Come From Away!

 

Some of my favorite moments were spent with my parents convincing me to go see theater. On the occasions I did go with them I eventually fell in love with live theater. And the Omaha Community Playhouse was the spark. Hell once, I was in the front row of the balcony watching a weird modern version of Julius Caesar when a guy with a rifle came down the stairs, crouched down beside me as I wondered what the fuck was happening, and shot Julius Caesar dead. Then he ran away. I was mortified yet realized the genius that even community theater actors and directors have in them, Yeah it's like watching AA baseball but ya know what, it's still baseball and it's great.

Come From Away is playing at the Omaha Playhouse thru October 11th. Not familiar with Come From Away? Well, you should be.

Come From Away is a musical about when airplanes from all over the world were rerouted to Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11. 38 planes full of 7000 passengers overtook this small town in Canada and the residents jumped into action to make them as comfortable as possible. The story is of the heavily accented Canadians being saints and the passengers being pissed, until they aren't. We have the two gay dudes named Kevin, the female pilot who overcame the sexism of the industry, the woman whose son is a firefighter in NYC, the Englishman and the divorcee, the Mayor, the townsfolk, the Muslim man singled out as a threat, Beulah the sweet lady who makes everyone feel better, the Africans and a cast of real characters. The story is fascinating, the songs are catchy and the local actors are fantastic singers and thespians.

The set is a bunch of chairs that get rearranged by the actors as the story goes on. A plane, a bar, a bus, customs, libraries. That's about it. And it's handled expertly. It is probably 50% dialogue and 50% songs. This is a one act play that is nothing but fun, until the end when we find things out about the people. Spoiler alert, the woman loses her son in the Towers. That's kind of depressing but man the rest of it is pure joy.

Go see it. You'll laugh a lot. You may even cry. But you will leave the theater saying man those Canadians are fine people. When asked why they were so accommodating, the Canadians say well you'd have done the same for us, to which many Americans on the stage say, would we?

We love you Canada!

Old Age Isn't War, It's A Massacre! Phillip Roth

 

Being old isn't what it used to be. It used to be you got sick, doctors did their best with what they had at the time, and then you died of things that are curable today. It was not ideal and I realize 50 years or less from now the same story will be true. Cancer will be curable, heart problems will be fixable earlier, and once this regime is gone, diseases will once again be eradicated. Everyone is fortunate to be living today with all the fancy equipment. That is if you are on Medicare. If not good luck. Even though this country, thanks to LBJ, looks after its old (think that would pass now?) with Medicare and ignores the rest of the nation claiming Medicare for all is too expensive. Yeah, tell that to 31 of 32 so called civilized nations that have national health care. But then again, we need a trillion-and-a-half-dollar military to protect us like its fucking 1945 (shhhh but it's because congress critters have defense industries in their district building shit the military doesn't even want it)..

Being old catches up with you. If you've avoided doctors forever and then you finally have some sort of emergency and have to go to the ER or the clinic, you realized that probably wasn't smart. I spent a great deal of my life without health insurance and only because of a broken hand did I go and get hit with a bill I couldn't pay without financing. Then I got health insurance but was so used to going oh well, that'll go away, I never used it. Not smart.

When the heat began to become unbearable, and my daily walks with Malibu became a bit harder, and I had to mow the lawn in shifts because my energy was like a video game and ran out quickly, I knew something wasn't kosher. But after fainting at a football game in the heat, throwing up at a baseball game in the heat, and then being unable to walk 3/4of a mile in the 115-degree heat in Vegas, I was taken to the ER where I was diagnosed with Atrial fibrillation. Simply put that means when you take your pulse, it goes beat beat beat......................beat.....beat beat beat. That long pause between beats gets to the point where you say ok, please beat again. Yeah, people live with it as will I.

But this time I needed my heart shocked back into rhythm. They electrocute you basically and your heart beats normally.  Well in my case, it was about 3 days until a fib kicked back in. Then it was a stress test. Somehow, my resting heartbeat was higher than when stressed so that's abnormal. So the next step was a left heart catheterization. Oh great. I spent a lot of years in the insurance industry and read LOT of operative reports of heart caths. They never seemed normal. They usually led to open heart surgery or stents or bypasses and even some heart transplants. Not good.

All of this tortured me for 3 weeks between the stress test and this. I wanted it over. I just knew this wasn't going to be good. What the hell is wrong with me? I'm indestructible, right? RIGHT? Not at all. I knew I was doomed. Sticking a wire into your heart and checking to see for blockages or worse didn't seem normal.

As Tom Petty said, the Waiting is the Hardest Part, and dammit he was right. I stressed for weeks because I'm not used to being sick. I just knew it was gonna be bad, I knew it. 

Let me describe the procedure. They EKG you, they shave you, they put X's in ink on your feet (???), they make you wait. The nurses are saints reassuring you. You do not know if they will put the wire thru your wrist or your groin. Please be the wrist. The doctor came in and said 90% of the time the wrist works. Ok let's see if my bad luck holds.

In the OR, they put you on a table about the same width as your body so don't move. The nurses joked for me to not look down. Oh did I tell you, you are naked except for one of those damn gowns? The doctor came in, made a joke that he'd done at least a dozen of these, some even successfully before he said I am kidding and went in thru my wrist. Could I feel it under twilight sedation? No. And THEN, the dye came out of the wire and honestly, it felt like it set my heart on fire for about 5 seconds. Even under sedation, that was scary. 

After about 10 minutes of this hour-long procedure, the doc said everything looks good, no blockages and the leaky valve wasn't serious. They will just try and shock my heart back into rhythm in a couple of weeks. Good news? Well hell to the yeah, it was. The shocking I've been through so it's all cake now.

Anyway, this whole rant is about getting old isn't fun. Your lifestyle will eventually catch up with you. Even if you have not abused yourself for decades, it will catch up. Nobody is indestructible.

Go to the doctor.

Dolly Parton!

 The first time I saw Dolly Parton I was a small child of maybe 8 or 9. She was in a commercial with her mentor, Porter Wagoner, for a detergent of some sort. Ya know the times, the mid 60's, when if you bought detergent or gas, you got free glasses or in this case you got dish towels. Why do I remember this particular television ad? Well duh, I was just discovering my heterosexuality and Dolly was unforgettable. Up there with Elizabeth Montgomery, Barbara Eden, Diane Carroll and Grace Slick, Dolly got something moving.

I am not going to pretend Dolly's music was my cup of tea, nor am I going to pretend I knew everything about her, but she never left my mind. And she never left America's mind. She never faded away. I mean female icons like Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Helen Reddy all dominated the charts in the 70's but inevitably faded away. But Dolly never did. She made music, movies, TV appearances (never forget her telling Johnny Carson she was on the Tonight Show as often as he was), and philanthropy. She never ever lost the limelight. The only comparable female icon I can think of is Cher who also has never left the spotlight. But Dolly didn't piss people off like Cher may have with her political statements. Dolly was nice and had the impact of a velvet hammer. Cher belted you over the head with a ball bat. But Dolly was smart, a marketing genius, or perhaps she was just what she projected, a freakin saint. Dolly was a blonde, had a huge chest and freely admitted to fixing body parts that had begun to age but she was no dummy. She was smart as a whip and she knew it. She could carve you up like a Thanksgiving turkey and you would still walk away going wow what a nice person. Genius.

Dolly passed away today at the age of 80 from a recently discovered cancer (fuck cancer). The world is shocked. Even right wingers are 75% onboard mourning her passing, proof of the velvet hammer. This passing is a big one. I was shocked. I knew that she'd had some health problems and had cancelled a Vegas residency, but her videos of her announcing that kind of stuff made one convinced she would survive anything. But like all of us, she did not.

Christ, Dolly funded the Covid vaccine, she funded libraries and free books for kids, she supported Black Lives Matter (you think our little white asses are the only lives that matter she said), she supported victims of Tennessee fires who had lost everything, she supported schools that were underfunded and mostly black, she told Missouri to fuck off when they defunded her books in school libraries project and funded it herself and she refused to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom when Trump was in office.

When Dolly was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she initially refused because she didn't feel worthy cuz she wasn't a rocker. But she eventually accepted the honor and did a rock record with duets with Sting, Ann Wilson, Steve Perry, Rob Halford, Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks etc... A lot of it was pretty good. Admittedly I listened to the album for the Joan Jetts, the Sheryl Crows, the Paul McCartneys and the Lynryd Skynyrds. But she was great also.

Dolly was a plus for the human race unlike a certain other 80-year-old. I will miss her light in this dark ass world.

Democratic Socialism!

 Democratic Socialism!! It scares the shit out of old white men, currently in power, because it threatens their very relevance. The GOP pisses their pants at its mention. The Democrats, instead of embracing the concept and accepting the new guard, start blathering about leaving the party because it means they are finished. You're old boomers. Your time is over. Accept it. I am to the point where anybody over 70 will never get my vote again. Go away. And truth be told, I'm dangerously closer to 70 than 60 and realize my generation of boomers have become their parents. We used to protest, smoke weed, stand up to the man, march for civil rights, end wars and drive crooked presidents out of office. Now? We want to run over protesters legally, oppose legalizing weed, are the man, suppress civil rights to keep white men in power, supports wars and shrug when a crooked president does something crooked. We are pathetic. We are the Progressive insurance commercial. We've become our parents and not in a good way.

Now some of us had cool parents. Greatest Generation people who may not have understood the hippies and the antiwar movement but accepted it without hollering about it too much. Archie Bunker was real then and unfortunately is even more real today. Archie was a clown to be laughed at. The ignorance was funny. Mike Stivic was also a clown in his own way. A condescending lib. They were all to be made fun of. Haha.

But alas, though the ignorance of the masses remains, the ignorance of the politicians is dangerous. The United States Senate was once considered the "world's greatest deliberative body" full of intellects and the smart people. The House has always been a carnival side show, full of some of the dumbest people on Earth, but the Senate? Even the red states sent smart people, though they be Republicans, and with few exceptions, you could be proud of your Senators. Well then came 1980, and the whole thing changed. A wave of morons swept into office on the coattails of the guy who started this all, Saint Ronald Reagan the First. Christ, Chuck Grassley was elected in 1980, and the old bastard is still there because Iowa refuses to vote anybody out of office. And its only gotten worse/

Dopes permeate the Senate. Evil permeates the Senate. When you have the likes of Tommy Tuberville, Marsha Blackburn, Eric Schmitt, Mike Lee, Tim Scott, Katie Britt, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Pete Ricketts, Cindy Loomis, and whatever that twosome from Idaho is, the body is the same as the House. Hissing possums.

Oh the Democrats don't get off here. When you have the likes of Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Angus King, and even Bernie Sanders all OVER 80 still hanging on, no wonder younger people like Mamdani and Abdul El Sayed win primaries. Democratic socialism! Shhhhh but go real dumb like Trump, over 80, and say "communism" just lke the GOP has done since 1946. When you got nothing, go straight for the C word. And the GOP got nuthin.

What is Democratic Socialism? It's Finland, or Denmark, or Holland, or Norway or Sweden. Hardly bastions of commies, these countries provide its citizens with basic needs. Health care, income, holidays, a balanced work/life. low crime rates and democracy. Even for the hypocrites who constantly rant about nonwhites yet accept all the benefits of democratic socialism. The white supremacists are all over these countries, but they seldom elect them, unlike here where we elect the old bitter white supremacists to office and then shrug when they act like the racist bigots they are.

It's time for the old white men to get the fuck out of the way. As much as they kick and scream, or threaten to bolt the Democratic Party, they must be ignored. Leave! Go ahead and leave! OR....get onboard and work together to eliminate the threat of another 2 years of Trump ass kissers kissing his ass.

If that happens, because of Democratic infighting over a word, or more likely their refusal to cede power, we are doomed. 

This is the year my friends. We either cut this regime's nuts off, or we let their cowardice win again.

Democratic Socialism? It's simply a word.

No use throwing away 250 years of democracy out the window over a fucking word.

Magic of Motown!

 Who doesn't love the Motown hits? Oh, I'm sure there's some cranks out there who do not but they are wrong. Period.

The Magic of Motown traveling show came thru Omaha last night and though it wasn't exactly a packed house, it was a show full of energy both from the singers AND the crowd. The rotating cast included four male singers handling the Four Tops, Smokey, Sam and Dave, and the Temptations while the three female singers knocked it out of the park with Martha and the Vandellas, The Supremes, a killer version of R E S P E C T and another killer version of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You performed by a young lady stating how she hoped she did justice to the song, much to screams of "You got this Girl" and other encouraging shout outs. She, of course, like she does every night, killed. It was phenomenal.

The show is a sort of Vegas type tribute show and there is nothing wrong with that because it's all about the music. People of a certain age made up the vast majority of the crowd. Black folk, white folk all singing along and the black folk proving that they got the moves and the white folk do not but nonetheless, they have fun. Watching old white people dance never fails to amuse me and it didn't disappoint yet again.

So much talent on that stage and it's a shame that I don't know any of their names because the Orpheum Theater in Omaha has one of the worst sound systems in existence. If you didn't know the lyrics to the classics, you were left out. The introduction of the cast of singers was garbled and indecipherable. Oh well, all I can say is that one guy doing Smokey and MJ was fantastic. That one woman doing Aretha was kick ass and that other woman doing Whitney was marvelous. Sorry I don't know your names.

Notes:

They used local musicians in this show. Sax players and guitarist were local. Keyboard player and drummer are with the show. All of it was smooth as hell.

Late Arrivals--I mean Ive been there getting there late. But 99% of the time I am in my seat on time. This crowd walked in 15 minutes late, a half hour late and it's a pain in the ass distraction. In this case CPT doesn't mean what it usually does. This time it stood for Creamy People Time or Cracker People Time. Be on time people.

The sound system---It sucks. Sometimes a show will bring in their own sound systems and sometimes they just use whatever atrocity passes for a house sound system. This show relied on the in-house sound people. I'm not blaming them; they only have to work with what they got, but cmon man. FIX IT!

The Magic of Motown-- worth it? Absolutely. The music is timeless. The performers are great. There's a joy in the air listening to these classic hits. What more can you ask for?

If it comes back, I'll Be There and there Aint No Mountain High Enough to stop me.

Anthony Fauci Vs Rand Paul!

 The calling of American hero Anthony Fauci before a Senate hearing led by his arch enemy, a moss haired "libertarian" named Rand Paul (Neighbor-Ky) was bad enough, but when Paul and his fellow blowhards decided to simply use it as an opportunity to appeal to the anti vax, Covid was a hoax, anti-mask morons who make up the GOP base it was a shitshow.

Fauci gave a statement, calling Paul unhinged, and then clammed up, invoking the 5th for the rest of the hearing because he understood it was nothing but a trap to satisfy Paul's weird ass obsession with the good Doctor. Now Paul, a so-called libertarian who hates the feds overreach, did what most "libertarians" do when pushed, they turn into pro federal government thumb breakers ready to throw everyone in prison. Paul warned Fauci of "repercussions" for zipping his lip. I guess that means Paul will go home, dress in his Prussian military threads and think of ways to define "repercussions".

Meanwhile the screeching monkeys of the Senate committee got all their sound bites in. Senator Pussy, aka Senator Hawley, asked Fauci what day it was. Hawley, a fist pumping anarchist, then proceeded to get in his campaign shorts before yielding. Typical Hawley performance. A laughable high school theater production of All The Presidents Men. But in this case, the pussy from Missouri is on the crook's side.

Senator Bernie Moreno, a used car dealer and crypto prick. dropped the F bomb to get the attention he craves. Who the fuck do you think you were? Migawd, these assholes could ask the same questions of their cult master. The irony is out of sight.

But the worst moment was when the "Libertarian" Rand Paul, had Fauci's lawyer, David Schertler, removed from the proceedings for having the gall to bring up the Bill of Rights. Schertler left and Paul lost all libertarian cred. Again.

Look, Fauci is a national hero. He aint perfect, but he saves lives. Which is more than I can say about the libertarian, the pussy and the used car salesman. 

A contempt of Congress vote will come next week which I'm sure that Senate idiots like Tommy Tuberville and the bag of hair Marsha Blackburn will vote yes. Then Fauci can join the list of contempt of Congress folks still to be dealt with. Ya know like Jim Jordan (Greasy-Oh). Christ Ohio, what the fuck is wrong with you electing sex crime cover up artists, couch fuckers, used car salesmen and that wife beater Max Miller (DV-OH). Stop trying to become Alabama, that's Nebraska's job.

Paul released portions, very carefully, of Dr Fauci's diary (Gawd they love diaries over there on the fascist side of the aisle) that would intend to make Fauci look start struck. What Paul left out, I'm sure it was just an oversight, was Fauci's views on what a dangerous idiot Donald Trump was. Fauci was baffled by the President and his obsession with ratings and covering up Covid, which of course Trump thought would make him look bad. You know like the Covid will be over by Easter and the churches will be filled. 

Dr Fauci is 85 years old. He is retired. He has Fuck You money. And he's using it.

Rand Paul is 63 years old going on 126. Unfortunately, he still has a job. And he will use it to grandstand and roll his eyes and blather on. Fascinating!

Oh, and come on Kentucky. Your senators are this dweeb Rand Paul, and some guy who may not even be alive. You can do better than reelecting a "libertarian" fascist or a turtle on life support. Don't try and become Louisiana, that's Nebraska's job.

Yukking It Up With Fascists!!

 There she is, Meet the Press' Kristen Welker, yukking it up with Joseph Goebbels Stephen Miller at the White House Correspondents Dinner last week. This is proof that journalism is deader than Lindsey Graham. When the so called "free press" laughs it up with the very fascists who would jail them for saying bad stuff about the Fascist in Chief, it is deader than Tommy Tubervilles brain. The usual nonsense that is the WHCD usually consisted of a gathering of the Washington "journalists", they jerked each other off, and then the current President would get up and give a funny speech. Clinton was funny, W was funny, Obama was funny and then came the least funny man in the world, no not Greg Gutfeld, but Donald Trump. Trump refused to show up, keeping up his image as a press hater with his foolish followers. until last week. 

Well of course he was supposed to be there in June, and was, but some guy busted in with a weapon, and attempted to "assassinate" uhhhh hell I don't know. So the event failed to launch. RFK abandoned Cheryl Hines, Vance rushed out without Usha, Miller ran out feeling up Katie and Trump peered out from behind a curtain like "wow my fake assassination attempt seems to be going well". Thus, the event was cancelled and rescheduled because the WHC never misses an opportunity to praise themselves.

It was last Friday night. Trump sat there looking glum and playing with his mouth thing, whatever that was. The journalists getting awards, much to the anger of Trump, walked up to him and shook his hand with a fuck you smile. Kaitlan Collins did that, but had no idea what was coming.

Trump's speech was misogynistic, xenophobic, racist, homophobic and included his obsession with transgenders (whats with these weirdos?). He compared Collins to Dylan Mulvaney, called other politicians clowns, stated his hate for Adam Schiff (very Christian of you), went after late night talk show hosts, and even tried to joke about RFK's penchant for eating roadkill. Silence except from Trumps clapping monkeys in the cabinet. The problem, Donnie, is that your lame ass shit doesn't play with an audience not wearing red hats and being easily amused.

But back to the beginning. Laughing it up by "journalists" with the very people who would put you in a camp as soon as they get Supreme Court permission is a bad image. Independent press? Oh, I know it's ALWAYS been a reach around jerkfest with the politicians and the press, but the threat of Reagan or Bush or W was nothing comparable to this guy, Trump. Those presidents had a sense of humor, gently chided the Fourth Estate and even were self-deprecating. This guy is incapable of anything but lame jokes and jabs at others while comparing himself to Jesus, Lincoln and Einstein. 

I don't know what's going to happen. Journalism may not survive as heads of networks and news organizations cower in fear that Trump could cost them money. So, they kiss his ass, back off on reporting on the crimes he's committed, settle lawsuits, appoint Bari Weiss like sycophants who fire anybody who gets too close to the truth. It is disgraceful what this maniac has done to the cowards of the "free press". And it's disgraceful that the Fourth Estate turns out to be such chickenshits. It is a perfect storm for fascism. November will tell the tale.

Meanwhile the only saving grace is the reaction of the crowd to Trump's attempt to be Bob Fucking Hope. Including his cabinet members after he brings up their weirdness of eating dead whales.

Yuck Yuck!