& Juliet!

 Imagine if Juliet didn't off herself after Romeo did. Imagine if Juliet decided living was more important than any man. That's the premise of the fun & Juliet that opened in Omaha last night.

Juliet died and William Shakespeare is adamant that the story is done. Anne Hathaway, his wife, asks to be allowed to rewrite the ending and make Juliet a real woman. Anne's story is played out onstage in all of its many possibilities. Juliet heads for Paris with her nonbinary friend, May, and Anne joins in. Along the way Juliet, May and Anne enjoy the fruits of Paris, meeting a gang of goofballs along the way. Romeo comes back to life (thanks to Bill) and throws a wrench into the whole thing much to Anne's dismay and anger. This may sound very serious, but it is not, trust me. It's fun fun fun.

It's a jukebox musical; there's even a jukebox onstage at the start. But let me see, if you are a boomer who listens only to classic rock and disdains modern pop hits, this is not a jukebox musical. It's just a musical. I knew perhaps 33.3% of the music. Since You Been Gone and It's My Life along with some Katy Perry and Backstreet Boys is about it. Those songs were great cuz I knew them. The others were new to me and enjoyable.

The showstoppers were probably the end of Act 1 where Romeo comes back to life and belts out It's My Life (Bon Jovi) with a full ensemble of backup singers and the end of Act 2 where Tell Me Why (Backstreet Boys) brings Bill and Anne back together. 

The performances were phenomenal. This may be a musical about Shakespeare and Juliet, but this is Anne Hathaway's play (yes there are jokes about the name). Crystal Kellogg plays Anne with a flair of humor, feminism and a great voice. She is the glue here. Armani Ponder-Keith played Juliet (she is an understudy) with innocence and charisma along with a great voice. Shakespeare played by another understudy, James Tracht, is an arrogant dude who thinks he's always right. He plays off Kellogg with the knowledge that he is an equal yet also a backup. He lets her go do her thing. Kathryn Allison is Angelique (not an understudy) and she is an adult in the room with great presence. Nico Ochoa as May, the non-binary friend prances around the stage with the elegance of a ballet dancer. Romeo is played by Joseph Torres as a kind of an insecure Elvis. Now for a minor character named Lance. Played by Paul Jansen with a baritone French accent, when he is onstage, he dominates. Pay attention to his show stopping line in Act 2. It brought the house down.

This Max Martin musical isn't going to change your life, but it is gonna make your life more enjoyable for a couple of hours. It's a wonderful time.

There is a lot of "woke" in this. A non-binary character, a feminist theme that brings cheers from the kids, and some gay themed storylines. But don't get your red hats all in a bind, it's all in good fun (not to mention I doubt red hats even go to theater). 

& Juliet is not nutritious; it's a box of Mike and Ikes or a bag of chips. It's a bag of buttered popcorn at a movie. It's a birthday cake. In other words, it is a joy.

Go enjoy yourself.

Jesus Wept!

 Ok as if this "war" isn't bad enough, more illegal and more wrongheaded, now we have American military commanders telling their NCO's that Trump is anointed by Jesus to bring on Armageddon. Wut?

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an organization that is there to take complaints from troops who feel their religion or lack of is not respected, has received over 100 complaints about kooky military leaders telling the troops, ya know the ones who will die first, that the Second Coming is upon us and they must be honored to take part in ending the world. Hoo boy great. Theres's dozens of Col Lockjaws out there spewing their bullshit about death and Jesus and toxic masculinity. Now we know the tough guys on the right have always idolized fictional nutjobs like Col Jessup and General Jack D Ripper because of some deep seeded insecurity, but sorry incels, but this is reality. Pete Hegseth is a toxic bro itching to fight anyone. He's a tough guy in name only. Hegseth is just another lamebrain with Christian nationalist tats performing for an audience of one.

US commanders are not supposed to push their religious bullshit onto their troops because quite frankly, it's dangerous and gets people killed. This suicidal charge is for Jesus!! Meanwhile, their crazed commanders sit back and watch in the comfort of a basement. Jesus didn't anoint Trump, there is no such thing as Armageddon, the Book of Revelations is fiction, and these commanders are fucking insane.

Have a seat, Pete Hegseth. At a bar. And drink yourself under the table where you're less batshit crazy.

The Clintons testify before the hillbillies on the House Oversight Committee about Epstein. But not in public because the Clintons would take the likes of Comer, Boebert, Luna and Mace out back and kick em in the nuts they think they have. Yeah, that's what happened anyway as the tapes were released yesterday. Hillary V Boebert was the equivalent of Joe Louis' Bum of the Month club. Hillary V Mace was the equivalent of a therapist ordering the orderlies to put that woman in a rubber room where she can't hurt herself. Up the meds Nutty Nancy, you are obviously not well. Hillary is smarter than that entire committee combined and it showed. She's also tougher. What the fuck was America thinking in 2016?

Bill was equally dominant. Keeping his cool unlike the performers on the committee, he denied it all. He also kept Trump from being implicated which explains Trump's sudden shift from the lie "Bill Clinton was on Epstein Island 28 times" to "I don't like it him being deposed". Bill couldn't tell them what he didn't know.

The Clintons are an obsession with the right. They cannot handle the structured close to the vest Clinton vibe. Brainwashed by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, these weak brains are intent on proving shit like "Pizzagate", The Killary List, Mena, and other such nonsense. Sorry but you'll never prove any of it. Cuz it's all bullshit.

Meanwhile, Jesus slaps his forehead, despairs that his most ardent followers are all Judases, Philistines and Romans and asks Dad what the hell were you thinking?

Endless Wars Are Back! MAGA!

 No more endless wars. America First! No more regime change! Did I mention America First?

The attack on Iran, aka Operation Epstein Files, began over the weekend after careful and expert consideration under a tent at Mar A Lago featuring a map of secret locations of US bases in the Middle East and Suzy Wiles' Apple watch for all to see and hack. These people are performance artists with nukes. It's a perfect scenario for AI to do its thing and bomb the shit out of anybody the Pedo in Chief deems an enemy or a diss. As long as a preprogrammed AI tells this band of amateurs to attack, that's what they'll do. And that's what they did.

This bullshit has been brewing for about 75 years now since the United States of the Dulles Bros decided that Iran's oil was ours and not the people of Iran and overthrew Mohammed Mossadegh and installed the Shah. The Pahlavis, a family of thugs and ass kissers of the American oil lobby, brutalized the Iranian people for about 26 years both domestically and aboard with the SAVAK, a tortuous and murderous clan that placed spies into virtually any American University to keep an eye on their students. Trust me on this, at the University of Nebraska in the late 70s, I had an Iranian roommate. He would go out to protests in a mask, get weird phone calls from sketchy voices and tell me to hang up on these people if he wasn't there. He eventually disappeared, I mean one day he was just gone and we never saw him again. This was SAVAK in the late 70's.

From 1953 to 1979 the USA set up what's going on now with its money over people philosophy. And then it blew up in our faces with the Islamic Revolution and the hostage crisis. Thus, a new brutal regime of murderers and foreign terrorism began. Women were suppressed; Iranian ICE type thugs roamed the streets beating up women and killing anyone getting out of line. Public hangings using cranes were abundant and Iranian sleeper cells infiltrated Western countries. One brutality was replaced by another. Much like in Cuba, where a brutal regime was also replaced by another brutal regime, Iran was lost. The United States was involved in all of it. 

Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu, two international terrorists if there ever were any, decided to act. Netanyahu has been bugging American presidents to attack Iran for years. Ya know, the old Iran is two weeks away from getting a nuke that's been going on for 30 years. Then Trump, backed into a corner by either the Epstein Files or by Mossad pictures and tapes, "obliterated" Iranian nuclear facilities, But to Bibi, that's not enough. Attack Attack Attack. Gaza is destroyed, thousands are dead and next up, Iran. Trump bit, or acquiesced to blackmail, and attacked. These two old men killed another old man and killed 180 schoolgirls (hey now, "liberating" women doesn't mean killing them in their childhood). Fuck these guys, all of them.

Now what's going to happen? American kids are dying already and per Trump more will die. But hey, "It is what it is." Fuck this oligarch and his family of draft dodgers.

I don't give a shit that the horrific Ayatollah is deader than a capped oil well. He was a monster. All of them can rot in hell. Their monsters and our monsters.

It's a shame that American kids (sans Barron Trump) will die for this Godzilla Trump/Bibi. But this was entirely predictable because Trumpstein has been projecting for years about Obama or Biden attacking Iran due to low poll numbers. Some of us knew it's EXACTLY what he would do. Every stance is a deflection of projection. The 2024 loser of the election told you all of this but hell, y'all didn't like her laugh.

Now all of us have to live with it.

Now what for Iran? Well in the words of one Peter Townsend, meet the new boss same as the old boss

All Things Equal! The Life and Trial of Ruth Bader Ginsburg!

 

The "Notorious RBG" came to the Orpheum Theater on Thursday night in the form of singer dancer actor  Michelle Azar. The one woman shows features Azar talking for 100 minutes as RBG running from her childhood to her death in 2020. It really is fascinating to get the gist of many people's favorite Supreme Court Justice speaking about her mother, father and husband Marty. Her daughters, her grandkids and her struggle in pre-feminism America to get thru Harvard, Cornell and Columbia. She got zero job offers out of law school in the 1950s due to 3 things. She was Jewish, a mother, and a female. No law firm wanted that back then. Thus, RBG had to fight her way to respect.

Azar nails RBG from her look to her voice and she never pauses. It's really a grueling role, I am sure. We get photos in the background of her various adversaries and friends as she speaks about them, either in a positive way or in that Brooklyn fuck you tone. 

The play takes place in 2019 or so thus RBG talks about Roe V Wade being untouchable (oops) and her good friend Antonin Scalia, her polar opposite politically but commonality about opera and classical music brought them into the same orbit.

Yes, she does talk about why she didn't retire from the bench while Obama was President because "I thought Hillary would win" as most of us did). Oh yeah, Trump is mentioned numerous times not in a good way, her various cases she ruled on, cases she brought before the court, and how the loss of Marty Ginsburg and "Nino" Scalia affected her deeply. The 4 bouts of cancer, the disrespect from fellow justices and her famous "I dissent". 

The show was written by Rupert Holmes, yes, the Pina Colada guy. Holmes will fool you because he is a great writer. Anybody remember the 1972 song about cannibals in a mine, Timothy? The guy is diverse for sure.

 The skit of Kate McKinnon as the "Notorious RBG" is featured in its entirety.

The crowd was pretty vocal in its responses to RBG's victories and her witticisms about politics. Lots of applause, lots of screams and a genuine interest in the America prior to the fascist garbage of today.

2026 America and it's direction?

From the great beyond, Ruth Bader Ginsburg says, "I dissent" as did the crowd.

It's a great time.

A Beautiful Noise!

 A Beautiful Noise, a Neil Diamond story, begins with silence. Old Neil sits in a chair across from a therapist, neither are speaking and establishing that Neil is not comfortable talking about his life. The therapist knows nothing about Neil, his songs or his life. To understand this man, she pulls out a book of Diamond's songs, the lyrics and the motivation. Ya see, Neil is a man who has never been comfortable in his own skin. He's depressed, lonely and suffers from imposter syndrome. From there we go on a journey of the life of Neil Diamond, warts and all.

The thing about jukebox musicals authorized by the estates or families is that the controversy is avoided. The MJ musical ends before the allegations of pedophilia thus they are never covered. But this one, A Beautiful Noise, is dark and gritty like Diamond's voice. 

Young Neil, played by an understudy Joe Caskey (who was very good) writes songs for other people, disdaining the spotlight. The Monkees lived off Diamond's natural shyness and desire to stay out of the limelight. But then he meets Ellie Greenwich (Heidi Kettenring) a tough talking record agent who insists he sing his own songs. He starts at coffee houses supporting his wife and two kids, meets Marsha Murphey (a great Mary Page Nance) who becomes his second wife. Old Neil continues to open up about the songs, in effect telling his life story. 

The songs are performed like tribute band adoration. The crowd at times (especially the front rows) was really into it and I'm not sure they realized it really wasn't Neil Diamond on stage. Oh have fun I say.

Act 1 ends with Sweet Caroline and the audience participates as they should. Act 2 opens with, depending on my mood, my favorite Diamond song, Brother Loves Traveling Salvation Show, with a full choir and dancers, It's quite good. 

Old Neil admits to the therapist he cannot perform any longer due to his doctor's orders. Performing is the only time Neil feels not alone. Now the whole therapist patient thing may sound corny, but it really keeps the show on track. Robert Westenburg as old, tortured Neil is fantastic and Lisa Renee Pitts as the therapist are both solid narrators. 

All in all, this is better than any jukebox musical I've seen. The story is real, the reactions are real and the darkness is real.

If you are a Neil Diamond fan, you will love this show.

Now the sound at the Orpheum. It wasn't bad. At first, the band was so loud I worried that they would drown out the story, however, they toned it down and everything was decipherable. 

And finally at the end, after the Holly Holy sing along, you get to do the Sweet Caroline sing along yet again. It wasn't Fenway Park, but it was fun. So Good So Good So Good!

Another Weekend Another Decade!

 Who likes this chaos? This daily batshit crazy behavior that makes you forget yesterday's batshit crazy. This is madness.

Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller. The two most disgusting anti-American people in this regime. Noem is in office for one reason. She kissed enough Trump ass and he think her plastic is hot. Miller is simply put, a white supremacist bordering on Nazi. He may still get there if he hasn't already. Miller is on a mission from Satan to turn America into a white homeland. Miller is somewhat Jewish which makes it even worse that this high school geek has achieved power and will have his revenge on the liberals, gays, Hispanics and blacks who crammed him into locker after locker. Noem is just unqualified, period.

A failed Governor of a flyover state who is ridiculed for her manufactured looks, her lies and her cosplay with giant cowboy hats, tactical gear, and other Halloween costumes. But what really is bad is her complete fealty to Trump. Kissing his ass at Cabinet meetings and lying about murders committed by government goons, Noem is the epitome' of all that is wrong here. Not to mention her bank accounts getting huge because of her boy toy Corey Lewandoski's money laundering and bribe taking. She will take the fall for this, if not soon certainly at the Hague.

Measles is back. Raging through a detention center in Texas (what's up with that creepy color coded pajamas the detainees wear) measles, which had become eradicated for the most part in this country until the biggest nut in this nation, RFK Jr, kissed enough Trump ass to get a job as a health advisor, THE health advisor. Now it's a disease, easily preventable, that is back. Kennedy is even more of a menace than Noem. She only kills dogs and 2 or 3 people; he kills thousands with his anti vax bullshit. Kennedy is a nightmare.

Don Lemon was arrested the other day by Pam Bondi's hooligans. What for? Lemon covered a bunch of protestors invading some MAGA church because they thought the "pastor" was an ICE agent. Taping it and asking questions, like a journalist should, Lemon was busted only because Trump has had a hard on for the black and gay journalist for years. Lemon tells the truth about Trump and is fearless about it. The Donald cannot fathom it when he is called out on his lies and criminal behavior. Whatever judge draws this bogus case will throw it out faster than a Trump casino dies.

Some of the Epstein files dropped on Friday and they were worse than imaginable. Once the DOJ realized what they'd done, releasing info that Trump was accused of child trafficking, holding "slave auctions" for 13-year-old girls, and Trump dropping packages into Lake Michigan, they deleted them from the website saying they were fake. Yeah, like his "tan". This guy cannot go away fast enough.

Finally, we have Tulsi Gabbard. Who knows what this Russian agent is up to? The Director of the DNI was in Atlanta, on the phone with the Rapist, seizing voter machines and ballots from the 2020 Georgia vote, which he fucking lost. The man child, 6 years later, still cannot accept his crushing defeat. Seizing voter data and votes is a pretext to finding some "irregularities" and thus "proving" the 2020 election was "rigged". Which then leads to calling off the midterms until we know "what the hell is going on" leaving the Republicans in charge, declaring martial law and staying in office forever. The motherfucker is so brain diseased he actually thinks this could happen. Gabbard in the meantime, has been accused by a whistleblower of acts so egregious that the allegations are locked away as their release could endanger national security. Well Jesus on a cracker, Gabbard has been a Russian puppet for years. She's another Trump appointee who he thinks is "hot" yet still unqualified, in fact dangerous. Gabbard's Russian handlers must be rubbing hands together on what they already obtained but now that she is compromised, she's of no use to Boris and Natasha.

Tulsi, a word of advice, stay away from high rise windows,

Pretti Good! Defund ICE!

What is the fucking difference here? On the left we have some murderous Nazi shooting some innocent in the head and on the right, we have a murderous loser about to shoot a guy for not being afraid of him. Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse working with veterans at the local VA. He was not happy with the foreign invasion of Minneapolis by an organization full of untrained bullies, thugs, and Trump worshippers. He went to the protest brandishing the "weapon" those authoritarians all over the globe fear, the cell phone. ICE decided that this man without fear continued to tape them as they rushed him, shoved him and a woman to the ground and as this nurse did what he did for a living, help the woman up. ICE shoved him to the ground, took a gun from his back waistband and cleared it, then stepped back and shot Alex Pretti in da head. Then, as Nazis tend to do, the pumped 9 more bullets into his dead body. High fiving, calling it so cool like Call of Duty, these emotional adolescents in tactical gear showed who they are. Little boys who love power. Little boys who for whatever reason have fulfilled their lifetime goal of being somebody and not a locker stuffed geek exacting revenge on society.

There is nothing worse than cold blooded murder of a citizen by so called law enforcement, but the response of Trump and his minions is about as bad. What did they do? They do what all moral lepers do when they fuck up. They lie and they smear the victim. Kristi Noem, as despicable a person as Stephen Miller, made false claims about the confiscated gun, the circumstances and smeared the dead man with an accusation that he was out to "massacre law enforcement". Greg Bovino, the lil Nazi in the SS trench coat, parroted the same bullshit followed by Miller, various Republican sycophants, really dumb Senators and then by The Master himself, Donnie Trump. As the bullshit became obviously bullshit, not only did Noem and her mob boss double down, they got worse. The Twitter bots went to work. Fake pics of the victim in drag, the ultimate MAGA insult (due to their obvious repression) were posted by trolls and bots that permeate that awful social media site (yeah I'm still there trying to fight the good fight)..

The videos are obvious. If you deny that this was an execution of a citizen for daring to protest, or at best a colossal fuck up by these legal goons, you are a lost soul again. You are blind, deaf and probably very stupid. Or very dishonest.

My anger at this event and at the murder of Renee Good is beyond anything I can believe. I was alive at the time of Kent State. That was appalling enough. This is worse and I'll tell you why. Back in 1970 the world was a different place. The news was the news. The pictures were the pictures. Facts were not challenged. People were mostly disgusted with Nixon and his warmongering crowd of neo cons. There was no social media, no twitter, no Fox News telling its brain-dead audience that Nixon was being railroaded. Therefore, the facts were the facts. There was no Kristi Noem lying on behalf of a criminal enterprise. There were no whores like Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly out there promoting the horseshit emailed to them by the powers that be. 

RIP Alex Pretti, Renee Good AND the nameless immigrants murdered by ICE in other places. Yes, it's a shame that their deaths were mostly uncovered by the media and that it takes white victims to get the press off their asses to cover it.

Alex Pretti did more good for society in one fucking hour than Noem and her hooligans do in a lifetime. A VA nurse that had the respect of everyone he worked with as opposed to a failed South Dakota Governor hired for her fealty to a madman (and that he probably thinks she's hot). 

2025 sucked. 2026 appears to be gearing up to be even worse. Strap in folks. And remember, the 2nd Amendment exists for everybody, not just white men with tiny dicks. Is that a threat? No, it's just one of those pesky facts.

Fuck ICE