Long Live the Village Green

The Eco Bathroom Project

2011-01-09T11:48:00.006-05:00

The Village Green returns with some updates on what I've been doing to make my living space more eco-friendly and sustainable.

Welcome to the finished and happily lived-in eco-bathroom! As you enter the new maple-wood door (purchased from the ReStore, a wonderful source for recycled building materials), you are in a spa-like atmosphere that was created out of recycled materials with fixtures designed to reduce the use of water as well as provide a safe and healthy environment for personal day to day living.

I wanted my eco-bathroom to be a home to plants that would thrive under low light conditions. A philodendron grows up and over the glass block wall and hangs down into the shower. A Snake plant thrives in the corner on top of a recycled crate. Aaron created a custom built set of shelves for my towels, that fills the space between the shower and the corner wall. All lighting is LED. The blue recycled mosiac glass tiles on the walls was purchased on Ebay.

Inside the shower, the flower mosaics are made of barn slate purchased from a guy in Medina county who salvages barn and farm materials (the slate was $1 a piece -- approximately 1 ft by 2 ft in size), recycled glass and showercork, representing the three materials chosen for flooring, walls and shower stall. Waterpik EcoRain 2.0 and Waterpik hand-held shower head provide considerable water savings as well as ease in personal showering.

A corner seat convenient to sit upon while scrubbing feet or for perching on while washing the dog. A shower nook holds Dr Bronner Peppermint Soap and Aubrey Organics Shampoo. You can see the variations in color contained in the barn slate.

View of the Toto sink and Toto Neorest Toilet with Washlet seat. Purchased online at almost half price. The toilet has a fan to remove odors, washes fore and aft with varying temperatures and pressure modes, and finally dries you -- no more need for toilet paper! The Toto sink had a low flow faucet and a very modern shape. The medicine cabinet and light fixtures on either side are the only features retained from the original bathroom.

Instead of buying towel bars, we recycled an old ladder found in my garage left behind by prior owners. Above is access into the non-functional and previously non-accessible attic. We had to open it up to install a bathroom fan. Once there, Ilya, the Household Handyman, asked me if I wanted him to put in insulation as there was nothing up there but beams and a whole lot of coal dust from the early 20th century coal furnace. We went to Lowe's and found non-itchy and non-toxic eco-insulation. End result -- this year's monthly heating bill (gas) has been reduced almost in half!

The clothes hamper is a fair trade basket from The Market Path in Highland Square. The flooring is ShowerCork, and the most expensive material purchased for this project. However, I am glad I sprang for it -- cork is sustainable, anti-microbial and non-slippery when wet!

A closer view of the Neorest 500, ordered via National Building Supply online for considerable savings. The control panel for the toilet is mounted on the wall next to the window on the left.

Aaron's custom built tempered glass shower doors. The original plan was to use recycled windows for the shower door, but we couldn't find anything that fit the opening.

Found this old step ladder at the Hartville flea market for ten dollars. It functions as a plant holder and bathroom reading material holder. Zippy the Pinhead currently resides on the bottom rung.

Greening my old house

2010-08-04T12:34:00.005-05:00

Going green in any part of your life can seem overwhelming at first. So many questions to answer: What products to use, what systems to install, which contractors will go along with your vision?

My old house was built in 1921 and the first resident was an Akron rubber worker. It is essentially a small upright box covered with aluminum siding.

When I bought this house in 1999 it cost 45K. I figure it is worth about 25 cents in today's economy. But for me, the value is in its location -- one mile from my place of employment. Having a low monthly mortgage payment is also convenient, as it has allowed me to put money into home improvements. I will confess that not everything I have had done to the house is eco-friendly. Some of my first improvements were dictated by cost rather than by sustainability.

My latest home project is creating a bathroom with the best available water saving fixtures, along with sustainable flooring and tiling. It took weeks of research to find the materials and the construction workers to carry out the project. This week, the work on the bathroom begins! I will be posting pictures and commentary as the work commences. Stupidly, I forgot to take "before" pictures, but I'm pretty sure the tile guy took some pictures of the bathroom before the tear out began. Hopefully, he will share those with me so I can post some proper before and after pictures when the job is finished.

Below, a view of the medicine cabinet, vanity and toilet. The medicine cabinet is the only original fixture I am keeping. Everything else will be replaced. No more water-wasting bathtub, rather a magnificent shower with water-sense shower head. A very cool state of the art Japanese toilet and lavatory will reside here as well. The walls, the flooring and the shower area will feature recycled materials.

I will be discussing my sustainable choices as the work progresses, along with photos. Stay tuned!

Toxins toxins everywhere

2010-07-26T21:44:00.004-05:00

Of late I've been obsessed to the point of depression by how polluted the world and all that grows and lives upon it has become. Every thing we've been trained to consume turns out to leave a toxic trail within our bodies and throughout the environment. Certainly, this is not a new or sudden realization. But after the death of my mother, I began to fixate on what exactly entered her liver and caused it to scar up and eventually cease working.

Growing up, we had all the usual name brand products under the sink and in our medicine cabinet. Powders, liquids, sprays, creams and lotions -- all brought to us by the magic of modern chemistry. Consumers continue to buy these things because we are taught that we must look good and never age. Our homes can only become sparkly clean through the assistance of a powerful Comet or a heroic Ajax or a winking macho genie. None of those products were necessary. The box of baking soda in the cupboard, the bottle of vinegar next to it, along with the juice of a lemon and a bit of elbow grease are all that anybody needs to keep our homes clean.

Recently, scientists examined whales and found high levels of heavy metals and toxins, indicating that the oceans are hopelessly polluted. We consume, we excrete and toss away tons of leftover chemicals. By we, I am talking about the 6.8 billion human beings dwelling on this planet. It is no surprise that the whales are full of toxic chemicals. We all are.

What to do? I've been reading every list of ingredients before buying anything. If the list is really long and in incredibly tiny print, I put the product back on the shelf. I spend long hours online researching and contemplating choices. Quite frankly, living in the 21st century requires the opposite of "convenience" in terms of every day living. Tomorrow I will begin to report on my own personal course of action, but meanwhile take a look at this movie from the folks who brought us The Story of Stuff. It is the The Story of Cosmetics and I hope it inspires you to take action -- on the personal level and via political action.

Re-emergence

2010-07-25T09:24:00.007-05:00

Yes, the Village Green has been left abandoned for some time now. This place is overgrown with weeds while old posts sit rusting away. Life, with its ups and downs, can sometimes overwhelm and upend the best of intentions. In my case, it was the loss of my mother in March of this year that completely removed my will to write. I needed time to mourn my loss.

My mother began a blog which inspired me to start my own. She loved to read other people's opinions and always had very strong views of her own. To re-engage with this blog is way of honoring my mom, and ultimately a means for seeking deeper understanding of life itself.

My mother died from acute liver failure due to cirrhosis of the liver. She never drank a drop of alcohol in her life; in fact, to light the Christmas plum pudding she would use McCormick's imitation rum flavoring rather than buy a bottle of real rum. She was physically fit, exercised regularly and ate simply and sensibly. How this disease could strike her down is a mystery, and her form of cirrhosis is therefore idiopathic.

One of the liver's functions is to eliminate toxins from the blood. In my mother's case, her liver became unable to eliminate ammonia, which stayed in the blood and began to affect her brain. This is known as hepatic encephalopathy. Her doctors prescribed a medicine to control the ammonia and for a few months, she was able to function fairly well. But then she came down with a sinus infection that ultimately weakened her and brought about acute liver failure.

I expected my mom to live into her 90s, as did her mother and many of her relatives. Even when the liver problems were first diagnosed, her doctor said she had many years ahead of her and that she'd probably die of something else. I also found myself putting "faith" in modern medicine, for even as she was admitted to Cleveland Clinic for her final weekend of life, the doctors began to evaluate her for a liver transplant. We knew that since she was not an alcoholic, she had a good chance of being considered for a transplant.

She was admitted on a Friday, evaluated on Saturday and by Saturday night was placed at the top of the transplant list. By Sunday morning, her condition had worsened to the point that a transplant was no longer possible. She was all yellow and comatose. We agreed to a "natural death," which means only providing to prevent suffering. She was given morphine (which the nurse kept calling "medicine," as in "I'm going to increase her medicine." All other curative measures were stopped, except for her breathing tube, as the nurse said without it she could suffer from choking on fluids and coughing up blood. I think this last measure was more for those of us there for the death watch, as there was no chance at this point that she would come to and be aware of anything surrounding her.

Years ago my mother decided that after death, she wanted to donate her body to science. She was a teacher, and was happy in the realization that her body could be used to further learning. She also had a wicked sense of humor and delighted in the idea of "cheating the undertaker out of his fee!"

And so the Cleveland Clinic was gifted her body and which also gave her family the gift of not having to go through all the usual immediate and emotional hoopla of coffins, calling hours and funeral rites. Instead, we had time to mourn for ourselves, while relatives, friends and former students posted comments online and sent thoughtful cards. About a month later, we had a memorial for her at the University of Akron, the place she found herself first as an employee, then as a student and teacher. By then, all of the immediate family had time to compose our thoughts and words for her final tribute.

Last week, the Cleveland Clinic called to say that they were ready to return my mother's ashes. They came back to us in a small cardboard box and we had them placed next to my dad's ashes in Glendale Cemetery. On her gravestone, the following epitaph (borrowed from Henry Adams) will be engraved:

"A teacher affects eternity; she can never tell where her influence stops."

And so it is time for this blog to re-emerge. I find that I am concerned more than ever with the toxins that invade our bodies and environments, so expect to see more posts about green issues, as well as the usual Kinks and dog posts!

Snowgoyles and dog plows

2010-02-15T11:09:00.004-05:00

More snowgoyles are on the way, according to weather reports. 4 - 6 inches over night.

Which means it is time to go dig out the driveway one more time before the new snow arrives. I don't have a snow blower. Don't like the idea of running a machine in the middle of wet snowy weather. Plus buying something of that nature for use a few days per year doesn't seem very eco-positive.

So we dig out again and again this el nino winter season. Do some stretches prior to going outside. Dress warm with thick warm socks inside waterproof boots. Hamlet hates the snow shovel. It is a beastly intruder in his backyard snow agility wonderland. He prefers to engage in dog plowing round and round his race track.

One thing is for sure, Hamlet's coat is perfect for this weather.

Move Your Money

2009-12-29T22:09:00.001-05:00

I've been contemplating moving all my banking to the credit union. Watching this is very convincing.

Winter settles in

2009-12-29T12:32:00.001-05:00

Hamlet against the snow looks like a pastel drawing in cream, black, blue and sable. He would stay out in the snow all day if I let him, protecting our small croft from squirrels and birds.

I've left up a few of the jumps, so he can stay in shape agility-wise over the break. Classes resume in January. Meanwhile, Hamlet has worn a path in the snow around the sleeping vegetable garden. No matter how cold, he is up for a game of chase the ball, return it by jumping over a hurdle and dropping it at my feet.

After a warming game or three of chase the ball and retrieve, dog and human head back in to savor the joys of winter break. Snow muffles the city sounds and promotes hibernation behaviors like wrapping oneself in a comfy blanket to hunker down with a good book, a furry dog and a cup of java at hand.

How to deal with the rising sewer rates in Akron

2009-12-28T21:36:00.003-05:00

The EPA finally backed Akron into a corner and made it impossible for the city to continue avoiding cleaning up our antiquated sewer overflow system.

If the city had faced up to its responsibility, oh say 15 years ago, rates could have gone up at a very reasonable increase per year to pay for the huge fix-it project. One local pundit said on TV that sewer system improvements are not beloved of politicians because you can't see what the money bought after it is built. I would say this reveals an utter lack of imagination upon the part of politicians, because I have no problem imagining what is happening without this massive sewer project. Any time of increased water flow, from storms or flooding from snow melt off and the current system can't handle it, the overflow goes straight into the Cuyahoga River. Imagine anything that can be flushed down a toilet or washed down a storm drain and then think about those substances making their way into the Cuyahoga River's ecosystems.

So because the politicians balked for so many years at spending money to fix the problem, the EPA took legal steps to make the city clean up its sewage system. And we citizens are stuck with big increases all at once.

My solution was to give up the land phone line. Sorry AT&T, but your service is superfluous and your corporate ideals non compatible with mine anyway, and costs me almost exactly the same amount as the projected sewer rate increase will per month.

So now we are totally cellular here on the Village Green. My current carrier of choice is T Mobile. They have a cool cell phone made out of recycled plastic bottles, the Renew. And the service plan is half of what I was paying before.

So bring on the sewer bills -- I'm ready!

Senator Brown update on health care reform

2009-12-28T17:16:00.001-05:00

Sherrod Brown has this to say about the current state of health care reform:

Agility updated

2009-10-27T22:32:00.004-05:00

I've been avoiding politics of late, here at the Village Green. Many things have kept me busy and away from blogging. Work is all-consuming of time and energy, and there is a young dog here who is in training and doing well.

We hit a snag in agility training in September. Hamlet's physique developed dramatically. His center of balance shifted as his chest expanded and lowered into adult form. This messed up his sense of balance on the contact obstacles. He started balking at the A Frame, the Dog Walk and the Table. As you may imagine, this was no fun in the middle of a regular agility class with long lines of dog-human teams waiting to run the course.

So we are now going on a night that is for teams who need to work on specific things. It's much more relaxed and I'm doing as our regular trainer, Terence Cranendonk suggests, which is using turkey and the clicker to desensitize Hamlet to the obstacles that he used to run happily over when he was but a young pup

So tonight I took a big baggie full of turkey, a favorite squeaky squirrel, the clicker and a positive attitude. Hamlet was more comfortable with the new indoor digs. The club is year round and during the cold months, we are in an old factory in Wadsworth. It has lots of room and special flooring so the teams don't end up with leg injuries. But the echoing can be mind-numbing when lots of dogs are barking.

Using the turkey as a lure, I tossed bits of it in the direction of the A Frame. We had it lowered to about three feet at its apex. Clicking his every step toward the A Frame, and creating a trail of turkey bits, I was thrilled when he finally ate a piece that was on the bottom of the frame. By the end of the evening, I had him placing two paws. on the frame in order to reach the turkey. That's some fear that would make a dog hesitate before going for the tasty food!

It's all about patience and remaining calm. Hamlet will not function when forced to do things. He likes to go step by step. As we worked tonight, when I saw that his stress was building at any point along the luring path, I would direct him away to a tunnel or jump which he'd do quite cheerfully.

The other folks there tonight were very encouraging, sharing tales of dogs that refused to do this or that for half a year or more and then suddenly one night the dog was running the course without a problem.

There's another blue merle at the agility club who everyone calls Hamlet's Mini Me. That one is four years old and a champion agility dog. The dog is learning to work with a new human, who is new to agility. Some of the humans there have had numerous dogs in agility over the years. Hamlet and I are entering this as total newbies, however Hamlet is the one in our team with the real talent and potential.

Hamlet loves the tunnels and chutes and is doing great on the weave polls. I've been raising the bar on his jumps here at home and he soars over. He clearly loves jumping which gives me hope for the contact objects, as jumps require nimble foot work as well. All in all, for only 9 months of age, he's dong very well indeed.

Gloom gloom gloom

2009-10-17T08:11:00.003-05:00

And I'm not just talking about the steel grey clouds and the damp chill hanging over NE Ohio today. I am living in a state in which the only way ahead for funding public education hangs on the hopes of gambling casinos. That's how much we value education in Ohio.

Here in the city, various recreational activities offered up for seniors and youth have been cut back or eliminated. Gotta have enough money to plow the streets in winter so that those of us who still have jobs can make it in to work.

I read that one county councilman has refused to take a pay reduction for the final two months of the year. It would inconvenience this fellow's plans for bulking up his pension.

...Crawford, who is paid $23,903 a year, said his county check is committed through this year to buying state retirement benefits — a perk afforded to government workers to boost their retirement income and health benefits. His check amounts to $23.50 every two weeks because of the payroll deduction, he said.
The voluntary pay cut amounts to about $60 withheld from each council member's check.

If he agreed to the pay cut, ''I would have to pay the county money to be working,'' said Crawford, who works full-time as an insurance agent. ''I'm not going to write out a check.''

Guess we are all concerned about our pension plans now, aren't we? Everybody in a union is facing reductions and being asked to make concessions. Only the firefighters in Akron voted to make no concessions, and thus sacrificed their most recent hires so that their elders might not face postponement of their longevity bonuses.

I wonder how much will be left of the State Teachers' Retirement Fund by the time I put in my 30 years. Will I ever be able to afford retirement? Check this news report:

The State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) reported that it would take 41 years for its investments to catch up with the costs of meeting its obligations to retirees -- and that was before the worst of the financial crisis.
STRS reported last fiscal year that its valued plummeted 31 percent. The worried word used in its most recent annual report, on how long it would now take for its investments to put the fund back on track, was "Infinity."

Wow -- I don't think I have until infinity before I retire.

Since there will be no health benefits offered until some golden time beyond infinity, a public health plan would make the most sense for me and a whole lot of other people. But it seems that we must spend an infinity waiting while the corporate, governmental and financial institutions, building barricades around their interests, scramble to maintain a system of wealth for the few at the expense of the rest of us.

Todd is godd in Akron once again

2009-09-07T09:14:00.005-05:00

A once in a lifetime musical event is happening in Akron this weekend. Why we were so lucky to have Todd Rundgren and most of Utopia with us to present for the first time ever A Wizard a True Star (AWATS) in its entirely is not clear. I'd like to think that it was the beauty of the Akron Civic Theatre that lured him here.

Many years ago, when AWATS was first released, Todd's tour stopped at the Civic and I was fortunate to get a really good seat for that event. Highlight of the performance was Todd singing "Neverland" while perched on top of a towering stack of amps.

AWATS is my favorite of all Todd's work. It contains amazing variety, with Todd at his most clever and beautiful in terms of musical composition. From "Da Da Dali" to "Zen Archer" to "Rock and Roll Pussy" -- the music and lyrics captivate without a single let down moment. "Sometimes I Don't Know What to Feel" is astounding in its emotional liquidity, the song flows over and under you, and you just don't want it to end, but then the recording morphs into something else and you have to finish it and play it all over again to recapture the feelings and images swirling in your head.

I did play that album endlessly, using it as musical inspiration for countless drawings. This was the album that made me "see" music in a visual way and forever after AWATS, music was integral to my creative process as a visual artist. It wasn't just background sound. Musical notes and the interweaving contrasts and harmonies all began to take on a visual life within my work. AWATS also taught me gobs about color and not just lessons learned from staring at the album cover while listening to the recording for the umpteenth time.

So when I heard that Todd was going to be in Akron for two days, I got online at the start of ticket sales and managed to get a row Z ticket for opening night. Months later, and the performance date was here! It was wonderful arriving at the Civic last night, as the sold-out audience flowed through downtown headed toward the brightly lit marquee. This was the way it used to be and ought to be again! What great concerts used to be held regularly at the Civic! 'Twas there I saw the Kinks for the very first time, as well as Todd and many more greats of the day. Let us hope that more and more artists find their way back here.

Opening for Todd was Utopia! Totally unexpected, and what a soaring run through favorite tunes! "Abandon City," "Back on the Street," "Last of the New Wave Riders," "Libertine," "Hammer in My Heart" -- all made me want to run home and pull out the original albums. Yes, vinyl albums, because I never got these on CD. Some I know I bought on cassette tape and played them until the tapes choked. Guess I'll be doing a big download festival of Utopia tunes later today. Roger Powell and Kasim Sultan sounded as good as ever last night! What a treat!

My pix from the concert are not the greatest, as I don't have professional photo gear, but a few shots came out well enough to give an idea of what the concert was like.

AWATS opening with an International Feel.

Neverland:

You Don't Have to Camp Around:

Onionhead:

Battery running out of juice and I end up with this hallucinatory vision of Todd at the finale:

Let's all sing "Just One Victory" one more time!

P L A Y Festival reflections

2009-09-05T22:52:00.003-05:00

The final week of the Play Festival coincided with the first week of actual school (real students not just teacher meetings) so blogging fell by the wayside. However, the final week of the festival was highly motivating in terms of focusing on the craft of teaching acting. This being The Year of Grotowski, and having the New World Performance Lab working and living in Akron is indeed cause for massive celebration!

We were given a demonstration of how the company develops their work and a sneak preview of their latest project called "Gilgamesh" which is, in case you didn't know, one of the oldest stories on record. The ensemble have been immersed in their Frankenstein project for over two years now, so it was fascinating to see them working with source material so far removed from Mary Shelley and those surrounding her summer of ghost stories.

Cheers to the company for consistently inviting audiences in to respond to their works in progress. I remember seeing Frankenstein in its infancy, then watching various performances of it over the course of the past two years. By the final weekend of the Play Festival, the actors reached greater depths than ever before, while the flow of the piece was nothing short of electrifying.

The festival ended with a lovely party in honor of Mary Shelley's birthday. A fantabulous time was had by all! Let's do it again next year!

Dogstock and Backyard Agility

2009-08-23T21:23:00.006-05:00

We've been hitting the dog park at peak times the past few days. Today was huge -- dogs and humans of all shapes and sizes! A veritable Dogstock, a gathering of representatives of the many canine clans.

Some folks were settled at the various benches chatting, while their dogs made their rounds. Other humans were scattered about the park, as dogs swirled around them. Hamlet's mode is to check everyone out and then find one dog to play with, preferably a puppy or any dog that likes to run and play. Doesn't matter how many dogs are running about the park, Hamlet wants one best buddy to romp with.

He's very adept at avoiding conflict, going into Mr Submissive poses when aggressive dogs get too dominant. He'll either roll over on his back to show his literal lack of balls or run behind a bench or throw himself into a down in the grass, his sudden stillness confounding his aggressors. Upon arrival today, a big black dog started following Hamlet around, barging in between him and any potential playmates.

I remembered this dog from earlier in the summer. "Gertrude" (name changed to protect the innocent) had fixated on Hamlet and kept bowling him over. Gertrude's human was armed with a spray bottle, chasing this dog all over the park, spraying it and yelling at it. Intermittently, the human would catch up with Gertrude and force her down onto the ground with some sort of Vulcan dog-pinch. I'd never seen such bizarre dog handling strategies, which obviously were not working at all. Eventually, I realized that this human was operating under the outdated assumption that dogs should be handled as if they were wolves and should be sprayed with vinegar and given regular "alpha-rolls" to teach them who is "leader of the pack."

Gertrude's human didn't have a spray bottle today, and so was forced to run around after the dog helplessly calling after it "no" and "stop." I heard the human say to a companion that Gertrude probably thought Hamlet was a member of her "pack" and that is why she was chasing him ("bullying" would be a more appropriate word) around. Gertrude was one wound-up aggressive .. er .. bitch and I'm sure my expression began to reflect my opinion of her owners, as they finally wrestled a leash on her and got her out of the park -- lightening the mood of everybody there, especially young Hamlet.

After an hour or so of Dogstock, we departed for home and supper. Hamlet was not ready to rest though, so we went out back to do some runs through our new "Agility in a Bag" set up. Yes, you too can set up an agility course in your back yard, even in a small yard like ours. I found the equipment online and ordered it to help increase training opportunities as fall brings a change in schedule for this human and her dog. Back to school means that training opportunities must be creatively inserted into the day. With our own hurdles and tunnels set up in the backyard, Hamlet and I can practice agility at morning, noon and night! Below you see Hamlet as a blur of action leaping across a hurdle. The cue is "hup!"

When I unpacked the set, the first piece that sprang out of the box was the tunnel. I set it down on the floor and Hamlet was instantly going in and out of it. It has an attachable chute so it can be used as the official "Tunnel" or "Chute" obstacle. I will probably give into temptation and get a nice long tunnel to use out at my mom's house. She has a lovely big protected yard area where I can set everything up at proper intervals.

I set up the weave poles inside the house, so that in order for Hamlet to reach the kitchen from the living room, he has to go through the weave poles. I figure a week of doing that -- many times a day -- should imprint the pattern into his body and brain. In a week or so, I'll try taking off the guide wires and see if he's got it. It just took a bit of turkey to get him to go through the weave path the first time and after three times through that way, he was going through on cue for a treat at the end of the poles. That was last night. Today, he automatically takes the weave pole route when going to and from the living room.

Here Hamlet poses at the end of a weave run. He's so good at posing. Just a simple "stand" and "stay" and he remains focused on the camera until the picture is snapped and he's given the "OK" release.

And a final shot, rear view, showing him on the twisting path from living room to kitchen.

Final week of P L A Y! Join in before it ends!

2009-08-23T21:19:00.003-05:00

Wow! The final week of PLAY, the international festival of alternative theatre, is almost upon us. Beginning tomorrow night, a wealth of physical theatre events are available for Akron area alternative theatre fans to feast upon -- and you can do that literally at the final event, Mary Shelley's Birthday Party and NWPL Friendraiser on August 30.

Check out the the week's activities:

Join in the fun at PLAY! the Akron International Festival of Alternative Theatre. The schedule for the final week is:

Monday, August 24, at 7:30pm in Studio 194, Guzzetta Hall, New World Performance Lab will present an open rehearsal demonstrating the initial phase of their work on Gilgamesh, the ancient epic. Tickets are $5. Free for University of Akron students.

Wednesday, August 26, at 7pm in Studio 194, Guzzetta Hall, in celebration of UNESCO"s Year of Grotowski, join NWPL's co-artistic directors Jairo Cuesta and James Slowiak, co-authors of the book Jerzy Grotowski, for the screening of a recently released film concerning Grotowski's life and work followed by a discussion of the Polish master director.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday August 27-29 at 8pm in Sandefur Theatre, Guzzetta Hall, NWPL's internationally acclaimed production of Frankenstein returns for three more performances. If you haven't seen this production, don't miss it. If you have seen it, see it again and bring your friends. Critics have called it "a showcase of the actor's craft," amazing, provocative, and compelling.

PLAY! ends on Sunday August 29 with a "Friendraiser" in celebration of Mary Shelley's birthday! For information, call 330-867-3299.

For other tickets: online at www.BrownPapterTickets.com or 1-800-838-3006.

Come out and PLAY! All performances are on the campus of The University of Akron.

P L A Y Festival -- weekend 2

2009-08-21T22:36:00.003-05:00

I had to work box office tonight and so couldn't watch Stairway to Paradise -- but I heard every glorious note sung by Megan Elk accompanied by hot jazz sax player Bobby Selvaggio. Tomorrow, I will get to sit inside Sandefur Theatre for the performance. Seating is cabaret style and delicious fruit drinks are available at the juice bar.

Megan has created a program from the songs of Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Kurt Weill. It is a tribute to the journeys made by immigrants to this country early in the 20th century. According to the program notes, " This work is a love letter to my grandparents -- themselves immigrants and the children of immigrants. It was from their living room stereos and kitchen radios that I first heard the remarkable melodies of these four men." Stairway to Paradise can be seen again at 8 PM on Saturday, August 22. Sandefur theatre is located in U of A's Guzzetta Hall.

Also on this weekend is a piece suitable for younger audiences and their older relatives. The Beetlebug and the Bad Worm is created and performed by Faye Hargate and Jeremy Paul of Cleveland's Theatre Ninjas. The perform "original works and interpretations that draw on elements of film, dance, improvisation, physical theater, graphic novels and music." Looking forward to seeing their work Saturday at 6 PM and Sunday at 2 PM in the Daum Theatre, Kolbe Hall, U of A.

P L A Y Festival-- gushings of a fan girl

2009-08-16T23:17:00.005-05:00

Wow, weekend one of the P L A Y International Festival of Alternative Theatre is over and I am stuffed full of amazing theatrical experiences.

Frankenstein finds the NWPL cast in top form, the piece has sharpened its glittering edges and draws the audience in to the core of the creative forces that came together in the making of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Having watched this piece develop over the past almost three years, I can appreciate the organic nature of its creation and see that the flow of the acting has never been more precise with nothing wasted.

If you are looking for a scripted version of the Frankenstein novel, this is not the place to find it. You will find an ensemble of actors who push their own and each other's limits beyond anything you might imagine.

And speaking of the imagination, Looking for Alice is NWPL's ongoing children's theatre piece. I usually have problems with adaptations of Lewis Carroll's masterpiece. This one stayed true to the master of children's fantasy. A cast of five portray the key figures in Alice's adventure underground via the rabbit hole. Again, the acting here is superb. Each character is clearly delineated and utterly charming! Costumes, sets and props were delightfully rendered. I understand this production is ready for touring and available for schools and community groups. Contact NWPL for further information.

Next weekend, P L A Y continues with two different productions. Frankenstein will return for three final performances on August 27, 28 & 29. Hope to see you there!

Stairway to Paradise August 21, 22 at 8PM in Sandefur Theatre, Guzzetta Hall, ($15, $10 under 18 and UA Students)

The Beetlebug and the Bad Worm August 22 at 6PM and August 23 at 2PM in Daum Theatre, Kolbe Hall, ($10, $5 under 18 and UA students)

Opening Night at P L A Y Fest in Akron

2009-08-14T13:34:00.004-05:00

New World Performance Lab rocked the audience for Thursday night's P L A Y Festival opening. The applause was long and very appreciative. Lots of great buzz going round the lobby after the show while waiting for the actors to emerge.

The women of the company emerged in fabulous cocktail wear, ready for the opening night reception. Drop whatever you are doing and go make reservations to see what these women do in Frankenstein: a De-monstration. Truly unforgettable mind-blowing work!

Below are from left to right: Megan Elk, Debora Totti and Jamie Hale.

Then on to Bricco's for the after show opening night social event. What a wine list! And very nice buffet as well. Company members mingled with friends, fans and physical theatre aficionados. That's Chris Buck, Frankenstein himself, enjoying a well-deserved liquid refreshment.

Below: Jairo Cuesta, undoubtedly the greatest actor I've ever been privileged to see perform, has a quiet conversation with a NWPL patron in a dark corner of Bricco's. Jairo is a master acting teacher as well, who has profoundly influenced my own teaching. My students spend hours and hours each year working the space and their awareness within it doing exercises I learned from taking many workshops over the years with Jairo.

Tonight at 8 PM -- Frankenstein, a De-Monstration, Sandefur Theatre in Guzzetta Hall, U of A
Saturday at 10 AM -- Looking for Alice, Terrence Cranendonk's adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic tale. In the Daum Theatre, Kolbe Hall, U of A

P L A Y Festival opens tonight!

2009-08-13T13:57:00.003-05:00

Looking forward to a weekend spent with Mary Shelley, her monster, and her friends with whom she spent one summer in Switzerland trying to write ghost stories. Only Mary succeeded. New World Performance Lab's Frankenstein is a montage of physical actions that grew out of the company's examinations of both the Frankenstein story and the story of the renegade artists who gathered by the lake to spin supernatural tales for each other.

This piece has taken years to create, which is one reason to love NWPL. They create their work from scratch and work it hard and take the necessary time to develop it until they are ready to share it. Every now and then, they let the outside world in to take a peek, sometimes via open rehearsals and then each subsequent showing reveals new layers and depths. I have seen Frankenstein grow and develop as the actors with director Jim Slowiak create, refine, and clarify their work. I posted a 2007 review of it here. Looking forward to seeing how it has evolved in two years.

For those who want to celebrate the opening of the PLAY Festival, $20 tickets will get you into the after show reception. You can order tickets online here.

Agility

2009-08-08T20:56:00.005-05:00

We've been taking some agility classes out at the Medina Swarm Agility Club this summer. You can see how we are doing in these pictures taken by my friend Teresa when she was visiting earlier this summer. This was week three of Agility classes, and Hamlet was still on leash for the most part. He's off leash now, and really starting to pay attention.

What I'm discovering is how much agility sharpens communication between canine and human. The skills that are tested for the canine really match up to the evolved characteristics of the Shetland Sheepdog. The small toonie dogs that worked the sheep on the islands would need to be sure-footed to navigate the steep rills and rocks of the Shetland mountain-scapes. Shelties are really good at reading human signals because the crash of the ocean from all sides of the islands could make audible signals difficult.

Here's a shot borrowed from a Shetland island site:

And here's Hamlet, sure-footing it up and across the narrow "dog-walk."

Notice that he is off-leash in this exercise. He's got a hand made "tab" leash on, that is short and hangs from the collar. It's a training devise for dogs who aren't totally there yet with their recall. I am proud to say that at last week's training session, Hamlet was brilliant on his recall. At first, he was all about the other dogs, and would run to any new participant as they arrived. Now he's staying with the tasks at hand with only a few bounces away toward other dogs or humans. And when he did, I didn't have to go chase and capture him by the tab. I called "Hamlet, come!" and he turned around immediately and came back to me. This is a hugely thrilling achievement!

Here Hamlet learns to jump, still on leash. Since he's only 6 months old, he can't do any high jumps yet. His skeletal frame and muscular strength are still developing and we have to take it easy until he's at least a year old in terms of going for height. (At the dog park, however, he routinely leaps over other dogs, like they are hurdles!)

No pictures of the tunnel or chute challenges. Hamlet took to those right away. It's fun to chase down to the other end to meet him and be in the correct position to communicate the next move.

Currently, we are working on combinations of challenges and it is becoming more about me being in the right position. When Hamlet misses a turn or a jump, it wasn't him messing up. I have to focus on getting the signals correct in terms of hand/arm/body positions and also figuring out my own path around the sequences and ultimately of course, it is all about the timing.

We have yet to learn the weave poles and the teeter totter challenges. I think he'll be good at the weave. I've already got him doing figure 8's around my legs and we are working on weaving back and forth through my legs while walking.

All kudos to our personal trainer, Terry Cranendonk of DoGoodDog training here in Akron. And all hail to those animal behaviorists who have developed the science of operant conditioning into the art of positive dog training.

The "tire" jump is difficult for some dogs, but not for uber-Sheltie* Hamlet!

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*Uber-Sheltie: my term for over-standard sized Shelties, such as Hamlet. His collie heritage is very evident, but he's not going to achieve standard collie size either. That's ok with me!.. I prefer a couch dog to a lap dog, after a hard night's work of agility training.

Senator Sherrod Brown gets more air time to promote public option plan

2009-07-30T12:53:00.002-05:00

Senator Brown on Morning Joe (via the Ohio Dem Blog):

As Akron's neighborhoods disintegrate

2009-07-30T11:04:00.005-05:00

On the fourth of July, as reported in the Akron Beacon Journal, a mob of around 50 black youths attacked a white family in Firestone Park, a predominantly white area of Akron. Immediately, a major "hush" overtook the local politicians, police and community leaders. There were short statements, the FBI was called upon to look into the affair, and Al Sharpton contributed a comment in condemnation of this apparently racially-driven act of senseless violence. The police are frustrated because nobody is turning anybody in or giving witness testimony.

The local rag refused to turn on public comments on that story, which was kind of silly because readers high-jacked other threads and have been talking about it ever since, some thoughtfully and others spewing racist ignorance.

Finally this week, one ABJ writer, Bob Dyer wrote this column, an interview with a black woman and her daughter living in one of the youth-terrorized areas of our town:

The 55-year-old woman lives in Akron's North Hill area, in the area between Main and Cuyahoga streets. Her neighborhood is predominantly black, with a sprinkling of whites, Hispanics and Vietnamese. Through the windows of her well-kept home, she has witnessed more bad things in the last year than most of us see in a lifetime. Intimidation, assault and robbery are routine. Not long ago, she says, she watched a crowd of 100 black teens surround an elderly white man who was walking his dog. ''They were blocking his path and cursing him out and taunting his dog,'' she says. The mob dispersed when a police car approached. Another time she saw ''a white girl getting jumped on by all these black girls.''

They speak of how their youth are without adult supervision, often living in homes headed by a grandparent who is working more than one job and seldom home to supervise the youths in their care:

Both women believe the sour economy is part of the problem. 'The government is stretched,' says the daughter. 'There's no money. This economy is jacked up. . . . There's nothing for these kids.' Kids have fewer programs, recreational opportunities and jobs. But the bigger problem, they say, is lousy parenting — or no parenting at all.

They say these teens feel entitled to everything without having any sense of having to work for what they want:

'Kids want nothing but money, and all these electronics. But it's easier to watch that person who just walked out of GameStop, crack 'em in the head and run off with their stuff.''

How much "hope and change" is taking place in our crumbling urban areas?

Although many of us thought the election of a black president would ease racial tensions at least a little, Barack Obama's overwhelming victory apparently is having the opposite effect in some quarters. Both of these women say they are sick of hearing black people shout ''Obama!'' in response to any type of public disagreement with a white person.

The conversation continues today when a beautiful city garden maintained for years by a retired black man to feed the elderly in his community was found vandalized yesterday. I pass that garden multiple times per week. I have admired it over the years. This season it has looked more lush and productive than ever. We are losing out in the effort to maintain a civil society, let alone one that cares and provides for the essential needs of every child that is conceived and born.

I have to wonder about the lives of those who produced the children now running wild in our streets, destroying gardens and terrorizing the elderly and their dogs. Why did the mothers and the fathers choose to have babies when they had no money or ability to raise a child? Did anyone teach them about contraception? Were safe abortions available and affordable? Did the fathers contribute anything other than sperm? What were the lives like for the young girls who became pregnant? What about housing, jobs, health care for the children and the mother?

How do we begin to socialize entire neighborhoods and turn wild children toward productive lives? Anyone have any thoughts?

Senator Brown Gives 'em Heck on Health Care

2009-07-29T20:03:00.004-05:00

Sherrod Brown was a guest with Howard Dean, sitting in for Keith Olbermann tonight. Sherrod told it like I've heard very few tell it on health care. I've never seen him so fired up and passionate as he was tonight -- as well he should be. He says that he didn't get elected to bring home some weak Republican influenced plan. You go, Sherrod! I've pasted the entire MSNBC segment below. Hopefully, someone will edit out and YouTube the Sherrod section. Once that happens, send it all over the place and encourage your friends and family to start emailing their federal servants. Give them lots to think about over their summer break.

The good guys won, didn't we? Freakin' Democrats, please seize the moment and turn health care into something that is sane and equitable. Why can't we be like all the other civilized nations that recognize people should never have to go into bankruptcy because of outrageously high medical bills. President Obama's personal physician came out with a strong statement today about public insurance and the need for a single-payer system. Wasn't it just lovely -- the way the insurance industry poured money into the coffers of certain politicians to make sure that single-payer was not even brought onto the various committee agendas?

Just this evening I got a call from a national Democratic party fund-raising group and I listened to the spiel for about two minutes while I gathered my thoughts. Just before the bit where the person was about to ask for money, I interjected: "No, I'm not giving the Democrats any more money until they all back health care reform that turns us all from profit-making tools of the insurance, medical and pharmaceutical industry corporations into citizens who all deserve equal access to medical care equal to that now enjoyed by our federal public servants." Well, no I didn't actually put it in those words, but I did let them know I would not be donating any money to Democratic organizations that allow this opportunity to slip away.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Come out to PLAY! The Akron International Festival of Alternative Theatre!

2009-07-28T13:06:00.005-05:00

Some very exciting local theatre news to share with you about an upcoming alternative theatre festival right here in Akron, Ohio! I have been a very absent blogger this summer, but all things must change and I plan on getting back into the writing rhythm by blogging about this festival with some posts about New World Performance Lab, the Year of Grotowski, and reports from festival as it happens!

PLAY! The Akron International Festival of Alternative Theatre coming in August

New World Performance Laboratory to present a festival of exciting theatre on The University of Akron campus

AKRON, OH –The Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture (CATAC) and New World Performance Laboratory (NWPL) have organized PLAY! Akron’s own International Festival of Alternative Theatre from August 13 through August 30, 2009, on the campus of The University of Akron.

PLAY! includes six exciting theatre events: NWPL’s acclaimed production of Frankenstein; a cabaret performance, Stairway to Paradise: Songs of Sin and Redemption, featuring NWPL company member Megan Elk and saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio; two family-oriented productions (NWPL’s Looking for Alice and Theater Ninjas’ The Beetlebug and the Bad Worm); an open rehearsal of NWPL’s new performance Gilgamesh; and a film and panel discussion with NWPL artistic directors James Slowiak and Jairo Cuesta in celebration of UNESCO’s Year of Grotowski.

Tickets for PLAY!, individual events and festival passes, are available online here via Brown Paper Bag tickets or by phone at 1-800-838-3006

Schedule of Events for PLAY!

Frankenstein August 13, 14, 15, 27, 28, 29 at 8PM in Sandefur Theatre, Guzzetta Hall, ($15, $10 under 18 and UA Students)

Stairway to Paradise August 21, 22 at 8PM in Sandefur Theatre, Guzzetta Hall, ($15, $10 under 18 and UA Students)

Looking for Alice August 15 at 10AM and August 16 at 2PM in Daum Theatre, Kolbe Hall ($10, $5 under 18 and UA Students)

The Beetlebug and the Bad Worm August 22 at 6PM and August 23 at 2PM in Daum Theatre, Kolbe Hall, ($10, $5 under 18 and UA students)

Gilgamesh: An open rehearsal August 24 at 7:30PM in Studio 194, Guzzetta Hall ($5, UA students free)

Year of Grotowski: A Discussion and Film August 26 at 7PM in Studio 194, Guzzetta Hall ($5, UA students free)

Opening Night Reception: CATAC/NWPL will host an opening night reception on August 13 (tickets $20)

Mary Shelley's Birthday Party: a festival closing “friendraiser” to celebrate Mary Shelley’s birthday on August 30. For more information on these events call 330-867-3299.

PLAY! is funded in part by the Pittman Family Fund of the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois. New World Performance Laboratory works in residence at The University of Akron.

Barkitecture

2009-07-19T11:46:00.005-05:00

Recently, Hamlet and I visited Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens to view the creative exhibit of specially designed dog houses, dubbed "Barkitecture." On Sundays throughout the summer and on thru October 31st, dogs (on leashes) are welcome to accompany their humans for a stroll round the grounds. Admission: Humans $8 and Canines $5. This was well worth the price of admission and is turning out to be quite a nice money-maker for the non-profit museum of life in a rubber baron's mansion. The day we visited, beautiful weather and lots of dogs and people strutting about the place as if we owned it!

My favorite stop was the Frank Lloyd Bite house. Hamlet liked the Not Your Average Joe house, with its dog fountain and cooling design features. The Upside Down house is really clever too. There are many more to explore with your dog pal, so check it out!

Hamlet admires the natural stone work on the Frank Lloyd Bite House, with its green roof helping to keep the interior cool.

The Not Your Average Joe House has a canine accessible fountain with pool and is built to capture cooling breezes plus it provides your dog some agility style training with its ramp up to the top. The shape of the house is that of an abstract sitting dog.

Sounds of the neighborhood

2009-07-03T10:13:00.003-05:00

A new family moved in next door awhile back. That means adjusting to a whole new set of sounds. My neighborhood is very much working class bordering on scavenging class. There are plenty of families on the street. Their children contribute to the sounds of summer during the day. There is no convenient playground here, so the kids spend long hours rolling down the slope of the street on plastic toys with rumbling wheels. I hear them pushing their little tyke bikes up past my house, then the roll of the wheels and the delighted squeals as they rush back down the street. Sometimes, the journey ends in a crash to the pavement, and then mighty wails are added to the soundscape, along with accompanying howls from the dogs hidden behind the fence across the street.

The house next door is a rental property. The former family had lived there for more than a dozen years. They were avid collectors of stuff that ended up in the back yard, but on the other hand, they loved to garden and the front yard was always full of flowers. They played top 40 AM radio during the day, and sometimes late in the evening, friends came over for beers round the back yard fire pit. They got loud, but not out of control. Every now and then, voices might be raised in a family squabble, but these were only short bursts that seemed to fade quickly and resolve themselves behind closed doors.

The new family has increased the decibel level of the neighborhood to an alarming pitch. There is a teenage boy with a minibike who roars up and down the block and around their backyard. This is the only place the boy has to ride his bike apparently. The family dynamic seems to thrive on confrontational yelling. Adults yell at children and children yell back and at each other. Calm requests don't seem to be a part of their communication skills. They have three small dogs with high pitched barks. Throughout the day and night, I can hear their mistress order them in loud and imperious tones to "Go potty!" Sadly, I never here the sounds of dog and human play or the happy sound of "good dog!"

The family has many visitors who arrive in pick up trucks with loud motors. This goes on throughout the day. Since we share a driveway, I am always hearing trucks pulling in and pulling out, radios blasting with bass on so loud that my house shivers from the sound.

Their evening party sessions are loud and obnoxious, ending all too often in loud angry tirades. Last night for example, after a session of illegal fireworks being set off way too close to my house for comfort, the neighbors and their guests settled in for an hour's worth of screaming at each other. It was a male vs female battle, with several participants on each side booming and shrieking in tones that would surely upset any of the little children who live in houses up and down the street. So far the violence has been limited to vocal tones, from what I've heard at any rate. However, the potential for escalation sounds real and scares me.

I ponder what to do, if anything. Yell out my window? Call the police? Is it worth antagonizing unstable people? What if they seek revenge? Fortunately, last night was quite chilly, so I could shut all the windows and hide under the covers until the noise subsided some time after midnight and I was able to fall asleep.

The house on the other side of my property was originally purchased by a mom for her daughter to live in while she attended the university. It quickly turned into a party house with ongoing drug dealing 24 hours a day. That lasted for about a year, and then suddenly it all got quiet while a for-sale sign beckoned new owners to check it out. The family living there now hardly makes a sound except when the lawn is being mowed and the garage door goes up or down. Sometimes, kids and a dog show up for the weekend. Their sounds are lively and fun.

Late at night, the train rolls by on the tracks to the south of our neighborhood. It is a comforting sound that signals all is well and on schedule. During the day, a particular sound cues us to look upward to see the Goodyear blimp leaving or returning to its docking site to the east of us. For many days this summer, the sound of rain has dampened the other noises and provided us with an oasis of calm before the next period of sunshine sets off more chaotic sounds of human activity.

Right now the sky is cloudy and a drizzle of rain keeps the firework setters indoors waiting for better conditions. Outside the front window, birds are chirping to one another, while inside the dog and cat snooze, and the human makes clicking sounds on the keyboard.

Another dog blog

2009-06-30T08:30:00.008-05:00

For the nonce 't'would seem that this blog has gone to the dogs. The blogger is writing other non-bloggy things this summer, and when she is not writing, she is definitely out playing with the dog.

Last night, we tried agility training for the first time -- what fun! There is a place in Sharon township (Medina County) on Route 94 called the Medina Swarm Agility Club. They have two complete agility courses set up, and an ongoing series of classes for teaching humans and dogs how to negotiate all the thrilling obstacles and challenges. Hamlet had a great time and so did I! We are signing up for beginner's agility and look forward to the weekly classes. On weekends, the club hosts competitions, so if you are into observing or participating in Agility, check out this group.

I didn't think to take a camera last night, but I will definitely be taking some agility photos soon. Instead, here are some at-home shots. Ophelia the cat has taken a fancy to curling up on the top of Hamlet's crate. It is a very convenient spot for one of her favorite sports: tail snagging!

A shot showing Hamlet's unusual blue merle markings:

And finally, to get a sense of Hamlet's size -- here he is next to an exercise ball. That's a Kong squeaky toy holding the ball in place.

Walking the towpath by Summit Lake

2009-06-22T19:58:00.020-05:00

At long last, city and county leaders have decided to take a look at the Summit Lake area, no doubt due to the recent extension of the towpath corridor along the eastern edge of the lake. A Beacon Journal article announced a public gathering and walk along the towpath from Wilbeth Rd to the Summit Lake Community Center. An impressive collection of politicians and community leaders from the city and the county were there to see first hand what towpath walkers and bikers will be viewing as the towpath nears completion.

The walk attracted a large crowd of people from both sides of the lake. We met in a room in the center, where we were given impressive packets of research submitted by Cazzell M Smith of the East Akron Community House and a Summit County Council member. Entitled "Reclaiming Vacant Properties, Building Leadership to Restore Communities: Transforming distressed neighborhoods into healthy communities of choice and opportunity -- good places to work, do business and raise children," it provides examples of ways other communities have tackled the problems of unstable and grossly neglected neighborhoods.

I have blogged about the problems associated with living next to a toxic lake before. In today's ABJ, Mark Price gives a history of how swimming in the lake was banned in the early decades of the 20th century. (Here and here, for example.) A dumping ground for the rubber factories and an outlet for city sewers, the lake is still a place that nobody swims in.

So what will the passing hiker or biker see as they travel along this section of the towpath trail? Here are some photos from today's walk, with a few comments:

The walk from Wilbeth Rd to Kenmore Blvd was rather like traveling along a narrow strip of scenic pathway with glimpses of a Mordor-like industrial landscape hidden beyond tall fencing and other strategically placed screening.

We are walking through an area framed by industries still belching smoke and who knows what kinds of pollutants.

Who knew that another kind of landscape existed underneath the Kenmore Blvd Bridge? The towpath gives a splendid view of this obviously much-used area, a place for kids to create art, and perhaps a dwelling place for homeless folks. It had a kind of museum-exhibit feeling to it -- it just needed a placard detailing the history of graffiti art of the 20th century and some wax figures dressed in raggedy clothes sitting around a fire.

Trash could be seen everywhere along the walk. Beautiful water lilies and liquor bottles float above a sea of lily pads. I counted exactly one trash bin along the walk, which is one more than can be found on the western shore of the lake.

The lake attracts a large number of ducks, geese and blue heron. Swans usually swim on this lake, but I haven't seen any this year. It is an odd situation, living next to a toxic lake that has been ignored for so long. We can walk along it and observe the wild life, the plant life, and the ripples of the waves bearing plastic detritus to the shoreline, but we dare not participate by swimming in the lake. An occasional boater takes a risk and can be seen out on the lake, and many people fish along the shores. I wouldn't eat a fish from this lake, but there are some people taking buckets full of fish home for family dinners.

Perhaps they are the people who live along the lake. The eastern side is a mix of public housing, decaying cottages from Summit Lake's glory days, and other rotting buildings.

Heading north up the east side of the Lake, the hiker/biker can observe the wonders of nature to her left and with glimpses of a decaying urban neighborhood
to the right. A mighty mullein plant sends its yellow spike toward the sun:

The towpath trail itself is beautifully constructed. The floating dock-like section is wide enough to hold bikers and hikers traveling in opposite directions. Here we see a section of the towpath that edges right along the lake leading toward the community center to the north:

The group arrived back at the center, but there was no formal sit down and respond to what we saw session afterward. More meetings will take place. Stimulus money will be sought and discussion about the quality of neighborhood life issues must take place. This is a high crime area, naturally. To be honest, I have been a bit nervous about testing out the new trail. Today's gathering was my first look at life on the eastern edge of the lake.

The main problem remains the lake itself. It was polluted by people long since dead, and abandoned by city, county and state officials. The state has no money to clean it up properly. Everybody is afraid of stirring up the sediment on the lake's bottom. Meanwhile, it is no surprise that the communities to the east and west of the lake house the city's poorest white and black neighborhoods. The opening of this new section of towpath is an opportunity to reclaim and rebuild. I was very pleased to find other people thinking this way as well. Let's hope today's inspires the pols and the community leaders to take some positive actions. Hell, if we can get some trash cans on both shores out of this, I'll count it a victory!

Akron Dog Park

2009-06-16T10:09:00.012-05:00

School is finally out and Akron's Dog Park is where we are headed for summer human and canine fun! This is a wonderful fenced facility for dogs to run off leash and play with other canine pals. There's a water fountain for both dogs and humans, and ample supplies of plastic bags for waste removal.

Some people don't pick up after their dogs, which is a crying shame. You'd think that pet owners who go to the trouble of packing up their dog and taking them to this special park could give back in this one small way.

But that's my only quibble after four days of using the park. We've met some really nice folks and their dogs.

Yesterday, we met a very nice family,with two dogs and two kids, a young girl and her brother who were very knowledgeable about dogs. The girl tries to guess the type for each dog she meets. She guessed that Hamlet was a cross between a dalmatian and a collie. Not a bad guess! She told me all about their dog, a very large shepherd mix named Panzer, after a German tank.

We did run into a way too boisterous dog that bowled over Hamlet upon arrival. It looked like a boxer-rottie mix. I moved quickly to calm the dogs and let them sniff and go through the rituals of dog greetings. Hamlet trotted off and the big dog jumped on him again, knocking him to the ground. Hamlet yelped his dismay and got up limping. The boxer dog's owners, a man and a woman, finally got up off their bench and leashed up the dog to take him away. They sort of apologized by saying their dog was overly hyper. Yeah, right -- so why not do something about that -- like finding a trainer to work with them, rather than taking the dog to a public dog park where it can continue knocking over smaller dogs. At least they followed the park rules and took their dog away since they couldn't control it.

Hamlet really likes the two pugs that show up every morning. He thinks they are Shetland sheep, and he tries very hard to herd them. However, they don't care to be herded and look at him like he is some kind of crazy mutt!

I found a website that lists many of Ohio's dog parks. Some of these parks have pools and fountains to cool your dog off on a hot day. Many of them have separate areas for small and large dogs. It strikes me that one could have a very fun summer, checking out dog parks around the state. Here's the site -- maybe we'll see you at one of these parks this summer!

Leaving you with an image of a happy dog who has had his exercise and now just wants to hang out in the shade!

First Harvest and other growing things

2009-06-05T21:57:00.005-05:00

Lettuce, basil leaves, three cherry tomatoes and the first strawberry of the season -- harvested from the garden this past Monday. The lettuce, basil and tomato plants came from Dunkler's Farm on Collier Rd. The cherry tomato plant is in a hanging basket and was full of green tomatoes and yellow blossoms when I bought it two weeks ago. All the recent rain and cooler temps have brought the lettuce along at a very fast clip. It's salad time in the city!

The strawberry plants were here when I moved in. They have migrated to the other side of the garden patch over the course of the past ten years, but they never seem to diminish in their spectacular juicy red abundance. Tomorrow, there should be enough ripe ones to fill a good sized bowl.

Vegetables are not the only things thriving in my garden. Check out the electric purple and blue stars blooming on this clematis I planted only last year. It is three times the size of last year already.

The garden isn't the only thing that is growing fast. Hamlet is now four and a half months old and a graduate of puppy class already. We work on the training every day, and the results are very gratifying. He is very quick to learn and enjoys new challenges in between bouts of intense chewing, as his adult teeth are in full erupt mode. I've been giving him ice cubes when his gums look red and swollen -- the ice brings him some relief and he happily licks and noses the ice around the floor until it has melted.

So far, Hamlet's been very good about chewing appropriate items, such as bully sticks, Kongs and various fleece toys. I quickly learned not to leave my shoes and socks lying about, and he has been very good about all the books. Shortly after he arrived, he pulled "There's No People Like Show People" off a shelf and gave it a few licks and nibbles before I caught him in the act. A loud "Uh Oh" stopped him cold and he hasn't gone after a book since.

21st Century Breakdown

2009-05-29T23:23:00.003-05:00

Am playing Green Day's new album, 21st Century Breakdown over and over in the car stereo and here at home. Somehow they managed to top American Idiot -- or maybe they just picked up and moved forward from where they last left off.

This new one is highly singable and full of fire. (You know you have a winner when after the first time through you hit replay and can sing along with all the choruses without even looking at the lyrics.) American Idiot is going to become a staged rock opera -- I read the casting notice for it in Backstage magazine over spring break. 21st Century Breakdown is also written as a rock opera, with Christian and Gloria as the leading characters.

The first single, as noted on the Kinks Preservation Society email digest, takes the opening chord sounds from Word of Mouth and then goes in another direction with them. Green Day resonates with some of my favorite bands of all times: the Kinks, Sex Pistols and the Clash. It's a natural progression from "20th Century Man" to "21st Century Breakdown":

And here's the title song from the Kinks' Word of Mouth (1984)

Summit Lake, neglected and trashy

2009-05-25T18:47:00.007-05:00

There's a beautiful new section of the Canal Towpath that cuts across the southeastern portion of the lake. Too bad the lake is so toxic and perpetually neglected by whichever entity is in charge of maintaining it.

I've never seen so much trash bobbling all along the shoreline as I have this year. There are no trash cans for the public's convenience, therefore the public who show up every day to fish (ew! Imagine eating fish that some how manage to live in a lake bottomed by generations of nasty industrial waste.)

On my to-do list this week is to contact Keep Akron Beautiful and see if they can do anything about greening Summit Lake. With the next section of the towpath due to come right through the lake (and I assume the eastern shoreline is just as bad), now would be the time to start addressing clean-up issues.

Along with the trash cans, a dispenser for doggie waste bags could be a way to train the locals to pick up after their canine pals. At points along the shoreline, one can connect a dog barking from across the street to a sudden onslaught of dog poop underfoot. Sheer laziness. They don't want the poop in their own yards, so they let the dog go across the street to poop where others pass by every day. Grrr!

Much as I love sharing the lakeside with ducks, geese and blue herons, I have to be sure to wear a really old pair of shoes when walking by the lake. I wonder if the city has one of these:

Down the garden path

2009-05-16T20:12:00.006-05:00

Why am I hearing "torture" non-stop all over the mediaverse? Anything except deal with real-world problems how to provide health care for all. And stop global warming while switching over the economy to one that is based upon sustainability, fair trade while discovering the least toxic ways of conducting our every day lives. While the politicians squabble, squack and balk at genuine reform, my thoughts retreat to the back yard and garden.

Here at the Village Green, today's intermittent showers made it a perfect day for mudding in the vegetable garden. Dunkler's Farms is the place to go for reasonably priced flats of tomato varieties. I put in Mr Stripey, Beefsteak, Roma, Yellow Pair, Heirloom and Pink tomato plants, along with basil, catnip, lettuces, and finger eggplants. Will be doing beans and peas and maybe some peppers. I hope to get the flowerbeds done by Memorial Day.

Hamlet has been amazed by the gardening activities, and is especially excited by water coming out of the garden hose. The vegetable garden is fenced in with a mulched path all around it -- which has turned into a Sheltie dog track. Hamlet zooms around it non-stop until he can zoom no more, then suddenly drops to the ground in a thicket of violets or pile of leaves. The path is also very useful for extended chase and fetch the ball sessions, as seen above.

Hard to believe our last puppy class is over this week. We've learned and continue to practice the basics. Hamlet is great at sit, down, stay, go to your spot, and shake a paw. Since he's in the throes of teething, dropping his toy has been difficult to master as his instinct is to chew chew chew on every object that goes into his mouth. But today we had a big breakthrough with fetch and drop it. It's fun to see the light go off in his eyes when he figures out what behavior makes the treat appear as I praise him lavishly.

We are also making strides with leash work and finally made it out the driveway and down the street to Summit Lake this morning where he was mesmerized by the waves lapping the shore, the geese and ducks and kids on bicycles. He's a cautious pup, but getting bolder every day.

After a long day of adventures, he's one pooped pup, but manages to keep an eye on me while I'm over here at the computer.

Akron Changes

2009-05-09T06:48:00.003-05:00

Some recent changes in and around Akron:

We can now purchase yogurt and cottage cheese without becoming overwhelmed with guilt when confronting the empty container, as Akron's recycling program has been upgraded to collect and recycle all plastics labeled 1 through 7. I no longer have to bug The Mustard Seed about their number 5 plastic take-away containers. While I'm glad the city is boosting its recycling program, I still think we need to be more mindful of the amounts of plastic we consume and toss away on a daily basis. Look at all the plastic in your life that doesn't come with a convenient recycling number,such as plastic potato chip bags, plastic bubbles around electronic products, plastic windows in junk mail envelopes, plastic notebooks, lunchboxes, brushes and combs, your toothbrush and so on.

Along with the recycle upgrade, Akron officially launched its much anticipated Green Print (you can download it in its entirety here). The ABJ's Bob Downing summarizes the goals:

Suggestions include promoting green buildings; cutting the use of electricity; boosting water conservation; expanding the urban forest; increasing green jobs; encouraging neighborhood revitalization; better managing the city's fleet of vehicles; increasing parks and walkable areas; turning more sewage sludge into electricity; boosting recycling and bicycling; adding grass-covered roofs; limiting pollution in storm-water runoff; building rain barrels and boosting new urbanism and regional smart growth.

All of those proposed changes sound good to me. Too bad we aren't focused on making those changes realities. Instead, we must put up with a small band of opportunists who want to "Change Akron Now." They aren't talking about making positive substantial changes in Akron's environment. No, these are the folks who want us to kick out the mayor -- for reasons that range from petty to vindictive, as they can't seem to find anything illegal.

We all got to vote for the mayor less than two years ago at which time we could discuss and debate the mayor's policies and abrasive personality all we wanted. He had competition in the primary, won that race and then faced no opposition in the general election. Nothing I've read from the Change Akron Now folks has convinced me that I made a mistake in voting for Don Plusquellic in 2007.

The only good thing that can come out of this is that the political careers of the opportunists instigating the re-call drive come crashing to a halt when they fail to drive out Mayor Plusquellic. If anything, this recall election should wake up the electorate enough to consider who our future political leaders might be.

The darling buds of May

2009-05-03T22:19:00.003-05:00

Spring rushes on so swiftly. Last week, I stepped out on the front porch, and a giant lilac bloom appeared in front of me. Surely the day before, the branches were only dotted with tiny green shoots amid just a hint of lavender buds. Out back, the ostrich ferns thrust higher every day, while the columbine comes on strong. The bleeding hearts approach full glory amid a sea of foamy sweet woodruff.

This weekend, I made my final Critical Links sojourn to Cincinnati. The drive down on Friday was under dramatic skies with scattered storms popping up along the way. There had been a tornado warning in Columbus an hour or so before I passed through. I left Akron late, and so didn't get into the hotel until almost midnight.

Cincinnati's trees were much further along than those in northern Ohio, and I spotted great big iris buds rising high from their beds. The rain vanished on Saturday, and we were drawn from our conferencing to walk outside to bask in the warmth of the day. By Sunday morning, light rain and clouds greeted the Cincinnati's Flying Pig Marathon runners. By the time I headed the smart car for home, the rain had vanished making the drive home most pleasant. I admit to applying more pressure than usual to the gas pedal, and zipped home in record time! First time away from young pup Hamlet. The sitter took good care of him and Ophelia cat while I was gone.

In case you forgot to celebrate it, Shakespeare's birthday was April 23rd. At the conference, we had an opportunity to win some theatre books by identifying quotes from plays old and new. I jumped on top of lines from Hamlet and Richard III. We all ended up with two new books each, along with a wealth of new knowledge and ideas. Little buds that burst into blossom in our classrooms. Can't wait to get up and go to school tomorrow!

Political musings

2009-04-23T17:37:00.004-05:00

Haven't been motivated to do any political blogging lately. After the huge dramas of the 2008 year elections, a number of bloggers just stopped blogging, Or have scaled way back in output. I know I have been unable to summon the energy for it. After years of outrage and constant shock and horror emanating from the Bush regime's actions, it feels good to not tune in to every damn talk show on MSNBC. Haven't watched the Daily Show or Colbert in months.

Even my Google Reader has been neglected. Piles of posts to catch up on all my favorite blogs. Summer approaches. I want to think about the garden and the new puppy, not torture and Republican posturing. But the morning radio manages to keep me updated on the latest political goings on.

Obama's got a lot of work ahead of him. Too bad he's really not the socialist the right wing parrots proclaim he is. They use that word -- socialist -- to mask their fear of equal health care for all. In their world, it is mandatory that every fetus must proceed to birth, but after that, it's every person for him or herself. Oh too bad you got cancer and could no longer work so no more affordable health care for you. I ask myself why I live in a country where people are forced to go into massive debt and lose their homes because of medical bills.

I might as well ask why I live in a country where government officials think it is OK to waterboard someone 183 times. The release of the torture memos brings images to mind of Condi Rice sitting at her desk with a pile of documents detailing the parameters for "legal" torture. She was all into it, as were Rummy, Cheney and the rest of Bush's handler's. Not pleasant to think about as we go through the annual Holocaust remembrances.

Dog Training Classes - the nonviolent way

2009-04-20T15:31:00.004-05:00

Redhorse asked for it, so here it is -- a recommendation for dog training in the greater Akron area.

We are fortunate to have living in Akron, Terry Cranendonk, a co-author (with Paul Owens and Norma Eckroate) of The Puppy Whisperer, a wonderful book to help you through the first year of your pup's training. Please be advised that this book and its predecessor, The Dog Whisperer, have nothing to do with a certain television program featuring the negative and often cruel tactics of one Cesar Millan. Millan's way of training is out of date, based on old assumptions of the human must be the pack leader. The latest research clearly shows us that wolf packs in the wild are far more collaborative than earlier studies showed. The alpha male and female roles are primarily for procreation and very severe survival situations. There is no need to terrorize your dog to assert your authority. Certainly choke or prong collars, electric collars, and pinning your dog to the ground are not humane training choices.

I bought The Puppy Whisperer and have been devouring its wisdom and practicing the lessons with Hamlet. I am proud to share that he can now "sit," lie down, touch my hand with his nose on the command "come", and respond immediately to his new name. We are working on "go to your den." This training is all about positive reinforcements and classical conditioning. It is based upon how dogs actually learn.

So I'm all about positive training techniques (with students as well as dogs!), which is where Terry comes in. He trained and worked with the original dog whisperer, Paul Owens, whose methods were presented in his book and various videos. He's available for private training and he holds puppy and basic dog training classes in Hudson as part of the Hudson Community and Education Program. Here's a description of his classes, with contact info:

Basic Dog Training

Instructor: Terence Cranendonk

Taught by local trainer Terence Cranendonk, co- author of the national best-seller, “The Puppy Whisperer,”

this course helps you teach your dog the basic behaviors he or she will need to be a well-mannered member of the household. Behaviors covered include, but are not limited to: sit, down, stay, come when called,

and heel. The class uses all non-violent, reward-based training. Please bring your dog on a flat collar (no pinch or choke collars) and six foot nylon or leather leash ( no flexi-leads.) Also bring plenty of soft treats and vaccination records to first class.

Fee: $ 75

#879 5 Wed. 6:45 p.m. - 7:45 p.m. 4/15 - 5/13

#882 5 Wed. 6:45 p.m. - 7:45 p.m. 6/10 - 7/8

Evamere Multi-Purpose Room

Contact terry@dogoodog.com for more information.

7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. HHS B102

Puppy Play and Learn

Instructor: Terence Cranendonk

Taught by local trainer Terence Cranendonk, coauthor of the national best-seller, “The Puppy Whisperer,” this course is an introduction to basic skills for puppies under five months old. The emphasis of the class is on socialization with other dogs and people, learning how to sit politely for greeting, stay still for grooming and handling, play nicely, share food and toys and come when called. Puppies must have their first set of vaccinations by the first day of class. No training prerequisite. Students should bring puppies on a six foot leash (no flex-leads please) and flat buckle collar, along with vaccination records and a large supply of soft treats.

Fee: $75

# 881 5 Wednesdays 7:45 p.m. - 8:45 p.m. 4/15 - 5/13

Meet the new pup!

2009-04-19T08:34:00.006-05:00

Life without a canine companion is no fun, so welcome the new Village Green puppy. His name is Hamlet and he's 12 weeks old. I traveled to Coshocton to pick up this Sheltie yesterday.

When I was a kid and living in the former wilds of Medina County, I had Collies for companions. We roamed the fields and woods together. I loved the Collie temperament as well as it's beautiful stance, majestic shape and long hair. Now that I'm an urban dweller, I decided to go for a smaller version. I realize there are distinct differences between Shelties and Collies and look forward to gaining more understanding of this diminutive herding dog.

I was fortunate to find a reputable breeder who was offering this pup on a pet contract. He is going to be too big for showing in the ring or breeding. (The standard is from 13" to 16" in height at the withers.)

I did consider getting a rescue dog, but I've been looking for quite some time now and didn't find any puppies. It's mostly senior or rescued from puppy mill types. Having lost my two senior dogs in the past couple of years, I wasn't emotionally ready to take in another senior dog. And as for puppy mill survivors, those poor creatures need round the clock care in order to combat all the behavior consequences developed under horrifying conditions.

There are pups on Petfinder offered up as "part Sheltie." About 17 years ago, I took in one such pup who had glorious Sheltie markings but grew up to be a giant-sized Beagle with all the Beagle habits and none of the Sheltie's! I loved him very much, but learned the lesson that if you want a specific type of dog, it's best to know exactly who their parents were!

Here's Hamlet in his new indoor pen. He's a blue merle in color, and quite the theatrical personality! So his nickname will be Hammy! He came crate trained and beautifully socialized, running right to me as I entered his Coshocton living room. He immediately gave me a bunch of puppy kisses and I was in completely enamored! He rode without any crying to his new home in the back of the smart car, observing the rolling hills of Amish country as we drove back up to Akron on Route 93. I'm enrolling him in puppy classes and look forward to lots of fun training time over the summer. Yesterday, we worked on "sit" and he got it in a matter of minutes! First thing this morning, I asked him to sit and he did so without hesitation -- quite the intelligent pup!

So Hamlet the pup and Ophelia the cat are in the beginning stages of sorting out their relationship. Ophelia has lived with dogs before, but in the past two months has been top animal around here. Hamlet just wants to have fun, but she is alternately fascinated and extremely upset. Hmm, sounds just like a certain play by William Shakespeare! Notice Ophelia giving a coy head twist while rubbing against Hamlet's pen:

From Ohio to NY and back again in my smart car

2009-04-13T21:44:00.015-05:00

My trip to NY and NYC over spring break was everything I hoped for. Saved a bundle by driving my smart car there and back. Averaged 47 mpg and spent 60 bucks on gas for the entire trip of over 1100 miles. That made it possible to splurge on excellent theatre tickets and enjoy time with friends in upstate NY as well as in the city.

The trip provided just about every type of driving experience imaginable -- I really got to know my smart car and bond with it! We drove through the mountains in high winds, rain and flurries, as well as through balmy and sunny weather. I highly recommend taking a trip on the Grand Army of the Republic Highway. The views are stunning and the small forgotten cities and villages along the way are a delight to behold.

ON this entire journey, I only saw two other smart cars. One amazingly, appeared in my rear view mirror along a stretch of route 6. The other was in NYC, and bore the name of a business. Got lots of looks and comments along the way. The best was in Manhattan, where a traffic cop stopped me and came over to my window. She asked about the mileage and went on and on about how great that is, then waved me on. The worst encounter was on the way home, when a crazy old trucker appeared out of nowhere at a rest stop. He started in on my "tonka toy" of a car, finding great delight in putting it down with no basis in fact. I tried to give him a smart brochure to quiet him, but that only got him going more. Why do certain men seem threatened by a cute little micro car?

I drove up to Albany and then down along the Hudson and into Manhattan. Truly the smart is meant for urban driving. I never thought I'd want to drive in NYC, but in the smart, it was really fun and parking spots were there for the taking.

Here's a photo album of scenic views along the journey. A charming diner on the Grand Army of the Republic Hwy, otherwise known as Route 6. Stopped here for a grilled cheese with pickles.

Gorgeous brick work in an old building along the Grand Army of the Republic Highway:

Signs of decay along the way. People are still living in this building:

Mr Flash poses under the Lackawanna Railroad bridge:

A visit to Russell Sage College in Troy, NY where I found beautiful architecture:

and a sign commemorating the filming of The Age of Innocence:

and here's a snap of my friend Ron the actor in front of the New York State Theatre Institute's regular performance venue on the Russell Sage campus.

Staying with Dred in Brooklyn, I managed to find a good parking spot. One has to pay attention to the parking signs. There are certain days and times of days when cars have to be moved from one street to another. I visited Mr Flash everyday to make sure he was OK. One day, a man was walking down the street ahead of me, trying every door handle to every car. When he got to Mr Flash I wanted to scream out at him, don't touch it! But I restrained myself and was glad that the doors were locked and that the alarm system was installed and working.

I didn't take many photos in Manhattan. I went there for theatre and music mainly, not sightseeing. However, I did walk past the Swatch store in Times Square and took a photo in acknowledgment of Swatch's involvement in the design of the smart car. Did you know that the name "smart" comes from Swatch + Mercedes + art? I went inside the store and looked at the watches. Very colorful and clever designs, but I would rather spend 125 bucks on a theatre ticket than a watch.

Here's a photo of Dred Scott at the Rockwood Music Hall. You can catch the Dred Scott Trio there every Tuesday night at midnight. Most of the pictures (taken without flash) turned out lousy, but this one has a kind of artsy feel to it:

And finally, if you saw a red and black smart car tooling along the highways and byways of PA or NY last week with the following emblem, then you saw me!

Two avant-garde operas in NYC

2009-04-13T13:56:00.005-05:00

I'm not an opera fan, unless speaking of rock operas by the Kinks, however I had the opportunity to see two of the world's premiere experimental theatre companies take on the operatic form while in NYC last week. Here are a few reflections on the avant-garde opera experience.

Astronome, a Night at the Opera at the Ontological Hysteric Theater is now over, but received a great deal of positive attention from the NYT, the Village Voice and even the Wall Street Journal. A collaboration by Richard Foreman and John Zorn, the piece is a visual construct to Zorn's music. Audience members were warned about the intensity of the music they were about to hear and we were all given ear plugs just in case we needed them. A voice over at the beginning gave a very physical almost sensual description of how to insert the plugs into the ears. I chose not to use them -- hell, I'd once made it through a Ramone's concert standing next to a huge stack of amps without evident harm.

The music turned out to be loud but not painful, in fact it was quite good. No warnings were given about the visual content to which we would be exposed. I found it to be more shock-filled than the music. The set was filled with an intensity of props that one began to contemplate before the action began. At one side of the stage was an enormous nose, with bristling black nose hair coming out of the nostrils. Various objects went into the nose at certain points during the piece. Tarot cards were strewn over the floor, and a model of the Hanged Man dangled from above. Scrawled writings in English and Hebrew were chalked on the walls and other surfaces. Opposite the nose on the stage side, was an area divided off by Plexiglas, behind which an actor with a green face and a mohawk created by amazingly tall feathers lurked, occasionally coming out to scream to the music.

Five other actors interacted with the music and the props. There was a man who looked like an Egyptian Pharaoh, and another who wore a fez and a kilt. The costumes were all very bizarre. Most of them wore nose masks and some of them wore veils. Their actions were completely choreographed and not at all improvised. I know this because one of the actors happened to be a former student of mine. His description of the rehearsal process made it clear that what was seen was definitely the work of the director. What was his intent?

From the program: "What my theater offers is the ever changing image of human beings buffeted by forces that invade human life, hinting at the urges inside us all that are hopefully transcended, and may occasionally open doors to provide a brief glimpse of where we might better locate our spiritual selves."

I quite got the "urges" part of the piece and got a great deal of satisfaction watching the actions evolve. I particularly enjoyed the the physical responses one action might set off in the others. Didn't catch any glimpses of where I might locate my spiritual self, but that's par for the course. Didn't really matter -- there was more than enough there to keep me interested and for the most part, fascinated.

The Wooster Group continues to present La Didone at St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn through April 26th, so you can still see this amazing infusion of mid 17th century Italian opera with mid 20th century Italian sci fi movie. As mentioned earlier, I really don't enjoy listening to opera much, but this one grabbed me big time! First of all, the music was much closer to the Renaissance than the typical bombastic opera sounds of the 18th and 19th centuries. And then the young woman singing the part of Dido was amazing. Her name is Hai-Ting Chinn and not only did she sing her heart out, she had incredible stage presence.

Add in the amazing ability of the Wooster Group to recreate live actions from video recordings and you will experience an opera like no other! The movie, Planet of the Vampires, finds two space ships investigating a signal from the planet Aura. Scenes from the movie flicker on video screens placed about the stage. Both casts are dressed in really slick silver space suits and intermingle throughout. A table and desk roll into the action, and one gradually realizes that the rolling furniture mimics the effect of the camera pan shots in the movie clips. Exquisitely timed, the sci fi actors roll into position and pick up the action shown on the video screens. Over on stage left, is a miniature green screen set up where a technician puts on different hand and arm treatments to become interposed hands that appear on the video screens as the actors on stage reach into the video screens to manipulate space ship controls that appear on the screens. Very clever!

The whole endeavor involved a huge amount of collaboration. Along with the actors and technicians, an amazing band consisting of keyboards, theorbo, Baroque guitar, accordion, Tambourine and electric guitar played the haunting score. Most of the actors doubled in both the Dido and Aeneas opera and in the Italian space opera. I've been a fan of the Wooster Group since the 70s (when they were known as the Performance Group), but this one is definitely the best yet. Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte with set design by Ruud van der Akker and costumes by Antonia Belt, this piece is one that will linger long in my visual and aural memory banks.

Absurd theatre is current again in NYC

2009-04-08T21:32:00.003-05:00

Final NYC theatre totals:

2 experimental opera pieces
2 plays by my two favorite playwrights.

This post will focus on the plays.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett was playing at Studio 54 with an all star cast: Nathan Lane as Estragon and Bill Irwin as Vladimir. John Goodman as Pozzo and John Glover as Lucky. The most startling thing about the show was the set. Lots of realistic fake rocks stacked up around a diagonal playing lane. Big theatre, so the void had to be filled with more than a black stage floor with a scrawny tree growing out of it. We were in the mid mezzanine seats, pretty high up. Could not hear every word, alas. This just started in previews, so hopefully they'll get the audio levels up.

Bonus points for anyone who can post a link to the definitive, authoritative pronunciation of "Godot."

Had much better seats for Exit the King at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, a charming place to see a play. Fourth row center for this one, and what a treat it was! An Ionesco classic that I have never seen performed before. This production originated in Australia with Geoffrey Rush as King Berringer in a new translation/adaptation by the director Neil Armfield. and Mr Rush. The set was amazing and inventive, as were the costumes. The royals all had long heavy velvet capes that stretched out at least ten feet that became obstacles and twisted burdens that the actors pulled about the stage with them while the king refused to prepare to make his final exit. The acting was brilliantly physical, the concept and design and direction of it -- everybody involved with this production deserves great applause. Hope it gets a national tour.

More on the operas in the next post.

Dred Scott Trio at the Blue Note

2009-04-07T13:27:00.003-05:00

The Dred Scott Trio gave us two astounding sets of music last night at the Blue Note in NYC. I'm very proud to say I've been a fan of Dred's for 20 years and I have always thought of his music as "beyond jazz." He can take any form of music and make it into something uniquely his own. His playing has a physicality about it that results in fingers and keyboard making sounds and patterns of notes you never would expect possible. For me, his music has always been extremely visual. In the early days, I used to take a sketch book along and draw to the music, trying to capture in line and shape the unexpected connections, tones, rhythms and patterns I always "saw" when listening to his music.

When I first met up with Dred, he was part of a trio in Akron known as Third Plane (Dred Scott - keyboards, Wilbur Krebs - bass/guitar, and JoJo Brigandi on drums). They played in a little art bar on South Main called The Bauhaus. Every Wednesday night for a year or so they played original jazz experimenting with avant garde sounds, and also transformed themselves into alternative bands, playing with punk or heavy metal forms. They were such a brilliant thing to have growing there on the dark abandoned streets of downtown Akron at that time. But you know how it goes -- an urban spot is blighted and abandoned, so the only ones who can afford to live there are artists and other dregs of society. The artists succeed in drawing attention to the area, so the developers follow and pretty soon it becomes too pricey for the artists and they all move along.

In the case of Third Plane, they simply outgrew NE Ohio. They were ready for bigger ponds, and so moved out to San Francisco and eventually went their separate ways. Dred played with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, was in Alphabet Soup, a really cool jazz hip hop group, and then moved on to NYC. He pretty much plays all over the world these days. His current trio (Dred - piano, Ben Rubin - acoustic bass, and Tony Mason - drums) can be seen in the clip below. Live last night, they were in top form, playing everything from Dred originals to Black Sabbath and modern spins on California 50s jazz. Guest artist MC Extra Cheese joined in for a couple of raps in both sets.

The Blue Note is a big deal jazz club -- they take it seriously at that club. There are rules: no jackets or coats can hang on the backs of chairs. The lights dim and the announcer lets us know that talking is not appreciated during the music. You can sit at a table for ten bucks or stand at the bar for five. Plus food/drink minimums and tips -- big night out for a Monday. (The weekend acts get $20 for bar tickets and $30 for table seats.)

The audience is serious about listening to jazz, and the place was packed with a very receptive audience. Dred always stretches the limits to places you never expect to be going -- I don't know that the Blue Note had ever experienced anything quite like it. A show to remember!

The continuing adventures...

2009-04-06T17:20:00.004-05:00

So far so very good on this spring break adventure. I am absolutely loving my smart car -- have traveled over 400 miles so far and have been achieving excellent mileage. I'm saving the gas receipts and keeping track of the miles so I can give out a final total at trip's end. I will say that driving route 6 through the parks, mountains and charming old towns and villages got me the best mileage yet. At a top speed of 55, going through high winds and some snow flurries, then on into brighter and warmer weather, the smart was shifting for the best mileage and certainly got it. For that stretch of the highway, we managed 334.9 miles on 6.557 gallons of premium (93). That's 51.07 mpg! Wow!

Of course, the true smart enthusiasts will caution that mpgs must be measured over time for a true average. I think the new gps system helped with the mileage. It made me constantly aware of the posted speed limits as I drove into and out of towns and along the way, all the while informing me of my actual speed. I found that I was always working to achieve the posted limit and not go past it. Oddly enough, the only other smart car I have seen along this journey suddenly appeared in my rearview mirror on old route 6.

The car did great through the Endless Mountains (sounds like a place in Middle Earth) and on up to Albany and Troy, where I stopped to stay with my good friend Ron, an actor with New York State Theatre Institute. Then yesterday afternoon, I drove down a beautiful highway on the eastern side of the Hudson to NYC and on to Brooklyn. From totally rural to the most intense urban streets in this country!

Tonight I'm off to see the Dred Scott Trio at the Blue Note. Two shows, one at 8 and one at 10:30 PM. I've been a fan of Dred's music since the good old days of Third Plane at the Bauhaus in Akron. Have been looking forward to this night for weeks now! More later -- gotta go have some great jazz!

On the road

2009-04-03T21:12:00.002-05:00

This week's glorious weather vanished as spring break approached. Rain and wind storms -- not my favorite driving conditions, but better than snow and ice. Fortunately, the rain had mostly dissipated by the time I had Mr Flash loaded and ready for the road.

My plan was to leave right after school let out, not wanting to waste a precious second of time off from work. I had most everything packed and ready to go. Had been working on the spring cleaning all week -- both at school and at home. Still, a bit remained so I beat it home and did the final tidying as the coffee heated and the cat watched in amazement as I dashed from top to bottom with loads of laundry and bags of things headed for the recycling bin.

I was on the road by 5:10 pm, and as I approached the expressway I noticed that traffic was jamming up. Time to take an alternate route through the city and catch 76 East beyond the central interchange. Somewhere between Akron and Youngstown, the smart car finally reached one thousand miles. I did feel the wind a bit on the highway, but it wasn't too startling. My old Ford Ranger was even more prone to being pushed about by the wind.

My plan was to get off the highways and head up Route 62 to the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, which stretches across PA from west to east on a more northern and far more scenic route than Interstate 80. Only got as far as Franklin, PA tonight before I decided that a room in a motel would be much more enjoyable than negotiating mountains in the rain and dark of night. The smart is handling the hills and curves with ease. I'm looking forward to better driving conditions tomorrow as I head across PA toward Albany to visit my friend Ron.

Back to the blog!

2009-03-30T16:00:00.003-05:00

Time to sneak in a blog post before March of 2009 vanishes completely. I am happy to share with you that the spring musical was worth all the effort poured into it -- the show was a huge success with our audiences and the young cast and crew members all managed to get healthy enough to make it through all four performances.

I don't know if this is just in Ohio or is happening elsewhere -- you tell me. We've had the most obnoxious germs and viruses showing up at school this year, far more than I can ever remember. Kids and adults have been out for days at a time, suffering from lingering fevers or nausea, wracking coughs and even bouts of dizziness that some have labeled the "vertigo disease." It wasn't simply one disease manifesting itself in different ways. Some had influenza B, a very contagious virus, and then went on to catch the next nasty bug going around. It took a dreadful toll on our cast members, particularly those who resided in the castle. The villagers were pretty much spared. It reminded me of Poe's Mask of the Red Death, as one by one the actors playing castle characters caught "the plague" and vanished for days on end. Opening night was the first time in weeks we had everybody there and in a relatively healthy state!

So no more long weeks of rehearsals after school. It was a thrill to leave at a normal time today and to see the sun shining and feel the earth basking in its glow. I was happy to take a walk around the garden this afternoon and note all the signs of spring. Forsythia blooming already and the tulips sending forth tall leaves. The lilac bush is noticeably active and already there are weeds trying to take over beds. The chives are a brilliant shade green in the herb bed. I bought some peas and spinach seeds to put in the garden. They need to be planted now while the ground is still cool and the temperatures are just right.

Spring break is almost upon us. I'm going to take a nice long trip in my smart car, traveling to upstate NY to visit friends and then down to the city for a few days of intense theatre-going. Will take the laptop along for blogging updates.

Until then, it is spring cleaning time here at the Village Green. Sweeping out the debris of winter and letting in the fresh air of spring!

Absent with leave

2009-03-10T23:06:00.004-05:00

If anyone has been taking attendance here in the Village Green , the blogger has been absent and will be out for a couple more weeks. We're in production mode at the moment, and the spring musical is all-consuming in its demands. Deadlines loom, etc.

Still love my smart car. The night manager at the Kenmore Akron came out to chat in the parking lot with me about, peppering me with questions. Then he came up as the cashier was toting up my bag of groceries and told the cashier all about the smart car in the lot. So she had to close up her register and follow me out to see it.

Everybody wants to know if it is safe. Yes very. And no, I am not afraid. I am a safe driver. No crashes since the age of 16 when I totaled my mom's Falcon. It wasn't some big smash up either. Somehow the brakes locked up as I went over a small hill and had to stop at a light. The car slid into one in front of me stopped at the light. That car didn't get a scratch but my mom's car crumpled right up. I had my brother and a group of inner city school children we'd taken to a picnic in a park. We'd been volunteering in the big city that summer. This was a culminating activity and I got us all in a wreck. Nobody was hurt except for me -- and only just a scratch on my cheek where it hit the steering wheel. It was a slo-mo kind of event, fortunately for all of us. It was a huge lesson and I've done my best to never crash again.

See you when the show is in shape and there's time to write again.

If someone smashes into you at high speed, it doesn't matter what you are driving -- the forces of physics will have their way with you and the hurtling metal.

Let's go Dri - i - i - i - iving!

2009-02-28T14:00:00.004-05:00

It's been a week since I brought Grippy home to Kenmore, which is where I've done most of my driving this week. We are in the "breaking in" mode which means that I've got about another 900 miles to go.

I did drive down to Green township this morning and then over to Barberton, to shop at the Price is Right Fabric store on Tuscarawas Blvd. The folks in the fabric shop were full of questions about the smart car.

How many gallons per mile?

From smart USA: The smart fortwo is designed to achieve 33 city/41 highway mpg according to 2008 EPA standards, which involves measuring mpg while taking into account real-life driving conditions such as start/stop city traffic, air-conditioning, heating etc. According to information obtained on fueleconomy.gov, the smart fortwo is the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid gasoline-powered vehicle in the USA today. The gas tank of the smart fortwo is 8.7 gallons.

*Fuel economy estimates were derived in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) vehicle testing procedures for model year 2008 as specified in 40 C.F.R. pts. 86 and 600 (2007). These estimates are intended for comparison between other vehicles within the same class. Individual drivers’ actual mileage will vary depending on how they drive and maintain their vehicles.

How can you fit all your groceries in that car?

The smart holds a lot more than people think it can. There are plenty of pictures online of how much stuff people can fit in a smart car. The back hatch holds up to 12 cubic feet should you fill it to the roof line, and when the passenger seat is folded down, one can have room for anything from a tuba to a bag of golf clubs or two Labrador retrievers. It can certainly hold more than a week's worth of groceries for one person and one cat.

How fast can that thing go?

After lumbering around town in a Ford Ranger truck for years, this smart car feels very zippy to me. I had it up to 70 before I knew it, first time on the freeway. Then I remembered to always observe the speed limit, especially during the car's break in period.

What's it like to drive?

In a word: FUN!

Stimulating the economy with a smart purchase

2009-02-21T22:36:00.005-05:00

Today I did my part by stimulating the economy with a purchase of a new smart car. The rep at the Smart Center in Bedford, OH said I would love driving the car and he was so right. I didn't want to stop driving it around today. I tested it in the city and the country, taking it out to Hinckley Park and Granger township to test the curves and hills on the narrow country roads.

The automated clutch takes a little bit of getting used to. I found that the lighter I was on the throttle in first to second, the better the shift. Yet out on the highway, I managed to zip up the entrance ramp and merge into traffic with no problem. Then I was going 65 before I knew it -- whoa! I could have easily gone faster if so inclined.

I took it to a few places in Montrose, checking out its parking capabilities. One should never pull a smart car all the way in to a parking place. Other drivers will attempt to pull in, because they don't see the rear of a car sticking out as they approach. A man and a woman came up to my window in the parking lot outside of Mustard Seed. Thought it might be an electric car. Nope, not yet -- a fleet of electric smarts are being tested in London this year. Maybe two or more years til they can be had here. The couple were totally struck by the car's uniqueness, and of course, cute-factor. The woman could not stop saying, "Oh how cute!" Like it's a pet or something.

Inside the showroom, the smart cars feel large and inviting. Outside, on the lot they almost look like toys compared to the rows of Mercedes in the lot next door. (in the beginning, Mercedes co-developed the smart with Swatch (watches) Group. The design elements are the result of forward thinking (ecologically and aesthetically) in approaching automotive design. Indeed the logo, a capital "C" (Compact) linked with an arrow (Forward Thinking) provides a visual manifesto, probably the shortest one ever written! The designation of an uncapitalized "smart" as brand name is playful and at the same time encourages us to be smart about everything that we make and use in our daily lives.

A smart car is exhibited in the Metropolitan museum of art. Smart enthusiasts wrap their plastic panels in skins and spray or hand-paint designs and images over the solid color plastic panels. The panels can be recycled into new panels for the smart cars of the future.

While some people view smart cars as design objects or fashion icons, I do think some smart owners have turned their cars into pets. They give them names such as "Bluebelle", "Mustard Seed" or "Bruiser" and assign them a gender. (Check out variously named vehicles at the Smart Car of America Forums, a place where the collective wisdom of smart enthusiasts is gathered and available for all.)

Today was a perfect Ohio all-kinds-of-weather-all-day-long day. I drove it off the lot into bone-chilling temps. So I reached for the seat heater button and felt immediate warming relief. Later, winds buffeted traffic on the expressway, but the smart stayed on course easily. After spending the evening with friends, I went out to depart to find snow and slush all over everything, including my new smart. I got in and headed up a slippery hill on one of Akron's delightful old red brick-paved streets. Not a slip or slide. "Grippy," I thought.

Naturally, by the end of day one, I was calling the car "Grippy" out loud, practicing my best Stephen Colbert imitation. I tried to avoid the issue of gender. Grippy is all black on the exterior, with a hot red with black interior design. I know when the panels are switched out to red against the black tridion, the car's name will change. And once the Kinks Preservation Society bumper sticker goes on, the car will gain a gender as well. Red and black and Preservation -- Here Comes Mr Flash!

And I swore I'd never name a car! Well, I'll never fork over the money for vanity plates. Because I have to save up for a navigating system. Gotta keep stimulating that economy, you know.

Pix to come soon. What you see above is a stock photo of a black Passion with black interior.

Sickly thoughts on health care

2009-02-19T19:08:00.004-05:00

Home with the stomach flu -- ugh. I'm gaining a new appreciation for the restorative powers of BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce and (dry) toast. I'm feeling a whole lot better after a day of rest and the bland diet. Enough so that I can manage to sit in front of the computer and check in with the world once again.

On the news today, I watched Obama's news conference in Canada with prime minister Stephen Harper. One interesting point -- when Harper said that the Canadian stimulus bill was very large but not approaching the size of the US stimulus package -- because Canadian health care doesn't need bailing out.

From the Orangeville Citizen:

We wonder whether he's aware of the fact that while Canada's medicare system had its beginnings in Saskatchewan under the leadership of a socialist premier who happened to be a Baptist minister, the most important step forward was agreement among the provinces that with federal financial aid they could operate their own programs that would be both universal and portable, so all Canadians can be covered even when they move to another province.
Perhaps Mr. Harper or Mr. Ignatieff might give their guest a few tips on the subject of federal-provincial relations, and even suggest he consider the idea of making universal health care a topic of a federal-state conference that would see him invite the 50 state governors to the White House for talks on jointly solving the current health care crisis.
The idea would be to have the governors agree to something similar to the U.S. Interstate Highway program devised by the Eisenhower administration half a century ago. Under that scheme, the impressive system of freeways and toll roads criss-crosses the 48 continental states with each state responsible for building and maintaining the roadways with the federal government contributing much of the costs.
Such an approach would no doubt lead to a wide variety of programs, with individual states deciding whether to offer a mix of public and private insurance options or simply to pick up the tab for those who couldn't afford the private-sector premiums.
However, if Ontario's experience is any indication, the public/private medley won't be cost effective.
Today, few Ontarians are aware of the attempt by the Conservative government of the day to give residents a choice between insurance from the private carriers and the Ontario Medical Services Insurance Plan (OMSIP). Not surprisingly, the private sector wound up with a disproportionate share of healthy Ontarians, saddling OMSIP with far too many with outstanding health problems.
The solution lay in OMSIP's replacement on Oct. 1, 1969, by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), which displaced all the private carriers for everything except supplemental coverage.
It's an idea that proved successful and today is employed in all 10 provinces, the only remaining differences being whether to finance health care through premiums or taxes and whether to cover some new medical procedures when experts cannot agree as to their effectiveness.

Can the US ever wrest itself from the private carriers and the pharmaceutical companies? Will 50 million uninsured folks ever receive affordable coverage? What I really don't understand is why it is so difficult for the people in charge to understand that health insurance costs are what is killing our industries. All because some people freak out at the term "socialized medicine."

Call me crazy, but I'd gladly give up my very decent school teacher health and retirement plans if all Americans could receive the same fair plans.

smart car football (soccer)

2009-02-15T15:24:00.003-05:00

Forgive the lack of content around here this past week. Things are very busy and other projects have taken precedence. However, I am going to do my duty and stimulate the economy by purchasing a new car -- after Obama signs the stimulus package on Tuesday. Because then I can write off the tax on this purchase. There is some discussion on the smart Car of America forums as to whether the new car tax write off is retroactive to Nov 08.

While I tend to other matters, please enjoy this smart car football match, with England versus Germany. This was filmed for BBC's Top Gear program. Further details here:

Alas poor Oberon...

2009-02-09T00:03:00.005-05:00

I took Obie for his final vet appointment last Friday. His life was no longer fun in any way for him. He had stopped eating, refused to take his pills and was having great difficulty getting up and down the stairs to go outside. His hair was coming out in huge chunks from all the stress and pain of shrunken muscles and arthritis in the hips. I couldn't bear watching him waste away.

When I got to the vet's I found I had to wait in line for my pet to be euthanized. A woman ahead of me began sobbing inconsolably as her cat was put down. Fortunately, I had left Obie in the truck while I went in to handle the paperwork and payments. To sit there and wait with him while that was going on would have been too much to take. So I sat alone in the lobby and silently dabbed at my own tears while the woman mourned her cat. Once she left, I went out for Obie. Carried him in and held him in my arms. He buried his head in my chest as the shot brought him down.

I felt for the vet and her staff. Euthanasia's are scheduled at the end of the day. The final final appointments. Hell of a way to end your day and to have them stacked up in a row. Life sucks when it has to end, that's for sure.

Oberon was a big dog with a Husky's coat and eyes, and a retriever's joy in fetching objects. He lived a good 15 years. The past couple of weeks brought about a rapid decline. He wasn't going to get better and the pain was only going to get worse. It's a very hard thing to go through, but I only hope that should I face that kind of death, I'll find the help I need to go beyond the pain.

I got back in my truck and headed home to pack for Cincinnati for a weekend of professional development. I left the cat in the care of the pet sitter. Got on 71 and headed all the way down past Columbus through Queen City and on into Kentucky to a hotel at the airport. A four and half hour drive. For company, I had the new Kinks box set, Picture Book. I sang along through the six CDs all the way there. I sang away the ache in my heart for Obie for most of the way. But certain songs brought tears to my eyes. Misfits, for example: "Because it's true what they say, every dog has his day."

When I found Obie 15 years ago, he was a lost puppy in the middle of traffic in East Ave. I was a first year drama teacher, too poor to buy a car, walking home from school. I spotted this scrawny dirty puppy and called him out of harm's way. He attached himself immediately to me, imprinting like a newly hatched gosling, and he has been a one woman dog for the past 15 years. Totally loyal. I am missing my shadow tonight. He's not under the computer table. He's not giving me the bizarro eye stare indicating it is time to go outside.

Obie had one white eye and one brown eye. His eyes had been deteriorating of late. Sometimes I'd find him standing vacantly staring at nothing, looking lost and bewildered. Doggie dementia, perhaps.

Above is the last portrait of Oberon with favorite squeaky toy. We had a good time together over winter break. He loved to catch and fetch his toys. We had a good long run together.
Alas poor Oberon, I knew him well...a canine of infinite joy in squeaky toys.

Stimulus This: The Arts = Jobs

2009-02-08T21:37:00.004-05:00

I was handed a flier today with the following information on it.

The Arts = Jobs

5.7 million jobs
100,000 Nonprofit Arts Organizations
612,000 Arts Centric Businesses
4.3% of all American Businesses
$29.6 billion in Taz Revenues
$166.2 billion Total Economic Impact

Keep support for arts jobs in the economic recovery bill.

Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts Action Fund
Arts & Business Council
Performing Arts Alliance
Chamber Music America
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies

www.AmericansForTheArts.org

Ohio's senators both voted for the Coburn Amendment

2009-02-07T23:05:00.004-05:00

I just sent an email to Senators Brown and Voinovich. Both voted for the Coburn amendment yesterday, acquiescing to Republican demands for cuts in stimulus spending. The GOP won't be happy until we are all uneducated and uncultured louts. They made a long list of projects that shouldn't be funded, including museums and theatres along with other "entertainments" such as casinos. These projects were called "wasteful" and "non-stimulative." I agree that casinos are not essential to our survival as a culture, but grouping arts and non-profit museums into that category is a disgrace:

Here's my email:

I was horrified to learn you voted for the Coburn amendment yesterday. This is the amendment that lumped funding museums and theatre along with casinos into an amendment that cuts funding to such projects.

Make no mistake -- arts and non-profit educational organizations are in just as much danger of failing as banks and automakers. Which is more essential to our human condition -- an art museum or a gas-driven pollution machine?

I do not like the way this so-called stimulus package is taking on the face of congress -- white and male oriented. Are theatres too sissy for funding? Is it okay that the Akron Art museum is cutting back hours and staff because its endowment is shrinking along with the economy?

Theatres are closing across the country. Why won't you support funding opportunities that will keep theatre workers employed?

I hope to read a substantial response from you on your web site or in the media, not just one of your canned email replies.

Contact your senators if you think museums, theatres and other cultural institutions are worthy of stimulus funds.

Give me some stimulus, please!

2009-02-05T22:02:00.004-05:00

Sorry folks -- real life intrudes way too much these days. However, I swear to you I will continue this blog sooner rather than later. Although I've been quiet here, I have been watching the continuing petty dramas imposed by the defeated GOP. Put me in the "fed up with the bipartisan approach" category. Get Franken in the Senate and a moderate New England style GOP placeholder for New Hampshire and keep slapping down the Republican amendments and hissy fits. Just do it!.

Also, if we must have bi-partisanship, then lets demand a genuine progressive appointee in the new government for every Republican brought into the Obama White House. I weep no tears for Tom Daschle and wish that Tim Geithner could be replaced by -- oh say -- Paul Krugman. As my mum says, nobody is irreplaceable. If there is only one superduper person on the planet to fill any particular slot, then we are all doomed. If ever a cabinet post needed to be filled by a progressive, it would be that of Health and Human Services.

Still waiting for more of a hue and cry against the rip off artists extraordinaire who ran the economy into the ground and who have their obscene profts hidden in off shore accounts. Also waiting to see changes in the programming on all the Home and Style networks on television. Reality shows about going through foreclosure. A Survivor series for the unemployed job seekers. Health Care roulette -- spin the wheel to see if you earn enough for a MRI. Now into the Bonus Round to see if you can win a free prescription.

Other than that, I've been staying inside away from the cold as much as possible. Wish I could go into hibernation mode, but there is too much work on my plate and not enough time to get it all done. I'll be away for the weekend, but will take the laptop in case there is time and motivation to blog.

Until the recovery, everybody sing:

Cheap is small and not too steep
But best of all cheap is cheap
Circumstance has forced my hand
To be a cut price person in a low budget land
Times are hard but we'll all survive
I just got to learn to economize

Here Comes Flash

2009-02-01T00:00:00.004-05:00

More glimpses of what was performed as "Preservation, Acts One and Two" by the Kinks. These excerpts are from a 1975 Kinks concert at the Beacon Theatre in NYC, 1975. I just love the costumes and the old British music hall vibe. Is that Ray disguised as a Scared Housewife? Dave lays down some mean lead guitar in this number and looks totally hot in that spiv outfit. The chorus of Scared Housewives are

At the beginning of the clip, you can see a snow cloud of paper plates alighting on stage. An old tradition that continues to this day --fans requesting favorite Kinks songs by writing them on paper plates and tossing them on stage. (I remember two determined fans in Cleveland with a home-made banner they hung over the balcony requesting Waterloo Sunset and the utmost joy that emanated from that portion of the balcony when the request was granted at the encore.)

Flash is the attraction and allure of complete self-gratification and that tawdry glow that comes with being flush with other people's money. Flash is a Wall Street executive who made a lot of money on other people's misery and feels no regrets. He's a ponzi schemer and a hedge fund millionaire. As the song says:

There's no way that you can win,
You must obey his every whim
Or else he's going to do you in.
Here Comes Flash.

The rest of the sing along words can be found here.

Slum Kids

2009-01-29T21:11:00.002-05:00

Here in the slums of lower south Akron, we're dealing with too much snow, a broken water heater, not to mention there's a crack up in the ceiling and the bathroom sink is leaking...

"Why do rich kids get all the breaks, while the poor slum kids have to work, sweat, struggle and slave?"

Here's another from the Beacon Theatre, in NYC 1975. A Preservation track. Everybody sing along now.

Women and artists cut out of stimulus package

2009-01-28T16:00:00.004-05:00

Republicans are screaming no to spending on contraceptives. Backward looking thugs all over again. Less humans, not more would be the sustainable and ecological thing to promote. And which segment of society has less money to spend on safe reliable contraceptives? The very people who can't afford to have more children. It's a no brainer, but who ever accused the GOP of ruling from a rational view point?

The of course, there's howling against more money for the National Endowment for the Arts. Professional arts companies are shrivelling and dying, leaving thousands of artists without jobs. Arts institutions are cutting costs by opening less hours and cutting staff. Our own Akron Art Museum is closing on Sundays. A friend of mine just lost her job there.

What to do? In a fit of frustration, I sent off emails to my elected federal officials. I hope you are moved to do so as well. Here's the text of my emails and links to my representative and senators.

I am very concerned that the concessions being made to Republicans in the stimulus bill are focused against women and artists. Contraceptives, like health care, should be available to everyone. The arts must be funded and considered to be "shovel-ready" projects along with infrastructures. Jobs should go to women as well as men and to artists as well as construction workers.

Our governor called for a new education program for the new century today. He wants to emphasize creativity, problem-solving, leadership, collaborative thinking, and communication skills -- all skills that can be taught through the arts.

"Bipartisanship" should not mean turning women and artists into second class citizens.

Contact your senators and congressperson today.

Senator Brown
Senator Voinovich
Congresswoman Sutton.

Smart as geese? Strickland's education proposals for Ohio

2009-01-28T14:54:00.004-05:00

How fortunate to have the day off from school on the day the governor presents his plan for Ohio education.

Some highlights:

Extend the school year 20 days to students are in school for 200 days per year.

Extend the school day to provide after school programming in wellness and intervention services.

Teachers must go through a four year residency requirement before earning a license.

Bad teachers must go. Ditto bad principals and other administrations. (No specifics on how this will be handled. It will have to be evidence-based. See following point.)

Everything must be evidence-based.

Add to the core subjects: courses that teach creativity, problem-solving, communication, collaboration and leadership skills. (sounds like Ohio needs more drama teachers!)

Drop Ohio Graduation Exam and replace with all Ohio seniors must take the ACT and three additional tests before graduating. All seniors must complete a senior project that shows creativity, collaboration and higher level thinking skills.

Here's the education portion of Strickland's State of the State speech:

(For full text go here. )

Together, we must focus our energies and resources on the programs most vital to our future prosperity. First on that list is education.

In the 1830s, Samuel Lewis was hired as Ohio’s first state superintendent of schools. Lewis was given the task of making sure that every child in every town was provided a quality education.

Lewis needed to know how many schools we had, where they were, what and who they taught. He couldn’t get the information he needed any other way, so he climbed atop his horse and he rode from town to town and school to school. He spoke to teachers and parents and students and people he met in the town square.

Lewis’ journey took him a total of 1,200 miles as he circled Ohio and prepared a report for the legislature.

Lewis wrote in his report that public schools in Ohio must be “free to all, rich and poor, on equal terms.” He said there was no greater tribute to patriotism than supporting strong public schools.

And Lewis concluded that the commitment to improving Ohio’s schools must be made immediately. He wrote, “Every year’s delay is adding mountains of obstacles to be overcome. We need no longer direct public attention to the future – to our children’s children – to the third and fourth generation, before the promised blessings are realized. Nothing will be more hurtful,” he said, “than procrastination.”

Seventeen decades later, you can Google Lewis’ report and see that his words still ring true. And what’s more, if Lewis were to ride his horse up to one of our schools today, he would immediately recognize what he was looking at. He would recognize our school day. He would recognize our school year. In too many schools he would recognize the typical classroom with rows of students lined up to listen to a teacher and record, rather than interact, with the information being provided.

Now there is no doubt that by working together we have made improvements in our schools.

Over the last two years we reduced the tax burden on local communities as the state now provides the majority of funds needed for our local schools.

Together we took the school building program that Governor Taft and the legislature created, and we expanded it to fund hundreds of new and renovated school buildings. And our new schools are being built to efficiency standards that will reduce our energy costs for the life of the building. In fact, Ohio has the largest energy efficient school building program in the nation.

Our education system has been strengthened immeasurably by the vision of legislators and other leaders who have long been committed to seeing that Ohio’s schools rank among the nation’s best.

I share that commitment. And while I didn’t ride on horseback, I have spent the past two years visiting every corner of our great state. I’ve met with parents, educators, researchers, business and community leaders. I’ve looked at the best research available on what we should teach and how we should teach it. And in the last few months I’ve benefited from the considerable experience and wisdom of Ohio’s new Superintendent of Public Instruction Deborah Delisle.

It is absolutely clear to me that simply tinkering with centuries-old education practices will not prepare Ohio’s children for success in college, in the workplace, or in life. Therefore, today I present my plan to build our education system anew.

The plan is based on a very simple premise: we should design our education system around what works. I have embraced an evidence-based education approach that harnesses research results and applies those findings to Ohio’s specific circumstances.

Now there will surely be those who protest that education research isn’t perfect. But frankly, we cannot afford to ignore the best available answers. Medical research isn’t perfect either, but it saves lives.

My Ohio evidence-based plan is designed to provide the best education we can for all of Ohio’s students. The elements of my plan are supported by evidence, and that evidence will guide our implementation of the plan over the next eight years.

First, what we teach and how we teach will prepare Ohioans to thrive in the 21st Century.

Students will, of course, continue to learn the timeless core subjects like math and science that are critical to their success. But we will also add new topics including global awareness and life skills to the curriculum. And we will use teaching methods that foster creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration, media literacy, leadership and productivity, cultural awareness, adaptability and accountability.

These are the skills that help people thrive in their lives. These are the skills our business leaders look for in the people they hire. These are the skills we find in people who create jobs, create products, and create entirely new industries.

Under my plan, the Ohio Department of Education will set standards for Ohio schools requiring innovative teaching formats. Interdisciplinary methods, project-based learning, real world lessons, and service learning will be the norm.

For example, a history teacher might build a lesson around a novel being read in an English class. Students might write a research paper that winds up in the school newspaper instead of being tossed in the trash can.

The learning experience will be built around the individual student. Lessons will not end when a fact is memorized. Students will be given a chance to interact with information, to follow up on the subjects that fascinate, to think critically and creatively and to use what they’ve learned to draw conclusions.

Our schools are not assembly lines and our students are not widgets. We will teach to each individual student’s need because we recognize that it is the surest path to seeing our young people reach their full potential.

Second, under my plan, we will expand learning opportunities.

Over a ten-year period we will add 20 instructional days to the school calendar – bringing Ohio’s learning year up to the international average of 200 days.

We will end the outdated practice of giving our most impressionable students only a half-day of learning. Ohio will now require universal all-day kindergarten.

We will provide resources to expand the learning day for all students with activities such as community service, tutoring, and wellness programs.

We will build on our ‘Closing the Achievement Gap’ initiative to take what we’ve learned from the existing program to help us provide enhanced intervention services in schools with high dropout rates.

We will create community engagement teams in our schools. We will place nurses in our schools. We will have professionals in the schools who will help educators, families and community service providers come together to help our children succeed.

And for the first time the state will provide dedicated resources for instructional materials and enrichment activities.

We will celebrate learning with new academic achievement competitions and awards that make learning as publicly praised as athletics. With the creation of the Ohio Academic Olympics, students will compete in science, in math, in writing, in debate, in the arts, and in technology.

Now, there are some who would say we’ll never fill the seats of a stadium for this kind of competition. But I’ll tell you this; the winners of this competition will be able to design the stadium.

Knowing that America’s children are among the world’s leaders in the amount of television they watch, we are claiming a few more hours of childhood for reading, thinking, community projects, and other activities. And in exchange for those few hours, we will give our students a lifetime of advantages.

Third, under my plan, we will improve educator quality.

There is simply nothing that we as policymakers can influence in our schools that is as consequential as providing top quality teachers for our students.

And before I go any further let me say something directly to Ohio’s teachers: thank you. Thank you for what you do for Ohio’s young people and for Ohio’s future. I hope that every day as you work you take a moment to remember that you can never tell where your influence stops.

So, under my plan, in recognition of the enormous importance of excellent teachers, we will revolutionize teacher preparation and development in Ohio with a residency program. Just as future doctors begin their careers under the watchful eye of an experienced colleague, we will give our new teachers the benefit of thoughtful guidance from an accomplished senior teacher. After a four-year residency, successful candidates will earn their professional teaching license.

We will recognize the development of a teacher’s skills and accomplishments with a career ladder that begins with their residency and can build up to lead teacher, a person whose credentials, experience, and student results warrant additional responsibilities. That means for the first time our teachers will have the opportunity to advance their careers based on objective evidence of student progress.

Our lead teachers will play an active role in overseeing new teachers in the residency program and assisting all their colleagues.

We will provide collaborative planning time so that the best ideas of the best teachers can spread across a school and reach the most students. Mentoring, coaching and peer review will be a standard part of a teacher’s job.

We will harness the expertise of the Chancellor of Higher Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to collaborate on professional development programs and innovative techniques for the classroom.

Let me say that not everyone is cut out to be a teacher. And the residency program will identify them. But even for teachers already in the field, we must have the ability to remove them from the classroom if their students are not learning. Right now, it’s harder to dismiss a teacher than any other public employee. Under my plan, we will give administrators the power to dismiss teachers for good cause, the same standard applied to other public employees.

We will create a Teach Ohio program to open a path to licensure for professionals who have the subject knowledge but lack coursework in education methods. Teach Ohio participants will complete an intensive course in classroom methods and then be eligible to begin the four-year residency program.

Scholarships will be made available for future teachers who agree to teach in hard to staff schools or in hard to staff subjects.

Our university teacher education programs will be redesigned to meet the needs and standards of our primary and secondary schools. The Chancellor of Higher Education will be empowered to reward university education programs that best prepare their students for success as teachers in Ohio.

We will strengthen our licensing standards for school principals while giving them the ability and the responsibility to properly manage their schools.

We will create standards for the mastery of both education and management principles for school superintendents, school treasurers and other business officials.

And you know, good ideas shouldn’t be something we stumble on accidentally. That’s why my plan creates a research and development function within the Department of Education. The department’s Center for Creativity and Innovation will monitor research and results from across the country and across the world to keep Ohio schools and Ohio educators informed of new advances.

We take these steps to strengthen the education profession because we recognize that our teachers, much like doctors and pilots, hold lives in their hands, and we must do everything we can to make it possible for them to do their jobs extraordinarily well.

Fourth, under my plan, we will measure ourselves against the world.

Ohio’s current graduation test does not measure creativity, problem solving, and other key skills. We will make our assessments both relevant and rigorous by replacing the Ohio Graduation Test with the ACT and three additional measures.

All students will take the ACT college entrance examination, not only to measure their high school achievement, but to help raise students’ aspirations for higher education. Students will also take statewide ‘end of course’ exams, complete a service learning project, and submit a senior project.

These four measures will give our graduating high school seniors the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge, creativity, and problem solving skills, in short, to demonstrate precisely the skills that will help them succeed in life.

In grades 3 through 8, our assessments will also be entirely rewritten to test for mastery of the information and skills in the curriculum.

Our goal in our teaching and in our testing is nothing short of national and international leadership.

Fifth, under my plan, we will establish an unprecedented level of school district accountability and transparency.

School districts will undergo performance audits overseen by the Department of Education to make sure they are maintaining the academic and operating standards we’ve established.

Districts will report their spending plans before each school year and then account for every dollar at the conclusion of the school year.

And just as we provide an academic report card for our schools, we will provide parents, public officials, and taxpayers an annual fiscal and operational report card for every school district. That means that when we send districts funding to help students who need additional attention and instruction, we will now be able to track our dollars to see that they directly reach those students.

Failure to comply with our standards will result, first, in the assigning of technical assistance to help a school district correct its deficiencies. If the problem persists, a district will be required to present a comprehensive plan outlining how it will reach full compliance with our academic and operating standards. Continued failure would result in the district being placed in receivership, with entirely new leadership installed. And finally, if the district remains non-compliant, the State Board of Education would be required to revoke the school district’s charter.

In short, if a school district fails, we will shut it down.

And, as we establish a new level of accountability in our school districts, we must also establish accountability in our charter schools.

For those who may have misunderstood my position on charter schools, I want to be very clear. I support charter schools that meet the same high standards we demand of traditional public schools. Charter schools that hire quality teachers, show fiscal and academic accountability, are regulated by the Department of Education, and are not run by for-profit management services have a place in my plan.

Now, in order to implement our evidence-based model, our students will need educators, support staff, materials, and special programs necessary to deliver a 21st century education. And by defining what our students need, we have in the process defined the resources our schools need.

The first step in providing those resources is eliminating aspects of our current funding system that are, quite frankly, indefensible.

In the current system, when the state calculates how much tax revenue a school district has, the state uses phony numbers. You may have heard this called ‘phantom revenue.’ For example, in many school districts, rising property values do not produce additional property tax revenue. But the state formula for school aid assumes districts do get additional tax revenue. That’s not logical, and it results in many districts being punished because the formula says they have an abundance of phantom dollars that don’t actually exist.

Under my plan, the state will no longer ask school districts to pay their bills with phantom dollars.

Instead, my plan lowers what our local taxpayers are expected to contribute to local schools from 23 mills to 20 mills. The state will assume responsibility for providing the difference between what those 20 mills raise and the cost of the full range of educational resources our students need according to our evidence-based approach.

Additionally, districts will have the option of asking voters to pass a conversion levy. Now, a conversion levy simply maintains the existing millage on residential property for a district currently above 20 mills.

Districts that use a conversion levy, and all districts whose tax structure already allows growth on 20 mills, will see their tax revenues grow with increased property values, helping schools to keep up with inflation.

Last November alone we had more than 200 school districts asking voters to approve school levies. Under my plan, school districts that choose this option will not have to go to the ballot year after year just to stay even with inflation.

And, we will strengthen the historic partnership between the state and our local school districts. When I came into office, local school districts paid for the majority of school costs. In the upcoming two-year budget, even with grave economic challenges facing Ohio and the nation, my plan will take the state’s share of education funding to 55 percent. As our Ohio evidence-based plan is fully phased in, the state’s share will grow to an unprecedented 59 percent.

And when we do these things, I believe we will have finally and unquestionably met our constitutional obligation to our children.

What’s more, together we’ll make Ohio one of the first states with a school year 200 days long.

Together we’ll make Ohio among the first states to place 21st century skills like creativity, problem solving, communication and leadership at the center of its curriculum.

Together we’ll make Ohio the first state with a comprehensive residency program for new teachers.

Together we’ll make Ohio among the first states to require universal all day kindergarten.

And we’ll take these steps with a very deliberate purpose. It’s because, as President Kennedy once put it, “We want to be first. Not first if. Not first but, but first.”

We will graduate Ohioans ready to succeed in the modern economy and in modern life. Future generations will look back gratefully and say that when we came together on education, we claimed this new century for Ohio.

Now, the words I quoted earlier aren’t Franklin Roosevelt’s best remembered comments about economic hardship. His most famous words were: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” That’s a wonderful sentiment. But the truth is, our people have a good deal more to fear than fear. The loss of a job, a home, health care, and a pension hovers over far too many of our neighbors.

So I stand before you today with the unshakable knowledge that Ohio has been an economic powerhouse for 200 years, and, my friends, I believe Ohio’s best days are yet to come.

Whether we progress swiftly or slowly, however, will be in direct proportion to how well we work together.

If you looked up at the sky as the weather turned cold and the birds headed south for the winter, you probably saw a flock of geese flying together in a V formation.

Many years ago a pastor asked his congregation, “Do you know why geese fly in a V instead of side by side?” And then he explained, they fly in a V because it allows each goose to reduce the wind resistance for the bird flying behind it. By flying in formation, the whole flock strengthens each individual bird, allowing each goose to fly vastly greater distances together than it could possibly fly alone.

My friends, surely we are as smart as the goose. We can share a common direction, a sense of common purpose, and in so doing we can strengthen each other even as we strengthen ourselves.

Money Talks

2009-01-26T19:56:00.003-05:00

I really don't have time for intensive blogging this week. Got real world stuff on the plate all week. Fortunately, some incredible previously unreleased Kinks concert footage just popped up on YouTube: live performances of songs from Preservation, the Kinks show of my dreams. I never got to see Preservation. But Preservation made me a Kinks fan for life. And I still hope one day to direct a production of it.

Two guys from Chicago emailed me over the summer. They were thinking of mounting a production of Preservation prior to the election. Nothing came of it, evidently. Wrong election for that show. Dog help us all should Obama turn out to be Flash or Mr Black.

Yet this rock musical remains timely. The cynicism of Preservation applies to governments near and far, at every level. So difficult to know if the person we vote for will turn out to be one of the good pols or one of the bad 'uns. Some people we don't even get to vote for, but their actions will have profound effects upon our collective and individual futures.

Take the newly confirmed secretary of the treasury, for example. Tim Geithner. He's supposed to be the one who will save the economy and the glorious capitalistic society in which we have shopped until we dropped, polluting the entire planet along the way. Do we really want to save the mode of living that brought us to this predicament? Do we return to flipping houses and betting on futures. Junk bonds, hedge funds.

I'm no economist, but I do know that "Money Talks." From the Beacon Theatre in NYC, 1975. Sing along words here. Thanks to KKfromNJ for posting this on YouTube:

O'Bama

2009-01-24T12:20:00.002-05:00

While we get ready to go greener in the kitchen with new Energy Star appliances here at the Village Green, I'm posting this incredible Irish ditty by the Corrigan Brothers for you all to enjoy.

Lyrics are here. And a tip of the flat wool cap to Dr Don. Everybody sing along now:

Community Forum on the Economic Crisis

2009-01-21T23:13:00.002-05:00

Concerned about the current economic crisis? If you live in the Akron area, here's a group of people who are hosting an evening of discussions about ways to deal with it in our community. I am especially interested in the barter network they setting up.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Community Forum on the Economic Crisis

Thursday, January 22
6:45 pm –8:45 pm
Meeting Rooms A & B
Akron Main Public Library
60 S. High Street, Akron

This is a follow up to the December 9th Town Hall Meeting on the Economic Crisis

Discussion – Debate – Decisions

on

Federal Economic Stimulus
The Obama Administration is proposing a $825 billion tax and spending package which seeks to create and save 3 to 4 million jobs, and jumpstart the economy. Millions of dollars will be coming to Akron and other Summit Co. communities for construction, energy, housing, education, technology, social services, and other projects. What can we do to pressure our federal elected representatives to pass the stimulus bill and our local elected representatives to make sure it goes to meet the greatest needs?

Bailout of Wall Street Banks
The 2nd half of the $700 billion bailout funds will soon be voted on the House of Representatives. What can we do to make sure that the $350 billion is used to help people who face foreclosure instead of providing banks another blank check to use the funds virtually as they please.

Creation of Local Barter Network
It was agreed at the December 9th meeting to launch a local program where people can exchange goods and services to meet their needs. We’ll spend time discussing details of setting up a local program.

AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE
Northeast Ohio Office
2101 Front St., #111, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221
Phone: 330-928-2301 Website: www.afsc.net

-----------

Ushering in the new era

2009-01-20T22:10:00.005-05:00

Televisions were on all over our school building today. I stepped back from "teaching" and did a lot of observing. I was so happy for my students, that they should have such a powerful and positive experience. "This is history today and all of us are a part of it, no matter our politics or ethnic background." That is all I said, and they sat so attentively and respectfully, drinking in every moment of the actual inauguration and the speech that followed.

I sat behind them, watching the young African-American students sitting up taller. The glow on their faces bounced around the room and I was suddenly struck all over again by the beautiful diversity of my students: Asian, Hispanic, black, white, students of native American descent and students who are children of immigrants -- all taking pride in the election of somebody who grew up "different" from the norm.

It was impossible not to reflect upon my own schooling, and I shared with one class that my education had been segregated because that's the way it was for most of us in the 1950s and 1960s. There was no diversity when I was in elementary school, nor in middle or high school. It wasn't until university that the faces around me in my classes took on a more global aspect. What a loss, is all I could think. We would have all been so much better off growing up mixed together rather than kept so far apart.

And then I thought of the times that we were drawn to the television for collective viewing when I was a student: the deaths of John and Bobby Kennedy and the death of Martin Luther King Jr. The race riots, The nightly Vietnam War death counts. The crumbling of the Nixon reign. About the only positive television memory I can summon was watching the astronauts take their first tentative steps toward outer space and eventually land on the moon.

But my students today were barely three years old when 9/11 shook our world. They hear others' memories of the ugliness of segregation, but have never experienced it for themselves. They have not seen the hatred that strikes down beloved leaders. I cannot expect that their lives will never be touched by a collective national tragedy. But I do expect that this youngest of generations will carry in their hearts and minds the memory of this day, and that they will find what it takes to move the human race further ahead socially, politically and ecologically.

Unfortunately, the bell rang in the middle of Obama's inaugural speech, and I had to usher out one class and bring in another, but what I heard was both bracing and inspiring and I couldn't wait to get home to find a transcription and reflect upon his words to us all. The following passage, in particular, is one to reflect upon and remember:

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

Celeste Family article in the NYT and other inaugural thoughts

2009-01-19T19:10:00.005-05:00

A very nice profile of several generations of Ohio's Celeste family, headed to the inaugural. I'm sure they are not the only Democratic family that struggled throughout the primaries. Check it out here.

Too bad the inauguration is on a work day. I've decided that my students and I will view it in real time during drama classes. After all, it is a giant spectacle that employs a lot of entertainment industry people to pull it off. Beyond the networks and all the media on and off camera workers, you have the crews who erect the stage, design the setting, and deal with audience issues.

I'm also sure we can discuss things like techniques of speech writing and delivery in ways that go beyond partisan debates. At least, that's the lesson plan!

A concert made for you and me

2009-01-19T00:22:00.004-05:00

I was trying to post a small tribute to Woody Guthrie tonight, after hearing Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen sing This Land Is Your Land at the We Are One concert held Sunday afternoon on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately, the post got all garbled with formatting problems and I had to delete it after publishing it -- due to the weirdness of the way it turned out, with sentences chopped and lost.

So here it is again, in shortened version. It was a thrill to see Pete Seeger with his banjo exhorting the crowd to sing all the verses. And there are some great verses in that song, including my very favorites. This one:

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

And this one:

As I was walkin'  -  I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side  .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

You don't get to hear that verse very often. How fitting that it came about on national television, with rousing backing by a youth choir as well as Pete's grandson and Bruce Springsteen singing along. Pete, was on everybody's blacklist for way too long, radical rabble-rouser that he has been for 89 years now! He looked and sounded great, even had the energy to jog off the stage when it was over.

It brought tears to my eyes and it made me want to hear Woody Guthrie, the fellow who made up that song in the depths of the depression. He didn't really mean for it to be a patriotic number, but rather a tribute to those who struggle to survive. Here's a snippet with footage of Woody in action:

Watch the Obama Inauguration free in East London

2009-01-17T19:08:00.005-05:00

If you happen to be living or visiting in the UK, you can attend an Obama inauguration viewing party -- for free -- at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, in East London. It is a very appropriate place to hold such an event, as this area of East London is home to immigrants from around the world, a microcosm representing the world's hopes and dreams:

Obama Inauguration

Barack ObamaCelebrate the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama with Theatre Royal Stratford East.

Theatre Royal will be screening the full historic event LIVE from Washington DC as it happens on Tuesday 20 January.

The Inauguration of Barack Obama is scheduled for 5pm. Our doors are open from 4pm.

The event will be hosted by Kat Francois

Live entertainment in the Bar, DJ ‘til late

Hot Dogs, popcorn etc!

FREE ENTRY

Places are limited and allocated on a first come first served basis so, to make sure you get yours contact Emma on 020 8279 1138 or e-mail: invites@stratfordeast.com

In the same email from the the Stratford East, this request. If you haven't voted in the Theatregoers Choice Awards for Ray Davies's musical, Come Dancing, there's still time:

What's On Stage Theatregoers Choice Awards

There's still time to vote in the What's on Stage Theatregoers choice awards. We're chuffed to have 2 of our shows nominated. So if you haven't cast your vote yet then click here.

Voting closes on the 31st January 2009

Taking a look at the Kinks' Picture Book

2009-01-16T22:11:00.005-05:00

What? They didn't include Phenomenal Cat?

Kinks fans finally have a box set honoring the music of the best band to ever come out of the UK. Picture Book is a 6 CD collection of music spanning the decades between the 1960s and the 1990s. This set may or may not be any fan's dream compilation. Certainly it has lead to intense discussions on the Kinks Preservation Society mailing list. Some fans want more of the hits, while others want more rarities and obscure tracks.

Organized chronologically, the six discs contain 138 tracks. Checking out the Unofficial Kinks Web Site, we find 601 songs listed. Many of those are from either Ray or Dave solo albums, but even so a lot of great Kinks songs did not make the cut for this compilation. I would definitely prefer to have Everybody's a Star on here, and (Wish I could Fly Like) Superman instead of Catch Me Now I'm Falling and Heart of Gold (two of my three least favorite Kinks tracks. At least they didn't include Brother, which would be my third and final least favorite track.)

But don't count me among the big complainers. I'm thrilled to find songs I've never heard before, particularly one that just happens to have as a title my last name. In fact, Disc 5 has a cluster of never-released tracks from 1979-1980. There are also live tracks, alternate versions and demos of some favorite songs scattered throughout the discs.

The best thing about Picture Book for this fan is that listening to it is like looking through picture books of my own life. The Kinks are the soundtrack to my adventures. When I hear certain songs, I am rocketed back to the times when I heard them for the first time. Well Respected Man brings images of my pal Holly in high school, teaching me the notes to this song as I struggled to learn how to play acoustic guitar. Celluloid Heroes will always take me back to college days, hanging with my theatre pals late nights after rehearsals and listening to Everybody's in Show-Biz.

And then of course, came the day I heard Preservation Act I and II for the very first time and was hooked forever. Those were my post-college FM radio days, at WCUE-FM in Akron. We were all agog with idealistic notions of the power of progressive radio to transform the lives of our community. Until we all got fired for being too radical. In retrospect, we should have paid more attention to the message of Preservation. Because after all Money and Corruption are ruining the land, and indeed, Money Talks!

My passion for theatre was matched by the theatrical endeavors of Ray Davies and the Kinks for the first half of the 1970s. I watched a rehearsal of Soap Opera at the Akron Civic Theatre and Schoolboys in Disgrace (complete with schoolboy costumes and Ray in Headmaster mask) performed live in Cleveland. Inspired, I left Akron for a Life on the Road of experimental theatre that began on the east coast. The releases of Sleepwalker and Misfits found me taking the train from DC to NYC to catch as many Kinks concerts as I could. By Low Budget, I had moved to San Francisco with ten dollars in my pocket to study mask making and performance at the Leonard Pitt School of Mask and Mime.

The Kinks were banging out great albums in the early 80s. The double disc One for the Road captured the intensity of their live concerts. Give the People What They Want contained a very personal message for me in a song called A Little Bit of Abuse. It took me way too long to figure out how to find my way out of that Yo-Yo relationship. By the release of State of Confusion, I gathered my few bits of Property and escaped to Ohio.

Back in Akron, I bought the cassette version of Think Visual, listening to Working at the Factory and Repetition over and over again as I slogged away working as a check encoder at a bank, trying to pull myself together after the years of living in a dark and deep emotional hole. When The Road was released, I was beginning to find my theatrical feet again, and began teaching at a local studio. I started a couple of theatre companies and took my act on The Road to cafes and art bars from Chicago to Baltimore and Cooperstown, NY.

UK Jive was full of socio-political perspectives and so was I in the late 80s, publishing my own underground 'zine of anarchy and art. In late 80s and early 90s -- the time of George Bush the Elder -- we found ourselves involved in another stupid useless war. It was enough to send us all Over the Edge. Phobia marked the end of my era of hard-scrabble avant- garde theatricals. By the time I got hold of the US release of To The Bone, I found myself working in a respectable job, as a public school drama teacher. But I still use the Kinks as soundtracks for acting games and exercises. You Really Got Me (live version) will always be one of the best warm-up tracks of all time while Jack the Idiot Dunce remains a favorite with my students.

It has been a great pleasure immersing myself in Picture Book. I received my copy yesterday, having ordered it via Ray Davies' web site. I could have ordered it for less money via amazon or other online outlets, but I liked the idea of ordering from one of the original sources, and hoped that perhaps more of the profits might go into the hands of the band members rather than a third party. This meant waiting longer, and I did so patiently until a month had gone by since ordering. Two days ago, I wrote an email of inquiry and the very next day the box set showed up in my mailbox -- on the coldest day of January. I brought the frozen discs inside and let them reach room temperature before opening them up and importing them into my computer.

Today I received the following email from customer service:

Hi,

Your order is somewhere between us and yourself.
Ray Davies management did delay in getting replacement stock in December, but all orders have been fulfilled.

All international orders are sent via Airmail

Hopefully it will be with you very soon, if not already.

Best wishes,

Nobby

Wow! Could that possibly John "Nobby" Dalton? Or is it some other Nobby? Perhaps Nobby is a widely used nickname in the UK. I hope to solve the Nobby mystery along with the mystery of the missing 60 page booklet that should have been included in the box set. Hopefully, they'll airmail me the missing booklet which is supposed to include rare photos and commentary on the various tracks. While waiting, I have a lot of CDs to keep my enthralled and entertained.

Needless to say, The Village Green highly recommends Picture Book.

Winter

2009-01-14T22:49:00.001-05:00

Winter
by William Shakespeare (Love's Labour's Lost)

When icicles hang by the wall,
and Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
and Tom bears logs into the hall,
and milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipped and ways be foul,
then nightly sings the staring owl,
to-whit, to-who, a merry note,
while greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,
and coughing drowns the parson's saw,
and birds sit brooding in the snow,
and Marian's nose looks red and raw,
when roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
then nightly sings the staring owl,
to-whit, to-who, a merry note,
while greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

Smart goes electric

2009-01-13T23:13:00.003-05:00

Lots of news coming in on the next generation of smart fortwo, the electric drive version.

For an in depth look at smart's development and future plans, check out this article at Motortrends. Highlights include positive test results from smart's electric fleet established in London. While the test electric smarts give drivers 72 miles per charge, the company plans to boost that capacity to 150 miles per charge. The electric smart is a pure electric vehicle that can charge overnight.

Telsa Motors will be providing the batteries for the next generation of electric smart cars. From an article in the Mercury News:

Daimler, which also sells the Mercedes-Benz brand, chose Tesla because of its "well-founded battery know how," said Julia Engelhardt, a company spokeswoman based in New York City.

"We looked into several options, and it's the best possible solution when it comes to a battery-powered car."
What's unclear, she said, is whether the electric Smart will be available only in Europe, or in the United States as well. Since 2007, Smart has leased 100 electric vehicles in London. This spring, it will begin another pilot project with 100 EVs and 500 charging stations in Berlin. Later this year, 100 electric cars from both the Smart and the Mercedes-Benz brands will roll into three Italian cities.
The price for an electric Smart car has not been disclosed.The gasoline version of the Smart ForTwo starts at less than $12,000.

I wonder how much that electric drive will boost the cost of the car. Until a reasonably priced alternative energy car is developed, only the well-off will be able to drive green

Petition for Secretary of the Arts

2009-01-12T19:22:00.002-05:00

This is going around and already has over 68,000 signatures:

Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President-Elect Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, The United States has never created such a position. We in the arts need this and the country needs the arts--now more than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.

Sign the petition here.

Washington, D.C. -- Obama's new community

2009-01-11T12:28:00.006-05:00

Barack Obama, appearing on ABC this morning, answered a lot of questions about his administration's plans for the economy, health care, torture, Gitmo, homeland security and Mideast diplomacy. From the beginning of the campaign, we were all aware how many messes the eventual winner would have to clean up. Now we are not only aware of how many, but how deep and problematic in terms of finding solutions. Yet there he was, calmly and rationally dealing with George Stephanopoulis's questions, reassuring the American public that his various teams were on top of things.

Lots of commentators and bloggers have been passing the time until January 20th, praising or dismissing the various picks for the new cabinet and administration leadership jobs. Not having a crystal ball, I've been mostly content to wait patiently. Let's give the folks assigned the clean up task a real chance to get in there and actually work at it, before harping and carping. The only move Obama's made that really rubbed me the wrong way was the selection of Rick Warren to speak some mumbo jumbo as prologue to the inauguration. (You can read my comments here.)

So he made one mistake so far. Nobody should expect him to be perfect. What is reassuring is his insistence that he is not attaching himself to solutions based upon who comes up with the idea, but rather that plans are flexible and that we focus on finding the best solution. It does sound like a huge breath of fresh air is about to sweep through Washington. D.C.

Speaking of D.C., one of Obama's missions is to involve himself with the city's community -- not just the federal workers, but the folks who live and work within the city. He has mentioned this consistently and so has Michelle. He has set up a Community Inaugural Ball for residents to enjoy, met with the Mayor and will do his best to get out and about and involved in the life and culture of the city. Most presidents and politicians hunker down in their various domains and seldom get involved with the local community.

I moved to D.C. in 1976. It was my first time away from Akron, and I moved there because I had some college theatre friends already living there and they gave me a place to sleep while I looked for work and a place of my own. My first impressions of D.C. were this: enormous white buildings were everywhere, and the city was studded with statues of white male generals. Yet as I rode the buses and subways, looking for work, I found myself riding with people of color, through burned out neighborhoods (left to rot after the riots of 1968). The core of the city was as white as the government buildings, but the rest of the city was primarily black and living in poverty.

The great disparity on display in Washington's daily life shocked me. Homeless people sleeping on sidewalk grates, taking in the warmth vented from the subway system below. Bag ladies scurrying down alleys and across the mall, carts filled with garbage bags containing who knows what. Anyone who could afford to was moving to the suburbs of Maryland or Virginia, leaving the rest to hustle, thieve or sell drugs and/or their bodies.

I lived in the Adams Morgan area, a multicultural progressive enclave with a food co-op, a Hispanic theatre company, and other assorted store front ventures. I was hired as company manager for Earth Onion Women's Theatre, an experimental theatre company existing on a small NEA grant. We worked and performed in a tiny store-front theatre space that we shared with the local Socialist party group. My apartment was "illegal," an unfinished dump above a porn shop, with rear windows looking out on a trash-filled alley. I kept those windows closed whenever possible to keep out the sickening greasy smell from a McDonald's across the alley. Every day when I left for work, I had to step over a wino sleeping in my door way. Fun times.

What is the D.C. area like in the 21st century? According to the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless:

Washington, D.C. has the 7th highest poverty rate in the country-- 16.4% as of 2007, and has the highest proportion of people in the U.S. with the lowest income levels.

At least 17,800 people are homeless in Washington, D.C. over the course of a year, one of the highest rates in the country.

In the District of Columbia, a worker earning the Minimum Wage ($7.55 per hour) must work approximately 140 hours per week in order to afford a two-bedroom unit at the area's Fair Market rent.

For the year 2007, the Fair Market Rent (FMR) for an efficiency apartment in Washington, D.C. is $1025 a month. The FMR for a 1-bedroom unit is $1168; 2-bedroom, $1324; 3-bedroom, $1708; and 4-bedroom, $2235.

The unemployment rate in D.C. was 6.7% as of July 2008, higher than the 5.7% national rate.

Funny how these statistics are ignored year after year by the politicians who come to D.C. to work for the good of us all, isn't it? If the Obamas continue to pay attention to the entire community in which they intend to live for the next eight years, maybe some positive change will come to all the residents of Washington, D.C.

Snow outside, garden inside

2009-01-10T15:54:00.009-05:00

A good weekend for staying inside and reading some good books or keeping up with the indoor gardening. Although the weather outside is indeed frightful, indoors there's some blooming going on.

Here's an image of the giant cactus and overgrown aloe plant thriving inside while outside the snow piles up on the fence and in the driveway.

This aloe blooms regularly, sending up long canes with odd little flowers sprouting from them.

Below is a Phalaenopsis I picked up in bloom at Donzell's Garden Center in the fall. After it finished blooming, I fed it some orchid food and new buds began appearing on the old stems. Here is a closeup of a new bloom:

Below, the thrilling sight of my Lady Macbeth Paphiopedilum budding for the third year in a row. I purchased this orchid via Ebay and it is turning out to be my most successful orchid. It is certainly the most dramatic!

What could be easier to grow than African violets? I picked up two fancy ones at the same time. They feature ruffly leaves with pink edges and the flowers are a gorgeous purple. The pictures I took today all came out blue for some reason.

Finally, here's a very special amaryllis (actually Hippeastrum) given to me by a graduating student two years ago. I was told that the plant was a daughter bulb from a family heirloom plant that had been maintained since the early part of the 20th century. You can see the phalaenopsis blooming in the background. I keep my indoor plants under fluorescent grow lights all year long.

smart cars -- ecological from start to finish

2009-01-06T20:07:00.004-05:00

Smart fortwo continues to exceed expectations in the US. From the Oakland Press:

In tough economy, smart USA exceeds sales goals

In a very tough year for carmakers, Bloomfield Hills-based smart USA exceeded its sales targets. For December, smart USA, which is a partnership between Daimler AG and Penske Automotive Group of Bloomfield Hills, recorded 2,341 sales. With year-to-date sales for 2008 at 24,622 units, smart USA surged past its sales objectives in its first year of business in the U.S. market. The total sales exceeded smart USA’s original projection of 20,000 units during what proved to be the auto industry’s worst year since 1992.

Daimler officials also said the smart for-two offers a combination of outstanding fuel efficiency, innovative safety features, environmental friendliness and excellent value.... There are currently 74 smart centers open in 35 states. Daimler also plans to show off an all-electric version of the smart car during the North American International Auto Show next week in Detroit.

For me, one of the main attractions of the smart fortwo is that from start to finish, the designers of this car made decisions in a thoughtful ecologically responsible way. The factory (nicknamed "Smartville" is in Hambach, France. In the book Smart -- small car, big deal (by Jurgen Zollter and Willi Diez, Motorbooks 2008), I found a description of the environmental planning that went into the development of the smart car facility:

All phases of the product life cycle, beginning with development of indivdiual smart comonents, through building the factory park in Hambach, to the product utilization and recycling phases, were and remian intergrated within a strict ecological concpet. The factory park in Hambah realized an unmatched moddel of ecological responsibility. All building are free of formaldehyde and hydrocarbons. The facades are clad in Trespa, a raw material derived largely from easily replensished European wood. Distinction is even made between drainage from gutterrs, and that from roads and parking lots, roof drainage is used in storage ponds for firegighting use. All other surface wateris directed through oil separators, treated in storage basins, and then re-utilized.

There's more!

A central biological water treatment plant, reflecting the highest state of the art, treats all sanitation and industrial waste water. The plant uses biological membranes and the Biosep process, a highly flexible recycling system first employed in France. The cleaned, treated waste water is used to irrigate the landscaped grounds, and for colling purposes in the production process.

Additionally, the factory's paint shop uses powder painting which means that no solvents are emitted, and no hazardous waste. The quality of the coating is very high and at the same time the process is entirely free of lead and and cadmium. Excess powder is captured and re-used.

More on Smartville's ecological manufacturing process tomorrow. Meanwhile, here's a video of smart cars on the assembly line.

Blogging notes

2009-01-05T23:59:00.002-05:00

I'm sorry, I can't get into writing about the current middle east conflict. It's like writing about the gingham dog and the calico cat. Jill at Writes Like She Talks has a lot of links for those wish to follow it. My only hope in this ongoing bloody mess is that eventually the two sides will get over it and get along. We don't hear much about the Irish bombing each other these days, so if they can get over it, maybe these folks can. One day. I know, I'm dreaming.

As for political stuff, please read Digby. She writes about politics in ways I most always wish I had been able to say. Take this one today about the proposed tax cuts.

As for me, I plan on doing more posting on my often neglected Critical Links Theatre Journal this week. It's a blog for ongoing theatre education research in the classroom. Read it if such things interest you.

Random notes on stimulating the economy

2009-01-04T20:39:00.004-05:00

I put some time in this weekend stimulating the economy. I bought this house in 1999, and wow -- just look at the calendar -- ten years have passed and it is definitely time for new appliances. Not because the Style network dictates that it is time to buy a gleaming stainless steel frig and matching stove with all the extras. Not at all. My gas range's oven is not working well and the frig that came with this house is hulking (way too large for one person), ancient and sucking up way too much energy.

As I contemplated buying replacements, I checked the brand name on my range and frig. Both are Admiral appliances. You remember Admiral? They made televisions and apparently got into the appliance business as well. I tried to find out more about Admiral appliances online, but all I found were sites that listed parts for sale. The brand was sold to Magic Chef which was sold to Maytag which was acquired by Whirlpool. I can't put an exact date on my Admiral appliances, but upon looking at their electrical plugs, I'm convinced they are way too old to be running safely for very much longer.

I headed over to what once was Rolling Acres Mall, but now is a vast abandoned concrete shrine to consumerism. All the doors are shuttered, except at Sears and J C Penny's, once the proud anchors to this now defunct mall. Ten years ago, when I moved to Kenmore and began exploring my new area of Akron, I was glad to find Rolling Acres. Now I wouldn't have to drive to Montrose or Chapel Hill for major shopping expeditions. In particular, I've made use of Sears for automotive needs and major appliance purchases. Although everything else in the area has disappeared (I still mourn the loss of a conveniently located Marks and Pets Plus), thankfully, Sears and J C Penny both own their respective mall corners. They cannot be foreclosed, and I hope they hang in there for the sake of the convenience of all us Kenmorites.

So I found some suitable appliances on sale and they are scheduled for delivery later this month. On the way home, I stopped at the Kenmore Acme, which has been undergoing renovation and expansion. They've managed to do this without closing the store, and it has been kind of fun to go there and note the changes as they take place. With more room, there is a chance that more of the kinds of products I like to purchase can find their way to the shelves. A few years back, I complained to a manager about finding only quart containers of soy milk in the dairy case. Now they have a nice array of soy milk in gallon containers.

Sadly, I'm still probably the only shopper at the Kenmore Acme who brings my own reusable shopping bags. They need to take a hint from Buehlers and Mustard Seed, both of which give shoppers a discount for providing their own bags. Maybe it's time to write another letter to Acme.

Driving home along Kenmore Blvd, I note that the new library looks fabulous, but the Musicians Bargain Basement has gone out of business. There are more thrift stores and too many games of chance operations. And then there is the religious tattoo parlor where apparently you can brand yourself with your favorite religious brand's icon. Though I rather doubt that anyone requesting pagan imagery would be accommodated.

What changes will come to this Boulevard of Broken Dreams in 2009? Will any of the economic stimulus plans send some much needed cash infusion to the folks who work and dwell in Kenmore?

More thoughts on the demise of the Carousel Dinner Theatre

2009-01-03T00:35:00.004-05:00

A lot of folks have been stopping by here hungry for Carousel Dinner Theatre info. Tony Brown at the Cleveland Plain Dealer has the latest updates. Along with 150 staffers facing unemployment, the theatre's demise will mean fewer jobs for union actors, less work for local theatrical suppliers and food service vendors, and will send some package tour operators scrambling to find new options.

What will happen to the building and all the theatrical sets, costumes, and props is unknown at this time. The Carousel also rents space at Canal Place, so that will have an impact upon that business. Oddly, according to a comment posted below the ABJ article, it will even have an effect upon business at Donzell's Garden Center, where tour buses regularly discharged passengers for shopping sprees upon departing Carousel.

Dinner Theatres were really big in the 1970s, but as costs increased and the audience demographic grew older, it became more difficult to fill houses and turn profits. Carousel has not released any financial information yet, but it seems clear that even a top seller like Wizard of Oz was not enough to make the business profitable. Ticket prices were increased for the 2009 season, with a top rate of $60 for dinner and a show on Saturday night. Cheapest price listed was $39 for a matinee performance without a meal.

In times of economic uncertainty, people will think twice before taking the family to a dinner theatre. With two adults and two children under twelve, the total comes to $170 + the service charge which as I remember was another 7 bucks per ticket -- yikes!

It will be interesting to see if professional sporting events see a decrease in ticket sales. However, with a pair of binoculars, a family of four could see a Cavaliers game for $40 plus parking and concessions.

For the true blue theatre goers, sporting events are no replacement for live theatre. So what are the local options? Will E J Thomas Hall schedule more shows in their annual Broadway series? Ticket prices range from $32.50 in the upper levels to $52.50 orchestra seating -- and that is for a show with no dinner. Quality of touring productions varies and you won't get a local theatre review for anything that is here for one or two days only.

At the Akron Civic Theatre, you'll find the third string touring companies -- the ones that bring "educational" offerings for school groups. These are generally one show only productions. Coming up, Tom Sawyer - an original musical in March and The Princess and the Pea in April (no production details given for either).

Other local professional options include Actors' Summit in Hudson and The Bang and the Clatter in Akron and Cleveland. Somehow I'm thinking Actors' Summit has more chance of latching onto Carousel regulars than BNC. However, Actors Summit does more straight plays than musicals. As far as I know, BNC never does musicals and their very adult productions would stand a lot of blue hair on end. (BNC really needs to update their web site and keep us posted on the status of their Akron venue.)

Musical theatre fans might turn toward community and university theatres who do put on the occasional splashy musical. Weathervane just finished a sold out run of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Their next big musical is Man of La Mancha in June. The University of Akron is presenting Big River in Feb/March, while Kent State will be presenting the musical version of Jane Eyre, also in Feb and March. You'll have to wait until summer for the musical offerings at Porthouse Theatre.

Otherwise, it's time to look northward to the Cleveland theatre district or else hop an Airtran daily flight to NYC and fork over the big bucks to see musical theatre at the source. As for dinner -- you'll have to find that on your own

Carousel Dinner Theatre rumored to close

2009-01-02T03:03:00.004-05:00

This is no way to welcome in a new year -- it appears that The Carousel Dinner Theatre is about to close for good, according to an article in the Akron Beacon Journal. We were warned that the economy was going to get worse before it gets better, and for those of us involved in the theatre biz, the shut downs and early closings are bound to increase as times get harder.

In San Francisco, the Magic Theatre is teetering on the brink of closure. It's getting so I dread opening up Stage Directions, because each issue brings more bad theatre news. It is not really a surprise, because professional theatre is very expensive to produce and in hard times, one can buy a lot of groceries with what one would pay for a theatre ticket.

Carousel's ticket prices are not cheap, even with the price of a meal factored in. They've survived for years on the senior citizen bus tour packages, but in hard times the seniors might be opting for less expensive outings.

I've been to more shows at the Carousel in the past couple of years than I have in my entire theatre-going career. Honestly, most of the shows they do are not exactly my cup of tea -- however, many of my students have been cast in recent productions. Therefore I have gone and put up with their crappy vegetarian alternative plate and fairly entertaining productions. Best one was Urinetown, hands down, but it was a financial disaster for the theatre.

Carousel gave my students a wonderful opportunity to experience long runs with a professional company, runs that included several two-a-days each week. That sort of experience teaches them all about the kind of discipline it takes to be a working professional. I know the news is going to make my students very sad. And then of course there are all the local folks who have been collecting paychecks from Carousel -- some long term staff members are undoubtedly in shock today. My heart goes out to them.

Will the Obama era of change bring about another form of the Federal Theatre Project? Let's hope so, and perhaps this recession will encourage forms of theatre that are not so expensive to produce.

New Year sketches

2009-01-01T20:29:00.006-05:00

So here we are in the year 2009 of the Common Era, looking out at a world still pock-marked with violence and straining under the load of too many human beings all scurrying around to grab for some more of earth's dwindling resources. Things like clean water, clean air and a bit of land not touched by toxic chemicals.

I spent New Year's eve working on a rather large drawing. I have quite a pile of unfinished work that I'd like to complete and show to others this year. That's the goal for 2009 -- get enough finished and framed to have an art show.

The drawing above is a view of religious oppression from one who isn't. I did the sketch a number of years ago, but only finished the coloring this year. My typical way of working is to do the drawing in ink and then color with colored pencils. Prismacolor is my pencil of choice. No other brand has the feel, density and hue of a well-sharpened Prismacolor pencil. And they keep adding new colors too!

I have a long-standing tradition of doing a New Year's drawing. It's my own way of clearing out the mental detritus and looking ahead at what needs to be done. It seemed more appropriate to finish one from the pile rather than start something new, so I spent long hours last night and into the dawn of January 1st coloring the old piece. But I did take an hour or so to do something new in a very small journal I picked up in NYC at a farmers' market last fall. It is a journal made out of native to Bali materials including bamboo, pakis, waru and banana trees. The paper has a very interesting texture. I plan on using it to experiment with pencils, ink and water color.

The new sketch book looks like this:

Here's a peak inside:

My favorite top ten blogs of 2008

2008-12-29T20:44:00.005-05:00

As the year ends, bloggers and other writers post their lists for the year. Since I haven't seen ten movies in the entire year, I can't very well post a top ten list of movies. So instead, I will post my top ten favorite blogs as I do spend much of my free time online instead of lining up to see movies.

These are the blogs I go to first in my Google Reader and represent a cross section of all my favorite interests. Hopefully, some of them will interest you too. No offense to the many other blogs to which I subscribe -- the top ten designation is a useful limitation or otherwise I could be writing for hours and hours about all fifty plus blogs currently residing in the reader.

In no particular order:

MetaEfficient -- If you want to buy something but don't know what is the greenest product, then bookmark MetaEfficient. Looking for the most efficient refrigerator, then use the search feature on the blog and you'll get every blog post dealing with refrigerators. Always informative, with posts ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary. Did you know that areca palms are the best indoor humidifiers?

Fake Plastic Fish -- I started reading Beth's blog as she was just beginning her journey of tallying and weighing the amount of plastic items headed for the weekly trash from her household. Following her blog has been a very instructive journey, as she has investigated ways to reduce the use of plastic in her life. I've applied numerous tips from her blog, including investing in a home soda maker and shopping for toilet paper made out of recycled post consumer content that is not packaged in plastic. (Single rolls wrapped in paper available locally at Mustard Seed.)

Hullabaloo -- I suppose most savvy online people know and read Digby's blog. I really only discovered it this year, however, during the long months running up to the election. Post election, I'm finding it is one of the few political blogs I continually turn to.

The Daily BBG -- My friend Kevin's blog, from Orange County CA. Kevin colors comic books for a living and is one of my oldest online pals. We met on the atheist boards on AOL back in the early 90s. His blog is eclectic, featuring everything from full out rants to pictures of cats and personal narrations. It is always a worthwhile read.

Plants are the Strangest People -- This guy is into house plants. To the point that he works in a greenhouse by day and comes home to research plants and share what he knows on his blog. He has his preferences, for sure. Foliage rules. While flowering plants are not his most favorite, he still posts at length about all kinds of plants and always includes pictures.

Crunchy Chicken -- Here's another blog chock full of useful information. Located in the great northwest, Crunchy Chicken is a one woman whirl wind of inspiration. Her blog is one big participation eco party! She has book clubs and amazing challenges all focused on healthy, frugal and ecological living. If you want to build up your own personal blog, then do check out Crunchy Chick's techniques because she certainly draws a big crowd.

The Brain Police -- Microdot is my blog-brother. We both started our blogs at about the same time and stumbled across each other early on. He's a former rock musician from Detroit now living in France -- with so many talents you have to read his blog to keep up with him. Suffice it to say, if you want to read about French cooking, bike riding, grape harvesting, Frank Zappa, and current events from a Euro-American perspective, Microdot's your blog of choice.

The Playgoer -- a dramaturg living in NYC who goes to the theatre and blogs about it. If you've ever wondered how actors learn all those lines, check out this post and be sure to read the comments.

Pharyngula -- This blog should need no introduction. The infamously famous PZ Meyers is a genuine news maker, especially during the episode of the holy communion wafers. If you enjoy science, rational thought, cephalopods, and the continuing fight against creationists and other rabid non-thinkers, then this blog is for you.

Diarrhea Island -- Don't let the title of this blog deter you from entering and absorbing Marianne's posts about about music and life as she observes it. She's been a Kinks fan longer than me. Here's a post about attending a recent concert in which an idiot in the crowd gets his just return from Ray Davies.

Coal or passive heat -- hmmm?

2008-12-27T13:37:00.004-05:00

This?

or this?

Two stories in the New York Times focus on home energy. In Germany, architects and engineers have been working on building passive houses, with no furnaces. They work because the homes are insulated to the point that heat from appliances and bodies is all that it takes to keep things snug. Instead of a furnace, a heat exchanger is the only equipment needed. Fresh air coming into the house is heated by the stale air going out.

In Germany, the added cost of building a passive house is about 5 - 7% according to the NYT article. However, that cost would rise in the US because the heat exchangers and special window and door units are not on the shelves at Lowe's or anywhere else. And another problem for acceptance of this kind of house in the US is the fact that they are built on the small side, the usual allocation is of 500 sq feet per person per house. Americans are obsessed with more space to house more stuff, rather than focusing on energy efficiency.

So what is the growing trend in terms of home heating here in the US? According to the other article in the NYT -- it's coal. Yep, people are buying coal furnaces and loading up on anthracite. And breathing in all kinds of particulates. Lovely. Be sure to check out the picture of the happy coal family -- dad loading up the furnace with coal while mom tosses baby into the particulate laden air.

Meanwhile, a guy in Berkeley, CA is attempting to build a passive home, but the green certification folks won't give him credit for using the heat exchanger -- too exotic or beyond their comprehension? And in Akron, as you drive past all the new housing developments being built for folk with low to working class incomes, imagine what a boost you could give those people by building housing that essentially provides all their heating needs at no cost once the house is built. And of course, think of the jobs that could be created by manufacturing the necessary passive window and door structures, plus the heat exchangers right here in the USA.

So long Harold Pinter

2008-12-25T11:28:00.004-05:00

Sad to wake up and read of the death of Harold Pinter, one of my favorite playwrights. I have fond memories of working on scenes from The Birthday Party way back in undergrad days. And then, just a few years back, seeing a brilliant production of The Caretaker with Patrick Stewart on B'way.

Pinter was profoundly influenced by Sam Beckett, the greatest playwright of the 20th century and continued exploring the existential themes of all the great absurdists.

Diagnosed with cancer in the early part of the new millennium, he gave up theatre to focus on political writing. I admired his courage for using his 2005 Nobel prize opportunity to deliver a speech from his wheelchair denouncing US policy involving decades of oppression and bullying in Iraq and around the world.

The Guardian has the definitive obit and the NYT posts this obit. You can view Pinter's Nobel prize lecture here.

Have yourselves a merry Kinky Kristmas

2008-12-24T16:39:00.001-05:00

The only merry Xmas song we play around here:

A benefactor revealed

2008-12-23T14:11:00.003-05:00

In 1933 in the midst of really bad times, a man in Canton, Ohio set out to do something to help those in need in his community. Check out the complete story in the New York Times. It's a fascinating account of what life was like in the midst of the Great Depression for people in this area -- and it resonates with what we are facing today.

Coincidentally, in today's email arrived this missive from Michelle Obama, urging folks to donate to those in need:

This holiday season, the grassroots movement you helped build can make a big difference for those in need.

I hope you will join me in supporting your favorite charity or contributing to causes that are especially meaningful to me and my family.

While many of us will spend the holidays counting our blessings and sharing dinner with loved ones, millions of people around the country won't be so fortunate. Donating to your local food bank will help provide a holiday meal to people in your community who can't afford one.

Talking with the families of deployed troops was one of the most rewarding experiences I had during the campaign. Giving to Operation USO Care Package is a great way to send members of our military stationed around the world a reminder that someone back home is thinking of them.

This is a time to celebrate our blessings, the new year, and a new era for our country. But it's also a time to come together on behalf of those who need our help.

Do what you can to help today by locating your local food bank and giving your support.

Or send a care package to an American in uniform:

Thank you for all that you do and have a very happy holiday season,

Michelle

I would add that local abandoned and rescued animals need our support as well, so why not send something to the Humane Society of Greater Akron? Here's the link.

Invoking deities at the inauguration

2008-12-17T18:40:00.006-05:00

I was looking forward to January 20th as a day to celebrate the end of so many unpleasant things, like everything about the Bush regime. But now I see that the inauguration is going to be stained by the presence of one right wing blowhard religionist by the name of Rick Warren.

This is the guy who is opposed to abortion rights, stem cell research, women's rights, gay marriage and yes, he voted for California's Prop 8. This is the self righteous dude who was quoted in Salon as saying he would never vote for an atheist, for the following reason:

"An atheist says, 'I don't need God,'" Warren said. "They're saying, 'I'm totally self-sufficient in myself,' and nobody's self-sufficient enough to be president -- it's too big a job."

Saying one doesn't need a god is not the same as saying one is totally self-sufficient. Who is totally self-sufficient? Nobody. We all rely upon family and community in order to survive. Is Warren saying that an atheist president would not select a cabinet and make myriad appointments because she thinks she can do it all herself? Or is Warren making a more sinister accusation -- that no one can become president unless they believe in an acceptable mythology. You know, the kind that posits there is some kind of huge power hovering over the head of state. One that must be prayed to or called upon to bless every decision. How ridiculous!

For the non-believer, this world with all its denizens -- plant, animal, human -- is more than enough to spend a life time contemplating. We don't need to invent higher beings before which we feel compelled to prostrate ourselves in submission. Personally, when I need inspiration, I turn to the arts. A painting, a piece of music, a great work of dramatic literature, a poem -- these works created by humans are enough to keep me going through the tough times and the absurd times.

But unfortunately, works of art aren't enough for a lot of people. (They somehow refuse to acknowledge that their religious books were made by humans, not gods.) They must have their belief systems that involve commandments, prayers and invocations. So why do politicians include invocations to gods in official ceremonies? What is the purpose? An invocation may be defined as a prayer that calls upon some imaginary being to do a favor, to offer protection or to actually enter the person doing the calling. This is opposite of an evocation which calls upon the spirit to actually manifest itself in a particular place. Both modes sound like a lot of humbug to me, or to be polite -- involve a lot of imagination on the part of the people doing the invoking and the evoking.

Also on Obama's inauguration agenda is a benediction to be delivered by Rev. Joe Lowry, a religionist of the leftist persuasion. A benediction is, as the Latin root hints at, an invocation asking for beneficial results. It is usually at the end of a ceremony. It is in actuality a call for good luck. I do agree we need some of that, but I am skeptical that one can command good luck to appear.

So we see that the Obama inauguration must be viewed as an act of political theatre, with the religionists at the beginning and the end appearing as symbols of Obama's wish that we all -- fundies and lefties -- get along and respect each other. Too bad Rick Warren has no respect for atheists like me. There is only one thing to do, and that is to click on the mute button when the religionists start their braying, er praying and try not to get too embarassed by all the head-bowing and holier than thou posturing.

Don't get me started on the absurdity of taking an oath of office by placing one's hand on an ancient book filled with primitive attempts to understand the natural world. One day, it may be possible that people can promise to tell the truth and to serve in office with honor and distinction -- and that will be enough. You made your promise on the record and if you break it, no bolt from Zeus will strike you, but your reputation may be lost for good.

Does this rant mean I am thoroughly disgusted with Obama? No, it simply means that I recognize that the godless are still society's lepers. The symbolic bookends of Warren and Lowry are a display of inclusiveness -- of people who believe in some sort of god or higher being. Those of us who don't believe will just have to shut up and put up as usual.

Bush visits Iraq, Ducks Shoes

2008-12-14T23:42:00.003-05:00

When I heard that Bush was making a surprise "farewell" visit to Iraq today, I immediately wondered what his real reason was for going there. What whispered deals and secret handshakes were going on regarding shares in Iraqi oil futures? Who is getting custody of the high tech fortress -- er -- US embassy/compound and what will they really be doing in that huge facility?

Later in the day, come reports and images of an Iraqi reporter tossing his shoes at the Lame Duck, who lived up to his moniker, neatly avoiding the hurtling shoes. He's been quite good at avoiding things like shoes, effective governance and responsibility for all the mistakes.

I am not at all pleased with murmurings that Obama will simply pull troops out of Iraq in order to heat things up in Afghanistan. Democrats can be fatally attracted to taking on macho positions to prove they can be just as strong as Republicans on things like "national defense." Why does defense so often mean attacking some other little bitty country?

The problems that reside in Afghanistan should be solved by group process and pressures, with the UN taking the lead, not the US. No more cowboy presidents, please. I have had a "US Out of Iraq" sticker in my rear windscreen since before the invasion of Iraq. I don't want to have to add "US Out of Afghanistan" once the Dems are in control.

Wham Bam Thank You Pat!

2008-12-10T22:54:00.004-05:00

That was the sound of me falling under a flu bug, and I did have a flu shot as usual. What was unusual was to feel the symptoms again as I've managed to avoid flu since beginning the shots in my first year of teaching. School is a hot bed of germs, and you need to have Purell containers at every door and water fountain.

So home in bed, and through a feverish haze, I saw the the Patrick Fitzgerald press conference in real time and it deserves all the theatrical referencing it has been getting in blogs and cable. Beyond theatre of the absurd, more like Marat/Sade meets Mamet. Patrick Fitzgerald -- wow I really dug him in the Plame/Libby Affair, but didn't like the way it ended at all! So cool to see him back in action. He had a really interesting gang of agents there standing behind him: a guy with no hair who didn't say anything and didn't need to, the tough looking blond woman, and the fellow who did the actual arrest.

In the following clip, we can observe Fitzgerald's exceptional performance skills. The delivery is simply perfect -- no glazed teleprompter stare, rather notes in hand, but mostly spoken straight out to the entire audience. He is looking at the room as he's reading the lines with all the
"bleeps." Wouldn't you have loved to see the reactions on the faces of everyone in that room? He also includes the viewing audience. There's something endearing in the way he continually explains to us that the bleeps are not actual bleeps. I imagine many regular daytime television viewers would not react well to the actual words used by the governor of Chicago.

Odd thing about that governor -- I can pronounce his name when I hear it spoken, but I can't when I'm looking at the way it is spelled. Blagojevich. Blagojevich. A difficult name to launch out of one's mouth but Fitzgerald has it down cold. Just a couple tongue trips which is remarkable reading from a document in front of the media mob.

As for Blago, he's got to plead insanity and go rest his delusional mind. It's like his brain blew a bunch of fuses and he did everything opposite of the way it is supposed to happen. Finds out his phone is tapped and then starts spewing pay to play schemes. Great theatre, though.