Stuff and Nonsense

There have been a lot of things happening and mentions on the web recently, and I thought I would collate them here. One thing that I have noticed in the Facebook Marching Society is that we often fire off a like, or a share, or a note and then it gets completely lost in the thundering avalanche of cat pictures and posts about lunch.

First off, the Kobolds. Wolfgang Baur and his merry crew are offering a Bundle of Zobeck, a collection of DRM-free PDFs, all for the price of ... whatever you want to pay. That simple and that complex. We're talking a lot of good gaming product here, at a cost of ... whatever. But wait, there's more! You can designate a part of your payment for charity. Wolf has chosen two charities - Heifer International, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. PLUS the bundle includes the frankly-amazing Midgard Campaign Setting, to which this humble author has contributed.

Go Vote. You know you want to.

Speaking of Kobolds, the Midgard Campaign Setting and things that this humble author has contributed to, voting for the ENnies is open. The ENnies, given at Gencon, are gamer-voter awards and .. well, the voting is a bit more complicated than the Washington State Primary, but if you understand THAC0 and Pathfinder, I think you'll manage just fine. The Midgard Campaign Setting (edited by the masterful Michele Carter) is up for Best Setting, while the Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding (which this humble author has also contributed to but, more importantly, was edited by the joyous Janna Silverstein) has been nominated for Best Writing and Best Game-Related Project. Dark Roads and Golden Hells (which this humble author did NOT contribute to, but still is really good product) is up for Best Supplement. Voting is until the end of the July.

Meanwhile, in non-Kobold gaming material, a lot of the old TSR/WotC gang are working on cool stuff. First up is Lester Smith with a Kickstarter for his Clashing Blades card game. Lester designed this game ages ago and this is for printing a customized deck. Then, Tim Brown is returned to his Dark Sunish roots with Dragon Kings, which will be a combination music/game product with art by Brom and design from the talented Thomas Reid. And Rich Baker and Dave Noonan have formed up Sasquatch Game Studios, and are Kickstarting their first project, Primeval Thule.

And as for me, I seem to be popping up in a number of places. Ten Ton Hammer did a "where are they now" bit on me, which was nice, and Ranting Dragon did a review of my first novel, Azure Bonds (written with Kate Novak, also known as the Lovely Bride), which was also nice. Topless Robot talks about my work in the little-known but apparently-appreciated game Dyvil, which I literally wrote on a dare for Steve Miller. Blog of Holding mentions a proposal I wrote years ago involbing a world wrapped in clouds. The Star Wars site Rooqoo Station gave a mention of my Pacific Rim review and Jay Lake (whose work I admire and whose blog I regularly scan for his link salad, though I don't know how he does it daily) mentioned my piece on Lovecraft. AND there's an interview with myself and fellow Loremasters Ree Soesbee and Scott McGough on Guildmag

And I have in my hands a copy of 13th Age, by former WotCites Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet, with art by Lee Moyer and Aaron McConnell. I read one of the early drafts, and was impressed enough to blurb it (and yeah, I meant what I said on the back cover) and now I look forward to reading it in the final form.

So for an old guy, and I don't seem to be slowing down too much. And that's a good thing.

More later,

The Political Desk: The Jeff Recommends

So, to sum up. In this lackluster election primary, there are just a few things to vote on up here on Grubb Street. The reasons and general complaints are elsewhere in the blog. Here's my take:

King County Proposition No. 1 Parks Levy - Vote Approved, but go ahead, grumble about it.

King County Executive - Dow Constantine, with no one as a second choice.

Port of Seattle Commissioned Position No. 3 - Stephanie Bowman, with Michael Wolfe as a second choice.

City of Kent Council Position No. 6 - Bailey Stober, with Ken Sharp as a second choice.

Kent School District No. 415, Director District No.5 - Three-way tie with Bruce Elliot, Carmen Goers, and Maya Vengadasalam. (Don't let anyone tell you I'm dictating your choice, here).

Sadly, I am not involved with the Seattle Mayor Contest, which looks like it will be the most amusing of the lot, but as we say up here on Grubb Street, More Later.

The Political Desk: Chevy to the Levy

The last official thing on my ballot is the King County Proposition No. 1 Parks Levy, which feels like a repeat, since there ALWAYS seems to be King County Proposition, and it is always No. 1, and it often involves funding out parks. It is the electoral version of an Eagles farewell tour- even if we like it, we keep seeing it come back.

And I've gone on about this sort of thing before - THIS they let us vote on. It is the cute bunny of the budgetary items, because it is after all, for the parks and recreation and the zoo, after all. And no one hates the zoo, right? It feels like I'm being approached by Jimmy Fallon on one of those credit card commercials, and I'm the little kid in the jumper who comically says no.

Well, I don't say no - though I feel like a soft touch whenever I get to this part of the ballot. If you hate taxes, parks, cute bunnies, laughing children, and freedom, you should definitely vote NO, but I'm going to bite the bullet, take the tough stand (yeah, right), and recommend APPROVED on this one. But I am going to be a grumpy cat about it.

More later,

The Political Desk: A City Called Kent

So now we are really granular with the analysis, getting to the point where less than a handful of people that read this will actually vote in the election, and some of them will be the candidates googling their own names. Where even the Muni League doesn't cover them. We are talking about City Council for Kent (Position 6) and a School District Director (District #415, Director District No. 5).

And it is at this level that political barriers tend to break down. You have to do some hunting in the endorsements to figure out if you're dealing with Dem or a Rep. And really, that is not as important at this point because the people involved tend to represent their communities beyond just political faction. These are positions where they have the meetings, hold the votes, and drive fifteen minutes to get home for a late supper. They are in contact with their constituents on a daily basis, and it reflects in their approach and attitude.

This is also where people get their start politically, where they are running for elections and getting into the tedious parts of government where to meet and you listen. And listen some more. So this is the minor leagues, but truly where people get tested.

Not everyone is a pro - For the City Council position, only one of the candidates has a working web site up. One of the others lacks one mentioned the Voter's Guide, and a third has a site, which at the time of this writing, consists of a single image of the campaign logo. Seriously, we are in a technology-rich area - there are people available who can do this sort of thing (and I may have some leads - email me).

However, I really want to state that, based upon the write-up the Voters' Guide,  my initial approach to all of these candidates is that they are sane. I know this sounds like a gag, but it's not - just look at some of the candidates elsewhere. There is not a lot of warning signs, not that tell-tale that, entrusted with the vote, they will go haring off in some strange direction. And actually, that makes me feel pretty good.

So, Kent City Council. Barbara Phillips has previous experience with the Land Use and Planning Board. Bailey Stober worked previously on the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs, and has a host of endorsements (he's also the one with functioning web site). Ken Sharp is a local businessman and former president of the Chamber of Commerce. All want to see Kent grow as a safe and prosperous community, Forced into a corner, I would go for Mr. Stober, and say that Ms. Phillips would be chopped not go on to the General, but to be truthful, I wouldn't call this one way or the other.

Similarly, the school board. Bruce Elliot, Carmen Goers, and Maya Vengadasalam all present a personal stake in education. None of them are professional pols. All of them want to give the kids a good education. And while I am happy to see three solid candidates, I'm not going to tell you which is best - take a look at their own write-ups. There are no really bad choices.

And that's kind of a good thing.

More later,

The Political Desk: Hey, the Airport is a Port!

Back to stuff that I can actually vote on - Position 3, Port Commissioner. This is a board which oversees not only the sea port (bringing things in) but the airport (bringing people in). And it is interesting in that this year, all three candidates actually talk about the airport in the Voter's Guide.

Also interesting is that the Port Commission has been for years the easy target for looking for corruption. Yet for the past few, things have honestly gotten quieter. So while the humor factor is definitely reduced, it is in danger of slipping into the type of quiet competency that the PNW likes.

Anyway, the candidates are (pick two - well, pick one but the top two go on to the General Election):

First up is Stephanie Bowman, of whom we said nice things about when she was running for State Legislature, and has been temping in the job for a while. She is also the one who alludes (blink and you'll miss it) in her write-up to not wanting to export fossil fuels through the ports, which is a reference to the proposed coal trains coming into downtown Seattle. Michael Wolf is packing a lot of endorsements, and his main thrust is tourism coming in through the airport. Andrew Pilloud is a software engineer, and of the three touches on the idea that we may have too much security, to the point where we are terrorizing ourselves (which you must admit, is a time-saver, as opposed to waiting around to be terrorized). I like the cut of Andrew's jib, but I am afraid he will be the one to pack his knives and go be eliminated. Stephanie Bowman is a good call, and like Michael Wolf as well, so I will have to revisit this one.

More later,

The Political Desk: The Rest of King County

So, I get to vote for the King County Exec, but I don't get to vote in the primary for either of the two positions for King County Council that have three+ candidates. This is because a few years ago, we switched from at-large positions (where a candidate has to appeal to everyone in the county) to district positions (where a candidate only has to appeal to those in his/her district).

Sigh

District elections, top-two primaries, "preferred" political parties. I swear I am just one more bone-headed move away from getting my Mossback card and being allowed to complain about how nice Seattle was before all these Californians moved up here and raised the housing prices.

On the other hand, I have come to like our mail-in elections, so there's that.

Anyway, King County Council, where the primary will get rid of one of the challengers who will face the incumbent, who is better known anyway. We have two races here (neither of which I can vote on, but you've probably heard about that).

Position 1 has a relatively young incumbent, Rod Dembowski, who was chosen to fill out previous incumbent Bob Ferguson's term when he ascended to be Attorney General. He gets good marks from the usual suspects, has a slew of endorsements (including Bob Ferguson), and according to his write-up in the guide, wants to protect the environment, fund transportation, push health care, reduce crime, and increase transparency. Naomi Wilson wants to push health care, fund transportation, and improve social services. John Fray wants to protect the environment, fight for veterans, likes Patty Murray, and quotes Al Gore. I'm going to say that Mr. Fray will not be the Next Food Network Star King County Councilperson, and that, long-term, Rod Dembowski will get a full term.

Position 9 has Reagan Dunn as its incumbent, and he'll go on to the general, which is kind of a pity, since he's had a hard time making meetings, and shows up to vote against anything that even hints at effective revenue increases. He's got good hair and a known name (his mom was a moderate Republican in the days before you had to put air-quotes around the word moderate) and was beat up by Bob Ferguson when he ascended to be Attorney General, so you'll see him again. Shari Song is a reasonable challenger, who is running as not being Reagan Dunn, and has a fistful of solid endorsements. Kristina Macomber is also a newcomer, and while she identifies herself as being the only Democrat in the race, most of the Democrats have endorsed Ms. Song. Ms. Macomber will likely have to leave Masterchef kitchen be eliminated in the primary, and Position 9 would be well-served to consider Shari Song.

Next up, the Port!

More later

The Political Desk: King County Executive

OK, Let's put aside the whinging and get down to actually things I will have to vote on.

The position of King County Executive is, in the words of a friend, "The mayor of the county". That's a pretty good description, as it covers both those areas not covered by other municipalities (so it is in charge of the King County Sheriff's Office), as well as services that span multiple communities (such as transportation). It has a lack-luster name, and to be frank, is not a gold and glory position. The current office-holder is Dow Constantine.

Two candidates will emerge from this primary, Dow Constantine, and the Guy Who Will Lose to Dow Constantine. This is because Mr. Constantine has pretty much acquitted himself well, and has showed wisdom in working with the King County Council (yeah, we have one of those as well). Strong on environment and transportation, strong on consensus, reduced the cost of government, and most importantly, hasn't done anything to embarrass us. No, really, that's a big thing we look for in a politician. Don't make me sorry I voted for you.

So what about the other guys? For them, low on cash and exposure, the Voter's Guide is their Oscar moment, the place where they can talk to on an equal footing with a better known, better funded, more experienced opponent. Let's take a look.

Allan E. Lobdell is a bit earnest in his presentation and has a tendency to put everything in bold and underlining it. Still, he touts a Civil Engineering background, and I am a sucker for that sort of organization. If you hate Dow Constantine for some reason (he backed out of your driveway and took out the mailbox, or something), he'd be the good choice.

Goodspaceguy is a perennial candidate. When I first moved out here, he would run for local offices on a platform of how we can solve all out problems by going out into space (and yet the King County Aeronautical and Space Administration remains woefully underfunded to this day). He has since evolved his positions from being a single-issue candidate on space to being a single-issue candidate on destroying the minimum wage, which is responsible for all unemployment and crime (meanwhile, in Reality, King County has a hefty minimum wage and the lowest unemployment in the state. Crime's on the downswing, too). But don't let that stop statements like this:

"If right now the minimum wage were raised to $100 per hour, most people would lose their jobs, and our competitive free market economy, that works for you the consumer, would collapse. Crime and violence would skyrocket."

And pondering the truth of this statement, I must add that if bears were 200 feet tall, then we would have to construct giant twin-piloted battlesuits in order to protect our National Parks. So where ARE our Smokeyjaegers, eh?

Lastly, Everett A. Stewart comes with strong ideas on transportation, which is good, since that is something that actually the King County Executive is involved with. And some of the ideas he pitches are downright lefty - a carbon tax, a tax on the wealthy (income? estate? luxury?), and more electric buses. Then he gets bogged down on the question of bus drivers having to go the bathroom, and how long hours create duress and unsafe situations (I get the feeling there was a real-life situation that spawned this, and yeah, being in a vehicle when you need the loo is not a pleasant situation - now imagine it when you have a schedule and about thirty people sitting behind you). He wants to address this by not granting overtime and by using part-time bus drivers. Hang on, I'm not quite sure how that the latter part quite agrees with the first part, but by that time the orchestra is warming up to play him off.

In any event, I'll just say Dow Constantine here, with Mr. Lobdell as "The Other Guy".

More later.

The Political Desk: Enter, Ranting

Let us start of off with a bit of rant, which involves absolutely nothing that I can vote on this primary, but does cast a long shadow over the election.

Washington State is lucky in that it is dominated by the Democratic party, which means it tends to avoid the worst effects of the Banana Republic of Texas, the Plunderocracy of Wisconsin, or the Mad Max Kingdom of Florida. In each of these states a Republican majority has proceeded to dramatically drive the wealth and well-being of the state off a cliff. In state after state, letting the GOP drive the car has resulted in spectacular headlines, baffling decisions, lousy economies, and general misery.

Washington? Not so much. We are gifted with a sense of moderation, and even our Republican (in general) are of the relatively sane version (though we have those who are completely creatures of ALEC, they are in the minority). Similarly, we seem to be cautiously progressive at best, our Dems wary of wholesale social engineering and government activism. Part of it, I think, is the fact that a lot of power is placed within our legislature as opposed to our executive, and that legislature is a part-time operation.

So this year, something changed. A couple Democrats flipped in the State Senate, led by Rodney Tom, a Medina-based Republican-turned-Democrat-turned-SURPRISE! So their switch of caucuses, plus the re-acquisition of a GOP Senator who had been previously banned from caucusing for reported abuses gave the GOP a "Majority Coalition" - meaning all the Reps and the two Dems who changed sides.

OK, the Republican party gets to drive the Senate for a while. And while there have not been the almost-daily embarrassments you get with in other GOP-held provinces, their tenure has not been particularly stellar. The budget, the prime raison d'etre of the body, was a pale, tepid thing, delivered in overtime, threatening to shut down the state government, failing to address the biggest problem in the state (education funding), failing on transportation and, most importantly, walking away from a sweet deal to build a new bridge over the Columbia at Portland. Oregon wanted it, the Feds were willing to underwrite the bulk of it, but the Senate just brought it to a halt. I suppose we will have to wait for a truck to hit it wrong and bring the entire structure down before they react.

So the Republican-dominated coalition have yet again gone out of their way to show that government doesn't work by getting in charge and proving it. To paraphrase Groucho - "Just what the fine-tuned machinery of government needs - five feet of sand." And in keeping with the GOP, the leader of this "Majority Coalition" seems to be totally unaware that people are unhappy with their performance.

But that's not the rant - that's just whining. The rant comes up for the Dems. Now, you'd think that given the palace coup and the lack of progress from the resulting coalition, the State Democratic party would be fired up for the election to retake the Senate. Put on a full-court press. Recruit some decent candidates and push the State GOP on a broad front.

Again, not so much. There are only three elections in the primary that have three candidates for them, and of the nine people vying for State Senate positions, only one of them "Prefers Democratic Party"(1). Really? There are no Dems east of the Cascades? Has the Democratic hierarchy been so burned by Rodney Tom's flip that they won't seek out conservative, pro-small-business Dems on the far side of the mountains? Are they so comfortable with the bulk of the population (and the parts of the state that are recovering nicely from the recession) that they can cast loose the eastern half of the state? For the supposedly more big-tented of the two parties, it is sad to see such a surrender of territory and viewpoints (and yeah, the Reps do this electoral calculus as well - running as GOP is a challenge in Seattle, at best).

But, given the near-miss with shutting down the entire pinball machine this session, the Dems should be out in force to regain, and, properly chastised, lead. And this oddly has an effect some other races (which I also am not voting for, but which are going to affect my life.)

More later on that,

(1) Yeah, we don't have recognized political parties in the election, but rather candidate-stated "Preferences". Its more than a little bit dumb, but that's a rant for another day.

The Political Desk: Summer Session

What fresh hell is this? It is Mid-July, and already yard signs are appearing, mailings are starting to flow into the mailbox, and the Stranger and Seattle Times are making their normally bewildering endorsements (Note that only the Stranger makes theirs purposefully bewildering). It cannot be election season already, can it?

Indeed it is, hitting everyone up with the unwanted vibe of a back-to-school sale. The election deadline is in early August, and if you are in Washington State, you should be getting ballots any time now. So it is time to pull the blue tarpaulin off the Political Desk, chase out the raccoons that were nesting there, and start thinking about the citizen's contribution to the democratic process.

But it all feels so ... minor league. Triple A ball. Friday Night bowling tourney. Nickel and dime poker. After last year, we are facing a deficit of interesting challenges. Part of this is because of the nature of the top-two primary system. Since it is the top-two, only races that have three or more candidates will be considered at the moment. But part of the weakness of this year is also the timing. We have NOTHING at the national level. We are NOT electing the entire state executive branch. There are NO Judges under consideration in the Primary, and Initiatives and Referendums wait for the General Election. We are choosing (kinda) a King County Executive, there is a levy proposal, but other than that, I'm looking at School Boards, City Councils, a Port position. It is pretty lean times.

There ARE state legislature races, but I'm not voting in any of them that have three candidates. And the City of Seattle is choosing a mayor, and while it will have effects on my life, that race is not on my ballot. So I will make do, and lay out the stuff I know, and may just give some bonus points as well.

I am armed with not only the Stranger and Times' recommendations, but, as always, the relatively-trusty Municipal League ratings and the online Voter's Handbook. From this thin gruel I hope to seek enlightenment for the future, but this is really just pre-season - Cactus League Baseball, as we set up for the long, slow grind of the general. Bear with me.

More later (I'm afraid).

Beyond the Mountains of Bigotry

Here’s my problem.

I like the stories. I really want to see the movie. But the original writer of the stories is a stone-cold bigot, and I detest many of the ideas he endorses and espouses.

Oddly, I am not talking about Orson Card Scott and Ender’s Game. I am talking about HPLovecraft and the oft-proposed Mountains of Madness.

[OK, talking about OSC for a moment. I never read Ender’s Game – it came out in the mid-80s, when I was busy with a lot of other stuff, and I never caught the wave. I did read some of his Worthing Saga from the 70s and found that its central conceit (skipping through time by recorded memory) to be interesting but the delivery to be heavy-handed in its moralizing. That’s about it for me.]

Back to Lovecraft. I enjoy the sense of despair he evokes with an uncaring universe, his “Cosmicism” – that not only we are not the center of the universe; we don’t even matter to it. I also love his “Yog-Sothery” – his created world of strange gods that he hangs on his best tales, a universe which has expanded through other creatives into a greater creation – one of the first modern shared worlds.

But let’s face it – the man was a racist. Not just a creature of his times. Not a youthful indiscretion. Not just viewed with a modern lens. Not just misinformed. A barking mad racist. To him, pretty much all peoples who are not rock-ribbed white New Englanders were inferior, and the less you resembled Lovecraft, the worse you looked to him. His dark mutterings of subhumans and mongrel races permeates his text, and once he gets rolling, his is a most odious and repellent form of bigotry.

I like the man’s work (the parts where he not being barking mad), and I deeply love what he created, but to be honest, after five minutes in his presence, I would likely come across the table at him. He is petty and venal and a bigot.

And others have had to deal with this bigotry on a deeper level than I – talented writers of color who have been recognized for their work by awards with the Noted Racist’s head on it. The stalwart representative of Weird Tales, of that curious creation that is American Fantasy as a separate entity from its European forebears, is a poster boy for intolerance. What can be done?

Ignoring it is a mistake, a white-washing of the past, a denialism that does nothing for confronting the racism of its age and its metamorphed descendants in the present. Bowdlerizing his more offensive statements and pushing them to the back of the closest is dishonest to both him and ourselves. But how to accommodate the talent of the work with the failings of the author?

I think we simply say no. We tell him that this is not yours anymore.

This comes to me via the Call of Cthulhu RPG, where I have told numerous stories set in the Lovecraftian universe, a universe of the '20s, when overt racism (sexism, and any number of other isms) was more acceptable. So I have run adventures that have a strong racial or gender or nationalist component. Which means I and my players can choose what we want to talk about regarding those matters in the adventures.

[Indeed, this is something that CoC, with its limited Player Character empowerment and its deadly combat system does well. In CoC, you CAN bully the character around with hostile NPCs or a hateful universe. In D&D, you can have an Elf Warrior being refused service in a tavern, but if the Elf is 14^th level, the tavern will likely not last long].

Many years ago, I ran the Beyond the Mountains of Madness campaign from Chaosium, a huge and recommended campaign that is a sequel to the story by Lovecraft. And one player wanted to run and African-American polar explorer.

OK, how to handle it? Saying no didn't work for me – there is a history of African American Arctic Explorers, and besides, player agency, the ability to do as they see fit within the parameters of the story, is part of the game. Instead I did the research and tried to treat the character accurately, but without frustrating the hell out of the player (it is a game, and he is a protagonist).

As a result, the institutional racism of the time kept hitting him with a thousand small cuts and the occasional two-by-four to the forehead, particularly in the “civilized” world. When the funders of the expedition first meet him, they are taken aback by his presence. Indeed, his character is interviewed last, left in the waiting room while the rest of the team gets the story pitch. One of the leaders of the expedition was an obvious racist, and barely concealed his disdain.  In NYC, the character is asked to used the service entrance, is initially denied access to the expedition’s hotel, and suffers from suspicion and latent hostility.

And when they get clear of New York, when the expedition heads south, that drops away, as the coherence of the team overwhelms the societal roles. I was actually pretty happy with the result (though in the adventure, they later meet Nazis (spoilers) and while I wanted to include an overly earnest German officer who “Really, really admires your Jesse Owens”, I never had the chance).  The comparison between the mores of larger society and the smaller expedition was marked. It was a good story, remained true to the era, and none of the challenges were squamous or tentacled.

In this I and the players have taken it all away from Lovecraft. We have said. “No. This is not solely yours anymore. We recognize your creation, but all like creations, it has gone beyond you.”

This should not be a surprise, I suppose. Creations, once they leave their originators, often evolve into new forms, forms that those originators would hardly recognize. Moving to a new media, be it games or movies, changes the substance of  the creation, and allows reinvention, for better or for worse.  O course, this is based on the assumption that the movie will be an exact representation of the book and the author’s original intentions. I mean, hasn't every new media adaption treated the works of, say, Frank Herbert (the David Lynch version of Dune), Ursula K. LeGuin (the Syfy Earthsea) or Alan Moore (just about everything) with respect and an eye towards the author's original intent? No. It is beyond the original creator when it gets to that stage.

And it is more than just a corporate control issue. Look at Star Wars. Lucas may have controlled the IP for many years, and his original three movies hold a deep place in the hearts of many of us, but his return to the universe for three more films elicited strong pushback from the very people who embraced his earlier work so dearly. The fans, in effect said “No. This is not yours anymore. Not yours alone.”

I think that is where I stand on Lovecraft. I want to haul out into the light of day his inherent and detestable racism, and to take this creation from him and make anew. Let us not sugar coat it. Let us take the ideas and press forward. The author, the artist, the original creator controls his or her vision, but as that vision passes through others (particularly in a large operation as a motion picture, or a shared universe as created with other creatives, or in RPGs), then the provenance is both weakened and broadened. It becomes part and parcel of our larger universe.

In effect, the same process that allowed OSC to re-imagine Hamlet as a hateful homophobic screed in turn allows others to influence, develop, and evolve his work. And will be the same process that will turn At the Mountains of Madness: The Movie, should it ever happen, into something that reflects other sensibilities than those of the author.

And I think I will go see that movie. And I will leave poor Howard, impoverished and barking mad, at the door, letting him howl and moon and wet himself publicly in whatever afterlife that would admit him. Let him rage against the presumption of those who work to get beyond his odious attitudes. I’m good with that.

More later, 

Performance: A Bit of Gilbert and Sullivan

The Gondoliers (or, The King of Barataria) performed by the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Seattle Rep, until July 27th

Even if you've only grazed Gilbert & Sullivan in popular culture (Linda Ronstadt, Groucho Marx, Sideshow Bob), you know about the big guns in their canon - Mikado, Penzanze, and Pinafore. Then there is the second tier not so well known - Utopia, Limited, Iolanthe, and here, The Gondoliers is godood G&S, but not one where everyone is aware of the plot. So let's call it minor canon, lesser Gilbert, reduced Sullivan.

And this is a performance of the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society, which each year in the summer does about three weeks of Messrs G&S, rolling out the big guns and also paying attention to the second tier of the canon - the ones that won't get a major motion picture.

So, the Gondoliers, set in Venice and Spain - a light, sunny, breezy comic opera with just a bit of the Spanish Inquisition. No, that comes later. Let me fill you in on the plot, which is a simply tangled as a Gilbert plot can be: Two brothers who are gondoliers in Venice get married. Except it turns out they aren't really brothers, as one was brought to the city as an infant to escape the influence of his father, the King of Barataria, who became a Wesleyan Methodist and was later killed with the rest of the royal family, leaving the son the singular heir. But no one is particularly sure of which brother is the king, and which remains the gondolier. Oh, and the one that is the king was also married by proxy as an infant to Casilda, the daughter of the Duke of Plaza-Toro an impoverished noble (whose suite consists of a single drummer, who Casilda loves). No one is pleased with the situation, as the unknown king is also an unknown bigamist, and who is truly married to whom drives the play (though with several diversions).

The gondolier semi-brothers decamp to Spain, where they enact a Monarchy with Republican principles where they end up doing most of the work and living like less-than-kings. Their brides follow them and all discover the situation with Casilda. The nurse, mother to the drummer, who brought the infant king to exile is produced  to reveal who is the rightful ruler, and who remains married to whom. And then it is all wrapped up with a neat little bow.

And yeah, it doesn't make much sense than what I described, but it was light and appealing, and every single character is not the sharpest halberd in the guard. Except the ensemble. Someone has probably done a doctorate on this, but in Gilbert's work there is a tendency that the chorus does the best of the characters on-stage - and they seem to be at least a half-step ahead of the primaries and more than willing to take advantage.

There are light jabs at the monarchy and republicanism and corporatism, the last with the Duke, who escapes his impoverishment by turning himself into a Limited Liability Corporation. However, the singing good and the performances are top-notch and the chorus, as always, is solid and inventive. And it is hard to say whose story is the center - Casilda, whose marriage is in question, or the Palmieri brothers and their brides. All are good, though one Palmieri is a stronger singer while the other has better comedic moves, but they are both played by actors named Derek so I have a bit of a challenge determining who is who.

And there is a through-line with Grand Inquisitor, Don Alhambra, who is the closest thing that you get to a villain in a G&S production, who moves the action along, lays out the challenge of the unknown brothers, summons the resolution, and still has some time for a bit of torture on the rack. It is light and breezy bit of torture, but doesn't seem to be in my copy of the libretto, so I wonder if it a stage tradition or was part of the original play. I mean, one of the stop-the-presses the moment in the production was a Spanish Dance, which is merely noted in my print version as "(Cachucha)" inserted between the lines. Perhaps the torture is in the same mode.

In any event, it is a little gem of a operetta, put together in a sharp and enthusiastic production. If you are a fan of Gilbert & Sullivan, it is well worth your time. If not, you might want to hang out with the wiki entry before you go, just to get an idea of what's driving the play.

More later,

Pacific Rim and Star Wars

The gang at the office went out yesterday for an early viewing of the Guillermo del Toro movie Pacific Rim. I liked it a lot, and it reminded me of the original Star Wars from back in 1977.

OK, bear with me. I know a lot of you weren't even alive in 1977, and the thirty-five years since deposited an accretion of sequels, prequels, expanded universes, tech manuals, and a holiday-special-no-one-may-speak of on the film that obscures the heart of the franchise. But watching Pacific Rim, I got that smiling-despite-myself vibe of something new and exciting, and being there at the near-start.

Back in 1977, Star Wars was not expected to do much. The studio had banked on a much more traditional movie, a film with Jackie Gleason called Mr. Billion, to carry it through the summer, and Star Wars was a genre film, a space opera, that Sci-Fi stuff. There were radio ads, and Time Magazine ran an article talking about the special effects (because that was the only reason to go to a Sci-Fi picture), but there were no great expectations, and the film opened in all of 32 cinemas. In Pittsburgh, it was way the heck out in Monroeville in one of those new-fangled multiplexes.

Yeah, I couldn't resist

There are similarities and differences between the environments that the two films emerged into. Feuding between the distributors for Pacific Rim has resulted in leaked predictions of a horrible opening weekend. But to those paying attention, the trailers had a sense of wonder that hit an particular audience. And in this Internet world, those relinked, passed-along, peer-to-peer recommendations carry weight.

[As an aside, I first heard about Star Wars at the Pizza Keg in Purdue, where another member of the SCA, John M. Ford, was talking about this new SF movie that was coming out, where the BAD guys wear white space armor.]

The comparisons between the two films go deeper. Pacific Rim, like the original Star Wars, is a very straight-forward story. Very much the hero's journey. Luke Skywalker and Raleigh Becket are cousins. Here are the fun droids, and over here are the whacky scientists, one of which evokes C3P0 in his fussy mannerisms. Here's the hot-shot pilot with the funky name - am I talking about Han Solo or Hercules Hansen?  Princess Leia and Mako Mori both had their worlds destroyed, and yeah, you could see Carrie Fisher in a jaeger. Gipsy Danger, meet Millenium Falcon. The characters are not deep, but have that feeling that there is more to them than what we are being shown.

Ditto the universe. Original Star Wars did not name the aliens in the cantina - that would come later with the lateral development in the West End game. The kaiju are no more the stars of this film than the Death Star. The center of the film is with the humans, not their tools. Yeah, we have the desktop backdrops of the jaegers and the monster posters and someone HAS to have the RPG rights (or maybe not - they didn't think of that for Star Wars), so all the filling-in of the universe is already engaged. And it is all set dressing, assuring us there is a world behind this movie. But for right now, before the universe expands, we are standing at the first few moments of creation.

There is more than enough room for criticism and analysis, and it will come. It paces through a three-act structure - Act 1 (Chase the Hero up a tree) resolves before the opening credits, Act 2 (Throw rocks at him) is the bulk of the picture, and Act 3 (Get him down) kicks in with a St. Crispin's Day speech. This film fails the Bechdel test spectacularly. Mori demonstrates her fighting prowess early, but Becket has to fight for her honor. Threatening Hong Kong is aimed at the Chinese market, echoing such other films like Looper. Despite the diverse population of pilots, this ends up an American show. Plot holes will yawn wide over time with continual examination.  And I probably am already late to party comparing kaiju to terrorist attacks. But that is yet in the future - for the moment it is shiny and new and as yet unspoiled.

I think that's what made me smile. It was an original thing, a new universe. Yeah, I can see all the antecedents in Godzilla films and anime (and really, Ron Perlman is pretty much an anime character to start with). It is a beautifully-shot film that misses all the visual chaff we see with a lot of CGI - it actually has focus and continuity in almost all its shots. Hearing that most of the battle sequences were to be at night, in the rain gave me fears of the American Godzilla of 1998, but here it creates a feeling of menace and super-powered threat. It is not some road-tested and comfortable Intellectual Property of the past that is sold with the idea of a guaranteed audience, an audience they then cheese off by ignoring its previous core ethos. This is a good thing, and like the original Star Wars, feels complete in and of itself. I don't doubt that as I write this someone is threading the continuity needles to gin up a sequel, but for the moment, it stands alone. Enjoy that moment. And go see the film.

More later,

Theatre: Occupy Marx

Frank Ferrante in An Evening With Groucho,  Directed by Dreya Webb, ACT - A Contemporary Theatre, Bullit Cabaret, through 30 June.

This afternoon, as opposed to my self-determined task of reorganizing some bookshelves and getting some more boxes ready for my Ebay Mistress, Anne, I snuck out to catch An Evening with Groucho at the ACT (yeah, it should be An Afternoon with Groucho, but if you're going to pick nits, you're reading the wrong blog).

Now, I knew where the ACT was - it was on the lower floor of the convention center, so parking was fairly easy (always an important thing for theater-going downtown), and it would be a quick park, then down a couple escalators through the heart of the convention center to get there. What I did not expect was corridor from the convention center, followed by corridor, followed by a twenty-square room with multiple exits, followed by more stairs, followed by another corridor/lobby, followed by MORE stairs followed by another lobby followed by STILL MORE stairs to reach the depths of the Bullit Cabaret. I think there was another flight of stairs down beyond this but Dante was coming up the other way.

Anyway, the Cabaret was a open space with general seating and a perimeter balcony and a low stage along one side. The room was about half-filled with chairs, and the chairs were half-filled by customers. A nice house, but not a sell-out, which is kind of a pity, since this is a very good show, and worth more attention that it has gotten.

[And to be honest, I knew about this show from an ad in the Stranger, which I had only picked up in physical space because in had the SIFF film list in it. And THEN it only stuck because Mark Evanier (who can be found on the blogroll to the side) is a faithful and relentless promoter of Mr. Ferrante and mentions him fairly regularly.]

Anyway, this is a one-man show about Groucho, and there are songs and stories, and joking with the audience and nostalgia in droves. But to say Frank Ferrante is a Groucho impersonator is to misrepresent what is happening here. He actually seems to embody Groucho. The transformation is amazing. He takes the stage and speaks as himself, telling a story of himself seeing Groucho as a child. His accent is Southern California, one that I've heard in the wild before. Yet as he tells the story, he fluffs out his hair, applies the greasepaint mustache and eyebrows, dons the glasses and with the last plucking of a cigar from the table suddenly embodies the comedian. Uncanny is the word. Not to back up over the Oregon Shakespeare Festivals' presentation of Animal Crackers, but in that version I never lost the fact that I was watching an actor playing Groucho. Here the transition was complete.

I have also never seen an actor fight so hard to engage the audience (and win). This was a Sunday matinee, Seattle-polite audience where the average age was higher than my current recording of years. Yet Mr. Ferrante engaged at full tilt, using the ability that Groucho had to insult without being insulting. He flirted with the three ladies with canes in the front row. He made doe-eyes at a middle-aged woman sitting with her husband. He sent one of the ushers out for coffee for said husband. He plunked a young man from the audience and decked him out with the trademarked mustache and eyebrows. The tech crew running the house lights had trouble keeping up with him as he leapt off the stage and back. It was a matinee crowd in the depths of a theater complex in downtown Seattle, but by jingo, this was HIS crowd!

And it worked. By the end of the first act everyone was charmed, by the end of the second everyone was enthralled. And I felt like I was falling through time as well, as the stories moved from the vaudeville Groucho to the movie Groucho to the television Groucho, and with it the way Ferrante portrayed the man.  And, just as Groucho needed Zeppo and Margaret Dumont as his straight-men, Ferrante is ably supported by his accompanist, Mark Rabe, who not only delivered a spritely score on the piano but also served as foil for Ferrante/Groucho.

This was an impressive show, and I was glad to have caught it. And seriously, if you are any sort of a Groucho fan, you should check it out yourself.

More later,

Flag Day

FLAG, Jasper Johns, 1954, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)

“One night I dreamed that I painted a large American flag,” Johns has said of this work, “and the next morning I got up and I went out and bought the materials to begin it.” Those materials included three canvases that he mounted on plywood, strips of newspaper, and encaustic paint—a mixture of pigment and molten wax that has formed a surface of lumps and smears. The newspaper scraps visible beneath the stripes and forty-eight stars lend this icon historical specificity. The American flag is something “the mind already knows,” Johns has said, but its execution complicates the representation and invites close inspection. A critic of the time encapsulated this painting’s ambivalence, asking, “Is this a flag or a painting?” (MOMA Gallery text)

More later,

About that Bridge

So, last week, you may have heard, part of a bridge fell down north of here. Bridges fall down all the time here in these United States, but this one held some import, since it was on the main and only big highway along the West Coast leading to Canada. Here's some fallout:

- The great news is that no one died. The guy in the truck that clipped the bridge pulled over immediately. Two cars went in, and three people were rescued, one briefly hospitalized. Part of the reason for the lack of fatalities is that the Skagit river is very shallow at this point  (though bitter cold, coming directly off the snowpack).

The bridge (lower left) in ancient, more intact times.

- The bridge worked the way it was supposed to. I know that sounds weird, looking at the fact that its southernmost chunk of it is resting comfortably on the river bed. But the idea was that when it failed, it was supposed to fail in that fashion, Further study may reveal additional problems, but the idea is that one span falls down and leave the others intact. The big danger when this went up was not so much oversized trucks, but earthquakes in the soft earth of the floodplain.

- The bridge was completed in 1955, which makes it only slightly older than I am. Some days, it feels like the bridge is in better shape, but I haven't been hit by as many trucks.

- One thing that I've noticed here, and earlier in the Boston bombing attack, is that we, as a people, are good with having cameras running all the time. About ten years ago a friend and I went to lunch and got into the subject of surveillance society, and I pointed out that we had been on camera about five times since we had left my office. That same route would probably be twice that now. In the wake of any event, people want the primary evidence that a running camera provides.

- Probably because no one was seriously injured, The Washington State Department of Traffic shows a bit of the Pacific Northwest sense of humor in their Facebook page:

As you may have noticed the detour route near the Skagit River keeps changing as we try to make sure people can get past this bridge on roads that weren't meant for as much traffic as we are seeing now. Be sure to check our website before you head out. Expect to add at least an hour to your trip time if you are going that way, or even better plan to stop by one of the local businesses and have lunch on your way through. Don't forget that Amtrak Cascades is also a fantastic option to get through the area and around the detour.

There might be another possibility of a detour route, we are still working to adjust the ramp to just the right height (and just try to get that song out of your head). 
There might be another possibility of a detour route, we are still working to adjust the ramp to just the right height (and just try to get that song out of your head). 

Yes. WSDOT did post this.

 Credit to Mark Nesteroff, twitter user @proudestmonkey3 for the source of this photo.

- Unfortunately, despite WSDOT's recommendation, people are not stopping at the local businesses. It will impact the rest of the state as well. I-5 North is one of three major highway routes into Seattle - the others being I-5 South to Portland and I-90 over the Cascades (which gets closed when we have heavy snowfall). I-5 South crosses the Columbia at the Columbia River Interstate Bridge, which if anything is in worse shape than the Skagit bridget. Now we have rail and a deep port, but it would be easy to seal off Seattle from car traffic fairly easily (as opposed to, say, Gotham City in Dark Knight Rises).

Mean meme. Accurate, but mean.

- Despite the vulnerability to our economy, our austerity-prone conservatives are quickly out in force, arguing that, just because our bridges are falling down, that's no reason to actually spend money to FIX them (unless, apparently, that money comes out of the pockets of mass transit or other things they don't like). Tim Eyman, known to locals for his industrious initiatives intent on keeping government from actually doing anything, sees it as one more way to support his own hobby horse:

"Is the Democrats' first priority to investigate to learn what actually happened so they can initiate a fact-based, measured response? Of course not. Instead, they're ghoulishly, crassly, exploitatively, and predictably demanding the Legislature unilaterally raise taxes $8.4 billion -- without a vote of the people"

- Of course, a functioning government can do both, and it seems that WSDOT is well on its way with its investigation. Not that it will stop Mr. Eyman from thumbing through his thesaurus to find for epithets to hurl at people who actually want to fix the problem.

- And finally, and most importantly - Skagit rhymes with Badge-it, not Bag-it. 

More later,

What I Did On A Saturday

Tai Chi: Fighting Slow Invisible Ninjas

So I had a full Saturday, this Saturday last. Tai Chi demonstrations, glasswork of the elder gods, Seattle traffic raised to its ultimate level, drinking at a gamer's bar, and a children's Cthulhu book.

First things first. I practice Tai Chi under Master Yijiao Hong at the Chinese Wushu And Tai Chi Accademy. About once a year or so, we're asked to make a public demonstration, usually at the Armory of the Seattle Center, and usually for a cultural festival (The one was "A Glimpse of China: Chinese Culture and Arts Festival"). This year, we performed four demonstrations - two Tai Chi forms, and two Tai Chi Sword forms (I performed in the two Tai Chi forms, while the Lovely Bride did those and one of the sword forms as well). It was enjoyable, and the other presentations over the afternoon included other martial artists, dance troupes, musicians and about thirty small children dressed up as ducklings (who were very, very cute).

This, year, in addition, we were asked to perform at the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum next to the armory. The garden/museum is a new thing, and just celebrating its first anniversary. The entire complex is built on the site of the former Fun Forest, a small, weathered amusement complex that needed renovation, but not elimination. The museum turned this Fun Forest into an enclosed glass garden with a price tag enough to keep one at bay, unless one was a Chihuly fan, which I was not.

Yes, I know. I look like a snowball.

Dale Chihuly is a Seattle Artist made legendary by his colorful and flowing glasswork. Most of his work I have seen has been in terms of single pieces, which are often colorful, half-melted bowls. I wondered what the big deal was, and how this would rate removing a tilt-a-whirl. However, the museum itself is a marvel of installation and presentation. Large darkened rooms with focused lighting turn the colors of the glasswork magic, their rich colors glowing under the illumination. The adjacent garden is a combination of plants with the layered spheres and organic glass seedpods and glowing spikes of the artist's works. A single Chihuly is a interesting item - a forest of his glass forms is overwhelming.

The garden is built around a glass structure used for private functions (every museum needs at least one of these in these multi-tasked, fundraising days), and it was within this oversized greenhouse, dominated by crystaline flowers overhead, that we did the second performance of the day. And we actually did pretty well at that (my personal fear is always that I will stand on one leg and, topheavy, go sprawling over backwards - much of my style can be described as "staying upright"). It was well-received (we drew a crowd) and it was in one of the places where you could swing a sword without worrying about taking out any valuable, valuable, artwork.

Who ordered the Flying Polyp?

In doing the second demo, we were given the chance to walk the grounds and check out the art. As I said, a small piece of Chihuly is an interesting bit, but combined into large, flowing forms twenty feet high, the end result looks like something that has escaped from an elemental dimension into ours. His works among the garden are like the flesh organic plants described by Clark Aston Smith in his short stories, and his fiery oranges and reds seem to contain eldritch radiation leaking into our world. Chihuly, in this moment for me, becomes C'thulhi, glassblower of ancient, now-sunken lands, his work a testament to forgotten gods.

Two performances in one day were a bit much for me, particularly since I overdid myself and tried to get lower for moves like "Snake Creeps Down". It left me limping back to the car, and I began a long sojourn north to celebrate another version of Cthulhu - this time in a children's book.

But let me whine a bit about traffic. To native Seattlites, the "Mercer Mess", which stretches from the I-5 to the Seattle Center, is a legendary chunk of road, famous for its congestion, renowned for its utter badness. And any attempt to fix the damned thing is going to involve some additional heartache. But to close it where Mercer meets the north-south I-99 is the equivalent of delivering a Vulcan Nerve Pitch to the city. In my case, rather than face the traffic, I tried secondary routes up Queen Anne, found the secondary routes equally clotted, and spent about 45 minutes limping back to the highway, as if my vehicle had down two sets of demos and crouched too much for "Snake Creeps Down".

North was my goal, for the AFK Tavern. The AFK is a gamer bar, board games at the ready, food items names after pop cult fantasy and science fiction, video screens showing Starcraft games in process. It is up in Everett, because apparently King County adds Bar+Games and gets Casino, and after getting lost around the Alderwood Mall, got there.

Sort of like La Belle Epoque, but with more d20s.

The reason for celebration as "The Littlest Shoggoth", the creation of Stan! Brown. Stan! is a nifty cartoonist and a societal hub of many universes, and ran a kickstarter to get his book in colored, hard-covered form. The result is one of those perfect Christmas gifts for the cultist that has everything. Stan! took a break from continually mailing out the tome to his Kickstarter supporters to come celebrate, and it was a gathering of nerdom. Touched base with a lot of the people that I haven't seen in a while. discovered new jobs, engagements, secret projects, and the general chatter that keeps nerds in communication. I also met someone I had been playing games with online for near on a year, but had never met In Real Life.

We feasted on Shoggoth's Eyes (scotch eggs) and drank local beers (a very pale beer called White 'N Nerdy"). It was a long, long drive back, and today I am paying for my city-trotting socializing with aching knees. But still, one of those Saturdays that makes me appreciate living out here in the Pacific NW, even if it means I have to deal with the Mercer Mess.

More later,

(Tai Chi pictures by Yijiao Hong, AFK picture by Rodney Thompson, Flying polyp picture by Unamit Ahazredit. Remember to make you SAN checks).

Pittsburgh: The Movie

OK, if  you're a Pittsburgh native (and even if you aren't), you really should watch this - a collection of movies filmed in Pittsburgh, with a lot of attention to Batman and Inspector Gadget. I think Dogma is missing, along with The Bread My Sweet (which features my Mom-In-Law as a meter maid). Just enjoy.



More later,

The (Totally Expected) Return of No Quarter (Part IV)

Ah, spring is in the air, the rhododendrons are blooming, and  it becomes once more, time to review this year's crop of National Park Quarters. Long ago and far away, I started examining the State Quarter series, and once that was laid to rest, a NEW series, called the "America the Beautiful" series, launched. The rules were similar - each state (and a handful of colonial properties) gets a coin to push one of their scenic national parks, forests, memorials,  or what-not. For some states this is a bigger challenge than others, but all have showed up with something.

As is usual, we rate this year's crop of National Park coins on design - Here's the rating system.
Cool = A
Not Bad = B
Kinda Lame = C
Very Lame = D
The Wyoming State Quarter = E
Bonus points given for scenes that make sense, are easily recognizable, and have a good feel to the touch.This year's crop is OK, but not really spectacular. Let's dig in.

White Mountain National Forest  - New Hampshire

Yeah, it's a mountain. And it IS white (well the drawing is - I suppose the coin would be silver. So we at least have truth in advertisting going on.

And the carving is not particularly BAD - in fact, the bracketing birch trees could give the coin a good feel against the thumb, a ridge for the center white space of the view of the mountain. But the subject matter? I mean there feels like there are a bunch of states that do the forested-view-with-large-landform thing both in the previous series and in this one. All that is missing is some form of native wildlife in the foreground to give it a feel of animation.

And New Hampshire is probably hedging its bets. Its state quarter had the Old Man On the Mountain, which then COLLAPSED. I think they're just taunting the mountain here to fold in on itself.

Rating: B (Not Bad).

Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial - Ohio


Did anyone think of Lord Nelson when they saw this one? I know I did. Guy in naval uniform. Tall Doric column. I mean, if this was a contest of Pictionary, the answer would be - Nelson's Column.

But no, this is Admiral (well, Master Commandant) Perry, who is OUR admiral for the age of sail, whose middle name literally WAS Hazard, and who gave us a victory on Lake Erie during the War of 1812, facing off against the mightiest navy in the world, primarily because a) the mightiest navy in the world was busy fighting Napoleon  and b) the mightiest navy in the world couldn't GET to Lake Erie because NIAGARA FALLS was in the way.

But hey, a win's a win.

And though we are in the bicentennial period for that war (and the bicentennial of the Battle of Lake Erie is September 10th, so get you Battle of Lake Erie card orders in NOW). We aren't talking a lot of about the war. which sort of indicates who we really thought won it. Canada on the other hand is excited about it, and they weren't even a nation yet. I'm kind of interested to see next year if anyone even mentions the burning of the White House (except FOX, of course, which will blame Obama for not keeping us safe).

And the coin is celebrating mixed messages - Perry's Victory AND the Peace Memorial. Military Victory AND the fact we've had a long, relatively peaceful border ever since. And it is ironic to note that this is set in Ohio, which doesn't HAVE a land border at the present with Canada.

So it is a coin dripping with irony, right down the fact that the visitor center for this island-based park (reachable by ferry or airplane, when Jet Blue is flying) is delayed to open because of the sequester. But quarters they can afford.

Rating: C  (Kinda Lame).

Great Basin National Park - Nevada

OK, Nevada doesn't have a lot to work with here. I would have thought that Hoover Dam would be in contention, since it IS a National Historic Landmark, but then maybe they would have had to share it with Arizona if they did. So they have the Great Basin, which is notable for being miles and miles of miles and miles.

And yet, they've done very nicely. The choice of the bristlecone pine looks a bit like it is going with Treebeard to take on Saruman at Isengard, but the use of different textures is going to be nice for the feel of the coin, and pushing it one side makes the static object more dynamic. 

So yeah, in a modest year, this is one of the better ones.

Rating: A (Way Cool).

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine - Maryland

Another entry in the War of 1812 theme of this year, this one commemorating the crystal entity from Star Trek attacking the Fort, before being scared off by the Omega Glory (double geek points for getting that one). 

OK, it really the shelling of Fort McHenry by the British, though its not. From the notes it REALLY is showing traditional fireworks going off during the "Defender's Day" celebration of the fort. So you get the flashiness, when really the fort and the British Ships were shelling each other at long range.

So this is another win from the Wo12 - the British, fresh from burning Washington (Thanks, Obama!) moved onto Baltimore, sailing up the Chesapeake. They were foiled by land batteries, a line of sunken ships, and the fort. Neither side got close enough to do significant damage to each other, but the British were foiled, and in the process we got a poem that was later welded to an earlier drinking song to become the Star Spangled Banner. 

The coin itself, despite the fireworks, feels a little flat at first blush. The explosions work from an eyes-half-closed sort of look, and while the flag is good (indeed, when was the last time you saw a flag on the coin - some old bicentennial quarters?) the buildings are just sort of squatting there. 

Rating: C (Kinda Lame)

Mount Rushmore National Memorial - South Dakota

So here's a challenge - what do you do when the state quarter bogarts the killer view of your most memorable feature? Arizona pulled things off nicely by shifting the view of the Grand Canyon entirely delivering a superior coin. South Dakota, on the other hand, gave us this.

Jefferson's nose. 

They gave us a close-up of Jefferson's Nose. Actually, it is an in-process shot of carving Jefferson's face (working on those baggy eyelids) while the scaffolding behind supports the almost unrecognizable face of Washington. The carving of the monument is a cool thing, but the series is America the Beautiful, not Nostrils of the Founding Father.

This one is honestly WORSE than the State Quarter, with its giant pheasant flying over the classic view of the memorial, and that takes some doing. It takes a recognizable icon and hides it entirely. That takes work.

Rating: D (Very Lame)

That wraps this year's batch, and next year has a whole heaping helping of natural features. I predict we will see trees, mountains, and the occasional local wildlife. 

More later,

DOW Breaks 14000! No, wait! I mean 15000!

It has been a while since the last "DOW Breaks" write-up - over a year, so here are the rules. For the purposes of this blog, it simply means ratcheting past a milepost - since the last write-up occurred at 13000, the stock market would have to sink to 12000 or rise to 14000 before it merited another note. It has to end the day at the milestone or above. And it is a good chance to take a look at the economy in general..

The DOW actually crossed 14000 back in February, but I didn't mention it then because, you know, Hawaii. And despite the common thoughts about how the current administration hates Big Business, and liberals in Washington are so gung ho to dismantle Wall Street, the market continues to surge upwards. Indeed, it seems that this is the best part of the economy right now. If there are truly socialists in charge, they are doing a horrible, horrible job at it.

And the rest of the economy is decidedly "Meh". Not for the bigs - they seem to be doing pretty good. But for most of us shmoes, the job providers don't seem to be providing much, despite their supposed good fortune. Employment continues its slow, incremental recovery. Seattle, with its regressive taxes and progressive stance, seems to be doing pretty well, but for a large swath in the country, most notably in the redder sections, life is still kinda sketchy.

And I have to look at why, and I think I have a reason that hasn't shown up what passes for wisdom among the pundit class. It is because government and its attendant deficits are not growing. In fact, they are shrinking. Government is smaller now than when we started this current recession, and the deficits are currently reducing (the overall debt is another matter - there is a difference).

This is important because government spending has in the past led the way out of recessions. Yeah, yeah, you supposedly can't spend your way out of a recession, but that's exactly what we've done previously. Government steps in and starts placing some orders, be it roads, tanks, or new weapons systems, and the private sector takes the hint and things get moving again.

This time, not so much. While I don't think the current administration are austerity hawks (and while I am amused by the reports that the research that austerity being a good thing is wrong because of a cut-and-paste error, it sounds really too perfect to be true), they are serious about making government smaller and more efficient. Which means it costs less. Which means that there is less money thrown around to get things going again. And no one wants that when their particular fiscal ox is offered for the BBQ.

This is a common problem with the current system - everyone hates government spending, but the moment that the big factory that makes warning stickers for OSHA reports is closing, or the local military base is being shuttered because we haven't had a war with Canada for 200 years, then everyone is indignant that the government is not paying attention to the needs of its people. The idea that the government is completely independent from the economy is a polite fiction, at best.

And yet in the midst of this no one seems to own up that government is getting smaller, and that as a result we aren't spending money to get the economy rolling again. I can see why the Republicans are all-fired quiet about it - here's a president who is doing what they have been claiming needs to be done (yet never seem to get around to doing). If it doesn't work, then that sort of undercuts their entire rational. On the Dem side, you'd think they would be glad to shed a tax and spend image tossed them by their Distinguished Competition, yet they don't want to be shown holding the bag for the attendant economic misery.

The thing is, a smaller government is a good thing - long term. It shows we can get out of these messes without ratcheting up the system one more notch. It backs us away from the cliff. But it is a slower, more painful process, and will still have economic suffering going forward, as everyone tightens their belts.

Except for the guys at the DOW, of course. For them, things are just ducky.

More later,