Rachel Rycerz and Matt Dunn Sing "Anagram"

Rachel Rycerz and Matt Dunn sing "Anagram" from "Kimberly Akimbo" at Twin Lotus Thai Restaurant, Feb. 8, 2025. I really liked how well Matt and Rachel worked together. 

Rachel had great range and her songs (nine in total) were powerful and emotional - just perfect for the upcoming Valentine's Day!

 

Come To SWPACA 2025!

I want to invite anyone in Albuquerque, NM, on Saturday, February 22nd, a week from now, to come listen to academic papers presented at a session regarding "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul." There is no charge to attend. 

The occasion is the annual meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Cultural Association (SWPACA), from February 19-22. The place is a cornucopia of pop culture, with long-running sessions on James Bond, Alfred Hitchcock, the Grateful Dead, and just about anything anyone can imagine. Last year, I greatly-enjoyed the newly-minted Taylor Swift session. 

The meeting will be held at the Uptown Marriott Hotel, 2101 Louisiana Blvd. NE, just north of Interstate-40, where Americas Parkway meets Louisiana Blvd. 

The session will be moderated by Nick Gerlich, from 9:45 - 11:15 a.m. 

Four papers will be presented: 

• The Meaning of Morality in “Better Call Saul,” by Hannah Davenport, University of North Carolina Wilmington. 
• “I’m Awake”: “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” and Walter White, by Melissa Etzler, Butler University.
• Alienation and Performativity in “Breaking Bad,” by Lisa Weckerle, Kutztown University. 
• The Hopi Inspiration in “Better Call Saul,” by Marc Valdez, Independent Scholar.

Closing Units at Ivanpah

I'm surprised they intend on closing units at Ivanpah, supposedly because of improvements in solar photovoltaic technology. I was part of the permitting process, by doing air-quality modeling for them:

Power plant operator and co-owner NRG Energy Inc. is preparing to close down part of its Ivanpah Solar Power Plant in San Bernardino County, Calif., a little more than 11 years after it began operating.

...Ivanpah is a concentrating solar power plant, which uses 173,500 heliostats—essentially mirrors on movable mounts so they can track the sun—to reflect sunlight onto boilers at the top of 450-ft-tall towers to make steam that turns turbines to generate power. 

The plant has three units, each with its own tower surrounded by an array of heliostats, for a total capacity of 386 MW.

The utility contracted to purchase power from two of the units through 2039. But it said in a statement that in 2021— after the California Public Utilities Commission ordered investor-owned utilities to evaluate their energy sources—it identified its Ivanpah power purchase agreements as a potential area to find cost savings, with plant owners offering the opportunity to terminate the agreements. The companies, along with the U.S. Dept. of Energy, finalized negotiations to end the agreements last month. DOE provided $1.6 billion in loan guarantees for the project.

...Ivanpah was the largest concentrating solar power plant in the world at the time of its construction, and NRG said the project still demonstrated the technology’s viability.

Construction of the $2.2-billion plant started in 2010 with Bechtel Corp. as engineering, procurement and construction contractor. It began operations in late 2013 and remains the largest plant of its kind built in the U.S. .

...Improvements in solar photovoltaic wafers and panels and battery energy storage have made them more affordable options at large scale, Howerton added. The technologies have “raced ahead” in terms of affordability, according to PG&E.

Photovoltaic, or PV, technology uses silicon crystals that are laminated into layers, often called wafers, with opposite charges. When solar light hits the crystals, it creates a direct electric current through a process called the photovoltaic effect.

Ivanpah's generation is believed to have prevented 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to the Energy Dept. But once operational, it drew criticism following reports that insects and birds were burned to death when they flew too close to the white-hot tower tops. A 2015 report prepared for the state by ecological consulting firm H.T. Harvey & Associates estimated the plant killed about 3,500 birds in its first year of operation.

Ivanpah also faced performance issues. In 2014, plant owners got permission from state officials to increase its annual limit of natural gas for its boilers from 328 million cu ft to 525 million cu ft, citing a need to use more fuel to power turbines to compensate for intermittent cloud cover.

“When the power purchase agreements were signed in 2009, the prices were competitive, but advancements over time in PVs and battery storage have led to more efficient, cost-effective and flexible options for producing reliable clean energy,” NRG said in an emailed statement.

The plant occupies more than 3,200 acres of federal land in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada state line. In its statement, NRG suggested the site could be repurposed for solar silicon photovoltaic energy production after decommissioning of the existing plant, but did not share any specific plans for that future work.

Bill Burr Says It

I agree.

Out-Bustering Buster Keaton

I've been increasingly aggressive about preventing standing rainwater on my front porch (a long story, mostly about the shortcomings of architecture). So, when I was awakened by hard rain at 5:30 on Wednesday morning, I went out on the porch with a mop. 

 Suddenly, I jammed my left foot into a handheld lawn-seed spreader (that I had out there on the porch). I took me a second to register what happened. I lost my footing. It was the best vaudeville act no one ever saw, kicking and sliding around on a slick surface, waving a mop, out-bustering Buster Keaton. 

And so, nothing happened. No fall; no injury. Thank goodness I've had ballet training, where people routinely deal with worse. You never know when that'll come in handy.

Rainfall Map (From Mid-February)

The recent West-Coast storm had the virtue of reaching most of California. Nevertheless, I'm a little disappointed with the rainfall. At Sacramento Executive Airport, the 1.27 inches of rain did not match the 1.73 inches measured from the previous storm (February 3-4). Sacramento 2024/25 rainy-season rainfall is only 4 to 7% above normal right now. 

It's like we're scrambling to escape a Black Hole. It's hard to resist that overwhelming gravitational field of drought affecting the entire Southwest.

The Only Really Productive Part of Her Day

Rainfall Map (From February 6th)

Here is a map showing the percent of average precipitation this rainy season so far in the West. In California, it's been wet in the north and dry in the south, with Sacramento in the Goldilocks zone right in-between. Once again, and sadly, not much rain will fall in the south. 

At Sacramento Executive Airport, 1.73 inches of rain fell between 9 p.m. Feb. 3rd and 9 p.m. Feb. 4th - an impressive amount! As a result, rainfall rose from about 85% of average to 99% of average for the season. 

I watched kids at recess on Tuesday. Hardly anyone went out in the downpour - too windy and wet for basketball. Three girls ventured out and tried hunkering under an umbrella, but the winds inverted the canopy and foiled everything they tried to do to protect themselves, to much laughter. 

It's raining again today, so we'll continue pushing upwards.

Hypocrisy

Self Sabotage

Oust the Tool

Sticker on the back of a Tesla. Nice coordination of tones. Under the circumstances, though, it’s unclear which tool is to be flung aside.