It is almost too late to catch the last performance of the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s “All the Great Books (abridged)” at the San Jose Rep. The play has only two more performances as of this writing. If you have a love of or even a grudging respect for great literature and physical comedy then you should run right out and catch this performance.

The premise of this play is that you the audience member are a high school student who needs to pass a remedial class in English Literature before you can graduate at the ceremony which will be held in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Since the regular English teacher was killed in a tragic incident at a Harry Potter book signing the coach, drama professor and young (and not so bright) substitute teacher must take charge of this class.

I saw this performance on Thursday evening and the audience for the most part had never heard of the RSC but almost immediately took to their comic stylings.

SPOILER:

As a fan of the RSC podcast I knew that in the first act one of the actors seems to break character. Even as someone who was in on that little secret it was hard for me to believe that the moment was not real. The actor even seem to flush with embarrassment. My daughter and wife who saw an earlier performance were completely taken in as I think was most of the audience. What a strange group of gentlemen that write plays that setup this kind of comedy. It was though, to their credit, one of the funniest moments of the show.

One of the things about having season tickets for a theatre company is that you end up attending performances that you would otherwise have skipped. The latest play at San Jose Rep, called “Tranced” would have been such a play for me.

Nationally recognized psychologist and playwright, Robert Clyman, takes you on an electrifying ride. Philip is a highly respected psychiatrist famous for using a form of hypnosis called “trancing” to help his patients uncover suppressed memories. When he trances Azmera, an African grad student, he unexpectedly learns of a secret that could have profound consequences for thousands in an African village. Enlisting the aid of an ambitious reporter with connections to the Director of African Affairs, Philip is pulled into a suspenseful vortex of moral deliberation, truth and the powerful art of persuasion.

I was not that excited when I read this description, but playwright Robert Clyman’s characters enchanted me from the very first lines of dialog. The plot took a number of unexpected turns but by that point I wanted to follow these characters to find out where the story would end. I would recommend “Tranced” for both for Clyman’s writing and the fine performances of the San Jose Rep cast.

How close is California to a blackout today? Not close. How can you tell? If you go to The California ISO website then you can get a graph of the power being generated in the state and the power being used. When the red line crosses the green line… bad things happen.

There are 15 places in the state of California where you can currently go if you bought one of those hydrogen fuel cell based cars that we are told are the future. There are 9 more fueling stations planned and 65 fuel cell cars according to California Fuel Cell Partnership . Monday Gov. Schwarzenegger tried to significantly increase those numbers. According to the Mercury News :

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will advocate that California invest $54 million in public money to help build a network of up to 100 hydrogen fueling stations statewide within five years, according to new details of his “Hydrogen Highway” plan.

Schwarzenegger in April 2004 called for up to 200 stations 20 miles apart on major freeways. But experts working on the plan concluded it would be best to group stations first where most people live, Lloyd said. As a result, the document sets a goal of 250 stations statewide linking north and south in Phase 2, which he said could occur by 2015.

“My general response is two words: Wildly premature. What’s the rush?” said Joseph Romm, a former assistant energy secretary in the Clinton administration and author of “The Hype About Hydrogen.”

“These vehicles are so far from being ready for prime time that you may be building equipment that is obsolete.”

For example, most hydrogen vehicles have a range of only about 150 miles between fill-ups, compared with up to 450 miles for typical gasoline cars. Also, hydrogen is produced by separating it from water with electricity or from natural gas with heat. Unless the energy to make it comes from renewable sources, like wind or solar rather than coal, it could produce more pollution and greenhouse gases than simply converting America’s auto fleet to hybrid gas-electric vehicles, Romm said.

I guess now would be a bad time to ask about my flying car then too.

I was pleased to see that San Jose, CA is again rated as the safest big city in America. Pleased because that is where I call home.

The “San Francisco Fringe Festival ” will be held in San Francisco this weekend. Isn’t that redundant?

Edmunds list of the 10 most fuel efficient cars for 2004 includes:

Volkswagen Golf TDI ? 38/46
Volkswagen Jetta TDI ? 38/46
Volkswagen New Beetle TDI ? 38/46

These cars stand out on the list as they are the top non-hybrid cars when rated by miles per gallon. But don’t try and buy these models in California as they are diesels and cannot be sold in California. I used to own 2 different diesel cars and I miss the 50 miles per gallon that my old Ford Escort diesel would get on the freeway. With gas at $2 a gallon today I look forward to the following change:

EPA has regulated highway diesel fuel quality since 1993. As part of the Clean Diesel Trucks and Buses program, EPA reduced the level of sulfur in highway diesel fuel by 97 percent starting in 2006. Likewise, the Clean Air Nonroad Diesel Rule includes new fuel requirements that will decrease the allowable levels of sulfur in fuel used in nonroad diesel engines, locomotives, and marine vessels by 99 percent. Lowering sulfur in diesel fuel makes it possible for engine manufacturers to use advanced clean technologies which can be damaged by sulfur, just as lead was phased out of gasoline to prevent damage to catalytic converters. In addition, reducing sulfur levels will provide immediate public health benefits by reducing particulate matter from engines in the existing fleets of highway trucks and buses, nonroad equipment, locomotives, and marine diesel engines.

Ouch!