Haines His Way

In Pennsylvania we lived next to a corn field and one winter the mice decided to move in and never leave.  One night I could hear a mouse running around above my head.  I unsuccessfully tried waking Keith.  So I turned on the light and timidly searched the window and wall, looking for a hole a mouse might come through and down onto me.  Finally convinced the mouse was securely behind the wall, I turned out the light.  At which point Keith wakes up and wants to know what’s going on.  He of course had to get up and convince himself it was safe to go back to sleep.

I guess if that mouse had died inside the wall, we would have had a dead rodent in the wall.

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is a stunning DVD trasnfer. Razor sharp with glorious clarity, it is everything I had hoped it would be. And Richard Valley's running commmentary is excellent. Now that I have all the HOLMES films looking so magnificent on DVD, I can be at peace.

Well, until I get my hands on the Rutherford MISS MARPLES, and they're still a year away! Argh!

My parents recently had a family of mice move in to the house...I think mousetraps have taken care of most of them, though

77 degrees, bright blue skies, and not a mouse in sight.

DR Jane: Oops I thought that "someone is trying to steal" sign was intentional too.

And I actually liked it.

All I see now are red Xs (in the original and follow-up message).  

So what was the original a picture of?

RLP, singing all one's life is well and fine.  It still doesn't necessarily prepare a singer for the rigours of Boradway or theatre singing where one has to sustain his voice through eight shows a week.

I

DR CP:  I feel Clay demonstrated quite a talent during his competition last year -- and his vocal interpretations were often amazing...much more sophisticated than any we've heard on the show.    Also, last year there was a show called "Fame" in which a 33-year-old Eurasian male named Harlemm Lee blew everyone out of the water week after week and won that competition. His debut album is amazing.  He could be great on Broadway, too, IMO.

As for what it takes to do theater/theatre "singing," please don't presume I'm some bumpkin who has to have these things explained to him.  I've had my flirtations with amateur theater, as a student with a BA in theater arts, and as a performer/director/producer in/of comedies, dramas and musicals, both in high school, college and during my military career.  I know that Broadway has far more intensity than amateur theatrics, but I understand the amount of work it takes to raise the performance level.

Angela Lansbury who was not trained for musical theater, managed rather nicely to adapt to it for a string of musical triumphs.

I have never had to do eight shows a week, but I have  dealt with the ups and downs and the almost-outs of saving the voice and vocalizing.  Had my voice been better, and better-trained, I'd not have had to work at it so hard, IMO, but work at it I did.  And I loved it.

Clay Aiken has a gift for song interpretation.  You wouldn't know it these days, but he sang the hell out of some songs during his "Idol" days....way too good for the rest of the competition, in fact.  When he met one of those amazing songs head-on, our friend Simon would cut him down and say, "You'll be great for Broadway, but that's not what we're looking for in an 'American Idol'"  It used to make me so mad -- first, that he considered himself smart enough (he isn't, IMO) to determine whether a voice would be Broadway-suitable or not (I think Clay's is) and second, that he believed he was speaking for the public that would be buying the CDs (he, in fact, wasn't since Clay's outsold all the others by a vast majority).

Like you, DR CP, I learned at an early age, that if you wanted to work on stage you had to learn how "to project," regardless of the size of the theater.  Apparently that is not something that is taught in many drama schools or acting classes any longer.  A couple of years ago; I worked with a very talented actress who internalized everything about her performance, including her voice.  She literally gave a great film performance.  After daily notes from the director regarding projection, without result, he opted to try miking the actress.  It worked fairly well, until the first time I moved in close to her, and we almost blew out all of the theater's speakers.   The director and the sound man came to me after the rehearsal and asked me to please pull-back when I got close to her on stage, so that we wouldn't have any problems.  I, being in one of my ornery moods, flat-out refused to change my voice, just becuase she had never learned to project.  After thinking about it overnight, I probably should have just adjusted for the microphone, but, by then, it was the principle of the thing.  So, when we finally opened the show, I still projected, the actress never projected, and the sound guy almost lost his mind trying to adjust the levels.

It's in the wall,

Edgar Allan Poe, eat your (tell-tale) heart out.  

In the wall it may be, but Mr. Pest Control Man cannot find it, so it's in some nook or cranny or corner and I'm stuck.  So, he's going to deodorize and that's that.  It will take a week or two, maybe more in this heat, and I'm just hoping the fly situation doesn't get worse than it is.   These type of flies are incredibly stupid and just sit there until you kill them.

Yuck!  Sorry Bruce.  

The most damning comment that can be uttered on AMERICAN IDOL by one of the judges is "You have a great theater voice." For those three judges, having a theater voice is a no-no.

And the comment is stupidity personified. Who says that theater singers can't rock a song with the best of them? Who says all theater songs sound alike? Who says all theater singers sound alike?

Like father, like son.  The lack of projection I encounter working with high school theatre drives me absolutely batty!  When I was in HS, just 6 years ago, we played an auditorium of about 650 seats, and we most certainly did not wear mics.  As a result, I can project with the best of 'em.  Now it seems the kids totally rely on their mics, regardless of how much I harp on the subject.  To help prove my point, during my student teaching last winter the school musical was Grease, and they had me sort of guest star as the Teen Angel.  Did I wear a mic?  Heck no!  And could I be heard (and understood) in the back row of the dreadful cafetorium?  You bet!

I must now be off for tech rehearsal of this dreadful HS production of Children of Eden.

I would love Europe but Wouldn;t want to watch over my shoulder all the time

In Italy Keith carried our passports and money in a travel, under the clothes, wallet.  Our son traveled all around Europe, mostly by himself.  What are you mostly concerned about?

It is currently 70 degrees in Tacoma, and absolutely gorgeous!

It's hot up here.
It's hot and it's monotonous [well, here at work. (A Sondheim reference)]