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[JoseSPiano]

Good Morning!  Good Afternoon!  Wherever you are!

As for painters, paintings and musuems...  The Art Institute of Chicago is my favorite.  I could literally spend hours and days there - and I have.  The variety is varied, and the collection is arranged "densely" for lack of a better word.  There is lots of art on the walls.  Lots to look at.  Lots to ponder.  My initial attraction to the AIC was Seurat's "La Grand Jatte", but there are so many other jewels in the collection.  I'm especially fond of that French street scene by Caillebotte that "greets" you when you enter the French galleries.

My tastes run towards the 20th Century: Monet, Manet, Renoir, Picasso, Magritte, Dali, Rousseau, etc.  However, over the past few years, I've begun to have a deeper appreciation of the more "classic" painters: Vermeer, Rembrandt...

I do like both the East and West wings of the National Gallery of Art that are in DC, but for some reason, everytime I step in there, I always feel like I have to see everything in there.  Consequently, I end up rushing through the collection - and sometimes I even end up rushing my companion(s) as well.  Not good.

And if I may... The last time I was at the AIC there were two works in the 20th Century gallery that intrigued and puzzled me.  The first was a "display" of a small jar (like a small mason jar) that had a row of pennies next to it.  Apparently, the piece was representative of the artist's life.  Each penny represented one year in the life of the artist - there was a penny from the year he was born up until his current age.  -And the piece would be updated each year at the artist's birthday.  Hmm...

The other piece was a pile of wrapped hard candies piled in a corner.  According to the artist's note, it was in honor and representative of a friend of his who had died of AIDS.  And the viewers were allowed to pick a piece of candy from the pile as they walked by it, viewed it.  The candy would be replenished as needed.  Hmmm...

[bk]

I'm on my way, but I shall return in a few hours, so keep the home fries burning, won't you?

[JoseSPiano]

In other news... Last night, I fell asleep on the sectional couch downstairs.  The curved sectional couch.  Needless to say, my back is just not feeling right right now.  My parents have a whirlpool tub upstairs, and if the Advil doesn't kick in soon, I may just start filling up the tub.  I actually slept rather well, but waking up was an experience.  

[JoseSPiano]

...I also got the revised - and, hopefully, final - orchestra/tech rehearsal schedule for Hallelujah, Baby! yesterday.  Depending how things go, it does look like I'll be able to pop up to NYC for the book signing. <fingers and toes crossed>  We have three days in a row, and then we're off for three days, and then we're back through opening.  We shall see...

However, after looking more closely at the performance schedule, I was a little puzzled by our Christmas week schedule.  Since Christmas falls on a Saturday this year, we're dark Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (Friday and Saturday).  So, the week before that, we're having a show on the Monday before Christmas (Mondays are normally the day off), which means we have 10 days in a row (12 performances) with no day off.  And one of those days in the official Opening Night.  The kicker is that we have an evening performance on Sunday, December 26, but then we're off that Monday.  ?!?!?

And then we have a show on New Year's Eve, and then two on New Year's Day.  -I guess they won't be so free-flowing with the champagne this year at the cast party.  And then January has a few 12:00noon performances, and some more shifted dark days.

However, after thinking about, it's the "typical" Arena schedule.  It's kind of crazy for most of the run, then it settles into a normal schedule for the final two weeks.  One nice adjustment they made is that when there is an Opening in one theater (there are two theatres in the Arena complex), the other theatre is dark.  Makes it so much easier on everyone involved - and for parking too!

[Charles Pogue]

I and The Lovely Wife loved the Bus & Truck Demo Tape.  There is something quite lovely about simple piano accompaniment.  And that Guy Haines, what a voice!

[JoseSPiano]

And speaking of art museums (musea) I'm about to head over to the Museum of Modern Art - it's reopening today -- can't wait to see the Mondrians, Van Goghs, wanna see the Pollacks. Wanna see the BUILDING!! I expect the crowds will be ginormous, but it's staying open until 10 pm so I think I'll get in. It's for FREE today - used to cost about $12 as I remember, but going to be $20 from now on. Still, small price for a heck of a daylong experience!

Been working my little hynie off on JEWISH THIGHS for my off-Broadway opening. Still have no press person. Suggestions?? I'm almost ready to hire someone.

Jose, I'm so glad you said YES!!

Off I go now to MOMA!

(Back in LA again Wednesday through Sunday...)

I wanna see the new MOMA!!! I wanna see the MOMA too!

And it looks like Jewish Thighs will be fitting in perfectly with my spring schedule... things are just falling into place, and falling into the right places...

...And my friend, Michael, called me the other night to tell me that's he definitely making the move to NYC this spring, and was wondering if I knew anyone who needed a roommate... Hmm...  

[elmore3003]

I wanna see the new MOMA!!! I wanna see the MOMA too!

And it looks like Jewish Thighs will be fitting in perfectly with my spring schedule... things are just falling into place, and falling into the right places...

...And my friend, Michael, called me the other night to tell me that's he definitely making the move to NYC this spring, and was wondering if I knew anyone who needed a roommate... Hmm...  

Bingo, Bebe!!!

[elmore3003]

We attempted to watch HOUSE last night but couldn’t get a decent picture.  Instead we popped in our recently arrived DVD from Netflix, GIFT OF LOVE.

Nurse Jane, can that be by the same screenwriter I know and love?  I just ordered it from Netflix.

DRMBarnum, that Bollywood comedy you displayed:  is that your John Abraham?

I listened this morning to this demo I was sent, "Bus and Truck."  It's one of the best demos I've ever heard for a new show, and several of the songs have great potential:  I could swear that I was hearing Mary Martin singing "I Hate You."  Fantastic(k)!  I drove the Real Estate office next to my recording project office crazy, playing it over and over.

[Matthew]

Catching up with posts from yesterday.  Great stories about Cy Coleman.  If I can find it, I'll play the Randy Graff CD sometime today, it's in a box.  In the meantime, the record player is playing a rather scratchy Original Bway cast of "The Unsinkable Molly Brown".  

The following story is an example of just how this site becomes part of your everyday thinking:

When I prepare my students for a concert or a program, I make them a recording of the songs as I would like them to practice them so they can practice on days I'm not there.  So, yesterday, I brought the CD with the songs into each classroom and we listened to the tracks together.  In the first class, which was Kindergarten, one of the students said "Is that you singing?" (granted they hear me sing every week in class) So, without thinking, I said "No, it's my friend, Scott Toffee"  I mentioned that Scott and I have been singing together for years and have taken on the vocal quality of each of our voices.  

That worked so well in Kindergarten, I used it in each class.  I think I may have stumped 75% of the student body.  To bring my point home, "Scott" and I are going to record a duet and I'll play it for the students.

Maybe Scott will be famous someday!!!  

[elmore3003]

I've been trying to post a review on Amazon.com and failing, I think.

DRJRand54, your review is wonderful!

[S. Woody White]

S. Woody is thinking too much, methinks.  However, there is nothing anachronistic about a demo recording for a musical of the sixties - they all did them and they usually had covers just like this one.  They were, of course, on LP, but like the label (Bayview?) that has been putting  out these types of demo recordings, a CD transfer now would be nothing unusual.

Now I can pretend I'm another dear reader, because I was very clear in my post in saying that CDs didn't exist in 1969, oh no, and never did I suggest that a CD transfer couldn't be made today, which is a horse of a different color.

Just pulling your leg.  

PS, BK: For some reason, I'm the one reading Writer's Block, and not Der Brucer.  Ususally, he's the one who reads mystery novels, and I leave them alone.  Go figure!

[George]

I've been trying to post a review on Amazon.com and failing, I think.

DRJRand54, your review is wonderful!

Earlier, I was just trying to get ON to Amazon.com and failing.  I kept getting the message, "The requested URL could not be retrieved."  When I did get on, all of my "Saved Items--To Buy Later" were gone. I hate it when that happens!  It's happened before.  At least it's not my whole computer!

[S. Woody White]

I clearly remember having written before about the museum at the camp at Dachau, but I can't remember who I wrote it for, or why.  Simply re-printing what I wrote is thus out of the question, and I need to think about how to write about that experience if I write about it again.

It was definately not about art.

[William F. Orr]

Haven't read the notes.
Haven't read the posts.

We're getting ready to see Ragtime at our niece's high school.  Reportedly, Baldwin High School is the first h.s. to be given the rights to do the show. (Jason might corroborate this.)   They have a very good reputation in music and theatre, so I have high hopes.

Laura, our niece, isn't in the pit, because they already have a flute--the word flautist has always bothered me.  Makes me think of annoying gastric problems.

Perhaps I will post some pictures of Laura and her boyfriend.  In any case, a full report tomorrow.

Proceed apace.

[JoseSPiano]

-Currently watching "The Hot Dog Show" on PBS.  Very informative and fun.  And I now have a few more places to add to my Culinary/Travel To Do/To Eat list.

[Jason]

Bill Orr: Thank you for the gift!! I can't wait to find the time to read it. :-)

Is your niece's school doing RAGTIME or RAGTIME SCHOOL EDITION? I'm fairly certain other high schools have attempted to do the full, Broadway version of RAGTIME. It's been available for licensing for several years now, so I think it's safe to say they're not the first high school to do it. Maybe in Long Island, though...

There is a high school in L.I. (Trinity High, I think) that has been our test site for a lot of our "new" material for young performers, including LES MISERABLES SCHOOL EDITION and MOBY DICK: THE MUSICAL!

I'm off in a bit to see Cherry Jones in DOUBT. Before that, my friends from work are treating me to dinner at a Cajun restaurant in midtown. Very exciting...the birthday celebrations continue!

Last night, during the third act of AIDA ('round about 10:30), a fat Italian man from New Jersey sat down in the area where I was working and struck up a conversation with me. I didn't mind - it passed the time - but then he started telling me about how he doesn't tip waiters in restaurants, or anyone else for that matter, regardless of the service he receives. He likened it to throwing away money. This from a man who seconds earlier had told me his house was worth over $800,000 and he had spent $55,000 on his daughter's wedding. Anyway, we got into a discussion about how waiters and service-based workers depend on tips to complete their salary - that waiters make $2.50 an hour and need those tips to make a living. He said that if waiters needed the money that the restaurants should pay them a regular salary instead of ripping his hard-earned money out of his pocket. By this time it was the third intermission and people were walking around our area, so I said in my best stage voice (meaning as loud as I possibly could), "Well, as a person who depends on tips in order to pay my rent and put food in my mouth, I think it's shameful that you don't tip for the services you receive and I respectfully disagree with your philosophy." He replied, "Well, you would - you're on the other side of the table. Why don't you get a REAL job?"

Now, Dear Readers, I am a lot of things, but lazy is not generally one of them. I work - hard. I put in 40 hours a week at a desk job dealing with idiots who don't read a contract thoroughly enough to realize they have to sign it before it's valid. I fight with our library on a daily basis to find out where that last shipment of ANNIE librettos has gone and why Joe Blow at Pissant High School didn't receive his reference recording of BENDIGO BOSWELL. And then there are all the drama queens IN the office to deal with. And then to walk from one job straight to the other and sit through a five-hour opera listening to redneck cheap jerks telling me to get a real job?? Well, that I just couldn't handle. He was apparently smarter than I gave him credit for because he took the hint that I was about to come across that table and wring his fat neck - he got up to go "pull the car around" a full 45 minutes before the show ended. What a prick. Apparently he's not the only one with this view on tipping, either. We each walked away with five bucks in our pockets for the three hundred bags and coats we handled last night. Shame on them. Skammen!

[Matt H.]

I forgot to talk about art I love. I really love the Renaissance painters and sculptors - Michaelangelo and Da Vinci and then the baroque painters, too.

That said, I think the painting that sticks most firmly in my mind is Picasso's GUERNICA. He captures the horror, the bombast, the shock, and turmoil of war in that picture better than anything else I can think of, and that picture affects me in very visceral ways.

[elmore3003]

Well, that I just couldn't handle. He was apparently smarter than I gave him credit for because he took the hint that I was about to come across that table and wring his fat neck - he got up to go "pull the car around" a full 45 minutes before the show ended. What a prick. Apparently he's not the only one with this view on tipping, either. We each walked away with five bucks in our pockets for the three hundred bags and coats we handled last night. Shame on them. Skammen!

DRJason, there's an old Italian word for this person:  schmuck.

If he was talking to you about the enormous tub of butter he sits in in New Jersey, rather than listening to Verdi's glorious music, there's another word in English:  asshole.

[MBarnum]

DRMBarnum, that Bollywood comedy you displayed:  is that your John Abraham?

Sadly I have no more John Abraham  movies left to watch. This movie stars my #1 favorite contemporary Bollywood actor Sunil Shetty. He did play John Abraham's older brother in the film Lakeer, however.

[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]Sunil Shetty [/move]

[JoseSPiano]

Well.. Let's see... It's just about 5:00pm EST... My parents left this morning around 6:30am(!) to hit some of the sales today at various stores.  And they're still not back yet!?!?!?

So much for coming up here to spend time with my folks...

 

Actually, it's OK.  It's been a very gray, drizzly and rainy day here, so it's been a good day for doing nothing.  At least I have the wireless high speed cable modem here!

 

[MBarnum]

Woops, that picture turned out HUGE!

I just came back from the Salem Public Library where I borrowed the dvd of Akira Kurosawa's 1947 film A WONDERFUL SUNDAY. I will try to watch that tonight!

[bk]

I'm back for a few minutes.  Just wrote a long post and tried to post a photo, but got the error message and lost the entire post.

[George]

Woops, that picture turned out HUGE!

That's okay!

[George]

I'm off in a bit to see Cherry Jones in DOUBT. Before that, my friends from work are treating me to dinner at a Cajun restaurant in midtown. Very exciting...the birthday celebrations continue!

I'm probably posting this too late for Jason to see it, but speaking of birthday celebrations and Cherry Jones, tomorrow (Sunday, November 21) is Cherry Jones' birthday!  She'll be 48 (according to the Internet Broadway Database).

[Matt H.]

Love Cherry Jones. Happy Birthday, Cherry!!

[bk]

elmore, don't give up on amazon.  It seems to be working fine now.  I think Jrand can tell you how to click on something to see all the reviews you've written, but had the new one "taken" it would probably be up already, since the new stuff seems to go up within minutes.  I'd advise writing your review as a Word document, then just cut and paste it into their form - that way if something goes wrong you haven't lost your review.

[elmore3003]

elmore, don't give up on amazon.  It seems to be working fine now.  I think Jrand can tell you how to click on something to see all the reviews you've written, but had the new one "taken" it would probably be up already, since the new stuff seems to go up within minutes.  I'd advise writing your review as a Word document, then just cut and paste it into their form - that way if something goes wrong you haven't lost your review.

I had written a fab review, and I can't remember a single word of it!  It was a rave, I tell you, a rave!  Well, tomorrow's another day . . .

I'm off to see the new Almodovar film.  Ta!

[bk]

Damn them, damn them all to hell.  Just heard from the framers - only one of the two pictures is ready, the other will be ready Monday afternoon - that, of course, is the one I want most.  But, Mr. Bakalor hasn't purged our photos yet, and until he does we will most likely not be able to post photos.

[Jennifer]

Wow, DR Jason that story is incredible.   But I'm confused.  Did the rest of the people not realize that they were supposed to tip you?  I think there are some things that people KNOW require tips (waiters, valets ...).  But I can't believe EVERYONE was disrepectful last night on purpose.

Btw, how can that guy get away with never tipping anyone?  I can't imagine that he could show up at the same restaurant twice without people talking.  That is totally crazy for him to have that much money, and go around without giving tips.  I could even maybe understand if he just tipped 10% or some cheapo amount.  But not tipping at all?  Wow.

[Jrand73]

No more wire photos!

Surprisingly enough and to my astonishment we finished 3 of the 4 numbers on the schedule today.  We finished two, the pianist was 30 minutes late, so we did the third one.  I will stage the finale tomorrow.  Lovely cast of people, NOT one dancer among them, but everybody tries and modification was the word of the day.  And after all, it's NOT a dance show....hehehehe....   Christopher Durang's MRS BOB CRATCHIT'S WILD CHRISTMAS BINGE.  If you're expecting a ballet - you're in the wrong theatre, nutcracker!

DR ELMORE - thanks so much for the music.  It arrived today and is resting in a safe place.  I owe you one - or two!

DRJOSE - sometimes when I slept on the sectional, the two pieces would separate and I ended up on the floor!

I got my copy of EYES WITHOUT A FACE today - so I will be watching that tonight.

I am with you DRJASON.  I always leave a tip - depending on the service I get, of course - and the circumstances.....  It obviously made that guy feel important to let you know about his wealth and possessions, none of which amount to much in the end.

Yes - you can edit your reviews on Amazon, by going to one of yours and clicking on the "See all my reviews" button.  All of your reviews come up, and then you can click "edit" or "delete".