Category Archives: Muny

Beauty and the Beast

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Monday night Anne and I went to see the Muny’s production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.  The temperature had moderated to the point that it was quite a nice night out.  I don’t know it the actor that plays the beast had to wear ice packs to keep cool or not. This is a new production for the Muny, so it got the premier spot in this summer’s Muny line up of shows.  It was the first show of the season and it got a two-week run, as opposed to the normal one-week.

Beauty and the Beast was also the Muny’s children show.  Every season one show is the children’s show.  In these shows the Muny’s big dance numbers are made even bigger by the addition to the normal sized cast of dozens of Muny Kids.  The Muny Kids are brought out to sing and dance and helps make the Muny’s production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast truly special.

The combination of Disney, the Muny kids show and Beauty and the Beast brought the little princesses out in force.  Anne and I were surrounded by little girls all in pretty dresses, many of them princess dresses.  A picture of them watching the show in rapt fascination would have made for great blog fodder, but I think me taking it would have wierded out their moms.

The above two pictures were taken at Point Lobos.  The wind swept trees brilliantly frame the craggy coastline there.  Located just south of Carmel by the Sea, on Highway One, Point Lobos is a spectacular park.

Look at those long red legs – the Black-necked stilt is built for wading.  As this bird strides out across the mud, it may keep walking and picking insects until it is feeding in water up to its belly.  This picture was taken last week at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

This One is for the Girls

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Saturday morning Anne and I drove to the Park. We didn’t leave home in time to get our usual Muny parking spot and we didn’t get to the Muny in time to sit in our usual seats. We ended up sitting back in Terrace B instead. Dan joined us shortly and I got to sit between two Webster grads, Anne (class of 2003) and Dan (class of 2008). The sun was shining and even though it was cool it wasn’t uncomfortable sitting back in the cheap seats.

We were at the Muny on Saturday morning to attend Annie’s graduation. The commencement speaker was an army colonel who had lost both his legs in Iraq. He explained that this brought on some changes. He got a laugh when he explained he could no longer use one of his favorite phrase, “I’ve been busier than a one-legged man at an ass kicking contest.” The themes of his speech were about duty and service. After the main festivities the different schools held their own ceremonies.

The arts school held theirs in the Muny’s rehearsal area, on the west side of the theater. Where as in the main theater we were shielded from the wind and sitting in the sun, in the rehearsal area neither of these things were true. It was cold. Anne says it felt like Cabin weather. Dan didn’t dress for the weather, so I lent him my vest.

We saw Annie there and her mom, Sue, grandmother, May and brother, Tom. We all got to see Annie walk; then it got too cold for May, so Sue took her home. I went looking for coffee shortly afterwards, which helped. The dean of the school of arts had said at the beginning of the ceremony that last year it had been ninety-five degrees. I suspect that next weekend’s commencement in upstate New York will be more like this Saturday’s, that is cold.

In the fall both Dan and Annie are going to two relatively closely located, about fifty miles apart, but different art schools in the greater LA area. Neither of them has ever gone away to school before. Webster is only about five miles from our house and it is less than a mile from Annie’s. It should be a great and exciting adventure for the both of them.

In the afternoon I returned to the Park, but this time by my usual mode of transportation, by bike. Because of the morning’s chilliness I ended up over dressing for the ride and actually got too hot. I got lots of good pictures, including the pictures of the ducklings. I also got 18 miles.  Saturday night we went to a reception for Annie’s graduation, at her folk’s house.

Today is Mothers Day. I would like to give a shout out to all the mothers in my life, but in particular to the three closest to me. First, I would like to honor my mother, Jackie, who I will see again next month. Second, I would like to honor my mother-in-law, Gene, who I will see next week. Finally, I would like to honor the mother my children, Anne, who can I see now. Peek-a-Boo!

GLEEking

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I’m not talking about spitting.  I’m speaking of Fox’s musical-comedy show, Glee.  Last Tuesday night, the second episode of this show’s second season aired.  As patrons of musical theater for most of the thirty years that we have lived in Saint Louis, falling in love with Glee, was as easy as falling off a log. 

Fox has a hot property in Glee and knows it.  From the airing of the show’s pilot episode at the end of last year’s TV season, a full three months before its actual season began, Fox has managed this property masterfully.  This is especially gratifying, because it has bungled in the past, the management of equally promising properties, such as Firefly.

We have been season ticket holders to the Muny for more years than I can remember.  This year’s lineup of shows looks especially promising.  It is heartening that the big stage of the Muny and its even bigger auditorium, is finally getting some company out here in the heartland.  It is somewhat surprising though that it is coming from the small screen.

Today’s header is Anne’s shout out to Glee.  She is modeling one of Chris’ gloves that she is presently knitting.  It is the first full finger pair of gloves that she has made.  It should be ready well before its anticipated delivery in June.

Dave had planned to walk across the stage at next month’s college graduation ceremony at the University of Rochester.  Now don’t get me wrong, he still plans on graduating and we are booked to go see him receive his diploma.  But instead of walking across the stage, he might be doing more of a limp.  Tuesday we heard from Dave.  He had to go to the emergency room for a sprained ankle that he received while playing intramural ultimate frisbee.

In truth he should be fine by graduation time.  He has crutches and a brace.  The doctor asked him to use the crutches for a week and the brace for two.  He may not be doing cartwheels across the stage at graduation, but he should be able to perform sufficient ambulatory motion to receive his diploma.

Wednesday morning I woke up to a backed up main sewer line.  Always a pleasant experience.  Anne had to go to work, so I call into work to let them know that I would be late coming in that day.  I next called Roto-Rooter to come out and snake out the drain.  Terry showed up, for the second time in six months.  He had been here last Thanksgiving, the unacknowledged national holiday for plumbers. 

The last time, I had tried to do it myself.  I rented a snake, but the job was well beyond my abilities.  I eventually called Roto-Rooter and Terry came out.  We’ve had sewer problems, for as long as we’ve owned the house, but usually it is just an every other year occurence.  Last time it was an epic two-hour effort by Terry.  This time it was just fifteen minutes.  This time was also still under warranty, so it was free.  I may not be able to do plumbing, but I do know the three rules of plumbing:

  1. Shit flows downhill
  2. Never chew you fingernails
  3. Payday’s on Friday

netsh winsock reset

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Monday’s big excitement started at six in the morning.  We were expecting storms on Sunday night, so I powered down all of the computer equipment.  Come Monday morning everything came backup, but when I opened Windows Internet Explorer to update the blog, I got redirected to an AT&T page that was asking me to update my password information.

At first I thought it was another hack, but eventually I became convinced that this was a real AT&T procedure.  I followed the procedure, but it always ended up getting sidetracked into some irreconcilable error or another.  I started running late for work and threw it into Anne’s lap, who had not been called into work.  She retraced the steps that I had taken, but got no further.  Later she was called in to work.

After work I called the AT&T hotline and got the wunderkind of help line operators, Eldridge.  He was the epitome of etiquette and he knew his stuff too.  We retraced the steps that I had taken, with the same results.  He verified that the line was good.  Then we started to mess with Windows settings.  Eventually he hit upon using the Command Window command, “netsh winsock reset”.  But it didn’t work the first time we tried it.  We had to go back and specifically open a command window with administrative privileges.  This time it worked.

I thanked him profusely and promised him a good rating.  I was easily able to forestall his attempt at up selling, with a recount of my recent iPhones purchases.  Afterwards, I looked up the command, “netsh winsock reset”.  As near as I can tell it resets Window’s communication protocols to their factory settings, anyway it worked.

I have to admit that this problem weighed heavily on me all day.  In the past, car problems use to raise the same levels of anxiety.  Nowadays, car problems don’t seem to affect my sense of manhood the way they use to.  The pictures with this post aside, I really don’t think much about cars, but not being able to keep your own personal computer working, that still hurts.  I thank the technical support at AT&T profusely and I am additionally gladdened that this problem had nothing to do with my recent iPhone purchase.

After the fact, I figured out that Monday’s problems were indirectly connected to the hack that I suffered last month.  That hack caused me to change my AT&T password, but not until Monday morning did my DSL modem’s password need to be updated.  We’ve had this modem for three computers now, so it is understandable that the procedures that it was built with might be getting a little rusty.

Sunday’s sun was picture perfect.  Under this sun, the combination of shining chrome and gloss paint, I found to be irresistable.  Today’s hood ornament theme is birds.  I also especially like the idea of hiding the gas cap for the Cadillac Eldorado under the left rear tail light.  In addition to the fun that could be had with full service gas station attendants, I wonder how many car thieves eventually ran out of gas?

I am the Count & I love to count

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The 2010 census is upon us.  I was in the Park on Saturday and saw the traveling trailer pictured in today’s header.  It was parked in front of the History Museum.  They were promoting consciousness about this year’s census.  I stopped and picked up a few of the trinkets that they were handing out.

We’ve filled out our census form.  It wasn’t very complicated.  In fact this time around it is easier than before.  For this year’s census, there are only the two of us still living here.  Dan got his own census form and Dave, well who knows.  Anyway the instructions specifically forbid counting an individual who is away at jail, college or a nursing home.  So it is official, in the eyes of the government we are an empty nest.

The only controversy that cropped up this year’s census was that I filled myself in first and as such, I was Person #1.  This left Anne as Person #2, to which she took exception.  I say, if you snooze, you lose.

The only usual question on the census, at least in my mind, was the one that asked about the residence.  The question was phrased, “Is this a house, apartment or mobile home?”  The available answers didn’t have anything to do with what type of dwelling this residence was, but rather how it was paid for.   Like, did we own the place outright or are we still paying for it. 

Anyway it struck me as choice of the only four questions that were asked about the residence in general.  The census’ fixation with April 1st also seems a little problematic, what with the first of April also being April Fools Day.  We’ll mail our already completed form in on Monday.  You should too, after all it is in Constitutional law.  Benjamin Franklin wrote it in to law.

I biked in the Park on Saturday.  I got sixteen miles.  I saw the Knights that fight with Nerf, a Great White Egret and the Muny banners for this summer’s 2010 season.

This year’s Muny season looks better than any of the last few years have been.  I think that the Muny has suffered under the construction of The New I-64.  That is in the past now and this season as more than one new show.

The Muny or more formally, the Saint Louis Municipal Opera is one of the largest and oldest, continually running musical theaters in the nation.  We have been going to it for almost every summer since when we first moved to Saint Louis, thirty years this summer.  Interestingly, The Beauty and the Beast is being billed as the Muny production of Disney’s The Beauty and the Beast.  I checked Wiki and Titanic the Musical does not have My Heart Will Go On in it.

Anne spent all day canvassing for votes.  She was campaigning for the two Maplewood-Richmond Heights school board propositions, Propositions Y & S.  She is kind of tired, having been on her feet all day.  She has dance concert tickets with Joanie tonight.  I hope that she stays awake.

Music Man, Pi, Manhunt

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Ginko Leaf and Fruit

Monday night was Muny night and the musical that opened on Monday was The Music Man.  With Anne being out of town, I asked Joanie to come along with me.  I was in my seat when Diana and Jim, from Team Kaldis, came by, walking up the aisle, looking for their seats.  I saw a moment of surprise on their faces when they saw Joanie and not Anne sitting next to me.

Tuesday night, I helped entertain out of town business guests.  My associate, Don, and I took our two guests to Pi in the U-City Loop part of town.  Pi is the pizzeria made famous, by President Obama, with his selection of this Saint Louis establishment as the pizzeria serving pizza at his inaugural ball.  The fact that Pi serves Chicago style deep dish pizza only increased the whaling and gnashing of teeth coming from about 250 miles northeast of town.

Our guests were late flying in, we worked late to make up time and there is still a wait for a table at Pi.  It was after ten when I got home.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a great night out with the boyz.  The weather was perfect.  I arranged it so we walked up and down The Loop, to get to Pi.  I’m sure that our guests enjoyed the ambiance.

There was a manhunt going on as I left work on Wednesday.  A police officer was shot.  I was not impeded as I drove home, but there were extensive roadblocks.  On the way home, I saw police officers lining the west side of I-170, some of them with assault rifles.  I think that a lot of the officers were called in from off duty.  Here is example attire, shorts, sandals, t-shirt and a bullet proof vest.  Apparently, a man wearing according to the paper’s website a wife beater’s shirt, what I have always known as a sleeveless t-shirt, was the description of the suspect.  I have never heard that description of a sleeveless t-shirt.  Of personal interest, when I bike to work, I bike right by the intersection, at MacDonnell and Natural Bridge, where the shooting took place.