Replies: 32 Unseemly Comments
The interview with Kerry Butler was great but why was there no mention of PRODIGAL, the show she did after BAT BOY and before HAIRSPRAY? This was the U.S. premiere of an Australian musical and featured Kerry along with Allison Frazier and Joshua Parks. It played at the York Theatre and is allegedly being recorded by Jay Records (which means recorded but held back for months or years for release). Kerry played a young performance artist.
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 07/20/2002 10:16 AM PST
I wasn't able to post my favorite British movies yesterday because of some glitch on the site, so I'm trying again today.
Until looking at your lists, I hadn't realized there were so many films I hadn't seen. Here are my favorites from those I have seen...
The Red Shoes
Black Narcissus
The Winslow Boy
Billy Elliott
The Spanish Gardener
Brief Encounter
Bridge Over River Kwai
Ryan's Daughter
The 39 Steps
The Lady Vanishes (most of it)
Now I'm off to the video store to rent some of YOUR favorites!
Posted by Donna - Cabaret West @ 07/20/2002 10:21 AM PST
I'm very glad you had a good day yesterday, BK. It is very unseemly when any of us faithful readers/posters of haineshisway.com has a bad day.
Although we here at haineshisway.com are not in Kansas, Dear Reader Sandra and the rest of our family are in Kansas this week at a family reunion, leaving me all alone at home, where I am having many various and sundried adventures.
My thought when reading the Kerry Butler interview: Good Lord! She's one of us!
My dad would only eat at one restaurant -- Monti's La Casa Vieja in Tempe.
Posted by Laura @ 07/20/2002 10:44 AM PST
There was one comment BK made in today's column that made me speak out loud -- my cat jumped and my heart quickened at the sound of it.
The utterance was "Heaven forfend."
Lest anyone be offended, I won't reveal what stateement it was.
As a child, my first memories are of the small southern town where I spent my first seven years. In South Carolina, small towns ARE small. There was Wade's Diner -- I remember eating burgers there and also catfish. Folks in that town would go fishing on the weekends. If you took your cleaned fish into Wade's, he would cook them for you, along with hushpuppies and fries and a salad for a really good price. And there was a nearby larger town called Orangeburg where we would go for shrimp. I liked shrimp. But I liked the goldfish in the little cement pond in front of the restaurant in Orangeburg a whole lot more.
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 07/20/2002 11:13 AM PST
BK! You make me blush! I went on over to the boxoffice review, and was impressed with the reviewer's comment about THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW in conjunction with TFNM. One of my earliest reviews over at www.dvdlaunch.com (I'm certain that Zach continues to thank you for the plugs) was of ROCKY HORROR! So, it only shows to go, ya never know!
Posted by td @ 07/20/2002 12:27 PM PST
First restaurant for me would
have to be the (no longer
existing) Hi-Way Grille here in
my hometown of Ellensburg,
WA. Downhome diner type of
place. When but a twig of a
sprig of a lad, we lived only a
block away from said
restaurant, and my father was
a morning regular. I would
often join him, and Mom would
join us over there for dinner
from time to time.
Posted by Jed @ 07/20/2002 12:46 PM PST
More restaurants! It makes me hungry to hear about them - the more detail the better.
Seeing the Brit film lists you realize just how vital English filmmaking has been over the years - some truly amazing films.
Posted by bk @ 07/20/2002 01:10 PM PST
You want MORE restaurants? Well, one of our very favorite places is an old-fashioned ice cream parlor, Sugar Bowl, which has the same decor as it had when it opened back in the 1950s. We celebrate every milestone in our family there. One of the waitresses has literally watched our kids grow up!
Another favorite is called Organ Stop. It's a pizza parlor with live entertainment. There's an old moviehouse Wurlitzer organ which is rigged up so that the organist can play about two dozen instruments right from the organ bench. The instruments are located throughout the very large room. They play a lot of show stuff, plus Berlin, Gershwin, Disney, movie music, etc. Great place to take visitors and other people's kids.
Posted by Laura @ 07/20/2002 02:05 PM PST
Happy 33rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 walk on the moon! Where were you 33 years ago?
Today the topic of discussion is more difficult than the Unseemly Trivia Contest. I must continue to consider…
Posted by freedunit @ 07/20/2002 02:44 PM PST
William-
I'm guessing you saw Prodigal? Kerry was indeed a performance artist in that show which had a limited run at the York. It was a mix bag with critics, but you are right.. there are supposed plans to record it, but I wasn't aware that it was JAY definitively. If you saw it, tell us how it was. Alison Fraser is a formidable talent.. a gifted actress and performer who thrives on unique material instead of going after traditional broadway shows. Maybe Bruce will interview her too!
Laura: I would agree with you.. she's one of us for sure (which is either realllllly good.. or reallllllly bad LOL). Of all the people I have encountered in the biz she is one of the most grounded and unaffected people in the industry, which I give her tremendous credit for.
As for restaurants... does Howard Johnsons count ;) I think that's the first place I remember eating..
Posted by Craig @ 07/20/2002 03:20 PM PST
Bitch-slap whomever it was who decided the tangerine-and-teal color scheme! Bitch-slap him for being fabulous! Fried clams, Craig?
Posted by freedunit @ 07/20/2002 03:35 PM PST
Yes.. that was my favorite food there.. ahh.. memories. I also have fond memories of eating at Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips (having their hotdogs dipped in batter and on a stick! Mind you.. these were not CORN dogs.. these were hotdogs in a a batter like they used for "so much fish")
also, if we can be nostalgic about fav. childhood ice creams.. my favorite type of ice cream novelty that I first remember eating was the orange push up pops from the good humor truck!
Posted by Craig @ 07/20/2002 03:43 PM PST
was I the only one that would save the plastic parts of the push up parts and put two together to make little "dumbells" ??
OK.. maybe I was...
Posted by Craig @ 07/20/2002 04:06 PM PST
I jumped the gun with today's topic, by posting about the Smoke House. But I can also remember having spaghetti at the Tam O'Shanter, owned by the same people responsible for Lawrey's Prime Rib and Lawrey's Seasoning Salt, but predating both. And it was at Kiko's, a Mexican restaurant, that I learned not to double-dip the chips in the salsa.
Freedunit's question about where we were when they landed on the moon: My family and I were off camping in Northern California somewhere. Throughout the camp, radios were all playing the same station, with people huddled about, and when they landed a great cheer went up from every tent and camp table. That contrast, the remote forest and the technological triumph we were listening to, is what I remember most. The film seems unreal to me, not a part of my memory at all. What I remember is the sounds, and the trees.
Posted by S. Woody White @ 07/20/2002 04:58 PM PST
Craig -
Yes I saw PRODIGAL. It was very good although a little cliched. They had a lot of problems and the director was fired shortly before opening. James Morgan, the York's artistic director, took over. He got rid of the drag scene which unfortunately was in all the publicity photos and made it look like a completely different show than it was. The whole cast was excellent but the publicity was bad and it did no business. The York was selling the original Australian cast album which is quite good, but I look forward to the American cast. It was on the Jay web site (finally updated after months) that it would be recorded, but they have so much already recorded and unreleased (studio recordings of ONE TOUCH OF VENUS and ANYONE CAN WHISTLE and York recordings of ROADSIDE and THE IT GIRL) that I have no idea when PRODIGAL will be released. The York always does good work and I urge anyone in the NYC area to check them out (and no, James Morgan is not paying me to say that).
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 07/20/2002 04:58 PM PST
I've recorded several shows that were done at the York - Little By Little, After the Fair, No Way to Treat a Lady, Godspell - I'm really fond of James Morgan and I like his theater very much indeed.
Posted by bk @ 07/20/2002 05:08 PM PST
I can really recommend No Way To Treat a Lady. It is one of my favorite scores and it is one that I kept and did not sell in my Ebay "getting rid of my musical collection earlier" earlier this year.
I would like to point out that we should all go to the amazon site for Last Nudie Musical and click on The Yes (the review was helpful)botton and the no (this review was NOT helpful)button to all those nasty and vindictive reviews against Mr. Kimmel. The no votes make the reviewer look like they have an agenda with their nasty reviews.
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 07/20/2002 06:24 PM PST
To Michael Shayne-
LAST Nudie Musical?
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 07/20/2002 06:43 PM PST
must.
get.
over.
20
posts.
.......we can do it!!!
Posted by Craig @ 07/20/2002 09:29 PM PST
Twenty posts. Pshaw. I want more first restaurants, you people. I'm not out on a Saturday night, why should you be? I have a craving for something bad - like an entire coconut cream pie.
Posted by bk @ 07/20/2002 10:10 PM PST
Oh, all right...here's number 20 or 21 (depending on whether someone is posting at the same time).
Would someone be so kind as to tell me which BK-produced album(s) have the songs from "Smile" on it/them?
Yes, there are all sorts of people out there with agendas -- on the far right and on the far left and in the extreme middle, too. They are the malcontents of our society.
One such (he's extreme, though I'm not sure he has any sense of direction) likes to attack people in newsgroups and messageboards, which he explains is just his way of keeping things stirred up and interesting. It's not, actually. The poor thing has absolutely nothing going for him, including taste in anything, and putting down others is the only way he can feel alive.
Fortunately, he doesn't come here.
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 07/20/2002 10:13 PM PST
Well, I can only have one memory of a first restaurant.
But as for DESSERTS...WELL, I have to tell you my earliest ecstasy over dessert was eating my mother's pecan pie!
Oof! That's good pie! REALLY GOOD!
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 07/20/2002 10:15 PM PST
The songs from Smile are on Unsung Musicals and Unsung Musicals III. Unsung Musicals has the title song, Disneyland and In Our Hands. Unsung III has Maria's Song sung by the divine Diana Canova. Disneyland is sung by original cast member Jodie Benson, who did it in the show, Smile is perfectly sung by Harry Groener and girls, and In Our Hands by Lynette Perry and girls.
As to the idiot poster you speak of - if he DID come here he would be booted out so fast it would make his head spin - we have the technology.
Posted by bk @ 07/20/2002 10:38 PM PST
First Restaurants! I suspect they are defined differently here in OZ. When I was a kid in the early 50's a restaurant was BIG TIME. My parents and their friends would not even have been to one! the downmarket version was CAFE. Our local Chinese Cafe was where people would go for special occasions. ("Bings" I think it was called.). I would make sure that I ordered something from the NON -Chinese food section. My first restaurant meal was probably steak and eggs! Burger type places were really not around either. The local fish & chip shop was the only place where you could buy a hamburger. Fast food was not really an option. The excitment of dessert was worth the wait at the Cafes - banana or pineapple fritters. Good Grief. This was a time when the only frozen food available was ice-cream! I remeber the arrival of the first supermarket in out town - not trolleys but wire baskets and you self-served. It was a revolution in buying. (We didn't get TV in OZ until 1956 so we needed something new to entertain us - the supermarket!)
Posted by Tom from OZ @ 07/21/2002 12:06 AM PST
My first restaurant meal is difficult to pin down, but it must have been chicken (white meat) with mashed potatoes and gravy.
When my brother and I were wee sprigs of twigs of lads--he somewhat less wee than I--we would have a special Sunday breakfast--sticky rolls, which made my hands feel all icky and the prospect of putting on a wool suit for church was heinous, heinous I say. But don it I would, and we would hie us to Grace Lutheran Church for Sunday School followed by the Service. My brother and I must be very quiet in Church on pain of not having Dad read us the funny papers later.
After Church we always went to the local cafeteria, whose name escapes me, where we were allowed to pick our own meals, within reason. Chicken must always be white meat (I have no idea why). Roast beef must always be well done, as unscrupulous restauranteurs might substitute pork and thence trichinosis. My mother grew up during the Depression, and everything was suspect.
We must be quiet and still in the restaurant, upon pain of not having Dad read us the funny papers later. Such is not the rule in most families I see in restaurants nowadays.
Upon returning home and changing into less heinous clothing, Dad would read us the funny papers--unless, of course, we had "acted up" in Church, and then woe to us--beginning with "Dick Tracy", which he enjoyed immensely, being an F.B.I. agent himself.
After that, "Maggie and Jiggs", which always left Dad laughing and us puzzled, and "Major Hoople", which none of us understood. Dad would wax enthusiastic over "Terry and the Pirates", "Buzz Sawyer", and "Joe Polooka". I much preferred "Henry", although it had no dialogue. "Peanuts" had not yet appeared--can you imagine that there was a benighted age before "Peanuts"? None of us liked "Mary Worth", and she usually went unread.
How very autobiographical. Who am I, Benjamin Kritzer all of a sudden?
Posted by William F. Orr @ 07/21/2002 02:56 AM PST
Whoops!
Last Nudie Musical of course was the First Nudie Musical. Do I have egg on my face! Since I did come up with a most excellent trivia question this weekend.
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 07/21/2002 03:06 AM PST
As for the restaurant I was going to say Mamma Mia. It was Italian and I ate pizza. I remember it for my younger sister at the time ordering all dress pizza and then proceeding to take all the toppings of it and eating it plain.
I do remember Howard Johnsons. They did not have them in Canada at the time. As a child we were on a road trip in the states somewhere and we stopped at Howard Johnson for lunch. I don't remember what I ate, but I do remember what I had for dessert. It was moca chip ice cream IMHO their best flavor. I was suppose to get a single scoop, but I guess the lady behind the counter took a shine to be and gave me a quadruple scoop. I guess it pays to be a cute kid.
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 07/21/2002 03:13 AM PST
I lurk here quite abit, and I finally have to say it:
What the hell are you babbling about?
Bruce, may I suggest 25mg of valium every 4 hours?
Posted by Broadway Joe @ 07/21/2002 05:59 AM PST
My first restaurant memory? I am not sure of the chronology. I was about two or two-and-one-half years old at the time, so which came first is a bit foggy. It was either the coffee-shop-family-diner-type restaurant that was in the small shopping center that adjoined the hospital campus where my father was a resident, and across the street from our apartment, or it was the basement coffee shop of the hospital. I can still remember vividly the pneumatic drills that were being used to build a new wing; they terrified me. If the former, the meal was scrambled eggs. If the latter, it was a cheeseburger with a sour pickle and oily, tasty Jay’s potato chips, because the restaurant did not serve French fries.
Broadway Joe: What gives?
Posted by freedunit @ 07/21/2002 09:36 AM PST
so there!
Posted by 30th poster @ 07/21/2002 10:49 AM PST
Is it just me, or did anyone else notice that the new column hasn't gone up as of the date/time of this post?
Bruce, Bruce...are you there?
Hope nothing is wrong!
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 07/21/2002 12:05 PM PST
I don't know how unseemly-a-mood I am in right now. I just wanted to say: charming, engaging, your book was so sweet and touching. Nostalgic, but not drippy. At least not post-nasal, maybe Washington Post, in March, anyway. Anyway, it was an odd and unexpected delight to see you, BK, in, of all places, The Palm Springs Street Fair!? It jolted me into the past and drenched me in colorful memories
My father still refers to William Jarvis as "a genius, a genius!" referring, of course, to his acting by the numbers method. If my father was ever sane, he's lost it all now. I had forgotten that that was the first place we met...I always found you to be intriguing, unique, a little scary for a vulnerable young prodigy as myself. But, perhaps that "crush" I had on you, explains some of my temperament?
It took me a couple of nights to read the novel, not because I'm slow, but I had to read it in-between other demanding projects. But it was a delight! I can't wait for the sequel. My first restaurant? Probably Bob's Big Boy. But my first important one: The Pizza Show: Hawthorne, CA. The whole family could eat, pizza AND spaghetti for under $10! The cheese was tangy, and even better, you could see the pizza maker tossing the round dough into the air and catching it on his knuckles. I was only about eight years old. OH yes, and there was the Beverly HIlls Hotel, crab legs and ....pasta? The surroundings were impressive and I met Jack Fina at the piano, although I didn't even think of ordering Jack Fina for dessert! I'd like for you to see my plays when they happen: sometime next year, exact date is still negotiable.
Tell me more about YOU. Inquiring minds want to know. Oh yes, I think you definitely were adopted and raised by Martians. But, Martian or not, she must have loved you very much to have cried everytime she beat you with a hanger. If that helps. Did you wait until the Martians had died or returned from whence they came, before writing the novel?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Love,
Leslie
Posted by joanielesliecahnnaypellmannaysharp @ 12/17/2002 08:55 PM PST
