Uninformed Homeowner In Pajamas Confronts City Workers Over Tree-Planting

This morning (11 a.m.), I was outraged to discover to find two city workers planting saplings on the embankment in front of my house. I ran out in my pajamas to confront them.

"What are you doing?" I asked. "We're planting crepe myrtles," they replied. "But that's private property!" I replied. "It's a park strip," they replied. "The city owns park strips." "But that can't be true," I replied. "Several years ago, when the sidewalk needed repair, the city charged me for it." The smiled and said: "Yes, they did." "So, the park strip is my property!" I said. "No, it belongs to the city," they replied.

I could have sworn the city maps showed me owning all the land to the street. It's mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! But since there was no surveyor anywhere in sight, I changed the subject. "Who's going to water the trees?" I asked. To my great surprise, they said, "Oh, the city will. A truck will come around and water them periodically, at least for the first two years, until they get a firm foothold." They added "Yeah, remember, these trees are expensive." I mulled it over and said, "Well, I'll add water too. The southern exposure is hard on trees here. OK, carry on!"

In the Nineties, Katherine planted saplings here, but the location is brutal for trees, and the trees soon died. The location is bad for grass too, or any plants that require water. The sloped southern exposure guarantees elevated summertime temperatures and an unquenchable thirst for any living thing unfortunate enough to be there. Even if everyone cooperates, these trees may die too. But if the city is dead-set in its madness, I'll do my part to help.

Carry on!

Psyched Out By Household Stuff This Weekend

On Thursday, the 'Service Engine Soon' light came on in my car. I took it in to OK Tires, but they couldn't divine the issue. They turned the light off, in the hope it doesn't return.

Sweeping the yard of leaves on Saturday, I noticed a big pool of sewage under my back porch. WTF? There was even this cute-looking cinder cone made of toilet paper from the eruption of water through leaves and accumulated debris. That area has an obsolete sewage pipe outlet there from when the house was first built. It can back up when the sewage pipe is blocked, but I thought I had last taken care of that problem in September, when I pulled a lot of roots out of the pipe. I guess the pipe was blocked again, only two months later. Yet, when I rented the roto-rooter snake, I pulled out no roots this time. Water flow seemed to be good. So, why did it back up? Or was this sewage sitting under my back porch for two months? If so, how did I fail to notice it?

It's all very confusing.

FOX News Weeps For Elderly Pregnant Women

Otter Fun

Harry Potter Stamps Anger Stamp Collectors

Above: Lamppost poster in Christchurch, NZ (2008).


Not 'Merican:

On Tuesday, the U.S. Postal Service is scheduled to release 20 postage stamps honoring Harry Potter, and officials at the cash-strapped agency hope the images, drawn straight from the Warner Bros. movies, will be the biggest blockbuster since the Elvis Presley stamp 20 years ago.

...For one of the only times in its 56-year-history, the committee was not consulted in the decision to put Potter and his friends and foes on the run of 100 million “forever” stamps.

“Harry Potter is not American. It’s foreign, and it’s so blatantly commercial it’s off the charts,” said John Hotchner, a stamp collector in Falls Church and former president of the American Philatelic Society, who served on the committee for 12 years until 2010. “The Postal Service knows what will sell, but that’s not what stamps ought to be about. Things that don’t sell so well are part of the American story.”

In 1864, There Was One Person Who Completely Grasped The Task At Hand

General William Tecumseh Sherman:

The March to the Sea was devastating to Georgia and the Confederacy. Sherman himself estimated that the campaign had inflicted $100 million (about $1.4 billion in 2010 dollars) in destruction, about one fifth of which "inured to our advantage" while the "remainder is simple waste and destruction." The Army wrecked 300 miles (480 km) of railroad and numerous bridges and miles of telegraph lines. It seized 5,000 horses, 4,000 mules, and 13,000 head of cattle. It confiscated 9.5 million pounds of corn and 10.5 million pounds of fodder, and destroyed uncounted cotton gins and mills. Military historians Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones cited the significant damage wrought to railroads and Southern logistics in the campaign and stated that "Sherman's raid succeeded in 'knocking the Confederate war effort to pieces'." David J. Eicher wrote that "Sherman had accomplished an amazing task. He had defied military principles by operating deep within enemy territory and without lines of supply or communication. He destroyed much of the South's potential and psychology to wage war."

10th Anniversary Madness Of The 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall Election Continues!

Jayson Haedrich writes:

Hi Everyone:

Thanks for the intro Mark -

We are pleased to be screening the recall documentary I produced back in 2003 with Robbie Stauder at Sacramento State University.

If you didn't get a chance to catch the film last month at the 10th anniversary reunion at the capital - please feel free to come to this screening.

Time- Thursday, November 21st, 6PM
Location - CSUS - Mendocino Hall - Room 1015

Thanks

Jayson Haedrich

Here is some Additional Info.

PS- If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to Jayson so that he can give the school your name / info.

Marc's PS: Jayson is available on Facebook, and his E-Mail address is:

jaysonhaedrich@gmail.com

Kitten - Like A Stranger

Kitten was on Carson Daly's show. Their energy is impressive!

Mars Maven Spacecraft Heads To Mars

Nothing better than a rocket launch!:

The Maven, which NASA describes the explorer as an eight-foot cube weighing about as much as an SUV flanked by "gull-wing-shaped" solar panels, is set to reach Mars' atmosphere on Sept. 22, 2014.

Here is a longer, explanatory video:

Alms For The Poor

What is needed here are higher wages:

The store set up bins in an employee-only section of the store encouraging donations of food so that some of the store's needier workers could enjoy a Thanksgiving meal, according to photos sent to advocacy group Organization United for Respect at Walmart.

Community members and store workers were upset by the food drive.

"That Walmart would have the audacity to ask low-wage workers to donate food to other low-wage workers -- to me, it is a moral outrage," Norma Mills, a Canton resident, told the Plain Dealer.

Important to recall:

In 2011, six members of the Walton family had the same net worth as the bottom 30% of American families combined.

Saturday Night Live Mocks Both Toronto Mayor Rob Ford AND 60 Minutes' Lara Logan!

A bouquet of riches!

Descanso For Tyesha Keola Shanks

On Bradshaw Road:

The woman who was struck and killed by a Comcast pickup truck Thursday night on Bradshaw Road has been identified as Tyesha Keola Shanks, 33, of Sacramento, according to the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office.

A 2000 GMC Sierra truck driven by Comcast employee Kenneth Palmer allegedly plowed through the number three lane, killing the victim instantly, the California Highway Patrol said.

So, McClatchy Looked Into Lara Logan's Benghazi Report

More questions than answers:

CBS was taken to task for not revealing that Davies, on whose recollections the report was largely based, was the author of a soon-to-be released book published by a CBS-owned publishing company that features the work of politically conservative authors. On Oct. 31, The Washington Post revealed that Davies had filed a report with his employer, Blue Mountain Security, that contradicted his “60 Minutes” account, and The New York Times revealed Nov. 7 that Davies also gave an account to the FBI at odds with the “60 Minutes” version.

...The report repeatedly referred to al Qaida as solely responsible for the attack on the compound and made no mention of Ansar al Shariah, the Islamic extremist group that controls and provides much of the security in restive Benghazi and that has long been suspected in the attack. While the two organizations have worked together in Libya, experts said they have different aims – al Qaida has global objectives while Ansar al Shariah is focused on turning Libya into an Islamic state.

It is an important distinction, experts on those groups said. Additionally, al Qaida’s role, if any, in the attack has not been determined, and Logan’s narration offered no source for her repeated assertion that it had been.

“I think there are definitely connections, but I am not sure there is command and control” between al Qaida and Ansar al Shariah, said Aaron Y. Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who studies insurgent activity in North Africa.

Logan claimed that “it’s now well established that the Americans were attacked by al Qaida in a well-planned assault.” But al Qaida has never claimed responsibility for the attack, and the FBI, which is leading the U.S. investigation, has never named al Qaida as the sole perpetrator. Rather, it is believed a number of groups were part of the assault, including members and supporters of al Qaida and Ansar al Shariah, as well as attackers angered by a video made by an American that insulted Prophet Muhammad. The video spurred angry protests outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo hours beforehand.

Tyehimba's West African Dance Class At The Roberts Development Center

Nice video, showing Tyehimba, his Djembe cohort, and his dancers.

ICE Dance Company 2013 (Ruff Final)

This looks like it might be rehearsal for the Amber Rose video.

Car Gave Me A Service Engine Soon Light

Tire people shrugged their shoulders and turned it off. Hope it was nothing.

Thunderstruck At The Planned Size For This Thing

I picked up a copy of the Navajo Times, and started reading about a new solar power plant being planned out on the Res. The fact that it's so close to the Bisti Badlands (dinosaur heaven), and the simple size of what they are planning floored me:

Preliminary data collected by California-based Tetra Tech has determined that the Navajo Nation could help meet the energy demands of the future with a proposed 4,370-megawatt solar project at the Paragon Bisti Energy Renewable Ranch in the Eastern Navajo Agency.

...Prosuch added the proposed solar project has the potential for "world-class greatness," when 17,360 acres of the 22,000 acre ranch are producing 4,370 megawatts of energy from solar panels. The power produced by the project would nearly equal the entire new photovoltaic production in the U.S. this year, according to the U.S. Photovoltaic Installation Forecast of the Solar Energy Industries Association.

It is, by far, the largest renewable energy project currently being planned in the country, according to data supplied by Tetra Tech.

..."You don't just go up there with jumper cables," he said, explaining that Site I is ideal for development because it's close to the Bisti 230-kilowatt substation, transmission line and on the right-of-way of U.S. Highway 371.

That's 27.125 square miles of photovoltaic surface! If it was a square surface, the square would be 5.2 miles on a side! In comparison, the entirely-too-large city limits of Albuquerque is 181.3 square miles. That's 15% of the size of the city.

That's too damn big for one power plant!

Oddly Enough, Despite Drought, Albuquerque's Aquifer Is Beginning To Rise

The shift away from ground water to Rio Grande water is progressing well enough that some improvement in the aquifer level is noticeable.

And hopefully in time too:

Albuquerque's long-overdue wake-up call came in August 1993 when the U.S. Geological Survey released a report showing that Albuquerque was pumping out its groundwater nearly three times faster than it could be replenished.


Tests showed the underground water basin had dropped by as much as 40 feet between 1989 and 1992 and nearly 140 feet in some places over the past three decades. More important, the report shot down once and for all the notion that Albuquerque had a limitless source of water.


The Rio Grande, according to the USGS report, was not replenishing (or recharging) the city's aquifer at anything approaching a steady state. In 1993 the Albuquerque area pumped about 160,000 acre-feet of water from the aquifer, while the aquifer is being replenished by rainfall and mountain snowmelt at close to 65,000 acre-feet a year.

Perusing "Albuquerque Busted - America's Top Crime Paper"

When I was in Albuquerque, I picked up the (Vol. 1) October issue of "Albuquerque Busted - America's Top Crime Paper", subtitled 'Crooks, Hookers, Wife Beaters and Druggies From Your Neighborhood'. Sounds entertaining!

Hundreds of sad-looking mug shots fill this paper - Albuquerque residents not at their best.  There are web sites that traffic in these pictures too.

I was troubled by something I saw in the paper:

The ostensible point of these sites is to give the public a quick way to glean the unsavory history of a neighbor, a potential date or anyone else. That sounds civic-minded, until you consider one way most of these sites make money: by charging a fee to remove the image. That fee can be anywhere from $30 to $400, or even higher. Pay up, in other words, and the picture is deleted, at least from the site that was paid.

To Mr. Birnbaum, and millions of other Americans now captured on one or more of these sites, this sounds like extortion. ... ” Mr. Birnbaum said. “I know what I did was wrong, and I understand the punishment,” he continued. “But these Web sites are punishing me, and because I don’t have the money it would take to get my photo off them all, there is nothing I can do about it.”

...MUG shots have been online for years, but they appear to have become the basis for businesses in 2010, thanks to Craig Robert Wiggen, who served three years in federal prison for a scheme to lift credit card numbers from diners at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Tallahassee, Fla. He was looking for another line of work, according to news articles, and started Florida.arrests.org.

...Lance C. Winchester, a lawyer in Austin who represents BustedMugshots and MugshotsOnline, both named in the lawsuit, says Mr. Ciolek’s lawsuit is a stinker because the United States Supreme Court has ruled time and again that mug shots are public records.

“I understand people think there is a dilemma presented by a Web site where you can pay to have a mug shot removed,” he said. “I understand that people don’t like to have their mug shots posted online. But it can’t be extortion as a matter of law because republishing something that has already been published is not extortion.”

And if you are a woman who fights back against an attacking stalker, your life may be ruined:

...The screams and commotion caused a neighbor to call the police. The boyfriend — whom Dr. Trimaldi did not want named for fear that he would stalk her — contended that a bleeding scratch on his chest had been inflicted by Dr. Trimaldi with the knife. (It was from one of her fingernails, she says.) She was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery domestic violence.

The state dropped the charges, according to a document signed by Mark A. Ober, the state attorney in Hillsborough County, Fla. A few months later, her booking photograph turned up on a Florida mug-shot Web site and with it another mug shot from a 1996 arrest on an accusation of possession of marijuana and steroids.

...She paid $30 to have the images taken down, but they soon appeared on other sites, one of which wanted $400 to pull the picture.

...“If I wasn’t a level-headed, positive person,” she wrote in an e-mail to Mr. Ciolek, the lawyer in Toledo, “I would have seriously considered ending my own life.”

So, what about "Albuquerque Busted - America's Top Crime Paper"?

Well, it's published by Pinnacle Holdings International, LLC. So, it's not based in Albuquerque, and likely isn't subject to American law.

People are labeled junkies and hoes, without having been charged for drug possession or prostitution. Apparently all you to be to end up on the 'Hoe' page is female.

I think this will be the last time I purchase this paper or look at these Websites.

Wondering How The Healing Is Going

There seems to be a surprising rash of bicycle/car accidents in the Sacramento area these days. It's unnerving!

Driving to work several weeks ago, I saw the mute testimony of an accident at 21st St. and Capitol Avenue: garbage truck, mangled bicycle, cop cars everywhere. I came across an October 24th story in the print version of the Sacramento Bee indicating the truck had turned left in front of the bicycle, and even though the bicyclist had been badly-hurt, he's expected to survive.

So, he's one of the lucky ones.....

New Mexico Comes Up With New Tourist Ideas

That was real scary there in 1980!:

An unlikely answer, it turned out, lay in the department’s darkest chapter, behind the locked gates of the shuttered Penitentiary of New Mexico on the outskirts of this picturesque city, where one of the nation’s deadliest prison riots broke out on Feb. 2, 1980. In 36 hours, 33 inmates were killed and more than 200 were injured — some dismembered, others burned alive inside their cells. Fourteen corrections officers were held hostage and brutalized during the rampage.

The savagery — fueled by feuds that had long festered inside a prison built for 900 but housing 1,100 — raged unimpeded and led to fundamental changes to the way prisoners were classified, housed and disciplined in the state. Opening the prison to visitors and telling the story of the riot, Mr. Marcantel said, was a way to preserve that history.

“We thought, let’s open it up for tours,” Mr. Marcantel said from his office here, where a state seal carved in wood by an inmate decorates one wall.

I Didn't Realize Avila Beach Had Been Ruined By A Massive Oil Spill

I also didn't realize it had been cleaned up:

It had been a charmed Central Coast existence, with one disastrous exception: a massive leak from an oil tank farm that sent 400,000 gallons of petrochemicals oozing under the town.

This was not just any oil spill - it was an underground lake of muck that built up over decades, polluting Avila Beach so severely before it was discovered in 1989 that the town had to be destroyed, effectively, to be saved.

Much of Avila Beach, including its entire business district, had to be torn down and reconstructed, its iconoclastic, working-class character, many believe, lost in a thicket of bulldozers, lawyers and regulators.

Today, a final chapter to that saga is underway: An oil company wants to build a resort on the very piece of land where the spill originated.

SacBee Talks To The Weather Modifiers

Shades of Dr. Fukuta! The Sacramento Bee had a nice feature article regarding cloud seeding in the Sierra Nevada.

The problem with cloud seeding has always been the difficulty of seeding at the right concentration in the right place. One intriguing new wrinkle is the development of drone aircraft technology which could, in principle, allow greater facility in delivering ice nuclei to where they can be most-efficiently used. Still, it's a huge challenge, and there is little sign this problem has been adequately addressed:

Once viewed by some as a fringe science, cloud seeding has entered the mainstream as a tool to pad the state’s crucial mountain snowpack. New technology to manage the practice, and research that points to reliable results, have cemented cloud seeding as a dependable and affordable water-supply practice.

“The message is starting to sink in that this is a cost-effective tool,” said Jeff Tilley, director of weather modification at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, which practices cloud seeding in the Lake Tahoe Basin and Eastern Sierra Nevada. “The technology is better; we understand how to do cloud seeding much better. And because we know how to do it more effectively, it’s definitely taken more seriously.”

Great Summary Of The Most-Difficult Original Musical Compositions For Breaking Bad

Hard to compose the music!

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass

What a video!

Regarding Arlon Carlson

A Memorial service for Arnold Arlon Carlson will be held Saturday, November 16 at 11:00 am at The Table United Methodist Church at 5265 H Street in Sacramento. In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to either The Table UMC, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, or the various local theater groups in which he was active. Thank you.

Arnold's family is overwhelmed with the expressions of love and support posted on his FB page. We thank you for those kind expressions. --Kathy Carlson Daigle

RIP, Lee Mitchell

Apparently a former DMTC player, Lee Mitchell, died several months ago. Here is his record of shows at DMTC.

Jetta Comes Close To Falling For A Scam

And a fairly-obvious scam too: the old, flattering "we want you to model for us" dodge. Sent via RealityWanted.com and uses the real CaféPress.com for cover.

The prose is fairly-uneducated, which is one tip-off. Another tip-off is that the Culver Events Center in Los Angeles, the supposed site of this photo-shoot on November 29-30, closed for good on November 3rd.

Here is the E-Mail she received.

Thanks for responding. We are happy to inform you that you are one of the few people chosen out of the screening exercise performed by us for the upcoming job in your area. Its all about you and your passion.



About US

we're the world's best destination for expressing yourself through merchandise. From your favorite T-shirt and Woodie, to the tote bag over your shoulder and bumper sticker on your car, we're here to let you express your interests. And what makes our products so unique, and so expressive, is that we don't create the designs on them. Our community of designers do - all through millions of shops we help them run. Cafe Press is the world's biggest destination for self-expression through merchandise. Each month over 11 million shoppers visit Cafe Press to buy or create T-shirts, mugs, posters and other gifts that reflect their interests, passions, beliefs and affiliations.Today, Cafe Press is a growing network of over 6.5 million members who have unleashed their EXHIBIT A creativity to transform their artwork and ideas into an impressive catalog of over 250 million unique gifts. Cafe Press is where folks from all walks of life gather online to create, sell, and buy a print on demand.Each brings to life whatever people are passionate about. It can be a white-hot political cause?

A gorgeous grandchild? An obsessive hobby? A funny (or flirty?) thought? Anything!


Offices


Corporate Headquarters: San Mateo, California
Production Facilities: Louisville, KY
Founded October 1999


Management Team
Fred Durham, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

Monica Johnson, Chief Financial Officer

Bob Marino, Chief Operating Officer

Amy Maniatis, Vice President Marketing

Neil Markey â?? Vice President Engineering

Abdul Popal, Vice President of Business Operations and Corporate Development

Robert Richard, Information Manager

Gregg Henchel, Project Supervisor

Employees,300+ employees

Independent Shopkeepers & Major Accounts CafePress.com is a global and growing network of over 6.5million independent shopkeepers and members in addition to corporate stores and licensedproperties.CafePress.com has over 100 major accounts, including American Idol, E! Television, Smithsonian Institute, Noggin and the Twilight series.
History Prior to founding CafePress.com, Fred Durham and Maheesh Jain, self-proclaimed serial entrepreneurs,launched several consumer and business technology companies after graduating from Northwestern University. Together, they focused on developing software applications targeted to the diverse needs of small businesses and the larger broadcast and commercial printing industries Durham and Jain set out to redefine the way business is done by using the power of the Internet to create a new class of entrepreneurs. In 1999,taking the best elements from each of their previous business ventures, the duo launched CafePress.com.




OBJECTIVE OF CONTACTING YOU

You have got the physical features we need for our products,we have a print ad clothing shoot coming up. Kindly confirm if you are interested. We want to update our products for the sole purpose of website designing and catalogue for a new clothing label. No nudity, fetish, bondage, escort and other adult content stuff, so if you are interested you can get back to us.

All make up will be taken care of in the studio. You can come along with an escort of your choice. The shoot would be taking place on 29th and 30th of November 2013. The management would be taking care of your feeding,accomodation(if need be),and transportation to the venue of the shoot. You dont have to worry about transportation. All arrangements would be made in due course

The shoot would be taking place at

Culver Events

11948 W Washington Blvd
Los Angeles 90066



JOB DETAILS:
You have 4 different Fashion outfits to cover,which would be provided by our client on the day of the shoot. The shoot is just for 2 days(29th and 30th of November 2013) and you will be paid a total of $1,650 for the entire project. The Job is Urgent so you are to get back to us as soon as possible so that I can arrange on how to get you the part payment. You would be paid the initial payment of $400 to guarantee your participation in the shoot and secure your services for the said dates, as part of our work policy and ethics of the company, we give part payment to any client before we proceed with any job (to secure your position for the shoot)and balance immediately after the work. As i told you earlier this project is very urgent.We would be taking care of your payment,accommodation,transportation,feeding and other expenses. The payment would be mailed directly to you alongside with your cloth allowance, shoes and costume fee for the shoot. If you are interested kindly get back to us with your details as follows:

MODEL INFORMATION
1. Name on check:
_____________________________________________
2. Complete Mailing Address:
_____________________________________________
3 City:
_____________________________________________
4.State:
_____________________________________________
5.Zip Code:
_____________________________________________
6. Phone#:

Stage name :

Height :

Weight :

Age :

Years of experience :

Measurements :

Dress Size :

Shoe Size :

Skin Color :

Hair Color :

__________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
I here by represent and warrant that the above information is true and correct.The names listed above include my present name and every name that I have ever used including my maiden name, alias, nickname,professional or stage name.


JOB TIME DURATION :
You have different Fashion outfits to cover in a couple of 2 hours taking picture for the shoot.This will take just 2 days job of 2hours daily from 4:00pm to 6:00pm.Shoot dates are 29th and 30th of November 2013


WARNING AWARENESS:
The company has gone in agreement with the LOCAL AUTHORITY of the United State Of America just to make sure there is no illegal business moving around and that you will follow the instructions giving to you after the payment issued out.


Mike

You Probably Saw Me Dozing Off Outside At The 19th and Capitol Chipotle's On Saturday Afternoon

Waiting for my car to get fixed at Big-O Tires.

We decided to postpone struts replacement for another day.

The damage was $1,676.00 for replacing cracked intake manifold, cracked radiator, mushy hoses, antique spark plugs and attending leaking rear brake cylinders.

I was hoping the tune-up they added in there would fix the excessive vibration, but it didn't. Sigh. Another day, maybe.

Opening Weekend Of "Oliver!" AT DMTC

Marc Valdez and David Ewey (picture by Melody Ewey).


Opening weekend was fun. There were some mild problems, but things went better than I had feared. In my opinion, houses were surprisingly-large.

In the Sowerberry Funeral Parlor chaos of Act I, Gabe's service dog "Shadow" became worried at all the screaming on stage, slipped his minder, and galloped on stage to find out what was wrong. I had a bit of trouble executing a set change - removing the bed from the platform above - because it was the first time I had executed that recently-assigned set change.

During rehearsal period, Summer Rejmankova had offered praise that I had not stepped on her skirt when stepping over her in the "Consider Yourself" dance sequence. On Saturday, that luck ran out. Summer's heavy, Velcro-challenged skirt peeled off as I lifted her for better audience view, exposing abundant petticoats. Joe the Plumber was in the audience, and found much mirth in that scene.

Sally and the Bruenings were in the audience on Sunday. Shadow had another brief moment unescorted onstage, during the 'London Bridge' sequence, but he quickly realized his error and retreated into the wing. I got distracted by an interesting conversation with Summer and almost changed into the wrong clothes. I was in the wrong pants for the dance segment of "Who Will Buy?" Shane hammered either his shin or his knee on furniture during the show, and was limping painfully around during Act II.

But it could have been worse.

Marc Valdez and Gabe Avila as Bill Sykes (picture by Melody Ewey).

Hattie Craven adds a graffito backstage at DMTC.

David Ewey and Marc Valdez.

Needing That Grenade Just About Now

Texans respond to free speech:

According to a statement from the gun control group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, four of its members were meeting inside the Blue Mesa Grill in Dallas when the confrontation took place.

The group said the confrontation was carried out by members of an organization called Open Carry Texas. The statement said that nearly 40 armed men and women, including some with semi-automatic rifles, arrived in the parking lot outside the restaurant after learning of the small gathering on Facebook.

Mel Tillis - Ruby (Don't Take Your Love To Town)

Very Slow Hurricane Season This Year In Florida

Good news!:

With October nearing end, this year's hurricane season's odds of being the quietest in about 45 years is likely to occur. This is on top of Florida not having a hurricane make landfall in 8 years, not since Wilma in October 2005.

With this amazing lull in activity for Florida, a new round of people who have never experienced a hurricane in Florida makes potential for something happening in future seasons more risky, as the false sense of security tends to build..

This year only two hurricanes formed in the Atlantic, and even then nothing above a category 1. None of these made landfall, only one Tropical storm made landfall in the US, Andrea, in the Panhandle. This year's ACE rating is only a third of an average year.

One month remains in the hurricane season this year, and there is nothing on the horizon to indicate much happening.

Matter/Anti-Matter

CBS' Conservative News Show, '60 Minutes', Tries To Skate By With An Apology

Isn't it time Lara Logan resigned?:

60 Minutes has a lot of explaining to do, and clearly isn't interested in doing so. The key question is why did the show base its entire story on the account of Davies, and not actually vet him with sources at the FBI? But there are other questions, like did Logan attempt to find sources to corroborate Davies' account? Did Davies ask to be paid for his story (beyond his book contract) like he did with Fox News (a demand that caused the Fox reporter to stop working with him)? How much influence does recent CBS News hire David Rhodes—a former Fox News executive—have at 60 Minutes? Why did 60 Minutes producers and editors allow Logan, who has a very clear and public political agenda on this issue, to run with it with apparently no fact checking?

Perceived personal political bias was enough for CBS to end Dan Rather's career after his story on then-candidate George W. Bush's national guard duty. Logan's story was far more harmful, not just to the families of the victims of Benghazi, but to national interests. CBS is so far refusing to acknowledge that, and refusing to hold itself and Logan accountable. An "apology" for being "misled" doesn't cover this huge journalistic malpractice, not by a long shot.

Here is Logan from last year, when her jihad against jihadism was in full bloom:

Copycats

There was a time, about 1980, when the GOP was flatteringly considered the party of new ideas (bad ideas, I thought, but whatever).

Now they have literally no new ideas. GOP Senate candidate Greg Brannon has been caught copying his policy positions from Rand Paul, literally word for word. It's like the invasion of the pod people, or the Stepford candidates, or a marauding party of opportunistic zombies, or something:

For more than a week Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has been fending off criticism for using the writings of others, unattributed, in his own speeches, in an opinion article and in one of his books.

But now it appears that Mr. Paul has also been the possible victim of literary larceny himself; he has apparently had his own material lifted without credit.

The campaign website of a Republican candidate for the United States Senate in North Carolina, Greg Brannon, who Mr. Paul supports, includes descriptions of various policy positions that match those of Mr. Paul’s 2010 campaign website word for word.

Car Repair Saturday

The car's been vibrating quite a bit lately. Always a source of worry for such a (mostly) trouble-free car with 150,000 miles on it.

Last night, the car overheated seriously on the drives to and from Davis. So, time for a visit to the garage.

Cracked intake manifold, cracked radiator, time for a tune-up, and leaking rear brake cylinders. Even if we postpone front and rear strut replacements, it's going to come to at least $1,600.00.

Well, that's what comes from driving a used car.

The Most Powerful Tropical Cyclone In Recorded History

Nothing good from this storm:

What may be the fiercest typhoon in recorded history smashed into the Philippines early Friday morning, carrying winds that make Superstorm Sandy look like a weak relative. Even Hurricane Katrina, the modern measure of nature’s disastrous force on the United States, pales when compared to the punch and expected devastation from Typhoon Haiyan.

According to the latest report, Haiyan, also known as Yolanda in the Philippines, was packing winds in excess of 200 mph as it homed in on the island nation in the western Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said maximum sustained winds in the Category 5 storm were 195 mph with gusts to 235 mph.

Stumbled Across A Fave Song List From The Early 00's

Tammi Lavette - No Frills Love




Eurythmics - Love Is A Stranger




Ian Van Dahl - Nothing Left To Say




Marc Aurel - Running




Sherrie Lea - Anyway




Kim Sozzi - Feelin' Me

The Babushkas Of Chernobyl

All told, they prefer to be at home:

When I asked Hanna about radiation, she replied: "Radiation doesn't scare me. Starvation does."

...They lived through Stalin's Holodomor -- the genocide-by famine of the 1930s that wiped out millions of Ukrainians -- and then the Nazis in the 1940s. Some of the women were shipped to Germany as forced labor. When the Chernobyl accident happened a few decades into Soviet rule, they were simply unwilling to flee an enemy that was invisible.

So long as they were well beyond child bearing, self-settlers were allowed to stay "semi-illegally." Five happy years, the settlers logic went, is better than 15 condemned to a high-rise on the outskirts of Kyiv. The residents of the Chernobyl region are forest-dwelling steppe people of Ukraine's Polesia region and did not adapt well to urban environments. There is a simple defiance common among them: "They told us our legs would hurt, and they do," one 80-year-old woman told me. "So what."

...Radioactive contamination from the accident has been death-dealing, to be sure, but relocation trauma is another, less-examined fallout of Chernobyl. Of the old people who relocated, one Chernobyl medical technician, whose job is to give annual radiation exposure tests to zone workers said: "Quite simply, they die of anguish."

Home is the entire cosmos of the rural babushka, and connection to the land is palpable. They told me: "If you leave you die," "Those who left are worse off now. They are all dying of sadness," "Motherland is Motherland. I will never leave."

"Oliver!" Opens Tonight At DMTC!

Brian McCann as Mr. Bumble and Dannette Vassar as Widow Corney.

Mike Mechanick as Fagin.

(Tickets at the DMTC Website)

The Stakes Are Clear

They're coming!

RIP, Arlon Arnold Carlson

Gil posts on Facebook that Arlon Arnold Carlson died last night in an auto accident. I don't have details yet, but will post them when available.

Here is a list of his contributions to DMTC.

Let's Compare The Plagiarism Crises Of Joe Biden And Rand Paul

Remember the big Joe Biden plagiarism crisis of 1988? I do. Like lazy plagiarists everywhere, let's get the Wikipedia summary:

While Biden's speech included the lines:

"I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? [Then pointing to his wife in the audience] Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? Is it because I'm the first Biden in a thousand generations to get a college and a graduate degree that I was smarter than the rest?"

Biden had in fact cited Kinnock as the source for the formulation on previous occasions. But he made no reference to the original source at the August 23 Democratic debate at the Iowa State Fair being reported on, nor in an August 26 interview for the National Education Association. Moreover, while political speeches often appropriate ideas and language from each other, Biden's use came under more scrutiny because he fabricated aspects of his own family's background in order to match Kinnock's. Biden was soon found to have earlier that year lifted passages from a 1967 speech by Robert F. Kennedy (for which Biden aides took the blame) and a short phrase from the 1961 inaugural address of John F. Kennedy, and in two prior years to have done the same with a 1976 passage from Hubert H. Humphrey.

A few days later, Biden's plagiarism incident in law school came to public light. Video was also released showing that when earlier questioned by a New Hampshire resident about his grades in law school, Biden had stated that he had graduated in the "top half" of his class, that he had attended law school on a full scholarship, and that he had received three degrees in college, each of which were untrue or exaggerations of his actual record.

The Kinnock and school revelations were magnified by the limited amount of other news about the nomination race at the time, when most of the public were not yet paying attention to any of the campaigns; Biden thus fell into what The Washington Post writer Paul Taylor described as that year's trend, a "trial by media ordeal". Biden lacked a strong demographic or political group of support to help him survive the crisis. He withdrew from the nomination race on September 23, 1987, saying his candidacy had been overrun by "the exaggerated shadow" of his past mistakes.

After Biden withdrew from the race, it was revealed that the Dukakis campaign had secretly made a video highlighting the Biden–Kinnock comparison and distributed it to news outlets. Later in 1987, the Delaware Supreme Court's Board of Professional Responsibility cleared Biden of the law school plagiarism charges regarding his standing as a lawyer, saying Biden had "not violated any rules".

So, in 1988, Biden was accused of lifting flattering statements from those he admired, without attribution. He was forced to shelve his Presidential ambitions as a result.

In 2013, Rand Paul is accused of lifting pages and pages of material from Wikipedia and presenting them as his own thoughts. In response, Rand Paul has admitted not footnoting statements well, but as Chris Matthews noted last night on his "Hardball" show, no one has accused Rand Paul of footnoting improperly. Instead, people are accusing him of lifting pages and pages of material from Wikipedia and presenting them as his own thoughts:

It remains unclear if Paul is truly dumb or just incredibly brazen when he denies to this day that he ever plagiarized anyone. He insists that by crediting the source of the original works he’s describing – whether the movies “Gattaca” and “Stand and Deliver,” or think tank reports – he is inoculated from criticism for stealing the words of other people who summarized those works so he or his speechwriters didn’t have to.

Still, with his stubborn defensiveness, Paul also shows his contempt for both the written word and ideas themselves. He told the New York Times that he was maybe a little sloppy with footnotes because of the crushing “workload” of a busy freshman senator. Obviously he’s too busy and important doing real stuff to worry about the writing of his speeches, books or opinion pieces, and all the ink-stained wretches who care are just “haters.”

Too bad the Internet wasn't as comprehensive in 1988 as it is today. I'm sure you can just imagine what the Republicans were saying then about Joe Biden. And surely they must be saying the same things today about Rand Paul.



Crickets???

Amazed At How Close The Virginia Attorney General Race Is

354 vote margin out of over 1,000,000 for each candidate. That's a 0.032% difference. Close enough that absentee ballots will determine the winner.

Virginia - Summary Vote Results
Attorney General - General
2541 of 2541 Precincts Reporting - 100%


Name Party Votes Vote %

Obenshain, Mark GOP 1,099,359 50%
Herring, Mark Dem 1,099,005 50%

The Final Eleven Minutes Of "Breaking Bad" From A NYC Bar

The Administrative Law Judge Decides In E.'s Favor

I was surprised the appeal worked:

An individual is disqualified for benefits if the individual left the most recent work voluntarily without good cause or the individual was discharged for misconduct connected with the most recent work.

...In this case, the claimant's failure to pass the required tests for obtaining her certification was the result of poor performance and inability. Therefore, the claimant did not deliberately disobey a lawful and reasonable instruction by an employer. Accordingly, the claimant was discharged for reasons other than misconduct connected with her most recent work. The claimant is not disqualified for benefits....

Sounds Demented, But Interesting

A giant bronze statue of Jesus being erected in a war zone:

In the midst of a conflict rife with sectarianism, a giant bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions in the country’s civil war.

...That the statue made it to Syria and went up without incident on Oct. 14 is remarkable. The project took eight years and was set back by the civil war that followed the March 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad.

Christians and other minorities are all targets in the conflict, and the statue’s safety is by no means guaranteed. It stands among villages where some fighters, linked to al-Qaida, have little sympathy for Christians.

...Al-Ghadban said that the main armed groups in the area — Syrian government forces, rebels and the local militias of Sednaya, the Christian town near the statue site — halted fire while organizers set up the statue, without providing further details.

...Russians have been a driving force behind the project — not surprising given that the Kremlin is embattled Assad’s chief ally, and the Orthodox churches in Russia and Syria have close ties. Al-Ghadban, who spoke to The Associated Press from Moscow, is Syrian-Russian and lives in both countries.

Al-Ghadban said he began the project in 2005, hoping the statue would be an inspiration for Syria’s Christians. He said he was inspired by Rio de Janeiro’s towering Christ the Redeemer statue.

The Shooter Of Andy Lopez Sounds Like A Gun Nut

Gelhaus recommends action:

The officer, accompanied by an officer-in-training, thought the teen was armed and radioed for backup. He ordered the boy to drop what he presumed to be a weapon. The object turned out to be a pellet gun, a toy in the shape of an AK-47.

Ten seconds later, Gelhaus allegedly opened fire when he saw Lopez -- his back to the deputies -- begin to turn around with the barrel of the toy gun rising. The officer-in-training did not fire, according to authorities.

In a 2008 article written by Gelhaus for S.W.A.T. Magazine, the officer warned against hesitation in deciding to use a firearm lethally.

"Today is the day you may need to kill someone in order to go home," he wrote. "If you cannot turn on the 'mean gene' for yourself, who will? If you find yourself in an ambush, in the kill zone, you need to turn on that mean gene."

Marcos Breton Fights The Good Fight

Until we get a handle on the proper place of guns in society, we will have big problems:
I’ve had so many people leave that question on my voicemail it’s as if they are speaking off the same script.

In fact, they are. It’s the gun advocates’ default setting of denial.

How about a discussion of raising the bar of gun ownership? Why don’t we close the loopholes that prevent background checks on guns and ammunition purchased at gun shows and on the Internet?

James Holmes, the accused killer in Aurora, Colo., amassed an arsenal with a few clicks of his computer – and didn’t raise a single red flag.

Background checks for some gun sales became law in 1993 via the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. The law was named after James Brady, the former Ronald Reagan press secretary shot in the head by a mentally unstable gunman seeking to assassinate Reagan in 1981.

“Since the Brady Law was enacted 20 years ago, background checks have prevented more than 2 million gun sales to ‘prohibited purchasers’ – like convicted felons and domestic abusers,” wrote Daniel Gross, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, in the Huffington Post. “But 40percent of commercial gun sales, mainly at gun shows and online, happen without a simple Brady background check to make sure the purchaser is not a criminal or dangerously mentally ill. That’s thousands of unchecked sales every day, and guns that could wind up in dangerous hands.”

If you were truly a law-abiding citizen, why would you fear background checks on all guns sales?

Kelsey B - "Come With Me"

Kelsey B releases her "Come With Me" video, today, November 5, 2013!

There are some "Gaga-esque" influences here, but there are also some "Kylie-esque" influences too.

Take a view!

30 Ways To Tell You Haven’t Gotten Over The Fact “Breaking Bad” Is Never Coming Back

I really like this post. Our descanso is Number 6 on the list!

Remember Everyone, Clenching Your Buttocks In New Mexico Is A Serious Crime

Where to start with New Mexico's pro-active cops? Don't shop at the Wal-Mart in Deming? Stay out of Luna County? Hard to do for those on Interstate-10. Don't get medical treatment in Silver City? I guess just sue the hell out of everyone involved, or give the an anal examination too:

The incident began January 2, 2013 after David Eckert finished shopping at the Wal-Mart in Deming. According to a federal lawsuit, Eckert didn't make a complete stop at a stop sign coming out of the parking lot and was immediately stopped by law enforcement.

Eckert's attorney, Shannon Kennedy, said in an interview with KOB that after law enforcement asked him to step out of the vehicle, he appeared to be clenching his buttocks. Law enforcement thought that was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity. While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.

The lawsuit claims that Deming Police tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was "unethical."

But physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted.

What Happened

While there, Eckert was subjected to repeated and humiliating forced medical procedures. A review of Eckert's medical records, which he released to KOB, and details in the lawsuit show the following happened:

1. Eckert's abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.

2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.

3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.

4. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.

5. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.

6. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.

7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.

8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert's anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics were found.

Throughout this ordeal, Eckert protested and never gave doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center consent to perform any of these medical procedures.

"If the officers in Hidalgo County and the City of Deming are seeking warrants for anal cavity searches based on how they're standing and the warrant allows doctors at the Gila Hospital of Horrors to go in and do enemas and colonoscopies without consent, then anyone can be seized and that's why the public needs to know about this," Kennedy said.

Search Warrant Concerns

There are major concerns about the way the search warrant was carried out. Kennedy argues that the search warrant was overly broad and lacked probable cause. But beyond that, the warrant was only valid in Luna County, where Deming is located. The Gila Regional Medical Center is in Grant County. That means all of the medical procedures were performed illegally and the doctors who performed the procedures did so with no legal basis and no consent from the patient.

In addition, even if the search warrant was executed in the correct New Mexico county, the warrant expired at 10 p.m. Medical records show the prepping for the colonoscopy started at 1 a.m. the following day, three hours after the warrant expired.

"This is like something out of a science fiction film, anal probing by government officials and public employees," Kennedy said.

Inside The Tucson Unified School District Battle

La Raza eventually will win:

The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) book ban was part of the district's shutting down of a curriculum and a department. Even more importantly, in collusion with the state and its anti-ethnic-studies law, HB 2281, it banned a worldview, or at least attempted to do so.

That effort included the banning of books, yet it is important to understand two things. First, when the state began its assault on Tucson's highly successful Raza Studies Department, there was nothing wrong with the department, except its size: It was too small. Second, that assault was undeniably predicated on the idea, compliments of then-state Superintendent of Schools Tom Horne, that Raza studies resides outside of Western civilization.

...Perhaps only Horne, Huppenthal and Pedicone know the real reason the program was dismantled, but we know Horne waged a campaign to eliminate Raza studies because he claimed the material being taught in the department was not rooted in Greco-Roman thought.

In that sense, he was right. The department's curriculum, including my works, contained material that is rooted in maíz-based culture - in knowledge that is indigenous to this very continent. The philosophical foundation for Raza studies was the concepts of In Lak Ech - you are my other me - and Panche Be - to seek the root of the truth. These concepts are thousands of years old and absolutely not rooted in Greco-Roman culture. However, Horne's fallacy was to argue that knowledge outside of so-called Western civilization (outside of civilization itself, actually) is anti-American and therefore such knowledge should not be taught in US schools, in particular, not in Arizona schools.

In one egregious example of the consequences of this assault, a principal walked into one classroom of Norma Gonzalez, who was teaching from the "Aztec Calendar," and instructed her to take it down and cease teaching from it.

...The theatrics of Horne, Huppenthal and Pedicone - of trying to restrict or ban knowledge - is futile, at best a delay of the inevitable. That knowledge, and its corresponding worldview(s), cannot be eliminated. Despite hundreds of years of European efforts to eliminate it, it is still with us.

America (As Labeled By An Australian)

Breaking Bad - EDM Style

Sounds good! I like the Jesse Pinkman 'Bitch' track.....

MS MR - Hurricane

Saturday Dinner At The Buckhorn Cafe In Winters

On Saturday, Jan, Steve, Dannette, Stacy, and I went to celebrate my 57th birthday at the Buckhorn Café in Winters.

I had never been to the Buckhorn. I was taken aback by the prices, but there was no arguing that the food was excellent. I ended up spending $60 once all the damage was tallied up.

Stacy operates the dummies.

The rack of lamb was excellent, but the real delight was the Cream of Mushroom soup, which was just amazing!

B-D cake!

Friday Night At Sleep Train Arena Watching The Sacramento Kings And The LA Clippers

To my great surprise, I was invited by Giorgio to come with him Friday night and watch the Sacramento Kings beat the LA Clippers. I rarely watch professional basketball, or sports of any kind, so this was going to be a treat. (I have a strong sports deficiency in my brain. It's like an underdeveloped lobe of the brain. I don't really understand very well the nature of fouls in basketball either, but I do like all the movement.) So, batter up! Or whatever they say in basketball!

A wide variety of inexplicable mini-competitions during times out.

I messaged Corina Bianca, new Sacramento Kings Dancer and well-known local hip hop dancer, to alert her that we were coming, but alas, she was off for the night.

First quarter. It was fun watching the strategery.

Hip hop kids doing the hip hop thang.

Roundup time for those of us who are brandworthy.

Second quarter. We make lots of mistakes, they make lots of mistakes, we make even more mistakes....

Jim Boys Tacos were on sale! Yum! My favorite!

Fourth quarter.

Well, we got hammered: 110 - 101. Oh well! Next time!

Thursday Class At Pepper's

Post by Pepper Von ZES.

This was just Thursday! Because of my abundant testosterone I was made a member of the black group, despite my gay-blue attire. Actually, he asked the colored dress folks to watch, but there weren't quite enough people in black to make it even, so he tossed me in there too. I'm not looking particularly hood. There's something about the vivid sky blue Oklahoma! shirt that strikes me as, um, different.

I Believe - Yolanda Adams

Lately, Pepper has been ending Zumba classes with this song.

Kelsey B Makes Huffington Post's Article On WeHo Carnaval Halloween Costumes

Slide 53 of 83.

Breaking Bad Birthday Ritual

Angie Steward reminded me of the most important Breaking Bad birthday ritual of all!

Zedd - Clarity (ft. Foxes)

Take A Handful!

Because I was going to DMTC rehearsal I wasn't going to be around to hand out candy on Halloween, so I prepared a bowl with salt water taffy, little Hershey bars, and tossed in some peanuts in their shells for good measure, and placed it adjacent to the steps to my front door. Then I took a shower.

Climbing out of the shower, I heard someone banging on the door. Wrapped in a towel, I cracked open the door, looked out, and saw Colonial Girl. I directed her to the bowl. She hadn't seen it, focused as she was on climbing the steps. She went back down the steps and took some small handfuls of candy. Later, I added a sign on the door directing future Colonial Girls to the bowl.

When I returned from DMTC about 11 p.m., the bowl was empty - except for the peanuts, of course, which remained behind. Was it just one visitor, or many? The mystery lingers....

Meanwhile In Albuquerque, Jordan Jonas Considers What To Do On An Old Town Halloween

If You Shoot Someone From Your Car In Self-Defense In Arizona, You Get Away With Murder

Nationwide, overly-generous self-defense laws take judgment out of the loop, and threaten mayhem:

Appleton tells New Times much the same thing, saying he simply didn't think to drive away when the unarmed man attacked him.

Yet, even if Appleton's version of the events is accurate, it appears that he should've done just that — driven off. Appleton had the keys in the ignition, the engine running. He could've put the Toyota, weighing more than two tons, in gear. In front of him, the parking lot was clear.

He was, in a sense, safe.

Under Arizona law, though, there's no "duty to retreat" if you're threatened. And your car, like your home, is your castle — a place in which you're presumed automatically to be justified in killing an intruder unless prosecutors can prove otherwise.

...Rathner's take on the situation echoes that of many experts: If you have to shoot someone, this is the state to do it in. Statutes governing when deadly force can be used tilt strongly in favor of the person making a self-defense claim.

Not all cases of self-defense involve guns, of course, but the state's robust gun culture and the right to defend yourself go hand in hand. The same political forces that shaped Arizona into one of the most gun-friendly states in the country ("'Til Death Do Us Part," February 14) have tried to give every benefit of the doubt to law-abiding people who display or use their firearms against others.

Lil Mama - Lip Gloss

Kelsey B on LA Talk Radio

Kelsey B on LA Talk Radio (play the October 29th show)!

Her new song "Bombay" is with DJ Matt Fox in Phoenix. Sounds like a techno Bollywood anthem.

She discusses her plans for Las Vegas 2014, and her new "Come With Me" video, to be released November 5th.

I didn't know Kelsey had taken a terrible fall! I've always figured that would be my fate (I don't have as much fear of heights as I probably should). She fell three floors from a fire escape. She survived in a very improbable way. Take a listen!

"Surrender Before You Get Bit!"

Last night, I arrived home with the entire neighborhood apparently on lock-down. There was a disquieting announcement from the helicopter circling the area: "Anthony, come out with your hands up. The dogs have your scent. Surrender before you get bit!"

There were cops everywhere outside. I wondered if I should take a stroll?

After a time, things calmed down a bit. I proceeded to rake some leaves for the next day's pickup, despite any desperate felons and watchful public guardians in the neighborhood.

I have no idea if they found Anthony, but it did strike me as a kind of futile bluff. It's very expensive to keep a helicopter circling in the air and are K-9 units trained to track? Urban areas at night have plenty of places for a non-panicky felon to lay low for awhile.

No news in the press today. It figures. Life in an urban setting means any number of unexplained events like this.

Brown Is A Murky Color

(Watching the folks on C-SPAN introducing that bright, shiny, new politician, California Governor Jerry Brown, to a Washington D.C. audience)

E.: Is he the Governor of California?

M.: Yes, his name is Jerry Brown.

E.: I thought Jerry Brown is black.

M.: (!) No, you are probably thinking of Willie Brown. He used to be Mayor of San Francisco.

E.: Oh, OK.....

It's Come Around Again....

Thank you, Marius Laurentiu!

Thank you, Tim Oberle!

Thank you, Kirika!

Thanks, Milissa!

Thank you, Jennie!

Thank you, Alicia!

Thank you, Laura!

Katy Perry Performs 'ROAR' (Live) - Lakewood High School - GMA 10-25-13

Halloween Party Shooting In North Sacramento

The ONLY thing that prevents the Del Paso neighborhood from becoming a cultural mecca is the uncertain security situation there:

One person was killed and six injured in a drive-by shooting at a Halloween party in North Sacramento early Sunday, police said.

A man in his late 20s was pronounced dead at the scene.

Five others – a mix of men and women in their 20s and 30s – were shot in their lower extremities but had non-life-threatening injuries. They either drove themselves or were transported by ambulance to local hospitals.

...James Hall, 53, of Sacramento tried to get to his Decades costume store, 1814 Del Paso Blvd., for a promotion event at 5:30 a.m. Sunday but found his way blocked by police.

...Hall said the space at 1811 Del Paso Blvd. had been vacant for some time but had opened up as a dance studio about a month ago.

...“I feel so sorry for the dance studio people,” he said Sunday. “They were so excited about their business. They were nice people.”

Texas Woman Drives To NM - Police Shoot And Kill Her

Welcome to the Land of Enchantment.

Kirika Ready For Halloween

Yarrrrrrrr! It be Halloween season, mateys!

Momix - Botanica

Went to go see "Momix", with their 'Botonica' show, Sunday afternoon at the Mondavi Center.

There were suggestions to me of 'Blue Man Group' or 'Cirque du Soleil' in the show. Gabe, who saw the show on Saturday evening, likened it to 'Mummenschanz'.

A very nice show! The video below gives a quick summary of the show. The part I liked best, helped immensely by the lighting, 'Branches - Gathering for Autumnal Ball' was accompanied by Celtic Woman's beautiful "The Voice", from the album 'A New Journey'.

Halloween Dance - DMTC - October 26, 2013

Tessa and her crew prepare to do the 'Time Warp'.

DJ Arthur made for a mesmerizing view, with his face lit by the ghostly light screen of his DJ system.

Costume contest.

Here is my video of the "Time Warp".