Hairspray

For the past 4-5 years Jen and I have held season tickets for touring Broadway musicals at the Capitol Theatre. Some years we have been rather disappointed, and have come close to not renewing our tickets. Some of the shows have had leads with weak voices, and others have just been absolutely stupid (read "Cats").

Well tonight we saw Hairspray. I wasn't sure how I would like it, as it almost seemed a little too happy for me. But I went, and was glad I did. This show probably saved the season for me this year. Was it too happy? Yeah, but it didn't try to take itself seriously. It knew it was a happy, if not campy, musical and had fun with it. All of the voices were clear and strong. Each complimented the other principals well, and none seemed to overshadow or overpower the others. It was an incredibly well balanced cast. In my opinion it was one of the best I had seen (though the first act seemed a little long, with the second act ending too quickly).

The musical is about (according to wikipedia.org) a "a girl named Tracy Turnblad whose dream is to dance on the Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance program based on the real-life Buddy Dean Show in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She gets a chance on the show and becomes a celebrity overnight. She then launches a campaign to racially integrate the Corny Collins Show." You would think that this would be an odd premise for a musical, but it actually works.

The highlight of the show is the performance of "Timeless to Me" by Wilbur and Edna Turnblad, played by Jim J. Bullock and J. P. Dougherty. It had me nearly in tears from laughter.

If you get a chance to see it, I recommend it, and hopefully the performances will be as good as they were when I saw it.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!

I am not sure what clicked, but over the last several weeks Ky has been working harder and harder at his sports. I will regularly see him working on his karate at home, he will more frequently bring out his baseball mitt to play catch, and is more involved at the games. It is a lot of fun to watch.

Well today at his soccer game, Ky had a nice affirmation to all his work. He was playing midfield, running up and down the field, staying in position, and working and running after balls. Prior to this game he typically will take a wait and see approach--wait to see if someone else is going to go after the ball, and if not make a weak attempt to get it. Well today that was not the case. He was aggressive--chasing after balls and putting himself in positions where he could and frequently would get knocked down. He would chase the ball, and yes he even slid a couple times. Well in the second half a rebound came right to him and, without hesitation, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!

The man standing next to me may have been a little shocked when I raised both of my hands in the air in jubilation and gave a mighty yawp, or shout; needless to say I am not sure whose grin was bigger, mine or Ky's. He was pretty excited, Jen was near tears, and the crowd was exuberant.

Pretty cool.

NSA

Was it really that surprising that the NSA has compiled a huge database of calls made by Americans to other Americans? Come on, really? It really wasn't. Nothing that President Bush does surprises me anymore. He is so paranoid and fearful that he will push and authorize just about anything, so long as someone "deems" it legal.

No, the biggest surprise wasn't that it happened. The biggest surprise was the announcement that the the only major phone carrier not to comply with the NSA's "request" for access to these phone records was Qwest (see here, here, and here.) And why did they not participate? Because they "questioned the legality of the government program." (Deseret News) And no one else did?

The most abhorrent thing that was said about this whole affair was one of Bush's responses on the issue, "Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates," Bush said. He added assurances that the privacy of Americans is being "fiercely protected . . . We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans." Well all righty then. All you AT&T customers, SBC customers, and customers of those other carriers who complied with the NSA, YOU ARE TERRORRISTS! Now git to Guantanamo.

Books?

Each night, after we have had family prayer and scriptures, we read to each of the kids individually. As soon as I close the Book of Mormon the kids, sometimes in unison, ask

Books?

90% of the time the answer is yes, but occasionally it is no, as to the late hour.

Heather, however, is not one to listen for the answer to the question. Once the scriptures are closed she jumps up and runs to get a book, repeating all the while "Books! Books!". It is pretty fun to see her, and her brothers, enjoyment with books.

Last night, however, was a no books night as we were late getting home from Taylor's baseball game, and so after scriptures the kids went right to bed. Heather, though, immediately ran and got a book and brought it back to our bedroom. As Jen picked her and was taking her to her bed, Heather kept pleading for books, and then very earnestly said (the first time she has said it):

Read to me.

Jen and I were completely caught of guard. What else could we do? Jen read to her.

Charter School Protests

The funniest thing about the protest signs going up around Alpine against Mountainville academy (see here) is that they are actually supporting the school. How?

Say you want to create a picture indicating a no-smoking, no-left turn, no-parking, or no-whatever area, how do you do it? Well for smoking you put a picture of a lit cigarette with a circle around it and a diagonal slash through it, right? What ever you surround by a circle with a slash through it indicates it is not allowed, or the opposite of the picture is the desired behavior.

So to voice their displeasure over the charter school in "their backyard", they created bright yellow campaign signs with the word "NO" circled with a slash through it. Thus the signs say "NO (circle/slash) to charter school on Healy Blvd". Now perhaps I am wrong, but wouldn't that mean "Yes to charter school on Healy Blvd"?

Great statement, which does more to perhaps underscore the need for charter schools than anything charter school proponents could do.

Charter Schools Run Amok?

Seems that way. Every where I look it seems that a new charter school is forming. The most recent is here in Alpine--Mountainville Academy (nice use of Alpine's original city name). Advertisements for this charter school have been in the Alpine newsletter for several months, and Jen has been approached on numerous occasions by various neighbors inquiring if we are going to send our kids to it. Charter schools seem to be all the craze now a days.

Some of you may have heard of this particular charter school as it has been in the news lately, mainly for trying to build their school in a flood plain (see here). Now they have relocated to another area in Alpine (a very poor one in my opinion) which has resulted in upset residents of Alpine (see here. Is it really that big of a deal?

The main issue is that the new location is in a terrible location from a traffic standpoint. Alpine has three roads in/out of the city. Each of those roads is at most a 35 MPH zoned road. The new location for this new charter school is just off the road that leads to Lone Peak High School, and is the second busiest road in Alpine, and is very busy during school commute hours. By building at this new location, this charter school of 675 students will increase car traffic on this main thoroughfare during the highest congestion time by more than 200 cars. All roads are two laned. What will make matters worse is the side road upon which the charter school will be located T's into the main road. Stop signs will be a terrible solution for the amount of traffic this school will add to the roads, during the already busy times, thus the only solution would be to install traffic lights. Another concern is parking for extracurricular school functions. They will obviously only build enough parking for normal school functions, just as every public school does, but where are they going to park when this fills? The surrounding streets can't accommodate it, but that of course won't stop them from parking on them.

Needless to say, the surrounding neighbors are not happy. Signs have gone up, petitions are being signed. I am personally against the school (50,000 sq ft) for the above traffic concerns. Will it happen? Don't know. How a charter school can afford to pay $300k+ per acre of land, and then build a 50,000 square foot school is beyond me. We'll have to wait and see.

The Perfect Pizza

The Perfect Pizza, is there such a thing? The answer really depends upon who you ask. For me, commercially, the perfect pizza is Round Table Pizza, but alas they are no longer in Utah, which is really too bad. But is it the perfect pizza? To me it is. Why?

I guess it really depends. Some will argue with me as to whether Round Table Pizza is the perfect pizza, and their arguments will be completely valid. The pizza they argue as being the most perfect, may indeed be the most perfect pizza...for them. Can this be so? Can this be possible? Can their be two perfect pizzas? Sure, there can be an infinitesimal number of perfect pizzas, it all depends upon who you ask.

When I was laid-off from Verio in 2004, one of the first things I wanted to do was to find recipes that were as close as possible to Round Tables's recipes. I looked all over the place. Nothing. During my search I found a sauce recipe that approximated what I remembered, and a pretty good dough recipe. The sauce recipe I have modified pretty significantly, and the dough recipe I don't use anymore, but they both scratched the itch. But with many an itch, it came back.

While searching Amazon I came across a book by Peter Reinhart--American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza. This book seemed to be about the exact same thing I was doing--searching for the perfect pizza. It was receiving 5 stars at Amazon, so I took the plunge and bought it. I don't regret it a minute.

In the first hundred pages of the book it discusses what lead him to search the U.S. and Italy for the perfect pizza--a childhood pizza not living up to his memory. He discusses his visits to his hometown pizzeria as well as to various other pizzerias around the U.S. and in Italy in search of the perfect pizza, and as a result comes to the following realizations. There are two types of perfect pizzas: the contextually perfect, and the perfectly executed pizza.

The contextually perfect pizza, for me, is Round Table Pizza. It is perfect because it was a pizza that was enjoyed with friends, with fabricated names, drinking rootbeer, in the summer afternoons of my childhood. I remember eating it, playing video games, and eating some more. I remember spit-wadding the picture above the table opposite, and hiding sausages in the booth, that to my knowledge have petrified and remain in the pizzeria that replaced Round Table to this day. Round Table is a perfect pizza--contextually.

The perfectly executed pizza will never exist, because to get a consensus on perfection is impossible, because everyone carries contextual baggage that will prevent them from neutrally evaluating perfection. On top of that, what is perfect? Thin crust? Deep dish? Chicago deep dish? Hand tossed? Pan? And the list of crusts can go on. Then you need to evaluate the sauce, the cheese, the toppings, and on and on. So from a sheer consortium, consensus perspective, the perfectly executed pizza does not exist.

So where does that leave me. Round Table isn't in Utah. Domino's and their ilk really aren't that great, so what to do? Every time I go to California, Round Table is an essential stop. I get Domino's now and again, but I can't stomach it much any more. Now I make my own using modifications to the sauce recipe above and the recipes in Reinhart's book. Is it perfect? No, but it is close--give me a little while.

Names

Over on his blog, my brother Rus is having a discussion concerning the names he would like to name his coming daughter. Kristy likes Olivia, whereas Rus doesn't (due to its "obscene" popularity) and is now campaigning for Adelaide Lucille. Not a fan of either, but then again it isn't my kid.

Jen and I have been discussing names since we decided to have additional kids. It takes me awhile to warm to names, particularly boys names. The only name that I was completely sold on prior to our kids' births has been Kiser (my first born). Oddly enough this was the name Jen had the most difficult time accepting, even after Ky's birth (she called him little one for a couple days, unable to use Ky--quite funny). Anyway, Jen has been throwing names at me every once in a while. So far these are the ones that we are looking at:

Boy: Luke (maybe Josh) Allen

Girl: Haley Suzanne

Allen is from Jen's side of the family, Suzanne is from my side. The girl name is pretty well decided, I just have difficulty on boys names particularly the first name (Allen is certain).