New Mexico Hiatus

Heading out to get a few photos of the ABQ area before finally finishing my two books, sometime next month. Along the way, my two sisters and I will visit our (these days, totally-unrecognizable) childhood home for the first time since 1990. It will be a totally-weird time!

Debtors Holiday

I went to school long enough ago that grants and work-study outweighed loans to finance my education. I think I carried an oppressive balance of $2,000 throughout the entire decade of the Eighties. Little did I know then how lucky I was. 

Education was expanding in this country and needed to be financed. Bankers at first boycotted participating in the new educational loan system until they got the guarantee that the debt couldn’t be discharged in bankruptcy. Then, the sky was the limit. 

The problems with the new system - people never being able to get salaries high enough to repay the loans - were foreseeable, and were forseen! The miseries of oppressive, endless debt were chosen by clear-eyed bankers, including the eventual, inevitable end of the system in a debtors holiday. People knew what would happen way back then, and they CHOSE that future! Because they knew they would make a few bucks, at least for awhile. 

We need to do policy better in this country. More grants than loans, for a start.

Protective Florida Kevlar

Today, modeling suggests that the developing tropical storm will reach the vicinity of Cancun around September 3rd - a dangerous place for Tampa residents due to proximity and being upwind - but instead of heading towards Tampa, the storm would continue west across the Yucatan Peninsula and the Bay of Campeche into Mexico proper. 

There is also the suggestion of a second tropical system forming after the first storm passes in the northern Caribbean, but which would instead head north across eastern Cuba and the Bahamas, and make closest approach to the shores of eastern Florida around September 9th. Still, well off-shore. 

If these scenarios hold, it's good for Florida! As if Florida is coated in protective Kevlar.

Peevish Lachlan Murdoch Wants to Beat Up on the Innocent

He can dish it out, but can't take it. Like father; like son - a perfect asshole:

SYDNEY/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch has filed a defamation lawsuit against an Australian news site over an opinion piece he says accused him of being complicit in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the Federal Court of Australia against the publisher of online masthead Crikey, its editor and the opinion piece's author. The June 29 article described the Murdochs as "unindicted co-conspirators" in the effort by Trump supporters to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden, according to the lawsuit.

"Murdoch has been gravely injured in his character, his personal reputation, and his professional reputation," the 40-page lawsuit added. It did not specify what damages Murdoch was seeking.

...In a statement on Crikey's website on Wednesday, editor Peter Fray and the chairman of its publisher Private Media, Eric Beecher, said they stood by the story and looked forward to defending their journalism in court.

"We are determined to fight for the integrity and importance of diverse independent media in Australian democracy," they wrote. 

The lawsuit could become a test case for changes to Australian defamation law made in 2021 that allow defendants to claim their work was in the public interest, even if they cannot prove their allegations are true. 

...In the United States, Fox News faces a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems Inc accusing the company of amplifying false theories in its broadcasts that the voting machine company rigged the 2020 election so Republican Trump would lose to Democrat Joe Biden. That lawsuit names Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch as being ultimately responsible for the claims.

Maybe a Tropical System Will Evolve From This

There is a small disturbance approaching the Windward Islands that may be a cause for worry. Modeling shows that as it progresses westward into the Caribbean it will slowly grow. Then as it approaches and enters the Gulf of Mexico, anywhere from Aug. 31 - Sept. 3, it could suddenly blow up and strike along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico from Sept. 3 - Sept. 6. Exact location of the strike is uncertain right now - anywhere from New Orleans to Naples, FL; or, alternatively, it could keep moving west to strike Mexican shores. So, something to keep our eyes on.

"In The Heights" - Woodland Opera House - August 20, 2022

It was wonderful to see "In The Heights" at the Woodland Opera House. Is this the third time Jacob and Elio Gutierrez-Montoya have done "In The Heights" since 2015? In any event, they've gained immeasurably by the experience. Plus, Jake is the best choreographer working in community musical theater - indeed, in just about any form of dance - in the Sacramento area right now. One more weekend.  Go see the show!:

Jacob Gutierrez-Montoya turns everything he touches into gold, and this production is no exception. A widely celebrated choreographer, Gutierrez-Montoya has most recently been featured in the New York Musical Festival for his work on Generation Me. His contemporary choreography lends an upbeat energy to the show that highlights the hip-hop and Latin sounds.

The neighborhood is cleverly set by designer Robert Pickering, who has utilized the small space to its fullest potential, with the hub of the De La Vega Bodega centrally staged. The Bodega is run by Usnavi, the de facto leader of Washington Heights. He is struggling to keep afloat while dreaming of escaping the barrio. Aided by his immature cousin, Sonny (a charmingly boyish Alexander Quinonez), Usnavi tries to win the also-struggling Vanessa's (Alysia Sambuca) heart through her love of cinnamon-flavored coffee. As we're introduced to each resident of the barrio, it becomes apparent that no matter what country we originate from, we're all chasing dreams of a better life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

From the ambitious Nina (Ahlani Santos) and the neighborhood matriarch, Abuela Claudia (Gabriela Garcia), to the sassy hairdresser Daniela (Arianna Garcia-Manabat) and piraguero (Ben Garcia), this production boasts some of the best talent that our local community theatre world has to offer. A special shout-out must be made about the brilliant dancing of Michelle Dela Cruz, whose Graffiti Pete commanded attention throughout the show. Leading the cast as Usnavi is Elio Gutierrez-Montoya, who has grown significantly in the role since I last saw him play it in 2015. He resembles (in looks and sound) the role's originator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and plays it with a confidence that sells him as the one who can save Washington Heights. 

In addition to a stellar cast, the show features a Tony Award-winning score with dazzling dance numbers like "Carnaval del Barrio" and "96,000," along with more emotional songs like the powerful "Paciencia y Fe" and "Everything I Know." As evidenced by the standing ovation at the end of the show, In the Heights will resonate in some way with everyone. As they say in Puerto Rico, wepa! Wow!

"City" Sounds Like an Awesome Artwork!

I'll have to go out there sometime!:

"City," a vast complex of outdoor structures and landmasses the land artist Michael Heizer began constructing in the desert of Nevada in 1970, will finally begin welcoming public visitors next month. The site's opening on September 2, more than 50 years after work at the site began, marks the fulfillment of Heizer's most ambitious and career-defining project.

"City" has been described as quite possibly the largest contemporary artwork on the planet, stretching more than a mile and a half long and half a mile wide, evoking the scale of ancient sites like Native American mounds, Mesoamerican metropolises and Egyptian devotional complexes. It is situated in the remote Basin and Range National Monument in central eastern Nevada, within the ancestral lands of the ​​Nuwu (Southern Paiute) and Newe (Western Shoshoni), around 160 miles north of Las Vegas. 

For the first year of public accessibility, only a limited number of visitors will be admitted, with mandatory advanced registration.

RIP, Barbara Crockett

Barbara Crockett, the woman who single-mindedly put Sacramento on the map of world ballet, passed away a month short of her 102nd birthday. I'm amazed by Barbara Crockett's influence and reach. Linda Walker, founder of Tucson Regional Ballet, and from whom I took lessons when I lived in Tucson, was just one of many, many young girls who learned their craft from Barbara Crockett. 

Barbara Crockett will be greatly missed:

Born Barbara Virginia Wood on Sept. 19, 1920, in Berkeley, Crockett grew up in Fresno and began to dance at the San Francisco Ballet’s dance school at 16. At the school, she met her husband, a teacher and dancer 14 years her senior, with the two marrying in 1942. 

They came to Sacramento within a few years, following Deane Crockett’s service in World War II. “After the war, my dad wanted to go somewhere where they could really build their own thing and not just be part of San Francisco Ballet,” their younger daughter, Allyson Deane, said. “So that’s why they came to Sacramento.”

Trump Continues Flooding The Zone With Shit

Frickin' Cognitive Dissonance Among Wisconsin Farmers

I think I hate Wisconsin farmers. If I was in charge, I'd destroy all their subsidies:

Conniff, a Wisconsin native and the editor in chief of the Wisconsin Examiner, writes a vivid tale. She writes about quinceañeras—the celebration of a Hispanic girl’s 15th birthday—in a land of Trump-voting farmers; about illegal immigration and economic necessity; about the gumption of both farmers and laborers. These are sources of optimism in what is sometimes a perverse story. Farmers respect hard work, family, devotion. With few exceptions, the Mexicans they hire share these qualities.

Mexican fathers milk cows while trying to parent misbehaving sons living 2,000 miles away with their mothers. Immigrant hands send wages home to build houses they hope to move into one day when they can return to their country. They work six- and seven-day weeks for years on end, doing jobs no American will do for the low wages the farmers pay. They navigate life in small-town America with limited English, occasional harassment, and fear of deportation.

Conniff’s farmers marvel at all this. Some come not only to respect the immigrant laborers, but also to love them. The farmer John Rosenow employs two Mexicans named Fermin and Roberto. 

...But Conniff also makes the perversity clear, both explicitly and by implication. Farm owners twist in the convoluted political gymnastics that enable them to vote for Trump in 2020 while also supporting their workers’ ability to live in the United States despite being here illegally.