I will be participating in the Houston Gilbert and Sullivan Society‘s annual gala, An Auction of Arias, at 7pm on Saturday, May 18, at Ouisie’s Table in River Oaks. Our Auction of Arias lets you shape the evening’s entertainment! Guests will get to bid for the opportunity to select the next song to be performed. The songs will be grouped in three courses: Appetizer, Main Course, and Dessert. The winning bidders can choose from a select number of options for that course, with many Gilbert and Sullivan favorites but also arias from opera and musical theater. Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo’ Randolph Holford will be our auctioneer for this exciting event.
Whether I will sing or not is up to you…high bidder gets to pick the next song over the course of the evening. Coupled with some other great experiences and the always amazing cuisine served at Ouisie’s Table, this is an event you do not want to miss. Get your tickets now at
https://events.readysetauction.com/gilbertandsullivansocietyhouston/2024gala
I am honored to be the newly-elected president of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston. I want to state my gratitude for the leadership of our immediate past president, Steve McCary, who remains on the board and will chair the production committee.
Members of the board thought I should introduce myself, so – if you want to know who I am – read on.
My love of Gilbert & Sullivan came about through my father, Jerry, who bought a cassette of G&S “greatest hits” after watching the movie Chariots of Fire, in which the music of G&S figures quite prominently. We played that tape endlessly on family road trips and learned all the songs by heart. The next year, Beaumont Civic Opera decided to perform H.M.S. Pinafore and my entire family – my father, my mother Norma, my brother David, and myself – all sang in the chorus. I’ve been hooked ever since.
I joined the Society in 1990 when I became a chorister for Yeoman of the Guard. In the ensuing third of a century I have sung in the chorus, understudied, performed lead roles, created the Society’s first website, worked in the box office, cleaned the warehouse, served on the board, organized sing-alongs, and bicycled from Houston to Chicago to fundraise for the Society. Through the Society I have made life-long friends and met the love of my life, Anne née Curran…herself a lifetime Houston G&S member, being the daughter of former Society performer Diana Linder and step-daughter of our long-time conductor Robert Linder.
I have also performed G&S roles at the Hot Springs Music Festival and with the Young Artists program at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, and was the éminence grise of the Rice Light Opera Society, where I also was a performer, director (both stage and technical), and producer. I have appeared as a soloist and member of the ensemble with many churches, synagogues, and other groups in Houston, including the Bach Society and Cantare, and was executive director of Opera Vista, a recipient of The Houston Press’s Mastermind Award, where I staged world premiers of several operas.
When I’m not involved in a performance, you can find me working as a freelance IT consultant, driving our daughter Kate to rehearsals, or cycling on back roads around Houston.
I look forward to continuing our mission of bringing first-rate productions of these wonderful operas to Houston audiences, and I thank you all for your continued support as we build on the success of the past seventy-two years.
Joe Carl White
President
The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston
Four years ago, I wrote up a list of dos and don’ts for my clients to help keep them safe on their computers. Many found the list extremely helpful, and when I would visit they would proudly point out where they had taped it up by their computer or that they had shared it with their family and friends.
I’ve now started giving presentations based on the list, and have updated it a bit. Here is the PDF version.
Major props to Mark Rober, Jim Browning, Trilogy Media, and all the folks associated with this.
“Please share this video and let’s shut them down!
Jim’s video- https://youtu.be/0dT6jB2Dbmk Trilogy Media’s video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfQU_… If you are with the press or a law enforcement agency and you would like access to all the evidence we’ve amassed against these 3 centers, please email us at CallCenterEvidencePack@gmail.com How to avoid being scammed: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-avoid-scam
If you suspect that you or a loved one has been the victim of fraud, you can call the National Elder Fraud hotline at 833-372-8311 and report it to the FTC by visiting the agency’s website or calling 877-382-4357. https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/form/main“
In May a group called the Mises Caucus took over the Libertarian National Committee. The public pronouncements that then began emanating from that body via the @LPNational Twitter handle showed that they were going to be messaging in a non-libertarian manner, so I called the national office told them to cancel my monthly donation.
A few days later, I received an email from Angela McArdle, the current chair of the LNC, asking for a time to call and introduce herself. I agreed, and on June 20th we spoke for about half an hour. I asked her why she had reached out to me, and she said because I called in to National. She said that she is going to try to reach out to everyone that calls or emails about cancelling donations. I told her that what I saw happen in the Republican Party before I left them years ago I was seeing happening in the LP now: when your messaging is such that bigots feel welcome, that is what you get as members of the party. She said she would relay my concerns to the communications department.
The messaging that has followed shows either she did not relay my concerns, or that they were ignored. If anything, the messaging has grown even more odious. Add to that the messaging coming from individual officers, and the rot in the LNC appears to be total.
Further, they have charged my credit card again after I explicitly told them to cancel. I do not know if this is an example of incompetence or fraud, but neither explanation is a good sign.
I know many who have left the national party because of this takeover, and many more who, like me, are redirecting their support from national and instead supporting initiatives like the Libertarian Policy Institute in addition to state and local parties and candidates that are truly striving for liberty in our lifetime.
I still believe that coercion is wrong, that people prosper when they are free, and that the ideals of the Libertarian Party are worth fighting for; the current Libertarian National Committee, based upon their messaging, does not.