Shucked!

 

First of all, Shucked aint gonna change your life. It starts with Storyteller 1 (Maya Lagerstam) saying "open your mind and think ,,,,now think smaller". That's the gist. A lot of jokes pepper this musical like a Naked Gun movie or Airplane or for those of us of a certain age, Laugh In. Not all hit the mark, but enough of them do.

The story is about Maizy (Celeste Rose) who lives in a small town and is engaged to Beau (Nick Bailey) a corn farmer with a failing crop. But Maizy goes to the big city, Tampa, to see a "corn doctor", a great Quinn Vanantwerp as Gordie. Gordie is a con man much like Professor Henry Hill in the Music Man. He seduces Maizy and returns to her town to "cure" the corn crop. Maizy's cousin Lulu, a powerful voiced Dominique Kent has a great bullshit detector, and Gordie is in trouble. Look, we all know how this will end and it does end well.

Now about the jokes. They are much edgier than you might think about a musical about corn and a small town. Never shake hands with a single man in his 30s. I was so poor as a child I was lucky I was a guy, so I had a toy to play with. There are lots of jokes like that. Don't blink. Yes, there are numerous "corny" jokes also but all in all there is nothing serious about this play. It makes fun of small towns, rural Americans, and city slickers. Equal opportunity.

The performers are all very good at their jobs. There aren't any voices you have trouble with. Nick Bailey as Beau belts out the songs he gets with gusto. Dominique Kent (Lulu) has a voice made for church. Jesus Christ she was an understudy; I can't imagine the actual star doing any better. Beau's brother Peanut, Mike Nappi, is rather dim, doesn't sing much but gets off the best lines whenever someone asks what he thinks. "I think politicians and diapers need to be changed often for the same reason". "I think if you know more than 4 Metallica songs, you must be in Metallica". He is great. Look for the red hat. Storyteller 2, Joe Moeller, also has great comic timing. It is a strong cast.;

Hey again, I expected nothing and what I got was something. A two-hour fun time. What more can you ask for? The other thing is once you've seen Shucked you never need to see it again. The jokes will be stale.

Now the Orpheum sound. Opening night was ok, but some glitches happened with static and microphones going out. But when it was working it was fine. Better than usual in fact.

It's in town thru Sunday. Wanna laugh? Go see it.

Minneapolis!

 ICE is a boil on America's ass. Sent to Minneapolis by a DOJ to harass Somalians because some 23-year-old punkass YouTube influencer grifted MAGA by claiming to have uncovered a day care scandal that has been investigated and prosecuted for 10 years. Oh, and the perpetrator was a white woman buy I digress.

The ICE agents drive around Minneapolis, harassing schoolkids, tear gassing teachers, pointing guns at anyone recording them, looking for nonwhite people to arrest. But two days ago, on a street I was on in October, a woman named Renee Good, a mother, a wife, who had just dropped her 6-year-old off at school, was stuck sideways in her minivan with her wife and stuffed animals on 34th street when ICE thugs pulled up in their unmarked car, jumped out, masked and armed, and one demanded she get out of the "fucking car", the other said "move move move" to her, and a third man stood there itching to kill. Renee said "I'm pulling out" and turned the van to the right to leave as ordered. An ICE thug named Jonathan Ross stood at the left side of the van and as she pulled away, shot her three times in the face. The van accelerated as dead people tend to do and rammed into   pole. A physician attempted to help and was told to back off, and when he asked to at least check her pulse was told "I dont care" by an ICE sociopath. She had died, making her child motherless and her wife a widow. It was a murder.

As usual, the federal law enforcement community, as do all law enforcement communities when the fuck up, went into smear the victim mode. Within an hour of the killing, the powers that be had already declared the shoot "self-defense". She was trying to run them over. She's a "radical leftist". She's a lesbian, she has pronouns in her bio. Thank goodness she didn't have green hair or they'd have shot her even more.

Kristi Noem, in a ridiculous looking cowboy hat, concluded with so many lies and inaccuracies, that the cowboy hat grew bigger as she lied. But don't worry, Americans, Kash Patel and the FBI are on it. That investigation will be swift, accurate and probably involve numerous trips via private plane by Patel to "interview" his gal pal, the honey pot.

Minnesota authorities were then shut out. The feds circled the wagons to keep Minnesota from prosecuting on a state level where Trump the Pardon Weasel can't get to them. Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to "get the fuck out of Minneapolis". Governor Tim Walz called the federal response "bullshit" and Walz unleashed is the Walz we needed in 2024. 

J D Vance, a spineless phony if there ever was one, held a press conference where he became combatant with the age-old attack the press to divert from the truth. This asshole Vance, obviously grooming himself to take over MAGA once the Treason Twat is no longer available, trashed Renee Good, lied about the incident, rolled his eyes like a maniac, and attacked CNN to keep that mouth breathing base happy. Vance, who once called Trump "America's Hitler", has completely changed his views to fit the narrative. He is a principles lacking jellyfish in a beard. He's worse than Trump, Trump is dumb, Vance is not thus he's evil.

Anyway, the murder of Renee Good is just that, murder. And as sure as if one of the "illegals" had killed her, which this fascist regime would have never stopped talking about, a white Minneapolis ICE thug killed her in cold blood. ICE is not law enforcement; it's a gang of masked meatheads who are exacting their revenge for being stuffed into lockers much like the scumbag Stephen Miller.

Fuck ICE. Fuck Noem and Fuck Vance.

The Emergency Room!

The emergency room is someplace you don't want to frequent, despite the current regime's claim that everyone there is an "illegal". Unfortunately, due to a drug reaction, Max's Mom and I were "advised" to head for the ER immediately. What we saw was eye opening on the state of "the greatest health care system in the world". Spoiler alert: It's not.

We arrived at the UNMC Emergency Room around 4pm. Checked in, triaged, and fitted with a blood pressure cuff, we took our seats in the crowded waiting room. The people in the ER were packed in like sardines. Many were complaining they hadn't been seen in 4 or 5 hours. I scoffed. Spoiler alert: they were right.

Over in the corner a young man and a girl sat. The young man was in obvious pain. He gyrated, he stood, he groaned, he put his head under a blanket and he was ignored. A woman in a wheelchair without a fuck to give loudly complained on her phone that she also hadn't been seen in hours. A woman who spoke no English in a wheelchair looked lost. Translators were nonexistent. A young man behind us slept in the chair also ignored. 

As the hours dragged on, we were also ignored. So much for white privilege at least in any inner-city ER. People wandered in, obviously in pain, An older man with a nonstop nosebleed sat in a chair and bled and bled. A family with a father who'd had a stroke sat in the corner. A man in a wheelchair sat in it dropping his phone over and over. A young woman wailed in pain. Max's Mom had blood work done and the results came in but nothing happened. We sat. 

Many of the people got up and left. They'd been there too long, Shit, we'll just go home and die I guess.

Then came the night. We'd been there 3 hours when the cops began showing up with injured people. The ambulances began arriving en masse. A poor old man in a wheelchair in a gown sat there with no idea where he was. The nurses tried to communicate with him. He had no answers for them. He wanted his phone. Turns out a nursing home had driven him there and dumped him. Just fucking dumped him as garbage that was now somebody else's problem. 

A young man brought in by the police was having a mental health issue screaming for his mom and alleging "They" were out to kill him. The police waited as they processed him to be committed as non-voluntary hold. He sat in the corner crying for his mother as police stood by.to protect him from himself. 

More people came in with injuries and illnesses, some with police escorts. The chaos was rampant. Many more people got up and left. 

This was a life lesson for us. The health care system in this country is a goddamned disgrace. Yet as bad as it is, the current regime wants to make it worse. I'm not sure how they can. Desperate people, mostly black or Hispanic and definitely poor can't get help. It really is a sad state of affairs. 

Then came 9 pm. We'd been there over 5 hours. And this time it was us who got up and left, going home to die. Spoiler: Max's Mom is better.

There is no way I am blaming the fine folks who work in the ER. They are underfunded, understaffed, overworked and underappreciated, taking the abuse from people frustrated with the wait time and the perceived apathy. They do the best they can with the resources from the state and feds. But it's not enough to even put a dent in this nonsensical system that has permeated the nation over the last 40 years. Congress and the executive branch have the gold plan. They get seen immediately. They don't have to sit with the great unwashed in emergency rooms overwhelmed with the sick and poor. And thus, they do nothing to fix this disgusting system because they don't have to. They got theirs so fuck you. 

In the meantime, a madman and his handlers declassify nursing as a profession thus cutting into loans to help these saints become health care professionals. It makes no sense unless you think the agenda is to devalue a woman dominated profession. Of course it is.

The UNMC is a great resource. But it needs further funding. Lots more. Will it happen? Not as long as the main priority of a university is paying $3 million for a freakin quarterback.

Hut Hut.

WTF?

What exactly in the fuck is happening in this world? This weekend was like a weekend in World War II  where horrible things were happening on a daily basis. Who could keep up for chrissakes? 

We had another mass shooting at Brown University. Two people died in that one, so far. A young white woman named Ella Cook (which of course the Magas have taken under their wings) and a young man named Mukhammed Aziz Umurzukov (which of course the Magas have ignored). Somebody walked into a classroom and started firing, killing the two and wounding nine others. Then the shooter escaped. But never fear cuz Keystone Kash Patel is on the case. Arresting a 24-year-old white guy from Wisconsin, Kash put it out there waiting for the praise from his audience of one. But alas. Keystone Kash was wrong...again. The poor bastard arrested had nothing to do with it and was released into the wild to try and get his life back. The shooter is still in the wind but once again never fear. Kash is on the case, this time going on KKKatie Millers podcast with his honey pot  girlfriend. Ya know the one he takes on dates paid for by you, the taxpayer.

Then came Bondi Beach, in Australia. Two whack job ISIS brainwashed losers decide to open fire on a group of Jewish folks celebrating Hannukah. Their names? Who gives a shit. .  The names we need to know, along with the innocents gunned down by this father and son evil including a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, is Ahmed Al-Ahmed. A Muslim man who disarmed one of the shooters before the other shot him twice before a police officer sent him to hell. Ahmed is in the hospital recovering and should be hailed as a hero. Christ, the antisemitic psychos are getting worse aren't they? Now yeah yeah, Gaza has a lot to do with it and we all know Netanyahu is no better than Goering or Himmler but really? Innocents minding their own business celebrating their religion, including Holocaust survivors, an elderly couple who attempted to disarm the maniacs, rabbis, rugby players, ya know, normal everyday people. This also allowed American gun kooks to say heyyyyyyyyyy see, Australia disarmed their population so like everybody should be armed. Yeah, ok Gunny, you could count the mass shootings in Australia on both hands in the last 30 years while we here in the USA run out of fingers in one week. Fuck your guns now and forever.

Then came Sunday, Director/Actor Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered allegedly by his mentally ill son, Nick Reiner. For the love of gawd, what the fuck is happening in this shitty world. The murder of the Reiners was bad enough, a tragedy of monumental proportions, but the reaction to it by certain evil people who didn't like Reiners politics. As if that means because he was an unapologetic liberal and critic of Trump, he deserved to die. By the way the leader of the evil cabal of classless trolls was none other than Donald Trump who posted about how much he didn't like Reiner, called him angry and deranged and made a murder of somebody else all about him. He then, after actually thinking (?) about it for hours, doubled down on his disgusting take. This triggered the cultists, many who were waiting for permission to act like assholes from their Dear Leader. 

To be fair, most people, MAGA and not, expressed their condolences in a normal manner (even those who insisted on saying I didn't agree with Reiners politics as a prologue which is lame AF). This is hopeful. But FFS, what the hell is going on in this world, Violence is rampant including by regimes that randomly kill people in boats with no arrest, trial or sentence. Regimes that refuse to help Ukraine stave off Russian killers. Regimes that arm Israel to murder innocents in Gaza. Regimes that think that criticism is treason. And regimes led by a classless scum named Trump.

What the fuck?

PS...Last month when we went to the beach in Santa Monica, a group of Hebrew school students fueled by pizza and snacks showed up. They were just kids, along with their teachers and don't think I didn't have a thought about what if some psycho anti Semite showed up. Nobody should think like that in a normal society but goddamit we do.

What the fuck?

When Will This Madness End?

The Rubber Room Dweller in Chief has posted perhaps the most insane Tweet   Truth ever. Good lord but Fat Mussolini 2 has gone way over the cliff on this one, at least till tomorrow.

Let's break it down.

No President has ever worked as hard, except for maybe 45 others. He's stopped 8 wars, if you think he's at war with decency, literacy, humility, the truth, intelligence, and the Three Stooges. Sorry MAGAts, but those wars are still raging. He's losing them all.

He's created the greatest economy ever blah blah, brought business back into the country, rebuilt the military (again?) and instituted tax cuts. Yeah, sure Gramps, the economy sucks, the only "business" he's brought back are bribes for him, never rebuilt anything other than his own ego and tax cuts involve only him and his donors.

He's shut down the "open and dangerous" Southern Border and installed an "aura" making the whole world respect us even more. Ok, Old timer, you pardoned a Honduran drug dealer, and the only "aura" you create is the stench of your filthy diaper and the Maybelline on your hand.

He goes out of his way to undergo long, through and very boring Medical Exams, supervised by "top" doctors (well thats good lil Donnie) who all gave him "PERFECT" marks. Chrissakes Mr Universe, they gave you "perfect marks"? Most of the time doctors tell you to lose weight and stop snorting Adderall all day. And not only that, how may fucking times do you go to the "Great Walter Reed Medical Center" anyway?On 3 separate occasions, he has undergone what is known as a COGNITIVE EXAM which he ACED, and most people fail miserably. Ok, Donnie Dementia, taking THREE cognitive exams is not a sign of having your mushy noggin together. To know the difference between an elephant and a goat is not the sign of genius. It's called normalcy.

Finally, The New York Times "consistently" reports you're an old man who falls asleep at cabinet meetings and accurately publish your election results but apologize. This is TREASON. They should be shut down!

Ok Orange Hitler, look. This rant proves some things. That you are an old man, a narcissist, a Nazi, a thug, a liar, and losing your marbles. Impeach this crazy bastard or suffer the consequences. The death of America.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The Notebook!

 I know nothing about The Notebook. Never seen the movie, never read the book. Never seen the musical. All I know about the Notebook is that picture of Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in the rain, Sometimes that's a good thing. I went in expecting nothing, What I got was something.

The musical begins in a nursing home. We see old Noah and old Allie living there. He's got a bum knee from an old shrapnel wound from Vietnam, and she has Alzheimers. She has no idea who he is. He is reading to her from a notebook, a story she wrote about their lives in the hope she comes back to him. 

Younger Noah and Allie as teenagers fall in love over a summer. Allie's parents disapprove of Noah, a kid who works for his Dad at a lumber yard. Noah and Allie dream about Noah fixing up an old house aka "our house. The parents take her away but not until after they sleep together at their house.

The time swap is constant. We go from old to young to middle age and sometimes all at once. It keeps pace with songs that really aren't that memorable but move the story along with grace. 

Noah goes to Vietnam along with his best bud Finn. Noah and Allie separate for 10 years until she sees a story in the paper about him building "our house". Now she's engaged to a lawyer that her parents approve of. We get them back together and then we go back to the present where Allie remains not knowing who Noah is until she suddenly does. The ending is both hopeful and tragic at the same time.

The cast is perhaps the best from top to bottom I've seen in years. Everybody can sing their asses off. Everybody can act their ass off. From minor characters like the doomed Finn and his gal Georgie to the nurses to the parents to the family all are knocking it out of the park. 

But the main cast. WOW!. Kyle Mangold as young Noah and Chloe Cheers as young Allie are tremendous at playing innocence and young love. Ken Wulf Clark as middle-aged Noah (if 30 is middle aged) is great at portraying jilted love and Alysha Deslorieux is superb at playing a jilted (or so she thought) woman, She played Eliza in Hamilton on Broadway and gets the showstopper song My Days after which she gets a long and deserved ovation.

Then we get to the glue holding this all together. Beau Gravitte as older Noah keeps this moving and very real. He's a great actor and a good singer. Sharon Catherine Brown plays older Allie. Playing a role like that, where you must convince the audience,you have no idea what's going on. She's fantastic both when playing out of it and the end when she "comes back".

I thought that the story was captivating and since I knew nothing about it, it was such a pleasant surprise. Highly Recommended.

The other great surprise was the sound at the Orpheum. The orchestra is minimal thus virtually every lyric and line was decipherable. The orchestra never overwhelmed the voices like it did in the Wiz. 

Bravo all the way around.

Husker Football!

 Look, being a Nebraska football fan hasn't been easy the last few years. We really haven't been good since the turn of the century, but those 1962-1999 years were something to behold for a state of 2 million people. Five national titles, untold number of Big 8 titles, bowl games every year in Miami or Phoenix on New Years Day. It was glorious. And then reality caught up to the state of 2 million people. Its unsustainable. I accepted this years ago, but nobody else around here seems to agree. We have half the population of Iowa, who has two good teams. We are half the population of Kansas, who struggles yearly. And then there's us. Struggling for relevancy and unwilling to admit that the run is done.

We have brought in coaches who everybody thought would turn it around. Bo Pelini managed to right the ship to a consistent 9-3 but unfortunately, he was a madman, a ticking time bomb, a man who was ready to explode at all times. That gets old. And Bo was fired about 3 years too late. Who can forget his temper tantrum on the sideline at Texas A&M? His swinging of his hat and damn near hitting the official. The bitter speech about those "motherfuckers in the stands" booing him. His crazy speech after he was canned calling the AD a "cunt". Nobody needs that shit being the face of the program.

Bill Callahan was fresh off a Super Bowl loss and a player revolt when they fired Frank Solich. Yes, Hall of Fame coach Frank Solich. Well 58-17 wasn't good enough and Bill Callahan, NFL position coach, and failed Oakland Raider head coach was hired to bring the program up to date. No more of that option shit. We need a statue QB who throws a lot. That was a disastrous hire closed out by the worst defense in college football history (I mean come on 76-39 loss to Kansas).

Then came the Bo tirade. 

As always, we hire against form. From a Tom Osborne clone to an NFL coach. From an NFL coach to a college coach with anger problems. From a madman to a nice guy Mike Riley, a laid-back coach from the Pac 12 who treated his players as adults which was a total failure. Kids don't want to be adults and if given the chance they blow off training cuz it's harder than X Box. From nice guy Riley to hometown hero, Scott Frost, who had a bit of Bo in him. Bitter since he was booed in 1997, Frost thought he was in for life. What he was turned out to be was the worst football coach in Husker history. The 12-yard rumble of a slow Georgia Southern quarterback to beat us in Lincoln sealed Frost's fate. Then another hometown hero, Mickey Joseph, a former quarterback like Frost during the glory years. Unfortunately for him, he had a bit of Bo in him also in that he got arrested for domestic violence right before his interview for the head job.

Now we have Matt Rhule. Nice guy, blabbermouth, takes responsibility unlike Bo and Frost, but a total screwup when it comes to the Ps and Qs. His failure as NFL head coach (gee a pattern here?) got him the job here. Rhule is one of those everybody's family around here guys. In the NFL that's a joke. In college it is kind of nice at first, but it gets old when success eludes you. Rhule isn't going anywhere soon as his contract was extended earlier this season to keep him from going back home to Penn State (spoiler he was never going anywhere). So, mediocrity is the norm for the near future. 

And Husker fans, we better accept that. 6-6, 7-5 maybe an 8-4 on occasion. The games are just entertainment; they are not life. The quicker you realize that the happier you will be.

Go Big Red! Always. But I'm used to average now. And I've accepted it.