William Donnelly's Painted Alice at the Elephant Stageworks

Sphere presents the West Coast premiere of William Donnelly's Painted Alice at the Elephant Stageworks, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Saturday, September 29 marks the beginning of Banned Books Week; on Sunday, the West Hollywood Book Fair will take place in West Hollywood Park.

Milk from Scotland... who knew?

My snippy rant, continued

Photo: LA Episcopal Diocese

This morning on NPR, the mixed ruling came down about All Saints Church in Pasadena and their ongoing troubles with the IRS, who seem to think the church overstepped the line into political advocacy during a sermon last year.

My mood lightened somewhat when I heard the rant by the college football coach against reporters. I wonder what tune he'd sing if the local media just decided, okay, you say we don't know how to report on sports, so we'll just unplug all media coverage of your university's athletic teams -and that goes for broadcasting the games as well. I wonder how long he'd be able to hold on to his salary, which I'm certain is likely to be more than, say, teachers as a rule.

Come to think of it, if the IRS really wanted to find some funds to help with the national debt, why don't they start investigating the tax returns of big-name college athletic directors and coaches, of which some of that little club make a lot of money. NASCAR style, Halliburton style money.

Just a thought...

It looks as though I'm not getting very much done today...

My end of summer rant

So bin Laden wants to call Pakistani President Musharraf an infidel because he attacked the Red Mosque?

How very convenient that he overlooked his own role in the attack or destruction of numerous mosques in Pakistan, Afghanistan and even on the seventh floor of the World Trade Center itself.


Doesn't that make Osama bin Laden, then, an infidel?


Americans should note that while the intent of the attack on the World Trade Center was to strike at our economic system, the world-wide fallout of the sub-prime lending crisis would indicate that the greed of some Americans did more to accomplish the goals of Al Qaeda than Al Qaeda.


I doubt that we'll be rounding up unscrupulous home lenders and shipping them off to Guantanamo any time soon, though.

Yeh Hum Naheen

This is why people hate going Downtown

The question is, was this film made by San Franciscans who hate Los Angeles, or somebody who got really ticked off at their bank fees?

My Modernist Phase continues...

September 11, 2007

This morning on the news, there was a clip of Rep. Nancy Pelosi speaking where she referred to the victims of 9/11 as all being American. ln fact, citizens of over 90 countries were among those who died. There was one thing that they all shared in common, however: they were human beings.

Pentagon to US: "It isn't like you'd miss those states anyway if we had accidently armed those bombs"

"I have seem the enemy, and he is us"

I'm not a pilot, but I seem to recall seeing in my Dad's pre-flight checklist from back in the day, that the flight crew would have noticed something like nuclear warheads hanging from the wings. And while they've gone to great lengths to minimize the danger posed to the United States from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico by the nuclear warheads, how many more mistakes would it have taken to arm them? Just imagine the friendly fire toll by the conventional explosions that would have occurred, plus any background radiation from the damaged bombs. Darn! There goes Des Moines! Oops! Kansas City! Uh, oh; Little Rock!

With a military like this, who needs terrorists?

Maybe they just don't train 'em like they used to.


...On a lighter note, I wonder if next Mattel will announce a recall of the Bush administration for being coated with lead paint?

Miyoshi Umeki, 1929 - 2007

Miyoshi Umeki, the first Asian to win an Academy Award, has passed away at the age of 78. She was regarded by many as one of the trailblazers for accurate and dignified portrayals of people of color on stage, movies and television. Most boomers will remember her as "Mrs. Livingstone," the housekeeper on "The Courtship of Eddie's Father."

"The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman

As I read this book over the Labor Day weekend, no book I have read in recent memory have I had so many people come up to me and ask about it. Many heard Weisman interviewed while on tour, as had I, or had read reviews of the book.

It is an engrossing read, at once both terrifying and hopeful. Most of all, it reminded me of just how small a piece of the planet --and the universe-- the human race is. Yet a part of it we are, and The Wold Without Us served to encourage me to think of the impact that each of us has on the planet we live on, with each and every seemingly insignificant decision we might make as we go about our daily lives.