S: Is for Sales

Sometimes writing 5 days a week, putting out a paper twice a month and reviewing is exhausting. It is great when I can just share information with you and that is a F.A.C.T. Enjoy

T: is for trouble with the arctic ice

The results of a new Arctic survey shows that North Pole ice is melting faster than previously projected and scientists at Cambridge University predict the Arctic ocean will be largely ice-free during within the next ten years. Earlier this year, British explorer Pen Hadow and his team trekked for three months across the frozen Arctic Ocean, taking measurements and recording observations about the ice. "We'd been led to believe that we would encounter a good proportion, of this older, thicker, technically multi-year ice that's been around for a few years and just gets thicker and thicker," he said. "We actually found there wasn't any multi-year ice at all." Satellite observation and submarine surveys over the past few years had shown less ice in the polar region, but the recent measurements show the loss is more pronounced than previously thought. "We're looking at 80 percent roughly loss of ice cover on the Arctic Ocean in 10 years, and 100 percent loss in nearer 20 years," said Hadow. "The more you lose, the more open water is created, the more warming goes on in that open water during the summer, the less ice forms in the winter, the more melt there is the following summer," he said. "It becomes a breakdown process where everything ends up accelerating until it's all gone." "The carbon that we've put into the atmosphere keeps having a warming effect for 100 years, so we have to cut back rapidly now, because it will take a long time, there's a flywheel effect, it will take a long time to work its way through into a response by the atmosphere. We can't switch off global warming by being good in the future, we have to start being good now," he said.

Now is the time for a rescue plan before it is too late. Maybe somebody should inform Ms. Palin and that is a F.A.C.T.

C: Is for Candidates

Last night Mayor Bloomberg and his Democratic rival City Comptroller Bill Thompson squared off for their first broadcast debate at El Museo del Barrio. While I was watching it, all I could think was that Bloomberg had an eye life and no longer looks like a lizard. I know my mind should of been on the issues but this was distracting. Bill Thompson got a few hits in but he needs New York to wake up to the shady deal we are getting by Bloomberg running. Thompson went after Bloomberg for violating the two-term limit. The vast majority of New Yorkers aren't comfortable with the idea a run around the rules.
But it makes no difference whatsoever. The real thing the debate proved is that the fact that Bloomberg is going to get away with this. What's going on here? Thompson is a respectable candidate, a two-term city Comptroller and former Board of Education head. He's personable; he's never been involved in a major scandal. And he's running in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 5-1. But nobody seems to think he can win. A billionaire incumbent has an advantage. he ran nearly 900 ads in September, compared to 14 for Thompson.

Maybe we can make a difference but New Yorkers vote for the biggest billboard and that is Bloomberg. I hope I am wrong but those seem to be the F.A.C.T.S.

A: is for art that is life size

There is nothing more spectacular than seeing a film shown widescreen, as the orchestra and singers perform what was written, live. Add to that a cult film, with and audience who adores anything and everything that is being put before them, and the mood becomes infectious. Thus was the case when Lord of The Rings played at Radio City this weekend. As the opening credits swam over the screen, the music of middle earth was unearthed by 300 musicians. Three and a half hours, those of us who were privileged enough, were on our feet applauding loudly. Swiss conductor Ludwig Wicki, the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra, the New York-based Collegiate Chorale; and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, executing the music of Howard Shore with ominous reverence. The musical themes of each segment soared to life. This is a beloved story that leaves it's audience sighing in contentment and reverie. It was exciting watching The Lord of the Rings with a crowd who knew every line and nuance. As each character was introduced (especially Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom) and of course the minor cameo of Peter Jackson. I can not recommend seeing a film like this highly enough; for it is a joy hearing this music live and made one terrific night at the theater and that is a F.A.C.T.

F: Is for Fear

If you are in New York, you may have heard advertisments for something called Club Purgatorio. It is a mix of a nightclub and Broadway show that will be running in Times Square for a limited time. Tickets are available now from their Web site, and you must be 21 years or older to enter. Purgatorio is an interactive Halloween experience for adults, brought to you by Simon Hammerstein and Randy Weiner, founding partners of famed downtown hotspot The Box. Taking over a tri-level, 15,000 square foot nightclub space at 268 W. 47th Street, October 15-31. Purgatorio will offer an adults-only immersion in a multi-level world of macabre fantasy complete with interactive variety acts and installations, all set in a dynamic environment that aims to be at once frightening, erotic, and whimsical.
The creative team will include David Korins (production/scenic design), Emilio Sosa (costume design), and Evan Morris (lighting design). For more information, visit enterpurgatorio.com.

Halloween in Times Square has never seemed more ghoulish and that is a F.A.C.T.

S: Is for Social Responsibility.

The Barrow Group, Theatre Company, seems to be the up-and-coming theatre group to watch. Celebrating their 23rd season, they are represented on Broadway with the star studded Steady Rain, as well as having an Off-Broadway hit with The Temperamentals. Last night they opened with the American premiere of Clare McIntyre's The Thickness of Skin. McIntyre asks, "In what ways are we responsible to help our fellow human beings?" I have a question for Ms McIntyre; Should not the people we are responsible for, show at least some form of graciousness and a willingness to help themselves? Though she makes her point in The Thickness of Skin, she elicits a reaction of ungratefulness and anger. We all fall on hard times but some of us get stuck because we wallow in self destructiveness. In The Thickness of Skin, everyone is stuck. Laura has stepped outside her unhappy and repressed life to help Eddie, a black man who has fallen on hard times. Laura, volunteers at the homeless center, she takes Eddie into her home, despite the centers rules, gets him work with her brother Michael. Eddie manipulates a sexual relationships with Laura who is ripe for the pickings due to her loneliness at Christmas time. Meanwhile at Michael's, his wife Roanne and he are stuck as they try to communicate and help their teenage son Jonathan. Jonathan has struck up a friendship with the eccentric neighbor, Imogen. Eddie who is unwilling to work for less, would rather play video games and collect welfare than work for minimum wage, for that would be degrading. He would rather blame everybody but himself than take responsibility for his past marriages and his children. When the center finds out, they blame Laura saying "If you wanted to help just give money." By the end Laura after being degraded by Eddie in every possible way forces $2000 upon him to ease....her guilt. I seriously wanted to jump up out of my seat and shake Laura and tell her she had nothing to be guilty over and to shove Eddie off the stage and let him wallow in his own self pity.

Did I like the play? It elicited a strong reaction from me. Do I think it does the theme a disservice...yes. There are people who have fallen on hard times and if this were the example I would say...NO! to helping them. For the people who still are fighting to keep their jobs, keep their homes and their lives........YES, a thousand times, yes. To those who live off the welfare system and drown and drug out and blame everyone but themselves....no.


The performances are all multi layered. Alison Wright as Laura is pathetic and lovable. We feel for her. Michael Chenevert as Eddie is the perfect manipulative loser. Myles O'Connor as Michael shows us why men work 24/7 so as not to deal with anything else. Karin Sibrava as Roanna is wonderful in her last speech about who she wishes she was. Eli Gelb ("The Squid & the Whale") is Jonathan and is the right choice for the youth on the verge of manhood. Wendy Vanden Heuvel doubling as Imogen and Christine steals the play with her insightful portrayal of the Imogen, who has lost her touch with reality, yet still trying to connect.

The Thickness of Skin runs through Nov. 9 at The Barrow Group's Studio Theatre, 312 W. 36th Street, 3rd Floor, in Manhattan.
www.barrowgroup.org.

We may have a responsibility but we need to also take responsibility and that is a F.A.C.T.

T: Is for titles that sell

Please just gag me. Sarah Palin is never going to go away. Palin has written a tell all book called "Going Rogue." Just like J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown, Palin's book is No. 1 on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com after Harper announced it had moved up the release date to Nov. 17. Palin's 432-page memoir, has been given a first printing of 1.5 million copies and booksellers have begun fighting for sales. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cut the $28.99 list price by more than half, to $13.50, and Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com are offering "Going Rogue" for $15.65, a 45 percent discount. Although she resigned abruptly last summer as governor, and the Republican ticket of Sen. John McCain and Palin was decisively beaten in the 2008 election, "Going Rogue" will surely outsell the memoir of her Democratic counterpart, Vice President Joe Biden, and likely approach the million-selling heights of President Barack Obama's. Palin has said that "Going Rogue" will give her a chance to express herself "unfiltered," a bold brand for a public figure who has likened herself to a pit bull with lipstick and once alleged that Obama was "palling around with terrorists." Palin's collaborator, Lynn Vincent, has her own history of attacking the left. She is the co-author of "Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party." The very existence of a Democratic administration means material for conservatives. In the 1990s, Ann Coulter and Barbara Olson were among those who wrote best-selling attacks against President Bill Clinton. Al Franken, Michael Moore and other liberals were popular authors during the Bush administration. Now, says Ross, as Democrats reign in Washington, "conservatives have been energized." I wonder if she will finally tell the truth. Naw...then pigs would have to fly and that is a truthful F.A.C.T.