OK, I'm Paul Sinasohn

I grew up in San Francisco.

I am the oldest of 5 children; my youngest sister is 14 years younger than I am.

I started singing at the age of 6 in the San Francisco Boys Chorus. My voice changed at age 8.

As a kid, I was able to wander all around the city by myself on MUNI, on my way to rehearsal, the Randall Junior Museum, and the Exploratorium.

I went to McAteer High, and then to UC Berkeley. Those schools opened my eyes to the fact taht there were lots of people in the world from different cultures and different lifestyles.

At Cal, I studied Economic Geography and Climatology. But I learned to be me, and that the rights of the individual are sacrosanct.

No one has the right to dictate another's behavior unless there is some kind of social contract between the two parties or some sort of emergency situation exists (in which case the contract negotiations are postponed until after the emergency is handled).

Somewhere in my early adulthood I rediscovered LEGO, and I still build (play?) with it

I still sing.

All of this defines me, but in addition, if I am your friend, I willsupport you unto death (and beyond).

I'm married, no kids, and live in Oakland.

If you're not interested in playing, no worries, this does not need to be chain mail, just enjoy it for the sake of fun if you want to. I've tagged my 15 friends per the meme, but feel free to grab this and run with it...just make sure to tag me back so I can see what you post!

The rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note -- upper right hand side.)

1. The Complete Plays of W.S. Gilbert
2. Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary - n/a
3. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes - A.C. Doyle
4. The Light Bearer - Sam Nicholson
5. Doc Savage: The Land of Always Night - Lester Dent
6. The Last Templar - Michael Jecks (and the other 24)
7. The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet - Eleanor Cameron (and the other 5)
8. By the Great Horn Spoon - Sid Fleischman
9. Secret Cargo - Howard Pease
10. Larousse Encyclopedia of Astronomy - n/a
11. Dolphin Island / The Deep Range - A.C. Clarke
12. The Twenty-One Balloons - W. Pene du Bois
13.The Babar books -
14. Long-forgotten book on Oceanography - whichever was the first I read
15. Foundations of Economic Geography Series - various, pub. Prentice Hall


NOTES:

1. The Complete Plays of W.S. Gilbert
What can I say - I quote this the way others quote the bible. Both of my copies include all the Bab Ballads. Bury me with it.

2. Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary - n/a
The big 8-inch thick one. I read this one summer cover-to-cover while staying with my cousins in Sacramento. There was nothing else to do.

3. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes - A.C. Doyle
This series of stories helped me to learn how to observe the world - pretty cool for an 11-year-old!

4. The Light Bearer - Sam Nicholson
One of my favorite syfy books, even though it's rather silly - it just has an appeal, and it has an arabic-styled setting, which intrigues me, since I could never survive the desert heat. See also the Doris Egan trilogy.

5. Doc Savage: The Land of Always Night - Lester Dent
Well, this was the first one I ever found and read - Moe's books, Berkeley, Spring 1977. I joyfully entered into a multi-year quest to find all the Doc Savage stories ever published. This quest gave me a lot of wonderful times.

6. The Last Templar - Michael Jecks (and the other 24)
Not the first historical mystery series I got excited about, but perhaps the best set in the UK, since I've been to many of the places in Devon that the stories take place in/around. And I've met the author!


7. The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet - Eleanor Cameron (and the other 5)
One of the first syfy series I ever read, and one that caught my imagination. I think it led to asking for #10 for my 9th birthday.

8. By the Great Horn Spoon - Sid Fleischman
One of the most fun children's authors. Loved the fact that this story took place in California, where I was growing up.

9. Secret Cargo - Howard Pease
A combination of mystery and San Francisco 'home base' makes this series a sentimental favorite - I had walked/biked down streets that the character walked on! That made it very special. To this day, I love mysteries set in SF.

10. Larousse Encyclopedia of Astronomy - n/a
See # 7. This was the first adult science book that I remember reading; at 9 years old, I thought I had found my calling. O fickle boy - by the next summer, the stars were left alone to dim while I began to dream of the depths of a different kind of sea.

11. Dolphin Island / The Deep Range - A.C. Clarke
I read these 2 books - one for kids, one for adults - back-to-back when I was 10, and thus was born my love for the oceans and a dream that sadly, is still unfulfilled 40 years later - to travel the oceans learning and studying them and making a difference in humanity's use of them. Somewhere in a parallel universe, there's a USC Master of Marine Affairs degree with my name on it!

12. The Twenty-One Balloons - W. Pene du Bois
Again, this was an exploration book - I loved it for its combination of remote locale, its use of natural events (storms, volcanoes) and the fact that - yet again - it features San Francisco. Plus, he wrote the Otto books, and Lion and Gentleman Bear. Which are all on their way to me.

13.The Babar books - J. de Brunhoff
This whole series caught my imagination because of the way the elephants' culture/society developed and grew. Perhaps this - subconsciously - sparked my love of Economic and Cultural Geography which was my field of study in college and is still an area of interest today.

14. Long-forgotten book on Oceanography - whichever was the first I read
I don't know which one it was - it wasn't Duxbury, that came later, but right after reading the A.C. Clarke books, I went face-down into the Dewey Decimal System 551 section in my local branch library and then made them get all the books from the main library too!

15. Foundations of Economic Geography Series - various, pub. Prentice Hall
This series was something I found at Moe's Books (I spent a lot of time there in college) that I grabbed and still own. Great introductions to all the various specialties of the field I was studying. These books got me even more excited about what I was learning than the classes I was taking.

There you have it. Perhaps more than you wanted to know, but this explains a lot about me.

I got the lyrics off the web and I am recording htem here for my presonal use forever.

Remember when you ran away and
I got on my knees and begged you
Not to leave because I'd go berserk? Well,
You left me anyhow and then the
Days got worse and worse and now you
See I've gone completely out of my mind. And,

They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa.
They're coming to take me away, ho ho, he he, ha ha,
To the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time
And I'll be happy to see those nice young
Men in their clean white coats and
They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa!

You thought it was a joke and so you
Laughed, you laughed! When I had said that
Losing you would make me flip my lid - right?
You know you laughed, I heard you laugh,
You laughed, you laughed and laughed, and then you
Left, but now you know I'm utterly mad. And,

They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa.
They're coming to take me away, ho ho, he he , ha ha,
To the happy home with trees and flowers and chirping birds
And basket weavers who sit and smile
And twiddle their thumbs and toes
And they're coming to take me away, ha-haaa!

I cooked your food, I cleaned your house
And this is how you pay me back
For all my kind, unselfish loving deeds? Huh?
Well, you just wait--they'll find you yet
And when they do they'll put you in the
ASPCA you mangy mutt! And,

They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa.
They're coming to take me away, ho ho, he he, ha ha,
To the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time
And I'll be happy to see those nice young
Men in their clean white coats and
They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa!

To the happy home with trees and flowers and chirping birds
And basket weavers who sit and smile
And twiddle their thumbs and toes
And they're coming to take me away, ha-haaa!

To the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time
And I'll be happy to see those nice young
Men in their clean white coats and
They're coming to take me away!

From Ammy.

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen films you've seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall -- they don't have to be the best films of all time.

1. The Court Jester
2. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
3. Mary Poppins
4. The Doc Savage Movie
5. The Princess Bride
6. Star Trek 4
7. Star Wars (Episode 4)
8. White Christmas
9. Pirates of Penzance (Joseph Papp version)
10. Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death
11. Alice in Wonderland (1971 British version)
12. Rocky Horror Picture Show
13. An American in Paris
14. Singing in the Rain
15. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1977

Cookie link:

http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2009/12/tuesday-cephalopod-cookie.html

So someone iamradar? or britgeekgirl? posted something about Yipe, and onlien costume fanzine. So I went and downloaded their first 2 issues.

And darned if there isn't a picture of britgeekgirl with Kevin Roche and A. Trembley in issue Xero, page 5!

And in Issue 1, page 12, is a picture of iamradar

I should not be surprised.

It's going to be a busy, tiring weekend. Dickens Dress Rehearsals!

WINNIE THE POOH IN VEGAS
An Opera inspired by Lloyd Arriola
Synopsis by Paul Sinasohn

Act 1

It’s morning in the 100-Acre-Wood, and Winnie wakes up in his cave. He hums a song as he slurps his breakfast of hunny. Piglet arrives, and the day’s plans are settled on – a few games of Poohsticks, some gardening with Rabbit, and a visit to Owl and Eeyore.

Pooh and Piglet start out to Rabbit’s house, and meet Christopher Robin at the Six Pine Trees. Christopher tells them about a journey his aunt took to the magical town of Las Vegas and the wonderful sights she saw. He gives them a special coin she brought back as a present, though it can’t be used for anything in the Wood.

After Christopher Robin leaves, Pooh and Piglet talk about how much fun it would be to travel to a magical town – even more fun than the expedition to find the East Pole.

They decide to ask Rabbit and Owl for advice, so they continue to Rabbit’s house, where they find Eeyore has arrived to get his tail put back on by Rabbit. After everyone helps fix the tail, the group travels to Owl’s tree. Owl tells them that Las Vegas is not as magical as Christopher Robin makes it seem, that there are strange people, many bright lights, and lots of noise. But when the group proves to be determined, Owl tells them how to get to Las Vegas and gives them tickets that will get them there and let them stay at the home of his friends (the MGM Lions). Naturally, Eeyore is sure the trip will end in disaster for all, and Rabbit tries to decide if helping his friends is more important than tending his garden for a week.

Act 2

The group arrives at the MGM Hotel in Las Vegas and sees the giant lion statues. They are afraid to go in because of both the bright lights and the size of the lion statues. But Pooh reminds them of their courage in previous exploits, like trapping the Heffalump and chasing the Woozle. They enter the hotel and make their way to the lion’s home. The lions welcome the travelers with a rousing chorus praising their learned friend Owl and their own strength, and how the combination is more than a match for any challenge.

The lions makes the group comfortable in their home, and point out the various denizens of the casino. Pooh shows the lions his Special Coin, and the lions react with amazement and awe – it is a special high-roller, unlimited access token reserved for only the best customers – and tells the group how to take advantage of it.

Pooh is hungry, so the group decides to start by finding lunch, so they travel to the Buffet and present the Special Coin, whereupon they are given red carpet treatment. Each of them chooses lots of different treats to try, but they all agree that the standard things they like to eat are best.

As they leave the Buffet, they meet a group of chorus girls from the MGM’s big show. One of them steps on Eeyore’s tail, and while the group is trying to reattach it, the girls whisk Pooh away, explaining to him that there is more hunny in Las Vegas than the little containers in the Buffet, and promising to give it all to him.

Act 3

Piglet, Rabbit and Eeyore have been searching everywhere for Pooh, but cannot find him so they return to the lion’s den. When the lions hear what has happened, they roar with laughter, for they know what Pooh will experience. Meanwhile, the chorus girl who stepped on Eeyore’s tail comes looking for him, and they sing a duet together as they ‘get acquainted’.

Meanwhile, Pooh is being treated to exotic hunnys (Lavender! New Zealand Sunflower!) and generally being pampered by the chorus girls. While he is experiencing delights of many kinds in their bower-like dressing room, he does wonder what his friends are doing at that moment.

The Act ends with Pooh buried under a pile of gorgeous women while Eeyore and his chorus-girl friend kiss under the oaks of the lion’s den.

Act 4

An exhausted Pooh returns to his friends, who are overjoyed to see him alive. He regales them with stories of his experiences while he was gone. The companions, including Eeyore and his friend, realize that Vegas while glitzy and colorful, contains nothing that lasts, and that real wealth is in the friends and familiar surroundings of the 100-Acre-Wood. A touching farewell between Eeyore and his new friend ends the act.

Epilogue

Having left Las Vegas and returned home, the companions meet Owl and Christopher Robin at Owl’s tree. They tell of the sights they saw (all singing at once, of course), and reiterate the lesson that friends and home are where happiness is to be found. Group Hug.

The End.