Nov. 17, 1968

A walk down memory lane by the folks at Daily Rotten:

NBC preempts the final 1:05 from a very close Jets-Raiders NFL football game with "Heidi". Two touchdowns were scored during this missing time. Sports fans everywhere applaud and understand the network's decision.

Quatrain Fatigue

Usually lunchtime consists of sitting in the little booth at Subway, and blowing a fuse as I read the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Lately, though, K. has been explaining his theories regarding the proper interpretation of Nostradamus' quatrains as I eat my lunch.

Normally, the predictions of Nostradamus are ominous and portentous, but they make little sense. It doesn't matter whether you read them in French or English.

K. is convinced that a numerologist like Nostradamus would have encoded the true meaning of the text. One should read the quatrains like a page written in HTML, with the various lines as hyperlinks to the true meaning.

When K. arranges the quatrains with the Chaldean numerological system, the predictions of Nostradamus are ominous and portentous, but they make little sense. When K. arranges the quatrains with the Pythagorean system, the predictions are portentous and ominous, but they still make little sense. It still doesn't matter whether you read them in French or English.

I mean, come on Nostradamus, the North African Arabs and the Poles will never be at war with each other. Neither will they ever be allies. It's not personal. It's geography. So why write about it?

And famous bridges that collapse. It's happened many times in the past. It will happen many times in the future. A famous bridge was destroyed in the city of Mostar in the recent Yugoslav wars. Doesn't mean Nostradamus predicted it.

In fact, I predict that a famous bridge will collapse or be destroyed sometime in the next 7,000 years. Guaranteed. Nothing ominous or portentous about it.

All this begins to make me pine for the stupidities of the Wall Street Journal. At least their predictions have to meet the acid test of reality (excepting the economists who use dynamic scoring to measure the economic effects of tax cuts, of course).

Your Stage Manager is Ready to Help

Last night, several of the dancers were standing in the wings, bent over at the waist, vigorously shaking their bodices. D. explained that, with these particular costumes, there was some danger that their boobies would escape and come squirting out the sides.

Well, I'm always ready to help remedy wardrobe malfunctions. If frantic stuffing fails, we can always try duct tape.

A Little "Salt Air" Would Do Me Some Good Too



"Dark Ride": Deborah McMillion-Nering must have the old amusement park on the coast of the Great Salt Lake in mind.

What Osama Wants...

Osama Bin Laden has been granted religious approval to use a nuclear bomb against Americans, according to the CIA's former top Al Qaeda expert.

Iconclastic Icons

(Courtesy of Noel)

Can't They All Just.... Get Along?

Blue-State Secession

Growing up in New Mexico, I was always painfully aware how dependent we were on the kindness of the coasts, and how perilous a course it would be to 'go red'. As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, New Mexicans receive two dollars from the feds for every dollar taxed, the highest disparity of any state.

You gotta do what you gotta do. The blue states need to teach the red states some lessons in power (easy for me to say this - I live in California now).

Runaway's Fiddler

Saw Runaway Stage's Fiddler on Saturday. Even though I expected to be bored stiff (having done the show twice), it was actually quite nice to see. I had heard beforehand, through the grapevine, that there were dancing issues, but I didn't see choreographic problems, just a group of dancers with varying levels of experience trying to function in a very crowded space. Our crowd had many issues of varying importance, of course, the most serious of which was the misstep of having Fyedka beat Perchik at the end of the wedding scene (would Chava risk offending Hodel by marrying Fyedka after such a faux pas?) Nevertheless, there were many nice touches: Fruma Sara, Tzeitel, and I liked Bob Baxter's quickness. The set and lighting were fine (the house, small as it was, was nevertheless awkwardly large for the space).

Department of Redundancy Department

Being stage manager for 'Anything Goes' looks like oblivion. By design, many of the normal stage manager functions will not be required: no curtain opening and closing, little furniture shuffling, and not many blackouts to administer. Basically, my role seems to be to make unnecessary conversation, impede the progress of the dancers in and out of the wings, and sweep the floor. Time to bring a book.

Error Message?

(Courtesy of Bruce - I know Gabe, you told me about this a long time ago, but it's still fun)

1) Go to www.google.com
2) Type in: weapons of mass destruction (DO NOT hit return button!)
3) Hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button.

Strange Women Lying in Ponds

Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

Yes, you are right. Better government comes from friendly women lying communally in ponds:


Deborah McMillion-Nering's Weeki-Wachi Mermaids

Filthy Lucre

Best possible use of stolen greenbacks!

Speaking of cash, E. is on a winning streak again, despite having lost her wallet at Thunder Valley Casino and having it returned intact by an honest person (myself, 25,000,000 times bitten, 25,000,001 times shy).

Generational Touchstones

It can be maddeningly difficult to spot the events in popular culture that truly have an impact on people's lives. Three years ago, in 2001, my 20-some year old friends were agog when I announced that I had no idea what "The Princess Bride" (1987) was all about. How could I have missed the most influential movie in world history? I was importuned incessantly with, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father: prepare to die." But it turned out, when I finally rented this movie to see what it was all about, that I HAD seen it, back in the late 80's: it was just that the movie made no real impression on me at the time, and I had forgotten it. I was not in the real target group (birth years approximately 1977-1980, age range approximately 9-12 when the movie was released) for whom this movie became a touchstone.

My touchstone, when I was that age, was the heroic effort of the U.S. Space Program to send men to the Moon. Sputnik echoed through my childhood. Musicwise, tunes like Tommy James and the Shondell's "Crimson and Clover" caught my imagination. I wrote earlier how I suspect the movie "Xanadu" was Kylie Minogue's touchstone.

So, what are likely generational touchstones for the generation born about 1985-1987? My favorite candidate is "Sally's Song," Danny Elfman's creation from 1993's "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Unlike "The Princess Bride," "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is darker, in many ways more powerful, and is even more likely to have left a big imprint on young minds.

I remember how "Sally's Song," sung dolefully by Catharine O'Hara, really took my breath away when I first heard it. It reminded me of the day I listened, as a hummingbird rested nearby, and sang an eerie, high-pitched song of longing and loss - until then, I never knew hummingbirds could sing! The bird was so pretty - what could possibly be sad in its life? Did she miss her home in the cool mountain forests of Mexico? Quien sabe?

Sally, having witnessed an omen of doom, tries to divert Jack Skellington from his dangerous Christmas mission, but fails. She sings of unrequited love, looming loss, and a sense of her own insignificance (eternal themes of childhood and adolescence). Here is a photo, from this Web Site, with lyrics:




I sense there's something in the wind
That feels like tragedy's at hand
And though I'd like to stand by him
Can't shake this feeling that I have
The worst is just around the bend

And does he notice my feelings for him?
And will he see how much he means to me?
I think it's not to be

What will become of my dear friend?
Where will his actions lead us then?
Although I'd like to join the crowd
In their enthusiastic cloud
Try as I may, it doesn't last

And will we ever end up together?
No, I think not, it's never to become
For I am not the one

Bottle Trees

Finally arranged an evening with H. and the kids and saw "Ray: Unchain My Heart" last night. Excellent movie - Jamie Foxx and Sharon Warren were wonderful - but I kept wondering about the looming presence of the colorful bottle tree. What does a bottle tree symbolize?

Fortunately the subject has won some attention. Old cobalt blue bottles, the 19th Century sort one sometimes finds in the ruins of old Western ghost towns, are the favored decoration:

The unusual trees originated as an ancient African custom that can be traced back as far as ninth century Congo. Natives hung hand-blown glass on trees to ward off evil. The tradition migrated to the United States and became part of the Southern African-American folklore.

Many items and symbols were used in a decorative manner, but each had a very significant meaning. The most well-known was nailing a horseshoe above the threshold for good luck. Other examples include tacking a Bible verse above the door, or painting the doors and windows blue, or "haint blue" as it was known among those who used it. Some hung "ghost mirrors" beside the door, believing that evil is repelled by its own sight.

The trees served a significant role in the yard spaces of African-American communities as they were used as a means of protecting the home by trapping evil spirits within the colorful bottles. The bottles, usually blue, were stuck onto the protruding limbs of a tree, usually cedar, because its branches point toward the heavens.

Additionally:

According to old Southern folk beliefs, the color blue wards off evil and brings good luck. I'm not sure why the other colors were used, but maybe they are just in case some evil spirits are color blind. Some folk go even father to capture the spirits by greasing the throats of the bottles with fat to better entrap the evil spirits. Once sucked inside, it is believed that the spirits cannot escape, the morning sun seals them inside. When a strong wind whips through the bottle tree causing it to emit a low whistle or moan, that signifies the death of the imprisoned spirits. During the 1878 yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee, families where the disease was raging hung blue medicine bottles on tree limbs outside their homes to ward off spirits associated with the plague.

Here is a photo of bottle trees from the Eudora Welty Collection:


© Eudora Welty Collection - Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Welty used bottle trees in her short story "Livvie," which was set near the Old Natchez Trace, a famous colonial "road" used by Indians, merchants, soldiers, and outlaws between Natchez and Nashville, Tennessee. This photograph, like many others taken by Welty during her work for the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, appears in One Time, One Place: Mississippi in the Depression: A Snapshot Album (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996).

Bottle Tree as a Home Improvement project

Pleading With the Almighty

It's been a remarkable start to the Western rainy season so far: the ski areas in the Sierras have had their earliest start in 50 years. Nevertheless, the National Weather Service is not so sanguine:

[T]he recent stormy circulation pattern will likely not persist through the forecast period, with a drier and milder regime expected for much of the November-January period.

Come on, that's a cheap forecast! Big Rossby waves, the ones that really place a stamp on the climate's favorability, rarely stay in place an entire season! Even a child could make that forecast, or for that matter, this, more optimistic forecast:

Looking beyond this outlook period, various seasonal forecast models, as well as historical analogues with weak to moderate El Niño events, suggest improving odds for significant rain and snow toward late winter and spring across the Southwest, including the Colorado River Basin, and that could bode well for mountain snowpack this spring.

Here's to the power of prayer (even if from an agnostic heart), and the staying power of favorable Rossby waves!

Discretion, Personal Diplomacy, and Monty Python's Holy Grail

Thinking about Monty Python brought to mind my distinguished grandfather, Francis Drake Buzzell. In a commendable effort at personal diplomacy, around 1900, he and his Philippine Insurrection army buddies apparently tried to make a courtesy call on the Japanese Imperial Palace. His own description, written in 1953, is best:


Francis Drake Buzzell (center). Photo forwarded by Janice Becker.

Tried to make a call on the Mikado, but run into some bayonets instead and beat a retreat in which I outran my companion though his legs were longer than mine. It was 35 miles back to Yokohama & the boat and I led all the way. The boat sailed almost immediately, and I was glad to see a lot of water between it & the land.

When danger reared its ugly head......

It's A Nice Day in the Neighborhood

I've been trying to arrange my blog shortcuts. Many of the shortcuts, particularly of the right-wing sort, I hadn't accessed since those happy, carefree, kiteflying days before Dubya's Iraqi WMD ruse was revealed. It's nice checking out everyone else's work. Here are some interesting things:

From Amy Sullivan at the Washington Monthly, now that the election is past and the enemies of liberty have been routed (i.e., Democrats), the terror level in the financial district of New York and Washington can be safely relaxed:

The Department of Homeland Security lowered the terrorist threat level yesterday for five financial institution headquarters in Washington, New York and New Jersey, and U.S. Capitol Police began removing 14 vehicle checkpoints around the Capitol that had frustrated motorists and neighborhood residents since August.

The government dropped the threat index for the financial buildings from orange, or "high risk," to yellow, or "elevated risk," because security measures taken there in the past three months and tightened security in the financial sector nationwide eliminated the need for the higher alert designation, said James M. Loy, deputy secretary of homeland security.

Jim Dedman waxes nostalgic about The Prisoner. I loved the series too. Here's the comment I posted on his web log:

I believe it was the summer of 1966 or '67, when I was a kid. My carefree summer play came to a stop once a week, to watch the latest eyepopping installment of "The Prisoner." No better series has ever been aired on TV! And yes, the last episode is really too confusing to be satisfactory. The soul of the series is the fact that the nightmare DOESN'T end, and forcing it to an end just didn't work well.

From Rantburg, a Romanian judge's objections to slander fell on deaf ears.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - A Romanian judge on Wednesday resigned after being accused of starring in an X-rated video, officials said.

Simona Lungu, 36, a judge at the Bucharest Tribunal, was investigated by judicial authorities over allegations that she acted in an adult video that was sold in Denmark.

Lungu denied it was her in the movie and asked the Forensic Institute, a state crime lab, to help her clear her name by taking photos of her and comparing them to the video.

Instead, the institute concluded it was her in the video.

From Across the River, something I hope isn't a harbinger of the future, a Creationist Science Fair.

From Patriot Paradox, sound political advice from the muck-gathering peasants of Monty Python's Holy Grail:

Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

plus a well-considered warning of danger in cuddly packets (Girlie-girl 'Cloudy', my own bunny, can make this belligerent guy run away in an instant!)

Theater Projects

12th year running as the Prince in Sally Forment's Woodland Nutcracker, starring Megan Jackson as 'Clara'.

Apparently stage managing for a portion of DMTC's "Anything Goes."

And also, figuring out how to fund the New Theater's construction!

The End of Journalistic Integrity

It's one thing to read about the amoral approach of political journalists in reporting the news: it's another thing to see it made manifest. The other night, C-SPAN presented a post-election panel of journalists, and Elisabeth Bumiller, the doyenne of the New York Times, proudly demonstrated everything that is so wrong with our political media.

When politicians lie to her - bold, transparent lies - she does not call them lies: she prefers an opaque construction, like 'the Vice-President's statements are contrary to the 9/11 Commission Report's findings,' or some other mealy-mouthed way of excusing people from responsibility for their statements. Pinning responsibility is not her job, she maintains.

Refusing to call a lie a lie, however, only enables the liars: everyone knows that. People have died for these lies. Why enable the killers? Why is she still employed? Why do I continue to subscribe to this NY Sunday Times drek?

Elisabeth Bumiller makes me retch.

Moments From Ola Na Iwi

The sound clip of the exploding car was always unsatisfactory: the echo of the boom was edited quite short, for some reason. Still, that clip was preferable to the night when a wrong button was pushed, and instead of an explosion, the sound of a strumming guitar filled the theater. Recovering from that required all of Maria's acting skills!

Giggling fits galore! As Gustav, near show's end, I endeavored to hand a smaller and smaller scrap of paper with Nanea's address every night to Mina, until the microscopic scrap became an object of comedy in its own right.

One night during rehearsal, I was wearing a felt flat-brim hat, under a shroud, beneath a donkey's-head mask. I couldn't see damned thing. Then I announced, "Here we are!" The absurdity of each word, individually and as a phrase, struck me as hysterical - I felt like Stevie Wonder headlining the Super Bowl halftime show - and from me, the giggles spread to the rest of the cast.

In amateur theater, you sometimes have to make do, and it can make for interesting theater. I'm sure the playwright Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl didn't consider casting the youngest female and the oldest male opposite each other as love interests in Act 2, Scene 2. The pained lugubrious pace added to a sense of morbid unreality. One night, near the end of the run, in order to make the pace more lively and impress the ladies, the oldest male decided to spring a kiss upon the unsuspecting youngest female (as her family watched from the audience): I can only imagine the look on her face!

Larry Lew made a great Reverend Dr. Pinchbottom! Rick Cook made a fine Jamison. Maria Ramirez made a great Kawehi! Eva Laurent made a great Pua. A wonderful job by everybody in the show!

Link to the lyrics of "Hawai'i Aloha".