Opinion

Scientists tell us that a single nuclear weapon could cause devastating climate

This co-production launching a collaboration between the Fountain Theatre and Los Angeles City College’s Theatre Academy tells the story of real life dancer Freddy Herko (Marty Dew) largely through choreography (by Cate Caplin) and a recorded soundtrack of music ranging from Vivaldi and Mozart to sixties music by Blind Faith and Donovan plus other rock/pop musicians. Various stage effects are used, too, including a sort of mist that this hour-ish-long one acter opens with, perhaps symbolizing the mists of memory.

To be sure, in addition to this impressionistic collage, there is a storyline that threads this needle, as the older Shelley (professional actress Susan Wilder) goes back in time to relate her experiences with Freddy, when she was young and foolish. Devoted to dance, younger Shelley (professional actress Katie McConaughy) leaves her husband Pete (LACC sixth semester actor Lamont Oakley) to pursue the mercurial Freddy.

he flag is a symbol, and there is no agreement as to what it actually symbolizes. By design, the flag’s thirteen stripes stand for the original 13 states, none of which would ban slavery. The 14th state, Vermont, was the first state to ban slavery, doing it weakly in its 1777 state constitution (not that the principle was enforced: in 1802 the Town of Windsor sued a State Supreme Court justice to get him to take care of an elderly, infirm slave he had dumped on town welfare; the town lost the case). The original flag had 13 stars for those same original 13 states, and it took over 70 years before all 36 stars in the 1865 flag represented states without slavery (but not states without racist Jim Crow laws and the freedom to lynch without consequence).

In The Last Tycoon F. Scott Fitzgerald rather famously quipped, “There are no second acts in American lives.” But I’m glad this isn’t true about drama, because I started drifting off during the first act of A Noise Within’s production of Jean Giradoux’s 1943 The Madwoman of Chaillot. I found Act I, which takes place at Angela Balogh Calin’s rather airy set for Café Chez Francis, to be too talky. But I decided to stay for the duration - and ended up being very happy I did, because the second act was quite gloriously delirious.

Once had friend tell me he could not stand to hear Black Sabbath albums, covered sampled or remixed, because they were perfect. Now, I love Black Sabbath as much. However, growing up writing graffiti, you embraced Black Sabbath aura.

Obviously this is the most dominant aesthetic in music. 

My friend’s sentiment had a valid point.

Jack White and the Black Keys are both examples of how difficult it is to filter the blues and gospel into rock in roll without sounding like a complete cornball. My assumption regarding the mediocre current state of mainstream rock music is that most people who want to start bands probably haven’t gone thru the processes that Jack White or the Black Keys have so they just can’t….

Ok...so we know Black Sabbath is amazing. How is the movie?

Well, the best way I can explain is this: Ozzy Osborne obviously is most famous member of Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath is where the antics that made Ozzy a reality show spectacle are removed, and he is known more for important artistry.

This documentary is for the fans that want to enjoy the high quality of the group they love. It’s a film of mutual respect.

Friday, Sept. 29, 9a,-4:30pm
Frank Hale Cultural Center, 153 W 12th Ave, Columbus, Ohio 43210
Facebook Event
SÕL-CON: Brown & Black Comics Expo that offers a venue every year at OSU Campus's Hale Hall for Latinx and African American comic book creators to come together to change the lives of K-12 youth of color in Columbus. Panels. K-12 Comics and Zine Workshops. Talk-Backs. Expo.
Free.

Kneel, touch the earth. 

“Oh say can you see . . . ”

The anthem starts. I can feel the courage . . . of Colin Kaepernick, the (then) San Francisco 49ers quarterback who refused to stand for the national war hymn, not when one of the wars was directed at Americans of color. Occupying the public spotlight that he did, Kaepernick risked — and received — widespread condemnation. Rabid fans burned replicas of his jersey. I’m sure as he knelt that first time, as his knee touched the earth, he had a sense of what he was setting off.

This is patriotism. 

A year later, his action still resonates. The president got involved (of course), ranting and tweeting that kneeling NFL players should be fired, thus, as Adam Erickson points out, joining his list of scapegoats:

Not even a year has passed since Donald Trump’s election victory. Yet already, his over-the-top, pugnacious rhetoric and actions have exacerbated Washington’s conflict with North Korea to the point where some observers are comparing it to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.1 But how are people being educated and informed about this crisis in the mass media? We are shown bountiful coverage of North Korean problems, such as Kim Jong-un’s own over-the top rhetoric, his government’s human rights violations, rapid development of nuclear missiles, and soldiers goose stepping, but hardly any coverage of American problems, such as our history of aggression on the Korean Peninsula, the “Military-Industrial Complex” that President Eisenhower warned about in 1961, and the ways in which Washington has been intimidating Pyongyang. Below is an outline of some myths that must be dispelled if Americans are to gain some basic understanding U.S.-North Korea relations today and if they are to feel motivated to pressure their government to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Myth Number 1: North Korea is the aggressor, not us; they are the problem

What is freedom of religion? It is not actually or directly freedom to think or not think religious stuff, not to the extent that one can, or chooses to, keep one’s thoughts secret. Rather, it is the right to display or to refuse to display religiosity.

If you have freedom of religion, as I think everyone should, and if we all have the right to our own lives and well-being, as I think we should, then as long as you’re not hurting anyone else, you have the right to hold various things sacred: books, statues, symbols, buildings, trees, whatever. And everyone else has the right not to hold those things sacred.

In Saudi Arabia, if you do not act as if you hold certain objects and words and behaviors sacred, your life is in jeopardy.

In the United States, what puts you at the greatest risk of unpleasant repercussions is not the practicing of any particular religion, with the possible exception of Islam or anything that people might mistake for Islam. What the most factors conspire to compel you to in the United States is this: flag worship.