This is not the answer

So this one just got past us and I am very concerned. According to a brand new law, it is now illegal for Internet denizens to "annoy" people while posting under fake names.
Create an eannoyance go to jail

I dislike trolls and bottom feeders as much as the next person but this goes too far. Also how are they going to enforce it once the user is not in the US? It was attached to Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act.
According to the bill "Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both." Rather broad if you ask me. I can get annoyed for the strangest reasons.

This doesn't affect me that much over all since I am not exactly secret as to who I am on the internet. I do have a "handle" that I use in various forums rather than my name but most of the people there can figure out who I am. There are times that I really wish that the trolls would be called to account for the feeling they have hurt and the people they have destroyed but this is not the way to do it. There are already safeguards in place for this sort of thing. I find the people who continually spam both Peter's and my web log annoying. Does this mean they can be thrown into jail?

I do see that there were good intentions behind it especially after what happened during Halloween of this year. That guy had sent almost 2000 harassing e-mails to his ex and if this bill has been in place he probably would have been cooling his heels in jail rather than raping his ex's co-worker. But this takes it way too far and has the potential for abuse written all over it.

I am grateful that we can discuss this issues without fear of reprisal.

The Phantom takes the Record

Yes, you get a rare second entry from me.

Last night the musical The Phantom of the Opera surpassed Cats as the longest running musical in Broadway history. [Remember that the Fantasticks was off-(off-)Broadway.] Both are by Andrew Lloyd Webber but I think Phantom is the better of the two. For one thing Phantom has a plot. But that maybe just me.

I saw Phantom during previews in New York when I was at the Yale School of Drama. I knew about it when I went up there because of Jeff & Angelo who had heard about it from a friend who saw it in London. I have seen it 5 times. 3 times from the audience's point of view and twice from the stage manager's point of view when I was observing through a program that the SMA(Stage Management Association) was sponsoring. It took me till my third audience viewing to see past the mechanics of the show and enjoy the show as a show. Stage-managing was and is so much a part of me that I tend to look a lot at the technical aspects when watching a show. Sort of like I mentally edit any book I read now.

I really enjoy this musical. I like the music and Michael Crawford was amazing as the Phantom. He passed on the movie for a number of reasons including that he knew he couldn't get his voice to do what it did almost 20 years ago. I wore out 3 cassette tapes of the musical in my time. It was one of the first things I ever bought on CD. It still can work its magic when I hear the organ chords leading into the transformation of the theater. Now I am jones to see it again. I guess it will be around for a while since it is still doing well at the box office.

Congratulations to the cast and crew past and present of Phantom of the Opera! May your chandeliers fall on cue for many years to come.

I am grateful that I saw it way back when.