Thursday, August 31, 2017

Falling on His Head

So this guy comes out of the doorway and it's an automatic door at a place with lots of foot traffic. 

There's people right behind him and he falls, kinds of catches himself, leaning toward the left and hits his head on the concrete. 

There's a big industrial gray mat on the ground, but his head misses that and comes down on the side of it on the concrete itself.

The people behind him, coming out the door, don't trip on him, but they have to stop and about 7 people are looking at him in the second before anybody knows what to do.

The faller's parents and one standbyer want to immediately pull the guy up and get him in the car.  The Dad is so mad and frantic to get the son away from this public place that he doesn't even think to go get the car and drive it up, and doesn't want to - even though the Mom and that standbyer are telling him to do so.

The rest of us, including the man whose on the ground, want him to stay down there for a bit.


Who thinks it's a good idea to jump up after they just fell?  Hello, take a breath.


The guy who fell is telling us he has a disease that makes it hard for him to balance or stand up.


The parents say he's drunk.



Whether he has a disease and whether it's alcoholism; hello- he's bleeding from his head so just sit there a minute right?

My companion, a healthcare professional, asks the faller his name and his birthdate and the Dad yells at her, saying why is she asking him questions when he just needs to stand up and leave.  The Dad goes and gets the car, drives it over the curb after mistakenly going in the wrong drive-through and I'm left thinking- no wonder this guy drinks- and no wonder these parents are mad.  Together they circle around in a cycle hating each other and they have no idea why.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Lieberries - Music and Otherwise

I'm hanging out in liberries today.  I went to Boynton Beach on Jog and Hagen Ranch Road.

I just met a new dear friend named Darlene.  We witnessed a man walk out the door and hit his head on the concrete.  That's a story.  Maybe I'll tell it, with no names, in another post.

Earlier, I was listening to YouTube versions of Bye Bye Birdie songs- preparing for my performance; listening and taking notes on McGee's TTB.org broadcast, and playing Forges of Empire- or is it Forge of Empires.

Back in the day at FSU I thought it was so great to be able to access the music library.  Everybody has that now- and more- all the time; as long as we have wi-fi.

Monday, August 28, 2017

Koleksyon Kiltirel Ayisyen

This means Haitian Collection?  OMG how phonetic.

I'm still at the lieberry. 

New Lieberry Thoughts

So I'm sitting in the Palm Beach County Library and thinking about the differences with Orange County.

For one thing, PB has instituted something I recommended several times.

I have ideas about everything and that brings opinions and it's not always clear when to share them.

Most people don't want them.


But in my last job, feedback was requested.  So I asked for us- many branches of the Orange County Public Library to have a way for visitors to use a computer.  That county is the capital of tourism and so many people come there to use a computer thinking, or being told at their hotel, that libraries are great places to use computers.  Well, they won't let people use them without a library card and the technology to allow sessions here and there- maybe once a year!  once a month!  is so available, but it didn't happen.

They made it happen here in Palm Beach, so good for them.



I've been going to several branches here in South Florida, as I did in Central, and the differences fascinate me.  I like mobiles, and trees.  They both have many very similar things, that are slightly different, and they both are in motion.  I'm in motion too.


Are lieberries a place for misfits, or is every place a place for misfits if you look long enough?

Isn't everybody weird once you get to know them?  And normal, too?

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Rain Thoughts

All alone on a Sunday morning...
Outside I see the rain is falling... falling... fa.. ha... halling..

I had a Barbra Streisand album entitled Wet; which I always liked and am still mad at someone who took it.  Like I want it today, when I can listen to anything on Spotify: unheard of in my yourh- and free.

Records were about three dollars.  At least I would look for those among the others that were 4.99 or something.  And today I want it back?  Not really.  How many times would I have listened to it if I had access to those songs in the interim from then til now?  From 1984 or 5 until whenever I joined Spotify?

I haven't looked for it once.  But I bet I would love it still.

Today and yesterday I've been thinking about rain songs.

Allison Krauss (spelling?) has a compilation album that I love.  It's the songs that were chosen- about teardrops like rain, and strangers and deep faith left unshared and other bluegrass themes- (Is there a song about the railroad- curiously, no- I don't recall one.)  It's the tone and pitch of her voice.  I was listening to it when the CD had a problem and it would skip here and there to random points and even then the sound was so haunting, devoid of its context even, that I still loved it before I cleaned the CD and it returned to playing the polished, well-produced phrasing and instrumentation.  I love what is done with the tempos and the balance of volume between her voice and its various cloakings by instruments.  Sometimes it's like a duet and other times, just soft enough to be heard while she takes the spotlight.

Teardrops will kiss the morning dew...

No more tears- enough is enough- that's a favorite.

... like the fragrance after the rain...

When the rain wa-shes you clean; you'll know.



You will know.

South Florida vs. Central Florida

Someone said yesterday that Central Florida is greener; and there is a difference, but I think it's the types of trees- pine and palm here and oak there.

The radio is different and it's not just the absence of the Z.  There's more 80s and more Miami influence.

The population is older, and therefore there are many volunteers among the retirees.

I'm getting to know the library system here; but as a non-employee I'll not know that much about it.

Recreation is Disney there and ocean here.



Friday, August 25, 2017

Um...

Palm Beach County Library- you know why everybody else makes us match ID numbers to passwords?

It's because all one has to do to log in to someone else's account is to type a number close to the one assigned to us.

Hello.

Practicing with Teenagers

There's an energy about them which helps me understand how I was at that age.  There's a surface hardness and an inner innocence.

In studying Bye Bye Birdie and the inauguration of the teenager; it's appropriate.

If I am going to substitute teach I have to ignore the chatter and this is easier as I watched two adults- one old, one young; last night- demand obedience with impatience when what was actually happening was that the very talented, friendly, well-meaning teenagers were taking a half-second longer than expected to comply.

We're just not hard-wired at that age for obedience.

It takes them a minute.

Well- a second.  They're great kids.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Yesterday; Monday- the start of something big.

Nope.

The world didn't end.


In fact the sky looked more normal than any day I remember.

I looked out the window at one point and saw a tiny bit of darkness, hastily rushed to see- and it looked like a small rain cloud.  It wasn't near the sun.  The rest of the sky looked like sky.


Rehearsal for Bye Bye Birdie started and there were lots of teenyboppers.  I was thrilled when Erin said things about the play as introduction that I would have said- it means I'm on the right track with this whole theatre thing and how I think about it.

Great to see familiar faces in rehearsal: Erin, Kevin, Patrick, Shelly, Megan (spelling?) and Kendall.

Monday, August 21, 2017

August 21, 2017

Watching conspiracy theories on YouTube brings me back to others in the past.

I remember the UPC codes; which now seem benign.  Those bar codes were talked about as the mark of the beast.  In my memory a few products had them before they were a big subject, but suddenly they were added to many products- maybe all products for sale- and Christian circles freaked out.



Then springs to mind the end of the world in 2000.  Computers just weren't going to handle year numbers that started with a 2 and clearly that was going to mean the end of civilization.  We went to Israel in January of that year; saw the tinsly street decorations in Bethlehem, and the Ottoman gold, bronze and marble ones in the ancient shrines and already 11 months before- tension was in the air.

I sat in my house in Maitland and watched online as nothing happened down under but fireworks.  I had a great Christmas tree that year; a ridiculously appointed house- with a beautiful Christmas tree inside.


Today is an eclipse.  Like new dramas on tv, and celebrity trials, this one promises to be the best one ever- until the next one.  Apparently there's another one in seven years but at the same time this is the only one ever, also.

Remember the end of the Mayan calendar?  Remember the end of the Norse one?

All we have is today and that's all we've ever had.  That's a fact.



It's enough.

That's an opinion.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

New Game

Trying new versions of sim games- like Civilization-- I found an elf one that didn't do much for me and for the last two days or so - Forge of Empires.

Welcome to Sweet Apple Ohio

It's official.

I'm cast in Bye Bye Birdie.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Three Kind Words

Recently someone told me thank you after I thanked them.  I was thanking them for bananas and an avocado; but they just thanked me "for being my...."

Another person told me they were so proud of me for taking a wheelchair.

And last night I was admonished with "Get up on that stage where you belong."

Saturday, August 12, 2017

https://youtu.be/0G94AT2mL4M

Fake News After Fake News

https://youtu.be/0G94AT2mL4M

A Brief History of Fake News

"Just Be Evil" - The History Google Doesn't Want You To Know

North Korea Nonsense

Who set the stage for the North Korean government to exist?  You can see on the map that if China or Japan wanted it they could take it and so obviously it's there as a buffer zone split in half.

They've been telling us that the crazy family has nukes.  Well, if you want to be a dictator and you are one; how crazy are you? 

I watch the television rarely but I've seen a progression here.

First they tell us that a nuclear North Korean missile could hit one of our allies like Japan.  Then months later they tell us that an ally like Germany might be within their distance.  Well I guess there wasn't enough of a reaction to those stories because now the news tells us a month ago that Alaska could be hit.  Then last week it was Hawaii, then a couple days ago Guam and yesterday the western half of the United States.

I was told by a smart person that as intelligence is gathered, the news is telling us more information.

No.

Somebody important in the US knows exactly what those weapons can do; how many there are and how far they can go.  It would be nice if we had a free and independent press that was separate from the government, but the press tells us exactly what we're supposed to know.

The goal is to get half the country thinking one way and half the country disagreeing, and people are so distracted and selfish that until half the country is under threat, no one cares.  I can hear the Easterners now; oh well- who needs the West Coast anyway?

Chelsea Manning Is A Glowing Beauty In New Vogue Profile

Monday, August 7, 2017

Bye Bye Birdie Audition Preparations

In preparation for the part of Harry MacAfee in Bye Bye Birdie, I'm relying on years of experience as a middle aged father of two.   

I realize now after thinking about it that I saw this play in college - which I forgot- as well as the movie and several versions on YouTube.

The YouTube option is great for seeing free things, but it misled me with Saturday Night Fever.  I went to prepare for that audition and I couldn't find a YouTube version that I could stomach.  I watched them.  I tried.  But if they were that painful once or twice I couldn't  imagine wanting to hear those songs over and over.  If I want to hear high-quality disco sung like crap- I'll just pass, thank you.

But the production at Lake Worth Playhouse wasn't sung like crap.  The best thing was the singer; in fact.  In the other versions it was painful to listen to someone who still couldn't sing disco, singing disco, but playing the part of someone who could sing disco.  

I love these songs so much as they are performed in pop music.  But put in that belting stage voice on it and they are ruined pretty quick.

I think I'll just audition for everything from now on.

The issue with Harry MacAfee is that he is either played by a guy who can't dance- who is dancing a lot, or he's played by someone who can dance and you sit there wondering why the lame middle aged father of two is kind of cool.  Worse; you wonder why Birdie and/or the other guy that are supposed to be cool- aren't as cool as he is.

Well, I've solved this problem.  Either Harry should purposely be a bad dancer- because that can be entertaining- unlike a bad dancer trying to be a good dancer- or he shouldn't dance much.  The dance numbers should all be cut in half anyway.

 


Sunday, August 6, 2017

Plato’s Special Talents - YouTuber John Rose

Eclipse

Yeah, if I want to see it get dark I'll go outside some night, or close my eyes for those 70 minutes.  Some people are headed north and some local libraries are having viewing parties- even though we're not in the zone.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Live w/ David Seaman: Pedogate, McMaster & Bitcoin ��

Fake News and Censorship

I don't think anybody should be able to say anything; but it's close.  We have opinions and I value opinions and how are we to ever learn anything if we never hear something we don't already agree with?

The censorship battle at YouTube is heating up.  The conspiracy theorists also known as Truthers don't talk about it quite as much because many of them have been eliminated or slowed down due to the censorship and others have simply moved on; complaining of everything they see anyway, and distracted on to the next thing.

But the serious YouTubers are apparently really in trouble.

I knew there was something to it when Pewdiepie complained because either he's allowed to succeed by the controllers to give YouTubers hope or he is what he seems- popular due to hard work and entertainment value.  Either way; he wouldn't be complaining just to complain.

It seems to me that Google- who owns this Blogger site; is deliberately sabatoging YouTube.  They paid a lot of money for it and it has no real competition to my knowledge, so it's a dumb move financially.

I suppose network tv is dead- in less than fifty years, probably twenty- so they're moving on to content and to YouTube Red; but why do this now since there is a way to keep us distracted on YouTube and make money on YouTube?  Is it not about the money. or is it?

The censorship/fake news issue has hit the YouTube mainstream now.  It's not just the crying wolf whiners who mention it; so we'll see what happens.  Which term will win the argument; fake news or free press?  That will determine the outcome: whether we row or wade, separate or equalize, pro-life or pro-choice or whatever.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Lake Worth Playhouse - spectator at a free show

It's a different animal, being in the audience for a show like a parent watching the kids up there instead of an actual production.

The main difference isn't the performances, choreography or direction.  The main difference is the time in between numbers- which seems like days- and the shushing from backstage that is louder than half the show.

It's a nice little theatre but the sound system once again is focused on the audience, so the performers can't hear it and since they are trying to sing with the tracks it sets up the dynamic we had in Evita also where in fast songs the music gets away from the singers.  The biggest problem was Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast- and that's because it changes tempo.  Getting faster and faster, like Rollin' in Evita- it's just impossible to keep up; even when the dancers were providing rhythm.  It's such a small theatre, with no bad seats- why don't they sing without microphones?  People tend to listen closely when a show isn't as loud as they expect, anyway.

The audience was overwhelmingly African-American and I was trying to determine what would have been different if that hadn't been the case.  There was no printed program to follow or take home, and only half the group received certificates.  Does that mean anything?  The worst singer got the most applause- and it wasn't because the singer used enthusiasm and fooled anybody.  It must have been sympathy.  I don't think white people would have done that; although they would have given some charitable applause of course; only because it was a child.

Fortunately the greasers drove a "dream wagon" and I noted how Bye Bye Birdie is set one year before Grease and Hairspray just a couple years after that.(1958, 59 and 62.)  I wonder if Dreamgirls has a certain year or not.  I was surprised at the others' specificity in that regard.


Lola Falana on the Tonight show Johnny Carson New Years eve 1976

Lake Michigan

Apparently talked up in our family and then in the event covered with dead fish; Lake Michigan is one of the images that figures in our history.

It was beautiful and blue and it and the sky above changed every second; getting stripes of Caribbean blue/green, brown sandy gold green, dark blue/purple and many blues.  Sometimes the water was completely calm and a few other times broke against the shore for hours of audible strength and perseverance.  It seemed to be odd sitting so close to such an expanse of water and smelling no salt.  

The sunsets were great: each one different in length and brightness.  At one point the orange lasted for hours and at another the bright hot sun slipped from complete disc showing to completely hidden in one second.  It slipped away like a straw sipped globule of milk shake- orange cream flavor- leaving behind a tropical fish orange sky.

Thoughts on Predictive Programming

There is a belief among conspiracy theorists and truthers that the powers behind the scenes tell us what they are up to before they do it.  The reasons for this aren't as clear as the consensus that it happens.  But I don't see how precedence should mean consequence.  Just because something is talked about and then it happens... doesn't mean that's the reason. 

Some reasons the elite might tell us what they are up to before they do it:

Number One:
The evil horrible nephilim/reptilian/royal/Zionist/Jesuit/NWO/vast wing conspiracist/controllers/powers that shouldn't be/bankers/Illuminati bloodlines/Masons/Space Aliens/Papists/Jews/White people/Evil Europeans/Axes of Evil are actually vampires and they have to invite us to participate in our own demise.  They can't just do stuff that's evil but ask us or tempt us to do it.  Like Dracula can't come in your house if you don't open the door or window for him to get in.

Evidence for this:

The Queen is descended from Vlad the Impaler- or is it on Charles' Daddy's side?  I don't remember.

Pacts with evil just work like that.  Evil is allowed to go so far but victims can't be completely innocent in this worldview because babies and ignorance is an excuse against culpability.  If you don't reach out for the apple you're not going to be punished.

They like to laugh at the sheeple by getting us to participate in our own destruction.  There's a better kick when the victims should have seen it coming but are still amazed or bewildered and just can't believe what just happened even though they were warned or maybe even better- they still have no idea.

Number Two:
All action starts with an idea.  We didn't have communication devices in Star Trek because someday everyone would have a cell phone.  We all have cell phones because we grew up watching inter-planetary communication devices.  No one can invent anything until they think of it.  Somebody writes fiction and then somebody else reads it and makes something similar happen.

Okay.  But what about walkie-talkies and Dixie cups on a string?  Those were real and they were first.  But- did the telephone come before the string version?  it's impossible to say whether life imitates art or the other way because yes; they do imitate each other.

Today I'm watching a New Year's Eve episode of The Tonight Show.  There are four guests and I understand the first two listed were probably big hot stuff at the time.  And then I think maybe the next two were up and comers- or one up and comer and one featured act for kicks; not career promotion.  It's hard to know when the stardust settles.

There are four guests and two hosts.  There's one black woman guest and the hosts and headliner are white men.  The two white men hosts are mirrored by two anonymous black female singers for the woman singer.  The commercials highlight race- black men as victims; both cheerfully sick in the present day and accused of rape of a white woman in a period piece.

One of the commercials is for a show in which an actor tries to do something serious with his life and soon there will be President Reagan- you know, the most conservative President yet the only one to have been divorced? 

So who knew Reagan was coming?  Does the villain in the show look like Mondale or is that my imagination.

Does Lola bring the church vibe to The Tonight Show so she can be accepted by that audience or does she use her platform to bring in some good news?  Does she gospel it up to lead people to church or does she water it down to disparage it?  is she advancing society or miring her people in the legacy of song and dance?  Is Broadway bringing her up or is she held back to only that height?  Does an individual represent a group or can it be a token or can it be just her?

Yesterday I was in a restaurant listening to Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody and we googled it.  I wasn't sure about the spelling, and the young girl googling it was surprised at Whitney's race- it was a familiar song to her and Whitney Houston was a familiar name to her but I guess she never saw any of her movies or videos.

So as of yesterday, this person who I remember as a young singer who got married to a very black man so that she would still be accepted after white style songs; whose Mom sang backup for Elvis- and then for Aretha wearing that dress sagging to her knees- then became a symbol for drug death and then realizing it's a song used for the Pulse police to celebrate their new status as biggest murder of them all- yeah they dance around on tables now and maybe there was something to the rumors before Whitney married and why did Bobby have sex with a ghost and what was its gender- is now just a voice on the oldies station but somewhere in there there was a person.

I remember when I Wanna Dance With Somebody came out.  I clearly remember having the same kind of reaction as I did recently to I'm In Love With Your Body.  It just seems deliberately impersonal.  She didn't sing that she was looking for a man or "the one" or me or him or somebody in particular; but the opposite- somebody.  She's looking for somebody.  Later in the song it is a "he" but there's a deliberate "anybody will do" "Love the one you're with" thought.  And when the friends at Parliament House were featured for a split second in the Orlando Pulse follow-up video that's how I knew it was fake.  If a bunch of fat queens with Divine make-up had clamored yeasty and breathless- and breastless into Dunkin' Donuts, the stock would have gone down and no one would have started wearing rainbow t-shirts.  Has anybody noticed that it's not really a rainbow, even?  People just don't look.

But look at those victims, supposedly attending Latin night.  They all have USA t-shirts because the film was either released too early for Memorial Day or too late for July 4th.  Knowing Orlando it was probably late but early makes more sense.

So did Lola Falana have a spot on The Tonight Show so that Diana Ross could get to the place where she would tour with Pavarotti and so that Whitney Houston could be thought of as white sounding due to Mariah Carey's status of race in between?  How can we have the first African-American lady Oscar winner, a white Mariah Carey and the first African-American President when all three's mommas look like sisters?  It's a thing- blackness.  But what is it?  Do we have to have the progression from Dandridge to Beyonce to get to where we are or would we have been here without them?

When Whitney died I was told that she had been the first popular woman singer to be black rather than a black singer.  To me it's obvious that the speaker forgot about Diana Ross.  But has the same thing happened with black men?  Was Sammy Davis an entertainer who was black or a black entertainer.  Did we have to wait for Wayne Brady to claim the honor- it seems he tries to look black now too.  Is that because black can't be the very best, still?

Don't you love that still?  As if we're marching forward and everything will be equal one day.

I do think the inequality of the races is done for- it's only had a five hundred year run.  But somebody will be put out by somebody and there will  be some other factor dividing us.

Maybe it will be hot sauce.

I'm so surprised at Popeyes that all the black people order mild chicken.  Don't they know spicy is the best?