Saturday Night Loser's Club, Vol. CV: Navel Gazing Edition
Sat May 10, 2008 at 04:20:12 PM PDT
First off, thanks to va dare for so ably covering SNLC last week. Second off, tonight's SNLC....
Being burned-/stressed-out, lazy, tired, some combination, or all of the above, this SNLC is in the manner of a clip-show that The Simpsons sometimes does, for lack of new topics (not that anything he blathers about is really new....but self digresses). The other way to view/rationalize it is as a look back at and update on some of self's past SNLC's. Whichever view you prefer....
So, in reverse chronological order:
(1) SNLC 89 took a look at the 70th anniversary of Benny Goodman's landmark Carnegie Hall concert. For those in NYC or who will be there sometime before June 30, Carnegie Hall has this link about an exhibit at the Rose Museum devoted to memorabilia from that event, called (what else?) "Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall".
(2) SNLC 88 took a look at gas prices, and I let loose in the header with a thought about Americans' whininess about gas prices. This article confirms that swipe:
"Last week, [James] Robertson began requiring customers to prepay at the 12 T-Bird Mini Marts his company owns in southwestern New Hampshire and Vermont.
'A lot of our competitors have been doing this for some time and we've been putting this off longer than we should,' he said. 'I guess we've been willing to think that people were honest, but the dollar losses are huge now with the cost of gas. Would you like somebody to come in and steal your lunch every day? How about your paycheck?'"
Of course, this is also on the heels of 2 of the 3 leading candidates trying to pander to good ol' short-sighted selfishness with a call to waive the gas tax, which is of course the very worst thing to do, now that there is finally the remotest scintilla of a smidgen of an opportunity for "Amurrikans" to cut back on being gas-guzzling wastrels.
(3) SNLC 86 from the turn of the year highlighted some local issues. On those:
(a) The old Streetside Records building on Delmar is now offically converted, with the Noodles & Co. and Chipotle chain-restaurants officially ensconed there. There is also a "Timeless Authentic Garments" store between the two.
(b) The St. Louis Business Journal had this article (excerpt, full article is behind a firewall) about the St. Louis Symphony's 2007 deficit of $3.4 million, worse than 2006. There's a new President and Executive Director in place, Fred Bronstein (formerly of the Dallas Symphony), and he apparently has ideas to try to turn things around, as the photo caption in the link indicates.
(c) Larry Salci, the former head of Bi-State (the local public transportation agency) who blew a chance to end up ahead in its lawsuit against the Cross County Collaborative, at huge cost to Bi-State in more ways than one, was named to head Colorado Railcar a few weeks ago. Let's hope for Colorado Railcar's sake that past is not prologue here for their future.
(4) SNLC 57 from last June covered Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. The Symphony is playing it this weekend. While it's far from my favorite classical work, this weekend is the last concert of the season and I had a ticket to burn, so I went last night. The good news for the Symphony, in contrast to 2b above, is that last night had a virtually full house, and tonight's concert is sold out, per the orchestra's website. Plus, the performance had just a little shtick from the singers, like the tenor putting on the sad-sack look for his song as the roasted swan ("Olim lacus coleuram"), and the baritone and soprano making eyes at each other during the "Cours d'Amours" (Court of Love) section. Plus, it was amusing to see the singers tapping their feet and gently swaying in their chairs as the orchestra played the round dance.
So, what's up (or down) with you....losers? What a question, coming from the King of DK Losers himself? Time for your loser stories of the week, per standard SNLC SOP.....
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