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[Matt H.]

Thank you, Panni, for mentioning "Time After Time" which had slipped my mind as a Cahn lyric and is one of my all-time favorites.

[Matt H.]

I'm thinking I'll be watching THE ITALIAN JOB later today. Yes, I mean the one with Michael Caine and Noel Coward, not the fairly recent remake with Mark Walhberg (which I understand was pretty good).

[Panni]

Okay, enough reading of posts. I must write until the moo-things come home. On my walk this morning, I unfortunately decided to change the entire beginning that I've already rewritten. Note to self: MUST STOP THINKING.
...Should I do my errands now or wait until later? Life is complicated. I hear mooing from the pool. I think it's the turtle playing tricks on me, the little devil.

[Sandra]

Sandra, if you were in New York, you could watch Arthur at 4pm on Channel 13-WNET and then again at 5pm on Channel 21-WLIW. Sometimes, if I ride the exercise bike in the late afternoon (which I'll try to do if we're going out later in the evening), I'll watch an Arthur. "D DOUBLE U" (you gotta watch the show to know what that means and it's phonentic too).

Well, that's reason enough to move to New York. That and that whole "Broadway" thing I've heard so much about.

Here, Arthur is on at 10 in the morning and again at 4 in the afternoon. I plan my day around it.

[S. Woody White]

Imagine poor DR Sandra's fix, if a boycott were called against Cherry Coke!

That's the problem with boycotts: if they aren't against things you would otherwise purchase or enjoy, they really aren't boycotts, they're just excuses.

I never thought much about the Coors boycott, because I was never impressed with Coors beer.  Heck, Bud was always too watery for my taste, purchased for the buzz and nothing else.

For that matter, I can't recall any gay bars in SoCal that sold Coors.  The bar owners were already boycotting the product, so I didn't have any voice in the matter.  And I think part of what was going on at the owner level was that the distributors assumed that the owners were boycotting, and didn't even bother offering the swill.  The only time the Coors name was found anywhere near the SoCal gay community was during the Gay Pride Festivals, which they would help sponsor.   Not that it did them much good.

No, if I were to boycott something, I'd have to be giving that something up, something I'd otherwise enjoy.  There's a local brew called Dogfish Head that I'd miss, if I had to boycott them for some reason.  And an organized boycott would have an impact on their business, unlike the national brands.

Maybe I could boycott Lent.  Nah, wouldn't work, I'm not Catholic.

[Jay]

Mame last night at the Hollywood Bowl was thoroughly delightful.  

There was a large unit set that reached from one side of the newly expanded Bowl shell to the other.  The actors were lavishly costumed and off-book.  There was a plentitude of choreography in all the spots you'd expect it.  Throughout the evening, I kept thinking about all that effort, all those hours of preparation and rehearsal, all for a one-night-only performance.

Miss Michele Lee was a warm and endearing Mame, and her affection for Patrick anchored her performance.  Her very interior interpretation of "If He Walked Into My Life" was a highlight of the evening.  The young Patrick (Mr. Ben Platt) was very good, and their "My Best Girl" duet was another bright spot in the show.

Lovely to look at and listen to, as always, Miss Christine Ebersole was a pleasure, but I must say she was rather miscast as Vera Charles.  Though she handled the Moon sequence and her other comic bits with aplomb, the role calls for someone a little grittier than she.  There even is a reference in the dialogue to Vera's baritone voice, which, of course, does not describe the quality of Miss Ebersole's voice in the least.

Miss Allyce Beasley was perfect as Gooch.  I could not tell whether the (at times) screechy singing voice was a put-on or not, but her rendition of Gooch's song deservedly got one of the bigger ovations of the evening.

Mr. John Schneider made for a Beauregard pleasant to look at and listen to.

There was some additional celebrity casting in Mr. Fred Willard as Lindsay Woosley and Mr. Alan Thicke as Mr. Upson.  Miss Lauri Johnson was especially juicy as Mrs. Burnside.

Perhaps because of the direction, perhaps because of the size of the shell and the venue, the show's comedy came off as a bit understated.  You rarely hear me call for broader humor, but the show could have used some of it here and there, especially in the scenes involving any of the Upsons.

Mr. Jerry Herman--in a white suit and looking like he just got off his shift on the ice cream truck--was in the audience and took a bow with the cast at the evening's conclusion.

[Jane]

That's funny - eleven GUESTS became five GUESTS within forty seconds of my saying hello.  Yes, that is mighty funny.

That happens every time you comment on the number of guests.  Are you getting a pit paranoid yet?

[MBarnum]

I told this story here many moons ago in more detail, but I did boycott Target because they wouldn't exchange a defective telephone (I couldn't find the receipt, but I didn't want my money back, just wanted to get a working phone!). The boycott only lasted a few hours, however, as they had jeans on sale that I wanted to get (I returned wearing different clothes and my glasses so that the manager, whom I had told I would never shop at Target again, with wouldn't recognize me, LOL.)

I also wanted to boycott my brother-in-law because he was advertising on a local radio station during the Laura Schleshinger (sp?) program. He sells insurance.

[Matt H.]

I've been thinking all day that I've never intentionally been a part of a boycott, but I did, in fact, stop drinking Florida orange juice all those years ago while Anita Bryant was their spokesperson.

[Sandra]

Imagine poor DR Sandra's fix, if a boycott were called against Cherry Coke!

Don't even say that! *Spitting on my fingers like what's-her-name in Fiddler on the Roof (Is there a word for that?)*

MBarnum, did the manager recognize you?

[Jay]

Don't even say that! *Spitting on my fingers like what's-her-name in Fiddler on the Roof (Is there a word for that?)*

It's Golde and you spit between your fingers, not on them.

[Sandra]

Oh. Thanks. *Wiping off my fingers*

[George]

Sammy Cahn songs:

Call Me Irresponsible
High Hopes
I Still Get Jealous
It's Been a Long Time
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)
Teach Me Tonight
The Tender Trap [I love Janis Siegel's version of this!]
Thoroughly Modern Millie [this is by Sammy Cahn, isn't it?]
Time After Time

As far as I can remember, I've never boycotted anything.  I know that if I did, I'd tell everyone I know so that they could choose to support my boycott and boycott whatever I was boycotting, also.

[MBarnum]

Don't even say that! *Spitting on my fingers like what's-her-name in Fiddler on the Roof (Is there a word for that?)*

MBarnum, did the manager recognize you?

Probably! As it turned out when I was standing in line with my jeans that I just had to have and, they were calling for additional cashers, the manager opened up a cash register and the cashier whose line I was standing in motioned for me to go into the line that the manager opened, as it was empty...I was mortified!

[Jay]

...I returned wearing different clothes and glasses so that the manager...wouldn't recognize me, LOL.

That's our own MBarnum, man of mystery.

[Noel]

I had a further thought about the intentional use of anachronistic music, such as the vaudevillian sound of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

The first two Andrew Lloyd Webber scores were set in Biblical times, and the creators of Jesus Christ Superstar clearly wanted to make the point that Jesus and the Disciples were not unlike the long-haired hippie youths of today (today being 1970, when it was written).  So, the choice was made to use contemporary rock, and I think it's a brilliant choice.  Nobody really knows what music sounded like at the time of Christ, anyway.  Anachronism was used
just for the fun of it.

In Evita, Lloyd Webber used that driving 12/8 bass and the latin party music of Big Apple (Buenos Aires) - is Buenos Aires called the Big Apple?  I'm confused already.  These musical styles didn't exist during the life of Eva Peron.  And yet there doesn't seem to be any "fun" reason for the choice.  It's as if he used anachronism because he didn't know better.

Lloyd Webber's subsequent period pieces baffle me further.  In the basement of the Paris Opera, during the 1800's, we hear a pounding 8-to-the-bar disco beat over which is set Kurt Weill's Ballad of the Easy Life.  Why?  One can only surmise he utilized this anachronism because he wanted a hit record people could dance to.

Thank God Cats and Starlight Express aren't set in a specific time and place.  I don't know the show Sunset Boulevard very well.  Was it updated to the sixties?  I ask this because I've played the song As If We Never Said Goodbye and it trills around on major seventh chords... exactly what one would expect of Newley & Bricusse in the 1960s.

You can say that a lot of people don't notice these things, but having a sense of time and place is one objective measure of music's value.  Loewe, Rodgers and Jerry Bock were masters of this.  Lloyd Webber, it seems, doesn't try.

[Jane]

I’m great at boycotting stores with rude service.  I get especially annoyed when I have been a regular customer and am treated as if my business doesn’t matter.

Thankfully there has only been one store in Ashland I have not returned to due to rude service.  Not that service is always great here, but it was the owner of the store.  When we first moved to Michigan I never boycotted more stores in my life.  Fortunately there were plenty of wonderful little shops in the area.  

It was in Michigan that I even boycotted a Baskin Robbins store.  I should have called the corporation to complain.  The owner wouldn’t give me a sample of a new flavor, telling me it was just vanilla with whatever the addition was.  I turned to my friend and said “let’s leave” and I never returned.  Later I heard the owner was not a very nice person and most of his young employees found other employment as quickly as possible.  

Speaking of Baskin Robbins I am having some of their chocolate chip right now-delicious.  

[Jennifer]

I want ice cream please!

[MBarnum]

On the other hand I do patronize stores that give great service! Particularly, I like to go to Oil Can Henry's for my cars oil changes..the employees wear uniforms and neat little caps and are very friendly and helpful. They even give you a newspaper to read while you are in your car waiting.

[Ben]

Mr. Moore, how's the back? And, did you resolve your air conditioner problem? It's muggy and uncomfortable. It's worse if you're in pain.

[Noel]

Sammy Cahn - Some faves I can think of...  April in Paris

April In Paris is by Yip Harburg, with music by Vernon Duke.  I don't think Cahn ever wrote anything nearly as eloquent.

Has anyone mentioned I Fall In Love Too Easily yet?  That's a good one.

I saw Christine Ebersole play Mame (the character) at Paper Mill

[Ben]

I also go to places that treat customers well. We have a greenmarket in Union Square Park here in New York and even though some of the prices are a bit higher, I always go to Baker's Bounty for good cakes and other treats. The people are pleasant and I trust their opinion of the goods they sell.

[Jane]

MBarnum we had a similar situation.  When Century City first opened it consisted of the Broadway Department Store, surrounded by smaller shops.  Most of the shops accepted the Broadway credit card.  When we were first married Keith & I went into one of the little shops to purchase me some much needed clothes only to find our credit card was denied.  Keith kept protesting but as it was a Sunday couldn’t get anyone of value to speak to.  He was horrified anyone would think we had not paid our bill.  On Monday the situation was corrected, without an apology.  Keith wrote a letter to Broadway along with his destroyed credit card and we boycotted the store.  Of course they never acknowledged the letter.  Well months past and eventually Broadway had something on sale Keith wanted.  He used my card and went to charge the item.  I kept saying we don’t have a charge anymore and hid while he made the purchase-silly girl that I was.  Broadway had never cancelled our card.

[Panni]

All the years I lived in Boulder I boycotted a restaurant called Pasta Jay's (a long story). I'm proud that I never caved in because DD always wanted us to go there (she often went there with her friends) and did her best to wear me down. But I held fast, DRs. Which if you knew my DD you'd realize was a heroic thing to do.

[Jane]

In the late seventies we did boycott products made in Japan to protest their killing of dolphins and whales.  We kept to that for a number of years, but I’m sorry to say have not maintained it.  It’s difficult to boycott the products of an entire country.

[Panni]

I just took Abie out to do his business and found a lovely SURPRISE GIFT hanging on the fence that leads to the back where my guest house is!
The producers of the piece I'm working away on dropped off a little gift bag in which are three frogs (porcelain - not real) -- Three Little Muses to inspire me as I write. They hung the bag on the fence with a sweet note for me. I'm quite speechless!

[elmore3003]

Sammy Cahn - Some faves I can think of...
Time After Time; The Tender Trap; April in Paris; Three Coins in the Fountain; Pocketful of Miracles; Let it Snow; and already mentioned: September of My Years and I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry.

Well, DRPanni has mentioned several of my favorite Sammy Cahn songs but I'd add to that list "Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week."

[Jane]

Again, when we lived in Michigan, the rabbi at our temple boycotted Domino’s Pizza and grapes.  Neither was allowed in the temple.  At home I only boycotted the pizza.  There were far better places to purchase from anyway.  I did however allow my boys to order pizza delivery, so I guess it wasn’t much of a boycott. LOL

[Jane]

elmore wonderful song.

Ben asked how your back it?  I will second the question.

[Panni]

I tried to send a picture, but it's still not working. Skammen!