SENSE Theatre Now At 'Magic Circle'

After working with DMTC last year to stage Disney's 'The Jungle Book', SENSE Theatre is now at 'Magic Circle':

SENSE Theatre - in collaboration with Magic Circle in Roseville, California - are now off to see the Wizard in their new musical production of Wizard of Oz. SENSE Theatre is a unique theatrical intervention research program designed to improve the social and emotional functioning of children with autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders.

As Dorothy might say, there's no place like SENSE Theatre to provide a home to children with autism spectrum disorders. However, this is no ordinary trip down the yellow brick road -- this truly is a magical experience for children with autism. SENSE Theatre has partnered with Magic Circle Theatre, to put 15 children with autism spectrum disorders on the stage with 30 youth actors from the Master Class production, who serve as peer models and fellow cast members.

Founder, Blythe Corbett, Ph.D. exclaims, "We are grateful for the support of Magic Circle who is providing the stage, production costs and hospitality to bring the mission of SENSE Theatre center stage, which we hope to be the first of many collaborative productions." In her "day job," Corbett is an associate professor at the University of California, Davis M.I.N.D. (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute. Along with the SENSE lab, her team aims to show how art and science can merge to create an ideal environment to learn how to communicate, socialize and express themselves.

Watching the parents and kids and supporters last year at DMTC, it was easy to see that SENSE Theatre was filling an important, unmet need. Autistic children have many challenges in learning and socialization, which theaters alone seem to provide the children the means to tackle. Theaters provide a scripted environment where the messy chaos of the real world is muted, and where social interactions become predictable. It was easy to see why autistic children bloom there - they get social practice.

There was only one real problem I saw in SENSE's approach, encapsulated in the story above, and quoted again (emphasis added):

As Dorothy might say, there's no place like SENSE Theatre to provide a home to children with autism spectrum disorders.

No place like SENSE, indeed! Right now, SENSE Theatre is the only major theatrical initiative for autistic kids in the local area that I'm aware of. A monopoly. And like monopolies in any other field, it is subject to vices; vices which competition can help erode.

There need to be other outlets, perhaps many other outlets, for theater for autistic children: the demand is there for more. There is no particular need to couple theater with research: it's the theater itself that provides the benefits, not the research. Parents are sometimes close to desperation in finding programs that work for their children. Given a little leadership, they will move heaven-and-earth to overcome obstacles in setting up new programs - new programs that work!

Every major community musical theater in Sacramento should consider independent autistic theater outreach programs. Allowing SENSE to dominate this bailiwick is something of a disservice to local autistic children.

Learning From The Misfortunes Of Others

I DID NOT KNOW this freeway entrance was slick when wet. I go through here ALL THE TIME. I will tell myself, 'SELF, REMEMBER!):

Southbound Interstate 5 is closed near Sacramento International Airport following a collision between a California Highway Patrol car and a big rig truck. The roadway was reopened at about 5 p.m.

The accident occurred shortly before 9 a.m., said CHP spokeswoman Lizz Dutton. The officer was responding to a report of an accident on Highway 99 and was entering I-5 from Airport Boulevard on the southbound onramp. The road was slick and the patrol car slid into the freeway's slow lane, into the path of the big rig truck.

Dutton said the truck driver attempted to brake but struck the side of the patrol vehicle. The collision sent the two vehicles into the center divider, where the big rig jackknifed.

Dutton said the officer was trapped in the patrol car for about 20 minutes before rescue crews were able to free him. He was taken to UC Davis Medical Center with broken bones. The driver of the truck was not injured.

Murder At The Howard Johnson's - Bob & Ro Productions

Left: A nice set, meant to invoke just another room at the Howard Johnson's.

Three funny and experienced actors (Lee Marie Kelly, Dean Shellenberger, and Aurelio Martinez) portray three exceptionally-shallow characters that explore the various murderous permutations permitted by a love triangle. (I remember seeing Lee Marie Kelly in Magic Circle's 'Lost in Yonkers'.)


On Saturday night, several DMTC folks came to see, and support Bob and Rosemarie Gerould, in their new theatrical endeavour at the Studio Theatre.

The show was very funny and is well-worth seeing (it closes on Feb. 21).


By nature, I don't favor schisms in the Sacramento musical theatrical community, whatever the cause. I wondered whether I should even go, given recent troubles. Nevertheless, life goes on. The new effort is worthy and I'm glad I went. The best to Bob and Ro on their new effort!

MLK 365 Celebration 2010 @ Sac Convention Center

Nice videos, and nice choreography! I recognize a few people here, but most of the dancers are the younger crowd, and thus I have a harder time with the recognition.

Video 1 is the introduction. Keith Turk is the most recognizable dancer here, with his trademark bravura style. Is that Jake Montoya too, at 4:35, dancing with him?

Pepper Von appears briefly at 2:05, and is introduced at 7:00 (and Sherrika is there too!)

Video 2 is the dancing itself!

"Clocks"

Picture 4 (left); Picture 5 (below)












Last week at B3ta, the Question Of The Week was:

The Soundtrack of your Life: Che Grimsdale writes: Now that Simon Cowell's stolen Everybody Hurts, tell us about songs that mean something to you - good, bad, funny or tragic, appropriate or totally inappropriate songs that were playing at key times.

This Question was similar to one in 2005, and I answered with the same story:

Clocks

(a repost, but still haunts me)

I was playing Coldplay's "Clocks" while driving into a California sunset in September 2002, when I suddenly saw a strange contrail rapidly heading west into the sunset. It was the first time I ever saw such a thing: a Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile heading from Vandenburg Air Force Base to Kwajalein Atoll, located many thousands of miles away in the Pacific.The missile was many hundreds of miles away from my car, but because of good visibility in the gloaming, it was possible to see the rocket stage. The missile contrail changed from dense smoke into a translucent glimmering perfect cone, as the upper stages of the missile ripped into the mesosphere. It was gorgeous and scary at the same time.When I hear "Clocks", I sense nuclear annihilation is near and my time on this Earth is over.

A B3ta fan answered:

I like this because I like missiles...

...although I'm not such a fan of Coldplay.

I did some googling - is this the launch you saw?

I replied:

Excellent Googling!

I'm sure that's the correct launch! Santa Barbara is much closer to the launch site than I was and so this observer had the best of views. It looks like the observer played with the exposure in order to photograph into a bright sunset sky. Pictures 4 & 5 show the upper stage departing from the smoky, lower-stage contrail. The luminescent shimmering cone of the upper stage exhaust is harder to see in these images than I remember, probably because of blurring.The end is nigh! 'Clocks' are striking midnight!

2012 - The Movie

On Sunday evening, completely against my better judgment, I went to the bargain cinema at Sunrise Mall, and saw "2012". I didn't want to see it, because a previous visit to see "The Day After Tomorrow" turned into such a fiasco: I got furious about the Bad Science and started acting belligerently towards the chatterboxes in front of me, and ended up basically embarrassing everyone in my party. "2012" had the same director, and generally-similar premise, so there was cause to worry.

Nevertheless, "2012" was a better experience. Partly it was because the theater was emptier, and there were no chatterboxes to worry about. In addition, the Bad Science was mercifully brief: (Please! Neutrinos don't 'Mutate' - what crap! And deep-water tsunamis should be very small, not some kind of titanic, Hawaii 5-0-type wave on steroids.)

The Destruction of California is an application of special-effects animation technology at its very finest. No one ever worried about pancaking expressway (outside a few engineers) until Oakland's 880 collapse in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake's showed just how bad an event like that could be. Now, that's all anyone worries about. "2012" featured endless visions of pancaking expressways, wonderfully and lovingly rendered in the finest detail. Marvellous! And California sliding into the sea? What joy!

What made "2012" work better than "The Day After Tomorrow" was a much better script. Basically, the screenplay was a total rip-off of Philip Wylie's and Edwin Balmer's classic 1933 science fiction novel, "When Worlds Collide" (with its wonderful 1934 sequel "After Worlds Collide") - some of the best Sci Fi ever written! It's hard to go wrong when you are plagiarizing the very best out there!

With recent advances in special-effects technology, I'd love someone to remake "When Worlds Collide". The movie was made once, a fairly-forgettable 1951 version, but Roland Emmerich, et al., have poisoned that well for awhile: people would just say it was a bad remake of "2012". Still, here's hoping!

[UPDATE: They ARE going to remake "When Worlds Collide"! Oh joy! Hope it does great box-office, with that "2012" out there stealing the thunder!]

Here is the trailer for the 1951 "When Worlds Collide":

Nuance

Jerry is nonplussed by the latest National Weather Service forecast for the Bay Area:

"Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 4pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4pm."

Jerry says: "The nature of the 4PM transition for tomorrow is not clear to me. I suspect that the nuances in the phraseology will be lost on the general public!"

Very nuanced! It escapes me too!

I remember Lou Battan (one of our former U of A meteorology professors) talking about forecasting for the Italian public. They apparently have no tolerance for nuance. A 50% chance of rain is a meaningless concept. Will it rain, or won't it? That's what they want to know.

And, truth be told, that's what we want to know too.

High-Speed Sac Pursuit

Well, this is cool. But I wonder what the context is?

Sure Enough, Video Clearance Center Is Still Open

At Howe and Hurley. It was supposed to close January 10th, with an uncertain twilight after that date.

Picked up "Network" this afternoon, and "Dancer, Texas", and some other obscurities.

"Glentanner Clydesdales" Jigsaw Puzzle

I got renergized by assembling the Edward Gorey jigsaw puzzle last month, so this time I tackled a jigsaw puzzle I picked up at a gift shop in Queenstown, New Zealand in 2008.

It's possible to pick up a print of "Glentanner Clydesdales" by Peter Morath here.

When assembling the puzzle, I was under a misimpression of where Glentanner is located. It turns out it's at the northern end of Lake Pukaki - east of the crest of the Southern Alps, rather than west. So, it turns out to be a morning rather than an evening painting. I'm so confused!

Lovely picture of Mt. Cook (aka Aoraki)! New Zealand has some wonderful scenery!

Yes, Tom Tancredo Is Going 'There'

Nothing like that good, old-fashioned racism to enable GOP candidates to compete:

In his speech Thursday to attendees, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo invoked the loaded pre-civil rights era buzzword, saying that President Barack Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."

Well, what's wrong with that? We all need a little civic literacy before we vote; don't we?

THIS is what's wrong with that:

"Prior to passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965, Southern (and some Western) states maintained elaborate voter registration procedures whose primary purpose was to deny the vote to those who were not white," a website for civil rights veterans explains. "In the South, this process was often called the 'literacy test.' In fact, it was much more than a simple test, it was an entire complex system devoted to denying African-Americans (and in some regions, Latinos) the right to vote."

"Because the Freedom Movement was running "Citizenship Schools" to help people learn how to fill out the forms and pass the test, Alabama changed the test 4 times in less than two years (1964-1965)," the site adds. "At the time of the Selma Voting Rights campaign there were actually 100 different tests in use across the state. In theory, each applicant was supposed to be given one at random from a big loose-leaf binder. In real life, some individual tests were easier than others and the registrar made sure that Black applicants got the hardest ones."

White applicants could be approved even if they didn't pass the test.

"Your application was then reviewed by the three-member Board of Registrars — often in secret at a later date," the site continues. "They voted on whether or not you passed. It was entirely up to the judgment of the Board whether you passed or failed. If you were white and missed every single question they could still pass you if — in their sole judgment — you were 'qualified.' If you were Black and got every one correct, they could still flunk you if they considered you 'unqualified.'"

If anyone ever came up with a fairly-administered civics and literacy test, I might go for it, because I know many Tea Baggers would fail the test. But there never was such a test, and there never will be one.

Yung Joc - It's Goin' Down

This song was part of the soundtrack in the Cardio Funk class tonight, and I thought it had the best hip hop beat ever. So, I tried to find a dance remix featuring dancers - but there are SO MANY REMIXES! That's what happens with a genuinely popular song.

So, I content myself with the original video.

"They Don’t Care About Us"

The folks at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center have done it again, with “They Don’t Care About Us”.

The Sky's The Limit

I belong to Anthem Blue Cross, but the HMO part, not an individual policy. But still, this shows better than any bar graph what this year's failure to pass single payer health care will allow in coming years. Call it the revenge of the GOP:

California's largest for-profit health insurer is moving to dramatically raise rates for customers with individual policies, setting off a furor among policyholders and prompting state insurance regulators to investigate.

Anthem Blue Cross is telling many of its approximately 800,000 customers who buy individual coverage -- people not covered by group rates -- that its prices will go up March 1 and may be adjusted "more frequently" than its typical yearly increases.

The insurer declined to say how high it is increasing rates. But brokers who sell these policies say they are fielding numerous calls from customers incensed over premium increases of 30% to 39%, saying they come on the heels of similar jumps last year.

Many policyholders say the rate hikes are the largest they can remember, and they fear that subsequent premium growth will narrow their options -- leaving them to buy policies with higher deductibles and less coverage or putting health insurance out of reach altogether.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Mark Weiss, 63, a Century City podiatrist whose Anthem policy for himself and his wife will rise 35%. The couple's annual insurance bill will jump to $27,336 from $20,184.

"I think it's just unconscionable," said Weiss, a member of Blue Cross for 30 years.

Dow Jones Go Boom

I still don't understand why it's so high. No place to go but down.

Bureaucracy

E.: MMMMAAAAARRRRCCCC! Help me understand this form!

M.: It's a medical records release authorization form.

E.: One of the girls at school was pushed by a boy. She fell and broke her wrist, and she needs a doctor's note to be excused from PE.

M.: So you need to fill out a medical records release authorization form in order to ask a doctor for a note for her to be excused from PE?

E.: Yes.

M.: Well, that sounds like overkill. It should be obvious that she needs to be excused from PE.

E.: I know. It's SSSOOOOO stupid! Things used to be nicer at the school, but now they messed it all up. Why did they do that?

M.: Everyone wants to make sure that everyone is completely covered.

E.: What does this line mean?

M.: It's a Revocation of Authorization. It means that if the doctor decides he's released too much information regarding the fact that she has a broken wrist he can change his mind and ask for that information back (with written notice, and excusing any actions taken in the meantime in light of that information). And it looks like the doctor can tailor the release of medical records. For example, he can decide to reveal information to you regarding her wrist, but keep information about her shoulder secret.

E.: It's SSSSOOOO stupid!

M.: You should complain.

E.: MMMMAAAARRRRCCC! Did I tell you the union is going to protest at the State Capitol next week? It's the last thing I want, but I'm supposed to go protest with them!

M.: You should complain to Schwarzenegger.

E.: I will tell him: "I am the Green Destiny!" (From the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon):

Who am I? I am... I am the Invincible Sword Goddess, armed with the incredible Green Destiny. Be you Li or Southern Crane, lower your head and ask for mercy. I am the desert dragon. I leave no trace. Today I fly over Eu-Mei. Tomorrow... I'll kick over Wudan Mountain!

M.: And what will Schwarzenegger say?

E.: (pretending to fire a machine gun) "Hasta la vista, baby!"

Lost Couple

It's hard to believe something so simple could result in death. Most of that area is lightly inhabited, but there are people in the vicinity - provided they had been alerted, or were themselves alert to odd goings-on. And it was all just for a little fun.

Presumably the elderly couple were ill-prepared for the cold, and perhaps unreasonably frightened. It can happen when you are lost.

I wonder exactly where this occurred and whether one can chalk it up as another Highway 16 statistic?:

Authorities say a 78-year-old woman died of hypothermia after she and her husband took a wrong turn in Northern California and got stranded.

Police say Harold and Raquel Labbe of Hayward set out for Cache Creek Casino on Jan. 27. They took a wrong turn onto a dirt road running through an orchard and got their car stuck in mud.

Police believe the couple ran the engine to stay warm, then sought help on foot after running out of gas.

The couple's son reported them missing Jan. 29, saying concern was high because his mother had Alzheimer's disease.

A farmworker found 76-year-old Harold Labbe unconscious Monday, about 50 feet from the car. Authorities found Raquel Labbe's body several hundred yards away.

Harold Labbe is recovering from hypothermia at a hospital.

Chicken Techno

Chicken Techno.

Journey Of The Turkey

A convoluted path:

Turkeys, the only domesticated animals from the New World that are now used globally, were actually domesticated twice -- once in Mesoamerica as was previously believed and once in what is now the southwestern United States.

The new findings, reported this week by Canadian and American researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, come from a DNA analysis of ancient turkey bones and coprolites, the polite name for fossilized excrement.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that both strains of domesticated turkeys are now extinct, replaced by more highly inbred strains. The turkeys we eat today, moreover, are not descendants of the North American turkeys, but of those from Mesoamerica, which in a convoluted journey were taken to Europe by Spanish explorers, then reexported to North America.

The findings "have really helped to clarify some of the questions archaeologists have been wondering about for a long time," said archaeologist Jonathan C. Driver of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, who was not involved in the research. It shows that the wild turkeys in the Southwest and Mesoamerica now "have nothing to do with the domestic turkey, that they are neither ancestor nor descendant."

It also shows that there was only one breed of turkey in the Southwest, "that it was traded quite widely, and that its breeding was carefully controlled," he said.

The history of turkeys is highly unusual in the context of other domesticated animals because it does not appear that they were originally raised in either region for their food value, as was the case with cows, sheep, pigs and other animals, said archaeologist Natalie Munro of the University of Connecticut, who has studied turkeys extensively. She too was not involved in the research.

Evidence of turkey domestication in the Americas appears in remains from at least 2,000 years ago, but evidence from the first 1,000 years of that period suggests that the birds were raised for their feathers and ritual value, not for their meat. Middens -- essentially garbage dumps -- from the period contain "lots and lots of turkey poop and very few turkey bones," said archaeologist Brian M. Kemp of Washington State University, a co-author of the study.

Bones found from the period are typically of intact birds buried under houses and elsewhere. All the evidence suggests, Munro said, that turkeys were raised for ritualistic purposes and for the use of their feathers for ornaments and in clothing, robes and blankets.

"It gets really cold at night in the Southwest," Kemp said, "and turkey feather blankets are thermally superior to rabbit fur."

A major change began about AD 1100. Turkey bones began appearing much more commonly in middens. Archaeologists believe that this change was associated with the increasing population density of the region and the hunting to near extinction of desirable prey animals such as deer and antelope.

By the 1200s, "turkey completely dominates the animal bones in middens," Driver said. The Pueblo people "were turning to an already domesticated animal and creating a new purpose for it."

The dynamic changed again 250 years later after the Spanish arrived and introduced sheep and chicken. Turkeys began disappearing from the middens and soon were replaced almost entirely by the imported animals, which required less care.

An Iranian Menagerie

I remember placing a jumping spider into the payload section of a model rocket and launching it into the sky when I was about 13. The spider didn't prepare well for the journey, clinging upside down on the bottom side of the nose cone. Sadly, the acceleration killed it.

I hope the Iranian animals made a safe trip.:

Iran announced Wednesday it has successfully launched a research rocket carrying a mouse, two turtles and worms into space -- a feat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said showed Iran could defeat the West in the battle of technology.

Ahmadinejad also unveiled the model of a light booster rocket that is being built and three new, Iranian-built satellites, touted as the latest in the country's ambitious space program.

The launch of the rocket Kavoshgar-3, which means Explorer-3 in Farsi, was announced by Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi to mark the National Day of Space Technology. It comes a year after Iran sent its first domestically made telecommunications satellite, called Omid, or Hope, into orbit for 40 days.