I’ve started doing a new little thing some of you may or may not have noticed … when I run across a quote or interesting comment from another source, I’m going to pop it up there in my little header box.  It may or may not get changed everyday, so I’ll try to remember to direct you toward it when it updates.  Enjoy!

Dancing in the Legislative Dark?
Rich Tucker
Friday, May 23, 2008

During
the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, Sen.
Dick Durbin of Illinois asked him, “You’re a Bruce Springsteen fan?” An
odd question, to which Alito replied tepidly, “I am to some degree,
yes.”

Durbin had a point to make: “I guess most people in New Jersey
would be.” If not, he opined, “they should be.” That’s far from clear,
but let’s take the senator at his word.

When Durbin announced he’d vote against confirming Alito, he
returned to his earlier theme. “Judge Alito, a New Jersey native,
wouldn’t even say whether he was a Bruce Springsteen fan,” the senator
chided. “Now, he may be one of the few people from New Jersey who has
such cautious fealty to The Boss.”

Or, maybe not.

“Personally, for the last 25 years I have always stayed one step
away from partisan politics,” Springsteen wrote in The New York Times
in 2004. That’s a good policy for an entertainer. But that year,
apparently, was special. The Boss leapt into politics with both feet,
campaigning hard for John Kerry.

It’s understandable that Alito, a lifelong conservative, would
oppose Springsteen’s liberal ardor. He was simply too polite to make a
big deal out of that during hearings meant to focus on his
qualifications to sit on the nation’s highest court.

The joke here is on Durbin, in more ways than one. It’s not
merely funny that he claimed to oppose Alito because of the judge’s
taste in music. It’s funny that he even thought he had to explain his
opposition to Alito.

After all, Durbin is a liberal leader of his party’s Senate
contingent. It was clear from the get-go he would vote against Alito, a
conservative nominated by a president from the opposing party. And
that’s the real problem with politics today. It’s predictable and, in
many ways, pointless. The goal isn’t to get things done; it’s to attack
members of the other party.

As another example, consider the embarrassing story on the
front page of the May 17 Washington Post. During a trip to Saudi
Arabia, Bush pleaded with the Saudis to pump more crude. And they said
no. “Not only did the Saudis resist efforts to boost production even
more — as many congressional leaders are demanding — they also
pointedly said that the extra output was a week-old response to
commercial customers, not to the president,” the paper wrote.

Well, that certainly puts us in our place. We’re begging the Saudis to take MORE of our dollars, and they’re refusing.

Of course, any political failure gives the other party a chance
to pounce, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., was ready as always. “The
president seems to value his friendship with the Saudis more than his
obligation to help the American people with gas prices,” he declared.
Nice soundbite, but it would be difficult to find an attack more
disconnected from reality.

What, after all, does Schumer think Bush should have done?

The president asked, politely, for more production and was
turned down. Now, some might advocate invading Saudi Arabia, annexing
the oil fields and taking all the crude we want. But that’s certainly
not what Schumer’s calling for.

As an alternative, our country could increase domestic
production by drilling in Alaska and off the coast. Yet it’s Schumer’s
party that defeats drilling every time the idea comes up. So what’s
their plan?

“We’ve been pushing for a long time for energy efficiency,”
Schumer told reporters in April. “We believe in a price-gouging bill so
that the big oil companies can’t collude. We believe that there’s too
much speculation in the markets, and we believe that ought to be reined
in.” Again, nice soundbites, but nothing there to “help the American
people with gas prices.”

The same thing happens from the other side. Republican House
leader John Boehner recently wrote in the Washington Times that,
“Americans are paying nearly $1.50 more per gallon at the pump than
when Mrs. Pelosi became speaker.”

But it’s not Democratic control of Congress that’s the
problem; it’s that Congress refuses to, say, eliminate ethanol
mandates, drill for oil off our coasts or make it easier for companies
to build refineries. These steps might, indeed, lower prices.

Barack Obama seems to understand that people are fed up with
empty attacks, which is why he champions “change.” But his record as a
liberal legislator certainly hints he’d be as divisive from the left as
President Bush has supposedly been from the right these last seven
years. The non-partisan National Journal ranked Obama “the most liberal
senator in 2007” based on his congressional votes.

We’ve had enough attacks. It’s time for plans. Let’s hope this
year some politicians surprise us by designing approaches to fix Social
Security, education and energy. If they think they were “born to run”
— for office, anyway — they ought to at least try.

Copyright © 2008 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.

I spoke with our director a few minutes ago … and I’ve been cast in the part of the Mother!  It’s a small role, just the last two or three pages of the script and the character is described as “jovial” — I think I can do “jovial” … LOL

My character says the very last line in the play!  Ack!  What if I flub it?  Scary!  We have to have our lines memorized by the first of July … you can imagine that I’ll be working very hard.  Fortunately, each “line” is only one or two sentences long … no major monologues.  Whew!

No major announcements have been made regarding the cast, but since my Xanga is on Friends Lock and I doubt any of you will be calling the AP Wire, I felt like it would be okay to share my news with you. 

so when you try out, you are given a cutting?  Or do you get to choose the part yourself that you want to try out with?

Well, SarahsD It’s been my experience that when people go to audition, they
have a rough idea of the part they would like to play — so they will
put that down on their audition sheet.  They may be very specific in
that they are not interested in playing any other parts.  OR they may
be so determined to be cast that they will play ANY part.  So when the
director starts having them read, he’ll call for all the women who are
interested in playing the part of, say “Tessie,” to go on stage, as
well as whatever other parts are in the “cutting” that is being read. 
And he’ll try different combinations of actors reading that short bit
to see who can nail the characters the best and what combination of
actors produces the best overall scene.  It’s really not an easy job,
and I don’t envy directors one bit … we had some FABULOUS people read
last night and he’s going to have a tough time figuring out who will be
best in each role.

I’ll be seeing ya’ll around later — my girl has her piano recital this evening and so I’ll be getting her ready for that and squeezing a window blind consultation in the middle of it all.  No rest for the weary!

We had our first round of auditions last night … I think they went well.  I just wish we could get more MEN to show up for auditions.  We always have plenty of women, teenagers, and kids … but not so many men.  I think there were four there last night.  Hopefully tonight (the last night) will bring some around.  It’s always so much fun, and thus far our shows have turned a profit, which makes the BHF (Brazoria Heritage Foundation) quite happy.  We exist under their umbrella, and all our proceeds above production costs go towards BHF projects.  If you’d like to check some of it out, here’s the link:  Brazoria Heritage Foundation

AJ actually talked me into auditioning … there is one role that would be quite fun to play, but is relatively small … the role of Harold’s wife, Tessie.  I think she’s a bit of a shrew (!).  I’m okay with whichever way it goes.  I’m hoping my girl gets the one part there is for a girl her age … she did a great job last night.  There was another younger girl that did well, too, but I’m thinking Jami’s projection is much better and of course, I just think she’s cute as a bug.  Ha!  Two women that auditioned were pains in the backside, as they managed to get a copy of EVERY cutting and held on to them for dear life.  My friend, L, and I were talking amongst ourselves and we’re not sure that indicates “team player” mentality, as they did not offer to share any of them when others were in need.  We had quite a few printed out, but you know … for the convenience of those auditioning and in the interest of moving things along so we weren’t there until midnight it would have been nice if they’d said, “Oh, you need Cutting 5?  Here, I have a copy …”

Well, enough of that … today’s a busy day:  orthodontist appointment this morning, last piano class before Thursday’s recital this afternoon and ballet class this evening, plus the last night of auditions.  I’d better get on with the day!

I may have to do another recording … I hear from up north I don’t sound so Texas-y at all … LOL

It’s weird, I tend to flip back and forth on the accent thing and it seems to depend on who I’m talking with. 

We’re about to head out the door … our church has an annual “Grillin’ & Chillin'” event in May.  All the guys (and gals) that like to barbeque bring out their big ol’ bbq pits and cook beef, chicken, and pork while the rest of us bring side dishes.  The BBQ teams are quite competitive, in a fun way … nothing too serious.  But there will be trophies awarded for the tastiest morsels in each category, plus an over-all champ.  And then the back-n-forth “just wait ’til next year” will begin late this afternoon when our bellies are all full and we’re headed home.  LOL  The best part for the kids is that the volunteer fire department brings out one of their trucks and sprays the water hose way up in the air for the kids to run around underneath.

Here are a few shots from last year’s event:

Some Texans take their BBQ setups VERY seriously!

But bigger doesn’t always mean better … Dexter won best over-all BBQ with this quite modestly sized BBQ pit.

AJ (my hubby) took his judging duties equally seriously …

The kids loved playing in the water provided by the local volunteer fire department …

This is my girl … I think someone put shaved ice down the back of her swimsuit …

And here are all the teams that participated in the cook-off.   Winners got cool aprons and trophies!

I saw this on SarahD’s Xanga and thought it would be fun to do here, too.  She got it from Southernlass … enjoy!

Make a video or audio recording of yourself saying the following words on the list:

Syrup
Cement
Route
Rural
Town
Oil
Juror
Lafayette
Havana

Tournament
Oregon
Water
Drawer
Idea
Wash
Terrible

Nine

Five

Park

Caramel

Car

Now

Tire

Thing

MOOOOOO!

This is the accent challenge for my blog of d00000000000m.

It’s 6:30 a.m. and I’ve not gone to bed yet.  Thing is, I have an appointment at 9:30 and I know that if I lay my head down, I won’t wake up in time.  I got a good night’s sleep Wednesday night, but Tuesday night I didn’t go to bed at all, either.  I have got to get a normal sleep routine going.  It just seems like I can get so much more done in the middle of the night … no interruptions, no distractions.  But it’s not healthy.  Not at all.

I’d better go see if I can take a little 30 minute nap …

Have a good one.

I have the sweetest husband … this past Saturday, he went with me to Fort Worth, Texas to a museum.  The Amon Carter Museum, to be exact.  Which required a round trip drive of 654 miles.  Approximately 10 hours total driving …

My husband … he is not the biggest fan of museums.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  He has culture, to a degree.  He loves music and will go to hear a symphony, a jazz band, zydeco … you name it.  He’ll go.  And he enjoys the occasional theatrical production.  He’s even been game enough to join our community theater guild … performing in our premiere season production, building sets for our second production, and serving as assistant director to our upcoming production.

But museums … unless it’s the Texas Surf Museum in Corpus Christi (to which I now owe him a trip), himself is not so much a fan.  So when he agreed to go with me on my little road trip, I was exceedingly grateful.

A few months ago, Smithsonian Magazine featured an article on the history of Autochrome, which was the very first color photography.  I’m not sure, but I may have blogged about it when I first read the article.  The article mentioned that The Amon Carter Museum would be featuring an exhibit on this important discovery in the history of photography.  Well, of course, I had to see it … I mean, Texas is big … but not so big that we couldn’t make a highpowered road trip to Fort Worth, right?

We made arrangements for our girl to spend the night with a buddy, since we planned to head out EARLY Saturday morning.  Our original time of departure was scheduled for 4:30 a.m.  I felt pretty good about the fact that we left at 4:50 a.m.  (I’m notorious for running late, so 20 minutes was not too terribly bad …)  The weather was a bit dicey, in that we had a gorgeously scary lightning show until we got to Houston.  But once we hit the north side of H-town, things cleared up a good bit and the weather was beautiful for the remainder of our day.

In addition to the autochrome exhibit, there was an exhibit of snapshots dating from 1888 to 1978 … it was very interesting, too.  People are so funny when someone has a camera!

Regarding the pictures I took below … when I checked in at the museum, I was told that I could take pictures of anything in the museum’s permanent collection, but exhibits on loan were off limits.  The gal in the bookstore (where I filled out my photo permit) said the snapshot exhibit was on loan from the National Gallery of Art and off limits, but she told me the autochrome exhibit belonged to the Amon Carter, so it was okay to take pics of that exhibit.

You can imagine how awkward it was when a guard told me (after I’d taken several pics of the autochrome exhibit) that I was not supposed to take pictures of it.  What the????  I even pointed out where one of the annotations makes reference to the exhibit belonging to the museum.  He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Hmm???  Strange.”  A few minutes later he walked back over, said he’d checked with his boss, and sure enough, the autochrome exhibit was off limits.  He grinned and said, “But you got away with taking a few.  I’m not going to confiscate your film.”  (I didn’t dare tell him that my camera was a digital that the pics could easily be deleted from … my thinking is this:  I wouldn’t have taken the pictures if I hadn’t been told it was okay.  I’m not planning on using them in any kind of way to make money.  They are for my own personal use.  And the annotation makes reference to the “autochrome holdings in the Amon Carter Museum …” indicating the museum owns the autochrome exhibit, and therefore photography of same should be permissible.)

So here are my legal and “illegal” shots from my visit to Fort Worth. 

This display case shows the components of the glass plates used to take autochrome photographs.  The powdery substance is potato starch that has been dyed orange, green, blue, and white.  The black substance is carbon black.  The colored powders are mixed together and spread on the plate with an emulsion (I hope I’m remembering this correctly … it is quite technical).  Then the carbon black is used to “fill in” any spaces that are not covered by the colored powders.  I am still not certain exactly how it works, but the colored powders somehow cause the exposure on the glass plate to result in a colored image, rather than a black and white one.  Simply amazing.  I think I am most amazed that two French brothers were sitting around the photo lab one day (at least that’s how I imagine it) … having lunch, and one says, “What eef we take zee potato and wee make zee powdair …”  “Oui, oui!  And zen we add zee colours to zee powdair … non?” 

Is this not a simply breathtaking image?  It looks like a watercolor, and yet it is a photograph!  Just beautiful … and all this before Photoshop ever existed.  Ha!

Since himself was such a good sport about being dragged to Fort Worth, we had lunch at Angelo’s. Here’s some interesting trivia from their website:

If it’s good enough for the big dude at Neiman Marcus … well I suspect my guy will like it.  🙂  (And he did.)

This has nothing to do with either the exhibit or lunch.  But I thought it was a pretty cool sign and so I took a picture.  Fort Worth actually has an abundance of old neon signs that would be a blast to photograph on another road trip.  Sadly, we had a long drive home and so I was only able to get a few.  Maybe the others will show up in another blog down the road.  We’ll see!