Two new musical comedies take town by storm

While much of the hoopla in New Orleans has been on a certain NBA franchise, two other items of side interest have hit the local boards and are both worthy of mention. The first is Ricky Graham's new show "The Renew Review" starring Graham and co-writer Sean Patterson with support from distaff members Yvette Hargis and Mandy Zirchenback. With typical Ricky Graham comedic touches, this show lambasts the ongoing recovery effort in New Orleans with updated new songs and skits. The two act presentation running at Le Chat Noir on weekends has been selling briskly and shows are nearly all sold out. Nevertheless, for those who can get tickets, I would strongly suggest you get to Le Chat Noir and catch a very funny production by a proven winning team. The other show that just opened that is also worthy of catching is Rivertown Repertory's production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "By Jeeves," a British farce musical that is a romp with director-actor Gary Rucker in the lead role and Vatican Lokey playing the title figure. Both Rucker and Lokey lead a sterling cast of very funny players who don't miss a trick in making the audiences laugh from opening line to final chord.
Goodbye to Rivertown's Cathy Primeaux as she leaves the Kenner theatre after 15 years as stage mother to all and box office manager. Primeaux takes up work again in the medical field, but we know her heart will always be in the theatre...not the operating theatre! Best of luck to her!

The Toll Rises

As per my previous blog, the reports are now flooding the networks with the horrors of what life is like in China and Myanmar following the catastrophic earthquake and cyclones there. I don't want to watch these depressing accounts, but I am compelled to do so. With loss of life on such a grand scale, the numbers are startling. I cannot fathom the loss of 900 young students in one building like occurred in one Chinese city or the loss of entire towns washed away in the wake of the cyclone. It is staggering to think of the hardships imposed on rescue workers and probably true that more people are dying today of disease and neglect than were killed in the initial stages of these tragedies. It is my nature to fix things. It is what I do. When I see a computer not performing correctly or a network down, I right it. When spy ware or viruses threaten an end user, I install the means to thwart these attacks and to keep everything on track. Yet, when I see destruction on such a grand scale, I am cognizant of how ineffective and puny I am in the face of it. I have led a blessed life and I praise God for sparing me from the indignities and vicissitudes of life that my Asian brothers and sisters are enduring. Everything happens for a reason. I do believe that. I hope we generous Americans can once again rally assistance to those who are crying, screaming, and dying for it now. Time is of the essence.

"Oh, the humanity..."

When the giant rigid airship Hindenburg exploded in flame over Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937, a radio reporter, Herb Morrison, was on hand recording the scene. His overexpressive reporting was captured on a wire recorder and later presented as an on-the-spot report. The reporter's relaxed, rapid paced delivery was soon pierced by deep sighs and exclamations like "Oh, the humanity!" At one point he apologized as he turned off the recorded to catch his breath. From this ignoble beginning came the journalistic tradition of broadcasting events as they happened. In a way that report and the thousands of others that followed over radio and TV in more recent decades were the precursors of today's modern CNN and Fox News Reports, where seasoned correspondents relate the breaking news of the day. The only difference is that today we are accustomed to seeing our news delivered live as it happens. We've watched two Gulf Wars waged over cable TV and even witnessed reporters delivering their dispatches from the battlefronts via cellphones. Here in Louisiana and New Orleans the nation witnessed the horrors of people plucked by helicopter from rooftops as reporters commented on the action. And there were also those reports which showed those unable to save themselves from rising waters, their bodies found in attics or floating in receding wakes. It all happened live on TV and we witnessed the tragedy firsthand. When America was attacked by Islamic fanatics who chose to crash airplanes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, we watched it happen live. Yet for all the modern technological wonders that exist in broadcasting, there are limitations. Last week an estimated 13,000 to 24,000 victims were claimed as a result of a cyclone in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma. Their military junta refused the entry of Western broadcasters into what remains of their devastated country for political reasons of expediency. Yesterday in another land halfway across the globe, another catastrophic event claimed at least ten times as many victims as Hurricane Katrina and the breach of federal levees did. This was a level 7.9 earthquake that hit the heavily populated Sishuan province of China, a leader of the modern world community. But like the Myanmar cyclone, there were no pictures or videos to be viewed by the Western world. Hundreds of cellphone towers are down and reporters are finding it extremely difficult to file reports from the scene. With estimates of deaths in China running at least to 15,000 and many more thousands of injured still being accounted, these two tragedies will loom large for months to come, even up to the time when China wants to show off its best face for the upcoming Summer Olympiad in Beijing. What we don't see, we can't envision. Without broadcasts from the scene, we don't fathom the scale of these tragedies. I read the words in newspapers and I see abreviated reports on TV that attempt to approximate what huge losses of life and culture are being experienced. But without live from the scene reports, we are at best under-informed and at worst misinformed. I feel like that intrepid reporter shouting into a microphone: "Oh, this is terrible. This is one of the worst disasters in the world!" But no one can hear. No one can see. We are truly deaf and blind in an Information Age without information. The existence of a global neighborhood is hugely dependent on technology and the ability of world leaders to let the rest of us in. In Myanmar and China, Westerners are not largely welcomed, despite the fact they face critical shortages of medicine and supplies to sustain life in these hard-hit areas. It is up to us to ramp up support for these people, who despite their governments, need our help. I urge everyone to be responsible and socially active to help them now. As a former recipient of aid following Hurricane Katrina, I know just how much it will be appreciated by those unable to ask for assistance.

The IT Pro 2008 Conference

The last three days have been a bit of a blur. Much of the daytime has been spent watching experts make other experts more informed and better equipped to work in the IT field as Small and Medium Business (SMB) consultants. SMB consultants have been gathering here in New Orleans under the heading of the IT Pro 2008 Conference invented and piloted by IT guru Jeff Middleton. Middleton's SBSmigration.com website (http://www.sbsmigration.com) has all of the information about this year's conference, so I won't bore you with all of the details. However, it has been an eye-opening experience. One of the biggest topics is on "managed services," an all-encompassing opportunity for IT professionals to offer their abilities to monitor businesses and do preventive maintenance through a full spectrum of services and products. Small IT firms and sole proprietors have different concepts about how many managed services they should offer or even if they should offer any. The most productive IT consultants have been raising the ante in terms of minimal requirements for SMB clients. It is not unusual for them to turn down business from small offices with only five or fewer clients in a peer-to-peer system. Some of them will require at least one server or a minimum of 10 clients. Whatever criteria they use -- whether it's retainers or service contracts -- these IT firms are exploring new ways to increase their profitability and extend their productivity all the while while learning the best practices in an industry that is constantly reinventing itself with new products from Microsoft and other industry giants. These are some of the best and brightest minds in IT who are down in New Orleans to enjoy themselves, but to roll up their sleeves and learn what others are doing in other parts of the country and the world to hold onto their present clients, gain more clients, and to become more productive and profitable in the computer consulting field. In the end building customer trust is of paramount concern to all of them, but how to do that is the big question. Does learning a new skill set like that required for deployment of Windows SBS Server 2008 (due out in release in the fall) guarantee that these IT firms will be a leg up on their competition? Is virtualization, which allows for legacy applications to work on new operating system platforms, the future of the industry for SMB consulting? Where are the tools and technologies that exist today that will help IT professionals make their businesses stronger and increase trust among their clients? While many of these questions have been answered throughout the conference, there are nearly as many questions that continue to be raised on other items of interest. It is a process and IT professionals are continually asking themselves are they where they should be every few years as technology changes explode exponentially. So in a nutshell, the future is here and success is looming if only these IT professionals can take advantage of what is available. For three days we have all been in learning mode. The good news is that we have all benefited from this conference and I plan to be back here again next year.

SBS Migration.com

I am spending today and the entire weekend at the IT Pro 2008 conference being held ironically in my hometown of New Orleans. Jeff Middleton, a guru of Small Business Server, has held this conference once before last year and it proved to be so well received that he organized a second one over the course of three days. For IT professionals who have never been to New Orleans, it's a great way to learn about best practices and to experience demonstrations of new products intended to work closely with Windows Server 2008 and the upcoming release of Windows Small Business Server 2008 expected in the fall. This is the real deal and is not a Microsoft rollout of prepared propaganda that glosses over problems inherent with operating systems. It is a conference of people who work in the field on a daily basis and who are working with clients as business solution providers. If it works, they know about it. If it doesn't, they let everyone know too. Frankly, I love the amount of IT expertise being expressed in this conference by the speakers and the attendees. More on this conference later. Right now, we have to conduct a parade to Bourbon Street!

Remembering the fallen and the rise of Israel

Last night's community-wide celebration at Conservative Congregation Shir Chadash was an emotional program for several reasons. The evening began before sunset as the fallen members of the Israel Defense Force and others who fought for the independence of the State of Israel were commemorated in a series of prayers led by several rabbis representing the entire spectrum of Jewish religious thought. Prominent were host Rabbi Ted Lichtenfeld and Rabbi Andrew Busch of Touro Synagogue, both of whom arrived just prior to Hurricane Katrina and both of whom have announced plans to relocate to other communities before the third anniversary of the storm. Rabbi Robert Loewy of Gates of Prayer and Rabbi Uri Topolosky of Congregation Beth Israel rounded out the local contingent of rabbis. Gates of Prayer Cantorial Soloist Victoria May and Cantor Joel Colman of Temple Sinai led the audience in several Hebrew prayers and songs with accompaniment on May's guitar. Guest Rabbi Uri Barnea, a native of Israel and a musical conductor and composer now the spiritual leader of Temple B'nai Israel in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, gave a talk on the history of Israeli music with demonstrations on violin and recorder. He also provided taped highlights of several well-known Israeli performers. The event coincided with the start of Yom Ha'Azmut, Israel Independence Day, as observed on the Hebrew calendar. The date on the English calendar is May 14, which was the date when Israel declared its independence in 1948, three score years ago.

A Split Decision

Well, it appears that the closely fought contest in Indiana went to Clinton and the race in North Carolina went (as expected) to Obama. Between the two, North Carolina was the slightly bigger prize. But how different are we today than we were yesterday? In short there are fewer committed delegates than there are uncommitted superdelegates. So, the Democratic nomination is looking more and more like a series of backroom deals between politicians than an elective process that emanates from the people. Frankly, I'm not sure that the people are served by a system that elevates one group of delegates over another. Yet, there was a dichotomy expressed in Clinton's speech late Tuesday night that many of the political observers couldn't help but notice. On the one hand, she said she was committed to continuing the battle in the remaining contests, but she also stated publicly that no matter who was the Democratic nominee, she would support him. That sounds like she may have begun to see the obvious. If the pundits are correct, she has loaned herself over six million dollars to continue the financing of the the campaign over the course of the last month. She may be running out of patience and money. Hey, I can think of plenty of things worse than having to be the first woman to accept the vice-presidency. Maybe she is keeping her options open, spinning her campaign a bit more acceptably toward the Obama camp. We'll see.