Incredable

 I’ve worked in a managerial capacity in many statewide and local campaigns, and in each campaign, the rule is the same, campaign accounts are almost sacrosanct. They are almost always parked with a licensed accounting or law firm and under the sole direction of the campaign’s treasurer.

Campaign funds are never to be used to pay for one personal lifestyle.

Why?

Because it's stealing.

Yet this horrid George Santos, representative from New York’s North Shore District spent campaign funds on everything from Botox treatments, casinos, porn, and $6,000 on Ferragamo shoes.

Six Thousand dollars. On shoes.

And then there is lying, blatant, seemingly insane lying.  Among many other fibs he was dumb enough to put in writing, Santos claimed to have worked in an upper management position at Goldman Sachs, (not true) and that he had relatives who were not only Holocaust victims but 9/11 survivors as well (He isn’t Jewish, and no such relatives exist)

He failed to mention that he committed check fraud in Brazil in 2008, and was arrested but failed to show up in court for his hearing (Brazilian authorities revived the case in 2022.) He has also had several judgments against him in the US concerning eviction and personal debt cases. In 2022, he was accused of failing to pay thousands of dollars in judgments from the 2010s. Another case of theft by deception was dropped in 2017. He had written bad checks in the amount of $15,000 to an Amish dog breeder from his account. He said that his checkbook had been stolen in 2017 and his lawyer successfully argued that the signatures on the checks were not Santos's.

The Washington Post reported that three other Amish dog breeders alleged that they did not file police reports against Santos and were never paid.

Allegations of mishandling funds

In January 2023, he was accused of stealing money donated to a GoFundMe fundraiser. Santos had set up the page under his alias Anthony Devolder. The fund was to raise $3000 for a homeless vet who had to have a life-threatening stomach tumor from his service dog would cost $3,000. When the $3000 was raised Santos closed the fund and withdrew the money. GoFundMe banned Santos.

There was a claim that Santos stole cash from an inheritance on several occasions, used a friend's Brazilian tax information to buy jewelry on credit, never repaid her, and threatened the victim physically.

Santos's name also came up in a 2017 international credit card skimming scheme perpetrated in Seattle by Brazilians.

In February 2023, Derek Myers, the prospective staffer filed a sexual harassment complaint against Santos with the House Ethics Committee, alleging Santos had touched his groin inappropriately while inviting him out to a karaoke bar and telling Myers that his husband was out of town.

In May 2023, a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York indicted Santos on 13 criminal charges: seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. Prosecutors accused Santos of "three distinct schemes": fraudulent solicitation of political contributions, unemployment benefits fraud, and making false statements on the financial disclosure reports he submitted to the House of Representatives. In the fraudulent solicitation scheme, Santos allegedly persuaded two supporters to donate $25,000 each to a limited liability company controlled by him and then used the money for personal expenses. Santos also allegedly obtained a total of $24,000 in unemployment benefits from mid-2020 to April 2021 while drawing an annual salary of $120,000.

Despite all of that. it took three tries…..three votes……for the House of Representatives to throw this clown out of Congress.

That means that 112 Republicans and two Democrats believe that this guy belongs in Congress. And at that, the final count against him was hardly the landslide of indignity that it should have been, and Santos almost survived the third attempt to kick him out onto the street where he belongs.

None of it fazed him. You know what he said as he left the Capito, Building? He said “Why would I want to stay here? To hell with this place” 

It doesn't have to be this way....

 The Seattle Times editorial board

The cases handled by the state Department of Children, Youth and Families are some of the most difficult faced by any state agency, and its overhaul of foster care is long overdue. That work focuses mostly on the front door, where young children are removed from their families.

But one group of foster youth has been pushed aside for decades, at incalculable social cost. These are the kids for whom case workers cannot find stable placements. Instead, they sleep in hotel rooms, unlicensed facilities and, until very recently, empty offices. To expect these children to pick up their backpacks in the morning and happily trot off to school is a fantasy.

Last year, 358 of them, some only 10 years old, spent 4,570 nights languishing in hotels and repurposed group facilities.

In 2015, when Patrick Dowd, who monitors outcomes at DCYF, first learned of this population, he was aghast. At the time, children had spent 120 nights in these “exceptional placements.” Today, the number is nearly 40 times higher.

These are kids the state promised to raise better than their biological families had. The state’s failure not only breaches that vow, it also puts others at risk.

Last year, kids in unlicensed placements attacked staff 49 times. Sometimes, the assaults occurred in a moving car. In one case, the “youth held scissors to the throat” of the driver, commanding them to cover their face with a pillow as the kid took off, according to Dowd’s most recent report.

Another youth broke down the door of their hotel room, shoved a fire extinguisher through the crack and doused a staffer and security guard before running onto the highway. Later, the same kid, being driven to another site, threatened to kill the worker if she did not pull over. When she tried to comply, the youth snatched her car keys from the ignition and threw them out the window. In a third instance, the same youth, now in a hotel room, pulled the supervisor’s hair, “dragged her across the room, and kicked her several times in the face.” The assault continued for more than 10 minutes before law enforcement arrived, according to Dowd’s report.

We can’t put it any plainer than he does: These assaults “are a direct result of multiple systems’ lack of appropriate resources, placements, and services” for kids in dire need.

It is time for Ross Hunter, secretary of DCFY, to turn his prodigious energies toward this group of young people.

He has overseen a few steps in the right direction. Where kids spent 771 nights sleeping in DCYF offices during 2021, there were no office stays last year.

As of last month, most of the kids who had gone 20 days or more without a real home had some form of stable housing. But five remained in unlicensed holding facilities, four were in juvenile detention, and three were “currently missing from care,” meaning on the street. Two, having turned 18, aged out of foster care and, unsurprisingly, declined to extend their time in the system.

DCYF was sued by three such youth in 2021, and in response the department promises an array of changes by the end of next year.

They include creating a corps of professional foster parents trained and paid to handle young people with extreme behaviors; building a system of “hub homes” run by similarly trained foster parents, who can provide respite breaks for one another; and standing up a program for teenagers more suited to living on their own — with case management — than in a family or group home.

Dowd endorses all of these approaches. But the likelihood of meeting the 2024 deadline is not promising.

There is no polite way to say it: These kids are on the road to joining Washington’s ranks of those who are homeless or incarcerated. It does not have to be that way.

The Seattle Times editorial board members are editorial page editor Kate Riley, Frank A. Blethen, Melissa Davis, Josh Farley, Alex Fryer, Claudia Rowe, Carlton Winfrey and William K. Blethen (emeritus).

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wonders we will discover in the future are mind boggling

 

Galaxies can merge, collide, or brush past one another — each of which has a significant impact on their shapes and structures. As common as these interactions are thought to be in the Universe, it is rare to capture an image of two galaxies interacting in such a visibly dynamic way. This image, from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, feels incredibly three-dimensional for a piece of deep-space imagery.

The subject of this image is named Arp 282, an interacting galaxy pair that is composed of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 169 (bottom) and the galaxy IC 1559 (top).

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, J. Schmidt

 

*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS

The Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language for 2023-2024.
Monetary award to playwright: $3000 for works with a running time of at least 40 minutes.
Submissions must be in a heightened version of the English language in order to provide a meaningful challenge to the actors. This includes, but is not limited to, works using metre, verse, rhyming schemes, pidgins, creoles, and code-switching.

***

Relentless Award 2024 ~ The Relentless Award, established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman and his pursuit of truth in the theater, is the largest annual cash prize in American theater awarded to a playwright in recognition of a new play.

***

Heartland Theatre Company is seeking eight 10-minute original plays to be considered for production in June of 2024 as part of our 21st annual 10-Minute Play Festival. This year, the theme is GHOSTS.

*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***


*** PSYCHOLOGY OF THEATER ***

Why do we need live theatre? Many artists suggest that theatre can improve empathy for those who are different from ourselves, but until recently, there has been little research on the psychology of attending live shows. This is surprising, since theatre has been a major part of our lives both recently and throughout history. For example, before the pandemic, according to Americans for the Arts, about 44 million Americans attended non-profit theatres in the United States each year.

My colleagues and I set out to investigate the effects of attending live theatre.

More...
https://spsp.org/news-center/character-context-blog/psychology-live-theatre-can-seeing-theatre-increase-empathy

***

Elliott Loverin, a junior majoring in Psychology with a minor in musical theater, is focused on the intersections of developmental, abnormal and social psychology. He’s also intrigued by the interactions between individual psychopathology and group dynamics, especially in young people.

“Gaining insight into the processes that govern human behavior inspired me to pursue psychology, and its diverse applications allow me to investigate the topics I find interesting within the field.”

Loverin’s theater career began with an audition for “A Christmas Carol” at the Berkshire Theatre Group in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Although he wasn’t cast, the 10-year-old was invited to perform in the background chorus for the annual holiday concert.

More...
https://trinity.duke.edu/news/psychology-student-hones-critical-thinking-skills-theater

***

Drama therapy is the intentional use of drama and/or theater processes to achieve therapeutic goals.

Drama therapy is an embodied practice that is active and experiential. This approach can provide the context for participants to tell their stories, set goals and solve problems, express feelings, or achieve catharsis. Through drama, the depth and breadth of inner experience can be actively explored and interpersonal relationship skills can be enhanced.

More...
https://www.nadta.org/what-is-drama-therapy

***

Community-based theater is a form of sociopolitical theater that takes a critical position toward social issues, often focuses on creating original works, aims to raise awareness, and works to alleviate social frustrations and conflict. This form of theater functions from a community-citizen empowerment and social justice perspective and is designed to be inclusive ( 4 ). Community-based theater activities often exist outside mainstream theater institutions and are intended to benefit not only individual participants but also communities and societies ( 5 ). These are interdisciplinary and hybrid practices based within a wide variety of contexts around the world. Community-based theater projects emphasize the dialogical nature and ongoing process of creating empowering workshops and performances. These are often grounded in established theoretical or logistical structures, such as Playback Theater, Sociodrama, Theatre of the Oppressed, or Agit-Prop Theater.

More...
https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/ps.2010.61.3.306

***

“Actors work hard to embody and personify their characters,” Sherman said. “If they just pretend to be a character, their performance is not genuine.” When a musical’s character experiences mental illness and other characters react to that illness, she continued, actors “really want to portray the illness accurately. They have to get in touch with that emotional internal experience to portray a character accurately on stage.”

While inhabiting a character is central in a performance, Sherman said her study participants told her it can also present personal challenges.

“What you take in you become,” Sherman said. “That is why musical theater is so potent. It can do beautiful things, but it can also do damage.”

More...
https://www.minnpost.com/mental-health-addiction/2021/08/study-investigates-mental-health-themed-musicals-significant-toll-on-performers/

***

“I wanted to get ahead on the lunches,” Diana tells her husband, Dan, as she frenetically lines up slices of white bread on the floor and begins piling on the lettuce and mayo.

That is the moment in “next to normal,” the new musical at the Booth Theater, when Dan (J. Robert Spencer) realizes it is time for his manic-depressive wife (Alice Ripley) to go back into therapy. As artistic portrayals of mental illness go, the moment is fairly tame. Wonder Bread doesn’t have the same dramatic bam as, say, gouging out the eyes of six horses (as in “Equus”). But that quotidian element is perhaps what makes “normal,” which opened on Broadway on Wednesday, so unusual.

Mental illness on the stage and screen is often portrayed in extreme ways, and not just for dramatic effect. In Western culture psychic pain has tended to be seen as the territory of the artist, visionary, rebel and genius, from Emily Dickinson to Sylvia Plath and Friedrich Nietzsche to John Forbes Nash Jr. So it should be no surprise that madness is often used to signify creativity, sensitivity or spiritual and intellectual depth.

More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/theater/19cohe.html

***

“Our findings indicate that collaborating with the theatre industry could be helpful in producing theories about social interaction that could also be investigated in the real world,” said Dwaynica Greaves, lead author of the study. In particular, the researchers are hoping that future work in this space can focus on how participation in theatrical activities might help people with autism.

This is the first time that neuroscientists have been able to record brain activity in actors during their performances, Greaves added. The actors were fitted with brain imaging technology while they rehearsed scenes from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The researchers then proceeded to call out each actor’s name while they were performing, measuring brain activity in the prefrontal cortex.

Their findings, published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, showed that when actors heard their names while performing, their response was suppressed in the brain region associated with self-awareness. These results were consistent across the six actors who were tested during rehearsals, several times a week. While they were not performing, the actors responded normally when called by name.

“The shout of a person’s own name is a powerful and compelling sound which normally makes the subject turn their head. It also engages the prefrontal cortex of the brain. However, our findings suggest that actors may learn to suppress their sense of self as they train in the theatre and take on a different character,” Greaves said.

More...
https://www.theswaddle.com/brain-activity-of-actors-shows-they-really-do-lose-themselves-while-performing

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Why aren't we doing this on a national basis?

  

 

GREENSBORO, N.C. — There is a breakthrough in finding care for foster children.

Before the state approved a new program, relatives or family members caring for foster children did it for free.

This made it difficult for some to sustainably care for the children because of the costs involved.

Now, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services launched the Kinship Care Reimbursement Program.

The program pays the next of kin foster parents beginning back on November 16th.

It pays relatives and family members up to 400 dollars a month if they help care for next of kin children placed in foster care.

Lisa Cauley, the Senior Director of Human Services in North Carolina said this helps stabilize the system.

"Some of the benefits are children move less in kinship care, they reunify with their parents sooner or either their kinship care take custody or adopt so they take permanence sooner."

According to the department, there are more than 10,000 children in foster care in North Carolina.

There are only about 5400 foster homes licensed in the state to care for children in need of a temporary out-of-home placement.

Cauley said this funding stabilizes the system, by giving money to the families who step in to help and it opens up more foster homes to those who don't have a relative to help.

"You have to build a continuum of care," said Cauley. "This is one place where North Carolina will build its continuum of care by funding kinship care homes, we are more likely to have children placed with their relatives because it's the reality that some people need funding to be able to provide care."

If you remember, a few months back WFMY News 2 learned foster kids were temporarily living in the Greensboro DSS office building, temporarily.

It came after there was a lack of foster parents, an increase in foster children, and a need for beds for children with high needs.

The Division Director for Child Welfare in Greensboro, Shelia Stokes, said while there is still a great need for foster parents, the department welcomes the change from the state.

"It helps them to provide for these children and where they can offer more support to these children and where they can have different things in the home because it calls to have additional people in your home," said Stokes.

Stokes said their office has more than doubled the kinship caregivers in the last 3 months and is on track to have 25 percent of placements with kinship providers by mid-January.

"With this assistance, we believe by the first of the year we should see a 25% increase," said Stokes. "We were really excited because we feel this is an opportunity for families to have financial support as they help their relatives, we believe this is the best thing for children in order for them to maintain that connection with family for them to continue to grow and feel familiar with that family."

The department said roughly one-fourth of the children in foster care live in kinship care across the state and this new payment program is expected to increase the number of children who live with their relatives.

"This helps them to provide for these children," said Stokes.

The work doesn't end here. Stokes said there are still more areas that need help. She said there is still a great need for those to step in and take care of these kids.

"We are still looking for foster parents in Guilford County, the need is great," said Stokes.

 

*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

Exhume seeks work for Spring 2024 Issue
We accept both established and emerging artists and writers across the board. We welcome simultaneous submissions, though we ask that you let us know immediately should your submission be accepted somewhere else. At this time we do not accept previously published work.

***

Theatre Southwest is accepting short plays for its Annual Readers' Theatre Matinee.
Selected plays will be read and voted on by the audience in attendance and the Audience Favorite will receive a $100 cash prize

***

Theatre Now defines a 10-minute musical as any piece that can be performed in10 minutes or less, has a beginning, middle, end story arch, and includes music. Having produced nearly 100 pieces, we want musicals that are diverse, current, test the musical form and communicate a well-crafted story.

*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***


*** PLOT DEVELOPMENT ***

Plot Point 1 ^

The plot point 1 (also called: break into act II, first revelation, point of no return) separates the first from the second act. It leads the plot into an ascending positive or into a descending negative development. Ideally it embodies the best or worst case scenario for the protagonist depending on his exposition. By doing this the plot point 1 sets up the central question of the film which will affect the entire second act.

Pinch Point 1 ^

The first pinch point occurs after the first quarter of the second act – i.e. after approx. 3/8 of the story. It provides the protagonist with new clues and reveals the main conflict of the story. At the same time it serves as a reminder of the antagonist’s power by making the protagonist feel the “pinch” of the antagonistic force. Thus it sets up the next 1/8th of the story.

Midpoint ^

As its name points out the midpoint is in the middle of the second act and divides the entire story into two halves. It offers a possible turning-point. This means that at this point of the story a change/turn may occur but doesn’t have to. It is also possible that the positive ascending or the negative descending development progresses until the plot point 2.

More...
https://dramaqueen.info/wiki/turning-points/?lang=en#PlotPoint1

***

In literature, a plot is the sequence of events that creates a story. A plot begins with an inciting incident—an event that forces the main character to take action and embark on a mission. Conflict and tension arise along the way to shape the plot into a narrative arc. Every plot has five elements that create the story structure, and each has an essential function.

Exposition: In the beginning of the story, exposition introduces the main character, setting, conflict, and themes.
Rising action: The rising action starts right after the period of exposition and ends at the climax. Beginning with the inciting incident, rising action is the bulk of the plot. It is composed of a series of events that build on the conflict and increase the tension, sending the story racing to a dramatic climax.
Climax: The climax of a story happens when the tension reaches a breaking point, forcing the protagonist to face the antagonist and resolve the conflict once and for all.

More...
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-master-the-art-of-plot-development

***

“Nothing happens. Twice.” That was the succinct view of the Irish critic and Beckett expert Vivian Mercier on Waiting for Godot. Beckett, of course, was the master of writing theatre that defied Aristotle’s theory that plot is a significant requirement for drama. You don’t go to Endgame or Not I for the cliffhangers.

There are several plays currently on stage in London, or about to tour, that defy the idea that narrative is a primary driver of interest in the theatre as some have suggested. I’m not sure it ever is. After all, we keep going to see King Lear even when we know what will happen; we don’t shun A Doll’s House because we are already acquainted with the fact that Nora will leave at the end.

More...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2016/may/10/plays-lose-the-plot

***

Plot is the sequence of events dramatically arranged by a writer to tell a story. That is a plot structure definition in the strictest sense.

Often the true genius of writing is in recognizing how to order those interrelated events.

So, another way to think about movie plot structure is to answer the question "what happens in the story and in what order?"

Some might say what happens in a story is a character discovers himself. But that's not the plot. It leaves out the critical ordering of the events. The plot of a story is something like "A character loses his job, gets divorced, leaves town, and then lives in the woods alone..."

Those are the elements of plot. It's those events that lead us to think about how the character discovered himself. It's also those events that keep us interested... if they use dramatic tension.

More...
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/plot-structure/

***

The simpler the plot, the more effective it is on the stage. It was Shakespeare's custom, as in The Merchant of Venice, to weave together deftly two or more stories, and to carry along with them scenes of low comedy to please the rabble in the yard. Macbeth here differs from the rest. It has but one plot, and interest is focused on a few characters. It contains but one comic scene — the Porter at the gate. For introducing this scene, Shakespeare has often been praised, on the ground that it furnishes a relief to the horror of the assassination. This is undoubtedly its effect on critics and philosophers; and yet it is, I think, nothing more than the vulgar interlude demanded by the Elizabethan audience. But for it, the drama preserves throughout perfect unity of tone. Without it, the knocking would be equally impressive.

Because of this simplicity and unity of plot, the play is, of all Shakespeare's tragedies, the most rapid in its movement. Macbeth is tempted to the murder of Duncan, and with a bound Shakespeare brings him to the deed. Banquo must be put out of the way; the hint is followed by the plan and its execution. Macbeth is told that the thane of Fife has fled to England; and he at once resolves on the murder of Macduff's kin.

More...
https://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth/stagesplotmacbeth.html

***

Just like a novel or a poem, a play will have some sort of structure. The traditional plot of a play will consist of an exposition, action leading to a climax, and a denouement or resolution. A certain amount of information about characters and events is necessary at the start of a play, and sometimes an explanation of what has happened in the past is required for the audience to make sense of what is to follow: all this is accomplished through the exposition. Some skill is necessary if the exposition is to be interesting, and subtle, natural-seeming, not holding the action up for too long. The plays of Ibsen offer a particularly interesting variation on this theme, since the action of the play is in fact to unravel those happenings in the past that have led to the present consequences that the play is concerned with. It has been said that his plays are one long exposition.

More...
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/literature/approaching-plays/content-section-5

***

How to write a play - five golden rules
In this video, James Lark gives you five professional tips that cover script layout as well as the dos and don’ts when “telling the story”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O_ISCHsaUw&t=5s

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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals an ultraviolet view of Jupiter.

 

The Angel by Erté

 

square in motion and other moving parts

 

B&W

By Matti Merilaid

Michel Kirch

Miguel Melleiro. Wings. 2018

Thomas Hoepker. Neubaugebiet Halle-Neustadt, East Germany, 1975.

Josef THORAK (1889 - 1952) - Lovers (Scherzo), 1951

 

Bookmarks by author

 

Deco

 

Greystone Hotel, South Beach, Miami, Florida

Chrysler Building, New York.

Frank R. Paul - Mutineers of Space, 1939.

30th Street Station, Philadelphia, PA, 

Chrysler Buildings Art Deco Lobby, 405 Lexington Avenue, 1930.

Books!

 

" I take much pleasure in being alone but there is also a strange warm grace in not being alone." Charles Bukowski

 

Fantastic to view

1921 Illustration from pamphlet Tile Designs

                                      1924 Aras vase by Rene Lalique with decoration of birds.

 

B&W

Castle Street, Photo by Charles Sheeler, 1954

Dorothy Bohm. St Paul’s, Covent Garden Market, London, 1960s

Unknown

Street of the Lost, Photo by Charles John Laughlin, 1939

Russell Lee. Secondhand tires displayed for sale, San Marcos, Texas, March 1940.

Robert Doisneau     London     1950

Photo by Nanda Hagenaars

Paris, Photo by André Kertész, 1928

Lost Children, Photo by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen,1971

Lisa Karloo. Old friends (explored). 2012

Josef Koudelka

Emil Gataullin

Drunken Women, Greenwich Village, 1947.

Dorothy Bohm. St Paul’s, Covent Garden Market, London, 1960s

Frank Horvat. Telephoto Paris, Christmas at Galeries Lafayette. 1956

These photos amaze me.

NASA’s Webb Snaps Supersonic Outflow of Young Star by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

New image of Jupiter as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope

WR 25 & Tr16-244 in Carina Nebula

 

Ah ! Deco