A Leisurely Friday - Day 4

Friday was pretty uneventful, by design.  For once we didn't make any big trips down to the south end of the island, and just took some time to relax and do things around the house.  This is what a vacation needs to feel like sometimes.  

For lunch, I took the opportunity to visit one of my mom's friends from college who happens to live less than 5 minutes from the house we're staying at here in Laie.  They have a beautiful house right on the water.  I remember visiting them probably 15 years ago when my family was down here, and haven't really seen them since.  But we had a good lunch and it was nice visiting with them for a couple of hours.  

I came back home and those of us around decided to head out to the beach.  The surf was quite a bit better than the other days, so the boogie boards were far more functional.  We played in the waves, and got plenty of white sand all over us.  After we were tired, tanned, or toasted, we came back in and later in the afternoon all of the wedding party-related folks were off to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, leaving Annie, Adam and myself to relax and find dinner on our own.  

We decided to go down the street to a local drive-in place with "Hawaiian Barbeque"?  I think what we had was "Chinese food" but it was still good.  There aren't a lot of dining options in Laie, other than making good food yourself.  We stopped at the grocery store on the way home, and then pretty much relaxed the rest of the evening.  It was nice not being quite so busy.  

Today is the reason we all came... the wedding.  Once again, the wedding-related folks are all gone to get ready, and the rest of us are just hanging around until later.  There's plenty of college football on TV that's keeping us entertained, and we all hope to catch the start of the Husky game (around 1pm here) before the 3pm wedding.  

It's starting to feel like vacation - Day 3

Someone told me it was Friday today.  I'm not entirely sure.  

Whatever it is, yesterday was another eventful day.  Once again, we all seem to get up whenever it gets light out, which usually means sometime around 6:30-7am.  Yesterday was a bit more humid than the few before it, with frequent bouts of rain passing through and a noticible lack of wind.  Today fortunately the wind is back and flushing out the humidity a bit, which makes it much more tolerable.  

After getting everyone ready to go, Christie the bride came by and joined us to go up to Waimea Falls, which after getting to we decided not to pay the $10 to walk up to the actual falls, but went around the outer grounds and enjoyed the grenery of the Waimea Valley a bit.  Then we continued around the island to the obligatory stop at the Dole Plantation.  We rode the Pineapple Express through the pineapple fields, and of course I had the obligatory cup of Dole Whip.  Beyond that thouse, this place has gone from being a creative tourist promotion of Dole and pineapples, to being a total tourist trap trying to sell you everything from the food you eat to the massive amounts of Dole-related and pineapple-themed merchandise.  Not impressed.  

After the plantation, we headed back to the house for a brief moment in the afternoon.  =\\\\\\\-'

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Sorry for that interruption, baby Maija decided to inspect my keyboard to make sure the keys still worked.  She has now decided to go inspect the TV remotes on the table instead.  :)

Later in the evening, Nick's bachelor party required Chad, Adam, and I to drive down to Waikiki for dinner at Sam Choy's followed by hitting some bars downtown.  Dinner was good, but we didn't do much on the bar front before I was not feeling well from the long running days, and the three of us decided it was time to head back before it was too late, considering we had another hour drive to the north end of the island.  We made it back in around 1am and the night was over.  

Friday leaves a much less busy day, yet should have plenty of stories.  More on that tomorrow.  

Aloha and Mahalo - Day 2

Aloha. This will probably be a rather quick post because I'm tired, and it's been a long day. I guess that means it should be longer, but I'm lazy.

This morning I managed to wake up at, oh, about 6:30am. Or rather, at that point I couldn't really sleep any longer and decided to get up. I wasn't the first up, nor was I the last. But everyone managed to make it up by around 7:30 or so.

We interrupt this blog for a late-breaking observation: when it starts raining and it blows inside halfway across the room to where I'm sitting, it's time to close the windows.

So after having breakfast and everyone decided to get ready, about 9:00 we made our way out and back to the south side of the island (a trip we will likely be repeating several more times on this trip). We went to Diamond Head crater and made the 0.8-mile, up-560-feet hike to the top. Took some great pictures you can check out in the album here.

After Diamond Head a few of us went over to Waikiki for lunch and to wander around a bit, then eventually we all managed to make our way back up the island to the house. After regrouping, we headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center for an evening luau and their night show. We all had a good time, ate good food, and the show was pretty good too.

Of course, I write these blogs in my head throughout the day, then completely forget about them by the time like now when I write them down. Seriously, there was some pretty funny stuff in my head at one point. Oh well, time to lock up and find some sleep. Tomorrow I've heard a plethora of different "what's happening" ideas, so we'll see what materializes.

Aloha from Hawaii - Day 1

It's about 7pm Hawaii time, which means 10pm for you folks on the west coast, and my goodness, 1am for anyone crazy enough to be reading this who lives on the east coast. Hey, I don't exactly know how far this blog reaches, every day I'm constantly amazed that people I never knew knew my blog existed were avid readers.


Anyway, it's been a long day. I left my house at 6:30am this morning to head to the airport (that's 3:30am Hawaii time). The flight was about 5 1/2 hours long, but overall went by pretty quickly. I had a bit of a headache building throughout the second half of the flight, due probably at least in some part to a lack of sufficient food, lack of sufficient sleep, or the complimentary mai-tai at the beginning of the flight after a lack of sufficient food and sleep. Whatever the case, the flight was done and all is well.


We collected the stuff and fetched rental cars. Annie and Adam got one rental car, and I got a car with Carley, Chad and baby Maija joining me. We made our way from the airport to Costco, though in a nod to primitive research, my car was the one that made it there without getting lost. :) After stocking up on food for the week, in an effort to save in the long run by not eating out much, we made our way along the coast up to Laie. The trip was all of about 30 miles, and of course took at least an hour to get there. But fortunately we're feeling the Aloha spirit now and not worrying too much.


As we pulled up to the rental house, flashbacks to the opening sequence of Magnum, PI. Though my red Chevy Impala does no justice to Tom Selleck's red Ferrari. Oh well, I'll get some pictures posted and you can see for yourself. This house is huge, I believe you could have one heck of a party here if you really wanted to. We'll suffice to hang out on our own and be lazy.


We stepped out the back door, out the gate in the back yard, and but a few white sand steps away was the ocean. Warm water, white (well mostly) sand beaches, who can argue with that? We grabbed a few boogie boards from the house and went down and played in the ocean. After I had had enough salt for one day, we made our way back to de-sandify before heading to the local grocery store to pick up those things we didn't need egregious Costco quantities of. In hindsight, we should have just picked up massive amounts at Costco, as we severely underestimated the inflated costs of groceries on the island vs the mainland. $9.00+ for a gallon of milk... enough said.


We're currently sitting around the dining table trying to figure out what to do tomorrow. It sounds like the current plan is to head down to Diamond Head, through Honolulu to Pearl Harbor, before making our way back up here for (probably) a luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center. The consensus is that we may be a bit overzealous in attempting to do everything on one day, and that we'll probably make a second trip down to Waikiki sometime later in the week.

We'll see how long we survive... I don't think any of us are motivated to immediately adjust to Hawaii time, but we'll see what happens. It's currently about 10 till 8 and we're all falling asleep. Just wait until we wake up at 5am... maybe...

Local News Close to Home

All over every major Seattle news outlet today, but as KOMO puts it "Newborn Baby Abandoned at Federal Way Church".  Early this morning, a baby just hours old was left on the doorstep of the church.

Why it's interesting to me is... that's my church!  Well, the one I grew up in anyway, and my parents still go there.  Interesting seeing the bizarre stuff hit so close to home.

Obviously there are worse places you can leave a baby than a relatively protected front door of a church on a Sunday morning, but still... I guess it's hard to find logic in anything connected to abandoning a baby in the first place.  

Amazing Race 13: The Race Begins

Here we go with another season of Amazing Race!  Thank goodness they resisted the urge to make this a 2-hour episode, because nobody really needs that... especially me. 

Los Angeles, the popular start for the race that served as the starting point for AR4 and AR12, is the starting line for AR13.  As usual, the adrenaline rush and enthusiasm typical of the first leg of the race is present again.  Save some of it for later folks, it'll be much more useful later.  Being the first team to the airport is NEVER essential in the first leg of the race.  Sure you might get a slight advantage, but there are far more important ways to use your energy later.  And they're all on plans to Salvador, Brazil.  Brilliant.  

And already we have a talker.  Andrew and Dan, frat boys from ASU, already become the people who think they can talk their way out of any situation.  Should prove interesting, and if history has shown us anything, it's that big talk will get you far... at least a few legs before you get eliminated.  

The first alliance of the game is formed between Nick & Starr, brother and sister, and Ken & Tina, separated couple attempting to renew their marriage and win $1,000,000, but quickly dubbed "mom and dad" are creating a "loose alliance."  What is a "loose alliance" exactly?  I'd say it's an alliance of convenience, enforcible only until a better offer comes along.  

Kelly & Christy, the divorcees, seem to insist on dressing alike in all situations, but seem to have a bit more going on upstairs than this seasons blondes (doesn't every season need a blonde team?) Marisa & Brooke.  

My early money is on Nick & Starr.  Brother and sister groups have had good success in the race, and from personal experience, I can guarantee they'll be a force to be reckoned with.  

Terrance & Sarah are first to the mid-leg overnight stop, with the 9:00am departure the next morning.  Not too exciting at all.  This is more of a "meet the teams" episode as usual.  Though as it was noted last season, I gave up halfway through and stopped watching.  Hopefully this one keeps my attention.  

Detour:  Hard Way Up, or Soft Way Down.  Climb up a staircase on your hands and knees then answer a question, or go to the top of an elevator then go down a cargo net 200 some feet.  Hmmm... normally I'd say take the hard one because it's faster... but man this one seems like I'd take the soft way and plus it'd be much more fun. :)  Nick & Starr make it to the soft way first and take the lead.  The Talkers seem to be the only ones who took the hard way, making it up all the stairs to find out that the question is "how many stairs did you climb?"  Ouch.  I guess I would have expected that, if I had thought.  

"Nick & Starr, you're team number 1."  Ah the magic carpet looks as nice as ever... and the travel gnome sponsors the first place prize as usual.  Last to arrive, the hippies, who get their one and only mention now.  Meh.  

Well, the teams seem interesting.  Should make for a good race, but we'll see what kind of creative things we can do in Brazil next week.  For now, the DVR is set and we'll see what we can do.  

GraphJam

Mildly amusing site of the day:  www.graphjam.com

Some selected graphs...  

Swingin' with Marvin

Last night I attended the first Pops concert of the Seattle Symphony's season.  It definitely did not disappoint!  This season we're lucky enough to have Marvin Hamlisch as the symphony's Principal Pops Conductor.  The last several seasons have each featured one concert conducted by Hamlisch, which usually was one of the best concerts of the season, and now we get him all season long.  And what a ham he always is too.  As usual, the concert would evolve into a stand-up musical comedy routine, with still outstanding music to go with it.  

The music was top notch, with a collection of jazz and swing standards as the theme of the concert.  The featured guests were the US Army Jazz Ambassadors, an outstanding group of Army musicians who performed with the symphony.  We were also treated to several young musicians from the Seattle area, including a jazz quartet, and an amazing clarinet player who's a senior at Garfield HS.  

The featured vocalist was a 14-year old singer from Canada named Nikki Yanofsky, who was absolutely amazing.  Keep your eye on this kid, you'll be hearing a lot more from her in a few years.  

Featured in the concert were tribute medleys Irving Berlin, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington among others.  Marvin's interactions with the audience were of course a highlight, as he managed to heckle one person in the 2nd row who had binoculars, and invited them to move to the front row if they were having trouble seeing.  Just before intermission, he also questioned the audience "what exactly do you folks DO during intermission anyway?"  

Looking forward to the Holiday concert.  

What Will YOU Celebrate?

I was all ready to post a poignant rant about the current state of the economy, and how unfettered corporate greed over the past decade has brought upon us the sorry financial world we are now trapped in... but then I found something much better to write about...

Today Disney is announcing their new marketing campaign for 2009, replacing the 26-month long "Year of a Million Dreams" that has been running since October 1, 2006.  Coming in January, the question on everyone's (or at least Disney's) mind will be...  What will you celebrate?

As any good marketing campaign needs a gimmick, Disney took the novel approach of celebrating the one thing that everyone in the world has:  a birthday.  Everyone who shows up at the park on his or her birthday gets in for FREE.  That's right, Disney is actually giving away something worthwhile for nothing... or so it would seem.  

As I always like to do, let's break down the numbers.  Based on current reports (Disney generally keeps actual numbers a secret) the average daily attendance at Disneyland is 40,000 people.  Assuming an even distribution of birthdays (~1:365.25 people having a birthday on any given day), on any given day at Disneyland about 110 people are celebrating their birthdays.  Letting those 110 people into the park for free isn't so much of a cut into the bottom line, and the reality is, most of these people aren't going to be celebrating their birthday at the park alone.  They'll bring their friends, their families, plenty of other admission-paying guests which should well make up the difference.  

Furthermore, those who travel to Disney for a vacation are rarely going to be staying for just one day.  They'll make a multi-day vacation out of it.  So if the incentive of a free day in the park convinces people to take a family vacation to Disneyland who wouldn't have done so otherwise, Disney's making out like bandit on the deal!  

Disney obviously thought it all out too, as the free One Day/One Park pass wouldn't be too appealing to people who are coming to buy a multi-day park hopper pass, and have alternatives available.  Choose from a "Birthday Fun Card" which seems to be nothing more than a Disney Gift Card loaded with the cash value equivalent of a One Day/One Park ticket, which can be used anywhere in the park for merchandise or extra-cost activities (but not food or drink), OR instead choose a Birthday FASTPASS giving you and up to 5 guests a fastpass for up to 4 attractions in your day, OR a One Day/One Park pass usable only by you anytime until your next birthday.

All of these options seem to encourage more people to come to the parks, and for a longer time, which can't be a bad thing for Disney.  But I definitely like the idea, we'll see how cheesy of commercials Disney's marketing folks can come up with.  

Of course this begs the question, "What will I celebrate?"  Seriously folks, have I ever needed a reason?  :)

Phantom of the Opera

Avid readers used to my reviews of great musicals you've never heard of will appreciate the refreshing change as last night I went to one of the most popular musicals of all time, Phantom of the Opera.  It may come as a surprise to some that I've actually never seen Phantom on stage, though am very familiar with it through all of its pop-culture ties and of course the movie that was made a few years back.  

Since most everyone (at least anyone who cares) knows the general idea of the show, I'll spare a lengthy review and instead evaluate this production, with the caveat that I have no past productions to compare it to.  

As expected, another theatrical spectacle.  This one even more so than most, as it seemed the scenery extended into the entire theatre.  The Paramount actually made a spectacular accompaniment to the on-stage sets, both having similar architectural styling.  The famous chandelier fit perfectly into the theatre's decor.  I must say there was almost a fluid quality to the production, as rarely was there a moment something wasn't moving on stage, whether the scenery or props changing or stuff appearing and disappearing off stage.  

And of course, Andrew Lloyd Webber's score with so many songs that have become ingrained in the popular music genre.  We were treated (some might disagree) to one of the understudies performance as The Phantom, which was an amazing performance nonetheless.  I was not disappointed.

Not much more to add, so on to the ratings:

Cast: 4 stars - Just because.

Script:  4 stars - "From the messed up mind of ALW..."

Technical: 5 stars - This is the kind of show that makes a Broadway musical...

Music:  5 stars - Too much good music not to be pleased.

Overall: 4 stars - This is a great performance.  I'd see it again, but I'd also choose other musicals over this one.  

Shrek: The Musical

The latest show to make its World Premiere in Seattle before heading to Broadway is Shrek: The Musical.  The show has been running at the 5th Avenue Theatre since August 14th in preview performances to work any kinks out and fine tune the show in response to audience feedback, with the official opening set for September 10th.  

The show seemed pretty solid, though had a bit of a slow start to me.  Towards the end of the first act it was really up to speed and the second act was outstanding.  

Make no mistake, this is a true Broadway spectacle, beyond all measure.  

Just stepping into the theatre, the entire stage, as if by magic, had been transformed into a swamp.  Dramatic set changes, brilliantly vivid scenery, and everything else you'd expect from a first-rate Broadway production were present.  For this alone, the musical is worth every penny.  

You needn't look far to find the humor in this production.  From Lord Farquad's hilariously diminutive depiction, to the jokes interjected in nearly every line of the script, you'll be laughing from beginning to end.  Though I could have done without some of the cliche one-liners scattered throughout, there were plenty of fresh and appropriate lines to make up for it.  Additionally, as has become a standard in animated films, you'll find plenty of adult humor that will go right over the kids heads, which is a good thing because there were far more young people at the performance than most I attend.  I especially enjoyed the subtle references to other recent Broadway musicals, including "Wicked", "Avenue Q", and "The Lion King".  No doubt there were others, but these three were unmistakable if you've seen any of those shows.  

The music was, well, unmemorable.  While there were a few distinct tunes, well-performed by the cast and the surprisingly large orchestra, the overall music seemed rather flat.  In fact, I don't recall any siginficantly showstopping numbers that one might expect in any musical production.  Yet somehow that didn't significantly detract from the quality of the show.  The music was still very appropriate to the theme of the show, integrated well with the dialogue, and didn't interfere with the rest of the production. 

I have no doubt that this will make a huge run on Broadway and probably get several Tony nominations.  As for my ratings:

Cast:  4 stars - A great collection of proven Broadway stars.

Script:  4 stars - Hard to argue with a proven formula, but well adapted to the stage.

Technical: 6 stars - A rarity that I would exceed my 5-star scale, but there's no better way to describe it.  The lighting, scenery, and entire package was nothing short of spectacular.  

Music:  3 stars - But don't be disappointed by that. 

Costumes:  5 stars - Adding this category, because it deserves special mention.

Overall: 4 stars - I would definitely give this my highest recommendation for the first time seeing it, but it doesn't have the repeatability that I would demand from musicals that receive my coveted 5-star rating.  

Shrek plays in Seattle through September 21st before starting previews on Broadway this November.  Definitely worth seeing while it's here.

Olympics Musings Day 13

So much has happened it's hard to recap it all. We've finished all the swimming events, with just a bit of diving and the ever mesmerizing synchronized swimming yet to come. Leading the way in the primetime excitement now are the track and field medal events which will carry us through to the closing ceremonies on Sunday. I have yet to see any table tennis yet, but that may just be because I haven't been following as closely lately as I did in the beginning. It's a good thing the Olympics are only two weeks long, because I don't think I could handle much more than that.

In Team USA news...

* The best womens beach volleyball duo of May and Walsh took home back-to-back Gold Medals for the first time Olympics history. The Gold Medal game yesterday was amazing, especially considering it was in the pouring down rain.

* USA Softball got upset for the first (and probably last) time in Olympics history, as they take the silver, with Team Japan taking the Gold.

* Women's Soccer defeated the powerhouse of Brazil in extra time to secure the Gold Medal for the 3rd time in 4 Olympics bringing their medal record in the past 4 games to (3-1-0) having medaled in every Women's Soccer event since the event began in 1996.

* Of course, in Women's Team Gymnastics, I'm sure we all saw Team USA take the silver.

* In rowing, the Women's 8 took Gold for the USA, featuring two ex-Huskies. Go Dawgs!

* Venus and Serena took the Gold in doubles tennis. But I have to say, does tennis seem to be something that has transcended the Olympics by this point? It's a mainstream sport that doesn't really seem to fit in the Olympics to me. I say the same about basketball and soccer, and the soon-to-be-removed baseball, actually. The Olympics are all about amateur sports competition, these games that really have become professional events, need not be in the Games.

* While I'm on the topic of team sports, women's water polo, in case you didn't know we had a good team, took silver.

I was thinking today, what unique, one-of-a-kind, unlike anything else events are there really in the Olympics? In case you didn't notice... these are the same games:

Soccer, Field Hockey, Handball, Water Polo, Basketball
Tennis, Table Tennis, Badminton, Volleyball, Beach Volleyball
Judo, Taekwondo, Boxing, Fencing, Wrestling
Canoeing, Kayaking, Sailing, Rowing
Cycling, Swimming, Track & Field, Triathlon

Sure they're all slightly different, but the game is the same. You've got hitting the ball into goal, hitting the ball over a net, hitting each other, racing on water, and racing other ways.

That leaves the following semi-unique events:

Archery, Shooting (different enough to be interesting)
Baseball, Softball (really, there's nothing like these)
Equestrian (definitively unique)
Gymnastics (skill)
Rhythmic Gymnastics (artistic with skill)
Synchronized Swimming (I think they invented synchronized diving to make it feel better)
Trampoline (arguably like gymnastics, but odd)
Diving (same as trampoline, odd)
Modern Pentathalon (unique only in that who would think to put those events together in the first place?)
Weightlifting (in a class by itself)

So maybe there is more uniqueness than I had first thought. Still, there's a lot of repetition. Someone should invent something really unique... like curling.

Las Vegas

A bit of a lack in blogging, after I had appeared to be on quite a roll of the Olympics. Don't fear, there's still more to come there, but first a recap of my Vegas trip last weekend for Jonell and Chris' wedding.

Thursday morning, I had a 7AM flight to Vegas, but decided to try something different and fly down on Virgin America for the first time, rather than my typical Alaska. What a spectacular airline. Now, despite the fact that they don't have any non-stop flights between Seattle and Vegas and I had to transfer through San Francisco, the flight was great. Every seat has satellite television, so I was able to watch plenty of Olympics action throughout my entire flight. Quite comfortable, made the time go by quite nicely.

I met Andrew at the airport (his flight arrived just minutes before mine did), and we got our bags and took a taxi to the Venetian (where the wedding was, and where we were staying). As I was leaving SFO, the captain came on to let us know that "weather in Las Vegas is typical for this time of year, clear skies and a million degrees." Certainly correct on both accounts. As we stepped outside of the airport, it was about eleventy billion degrees, so hot that the real temperature doesn't really matter (can YOU tell the difference between 100F and 110F? I didn't think so.)

The wedding was on Friday afternoon, and was actually very quick and nice (about 10 minutes long) and the about 20 friends and family that were all there had a great time. For dinner that night there was a big dinner planned at B&B Ristorante in the Venetian, which is one of Mario Batali's restaurants. WOW. If that food wasn't some of the tastiest, most amazing Italian food I've ever had (sorry mom), I don't know what is. :) Dinner ended up being about a 3-hour event, after which a bunch of us went upstairs to digest and watch the Olympics.

Saturday night a few of us went to see The Beatles' LOVE by Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage. I'd seen this show before, but none of the others had, and I certainly didn't mind seeing it again, despite the price. :) Again, an amazing show. We all had a good time, after which we went back to the Venetian and were gambling the night away. Andrew and I survived the longest, not making it back to the room until about 4:15am. But surprisingly, it didn't feel that late. Overall for the weekend I ended up rather than down, so that was a good victory considering my goal is always just to break even.

Came home on Sunday and back to work on Monday, though a bit tired catching up from the weekend. Now I can relax and watch the Olympics in the comfort of my own home! :)

Olympics News Roundup 8/12

Today's Olympics news features "things are not what they seem to be":

* Spanish basketball team poses for offensive picture - The headline says it all. This begs the question, are these guys as "estupido" as they look?

* NBC's Big Olympics Deal: Armchair Play-by-Play - Thousands of hours of Olympics coverage over half a dozen networks. Think of each sports commentators who had to make the long flight to China, breathe the heavy smog, eat Chinese food for three weeks... oh, wait, didn't I see you last night at the Sbarro under Rockefeller Center in New York? Yes, yes I did. Much of the commentary you hear accompanying NBC's Olympics coverage is coming right from 30 Rock as they watch exactly like you do, on television.

* Olympic opening uses girl's voice, not face - In yet another attempt to make the opening ceremonies perfect, that cute girl who sang "Ode to the Motherland" during the opening ceremonies so beautifully... lip synching, but not to herself, to another girl who had laid down the tracks earlier. Apparently the girl with the beautiful voice, wasn't beautiful enough to sing it at the ceremony. In tomorrow's breaking news, confirmed reports that the spectators who thought they were in the Bird's Nest for the opening ceremony were in fact in the world's largest virtual reality simulator ever constructed!

* Olympic dream a nightmare, thanks to CBC - It only goes to show, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Apparently Canadian viewers can't stand CBC's coverage so they watch NBC instead. Maybe CBC should provide US coverage and NBC can handle the Canadian coverage, then everyone might be happy.

Olympics Musings Day 4

Plenty of excitement in today's events, especially in swimming with the Americans killing more records and raking in the medals. Team USA also starts off their Olympic Softball competition with a mercy-rule rout of Venezuela, 11-0 in a 5 inning no-hitter. Interestingly, this game being live in the early afternoon China time, the stands are all but empty. Even in the US where softball probably doesn't get so much credit, there's a loyal following of fans, but I guess they didn't make the trip to Beijing and the locals don't even want to go.

A few additional observations on Day 4 of competition:

* Michael Phelps claims his 3rd gold medal of the games in the 200m Freestyle.

* Why is it called "Freestyle" if everyone's swimming the same way? What kind of example of freedom are we setting for the world? Sounds pretty conformist to me.

* Phelps Phans close your eyes, because here comes my Michael Phelps Phailure of the Day... he has won 9 gold medals now (6 in Athens and 3 so far in Beijing), which means he's been on the medal podium 9 times, and proudly watched the Stars and Stripes rise 9 times as the Star Spangled Banner played 9 times... HE MUST KNOW THE WORDS BY NOW. Don't just stand there like a doofus, AT LEAST move your lips to the words when the national anthem is played. We get brilliant high-definition closeups of Phelps' face throughout the entire anthem, America deserves more than his glazed over look with his mouth half open. Ridiculous. At least in the 200m Free Peter Vanderkaay, who won the bronze for the US, moved his lips to the music. Thanks, Peter, maybe you could teach Michael the words for next time.

* Speaking of national anthems, very nice orchestrations the Beijing committee organized this year. I remember clearly many of the more recent Olympics using performances of the Star Spangled Banner that sounded like they were taken off of a vinyl record back in the 50s. This year's are well performed and have some very nice harmonies that are fun to listen to. Approved.

It's now 11:25pm Pacific, or 2:25pm Beijing, with Day 4's events continuing through our night.

Olympics News Roundup 8/11

A brief update on the latest Olympics news bites:

* Part of Olympic fireworks faked in broadcast - The spectacular fireworks flyover of Beijing at night was completely bogus. While the fireworks in and around the Bird's Nest stadium were real, the rest were digitally animated (using no doubt pirated CGI software) in a presentation that even Pixar would be impressed by. Now, when I initially watched this on Friday night, I thought it looked computer generated myself, though didn't think much of it. What I find more amusing is that this has become a "big story", which is probably only due to the fact that the Chinese organizers weren't forthcoming in saying it was staged. It was still pretty impressive.

* NBC Universal off to fast start with Olympic ratings - Friday night's opening ceremonies averaged 34.2 million US viewers, despite its 12-hour tape delay on the east coast (and 15-hour delay in Pacific time). The Beijing games currently have the highest viewership of any Summer games held outside the U.S. NBC's obvious attempt to increase advertising revenue by time-shifting everything to prime time is worth it to them, as they have apparently secured over $1 Billion in ad revenue (NBC payed a record $800 Million to be the US broadcasting network for the Olympics, so it seems to be paying off).

* Chinese hush up serious injury to acrobat - In what I can only describe as "an extreme case of mistaken priorities," apparently the opening ceremonies were not without injury, as one acrobat apparently fell during a rehearsal and was left for nearly an hour before receiving medical attention due to the high level of secrecy surrounding the ceremony preventing an ambulance from arriving. Insanity.

I Love the Olympics

The first of probably many posts on the Olympics and my obsession with them.

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!

Friday night were the Opening Ceremonies, which I have to admit had many moments of "WOW, that was AMAZING!" The overwhelming theme I use to describe the ceremony is "Synchronicity." I still can't believe how those synchronized light-up drums were. And the "box" people were equally amazing. Though all of them were probably a bit too long.

Then there was the Parade of Athletes. For goodness sake people, 2 hours?! That was way too long. My only observation here is that I seem to recall in previous opening ceremonies, the athletes dressed much more like, well, ATHLETES. This year our American athletes sported a wardrobe by Ralph Lauren, which made them look like they were getting ready to board a sailboat.

Overall, China definitely set the bar high with their opening ceremonies, though I wouldn't necessarily say they were the best ever.

Now in the dawn of Day 3 of competition, a few interesting observations:

* What's the deal with all these swimming world records being broken IN THE PRELIMINARIES?! Save some for the finals people! Of course, apparently they were, as in the mens 4x100 freestyle relay, the US broke the world record in the semi-finals, then proceeded to OBLITERATE the world record they just set by 3.99 seconds in the finals, along with 4 other teams which were ahead of the semi-final WR time. What a race, what a finish!

* Badminton is interesting to watch.

* Beach Volleyball is not the same in the pouring down rain. Seriously.

* There's been a lot of boxing on. I still don't get it. Just seems an odd sport for the Olympics.

* Michael Phelps is very good at posing for the cameras. I think he likes having his picture taken.

The Beijing medals are definitely unique. Though I think I like the Bronze medal the best, actually. The green jade is hard to beat.

* And finally, thank goodness for CBC's Canadian coverage of the Olympics. At least I don't have to wait 3 hours to watch things "live" on the west coast, even if it's not in HD.

More to come...

A Chorus Line

Slightly delayed review of A Chorus Line, which I saw on Wednesday night...

One... the legendary showstopping number from the show does a good job of describing the show as a whole.

One... act, with no intermission.
One... scene, the entire show takes place on an audition stage, no set changes necessary.
One... costume change, to prepare for the big finale, that's it.

I'll step out on my own limb here and say that the music isn't the main reason to see this show. A Chorus Line won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, something that only seven musicals have ever achieved. As the Pulitzer claims to be awarded "for a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life," the award is not unjustified. The depth of character development is rarely matched in musical theatre. This show is a brilliant play, with associated music. The story is brilliant, the music is present.

A Chorus Line made its mark as the longest running musical of its time, playing from July 1975 through April 1990. That mark has since been eclipsed by Cats, Les Miserables, and the still running Phantom. I say with confidence that this show would not have such a run if it opened today. Though despite that, it was an oddly compelling story that really captured your attention.

As for the ratings:

Cast: 3 stars - perhaps unfairly due to my lack of enthusiasm for the musical.
Script: 4 stars
Music: 2 stars - I am not a fan.
Technical: N/A - What's there to be technical? There's no set, there's not much of anything.
Overall: 3 stars - I've seen it.

One... show I probably don't need to see again.

Summer Olympics Quiz ANSWERS

And now the answers to the Olympics quiz:

1) Which of these sports has never been a medal event at a Summer Olympic Games?

D. Lawn Bowling (Bocce)

Lawn Bowling or 'Bowls', was a demonstration sport in the 2nd Olympic Games in 1900 in Paris, but never has been a medal event. The early 1900s saw medals awarded in such diverse sports as Golf (1900 & 1904), Croquet (1900), Motorboat Racing (1908), and yes, even Tug of War (1900-1920).

2) The USA has won more medals at the Summer Olympics than any other nation. How many has it won?

D. 2188

894 of those have been gold medals. Incidentally, the former Soviet Union (1952-1988) still remains in 2nd place overall with 1010 medals, and Great Britain trails far behind in 3rd place with 668.

3) What is the only year that the USA did not participate in the Summer Olympic Games?

E. 1980

In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, 61 nations joined the USA in boycotting the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. Not to be outdone, 13 nations joined the Soviet Union in boycotting the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles. The only country boycotting both the Moscow and Los Angeles games? Iran.

4) In 1956, Melbourn, Australia hosted the games, but due to Australian quarantine laws on foreign horses, the equestrian events were held 5 months earlier where?

A. Stockholm

Only the second time that events were held outside of the host nation. In the 1920 games in Antwerp, Belgium, the final races of the 12-foot dinghy sailing event were held in the Netherlands. The only two competitors were Dutch.

5) The 2008 Beijing Olympics will be the final appearance of baseball and softball as Olympics events. When did each of these sports first appear as medal events?

B. 1992 & 1996

A demonstration sport as far back as 1904, baseball first was granted medal event status in Barcelona in 1992. Four years later in Atlanta, women's softball joined the ranks. Leading the medal counts in baseball, Cuba claims 3 of the 4 gold medals awarded. In softball however, the USA looks to remain undefeated in Beijing, having won every gold medal ever awarded in the event.

Summer Olympics Quiz

This Friday will be the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. In honor of this occasion, this week's quiz will be dedicated to the history of those games:

1) Which of these sports has never been a medal event at a Summer Olympic Games?

A. Golf
B. Croquet
C. Motorboat Racing
D. Lawn Bowling (Bocce)
E. Tug of War

2) The USA has won more medals at the Summer Olympics than any other nation. How many has it won?

A. 839
B. 1293
C. 1644
D. 2188
E. 2851

3) What is the only year that the USA did not participate in the Summer Olympic Games?

A. 1904
B. 1928
C. 1948
D. 1972
E. 1980

4) In 1956, Melbourn, Australia hosted the games, but due to Australian quarantine laws on foreign horses, the equestrian events were held 5 months earlier where?

A. Stockholm
B. Rome
C. Los Angeles
D. Munich
E. London

5) The 2008 Beijing Olympics will be the final appearance of baseball and softball as Olympics events. When did each of these sports first appear as medal events?

A. 1936 & 2000
B. 1992 & 1996
C. 1992 & 2000
D. 1936 & 1996
E. 1996 & 2000

Have we really reached this point?

Picture this...

You're on vacation at Disneyland, and while standing in a painfully long line waiting to get some overpriced food at the nearest buffeteria, you notice that there's a second line that's completely closed while the one open line stretches all the way to Fantasyland. You casually pick up a comment card and sarcastically suggest that when it's busy they open the second serving line. Next year you return to the same place, and lo and behold, both serving lines are open.

What do you do?

A typical response would be: "Hey, they took my suggestion! Look at how much better it is!"

But apparently, far too often the response has been: "Hey! I gave them that idea! Now Disney owes me money for using it."

Seriously? Is this what our American society has come to?

As reported this morning on MiceAge, it's exactly what it's come to:

"In late July all Guest Relations offices in Disneyland and DCA stopped allowing any visitor to fill out a comment card or leave any comment in writing.
Whether it's a compliment about a great Jungle Cruise skipper, or a complaint
about cold gumbo in New Orleans Square, you can no longer write anything down at
Disneyland Guest Relations. Believe it or not, this new decree comes from
Disney's legal department who was getting tired of being threatened with
lawsuits from angry park visitors upset about something they had put on a
complaint form at City Hall."

The article goes on to explain the lengths to which Disney is going to ensure that in no way will any suggestion/complaint/compliment ever get any attention by the company whatsoever.

Obviously these aren't isolated incidents, and obviously they have their own various success rates based on the fact that Disney is so afraid of them. It's utterly ridiculous that our society actually allows such frivolous lawsuits to occur--that we are so consumed by greed and entitlement that no good deed goes unpunished. While many frivolous lawsuits regarding the perceived negligence of companies have become perhaps less favorable in the eyes of society, we've moved onto the age of protecting "intellectual property", in whatever form it may conceivably take. Soon, the world will be left to fend for itself. Nobody will help anyone else for fear that their good-intentioned help will be seen as a hindrance punishable by gobs of monetary damages. Is this really protecting our interests and the freedoms we hold?

Is It Good Eats? ANSWERS

This quiz proved to be harder than even I had imagined, but for your own amusement as well, the answers include the feature of each real episode as well.

1) Wake Up Little Sushi - REAL - Sushi
2) Alton Crown Affair - REAL - Crown of Lamb
3) Okraphobia - REAL - Okra
4) It's Up, and It's Gouda! - BOGUS
5) Bird is the Word - BOGUS
6) Steak Your Claim - REAL - Steak (very first episode of Good Eats)
7) Withering Bites - REAL - Dried Fruit
8) Send in the Clams - REAL - Clams
9) Starfish Wars - BOGUS
10) Rice, Rice Baby - BOGUS (the actual rice episode was "Do The Rice Thing")
11) Chops Ahoy - REAL - Pork Chops
12) Field of Greens - REAL - Greens
13) Fry Hard - REAL - Fish and Chips
14) Pretzel Logic - REAL - Pretzels
15) Ifs, Ands and Butts - BOGUS
16) Your Pad Thai or Mine - REAL - Pad Thai
17) Let Them Eat Foam - REAL - Angel Food Cake
18) Ginger and Rosemary Ann - BOGUS
19) Melondrama - REAL - Melons
20) House of the Rising Bun - REAL - Sweet Yeast Breads
21) Summer of Salmon - BOGUS
22) Churn Baby Churn - REAL - Ice Cream
23) Grand Salami - BOGUS (but he really needs a salami episode)
24) Puff the Magic Pastry - REAL - Puff Pastry
25) Great Balls O' Meat - REAL - Meatballs
26) It's About Thyme - BOGUS
27) The Icing Man Cometh - REAL - Icing and Frosting
28) Please Sir, Can I Have S'More? - BOGUS
29) Mission: Poachable - REAL - Poached Fish
30) This Spud's For You - REAL - Potatoes

Is it Good Eats?

For those fans of Alton Brown and Good Eats like myself, it's easy to appreciate the creativity of the show's writing, which extends all the way into 12 seasons (and counting) of creative episode titles. Today's quiz challenges you to separate fact from fiction. Enjoy!

Below are the titles of 30 episodes of Good Eats... or are they? Some of them are completely bogus. Can you find which 10 titles are definitely not Good Eats?


1) Wake Up Little Sushi
2) Alton Crown Affair
3) Okraphobia
4) It's Up, and It's Gouda!
5) Bird is the Word
6) Steak Your Claim
7) Withering Bites
8) Send in the Clams
9) Starfish Wars
10) Rice, Rice Baby
11) Chops Ahoy
12) Field of Greens
13) Fry Hard
14) Pretzel Logic
15) Ifs, Ands and Butts
16) Your Pad Thai or Mine
17) Let Them Eat Foam
18) Ginger and Rosemary Ann
19) Melondrama
20) House of the Rising Bun
21) Summer of Salmon
22) Churn Baby Churn
23) Grand Salami
24) Puff the Magic Pastry
25) Great Balls O' Meat
26) It's About Thyme
27) The Icing Man Cometh
28) Please Sir, Can I Have S'More?
29) Mission: Poachable
30) This Spud's For You

A mile isn't as far as it used to be... UPDATE

Updating my previous article on changes at Alaska Airlines, the airline announced today a slight amendment to their changes set to take effect on November 1st, based apparently on numerous complaints from customers:

Money and Miles Award changes The "AS50" Money and Miles award will continue to offer a 50% discount up to $250 for 15,000 miles round-trip; however, these awards will only earn 50% of the miles that they earn today. These miles and 100% of the segments flown will count toward MVP/MVP Gold qualification. The change will apply to all Money and Miles awards booked on or after November 1, 2008.

This amends the previous plan which was that using the AS50 discount would earn no miles at all on the flight. While I did say this was reasonable all things considered, this is a far better solution in my book, and added bonus points to Alaska for listening to customers and a willingness to compromise.

Sound Transit - Round 2

Despite the economic downturn (or perhaps partially because of it), Sound Transit has opted to come back to voters once again this November in an attempt to get a light rail system in Seattle off and running.

As most know, I'm a strong proponent of anything that will improve the public transportation infrastructure in the greater Seattle area, most notably light rail. While I did support last year's Roads & Transit measure, based solely on the light rail portion of it, I'm pleased to see that Sound Transit is coming back with a transit-only package that hopefully will appeal to a wider audience who believes as I do that the solution is not adding more lanes onto freeways, but rather adding more mass transit options.

The new 15-year plan includes a good compromise on time-to-build vs. reaching the most people. The features include:

• Increased ST regional express bus service.
• Increased Sounder commuter rail service.
• Light rail north to Northgate by 2020 and to Lynnwood by 2023.
• Light rail south to north Federal Way (272nd) by 2023.
• Light rail east to Bellevue by 2020 and to Overlake by 2021.
• More potential expansion planning and design and right-of-way purchase.

This adds on to the existing approved (and under construction) light rail service from downtown to the airport in 2009, and to the UW by 2016.

The cost? Not exactly cheap, but it's all relative. A half-percent increase in the sales tax in the Sound Transit RTA (most of King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties). This will bring the sales tax from the current 9.0% to 9.5%, a difference to the average consumer of about $69/year (depending on who you consider the average consumer, but remember folks, state sales tax is also now a deduction on your IRS income taxes).

I'm all for this, but I must admit the timeline is always a bit daunting. The first of any of this additional light rail won't be functional for 12 years, but if things are this bad now, can you imagine what traffic will be like 12 years from now? Yeah, exactly.

I know there are plenty of people who don't think light rail is the answer, for any number of reasons. Certainly there are plenty more who don't like the idea of more sales taxes. My perspective continues to be that if we don't start now, we'll never get anywhere. The time isn't going to get shorter, and the costs not cheaper. See what happens.

More details about the new plan are at future.soundtransit.org.

A mile isn't as far as it used to be...

For many of us air travellers in Seattle, Alaska Airlines is our local airline of choice and where we choose to bank all of our frequent flyer miles. Not surprisingly, in the current economic downturn and sky-high (pun intended) gas prices, all airlines seem to be making changes. Alaska has bucked the trend of charging passengers for their first piece of checked luggage, but has instead decided to take a more reasonable approach and changed their frequent flyer plan.

Yesterday they announced Upcoming Mileage Plan Changes on their website, effective November 1st. I've always thought Alaska had some of the few really outstanding deals for frequent fliers, and that doesn't seem to be changing, but it does appear they will be somewhat less outstanding. I'll review some of the more notable changes below.

• 25,000 miles for a free round-trip flight in the continental U.S. Previously for a mere 20,000 miles, and suitable planning, you could fly anywhere in the U.S. (except Hawaii) for free. Virtually no other airline had such low mileage redemption levels, most in the 25,000-30,000 mile range, but not Alaska will join the pack. Still a good deal if you're flexible and have good planning.
• 3 award levels instead of 2. It used to be there was "Peak" and "Saver" awards, now we add a third class in the middle called "Choice" and rename the others "Full Flex" and "Super Saver". What does that mean? Nobody really knows, other than there'll be three buckets of availability to work with, and you can hope the flight you want has some "Super Saver" awards still available, or your 25k round-trip becomes 40k miles in Choice or up to 55k miles in "Full Flex" with no restrictions.
• New Intra-State Awards. Fly round-trip to any airport in the same state for just 15,000 miles in "Super Saver". This is probably a great deal for states like California, where you could fly from the Bay Area to San Diego cheap, but for those of us in Seattle, we're limited to Spokane and/or any podunk towns in eastern WA. I guess those who frequently fly to Yakima or Tri-Cities on Horizon could cash in on this, but it might be nice if they decided to include Portland in our WA Intra-state awards.
• No miles on the 50% award. A unique award in the Alaska lineup, any fare Alaska offers can be slashed in half (up to a $250 discount) for just 15,000 miles. The one difference from conventional awards was that in this case, you still received the actual miles flown for the trip. As a frequent user of this award, I've always been somewhat surprised by how I can save $250, but then get miles anyway, effectively making the mileage cost of the 5,354-mile Seattle-Honolulu round-trip just 9,646 miles for $250/off, a value of about 2.5-cents per mile. The new changes eliminate this loophole of sorts, which caps the value at 1.6-cents per mile, which still seems reasonable to me if you can take advantage of it, especially given the new award levels.
• $25 fee for redeeming partner awards. Using your miles for flights on non-Alaska flights? Expect to pay a $25 surcharge. Seems a small price to pay for the flexibility and advantage of cashing in your miles for some big-ticket flights on other airlines. Again, a reasonable change.

An important note that none of these changes take effect for flights booked before November 1st, so if you have your travel plans for the next year already lined up, book those tickets before then and save over the higher rates. Of course it's disappointing Alaska has had to raise rates, nobody likes that, but thanks to them for resisting the urge to take the nickle-and-dime approach like other airlines are doing.

Good News... Bad News...

Good News: I found the tube of chap stick I had lost...

Bad News: ... when I was taking the clothes out of the dryer.

Avenue Q

I know you've been waiting for it... and had I read my season tickets correctly I would have had this review published LAST Wednesday, but alas, I'm an idiot and looked at my calendar, not realizing my tickets actually said the week before. Alas, all worked out and I still did see the show. Did I mention I'm an idiot? That said...

What a show! Avenue Q is Sesame Street for those entering the real world. In fact, the writers of the show claim to have meant it to be a homage to Jim Henson and Sesame Street, though they specifically disclaim any connection to either. The parallels, however, are abundant and hilarious. The integration of puppets and real-life characters is seamless, though in this case no effort whatsoever is made to hide the puppeteers. In fact, the puppeteers are simply extensions of the puppet characters.

There are certainly some risque scenes, and certainly the majority of which you'd never find broadcast on PBS. But what really takes this show over the top is the music.

It's rather disappointing that by far the most popular song in this musical is the cultural-crossover blockbuster "The Internet Is For Porn," as this sorely discounts some of the more poignant themes and outstanding lyrics in several other songs. Certainly "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" really encapsulates the current generation's frustration with the epidemic of political correctness of society today.

Additionally, I thought the song "I Wish I Could Go Back To College" is probably one of the most brilliant songs in the show, and solidly demonstrates the writers' connection to basically anyone who went to college in the past 10 years. With references such as "Sitting in the computer lab / 4 A.M. before the final paper is due / Cursing the world that I didn't start sooner / And seeing the rest of the class there, too!" and "I wanna go back to my room and find a message in dry-erase pen on the door!" it's a certainty that any recent undergrads need to see this show, if only to wax nostalgic. Sadly, I can only assume that this show will eventually date itself and become a cultural relic of Generation X.

What's probably most amazing is that the entire cast consists of just 7 actors, 3 of which are purely human characters, and 4 puppeteers who seamlessly perform, voice, and constantly hand-off about a dozen puppet characters. To discount the skill and coordination to required to do this as they do would be impossible.

It's refreshing to see a musical that avoids the cliche of a cast of under-educated youth struggling to survive in a horrible, drug-filled world, and instead focuses on the difficulties and struggles undertaken by college-educated folks entering the real world of today.

As for the ratings:

Script: 4-stars. A brilliant overall concept, though bowed a bit too the cheap laughs at points. Cast: 5-stars, simply brilliant puppeteer/actors.
Music: 5-stars, every song worth listening to. A must-have soundtrack.
Technical: 4-stars, no gimmicks necessary with the rest of the supporting pieces.
Overall: 5-stars. See this everytime it comes to town. In my case, next time it's in town I'll be putting a group together to go see it.

Evolution of an Address

The "internets" have taken over the world! It's interesting to notice how advertising has adapted to and embraced the internet as their best marketing tool. No longer do they have a 30-second spot to tell you everything they do, all they need is to convince you they do something big and important, and throw their web address at you to find out more.

One of the interesting things is that I've been around to see the entire progression of this over time.

1) The .com address. First it was just the really techie companies that had these, then everyone realized how easy it was. You got your name, stuck a www. before it and a .com after it, and you're set.

2) The world got smarter. People started to realize, "Hey, if I don't know the address of a company, I can just put its name with a www. before and a .com after, and that's probably it!" Well, that worked once in a while, until the .com namespace became so polluted that new companies had no choice but to call themselves www.mycompanynamewasalreadytakensowepickedsomethingelse.com.

3) The .notcom addresses. People found that if their .com address was taken, they could just get the .org, .net, .us address, or whatever. Easy! Or not... they publicize their address as mycompany.org and everyone punches in mycompany.com instead going to their evil competitor (or more likely some completely unrelated company with a similar name).

4) The world got smarter. They realized the world isn't all .com, and they adapted. But what do companies do then? They make sure to register .com, .org, .net, .everything so that whatever ending we put on the name will take us to their website. Genius. Now all the common root domain namespaces are polluted.

5) Google. Forget about addresses, what we need is a phone book. Aha! Hello, Google. Now we can punch in the company's name, and it'll TELL US what the address is. Brilliant. Except that I really don't want all of these other web sites that come up. Or do I?

6) The AOL Keyword. Or the keyword. This was a short-lived bogosity. Force someone to go to some easy to remember website (ala aol.com) and then once that page comes up (and you stare at all their appropriate advertising), type in some keyword you could have just typed on Google in the first place, and get where you need to go. A vain attempt at a "user-friendly web" which failed miserably.

7) The world got smarter. Now not only can they advertise their .com address. They can advertise complex addresses that include all kinds of dots and slashes. helpfulname.mycompany.com/somethingelse. The techies love this. We can get to exactly what we want to get to without having to wade through pages of navigation.

Which brings me to a side rant. The slash (or is it a backslash?). You no doubt hear this on the radio all the time. Some announcer is reading off a web address, and says "Visit mywebsite dot com, backslash idiot, for more details." Certainly backslash sounds really big and important... I heard some IT guy at work using it last week... all the cool kids say it. Well folks, I hate to tell you, but THERE ARE NO BACKSLASHES IN A WEB ADDRESS! They are ALL, ALWAYS, WITHOUT-FAIL, simple old slashes. Something slash something. End rant.

The nice thing about the whole evolution of it is that it's entirely backwards compatible. You can always go the hard way and keep clicking until you find something you want, or just take shortcuts along the way.

The evolution will continue. Next comes direct advertising of IP addresses... no, not IPv4, but IPv6 addresses. Just like a 32-digit telephone number, with 16-digits on your phone dial. Piece of cake, right? Well, maybe we'll just continue to use Google instead.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Is it just me, or is "fun" one of the most overloaded words in the English language? Most people would sit there and think, "what are you talking about? Fun means only one thing, it's one of the basic building blocks by which other more complicated words are defined." But not only is it used as a noun, adjective, and verb, it's also used to convey positive and negative, good fun and bad fun, craziness and absurdity.

How many times have you been told, "You're no fun," just because your idea of fun is counter to someone else's? How many times have people used the excuse "I was just having fun," in response to being caught doing something they shouldn't.

Contrarily, spending times with your best friends is "fun", as is doing good things you like to do. Pretty soon we'll be saying things like:

"I had a fun time playing games outside, but had way too much drinking fun, and
now I'm having fun being sick."

People, hear me now... using the word "fun" is a short way to waste a lot of words.

More interesting to me is the usage note in the American Heritage Dictionary regarding the adjective form of "fun":

The use of fun as an attributive adjective, as in a fun time, a fun place,
probably originated in a playful reanalysis of the use of the word in sentences
such as "It is fun to ski," where fun has the syntactic function of adjectives
such as amusing or enjoyable. The usage became popular in the 1950s and
1960s, though there is some evidence to suggest that it has 19th-century
antecedents, but it can still raise eyebrows among traditionalists. The day may
come when this usage is entirely unremarkable, but writers may want to avoid
it in more formal contexts.

Don't get me wrong, there are legitimate uses of the word "fun", but let's try to keep it the way it was intended to be. The next time I hear someone use it in an absurd way, I will be compelled to beat them over the head with a rubber chicken...

... yeah, that'll be fun!

Name That Show - Answers

The answers to the Name That Show quiz:

1) Hawaii 5-0
2) Mission: Impossible
3) Sesame Street
4) SportsCenter
5) Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
6) Matlock
7) Magnum, P.I.
8) Let's Make a Deal
9) Knight Rider
10) The A-Team

Summer Staycations

With a term sure to make 2009's annual Banished Words List, the mass media has glommed onto the only way to describe the country's response to the current state of the economy for summer travel: the "Staycation."

With airfares going through the roof, and the nickle-and-diming by the airlines becoming dollar-and-quartering, the prediction of a major downturn in summer travel is not unlikely. As expected, United announced today that it will be matching American's $15 charge each-way for the FIRST checked bag on flights. While I understand that the airlines have taken a huge hit on fuel prices and are hemorrhaging money, it's understandable that luxuries once commonplace on flights should be eliminated or require an extra charge. However, CHECKING A BAG IS NOT A LUXURY! These charges amount to nothing more than extortion of the customer. Most customers will have no choice but to pay the extra $30 roundtrip fee, or if they have the option choosing to fly on a different airline.

Of course, I'm one who usually takes my chances and checks a bag, even though my suitcase is technically suitable to carry on the plane. For $30, I would certainly change that viewpoint (as would many others, I expect) and attempt shove my bag in the already non-existent space in the overhead bins. I predict congestion at the gate, necessitating many bags to be checked gateside, thereby holding up flights and costing the airlines more than they're taking in from the increased baggage charges. But what do I know? If anything, this may help increase flyers on those lower-cost airlines who don't need to charge the extra fees. Seems to me the MBAs at American and United who determined this is a money-making plan may have the foresight of a mosquito just moments before it encounters my cars windshield at 60 MPH.

On the other hand, I think this increase in cost for air travel may actually come out in the wash for consumers. Resort destinations are predicting the trickle-down from a downturn in air travel hurting their bottom lines, with their only resolution being to reduce rates accordingly. A bit of creative planning and flexibility on the airfare side (or cashing in some of those frequent flyer miles) could easily equal an overall cheaper time to vacation travel than we've seen in the past few years. Las Vegas casinos are becoming desperate for visitors, and other resort destinations such as Disney parks in California and Florida are expected to be increasing their discounts and promotions to fill their lacking capacity. Empty hotel rooms don't make anyone money.

The one thing still working for the travel industry is international visitors, who are certainly capitalizing on the lousy US Dollar. But if that alone is enough to overcome the increased difficulty navigating airports and increased border security remains to be seen.

Roadtrips don't do much better, with gas over $4/gallon. Perhaps it's time to enjoy what there is to see and do around home. Enjoy your Staycation.

Name that Show!

If you've never flipped through the TV listings on the digital cable, you've probably never noticed some of the funny descriptions for classic (and not-so-classic) television shows. Rather than just highlight some of my favorite, try yourself with one of my random quizzes. Try your hand at figuring them out and I'll post the answers in a future blog.

1) Book 'em, Danno. This is one of the longest running crime dramas in TV history.

2) Elite special agents undertook top-secret assignments in crackerjack episodes.

3) A landmark series set in an ethnically diverse urban neighborhood where every day is a sunny one.

4) A hip, Emmy-winning daily scrapbook of homers, touchdowns and slam dunks.

5) Exotic locations and unapologetically shameless adoration of celebrities.

6) Grandpa Simpson's favorite series: a courtroom drama about a cagey Atlanta defense attorney.

7) CBS reworked its successful "Hawaii Five-O" formula into a hit spun around a charismatic private investigator.

8) Ludicrously costumed contestants from the studio audience "dealt" with host Monty Hall for prizes.

9) A former cop gets a new identity and teams with a talking supercar to fight crime.

10) An adventure series about soldiers of fortune with bad attitudes and firepower to burn.

Google Earth, meet Disney

What happens when the marketing gurus as Disney start talking to the techies? They come up with this:

Walt Disney World in 3D

Disney has designed a complete 3D rendering of Disney World, every attraction, every building, every hotel, everything. The detail they put into these renderings are amazing.

Perhaps I'm just too easily entertained. Despite the fact that it takes quite a while to load (and my computer suddenly gets rather warm trying to draw the whole thing), it's well worth a look. Almost makes you feel like you're visiting.

Mythbusters LIVE!

Well, I should say *THE* Mythbusters live. I got an e-mail this morning about a special show at The Moore that will feature Adam and Jamie talking about behind the scenes stuff that happens at Mythbusters HQ. Even though they won't do any actual mythbusting experiments, hey, it's Adam and Jamie live on stage.

If not for the fact that the show is on October 4th, which is when I'll be on vacation in Hawaii for Christie and Nick's wedding.

Oh well. For anyone in town who might be interested:

http://www.themoore.com/artists/?artist=811

And if you're interested in pre-sale tickets (starting today at 10am) at 10% off, here's the link. Use promotional code "stg".

Crazy Weekend

There will be a short and long part of this report. The short is my weekend report. I was down in San Jose, California for a summer curling bonspiel. Despite the fact that we won 1 and lost 3 games, we had a great time. One of the advantages to losing out early was that we had the whole day Sunday free to do what we wanted. We decided to drive down to Monterey, visited the aquarium (which for my avid blog readers, is on par with the excellence of the Tennessee Aquarium from my last trip), did some shopping down Cannery Row, and then drove down to Pebble Beach and checked out the golf courses and scenic drive.

Flash back to earlier in the day... I get a call from a family friend who has been looking after my parents' house while they were on vacation... their house was broken into. My parents were in Turkey, without any way to contact them until they got home today, and with me down in the Bay Area, I was fortunately able to get a hold of my sister eventually and she went down to help take care of things at the house.

After further assessment, these were decidedly amateur crooks. They broke a bedroom window to get in, after not being able to find an easy way in. They didn't really ransack the place like you'd typically expect... however, they stole some jewelry, silverware, two TVs and a laptop computer. Oh, and to top things off, they took my mom's minivan too (they probably needed something to haul away the stuff in). So after the police to wrote up the report, and CSI:FW processed the crime scene and got some nice fingerprints from the window, they cleaned up a bit of the mess around and the police put out a stolen vehicle alert on the car.

On to today... my parents got back and we told them about what happened. They made it home and took inventory of what was missing and worked on getting things back in order. The insurance folks will call tomorrow to take care of everything.

But wait, there's more! About 9:00pm, less than 30 hours after the incident was reported, they get a call from the FWPD: they've found the stolen van parked at the Denny's on 320th (all of about 3 minutes from my parents house) and asked them to come over to take a look. Apparently these crooks ARE as stupid as they seemed to be. After arriving, they found 3 or 4 police cars surrounding the parking lot and apparently they had two suspects in custody. Unfortunately, most of the loot was no longer in the van, but they suspect it's all close by. After some waiting around for CSI:FW to process the car and get any fingerprint evidence they could, they actually drove the car back home. The car seems to be in good shape, though apparently the police found a crack pipe among other things in the car, and recommended they get it professionally cleaned, which insurance should take care of. In the meantime, the police apparently have already recovered a few things (mainly jewelry-type stuff) off the suspects.

As of the last update, one suspect is in jail being interrogated, one suspect is at the hospital, probably handcuffed to the bedrail, after an untimely run in with one of Federal Way's four-legged finest in the FWPD K9 unit. It sounds as if justice may be served afterall.

Another reason to go to Disney World

As if anyone *needs* a reason to go to Disney World, here's one anyway... the opening of yet another new and thrilling adventure: Toy Story Midway Mania.

Designed as a carnival in Toy Story's world of toys, Disney has taken rides into the 21st century once again and made things interactive. Looks like loads of fun.

There's a great MiceAge Review of the ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Disney World. An identical ride is being built in California at Disney's California Adventure, but I'll take my original assessment and use this as an excuse to go to Orlando instead of Anaheim sometime.

My last WDW trip was all the way back in September 2005... it's hard to believe it's been 2.5 years. I still haven't made it back there since their last big attraction Expedition Everest opened. I suspect within the next year or so it will once again be time to plan another sojourn to Florida.

Birmingham and Heading Home - Day 5 & 6

My last full day in Birmingham was pretty laid back. After just being lazy around the house all morning, hunger finally necessitated us actually getting up and heading out for the day.

We went to a small local restaurant "Paw Paw Patch"... self-described as "Country Cooking". Anything sterotypically southern is here for your culinary enjoyment. I had some mighty tasty fried chicken, along with expanding my horizons with some fried green tomatoes and creamed corn. The corn looked like it was being eaten for a second time, but was surprisingly tasty. The fried green tomatoes looked fried and tasty, but I could live without them. Andrew got some fried okra, which I tried and found to be decidedly meh. But Southern it definitely was.

We then went over to the Birmingham Zoo, and I took advantage of my nearly-expired membership to the Woodland Park Zoo, which basically gives me reciprocal free admission at nearly every zoo in the country. I saved about $13.50, which made it almost worth it to buy a membership. Nice zoo, nothing too amazing, but definitely had some nice areas and the different climate actually yields some animals you wouldn't see at Woodland Park.

After heading home for a quick break, we went to see a movie at the dollar theatre. Andrew still hadn't seen National Treasure 2, so I saw that again for the second time in 4 days. However, seeing it on something a bit larger than a 12" screen made a huge difference. It was still worth $1.

It is now Tuesday and time to head home after a much relaxing and eventful vacation. After a nice quick flight from Birmingham, I'm now sitting here eating lunch in Charlotte on about a two-hour layover. Sitting here eating my lunch of a bacon burger at the faux airport Chili's, it was a bit surprising to glance up at the televion and see the right honourable senator from the state of Washington, Maria Cantwell, on CNN. Of course, there is no audio, nor captions, other than the byline stating something to do with oil, and furthermore I'm no lip reader, which is good too because I just now realized that Cantwell doesn't really have any lips (other than the ones she seems to draw on her face).

Another hour or so until my flight leaves, in addition to all of my pictures from this trip I've posted online, I realized that I've got several groups of pictures spanning as far back as Emily and Nathan's wedding nearly a year ago that I still haven't posted and labeled. Perhaps most of these will make their way up shortly as well.

O'Hare is the next stop on my journey home, and I highly doubt they provide free internet like the fine hospitality of the south provides. On a side note, this being my first venture to the Charlotte airport, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend being stuck on a layover here. Bright and airy, with plenty of space to relax and not feel like you're stuck in an airport. Admittedly, that might change if you were here for 4 or 5 hours, but for a 2-hour layover it's quite nice.

Back on United for the final two legs of my trip. I'm expecting less than luxurious coach accomodations. I'm also slightly disconcerted that my flight out of Charlotte still has no gate number assigned with just over an hour until departure. Seems a bit odd, but probably nothing to worry about. Along with that, it's already estimated to arrive in Chicago 7 minutes ahead of schedule. Somehow I doubt that.

The voyage home continues...

Chattanooooga - Day 3 & 4

Day three had us heading off to Chattanooga, Tennessee for the night. It's only a little over 2 hours to drive up there, but we made a short detour along the way.

In the small town of Scottsboro, Alabama lives the place where you find all of the things you never knew you lost. The Unclaimed Baggage Center, home of everything you've ever left behind on an airplane, or in your lost luggage, or probably in the airport too. That's right, it all ends up in Alabama. What does that mean? Not a whole lot. In addition to the racks and racks of clothes, you'll find tons of iPods and every other iPod-like-device ever created. Sounds too good to be true? It is. Everything is priced pretty ridiculously, if you ask me. Sure you save a bit of money over what you'd pay for something brand new, but not that great of a deal, especially for an iPod that looks like it's been to Siberia and back (and probably has). On the gimmick scale, this place rates at 9 out of 10... don't waste your time.

After that brief stop, we continued on to Chattanooga. Getting there requires crossing briefly into Georgia, then up into Tennessee. For probably a hundred miles around, you see signs, billboards, and what seem to be trademark birdhouses all advertising...

"SEE ROCK CITY!"

Rock City is basically what it sounds like, a tourist trap at the top of Lookout Mountain, apparently named because you can look out from the top and see seven different states. I think that's a bit of a stretch, but whatever. You'll see plenty of Rock City in the photo album. It's actually pretty cool, but if it wasn't enough of a gimmick, its biggest draw... the brand new Starbucks across the street. Spare me.

We dropped down the mountain and into Chattanooga, found our hotel and checked in then went downtown to see what there was to do. It was pretty late in the evening so the main plan was to find dinner, but we figured out what was there. We found dinner and then eventually made our way back to the hotel.

On Sunday, we headed back downtown and went to the Tennessee Aquarium. Definitely one of the best aquariums I've ever been to, and the fact that it was raining off and on all day long made it good to be inside for a few hours. We had lunch and wandered around Chattanooga for a few hours before heading back down to Birmingham.

Had barbeque for dinner and then were lazy the rest of the day. Still feels like a vacation.

Monday is the last day before I leave Tuesday morning for another marathon of flights back to Seattle. Good times.

Birmingham - Day 2

Friday in Birmingham was a pretty eventful, yet relaxing day. I seem to still be living on Pacific time though, as I got up around 10am Central, which is about when I'd normally get up to go to work on a Friday.

Once we got up and ready to leave, it was uh, lunchtime. :) So we made way for my most fitting start to the trip, Chick-Fil-A. I love me my Chick-Fil-A. Delicious, if not more delicious than normal. After lunch we drove a bit around the more scenic parts of Birmingham (and let me tell you, the scenic parts are few and far between.) We made it to the Southern Museum of Flight, aptly located over by the airport. For anyone who's been to Boeing's Museum of Flight in Seattle, this obviously pales in comparison, but is remarkably impressive. They had lots of older planes, especially military planes. Very nice museum.

After that we did more wandering around Birmingham, before ending up at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Big gardens with lots of trails up through trees and such. It was pretty fun (lots of pictures to be seen in the photo album). After a rousing game of "name that herb!" we headed back home and made pizza for dinner.

After dinner we went over to the Birmingham Race Track. Now I've been to plenty of horse race tracks, but this was my first greyhound racing track. It was... decidedly different. Dispense with the pageantry of horse racing, it looks like someone came up with this in their backyard one day. Furthermore, far more luck is involved in choosing the winning dogs. If there was any element of skill involved, it completely escaped me. It was interesting though.

We came home and it was time to go to bed, though we promptly didn't go to bed for another 2 hours. But that's typical. Hey, I'm still on Pacific time. Today we're heading up to Chattanooga for a couple of days, with plans to make a few bizarre stops along the way. As usual, it should be fun!

It took me only one day to feel like I was actually on vacation. Perhaps I really did need a vacation more than I thought I did.

TV Commercial Roundup

For the benefit of those of you with a Tivo, here's another roundup of great commercials that you may have skipped over. One advantage of being forced to watch live TV occasionally is that you get to see some of these really great commercials that themselves are worth watching. Today we have two more you need to see:



Who doesn't miss the days when Lou Piniella was the Mariners' manager? Even when the M's couldn't win a game, there was still a reason to watch!



Great commercial, especially with all of your favorite Discovery Channel stars. I could watch this over and over... which I do, because Discovery replays it constantly. I guess that's what you do when you get a winner.

Planes, Planes, and more Planes - Day 1

Who would have thought taking 3 flights zigzagging across the country in the same day would be tiring? Oh, yeah, everyone. That's OK, it wasn't so bad actually, but there were some adventures.

It began with a relatively uneventful flight down to San Francisco. After being loaded into the cattle-car known as United, we made our way down in a relatively quick hour and a half (well, in the air at least). In fact, we got there so early, there was still a plane waiting at our gate to leave, so we proceeded to sit on the taxiway for about 15 minutes, negating any resemblance of being early.

Of course, I was switching to US Airways for the remaining two legs of my trip, which flies out of the complete opposite end of the airport. So out from my gate I go, walk all the way to the center of the terminal, leave security, wait for their train, and take the train to the terminal at the opposite end of the airport.

After waiting in line again to go through security. Of course, once I make it to the almighty x-ray machines, I get pulled aside. "Can we look in your bag, sir?" Of course they can, what do I have to hide? Oh yeah, that completely unopened bottle of water I bought past security at Sea-Tac figuring I wouldn't have to go through security again. "Yes, TSA goons, you can take it." I still don't see the point of liquids causing any sort of security hazard, but I suppose it's all for the safety or our country, blah blah blah. I'll take my chances.

So I make it through security, and continue to walk all the way to basically the end of the terminal, where just as I arrive at the gate it's time to board. So much for grabbing lunch, I guess I'll just get on the plane.

Five hours on the flight to Charlotte. Fortunately the US Air planes are a bit more spacious than United, so it was pretty comfortable. The time passed by pretty fast. There were what I considered an abnormally large number of kids on the flight, running up and down the aisles at times, but they were pretty well behaved, even though the flight attendants had to get them to stay out of the way a few times. The in-flight movie was actually good, and one I hadn't seen, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. I have to admit, even though I was watching the movie on a 8-inch screen from 10 feet away, I think it was better than the first National Treasure, which I also enjoyed. The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful until during the second round of beverage service an entire bloody mary was spilled by the flight attendant on the rows right in front of me. First of all, the smell was just, uh, great. I felt bad for the one guy who had it spilled basically down his back. At some point, if it were me who got spilled on, I would have just completely started laughing. But that flight ended fine and all was well.

Spent a few hours in the Charlotte airport. Down-home Southern Hospitality at its finest. The restrooms all have attendants, and the terminals all have rocking chairs. Fortunately I had some extra time to relax and get some dinner (which was the only thing substantial I had eaten all day), then walked all the way out to the end of the airport to catch my plane to Birmingham.

The Birmingham flight was quick and smooth. The only funny part was the uncanny resemblance of the flight attendant to Mythbuster Kari Byron, but back in her shorter-hair years. She was equally as quirky and funny too. Made for a very entertaining flight.

After 12 hours in transit I finally made it to Birmingham. Andrew picked me up and after checking out his new(er) place, it was time to go to bed. I think today will require a trip to Chick-Fil-A for lunch... because that will make me happy.

Vacation is nice. No pictures yet, but I'll be sure to take the camera out today and get some shots of the scenic world that is Alabama. More to come...

How I Met Your Mother

I just got around to watching Monday's episode of How I Met Your Mother on my DVR.

This is the funniest sitcom on television. Certifiably. End of story.

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Tomorrow morning I'm off on a plane to Birmingham, AL, via San Francisco, CA and Charlotte, NC. Expect some great blog entries coming up this week for you avid readers. :)

Global Warming? I think not.

It's the middle of April...





... and it's snowing.

It's the latest Spring snow in history... beating the previous record of April 16th. It feels like January. I think this means we'll have an abnormally hot summer. 6 days ago it was 78 degrees and sunny. What's the world coming to?

Another update...

Curling season is finally over. After a weekend where I curled at 2pm and 2am on Saturday night/Sunday morning, it's a good time to take a 6-month break from throwing rocks at houses. Another fun, yet surprisingly long season. I think the added complications of buying a house and moving in the middle of the season made it feel much longer than it really was. But on the bright side, I now have a much more relaxing summer lined up. The season was a resounding success, with my defending-champion Friday night team coming in a resounding 2nd place, yet my Thursday and Monday teams firmly in the "also ran" category.

In two weeks I'll be heading down to the South to visit Andrew. It's been nearly 2 years since I went down there, whereas he's been up to visit all of us in Seattle about 3 or 4 times (or maybe more, I've lost count). I'll be celebrating Confederate Memorial Day in Alabama, which will probably be a non-event down there, but at least interesting. Of course, in my constant frugality, I saved money by building the most convoluded flight itinerary down and back. I'll be leaving Thursday morning and fly to San Francisco, then to Charlotte NC, then to Birmingham. On the following Tuesday I'll go from Birmingham, to Charlotte, to Chicago, and finally home to Seattle. About 6000 miles criss-crossing the country for the low, low price of just $235. I don't mind too much... at least that's what I say now. :)

Work is going well. My new commute averages about 25 minutes, which is probably about the top of my tolerance zone, but acceptable. I think I'll enjoy the commute a bit during the summer when I can enjoy the nice weather while I'm driving home. The only part I don't enjoy is that I'm filling up the gas tank much more frequently now... add in the occasional drive down to visit the parents and it's even worse. But at this point, given the state of the bus system here that would add another 30-45 minutes each way to my commute, the time and flexibility of driving is more valuable to me. They really need to expand the light rail, even if it'll be 10 years for them to finish it. That's what I say.

Now I just need to figure out what new and fun things to do during the summer. Perhaps another attempt to get motivated to improve my golfing skills is in order. I need to actually get myself over to the driving range more often, just to remind myself how dismal my skills are. Or maybe something else is in order. We'll see.

Cabaret

It's been a while since a blog entry, and fittingly we kick things back off with a musical review.

The 5th Avenue Theatre closed their 2007-08 season with what ranks as one of my favorite musicals, Cabaret. It's one of the few musical soundtracks that sees frequent play on my MP3 player. It goes without saying that I was looking forward to this show all season. But it wasn't quite as I expected.

Each time you have a new production of an old musical (the original Cabaret opened on Broadway in 1966), you tend to get a fresh new interpretation. One advantage is that you tend to get the best features of all the previous productions. This show was no exception.

The story surrounds Cliff Bradshaw, an American writer in Berlin during the rise of Nazi Germany, who meets an English cabaret star named Sally Bowles. The scenes take place in the context of the Kit Kat Klub, a seedy nightclub with a flamboyant master of ceremonies. The Emcee serves as the narrator tying the entire show together, and is really the true star of the show. This is the only constant throughout the productions I've seen. Once you reach the edges, things vary wildly.

It was the 1998 revival where I developed my love of the show, so I can't help but compare this rendition to then. The 5th's production has a markedly different feel. Where the 1998 revival envisioned the Kit Kat Klub as a very dark and black locale, this version took a bright and jovial approach, characterized by bright reds and shimmering light. Initially I wasn't as impressed, but as the show went on I began to like it. As has almost become expected at the 5th Avenue, the set design was befitting of the finest theatrical productions you'll ever find.

A huge credit goes to the 5th for focusing on the story. The story itself felt much more prominent than previously where the focus seemed to be more on the cabaret song-and-dance aspect. This saved the show for me.

Even the music leaves room for interpretation since much of it is so tightly integrated to the show itself. Perhaps I am a bit too attached to the 1998 soundtrack, but I was a bit disappointed by the music arrangement. The songs were vastly the same of course, but I felt that many of them were taken at a much slower tempo than was really befitting of the show, bringing the cadence of the entire show down with them. With the first act at nearly 1.5 hours, this could have helped as well. I consider that this may have been a conscious decision, but I wasn't impressed. The show could have been better served by being a bit more lively, and though I'm rarely displeased with the musical output of the 5th's productions, this one left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. The orchestra was a bit sloppy and especially out of sync with the singers at times. Ironically, this probably gave it more of an authentic cabaret feel as I would envision it, but if that was their goal it wasn't overt enough to be convincing and the result was underwhelming.

On to the ratings...

Cast: 3 stars - I wasn't particularly impressed. The lead roles were well played, but musically a bit lacking.
Script: 4 stars - The storyline is simple, yet compelling. Proof that complexity is not necessary for a solid script.
Technical: 4 stars - Kudos to the design crews. I give it another 1/2 star bonus.
Music: 3 stars - It pains me to do it, but I must.
Overall: 4 stars - The vision saved this show. Well worth seeing!