Photo Restoration

Ethel Merman
Originally uploaded by basykes.

I have lots to do today, so of course I've spent the bulk of the day working on photo restoration. I posted a couple of photos to Flickr. The one of Walt's grandfather is one I've been working on for a very long time. This one, of my friend Jimmy and Ethel Merman is, so far, the most spectacular restoration I've done thus far.

Bud

Bud
Originally uploaded by basykes.

Well, it appears Bud is here until Saturday, when he goes up for adoption. Tomorrow he goes in to be neutered, so he'll be out of the house all day, but then he comes back and stays until Saturday.

He's a sweet dog but I guess there is chemistry even with dogs. I bonded really well with Petey, but not with this dog. There's nothing WRONG with him, just somehow he doesn't do it for me.

Guess dogs are like people--some you like instantly, others it takes awhile to warm up to. (But you have to admit that's one cute picture!)

30 Days

Did you ever watch that series by Morgan Spurlock (of Supersize Me fame), called 30 Days, where he gets people to live in another person's life for a month? The first one I saw was a Christian who lived with a Muslim family. The second was a macho guy who lived with a gay man in San Francisco. There was a couple who lived with a "back to basics" group where there was no electricity, no indoor plumbing, they raised their own food, etc. The participants find their lives changed forever, as they begin to see their "opposites" as real people, people just like themselves, with different habits, perhaps different clothes, etc.

Last night I watched the pilot episode with Spurlock himself and his fianceé, attempting to live on minimum wage. It was a real eye-opener, I'll tell you. They each got jobs at minimum wage, then had to find an apartment, get furniture, buy food, etc. They were just barely making it, and only when he took a second job, so they almost never saw each other, when they both suffered medical problems--he had a badly sprained wrist, which was swelling; she developed a bladder infection. Both went to the emergency room for treatment, since they had no medical insurance. When the bills came, the bill for both together came to over $1,000, which was way beyond their ability to pay.

Watching the stress grow between them, seeing how little time they were able to spend together, how they could not take any time off to relax, added to the expensive of unexpected medical problems and it's easy to see why there is escalating violence in this country. Everyone must be on a short fuse, pushed to the bring by poverty, poor health, etc., with it becoming a rapidly downward spiral. Add children into the mix, children who must be fed and clothed and who can't work to help contribute to the family income and it's amazing that anybody living at that level is able to survive.

If it ever comes around again, I really strongly recommend watching it.

Nasty Blood-suckers

I have been leaving the sliding door open far enough for Bud to get out at night, should the spirit or the bladder move him. Unfortunately, this is an open invitation for any wandering mosquito who might happen to stop in for a quick bite, to do so. This morning I woke up with a couple of bites, which I assume are mosquito.

Normally this would be nothing more than just annoying, but we are in the middle of the worst West Nile Virus epidemic, the worst yet, and the two counties hit hardest are Sacramento County and Yolo County--and I live in Yolo County. There have been several deaths from the virus, though they say that most people who are bitten by West Nile-carrying mosquitos will never notice it. But it's so bad that they are resorting to spraying in Sacramento County and spraying in Yolo County is also under consideration.

So if it turns out that I end up being killed by West Nile Virus, blame Bud's bladder.

QAF & 6 Ft. Under

Tonight was the final episode after 5 seasons of Queer as Folk, preceded by a half hour of interviews and goodbyes by the cast. I will miss this show tremendously. It was a ground-breaking series that showed gay people as having real lives--love lives, sex lives, emotional lives, work lives, family lives, relationships, friendships...you know--like straight people. There was graphic sex, which shocked people, but if put up against some daytime soap operas or evening sitcoms or dramas was no more or no less shocking--merely involving same, rather than opposite genders.

In the last 2 seasons, the show has gotten more pointedly political, laying it on rather heavily (for their straight audience, I suspect) about the groups that are trying to deprive the gay community of equal rights and remove from them all the hard-won rights they now have.

I was kind of afraid that they would wrap things up in a nice neat little package, with everyone living happily ever after, they way you would expect on a final episode of a straight drama, but the final episode kept you guessing to the end, and went out in a way that was 100% appropriate for a gay audience.

It was really a good show, and I will miss it.

Then I watched Six Feet Under, Nate's funeral. How many times does a major show kill off one of its lead characters (except on The Sopranos). There was one scene that did me in. Nate is laid out on the table in the morgue while his brother is washing the body and his mother comes in and approaches the body, gingerly beginning to stroke his hair. It was exactly what I did after Paul died and I said goodbye to him in the emergency room. The whole scene had me sobbing.

Beloved

I watched Beloved today. This is a story I've had a difficult time with from the get-go. I read the book, but somehow it never grabbed me. I've tried watching the movie several times, but always gave up about 1/3 of the way into it. Today I determined that I would sit here and watch the whole thing.

I'm glad I did because it is a good movie. Oprah Winfrey is, I think, an underrated actress. She gives an excellent performance as Sethe.

However, as good as it was, I couldn't help thinking that my problem with it all along is a cultural one. I suspect that there are many elements of this film that a white person growing up on the West Coast during the Civil Rights era can't possibly hope to understand on the same level as an African American audience can. It doesn't take away anything from the movie itself, but I just think that my problem with it in the past was that I don't come from that cultural background and can't feel on a gut level the kinds of feelings that are expressed. I could follow the story. I could feel empathy. I could feel the pain of those involved, but I couldn't get in there and inhabit the minds and souls of those involved.

It's much the same way I felt (on a much smaller scale) returning to the U.S. from Scotland two weeks after 9/11, when the entire country had gone through the emotional trauma of 24/7 coverage of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center, and the pain of those who survived, those who had lost loved ones, those who dug through the rubble hoping to find survivors. I didn't get that TV feed in Scotland and so when we returned, there was an emotional disconnect. I could feel the shock, the horror, the pain on an intellectual level, but at the real gut level, where the rest of the country felt it, it just wasn't there.

However, Beloved is a good film. Rent it.

The High and the Mighty

I can't remember why this John Wayne classic has been kept out of circulation for decades, but it's available now on CD and I rented it from Netflix. As a gripper, it holds up, this story of a plane with a bad engine limping its way from Honolulu to San Francisco and all the drama that entails, but if you look at it from today's perspective, it sure has a lot of funny stuff in it.

• I was surprised, for example, that the passengers about to board the plane had to present passports and report to Immigration. I'd forgotten that Hawaii wasn't a state until 1959 and this movie was made in 1954. I'll have to remember to ask Walt if he needed a passport to leave the island (he was raised there, and left in 1955).
• The stewardess for the flight worked at the check-in desk and introduced herself to each passenger as they checked in.
  
• The plane. Ahhh...the plane. There were (I counted) fifteen passengers on board and there were more empty seats than there were full ones. When is the last time you found even half a dozen empty seats on an airplane.
• There was one flight attendant--they were still called stewardesses back then. Those were the days when they were chosen as much for their youth and appearance as for their competence, I believe.
  
• She actually seemed to cook meals individually (which is perhaps why there were only 15 passengers!).
• John Wayne's total job seemed to be to stand in the cockpit and look out the window, until Robert Stack (the pilot) began to fall apart, upon which time he slapped Stack and took over the controls.
• Many passengers smoked (and the stewardess even carried matches for a passenger who had forgotten his lighter).
• Everybody in the cockpit had a lighted cigarette in their hands.
• A passenger had a gun in his jacket pocket and actually pulled it out, brandished it, and shot it inside the plane.
  
• The airplane gave a teeny shudder and everyone fell apart, including one woman who cried "I don't want to die" for the rest of the flight (presumably 6 hours, since they'd said it was a 12 hour flight and that they had "just passed the halfway point).
• After that the plane was not only smooth, but silent as it headed for San Francisco. I've experienced more turbulence on a "smooth" flight than this flight in danger of crashing for 6 hours experienced.
• Everyone dressed up to ride the airplane. Anybody remember when you got dressed up to ride a plane?
• The seatbelts stayed off until the very end.
• The overhead racks had no doors on them.

In spite of how dated it all was (which was, in itself kind of an historical glimpse of flight in the 50s), the movie still held up as one which kept you on the edge of your seat--even if you do know the end before it begins.

Ironically, I had seen the movie when it first came out and I only remembered two scenes, but very clearly--the stewardess blowing up the life vest of the sleeping child, so as not to wake him, and Wayne walking away from the airplane, whistling the theme song.

Good movie. Rent it.

Baby, It's Hot Outside

We are at about 20 days of >100 degree weather in the past 2 months. We were feeling pretty smug back there in June when we were still having April showers and such pleasant weather. We are paying the price for our smugness now. Have I mentioned how much I dislike heat???

Petey

Petey
Originally uploaded by basykes.

Petey goes off to look for a home tomorrow. Ashley will pick him up and take him to Petco. I really don't think he's going to have a difficult time finding a home, but there is a part of me that hopes it's not this week. I'm enjoying having the little guy around--and if he stays another week, Walt will be able to meet him.

Publicity

Why are the people most in need of publicity the people the most difficult to get information or cooperation from?

There was a time when I did publicity for several theatre groups. I stopped doing it after several frustrating years when it seemed that I was in constant conflict with the people who needed those folks to sit in the seats in the theatre. Every great idea I came up with, someone didn't feel like doing it. It was so demoralizing that I just quit. There are still people in this town who have never heard of this 25 year old town institution.

Now I'm dealing with another group who desperately needs the publicity. On the whole, they have been quite helpful, but I am on a strict deadline and am missing a very key piece of information that I have been promised by several people for two days now. Very soon I'm going to have to say "screw it" and discard one of the best pieces of publicity.

These are people who work hard, who hold down jobs by day and rehearse by night and give their heart and soul to the works they want to present to the world.

Why can't they understand that without people like me who are willing to help publicize their event, they have a much less chance of getting the word out? (Or, more to the point, why do I tear my hair out over stuff like this. Why don't I just start out saying "screw it.")

Watermelon

With Walt out of town for the month, I've been eating really weirdly. It's been TV dinners, and junk food and gorging on fruit. When I went to the store recently, I bought a watermelon. Somehow I just had this craving for watermelon. I looked at the cut melons, but those usually end up being mealy textured from sitting out for so long.

I went to the bin of watermelons and chose one which seemed to be the smallest one. It wasn't until I went to carry it in from the car that I realized that the thing was really pretty big. I've been eating on it all week.

But this is the most "water-filled" watermelon I've ever had. The thing is sweet and juicy and leaves big puddles of watermelon juice on my plate whenever I have a piece, most of it coming from the juice running down my chin, no matter how neatly I try to eat it.

I haven't had such a watermelon pig-out in a long time. I'm enjoying every juicy bite!

Google?

Laura
Originally uploaded by basykes.

I used to work for her in a secretarial service. She's an interesting lady, who now owns an apple orchard and runs a fruit stand. She excelled in business in the pre-computer era, but did not handle modern technology all that well. I hadn't seen her in about 15 years. She still doesn't understand modern technology.

At one point this weekend she learned I had an on-line journal and couldn't quite understand how I could write things that anybody in the world could read. Someone else tried to explain that all you had to do was "google" my name and the site would come up.

I recognized that telling someone who barely knows what a computer is to "google" anything to find a "site" is like suggesting a Mountain Gorilla take a shopping cart and buy a bunch of bananas at the local Safeway.

I told her I didn't understand it either--that it all worked by "magic," and that it was the same magic that allowed me to put a piece of paper in a machine in Davis and have the contents come out on a piece of paper in Japan.

That seemed to make more sense.

"I always wondered what happened to the piece of paper," she said.

As I said, she's a neat lady, but technology is not her friend.

Murphy's Law

We are midway through the heat wave here, with temps having been in the 100s for about a week (6 days, I think) and predicted to be within 2 or 3 degrees of 100, if not over 100, up until the time I fly off to Washington on Thursday.

So what happens today?

The neighbor comes to tell me that our a/c fan is not working, which explains to me why it didn't seem to be cooling off the house all that efficiently yesterday.

I've left a message for the a/c guys and it's now just a question of whether they can get here tomorrow or not. In the meantime, I'm doing a lot of sweating and no wonder the puppies are so grumpy.

A sight to behold

A young Hispanic guy rang my doorbell this afternoon. I was expecting Ashley, from the SPCA, who was going to bring me more puppy formula, so I went to the door, even though I was in the middle of feeding Weasley. I wonder what this guy thought. Here's this fat lady in shorts and t-shirt (no bra) standing there with fly-away hair (I don't think I brushed my hair this morning) with sweat dripping down her face ('cause it's 102 outside). In the yard Sheila is barking her head off, Kimba ran out to greet the guy, who backed down the driveway, afraid she'd attack him. I have this fat, squirmy puppy over my arm and behind me two more puppies are yapping.

I don't think I want to think about what the total picture must have been. The term "trailer trash" does come to mind!!! (All I needed was a cigarette hanging out my mouth and a beer in the other hand!)

Everyone's a critic

I recently reviewed a production of "The King and I," a show which I gave a very good review, save for some constructive criticism about the need for make-up for two of the Siamese women. Today appeared a scathing review of my review, with follow-up note by my editor:

I take issue with BevSykes' review of the Davis Musical Theatre Company's production of "The King and I." To publicly single out any actor for not looking the part, only because of the color of skin and hair one happens to be born with, is offensive, unprofessional, and cruel.

Regarding Chelsea Betty (Tuptim) in her Siamese headgear, she states, "...made her look like Malibu Barbie on the way to a Halloween party." She compares Jennifer Bonomo (Ladn Thiang) to "...a woman who looks like my aunt Barb" only because they are Caucasian actors with Caucasian features. Apparently I "look the part," according to Ms. Sykes, meaning "Siamese or Burmese." I am of Mexican and Filipino heritage; so much for "authenticity."

As an actor of color, I would find it intolerable had my fellow Caucasian actors stopped to Ms. Sykes' vision of "make-up magic" to fit the part, especially in this day and age in DAvis, a bastion of tolerance and diversity. Why insult the intelligence of our audience? Director Steve Isaacson and the actors chose to rely on their talent and skill in their portrayals.

Ms. Sykes must have taken a potty break during the ironic "Western People Funny" number as the King's Siamese wives hobble around in clown-white makeup and "swollen skirts," bemoaning th3e futility of trying to look like a European lady. Duh!

Would Ms. Sykes have made a similar comment had the role of Anna Leonowens been played by an actor of color? Had Ms. Beatty chosen to "look the part," I sense Ms. Sykes' comments would have compared her to a Malibu Barbie dipped in a vat of caramel.

Having the honor and privilege of working alongside Ms. Beatty, Ms. Bonomo and all my other talented cast members, I can attest that the power of their performances transcends their skin color and inspires me to be a King of "commanding presence." Ms. Sykes' backwoods comments will only strengthen and solidify our remaining performances.

Juan Ramos (King Mongut)

Enterprise editor Derrick Bang replies:

Juan Ramos seriously overstates the degree to which Bev Sykes commented on the issue of color-blind casing, and he glosses over her key point: The issue is not (obviously) merely racial characteristics, but credibility and verisimilitude. Absent some effort to make an actor look or sound appropriate for a part which--as written--demans cultural specificity, the audience is, let's face it, robbed of a critical story element.

Ramos' precise heritage is inconsequential; what matters is that in this DMTC production he "sells" his part--which, if he's gifted enough, he could do were he purple with pink spots--and hence his King Mongut can be considered a successful portrayal. Alas, Bev could not say the same of other cast members.

Dismissing the potential advantage of makeup is disingenuous; why else would so many Broadway shows spend so much on this craft? I had no trouble with the African-American actor who played Schroeder in the 1999 Broadway revival of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"...but the Asian actor who played Linus left me flat. The former "caught" the character, the latter did not.

And "catching the character" certainly is within Bev's critical purview here at The Enterprise, as is exploring possible reasons for any failure to do so.

Hot

I don't know that I will ever adjust to hot weather. I guess after 30+ years of living in Davis and not adjusting yet, I'm not likely to. Last week was really rather nice -- mid-to-high 80s. But it has suddenly turned hot and surprisingly humid (my saving grace has always been that valley heat is a "dry heat"). I sit here with the air conditioning on in the house, a fan on my face, and my fingers on the keyboard are sweating. By the time I finish making dinner, sweat is pouring down my face and into my eyes and it takes a good half hour of doing nothing but sitting in a chair before I finish sweating.

I really have no cause to complain. So far it's been a pretty pleasant summer and it's half over... but the hottest part of the year is coming up. I look forward to fall. "Cold" is such a nice feeling.

Oh, Paula.....

These are the ingredients for Paula Deen's latest recipe for mashed potatoes:

4 cups frozen hash browns
1 (7.6-ounce) package butter and herb mashed potato mix
1 stick butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups boiling water
2 cups prepared French-fried onion rings

How can you not love a woman like that?

Squircles

CIMG4414
Originally uploaded by basykes.

I am obsessed with Squircles. Squircles are "squared circles." Find something circular, take a picture of it, and crop it into a square shape, and then post to the "squared circle" pool on Flickr. I'm always looking for circles to square wherever I am and found a wealth of them while in Santa Barbara.

The picture here is a piece of the linoleum at Albertson's. I was standing there waiting for them to finish decorating Tom's birthday cake and when I looked down, I saw circles. I had my little camera with me and next thing you know, I was set up to create a squircle.

Audio Manipulation

Have you noticed the sneaky thing that television networks are doing lately? I don't know if it's deliberate, but the suspicious part of me assumes that it is. You're watching a program and the sound is at a comfortable level and then commercial break comes and the sound goes through the roof, at ear-piercing level. You either turn it down or mute the TV and then when the show comes back on, you have to turn the sound up.

I can only assume that either the networks or the advertisers have figured out a way of making us look at the commercials, because if we can't exactly ignore them, since they are so damn loud.

That combined with the popups at the bottom of the screen that cover up the action on the screen in order to get you to watch an upcoming program.

What happened to the good old days when you just sat down and watched TV and didn't have to actually think about anything.

I suppose this goes along with the half hour of back-to-back commercials that you have to sit through in order to watch a movie. It's all well and good for theatres to advertise the real start time of movies, but if it's a popular movie, you have to get there for the commercials anyway if you want a decent seat.

I hate being manipulated like that, especially when I know I'm being manipulated and can't seem to do anything about it.

The human touch

"Hi, Bev," Chris greeted me as I walked through the door of Blood Source. I was there to donate my 12th pint of blood. I remember being surprised the last time I was there that she remembered my name. She's always been very friendly, but she must see hundreds of people a week.

Someone new led me to the interview room where she proceeded to treat me as if this was my first time giving blood. She carefully explained everything in detail, including pointing out the "signature" line when I hesitated a split second before signing the form. The last time I was there, I remember having a nice chat with the intake person, while she very efficiently took me through the process.

By the time I was ready to have my blood drawn, I was feeling like #109 in a long line of faceless donors. As I got in the chair, the new person explained that Chris would be coming soon to take my blood and gave me more basic instructions, as if I had never been there before.

Chris chatted while she quite efficiently took my blood donation. When new people walked in the door she greeted them by name too.

When I left the blood draw station, I realized what a big difference it meant going that one extra step to be friendly to people and how much better it made the consumer feel when someone acknowledges them as an individual rather than just member of the faceless masses.