New York State budget: craziest taxes ever?

Governor David Paterson has revealed his $121 billion budget plan for New York State and it includes proposals that actually trump California's "snack tax" of the early Nineties in terms of utter lunacy. There are 88 suggested new taxes and fees, including for digital downloads of songs for iPod and other music devices, beer, soft drinks, cable and satellite television services, movie tickets, and massages (?!?).

This reminds me of 1993, when then-President Clinton was trying to pass a retroactive tax increase (which passed in Congress). I called my Representative in the U.S. House, who at the time was Steve Neal. Never got through to him personally (but then since when does a citizen ever get through to his or her Rep?) but I asked his staff numerous times: "When was the last time that a government taxed itself to prosperity?" They couldn't give an answer. Neither is Governor Paterson going to be able to provide one to the citizens of New York. If anything, these taxes are going to drive away people and businesses, making a dire situation for New York that much worse.

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Popcorn Sutton sentencing delayed, again

Moonshine legend and American original character Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton has had his sentencing delayed for the fourth time. He and his many fans (of whom I am proud to consider myself one) will have to wait until January 26th 2009 to find out what's going to happen to Popcorn stemming from the raid by them "evil revenuers" on his 'shine operation in Tennessee back in March. For those who are just tuning in, Popcorn Sutton - who has achieved the status of mythic hero in the world far beyond his home in Maggie Valley, North Carolina - was the target of a bust when he started an operation across the state line in Tennessee. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BOOOO!!!) caught Popcorn running three 1,000-gallon moonshine stills and immediately set out to portray him as a diabolical fiend. Nothing could be further from the truth. Popcorn Sutton is simply, and without harm to anyone, practicing a fine form of art that reaches back countless generations into Appalachian culture.

And speaking of which, a few weeks ago filmmaker Neal Hutcheson sent me a DVD of his latest documentary The Last One. Hutcheson's films have enjoyed a lot of play on North Carolina Public Television and have often featured Popcorn in a few appearances. The Last One focuses entirely on Popcorn as he sets out to make (what he claims at the time anyway) his last batch of illicit booze. I'm gonna post a thorough review of The Last One here soon but after watching it, I cannot help but be compelled to say that I have even more sympathy for the moonshine industry. This is not something done purely out of a desire to brew some tax-free alcohol: more often than not it was done out of necessity, sometimes even for sincere medical purposes. Not like the government cares though: it seems to be the driving mission of the BATFE and every other guvmint agency to force us to purchase our goods from Wal-Mart instead of making good on our own, which is what Popcorn Sutton was trying to do.

As always, this blog will post updates on the Popcorn Sutton Saga as they continue to develop.

And one more thing: FREE POPCORN SUTTON!

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THE BOHEMIAN TRAVESTY: What does Chris Knight singing karaoke sound like?

Last night at Woodmont United Methodist Church in Reidsville, we had the strike party for Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Oliver Twist. Tony Hummel (who played Mr. Brownlow) brought his karaoke machine. And during the festivities I did something that I had been asked to do several times over the past few weeks, mostly from people who heard about what happened at the Children of Eden strike party in June.

So here it is: Yours Truly singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen...

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The photograph that will forever define Bush's legacy

And to think that all this time, George W. Bush thought that the Iraqis would throw flowers at his feet... not shoes at his head:

An Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference yesterday in Baghdad and called him a "dog". In most Mid-East cultures, showing someone the soles of your shoes is considered the ultimate - and often mortal - insult.

You know what I can't help but think about this incident? Theodore Roosevelt was once giving a speech and someone tried to assassinate him. The bullet hit something in Roosevelt's chest pocket, didn't penetrate his body at all. T.R. jumped off the podium and commenced to beating the living crap out of the assailant with his bare hands. Now how come "tough guy" George W. Bush didn't do something like that yesterday?

George W. Bush, "Liberator of Iraq", having to duck a shoe being thrown at him. Yup, that's his "legacy" right there...

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OLIVER TWIST production ends (almost) solid string of performances

Yesterday afternoon was the final performance of the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Oliver Twist. Thankfully we had none of the "problems" that kept us from going through the entire show on Saturday night. There was still a whiff of the smoke lingering around the building, but that didn't deter a strong audience from coming to enjoy the story of orphan Oliver Twist and his search for identity in 1840s London.

After the show ended and the audience had left, the entire cast and crew stuck around for another hour and struck the stage, tidied-up the rooms that we had been using in the Advanced Technologies Building at Rockingham Community College, and pretty much did our best to make sure that everything was cleaner than how we found it when we first started production back in October. After that, it was just a matter of stowing the sets and props at the Theatre Guild's warehouse, and then we headed to the fellowship hall of Woodmont United Methodist Church in Reidsville for the traditional strike party.

(Speaking of which, there will be video of this that I will be posting in the next few days. Something that a lot of people have been curious about and have asked me to do over the past several months :-)

Next up for the Theatre Guild: Monster in the Closet and 101 Dalmations, and then in the summer of 2009, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

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FIRE IN A CROWDED THEATER! Audience and cast flees smoke-engulfed building during fifth performance of OLIVER TWIST

LEGAL NOTICE - I reserve the right to enforce copyright for the photographs and text in this article per the following terms: Star News Corporation, WGSR Star 39, News Channel 18, Charles Roark, and any and all agents and clients thereof, are explicitly prohibited from using any of the photographs and text in this article for broadcast purposes without express written permission from me. Which is not going to happen anyway. Any violation will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Any LEGITIMATE news reporting operations however may contact me at theknightshift@gmail.com, as I will be more than happy to provide such agencies with high quality versions of the photographs free of charge as a courtesy.

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UPDATE 11:50 p.m. EST: Well, this was certainly a night to remember...

Tonight's performance of the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Oliver Twist came to an abrupt end when shortly before 9 p.m. and in the midst of Act 2, the audience, cast and crew had to be evacuated from the Advanced Technologies Building following a large amount of smoke which engulfed the ground level of the building. As of this writing the cause of the smoke had not been determined.

And since I'm playing Mr. Sowerberry in this production, I wound up right in the thick of the action.

Shortly before 9 p.m., Tamara Boles - mother of cast member Aaron Boles - rushed into the men's dressing area to tell us that "There's a fire in the building... I'M SERIOUS!" I was getting ready to take position for my last scene in the show so I was in full costume. We got all the kids out of the room and I grabbed my bag since it was right at the door. Kathy Morrison (who plays Old Sally and Mrs. Bedwin) and I held the outside doors open for the audience members as they were leaving, then we went back in to check to make sure that all the children had made it out and that there was nobody in the restrooms.

When we were outside, I broke out the camera, went back in and started taking some pictures. Here are some pics from the atrium in the Advanced Technologies Building, where the smoke was concentrated most...

Outside, stage manager Jessica Reed directed the audience members to take shelter in the nearby gymnasium. Meanwhile, we began to hear sirens from the Wentworth Fire Department...

A few moments later the first of the fire trucks arrived on the scene...

We counted six vehicles from the Wentworth Fire Department that came within the first several minutes. By this time most of the audience, cast and crew were in and around the gymnasium.

And here are the heroes of the hour: Michaela Mays and Faith Jones, the two girls who were the first to spot the smoke and sound the alarm. Ladies, my hat's off to you! :-)

Here is Jon Young, the director of Oliver Twist. It can most certainly be said that his was, literally, the hottest show in town on Saturday night...

And here's a pic of Thresa Brown (who has been giving absolutely splendid performances in her role as Mrs. Sowerberry) and Yours Truly as we oggled the mayhem...

A few minutes later, I was back inside the Advance Technologies Building. By this time it was around 9:20 p.m. Firefighters and a number of the adult cast and crew and other Theatre Guild reps were discussing the situation and considering what to do with the rest of the evening. Here is Mark Pegram, Clerk of Superior Court for Rockingham County (in his policeman costume) and a member of the Wentworth Fire Department...

Here is a ladder used by the Wentworth Fire Department as firefighters checked the space above the ceiling in the atrium, which seemed to have been where much of the smoke was coming from...

The stage, showing the London street toward the end of Oliver Twist, just as it was when the building had to be evacuated...

Theatre Guild board members Jeff Mericle, Rose Cutuli Wray, and Tony Hummel (in his Mr. Brownlow costume) confer with each other about how to handle the rest of the performance. It was ultimately decided that in the event that the next day's performance would go on, that tickets from tonight would be honored and that audience members who had come from out of state would be given free tickets to a future performance...

Cast members Tim Wray (Fagin) and Mike Morrison (Bill Sikes) held position at the exit...

Here's another shot of the fire trucks on the scene...

Back in the gymnasium, the crowd was calm... but it couldn't be helped that there was considerable excitement in the air. Especially among the kids in the cast: no doubt they were going to have quite a tale to tell their friends the next day! Here are Tish Owens (Nancy) and Tyler Alverson (Noah Claypole)...

Nell Rose, one of the members of the Rockingham County Board of Education. She and her husband had already enjoyed one performance of Oliver Twist last week, and came back for another show. 'Cept this time, the cast members were just as surprised as the audience about the ending (credit goes to Pete Barr for coming up with that great line :-)...

The star of the show: Nathan Tolodziecki as Oliver...

Logan Brown (who plays one of the orphans) and Tamara Boles...

And here is Jake Chandler, who thrilled audiences as Dr. Roy in last season's Ghostchasers!, and who has been playing another orphan in Oliver Twist...

By this time it was getting close to 10 p.m. Most of the audience had left, but the cast and crew was still around. We were waiting to hear when we could go back inside 'cuz most of the cast still had things like clothes and car keys in the dressing rooms. What exactly had caused all that smoke still had not been determined, but firefighters allowed the cast and crew to quickly return to the building and retrieve their personal belongings...

Jasper Thomas III (in his fine attire as the Artful Dodger) scopes out the scene...

Cast members Tish Owens and Donna Owens head to the parking lot as the cast and crew retreated from the building...

Another shot of the emergency vehicles, just before I left a little after 10...

And here's the last shot, taken from the driveway entrance and looking toward the Advance Technologies Building...

So far at this hour, we still haven't heard what might have caused all that smoke (believe you me, the pics can't possibly convey how much of the stuff there was). We didn't see any actual flames but you know, "Where there's smoke..." Without knowing about what the source of the smoke might have been, there has been no word so far as to whether tomorrow's final performance of Oliver Twist will be taking place. As soon as I hear anything, I will post it as an update.

It was a wild night, to be sure. But I think for the most part, especially for the kids in the cast, it's just gonna make their time and effort in this production that much more memorable :-)

Bigtime kudos to the Wentworth Fire Department, the maintenance and security staff at Rockingham Community College, the leadership of the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County, and anyone else that I have not already mentioned who were involved in evacuating the building and making sure that everyone was safe, for the very prompt and professional action that they took tonight.

EDIT 1:06 a.m. EST 12/14/2008: I have just received word that the Wentworth Fire Department found the cause of the smoke (what that was exactly still hasn't been reported). They have given the signal that we can proceed with the final performance of Oliver Twist on Sunday afternoon (now later today) at 2:30. So the show will go on! :-)

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5 days left to enter GEARS OF WAR 2: THE SOUNDTRACK signed CD contest

Just a friendly reminder that there are now five days remaining to enter the contest to win one of three copies of Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack, signed by composer Steve Jablonsky (who has also composed the scores for Transformers, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and ABC's Desperate Housewives in addition to a ton of other good stuff).

By the way, these copies will be personally signed by Steve Jablonsky to the winners! So if you're name is "Barney Spepple" and you win one of 'em, your copy will be signed something like "To Barney..." etc.

How do you enter again? Well, here are the rules once more...

1. E-mail your entry to theknightshift@gmail.com with GEARS OF WAR 2 SOUNDTRACK CONTEST in the subject line. GEARS OF WAR 2 SOUNDTRACK CONTEST has to be in the subject line.

2. Include the following information in your entry:

- First and last name

- Mailing address

- Phone number

- The name of the Gears of War character you are impersonating

3. And then, attach a photo of yourself doing your best impersonation of a Gears of War character. It can be anyone from established Gears of War canon (the games, the comic book, the novel Gears of War: Aspho Fields but you'll have to be especially imaginative, anything that's been authorized by Epic Games as being legit part of the Gears of War mythology). Keep in mind that this is not a costume contest! If you're the kind of person who likes to parade around Comic-Con and Dragon-Con wearing a full set of COG Gear armor, you're more than welcome to pose wearing that. But this is all about character. This is a contest focusing on raw persona. In short: do you "get" what Gears of War is all about? Can you make that come across with nothing more than your own countenance? If so, pick a Gears of War character and show us what you got! Doesn't matter if you're male or female: plop on a do-rag and show us your best Marcus Fenix mug. Or give us Dom or Anya or Baird or Cole or Dizzy or Tai (ooh-boy I'm eager to see if anyone attempts Tai) or heck, even a Locust grub or the Locust Queen herself! Extra points will be given toward creativity and originality, but as I said this is about channeling character more than it is about costume ingenuity. Also, please try to keep your image size to 1 megabyte or less.

4. No age limit but this contest will enforce a "one entry per person" limit. So like shootin' a gun in a Gears of War game, make it count!

5. You'll have between now and until 12:01 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on December 18th, 2008 to e-mail in your entry, so that gives you a bit more than two weeks to come up with something.

6. Judging for the contest will be conducted by a three-member panel that has already been pre-selected. Their decisions are final.

7. By entering you are giving consent to have your photo published on The Knight Shift blog (the one you're looking at right now). So make sure your photos are "family-friendly", folks :-)

8. In addition to the three final winners, this blog reserves the right to also publish "honorable mentions" if there are any.

9. Insofar as real life will cooperate, the winners will be announced sometime on December 19th 2008 and the signed CDs will be rushed to each of the winners as soon as possible.

Remember: this is not a costume contest! Don't let your lack of real Coalition of Ordered Governments armor deter you from entering! If you have a face (let's hope you do :-) and you think you can channel and project the spirit of Marcus, Dom, Anya, or any other Gears of War character with it, then get your entry sent in today!

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Butt-Numb-A-Thon 10 starts today

For those who don't know what that is, it's an annual 24-hour long film festival hosted by Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas. Some consider it to be the most sought-after cinematic event in the country. I got to attend Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 last year and twelve months later there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about the whole crazy experience.

Well, for those of us who won't be able to go to this year's Butt-Numb-A-Thon, here's something to assuage our pain. It's the trailer for Stunt Rock, which is shown every year at Butt-Numb-A-Thon to get the party started...

Is that not the most outrageously cool trailer ever made? :-)

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So last night was Performance #4 of OLIVER TWIST

I think having all this past week off from rehearsals might have been a good thing, 'cuz everything seemed to have really clicked well during last night's show. We all got into it totally refreshed and ready to knock it out of the ballpark. Also, there was a substantially good audience, despite what apparently was pro wrestling at the National Guard Armory next door which had also drawn a large crowd.

Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Oliver Twist plays again tonight at 7:30 and then the final show tomorrow afternoon at 2:30, in the Advanced Technologies Building Auditorium at Rockingham Community College. Click here for more information.

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Study: Older people are VERY active video game players! But...

...they tend to hide that fact from their contemporaries, according to the story at Financial Post.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong, at all, with anyone enjoying a good video game. The story cites Nicholas Muehlen, a fifty-year old dude - and a chef, by the way - who likes to indulge in the Gears of War, Halo and Call of Duty series of games. He and his wife get into the play as much as their grown children.

This can't possibly be a bad thing. Or an activity to be embarrassed about.

Video games are a form of entertainment, just like television and movies. But they have the advantage of being an interactive experience that involves not just hand-eye coordination but more often than not some serious thinking, too. And consider immersive-style games like Gears of War 2 and BioShock: why just watch the story when you can be in the story?

Heck, the way the economy is right now, video games are a downright sound investment for your entertainment budget. Certainly they deliver more per dollar than DVDs or movie tickets.

So, Nicholas Muehlen and every other "seasoned" video game player out there: rock on! You are at the forefront of a trend that only looks to continue. Hey, if my own father can do pretty well at Gears of War 2, then this is something that anybody should stand up and feel proud about enjoying! :-)

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Federal Reserve won't say who's getting TWO TRILLION DOLLARS of taxpayer money

Either way you cut this, it screams out "biggest heist of all time".

The Federal Reserve is refusing to disclose the recipients of $2 TRILLION of emergency loans financed by American taxpayers.

On a related note, President Bush is considering tapping into the same funds since the "bailout" failed in the Senate last night.

Time to revisit "Hell Époque" post that I made all the way back in January. That was the term that future historians, I'm sure of it, would give our current era.

The era of United States history that stretched from the early 1990s until the end of the first decade of the 21st century, that has come to be regarded as the final years of America's long-time domination of the world's culture and economy.

Although noted for considerable achievements in computers and telecommunications that led to apparent empowerment of the individual, the Hell Époque was also a time of cultural and political stagnation in America that coincided with tremendous loss of individual liberty as the American government began to seize unprecedented power. Most authorities agree that although this had already been a long-time trend in America, the election of Bill Clinton as U.S. President in 1992 saw the start of the final phase of escalation toward an all-powerful American state. This would climax during the presidency of George W. Bush, whose disastrous domestic and foreign policies catapulted the country toward utter ruin.

Most historians agree that it became widely accepted among the American people during the Hell Époque that their government had finally become too corrupt and that the life they had come to believe in had drawn to a close, and that the "rule of law" under the Constitution no longer existed. This was especially apparent following the collapse of the traditional "two party system" and the failure of the American economy in...

Seems more and more like that's all happening these days.

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Two essays for those of us who are paying attention

The first one is by Matt Towery at Townhall.com, who ruminates on "Why More and More Politicians are Rotten to the Core". Towery echoes a lot of things that have been on my mind during the past year, which have led me to tell many people more times than I care to remember that "There is no faith to be had in politics".

And on the somewhat more ornery side of things, Fred Reed - the Internet's greatest curmudgeon - waxes eloquent in his piece "What Have the Bastards Done to My Country?".

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Ron Paul tells it like it is about auto bailout (twice!)

You would think that common sense might be prevailing enough. I mean, c'mon... would you buy a car from a company owned by the same federal government that has so brilliantly managed Social Security and Amtrak?

So yesterday before the House of Representatives came the Honorable (so rarely do I get to use that term and the person I'm speaking of actually merit it) Ron Paul, and he laid down the smack bigtime on how positively wrong the notion of this "bailout" is. Paul has the brass ones to call this what it really is: socialism, and nationalizing an entire domestic industry. Dr. Paul references not just the Constitution, but a lot of good history.

Here it is: a lone voice of sanity in Washington D.C.

Listening to this, I have no doubt: if the Republican Party leadership (a bunch that I have absolutely no respect for at all) had given this man the support that they gave McCain and the other phonies this past election season, Barack Obama would not tonight be a "President-Elect".

(By the way, I made the embedded video a bit bigger, courtesy of YouTube's new options. How's it look? :-)

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For good old games, GOG.com delivers

About a month ago I heard about GOG.com. The site - its URL is an acronym for "Good Old Games" - is dedicated to promoting classic computer games from years gone by. So with a lot of folks raving about how good Fallout 3 is since it came out last month and because I never played the original, I purchased Fallout (shown at left) from GOG.com for $5.99 earlier this week. For that amount came not only the game as a 500 megabyte download, but also the manual and a lot of other Fallout-related goodies (like the soundtrack).

And after the last few days of traipsing around the blasted wasteland of Fallout, I now forsee giving GOG.com plenty more of my coin in the future. In addition to Fallout and Fallout 2 (also for six bucks) the site's catalogue features Descent and its sequel, MDK, Earthworm Jim 3D, Unreal Gold, and many others. All of the games sold through GOG.com are free of digital rights management (for which a lot of people will be happy) and they are guaranteed to work on Windows XP and Vista (I've been playing Fallout on a Vista machine and trust me: it plays perfectly!). The site is still in beta, but if GOG.com is as consistent with its word as it has been so far, I will certainly recommend checking them out on a regular basis.

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Bible probably not true, Bush says

So, all of you who have held up George W. Bush as a paragon of Christian virtue: how do you 'splain this?

George W. Bush, outgoing President of the United States, now says that the Bible is "probably not" literally true.

Bush also says that evolution is not incompatible with the Bible.

Adding to his statement that he is "not a literalist", Bush also hedged immensely when he said that the most important lesson in the Bible is that "God sent a son". Ummmm... Georgie baby, if you studied the Bible at all, you would know that God sent His only Son.

I saw firsthand eight years ago that the Cult of Bush was anything but Christ-like. Bush and his faithful do not worship God: they worship raw, naked power. Bush just happened to say the right words and the "evangelical conservatives" - who are by far the dumbest bunch of fools that I have ever seen in my life and yeah I called 'em "fools" - fell right in line and sung his praises.

And now, just a few weeks before leaving the White House, he finally shows them, in no uncertain terms, that he is not like them at all.

I would say that I hope the "evangelicals" would learn their lesson from this, that they would finally engage the minds that God gave 'em... but I'm expecting them to just find another smooth-talking politician to latch onto.

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NOT AGAIN! Scantily-clad girls bathe in KFC restaurant sink

What the hell is it with employees bathing in restaurant sinks lately? A few months ago it was "Mr. Unstable" who boneheadedly decided to post a video of himself cleansing in the sink at Burger King in Xenia, Ohio: a stunt that got not only himself but a bunch of others fired.

Now it's the KFC in Anderson, California, where three female employees also took a bath in the sink normally used to clean utensils.

Two of the girls have been fired, and the other has already left on her own. They took several photos of themselves wearing swimsuits while carousing in the steaming-hot water (click here for more 'cuz many of y'all will no doubt be interested anyway) and then posted them on Myspace in a gallery called "KFC Moments".

I don't know which is the more dumb: that they did this to begin with, or that they opted to publicize it.

Hey kids, listen: I've been known to do some outrageous stunts too (heck I still do, even). But don't do it if it could possibly lead to drastic consequences like losing your employment. If you wanna take some pics and stash them away for years later, when you're safe and you want to show off how much of an idiot you were back in the day, fine... but to show off how much of an idiot you are today is only asking for trouble.

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Carrie Fisher now sez: STAR WARS wasn't worth it

Carrie Fisher (depicted at right in the "Slave Leia Metal Bikini" from Return of the Jedi) was on The Today Show this morning shilling her new book Wishful Drinking. And she let loose what will no doubt be a shocking revelation to millions of fanboys: that she now regrets having anything to do with the Star Wars movies. That if she had known it would become so popular, Fisher would have "never" signed up to be Princess Leia at all. Fisher now blames the instant celebrity that Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and the ensuing sequels brought her for her bipolar disorder, her drug addiction (Cary Grant was brought in by her parents to counsel her to "don't eat acid"), and the failure of her relationships such as her onetime marriage to Paul Simon.

I'm inclined to suggest that adolescent celebrities read what Carrie Fisher is saying here, and that they would do well to heed the wisdom she's offering.

It's safe to say that childhood stars do not go through the most well-adjusted periods compared to "common" kids. And it makes sense that there's a hideous cost to the spotlight at that stage in life. Kids at that age are just then figuring out their own sense of identity. They're going through confusion enough as it is, without being called upon to be a public icon all the time. No wonder so many of them turn to substance abuse: they practically need that to feel numb to themselves.

Thanks to my good friend Eric Wilson for passing the story along :-)

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