July 2013 - Page 5 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

The “Slow Audience Participation” movement

Exasperated, I turned around, said nothing since that would have been likewise disruptive, but gave that universal palms-up symbol for, “Will you please shut up?”

The Wife and I saw Les Miserables at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady a couple of months ago, and it was as marvelous as the reviews in the Times Union and Metroland suggested. I had never seen any stage production of Les Miz before. Though I didn’t love the movie adaptation, we were both glad to have seen it so we would better understand the plot.

Here’s what I didn’t like: During that last, very stirring, song, six or eight people got up and left, which I found really distracting, especially since they were seated near the front and in the middle section. If they were so worried about getting home, they should have left at intermission to beat the crowds. I’d never seen that particular behavior before.

It wasn’t the only annoying activity during the performance. Someone, two or three seats from us kept turning on his mobile device. I don’t know if he was texting or just checking the time; no one of his generation seems to know what a watch is. I’ve seen similar behavior at the movie theaters, even the tony Spectrum Theatre in Albany. Even someone using their device on the opposite aisle and two rows up I will notice because the illumination distracts me from the film.

At the end of Billy Elliot at Proctors in June, the lead leaves the stage via an aisle on the theater. When he makes his return, he’s literally bumping into folks getting ready to leave. (I was so annoyed.)

Some folks at the Albany Symphony Orchestra at least wait for the final note before they rush off. Likewise, moviegoers depart when the credits come up, even when a bit of the movie is still going on, such as in Hope Springs and Bernie.

I was at a conference at the end of April, and two guys were talking through the introduction of the speaker, and even when the speaker began. Exasperated, I turned around, said nothing since that would have been likewise disruptive, but gave that universal palms-up symbol for, “Will you please shut up?”

Apparently, even Broadway audiences are not immune to bad behavior.

The slow food movement>was designed so that people could ENJOY eating more, by eschewing fast food, processed products cooked in the microwave, and the like. Not only is it healthier, but it’s also more enjoyable to be part of the process.

In a similar mode, I’m suggesting a “slow audience response” movement. Please stop talking when the speaker/movie/concert starts, and wait for the event to actually end before fumbling with your keys. You may actually enjoy it better if you are “present” at the event, rather than treating it as one more thing to check off the to-do list. I KNOW your fellow audience members will appreciate it.
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The Muppets of Sesame Street tell you how to watch a movie…

ARA: Eddie asks about food

The day I got married to Carol, I rode my bike to Friendly’s on Delaware Avenue in Albany for breakfast.

Hostess-Rspbry-Zingers — Dolly Madison Raspberry Zingers

A couple of weeks ago, Eddie, the Renaissance Geek, who has been one of the bloggers I have been following the longest, asked a series of questions.

What’s your favorite vegetable?

Spinach, no lie. It was one of the few vegetables I would eat as a child, along with peas, corn, green beans, and carrots. In the day, it was all canned. Fairly recently (2013, maybe for my birthday), The Wife bought a can of spinach; it was AWFUL! Fresh, preferably; frozen, if necessary.

Yes, I was heavily influenced by Popeye, who was featured on some local afternoon kiddie shows on WNBF-TV, Channel 12 in Binghamton, on which I appeared a few times.

Your preferred comfort food?

Boring, I know, but it’s mac and cheese. When I was in college, I might put a can of tuna fish in. BTW, in those days, a can of tuna was a lot bigger. Occasionally, I’d put in some cooked ground beef.

Do you ever eat a bowl of cereal just because you want one?

I mean, and why not?! I’ve blogged about cereal here, FCOL, complaining that people were too busy to eat cereal, which I think is absurd. Also blogged specifically about mixing cereals here.

What is your junk food weakness–the one you cautiously indulge because it would be too easy to go overboard with it?

Raspberry Zingers. Of all those junk-filled cakes, it wasn’t Twinkies or those chocolate things, it was the combination of coconut and faux fruit. There are knockoff brands, but none are as good as Dolly Madison.

Finally, what was your favorite, but now defunct, local restaurant?

I guess I’ll say Friendly’s. It’s not defunct, but it’s no longer in the city of Albany, or indeed in Albany County. The day I got married to Carol, I rode my bike to Friendly’s on Delaware Avenue in Albany for breakfast, a structure that’s been closed for years, and nothing’s been done with it. More recently, the restaurant on Central Avenue, which always took great care about The Daughter’s peanut allergy, disappeared, oddly only months after the building was rehabbed. The location on Wolf Road in Colonie also disappeared.

Going to the suburb of East Greenbush (which we did once) or the neighboring city of Troy (which I went to for the very first time just last week) is not the same, in terms of convenience.

I suppose it’s also that I am peevish that we had purchased some discounted coupons from our local restaurant, which closed the VERY NEXT WEEK!

By the way, the food questions come because I have chemo on Tuesday and my eating will be all screwed up for the rest of the week.

And you KNOW I wish you nothing but the best, Eddie!

Z is for Zone

Those of us in the northeast US felt pretty secure about avoiding the remnants of hurricanes until Irene and Lee in 2011 and Sandy in 2012 roared through.

I came across this article: Alaskan villages try “climigration” in the face of climate change. The subhead is “When a town turns to a perpetual disaster area, it might be time to move it.”

I was thinking about this in following the Oklahoma tornadoes in May; the picture is from the aftermath. How DOES one live in a tornado alley? There was an intense storm in Moore, Oklahoma in 1999, after all. There have been a few articles about why there are few underground shelters in the area; Dustbury linked to one.

This led me to muse on other disasters; repeated flooding on parts of the Mississippi River, e.g. A couple of towns, I’ve read, moved to a safety zone several miles away from the river, but others get sandbags together for a near-annual threat of the town being swallowed up.

I recall after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there was lots of chatter about someone who could be so crazy to build a city, New Orleans, that actually below sea level. It’s a major port, that’s why, and the government is building walls that – likely – will protect it from another storm.

Wildfires and earthquakes and the occasional avalanche in the western US, hurricanes in the southeast. What is the zone one can go to that is immune to the ravages of Mother Nature? Those of us in the northeast US felt pretty secure about avoiding the remnants of hurricanes until Irene and Lee in 2011 and Sandy in 2012 roared through. Sandy made a left turn; it’s not supposed to do that! The American meteorological models didn’t even predict that path, though the European models did.

So where in your country, or part of the country, are the danger zones, the safety zones? Of course, one cannot be 100% safe anywhere, but there are greater and lesser risks.

I’m still convinced that my locale in upstate New York is still a relatively safe zone to live in. That IS subject to change…

ABC Wednesday – Round 12

ARA: Influences and historical conversations

We’ll have Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie.

Dear Lisa says Okay, I’ll play:
Who (living or dead) has had the most influence on your life?

I’d have to say my father. He turned me on to music, which was always in the house. He had a thing for social justice. His moodiness was something I tried to avoid in myself, not always successfully. He could be an unfocused dreamer, something I can be guilty of as well.

If you could go back in time and have a conversation with someone, who would it be? My apologies if you’ve already answered these questions before!

Well, I have, so I’ve decided to change it. I want a conversation with FOUR people, together, in the summer of 1910. We’ll have Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), who would be 21, and Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1947), who would turn 41 in the fall, and Thomas Edison (1847-1931), who would be 63, and Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), who would turn 75 in the fall.

I’d be interested to see what the other three would have to say to young Adolf: Gandhi about non-violence, Edison about creativity, Carnegie about going from being a robber baron to a philanthropist who built libraries.
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Tom the Mayor asked:

Have you ever lost your temper with your wife? Or your daughter?

My wife and I almost never fight. We disagree, but not all that often. The last time I remember getting REALLY angry with her, and it was several years ago, was when she was in a conversation in our house with someone else. I piped in with a point, and she said, to the other person, that I had gotten said point from some specific Sunday morning talk show. After the guest left, about a half-hour later, I exploded that I don’t parrot what I see on a given talk show but take in from a variety of sources and develop my viewpoints. THAT ticked me off.

The Daughter is very sensitive; just ask her. When she was younger, just being disappointed with something she did was enough to launch her into tears. Later, when I had to prod her into doing something – doing her homework, cleaning her room – I would use my calmest firm voice, yet she’d start crying, adding “You KNOW I’m sensitive!” which actually made me laugh inside.

So, I’d say I would get agitated with her sometimes, at which point, I will take a timeout from her. To be fair to me, my wife has experienced similar things; sometimes, SHE’S the “bad” parent. Now when The Daughter writes about it, she may have a different take, but that will be HER blog.
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A question in my spam folder:

What do you consider the best security defend agency in the country? thanks!

A well-informed populace.

Hyperplastic polyps, and other things

It has rained every day for the past couple weeks in Albany, NY.

This is a picture of my mother’s class (kindergarten or first grade, from the 1933 date). Can you find her? My, they all look so sullen. I mean, I know it’s the Depression and all, but dang.

In that TMI category, there were a couple of polyps removed from my colon in late June. They were hyperplastic, a term I had never heard/seen before. This means that not only are they BENIGN, but they also do NOT turn into cancer. Compare this with polyps that are adenoma type, also BENIGN, but need monitoring. Not to mention outcomes that could have been worse. So I won’t bore you with my colonoscopy tales for another decade.

If it wasn’t for people such as Doug Englebart, I wouldn’t be communicating with you. The tools he helped develop in computing are used today on the Internet. I started watching the lengthy video here from 1968(!). At about 19 minutes in, he’s essentially describing the hyperlink; at 30 minutes, the computer mouse; later, Google.

I knew Google RSS feed reader was going away. Now I get an e-mail from Bloglovin every day – found it easier for me than some of the others that were suggested, such as Feedly.

There was so much to write about the Supreme Court cases in June. Yet the only thing I could muster was a piece in my other blog that the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is only partially dead, i.e., Section 3, while Section 2 survives. Those widespread news reports saying otherwise were wrong.

I actually started writing a piece on how crazy Justice Antonin Scalia was in the month of June, but I just lost my mojo for it. Mark Evanier put it well: “I don’t understand a lot of the logic behind [the] rulings on Gay Marriage. Scalia’s dissent in the overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act reads to me like the rebuttal to his support the day before in the castration of the Voting Rights Act;” that’s about right. SCOTUS voted 9-0 on the gene patent case, correctly, to my mind, but Scalia’s “reasoning” was bizarre. Yet I actually agreed with the rebuttal of the Supreme Court’s support for DNA testing of arrestees.

Arthur, rightly, was complaining a few weeks ago about the immigration reform bill Marco Rubio (R-FL) co-sponsored but threatened to kill it if gave gay couples immigration rights. So I found it quite entertaining that, as a result of part of the Defense of Marriage Act being struck down, a US citizen who is married to a non-American of the same gender will be able to sponsor his or her spouse for immigration in exactly the same way that legally married opposite-gender couples can. And the first couple approved by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services is from…Florida. Was that REALLY a coincidence?

When I feel discouraged about the body politic, I realize I need to find and read this book: The American Heroes of Social Justice.

Need to wish a belated happy 25th anniversary to Denise Nesbitt, the progenitor of ABC Wednesday, and her husband Jon.

At some point, it has rained every day for the past couple of weeks in Albany, NY. It doesn’t bother me as much as it does others, based on the whining in social media, though it HAS been difficult to mow the wet grass. Now some local towns around here suffered sudden, severe flooding; THOSE people can complain. Still, I prefer it to the arid 100F+ (38C+) temperatures out in the western US.
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I’m reading The 10 nerdiest jokes of all time, and this one made me literally LOL, with the intro, “Is there ever a wrong moment to make an existential funny?”

“Jean-Paul Sartre is sitting at a French cafe, revising his draft of Being and Nothingness. He says to the waitress, ‘I’d like a cup of coffee, please, with no cream.’ The waitress replies, ‘I’m sorry, Monsieur, but we’re out of cream. How about with no milk?'”