Huh... Seabrook... that didn't sound encouraging

And I so remember the uproar at the time it was built, and how the dreaded UL depicted those against as rabble-rousing socialist/commie dirty hippies.

Uh-huh....

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You Do NOT wanna go there....

I've been killing time till my Soap comes up on YouTube. And being BORED, I googled myself. It was 'unsettling'. If you write things, it's out there. And THIS came up from 1996. Talk about a flash-back.

Huh... my first pc, and I was desperate. Brings back loads of memories. And the answers upset me more than I can say. And yeah, my full name is in there in the thread. So what.

I did survive Lyme's disease, but you really don't want to know about it. Some friggin' bug stung me one August night a couple of years earlier, woke up thinking I'd slept in a draft, had tremendous back pain, and one fine day, I was out in my garden, and started to have facial paralysis. It was extreme. First I couldn't feel the cigarette on one side of my lips, then my eye started drooping, and it got worse and worse, and I went into the house and said, 'Peter, something is very wrong... I have to get to hospital.' And took the tram out. And feeling the lameness getting into my sides, and my arm.

Skeery, right?

It turned into a nine-week nightmare. They thought I would die, at first. They did so many spinal taps, I wanted to KILL them. And the first one... that woman was so incompetent, she ruined me for the rest of my life, but I didn't know it then.

The first night, I was put on a bed in the middle of freshly delivered stroke patients. They thought I would die. Peter came in, and was devastated. Just devastated. I thought it was all over, but it wouldn't have been me if I hadn't moufed off. It nearly killed me to see his pain. At the time, I was thinking, 'Ok, I've had a good life and done some amazing things, so if this is it... I'm fine with it.'

They pumped me full of antibiotics that at the time would have cost $2,500.00 dollars a pop. For two weeks. The paralysis went away, I had facial massages, and therapy. And never saw a bill for it. I was just angry.

I was totally cut off from any communication, hated it, but there was nothing I could do. Peter was there every single day for me.

Every single day.

The only other people who visited were my boss' kids, just to ascertain I was really so fucked up, and near the end, my boss... who brought me potatoe chips, because she knew they were my snack of choice at work. That latter was a miracle. She NEVER visited hospitals, having had enough of it in her earlier life, and taking care of her sister who had had polio. I understood it for what it was, and it was a wonderful gesture.

I understand it now even more.

They pronounced me 'cured', and life went on, but with a lot of pain. We had just moved into our new home. But I was debilitated. And went from one doctor to another, and they said it was all in my head... or something. Believe me, you can't make shit like that up. I was hurting, and badly.

When I got into the help group, I was grasping for something, anything that would make it go away. So I had my first PC, and got some answers, but they weren't encouraging, oh no, Preciousses. I talked my head off with doctors, and they were of the opinion I was 'cured'. 'So why do I have excruciating pain in my lumbar region?' Well, I was imagining it, of course....

It took another three years, and as serendipity would have it... a doctor specialised in Tibetan medicine turned up at the Ho-tel. He saved Peter's life. Two years later, I c onsulted with him in one of the weirdest things I've ever done. Had to turn up with a urine sample... after which he told me I'm a 'wind' type... (who would have guessed, ha...) and spent over ten minutes reading my pulse... ten minutes on each arm. Dr. Barry was really amazing, let's leave it at that.

So he prescribed a month's meds, and after three weeks, I was to fax him, and give a report--- what is better, what hasn't changed, and the next month's meds came per mail with some slight variations. It was expensive.

But after three months, it went away, like magic... poof. And those damed little balls were BITTER, so it wasn't 'Fun'.

Now there are some people who will tell you I had an hysteric reaction, and others will say it was all in my head. All I can say is that to this day, several years of pain disappeared, and I no longer have to lie down for an hour because I could hardly walk.

Teeth-clenching pain.

MY take on it is... you don't have a system of medicine for over five thousand years if it isn't worth anything.

Poor Peter was so upset back then, he had me checked in as a private patient overnight, and what did I get? Another spinal tap, and antidepressants. RIIIGGHTT. It set him back over one thousand dollars.

They found residual Lyme in my spine----'but not enough to cause what you are claiming'.

So I got my PC, and started looking.

There are so many people out there who need help, and Lyme's disease really isn't 'funny' or a figment of the imagination.

So I lucked out, seemingly. A lot of people do not.

And that is the story behind that. I wish it on no one. And sometimes it is better not to Google yourself. It can bring up very bad memories.

Preview

Guilty pleasures...

I sort of got 'INTO' watching 'The Voice'. Yeah, lame.... I liked the format, and how they do it. They whittled it down to four contestants, so it's been suspenseful.

Am torn between Javier Colon, who has an amazing vocal range, and the rockin', talkin' Berverly McLellan. Who freaked me out from the audition level. And YEAH, she's a shaved-bald, totally tatooed OUT THERE lesbian, and good for her. She really moves me on many levels.

(Yeah, I love 'in-your-face' peoples...)

Last nite, they had to do original songs they'd written themselves. Both of them really moved me, so I don't know who will win it. Javier's number really got to me, the man is a wonder.

But Beverly? Her rendition of 'Sick of Love' that she wrote has to be generic. So been there and done that. In her audition, she did a Janis Joplin number that left me spitless. I had the privelege of seeing Janis Joplin, the real one. Beverly floored me. She is being coached by C'hristina Aguillera... whom I cannot STAND. She comes over as a narcissistic bitch, but seemingly, the coaching worked.

I have no idea who will win. Javier is amazing. Beverly deserves getting the brass ring.

She's really gotten under my skin. She should be 'The Voice'.

Don't mind me, just stuck in limbo, but like seeing talent.

I hate most of the competition shows, but like 'So You Think You Can Dance'. For sentimental reasons. I so admire the finalists, and get all teared up over it. It also has a good, if greuling concept.

They have to go outside what their specialty is, and dance genres they are unfamiliar with. They have amazing choreographers.

And I like it because Peter was so 'into' it. Gawwd, he dragged me across half of Europe if there was some troupe he so wanted to see and share with me, it was sometimes annoying, although I LIKED it once there... He loved all those people. And the choreographers, some of whom he had known personally before he exiled himself into a life in a small town and was committed to me.

Thanks to him, I have seen some of the most famous troupes in the world. Most of the names wouldn't mean much to you. But the Bolshoi Ballet might... like twice... Or Alvin Ailey. Or Mats Vilander... It's an amazing world, dance is. Robert Altman tried to capture it and half-way succeeded....

I had a guest once. He was on a tour and hated it, just hated it. Good ole Southern lad, around mid-fifties, and he was on one of those, 'see Europe in fifteen days, and fly across five other' trips. He was so bored. Lived in New Yawk. And was gay.

And his gaydar was amazingly good. And he kept boring at me with questions, till I caved. He was in a bank and handled star's accounts. And at the time, I wanted to know about 'Torch Song Trilogy' and his eyes lit up like he'd won the trifecta. He knew I was skittish, being at work, so he let up.

Three weeks later, he sent me the book of the play. I was the only highlight on his trip, he said.

So we corresponded. He was one of the most generous, lovely men I have ever encountered. 'And no, he wasn't a 'sugar Daddy'. But he came back twice to Graz on his own, which was dangerous to his health. He had a severe heart condition, and he knew about Peter, but he wanted our company. So he said.

I got to know JR very well. His brother had sodomized him when he was young, and I don't think he ever got over it. He was funny, sad, and could tell you Broadway insider stuff that would curl your hair. But he was so sweet. We did a lot of cultural things all three of us, and Peter was really taken with him as a person we valued highly.

JR did a lot of volunteer work at the NY City Opera and Ballet, and brought me tee-shirts, some of which I still have and wear. And an autographed biography of a star of the latter who died of AIDS. JR was a font of information and was a treasured friend.

So when I watch 'So You Think You Can Dance', he's in the back of my mind as well. He turned me on to Sondheim, and a mess of other famous people I'd never heard of.

But his heart was giving out, and even flying over here wasn't good for him.

The second time, I was so concerned, he was such a good friend, and not doing well. So I accompanied him to Vienna for his flight back. The last night, he knocked on my door. And said, 'I have to say this. I love you.' And I said, 'John, I love you too, but I can't in that way.' And he said, 'I know'..

So when I see people dancing their asses off, I think of him. And get very sad indeed, and want to cry. It's a short professional life, after all.

JR stayed in touch, we would even talk on the telly-phone occasionally. Until he learned that his meds had given him heart-asthma, and one day.... there was only a disconnected message. He went home, I guess. One way or the other... He would never have left New Yawk.

So yes, guilty pleasures, because other memories just come up and wipe you out emotionally.

Fun stuff, huh?

First men and women, and DOMA

You can't make such shit up... and unisex wc's...

The ERA forced Viennese to endure US women running into the men's room in musical theaters. It was amazing.

When is divorce going to be banned again?

How can people focus on such shit when people are jobless and homeless and starving?

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Nuclear headaches....

Lying idjits... This stuff makes me physically ill.

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Attn: Annti...

There's a big to-do in your place.... GO. Ed's a rabble rouser, but circle Aug 29th and get your 'gelatinous tatooed butt' over there. Please.

And for the rest of you... While everyone is yelling USA! in endless choruses... I would say 'Shame!' Or why did Sixty Minutes have to show an expanded repeat version of poor and homeless children in America this past Sunday? Hearts sort of shrivelled, huh? I keep getting this 'impression' that a group of people over there have this mistaken idea that 'errm, you didn't work hard enough, so Gawwd didn't 'reward' you and make you prosperous, so it is YOUR fault if your children are going to bed hungry, and aren't going to have a chance at learning anything because they can't concentrate on anything if they don't have anything in their stomachs. TWENTY FIVE per cent of America's children are in poverty thanks to Bush and his co-horts.

You can pass a child on the street? Every fourth is HUNGRY in the most overfed FAT country in the world? Scrawny, you think? Parents 'don't care?'

Shame. That wasn't what I grew up with.

So Annti... big free clinic thing Aug. 29th. Get in their faces. So set your sights, darlin'... Might be a 'good' thing.

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Trenton...

Ed is up in arms and at his best.... and right, and who the fuck are the DINOS they should be re-called.

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A voice in the wilderness....

And why wasn't I born in Vermont? There are two segments here... Bernie Sanders up first is whom I meant.

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Have I said how much I hate Sundays?

I do... with a passion. And normally, I find something distracting to just make the day pass...

One of the themes on The Daily Show this past week was how fucking Goldman Sachs ruined Greece, and it was nefarious, no one seemingly had could rein in that firm. And I sort of love that country, as unusual and wonderful as it was... and as usual, no one will be held accountable. Wouldn'tcha know, hey. They get advertising on MSNBC which makes me wonder.

I was just watching 'My Big 'Fat Greek Wedding' for the third time because I was bored, and it is funny, romantic, crazy, and entertaining... but memories got engaged. And there is a lot of truth in it.

My first encounter with Greece involved my high school history teacher, who was also my father's history teacher, and he once let out she'd come in with dark glasses in HIS time after a week-end bender. Hoppa! She taught European history, supposedly. But what she taught was Greek history. Mrs C could warp your mind with what I thought at the time was absolutely insane. She would tell us the Greeks invented EVERYTHING. Democracy, toilets, you name it, they were the first, and was so first. Suffice it to say that by the end of the year.... we were 'approaching' the ancient Romans.

Thank goodness I did have some courses at university which gave me a different perspective on 'world history'... without the histrionics.

Something must have stuck in my head. So when I was first in Europe, and we had a long vacation, I took it into my head to visit Athens. It involved a very long and dangerous journey that took over forty hours by train. Long story.

But I got there, and fell in love. It was gritty, loud... so loud.. but fascinating. I was in a flea-bag hotel, but being an early riser, would walk up early in the morning to the Acropolis, and sit there watching the sun come up. And could see all the way to Pireaus, and the ocean beyond. There weren't any guards back then. It was amazing. And there were people who would tell you all about the history of the place for a pittance, and it was Mrs. C all over again. Such pride in the country's history and their contribution to western culture.

But it was also about the immense hospitality they were showing. I was just a very poor student. But I had a knack for finding interesting places to eat. I went window shopping, and found what looked like a cafeteria, but there only seemed to be locals in it, so homed in on it.

They had a menu card that was so long, I thought, 'whoa, no way they have all this ready...' So a waiter came, and asked me what I wanted to order and I had three choices, and to every one of them he said, 'No, we don't have that tonight.' So I asked, 'What DO you have?' somewhat put out. And he cocked his head, and said, 'Come with me...'

And brought me into the cleanest kitchen I have EVER seen, and there were three ladies bustling about, and big pots on the stove. Salad stuff hanging down some sort of ladder thing, and a cooler of some of the most mouth-watering-making desserts you can imagine. Well, I could have been thunderstruck by Zeus. Knocked over by the most delicious smells.

And said, 'May I have some of THAT, please, and a sald with THAt please, and that over there for dessert?'

I guess I was a hit for choosing correcty. It was probably a kidney stew, a salad, and the dessert was so sweet it hurt my teeth. But was delicious.

They don't do that any more. I was astounded at the time, however. I don't want to see how most Austrian kitchens look, believe me.

The woman who ran the hotel was 'motherly', and seemingly liked me. And was into making money, of course, but she did a remarkable thing. She said, 'Hon, you have to go to the islands... get out of here for a day. Listen, you park your bag, you won't be charged, and go see what Greece really is all about.'

And I thought, 'Ok, may be a scam, but am interested...' It wasn't expensive. And off we went... To Aegina, it was not so far away, and a school of dolphins followed the boat, it was magical. And Poros, which wasn't so hot, but overrun with cats on the docks wanting fish-heads the fishermen brought in from their catch.

And then we sailed to Hydra. I melted. At the time, I didn't know that Leonard Cohen and some really awesome people were living there. I probably would have recognised him if I'd seen him.... But sailing into that tiny harbour was overwhelming. I slunk off on my own, and started exploring the coast-line, came to a fishing village, and everyone was wonderful.

But I got back, and to my room and there was a lot of shouting in the night. Police raid. I was more or less oblivious. I sleep like the dead, always have.

I had no idea what was going on. Got back home in one piece, although some stuff went down on the way to getting there because I was such a naive idjit.

I've been back once since. Athens got 'clean', and sprawls... it was amazing. We stopped at Hydra, and it is still heart-breakingly beautiful. And the Greeks are pretty cool, if sort of crazy about thinking they invented everything in the world. It's their heritage. And they have a lot to be proud of.

What I didn't know at the time: it was the Time of the Generals, a dictatorship, and there was a lot going on I had no idea of, because I didn't follow news.

Skirting on the edges of potential danger without a clue.

They recovered, but now? Goldman Sachs fucked them half to death. And when I see their ads I'd like to punch their collective faces.

For Anglophiles who buy dvds....

My pay-for site had a mini-series all of a sudden without fanfare. Seven episodes. It's called Downton Abbey. After seeing that Maggie Smith, ( the incomparable) was in it, had to take a look and got sucked into it, it was fascinating

The late Robert Altmann has lasting influence. His film 'Gosford Park' was extraordinary. Making a 'Krimi' into a study of mores and social strata of British society. It focussed on the people who ran an English manor, and the aristocrats were more or less the dress-up dolls who were fairly irrelevant.

Downton Abbey took a lesson, and sort of changed the balance.... sixty per-cent 'downstairs', forty 'upstairs'. I found it fascinating. It begins with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, and ends with the outbreak of WWI in 1914. There is an issue about inheritance, as the Lord of the manor doesn't have a male heir, but three daughters.

But mostly, it is about the people 'downstairs'. And they harbour a villain and villainess the likes of which I hadn't seen before. A lady's maid with so much resentment she could curdle you with her smile. And a footman with ambitions and without morals, you want to smash his face. Dickensian.

Everyone has a 'sneakret'. The themes are social inequality, the rise of socialism and the suffragette movement, and nothing is out of balance, as some of the 'upstairs' people are aware that their time is over, and help others.

I won't put any spoilers in here. But suffice it to say that Maggie Smith is a wonder as Dowager Countess. That woman never makes a wrong move. Hard and calculating on the one hand... and able to move on as far as she can. Pride, and in the end, very funny. Beginning with holding up her fan to 'protect' herself from 'new-fangled electric lights' and what they might emanate.... which so reminded me of a Thurber story.. . to being sceptical about what good a 'telly-phone' was for. And in every segment, she would drop a dead-pan line so excruciatingly funny, I'd bust out laughing from the heart. And I don't laugh much any more, Preciousses.

I will always regret not having seen her in a play called 'Lettice and Loveage'. Peter and I saw it with top actresses in Vienna, and I could only shrug and think, 'Whaaa? She got a Tony for THAT'????' However.... the last act was so funny, we saw a production in Graz. And the Viennese version was cut to shreds, turns out. Seemingly no cuts in Graz, and it was 'oh WOW... now I understand'. It wasn't comedy, it was devastating. A totally different play.

Peter was impressed, but had a problem, because the acress playing the Maggie Smith role was one of his sworn enemies. They went waaay back. When he was star-struck, and had his first serious affair with a young actor who was so handsome, I never figured out what he'd see in me.... He died of leukemia. But she'd made his life a living hell.

Whatever, after seeing it her, I walked out shell-shocked, and said I'd never seen Gerti so good... she'd made my eyes leak. And he begrudgingly said, 'That was the best I've ever seen her.' And it cost him something to admit that.

So I got a close approximation.

Whatever, obtaining the DVD of Downton Abbey would be worth the money. It is suspenseful. Interesting. And the production values are top-notch. It's rich in narration, and worth seeing. I hope there will be a second season.

NY passed a marriage equality law

yesterday... This clip goes back to the Seventies... Progress? I guess so...

nuclear power is a good idea HOW?

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The corporate destruction of Austria...

Turning it into 'Murka.

Once upon a time, Preciousses, there used to be a country that was gentle.... nice. And they had strict rules about shop hours... not because they were mean, just the opposite. People needed their breaks, and the public's general health was considered a top priority. So there were strict opening hours for all the shops. And if you were a 'responsible' person, you would get what you needed while they were open. The last link fell today. And I find it in no way 'funny'. Or odd. It bothers me to death.

It was the Swiss who invented boullion cubes to reduce cooking time and give nourishment, just so people could work more time and add to production, the inbred yodlers... Anyone who thinks that they were doing people a favour hasn't done their homework. And anyone who has had fresh-cooked soup and one with cubes as base has to know how wrong the idea was. I used to be the soup king of this neighborhood, thanks to my mother, and believe me, you can't differentiate... the cubes suck it big time. My childhood home? Soup was a must, always there, in so many variations it would make your head spin.

Way back in the day.... stores were open from eight in the morning till twelve. If you needed anything, you were obligated to get it then. Because they closed from twelve or twelve-thirty and wouldn't re-open till two-thirty pm.

There was a REASON for that. People went home, and made the big meal of the day, the family came together, and ate, issues were discussed, and they were amazing. It was nutritionally sound. Good breakfast, your big meal at noon, and just a snack in the evening, because the shops re-opened at two-thirty p.m. and remained open till six p.m. Saturdays, the country shut down at twelve noon. And there was NOTHING till Monday. So you had to plan and try not to forget anything on your list.

They were iron-clad rules, and made you responsible to THINK.

Well, it became an encroachment. The creeping destruction of working people's rights, step by step. Suddenly, you had shops open all day, and people got an hour's break for lunch. No more family gatherings around the table, and their interactions, oh no. You worked. Encroachment, I calls it... and subverting family structure.

Then they loosened the laws and let a small group of stores open Sunday mornings from 8-12 a.m. If you were forgetful, like I was, you might have found you forgot to get a container of sour cream or something banal but was what you needed for dinner. And those stores upped the prices so it was a penalty fee for being absent-minded. Was ok by me.... Served me right, hey.

Then they went and loosened the Saturday laws, and supermarkets suddenly remained open till six p.m. No more 'weekends', you guys... and people loved it. So it stuck.

On Sundays, there is a supermarket at the train station, stays open from six a.m. till ten in the evening. That place is a scene of HORROR... so crammed with junk food, you would NEVER get a handicapped person in a wheelchair through any of the aisles. And for some strange reason, people think it is 'fun' to do their weekly shopping there, and it is a nightmare. Six registers, and if you can get out in less than half an hour for some small thing you forgot, oh boy, I want to know the trick. And can't imagine why most of them are so dumb. It's one thing for someone about to travel to get some munchies for the trip, but most of them are seriously buying a week's worth of groceries. The cashiers are just kids, and I don't want to KNOW how stressful their job is. But it must be terrible.

So what's set me off? I took a nap and overslept, woke up hungry, and it was 19:27 on my clock. Closed, I thought, everything closed. Shrugged, wasn't upset, can happen. The weather is so bad, it didn't really bother me.

And I thought, 'Hokay, will get a Döner at the Turk place over the way.' Imagine my astonishment to find that the square was hopping with people and activity! Because... the supermarket next door is suddenly now open till nine in the evening until further notice and you can get empty calories if you need them. How wonderful, if not for the people who work there.

No service on the meat or cheese counters, but hey, you can get wrapped plastic... if you wish.

And one poor girl was there who checked out the customers, what a thrill for her...

The 'geniuses' who thought this one up have to be corporate sharks, I tells ya. To my shame, I went in and bought something just to satisfy my curiosity about what was happeining in there. Everyone else was buying small items as well.

It was beyond 'disturbing', and the last staw for me. 'Murka wins, hey. Corporations win. Upsetting? You better believe it.

My last job in 'Murka, my lunch break on a twelve hour shift was TWENTY MINUTES. Believe me, you do NOT eat anything nutritional in that amount of time. You just eat some junk that keeps you going.

If the areseholes who thought this up think that they will increase profits... they are so wrong. You can't spend money you do not have. My purchase was EUR 1,38 for a can of tuna fish. Whoop-de-do, hey. I wanted a piece of cheese, but the Russians are buying it all up, and the prices skyrocketed. It was cheaper than a Döner. Go figure.

You don't always get what you want, as someone once sang.

Over the past couple or three years, I've noticed a disturbing trend. People feeding their faces walking down the street, mostly young ones. Thirty years ago, that would have been unthinkable.

People went home, had a very good lunch with soup, a main course, and everything that goes with that, and TALKED. And Austrians love nothing more than good food.

I could so relate to that. In my house, Austrian lunch was dinner at six p.m. and gawwd help you if you weren't there. It was respect for all the work that went into that meal, and Austrians are no different. It was 'fambly' time, questions were asked, discussions were held, it was sacrosanct. With lots of caring as subtext. And it was like that here.... once upon a time. It was information, fun, and if you had a person who could cook like my Mom, well, you wouldn't want to miss it.

Some assholes run on about 'family values'. Usually the clueless ones.

Corporate interests seemingly have decided to rip apart the very fabric of our society. Family is important. You lose that, you get mindless drones who will never see the queen bee in the hive.

I know that some people will think that is exaggerated, or I'm being a drama queen. But I know what used to be, and I know what it became. And feel sorry for the young people here who will never know that.

These measures sound so banal... believe me, they are not.

Ok, trivia time....

Daytime Emmy Awards were up on my pay-for site. Ninety minutes of my life I will never get back. For the past year, I've followed most of the shows out of boredom, because they are pleasantly distracting, so I thought it would be interesting.

Now I don't know how the voting system on this is, or who gets to vote for what, but wow... just wow. I would say some very talented people got robbed. In my opinion, only two deserved it. And one of them really disappointed me, because he's a pure Jeebus freak, seemingly. Nope, don't like that. He's on General Hospital, and is very good, but that acceptance speech? Gawwd help us all.

The other was Laura Wright, also of General Hospital, and she won over Michelle Stafford of The Young and the Restless, who plays a character I hate so much, I swear she must have met my bio-mom or my bio-mom has taken possession of her. I yell at both of them sometimes... needy, self-centered characters who tell themselves they are doing what's good for others, but are basically instant gratification freaks, selfish women who verge on the psychotic. So that was ok. Real talent.

The rest had me muttering imprecations. What burns me is the 'lurv' they show to that massive mess called 'The Bold and the Beautiful', Peter's poison. They got a best writing award? Really???? Peter and I used to roll our eyes at the repetitions, and he'd wave sheets of paper around and yell, 'You can hear the script rattling! God! This is for analphabets.' And I would say, so why do you watch it? 'The clothes are pretty.' And I'd bang my head on the wall. Figuratively....

The scripts haven't gotten any better. However. They awarded two this year, also to the team of 'The Young and the Restless'. That was deserved. Like my beloved One LIfe to Live, the story line is super-charged, it moves fast, you get thrown interesting plot twists, so yeah, deserved. Some one should trash the B &B team, if you ask me, they drive me nuts, but oh yeah, that is the only one I know which gets broadcast world-wide.... who have English or Spanish as a second language or something. I don't understand the fascination.

And yes it gets me right in the gall bladder.

The acts were horrible. Just oh-ful. There was a tribute to Oprah, and Gladys Knight? Well, I don't know what she's been smoking or drinking all these decades, but can't we just face the fact that her voice is totally shot? It's painful to behold. Celine Dion made it all about HERSELF, and I've not liked her since her Eurovision Song Contest days. So I'm biased about that. Las Vegas has RUINED Cirque de Soleil. The magic disappeared, and it was all tits and ass and pecs, or something, but nothing like at the beginning, where it was art.

The daytime tee-vee community showcases the charities they actively support, which was probably the most interesting part of the show. You learn about things you wouldn't know of otherwise and might be moved to help.

It seems unfair. ABC is killing off it's Soaps... for yet another food show, and a showcase for the mistress of the daytime producer. And are thinking of terminating General Hospital to give room for the ubiquitous Katie Couric a talk show. The three programmes have been running for over forty years, and I think it safe to say have been part of growing up in America for generations. You got sick at home from school? There was the sacrosanct part of the day you were to shush up, and your Mom watched 'her stories'. And if you were home for over a week, you could get caught up in all 'da drama'.

It's trivial, yes. Silly? Maybe. But for people with no access to theater or the arts, it was as close as they got to it, and there were many fine people who moved them to laughter and to tears.

Removing all that for 'profit' or 'ratings', or gratifying your spouse because you want to be powerful? I don't think that they will succeed in the long run. You don't run for four decades because you're producing shit, in other words.

Real fans are so angry... I think they'll provide some very negative consequences to what they are doing. I feel sorry they'll be gone. They were a part of the culture.

And a huge bit of American culture will disappear? Is it trivial? I do not know. But millions of people without access to anything else? That was their 'theater', their villains, and their heroes and heroines, role models, attitude changing shifts in mores and morals. I don't think that the movers and shakers really understand the implications of what they are doing here. It will be a cultural loss.

Trivial, right? Maybe. Maybe not.

Some ideas

resemble certain bakery products: sweet, soft and and somehow comforting in the morning, but hard, brittle and dry by late afternoon.

Original RenB thought, was in my head when I woke up, so I get the tm. I must have been dreaming something, but lost it.

Spotted two mormon kids at the intersection and lost my composure, busted out laughing because that number from the musical popped into my head. They must be a sub-sect, because their pants and ties were blue, but they had the cute name tags on their crisp white shirts. I've only seen the ones in black with the crisp white shirts. And damn Trey Parker for making that silly song stick in my head.

For anyone who missed it, click down below for a reprise of 'I Believe'. It's enough to start one's day with a smile.

uh-oh... Da Ven has taken umbrage...

That the hooligans in Canada got off with a slap on the wrist... or rump as he puts it. My bad.

He's getting authoritarian in his advancing years. Get on the subject of hockey and the US vs Canada..... well you get volatile feelings hey. Because Boston won... (yay???) ??????

My Dad grew up where sports were fair, and you have your issues with opposing teams, and all that, but fairness counts. Another era, another time. I think he gets very angry about people misbehaving at a sports event, and then nearly rioting or something.... haven't followed the story exactly, just browsed the headlines and shrugged because it isn't anything new to me.

But it seems to have offended his code of 'what you DO'. Sports, fairness, and yeah, you can rag on someone, tease them if your team is up and the other's is down, but you don't go breaking beer bottles over their heads, or go out setting fires and causing mayhem because your team lost.

And that is the correct attitude to take. I'm not sugar-coating the pill here.

But times changed... and some Canadians, who are portrayed in the 'media' as 'nice but sort of clueless', are anything but. I think they're sort of Wild West, and if a fist can solve an argument, they will use them.

I will tell y'all a story. (Gawwwd, I feel old this afternoon...) I was on shift at work at the Olympic Village cafeteria, mindnumbingly boring stuff. Would unpack stuff and put them on trays to be taken to one of the five kitchens on rolling trolleys. When I didn't have a ton of grapes washing in a machine, and the noise was hellish.

Well right at the beginning, I'd gotten caught 'stealing' a grapefruit. The list said four, there were five, so I put the fifth into a container to smuggle home for my breakfast after my night shift. We were only getting packaged crap to eat at that point and doing trial runs. And I had this hyper German tiny guy named Hobus for a boss, and he was a big-wig in one of the most prestigious hotels in Germany. It was right at the beginning of my work there, and he wanted to show us how to package something for the trolleys, and wouldn't you know, grabbed the container I'd hidden the grapefruit in.

He took one look, and said, 'This can ONLY have been the American! Explain yourself!' Embarassing? Died inside. I explained there had been one more than on the list and had wanted it for breakfast. BTW.... you say grapefruit in southern Germany and Austria.... but in the North? The word is Pampelmuse.

My colleagues gave me hell during the break. 'How the hell could you be so stupid? Only Amis eat Pampelmusen!' (Yeah, you learn something every day, hey. ) When the shift ended, 'der' Hobus threw me the grapefruit, and said, 'Next time, ASK', and I could see he was about to bust himself for laughing. Embarassed to the nth degree, hey.

Thus began a weird relationship with 'der Hobus'. I was always joking and laughing with everyone, and his stock phrase was 'B! Mach kein Blödsinn!' (Stop goofing around.) Well I was working, but my mouf wouldn't stop. And he would go off chuckling. 'Mach kein Blödsinn!'. I guess you could say he liked me.

So, you ask, what the hell does that have to do with Canadians, and violence, and so on? It's just background so you can appreciate it better.

I was washing grapes one night, which was so mindless, you could go nuts, when 'der Hobus', came running in out of breath. As I said, he was tiny, only came up to my shoulder, and I was only five foot nine back then... shrunk since.

He was out of breath and yelled 'B!!!!'

'Yes Sir?''

'Do you have nerves of steel?' (I thought 'Whaaaa?' and was cautious...)

'Errm, sometimes...'

'Come with me, hurry.'

Everyone watched fascinated. and we went outside to the entrance.

'Can you get rid of this?'

There was a mess of blood on the pavement. And I looked at him surprised and said, 'Is THAT all? You've never worked a childrens matinee in a movie theater and gotten rid of the puke on the carpets. Get me a mop and cleaning stuff, pronto.' He looked relieved. He did and I cleaned it up.

I later learned it had been a confrontation between two hot-blooded Canadians fighting over a girl. I had to keep mum about it, which I did. As far as I know, that was the only bloody confrontation among the 140o employees, and they got sent home. It was supposed to be the games of peace... till the terrorists ruined it all.

Lesson? You don't mess with young hot-blooded Canadians.

Well... 'der Hobus' saw me in a different light for the rest of the summer. If there was an extra grapefruit/pampelmuse, he'd throw it to me at the end of a shift, with a smile and say, 'Mach kein Blödsinn'.

Over the decades... much changed. The rich-poor gap became wider and wider. The 'hooligans' are in a place where their only heroes are soccer players, and teams. They usually have no way out of their circumstances, and their teams are their own triumphs, that is how they feel. It's a piss-poor lack of edumacation they have, but is all they have. And they get frustrated, and fuel themselves with booze, and get like the Canadian guys that night, and violent. And the worse the economy gets, and the more trapped they become, the more dangerous they are.

I'm not going all bleeding heart liberal here, but I 'think' I know what fuels it... disregard, poverty, anger at not having their own lives, not seeing a way out...

No, they don't deserve just a slap on the wrist, they need to know that actions have consequences. But it is the underlying reasons that cause this that make me want to punish the people who are responsible for making them that way.

Just various and sundry thoughts...

Da Ven sort of vented about the Canadians going hooligan after losing to Boston in some hockey game. He should never want to be a soccer fan in Europe.

I saw a game live.... once. In Berlin. In the stadium Hitler had built for the '33 Olympics. It was so impressive, architecturally. Intimidating and skeery. The home team lost, but there was camaderie, but that was 'back then'. And all I could think was, 'so this is where Jesse Owens humiliated Hitler.'

What later developed wasn't so interesting, and more annoying. Riots. Hooligans, who currently get a huge police presence when they arrive and accompany them to the stadium... which had an interim re-naming to the Arnold Scharzenegger Stadium and after he pissed off the city officials, got re-named to the original Liebenauer Stadium. Long story.

I took a trip to Rome in the late Seventies. It was the one city I disliked on sight. Athens fascinated me, and I fell in love. Rome? I hated it. So I jumped ship after having spent one morning in the Vatican museums, which were way too much to absorb, and fled to Salerno, only because I'd read it was on the sea, and knew that a very bloody WWII battle was fought there. It was a pure vacation place, steep mountains falling to the strip of the city, a long strip of promenade, with the most amazing acts on it... the local version of Punch and Judy, which originated there during the time of Comedia dell'arte, and it was full of vacationing Italians, so I got a brush up on my speaking skills. Took day trips to Pompeii, and Amalfi. Unforgettable, and just what I needed to relax and fill my head with knowledge.

The bus ride to Pompeii was hair-raising. People had chickens in coops on the baggage racks above the seats, and we swerved along mountainsides where everything was so steep, I thought I had made a bad decision, but everyone ELSE was calm, so I went with it. You do that when you're young and fearless.

I was down there for a week, it was inexpensive, and wonderful, and what I needed. Just some solitude. I knew I was falling in love, and wanted to sort it out and be clear in my mind about whether that was what I wanted.

Two days before I was supposed to be back to work, I returned to Rome taking an evening train there and was absolutely freaked when I got to Roma Termini, the station. It was crawling with humanity. What I hadn't known was that the World Cup Soccer Tournament had just ended, and everyone in the wuuurrrrrld was leaving. I was lucky to get on, it was packed.

And landed sitting on my suitcase near the WC door on one car, and it was wall to wall people, yelling, screaming, and I had to keep moving for all the people wanting to void in the toilet one way or another, and had a hysterical English kid drunk out of his gourd who gave me a play by play re-run of all the games in complete 'euphoria'. He brought back all the stress I had managed to lose. People were piled up sleeping in the corridors.

I'm claustrophobic at best, and it was my night in Hell. And I kept thinking, 'I've got to get OUT of here!' but I didn't 'know' any other cities on the route, so I held on to Venice in my head.

It takes twelve hours to travel by train from Rome to Venice. That far.

But I learned some things, although I was more than annoyed at the time.

Once in Venice, I put my suitcase in a locker, took a boat to the Lido, and a bus to the southernmost end, where there was a nude beach. High dunes, sort of magical, and I crashed out and finally slept. There was a train going back to Graz in the evening, you see, and I thought the horror would be over.

But before I got the boat, I'd run into Jimmy Carter for the second time on that trip. Early morning, he was out jogging with his secret service agents... I'd already seen him in Rome, going somewhere... he and Rosalynn waving, and the Romans sort of shrugging as if to say, WTF? It was weird, as in, 'Can't I have a minute here???'

When I got up to go back, there was this letch who followed me on the bus back to Santa Maria Elisabetta, where the ferries back to the city go, and he was fat, toothless, and kept running his tongue over his lips laciviously, and all I wanted to do was laugh, and thought 'Fellini makes documentaries'.

The train home was quiet, I got in at seven, began work a half-hour later, and life became normal again.

What was extraordinary about soccer fanatics then became magnified, but I sort of understand. I've met many since. They scrape everything they have together just to see their HE-roes. They live through them vicariously. They live and breathe the game. Because their lives aren't so exciting. And they are sort of a sad sort of group.

And the more poor they became, the more violent.

It's just a guess.

People can be very sad.

The three best numbers in my opinion...

Wolverine dances... who knew.



Colbert sings and dances... who knew...



Am not so sure about this, but from the comments, the original finale was about fifteen minutes longer, so withhold my snark.

I forgot how much I miss going to the theater

Yeah, the Tony Awards were over the weekend, and were up on my internet pay-for channel. I had been planning to go to Gamlitz, but it was raining cats and dogs, so why travel to gloom in gloom, you know? So will try again tomorrow. And watched the show.

Among all the awards shows this year, the Tony broadcast was smart. They gave out the boring technical awards in the commercial breaks, with notifications when they went back on air. The acceptance speeches were mercifully brief. The rest was what Broadway does best... entertainment.

The guest host was Neil Patrick Harris, who is so multi-talented, it's criminal. He used to be 'Doogie Howser', and is now on 'How I Met Your Mother', but has a lot to offer. His opening number was hilarious. He had a great interim number with Hugh Jackman mid-show. More on him in a moment.

The rest were live excerpts from this years crops of musical nominees. Strong field, I must say. And some from recent ones, and one ballad from Spiderman, Bring On The Dark, which was nice enough, but that wasn't in the running because it's been one of the most scandal ridden enterprises of the past year and still hasn't officially opened because it was such a mess, keeps being re-written, and is fairly dangerous.... lots of injuries to the cast.

The finale of 'Anything Goes' as best revival was very nice, but didn't have the spark that '42nd Street' had. Saw that in Vienna, and for tap-dancing numbers, remains one of my favorites.

One number had me riveted. The NY Philharmonic got an A-list cast together and recreated the legendary Sondheim musical 'Company', which is going to be in some big city movie theaters for four days beginning yesterday. Neil Patrick Harris played the lead. And they did the finale from that. The shock was that Stephen Creier of Two and a Half Men and Stephen Colbert were in it! The original cast was lead by Dean Jones, and Harris really fit the role. The ensemble is excellent, Colbert carries a tune and blended in with the choreography. I was surprised, to say the least.

But, of course, I was wanting to see anything that had to do with The Book of Mormon, which had fourteen nominations and won nine, including best musical. It's from the team that do South Park, and the creater of 'Avenue Q' which was a huge hit. It's about young Mormons who do their missionary year in northern Uganda, get their belief tested confronting a local warlord, and from what I hear, it is not for the very religious or faint of heart.

I hope I can imbed the excerpt they did at the Tonys with Andrew Rannells. I saw an interview with Josh Gad, who is in the show, and the part was so hard to cast, he said, but when Rannells walked in to audition, everyone knew they'd found who they were looking for.... that fresh, wide-eyed innocence that young Mormon missionaries tend to just exude... the kind where you want to shake them and yell 'Wake up!'. A couple of them here tried to get their claws into Peter, and I thought at first that Annti was behind them visiting, but of course she wasn't. They kept coming back and leaving pamphlets with 'pretty' colorful biblical illustrations, the kind a ten-year-old would draw with a full set of Crayolas. I'd be at work, come home, find them on the table, and say, 'Why do you keep letting them in?' 'They're so nice. I think one of them is gay.' 'Do you read this crap??' 'No. It's nice to have company when you're not here.'

That seems to be a recurring theme here. The creators of the show say that lots of Mormons have seen the show, and come backstage and are complimentary. 'They're so nice.'

I suppose they are, but they believe some bat-shit crazy stuff. The embed is fairly tame... there are other themes that have gotten some people's panties in a twist, but it seems to be done so skillfully, they still go with it. Still, pay attention to the lyrics... believing the Jews built boats and sailed to America, and that Eden was in Jackson Missouri? Au weh. I hope they made that up.

Can't embed, but the link is here. The moment I saw this actor, I understood what Josh Gad meant. And what is this about you getting your own planet? Read the comments. Whew.



And the opening