AIDS WALK 2013 – SPO Shirt Auction

We usually try to avoid duplicating subject matter between Spo-Reflections and Harper’s Valley but, again this year, we make an exception for AIDS Walk. Just like last year, whomever contributes most to our AIDS Walk fundraising will become the proud owner of a fabulous Spo Shirt.

Wouldn’t you like your ensemble to make a grandiloquent statement of floral magnificence calculated to impress your friends and make your enemies green-eyed with jealousy? Well, who wouldn’t! See Spo-Reflections for all the details.

Many people support AIDS charities and other worthy causes in their hometowns. We certainly understand the concept of ‘charity begins at home’ but if you are able to make a contribution you can do so by clicking one the links in the upper right corner of our blog homepages. You may sponsor Spo, Harper’s Keeper, or, for the first time, La Harper herself. If you sponsor than one, the contributions will be aggregated in determining the shirt winner.

Your support will be much appreciated.

Sunday Earworm

Harper’s Other Dad and I have been known, only on rare occasions of course, to visit Valley-area watering holes that cater to ‘nature’s bachelors’. One of my favorites is a pub called Ice Pics.

Ice Pics is a video bar and on Sunday afternoons they feature videos of show tunes, comedy clips, and other amusements that appeal to those who don’t reach for a Coleman lantern when they hear the word ‘camp’.

A potential negative of these Sunday excursions is one can almost guarantee leaving the pub with an earworm. Some are more tenacious than others. Here’s yesterday’s.

Dog Park Sunday – September 29, 2013

It was a perfect autumn day in Harper’s Valley. With not a cloud in sight and the temperature at 72*F with humidity of only 22%, it was a comfortable morning to be outside. Apparently many people felt the same way since the parking lot at Grover’s Basin Dog Park was overflowing and both the large and small dog enclosures were abuzz with activity.

It’s important to check the place out from every angle and get the ‘lay of the land’ upon arrival. This is also the time to get all those bodily functions out of the way.

Harper’s BFF du jour was Barkley, an absolutely adorable mixed breed rescue. Harper found his exuberance childish and annoying but every now and then the two would head off together for a romp.

It’s easy to tell when Harper is reading to go home. She heads for a shady spot.

The Flick

One of the most interesting theater companies in the Valley is Tempe’s Stray Cat Theatre. Last night I had the pleasure of seeing their first offering of the 2013 – 2014 season, Annie Baker’s 2013 play, The Flick. I loved this play and this production.

Last spring’s Off-Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons garnered rapturous reviews from theater critics but was not without its detractors among theater goers. Negative feedback from subscribers prompted the company’s artistic director to send an email to subscribers offering an explanation of the play and their decision to stage it. Stray Cat is the first American company to offer the play since its New York premier.

For those critical of the play, the issue is its pace, its length, or both. Ms. Baker works confidently in the negative space. Silence is a rare commodity in the theater, and a powerful one. At times, what is said, or left unsaid, hangs conspicuously in the air between the characters. For the director and actors this is a razor-thin line to tread. Cut the silence short and the moment is diminished. Extend the silence too long and the play drags. The way I know they struck just the right balance is that during those long, loud silences I never took my eyes off the actors’ faces.

When the lights go down the audience is 85 minutes from the intermission and nearly three hours from the curtain call. In an era when communication comes in easily digestible bites (or bytes) of 140 characters or less, the O’Neill-like length for a drama with only three major characters and a single set is a challenge for the audience. Four people in my row fidgeted through the last 30 minutes of Act I and left at intermission. The play challenges ones attention span but it is very much worth the effort.

The plot is simple. Employees of a failing, single-screen, movie theater, one of the last in the state still using a film, rather than digital projector. Sam, Rose, and Avery confront the challenges of their respective lives and yearn for connection. Thirty-something Sam, lives in his parents’ attic, finds validation and frustration in his job at the theater and has an unrequited love for Rose, the projectionist.

Newly hired Avery, a 20-year film aficionado is taking a term off from the university. Struggling with demons of his own, he seeks to establish a friendship with Sam, his coworker and mentor in the inner workings of the theater. Avery is clearly the smartest of the three but also the most vulnerable.

Rose, also 30-something, has a vaguely undefined sexual orientation. All we really know about her interests is that she pays no attention to Sam while being boldly blatant about her interest in young Avery. I think the emotional tone of the play is set by Rose when she says (I hope I am quoting this correctly); “Do you ever feel like there is something wrong with you but you may go through your whole life without ever finding out what?” By the end of the play that mystery remains largely unsolved.

Playwright Annie Baker

American playwright Annie Baker has twice won the Obie Award for Best New American Play for her plays Circle Mirror Transformation (2009) and The Aliens (2010). Her play first play, Body Awareness (2008) was nominated for Drama Desk and Out Critics Circle Awards. I was not familiar with Ms. Baker’s work but, based on this experience, I hope I have the opportunity to see more.

As one would expect from a play set in a movie theater, there are many references to movies in The Flick . I found a wonderful on-line piece in the New York Times where the playwright talks about the movies she felt provided some inspiration for The Flick. There is a brief audio recording of the playwright discussing the relevance of each films.

Three Weeks?? Are You High?!

I am not a Twitter power-user so I don’t really get the whole ‘hashtag’ thing. I read an article recently decrying the negative effect hashtags were having on language and verbal communication. I was not aware using hashtags verbally was even ‘a thing’. It’s one more example of a trend of which I am aware.

Were I a hashtag-kind-of-guy, this post would be the ultimate “#First World Problems” situation.

Harper’s Other Dad uses dictation software for work, both at his office and at home. Thursday evening, HOD reported the software was not working. This was limiting his ability to be the kind of dictator he so enjoys being. He tried a different headset but the problem persisted.

Thinking the problem was with the dictation software, I spent some time today trying to adjust user profiles and re-running various set-up wizards. No luck! I know as much about computers as I do about birthing babies but it seemed to me the problem was not with the dictation software but rather with our computer’s recording ability. The computer wasn’t recognizing incoming sound from the microphone.

After spending a couple of hours working through Help menus and Troubleshooting Guides, I contacted the computer manufacturer for support. Because the computer is no longer under warranty, on-line support was not available. Telephone support was available but not free. And by “not free”, I mean $59.99. This does include, however, 14 days of follow-up support on the issue and a guarantee that the problem will be resolved. If they are unable to resolve the problem the $59.99 is cheerfully refunded. So for a mere $60 I had a new BFF, let’s call him Ethan. Yes, he was in the Philippines, but so what! His English was quite good. What care I about geography? Distance means nothing in the Information Age. Anyone who has ever visited a chat room knows that…. or so I’ve been told be people who have visited such places.

I spent much of the next hour on the floor under the desk plugging and unplugging cables. I took the side off the computer and checked connections on to the mother board. This made me feel quite tech-savvy but also made me wish I had smaller fingers. My new BFF, Ethan, logged in remotely and uninstalled and reinstalled all manner of software and drivers. In the end, it was determined that the fault was in the microphone jack on the front of the computer. Since this was a hardware problem and he was unable to fix it, Ethan refunded my $59.99. Sure enough, he was cheerful.

So what’s to be done? The good news is, since we identified the problem as the jack on the front I got HOD back In business by plugging the microphone in on the back of the computer. Somewhere around here I have an adapter into which I can plug the headset and then plug it into a USB port on the front as well. We also have a Bluetooth headset around here somewhere. Bottom line, even though the problem is not fixed. The work-around options are not too onerous.

As for repairs, Ethan told me it was not just a part that could be shipped, I had to send the computer to them. They would send me packing materials. Turn-around time for shipping both ways and repairs; 3-4 weeks.  The cost; $299. That’s when I decided Ethan was not going to be my BFF because he was obviously on crack. I will check with a couple local repair sources to see if they can do it more inexpensively. Obviously anything local eliminates the shipping time as well. Absent a local solution, we, Christian martyrs that we are, may just live with it.

Speaking of hashtags…..

Modern Woodmen of America – Drill Team

Dated May 23. 1913, this photo shows a group of men holding a banner that reads “Paducah Camp 11313 MWA”. Kneeling in the front row, second from left, is my maternal grandfather; James T. Murray, age 20.

A little research (thanks Google!) tells me this was the local chapter of the Modern Woodmen of America; a fraternal organization.

My BFF, Wikipedia, tells me Modern Woodmen of America was founded in 1883 by Joseph Cullen Root as an organization that would protect families following the death of a breadwinner. It was, essentially, a non-profit, fraternal, life-insurance provider. The organization still exists, offering insurance and other financial services to its members. It still operates as a tax-exempt fraternal benefit society. Through local chapters, lodges or camps, they support social, charitable and volunteer activities in their communities.

The men pictured in the photo were the Paducah Camp’s “Drill Team”. The drill teams were known as “Modern Woodmen Foresters”; hence the axes. These groups were nationally-known for events held from 1890 to the late 1930s. “Rainbow Parades”, so named because each chapter had different colored uniforms, were hosted by cities across the United States and included 10,000 Forester units with more than 160,000 men. The last known Rainbow Parade was held in Chicago, on Michigan Boulevard, and halted traffic for more than two hours while thousands of spectators looked on.

Modern Woodmen opened a 1,000-acre tuberculosis sanatorium in Colorado Springs in 1907. At the time, TB was the leading cause of death among members. The $1.5 million facility provided treatment to more than 12,000 members at no cost to the patient. Following World War II, antibiotics became available, and TB declined in the United States. The facility closed in 1947.

James T Murray
1893 – 1964

Originally the Modern Woodmen had unusual membership restrictions. There were no religious restrictions of any kind; unusual for a 19th century fraternal organization. Membership was, however, restricted to white males between the ages of 18-45 and only in the twelve “healthiest” states; Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas. Obviously that was later expanded to include Kentucky.

Residents of large cities were disqualified from membership. Those employed in a long list of professions were also prohibited from joining: railway breakmen, railway engineers, railway firemen, railway switchmen, miners employed underground, pit bosses, “professional rider and driver in races”, employee in a gunpowder factory, wholesaler or manufacturer of liqueur, saloon keeper, saloon barkeeper, ” aeronaut”, sailor on the lakes or seas, plough polisher, brass finisher, professional baseball player, professional firemen, submarine operator or soldier in the regular army in a time of war. Some of these restrictions seem to have the whiff of moral judgment but most seem like what today would be called “risk management”. The professions listed were dangerous and would, therefore, have given rise to higher claim rates.

The Wright Brothers first flight was in 1903 so I don’t imagine there were many “aeronauts” (presumably N.K.A. ‘pilots’) in the late 19th-century Midwest. Certainly, one wonders how many submariners they could have actually turned away. My grandfather later became a miner, an excluded profession. I wonder if their membership rules had changed or his membership lapsed. Maybe he was “grandfathered in”.

TMI – I’m Falling For You

As always, thanks to The Jeep Guy for a great set of TMI Questions

1. How does Fall rank on your list of favorite seasons?
…..When I lived in the Midwest it was my favorite season. Now that I am a desert dweller it beats out summer but ranks well behind Spring and Winter.

2. What are your favorite fall fashions?
  …..Sweatshirts

3. What are your favorite fall foods?
…..Cornbread, almost anything with pumpkin in it, apple cider

4. Have you ever FALLEN and couldn’t get up?
…..Even when falling metaphorically one can always get up…eventually

5. Fall is the start of the new TV season, which show are you most anticipating?
…..Since Dexter has ended I’ll go with Newsroom.

6. What fall activities like apple picking, hiking, foliage trips, do you enjoy or plan on doing?
…..Always love to see Fall color though it is a few hours away by car. In this area, Fall is the time people emerge from their homes and begin to be social again so the big Fall activities are eating outdoors and sitting in sidewalk cafes or pubs.

7.Halloween is __________.
…..always something to look forward to.

8. Do you dress up for Halloween?
……I don’t but Harper does.

9. Do you have daylight savings time where you live?
…..This is the Arizona! We don’t need no stinking Daylight Savings Time. 

10. Thanksgiving is __________.
…..Fun if with family or friends. Otherwise it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

11. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food?
…..Harper’s Other Dad’s mother’s cranberry relish.

BONUS:

Do you FALL asleep after sex?
Eventually but not immediately

Have you FALLEN out of bed while having sex?
Yes, though that assumes I was in bed to begin with.

Throw Back Thursday – 1974

Kresge’s Photo Booth
Racine Wisconsin
1974

It’s important to get the hair just right

Would you let your daughter go out with this guy?
In those days I would never have thought about your son.
That came much, much later.

Sometimes I used brown mustache wax (which was, of course, nothing like mascara) to fill in the mustache and make it look darker… or at least, you know,…visible.
I guess this was not one of those days.

Anyone can see, from my expression, that I was a happy-go-lucky young man who reveled in the joy of the moment.

Not So Wordless Wednesday

The stream of consciousness meanders randomly today.

The National Weather Service says the monsoon season does not officially end until September 30th but residents of Harper’s Valley know it ended a couple of weeks ago. The clouds and winds no long appear each afternoon. The humidity is back done in the 20-30% range and the Dew Point is in the low 40’s. Monday morning I awoke to a pre-dawn temperature of 68*F. That’s the first time the temp has dropped below 70*F since May 14th. Fall has arrived.

The only shadow in this festive autumn tableau is that the water temperature in the pool is 72*F and dropping. Growing up near Lake Michigan, water temps in the 50’s and 60’s were common in summer but as I have aged, or become acclimatized to the desert, (or both?) 72*F feels pretty nippy.

Harper is usually patient, if martyr-like. in her dealing with the paparazzi. She understand she is a celebrity and they are just doing their job. On occasion she is not above striking a pose.

Sometimes, however they work her last nerve and she becomes petulant and engages in some unladylike behavior designed to reveal her displeasure.

I have seen this in a number of restaurant restrooms lately; cables wrapped around the tops of urinals chaining the plumbing together. Does anyone know the purpose? I can’t see how it would stop leaks. Are people stealing plumbing from restaurant washrooms? If that is the case, would this stop them?I think anyone carrying a tool box into the ‘Gent’s’ might be as likely to have a cablecutter or saw with them as a wrench. Is a bicycle involved somehow? It’s very confusing.

I was surprised to see that our neighborhood supermarket sells Ping Pong balls. That seems more like ‘Sporting Goods’ than ‘Groceries’ to me. Perhaps they are considered ‘Party Supplies’.

They are in the aisle with chips and salsa. I am not sure that is where I would look for them if they were my objective but I suppose if I were picking up snacks for the big Ping Pong Party I might think; “Hey, maybe I should pick up some extra balls too in case, you know, someone stepped on one. If they tried to go the closet to get another one they might find it locked. It would be ghastly.

I did not buy any.

I visited From My Brain To My Mouth to check out the Saturday Night Dance Party song for the weekend just passed. It was “Kiss” by the artist presently and formerly known as Prince. For a time he changed his name to a non-phonetic symbol that, I believe, later became a popular ‘tramp stamp’. No matter how I try to access this Youtube clip, however, what I get is the video of Prince’s “Kiss” with the audio to Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah“. Since the universe seems intent upon me learning this song I thought I would share. It’s not a bad song though better with its own video.

I wonder if some über-rich brothers who often act as the deep pockets of the Teavangelical crowd had someone hack Youtube and link all the videos to this song to which they’ve added subliminal anti-Obamacare messages. Probably not.

Ruthless! The Musical

Phoenix Theatre inaugurates its new performance space with Ruthless! The Musical. With music by Marvin Laird and book & lyrics by Joel Paley, the show spoofs classic musicals like Gypsy and Mame and movies such as The Bad Seed and All About Eve.

Opening off-Broadway in 1992, the show ran 342 performances. An interesting bit of Broadway trivia, the understudies for the role of Tina, the precocious wanna-be child star, in that original production  were Natalie Portman and Britney Spears. The show won the 1993 New York Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical.

The musical is an over-the-top comedy and absolutely hysterical. The performances are broadly exaggerated but the talented cast remains true to the style without ever mocking or laughing at the characters they portray. The cast is universally strong in their singing and performances. There is no weak link.

In some ways predictable, the plot is nonetheless enjoyable. Judy Denmark, a perky, unambitious housewife, is the mother of talented eight-year-old Tina. Judy wants her daughter to have a normal childhood but Tina feels she was “born to entertain”. When Tina is cast as the understudy and not in the title role in her school’s third-grade production of Pippi In Tahiti , The Musical she murders her competition by hanging her fellow third-grader from the cat walk with a jump rope. Once the crime is discovered, Tina is sent away to the “Daisy Clover School for Psychopathic Ingenues”. The school’s name is a reference to Natalie Wood film Inside Daisy Clover, the story of a self-destructive young actor’s rise to stardom.

Through a series of revelations we learn the true identities of Tina’s mother and Grandmother and their relationship to the, it is believed, long-dead Broadway star, Ruth DeMarco. During Tina’s incarceration, Judy becomes a Broadway star. Upon her release, Tina wants to resume her climb to stardom but her mother, who formerly feared the loss of Tina’s childhood innocence, now fears her as a competitor. In an ending that is beyond farcical most of the cast is killed and Tina abandons her dreams of Broadway and heads to Hollywood to find fame and fortune in a television sit-com.

All of the characters in the show are female though, with a nod to shows like those of Charles Busch, one of them is always played by a male actor.

A young women, age 17, was sitting in front of us. Hearing that I’d never seen the show before, she informed me it was her favorite musical; EVER! I can’t say that. But I am intrigued by the show’s success even with audiences who are unaware of the frequent musical and dialog references to classic shows. It works on that level as well.

If one is only casually interested in theater, Ruthless! The Musical will be an amusing and pleasant way to spend a couple hours. For fans of old movies and classic musicals it is an absolute hoot! The show runs through September 29th.