Get over it, people...

The brouhaha developing from Mel Gibson's arrest over the weekend is kind of puzzling to me. It's not even the belligerence he exhibited, the utter lack of respect for law and order--it's the anti-Semitic remarks he's alleged to have made.

I am not defending Mel Gibson. What he said, he said. If it was anti-Semitic, then he's among the world's richest bigots. Not exactly something to boast about...but that's his business. My focus today is on another aspect of his history that has come up yet again, as a result of the arrest.

When 'Passion of the Christ' came out, there was a veritable firestorm of criticism for it. To quote from a recent Reuters article, "Many Jews and others were upset that "The Passion of the Christ" revived ancient Christian accusations that Jews bore responsibility for Jesus' death."

Yeah, well, guess what? They were. It's history. It happened over 2000 years ago. Move on with life, people. I don't bear a grudge against the state of Tennessee because my great-grandfather was chased out of the state by the KKK. I don't even bear a grudge against the KKK for the incident (why bother? There are so many other, current, legitimate reasons to despise them...)

The Germans were responsible for the Holocaust, but you don't see people howling in outrage about Germany (well, not about that aspect of Germany, at least.) Russia was guilty of the pogroms, and sent thousands of people to die in work camps. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Spain had its Inquisition, just about everyone in the world has had slavery at one point or another (some probably still do, I don't keep up on that), Europe and the Catholic Church were responsible for the chaos and mayhem of the Crusades, Scandinavia released the scourge that was the Viking raids, Eastern Europe and Western Asia had the Goths and Huns who destroyed Rome, who had the atrocities of the gladiatorial arenas...these are all historical facts. We have accepted them, and moved on. Italy didn't cry foul when Gladiator painted their ancestors as a somewhat barbaric and murderous lot. Russia doesn't whine about the fact that millions of people continue to read "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich".

Forgive and forget. Well, okay...don't forget, because if we do that we never learn the lessons of history. But how many of the world's conflicts would never have started if people weren't still fighting the wars their ancestors started? It's history, and we can't change it. We can whitewash it, we can conveniently not talk about it...but we can't change it. No amount of bloodshed will change it. Neither will walking around, expecting the world to apologize for centuries of bigotry inspired by one event. It's already happened, no one can take it back.

So accept it, and stop trying to make up for the past. Stop expecting people to atone for the sins of ancestors who've long been dead. We've got enough problems to deal with on our own, without carrying forward problems from ages gone by.

Random musings on the news...

Gee, funny thing...the price of oil is STILL phenomenally high, yet both Exxon/Mobil and Shell have posted quarterly profit statements that show an INCREASE of 35-40%, depending on the company. And they still claim that there's no price-gouging going on in the gasoline sales market...

GW's new broadcast indecency laws, inspired by the notorious Janet Jackson Halftime incident, are now potentially endangering the broadcast of a WWII documentary series. Narratives from veterans, in their own voices and their own words, have been compiled into a PBS-produced series called 'The War'. But, these being military men, sometimes their words are a bit coarse...and with potential fines of $325,000 PER INCIDENT of 'indecent broadcasting', a lot of PBS stations may choose not to risk discovering whether or not this qualifies.

Editing history--THAT's indecent.

There's a growing movement of military bloggers, frustrated at the biased reporting of events they see in the mainstream media...Milblogging.com is trying to keep a compilation of the more reputable (or at least the least inane and psycho) ones. Not all of them blindly support the War, in fact quite a few of them are quite critical of the policies behind it. But they are telling stories of how things are on the ground from the military side of it. There's also been a huge influx of home video, shot on the ground in Lebanon, that's been posted to sites such as YouTube.

Power to the people...the day is coming when we may all have a voice heard round the world. (Hope everyone learns to tell their stories well, or people will stop listening anyway.)

And, finally, in the 'Who'd-a-thunk-it' category...a man managed to barter his way from a single red paper clip all the way up to a house...AND THEN get paid for the movie rights to the story.

To quote from 'Gyspy', "You gotta have a gimmick if you want to get ahead..."

They're at it again...

Oh, God bless the politicians...I think I honestly mean that. I mean, yeah, I despise them as a whole, even though there's the occasional one or two that actually do something I find admirable from time to time (although, lately, I can't think of a good example...)

I had to laugh when I stumbled across this little tidbit...

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Wary of losing an opportunity to regain control of Congress this fall, some Democrats are hoping a return to the "middle class values agenda" will help focus the party's fall message and capitalize on a tough political environment for Republicans.

"America needs to work for everyone, not just the privileged and the powerful," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday at the Democratic Leadership Council's 10th annual "National Conversation" in Denver. "Democrats can be the change agents our country needs."

So, Democratic Party leaders think they're going to get back in touch with the middle class? Does Hillary Clinton even KNOW anyone from the middle class? Does anyone elected to Washington?

I see the same issue, on a much smaller scale, at work...the Freeds, who own and run the park, have had so much money for so long that they've forgotten what the world is like for the rest of us. An example is when one of them encouraged our former production manager to 'take a weekend off and go to New York'...like it was something anyone could do. That weekend in NYC would cost the PM's monthly income, if she took her husband and went to see all the shows and eat out as encouraged in the discussion.

So, we have a bunch of privileged individuals, mostly white men, who probably don't even recall (if they ever knew) what it's like to work for a living...many of them probably don't even remember what it's like to have an annual income under $100k. So they blithely talk about putting a tax on SUVs, despite the fact that some of us NEED to commute in absolutely indecent weather and having 4WD is a tool of the trade (as is having covered cargo space!) Or they blandly sit by while gasoline prices climb somewhere past the stratosphere...I pay, just to drive back and forth to work (a commute of just slightly more than five miles, one way) nearly 20 percent of what I pay for rent each month...when I started at Lagoon, making MUCH less than I am now, I could drive down to work from Logan and earn enough in two hours to more than make up for the gas it took for the drive. Now, if I want to drive to Logan, I've got to seriously factor in whether or not I can spare the money for gas. Makes it really difficult to keep up with friends and family.

Don't get me wrong. I applaud the Democrats, I think they finally are taking some decisive steps in a direction that will get them some good results. But I sure as hell don't feel like ANYONE in Washington DC has even the slightest notion of what my life is like, and I doubt most of them have the ability to picture it if I got a chance to describe it to them.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm jaded and cynical. But I keep seeing too many things happen to really believe that. Regardless of whether you believe it's scripture or not, the Bible has a lot of wisdom in it...including "By their fruits ye shall know them." And I'm seeing an awful lot of rotten apples dropping off the political tree in this country.

In a similar vein...I had a thought today that both amused and scared me. I've been thinking, off and on, about the whole War in Iraq thing, why it happened, etc...(c'mon, who among us HASN'T had their own private, and sometimes not-so-private, musings on that one?) And there suddenly dawned on me a premise for the whole thing that made an eerie kind of sense.

G.W. Bush is trying to one-up his old man. It's really that simple. Bush the Elder attacked Iraq, chased Saddam out of Kuwait...and then withdrew. So Daddy's Little Boy set out to try and take down the guy Dad wussed out on when he was President, to prove he's a better man than Pop.

Think about it...yeah, it's a crackpot idea...but it fits. (No, I don't ACTUALLY believe that...wholeheartedly, anyway...but what a GREAT premise for writing a novel about this whole circus...at least, I hope it's a novel, and not an expose...)

Or, maybe, the heat's finally getting to me.

And, no, for those wondering...my horse STILL hasn't had her baby yet. Stubborn beast...Marla's husband is joking about hooking up jumper cables to her nostrils to try and induce labor...at least, I hope he's still joking. I don't think she'd take that very well...not the most agreeable creature in the world when she's NOT pregnant...and at this juncture, she's VERY pissy about the world in general. And who can blame her? She looks like she swallowed one of Marla's ponies...when you see her from the back, it looks like there's an extra half a horse on either side through her middle. And in this weather, having another body's heat compounding your own discomfort just can't be enjoyable.

So I hope she does something soon, before Ross goes out and does something that's gonna get him hurt (just kidding, Ross...I know you're smarter than that!)

I'm in Hell...

I'm REALLY not looking forward to the next couple of days at work. Today was bad enough. It wasn't helped much by the fact that I didn't get anywhere near enough sleep last night (I was at Marla's again, and kept getting up to check on my horse--and, no, she still hasn't dropped her foal yet. Stupid horse...it can't be comfortable, in this heat, to have ANOTHER body inside you producing its own heat, too...) The hour and a half drive from Marla's to work become more like two hours due to construction slowdowns, and detours due to changing road layouts (exits I thought I was going to use to bypass the construction had been relocated, or eliminated...) Then I got to work and was informed that, not only was this expected to be one of the hottest days of the year thus far, but also that our air conditioning at the theater crapped out last night and the electricians wouldn't be able to fix it until Tuesday (at best...I'll not be surprised if it doesn't happen by then). Not only was this one of the hottest days, it was one of the longest damn days of the year. But there was a little good news to come out of it--our director okayed my makeup design for the Zombie Mambo for Frightmares. This will, for the first time, be truly my design, not a design I assisted with, or collaborated on, or some such, but my design, start to finish, for that show. I'm excited for it! There's also going to be some restructuring of our department, officially...but I don't find out what all is going to happen until next week (I was going to hear it on Tuesday, but due to the holiday being on Monday, our show schedules--and, correspondingly, my day off--are being shuffled this week, so I'm gone Tuesday. So Ken will tell me about it Thursday.) Weird to think, as of this Frightmares, I will have been working for Lagoon for nine years. Doesn't feel like it at all...not even on a hellishly hot day like this one was.

Frustrations...

I just spent an extremely irritating day off. It had nothing to do with where I was, or what I did or didn't get done. It's all my horse's fault.

I was at work Sunday night when Marla called me and said that, if I was able, Monday might be a good day for me to come visit, because my horse's udder had filled out (which, normally, means that the horse should be foaling within just a few hours). I said I'd see what I could do. Then she called back later and told me that Tot was kicking at her belly, biting at her sides, rolling on the ground...all indicators of oncoming labor.

So I got off work, ran home, threw a change of clothes in a bag, grabbed my laundry, piled back into my car, and drove the hour and a half to Marla's place.

Ten minutes before I got there, Tot suddenly decided she wasn't having a baby that night. She stopped kicking, rolling, etc...and by the time I got there, she was placidly chomping on her hay. I woke up every two hours to check on her Sunday night--nothing.

Monday was very much the same. Every time I looked out there, she was either chewing her hay, or just standing there. I had to be back to work on Tuesday, so I hoped, against the odds, that something would happen Monday night (I say against the odds, even though the odds should have been pretty good. But you'd have to know my horse to really appreciate the statement in this context.)

So, Monday night, I was up every hour and a half to check on her...and, at 4:30 am, I was rewarded by the sight of her lying on her side in her pen, grunting and gasping. I stepped back into the house and woke up Marla and her husband to tell them what was going on. Marla told me to come get them when Tot really started pushing.

So I went back outside and watched and waited. Half an hour later, the ornery little shit climbed back to her feet, and started munching her hay like nothing had happened. And when I checked her this morning, before leaving to head to work, she was once again at the point of nothing showing any signs of happening any time soon.

So, I'm tired and cranky, because the silly beast had two false labors over the weekend. She's so big around the middle right now that I think she'd pop like a balloon if someone so much as kicked her. The extra body heat from the foal has her working up a sweat just to walk across her pen in the middle of the afternoon (heh...she doesn't even need to walk...just stand there in the sun...) She looks uncomfortable...and when I stepped into her pen, she just walked up to me and put her head down against my leg (she only does that when she's pregnant...)

I don't know whether to wish she hurries up and has the foal, so she can get rid of all that discomfort, or to wish she holds on until Friday night, when I'll be back up that way again (my brother is getting married that evening...I get to be the best man again...turning into the male equivalent of 'always a bridesmaid, never a bride'...)

But, hey...one thing I've learned from my horse...there's only so much you can force. At some point, you've gotta stand back and let her figure it out for herself, if you want it to turn out well. So, here's hoping she figures it out soon!

Well, that was surreal...

Have you ever been on an amusement park when it was open, with the power out? There's something kind of eerie about it...all these people standing around, with no rides running, no musics playing on the PA, none of the games operating (I think some of them were actually open to run, as many of them don't rely on power for anything other than resetting the surveillance system), no fountains going--just a lot of very bored people sitting around, a few of them trying to calm down their kids and get them to understand that they CAN'T go on the rides right now...not because Mommy says so, but because the rides are all broken...

It was kind of like being on a movie set, with all the extras in place, waiting for the director and name actors to show up for their shot.

The ironic thing in all of this is that Lagoon went to great expense last winter to set up their own substation, so they were no longer on the Farmington power grid. I've lost track of the number of times we've had park-wide blackouts since then. I've heard there were actual, legitimate reasons for the whole operation (with the new rides they added last year, they put themselves over the limit for the amount of power they could draw on their existing power feeds, was the prevailing theory...) Personally, I think the Powers That Be (tm) decided they'd rather bargain directly with the power company, than pay Farmington as the middleman. And, as usual, in their zeal to save some pennies, they spent (or lost) dollars (either in the upfront expense, or in the amount of time that NOTHING got done on the park because nobody had any electricity. I had more than a couple of days wasted because of that, personally).

The other funny thing (to me) was to see (or hear, in this case) the Lagoon Rumor Mill swing into action. The prevailing story among the 'common folk' in the Lagoon structure was laughable, if you know anything about how a power grid works. I heard some kids talking about how the power wouldn't be on for three hours (it was on ten minutes later) because the generators blew up (A--Lagoon doesn't have generators, hence the total blackout on the park, and B--if generators that size blow up, EVERYONE in the area knows it happened.)

I never heard the full, official story myself. What I got from our manager on duty was that there's been some kind of electrical fire...which makes sense. If something shorted out the power grid, it would cause a fire. It would also trip most of the breakers on the park. And once they THOUGHT they had the problem isolated and treated, they had to bring the power system back on-line slowly, a section at a time, in case there were further problems lurking (if you turn everything on at once, and it all crashes, you don't know where the problem is. But, go one area at a time, adding on, and if it trips, you know you've got a problem in the most recent area...or, at least, in one of the areas you've powered up.)

Power was back up in time for us to start our first show of the day 15 minutes late, and we didn't have so much as a flicker for the rest of the day. It was a new one for me...I got called at home (I was running a little late today, luckily)...and ended up bringing two flashlights and a propane lantern to work, so the girls had enough light to do their makeup. I've been there seven years now, and this has never happened before...and will likely never happen again. But I think I'm gonna push Alex to get some decent flashlights to keep in the dressing rooms (camp lanterns, something that'll put out some useful light...) Just in case.

PS--I'm STILL waiting for my horse to have her foal. She's good at dragging the process out a LONG time. More on that later!

I'm in pain...

Oh, I was stupid today. It's okay, I had fun...but I was stupid.

Every year, for the Farmington Days Parade, Lagoon enters something from the Entertainment Department. When I first started here, they just had the kids from the day show go through the parade in costume, kinda dancing along to whatever music was in their show that year. But for the past several years, we've actually kind of turned it into a Frightmares promotion, and have a bunch of kids dressed up in the Zombie Mambo costumes and makeup.

This year, they (the director and operations manager) decided that they wanted to branch out a little bit. The original idea was to have the Hackenslash characters do the parade instead of the zombies, and trade the Hearse for the '57 Chevy--because we were hoping to retire the Zombies (we've been doing that show for...sheesh, this will be the NINTH year), but the Powers That Be (tm) decided that they wanted the Zombies yet again.

So the final scheme for the parade was to use the Hearse (there's just no room for a good sound system in the Chevy), and have all the guys who signed up be Hackenslashers (I'll explain more about that later) while they girls were zombies. Additionally, Alex decided HE was driving this year (normally, I've been the driver). Since he was driving, I decided I was going to be in the parade anyway--we had a shortage of guys sign up, so they had empty slots in the Hackenslash lineup.

Now, to help illustrate the heights of my folly, I have to tell you about the Hackenslash show. The concept is that this chainsaw company (Hackenslash Chainsaws, Inc.) hired a bunch of would-be psycho chainsaw killers to demonstrate their product (the director and I hashed out the name together, and I designed the costumes). Each one has distinctive features, related to the character in some way, and there are eight characters--Stumpy, Lefty, Deadeye, Stitch, Buzz, Bones, Meat, and Skinner. Their outfits are gray coveralls, work boots, full-length leather aprons, elbow-length gloves, and 'metal' hockey masks (inspired by the cover of the Quiet Riot album) with funky white wigs...by the time everything is on, the only thing that is recognizable is the eyes, everything else is covered.

Now, their 'demonstrations' consist of short (5-7minutes) shows (usually 2 songs), in which they are basically the Drill Team From Hell, doing choreographed routines to the songs WITH the chainsaws (no, we don't have real blades on the saws, we use the old haunted house trick of having a plain aluminum bar attached to the motor housing, so you get the sound but NO chance of cutting anything--concussions are still a threat, however).

So, here I am, enthused at the prospect of finally performing as one of these characters I've created, when the parade started...and Alex turned on the sound system. And, suddenly, the thought occurs to me, "Oh, shit...I should be dancing to this." It's part of the gig, after all, and I signed up for it.

Well, the dancing isn't too big an issue. When I'm not thinking about it, I'm actually half-decent as a dancer--and since NOBODY, outside of the people in my parade group, have the slightest idea who I am (and even then, they can't keep track of which one I am, half the time), I'm not feeling at all self-conscious (I was more worried about making a bad impression by not dancing than I was about dancing poorly).

But I don't dance much. And I NEVER dance with a chainsaw. And the only time I dance in heavy work boots is when I'm dancing with a chainsaw...so, never. But there I was, dancing, in heavy boots, with a five-pound leather apron, a fifteen-pound chainsaw, and a hockey mask on my face. And THEN I realized that I was going to be dancing for a LONG time--the parade takes about forty minutes.

I cheated a few times--jumped up on the hood of the car to ride for a while, but was still working my arms, clapping my hands and stuff, when I wasn't walking--but I made it. The last few blocks were a serious case of just digging in and doing it on sheer willpower, but I made it.

Everything from my waist down is sore from the dancing, and my back is stiff from waving the chainsaw around in the air. I was so tired after the parade that, during the day show's first performance, I fell asleep on the floor backstage, sitting with my back braced against the wall (a position I would have sworn was just too uncomfortable for sleep, but I know better now). I woke up when the stage manager announced to everyone that she was opening house for the second show--it looked kind of like Jonestown, the morning after...bodies sprawled everywhere. I was glad to see I wasn't the only one exhausted.

I did the same thing again later, cashing out before the Rock show started their first show and waking up after they finished. That time, at least, I was curled up in a chair backstage in the green room. And I'm about ready to keel over again, as I'm typing. Four ibuprofen, a gallon of Powerade, several more donuts and a large soft taco got me through the day, but I made it.

Kinda scary, looking at it objectively, what it says about me when I will put myself to such pains just to get a chance to play in front of an audience again. I gotta start finding something to do during the off-season to get my fix--doing this every summer could kill me.

Or not. Like I said, I was stupid...but I had fun.

The Fine Line...

One of the things that is both the greatest pleasure and greatest frustration in my job is the number and variety of performers with whom I get to work. We've got a lot of people with us for the first time this year, and a few people that have been with us for several years.

You would think, after years of performing, the veterans would be the ones that would be the least troublesome. In a perfect world, or even (sorry for the jibe, Kevin, I can't resist) a union environment, that would be true. Lagoon is very definitely NOT a perfect world.

Our collection of veterans have managed to almost get the entire cast fired once. Individually, they have managed to get their employment status threatened again at least once each. And their joy in performing, which was once a very infectious thing to be around, has seemingly turned into a pursuit of their own self-indulgence on the stage.

I realized something tonight...and it's something I'll probably tell the newer, younger kids performing with us, because I know the older ones will just roll their eyes at me. But there's a fine line between a good performer and a great performer. A good performer always enjoys his time on the stage. But a great performer always makes sure THE AUDIENCE enjoys his time on the stage.

It's too bad our veteran performers can't figure that out. They are, quite possibly, the most talented group of individuals I've worked with in my time at Lagoon. They are also, unfortunately, the most self-indulgent group I've worked with...and that's REALLY saying something.

Or, maybe I'm just getting old and bitter. But I don't think so. I don't feel particularly bitter...just annoyed and disgusted at times. The full-time season is half-way through--maybe the second half will be better than the first.

I'm BAAAAAAck......

Sorry to have dropped off the face of the earth on everybody...things got a little tight financially, and it became a choice between not paying for gas or not paying for my broadband connection-- and since not paying for gas would result in not making it to work and not earning any money (which would only complicate an already unpleasant situation), I lost my internet access for a while.

But I'm back on top of things, and life is good. I've been having a very introspective summer-- my 20-year class reunion was a week ago, the same day as my family reunion (which happened to be held at the park adjacent to the building where I attended elementary school)--and my high school marching band had a reunion on the 3rd. Seen a lot of old familiar faces (a few of whom I could even put names to!), and old familiar places, and had a lot of fond (and some not-so-fond) memories stirred.

But it's made me appreciate friends that much more...so thanks, all of you here in the Bitchcake community (and anyone else!) that I know, for giving me some happy memories to think back on when I feel reflective about my past. There aren't words to express how much I appreciate them...I can only hope I've given as good as I've gotten in that department.

And, while I'm thinking about it--Erica, is there any particular reason you gave me Sabertooth? Or was it just a random decision? ;)

See you in your blogs!