I was invited to opening night of Hillbarn Theatre’s 2010-2011 season Friday.  As I watched the production unfold in front of me I thought about how Hillbarn is like the Little Theatre That Could… And Does.  The last show I saw at their theatre was Gypsy, the closing show of last season, and this venue – not tiny, but on the smaller side – had managed to accomplish a great production of a very complicated show.  And now here I was again watching a full Broadway style show being fit onto the stage of Hillbarn.  And it worked.

This time the show was Chicago, one of my favorites, and I had high hopes for what they would do with it.  Let’s be truthful here, the appeal of Chicago is mostly the large group of gorgeous, sexy female dancers.  But the show must be carried by the voices of several main characters as well.  And once again Hillbarn pulled it out.

Set design was minimal, as it usually is even in many bigger productions.  Costumes were also minimal (wink-wink) sticking to a variety of black corsets and leotards with black stockings and garters.  The tiny orchestra was out in the open on a balcony platform, and I didn’t hear the sound problems I mentioned in my Gypy review last spring.

Let’s get to the meat of the production: Velma, Roxie, and Billy Flynn, and even poor naïve Amos and tough-as-nails Mama Morton.  Above all, the performances of these actors blew me away.  Everyone’s voices were perfection, and completely sold their parts.  I couldn’t imagine a better Velma Kelly (played by Carrie Madsen), and Will Giamonna (as Billy Flynn) seemed too young to know how to play smarm so well.  Michael Carey played the invisible Amos Hart as well as John C. Reilly did in his Oscar nominated performance.  The entire group was a joy to watch and should be applauded for helping to make this large production work.

My favorite dance (and my guest agreed) was “We Both Reached for the Gun” in Act I, an amazing song and dance routine with all the female dancers and Billy Flynn using Roxie Hart as his ventriloquist dummy.  This was a great choreographic feat with the technical precision of all the dancers very exact, and the entire dance was electrifying.  Also great was the courtroom re-enactment in Act II.  On this smaller stage the production could have cut down the number of dancers, but they chose not to and successfully managed to fill the stage with beautiful women doing exactly the right things to keep the audience entertained.

The only criticism I have for the show was the first half of the opening act.  The choreography wasn’t as tight as it could have been, and the dancing formation was perhaps too tight.  The dim lighting, though I understand the mood they were going for, was a bit too dark, and took away any feel that this was going to be a large, professional, exciting show.  Perhaps the purple spotlights (used during “Roxie” I think) could have brightened things up while keeping the dim, vaudeville-prison feel.  HOWEVER… things were only spectacular after that.

Should you make the trip to Foster City to see this show? Of course!!  A really good Chicago production is usually only found on much larger (and more expensive) stages, and smaller venues won’t have the Bright Lights excitement that a large stage can give.  But Hillbarn Theatre once again refuses to believe it can’t put on a great show and they absolutely succeed.  Foster City is closer than San Francisco, less expensive than San Francisco, and still provides great places to eat before the show (many right on the water).  Every seat in Hillbarn is a good one and it looks like they are selling out a week in advance, so hurry to get your tickets now!

Or, Zer01 2010, for those who don’t think in binary.

The 3rd 01SJ Biennial is a little more than a week away, but already art is starting to pop up around town. The most obvious installation is “Play Me, I’m Yours”, in which 20 pianos have been decorated by artists and left at various locations around town. San Jose is the 12th city to get a Play Me, I’m Yours exhibit by artist Luke Jerram. A map of the locations is available at the artist’s website.

The Biennial opens on Thursday, September 16th, and Friday the 17th is the day of the free street festival called Absolute Zer0 in the SoFA district. After that, there’s so many exhibits and events planned for the rest of the weekend that its hard to keep track of it all, though the Biennial website does its best to line it all up for you.

Through Kurn I kinda met Apple. Followed Apple on Twitter and then we were chatting and DruidMain joined in the mix.

DruidMain has made herself a WotLK Bucket List. And I started thinking, what would I put on that list if I were to make one. I have yet to actually sit down and create my list, but I’m sure some of my items will look similar to DruidMain’s list.

With Cataclysm just around the corner, what sort of things would you put on your WotLK Bucket List? What achievements or things would you like to see and do before the expansion comes out?

1: I transferred a couple days ago due to some ridiculous nonsense on my old server.

After today’s maintenance, Horde and Alliance players will find that the updated instances for Operation Gnomeregan and Zalazane’s Fall will be available to enter, so Horde players can head into the Echo Isles to retake the Troll homelands and put an end to Zalazane’s tyranny, and the Gnomes and their allies can muster their forces to retake the Gnomes’ home city of Gnomeregan.

The quests went live on the PTRs a while back, and today’s the day for them to go up on the live realms. Ready?

EID al Fitr is muslim festive day at the end of Ramadan, All muslims are equal and shall be treated equal by the Rulers, – at the sametime UAE Rulers shall look after their non-muslim residents with great hospitality and tolerence on the festive days of 1st, 2nd & 3rd Shawwal, the EID days

Philz Coffee on the Paseo de San Antonio

The holiday today gave me and my girlfriend an excuse to check out some new places downtown we haven’t had a chance to get to yet.

Philz Coffee opened up several weeks (months already?) ago in the Paseo de San Antonio, with tons of rave reviews about how great the coffee is. At 10 am the downtown area was pretty quiet, until we got to Philz, where there was a little island of life. There were three or four occupied tables out front and a few inside as well. Gary Singh from the Metro was sitting in the back doing whatever it is real journalists do with their laptops at coffee shops.

Since its not really on my way to anywhere, I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet. I like the fact that they serve every cup of coffee straight from the drip cone, so you know you’re getting the freshest possible cup. On the other hand, there’s no sugar and cream out for self-serve — you have to ask the barista to add what you want when you order. The amount of cream they added to my coffee totally killed the coffee flavor. My girlfriend had a similar experience ordering tea — she prefers her tea relatively mild, but her green tea was brewed so strong she thought they had made a mistake and given her black tea. I guess once you know exactly what you want, it would be a great system, and it keeps the shop cleaner. But for a first-timer, it was kind of a disappointment to get someone else’s idea of the right amount of cream, or the correct time to brew tea.

Ross Dress for Less on First Street

After coffee, we went over to the recently-opened Ross discount department store on First Street. I really like discount stores like Ross for basic clothing like sneakers, polo shirts, and khakis. The new Ross had a fine selection of those things, and has been kept clean and neat, unlike some of their other locations. My girlfriend’s verdict: “Best Ross store ever.”

It’s great to see new shops like these opening around downtown San Jose. I doubt if they really mean the recession is over. But they do show how slow economic times can encourage people and organizations to try something new, whether it’s a San Francisco coffee shop expanding into the South Bay, or the RDA taking a chance on a discount retailer instead of hoping vainly to get a high-end store into downtown.

The organizers are especially looking for beautiful photography representing the
wide range of bicycle touring and travel experiences.

Winner will get Bicycle Riding Gear. Check for more details on how to
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If you don’t already know, the Orange Street Fair is happening at the Circle, and as always, it’s hotter than hell so I refuse to go.  The OC Register has the lowdown on some of the food stands.

I like the idea of the fair a LOT, but my big beef is that there are not enough places to sit.  I am someone who enjoys sitting and noshing on my food, not standing up.   It’s been a few years since I’ve gone, so maybe they’ve addressed that issue, but I doubt it.

As for the ole OC Metblogs, I ask myself, what to do?

I’m sure if you are a subscriber or loyal reader, you’ve noticed a steep and ugly decline in the amount of posts on here lately.  We were going strong there for a while, but it seems that everyone has lost their steam.  I haven’t exactly lost mine, but my ten month old is a hell of a lot of work, and I find myself with little to no time to blog here, as I have other (read:paying) blog obligations elsewhere.  So obviously, the stuff I do for free is going to suffer.

The whole “are we or aren’t we going to even survive” thing doesn’t help either, to be sure.  Try recruiting writers to write for free for a publication that may or may not be around in a few months. For that matter, try mustering up the enthusiasm to write for a publication that may or may not be around in a few months.  It’s a bit hard, to be sure.  The LA Metblogs is going strong, but they’ve always had mucho participation, and I’ve noticed they moved to a different URL so that they can keep going if Metblogs fails.

Not exactly reassuring. Or a vote of confidence.  Commuinication from HQ has been spotty at best, so I’m guessing the end might be nigh.

So, I don’t know exactly what’s happening, but as the captain of this ship, dammit if I’m not going to go down with it.  Despite there not even being a crew to mutiny against me or anything.

Posts will probably be few and far between, but I hope you’ll stick with me as long as it lasts.

A number of companies have moved at least some of their customer service and customer relations operations onto Twitter as a way to broadcast to and communicate with their customers on a service that doesn’t have to be their own – Comcast has done it, Verizon Wireless has done it, and now Blizzard has done the same. Here’s the announcement from the official forums:

You can now follow all Blizzard Entertainment Customer Support news and updates on Twitter. Just head over to @BlizzardCS, (http://twitter.com/BlizzardCS) for the latest Support related news, events and more. We will be providing constant updates during Tuesday’s maintenance and service outages. Additionally, you will be able to view updates to our Queue Times for Game Master interactions, account investigations and escalated tickets alike.

Currently the account is only as interactive with its followers as to post a ReTweet, and it hasn’t directly responded to any of its now over 2850 followers (at the time of this writing, it’s doubtlessly going to go up!) – then again, the announcement doesn’t say that the @BlizzardCS account will actually be staffed with people who are going to work and resolve issues over Twitter, and many customer service accounts opt to not, prefering instead to respond to requests via Twitter direct message or serve entirely for broadcast announcements and alerts for customers to see. It’s a good idea for Blizzard to use Twitter as another way to engage its customers and send out notices.

Currently, it looks like the Blizzard CS account will do just that; send out announcements and updates, and we may see some behind the scenes customer support action, but don’t expect to spam Twitter to help getting an accidentally destroyed item back in the immediate future, okay?

Back when Blizzard hosted the Cataclysm Press Tour, one of the unfortunate things we saw mentioned was the possibility that heroic versions of The Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep might not be ready in time for the launch of Cataclysm, and that they may have to wait for a future content patch update to give the team more time to work on them.

Well, word came down yesterday that those fears were nothing to worry about, because the two new dungeons will indeed be ready in time for the launch of Cataclysm, and players will be able to head in and see their favorite starting-game dungeons re-worked for the new world that we’ll get when the expansion comes out. Here’s the official word from Valnoth, when someone else in a thread stated that they wouldn’t be ready as fact and the reason why they weren’t available in beta:

Heroics are not ready for testing.

Heroic Shadowfang Keep and Heroic Deadmines WILL be released with Cataclysm. You will not have to wait for a later patch.

Strap on your pirate stompers kids, it’s back to Westfall for the Alliance and back to Silverpine Forest for the Horde!

My concern, which is cited more eloquently and with more detail at the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition here and here, is that they’ve set aside a whopping 0-5% to use on non-motorized projects.

Record numbers of Atlantans are hopping on bikes.  25% of our trips are made within a mile of the home and 40% are made within two miles – these are distances that, barring extreme temperatures, we should almost always bike. Or at least they are distances for which we should have the option to safely and comfortably bike.  Each of the 25 or so bicycles locked up outside my office represents one less car, less wear and tear on the roads, less pollution, more vibrant communities, healthier citizens, and less sprawl. I cannot imagine not encouraging this sort of transportation.

The culture is changing, and we need our infrastructure to keep up! All this to say that a 0-5% allocation for bike and ped programs is not acceptable for the Atlanta region to do so. Other cities (with which we are competing for jobs and investment) are adding bike lanes, installing bike racks, and encouraging alternative means of getting to work, and I worry that Georgia is stuck in a paradigm of an unsustainable, auto-focused transportation network. I ask you to check out the criteria the ARC has posted, and consider sending off a quick email to let them know how you feel about the future of transportation in Atlanta.

(I recognize that this may be as simple as “Don’t tax us anymore!”, which is another correct opinion. Make your voice heard!)

On this note, if any of you out there would like to be an author for our site, step up and let us know!!  Due to moves out of the area (fejsez, oc maria, myself) our crew is fading fast.  Please speak up and tell us about your OC experiences, tips, whatever!

So with this being my last post for OC Metblogs, I’d like to say thanks for all the memories and can’t wait to read what happens next!

Scenes of destruction at the Lahore bomb blasts on September 01, 2010 - Source: Reuters

Around 30 people fell victim to another barbaric act of terrorism involving three bomb blasts on a Shia religious procession in Lahore yesterday. It was the day marking shahadat of Hazrat Ali (R.A.); one of the bravest and dearest companions of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H). Sadly, the beasts have no sanctity for Ramadan, Hazrat Ali (R.A) or even for simple humanity.

According to media reports, more than a 100 people are injured and being treated at different hospitals of the city. May the souls of the departed rest in eternal peace and may the injured recover as soon as possible – Amen!

Start counting the series and spats of bad news from my country and you won’t be able to reach a limit. Suicide bombings, super-floods, sectarian violence, corrupt politicians, goons in power, mass poverty, electricity crisis, gas shortage, inflation, banishment from the global community… You name it, we have it!

No wonder, we, the people of the Land of the Pure, are the bravest nation in the World!

No more can my heart feel,

as I bow down, before Him I kneel.

The gain of peace in my abode,

the pain of worry on life’s each node.

For it makes no sense of having to bear,

when you have all & everything to fear.

From death to fire; not that I desire,

after all, who likes to sink in such a mire.

My heart cries in silent despair,

for it has had more than its share.

Oh God, give us a sign of hope,

of love, of life and of a will to cope.

Help us raise our spirits again,

save us from insanity; let hope remain.

For it won’t be worth a cry,

if before death, a tear won’t dry…

Prayers,

Hasan Mubarak