Phil's Osophies™

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Osophy on Futures, Trading Now For

The person who said “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” obviously wasn’t a very good shot.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

“The Fantasticks”: An arrow through the heart - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/theater/ci_12513230

John Moore writes the following about our little show:

I was driving from the Denver Victorian Playhouse’s simple, mostly wonderful staging of “The Fantasticks,” when onto the iPod shuffled a tune by that most melancholy minstrel of indie rock, Conor Oberst.

“The love I sell you in the evening by the morning won’t exist,” he sang. It was a piercing lament.

And it was pure “Fantasticks.”

There’s a reason this bittersweet little miracle of a show, which cost $1,441 to mount Off-Broadway in 1960, went on to become the longest-running musical in history. It’s the same reason “The Fantasticks” can still sneak up on you and shoot an arrow through your core, 49 years later.

Like Oberst, it just gets to the heart of things. Then breaks it. Every time.

Two young lovers long to be together over their stubborn fathers’ objections. When the boy heroically rescues the girl from an attempted abduction, a marriage is inevitable. Until these lovers discover their fathers have gone to elaborate lengths to bring these two together.

What happens when you paint a pretty picture and the players can no longer hold their poses? It fades, crumbles and dissolves.

Matt and Luisa grow restless and split. He sets off on a harrowing journey to regain his honor and see the world. Luisa is tricked into giving a bandit her most treasured possessions — her heart, and her mother’s necklace.

Both have been seduced, and both have been burned. The love sold to them in the evening, as Oberst sang, by the morning does not exist. What’s left is the real love that brought them together in the first place.

“The Fantasticks” is theater of the imagination, an epic journey told with “Godspell”-like openness and vulnerability. With only a robust ensemble of eight players. A chair. A bench. A curtain. A minstrel’s trunk.

And, of course, that irresistible score by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones. Songs like “Try to Remember” and “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” are masterpieces encoded to unlock in us long-buried access to those thrilling, bittersweet feelings of first love.

Days later, I’m still moved by the breakthrough performance from Kelly Twedt as Luisa, an impeccable singer who captures the playful sexuality, tension and heartbreak of a young girl coming of age. She and David Allan Howell (Matt) look good together — and they sound even better. Their duet “Metaphor” (“You are love . . . “) is proof even critics can have goosebumps. Don’t tell.

Austin Terrell takes a daringly low-key approach to the narrator El Gallo, preferring heart over heft in a way that works in the intimate Victorian Playhouse. He’s gentle, almost Victorian in his approach, though that means there’s little believable danger to him.

Nils Swanson is whimsy and wonder as the playful Mute (don’t call me Mime). But the “hired actors” (Doug Rosen as the elder and Nathan Bock as the fake Indian) pile it on too strong in performances that scream for some restraint, especially in contrast to Terrell.

And while the likable fathers (Mathew Kepler and Jay Jakosky) have nice voices, they’re far too, well, nice. They lack the force of character you’d expect from the fathers.

But director Sarah Roshan’s modest staging will resonate like the pain we’ve all felt in the pursuit of love. As El Gallo says, “It’s not over till we’ve all been burned a bit.”

John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

The Truth Behind Dog Chew Toys

Ok, admittedly, the title is dramatic. But I am just so tired of picking up pieces of so-called “indestructible” dog chew toys—whether that’s before the dog has eaten them or after—that I am tempted to give them nothing at all. Or at least nothing that isn’t edible. Dogs will eat anything, and frequently do, and I just don’t feel comfortable feeding them plastic. But these toys are cheap and plentiful and colorful—all attributes the human owners notice and about which the dogs couldn’t care less. Unfortunately certain dogs don’t seem smart enough to learn not to eat anything and everything so we must limit what they can put in their mouths: at least those things that humans have artificially created for their pets, for their owners, to clean up after they are obliterated, regurgitated, or expelled in one form or another.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Rip-off Report: Onforce.com

As soon as I got a notification of a new work order today - TWICE - I was beaten to the punch before I could even click “accept.” OnForce kinda sucks.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/192/RipOff0192807.htm

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Imagine a Happier Entry a Few Hours Before This One

I interviewed today at a [local] Theater/Film/Video department to teach advanced postproduction this summer and got the job. The pay was decent and the actual work seemed like fun, too. The Chair of the department essentially offered me the job this morning and we set up a meeting to go over paperwork on Thursday. I was excited and happy, not only to be making money but to be working and teaching in my field.

Then I get a call this afternoon and he says that after talking with the original instructor that I won’t be able to teach the class because the first guy will be teaching it after all.

??

:(

I didn’t even get a chance to write a blog entry about how happy I was.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Try To Remember… Me?

I’m not gonna lie. I’m a little sad. I’m sad that my name did not get mentioned in the lastest review of The Fantasticks. I wouldn’t have minded a bad review, or good review, or no review at all, but not mentioning me kinda hurts a little. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional; I just wish folks had a better understanding of what a Musical Director does… for… um… a musical.

Sarah, our director, posted this on Facebook just now so it’s possible that the text was truncated in some fashion.

Also no mention of our Choreographer, Scott. Great review, though….

David Marlowe’s Review of “The Fantasticks”

“The Fantasticks”

The Denver Victorian Theatre: 5/8-6/27

I “tried to remember” when I had ever seen this good a production of “The Fantasticks,” and had to admit that director Sarah Roshan and her cast had surpassed all productions of all past “Septembers.” (Sorry!) The production now on view at The Vic is my favorite of all the productions of this show that I have seen thus far. Other shows have had a more polished look. Polished is not what this show needs. What a glossy production sacrifices is the charm and simplicity of what’s at the heart of the matter. This production is deliciously simple and thus right on target. Sarah Roshan is to be lauded for her superb direction. Roshan’s casting is impeccable. Doug Rosen is outrageously funny , nearly stealing the show as Henry. His sensationally broad and brilliant performance gives the phrase “out of the box” a new meaning. His sidekick Mortimer, is played with brilliant panache by Nathan Bock. The lovers, Luisa (Kelly Twedt) and Matt, (David Alan Howell) have great voices, and mercifully keep them at a normal sounding pitch. (Some shows provide us with operatic sounding voices that dispel the magic and create the bloodless variety of musical theatre.) Here both are able to convey the innocence of young love and the subsequent dashed hopes at getting the world’s dose of reality therapy with clarity and simplicity. Under Roshan’s directions one can’t help but hear the voices of Voltaire’s characters, Candide and Cunegonde just a hair’s breadth underneath Tom Jones’ text. And of course, all of Voltaire’s “garden” symbolism is already in place in the script. Austin Terrell’s El Gallo is musical theatre ice cream. Nils Swanson’s brilliant turn as the Mute speaks volumes with his facial expression and physiology. Matthew Kepler(Bellomy) and Jay Jakosky (Hucklebee) are both splendid as two fathers trying to get their children together by some well thought out reverse psychology. Seth Maisel does some fine work with the fight choreography.

Not to be missed

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

THE TROUPE: Review: The Fantasticks

http://thetroupetheatre.blogspot.com/2009/05/review-fantasticks.html

Monday, May 11, 2009

Videophones Here! Get Your Videophones!

Remember the marketing hype of many years ago that went something like this: “By the year 2000, every home will have a videophone.” Yeah, what happened to that? Why doesn’t everyone have a videophone?

Do you want to know why everyone has a telephone? Because they all work the same. Sure, at some businesses you have to dial 9 to get an outside line first. And in some areas, local calls are 10 digits instead of 7. But the basic idea is always the same: pick up the phone, dial a number, let it ring, and either the other person answers or they don’t, in which case it usually gets answered by a voice message of some kind. It’s worked that way for decades.

Enter the IP revolution. Internet. Video. Personal computers. Amazing potential. And yet people still mostly use their PCs for activities with which they are comfortable and familiar: transcieving emails, browsing the web, word processing. Even managing digital photos is still somewhat on the complicated side for many people. Apple has made tremendous strides simplifying the process but Microsoft and Windows are still cumbersome, awkward, unfriendly, and unfortunately still too popular for what they deserve.

Now back to the videophone conundrum. Yes, people can get free video calling as long as both ends have the same software and usually the same hardware and both have high speed internet connections. But who among all of the PC users out there is actually capable of setting this up so it actually works? 5%? 2%?

Here is where I propose a videophone service that actually works. You see, my company (see: me) has the technical capability to provide people with videophones and service that actually works and is as simple to use as a regular telephone. I have two of the units. They’re easy. You pick up the handset and dial a number, except this phone has a screen and a camera. That is all.

I can offer the service for $20/month for anyone who wants to buy a telephone for $220. So to connect two households would cost $40/month + an initial outlay of $440. I can also rent out the phones on a daily basis for under $5, but because I am a small company the economies of scale prevail. I don’t have the resources to launch a huge marketing campaign or to purchase thousands of these phones. I can add clients on a case-by-case basis. The advantages are that you always know who you’re dealing with and you know that you get personalized, personal, and personable service every time.

Now I didn’t intend this blog entry to be a marketing pitch, but if there are any readers out there who want to try out this service, please, contact me. I promise: videophoning is fun.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Proposed Verbal Efficiency for Usage of English Language Numbers

Let’s face it. When read aloud, number 7 and number 0 take longer than the other numbers. They both have two syllables while all the other numbers have one. This creates inefficiency for people who work with lots of numbers all the time.

I propose we shorten “seven” to “sen” and “zero” to “zoh” (or “zo” for short). That way, the people who say “oh” instead of “zero” when reading telephone numbers and addresses will be happy, and sen now gets to be as cool as all the other numbers. Then we would read numbers as such:

“Hawaii Five-Zo”
“Beverly Hills, Nine Zo Two One Zo.”
(sung) “Eight Six Sev Five Three Zo Nine”
“James Bond, double-zo sen”
the soft drink, “Sen-Up”
“Boeing Sen-Zo-Sen aircraft”

Plus, think how easy saying zipcodes would be in such places as New York, “One Zo Zo Zo One.” On that zipcode alone you save 37.5% syllable time.

So please, people, save your breath. Let’s give sen and zo another chance.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Apple Slices Help Keep Brown Sugar

I found out a great way to keep your brown sugar from going bad and hardening up into a rock: seal in an apple slice. I imagine this would work with any moisture-retaining object such as a fresh slice of bread or a ceramic object of some kind that had been soaked in water (see: Brown Sugar Bears). But not only does the apple slice keep the brown sugar moist, it restores previously semifossilized brown sugar to its former pliable glory.

Seriously, we had some brown sugar here that must have been hard and dry for at last 6 months. Put in an apple slice and a week or so later we could use the stuff again. Not that I really get excited over brown sugar, mind you, but it was pretty neat anyway.

Okay. That is all I’m going to write on the topic.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Skimming Device Found on Local ATM

Westminster Police found this attached to one of my bank’s ATMs. Apparently it skims the magnetic stripe off of any card inserted into the ATM.

Good thing I have no money.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12274208

Does AdSense Add Cents?

Please excuse that advertising banner at the top of the page. I’m trying my luck with Google AdSense to see if this site can make any money displaying Google ads.

Mostly I think it will be interesting to see how google changes their ads based on the content of my blog entries.

Feedback is appreciated.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Is That Gravel In Your Tires or…?

Folks, it’s April 14. I realize it may still snow this year, but still… Studded snow tires on your cars? Really? It’s time to take them off, people.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

I Feel Like I Should Write Something

I feel like I should write something
This bright and sunny day.
I feel like I should write something
But I haven't much to say.

I haven't posted in a while
So maybe this will make you smile.
(That is, if it's not a steaming pile.)
Okay….


Now I feel I have written something.



...But not really.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

“Neurotic Canines” or “How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Whine and/or Bite”

Our family has always had German Shepherds. There has been one in our house for as long as I remember.

I vow to end that tradition in my own house.

Not that I don’t like dogs or that there has been one particular incident which drove me to this decision. But it’s all the little things that keep adding up.

Maya is 6 or 7 years old now. She’s incredibly whiny, especially when the wind blows over 5 miles per hour. She’s scared of the wind. We have to put her in the basement. And our washing machine vibrates on the spin cycle, which also drives her bonkers. She wines and whines and whines and practically climbs into your lap whenever she gets really nervous. My sister got Maya from a German Shepherd rescue in Colorado Springs when she was maybe a year and a half old or so (the dog, not my sister). Then she left her at the house.

Then there’s Dulci. The two year old German Shepherd my sister (also) got while it was still a puppy. It’s been scared of people for practically its whole life. And we raised Dulci right. She wasn’t abused or mistreated. She just has crossed wires in her head that makes her attack other people and other dogs that come into our house. So we can’t have people or other dogs over unless Dulci is physically separated from them. Other than that, she’s a good dog. Dulci now lives at the house, too.

While my sister is in town she brought Sadie with her, her newest dog and a Puggle. Rachel also got Sadie while she was a puppy, while she still had Dulci. Sadie is now a good dog except she wants to eat everything she possibly can as soon as she possibly can.

So between Maya’s incessant whining and Dulci’s instantaneous attack mode, I’ve had it with German Shepherds. The breed is now no longer endearing to me. I see my girlfriend’s dog, a Golden Retriever mix, and I think, “Wow, a friendly, generally quiet dog. How nice.” True, she’s high-strung but I believe that’s partly her breed and partly because she’s had to be kept in a crate for eight or so hours a day (or more). Annie has settled down quite a bit now that she has interaction and other dogs to play with during the day these past few days.

Anybody want a guard dog? Must provide a loving, stable home and must not want to have company over.