Real life up man

San Diego Musical Theatre’s “Man of La Mancha” is a moving tale of dreams, heartbreak and the realities of Spanish life circa 1594 as two stories unfold on the Horton Grand Theatre stage through Oct. 27.The first is of a man named Don Miguel de Cervantes (Broadway veteran Robert J. Townsend), an unsuccessful poet, soldier and actor who has turned to tax collecting as a means of survival. Unfortunately for him, he foreclosed on a monastery and — as a consequence — is imprisoned in Seville, Spain and is awaiting trial for heresy since the show takes place in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition.(The Inquisition was a 355-year effort by Catholic monarchs to identify heretics and bring them to justice.)His fellow detainees have their own hierarchy in the prison, as Cervantes and his also imprisoned servant Sancho (Broadway veteran Jeffrey Landman) quickly find out. To save his meager possessions — mostly costumes, but especially a manuscript for a play … [Read more...] about REVIEW: SDMT puts on a compelling ‘Man of La Mancha’

PAONIA • In the days and weeks after moving here this summer, Jessica Catinella kept running into Bob.At the park. At the trading post. At the orchards. At the galleries. There was Bob, the old-timer who’d been in the valley all his life — long before hippies like Catinella showed up.Those damn hippies, Bob would say. Those hippies with their pot and crazy hair, like Catinella’s, her dreadlocks hanging low or bunched up as they are now, tucked in a cap while she works around the trading post.No, those weren’t hostile encounters with Bob. The two would only joke with each other in moments that pretty well capture Paonia, where not long ago the schoolkids put on a play called “Hippies and Rednecks Unite.”“It’s not necessarily about the differences here,” Catinella says. “It’s more about what keeps everybody together, which is the land.”Which is greatly showcased here at the trading post, where Catinella offers … [Read more...] about Coexisting in fruit- and hippie-filled Paonia

PROVIDENCE — Nathan Carman thought his boat was in good working order when he left Point Judith, R.I., on a fishing trip three years ago, but something “fairly catastrophic” caused it to sink rapidly, causing his mother’s death, Carman’s lawyer said Wednesday. “Mr. Carman would never go out there with his mom in the middle of nowhere if he felt the boat was going to sink,” Carman’s lawyer, David F. Anderson, said during closing arguments Wednesday in a civil insurance trial over Carman’s efforts to collect $85,000 for the loss of the vessel. “Something let go in that boat.” In a 90-minute statement that capped the eight-day federal trial, Anderson argued that the 31-foot Chicken Pox was in poor condition when Carman bought it nine months before it sank, its problems masked by a good paint job and bonding. But a lawyer for two insurers countered that Carman, a Vermont man under investigation for the deaths of his … [Read more...] about Nathan Carman’s insurance trial comes to a close

Love Letters newsletter signup. Dear Meredith, I've been dating a man for about two months and the attraction is undeniable. It's the best sex of my life, he's got similar career and life goals, he's smart, makes me laugh when I'm panicking about nothing, he's grounded and tender. OK, OK ... yes, I'm in the honeymoon phase. But something is stopping me from going further into this relationship – the fact that he wants to move back to his home country in a few years, and he seems quite convinced he doesn't want to live here – Canada – long-term. And there is just no way I can see myself living where he is from. I want to explore things with him for a bit longer, but I'm really afraid that in a few months or in a year, we'll just be in the same place – or rather, we won't be because we won't want to live in the same country. I'm 32 and I do want to have children. I know I still have time, but it just feels like at this stage in my life, dating someone "just for … [Read more...] about He doesn’t want to live in Canada

Just a few weeks ago, the Democratic presidential field had a first tier that was clearly defined and stable enough that some were treating the moment as immutable. No longer. Race-reshaping turbulence has struck two of the campaign’s top trio. The oldest candidate, Bernie Sanders, has been temporarily sidelined by a heart attack. The second oldest, Joe Biden, is wrestling with a rumor-mongered mess partly of his own making. Only the third, Elizabeth Warren — age-wise, the youngest member of the Democrats’ septuagenarian set — has proceeded politically apace. Sanders, 78, knew his age could be an issue in this campaign, but believed it was surmountable. “I’m very blessed with my health,” he said a year ago. “I literally cannot remember the last time I missed a day because of illness.” That, obviously, has now changed. Sanders, who went out for a walk on Monday, says he will continue his run. But the heart problem that rendered … [Read more...] about Turbulence hits the Democrats’ top tier