The Montebello Voice an independent gazette shall we dance? July 14, 2021 voices on the 37 Jam session I’m looking to get together with musi- cians who live in Montebello. I general- ly play blues and classic rock, but inter- ested in just about any type of acoustic or electric music. I would be interested in putting some set lists out and maybe writing and recording some music. I play guitar and harmonica and sing. Get in touch with me at coreywalters@ yahoo.com.– Corey Walters M Cover photo of Stormy the Great and Frank Sprague by Dian McDonald The ntebel Voice Mo lo an independent gazette Alexandria, Virginia This publication accepts no funding or oversight from advertisers, residents, or the Montebello Condominium Unit Owners Association. All opinions are encouraged and reflect the diversi- ty of views in the community. All articles and photographs come from Montebello residents. To receive or contribute to this email-only gazette, contact [email protected] or visit Bambis in on the web at www.montebellovoice.com. the wood- lands by Editor & Designer Linda Mikhailina Karina Brownlee Contributors Joe de Angelis, Linda Brown- lee, Raymond Houck, Dian McDonald, Bob Shea, Frank Sprague, Corey Walters The Montebello Voice 2 July 14, 2021 gentle giant Frank and Stormy I have lived with a Norwegian Elkhound, black Lab, and multiple Great Danes. I had been looking for a dog for a few years and tried to rescue a greyhound, but didn’t get through the waitlist before the tracks closed. I also tried multiple local rescues – to no avail. Then my neighbor’s grandson was being deployed on a ship and needed to rehome Stormy, a 3-year- old, 125-pound Great Dane. Two weeks later I had a room- mate who ate more food than I do. Stormy can rest her chin on the kitchen counter, pull pots off the stove, and never misses a chance to get a snack, even if it comes from my dinner plate. I have lost 13 pounds in a month, some from the exercise and more from forced calorie restric- tion as Stormy sees all food as hers. We take two or three walks a day, circling the complex and trails at least twice each time. She sleeps on the sofa on my balcony and enjoys the sun for most of the day. She’s quiet, well-behaved, and wants to be friends with everyone. She doesn’t have the zoomies in the house, so that’s good. All she needs is the sofa, some bones to chew on, and 90 percent of my bed at night. I work from home and have my office on the balcony. I spend a large part of the day on video calls, so when Stormy needs to “reposition” herself on the sofa, she can show up in the back- ground of the video. I know when that happens because of the shocked looks I get on their faces. – Frank Sprague M Outdoor photos by Dian McDonald Too-small couch photo by Frank Sprague The Montebello Voice 3 July 14, 2021 no planet b Greta Thunberg Is she right or wrong about climate change? By Chester Taylor America than ten years ago). I used years ago, American military divers to snorkel in the beautiful waters off asked for cooling systems for their wet- reta has clearly point- Guam. Now a third of the once lively, suits because some seas were too hot ed out that our cli- colorful coral reefs look like white skel- for them to work in for normal periods. mate is changing due etons – extinct over the past ten years Greta may have trusted the research- to global warming. due to rising sea temperatures. Ten ers a little too much about the pace She is as clear and of climate change. Researchers are distinctG as when the young boy already revising their timetables who pointed out that the emperor upwards for climate change. The had no clothes in Hans Christian melting of the ice sheets does not Andersen’s folktale. The fact that proceed on a linear scale (evenly Greta is a teenager, has Asperg- distributed, at the same rate) but er’s syndrome, has been trained at an exponential one increasing or dresses in one way or anoth- in speed over time. It is like when er is not the point. Is Greta right you defrost a freezer, the ice melts about climate change, right about slowly at first, then it suddenly global warming? starts flowing like a river. We are Greta points to science, land in a crisis now. Even if we could and sea temperatures have risen reduce CO2 emissions worldwide 0.9 degrees Celsius since the turn sharply today, the only thing we of the century (most in the last could accomplish is reduce the 35 years); sea creatures are mov- killing of life on the planet by a ing toward the poles at a speed of few hundred years – that’s like 32 miles per decade, and glaciers nano seconds in geological time. melt billions of tons each year. Greta is right about the effect You do not have to be a scientist climate change will have on her to know that this is true. We all generation: lack of clean air, lack have noticed that the weather has of fresh water, rising sea water, been more extreme, more heat less food, deteriorating health and waves and derechos. We see that enormous costs. M the number of birds in the parks is decreasing (a third less in North The Montebello Voice 4 July 14, 2021 stage craft The master of illusion By Bob Shea The show Born Yesterday was set in battery-operated drill and drywall a high-end hotel suite in Washington, screws are a set builder’s best friends. showed up with a tool belt and DC just after WW II. It had a winding The set has a shelf-life of about 6 weeks a battery-operated drill. I was staircase to two upper-level bedrooms, – you are not building the Great Pyra- ready to become a volunteer set French doors opening onto a balcony mids, but “almost good enough” has no builder at a small Tidewater-area with the US Capital in the background, place on the stage. Recycle everything community theater after reading and posh living room furnishings. After as there is always another set to be built Icountless pleas in the playbill asking for one show, a well-dressed couple compli- on a limited budget. If it is not visible volunteers. I knew nothing about com- mented us on the set and asked if they from the front row, do not worry about munity theater except that I enjoyed could see the interiors of the two bed- painting what will never be seen. Sight being in the audience. The show was rooms at the top of the winding stair- lines are critical; think about the folks Mr. Roberts. It was April 1996. case. At the top of the stairs they were in the far left and right end seats in the I enjoyed building sets and worked on dumbfounded when they opened the front row. They should never be able to a number of shows, progressing from doors and found two walls with wallpa- see backstage. Walls cannot shake no volunteer builder to chief of construc- per, a painting, chair rails, and crown matter how hard an actor slams a door. tion. There was certain magic in cre- molding built on a small platform with The lighting must eliminate all shad- ating a set where talented ows on the stage. Volun- actors told stories on the teer builders may be ded- make-believe world of a icated but they arrive with theater stage. skills ranging from master I was then asked to be- carpenter to “what is a 2x come a set designer, com- 4?” Tasks must be found bining the words on the for all; never fire a volun- script and the director’s teer. Always have “prac- vision. The easiest set was ticals,” lamps that work, one where all the action light switches to turn off took place in one room. and on other lights, tele- Shows such as Steel Mag- phones that ring, electrical nolias, A Curious Savage, outlets on walls with appli- and The Odd Couple fit ances plugged into them, this category. A much big- but all are controlled from ger challenge were shows, the light booth, not by the especially musicals, with multiple scenes a rough escape ladder leading down to actors. Make the audience see the next that had to be changed during black stage level. “Where is the bedroom?” room, the grass outside the door, the outs. For example, Guys and Dolls they asked. I smiled. driveway when a newly arrived car is had scenes in a NYC street, inside a At that moment I realized that as a heard, the rain that soaked an actor street mission (twice), a NYC nightclub set designer, I was an illusionist. From who arrives at the door with an umbrel- (twice), a Havana nightclub, a Havana the audience, they had seen one wall la – all part of the illusion. street scene, Adelaide’s dressing room, and had created in their minds a com- Whether it be an imaginary bedroom and a craps game under the street in a plete bedroom with a bed, furniture, a created by a wallpapered and painted sewer tunnel. How To Succeed in Busi- window, and all the things we expect to 4x8 foot sheet of plywood or a below ness Without Really Trying, the musi- see in a hotel room.