Introducing KeyStone Entertainment

It's been one heck of a week. With corporate gigs this week plus the launch of the NZ side of KeyStone Entertainment it's all been go. In between I still rehearse my act and continue to write - and get to the gym each day (well almost each day!)

When I arrived in New Zealand in February I had meetings with a few of the top event companies. I was astonished to find out from them that they were flying in acts from Australia because they felt there weren't any acts up to the international standard that they were looking for. These are the top end corporate gigs and require acts that are constantly working in this field and have a proven track record of shows that will always go over well. With this in mind, I set about working hand in hand with event companies and my wife Natalie and I started up our own Premier International Talent Agency called Keystone Entertainment Ltd., where we fly in some of the best entertainment for corporate events. You can check out the website at www.keystone-entertainment.co.nz
We will be bringing in acts that we have seen perform personally, and know can deliver the goods. I like to be able to sit down with event companies and be able to explain each act that I think would suit the event. Unlike a lot of agents who just throw names at the clients, I feel a more hands on approach is better for us, for the performer and the final event.
Natalie and I constantly travel the world and are introduced to new acts all the time - so we will continue to travel and see what is available. If an act wishes to be on our books then we do need to see a full 45 minute live show - no montages or flashy video productions - just the act itself.

For those who will be in the Auckland are this week (that's Auckland, New Zealand) I am part of a variety show for the New Zealand Variety Artists Club big yearly Charity Event. It's going to be an amazing show with some of the best super star entertainers in the country. Here are the details. Those living in New Zealand will recognize the names of the celebrity acts. It will also be a great chance for me to catch up with my good friend Guy Cater. We did a TV show together years ago which ran over a period of two years and I haven't seen him in over a decade!!

MAGIC CASTLE REVIEW
In some of my past BLOGS I've talked about a dear friend Ben Robinson, and Ben has shared articles with me for the BLOG. I came across this one recently as Ben appeared at The Magic Castle last week, and this was such a great review that I thought I'd share it with readers. Ben is also the author of this amazing book, The MagiCIAn: John Mulholland's Secret Life which is a great read - and I think would make an amazing movie!

Here is the review of the week at The Magic Castle:

MAGIC CASTLE
Hollywood, CA
Parlour of Prestidigitation
June 21-27, 2010
Special to American Variety

By Arthur Gibbons Jr.

The world famous Magic Castle – a half-century of Hollywood hocus pocus – produced a top bill ending June. Two performers, opposites in every way, exemplified the adage of immaculate attraction. Opening in the early slot was Big Apple baffler Ben Robinson. A regular on the late nite opening scene for genius schtarkers Jackie Mason, Jerry Lewis, and musical acts as disparate as Johnny Cash and the new age artists October Project, this turn found Robinson providing entertaining entrée for a world champion of magic, Johnny Ace Palmer.

Longtime stand-up regular Jimmy Brent provided the big up to Robinson’s dramatic opener. Light jazz swings the curtain open for the purple-clad wonder worker Robinson. Butterfly yellow silk changes instantly to heavy silver walking sticks and then eye-popping penetrations, productions and vanishes adorn his graceful hands. Champagne disappears without pink elephant chasers amidst remarks about the Marx Brothers grandfather-magician and tales of a one-handed pickpocket! The audience is intimately involved. More silk flows from a gent’s fly and the uproar is loud enough to be heard on Sunset six blocks away. It’s comedy magic at its finest until comico magico Robinson pulls the rug out becoming story teller par excellence. Robinson provides easy listening, boffo trix, fast paced comedy, genuine surprises and genial showmanship. This was his Magic Castle debut.

Johnny Ace Palmer, a true world champion packed the room SRO for all 21 shows during the week. An old hand at Castle conjurations – winner of Magician of the Year award for Close Up Magic twice consecutively – Palmer raises the roof and doesn’t disappoint. Tall, bearded, witty, well-dressed, and gentle as a Summer breeze, his hands move like lightening as cards thought of travel inside his pocket, cut ropes mend, minds are read and sponges multiply in his mouth and dental floss brings a hilarious reference to Plato.

Palmer’s finale cements his legend status. Aided by three audience beauties, an old trick becomes an unforgettable piece of sorcery. He promises the materialization of “live baby chickens” and he delivers. The audience would not let him leave at the two shows I took in.

Robinson – the savvy New Yorker with odd credentials from Everest base camp – and Palmer the tall super hero with a quiet voice provided one of the best bills the Magic Castle has ever produced. If only the Magic Castle could maintain this level of class and talent; membership would be mandatory in the City of Angels.

Romhany's Youtube favorites
Thanks this week to my good friend Jonathan Levey from Canada, who sends him some great items. Here are a few clips that have kept me laughing all week.

The Great Train Robbery (TGTR) with Lucie and Desi:

Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSKsU16zDyU&feature=related

Part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5cPu11BvmU&feature=related

Part three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxtrPgqOrXk&feature=related

HELP SUPPORT DAN SPERRY

This is something I would like EVERY PERSON READING THIS BLOG to do - just take a minute out of your day to help our friend in magic Dan Sperry get on the finals and WIN America's Got Talent. After some of the magic I've seen on this show we need to get people who can actually lift our art out of the gutter from that show. Dan is just different and talented enough to do it. I toured with Dan across Canada a few years back and you won't find a nice enough guy who is truly dedicated to the art of magic. We need more magicians like Dan you think outside the box, are incredibly creative and perform an amazing show. So let's all get together and vote for Dan!!
Simply go to THE VOTING GALLERY and you'll see Dan amongst a group of videos. (he's the one with the SPIKEY hair) - then click on the thumbs UP button. He's performing his famous lifesaver through neck.

Dear Paul,

I appreciate your continued support of my magic career. I just received a voice mail message from the producers of America's Got Talent. We had been talking about me possibly participating in this season's America's Got Talent contest. In the end we agreed to have me do the YouTube contest. The YouTube contest is where 40 different acts are chosen to be put on the America's Got Talent YouTube.com page where YOU can vote for an act to make it into the contest and perform LIVE on August 11. I am one of the YouTube finalists and would sincerely appreciate your vote to be chosen into the contest this season. Please visit:

http://www.youtube.com/agt

And you will see the icon of my video third row down and second video in from the left. You are allowed to vote on one video per day, so please do me a favor and forward this to all your frie nds and family and tell as many people as you can about it and get up every morning to have your cup of coffee and drop me a vote every day.

Again here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/agt

Thank you so much!

Sincerely,
Dan Sperry

HOCUS-POCUS PRIVATE ESTATE SALE
Everytime I speak to Paul Gross at Hocus-Pocus I have to ask him what has come in for the Private Estate sale. It's really worth coming back daily to see what they have come in. I managed just yesterday to acquire something that is so unique, so amazing and a one off that it is beyond words. It arrived and I'll be putting it in the new show scheduled for the end of the year. I was so excited because this will be the opening of my show. It's one of those items built by one of the top craftsman in the world, and will not only blow the audience away but magicians who think they know, will have NO CLUE as to how this works. I'm not going to give it away but just would like to tell you all to be sure to check out the website www.hocus-pocus.com and be sure to view Private Estate sales because they have some truly incredible magic on there, and most of them you can't get anymore.
Also, I know Paul Gross does like to get his hands on unique items, so if you are cleaning out your magic cupboards you might want to give him a call or drop him an email at :sales@hocus-pocus.com

ROMHANY"S PICKS OF THE WEEK
Passport by David Regal

This has some nice ideas in it for a card to wallet type effect. It's pretty much all mechanical so if you don't like to palm cards this could be for you. It uses a few different ideas to achieve the effect and I think overall is a great effect. For me, I just palming cards however I do love the idea of the passport. I think it offers some great patter lines - especially for somebody like me who travels so much. This is worth looking at if you want to do a card to wallet type routine.

Here is the blurb from www.hocus-pocus.com
A card to impossible location effect with no forces, no palming, and no hesitation.

The spectator selects any card, secretly writes the name of a location on it's face, then returns it to the deck. The performer waves a black leather embossed passport case over the cards, then is able to tell the spectator the name of the unspoken location.

The passport case is opened and a passport removed from inside. The pages of the passport are flipped, and a face down card is found inside - the card is removed and it proves to be the card selected by the spectator complete with his handwritten location. The card can be given to the spectator.

NOTE: If desired, the passport can be bound with rubber bands and in view prior to the selection of a card. This is a card-to-impossible-location effect with no forces, no palming, and no hesitation.

Wow 2.0 Face Up Version

There really is only one word to describe this amazing visual effect - WOW!! Visually this looks impossible and it's so easy to use - pretty much anybody who can hold a deck of cards can do this. Really you only need to hold one card. The first time I saw this I was blown away - it's just so visual. There is also a Face Down version out as well. I think this would be a great ending to Ambitious Card or any other signed card routine - it's truly stunning. I can see this being used my almost every walk-about magician in the world - it's THAT good!!!

here is what Hocus-Pocus.com have to say:-
Wow 2.0 is THE most visible and amazing card change ever. It happens slowly and right before your eyes. Wow 2.0 is hailed by magicians around the world as one of the most amazing card effects they have ever seen. This looks like trick photography but happens right before their eyes.

A card is selected, signed, and lost in the deck. A random card is removed and fails to be the chosen card. This random card is inserted in a plastic sleeve to isolate it and avoid any chance of "tricky sleight of hand." The card SLOWLY and VISIBLY changes to the signed selection. You will be blown away by how amazing this looks. After seeing this trick, Lance Burton simply said, "WOW!" He was at a loss for words, thus the name.

Wow 2.0 (Face Up) now includes the gimmick and thorough instructional DVD. As a bonus, world renowned trade show performer Paul Gertner contributes an amazing effect where the magic moment is captured forever on a spectator's phone - a souvenir they will talk about long after it is over.

Wow 2.0 is one of the most amazing pieces of magic you will ever do. Easy, visual and stunning - you will do it just to amuse yourself and marvel at its effect. Includes instructional DVD and Face Up Wow 2.0 gimmick.

Available soon...Pre-order yours today and receive FREE SHIPPING ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!

BLUFF DVD Set

Now, this DVD set might have passed you by, it passed me by until I accidentally came across it at Hocus-Pocus. This really has some fantastic material on it - from a killer 3-FLY to card effects and the reason I got it was for the rose magic. This is such a wonderfully produced DVD - featuring French magicians - the quality of magic is great and for you all finger flickers you'll love the card effects. There is some really visual and stunning magic on here that I can easily see me working on and adding to my close-up repertoire. There are a few card changes that are just stunning - and one idea that uses a Ben Harris idea but takes it to new levels I'm going to be doing straight away. I'm glad I came across this DVD because it's filled with fantastic effects and sleights. There is a really great four coin production on your knees which is cool. I know what I"m doing all week now:)

Here is what Hocus-Pocus.com have to say

Gemma (roses). A rose appears, disappears and is rediscovered.
Sedna (cards). A face-up card between two face-down cards visually changes into a previously chosen card.
Melo (flourish). A small flourish.
Hofzy (cards). A solution for a Hofzinser's aces problem.
One Coin Flash (coins). A one coin surprise
Moulin Rouge 2 (flourish). One of the most beautiful flourishes ever created.
Hold'on for Hold 'Em (gambling). How gamblers win at Hold 'Em.
Astral (cards). A production of four cards with a surprise.
Black Coffee(flourish). A blind flourish.
DVD 2:
Bruxelles (cards). A very visual discovery of two chosen cards.
Zlata (coins, roses). A coin changes into a rose.
CanaSpin (flourish). A card spins at your fingertips.
Copsilver (coins). A visual copper/silver transposition in the spectator's hands.
JJ (cards). A one-card kind of Reset.
BLUFFle Shuffle (gambling). A false riffle-shuffle.
Incandescence (coins). A coin visually appears at your fingertips.
Black Beat (gambling). A lesson in dishonesty when playing Draw Poker.
DVD 3:
Sonic Boom (cards). Four cards are produced and visually change into four other cards.
Three F-light (coins). A classic "three coins vanishing routine" revisited.
Black Jacky (gambling). A blackjack demonstration where the dealer wins although the players shuffled the deck.
Jocky (cards). A joker is split into two chosen cards.
Hexagon (flourish). How to build a hexagon with a pack of cards.
Don (cards). An ambitious aces routine with a final twist.
Motil (roses). Three roses appear one at a time.
Fanny (flourish). A fan spins at your fingertips.
Value (coins, rings). A Spellbound sequence with a coin and a ring.
Agora 3.0 (flourish). Need a third hand?

Mega Wave Book by John Bannon

John Bannon is one of my favorite close-up magicians. I use more of his stuff than anybody else I think for close-up. This is a great book where you are taught variations on one of the all time (now) classics of magic Brainwave. There is some really great material in here - and it could be put aside by most, but for those that purchase this will own something they'll use for ever!! One of the best buys I've seen in a long time. If you watch the footage at www.hocus-pocus.com you'll see just how stunning this really is.

Here is what Hocus-pocus.com have to say:

The Fractal Invasion continues. John Bannon's exciting new foray into the world of Fractal Card Magic. Ride the Wave! A smash hit at the 2010 Blackpool Convention.

75 pages. Fully-illustrated. Seven tricks including "Mega 'Wave," the ultimate evolution of the four-card examinable Brainwave.

Stephen Tucker's "Omega," concept completely re-mixed. Plus six other "fractal" routines.
Mega Wave - Hocus Pocus and Mumbo Jumbo hammer the four-card Brainwave.
Fractal Re-Call - JB's insanely popular "Call of the Wild" wild card routine fractalized. Use any deck.
Short Attention Scam - A maximum magic minute. JB's hit, "The Royal Scam," for the impatient.
Mag-7 - Wild card. Fractal. Magnificent.
Poker Pairadox - Re-mix Trost's classic matching effect. Go all in.
Fractal Jacks - Deal or no deal? Layered mental, pasteboard and fractal engineering.
Wicked - Help Dorothy escape from you know who.)

Source: http://romhanyreport.blogspot.com/2010/06/introducing-keystone-entertainment.html

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Dreams on Ice Thoughts

Daisuke Takahashi - Amelie Movie Score

Obviously, this was the big program from the exhibition and I have received several Formspring questions asking me to share my thoughts. So what do I think? I definitely like it, and he was able to relax much more in this performance and skate with a lightness rather than the tension he usually holds throughout his arms. We did see a lot of Stephane Lambiel-esque movements, especially throughout his head (some headless-looking turning, etc.) and shoulders. The question I have is whether Stephane also gave Daisuke a short program that is very similar to what Lambiel would have skated, or if he rather built a program around Takahashi's own style. He is the current World Champion, and his style has definitely worked and been appreciated to the point that I hope he doesn't drift away from that. Final verdict? Very nice, yes; masterpiece, eh.. not really. However, I think this shows that Lambiel definitely knows what he is doing and is going to be quite successful as a choreographer.

I'll search around Youtube for other performances later. It seems like many of the original clips have been taken down due to copyright issues.

Source: http://tony-wheeler.blogspot.com/2010/06/dreams-on-ice-thoughts.html

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Happy 100!

As you can see, my rage for lace continues.

Since my last post, I miraculously hit 100 followers in record time (thank you to all of you! and special shout-out to lucky #100 Caroline, who just started a new blog) and I actually had a sorta-successful photo shoot where I wasn't completely eaten alive by insects. So why am I not smiling? Well, if you're new to the whole daily-fashion-blog thingmajig, y'all need to take a look at Adored Austin's recent post about how wonderful yet silly taking these photos can be.

I totally laughed out loud (yes, I lolled) when I read her checklist of the quintessential fashion blogger: Outlandish headwear (check), Non-prescription glasses (these are real, biatch), Skyrocketing hemline (not really here, but I've been guilty), Hand on hip or head (uhhhhh that's my "model pose," shuttup) and.... Inability to smile. Why so srs, fashion bloggers?

But let's get back to the subject at hand-- or as the French say, let's come back to our sheep-- I have two lovelies I must share in this post.

One: Poppy's 5 Questions that she tagged me in an embarrassing amount of time ago.

1: What will always make you laugh without fail?

So many things, it's quite ridiculous. Besides yukking it up with my friends, I just have a stupid sense of humor. I love puns. And lately, I've been greatly entertained by the likes of Wheezy Waiter, as seen here. See? I'm really a basket case.

2: What does your last text message say and who was it from?
It's from Liz, who's basically saying (she likes to write essays no matter what the context) that Skype wonked up and she has to go but she'll talk to me later. We're a regular odd couple. But who'd be Nathan Lane?

3: Do you collect anything?
I used to collect necklaces when I was younger, but now I try to hoard as many posters and tiny art prints (the cheap-o kind, mind you) as I can for my room. Clothing-wise, I'm an avid fan of scarves and childrens' souls. I mean, what....?

4: What were you doing 3 hours ago?
I was.... editing for this blog? I was sitting on my posterior. I was breathing. Also I was juggling knives on fire. Just a regular night.

5: What's the weirdest dream you've ever had?
I was bowling with Lady Gaga and a lamppost when.... aw wait, that's real life. OH I KID. I think the weirdest dream I had was one I had when I was a kid and there were these anime characters from Sailor Moon (I was an avid Moonie, teehee) doing a really low tightrope at a circus and then one of them started peeing and then it was just weird and I don't know. Freud, did you get that?

And here I present with a flourish, 5 Questions for 5 People. It's sorta like The Five People You Meet In Heaven, if Heaven were a blog, I guess. OK, so to Indigo/Tangerine (they count as one because they're Siamese twins, of course), Ali, Mel, Jennifer and Anna.

1. What's your favorite letter of the alphabet, and why?
2. If you could use any medium in the world to create your masterpiece, what would it be?
3. What's the silliest thing you've ever done for your blog?
4. What's something that's intangible (so no possessions) that makes you purely feel that you're alive?
5. A tiger is chasing you through the Himalayan mountains and then you slip on a frozen pancake. What do you do?

Now go! Mush! Go forth on thine blogs and answer these riddles o'mine!

Just keep twirlin' just keep twirlin' just keep twirlin' twirlin' twirlin'...

Deep close-up photos are deep.

Lace top & Skirt- JJ Market from Thailand : Bowler- Target : Flats- Old Navy

What's Lovely for Tuesday, June 29, 2010: Watching more Boston Legal than is legally allowed (see what I mean about bad puns?) and realizing that I'm a flamingo
&
What's Lovely for today, June 30, 2010: In honor of the celebration of 100 followers-- announcing the first GIVEAWAY from Toast with Charmalade! But what, exactly?? Stay tuned for next time, folks!

Also, hey-ho, meet my doggy-o! No wait, that's just her butt.

Therrrre she is. Say hi to Cami, everyone. She's a sweetheart who clearly needs a bath and a haircut.

PS: What do you think of the new layout? It still needs tweaking, but I think the color scheme definitely needed to change. Yea or nay?

Source: http://charmalade.blogspot.com/2010/06/happy-100.html

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Aikido, My Philosophy

Sensei Picciola said in several occasions that aikido was a philosophy of life and used the allegoric example of the ukemi to make this point: living is like practicing ukemis: you fall and raise, you fall and raise, you fall and raise… with time and practice you learn to fall smoother and to be raise faster, and the blows are less and less hurtful every time. Life is like practicing falls. Sensei's example is clear and very didactic; As I never could find examples like this one, I use others more complicated. I'll try to explain why I consider aikido is a philosophy of life.

First, I should say that since some time now I have been using a very simple concept, based on the precept of Fiedrich Nietzche: everything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger. Applying this to a philosophy of life: each blow received, aither kills me or doesn't kill me; if doesn't kill me, the person that will emerge after the blow will be necessarily stronger than the one that received it. I think of this as a philosophy a posteriori: one recovers from the blow after suffering it.

I found in aikido, through a reflection of Juan Fava senpai, a similar philosophy but a priori: choosing death is living (read Fava's post: Choosing Death is Living (Irimi) for a better understanding of this). Considering this philosophy, I can use it with the last statement: one is prepared for the blow before it happens; if the blow happens or doesn't happen doesn't matter, one is ready for it. If it comes, one can do as Nietzche said.

Why do I say this? Because I consider aikido has a lot to offer beyond the techniques we all like to practice. I allways see in the dojo that –all of us– want to be able to practice like the sensei, and many, in my opinion, want to practice strong like Ruslan, or with the samurai concentration and the poise that Nahuel shows and, some want to be able to elevate their ki like Son Goku and cause the floor and walls to tremble (Personally, I want to practice with the solvency of Garcia Luna, and to do the ukemis like Silvia). That's what I see. I see and I hear sensei saying that he is further from wanting to hit someone every time, and that he practices this in his life, and I ask myself: why don't they want to learn this. Sure one can have a bad day, climbs a bus and the driver doesn't hello back, and you wish you find him in the street and bury his head on the ground with a powerful nikkyo ura, but, generally, this doesn't happen. One don't walk in the street jumping the banks in squares, with tobikoshi ukemi, neither resolves its problems with levers in the articulations (although, I confess, I enter to my house doing kaiten) and still, it is possible to apply aikido daily, in the every day. The philosophy that aikido teaches (respect for the partner, irimi, ukemi, etc., etc., etc.) can be used daily.

If they paid me for practicing aikido, I'd live easier. But this isn't the case. However, wherever I go, I try to put in practice what I learn in the tatami. After all, in life, as in aikido, we are all learning. That's why I say: Kanpai!

Patricio, 29 years

Source: http://unionlaplatadojo-en.blogspot.com/2010/06/aikido-my-philosophy.html

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The Politics of Death: Throwing Mumia Abu-Jamal Under the Bus

Published on This Can't Be Happening (http://www.thiscantbehappening.net)

The Politics of Death: Throwing Mumia Abu-Jamal Under the Bus
By Dave Lindorff

"I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."
--Frederick Douglass

On the evening of March 4, participants at the Fourth UN World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Geneva, Switzerland had assembled from all over the globe for a dramatic Voices of Victims evening. It got more dramatic than they had anticipated though, when suddenly a cell phone rang and Robert R. Bryan, lead defense attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal, jumped up on the stage to announce that his client had called him from death row in Pennsylvania.

The audience in rapt silence as the emcee held the phone up to the microphone. Abu-Jamal, on death row for 28 years after a widely disputed conviction for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, greeted the delegates and than, as he has done on many occasions before, described to them the horrors of life in prison for the 20,000 people around the world who are awaiting execution.

A small group of American death penalty abolitionist leaders, led by Renny Cushing, executive director of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, stalked out of the hall. Two members of MVFHR, however, remained in the hall: Bill Babbitt, whose brother Manny, a Vietnam vet suffering acute post-traumatic stress disorder, was executed in California; and Bill Pelke, whose grandmother was murdered by a girl whom he later befriended and helped to spare from execution. Babbitt even joined Bryan onstage during Abu-Jamal's brief address.

What neither Babbitt nor Pelke, nor Abu-Jamal and his attorney, Bryan, knew at the time was that way back in December, leaders and individual board members of several of the organizations in the US abolitionist movement had signed--without their full boards’ or their memberships’ knowledge--a “confidential” memorandum [1], which they then sent to the French organizers of the World Congress, stating bluntly that, “As international representatives of the US abolition movement, we cannot agree to the involvement of Abu-Jamal or his lawyers in the World Congress beyond attendance.”

Purporting to be from “the US members of the Steering Committee” of the World Congress” (though hardly an inclusive list of that committee’s membership) and titled, “Involvement of Mumia Abu-Jamal endangers the US coalition for abolition of the death penalty,” the memo claimed that the French organizers of the World Congress, Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), had arranged to have Abu-Jamal speak “over objection.” The memo further further asserted that the abolitionist movement in the US is trying to “cultivate” the support of the ultra-conservative and staunchly pro-death penalty Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), an organization representing some 35,000 police officers in the US that advocates the execution of Abu-Jamal and all other prisoners convicted of killing of police officers. The FOP, said the memo, has “announced a boycott of organizations and individuals who support Abu-Jamal,” and therefore anything done by the Congress to aid his cause would be “dangerously counter-productive to the abolition movement in the US.”

ThisCantBeHappening! this past week obtained a copy of that secret memorandum.

When we showed it to some other members of the boards of the organizations whose officers or individual board members had signed their names to it, responses ranged from consternation to outrage. Babbitt’s brother Manny was killed as a direct result of a corrupt law enforcement system in California that pressed for execution, even though it was clear from medical testimony that the elderly grandmother he allegedly killed actually died of shock when she discovered him breaking and entering her apartment. Left in the dark about the memo despite his being on the WVFHR board, Babbitt said, “My brother Manny’s last words to me were to always take the high road, and to me that means telling the truth and being open and transparent.” He added, regarding the content of the memo, “I think throwing Mumia under the bus is not the way to go in the abolitionist movement. You don’t make bargains with a wolf whose motive is to devour.”

Robert Meeropol, a son of Ethyl and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed as spies in 1953, is also a member of the MVFHR board. Currently traveling on behalf of the organization in Asia, he said through a staffer in the US that he did not know about the memo, and added that he still stands “fully in support of a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal.”

Several calls seeking a comment from Cushing or Lowenstein remain unanswered, though a staffer at the WVFHR Boston office, Susanna Sheffer, said, “This is a complicated thing. You need to understand the depth and texture of this.”

Also surprised at the memo was actor Michael Farrell, president of the California abolitionist group Death Penalty Focus. Farrell, a long-time supporter of the call for a new trial for Abu-Jamal, said he had never seen the memo, though it was signed by a member of the DPF board, attorney Elizabeth Zitrin.

Other signers of the memo were Thomas H. “Speedy” Rice of the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, Kritsin Houlé of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Juan Matos de Juan of the Puerto Rican Bar Assn.

Bryan, a veteran death penalty defense lawyer who served 10 years on the board of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty--three of them as the organization’s chair--says, “In all my years as an activist opposing the death penalty, I have never heard of any individual or group in that fight singling out anyone as an exception to our campaign to abolish capital punishment. Everyone is treated equally. To single someone out and say they don’t count is chilling. Where do you draw the line? At people accused of killing cops? At people accused of killing old ladies? People accused of killing children? Where does it stop? It’s appalling!”

Heidi Beghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, an organization that has long been in the forefront of the campaign to end the death penalty in the US, and which was not advised of the plan to circulate the memo on behalf of the US Steering Committee to the World Congress, despite it’s being a charter member of the World Congress, roundly condemned the secret effort to silence Abu-Jamal at the March event.

“Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case is emblematic of the inherent flaws in the capital punishment system,” she said. “That he is castigated by leaders in the abolitionist movement shows precisely what is wrong with the system­it is a system enslaved to the whims and personal biases of police, prosecutor, judge, and jury. While cultivating certain voices of law enforcement may assist in efforts to achieve abolition, it should not be at the expense of exposing a case that embodies some of the most reprehensible actions on the part of the police, the district attorney and the judiciary. The powerful FOP, and their heavy-handed efforts to vilify Abu-Jamal and his supporters, should not be the barometer by which abolitionist leaders gauge their strategic priorities. Members of the abolitionist movement should be working together and not further censoring and ostracizing a death row inmate.”

What makes the American abolitionists’ petulant and manipulative behavior as expressed in the secret memo and their cynical threat to withdraw from the Congress particularly outrageous is that Abu-Jamal’s arrest, trial and appeals process has been, as Beghosian notes, a textbook case of police and prosecutor corruption, malfeasance and abuse. From the beginning, even before his arrest, Abu-Jamal’s case was poisoned by a police lust for vengeance. Although he had been shot through the lung and liver by a bullet fired from Officer Faulkner’s service revolver, and was in danger of dying of internal bleeding that was filling his lungs with blood, Abu-Jamal was left lying in a police wagon for almost half an hour before he was finally delivered to a hospital emergency room, where hospital staff and at least one police officer on the scene observed him being kicked and punched by the officers delivering him.

During the jury selection process at the beginning of his trial, the presiding judge, Albert Sabo, who as a county sheriff’s deputy was an FOP member before was made a judge, was overheard by a second judge and his court stenographer saying to his own court clerk, as he exited the courtroom through the jurdge’s robing room, “Yeah and I’m gonna help them fry that nigger!”

During the tortuous appeals process, both the state and federal courts have shamelessly bent their rules and violated precedents to deny Abu-Jamal the benefits of precedents that have been routinely accorded other appellants. Third Circuit Appeals Court Judge Thomas Ambro wrote in a stinging dissent to a decision by his two colleagues who effectively created new law from the bench in rejecting Abu-Jamal’s well-founded Batson claim of racial bias by the prosecution during jury selection at his trail. Scarcely concealing his outrage, Judge Ambro wrote: "Our Court has previously reached the merits of Batson claims on habeas review in cases where the petitioner did not make a timely objection during jury selection--signaling that our Circuit does not have a federal contemporaneous objection rule--and I see no reason why we should not afford Abu-Jamal the courtesy of our precedents." He added, "Why we pick this case to depart from that reasoning I do not know."

Abu-Jamal himself, interviewed by phone last Friday from his cell at the super-max death row facility SCI-Greene in western Pennsylvania, blasted the attempt to silence him at the Congress, and to ostracize him from the American abolitionist movement. “They are really making deals with the devil,” he said, of claims that the US abolitionist movement was trying to gain the support of the FOP. “My instinct, being from Philadelphia, is that money was passed, though I have not evidence to prove it.” He added, “This secret action is a threat to the entire abolitionist movement. They are saying that because the opposition (to abolition) is so strong, we should not fight. If you have that attitude, why have an abolitionist movement at all?”

Abu-Jamal, whose death penalty was lifted by a federal judge in 2001, only to have the US Supreme Court remand that decision back to the Third Circuit, where it could be reimposed, and who continues to be held in solitary confinement on death row, where he maintains his innocence, calls the signers of the memo “co-conspirators,” and says they are “naive” to believe they can win over the FOP by abandoning him to his fate.

“If the slavery abolitionists had taken this approach back in 1860,” he says, “and said okay let’s free the slaves, except those uppity ones with prices on their heads like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, we’d still have slavery today.” Abu-Jamal said it appeared that the abolitionist movement appeared to have lost its way, and said that it needed to be broadened to more closely reflect the population of the nation’s death rows. where nearly everyone is poor, and where 53% of the doomed inmates are non-white.

Source URL: http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/117

Links:
[1] http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/116

************

CONFIDENTIALMEMORANDUMto ECPM
from the US members of the Steering Committee of the WCADP
Involvement of Mumia Abu-Jamal endangers the US coalition
for abolition of the death penalty

ECPM has unilaterally, and over objection, determined to give the Mumia Abu-Jamal case a prominent role in the upcoming 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, including the participation of Mr. Abu-Jamal's lawyers and his direct participation by telephone. The US members of the Steering Committee of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty do not agree to this, because it will be counter-productiveto our effort to achieve abolition in our country.

The Abu-Jamal case, regardless of its merits, acts as a lightning rod that galvanizes opponents of abolition and neutralizes key constituencies in the cause of abolition. Continuing to give Abu-Jamal focused attention unnecessarily attracts our strongest opponents and alienates coalition partners at a time when we need to build alliances, not foster hatred and enmity.

While Abu-Jamal still attracts some positive attention outside of the United States, it is at a real cost to the US abolition effort. In 1999, the world's largest association of professional law enforcement officers, the Fraternal Order of Police, announced a boycott of organizations and individuals who support Abu-Jamal. Bills have been introduced in both houses of the US federal legislature condemning the naming of streets for Abu-Jamal. The result is that Abu-Jamal, rather than abolition of the death penalty, becomes the issue and the focus of attention. That is dangerously counter-productive to the abolition movement in the US.
The voices of the Innocent, the voices of Victims and the voices of Law Enforcement are the most persuasive factors in changing public opinion and the views of decision-makers (politicians) and opinion leaders (media). Continuing to shine a spotlight on Abu-Jamal, who has had so much public exposure for so many years, threatens to alienate these three most important partnership groups.

The support of law enforcement officials is essential to achieving abolition in the United States. It is essential to the national abolition strategy of US abolition activists and attorneys, that we cultivate the voices of police, prosecutors and law enforcement experts, to support our call for an end to the death penalty. It was key in New Jersey and in New Mexico, it is fundamental to abolition throughout the US, and it will be a primary focus for 2010 and beyond. We have begun to make real progress with police officers and prosecutors speaking out against the death penalty as a failed policy.

«In a national poll released in 2009, the nation's police chiefs ranked the death penalty last in their priorities for effective crime reduction. The officers did not believe the death penalty acted as a deterrent to murder, and they rated it as one of most inefficient uses of taxpayer dollars in fighting crime .... "

Death Penalty Information Center, The Death Penalty in 2009: Year End Report, December 18,2009. If the 4th World Congress gives Abu-Jamal and his lawyers the focus and attention proposed by ECPM, the US movement for abolition will be exposed to a serious backlash that will directly damage the delicate alliances we are building with essential groups. As international representatives of the US abolition movement, we cannot agree to the involvement of Abu-Jamal or his lawyers in the World Congress beyond attendance.

For these reasons, providing Abu-Jamal the World Congress stage will require us to consider how to distance our programs in order to protect our vital alliances with our key partners and constituencies. To be effective ad- vocates within the US we must and will continue our strategic approach to abolition with our core allies and our evolving partners. Featuring Mr. Abu-Jamal's case as ECPM has proposed presents an unacceptably high risk of fracturing a developing but still fragile alliance with vitally important constituencies - constituencies that can either help our movement reach the goal of abolition or severely hinder our progress.

Elizabeth Zitrin (DPF), Renny Cushing and Kate Lowenstein (MVFHR), Speedy Rice (NACDL), Kristin Houle (TCADP), Juan Matos de Juan (PRBA)

21 December 2009

Source: http://freepeltiernow.blogspot.com/2010/06/politics-of-death-throwing-mumia-abu.html

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Ern's Monthly Visual Victuals (May 2010)

*映画に関するネタ日本語は書き込みません

Wow, only two days left in June and I finally got around to writing about the films I watched in May. I also watched quite a few flicks this month as well so I should get started on writing those as well. However, I think a lot of people will not enjoy the last batch or so I reviewed because they are so bad. They are bad as in awful. But that is as should be expected - because they are all B-movies. You can tell just by looking at the picture of the packages. Just so you know, I didn't go out and voluntarily rent these wonders - they were given to me as a gift. I have a friend who runs her own company doing special effects make-up and she said she had these DVDs lying around the house but couldn't think of anybody who would watch and enjoy them, but then she remembered that I had a soft spot for B-movies. And so she gave me about twenty of them in total (and I watched every one of them!) I decided to have my very own B-Movie Festival at home, starting with a really bad Greek film. But before I started on my personal B-Movie Fest, I did watch a couple of Hollywood blockbusters and a music DVD as well. And now, on the films:

SUPERFLY : DANCING AT BUDOKAN!! (2010) – Okay, this is not a movie but a music DVD of my current favorite Japanese artist – Superfly (Shiho Ochi). Mikako and I had gone to this concert so it was fun reliving the evening by watching this. And as I’m a big fan of Superfly, I had to buy the limited edition DVD which includes a bonus DVD featuring Shiho singing with Big Brother and the Holding Company at Woodstock’s 40th Anniversary. It also includes the free show Superfly did at Roppongi Hills to promote their second full album. And as an even bigger bonus, it includes two CDs featuring the entire Budokan concert. The show itself which lasted a little over two hours, features twenty songs! She sang three songs for her encore – “Manifest”, which is the first Superfly song I heard which made me want to buy the album, a cover of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart”, and ending with a ballad called “I Remember”. I can’t wait to see her in concert again!

西遊記 [Saiyuki] (2007) – Released internationally with the English title of “The Adventures of Super Monkey” and based on a Chinese folktale. This is just the latest remake of often told story and uses the actors from the latest Japanese television drama adaptation with Shingo Katori (member of idol group SMAP), Teruyoshi Uchimura (one half of comedy duo Ucchannanchan), Atsushi Ito (star of “Densha Otoko” – “Train Man” series which popularized the otaku and Akihabara culture), and Eri Fukatsu (who co-starred in “Bayside Shakedown). I didn’t watch the television series but as this was being broadcast on network television, I decided to watch it. Fun little fantasy. If you’re familiar with the story, then you will know Sanzou Hoshi and her yokai companions – the kappa Sai Gojo, the pig spirit Chohakkai, and the monkey spirit Son Goku are traveling to Tenjiku. In this movie version, along the way, they meet up with a young princess named Reimi who wants their help in saving her parents and the kingdom which is currently run by two evil brothers – the Silver King and the Gold King.

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 (2009) – A re-make of the 1974 film of the same name that starred Walther Matthau and Robert Shaw but now updated with Denzel Washington and John Travolta. A bunch of baddies hijack a New York Subway and hold the passengers as hostage demanding the city to pay them ten million dollars. For every minute pass their deadline, they would kill one hostage. Travolta plays the major baddie while Washington works as dispatcher who is currently under investigation for taking a bribe to recommend a Japanese manufacturer for the next subway car models. A pretty decent action film with lots of chasing, explosions, and general mayhem.

DIE HARD 2 (1990) – It was on tv (again), you don’t really need me to review do you?

UP (2009) - What a fun film. Carl Fredrikson is a 78 year old man living alone in his house which is full of memories of his loving wife who passed away. And he refuses to sell his house to the developers who are building large sky-scrapers all around his house. When a construction crew ruins his mailbox, Fredrikson gets in a slight disagreement with him, the court rules in the construction worker's favor and orders Carl to live in a retirement home. But Carl gets the last laugh, as he attaches a bunch of balloons to his house which then floats into the air. He was determined to keep his promise to his wife Ellie, that one day he would take her to Paradise Falls in South America. And so starts his adventure. But then he hears a knock on his door and finds Russell, a Wilderness Explorer who wants to earn last merit badge in "Assisting the Elderly". As the house in already floating in the air, Carl cannot refuse Russell's request to come in and they become to adventurers on an unknown quest.

FANBOYS (2008) - This film really cracked me up. If you're a "Star Wars" fan, that will make it even better. This reminded me of "Detroit Rock City" where four teens went on a road trip to go see their favorite band, KISS, in concert. In this flick, instead of teens, we have four guys who are fanatical fans of "Star Wars". They have an idea of how to see the latest film - "Phantom Menace", before anyone else. They plan on breaking into Skywalker Ranch and steal the master tape! The reason they do this is because one of the guys cancer and thinks he might not live to see the flick. But the cancer storyline takes a backseat to the hilarity that ensues. Too damn funny. Of course there is going to be a slight tussle with Trekkies, and even Captain Kirk himself - William Shatner, makes a cameo appearance. As well as Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, and Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (of Jay and Silent Bob fame). Even if you're not a "Star Wars" fan, this is well worth watching.

THE MARINE (2006) – With “The Marine 2” now out as a new release at my local DVD rental store, and also seeing the previews for the first flick some time ago, I had been meaning to watch this. Well, I wasn’t missing out on anything special. Just another average action film starring yet another wrestler turned film star – this time being John Cena. As I’m not a follower of pro wrestling, WWE or whatever, I had no idea who this was. With “The Rock” now doing family comedies, someone had to step into the shoes of wrestler-turned action film star. Cena is a Marine through and through but is discharged from service after some altercation. He is not having a smooth time fitting into normal civilian life. His wife suggests that the two of them take a vacation and he can decide what to do afterwards. As they stop at a gas station to fill up their vehicle, they are unfortunately entangled with a dastardly crew and Cena’s wife is taken hostage while Cena is left for dead at the hugely exploding gas station (the explosions are really over the top in this flick). But the baddies messed with the wrong man, because Cena is a MARINE! He uses his skill to track down the baddies to save his wife. And you can pretty much guess the rest of the flick. I’m still going to rent Part 2 as soon as it loses its new release status.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) - Quentin Tarantino rewrites history with his latest flick which stars a very patriotic but a little psychotic Brad Pitt as the leader of a Jewish-American commando group called the "Basterds" who's only goal is to kill Nazi scum. He even orders his men to bring him back 100 Nazi scalps per person. I was a little surprised that it was my wife who wanted to watch this film even though she doesn't like the gore of a Tarantino movie. But as soon as she saw one scene where a Nazi was being scalped, she pretty much lost interest in watching the rest of the flick. The movie is told in five parts starting with a Colonel in the Waffen-SS who is known as the "Jew Hunter" interrogating a Swiss dairy farmer if the man is hiding any Jews in his home. When the man fears for his life and stares down into the floor of his home, the Colonel orders his men to fire into it. Only, the teenage daughter Shosanna escapes. The second part introduces us to the Basterds. Part three takes place a few more years down the line where Shosanna has attained a new identity. If only World War II could have ended this simply. You will thoroughly enjoy this if you're a Tarantino fan. I think it's still enjoyable even if you're not.

I EPITHESI TOU GIGANTIAIOU MOUSAKA – Starting with this movie, the next batch of movies I will be reviewing are all B-movies. A friend of mine had recently given me about twenty DVDs - all B-movies which she knew I would enjoy. There is just something about watching a bad film, with bad acting, unknown actors, and awful dialogue that I find appealing. This is Greek movie with English title of [Attack of the Giant Moussaka]. For those of you not familiar with moussaka, it is a popular Greek dish made with eggplants, minced meat, and tomatoes and is quite delicious. But this is truly a terrible B-movie. The story doesn’t make any sense at all. First, there are these hot babes (well, this is a B-movie) who are cruising around in a flying saucer and have mistakenly come to earth. And for some reason in one household, a person who doesn’t like his mother’s moussaka takes it outside plate and all and leaves it in the middle of a field. Some ray from the UFO beams in on the moussaka which than becomes gigantic and goes on a rampage throughout the town. There is even a musical number in the middle of this flick as well, who knows what the director was trying to create. It’s just silly beyond reason and you may have hard time sitting through the entire film (but somehow I managed!). Not even worth renting as a joke.

VULCAN (1997) – Which has absolutely nothing to do with the planet, Mr. Spock or any piece of the “Star Trek” franchise. What we do have is an US / Philippines production of what looks like a cheaper version of “The Water Horse” even if that movie was made ten years after. Little kid finds what looks like a big rock but turns out to be an egg of a dragon, or rather “Vulcan” which is a God to a local tribe. My original and extremely short review was thus: “Sid and Marty Kroft go to the Philippines!”. Vulcan looks like it could have came from the set of “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters” or “The Land of the Lost”. Anyway, kid makes friends with dragon, bad people hunt dragon to make lots of money, kid saves dragon, dragons kill baddies. The End. Robert Vaughan makes an appearance as a not so nice person.

NATTENS ENGEL (1998) – Next up we have a vampire movie from Denmark. Released with the English title of [Angel of the Night]. A woman, Rebecca, inherits a huge Gothic mansion from her grandmother and takes her best friend and her boyfriend there for a weekend. They find a book Rebecca’s grandmother had written, which was a history of Rebeccas’ grandmother’s father who was a minister turned vampire. Uh, okay. Still, a fairly decent vampire flick with classical and 70’s era rock as background music. Well, in what looks like a basement or whatever, Rebecca finds a special dagger that is used to kill vampires along with a scroll which is written in Latin and a coffin that contains the bones of what looks like a bat. Her friend was able to translate part of it, saying that if someone says these seven words, the vampire can be brought back to life…and do ya wanna know what happens? Well, boyfriend and friend get bored and want to go party but Rebecca wants to read up on Grandma’s book. So while boyfriend and best friend wait for a taxi to come, best friend seduces the boyfriend (hey, it’s a Danish B-movie), Rebecca falls into some trance and starts reciting the seven words, uses the dagger on her arms and drips blood onto the bones of a bat – apparently her great, grandfather who then comes back to life. So, now it’s up to Rebecca to kill her own great, grandfather (after bringing back to life – what a family), with the special vampire killing dagger. It’s a good flick for a beer or two.

AENIGMA (1987) – This is brought to us by Italy’s Prince of Horror – Lucio Fulci. But what it really looks like is a cheap imitation of Stephen King’s “Carrie”. In fact, if you didn’t know any better, you would think this was a Stephen King adaptation. Young girl who lives at a women’s college lives with her mother is a little short in the head. Anyway, these students set her up with the guy of her dream, doing her make-up, dressing her up and whatnot. And they do a really hideous job but keep telling her that she looks beautiful. The date comes pick her up and they go to wherever young lovers make out. But unknown to the girl, whatever she says is broadcast over the radio to these other parked cars and she’s made the laughing stock of the school. As she tries running away from her tormentors, she is in a tragic accident which sends her into a coma. Now, a new coed has just arrived at the school but it seems she is possessed by the woman in a coma who takes revenge on all those who wronged her.

MOSQUITO (1995) – Oh my, I think this was my favorite out of the bunch of B-movies I was given. Just by the title alone, you know you’re in for a treat. UFO crash lands on earth an includes one dead alien. Along come some mosquitoes looking for their next meal. It happens to suck the blood of the dead alien, and skeeters grow to the size of a small dog and their creating havoc in a local campground. Throw in this Air Force specialist who’s testing the ground for radiation, a couple of bank robbers – one of them being Gunnar Hansen (for those of you in the know, you would be laughing your head off when he picks up a chainsaw and says, “I haven’t handled one of these babies in twenty years”). Yep, Gunnar Hansen, or more commonly known as Leatherface from the cult flick “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is in this flick. I wasn’t in the know, I found this fact out after I had watched the movie. You can enjoy this even without beer. This falls into the “it’s so bad, it’s funny” category.

CRASH AND BURN (1999) – Excellent fodder for the now defunct MST3K! What is MST3K? Am I, who was a fan of the program now considered a geek? MST3K is of course Mystery Science Theater 3000 which showed some really awful science-fiction movies while a host and his two robot friends who do a running commentary while the film was being shown. Funny stuff. This flick could use that service, as its just plain bad on its own. I couldn’t believe the sales pitch on the back of the Japanese DVD package, which goes something like this, “From the SFX staff that worked on the hits “Titanic”, “The Mask”, “Alien 3” and “Back to the Future” comes a film with giant robot action”. Robot action? Hello? The robot doesn’t even move until the last part of the film and it only takes a step or two before falling to the ground. “Great robot action”! I sure missed that. Great robot-like acting! There was a lot of that. Oh the story, sorry. Big company called Unicom (which amuses me because that’s also a name of a publisher that produces books on learning Japanese, but never mind that), pretty much rules the world with an iron hand. They have outlawed the use of computer and robots for the benefit of humankind. But there are rebels who don’t like the way Unicom runs things. One being a manager of a local television station. When a synthetic robot kills the man, it is up to a lowly delivery guy for Unicom who takes up the fight.

Next month, my personal B-movie Festival continues. Along with a lot of Japanese films, a few Hollywood films, and maybe a couple of flicks that could be considered blockbusters. You will find comedies, science-fiction, horror, animation, and a Japanese remake of a Hollywood film.

Enjoy!

Source: http://tokyoern.blogspot.com/2010/06/erns-monthly-visual-victuals-may-2010.html

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progress in JUNE

i have been having a cough for the month of June and modeling progress has been unproductive:( nevertheless, i have done up the getter robot who need a final touch up before completion and completed the astroboy. I just need some time to take a photoshot of the completed figures.

getter robot

astroyboy

while recovering from a cough, i have started pinning some of the figures and more pinning of the figures...:P

1/4 mai tokiha

dreaming of home

1/7 songoku

other


Source: http://dzetaplus.blogspot.com/2010/06/progress-in-june.html

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[USS Charon] SD241006.25 || NPC Log "Snakes and snacks" || Ens M'Riarr, SPC Shenn, Lucia&Marcello

[USS Charon, Shuttle Bay]

 

"Has she lost her mind now?"

"Mrow?"

"The Vulcan. Has she gone space happy?"

"Is no happy, signore azzuro. Is logical."

"Don't you start with me Marcello."

 

Lucia ignored both the Andorian's wildly swinging antennae and the smirk on her beloved's face to nudge 200 and some pounds of confused fur out of her way

"Ragazzi. Always talk talk talk. Now is shuttle ready or no?"  

"Madam Lucia, this shuttle has been modified by Rommies, shot at by Rommies and flown by a nutcase with pointy ears. What do you think?"

"Is ready?"

"Mother of Fat-grass be my witness, …"

 

Knowing the expression on his lovely wife's face as the one that bode ill for anyone daring to make smart comments, Marcello grabbed his toolkit and dove head first into a maintenance hatch.

"I think what Shenn is trrrrying to say … what arrre you trrying to say Shenn?"

"That I would rather strap two halves of bread around myself and jump in front of the snake's nose than set one foot on this thing."

"So is not ready?"

 

The Andorian engineer looked back and forth between the Caitian whose tail was twitching with happy excitement and the Italian woman whose hands were resting on hips that frequently caused minor mishaps when unsuspecting males suddenly saw them appear in the periphery of their vision.

"No madam, not ready." Like someone speaking to a stubborn child, Shenn put very careful emphasis on every single word. "We have a quantum singularity and Romulan nacelles strapped onto a Starfleet hull. We have a sensor array that is as powerful as a Rigelian ox and as fussy as a diva before the premiere. What we don't have is a sane idea to get this thing flying without tearing itself apart for the fun of it."

 

"Did not tear apart when fly before, si?"

"And I still don't know how they managed that. But if I remember correctly, the last person flying this baby had to be carried off the deck."

"I think that had something to do with Rrrromulans trrrying to blow them up, Shenn."

"I'm talking to a wall here. Don't tell me you are going to fly this, Ria."

 

"No." the Caitian conceded sadly "But it would be fun."

"I knew it. Space happy. The lot of you."

"Amore!" a slightly muffled voice cut into the conversation and the Andorian took the chance to escape Lucia's glare "Is shields good. Signore azzuro done with engines?"

"No." M'Riarr snickered "But if he isn't in about five minutes I think your wife will tie him to the singularrrity."

 

[A little later …]

 

Okay, so, the shuttle was a good idea if you wanted to give any snake out for a snack an acute case of indigestion. Not that Shenn was going to say that out loud. M'Riarr, bless her heart, would probably love flying something so nervous, so powerful it made a race horse look like a napping tortoise. Pilots. Nutjobs.

Given a choice, Shenn would always pick Starfleet's heavy duty standard shuttles. Sturdy, reliable, and easy to fix if things went donut-shaped. And on this ship, you did not have to ask 'if' the midden would hit the windmill, but 'when'. He absentmindedly wondered whether to classify the counselor as another nutjob for volunteering, but Ria didn't seem to think so. Then again, sweet little two hundred pound kitty Ria liked everyone. Even the two crazy pointy eared females who were running this bucket. And here he had thought Andorian women were bad.

 

"Ho! Marcello! How's that power flow now?"

"Va bene, signore azzuro."

They had left cheerfully purring M'Riarr and Lucia to fine-tune the shuttle's navigation sensors and turned their attention to one of the Valkyries sitting on the flight deck, gleaming in the bright lights as if they were impatient to be let loose, race out into the star filled darkness that was their proper home.

Fighters.

As far as the Andorian was concerned, the only thing worse than a fancy shuttle were … fighters. High-strung, too powerful for their own good, gun-bristling fighters. Even if all the pilots did was take them out for a routine flight there was always something you needed to fix afterwards. An engineer's nightmare.

"Ahhh che bella."

Shenn crawled out from under a shimmering wing to see Marcello give the Valkyrie an affectionate pat. "You have a thing for girls with an attitude, don't you?"

"Attitude, signore?"

"Never mind, Marcello. Whatcha think? Well done or medium?"

 

The Italian canted his head at the blue skinned man who loved to speak in riddles and carefully closed the hatch covering the fighter's ODN lines. "Is well done shields, si."

"Actually I was taking about lunch. We should find a nice spot in the mess and watch our intrepid nutjobs get eaten. I'll bring the booze to properly toast their untimely demise."

"Eh? Snake no eat nuts."

This time, Shenn couldn't help but laugh. What else could you do, really?

 

Lucia stepped out of the shuttle, a deeply satisfied look on her face that had more than once been compared to the ancient goddesses of her home and right now sported a smear of unidentifiable substances across her cheek. Naturally, once you got the bumbling males out of the way, things had proceeded smoothly. One could only hope they had not made a mess of things in the meantime … ah. Well, the fighter still looked more or less intact.

And there was still enough time to take a look … or not. Well of course she would arrive early. Not that Lucia had expected any different. But the Andorian who was still flat on his back, scowling at the Valkyrie's sleek shape hovering over him seemed a bit surprised when a flight suit outlining a decidedly female shape came into view.

The sound of a cat coughing behind her told Lucia that M'Riarr found an Andorian banging his head at least as funny as a Vulcan catching Marcello in her arms before he crashed onto the deck. Pretty good reflexes, that. But the boys had better pick up those tools.

 

 

[End Log]

 

Ensign M'Riarr

Assistant Helmscat

 

Specialist Shenn

Basic engineer's mate

 

Lucia e Marcello

Italian engineers

 

(NPCs apb I-Chaya)

 

 

Source: http://usscharon.blogspot.com/2010/06/uss-charon-sd24100625-npc-log-snakes.html

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