Nice hair piece, buddy.

Senator Dorgan of North Dakota.

or maybe it's a comb-over...

What's the rush?

100 more years on top of 140 million isn't much.

Ten Chi

Last night saw the piece Ten Chi by Pina Bausch. Almost three hours long...professor and Maryanne... Anyways. Some sections I really enjoyed- the grunting woman killing the pillow; the rubbery sinewy solos (ooh, palindrome!!) by the men in black; the incessantly falling flower petals; the Asian woman sweeping across stage supported by two men. Maybe those sections stood out because the rest was not so captivating.

What was the point of the show? What was the connection to Japan? The piece was funded in part by a Japanese governmental agency, I think. A little something I read in the program, (which could have had a bit more in it to shed some light on performance). Many references to Japan - My car is Toyota, my TV Sanyo, my VCR Samsung...; the tour guide with the backpack; the whale on stage; the bowing section between two women.

The piece was constructed of short vignettes, some dancing, some talking, occasionally a woman in a silk dressing gown was lifted by a large blonde man, a pillow was thrown, a pillow was killed, various ways to wear a white handkerchief were modeled, men were carried on stage and their hair stood up, a woman had her dress ripped off, a man lifted a woman and carried her around the whale tail while she mimed swimming (VERY CHEESY!!), an Asian dwarf came on stage riding an ostrich, well no that did not happen but if it had, it would have fit right in....on and on these vignettes came and the snow/flowers/dandruff fell.

I did not understand the point of all these vignettes. Were they impressions of Pina's time in Japan? I could not sense an arch, but I could an overall structure. In 3 hours she had plenty of time to create one. First a dance section, then a talking section...this is dance theater after, must have talking. It was a 3 hour variety show, that ended with a dance off - each of the performers showcasing their skill to loud music. The crowd roared and leaped to their feet. Why, why, why, why, why?

final though:
Let us not confuse budget with genius

Maybe he knew playing with matches is wrong. Maybe his parents had told him before this fire that matches are not toys. But he should not be "[removed] from his home and [possibly detained] as a ward of the state." That is just going to #@#$ him over. How many people go through state systems - foster care, jail - and end up the better for it?

Cyndi Jo Means, a deputy district attorney in nearby San Diego County, says that," Any finding of guilt... would not follow the boy into adulthood." Yeah, right. Legally, maybe, but socially...screwed. He'd never get a job at a gas station (but then again who wants a job at a gas station?). People will definitely think twice about him, and not in a good way, when they find out about his fire history.

Why are people building way out there? It is terrible city planning. Massive sprawls of cookie cutter houses. Making houses further and further away harder for firemen to reach.

Instead of ugly stucco McMushroomMansions, high rises should be built. Make it 4o stories. 4 living spaces per floor, the cardinal directions. Thing of the views people would have. And then gardens would be around the high rise, acting as a buffer. There wouldn't be miles and miles of roads, adding to global warming. Just think of how much smaller our eco footprint would be if we built like as opposed to having so many houses.

Come to think of it, he will be completely forgotten, the fires and destruction will be completely forgotten. The warnings, the anger, loss of life an property will be forgotten. And the people who were so angry will rebuild in the same exact places that are dry and fire prone and not maintain fire buffers. Maybe having your house burn down is how you pay the piper when you build in that area.

Steve Martin

Finished an article in the recent New Yorker, the one with the Jack O'Lantern that looks like Cheney on the cover. The article, written by Steve Martin, is about his start in comedy. A sentence struck me-
"...there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration."


Also something from the article about the Animal Collective by Sasha Frere-Jones -
"...imperfection is necessarily part of the process."


(damn, they have a myspace page. I do not like myspace. It is ugly)

Jerry Seinfeld...an ass?

Seinfeld was recently on Larry King Live. King asked if Seinfeld might have been cancelled. Jerry got a little hot under the collar. Was it too much just to say," No, the show was not cancelled." and move on? Why did Jerry go on and on about it? (trying to dominate Larry King, show who is alpha) Is that a sore topic for him? King didn't ask the question in a mean way, or anything. Is Seinfeld worried that he is a has-been? Is he worried that he will be forgotten?

Relax, Jerry. Your star in the ephemeral sphere of pop culture is cemented.