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Well, you've read the notes, you've understood their poeticism, and now it is time to post until the paucity of cows come home.
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Pasta alfredo - with a chicken breast.
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First post - huzzah!
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Hmm...
So you say I'll have a lot to learn...
Hmm...
;)
Well, time for me to rest up for tomorrow's auditions - paucity or not paucity - I must be rested for the auditions.
Goodnight.
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Why did I stay up so late? You ask....because I have just won this on EBAY! ;D
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This is a terrific pose....although my favorite "John" moment in the movie is probably his dance demonstration!
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OHH!!! And while going through the scores on Chris' shelves, we actually came across some scores and music that I loaned him years ago! Now I have them back! :)
-Yet one more sign/reason that I should be out here in LA right now! :D
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And as for Eyetalian food:
Pumpkin gnocchi with sage butter
Orechiette with sausage and brocolli rabe
Spaghetti with a true bolognese (love the combination of a beef-tomato sauce and cream)
Tuscan steak - a simple steak topped with a rosemary and garlic infused olive oil.
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And once again...
Goodnight.
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Topic of the day? Simple: simple lasagna. No carrots, no eggplant, no spinach and especially no cottage cheese. Just a simple meat sauce, ricotta with egg and parsley, noodles and oodles of cheese! :)
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I have returned from A Little Night Music and, in a word, it is simply spendid.
This is the same production that the New York City Opera mounted a couple of years ago. It is comprised of sliding panels, suggestions of the theatre at which Desiree appears and the facade of Madame Armfeldt's chateau dropping from the flies, and room settings sliding in from the wings. The costumes are all quite lavish.
Though I might cavil about the propriety of staging a piece like ALNM in a three thousand seat theatre, if this devil's bargain supplies an unamplified opera house-sized orchestra, (conducted by John DeMain, no less), then I say hooray.
This show is directed by Mr. Scott Ellis and choreographed by Miss Susan Stroman, and I am happy to report that neither of them leaves fingerprints. There is complete reliance on the book and score to convey the humor, romance and pathos that are present in ample quantity in ALNM, and no descent into broad humor or obvious stage business.
Whoever handled the casting is probably the one person (beyond Messieurs Sondheim, Wheeler and Bergman) who is most deserving of laurels for this production, as each and every player is perfectly suited to his or her part.
Of all the actors, Miss Zoe Caldwell, as Madame Armfeldt, provides the most memorable performance. It's a great role, with great lines and a great song, and Miss Caldwell is riveting every moment she is on stage, even (as in the dinner scene) when she hasn't much to do and there's a lot of business going on around her. How she conveys with body language the fond memories of past dalliances as they pass through her mind is a lesson in acting of itself.
Miss Judith Ivey (as Desiree) and Mr. Victor Garber (as Fredrik) have wonderful chemistry together. Miss Ivey's singing voice is somewhat reminiscent of that of Miss Glynnis Johns in its timbre, though Miss Ivey is the stronger singer. Mr. Marc Kudisch (as Carl-Magnus) is wonderfully blustery, and Miss Michele Pawk (as Charlotte) exhibits perfect timing in her somewhat earthy personification of a Countess. (Charlotte rivals Madame Armfeldt for the number of zinger lines she has.) Miss Laura Benanti (as Anne) displays a fine singing voice and ditzy girlishness with aplomb, and Mr. Danny Gurwin (as Henrik) carries the role's high tessitura quite well and is effective in conveying the character's self-conflict. The ensemble is strong and provides excellent support.
I might add, too, that for once I was at a show where the sound design is well done. The volume is set just high enough so the actors can be heard clearly.
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One Italian summertime (oh, a George Gershwin reference) dish that I really like but seldom see on menus is vitello tonnato. The combination of veal and tuna probably doesn't tickle the fancy of the culinarily unadventurous, but I like it!
Abbondanza! (Oh, now it's a Frank Loesser reference.)
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Thank you for your thoughts on A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, DR Jay. The cast is made up of some of my favorite stage actors who all have stage presence and talent in spades. I've never heard Zoe Caldwell sing, so that would have been one of the major inducements of this production for me if I had had the chance to see it.
Who is playing Petra and how was "The Miller's Son," for me one of the most involving songs in the entire SOndheim canon.
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I will at some point today put in THE DAY OF THE LOCUST. I haven't seen it since it first played theaters, so this reunion is much anticipated.
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I do love Italian food, but other than simple spaghetti with meat sauce, I never cook it for myself, so I can't give any recipes for the TOD.
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Some A Susanne Blakelee pix pic:
(http://www.forbiddenbroadway.com/images/photo/photo_14.gif)
(Third in from the left)
der Brucer
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Yesterday Robin posted (in reference to "King Arthur"):
And England is pretty much a shithole. The only break in the overcast skies are as the final battle is being waged, and the sun starts shining through...it's symbolism, get it?
Not symbolism, realism - only in a fantasy does the sun shine brightly in England.
der Brucer
(speaking of England reminds me of this bit of precise metre and well-tuned rhyme):
England swings like a pendulum do
Bobbies on bicycles, two by two
Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben
The rosy red cheeks of the little children
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Jay---
I saw the same production of ALNM at City Opera with a mostly different cast, but you got the best two from that production: Marc and Michelle. City Opera had Jeremy Irons and Juliet Stephenson and they were miked very poorly while the rest of the cast's miking was not even noticable. As far as I can remember, they used "supertitles" for lyrics but not for dialogue. Were supertitles used in LA? If an opera is not in English, then I like supertitles, but for something sung in English I don't think they are needed. They also used them for SWEENY TODD and will be using them this season for CANDIDE and R&H's CINDERELLA. It just makes for lazy listening.
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I agree. Supertitles for English-language productions is absurd.
I really want SINGERS in the parts for A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. Desiree is really the only one of the principals who can be cast with an actress first who can also carry a tune. Jeremy Irons' brand of talk/sing is just not my cup of tea for A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC.
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I'm probably not going to get a chance to see ALNM, a shame, as I'd love to say hey to Michele, one of my favorite people.
Now, where in tarnation IS everyone? MattH, do run Day of the Locust - I haven't seen it since it came out, and I really didn't care for it then, and I'm curious to see if anything has changed. For some reason, the new DVD has eluded me - my little store has gotten the other Paramount releases of that week but not that one.
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Gnocchi!
arghalaghralgharlagh
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Oh, and carbonara is my favorite Eyetalian dish (aside from Monica Vitti), but it's a hard dish to get right, so it's chancy to order. There's a little joint near me, Mezzo Mondo, that does it very well (it's not on the menu, but the chef will make it if you ask), and the best is at Dan Tana's. The California Pizza Kitchen had it for awhile and it was surprisingly good and very popular. Naturally, they removed it from their menu.
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Good Morning!
Hmm... A beautiful Saturday morning here in LA...
What to do? What to do??...
;)
*So, is a "A Paucity of People" the companion piece to "Multitudes of Amys"?
Time to warm up the fingers!!!
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Now, might I just ask where in tarnation IS everyone? You'd think it was a Saturday on a non-holiday weekend.
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Well, a paucity of people has proven to be prophetic this morning. My goodness, there were a lot a "P" words in that sentence. In any case, I'm off to auditions so keep the home fries burning until my return.
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Good morning. I've had complaints from the management about my paucity of posts. So here I am -- POSTING. I am now going to have some oatmeal and write (not about the oatmeal). Later, I shall POST again. No pauciticious person Panni.
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Who is playing Petra and how was "The Miller's Son," for me one of the most involving songs in the entire SOndheim canon.
Forgive me for omitting the name of Miss Jessica Boevers, who plays Petra. Like the rest of the cast, she is quite good in the role: she does not overdo the lusty aspect of the character, and her scene with Anne (when they discuss virginity) is spot on.
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The other Susanne Blakelee pic:
(http://pic8.picturetrail.com/VOL242/891350/4436247/59523373.jpg)
der Brucer
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Were supertitles used in LA?
They are not used and I am happy to say they are not necessary, as the words--both sung and spoken--can be heard quite clearly.
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Hi, all. I have several favorite Eyetalian dishes, but my very favorite is fettucine alfredo with grilled or blackened chicken. No, stuffed chicken parmesean. No, spaghetti with meatballs. No, lasagna. No... Well, I love it all. Just as long as it doesn't involve mussels, I'll try it.
I'm going out tonight. Can you believe it? I'M going out on a Saturday night! I responded to some personals (strictly platonic) on Craigslist.com, and I got a response from a seemingly very nice guy named Jason. He's a freelance writer from South Carolina who is currently an in-home caregiver for an Alzheimer's patient in Gramercy Park three days a week. I figure anyone who has the patience and fortitude to do that job can't be half bad. He's got a masters degree in journalism and boy can you tell it from his emails. He's VERY intelligent and writes incredibly well, but he's not portentous about it. We have pretty much all of the same interests, so we're just going to meet and hang out in Union Square and hopefully strike up a good friendship. After my experience last weekend, I realized that I needed more friends to hang out with because I've been really lonely, so here's a chance to make a new pal. I'm not going into this expecting any more than that, so we'll see what happens. "If you have no expectations, you can never have a disappointment."
Jay: I'm glad you enjoyed NIGHT MUSIC. I love, love, love Danny Gurwin--he's such a sweet man and has a gorgeous voice--and apparently he's Sondheim's favorite Henrik ever. He said so himself. His performance was a little more spastic in the Kennedy Center production, which was hilarious, but Scott Ellis made him tone it down for the NYCO production. They didn't want him for the NYCO version--they didn't want any of the Kennedy Center cast to reprise their roles--but they lost their Henrik at the last minute and Sondheim all but insisted that they hire Danny for the part. I'm almost sure that if Sondheim has anything to say about it, he'll be playing Henrik in the B'way revival in a couple of years, opposite Ms. Glenn Close. (And I saw him in the Chicago tour of THE FULL MONTY--that's when I became slightly obsessed with him. ;) )
It would appear that I'm starting my new position at MTI on Monday instead of sometime in September, which is fine and dandy with me. The sooner I get that raise, the better. It would also seem, however, that I may not be getting the job they originally approached me about. I might be skipping the reception desk altogether and moving onto the licensing floor as a representative, which means I'd be one of those mean people who issues, grants and/or denies contracts and rights to people. Which also means probably $4,000 more a year than I'd make being the receptionist. They haven't actually spoken to me about making me a rep, but the CEO's assistant told me that that's what he'd heard was the plan. We'll see. I do know, however, that the receptionist that I was supposed to replace begins his training as a rep on Monday, so I'll be replacing him on the phones for at least three weeks, so I told them I want them to put me on payroll starting Monday and get those health benefits going. I won't let them walk all over me on this one...I want that money!
Anywho, I think I might go out to a movie this afternoon. I don't know what movie yet, but I'll figure it out. And then I'm off to meet Jason at 7:30. We're planning to get cheesecake somewhere around the Union Square area. Any suggestions from fellow NYers? Does Chat 'n Chew serve cheesecake?
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Good morning. I've had complaints from the management about my paucity of posts. So here I am -- POSTING. I am now going to have some oatmeal and write (not about the oatmeal). Later, I shall POST again. No pauciticious person Panni.
Keep this up and we'll have a plethora of posts - quite a pretentious predicament but, no doubt, pleasing to the proprietor!
der Brucer
If a picky proprietor is not pleased by the paucity of posts,
How many posts does it take to change the paucity to a plethora to please the picky proprietor?
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Wonderful Ebay find JRAnd53! I do hope you will be sending it cross-country for a personalized autograph!
Spaghetti.
Just finished mowing the yard, now I am gonna run down to a little junk furniture shop on 12th Street and upon my return I will finish watching a Bollywood movie I began late last night.
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Yes, I will MBARNUM....AFTER What If....is concluded, no doubt.
Saturday. I have to work in the box office today in a little while. Hopefully I will SELL lots of tickets. Nice audience last night, but I pushed a bit and lost a laugh.....grrrrrrrrrrr....everyone was doing it...hopefully tonight we can fix that. Just do it!
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Chicken Marsella
Pizza
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Here I am again - Pauciticious Panni. I am here to post about Farmer William's pelts. Why? Because pelts is a funny word. Funnier even than pickles. Furthermore, Farmer William is a studly fellow, preeminently post-worthy.
(And I am aware of the fact that bk has Farmer William and his pelts copyrighted. This is a pelts hommage. Or a pommage.)
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FROM PAUCITY TO PLETHORA - A SAGA
PROLOGUE
(Consisting of selected excerpts from the LA Times (http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-ca-vilanch11jul11,2,4422999.story?coll=cl-stage-top-right))
(http://images.calendarlive.com/media/photo/2004-07/13359665.jpg)
America, seen in a 'Hairspray' haze
Give me high heels, big wigs, a fat suit and a song, and the country is mine.
By Bruce Vilanch
Special to The Times
Jul 11 2004
"A veteran comedy writer with limited theater experience." That's what another newspaper, also called the Times but on another coast many thousands of miles to the east of Los Angeles, called me last July in announcing my being cast as Edna Turnblad, housewife-superstar of the musical based on John Waters' beloved "Hairspray."
Me, who worked summer stock even before I was a former game show star. Me, who played every Stubby Kaye role in musical comedy history, some even Stubby forgot he played. Me, who single-handedly kept an equity-waiver musical about singing, dancing, wisecracking alcoholics running for an entire L.A. summer in a theater without air conditioning or parking, Sunday matinees included. Me — limited!
I pick myself up off the floor and go to rehearsal anyway.
Soon I am surrounded by the rest of the cast, all younger than myself, most of whose professional experience consists of impersonating cats or French revolutionaries. We are starting our odyssey as the first national tour of "Hairspray," the big, fat musical hit about big, fat musical people who integrated television in Baltimore in 1962. Being big, fat and musical myself, I know I'll fit right in.
(To be continued - like all worthy sagas)
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FROM PAUCITY TO PLETHORA - A SAGA
ENTER THE VILLAIN
(Consisting of selected excerpts from the LA Times (http://images.calendarlive.com/media/photo/2004-07/13359665.jpg))
By Bruce Vilanch
Special to The Times
The next day
The swelling is going down and the physical therapist says if I keep putting ice on the knee, the elbow, the ankle, the wrist and the shoulder, I should be able to get rid of the bedpan and make it across the room to the john by the middle of the week. Musicals have clearly gotten more physical. You never saw Ethel Merman doing step aerobics.
Truthfully, it wasn't the dancing that got to me, or the singing. It was the breathing — and the fact that you must keep doing that in order to do the other things.
I know Rex Harrison was a big musical star who couldn't sing, but clearly he managed to breathe. And where is he today when I need him for tips? And I would have been OK, but the high heels got to me. See, I'm playing a woman in this show — don't ask, just assume a Zen patience and go with it. Edna wears heels a lot of the time. Also a fat suit, which I need about as much as Michael Moore, and many towering wigs, all of which combine to give me a center of gravity known only to Godzilla. One wrong move and I take out the Tokyo train station.
The real culprit in all this is not even the costume designer but the choreographer, that malicious spawn of Gwen Verdon and Satan. I have to keep reminding myself that, no matter how much they love the show, the audience will not ask us to do the same number over again seven times in a row. Only the choreographer does that, and with a big, broad grin.
A-five-six-seven-eight …
(http://images.calendarlive.com/media/photo/2004-07/13359784.jpg)
(Photo by Paul Kolnick)
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FROM PAUCITY TO PLETHORA - A SAGA
BALTIMORE
(Consisting of selected excerpts from the LA Times (http://images.calendarlive.com/media/photo/2004-07/13359665.jpg))
By Bruce Vilanch
Special to The Times
We're opening here because it's the town where "Hairspray" takes place and also because this is John Waters country.
The man who created the movie that serves as the source for our show lives and works here and is its biggest cultural icon, along with Cal Ripken Jr., which should give you some idea of how weird a place Baltimore really is.
John says everyone here is insane but they all think they're perfectly normal. As their only previous literary icon is Edgar Allan Poe, John is viewed by the locals as a sober citizen. The mayor of Baltimore, who is slightly less popular than John, comes onstage after the show to give him a plaque — his home is now decorated exclusively in honors given him by the city of Baltimore — and the festivities are cut short by Hurricane Isabel, which announces her presence with a fearsome thunderbolt that cuts all the power. The skies open up and Baltimore's inner harbor rises to flood much of the downtown area and cancel the next day's performances.
So far we're a smash.
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FROM PAUCITY TO PLETHORA - A SAGA
OFF TO THE BOONIES
(Consisting of selected excerpts from the LA Times (http://images.calendarlive.com/media/photo/2004-07/13359665.jpg))
By Bruce Vilanch
Special to The Times
Cincinnati
A critic here does a lengthy comparison of me and Harvey Fierstein, who played the same role in the Broadway production to riotous acclaim. I don't know why a critic in Cincinnati bothers to do such a thing, since almost no one who's reading his review will have the opportunity to see both Harvey and me. But I used to be a critic in Chicago, so what do I know?
I don't have much of a chance to think about this, though, because Cincinnati is where an interviewer from another paper asks the following: "There was a movie made about you a few years ago, 'Get Bruce.' It was released by Miramax, the studio run by Harvey Weinstein. How did Harvey Weinstein have time to run a studio and also star on Broadway in 'Hairspray'?"
I swear to you I am not making this up. I will never forget Cincinnati.
Providence
Things were moving along swimmingly tonight when the phone rang in the middle of a scene and I went to answer it as I always do … but there was no phone. The prop man had neglected to put it on the table in its usual spot.
It's tough to answer a phone that isn't there. Existential, and tough.
So I picked up a powder puff off a nearby shelf and announced to the audience: "At this performance, the role of Phone will by played by Powder Puff." At this point, a burly hand thrust a telephone from out of the wings and dropped it on the table. I looked at Powder Puff. "You're fired," I said, putting her back in her place.
If Donald Trump ever plays Edna, he's now got his big scene.
Rochester
Of Rochester it can be said 'It is no Hartford,' which, as you will recall, means it is also no Baltimore and so really no more need be said about Rochester. Except that during one number in the show someone says the Hebrew expression "Shabbat shalom," which may mark the only time this expression has been uttered on the stage of the Rochester Auditorium with the possible exception of a bus-and-truck company of "Fiddler on the Roof" that got lost in a snowstorm between Toronto and New York and wound up parking its wagons and putting on a show for the local farmers who paid them in root vegetables and small bits of string.
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FROM PAUCITY TO PLETHORA - A SAGA
FRANK'S KIND OF TOWN
(Consisting of selected excerpts from the LA Times (http://images.calendarlive.com/media/photo/2004-07/13359665.jpg))
By Bruce Vilanch
Special to The Times
Chicago
Great town, great audiences, great reviews, temperatures that do not reach double digits for nine weeks.
On Dec. 30, my dresser, a spooky sort who still believes in his heart of hearts that Miss Cleo really knew what she was talking about, reminds me that the theater we are playing is on the site of the Iroquois Theatre, a spectacular showplace that burned down 100 years ago to the day, causing a great many deaths and a wholesale revision of theatrical safety laws.
Curiously, no one in Chicago is observing this. Duh. More curiously, every theater built on the site (there have been two since) has had to employ the same basic floor plan because of the way the site is configured. So you can actually retrace some of the steps people took on the fateful day. And of course, there are ghosts.
Every theater has ghosts, but this one has more than the usual claim. Of course, no one notices any of them until they are told they might see some, and suddenly it's like a casting call for "The Addams Family." Every creak, groan or flush is Sarah Bernhardt rattling her chains or some old Brunhilde running scales or the faint, plaintive bark of a dead-dog act.
How come none of these people is haunting the William Morris Agency?
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The Lovely Wife & I had a pleasant evening in Pasadena last night, going to see 110 In The Shade at the Pasadena Playhouse and starting off with dinner right next door at the eyetalian restaurant where they "sing while you dine". Show tunes and Operatic arias. About what you'd expect from singing waiters. Like a dinner theatre pre-show. Some sing considerably better than others. One rather ancient woman with a warbly vibrato that you could throw a cat through and could not be heard over the heavily miked piano and the clink of silverware should, how can I be kind, retire...
As for the show...Let me start off by saying this play as always been magic for me...as either the RAINMAKER or 110. I loved it when I first saw the movie. I played Noah in a Dinner Theatre production with James Drury as Starbuck; and even though he was not my idea of Starbuck, the rest of the cast was superb and it was magic doing it every night. You could feel the magic humming in the audience. It was one of the best shows I was ever in. When I discovered the album, it was magic every time I played it and continues to be.
The show last night...though the book and the music are great...was not magic. It was the staging and the performances; not the material. While it was great to see this rarely done piece on its feet...I wanted more. It was just so bland.
I thought most of the casting was bland. Marin Mazzie was okay...though not a patch on Inga Swenson...Pop and the brothers, with the exception of Jimmy, were fine but seemed strangely miscast...or at least did not fit my image of these roles-- and that may be my own preconceived ideas. Jimmy was the only one that seemed to have any real poop. File had a good voice...though I hated his costume and his acting was just...bland.
Starbuck was by far the weakest link. Truly bland. No panache. While he got close in a couple of his songs, I felt his acting performance was weak. He was stoop-shouldered. There was none of Starbuck's bravura. He didn't know how to come on and take the stage. Strike a pose. Mesmerize you.
He spent his opening scene, continually juggling his hat and his hickory wand in clumsy little gestures as though he didn't know what to do with either prop. He certainly never took control of them and used them to any dynamic effect.
And about three times in the opening scene, for some inexplicably reason, he went through a prolonged ritual of trying to attach his hickory wand to his pants or his belt and kept missing, so kept making surrepitious little movements trying to affix it, instead of just stopping the way any normal person would, make a definitive movement and secure it. Or Hell, if it was such a nuisance, he could have just pitched it in the back of his truck which was right there. But his whole performance was marked by this tenative attitude and tentative movement. He was never bigger than life. He never strode across stage, he just sort of vaguely ambled hither and yon.
Of course, for this latter I fault the director. I hate directors who won't block! But just let actors sort of wander aimlessly across stage. That's okay in rehearsal for awhile, but eventually something must be set and blocking defined. Patterns and dramatic tension lines firm. I want what a director of mine use to call, "Pretty pictures, pretty pictures." Staging is as much about dramatic composition as it is about making actors look natural onstage. Starbuck looked anything but natural last night.
And the show started right off on the wrong foot for me. I wanted to hear, "Howdy, File!" "Howdy, Toby!" "Opening up the water tank?" and the introductory dialogue that I've heard on the record since the beginning of time. Instead he opens with the ensemble all onstage, going right into the opening number...and, boy, was there a major foul-up last night. I don't know whether it was the orchestra or the actors. But when the female chorus joined in, they didn't! You heard one or two unsure voices singing feebly like they had forgotten the words or were lost. It took File to get everybody back on track. Very bad start.
I didn't mind the added songs. Though it sounded like Starbuck's voice was giving out on Evening Star, very warbly at one point. Julieanne said that Lizzie was flatting, particularly in OLD MAID. My ear was not good enough to detect this, though I felt she rushed the power of that song.
Other little annoying things, why a pick-up truck for Starbuck and the necessity of changing of the lyric "you ride in your bright shiny wagon" to "rusty old pick-up"? Especially later when Starbuck in "come with me, Lizzie" sings "a rolling wagon is magic". So what is it? A wagon or a truck?
Another lyrical absence, I never heard the women singing,"File's coming; File's coming". This may have something to do with a very small chorus and stuff being dropped for them.
I must say the costuming and the set design didn't really thrill me either...It was a flat boring stage that left its principals with very little to do but stand around all the time. And someone should have made both File, who had an unshaven stubble, and Starbuck, who had one of those feeble mustache/goatee combos, both shave. File is a man who would be meticulous about things like that (I mean in his second scene, you see him mending his own shirt). And Starbuck's spotty face-hair just made him look more like a weenie.
And I loathe the microphones. The actors were overmiked, as was the orchestra. Very tinny in spots. And, I'm sorry, but those wires and little mics, no matter how hard they try to hide them, are always visible, making strange little bumps and discolourations on people's faces and any time I'm thinking about a mic, I'm taken out of the show.
The Playhouse is a beautiful, intimate theatre. Anyone who cannot easily hit the back wall there has no business being on a stage.
One last rather disturbing point. This show, despite my reservations, has gotten good reviews...at least the few I've seen...Both the LA Times and Backstage liked it. But the house on a Friday night was far from full. We sat it the front row of the dress circle (or gallery or whatever they call it) The two seats next to us were empty. And while they had clustered the rest of the audience in the center, huge swaths of the gallery were empty. Worse, down on the floor, from the second row on, you'd see two, three four seats empty. Half rows empty. And this was only from what I could see from my perch...God only knows how many seats under the balcony were empty. I know I called two days before and could have had floor seats in the fourth row back had I wanted them. This apathy does not bode well for the playhouse or theatre in general.
Great to hear the music and to see it finally onstage. But it weren't magic.
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I need a pasta roller. Something I can use to make my own pasta.
I need one because I think it would be fun to make ravioli.
I also think it would be fun to have fresh linguine hanging out to dry all over the kitchen.
If we get a good pasta machine at work, I just might go for the employee discount and nab it.
Yummers!
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Time to get ready for work.
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Oh DRCP - The Rainmaker....I had wanted to do this play since I saw the movie on TV as a teeny tiny tot....and I finally got it through the program committee....it's been almost 10 years ago, but it is still one of my favorite plays I have ever directed! It is so perfect....if you can get the right cast. I was so lucky. Here are some rehearsal pics.
Noah tells Lizzie...."you're gonna be an old maid...." That scene always caused "oohhhs" in the audience.... That phrase causes a fight between Noah and Jimmy and sends Jimmy out to the girl in the little red hat...and send Lizzie straight to the tack room and Starbuck!
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The final scene....when File on the right comes to arrest Starbuck...and ends up asking Lizzie to stay and marry him. As I said a rehearsal....so you can't see much of the set....but everyone is on and was so good!
"Don't go, Lizzie....."
"What?!"
"Lizzie...I said...don't go!"
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And here I am doing what you want directors to do.....I don't go for that organic crap.... Tell them the blocking...plan it out...make pretty pictures...make the audience look where you want them to....if it doesn't work, change it....if an actor wants to try something else, let him....but have a PLAN to begin with people!
Here you can see the set better....a house unit, with some steps to the bedrooms....the tack room is on the right....the box in the dining room became part of the tack room when they were there...the sheriff's office on the left....the back of Noah's desk in the living room became the front of the desk on the sheriff's office...everything flowed from one scene to the next....
I love that play. I would do it again...anywhere...and I wish I could see 110 in the Shade.....sometime...in my life.
The audience loved the play....and Starbuck's last....."Give me my hundred dollars, dammit!" always brought down the house....
N. Richard Nash! ;D
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JRand - In my acting days, Lizzie was one role that I longed to play (I was too young). I used to do some of her speeches strung together as an audition monologue.
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PANNI...how wonderful! The scenes with Lizzie and Starbuck..in the house...and the tack room....
"And if you don't believe you're a woman.....you're not...."
"I'm pretty.....I'm pretty.....I'm pretty......"
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Cain't never fergit the movie with Kate Hepburn and Burt Lancaster. Oh, my!
Welcome back (belated greeting) to Keith and jane. Glad Echo's doing so well.
It feels like autumn up here. And here I am, still hacking and clearing ferns and berry bushes - it's just endless.
Eyetalian food:
I'm partial to salads, actually. So I guess what pops right into my so-called mind right now is an Eyetalian salad of sorts, made with the freshest mozarella cheese, cut in thick slices, intertwagled with thick slices of the juciest vine ripened tomato, drizzled with some really fine extra-vergin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and not too much finely-chopped fresh basil, a little freshly ground black pepper. Ahhhhhh...
When's the show in LA, with Guy and Jose? love to come on down and see/hear the sucker.
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Aug 12 to Sept 12, I think DRPENNY. Check yesterday's column for sure!
Isn't it amazing that a certain movie will be so memorable to almost everyone who has an interest in theatre or the arts. When you are with a group of "the folk" all you have to do is mention THE RAINMAKER to get a good conversation started!
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JRand 53, I agree with you 100% about blocking. Make sure the focus is where it's supposed to be, make sure the compositions are interesting. I hate actors who drift and fidget and aimlessly float and step on people's punchlines. It's almost as bad as actors who don't know what to do with their hands. It's amazing how many actors don't understand the simple power of stillness. A director has to shape the dramatic compositions on stage. If left to the actors, they'll all clump up front in a straight line.
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LOL ain't it the truth....and that straight line is DEATH on our thrust stage...LOL
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Thanks, JRand!
If left to the actors, one straight line across the front of the stage??? At NYCO, where there was only one really "hot spot" onstage (if you stood there, your voice was strangely amplified and kicked out into that cavernous house) there were whole scenes with singers drifting down right, elbowing and shoving each other out of the way. The Quintet from Carmen was actually dangerous!!
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A local semi-professional theater group did "The Rainmaker" a few months ago. I loved it! They had a beautiful set and the staging was very good. The director of the play very muchly knows how to block "pretty pictures." He's actually notorious for obsessing on making blocking decisions. The theater group a few years ago did a musical version (well, five songs worth) of "Dracula." The stage manager, a very dear friend of mine, said that the director LITERALLY took almost three hours to decide if he wanted an actor to exit through the up-left door or the up-right door! (They did work on other things while he was deciding...so it’s not as if they had to sit around for three hours doing nothing while he thought about it!) I've worked with him and, although I was not involved with anything that bad, he does tend to ponder on the minutia.
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JRand is the song called ESTATE SALE TODAY? I want to hear this song.
George, I’m working on the pet sitter. If I get that I am completely flexible on the time. I wanted to be sure we were planning on Saturday the 21st and not Sunday.
Jason have fun tonight. It is great you are reaching out to make new friends. Hope this one works out. GOOD VIBES for tonight and your new job on Monday.
Penny you have been home for awhile now, how nice. It’s good to see you posting again. Thanks for the welcome back. Echo is still walking every day but she is now refusing to take all of her special vitamins and oils Keith had been giving her. I can get a couple of things down her but that is it. She isn’t eating as much now and has lost weight (I know a little weight loss is a good thing) and we are hoping what she is getting is enough.
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Better to dwell on the minutia than to ignore it.
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Better to dwell on the minutia than to ignore it.
I do agree with that. :)
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George, I’m working on the pet sitter. If I get that I am completely flexible on the time. I wanted to be sure we were planning on Saturday the 21st and not Sunday.
That's what the Antiques Roadshow website says!
Well, off to my parents' house for dinner and the playing of cards and Aggravation with my visiting aunt (and the rest of my family). Until later!
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Fettuccine Alfredo from an Alfredo’s restaurant. We ate at the restaurant in Philadelphia until it sadly closed. When the boys were young we went to the Epcot Center and to our delight there was an Alfredo’s there. We of course all had Fettuccine Alfredo. I rarely order it anymore because it is just too rich and most places just don’t compare to the original. I got spoiled.
When we were in Italy a few years ago we discovered Ribollita (re-cooked) soup, a wonderful TUSCAN vegetable and bean soup with hunks of bread in it. Once we discovered this soup we ordered it everywhere we could find it. Our last night in Florence we ate at a charming restaurant that had once been a monastery or a prayer area in a very old church, I can’t remember now. What I do remember is the meal was excellent and we had the best Ribollita of our entire trip.
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Echo and I should really be off to our weekly visit at the nursing home. But, due to this cold that won’t go away I’m staying home today. My eyes are all blurry today and I’m having trouble reading so I think I will take a short break.
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DRJANE it's called simply ESTATE SALE and I have it on Cheryl Wheeler's "Circles & Arrows" CD. If you can't find, it I will send you a copy....but the whole CD is good. Cheryl is a keeper!!!
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I don't have time to dance....off to the box office. Laterz!
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Glad you got to see THE RAINMAKER, DRGEORGE. I think we videoed ours for some reason....not a good copy, but I may have to dig it out to watch it!
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Better to dwell on the minutia than to ignore it.
Yes and no. One brilliant but eccentric director I worked with in Canada was obsessed with detail. We were doing a film I wrote for the CBC. A period piece - limited time, limited budget. This director one day spent several hours deciding if the Nazi party buttons that some of the extras had in their lapels were authentic.
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That's not dwelling on minutia, that's wallowing in it.
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Well, I did spend 2 1/2 hours with THE DAY OF THE LOCUST. First the transfer: not the greatest. Much of the first hour seemed out of focus (even though it's an anamorphic transfer) as if the transfer had been taken from a videotape master. There were Dolby 5.1 and mono options. I picked the 5.1, but there was next to no surround activity even during the on-set calamity or the climactic apocalypse at the movie premiere.
As for the film, it's always been a spastic, spectacular mess. I'm not sure the book was filmable, but you can tell everyone is trying very, very hard to pull off this artsy take on fringe dwellers in 30s Hollywood. The characters just aren't developed well, and there's no one I had the patience to root for for very long. Easy to see why Burgess Meredith pulled off an Oscar nomination; his is the most ingratiating character in the piece. The other leading actors all have moments where they shine, but they just don't consistently seem able to pull it off. I think the screenplay is the biggest problem. Even at 144 minutes, there seems to be large chunks missing from the lives of these people.
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I think tonight, I'll pull out one of the Marx Brothers' films and maybe another Charlie Chan, though I'm trying not to overdo those so as not to run out of them too quickly.
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Favourite Italian food: Chicken livers cooked in Red wine. A speciality of Sorrento but I have had them in Rome too.
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Hey, Jane - if Echo won't eat the pills in peanut butter, try giving her the pills hidden in very small bites of moist dog food BEFORE she eats her dinner, while she's still ravenous. When George wouldn't eat pills, we would put them into small pieces of cheddar cheese, and feed them to him before he got his regular meals. Maybe Echo is just plain tired of peanut butter, and would love chicken liver pate?
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Favourite Italian food: Chicken livers cooked in Red wine. A speciality of Sorrento but I have had them in Rome too.
YUM!
I also love the Greek style chicken livers, sekatanoia (sp?) - basically seasoned with oregano, garlic and olive oil, then broiled. Simple and simply delicious.
Apparently, there's a great Italian place in the neighborhood... And I want to take my friend, Chris, out for a really nice Thank You dinner tonight... Hmm...
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Good Afternoon!
The auditions went... Well, they went. I'll wait for Bk to post the details later... In the meantime...
I still can't believe that I'm out here in LA! When just three days ago I was bitching and bitching to my friends in Richmond about not having any work lined up. And now... WOW! What is very nice, however, is just how "at home" I already feel. It's great being able to spend some time with my friend, Chris, again. Tammy has been a pleasure to get to know and spend time with over the past few days. *And her boyfriend, Eddie, is also very nice too - and very easy on the eyes too (that's a nice bonus) ;). And BK, is, of course, BK. Which is a good thing. I wouldn't have it - or him - any other way.
I will have some work-work to get done next week - mainly transcribing some songs off recordings - but once I get that stuff finished, then it should be smooth sailing from then on. And even though there is a lot of music that I will have to learn, I actually already know most it - or at least am familiar with it.
*Oh... As it turned out, the one person I did not call as soon as I landed in Long Beach was my brother who lives out here. He ended up calling me late last night just to make sure I made it on OK. It's nice to know he was checking up on me, but I still can't believe that I forgot to call him. -Of all the people I should have called...
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Finished watching # 2 Bollywood movie for the weekend. KOHRAA (1964). It was an interesting film that seemed to me to be a remake of REBECCA. Not badly done, but it didn't hold my interest as much as I would have thought it should.
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DR SWW - As for a pasta machine... If you do have a KitchenAid stand mixer, the pasta attachments are very nice and very functional. And if your store happens to carry some of the "attachment bundles", you should be able to get quite a deal with your employee discount. And they just came out with a ravioli attachment too! You put the pasta sheets through one set of rollers, and the filling in the hopper - once you turn on the machine, it fills and cuts the ravioli for you!
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And keeping on the topic of Bollywood ...here is another reason that I like Bollywood movies!
One of India's most popular current actors Mr. Hrithik Roshan.
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Penny, thanks for the suggestions but Echo doesn’t want the pills. She will eat peanut butter or the liver pate, or any other treat as long as we don’t put a pill in it. She is too smart for her own good. She just got tired of the pills and the additives in her food. She can be very stubborn when she wants. She also has a history of getting tired of her food, so much so that I would have to find something new for her.
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RE: Wallowing directors... I remember working on a musical at very nice, regional house, and we were in the middle of our first tech. The curtain came up on the second scene, and all of the sudden the director yelled, "HOLD!" and started running up the aisle all in a huff. The problem: he thought the tea service that was on the table was the wrong style/look. And then he demanded that at least three other "samples" be brought out before we proceeded any further. He just stayed on stage holding the "ugly cup", waiting for the "right one" to be brought out to him. After about two hours(!) and plenty of scrambling from the props department (and any other "volunteers"), the "right one" finally materialized. We then brought the curtain down, and re-started the scene. *And, if I remember correctly, they actually snatched the "right one" from the kitchen cupboard in the actor's house. Needless to say, we needed both "10 out of 12s" to tech the show. Ugh!
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Did anyone watch Monk last night? My brother is sorry he did. He said it was perhaps the worst ever.
This show can be so good, yet at times it tries to be funny and it gets stupid.
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Did anyone watch Monk last night? My brother is sorry he did. He said it was perhaps the worst ever.
This show can be so good, yet at times it tries to be funny and it gets stupid.
I did... And just had to wonder what all the fuss was about. And, frankly, I really can't remember any of the details of it right now.
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Jose did you see your brother today? And thanks for the Kitchen Aid tip. I might look into that.
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If you have never seen Monk before you really should catch episodes from the first season.
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OH! Another neat thing about being in LA right now is that a bunch of other actor-friends and musician-friends are out here right now working on various projects.
The drummer and keyboard player for Hairspray were on the Aida tour, and I'm hoping to catch up with them too while I'm out here.
I worked with the aforementioned Danny Gurwin during the aforementioned Kennedy Center's Sondheim Celebration A Little Night Music. -And, Michelle Pawk's very nice and talented husband, John Dossett, was the Fredrik in that production. I wonder if John is over on this coast since Gypsy has closed. Hmmm...
And so on and so on...
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Jose did you see your brother today? And thanks for the Kitchen Aid tip. I might look into that.
My brother, Jay, just moved down to San Diego to start a new job. Otherwise, I would be staying with him. -Timing is everything. Well, actually, his place in LA, now that I think of it, would not have been the most convenient place to stay - just too far from where we'll be rehearsing and performing. But it was on the water, so... But I did call him, and now I'm reminded that I need to call my cousin, Angie, who lives right nearby in Studio City (I think - she lives in one of the "cities" out here).
As for the KitchenAid attachements... I found the best prices on Amazon.com - and since they're all over $25, you get the free shipping too. Plus, KitchenAid always seems to be offering various rebates throughout the year. Sometimes it's worth the wait.
*Oh, and I saw the new ravioli attachment at kitchen wares show... I'm not sure if it has actually been released yet on the public market. But when I first saw it... WOW! -OH!! And they have a new "ice cream maker" bowl attachment! -Of course, since I already have my Krups Ice Cream maker... Ah, well...
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At this performance of I Am My Own Frenzy, The role of "I" is currently being played by DR JoseSPiano. With the supporting role played by DR Jane.
;)
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One rather ancient woman with a warbly vibrato that you could throw a cat through and could not be heard over the heavily miked piano and the clink of silverware should, how can I be kind, retire...
That, Dear Reader Charles Pogue, is the wife of the owner. (Seriously.) I've always said the key to success is marrying well.
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Marin Mazzie was okay...Starbuck was by far the weakest link.
Maybe it was a good thing that I saw the understudies.
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Amazon's Free Shipping is always such an incentive NOT. If they only would extend it to overseas shipping or at least have some sort of discount shipping incentive. Shipping usually doubles the price of items from the USA to here. Even surface mail is not an option. Grumble grumble grumble.
We eventually caught up with "Bowling for Columbine" last night. Disturbing and thought provoking.
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Jose I hope you and your brother can meet half way while you are there. That isn’t too bad if you are staying in Long Beach-but do you have a car?
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Keith is making onion soup with the Walla Walla onions he grew. The house smells wonderful. He asked me to get the sugar from the pantry. So I leaned over Echo, who likes to sleep in there, and picked up the Tupperware container of sugar. To my surprise the lid wasn’t shut and much of the sugar spilled out onto the floor and on top of Echo. She wasn’t happy about that, walked out into the kitchen and did the dog thing-she shook. :D
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Jose I hope you and your brother can meet half way while you are there. That isn’t too bad if you are staying in Long Beach-but do you have a car?
I'm sure we'll meet up a few times while I'm out here. I'm actually staying in Los Angeles in the Los Feliz area. (I just flew into Long Beach - I managed to snag a $99 one-way ticket on JetBlue!) My brother is always driving back and forth between LA and San Diego for work, so... He's the "good cousin" since he actually keeps in touch with everyone out here - and can keep track of all the names of all the uncles, aunts, cousins, niece, nephews, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. Heck, I finally met my Dad's sister for the first and only time when I was out here last year. Once the show opens, I'm sure I'll be spending some of the days off down in San Diego with the "gang" - and it really is quite the gang! *And one of my aunts is actually kind of famous in the Filipino community in San Diego for her lumpia, the Filipino style eggrolls. I must have had at least a dozen of them in one sitting during my visit last year! Sooo good!
I don't have a car while I'm out here, but so far - at least for the past two and a half days - everyone seems to be willing to get to me to where I need to get going to. Additionally, I'm not too far from a MetroLink/MTA station, so, if all else fails, I can make use of the busses and subway system out here. *There is car in San Diego that I have been offered the use of, but it's a standard, and since I don't drive stick... Ah, well..
Once the show opens, and I find myself with the down time, I may splurge on a rental car. We'll see.
But one thing I'd like to do is actually explore more of LA's various neighborhoods. I could just take the subway, and explore the environs around each stop. *I also still have my Universal and Disney connections, so I suspect that there will be some theme park time sometime in my future out here. *I really do want to see the new Snow White show at Disneyland since I have two dear friends in the show. -OH! I guess I should call them too! :)
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-And one nice upshot about having so many relatives out here is that I know they'll be coming to see the show. I already know that I've "sold" at least 20 tickets so far! :D
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And one for Jose's relatives!
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Now Keith wants crock pots for the soup. We had a set in the early years of our marriage, but it has been a good number of years since the last one broke. Up until today we hadn’t missed it. ;D
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The lumpia, sounds delicious. Jose it also sounds as if you have as many people to see in LA as I do when we visit. At least you can see your family in large groups. I unfortunately have to divide mine up into small groups. You will have to tell me about the subway since I haven’t even seen it. Unless someone mentions it I tend to forget it exists.
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Other Eyetalian dishes I love: Simple spaghetti with butter and cheese. Spaghetti with sausages and/or meatballs.
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I
I also think it would be fun to have fresh linguine hanging out to dry all over the kitchen.
If I wanted spaghetti strings draped all over the kitchen, I'd move in with a women!
der Brucer (having visions of "The Rose Tattoo")
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FROM PAUCITY TO PLETHORA - A SAGA
GO WEST YOUNG MAN
(Consisting of selected excerpts from the LA Times (http://images.calendarlive.com/media/photo/2004-07/13359665.jpg))
By Bruce Vilanch
Special to The Times
St. Louis
The theater here seats 5,400 people, many of them evidently somewhere across the Mississippi River in Illinois.
The orchestra pit is larger than the swimming pool at Aaron Spelling's house (the main pool, not the servants') and somewhere beyond the dim and distant figure of the conductor you can barely make out the audience on the opposite shore. They hear us, because they seem to be laughing, but it takes a moment for the sound to get back to the stage. Or it could be the delay it takes for the translator to put it in whatever language they speak on the far side of the orchestra pit.
Minneapolis
One of the actors faints onstage tonight. It's just low blood sugar, and it happens during a rare serious moment, so the audience thinks it's part of the action. I would like to bend over and help him, but I can't because I am in the fat suit, pantyhose, wig, etc., and if I go over, there's no getting up. The audience knows this and finds it very amusing when I try, further convincing them this is all a part of the action.
After a moment, the actor gets up and strolls offstage under his own steam. This, of course, was not supposed to happen, which the audience figures out when there's dead silence on the stage because the next line was his.
At moments like this, it's good to know we have a Homeland Security department, because you can always blame stopping the show on them.
Denver
I really thought nothing could faze me now, several hundred shows under my pantyhose. But I had not reckoned with performing Edna at 5,000 feet.
Remember the breathing thing back in rehearsals? I must now move from breathing to extreme breathing, which is a sport even "Fear Factor" fears to factor. Management has kindly placed oxygen tanks on each side of the stage, but it sort of defeats the purpose when you have to wait in line for them.
The whole backstage area resembles a very modern emergency room, with lots of resuscitation devices. I think we owe that to a ballet company, which has just pranced through town. They keep telling me my body will adjust. But meanwhile we all have to keep muffled so they don't hear the pitiful wheezing out front.
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FROM PAUCITY TO PLETHORA - A SAGA
JOURNEY'S END
(Consisting of selected excerpts from the LA Times (http://images.calendarlive.com/media/photo/2004-07/13359665.jpg))
By Bruce Vilanch
Special to The Times
The next week
My body has adjusted, but I'm leaving town. Just when I had acquired the lung power to move to Aspen and become an industrial-strength snow bunny. We're heading for Los Angeles which, at least in all the disaster movies I've seen, still seems to be at sea level, which means I should now be able to hold a note until sometime next Tuesday, at which point I'll take a breath and continue on till the weekend.
Who knows what Hollywood will bring? In my dreams, I am the toast of the coast. But right before I wake up, Meryl Streep gets the movie.
FINIS
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hmmmm, should I be insulted? ;D
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The lumpia, sounds delicious. Jose it also sounds as if you have as many people to see in LA as I do when we visit. At least you can see your family in large groups. I unfortunately have to divide mine up into small groups. You will have to tell me about the subway since I haven’t even seen it. Unless someone mentions it I tend to forget it exists.
The subway system is quite nice... and a little strange in one aspect (at least to me). I only took it a few times when I was out here last year, but it got me to wherever I needed to get to - and the pricing is very reasonable. It's very new, very clean, and the architectural logo/motif they use is very interesting too. And, at least when I took it last year - it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. -Or should be.
The one quirk is that once you buy your ticket - well, it's really more of a receipt - there is no personnel you show it to. You just get on the train and ride.. and ride... And even though you can buy a round trip ticket, it actually seems like one could take more than a few round trips on the same ticket. There's no turnstile to go through, no machine to run your ticket through. I kept expecting to be pulled aside once I made my way down to the platform.
However, the transit authority apparently does random sweeps/checks of people on the platforms and trains. And the fine for not having a ticket is quite high. And there are plenty of warning signs posted throughout the stations. But, still, it really was kind of strange not having to run my ticket through any sort of mechanism. I seriously walked around for a few minutes making sure I hadn't walked the wrong way and missed the correct entrance.
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Reading about Bruce Vilanch in Denver (I lived in Boulder, 30 miles from Denver, for the last 8 years) I now understand why it's so damn easy for me to walk a brisk three miles here in LA. Piece o' cake. No oxygen mask needed.
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Hey, Jane - if Echo won't eat the pills in peanut butter, try giving her the pills hidden in very small bites of moist dog food BEFORE she eats her dinner, while she's still ravenous. ...Maybe Echo is just plain tired of peanut butter, and would love chicken liver pate?
Great ideas, Penny. You could become the spokesperson for "Pedigree pour le Pouch"
Hey, if Bacall can do cat food, you can be man's best friend friend.
der Brucer (I'll waive the agent's referral fee)
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We have decided to bake the soup in our little ramekins we purchased when Keith decided to make brulee. He isn’t a fan of brulee but he wanted to buy a torch and play with it. The torch came in handy today for the soup when he used it after adding cognac. We will save most of the soup until tomorrow until we have purchased the proper size bowls for onion soup along with a better variety of cheese. BTW, so far it taste great.
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The subway system is quite nice... and a little strange in one aspect (at least to me). I only took it a few times when I was out here last year, but it got me to wherever I needed to get to - and the pricing is very reasonable. It's very new, very clean, and the architectural logo/motif they use is very interesting too.
You might take the decorating ideas back to DC. Their Metro looks like something from Stalin's heyday.
der Brucer (remember, the Blue Line Willow station is a short cab ride from Long Beach Airport)
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My fave in Italian food is pretty basic. I like Angel Hair pasta with a really good tomato sauce, meatballs and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. And a nice glass of Chianti.
I also like veggie pizza with everything on it.
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I played Denver once on tour too..
I remember checking into the hotel that afternoon and noticing the "warnings" posted in the rooms about altitude sickness and the proper amount of time to get acclimated. Well, we checked in at 3:00 and had to be at the theatre at 5:00, and we went up that night 8:00. So much for acclimation time... Well...
We happened to be playing the Air Force base, and as was described in the LA Times article, there were oxygen tanks on both sides of stage. And these oxygen tanks were manned by men in uniform! Well... As the show went on, it eventually became clear that some people were just going to the oygen tanks so that they could get near the "uniforms". ;) One chorus girl even changed which side of the stage she made her exit on since she really thought the lieutenant on that side of the stage was "really hot!".
However, the dancers really did feel the "difference" the first night we were there - as did the wind players in our pit.
This was also the venue where on one of the various tours of Annie, the conductor raised his baton on opening night and then promptly fainted and fell off his podium! Now that's a way to start a show!
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You might take the decorating ideas back to DC. Their Metro looks like something from Stalin's heyday.
der Brucer (remember, the Blue Line Willow station is a short cab ride from Long Beach Airport)
There was a production of Wagner's Ring Cycle that played the Kennedy Center a couple of years back. It was a very futuristic and fantastical conception of the piece with big mechanical monsters. However, apparently, the inspiration for the set design came from DC's Metro system - the big tunnel-cave stations. I didn't see the production, but from the production photos, it looked like they could have been taken in the Metro.
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I will be leaving shortly, Dear Readers, to head to the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles is performing a tribute there this evening to Miss Judy Garland.
I almost snagged Dear Reader Jose as a date, but he wants to stay home and watch television.
That is, unless he changes his mind in the next ten minutes.
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I'm pretty sure I saw Norman Lear there last night. If not, it was his evil twin.
Jay, I guessed as much that warbly vibrato was the wife of the restaurant owner. Was he the short, roly-poly gent with the grey hair? Though he sang around the piano with the group we left before he did any solos...or maybe he doesn't. Are you an habitue of the place? Food was perfectly fine, if not memorable, and we had a lovely bottle of Australian chardonnay. It's great that it's right there at the theatre.
Can't speak to the understudies, but the guy who is the understudy for Starbuck certainly looks more the part from his resume shot.
I gotta get on this facial hair thing again for both Starbuck and File. File is a meticulous man... appearances are important to him. He's darning his own shirt. He talks contemptuously of the man his wife ran off with as being nearsighted and having weak hands. If File had any facial hair, it would be scrupulously trimmed and maintained. It's part of his anal nature. No beard stubble.
Starbuck would not have facial hair at all. He's a con man. He'd want to appear heroic. Rock-jawed, fresh-faced, and wide open, nothing to hide. More importantly, he wouldn't want anything competing with or distracting from that pearly smile and charm. Nor would he want to convey an image of mistrust or as someone too slick and sophisticated, an image that can often be misconstrued from face hair. Especially a scraggly, patchy mustache and goatee like the one the actor was wearing last night. Weenie, very weenie. Mostly, it looks like a little boy trying to grow face hair and can't. Another image Starbuck doesn't want to convey.
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Jose, where in Los Feliz are you staying?...that's my stomping ground.
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Jose, where in Los Feliz are you staying?...that's my stomping ground.
I think DR Jay mentioned to me that this is your stomping ground. I'm staying just a block away from the Albertson's on Hillhurst.
*It's a good walk from the House of Pies... but maybe that's a good and/or necessary thing. ;)
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Jay, I guessed as much that warbly vibrato was the wife of the restaurant owner. Was he the short, roly-poly gent with the grey hair? Though he sang around the piano with the group we left before he did any solos...or maybe he doesn't. Are you an habitue of the place? Food was perfectly fine, if not memorable, and we had a lovely bottle of Australian chardonnay. It's great that it's right there at the theatre.
That was him. I go there now and then. Dear BK, Dear Reader Laura and Dear Reader Sandra had dinner there one night together. Their pre-theatre prix-fixe dinner is a good deal. I took some friends there who really don't know from opera and they had a ball. And you're right. You can't beat the convenience to the theatre. Maybe this place has broken the curse on that space, as it has lasted longer there than any of its predecessors, I believe.
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Jose, where in Los Feliz are you staying?...that's my stomping ground.
And just what is the proper pronunciation of "Los Feliz"? Well, at least of "Feliz"..
Fee-liss
Fee-lix (-licks)
Fee-leez
Fee-leess
???
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House of Pies - now we're talkin'! Let's go TONIGHT - coconut cream pie!
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HOUSE OF PIES!!!
I think Mr. Harvey Schmidt's flight must have gotten in late, as he hasn't checked into his hotel yet. He was supposed to get in at three-thirty, and no matter what the traffic was like from LAX he certainly should have been there by five or five-thirty at the latest.
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*Oh... As it turned out, the one person I did not call as soon as I landed in Long Beach was my brother who lives out here. He ended up calling me late last night just to make sure I made it on OK. It's nice to know he was checking up on me, but I still can't believe that I forgot to call him. -Of all the people I should have called...
So, where does your brother live? Obviously, we've got to get you and he together for lunch or dinner at some point, and coming up with good eating spots is always fun!
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DR SWW - As for a pasta machine... If you do have a KitchenAid stand mixer, the pasta attachments are very nice and very functional. And if your store happens to carry some of the "attachment bundles", you should be able to get quite a deal with your employee discount. And they just came out with a ravioli attachment too! You put the pasta sheets through one set of rollers, and the filling in the hopper - once you turn on the machine, it fills and cuts the ravioli for you!
Even with my employee discount, the KitchenAid pasta attachment (regularly at $99.99) will come to more than I want to spend right now. I'll settle for a good ol' hand crank model. (Besides, Alton's suggestion of setting up the ironing board as a workspace sounds cool!)
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Yes and no. One brilliant but eccentric director I worked with in Canada was obsessed with detail. We were doing a film I wrote for the CBC. A period piece - limited time, limited budget. This director one day spent several hours deciding if the Nazi party buttons that some of the extras had in their lapels were authentic.
I'll name names. Martin Lavut
Charlie Grant's War
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I'm not a big fan of fixing Eyetalian food, but I really like going out for it. There's a restaurant here in Minneapolis called Buca de Beppo, that serves some terrific stuff. I especially like the Spaghetti with Anchovies, and the Seafood Linguine Alfredo.
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My brother, Jay, just moved down to San Diego to start a new job....But I did call him, and now I'm reminded that I need to call my cousin, Angie, who lives right nearby in Studio City (I think - she lives in one of the "cities" out here).
Well, that answers my earlier question. Now, we just need places to dine in Studio City...
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Pasta machine?
And here, I though pasta grew on trees!
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Page five...
I don't dance. Don't ask me.
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The auditions were a joke. Four people didn't bother showing up - what is with actors who confirm appointments and then don't show?
Out of date Thomas Guides?
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Ask Me!
(http://www.bullmarketer.com/graphics/cartoons/snoopy-dance.gif)
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I'll name names. Martin Lavut
Charlie Grant's War
Shhhhhhh!
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There is an article, http://www.dailytidings.com/2004/0709/070904edit.shtml,
in our local paper about the most interesting man in Ashland, director and now producer Tom Kane. Not being familiar with his name I decided to google him but didn't find much except for an actor. Is anyone familiar with him?
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Here's the thing...
I just filled out an on-line survey with Best Buy's website. They say that they give away an unspecified number of $500 gift cards every month for folks who filled out said survey.
My question is this:
Have you ever won anything like this before? Have you ever known anyone who did?
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I had to shut down for a minute as the computer sounded like it was going to take off. ???
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Netlix doesn’t have Charlie Grant's War. Is it available on DVD?
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HOUSE OF PIES! Let's GO!
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Trying to figure out if I have enough energy to watch a DVD
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And if I have enough energy, which DVD.
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Here's the thing...
I just filled out an on-line survey with Best Buy's website. They say that they give away an unspecified number of $500 gift cards every month for folks who filled out said survey.
My question is this:
Have you ever won anything like this before? Have you ever known anyone who did?
I have and I haven't
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Bought this tonight and listening to it right now. Some very nice arrangements and performances of classic Porter songs and some really bad.
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00023GGHQ.01._PE29_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
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The plot for MONK was not strong last night (it rarely is), but several sequences were hilarious. Monk offering the environmental protestor a supply of wipes, Monk's date and the 52 flights of stairs, Monk panicking in the blackout.
Sorry, but I laughed. A lot. And I think it's great that they've written Stottlemeyer to love Monk enough to demand they get him some wipes after he fell into the dirt.
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Well, I started out with a Marx Bros. night: AT THE CIRCUS and then my favorite HORSE FEATHERS. Then, while dialing through all those cable channels, I noticed SIGNS was coming on one of the movie channels. I'd never seen this, so I settled back and watched. I have to say I think it's the weakest of M. Night Shyamalan's three big films. It was OK, had some tense moments and a genuine scare or two, but on the whole I didn't think it all that powerful. (Hitchcock did similar things with THE BIRDS.)
I still found UNBREAKABLE the most haunting of his three biggies though most folks I know liked it the least of the three.
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HOUSE OF PIES! Let's GO!
Shall I meet you there? Or can you pick me up?
;)
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House of Pies, I'm ready! Coconut Cream, YEAH! What time?
Jose, I say Los Fee-Lezz!
BK, Good thing, Mr. Schmidt was not at last night's performance; he might have wanted to withdraw his permission for them to do the show.
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Netlix doesn’t have Charlie Grant's War. Is it available on DVD?
I don't think it's available now. They have it at the Museum of Television & Radio in NY and LA. If you REALLY want to see it, I have it in video in English AND French. It's a strange length for TV - two and a half hours - but a single film, not a mini-series. I just googled it and it seems to be on various lists, so maybe it IS available, but not on DVD.
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Harvey just called but I didn't hear the phone. He just got in, and I'm talking to him in ten minutes - if we don't decide to sup I'm very up for the HOUSE OF PIES.
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Well on the east coast I am undating Bruce's website. It has been awhile.
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Some LA Theater news.
Singer Billy Waring who appeared on BK's Unsung Irving Berlin is directing a new musical revue!
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Jane - I looked up Charlie Grant's War on IMDB and found this very nice viewer review (and I didn't even pay the man!)...
Summary: Very moving. I am saddened that it is not played more frequently.
I remember seeing this film as a kid on CBC television and being very touched by it. Pre-Schindler's list, this film examines the life of a gentile Canadian diamond merchant living in Nazi Germany who is caught helping Jewish families escape for which he pays the price. After saving hundreds of lives, Charlie Grant (played wonderfully by R.H. Thomson) is eventually thrown into a concentration camp for his acts of kindness. Even now, 15 some odd years later I can recall the powerful dialogue. Grant delivers a moving verbal slap in the face to a Nazi officer demanding to know why he bothers with the lives of "filthy Jews"...to which he replies he would rather commune with "filthy Jews than with people like you." Eventually the camp is of course liberated, but not before the Nazis shoot down the remaining barely surviving inmates. Grant somehow escapes this fate and is picked up by incoming Allied forces staggering down a muddy road babbling in German and then English, "I am a Canadian...I am a Canadian." I still get a lump in my throat thinking of it, and I am forced to wonder why this film doesn't get more play especially around Canada's Remembrance Day (Veterans Day). It would help to appreciate the efforts of those heroes who DID help, and maybe assist in alleviating some of the shame of our Government's blind eye given to Jewish immigrants during WWII. All that aside, a wonderfully inspirational film...moving, and worth sitting through the heartache of the subject.
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Harvey just called but I didn't hear the phone. He just got in, and I'm talking to him in ten minutes - if we don't decide to sup I'm very up for the HOUSE OF PIES.
Even if he does decide to sup - what law says you can't sup on pies?
Pies for supper, that's what I say!
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Jane - I looked up Charlie Grant's War on IMDB and found this very nice viewer review (and I didn't even pay the man!)...
Summary: Very moving. I am saddened that it is not played more frequently.
I remember seeing this film as a kid on CBC television and being very touched by it. Pre-Schindler's list, this film examines the life of a gentile Canadian diamond merchant living in Nazi Germany who is caught helping Jewish families escape for which he pays the price. After saving hundreds of lives, Charlie Grant (played wonderfully by R.H. Thomson) is eventually thrown into a concentration camp for his acts of kindness. Even now, 15 some odd years later I can recall the powerful dialogue. Grant delivers a moving verbal slap in the face to a Nazi officer demanding to know why he bothers with the lives of "filthy Jews"...to which he replies he would rather commune with "filthy Jews than with people like you." Eventually the camp is of course liberated, but not before the Nazis shoot down the remaining barely surviving inmates. Grant somehow escapes this fate and is picked up by incoming Allied forces staggering down a muddy road babbling in German and then English, "I am a Canadian...I am a Canadian." I still get a lump in my throat thinking of it, and I am forced to wonder why this film doesn't get more play especially around Canada's Remembrance Day (Veterans Day). It would help to appreciate the efforts of those heroes who DID help, and maybe assist in alleviating some of the shame of our Government's blind eye given to Jewish immigrants during WWII. All that aside, a wonderfully inspirational film...moving, and worth sitting through the heartache of the subject.
I agree with the reviewer. RH Thompson is one of Canada's under rated actors and deserves to be known in the US. He appeared in the award winning film playing pianist Glenn Gould.
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I'd never seen this, so I settled back and watched. I have to say I think it's the weakest of M. Night Shyamalan's three big films. It was OK, had some tense moments and a genuine scare or two, but on the whole I didn't think it all that powerful. (Hitchcock did similar things with THE BIRDS.)
I thought Signs was appallingly bad, myself. Possibly one of the worst SF/horror films I've ever seen.
A great deal of the film, especially the scenes within the boarded-up house with plot exposition given via the TV, was done first, and better, in Night of the Living Dead.
And the aliens are idiots.
They can obviously travel between stars in massive fleets, as well as turn their ships invisible...but are flummoxed by a boarded-up wooden house? That's right...a boarded-up wooden house. What, they forgot their ray guns? They couldn't pick up a sledgehammer or even a big rock to gain entry? At least the zombies in Night of the Living Dead had an excuse for failing to gain entry right away...they were frickin' zombies! What could possibly be the alien's excuse?
When we finally see an alien, he's naked, for pete's sake! No weaponry other than that poison gas spike on his wrist. He's invading the earth, and was sent down with no guns, no protection of any kind? Talk about half-assed planning! This is especially stupid considering that, like the wicked witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, the aliens die when they come in contact with water. That's right...water.
Which covers three quarters of the earth's surface. And which falls from the sky now and then, in a phenomenon called "rain". And they also hang around in a cornfield, which I can tell you from experience, can be a very wet place indeed.
This means that the aliens are landing in an incredibly hostile environment, with no protection at all. (Change the water to "carbolic acid", and imagine yourself asked to land on an alien world, buck naked, with hostile aliens everywhere, armed only with tear gas grenades. Not only that, but the inhabitants can easily withstand this "carbolic acid" stuff, making them virtual supermen in comparison with you. I doubt you'd be signing up anytime soon.) And even if the aliens we see are just some kind of drone, it's pointless to send them into such a hostile environment; they're just too damned easy to kill...garden hoses, fire hydrants and squirt guns are everywhere.
The subplot of Mel Gibson's crisis of faith rings false, too. Of course, his re-conversion to the (I'm assuming Episcopalian) priesthood is perfectly understandable, since God obviously intervened to give the alien invaders a case of Mass Stupidity.
Now, I didn't mean to go off on a rant here, but I obviously did. I'm a huge science fiction fan, and I like SF in general to be well-done. Signs isn't. It's shoddy, thoughtless, and written by someone who didn't seem to realize that his overheated scenario could be ripped to shreds so easily. It's not just that Signs is so godawful...it's an insult to the intelligence of its' audience.
I wasn't impressed with The Sixth Sense, since I'd seen the movie M. Night Shymalan stole the idea from, Carnival of Souls. I actually did like Unbreakable, though. But not enough to watch it a second time. I think the man has talent as a director, but I think he should get someone, anyone else to write his films. Because, as a writer, the guy is pretty much a hack.
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The subway system is quite nice... and a little strange in one aspect (at least to me). I only took it a few times when I was out here last year, but it got me to wherever I needed to get to - and the pricing is very reasonable. It's very new, very clean, and the architectural logo/motif they use is very interesting too. And, at least when I took it last year - it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. -Or should be.
That's the LA system as I remember it. It really does get crowded during rush hour, especially if there's been an accident on the Blue Line light rail to Long Beach, but that only happens when someone decides to "beat the train" and zoom with his/her car around the traffic barriers.
Which happens too often, of course.
And then everyone blames the rail system, instead of the driver.
One quirk is that once you buy your ticket - well, it's really more of a receipt - there is no personnel you show it to. You just get on the train and ride.. and ride... And even though you can buy a round trip ticket, it actually seems like one could take more than a few round trips on the same ticket. There's no turnstile to go through, no machine to run your ticket through. I kept expecting to be pulled aside once I made my way down to the platform.
It's called "trust," Jose. Left-coasters still believe in the concept.
However, the transit authority apparently does random sweeps/checks of people on the platforms and trains. And the fine for not having a ticket is quite high. And there are plenty of warning signs posted throughout the stations. But, still, it really was kind of strange not having to run my ticket through any sort of mechanism. I seriously walked around for a few minutes making sure I hadn't walked the wrong way and missed the correct entrance.
Slyly checking out the ticket cops while they check your ticket is considered appropriate. Asking for their phone numbers...well, wait, I never really tried that. Dang, I think I might have missed out on something.
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Now I can't get The Worst Pies in London outta me head!
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I played Denver once on tour too..
I remember checking into the hotel that afternoon and noticing the "warnings" posted in the rooms about altitude sickness and the proper amount of time to get acclimated. Well, we checked in at 3:00 and had to be at the theatre at 5:00, and we went up that night 8:00. So much for acclimation time... Well...
And we are all very glad you are not known as JoseSTrumpet.
(Please, everyone, remember that I did include the capital T. ;D)
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Here is a picture of Harvey
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I agree with the reviewer. RH Thompson is one of Canada's under rated actors and deserves to be known in the US. He appeared in the award winning film playing pianist Glenn Gould.
I thought that was Colm Feore... Thanks for the compliment on the film. I saw RH in a Showtime film recently, playing a rabbi - Full Court Miracle was the title - he was good, as always.
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On my way to the Dena of Pas to sup with Mr. Schmidt. Notes will probably go up a bit late.
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Late night page 6 dance
(http://www.optical-intrusion.50megs.com/downloads/goodies/abbey_dance.gif)
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I thought that was Colm Feore... Thanks for the compliment on the film. I saw RH in a Showtime film recently, playing a rabbi - Full Court Miracle was the title - he was good, as always.
I remember working in a theater in Montreal when Colm was just starting out. Terrible production of Ira Levin's Veronica's Room or was the play terrible? It was a long time ago
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I remember working in a theater in Montreal when Colm was just starting out. Terrible production of Ira Levin's Veronica's Room or was the play terrible? It was a long time ago
He had one of his first - if not THE first film/TV role in my first "serious" piece, RUNNING MAN (on For the Record). That was also Donald Brittain's first dramatic (non-docu) film.
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I gotta get on this facial hair thing again for both Starbuck and File. File is a meticulous man... appearances are important to him. He's darning his own shirt. He talks contemptuously of the man his wife ran off with as being nearsighted and having weak hands. If File had any facial hair, it would be scrupulously trimmed and maintained. It's part of his anal nature. No beard stubble.
Starbuck would not have facial hair at all. He's a con man. He'd want to appear heroic. Rock-jawed, fresh-faced, and wide open, nothing to hide. More importantly, he wouldn't want anything competing with or distracting from that pearly smile and charm. Nor would he want to convey an image of mistrust or as someone too slick and sophisticated, an image that can often be misconstrued from face hair. Especially a scraggly, patchy mustache and goatee like the one the actor was wearing last night. Weenie, very weenie. Mostly, it looks like a little boy trying to grow face hair and can't. Another image Starbuck doesn't want to convey.
Huh? Say what?
Exactly when is Rainmaker/110 supposed to take place?
OK, it's not taking place now, in the 2000s.
But it isn't set in the Eisenhower era, either. As I recall, these people are still driving horse-drawn rigs. This puts them in the 1900s, maybe the 1920s. (I could be wrong, I don't have a copy of the film or script at hand.)
During this era, facial hair on men was considered quite respectable. Sure, measly little pencils of moustaches were too "cityfied," and would have been suspicious, but a true moustache, or a full or partial beard, would have been considered manly.
I agree that File would be well-trimmed at all time, and that Starbuck would consider accentuating his masculinity with a neat appearance, but the whole idea that masculinity equals no facial hair would be bunk.
(My long-held suspicion is that Gillette's razors have been a part of the feminization and virtual castration of American men, a suspicion I base on the fact that the bulk of Gillette's stock is held by women. As they say, let the buyer beware!)
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Can anyone post a picture of actress Marilyn Cooper?
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I think DR Jay mentioned to me that this is your stomping ground. I'm staying just a block away from the Albertson's on Hillhurst.
*It's a good walk from the House of Pies... but maybe that's a good and/or necessary thing. ;)
Uh...Don't walk the neighborhood alone at night. Just to be on the safe side. Trust me on this one. Really.
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And just what is the proper pronunciation of "Los Feliz"? Well, at least of "Feliz"..
Fee-liss
Fee-lix (-licks)
Fee-leez
Fee-leess
???
Loss Fee-lezz
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Don't think I said a damn thing about masculinity and facial hair one way or the other...except that the actor playing Starbuck has a very weenie mustache and goatee. As I said, it looks like a little boy trying to grow a beard.
Yes, I know the play's era and I know beard's could be considered quite respectable, but I also said they could be misconstrued as villainous and slick...don't forget them mellerdramas of the day when the villain twirl his mustachioes. Clean face and open is the best attack for Starbuck. Beaming them pearly whites...no mustache drooping over them, no beard hiding them.
Or maybe I just can't get Burt Lancaster out of my head, but I do know that Starbuck's beard last night look very wussy.
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(My long-held suspicion is that Gillette's razors have been a part of the feminization and virtual castration of American men, a suspicion I base on the fact that the bulk of Gillette's stock is held by women. As they say, let the buyer beware!)
You say that like it's a bad thing...
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Sorry, DR Charles, but what you wrote struck too close to the arguement I was given by the local Disney Store as to why I would have to shave off my beard and moustache: that kids find them frightening, and that the Disney villians are bearded.
If anything, the opposite on both counts are true. (I'm trying to imagine Cruella DeVille with a beard. Comical, perhaps, but more laughable than frightening.)
I'm a bit defensive about this anti-beard prejudice. It stings.
(Any chance you have a picture of yourself with one, that you'd care to post? :D)
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You say that like it's a bad thing...
Well, yes, it is!
So there!
::) :P
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I need to be up at an unholy hour tomorrow, and must take my leave.
Hope the pies were good!
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For those who won't or can't have pie
Banana Cream
(http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:mW1Y01iDlAIJ:http://www.jstreetcafe.com/efesmediterraneancatering/banana%2520cream%2520pie.JPG)
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Chocolate Cream
(http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:kR4Ol6hBp6EJ:www.vitalita.com/foodpicts/chocolate-cream-pie3.jpg)
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Apple Pie
(http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:DTdpkg-sfooJ:www.ba-marc.org/images/GRnch-Apple-Pie-w.jpg)
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Then again I could never eat apple pie after I saw Jason Bigg's use of it
(http://home.t-online.de/home/schulz.thomas/bilder/apfel-02.jpg)
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DRMICHAELSHAYNE I simply ADORE your new avatar......
Ya know DRGEORGE the alien in ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN came all the way to earth looking for diamonds!
I wish I were in California.....sigh.
I did get applause once again on my egress and am having a wonderful time, BUT I don't wanna do no more tuxedo shows in July!
DRSWW if Cruella has one more face lift she will HAVE a beard!
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Can't find a photo of Marilyn Cooper on the net!
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DRJASON also has a nice new avatar!
DRMS....that dance that dance....MY EYES MY EYES!!!!
DRGEORGE....what are you TAKING to the Antiques Road Show?
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Nytol!
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Good Evening!
Back from dinner. We didn't opt for the House of Pies tonight. Instead, we headed around the corner and went to Puran's. Good food. Not too fancy, but very well done. We both had pastas - seafood with angel hair, and spicy sausage with penne. And chocolate cake for dessert. Nice place, and, according to the menu, they only use organic vegetables and free-range chickens.
We may actually go to some film festival later on. A friend of his has a feature being shown tonight at midnight(!). I'm just gonna play it by ear since we have more auditions in the morning.
OH! -And I also my first Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf "Ice Blended" drink this afternoon. Tammy had "warned" me to get the sugar-free version since the regular ones are quite sweet... Well, she was right! I actually thought I was tasting more sugar than coffee flavor. It also gave me a slight headache. Ah, well... Next time I'll know better.
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I'm off to read in bed. Might be back later...
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DRGEORGE....what are you TAKING to the Antiques Road Show?
If I had gotten a ticket, I would probably have taken my ex-wife!
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At the tribute to Miss Judy Garland tonight, I heard approximately 150 homosexual men in tuxedos sing these songs:
When You're Smiling
Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart
The Boy Next Door
I'm Always Chasing Rainbows
A Couple of Swells
The Lady is a Tramp
I'm Biding My Time
Ding Dong the Witch is Dead
For Me and My Gal
Meet Me in St. Louis
It's a New World
Johnny One Note
I Got Rhythm
The Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe
If I Only Had a Brain
But Not for Me
I Wish I Were in Love Again
Babes in Arms
Babes on Broadway
Hoe Down
Strike Up the Band
Come Rain or Come Shine
Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy (sung as a duet, a la Miss Garland and Miss Streisand)
The Man That Got Away
You're Nearer (sung as a solo)
Alone Together
Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody
Swanee
If Love Were All
Through the Years
You Made Me Love You
The Trolley Song
Chicago
San Francisco
Several numbers were choreographed and various clips of Miss Garland's film and television appearances were interspersed throughout the evening.
Oh yes. One more thing. Any Dear Reader who cannot figure out what song was done for an encore will be required to sign up IMMEDIATELY for the next session of Remedial Gay 101.
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I am really really tired tonight. Really.
Re Antiques Roadshow: I went once. They didn't have tickets. I stood in line for eight hours.
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I'm really tired too... Must have been the pasta...;) Something tells me Chris and I won't be heading to the midnight screening at the film festival...
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Actually, Woody, I've never worn a full beard...partly for the same reason I hate the one on the Starbuck at Pasadena Playhouse...I could never grow a good, thick strong one. I have had, at various times, a mustache and a goatee or, probably more precisely, a Van Dyke. Both of which do grew in fairly thick and nice. I wore the beard as David Bliss in Hayfever, as DeGuiche in Cyrano, and as Manningham in Angel Street.
But I'm not saying beards are sinister; only that many might construe them to be so...or, as I very specifically stated, misconstrue them as that way. To my thinking, a con man like Starbuck wouldn't want to take that chance.
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I'm back from a divoon meal with our very own Harvey Schmidt, who sends his best to all. I must now hurry and write the notes which will be up in fifteen minutes or so.
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Woody & Jose, both Hillhurst and Vermont have in the last few years, become very trendy and happening. Many's the time, the Lovely Wife and I have walked down to dinner at one of the restaurants there or taken in a movie at the Vermont 3 and walked back along Los Feliz Boulevard home. The only time I've ever even been a little nervous is perhaps, right there at the small patch of Griffith Park we have to cross to get to our neighbourhood. But that's just a twinge of heightened consciousness, not fear. Vermont is probably a little more happening than Hillhurst and while I wouldn't recommend strolling around there at midnight or after.
During the early evening hours, as long as you pretty much stay on the main drags, no big whoop. The Lovely Wife and I just last week walked back from the restaurant Home down on Hillhurst, crossed Melbourne to Vermont, and came home at around nine or ten o'clock. All was fine.