I sure hope I can spot you in that sea of empty seats.

The Midland/Odessa symphony is currently playing in large churches and/or the MCM Fundome. (Source: http://www.mosc.org/season.shtml)

How many nights can they fill a 2,000 seat house?

Walsingham ... didn't you mean, "I'll be waving at all you chumps FR0M the balcony?"

When Mr. Walsingham is issued his seat down front, up by the stage, in the "Scharbauer-Williams-Brown-Wagner-Beal-Billingsley-Dufford-Dingus-Perry Midessa Music Hall, Theatrical Performance Venue and Cockfight Arena", he will be able to wave at all of us chumps in the cheap seats in the balcony. I think a grand or so should be a sufficient donation for him to be able to be close enough to the stage to be audible and visible when booing the Dixie Chicks.

A grand will not be nearly enough to be able to be down in front to boo the Dixie Chicks...one of the major fundraising events will be to bid on those seats.

Isn't there a rule about not throwing popcorn from the balcony? ... oh wait thats Summer Mummers.

Wow. Good point, BC. Does the construction of the new SWBWBBDDPMMHTPVCA mean the end of the Yucca Theater, too? (That would be another building the downtown "development" folks can get rid of for more parking.)

And what of the community theater that we just (privately) paid to refurb and upgrade? Didn't Mr. Jebsen of the theatre weigh in on this issue some time back? Something along the lines of "where will all the performances come from that are supposed to occupy the new digs?"

I sense a trend. Downtown gets left behind by outside of downtown development, in town shops are supplanted by shops on The Loop, Christensen and Memorial Stadia are abandoned for the Sports Complex...

But we can always hope for housing to follow behind. Anyone out there bid on the downtown dwellings yet?

"Certified public accountant James Smith, who recently completed a fundraising drive to put air conditioning in the Lee High School gym, said there is a lot of wealth in Midland."

Pathetic... utterly pathetic. Our schools have to raise private money to a/c gyms while they speak of building a building that will hardly ever be used. Additionally, don't we already have the Midland Center, the Ector Co. collisium, the new Horseshoe, the Midland Chap Center, the Midland Community Theater, etc.??

Why doesn't anyone stand up and say we don't need yet another mostly empty building? And all the while our kids sweat in un-airconditioned buildings because there is no money!?! The whole world has gone insane...

Oh no, our kids are sweating. Didn't the people of Midland vote down putting in A.C. units in the gyms at MHS and Lee during a recent bond election? I think in that case the people did speak.

The point about having all those facilities was a good one. Probably will factor in when the convention center goes down in flames.

They will never, never tire of spending our money. We need to give them an incentive to quit proposing new projects. Vote out of office every elected official who endorses any new project. Make it a “litmus test”, which trumps every other consideration. Endorse a new project and out you go.

It would appear that true Conservatism has died in West Texas, having been replaced by the same socialistic neo-conservatism that has overrun the so-called "conservatives" in other areas of the country. There's more to being a Conservative community than just going to church on Sunday and liking guns. Poor ol' Midland sure must be changing.

I've noticed that honest politicians generally get sick of it, which may mean that they are real people in politician's drag. Nothing, I suppose, is more enticing than spending other people's money on something which you suppose they might like, with the added fillip of extracting the money by menaces--and taxes are by definition menaces.

Is this really any different from a gangster demanding protection money?

It takes strength of character to act with probity for other people; a good friend told me that when she was an elected official and she asked devil's advocate questions, the people for whose benefit she asked them didn't understand what she was doing.

And with elected office comes power. One of the truly wise sayings is that the dollar is a fungible unit of power. I have no love for Bill Gates but he at least earned his power. Is there a form of life lower than someone who promises to do good and then, having acceded to power, finds disposing of other's liberty and property to be as addictive as any drug?

Witness the popinjays in office today. Seduced by the flattery of people trying to get to that power, to have access to that power. To get some of that power.

Let's take up a collection and buy every elected official a poodle. They can shake their fingers at the dog, which will cringe on the carpet, hiding its bug-eyes behind its paws, and when they feel indulgent, that is, when the poodle has cowered enough and abased itself enough, they can crook an indulgent finger at it and it will race to their laps, barking joyously.

I wonder if any of them would get the message.