Midterms!

 Sick of it yet? The midterms are tomorrow and it will all end. The stupid ass political ads on TV where one candidate accuses the other one of being Jack the Ripper or Lizzie Borden. These things are on so often you just begin to either tune out or actually mute the TV. We mute. I hate them all no matter what party is lying.

Tomorrow ends the local TV stations profit scheme. No more free money from PACS and candidates and Musk and Ricketts and various other scalawags. But tomorrow, depending upon the results, could be the end of MAGA. If the people of this country take a 32% approved of jagoff President and tell him to go fuck himself, then MAGA is done. If the Democrats take the Senate, Trump has two months to cheat, declare martial law, run Supreme Court justices through in the Senate, seize ballots, screech about rigged and fixed elections and if we are lucky, flee the country to his real loyalty, Russia. That's the scariest two months maybe ever. That's IF the Democrats take the Senate, which has become increasingly harder in the last 30 years due to red states being overrepresented in that body of elderly men and women who've lost their marbles. Please America, STOP voting for boomers. We suck as people and also suck at leaving a better world for our kids. We protested, smoked dope, and listened to the Dead and the Airplane. Then we got some money, and in true human fashion, decided protecting ourselves was more important than anything. Thus, Trump. TWICE!

Tomorrow is a bellwether for the future. If the real problem, Gen Z and the boomers, come out and vote in huge numbers and the Republicans minimize the damage, we are done. Trump will be free to strongarm his cowardly stooges to change America forever. If the Gen Z's and the millennials decide to come out in huge numbers, then we can win. By we I mean decency and compassion, something lacking since MAGA crawled out from under the rocks to throw a temper tantrum about a black man being President.

Haven't we had enough? A crazy ass President, a House led by a lying "Christian" closeted elf, a Senate led by gawd knows who and various state legislatures dominated by rural 1950's thinking rubes. Trump has said so much shit that his base finds so funny, since its usually racist, sexist or homophobic, we all must be tired of it. Right?

So tomorrow we have the opportunity to return to somewhat normal. I don't even care what the Democrats will do, as long as they become a boulder in the road to the Mad King. I just want normal and all the mudslinging about Muslims and Communists and Socialists and Nazis to go away. I am perfectly fine with the Republicans that act normally. I disagree with them but to discuss without hearing I'm a "commie" or worse. Until that time, its Fuck Trump and Fuck Maga. I refuse to not fight. So let's do this America. Neuter that fucking ogre Trump. For good. Please.

In closing, before decency returns (maybe) I can still say fuck Haley Stephens, John Fetterman and fuck Jim Pillen. 

Onward!

Nebraska Cornchokers!!

 Maybe it's me. For 3 games in a row, 4 if you count The Bye's 4th quarter comeback and victory over Nebraska last week, I have sat in the stadium, whether in Lincoln or Eugene and have witnessed meltdown after meltdown after meltdown by Nebraska. Saturday was Blackout Night in Lincoln. The fans wear black, the team wears black, the end zones are black, there's a skull and crossbones at midfield and Black Death is on the sideline waiting for his moment. Never mind that Nebraska has had this event 5 prior times and lost every game (0-5), but hey it looks really "cool", right? RIGHT? 

Go Big Red implies that the school colors are red. But this blackout ignores this. It's supposed to be fun to wear black and act all spooky and on Halloween night of all days. I saw scary clowns, Husky dog costumes, T Rex costumes, that scary clown again, skinny guys in Hulk Hogan gear (yes, he said brutha after every statement), a unicorn, princesses, people in purple (scary) and the true horror on the field, guys dressed in black fucking it all up yet again.

Indiana was on the ropes (for about 3 minutes) down 17-6 in the 4th quarter. They promptly hit a long pass TD sending the red clad fans into the inevitable knowledge that they were gonna lose (even though ahead by 4) . They did lose on yet another long TD pass 20-17.

Then came Eugene. A totally winnable game in which the offense was irrelevant. Oregon had a walk on QB (no idea why) play 3 1/2 quarters. Nebraska led 14-6 in quarter 4. Then in came ex Husker Dylan Raiola and it happened again. He led a game winning drive against his old team. 17-14 Oregon.

Then came a bye week. Bye won that 7-0. No details available but Bye scored in quarter 4 on oh hell why not the last play.

Washington came into the "scary" environment Halloween Night dressed in white. The cowered when they played Back in Black (or course), they hid in the medical tent from the booing students, and they begged for mercy from the scary clown. No, they did none of that. Blah blah blah on the first 58 minutes. Nebraska led the worst game I've ever seen live since 2005. With a minute 31 seconds to go, Nebraska up 7-3 and Washington faced a 4th and 18 on their own 40. It was over. Right? RIGHT? The PA announcer screamed into the mike about 3rd or 4th down (gawd he's annoying) and Washington's new QB (the Dylan Raiola of the week) threw a 22-yard completion. Then the very next play, same guy who caught the pass, caught another pass and ran into the end zone. 10-7 Washington. Then our $5 million dollar quarterback, under orders from our $6 Millon head coach, threw a nice cake topping pick 6 and then 17-7 Washington. To put in perspective, with 1:31 to go, 7-3 Nebraska. With 1:15 to go, 17-7 Washington. How? How does this happen every week?

Well, it happens every week because Nebraska has the inability to close. The coaching chokes, the players choke, the fans choke, the mascots choke, the black balloons choke, and the scary clown chokes. In fact the new mascot should be the Boston Strangler. 

I know it's just football. I know it's not as important as oh lets say, heart surgery, but it is kind of important when the black clad fans pay upwards of thousands of dollars to go. And they will pay more when the Husker AD reseats everyone.

The sight of a half empty Penn State stadium, a half empty Oklahoma stadium and USC playing in front of a half empty stadium every week, this is the sign of things to come. The so-called blue bloods are in trouble. It was a warning.

Nobody puts up with this constant choking. Even the bottle throwing students pissed not at Washington, after all they just did what they were supposed to do, but at their own team choking away victory for the fourth time in a row. I have seen empty student sections in the past.

Half empty stadiums. That's my hope for that bogus 416 straight sellout string. End that now. Unless you are big fan of the Hillside Stranglers and say, yes by all means, choke me again.

Go Big Red arghhhhhhhhhh !

Death Becomes Her!

 

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Death Becomes Her closed-on Broadway in May of 2026 and started a national tour in September. Omaha is the third city on the bill (after Cleveland and St Louis) and opening night was last night. Death Becomes Her is a musical based on the 1992 Meryl Streep/Goldie Hawn/Bruce Willis movie where two competing "friends" duel, steal each other's men, and try and kill each other. 

Jackie Burns, who set a record for number of appearances as Elpheba in Wicked, heads the cast as Madeline Ashton, a fading movie star obsessed with her looks. Kristen Beth Williams is Helen Sharp, a writer and best "friend" of Madeline who is used and abused by her "friend". Ken Marino is Dr Ernest Menville, an altruistic plastic surgeon who fixes children's cleft palates and reconstructs burn victims. Dr Ernie is Helen's fiancé' and is stolen by Madeline from Helen as a kind of game. Dr Ernie turns into a greedy plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills under the influence of Madeline the narcissist. All the while there's Nasia Thomas as Viola Van Horn, a kind of voodoo practicing witch with a potion that stops aging and death. Well of course Madeline needs that to keep her career intact. Meanwhile, Helen resides in a mental hospital, babbling about Madeline, and escapes. Turns out she drank the potion too and their attempts to kill each other backfire. Amazing special effects, more like magic tricks, occur onstage after they both are "murdered". They eventually bond again after they have faked their deaths.

The performances are spot on. Jackie Burns you can see as Elphaba, the voice is there, Kristen Beth Williams is a perfect foil. She can really sing and is a great physical comedian. Ken Marino as Dr Ernie shines in Act 2 in a manic solo song, the Plan, in which he sounds like a conspiracy nut trying to keep the women's secret a secret. Marino may look familiar to you as he was in, We're the Millers, Brooklyn 99 and The Other Two. He is a talented actor/singer and comedic actor. Nasia Thomas makes such a strong presence onstage as Viola Van Horn, and it makes you wonder how she's not a huge star. She dominates the stage on her few appearances. 

A couple of minor characters also shine. Michael Buchanan as Stefan, Madeline's long-suffering assistant, gets his own solo in Act 2. He's a very Bowen Yang type and I wanted more of him. Louis Williams is Viola's assistant, Chagal, and he's impossible to take your eyes off when he's out there.

The story is campy, the jokes are campy, the pratfalls are campy and the audience plays right along. Lots of applause, laughter and cheers for the local shoutouts. I laughed a lot and never got bored. The humor is dark, risqué', sarcastic and not for kids. Right up my alley.

Sometimes these plays exceed expectations. Death Becomes Her did exactly that.

Go see it. It's here till Sunday.

PS....the sound at the Orpheum was fantastic for once. The sound crew for the play? They deserve a standing O.

Nebraska Election!

 That map above is my state in a nutshell. It is red as hell but fortunately, those 2 blue parts are where people actually live. That's Omaha on the Iowa border and that's Lincoln next to it. The combined population of those two blue spots are well over a million people. The state has a population overall of about 1.9 million thus those two blue parts are over 50% of the people that live here. Thank goodness that the blue parts keep the state from falling into 1950s type of ass backwards leadership and complete white supremacy. Instead, the blue parts keep us in the 1970s. Just enough pushback to counter the utter idiocy of the typical leadership of this state. The midterms are next week, and Nebraska is kind in a quandary. Trump is despised in the blue parts and is some sort of god to the rest of them. Key Trump's suggestion that Iran "take out" Los Angeles and San Diego and Nebraska Maga cheering that. Yeah "California" is the devil here and though most of the red parts have never ever been there they sure know the "reality" of California. Uhm no they don't but what's new. 

We have midterms here too and races that should not be close are close. The political ads are out of control and since we live on the Iowa border we get the Iowa political ads also. My favorite is the alleged "California" woman who moved to Iowa from California because her "values" were violated there. She once was "followed" into a women's bathroom by a man, and it's scarred her ever since. She doesn't much care for the "illegals" (tho she looks very Hispanic). I think she wants Iowans to vote for Republican racists. Hope the paycheck was worth it, lady.

Let's get local. 

In our Nebraska Senate race, it's the incumbent. Pete Ricketts, a Republican of course. He bought his seat when Ben Sasse resigned from the Senate. In an event that really wasn't different than Blagojevich selling Obama's Senate seat, Governor Jim Pillen, bankrolled by Ricketts, then appointed him to the Senate seat. Ricketts has real competition this time. A union mechanic named Dan Osborn. He ran in 2024 against our other worthless Senator, Deb Fischer, and did gather 47% of the vote in this ruby red state. Fischer survived thanks to the rural vote. 

This Senate race is up for grabs. Depending on the polls, it's either a Ricketts win, a toss up, or in some cases, Osborn beats him. We shall see. Ricketts is an unlikable rich kid who depends on Daddy Joe Ricketts' money to help him run CONSTANT ads calling Osborn a "con man" and a foul-mouthed Democratic plant (they have tapes from a snitch who follows Osborn around). Yet the polls don't change. Ricketts may win but it will be only because of the genetic Republicanism of rural voters. Osborn may win because Trump is a disaster. It truly is a toss up.

In the Nebraska district 2, which is basically Omaha with a gerrymandered rural county thrown in to dilute the Democratic vote. It worked as a complete Republican milquetoast named Don Bacon won numerous terms by 51-49. He barely survived every 2 years. Then he retired. Nebraska 02 is up for grabs.

The Republicans nominated yet another Milquetoast dullard named Brinker Harding. He runs ads with a hangdog look on his face as his wife and daughters dominate him. He has nothing to say except he's suddenly liberal on stock trading and affordability. He's floundering big time.

His opponent is a political activist from Omaha named Denise Powell (Brinker says she's from Florida though she's lived here for 20 years). Powell has worked magic getting the nomination from the Democrats version of Brnker Harding, John Cavanaugh, from a well know political family here, the Kennedys of Nebraska. But Cavanaugh is inherently dull with a wonky legal view of life. Powell went after it with an activist strategy. She was unique and Omaha Democrats went with her over standard vanilla white man.

Powell will beat Brinker (it's impossible to call Brinker Harding by his last name) of that there is little doubt. The Democrats have the advantage this time. Christ, Denise Powell may only win 51-49 but a win is a win.

Jim Pillen is the current Governor of Nebraska. He fell on a fumble once in 1978 while playing football at Nebraska. This 50-year-old event elected him in 2022. He is a partisan hack who governs Nebraska like 100% of his "constituents" are on his side. He calls half the state "libtards". He gives $2.5 million no bid contracts to women he "travels with". He runs up a billion-dollar deficit when a surplus was what he inherited. He seems intoxicated, unshaven and incoherent most of the time. He won't debate his opponent, State Senator Lynn Walz. He avoids Omaha at all costs. He hides out in rural counties to avoid conflict from any "libtards". He is a disaster but because of that R next to his name he may actually get reelected. The utter failure of this Governor is on display, yet he may win.

Lynn Walz is a perfectly nice woman, a Democrat, a religious person who walks the walk and a former state senator who was a voice of reason down in that screechy legislature of ours. But can she get traction? Pillen either leads in the polls or is statistically tied. He runs ads featuring his biggest failure, property tax relief. He has fucked that up so bad it will never happen as he will continue to take care of his corporate buddies with tax cuts and tax breaks. But that R. A big obstacle to Lynn Walz (yes, a cousin of Tim Walz). Can she overcome? Any other state he'd be gone. But not here. Dead 17-year-olds on his hog farm don't seem to matter. What's this lush's appeal? Oh yeah, he fell on a Billy Sims fumble 50 years back.

Christ. This should be a slam dunk.

Last Day Seattle Day 6/7!!

 Driving from Olympia back to Seattle is a drive thru "Real America". You know, rural America. Thus, the above Leave Trump Alone sign. Hilarious. Reminds me of Nebraska. And not in a good way. 

Back into Seattle to use up the City Pass. Parking? $36. Total so far now $372 just to park. Christ.

The Argosy Cruise was a "racetrack tour" of the Puget Sound. Mostly you see the Seattle skyline, the Coast Guard stations, the Edgemont Hotel, Bainbridge Island, the stadiums, and back to the dock. Nice and relaxing. Back to the waterfront for more lunches of clam chowder and fish and chips.

Chihuly Gardens and Glass was the final Seattle City Pass activity. Parking? $25. 

The glass blowing and the gardens are really cool to see. The glass sculptures are incredible, and an actual demonstration of glass blowing is done every 15 minutes. The place was small, but the sights were worth it.

Killing time in a strange city because you have a red eye not leaving till 11pm isn't easy. Getting to the airport area to turn in the rental also not easy. But once we figured it out it was a quick meal at Jack in the Box and a fill up of gas ($5.59) before turning the car back in, scrapes and all. Nobody noticed the scratches (pfew).

Then comes a 4 hour wait at SeaTac Airport. A redeye flight to Chicago overnight and no sleep. Arrival at 5am and now killing 3 1/2 hours before the Omaha flight takes place. 

Total Parking carnage....$397. Jesus. Add in the Omaha airport parking and it becomes $425. Just to park?

Yep! It is what it is. They didn't seem to want my Monopoly free parking card.

Bastards.

Multnomah Falls Day 5!

 Sunday morning in Eugene and this old hippie goes full new hippie. Avocado Toast and a hot cocoa at a little local diner. Then we notice that somebody had scraped the rental car on the back panel. Great, hit and runs happen up here too. Bummer man.

Off we go to Multnomah Falls, a short 30-minute drive from Portland. The falls are free to see. The parking is free. The beauty is free.

The falls are right there. You walk up and there it is. It wasn't too crowded so moving around was easy. A wedding party too photos in front of it, A quinceanera celebration took place there. Walking up to the bridge was about a quarter of a mile uphill. Max did the trek. Then I did the trek. The A Fib be damned. The falls from the bridge are even more stunning. Now why people ignore signs and carry on down a dirt hill to get wet and muddy is beyond me but they did. The hour or two was well worth it. Even the Willamette River is stunningly pretty. I haven't seen this much nature being so beautiful maybe ever. Trees and rivers and falls and mountains and Puget Sound. Wow.

Olympia/Lacey, Washington was as far as we could get to Seattle. A Comfort Inn or something similar. No parking fees.  The hotel was fine, but what happened there was not. Waiting for the elevator we heard a thump. The elevator door opened and a young man was sitting on the ground with a knee brace and crutches. He had fallen. Max and Max's Mom helped the kid up and off he waddled on the crutches to his room. Never fails with us.

The Falls and picking a kid up made the day.

Plus, free parking. Total damage in parking fees still $336.

Eugene Day 4! Huskers True To Form!

Thius will more of a football post. I have been to well over a hundred of Husker games over the years. They won 5 national titles, won 9 games a year at least and then came 2003. An egomaniac named Steve Pederson became AD and wanted his own stamp on the program. So he fired a coach with a 58-17 record over 6 years and hired a fired NFL coach. Look, the rest is the last 23 years. Disappointment, crushing defeats and my eventual descent into indifference. Yeah, I go but when they lose I move on. It's pure entertainment now. 

Road trips are what I actually enjoy. Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Illinois, Oregon. Getting out of Nebraska. The games are irrelevant anymore.

Eugene, Oregon is a quintessential college town. Animal House showed Eugene in its glory. It hasnt changed much. It is a beautiful town scenery wise and racked up zero parking fees. However, due to capitalism, and the fact Husker fans travel like lemmings, a $295 hotel, no a motel, a drive up to the door motel. Yeah, $295 cuz the damn game started at 8pm local time, 10pm my time, and didn't end till 11:30 or so traveling back to Portland was out of the question.

Nebraska football is a joke. They can beat the shit out of bad teams, but when they face adversity, they fold up in a fetal position and hold on for dear life and lose. This has happened for years. Nebraska has blown 18 games in the last 7 years while leading in the 4th quarter. This is unprecedented. It's a streak of choking that puts Nebraska #1 by far in losing like that. In fact, Nebraska has not beaten a ranked team in 10 years. That also is tops for mediocrity.

Oregon was ranked 25th in one poll so the opportunity to break this streak was right there. Oregon was playing a walk on quarterback who was as incompetent as they come. Former Husker Dylan Raiola had stunk the place up the week before and was benched.

Yeah, we've all seen enough Disney flicks to know what was coming. Nebraska led 14-9 with about 6 minutes to go. Oregon had the ball and had done nothing offensively the entire game. In comes Dylan Raiola, ex Husker quarterback. Max exclaims to Ducks fans, Dylan Raiola game winning drive coming up. Not sure if he bought it but I did. We all knew what was going to happen. At least us Husker fans did. 

Game winning drive by ex-Husker Dylan Raiola. Less than a minute to go? Oregon TD. 17-14 Ducks. Max storms off down the steps as we say bye to our very cool Oregon fan neighbors. What's the point? It's entertainment, right? Right?

Another choke job, two weeks in a row. Blowing a two-score lead against Indiana the week before. I saw it live. Now blowing another lead in Eugene in the fourth was under our belts. Leaving the stadium back to the shuttle bus was a sobering affair. Like I said, we are so used to this it's expected. 

The Oregon stadium is unique. Weirdly shaped, holds 54,000 and really not a bad seat in the house. It's also modernized a bit with handrails for us olds to climb steps. It was a pleasant experience as Oregon fans are so cool. The loss of the game? Yeah, who cares. The way it was lost? Right out of a feel-good movie about redemption. All that was needed was a PA announcer calling play by play (Oregon has a guy who's been there since 1967 and won't retire per Ducks fans. He has the energy of a sloth). 

The game was a great story. I don't care who won, this was a tremendous story of a kid who stunk up the place the week before who came off bench to beat his former team. Cmon man, win or lose, this was legendary.

Again, no parking fees. Parking carnage holding steady at $336. 

Go Big Red always!