Haines His Way
Archives => Archive 2 => Topic started by: bk on October 21, 2004, 12:01:25 AM
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Well, you've read the notes, you're feeling very Scottish and bonnie, and now it is time for you to post until the bonnie cows come home to Brigadoon.
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Well, laddie, I used to love the old LIFE magazine when I was a kid. I still remember certain covers and articles. I remember how excited I'd be when I'd sit down with a new issue.
One magazine I miss is Scenario. They published entire scripts of great movies, with wonderful illustrations and excellent interviews. I think they lasted 3 or 4 years. I have every issue.
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I've never been much of a magazine reader but I do miss "Show Music".
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Yes, I loved LIFE and especially LOOK - it published the greatest photos of Lucille Ball! And they usually had more than one cover subject!
INTHEATRE or whatever that weekly magazine was called - and I think after it folded there was a magazine that came along doing the same thing, but it folded as well....
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.....now I have to think.
What great posts and photos yesterday!
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DRJAY you have a video tape to look at!
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A bright young Scottish lad named Ian had the opportunity to go to university in London. So he packed his bags and said good-bye to his mother and left the highlands for the big city.
After the first week his mother called to see how her boy was holding up.
"I love it here Mother," Ian told her, "but these English students are the oddest people ever! Why the boy who lives in the dormitory room next to me bangs his head against the wall until midnight every night. And the boy in the room above me stomps around until midnight every night. And the boy right below me blasts his stereo until midnight every night."
"Why don't you complain to the Dean of students?" asked his mother.
"Well, it doesn't bother me much," answered Ian. "I'm usually up until that time anyway practicing my bagpipes."
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Good morning, all!
DRD-I-T, LOL :o
Scottish mallow? The only mallow I know, besides the swampy marsh mallow, is the Rakes of Mallow, and that's an Irish tune.
Magazines I miss:
I still miss THEATRE ARTS, and the temptation to clutter my life with more back issues of magazines is overwhelming whenever I see any for sale. For many years, THEATRE ARTS was the only source for libretti to LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE and ONCE UPON A MATTRESS. I don't think anyone cared much that they also published the libretto to MY DARLIN' AIDA.
SHOW BUSINESS ILLUSTRATED: I still remember the readers' letters debating CARNIVAL vs THE SOUND OF MUSIC and Patrick Dennis' LITTLE ME was published there in instalments.
I miss INTHEATRE because there's nothing current on the newsstands to overpraise some of the lackluster revivals and hype the paltriness of the current Broadway scene.
SHOW MUSIC: I still don't know how that one died, and I'm sure Max Preeo's and Goodspeed's reasons differ greatly for its demise.
I still love and read faithfully each issue of OPERA NEWS, GRAMOPHONE, FANFARE, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE (even though it's conservative attitude drives me mad!), SCARLET STREET and FILM SCORE MONTHLY.
In closing, I must say I owe FANFARE a great debt: if it hadn't been for an interview they published with Bay Cities' Bruce Kimmel, I would never have telephoned him and I would have lost out on a very Dear Friend.
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MAGAZINES
MAD - I grew up with it and found it to be consistently (gasp) intelligent in its humor.
SHOW MUSIC - Yes, you can find all the info on the internet, but I still miss this magazine.
The only magazines I get now are puzzle magazines. I am a great fan of crosswords, anacrostics, and certain number puzzles. The DELL and PENNY PRESS brand and GAMES are my favorites.
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I used to love Gourmet magazine, but now I buy it only occasionally. A couple of months ago I picked up the issue with a cover that featured "Great Snacks!" The contents page also had a picture and a recipe teaser for "Great Snacks!" Turned out that the "Great Snacks!" were a pathetic few lumped together on the last page of the magazine.
I always look forward to The New York Times magazine.
For long subway trips I like to read People magazine or The New Yorker. (Nora Ephron once said she picks up People magazine to read on a plane, but finishes it long before boarding.)
Mad magazine was a childhood favorite. It still makes me laugh.
I like Famous magazine, which is distributed here in Famous Players movie theatres.
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Most magazines have fallen off my radar. I find Time and Newsweek more uninformative than anything else. I find the current crop of GLBT magazines silly and empty. Out, Genre and the like are not aimed at me. When I have had the occasion to peruse them, I realize, yet again, why I would not subscribe to them. When I do "read" a magazine, it's more of a browse, actually. I will still sit and read an article in the New Yorker when I come across an interesting piece and when I subscribed to Harper's I would read it but the subscription expired, and strangely enough, I got no notice saying I needed to renew. I just realized a few months ago that it had stopped coming and when I looked at an old issue, realized that it had expired. I do fill my geek void with a subscription to PC World. It's a good magazine and I've used information from it to help with computer issues.
I did love the old Life and Look magazines and the previously mentioned Show Music, Theatre Arts and Show Business Illustrated. The magazine I dearly loved, though, was After Dark. Oh, my, the pictures and articles and innuendo to a young man growing up in Coon Rapids, Minnesota ;) Heading to Shinder's in downtown Minneapolis to purchase a copy (it was the only place to find it) was always a treat.
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I did love the old Life and Look magazines and the previously mentioned Show Music, Theatre Arts and Show Business Illustrated. The magazine I dearly loved, though, was After Dark. Oh, my, the pictures and articles and innuendo to a young man growing up in Coon Rapids, Minnesota ;) Heading to Shinder's in downtown Minneapolis to purchase a copy (it was the only place to find it) was always a treat.
DRBen, when Richard Buck, of the NYPL Theatre Collection, retired and left New York, I bought his entire run of AFTER DARK magazines, so you'll have to come over and check them out. The magazine was an amazing entertainment history - with a definite gay perspective - of 1969-1983(?). I look at them now, laugh at the fashion, and sadly remember all the singer/actor/dancer/models who are no longer with us. I believe the NYPL Theatre Collection now owns the copyright to all the Ken Duncan photos.
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Hi All y'all. I need to go make toast, but I just wanted to let you know I'm back. You know what that means, don't you--- Bad typing, pithy sayings, and genuine affection for you.
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Hi All y'all. I need to go make toast, but I just wanted to let you know I'm back. You know what that means, don't you--- Bad typing, pithy sayings, and genuine affection for you.
Gosh, we missed you Kerry! Welcome back. (And, yes, I'm getting respect from Archie.)
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KERRY!!!
It's so good to have you back, young man.
I'm looking forward to bad typing, pithy sayings, and genuine affection.
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From today's NY Times.
Correction:
Because of an editing error ... an article about a memorial to Veronica Lake ... misidentifed the judge in a look-alike contest who dressed in pink ostrich feathers and eight-inch heels. The judge was a drag queen known as Esther Gin - not Laura Levine, an artist and antiques store owner.
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And yes, After Dark was an education for me-- like college, only prettier.
I miss the women's magazines when they used to have aerticles about how to make an A-;ine dress from Butterick and had recipes and sappy stories and cute cartons. I used to see those at my Grnadmother's house and woud read them to keep quiet while my grandfather took a nap. Now al those same magazines teach you how to have better orgasms and how tot tell if your husband is cheating on you.
But, I don't really seem to be a part of this world anyway. I still get TV Guide, and I rarely know who anyone is on the cover. I am definitely out of it. Two weeks in a row I thought it was the same cover-these prettty plastic vapid people who were gettting married-- then I relaized it was two different couples--neither of whom I had heard of.
The world has a lot of 'splainin' to do.
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Before I'm out the door, I wanted to comment on this PBS Broadway Musical history that's been playing. I've purchased but not yet received the DVDs, and a lot of the secondary footage I saw last night distressed me. For example, the shots of "Summertime" from PORGY AND BESS were not from the opera and the arrangement for soprano and the chorus, as well as the orchestration, were not original. There were sections of OKLAHOMA! clearly from some tv special with the chorus looking like Dogpatchers. Was that John Raitt singing Curly, although I thought the singer had a European accent or something peculiar with his pronunciation.
On the other hand, seeing the footage of Tess Gardella and Helen Morgan in SHOWBOAT, Bert Williams and Eubie Blake from the first evening and Ethel Waters last night was wonderful. So much was great, but too brief for me, and it was nice to see friends like Ted Chapin and Robert Kimball strutting their stuff. It's hard to cram 100 years into 6 hours, and I wish we'd gotten more like 10 hours and a less simplified history.
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BK - Have some Scotch Broth and use some Scotch Tape.
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JRand... there were 2 different but very similar weekly magazines in the 90s... THEATRE WEEK followed by IN THEATRE. Both were good but too specialized to really make a go of it.
I, too, have every issue of SCENAREO and they owe me money for three unpublished issues (which I'll never see).
I definitely remember the wonderful SHOW BUSINESS ILLUSTRATED from 1961-2. One problem was that a magazine named SHOW also began publishing at the same time and there was no room for two similar magazines so they both folded. I used to like ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, but it gradually changed from a general magazine to a magazine aimed specifically at the 18-25 year old set.
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New York City Opera has announced its cast for their R&H CINDERELLA next month:
Sarah Uriate Berry as Cinderella
Lea DeLaria as Stepsister Joy
John "Lypsinka" Epperson as the Stepmother
Ana Gasteyer as Stepsister Portia
Eartha Kitt as the Fairy Godmother
Christopher Sieber as the Prince
Renee Taylor as the Queen
Dick Van Patten as the King
Directed & Choreographed by Baayork Lee
It sounds like the typical cast of an AIDS benefit, not an NYCO production.
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Regarding BROADWAY, THE AMERICAN MUSICAL - I have seen all six hours plus the five hours of extras. While some of what is omitted from the televised version is covered by the "talking heads" in the extras, the main problem is that they tried to cover too much in a short amount of time and had to leave out way too much. If they could give something like twelve hours to the Civil War that only lasted four years, then they should give a documentary that covers over 100 years more time. However the DVD is a must if only for two of the extras: the complete twelve minute "bench scene" from CAROUSEL with original stars John Raitt and Jan Clayton; and a long segment where Sondheim, Weidman and Frank Rich discuss "Someone In A Tree" followed by the four original cast members who sang this performing it around the piano (played by SS) in Sondheim's apartment. I kept waiting for his neighbor Miss Hepburn to drop by.
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(http://i24.ebayimg.com/02/i/02/ad/4f/5b_1.JPG)
Or, as Walt Kelly put it,
Ma Booney Lice Soda Devotion
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I do loves magazines, I do.
As a wee laddie, I looked forward to monthly issues of Jack and Jill (published right here in Philly), Humpty Dumpty and Famous Monsters of Filmland (and eventually, the illustrated "adult" horror magazines Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella--had to hide those from mom.) Of course, there was Mad, too (and an occaisional issue of Cracked.)
I also enjoyed the mags my parents bought. Life, Look, National Geographic, Reader's Digest. My dad's Popular Mechanics and my mom's Woman's Day and Family Circle.
Since I looked a little older than I was at the time, I was able to buy Playboy at some newsstands when I was just 15. Aside from the obvious attractions, I found myself actually reading the articles and fiction. Playboy was really an excellant magazine to read back then (late 70s to early 80s.) I'm sorry I missed it during it's 60s heyday.
I picked up an odd issue here and there of National Lampoon, but I didn't all together get the humor. I think I mostly bought it to look at the ads for posters.
I had subscriptions to Time and Newsweek, Analog, Ellery Queen Mystery Digest, and Alter Ego (an early comicbook fanzine.) During the 80s I was crazy for New York Magazine, along with Games and Rolling Stone and The New Yorker.
I've already talked here about TV Guide, a magazine I used to love when it had truely informative listings and articles that were actually worth reading.
There have been some great theatre oriented publications, now gone: Show Music, TheatreWeek and InTheatre. For a brief time there was an arts mag called Horizon that had extensive theatre coverage. The only mags I see out there now are American Theatre (too academic for me) and PlayBill (too much fluff.)
Nowadays, I like Men's Health, Esquire, Outside, GQ and Men's Journal. Some guilty pleasures include Real Simple, Wired, Vanity Fair and Entertainment Weekly.
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Was that John Raitt singing Curly, although I thought the singer had a European accent or something peculiar with his pronunciation.
I caught only parts of the PBS broadcast, but I think it was Hugh Jackman as Curly.
Thanks for pointing out the DVD extras, WEL.
Julie Andrews' diction is as impeccable as ever, and she is certainly an American Musical treasure. Still, I think I would have preferred a non-Brit-accented host. (I had to smile when Julie talked about the Lower EAST Side, with the emphasis on the middle word. That's surely not the way my mom (who grew up on Rivington St.) said it.)
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Hey, welcome back Kerry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Most of my favorite magazines were, and are, movie related. I have suscribed to Filmfax since around 1989 and I have suscribed to Classic Images for about 6 or 7 years. I also pick up Films of the Golden Age, Cult Films, and Scarlet Street when they have something of interest in them.
There used to be a magazine called Hollywood: Then and Now which I enjoyed but haven't seen it since the early 90s. When I was a kid TV Guide and Famous Monsters of Filmland were a must.
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VARIETY has been a fixture with me since I was a pre-teen. I have been a subscriber ever since, despite the alarmingly high rates they now charge. I give in to this indulgence, but I'm not sure for how much longer. I think the on-line subscription (which is free if you subscribe to the periodical) is $68, and that might be more my speed.
AFTER DARK holds a fond place in my memory; my first gay publication, but so discreetly so that I could leave it out in my room without fear.
Wish I had seen SHOW BUSINESS ILLUSTRATED. I do remember SHOW fondly, but it didn't last very long.
Yep, MAD was always a favorite, and I used it with my own students to teach them what parody and satire were. By my final years of teaching, I had few students who even knew what MAD magazine was. I guess it was still kept in business by baby boomers like me.
When I was a kid, Disney started publishing WALT DISNEY Magazine to coincide with THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB and publicise their features and other TV shows (ZORRO, DISNEYLAND). I just LIVED for that magazine to come out. Was always a pushover for anything Disney back then.
Really, really miss SHOW MUSIC. I wish Max could get it back up and running again. I feel every day like I'm missing some marvelous theater music news or upcoming releases because that magazine isn't there to keep me informed. And it goes without saying that I miss THEATER WEEK and IN THEATER.
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I currently subscribe to TV GUIDE, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, OUT, and THE ADVOCATE (along with VARIETY). I also take SOUND & VISION (about home theater/HDTV, much less now about music than it used to be), STEREOPHILE's GUIDE TO HOME THEATER, and WIDESCREEN REVIEW.
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Also wanted to make a comment re Charles Pogue's mention of KEEN EDDIE last night.
It was probably my favorite new show of the last two years other than the current LOST, and Fox's handling of it was nothing short of criminal. It's a funny, exciting, and dryly witty show unlike ANYTHING on American television now. Didn't surprise me that it didn't catch on, but it's the closest thing we've had to THE AVENGERS in many decades.
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DR Jane, I did finally read (carefully) that article on LOST in TV GUIDE, and was SO grateful they inserted a spoiler warning before I read further. I skipped that entire spoiler section.
For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would want to know things that are going to happen in an adventure show ahead of time. Part of the fun (at least for me) is experiencing the shock and surprise as it happens first hand.
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And on today's Scottish-themed environment, I put the DVD of BRIGADOON into the player the other day after I watched SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. They were both 1954 MGM musicals with BROTHERS surprising everyone by being a far bigger hit at the box-office than the Broadway triumph.
Anyway, the news about a remastered special edition of BRIGADOON coming in 2005 is good news, but this current release looks very good, even if it isn't anamorphic. I synched up the last laserdisc release of BRIGADOON (contained in the GENE KELLY COLLECTION laserdisc boxed set), and both picture and stereo sound were far better on the DVD. The DVD also goes to the extreme sides of the Cinemascope frame (2.55:1 for this early CInemascope release) while the laserdisc shaved off just a hair from the left side.
The new anamorphic DVD next year should look stunning.
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Oh yes currently SCARLET STREET -even if it doesn't have a review I have written. My only subscriptions are SS and Movieline (now called something else) and once that subscription expires, I will not renew.
The SATUDAY EVENING POST had the best advertisements for the new model cars....big two page spreads for Buicks and Cadillacs and Fords, etc.
MAD magazine always made me laugh. And of course I always bought comic books including SUPERMAN (especially if there was a story about Krypton) and the horror comics when they were published.
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hi kerry!
LOL DiT - funny joke.
And I wonder who demanded the correction, Laura OR Esther.
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I enjoyed KEEN EDDIE as well. The 'fish out of water' story has always been a favorite of mine.
And just a reminder - tomorrow will be the 62nd birthday of Miss Annette Funicello!
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Glad to see all these excellent magazine choices. As I was reading them I thought, "well I hope someone lists some genre magazines" and then a few of you did. My current favorite is Scarlet Street. I used to like Filmfax, but it's become a chore to read and I don't like its layout anymore, same with Outre (now incorporated into Filmfax, I think), and I used to love Video Watchdog, which seems less interesting to me these days. Of the classics - of course the seminal Famous Monsters of Filmland, and I also really liked some of the wackier and lesser-known fanzines like Photon, Markelite (only four issues, which I still have somewhere), Castle of Frankenstein, and a few others of that ilk.
I also bought Show magazine at the same time as Show Business Illustrated - both were beautifully produced and had great covers - one issue of Show, which I have somewhere, has a glorious and wonderful full-color picture of Harpo on it. Classic. I also loved MAD Magazine, the really early issues when it was in comic book format, and then the early issues when it changed to magazine format (I believe issue twenty-four was the first of those).
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Here is the conundrum: I have been sent a copy of the Scarlet Street review of Writer's Block, which I'd like to print here today. In the review, the victim is revealed. It took me aback when I read it and I asked Richard Valley to do a version where he doesn't reveal it. But I began to think that it might not be that big a deal - after all, in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd it's not exactly a secret who is going to get offed. And in Writer's Block, it becomes pretty apparent who is the most loathed person involved in the production they're doing. So, what do you all think? I have both versions of the review, but I like his original better.
And for those who are wondering, yes, Virginia, he really loved the book, for which I'm very grateful.
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DR BK,
For what it's worth, I say take the safer route and use the revised review - even if it's no big deal to reveal the victim's name. If the revelation took you aback - even for a moment - it may have the same effect on other readers.
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Well hmmmmmmmm....I think.....hmmmmmmmm....I guess I would NOT want to know before I read the book.... I know someone is going to get killed, but of course that means from the beginning everyone else is merely a suspect!
Can't the review without the NAME be as good?
But that is just MY opinion.
CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN - I only found ONE issue of this magazine, but I still have it.
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The sun is out, and the streets are drying up.
I guess there are arguments both ways - in Roger Ackroyd you clearly know it's he who will be offed (and it doesn't happen for quite a few chapters). In other books you don't know who the victim is going to be, and in other books it's quite clear. In Writer's Block it does become fairly clear, early on, who most people in the book don't like.
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And yes, both versions of the review are very close in content - he only changed specific references to the victim's name.
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Regarding SHOW MUSIC, from what I understand Max is still in litigation with Goodspeed but that it will be back some day.
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I enjoyed KEEN EDDIE as well. The 'fish out of water' story has always been a favorite of mine.
And Mark Valley was always a pleasure to watch in action. Of course, he's on BOSTON LEGAL now, but I can't stand that show.
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BK,
If you decide to go with the original version, then perhaps RV should mention that he's not spoiling anything.
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Magazines: I currently subscribe to The Advocate and Better Homes and Gardens (since becoming a homeowner, I thought this was a good idea).
I used to subscribe to OUT (til I figured out that I was way too old for it), New York (which was much better in the 70s), Martha Stewart Living, Variety (for a short period of time, after which I would just read the office copy), Bon Appetit, TheatreWeek and InTheatre. At least I think that's it.
I grew up in a household that got Time (and or Newsweek; it seemed to change every once in a while), LIFE (I still remember the cover celebrating Miss Taylor Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton Burton Warner Fortensky's 40th birthday), and as memory serves, Reader's Digest. And there was always Mad Magazine in the house, though I don't recall if it was through a subscription or not.
At newsstands, on occasion, I will (or used to) pick up an Esquire, a Vanity Fair, an After Dark (toward the end of its being published), and sometimes a Men's Health.
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Not for nothing, but I just picked up a copy of the Times, and was quite distressed (in principle) that ABC has dropped the MISS AMERICA pageant from its schedule for next year. It certainly became a shadow of its former self in its few years back on ABC, but not having the ability to see this celebration of scholarship in sequins on television is .... well, I don't know if I have the words to relate how saddened I am.
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I'd rather not know who the victim is to be until I read the book. Agatha Christie obviously wanted readers to know ahead of time about Roger Ackroyd, but she didn't often reveal the victim in the titles or early pages of the book and often, part of the mystery was that we suspected the WRONG person had been murdered.
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In my younger days, I enjoyed reading Mad Magazine, Highlights (at the dentist's office) and Boy's Life (at the school library.) I also recall looking at Esquire, before it was revamped, at the public library. In those days they ran ads for "artistic" photography collections (if you catch my drift) in the back pages. Later, I enjoyed Esquire's "Dubious Achievement Awards" feature.
I used to read the New Yorker religiously, but haven't done so in years.
Currently I take the Advocate, Out and Los Angeles Magazine, which usually contains 200 pages of advertisements for things I cannot afford, 50 pages of editorial copy that aim to preserve the stereotypical view that so many people have of Los Angeles (aromatherapy for your illegal, but chic, pet ferret anyone?) and at least one well-written, hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism.
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Confidential to Dear Brother/Dear Reader Stuart: Youth is a state of mind, m'dear.
:D
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BK, I browse Video Watchdog now and then at the newstand but usually don't buy. I missed the issue that had the interview with Edith Scobb (is the correct name) from your fave EYES WITHOUT A FACE. Did you see that issue/interview?
...and I understand the current issue has an interview with little Donnie Dunagan from SON OF FRANKENSTEIN/BAMBI/TOWER LONDON which I think would be fun to read. I have yet to find that issue on the newstands, however.
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...Also, BK, in what way do you find Filmfax difficult to read now? I guess I hadn't noticed any change. I love that magazine (and of course I have had a few interviews published in it...with several more to come!!...and they pay me promptly which makes me a very happy writer!).
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Confidential to Dear Brother/Dear Reader Stuart: Youth is a state of mind, m'dear.
:D
Confidential to DB/DR Jay: I never said I didn't feel young. After all, I have the feeling that time has halted. I'd like two straws and a chocolate malted....(oooh, a MAME reference).
My implication was that no matter how young I feel, I am still not the audience that OUT is trying to capture. By the time I gave up my subscription, I couldn't recall the last time I had actually read an article in the periodical. One too many ads targeting -- you should pardon the expression -- circuit queens interrupted the editorial content. Like the difference between gay and homosexual, it's a lifestyle choice.
The Advocate is much more my speed, intellectually, between the two.
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Ironically (not unlike the happenstance from the other day), AOL Radio/Showtune station just started playing "That's How Young I Feel" as soon as I hit "Post."
This is getting to be spooky, like seeing my birthdate on clocks and scoreboards.........
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BK, I would say definitely post the review WITHOUT the spoiler. I hate reviews that give too much away.
Also, can you repost the link for the website. I missed it and would like to check it out.
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DR MattH re: the Lost article and the spoilers.
I read the ones that were posted online, and they are not spoilers at all. In fact they have very little to do with the show at all.
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I find the Filmfax layout and fonts difficult to read. I think it's the same they've always done, but my eyes aren't the same. That said, I have the first sixty-five issues beautifully bound and I wouldn't be without them. I have the entire run of Scarlet Street, all bound, including the elusive number one. I have bound complete bound volumes of Video Watchdog as well. I do have the Edith Scob issue of VW. It was really fun to read her interview.
Well, the consensus is to have the non-reveal version of the Scarlet Street review, so it follows forthwith.
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Here is Richard Valley's Scarlet Street review. It is the non-reveal version. Of course, one never knows what other reviewers will reveal or not reveal and I'll have no control - which is why I rarely read reviews of mysteries. But, I thought you all would appreciate seeing the first:
Bruce Kimmel puts his talent for evoking the past, utilized so winningly in his nostalgic Benjamin Kritzer trilogy, to a sinister new purpose in Writer’s Block, a witty, disturbing murder mystery set in the late 1960s.
Broadway is the setting, and the plot revolves around a new musical called BUS AND TRUCK, a sort of KISS ME KATE combo of backstage antics and show-within-a-show. The year is 1969. We follow the first reading of the script (at which the librettist, songwriter, producer, director, and cast all realize that, while the first act is socko, the second is a lox) to rehearsals in the Bronx, then on to out-of-town tryouts in New Haven and Boston, back to Manhattan for previews, and finally to opening night—where producer Conrad Ballinger steps out on the stage during the curtain calls and dramatically proclaims that a key member of the BUS AND TRUCK production team is dead.
Sound familiar? Producer David Merrick did just that very thing on August 25, 1980, when he announced to the stunned cast and opening-night audience of 42ND STREET that the show’s choreographer and director, Gower Champion, had died. Ah, but here’s the catch—Champion died of a rare blood cancer; the novel’s decedent dies in a fire, the tragic result of falling asleep with a lit cigarette. That’s what the police say, anyway, but librettist Arthur Myerson begins to ponder, and what he ponders is whether the much-loathed, sexually masochistic victim—who threatened Ballinger with the disruption of the show, who seduced and harassed both chorus girl Allison and chorus boy Eddie, who fought bitterly with director Galen Chapman—was murdered.
The events that take place in Writer’s Block are a dizzying, exhilarating blend of fact and fiction. Galen Chapman is, of course, based on Champion (with a flash of Fosse). BUS AND TRUCK’s veteran stars Mary Masters and Robert O’Brien recall Mary Martin and Robert Preston, who actually costarred on Broadway in I DO! I DO! (1966). Songwriter Stanley Sherman is sort of an Even Stephen—namely, Sondheim and Schwartz—but it’s Arthur Myerson who, like Sondheim, loves to play games. Arthur also loves to write song parodies, including one for a musical version of PSYCHO (sung to the tune of “I’m Lovely” from A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM):
I’m Psycho
What I am is Psycho
I’m a little Psycho in my head
Shower
You don’t want to shower
Or within the hour
You’ll be dead.
The novel’s murder isn’t based on an actual crime, but so vividly does Kimmel bring the period to life, so deftly does he weave imaginary events with genuine theater history—Mary Martin’s difficulties remembering her lines, Stephen Schwartz’s conflict with Bob Fosse during the 1972 production of PIPPIN, David Merrick’s shocking revelation—that even the most learned show biz aficionado will wonder how the news of a brash young Broadwayite’s fiery finish ever escaped his knowledge.
Writer’s Block is extraordinarily clever throughout, but never more so than when Kimmel performs some theatrical sleight of hand in a manner that’s positively Hitchcockian. The Master of Suspense, who in such classic thrillers as THE 39 STEPS (1935), STAGE FRIGHT (1950), and TORN CURTAIN (1966) explored the ever deceptive world of the theater, would have smiled. And so will you.
—Richard Valley
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Very nice review!
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When The Lovely Wife was President of Friends of the Hollywood Library, we used to pick up books for book sales and I got to cherry-pick through them for first choice. In that manner, I acquired large collection of THEATRE ARTS magazines from about '48 to '64. Many of the years are complete runs, some are missing an issue or two, but they're great and, of course, most have a complete play in them.
I also have some SHOW BUSINESS ILLUSTRATEDs which my father had bought. I have a lot of issues of SHOW from its various incarnations and sizes. I regularly bought AFTER DARK until it just got so blatantly gay in its focus and content, but it was for awhile a wonderful show business magazine.
I bought or subscribed to THEATRE WEEK until it went under. Unfortunately, I did not save a lot of these issues. I subscribed to the British mag PLAYS INTERNATIONAL...and still would probably but, unlike most mags, they would never sent me a renewal notice, so I'd just forget when it ran out and not renew. I'll pick up a PLAYS & PLAYERS occasionally. I still have most of my old AFI AMERICAN FILM magazines when it was offered with your membership.
PLAYBOY was around our house and on the coffee table since I was about five or six, my father had no problem with us looking at it as he thought the human body a beautiful thing. It was a big deal for my brothers and I to anxiously await for Dad to come up from a business trip and hope that the latest issue of PLAYBOY was in his suitcase. As I said the other day, I bought it all through college and later subscribed right up until recently. Although the latest issue just came the other day, so maybe they've extended my subscription without asking or it doesn't run out for another month or so.
LOOK, SATURDAY EVENING POST, & LIFE were also on the living room coffee table and I loved all three. My father had a collection of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICS from before he was born going back to 1910 that I think still sit mouldering in the storage shed out back of the family home. I was never a big reader of this though.
I have a nice collection from my youth of CREEPY, EERIE, & VAMPIRELLA. Never was a FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND freak. I too have one issue of CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN...I think it has an article on Edgar Rice Burroughs in it.
I've collected THE BURROUGHS BULLETIN, official magazine of the Burroughs Bibliophiles on and off since the sixties. And since its reincarnation in the 80's, I have every issue. I also collected ERB-dom, ERBania, the Barsoomian, and a few other Burroughs fanzines. Also AMRA which was a very high-tone literary fanzine devoted to Robert E. Howard and sword & sorcery in general. Well-known fantasy authors often contributed as well as fantasy artists.
I've collected a few pulps and old mags from the thirties and forties. Particularly liked LIBERTY (also bought this when it was briefly revived in the 70's), COLLIERS (boght for Sax Rohmer stories in them), ADVENTURE, WEIRD TALES, also FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES from the 50's.
I occasionally get on a binge where I buy house design, architectural, or home decor magazines.
I remember MAD fondly from my youth. Was a regular reader. A few years back bought the entire run on computer discs up to 1998. So I can revisit this any time I want. Lovely.
Today I subscribe to MYSTERY SCENE MAGAZINE, CINCINNATI MAGAZINE, MEN'S HEALTH, and I get THE DRAMATIST, AMERICAN THEATRE, and WRITTEN BY by being a member of The Dramatist Guild, TCG, and the WGA. I also like my Equity News.
We also subscribe to THE WEEK, which may be the best capsule news mag around.
I occasionally pick up a LONDON TIME OUT, to keep abreast of the doings there, though the internet has pretty much made that unnecessary anymore.
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DR Stuart said:
"no matter how young I feel, I am still not the audience that OUT is trying to capture. By the time I gave up my subscription, I couldn't recall the last time I had actually read an article in the periodical. One too many ads targeting -- you should pardon the expression -- circuit queens interrupted the editorial content. Like the difference between gay and homosexual, it's a lifestyle choice.
My thoughts exactly. I read the magazine in the early days and thought it excellent. When the big change over took place they lost me as a reader. I can get much better, up-to-date information and news from other more reliable sources (IMHO-in my humble opinion).
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My 2 cents worth: In a murder mystery, it's obvious SOMEbody has to die...it's the figuring out whodunnit that is the key.
However, if the initial chapters lay out a plot in which the reader comes to loathe the intended victim, and possibly several other people, and is given reason to suspect any number of the other characters once it happens, I'd rather ENJOY the suspense of who will get killed...after all, it may not always be the most loathsome person.
So it really depends upon intent of the writer.
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For all who read LIFE in their childhoods...especially the in 1950s and 60s (and you KNOW who you are!!!):
Does anybody recall a feature they did (it truly captured my attention at the time) about three (or four) children who had been rescued from lving in the attic of their home where their parents had secreted them? They were all in their teens -- from 12 to 17, if memory serves, but they all looked like they were between 5 and 7 years old because they had been deprived of sunlight and, sadly, basic nutrition, although they had been fed. There were many photos and the article, IIRC, said that the children had responded to care and had started growing a bit and putting on weight since authorities had stepped in and removed them from the home.
I've been a bit haunted by that story all these years...and have often wondered how those kids responded to treatment/exposure to the world in the following years.
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The review makes me want to read the book. I guess that is the point! Hehehehe.
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For the cognoscenti: Re: the PBS look at the Broadway musical -- did they, or did they not, present "Show Boat" as the first book musical in the opening episode? And did someone (Sondheim?) not say that Broadway's history is divided in two segments -- everything BEFORE "Show Boat" and everything AFTER "Show Boat"?
If I am correct about "Show Boat" being a book musical (and if it isn't considered that, why isn't it???), what's the deal with the second night's assertion stating that "Oklahoma!" was the first book musical ever, and the first time that the songs advanced the story? And if that is what they said, why do the songs in "Oklahoma!" advance the story any moreso than the songs in "Show Boat"????
Enquiring minds...etc., etc, and so forth.
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I don't remember that LIFE story RLP...the ones from LIFE I remember most vividly are the Kennedy assassination issues and the issues about the Space Program!
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Great review! Congrats!
(http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0304/party/party-smiley-038.gif)
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Add to the list of (shallow) mags I miss... TV Guide when it actually used to be a magazine with actual articles and terrific covers.
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Just had a load of trouble loading the site - but it seems to have been a momentary hiccup.
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Welcome nine GUESTS. We're talkin' about magazines.
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I'm a "Show Music" fan also. I used to get the monthly "Playbill," but I didn't do anything with them and now there is the online version, so that’s one magazine that I let go of. No one has mentioned "The Sondheim Review." That's another that I love, but my subscription lapsed and I haven't notified them (yet) to renew and order any back issues that I've missed. Otherwise, I have every issue since the beginning.
AND:
[shadow=red,down]WELCOME BACK, KERRY!![/shadow]
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...; and a long segment where Sondheim, Weidman and Frank Rich discuss "Someone In A Tree" followed by the four original cast members who sang this performing it around the piano (played by SS) in Sondheim's apartment. I kept waiting for his neighbor Miss Hepburn to drop by.
...and complain about the noise!
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Or beat on his window with her broom! LOL
I think I said before - the past few weeks, the TV GUIDE racks have been full - when before there had been many copies sold.... We are not the only readers who feel that way. I began buying TV GUIDE when it was 15 cents an issue and stuck with until a couple of months ago......
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Dear Friend BK, well, now I know how Arthur's involved in the production! I didn't know from your excerpt if he were cast or staff, but Richard told me too much. However, it was a very good review, and I can't wait to read the book. Somewhere I have the murder mystery Carlton Carpenter based on the IRENE revival, WHO DROPPED PETER PAN?, based on the Papermill Playhouse production of the musical, and I once had a mystery based on a Harold Prince show out of town but I've forgotten its title. I've also got two non-mystery theatre roman a clefs, Garson Kanin's SMASH based on the FUNNY GIRL production and James Fritzhand's STARRING, which memory tells me was based on FOLLIES.
DRRLP, several people made comments on SHOWBOAT's importance, but some simplistic comments like "until OKLAHOMA! the book was a loose affair," are bogus. The Princess Theatre shows by Jerome Kern - OH, BOY!, OH, LADY! LADY! and others with Bolton and Wodehouse - are very well integrated in terms of book and lyrics, and Rodgers & Hart's DEAREST ENEMY is to me the best of the 1920s operettas before SHOW BOAT. Gilbert and Sullivan were models for several musical theatre writers and their integration of book and lyrics cannot be the exception to the rule that the insistence that early musicals cared nothing about rules of drama. The simplification of a lot of material in the PBS broadcast didn't help matters either, like Broadway didn't emerge until the 1904 subway. Well, BABES IN TOYLAND, actually not a badly integrated show but a show with real libretto problems, opened at Columbus Circle in 1903 at the long-gone Majestic Theatre, and Broadway had already seen such hits as Herbert's THE FORTUNE TELLER, de Koven's ROBIN HOOD, and THE WIZARD OF OZ starring Montgomery and Stone.
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If the excerpt had gone on one more line, you would have known that Arthur was the librettist. I'm thrilled with the review.
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Matt H, the LOST article warns you when there is a spoiler,
Dan (the Man) I too am thrilled Boston won. I would have watched the game is Keith was willing. His suggestion I tape it and watch it later just didn’t work for me. As I expected, it was an exciting game. I sure wish I had seen it.
DRLaura I wasn’t sure if I should cry or laugh at your mailing story-decided to laugh. ;D
I’m waiting for the vet tech, who is late, to watch me give Bogie his fluids. In the meantime I think he just scooted under the bed. I don’t know how cats always know when they should hide.
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I'm thrilled with the review.
As well you should be. It's a terrific review, and I look forward to reading the entire book!
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I'm thinkin' about food. Might be a bit too early to eat, but I'm thinkin' about it anyway. Finally wrote a couple of pages -I've been just making notes yesterday and the day before, and then I had trouble getting motivated until I thought about the next payment - then I got motivated fast.
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"Farscape" fans: Are there any more out there????
Did you see the four-hour "Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars" last weekend?
If not, it's going to be re-aired, in its entirety, on Sunday.
I loved the show, but I hated to see one of the main characters die.
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The mention of Gower Champion in
Rudy Richard Valley's review--coupled with a Gower joke posted here some days ago has me wondering exactly what the man was like to work with.
This is because a friend of mine who had worked with both Gower (in Birdie) and Robbins (in Fiddler--original and revival) contrasted their styles thusly:
Gower, he said, has everbody loving him, and you want to do your best to make him happy.
Jerry, on the other hand, has everyone hating him, and eventually the cast bands together to do their best just to show him!
But from what I read here, Gower has a bit of a reputation as an Evil Genius.
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DiT-great Scottish joke.
Kerry-it is nice to have you back.
Matt H, guess I didn’t need to tell you there was a spoiler. At least it was only for the episode we watched last night.
Happy Birthday to Annette tomorrow.
Bruce I really dislike when reviews give me too much information.
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Great review by Richard Valley....but unless there are other much-loathed, sexually sadistic actors in the show's cast, I think the not-naming of the character issue has been rendered moot.
:D
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Congrats on the review, BK! I'm glad it's the unrevealing version--I would rather not know who is knocked off in Writer's Block until I begin to actually read it. Though I have to wonder if there isn't an actual clew in that review...
(Yes, I had originally typed excerpt--I meant to say review.)
Hmmm...I, too, have only one issue of Castle of Frankenstein stashed away somewhere. I sense a pattern here...
I read once that the whole entire United States is sinking at a rate of one eighth of an inch a year. This is due to all of the bundles of National Geographics that people have stowed in their basements.
During the late 80s or so, there was a briefly published mag called The Movies or At The Movies. The first issue featured Lily Tomlin and her "Confessions of an Usherette". I was hooked on its rather persnickery attitude towards Hollywood and immediately subscribed. Alas, it only lasted about six issues, the remainder of my susbscription turned over to the more sedate Premier magazine.
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Hopefully there is only one character to fit the description.
MR BK have you heard of the MURDER BY THE SEA Bookstore? It is in Delray Beach, Florida.
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BK - what a teaser that review is!!! I'm sure all of us will be waiting with baited breath to read this one!!! Excellent!
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Dear Friend BK, well, now I know how Arthur's involved in the production! I didn't know from your excerpt if he were cast or staff, but Richard told me too much. However, it was a very good review, and I can't wait to read the book. Somewhere I have the murder mystery Carlton Carpenter based on the IRENE revival, WHO DROPPED PETER PAN?, based on the Papermill Playhouse production of the musical, and I once had a mystery based on a Harold Prince show out of town but I've forgotten its title. I've also got two non-mystery theatre roman a clefs, Garson Kanin's SMASH based on the FUNNY GIRL production and James Fritzhand's STARRING, which memory tells me was based on FOLLIES.
Was Kander & Ebb's Curtains based on any one particualr show?
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Oh yes, DR RLP. We watched the first half of Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars on Sunday, both parts on Monday, the conclusion twice on Monday...
Quite up to their usual snuff, I must say, with all the whacky humor, the wonderful character interaction, the superb plotting, and, of course, the obligatory vomit jokes of the series.
Not to spoil, but the character who "died"--we didn't really see him die, you know. And I cannot imagine that actor having decided he wouldn't do any more sequels. Not like Virginia Hey, who left because the blue make-up made her skin break out--what we sf fans call "doing a Denise Crosby".
My main questions about the mini-series were:
1. Why did the baby have to be born under water?
2. Did he just cut a hole in her pants to deliver it?
3. Did she really spend the next half-hour fighting it out with the villains in those same pants?
4. Now that they have clearly explained why humans and Sebatians can interbreed--how about Sebatians and Loxons? That beggars credulity.
Now, for those of you who are not Farscape fans--what the frell are you waiting for?
On almost the same subject:
DR Noel: One of your main objections to sf and fantasy appears to be the set-up of the situation and the "rules". Well, that problem really occurs in all literature. It's called exposition. It can be handled well, or it can be handled clumsily. e.g. "As you well know, your second cousin, the hog-farm millionaire hasn't spoken to his sister since she married a transexual pilot and moved to Brazil."
In sf, some of this exposition is referred to as "techno-babble", a term that has escaped fandom and found its way into the scripts themselves on occasion. But in the long run, it's no different from "you need fairy dust (pixie dust to the prudish) to fly."
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SHOW BOAT was definitely not the first book musical. I think it's widely considered the first masterpiece of the musical genre, but it was certainly not the first book musical.
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It is beginning to storm here. Only in Arizona can you have a dust storm and a rain storm at the same time.
Re "I am dead:" I laughed when I wrote it.
TOD: I cancelled all my magazine subscriptions years ago. They added too much clutter. My husband receives magazines about flying, which are taking up too much space, in my opinion.
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Glad Richard Valley gave you a rave, bk, but I skipped most of the review because, frankly, it was STILL telling me more than I wanted to know without reading for myself. Previous poster was right, however, Valley's enthusiasm does make one want to read the book even more.
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Oh, shoot! I forgot that I also subscribe to THE SONDHEIM REVIEW and have from the beginning.
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When I was little, I thought the name of the song reference in the title was:
My body lies over the ocean,
My body lies over the sea....
And of course:
If a body meet a body comin' thru the rye!
Both of those songs scared me!!
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Oh and yes, me laddies and lassies, upon the wee topic of the day (Captain, these engines canna stand the strain!) -- actually when we sang that song in grade school, I thought it was "My Body Lies over the Ocean" and had this image of a huge corpse floating in the air above the sea...
But the TOD...
Childrens' Digest--I would wait in eager anticipation for each new issue, read it twice, and memorize all the jokes.
Scientific American I subscribed throughout high school and college.
Playboy, when I was in grad school, when it was one of the most intelligent magazines for reading--Lord knows I didn't buy it for the pictures--I mean, who else was publishing Singer and Nabokov at your local news stand?
For several years I subscribed to a whole slew of Esperanto magazines: Esperanto, Heroldo de Esperanto, Norda Prismo, Gazeto, Scienco kaj Tekniko, El Popola Chinio, Literatura Foiro, Fonto--and I was published in the last two. Monato was a monthly news magazine that had the advantage of having articles written by people in the countries involved. So, for example, they published stories about the Faulkland Islands crisis by writers in both England and Argentina.
But alas, I have let most of those subscriptions lapse.
Nowadays, I subscribe to The Advocate to get my gay news. But I am increasingly put off by their concentration on the youngest generation. I seldom have interest in what they think is the relevant music scene, for example. And their shameless pandering reached its height last year, when the Supreme Court handed down its landmark sodomy decision, but their cover story involved two semi-naked reality show contenders.
We also subscribe to Smithsonian, and Joe devours his monthly European Car. Somewhere in a box I have several years worth of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I think I stopped subscribing when I realized I was reading Asimov's and Baird Searles' articles but not the fiction.
News magazines? I read all I want in doctors' and lawyers' waiting rooms, where I've spent all too much time since Joe's illness began.
And oh,
Good health vibes to DnotR Cal Bolder!
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Oh, shoot! I forgot that I also subscribe to THE SONDHEIM REVIEW and have from the beginning.
Oh yes, me too.
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When I was little, I thought the name of the song reference in the title was:
My body lies over the ocean,
My body lies over the sea....
So I was not alone. Of course, no one is alone. Oh, a S...
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I can't remember the source, but I am hearing
"My body loves calamine lotion..."
in my head. A parody from where?
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DAMN YANKEES on DVD came in the mail today, but it's a full night of TV watching, my first night off after a long spell, and I'm looking forward to watching TV in high definition.
If nothing happens and I get to see CSI and WITHOUT A TRACE tonight, it'll be the first episodes of this new season that I've been able to watch. I am SO looking forward to it.
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I watched "Damn Yankees" on DVD this past weekend. I have to say I find it dreary viewing...an amazing misfire by Stanley Donen, especially given the spirited filming he and George Abbott made of "The Pajama Game."
There were, to my mind, some terribly wrongheaded decisions to treat the songs as though the audience would react to them the way audiences did in the theater...replete with encores. Oof.
It seems little more than an enormous "what were they thinking" curiousity of a movie compared to much, much better ones that preceded and followed.
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In that book on Stanley Donen, seems like he mentioned that George Abbott didn't direct much of either movie, but that when he did have a suggestion, Stanley would follow it. Perhaps George wanted DAMN YANKEES to be more "stage-like" than THE PAJAMA GAME turned out to be.
I have the laserdisc of DAMN YANKEES, and I haven't watched it in quite a long time, but I don't remember having the same negative feelings about it. I think THE PAJAMA GAME is a stronger piece of material with better music. Also, the song added to the film of DAMN YANKEES is a dog of dogs, and I really miss the deleted ones. That's really the only "what were they thinking" moment I have had in the past while viewing the movie. But I may have a complete change of mind once I view this DVD.
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RLP: There are many potential victims in Writer's Block and the victim is not necessarily a performer.
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I like DAMN YANKEES - I saw it on television when I was little and was scandalized byt the title! I remember liking it. I have the video, but probably won't buy the DVD - I think I have only watched it once since I bought it. Of course, if I get involved in a production of it....
I LOVE LOVE LOVE "The Pajama Game" - stage and screen versions....OBC and OST.
Yesterday BYE BYE BIRDIE the London cast was mentioned. My London cast LP is on the Mercury Wing label and features Mr Peter Marshall and Miss Chita Rivera. Was there another London cast album?
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RLP: There are many potential victims in Writer's Block and the victim is not necessarily a performer.
Ah-HAH! Quite right. A key member of the production "team" is what he said....
Hmmmmm.
Nice play on names with Conrad Ballinger!
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Yesterday BYE BYE BIRDIE the London cast was mentioned. My London cast LP is on the Mercury Wing label and features Mr Peter Marshall and Miss Chita Rivera. Was there another London cast album?
DRHRand54, I mentioned it yesterday in mentioning Goddard Lieberson: the London cast album is now on CD from Decca Broadway. It was originally on Phillips and my memory is that the exact musical cuts and adjustments made for the Columbia OBC by Lieberson were used on the London cast album.
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Nice play on names with Conrad Ballinger!
We love you, Conrad!
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Magazines: I subscribed to "Billboard" magazine in the 1970's. I still subscribe to the Sondheim Review.
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Hmmmmmmm....how did the London Cast end up on the Mercury budget label?
I remember that of the OBC and the OST...that London album had some of my favorite versions of the songs. The Telephone Hour was hilarious...and the Conrad...hmmmm....what was his name, I will ahve to check when I get home...was terrific...oh wait I think it was Jess Conrad...is there such a person?
Just checked....it was Marty Wilde!
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Hmmmmmmm....how did the London Cast end up on the Mercury budget label?
I'm not sure of all the ins and outs of recording companies, but Mercury is now owned by Polygram, which owns Decca.
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In the US the Brit version was on Mercury Wing. I had it back then - one of the few instances of a London cast album making it to these shores (although there were many foreign My Fair Lady albums that seemed to find their way here).
I had a blast coming up with the names for Writer's Block - really fun. And, of course, the fictional people are mixed in with some real-life people's names.
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I think SHOW BOAT is considered to be the first book musical where most of the songs were an integral part of the book and not just dropped in for no purpose. And OKLAHOMA! was the first intigrated musical where every song furthered the plot and the dance was also important in furthering the story and not just thrown in for entertainment.
By the way, some DRs mentioned that they read Variety. I used to, but stopped about ten years ago when it stopped being about Show Business and became more about Show Business.
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I thought about this post and realized, I'm jumping the gun. Tomorrow is HHW's birthday!
I took it back--until tomorrow.
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In the spirit of that's what makes a horse race, I have got to say that DAMN YANKEES (which as a kid I pronounced as DAM-N YANKESS) remains one of my favorite movie musicals of all time. On of the main reasons I loved it was because it was so very theatrical. It was probably the only movie musical, I can remember, that retained almost the entire Broadway cast, with the exception of Stephen Douglass. Growing up in Tacoma, Washington, I had little exposure to Broadway theater, nor could I afford to buy OBC LPs, and the staged quality of the show was absolutely wonderful to me. And then, of course, there was Gwen Verdon! What a talent....what legs...what a STAR!
And it didn't hurt that Tab Hunter was one of my first crushes (at the tender age of eleven, or something like that)!
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In the US the Brit version was on Mercury Wing. I had it back then - one of the few instances of a London cast album making it to these shores (although there were many foreign My Fair Lady albums that seemed to find their way here).
I bought (used) the Italian and Spanish cast recordings of My Fair Lady (the Spanish cast having a very young Placido Domingo) and last year I got a CD of the 1964 Israeli cast recording...in Hebrew!
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I really don't read magazines. I don't have a place to put them when I'm finished.
Of course, when I was younger **cough** I bought Tigar Beat and the other teen magazines. Just had to keep up with the doings of The Osmonds, David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, etc. :)
Good vibes to DR Elmore and his test tomorrow!
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Is this a bootleg, or is it legit? Anyone know?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4046217285&rd=1
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I received an e-mail that Sarah Brightman is coming to town. I would have liked to go see her but then I saw the ticket prices:
Sarah Brightman: Harem World Tour 04
Saturday, Nov. 13, at 8 p.m.
$116.75, $76.75 and $46.75
Gasp! :o
I think I'll have to pass.
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RLP: Buried within the description is "click here for other live recordings" -
Sounds like a bootleg to me, although the seller has given a catalog number for it. Write him and simply ask him if this is an "official" release from LA Opera. If he doesn't respond, the answer is obvious. If he does respond he'll either say no or yes - if the answer is "yes" - I'd call the LA Opera offices and ask them.
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"Farscape" fans: Are there any more out there????
Did you see the four-hour "Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars" last weekend?
If not, it's going to be re-aired, in its entirety, on Sunday.
I loved the show, but I hated to see one of the main characters die.
Was this new or reruns?
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I am attaching a photo of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, whom many of you will know by name as the first U.S. mayor to sanction/promote gay marriage.
And this is the talk of the town currently...the article first deals with Arnold Schwarzenegger, but gets much better as it reveals information from Newsom's wife who represented him at a gay pride function:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/20/BAG6O9CG5M1.DTL
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DRDANISE - I have seen Sarah Brightman in concert....went with someone, didn't buy the tickets on my own. I have to say I don't like her type of voice much....BUT she did a nice job, put on a rousing show with a LOT of musicians....and she was FUNNY.
And when she sang "Another Suitcase in the Hall" - well I forgave her a lot things....
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I would also say a 'bootleg' RLP - but the catalog number does give me pause....not fur and paws....but pause.
DRELMORE - and THAT'S how the OLC ended up where it was and is. I may get that CD.....
My Original Soundtrack LP from LES UNS ET LES AUTRES just arrived and am about to put it on the record player!
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RLP I do remember the story and seem to recall being told there was a follow up story years later which I never read. Did you try searching on line?
Matt H, I also skipped most of the review. I felt it was too telling and want to wait until I read the book.
Bruce, I’m not sure I should post a question, with names included, regarding the similarity in the death scene to an actual event.
I’m going to go see why TIVO failed me and didn’t record FARSCAPE.
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From the back of the Les uns et les autres LP. 8)
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Been listening to a few of the excerpts from the London Cast CD of Bye Bye Birdie! Darn....I keep forgetting what a dynamite score it is. What fun....so sweet....and so funny. And the rock 'n roll numbers really rock!
We love you, Conrad, indeed!
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Bruce, I’m not sure I should post a question, with names included, regarding the similarity in the death scene to an actual event.
e me the question first.
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Now, might I just ask where in tarnation IS everyone? Sandra excluded, of course, since she is here.
Whaddup, dawgs?
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Was this new or reruns?
ALL NEW -- tied up all the loose ends that were left when the series was cancelled one season early...and leaves the door open for more.
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I think SHOW BOAT is considered to be the first book musical where most of the songs were an integral part of the book and not just dropped in for no purpose. And OKLAHOMA! was the first intigrated musical where every song furthered the plot and the dance was also important in furthering the story and not just thrown in for entertainment.
DRWEL, there are book musicals much earlier with integrated scores, but I believe SHOWBOAT is the first musical to expand beyond its parameters of a 1920s operetta and tell a rather epic story, with themes and emotional undercurrents far beyond the scope of most shows of the period. On one level, you've got the Ravenal-Hawks family epic of several generations of performers, on another a look at bigotry in the South, and on another a history of popular music from the 1880s through 1928. Robert Russell Bennett in his bio makes mention of the fact that he tried to keep in his scoring a feeling of different musical styles. The constant in all this is the Mississppii River, and no matter how far SHOWBOAT's characters roam, they all end up back at the Levee.
OKLAHOMA! is a better book adaptation by Hammerstein of someone else's source material. SHOWBOAT sprawls as a novel, but GREEN GROW THE LILACS is a well written play and most of Hammerstein's work was pruning the text for songs and creating the character of Will Parker, who is only mentioned and never seen in GREEN GROW THE LILACS. I really don't think Rodgers, Hammerstein, deMille, or Mamoulian thought they were breaking new ground, only following their instincts on how to maintain their integrity to Lynn Riggs' original play and be true to their characters. What a surprise!
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Yes, I'm here. I think I rode the famed Crazy Bus home from school today. There was a new bus-driver-in-training who was singing Return to Me, but couldn't remember most of the words. The experienced driver who was riding with him was harmonizing, but also couldn't remember the words. Then we had a lady lugging around a few bags of muffin stumps (I thought that was only on TV!) and muttering to herself about who knows what.
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From today's NY Times.
Correction:
Because of an editing error ... an article about a memorial to Veronica Lake ... misidentifed the judge in a look-alike contest who dressed in pink ostrich feathers and eight-inch heels. The judge was a drag queen known as Esther Gin - not Laura Levine, an artist and antiques store owner.
I finally read the article that required the correction. The background on Veronica Lake is quite interesting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/nyregion/17lake.html?oref=login
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DiT is it possible for you to email me the article so I don't have to sign in?
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Today I gave Bogie his fluids at home, fortunately while supervised by the vet tech. RLP I forgot to close the drip before pulling out the syringe. ;D Thank goodness I had the tech there to quickly correct my actions. I decided to have her come one more time.
Sandra your bus ride sounds interesting.
RLP, speaking of knowing too much information… ;D I’m going to be a wreck now while watching FARSCAPE. I hope it is one the more recent annoying regulars.
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Thank you DiT. :D :D
Now I will go read it.
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Interesting way of honoring someone. ??? I do wonder if she was misdiagnosed as a child. The article doesn’t mention what her child/children had to say. I know she was pregnant during filming of SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS. Anyone with more details on that?
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Caught up on the posts. It's been a LOOOOONG day and I is tried, dawg.
Started with going to the vet at 8:20 AM for Abie's booster shots. Then just as I got home an old friend from out of town phoned and said he had only an hour free before flying home and wanted to get together. (It was Marc Barasch, whose book you read, Jane.) So, I changed an appointment and did that. Then I went to my new pad and did the walk-through with the owner. I now have the key! Then I went for the appointment I had earlier. Then I took a bunch of stuff over to the new digs. Oh - and during all this I finished work I was doing (with a kooky co-writer) on a proposal for a show.
Have I mentioned I'm tired?
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BK I think the author's house (is that the name of it) link you gave the other day had a spoiler about the victim as well.
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Is this a bootleg, or is it legit? Anyone know?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4046217285&rd=1
It's bootleg.
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Panni I hope you had a nice visit. An hour is better than nothing.
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On almost the same subject:
DR Noel: One of your main objections to sf and fantasy appears to be the set-up of the situation and the "rules". Well, that problem really occurs in all literature. It's called exposition. It can be handled well, or it can be handled clumsily. e.g. "As you well know, your second cousin, the hog-farm millionaire hasn't spoken to his sister since she married a transexual pilot and moved to Brazil."
In sf, some of this exposition is referred to as "techno-babble", a term that has escaped fandom and found its way into the scripts themselves on occasion. But in the long run, it's no different from "you need fairy dust (pixie dust to the prudish) to fly."
The "rules," as I call them, are not exposition. Exposition's necessary and fine. The "rules" are the explanations of how the world of the sci-fi or fantasy novel works differently than the normal world that most other books are about. These are only necessary in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. They're the invention of the author, I won't need to know them to read some other book, and I tire of them ever-so-rapidly. So, yes, clap your hands and Tinker Bell lives is an example. "There were three Darling children" ain't.
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I'm hopping mad. My local CBS affiliate didn't flip the switch that enabled those with high definitions sets to watch CSI and WITHOUT A TRACE in high definition. There is no number to call the engineer during the evening, so one is at their mercy at night. The next day, after you find someone who knows what you're talking about, they offer muted apologies, and then do the very same thing the next night. Tonight, I wrote to CBS to lodge a formal complaint.
The times are changin" and it's up to the local stations to be responsible about their networks' programming and offer it as it is capable of being broadcast.
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Is this a bootleg, or is it legit? Anyone know?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4046217285&rd=1
DR RLP, this is a bootleg. It was posted a month or so ago on one of the newsgroups. This guy is just marketing it.
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Jennifer: Nope, no spoilers of any kind in the Author House blurb (which I wrote) - just that a key member of the show is found dead. However, I must reiterate - it becomes obvious within the first three chapters who the victim will be - it's no big secret. The book was never meant to be that much of a who's gonna get it.
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Well, I got home tonight and first watched last night's installment of Broadway The American Musical and then tonight's finale. Last night's show was vastly preferable. Once again, nothing really new or informative, but the invocation of the excitement of B'way during the 30s, 40s and 50s was there and I loved every minute of it.
Tonight's installment for the most part left me cold, which is strange since it's the period that I'm most familiar with. There was a scanty amount of new film clips (the number of clips duplicated from the Broadway's Lost Treasures series was embarassing.) I was emotionally moved only three times: my heart went pitter-pat with excitement when A Chorus Line was covered, I felt depressed in the recollection of how AIDS decimated the creative community, and I wanted to vomit on the floor during the Michael Eisner/Lion King segment. The final section on Wicked felt like a commercial. And the wrap-up was very flat and just laid there like so much fish. What a shame that this last part was nowhere mear as involving as the previous two.
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Oh - and during all this I finished work I was doing (with a kooky co-writer) on a proposal for a show.
A kooky co-writer is a good start. Now you need a wisecracking neighbor, a zany landlady and a irrascable but loveable producer to complete the set.
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The "rules," as I call them, are not exposition. Exposition's necessary and fine. The "rules" are the explanations of how the world of the sci-fi or fantasy novel works differently than the normal world that most other books are about. These are only necessary in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. They're the invention of the author, I won't need to know them to read some other book, and I tire of them ever-so-rapidly. So, yes, clap your hands and Tinker Bell lives is an example. "There were three Darling children" ain't.
This being the case, then you should have loved the original Star Wars trilogy. Other than the brief opening title update with each film on where we are in the story (which really doesn't give much in the way of explanations), there is NO explanation of any of the technology, or the politics. Obi Wan's explanation of the Force is much as any guru explaining a pseudo-religion to a novitiate would give (and is countered by Han Solo's claim that he's still rather have a blaster by his side).
Or, did you assume that there would be all sorts of explanation, and skip the trilogy when you were a kid?
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I just watched the most appalling waste of celluloid, one of the all-time mis-fires, about which I'll have much to say in tomorrow's notes. For now, I must go in the Jacuzzi and cleanse myself from the travesty known as The Stepford Wives redux.
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CAESAR
As usual, der Brucer gave me little time to go on line this afternoon after he was finished. In fact, he wasn't done until early evening, the sun already having set, when he popped his head into my room and told me we had to hit the road.
It was time to take pictures again, of another dog needing a home.
Directions to the farm where Caesar was waiting were as clear as possible, I guess, given that the road wound around like a corkscrew defying us to keep track of which way north lay. We were also faced with address numbers at war with each other. This isn't the fault of the residents, really, because they had pretty much figured out how to number things out on their own. Unfortunately, the county (or is it the state, I forget which) has insisted that 911 emergency numbers now be used, a five digit thingamabob that sometimes has odd numbers on one side of the road and even on the other, and sometimes has the numbers consecutively running on the same side of the road.
Add to this that we were trying to read the numbers in complete darkness, with the only light coming from our headlights, and I'm surprised we didn't get lost. We did find the farmhouse, however, and the man with the dog came out to great us.
Caesar, a husky, was owned by a grandmotherly type on the next farm over. She has since moved to Florida, leaving two dogs behind, a Rottweiler named Buster and Caesar. Her son (not the farmer) is taking Buster with him to Florida, as well, because he thinks having a Rottweiler will look real macho on walks. The son made it clear to the farmer about his real attitude about animals, however, when he told the farmer "Aw, just bury Caesar out in the fields when he dies."
Exactly why the farmer doesn't want to keep Caesar for himself wasn't made clear, but I could tell he cares for the dog. My hunch is the farmer is just working the land, without having any property of his own, and cannot afford another mouth to feed; he may be moving soon himself, now that the crops are in.
Caesar turned out to be about four years old. He was a little shy, with a slightly mangy coat. Der B and I doubted he's had any shots since he was born, or a license. Unfortunately, there was just the flash from der Brucer's camera to light the pictures, and none of them came out well. At least one return trip will be needed. If we can, we want to see how Caesar handles being on a leash, and then take him to a vet for his shots.
Meanwhile, we've recieved no return call form the fellow who thought he might want to adopt Zeus.
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WUSSBURGERS - we've got us a case of WUSSBURGERS. The night is young.
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I'm back from fencing. Boy, we had a wild and crazy time.