Tuesday, March 27, 2012

West End Anti-Hero

Our most famous namesake is at it again. You don't stage a successful musical in London or most of Europe without Michael Ball as the male lead.

This time, he wows as Sweeney Todd in the current production at the Adelphi.

He's matured and the Financial Times likes it. Sarah Hemming writes that "Michael Ball, as teh murderous barer, is a revelation.Gone is the dimpled cherubic individual who beams at us from the programme pages; in his place is a brooding, taciturn lump of a man..Ball lets us see the wild emotons bubbling beneath the surface..." 

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Right Side of Love

Another Mike Ball for marriage equality...this one a Republican in New Hampshire.

J. Michael Ball is a conservative House member. He favors letting people be free in many ways. On marriage, he says, "I believe that adult citizens of New Hampshire possess the unalienable right to order their personal relationships with other adult citizens in the manner in which they see fit."

A bill to overturn the 2009 legalization of same-sex marriage is before the legislature. Republicans like Mike may well defeat this.

As he told the Concord Monitor, he and other Republicans view this as a liberty issue:
"As someone who grew up in the South and went to a segregated elementary school, I know what segregation looks like and that's exactly what this bill is," Ball said. "The idea that we are the party of small government and more liberty flies in the face of this attempt to use government to micromanage a certain group of people's lives. That is not acceptable."

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Our Alabama Man Picks Big Race

Wow, I have not been updating here. I'll re-try.

The Mike Ball in the Alabama House regularly makes political news there. Click below to hear him on The Takeaway as part of a podcast on GOP power in the South this year. He talks recent history and trends.

He and NY Times reporter Campbell Robertson kick around the angst of Southern Republicans. Rep. Ball speaks to the need to blend winger POTUS candidates' traits. He also suggests the best VP candidate to get them to close ranks.