The Down Side of reading Local Police Reports...

Our local weekly newspaper carries, like many local papers, a "Sheriff's Report" of local arrests. There's usually not nearly enough real info to figure out what's going on -- many are of some guy picked up for drunkenness and found to have three outstanding warrants, so he's taken to jail -- and released on bail! What the--?

But this week we get this entry (my emphasis):

"Teen Arrested for Drugs, Weapons

"Tues Jul 21 at 7:50 pm, sheriff's deputies arrested a 19-year-old man at the corner of Carlwyn Dr and Clifton Way for multiple counts of drug possession including marijuana, cocaine, and various narcotics. Sheriff's deputies also found weapons and unidentified explosives during their search. He was handcuffed and taken to jail."

The location is down at the end of my street.

Explosives?!?

I'm almost sorry I read that. I've heard a kid down in that direction has drug problems. Fine. But explosives???

Ai!

And of course one gets no more info than that.

If local papers want to endear themselves to their readers, they will go find out what the heck is going on down there and tell us.

(Nah.)

Musical ‘Almond Eyes’ Wows Sold-Out Crowd

Bernice and I attended the musical 'Almond Eyes' that played at CSUEB (Cal State Hayward) in July and greatly enjoyed it.

It's still in "workshop," according to the two authors, Jay Chee (book and lyrics) and JoAnn Yuen (music), who made an appearance after the standing-ovation close. Apparently they are looking for more opportunities to present the play--this was the premiere, for which Cal State Hayward's theater department should be proud.

Based on the life of an Asian song-and-dance act, Toy and Wing, before and after World War II on the West Coast of the U.S., Almond Eyes opens our eyes to a world little known to most of us: The so-called Chop Suey vaudville circuit, and the difficulty non-white entertainers had in being taken seriously. The writer did a very good job of telling a story that, being a real one, doesn't have an entirely neat Hollywood ending. It was warm, charming, amusing, disturbing in parts, and entertaining. The acting was very good too, with the leading man and lady doing a terrific job, with an unexpected boost near the end of the show from Lawrence-Michael C. Arias, whose boozy MC sings a heart-breaking swan song that is pitch-perfect poignant.

The show ended with Dorothy Toy's elderly dance troupe stomping all over the stage to the delight of the crowd.

--mac

CSUEB's press release does a good job of summarizing the event:

Bolstered by Dorothy Toy’s huge extended family and the exuberance of an Asian community thrilled to celebrate one of their own, the July 24-25 run of “Almond Eyes” – based on the life of ‘40s performers Dorothy Toy and Paul Wing - drew three sold out crowds to the Highlands Summer Theatre on the California State University, East Bay stage.

The cast of 23 ranged from two professionals to an elementary school student, and drew from across the Bay Area, including 10 CSUEB students, plus 10 CSUEB technicians and crew, two City College of San Francisco students, one from San Francisco State University, one from Laney College, and even one CSUEB staffer, Annie Manning from ethnic studies.

Top that off with a post show performance by 70-year old showgirls from the Grant Avenue Follies, a San Francisco troupe of Asian American chorus girls who began performing in San Francisco as early as the 1940s, and the opening night appearance of Dorothy Toy, herself, now 91 and attired in a spangled black and silver evening gown and six-inch heels, the performance took on the air of an event and drew considerable attention to the CSUEB Theatre and Dance Department.

As if this didn’t make for sufficient buzz, Ray Gin, production manager for “A Chorus Line,” made a surprise visit to the show’s final performance looking for Asian American artists who develop socially responsible programs with an outreach appeal. Prompted by Baayork Lee, Broadway choreographer and originator of “Connie” in the original "Chorus Line", Lee’s organization, The National Asian Artist Program fosters emerging artists who speak to underserved communities.

Almond Eyes was also invited to participate in the San Francisco Theatre Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens on the Sunday following closing night. Another venue in San Jose has also approached the Department to remount the production in San Jose, pending funding, according to Director A. Fajilan.

Fajilan praised her team of musical director Chris Erwin and choreographer Laura Ellis for fixing, refining, re-envisioning and keeping the students on task as they brought Jay Chee and JoAnn Yuen's script to life and showed why Toy and Wing were dubbed the Asian Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.
The production and design staff also rose to the challenge and did not let the "workshop" label impede their designs and visions, according to the director.

“Asian Americans have such few shows that focus on their American experience,” said Fajilan. “I hope to change that by presenting new works every year. It is quite a task to take on a premiere musical and workshop shows that have the potential to leave a lasting impact on American Theatre and History. We all were fortunate to have ‘Almond Eyes’ as the first installment in our Artists of Color Series,” she said.

Best Cruise Destinations does NOT include Malta!

At the site Boomster, writer Pam Baker wrote a good article on 'Best Cruise Destinations,' including Bermuda, Dubai, and The Poles.

Unfortunately, she also included Malta as one of her favorites.

No.

She writes, "The island is gorgeous with its magnificent ornamental gardens, ancient walls, historic ruins (from different periods over many centuries) and its beautiful churches."

I hate to disagree, but Malta is NOT a favorite destination -- not for me, anyway. Not when I visited in the 1990s.

The capital (and only significant city) was flattened during WWII -- I mean, flattened. When you take the historical walk, every single "ancient" building was rebuilt, from the ground up, in 1946-1950 timeframe (by the Brits, in appreciation for the island's brave populace). There is *nothing* on the island from prior to WWII - unfortunately.

The churches etc. are, however, good imitations of what they looked like in previous eras. It's a kind of Disneyland of old Malta. Pity, that.

We weren't impressed with the food, either. We figured, Malta has been conquered by the Arabs, the Italians, the French, the Visigoths--it should have the most wonderful blend of cuisines in the world!

We forgot that the most recent conquerer of Malta was -- the British, in the early 1800s. As a result, Malta is the last refuge of legendarily bad English cooking. Awful.

Also a pity.

I pictured a quaint Mediterranean island. I got a soft-limestone rock where the elegant homes looked like upscale prison blockhouses.

Oh well.

In Defense of Twitter... Good read!

"In Defense of Twitter" is a *terrific* shootdown of an *idiotic* NYT editorial by Maureen Dowd, aka Pompous Ass. Fun read!

And in her editorial (linked in the above post), Dowd interviews the founders of Twitter, who just wipe up the floor with her!

Idiot.

Update on Amazon Pulls Books from Kindle Story

This from Endgadget, following up on its original story about the incident:

Update 2: Drew Herdener, Amazon.com's Director of Communications, pinged us directly with the following comment, and now things are starting to make a lot more sense. Seems as if the books were added initially by an outfit that didn't have the rights to the material.

These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances.

--

Comment: Well, now: Doesn't sound so bad, does it?

As I suspected, something went wrong and the copyright holder exercised their rights -- in which case Amazon had no option but to accede.

Of course, Amazon screwed up, or rather, got screwed up by the third-party submitter who didn't have the right to submit the books; Amazon will need to figure a way to check that sort of thing more closely. And Amazon arguably screwed up by not promptly announcing the nature of the problem so as to dampen criticism.

Yet, there are still complaints: Under the invisible headline You Can't Win, Endgadget goes on to conclude:

Still, what's upsetting is the idea that something you've purchased can be quietly taken back by Amazon with no explanation and no advance notice. It's a rotten policy, regardless of the motivations behind this particular move.

The 'no explanation' part is the only part I think is worth complaining about. The 'no advance notice' is only wise, under the circumstances: Many commenters talked about wishing they had offloaded their copy of the books so they couldn't be taken back. Amazon would have been foolish to announce in advance, thus enabling customers to put Amazon in noncompliance with copyright law.

The real bottom-line complaint from most complainers is that Amazon is able, in this technology, to 'unsell' you a book. In their minds, All Sales Are Final. But this is also nonsense: If I sell you a book I stole from someone, the owner could have the police come to you and take it back. Only legal sales can be considered final. The only thing unusual about this particular Amazon sequence is that the reclaiming was done in a novel (sic) virtual way that isn't an option in the physical world. People hadn't thought to consider this as a possibility, and now they're taken aback. Understandably. But they are also crying foul, which is understandable also (because people lash out) but wrong.

Mad Because Amazon Pulled A Book Back from Your Kindle? Why?

Apparently, Amazon was forced by a publisher to delete copies of George Orwell's books 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindle electronic readers of customers who had already bought the book. Details at David Pogue's NYT blog.

Tech observers are furious. I mean furious.

How dare Amazon reach into my Kindle and take away a book I paid for? True, they refunded the money I paid for the book, but -- this is wrong! Not much detail in the reports, beyond a note that apparently the original publisher/owner of the copyright changed its mind about offering the book electronically, and Amazon lost the argument.

Columnists around the blogsphere are spitting nails. They'd never have bought a Kindle if they had known Amazon would (and would be able to) take back a book they had "bought." It's mine! You can't take it back, I bought it! Various analogies have been offered: What if a publisher came into your house and took back a book you had bought from your shelf? What if Microsoft (there is always a Microsoft angle) accessed your computer and forced an upgrade from Windows XT to Windows 7? Amazon is cowardly to yield to the publisher; they are kissing the publisher's derriere; Amazon "caved." Suggestions for hiding downloaded books from Amazon's eraser mechanism have been discussed.

I'm sorry, I don't understand. What was Amazon supposed to do? Defy the copyright holder?

Shouldn't you be annoyed at the publisher? They're the ones who pulled the book. Yes, the technology makes it possible, which physical books couldn't. But that's inherent in the technology, isn't it? Should Amazon have defied the owner and- - I don't know, gone to jail? And lost the right to the books anyway? Should Amazon have deliberately designed the product to not be able to rescind books if the rights to publish went away? Or is the problem, maybe, copyright and distribution laws that aren't current with technology?

The publisher/rights owner clearly has the right to allow or not allow Amazon to distribute its books electronically. If they had decided not to distribute them electronically, would the publisher be a bad company? They apparently changed their minds - no info on why, or whether they had the contractual right to do so, or - well, anything, just the bald fact. And no info from Amazon, either -- participants in business arguments rarely find it valuable to baldly describe their business disagreements in public.

But let's leap to the assumption that Amazon would not have had to pull the books but chose to do so -- because Amazon is wicked. Yeah, that's the ticket. I'm not buying any more product from a wicket company that can sell me something, then take it back later and refund my money. Bastards.

Strange world. When somebody gets some more facts, I will read them with interest, and maybe then be able to make up my mind who, if anyone, to be mad at. Meanwhile, I am just confused at the fury.

mac

"Almond Eyes," A Love Story from the Chop Suey Circuit

Cal State Hayward (Cal State East Bay, Hayward, CA) premieres “Almond Eyes,” an original musical about an generally little-known aspect of the mid-century vaudville circuit that catered primarily to Chinese audiences on the West Coast.

The original musical by Jay Chee and JoAnn Yuen, directed by A. Fajilan, is based on the life of dancer

Dorothy Takahashi and her partner, Paul Wing Jew (shortened to Toy & Wing for marquee appeal), who were known as the Asian Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

Dorothy Toy, now 91, will attend opening night, July 24!

Discrimination on the West Coast during World War II dashed their dreams of fame in Hollywood and their careers concluded with the demise of the famed Chop Suey Circuit in San Francisco where Asian American performers (known as “Orientals”) entertained in elaborate supper clubs during the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Through Broadway-style music, dance and comedy, “Almond Eyes” tells an uplifting story of love, breakups, and reunions that are interwoven with California’s Asian American history.

Several members of the Grand Avenue Follies, who are now aged 60-76, will recreate a number to close CSUEB shows. Toy, now 91, is to attend opening night.

Tickets to the performances at 8 p.m. Friday, July 24 and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, July 25, are $18 general, $15 youth, seniors and alumni, and $10 for CSUEB students with I.D. They may be reserved at http://class.csueastbay.edu/theatre/Ticket_Reservations.php or at 510-885-3118.

This is your chance to see an all-new play, and meet an amazing figure from a past most of us could hardly guess.

http://class.csueastbay.edu/news/almondtoweb.pdf

Kate with her Michael Jackson Ceremony Ticket!

So Kate went down to the Staples Center the day before the Michael Jackson ceremony to pick up her ticket - in the form of a gold-colored wristband. Here she is showing off the artifact. (Which will presumably end up on eBay someday.)

She said the pickup was a well-organized drivethru, rather than making you find parking and stand in a line. Her pix of the dealio are on her Facebook page (Kate McCarthy, if you're a Friend).

Twitter is for Dogs

(Courtesy of Bill Machrone)

I was talking with my dog the other day. He said, "The owner of Rascal, the Jack Russell on the next block has Twitter. Can you help me send him a message?"

I agreed, of course, knowing how his paws were ill-adapted to the keyboard.

"Sure, what do you want to say?"

"Woof woof woof woof
woof woof woof woof
woof woof woof woof
woof woof woof
woof woof woof
woof woof woof woof
woof woof woof woof."

"That's 130 characters. Did you want to add another woof or two?"

He looked at me strangely. "But that wouldn't make any sense."

My Kid's Going to the Michael Jackson Circus!

Handing out the tickets. Image by Getty Images via Daylife

My kid, Kate, who lives in LA and is The Luckiest Person in the World, won a pair of tickets to go to the Michael Jackson memorial in LA tomorrow!

The gold tickets are much coveted, as you can imagine in light of the hysterical media coverage following Jackson's recent death. How lucky is Kate? Let's put it this way: There were 8,000 pairs of tickets offered; 1.5 million people applied.

The Luckiest Person said she would not be scalping her tickets, but will attend tomorrow instead -- this is one of those events that, many years from now, you can still talk about. And she'll take pictures, because twenty years from now, it will be like Woodstock: The number of people who claim to have attended will greatly exceed the population of the LA basin.

I told her to be sure to Twitter the event while there; and blog it after, with lots of pics -- this will generate more followers and traffic for her than anything else she could hope to do. And she'll send me some of her happy snaps; when I post them to my blog, I'll get a lift too!

Weird world!