The Cirque is in town!

Again, one of the jobs that make the crappy days being a stagehand worthwhile; I just spent two days loading the new Cirque Du Soliel show "Totem" in at the San Jose location the city has set aside for them. It displaces part of the personal parking for the San Jose PD. At the highest paid salary and largest most expensive retirement pack in the US for a police force, they can stop whining about the 6 weeks it runs..

Day One was pretty hard. Two crews of 6 "carpenters", split into stage left (my group) and stage right (the slow guys).

Pluses: Trish, the CDS (Cirque Du Soliel...) crew carpenter lead for stage left, from Boston; Nick, the crew chief from Manchester; and Katy, the head carpenter, from... wait for it... Tasmania! I was having trouble placing the accent. I knew she wasn't from New Zealand, she also didn't sound Aussie... I finally asked her. "New South Wales, maybe?" She laughed and said "No, Tasmania! Good one mate, not thinking I was an Oz or a Kiwi!" very cherubic 25 year old blonde. Too bad the comment about having a beer after was, I am sure, rhetorical rather than an actual invitation... "Only one?" I asked.. she laughed and said "Well, I'm not a Aussie...but I can drink like one..."

Mehs: "Carpenter" is sometimes.... frequently.... nearly always.... a complete misnomer when working CDS. I have worked a number of the shows locally. In (I think) the correct order going back to 1997; Saltimbanco, Alegria, Quidam, Dralion, Corteo, Kooza, Ovo and two of the arena shows "Because tents are for camping!" Delirium and Michael Jackson. I have worked on the carpentry crew four times. To date, I have never touched a single piece of wood that was not already attached to an aluminum or steel frame. This show was no different. We started by building out the lower framework for the main stage. Steel cross-members, anywhere from 2 feet to 8 feet long, weighing 30 to 90 pounds each. Once we had that built, we added the decking, a 1 inch thick plywood base with a rubberized laminate top surface, covered with a front-projection capable coating of grey. Then we built a second framework above that, the platform on which the musicians sit and perform. The upper section was raised up 10 feet by a pair of forklifts (sketch! very sketch!) and we then replaced the small standoffs from the lower level with the performance steel uprights, 8 foot long 3 x 3 posts.

That took us up to lunchtime, at which point we all fled for an hour. When we came back, it was time to build the backstage flooring. This was the only real negative to the day. We had to shim all four corners of each section of decking, again a plywood and rubberized laminate on a heavy structural aluminum frame. The sections were smaller, from 2 foot by 4 foot to 4 foot by 4 foot. There were a LOT of them, unfortunately. Maybe 120 or so, for each side of the stage. The shims were small squares of plywood 3/4 of an inch thick, and each corner got a small steel plate with four short pins sticking up; these locked the floor sections together. We had to shim each section up and level it, then move on... that took 5 full hours.

Day Two was much more fun! That day was devoted to nothing but :Le Squelette", the skeleton frame of a giant tortoise shell. A framework of 3 inch diameter structural steel tubing, with a spray foam and fiberglass mat covering, painted in a dusty orange/yellow motif. There were four primary sections, each roughly 8 foot by 8 foot arched "squares", heavy enough it took our entire crew of 8 guys to lift and carry in. Then there were the connecting sections and cross members...

This gives a good idea of the scale (wish I could have found an image of the steel deck frames...). These had to be handled very carefully, as the covering was very hard to repair. Again, our CDS crew heads were excellent; Nick another down-under migrant from New Zealand this time, and Spencer, a mere Canadian. (grin)

The first order from them was simple; "Take your time; there is no rush to this." I've always found this to be typical of the CDS attitude; they don't want people loafing, but they don't want a frenzied atmosphere and screaming leads, causing an injury or damage. And injury is a constant danger. The sets, lighting, even the props are all large, many of them are very heavy, as they have to support huge amounts of weight or torque... we finished the framework well ahead of schedule, In fact, we were so far ahead that Nick offered us up to Katy again, who was thrilled to able to go work on special projects, leaving four of us to scurry about under the main stage, installing the flooring used by the clowns (mostly) to scoot about under the deck on little flat carts and pop up through trap doors.

Susan G Komen

Abortion is a hot button for millions of people across the world. It has been an even hotter issue in the United States. Since the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, which so many thought finally settled the issue, it has gone from rhetoric and cold war to guerilla warfare.

According to the New York Times and the National Abortion Foundation, since 1977 there have been more than a dozen attempted murders, almost 400 death threats, 153 incidents of Assault and Battery, and 3 kidnappings, all committed against clinic workers and doctors. In the same period there have been a staggering number of attacks on property as well. The same sources report over 40 bombings, 1733 acts of arson, almost 100 attempted bombings or arsons, 619 bomb threats, 1630 acts of trespass, 1264 acts of vandalism, 100 "stink bomb" attacks, and since 1998 a stunning 655 bioterror threats have been made.
All of these acts are being and have been committed by people who claim they are fighting for the Right to Life; how they are able to reconcile that ideology with the taking of lives themselves, acts of violence and destruction remains an utter mystery. They are either a very small group of dangerously disturbed sociopaths, with remarkable resources behind them: or much more likely, a large number of zealots and ideologues, spurred on by the organizations that support anti-abortion legislation.

More than 30 years has passed since Roe v. Wade, and yet the adherents of "pro life' will simply not let go. I applaud their conviction and belief; provided that is they respect mine as well, and don't try to change my mind by assault. In fact, I agree to a limited extent with some of their points. I do not support the idea of abortion as birth control. If you choose to have sex without contraception, you pay for the abortion. You don't wait until the third trimester to have it done, either. Not and have it covered by insurance, anyway.

Even so, those two policies need to be applied intelligently. If you are raped or a victim of incest, you probably had little chance to request a condom be used. If you are in the third trimester and a doctor discovers a major health issue threatening the mother, the fetus, or both, it is then a medical necessity. In every instance the final choice belongs to one person, and one person only in my opinion; the mother.

Today we are faced with yet another glaring example of how willing the pro-life adherents seem to be to require everyone else to abide by the rules they want to enforce, while at the same time ignoring and deliberately breaking laws and rules themselves. I refer here to the decision by the Susan G. Komen Foundation to revoke funding for Planned Parenthood.

According to their initial press release on January 31st 2012, Susan G. Komen Foundations "recently adopted policy changes" forbade funding of any agency under investigation. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R Florida) had sent a letter to Planned Parenthood earlier in January 2012, informing them he was launching an investigation into violations of federal funding statutes. Several things about the timing of this were odd. Karen Handel, a staunchly anti-abortion politico, was hired as VP of Public Policy in April 2011 . On March 31st 2011 the Grant Policies and Procedures published by the foundation make no mention at all of revoking funding for a grantee who is under investigation. I can find no published record showing when in fact the foundation made these changes to policy. According to a comment by Karen Handel, these changes were approved in November 2011. However I see no such changes on file.

It seems obvious then that Karen Handel was the driving force here. Her own letter of resignation submitted on Feb 6 2012 admits this: “I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it. I openly acknowledge my role in the matter and continue to believe our decision was the best one for Komen’s future and the women we serve.” Yet this is in direct contradiction to the initial statement by Handel, that she "had no involvement" in the policy changes. She also uses the word "strategy" here. If the funding was only being revoked because policy changes required it, how was it a strategy? The investigation by Stearns also reeks of collusion.

This also brings up another point. The Sarbanes Oxley act applies to non-profits and charities as well. If in fact written procedure required revoking funds to Planned Parenthood, that funding could not be restored until such time as the policy was revoked or amended. Yet according to the latest press release, the Foundation reversed its suspension of funding first, then announced it would revise the purported policy. This is not the proper order under non-profit procedures. The board would have to meet, agree to the revisions, write and approve them by vote, and only then could funding be restored. I see no indication of such meetings prior to the latest announcement.

To me the only way this becomes an open and honest examination is if Rep Stearns now requests an investigation into the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Let's see if Rep. Stearns is a true Christian, doing unto others as he would have done unto him. Or is he in fact just like all the radical right-wing anti abortion members, who will throw aside all laws, ethics and morals in order to enforce their doctrines and beliefs on the rest of us.

Politics and Pride

Recently I have been watching the election coverage with more than my usual scrutiny. I have always read voting guides, the analysis of ballot measures pro and con, as well as looking at the things people running for office are saying. I have almost never voted American Independent, though in 1980 after Ted Kennedy's faux pas I was left with Jerry Brown and Carter, both of whom I thought were idiots; I voted for Anderson. In 1984 I anted John Glenn; when left with Mondale I actually thought about voting for Angela Davis, just to say I had done so; I voted for Mondale to oppose Reagan, rather than because I actually wanted him. Or the Democrats for that matter.

So here we are today; the Republican party is showing it's usual collection of verbose and divisive candidates. Almost all of whom I consider to be either complete morons like Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman, dishonest power grabbers like Romney, even more dishonest and erratic Newt Gingrich... and lets face it people; America would have to hide blushing behind our flag for four years if we chose a president named "Newt". I liked Jon Huntsman. In two interviews he was intelligent, rational, and seemed concerned over the economy. Obviously they were not going to allow him to run.

I am not oppose to Obama. I voted for him, and not just because he was not republican, or because he was black. He spoke well, I believed his stated intentions, and in spite of all the detractors, he has done a superb job. He has managed in the face of constant opposition from the republicans, combined with the now-typical laziness and lack of confrontation of the democrats, to turn around in two years what the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush trinity screwed up over 8 years.

Don't kid yourselves my republican friends; Cheney and Rumsfled were the power brokers there. Bush was the sock-puppet front man. Cheney and Rumsfeld got two wears going, killed thousands of our men and women, ignored hurricane Katrina until it devestated Luisiana, and then blamed FEMA, after that very administration had hamstrung them years before. They waved a paper tiger around so vehemently after 9/11 that frightened people allowed them to quash civil liberties, freedom of expression, legal and civil rights... all by waving the boogie man of invasion by Iraq or Afghanistan. Learn geography! Afghanistan is landlocked; Iraq's navy doesn't have enough men to invade the Superbowl. Plus the fatc that they are barely a presence on the Persian Gulf, and would have to violate a lot of other countries territory to sail over here. Neither is going to invade the US by plane; unless you think the former administration was actually so stupid they would miss 500 charter flights coming out of the Middle East.

No, you folks ran like Chicken Little. I'm not talking about just Republicans here, or the religious Right, or Liberal Democrats. Every single person who didn't scream at their Congressman or Senator. No one is going to invade the US physically. We have nearly 3 MILLION troops, counting active and reserve. The entire estimated military of Afghanistan would only outnumber the average fan attendance for the Cincinnati Bengals by 3 to 1; in game theory, you need anywhere from 6 to 1 odds to 8 to 1 odds to succeed. That means that the entire Iraqi army at it's height would barely be able to overrun the fans at this years Superbowl (578,259 Iraqi soldiers to 68,000 fans). You can do the exact math if you wish. Its about 8:1 odds.

Here is another fact; there are enough (registered) guns owned in the United States to arm 88 percent of the population. That include toddlers, by the way; so basically, everyone between lets say 14 and 60 could carry two weapons.... the second highest in the world is Serbia, at 56 percent. Not much invasion threat from them either. And if Mexico and Canada were to team up, they would not even match Serbia. So invading the Unites States is absurd. The enxt time you hear someone say that "We did this to protect the United States from invasion" laugh at them and call them a moron. Slap them for lying.

We did, however, allow Osama Bin Laden to win. More accurately, the Cheney Trinity did. How you ask? Simple. The object of terrorism is to inflict panic; it's not to take and hold territory, or sieze valuable resources, or any other military objective. It's to make people run around screaming "The Sky is Falling!", to behave in a way that destabilizes them. Homeland Security, the Transportation Safety Bureau, "The Patriot Act" and Rendering did that. Exactly the way Bin Laden wanted. We proved that were exactly the type of detested bully the world should hate. A Cowardly Lion of epic proportions.

Let me bug all of you with a few more tidbits;

War in Afghanistan: 2001. President: Bush (not Obama) Senate and House: Republican SOURCE: any news article

War in Iraq: 2003. President: Bush (not Obama). Senate and House: Republican.

Sub-prime Loan: 2004. President: Bush (not Obama) Senate and House: Republican.
(side note; the percent of subprime loans in 1999 was 8% on average. By 2004 it rocketed up to 20%. SOURCE: Wall Street Journal)

Bank Failures: 57 in 2007 and 2008. During the first year of Obama's term, under the budget passed by the previous Congress, 122 more banks failed. Since 2007 a total of over 400 small banks have failed, all brought down by the collapse above them. SOURCE: FDIC

For this, both parties are to blame; the Democrats did not take over majority in the Senate until 2009, and are still the majority party, Their failure to unify, or to overwhelm opposition, as well as both parties failure to compromise has paralyzed and crippled our economy. (Party Majority SOURCE: Clerk Of the United States Office)

The President DOES NOT have dictatorial powers. To everyone I saw applauding Gingrich in his New Hampshire caucus; you are sheep, or idiots. You applauded when he said that "A leader needs to be strong; to take action, even if the people are opposed to it..." that stunned me. Isn't this the same guy screaming because Obama appointed someone to an office (which he has the right to do, by the way). Isn't that saying "I don't care what you want or what you think; we do things my way". That is dictatorship.

And through all of this, where has the Tea Party been? Where were they in 2001? In 2004? In 2007? Why is it only after a black Democrat takes office that this "Tea Party" bobs to the top of the septic tank of intolerance, screaming for impeachment, and radical change... oh, wait, I answered my own question already. Intolerance. Bias. Hatred. Denial. Hypocrisy. Fraud. The earmarks of the prior administration blended with the fanatical self-righteousness of religious zealotry. Exactly the same rhetoric and attitude used by the Taliban and the Ayatollahs.

Wait. I was wrong. We did in fact get invaded. There they are, the people who want to turn us into a modern day Theocracy, where your every thought and action is under scrutiny, where dissent is punished with violence, and freedom is what they tell you it is. Nice job Mr Bush; you played your part beautifully. Machiavelli salutes you Mr. Cheney. Welcome, Great Lord Gingrich.
Cthulhu Fataghn!

Analyze this....

So somewhere out there are people who still claim to be able to analyze dreams. I have read two books on the subject... OK, that's a half truth. I read parts of two books on the subject. I quit both times, because they were utter crap, at least where I was concerned. Not one of them had any mention or section on turning into a werewolf..... ort a 30 foot tall winged demon. Neither discussed the deep meaning of having lunch in a railcar-turned-diner filled with ghosts. At no point did they discuss being Angelina Jolie in a fantasy film about Luck Dragons and Chimera..... these are not excerpts from nightmares, by the way. These are just snippets of these unusual epic dreams I have. I get nightmares also, but they tend to run along the same lines. Two hour epics that might actually make great films, if they had more damn continuity.

This morning however I woke up from what has to rank among one of my oddest. Not because I was changing gender, or species, but because it actually had a structure.... if I had eaten some magic mushrooms and wandered around Wonderland, maybe....

It began with me meeting my friend Kimi at a huge mall, like Stanford Shopping Center. We were going to have drinks and lunch at this new trendy bar and grill. Sitting at the bar, I was fascinated by the behavior of the two waitresses. One of them seemed to be flashing customers randomly, both men and women; the other, a small blonde woman, was making the simple act of picking up empty drinks a twenty second seduction. I pointed this out to Kimi quietly, to have her watch as the blonde girl picked up an unwanted beer from my friend Elayne, who was suddenly there as well. As the waitress reached for the beer, she slowly slipped two fingers inside the glass, then made a little gasp as if surprised. Looking right at Elayne, she then put both fingers in her mouth to lick the beer off.

She took the glass and twirled away, walking back in my direction, smiling at me and winking. As she passed behind me she looked over her shoulder; then she poured the rest of the glass (quite a lot, actually) over my head. I sat there in my favorite suit, a tailored black silk one (yes, I own suits. Yes, one of them is tailored black silk from Japan.) Several people were making comments and waiting to see what I would do. For a moment I made jokes about beer being good for hair, and how nice it was to smell like yeast; then I got up and confronted the blonde girl. To my annoyance she not only had no reason for dousing me, but was angry at me for being upset by being wet and reeking of beer. When I demanded to speak to the owner or the manager she actually called me a stuffy fuck.

I moved to the back of the place, which looked more like a corporate lobby. The secretary seated there rushed about (secretary??), brought me a business card for the owner, and brought over an assistant Customer Support person... in a BAR? Meanwhile the crazy waitress was continuing to yell at me. Kimi was watching in shock, and Elayne looked more and more concerned as I visibly lost my slightly amused detachment at the incident and got angrier and angrier. What began as "I want my suit cleaned and an apology" was now "I want my suit cleaned, an apology, my hair washed and combed, a free meal, and you fired" because the waitress wouldn't shut up. I finally had enough, and as I left the waitress got right in my face. I looked at her and said "What exactly do you think you are doing?" She punched me in the mouth three times. Fairly hard. Hard enough, in fact, to knock out a tooth or two and chip some more.

Everyone froze in place as I picked out the bits of teeth and looked at them. With a now rather lop-sided grin I said "Thanks. I think you pretty much just gave me half ownership of the place on a platter." The Customer Service girl and the secretary grabbed the soon to be fired waitress and tossed her on the ground, as Kimi and I walked out. Elayne was either still inside, or had left already.

Kimi was walking out to my car with me, asking if I was OK and apologizing for choosing the place, as I put my bits of teeth in a pocket and poked about at the now vacant areas of my gums. It ached, and I had a fat lip, but nowhere near the amount of pain one might associate with broken teeth... and I was back to amused.

That is until we got to the far side of the parking structure. I was parked on the third tier, near an edge, and for some reason a helicopter had landed half way on the railing, getting the landing struts caught in the side rail and pulling it free. Below on the ground (about fifty feet) was some weird sort of flatbed/crane combo, hooked to the helicopter. Just sitting there, no one operating it, like the driver had said "Oops, lunch break. Back in 30 minutes!" and walked off. Sigh. Union Journeymen....

Naturally I had to take a closer look and see if this was being done correctly. Kimi was fascinated, and announced "I've never gotten to be in a helicopter before!" She scrambled over the broken concrete and the rail, and hopped inside the pilot area of the helicopter. Umm, yeah. Right. OK then.... "Kimi! What the hell are you doing?" She laughed and said "Oh ni-san, you always do things like this.." then yelled as the whole thing slid off and tilted forward, almost dumping her to the ground still some forty feet below her.

A crowd assembled instantly to "ooh" and "ahh" as I looked around for a way to get her out. As I leaned over the railing two men walked up to the... tow truck? ... whatever.... then began to rock it violently. One of them was Dr. Martin Luther King. No one seems at all surprised to see him there. I raced down some magically convenient stairs, just in time to see that the rocking has caused the helicopter to tip slowly forward and down, and dropped Kimi a much safer six to eight feet. Into a shrubbery arrangement that surrounds a small cemetery for victims of AIDS. I helped Kimi up as she brushed off her clothes, and Dr. King nodded solemnly to me and walked off.

We left in separate cars, but went to my house (my actual one) in order to clean up. Kimi seemed to be very flustered, while I am only damp and slightly embarrassed over the condition of the house. It's not dirty, but it was absurdly cluttered in the back. This was because I was not only sleeping in one room (my real bedroom) next to my home office (also real), I was using them for temporary storage to help some friends.

More specifically, the costume departments for TheatreWorks and Wilcox Stage Company. The office was filled around three walls with an assortment of small boxes, all over-packed with shoes, shirts, dresses, belts... my room was a bit less cluttered, but I had been in the process of emptying and sorting two boxes, the contents of which are lying on my bed, my armchair, the TV.... and around the walls are numerous hats hanging alongside my own. Teanca's witch hat from "Maskerade" hangs alongside my RenFaire hat; Emily's was hanging on the peg with my Mardi Gras hat. On a number of new pegs (hey, where did my dresser go???) are hats from "Suessical the Musical" including a big Cat in the Hat hat.

I was trying to do two things at once. Get my wet suit off, and straighten my room. Neither was really going very well. In the midst of adding a third task, putting dry clothes on, there was a knock at the door followed by someone opening it into me. Two women were there, bowing and apologizing and trying to come in, to give me my compensation for the earlier soaking and punches. In my haste I pulled on a rather bizarre smoking jacket instead of my robe, and the damn thing wouldn't close in front. I eventually gave up on holding the door while trying to dress and clean, and the women came all the way in, trailed by my brother and Kimi.

They seemed fascinated by all the clutter, and kept trying to pick things up and look at them as I explained why I had them. They are like small monkeys or little kids; as soon as I got one thing away, they picked up another. I was not really annoyed, just... puzzled and frustrated. Then I heard a whole lot of barking and yowling from the front of the house. These two women had also brought in their dogs, all of whom seemed to know me and love me. The problem was that there are about five of them, all fairly large... and our cat was freaking out, even though the dogs were paying her no attention.

The dogs were now fawning all over me, and I was petting them and trying to calm them all down. I'd given up on the robe completely, and only had on a t-shirt, underwear... and socks. Socks? I took time to put socks on? The cat was now outside, and seeing me petting other things had infuriated her. She was howling and scratching the sliding glass door, when a large squirrel ran up next to her. It was carrying a tiny rectangle of paper on which someone (probably not the squirrel, but who knows?) had written "Help Me!" The squirrel waved the paper frantically, rather like it was taped to its paw, then struck a weird pointing pose while standing on its back legs. The cat yowled at the squirrel, the squirrel darted away, and Kimi and my brother started shooing the dogs out.

This gave the two nutty ladies a chance to make a formal presentation to me of the settlement being offered; a $300,000.00 check... and a gift certificate for a free dinner and drinks for two. I didn't really have time to mull over the absurdity of this, as I had a cat to deal with. She was now hiding in the garden and I had to partially dig her out from under my Artichokes. Kimi had now vanished, because the women discovered she is wearing a garter belt with no underwear, and kept pulling her skirt up to try and get a look and some pictures. Apparently this might have made them revoke the gift certificate, as Kimi's racy lingerie was possibly what sparked the beer dunking. What?

My brother was now fully engaged with shoving them and the dogs out the front door, where a news team had gathered to interview us all. I managed to recover the bathrobe, primarily to protect myself from the still angry and struggling cat I was now carrying. I stood in the front door and watched as my brother chased off dogs, women, news teams and the squirrel by swinging our marble topped coffee table at them like a giant swatter.

I woke up from that at six thirty this morning. After a few moments of sitting there in baffled thought, I got up. No way was I going to try going back to sleep. I might have found myself actually using the gift certificate.

Meaning? to that dream? I don't think so. Oh, sure, you can say it's an expression of stress and frustration, or uncertainty... but you might also just as well say that dreaming about a rooster means I am dreaming about success. It could also mean I am worried about being dinner, don't you think? Analyze THAT Sigmund...