Saturday, September 27, 2008
TARGET VOTING
What is Target Voting?In an at-large election you will have the opportunity to vote for several candidates. You know who your favorite candidate is and who your third or fourth favorite is, but the machine that counts the votes counts them all the same. In reality, the more candidates you vote for, the more you may be helping your favorite candidate to lose. So what to do? I recommend that you limit your votes to candidates that you truly support and absolutely want to win. In a tightly contested race target voting will be the difference between having your favorite candidate win or lose.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Sunday September 21st
Watch the *Boogie Down Bird* at http://www.members.shaw.ca/grandmafaiths/cockatoo.htm
Review of Golden State (Castro Valley) production of Carousel:
This is a lovely, professional production and we enjoyed it very much last night - opening night. The music is gorgeous and the orchestra, staging, singing, costuming is first class. Four of the principals are professional singers and the staging, ballet and costuming are lovely. The elegant "trees" that move about on stage were worth the price of admission they were so evocative and clever.
Neighbors and friends and high school students blend perfectly with the professionals and you feel the quality here -- well worth an afternoon or evening close to home in the comfort of this theater. Neighbors Tom and Sandra Baker play in the orchestra (Sandra cello and Tom violin or is it viola?), Sandra and Tom are also in the 8am exercise group at Kenneth Aitken Senior Center.
Of course, we have always loved Carousel and have seen it many times over the years. My only complaint was the costume for "Mr. Snow". He is usually shown wearing fisherman's clothing, not wearing suit and bowtie right from the beginning and looking as if he wandered in from a production of Brideshead Revisited. The singer had a glorious voice, however. The Snow Family costumes at the end were smashing!
The success of a production of Carousel depends heavily on Billy Bigelow and he (Robert Brewer) doesn't disappoint. "The Soliloquy" is staged and sung well and we got teary eyed as we usually do. The young women who sing Julie and Carrie are so pretty with beautiful voices as they should be. We saw Carrie sung in New York once by Audra McDonald who had a gorgeous voice but didn't look the part.
The Music Director is John Kendall Bailey (who was here for The Tender Land and other productions) - wonderful. We felt the last act was a tiny bit slow -- the production appears to be three hours long. But go not to "support the arts" (though that's a good idea, too), go for your own pleasure -- it's such an upper to feel the creative power of such artistry and such joy from all the performers!
Review of Golden State (Castro Valley) production of Carousel:
This is a lovely, professional production and we enjoyed it very much last night - opening night. The music is gorgeous and the orchestra, staging, singing, costuming is first class. Four of the principals are professional singers and the staging, ballet and costuming are lovely. The elegant "trees" that move about on stage were worth the price of admission they were so evocative and clever.
Neighbors and friends and high school students blend perfectly with the professionals and you feel the quality here -- well worth an afternoon or evening close to home in the comfort of this theater. Neighbors Tom and Sandra Baker play in the orchestra (Sandra cello and Tom violin or is it viola?), Sandra and Tom are also in the 8am exercise group at Kenneth Aitken Senior Center.
Of course, we have always loved Carousel and have seen it many times over the years. My only complaint was the costume for "Mr. Snow". He is usually shown wearing fisherman's clothing, not wearing suit and bowtie right from the beginning and looking as if he wandered in from a production of Brideshead Revisited. The singer had a glorious voice, however. The Snow Family costumes at the end were smashing!
The success of a production of Carousel depends heavily on Billy Bigelow and he (Robert Brewer) doesn't disappoint. "The Soliloquy" is staged and sung well and we got teary eyed as we usually do. The young women who sing Julie and Carrie are so pretty with beautiful voices as they should be. We saw Carrie sung in New York once by Audra McDonald who had a gorgeous voice but didn't look the part.
The Music Director is John Kendall Bailey (who was here for The Tender Land and other productions) - wonderful. We felt the last act was a tiny bit slow -- the production appears to be three hours long. But go not to "support the arts" (though that's a good idea, too), go for your own pleasure -- it's such an upper to feel the creative power of such artistry and such joy from all the performers!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
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