haines his way

07/27/2002:
"INTRIGUE, DRAMA, SUSPENSE!"

Well, dear readers, just when you thought we were partied out they pull us back in. Yes, you heard it hear, dear readers, there is more partying to be done and by gum and by golly we are going to do it. So, pick up those pointy party hats, wash those colored tights and pantaloons and put them back on, get out a fresh supply of cheese slices and ham chunks and most importantly birthday cake – because today we have two count them two birthdays to celebrate here at haineshisway.com. Yes, Virginia, we shall be eating cake until the cows come home and let me tell you that’s a long long time because those fershluganah cows have been gone for months. So, let us dance the pudding dance in honor of our very own Susan Gordon and our very own Lolita. Our very own Lolita, as a matter of fact, will have to change her name because she is now no longer in Lolita territory, having turned eighteen this very day. We wish them both the happiest birthdays ever wished and we do hope they will be celebrating and dancing the Hora and perhaps even the Locomotion.
Last night I went to see my friend Grant Geissman’s daughter in Annie (in a version called Annie Jr. or Annie Lite) at her school. It was charming, but very truncated. Most of the songs were there, but the juniorized it even more by removing most of the book scenes and adding narration to tell the story. That actually worked just fine. They had to make one other series of changes because, being part of a summer program, only one boy auditioned. He played the role of Drake, the servent, so I think you know what they had to do. Yes, Virginia, the other male roles were played by females. They changed Daddy Oliver Warbucks to Olivia Warbucks, and that is who Grant’s daughter, Greer played. She was very good – and this was the first real role that she’s ever played (she was in the chorus of Bye Bye Birdie). There was one little pipsqueak girl in the chorus who was so cute and so charming and so precocious that I will say she could have done any production of Annie anywhere, including Broadway. She sang, she danced and she was hilarious. Anyway, we all had a marvelous time.
Speaking of Bye Bye Birdie, tonight I’m going to the Alex Theater with my friend Nick Redman. They are showing the film on their big Alex screen – but the best part is that there was a young boy who was in the film (in Birdie’s big first number) and his mother apparently took home movies on the set and they’re going to show those for the very first time. They shot those big numbers on the Universal lot (it was a Columbia film) and she has footage of a visit from Gregory Peck and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as Ann-Margret’s 21st birthday party. This series of films is to honor gypsies in film, and I’m told that quite a few gypsies from film show up – I’ll have a full report for you tomorrow.
Well, it’s cleaning lady day, so I must hurry, hurry, hurry (that is three hurrys) and get out before she starts giving me the evil eye, so let’s all click on the Unseemly Button below so we can be like Kermit and movin’ right along.

Well, today is our handy-dandy Unseemly Trivia Contest and I have had no time to come up with something truly clever – but I like this question so I’ll ask it:
These three actors have one very specific thing in common
Stanley Rushton, Robin Mayfield and Liam McNulty
What is it?
Clue: They once all appeared in the same play.
Remember, DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWERS TO THE SITE. Send them to me via e-mail at bruce@haineshisway.com or simply use the Ask BK Button. Good luck to one and all and also all and one.
Late last night a new visitor posted something that was designed to provoke a reaction. In the post he inferred how he found this site in a very specific way that is impossible. Let us ignore such things – because had our regulars here seen this post (it posted after most of our posters were off galavanting or sleeping) there would have been lots of responses, but as Minnie Kritzer would say, I would prefer to let sleeping dogs lie for the time being. What is most amusing about this sort of thing is that it is so transparent. I suppose the poster could have been referring to something else, or making an honest query, but the way in which it was worded (including the inference of how he found the site) would lead any reasonably bright person to suspect otherwise.
Intrigue, drama, suspense, we have it all here at haineshisway.com, and if I hadn’t called attention to it my feeling is, for various reasons, it would have increased over the next few days. I have now called attention to it, so please honor my wishes and do not rise to the bait. Have you ever called attention to “it”? Did “it” warrant the attention?
Well, I am now officially being given the evil eye, dear readers, so it is time to for me to take the day, to amscray, to take a hike, to hit the road, Jack, but I will be back and I will have more to say. Let’s not let this be one of those dullsville weekends where everybody goes and does things – we simply can’t have that. Do check in every now and then. Don’t forget, tomorrow Donald will be putting up a brand spanking new radio show, the first of our dear reader listener’s picks of favorite show tunes – and it features a conversation with our very own Mr. Craig Brockman – Mr. Brockman is especially good at getting to the root of Intrigue, Drama and Suspense, if you get my drift. Today’s topic of discussion: What books are you currently reading? I must confess, I’m currently not reading, as I’m currently writing, so I like to hear about the things others are reading. So, what are you reading and do you like it? Post away, my pretties.

Replies: 37 Unseemly Comments

Right now I'm reading Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire. He also wrote Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, soon to be a Broadway musical w/Kristen Chenowith as Glinda, the Good Witch. I like Confessions very much, tho not as much as Wicked or Benjamin Kritzer, which I just finished.
Posted by Ben @ 07/27/2002 10:10 AM PST

I'm the first poster! I don't think that has happened yet in my time here. Gold Star for me.
Posted by Ben @ 07/27/2002 10:11 AM PST

Why is it that every Saturday, Bruce's description of his cleaning lady always puts the image of "Rosario" from "Will and Grace" into my mind. (And shouldn't her name be "Rosaria"??? Isn't the feminine ending an "a"?).
I won't rise to the bait. No, no. And I think it's quite apparent to everyone who has been here for quite some time that you've held your feelings close, you have not disparaged the "label that no one dares speak of" and that you fully realize you've sent a lot of business that way, in spite of it all, because many of us are just now learning about all those magnificent albums you produced there.
I will confess I look on eBay first -- mainly because I want deals -- but have found things cheaper at the site because some folks think their titles have gone OOP or something.
I'm getting all nervous and apprehensive because Mr. Donald Feltham will be calling in about 35 minutes -- oh, yes! And I've been guzzling coffee to render myself alert because my 18-year-old cat Vickie kept waking me up every hour during the night -- don't ask me why. I don't KNOW why! Only she knows and she ain't talkin'.
She is now curled up on MY bed and snoozing away while I'm bouncing off my walls.
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 07/27/2002 10:19 AM PST

Happy birthday to our very own Susan Gordon and our very own Lolita!!
Today YOU get to choose the cake!
Posted by Laura @ 07/27/2002 10:56 AM PST

Yes, Happy Day to both Susan and Lolita. I was so excited about being the first poster of the day that I forgot about the birthday!
Posted by Ben @ 07/27/2002 11:16 AM PST

Feliz cumpleanos to both Susan and Lolita! Choose your cake wisely...you wouldn't want to lose an eye on your birthday.
I read that silly post and thought it to be a bit strange, hence I didn't reply to it. Can you imagine? Me...not replying to a post? Who knew!?!
What am I currently reading? Well, it just so happens that I, too, am reading "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister." I read "Wicked" last summer, and I agree with Ben, I liked it more than "Confessions." He has a new book out, too, but I can't remember the title right now. It's about Ebeneezer Scrooge. Moving on...
As I am a fan of reading two or three or even five or ten books at once, I'm also reading "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson (it's about the last man on earth trying to survive in a world of vampires) and "Respect for Acting" by Uta Hagen. I just recently finished a fun book called "Around the World in a Bad Mood." I picked it up at the airport in Baltimore, MD. It was written by an airline stewardess and it laments the travails of the airline service industry. Quite a good read...and quick, too. I had read half of it by the time I flew into Louisville.
Posted by Jason @ 07/27/2002 11:55 AM PST

It's true.. I have often dug deep down to find the very roots of intrigue, drama and suspense. It is at that very locale that you will find out why and how I arrived at my top 12 showtunes. Oh yes, dear fellow readers - it's true. I had a lovely time with dear radio host Donald this morning and discussed things of intrigue...HIGH drama and let us not leave out suspense. A suspense that will last and last to the very end of the radio show. Drama as my selections are discussed. Intrigue as to why they were chosen and why certain versions of my songs were used.
What was that? Did I imply that some of my selections were not the original cast recordings of the songs from the shows I selected?
Ron - I hope you had as much fun as I did talking "shop" with Donald, a man who surely should post more often on here then just announcing the radio show..
Until later,
Posted by Craig @ 07/27/2002 12:22 PM PST

Hello everyone. I'm feeling very sophisticated, I must say.
Happy Birthday to Susan Gordon and how honored I am to share it with her.
What am I reading? Birthday cards mostly. I am reading so many things... The Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, A Father Who Keeps His Promises, The Life of C.S. Lewis, and I'm about to start Albee's Lolita, even though I hear it's bad.
That said, I'm off to read.
Posted by Dolores, formerly Lolita @ 07/27/2002 01:34 PM PST

Dolores and Susan:
Heureux Anniversaire!
Auguri!
Happy Birthday!
Craig:
I did have a wonderful time talking with Donald. I wish I could have done more justice to my selections. But I tried to ramble amiably. And yes, Donald should post here regularly, but I imagine he has his hands full just walking his dogs!
Posted by Ron of Oakland @ 07/27/2002 02:09 PM PST

Happy birthday Dolores and Susan.
I have just finished reading "Dear Tom", Tom Courney's autobiography. I gave up on reading "Galileo's Daughter". Too many books in the world to read that I really would enjoy. My partner is rereading one of my alltime favourites "Ragtime"
Posted by Tom from OZ @ 07/27/2002 03:14 PM PST

Hey, there's a party going on here, get your butt cheeks in line. Let's be festive and dance the hoochie coochie. We must keep traffic high because otherwise we will not break our June record. Actually, we would have already have broken our June record but the site where our stats are figured screwed up and didn't count three count them three days. That is heinous (heinous, do you hear me?) and of course we have to make up for the stupid site's stupid mistake. We can do it, I know we can do it. This is no time to take a day off or slack or be lackadaisacal. We must give these final days a push. The shame is, if those stupid three days hadn't gone missing we would have beaten June to a bloody pulp already, and we could just breeze through the rest of the month.
A couple of people have been a tiny bit confused by the trivia question - read it carefully. I'm not looking for the fact that they all appeared in the play (that's the clue), or even what the play was. I'm looking for the specific thing that those three actors have in common.
Posted by bk @ 07/27/2002 03:28 PM PST

I want to send a big THANK YOU out to Craig and Ron for being such wonderful radio show guests! You guys are naturals and I am now in fear of losing my job! You can hear Craig talking about his 12 Favorite Showtunes beginning tomorrow evening and then, next week, it will be Ron's turn.
Posted by Donald @ 07/27/2002 04:37 PM PST

So, what kind of cake did you have, Susan and Dolores?
Posted by Laura @ 07/27/2002 05:27 PM PST

Question about the three missing days in June:
Why can't those days be manually added? It sure seems unfair that we lose those days because of a programming flaw.
Can't Mr. Mark Bakalor find a fix?
And what is the import, if any, of one month besting another? Does your site get ranked? Could it be the difference between sponsorship and finding another sponsor?
Curious minds want to know.
Meanwhile, we'll keep posting...
..and posting...
..and posting...
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 07/27/2002 06:09 PM PST

During my travels of the afternoon (after a brief nap to recover from the caffeine-enhanced interview session with Mr. Donald Feltham), I picked up two DVDs...."The Women" -- and did you notice there are isolated score elements on this DVD??? -- and "The Big Bus" in widescreen!
"The Big Bus" was a big flop but it's really a whole lot of fund -- "Airplane" on six (or was it 8) wheels. Great score by David Shire. AND it features the ever-luminous STOCKARD CHANNING who shines brightly in whatever she does.
BK: Ever work with Stockard Channing? Ever want to? I don't know if she sings any more or not (her Rizzo was perfection). Seems to me she'd be great as one of the leads in "Follies"!
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 07/27/2002 06:12 PM PST

Okay, this post makes five from me today -- nearly one-third the posts we've had.
Where's freedunit and Robert and Tom from Oz and Kerry and on and on ?????
francois? et tu?
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 07/27/2002 06:15 PM PST

Ron,
I'm here, but it's VERY hot
tonight in Paris, and my mind
"ventilates".....whatever that
means...
Joyeux Anniversaire to Susan
and Dolores....
Does anyone know what
Susan Watson is up to these
days ?
I feel bad; someone has
broken into a guest's room
tonight and stolen two cellular
phones....
I think I've seen the jerk -- the
thief -- entering the hotel, but
took him for a guest ! Rats !
Never a dull moment in Paris,
right?
Posted by francois @ 07/27/2002 06:29 PM PST

Happy Birthday to you.. Happy Birthday to you.. Happy Birthday to Susan and Lolita... Happy Birthday to YOUUUUUUUUUUU
Posted by Craig @ 07/27/2002 06:35 PM PST

The very best of continuing hyappy returns to Susan and Lolita, sorry, Dolores. (Are you named after any particular Dolores? Such as Montoya?(She was the woman who invented the walk, after all!))
Currently I am reading Tom Stoppard's Night and Day, which is far from his best play, but interesting nonetheless. (Which is, as you all know, three words for the price of one.)
My goodness, I am being quite parenthetical and self-referential today, aren't I?
I feel great antici...............................pation for the radio show interviewing Craig, and then next weeks with Ron Pulliam. It should be quite a treat.
Posted by Hapgood @ 07/27/2002 07:06 PM PST

Wicked.
Posted by freedunit @ 07/27/2002 07:16 PM PST

awesome
Posted by Craig @ 07/27/2002 07:33 PM PST

Somehow I think of an old lady when I hear the name "Dolores." Maybe "Lola" would be better -- older than Lolita and younger than Dolores.
Posted by Laura @ 07/27/2002 07:56 PM PST

Oh how happy I am now that I have had some ice cream. That's right, you heard it, I had ice cream. Tomorrow I'll be having my little party and it is there that I will have cake. Let them eat cake, I will say, and they will eat cake, because they love cake, because everyone loves cake, or they aren't worthy of being anyone. Cake is what it's all about. Wait a minute, who the hell do I think I am? Bruce Kimmel?
So, I'll be having two (count them, two) cakes. One is a carmel swirly ice cream number which just caught my fancy (no mean feat). The other has white icing and three (count them, three) varieties of actual cake beneath said icing. One is rasberry something or other... Next there is plain old vanilla, and finally, there is chocolate, which makes perfect sense to me.
Anyway, that's what's going on in my neck of the woods.
By the by, I am named for Dolores Haze.
Posted by Dolores, formerly Lolita @ 07/27/2002 07:56 PM PST

Makes perfect sense to me, too. Good cake procuring! By the way (BTW), that must be some skillful, Major League cake to catch your fancy. Was it a Piazza cake? Many happy returns.
Happy birthday to Susan and Dolores-formerly-known-as-Lolita.
Posted by freedunit @ 07/27/2002 08:11 PM PST

My! My! My! (That's 3 my's) So many lovely birthday wishes right here at HHW! Thank you so very much, Bruce and everyone! And to Lolita - opps! I mean Dolores - a very Happy Birthday, as well. It's so much fun to share a birthday - especially with you, Dolores (aka Lolita) - and especially here at HHW. Oh, if only I were 18 again! It's so hard turning 29! (There will be no snickering at HHW - only Snickers, and frozen Snickers are preferred.)
As for my favorite cake - well, birthday cake - growing up in Los Angeles, it was Blum's coffee crunch cake. The absolute very best! Or sometimes for my birthday, instead of cake, I'd have their coffee crunch sundae: coffee ice cream topped with their own crunch (I think it was pieces of real honeycomb), hot caramel sauce (because hot fudge would have put it - and me! - over the edge), and of course whipped cream and a cherry. Doesn't that sound just too too?
Posted by Susan Gordon @ 07/27/2002 08:27 PM PST

Yum. Your choices of birthday cake sound so good. And Susan, no one will snicker at your turning 29. Why, I do that every year!
Posted by Laura @ 07/27/2002 08:35 PM PST

Happy 29th birthday, Susan! From here you look 28. Thank goodness I already had cake today, otherwise the mention of cake and sundaes would be too too!
Posted by freedunit @ 07/27/2002 08:54 PM PST

Happy Birthday to Susan and Dolores. Cake should be the order of the day.
Craig: the Hill Sisters will now demand money for the use of their song, so you better have money in the party fund to apy them, or you know what fate awaits you !
Dolores, you will always be Lolita to me.
Sorry for the latish post, but after work, my 8 year old nephew was visiting, so we had to got to Johnny Rocket's.
Books. Well, I'm in the middle of a few: "Tricks of the Trade" (a comic novel of Hollywood by Ben Tyler), "Separate Rooms" a novel by Pier Vittorio Tondelli, "Intimate Companions" A biography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus and Lincoln Kirstein, and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris.
I need to finish the first two soon and return them to the public library; the other two can languish by my bedside.
Posted by Kerry @ 07/27/2002 09:28 PM PST

Hmmm, I guess I haven't posted my latest book, have I? Well, I was choosing a gift for a big sister so she won't feel jealous about the baby getting all the attention .....so I guess the latest book I've read would be "Pat the Kitty" or some such thing.
Posted by Laura @ 07/27/2002 09:39 PM PST

freedunit,
what kind of cake did you have?
Posted by Kerry @ 07/27/2002 10:29 PM PST

Cake should be the order of every day.
Note to Self: Buy David Sedaris books, read in order.
Laura: Is that the read-and-touch book for children? Some kids books are so wonderful!
Kerry: From a brand-new bakery, chocolate layer cake, and a dark chocolate cake with ganache. Of course, by “chocolate layer cake” I was being coy and meant the classic American dessert that is yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I do not really approve of the name, because it is misleading and summons hope of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but that is what it is called. This layer cake was made of a very respectable and pleasing, but not spectacular, yellow cake with an excellent, rich milk-chocolate butter cream. The dark chocolate cake with ganache was exactly that: a respectable and pleasing dark chocolate cake with a very nice, creamy ganache. Over all, high marks for the bakery.
Posted by freedunit @ 07/27/2002 10:41 PM PST

Pet the Kitty? I won't even comment, though I could and it would TERRIBLY unseemly.
How could I have forgotten those great David Sedaris books? I don't think I've ever actually laughed out loud whilst reading until I read "Naked" and "Me Talk Pretty One Day." The story about the mystery pooper just cracked me up! Freedunit, you have to read them.
OK...is this 32 posts typical for the weekend or what? I mean, what are we...the stock market? We go up and then we crash!? Geez...let's work on this for tomorrow, shall we?
Posted by Jason @ 07/27/2002 11:21 PM PST

What a pleasant surprise to come home to find so many posts!
No, Mark tells me there's no way to make up for the missing days, other than to just calculate what we think would have happened on those days. There is no significance for us to keep besting our best months other than it shows we are ever-evolving, ever more popular with the populace.
I never worked with Stockard Channing although I used to dine with her every now and then. We were both doing shows at the Music Center in 1973 - I was in a play at the Mark Taper Forum and she was in the tour of Two Gentleman of Verona at the Ahmanson. At that time she was dating Conrad Janis and we all used to go to some big old steak house - the Pacific Dining Car I think it was called.
Funny how Baron Wasteland has not returned, isn't it? It seems we had his proverbial number instantly. Well, let me tell anybody else who shows up here under false pretences trying to provoke a reaction - we take the high road here at haineshisway.com. We don't get down in the mud here at haineshisway.com. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Posted by bk @ 07/27/2002 11:22 PM PST

I was there Ron!
At last a mention of Icecream instead of cake! I must start dropping not too subtle hints about an ICECREAM CAKE this year for my birthday. (Dec 14 - just after BK day).
I guess this is a really late post. At least I get to read them all without recourse to the archives!
Posted by Tom from OZ @ 07/28/2002 01:08 AM PST

Tom of Oz: Oh, some of us East Coast people can post later than you, 'specially us early risers.
Dolores, formerly known as Lolita, my love: Rejoice!
Susan Gordon: Rejoice, also! For my reputed thirty-fifth birthday my dear friend Debby Mann neé Epervary gave me a key chain labeled "29 and Holding". I am still holding it lo these twenty-two years. It works, you know. But you should see the portrait in my attic. Oy!
Mr. Bruce Kimmel and Mr. Mark ("My Words") Bakalor: Wait a fershlugunah minute! The totals have been lost? Only the totals? But we have the archives still, don't we? And those tell us the daily totals, don't they? All knowledge is floating somewhere in cyberspace.
Topic of the Day: I hate to admit it, but I am not reading a book at present. Time was, I read two or three a week. But reading time seems to be severely curtailed by that dumb thing called Life these days. The last book I read was Benjamin Kritzer. The next book I wish to read is Uncle Mame.
Mr. Ron Pulliam: How wonderful to find another fan of Fartscape--for those of you who are virgin to the show, that version of the title is quite coprophiliacally appropriate (in this week's episode, there was a flaming attack by Dominar Rygel).
Tom of Oz, I believe, gets the series one season later than us in the US, despite the fact that it is filmed in OZ.
As to this week's episode. Did you realize it was written by Ben Browder? Does that explain a lot? Is he a computer game fan? Did you manage to predict all the twists in the plot, as I did? The "surprise princess" was sort of telegraphed by the previews. Did you know that Virginia Hey actually quit the show because she was allergic to the make-up and wanted to return to her blonde Bond-girl look? She is now in the U.S. looking for work and promulgating New Age mysticism, having committed career hara-kiri á la Denise Crosby.
To all non-Farscapers: Never mind.
Posted by William F. Orr @ 07/28/2002 02:55 AM PST

I love Stockard Channing. She was terrific in The Girl Most Likely to…, Grease, The Rink, Hapgood, The Little Foxes, and The Lion in Winter, among other work. I keep thinking she might be terrific as Mame.
Posted by freedunit @ 07/28/2002 08:02 AM PST

It is free-for-all day, so I thought I would ask a question and get some good answers. I have to go to Las Vegas in a few weeks and I am looking for some practical entertainment suggestions. I have tickets to Cirque du Soleil’s O, which I am looking forward to seeing. Danny Gans will not be performing when I am there, and that is O.K. I am not dying to see Siegrfied & Roy, and I am not sure that a Vegas floor show is for me. I am not a gambler, and I fear it will be too hot for hiking and outdoor sight-seeing—it might even be too hot for cake—and unfortunately Debbie Reynolds’ hotel is no more. Are there any shows that must be seen? Any rides that must be taken? Any sights that must be seen? Maybe we will just walk every inch of every hotel on the strip. That should kill some time. Wouldn’t you just know the one time I make it to Vegas there is no 42nd Street, no Starlight Express, no Chita Rivera in Chicago, and not yet Mamma Mia!?
Posted by freedunit @ 07/28/2002 08:26 PM PST

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