Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Another LOTR Coming?

Interesting news for Tolkien fans. Apparently Tolkien's son Christopher has completed an unfinished Rings story from his father's notes. It only took 30 years. Should be intriguing.

Via Things That Make You Go Hmm

Where Men Are Men and the Sheep Are Too?

Scientists have been monkeying around with things and have created sheep that are 15% human and 85% sheep. The human-sheep chimera experiment is supposedly aimed at creating animal organs that can be used in human transplants.

Wonder if eventually the mix will lead to sheep becoming their own woolgatherers? Just asking.

Via The Mail on Sunday

The Day The Music Died

Tonight is the closing performance of Buddy, The Buddy Holly Story, that has been playing here at Wayside Theatre since the end of January. It has been quite a run. I've never experienced such enthusiastic audiences and I've never experienced the kind of return business we have seen for this show.

There is a reason for that. The cast, led by the amazing Robbie Limon, is outstanding on every level. Watching them perform the Winter Dance Party concert that ends the show is a true joy and a true delight. Rock and Roll, and theatre at its finest. They all deserve great kudos and more standing ovations. (We never had a show without one in the entire run.)

I knew this show would be successful, but I never imagined it would touch audiences in the way it has here at our little theatre in the valley.

Tonight's closing audience gets to participate in an entirely unique way. After the final notes are played and the final bows are over, they will leave the theatre much like that audience in Clearlake, Iowa did. Thrilled by what they saw, but not realizing they were the last ones who would get to experience that magic and that music live.

It should be an eerie feeling.

Next up, the Irish comedy, Stones In His Pockets. Should be another great treat.

Tech In The Orchestra Pit: The End of an Era?

This argument comes around cyclically, as improvements in the tech advances. Orchestras get whittled down in size and are replaced by new advances in digital music. Of course purists and the musician's union go bonkers. This article focuses on the software Notion, that allows digital versions of music to be played on a computer.

Is tech killing live performance? In a way it can be argued that it is.  But no more so than the insanely rising costs of producing live performance. The two go hand in hand, and it is an ugly and confusing mess to sort out.

What's the worse demon? A show that can no longer be considered producible because of high costs disappearing from the repertories of theatres? Or, those shows being presented with digital musicians?

To tell you the truth, I am not sure. In our recent, very successful run of Buddy, The Buddy Holly Story at Wayside Theatre, which closes today after a mostly sold out run, I can't tell you the number of times we had to explain that all of the music on stage was being played live. And this is in a teeny tiny theatre where you are right on top of the performers.

If that expectation has been shattered for the audience, and requires explaining, then the questions may already be moot.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share. Death spiral edition.

BBSpot's spoof of the RIAA's mission statement is pretty funny. And as usual, spot on.

Everybody is commenting on Tim O'Reilly's article about trouble at the San Francisco Chronicle. Dave Winer has an interesting take. Scoble chimes in. O'Reilly wonders if we'd miss our local papers if they go out of business. Here, they effectively have given how devoid of anything that made newspapers important they are. The death spiral continues.

Richard Nixon and Andrew Johnson rolled over in their graves this week. I'm guessing Bill Clinton just chortled. Why? In dealing with the Attorney General brouhaha, The White House claimed that Congress has no oversight over the White House.

Deja Vu Time. Iran has taken British sailors and marines and are charging them with spying. Here we go again.

Run and hide! Run and hide! The terrorist database is really large! Oh, come on. It is. It will get bigger. It will be mismanaged. Abuses will happen. Nothing will change on that course until someone in power gets caught up in it. Wait. Scratch that. We already caught a Senator's wife. Maybe we should hire the RIAA to run these databases. Can't be any worse.

George Will on the politics of anger. At least there's some history in the lead of his column. Too bad, we don't like history. 

Art In The Classroom Conflict

Another play, another school, another conflict. This time the play in question was written by students about the war in Iraq. It was cancelled by the principal because it didn't offer 'political balance and context." Hmmm? Let's see here. Plays aren't necessarily supposed to provide balance and context, last I looked.

I guess the principal just offered a lesson in cowardice to his students.

Via The New York Times

Apple Irony With iPods & Zune

This is too delicious. Apple hasn't come up with an update yet that doesn't offer its customers who use Vista to safely disconnect iPods from their devices. Yet, good friend  and Zune owner James Kendrick discovers that Vista running on a Macbook with Parallel's solves his Zune connectivity issues. Amazing.

Internet Video Going Up For Grabs

It seems like all the news in in the Internet video scene these days, and why not? It is where everyone sees money and they all reaching for their share, either through creating new products and services, or suing those who have.

Fox and NBC have teamed up to create their own site offering their own products, aiming squarely at Google and YouTube. It will be interesting to watch that.

On the other front, Microsoft shut down its video sharing site, Soapbox (except for already registered users) as it tries to come up with a better way of screening out copyrighted material.

Lots of turmoil and change coming. Sort feels like what I imagine the California Gold Rush felt like.

The Author of the DMCA Says It Is A Failure

Most sane folks think the DMCA is an ridiculous proposition. Walt Mossberg had a very good point on this the other day. Now the author thinks it is a failure as well. Can you say Pandora's Box?

Via BoingBoing

No Toilet Paper For A Year?

Interesting article in The New York Times about a Manhattan couple that is experimenting with a No Impact on the environment lifestyle. They don't take elevators, they don't shop that much, they don't use paper, (including toilet paper), they've changed their diet. Noble.

What's of ironic interest is that the experiment is being chronicled on a blog and will be published in book form by the husband. So, I'm asking. Is that going to be a paperback?