'Twas the night before Frances

Florida humor, courtesy of Dwight in Tampa:

'Twas the night before Frances
When all through the state
Not a gas pump was pumping
Not a store open late

All the plywood was hung
On the windows with care
Knowing that a hurricane
Soon would be there

The children were ready
With flashlights in hand
While bands from the hurricane
Covered over the land

And mamma with her Mag-Lite
And I in my cap
Had just filled the bath tub
For flushing our crap

When out on the lawn
There arose such a clatter
I sprang from the closet
To see what was the matter

The trees on the fence
And the neighbor's roof torn
Gave the fear of us dying
In this terrible storm

With a little wind gust
So lively and quick
I remembered quite clearly
Our walls weren't brick

More rapid than eagles
Her courses they came
And she whistled, and wafted
And surged all the same

Off shingles! Off sidings!
Off rooftops! Off power!
Down trees! Down fences!
Down trailers! Down towers!

In the center of Florida
She continued to maul
Screaming Blow Away!
Blow Away! Blow Away All!

As wind ripped and tossed
The debris through the sky
I peeked out the shutters
At cars floating by

So go to the safe-room
My family did do
With a portable radio
And batteries too

And then, in a twinkling
I heard on the set
The end was not coming
For a few hours yet!

As I calmed down the kids
And was turning around
Through the window it came
With a huge crashing sound

A tree branch it was
All covered in soot
The wind blew it smack-dab
On top of my foot

A bundle of twigs
Now lay in a stack
And my living room looks
Like it was under attack

The wind - how it howled!
The storm - very scary!
Myself and the family
Were all too unwary

The dangers of hurricanes
Are serious, you know
They are taken for granted
As Frances did show

With the winds dying down
And the danger beneath
I noticed my tool shed
Was missing its sheath

So I grabbed my last tarp
And nailed it on down
Then I got in my car
And I headed to town

The traffic was awful
And stores had no ice
My five gallon cooler
Would have to suffice

Generators were scarce
Not one left in town
There were trees on the roads
And power lines down

FEMA was ready
With people to work
Electrical companies
Came in from New York

And in the midst of
This peculiar routine
Another storm emerged
Named Hurricane Jeanne

I sprang to the car
And gave my family a whistle
Then away we all went
Like a Tomahawk missile

You could hear us exclaim
As we drove out of sight
"The hell with this place,
Vermont seems just right!"

(author unknown)

Cave Art

It's nice to see the canvas of history, even before it is filled. Backstage at the Eagle Theater in Old Sacramento, and in the back stairwell, like Cro Magnon shamans in a Holocene cavern, musical theater afficionados have scrawled their signatures and graffiti everywhere over the years. The signatures are fun to read, and many of them were made by acquaintances and friends (e.g. Dena Lozano, Kathleen Reilley, Kris David, Kathy Davi, etc.) The signatures seem to date from 1992 forwards, with many from 1999-2000: Runaway Stage's last season there. I like the pair: "Dignity, Always Dignity," (director John Lee) and "Dance Belts, Always Dance Belts," (Pedro the Sparrow).

DMTC will have its Kid's Wall, Lobby Waterfall, and Name-A-Seats, but I wonder if there will also be a less-formal commemorative wall somewhere, for a new generation of musical theater shamans?

Oblivious

This afternoon, I deposited DMTC's weekend take at Bank of America, and crossed the street to eat lunch at the Alhambra & K St. 'Del Taco.' There was no line at the counter, so I was able to quickly order and then take a seat at a small table in the dining area. Even before I could unfold and start reading today's Wall Street Journal, however, the order was ready. So fast! Apparently the fast food crew had been idle: the rainy afternoon must have scared off the normal, fairly scruffy 'Del Taco' clientele.

I picked up my order, sat down, started reading and eating, and fell into my usual, bovine lunchtime oblivion, caught up in the latest Wall St. insurance scandal, John Kerry's understanding of terrorism, and half a dozen other pertinent issues of the day. Two young African-Americans, a man and a woman, stood near my table. The man suddenly announced: "Paramedics are here!"

I looked up, and EMTs were swarming into the restaurant. A fire truck and an ambulance had materialized in the parking lot, where seconds before there had been none. The woman asked the man, "Did you call 911?" The man nodded yes, and she put her hand up over her mouth, as if to suppress laughter - maybe absurd laughter about the size of the official response??? Meanwhile, I'm sitting there with a stupid smile on my face, suddenly distracted from the pressing issue of inadequate help for the developmentally-disabled in poor counties in Ohio, and thinking: "What the HELL is going on?"

I looked left, and clearly visible just fifteen feet from my table, a man, perhaps homeless, lay on the floor. He had apparently been there the entire time, in some kind of acute distress, but in my food and information frenzy, I had somehow utterly failed to notice him.

The paramedics propped up the man, quizzed him, and ultimately decided to take him to the hospital. I guess it wasn't just the weather that had spooked the clientele, but I had been grateful for the short line at the counter, and never considered other possibilities.

I'm still startled about how little attention I had paid to my immediate surroundings. How many other things happen all the time, right under my nose, that I somehow completely miss? I feel like a grazing dinosaur in a tropical Cretaceous world, not noticing the approaching asteroid, even as it obscures the sun and scatters the birds....

Strange News Items

Bobby Fischer both boasts, and worries, about his manhood.
Beware of giving your money to polka band leaders.
The way Bush and Company mislead and lie.

Ola Na Iwi

Tiny houses so far, but we are having fun (2nd Friday).

Latest Weird Dream

My dream was I was back in NM and I was anxious. I had to walk 150 miles around a mountain range by sunset, it was already 5 p.m., and I was hoping for a lift.

A female co-worker drove up in some sort of outlandish Humvee, along with 2 Chippendale dancer-types in Mad Max gear, to give me a lift. She said she was going to give up air pollution to study well-logging with her new petroleum engineer 'friends.' I said, "You Go Girl!"

Stranger than fiction? Better than truth? A vision for the future?

Times, They Be So Strange

The problem isn't that John Kerry talked about Mary Cheney's lesbianism, it's that Lynne Cheney, Mary's mother, feels lesbianism is somehow bad. And Mary Cheney is staying silent (to my mind, a silence that says it all - she could demand and receive a Kerry apology if she insisted, but that would be a homophobe victory she can't tolerate, so she stays silent.)

By bringing lesbianism up in the debate, John Kerry took a risk, but he knew it would really irritate his opponents, and demonstrate their hypocrisy for all the world to see. Republicans love to dish it out but scream like girlie men when porked by the opposition. Because of Kerry's cojones, he deserves to be President.

Too bad there isn't an endangered species act for American computer programmers.

What has the world come to when you can get arrested for just semi-naked protests where the President can see?

A Reprise of 1988

George W. Bush's 2004 community college sunny cluelessness reminds me of Michael Dukakis' 1988 bloodless cluelessness when asked how he'd respond if his wife was raped. In both cases a sympathetic figure was presented (an unemployed worker; a violated woman) and both times the candidates didn't get it. Hooray for Bob Schieffer: like Bernard Shaw in 1988, Bob got one right for once! Time to give Bush the Dukakis treatment.

Worst Bush Gaffe of the Night

Sunny and clueless remarks that will haunt Bush the way Gerald Ford was haunted by saying the Soviets didn't dominate Poland in the 1976 presidential debate with Carter.

Outsourcing hits particularly hard young-to-middle-aged technical workers who completed their educations not that long ago. These are the folks that just got out of community college! They lose their jobs because eager foreigners are available to do the work for a fraction of the wages. Getting reeducated won't help if new jobs are unavailable, because long-term job investments featuring R&D have been neglected. Recommending education as a panacea borders on insult, and segueing to elementary education doesn't address the question.

Bush will pay for his blithe contempt for the modern American worker.
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SCHIEFFER: Let's go to a new question, Mr. President. Two minutes. And let's continue on jobs.

You know, there are all kind of statistics out there, but I want to bring it down to an individual. Mr. President, what do you say to someone in this country who has lost his job to someone overseas who's being paid a fraction of what that job paid here in the United States?

BUSH: I'd say, Bob, I've got policies to continue to grow our economy and create the jobs of the 21st century. And here's some help for you to go get an education. Here's some help for you to go to a community college.

We've expanded trade adjustment assistance. We want to help pay for you to gain the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century.

You know, there's a lot of talk about how to keep the economy growing. We talk about fiscal matters. But perhaps the best way to keep jobs here in America and to keep this economy growing is to make sure our education system works.

I went to Washington to solve problems. And I saw a problem in the public education system in America. They were just shuffling too many kids through the system, year after year, grade after grade, without learning the basics.

And so we said: Let's raise the standards. We're spending more money, but let's raise the standards and measure early and solve problems now, before it's too late.

No, education is how to help the person who's lost a job. Education is how to make sure we've got a workforce that's productive and competitive.

Got four more years, I've got more to do to continue to raise standards, to continue to reward teachers and school districts that are working, to emphasize math and science in the classrooms, to continue to expand Pell Grants to make sure that people have an opportunity to start their career with a college diploma.

And so the person you talked to, I say, here's some help, here's some trade adjustment assistance money for you to go a community college in your neighborhood, a community college which is providing the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century. And that's what I would say to that person.

SCHIEFFER: Senator Kerry?

KERRY: I want you to notice how the president switched away from jobs and started talking about education principally.

Let me come back in one moment to that, but I want to speak for a second, if I can, to what the president said about fiscal responsibility.

Being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order in this country.

(LAUGHTER)

This president has taken a $5.6 trillion surplus and turned it into deficits as far as the eye can see. Health-care costs for the average American have gone up 64 percent; tuitions have gone up 35 percent; gasoline prices up 30 percent; Medicare premiums went up 17 percent a few days ago; prescription drugs are up 12 percent a year.

But guess what, America? The wages of Americans have gone down. The jobs that are being created in Arizona right now are paying about $13,700 less than the jobs that we're losing.
And the president just walks on by this problem. The fact is that he's cut job-training money. $1 billion was cut. They only added a little bit back this year because it's an election year.

They've cut the Pell Grants and the Perkins loans to help kids be able to go to college.

They've cut the training money. They've wound up not even extending unemployment benefits and not even extending health care to those people who are unemployed.

I'm going to do those things, because that's what's right in America: Help workers to transition in every respect.

Debate 3

First impression: Kerry won in a walk.

Second impression: I think Bush inadvertently made a terrible error. In regards to what to do about people who have lost their job due to outsourcing, Bush emphasized the importance of education in retraining for the jobs of the future. The trouble is, unemployment from outsourcing principally strikes young to middle-aged technical workers who completed their education just a few years ago. Do you realize how insulting and angering it is to be told to return to school? These unemployed folks have to pay back their current burden of student loans, and they are supposed to sign up for some more? These folks already trained for the jobs of the future, but the future has been snatched from them by short-term thinking, in-it-for-stock-value people who just happened to be their superiors.

Education was the stock answer of America's industrial challenge of the 1980's, and it is heartening to see that Bush is only 20 years out-of-date. Nevertheless, with his blithe cluelessness, Bush demonstrated that he doesn't understand the world of this decade, and like his father with the automated supermarket checkout, is really fit only for retirement.

Third Impression: Bush's hopeful sentiments for a bright, happy future are charming, but there are so many broken covenants regarding Iraq and OBL that he has little credibility left. I suspect people will smile at his vision and vote instead for their real future, for Kerry.

Leah Miller, CDF Firefighter

Last night, driving to Woodland from Sacramento for the first night's Nutcracker practice with this year's 'Clara', Megan Jackson from Robbins, it was hard to miss the glowering smoke plume and impressive sunset over the Capay Hills. I picked up a copy of the 'Daily Democrat' in the hope of finding a mention of Leah Miller, ballerina and firefighter, who lives in Madison, just a few miles below the fire. It seemed logical she might be up there in the hills, but you never know with CDF firefighters, since they get sent hither and yon to fight fires all over the West: she could well have been hundreds or thousands of miles away, in Oregon or Nevada.

Little did I know that Leah Miller was set to make a bigger media splash. Today she made the front page of the Metro section in the Sacramento Bee, in her trendy yellow jacket, as she wrestles the Capay fire to the ground. Leah is the most gung-ho, robust, personable, and above all, lovely girl I've had the pleasure to work with over the last decade in Woodland. Go Leah!

Meanwhile, the heedless gamblers at Cache Creek Casino are completely unfazed by the nearby fire. There are probably taking odds, even now, on the casino ignition temperature.



CDF firefighter Leah Miller of the CDF Brooks Station uses a drip torch Tuesday, Oct. 12, while "fireing out" an area to hold a road (an effort to contain the oncoming blaze by starving it of fuel), as the Rumsey Fire continues to burn nearly 30,000 acres in Yolo and Napa counties. Photo by Lezlie Sterling.

Weather Gods Finally Locate and Pummel Bothersome Geophysicists

A horrific hailstorm struck Socorro, New Mexico on Tuesday afternoon October 5, 2004, striking particularly hard in the vicinity of the campus of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (aka NM Tech: I attended my freshman and sophomore years there in the mid-70's). Courtesy of ex-Techie John Wright in Oklahoma comes an E-Mail from Socorro 6th-grade teacher Candy Lindquist detailing some of the damage:

The worst damage was in the Tech area. Friends who live on "faculty hill" have many serious roof problems, among lots of other problems. Although our students weren't hurt, thank God, a lot of windows were broken in one building of my school (not mine, through some miracle), and many cars are a mess. (My school is near Tech.) And this is true for many, many cars all over Socorro! There was flooding in the streets, no power in the main part of town, etc. It was incredible!

At the time of the storm, I was with my 6th graders. They screamed like banshees, scared and excited. At points they hid under the table--v. good. We are in portables, and this stuff pounding on the roof and slamming against the doors and windows was beyond anything. I actually had to pull one kid away from the door several times--he was determined to go outside &, presumably, get his brains knocked out! (After the worst of it was over, the kids loved seeing the layers of the hailstones--what an opportunity!)

This sort of event is very unusual, maybe unprecedented, in New Mexico, and probably indicates extreme displeasure at some level in the supernatural realm. Here is a photo displaying the wide diversity of the tennis and baseball-sized hailstones that hit the ground:



Photo courtesy Prof. Richard Sonnenfeld, NM Tech. (More images, plus some AMAZING video are available at Dr. Sonnenfeld's Tech web-site).

Luau Extravaganza

Went to the big luau at the Red Lion Inn yesterday (a fundraiser for Interact Theater, KVIE TV, and also a birthday party for Genevieve Shiroma, SMUD Board member and local activist).

As Ola Na Iwi cast members, we were thrust into the important task of selling raffle tickets. It was OK: I made myself helpful by ripping apart raffle ticket stubs.

The food was great, but peripatetic Whyt appeared to skip the yummy pork, focusing on the rice and assorted vegetables. After two glasses of wine, I stopped worrying about the breezy day, occasional flying napkins, and the pork stain on my shirt. Maria and I talked about bruises: after tech week and opening weekend, she has some on her knees from the "Kawehi Go Boom" scene (Act 2, Scene 15). Ben was in the unaccustomed position of watching his former band play on the stage, and Eva chased her grandaughter around.

Heddy was everywhere, but Dennis preferred to stick close to George Takei (Star Trek's Mr. Sulu). Mr. Takei gave a rambling, praiseworthy speech, but like any Hollywood notable transplanted incongruously into the Central Valley, seemed slightly out of the local loop. Never mind. It was fun seeing him. I introduced myself to Genevieve Shiroma and was surprised she already seemed to know who I was (from last year's gubernatorial run - as a local politico, she appears to pay very close attention to the comings and goings of even obscure locals).

The live auction was interesting: some reluctance to bid on the fancy dinner, more interest in the trip for two to Maui, but no interest at all in the estate planning offer (like myself, everyone in attendance must have felt they would be immortal, and thus had no need for the service). Then the Ola Na Iwi cast sang "Hawaii Aloha," the first time ever to live musical accompaniment, and then it was off to Davis, for the latest theater kerfuffle there.

Debate 2

The most interesting thing about Debate 2 was Bush speaking in code to the anti-abortion movement, with his Dred Scott remark, about his eagerness to appoint anti-Roe-vs.-Wade Supreme Court Justices. Bush's campaign has been remarkable in its effort to turn out his base, even at the risk of alienating everybody else.

Vanity Fair Election Special

I just read the gripping article in the current issue of Vanity Fair, summarized here:

The 2000 Supreme Court decision that put George W. Bush in the White House capped the most disturbing and confusing fiasco in recent U.S. political history. Through the eyes of the shocked clerks of some of the justices, Florida election workers, and an outraged African-American community, David Margolick, Evgenia Peretz, and Michael Shnayerson get a clear look at how voters were disenfranchised—and investigate the chance of similar chaos next month.

A very disturbing article, particularly regarding how the Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has been carefully cosseted by right-wing clerks in order to be guided to predictable right-wing opinions. Chaos after this election may be nearly inevitable, given the horrible precedent of Bush v. Gore in 2000.

Ola Na Iwi Open!

InterACT's production of Ola Na Iwi (The Bones Live) is now open at the Eagle Theater in Old Sacramento (on weekends)!

Sinclair Creeps

According to today's Sacramento Bee, local CBS affiliate KOVR TV 13 is one of the stations ordered by Sinclair Communications (led by sex creep David Smith) to air anti-Kerry propaganda just before Election Day. Time to kick KOVR, swift and hard.

Saddam's "Ho"

The blogosphere is positively brilliant today:

How Halliburton under Dick Cheney made bucks subverting U.N. sanctions against Iraq.

Blistering sarcasm regarding Paul Bremer's punishment, after speaking truthfully for once, plus this phony election-season Breslan panic regarding terrorists and U.S. schools.

Telling the Policymakers What They Want To Hear

I just read the fine article in Sunday's New York Times regarding how the White House and the CIA embraced the centrifuge theory, not the rocket theory, as the end-use for Iraqi anodized aluminum tubes seized in Jordan in 2001, even though all the American centrifuge experts at the Energy Department rejected the centrifuge hypothesis outright.

Like the Space Shuttle engineers worried about foam-impact damage to the Columbia, or O-ring problems on the Challenger, the Energy Department experts were thrust, by the CIA, into the position of having to prove a negative proposition, that the tubes couldn't be used for centrifuges, an inherently difficult, even impossible argument to make, especially when no one wanted to hear it.

Of course, all the CIA was doing was whipping the bureaucracies into line to support war-making rationales they knew the Bush Administration wanted to hear (even though their job isn't to whip anybody, but to analyze intelligence). It didn't help, of course, that Iraqi expatriate nuclear engineers like Dr. Hamza were beating the war drum with congressional testimony televised on C-SPAN.

Andrew Sullivan's 'Simple' Question (or Two Questions, Actually)

Andrew Sullivan is polling his readership regarding two perplexities of the Iraqi War:

Why did the administration leave weapons sites unguarded for so long? Why did they not send enough troops to secure the borders? I'm still baffled. And rattled. Can anyone explain?

It is an interesting analytical challenge. Here is my response:

My answer to your 'simple' question is that the invasion wasn't about WMD and it wasn't about international terrorism. After all, you never invade countries that may have nuclear arms, for obvious reasons (e.g., N. Korea). Iraq didn't have nuclear arms, and the Bush Administration knew it in advance. Thus, there were no nuclear weapons sites to secure worth making it a top priority of the U.S. military.

Regarding less fearsome chemical and biological weapons, the Administration expected our military to decapitate the Baathist leadership and thus paralyze use of the weapons until they could be secured, along with the nuclear materials, at leisure. Compared to the rest of the Arab world, Iraq's totalitarian past and unusual disconnect from international jihadist movements, plus Sadam's paranoia, made transfer of weapons to terrorists seem a rather remote possibility. And we didn't anticipate anarchy, so rampant theft wasn't anticipated either. We feared cooperation between Baathists and terrorists, but those links didn't get forged until after our invasion.

After the war, securing Iraq's borders would have meant interfering with the Najaf pilgrimage and coffin trade, principally with Iran, which would have been injurious to the interests of our favored ex-patriot, Ahmad Chalabi. Besides, cross-border traffic has always served as a subversive anti-Baathist influence in Iraqi politics, and we favor free movement after decades of dictatorship. So the borders remain unpatrolled.

So why did we invade? A grateful Iraqi population would assist the U.S.:

• secure physical control of large oil fields (more important than ever as we reach peak worldwide pumping capacity);
• serve as an experimental laboratory to introduce democracy and make the region safe for international business;
• defang destabilizing Arab anti-Westernism and anti-Semitism with a successful example of U.S./Arab cooperation;
• serve as a geographic base for the U.S. military.

All worthwhile objectives, very daring, but completely at odds with the ancient and modern history of Iraq and the region, and thus with no possibility of success. Americans have a blind spot in this regard: we think that fortune will favor effort, but 'tain't always so. Plus it doesn't address international jihadism at all: September 11th hardly factors in at all, except as a providential opportunity. It was Woodrow Wilson all over again, but with Pottery Barn rules in effect. What Pandora's Box have we broken?

The Recall Candidates: One Year Later!

Courtesy of Diana Foss:

Here on the first anniversary of the election, we're back in the news. Here's an article about Jack Grisham and here's one featuring more candidates.

Admirable, but Just So Naive

Before too much goes by, I'd like to recommend the cover story in the Sept. 19th New York Times Magazine concerning Oklahoma lawyer Fern Holland and her crusade to empower Iraqi women. Her feminist vision was a latter-day echo of Woodrow Wilson, and she attacked her project with robust energy, but she was an idealistic all-American in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Giggles

I just couldn't keep my composure last night at "Ola Na Iwi" rehearsal at the Eagle Theater in Old Sacramento. I was wearing a felt flat-brim hat, under a shroud, beneath a donkey's-head mask. I couldn't see damned thing. Then I announced, "Here we are!" The absurdity of each word, individually and as a phrase, struck me as hysterical - I felt like Stevie Wonder headlining the Super Bowl halftime show - and from me, the giggles spread to the rest of the cast. Thank goodness opening isn't till Saturday!

Republicans and the Draft

It is entirely plausible that a draft will be reinstated after the election, provided George W. Bush wins. Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska recently called for exactly that.

In late-April or early-May, just as the Abu Ghraib mess was taking hold, I heard Rush Limbaugh himself suggest the desirability of a draft (can't yet locate a transcript, however). I had a creepy, hair-raising feeling I was listening to a White-House-approved trial balloon, a GOP talking point for the future. The creepiness was heightened by murky darkness: I was listening to the rebroadcast of Rush's earlier daytime show, on KFBK-1510 AM, at about 10 p.m., as I drove from Davis to Sacramento across the I-80 Yolo causeway.

Despite the recent House vote to kill New York Democrat Chuck Rangel's fairness-inspired draft bill (which had been sidelined for over a year until the GOP saw its partisan attack value and rushed it to the floor, forcing even Rangel himself to vote against it), a re-elected Bush administration will likely bring the draft back at the first politically opportune moment.

The Global Test

William Saletan hammers on George W. Bush's resentment of the French, John Kerry, and reality in general.

Four Wasted Years in This Death Spiral

My Catholic Friend Elaborates on Bush vs. Kerry

My conservative Catholic friend clarified his position regarding the upcoming national election, and what he sees as unwarranted arrogance in matters of Catholic opinion by the political parties (in this election, the Republicans in particular).

I support Kerry because he is the right man for the position to effectively deal with foreign policy. That is what the Constitution stipulates. I do not believe that Bush is the best man for the position of representing our country to other nations, particularly in regards on matters of war and peace. Kerry, because he is conservative, will keep things as they are and may slow down conflicts that seem to be inevitable. That is my hope, but I have already seen Kerry utilizing Bush's "pre-emptive strike" doctrine, which bothers me greatly.

I would like to say that my support of Kerry does not arise singularly from the Republicans specifically attacking him for being wrong for a Catholic to support. It is the confirmation of what I have seen festering all along for the past few years, and, now that I realize it, long before that. I saw this occuring when I noticed that when the President declared war on Iraq, what is now known as the pre-emptive strike, it directly contradicts the very notion of a just war (if there could ever be one, and we will eventually find out). I have a strong concern regarding our nation's commitment to justice, particularly how the President dispenses it from his office, and how our elected representatives represent every one of our citizens: be they standing upright; in the womb; in a jail cell; homeless on the street and riverbank; or comatose in a bed, near death. The Republicans have far too long played with those of us who have a commitment toward those who are voiceless (the Democrats have too, but in different ways) and I should have recognized that sooner, if not at the very outset of my first registration back in 1986.

The day I really decided to leave the Grand Old Party was when I found that in New York there was a special event for Catholics at the Republican Convention. Oh, sure, these type of things probably happen all the time, but there was something that was too overt, too showy, and too exclusive about this event that occured that week for me not to notice.

Your line, "[t]hus is born another Kerry supporter," reminded me of "Easter, 1916," a poem by Yeats (see the lines in bold below). Can too long a sacrifice make a stone of the heart? (my question).

Easter 1916

I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

That woman's days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights is argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our wingèd horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road,
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
And a horse plashes within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks call;
Minute to minute they live;
The stone's in the midst of all.

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse --
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

September 25, 1916

Regarding the Presidential Debate

From well-spoken 'Publius' at "Legal Fiction" :

But still, Bush can't blame his perceived failure on style alone (which was pretty horrible). As American debates go, this is the most substantive one I had ever seen. And it was almost entirely about Iraq and national security. As I said last night, I thought the debate was a success for democratic deliberation - I mean, this is what the election is all about. And on that substantive front, Kerry laid out and defended his central argument - Iraq was a diversion, and we can do better in fighting terrorism. Bush invoked "freedom" and attacked Kerry's flip-flops. In doing so, he failed to respond to Kerry's attacks on him, and it showed.

You Can't Afford To Take Chances

Not in airports anyway.

An Incensed Catholic Republican Leans Left

Regarding recent Republican efforts to turn out conservative Catholics for President Bush on Election Day, and in particular, the mere existence of this Kerry Wrong for Catholics Web Site sponsored by the Republican National Committee, a friend simply says:

It's wrong for any political party, including the Republicans, to speak on behalf of Catholics.

An agnostic like myself takes issues of right and wrong a bit lightly, of course, but when a devout conservative Catholic says something is wrong, he means it. It grates on him, that as an Irish Republican Catholic, for generations he and his family's political opinions were denigrated by the assumption that they had to toe the Democratic Party line with other Irish Catholics. Now the offense is coming from the other direction.

Thus is born another Kerry supporter.

Frank Rich at the New York Times has an interesting review (unfortunately requiring login) of a new DVD called "George W. Bush: Faith in the White House". Frank Rich states the DVD...

must be seen because it shows how someone like General Boykin (the general in charge of tracking down Osama bin Laden) can stay in his job even in failure and why Mr. Bush feels divinely entitled to keep his job even as we stand on the cusp of an abyss in Iraq. In this pious but not humble worldview, faith, or at least a certain brand of it, counts more than competence, and a biblical mission, or at least a simplistic, blunderbuss facsimile of one, counts more than the secular goal of waging an effective, focused battle against an enemy as elusive and cunning as terrorists. That no one in this documentary, including its hero, acknowledges any constitutional boundaries between church and state is hardly a surprise. To them, America is a "Christian nation," period, with no need even for the fig-leaf prefix of "Judeo-."

Far more startling is the inability of a president or his acolytes to acknowledge any boundary that might separate Mr. Bush's flawed actions battling "against the forces of evil" from the righteous dictates of God. What that level of hubris might bring in a second term is left to the imagination, and "Faith in the White House" gives the imagination room to run riot about what a 21st-century crusade might look like in the flesh. A documentary conceived as a rebuke to "Fahrenheit 9/11" is nothing if not its unintentional and considerably more nightmarish sequel.

Ola Na Iwi

Rehearsals continue. The opening is this weekend. Venue is still a little vague (it should be the Eagle Theater in Old Sacramento), and my donkey head is a bit theoretical at the moment, but the rest is coming together nicely.

More Tales of Sacramento (in Broad Daylight)

About 1:15 this afternoon, after ballet, I walked into the AM/PM quick market for my usual, healthy post-terpsichorean treat, a giant diet soda and a bag of candy. Walking out of the market towards the back parking lot, on the pavement, I found an assortment of credit cards, ATM cards, and various ID cards belonging to two unknown women. Given the heavy foot traffic in the area, the cards must have been dropped there just seconds before I came upon them.

I took the cards to work, and after a little digging, I located the women, who had their purses stolen from their cars at a nearby cemetery that morning, while each was laying flowers upon the graves of deceased relatives. One woman came to pick her cards up, and I delivered the second woman her cards in the late afternoon. By then, the antique store at 21st and X Streets, just one block from the quick market, had found each of the women's purses. So, by the end of the day, each woman had recovered most of their stolen belongings (not the cash, though). Together, the antique store and I had set things as aright as was possible under the circumstances.

Moral: lock your car doors, even if you are standing just feet away from the car!

Impressions of the Presidential Debate

I listened to most of the first presidential debate of 2004 on my car's radio as I drove around Davis and Sacramento. My impression was similar to the impressions of others who felt Kerry won the day, but without video, the impression probably wasn't as vivid. Later, I caught some of the post-debate spin on CNN. I'm pleased how Kerry's good showing is amplifying in the great echo chamber of American public debate, assisted a little bit by right-thinking liberals everywhere on their blogs. It always amazed me how the directionless presidential debates of 2000 got spun diabolically in Bush's favor, and to Gore's detriment. Never again. We can play this spinning game too. Onward to victory!

A Yolo County Home Run!

DMTC won today at the Arts and Business Council of Sacramento's Prelude to the Season annual awards ceremony at the Doubletree Hotel. According to the Sacramento Bee:

Awards for Arts Management Excellence were given to the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Davis, (for groups with annual budgets over $125,000) and the Davis Musical Theatre Company (for organizations whose annual budgets are under $125,000)....The Individual Leadership award went to Tom Stallard of Yolo County, who helped rescue and restore the Woodland Opera House.

It was a great lunch - all the area's heavy-hitters were there - and one of DMTC's prizes is a free full-page ad in the Sacramento Bee, which is worth its weight in gold. Yippee!

Sacramento Median Home Price

Is this a bubble? Whatever it is, it's OK for homeowners who bought in 1998 (like me) and bad for everyone else.

A Hurricane Complaint

What's with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and its lame conservative hurricane-path forecasts? They seem to think the best approach is to poll all the models and choose the result that's most in the middle. Model results diverge from each other not for any stochastic reason, however, but because some models are better than others. A better approach is to choose just the best models and use their results. Determining which models are better for particular applications takes a lot of experience, however.

NOGAPS did really well forecasting the paths of Ivan and Jeanne, but as good as it did, its results were well outside the consensus approach. It took an unconscionable amount of time for NHC, kicking and screaming, to finally recognize the other model results were crap. But it was obvious the results were crap at the time - I could see it, and any skilled hurricane meteorologist should have been able to see it as well. So, what gives?

Bravado

Dwight and Linda near Tampa went hot-tubbing when Tropical Storm Jeanne's eye passed over their house. Power was off where they were for 26+ hours, but where they were, all considered, they thought Frances was a worse storm.

Elly Awards

Just returned from SARTA's 2004 Elly Awards ceremony at Sacramento's Crest Theater, the only time all year when representatives from the various Sacramento-area theaters assemble in one place. Even though DMTC was up for only one award (Mike Jones, nominated for best male supporting actor), I wanted to go to observe and get any intelligence regarding why so many of our shows this year were apparently overlooked. A big comedown from just two years ago. What's not to like? That's what I wanted to find out.

Even though DMTC had no contingent there, the ceremony was technically sold out when I arrived. Despite the packed house, I was still able to get in. It's easy to forget just how many small theater groups there are in the area, particularly in the various high schools and small towns, and how new some of them are. In the past, SARTA has shown a fondness for new, small, innovative theater groups, and there is every sign those groups are proliferating. I sat behind a large and enthusiastic group from El Dorado Musical Theater. Shows my ignorance: I didn't even know they had such a group there! Plus El Dorado High School too! There are dangers of missing the bigger picture when one focuses too hard on just one theater company.

Much of the theatrical growth is in the eastern and southern suburbs of Sacramento (Sheldon High School, RCTC, Magic Circle, Folsom High School. Davis and Woodland, on Sacramento's north and west side, are growing too, so DMTC should be able to tap that energy too. Indeed, in the larger picture, the new theater can be seen as a natural response to economic and population growth. Artistic energy faithfully follows economic energy, as it ever has. Torpid backwaters rarely produce cutting-edge anything.

So, as far as I can tell, DMTC got short shrift this year because the number of awards and nominations is being outstripped by the number of people and groups involved in amateur theater. Competition is stiffening, and stiffening fast. There are entire cohorts of new, unfamiliar young people entering local theater. It was sobering just how few people I recognized at the ceremony (I said hello to Kathy Davi, Lora Kennedy, Amber & Laurent Lazard, Jason McDowell, and Erik Daniells, and saw a few more familiar faces, but it was still just a tiny minority of the 650+ people at the Crest Theater).

To compete, once the new theater is built, DMTC will have to focus harder on quality, perhaps specializing on some particular aspect (these days, Runaway Stage is focusing on light design, Woodland is focusing on set design, etc.) Also, I think we should get more involved in the SARTA process, perhaps by becoming award presenters (like Bob and Roe from Magic Circle did this year), or by becoming Elly judges, in order to improve DMTC brand recognition amongst all the new acting pool. Perhaps if Steve Isaacson looked as good as Bob Baxter in drag, that would help our name recognition too.

Here is Sacramento Bee's coverage, with a link to the list of winners.

Amber & Laurent's Wedding

Saturday, September 25th, musical theater veterans Amber Jean Moore and Laurent Lazard got married at St. John's Lutheran Church, 17th and L Street, in Sacramento. Starting from their home base at Runaway Stage Theater, Amber and Laurent branched out to other theaters, and they were on equally splendid relations with all of them, and so the wedding promised to be a perfectly ecumenical blend of musical harmony. On the other hand, there were natural hazards in putting half of Sacramento's divas and stage hounds under one roof, and there were natural rivalries among the various theaters. I preferred to think of it as the Montagues and Capulets and the Sopranos and the Corleones get together for an afternoon of whimsical entertainment.

I had to leave INterACT rehearsal early at the Broadway Playhouse theater in Fair Oaks, and so I was half an hour late to the ceremony. Not wanting to interrupt the ceremony, and determining from the audio being broadcast in the lobby that the ceremony was at a critical stage, I crept up the staircase into the choir loft and watched from up there, next to the pipe organ. There was excellent singing (of course), and candle-lighting and candle-snuffing: it was very pretty. At one point, the organist blew past me to get the organ going for the final procession (he had just seconds to get from the keyboard downstairs up to the organ).

At the reception later, some people described being disoriented by the absence of the "I Do" exchange in the ceremony (since I was late, I figured I had just missed it), but there was a wonderment in their voices, like they had been given an unexpected alternative script to a familiar reading, and they were trying to determine whether they liked it or not.

Afterwards, the guests idled outside on the front steps of the church as photographers besieged the wedding party inside. J.D. counted four theaters in attendance (Runaway Stage, Magic Circle, Chautauqua Playhouse, and DMTC). I half-expected the guests to spontaneously coalesce into Jets and Sharks: I knew Jeremiah had played Tony, and I'm sure there were a few good Marias in attendance too. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was happy and relaxed. It was good to see people who hadn't been around lately, such as Pheonix Vaughn and Jason Stevens (I think they're in LA these days).

The reception was held at the Newman Center near Sac State University. There were some unfamiliar appetizers on a table in the reception hall. One looked like a slurry stabilized into a cake, with green ovals dotting the top. I said, "well, it looks like mortar with pickles." The helpful man in the chef's hat said: "It's duck pate. It's French!" But of course! Why shouldn't Laurent, who is French, have French hors d'oeurves on his wedding day?

Dinner was delayed for a while, so there was some dancing, and much socializing. I met Gino Platina's parents, and gabbed with the DJ. Amber and Laurent looked fine. Among many others, Bob Baxter, producer of Runaway Stage, buzzed about.

Since Runaway garnered most of the Elly Award nominations for musical theater, in some sense, Bob is the current capo de tutti capi on the ever-shifting sands of Sacramento Valley amateur musical theater. Bob came over and put his hands on the shoulders of rival capo Steve Isaacson. No piano wire, though: Bob had in mind a test of Steve's endurance. No contest - Bob reduced Steve into a quivering mass of jelly by giving him an impromptu massage (Don't! Stop! Don't Stop!) These two made men of the musical theater world have their own inscrutable rituals that mere consiglieri such as myself can't understand.

After dinner, there was some excellent dancing - there were a few good dancers of West Coast Swing present. I had to leave to usher "Bye, Bye Birdie" at DMTC, so I missed the karaoke. According to Tev, who left a few minutes after I did, Laurent sang the first song: "Pretty Woman."

No Pleasure in Being Right

Well, NHC finally budged in their Jeanne forecast and western Florida too can join the misery.

Hawaii Lite

Right now, I'm quickly trying to learn how to mangle Hawaiian words with a false German accent, for INterACT Theater's "Ola Na Iwi" (The Bones Live), opening October 9th.

Meanwhile, DMTC's "Bye, Bye Birdie" premieres to night!

Just a Few Lost, Old (But Fit) Souls in a Step Aerobics Ghetto

Raymond at Midtown Athletic Club tells me they are cancelling Friday noon step aerobics and replacing it with Tai Chi, because our core people are so few. Besides, the industry is moving in a different direction, and we all have to make some sacrifices. WELL, EXCU-U-U-U-SE ME!

Earth To Miami! Hello, Is This Microphone Working?


There seems to be a strange dissonance at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) as they try to sort out Hurricane Jeanne's future path. Most models show a path approximately right along Florida's eastern shore, but a handful of models (NOGAPS among them) favor a path across Florida before the turn occurs. The different paths hinge on how quickly the high pressure system over the western Atlantic develops, moves east, and carries the hurricane with it.

Special soundings were taken at 18Z (1 p.m. EDT) which suggests the western-path models may be resolving the situation best. You would think that would mean NHC would then quickly adapt the western path as their favored forecast. But no! No change to their consensus eastern path forecast, at least not yet! Earth to Miami! Earth to Miami!

I would hope the eastern path forecast works out, on general principles - the fewer hurricanes roaming around Florida, the better - but right now, the western path looks more likely. The surface winds are still about 90 kt, with the storm beginning to strengthen. In all likelihood, the experience may be similar to Frances (perhaps a trifle weaker, because water temperatures are slightly cooler than they were).

Here is the most recent NHC discussion, in all its wonder:

000
WTNT41 KNHC 242059
TCDAT1
HURRICANE JEANNE DISCUSSION NUMBER 45
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
5 PM EDT FRI SEP 24 2004

SATELLITE IMAGERY...ALONG WITH NOAA AND AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER DATA...INDICATE THE INNER-CORE CONVECTION HAS REDEVELOPED. WHILE RECON DATA ALSO INDICATES CONCENTRIC EYEWALLS HAVE DEVELOPED...FLIGHT-LEVEL AND STEPPED FREQUENCY MICROWAVE...OR SFMR...WIND DATA SUGGEST THAT JEANNE MAY BE STARTING TO SHOW SOME SIGNS OF STRENGTHENING. THE HIGHEST FLIGHT-LEVEL WIND REPORTED WAS 97 KT AT 5000 FEET AND THE HIGHEST SFMR SURFACE WIND WAS 87 KT. THE INITIAL INTENSITY REMAINS AT 85 KT...BUT IT COULD BE HIGHER SINCE THE SURFACE PRESSURE IS NOW 965 MB...WHICH TYPICALLY SUPPORTS ABOUT 96 KT SURFACE WINDS.

THE INITIAL MOTION IS NOW 275/10....BUT THE TREND IN THE LAST TWO RECON FIX POSITIONS SUGGESTS A MOTION OF POSSIBLY 270/11. THE LATEST NHC MODEL GUIDANCE HAS CHANGED LITTLE...BUT THERE REMAIN SOME SUBTLE DIFFERENCES THAT COULD SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT THE FUTURE TRACK OF JEANNE. MOST OF THE MODEL GUIDANCE HAS MADE A SLIGHT NORTH AND EASTWARD SHIFT AGAIN...EXCEPT FOR THE NOGAPS AND GFDN MODELS. MOST OF THE MODEL GUIDANCE TAKE JEANNE TO ALONG OR JUST EAST OF THE FLORIDA EAST COAST BEFORE TURNING THE HURRICANE NORTH-NORTHWESTWARD AND PARALLELING THE COASTLINE. ONLY THE NOGAPS...GFDN...AND ETA MODELS TAKE JEANNE ACROSS SOUTH FLORIDA AND LAKE OKEECHOBEE. THE NOGAPS AND GFDN MODELS HAVE BEEN VERY CONSISTENT WITH THIS TYPE OF TRACK THE PAST 36 HOURS. THIS SCENARIO IS SOMEWHAT DISCONCERTING BECAUSE THOSE ARE THE ONLY MODELS THAT TAKE THE LARGE HIGH/RIDGE NEAR THE DELMARVA SOUTHWARD TO THE OUTER BANKS OF NORTH CAROLINA BEFORE MOVING IT TO A POSITION NEAR BERMUDA IN 36 HOURS. THE OTHER MODELS QUICKLY WEAKEN THE HIGH AND MOVE IT SOUTHEASTWARD. THE EXACT LOCATION OF THE CENTER OF THE HIGH/RIDGE OVER THE NEXT 12-36 HOURS WILL DETERMINE HOW FAR WEST JEANNE WILL MOVE BEFORE IT BEGINS TO MAKE THE TURN NORTHWARD. SPECIAL 18Z UPPER-AIR DATA INDICATE THE CENTER THE HIGH HAS NOT WEAKENED AND HAS ACTUALLY PUSHED SOUTHWARD AND IS NOW LOCATED JUST EAST OF WALLOPS ISLANDS IN THE SOUTHERN DELMARVA. THIS WOULD SUGGEST...AT LEAST IN THE SHORT TERM...THAT THE NOGAPS-GFDN-ETA SOLUTION IS HANDLING THE STEERING PATTERN THE BEST. AS A RESULT...NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE WAS MADE TO THE PREVIOUS FORECAST TRACK.

NOAA RECON AIRCRAFT FOUND NEARLY A 5F SST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EASTERN AND WESTERN EYEWALL...CLEARLY INDCIATING THAT JEANNE HAS CREATED A LOT OF COLD UPWELLING UNDERNEATH THE HURRICANE. UNFORTUNATELY...JEANNE IS NOW MOVING FASTER AWAY FROM THOSE UNFAVORABLE OCEAN CONDITIONS AND TOWARD MUCH WARMER WATER...83-84F...LOCATED FROM THE NORTHWESTERN BAHAMAS TO THE FLORIDA STRAITS. THE CURRENT FAVORABLE UPPER-LEVEL ENVIRONMENT IS EXPECTED TO CHANGE LITTLE FOR THE NEXT 24-30 HOURS. THEREFORE...STEADY INTENSIFICATION...POSSIBLY TO CATEGORY 3/100 KT...IS FORECAST. THE INTENSITY FORECAST CLOSELY FOLLOWS THE SHIPS MODEL...WHICH BRINGS JEANNE UP TO 98 KT AND 99 KT AT 24 AND 36 HOURS....RESPECTIVELY.

FORECASTER STEWART

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INITIAL 24/2100Z 26.4N 73.5W 85 KT
12HR VT 25/0600Z 26.5N 75.3W 90 KT
24HR VT 25/1800Z 26.6N 77.9W 95 KT
36HR VT 26/0600Z 27.4N 80.2W 100 KT
48HR VT 26/1800Z 29.0N 81.4W 75 KT...INLAND
72HR VT 27/1800Z 32.5N 81.2W 55 KT...INLAND
96HR VT 28/1800Z 36.0N 75.5W 40 KT...OVER WATER
120HR VT 29/1800Z 41.5N 67.0W 35 KT

Kerry's Speech

Andrew Sullivan makes some excellent points.

I was impressed by Kerry's passing use of the phrase: 'truth to power.' The legacy of the Sixties lives on here, at their best, an inspiration to a new generation.

Sunday's Freak Thunderstorm over Sacramento

It's time to commemorate Sunday's narrow but intense thunderstorm over downtown and eastern metropolitan Sacramento. The Sacramento Bee neatly summarizes the basic absurdity of the event: even though similar events happen elsewhere in the nation and world, the last event here was apparently in 1935 (I can't believe that: it's just that the city utility people had to have been too freaked out to thoroughly check the rainfall records, or maybe it applies just to downtown Sacramento).

Californians just aren't prepared for some kinds of meteorological events (I know I wasn't - I was cowering under the eaves of the dance studio, screaming for it to stop). We much prefer chewing our cud while watching panicked television coverage from Pensacola.

Take Heart!

Michael Moore has great advice: don't quail, stop whining, and work for a Kerry victory in November!

New Zogby polls make the Electoral Vote Predictor shift back towards blue.

Kerry makes a joke that's actually quite funny!

Kerry's speech at NYU yesterday was great. He's finally landed a punch.

Cloudy is Better

The tender rabbit is sulking, but last I saw her this morning, she was eagerly gobbling a bouquet of kale I gently laid at her feet.

Ordet

On TCM, I saw much of Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1955 film Ordet (aka, The Word) this weekend. What a powerful, humbling masterpiece: makes you want to surrender the vanities of unbelief, and become a strict Lutheran, immediately! The slow measured pace, the intensity of emotion, the surprise ending - wow! Johannes, the apparent madman, sweeps all before him with his childlike faith, leaving no answer but faith.

Weekend Opinion & Commentary

Mission creep with airline security initiatives is compromising both civil rights and airline security.

Ruben Navarrette at the Dallas Morning News (link not yet posted) has a fine opinion piece about who benefits most from illegal immigration: Americans do!

The familiar Kryptonite bicycle locks that look so tough can be easily opened (link not posted, but apparently already a source of alarm in the bicycle world).

Plus, before too much time passes, it's good to mention Richard A. Posner's excellent critique in the New York Times of the 9/11 Commission Report. The 9/11 report mixed policy recommendations with reportage, and serves the interests of those who favor centralized intelligence (as opposed to more dispersed, and perhaps better intelligence).

Indeed, all kinds of unintuitive things were done post 9/11, the new Department of Homeland Security being just one small piece. Posner ends on a sobering note:

When a person dies at the age of 95, his family is apt to ascribe his death to a medical failure. When the nation experiences a surprise attack, our instinctive reaction is not that we were surprised by a clever adversary but that we had the wrong strategies or structure and let's change them and then we'll be safe. Actually, the strategies and structure weren't so bad; they've been improved; further improvements are likely to have only a marginal effect; and greater dangers may be gathering of which we are unaware and haven't a clue as to how to prevent.

Sunday Storm

As part of the big trough digging into the American West, many clouds passed over the Sacramento Valley on Sunday morning. A powerful thunderstorm blew up directly over downtown and pelted CSU with 1.93" of rain: an amazing amount considering how little ever falls here in typical Septembers. I was trapped over at Ron Cisneros School of Dance by the downpour. And as quickly as the cell came, it dissipated.

North and east of Phoenix, AZ, they had similar storms, fueled in part by Hurricane Javier moisture. Remnants from the hurricane passed into NM and made it wet there.

Touch-and-Go With Cloudy

Cloudy the Lop-Eared Bunny seemed to perk up last night, even nibbling a bit of kale, and today she insisted on going outside, which is good, but I still worry about the baby: she hasn't eaten much all weekend.

"Best of Broadway" and Other Theatrical Goings-On

On Saturday, the DMTC bunch went and saw David L. MacDonald's "Best of Broadway" at Luther Burbank High School on Florin Road. It was an excellent revue (the first time I've ever seen BOB, despite its standing as a Sacramento theatrical tradition), but I was most excited to see Aaron Clemens (with whom I had performed in Woodland Opera House's 'Guys and Dolls' and 'Forum') as the Gospel Chorus Leader, particularly with his solo 'I Gotta Keep Movin'.' Aaron is really coming into his own, as choral director (I missed seeing him after the show, though). And his partner and former DMTC player, Tom Norris, was also featured in several numbers.

I was amazed by the skilled, tall women specialty ensemble dancers in "Best of Broadway." The choreographers Diana Ruslin and Terri Taylor-Solorio have really done a fabulous job. Indeed, there is almost a tradition of tall dancers there: Jillian Owens came to DMTC (in part) from there (before she left for Broadway), and we saw her mother, and still a BOB Board Member, Julie Owens, in the lobby. But the most impressive dancer was quite short and slight: Bailey Buntain, in her solo in 'A New Life, from 'Jekyll and Hyde.' Erin Jones (junior, as we say at DMTC) and Enrique Ruiz were also part of this year's cast.

In other developments, in the theater of my sleeping head, I dreamt I saw Michael Miiller enter a fireplace, turn right, and walk down a railway in the fireplace, only to flee just seconds later when a locomotive came down the tracks. Steve Isaacson insists the dream has gay overtones, but I think I was impressed by the fairly-new presence of light-rail near Burbank High School.

I doubt I'll do 'Anything Goes' at DMTC this autumn. Following a phone contact yesterday by Dennis Yep, this evening I'm going to try out for a part as a clueless German anthropologist in an INTERACT Theater Hawaiian mystery, 'The Bones Live,' which opens next month.

Fun Facts You Learn in Disturbed REM Sleep

Did you know Barbara Streisand is a Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong?

Cloudy's Ill

So I got ambitious on Saturday, and I gave the pets a bath. This time, however, Cloudy the Lop-Eared Rabbit took the shock hard, and she's been virtually catatonic ever since, giving up food and basically shutting down. I took her into my bed, but had to put her down on the floor after awhile: I'd doze and dream she would leap off the bed into a lightning-filled pit. She's been a little more active today, but I'm still worried: it was September in 1999, after all, that Sinbad the Lop-Eared Rabbit suddenly died.

Ministry of Sound Annual DVD

Along with the new Kylie DVD, I picked up a MOS Annual DVD of dance parties all around the world. It all looked fun, although it became a haze of bikinis and sunglasses after awhile. The dancing itself was unoriginal, but the crowds were large, the music loud, the special effects great, and what's not to like, especially when they featured Klea's 'Tic Toc'?

More Dreams

I dreamt that DMTC's 'Bye, Bye, Birdie' was opening at the 24th Street Theater instead of at the Varsity, and the theater was confusingly placed adjacent to the Safeway Supermarket on Alhambra Blvd. I was informed, to my surprise, that I was in the show. Even though it was half an hour before curtain and didn't know any of my lines or the songs, I left to go relax at an anonymous season ticketholder's house. As I left the theater, I passed the first gas station ever managed by Mel Brooks (carefully maintained as a museum). Once at the house (conveniently left unlocked so I could relax), I dawdled away so much time looking at costumes, I couldn't make curtain time. Then I awoke.

Marc's Tropical Update

Tropical Storm Jeanne:
It will be interesting to see what happens with this storm (weakened today to a tropical depression but maybe strengthening again soon). Forecasts now show the storm as staying well off the Florida coast, and moving north, off the coast of South Carolina, but the forecasts diverge about what happens after that. The GFS model shows the storm slowly getting dragged eastwards by the cold front carrying remnants of Ivan. The NOGAPS model, which brings the storm a little closer to shore than the GFS model, and hence a little more under the influence of the developing high pressure system centered in PA, shows the competing eastwards and westwards forces making the storm stall off the coast. The storm is finally brought into the SC coast, painfully slowly, about a week from now.

Hurricane Javier:
Moisture from the hurricane has been working into northern Mexico (and now portions of SE AZ, southern NM, and far western TX) for the last day. Rain showers have already started in AZ's White Mountains, but the big plume of moisture has yet to arrive. It's possible the storm itself will be brought into the Colorado River Valley, similar to the way Nora came in back in 1997 (which, as I recall, despite bringing heavy rains to Yuma, brought very little rain to Phoenix). Nevertheless, this should be fun!

Spirit at Gusev Crater

I love poring over the information in Science's August 6th issue, with a special section dedicated to the early scientific discoveries at Gusev Crater. All kinds of information, like the severe diurnal temperature swings (limited mostly to the surface environment, a function of the thin, thin atmosphere), partial eclipses of the Sun caused by the moons Phobos & Deimos, and the locally low albedo caused apparently by dust removal by dust devils. Instead of a playa generated by water pouring into the Crater down Ma'adim Vallis, people were shocked to discover more volcanic basalt than any one had a right to expect (technically, near the junction of basalt, picrobasalt, and tephrite), and just a few signs of water, maybe just groundwater long ago - much different than the hematite being probed by the fellow Rover Opportunity on the other side of the planet.

After poking around at Bonneville Crater, the Spirit Rover was ordered to flee to the Columbia Hills, where the rocks seem more interesting. Currently the Rover is hibernating for about 11 days as Mars passes behind the Sun (interfering with communication).

Mars is certainly simpler than Earth. The 1997 Mars Pathfinder expedition found lots of andesite (or a surficial crust on rocks that certainly looked like andesite), which suggested some subduction had once taken place on Mars. But the stuff was virtually pure andesite. At Gusev, the primitive basaltic mineral content is virtually identical everywhere. Soil content is very similar over the whole, windblown planet. And very little has changed for billions of years! Mars is red, white and black: Earth is shades of grey, blue and white.

I suspect Mars isn't suited for human settlement, even with a major investment of resources. Certainly it would be a challenge. What did Elton John sing?

Mars ain't the kind of place
To raise your kids
In fact, it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them
If you did

And all this science
I don't understand
It's just my job
Five days a week
A Rocket Man
Rocket Man

Marc's Tropical Update

(To Friends in Tampa, FL)
Things are going to be dull in Tampa - maybe afternoon showers at the most. Hope tedium isn't a problem. After all, tedium is welcome today, in Pensacola.

(To Friends in West Palm Beach, FL)
Tropical Storm (likely Hurricane) Jeanne will approach West Palm Beach on Sunday night. The storm will approach Florida's east coast and veer north. Jeanne is in pursuit of Ivan, and if Ivan lingers too long in the U.S., then Jeanne will come into the Florida coast. Currently, the GFS model calls for an early departure of Ivan, so Jeanne never gets within 200 miles of the coast. The NOGAPS model calls for a later departure, and thus brings Jeanne nearly up to the coast. Ivan has got to be completely off the eastern coast by Sunday night, however, when Jeanne makes its closest approach, for all to go well.

(To Friends in Aiken, SC)
Then Tropical Storm Jeanne comes your way! Starting on Monday morning, a strengthening high pressure system over Pennsylvania will drive Jeanne's moisture through Aiken, SC, clear across Dixie, ending up in Missouri (!) by Wednesday morning.

(To friends in Phoenix, AZ)
The GFS model is finally registering the coming Hurricane Javier rain event for the desert SW, starting Sunday morning and ending Monday night. The event might be highly focused. Currently, both NOGAPS and GFS models are showing a narrow plume of heavy rainfall, affecting the Colorado River Valley the most (interesting, since it is normally so dry there), but there will be rain for Phoenix as well. It should be an interesting time in the SW!

DMTC Theater Construction

....Is proceeding apace. The first payment was made to Steve Harrison Construction, in excess of $124,000. More payments will come fast and furious. People have been generous. Nevertheless, I certainly hope we get big backers soon, whether a loan guarantee from the city, Bank of America, Buzz Oates, or some other source: that will greatly aid the process and prevent delays. One week from opening 'Bye, Bye Birdie', about nine days from 'Anything Goes' auditions, and working under the absolute necessity of opening 'Anything Goes' in the new theater. Too many construction delays could be awkward.

A Dream

I had a dream Monday morning. I was walking Sparky along a ditchbank, and a skunk poked his head out of a hole and chattered at Sparky. Provoked, Sparky furiously started tunneling into the ditchbank. Abruptly, water began pouring into the hole, draining the ditch and sweeping Sparky away. I think it was all a metaphorical description of Sunday night at the casino.

Zogby Shows Kerry Blowout: 85 Point Lead Over Bush

Well, why not be optimistic? After all, when Drudge ran this headline this evening:

GALLUP SHOWS BUSH BLOWOUT: 14 POINT LEAD OVER KERRY

there was no link that said anything like that over at Gallup. So, as usual with conservatives, bullshit walks. Remember, all this crap is just meant to deflate liberal hopes. Things actually aren't that bad, and could very well improve.

Prayers Tonight

For the Mobile - Pensacola area, as they wrestle with annihilation.

Jay Leno Back-Tracks

Jay Leno says, “I’m not conservative. I’ve never voted that way in my life.” Wouldn't have guessed it from his actions in last year's Recall campaign!

Nobody Can Do Republican Voodoo Like You Do!



(courtesy of a friend)

Kylie Minogue's 'Body Language'

Kylie's new album, 'Body Language', was finally released here in the U.S. boondocks in February. The DVD featuring her album launch concert, apparently held last November at London's 'Apollo' Theater, was released in July in Europe, but in the backwards U.S., it was released apparently only just last week (I cancelled my order with Euromusicworld.com out of sheer frustration just a week ago, but on the weekend I saw the DVD on sale at Tower, and last night, after an impatient and angry eternity, I finally got to see it).

Once again I'm in love! As I walked Sparky through the darkened streets of Sacramento, dodging blundering possums, I was in a daze as I tried to interpret her Brigitte Bardot revamp. I was mesmerized by the whole DVD, of course, but particularly her sweet reworking of 'Breathe/Je T'Aime'.

Unlike most popular musical stars, Kylie these days seems captivated by the idea of perfection: the perfect look, the best dancers, the most solid musicians. Visual aesthetics dominate. There is a word for this, of course: classicism. Kylie seems to be reaching out for a kind of sensual classicism, or classical sensualism, in her performance. There is a sense of perfect, almost yogic, stillness. Indeed, the pace is a bit slower, more metronomic, more hypnotic, than in past efforts.

I suppose it shouldn't be surprising to the classical impulse in music, but it's a bit strange to see it in pop music. Several months ago, flipping channels, I saw 'Xanadu' on television, and I was thunderstruck at how this musical's style (Gene Kelly's last full-length movie) seemed so akin to Kylie's style. She would have been about 11 or 12 years old when it came out - just the right age to make a tremendous impression. I wonder if she was influenced by 'Xanadu'? The plot description is very suggestive:

The Greek muses incarnate themselves on Earth to inspire men to achieve. One of them, incarnated as a girl named Kira, encounters a musician/artist named Sonny Malone. With the help of Danny McGuire, a man Kira had inspired forty years earlier, Sonny builds a huge disco roller rink.

Fellow Australian Olivia Newton-John played Kira, of course. And Kylie's (aka Kira's) disco roller rink encircles the entire Earth.

One reflection of the classical urge in both 'Body Language' and 'Fever' is the anomie of the dancing corps. On 2000's 'Light Years' DVD, a few men in the dancing corps had remarkable impish personalities that they were able to express on stage. The effacing women, however, had sensed Kylie's true direction. On 2002's 'Fever' DVD, the dancing corps had nearly been stripped of personality foibles, and that effort continues with 2004's 'Body Language'. Not that the dancers are metronomes, but the demands of perfection necessarily squelch individual expression.

On the older CD's, sometimes you heard a different Kylie, a more rebellious, troubled, even lazy Kylie. That Kylie is gone now - years of discipline have exiled that bad girl. But now there is a danger that, having climbed Mt. Olympus, she won't be able to get back down. Perhaps she'll have to change direction yet again.

Kylie needs her own Romantic revolt. Say, Kylie as an inmate of an asylum for the criminally insane, or as a bargirl, or as a soldier - a Kylie willing to experiment with ugliness and pain (but in a different way than bad-girl Madonna, who often wallowed in ugliness, and never really got her own clear view from Olympus). Kylie would have been a better 'Satine' than Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge (and not just as The Green Fairy). For the dancing corps (their many successes notwithstanding) I yearn for the imps of 'Light Years', and a greater equality with 'Venus de Melbourne'. So unusual, and so refreshing!

More Tales of Sacramento at Night

(Although the sun hadn't quite set yet.) Yesterday, eight teenage boys were riding bicycles past my house, as I put green cuttings in a pile on the street corner for pickup. Then, with multiple thuds, three of the boys tangled in a messy bicycle collision. I hesitated to intervene, in order to avoid embarrassing them, as they slowly and painfully struggled to their feet. I warily returned to my task, and ten minutes later I saw them slowly ride away, egos and bodies bruised, but apparently with bicycles that still functioned.

That's the second accident in nearly the same location in six months. I still don't know how one of my neighbors fared at the hospital, after being struck on her helmetless head in a hit-and-run accident as she bicycled past my house. I hope she kept her memories - they were fading when they carted her away.

More Ivan

Today, the forecast has changed only slightly. The NOGAPS model nudged eastwards, bringing the storm ashore at Lake Ponchartrain, LA, whereas the GFS model shifted westwards, bringing the storm ashore at Mobile, AL. The most interesting feature is that the model predictions have never been closer. That indicates that the uncertainty in modeled storm path prediction is beginning to diminish as the storm enters the Gulf of Mexico. The NHC (a lagging indicator) has finally moved their forecast storm path as far west as Mobile, AL.

More Ivan

The NHC consensus has caught up to where the NOGAPS model was yesterday. NHC model consensus now puts the storm track into Pensacola (on Wednesday, I think). NHC today indicates they have no reason to change their forecast from yesterday.

Nevertheless, today, the NOGAPS model is pushing Ivan yet farther west, moving the storm onshore in the Mississippi Delta area of Louisiana. The NOGAPS model is pushing the storm through the watery gap between Mexico and Cuba, so it is possible the storm will hardly impact Cuba at all - maybe just at the western tip.

Indeed, the storm avoided a direct hit on Jamaica by jogging farther to the west (even without a direct hit, Jamaica suffered quite a bit).

There was some concern two or three days ago that the storm could abruptly make a break for Florida after it passed over Cuba. That concern is an discussion artifact about diverging model predictions, and there is no reason to believe a sharp in direction is likely. There are no strong upper level winds around to make such an abrupt shift possible.

If the storm keeps moving west, I would be surprised if Tampa sees winds even as high as 20 mph. There are indications that there will be afternoon thundershowers for days after Ivan passes - basically normal Florida summer weather.

My thought is that Ivan will avoid inflicting Tampa with tropical storm level winds - maybe 20 mph. The NHC is being overcautious about moving the storm track west, to keep Floridians on their toes, but to the detriment of people in Louisiana, who may be unprepared for the calamity of a direct hit.

Keep an eye out where on Cuba the storm hits: the farther west, the better for Tampa, especially if the storm avoids Cuba altogether. Right now, with the current history of NOGAPS leading an overcautious NHC to the west, if I were Tampa's shoes, I'd stay put.

Hurricane Ivan and Tampa

I've been trying to put my education to use, by forecasting Hurricane Ivan's impacts in the Tampa area, where Dwight and Linda recently retired. They have plane tickets to flee, but need as much reliable guidance as possible before making that decision.

Essentially, there are no changes from 12 hours ago. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is finally acknowledging indications Ivan's track will be a bit westwards: they've been slow to do so because I think they are deeply worried about lulling people in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area into complacency, and the models still haven't reached a strong consensus. NHC now shows the track having landfall at Apalachicola, in the Florida Panhandle. Still, the NOGAPS model is now showing landfall a bit farther west, at Panama City, so NHC may eventually nudge their forecast track yet farther west.

If I had to guess maximum wind speed in Tampa based upon the current forecast, just from eyeballing the plotted wind fields, I'd say about 45 mph. Uncomfortable sailing weather, and good enough for scattered, sporadic power outages, but nothing wholesale. Plus rain...maybe quite a bit!

NHC is looking at output from all models, and the models have tended to diverge after Ivan crosses Cuba, which (understandably so) tends to paralyze decision-making and make NHC quite cautious. My philosophy has been to pick one model and go with it, rather than look at everything: the man with one watch knows what time it is, whereas the man with two watches is never sure. At FNMOC, they feature both NOGAPS and GFS model output, but I've always favored NOGAPS - GFS is too, hmmm...., quick for me.

I just hope Ivan doesn't have any tricks planned.

Buzzell Genealogy

Second edition finished: gets mailed today.

Three Old Guys Discuss Popular Music

Over the last several days, Friend Walt has asked been taking the pulse of rock music (messages in chronological order):

Walt
This year is the 50th anniversary of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock". I've been thinking about the state of rock music today.

Its easy to detect the arrival of a new phenomenon, but its harder to recognize when something fades away. I've noticed that rap stars make headlines much more often today than rock stars; and in Italy rap is more popular than rock. The other day I listened to part of American Top 40 Countdown -- the show that Casey Kasem used to do -- and there was a lot of rap, but little rock.

So I'm thinking that rock is moribund. I don't mean that it is "creatively exhausted", or that today's rock is "low quality"; I merely mean that it is no longer very popular. Perhaps rock is yesterday's news. I asked several teenagers about it, none of whom were particularly eager to talk to me, and I got mixed results. Some said rock was ancient history, some said it was very much a going concern.

Even rap is older now than rock was when we were college freshman!!

So what are your thoughts on this?

Marc
I think one consequence of the evolution of popular music has been the development of niche markets. Rock has evolved into several genres of music, and people can immerse themselves at will in their own preferred form as they please. Rock is still very much alive, but certain forms seem reserved for old folks such as ourselves - what is now called 'classic rock.' This nostalgia is an unfortunate development, because it tends to stifle creativity (just like happened with 50's rock in the 70's). Nevertheless, certain 'classic rock' artists, like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, are getting only better as they age.

It is unfortunate that 'alternative rock' music of the 90's seemed to have died on the vine. I don't understand what led to its rapid senescence. Maybe if Courtney Love can stop making court appearances, she can rejuvenate it (she was always better than Kurt Cobain). Or maybe someone new has to come along.

Rap and hip-hop (dance-oriented rap) music goes through amazing bursts and collapses of artistry. Rap was probably at its best in 1998, when Timbaland (from Timbaland and Magoo) started producing Aaliyah's music. Wonderful artists at the time (e.g., R. Kelly, Mary Jane Blige, P. Diddy aka Puff Daddy - heck, I'll even throw in Tupac Shakur, even though I think he's overrated) took the world by storm. But then Aaliyah got killed in a plane crash and rap went into a short-lived slump. Nevertheless, wherever Timbaland goes, that's where the best rap can be found (e.g., these days he produces Missy Elliot), and wherever you hear good rap of any sort, he usually had something of one sort or another to do with it. Rap tends to appeal to the dispossessed or the alienated. It's impressive, but maybe not surprising, that it has a big worldwide following, especially among minority communities of all stripes. I understand European Muslims love rap (and rap draws, in part, on Arab musical tradition).

Myself, I was never one for nostalgia: I listen, almost exclusively, to House Music (with a bit of an industrial/pop edge). Dance music goes through its own cycles: 2003 was good, 2004 less so. But it definitely is a niche market, being much more popular overseas than in the U.S. I wonder if Kylie Minogue will retire and her ruthless sister Danii will seize power. I worry that Britney Spear's knees will force her to retire (wretched actress, mediocre singer, dancing is her only strong suit). I'm always puzzled that it is so difficult to sustain a career in Dance Music. One-hit wonders predominate.

Nevertheless, rock is alive and well, under its various guises.

John
I haven't really followed musical trends much over the years so I have to rely more on intuitive feelings to even voice an opinion. However, I would start by asking, "What is rock and roll?" Buddy Holly ad Elvis were among the earliest "rock" musicians but how was their music really defined? I stunned a friend a number of years ago by saying that I didn't see the Beatles as a rock band but rather as a folk band. While there are different definitions of the terms I've always liked Arlo Guthrie's view that "folk music is what the people sing". There are certainly broad categories that some music will fit into but I feel like the gray area between rock and other forms of music is now so broad that definitions are almost meaningless. Is Linda Ronstadt rock, folk or country? Or a combination of all three? What about Kenny Rogers? He's definitely country now but in the late 60's was definitely a rocker with songs such as "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)". So I see a continuum between rock, folk and sometimes rap and country and I find it easier to call the music that people remember folk music. That's probably a bit simplistic but it works for me.

Walt
Well John, you've gone and asked one of those unanswerable questions like what is art, what is pornography, what is sci fi, and when does human life begin?

For a couple weeks now I've been asking "is rock dead" to lots of people, and many reply as you did, "what is rock?" I don't answer; I let the people respond in their own way. But I've also been trying to define rock for myself, and I think there is no simple definition which neatly separates all that people call rock from all that people call other types of music. There are some features that each seem to apply much or most of the time:

1. Rock uses electric guitars more than any other type of past or present music. However, not all rock bands rely on them.
2. Any music which emphasizes acoustic guitar is not rock.
3. Rock emphasizes rhythm more than melody, and allows for much improvisation. In this, it continues the big band tradition. However, early rock had much melody; it lost favor in the mid to late 60s, when the drug scene & counterculture image took over.
4. Although rhythm is big, rock is not good dance music.

About the Beatles: I'm with you halfway. They kept their emphasis on melody all the way to 1970, in contrast to many of their contemporaries. I do not consider much of their later work rock; rather I would call it pop. My understanding of pop is that it is "Top 40" commercial music which is neither rock, country, or folk. Whitney and Britney might be pop. Anyway, the early Beatles seem to be mainstream rock for that time: Lead electric guitar, bass electric guitar, keyboard, drums.

I think much of what you call folk, I would call pop. My picture of folk is an obsolete form which was purely acoustic, with emphasis on lyrics more than melody or rhythm (like country), and consciously modelled on supposed styles & social/political agendas of the Depression and of Appalachia.

Anyway, all of these definitions are probably bogus -- its an unanswerable question.

Marc
Just for grins, I was thinking of posting our discussion on my blog and calling it something like "Three Old Guys Discuss Popular Music," identifying each of you by your first names. Is that OK?

Walt
sure-- BTW, what do you think of our ideas?

Marc
I was thinking how arbitrary some of our categories are and how poorly they reflect the amazing plasticity of music in all its forms. It takes some real sophisticated pigeonholing to get one's hands around that particular greased pig. Counterexamples can be found for nearly every assertion. For example, even though rock relies on electric guitar, acoustic guitar can nevertheless be used to effect in rock (e.g., "MTV Unplugged"). I like Arlo Guthrie's statement that John mentioned: "folk music is what people sing." But then people can and do sing all kinds of music, such as rap, that was commercially produced and is otherwise alien to folk's spirit.

I remember seeing former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson give a talk at the University of Arizona in the early 80's. Questions and answers were getting increasingly stiff, and then unaccountably, Wilson began talking about the Beatles (Wilson had once represented the Beatles' home city, Liverpool, in the House of Commons). Wilson just wouldn't shut up about the Beatles. Yammer, yammer, yammer. I decided then that Wilson must have invented the Beatles as an accountability shield.

On the weekend, Black Entertainment Television (BET) featured their Video Music Awards. It was really impressive seeing the various rap and hip-hop groups, but I found myself at a loss of language to fully describe what they were doing - it didn't seem like rock, though. No electric guitars in sight. In 1995, I saw Chuck Berry perform here in Sacramento at a blues festival, and his rock music seemed to be a simplified, digested form of blues music - the arc between the two forms seemed fairly direct. Extending the arc from blues to hip-hop seems nearly impossible, but you just know the connections are there.

John
No problem here with your posting my remarks. I can't really add more than what I already wrote though since, as I said, I don't follow music that much. As a footnote I might mention that Arlo Guthrie's remark was made after a concert he did in Albuquerque around 1978. A reporter asked him why he, a folk singer, performed the Beatles song "Paperback Writer" and he responded that it was a folk song because folk music is what the people sing. By that definition, since most members of our generation know most of the lyrics to many Beatles songs it seems appropriate to term it folk music--even if it also fits the mold of rock or pop.

Marc
Thanks, John. The melding and blending of commercial and folk music will give music historians fits in the future, as they try to sort it all out!

State Fair

Made a brief foray on Saturday, Sept. 4th to the CA State Fair. I traveled well-worn paths and didn't even get over to see the animals. I knew the DMTC crowd was going to be there, but I didn't know where, so I hung around the Counties Exhibits and the consumer product vendors, which together bend the fabric of space-time and act like a powerful DMTC tractor beam, and eventually they found me. Everything seemed pretty average - even the skanky posters on the midway seemed pretty tame.

For the last several years, the last Saturday of the Fair has degenerated into a kind of wilding at closing time. This year (and perhaps henceforth), and against NAACP protest (since the last Saturday is Black Culture Day) , the Fair closed early. I was hoping the rioting would merely be advanced earlier into the evening, to make an exciting close to a tedious visit, but nothing happened, and everyone went home safe and calm.

Possum Update

Yesterday I was cleaning the garage, and noticed that the young possum from two weeks ago was in a state of mortification in Sparky's basket. Apparently the possum wasn't so ugly that Sparky didn't mind keeping it as a trophy.

University of AZ Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences (IAP)

The department where I got my Ph.D. was scheduled to be closed, but strenuous politicking has apparently saved it. Nevertheless, I'm irritated. All the wasted time reaching out, creating synergy, forging alliances, etc., etc., and for what? Just to safeguard that which only an idiot would have cut in the first place. Wherever you go, the superstructure of university administration is undermining the function of the university. Just who is in the driver's seat anyway? A pox on all administrators!

Bitter - Table for Two!

I didn't watch the Republican Convention speeches last night, I just saw the wrap up on CNN, and it was charming to see Darth Cheney's sneer is just getting worse with age. Nevertheless, I was struck most by just how vile and spiteful Georgia's Zell Miller looked and sounded. That pinched face, those hollow eyes: it was as if his body and mind had been snatched by evil aliens from another galaxy (sadly, in a sense, that is exactly what has happened). I hope I don't run into more of Zell's Zombies anytime soon! (Photos from Atrios: excellent title for this post comes from Jim Vandeventer, former Republican candidate for California Governor.)

The Bush Girls

I'm sure they'd be fun on a clambake, but for myself, I was kind of embarrassed for them. So... lowest-common-denominator!