“The Odd Couple” is one of Neil Simon’s most successful plays, and believe me he’s had a slew of them. He holds the record as Broadway’s most successful playwright with over 30 smash Broadway hits; with three running simultaneously, in a non-pareil career.

The genius that is Simon is his ability to resonate with his audience. One doesn’t laugh at his characters. One laughs with them and the laughs are non-stop. It should come as no surprise then that the Palm Desert Stage Company (PDSC) is presenting a first-rate production of Simon at his best; lovingly directed by Jeanette Knight.

Producer and founder of PDSC Colleen Kelley, who plays one of the Pigeon sisters in the production, gathered a cast of some of the Valley’s most talented and sharpest comedians and actors who bring fresh portrayals to Simon’s iconic characters of Oscar Madison and Felix Unger played by Lou Galvan and Matthew Shaker, respectively.

Galvan and Shaker are well known actors here in the Valley, and their on-stage chemistry plays like gangbusters under Knight’s creative direction. Galvan’s Oscar is a dynamo of energy with impeccable comedy timing. It’s always a pleasure watching him perform. He has a serious side but he excels in comedy roles; thank goodness.

Shaker as the fussy, about-to-be-divorced-from-his-wife, Felix, is a revelation. Shaker has run the acting gamut with such diverse roles as the villain in “Wait Until Dark”, at the Palm Canyon Theatre years ago, to Cornelius in “Hello Dolly” to Claude in “Hair” (the man’s a professional musician as well), to now as Felix in the PDSC production gem “The Odd Couple”. Shaker’s Felix brings another comedy dimension to the character created by Neil Simon. He and Galvan are the perfect “Odd Couple” It’s one of Shaker’s finest performances. His frustration with Galvan’s slob Oscar portrayal is priceless to watch.

Bolstering the entertaining production is the solid hilarious ensemble group of card-playing cronies of Oscar: Ron Young as Murray, Charles Williams Gaines as Vinnie, Peter Mins as Roy, and Alan Berry as Speed (it’s good seeing Berry back on the boards after a five year hiatus). Adding spice to the comedy proceedings are the aforementioned Colleen Kelley as Gwendolyn Pigeon, and Debbie Apple as Cecily Pigeon, the English sisters who live in the upstairs apartment in Oscars building.

It was gratifying to see a sold-out house on opening night at the Indio Performing Arts Center (IPAC). The mostly middle-age patrons of a “certain age” audience, relished the on-stage shenanigans of the actors remembering, no doubt, the first time seeing “The Odd Couple” back in the middle 1960’s. This production is like a good vintage wine that only gets better with age in the caring hands of a terrific ensemble cast.

“The Odd Couple performs at IPAC through November 23rd, 2014. Call the Palm Desert Stage Company Box Office at 760-636-9682 for reservations and ticket information.

It may only provide a tiny heads up, but even a few seconds could be crucial when it comes to earthquakes. The new QuakeAlert app can give users a warning about impending tremors which could save lives, avoid injury, and cut losses to businesses.

The California-based startup Early Warning Labs has teamed up with the US Geological Survey to create the QuakeAlert app over the next three years. Built around cloud technology, QuakeAlert is a smartphone app and in–home alarm system that notifies users within a few seconds of an incoming earthquake – about 30 seconds, according to TechCrunch. It does this through a countdown and alarm tone. It also delivers information on a quake’s intensity.

“The objective of an earthquake early warning system is to rapidly detect the initiation of an earthquake, estimate the level of ground shaking intensity to be expected, and issue a warning before significant ground shaking starts,” the company states on its website.

READ MORE: Fracking firms should be free to cause earthquakes when drilling – academics

The app is built around a network of seismic sensors that detect the first energy to emerge from an earthquake before the shaking begins, which the app can use to send early warning to its users in the affected areas. A few moments notice can help save lives and give town and city officials enough time “to shut gas lines, stop mass transit, open firehouse doors, and take other steps that may help reduce damage or speed recovery,” according to CBS News.

Additionally, the app will provide tips on what to do if a user is indoors, outdoors, or in a moving vehicle when an earthquake strikes.

READ MORE: Cockroaches to the rescue: ‘Cyborg’ insects can help save people trapped in earthquakes

The app itself will be free of charge, but each in-home alarm system will sell for about $100 each, EWL co-founder Josh Bashioum told TechCrunch. Both are currently available for pre-order on the company’s website.

Earthquakes cost American businesses billions of dollars in losses a year, according to the USGS. In the past 30 days alone, there have been 1,400 earthquake strikes across the world – with the US experiencing 160 of them. Just this past Wednesday, Kansas and Oklahoma felt an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.8 on the Richter scale.

READ MORE: North California must brace for major earthquake in near future – US Geological Survey

The number of earthquakes hitting the US has also risen over the past few years, which the USGS has linked to increased oil and gas exploration in some cases. According to the agency, “nearly 450 earthquakes magnitude 3.0 and larger occurred in the four years from 2010-2013, over 100 per year on average, compared with an average rate of 20 earthquakes per year observed from 1970-2000.”

I got a call this week from my oldest friend who lives in my old hometown of Chicago (brrrhh).
“I thought you were both a theatre critic and a film critic.  Why haven’t I seen any film reviews of yours lately?” he playfully needled me.  “There aren’t that many films worth investing a couple hours in a darkened, near-empty, theatre these days”, I replied.  But my answer to his question started me thinking about today’s movie market and its content.

In a desperate effort to capture both audiences and market share of an ever-changing demographic, a lot of “product” has to be thrown against the movie screens to find out which genre sticks.  Niche marketing works on a small scale, for some, but trying to predict what a worldwide audience will take to its heart 18 months in advance, well, that is a crapshoot that has disaster written all over it.  Forget quality.  In today’s world of $100 and 200 million dollar budgets, filmmakers only get one or maybe two shots at it.  Thus, the “safe” and less risky films are what’s being produced and screened.  It’s a “Hobson’s Choice” dilemma.  Here are three “mini-reviews” of films that have been released within the last 30 days. They are in no particular order.

“GONE GIRL” – A mystery/thriller written by Gillian Flynn, based her novel of the same name.

“Gone Girl”, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike is a mystery-thriller, directed by David Fincher that has the best chance of beating those formidable box office success odds I mentioned above.   But even with that being said, the finished product leaves a lot to be desired.  The lengthy story (two and a half hours) which we all kinda get anyway, boils down to how believable and how much willing suspension of disbelief we are prepared to accept in this shaggy dog story of a mystery/thriller.  For me, it became the overriding issue.  It almost ends three times along the way.

The story begins as a mystery about writer Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) whose wife Amy (Rosamund Pike), a successful author of children’s books, has gone missing on the couple’s 5th wedding anniversary and suspicions begin to point to him as somehow being involved.  I kept thinking I was watching a “Fatal Attraction” remake. Without a spoiler alert – there may be a patron who hasn’t seen the film yet – let’s just say Pike’s wonderful Hedda Gabler-like personality traits also has a lot of Glenn Close’s Alex Forrest tenacity as well.  Affleck has his moments, but most of his performance easily could have been phoned in.

The film has a solid cast that includes: Neil Patrick Harris, as one of Amy’s old boyfriends; Carrie Coon as Nick,s twin sister Margo; Kim Dickens as the police inspector in charge of the missing person case; Tyler Perry as Tanner Bolt, Nick’s defense attorney; and Sela Ward, in a cameo appearance as a TV show Host.  Most are wasted in roles unworthy of their talents.  The roles could have easily been cast from any of the many police procedurals found on TV these days.  The bottom-line on “Gone Girl”, despite box office numbers of over $ 90 million to date is that the film failed to engage me in the story with any measure of believability. Hey, different strokes for different folks.   One thing for sure, it isn’t a “Psycho” or a “Fatal Attraction” either.

“ST.VINCENT” –  A comedy written and directed by Theodore Melfi.

“St. Vincent” is a feel good Bill Murray movie all the way.  It’s hard to visualize anyone but Murray playing the part of quirky Vincent McKenna but quirky Bill Murray.  The Chicago area actor (he was born in Evanston, a Chicago suburb) brings his earlier Saturday Night Live TV and “Ghost Busters” movie experiences to the role of Vincent, a drunken, gambling, war veteran retiree who gets recruited by his new next door neighbor Maggie Bronstein (Melissa McCarthy) a newly-minted single mom who has asked Vincent to watch over her slightly-built, 12 year old son Oliver (wonderfully played by Jaeden Lieberther) during the day when she goes to work as a Nurse/technician in a hospital MRI unit.

Vincent has fallen behind in payments due to Doak, his regular ‘lady of the night’ (a leggy, sexy Naomi Watts lumbered with a heavy Russian accent) for service rendered.  His bookie (Terence Howard) is losing patience, as well, for non-payment of past gambling debts and sends two wise-guy collectors to prod Vincent into paying up.  After a trip the hospital for a couple days,  Vincent comes to the conclusion that a second job to pay off his debts is probably a good idea, and he accepts Maggie’s offer regarding Oliver.

This decision sets in motion a series of scenes where Vincent takes Oliver to the race track in an effort to pay off his debts quicker.  There are also scenes at Oliver’s Catholic High School during the day where we see him being bullied by his fellow students.  Vincent to the rescue in teaching Oliver how to fight back, etc.  If this scenario sounds familiar that’s because it is and it’s standard operating procedure in bonding films.

Instead of Clint Eastwood squinting menacingly or giving everyone steely-eyed stares as in “Gran Torino”, Murray doesn’t scare anyone he just amuses everyone.  It’s not all predictable silliness, however, Vincent has a wife in a home for Alzheimer and dementia patients for some time. This is when Murray allows us to a get a peek into Vincent’s dedication and compassion for his wife of many years.  Murray always manages to surprise audiences in his movies by delivering, poignant, and at times, unexpected finely judged performances that resonate with us “normal people”.

A series of penultimate scenes explains the film’s title.  Each student has been asked to write an essay about the lives of Catholic Saints and why they chose that saint.  It should come as no surprise to find that Oliver chooses Vincent McKenna as his “Saint” and why he selected him.   It’s a moving and an emotional scene as it should be, and as The Bard of Avon, said in his plays “… All’s Well, that Ends Well”.  Well, not quite, Murray as the new and lovable lug “St. Vincent” doesn’t take his new title very seriously.  It may be lightweight fare but it does entertain for fans of Murray.

“CITIZENFOUR” – Is a documentary/drama film produced and directed by Laura Poitras.

“CitizenFour” is the first documentary film concerning the explosive Edward Snowden/ NSA spying-on-US-citizens affair to be released.  The embarrassing expose of “uber-government oversight” concerning spying on millions of US citizens and foreign nationals by the National Security Agency hit the worldwide airwaves last year and still has traction as a subject matter despite the distractions of Isis and Ebola.

There is no doubt about it.  We live in a complicated, Byzantine-like Global Community whether we’re dealing in commerce, culture, or good old fashion espionage where governments spy on one another in order to gain that all-important advantage.  As US citizens, we expect our government to engage in that practice as well.  However, the resulting bombshells leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency computer whiz, revealed that our government was illegally spying (without required warrants) on millions of us as well.

Snowden has been demonized as a traitor by many for what he did and praised by others as a whistleblower with principles and a person with a conscience. What documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, Guardian journalist/ reporter Glenn Greenwald (who broke the story), and Edward Snowden agreed to do was record Snowden for eight days in a hotel room in Hong Kong in order to get his story on record before the government spinmeisters could put a national security label on the affair, thereby protecting the ongoing practice.

Despite one’s political positions, the powerful and revealing documentary captures, on film, Snowden and Greenwald discussing motivations, consequences, and a host of geopolitical ramifications.  One can feel the tension, the sense of urgency, and secrecy surrounding, not only the most wanted man in the world, but the two individuals who were documenting his story.  Poitras’ camera lingers long and up close allowing us to see the pressure and strain that Snowden is experiencing since bolting from the United States, without telling anyone, even his live-in girlfriend.  He secretly went underground; surfacing in Hong Kong days later and carefully contacted the two people he trusted: journalist Greenwald and filmmaker Poitras.

Surprisingly, there are no visible horns protruding from Snowden’s head.  We’re scrutinizing a 29 year-old, computer whiz, who is both intelligent and articulate and a person who fully understands what his actions have unleashed.  Producer/director Poitras uses existing TV video footage of American and NSA government officials testifying under oath and denying the existence of such events ever taking place.  There is an extensive press conference that takes place in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil conducted by Greenwald in Portuguese, outlining for Brazilian TV and their government officials what the Snowden leaks and its implications mean to the people of Brazil.

The focus of the film is Snowden, but there are others who are just as important.  The film could not have been made without Guardian (UK) newspaper reporter Glenn Greenwald and his editors in London.  Greenwald earned the complete trust of Snowden and became part of the creative team along with Poitras in telling Snowden’s story. The documentary is augmented by movie techniques that gives the film a motion picture feel and look.  Without that input, the film could have become a dry “talking head” format that wouldn’t have had the impact “CitizenFour” delivers.  (“CitizenFour” is also Snowden’s code name).  It’s a fascinating documentary.

All three films are now in general release in a theatre near you.

The fantastic decade-long mission of the ESA’s Rosetta robotic space probe, chasing Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, reached its final goal on Wednesday, as the Philae robotic lander detached from its mothership and landed on the target.

“We definitely confirm that the lander is on the surface,” said flight director Andrea Accomazzo.

The confirming signal broke a seven-hour silence and sparked scenes of elation at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) mission control center in Darmstadt.

“We are the first to have done that, and that will stay forever!” said ESA’s Director General J-J Dordain.

Gripped by suspense the scientists and the whole world waited for 28 minutes and 20 seconds for a signal from Philae, retranslated by Rosetta’s antennas, to travel 510 million km reach the control station on Earth after the probe landed.

However, Philae’s harpoons were not fired. Rosetta’s team is currently trying to determine the reasons why.

The scientific mission on the surface will last 64 hours, before its batteries die out. The probe also has solar panels, yet this power source is unreliable since the comet’s environment is very dusty.

The lander will study the comet’s surface, while scientists are keen on finding out if it contains any organic amino acids. This could yield vital clues about the beginning of our solar system and the origin of life on Earth.

Comets are icy bodies that are regarded as fossils that originated at the solar system’s inception, and they could provide scientists with some primordial material to investigate. That is why comets coming from the distant Oort cloud, rare guests to the inner solar system and therefore ‘untouched’ by the sun, present original materials that formed the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

TIMELINE: Waiting for Philae – How it happened

Rosetta comet-hunter started its journey in March 2004 with the aim of carrying out a detailed study of the frozen gaseous 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

The comet, around five kilometers by three kilometers, was named after the two Soviet astronomers, Klim Churyumov and Svetlana Gerasimenko, who discovered it in 1969.

Western policies toward Russia championed by Washington have led to the current crisis, and if the confrontation continues, Europe will be weakened and become irrelevant, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warns.

Speaking to a forum in Berlin amid the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, he called on western leaders to de-escalate tensions and meet Russia halfway to mend the current rift.

After the Cold War ended, the leaders of the western world were intoxicated with euphoria of triumph, and they adopted anti-Russian policies that eventually led to the current crisis, Gorbachev said.

“Taking advantage of Russia’s weakening and a lack of a counterweight, they claimed monopoly leadership and domination in the world. And they refused to heed the word of caution from many of those present here,” he said. “The events of the past months are consequences of short-sighted policies of seeking to impose one’s will and fait accompli while ignoring the interests of one’s partners.”

Gorbachev gave a list of examples of those policies, including the expansion of NATO and the development of an anti-ballistic missile system, military interventions in Yugoslavia and Iraq, the west-backed secession of Kosovo, the crisis in Syria and others. The Ukrainian crisis is a “blister turning into a bleeding, festering wound,” he said.

Europe is the one suffering most from the situation, Gorbachev said.

“Instead of becoming a leader of change in a global world Europe has turned into an arena of political upheaval, of competition for the spheres of influence, and finally of military conflict. The consequence inevitably is Europe’s weakening at a time when other centers of power and influence are gaining momentum. If this continues, Europe will lose a strong voice in world affairs and gradually become irrelevant,” he said.

What needs to be done is for the west to tone down its anti-Russian rhetoric and seek points of convergence, Gorbachev said. He added that his own experience in the 1980s showed that much worse and seemingly hopeless conflicts can be resolved, granted there is the political will and a right setting of priorities. He assured the forum that the Russian leadership was willing to do its part, as evidenced by President Vladimir Putin’s keynote speech at the Valdai Forum.

“Despite the harshness of his criticism of the West and the United States in particular, I see in his speech a desire to find a way to lower tensions, and ultimately to build a new basis for partnership,”Gorbachev said.

Ukraine may have set the scene for the current confrontation, but it can also become a focus for reconciliation between Russia and the West, according to Gorbachev. He called for the parties to join forces and help Ukraine overcome the consequences of the civil war it is currently going through.

Over the longer term, the system of European security must be reformed, because the enlargement of NATO and the current EU common defense policy have failed to produce positive results, Gorbachev said. This would likely require an overhaul of the OSCE, which in its current format is not up to the task, he said, while proposals to that effect have been voiced by policymakers both in the EU and in Russia, but they had been “filed away in the archives.”

“Had such a mechanism been created, the worst scenarios of the Ukrainian events could have been averted.”