Opinion

Pampuch shows her true colors bashing Rush Limbaugh

When Cindy Lauper, (music and lyrics) and Harvey Fierstein (book) started to create Kinky Boots they never imagined that they would walk away with six Tony Awards, making Lauper the first woman to win a solo Tony for best score.Kinky Boots is one of those feel-good shows that keeps you smiling throughout the performance. It sends a well-worn preachy message “to accept everyone for what they are,” and the show makes it a fun lesson because of the music, vigorous cast and wild choreography.The play is based on a true story and movie about a failing men’s shoe factory in a town near London. Charlie (a charming Adam Kaplan) leaves his father’s business to work in London, only to return to sell the business when his father passes away. He finds, of course, that the workers depend on their jobs. He accidently meets Lola (an amazing J. Harrison Ghee), a bright, wild in-control drag queen who needs boots with heels that will support him/her and his cast in his show. The story goes on to acceptance and unacceptance of the situation, of the workers and people in the business.The show moves at a break-neck pace with chorography by director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell and wild, eye-catching costumes by Gregg Barnes. The dexterous number that has everyone leaping from one moving assembly line machine to another was a unique, clever piece of business.Lola’s act at her club consists of six dancing drag queens that make the best looking women on the planet look drab.For an evening of just plain well-done fun, laughs and a life lesson Kinky Boots is   extraordinary.Kinky Boots  Where: Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor Street, San FranciscoRunning Time:  2 hours, 20 minutes with one 15-minute intermissionPerformances Through May 22For tickets and information call 888-746-1799 or visit www.shnsf.com.

Last winter’s drenching rain filled many state and local reservoirs, and dumped a healthy dose of snow on the Sierra Nevada. But the state’s fragile Delta infrastructure threatens the delivery of imported water throughout the state, which can become challenging for water agencies, especially in times of drought.The Santa Clara Valley Water District knows that to protect us from future droughts and dependency on imported water, we must continue to work toward securing reliable local water sources. That’s why the water district has been hard at work expanding its recycled and purified water program.Recycled water is wastewater cleaned through multiple levels of treatment. It can be purified to produce water that meets or exceeds all state drinking water quality standards. Through a series of advanced treatment processes, wastewater is stripped of contaminants, pharmaceuticals, viruses and bacteria to produce clean, safe and drinkable water.All of these advanced processes can be seen up close at the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center in San Jose. The largest facility of its kind in northern California, the purification center is a cornerstone of our recycled and purified water program. Since its doors opened in 2014, this state-of-the-art facility has been key in our efforts to increasing our drinking water supply with this drought-proof water source, independent of rainfall.There are two paths to do this: through indirect potable reuse or direct potable reuse. The first consists of replenishing our groundwater aquifers by allowing purified water to filter naturally through soil and rock layers, to be pumped later for drinking. The second is to send purified water directly to our drinking water system after it has been treated. Both options require further research and would require expansion of our pipeline system.Currently, recycled water is used for landscaping, agricultural and industrial purposes, such as irrigation or for cooling towers. This allows us to conserve drinking water.Since before the historic drought, the water district has made great strides expanding the recycled water pipeline network with several projects, such as the South County Recycled Water Pipeline Project. A partnership between the water district, cities of Gilroy and Morgan Hill and the South County Regional Wastewater Authority, this effort will add about 14,500 linear feet of pipeline in South County. When completed, it will increase the availability of recycled water in the area by roughly 50 percent, from 2,000 acre-feet per year to up to 3,000. (An acre-foot is about the same amount of water two families of five use in a year). The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently awarded $5.7 million in federal funding for the project, equating to about 25 percent of the total project cost.   The four agencies have been working on expanding recycled water delivery for over a decade, as laid out in the South County Recycled Water Master Plan, which was introduced in 2004 and updated in 2015.For more information on our progress in recycled and purified water, I invite you to a free tour of our purification center. Schedule your tour and find tasting events at purewater4u.org.SCVWD Director John Varela represents the South County district, which includes Morgan Hill, on the water district’s board of directors. He can be contacted at [email protected].