cellio | Reading

Some years ago we planted a dozen or so Fragaria virginiana (wild strawberry) plants in the bed near the front of the house, hoping they would spread and form a ground cover around the rose bushes. Spread they did: they're on a sacred mission to take over the world, and I try to keep them confined to that bed by pulling up the runners that pole-vault into neighboring beds. Anyway, last year we harvested enough strawberries to make a pint or two of wild-strawberry ice cream. (There are species of "wild strawberries" that taste like water. These are not that kind: these taste and smell like strawberries, albeit mostly the size of your pinky fingernail.) And last week I decided to see what the bed had produced. I got at least a cup of pinky-nail-sized strawberries, so we may be able to make ice cream or something again.

Some years ago we also planted a dwarf tart-cherry tree in the sub-lawn between our section of sidewalk and the street. Last year it produced perhaps a pint of cherries, enough for a batch or two of sour-cherry scones or a small pie. Yesterday

shalmestere said the cherries were ripe enough for some of our neighbors (squirrel, bird, and human) to start harvesting them, and asked me to put a net over the tree to keep out at least the non-human consumers. I decided to first harvest some cherries myself: I got at least a pint (about a hundred cherries) before throwing a net over the top, and made a batch of delicious sour-cherry scones last night. Harvested another sixty or so cherries today, and there are probably at least a hundred more that I deemed insufficiently ripe to pick. The ones that haven't gone into scones yet have been pitted and frozen. And I think we still have a zip-loc bag of last year's frozen cherries, so we should be able to make either a full-sized cherry pie or several batches of scones, or something else that gives cherries a starring role.

While I was picking cherries this evening,

shalmestere was picking strawberries. It was dusk, not really enough sunlight to see the tiny strawberries well and decide whether they're red enough to pick, but she got a dozen or so, as well as the first two (2) raspberries from the canes in the back yard.

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: tired

conuly

and she said we still have them "because what if the dryer breaks" and I thought to myself "oh, yeah, that's gonna come back to haunt us" but I didn't say anything for fear of making it worse and today - the dryer broke!

*headdesk*

This is Jenn's fault. I will stand by that.

The first repair appointment I could make is next week, but that's okay, we won't have enough money until next week anyway.

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nancylebov

I'll go though it, bit by bit, in the first comment, but you might want to experience it cold.

CW for just about everything except animal abuse since there are no animals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8AsxmLnoic&t=8s

Quite well read, 4 parts, about 3 i/2 hours.

mcgathblog_feed

Posted by Gary McGath

https://garymcgath.com/fanny-mendelssohn/

https://garymcgath.com/?p=6837

Fanny Mendelssohn, also known by her married name Fanny Hensel, was a sister of the 19th-century composer Felix Mendelssohn. While she wasn’t nearly as famous as her brother, she was an excellent composer herself, and she doubtless would have been better known if 19th-century European society didn’t discourage women from professionally writing music. The website HenselPushers is devoted to publicizing her music and making it available in printed form. The site maintainer’s name isn’t given, but it’s been going for quite a while and appears reliable.

A recent article pointed out a common mistranslation of a statement by her father, Abraham Mendelssohn. Her biographer, R. Larry Todd, translated a sentence in a letter from Abraham to the 14-year-old Fanny as: “Music will perhaps become his [Felix’s] profession, whilst for you it can and must only be an ornament, never the root of your being and doing.” That sounds as if he was discouraging her from making music important in her life.

The actual quote, according to HenselPushers, is “Die Musik wird für ihn vielleicht Beruf, während sie für dich stets nur Zierde, immer Bildungsmittel, Grundbaß deines Seins und Thuns werden kann und soll.” The usual quotation has “niemals” (never) rather than “immer” (always), reversing the meaning, and omits “Bildungsmittel” (means of personal development). He recognized that the chances of her becoming a professional musician were slim at best, but he still regarded music as very important to her future.

This is just a short signal boost, so I won’t get into the reasons for the misquote, which HenselPushers thinks was an intentional alteration by her son Sebastian Hensel. I haven’t independently verified the analysis, but the translation of the German lines looks right to the best of my understanding. “Grundbaß” (spelled “Grundbass” today) means the “ground bass” or bass line of a piece of music; if it had a secondary meaning in the Mendelssohns’ time, it’s dropped out today. Abraham was using the word metaphorically.

Fanny is believed to have contributed to some of the compositions Felix published in his own name, though we’ll never know the exact extent.

Here’s a sampling of three of Fanny Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words.

https://garymcgath.com/fanny-mendelssohn/

https://garymcgath.com/?p=6837

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

Eleven years with a wonderful, cuddly cat. Thanks, Ticia. I'll always love you.
Solensia (injectable arthritis medicine for cats).
Bronx finally (hopefully) learning to keep his claws to himself, and not to nip so hard.
Finally getting the hang of the Sigvaris Doff N Donner, which makes putting on compression stockings somewhat less annoying.
Our immigration lawyer/law firm.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: maybe Eurofilk tonight

andrewducker

1. Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time: (tags:drone war Ukraine Russia death )
2. The stamp duty hike didn't backfire. That's the problem: (tags:tax UK housing )

magid

This year, I again got my farm share from Stone Soup Farm, a large share (which ends up being double the small share). This week’s haul was unsurprisingly high on leaves; I was surprised that there were so many things that weren’t leaves.

6 small purple kohlrabi (no greens)
2 bunches of red radishes of unusual size, with greens
6 Hakurei turnips with greens (smaller than the radishes)
2 huge bunches of curly kale
1 pound of spinach (big/old enough that it’s more appropriate for cooking)
1.5 pounds of mixed salad greens (leggy enough that a light wilt would work well too)
8 green garlic

First thoughts: saute a lot of the greens with some of the garlic, sweet potatoes, and vegan sausages. Some kind of radish-turnip slaw, maybe with some kohlrabi. Massaged kale salad with lemon-tahini dressing. Fridge pickled kale stems. Maybe some type of Indian saag, with tofu in lieu of paneer.

conuly

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conuly

and you all should catch up on the entire season so you can listen to it when it comes out for real. There are transcripts.

Also, they gave out stickers, so now I have something to slap over the Nazi sticker that just appeared by the train station.

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shewhomust

Three things I learned from the nature diaries feature in the NTS magazine:

1. A new word: kleptoparasitic -: - describing a bird which steals food from other birds. Applied to the great skua, the bonxie (also known as 'pirates of the sea'), which seems to have developed a degree of immunity to avian flu. Which has to be good news, doesn't it?
2. Corncrake chicks are ridiculously cute.: Scroll down that article, past the intimidating bonxies, to see the little black fluffy thing. I don't know why the picture is so small. Here's another one. The world needs more baby corncrakes.
3. The Strathy Strangler is a fungus.: A parasitic fungus.

Plus a bonus bird. I have never owned an umbrella. I have never wanted to own an umbrella. But if I did this is the umbrella I would want to own.

watersword

things I fucked up today so far, a list:

forgot to take my meds before I left the house
forgot to put my gym clothes in my bag
forgot my ipad with my weightlifting app
forgot my headphones
forgot to transfer a giant file overnight
didn't finish my tea before I left the house and the contents of the abandoned cup will be gross when I get back after several hours of 84°F/28°C

I hate being so dependent on the bus system, when the bus system is so crappy. Buses should come every ten minutes!

things I got right:

I have my wristwatch
I have a fresh tube of sunscreen to leave in my gym locker
I had naan and brie for breakfast
I am wearing office clothes
my hair is brushed
I have my thermos of hot tea
I have my office key

I am pretty sure I can skedaddle off campus around 3, which will give me enough time to get snacks for the Board Annual Meeting tonight.

ETA: Okay, I snuck out of the morning event and ran home and took my meds and got all my stuff and the giant file is transferring (fingers crossed the transfer time estimate is a lie and I can drop the thumb drive off with a colleague before I leave), and maybe the day is looking up.

hudebnik

Today's New York Times has an editorial about deadlines for mail-in ballots, saying Congress should pass a Federal bill, among other things "making clear that states are permitted to begin counting early ballots as soon as they arrive." Let's think about this.

For every ballot, several things have to happen in some order: verify that the voter is authorized to vote, verify that the voter hasn't already voted in this election, record that the voter has voted in this election, and count the contents of the ballot. At an in-person polling station with paper ballots, the first two steps are normally done by an election official at a desk, who then hands the voter a ballot to fill out and (I guess) records the voter as having voted. Counting the contents happens a few minutes later (for machine-scanned ballots) or a few hours later (for hand-counted ballots).

The problem is people voting multiple times -- one or more by-mail and one or more in-person. This appears to be an extremely rare phenomenon today, but we'd like to keep it that way, and if there's an easy way to vote multiple times without getting caught, people will do it. So there has to be some rule telling election officials what to do if somebody tries to vote both ways. There are several possibilities.

1) Mail-in ballots take priority over in-person ballots. If somebody has already sent in a ballot by mail and then shows up at a polling place in person, that person shouldn't be given an in-person ballot. This requires that we have a complete list of who sent mail-in ballots before in-person voting starts: the deadline for receiving ballots by mail has to be before the start of in-person voting. If a state also allows a week or two of in-person voting before Election Day, as many do, that means mail-in ballots have to be mailed several weeks before Election Day in order to be counted. Many people and states consider that an unreasonably early deadline.

2) Mail-in ballots take priority over in-person ballots, but anybody who's requested and been sent a mail-in ballot and then shows up at a polling place in person gets a provisional ballot which won't be counted until the state has a complete list of who sent in mail-in ballots so it can decide which provisional ballots to reject. If a state has a high rate of mail-in ballot requests, this could mean a lot of provisional ballots that can't be opened and scanned until after the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots. If that deadline is Election Day (as the editorial recommends), or shortly before, all the mail-in ballots can be counted as they come in and reported on or shortly after Election Day, but in-person ballots may take a while afterwards. In the extreme case that a state automatically sends mail-in ballots to all registered voters, then all in-person votes become provisional and can't start being opened and counted until after the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots. This approach could make good sense if there were very few or no in-person votes.

3) In-person ballots take priority over mail-in ballots. This requires that we have a complete list of who voted in-person before we start opening mail-in ballots, so we know which mail-in ballots to reject, which means we can't even start counting mail-in ballots until the polls close on Election Day, leading to long delays in reporting results as is happening in California right now. This approach made sense when very few ballots were mail-in, but it makes less sense now.

4) In-person and mail-in ballots are both counted as they come in, but if somebody is found to have voted both ways, all but one of the ballots is cancelled retroactively (perhaps chosen at random). This requires recording in a database not only who's voted which way, but the contents of each person's ballot, which violates the principle of secret ballots. If such a database exists, somebody will eventually break into it and use it to reward or punish people for their votes.

5) In-person and mail-in ballots are both counted as they come in without worrying about deduplication. After all deadlines have passed, anybody who voted both ways gets a visit from the police. This approach allows double-voters to actually affect the results of an election, as long as they're willing to face the consequences. It could mean a lot of police work and a lot of court cases: some people may have honestly forgotten that they sent a mail-in ballot, others may be victims of mistaken identity or fraud (somebody else sent a mail-in ballot in my name and I didn't know about it, so I voted in-person; why am I going to jail?). And it could depress voter turnout: if I can't remember whether I sent a mail-in ballot, I won't risk voting in-person.

6) In-person and mail-in ballots are both counted as they come in, first-come-first-served. This requires a single counting sequence for both in-person and mail-in ballots, so you know that one has been counted before deciding whether to count the other, and this makes parallel counting more difficult, although not impossible, if you have good communication lines. (Many sparsely-populated, rural parts of the country don't have good communication lines, and a place that normally has good communication lines could be impaired by a natural or man-made disaster.) You would still want to follow up with voters who seem to have voted both ways, to detect cases like the above (somebody else sent a mail-in ballot in my name and I didn't know about it, so my legitimate vote wasn't counted), but there's no way to fix a case like that without violating ballot secrecy.

7) Reduce the problem by eliminating either in-person or mail-in voting. If you allow mail-in voting, you still have some of the same issues as above with detecting multiple mail-in ballots from the same voter.

I'm probably missing some possibilities or some considerations, having never worked as an election official.

mcgathblog_feed

Posted by Gary McGath

https://garymcgath.com/tribalist-thinking/

https://garymcgath.com/?p=6829

Tribal psychology, the tendency to divide the world into “us” and “them,” goes back to early human history. It gets its name because in earlier times, survival required loyalty to the tribe and suspicion of outsiders. In modern society, people of all kinds mix, but people still feel uncomfortable about those who are different from them. Sometimes they construct differences where there’s no real issue. Fan groups are a mostly harmless example. Red Sox fans hate the Yankees and Yankees fans hate the Red Sox, but it’s usually in fun. Science fiction fans disparage non-fans as “mundanes,” usually as a joke but sometimes with real disdain.

Problems arise when people use tribalist inclinations to treat outsiders as inferior or evil. That course can lead to violence, systemic discrimination, and legal persecution. It hurts members of the in-group as well, giving them fewer opportunities for valuable interactions and limiting them economically. It’s the antithesis of the liberal worldview, the idea that people should be regarded on their individual merits and have certain rights regardless of who they are.

People sometimes try to make sense of tribalism by reducing it to a single cause. Racism is an especially nasty form of it, but it’s only one of the foundations. Many on the left treat it as humanity’s Original Sin and ascribe all kinds of group hostility to racial attitudes, but it’s just one of the factors. Its influence has declined from past centuries. When it was acceptable, people used it to disparage groups that looked different. Today it’s less acceptable, so people define their groups in other ways.

Nationalism rose as a force in the nineteenth century, and it’s powerful today. Hostility based on foreignness is often considered acceptable, and many people have ferocious disdain for immigrants. People are often hostile to those with a different language or accent. Religion isn’t as powerful a factor as it was when you could be executed for heresy, but there’s a widespread view that (Evangelical) Christianity should get preferential legal status, and some countries still enforce state religions.

Irrational rage is useful for promoting hostility, the more irrational and enraged the better. This seems strange but makes historical sense. If an invading tribe posed a threat, the leaders had to stir the men up to fight. It isn’t easy to get calm, clear-headed people to march against people who want to kill them. The leaders of both sides needed fury to beat the other side. Today fury stirs people up even if they aren’t in combat. An enraged crowd is also good for electing candidates and forming mass protests.

It’s the “us vs. them” thinking which is at the core. The specifics of who’s “us” and who’s “them” vary with the fashions.

https://garymcgath.com/tribalist-thinking/

https://garymcgath.com/?p=6829

conuly

1. This author is clearly pretty young. Still, they won't be half-bad once they get a little more experience.

2. Wow, this author's note is unhinged

3. and long

4. and not apparently connected to anything omg

5. Oh, wait, she's in the 7th grade!? Well, now I definitely won't leave any sort of comment about whatever the hell that was!

6. Still, she's definitely a better writer than I thought if she's producing this at the age of 12. (The fic, not the author's note.)

mdlbear

In my sunlit bedroom on the fourth of June, I held Ticia in my arms as she fell asleep for the last time and slipped away across the Rainbow Bridge. Our little old lady cat was nineteen years old, and dying from kidney failure. I sang to her, but it's hard to sing when you're crying.

My biggest fear had been that she would crawl off under the bed while I was somewhere else, and die alone with no-one to hold her and soothe her. I was especially worried about the week-long vacation we have planned for August. We were able to save her from that, and give her comfort and love in her last moments.

She found us at the Cat City shelter, in Seattle, on the Third of November, 2015. Or maybe I should say that we found each other -- I coaxed her out of the box on the floor that she was hiding in, gave her some skritches and pets, picked her up, and cuddled her in my lap. The shelter staff told us that she'd never allowed that from anyone else. I thought I was mostly over the untimely loss of Curio back in July, but she must have sensed that we needed each other.

They told us that her name was Morticia (though it was soon shortened for daily use), and gave us the Rudolph-the-Red-Nosed-Reindeer dog toy that had arrived with her at the shelter. From that and her affectionate personality, we could tell that her previous Person must have loved her very much. We never found out what happened to them.

In addition to petting and cuddles, I found out on the way home from the shelter that she also loved music. She had been meowing and restless, but settled right down when I put on a Heather Dale CD. She was also very fond of cellophane "crinkle balls" -- she would often carry one into whichever room I was in and set it down where I could see what a good huntress she'd been, while making a peculiar bark/growl that I called her "hunting call". In her younger days she would chase after them -- it was a reliable way of getting her into a room when we needed to.

She took over the spot on the bed that Curio had occupied. I sleep on my side, with my arm up beside my head, and that's where she loved to sit, while I scritched her tummy and waited for sleep to come. In the daytime, she spent a lot of time on Colleen's lap, getting treats and attention.

She did not get along with m's cat, Cricket. Actually that's an understatement. We never found out why. (Cricket, when asked, would only say that it was from a previous life and none of our business. A cat thing.) We had to keep them in separate rooms. But both of them were fine as long as they had their people.

She was timid with strangers, and would hide under the bed the first couple of times a new person came into her room.

I had been singing to her, and N and I both took pictures. When Stefan, the vet, came back from giving Cricket her Solensia shot I picked Ticia up and carried her to the white chair in the corner of the room -- her favorite chair -- and talked softly to her as she fell asleep, her head resting comfortably on my arm.

She slips silently through the Veil between the worlds, and onto the Rainbow Bridge. She looks back, a little concerned about the family she left behind, but there is only the pale shimmer of the Veil. Well, they'll just have to take care of one another without her.

She's made this trip before.

As she climbs the rainbow-carpeted stairs her age and her illness fall away, and once again she is a queen in the prime of life, as she was on the day eleven years ago when she met her latest Person. Back then she had been frightened and unhappy, still grieving her recent loss. But a man with a soft voice and gentle hands had coaxed her out of hiding, petted her, and picked her up, and she'd settled into his lap with a contented purr. He had been grieving, too. A cat can tell these things.

A pair of sleek black cats -- Desti and Bast -- meet her near the top of the stairs, and lead her to where Colleen and her previous Person are sitting, sipping tea and getting acquainted. Curio is there too, Colleen's previous Cat. They all have a lot of catching up to do.

The Goddess briefly re-manifests: a slim woman with the head of a cat, before dashing off to her next appointment. A psychopomp's work is never done.

Links:

The Rainbow Bridge
Ticia's page
Photos
Vet@Home (site can be viewed in Dutch, English, or Spanish)
Dierencrematorium Haaglanden/
Aiming to double cats' lifespan by improving kidney function | The University of Tokyo

Current Mood: sad
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: Music For Cats

princessofgeeks

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conuly

Morning, the glistening
grass draws me into the day,
as if new meant separate
from the day before—

and I, having that human part
that can be transfixed by bauble or blade,
limp out again, a believer,
into memory’s emerald glint.

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Link

conuly

is that it was too big for the planter, and now it's broken the pot and we may not be able to save the plant :(

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conuly

So excited!

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princessofgeeks

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fauxklore

Getting from Swindon to Brighton required going through London. Why was I going to Brighton? Well, I watch various musician’s reels. One performer who I’ve found interesting over the past couple of years is Thomas Benjamin Wild and I saw that he was performing in Brighton the day after the Fforde Ffiesta. I’d never actually been to Brighton before, so I figured that going to his show there would kill two seagulls with one stone. (Er, yes, I do have something against seagulls. I grew up having to fend them off when picking berries and having to dodge flying clams that they were trying to crack on sidewalks.)

Anyway, I figured out the train connections. I had booked a room at the Ibis Hotel in downtown Brighton, which proved to be particularly convenient to the train station. (And, hence, to buses that run to other parts of Brighton, which proved to be convenient later on.) I’d paid for early check-in so was able to leave my bag in my room and study a map for a little while, before setting out to walk around the city a bit.

Brighton is quite hilly but, fortunately, I was able to meander mostly downhill to get to the Pavilion. Among the way, there was a lot of brightly colored graffiti.

I also window shopped at various artsy stores before going over to the Pavilion, which is a very striking building, surrounded by lovely gardens. It was a nice enough day out that I didn’t feel like paying to go inside to see the current exhibit, which focused on dragons.

Eventually, I meandered over to the seaside. During the day, there’s a GBP 1 admission fee for the pier, which I thought was worth paying for. There are lots of benches and free deck chairs - and lots of people. The beach itself is meh in my opinion. Personally, I prefer fine white sand to rocky beaches.

The pavilions were crowded and noisy and the rides were primarily oriented towards children. There were various food stands, selling the sort of junk food you expect at this sort of beach. Being England, there were also plenty of alcoholic beverages for sale. Toss in seagulls and jet skis to add to the noise and, overall, Point Lookout / Lido Beach / or even Jones Beach or Rockaway it ain’t. (By the way, it has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to this, but the most beautiful beaches in the world are along the Indian Ocean coast of Africa, e.g. in places like Zanzibar and Madagascar. I really need to get to Mozambique some day.)

As the sun went down, it began to cool off quite a bit. I got supper at a pub and found the venue for the show I was going to. There was some confusion about what time it started. If a show is at 8 p.m., but the doors open at 7 p.m., you should make that clear on the ticket, instead of just listing the opening time. The venue proved to be a gay bar and the only seating was a few rows of steps. It was crowded and uncomfortable and you had to stand if you wanted to see anything. Fortunately, Thomas Benjamin Wild was the first of the three performers. I am still struggling to understand why his web page advertised this as a solo show when there were two other performers, as well, but it’s not as if I’ve never gone to venues who don’t even mention the eight opening acts you have to sit through before hearing the main act you’re there for.

Anyway, he was pretty entertaining and did some of his more popular songs. Some of my friends might find this relatable.

Watch on YouTube

And, of course, he closed with his best known song.

Watch on YouTube

I should also probably mention that, while he is known for playing a (normal) ukulele, he did all of his accompaniment at this show with a banjolele.

I normally would have stayed for the other two performers, but the venue was so uncomfortable that I left after his show. It reminded me of the night one of my friends left a show at The Anthem (on the Wharf in Washington, D.C.) before the Dropkick Murphys. Luckily, the bus I needed to get back to my hotel was right across the street as I was leaving, so obviously I made the right choice.

Since the gentleman with whom I am conducting the world’s longest running brief meaningless fling had meetings the next day, there was no real reason for me to rush back to London. I opted to spend some time at the Toy and Model Museum, which is on a steep street underneath the train station. The biggest collection involves model trains. There were some layouts where you could press a button to see the train move around.

But there were also exhibits of pretty much everything else you might want to see. For example, there were a few cases of board games. Note that “Cluedo” is British for the game Americans call “Clue.”

I bet you didn’t know that Legos were originally made of wood, not plastic.

And it wouldn’t be a toy museum without a collection of stuffed animals.

There were, of course, also dolls, puppets, dollhouses, toy cars, toy planes, etc. Overall, it was worth the GBP 8 admission price.

I had no problem getting a train to Victoria Station and taking the tube back to Earl’s Court Station. We went out to dinner at Reuben’s on Baker Street, which is an actual kosher delicatessen, allowing him to get his pastrami sandwich fix. (I had knaidlach soup, with a side of a small portion of chopped liver.) The interesting part of this is that I had eaten there before - on my first trip to London in 1980. Someday someone will have to teach the Brits how to make proper pickles.

The next day, I was off to LHR. My flight was okay, with a fairly empty plane. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a wait for a jet bridge and an even longer wait for a moon buggy to immigration and customs. So it ended up taking me almost an hour and 45 minutes from when we landed until I got home.

Overall, I had a great trip, seeing a lot of interesting things and having a lot of fun. Which is really about all you can expect out of travel.

cahwyguy

Ain't Misbehavin' (Ebony Rep) Way back in January 1980, I had the joy of seeing the original cast of Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Aquarius Theatre on Sunset Blvd, as part of the National Tour of the show. It was then I fell in love with the music of Fats Waller and the performance of the original cast. The show was interesting. It was one of the first jukebox musicals performed. Through the performances and the songs, it loosely told the story of Fats Waller: his style, his popularity, his reception in the white vs. black communities, and his problems in life. Since then, when productions of the show have been mounted, I’ve tried to see them. I remember a production of the show back in 2008 by Cabrillo Music Theatre (now 5-Star Theatricals), directed by Ken Page (I even used the same title for the writeup back then). Rereading that review, I wasn’t all that impressed with their production, although I did like Natalie Wachen as “Charlene” (they kept the original character names).

Fast forward to 2026. I learned that Ebony Rep, the company where I saw 5 Guys Named Moe a few years ago, was mounting Ain’t Misbehavin’. They had done such a great job on Moe, I thought I would try to squeeze it in. So I booked tickets for the penultimate performance (forgetting that the Tony Awards were on at the same time), and we trucked on down to Washington Blvd for the show. Luckily, I was able to record the main broadcast part of the Tonys because DirecTV is reliable. As for the Tonys Act One: PlutoTV, or Spectrum, or my Orbi RBK752P router sucks, because the live streaming show was unwatchable for the buffering and interruptions. If someone knows how to find Act One for delayed watching, let me know.

But back to Ain’t Misbehavin. As noted above, this is a true jukebox musical. The song sequencing and the performances tell the story, hopefully aided a bit by program notes (although, alas, the ERT program contained no background information on Fats Waller). Generally, the Ken Page role (deeper voiced larger man) is a surrogate for Fats himself; other “characters” just interact.

Wren Brown, the director, made the directorial choice to set the show in a Harlem Brownstone at a form of cocktail party. While this provided a suitable setting for the time, it lost the connection between the original Ken Page character (played by Chester Gregory here and called Chester) and any personification of Fats Waller. This served to lose the meaning, and in some senses, poignancy, of songs like “Black and Blue” or “Lounging at the Waldorf”.

In general the performances were very strong, although I have this feeling that they swapped a few songs between the female performers. In general, Natalie Wachen (who we saw in the Cabrillo show) did the Charleyne Woodard songs; Connie Jackson did the Nell Carter songs; and Ledisi did the Armelia McQueen songs (although I could have those two swapped). Chester Gregory did the Ken Page songs; and Marty Austin Lamar did the Andre DeShields songs. In the “Ladies Who Sing With The Band”, I think there was a bit of overplay on the bad singing for “Yacht Club Swing” and “Nylons Bloom”, and I did detect some slight lyrics changes in “Off Time”. But overall, the performances from the stage were strong. There were quite a few that stuck in my mind: Again, Wachen was really strong in “Keepin’ Out of Mischief”; the whole company was great in “Black and Blue”, and Jackson was great in “Cash for Your Trash”. Both Jackson and Ledisi were strong in “Find Out What They Like”.

Especially during the first act, and especially up in the balcony, there were some amplification problems that made the performances seem overly shrill. That seemed to have been corrected by Act Two, so I think it was a tuning issue.

The on-stage band, led by William Foster McDaniel, was hot. This was demonstrated during the Entre’acte and during the playout. They were wonderful.

However, there was a performance problem: The audience. In the row in front of us, we had folks taking out their phones in the beginning and videoing, and then putting them away. We had them bringing them out to check things. We had another group that was looking at pictures on their phone during the show, combined with talking. It was as if these folks had never been to live performance before, or were unaware about the audience members around them. Now I see why Patti LuPone does what she does. Audiences need to remember that it is the light from devices that disturbs other audience members and the actors on the stage, not just the noise. Keep your voices down, and your light-emitting devices off.

Additionally, the audience also seemed to ignore the capacity limit of the elevator, causing it to break before the show. This not only delayed the start of the show necessitating the director to do an impromptu Q&A, but led to the elevator being broken after the show. This created problems for the disabled folks in the balcony who needed the elevator and now needed to go down two flights of stairs.

The last performance of Ain’t Misbehavin at Ebony Rep is today at 8pm, and it is sold out. The Ebony Rep is an interesting place, although parking is horrible. It was built on the site of the former Ebony Showcase Theatre, which was torn down after an unsubstantiated claim of structural instability on the site of the former Rimpau/Metro theatre. I mention this because during Wren Brown’s Q&A, he noted that he grew up a few yards to the south through the theatre’s wall, back when EST was still around. FSY converted the former theatre into the new PAC.

Credits

Ain’t Misbehavin’. The Fats Waller Musical Show. Music by Thomas “Fats” Waller. Conceived by Richard Maltby Jr. and Murray Horowitz. Created and originally directed by Richard Maltby Jr. Original Choreography by Arthur Faria. Directed by Wren T. Brown. Choreographed by Dominique Kelley.

Cast; Marty Austin Lamar, Connie Jackson, Ledisi, Chester Gregory, Matalie Wachen

Music Department; William Foster McDaniel Music Director, Piano; Land Richards Drums; Keith Fiddmont Saxophones; Fernando Pullum Trumpet; Weldon Scott Bass; Luther Henderson Musical Adaptations, Orchestrations, and Arrangements; Jeffrey Gutcheon Vocal and Musical Concepts; Jeffre Gutcheon and William Elliott Musical Arrangements.

Production and Creative: Dominique Kelley Choreography; Wren T. Brown Direction, Founder, Producing Artistic Director; John Iacovelli ז״ל Scenic Design; Wendell Carmichael Costume Design; Andrew Schmedeke Lighting Design; Danny Fiandaca Sound Design; Kevin Williams Property Designer; Elsbeth M. Collins Production Stage Manager; Sir Tony Wig Design; Cynthia Ayala Co-Lighting Designer; Candace Brown Assoc. Choreographer; Patty Onagan Consulting Public Relations; Gayle L. Hooks Managing Director; Andi Chapman Assoc. Artistic Director; Courtland Trapp Technical Director; Israel Hicks Founding Artistic Director.

Producers: Ebony Repertory Theatre in association with Fig Street Films. Originally produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club. Originally Produced on Broadway by Emanual Azenberg, Dasha Epstein, the Shubert Organization, and Jane Gaynor & Ron Dante.

Administrivia

I am not a professional critic. I’m a retired cybersecurity professional, a roadgeek who does a highway site and a podcast about California Highways, and someone who loves live performance. I buy all my own tickets, unless explicitly noted otherwise. I do these writeups to share my thoughts on shows with my friends and the community. I encourage you to go to your local theatres and support them (ideally, by purchasing full price tickets, if you can afford to do so). We currently subscribe or have memberships at: Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre; Broadway in Hollywood/Pantages Theatre; Pasadena Playhouse; The Soraya, Chromolume Theatre, and 5-Star Theatricals.

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

Shows left and right have been announcing that they will be going on tour (even shows that are closing). So, even though we haven’t started the 2026-2027 seasons for Broadway in Hollywood (BIH) and the Center Theatre Group (CTG), here are my predictions for the 2027-2028 seasons in Los Angeles.
^* indicates shows for which tours are not yet announce, but I’m guessing they will tour. 🏆 indicates 2026 Tony Award winning; ^⭐ indicates nominee.
Sources: Playbill as indicated, Tours to You, Broadway League Tours.

Show	Where It Will End Up
The Lost Boys ^🏆	BIH/Pantages
Ragtime ^🏆	BIH/Pantages
Every Brilliant Thing ^⭐	CTG/Taper, but note there will be a local production at The Main in Sept. 2026
Beaches	BIH/Pantages
Titanique ^⭐	BIH/Pantages
Just In Time	BIH/Pantages
Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York ^⭐	CTG/Ahmanson
Schmigadoon! ^🏆	BIH/Pantages
Cats: The Jellicle Ball^{* 🏆}	CTG/Taper, but poss. BIH/Pantages
Giant^{* 🏆}	CTG/Ahmanson (but possibly as a local production)
Rocky Horror – New Broadway Production^{* ⭐}	BIH/Pantages
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella	BIH/Pantages (Add-On)
Heathers – The Musical	CTG/Ahmanson
Liberation^{* 🏆}	In 2027 at the Geffen Playhouse
The Ballusters^{* ⭐}	Local production at the Geffen or Pasadena Playhouse.

Additionally, May saw the opening of ticket sales for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. There are over 2,150 performances over the month of June; there are 439 shows listed in the show catalog. These all occur during the month of June, with multiple shows throughout the day. 20 minutes to move in; then the show; 20 minutes to move out. Ticket prices are low. The shows run the gamut, from totally strange to one person shows to full on short plays to musical reviews. You’re sure to find something you’ll like.

Upcoming

Key: ♦ Theatre / 🎼 Music / 🎙 Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

June: ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson.
July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.
August: ♦ Beauty and the Beast at BIH/Pantages;
September: ♦ Water for Elephants at BIH/Pantages; ♦⊕ The Visit at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Turning at Taper/CTG; 🎼 Sutton Foster at The Soraya; ♦⊕ Catch Me If You Can at The Colony Theatre; ♦⊕Every Brilliant Thing at The Main;

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as One Never Knows, Do One? | "Ain't Misbehavin'" @ Ebony Rep by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

shewhomust

It's not news that supermarkets stock numerous products which claim to be high in protein. Mostly I hardly notice them: I'm not interested. There's nothing wrong with protein, but there is enough in my normal diet, I don't need to supplement it. That being so, if something I might otherwise buy - yoghurt, say - is advertised as high in protein, I automatically avoid it. This may be irrational, but there it is.

But for some reason, in Lidl last week something caught my eye: high-protein tiramisu.

It's a small step, I suppose, from yoghurt to tiramisu, but it still seems incongruous: My protein levels are deficient. Bring me tiramisu!

Monica

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One Never Knows, Do One? | "Ain't Misbehavin'" @ Ebony Rep

Credits

Administrivia

Upcoming

Seen in Lidl

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