Wednesday Night At The MGM Grand

Spent time alternating between blackjack and dancing at Studio 54 And Tabu. The gambling was just horrible, as it often is - continual losses ($565 or so). The dancing was better though.

When I first arrived at Studio 54, there were very few dancers, oddly enough - maybe ten or so. Enthusiasm was low at Studio 54 on a Wednesday night stretching into Thursday morning. So, management sent out the girls to do their fun trapeze act. After awhile, the dancing picked up, and the energy level escalated.

Didn't make any new friends or have any particular zany adventures this time, but I did enjoy myself.

(Left): Projected image from the ceiling onto one of the low tabletops at Tabu.

The music seemed unfamiliar to me at Tabu - energetic but practically from some unknown genre. So I asked the DJ what he was playing. "We play progressive House music," he said patronizingly. "No, no, what are you playing?", I insisted. He said it was 'The Drill,' by "The Edge." I will have to locate that.

The girls do their Cirque du Soleil inspired act at Studio 54. Like the Cirque girls, they rose from the floor on chrysalis-like body wraps, but they are considerably more hemmed-in by the numerous racks of lights above the dance floor than the Cirque girls would be. So they pose a lot, which works just fine for me!

What Plummets In Vegas, Stays In Vegas

John and Mike explained what happened (paraphrasing):

John: We had come out of the bicycle convention and we were walking on the sidewalk on The Strip in front of the Wynn Casino, when we looked up at the escalators people use to get to the pedestrian walkway across The Strip. There was this guy, probably a fellow biker, about 20 years old, who was going up the escalator, but on the outside: his hands were on the rail, but he was stepping along the outer metal flange. I looked away briefly, then *bang!* he fell from the top, 20 feet onto the sidewalk, right in front of us.

Mike: He fell on his side. He didn't move at all for at least 20, maybe 30 seconds, until he started moaning slightly, as his friends gathered around.

John: If we had been back in Oklahoma City, I would have rushed over and said "Oh my God! What happened? Can we help?" But here in Las Vegas, you wonder if this sort of thing is normal, people falling from great heights onto the sidewalk. So, we stepped past and let his friends call the ambulance.

So, what happened? Looking at the top of the escalator, at where the plexiglass barrier would prevent you from continuing further, it would seem like child's play to simply push oneself up and over the handrail and jump back onto the escalator. But if one hesitates, for whatever reason, then you have to start moving your hands over each other, interweaving them, to continually maintain contact with the handrail. It would be be altogether too easy to let go of the handrail altogether for an instant, and if one's weight is also back - if one isn't already standing erect - then you'll fall!

I can see the temptation. It looks SO easy! Looks may be deceptive in this case, however. Not the first time in Las Vegas that looks deceived.

My Trip To Las Vegas - Brave Man In A 21st-Century Transportation Dystopia

Just returned from a whirlwind two-day trip to Las Vegas to see my old college friend, John Wright, who was in town briefly himself to attend the Interbike Bicycling Convention. My head hurts, my feet hurt, I have no money, and I'm SO sleepy - gee, it sounds like tech week at DMTC!

I had three unexpected tasks just before leaving, yet I still managed to make the uneventful Wednesday midafternoon flight (slow traffic helped). Because of poor planning, I left two tasks unarranged: I had no room, and I had no transportation. Fact is, I couldn't decide whether or not my visit was so brief that my usual practice, a car rental, was pointless. Finally, at the Las Vegas Airport, I decided to rent a car, but there were none available: too many big conventions in town. Stymied, I took an ALC shuttle bus to the Strip instead. I sat in the stifling back of the bus, next to a wizened little Jewish man from New York, who assured me that things in Las Vegas just weren't the way they used to be.

Our bus bounced like a pinball from one side of the Strip to the other, from the Rio to the Imperial Palace, to Caesar's Palace, to the Flamingo Hilton, eventually ending up at the Riviera, where John Wright was staying with his bike shop employee, Mike Boyd. At the Rio, I watched a young, harried, apparently-tardy woman employee use her econo-car to nearly bowl over a torpid jogger struggling in the unexpected 90-degree warmth. At Caesar's Palace, we parked in the driveway directly under the upraised tail of a rearing faux-marble stallion. So uplifting!

At the hotel, I discovered they had no rooms: too many big conventions in town. Fortunately, John and Mike just then arrived from their convention, and John offered the spare bed in his room. Whew!

Transportation along The Strip is aided by the presence of a frequently-scheduled, double-decker city-sponsored bus service called "The Deuce." Like all things with card-related names in Las Vegas, sometime The Deuce helps, and sometimes it doesn't.

After dinner with John and Mike, I boarded The Deuce, bound for the MGM Grand for the evening. Shortly after boarding, the bus driver announced to the lower-level, standing room crowd that there were more seats upstairs "for the brave." Never having been on a double-decker bus before, I started with anticipation towards the stairwell. A woman said "Look! A brave man!" People laughed, and started applauding. I pumped my fist in the air to encourage them. When I arrived upstairs, they were applauding too. So silly!

Returning from the MGM Grand, at 5 a.m., the bus was only somewhat-less crowded than it had been earlier. A man in a sleeveless T-Shirt groused about unnecessary air conditioning.

On Thursday morning, I headed back down The Strip again, intending on getting off at Flamingo Rd. in order to thenceforward walk across Interstate Highway 15 to the Gold Coast Casino, where I was going to meet another old college friend and Las Vegas resident, Ira Gershin, for lunch at the buffet - all the time he could afford on a busy workday. Gabbing with a fellow rider, I missed my stop, and ended up at Tropicana Ave. Knowing now how slow The Deuce's return trip could be, I decided to walk to my destination, 2.1 miles, which I made in time, but only because I had an hour to do it.

Flamingo Road has a pedestrian walkway across I-15 on its northern side. I, of course, elected to cross on the primitive, exposed, and dangerous south side. Homeless folks bummed cash from the turning traffic. Assorted trash was everywhere, including a squashed pigeon. The saving grace was a humble honeybee gathering nectar.

After a pleasant lunch, I returned the same dangerous way back, this time to see the Titanic Exhibition at the Tropicana. I took two detours. I crossed the street to The Palms, and held the door open as two glamorous women, and one beefy guy entered. Beefy guy uttered into his cell phone 'you are too quick to admit that.' My curiosity piqued - you are too quick to admit what? - I followed the glamorous trio through the casino, but broke off when they entered a cafe. Later, I detoured to try and figure out the purpose of an obscure building, unmarked except for a street number. Seemed like a sensitive place - even the trash bins were surrounded by razor fencing. Was it an exclusive strip club, maybe? I was going to ask the homeless guys, but they had headed off to Del Taco with their 'earnings.' The highlight of the return walk was a car slowing to make a turn. A pretty woman rolled down her passenger-side window and spat just in front of me. Did I look homeless too? Or was it something she ate? Maybe the squab was squashed pigeon? Who knows?

After the Titanic exhibition, and another half-mile or so of walking, I tried to return to the Riviera on The Deuce, but rush-hour crowds had utterly overwhelmed the bus line. Entry was NOT possible. So I frantically hoofed it back through the mob along The Strip, 2.5 miles, from the Tropicana to the Riviera, in an hour. The Deuce was so slow that even on foot I kept pace with it, northwards, nearly as far as Flamingo Rd. Ohmigod! So much walking (2.1 x 2 + 0.5 + 2.5 = 7.2 miles) and the day was not over!

Southbound Deuce was better, as John and I traveled towards the Mandalay Bay in order to see "Mamma Mia." Still, the three-mile trip took an hour, and we counted ourselves lucky. Fellow "Mamma Mia" goers on the bus were getting increasingly-agitated that they might miss the show, despite their best efforts.

After the show, the northbound return trip on The Deuce was just the worst! Thousands of people were being dumped onto the streets from multiple shows all at the same time. The bus driver was crabby and exasperated with the swarm of people he evidently considered stupid, particularly those going up and down the stairwell while the bus was in motion. At one point, several people entered the bus through the exit door, and melted inconspicuously among the packed passengers without paying. The driver threatened to halt the bus altogether until the miscreants paid. The threat was hollow, though: we were barely-moving anyway. John, who is known for his patience, began muttering darkly about how Las Vegas was one big Rube Goldberg machine run amok.

This morning, since the ALC shuttle bus return trip to the airport had to be arranged on the hour, I arose at 5:20 a.m. in order to make the 6 a.m. appointment. Since there were so many no-shows on this driver's appointed route, I ended up at the airport at 6:30 a.m., a full three hours before my flight time. What was I going to do with all this extra time? Fortunately, while buying a newspaper, the morning rush-hour security-screening lines grew from outrageous to darn near Brobdignagian, so now I knew for certain how I was going to spend my time. Amusing TSA videos on an endless loop, featuring well-known Las Vegas celebrities, advised people how to avoid security delays. I wished to throttle these celebrities. A chagrined woman cut lines in order to try and make her flight - I felt for her embarrassment. An unexpected gap in the lines gave me a moment's rest from claustrophobia just when I began muttering darkly about how Las Vegas was one big Rube Goldberg machine run amok.

Las Vegas has a very weak government. Much of The Strip itself is outside the city limits of Las Vegas, and within the amorphous, obscure boundaries of the Township of Paradise, where business rules. Transportation issues have been privatized and corporatized, to the detriment of many, many people. As the decades pass, the federal government is apparently adopting the same kind of approach.

Sad, but one must make one's compromises: Next time, despite the assault on the public weal each additional vehicle represents, rent a car!

Must....Go.....Irresistable.....Pull

John's annual bicycle convention is being held in Las Vegas this week, and he asked if I wanted to meet him there, just like we both did in 2003.

Does a ball roll downhill?

So, the blog will take a brief hiatus. I hope to report back late on Friday.....

Approaching Victoria Crater

Mars Rover Opportunity is close enough to Victoria Crater (which has about 0.6 of the diameter of Meteor Crater, Arizona) that it can see the rim. Oh joy!

Garrulous Clarifications

W. in South Carolina (a high school and college classmate of mine) asks for some more detail regarding some blog entries here:

• I don't remember that shooting at West Mesa HS. Tell me about it.
• Why do you think California's per capita electricity consumption has flattened, and the US consumption has been rising?
• I heard "Air America" is bankrupt. It never ran here, so I don't know much about it. Have you listened to it? Why do you suppose it failed?

What I recall of the West Mesa shooting was that there had been some kind of romantic rivalry going on, and one student waylaid the other in the gym, shooting him in the abdomen, and severely injuring him. But all of this happened before we arrived on school buses to school, so there was no panic at the school. Instead, what I recall - just about the only thing I recall - is the presence of marksmen on the roofs. Unsettling. Wish I could recall what year that happened. The students were from the area of the school, and not the North Valley, and involved no one we knew. It was a harbinger of the black/Hispanic race brawls that started troubling West Mesa the year AFTER we graduated.

The benign California climate helps keep per capita energy consumption low, in general, compared to the rest of the country. New air pollution laws and regulations are probably indirectly responsible for the flattening that started in the 70's. Heavy, electricity consuming industries closed down, one by one, and moved offshore. And the construction of large power plants, particularly coal-powered plants, stopped. California incrementally adopted a different model of power production. Instead of few, large coal-powered plants (the Tennessee Valley model) California adopted many, smaller power plants, most natural-gas powered. Electricity is transported shorter distances, and hence there are fewer losses due to resistance. My suspicion is the California model is more efficient. It's not necessarily the best model (California is far from the Texas and Alberta natural gas fields, and the California gas pipeline infrastructure is inadequate, particularly near San Diego), which is leading to high prices for natural gas, but I suspect it's also leading to better use of electricity.

In the 2001 power crisis, certain that all hell was breaking loose, I quickly outfitted my house with the newly-available compact fluorescent bulbs, and got rid of almost all incandescent bulbs. I was trying to instantly reduce my power consumption, to avoid what seemed like inevitable sky-high electrical rates. Amazingly, my power consumption immediately dropped 45%! Enough people did that statewide that power consumption was depressed for several years, and only now is increasing, mostly in response to higher population.

Interestingly, Sacramento has two Air America stations, both on AM. I've heard these reports that Air America has failed, but I've also heard Al Franken boasting on Air America that the predicted failure hasn't transpired. I have no idea which is correct. Air America has struck me as quite underpowered, available on the broadcast band only on AM, so if it's failing, it could simply be one star's salary (Franken's) and inadequate advertising revenue. In place of ads, sometimes you hear campaign messages on behalf of quixotic crusades (e.g., Impeach George Bush) and so you know that they're starving for revenue. The radio talent is uneven: Al Franken and Randi Rhoades are great, but the recently-fired Mike Malloy was far too brittle and unfunny for my taste. I think there's a market for Air America, but it will require some staying power, a bigger collection of stations, and maybe some better talent. The same could have been said about conservative radio about 20 - 25 years ago.

W. adds:

Are you saying that the compact fluorescent lights are saving you significant money? How much per month? How many bulbs? I imagine the light looks "fluorescenty"?

BTW, I hadn't heard about the race troubles at WMHS. What happened there

In 2001, when I ditched all the incandescent bulbs I feasibly could from the house, the monthly electrical bill fell from $55 to about $30 (~ 40 to 45% drop). It's been creeping up lately - I'm keeping more lights on - but the drop was startling. The number of bulbs changed was about fifteen, so changing one bulb could mean nearly two dollars a month in savings.

What made the compact fluorescents appealing, beyond cost, was that they do much better color rendering than they used to in the past - the engineers have been busy improving the product - so, while they weren't quite as warm and sunny as the incandescents, they were perfectly satisfactory for almost all purposes. The color isn't fluorescenty or clinical. My only complaint was that when they first came on, they seemed a bit dim, perhaps requiring a warm-up. But like I say, the trade-off was more than satisfactory.

In 1975 and 1976, there were several brawls at West Mesa, between blacks & Hispanics. I remember reading about it in the paper. Since we weren't there anymore, and our remaining friends weren't the brawling types, I had no firsthand information on what had happened. What worried people at the time was the unexpected racial component to the fighting.

W. adds:

Al Gore's movie "Inconvenient Truth" is making people think here in South Carolina. Since it came out, many fellow conservatives who are not scientists have been asking me what I thought about global warming, do I think it's real, etc. Quite different from Fahrenheit 911, which I don't think impressed anybody at all around here who wasn't already anti-Bush.

I think Michael Moore is a brilliant propagandist, but he plays fast and loose with the truth at times. I could see how that would be off-putting to people. The worst that can be said about Al Gore is he is practicing bait-and-switch: addressing global warming may not succeed, but it might improve air quality instead.

I've often thought that there is nothing about global warming theories that would be, a priori, offensive to conservatives. Oil people, in particular, have always worried about resource depletion. (People I know), as conservative as they get, and utterly sarcastic about greenhouse gas regulatory schemes, nevertheless seem to be quietly dabbling with investments in Norwegian deep-sea CO2 sequestration.

The auto people are the ones to worry about. They are hard-wired to the lizard brain of the American consumer, the most irrational pack of humans on the planet.

People Who Can't Remember S***

Keith Drum describes a world where no one remembers even the basics about how things happen. Wasn't it FDR who said that, in the political world, nothing happens by chance? Rachel Morris describes how White House staffers have been trying to figure out where the Talk Radio kerfuffle regarding illegal immigration came from:

Staffers listened to hours of talk radio and found that the obsession with illegal immigration on talk radio had appeared virtually from nowhere.

Appeared from nowhere? Give me a break! KFBK's DJ Mark Williams, in Sacramento, started on the illegal immigration bandwagon almost immediately after the California Recall Election, in October 2003. By November, 2003, it was a staple of Sacramento Talk Radio - the next enthusiasm, after the California Recall. It was a meme consciously placed on the air waves by the usual suspects of the California Right - Howard Kaloogian, et al.

Appeared from nowhere? You bet your fat A it came right from right-wing central!

Obsession

It's getting harder to blame her though:

Well, I know you're getting tired talking to the cops, especially after I fell asleep in the shed the other day, so when she pulled up in the drive way, I high-tailed it out the back way, out the walkway into the front yard. But she followed me, and started throwing things at me from the front yard. So, I went around the corner and parked my bike at the curb - one street corner is just as good as another when you're homeless - but she followed me, and stared at me, and I figured she'd called the cops, and if she threw things at me again and hit me, I'd press charges (although I wouldn't actually do that), so I just moved on.

A Letter To SARTA

Juan Ramos sends the following letter to SARTA. I reply:

Your opinion is widely-held among many people, maybe even a majority, and it's odd that SARTA takes little action on it.

It was great seeing you last night! That's what the Ellys do best - bring together everyone in one place, even if only for a night. - Marc

Here's Juan's letter:

In the fall of 2000, I attended my very first Elly Awards Ceremony. After enduring four hours of assault to my eardrums from the screaming audience majority under the age of 18 and a very sore bottom from the dreadful wooden seats at Luther Burbank High School auditorium; I decided to write a letter to SARTA. Just to make sure I was taken seriously, I also included a check for $500.00. I strongly suggested that two separate ceremonies be held: One for youth, high school and college productions, essentially educational theatre. And one for community theatres only. This would allow the youth element to thrive in their . . . youth at their very own ceremony and in the process bring much needed dignity and sophistication to the community theatre element, allowing for things like a pre-ceremony cocktail hour, silent auction, etc. Much to my surprise my letter was published in the SARTA newsletter and SARTA was set to have two separate ceremonies in the fall of 2001. Sacramento Bee Theatre critic Marcus Crowder read my letter and thanked me for voicing some of his concerns regarding the ceremony. Unfortunately for all of us, 911 put an abrupt halt to that and justifiably so. The unity and support was essential to our healing, so it was consolidated back into one ceremony.

I attended the 2006 Elly Awards Ceremony only because I was a nominee. Not an uncommon reason to attend, I suspect. I had not attended one since my first experience in 2000. Although a more streamlined version in a more appropriate venue, some of the same problems still exist and a new one has been created. The youth and education categories again brought the ceremony to almost four hours. This was particularly hard in my case because my partner is in a wheelchair with two fractured ankles and his elderly mother also had problems sitting for such a long time. I noticed several empty seats after intermission. Despite the attempt by the presenters to extol the audience to hold their applause until after all the nominees were announced, it was pretty much a hopeless cause halfway through. The loud audience response was very appropriate and not a problem for me. It's good to see and hear support groups cheer on their winners, that's part of the overall excitement.

I was however, particularly bothered by the fact that community theatres were grouped with community colleges in the same categories. Although not so much an issue in the Drama and Comedy categories, it was particularly evident in the Musicals category. Of the 11 awards given, community colleges received 7. This included all of the technical awards, choreography, costumes, direction, musical direction and overall. I find that totally unfair. It comes down to the fact that every area community theatre struggles financially, because they rely totally on volunteers, their respective patrons and audience members. Musicals in particular require extra financial resources to cover the added demands of lighting, set design, costumes and musicians. Community colleges have a reliable source of income plus directors and technicians (professsionals) who are paid to do their work. The actors and technical assistants for the most part are students who are doing it for school credits and in my experience even non-students have to enroll for at least one credit if they are cast. Several exceptional local community musical theatre productions were also conspiciously absent from the nominations this year, I believe in favor of community college productions. Please don't tell me that there is a shortage of local community theatres or community colleges to warrant separate categories because I know that is not the case. Community colleges compete with each other in sports, they can compete with each other in theatre awards. Local community theatres also need to compete with each other to creatively enrich and stimulate their respective productions and audiences . . . on a level playing field. This is an inbalance that needs to be addressed.

Thank you for allowing me to voice my opinion for what it's worth. Thank you for the vital and essential services you provide to the local theatre community. Thank you for the Elly Awards.

Juan Ramos

2006 Elly Awards (aka Chelsea Baldree's Big Night)

Left: Chelsea Baldree on her big night! Chelsea won in the Child: Young People's Musicals category, for both Leading Actress (in "Crazy for You") as well as for Supporting Actress (in "Godspell"), both at Magic Circle Theatre.


(just as a technical aside, it's interesting how colors are rendered by a digital camera - Chelsea's dress was turquoise, but with so much gold in the background, the color came out here as lime-green.)


Courtesy of MikeMac, here is the link to the full list of nominees and winners.

The Crest Theater was filled to overflowing with the various theater groups, with the seating turf informally divided - El Dorado Musical Theater here, Woodland Opera House there, etc. When favorites won, the screaming girls carried the pitch to 'Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show' levels. I sat with the DMTC crowd. Monique McKisson was in fine fettle. After letting out a big whoop during applause, she said, "I am so NOT vocal! (was that my outside voice?)"

The show got off to a good start, with Sonny Sorrels from Lambda Players, discussing his utter surprise at winning. "I hated my character," he said. "The challenge grew every night." He also described his performance as 'shitty.' Everyone loved it!

Strange things happened. Paul Tomei won for Costume Design for "Much Ado About Nothing" at El Dorado High School, but apparently he had rented his costumes from a theater in Ashland, Oregon. Kelly Daniells won an Elly Award for Supporting Actress in "Nunsense" at the Woodland Opera House, but since no one from there leaped to grab it, RSP's Bob Baxter grabbed it instead, and plugged for "Mamma Mia" in Las Vegas. The Solano Community College representative mused aloud about the irony of getting a nomination for Lighting Design for a show entitled "Wait Until Dark." Cathy Rasmussen, who won for RSP's "King Arthur," talked about her previous two Elly Awards, one for playing a mole and another for playing a mouse.

Many friends won. Hail Ketchum-Wiggins. Emily Jo Seminoff (twice), on her 18th birthday. Denise Miles, Stephen Hatcher, Michael R.J. Campbell, etc., etc.

DMTC got only two awards (Robert Coverdell, for Supporting Actor in 'DMTC's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and Emily Jo Seminoff for Supporting Actress, Child: Young People's Musicals, in "Fiddler on the Roof, Jr."), but SARTA handed out many others Sunday night.

There were three musical presentations: the Prologue and Epilogue to The Acting Company's "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," 'Snuff That Girl,' from San Joaquin Delta College's "Urinetown," and 'Beautiful Candy,' from City College's "Carnival." Very good presentations!

Buffee Ann Gillihan and Kaitlin Flint both glittered as they did the plaque tote thing. There were several groups of co-presenters, including a girl from St. Francis I took a dance class with just the other day: Karissa Meagher. Michael R.J. Campbell and Stacy Johnson were very funny as they 're-enacted' a supposed brawl from when they both won the Elly Award for Set Design last year.

At intermission, I started wandering the Crest Theater with my bucket of popcorn, engaging others in conversation. S. & B. from Magic Circle expressed a common complaint, one frequently-expressed at DMTC, that the educational awards category made the evening too long. 'They should schedule it at a different night, or a different time, like they do with the technical awards at the Academy Awards. Also, colleges shouldn't be included - they have huge budgets compared to community theater, and are really in a different league altogether.' I heartily agreed, and expressed my best wishes.

Then, I wandered over to the Natomas Charter School area with my popcorn, and talked to Chloe Condon and friend. I congratulated her on her nomination for 'View from The Bridge,' and expressed the opinion that I was glad the educational category was being so well-represented tonight, and how supportive SARTA was of schools in general.

Afterwards, I felt a gnawing uncertainty about my statements, which, to the disinterested observer, might seem to be - contradictory? - but the feeling soon subsided. You learn many things in theater - the importance of consistency, hard work, emotional expression - but the most important thing you learn is: the importance of principles.

There were disappointments too, as there always will be on a night like this. Dave Lack didn't win for Set Design for RSP's "Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Dark Castle" - Juan Ramos deserved Set Design and Leading Actor awards for "The King and I" - etc., etc. *Sigh* What can you do? Sometimes the Ellys seem like a roulette wheel. Next year, I place all my bets on 'Red.'

Monique McKisson, Juan Ramos, and John Hancock. Both Juan Ramos and Marguerite Morris were nominated for "The King and I" (as well as Steve Isaacson for direction). I'm happy that John Hancock was out and about, though - his road has been a long one, and his mending continues.

Sacramento City College presents 'Beautiful Candy', from "Carnival." I really like that show, and I was happy that City College had such a large, colorful cast. Nevertheless, Monique chastised me: "it's not 'CAR-ni-val,' it's 'Car-ni-VAL!" Then she did that guttural French thing, that "cho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o."

El Dorado Musical Theater wins big. Debbie Wilson, Jeanette Caruso, and the gang.

Walking to the Crest Theater, I met Jeanette Caruso for the first time, and we talked about theater. She occasionally ushers for DMTC, and, disoriented by the bright lights of downtown Sacramento, she first mistook me for Steve Isaacson. I laughed and said that was because Steve and I have nearly-exactly the same eyeglass prescription. A fun, involved person, with a talented daughter (Lauryn). I will have to get up to see an EMT show soon!

"West Side Story" - Second Weekend

Left: Lieutenant Schrank (Mike Jones) gives the Jets a piece of his mind.


Second weekend of shows. Friday seemed to lack some energy, most notably during the 'Mambo.' Chino (Nick Peters) got a foot and/or ankle injury during the opening number, and limped around the rest of the evening. Ryan hit Henry a bit too hard on the head in the Krupke number, and afterwards, over at Applebee's Andy brained himself on a low-hanging light fixture. According to Steve, long-time community theater players David & Lori Holmes showed up for a final hurrah before moving to New Mexico (Rio Rancho???), where David will be managing a Verizon Wireless store.

Saturday was more energetic, but suffered a strange problem: the bass player decided, on a whim, that she was going to play drums during the Krupke number, and the odd percussion knocked the singers completely off-beat. Embarrassing! David Ott's family all showed up, though, which was great.

On Sunday, the bass player was let go. A reasonably good show, although Tony was a bit off the music at times. In the frightening near-rape scene in Doc's shop, Anybodys (Chloe Condon) got a bit excited and slapped Anita (Amanda Morish) in a breathtaking wayn - that realistic-sounding slap sounded real for a reason.

Talk to the hand!

Some pictures from Sunday's show:

"Cool"






Bernardo (right, David Ott) knifes Riff (Robert Coverdell).





Tony (Colby Salmon) and Maria (Chelsea Baldree) in the "Somewhere" ballet.



Tony (Colby Salmon) and Maria (Chelsea Baldree) in the "Somewhere" ballet.

Windstorm

The big windy time we had of it on Thursday and Friday complicated things, particularly with the terrible wildfires in Yolo County. It was hard to sleep too: branches brushing across my window became demons in my dreams, and the air filled with resuspended dust that had gathered on the tree leaves over the rainless prior six months. Cloudy the Rabbit liked the storm, though, because all the thrashing of tree leaves shook loose an entire salad of goodies into the back yard for her comestible entertainment.

The only notable story I had was something I saw driving to work, about 10 a.m., on Friday. As I was driving past a bus stop at 21st and Capital, a man standing under the bus shelter abruptly darted into 21st Street, just as a huge branch fell very close him from a large tree. A very close call! Hope my reflexes are as good as his when the big lumber comes for me!

Too Big

The Australian Army bought 18 Abrams tanks. Trouble is, they are just too large to get them to their base in Australia's interior:

THE army's newest frontline weapon, the Abrams battle tank, arrived in Australia yesterday and immediately encountered problems, with no rail transport available to carry the tank to the Northern Territory.

Its deployment will be further hampered because, at 68 tonnes, the Abrams is too heavy to travel across road bridges in the Northern Territory.

As the first 18 of the tanks were delivered to Port Melbourne, the operators of the Adelaide-to-Darwin railway said they lacked the equipment to carry them. Adelaide-based Freightlink said the tanks were too big.

"Freightlink has participated in a rail study with the implication for new rolling stock to be acquired," the company said.

It did not say when or if it intended to acquire the required rolling stock and suggested it was waiting for contracts to be signed with the Defence Department before going ahead with the purchase. A total of 59 refurbished tanks were bought from the US for $500 million.

Transporting them north by road is likely to be problematic.

A senior Northern Territory shire engineer said road bridges in the Katherine Shire had a maximum capacity of 50 tonnes, 18 tonnes less than the weight of one Abrams tank. Road trains weighing up to 50 tonnes are able to use the bridges by disconnecting a trailer, he said.

The tanks, described by federal Defence Minister Brendan Nelson as the best in the world, have a fuel economy as low as 200m a litre.

Cosmic

She may be wobbly, but she's a cosmic electrician:

An astronaut from the space shuttle Atlantis collapsed twice Friday during a welcome home ceremony, a wobbly return that officials attributed to the adjustment from 12 days at zero gravity.

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper left the hangar at Ellington Field through a side door but was not taken to a hospital. Officials said she was doing fine.

...Piper, a 43-year-old from St. Paul, Minn., is a commander in the Navy and was a mission specialist and cosmic electrician aboard the shuttle. She carried out two of the spacewalks, joining an elite club of only six other U.S. women and a single Russian woman who have made spacewalks.

Panda Bites Man, Man Bites Back

Via the Daily Rotten, an animal story:

A drunken Chinese tourist says he bit a panda who attacked him after he jumped into a zoo enclosure to "hug" the bear.

Zhang Xinyan, 35, had drunk four draught beers before deciding to enter the Beijing Zoo pen belonging to six-year-old male panda Gu Gu.

The startled Gu Gu bit both legs of his intruder, who responded by biting "the panda on its back", Mr Zhang was quoted by state media as saying.

Mr Zhang said he had not realised pandas could be violent. ..."I bit the panda on its back but its fur was too thick," Mr Zhang recalled. He went on: "No one ever said they would bite people. I just wanted to touch it."

Beware! There are more of them coming!

Courtesy on an E-Mail chain letter forwarded by my sister, Marra:

SICHUAN, China -- One zoo in southwest China has its hands full with 16 baby pandas.

The Sichuan Wolong Panda Protection and Breed Center is dealing with the results of a breeding boom -- 16 pandas have been born since July, 2005. The brood includes five sets of twins. The cubs are weighed and measured every five days by a special panda nurse.

The heaviest tips the scale at just over 24 pounds, while the lightest weighs about 11 pounds. The pandas are due to stop being suckled by their mothers in February, 2006 just about the time they'll start learning to walk. Once weaned, the panda cubs will attend panda kindergarten. In the meantime, more little ones are expected at the center, since 38 giant pandas were artificially impregnated.

Rio Linda High School Craziness

E. calls today, at noontime, and says that all hell has broken out Rio Linda High School. Yesterday, they caught a student with a gun. Today, with reports that shooting is imminent, dozens of screaming parents are demanding that their kids be released from classes, cops are swarming the campus, students are being hauled into a stockroom for confidential questioning, and both KXTV-10 and KCRA-3 television trucks are present, with reporters filing video feed.

Ah! The good olde days! Reminds me of my high school, in Albuquerque. I remember one morning in 1973, when one student shot another in the West Mesa High School gym. When our school bus rolled up to the school to let us off, marksmen were on all the rooftops. But we were tough. None of us dreamed of calling our parents.

Tough - or stupid?

William Baker, Stylist, Is Back

If rumor is to believed, he had been urging Kylie to get out of her comfort range before everything all fell apart.

I'm glad he's back.


Left: Kylie Minogue, endeavoring to get out of her comfort range, preparing for her upcoming revised "Showgirl" tour (and taking a few Calendar shots as well).

Così Fan Tutte - Sacramento Opera

Left: Intermission, Tuesday night


Went to the Sacramento Community Center Tuesday night and saw "Così Fan Tutte."

What a wonderful show! Great voices! Cute, and silly and risqué.

According to Wikipedia:

Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti, K. 588, is a dramma giocoso by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Lorenzo da Ponte.

Written and composed at the suggestion of the Emperor Joseph II, the libretto was originally intended to be set to music by Mozart's colleague Antonio Salieri who completed only parts of the first act and then broke off his work. The first performance of Mozart's setting took place at the Burgtheater in Vienna on January 26, 1790.

Mozart and Da Ponte took as a theme "fiancée swapping" which dates back to the 13th century, with notable earlier versions being those of Boccaccio's Decameron and Shakespeare's play Cymbeline. It also incorporates elements of the myth of Procris as found in Ovid.

The plot did not offend Viennese sensibilities of the time, but throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries it was considered risqué. The opera was rarely performed, and when it did appear it was presented in one of several bowdlerized libretto. After World War II, it regained its place in the standard operatic repertoire.

There are many recordings of Così fan tutte, and it is frequently performed, being the fifteenth most performed opera in North America according to Opera America. The play Così, written by playwright Louis Nowra, features mental patients acting this opera. Many extracts from the opera were used as incidental music in the 2004 movie Closer.

The title literally means "Thus do all (women)" but is often translated as "Women are like that". The words are sung by the three men in Act II, Scene xi, just before the finale. Moreover, da Ponte used the line "Così fan tutte le belle" (thus do all beautiful women) in an earlier opera with Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro (in Act I, Scene vii).

Jennifer Lin and Tom Osborn, Ambassadors for Sacramento Opera, ambassadize away at intermission. At left edge of photo, Sacramento Opera Executive Director Rod Gideons.

Jennifer says that of the three shows this season, "Così Fan Tutte" has the smallest cast. The other shows, "Aida," and "Carmen," are much larger.

Jerry Frink, with the most innovative fashion statement of the night. Why did Jerry decide to attend the Opera (by the way, the best-dressed crowd I've seen in Sacramento) in a pink boa?

Jerry is a frequent protestor against the Iraq War, whether daily at the 16th and J street corner, or on Broadway, or elsewhere in the downtown Sacramento area. He was infuriated, and politicized, by the Bush Administration's efforts to place a gay marriage ban in the Constitution. Hence, the pink boa: the personal becomes political. Jerry goes everywhere with the pink boa these days.

Jerry opined that America was becoming something of a fascist state, susceptible to Orwellian double-speak, and that people must protest that trend, as was done to greater effect during the Vietnam War. I started expounding my theory that the so-called "War on Terror" was even better suited to totalitarian purposes than the three empires Orwell foresaw when he wrote "1984" in 1948 (I've discussed some these things here), since maintaining static empires is a big drain on resources, whereas the "War on Terror" is much easier to maintain - a pocket kind of war.

I began excitedly getting into the politics, but then I noticed Jerry was beginning to politely edge away from me, as if maybe I was just a wee bit too rabid for his taste. *sigh*

I need to get a boa - maybe a rainbow boa, since Jerry has cornered pink in Sacramento.

Tribute

Left: Bindi Irwin

"My daddy was my hero - he was always there for me when I needed him," she said, reading from a piece of paper.

"He listened to me and taught me so many things, but most of all he was fun.

"I know that Daddy had an important job. He was working to change the world so everyone would love wildlife like he did."

She said her father built a hospital and bought land to give animals a safe place to live and she wanted to continue his legacy.

"I don't want Daddy's passion to ever end," she said.

"I want to help endangered wildlife just like he did."

Bindi said she would miss her father.

"I have the best Daddy in the whole world and I will miss him every day," she said.

"When I see a crocodile I will always think of him and I know that Daddy made this zoo so everyone could come and learn to love all the animals.

"Daddy made this place his whole life and now it's our turn to help Daddy."

Steve Irwin State Memorial Today

In Queensland, with 5000 guests. 300 million are forecast to watch on Australian and international TV. PM John Howard, among many others, will attend. Speculation focuses on whether or not Irwin's daughter, Bindi, will speak.

Listening to B105.3, I've been trying to log the advertisements they feature on Brisbane's premier pop music station, for a variety of products, including:

• a weight loss program;
• a credit card;
• a Comedy Club;
• B105's 'Shag Me, Bag Me' amateur beauty promo;
• a theme song contest for 'Neighbours';
• two different kinds of sun tan body lotions;
• the Hard Rock Cafe;
• Harvey Norman stores;
• career opportunities for personal trainers;

but most surprisingly, given the radio station's demographics;

• a self-help, will-making kit.

Hmmm...... Something Irwin could have used, but perhaps neglected to do.

Chubby Bunny

Beware the Chubby Bunny:

LONDON, Ont. -- A 32-year-old woman was in critical condition yesterday after choking during a marshmallow-eating contest at the city's Western Fair.

Paramedics were called to the fairgrounds just after 7 p.m. Tuesday after the woman began to choke and collapsed.

The unidentified woman was taking part in the Chubby Bunny contest, in which contestants stuff as many marshmallows as they can into their mouths.

California Electricity Consumption Per Capita

Interesting graphic, via the Washington Monthly, from The New York Times (and the California Energy Commission):

No Power

I know I'll spend my retirement years getting into fixes like this:

A mall security guard who noticed a "call 911, help" note in a car window likely saved the lives of two elderly women who became trapped when their vehicle's battery died and the automatic locks failed, according to a Local 6 News report.

Officials said two women in their 80s were recovering Saturday from heat stroke and heat exhaustion after spending several hours trapped inside a Cadillac at the Volusia Mall.

Arrogant Governmental Intrusion? Or Time To Lose The Jelly Belly?

In Australia, government and entertainment seem to be even more intertwined than in the U.S.:

Radio shock-jock Sandilands attacked contestant Jessica Mauboy about her weight during the second elimination show last night.

Mauboy, who was wearing jeans, a white T-shirt and black jacket, appeared stunned by the advice that she "lose the jelly belly".

Victoria's Youth Affairs Minister Jacinta Allan said Mr Sandilands' remark was humiliating and had the potential to do significant psychological damage to all the young people in the audience.

"Kyle sent a message to millions of young viewers dreaming of a career in the music industry – don't bother if you're not stick thin," Ms Allan said.

She said mental and physical health issues relating to negative body shapes were already common among young people.

"Young people are bombarded with images of impossibly thin models and then have to sit through insensitive assessments such as the one delivered by Kyle on Australian Idol.

"It amounts to an assault on the self-esteem," she said.

"Australian Idol promotes young Australian talent ... unfortunately it can also indulge in needless humiliation with the potential for negative flow-on effects to its audience."

"West Side Story" Opening Weekend

Seemed like a good opening night. People had a few bumps and bruises. Scene changes mostly went OK. I believe Arthur said there were 134 in the audience, 6 shy of the number in the audience for "Wizard of Oz", making "West Side Story's" opening night the second-most-popular so far in the New Theater.

One strange thing was Katherine Vanderford rear-ending someone just short of the Yolo Causeway on Friday night (in the stop-and-go traffic, the woman ahead of her stopped just too quickly). It's always been my fear that I'd have an accident just prior to a show and couldn't make the show in time. Fortunately, Katherine's accident wasn't so bad, and she didn't miss anything.

I'm surprised by the different number of teenagers asking me about Lieutenant Schrank's reference to the "DTs": delirium tremens. According to Wikipedia:

Delirium tremens (colloquially, the DTs, "the horrors", "the shakes" or "rum fits") is an acute episode of delirium that is usually caused by withdrawal or abstinence from alcohol following habitual excessive drinking. Delirium tremens can also appear after a rapid reduction in the amount of alcohol being consumed by heavy drinkers, or as a complication of withdrawal from benzodiazepine or barbiturates. It only occurs in individuals with a history of constant, long-term alcohol consumption. Delirium tremens typically manifests about 18 to 24 hours after discontinuation of alcohol consumption, but can appear on the second or third day of abstinence.

Five percent of acute ethanol withdrawal cases progress to delirium tremens. Unlike the withdrawal syndrome associated with opiate or stimulant addiction, delirium tremens (and alcohol withdrawal in general) can be fatal. Mortality can be up to 35% if untreated, though if treated early, death rates may be as low as 5%.

The fact that most teenagers today DON'T KNOW what the DTs is a statement about what a happy society we really live in, and how few people are familiar with end-stage alcoholism. A similar group of teenagers, 50 or 80 years ago, would have known all too well, through bitter personal experience with parents and other relatives, just what an evil it is. I knew about the DTs as a teenager (early 70's), but only because it had a special horror for my father, and he talked about it - A LOT!

Oh, happy age!

Then again, those teenagers of olde never heard of AIDS either, so maybe there is a conservation principle at work - Conservation of Pain in the World: exterminate smallpox, and you get hantavirus instead.

On Saturday, the Cokes spilled after the Scene I Doc's Shop scene. The two Shop carts bumped into each other, and the Cokes spilled. The ensuing Rumble scene was more tense than normal as a result, because there was no time to inform the Jets and the Sharks of the danger. Only Andy stepped in it, though - he said he never knew there was anything wet on-stage at all.

On Sunday, Dannette got skinned knees after getting hit from behind and falling, while removing clothes dummies from the bridal shop scene. It's so easy to get hurt during scene changes!

Speaking as Officer Krupke, my nightly tumble backwards went OK, for the most part, but I bruised my upper hip on Saturday night. I generally practice beforehand, tumbling backwards several times in the dressing room, but on stage, Andy (who is on all-fours right behind me as Ryan pushes me from the front) gets in the way, so the tumble over him is generally clunky and awkward. Buffee said she thought it looked painful. Sometimes, yes!

Las Cruces Under A Cloud

Extortion:

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Las Cruces police are warning residents that someone threatened to randomly shoot people if city leaders failed to hand over what they described as a "substantial" ransom.

The city received the second of two threatening letters Friday afternoon, but police remained tightlipped about details of the demand, including how much money was involved. They did say the demand called for a "substantial amount."

At a news conference late Friday, Lt. Randy Lara said he didn't want to alarm residents but he urged them to watch for any suspicious activity.

"The letter did reference that Las Cruces residents will be shot at random if the city didn't comply with the extortion," Lara said.

Community Musical Theater - A Cult?

Following up on James McElroy's suggestion that Musical Theater meets some of the definitions of a cult, and like a good devotee, seeking guidance, I looked up his link to the Rational Enquirer BC's article from 2000:

What features are necessary, then, for a group to be properly called a cult? A cult attempts to impose a certain worldview on its members while rigidly preventing exposure to and arguments from competing worldviews. A cult typically has a charismatic leader whom the membership believes to be infallible, and thus above questioning.

Hmmm...Close. If you try to escape - here!, rearrange the props table. Except maybe the infallible part. I chase after Steve all the time, relentlessly questioning him about this and that, but distracted by 50 other weightier matters, he sometimes doesn't answer, so is that the same as having an infallible leader above questioning? A fallible sphinx-like leader?

The article continues: "A more appropriate definition of a cult would demand that a group exhibit most, if not all, of the following attributes:"

the group must demonstrate a considerable degree of deviance from the norms of civilized behavior observed by the more mainstream social, political, or religious organizations that try to attract adherents and shape their behavior.

With all the singers and computer geeks, and avid TV watchers....yeah, we're deviant, and proud of it!

it should be shown to cause some non-trivial harm to individuals, groups, or society as a whole.

Nah, we're just silly...

the group must engage in “thought reform” tactics to achieve conformity and compliance (i.e., tactics of the sort described by the American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton in his classic books on so-called “brainwashing”). These include systematic application of propaganda and social engineering techniques. Many would-be cult leaders have probably never read a textbook on these subjects but the effective ones seem to have a natural knack for such manipulativeness.

This is what the T-Shirts are for. That's why I have a whole closet full of them.

cult leaders typically demand social isolation of followers to insulate them from contrary opinions and exert the maximal force of their own manipulations. Within the cult, they try to prevent proselytes from having the time or solitude to reflect on what they are being told. Physical and emotional exhaustion are often used as a conversion tool.

Boy, that sounds like Musical Theater! Sorry about the 3 a.m. cue-to-cue rehearsal, but, as they say, the show must go on! And don't be late for the extra-special dance rehearsal at 8 a.m.!

there must be some degree of deception in recruiting efforts and the use of strong psychological or physical threats in order to retain those who join.

Don't worry, you'll have plenty of free time AFTER the show opens!

there must be a rigid hierarchy that controls all information fed to the group and an attempt to isolate members from contact with non-adherents.

Yup, that's the DMTC Board for you! We are SO effective controlling the flow of information, three-quarters of the time, we have no idea ourselves what is happening.

there must be undue demands for money, work, sexual favors, further recruiting efforts, etc.

Sexual favors? Where?

there is usually some claim of supernatural sanction in order to justify the intrusive powers and special privileges enjoyed by the group’s leader and his or her entourage.

God created DMTC!

Without most of these attributes being present, a group probably should not be labeled as a cult.

Do cult leaders possess secret powers of persuasion that are unique and irresistible? Given the strong hold they exert and the dramatic results they obtain, it may hard to believe, but the answer to this question is “no.” Cults use basically the same social conditioning and indoctrination methods described in any social psychology text.

Hmmm....I still don't think DMTC is a cult.

But you have to wonder about the names. Woodland Opera House is fairly bland name, and most people who perform there often seem pretty clear-eyed. DMTC sounds like the KGB or the CIA - a secret society with special powers. Runaway Stage sounds like a hideout characterized by an absolute evasion of responsibility, a place full of spendthrifts and fugitives. The spookiest name of all, though, is Magic Circle Theater - Ooooowwwweeeeeooooo!

The article asks "how can we recognize a cult? A fair use of the cult label for a questionable organization would require the presence of most of the items on the following checklist.

Does the group:

engage in deceptive recruitment practices? (recruiters typically disguise the true nature and aims of the group when seeking converts)

You will always be the lead player! You are bound to get an Elly Award!

tend to target vulnerable individuals, as outlined above?

How many years of vocal lessons have you taken? Good! You're vulnerable!

offer unconditional affirmation and support initially, but soon make its continuance contingent on obedience?

Blackout! Move the furniture piece! MOVE THE FURNITURE PIECE!

have a closed social system that makes a special effort to isolate acolytes from family, friends, etc.?

Not deliberately - only by time demands!

use constant bombardment with pro-group and pro-leader messages and exclusion of other messages?

Go Kings! Go Orchestra! Go DMTC!

have a rigid, authoritarian hierarchy?

There's the Board again!

have a leader and ruling clique that are perceived to possess infallible insight, supernatural powers, etc.? Do they claim to have been chosen by some higher authority to rule, and thus to be excused from the normal social restrictions on one’s behavior?

The DMTC Board was chosen by Zeus. Now, about those sexual favors again?

have an eclectic, often muddled and internally contradictory, set of teachings - usually a magic-laden philosophy that claims to have infallible answers to those “big ticket” questions of existence?

Boy, that's DMTC to a tee!

Close James, but no cigar - we're not quite a cult. Now, if you don't mind, I have to render unto Steve that which is Steve's....

Tropical Storm Lane - A Hurricane John Doppelganger?

After my Hurricane John forecasting debacle, I wanted the Pacific to just shut up for awhile, but the Pacific has other ideas.

Tropical Storm Lane may be following a similar path to Hurricane John, and may well end up in the same place, bumping up the Baja coast, and crashing into Sonora and Sinaloa, causing even more flooding excitement in the El Paso, TX area.

Once again, there are indications that the storm may perturb AZ, without actually hitting it very hard. There's even a smaller satellite storm forecast to be located to the west of Hurricane Lane, and interacting with it in a complex way, akin to Hurricane Kristy and its complex interactions with Hurricane John.

I'm bitter, but still hoping for rain. That, after all, is the time-honored Arizona way!

"Oliver!" Auditions, September 17 & 18, At DMTC

Audition dates: Sunday, September 17 and Monday, September 18, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.
Callbacks: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.
Directed & Choreographed by Jan Isaacson At the Hoblit Performing Arts Center, 607 Pena Drive

Character Descriptions:

• Oliver (9-13 years old) strong boy soprano, loving, sad, hopeful.
• Fagin-Character actor, must sing well, houses and trains pickpockets, miserly, welcoming
• Nancy-Strong belter, rough, kind, strong-will, sympathetic, Bill Sykes girlfriend
• Mr. Bumble-Legit Tenor, workhouse boss, mean, over bearing, pompous
• Widow Corney-Strong character actress, workhouse mistress, domineering, fussy, proud, sharp-tongued
• The Artful Dodger (12-25 years old) Fagin’s brightest pupil, friendly, optimistic
• Bill Sykes-Baritone-Bass, must sing, a villain who associated and does business with Fagin, rough, brutish, glowering, violent
• Bet-idolizes Nancy, pretty, sweet, strong-willed
• Mr. Sowerberry-Character role, funeral home owner, grim, formal, graceful
• Mrs. Sowerberry-Character actress, Funeral home owner’s wife, sour, middle-aged woman, mean
• Charlotte-Daughter of Funeral home owner, lazy, mean, sour-faced
• Noah Claypool-Lazy, shop keeping apprentice, mean, taunting, coward
• Mr. Brownlow-Wealthy gentleman, Oliver’s unknowing grandfather, kind, mannerly, sympathetic
• Mrs. Bedwin-Brownlow’s housekeeper, kind, motherly
• Dr. Grimwig-Aristocratic doctor for the wealthy, friendly
• Charlie Bates-2nd in command of Fagin’s boys
• Who Will Buy Sellers-Men and women legit singers.
• Fagin’s Boys-must sing and move well
• Workhouse Boys (girls and boys)
• Large Ensemble of singers and dancers (of all ages) who will fill in numerous roles
  

Performances November 10-Dec 3, 2006; Fridays and Saturdays at 8:15 p.m. and Sundays at 2:15 p.m.
You do not have to come both days. Please bring sheet music for a song that you already know and are comfortable singing. You do not have to sing the entire song, just enough to give the director and music director an idea of how well you can carry a tune and follow our piano player’s accompaniment (no pre-taped music or a cappella, please).

Just For A Tank Of Gas

An excellent series of articles from the Chicago Tribune, methodically tracing just what sorts of deals had to go down to get your next tank of gas to your pump nozzle.

Catching Up On The In-Box

MikeMac sent this one a month ago...a trailer of an upcoming movie featuring Robin Williams as a presidential candidate.

Pass The Potatoes, Please

Noel sent this link, where the Chicago Sun Times religion columnist ponders whether Baptists, among others, just eat way too much at church functions. I can't answer that question, but late night gluttony after DMTC shows has helped put the pounds on me:

"America is becoming known as a nation of gluttony and obesity, and churches are a feeding ground for this problem," says Ken Ferraro, a Purdue sociology professor who studied more than 2,500 adults over a span of eight years looking at the correlation between their religious behavior and their body mass index.

...Ferraro's most recent study, published in the June issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, is a follow-up to a study he published in 1998, where he found there were more obese people in states with larger populations of folks claiming a religious affiliation than elsewhere -- particularly in states with the most Baptists.

So it's not surprising that Ferraro's latest study found that about 27 percent of Baptists, including Southern Baptists, North American Baptists, and Fundamentalist Baptist, were obese.

Surely there are several contributing factors to such a phenomenon, but when Ferraro accounted for geography (southern cooking is generally more high-caloric), race and even whether overweight folks were attracted to churches for moral support, the statistics still seem to indicate that some churches dispense love handles as well as the love of the Lord.

Having attended a Southern Baptist church for most of my formative years, I was hardly shocked by Ferraro's discoveries. From the coffee (and doughnuts) hour after Sunday-morning worship, to the huge potluck dinners and the Sunday-night ice-cream socials, there was always food around, and it was rarely the lo-cal variety. Ambrosia salad. Seventeen different kinds of chicken/broccoli/cheese casserole. Banana-and-Nilla-wafer-pudding. Fried chicken. Barbecue chicken. Sweet tea. Those were the elements of our social sacraments at the Baptist church.

In religious traditions where drinking alcohol, smoking anything and even dancing are vices regularly preached against from the pulpit, overeating has become the "accepted vice," Ferraro says.

Or, as Homer Simpson so eloquently put it on his way to a First Church of Springfield picnic: "If God didn't want us to eat in church, he'd have made gluttony a sin."

...Food often is substituted for alcohol at Baptist and other conservative Protestant gatherings, Ferraro says. I once attended a wedding at a conservative Bible church where, instead of an open bar or champagne fountain, the bride and groom toasted their new beginning with a massive ice-cream sundae buffet.

...While some megachurches have fitness facilities and long have offered exercise classes as well as Bible studies, in most congregations you're still more likely to find a bake sale than a spinning class on any given Sunday.

Ferraro's study also found that about 20 percent of "Fundamentalist Protestants," (Church of Christ, Pentecostal, Assemblies of God and Church of God); about 18 percent of "Pietistic Protestants," (Methodist, Christian Church and African Methodist Episcopal), and about 17 percent of Catholics were obese.

By contrast, about 1 percent of the Jewish population and less than 1 percent of other non-Christians, including Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others), were tipping the scales with commensurate gusto.

"In my mind, one of the distinctive things about Christianity, particularly American Protestant Christianity, is we don't have any [dietary] behavior codes," said Daniel Sack of Chicago, a historian and author of the 2000 book, Whitebread Protestants: Food and Religion in American Culture.

"Islam does, Judaism does, Catholicism does, but basically there's nothing scriptural and in most [Protestant] traditions as long as you don't drink, you're fine. Particularly in that Baptist cohort, that's the only real rule."

"West Side Story" - Wednesday Night Rehearsal

This Round's On Me!

I wonder what the musical theater impact is on income?:

People who consume alcohol earn significantly more at their jobs than non-drinkers, according to a US study that highlighted "social capital" gained from drinking.

The study published in the Journal of Labor Research Thursday concluded that drinkers earn 10 to 14 percent more than teetotalers, and that men who drink socially bring home an additional seven percent in pay.

"Social drinking builds social capital," said Edward Stringham, an economics professor at San Jose State University and co-author of the study with fellow researcher Bethany Peters.

"Social drinkers are out networking, building relationships, and adding contacts to their BlackBerries that result in bigger paychecks."

The authors acknowledged their study, funded by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, contradicted research released in 2000 by the Harvard School of Public Health. "We created our hypothesis through casual observation and examination of scholarly accounts," the authors said. "Drinkers typically tend to be more social than abstainers."

The researchers said their empirical survey backed up the theory, and said the most likely explanation is that drinkers have a wider range of social contacts that help provide better job and business opportunities.

...The researchers found some differences in the economic effects of drinking among men and women. They concluded that men who drink earn 10 percent more than abstainers and women drinkers earn 14 percent more than non-drinkers.

However, unlike men, who get a seven percent income boost from drinking in bars, women who frequent bars at least once per month do not show higher earnings than women drinkers who do not visit bars.

"Perhaps women increase social capital apart from drinking in bars," the researchers said in an effort to explain the gender gap.

Reverse Graffiti

Paul Curtis challenges authorities by selectively cleaning dirty surfaces.

Idiocracy

Mike Judge's new movie sounds like a winner. It's going to be hard to find, though:

So when soldier Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) wakes up 500 years in the future, the result of a botched hibernation experiment, he finds the country hopelessly dense and incapable of solving the most basic problems. Buildings are teetering and collapsing. Garbage towers high in the streets. Farm fields are barren because a sponsor pumps salty energy drink into every place water used to be -- including the irrigation systems.

Most everyone in 2505 is a mouth-breathing lout, barely capable of forming a sentence. They've elected as president the guy who seems cool to them, a loudmouthed porn-star wrestler (unfailingly funny Terry Crews, the dad from "Everybody Hates Chris"). They pass their days consuming, defecating, fornicating and gawking at anything that goes boom. Then consuming some more. And because they don't know any better, they've let themselves be co-opted by corporate marketers, taking brands ("Frito") for names and wearing disposable clothes covered with ads.

"West Side Story" Photos - Monday Night Rehearsal

"Cool" - Doc's Shop




"Cool" - Doc's Shop





Riff (right, Robert Coverdell) chastises Bernardo (left, David Ott).

Tupac Shakur - Ten Years Gone

Odd cult, that. Still is:

Tupac Shakur, born Lesane Parish Crooks in June 1971, was raised by Afeni Shakur, a radical Black Panther who represented herself in a murder case in the late 1960s and won. His mother renamed him Tupac Shakur after Tupac Amaru II, an Incan revolutionary.

...Besides his high-profile shooting, Shakur left his mark in music. He's listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling rap and hip-hop artist ever, selling more than 73 million albums worldwide. Most of Shakur's songs are about growing up around violence and hardship, ghetto life, racism and his public feuds with fellow rappers, including The Notorious B.I.G, who was murdered six months after Shakur in a similar drive-by shooting.

As a teenager, Shakur read Shakespeare and Machiavelli's The Prince. Many of the lyrics on his album "All Eyez on Me," which was released the year before his death, reference classic works.

"Now rule two is a hard one, watch for phonies," Shakur wrote. "Keep yo' enemies close ... Watch yo' homies."

The Blob

Don't fool around with Mother Nature:

Nothing, it seems, can stop the mud. For more than three months, the hot, noxious goop has spewed up through a crack in the earth at a natural-gas exploration site, swamping everything in its path.

The expanding, surreal gray lake with the stench of rotten eggs has enveloped more than 10 square miles of land in eastern Java, Indonesia's most densely populated island. The flow has forced 8,000 to 10,000 people from their homes, engulfed about a dozen factories, contaminated fish farms and intermittently closed a major highway.

... Nerves have frayed over the slow and uneven response to the crisis by government agencies and Lapindo Brantas, the politically connected company with a controlling stake in the exploration project. Frustration spilled over last week when displaced villagers set fire to a camp of tents used by Lapindo workers.

... At the shore of the mud lake, white smoke billows ominously. Large bubbles burp at the center, marking the roughly 50-foot-wide crack, where temperatures reach about 140 degrees. Only rooftops and the tips of denuded trees poke above the surface of the mud, which is 20 feet deep in places.

...On the white wall of his home, Haryanto, 47, had scrawled, "Beware of Lapindo's henchmen." "I saw them on TV promising that they will reimburse everything, every little thing," he said angrily. "They promised that. That is why I still live here, with the mud. I don't want to go to the [market]. This is my house, and I want them to see that."

...Meanwhile, the mudflow continues. The chief of one flooded village recently offered a free house to anyone who could use magic to stop the flow. More than 60 people from around the country have tried, the chief said, but no one has succeeded.

He's Back!

El Niño.

Gary Weddle's Beard

He won't shave until Osama bin Laden is caught. With Dubya in charge, Weddle will no doubt be soon stepping on the beard's graying, frayed ends.

A New Bird

India has abundant natural riches:

A new bird species has been found in India, the first time such a discovery has been made here in more than 50 years, an astronomer and keen bird watcher said Tuesday.

The multicolored bird, Bugun Liocichla, was spotted in May in the remote Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh near the border with China, said Ramana Athreya, a member of Mumbai's Natural History Society.

Athreya, who found the bird, named it after the Bugun tribe, which lives in the area. The bird has a black cap, a bright yellow patch around the eyes and yellow, crimson, black and white patches on the wings, he told The Associated Press.

...Athreya caught two of the species, but released them after making detailed notes and taking photographs -- and keeping feathers that had worked loose in his net.

"We thought the bird was just too rare for one to be killed," Athreya said.

Dave's Continental Fans

Continental Europe might be unusually fertile soil for Dave Nachmanoff's folk/rock music. Dave has a Ph.D. in philosophy, and can easily use the heaviest intellectual artillery in what might superficially appear to be vapid, light-hearted folk music.

And every performer needs fans. True fans are hard to come by.

Dave Nachmanoff has a German fan named Stefan, who is doing his utmost to pave the way for Dave's music in continental Europe. Stefan writes:

Hi Mark,

Just got and read your guestbook entry - thanks a lot that you've thought of that and have done it!

It's unbelievable that as per my impression Dave's capacity hasn't reached this in this respect dreamy/bemused old Europe so far (the UK fans have always orientated more to the US of course, and he has been there several times), therefore we have had more US than European visitors on the temporary eu site until now. But I'm convinced that should change rapidly as soon as the Al Stewart tour will have reached this continental part and folks will have experienced what they have missed in their lives until now, by the cause of Dave's opening sets!

And I'm sure you definitely appreciate that wonder of a person living round your corner! I saw him only once in my life, that was last year in England, when I went there for my first Al concert ever. Dave's performance and personality was gripping, and since that night I cannot get loose of his music and intellectual excitation - it's magic!

At least everybody in my personal surrounding who has had to listen to it is smitten with amazement on the spot. So that assures me that there are miracles coming up to old Europe very soon.

Best regards, and thanks again!

Stefan Hesse

I reply:

Glad to make your acquaintance, Stefan!

Even though I live near Dave's home, this concert was the first time I had ever heard him, or heard of him. I'm Treasurer of a community musical theater group called Davis Musical Theater Company (DMTC) and last year we built a new theater. We had to secure so many bank loans that now we are struggling to maintain our finances. We have to find ways to use the new facility to generate money when we don't have shows of our own to present, and so we decided to host travelling musicians for their concerts.

But who would be the first musician? Ben Wormeli, who plays electric guitar for our shows said, "let's get Dave Nachmanoff!" We all said "Dave who?" (We don't follow the local folk music scene much.) But we trust Ben, and his judgment of local musicians, so we said "let's proceed with Dave Nachmanoff!"

I was very impressed with Dave, and his fantastic musical skills. I bought four of his CDs after the concert.

This week, Dave is in a recording studio in Los Angeles, no doubt preparing something for his fans.

You are going to have a special musical treat, come December!

Marc Valdez

So, What Were You Doing September 11, 2001?

Shocking events will often leave vivid memories. Where were you, and what were you doing, when you about heard "X?"

Several events have left their mark in my lifetime, including:

• Assassination of JFK (I had just returned from lunch recess to Mrs. James' 2nd grade class);
• Newark riots (watched on NBC);
• Assassination of RFK (at the kitchen table, reading about it in the paper, the following morning);
• Resignation of Richard Nixon (hiking on the southern leg of the trail encircling Lake Louise, in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada);
• Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan (in the basement of the Student Union building at the University of Arizona, at lunchtime);
• Destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger (entering my lab at the Ft. Valley Experimental Forest Station, 5 mi. NW of Flagstaff, AZ);
• Death of Princess Diana (heard about the accident on the evening news, just prior to going to bed);
• Destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia (just pulled out of my driveway in Sacramento).

On September 11th, 2001, I awoke (~ 9:30 a.m.) to the sound of a car radio blaring in the DMV parking lot outside my bedroom window. Clearly, the listener felt something important was going on, and the radio was loud enough that I could make out some phrases, but it was quite baffling. The radio announcer said that the President's plane would soon land in Washington, D.C. This was strange - didn't the President's plane land nearly every day in Washington, D.C.? So, I decided something must be wrong with the President's plane, like maybe the landing gear was stuck, or something, so I ambled over to the TV and turned it on, with the thought running in my head, 'well, this ought to be good for a laugh.'

Despite people's repeated assertions on TV that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed, I refused to believe it for at least an hour, attributing pictures of falling debris to a falling facade rather than to the structures themselves (When I tuned in, they weren't showing pictures of the second plane's impact, or pictures of the collapse taken from the distance, but rather of close-up pictures that couldn't readily show the scale of the disaster.)

Later that day, walking the streets, I noticed the absence of aircraft in the sky, and it was eerie knowing the few planes left in the sky were solely military aircraft. I wondered where those aircraft were going, and what was going to happen next. I also worried about Al Qaeda-piloted kamikaze Central Valley cropdusters dropping nerve toxins unannounced in Sacramento for at least a week or so.

Blog O' The Day - Badtux

John recommends Badtux, the Snarky Penguin.

Today, Badtux, The Cynical Penguin, disparages the Baby Boom Generation.

I'm all for it (since I'm not a Baby Boomer, no matter what the calendar, or all my friends say), but the acid test is 'what does Gen-X Gabe think?'

Gabe says:

I don’t know if I like the analogy of the Reichstag fire either. George Bush isn’t Hitler. I find it a tired analogy (can we be any more lazy than to always refer to Hitler and the Nazis?). If there is a more apt analogy, I would prefer to see one of the 19th Century (or early 20th) monarchs, like George IV, or the Kaiser, or someone else.

Does that make any sense?

P.S. He does seem like a thoughtful fellow, though, but not one to my liking.

That's a Gen-X guy for you! Picky, picky! Thank goodness I'm from my own independent generation (born in October, 1956), where our daring freethinkingness is matched only by our laziness at picking out Nazi analogies, whether appropriate or not, any day of the week, on any subject imaginable.

WTC Spam

I won't link to the advertisment, but I was impressed by the chutzpah. Pretty soon, they'll have WTC booths at the State Fair, and you can toss balsa-wood gliders at Twin Tower milk bottles, with stuffed animals for those who knock them over:

This historic 2-piece memorial transforms into a magnificent standing sculpture of the Twin Towers, and is clad in 24 KT gold and .999 Pure Silver recovered from Ground Zero!

$5 of every commemorative order is donated to official 9/11 family charities and memorials.

This groundbreaking non-monetary issue will never be released for circulation. It is available through this special private minting for collectors only!

The World Trade Center skyline is lavishly clad in gleaming silver that was miraculously recovered from a bank vault found under tons of debris at Ground Zero. Now, to mark the fifth anniversary, the same silver that was reclaimed from the destruction has been used to cover the magnificent Twin Towers depicted in the 2001-2006 World Trade Center Commemorative.

"West Side Story" Tech Week Begins at DMTC

Left, foreground: Katherine Vanderford sings 'Somewhere,' on Sunday afternoon.

David Nachmanoff Concert - DMTC - Saturday night

Left: Donna Lemongello (left), an audience member Saturday night (but a fellow band member with Dave Nachmanoff in the nineties) sings a song with Dave (right) Saturday night.


Experiments are a good thing, especially the kind where you throw something against the wall, to see what sticks. For the inaugural concert of DMTC's "Keep the Music in Your Community" series, we carefully placed Dave Nachmanoff in a medieval-style catapult, outfitted him with a bicycle helmet (for safety's sake), and flung him against one of the new walls of the Hoblit Performing Arts Center. Lo, and behold! Dave stuck!

What an excellent concert! About 45 folks showed up, mostly die-hard Dave Nachmanoff fans - some from the Bay Area, some from the Sierra foothills, and one couple from Arizona! He sang some of his favorite sings: 'Gulliver, The Cowboy Cat," "The Pope Valley Hubcap King," "The Loyalist," and he sang "Sophia," as his daughter, who was sitting behind me, told her mom, "Daddy's singing about me!" He also sang as tribute song to my neighbor, well-known Sacramento bassist Erik Kleven, who recently perished in a head-on collision on Highway 16 near Rancho Murietta. The song was called "Without a Compass or a Map." He also sang a song about a local place, "George's Corner," about the intersection of Second and L Streets, in Davis.

Dave is going into a recording studio this coming week, and this December, he will be touring in Europe with fellow singer, Al Stewart.

"Glorious" (and one of Ben Wormeli's favorite songs)

Have you ever seen a newborn baby?
The wonder in her eyes
Every sight and sound astounding
Every moment's a surprise
Mother's smiling at her laughter
Father's babbling like a child
Now they're cast into a new world
By the glory of her smile

We were glorious once, and we're glorious still
If we take the time to look, we can see the glory well

"A Certain Distance"

And the satellite is beaming down its signal, to your tiny town
But nothing's getting through
He's much too far from you and you know it
There's a certain distance

"El Niño"

They're catching stingray in Washington State
Down south, there's nothing but drought
There's brush fires all over Australia
And in the north, it's flooding them out

The tradewinds are stuck in the doldrums
The Pacific's receded and warm
The forecast is gloomy for winter
What's causing this tropical storm?

El Niño
blame it all on El Niño
It's because of El Niño
Says the man on the news

El Niño
blame it all on El Niño
That anomalous weather phenomenon from Peru

My last 15 gigs have been empty
It seems like I'm under a curse
The computer is invaded by gremlins
And the stock market couldn't be worse

I broke a nail last Thursday
And the dog somehow injured his paw
I gained 20 pounds, and lost my wife

I tell you, there must be a cause!


I asked Dave what kind of music he calls what he sings: folk, rock, emo, reggae, jambalaya, what? He said, "I don't know - historical folk-rock?" Whatever it's called, it's very intelligent!

Regarding DMTC's plans for its concert series, locally-base singer/songwriter Dave Nachmanoff offered some advice. He suggested keeping a local component to the artists that DMTC brings in. Local artists have local fans, who can be counted on to show up. Local artists will ask less in the form of a money guarantee. And since the only viable local alternative, short of the "Palms," is passing the tip jar at the "Delta of Venus" coffeehouse, local artists may even forgo a guarantee altogether, perhaps in exchange for a portion of the gate. Artists brought in from outside will have no alternative but to have a money guarantee, and since they may not have a local fan base, DMTC might end up losing money on them. The risk is greater.

As DMTC Treasurer, I was pleased with the inaugural concert. The concert brought in slightly more than the most-recent "Dancing Through The Decades" dance, but with fewer food and decorating expenses. As we develop a reputation in the community for these events, and as attendance rises, we will benefit all the more.

Thank you, Dave, for the wonderful music, and for being such a sport!

Explanations

Cop 1: "Ma'am, we really don't care whether he's taking a long time. What matters is what the homeowner thinks."
E: "He called me a bitch, and threatened!"
M: "You threw a pair of shears and hit him in the back!"
E: "He's stupid!"
Cop 2: "That isn't against the law, ma'am!"

"Harvey" - Chautauqua Playhouse(first draft)

Left: Harvey (playing himself) takes a bow on the (stage right half of the) set.


I was late in arriving for the show, so much of the exposition I missed. I haven't seen "Harvey" since 1999, when Solano Community College did it. The caharacters seemed to be quite strong, though.

Daryl Petrig played a wistful, whimsical Elwood P. Dowd, one very pleasant fellow, except for an apparent mental glitch: he has an imaginary friend! Richard Spierto was excellent, as always, as Dr. William Chumley, and Monique McKisson was so funny as Dr. Chumley's wife, Betty. The rest of the cast was strong as well: Cathy Rasmussen as Veta Simmons, Melissa Rae Frago as Myrtle Mae Simmons, Olivia and Brad Carpenter as Nirse Kelly and Dr. Sanderson.

I was very surprised to see John Montagna as Taxi Driver E.F. Lofgren: John is a theater fan and a long-time DMTC Season Ticket subscriber, but I didn't realize he sometimes jumps the fence and gets on-stage as well! Wonders never cease!

Left: Cloudy, Harvey's biggest groupie and autograph hound, edges cautiously in (as rabbits always do) trying to get a closer look.