Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Getting Ready for the Bloom

This weekend the Winchester area celebrates the Apple Blossom Festival. Basically a great small town America series of parades, carnivals, a circus, and parties. It's quaint, fun, and a great excuse to close the streets and drink.

I'll be judging the grand feature parade again this year and this year our Wayside Theatre is selling seats on the parade route as a fundraiser thanks to the generosity of a former board member.

I don't think we'll have great weather by the looks of the forecast but here's hoping we have some fun.

The picture is of one of our folks setting up chairs earlier tonight.

The First 100 Days from Obama’s Facebook Feed

This, from Slate,  is the best (and funniest) take on the 100 Days craziness that somehow has become a national holiday. (The picture is just an excerpt. Follow the link for the entire thing.)

CollegeHumor and Twitter in Real Life

Very, very, funny from CollegeHumor. What happens if you Tweet in real life, yeah, like with your mouth, in front of folks.

Watch Real Life Twitter and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

This sounds like my office at times, even though those folks aren’t Twittering.

Thoughts on Today: Specter, Bachmann, Overflights, and Fleeting Expletives

Some random thoughts at the end of a long day.

Arlen Specter switched from the Republicans to the Democrats and the ground shook for a few moments. Yes, he puts the Democrats in the Senate one vote closer to a filibuster busting majority of 60 votes. That’s assuming the folks in Minnesota actually decide to decide the last Senatorial election and that Al Franken gets seated.

But politics are stranger than fiction and I think this will be more frustrating than most want to make of it on first blush and it certainly won’t make things sail through the Senate.

Good circus though.

Michelle Bachmann is at again, and again, and again. This time she attempted to find a connection to this outbreak of Swine Flu and the last one. Her connection being the Democrats. Here’s the quote:

"I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under Democrat President Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it is an interesting coincidence."

As The J-Walk Blog and any history book or Google search would tell you, that happened when Jerry Ford was in office. I think it is an interesting coincidence that Michelle Bachmann can actually form a sentence with words.

I’m wishing that Louis Caldera was from Minnesota to tie these random threads together but nah, that’s not the case. Caldera and anyone else who shared any responsibility for that flyover in New York City are just idiots. They give folks like Michelle Bachmann hope that incompetency dos have a place in government after all. All for some souvenir photos? What the hell were these folks thinking? If this guy’s not gone tomorrow it is a tragedy.

The Supreme Court decided in favor of the FCC when it comes to issuing fines for what someone is calling a ‘fleeting expletive.’ Those would be words that may have be perceived as sexual or have to do with excrement. Let’s see as human beings (or animals take your pick) we can’t broadcast words that might connote something in someone’s mind about two of the three things Mother Nature let’s as all share. You know, like having sex, or taking a dump. The other one is eating. Oh, wait, forget that. We can still air commercials about erectile dysfunction or intestinal dysfunction products. Yeah, we aren’t conflicted at all are we. No wonder our culture is so constipated.

Shrinking Newspapers

Both of our local newspapers have been undergoing the same tough times as others. They've cut back on staff, reporting, and the number of pages.

They've also both reduced the physical size of the paper they are printed on to save costs. Of course the advertising circulars are still the same size which makes for some interesting looking newspaper stands.

Maybe I Should Get an iLauncher

I'm seriously thinking about this. Maybe I should get an iLauncher for my desk. We've got really small offices (in some cases in feels like we're hot bunking desks) and there are no real doors anywhere. Folks tend to come and go into workspaces with a degree of regularity and familiarity that it often requires a sometimes stern reminder from me that we're trying to get work done and just because you can walk up to anyone's desk, doesn't mean you should do so without at least surveying what is going on around you.

It brings to line a wonderful line from the play La Bête.

"Just because I'm present by convention,
Doesn't mean you have my full attention."

I have to pull that out five or six times a year.

Folks in our small town also just have a habit of wandering in to chat and walk down the long hall to my office already beginning the conversation as if I'm totally engaged with them. Even my stern glaring over the rim of my eyeglasses doesn't work sometimes.

So, maybe I'll get an iLauncher now that there is an iPhone app that allows me to remotely control it. Could be fun. I can just see the missiles flying down the hall now.

Magic and the Brain: Teller and the Neuroscience of Illusion

Magic and illusion are no different from acting in a fundamental way. Every body acts all day long and to a large degree we all create and respond to illusions as we pass through each day. Of course when magicians do the creating there’s a different kind of thing going on then when we deal with the illusions created by the media, other forms of entertainment, politicians, and the like.

I found this article on Wired by Jonah Lehrer about Teller of Penn & Teller fame talking about the Neuroscience of Illusion to be fascinating and fun and wonder just how much those who do daily manipulating are aware of this.

Check it out.

Little Larry is Leaving

We’ve been saying lots of goodbyes this weekend and had more partying than we (or should I say I) can stand. Today we had a farewell bash for Larry Dahlke who has been a mainstay on our mainstage at Wayside Theatre for quite a few seasons. He’s headed back to Chicago to get married (after doing some summer stock up the road at Totem Pole Playhouse).

It was quite a farewell party with actors, friends, musicians, tons of food, and a visit from the cops asking us to turn the music down. Hey, it’s not a party until the cops show up right?

But anyway, I think we sent Larry off in high style. The musicians (including Larry) regaled us with some music, we had some great food and drink and managed to weather the unusually high temperatures with gallons of Sangria.

Little Larry will be back with us this spring to play the lead in Harvey. But he probably won’t be as much fun since he’ll be an old married man. Just kidding.

Pictures and video after the jump.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

Bea Arthur passed away. May she rest in peace. Here’s a link to five things you may not know about her.

A hybrid from of Swine Flu is filling the weekend’s news coverage with headlines threatening a pandemic. Where did this come from and how did it just pop up so quickly? Guess we won’t have answers for some time, but for now, it all reads like the 1st Act of a disaster flick with a scary conclusion. Reports are that it started in Mexico, has moved to Texas, Kansas, and California and possibly New York  here and New Zealand abroad.

Speaking of viruses, word from some sources is that the Conficker virus is starting to do its thing.Whatever that is.

The torture debate continues to be torture as those fighting hard to cover their asses keep looking for ways to torture the English language and the record in ways that will make it bend to their cause. Frank Rich has a good post on the banality of it all and what some of the motivations may have been.

Everyone is looking at Obama’s first 100 days. It is a meaningless exercise in any case and always has been. But the NY Times has a look back at some past 100 Days mark that put the reasons why into perspective.

Unboxing videos can either be by the books here’s what we got, or very passionate. This one falls into the latter category. Perhaps too much so. Never seen gadget lust evolve into this before.

Kent Newsome writes some about Twitter and is opening line is a good one. He says it often feels like a mashup of Deepak Chopra and P.T. Barnum.

When legal goes way wrong. A son dies but a company keeps harassing his mother for early termination fees on a contract. Give me a break.

A Lovely Season Ending Event for Wayside Theatre at the Civil Cricket

One of our Wayside Theatre neighbors is the Civil Cricket Cafeand the wonderful owner, Rob, decided to host a small fundraiser for the theatre on the occasion of our season closing today. It's kind of in two parts actually. Part 1 was after the Cotton Patch Gospel matinee and he provided some amazing food and drink for the crowd and auctioned off a one night package that includes a stay at his lovely B&B cottage, breakfast the next morning and of course two tickets to see a show at Wayside Theatre.

We had amazingly hot weather around 90 degrees today and so being in the lovely gardens was a real treat, and everyone had a great time at the event. There are more pictures on this Flickr feed for you to see.

Part 2 is tonight after the show where we'll all head for the final goodbye to Season 47 and drink to the amazing work we've done. I'm sure there will be more pictures from that as well.