Dancing in the Streets 2012

Posted on September 30, 2012 by RegenAxe

Saturday afternoon, after we were done with our plumbing problems, at least for the day, Anne and I hopped on our bikes and pedaled over to Grand Center. Grand Center is Saint Louis’s theater district, home of the Fabulous Fox Theater and Powell Symphony Hall, just to name a couple of the venues there. What brought us to Grand Center was not any of the performances that are regularly held in the theaters that line Grand Boulevard, but entertainment that was occurring right there in the middle of the road, this year’s Dancing in the Streets festival.

Professional Dance Center’s Dancing in the Streets Show

This year, sixty acts performed on three stages. More than a thousand dancers participated. Tap dancing comprised a large portion of the dance acts. The trio above was tapping to the song “Your Feet’s Too Big”. Modern and classical dance troupes along with step dancing groups like the quartet below performed. These four gentlemen were just a portion of their much larger group. There was also a large segment of the festival that is dedicated to traditional or ethnic dance, but we didn’t see too many of those acts. With three stages operating simultaneously, there is no way to see it all. Dancers ranged in age from grade school children to senior citizens. Unlike the often expensive shows that are performed along Grand, Dancing in the Streets is free.

Gentlemen of Vision at Dancing in the Streets

We arrived at one, just as the festival was getting underway. We stayed until four, when my camera’s SD card filled up. I took a lot of video, so another Marquis Production may be in the offing. We enjoyed the performances, from amateurs to professionals, all the dancers put on a good show.

Plumbing Problems

Posted on September 30, 2012 by RegenAxe

Artistic Plumbing Problems near Pike’s Place Market

I was all roto on Saturday morning, Roto-Rooter that is. We had a main drain backup last month and instead of the clean out lasting the nominal year that it normally lasts; it didn’t even last much more than a month into the six-month guarantee. Roto-Rooter sent a guy out, for free this time, first thing on Saturday morning, like they promised to. I met him at the front door and he seemed sharp enough. I’ve been doing this for almost thirty years, so I feel qualified to judge. I showed him what’s what and he set to work. He cleared the clog and then delivered the bad news.

The Three Rules of Plumbing

Sh!t flows downhill
Never chew your fingernails
Payday’s on Friday

I’ve heard this bad news many times before. Our house is seventy-five years old. That means that the sewer lines are that old too, cast iron inside and clay outside. When we bought the house, there were four trees in the front yard. Every single time that we’ve called a plumber, tree roots have been the problem. Whether it is Roto-Rooter, Rescue-Rooter or Root-Toot-Tooter the patter is almost always the same. Your house is old, your pipes are decrepit, the end of indoor plumbing, nay civilization is nigh. What always comes next is up-selling that I have thorough experience, learned to avoid.

I did falter one time. The plumber was a young guy. He didn’t say much, but effectively cleaned out the drain. At the end of the deal, when I am normally armoured against up-selling, there was not the usual financial assault. Like I said, I faltered. I started talking stupid. I told the plumber that I should look at getting bids for a new sewer line. He only asked, “Why?” He was right, I was just being foolish. Even at $200 to $400 per year, it is cheaper to pay for service than it is to buy a $6000 new sewer line. Talk about a sunk cost.

The Money Pit

Walter Fielding: Do you know how hard it is to find a good carpenter? Besides, he’s got a brother who’s a plumber!
Anna Crowley: Really? A brother who’s a plumber?
Walter Fielding: I think so.
Anna Crowley: Do you think I should sleep with him?
Walter Fielding: Maybe just this once.

I’m out on the ledge again, which isn’t easy to do down in the basement. Our basement smells like a swimming pool again and I am faced with another capital investment. The city has some sort of insurance program for collapsed sewer lines. I don’t think that we qualify for the program, but I’ll ask them to take a look anyway. They’ll run a TV camera up the line and we’ll know more for sure then.

Simon Says

Posted on September 29, 2012 by RegenAxe

The Brooklyn Bridge

Friday night was date night, dinner and a show. Dinner was at Cyrano’s, whose smaller portions always leave room for dessert. We shared their delicious key lime pie. At the Rep, the show was Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs. This is the opening offering of this season at the Rep. This coming-of-age comedy focuses on Eugene Morris Jerome, a Polish-Jewish American teenager who experiences puberty, sexual awakening, and a search for identity as he tries to deal with his family. Set in Depression era Brooklyn, this play tells the story of one family’s struggle to make ends meet and to stay together. Included in the cast is his older brother Stanley, his parents Kate and Jack, and Kate’s sister Blanche and her two daughters, Nora and Laurie, who come to live there after their father’s death. This story is the first play of the Eugene Trilogy, the three quasi-autobiographical plays written by Simon, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound. Brighton Beach was an enjoyable show, with a strong cast and a happy ending. Well, as happy as it can be, having just escaped the Nazis. As per usual, with our season tickets near the end of the run, this show ends tomorrow.

I had to Google Map (there he goes again) Brighton Beach to find out that it is at the southern end of Brooklyn. The bridge picture is from our 2009 visit to NYC. We were in the city for the five boroughs bicycle ride. We rode through Brooklyn, but nowhere near Brighton Beach.

It turns out that both of Anne’s sisters were in NYC today. Jay and Carl flew home today, after a week’s vacation there and Jane arrived just yesterday. Jay and Carl and even Rey were in NYC, visiting Ashlan, who lives in Manhattan. During intermission, I felt that we had joined them too.

The three sisters original NYC connection dates back to their father, Harry. He grew up in the Bronx. Looking at the program last night, Anne noticed that Neil Simon is only a month older than Harry. That makes them same age contemporaries of the thirties and early forties in NYC.

Eugene, Simon’s character had two passions in life. There was baseball, by which I mean the New York Yankees. Harry is still a loyal Yankee fan. Eugene’s other passion was girls. In the play Eugene is still quite young, maybe thirteen years old. He doesn’t know much about women, but he really wants to learn more. I’ve pushed this comparison as far as I would like to and would also be politic. Except to say that they both joined the Army in the summer of 1945, but even for Eugene that is another story.

The MFA is the New MBA

Posted on September 29, 2012 by RegenAxe

Dan’s New Place

That row of windows on the second floor gray building with red trim is ours. It runs about the length of those windows and 20 feet in. Via iOS 6 Magic Vision!

Dan sent us the preceding message, along with the above photo of his new property. As near as I can tell, from looking at the photograph, all nine windows in front are part of his space, along with at least one if not both of the windows on the side. It ought to have plenty of natural light. Right now it is one big open space, but he and his friend plans to build interior walls for offices and such for this studio property. He will take possession on Monday.

The preceding was originally envisioned as just a lead up to another one of my dearly loved Apple Attacks, dearly loved, at least by me. Dan’s iOS 6 Magic Vision photo coincided nicely with the Mea Culpa from Apple’s CEO, over their new mapping app. My spovely louse, steered me away from that more hateful path, to something more uplifting. Before I totally depart for higher ground, I just have to get one more dig in about those cars that look painted on the roof, in the upper left-hand corner of the picture. 😉

The teacher mom came back from school on Friday with a reading assignment for me, “A Whole New Mind – Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” by Daniel H. Pink. In reality, I was only asked to read four pages, but it hurt. Man, it hurt. Here is my synopsis of my reading assignment. This thumbnail, also-know-as my C- book report goes like this.

You got your right-brainers and you got your left-brainers. Left-brainers, like me, we do all the work. While, you right-brainers sit around, talk, drink lattés and spout. That’s fine, division of labor and all that. We get paid and you get to ask if we want fries with our happy meals. That was the social contract. Who knew that all of us could be outsourced? We knew that muscle could be off shored, but not left-brain power. Apparently, we were wrong. Call centers are just the tip of the spear of this coming change. Indian computer programmers are taking on my skills. White-collar workers are the new blue-collar workers.

Getting accepted as an MFA to UCLA is harder than entering Harvard Business School as a MBA. Only 3% of applicants are taken versus 10%. Titans of industry, like GM, scour art schools across America. They are searching for the creative class, tomorrow’s makers. Pink sums it up nicely:

Before that Indian programmer has something to fabricate, maintain, test, or upgrade, that something must first be imagined, or invented. And these creations must be explained and tailored to customers and entered into the swirl of commerce, all of which require aptitudes that can’t be reduced to a set of rules on a spec sheet — ingenuity, personal rapport, and gut instinct.

According to the Economist, in 1993 61% of business consultants had an MBA. Less than ten years later their number is down to 43%. MBA tasks once foisted upon young recruits trying to earn their spurs to get to Wall Street or the like, are now moving overseas to India instead. Meanwhile, in the US the number of graphic designers has increased ten-fold in a decade. Since 1970, there are 30% more people earning a living as a writer and 50% more full-time musicians. The “creatives” represent a growth industry for America.

Seattle’s Mosquito Fleet

Posted on September 28, 2012 by RegenAxe

Washington Ferry at Night

Ferryboats have been active on Puget Sound since 1889. The City of Seattle offered the first scheduled service between Seattle and West Seattle. It was a bargain at 5 cents per passenger. Ferry system competition between privately owned boats, known as the “Mosquito Fleet”, was intense. The Black Ball Line became dominant in the 1930’s, owning the major routes, terminals and boats. With the arrival of the automobile the ferries became an extension of the state highway system, and a valuable part of commerce. In 1951 the State of Washington bought the company. This was the basis for the nation’s largest network of ferries. All ferryboats bear Indian names, except for one class of boats. This Northwest tradition is maintained in respect for the first vessels to cross the Sound, the Indian canoes.

The text for this post was paraphrased from a plaque aboard the ferry Hyak, which we happened to take both coming and going to Lopez Island. The photograph with this post was taken of another passing ferryboat, while we were returning to the mainland, on Sunday night, aboard the Hyak again.

Ladylike Parts

Posted on September 28, 2012 by RegenAxe

Claire McCaskill vs. Todd Akin – MO Senate 2012 – by DonkeyHotey

On Thursday, Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin (MO) told reporters that his opponent, Democratic incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill, was much more “ladylike” in her 2006 campaign against Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO) than she is in her campaign against him. To which, Sen. McCaskill responded with, “Excuse me?”

Todd Akin should stop talking about proper lady behavior. This is Todd Akin, the guy who thinks women have magic lady parts that detect and deflect “legitimate” rape sperm in order to “shut that whole thing down.” I’m sorry, why should you have to listen to me, when you can hear his GOP speak about him:

“Well, I thought his comments were a little bit outrageous” – Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ)
“As I said yesterday, Todd Akin’s comments were offensive and wrong and he should very seriously consider what course would be in the best interest of our country” – Mitt Romney (R)
“He should be ashamed of himself to be talking about it in that way” – Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ)
“He’s got to seriously decide what’s in the best interest of the party, what’s in the best interest of the state of Missouri, and frankly, at this point, given that flat wrong statement, whether he can win” – Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA)
“What he said is just flat wrong in addition to being wildly offensive to any victim of sexual abuse. Although Representative Akin has apologized, I believe he should take time with his family to consider whether this statement will prevent him from effectively representing our party in this critical election” – Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
I join many Alaskans in finding Rep. Todd Akin’s comments incredibly offensive and I strongly encourage him to step aside – Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
“I can’t agree with anything [Akin] said” – Former Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO)

To my regular Republican readers, I apologize, not for any thing that I’ve written, but because I’ve violated my one political post per week pledge. I’d promise to do better in the future, but that would be a lie. OK, since I’m currently fielding two posts a day, I promise to only do two political posts a week. That ought to cover me for a little while. 😉

Thanks to Donkeyhotey, for the use of his cartoon.