Oct 31, 2011

Dracula at the Esplanade

Over the weekend my family and I went to Esplanade Theatre in downtown Medicine Hat to see Dracula.  My friend Paul had a role in the production and we were all happy to see him on stage again.  He's always been interested in theatre so he was the really the reason we all decided to go.

The show had its moments, but if I'm honest, it was a bit hit and miss.  I was very impressed with the range of vocal talent in the show, and there were several stand out solos from the female leads that were expertly delivered.  There was a lot of inconsistency however, and some of the performers were either off-key or marginalized by an orchestra that occasionally hit a few sour notes.  

Whenever the ensemble performed together the show was at its best.  These were scenes that were clearly rehearsed the most thoroughly and they didn't disappoint.  I just wished there was more of them.  The problem with Dracula being a dramatic musical is that without more aggressive direction the show falls into familiar stereotypes that have been played to death.  It felt a bit slow and redundant at times and I think a lot of us were hoping for some parody or moments of levity to break up the relatively straightforward plot arch.

The role of Dracula seemed to be cast based on the vocal talents of the gentleman who played him, but he really didn't look the part.  The costumes also seemed like painful knock-offs from the nineties movie of the same title.  I felt the other leads were much more suited to their roles.

Paul did a great job and his scenes were some of the most entertaining.  He was funny, which the audience really seemed to enjoy, and he sounded great. 

In the end, Dracula had some obvious weaknesses, but it wasn't because the production was lacking talent.  It just seems the concept had no new or original ideas to bring to the stage and it's tough to pull off a familiar story when you're trying to make it resemble the ones that were already largely successful.  It's also the problem with local productions being that they just don't have the budget to allow their actors to rehearse as freely as other professional shows do. 


But hey, I don't want to be too harsh, it was a good enough reason for the family to spend time together and get into the spirit of Halloween. I just know this theatre company is capable of better.  


Oct 29, 2011

Family Pumpkin Carving

I found a few family snapshots from the early nineties of us carving pumpkins together. It never hurts to relive a few of your childhood memories.  After my post on Friday I thought it would be fun to share these for Halloween.


Oct 28, 2011

Jaguar XJ8 Throttle Body Cleaning

One of the flaws of the Jaguar XJ8 design from the 1998-2003 model was the throttle body.  It's very sensitive to carbon building up inside it which also complicates things with a TPS sensor that isn't as reliable as it should be.  In my short year and a half of owning this vehicle I've had to address both of these issues first hand.

While I was able to resolve my throttle body/TPS issue by swapping out the TPS from a salvaged part in the summer, I actually had some success earlier in the spring by cleaning the throttle body altogether.  While the TPS failing will actually throw you a code and will put the car into failsafe mode, a dirty throttle body will instead cause the car to stall or make it feel very jerky on acceleration.  It is possible that the code and failsafe mode could be linked to a dirty throttle body, but there obviously isn't a code that tells you to clean your car.   



This is something you can feel when you're driving though.  It's like the RPMs will putter out when you slow down or your acceleration will feel sticky on lower revs.  At the very least, knowing how to check out your throttle body is a valuable skill with this car that will save you time and money in the shop.  Cleaning is a relatively simple fix for a lot of this stuff.

To summarize what you need to do, you're just trying to clean the black carbon and soot that has built up underneath the butterfly valve in your throttle body.  Below I've posted pictures of what the engine looks like with the air intake tube removed.  At the top of the engine is the throttle body.  Cleaning it is as simple as buying throttle body cleaner, spraying it on a micro-fiber cloth, and diligently cleaning the soot from underneath the valve.

What is happening with a dirty throttle body is when that carbon/soot heats up it becomes a bit sticky and also reduces the narrow opening of the butterfly valve when the car is idling.  This explains why the car feels like it's about to stall sometimes and why the acceleration feels like it's lurching more than it should. 

CLICK HERE to download the step by step guide and walk through of how to specifically clean the Jaguar throttle body (with pictures illustrating the process).  These are the instructions I used, and I noticed a huge difference immediately after completing this job.