"The King And I" - DMTC - First Dress Rehearsal

Royal Wives with Mrs. Anna. Left to right, Rachel P., Jacquelyn Hayek (obscured), Lenore Sebastian (Lady Thiang), Allison R., Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens; back to camera), Gail Korbat, Danielle DeBow, and Stacy Sheehan (off-image, to right).

Royal Wives with Mrs. Anna. Left to right, Rachel P., Jacquelyn Hayek, Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens), Danielle DeBow, Gail Korbat, Lenore Sebastian (Lady Thiang), Jenny Plasse, Allison R., Stacy Sheehan, Renee Alarcon, and Shannon M.

Standing: Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens), Tomas E., Levi F., Lenore Sebastian (Lady Thiang), Larry Lipman. Sitting: Keri R. and Amaralyn E.

"Getting To Know You"

"Getting To Know You", featuring Horace G. (Prince Chulalongkorn), Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens), William C. (Louis Leonowens), and Lenore Sebastian (Lady Thiang).

"Getting To Know You", featuring Lenore Sebastian (Lady Thiang), Lydia Smith (Princess Tuptim), Jenny Plasse, Allison R., Renee Alarcon, and Shannon M.

"Getting To Know You", featuring Danielle DeBow, Jenny Plasse, and Allison R.

"Getting To Know You"

Classroom scene. Left to right, William C. (Louis Leonowens), Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens), Mark Suarez (King of Siam), and Horace G. (Prince Chulalongkorn).

"We Kiss In A Shadow" - Lydia Smith (Princess Tuptim) and Kevin Foster (Lun Tha).

Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens) and Mark Suarez (King of Siam).

Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens) and Mark Suarez (King of Siam).

Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens) and Mark Suarez (King of Siam).

Royal Court, featuring Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens) and Mark Suarez (King of Siam).

Royal Court, featuring Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens) and Mark Suarez (King of Siam).

"Western People Funny" - Lenore Sebastian (Lady Thiang), center. Left to right, Jacquelyn Hayek, Allison R., Danielle DeBow, Renee Alarcon, Dannette Vassar, and Gail Korbat.

"Western People Funny" - Jenny Plasse, Allison R., Jacquelyn Hayek, Shannon M., and Danielle DeBow.


Mark Suarez (King of Siam), Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens) and Gabriel Jacobo (Sir Edward Ramsey).

"I Have Dreamed" - Lydia Smith (Princess Tuptim) and Kevin Foster (Lun Tha).

"I Have Dreamed" - Lydia Smith (Princess Tuptim).

DMTC Orchestra, under the direction of David Chan, in rehearsal mode.

"Small House Of Uncle Thomas". Jenny Plasse (Eliza), and guards (Tomas E., and Levi F.).

"Small House Of Uncle Thomas", featuring Lydia Smith (Princess Tuptim), and Royal Wives: Renee Alarcon, Stacy Sheehan, Jacquelyn Hayek, Lenore Sebastian (Lady Thiang), and Gail Korbat.

"Small House Of Uncle Thomas", featuring Lydia Smith (Princess Tuptim), and Royal Wives: Renee Alarcon, Stacy Sheehan, Jacquelyn Hayek, Lenore Sebastian (Lady Thiang), and Gail Korbat.


"Small House Of Uncle Thomas", featuring Lydia Smith (Princess Tuptim), and Royal Wives: Renee Alarcon, Stacy Sheehan, Jacquelyn Hayek, Lenore Sebastian (Lady Thiang), and Gail Korbat.


Final scene, featuring Lenore Sebastian (Lady Thiang), and Elena L. (Princess Ying Yaowalak). Also, Allison R., Jacquelyn Hayek, Gabriel Jacobo, and William C. (Louis Leonowens).

Final scene, with assembled Royal Wives.

Final scene, featuring Chris Cay Stewart (Anna Leonowens) William C. (Louis Leonowens), Adam Sartain (Kralahome), Mark Suarez (King of Siam), Horace G. (Prince Chulalongkorn). Also, guards Gabriel Jacobo, Hugo F. (partially obscured), Tomas E., Levi F., and saffron-robed monk Larry Lipman.

Land of Enchantment (Orale!)

Michelle S. sends this.

The Lee Greenwood karaoke soundtrack is seriously-mentally-challenged, and having Susana Martinez there really grates, but the rest is sound enough.

Lyrics:
If tomorrow green chile was gone
I'd howl like a lobo
And race like a roadrunner
To Santuario de Chimayo

I'd pray to the folks in Hatch
And Mesilla Valley too
Cause smothered is a way of life
And it's Burque not the Q!

And I'm proud to be a New Mexican,
Where the chips and salsa are free.
And you know someone, who knows someone
Who's on DWI three

As Zozobra burns up!
I can see the hoopties bounce away
Cause there ain't no doubt I love this Land
Of Enchantment orale!

From the aliens in Roswell
To the land of Georgia O'Keefe
Across all the pueblos
To a place called T or C

From the famous Balloon Fiesta
To the art in Santa Fe
I can stop at Saven Elaven for booze,
Where it's happy hour all day.

And I'm proud to be a New Mexican,
Where the chips and salsa are free.
And you know someone, who knows someone
Who's on DWI three

As Zozobra burns up!
I can see the hoopties bounce away
Cause there ain't no doubt I love this Land
Of Enchantment orale!

"The King And I" - DMTC - iPhone Rehearsal Photos

"Small House of Uncle Thomas" - Eliza (Jenny Plasse; center, in blue) and Angel (Allison R.).

Snow - Levi F. (left), and Hugo F. (off-image, right).

River - Emma K. and Elena L.

Buddha - Anthony S.

"Small House of Uncle Thomas" - Eliza (Jenny Plasse; center, in blue) and Angel (Allison R.).

Snow - Levi F. (left), and Hugo F. (off-image, right).

River - Emma K. and Elena L.

Buddha - Anthony S.

"Small House of Uncle Thomas" - King Simon of Legree (Rachel P.; center).

Four Scientific Dogs (Danielle DeBow, Tomas E., Gabriel Jacobo, and Levi F.

Tonka Truck Fantasy Comes To Life!

This Las Vegas story caught my fancy:

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas has seen its share of heavy construction equipment as it bulldozed its way through one giant casino project after another. But with the recession having gutted the construction industry, excavators and bulldozers near the Strip are being put to use as toys for thrill-seeking visitors.

A business owner has created what amounts to a life-sized sandbox for adults who pay up to $750 each to push around dirt, rock and huge tires with the earth-moving construction equipment. All it takes is a 10-minute classroom lesson and guidance from trainers through headsets.

...Ed Mumm said he started Dig This after renting and operating an excavator for himself for two days while building a house in Steamboat Springs, Colo. He quickly realized that toying with heavy construction equipment is a diversion that takes participants completely out of their everyday lives.

"I thought to myself: If I'm having this much fun, imagine the amount of people that don't get to do this stuff that would love to do this," he said.

Baseball-Bat Wielder Shot

This disturbs me quite a bit. It happened about four blocks from my house:

Police received a call about 3:30 p.m. about a man with a baseball bat smashing windows at 24th Street and Second Avenue, said Sgt. Andrew Pettit, police spokesman. He reportedly struck windows at a convenience store, an ATM at that store, then at Crepeville restaurant.

The first officer who arrived in the area, located the man at 24th Street and Barnett Avenue, according to a Police Department news release. The officer directed the man to drop the bat on the ground, but the man refused to acknowledge the officer and continued to walk northbound on 24th Street toward Broadway, police said. The officer walked parallel to the man and continued to direct him to drop the bat.

The man suddenly stopped and faced the officer, cocked the baseball bat as if he were going to swing it and advanced on the officer. The officer, fearing for his safety, fired multiple shots from his handgun, striking the man in the upper body, Pettit said.

The shooting occurred outside the River City Deli on 24th Street. Pettit said the officer and numerous witnesses said the man refused to put down the bat and advanced toward the officer, swinging the bat.

A neighborhood resident who said he witnessed the shooting disputed the Police Department's account, saying the man did put down the bat.

Tony Catelli said he heard sirens and ran to the corner. He said he saw a man kind of dancing around with a bat.

The man didn't respond to the first command by police to put down the bat, Catelli said. But after the second command, Catelli said, "He threw it down and sort of stepped back with his hands in the air."

Self-Directed Microspiders

Sounds more than a little creepy to me, but advances in medical procedures may eventually depend on them:

Next, Sen hopes to develop versions of these tiny aquatic spiders that run on chemicals readily available in the body, such as glucose. In the future, more sophisticated microspiders attached to nanobots that detect chemicals secreted by damaged tissue could swim through the bloodstream, weaving a medical glue to help heal tears in vessel walls. Decorated with other micromachines and enzymes, they could swim through the circulatory system scouting out tumours, scouring plaque from vessel walls and helping the immune system battle infections.

A Nora-Like Trajectory

Early weather forecasts suggest that a tropical storm beginning to develop now in the eastern Pacific off the southern Mexican coast might follow the same sort of path blazed in 1997 by Hurricane Nora and travel up the Sea of Cortez and enter the U.S. at the mouth of the Colorado River Valley in about a week, on or around September 13th, and continue north.

Nora was a big disappointment in the tropical storm department. Cold water and all that interference by land masses took its toll, so it basically wimped out once it reached the U.S. deserts. This storm is likely to do the same, for the same reasons. Still, it may be interesting! It might cause atypically wet weather in Las Vegas around September 15th.

Arcade Fire's "Sprawl II", With Special Guest Cyndi Lauper

Régine Chassagne, Cyndi Lauper, Win Butler and the gang.

I like reading these comments too.

Hermanos

We got to know Gus Fring a bit better on Sunday night's "Breaking Bad" (Season 4, Episode 8, "Hermanos"), but he is still one mysterious guy!

There were several new locations in this show. I haven't puzzled all of them out quite yet. For example, where do Gus and Hector Salamanca meet? Looks like a nice place, but I don't know where it is.



The scene where the DEA interviews Gus has a little clue. Out the window, you can see a portion of the sign for Anodyne Pool Hall & Cocktails, at 409 Central Ave NW, but the Gizmo Store, which is located across the street from the Anodyne, is all wrong for the location. More likely is a taller building that overlooks the site.

As "OldeSaultie" notes, this angled room is in the Old Post Office Building, Amy Biehl Charter High School, 123 4th St SW.

"OldeSaultie" adds:

I recognized [that building] immediately, because "The Lost Room" did some filming here (Pittsburgh Police Station).

The neighborhood where Jesse's girlfriend's new residence is located reminds me a lot of the neighborhoods between downtown and UNM, but the exact location is still unclear to me. Nice area, though!

Walt and Hank's drive appears to be in two discontinuous pieces.

Piece 1 starts out approximately 3901 Martin Rd. SW, with a right turn on Camino del Valle and another right turn on Isleta Blvd. SW. This drive is quite close to Twisters (aka Los Pollos Hermanos) in the South Valley, and thus seems to follow logically from the story development.

Piece 2 is very short – maybe five seconds long. Walt asks Hank “Where are we going?” They seem to be passing by what appears to be a pumping station for a city park surrounded by a wall, but there are no city parks in this South Valley neighborhood, so exact location is unclear. It could be a golf course or cemetery too. They could be quite far away from Los Pollos Hermanos. Nevertheless, I have that eerie feeling I’ve seen that wall before. It’s just figuring out where. If I could only remember!

The location where Mike placed his phone call to Gus is between 7th & 8th Streets NW, approximately at 1885 8th St. NW.

The most interesting new site was the hillside residence, with pool. That kind of hillside with an Upper Sonoran look is more common in the Santa Fe area, but it isn't very common in the Albuquerque area. My guess is that it is somewhere in the newer neighborhoods that have become established between Bernalillo and Placitas, along Highway 165, in the approximate general location of 35.307637°, -106.454509°. I will have to investigate further to be sure of an exact location, however.

More later! (Hopefully!)

(Later)
And there's more! Roger writes:

Thanks for providing the BB locations. Your location for the pool scene is correct. It is an old bed and breakfast called Hacienda de Placitas. I pass by it every day going to and from work. They were there earlier this year for several days at least. -Roger

Thank you very much, Roger! I couldn’t read the business sign off of Google Earth. Having a name helps immensely!

Hacienda de Placitas Inn and Gallery, 491 Highway 165, Placitas, NM 87043.

Fickle Tropical Gods

The forecasts for Tropical Storms Katia and Lee had looked pretty stable, but now they are changing again.

It had looked like Katia would miss the U.S. altogether, but now they are suggesting it will come right up to Florida before veering away, to hit SC & NC instead. The forecasts had also suggested a second Gulf of Mexico storm would generate from the vicinity of the Yucatan Peninsula and quickly approach Tampa from the SW, but that forecast has now vanished.

In other words, the situation appears to be difficult to predict. Tampa looks OK for now, but the Gods of the Tropics appear fickle this month, so keep an eye out.

Kelsey B - Beauty Queen (Peter Brown Dub)

Sacred Datura

From Deborah McMillion-Nering.

Sacred Datura is just packed with hallucinogenic properties. We used to have this growing in Corrales, NM, when I lived there. I debated about trying to eat it, and I think I once even furtively cut open a gourd and licked it. No wild trips to report, though.

Rick Perry Must Have Said Another Prayer

Once again, Texas pays the price:

Louisiana and Mississippi were bracing Friday for potentially devastating flooding from Tropical Storm Lee, even as firefighters in drought-stricken Texas were preparing for yet another setback in their efforts to quell the state’s rampaging wildfires.

That's because Texas, despite being near the storm’s path, probably will receive little, if any, rain from the storm.

...But nearly all the rain is expected to fall on the eastern edge of the storm, not in Texas.

Additionally, a cold front moving into Texas on Sunday is expected to clash with the warm tropical storm to the east and begin whipping up winds of 20 mph to 30 mph across the state. With low humidity and strong wind, the storm probably exacerbate the already dire drought and fire conditions in the state, Moreland told The Times.

“We’re very concerned about it making the fires worse across Texas,” he said. “If it hadn’t formed, moisture would have spread to Texas; instead, it’s going to take the moisture out.”

A Real-Life Walter White!

Appearing out of nowhere, a shape-shifting Heisenberg!:

A Cal State San Bernardino professor who chaired academic committees, tweeted his concerns about child obesity and lived quietly in a well-trimmed Highland neighborhood stands accused of living a shadow life of a heavily armed biker-gang member and drug dealer.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department on Thursday said Stephen J. Kinzey, a 43-year-old kinesiology professor, allegedly led a local chapter of the Devils Diciples Outlaw motorcycle gang and a methamphetamine drug operation that brought in tens of thousands of dollars.

...During the Aug. 26 raid, detectives arrested Kinzey's live-in girlfriend, Holly V. Robinson, 33, a 2005 Cal State San Bernardino graduate, on suspicion of distributing methamphetamine. She is accused of being Kinzey's "business partner" in the drug operation and has been released on bail.

Police also found an undisclosed amount of cash at the couple's house and said all the guns recovered were unregistered.

"To have an associate professor who is a member of the Devils Diciples and allegedly dealing methamphetamine is quite alarming. I mean, it's unusual to say the least," Sheriff Rod Hoops said at a news conference in San Bernardino.

Woolly Rhino

Ancient Ice Age fossils:

Paleontologists have yet to fully trace the origins of many of the giant, hairy beasts that lived during the most recent ice age, which lasted from about 2.6 million to 10,000 years ago. Many of these animals, whose massive bodies conserved heat effectively, were thought to have evolved in Eurasia from animals that managed to survive and adapt to an increasingly cold environment.

...It was Wang who discovered a neck-bone fragment poking out of the ground one August afternoon in 2007. He had barely begun digging when his hammer hit the skull. He brushed away dirt, baring giant teeth.

Short on supplies and with just a few days left on the expedition, Wang and colleagues were faced with a dilemma. They could wait for their next trip to take the fossil home — but leaving it partially exposed would make it vulnerable to the elements.

Instead, the team decided to dig out the fossil as fast as they could. The scientists sped to the nearest hospital, about 60 miles away, and begged a doctor for plaster to protect the fragile specimen. Without the plaster to encase the bones, Wang said, the fossil "would have fallen apart into a thousand pieces before we got back into Beijing."

"The doctor was really gracious," Wang added. "We managed to convince him that this is a special case, that he will be able to make a big contribution to science."

Several months after a harrowingly bumpy ride back to Lhasa and then Beijing, the researchers realized the significance of their discovery: It was a new species of rhinoceros that had developed cold-hardy attributes at least a million years before the ice age got underway. The rhino, about 10% lighter than its ice age descendant, had a hairy body and a flattened horn useful for sweeping away snow to get at vegetation.

GOP Columnist Finally States What The GOP Really Thinks

It's nice finally getting a bit of clarification:

"It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country -- which is precisely why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote," Vadum, the author of a book published by World Net Daily that attacks the now-defunct community organizing group ACORN, writes in a column for the American Thinker.

"Encouraging those who burden society to participate in elections isn't about helping the poor," Vadum writes. "It's about helping the poor to help themselves to others' money. It's about raw so-called social justice. It's about moving America ever farther away from the small-government ideals of the Founding Fathers."

Most conservative criticism of voter registration drives aimed at poor and minority communities has been under the guise of worries about voter fraud. Vadum's column is notable because he isn't just pretending to be worried about the nearly non-existent threat of in-person voter fraud -- he just doesn't think poor people should be voting.

The term "nonproductive segments of the population" is a pretty-elastic concept in an advanced society, where most people perform work that is arguably nonproductive. How, for example, for would you classify "Hollywood"? Or "Wall Street"? Or "Silicon Valley"? I would include GOP columnists under the "nonproductive" description.

I suspect that many of these GOP columnists would classify anyone earning less than $100,000.00 per year as "nonproductive". What's the quote attributed to Herbert Hoover?: “any man who's not a millionaire by age 40 is a failure”. Why not restrict the franchise to millionaires? Let's get some more clarification!

Maybe A Blessing In Disguise

G. sends out word of another Obama "cave":

Statement by the President on the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards

Over the last two and half years, my administration, under the leadership of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, has taken some of the strongest actions since the enactment of the Clean Air Act four decades ago to protect our environment and the health of our families from air pollution. From reducing mercury and other toxic air pollution from outdated power plants to doubling the fuel efficiency of our cars and trucks, the historic steps we’ve taken will save tens of thousands of lives each year, remove over a billion tons of pollution from our air, and produce hundreds of billions of dollars in benefits for the American people.

At the same time, I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover. With that in mind, and after careful consideration, I have requested that Administrator Jackson withdraw the draft Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards at this time. Work is already underway to update a 2006 review of the science that will result in the reconsideration of the ozone standard in 2013. Ultimately, I did not support asking state and local governments to begin implementing a new standard that will soon be reconsidered.

I guess I'm supposed to be annoyed, but I'm thinking instead that it may be a kind of blessing. Make no mistake: no one has ever established a "safe" level of ozone, and it's probably an unattainable goal - ozone is always destructive. Once you start getting to lower standards, however, you have to start worrying about emission sources you had ignored previously.

The paradigm of setting lower standards in order to achieve cleaner air may be reaching the end of its usefulness. With ozone, cause-and-effect relationships can be difficult to establish. Ozone can appear far downwind of emission sources, including natural sources of organics, like forests.

I remember watching an ozone monitor in the winter of 1985/86 near Flagstaff, AZ. Concentrations of 75 ppb were being reached. Likely contributors of ozone precursors were the local forest, and distant Los Angeles. Tighter ambient air quality standards would do little to address emissions from either source.

Doorway Reprise?

Reading this, it sounds like CORE is going to present the Doorway again!:

Highlights from "The Doorway". The athletic contemporary and jazz movement is inspired by the different rooms in a Victorian mansion, and "The Doorway" follows the dark and quirky characters entangled within the house.
This video is featured on our Kickstarter project for the 2011 production of the show, and you can back the project before August 21, 2011 by visiting:
See "The Doorway" live this October!
October 21, 22 & 27, 28, 29, 2011
Benvenuti Performing Arts Center
4600 Blackrock Dr
Sacramento, Ca 95835

Music - "My People" The Presets

Just Curious What Talissa James Is Up To

A year ago, anyway....

Ever So Subtle At The Pima County GOP!

Sending a message for all to hear:

Eyebrows shot up all over the country Thursday following news that that the Republican Party in Pima County, AZ -- home to Tucson and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' (D) district -- is raffling off a Glock similar to the one used to shoot Giffords in the head in January.

In Tucson, the condemnation of the plan was universal and bi-partisan.

"There's a woman who has a bullet in the brain and who everybody is wishing a full recovery," Brian Miller, the immediate past chair of the Pima County GOP told TPM. "I don't think that raffling off a firearm right now is probably the right way to go."

Miller says the people who took over the party -- and booted him from his position after he criticized local law enforcement for shooting a Marine in a controversial raid on his home in May -- are from the "my way or the highway" wing of the GOP who don't pay much thought to the political fallout from their actions.

While he said that raffling off a firearm to raise money is something he did himself when he ran (and lost) in the 2010 Republican primary in Gifford's district, it's not something he'd do now.

But it's the kind of thing the folks in charge of things at the Pima County GOP may become known for, and to the party's detriment, he said.

"The people who are running the Pima County GOP right now aren't exactly known for their ability to feel the political pulse," he said.

B-Smoove, Mistah Fab & Haunz ft. C.L. Chou - "Gone Ri Now"

I generally don't follow too much rap/hip-hop, but this effort is based, in part, in Sacramento, and I think I might even recognize one of the principal dancers! (It sure looks like Gabrielle Perez, e.g., center at 0:37. Maybe it is? And those little kids look - familiar!) So, it's all good!

Mesmerizing rhythm. I feel like dancing!

Calling It Like He Sees It

Putting The Blame Where It Belongs

Since I've been so busy at work, I've fallen behind on the blog, but I didn't want to let pass unremarked the recent casino fire in Monterrey, Mexico. I'm glad President Calderon aimed some of the blame at the United States. The U.S. is very culpable in the huge arms trade that has made Mexico practically ungovernable in places.

There is a natural coincidence of interests between the Second Amendment fanatics in the United States, and the Mexican drug cartels. It's all very nice to assert a right to bear arms, but it's foolish to assert this right without limitations when foreign-base interests are involved. The NRA and Los Zetas are in the same bed. It's only a matter of time before the cartels attempt to dominate the United States the same way they've come to dominate Mexico. The NRA will be the traitors leading this assault, and U.S. armed forces (Border Patrol, Army, Air Force, Navy) will be their first targets:

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared three days of mourning Friday following the arson of a casino by presumed drug traffickers that killed 52, calling those responsible "true terrorists."

Armed assailants burst into the casino Thursday afternoon, swearing and shouting for customers and employees to get out. But many of the terrified victims fled farther inside the building, where they died trapped amid the flames and thick smoke that soon billowed out of the building.

Calderon described the incident as the worst attack on innocent civilians in recent memory. "We are not talking about an accident," he said in a televised nationwide address. "We are talking about true terrorists who have gone beyond all limits."

...Attorney General Leon Adrian de la Garza said a drug cartel was apparently responsible for the attack, though he didn't name which one. Cartels often extort casinos and other businesses, threatening to attack them or burn them to the ground if they refuse to pay.

It was the second time in three months that the Casino Royale was targeted. Gunmen struck it and three other casinos on May 25, spraying the building with bullets, but no was reported injured in that attack.

...Monterrey has seen bloody turf battles between the Zetas and Gulf cartels in recent months. Once Mexico's symbol of development and prosperity, the city is seeing this year's drug-related murders on a pace to double last year's and triple those of the year before.

Hurricane Katia, Its Helper, And An Uncertain Floridian Future

There are some indications that a small tropical storm will generate in the Gulf of Mexico over the next few days and linger off the coast of Louisiana before moving west to Texas. By itself, this storm shouldn’t be much of a problem for Tampa, Florida residents (except possibly for waves at the beach).

Nevertheless, I’m concerned that the simple presence of that tropical storm will remove an atmospheric pressure barrier that would ordinarily keep Hurricane Katia away from Florida. It’s possible that Katia could make a direct hit on Florida near Cape Canaveral around September 10th or 11th, and then cross the state and reappear in the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa. Even though such a storm would be seriously downgraded as it crossed the state, it would still disrupt life throughout the state, including the Tampa area (possible tornadoes, lots of rain, etc.). In addition, it might strengthen again over the Gulf of Mexico, and continue elsewhere on its path of mayhem.

So, we’ll need to keep an eye on Hurricane Katia and the as-yet unnamed Gulf of Mexico storm, until we better understand their intentions.

Katia

Current forecasts keep this newbie storm east of Florida, and east of the eastern U.S., so there are no anticipated worries for the U.S. (but there may eventually be troubles for Bermuda).

Carla Fleming "Heartbreaker" Music Video

I had no idea that Carla had been up to this!

All these fine ladies are (or recently were) from the Sacramento area. I don't know who the poor fellow is, but I feel for him....

Live-Blogging ABQ Storms - 08/29/11

(2:00 p.m. PDT) Weather disturbance associated with drier air -like a dry line - quickly moving in from the NW. Maybe some quick hit-and-run thunderstorms will come from it!

(2:30 p.m. PDT) About to strike ABQ!

(3:30 p.m. PDT) No radar! No radar? No radar! The radar equipment was struck by lightning! It's offline! NOW what am I gonna do?

They're Going After The National Weather Service Next

It's important to note that, in the United States, the National Weather Service ALONE operates the system of rawinsondes without which weather forecasting by ANYBODY in the United States, public or private, becomes impossible. AccuWeather can't function without the National Weather Service. Where would they get their data? Also, the National Weather Service is THE agency by which American weather forecasters interact with their international counterparts, of which there are many on this crowded globe. What happens overseas affects us, and vice versa.

Privatizing the National Weather Service IS NOT POSSIBLE! Even making the attempt will be far more expensive for everyone than the cost of the current system. And the weather service has always been, and remains, and always will remain a critical component of military readiness! People forget so fast!

So why do conservatives even bring up the subject of privatizing the National Weather Service? Are the rich THAT desperate for more and more and yet more loot that they consider even irreplaceable governmental functions - that safeguard even their lousy hides - to be dispensable? Remember, a truly-privatized weather service would withhold information from the public and provide the best information only to the highest bidder, perhaps at the cost of your poor, misinformed life!

This is truly, truly pathetic! What a disgrace conservatives are to this country!:

Although it might sound outrageous, the truth is that the National Hurricane Center and its parent agency, the National Weather Service, are relics from America’s past that have actually outlived their usefulness.

The National Weather Service (NWS) was founded in 1870. Originally, the NWS was not a public information agency. It was a national security agency and placed under the Department of War. The Service’s national security function has long since disappeared, but as agencies often do, however, it stuck around and managed to increase its budget.

Today the NWS justifies itself on public interest grounds. It issues severe weather advisories and hijacks local radio and television stations to get the message out. It presumes that citizens do not pay attention to the weather and so it must force important, perhaps lifesaving, information upon them. A few seconds’ thought reveals how silly this is. The weather might be the subject people care most about on a daily basis. There is a very successful private TV channel dedicated to it, 24 hours a day, as well as any number of phone and PC apps. Americans need not be forced to turn over part of their earnings to support weather reporting.

The NWS claims that it supports industries like aviation and shipping, but if they provide a valuable contribution to business, it stands to reason business would willingly support their services. If that is the case, the Service is just corporate welfare. If they would not, it is just a waste.

As for hurricanes, the insurance industry has a compelling interest in understanding them. In a world without a National Weather Service, the insurance industry would probably have sponsored something very like the National Hurricane Center at one or more universities. Those replacements would also not be exploited for political purposes.

As it stands today, the public is forced to pay more than $1 billion per year for the NWS. With the federal deficit exceeding a trillion dollars, the NWS is easily overlooked, but it shouldn’t be. It may actually be dangerous.

Relying on inaccurate government reports can endanger lives. Last year the Service failed to predict major flooding in Nashville because it miscalculated the rate at which water was releasing from dams there. The NWS continued to rely on bad information, even after forecasters knew the data were inaccurate. The flooding resulted in 22 deaths.

Private weather services do exist, and unsurprisingly, they are better than the NWS. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the National Weather Service was twelve hours behind AccuWeather in predicting that New Orleans would be affected. Unlike the NWS, AccuWeather provides precise hour-by-hour storm predictions, one of the reasons private industry supports them.

UFO Talk In NM

Here's an upcoming talk on an interesting subject:

A 90-minute public lecture entitled "America's UFO subculture and New Mexico" will be given on November 2 at Meadowlark Senior Center in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, by Norio Hayakawa, former director of a group called the Civilian Intelligence Network.

The group, for many years, has focused its study on how a segment of the population's "beliefs in UFOs" (as physical alien spacecraft) have been manipulated and, in some cases, may even have been created by the U.S. intelligence community as part of certain counterintelligence programs and operations.

There's talk that there's a big UFO base in Dulce, NM:

We took a look at the Gomez Ranch, the road by the Navajo River, and the imposing Archuleta Mesa. Gabe had found landing tracks and crawler marks near the site of the mutes, and was convinced that scientist Paul Bennewitz of Thunder Scientific Labs in Albuquerque, was definitely on the right track in his attempts to locate the underground alien facility in the vicinity of Dulce. No one knew for sure where the facility was located or how humans or aliens gained secret entry to the facility.

Actually, I think if there's a big UFO base anywhere in NM, it's in Rio Rancho. It would explain a lot: first of all, the surpassing strangeness of that place!

It's Time We All Told The Dan Lungrens Of The World That The Rich Need A Tax Hike

They plundered the economy for that money, and are holding it hostage. We have uses for that money and want to liberate it.

Filipino Lip Sync Contest Best!

Via Surly Comet.

Precocious Sacramento Youth

Always ready for a challenge:

A police bait car placed in a Sacramento neighborhood to lure would-be car thieves was stolen by a 10-year-old girl yesterday. Officers think the young lady did it after being dared by her friends.

San Francisco Day Trip

Following the "Cool Bus" towards San Francisco on Saturday morning.

First, a stop in Emeryville to eat.

Despite some fog in the neighborhood, for most of the day, San Francisco was warmer than expected.

A cool mural in Chinatown.

A funeral procession in Chinatown.

Ross Alley in Chinatown.

Where Fortune Cookies come from.

TransAmerica Pyramid.

Spaceship on the Embarcadero, with the Bay Bridge in the background.

Busker makes a human bridge.

Alcatraz, as seen from Pier 32.

Lolling with the pinnepids on Pier 32.

Bark! Bark!

It's easy to join the beach bums. Just climb over everyone!

Shopping on Pier 32. After seeing the beautiful merchandise on display at places like the San Francisco Music Box Company, the need to adhere to a budget began to feel very painful.

An unexpected and mysterious military guy in the crowd.

Cool building in the Flatiron style.

Tweets Can Propagate Faster Than Earthquakes

Via Ezra Klein.

Sticky Readers

After aerobics class at Pepper Von's on Thursday evening, I quickly threw on some clothes and headed over to the Sacramento Bee, to see a talk entitled "Sticky Readers: How To Attract a Loyal Blog Audience By Writing More Better" by Margaret Andrews, who writes the popular local blog "Nanny Goats In Panties".

Margaret focused on good writing as the key to retaining a loyal blog following. All the marketing people say "content is king", but then are mysteriously silent as to what that means. To paraphrase Margaret, the gooder you write, the loyaller the readers will be.

Margaret has self-published a book with the same title as the talk through Amazon. I was curious about this self-publishing arrangement, because it might well be fun to self-publish some books some day.

I introduced myself to Margaret at a Sacramento Connect function in March, 2010. Tonight, I think she may have forgotten who I was, which suits me fine. Last year, I referred to her as my "nemesis", a rather-strong term that caught her by surprise. What I meant to say is that we are "friendly rivals", since we often jockey for that crucial eighth-place slot on Sacramento's Top 25 sites. Since she is now busy assembling a media empire, with her Coconut Queen video game and her new book, I'd better get busy too! Time's a-wastin'!

Afterwards, Sacramento Connects' Lisa Howard kindly favored me with a tour of the Sacramento Bee newsroom, the nerve center of the entire Central Valley! And I must say, we Bloggers are the Endorphins of said nerve center of said Valley!

The Chinese May End Up Being Everyone's Fools

This article compares the Thrifty Chinese with the Spendthrift Americans:

Spurred on by state media which have let rip at the "debt-riddled" United States, the Chinese have listened with wide-eyed amazement to tales of American people living well beyond their means.

The US credit crisis has brought to light a fundamental difference between thrifty consumers in China -- the largest foreign holder of US debt -- and their credit-loving US counterparts.

After Standard & Poor's downgraded Washington's top notch credit rating this month, some Chinese have shown scorn for Americans they see as spending money before they earn it.

"They should just buy what they can pay for," said Zhao Kai, a Beijing resident, explaining that like many Chinese people he "prefers to pay cash and does not like being in debt".

According to Forbes magazine, the average Chinese household had debts worth just 17 percent of its annual income last year, against 136 percent in the United States.

It's good on a personal level being thrifty, of course, but a very curious bipolar relationship opened up between the Chinese and the Americans over the last 30 years. The Chinese have an export-oriented economy now, whereas we have an import-oriented economy. They save, and invest in us rather than themselves: we spend and finance our budget deficits with their money. It works, for the moment, but only as long as everyone plays their role.

If Americans just bought what we "can pay for", imports would collapse and the Chinese economy would be crushed. If the Chinese stopped investing here, interest rates would rise, and higher taxes would be necessary for us, but they'd suffer to from poor returns.

If the Chinese want to scold us, we can't stop them, but if we follow their advice, we'll all be in deep, deep trouble. So, we'll listen to them and smile, forget everything they say, and then head down to Best Buy later in the evening to buy new (Chinese) electronic toys. Because that's how the world works, these days, and there's hell to pay if we do it any differently.

I Guess That Is A Problem, Isn't It?

Live-Blogging ABQ Storms - 08/24/11

(2;45 p.m. PDT) Went to lunch. Came back. The weather's been busy!

Nice thunderstorm making its way from the Sandias, across Albuquerque, and across the South Valley. A nice gust front is radiating away from that storm, as well as from a storm just west of Belen. And there is another storm approaching the Sandias from the northeast. The rain isn't over by any means!

Come on, folks, let's bump up those rainfall totals!

(3:15 p.m. PDT) Raining heavily just south of I-40 and east of the Manzanos. A gust front is beginning to radiate from that storm too. It looks like this storm will follow its predecessor over the mountains and into the South Valley.

It Seems To Be Raining At Least A Little Bit In ABQ

May it rain more!

The Old Dominion Will Prevail!

"OldeSaultie" in Virginia sends this.

From Ft. Worth

For what it's worth (via Facebook).

Stress, And Its Toll

The last year has been terribly-stressful in Christchurch:

Janine Antram, a government-approved wig provider, said about 100 Canterbury women and girls, mostly aged between 10 and 30, had contacted her since last October asking for wigs because they were suffering from alopecia.

"There is huge hair loss going on in Christchurch.

"I don't know if it is related to the earthquake, but I do know alopecia is related to stress, and clients have said [alopecia] has come on since the earthquakes."

Her youngest client was eight.

'Happy Feet' To Return Home

Andrew in Christchurch sends this sweet story.

Godspeed, 'Happy Feet'!:

The emperor penguin who became world famous when he washed up on a Kapiti Coast beach in June will have his last hurrah this weekend.

Happy Feet will be shipped out to sea on Niwa's research vessel Tangaroa on August 29.

The penguin, who has lived at Wellington Zoo since he was found on Peka Peka beach, would be released in the Southern Ocean four days into the ship's month-long trip to the Campbell Islands, 700km south of New Zealand.

On Sunday, Wellington Zoo is hosting a "Haere Ra Happy Feet'' day where visitors have the chance to sign a farewell card and are encouraged to dress up in black and white.

At 3pm Happy Feet will go under anaesthetic for the final time so a GPS tracking device can be attached to him.

Still Worried About The Epicenter Area

I'm worried about the area near the epicenter of this East Coast quake. The strength of this shallow quake is on a par with the similarly-shallow quakes near Christchurch, NZ, which did terrible damage. Some towns in VA got hammered, I'm sure!

No news of any Virginia calamities yet. The Washington Post has coverage:

Any assumption that the region is seismically serene was corrected at 1:51 p.m. when a fault near the small town of Mineral, Va., suddenly ruptured.

...The first warnings of the earthquake may have occurred at the National Zoo, where officials said some animals seemed to feel it coming before people did. The red ruffed lemurs began “alarm calling” a full 15 minutes before the quake hit, zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said. In the Great Ape House, Iris, an orangutan, let out a guttural holler 10 seconds before keepers felt the quake. The flamingos huddled together in the water seconds before people felt the rumbling. The rheas got excited. And the hooded mergansers — a kind of duck — dashed for the safety of the water.

"Breaking Bad" - Season 4, Episode 6, 'Cornered'

Left: A prominent billboard on Broadway Blvd. SE, July 27, 2010.



Episode 6 featured several new locations. "OldeSaultie" has already posted these on his map for Season 4.

The "Tucker! Tucker!" scene was located at 1400 San Jose Avenue SE, in the Kirtland Community. That scene was freaky and strange - a real favorite! I love it!

Skyler's flight to Four Corners represents the first time the main action of the show has left the state of New Mexico. Characteristically, that flight was very tentative, leaving the state by only a few feet. Nevertheless, what a place for a quandary!

Just like the Superlab represents a dungeon, New Mexico represents a sort of trap or prison too. In my "Breaking Bad" post Number Two, I wrote that "Albuquerque tends to attract impractical dreamers. ... People who don't understand why their plans never worked out." And the way you know you are a true New Mexican is that claustrophobic trapped feeling you get just by living there. Skyler, it's time to flee to Denver! Skyler! Skyler, do you hear me?

It's been years since I've been to Four Corners, and so I'm assuming that the brief vista shown represents the area in the immediate vicinity: e.g., the descent into the valley of the San Juan River, which runs nearby.

The refrigerator truck reprise occurred at exactly the same place the other refrigerator truck hit occurred, on Los Picaros Drive, SE.

Loyola's Family Restaurant on Central Avenue was also used, to great effect.

Late Afternoon In Davis

By a quirk of fate, I'm in Davis, at the DMTC Box Office. The YPT rehearsal is underway in the theater. It just feels really weird to be here so early!

Quake

A 5.9 earthquake hits the center of the freakin' media universe. And it's not California!

Matt Fox feat. Kelsey B - "Downtown" (VJ Nightshade Video Edit) (Explicit)

Kelsey and Matt do a wonderful job with this song!

I was hesitant at first about this collaboration, because I find some Dub Step to be strangely-undanceable. I wondered if this was a misstep. Matt Fox figured a way out of that trap, however! It's got a solid driving beat - perfect for dancing!

The result of the collaboration is a fresh new sound. Hard to come up with a fresh new sound in dance music!

The best of good luck and good fortune to the 'Beauty Queen' as she pushes her way up in the charts! (Link to iTunes.)