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[Noel]

I just coached "I'm Going Back" which is a wonderful song, most of which is in G-flat.

Last weekend, I had a head cold.  And the significance of that is that it was the last ounce of free time DW Joy and I could share until Christmas is upon us.  Since Monday, she's been in rehearsal.  She gets up early, drags a tremendous suitcase on wheels to the rehearsal studio, where they work from 10-7.  Then, she comes home, and goes over what she's learned that day.  In effect, it's a home rehearsal following the away rehearsal-with-others.  This continues tomorrow, and then, early Sunday morning, she's on a plane to the next state in which they're rehearsing.  She has no time to pack, nor any idea what one should pack for the unfamiliar climates in these unfamiliar places over these changable seven weeks.  Invariably, she's fallen asleep prior to eleven.  And Wednesday, I had my advanced song improv class until ten.  So, I hardly get to see her.  And then, come Sunday, I literally won't get to see her.  It's far too expensive for me to travel to where her show is... no cheap airfares, not remotely near a travel hub.

An old friend (who's worked, acting, for two decades) called with an idea for a musical so I now need to research some questions:

What sections of New Jersey might be described as Sopranosland, that is, the places where you might find the Mob?  What sort of music underscores the HBO show?  What sort of music do actual Mafia people listen to nowadays?  I hope it's not rap - I heard that stuff can lead to violent behavior.  

[Jenny]

A very happy first birthday to the new board!

I have been quite errant and truant this past week, and I do apologize.  Up until ten minutes ago (when I figured out the password to get onto blocked websites), I have been unable to access this site from school.  This is a great tragedy, as I spend a good thirteen hours of every day there.  Anyway, I'm glad that sneaky sneaky Jenny has found a way onto lovely lovely HHW.

As for today's TOD, I don't have any new CDs to listen to this weekend.  I currently have "In Trousers", "The Lion King" (I originally typed "The Loin King" - Freudian slip?), the "Follies" jazz CD, and a random CD of Walt Disney World parade ad fireworks music (because I have impeccable taste) in my bag, just waiting for me to put batteries in my CD player and listen to them.  I'll hopefully pick up "Sherry" this weekend and listen to that.  I also believe I shall watch last night's installment of the PBS Broadway documentary this evening because I missed it last night.

I attended a rather frustrating performing arts college fair at Juilliard last night.  Lots of pretty and poised teenage girls fighting their way to all the desirable tables (NYU, Carnegie Mellon, Purchase, etc.), leaving the poor "regect" schools (Adelphi, for example) quite empty.  I spoke to a few admissions and theatre department people from certain schools and I seem to be just where I should be in both the decision/application process and in my experience and training, but I wish that I had spoken to some of the kids there to figure out where I stand in comparisn to them.  Oh well.  

I believe that I will be seeing "Brooklyn" (clearly the best musical on Broadway) tomorrow, which - according to the reviews - should be interesting.  

I've been enjoying the score of "Greenwillow" lately, but I haven't a clew as to what it's about.  Would someone care to enlighten me?

[Jrand73]

PAJAMA PARTY is a great choice MBARNUM...because you get - in addition to Annette - Mr Tommy Kirk and Miss Elsa Lanchester (who I think was mean to MR BK at one time or another).

Or is that something I dreamed?

[Jennifer]

DR Jenny glad to see you back.

DR Noel, what show is DW Joy doing and where?  I'm sorry you won't get to see each other for so long.

[Jenny]

Seeing DR Noel's smiling avatar just reminded me of the fellow playing Bert Jefferson in my production of "The Man Who Came To Dinner".  Somewhere in the second act, he's supposed to say "Noel!" (as in "the first...", not as in "Dear Reader..."), only he pronounces it "Noyl!"  (I've managed to meet somebody more Jewish than I am!) He also has said "Tinny Tim" instead of Tiny Tim and he pronounces "cribbage" so that it rhymes with "collage" (sort of).  It's very sad.

Now I must go to ballet.  We're doing "Amazed In Burning Dreams" for a concert, and it hurts my ankles. ::cries::

[Jrand73]

DRJENNY - why don't they just get some taller girls?

[MBarnum]

The Clinton Street Theater in Portland is showing Russ Meyer's film VIXEN this weekend (and all next week). I might go and see it, haven't decided for sure. Other then BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS I have never seen a Russ Meyer movie.

[Stuart]

I attended a rather frustrating performing arts college fair at Juilliard last night.  Lots of pretty and poised teenage girls fighting their way to all the desirable tables (NYU, Carnegie Mellon, Purchase, etc.), leaving the poor "regect" schools (Adelphi, for example) quite empty.  I spoke to a few admissions and theatre department people from certain schools and I seem to be just where I should be in both the decision/application process and in my experience and training, but I wish that I had spoken to some of the kids there to figure out where I stand in comparisn to them.  Oh well.  

Don't forget about dear ol' SUNY Brockport, DR Jenny!

[Panni]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOARD!

I hardly slept last night thinking about a million things I need to do and beating up on myself for not being "conservative" in life. Never have been, never will be, I guess. Have been up for hours talking to various people about transferring various sevices from my old abode to my new abode. I've loaded up my car and will soon shlepp (sp?) some stuff over there. Later today I meet a certain Mr. Mohammed who has come to the mountain to give me a price on some window coverings (there are some very nice ones already there - but quite a few windows are bare nekid).
Next Thursday I fly to Budapest and Rome - and I move a few days after I return -- so I want everything - or as much as possible - to be taken care of before I leave.

[bk]

Pogue: Glad you liked a few bits in Naked Space - my horror stories are fairly well documented around these here parts - they mirror some of yours.  Someday, you and Julieanne can come over and see the original cut of the film, which is, I think, much better and contains none of the silly stock footage, with the film footage in the proper order, with its proper title, and with Mr. Broderick Crawford as the voice of Max, the Computer.

[Panni]

Skammen! I meant yesterday to say Welcome Back, DR Kerrry!

[bk]

elmore: I passed your comments on to Mr. Haines and he is very happy you enjoy that CD and that it has helped cheer you up.  

[bk]

Jenny, you need to bitch-slap that Beverly Carlton from here to eternity and hell and back.  And we'd like a little more information about how rehearsals are going for YOU.  Glad you hacked that stupid computer.

[George]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOARD!

....shlepp (sp?)....

First:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HHW AND THANKS TO ALL WHO MAKE H.H.W. WORTH COMING TO!!

Second, Panni, according to the on-line dictionary of my library's catalog, it's "schlep" or/also "shlep"

NOUN:  1.  An arduous journey; 2.  A clumsy or stupid person.

VERB:  schlepped, schlep.ping, schleps; also shlepped, shlep.ping, shleps

TRANSITIVE VERB:  To carry clumsily or with difficulty; lug.

INTRANSITIVE VERB:  To move slowly or laboriously: schlepped all around town looking for wallpaper.

ORIGIN:  Yiddish shleppen to drag < Middle Low German slepen

VARIATIONS:  schlepper (noun)

[Dan-in-Toronto]

Schlep (the noun) has yet another meaning. "He has schlep" means "pull"; as in "he has connections."

[Charles Pogue]

BK, Broderick Crawford as the voice of Max...Wow!  Now that's funny!  It has the look of something that has been tampered with...

One of the nice things about the rain in LA...aside from a respite of yet another sunny day...is that it really clears everything out.  As I walked Tewkes around the Hills where we live this morning, the air was fresh, the skies pristine; and the entirety of LA laid sprawled out below me, Downtown to the Ocean was clean and dazzling.  As I sit in my office, the canyon shimmers with wonderful cold crystal winter light glittering on a thousand different shades of green and the Hollywood sign hovers above it all, taunting young hopefuls with a glinting white bright beckoning gleam of false glory.

[Jrand73]

A poet's eye ya got thar MR POGUE.

[Jrand73]

There once was a website named Haines
Which made whopping annual gains.
Other websites were green
An unhealthy sheen
Left far back on internet lanes.

[William F. Orr]

VHS Player:  All of the PBS Broadway, time-shifted but only a bit of it watched so far.

CD Player here at work:  The Rink.  And for those of you who agree with me that this is perhaps Kander and Ebb's most brilliant score, I will share with you the parody of the title song which just came spilling out of my brain this morning:

When Dubya took his throne and made his first decree,
Karl Rove and Richard Cheney had his ear.
If Colin Powell suggested some diplomacy,
He said, “My foreign policy is clear:

“I wanna invade Iraq, Iraq!
My Daddy pulled out; I’m goin’ back.
I’m givin’ Saddam Hussein the sack
I wanna invade Iraq!

“The Democrats all are smoking crack,
And all of the experts don’t know jack.
So go to my web site, read the FAQ!
I wanna invade Iraq!”

On 9/11 Dubya was like superman,
Once he had finished reading “My Pet Goat”.
He took Afghanistan and crushed the Taliban,
Then prayed to God, who told him (and I quote):

“I wanna invade Iraq, Iraq!
I haven’t got time to stop and track
Osama bin Laden’s mangy pack.
I wanna invade Iraq!

“The armor our combat troops may lack
Should never delay our swift attack.
Don’t gimme that lib’ral, peacenik flack!
I wanna invade Iraq!”

The occupation isn’t going well today.
It may be many years before it’s through.
But Dubya’s optimistic things will go his way.
He knows exactly what he’s going to do:

“I wanna invade Iran, Iran,
The second phase of my master plan.
The soldiers can keep their desert tan.
I wanna invade Iran.

“I’m doing it why?  Because I can.
Korea is next, and then Sudan.
I’ll prove to my Daddy I’m a man.
I wanna invade Iran.”

[William F. Orr]

DR Elmore:

I knew the good Mr. de Shields a bit when we were both studying at the University of Wisconsin in the 60s and 70s.  André was connected with an amateur theatre company run by director Stuart (Space Truckers and numerous H. P. Lovecraft films) Gordon.  In fact, he played Tiger Lily in Gordon's  production of Peter Pan that received national attention due to its nude scene.

I doubt he will remember me.  Although he did tell me I was an "outa sight dude", and I promised to see him as El Gallo in The Fantasticks but never showed up.

I still retain (in a large box labeled "Poetry") a slim paper volume of André's poems--autographed no less!

[Jrand73]

Oh my DRWEL - HHW is full of poets today.  Poets, limerists, AND lyricists galore!

[elmore3003]

I've been enjoying the score of "Greenwillow" lately, but I haven't a clew as to what it's about.  Would someone care to enlighten me?

DRJenny, I worked for Mrs Jo Loesser on a production of GREENWILLOW in 1998 at the Utah Festival Opera, and I believe its musical approach was for Frank to write a Rodgers & Hammerstein score.  It's based on a novel by B J Chute, about a rural town, somewhere in the world, sometime in the last 200 years, called Greenwillow.  It's a very whmsical book about a town called Greenwillow, primarily about the Briggs family, whose patriarch generationally feels the urge to leave home and wander, leaving the women to run the farm and raise the kids.  Amos Briggs has vanished, leaving his wife and mother to run the farm, and his eldest son Gideon loves Dory, but won't commit because he doesn't want to abandon her.  Amos returns briefly, filled with tales of the East and wondrous things he's seen, but wanders away again and is later reported dead. Dory is a young orphan raised by two old maid sisters, and she's the epitme of domesticity.  Gideon at the end, through the influence of the good minister, realizes his call to wander is to stay in Greenwillow and marry Dory.  It's a very sweet, flimsy novel, but the musical was fantastic in Utah:  I wept through the tech rehearsals and the first 3 performances before coming back to New York.  Somewhere I have a tape of the Utah Public Radio broadcast.

[Charles Pogue]

NEVER WILL I MARRY from GREENWILLOW (originally sung by Tony Perkins and probably still my favourite version) is one of my favourite songs of all time.

[William E. Lurie]

For those of you who didn't know, GREENWILLOW is being presented by the York Theatre this weekend as the third in the Fall Musicals in Mufti series.  I'm seeing it tomorrow and will post my comments.  There is a full plot summary with the CD, although it was well covered in Elmore's post.

[Jrand73]

Mr. Perkins version of that lovely song becomes even more lovely and poignant as time and circumstances go by.

[elmore3003]

I knew the good Mr. de Shields a bit when we were both studying at the University of Wisconsin in the 60s and 70s.  André was connected with an amateur theatre company run by director Stuart (Space Truckers and numerous H. P. Lovecraft films) Gordon.  In fact, he played Tiger Lily in Gordon's  production of Peter Pan that received national attention due to its nude scene.

DRWFOrr, you are the first person I've met connected with that legendary PETER PAN!   It was all the buzz in college theatres in 1969, 1970?  I am honored.  I can't wait to ask Andre about it.  No wonder he was ready for THE FULL MONTY!

DR WEL, great lyric!

[elmore3003]

.  It's based on a novel by B J Chute, about a rural town, somewhere in the world, sometime in the last 200 years, called Greenwillow.  It's a very whmsical book about a town called Greenwillow,

I hate people who are redundant and I'm one of them!

[bk]

Getting a very slow start to my day.  I'll have to play catch up or, at the very least, ketchup, this afternoon.

[Jrand73]

Indiana State Department of Redundancy Department, may I help you?

[Jrand73]

Why not enjoy a slow day, MRBK?