Tax Farming Is Back!

(Via Obsidian Wings) One of the very, very worst ideas of pre-revolutionary France is returning with a vengeance, courtesy of the Bush Administration - Tax Farming!:

Within two weeks, the I.R.S. will turn over data on 12,500 taxpayers — each of whom owes $25,000 or less in back taxes — to three collection agencies. Larger debtors will continue to be pursued by I.R.S. officers.

The move, an initiative of the Bush administration, represents the first step in a broader plan to outsource the collection of smaller tax debts to private companies over time. Although I.R.S. officials acknowledge that this will be much more expensive than doing it internally, they say that Congress has forced their hand by refusing to let them hire more revenue officers, who could pull in a lot of easy-to-collect money.

Of course, what it really means is rampant new corruption regarding taxes, as corrupt tax farmers spread out across the land, and eventually we're certain to have tax rebellions. Republicans like to pretend they'd favor such a thing, but their precious military-industrial complex, as well as predictable marketplaces, are totally-dependent on our current, sheeplike, voluntary adherence to tax laws. If that goes, like it did in 18th-Century France, so does the Iraq War, our ability to maintain an Air Force, and just about any certainty in our formerly-comfortable lives!

Madonna Vs. Physics

Who will win? Celebrity vs. the nuclear 'strong force'?:

MADONNA and her husband, Guy Ritchie, have been lobbying the British Government and nuclear industry over a magic cleaning solution.

The couple, both followers of the Jewish spiritual movement Kabbalah, approached Downing Street, Whitehall and British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) promoting a scheme to clean up radioactive waste using a "mystical" liquid tested in a Russian lake.

"It was like a crank call ... the scientific mechanisms and principles were just bollocks, basically," one official said.

For The Birds

OK, I'm just about there. I like Swan Lake, I like Tchaikovsky, and I even like Les Trockaderos. I just wish I had seen Billy Elliot, though, instead of just listened to the soundtrack:

The swans who appeared at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney yesterday are from an imaginative and widely admired British production of Swan Lake, soon to tour here. Choreographer Matthew Bourne's retelling of the famous ballet substitutes athletic male dancers in feathery shorts for the usual ballerinas in tutus.

Bourne was inspired by the swans in London's Hyde Park and their masculine strength and aggression. "Matthew has found this way of turning the classics upside-down and making an intelligent work with it," said director Vicky Evans, who will lead rehearsals for the ballet's Australian tour in February.

...Bourne's Swan Lake was first staged in London in 1995 and has had a season on Broadway, where it won three Tony Awards. It was also featured in the film Billy Elliot, about a boy who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. Evans said Swan Lake captured the grace and strength of the birds: "They are aggressive, beautiful and athletic, and the men can really portray that."

Chutzpah

As we all know, nothing upsets the concerned folks at the Wall Street Journal so much as lack of unity among the Democrats, so they make a helpful suggestion:

It looks as though Lieberman is in the race to stay--but there is an answer to the Democrats' quandary. For the good of the party, Lamont could throw his support to Lieberman. This would leave the incumbent running essentially unopposed, neutralizing the "flying wedge" and allowing the Democrats to concentrate on beating Republicans.

A Dream

Last night was the first time I recall a specific dream that had Adam in it.

I dreamt that Adam was construction boss on a massive reworking of my back yard. There were many workers, mostly from the cast of last year's YPT show, "Fiddler on the Roof, Jr." There were so many discarded take-out pizza boxes scattered around the back yard, ordered by all the various young, bearded-but-hungry Hasidim, that the Mayor of Davis (who looked like one of the YPT mothers) personally chastised us.

There was also a politically-correct modern dance troupe called the 'Dancing Divas of Davis' whirling away on-site. For some reason, they favored Starbucks, and there was a lot of discarded Starbucks paper cups as well. In fact, I think they called themselves 'Triple-D Cup.'

And all the digging in the back yard unearthed the ancient civilization of 'Folsom', and we listened raptly as various archaeologists presented their academic findings in Power Point presentations.

There was so much cultural activity underway, very little, if any, actual construction got done.

Wildfire Damage In The Desert

The recent desert wildfires in Southern California hit vegetation that rarely burns. Recovery may be a long, long time in coming:

More than 90% of the surrounding Pipes Canyon Preserve was consumed in last month's Sawtooth blaze. It was one of half a dozen fast-moving fires this summer that burned 65,000 acres of the Mojave Desert, fueling debate over whether the desert is burning more frequently and explosively as a result of invasive weeds, smog, development and climate change.

"It's heartbreaking to see," said Sall, a biologist who manages the preserve and whose grandmother homesteaded the land a century ago. "We'll never see those piñon or juniper trees again in our lifetimes, nor will our children, nor will their grandchildren. It's a bitter pill…. This land isn't meant to burn."

..."Right now we're losing very large pieces of landscape," said Todd Esque, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Henderson, Nev., who studies the cause and effect of fires in the desert. "It's happening in Joshua Tree National Park, it's happening in Mojave National Preserve … up in southwestern Utah … and in Arizona. We lost 750,000 acres of desert to fire in Nevada alone last summer."

This summer, five blazes have seared parts of Joshua Tree, where a fire only every few years was the norm for the last 50 years. Esque and other researchers say that unlike forests and chaparral, the sparsely vegetated desert is not meant to burn frequently. "The public has come to understand that fire is a necessary part of the life of forests," Esque said. "That is not the case with deserts. We have a major problem going on."

A vocal minority disagrees, contending there is no clear-cut evidence of far-reaching change. They blame this year's fires on bumper crops of wildflowers nourished by heavy spring rains two years ago. According to the theory, dried remnants of the prolific blooms fueled a 50,000-acre fire in the Mojave National Preserve last summer and in this year's conflagrations.

"The winter of 2004-05 was the wettest ever in 100 years of recorded data in the desert. We had a phenomenal crop of annual native wildflowers, and it was dry the next year and it stayed there," said Richard Minnich, a professor of Earth sciences at UC Riverside. "It's flash fuel of 1 to 2 tons per acre. What's really scary is, there's still a lot of it out there."

Scientists do agree that it will take centuries, if not millenniums, for the desert to recover.

...At the scene of a 1995 fire, not a single juniper or piñon pine seedling has come up after 11 years. But healthy, 3-foot "pups" have sprouted from the roots of once seemingly dead Joshua trees. The pups may or may not survive, scientists say, because in drought years they may be gnawed by thirsty rodents and ground squirrels. Meanwhile, native apricot mallow, bright-green cheesebush and golden California marigold are blooming even in August.

...Webb is writing a paper with other researchers that looks at three post-fire scenarios for the Mojave, all plausible, all different. Rather than focusing on Joshua trees or pines, they studied ancient black brush, a gray-brown shrub that has evolved to withstand desert temperatures and scarce rain.

A single bush can survive thousands of years. But it is highly flammable, proof to Webb that fire is not natural in the desert. One scenario does show nonnatives replacing black brush and causing more frequent fires. But he said data gathered so far made that scenario "only slightly more likely" than two others in which black brush grows back. "Some of those Joshua trees may sprout too," Wall said, referring to the Pipes Canyon Preserve. "They're an amazing tree."

But others say such a destructive fire in a preserve like Pipes Canyon did lasting harm. ...Scott said there were probably smaller pockets of plants and animals that evolved over millenniums in nooks in the preserve, only to be wiped out by this summer's catastrophic fire.

..."What will be the one thing that does in the desert as we know it? It's not one thing. It's the onslaught of all these things," Esque said. He said there was little that could be done to turn back the clock. Many nonnative weeds are too far spread to be dug out, while native seeds are not widely available and can cost millions of dollars to gather and plant.

"I Am Youth, Joy, Freedom!"

A "Peter Pan" weekend at DMTC. (I took some more photos, with Steve's camera, which I hope to post).

No Alberto II

Fickle Mother Nature changed her mind. No storm! Apologies for the false alarm.

Several factors led me to call a false alarm. First, the Caribbean and Tropical Atlantic are much more active than they were just two weeks ago. It seemed likely that a storm would start sometime soon. Second, both the GFS and NGP numerical models gave very strong signals that a storm was imminent. That kind of strong signal is usually valid. Third, the storm that was indicated was like Alberto, a storm that caught me and others by surprise in early June as it quickly blew up out of the Caribbean. Going into a weekend, it would be remiss not to at least raise a warning flag about a fast-developing storm.

The NGP model still indicates a storm, but very much weaker; a line of thunderstorms moving across the Yucatan, and eventually ending up in Texas.

Well, live and learn! The eerie silence of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season continues!

DMTC Summer Workshop - "Peter Pan" - Friday Night's Cast

(Left) Peter Pan (Emily Jo Seminoff)




Tiger Lily (Lauren Hamilton) and Company. Uggawugga Meatball!





Never Never Land. Liza (Meg King) and the various animals.

Alberto II?

Weather forecasts are showing the possibility of a tropical storm blowing up quite rapidly out of the Caribbean on Monday, and passing just west of Tampa on Wednesday, on a path nearly-identical to Tropical Storm Alberto in June, crossing the Florida coast north of Tampa, not far from Tallahassee, and moving inland over Georgia and South Carolina. Keep your eyes open!

Number One On The Polish Charts!

And soon to be number one here too, as well:

Paris, Hilton's leap into the recording industry, hits the streets today.

The first single, Stars Are Blind, entered the US Billboard Hot 100 at No.18, the fourth-highest debut on the chart, and reached No.1 on charts in Canada, Hungary and Poland.

..."In an odd way she is the best representation of masterful manipulation of the entertainment-industrial complex."

...Her reality television show with "celebutante" Nicole Richie (daughter of singer Lionel Richie), The Simple Life, was a runaway hit, and is entering its fourth season. She has appeared in low-budget horror films and made commercials for burgers wearing a skimpy bathing suit.

A Hilton-centred animated series is in the works, Paris the nightclub opened in two Florida cities recently, and she has talked of launching her own chain of boutique hotels, starting in Las Vegas.

The heiress-cum-singer has cowritten an autobiography with an entire chapter devoted to her own fashion mistakes, and published a diary entitled Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All to Me, a collection of blank pages studded with photos of Hilton. Fans can also purchase a "diary" from the perspective of her pet chihuahua, Tinkerbell, entitled My Life Tailing Paris Hilton.

The spotlight has yet to tire of Hilton. Whether it is an announcement of a year of celibacy, or the news that she has been bitten by her pet kinkajou, the camera flashes and celebrity press follow.

"Here we are in the middle of a war and global unrest, and every time another of these stories breaks, you just have to take your hat off to her," said Thompson. "Business schools should take her as a model and teach semesters devoted to her."

Thompson likens Hilton to the dusty outposts of the early American West, towns whose growth into real cities relied on big-talking boosters.

"She is a fascinating cultural experiment, a house of cards built on a very finite list of accomplishments," said Thompson.

Exactly When Is That Elly Season, And Whassup With John Hancock?

Juan Ramos E-Mailed regarding the cutoff dates of the Elly Awards:

Hi Marc,

I'm somewhat blog challenged and for whatever reason was unable to send a comment to Andrea St. Clair's post on this year's Elly nominations. You and Ray Fisher shared her sentiments, so I'm passing this message onto you to pass on to them as a comment:

"Do keep in mind that the Elly nominations and awards (like the Oscars) are for shows produced in the previous year i.e. 2005. Weren't "Sweeney Todd" and "Man of La Mancha" 2006 productions? If so, they will be considered for 2006 nominations to be announced accordingly in August of 2007. I know there is a cutoff date for consideration (May or June). Performances after that time are rolled over to the next year for consideration. Check with SARTA for specifics. "

Thank you Marc.

Juan Ramos

Hi Juan:

I wondered about this question, so I looked at the Elly Award judging form for 2006-2007, and they say:

Season

The Elly season begins July 1 and ends June 30.

Presumably this is their standard season, applicable to 2005-2006 as well.

Shows that straddle the line are treated in an irregular manner. For example, DMTC's "The King & I", which straddled the line in 2005, is nominated for awards this year. My understanding is that DMTC's "Oklahoma!", which straddles the line this year, was also eligible for nominations this year. Inconsistent!

Thus, both RSP's "Sweeney Todd" (Jan. '06) and WOH's "Man Of La Mancha" (Mar. '06) were eligible for nominations this year. And both Ray and Andrea are unhappy their shows didn't get any more nominations than they did (Costumes - Laurie Everly-Klassen; and Musical Direction - Dan Pool; for 'La Mancha,' and that's it). Alas!

Well, like Mel Brooks says, it's "good to be the King!"

Marc

(P.S.: Sorry I haven't been able to get over to visit John. It's just the normal busy-ness of the summer, but it's vital to get over there soon).

Juan replies:

Hi Marc,

Thank you for the thorough research. Go figure. By the way, John is now at home. The dining room area now houses his hospital bed, etc. He is healing well. His external hardware is scheduled to be removed in a couple of weeks, to be replaced by some sort of casts he is able to deal with. His arm fractures have healed and he is able to transfer himself from bed to wheelchair, etc. He is telecommunicating to his job which helps pass the time and confinement heebee jeebees. If you do have time to visit, give him a call.

Music In Casinos

The soundtracks are many, but the thoughts are few:

At least, though, John Lennon's "Imagine" isn't in there. But it's not because Taylor's sparing anyone's sensibilities.

"I don't see why we wouldn't play it," he says.

Well, but an anthem of peace and idealism and tolerance in a casino? Wouldn't it be a bit crass? And do you really want gamblers to "imagine no possessions"?

(It's easy, if you try.)

"Huh," Taylor says. "I've never thought of it that way."

Krispy Kreme Closes First West Coast Store

And not a arteriosclerotic moment too soon:

Whatever the reasons, James Glass, an analyst with CIBC World Markets in Boston, put it bluntly: "People just won't line up for doughnuts forever and ever."

The store that started the local craze gradually became unprofitable, with sales falling to about a third of their original level, one employee said.

Krispy Kreme was in some sense a victim of its own success. The quick proliferation of stores — seemingly opening by the dozen — made it harder for individual locations to get by. The La Habra store closed as part of a retrenchment in the last year that has left Great Circle with 17 Krispy Kremes, down from a peak of 31.

Manly Protection

Here is the B3ta Question Of The Week:

Have you ever done anything that made strangers think you were a pervert?

Here is my submission, from college days:

One evening, my neighbor started screaming. A Peeping Tom was observing her from the bushes in the alley outside her bedroom window. In a panic, she came over to my apartment for manly protection. I locked her in, she called the police, and I went out into the alley to locate and confront the pervert.

So, who was the only one in the alley when the police helicopter and the canine units arrived?

Step One Get Fit Jam

Some evenings are better than others. Last night was pretty good: I only got stepped on once, and I didn't flag until near the end. And looking around, all I could think was, 'am I the only one here who never was a cheerleader?'

Second Best

I've been wondering for some time why the U.S. doesn't just give up trying to police the large population centers of Iraq, and instead withdraw to the much-friendlier, more-easily-defensible precincts of northern Iraq, to Iraqi Kurdistan, where we have actual allies - people who would be happy to have us there, and have been trying to find ways to make us welcome there for some time. Apparently, a few conservatives are beginning to think along the same lines (David Frum at NRO).

Really, it's the only way out of the Iraqi trap sprung for us by George Bush and Company, short of a bloody, Saigon-embassy style of rout.

Upcoming Landmark

OK, so where's the progress? (a useful comparison with World War II, via Left Coaster):

Our war against Germany lasted 1,245 days, from Dec. 11, 1941, (when both nations declared war) until May 8, 1945.

Our war against Japan from Dec. 7, 1941, until Aug. 15, 1945, lasted somewhat longer--1,348 days.

So one cannot yet say that the war in Iraq has been longer than World War II. Nov. 25, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, will mark the 1,348th day of American involvement in the Iraqi conflict. It is not a date to celebrate.

Flooding In Hatch, N.M.

Makes one pause....How did that arroyo break its banks? And what about Hatch's famous chili? Maybe not this year?

Here's the Weather Channel video.

Safekeeping

Not a theft, mind you. Just making sure the money is safe:

AN Australian woman working as the chief purser on a luxury cruise ship has been charged in the United States with stealing $521,274 from the ship's safe and hiding it in her cabin.

Elisha Cuffe, 32, was arrested and escorted off the luxury liner Sapphire Princess in front of passengers after the ship docked at the Alaskan port city of Ketchikan last week.

...Alaskan state troopers allege Ms Cuffe, a 10-year veteran of the cruise line, hid the cash in a cardboard box at the end of her bed.

The ship's security personnel became suspicious during their voyage from Vancouver, Canada, to Whittier, Alaska, when money from the safe, which Ms Cuffe had access to, began disappearing, police said.

..."As part of the onboard investigation they asked to search her room and at that point they discovered the money in a cardboard box at the foot of her bed."

...Ms Cuffe, however, said she was not planning to flee with the cash, he said.

"She said she had taken the money because the ship's computer was showing less money than was actually on hand in the safe," he said.

"She said she didn't have any plans on removing the money from the ship."

Step One Showcase and Team Auditions

Step One Dance & Fitness is having a showcase at 2 p.m., Saturday August 19th at Sheldon High School Performing Arts Center (Hwy 99, Calvine Rd. exit east to Kingbridge, then left 2 blocks to 8333 Kingsbridge Dr.) for all summer classes. Tickets are $12.

There are Tap Team auditions (ages 7-16) at 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 20, at Step One. There are Jazz Team auditions (ages 7-16) at 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 27, at Step One. And lastly, there are Hip Hop Competition Team auditions at 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 26 (ages 6-11), and 3:30 p.m. (ages 12-17; age 17 still in high school), at Step One.

Children's Theater In Yolo County

A link to Bev Syke's photo shoot, done as part of a feature story in the Davis Enterprise (post date, August 3rd).

Send In The Plutons!

Kevin Drum is not impressed by the resolution of the debate concerning whether Pluto is a planet or not. The solution is to classify Pluto as the largest of a new class of planets called Plutons (fancy ice ball planets), and to upgrade other fancy iceballs, like Ceres and Xena, and make them planets too.

So, in a compromise worthy of the UN Security Council, a recently formed committee has proposed the creation of a new category of objects called "plutons." It's a floor wax and a dessert topping!

"[Richard] Binzel and other committee members stressed that categorizing Pluto as a pluton was in no way meant to downgrade its longtime status as the ninth planet.

'We might be demoting it from the list of eight classical planets, but we're promoting it by making it the head of its own special class,' said Owen Gingerich of Harvard University, who chaired the panel."

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds like something even a second grader wouldn't fall for? Even a dumb second grader? "No, you won't be going to regular third grade with the rest of your friends next year, Billy. You'll be going to second grade again. A special second grade!"

To me, it sounds like a great way to resolve this debate! Would that all debates were so easily resolved! Welcome the Plutons!

TNR's Just Bad

This time, defending Ann Coulter.... What a despicable bunch TNR has turned into over the years. Once proud liberals, now just lickspittles of the Bush Administration.

A Protest

Jackie Schultz at the R Street Theatre is planning a march to the Sacramento Bee at 3 p.m. on Friday, August 18th, to protest several interrelated issues concerning what sometimes feels like the tyrannical dominance of the Sacramento Bee over reviews and other information regarding Sacramento theater. One bad or middling SacBee review is sometimes enough to single-handedly torpedo a struggling community theater's finances and future outlook.

I certainly empathize with her protest, but feel that the effort is misdirected to some degree. Especially in the era of the Web Log, there are channels to answer back to particularly egregious reviews. As an example, in 2001, many DMTC aficionados answered back to a Davis Enterprise 'West Side Story' review with a letter-writing campaign. In that case, it appeared the reviewer had seriously misconstrued the purpose of the 'Romeo and Juliet'-derived story, and some response was called for. It is also important, however, not to curtail the reviewer's freedom to make judgements, whether fair or foul.

Another issue is the Sacramento Bee's general neglect of the community theater scene. The Sacramento Bee is not alone in this regard: despite their own hoopla, the Sacramento News and Review also neglects the local scene. In fact, if a newspaper is run for profit, it will almost be bound to neglect the local scene. The reasons are many. The Sacramento Bee is THE major newspaper for record, not only for Sacramento, but for all northern California. They are bound to first cover a wide variety of professional venues - Sacramento, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Reno, Clear Lake, etc., because these venues pay - a lot! - for advertising and other services. Unfortunately, community theater falls second. Community theaters like DMTC are often neglected even more, because they are outside the Sacramento city limits, but over the years, DMTC has been able to build up a loyal audience that will attend shows no matter how rabid a theater reviewer might get, thus giving DMTC some immunity. Would that all community theaters were so lucky!

I'm not sure everyone is aware just how rapidly the theater community has expanded in Sacramento in just the last ten years, nor how few reviewers the Bee has on its staff (fewer than ten years ago). Every year, when I attend the Elly Awards ceremony, I'm always dumbstruck by the vast number of people I've never heard of before. All actors are united on the proposition that the world needs to pay more attention to the groups to which they belong, but no daily newspaper could possibly keep up with every theater group in Sacramento short of perilous overstaffing. That's why I say, thank goodness for blogs!

It may be that there is a shakeout of the theater scene underway in Sacramento. Last year, when attending 'Nunsense' at Woodland Opera House, I overheard one couple talking about their plans to create a new community theater in the Natomas area, and all I could think was "NOOOO! There are many community theatres here already, and at some point, the audience pool won't be able to keep up!"

These sentiments aside, consider protesting anyway. Nothing like a squeaky wheel to get the grease. Maybe I'll go down and take some photos. But it has got to be a friendly protest, because Sacramento Bee is not our enemy in any regard - they are probably doing what they can within their means.

Here is the Call To Protest:

Dear theatre supporters, friends and associates,

The Studio Theatre is in trouble and our doors will be closed by the end of this month. A one-two punch delivered by the Sacramento Bee's theatre critic is going to shut us down.... I will not go quietly and I am asking all of you to help me. If you can march with us to the Sacramento Bee this Friday afternoon at 3pm, that would be great. If not, please send out the information below to your audiences. They can help support this grass-roots effort by email, letter or in person....

We will be meeting at The Studio Theatre, 1028 R Street this Friday, Aug 18th at 3pm and walk 10 blocks down Q Street to the corner of 21st and Q. Signs with support for local theatre (your company!!) and seeaplay.com are welcomed. Additional suggestions and ideas are also welcomed.

Let's seize this opportunity to make some noise!

We are asking the Bee to consider the following:

1. Theatre in the Sacramento region is suffering dramatically. Audience attendance is down across the board by at least 40 to 50% and in some cases, even more. If we want to see small companies survive this dramatic downturn in business during these difficult times, perhaps it is time for a more active ongoing partnership and line of communication with the Sacramento Bee. The Sacramento Bee has practically a monopoly in town and currently there is one critic, one voice in a one paper town. This should not continue.

2. The Sacramento Bee can provide much needed support for The League of Sacramento Theatres, the non-profit organization that represents over 40 professional and non-professional theatres in the region by supporting www.seeaplay.com.

3. October 2006 will be "theatre month". Support http://seeaplay.com/productionsNowPlaying.htm, where audiences can go and express their opinion about the plays they see. The League has a grant from SMAC for an outdoor campaign for seeaplay.com and we need support from the Bee!

4. The online Bee online, Sacbee.com and SacTicket.com might help arts organizations have a greater voice. Make the 21Q a blog that could be available to us, "voices from the trenches". 21Q is a blog that is currently a one-way stream (go to www.sacticket.com). How about considering edited response so it becomes a dialogue. This is especially critical at this time, since the Bee staffing in the arts is so limited.

5. Help save The Studio Theatre. We have brought life, love and laughter to the community for the last 12 years, sometimes with only a wing and a prayer to keep us afloat. We will be closed by Aug 31st if we cannot rally support and fill the seats in the theatre.

This march will be covered by TV, radio and the news media alike. We can seize this opportunity and make some NOISE!!! I will not go down quietly! I am speaking for theatre, because that is who I am. The other visual and performing arts are all suffering, but it is up to them to rally support should they choose to join us.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Jackie Schultz
Producer
The Studio Theatre
1028 R Street, Sacramento CA 95814
http://www.thestudiotheatre.net/

The Studio Theatre produces contemporary works with a female perspective and a healthy dose of liberal humor.

"Peter Pan" - DMTC Summer Workshop Tech Week Starts

Here are some photos:


(Left) "Shhh! Pirates! Kristen Cunningham as Peter Pan. Emily Jo Seminoff is also co-cast in the lead role (but for this rehearsal, she appears in red as an Indian. (The girl playing Tiger Lily, Lauren Hamilton from St. Francis High School, in white right behind Kristen, has a first arabesque penchée to die for.)

Smee (Joey Lemons) and Captain Hook (Kennedy Wenning)




Captain Hook, Smee, and the Pirates.




Wendy (Anna Miles) contemplates the Hook! (Kennedy Wenning as Captain Hook)






Peter Pan the Avenger! Wendy (Anna Miles) and Peter Pan (Kristen Cunningham)

Some People Have The Knack....

And some people don't. This is actually good news, because Madonna doesn't really have the talent to play women far removed the self-willed domainatrix type (e.g., Evita). To succeed in acting, one has to remain vulnerable, in a way that self-willed people find intolerable:

Don't cry for her, Argentina: Madonna says that after giving the world such classics as "Body of Evidence" and "Swept Away," she's giving up acting in movies. "I hate to admit it, but I've decided to give that up," she said recently, on the road for her current "Confessions" tour. "How can any film survive if everyone says it's going to be a flop from the very day the project is even conceived? It's already dead in the water." (Hollywood.com)

Las Vegas Showgirls

Interesting blog post regarding the endangered Showgirls of Las Vegas, "the youngest, freshest and most beautiful dinosaurs on the planet."

I remember a dance professor at the University of Arizona talking about her Las Vegas Showgirl days. She had one story about trying to elegantly descend a staircase, in stilettoes, carrying a ginormous headdress, but after an ill-advised 'liquid lunch.'

Watch those staircases!

Atlantic Ratcheting Up

Tropical storm activity is beginning to look more likely in the Atlantic. It's mid-summer, and the Atlantic looks like it's beginning to get friskier....

So, will tropical storms nucleate this week, or will they remain typical tropical rains? Quien sabe?

2006 Elly Award Nominations

(Left) SARTA's Leslie Addiego opens the evening's activities.


Sunday evening at DMTC. Elly award nominations are announced to an excitable crowd of expectant actors and community theater buffs.

For me, the Elly Award nominations are always quite irrational - good shows get neglected, less-stellar shows get nominated, but in a haphazard manner that defies understanding. Tonight was no exception. For example Runaway Stage Production's Main Stage got few nominations, but their Storybook Theater got a blizzard, even though many of the same people were involved in both ventures. I couldn't be happier that Dave Lack got a Set Design nomination for 'Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Dark Castle,' but the set was actually designed for 'Victor/Victoria,' and hastily pressed into service for the children's show. But at least his hard, hard work was noticed, dammit! So many other people and shows were passed over, as is true every year.....

Everyone's a winner on nominations night!

Here is a link to Bev Syke's brief documentary on the evening. "Good theater only begets good theater," according to Steve Isaacson.

Here is the Sacramento Bee's list of nominees.

"Footloose" - Ron Cisneros' Summer Youth Workshop

Two (not very good) photos:


(Left) Friday night, Beaumont Cast. Opening number. In white skirt, Rusty (Emily Jo Seminoff). On right, Wendy Jo (Anna Miles).

Saturday night, Chicago Cast. Just prior to intermission, in 'Heaven Help Me,' with Sean Nill as Shaw at the front. Julie Soto is in the darkened aisle in the near foreground, but it's hard to make her out in this photo.

Excellent workshop. Better than last year's workshop. I saw the Friday show, but because A. wasn't quite finished with Saturday's backyard work, and I had time to kill, I ambled over to the 24th Street Theater and caught the last half of Act I.

Last Tuesday, I happened to pass by the theater on one of the last dress rehearsal nights, and I gazed in the side stage door of the 24th Street Theater. I did not know who was performing and I did not recognize the music. Later, I discovered it was the penultimate scene, at the Town Meeting, where the students in the audience start singing a kind of 80's-style rap song called 'Dancing Is Not A Crime', making the Town Meeting sound more like a revival. From the music, I gauged that the group must have been a church youth group of some sort, but I was perturbed by the memerizing nature of the music, and I felt the hairs on my neck stand up. I decided it must have been more of a cult than a regular church group. I wondered who the pastor was - Tom Cruise, perhaps?

Later, I discover from Erik Daniell's comments that the group was actually Ron Cisneros' Summer Youth Workshop. Aha! A cult indeed! The Cult of Musical Theater is the most dangerous of all. Ron Cisneros is a veritable Brigham Young of Razzmatazz!

The Friday cast (Beaumont) had some excellent performers. Will Finan as Shaw was just excellent. It was easy to forget that he wasn't a preacher. Julie Soto had a lot of depth as Ariel, particularly in regard to her R&B style of singing.

There is a kind of alertness that stage actors develop, out of sheer necessity. They have to be wide, wide awake. The most awake of all was Emily Jo Seminoff: her stage presence is magnificent. But because this was a workshop, where there were many neophytes on stage as well, there was a laxness among other cast members that was the biggest drawback of the show, for both casts. Well, at least there were some good models to emulate on stage!

The biggest differences in the casts regarded the protagonist, Ren. Casey Bowman (Beaumont) played Ren cool, whereas Elliot Mende (Chicago) played Ren as a cut-up. It seemed as if cool was the best approach, in order to distinguish transplant Ren from the locals, but oddly enough, cutup seemed to be the big audience pleaser.

In the Friday Beaumont cast, Anthony Smith made a fine redneck-type (Willard), and Sean Nill's comic, laconic cowboy mannerisms went over very well during the out-of-town saloon sequence.

As is often common in 24th Street Theater shows, many dance sequences were done in the aisles. On Friday, near me danced one girl, whom I nicknamed 'Prepared Girl,' because she seemed to be an ultra-alert stage sort of person, who sang loud and danced well. Turned out, it was Monika Neal, who played Ariel on Saturday night (Chicago cast). I didn't recognize Monika at first, because she had dyed her hair black, and she's changed appearance a lot during the last couple of years. Monika also did well as Ariel, although she came off as a little more vapid than Julie had been in the same role, which was fine - just a different interpretation. On Saturday, of course, Julie danced in the 'Prepared Girl' slot.

After the Saturday show, I returned to my back yard, and eventually A. and I ended up at Lyons Restaurant, where many of the cast eventually ended up as well. As the evening's festivities came to a close, they started an infectious series of hugs. Soon, it seemed everyone in the restaurant was hugging each other. Clearly, one close-knit theater workshop!

Restitution, And An Apology

And presumably forgiveness, if this Indiana Taco Bell's staff can find enough storage space:

A group of 10 to 15 masked individuals entered Taco Bell, 3244 S. Western Ave., around 10:46 p.m. Tuesday to return a three-year stash of fire sauce packets, police say.

The group returned six 40-gallon trash bags filled with approximately, 25,000 sauce packets to the restaurant.

With the stash was a note stating that they had been accumulating the sauces over three years and kept them stored in the trunk of a vehicle, but felt guilty about keeping them and decided to return them to the restaurant.

"A Chorus Line" Video Segments

Tony Davi mentioned these recent video segments from KGO Channel 7 in San Francisco several weeks ago, but they've been augmented lately. There is the delightful Kristine and Al interview (7/31) and the Charlotte d'Amboise interview (8/1 and also 8/4, although you have to first suffer through Ms. Wang's plans to avoid creature discomforts on her visit to the Idaho wilderness). And there is the 7/19 video, featuring Marvin Hamlisch. On both the 7/19 and 8/4 videos, you hear the distinctive voice of Mara Davi as 'Maggie!'

Her Perogative

Brittney Spears discusses time travel, butter beans, and beer.

A Proliferation Of Really Bad Vietnam Analogies

I like nothing better than to make historical analogies, in order to better understand where we might be going, based on what's happened before. One of my favorite books from college days is entitled "Man's Past, Man's Future," that does exactly that for a number of historical events and the modern age. People being people, similar historical situations tend to evolve in roughly similar ways - civil wars, expanding empires, mass migrations, famines, etc. No series of events are identical, however, so the analogies often break down, or have alternative endings. It's more of an art than a science, but it is fun.

Joe Lieberman's defeat has brought every wacko analogy from the period 1968-1972 out into the open, with Lieberman playing the role of rejected presidential candidate Scoop Jackson. Jacob Weisberg at Slate and the insufferable Martin Peretz at TNR have led the way. There are several sites, such as TPM Cafe and Lawyers, Guns & Money where these analogies are being shredded even now.

When I was a teenager, I remember (at Walt's invitation) attending a Scoop Jackson airport news conference. At the time, Jackson had just declared his candidacy for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination.

The MOST wooden campaigner in American political history. He muttered from a prepared text, seemed unfamiliar with use of a microphone, and never made eye contact. Even the reporters were falling asleep.

Jackson was a proto-Lieberman, trying to triangulate himself away from the rest of the Democratic Party. Fortunately, the primary voters of 1976 saw through the absurdity of his campaign and snuffed out his ambitions. As the CT primary voters in 2006 have done their best to snuff out Lieberman's ambitions.

Courtesy of the Booman Tribune, here is this strange political analysis, where the author is under the impression that Ned Lamont's supporters are mostly political neophytes who would have overlooked Lieberman's apostasy had Lieberman actually won the Connecticut Senatorial primary election. In fact, most of Lamont's supporters are from the suburbs, are middle-aged, and can scarcely be called neophytes:

Democrats lost the 2004 presidential election over leadership on national security. Last night's win by anti-war Ned Lamont over pro-war Joe Lieberman, while joyous for the far-left netroots crowd, is a bad harbinger for future Democratic Party prospects nationally in 2008 and beyond.

The closeness of the election only makes the outcome more frustrating for Democratic strategists. Had Lieberman eked out a victory, the Connecticut Senate primary would have been a huge win for the Democratic Party as they would have been able to reap the dividends of all the energy (and voters) Lamont's candidacy had attracted, while at the same time sending a message to the country that the Democratic Party is large enough for pro-war Democrats. Had Lieberman held on and won, he undoubtedly would be reaching out to left-wing Democrats and pushing further away from President Bush and the Republicans. Instead, Lieberman will now be ostracized from the party and will be reaching out to Independents and Republicans while chastising the extremists in the Democratic Party.

Incredibly, for a sitting three-term Senator who just lost to a political neophyte, in many ways Lieberman is the guy who comes out of the primary with momentum. A month ago it was not unreasonable to assume that Lamont would have received a significant boost from a win, but the polls seem to indicate Lamont peaked near the end of July. Bill Clinton's July 24th visit may have been more of a turning point than was commonly thought at the time. In my pre-election analysis I suggested that Lieberman's distance from 40% would be the best tell on how the three-way would shakeout. With his very solid 48.2%, Lieberman is in an extremely strong position to win in November.

Nationally, the images from last night are a disaster for the Democratic Party. Perched behind Lamont during his victory speech were the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, grinning ear to ear, serenaded by the chant of "Bring Them Home, Bring Them Home." For a party that has a profound public relations and substantive problem on national security, these are not exactly the images you want broadcast to the nation.

Anti-war Democrats and much of the mainstream media continue to confuse anti-war with anti-lose. The incessant commentary that 2/3rd of the country is against the war completely misreads the American public, as much of the negativity towards the war isn't because we are fighting, but rather a growing feeling that we are not fighting to win or not fighting smart.

Democrats went down this road in the late 1960's with Vietnam and they are still carrying the baggage from that leftward turn. Lamont's win is a big step back to that losing formula. During the height of the "progressive" revolt against the war in Vietnam, Americans voted 57% for Nixon and Wallace in 1968, followed by a whopping 60% for Nixon in 1972 against the avowededly anti-war McGovern.

This analysis could not be more wrong - a complete misreading of 1972, and a complete misreading of today. These analogies collapse at the slightest examination. How a defeat can be interpreted as Joementum is beyond me. But, like I say, it's more of an art than a science. In November, analogy time will be over and the proof will be (as they say) in the pudding.

Super Typhoon Saomai

A terrible year in the Western Pacific, and this storm is the worst to date. The storm is passing over areas already flattened by Typhoon Bilis - people can't catch their breath!

The most powerful typhoon to hit China in five decades raged across its southeastern coast Thursday, capsizing ships and destroying homes after 1.5 million people evacuated. At least two people were killed and dozens were injured.

... Torrential rains were forecast in the next three days as the typhoon churned inland across crowded areas where Tropical Storm Bilis killed more than 600 people last month.

Saomai, with winds up to 135 mph, made landfall at the town of Mazhan in coastal Zhejiang province and was moving northwest at 12 mph, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing weather officials.

... Saomai, dubbed a "super typhoon" by Chinese forecasters due to its huge size and high wind speeds, was the eighth major storm of this year's unusually violent typhoon season. Saomai was the most powerful typhoon to hit China since the founding of the communist government in Xinhua said, citing the Zhejiang provincial weather bureau.

Before the storm's arrival, 990,000 people were evacuated from flood- prone areas of Zhejiang and 569,000 from the neighboring coastal province of Fujian, Xinhua said. It said a total of 70,000 ships had returned to port in the two provinces.

...Saomai, named for the Vietnamese word for the planet Venus, passed across Japan's Okinawa island group on Wednesday with winds up to 89 mph, prompting airlines to cancel 141 flights and affecting 24,000 passengers.

China's weather bureau had forecast unusually heavy typhoon action this summer, saying warmer than normal Pacific currents and weather patterns over Tibet would create bigger storms and draw them farther inland.

Bilis triggered flooding and landslides as far inland as Hunan province, hundreds of miles from the coast.

Most of the deaths happened in areas away from coastal communities that have elaborate dike networks and a long history of evacuating flood-prone areas.

Typhoon Prapiroon lashed China's southern coast last week, killing at least 80 people in floods and landslides in Guangdong province and neighboring Guangxi.

Even as Saomai stormed ashore, Chinese forecasters were already closely watching Tropical Storm Bopha, which trailed behind it farther out in the Pacific. Bopha was about 110 miles southeast of Guangdong late Thursday and moving west with winds of 29 mph, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

And yet, the Atlantic is still pretty calm - unusually calm for mid-August.

I was wondering why there are very few hurricanes in the South Atlantic. At first, I thought it was because the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is in the northern hemisphere, but then that doesn't explain why there are hurricanes in the South Pacific.

It's a mystery!

Midday, 19th and I

Nine times out of ten, it's the mundane things that ensnare us!

Rabbit Talk

Courtesy of James McElroy, here is this fascinating Web Site that discusses the body language of rabbits.

I remember the first time I realized that rabbits think differently than most any creature. I was trying to make my first rabbit, Sinbad, go outside, and he was resisting. I got a broom and gave his back side a little thump. Annoyed, Sinbad spun around - and started eating the broom. That is the natural reaction, after all, when someone starts thumping your back side with food!

Here are some selections from the Web Site:

Although a royal (dominant) rabbit will sometimes groom one of his or her vassals, including licking you, it commonly goes only one way. The top rabbit in the group must be worshipped and obeyed by all, and may present him or herself for grooming to any other rabbit, who must comply. ... Who would guess that getting a little forehead rub now and again could be the key to self-esteem, comfort and well-being?

A rabbit will present itself for grooming by coming right up next to you, maybe nudging you a bit with its nose or poking its nose under your hand or foot, then lowering its chin and chest to the ground, and stretching its head forward while keeping its rear up a bit. ... This is not generally a request for grooming; most often it is more like an order. Disobeying this order can lead to unhappiness, chewing on your clothing, or even an annoyed nip. Repeatedly ignoring a rabbit's invitation for grooming will lead to insult and frustration, which can in turn result in having your rugs shredded, your baseboards removed, and your pillow peed upon. It's way easier to provide at least a few strokes on the forehead upon request to support your rabbit's self-esteem.

...You may wonder how you're going to get your rabbit to obey you in anything (e.g. going back into her or his cage) if you aren't the boss. The answer is that rabbits are perfectly capable of believing several things at once. As long as you demonstrate they're the big boss by obeying the licking order, you get to be the little boss and be obeyed in everything else. That should give you some idea of a rabbit's priorities. A rabbit can be completely secure in its high status and still obey your commands.

Various cats I've had, broke all the following rabbit laws, and suffered accordingly. Sparky still hasn't figured it out:

Incidentally, it is considered very insulting to hop quickly by right in front of another rabbit or you without stopping for a moment to offer the polite rabbit greeting of touching noses. Obviously, a rabbit can't ponder peacefully while someone rushes back and forth in front of its face, and rabbits looking for trouble with other rabbits will do exactly this. You may encounter one consequence of this behavior yourself if you walk right past your rabbit quickly, in which case the rabbit might even charge at you in outrage! You can avoid this by giving an equivalent to touching noses when you walk by: a quick pat on the forehead.

Finally, there is the all-out nuclear weapon of insults, reserved only for the most offensive, utterly unacceptable, good for nothing individuals and behavior: urine.

It's fun to watch rabbits test their limits:

Rabbits recognize when a space is owned by others, and where they're not allowed to go. Of course, places owned by others just beg to be visited whenever possible, although it's understood that one might get chased back out. After all, perhaps today one might be allowed in. Testing is the only way to be sure. Accordingly, you may set aside rooms where rabbits are not allowed, but don't expect them not to try to go in anyway. They might actually hesitate at the door, though, to make sure you aren't inside and watching.

Here is Jimmy Carter's 'killer rabbit, and the rabbit from 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail':

Some rabbits, generally those with a history of frightening experiences and the resulting distrust, are simply extremely aggressive. They may actually chase you around and clamp their teeth onto you without any obvious provocation.

And the famous thump:

A rabbit that is very scared or nervous may "thump" a hind leg, slapping it hard against the ground. This isn't just a warning to other rabbits, but to you, too. Note that rabbits sometime also thump to indicate anger, or even just to say "pay attention," but it should be pretty easy to distinguish these by the context.

Voyeur

Walking past the 24th Street Theater yesterday evening, I looked through the stage right side door and saw some sort of youth-oriented, song-and-dance rap number under way, probably by a church theater group of some sort. Interesting, but inexplicable.

Gazing in the windows of the RSP rehearsal space, it was apparently 'Full Monty' dance rehearsal going on, perhaps the famous last scene. Omigod! Total beefcake! Everyone had jeans on, but they didn't have shirts. Some wore caps. For those of you who may not know, Michael RJ Campbell is whiter and hairier than Craig Howard.

On the naked Sacramento theater patrol, this is your correspondent, signing off....

Is Our Old Folks Learning?

Usually the educational system gets the blame for idiocies like this, but the trouble is among the old, strangely enough:

SOME 30 per cent of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper.

While the country is preparing to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attacks that claimed nearly 3000 lives and shocked the world, 95 per cent of Americans questioned in the poll were able to remember the month and the date of the attacks.

But when asked what year, 30 per cent could not give a correct answer.

Of that group, six per cent gave an earlier year, eight per cent gave a later year, and 16 per cent admitted they had no idea whatsoever.

This memory black hole is essentially the problem of the older crowd - 48 per cent of those who did not know were between the ages of 55 and 64, and 47 per cent were older than 65, the poll shows.

Lamont Punks Lieberman

52-48, with a very large turnout for a primary (~43%).

It's over, Joe. Don't go with the indy bid. Keep your dignity.

"Tony, Tony, Wherefore Art Thou, Tony?

Does anyone have an idea who might make a good Tony, and might be available? DMTC's West Side Story could use one.....

Penguin Bowling

Never know what you might find on the roads of Texas:

Motorists dodged penguins on an East Texas highway Tuesday morning after a truck carrying the flightless birds overturned.

A New Political Low

Amazing! Remember Terry Anderson, the foreign correspondent who spent seven years imprisoned by Hezbollah in Lebanon? He's running for office, and his Republican opponent accuses him of being soft on terrorism, and is using a photo of him shaking hands with his captors as proof.

Just when you think it can't get any worse....

Martian Rover Opportunity In A Cool New Place

At the edge of Beagle Crater.

Confronting Failure

Don't wanna do it.....DO NOT want to do it. But the choices are getting harder - not easier. Not in my nature to give up, but the choices are getting harder, not easier.

And all I wanted was a shrubbery.....

Martin Peretz Speaks

In the Wall Street Journal, no less, about Joe Lieberman. Where to start with the TNR editor?

We have been here before. Left-wing Democrats are once again fielding single-issue "peace candidates," and the one in Connecticut, like several in the 1970s, is a middle-aged patrician, seeking office de haut en bas, and almost entirely because he can.

The domestic reaction to the Vietnam War was convulsive, but less so for the Iraq War, because fewer, volunteer troops are involved this time. So, without so many social convulsions, we will see how American democracy functions, slowly, but completely, when faced with unworkable policies. In a real sense we haven't been here before - close with Vietnam - but we are breaking new ground. Peretz's faux-populist stand against Lamont is laughable, when Peretz has been more than happy to promote the candidacies of other rich folks when their policies align with his views.

At least in this sense, Mr. Lamont comes to this campaign for the U.S. Senate from absolutely nowhere--and it shows in his pulpy statements on public issues.

...Mr. Lamont has almost no experience in public life. He was a cable television entrepreneur, a run-of-the-mill contemporary commercant with unusually easy access to capital.

When others feared to run, Lamont had the courage to step forward. Good for him. So, the business class of Connecticut is 'absolutely nowhere?' Interesting! I wonder where somewhere is?

But he does have one issue, and it is Iraq. He grasps little of the complexities of his issue, but then this, too, is true of the genus of the peace candidate. Peace candidates know only one thing, and that is why people vote for them. I know the type well.

Lamont is more than a peace candidate. He supports Social Security, for example, unlike a certain other Senatorial candidate from Connecticut. It isn't just about Iraq.

It was then that people like Joe Lieberman emerged, muscular on defense, assertive in foreign policy, genuinely liberal on social and economic matters, but not doctrinaire on regulatory issues.

But a politician with absolutely no loyalty to the Democratic Party.

But he has also been brave, and bravery is a rare trait in politicians, especially in states that are really true-blue or, for that matter, really true-red. The blogosphere Democrats, whose victory Mr. Lamont's will be if Mr. Lamont wins, have made Iraq the litmus test for incumbents. There are many reasonable, and even correct, reproofs that one may have for the conduct of the war. They are, to be sure, all retrospective. But one fault cannot be attributed to the U.S., and that is that we are on the wrong side. We are at war in a just cause, to protect the vulnerable masses of the country from the helter-skelter ideological and religious mass-murderers in their midst. Our enemies are not progressive peasants as was imagined three and four decades ago.

Lieberman hasn't been brave, he's been complacent. Not all reproofs were retrospective - in 2003, various authorities on Iraq and its culture feared we'd be getting into a mess we couldn't extricate ourselves from. We may not be on the wrong side, but we have to know whom to fight, when, and how. By creating many more terrorists than existed before, through our ham-handed actions, we've erased any benefit we might have had by being on the right side. If we linger in Iraq, the terrorists win.

If Mr. Lieberman goes down, the thought-enforcers of the left will target other centrists as if the center was the locus of a terrible heresy, an emphasis on national strength. Of course, they cannot touch Hillary Clinton, who lists rightward and then leftward so dexterously that she eludes positioning. Not so Mr. Lieberman. He does not camouflage his opinions. He does not play for safety, which is why he is now unsafe.

Along with other neocons, Mr. Peretz's vision of the center has weakened us, not made us stronger. Hillary Clinton is absolutely vulnerable, as long as she persists in supporting staying in Iraq. No amount 'it takes a village' babble will save her as long as she supports this war for losers. Lieberman has played for safety all along - why else the independent run? - but the ground has shifted under him. Other centrists need not be vulnerable, as long as they are not as pig-headedly stupid as Lieberman has been.

Now Mr. Lamont's views are also not camouflaged. They are just simpleminded. Here, for instance, is his take on what should be done about Iran's nuclear-weapons venture: "We should work diplomatically and aggressively to give them reasons why they don't need to build a bomb, to give them incentives. We have to engage in very aggressive diplomacy. I'd like to bring in allies when we can. I'd like to use carrots as well as sticks to see if we can change the nature of the debate." Oh, I see. He thinks the problem is that they do not understand, and so we should explain things to them, and then they will do the right thing. It is a fortunate world that Mr. Lamont lives in, but it is not the real one. Anyway, this sort of plying is precisely what has been going on for years, and to no good effect. Mr. Lamont continues that "Lieberman is the one who keeps talking about keeping the military option on the table." And what is so plainly wrong with that? Would Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be more agreeable if he thought that we had disposed of the military option in favor of more country club behavior?

How does Mr. Peretz know that negotiations with the Iranians have been fruitless? Because the result isn't exactly what Mr. Peretz desired? Who, then, is detached from the real world? Who gets everything they want, except maybe Paris Hilton?

Finally, the contest in Connecticut tomorrow is about two views of the world. Mr. Lamont's view is that there are very few antagonists whom we cannot mollify or conciliate. Let's call this process by its correct name: appeasement. The Greenwich entrepreneur might call it "incentivization." Mr. Lieberman's view is that there are actually enemies who, intoxicated by millennial delusions, are not open to rational and reciprocal arbitration.

No, the battle is between a traitor to the Democratic Party, and a loyalist - it's not about worldviews. I'm sure every day is Munich 1938 in Mr. Peretz's world, but matters are a bit more mundane in the real world.

The Lamont ascendancy, if that is what it is, means nothing other than that the left is trying, and in places succeeding, to take back the Democratic Party. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Maxine Waters have stumped for Mr. Lamont. As I say, we have been here before. Ned Lamont is Karl Rove's dream come true. If he, and others of his stripe, carry the day, the Democratic party will lose the future, and deservedly.

Well, fight back, and fairly Mr. Peretz. If the Iraq War is so popular, then let your allies run candidates supporting it. Then, we'll have a fair vetting of views, something that was sadly lacking in Vietnam, and so far, with Iraq as well.

"A Death Sandwich" At The Crest Theater

(Left) Valerie Battenfeld, playing vixen Vivian Devereux, in "A Death Sandwich"


Midnight Madness, Saturday midnight, at the Crest Theater. About 25 people were in attendance, widely-scattered among the 400-or-so seats there.

Most of the short films were of a film-noir type. I entered late, managing to miss two (what must have been quite brief) short films. I caught the tail-end of a strange film about murder and deviant sexuality of some sort called Marionette (Director: Holly Paige Joyner). There was another gritty, violence-filled urban film called Voodoo Doll (Director: Roberto Minervini), which was even more disturbing - addicts poking themselves with needles was the least of it. 'Voodoo Doll' nevertheless made quite an impression on me - I recall it too vividly.

The most-colorful film of the program was
Confessions of a Drag Queen (Director: Darren McAllister), a frolicking interview full of fun energy. The Drag Queen liked to shock: his boyfriend was gay, but his girlfriend wasn't - that sort of thing. A good dancer too! But it wasn't film noir, so if that was the theme of the program, 'Drag Queen' was in the wrong pigeonhole.

Of course, I was there to see the film noir satire film A Death Sandwich (Director: Daniel Gurewitch), featuring Walt's friend, Valerie Battenfeld. Indeed, when the movie started running, I said (loud enough for all to hear) "Yay Death Sandwich!" Even in the near-vacuum of the sleepy audience, there was a little ripple, and I heard a faint, cynical 'yay' from across the hall: so hard-boiled you could almost imagine Humphrey Bogart himself had uttered it.

At first, I thought the audience ripple occurred because enthusiasm was so scarce at that late hour, but later, at the end of the evening, a Master of Ceremonies announced we could deposit ballots on the way out the door. Then, I realized there was a formal process of some sort at work, and people might have taken my 'Yay!' as an effort to campaign for a favorite - maybe a bit of a faux pas under the circumstances. Oh well, the laughter from the audience was real enough!

I thought the folks who produced this movie did a fine job. It struck me as juvenile (in a good way), meaning it was done by young people from a young person's perspective. I thought it was interesting that the songs were not obvious imitations of Broadway stuff, meaning they took the singing stuff rather seriously - it wasn't cobbled together in a bad Broadway imitation, in the manner of 'Family Guy.' Instead, it was original music, nevertheless using the 'Family Guy' over-the-top approach, but with an older 'South Park' edge to the humor.

There were other touches too. The chief becoming an angel at the end comes directly from 'Hudsucker Proxy': not an obvious film-noir reference, but the cinematography of that movie was captivating, and it clearly had an big impact here (it's funny how we learn about the past from movies, even the fantasy art deco past of Gotham) - I bet there are Coen Brothers fans among the film's creators. 'Double Indemnity' had its fingerprints all over this movie (Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck), and Humphrey Bogart, of course, as well as Dashiell Hammett's now-classic stories of murder and mayhem in San Francisco, where this all started!

I wonder which short film found the judge's favor? If you are Quentin Tarantino, 'Voodoo Doll' would be your choice, but if you like interviews, 'Confessions of a Drag Queen' would be the one. And if you like musical comedy - 'A Death Sandwich!'

"Falsettos" Strike

Went over to help clean the warehouse while everyone else was involved with the "Falsettos" strike. I was impressed with the Ken-like Erik doll the cast got for Erik - just need a Barbie-like doll for Sarah!

Big Brother Is Watching You!

Big Brother Is Watching You! Big Brother is *yawn* watching.... Big Brother....big brother....bbbbbnnn.....zzzzzzzz

Hair Of The Dog That Licked Me

My master works hard, and he means well, but when it comes to trimming canine coiffures, he is strictly an amateur!

DMTC Advanced Summer Youth Workshop

(Left) As seen from the back row late on Thursday evening, Kennedy Wenning lectures the Velveteen Rabbit. Bad, bad bunny! Bad bunny! Bad! Bunny!

Forced Abortions For Christ

Yesterday, I was destroying old letters sent to me years ago by a family friend. My friend is an evangelical Christian, and a member of the 700 Club, and is most concerned about Evolution and Secular Humanism. Nevertheless, I wonder what he would think of Tom DeLay, Ralph Reed, Frank Abramoff, and Rocklin's own John Doolittle, in regard to the Northern Marianas Island sweatshops?

Out of economic desperation, many poorly-paid immigrant women workers slipped into prostitution, were then forced to have abortions in order to keep sewing, and then were subsequently used to support evangelical missions in their home countries. Forced Abortions for Christ! And it's clear these Republican statesmen of ours saw the Northern Marianas Islands as a laboratory of the deregulated labor-market vision they wanted to impose on the rest of the United States. Creeps all!

A vote against Rocklin's own John Doolittle this November is a vote against forced abortions.

Life In A Desert

Just gets weirder by the day:

Residents near Downtown El Paso have been evacuated as officials warn that an earthen dam across the border in Ciudad Juarez might be on the verge of breaking.

Up to 6 million gallons could rush into El Paso if the 30-year-old dam is breached, according to an Army Corps of Engineers estimate given to Mayor John Cook on Thursday.

"We're talking like a tidal wave hitting El Paso," Cook said.

And I Thought Age Would Shield Me

From that eager recruiter:

The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service.

Well, I'm shielded for a little bit, until they raise the maximum age to 52...

Mad Max Beyond Dome Of The Rock

The worst day yet, according to Onion Radio News, and no sign of a ceasefire:

Mel Gibson Launches Rockets Into Israel

From "The Onion"

They report, you decide:

In a decisive 1–0 decision Monday, President Bush voted to grant the president the constitutional power to grant himself additional powers.

President Bush announces announcement of the new power-granting announcement.

"As president, I strongly believe that my first duty as president is to support and serve the president," Bush said during a televised address from the East Room of the White House shortly after signing his executive order. "I promise the American people that I will not abuse this new power, unless it becomes necessary to grant myself the power to do so at a later time."

...Despite the president's new powers, the role of Congress and the Supreme Court has not been overlooked. Under the new law, both enjoy the newly broadened ability to grant the president the authority to increase his presidential powers.

..."This gives the president the tools he needs to ensure that the president has all the necessary tools to expedite what needs to be done, unfettered by presidential restrictions on himself," said Rep. John Cornyn (R-TX). "It's long overdue."

Arrests In Phoenix

Arrests in the "Serial Shooter" cases that have terrorized the entire Phoenix metropolitan area. Nothing yet on the equally-dangerous "Baseline Killer," though, so the fear remains:

Authorities arrested two men Friday in connection with a series of fatal shootings that have terrorized Phoenix area residents for more than a year.

"These are the two monsters we've been hunting," Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said at a news conference Friday.

The men were considered suspects in the "Serial Shooter" case -- one of two serial killers whom authorities say have been operating in the Phoenix area.

The men were apprehended at a gated apartment complex and were being held at Phoenix police headquarters, police Sgt. Andy Hill said.

Authorities have said that the so-called "Serial Shooter" is believed to be responsible for killing six people and wounding 17 others, mostly pedestrians and bicyclists, since May 2005.

The most recent was Sunday in Mesa when a 22-year-old woman was fatally shot as she was walking from her parents' home to her boyfriend's house, authorities said.

Walid Jumblatt, Survivor

Here is an interesting quote by Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese Druze chieftain. I'll provide the link to Obsidian Wings, rather than the original source at the (registration-only) Financial Times.

Jumblatt is, of course, the ultimate survivor of Lebanese politics. Of all the major participants, he's just about the only one who survived the decade-long Civil War. He started militias when they were needed, and got out of the business when they weren't (and would start them again if he has to). He was, and is, deeply involved with the Syrians, the Americans, the Israelis, Hezbollah, and anyone else with any influence in the area. How anyone can be a major participant in the viper's nest of Middle East politics, and avoid the car bombs and the sniper shots and the army coups and the foreign invasions and the terror plots, not just for a few years, but for decades, is beyond me. Jumblatt has gotta be the smartest guy in the universe....

What does Walid Jumblatt think about the latest war?:

"Walid Jumblatt, leader of the most powerful clan in Lebanon’s Druze community, said on Tuesday the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas had dealt a fatal blow to Lebanese hopes of a strong independent state, free of Iranian and Syrian influence. (...)

“After the 12 July, Lebanon is now unfortunately being entrenched solidly into the Syrian-Iranian axis,” he said. “The hopes of a stable, prosperous Lebanon where we could attract investments is over for now. It is a fatal blow for confidence.”

Mr Jumblatt has shrewdly navigated the ups and downs of Lebanon’s treacherous politics, gaining influence beyond the weight of his Druze community, a breakaway sect from Shia Islam that makes up around 10 per cent of the population.

As a militia leader during Lebanon’s civil war he accommodated Syria’s expansionary aims. But last year he emerged as one of the Syrian regime’s fiercest opponents in an alliance of groups that came together following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and led a coalition government following elections.

At that time, Mr Jumblatt held out hope that a new wave of democratic activism was sweeping the Arab world.

But on Tuesday he offered a bleak and outspoken assessment of the prospects for Lebanon.

He said among Syrian-backed politicians there was already talk of forming an emergency government to replace Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s coalition. He said he feared that an “organised mob” might be used to force the government’s resignation. (...)

There was also little prospect that Hizbollah, having emerged as a champion in the Arab and Muslim world, would be willing now to incorporate its armed wing under the Lebanese state apparatus – the issue at the centre of international diplomatic efforts to end the conflict with Israel.

“We will be just a weak state next to a very strong militia. Our government will be like the government of Abu Mazen (Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas) next to Hamas or maybe worse like the government of [Nouri al] Maliki in Iraq.”

“All American policy in the Middle East is at stake,” he continued, “because their failure in Palestine, their failure in Iraq and now this failure in Lebanon will lead to a new Arab world where the so called radical Arabs will profit.

“This is the new Middle East. Not the new Middle East of Ms [US secretary of state Condoleezza] Rice. Darkness everywhere.”

The Actress And The Serial Killer

A match made in TV-Land!

"I trust Wayne with my life…. He's got such a kindness to him and such a conscience," she said, her eyes briefly filling with tears during an interview at a cafe in Studio City last week. "He is so tuned in to me and I to him that sometimes words don't have to be said."

...The unusual relationship between Redstall and the defendant is causing waves at the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and appears to have unnerved Ford's attorneys.

..."Everyone tells me, 'Be careful, he's a serial killer' … but they don't know Wayne like I do," she said. "We've all got evil in us — all of us. He took it to the extent of killing humans…. But I'm going on the man he is today and the remorse that he has today."

The irony of a model for breast enhancement pills, Herbal Grobust, seeking out a killer with a breast fetish is not lost on her, and she addresses it with the dark humor that both shocks and entertains the people she talks to in the courtroom.

"It's hysterical," she said.

"Falsettos" Review

By Bev Sykes, at The Davis Enterprise.

Pat Robertson 'Gets Religion' On Global Warming

Interesting! There must be an unsuspected 'end times' connection here somewhere:

Conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson said on Thursday the wave of scorching temperatures across the United States has converted him into a believer in global warming.

"We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels," Robertson said on his "700 Club" broadcast. "It is getting hotter, and the icecaps are melting and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air."

This week the heat index, the perceived temperature based on both air temperatures and humidity, reached 115 Fahrenheit in some regions of the U.S. East Coast. The 76-year-old Robertson told viewers that was "the most convincing evidence I've seen on global warming in a long time."

"Death Sandwich" Coming To The Crest!

Aha! Coming to The Crest! A chance to see "Death Sandwich" on the big screen here in Sacra-Tomatoe!

The film will be shown during 'Midnight Shorts Madness,' after Saturday midnight (actually the wee hours of Sunday morning):

A Death Sandwich (38:21) Bloomfield, NJ - Student Film

Detective Malcolm 'Mac' Drake has had better days. Haunted by enigmatic nightmares and hounded by a cigar-chomping police chief with a penchant for opera, he struggles in vain to link an infuriating case to the kingpin of the Scottish Mafia. That is, until blonde bombshell Vivienne Devereux saunters into his life with legs like a 7-9 split and a bosom that heaves with the power of shifting tectonic plates. How many musical numbers will it take before Drake realizes that things aren't what they seem? Two.

Director: Daniel Gurewitch

The Clairvoyants Start Scrambling

The sort of reminds me of that old TV ad, with an angry mob boiling around a street corner and charging down the street, followed by a hapless politician, sweating in his three-piece suit, shouting "Wait! I am your leader!"

In any event, so far, the Atlantic hurricane season looks like it will be milder than some had foreseen, and the hurricane climatologists have to shift position, and fast:

The Colorado State University hurricane forecast is predicting that the upcoming hurricane season won't be as bad as earlier predicted.

Colorado State professor William Gray's reducing the number of likely hurricanes from nine to seven and intense hurricanes from five to three.

Gray, who's one of the nation's leading hurricane forecasters, says the fact that there have only been two hurricanes in July is not the reason for the revision.

He says Atlantic sea surface temperatures are not quite as warm and surface pressure is not quite as low. Also, the eastern equatorial Pacific has warmed some and trade winds in the tropical Atlantic are slightly stronger.

Gray and he team says hurricane activity will continue to be above average and will continue to be for another 15 to 20 years.

Thirteen major hurricanes have formed in the Atlantic Basin the past two years, seven of them striking the U.S. coast with devastating damage resulting from four of them.

Chris Update

Today, Chris weakened dramatically, but it is likely to strengthen again as it approaches Cuba. It should be passing Havana Sunday evening, and moving through the Keys Monday morning.

Chris is a pretty compact storm, so far. If it reaches hurricane status, it's likely to be a small hurricane. There won't be much direct impact on Tampa, apart from some cloudiness, but there might be some disruption of air traffic in southern Florida that might affect on-time airline performance in Tampa and beyond. So, be prepared for long lines, delayed flights, and the other joys of modern airline travel.

Today's forecast sends Chris well south of the Rio Grande River, into the Mexican Gulf coast, Wednesday evening. I'm puzzled why so far south - to me, there wouldn't be much to stop it from going to Texas instead - but according to the NOGAPS model, a powerful high will dominate the central U.S. next week (no doubt accompanied by a blistering heat wave in the Midwest and East Coast states) and THAT will keep Chris far to the south. I'm skeptical, though. We'll have to see about this heat wave.

On other fronts, the rest of the Atlantic looks pretty quiet at the moment.

My Darling Private Eye, And I

Walt in South Carolina was most insistent:

Hey, you guys need to watch Death Sandwich. The [woman] who plays ... Vivian Devereux is a 21-year old lady named Valerie Battenfeld. I've known her since she was 3, and I've taken six vacations out west with her and her family. She has collected fluorite at Bingham and she's taken a insider's tour of TERA!

(For those of you who are, sadly, not in the know, those are important mining and explosives research landmarks in the vicinity of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, NM.)

Here is a synopsis of the movie:

Synopsis: A film noir musical comedy. Detective Malcolm "Mac" Drake battles the vermin of a corrupt city, armed with nothing but clever wordplay and the majesty of song. And a gun.

I had some trouble getting the movie to run: I have Active-X Control disabled on my computer, but is that what the error message said? No! Instead, it said: Error opening content: ioerror (MP4) (id=0x20004).

In any event, I Shanghaied someone else's computer and saw the film. Quite good! Reminds me of what we do at DMTC, due to the singing and especially since 'The Chief' looks like Justin Dunworth. The two songs, "My Private Eye and I" and "You Can't Keep Up With Me In Bed" are.....um......interesting.

Send Valerie out here, to Davis, CA, and we'll put her in a musical!

Javelin Chris

It's early yet, but Tropical Storm Chris looks like it's a javelin aimed at Matagorda Bay, Texas (midway between Corpus Christi and Houston). It's interesting how the forecasts show no effect on the trajectory due to a trough that will be passing to the north. That effect would be bound to happen in any other month than August (high summer). That trough will be just too far north to have any effect.

A Raid

Narcotics officers and ATF agents swarming all over a maroon sedan parked at 19th and J Streets this evening. I wonder what that's all about?

Expert Opinions Diverge

(Referring to today's favorite football, Mel Gibson): Does drunkenness make you say things you don't believe, or not? Oddly enough, there is no consensus on the question. And it's an important question, since so much of the world is drunk so much of the time.

I always thought you spoke more freely (if inadvisably) when drunk. But maybe not!

Another Take On Mel Gibson

The author says he's hateful, but won't pay a price for it.

After Castro

In general, among liberal bloggers, David Sirota has always struck me as enthusiastic, but not necessarily profound - in a word, young.

His latest post strikes me as wise beyond his years - Yoda wise, Gandalf wise, the wisest thing he's ever written!

Latin America has carried the imperialist, American chip-on-the-shoulder for centuries now. To us to confirm everyone's worst suspicions would be a crime against history:

In another story, we discover that the administration is now announcing that if Castro dies, "the United States would also send special monitors and advisers to Cuba in the weeks after a full transition began." In the wake of the Vietnam War, which infamously started out with U.S. military "advisers," again - this is clearly fodder that could be easily spun to confirm Castro's own message. And it is especially stupid and destructive to our long-term goals/credibitlity when, at the same time our government is haughtily strutting around making these proclamations, the White House is also saying "it viewed attempts by Venezuela or other countries to influence the transition in Cuba as unwarranted intervention."

In political campaigns, the worst thing a candidate can do is publicly walk into their own stereotype. If, for instance, there are unconfirmed rumors out there that a candidate is a philanderer and is too-slick by half, the worst thing that candidate can do is get caught philandering and then lying about it, because it confirms the negative suspicions the public may have already had. If there are suspicions out there that a candidate waffles or stands for nothing, the worst thing that candidate can do is publicly waffle on a big issue (think John Kerry's "I was for it before I was against it" line on Iraq).

The same thing goes in the situation with Cuba. The stupidest thing American officials can do is publicly walk into Castro's portrayal of our ambitions. By doing that, we are confirming the negative suspicions that many Cubans must have, considering they've been hearing about it over and over and over again for the last 50 years.

Effect Of Minimum Wage On Unemployment

For those familiar with scatterplots, this is one very funny post! 'Conservative Friend' is a smart guy. I wish liberals were half as smart!

Conservatives Distancing Themselves At Warp Speed

Last year, after the great success of Passion Of The Christ, Mel Gibson was the toast of conservative America. After Gibson's recent drunken anti-Semitic statements, conservatives suddenly decide - he's a Hollywood liberal!

Mel's the same guy he was last year. Wha-happened?

Sir Elton Opines

He's even more opinionated than Madonna these days:

Attention, rock 'n' rollers. Elton John is sick of your tattoos and piercings. John, who will perform at the third Fashion Rocks concert Sept. 7 at Radio City Music Hall, says he'd like American bands to adopt the cutting-edge, glam-rock style made popular by his peers.

"It's been a thing the British have always been very good at, with Bowie, myself, T.Rex, the Who, Queen. ... We all embraced that side of it," John, 59, tells Fashion Rocks magazine, on newsstands Aug. 8.

"And I think it's good that some American bands are beginning to do that, but it's still very rare for bands to make a real effort. So when you get groups like The Killers and Scissor Sisters who come along, it's thrilling. I'm so over the tattoos and the T-shirts and rings through the noses. It's not pretty, it's not pleasant, it's not exciting. Please stop it now."

Things That Make Meteorologists Go Hmmm....

El Paso, Texas, suffering flooding, from interminable heavy rains.

Annual Physical Exam

Time for that annual journey to 29th & K Streets, where every doctor in Sacramento has an office! Nothing to report, thankfully.

Couldn't resist, though. Remembering what Steve once told his own doctor, I told Dr. N., "Does this mean you're going to send me flowers?" Surprised, Dr. N. said "Oh! Only if you see flowers delivered to your doorstep tomorrow morning!"