Parenting

Drawing the line is harder for some than for others:

A woman bought guns and bomb-making material to indulge her socially outcast 14-year-old son, a prosecutor said Friday.

"There's a lot of things at play here," Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor Jr. said. "You have a child who is obviously emotionally disturbed and a social outcast, and no doubt the parents feel sorry for him and are indulging him.

"This is not the best parenting I've ever seen, obviously, and she has to be held accountable for that."

Bush, Aides 'Grossly Misjudged Putin'

It's been obvious for years that Putin would respond negatively, likely with violence, if the U.S. tried to bring the 'near-abroad' into NATO's web. Why does the Bush Administration have so much trouble understanding this simple concept?:

Putin, however, began to sour on the relationship as Bush promoted the inclusion of former Warsaw Pact nations in NATO and supported the elections of pro-Western governments in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

U.S. officials refused to accept "that the Russians do have an interest in what they call their 'near abroad,'" said a former top State Department official who requested anonymity to speak more freely. "The Russians would have differences of opinion with us, and we would not acknowledge that we had differences of opinions."

Bad Day On I-5

Down south.

Bev Reviews DMTC's "Joseph"

She finds much to commend!

"The Ash Girl"

Left: Bows. Katie Rose Mennemeier (The Ash Girl) curtsies on opening night of the show. On the left, Justin Fernandez as Prince Amir. On the far right, Colette Des Georges as the evil step sister, Ruth. Behind her, Girlmouse (Stephanie Perez) and Boymouse (Alena Ross). In the far background, Spiders (Hailey Hayes, Dominique Sala, and Vanessa Stott. Behind Prince Amir, and to right, I believe is Otter (Madeline Lasell).



I had no real business being out on a Friday, with a fever, but I was worried this was my only opportunity to see Katie Rose Mennemeier (who I knew through Victoria's dance class) in her star turn! So, on my first visit ever to St. Francis High School, I hid in the back and endeavoured to have as little contact with people as possible, even though I recognized a few familiar faces, and scuttled out as fast as possible after the show.

"The Ash Girl" is a Cinderella story, but darker. The Ash Girl is haunted by the Seven Deadly Sins (Slothworm; Angerbird; Envysnake; Gluttontoad; Pridefly; Greedmonkey; Sadness and Lust) who try to keep her from realizing happiness with Prince Amir. On Ash Girl's side are other spirits (Owl; Otter; Fairy, the Voice in the Mirror; Girlmouse and Boymouse) who try to buck up her spirits.

This review provides a good summary:

“The Ash Girl," by contemporary British playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, could be called “Cinderella with a Backbone." Unlike the passive Cinderella of Disney‘s 1950 cartoon, who is a helpless plaything of her cruel stepsisters and stepmother until her rescue by a handsome prince, Wertenbaker‘s Ashgirl needs to choose her destiny and make it happen.

... This “Cinderella" is more about choosing wisely when many bad choices are available than it is about being magically transported away from your troubles.

Ashgirl ... will be familiar to some teens and parents. Lacking in self-esteem, she is shadowed by depression, which is personified ... as Sadness. Rolled up ... on the floor, Ashgirl emerges only to say, “Ashes are warm. In the ashes no one sees you. Ashes are safe. I will stay in these ashes, melt into them."

...Despite its dark currents, the play ends well. Ashgirl learns to stop being so critical of herself, to be honest about what she really wants, to listen to the brave “inner" girl who often gets suppressed as girls enter adolescence, and to assume the courage needed to “go for it." And there is a good deal of humor along the journey, as well as a wise look at the realities of “romantic" love. This is a play that parents and teenagers may want to see together.

The visuals of St. Francis' production (director: Cheryl Eisenstein) are stunning. A beautiful set (set design: Steve Decker) and the most-sumptuous costumes (costume design: Denise Miles)! Truly gorgeous!

As might be expected, playwright Wertenbaker's best, and most amusing, lines are reserved for the added characters to the Cinderella story, particularly the Seven Deadly Sins. Nevertheless, for the added characters, there was curious Emphatic! Character! To Their Lines! That Made For An Oddly! Monotonic! Delivery! (with the exception of more sing-song Molly Krafcik as Envysnake). Quite wordy! The playwright's perogative, but still, he could have been a little easier on the cast! Perhaps I've been doing too much musical theater of late, because I thought the Seven Deadly Sins would have worked better as a light-hearted musical number (like Disney's The Jungle Book's 'The Bare Neccessities'. Then again, darkness suits me poorly....)

The stepsisters (Colette Des Georges and Cady Drell) and the stepmother (Elena Coupal) performed admirably! I liked Yara Zokaie as Princess Zehra. And Katie Rose was wonderful (of course) as Ash Girl!

In general, a very well-done show and well-worth seeing! It continues through this weekend and ends next weekend.

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

I was watching innumerable amusing YouTube videos of cats on treadmills when Nancy suggested a better alternative.

Congratulations, Magic Circle Theater!

Regarding their new award:

Those five are the Sacramento Philharmonic, the Sacramento Ballet and the Crocker Art Museum, which will each receive $325,000; the Sacramento Opera, which has been awarded a $250,000 grant; and the Magic Circle Theatre of Roseville, which was selected by the foundation for a $200,000 grant. The $1.4 million in grant money is to be used over a three-year period.

A Little Night Shopping

Even though I no longer live in the neighborhood of the intersection of Fair Oaks and Howe Blvds. (my first neighborhood when I moved to Sacramento in 1990), I still get my haircut there. I will happily drive past dozens of hair salons and barbershops, in order to get to either the Supercuts on Fair Oaks, or now, the newer Supercuts on Howe.

So, I got a close-cropped haircut there on Howe (I hadn't been able to get Jean's approval for a haircut when I was in "Pirates").

Afterwards, the salonista started pushing hair care products on me. "Buy one bottle of Paul Mitchell's 'Tea-Tree Special Shampoo' and get a second bottle at half-price," she said. I said, "I'm worried about this shampoo." She said, "Worried about whether it is effective?" "No," I said, "I'm worried about whether it will change my sex!"

Lavender and tea tree oils found in some shampoos, soaps and lotions can temporarily leave boys with enlarged breasts in rare cases, apparently by disrupting their hormonal balance, a preliminary study suggests.

... The study reported on the condition, gynecomastia, in three boys ages 4, 7 and 10. They all went back to normal when they stopped using skin lotions, hair gel, shampoo or soap with the natural oils.

I told her: "If I develop breasts, you can be certain I will return!" (After all, every hermaphrodite must look her best at all times!) So, I purchased the shampoo, and now wait for magical results.

Outside the haircutting salon, there was a tempestuous debate between shopping center security, the owners of a nail painting salon, and a disappointed customer. Sounded like the customer lost in the end. C'est la vie....

I visited everyone's favorite clothers shopping outlet, Marshall's, but passed on a purchase.

Instead I went to Video Clearance Center, to see if I could locate the musical "Topsy Turvy", which I recalled as a fun and delightful movie, but which Steve recalled as a journey in tedium. How could the same movie be both? Turned out they had the 1999 musical only in VHS, which I was willing to do. The clerk said I could purchase five movies on VHS for ten dollars, so I may as well shop around. Such a deal!

Video Clearance Center looked like it had been frozen in amber from the 1990's, when DVDs were not yet in common usage. They have SO MANY VHS tapes! "Can you believe this?," the clerk said. "$23 for 'The Perfect Storm'?" "Once upon a time," I said, "once upon a time." So, I purchased those two movies, plus the original "The Producers," "A Chorus Line," and "Robocop," for $10.68.

I had to deliver a couple of costumes to Lillian Baxter at Runaway Stage Productions, for "Annie Get Your Gun," and "Pirates of Penzance," and pick up a few costumes from "Oklahoma!", in exchange. So, off I went to RSP!

I nearly killed several motorists, and a bicyclist, as I parked in front of Lillian's costume shop. As I walked up to the door of the costume shop, I noticed a dread apparition: the tree immediately adjacent to the door looked A LOT like the castrating Australian Tea Tree. So, I asked Lillian if she knew what the tree was, but she confessed happy ignorance of the local vegetation's identity.

I talked to Lillian, and Karen Day, about RSP's forthcoming "Jekyll and Hyde." They discussed how good the lead vocalists are. Karen talked about the skepticism of the show's "Board of Governors" to Jekyll's ill-advised plans. The skepticism of this 'reality-based community' to Jekyll's plans reassured me that maybe the Board of Governors are the only sane folks of show, and maybe not so poisonous as I've heard others say. It sounds like Jekyll mixed some almond oil with the Australian Tea Tree oil, as so instead of doing a male-female flip-flop throughout the show, he did a good-evil flip-flop instead.

And regarding "Topsy Turvy"? Apparently when I last saw the movie, I didn't see the entire thing. The first half of the movie is aimless and tedious, gaining direction only when the Japanese element is introduced (and from where I joined the movie). So the show is both things - fun and light, as I remember, and tedious, as Steve remembers.

Under The Weather

In general, once I'm off-stage, the first thing I do is to get sick....

Well, at least I've started updating the DMTC Master Cast list again.

Fashion Accessory

X-Ray bags.

Undular Bores

Sounds like a descrptive term for myself tossing and turning late at night. But these big gravity waves, extending across the horizon, look interesting!:

Those giant waves—"undular bore waves"—were photographed Oct. 3rd flowing across the skies of Des Moines, Iowa. (Credit: Iowa Environmental Mesonet Skycam.)

..."These waves were created by a cluster of thunderstorms approaching Des Moines from the west," he explains. "At the time, a layer of cold, stable air was sitting on top of Des Moines. The approaching storms disturbed this air, creating a ripple akin to what we see when we toss a stone into a pond."

"Perfecting"

So, Ann Coulter feels Jews need to be "perfected" . Nice that we get a thorough dousing in Anti-Semitism every day with our news on CNBC.

Remember, it's a ratchet-like process: the more anti-Semitism we tolerate, the more we'll get.

Upcoming - "The Ash Girl"

Left: Photo by Timberlake Wertenbaker


Katie Rose Mennemeier is in a show! "The Ash Girl" , at St. Francis High School! There was a brief blurb in the Sacramento Bee this morning. This should be good!:

In a big old house, Ashgirl lives huddled deep in the protection of an ashy hearth. With her mother dead and her father away, she lives with her stepmother and two stepsisters. When the invitation to the ball arrives from the prince, Ashgirl finds the strength to go with the help of her friends, some of whom come from expected places. When she gets home, Ashgirl realizes that in order to regain the fleeting happiness she found in the arms of the prince, she must fight the monsters who have slithered and insinuated their way into her heart and mind. She must believe in herself for others to do so.

DATE October 12 - 20
SHOW TIMES
Thursday 7:30 PM
Friday 7:30 PM
Saturday 1:30 & 7:30 PM
PRICES
Adult $10.00
Students $5.00
LOCATION
St. Francis High School Theatre
5900 Elvas Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95819

On Winning The Nobel Prize

Bigger fish to fry:

LONDON - Doris Lessing pulled up in a black cab where a media horde was waiting Thursday in front of her leafy north London home. Reporters opened the door and told her she had won the Nobel Prize for literature, to which she responded: "Oh Christ! ... I couldn't care less."

Lessing later said she thought the cameras were there to film a television program. Vegetables peeked out from blue plastic bags she carried out of the cab.

"This has been going on for 30 years," she said, as reporters helped her with the bags.

"I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so I'm delighted to win them all, the whole lot, OK?" Lessing said, making her way through the crowd. "It's a royal flush."

"I'm sure you'd like some uplifting remarks," she added with a smile.

Lessing, who turns 88 this month, is the oldest winner of the literature prize. Although she is widely celebrated for "The Golden Notebook" and other works, she has received little attention in recent years and has been criticized as strident and eccentric.

Asked repeatedly if she was excited about the award, she held court from her doorstep and noted she had been in the running for the Nobel for decades.

"I can't say I'm overwhelmed with surprise," Lessing said. "I'm 88 years old and they can't give the Nobel to someone who's dead, so I think they were probably thinking they'd probably better give it to me now before I've popped off."

Surrounded by members of the international media in her flower-packed garden, Lessing was dismissive of the Nobel — calling the award process graceless and saying the prize "doesn't mean anything artistically."

She acknowledged the $1.5 million cash award was a lot of money, but still seemed less than thrilled.

"I'm already thinking about all the people who are going to send me begging letters — I can see them lining up now," she said. The phone in her house, audible from the street, rang continuously.

Lessing brightened when a reporter asked whether the Nobel would generate interest in her work.

"I'm very pleased if I get some new readers," she said. "Yes, that's very nice, I hadn't thought of that."

On The Same Wavelength

In the last day, or so, Sacramento got about 0.6" of rain, and Mt. Glorious, Qld, AU got about an inch.

Wild Child Decides To Stay Awhile

For Lindsay, this is the place:

The party's over for Lindsay Lohan: After a recent stint in rehab, she's trading in her wild-child Hollywood pad for a new home in sober Utah.

"I'm staying in Utah until it's time to shoot 'Dare to Love Me,'" Lohan said in an interview with OK! magazine, "and then I plan on returning to Utah so I can stay focused and avoid other distractions."

The 21-year-old actress reportedly checked out of the Cirque Lodge, a drug and alcohol treatment center in Sundance, Friday. She entered treatment in August after reaching a plea deal on misdemeanor drunken driving and cocaine charges following two arrests.

"It was a sobering experience," Lohan said. "It was humbling. It made me look at myself and all of the people, places and things in my life in a different way. I was in there for substance abuse, after all."

If it's quiet Lohan seeks, Utah Valley, home of Brigham Young University, voted "stone-cold sober" 10 consecutive years by the Princeton Review, may be a good place to look.

"I've always thought there was something special about Sundance," said Linda Kader, of Provo, as she riffled through racks of clothes at University Mall where Lindsay was reportedly spotted shopping recently. "Maybe the spirit of the place inspires her. Your surroundings can have a big impact on your actions."

Making the switch from late-night parties and big-city crowds to "Mormon-town" may be a culture shock for the Hollywood "it-girl," though, said Drew Olson, a 17-year-old Provo resident, when he heard Lohan planned to purchase a house nearby.
"It's a lot quieter here than in L.A.," Olson said. "This place closes down at 10. I hope she doesn't get bored."

A slower-paced lifestyle is an important part of Lohan's post-rehab plans, though. Staying sober is a priority, she said, even if it means bidding farewell to hard-partying Hollywood friends who encouraged her substance abuse.

...Lohan's new residence of choice is touted for larger-than-average, close-knit families and conservative values but, Utah Valley residents warned, the place isn't a guaranteed road to recovery.

"She's thinking: 'I'll move to Utah, they don't have drugs there,'" said Parker Heiner, 22, who lives in Provo to attend BYU. "Wrong."

When asked whether she's worried about a relapse, Lohan said: "Of course I am! If I wasn't I'd be living in denial. Temptation is always there but now I'll avoid it the right way."

Lipstick Pepper Spray

Normally product sales on the Internet aren't that interesting. This one, though, gives me pause. I can't of a product whose use is more likely to backfire, to everyone's detriment. After all, it looks just like a real lipstick. I wonder if anyone has ever used it for its intended purpose?

According to the sales info:

This lipstick pepper spray is a self defense product cleverly disguised in a regular looking lipstick case. It gives you the upper hand in a dangerous situation.

Keeping yourself safe is YOUR top priority. Give your safety an extra layer of protection with the Lipstick Pepper Spray. A surprise weapon that can keep you from getting hurt or worse.

A Day Early

A mistake?:

The 2600 members of a Minnesota National Guard unit that returned from Iraq in July after serving there longer than any other ground combat unit were shocked to be told that their total time overseas of 729 days was one day short of the number needed to be eligible for expanded educational benefits under the GI Bill.

2 Hearts (via FLOPPOP.com)

Kylie's New Video!

Gossip Be-Gone

I wonder how this would work?:

TULUA, COLOMBIA -- Mayor Juan Guillermo Angel got tired of the gossip swirling around this farm town that has been famous for rumormongering for nearly three centuries. So he outlawed it.

...Semantics aside, at his urging the town council passed a law this year that imposes fines of up to $1,100 or two months in jail for anyone spreading "calumny that injures or dishonors."

...Angel says the law is part of his campaign to improve Tulua's quality of life. The city simultaneously adopted measures to bolster pedestrian rights, care for senior citizens, facilitate conflict resolution and create stricter control over public spaces, he said in an interview.

But some observers contend that the law is a heavy-handed effort to muzzle the mayor's critics, particularly former Mayor Gustavo Alvarez Gardeazabal, who regularly pokes fun at politicians, including Angel, on his nationally broadcast radio show, "The Firefly."

"It's an attack on free expression more or less designed to shut me up," Gardeazabal said. The mayor, he said, was nettled by Gardeazabal's broadcast insinuations of ballot box irregularities when he was elected in 2003 and ever since by allegations of his administration's mishandling of public transit and of the proceeds from the sale of the municipal television station.

Gardeazabal's complaint is bolstered by the fact that on the day the law took effect, he was hauled before a prosecutor in Tulua to answer slander charges lodged by a "city functionary." He pleaded not guilty, saying he had been misquoted in an interview. The case is pending.

Angel responds that Gardeazabal is "paranoid. . . . The law was an official, not a personal, decision."

Observers expect the law to have little effect on gossip in a town that has loved its tittle-tattle for centuries.

"We have a reputation as gossipmongers," said Omar Franco Duque, a local historian and professor at Central Cauca Valley University here. "It's our custom and it's not going to disappear easily, because it's a way of life."