Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

Cal Shakes to close, in harshest blow yet to Bay Area theater

www.sfchronicle.com: California Shakespeare Theater is closing, the company announced Thursday, Oct. 10. Many theaters locally and nationwide have shuttered since the pandemic accelerated the industry’s financial problems, but Cal Shakes is the biggest yet in the Bay Area.

Posted by David at 10/15/2024 12:54:00 PM

 

5 Artists Who Received Large Grants Share How Their Lives Changed—and How They Did Not

Dance Magazine: Some of the largest financial awards a dance artist can win are the ones you can’t even apply for. You’re simply told one day that you’ve won, say, up to $550,000, in the case of the Doris Duke Artist Award, or $800,000, in the case of the MacArthur “genius grant.” And those two grants are almost entirely unrestricted, meaning that after paying taxes on the money, artists can do whatever they want with it, personal or artistic—buy a house, fund a new piece, pay off debts, grow their company.

Posted by David at 10/16/2024 01:28:00 PM

 

From the Executive Office: Here for You

AMERICAN THEATRE: As our annual season preview issue is going to press, we are in a time of tremendous change in our country, in our theatres, and at TCG. Kelundra Smith has been named director of publications, with advertising, American Theatre, ARTSEARCH, and TCG Books under her purview. We promoted Jerald Raymond Pierce to managing editor and Gabriela Furtado Coutinho to digital editor of American Theatre.

Posted by David at 10/15/2024 01:28:00 PM

 

Sistine Chapel recreated as an immersive exhibition

www.avinteractive.com: An immersive exhibition in Poland deployed 39 Panasonic projectors to recreate the Sistine Chapel in a tent. The Sistine Chapel: A Legacy presented the famous frescoes by Michelangelo in a space that had the exact dimensions of the chapel – but with a height of 6m, rather than 21m.

Posted by David at 10/14/2024 01:30:00 PM

 

Best Music Venues in the US: Epic Concert Venues to See a Show Right Now

Thrillist: There’s no greater feeling of together-as-one unity than being in a packed venue singing along to your favorite artist—and surely your town has a club, theater, or stadium that’s fair to call the best in the area. But sometimes you want to up the ante and travel to a venue that’s special for both an audience and an artist: steeped in history, surrounded by beauty, or embedded in a community known for its live music scene.

Posted by David at 10/14/2024 01:30:00 PM

 

Time Marches On

"The evidence shows that the movement of marriage away from a gendered institution and toward an institution free from state-mandated gender roles reflects an evolution in the understanding of gender rather than a change in marriage. The exclusion [of gays from marriage] exists as an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage. That time has passed."

Read more: here

Sad but True - The Worth of FOX News

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Queer and Loathing in D.C.
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Nothing to See Here

So you can see Phipps from CMU. I figured I would go look. So did some other people.


Really you couldn't see much. Police cars, TV lights


Here's a zoomier view


of course, it actually looks like this


a little further up the street. There were guys like this every 50 yards or so, plus others on horseback.


using the fence as a tripod (max zoom is usually blurrier)


nice doggie


but in the end, prolly more interesting on TV.

Rough All Over

I've seen a couple posts lately about the bottom falling out of Dubai. One even said thousands of cars are being abandoned at the airport as people leave the country. I found this one on BoingBoing:

Writing for Writing, Again

Three "shorties" posts, and no more obits or Newspaper links to post; I guess I should write something. I could talk about the trials and tribulations of my Dad, maybe something about Big Love or L Word or BSG, maybe something about the adjustment my folk's cat is making to our household. I used to write quite a bit about the news.

Did anything happen today?

Ah yes, today was the official end of the national nightmare that was the Bush administration. A promise of the restoration of constitutional rights, science by scientists, international diplomacy... hope instead of fear.

I watched a little bit today, everything on the dais anyway. I thought the benediction was an improvement on the invocation - although I appreciated hearing the Schma in English. I wonder if that detail was lost on most people that were listening. I thought the instrumental was better than both vocal selections. It isn't really fair to make someone sit in the cold and then get up and sing. It's one thing to do the National Anthem at a football game when you can stay in the tunnel until two minutes before. Sitting on the dais for an hour and then having to sing must just suck.

Do you think we ought to dock Justice Roberts' salary for this week? If all you have to do is a couple of lines you'd think you'd be prepared.

I liked his speech. I thought it had the right tone. He couldn't be too victorious, there's so much to do, he had to use the opportunity to continue to try to galvinize us for the challenges ahead. Was it odd that he delivered a throwdown challenge to terrorists from behind what had to be bulletproof glass? Those Secret Service people and their silly precautions, probably I was the only one that felt any irony.

It's just, as much as today was special, just like ages ago on September 10th before 9/11, the country is still the same country today as it was yesterday. Certainly many, MANY, of the pieces have changed, and that is a wonderful development, but the structures are the same, all the non-government players are the same, the corporate interests are the same, the other countries are the same...

Still, rather than fearing what our own leadership will do next it is nice to be looking forward with hope, even tempered hope. Maybe just a little bit I can feel a brand new day.

Where's The Good News?

First few Google "Top Stories":

Hurricane Dolly Aims for Mexico, Texas; Alerts Issued (Update3)
Texas grand jury indicts 6 in polygamist ranch case
Serbian Premier Tells Fugitive War Crimes Suspects to Surrender

Yahoo:
• Dolly becomes hurricane, churns toward Texas
• Angry Serb nationalists clash with police after Karadzic arrest
• Polygamist sect leader Jeffs charged with child sex assault

USA Today:

Jet carrying 7 Texas congressmen loses pressure, lands in New Orleans

Polygamist leader Jeffs, 5 others indicted in Texas

Study: Viagra may boost orgasm in women taking antidepressants

Dolly becomes Cat. 1 hurricane as it nears Texas

It's not exhaustive, but you get the point - or you will. Actually what it is is exhausting.

I am getting close to the point where I can't pay attention to news anymore. Getting in the car and turning on All Things Considered sometimes gives me the urge to pull into the garage, close the door and crack the windows. (Those of you who have been can reassure the rest that this cannot happen due to the state of my garage.) Watching the TV news is one crap story after another, even sports radio has been tragic lately what with the Steeler's ownership issues and Farve going crazy.

What happened to good news?

Normally when I bitch about the news I take local news to task for not covering their local beat. We have national newscasts for national stories, how about you cover Monroeville - tell me why all those stores closed. Things like that. But not now, now I am depressed and "the media" isn't helping. Even this blog doesn't help much. Mrs. TANBI was saying that the content of my blog is fairly universally depressing (when I post from other sources - pictures of the cats are never depressing, even when shaved). I do tend to post things about our terrible government or grabby corporations, but then it's sort of a GIGO thing, yes? That's what I see.

One would think this isn't about outlet either. I am a fairly omnivorous news gatherer. I listen to NPR, but I also listen to Limbaugh and Savage, and even local news and sports radio. I have news feeds from Google and Marketplace as well as the nicheier AirAmreica. There are 25 feeds in my reader under "news" and really that's probably only 25% of the total feeds. My point here is that I don't think I am partial to sources that cover the world atypically. I think news outlets have become bogged down with bad news.

Once upon a time I think news editors tried to balance the tone of their output. I don't think they ever looked at it as "good news" vs. "bad news" but you could depend on the end of a broadcast being a "public interest story." I think we may have even lost that these days. More often than not that closing story will be about Britney's divorce or how Paris spent the night in jail. Those stories now run to gossip, and we're lucky when they are only the public interest story and not the lead. But moreover, the tone of these stories is also often down. They don't talk about people's achievements, they give us something we can snicker at, so we can be selfish and condescending.

I say we're snarky enough, thank you very much.

Briefly searching "good news" one will find that the phrase has been co-opted. That's too bad, because I think there really is a need now for a positively leaning newscast. This isn't to say that we should as a group bury our heads in the sand and not pay attention to the things that are going on, but rather that we need something to help counterweight against all the strife we're bombarded with on a daily basis. I know that the Bush administration is a bunch of weasels, and I am going to notice them trying to declare birth control pills a form of abortion without being inundated by it on every newscast.

There must be someone that finished something, discovered something, achieved something, gifted something, refurbished something, recycled something, birthed something, that somehow doesn't also include the eventual downfall of our nation, the deaths of thousands, or destruction of the planet - just has to be. Sure would be nice to hear about things like that.

I think I will take a little more time to look for it from now on.