Writing Wrongs

Survived work, got a ride from the one cow-orker who drove and did not have family errands to pick up the car. The brakes were still "next visit" away from needing work, but I had them done anyway. Only one pair. Thanks to the speed bumps, it seriusly needed the alignment I'd asked for. And as a bonus cashectomy, the timing belt was cracked. The battery tested good, which is nice since it was just installed a couple of weeks ago. Sunnyvale Toyota has the slowest cashiers on the planet, but other than that this trip was the best I've had there.

I was still feeling a bit dopey, so instead of going straight home I stopped off at Best Buy and Stereobase, both on the way, and was disappointed that neither of them had much in stock, and Stereobase didn't want to sell me a new alarm system because I have the one they use in their cars. I see why their Yelp revues are either 1 star or 5 star - the place is a dump, hard to park at, poorly stocked, but they all speak English and seem to know what they are doing. They suggested I buy something online and bring it to them to install. Sounds like a plan, maybe.

Home, a little after 6, got undressed and crashed. Slept for an hour, then another hour. Got dressed, gave Domino her whipped cream allowance, and drove to the nearest Starbucks. Almost went to Yo Yo Sushi for dinner, but didn't bring my Kindle. I'll have something when I get home. There's a lot of frozen home made chicken soup, and it's time to start emptying the freezer. The fridge is already almost empty.

Not much eye candy here tonight. But there is *some*. Air con is way too high. It's only 69 degrees outside, they could turn it off any time.

Have been exchanging email with the show staff, and it looks like they may just take me off the balcony the two times I am blocked there. We'll see tomorrow night. I don't like the initial message from the director to "talk to the AD", when it should have said "safety first".

Plans for tonight: online shopping
Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Rehearsals

Interesting day at work. I started to build an automation suite for a new feature I'm testing, but the scripting software was acting strange. I was finally, after several months of asking, loaned a pair of machines for some of the more advanced tests, but have to wait until a critical bug is fixed. I was expecting that Tuesday, but it didn't make it yet. Maybe Monday.

Lunchtime I went home, and at 1 picked up the move-out packet from the manager. She also wanted to chat about theater, but obviously did not know about community theater, and when I tried to explain she still thought it was the professional stuff in SF and SJ. Sigh.

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Home for 20 minutes after work. The alternate route I had mapped out to get to the rehearsal hall was sabotaged by the main roads of the South Bay not corresponding to the geography. I ended up going about 5 miles out of my way north (or maybe it was east). I called the SM and left a message I would be late, but when I got there, instead of being late (I have lines about 5 minutes into the show) I found the director re-choreographing the final number,  micro-managing it. Disgusting.

I haven't mentioned this yet, but our rehearsal pianist is the worst I have worked with in the Bay Area. This theater group has access to some of the best, I wonder what happened? Producer FAIL. It is impossible to enjoy these rehearsals when the pianist can't keep up, doesn't know the tunes, and has not a clue about tempo.

We were missing the two female leads. Totally ridiculous to do a complete run-through without them. This show has been a continuous series of those cluster things. I should have walked out when I had the chance. As I've said before, this is a show which cannot be killed, it is too well-written and the tunes are too good. Even the most mediocre high school production would be enjoyable, and this will be maybe half a notch better than that.

One other thing. At auditions the director announced she was pregnant. She has been getting more and more so as time goes by, of course, but she's pushing herself as if she wasn't, and while she is a fairly athletic, active person, there are limits. I hope she doesn't hurt herself or the baby.

The co-producer who has been out for the past month because he was starring in a show at another theater, is micro-managing. He's giving as many directions as the director, and buttonholing the leads and giving them very specific instructions, some of which contradict what the director has given. He's talented, and I'd like to like him, but he's making it very difficult.

And the co-producer who gave me that bullshit line last week about how I should trust his highly talented staff? He's off to Cozumel for a scuba trip. The week all the heavy lifting needs to be done - we move into the theater tomorrow. At the height of hurricane season in Cozumel. That's another person I'll never work with again.

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When I was home for lunch,  Domino got her hind paw caught in the cat tree tube where she spends about half her daylight time these days, so I went over with scissors to see if I could fix the problem. And found the lining was badly deteriorating. It occurred to me that I have had this cat tree for about 10 years, it has long since been scratched to death, but since it is so solid I had not realized it needed replacing.

Went online and could not find anything which comes close. Nothing with a big long tube at the top of a 68" tree. And only one with any kind of tube, the tube looks too small. After move-in tomorrow maybe there will be time to visit Pet Club and see what they have. Petsmart and Petco web pages have tons of trees, none work for me. Ditto Wallmart.

Plans for tomorrow:
Theater move-in at 10 am
shopping
maybe a nap
maybe *$s with the laptop.

Really only did two things today, but both were major. Ye Older Towne Band had its first concert of the year, attendance was less than it might have been, but there was so much else going on, and we'll be back the last Sunday of every month through September. I got there way early and snagged my favorite parking spot - the closest one to the park without being actually in the park - I save those for the handicapped and those whose instruments are too big to carry that far. And there are usually picnickers who are already there.

It was chilly and windy. The wind makes it awkward - we bring clothespins but if a piece is 3 or 4 pages, there's no good way to clip it to the music folder without having to flip it over at some point. Which means missing a few measures of music. It was a shorter concert than we usually do too, so my lip is not as demolished as it might have been. And we played a lot of pieces in which baritones had the melody, which I like.

Stopped at a produce stand on the way home and scored some nice looking 49¢/lb bananas and 89¢/lb red delicious apples. And half a dozen big 6/$1 limes. Next stop was Lucky's. originally just for sourdough slices to go with the goat cheese I bought a few days ago, but decided to pick up some microwave frozen entrees too, which meant no Starbucks stop. Home, had an early dinner, toyed with the idea of going into the city to see the Golden Gate Bridge fireworks, but the news pointed out that there was really no way to get there - the major bus lines were not running, and there was no parking. Tried the goat cheese on the sourdough slices - the cheese was bland and will be recycled, the sourdough slices appear to have been mislabeled, they taste like plain baguette slices. :-(

At about 6:15 I realized if I was going to make it to the show in Saratoga, I had best leave now. Got to the theater at 20 till 7, house manager was my theater son Ed, whose wife was in the show. Box office lady gave me the senior discount even though I'm not their official senior age. This was a special show, one performance only, local actor/director/playwright/song writer Ted Kopulos's Out Of My Trunk, Out Of My Mind - Four Sure. The 4th time in 10 years that he has pulled out some stuff he wrote, found a cast to perform it and made it into a concert-plus. He's an amazing director, and many of the numbers were thoroughly staged. Everyone in the show (10 of them) are excellent musical theater performers, and with one exception were well-rehearsed. Bob Sunshine was the accompanist, I am always blown away by his keyboard skilz. Many of the numbers are Broadway-worthy, a couple should have stayed in the trunk. All of them were brilliantly performed. I had been onstage with four of the cast, worked backstage with two more, and would have been cast in the last show Ted directed for Sunnyvale except tech week was my nephew's wedding. Oh yeah, and they also changed which show they did.

And there was some very confusing theater people drama. ( cut for boring speculation )

I hope the finale, Now, finds its way to YouTube. Ted wrote a musical called It's Your Year, Charlie Brown for the opening of the Charles Schultz Museum in Santa Rosa, and this was the finale for that.
Home in time to watch the last half of the Golden Gate Bridge fireworks, but my internet signal decided to crap out on me (no one was showing it live, it was streaming or nothing). Meanwhile, a mile away Great America's fireworks sounded like they were in our BBQ area.

Got email from the art show director for the next Worldcon (in Chicago) inviting me to participate. I won't be going to the convention, but I do have a supporting membership which is good enough to be in the art show, but it would mean having the photos matted and paying a $25 fee to have them hung. It sounds like they are doing the U-shaped display which is horrible  for the size prints I do, and difficult to light. And they are restricting mail-ins to 2 panels, when a U is 3 panels. Stupid. Not sure if I want to do that.

Plans for tomorrow:
Many choices. I could catch the death throes of BayCon, but that would be depressing. Maybe there's still some jazz worth going to see in Sacto. Fireworks again at GA? I'll have to check. Hmm. their web site doesn't mention tonight's. Strange.

Saratoga drama Group two years ago had the gall to change their name to the grandiose South Bay Musical Theater. There were two excellent reasons for changing the name, but no good reason for the choice of SBMT. The good reasons were:( Read more... )

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Last night I went to see the final performance of Finian's Rainbow, which has some of the best music and most clever/odd lyrics of all time. Lyricist was Yip Harburg, whom you may know from The Wizard of Oz and the depression era classic  Brother, Can You Spare A Dime. The story is his too, it is horrible, and that's what killed this show on Broadway.

Almost everything about this production was superb. The backdrops were the most beautiful I have ever seen in a community theater production. They had life size trees built on stage, one of which was sturdy enough to climb and swing from. The lighting plot was overly complex, and there were a couple of burps, and a few WTF light changes, but even with a computerized board they did well. Audio was flawless, with most of the cast miked. No feedback ever, everyone was heard when they needed to be, and not when they were off stage.

And the orchestra. Wow. More than 20 people who blended in so well that I almost forgot they were there. In key, on tempo, fine intonation, and a conductor who was clear about what he wanted and communicated it to both the orchestra and cast.

The leading lady is why I went to see the show, she is more than amazing. A natural redhead, she fit the Irish woman image to a T. The fellow playing the male lead had an even stronger voice (I didn't think that was possible) and looked every bit the part modeled after a young Woody Guthrie. The fellow playing Finian I have known for a long time, and while he is a decent actor with a fine Irish accent, I thought he was a mismatch for the part. At times he acted like the character was an Irish Tevye, which Finian is decidedly not. Og, the leprechaun who is changing into a mortal from not being in Ireland and Finain's stealing his crock of gold, started out too strident, but eased into the part so well that by the time he sang I Love The One I'm Near toward the end, he stole the show.

There were more than a dozen fine strong voices in the ensemble, all of whom had their moment in the spotlight. There were many African-Americans in the cast, which was wonderful to see in lily white Saratoga. The main sub-plot involves sharecroppers and Southern racist politics.

The biggest WTF for me was the choreography. It is clear the choreographer was born with Gotta Dance! tattooed on her forehead. It is clear she and the director don't know when enough is enough. Every possible bit of music, including scene changes and "incidental" music, featured the entire ensemble on stage hoofing it. And every production number was drawn out well past its logical conclusion, a couple of them seemed to go on forever. There were dancers in the final two or three numbers who did not know what the next step or formation was - which is typical because rehearsals usually get to the end of the show last, and don't repeat the latter choreography nearly as much as the early stuff. I can say one good thing about the dances is they never repeated a step from one bit to the next. Come to think of it, that's not a good thing. It's better to have a theme.

Corollary to that is the only casting WTF. While Finian was mis-cast, he at least carried the role acceptably (and sometimes well), Susan The Silent, who communicates with dance for 99% of the show and has several dance solos (another case of the choreagrivation mentioned above), the woman cast in the role was not a good dancer. She was not graceful. Her leaps barely left the ground. The foot work which was her language did not flow. Every woman in the dance ensemble (and some of the men) was a better dancer. She was not chosen for her looks, either. Susan is supposed to be almost as pretty as the leading lady - in fact she should look enough like the leading lady to be mistaken for her from a distance. Nope. Not even close. Not that this actress was unattractive, she just wasn't that "notch above", which the part called for. It annoyed me that with all the dance talent SBMT has available, they cast her in this role.

Closing night at this theater usually gets a standing ovation. The only person who stood was one of the rehearsal accompanists in the 2nd row. I blame the over-choreography. It made a simple, light-hearted show into a chore.

Next up at SBMT is Guys And Dolls. I only know two of the cast. The Salvation Army leading lady is on a par with the Finian leading lady, so that will make it worth seeing, but Nathan Detroit, the part I've always wanted to play, was cast with someone who often beats me out on those roles, but IMHO doesn't do as well as I would have. Not a reason to run screaming, though.

Emptied a different seafood cat food can into the kitty bowls this morning, they were still half full when I got home. More later ⁺⁺

Got to work a little early, needed the extra time to check the overnight test, and to set up for a series of somewhat esoteric tests concerning closed captioning. ( Geek TMI here )  Today's tests were to verify that my test box could pass along, translate or block certain closed captioning formats. The challenge is to find video streams which actually have data in the closed captioning signal. Most channels always send the signal, as a placeholder, whether or not there are captions. Lucky for me, one of the previous testers listed which streams he had used, and with two exceptions those were still good. The test I liked best was the one where I had to insert an ad into a program, and watch that the closed captioning in the ad, and not from the original program, was being sent out the device. I don't have an actual ad server, but I do have a tool which lets me use any stream in the lab as if it was an ad. So I was watching some Dr. Seuss show on KQED, and inserting video (and closed captions) from Dr. Phil and The Doctors. On the caption monitor they all run together, and some of the sentences were quite funny.

Lunch was at Denny's, because I needed their wifi to update my netbook's virus protection. Good chicken fried steak. 

Back at work, just as I was sitting on the john, my sister phoned. I called her back from my desk. She's a civilian who works for the Navy, and just had her 10-year security review, which should have taken about 10 seconds, but took much longer because they grilled her on her Facebook contacts. Totally bogus. They can't get FB at the station, and most of the people they were asking about were like 3rd cousins twice removed in Boston, and in England, and all the nieces and nephews in Israel, which were all there 10 years ago but there was no FB then.

I told her about our cousin's sudden demise. Not really a cousin, but the wife of a fellow who shares the same great-grandfather. Or maybe it's two greats.( Read more... )Last night I found the obituary in cousin's local newspaper, and it gave no information other than her name, age,  and which funeral place was making the arrangements. It didn't list next of kin, cause of death, or anything about services. It lists the funeral home, which only has her name, no services planned. Since it's a Jewish funeral, it probably has already happened.

We chatted for a long time, and I asked why she and her husband were not taking the two weeks of shutdown and visiting her in-laws back east. She said that's a once every 5 years thing, and they don't have a shutdown this year, and she donated a week's vacation to one of her co-workers.  And she and husband are taking a week in February to go to Hawaii.

As I was plugging the phone in to charge it, it rang again, this time it was a theater friend who retired to a seniors community near Sacramento, to chat and let me know she and her boyfriend are going to Hawaii. Small world.

⁺⁺Went online to see if there were any other cat foods which would be good for a diabetic cat but maybe taste better. The concensus was Fancy Feast Classic. Gluten-free, wheat-free- rice-free. After work I went to Petco, they were on sale $11 for 20 of the tiny cans. That's more than twice what the PetSmart brand is, but if I am throwing half of that down the disposal it comes out to the same price. Bought 5 each of 4 flavors.

Home, fed the cats half a can each of the new stuff, and they vacuumed it up. Domino barfed some up in one big heave. Then went right back to eating. I have a bulimic cat. :-(

Took care of some bidness. The new pocket wizard arrived, which surprised me. This is the first time in ages that something I ordered from Amazon on Prime 2-day delivery actually got to me in 2 days. This meant I was able to sign up for a photo shoot Friday night. Same group as the last, I just hope they get enough people (I was the only one signed up besides the host and his helper).  Unlike the broken transmitter, which is shaped like a mini walkie-talkie, this one is flat, and has a hot shoe on top so I can used my flash as well as the studio lights, and it will use TTL to adjust the exposure. If it works it will make for many more usable photos.

Got RMA instructions for the broken PW, boxed it in the same outer box the new one came in, printed a UPS label and will drop it off tomorrow.

After that I went to clean up Domino's mess, but someone had beat me to it. eeeeeew.

Last night I walked through some of Adobe's Lightroom tutorials, and learned everything except how to save my changes without destroying the original photos. The user interface is not at all intuitive for the basic stuff. It's pretty easy to do the hard stuff, though. Maybe I'll post some of the work-safe images tonight. Maybe. I need to de-resolution-ize one or two for Model Mayhem.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
2:30 sleep test results appointment. Will be thinking of fellow pulmonary patient susandennis :-)
4:30 1-on-1 with the boss, if he doesn't cancel it.
Evening - more photo processing.

Took a long time to write my review on FB of the show I saw tonight. I'll post it here when I finish this.

Busy day today. Walked over to the CU with all the necessary paperwork and tried to open a Living Trust account in which to park the $$ my folks left behind, which are now sitting idle at B of A. They refused. Apparently, a credit union cannot open a Living Trust account if none of the original owners of the trust are still living.

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Went from there to Santa Clara Players' 50th birthday party, which was supposed to be from 11 till 3, but when I got there at 11:30 nobody was there except one person minding the food in the historical house a few doors from the theater. A walk to the theater showed a closed door, and I heard people reading lines and some audience reaction. They had started a show by the board members at 11, everyone was in there. I waited till it was over, chatted with a few old friends, was somewhat surprised by how many people I knew did not seem to notice me.

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Then there was shopping to be done. Office Max for envelopes to mail the calendars, OSH for rollers, wheels and sliders for some of the heavy stuff in the closets. Also found a nice plastic shelf thing which will do well for my T-shirts. Then to Target for a clock radio. Found exactly what I was looking for in the form of a Memorex 7101 and also got a welcome mat and a set of coat hooks. Then home, cuddle time with the cats and flipping between the Cal-UCLA game and the Stanford-USC game. Got disgusted with both, and turned the TV off. Set up the rack, and the radio. The radio is a piece of crap - it did not get any FM stations at all, no matter what I did with the antenna, and hardly received any of the stronger AM stations. I'll probably return it.

Then off to see Snoopy at Sunnyvale Players. Two people I know are in it, plus the choreographer, stage hand and in a roundabout way, the director. The roundabout way went like this: a few months ago I went to try out for Oliver and it turned out to be a combined audition with 1940's Radio Hour. The director of the latter show wanted to cast me, but since I had the wedding to go to on tech weekend, that ruled me out. When I went online to see who was cast, the show had been changed to Snoopy. After tonight's show the director told me the producers had not managed to come up with a big band to put on stage, so he suggested a change of show to something with a smaller cast, one which he was familiar with.

Back home, fed the cats ( I took lironess' advice have had success with a more manual approach to liquefying the canned food) and started being online for way too long.

Plans for tomorrow:
See a movie and coffee klatch with Janice.
Continue unpacking (the bedroom will be the main target)
Maybe watch some football.

2 o'clock matinée today went well, the show has tightened up some, and we were done at 4:30, which is about right for Carousel. The stage left crew has it down pat now, the only issues we have is when some of the cast comes up to watch the show from the wings and park themselves where sets need to come in and out. The crew chief keeps getting himself run over too, ( it's very funny )

They took cast & crew photos after the show, I almost forgot about that. Tried to be mostly out of sight but didn't succeed.

The show is very good, there is a lot of musical and dance talent and several of the leads can actually act. We continue for one more week - Thurs-Sun 8pm except the final show is at 2. They also do a special morning show Wednesday for the school arts program (it's a condition of one of their grants) but I'll be elsewhere. If you live within shouting distance of San Jose, do try to see it. Tickets can be had here.

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Plans for tomorrow:
The usual morning perusal of job listings
Kaiser records department, find out why my records have not made it over to PAMF after almost 4 months.
BASFA