Sacramento area community musical theater (esp. DMTC in Davis, 2000-2020); Liberal politics; Meteorology; "Breaking Bad," "Better Call Saul," and Albuquerque movie filming locations; New Mexico and California arcana, and general weirdness.
Lucky Star was one of three canoes sailed to Guam from Lamotrek by the wayfinder Raigetal and his crew of apprentices. What made this particular canoe so special was the fact that its sail was traditional, meaning it was woven from pandanus leaves by the women of Lamotrek.
There, in the weeks leading up to the voyage, it was discovered that the knowledge of how to weave such a sail was very nearly lost. Literally one woman still knew how to do it.
Her name was Maria Labushoilam, a 90-year-old master weaver, and she was dying.
Maria would spend the last two weeks of her life teaching 15 women how to make that sail.
From her deathbed, she taught them how to harvest, dry, and split the leaves, and then how to weave them. After she died, the women completed the sail without her. The community raised it together.
In 2019, when the Exeter City Council voted on extending drinking water to people in Tooleville, several Exeter residents went to the microphone to say it was the neighborly thing to do. More argued it would strain city staff, that the state’s promises of funding couldn’t be trusted, that their city had problems of their own to fix, and that Tooleville residents had become demanding under the tutelage of activists who helped them organize. The council unanimously voted down consolidation.
This July, as the most recent drought deepened and the heat rose, one of Tooleville’s wells ran completely dry for a day and remains sputtering. The main well is expected to hit sand within months.
Without water pressure, people climbed on their roofs and poured water into swamp coolers. Others couldn’t risk running out of drinking water and sweltered, trying to keep their children still in darkened rooms.
On Aug. 23, the State Water Resources Control Board sent a letter to Exeter officials warning that if they did not have a voluntary plan for consolidation within six months, the state would step in.
Astronauts on the ISS indulged in a special treat after harvesting peppers that have been growing on the ISS since July. The plants are from NuMex "Española Improved" seeds, a hybrid Hatch chile. Hatch refers to a town and region in New Mexico known for its peppers.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur tweeted on Friday about tasting both red and green chile (the peppers turn red when they stay on the plant longer) and shared photos of the tacos she made, which she described as "my best space tacos yet."
I love Frank Herbert's "Dune," but it's been 50 years since I last read it (hard to believe). Plus, I'm not a big fan of Timothée Chalamet. Would the new movie by director Denis Villeneuve satisfy me? (I made sure to choose an IMAX theater for maximum boom.)
The answer is yes! The world of Arrakis, as I hazily recalled it, brought to life through movie magic! Timothée Chalamet is adequate. I don't know how he'll do in Part 2, when he has to launch a universe-wide jihad, but all he had to do in Part 1 was avoid getting killed and he seemed up to that.
Friend and fellow Zumba and Jamaican Dancehall dancer (and Jasper's dog groomer) Anthony Gonzales was attacked in Old Sac on Saturday night. His friends have hastily arranged a Gofundme:
Anthony was attacked Saturday night in Old Sac. He sustained some pretty bad injuries but luckily will make a full recovery. He’s currently at the UC Davis trauma center being treated for broken ribs, a punctured lung, and multiple contusions. As happy as we are that he will recover after some time. This will impact him and his business. As you may know he is one of the best dog groomers in Sacramento. He does everything in that shop including the heavy lifting of dogs. His injuries are going to impact his abilities to make money. His medical bills from this will also be astronomical as he is self employed.
Everett Stern, a businessman who owns a private intelligence firm called Tactical Rabbit and is running for the open U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, held a press conference Saturday to share his purported findings, later tweeting out a link to the video of his remarks titled, "Everett Stern Releases New Evidence of Ongoing Domestic Terror Threat Links to General Michael T. Flynn."
"I'm here today not as a candidate running for U.S. Senate, I'm here as a citizen who is genuinely concerned about our country, sincerely concerned about the undermining of our democracy," Stern said in the opening moments of his statement. He also claimed to be in touch with federal law enforcement about the situation.
Stern claims that at least two people representing a Flynn-linked group called "Patriot Caucus" approached him earlier this year after a public speech, offering to hire his firm to gather "dirt" on officials and recruit others to assist in the plot. One of the men allegedly told Stern that they had retained the services of active intelligence officials "both domestic and foreign."
Because of the heavy rain on October 24th, we are now more than 700% above average precipitation for the 2021/22 water year, which started October 1st. Which is just - surreal.
Southwest Airlines has vowed to investigate after at least one of its pilots uttered the words, “Let’s go Brandon” over the plane’s public address system. The phrase has become popular as a way to insult President Joe Biden.
...Long said she heard the phrase on a Southwest flight from Houston to Albuquerque on Friday morning, noting there were “audible gasps from some passengers” when the pilot used it as a sign off to his greeting over the public address system. Long said she recognized she “probably sounded insane” because she was asking airline staff “to open a locked cock pit.”
Southwest immediately said that it “takes pride in providing a welcoming, comfortable, and respectful environment” and that “behavior from any individual that is divisive or offensive is not condoned.” The airline later issued a more forceful rejection of the comment. “Southwest does not condone employees sharing their personal political opinions while on the job serving our customers, especially when comments are divisive and offensive,” the airline said.
The airline vowed to investigate after the report of the pilot uttering the chant that has become popular in right-wing circles led to uproar on social media. Some went as far as to call for a boycott of the airline, which has been suffering lots of flight cancelations. The airline has denied rumors that its cancelations had to do with vaccine mandates.
The phrase has grown in popularity in recent weeks as the seemingly innocuous words have become code for insulting the president. It all dates back to earlier this month, when a crowd at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway broke out into a “Fuck Joe Biden” chant. A sports reporter for NBC was interviewing NASCAR driver Brandon Brown at the time and said the crowd was actually chanting, “Let’s go Brandon!” The clip quickly went viral on social media as some conservatives claimed it was an example of how journalists distort the truth. Since then, the chant is showing up everywhere and was even uttered on the floor of the House of Representatives by Rep. Bill Posey.
Sometimes you get lucky with flights. Occasionally flights use Runways 1L or 1R, which, for a California-bound flight, means arcing over the Las Vegas Strip, sometimes at night. Got lucky! I love the reflection of the neon lights on the wing's top surface.
Looking down at the Venetian Casino, where we were just a few hours before.
We went to the theater at Park MGM, to row J, which is the tenth row from the stage, but because of the way the rows were staggered, there was only one row between us and the stage. The set list for the show was approximately this:
Luck Be a Lady (Frank Loesser cover)
Orange Colored Sky (Nat King Cole cover)
Love for Sale (Cole Porter cover)
Call Me Irresponsible (Jackie Gleason cover)
Poker Face
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) (Cher cover)
I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby (Jimmy McHugh cover)
Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) (Cole Porter cover)
Do I Love You (Cole Porter cover)
Born This Way
Rags to Riches (Tony Bennett cover)
Mambo Italiano (Bob Merrill cover)
Coquette (Fats Domino cover)
What a Diff'rence a Day Makes (Dinah Washington cover)
Paparazzi
La vie en rose (Édith Piaf cover)
Bad Romance
Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words) (Kaye Ballard cover)
Encore: Theme From New York, New York (John Kander cover)
But first on the Jumbotron, they advertised for Lady Gaga's new movie, which will come out soon:
Set to the alluring beat of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by the British pop duo Eurythmics, the new trailer features the first meeting between socialite Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), accompanied by her husband Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), and the lavishly wealthy Italian family. “House of Gucci” will tell the true story of the assassination of Maurizio and the collapse of the Gucci family’s fashion dynasty. Reggiani was tried and convicted of orchestrating her ex-husband’s murder in 1998.
