"Little Shop Of Horrors" - Runaway Stage Productions

Audrey (Carolyn Watling), Crystal (Haleyanne Freedman) and Seymour (David Andy Akona; aka "Turtle").

An excellent time!

Mushnik (Patrick McCann).  Patrick did really well!  I remember him as a teen back in 2000 DMTC Evita Days.

Jaye Vocque was on stage much of the time, but cleverly disguised as Audrey II!

Erika Fizzles

But there is an interesting article in Nature regarding the vulnerability of certain cities to hurricanes, Tampa included.

[UPDATE: Here’s a better link via Salon.]

"Mistress America"

I went to go see Sacramento's own Greta Gerwig in her new movie "Mistress America" at the Tower Theater. I liked the movie, and was a bit surprised at its trajectory, with hints of depth. What I especially liked was the early, all-but-random, rapid-fire dialogue at Mamie Claire's 'party' (the scene just after the scene shown in this clip). I prize near-randomness on my blog, with my dog, and in life in general, and for a few minutes this movie is like fractal genius. Filming it must have been difficult and they must have worked months on writing the dialogue.




In Gerwig's 2012 movie, "Frances Ha", she returns to Sacramento. It's funny, I barely remember the Sac scenes in that movie. Someone recently said you could tell it was Sac because you could see the Big Red Rabbit in the airport, but I don't remember the Rabbit, which I suppose makes me a bad Sac booster.

Although the escalator here at 3:03 is a Sac escalator:




I bet I didn't clue in to the Big Red Rabbit because "Frances Ha" was a black-and-white film.

I was wearing my "Burque" T-Shirt, and surprised the popcorn clerk: he's from Santa Clara Pueblo, NM!

Greta Gerwig came through the ranks of Sacramento area community theater before heading off to college at Barnard.

Left: Davis Enterprise Weekend cover from the summer of 1999, featuring the Woodland Opera House's cast of "A Chorus Line". Many of the cast had come from Solano Community College in Fairfield, but others were locals from Sacramento, Davis, or Woodland. Greta Gerwig is in the back row, in powder blue. I'm in the middle, in black. Folks whose names I still recall are: Michael Miiller, Aaron Clemens, Stephen Hatcher, Pam Kay Lourentzos, Jenny Stallard Lillge, Julianne Riordan, Stacey Arriaga, Angela Yee, Kathleen Reilley Dodd, Paul Jones, Pam Benjamin, and Peter Baldridge.

Worried About Tampa

In hurricane season I keep an eye out for Tampa, FL, where friends live. Tropical Storm Erika may be a problem for them, in part, because they've had tons of rain already and the ground is saturated. Right now, as far as rainfall is concerned, the new forecast is the worst yet for Tampa, with the circulation center passing far enough west of Tampa that the region of highest rainfall passes directly over the city. Let’s hope that interaction with Hispaniola disrupts the system enough to move the center of circulation. The National Hurricane Center thinks there’s a chance of that disruption happening.

The Pattern Of Drought

When you look at drought maps at year intervals it sure seems like we've been dealing with the very same belt of drought since 2007, when it first showed up in the American South, and has been moving at a glacial pace westwards ever since. Maybe this is a repeating pattern? And if it is a pattern it's still heading west today, with increasing drought in the Pacific NW and less in California. Eventually it'll pass out to sea, with maybe a new drought starting up in the South and starting the cycle over again.

2015 Teen Cabaret - DMTC YPT - August 21, 2015

Act 1





















Act 2

Sunny Sunny Yaariyan" Lyric Video

Today's Bollywood tune, good for Zumba....

Laying Down On The Job

I work in a neighborhood where bars and nightclubs have expanded operations over the last 15 years, and with that expansion came the late-night Urinators, who would sometimes target the back door of the business.

In a recent months, a homeless man started sleeping by the back door. As long as that man was laying down on the job, his presence offered a measure of protection against the Urinators.

About a week ago, the man disappeared, and I feel vulnerable again.

Donna Summer - I Feel Love - 2015 Dance Remix

I believe in the simple pleasures, which is why I love this video! Endless Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer, with the world in motion. Plus, it starts in Albuquerque, of all places, with what appear to be 'Gamer' outtakes:

Genius Bar

Feeling uneasy. Surrounded by morons here at Apple Store's Genius Bar....

Bella Remembers

Bella, the Labrador Retriever, and I were heading west on 4th Avenue, at 1:35 a.m. during our normal evening constitutional, when Bella turned right onto 22nd St., and froze. Waddling straight towards us in the gloom was canine Nemesis: a skunk! To my great surprise, Bella reacted with respect and fear, and decided we should abandon the detour onto 22nd Street. Bella seems as dumb as a box of rocks sometimes, but it's been less than two months since her last WMD encounter with a skunk, and she actually REMEMBERED!

Here Comes The Dagger!

Here comes the dagger! Right between the shoulder blades!:

"Cuccinelli’s involvement in this push “to tie Trump’s hands” is notable given his role as president of Jim Demint’s tea party-aligned Senate Conservatives Fund. The group has previously found common cause with Trump, spearheading an effort to defeat Sen. John McCain in next year’s Arizona primary and promoting Sen. Ted Cruz’s epic rant against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last month."

Now, in many ways, I'm sympathetic to the GOP on this. It's important for parties to maintain discipline, and Trump is way out of line and needs to be spanked, hard. Nevertheless, the billionaires run the GOP, and after the GOP's recent humiliating loss of its mailing lists to the Koch Brothers, it is clear the party is in a severely-weakened state. Trump beat FOX News over Megyn Kelly; he can beat Ken Cuccinelli too. And Lindsay Graham has just been quoted: "If Donald Trump is the nominee, that’s the end of the Republican Party." Graham's right, but the opposite may be true too. If Trump isn't the nominee, the party may crumble.

Atheist Agenda

Rain On The Horizon?

Rain on the horizon? Possibly! Forecasts are beginning to firm up for northern parts of California, Saturday morning and Tuesday evening. If it happens, it'll be amazingly-early!

Hawaiian Hazard

Long range weather forecasts suggest this innocent-looking "X" south of Mazatlan could evolve into a hurricane that could trouble Hawaii, potentially hitting - hard - every single island.

Attacking Caves Near The Mexican Border

On the idiot front, Ben Carson suggests using drones to attack caves on the Mexican border. But these aren't caves, these are tunnels, all of which are in towns and cities, and would survive drone air strikes and not, you know, visits by the Border Patrol. Needless to say, Republicans and their leaders are fools.

[UPDATE] Continuing in the category of figuring out just what the hell Ben Carson is talking about when he suggests using drones to attack caves near the Mexican border, Digby speculates he's talking about the postulated use by drug cartels of remote caves and points on high terrain inside the U.S. to coordinate the movement of drug shipments. Now, there are points on rugged terrain near the border that make fantastic lookouts, places the Apache frequented two centuries ago and desert sheep frequent today, provided drug cartels anticipate attacks by Border Patrol cavalry on horseback, or by infantry, but their relative inaccessibility makes them unsuitable for use by drug cartels, who would likely prefer using modern conveniences like cell phones, and drive on freeways and other convenient roads. Dropping bombs on remote places will start fires without reducing their inherent appeal, and besides, these places are easily observable - and attackable if need be - by USAF A-10 aircraft that use the area for training. Digby speculates Carson is simply childishly repeating crap he's heard from that excitable idiot, Pinal County Sheriff Babeu.

"Goblin Song" California Cast/Crew/Supporter Film Screening

On Saturday, August 22, 2015, Nora Unkel, director of the "Goblin Song" movie and 'Behind the Scenes' Documentary, held a private film screening and reception for about sixty supporters at Richard Brunelle Performance Hall, on the Davis Senior High School campus. Nora had crowd-sourced funding for the movie, and wanted to thank not just people in New York, but people in California too.

As part of her crowdsourcing effort, Nora had previously announced:

The film is my 20 minute, short, thesis film for New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. We are going to be shooting the film in the Davis, California, area in late March of this year (2014). This is an opportunity for me to showcase the beautiful locations around Davis and to utilize many of the supportive people and groups that I have been a part of my whole life.

The film itself is a dark, fairy tale, musical set in the Victorian era. It is about the love of two sisters as they have to persevere against the entrancement of a group of mystical goblin men and their temptations. The film is called “The Goblin Song”.

I have been working on the film now for about three years and see it as the culmination of everything that I have learned in the last four years at film school. This film is showcasing everything that I want to continue making movies about- it is a musical because I grew up doing musical theatre, it is a fairy tale as I have always had a love of Disney and fairy tales, and it is in the Victorian era because I am a history minor and love the symbology of that time period.

The film, once completed, will be sent around the world to film festivals and producers, hoping for as much viewing as possible as well as a possible distribution deal. The film is also the beginning of my career and will be a stepping stone for me to enter the professional film world.

More recently, she announced:

Hello everyone!

I am so beyond excited to share the final film with all of you. We apologize for the delay, as we have been waiting on film festival submissions and post production tweaks... but we are finally able to share the completed film with all of you!

This film would not have been made without your support. Myself and the rest of the team are forever in your debt and want you to know how eternally grateful we truly are for everything.

We will be having a screening in Davis, California this coming summer and would love to see as many of you there as can be! We'll also be screening a Behind the Scenes Documentary that is in the works as we speak. We'll keep you updated as to the time and date for this as well as any other screenings happening at film festivals.


...

Much love and gratitude always,
Nora and the Goblin Song Team

Lobby, Richard Brunelle Performance Hall

Richard Brunelle Performance Hall

Nora Unkel thanks her supporters!

Woody Allen's "Irrational Man"

Went to see Woody Allen's new film, "Irrational Man", with Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, and Parker Posey, at the Tower Theater. The first half hour is pretty bad (almost like a SNL parody of a Woody Allen film: a non-intellectual's idea of how intellectuals speak on an ivy-league campus, plus an implausible romance), but once the central plot starts it's absorbing and actually pretty good (because Allen keeps things simple). It's just that you have to tolerate Woody Allen.

Enslaving Latinos

Now here's this powerful right-wing radio host in Iowa who proposes enslaving illegals. Nice what you can do without a 14th Amendment! And without birthright citizenship, any Latino birth certificate becomes just another piece of paper, so who needs to confine slavery to illegals? And THAT is your modern Republican Party, the advocates of freedom and opportunity

Varieties Of Jamaican Dancehall

There appears to be a thriving Jamaican Dancehall underground in Eastern Europe. People's imaginations are caught up by the exotic - the Japanese fascination with Mexican mariachi music, for example, or the romantic Russian fascination with Scotland - and I suppose this is no different. Fun to see the varieties of choreography among different groups. This group is Polish.

"El Gecko"

Here's a nice Q-and-A about “Godzilla” El Niño vs. The Blob, and whether we'll have a wet winter or instead whether "Godzilla" will become "El Gecko".

Thinking About Cutoff Lows

Interesting to see the weather models argue with one another. This week, an Aleutian cutoff low will descend off the Oregon coast. The question is: exactly where will it descend? Far west of the 140 degree longitude (bad), or closer in (good)? Forecasting the behavior of cutoff lows is weather's greatest challenge, particularly when the low doesn't even exist yet, yet the possibility of rain in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California depends on the answer to that question.

A cutoff low is a more-or-less self-contained rotating low pressure system often seen in mid-latitudes. Rotating flow like you see in hurricanes (just not nearly so powerful). Flow is momentarily diverted away from the jet stream to initiate the cutoff low, then resumes its flow. The spun-off cutoff low wanders around for awhile, then later, it encounters the jet stream again and is reabsorbed. Cutoff lows are responsible for a large amount of mid-latitude weather, but they are squirrelly. Asymmetric cutoff lows being reabsorbed into the jet stream can generate huge amounts of rain, but symmetric cutoff lows might not generate any rain at all. Forecasting what you'll actually get is a big challenge.

As Jerry notes, the formation of a cutoff low is analogous to the way an oxbow lake forms when the channel of a river cuts across the neck of a meander. It's a good analogy! And the oxbow lake eventually gets reabsorbed by the meandering river.

A Bad Lip Reading of Catching Fire

Startled my dog, I was laughing so hard!

Kylie Minogue - Giving You Up (Showgirl)

Still a favorite!

Otherwise Known As The Roswell Incident

From Classical Music Humor:

Breaking Bad - The Superlab Environment (UE4)

Marius Laurentiu posted this the other day. I just wanted to re-emphasize how masterfully-real Unreal Engine 4 is, and what a great addition this is to Petrauskas' masterfully-real Breaking Bad Cabin video!

Do You Want to Build a Meth Lab? (Frozen/Breaking Bad Parody)

Chandra Asks About El Niño

Chandra asks:

Can you give your expert opinion, in 8th grade terms??? lol!!!! I lived in the mountains during the last real el nino and O boy!!! So this really interests me!!!

NOAA NWS Climate Prediction Center announces:

The latest ENSO diagnostic discussion was released last Thursday, and highlighted the unanimous forecaster consensus for a strong El Niño event continuing into the winter. The latest weekly OI SST anomaly value in Niño 3.4 is +2.0C!

Ha! I had to look things up (SST means 'sea surface temperature': OI means nothing at all, as far as I can tell, so no wonder it's confusing).

The Niño-3.4 region is a place; the closest strip of ocean water along the Equator most likely to affect us (southwest of us; southeast of Hawaii). Surface waters there are 2 degrees Centigrade warmer than usual, which is an unusual state of affairs that we haven't seen since 1997. There's also no indication El Niño will go away before winter. Warm water provides an unusually-rich source of atmospheric moisture. Whether the weather can tap that moisture for us is still unclear, since we are so far from the Equator. Usually it means lots of rain, but not always. The illustration shows results of the winters of 1982-3 on the left (wet) and 1965-6 on the right (dry), both strong El Niño years. The rest of the atmosphere will have to respond favorably to help us.

My own sense is that we've seen a strip of drought move west across the U.S. for the last eight years, first affecting the American South (2006-8), then Texas (2010-11), then the Southwest (2012-13), then California (2014-15). It's now incorporating the Pacific Northwest (2015-?) as it continues its march west. My guess is that the Pacific Northwest will continue to be dry this winter, but drought will end in southern California. The most well-known climatologist in southern California, Bill Patzert at JPL, worries there could be floods in SoCal and continued drought in NorCal. His nightmare is a possibility!

If rains are to come, something will have to kill the Really Resilient Ridge that has bedeviled California since January, 2013. Interestingly, long-range, 2-week weather forecasts show a combination of powerful storms in Alaska and the northwest Pacific will create an Aleutian low that will kick the ridge west starting on August 28th, opening the possibility of some rain in NorCal as soon as September 7th. If so, that would be really early! I'm hoping that we'll know what lies in store for us fairly early.

Really Bad Ideas Delivered With Knee-Slapping Teutonic Humor

QQ - "Tip"

Helping With Final Costs of Leigh Pettigrew

Helping with expenses for lives ended too early.

Baddies For Bernie!

Important To Keep The Squirrels In The Trees

That's one embarrassed-looking squirrel! Uncontrolled fall from a tree onto an ivy-covered fence. Total loss of squirrel gravitas there.

The Interviewer Won't Stop Prattling On About Dido

This interview regarding Dido was my favorite part of the haunting, recently-released movie "Amy". Given any subject, I spend most of my life in this same, exact frame of mind! Amy Winehouse's facial expressions are so precious!

Just Love The Vitajex Sequence!

On August 16th, TCM showed "A Face In The Crowd", the 1957 movie that made Andy Griffith a star and also starred Walter Matthau and Lee Remick. Years before movies like "Network", Elia Kazan and company were prophets! Just look at the disaster of FOX News!

"A Midsummer's Night's Dream" - Winters Theater Company

Farewell Party For Evan And Kaylin Scott, Nicolette Ellis And Sarah Farkas

Suddenly, An Agave Bloomed

Flight From Albuquerque To Phoenix, Then On To Sacramento - Phoenix-Area Portion - August 3, 2015

Rio Verde.

Bartlett Lake.

Fountain at Fountain Hills.

Fountain at Fountain Hills.

Beeline Highway.

Red Mountain Freeway and North Alma School Rd.

McDowell and Beeline Triple Junction.

Pima Freeway - Scottsdale Boundary.

Near N. Hayden and E. McKellips Rd.

McKellips Lake.

Priest Dr. and Washington St./ Papago Park Center.

I-10.

Sky Harbor.

Sky Harbor.

Sky Harbor.

Sky Harbor.

Sky Harbor.

I-10.

Downtown Phoenix.

North Central.

Near Black Canyon Freeway and W. Carefree Highway/ AZ Game and Fish headquarters.

Through the murk, and after sunset, Lake Tahoe.