That Piece of Shit in the White House

A friend says this better than I ever could:

I am livid. These fires have displaced countless people, killed many, wiped an entire town off the map, threatened so many of my friends and family in Chico, Paradise, and last year in Santa Rosa, destroyed my childhood home and this sorry excuse for a human being had the gall, not even 48 hours after the loss of Paradise, while the fires are still burning and hundreds missing, to blame California for not managing its forests? Not only is this a complete lie, it takes a true sociopath to threaten those in need of aid. Instead of words of comfort and an effort to help the thousands of Americans who have lost their homes, jobs, pets, and family, he has to stroke his own ego and attempt to victim blame a state with a lie that is so easily disproved. Anyone who still supports this man, tell me how.Especially those is California right now. How can you be content knowing that this man, someone who has shown, unapologetically, that he has absolutely no regard for anyone but himself representing our country? A man who has no respect for women, no respect for any minorities, who has openly shown his racism, misogyny, and bigotry sitting in the office that once housed people such as Abraham Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy? And putting aside his personal prejudices, a man who shows on the daily his complete disregard of telling the truth when falsehoods serve him better. Telling lies that are so obviously false and refusing to admit to them? How can you support this?

Bed Armor

Getting ready for bed. Mouth guards on to protect against grinding of teeth, particularly since I broke off a crown on one of my molars. Face mask on to protect against smoke. Eye mask on to preserve slumber at sunrise. Cap on to protect balding head against cold. I feel like a boxer or an astronaut. Jasper the Dog can smell Cleo the Dog on my clothes, so he’s trying to hump my arm. Thank goodness for autocorrect.

Mohawk Friends

Jasper generally greets every new person with tail wagging enthusiasm, but there was an exception yesterday. I was cleaning gutters, and couldn’t quite see. I heard a woman shout over by the AirBNB next door, followed by Jasper’s panicked barking.

Later, the woman returned. She was ‘different’ from other women in Jasper’s limited experience: heavily-inked, a smoker, with an eye-catching Mohawk. She was boisterous as well, explaining her shout, but friendly in her own way, and Jasper and her eventually made friends.

Cheap Halloween Candy

Hey, look at this! Really inexpensive Halloween candy at Target! So, I bought a bunch, bit in on some tootsie rolls and cleanly yanked off the crown I got in 2006 from its molar.

So, here I am doing the jigsaw puzzle in Dr. Amy Woo’s waiting room. She tried to sell me on an upscale porcelain 2018 crown, but I told her just to put the dowdy old one back on. She said they use jujube candy themselves to yank crowns off molars. Cool, I guess.

Driving Tips

Really Bad Air Quality in Sacramento

I wish the overcast was fog.

This is ridiculous. Putting on a face mask now. I don’t care if I look like a refugee from ‘12 Monkeys,’ or that I’m being SARS-fashion conscious. I smell like I’ve been camping.

Trying to get a sense how bad air quality is here in Sacramento from the Camp Fire at Paradise, CA. Plotted are particulate concentrations at Sacramento's T-Street station. On the X-axis is November date. On the Y-axis is 24-hour-averaged PM2.5 concentration in micrograms per meter cubed (ug/m3). The national health standard is 35 ug/m3. Concentrations are now pegged in the 140 ug/m3 range, or four times the national health standard.

These concentrations are roughly the same as in Beijing right now.

On A Wavelength Far From Home

Dinner With Bruce Warren's Sister

Nancy Shappell, from North Dakota.

Jasper and Teddy Play

Ooh, I Got Mentioned In The Review

That never happens:

This show really rises or falls on the talents of Annie and in Katarina Detrick (in her first lead role) DMTC has a winner. She sometimes tends to be shrill, but she is a belter of the first order, and they probably can hear her out in the parking lot when she sings “Tomorrow.” She also is a good actress and professionally handles the dog Sandy (Cleopatra Graves) who is more interested in running into the audience, with tail wagging, than behaving herself on stage, despite the treats Annie kept in her pocket. Detrick never missed a beat and eventually got the dog under control.

Perhaps the moment that most impressed me was when billionaire Oliver Warbucks (Gannon Styles) is letting Annie know how she has wormed her way into his heart. The intense look of real love on her face as she watches him was just beautiful to behold.

Styles, with a solid theater background, is new to DMTC and what an addition he is. He gives great warmth to the character of Warbucks and has a great voice to boot.

Warbucks’ secretary, Grace Farrell, played by Chris Cay Stewart, is a warmhearted woman hiding feelings for Warbucks, and a great friend to Annie. Stewart also appears as part of the ensemble in some scenes, where her beautiful voice is easy to identify.

Rachel Hoover, a Davis native who performed more than 30 shows before she went to college (including some with the former Sunshine Children’s Theater), is a spectacular Miss Hannigan, the harridan who runs the orphanage where Annie was dropped off 11 years ago as an infant. She’s enough to scare anybody, and her musical numbers, particularly “Little Girls,” are outstanding.

Christopher Murphy, another DMTC newcomer, makes an impression as her brother, Rooster Hannigan, as does Bridget Styles as his girlfriend Lily St. Regis.

The orphans — Kiera Chang, Chantelle Holt, Vivian Li, Lexy Hutcheon, Sage Sigmon and Katherine Berdovskiy — are well- rehearsed, in good voice and perform their dances professionally. Each girl also has her moment to shine in the spotlight.

What I love about DMTC shows are the little unexpected “gems.” I found three under that category in this production. Amaralyn Ewey is great as the fresh-faced star-to-be, newly arrived in New York. There never was a better role for Marc Valdez than that of Franklin D. Roosevelt. But especially outstanding was Jan Isaacson’s performance as the silent sound man for a Gert Healy (Amy Woodman) radio broadcast. She is just perfect.

With familiar tunes like “Easy Street” and “Tomorrow,” in addition to a score of other fun songs and a cast of adorable little girls and funny bad guys, this is a show that will appeal to everyone, and DMTC makes it fun for all ages.

The Situation in Paradise

Bad times.

The view from space:

LaToya, Jaimee, And Marcia Do A Dance Challenge

Dancehall PowerUp Choreography - "Gym" Ding Dong

I missed video night because of my theater schedule, but these are my Jamaican Dancehall peeps (LaToya Bufford, Dancehall PowerUp instructor).

Holidays Approach

The Habit

Traveling on their 3-month American tour, Daniel from the UK and Michael from the Netherlands stayed with me at my house on the crazy, crazy weekend of October 27-28th.

Bon voyage to them on their grand American tour. Surprisingly, I didn’t get any photos of them, but I did get a photo of this burger joint, The Habit, on Howe Avenue. Making a point to eat here seems quirky, but it just means we think alike. Cuisine is an important part of travel.

Turn Verein Oktoberfest 2018

On Saturday October 13, 2018, I paid a first visit to the Turn Verein Oktoberfest.

Housesitting Gabe and Eleanor's Dogs

I'm so far behind on posts. Here's housesitting Blue and Molly last weekend in October.

DMTC's Halloween Skary-Oke 2018

I helped judge the costume contest on the evening of October 27th.

Traveling on their 3-month American tour, Daniel from the UK and Michael from the Netherlands drove up from Cupertino and met me at the theater. They videoed me singing ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All." (The song was featured in "Better Call Saul, Season 4, episode 10, 'Winner'). When Dan and Michael couldn't get a motel room, I hosted them at my house:

Catastrophe, And Not Far Away Either

Just up the road. The air here is full of smoke. The refugees start arriving now:

Yesterday, tens of thousands of residents fled their homes in Paradise, California, north of Sacramento, escaping a fast-moving wildfire driven by high winds that swept through their community. Within 24 hours, the Camp Fire has burned more than 20,000 acres, and has virtually destroyed the town. Thousands of homes and other structures in Paradise have been consumed or badly damaged by the blaze. As firefighters struggle to gain control of the Camp Fire, several other wildfires are threatening other parts of the state, including the Woolsey Fire near Malibu, which has just prompted evacuation orders for some 13,000 residents.

CHEERLEADER!

Knock, knock, knock! “Who’s at the door, Jasper? It’s probably the Jehovah Witnesses again, or maybe it’s the Mailman. Remember how he gave you a dog treat and tried so hard to be your friend? Or maybe it’s that sweaty Verizon guy again. Let’s see….”

I opened the door. It was a CHEERLEADER! “I’m with Edward Jones, and I’d like to advise you regarding your finances,” she said.

Hmmm…. Since when do financial advisors drum up business door to door in this neighborhood? I’ve lived here 23 years, and I’ve never seen this, but I don’t pretend to understand this place. Well, better to just roll with it. Things have been discombobulated since the Great Recession. And besides, her distinct, nasal Southern California accent is mesmerizing. Certainly the prettiest woman to come here since, maybe, forever.

“Were you a cheerleader in high school or college?” I asked. “Both,” she replied. “Lots of flips.” So we discussed degrees of financial risk and compared notes on health clubs and travel destinations.

When she left, Jasper was sad to see her go. “See, Jasper, there was nothing to worry about. She wasn’t interested in my immortal soul. She’s just interested in all my money.”

My Two New Books About "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul"

I’m happy to announce the availability of two new books.

The first book is a 5th edition update of “A Guidebook To 'Breaking Bad' Filming Locations: Albuquerque as Physical Setting and Indispensable Character,” updated through the recently-finished Season 4 of “Better Call Saul.”

Print: https://www.amazon.com/dp/172446910X/
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K6S8KHM

The second book, “'Breaking Bad' Signs and Symbols: Reading Meaning into Sets, Props, and Filming Locations,” aims to understand some of the symbolism embedded in the backgrounds of "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul." Vince Gilligan and crew have hidden coded messages in the backgrounds of scenes. Elements of Albuquerque architecture are used as ideograms, and when strung together, can tell stories of surprising sophistication.

A series of tables are used to isolate how certain architectural features are used: Pueblo Deco Arches, Gentle Arches, Bell-Shaped Lamps, Parallel Beams in the Ceiling; Five-Pointed Stars; Octagons, etc. In particular, daylighting innovations that were pioneered or promoted in Chicago are examined: Glass Block Windows, Luxfer Prismatic Tile Windows, and Plate Glass Windows.

Like many cities in America’s Great Plains and Mountain West, Albuquerque obtained much of its architecture directly from Chicago via the AT&SF railroad and Highway 66. In “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” Albuquerque is used as a stunt double for the City of Chicago.

Certain symbols advance the plot - foreshadowing symbols like Pueblo Deco Arches, or danger symbols like bell shapes and stagger symbols. Other features, like Glass Block Windows or Parallel Beams in the Ceiling, tell stories about the legacies and corruptions of modernity, particularly those deriving from Chicago’s “Century of Progress” (1833-1932).

Most stories appear to be tributes to the film business – favorite actors, directors, TV series, and movies. Stories include: The Legacy of El Chapo; Tributes to Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest”; The Badger Comes To Entrap; The Five Apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe; The Legacy of London's Crystal Palace; and an Homage to Patrick McGoohan’s “The Prisoner.”

At the least, watching the backgrounds provides an alternative understanding of the television shows. Instead of wondering whether or not Jane will accept Jesse’s invitation to watch his big-screen TV, one can wonder instead about whether Jesse’s ceiling will be visible (because that would be bad).

Print: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1720441618/
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K5WSK83

Took My Emotional Support Dog To The Polls

He’s got the separation anxiety, so I’ve got to support him. They were dog-friendly!

Portrait of Jasper

Portrait of Jasper by Dan C.

Jasper’s Tastes Lean Towards The Macabre

Noticeable One

Current mood.

This morning, I finished proofing my two latest books, the 5th edition update to "A Guidebook To 'Breaking Bad' Filming Locations: Albuquerque as Physical Setting and Indispensable Character," and my new book, "'Breaking Bad' Signs and Symbols: Reading Meaning into Sets, Props, and Filming Locations." The rest now is all marketing!

Plus, I'm playing FDR in DMTC's "Annie." Ten more performances. Grab the limelight while I can!

Missing Persons is an amazing band. Helped define the 80s. I suspect there are connections between the band and the origins of "Breaking Bad." Dale Bozzio is amazing too: likely the direct model for Lady Gaga.

Beginning To Come Out of My "Breaking Bad" Bunker Again

So far behind on posting stuff to the blog, but books are essentially finished!

A Few Photos Of Me In DMTC's "Annie"

"Annie" opens tonight! A few of Dannette's photos of me: Hooverville, Warbuck's staff, and as FDR:

"Annie" - DMTC - Opens Tomorrow Night!

I play FDR. It's fun!

Here is our Annie, Katarina Detrick:

Back in the Breaking Bad Bunker Again

The magnificent team of William James Dickey from Cushing, Maine, and Adam Ramirez from Austin Texas, joined from Thomas Maddock from Albuquerque, NM, are reporting their visit to Albuquerque last weekend, and my books swell with their new stuff.

Better Sticks

A walk is my idea of a refreshing ramble across the landscape. In contrast, Jasper conceives of a walk as a way to get more and better sticks.

Every morning, Jasper has me walk him completely around the house, going through the yard next door, where the ladies in the apartments there smile and pine to own a dog like him. As long as they have sticks, life's good.

Jasper's collection of "sticks" includes:

- Bottle cap
- Broken switch from car dashboard
- Badly-worn book cover
- Various chunks of branches and discarded wood
- Old Q-Tips
- Discarded lollipop
- Found Kleenex
- Pieces of upholstery
- Plastic shard from a broken Starbucks cup
- Bits of grass
- Occasional cat turds

Whatever chews well.

Among Jasper's "sticks" was a campaign card from Jrmar Jefferson, who is running for Congress again. I remember meeting Jrmar and his wife in 2016 at Arden Fair. This time around, his campaign card features a cute picture of their young son. Jrmar's wife would probably make the better candidate, but he's the one with "fire in the belly."

Another one of Jasper's "sticks" was a mystifying price tag from "DDS Discounts" (Mens Tops - Comparable value $15.99. You pay $8.99). At first, I was confused. Is there a dentist's office with a boutique? That would be a grand idea! I should immediately tell my dentists about it over there at Amy Woo and Associates.

Speaking of dentists, two weeks ago at the Turn Verein Oktoberfest, I met a UCD sorority girl, a cheerleader and biology major who wants to be a dentist. The girl taught me the Delta Gamma salute. I told her she should meet one of my dentists, a UCD grad who seemed like a sorority girl from central casting. Surprisingly, the girl was already familiar with my dentist's qualifications - she had been studying my dentist's website. "Your dentist is real smart," she said. "Look at her bio and see how young she was when she was studying Organic Chemistry!" Interesting! I need to get back to my dentist soon.

Walks can end abruptly. Yesterday, Jasper started staring at the side of a black car in the DMV parking lot. He eventually got spooked by his own reflection there and ran home.

Beginning To Come Out of My "Breaking Bad" Bunker

I've updated my filming locations guide, and my new architecture book is in process. There may be some error-correction to do over the next two weeks, but the hard part looks like it's over.

Plays

Jasper and I were taking a short walk just when all the folks at the DMV were getting out of work. Lots of people walking around the alley.

Just then, an apparently-homeless but well-dressed woman in sunglasses and a sharp-looking dress started yelling at us. I stared and rocked awkwardly from foot to foot. Jasper cocked his head and tried to make sense of it.

"Plays! My mother owned five drama schools in the Sixties. My father put me in a fucking limousine when I was five years old. Do you know what that fucking felt like? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT FUCKING FELT LIKE?"

I was thinking, 'Good lord, I wonder if I've been in a play with her before? No more unbalanced than some people I've known.' I couldn't answer her question. Was it a rhetorical question? A leading question? I didn't know.

Jasper had trouble with the question too, and sensibly-enough turned to eat a tuft of grass.

What Happens in Nebraska Stays in Nebraska

A new ad campaign:

"We're just simply not on people's shopping list for a vacation," said John Ricks, executive director of the Nebraska Tourism Commission, on ABC News' "Start Here" podcast.

New Nebraska Tourism advertisements boast of the state's "flat, boring landscape" and "dusty" Great Plains as part of a self-deprecating marketing campaign to tackle its "brand apathy" problem.

"You can't change perceptions just by providing information, so we had to be disruptive in some way," Ricks said of the sarcastic ads.

One print ad points out "there's nothing to do here" as a group floats down a river in a livestock tank, or what Nebraskans refer to as "tanking."

Fierce Funk Thursday

Infuriated by the Situation at Siobhan’s

Probably aggravated by her protest against Joe Arpaio. Arson is a serious crime, and her neighbor needs to get his ass arrested:

Shavaun Wolfe says the timing of the fire is suspicious. It comes just 24 hours after a judge issued a restraining order against her neighbor.

Mary Young's Car Accident

On Tuesday morning, longtime community musical theater enthusiast Mary Young was driving on northbound Interstate 5 to her job as a mathematics instructor at Woodland Community College, when she failed to notice the traffic ahead of her was at a dead stop. She plowed into a stationary work van at 70 mph.

Mary scrambled out of the smoking car, fearful that it might catch fire. The vehicle didn't ignite, but Mary was grievously injured: broken sternum, clavicle, 3 ribs, injured vertebrae, etc. She was transported to Kaiser South. The two people in the work van were not hurt.

Wednesday afternoon, I saw Mary in the hospital. Her first priority, apart from healing, was to get a substitute to teach her math classes. I put my name into consideration, and that afternoon I was notified I was chosen.

On Thursday morning I went to Woodland to teach her 2-hour long Math 50 class. Interesting morning: I was dismissed halfway through the class. Apparently administrators decided to move in a different direction.

Saturday afternoon, Mary moved to a nursing residence in Roseville. The best of healing to her!

Voter Suppression

In Georgia, county officials directly intervene to prevent black seniors from voting:

Government officials in an east Georgia county told about 40 African-American senior citizens to get off a bus taking them to vote Monday, leading to complaints of voter suppression.

The bus, run by the group Black Voters Matter, was preparing to depart from a senior center operated by Jefferson County when the center’s director said they needed to disembark, said LaTosha Brown, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter.

A county clerk had called the senior center raising concerns about allowing the bus to take residents from the senior center in the city of Louisville, south of Augusta.

“We knew it was an intimidation tactic,” Brown said Tuesday. “It was really unnecessary. These are grown people.”

The senior citizens agreed to get off the bus and cast their ballots later. Monday was the first day of in-person early voting in Georgia in the election for governor between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp.

Bob Woodward's Deeply-Dishonest Book, "Fear"

In exile from the GOP, David Frum produces excellent book reviews. Here, he tackles Bob Woodward's deeply-dishonest book, "Fear":

"A Woodward book is composed of a series of transactions.

...Trump’s staff needed an external validator, a person of unimpeachable integrity and prestige who would endorse their view of themselves as victims of an out-of-control FBI. And on January 15, 2017, that’s exactly the service Woodward performed for them. That day, he appeared on Fox News Sunday to deliver a scathing attack on the Steele dossier....

...At the time Woodward spoke those words, he was already engaged in intense negotiations for access to the new administration.

...Woodward does report that Flynn accepted money from Vladimir Putin’s regime. He does not mention that Flynn violated Pentagon rules against retired generals accepting payment from foreign governments.

...Trump is leading the most unethical White House and most corrupt administration in modern U.S. history, arguably in all of U.S. history. But that does not rate attention from Woodward, perhaps because those scandals do not perturb his sources.

...Woodward’s access to the administration’s relatively normal figures ... actually erodes rather than enhances understanding of the administration’s actions. Their need to justify their own service to Trump compels them to minimize what Trump is and extenuate what he is doing. Woodward’s reliance upon them leads him to minimize and extenuate, too."

Dirty Money

The United Arab Emirates uses American mercenaries to assassinate Yemeni politicians. Not terrorists, just ordinary politicians:

Their target that night: Anssaf Ali Mayo, the local leader of the Islamist political party Al-Islah. The UAE considers Al-Islah to be the Yemeni branch of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE calls a terrorist organization. Many experts insist that Al-Islah, one of whose members won the Nobel Peace Prize, is no terror group. They say it's a legitimate political party that threatens the UAE not through violence but by speaking out against its ambitions in Yemen.

Nervous Dog

It’s strange to have a dog with such a nervous temperament. I have to teach him how to be a dog.

I’ve been trying to accustom Jasper to short walks, but it’s more like dragging a panic stricken puppy around the block. There are strange people out there! This morning, two women approached on the sidewalk. One woman looked down at him, smiled, and said “hi!” Spooky!

I took Jasper to Sierra II, to the big field where dogs play. Two different dogs approached, a hound dog and a border collie. Not ill-mannered dogs, just insistent on getting to know the newbie. Jasper retreated to my arms and shook with fear.

I rake leaves. Jasper helps out by collecting individual leaves and chewing on them. Upon leaving the yard, he heads next door to collect cat turds. “That’s disgusting!” I tell him. “You’re the one with the pooper scooper,” he replies.

Yesterday Jasper was growling at a mirror. Daddy let in a mysterious dog and didn’t even tell him.

Sears Sunset

The modern method of management is to load the firm with debt, loot it, and then leave. Given this treatment, it's no surprise Sears continues sliding.

President Donald Trump said that Sears Holdings Corp. had been mismanaged for years before it declared bankruptcy. Among those responsible for its management: his Treasury secretary.

Steven Mnuchin was a member of Sears’s board from 2005 until December 2016, and before that was a director for K-Mart Corp., which was acquired by Sears in 2005.

“Sears has been dying for many years,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Monday to inspect hurricane damage in Florida. “It’s been obviously improperly run for many years and it’s a shame.”

Treasury didn’t immediately respond to questions about Mnuchin’s service on the company’s board.

Neanderthal Health Care

Hard lives in a difficult time:

Compared to modern humans, they are often thought to have lacked the necessary compassion or cognitive abilities to look after the sick. “We can infer from the fact that they survived that they must have been helped by others—and in some cases that help must have been knowledgeable and quite well planned,” says Penny Spikins, an archaeologist at the University of York in the United Kingdom. Their survival would have only been possible, in other words, if they had sophisticated health care.

Thunderbolt and Lightning

On the Origin of Wimpy Supernovas

Binary stars can do anything:

Stars born with more than eight times the mass of the sun quickly run out of fuel and succumb to gravity at the end of their lives – collapsing in on themselves and exploding in a supernova. When this happens, all of the star’s outer layers – a few times the mass of the sun – are scattered.

When I started working with my advisor, Mansi Kasliwal, as a new graduate student, I decided to study supernovae that quickly fade in brightness. Mining the database of events discovered by iPTF, I came across iPTF 14gqr, a quickly fading supernova that was discovered more than a year before but whose true physical nature remained mysterious.

The data were puzzling because our preliminary models suggested this supernova was caused by the death of a giant massive star, yet the explosion in itself was quite wimpy. It ejected only a fifth of the mass of the sun, while its energy was only a tenth of a typical supernova. Where was all the missing matter and energy?

The clues indicated that the exploding star must have been stripped of nearly all of its original mass before the explosion. But what could have stolen so much matter from this giant star? Perhaps an unseen binary companion?

Annihilation Came Knocking

The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico provided the perfect environment for Hurricane Michael to intensify very rapidly as it came ashore:

After coming ashore Wednesday afternoon as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, Michael slashed a path of near-total destruction across the Florida Panhandle and into southeastern Georgia. The storm’s freakishly low pressure and sustained, brutally strong winds—which peaked at 155 miles per hour—flattened neighborhoods, snapped trees in half, and left hundreds of thousands without power. At least six people lost their lives to the storm, according to officials.

Scenes of near-cataclysm are trickling out from across Florida’s Gulf Coast. In the beachfront town of Mexico Beach, Florida, roads now provide the only interruption to piles of rubble that used to be city blocks. At Tyndall Air Force Base, also on the shore, the storm tore the roofs off military hangars and then pushed around the heavy warplanes resting inside as if they were children’s toys.

Even inland, the winds—which blew as fast as those inside a tornado—collapsed churches and gas stations, knocked 18-wheelers on their sides, and stripped dense woodland entirely of its greenery, leaving behind only clusters of huddled, naked trunks.

“Students in tropical-meteorology classes are going to be talking about this storm for 20 years,” says Colin Zarzycki, a tropical-cyclone scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Now, When I Was Young, This Wasn’t A Game

Launch Difficulties

Scary stuff!:

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) — The problem came two minutes into the flight: The rocket carrying an American and a Russian to the International Space Station failed Thursday, triggering an emergency that sent their capsule into a steep, harrowing fall back to Earth.

The crew landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan, but the aborted mission dealt another blow to the troubled Russian space program that currently serves as the only way to deliver astronauts to the orbiting outpost. It also was the first such accident for Russia’s manned program in over three decades.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Alexei Ovchinin had a brief period of weightlessness when the capsule separated from the malfunctioning Soyuz rocket at an altitude of about 50 kilometers (31 miles), then endured gravitational forces of 6-7 times more than is felt on Earth as they came down at a sharper-than-normal angle.

About a half-hour later, the capsule parachuted onto a barren area about 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of the city of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

Corrales Balloons