A while back, Pete wrote on RaptorMage, "Real bloggers post notes from the events they attend."

A couple weeks ago I was at a book signing for Fareed Zakaria (The Future of Freedom). I don't care about having books signed, especially since I rarely buy my own copy, but the talks are interesting, it's something Karen and I can enjoy together, and it's free. We had been to Ted Halstead's (Real State of the Union) about a month earlier.

Today I'm reviewing various scribbles in the battered notepad which lives in my tote bag, and I see this note taken from that day: "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." That was Zakaria quoting someone. I didn't write down whom, but I think it was Ambrose Bierce.

If I were a real blogger, I'd remember more about the talk. All I recall is that Zakaria was in favor of the general policy of using American military and economic power to try to transform the rest of the world into progressive and prosperous Western-like places -- which perhaps means he supported the Iraq war -- but he feels that the Bush administration is doing a lousy job of it. I don't think the liberal crowd in North Seattle (represented by Jim "not under God" McDermott) knew quite what to make of him. They know they're supposed to cheer anyone who criticizes Bush, but they're also accustomed to being opposed to an imperialist foreign policy.

Zakaria is optimistic that fixing Iraq will transform the entire region. I'm not.

The old domino theory said that when one nation "falls" to communism, it will start a chain reaction in which all the other nations in the region fall, too. The new domino theory says that in a region where all the dominos are already lying on the table, if we reach out and stand one up, it will cause all the others to stand up as well. The old theory proved false. How much more plausible is the new one?

Yesterday I drove over the East Bay, my old stomping grounds, for a variety of errands in Oakland and Berkeley. Although I much prefer the weather and colors around the Puget Sound, it was still a pleasant feeling driving around all the familiar roads.

Passing through South Berkeley (near Ashby and Adeline, I think), I saw a store front with a big banner proclaiming it to be a Dennis Kucinich for President campaign headquarters. I guess he's still in the race. If he's going to have a headquarters somewhere, I suppose Berkeley is the logical place.

One of the errands was a meeting with the casting agent for the Mendocino Music Festival, where I had a bit part in the opera last year (Fanciulla). This year they're doing Pagliacci, which I had hoped to be cast in. That didn't pan out, but instead I am now hired to sing one of the parts in a concert presentation of Stravinsky's Renard, so it all works out.

In terms of money, this is a better deal. The pay is about the same as for a small part in the opera, but it's a lot less rehearsal and I don't have to memorize. It's also less singing, since Renard is only about 15 minutes long.

Of course, Stravinsky is much harder music to read than Puccini is, and opera singers as a group aren't exactly known for being good musicians. Presumably that's why I got the part. No, not presumably -- come to think of it, she stated it explicitly. Two of the other singers are a music professor and an orchestra musician (I forget which instrument) who also sings on the side. The fourth part (low bass) is not yet cast.

I found a better code for the "s" with the dot below, as used in transliterated Arabic. When I tried it before I was using a separate character for the dot alone, but now I've found the Unicode region which has the dots attached to specific letters.

Here's Nasser's name again: ʿAbd al-Nāṣir.

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