

Monday, July 07, 2014

Avatar

I can't help but marvel at the influences at work here. When I was a teenager, I belonged to the Science Fiction Book Club. One of the monthly selections was Fritz Leiber's fun novel, "A Specter is Haunting Texas," a story of post-nuclear America, where weightlessness-weakened astronaut Scully Christopher Crockett La Cruz returns to Earth within an exoskeleton to reclaim a family Canadian mine, only to discover Canada is now North Texas.

When Gil described his upcoming surgery, which will require the use of titanium strips within his chest, it reminded me of the novel, so I went out on Google to find this cover art by Richard Clifton-Dey for a British edition of “A Spectre Is Haunting Texas”. And Gil, with the aid of the slogan remembered by his brother for the Seventies TV show "The Six-Million-Dollar Man," now has the coolest of T-Shirts!

The best of luck, Gil! I want to be acting on stage with you soon, my brother!

Voyager One Has Left The Solar System

Going, going, gone:

NASA confirmed Thursday that the space craft left the solar system more than a year ago, traveling in the space between stars.

Voyager 1 first launched into space in 1977 to study the outer planets, but after completing its mission in 1989, the craft continued traveling––about 12 billion miles in total. It’s now so far away that its radio signals take 17 hours to reach Earth.

...Officials confirmed Voyager’s interstellar journey based on space plasma density evidence. Readings from April/May compared with October/November of last year showed the number of protons occupying every cubic centimeter in space increased by almost 100 times. This has been attributed to Voyager leaving the magnetic fields and particle winds billowing from the sun’s surface. Scientists calculate Voyager’s departure from the solar system at or around August 25, 2012. Moving at 100,000 miles per hour, Voyager is expected to be near another star in 40,000 years.

Scientists began debating on Voyager’s location earlier this year. In March, the American Geophysical Union declared the craft had left the solar system, but NASA was reluctant to agree until the surrounding magnetic fields changed direction. NASA’s confirmation Thursday should put the controversy to bed.

Sunday, July 06, 2014

Fun With The Scrub Jays

Scrub Jay with peanut.

A week ago I posted on Facebook:

It's fun to watch the Scrub Jays! The fledglings are almost old enough to be on their own, but not quite. Baby was bleating, shaking its wings and begging mama for food. I tossed peanuts to them. Mama grabbed one, and baby grabbed another one. Baby pecked at the shell like mama had done, but listlessly, without understanding or determination. Just too hard. So baby went back to begging for food, because it's just easier that way.

Now, the babies seem to be more or less on their own (with a little help from Big Bird Marc).

Scrub Jay with peanut.

Two Scrub Jays, one on the left with peanut.

Scrub Jay enjoying the afternoon.

"Les Misérables" - Saturday Afternoon Arrest At The Corner Gas Station Recycling Center

Heading to "Les Misérables" at DMTC on Saturday afternoon, I realized I first needed to get some gasoline. So, I stopped to fill up at the gas station at the corner of 24th Street and Broadway in Sacramento.

As I pumped gas, I could see a fellow standing nearby in handcuffs, accompanied by a security guard. They both appeared to be waiting for the cops. Handcuff guy said "Don't EVER bring your recyclables to this place! You have watch these guys real careful when they weigh things, because if you take your eyes away, even for a second, they'll cheat." Pointing at a plastic garbage bag on the pavement, handcuff guy continued, "See that bag there? They were only going to give me twelve dollars for it! And now that they say I'm trespassing, they're simply going to steal it!" After that, I could hear both handcuff guy and the security guard muttering disrespectful things to each other.

When I left, I bade handcuff guy the best of luck with what looked like a difficult situation.