Have I yet posted on the coincidence involved in the Halloween movie franchise (at least the original 1978 movie)?  Well… if so, I apologize.  It seems that during the  3 year run of the original Star Trek series, William Shatner was fitted for a death mask.  Perhaps if the series had continued on the Enterprise’s five year mission (“to seek out new life and new civilizations”… yada, yada, yada…), the good Captain Kirk would have met his demise (guess we will never know).  As it turns out, the mask made its way into the hands of the creators of the horror film.  You can follow the link to a more in depth detail with the Shat himself being interviewed by his daughter, Melanie..  I think he might have been confusing the actor Mike Myers with the fictional villain Michael Myers.

Thursday night, I returned to my “home” theatre after being away for a few months to play in another community group’s yard.  I don’t think ANY actor ever fully grows up.  That is another beautiful thing about theatre.  The more I do this the more I grow in determination to spread my wings and go even further.  But there is something to be said about becoming attached to one core group.  You become family as I have done with so many of the WCCT regulars.   Upon arriving at the theatre, I was immediately asked by everyone how my new experience went.  I must say that everything about it was magnificent: the cast, the director, the backstage people, EVERYONE involved was very welcoming.  But there is something intrinsically special about being around friends you have come to appreciate.  I hope I am able to return to the Huber stage as well to work with some and make more new experiences there.

As j pointed out, I believe every actor has a group that he just likes to act with.  I do not think there is one tangible reason for this.  Call it chemistry, past experience, whatever.  When you find one and hopefully more fellow thespians that you feel a bond with, it makes the on stage experience even more magical.  You feed off each others energy.  I have a list as well and my experience in St. Louis only increased that list.  There was one young man whom I did not even have a scene with (well I did in a sense) that I would be honored to share the stage with again… and it was his first time on stage!  Although I KNOW I have an abundant amount of energy, his was even more infectious.

Over the past year or so, Warner Brother’s Animation and DC Comics have released a series of direct to DVD movies starring some of their mainstay superheros.  Starting with Superman: Doomsday then with Justice League – The New Frontier) onto Batman Gotham Knight and, most recently to an adventure featuring the Amazon Princess herself, Wonder Woman .  In the coming months, we will have a Green Lantern movie.  Then a Batman/Superman team up entitled Public Enemies which is taken from the first six issues of the team up comic series.

United States President Lex Luthor uses the oncoming trajectory of a kryptonite asteroid to frame Superman and declare a $1 billion bounty on the heads of the Man of Steel and his “partner in crime” Batman. Super heroes and super villains alike launch a relentless pursuit of Superman and Batman, who must unite – and recruit super help – to stave off the action-packed onslaught, stop the asteroid, and uncover Luthor’s devious plot to take command of far more than North America.

Hopefully, this will eventually lead to the development of a live-action Justice League feature that has been in creative limbo for several years.  However, I forsee rival company Marvel unveiling their Avengers movie before this happens.

I was commenting tonight on a select group of actors I would do almost anything to be on stage with. I’ve been thinking about it since I’ve said it, and I imagine I can count them on one hand. This does not mean that I wouldn’t want to be on stage with some other actors, but there is a select group that have a special presence on stage that makes the time on stage a wonderful event.

A look, an action, a tone of voice that bring out the best in other actors on stage. They are the ones that push you to bring your best. Not by telling or lecturing, but by their actions and style. A select group indeed.

Are they the award winners? Some but not all. Are they the most friendly? That does not seem to matter. Are they the most knowledgeable? Often, but not always. The most talented? In a way, but not. Most comfortable on stage? Some are, some aren’t.
But just what makes them part of this group? That is what I’ve been trying to decipher. What puts one person on it, and leaves another off? I wish I knew. I’ll keep thinking about it, because I would like everyone I act with to be in that group. Can it be taught? 😉

About 2 years ago now, we found out a “family secret” about my husband’s aunt’s husband, Uncle Marc.  Marc is in his 40’s, and 2 years ago, he was arrested for having an inappropriate relationship with his teenage neighbor, which is alleged to have taken place between 2002 and 2006.  The story made front page news where he lives because Marc was a college campus police officer, although shortly after the charges were brought against him, he lost his job.  But the media has loved covering his story because of his former profession, and for any updates on the story, we have looked to the newspaper – it’s not like my  husband’s aunt wants to call up all her family and friends and say, hey, guess what we’ve been up to?  Which brings me to the reason I’m writing about this now.  The other day as I was checking headlines in the newspaper (which I often do because I  used to live in the area), I came across Uncle Marc on the front page – again.  But let me back up a little bit…

It’s not like we saw my husband’s Aunt Gerry and Uncle Marc all that often.  They live in Illinois and we live in Ohio.  But at least once a year, we would gather at my husband’s grandmother’s house, and they would be there with their two adorable children.  They seemed to be the perfect family; always doing things together, taking really cool family vacations and bringing their photos to the family gatherings to share.  As my husband and I started growing a family of our own, our daughters began to play with their cousins at the family get-togethers, and I remember Gerry admonishing us for staying in a hotel for Christmas 2006 (just months before Marc was charged!).  She said, next time, you don’t have to stay in a hotel when you visit Illinois, you can stay with us!  I thought that was so nice at the time, but looking back, I can’t be more thankful we didn’t take her up on that offer.

Let me clarify – Gerry is one of the nicest people.  Marc was always kind of quiet, but despite his shyness, we felt he was also nice.  When the news broke that he was charged with sexual assault of a minor, we were shocked – and immediately sympathetic toward Gerry.  But she stayed by her husband’s side, even getting herself into legal trouble in the process.  We all thought she was being naive, although I can’t really blame her for the ‘stand by her man’ attitude.  In this case though, she was wrong, and she definitely should have put her children first.  So anyway, Marc had somehow convinced her that the “rumors” about him and this young girl were untrue.  There was video evidence, however, which is how the police became involved – seems the girl’s father found the videos on their home computer.  As I said, I like to be a person who gives others the benefit of the doubt.  We met Marc and Gerry for Christmas at a restaurant in 2007 when no other family members would have any part of him.  I felt weird when I didn’t want him near my kids, and although we all dined together, we did maintain a safe distance.  But even then, I was thinking that I didn’t know the whole story.  If what Marc is accused of really did happen, I told myself, then he is sick, and he needs help.  But Gerry and the kids need some normalcy, and especially because the rest of the family is shunning them, the best thing I can do for her is to let her see my kids, and at the same time, I really wanted to see her kids.

And then, months ago, my husband and I were curious about why this was not going to trial.  We did a simple search on the internet, and what we found was extremely disturbing.  It seemed that Marc’s young neighbor had posted their wedding registry, their baby registry (all fictional), as well as an ‘I love you’ message on myspace.  The text was extremely crudely disturbing, and based upon what we read, we thought this girl was very sick as well as Marc, to say the least.  It was reminicent of the movie The Crush, if you’ve seen it.  Clearly the adult man is at fault, but at the same time, he is a victim because the teenage girl is a stalker who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.  So that’s what we thought…  And we thought that maybe her sickness is why the case was not going to trial…

As I said before, Marc was on the local newspaper’s front page the other day – again.  It’s the only update we’ve received about his case.  And what I read shocked me to the core – I guess that’s why I’m writing about it now.  As reported in the newspaper, Marc is the one who wrote those things on the registries and myspace.  Marc, who had us believing that this young girl was crazy and stalking him and everything else, is really the one who wrote these horrible, crude, and graphic remarks about their relationship on the internet.  He fooled his friends and family yet again, and by doing so, he found a way to abuse his victim – yet again.  How is this girl ever going to find a job?  If you read the things that are on the internet about her, supposedly written by her, you can see that she doesn’t stand a chance.  It’s horrible.  And why am I sharing all this?   Every family has its ‘black sheep’, I guess.   Writing about it is a form of therapy for me, I suppose.  In a way, I’m mad at myself for giving him the benefit of the doubt, even though I used to be proud of that aspect of my personality – I always try to give people a chance.  It kills me to think that other judgemental family members can tell me “I told you so” when they shunned Marc and his family early on when I thought they were wrong.

I hate the fact that we tried to give this man the benefit of the doubt, and he messed it up, yet again.  I hate what he is doing to his wife, his children, his extended family, and most of all, to his victim.  His actions are victimizing her over and over again.

It’s interesting for me to read the newspaper readers’ comments on the stories about Marc.  They all like to talk about how he’ll “get it” in prison and things like that.  I read these statements, but because I know the person, it’s different for me.  I don’t usually like to see people go to prison for non-violent offenses.  And I’m a big believer in innocent until proven guilty, which I think is a concept most often left behind in the United States justice system.  But in this case, I’m kind of wondering why it’s taken so long to go to trial.  I can’t help but wonder how much damage could have been prevented if they had sent Marc to prison already.  He is obviously a very sick individual, and I pray he gets the help he needs.  Most of all, I pray for the healing of his family, which I don’t see happening until he is out of their lives.

This is a sort of a non-alcoholic version asked of someone when he or she says something crazy.  A less rude way I suppose than asking, “What drugs have you been taking?” or, “Are you drunk??”  In this story the answer is it wasn’t Koolaid at all, but a case of mistaken identity- wind-shield washer fluid.  Yipes.  Click the link in the title for the full article.

10 drink windshield wiper fluid at Ark. day care

By JON GAMBRELL – 7 hours ago

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Ten children drank windshield wiper fluid after a staffer at an Arkansas day care mistakenly put the liquid in a refrigerator and served it, hospital officials said Friday.

Doctors estimate the children, ages 2 to 7, drank about an ounce of the blue fluid late Thursday afternoon before realizing it tasted wrong, said Laura James, a pediatric pharmacologist and toxicologist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.

Only one child remained hospitalized Friday morning, after blood samples showed “measurable levels” of methanol, a highly toxic alcohol that can induce comas and cause blindness, officials said. The day care also provided the fluid for testing.

“All we know was that the individual at the day care had recently shopped and had come back to the day care with a lot of different products,” James told The Associated Press. “This product was mistakenly grabbed and thought to be Kool-Aid and put in the refrigerator.”

What a mistake!  Thankfully it looks like all the kids are almost all okay.  I pray that the one still hospitalized is as well.

I used to enjoy reading movie novelizations.  I enjoyed digging deeper into the film by reading what was going on inside the minds of the characters and reading the parts that ended up on the cutting room floor.  I recently came into a copy of the movie-tie in to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  While everything from the movie was present, there were minor differences (Willie does not cause Indy’s gun to fly out the window of their moving Duesenberg while being pursued by a group of Chinese gangsters).  One major difference (and definitely a scene that had to be cut from the film that established the PG-13 movie rating) involved phallic symbolism that would have disturbed me as an 11 year old.

My favorite part of any novelization is getting to see inside the minds of the main characters.  What makes them tick? What are their real motivations for the actions they perform? When (if ever), does Indy change from an archaeologist who is out to achieve “fortune and glory” into something more?

There was a lot of humor inside the inner workings of Dr. Jones’ companions: the sulry nightclub singer Willie Scott who is accidentally thrust into the adventure and Indiana’s 12 year-old bodyguard, chauffeur, and Man Friday, Short Round.  I loved reading about the young Chinese orphan’s penchant for thievery, religious idoltry, movies, and sports of the 1930s.  Very entertaining read.

I found the following story amusing.  Lots of people have tried to impersonate the police, but this one is noteworthy because of the impersonator’s age, his lack of bad intentions, and the fact that he was so successful at it – seems this 14-year-old worked an entire shift as a cop, including a role in apprehending a suspect!

March 3, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — A teenager impersonating a Chicago police officer played a minor role in an arrest on January 24, according to Police Superintendent Jody Weis.

On Tuesday, Supt. Weis called on the U.S. Secret Service for a review of the security breach, which he called “outrageous, angering, disturbing and unforgettable.”

“In my mind it’s almost incomprehensible it could have happened. Unfortunately it did. It’s very disturbing, and that’s why we want to send a message that this can’t happen again,” said Supt. Jody Weis, Chicago Police Dept.

Weis said an internal investigation shows seven Chicago police officers broke department rules during the incident. All districts will be re-trained, according to Weis.

The 14-year-old boy- a former police cadet and apparent aspiring police officer- entered the back door at the Grand Crossing District Station on the city’s South Side on January 24. He was dressed in regulation clothing and police say it’s not clear where he got the uniform. He had no gun or CPD star, but was issued a radio and was sent out with a traffic officer. He worked an entire 5 1/2 hour shift.

“During that time the subject drove the squad car for approximately two hours, interacted with the public while responding to at least five assignments, operated the portable data terminal and participated in the detention of a suspect,” said Supt. Weis.

The impersonator played a minor role in the arrest of a violation of order of protection, Weis said. The boy briefly held the suspect’s arm behind his back.

After the shift, the teenager and the relatively new female officer he was riding with returned to the station, where a supervisor, unidentified, realized the teen was not an officer and had him arrested.

How is it so many others missed the fact the teen was not a cop- and unable to legally drive?

“I don’t know. They weren’t paying attention- perhaps- maybe they were lax. That’s why we did the investigation. Those answers we have to hold tight until we go through the adjudication stage,” said Supt. Weis.

For that reason, Weis said, the names of the 7 officers facing discipline, and the nature of the recommended sanctions cannot now be disclosed.

“Based on contract agreements we can’t identify the officers and in these situation if we gave out the ranks it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to realize who they actually were,” said Supt. Weis.

The boy’s name has not been released. He pleaded not guilty in juvenile court.

He is no longer in custody, but is wearing an electronic monitoring device.

Ok… I must have been mistaken to think that I previously posted on my small junior high school’s science teacher and his intriguing way of chastising craziness in the classroom.  Mr. Stoll had a copy of the 6,7, and 8th grade spelling books.  Every week, there was a list of 20 spelling words that we had to learn.  In science class, if a student stepped out of line, he had to write that list of 20 words 15 times.

On two very rare occurrences, I found myself on the short end of that punishment (and almost a third time).  The first time (the only time I remember the particulars but I know I had one more) was at the sink following an experiment as we were cleaning up.  I guess I got a little carried away with the water because all of a sudden I heard the dulcet tones of

MISTER SHAFFER… FIFTEEN!

Another time, my cousin was given his turn.  A classmate had borrowed his pencil and he was attempting to reclaim it.  Apparently, he was a bit more vocal than needed because once again came the all powerful howl:

MISTER MAXWELL… FIFTEEN!

However, this did not stop Dan.  He was adamant that he did not deserve the cursed punishment.  At the teacher’s suggestion that the fifteen might be turned into thirty, he reluctantly gave up the fight, but recovered the pencil.

How did I fit into this drama you might wonder?  I don’t know why but something about two students fighting over possession of a pencil just struck me as hilarious.  Even after Mr. Stoll inquired whether I would like to practice my spelling skills,  I still found it hard to contain myself much to my cousin’s disbelief.  BTW Dr. Maxwell, if you can help me remember my second time…

that I am glad my last on stage theatrical experience was only a three night affair (no pun intended).  I returned “home” tonight to a marvelously hilarious yet intriguing tour de force.  The Lion in Winter is a brilliant play that has everything: comedy, drama, comedy, backstabbing, COMEDY, a steller set, did I mention comedy.  There were at most 30 people in the small audience but everyone of those thirty were in stitches (maybe it was the three in the third or fourth row… but it was really that funny and not at all what I expected.

First, I MUST commend the hard work that went into the scenery constructed that turned the small stage of the WCCT into the castle of King Henry 2nd at Chinon, France at Christmas circa 1183.  Tapestries, stone walls, a throne and such depth and perspective that you would have thought that you were actually inside the castle.  BRAVO Karen for another magnificent set!

The cast is totally phenomenal.  I must commend the newcomer to the stage who gave simpering, whining life to Prince John.  The newspaper review did not do his performance its due credit.

Nor did it do justice to the performance of Prince Geoffrey.  The audience could see the brilliant machinations going on in his head.  What little he said in words while the others bickered and plotted aloud, he more than made up for in his presence and movement.  Brilliant portrayal, my friend!

I must give huge praise to the King and Queen themselves.  When King Henry was on stage, he OWNED the stage.  Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine was Katherine Hepburn personified… maybe even a bit better.  Their scenes together were magic.

The entire cast, crew (the scene changes were very necessary to the effect and done well), direction (brava Shirley and Alice).  King Philip was portrayed by an actor who is a huge fan of the show and rightfully so.  His onstage time may have been limited but what he did with that time was masterful.  Richard the Lionhearted was portrayed with fiery passion for battle and blood yet had a tender side.   Alais, mistress of Henry II, was also well cast.

As the trailer says: It will make you laugh, cry, and go HUHN?  Definitely check out the final performancces of Lion in Winter this weekend.  And I did see a bit of typecasting as my friend so fleetingly commented upon.