Un-friend

Twenty-five years ago, my favorite aunt refused to take my phone call over a misunderstanding.  I was devastated.

Five years ago, the same relative blocked my on MySpace.  Over a misunderstanding.  I was hurt.

Today, she blocked me on Facebook.  I am merely annoyed.

This time, it may have been my fault.  My wife says I antagonized her.  I didn't think that was what I was doing, but I am kinda tired of her crap.  She gets so upset if she thinks someone is attacking her church that she can't think rationally, and I knew when I pressed the issue -- even in a private message -- that she'd overreact.

The people who are most important to me, today, all understand (or should) that I love them no less if I question their beliefs.  If not, then I guess I'll end up alone and unloved.  Because, if I haven't offended someone yet, it's only because I haven't gotten around to it.  Anyone who can't handle that, maybe this is a good time to follow suit.

As for my favorite blood relative (before I had kids), if she wants to be in contact with me again, she knows where I am. 

Reviews - 1776

Review: Historical musical a memorable night of theater

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From left, Curtis Leach is Benjamin Franklin, Kevin Olsen is Thomas Jefferson and John LaPuzza is John Adams in “1776,” on stage now at Bellevue Little Theatre.

Posted Sep 20, 2012

“1776” offers musical fireworks in Bellevue

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BELLEVUE, Neb. – Bellevue Little Theatre opened its theater season with a good production of the musical “1776.”

Laureen Pickle directs a talented group of experienced actors. Pickle also did double duty by designing an interesting set that includes some marvelous visual effects. Kay Clark is musical director and heads up a good four-piece pit orchestra.

John La Puzza plays the main character, John Adams, who does everything he can to get the Continental Congress to declare independence from Great Britain. He is not liked by many members. His wife, Abigail, who is left at home in Massachusetts, is a strong woman played by Janet Ratekin Williams. Their long distance duets, which include “Till Then” and “Yours, Yours, Yours,” are poignant.

There were 13 colonies represented at the Continental Congress in that hot month of July 1776. The stage was full of 27 very talented actors including: Curtis Leach as Benjamin Franklin, Kevin Olsen as Thomas Jefferson and Chris Ebke as Richard Henry Lee. The show also features John Payton, Chuck Wilcox, Tom Fleckten, Adam Hogston, Gary Parker, Sam Reiner, Sean Buster, Robert Matter, Geoff Chenowith, Nelson Lampe, John Jones, Dale Krusemark, Steve Pera, Don Reimer, Joe Mokrycki, Phil Cremonini, Max Hauze and Kyle Avery.

The 13 songs in the show are memorable. “For God’s Sake John, Sit down” is the rousing opening number. There were many conflicts among the members of the congress. Slavery was a major problem between the northern colonies and the southern colonies. Edward Rutledge, played by Andrew Miner, sings “Molasses to Rum” a very good song with an African beat that is haunting. Martha Jefferson, played by Shiloh Jones; joins with Adams and Franklin for “He Plays the violin.”

This musical has everything going for it, including talented actors, great music and a very historical story about creating the Declaration of Independence. This is a great way to get a history lesson in a fun musical environment. This is a must-see production in Bellevue.

The musical “1776” runs on weekends through Sept. 30. Curtain time Fridays and Saturdays is 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Sundays. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and $9 for students. For reservations, call (402) 291-1554.The theater is located in Olde Towne Bellevue, Neb.

Leading men worth seeing in second staging of ‘1776'

By Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

1776

What: Stage musical Where: Bellevue Little Theatre, 203 W. Mission Ave., Bellevue When: Friday through Sept. 30; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays Tickets: $18 adults, $15 senior citizens, $9 students Information: 402-291-1554

Sixteen years later, John LaPuzza still makes a spirited, combative John Adams and Curtis Leach has spring in his step and a twinkle in his eye as Benjamin Franklin in “1776.”
The two played opposite each other in the Bellevue Little Theatre's 1996 production of this musical about the Continental Congress voting on the Declaration of Independence.
They teamed again for an outstanding 2004 Stages of Omaha production at the Rose Theater.
And they're still worth catching in BLT's second staging of “1776,” which opened last weekend.
Director Laureen Pickle and music director Kay Clark have assembled a fine cast of 24 men, whose booming chorus of “Sit Down, John” lets you know early on you're in for a vocal treat.
They are boosted by lovely solo work from Janet Ratekin Williams as Adams' lonely, supportive wife, Abigail (“Till Then”), and Shiloh Jones as ardent lover Martha Jefferson (“He Plays the Violin”).
Pickle gets double credit for scenic design that suggests the actual chamber where the congress met, along with staging that, by necessity, spills into the aisles and onto downstage platforms.
The show's biggest drawback is a tiny stage and limited height. It's not easy shoehorning 24 men behind 10 tables and then finding room for them to move — and that shows at times.
A noble attempt at visual projection of period artwork onto a screm (a black curtain that's see-through when lit from behind) only partly succeeds. Too much light spills onto the set behind the curtain, washing out the images and revealing actors coming and going.
Still, Pickle and cast capture the spirit of the piece. A pushy Adams, counseled by a more temperate Franklin, must learn to compromise if he is to get the unanimous vote for independence he desperately wants.
They get help from quiet wordsmith Thomas Jefferson (Kevin Olsen), braggart Richard Henry Lee of Virginia (Chris Ebke's solo is fun) and a sympathetic president of the congress, John Hancock (Patrick Wolfe).
Edward Rutledge of South Carolina (Andrew Miner, an excellent baritone) leads the “Cool, Cool Considerate Men” who resist independence, particularly over the issue of slavery. Miner points out northern hypocrisy, singing a lacerating “Molasses to Rum.”
Superb tenor Kyle Avery is moving as a courier who sings of death on the battlefield in “Momma Look Sharp,” though it's better to leave the weeping to the audience.
Some fine character acting comes from non-soloists, including Geoff Chenoweth, who masters a Scottish brogue as Thomas McKean of Delaware; John Payton as old rumpot Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island; and Don Reimer as the congress' secretary, reading depressing battlefield messages from George Washington.
But aside from that booming male chorus, the show rests most heavily on LaPuzza and Leach, still in excellent voice and still terrific character actors in this patriotic slice of Americana.



All-male cast doesn't bother female director

By Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

 

IF YOU GO:

What: “1776” stage musical Where: Bellevue Little Theatre, 203 W. Mission Ave., Bellevue When: Friday through Sept. 30; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays Tickets: $18 adults, $15 senior citizens, $9 students nformation: 402-291-1554

If there's one thing the musical “1776” is known for, it's that booming male chorus of 24 voices — all the delegates to the Continental Congress deciding whether to ratify the Declaration of Independence.
So it's worth noting that all of those guys in the Bellevue Little Theatre's “1776” cast answer to director D. Laureen Pickle, music director Kay Clark, producer Sandy Thompson and stage manager Robin Klusmire — all women.
Pickle said there have been no raised eyebrows over the labor-management gender split.
“The guys are a whole lot of fun, but they're very respectful,” Pickle said. “It's nice to be taken seriously as a director. Some of them call me Coach. If I were hesitant or acted weak, somebody might try to take advantage. But any director who comes in with a plan, there's no question of leadership.”
Clark agreed that gender has simply not been an issue.
“A few years ago this might have been a novelty, but not now,” said Clark, who has not music-directed a show in about a decade but loves doing this one a second time at Bellevue. Her four-piece pit group of musicians is also all-female.
Thompson said leadership roles for women have increasingly become common in community theater. She herself became board president of the theater soon after she became active there.
“I didn't think of it as an honor,” she said. “It's just that they thought I could get the work done.”
Klusmire was a stage manager when Pickle directed “Oliver” at Bellevue a couple seasons ago. Clark and Thompson had also worked together in the past, including for a 1996 production of “1776” at the theater.
John LaPuzza as John Adams, and Curtis Leach as Benjamin Franklin are repeating the roles they played in 1996. A father and son, Don and Sam Reimer, are also in the cast.
Thompson said the show was deliberately chosen for an election year. Pickle said it's proof that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
“A lot of what they argued about back then, we still argue about,” she said.

Bio - Midsummer Night's Dream 2006

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Chanticleer Theatre
March 10 - 26, 2006
Role - Egeus

John appears in this show with his daughter (who talks to the animals) and his son (who wrote the book of love).  When not on stage, John interprets dreams, designs websites, boosts the American economy, defends the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic, works on the railroad all the livelong day, frightens small children, seduces lonely housewives, and boldly goes where  no man has gone before.  He also cooks a mean chile con carne.  John let the dogs out, but he never once told Pete Townshend who he was.  In his spare time John researches a cure for cranial-rectal inversion.  But what he really wants to do is direct.

Almost Manly

Two or three years ago I bought a little electric chainsaw off the clearance rack.  I used it a few times, but was never impressed with it - seemed to take forever to cut anything, and the chain was always slipping off the gears.  So it's mostly been relegated to the basement, alongside all the other tools I hardly ever use.

This year I found myself having to trim back the bushes out front before the little costumed people came begging for books and candy.  Just like every other year, because I'm too lazy to keep these things maintained all summer.  And, also just like every other year, I expressed a deep desire to just cut the whole thing down.

At which point, Robin urged me to do exactly that.  "Why don't you just get your chainsaw and do it?"

I call my shoulder sprites "Short Term Lazy" and "Long Term Lazy".  At this point STL was crying, "But it's wor-hur-hur-hurk!"  But LTL countered with the argument that we're working anyway, and by doing it this way it might mean less work later.  STL conceded.

So down to the basement I go to fetch my nearly-useless chainsaw.

This went about how I expected.  There were about eight main trunks to this bush. and the first one took at least ten minutes to sever.  However, it made a big difference in the amount of foliage present, so continue we did.  Halfway through the next branch the chain slipped off.  I'm used to this, I had the tools nearly at hand (just a socket wrench to loosen the nuts) and carefully put it back on just the way it originally was - as I have done since I bought the thing.

Let's just pretend that I repeated this part of the story in some original way two more times.  In truth, it was not original at all, and getting a little tedious.  But the third time, I noticed something wrong.

See, all the tiny metal teeth on this kind of chain point in the same direction.  The sharp side moves away from the motor at the top, and toward the motor at the bottom.  I've made note of this because of how often the chain slips, so I know it works that way.

But when replacing the chain, it's necessary to turn the saw upside down.  And by now you're all way ahead of me.

The chain on this damned thing has been backwards since the day I bought it.

After an appropriate amount of cursing and face-palming, I reversed the chain.  The rest of the job took less time than the first two trunks, and was almost fun.

I'm almost looking forward to clearing the shrubbery from the fence now.

I know that we Americans have short memories, but...

I recall in the mid 90's seeing a for hire message at the Mickey D's in St. Peters. The starting pay was $10 per hour. McDonald's made huge profits at the time despite paying double the minimum wage and they didn't have to raise prices to do it.

Today we're expected to believe that they'd go broke if they paid a living wage of $12 per hour, but that figure doesn't even keep up with inflation ($10 in 1996 is equivalent to nearly $15 today).

And it's bullshit.

Then we're told that people just need to "work harder." Great, so now you're working two (nearly) full-time jobs and still not making enough money to keep up with inflation, and the employers are just fine with paying you the bare minimum of what they can legally get by with.

Yeah that's bullshit too.

I'm so tired of seeing this systematic effort to keep poor people poor and powerless. This is not a competition with winners and losers. So long as any Americans live in poverty, we as a country are a losing team. When those same people can work themselves to death and die in poverty, then we're just pathetic.

First, Do No Harm

Guest post by Calandreya

I know this will offend some people and I'm sorry about that but I don't actually care what either candidate gives as a plan for their future leadership.  The plans fail.  They seldom, if ever, accomplish even a fifth of what is planned.  Obama, as just one example, intended to do a lot more than actually got done and, truthfully, it's a miracle he's even done as much as he has.  I am not voting for Obama's plan. 

I'm voting for Obama because I trust him to do his best to prevent further harm.  That's all.  It's very sad that this is all I can expect from a candidate but that's where we are, and I suppose it's better than having two candidates that would make things worse.  If he succeeds in marginally making things better, as he has done the past four years, then great.  I don't expect it.

I mentioned in a previous post that Democratic interruptions of a long term trickle down process might be responsible for derailing the plan.  Well, I think Republican interruptions will derail the process of recovery, long or short term.  They've already proven they'll put politics over people, money over ethics, and all of this worries me.  If we don't get some serious changes to our political process, we're doomed as a nation - primarily removal of the hidden money.

We are taking some huge strides backwards and have been for a long while.  We're not even getting one step forward to every two back anymore.  Maybe most people are unaware, in their day to day lives, of how politics affects them in very real dollars and cents.  I think a lot of them are just too busy trying to keep their heads above water - and that some politicians want that ignorance working for them.

There are no consequences for lying in politics.  Any normal person caught lying on a resume would be immediately fired no matter how great they were as an employee, but we can't expect that of our country's leadership.  Average Joe often has to take a drug test to work a nearly meaningless job but we don't ask our Congress - public employees - or our presidential candidates to prove they're not on something mind altering.  I think we should begin holding them to the standards expected of regular citizens, at the minimum.  If we want fair laws applied to us, maybe we have to make them see the unfairness of what they're imposing on us, men and women.

I won't see it in my lifetime but I can dream, too.

A handy guide for public figures

Here is what an apology sounds like:

"What I said was incredibly insensitive. I should never have said such a thing. I certainly do not believe it to be true, and I hope you can forgive me."

And then, IF you think you can do so without making things worse, you can try to explain what you really meant.


Here is what an apology does not sound like:

"I'm sorry if you were offended by what I said."

Because, seriously. This is the kind of thing a six-year-old does when ordered to apologize. Mom says, "Billy, you apologize to your sister for calling her stupid."

And Billy says, "I'm sorry you're stupid, sis."


Get it straight. You are in the public eye. Everything you say and do is recorded for all time. And we are watching.