Gayle Wakefield Moves To Tennessee

Left: Community theater enthusiast (and Kings Arena skeptic) Gayle Wakefield discusses the upcoming ballot measure with less-skeptical Jan and Steve Isaacson.


A little farewell party for a dear friend, who is moving to Franklin, TN, where real estate isn't quite as pricey as here.

Somehow, the subject turned to the differences between men and women. An experiment, derived from the old television show "All In The Family" served to illustrate the difference.

Monique McKisson, with Bridget McGuire's help, shows how it's done.

Step three shoe-lengths away from a wall (which insures your big toe is two shoe-lengths from the wall), bend forward ninety degrees, and pick up a chair. Women (with their lower center of gravity) can then still stand up, whereas men can't.



Child's play!


















Steve, stuck.

Tropical Storm Chris

So far, for impacts on Tampa, FL, Tropical Storm Chris doesn't look like much. The tropical easterlies are not allowing storms to curve north, so in a few days, Chris should blow through the strait between Florida and Cuba and westward across the Gulf of Mexico, and shouldn't strengthen much at all.

There may be another Gulf of Mexico tropical storm leading the westward advance in front of Chris, but that storm also won't affect Tampa.

In a few days, the forecasts show a hurricane generating just off the West African coast, near Gambia and Senegal. That storm would have to travel thousands of miles to reach the U.S., and much could happen to it in the meantime. It's at least two weeks out....

So, the Atlantic is beginning to wake up for the summer hurricane season, but it's a lazy start...

Carry A Big Stick

Steve Gilliard ponders the virtues of attacking, without mercy, The New Republic (TNR), Joe Lieberman, and other traitorous targets:

Well, when it comes to TNR, we don't have any choice. Until they're totally discredited, a complete joke, we have to whomp their asses. Just go after them every chance we get. They have to be gasping for air when we finished.

Why? Because they are no longer bound by the truth. They will make shit up and used stolen e-mail to make their point, and lecture you on how right they are.

And the same has to do with Joe Lieberman.

The first battle any resistance has is not with the occupiers, but with their collaborators. TNR is dangerous because they claim to be liberals. For the Democratic Party to be reborn, collaborators like Lieberman have to suffer at the polls.

Vichy France was created to save France, to moderate the Nazis. It didn't work.

Which is why we call the DLC set Vichy Democrats. They are so afraid of Democratic virtues that they ran from them. They wanted to save the party, but they destroyed it. We lost control of the House and Senate for a decade because they wanted to compromise their way to power.

Just because Lieberman looks defeated doesn't mean you quit. You work harder to make sure he loses. You don't sit back and wait for the defeat. You get in his ass and don't quit until he's defeated. You ensure the defeat and then you watch the DLC crowd shit the bed, because they're next.

You don't quit when someone is down, you finish the fucking job.

My thoughts?:

WWRD? (What would Rush do?)

Well, let's see, if Hezbollah resolves as 'Hezbos', then TNR resolves as 'trannies' - transexuals. Seems about right: Republicans in Democratic clothing.

From Rocky Horror Picture Show:
Chorus: I'm just a sweet transvestite
From Transexual, Transylvania

So- come up to the lab
And see what's on the slab
I see you shiver with antici . . . pation

Panicked About Hurricanes

So far, this year, the Atlantic hurricane season is just about comatose. Damn near nothing has gone on, or is going on. That could always change, of course - the weather forecasts show some nasty thunderstorms might come rolling west from the Senegalese coast next week, but even there, today's forecasts are coming in weaker than last Friday's forecast. At the moment, it appears the Bermuda High dominating the Atlantic Ocean is so strong that it strangles hurricanes in their crib - the tropics.

Nevertheless, after last year's excitement, we can't be caught unawares. So, let's panic NOW:

This month, the nation's best hurricane experts met for the first time ever with nervous insurance industry reps about a storm lurking beyond the horizon.

"The risk is increasing and it's increasing every year," catastrophe risk analyst Karen Clark told CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.

That storm a long overdue northeast hurricane which the latest computer models now predict could devastate the region and cripple the U.S. economy.

"It will be the largest financial disaster that this country has ever seen," Clark, the president and CEO of AIR Worldwide, said.

A direct hit on New York's Long Island by a Category 3 or higher hurricane would cost $100 billion.

But the same size storm spinning into central New Jersey would be catastrophic — raking New York and points north with its strongest winds. The result: $200 billion in damages and lost business.

"And much of that disruption will not be covered by insurance," Clark said.

Economic losses would be twice that of the 9-11 attacks, and three times larger than Hurricane Katrina. When it comes to a northeast hurricane, experts say forget what you know. They're much bigger than their southern cousins.

"A Category 3 storm could do a surge of more like a Category 4 or 5," said Phil Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University. "So you could see 20 to 25 feet of water."

A major northeast hurricane is nearly three times more likely this year thanks to favorable weather conditions, including the position of the Bermuda High. Last year it pushed storms southwest. Now it's set to steer hurricanes up the East Coast.

...The difference today is that real estate values from Maryland to Maine are among the highest in the nation — with Manhattan's skyline in the bull's-eye.

"The air is going to be squeezed in those canyons. The water is going to be rise about the level of the highway and then it's going to hit the subterranean infrastructure," Coch said.

My Retirement

I know my retirement will be something like this. Hell, it pretty-much describes my middle age:

If you look through the rear window of the Buick parked among weeds you see Janie Howard sitting, eating and basically living out of her car.

...When asked if she really has been living in her car for years, Howard said "I don't live in the car, I just drive the car and happen to be in the car. But no, I don't live in my car, I can go into the house any time I want to."

When further asked if she sleeps in her car Howard said "now that I do a lot of times because I'm sleepy and I go to sleep in it. It's a comfortable car."

Howards' yard is covered with garbage; it's overgrown with weeds, filled with cats and dogs, and likely infested with rats, bugs and snakes.

We never went inside her house, but the roof in the back is crushed by a fallen tree.

Neighbor Leola Barrett said "well honey the odor, and everything, it's a disgrace to live next to her. It's a shame, it's pitiful."

Neighbors like Barrett have been complaining about the mess. But they haven't been next door.

We asked Barrett if she ever got concerned about Howard when it gets hot or cold and she said "no sir, I don't bother. I just don't bother, period."

When asked if she tried to talk with her nieghbor Barrett said "no sir."

... So no family, friends, or neighbors will come to Howards' house.

"Well if they'd come by and speak to me and say something I'd tell them I'm fine, but I don't ever see them. I don't know why this is as big, or this is a mystery to me as it is to everybody else. I don't know what's going on."

Neocons On Speed

Just addicted to violence, they are:

That is the central incoherence which lays at the heart of the Bush administration's neoconservative mission -- one minute the objective is to win the "hearts and minds" of Muslims in the Middle East so that there will be less anti-American hatred for Al Qaeda to exploit when recruiting. The next minute the objective is to bomb as many of their countries as possible for their own good and hope that they are appreciative of all the carnage and destruction we are raining down on them in the name of warring against the evil of "stability."

Annoyed Scientist Speaks

Peter Doran talks about a cooling trend over portions of Antarctica, which has been used and abused by nonscientists ever since:

Our results have been misused as “evidence” against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novel “State of Fear” and by Ann Coulter in her latest book, “Godless: The Church of Liberalism.” Search my name on the Web, and you will find pages of links to everything from climate discussion groups to Senate policy committee documents — all citing my 2002 study as reason to doubt that the earth is warming. One recent Web column even put words in my mouth. I have never said that “the unexpected colder climate in Antarctica may possibly be signaling a lessening of the current global warming cycle.” I have never thought such a thing either.

Our study did find that 58 percent of Antarctica cooled from 1966 to 2000. But during that period, the rest of the continent was warming. And climate models created since our paper was published have suggested a link between the lack of significant warming in Antarctica and the ozone hole over that continent. These models, conspicuously missing from the warming-skeptic literature, suggest that as the ozone hole heals — thanks to worldwide bans on ozone-destroying chemicals — all of Antarctica is likely to warm with the rest of the planet. An inconvenient truth?

...In the meantime, I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming. I know my coauthors would as well.

Quiet Weekend

Except for all the yelling and screaming between E. and A. Fortunately, A. may have another job this week in Folsom, so let things cool down a bit. And the Sacramento Police seemed pretty blase about it too, not even bothering to come over, but trying to resolve matters over the phone.

Georgette had her car broken into, along with 16 others at the Roseville Wal-Mart.

And a local traffic crunch, due to Eric Kleven's memorial service on Sloat Way yesterday evening. So sad....

Not so much a quiet weekend as a sad weekend.....

On The Importance Of Diction

M. Noel and Ben had a baby. They named him Noah.
E. Noah. That's a Biblical name, like Joseph, and Joshua, and Macho.
M. Macho is a Biblical name?
E. Gee, not Macho, Matthew!

Dry Night In Phoenix

Deborah reports it didn't rain in Phoenix last night....

Dang that NM low! It started moving back towards the east last night after feinting west yesterday. So, it rained in the vicinity of Phoenix: N, NE, E, & SE. But not in the Valley itself.

The weather forecasts are getting discouraging again, keeping the rain in SE AZ and NM. To blame is a midlatitude trough moving in from the West (a most welcome trough for me, because CA temperatures are tolerable again, but bad for the monsoon).

Nevertheless, the last few days have been amazingly hard to forecast. It's been like polling the preferences of a convention of cats. Certain things are easy to call - the popularity of fish, for example, but where does everyone want to go next? Can we get a quorum? Good grief!

Just because the overall weather picture is degrading doesn't mean it's degrading in any one spot. Keep hope alive that it might still rain this weekend in Phoenix!

Phoenix Outlook

It looks like some rain will fall tonight in the Valley of the Sun. It may be hard to avoid, even, as it moves in from the north. These storms are circling a rather intense center of vorticity currently centered near Zuni Pueblo, NM and moving slowly westwards.

Last night, the storms on the Mogollon Rim got caught in an anticyclonic shear zone between winds circling the NM low pressure system, and other winds heading west towards Emilia. The environment became unfavorable for development, so as soon as sunset came, the storms collapsed. Nevertheless, it looked like the collapsing storms helped promote a refreshing breeze that started from the Rim, passed through Oak Creek and nearby canyons, and eventually rolled most of the way to the Colorado River. Lots of storm activity in southern NM last night, though.

Charles Peer's "Outword" Review Of "Falsettos"

Fascinating reading. Peer seems to have high standards, and looks at things from the LGBT perspective. He liked the show, often using the highest praise, but worried about things that never occurred to me. For example, regarding Jerry Lee and Craig Howard's interaction:

And although the pair when singing together are very moving, dramatically you don’t feel the connection between them that leads to such moving songs as “Unlikely Lovers.” Simply put, there is no chemistry between them.

I was so impressed by the singing of both Howard and Lee, I failed to take much note of the dramatic side. I thought there was chemistry there - my pH filter papers were registering a bright pink, and I thought I felt the earth move - but maybe I just misinterpreted the data. Wouldn't be the first time.

Even after taking all that analytical inorganic chemistry in grad school, some chemistry still escapes this diligent meteorologist.

Better living through chemistry!

Auditioning For The Lead In "Oliver!", 2017

Noah Bruening, 6 lbs., 8 oz., 19", 12:14 a.m., July 28, 2006.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Gabe notes that today is the 212th anniversary of the death of Maximilien Robespierre. Max's most famous quote:

Terror is only justice that is prompt, severe and inflexible.

Terror without virtue is disastrous; virtue without terror is powerless.

Gabe is much too cheerful about this dark day's anniversary. I wonder if Gabe is a closet Girondist. I know he's fond of the Vendée. As Maximilien might have said (if he could have talked through his busted teeth): Beware the Ides of Thermidor!:

Robespierre was the next day taken before the tribunal, and without trial he was guillotined, face up and screaming in pain from his injured jaw according to reports, with Couthon and Saint-Just and nineteen others of his adherents on the Place de la Révolution on the 10th Thermidor An II (July 28, 1794). His corpse and head both are buried in the common cemetery of Errancis, today Place de Goubeaux, and the spot is covered by an unmarked gravestone.

Review Of The Artistic Differences PREVIEW

From The Davis Enterprise's own Bev Sykes.....

(Post title corrected, because of my usual inattention to details - I only skimmed the review looking for the wit and wisdom of Erik Daniells, and didn't notice that this review was for the preview only.)

Guitar House Concert Series

At Nicholson Music in Folsom. Daniel Roest coming up, Sunday, July 30!

Spam For Thought

I don't have a spam filter, so every imaginable message reaches my eyes. Here's a thought-provoking one for today:

COSTA MESA CA USA -- MEDICAL INDUSTRY E-MAIL NEWS SERVICE(TM) -- JULY 27 2006 -- Today the FDA warned consumers not to purchase or to use high-strength hydrogen peroxide products, including a product marketed as "35% Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide," for medicinal purposes because they can cause serious harm or death when ingested. FDA recommends that consumers who are currently using high-strength hydrogen peroxide stop immediately and consult their health care provider.

Is this serious? H2O2 is the oxidant they use in products like Chlorox II, probably at much lower concentrations. In 1% solution, it's the fizzy stuff you use to treat cuts. At 35%, it'd practically be explosive. People drink this stuff? This is a problem? Regulators have to issue warnings, in 2006, about drinking highly-dangerous chemicals? Whassup wit dat?

"Memory"

By Deborah McMillion-Nering.

A desert painting for people like me, who forget what those big tall cactus-thingies - yeah, saguaro! - are called.....

I'm like that dessicated fish: fried brain, too damn dry, and rotting from the head down.....

Regarding weather, storms are late firing up today on the Rim. Last night's MCC is actively-suppressing convection in a ring just beyond its edge, so before it can start storming again, the MCC has to completely move out of the way. It has to be completely gone before convection can really get going in AZ. It's just barely out of the way right now, and so while there are some clouds up on the North Kaibab Plateau right now, the clouds on the Rim are only now just getting going. So, maybe rain in the Valley of the Sun after sunset, or in the early morning hours, like last night.

Why Montana's Senator Burns Is Likely To Lose Re-Election

What a colossal ass:

Republican Sen. Conrad Burns chastised a group of firefighters over the weekend for doing a “poor job” of squelching a 92,000-acre blaze near Billings, a state report shows.

Burns and the firefighters - members of the Augusta Hotshots from the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest in Virginia - were at the Billings Logan International Airport awaiting flights, according to Burns and U.S. Forest Service representatives.

Burns approached the firefighters and told them they had “done a poor job” and “should have listened to the ranchers,” according to a report prepared by Paula Rosenthal, a Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation employee who was sent to the airport to speak with the senator.

Rosenthal wrote in her report that she received word of an “altercation” occurring between Burns and the hotshot crew. The crew had been in Montana working on the Bundy Railroad fire near Worden.

The 92,000-acre timber, grass and sagebrush fire was contained on July 19 and the 368 people who came to fight it began dispersing a few days later.

...Matt Mackowiak, a spokesman for the senator, said he didn't think Burns met with any of the fire bosses who managed the firefighting response.

Instead, he confronted firefighters waiting for their ride back home.

...Burns said he was unhappy that fires are run out of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which he called “ridiculous.”

“The government needs to listen to these ranchers,” the report quotes Burns as saying.

Mary Sexton, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, said in an interview that the National Interagency Fire Center does not run individual fires, but is the national hub for fire information and available resources. Beneath the Boise center are several regional dispatch centers, including one for the northern Rocky Mountains in Missoula.

Individual fires are managed by fire bosses on the ground, Sexton said.

Burns also said he was concerned that fire bosses don't let ranchers fight fire on their own land.

... Sexton said that fire teams - the groups of national and local fire experts who come to manage and fight large fires - cannot and do not tell private landowners what to do. They cannot force them to evacuate or not to fight a wildfire on their own land.

However, Sexton said, fire bosses prefer to know where all people working on a fire are - including landowners - and may ask landowners not to help in the interest of safety.

Burns also said he had heard from one rancher that fire crews on the Bundy Railroad fire put a strip of fire retardant on the edge of Bureau of Land Management land, implying that firefighters were more interested in protecting public land than private.

“The toughest part of the conversation was the point where the senator was critical of a firefighter sitting across from us in the gate area,” Rosenthal's report reads. “I offered to the senator that our firefighters make around $8 to $12 an hour and time-and-a-half for overtime. He seemed a bit surprised that it wasn't higher.”

Puritanical Las Vegas

One of the reasons Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are worth worrying about is the likelihood that some of the tortures implemented there are likely to find their way back into ordinary American life.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman apparently wants to lead the charge. Las Vegas has a freewheeling attitude towards some human sins, but not others, and as Richard Abowitz notes, he's willing to use the iron fist to make sure people do what he wants them to do:

A classic rock radio station sent two employees to a city park with sodas, iced tea and doughnuts. The station is the latest to rebel against city's the new rule that bans feeding homeless people in public parks. Police ordered the radio station employees out of the park. Do city officials even begin to see how nasty Las Vegas looks to the nation? Abbie Hoffman where are you?

And also:

It never ends. After outlawing feeding homeless people in parks, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman now wants to put those convicted of graffiti in medieval-style stocks.

The idea would be that the fiendish criminals would be locked and displayed in some sort of public square to be humiliated like a colonial Puritan caught missing Sunday church. For the final touch, the mayor thinks it would be great to allow the public to then come paint the criminals' faces.

To be fair, this is actually a step back from Goodman's earlier proposal to remove their thumbs. Anyone remember when Mayor Goodman's irreverence and straight talk used to be refreshing and fun?

Big Arizona MCC Report

Deborah in Ahwatukee reports:

It's raining now.

This shows the high water mark on our walkways from the faux arroyo put in to regulate run-off. Would've been cool to see if not for all the lightning.

I reply:

The thunderstorms that started on the Rim yesterday morphed into one ginormous Mesoscale Convective Complex (MCC): basically one big mass of many thunderstorms. The MCC proceeded south, through eastern AZ, carefully circled around Ahwatukee so as not to disturb your sleep (you caught only the feathery edge of it), and now it's heading SW, crossing the border around Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, and heading towards Mama - the remnants of Tropical Storm Emilia, which has broken up west of Baja California (Punta Eugenia).

There's no reason why this kind of stuff can't keep happening for the next few days. There's some sign the thunderstorm switch will be turned off by Tuesday of next week, at least for awhile. But as long as there's these big discontinuities of humidity, and Emilia keeps pumping humidity north, it'll keep raining!

"Pirates of the Caribbean - II"

Saw the movie. Had a great time. Didn't understand a frickin' thing.

According to G., the movie is composed of a number of interwoven Caribbean tales and legends of pirates, and has been carefully researched.

Well, maybe. If you take a bunch of unrelated Caribbean tales and try to weave a coherent plot, you might get something like mush:

Pintel: ...I always heard it said "kray-kin"
Ragetti: What? with a long A? Na-na-na-na-no-no no "Krah-ken"'s how it's pronounced in the original Scandinavian, and "Krakken"'s closer to that.
Pintel: Well we ain't original Scandinavians, are we?
Ragetti: It's a mythological creature, I can calls it what I wants!

And that's one of the better dialogues!

There's a lot of action and adventure. Way too much action. 'Pirates' resembles a forebear, "Raiders Of The Lost Ark," a movie with so much action, and so many improbable escapes, that it made me ill when I first saw it, in Las Vegas, in 1981.

In the Sacramento Bee's newspaper ad for the new 'Pirates' movie, they quote Larry King:

Finally, a movie you can see over and over again.

Well, you can do that with any movie. But if you want to understand what is happening with this movie, you might have little choice. It's been three years since the first movie, and I've forgotten who all the characters are. And so when the portentous music signals that someone has entered the screen that was in the other movie - in other words, a profound, significant moment with a supposedly familiar character - all I could do was shrug my shoulders in ignorance.

So, saw the movie. Had a great time. Didn't understand a frickin' thing.

Tears Of A Clown

Why can't everyone just get along?:

Happy the Clown is sad -- and looking for a good attorney.

A New York law firm is threatening to sue Happy and other clowns if they don't stop dressing as purple dinosaurs or red dogs in their shows at children's birthday parties. Those characters, the firm alleges, are too much like Barney and Clifford the Dog.

And no more Mr. Conductor or Bob the Builder look-alikes either.

``I was crying,'' said Sari Mitchell, the person behind Happy the Clown, who's also president of Most Unique Parties & Ponies, based in Boulder Creek. ``One clown threatened suicide but we talked him out of it.''

Now Happy and other clowns are worried about what Bay Area children will think when they find out they can't invite the characters to their birthday parties.

Rainy Night In Phoenix

Deborah in Ahwatukee reports:

We got hit by a major thunderstorm, rivers of water, light show of amazing proportions and 4 hours at least (I fell asleep at 1:00 AM) of solid rain. A huge miracle for our parched trees and cacti.

THAT'S monsoon!

That's wonderful to hear!

Yesterday, looking at the radar images, I could see a line of powerful thunderstorms coming off the Rim in the Oak Creek area, and they seemed to line up in an arc with budding storms east of the Four Peaks area, and with the big storms towards Nogales. There was also a sharp discontinuity in humidity between the humid low deserts in the west and the drier plateaus and mountains to the east. Thunderstorms often favor 'dry lines' like this. And so I thought, "what can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong?" And then the Four Peaks storms collapsed towards sunset, and then I thought, "that's what can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong!" But I still held out hope that you'd at least get some sprinkles, and I'm very happy for you!

The next week should feature more opportunities as well!

Small Changes

Can sometimes make a big effect:

When Starbucks started using 10% post consumer recycled paper cups and offered coffee sleeves so folks would stop "double cupping," 5.5 million less pounds got sent to landfills.

Forecasting For Phoenix

Should get a break, over the next week, with thunderstorms.

Lots of lower-level moisture from the south, particularly with Hurricane Emilia, spinning away off the southern Baja coast, acting to pump moisture north.

Upper level winds from the NE, from the Rim. The different wind directions means a considerable amount of shear - more than normal - which can, under some circumstances, promote storms.

It seems promising. What can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong?

Bad Israeli Idea To Make It Rain

Or at least it seems so to me. By creating very high surface temperatures with black plastic, the idea is to promote convective instability through the release of latent heat of vaporization of water, and generate an artificial cloud, and, with luck, a thunderstorm. Trouble is, I don't think they realize just how readily the hot air will mix with surrounding air, therefore lowering its temperature, and just how large an area they'd have to cover with the plastic:

They will spread large sheets of black solar-absorbing film over perhaps 9 square miles of land to generate intense heat. How long the plastic sheeting will withstand the natural elements is not clear from the article.

Energy from sunlight, absorbed by the material, will radiate upward, heating the lower atmosphere.

Scientists hope the heated air will lift water condensation high enough to form clouds and produce rain.

"I'm always interested in looking at anything that will make it rain," Grant told me by phone from his office in Big Spring. He added that the Negev project is all new to him.

The area between San Angelo and Del Rio is about 30 degrees north of the equator - virtually the same latitude as Israel's Negev Desert. A major difference, however, is that West Texas has no major bodies of water within 100 miles - unlike the Negev's nearby Mediterranean Sea.

"I guess the proof will be whether they can put it in and see what happens," Grant said. He oversees cloud-seeding across a 1,000-square-mile area of Borden, Scurry, Mitchell and eastern Howard counties, north and northwest of San Angelo.

...Over areas such as West Texas and the Negev Desert, normal air currents prevent water vapor from rising high enough to form clouds.

Israel's rainmakers say installing large black patches could raise the surface temperatures by 120 degrees, and thus create a chimney of fast-rising air currents. The artificial thermal would then lift the water vapor to about 10,000 feet elevation, where it can condense into water droplets that create clouds.

Clouds up to 20 miles long would form from noon to 5 p.m. daily above the black plastic, then drift with winds and shower nearby lands.

Parts Is Parts

Goth nude dancer has too many props:

While the subject of the initial phone call was not located in the home, authorities found six skulls in an upstairs room. The Middlesex County medical examiner has determined all are human. While human skulls may be purchased online, the origin of the hand is more troubling. The police report states it was severed roughly, not surgically, with bone fragments in the jar.

Two people who knew Kay, including one who stayed at her house for about two months earlier this year, told The Star-Ledger of Newark for that the hand, which Kay nicknamed "Freddy," was a gift from a medical student who frequented the Union strip club where she dances. At the all-nude juice bar called Hott 22, Kay nurtured her Gothic persona, wearing dark costumes, heavy eyeliner, piercings and tattoos.

Crisis In Lebanon

Not having any Cable TV has made this crisis seem quite remote to me: I have to judge it based strictly on newspaper and Internet reports. Nevertheless, it seems obscene for Condoleeza Rice to talk about the virtues of a new Middle East, when the good things of the old Middle East (children playing in the streets of Sidon, etc.) are being erased in favor of something far, far uglier. Where is this new, grand Middle East supposed to come from, if not from the civilians who live there? If you chase out the civilians and make a moonscape of southern Lebanon, the terrorists win. A cease-fire, as disagreeable as it might seem to Bush Administration radicals, is the only way to preserve what is best about the area.

Juan Cole details the negotiations:

The meeting was reportedly tense. Rice proffered "support" to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, but not a ceasefire, which is what he really needs to keep his government from collapsing--and he testily told her so. She said she regretted the humanitarian situation (caused by America's ally with billions in American-supplied armaments), but the US is offering only $30 million in aid (billions of dollars of damage have been done to Lebanon by Israel, most of it unrelated to Hizbullah). She delivered her ultimatum to Nabih Berri, speaker of the Lebanese parliament and a leading secular Shiite politician who has an alliance of convenience with Hizbullah. Berri angrily rejected her terms and riposted that no negotiations would happen without there first being a ceasefire. He was relaying to her Hizbullah's position.

Rice's visit showed how low American stock has fallen in the Middle East, since she came virtually empty-handed, merely as a go-fer on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with little positive to offer. Berri thunderously rejected her ultimatums, or rather those of her political bosses. She came with nice words but Israeli bombs hit Beirut before and after her visit, according to my sources. Her professions of sympathy rang hollow, since her government was encouraging the bombing raids and blocking any UN or European move toward a cease-fire. She played no more exalted a role than Mafia enforcer, lifting her suit coat at the corner to display the loaded pistol as she discussed just how much the owner of the Lebanese restaurant would be paying per month for "protection" from certain of her "friends," or else, you know, something bad could happen to this nice restaurant of yours.

Don't Forget The Past, Lest We Repeat It

From the Daily Rotten:

July 25, 1990

At a baseball game, actress Rosanne Arnold warbles the Star Spangled Banner, grabs her crotch, and endears herself to an entire nation.

Hydrocarbon Lakes

You just know Titan had to have them:

Scientists said Monday they have found the first widespread evidence of giant hydrocarbon lakes on the surface of Saturn's planet-size moon Titan.

The cluster of lakes was spotted near Titan's frigid north pole during a weekend flyby by the international Cassini spacecraft, which flew within 590 miles of the moon.

Researchers counted about a dozen lakes six to 62 miles wide. Some, which appeared as dark patches in radar images, were connected by channels, while others had tributaries flowing into them. Several were dried up, but the ones that contained liquid were most likely a mix of methane and ethane.

"It was a real potpourri," said Cassini scientist Jonathan Lunine of the University of Arizona.

...Last year, Cassini found what appeared to be a liquid hydrocarbon lake about the size of Lake Ontario on Titan's south pole. But the recent flyby marked the first time the spacecraft spied a multitude of lakes.

According to the Cassini-Huygens Web Site:

Scientists have speculated that liquid methane or ethane might form lakes on Titan, particularly near the somewhat colder polar regions. In the images, a variety of dark patches, some with channels leading in or out of them, appear. The channels have a shape that strongly implies they were carved by liquid. Some of the dark patches and connecting channels are completely black, that is, they reflect back essentially no radar signal, and hence must be extremely smooth. In some cases rims can be seen around the dark patches, suggesting deposits that might form as liquid evaporates. The abundant methane in Titan's atmosphere is stable as a liquid under Titan conditions, as is its abundant chemical product, ethane, but liquid water is not. For all these reasons, scientists interpret the dark areas as lakes of liquid methane or ethane, making Titan the only body in the solar system besides Earth known to possess lakes. Because such lakes may wax and wane over time, and winds may alter the roughness of their surfaces. Repeat coverage of these areas should test whether indeed these are bodies of liquid.

These two radar images were acquired by the Cassini radar instrument in synthetic aperture mode on July 21, 2006. The top image centered near 80 degrees north, 92 degrees west measures about 420 kilometers by 150 kilometers (260 miles by 93 miles). The lower image centered near 78 degrees north, 18 degrees west measures about 475 kilometers by 150 kilometers (295 miles by 93 miles). Smallest details in this image are about 500 meters (1,640 feet) across.

Toowoomba Takes Up The Challenge

In such a dry place, recycled sewage is the only way:

Residents of a drought-stricken Australian town will vote this week on whether they're prepared to drink water recycled from sewage -- the first such scheme in the country and one of only a handful in the world.

The controversial proposal has divided the town of Toowoomba in the state of Queensland, which has faced water restrictions for a decade.

Local Mayor Dianne Thorley, who is leading the "Yes" campaign, said that without drought-breaking rains the town's dams could dry up within two years.

..."Somewhere, sometime we have got to stand up and change the way we are doing things," she told AFP as the town prepared for the July 29 referendum.

"Otherwise our great grandchildren are going to be living in something like the Sahara desert."

A vocal "No" campaign opposes the proposal, and says there are unforeseeable health risks for the town's 100,000 residents.

"The scientists say it should be safe," said local councillor Keith Beer, one of three members of the nine-strong council that opposes the plan. "That is not good enough for me, for my kids and my grandkids."

Australia is in the midst of the third-worst drought in the country's history. The so-called Big Dry is affecting the eastern states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, as well as South Australia and the southern island of Tasmania.

It has cost the rural economy five billion dollars and many regional communities in the world's driest inhabited continent are teetering on the brink of collapse.

Amusing Review

Of Madonna's "Confessions" tour:

Madonna hatched out of a disco-ball egg that opened like a multifaceted DeLorean; there were pulsing lights and reflecting surfaces; it looked like 12 disco emporia had vomited simultaneously all over the Garden stage. A team of shirtless, musclebound dancers clippety-clopped around in plumed riding hats; gymnasts did some impressive tumbling and jumping on uneven bars, and a woman in electric blue Middle Eastern-ish gear convulsed in a cage. There was crumping. (OK, the truth is, I thought it was break-dancing but when I read Kelefa Sanneh's review of the concert in the Times, he said it was crumping.)

Egads!

Musicals just coming out of the woodwork:

The production - simply called David Hasselhoff: The Musical - will open in Melbourne, Australia, before moving to America.

The actor - who is due to release his autobiography in September - said: "If it ends up in Las Vegas, how great would that be? I want to entertain people. Sammy Davis Junior was my hero."

Tropical Storm Emilia

Off the western Mexican coast, perhaps eventually affecting California humidity and storm potential:

EMILIA IS FORECAST TO REMAIN UNDER A FAVORABLE UPPER-LEVEL ENVIRONMENT AND OVER WARM WATER FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS. THE OFFICIAL FORECAST INDICATES STRENGTHENING...BUT NOT AS MUCH AS THE PREVIOUS ADVISORY. THE FORECAST STILL CALLS FOR EMILIA TO BECOME A HURRICANE. THEREAFTER...EMILIA IS EXPECTED TO MOVE OVER PROGRESSIVELY COOLER WATER AND INTO MORE STABLE ENVIRONMENT AND INDUCE RAPID WEAKENING. THE INTENSITY FORECAST FOLLOWS THIS SCENARIO AND INDICATES THAT EMILIA WILL BECOME A REMNANT LOW IN ABOUT 4 DAYS. THE INTENSITY FORECAST IS A LITTLE ABOVE THE SHIPS MODEL FORECAST FOR THE FIRST 36 HOURS...BUT IS SIMILAR TO SHIPS DURING THE WEAKENING PORTION OF THE FORECAST.

"Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" - RSP - Saturday Night


Bows: Andrea St. Clair (Milli) acknowledges the applause. Left; Scott Reese (Adam).


Bows: An excellent orchestra (led by Chris Congdon).


After the show, Anne Marie Trout greets Andrea St. Clair.


After the show, Melody Davi (right) talks with Chris Salmon (left), Cooper and Christian Salmon, and cousin Danny. Cooper and Christian played Jake and Billy in the show.

Saturday was one of the hottest days in Sacramento history - it hasn't been this hot since 1996. At 4 p.m., it was 109 degrees Fahrenheit downtown, and 110 degrees at the Sacramento Executive Airport: typical for Phoenix, but quite atypical here. In-between, in Curtis Park, it was 109-and-a-half degrees, and I was feeling vaguely ill. In my first effort to turn on the air conditioner this year, the thermostat simply failed, and so I hoped to cure my incipient heat stroke by attending RSP's "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers", in the cooler confines of the 24th Street Theater (and watch dozens of actors suffer that vaguely-ill feeling instead, as they labored under the lights).

An excellent show! This is the first time I've seen Andrea St. Clair play a character (Milly) with some range, rambunctious as well as feeling, and it was a delight to see how well she did it. I was also pleased at her dancing: the waltz steps, and chaines, came naturally to her. Scott Reese played the forest clan's elder brother Adam, and sang wonderfully. Both Scott and Andrea were well-matched leads for the show.

One choreographic problem was handled well: Reese, for all his skills, isn't a dancer. Ron Cisneros employed several strategems in dances like "Goin' Courtin", such as introducing Reese late into the dancing, and using him principally as support for a very-active Andrea (the way the old ballroom dancers were always told they should do always for their female partners). The accomodations worked well, because they served to enhance Adam's position as the head of the clan, and Milly's help-mate.

Apart from a few friends and acquaintances, most of the cast were new to me, and fresh. It was fortunate that they were so energetic, and their dancing so good. I also worried about the numerous fight scenes: no matter how much you practice them, they are never identical from night-to-night, and it's easy for them to go awry. Nevertheless, they all seemed to go fine, and no one appeared inadvertently injured.

The best dancer on stage was Kacey Kamrin (Sarah). What wonderful energy! Her male partner (one of the brothers, whose name I now fail to remember) was also excellent. Kamrin was sometimes matched with another dancer, whom I believe played Ruth (Jordan Gomez), who was also excellent.

The first challenge of Saturday's show came almost immediately when Scott Reese's beard began peeling away in the heat (and with Ray Fisher taping the show too). Reese gamely kept on, tufts awry, and removed the beard at his first off-stage opportunity (about the time he would have lost it anyway). I thought Reese should have casually peeled it off immediately, as the problem was obvious, as well as its solution, but others noted that the problem served to draw in the audience, to enhance their sympathy and support. In their view, Reese did exactly what he should have done. In any event, it was just a minor problem. Other problems that occasionally bedevil shows, like microphone glitches, were also rare (maybe some 'clipping': that's all).

At intermission, I overheard two audience comments. One was 'that lead actress is great.' The other was 'concentrations in Carmichael's water are 90 times EPA's acceptable limit.' (Never know what the audience voyeur will overhear!)

It is excellent that Andrea will soon leave for New York (October?) with such a recent triumph under her belt. Also in the audience was Melody Davi, and her mother Kathy. After touring nationwide with "42nd Street" for much of the last year, Melody is in town to tie up some loose ends, and work on a fab tan, with which to strike people green with envy on the Great White Way.

Melody told me she recently moved to exciting New York City. It occurred to me Kathy had also told me this recently. I think Melody's father, Tony, also told me this too, but I'm fairly dense, and so it takes a full family press for me to fully absorb news. Nevertheless, even though both Melody and Andrea have been active in Sacramento community theater in recent years, their paths apparently never crossed onstage here. I hope they'll cross in New York, though: make it that much more fun to make that New York trip!

After the show, I tried to plant sloppy kisses on the cheeks of various female cast members, but they all said exactly the same thing: "Eeewww, get away from me, I'm sweating!" (They're so cute!) Could have fooled me, though. Everyone looked fresh, despite the heat.....

Afterwards, I walked home, to commisserate with Cloudy the Rabbit, the only one of my friends and acquaintances who has a legitimate beef with this hot weather....

Mission To My Backyard

Alien vistas, altered landscapes, and in the middle, Adam Taylor.......





On a blazing Sunday afternoon, we went to Tropicana Floral, on Grant Line Road in Elk Grove, and watched hypnotized as the big koi fish swam around in circles...

"Falsettos" - Artistic Differences - Friday Evening

I arrived late, and sat too far away for my slow camera to get really good pictures. Nevertheless....


'March of the Falsettos'


'Jason's Bar Mitzvah' (left to right: Margaret Hollinbeck, Kevin Caravalho, Joey Harris, Craig Howard, Kristen Wagner, Jessica Stein).


The gala afterwards (left to right: Michael R.J. Campbell, Jerry Lee, Kyle Hadley, Kevin Caravalho, Jason McDowell, Jon Daniells, Nora Abaoli).

I think everyone was in agreement here: what a wonderful show! Strong, strong leads. Even young 14-year-old Joey Harris, who apparently has been in the chorus of two Natomas Charter School shows prior to this, and may have never even had lines before this, did fantastic.

Can't go wrong with Gino Platina's choreography! Since I was late, my first impression of the show was "March of the Falsettos." How bizarre!

This show is, in some ways, a kind of hothouse flower: narrowly perched on a small but important demographic at a moment of crisis - homosexual Jews in the 80's, coming to grips with AIDS. Add in the normal crises of adolescence, work/gender roles, and martial dilemmas, and you nearly have too many crises to effectively deal with in a single musical. Which, I guess, is why "Falsettos" is actually an assemblage of three musicals. According to the Artistic Differences Web Site:

Falsettos is a musical by William Finn that ran on Broadway in 1992 and 1993. The play is actually the second and third parts of a trilogy: the first show is called "In Trousers", the second is "March of the Falsettos", and the third is "Falsettoland." Each were produced singularly as one act plays before the second and third were put together as acts one and two of Falsettos.

I think many of us in the audience were intrigued to see a new musical of which we knew little. Of greater interest, however, was seeing so much superior talent on display.

The basic approach of Artistic Differences is to focus first on the talent and the music, and worry later about the tedious logistical details, such as securing a permanent venue for a full season of shows. If not for the potential of scheduling conflicts, that home could easily be DMTC - 'Artistic Differences' certainly are exemplary guests - but a full season might be difficult to accomodate with DMTC's current schedule.

I recall 1979, when I was vice-president of the University of New Mexico Ballroom Dance Club, trying to secure reservations for the on-campus Student Union Ballroom. "These people are supposed to help students, and we are students," I thought. "Is there a reason why they have to be so nasty, peevish, and myopic?"

The answer, of course, is that all facility managers, no matter how well-meaning, are doomed by their role to be difficult. It seems to come coded in the DNA, part of the business of worrying about who is paying for the lights and why is that item out-of-place and did someone lock the doors? Despite seeing first-hand the example of what being a facility manager did to the City of Davis, I worry that transformation will happen to us as well. It's not our fault. It comes with the territory. It's not just like being a parent: it's a bit like Smeagol playing with that damned Ring......

So worry about those logistical details. They are crucial. But not quite yet....

First, glory in artistic triumph! What a wonderful show!

Busting Records

From the National Weather Service in Sacramento:

...THE SACRAMENTO EXEC. AIRPORT CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR JULY 22 2006...

WEATHER ITEM OBSERVED TIME RECORD YEAR NORMAL DEPARTURE LAST VALUE (LST) VALUE VALUE FROM YEAR
NORMAL
..................................................................
TEMPERATURE (F)
TODAY
MAXIMUM 110R 359 PM 103 2003 93 17 93
1988
MINIMUM 76 535 AM 49 1987 59 17 58
AVERAGE 93 76 17 76

..................................................................

SACRAMENTO CITY CLIMATE DATA FOR SATURDAY JULY 22 2006

HIGH... 109 RECORD HIGH 109 IN 2006* NORMAL HIGH 95
LOW.... 79 RECORD LOW 50 IN 1918 NORMAL LOW 61


* NEW RECORD FOR THIS DATE 109 DEGREES: OLD RECORD 105/2003 AND
OTHER EARLIER YEARS.

..................................................................

...HIGHEST MINIMUM TEMPERATURE RECORDS SET FRIDAY IN SACRAMENTO AND RED BLUFF...

THE LOW TEMPERATURES FOR FRIDAY...JULY THE 21ST SET RECORDS AT THE SACRAMENTO EXECUTIVE AIRPORT...SACRAMENTO CITY AND AT RED BLUFF.

IN RED BLUFF...THE LOW TEMPERATURE WAS 80 DEGREES WHICH BROKE THE OLD RECORD FOR HIGHEST MINIMUM TEMPERATURE OF 75 IN 2003.

AT THE SACRAMENTO EXECUTIVE AIRPORT...THE LOW TEMPERATURE YESTERDAY WAS 73 DEGREES BREAKING THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 71 IN 2003.

THE SACRAMENTO CITY LOW TEMPERATURE WAS A VERY MILD 77 DEGREES WHICH BROKE THE OLD RECORD OF 74 SET IN 2003.

Lots To Do This Weekend

'Pump Boys and Dinettes' at the Studio Theater.

'Seven Brides For Seven Brothers' at RSP

'Falsettos' at DMTC

Auditions for 'West Side Story', also at DMTC.

Transient Global Amnesia

Apparently my brother-in-law suffered this for part of the day. He's been working for weeks on photo albums for his parents, and he just presented them as a gift. Tonight, according to my sister, he's baffled why there's so much photo debris on the work bench.

I pray this TGA doesn't return.

I know I have memory issues. Remembering names, whether of people and things, is a problem. That's one reason I keep a blog: as a memory crutch. If I write down a name, I'll have a better chance of recalling it. But I've never dropped a whole day, or forgotten entire projects.....

Dancing Through The Decades - 50's

Last Saturday, DMTC hosted another one of our fundraisers, modeled after the theme of decades. We were after the fifties this time.

A good time! Since no one was performing, per se, everyone had a chance to relax. I was impressed with new patron Leanne, who carefully crafted a poodle skirt. She recommends Balkan dancing at the UCD I-House on Sunday evenings, as well as Israeli folk dancing on Thursdays, and both of those sound attractive. I'll check them out as soon as feasible. I danced with several others too - Sharon Nielsen, etc.

As the evening wore on, people started doing more karaoke. I did 'Proud Mary' with Dian Hoel (don't ask why I was shaking my nalgas at the audience, or why Dian made to slap them).

A good time for all!

Getting To Yes - "Annabelle", At Thistledew Dessert Theater

On Friday, several of the DMTC folks went to Thistledew Dessert Theater to see "Annabelle," starring recent DMTC standouts, Brennan Cull and Buffee Gillihan. Thistledew is a marvellous little place, in the basement of the Victorian at 19th and P Street. Several other theater folks were there too - Chelsea Beatty and Jerry Lee, for example.

"Annabelle" was the third show of this summer's Local Playwright's Festival, and it was written by James Moran. After this preliminary outing, and after changes in set and lighting, among other things, the show will be presented to the larger theater community, either at Thistledew, or maybe at a place like the Delta King, later in the year.

The show is basically a reminiscence of a romance, and each of the two characters tells their own view of the romance. It's full of wry observations and love songs, but because of it's backward-looking nature, it requires attention: it's not for those with ADD, or Game Boy addictions. It's more for the love-struck!

To keep the play moving forward, the playwright uses the device of an inexperienced, comic theatrical player (Brennan) to Buffee's experienced straight-man, exploring the various meanings of the word 'yes.' It's all quite fun.

Both Brennan and Buffee are wonderful singers, and they sing their songs well. On several songs, Buffee sings in a pop style that reminded me a bit of Mariah Carey. Brennan has a wonderful song just before intermission (if my memory wasn't a sieve, I could remember the title). In comments afterwards, several people mentioned that many of the love ballads were quite similar in nature - 'silly love songs,' of the sort that Paul McCartney rose so quickly in defense of. This is true, but somehow, I couldn't help but think how out-of-place something like a march would be.

Make a point to see "Annabelle" when it is staged again!

More Stupid Light Posting

Work, work, go away, come again another day.... I discovered a big error in some of the stuff I do at work. Just took ten months to discover it. Oh joy!

I was looking for my digital camera. Three weeks passed, and I was still looking for it. Turned out it was where I always put it, for charging. Three weeks passed by, and I didn't look at the west wall of my office, where I keep the camera for charging. And the west wall is covered with pretty art work too. That's just pathetic....

Life On The Ranch

E.: Get outta here!
A.: I'm trying to finish up as quickly as possible.
E.: Stupid!
A.: If you don't stop throwing water bottles, I'm calling the law!
E.: Alien! Ugly!
A.: Stay back!
E.: Stupid! Evil!

New Mexico Literary Travelogue

Here is a fun article regarding new, and fairly new, writing regarding New Mexico:

New Mexico is a world of almost blinding clarity and color. The vistas are vast. The hot peppers are eye-watering when fresh and bright blood-red if left to dry. Summer sunsets nearly make you want to weep.

...Yet it's the spooky human history pulsing just beneath the surface that makes New Mexico such a fascinating place; any real reckoning with the literature of the state has to involve a reckoning with genocide and apocalypse.

... No single book renders that moment better than Cormac McCarthy's 1985 novel "Blood Meridian." A tale of an amoral group of bounty hunters roaming the borderlands in the late 1840s, "Blood Meridian" is perhaps the most unsparing treatment of genocide and moral depravity ever written. And the most shocking thing about it is that it was based on real events. In a high, biblical language that owes much to Faulkner and Melville, McCarthy chronicles the exploits of a gang of scalp hunters, modeled on the infamous Glanton Gang, who killed the region's natives without remorse. Eventually, enthralled by blood lust, the bounty hunters turn on the very citizens who'd hired them in the first place. The killing only ends when the group itself is mostly extinguished -- in the end all of them but the judge, a giant, hairless albino and multilingual philosopher, a serial rapist and murderer of children, and a figure of such demonic vitality that he can only be compared, as many have pointed out, to the great Shakespearean villains.

...It should be noted that all of these books deal with a geography much larger than that encompassed by what is now called New Mexico, and when they do deal with New Mexico it's mostly with the part I live in and know best, which is the southern third of the state. There's a wonderful saying we like down here: It ain't new and it ain't Mexico.

I never knew any albinos when I lived in New Mexico (but a friend says he knew a whole family in the southeastern part of the state), and I never knew any hairless folks either. Probably got swallowed up in the vastness....

Erik Kleven, RIP

James informed me today that Erik Kleven had been killed, in a head-on collision on Highway 16, near Rancho Murietta. (It seems quite the year for head on collisions: first John Hancock and Juan Ramos, and now Erik). Erik played in numerous community theater shows over the years, particularly with RSP.

Strangely, I don't believe I knew Erik, even though he lived on Sloat Way, which runs right next to my house: for all I know, we may have been next-door neighbors. In any event, Erik is an important part of the musical theater community, and he will be greatly missed, not only by those who knew him, but by those many more who knew him only by his music.

Satire - Cultural Context Matters

Here is a funny, even a heartwarming story, about how a German-born antiabortion activist picked up a proabortion story from The Onion, didn't realize it was satire, published a blog post attacking the story, was viciously mocked in turn, yet somehow didn't lose his cool, tried to find the humor, and used the whole incident to try and further his mission.

The fellow explains:

The funniest thing about the whole ordeal, said Pete, is that "I come from Germany -- a German economy, a German culture, German friends. And Germans have no humor." When he first came to the States, he said, he worked at Wells Fargo, where he befriended "a bunch of good old boys" who used to prank him. "They'd tease me to the point where I'd say, 'Really?' and they'd say, 'No, you idiot! When are you going to get it?' So I've been struggling with this kind of thing for a long time."

The article explains:

The Onion is a satirical newspaper founded in 1988 by University of Wisconsin students and is these days published weekly from New York. The piece that inspired Pete's July 6 extended smack-down was a 1999 Op-Ed by fictional columnist "Caroline Weber." Pete did not realize that the Onion traffics in satire, and that the piece was a send-up of the notion that pro-choice activists are actually "pro-abortion." Weber's outrageous claims that she "seriously cannot wait for all the hemorrhaging and the uterine contractions" and that "this abortion is going to be so amazing" did not tip off Pete. In an utterly unironic retort, he cited lines like, "It wasn't until now that I was lucky enough to be pregnant with a child I had no means to support," and "I just know it's going to be the best non-anesthetized invasive uterine surgery ever!" to illustrate his disgust with the author.

Sorry About The Light Posting

It's been hella busy at work, and they lack that critical element: a sense of humor about blown deadlines.

Ozone Alert in Las Vegas

Deriving from that big Southern California wildfire. Talk about long-range transport!

Hurricane Bud

In the eastern Pacific, off the southwest coast of Mexico, with a second storm to follow in a few days. No major threat. All is quiet in the Atlantic, but some signs of storminess deriving from Venezuela in a week.

Updrafts, Downdrafts

Cool mammatus cloud photos!

No Need To Exaggerate

This is just silly. People can breathe really atrocious air with no long-lasting ill effect. This isn't lethal air pollution, it's more like an average weekend at my house:

Two women in Marion County, Fla., were arrested after a 5-year-old boy was found living with 14 dogs, four cats, two ferrets and three large turtles in a home that had air pollution at "lethal levels," according to investigators.

Deputies discovered the sick animals in the home because the stench was so bad neighbors had called to complain, said Marion County Sheriff's Deputy Paul Youmans said.

Investigators said when they entered a home located on Southwest Second Court in the Turning Point Estates, it was difficult to distinguish dog feces from the cockroach and rodent droppings on the floor.

Remembering Dark Days, Now Happily Past

Jul 12 1979

It is "Disco Demolition Night" at Chicago's Comiskey Park, where baseball tickets cost only $.98 if the purchaser brings along a disco record for the bonfire. During the second game of the doubleheader, thousands of vinyl LPs fly onto the field, generating enough chaos that the White Sox are forced to forfeit.

The Tropicana Hotel's New Non-Smoking Message

As part of its weird and grotesque and fascinating 'Bodies' exhibition (just opened at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas) is an appeal (strange for a casino) to stop smoking:

Also on the walls were anatomical facts such as: "On average, a pack of cigarettes takes 2 hours and 20 minutes off your life. We'd like you to be around longer. Leave your cigarettes here and stop smoking now!"

Next to the inevitable display of a healthy lung next to a smoker's lung is a large plastic container where people can make the decision to quit smoking right then and there. (This seems like such an odd message to be placed in a casino that employs hundreds of workers who must work in secondhand smoke....)

In 1988, at the University of Arizona, I got a chance to see tissue samples from smokers' and non-smokers' lungs, and I was startled to find out how similar they both were. There is a process called 'pleural drift,' where deposited particles are continually removed by macrophages (cells that swallow and digest foreign objects, including bacteria and dust) and transported to the pleural lining on the outer surface of the lung. So, the outside of smokers' lungs - pretty danged dirty, but the inside - ta da! - pristine! Dr. Sobonya said that if the particle clearance rate diminished below about 99%, lung disease and death would soon follow.

Let's hear it for the macrophages!

There was other weird lung stuff too - the body likes to store hemoglobin there, for some inscrutable lung reason.

Even doctors don't really understand the human body all that well......

Strange Hurricane Season So Far

Except for Alberto (which blew up out of the Caribbean, not the open ocean to the east), the Atlantic Ocean has been a remarkably placid place this summer. A flat, calm, tepid little pond. And it's supposed to be a bad year too.

Meanwhile, so far, the western Pacific is a nightmare. A typhoon is likely to clip Taiwan by the weekend, just one of an assembly-line of storms hitting Oriental shores.

This pattern is unlikely to last, but it's interesting to see!

"Oklahoma!" - Final Weekend

Finally now, Sooner territory can join the Union!

Bethany and Claire apparently saw a midnight preview of "Pirates of the Caribbean II" in the wee hours of Friday morning, and so when they arrived at the theater Friday night, they came decked out in the cutest pirate gear. They waved plastic scabbards at everyone and said 'Aaarrggghhhh!" a lot.

On Friday, I had trouble mounting Ryan Adame's back for the mini-pyramid in 'Kansas City' (I swear, his back seemed lubricated with butter, or Crisco or something). It's fun to be spread-eagled by surprise for the audience's examination and entertainment. Ryan's been complaining about a back ache during the last half of the run - are my 180 lbs. to blame?????

On Friday, the men's ensemble nearly missed its entrance for 'It's a Scandal, It's A Outrage.' I felt superior on Saturday night, and chastised the men's ensemble with my superior punctuality, but, sadly, joined the almost-missers on Sunday afternoon, when we were nearly all late for the entrance.

Georgette Robin came to the show on Friday night and Monica Parisi came on Saturday night.

There was weird music stuff Saturday night - transposed notes at the start of 'Kansas City,' problems with 'Oklahoma,' etc. I blame gremlins for Bushy Head and leprauchans from Missouri.

On Saturday, in the 'Farmer and the Cowman' dance lift, Chelsea Beatty and I miscommunicated. Her leg buckled early and it was nearly a dead-weight lift for me. It could have been worse, but we recovered OK.

On Saturday night, Jaimie Tvrdik crushed the blood capsule as he normally did every night (playing Jud accidentally stabbing himself), but the bloody mess seemed unusually coherent as it exitted the corner of his mouth and went splat! onto the stage. As we lifted him Jaimie, the bloody strand elongated and broke under the tension, like chewing gum, forcing Steve to hastily leave the stage as he burst into barely-concealed laughter. On Sunday, we nearly dropped Jud as we carried him offstage (the lift was nearly beyond my left forearm strength - I was the only one supporting his spine and we began moving him before my arm was in position). Jaimie giggled a lot through the stabbing scene aftermath, all weekend long.

MikeMac chuckled inadvertently in 'Oklahoma,' in the 'pasture for your cattle' line, when he glommed a pine-sap covered palm onto Steve's shoulder. Pine sap and fake blood are both funny substances - not quite liquid, not entirely elastic!

After strike, at Andy Hyun's invitation, some of us went to Woodland for Ludy's Barbeque. Saw Jason Hammond and Deborah Douglass there too ('Godspell' at Garbeau's just closed, and they were apparently returning items to the adjacent Woodland Opera House). Discovered that Tomas Casillas used to do a lot of soccer. Interesting!

Nepotism?

Peas in a Polish pod:

President Lech Kaczynski appointed his identical twin brother Jaroslaw as the new prime minister, the presidential Web site said. Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and his government formally resigned earlier in the day, paving the way for Jaroslaw Kaczynski to form a new government.

...Though the Kaczynski brothers have the same round faces and short, stout builds, many Poles have learned to distinguish them, thanks to the fact that Lech has two moles on his face, and wears a wedding ring. Jaroslaw is unmarried, and has no moles.

Paris Hilton Performs At Tao

What she sings, I can't quite make out - is this lip-synching, karaoke, or is it just a bad recording in a deafening environment? Give me William Shatner's 'Rocketman,' any day.

Georgia O'Chipotle Dip Mix

See, E-Mail spam does have some use! Learn about unsuspected weird 'Arty' food (I wonder what gourmand and art-sensitive computer programmer James Bucanek would say?)

Fever

Fever! In the morning,
And fever all through the night

Everybody's got the fever
That is something you all know
Fever isn't such a new thing
Fever started long ago

James McElroy has written an interesting essay, especially the part about Earth's 'fever!'

My main advising professor at the University of Arizona was George Dawson, a fellow Englishman and friend to independent scientist James Lovelock. I remember when Lynn Margulis, one of Lovelock's colleagues, came to speak to us students at U of A.

Lovelock built very sensitive gas chromatographs. I especially liked the idea that if you had to obtain the very best gas chromatographs in the world, the very, very latest and most sensitive technology available anywhere, even if you were NASA or the CIA or MI5, you had to hunt Lovelock down in his little cottage in the remote English countryside, where he built these gizmos. The Gaia hypothesis is very much a valid scientific concept, which is one reason why the New Agers found it so attractive - it has a ring of truth to it, and is immensely appealing at all levels.

Regarding cockroaches (having done many experiments in southern Arizona, where they are as common as - cockroaches) I've discovered they will drown in a mild soap solution. Nevertheless, cockroaches resist being drawn into mild soap solutions, even when tempted with food, which is why these crafty devils will probably outlive us.

Here is James' essay:
---------------------------------
Marc,

I appreciate your review of "An Inconvenient Truth". I have not yet seen it but have heard much about it. Your analysis of the reasons for the reaction to global warming are well thought out and valid. Some who should know better still talk about evolution of the species, but species evolve as the result of individual decisions about where to live, how to acquire food, who to procreate with, and how to respond to intra-species competition and externally applied stressors. Even if we allow for the evolution of a cooperative strategy for survival, the cooperation of each group member rarely extends beyond the 100 or so other individuals that the typical individual can recognize as "my group". The prognosis for any cooperative effort to halt or slow global warming is not good, given the vast variation in economic status and political distrust of individuals all over the world.

There has never been much justification for the widely held view that homo sapiens is the pinacle of evolution and will inevitably continue to develop forever. I have never bought into the theory that evolution of human intelligence is a "good thing". It basically allows members of the species to sidestep evolved instinct and develop cultural evolution in parallel to biological evolution. This allows some individuals to analyse systems and to develop responses outside of past actions. Thus, better methods of hunting, agriculture, physical science, education, etc. lead to ever larger populations in response to overcrowding. In the bad old days overcrowing resulted in fewer survivors, forcing a return to a stable population level. In the last 100,000 or so years (a mere blink of an eye in the history of the Earth) we have developed an unstable forcing function that is driving the species toward an inevitable collapse. The effect on the species has been the development of autocratic political systems, very unequal economic systems, war, pestilence, and exponential deterioration of the environment. In a post-human world of mulicellular organisms, my money is on the cockroach. That is a species that is probably the epitome of biological evolution. It can take anything you can throw at it (with the possible exception of a well aimed shoe) and evolves fast enough to respond to changing environmental conditions.

As an atmospheric scientist, I assume you are familiar with the Gaia Hypothesis formulated by James Lovelock back in the '60s and published in the late '70s. Unfortunately it was glommed onto by many New Age proponents and has been given a bad reputation. I hold no brief that the Earth is some super-organism. In it's original form it was simply the recognition that in a closed system the sum total of the effects of biological evolution can affect the environment and apply a feedback to the direction of evolution. Eliminate the New Age garbage and think of the Earth as an (almost) closed system, and some interesting thought processes come bubbling up to the surface.

In an aside, Lovelock developed the hypothesis in response to a task assigned by NASA to develop methods to detect life on Mars by various probes and/or visits to the Mars surface. Lovelock was intelligent enough to realize that going all the way there, picking up a single (or very small number of) samples, then bringing them back for analyisis was not a good approach. Instead he suggested carefully analysing the Martian atmosphere by telescopic and low orbital probes to look for the by-products of a biological existance. This was not what NASA wanted to hear and he was quickly marginalized and berated as a pseudo-scientist. A scientist working for the Government ignores politics at his peril.

Think for the moment about the human body. Aside from the huge number of body cells that are the result of development from the original genome, there are an equivalent large number of bacteria, viruses, and single cell organisms inhabiting that universe. Some are essential to the function of the body, some are useful, some are benign fellow-travelers, and some are toxic organsims fully capable of making the body incapable of continuing life. Most of the time the bad ones are not numerous enough to outstrip the body's evolved defenses. Occasionally however, something will upset that equilibrium and the bad guys will start to muliply at a high rate and the body must seek to control the population. Please remember that the body does not think, "the Streptococci are getting uppity, I must nuke them back to the stone age". Instead, the presence of abnormal numbers of the errant biological organism is detected by the immune system, and a programmed (by evolution) response is initiated. Most of the time this is sufficient, but bacteria evolve also and sometimes they evade the defenses and a state of sepsis is achieved.

I find it very interesting that one of the regular defenses of the body in fighting off an infection is to raise body temperature, in some severe cases high enough to affect the bodys own cells adversely. Think now about the Earth as a closed system inhabited by numerous biological organisms, from the very same bacteria we have been considering, up(?) to homo sapiens. One of the organisms has begun to proliferate at an unstainable rate and producing effluent at rates that cannot be handled by the offsetting sinks that have evolved over time. One of many results is the concentration of heat trapping gasses in the atmosphere (obvious evidence of life, for any kibbitzing ET in the neighborhood). The organism is rapidly approaching a state of sepsis, and the Earth, acting as a closed system, is modifying the environment in a way to supress the organism. Thought provoking? Please remember that the Earth is not consciously acting to eliminate the threat, but is simply following the natural laws of Physics, as we all must, eventually.

There is another point here, we considered both the Earth and the human body as closed systems. Actually the human body is much less of a closed system than the Earth, thus the possiblilty of carrying infection from one body to another, and epidemics. If interstellar space travel ever actually occurs the possibility of interstellar epidemics becomes a likelihood. The question then becomes what side do we take? The side of the body hosting the infectious organism, or the side of the organism seeking a new host after destroying the old one? The Earth has huge restorative powers and once the infectious organism is gone it will most likely become even more lovely than before, just that no human will be there to destroy it. The cockroaches will no doubt sigh in relief. Actually, complete destruction of humanity is not neccessary, just a severe reduction in numbers, and perhaps a devolution of the human brain, much as whales lost their redundant legs upon returning to the sea.

The argument that the Earth is simply too massive and inert to be affected by a single species is not terribly convincing. The Earth's climate is a highly nonlinear system that can change abruptly over a geological instant. Human timescales are irrelavent. Non-linear control systems frequently have "trip-points" that can flip the system from one stable state to another very different stable state with little effort. Look at how many times and how quickly the Earth's magnetic field has inverted over geological time. The original inhabitants, bacteria and other archaic creatures, survived quite well in a reducing atmosphere, but still evolved into oxygen producing species, poisoning their own ancestors while preparing the way for more "efficient" oxygen cycle creatures. The point is, the Earth will survive, and perhaps prosper, but the inhabitants are more fragile.

Is this a pessimistic prediction of the future? Consider carefully. Think of a Earth with no Musical Theater, but also no Fox News and Reality TV. Nothing but green grass and blue sky, with flowering plants and fruitful trees, all organisms in balance with each other. Isn't that what we want? In the words of the imimitable Walt Kelly, "We have met the Enemy, and they are us!".

Jim McElroy

Singing Careers

It would be fun to have Lata Mangeshkar's career:

Having music by a famous composer like Rahman or the Kalyanji-Anandji duo, who were roughly his '70s equivalent, is as likely to make a movie a hit as having big stars, because of how much Indians love their movie music. Every movie has five or ten song-and-dance numbers scattered throughout its three hours, during which the stars lip-sync and dance, Busby Berkeley-style, to songs prerecorded by famous playback singers. The most well-known are Asha Bhosle, her sister Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar. Supposedly, Lata has sung in almost 20 languages for over 1,825 films, worked with 165 composers, and made 8,000 recordings overall, more than anyone else.

"You're Not Seeing The Big Picture Here, Miss Lane!"



In 1978, "Superman" with Christopher Reeve was released. At the time, I was attending the University of New Mexico, and immediately, coeds all around me were swooning and fainting. "He is SO handsome!, etc., etc., etc., etc." For months, the hero worship swelled like a wave. For me, the experience was like listening to nails on a chalkboard, without interruption, for months. I hated it. So, I was not looking forward to seeing this movie, with Brandon Routh as the 'Man of Steel,' but I knew my grim duty.

To my surprise, I thought this new movie, "Superman Returns," was great (maybe because I count fewer coeds among my compatriots these days). The visual effects, which cost a whopping $261 million (according to the Wall Street Journal in a recent front page article), were done with a real loving care for landscapes and seascapes. These digital masters really care about what the Earth looks like from space, from the air, and from every other place. They are geeks - real geeks, true geeks - who like geophysics, and how the Earth actually works. Thank God Time-Warner resisted the impulse to go cheap on the visuals! The only fake -looking scenes are the crystal land- and sea-scapes, but there was no choice here - they have no natural analogue. The physics is "Comic-Book Physics" of course, but they could have done SO MUCH WORSE!

The near-futuresque scenes were heightened by rational extrapolation to a second-generation Space Shuttle,whose design was anticipated by futuristic designs as long ago as 1960. Nothing science-fictiony there really: it's all easily-reachable with current technology.

Brandon Routh looks a bit 'plasticky,' in both the promotional stills, and in the movie itself. Is that a good thing? I think so: it serves to maintain the not-quite-human mystique of 'Superman.'

Kevin Spacey makes a superb Lex Luthor: selfish, businesslike, and hardly even THAT evil (until near the end). Kate Bosworth is a fine Lois Lane. I really liked seeing Broadway veteran Frank Langella (indeed, the only Broadway play I've ever seen was 'Dracula' in 1978, with Langella in the lead role) playing 'Daily Planet' Editor ('Great Caesar's Ghost!') Perry White. Parker Posey as Luthor's femme-fatale sidekick was a bit too cardboard for such a good actress (I blame the script here, however, not Posey).

The big question is, of course, whether Routh has what it takes to make coeds of this generation swoon. That's not my department, of course, and I really wish he wouldn't, but fear that he probably will do exactly the same as Reeve did 27 years ago. I just don't want to hear about it....

So, great movie! Go see it! It's much, much better, all around, than the 1978 Superman movie. Take it from someone who remembers, all too well, what that one was all about....

Don't Bite Your Nails, And Get Out Of The Rain

Bizarro article:

Physicians removed 119 nails - many of them rusty - from a woman's stomach months after she apparently swallowed them, a doctor said.

But that isn't the strangest thing about iron....iron rain may be falling in the atmospheres of brown dwarf stars:

The atmospheres contain primarily gases, including gaseous iron and silicate. At hotter temperatures—3,140 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Kelvin)—typical of younger brown dwarfs, the iron remains in its gaseous phase. Over time as the glowing body cools, the iron condenses to form iron-rich clouds and droplets of liquid-iron rain.

...And when it rains it pours: Not only did Burgasser and his team find these metallic clouds, but they also spotted evidence of violent storms. Thermodynamics would predict that as brown dwarfs release heat, they would dim—similar to a cooling ember. But the astronomers found that the older, and cooler, brown dwarfs shined brighter than the warmer, younger ones.

"These brown dwarfs are much brighter than they should be, and the only way for that to happen is for the clouds to disappear very suddenly so you're left with a very hot brown dwarf, which emits a lot of light, but doesn't have the same clouds," Burgasser said.

The most plausible explanation is an off-the-charts hurricane pummeling through the area and clearing the clouds. If the clouds were to clear naturally as the object cooled, that could take roughly 1 billion years, leaving a chilly brown dwarf, Burgasser told SPACE.com. He expects these clearings must be 100 times as quick, a "lightning-fast" 10 million years.

But what causes the cloudy disturbance? With cooling, a brown dwarf's cloud layer sinks closer to its surface.

"As the clouds form deeper in the atmosphere they are more sensitive to the winds and convective motions in the atmosphere," said Mark Marley, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center.

"This dynamics or 'weather' probably leads to the destruction of the clouds," Marley said by email, adding that he and others are working on promising ideas to explain the cloud-clearing mechanism.

Australian Women In IT Aren't Geeks

No, really, they aren't, (but the clunky language makes me wonder):

IT Goddess Calendar - Fundamentally the key reason for producing this calendar is to raise awareness of females in IT via capturing media attention and therefore increased stories, print and digital media reaching target audiences we have failed to reach via traditional means. We plan to do this by smashing through the geek perception by displaying a wide variety (jobs, age, nationality, roles and body shapes) of real women in IT fields, and using the style of calendar as a mechanism to instantly capture interest and attention (and sales).

Senator Ted Stevens (R - Alaska) On The Internet

Would someone please get this guy some staff?:

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially. […]

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes.

"Heart and Music Make A Song" - The Company Preview Show for "Artistic Differences"

Left: Jerry Lee as Charles Giteau (assassin of President James A. Garfield, 1881), from Stephen Sondheim's 'Ballad of Guiteau,' from "Assassins."


(Pictures taken with Steve's new digital camera - I've misplaced my own)

Sunday evening, the new musical theater group, "Artistic Differences," presented a preview concert at DMTC's Hoblit Performing Arts Center, in Davis, to an audience of about eighty people, featuring many of the area's best perfomers (both onstage and in the audience). Afterwards, there was much networking in the lobby of the theater,

Later this month, and in early August, "Artistic Differences" will present performances of William Finn and James Lapine's musical, "Falsettos," at DMTC.

Artistic Differences" intends to present contemporary musical theater and, as yet, doesn't have a permanent home. The group is a collaborative effort of some of the best singers in the local musical theater community, and as such, may not necessarily require a permanent home, but rather a host, such as DMTC now serves.

On June 28th, DMTC had a board meeting, where we discussed "Falsettos," after the customary griping about the burdens of operating, with volunteers, a new 'brick-and-mortar' theater that also serves as the host for several smaller theatrical ventures, including "Artistic Differences."

Steve tried to keep the board meeting on-message, but things quickly derailed. Treating us to a fill-in-the-blank, morale-boosting opening, Steve ceremoniously stated, "For us sitting at this table, musical theater is a ????" "A hobby!!!!," I happily babbled. Repeatedly smacking his forehead with the palm of his hand as he sagged forward with exasperation, Steve muttered, "A business! A business!"

For me, a hobby, for Steve, a business, but for the folks in "Artistic Differences," musical theater is more of a calling. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get that good!

The Board wondered about the folks in "Artistic Differences." "Do you think they might be interested in cleaning toilets?," someone wondered. This was a silly question, of course: I know these folks, some of them well, and I'm sure they don't have the slightest interest in cleaning toilets (if only, because they are long-time veterans of the local musical theater community, they've cleaned more than their share of toilets in the past).

Nevertheless, the conversation highlighted the basic conundrum DMTC now finds itself in. We would like a cleaning service, to ease our burdens, but require income from staging or hosting shows, such as those provided by "Artistic Differences," to pay for the services. Most theater companies need artistic differences like a hole in the head, but we need as many as we can get.

Waiting in the lobby, I talked with several people. First I talked with Dianne and Meeka Craig, who were both wondering when, or if, DMTC would extend the runs of certain popular shows, such as "Oklahoma!" That is one of extending runs was becoming increasingly theoretical in nature, not only because facility-use conflicts with other theatrical events were becoming increasingly common as the calendar filled up, but also because of the difficulty of getting every single one of the players to commit to time beyond what they had already anticipated.

I also talked with James Chavez-Glica, and we reminisced together about childhood in northern California, until I remembered I was reminiscing about Aaron Clemens childhood (who grew up with James) and not my own childhood, in New Mexico.

I also talked with Kathy and Tony Davi, who conveyed news of their talented daughters. Melody recently had sinus surgery, to deal with persistent infections, and we wondered how that surgical work might affect/improve her singing. Then Kathy and Tony announced that the San Francisco premiere of the revival of "A Chorus Line," starring Mara Davi as Maggie, would be at the Curran Theater on July 23rd:

Revivals, Hamlisch said, have never held much interest for him. "Once you've seen Zero Mostel in 'Fiddler,' do you really want to see someone else?" But "Chorus Line," in multiple ways, is a special case. Hamlisch will fine- tune the orchestrations, using a synthesizer not available in 1975, for example, but not change a note. One thing he hopes to do this time around is erase the memory of "the very bad movie of this show" directed by Richard Attenborough in 1985.

This is a major, major event we should all watch out for!

The "Artistic Differences" concert was great. Lots of fine performances by many of Sacramento's best! Here are some pictures from the concert itself. Because of the poor lighting, many pictures didn't come out very well: these are some of the best:

Pictures from 'Gun Song,' from "Assassins":


Michael R.J. Campbell, and Kristen Wagner.


Kristen Wagner, Michael R.J. Campbell, Ken Figeroid, and Jerry Lee.


Kevin Caravalho and Jerry Lee.


Kristen Wagner, Michael R.J. Campbell, Kevin Caravalho, Jerry Lee, and Ken Figeroid.


Pictures from 'Miracle of Judaism/Baseball Game,' from "Falsettos":


Joey Harris.


Kristen Wagner, Jessica Stein, Craig Howard, Margaret Hollinbeck, and Kevin Caravalho.


Picture from 'Heart and Music,' from "A New Brain":


Kevin Caravalho, Joey Harris, Kristen Wagner, Jerry Lee, Craig Howard, Michael R.J. Campbell, Margaret Hollinbeck, Melissa Rae Frago, and Ken Figeroid.

Heart and music
Heart and music get along (you gotta have heart and music)

You gotta have heart and music
You gotta have heart and music
Heart and music make a song