September 26, 2011 archive

On this Day in History September 26

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

September 26 is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 96 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day on 1957, West Side Story premieres on Broadway. East Side Story was the original title of the Shakespeare-inspired musical conceived by choreographer Jerome Robbins, written by playwright Arthur Laurents and scored by composer and lyricist Leonard Bernstein in 1949. A tale of star-crossed lovers-one Jewish, the other Catholic-on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the show in its original form never went into production, and the idea was set aside for the next six years. It was more than just a change of setting, however, that helped the re-titled show get off the ground in the mid-1950s. It was also the addition of a young, relatively unknown lyricist named Stephen Sondheim. The book by Arthur Laurents and the incredible choreography by Jerome Robbins helped make West Side Story a work of lasting genius, but it was the strength of the songs by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein that allowed it to make its Broadway debut on this day in 1957.

There are no videos of the original Broadway production which starred Larry Kert as Tony, Carol Lawrence as Maria, Ken Le Roy as Bernardo and Chita Rivera as Anita (Ms. Rivera reprized her role in the movie), so here is the Prologue from the Academy Award winning movie. The area that the movie was filmed no longer exists. The 17 blocks between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, from West 60th to West 66th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where he filming took place were demolished to build Lincoln Center for the Preforming Arts.

Cartnoon

Haredevil Hare

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

–Buddha



Blue and Gray

Late Night Karaoke

Day 9

I’m here.  

Correction, “we’re” here.

I got some people to meet up with, but then it’s dodgin cops and ridin the rails all the way to Wall St.

Dear Mr President: That “Democracy Crushing Regime” is Our OWN.

In too many countries, power has been concentrated in the hands of the few.

Photobucket

The United States opposes the use of violence and repression against the people of the region.

80 Occupy Wall Street Protesters were arrested yesterday alone. There were numerous reports of brutality. This violent repression happened here, is still happening here. The region is New York, sir. Wall Street to be exact. Why are you not against violence to people of that region?

Our message is simple: if you take the risks that reform entails, you will have the full support of the United States.

The officer in the video responded on YouTube (misspellings intact):

“ATTENTION: My name is Officer Larson of the NYPD and I am the one you see in this video lawfully restraining that dissident, in response to his aggressive posturing.

If any of you have a problem with that, please send me a private message with your address, and I’ll go down to your house, and drop-kick you in your dumb, beligerent mouths.”

That is the full support of the United States for the risk of peaceful protest. Here, anyway. Which is to say, no support at all. In fact quite the opposite of support. GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION.

Pique the Geek 20110925: Faster than Light

The recent results from CERN (the acronym for the original name for the outfit, Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) about neutrinos being propagated faster than light speed has caught a lot of attention.  I am still not convinced that the data are correct, but 15,000 individual measurements at the high certainty that is claimed certainly gets one’s attention.

I am not prepared to say whether or not these results are valid as of yet.  The folks at CERN are begging other laboratories with comparable apparatus and expertise to verify (or to refute) the findings.  That is how science is supposed to work!

However, 15,000 individual determinations are a LOT of data!  Let us for the moment take the data at face value and assume that this is not a fluke nor a mistake, but an actual “violation” of the Special Theory of Relativity that indicates that no massive particle can exceed the speed of light, henceforth called c.  Ready to do some thought experiments?  I am!  Let us go!

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