Bringing the House down!

Normally, “bringing the house down” is a good thing when you’re a theater. Not today. At approximately 11:30 this morning, a car drove through the east wall of the Baytown Little Theater building! Here’s a cell-phone video of the car being towed out of the building.

image_010.jpgimage_012.jpgAs I understand it, the woman driving the car had some sort of medical condition (seizure, diabetic reaction, or something to that effect). She ran a red light, drove across a field, missing several trees, taking a divot out of the parking lot, and striking square into the building.

We were in rehearsal for Titanic, and today is Friday the 13th. Guess we were doomed from the start. Fortunately, nobody was in the theater at the time. Jason, the director, was supposed to be there, but he was delayed, fortunately. All I could think about was what would have happened if this had taken place during a performance. The east side of the arena was completely destroyed, and I don’t think the west side is much better. If there had been people in those seats, I don’t see how they could have survived. As it is, the only person hurt was the driver (I have no idea what her status is).

image_017.jpgWe’re looking for a new venue for the show. I suspect something will come along. Of more concern are the sets. A lot of money, time and effort was spent getting them together, and the show is already over budget. I don’t know how we’re going to replace them.

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iPhone: Will It Blend?

Following up on my recent video trend …

These guys sell the blenders they use to destroy things in these videos. I actually think it’s a great marketing gimmick. How else are they going to get you to lay out $400.00 for a blender …

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iBible

This was fun to watch, one day after “i-day” …

I especially liked the “disco ball feature (disabled for Southern Baptists)”

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We’re Baaack

Well, Wendy and I are back from our beach vacation on High Island. We had a good time – we did almost nothing! ;) Our typical routine was to wake up, watch the gulls and pelicans from our porch, eat some breakfast, sit on the beach for a while, snooze in the afternoon, and then watch the beach some more in the evening, including fireworks shows put on by several of our neighbors. It was very nice and relaxing. There was a lot of seaweed on the beach, but we were there more for the view than for actual swimming, so it was OK.

Though, we did have one bit of adventure. On Thursday, we decided we’d be daring and try to find the nude beach on High Island. We had a pretty good idea where it was, so we headed off. I knew that it was supposed to be just a mile or so beyond where the highway was supposedly “closed” but was passable anyway. There was sand covering the pavement, but I expected that, and we continued on. Then we got back to pavement.. All right – we started scanning for signs saying “warning, naked people ahead” or something like that. Or perhaps we’d just stumble on a bunch of exposed people. But we saw nobody, and no signs, so we kept going. Then the sand came back. Shallow at first, but soon deeper and deeper. Before we knew it, we were driving in furrows in the sand about as deep as the tires on my Xterra. We came to the conclusion that we were in trouble. I was sure we’d get stuck if we attempted to leave the grooves we were following in the “road” so we continued on, looking for a safe place to turn around.

Well, the sand finally got a little less deep, so we decided to brave it. I left the safety of my “road” and headed for open sand. And we got out! Unfortunately, my turning radius isn’t very good, so I had to stop and back up in order to turn around (the beach isn’t very wide.) That’s when we got stuck. We tried putting beach debris under the tires, but no luck. Even my trusty BLT tee-shirt was called in to service, to try to give more traction. No go. Finally, after about 1/2 hour, I dug enough of a channel under the tires to get a little momentum. Wendy gave it some gas while I pushed (like that was going to do anything) and we were out. I quickly took over the wheel. Wendy wanted nothing to do with driving in that stuff. We refused to stop for anything. Even my poor shirt was left, abandoned on the beach, because we didn’t dare stop to pick it up. :(

I guess we just weren’t supposed to get to that beach.

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A new web toy

OK. I’m playing around with a new toy for my web pages. Right now, it’s only on my Xanga site (and this post, of course), until I figure out a good way to fit it into my main site. And I may just delete it all together if it doesn’t get any use.

Basically, it’s another way to communicate with me, and those who read my site(s) (all 3 of you.) Instead of leaving comments to posts, you can send a text message to 25622 with the message looking like this:

@dbailey Your message here

Where, of course, “Your message here” is whatever you want. Within a few seconds, your message should be added to the display of messages on my “screen” which should be present on my main Xanga page. Have fun.:)

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Ken Silva Radio Interview at Christian Research Net

Ken Silva Radio Interview at Christian Research Net

I had to laugh out loud at this one. For those unfamiliar with him, Ken Silva is a rabid opponent of emergent anything. I normally just ignore it when a post about him shows up in my technorati search. But this was just too funny.

Those involved in an Emergent church are especially encouraged to call so we can help you escape and warn others.

I bet that’s going to be a nice unbiased program. ;)

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Titanic carpool, anyone?

For those of you who are in the cast of Titanic …

Given that tomorrow’s rehearsal is not especially “local,” I was wondering if anyone would be interested in sharing vehicle space. No sense all of us dragging our cars all the way there if we don’t need to.

We’ll just have to hope that the carpool doesn’t suffer the same fate as the ship. ;)   Of course, there aren’t many icebergs on Houston roads in June …

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New “Creation Museum”

The people at Ars Technica recently took a trip to the newly opened Creation Museum in Kentucky (including pictures). Apparently, this museum is an attempt at a scientific (or, at least, science-like) defense of Creationism from a “Young Earth” perspective. People who know me will know that I don’t subscribe to such a view myself, but I can certainly respect that view in others. But I think it very misguided to try to use science to “prove” creationism.

But that’s not why I posted. ;) I went to the museum’s website, and discovered that they’re open 7 days a week! Apparently, they take the Bible literally, except for the part about the Sabbath. I had to laugh when I saw that.

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