On The Town

Last night, I was delighted to watch the first production of Leonard Bernstein's "On The Town" ever mounted here in Houston. It was very cute, but my not-gay friend who took me kept remarking on how very gay the male cast members were.

And they were. Like "holy CRAP that boy is gay".

Back in "the day" when homo-ness was less acceptable, we (I) had to hide out in plain sight, which required that we be more conforming than is now the standard. In theater arts, one could be a bit more expressive - but, you were in the main NOT going to be so expressive that people would figure it out from twenty paces.

These boys - their gayness could be detected from space.

Not that it's bad, but one of the qualities of live theater in the past was that the dancing/singing/acting boys were just SLIGHTLY more appealing in terms of their finesse, their presentation, their expressions. When their gayness begins to negatively affect the believability of whether they would actually be found dancing with a scantily dressed female - the illusion is shattered and they aren't fitting for the roles they were cast into.

Sailors who chase dames, for instance, should at least give the idea that they'd be INTERESTED in chasing dames. And not to learn where they picked up those fabulous shoes.

The day after 090909

More teaching tomorrow and Saturday - maybe I'll get some marketing out for myself.

I wasn't quite expecting as much out of Obama's speech as we seem to have gotten. At the same time, the political theater is draining.

Happy anniversary last night, Rachel!

Spent Labor Day in awesome conversation connecting dots in elements of our national discourse and events. It was great to engage in uniform praise for Matt Taibbi, and to turn the concepts around together with other people who are analytical and well informed.

Consider -

H1N1 (swine) flu historically starts out with a short term spike that is minimally fatal. The flu begins to mutate, and comes back in the late fall/early winter, but then roars – nay, explodes – into a virulent killing machine in the late winter.

It seems quite clear that health reform will not have a public option (perhaps one that is “triggered” but not one starting out) and given that the same players created a TWO YEAR opportunity for credit card issuers to knock interest rates out of the park before new rules took effect, we can expect that any health reform (which should be in place before the H1N1 flu comes back for its class reunion around Thanksgiving) will have given the health insurance companies ample opportunity to reduce, reuse and recycle existing policy holders by jacking up premiums, co-pays, reducing benefits and basically making it very challenging for people to maintain their current health coverage.

While not widely reported, a very well researched and thorough writer has commented that a great number of his personal contacts are anonymously suggesting that we are about to experience major employers greatly reducing health benefits, increasing co-pays, increasing employee contributions especially for spousal or dependent coverage. This is expected to begin taking effect when enrollment periods open, which is traditionally late in the calendar year.

While not widely understood, current health insurance policies do NOT pay for emergency services, such as an emergency room visit with an onset of, say, sudden, chronic flu symptoms. Recently, a close friend had a visit to the ER after a diabetic episode at work and found that his employer paid health insurance pays only TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS of ER visits that are not (get this) approved IN ADVANCE.

Um, sure. “Hello? HMO? I'm thinking I'll have the flu on Thursday and may need to go to the ER – maybe Thursday night or Friday?”

In the 2000 presidential election, Ralph Nader was directly and aggressively challenged for his threat of Al Gore's effort to attain the White House. He acknowledged that, indeed, his intent was to block Al Gore from becoming president, saying (paraphrased) that our country had not yet suffered enough havoc of the policies of the previous 30 years to make lasting, real change.

I believe that he was right.

I believe also that a perfect storm may be brewing of greatly reduced health benefits, greatly increased health premium costs, greatly increased out of pocket payments for ER visits, co-pays and emergency treatment and the return of the H1N1 flu.

That change Ralph Nader has long thought needed may be nearly upon us.

Lather, rinse, repeat

Program Director: Take 2, cue Howard.

Beale: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell,

and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"