In Support of the Arts

Caught a wonderful show last night, “They Came From Way Out There,” at the Milwaukee Rep’s Stackner Cabaret. It’s about the five most ambitious candidates for president of the Paranormal Society, set to present a musical comedy show reenacting actual paranormal events that have happened to them. Personal friction, a limited budget, and the fact that they are amateur performers take this meeting to other-worldly levels of fun.

Here’s a link to a video clip

“Way Out There” runs through March 10.

I love live performance, and I’ll take it over movies and TV anytime. There’s no do-overs, no stunt doubles, and anything can and does happen. Those are some of the many reasons I sing with Midwest Vocal Express.

Live performance takes a little more input from the audience, but the investment really pays off. It’s a communal experience you don’t get in front of a TV. Live performance also needs something else, money. It’s not cheap to stage a production, and ticket prices rarely cover the costs. That’s why outside funding is so critical. Our trip to the Stackner was courtesy of our bank, M&I, which is a huge supporter of the arts.

In Milwaukee, UPAF, the United Performing Arts Fund, subsidizes 36 organizations, like the orchestra, ballet, and the Rep.

As a nation, the National Endowment for the Arts provides funding. Righties cringe when you say that. All they can think of are the wildly outlandish, way-out-there stuff that received NEA funding in the past. Art isn’t always pretty, and you’re not expected to like everything, how boring would that be? in 1996, the Republican-led Congress, apparently happy with boring, effectively gutted the NEA, reducing a budget that peaked at $175 million in 1992 to $99.5 million, and 40% of that was set aside as block grants for states.

The NEA regrouped, and focused their attention on the erosion of arts education in our public schools. It's a remarkable turnaround for an agency whose mere name was once enough to get Newt Gingrich and other social conservatives foaming at the mouth.

Now led by Dana Gioia, funding has slowly climbed to $124.4 million in the current fiscal year, and President Bush's budget proposal sent to Congress recently would hike the budget to $128.4 million.

"I don't believe the arts are about right or left," Gioia said. "If we want to create the communities we want to live in, and if we want our schools to produce the best educations for our children, we need the arts. This is not a partisan issue. This is civic common sense."

See you at the show!

A Puzzling Addiction

I have a confession to make: I love Sudoku.

In its third year as a come-from-nowhere fad in the United States, the fill-in-the-numbers game that looks like a bad marriage between a crossword and a 1040 tax form is still growing. I dare you to open a newspaper comics section and not find one. Every flight I take, there’s one in the seat-pocket airline magazine. There are workplaces that have banned it because of its power as an addictive time-waster.

My obsession with Sudoku began on a Cape Cod vacation in 2005, where the owner of the B&B where we stay was printing them on his computer for guests to play. I’ve since turned my Dad onto the craze, too.

Sudoku has the characteristics of a successful puzzle; accessibility, simplicity and the ability to engage people intellectually without regard to their education. Some people, put off by numbers (math-phobics,) prefer Sudoku puzzles that use letters of the alphabet, colors, shapes, or celebrities.

Click Paris Hilton to play Celebrity Sudoku

Or if Hollywood is too scary these head-shavin’ days, try Spongebob Sudoku

The puzzle is deceptively simple. It's like a checkerboard, nine across and nine down, sub-divided into nine squares of nine each, three across and three down. Each puzzle starts with certain numbers filled in various spots across the grid, either randomly or sometimes in a pattern that's unrelated to the game's solution. Using those filled-in numbers and the game's only three rules, the puzzle solver must fill in every square in the grid with a number from one to nine.

The rules are as basic as you can get:

No column (a vertical line of squares) can have the same number more than once;

no row (a horizontal line of squares) can have the same number more than once;

and no sub-grid can have the same number more than once.

That's it, but it can be a challenging game that exercises your brain and patience. And it’s good for you! Studies have shown puzzles, like Sudoku and crosswords, keep the mind nimble and potentially ward off dementia.

It’s even inspired Australian Peter Levy to write a song. Listen here.

A brief history of Sudoku.

Based on the Viennese square, a mathematical construct by the 18th-century Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, Sudoku, originally called Number Place, was invented in 1979 by Indianapolis man Howard Garns, who, like Rubik of Rubik's cube fame, was an architect. It was published in a puzzle magazine, but it didn't catch on. In the 1980s, a Japanese publisher took the idea, modified it slightly and popularized it under a lengthy Japanese name, suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru, meaning roughly “each ofthe numbers must occur only once,” shortened to Sudoku. In 1997, retired New Zealander Wayne Gould noticed a Japanese Sudoku book and was intrigued. He developed a computer program to create Sudoku puzzles and pitched it to the Times of London which began printing them in 2004. By 2005, both the United Kingdom and the United States were fully infected with Sudoku fever.

A listing from the 100 most annoying things about 2006

Though millions enjoy this crazy fill in the numbers game ever day, they're blissfully unaware that it's the Japanese word for "Puzzle Substitute For Friends."

Here’s my online fix for Sudoku, I’m currently solving ‘hard’ puzzles in 12 minutes or less.

Add it to your 'Favorites' list today. It's one of the few things that can distract me from the hijinks in politics.

A Taxing Question

Over the weekend we had our taxes done, and near the end of our appointment, we asked, "So what is OUR tax rate?"

Vicki (our preparer) replied, "For the first $15,100 it's 10%, for the next $45,000 it's 15%, for the next..." I stopped her, "So if we're in the 25% tax bracket (determined by your taxable income,) not all our income is taxed at 25%?" "That's right," Vicki replied.

I had been under the impression that your ultimate tax rate was applied to all your income equally, but it turns out that everyone is taxed the same. So much for the right's rantings that the rich are overtaxed.

Big Weekend Numbers

There's a lot of numbers to be considered this weekend:

8 - 12 Inches of snowfall predicted for Southeast Wisconsin

Several thousand dollars if I get bumped into Alternative Minimum Tax again this year. We'll find out from the accountant on Saturday. Here's a shot of our IRS papertrail.

$2,000,000,000,000 (trillion) The cost of the War in Iraq. Here's a link to Nobel Prize winner in Economics Joseph Stiglitz' calculations.

$6,639.30 The cost of the War in Iraq for every man, woman, child, and immigrant in the United States as this is written.

Green Thursday: New Light Down Under

Australia's going to become the first country to completely phase out the incandescent light bulb. By replacing the common bulb with energy efficient compact fluorescents, Australians will cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons a year.

(Heck, we can't even get the White House to believe their own scientists' reports on global warming.)

That's the equivalent of taking more than a million cars off the roads down under.

(Milwaukee County Chief Executive Scott Walker wouldn't like that last part; his mass transportation plans promise a car in every garage. Read here.)

We've made the change to compact fluorescents in the LipsYard basement, but are still using the naughty 'Edision era' bulbs upstairs until dimmable CPFs are perfected.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

A nod to the President from Jack Bauer

So I'm treadmilling in the basement watching "24" from Monday night when it hits me; Jack Bauer says "New'-Cue-Ler" just like President George W. Bush does, as opposed to 99.999999999999999% of the rest of the world who pronounce it "New'-Clee-Ur." You'll hear it at the end of this clip.








Maybe it's an edict from the West Wing, um...Fox network that everyone on the show pronounce it that way? Nope. From President Wayne Palmer, to the Islamic terrorists, down to Chloe's tortured hubby, Miles O'Brien, it's "New'-Clee-Ur" "New'-Clee-Ur." "New'-Clee-Ur."

The show is a 'neo-con' favorite, with Rush Limbaugh it's number one fan, so a nod to 'W' wouldn't be out of the question. They like the way Jack, played by Kiefer Sutherland, wields a take-no-prisoners approach to combating terrorism, complete with remorseless killings and torture. Heck, they even have one of their own, former anchor Tony Snow, in the White House.

Perhaps it's a nod to the first president to say "New'-Cue-Ler," Jimmy Carter?









Nah, even Jack Bauer, after 2 years in a Chinese prison, wouldn't go that liberal.

Support our troops! (Vote)

10 Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura) on the wire in the LipsYard.

If they were registered voters, only 1 would participate in today's primary (let's hope it's the blue dove.)

Lot's of American's "support our troops." I support the troops by paying taxes. I control our troops, and our democracy (it's really a republic) by voting. Only when a majority of Americans vote, will the true wishes of our nation be done. A true majority didn't elect our current Decider in Chief, and probably won't elect the next one either.

On a more local level, school board elections and referenda will determine what kind of country we have in the future, determined by what kind of education we provide today.

Be the dove that votes.

Happy Presidents Day

Presidents Day is the common name for the holiday officially designated as Washington's Birthday. It is celebrated on the third Monday of February.

Originally implemented by the federal government in 1880 as the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, it was celebrated on Washington's actual birthday, February 22. In 1971 it was shifted to the third Monday in February.

In the late 1980s, with a push from advertisers, the term Presidents Day began its public appearance. The theme has expanded the focus of the holiday to honor another February President, Abraham Lincoln, and other Presidents of the United States, including:



The 43rd President, George W. Bush

Here Mr. Bush looks for the "Way Forward" in Iraq (those lens caps aren't helping.)

LipsYard goes daily Monday, February 19

Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog

It's all you hear everywhere you go. "Read this blog," "the blogosphere is humming with this," "find out more in my blog."


Not that my opinion matters any more than yours (get your own blog for heaven's sake,) but the people have spoken and are demanding more blogging!


Starting Monday, February 19, 2007, check LipsYard every day for new photos, links, and the occasional rant on the right. (OK, everyday.) There's a lot buried under the surface that is ready to spew!