JAPAN TRAGEDY - LOUDER THAN 1,000 WORDS

WHERE'S YOUR STUFF NOW? PART ONE

WHERE'S YOUR STUFF NOW? PART TWO

WHO HAD THE CEMENT CONTRACT?

The best political leader in the country, bar none, is Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts.

She has now publicly chosen light rail as the best and only feasible and affordable transportation addition for Surrey and district. The mayors of White Rock and Langley agree.

The cost of at-ground light rail is ONE TENTH that of the hideous mistaken eyesore known as SkyTrain.

To quote Mayor Watts, "At-grade rail is cost-effective and efficient, and would not only create a new transportation option, but also increase economic development and improve quality of life."

Not only that, but Mayor Watts wants this plan to be ratified within days or months and wants construction to begin ASAP.

I know of no other political leader with her good common sense, her feel for the pulse of the community and her willingness to speak and act directly.

BEST SHOW IN TOWN - BEST IN AGES!

MASSEY THEATER. COM OR 521-5050 FOR TICKETS.

BUY 10 OR MORE FOR MAJOR PRICE DISCOUNTS!



Theatre review: Boy howdy, The Will Rogers Follies are a real treat


By PETER BIRNIE, VANCOUVER SUN April 10, 2011





THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES

When: 8 p.m., to April 24

Where: Massey Theatre, 735 Eighth Ave., New Westminster

Tickets: $20 to $39, go to masseytheatre.com 604-521-5050 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 604-521-5050 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Chances are, folks 'round these parts haven't heard of The Will Rogers Follies. That's a pity: A big Broadway show that gets neglected because, well, it's too big, means we've been missing out on a real treat.

Until now.

Royal City Musical Theatre has once again enlisted an army of talented amateurs, topped things with a couple of real pros and come up with magic up the hill in New Westminster.

The Will Rogers Follies takes the tales (only some of them tall) of America's favourite everyman/funnyman, a wise-crackin' cowboy from Oklahoma, and spins them into a sweet reminiscence of the life he led about a century ago. As she did last year with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, director Val Easton won't settle for less than a thoroughly polished offering of song, dance and lots of one-liners.

She's blessed to have Matt Palmer doing her Will. We already know his charms as a singer in many musical-theatre offerings and it's great to see him step up to mastering tricky rope tricks (well, he's getting there nicely, anyway), but what's best about Palmer's performance is the deep understanding he has of this fella's charms.

Rogers was one of the good guys, as expressed in his mantra that "I never met a man I didn't like." Boy howdy, that takes a lot of commitment to one's fellow human beings, and Palmer convincingly conveys the many charismatic ways Will roped in all his many fans.

On a promenade in front of the orchestra pit, he welcomes us to a unique kind of cabaret. From beyond the grave Will's been brought back by the great Florenz Ziegfeld, who used to pay Rogers a great deal of money to appear in Ziegfeld's gigantic vaudeville shows, and so The Will Rogers Follies unfolds as both biography and an excuse to parade pretty girls among the melodies.

Palmer has the drawl down pat, as well as the self-deprecating manner that so assured America and the world this slow-talkin' cowboy was the real deal. But the actor also projects something much deeper from behind Will's trademark smile — his heartfelt love of life.

A serious scene in the second act has him standing at an old-style microphone, delivering a radio address that was supposed to cheer listeners up just after they'd been handed the latest bad economic new from President Herbert Hoover. Instead, Rogers spoke at length and with great eloquence about the injustice of inequality in a nation where the wealthy were busy cheating every penny they could from the poor.

Word for word, what we heard on Saturday's opening night could have been written the day before, when the U.S. government was frantically trying to tie itself into its latest Gordian knot of economic chicanery. So many of the jokes heard in the whole show are likewise cut eerily close to spoofing what we witness spewing from today's politicians.

But back to happier times, and those girls. Laura McNaught has a funny recurring role as the impossible leggy Ziegfeld favourite who helps change scenes, and her fellow chorus girls are equally beautiful in their manner, movements and especially enunciation. Musical director James Bryson has cracked the whip to create the same vocal discipline that Easton demands in her choreography of suitably overblown dance numbers.

A show-stopper in the second act, for example, sees Palmer as part of a chorus line celebrating his bid to be U.S. president (on the Anti-Bunk ticket, of course). Sitting in a row and slapping their knees, and then each other's, and turning this action into an infectiously snappy dance number, Will and the women find all the fun in Cy Coleman's cheery score.

As the cowboy's wife, Sara-Jeanne Hosie gets to sing the sultry stuff, with poignant lyrics by the legendary Comden and Green. Betty Rogers doesn't have the same globe-trotting fun as her husband, but whether in the love duets she sings with him or the spoof of a smokey "he done me wrong" ballad, Hosie shows why she's one of our best Broadway voices.

From the four adorable Rogers kids (Nathan Piasecki, Keira Jang, Trevor Kobayashi, Connor Macmillan) and his gol-darned dad (Tyson Coady) to Chris Sinosich's ocean of gorgeous costumes, the big brass in Bryson's pit-packing orchestra and a richly creative set design by Omanie Elias, this stellar production of The Will Rogers Follies is filled with the fun of a family treat your clan should see. Yes indeedy, from eight to 80, come one come all.

Sun Theatre Critic

pbirnie@vancouversun.com

THREE LITTLE THINGS

THING ONE - Best pre-election promise by a candidate: Harper says he would require bureaucrats to eliminate a regulation for everyone they propose.

Let's go him one or two better.

How about they are required to eliminate seven regulations for every new one proposed.

Or, they are required to eliminate seven bureaucratic jobs for every new reg proposed.

THING TWO - Kash Heed has been cleared again. That's fine with me; no argument. But what has been on my mind for a while now is this.

I've been thinking that Kash Heed took the offer to leave his job of West Vancouver's Police Chief to run for BC political office, so that he could be appointed Solicitor-General, all of which happened.

But he did all of that for one sole purpose - to create and institute A British Columbia Police Force with him as the Top Cop.
This would be his revenge for not getting the job of Vancouver Police Chief.

Now.

Am I dreaming? Am I making this all up out of whole cloth? Is it likely or possible?

Does anyone agree?

Will this fantasy, in time, cme to pass?

THING THREE - "Worst Headline of the Year" Award:

Killer teens never got the help they needed

No such "help" exists.

This headline should not have been printed because it is false, misleading and flat ignorant of any known realities.

Psychopaths cannot be cured.

When you find a "cured" one, lock up the team of psychiatrists who are claiming this world first.

THE HEALTH CARE CHALLENGE - PART ONE

THE HEALTH CARE CHALLENGE - PART TWO

THE DANGEROUS AMONG US

Delusional and possibly schizophrenic.

An apt description for our criminal justice system.

Of course, originally this phrase was used to describe a man who killed his three children three years ago.

But now that knowing authorities are granting this dangerous felon leave to go swimming and have coffee at the mall, we can best apply this little summary to the authorities and to the system itself that allows such fools to be in charge.

The authorities, of course, have no - NO, ZERO - sense of community responsibility.

B.C. Review Board chair Bernd Walter is one of these men.

Dr. Johan Brink, the clinical director of the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital is another.

Remember their names.

Because when their patient, Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, kills someone else, these nutty, irresponsible fools should be held accountable.

Here is the shrink`s rationale for this hideously mistaken decision:

Brink said Schoenborn was “compliant,” taking medication and learning to cook.

Good. Nice.

What I have read of this dreadful story tells me this:

Schoenborn is and was NOT insane. He knew right from wrong when he killed his children, which he did entirely asd an act of rage against his wife. He then had the foresight and clear headedness to hide out in the woods until he was caught.

But Walter and Brink are insane.

They are dangerous men who are out of touch with the realities of their communities.

They are secreted away in their little jobs and have forgotten, if they ever knew, what is right and what is wrong.

Schoenborn is a high risk offender - as in way off the charts.

And these two men are aiding and abetting him.

DOWN TO THE SEA, AGAIN

Esquimalt may lose command of ships

Navy proposing to switch control of Pacific operations to Halifax

Canada's navy is embarking on a controversial plan that would see it switch control of its ships on the west coast to the naval-service headquarters in Halifax.

Hahahahahaha...

Only in Canerda, you say? Pity.

Years ago, I worked for CBC Television news here in Vancouver. Our boss was a recent arrival from CBC radio in Newfoundland.

Hahahahahaha...

Forty years later, we continue to be a nation of bi-coastal idiots.

Electric

STEPHEN HUME, writing in today's Sun, has absolutely nailed Hydro's spurious plans for "Smart" Meters and major rate hike$.

Read it and cheer that there are still a handful of diligent journalists in our midst.

SPOOKY, STRANGE, BEAUTIFUL TIME-LAPSE NORTHERN LIGHTS

In The Land Of The Northern Lights from Ole Christian Salomonsen on Vimeo.

WE GOT TROUBLE

Three videos this morning.

The first two bring you our interview, taped yesterday, for SHAW COMMUNITY TV, CABLE 4, with Rick Green, the Mayor of the Township of Langley.

Mayor Green has been embattled with his own council since the day he was elected two and a half years ago.

The third video is of Robert Preston doing his famous number from "The Music Man" at the Tony awards.

Enjoy.

TROUBLE IN RIVER CITY - PART ONE

TROUBLE IN RIVER CITY - PART TWO

TROUBLE -ROBERT PRESTON

"Christy Crunch"

MONTH OF MAY

Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May may or may not be a great addition to Parliament, to national political life or to fine dining. She may or may not have a one-note or full-piano agenda.

But we know these things for sure:

- She is running against Conservative incumbent, Gary Lunn, Minister of State for Sport.

- Mr. Lunn is the second worst parliamentarian in Canadian history, the worst, of course, being Hedy Fry.

- Elizabeth May is the leader of a federal party that gathered one million votes last time round and that collects substantial federal election spending from our federal government.

- A consortium of TV broadcasters (CBC, CTV, Global, Radio-Canada & TVA) have decided that Elizabeth May is not worthy of participation in televised debates.

Since when are entertainment conglomerates the rightful holders of democratic freedoms in this or any other country?

Barbara Yappy, in her column today, presents the oldest and dumbest argument in favour of the TV execs' decision: "They [the Green Party] are not part of the parliamentary play in this country. They have no seats in either the House of Commons or the Senate."

NEWS FLASH FOR BABS - IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO GET A SEAT IN THE HOUSE WHEN YOU ARE BANNED FROM PUBLIC EXPOSURE.

Is this what we really want in Canada? The same old, same old tired old white men babbling about the size of their...programs?

I say, "The more the merrier."

To date, Elizabeth May has not proven herself to be a circus clown, a pot advocate, a nun in politician's clothing or Linsay Lohan's evil twin.

She is the leader of a registered and legitimate political party.

It is unlikely that she or her candidate in my riding will get my vote.

But I do want to hear their arguments.

Maybe because I have this quaint, old fashioned notion of democracy.

Silly me.

One day I will grow up and think like the CBC.

Which, of course, will be the same day, I watch Peter Mansbridge interview someone.

SOUND & FURY

This is an election about nothing.

Jack Layton forced the election for the same reason that a dog licks himself - because he can.

This is an election about the three P's: Power, Politics and Putzes.

Harper may or may not be the warmest, cuddliest guy on earth, and you may not think of him first when you ask yourself, "Whom should I invite for coffee this morning?"

But so what? Has he wrecked the country? Has he done anything as criminal as the Liberal Sponsorship mess of a decade ago?

What are the issues for this election?

Health care? (Costs out of control. Service fabulous on Tuesdays, the shits on Wednesdays.) Education? (Third rate. Run by the Teachers' Unions.) Productivity? (Unknown. Less than zero. No skilled labour force. No apprentices.) The military? (Proud and in harm's way every day, unloved and under financed.)

Not at all. None of these issues is at play.

We are one of the least productive nations on earth. Our economy is run entirely by the service industries ("Can I put some Cinnamon sprinkles on that for you, Ma'am?) and foreign grabs on real estate. And the every diminishing natural resources.

No.

This all a vainglorious $300 Million hit in the taxpayers' pocket.

It's all for cheesy sound bites and posturing.

I've reached the point where the sight of Mr. Mustache (Fast Eddy Felson, above) and Professor Iggy Pop actually make me sick.

I don't believe for a second that these stick figures have me or you at heart.

Eat a bagel, don a turban, kiss a baby - I'm throwing up already.

And no sooner will the poop from this Cavalia be shoveled off the sawdust, then we'll have to watch Christy Palin mount her steed and costs us another $100 Million or so.

Try keeping the libraries open instead.

THE JAZZ MAN

Gavin Walker has been broadcasting "The Jazz Show" on CITR radio 101.9 FM continuously since 1984.

You can listen in every Monday from 9 to Midnight.

Gavin and I have only been friends for 45 years.

In this photo, taken March 19, by another local jazz aficionado, Ron Hearn, Gavin is wailing with Joey DeFrancesco at Corey Weeds' Cellar Jazz Club right here on West Broadway.

Gavin is not only a great historian, broadcaster, and story teller of the Jazz saga, but it doesn't hurt that he is( and has been for a lifetime) a sax and bass player and a guy with an astute, educated and trained ear.