"Rent" (School Edition) - RSP Youth Musical Theater Workshop Master Class

Left: "Rent" - Mark (Cole Souza) and ensemble.

A fine evening with the RSP folks! I attended at the invitation of John Harris (whom I still have not met). Saw several folks that I haven't seen in awhile, like as James Chavez-Glica Hernandez. RSP had a raffle, and Sally won the big basket full of candy, and videos, and what-not.



Left: "Rent" - Mark (Cole Souza) and Roger (Daric Carvajal).


I was curious how "Rent - School Edition" (the same version that elicited so much trouble at CDM in the South Coast last year) might be different than the regular version of "Rent". As far as I could tell, the two versions are very similar: not quite identical, but very similar!

Left: "Rent" - Mark (Cole Souza) and Angel (Kenny Gagni).

Left: "Rent" - Mark (Cole Souza) and Angel (Kenny Gagni).

Left: Roger (Daric Carvajal) and Mimi (Karen Harris).

Left: Angel (Kenny Gagni) and Collins (Spenser Micetich).

Left: "Rent" - Mark (Cole Souza), Joanne (Haleyanne Freedman), and Tango Dancer.


Left: Nonplussed NYC Ensemble.

Left: "On The Street"

Left: "Over The Moon" - Maureen (Emily Kelly).

Left: "Over The Moon" - Maureen (Emily Kelly).

Left: "La Vie Boheme" - Collins (Spenser Micetich), Angel (Kenny Gagni), a ghostlike Benny (Gabe Figueroa), Mimi (Karen Harris), ensemble member, Roger (Daric Carvajal), second ensemble member.

Left: "La Vie Boheme" - Mark (Cole Souza), and Company.

Mark (Cole Souza), Collins (Spenser Micetich), Angel (Kenny Gagni), Joanne (Haleyanne Freedman), among others.

Left: "Seasons of Love" - Company.

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Nice Productive Morning

Playing Darwin's Intergalactic Adventure.

Japanese Refuse Paris Hilton

Awkward consequences for the drugs:

Paris Hilton is on her way home from Japan after being denied entry because of her guilty pleas to drug-possession charges in Las Vegas on Monday. Hilton was questioned for about six hours over two days, an immigration official said.

...Hilton's rep said the socialite was "forced to postpone" a business tour through Asia that included stops in Tokyo, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. Paris never made it out of Narita, Japan, where she spent the night in an airport hotel. She was supposed to appear Wednesday at a fashion show in Tokyo's trendy Roppongi district, but the event was canceled.

Paris and her sister, Nicky Hilton, had arrived on a chartered jet that left the U.S. on Monday.

Spongebob In The Gulf

Clever road-side signs in Grand Isle, Louisiana:

Flapping Human-Powered Aircraft

Fun!:

HPO The Snowbird from U of T Engineering on Vimeo.

A University of Toronto engineering graduate student has made aviation history, successfully flying the first ever human-powered flapping-wing aircraft continuously.

Todd Reichert, a PhD candidate at the university’s Institute of Aerospace Studies, piloted the wing-flapping aircraft, sustaining both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds and covering a distance of 145 metres at an average speed of 25.6 kilometres per hour.

The world-record flight took place Aug. 2 at the Great Lakes Gliding Club in Tottenham, Ont. It was witnessed by the vice-president (Canada) of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale – the world body governing air sports and aeronautical world records. It was also Canada’s first successful human-powered aircraft flight.

The human-powered ornithopter – named the Snowbird – weighs just over 42 kilograms and has a wing span of 32 metres.

...Reichert flew the ornithopter by putting his feet on pedals and pushing with his legs. The energy stroke is forward with his legs. A system of pulleys and lines attached to the wings would pull down when he pushed forward, explained advisor and Professor Emeritus at University of Toronto James D. DeLaurier in an interview with the Star.

“The aerodynamics and the stored elasticity of the wing spar would bring the wing back up. The down stroke was the human-powered part – that’s how birds and bats fly.”

Losing Access To More YPT Pictures

Since 2002, when I started this blog, I've been given conditional access to photograph many of DMTC's YPT performances, based on fragile understandings associated with me being DMTC archivist. I have shared these photos via this blog, but kept constantly in mind that I could lose access at any time, depending on the state-of-mind of the YPT Board and parents.

These longstanding-but-fragile understandings now appear to be jeopardized by the current YPT Board's determination to enforce rules regarding no photographs of YPT performances: no exceptions permitted. So, I might not be able to share any more DMTC YPT photos, at least, not through this blog, or, at least, not at this time. It may be that an understanding will be reached some time in the future, however, but not yet. So, no "Grease" photos.

Part of the reason I shared these photos was that YPT shows need promotion, and the Internet was a good way to carry that process out. In a time of retrenchment, newspapers could no longer be relied upon to carry out that function. People had to do their own promotion and discussion.

With the evolution and maturation of Web Sites like Facebook, it may be only natural that folks involved in the YPT take back full control of the promotion process. It's a natural evolution.

In any event, I'm a bit miffed by all this, and I think I'll go outside and yell at Jupiter, or something. They say it's about as bright as it will ever get in my lifetime!

Katy Perry Singing Hot N Cold on Sesame Street

Sympathy For Pennsylvania Prison Inmates

Worse than tasing grandmothers:

According to a lawsuit filed in federal court, D.J. Goodson claims he was forced to watch "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" and "Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami."

...Goodson says he developed "extreme emotional distress due to their outrageousness of actions."

Goodson claims he's permanently scarred from watching domestic abuse (a boxing match on the show featuring Kim), emotional abuse (rantings courtesy of Kourtney and "paramour Scott") and racism (Khloe referring to a baby doll as "the black baby").

Goodson wants $75,000 in damages.

"Singin' In The Rain" - Sunday Pix

"Rent" Featured In SN&R

Left: Joseph Boyette as Angel and Rudy 'Roods' Brown as Collins .


Musicals get so little mention in SN&R these days that I almost overlooked their review of RSP's "Rent":

Darryl Stroh’s choreography goes beyond merely energetic to take on the acrobatic; Voyce and Shanta Robinson (Mimi) have voices that are well-matched for an intense and self-destructive pair of lovers; Rudy “Roods” Brown plays Tom Collins as the moral center of the group; Robinson’s Mark is less nebbishy and more anxiety-ridden; Ali Llacer, as Benny the landlord, combines tough and frustrated with affectionate; and Lorraine De Arco (Joanne) and Lindsey Grimes (Maureen) make the on-again, off-again passion between their characters believable in a heart-stopping duet (“Take Me or Leave Me”).

And Boyette? His Angel dances and sings and loves—all with a passion far beyond his small frame.

That Was An Exciting Five Months - I Wonder When The Next One Will Be?

BP's Macondo well is 'dead':

“We can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is effectively dead,” Adm. Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard officer who leads the federal spill response, said in a statement. The well, he said, “poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico.”

Crews aboard the Development Driller III rig conducted a pressure test early Sunday on cement that had been pumped into the bottom of the once-gushing well through a relief well. The test confirmed that the cement formed an effective, and final, seal to prevent oil and gas from coming up from a reservoir about 13,000 feet below the seabed.

When Penury Signals Strength

So, the Las Vegas Tea Party Convention is cancelled. To East Coast journalists, this looks like a sign of weakness, but it need not be at all. Instead, it may signal wise use of resources.

Journalists often use resources placed on display - money, to be blunt - as a proxy for popularity and strength. In the old days, that association worked pretty well, but in the Internet era, when you can eliminate the entire middle of a political organization, and have, say, FOX News reaching down directly to the grassroots, then wealth and organization need not correlate at all with strength. If Tea Partiers win a few elections, then wealth will instantly materialize in their coffers, no matter how chaotic their affairs:

According to the Las Vegas hotel that was supposed to play host to the second national tea party convention, the much-hyped event has been canceled.

...If the convention really is off, the loss of the event will stand as the third high-profile tea party organizing fail in a month. With the election rapidly approaching, the failure of the LibertyXPO in DC this month, the second DC 9/12 rally and now the second convention suggest those that hope to leverage the movement for big, nationally-covered productions may have tapped out the tea party grassroots.

...Danish and her allies have already scared Phillips and the convention off once before, they say, and they said its possible the grassroots opposition to the convention in Nevada may have shut down the convention entirely this time. Sharron Angle, tea party megastar and Nevada's Republican nominee for Senate, was listed as the keynote speaker when the Vegas convention was first announced. After pressure from Danish and other concerned tea partiers on the ground in Nevada, they say, Angle -- presumably the biggest draw at the event -- was reconsidering her speaking slot.

"Phillips knew we were planning another boycott and Sharron Angle's camp was advised to pull out," Danish told me.

Danish is not the first local activist to push back against national tea party organizers lately. The LibertyXPO, which was billed as the largest political organizing event in the movement's history failed miserably when no one bothered to show up when it kicked off in DC Sept. 10. As Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer reported, "organizers were still begging for $40,000 to help pay for the event" as the XPO got underway. Two days later, marchers at the poorly-attended second 9/12 rally in DC went after Glenn Beck for using up tea party travel money on his Aug. 28 rally to himself.

Nevada tea party organizer Anthony Warren said that he will not mourn the loss of the Tea Party Nation convention if it is indeed canceled for good.

"Philips is the man who said he will 'make a million dollars off the Tea Party.' We object to him, his wife and any organization connected to him legally," Warren said. He added that the cancellation of the event is "a very sad victory," but "moral" one for tea partiers angry at Phillips and his profiteering.

"The money that would have ended-up in Philips pocket can now be used for better causes and candidates," Warren said

What's New At B3ta Today?

The disturbing:

Image by Elvisweathercock.

Look, Mate, We're Not 'Fat'

And we have some numbers to back us up:

INTERNATIONAL research suggests Australians are among the fattest people in the world, but that may not be the case according to new research.

Queensland researchers are looking at whether new ways of measuring obesity could paint a different picture.

Nutritionist Dr Liz Isenring says there may be better ways to accurately gauge obesity than the traditional body mass index, which uses weight and height to calculate body fat.

"Certainly BMI looks like it's probably not the best measure of classifying (people as) overweight and obese," says Dr Isenring, of the University of Queensland.

"Percentage body fat ... appears to be the best method.

The Real Thieves

It's a tough world out there, and the dim don't survive:

But when Mark Smith, 59, allegedly tried to rob the bank, the bank manager suggested that what he actually needed to do was take out a loan, and she had him sit down while she said she was going to retrieve the loan paperwork. Instead, she called 911, according to Assistant District Attorney Dave Genochio.

Dazzled Mouse

Driving down West Street in Woodland last night, near Cross Street, I noticed a mouse trying to cross the street directly in front of me. The mouse seemed dazzled by my headlights, and stopped moving. I gritted my teeth as I passed by the mouse's location, expecting a tell-tale double thump on the vehicle's undercarriage, but heard nothing. I did a U-turn and scanned the street, but the mouse was nowhere to be seen.

It appears that Woodland mice have better street-crossing judgment than Davis rabbits.

"Singin' In The Rain" - Friday & Saturday