Shakespeare's Birthday

As it is Poetry Month, I thought I would post one of my favorite Sonnets in honor of Shakespeare's 449th birthday. (Next year is the big 450,  Will!) This has been a good but somewhat tempestuous year year for our Calhoun H.S. Shakespeare Productions. Summer of 2012 saw several alums delve into intriguing productions of Coriolanus and the Tempest. Then the Tempest know as Sandy disrupted our production of As You Like It, sending it to four different performances in two different locations over 6 months. As You Like It was also a new landmark for me as I composed the music for the 6 songs in the show and wrote a setting for some dialogue as well as revising another original piece. Now, we are working on the very sunny Much Ado About Nothing to end our season. Pictures from As You Like It set designs for both Auditorium Thrust stage and Little Theatre will follow.


 Sonnet 38

When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue,
On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed:
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O love's best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love, loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

George Harrison And Me: a Remembrance on His 70th Birthday.

Something about George Harrison distinguished him from his Fab Four band mates. In the early days he was tagged by the press as the "quiet Beatle", he contributed to it with his " don't bother me" attitude. While I was a massive McCartney and Lennon fan, as each appealed to the two sides of my nature, mellow romantic and sarcastic rebel, there was something about George that also appealed to me. I guess I liked the band so intensely that I wanted to be like each of them. As I said, John & Paul were already in my nature and I was as likable and average as Ringo (;-). So, I subconsciously knew I needed to connect with George. But he played lead guitar which at 58, I'm only just beginning to understand, at 10 it was a mystery. It was probably because he possessed this mystifying lead player talent that I wanted to play guitar. But wait those guitars, oh my lord what beautiful magical items. They fascinated me so much. Paul's bass was an amazing and unique instrument but at 10. I really had no idea of bass, besides which, Paul played left handed. But George played some amazing guitars, and regular guitars were readily available in stores. My folks bought me an Emenee white plastic nylon stringed "toy". I might as well have played air guitar but it looked good while I stood in my living room singing into a makeshift microphone stuck into a vase. In the meantime, I studied all of George's guitars in fan mags like TigerBeat. I was fascinated with his Gretsch Duo Jet & Country Gent but then came A Hard Day's Night. I sat in the dark of the Palace Movie Theater with my Dad and cousins and shuttered in amazement at the film that made you feel you were right there with them. There were two instruments that film that really made me sit up and take notice: The Gibson J160E and the Rickenbacker 360-12. I lusted after those two guitars. The J160E was an acoustic electric and the Ric, be-still my heart, that sound, and that amazing design! I loved that guitar as only a 10 year old could. It was two years before I finally took lessons and got my first guitars, a no name hollow body electric that resembled a Gretsch/ Gibson Frankenstein and a cheap mahogany acoustic. By this time, I was an informal student of all things guitar, Beatle and otherwise. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds and Pete Townshend of the Who also played a Ric 360-12 and produced that amazing chime that just spoke to my soul. Mike Nesmith of the Monkees, played a Gretsch 12 string, George, Paul and John added Epiphone Casinos and Paul the famous Epiphone Texan, he played Yesterday with on Ed Sullivan, I lusted after that one, too. Then George and John added Fender Strats like the Beach Boys and other US bands played. We only heard them on record but finally got to see George's psychedelic painted version in Magical Mystery Tour. Paul & John then got Martin D-28's and George added a Gibson J-200, SG & Les Paul from Eric Clapton & a Rosewood Fender Tele from Fender. Clapton was playing Gibsons: a Les Paul, then ES-335 before switching to Jimi Hendrix preferred Stratocasters.
Meanwhile, my lessons continued at a snails pace and I stopped going after I started 9th grade. Then I discovered school dances and all the student Rock bands. I stood in front of the stage and watched my classmates play all the cover tunes of the hits of the day. I went home that night with envy and the next morning, I pulled out my Hollow body electric and started to practice. I started to hang out with my friends bands sometimes working as a sort of roadie for one of them. Playing with one of my friends from time to time, I learned a lot and I began to get better. Then I was given a bright red Giannini Acoustic with a neck like an electric that everyone liked playing. I got good enough to join the Guitar Mass Group. Funny thing was, we didn't just play the usual approved Catholic folk songs like Kumbya but slowly added secular songs like Get Together by the Youngbloods, Jackie DeShannon's Put a Little Love in Your Heart, and Jefferson Airplane's Good Shepherd. My contribution was to introduce George Harrison's My Sweet Lord. I got to sing lead and I was proud to be doing it. I later suggested we add Let It Be and George's Awaiting on You All. The latter chorus which said " The Lord is awaiting on you all to awaken and see" which was very appropriate. But we omitted the verse that said
"And the Pope owns 51% of general motors
And the stock exchange is the only thing he's qualified to quote us"

I began to really get into All Things Must Pass and my friends and I discussed George's love of Eastern religion and philosophy. Being in a parochial school, meditation was a common topic. My friends and I took out the Maharishi's book and experimented with eastern meditation. It was cool but not that easy to do with all the distractions of a busy adolescence, but we were finally able to appreciate the beauty of Within You, Without you and the Inner Light. I bought and enjoyed George's WonderWall soundtrack album and in studying Eastern thought I began to reevaluate my understanding of religion and began to question what I really believed.

Through high school, I continued to play and be influenced by other bands like Crosby, Stills and Nash, Neil Young, Cream, Derek and the Dominoes, Creedence Clearwater, The Who, Dylan etc. I was never really good enough to be in a band but I did alright in small folk group situations and I did write a few songs.

Years passed, my playing time diminished but I still followed all the solo Beatle careers. Paul with Wings and beyond, Ringo solo and with his All Stars, John with the Plastic Ono Band and Elephants Memory until his tragic death, and George thru the Concert for Bangladesh, the Capitol and Warner Brother years, The Traveling Wilbury's and his last days. I never got to see John perform live but I've made up for it with multiple attendance at McCartney and Ringo concerts. And, I was lucky to see George perform, once. He was part of the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden in 1992. I was in the 3rd row behind the stage with a perfect view. George sang Absolutely, Sweet Marie, solo and joined the all star ensemble for My Back Pages and Knockin' on Heaven's Door. He was so cool.

A few years later, I had begun to play again on a regular basis, influenced this time by my guitar playing students. At the time of George's death, we were putting on a Holiday variety performance. So, I got together with some students and we played My Sweet Lord in Honor of George's passing. It went well until the sheet music fell off the stand which resulted in a slightly abbreviated performance. As a result of that experience, I decided to buy a new guitar and discovered that playing with a quality instrument improved my playing. My first purchase was an Epiphone Casino. It was an instrument played by all the Beatle guitarist, I picked a natural finish as John & George had stripped theirs in the late 60's. John made it his main guitar until the end. I followed this with the Epiphone version of the J160E, the John Lennon signature model. I discovered that while being a reasonably priced guitar, it was actually a better instrument then the Gibson version as it had a solid spruce top and the Gibson was a laminate. I caught the collecting bug and have since added many Beatle inspired purchases to my guitar collection, including a Hofner Bass, and a Paul McCartney signature edition Epiphone Texan and a Fender Rosewood Telecaster like one that George played all over Let It Be and Abbey Road and, heck, I even bought a ukulele because George was the ultimate Uke fan. For my 50th birthday, however, I decided to treat myself to my childhood dream and buy a Rickenbacker 360-12. The only problem was that Rickenbacker changed the design in the 1966. I bought it anyway as the sound was right and George also owned and played one. I enjoyed it greatly until last year when I was finally able to get an actual Rickenbacker 360-12 v64 reissue from 1994. I've begun to write songs again and actually wrote all the music for my recent production of As You Like and I've continued to add to my guitar collection. And, yes, I've also been practicing and playing with my friends and slowly improving my skills. Playing guitar relaxes and de-stresses me, I love my instrument collection and collecting items that for the most part don't lose value.
So, on this the 70th anniversary of George Harrison's birth I'm remembering George and all those year's ago, when they were Fab and realizing that if not for you, I would probably have taken any road but instead I'm still living in the material world where I try some guitars and buy some. Tonight, I've got my mind set on you and thinking you were definitely a real cool cat.

Les Miserables or Les Pommes et Oranges!

Ok. I've read the reviews and the Facebook sniping and now that I have finally seen it: LES MISERABLES - THE FILM, I can finally comment and respond. First, I saw the original London Production with Colm Wilkinson and the Broadway with him and two other guys later and I also saw it in London again on three separate occasions. So, I saw the original 7 times. I saw the prototype high school version and then directed that version in 2004. I LOVE the play. Am I clear? Now about the movie. It is a movie, a film, a motion picture ADAPTED from a Broadway pop/opera/musical. Brilliantly photographed, cleverly adapted, wonderfully cast (more on that) and beautifully acted. The controversy about the live on camera singing and Russell Crowe's performance are all pish tosh. There are many presentational, artificial musical "comedies" like CHICAGO which are adapted up front and in your face, in old school movie musical/ Broadway style but LES MIS is not that and never was. This is an emotional story with emotional songs written in a quasi pop/ opera style with an occasional nod to traditional musical comedy( The Thenardier's) So, Facebook and the net is choc-a-block with all kinds of nit picking criticism. "Russell Crowe can't sing", "they added dialogue", "songs were cut", "Amanda Seyfried has a vibrato" . People: stop!Many Broadway fans once again apply stage criticism to film. Folks, its apples and oranges. In order for this expressionisticly staged melodramatic story, with it's "popera" music to work, they had to find a way to make it realistic. Film is all about closeups and having Russell Crowe or anybody belt out those extremely difficult songs of Javert and make them both realistic and understandable would have been ludicrous. Russell Crowe is a fine actor, who took excellent direction and made you HEAR every bit of his recitative and sung lyrics. His performance was as careful and as deliberate as everybody else's. So, why all the complaints. Probably because they are some of the most ridiculously difficult songs ever written for a Broadway show. Having seen and worked on a combination of 9 productions, I can tell you most Javerts struggled with the songs. Those most successful, belted them out with big strong voices hitting fully sounded notes but always lost much intelligibility of lyrics. The director and the producer, who also produced the original show, knew that the "dialogue" for this musical was primarily recitative with some full out character songs. If you are going to be faithful, realistic and dramatic, then an adjustment had to be made to make the lyrics/ dialogue clear, audible and understandable. Dialogue and visuals, especially closeups, tell film stories. All the recitative and many of the songs were slowed down or , in some cases, quieted down, to make the word heard and understood. It was a brilliant choice. They also mixed the sound film in an uniquely different fashion. All the vocals were pushed to the front and center and the orchestrations reduced in volume much in the same way but not to the same degree that background music is used to underscore emotions and themes. This compromise succeeded because I heard lyrics that I never heard before and I know that anybody who has familiarity will have the same experience. Those with little familiarity with the show will never notice the trick . Now on the topic of vibrato, some singers have them some don't. Some are taught to use it others to lose it. It is a matter of taste. If it were such an evil, why did Billie Burke, Jeanette McDonald, Joan Baez and Buffy Sainte Marie have such successful careers. So listen folks, Broadway fans, "purists" and drama queens if you haven't seen the film be prepared to to reign in your natural prejudice that " demands" exact replication of the Broadway show. Of course, some might also, have to reign in their personal jealousy for their favorite part being ruined by those"movie" actors. Really folks, you can't replicate a live theatre experience. Film has to be accepted for what it is and how it functions as film. You can't compare apples and oranges. Oh and then, the true measure of Les Mis in any incarnation, did it make you choke up or cry. It has always affected me this way and the film did as well. I cried. It was a success. There.

My rant on the Healthcare Debate

I am so fed up with all the carping and complaining about the healthcare debate. People who I know to be fairly intelligent are posting wild propaganda that is based on fear mongering and bias. It is propagated by politicians seeking no other goal but reelection and corporations who support them to increase their influence and profits. The issue of what is good and helpful to people is completely being ignored by many people I know because they are being made to believe that "the other side" is only capable of evil. Can we please look at the issue more carefully. Let us first look at the "chewing gum" cartoon which makes people believe that the are being taxed for something they don't want. If we look at the logic of this then we can see its flaws. Taken at face value the cartoon states "I don't want to pay money for chewing gum-alias-health care. Who doesn't want health care? Suicides? Christian Scientists?(another argument for another day). This argument is very flawed. If we are discussing mandating insurance then let's look at another insurance that is already mandated.
Today, across the country we are all mandated to buy car insurance if we want to drive a car. We do not have a choice. If we drive without insurance, we incur multiple steep fines. We could even serve jail time. Once upon a time, car insurance rates were out of control across the country. Premiums often went through the roof and if you had an accident with an uninsured driver the costs would be your expense.
Such has been the case with health care and health insurance. It has not been mandatory and inexpensive options do not really exist. Yet, anyone who checks into an ER must be treated regardless of their ability to pay. Who pays for that? We all do. The costs of private insurance rates are outrageous everywhere and taxpayer pand business owner burden on welfare, Medicare & Medicaid have become astronomical because, to a large degree, we are paying for the care of the uninsured. Republicans would not support government run universal health care, so the opposition figured out a way to pay for the uninsured's emergency care and offset the insurance companies refusal to cover many by asking those who refuse to be insured to pay a tax to, in essence, cover them in an emergency. This "tax" penalty protects all Americans. Mandating we all have insurance protects our future healthcare costs from rising even more astronomically, just as Drivers are protected by buying mandated car insurance. I find it sad and strange that the ultra right and most mainstream Republicans want to deny universal healthcare. They don't want "social medicine" but they have no plans to replace it that is either fair or economical. Oh, but Governor Romney had a plan that he implemented in Massachusetts that required everyone in the State to buy or obtain health insurance. That state has the lowest rate of uninsured in the country, about 3% compared to the national average over 15%. Funny that his model that was the basis for The Affordable Care Act is now criticized by him as an evil. Why? Because he's running for President. The reality of the healthcare issue is that we as a nation are living longer and costs are increasing at a rapid rate. If The Affordable Healthcare Act and it's imminent tweaks and adjustments do not help stem the costs of a larger aging population then a more Universal Plan will be necessary and that will cost money and that will mean raising higher taxes especially on those who can afford it and don't pay enough now. The infamous 1%, Republicans and corporate conservatives will never stand for that and they will find an insidious way to make upstanding senior citizens & middle Americans to believe that higher taxes on those who do mot pay their fair share, that will make them live longer or make them comfortable are evil. They will finds a way to make make people believe that death is preferable to higher taxes on the rich. Unbelievable but sadly true.

"E Pluribis Unum"our original national motto means Out of many, one or One from many. One people united under a common cause in a country designed with a concept of the common good for one united people. Apparently, we have lost that thread. It's more like the Three Stooges: One for all & all for one and Everyman for himself. Rant over.

William Shakespeare's Birthday April 23

Shakespeare has been an important part of my life since seeing his plays broadcast on TV in 1964, for his 400th birthday. I was 10. I chose Hofstra University as my college because of their Shakespeare festival and have been fortunate to have directed 17 of his plays, some multiple times for a total of 32 productions.all in all his plays have provided me with the foundations of my directing skills and actor training.

Happy 448 Will.

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
Julius Caesar (I, ii 140-141)
Shakespeare


"He was not for an age but for all time." Ben Jonson

Merry Christmas

Christmas Wishes to all my family and friends.

"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!"
~Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836

All my best,
Sal

Gone Hollywood or on tour with On Tour.

LA. It goes by many names: City of Angels, La La Land, Southland, and sometimes Hollywood's nickname -Tinsel Town. Of course, years ago the urban sprawl that is Los Angeles became synonymous with it's smaller district-Hollywood just as Hollywood became a metonym for all American cinematic endeavors. The independent film industry came west around 1910 to escape the machinations of the Motion Picture Patents Company also known as the Edison Trust and co-opted many of the then Orange fields. The trust controlled all film making and distribution and was an alliance of all the major companies. The trust was weakened in 1911 when Eastman Kodak renegotiated with the Trust to sell raw film stock outside of the trust. By WWI, European film production halted and Hollywood began producing feature length films in a State with a judicial system that was unfriendly to Patent lawsuits. The New York/East Coast based monopolies were slow to create feature length movies and by 1915, the Federal government broke up the monopoly. With the triumph of Cecil B. DeMille's The Squaw Man and D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, Hollywood and Los Angeles' reputation as the film making capital of the world was secured. The recording industry and Television followed in the forties and fifties reinvigorating the reputation of the town as a total Entertainment capital.

Los Angeles today is still the center of a multi-media entertainment industry. Many people, who come to visit LA don't get that. They see the horrendous traffic, the tons of stereotypical actor "types" and the massive hype from huge billboards to lamp post banners and they make their jokes. But they just don't get it. They don't get LA. The core of LA, The West Side, Hollywood & Downtown and surrounding areas of Burbank, Studio City, Santa Monica, much of the San Fernando Valley & some of the Beach Cities is made up of a lot people who work in the industry, many others support the industry with multitudes of service oriented businesses. I would guess that maybe 50% of the population is not indigenous or descended from the indigenous population. That group came to LA for the industry. Ironically, many born here, who loathe the industry's side effects, want to get out, many can't but many are biding their time.

Most of LA is friendly and very laid back but with good reason. Comedians joke about the bleaching effects of the sun being the reason, but it is simpler than that. It's the industry effect. Almost everyone is friendly because they never know who they are talking to and who might one day change their fortune. Yes, their is a certain degree of "Eddie Haskell" phoniness but it is still friendly which is better than surly. Bad behavior often comes from the most successful or quickly successful, who become drunk with fame and excess as wells addled by booze and drugs like Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen. The laid back pace and attitude is also easily explained. The sheer size of the population area and the variety of geographical features- mountains, valleys, beaches and the accompanying road congestion manifests itself in fostering a laid back attitude because- why hurry when the traffic will only hold you up. It's hard to hurry when the top speeds on most roads don't reach 40 mph. Heck, the so called Freeways barely reach 50 in non rush periods and crawl at rush times. It must be terribly ironic to sit in 5 to 8 lane bumper to bumper Freeway traffic and have to read the sign that says Speed Limit: 65. So, if you can't rush- relax! Hence, a laid back personality permeates the region.

I love it. Cruising the avenues and boulevards of " broken dreams" , you begin to appreciate the 50's concept of "cruising" as depicted in films like American Graffiti. My friends and I thought we were cruising our local towns when we were in High School but we were going much too fast by LA standards. Driving the local streets of LA's core is a pleasure. The street signs are informative and the traffic is so leisurely that it is easy to find most any address. Driving around you can easily see the sights and appreciate the architecture from the drivers seat. And then there is the weather: why rush when the weather is so beautiful and mild so much of the year. The average temperature is 72. There is a glory in the mountains, the flora and fauna,when not sun bleached by the sun, especially the succulents, that can be quite beautiful.
For an outsider, there are always cultural differences in each part of the country. LA has it's share of neighborhood variety but nothing out of the ordinary. The once distinctive minorities seem to blend much more into the mix but perhaps that's because they blend so well across the urban centers of the country. No, it's not the people who stand out but the messages of the media. Hollywood's Seeming demand that people be " beautiful" has reached ridiculous heights. Yes, the TV news people are the most plastic anywhere in the world but the need to be " beautiful" now extends to commercial ads, complete with jingles, for Lap band surgery. The lyrics are something like " If you want good things to begin Just call 1-800- GET -THIN" !!! Yikes!
Other than that disturbing note, this has been a wonderfully relaxed portion of my trip. I am "On Tour" in more ways than one. Part of my purpose in coming to LA was to see friends and alums. The visits have exceeded all my expectations. Roy Schwartz from '88, now a business man and musician, met me at the airport, drove me to my rental car and then took me to see Billy Kaplan and Scott Smolev, class of '91 who were working Audio production on a new NBC reality show Fashion Star, at Culver Studios. This was where they filmed parts of Gone With the Wind. In fact, the administration building was used for David O. Selznick's company logo.

Roy and I were surprised to see that alumna actress and writer, Adria Lang, class of '94, was doing production work for them as well.

That evening Adria drove me to the Silverlake section of town to meet with Janet Song, class of '88 who graciously invited me to a Dodger game. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience even though the Dodgers lost. Janet is acting and working or a major health organization, where she often works on theatrical events.

Thursday, I made my way to Burbank for lunch and a tour of Disney Animation Studios from Mike Weissman, class of '06.

Friday, found me back in Burbank.( albeit after a missed turn put me on a harrowing ride on the 101 Freeway. It is near impossible to cross 6 lanes of moderate traffic to try and make an exit on a ramp that is less than a 1/4 mile from the entrance: I got off at the second exit instead).
I finally made it to Warner Brothers Studio ranch for lunch and a tour of Warner Animation Studios with recent Emmy winner, Kevin Schinick, class of '87 and creative force behind Mad TV on cartoon network, ad his brother Scott, class of '91( one of my English students.

Friday night, I had dinner with old college friends, Phil and Monica Rosenthal, their son Ben and their friends. Phil is also a multi- Emmy award winning writer and producer and Monica is a successful actress. They took me to the exquisite restaurant, Mozza, a creation of Mario Batali and his partners. I am very grateful to them for their warm hospitality and I had a really good time.

Later that night, I went for drinks with Brett Lewis, class of '89. Brett is a comic book artist and writer and he has also written for animation and had his work adapted into film.

The hotel was in a great location and had a roof top pool area. I spent my free time making good use of it.

Saturday, I had lunch with Bari Harelick Winter and her husband. They are both editors, he's in sound and she's in film & video. Friday evening, I went with Adria to see a very funny play, ReAnimator: the Musical. It was wonderful silliness. After that I had a late dinner at the famous Canter's Deli with actor Richard Werner, class of 86, my very first year with On Tour. There were a few others that I wanted to see but time and obligations prevented us. However, I was surprised as I was leaving Canter's. As I was speaking to Rich, a young man was walking into the Deli and I recognized him and he me. It was Stu Silverman, class of '95, who I didn't even know was in LA. He is now a successful editor, as well. These things always happen to me. Truly, it's a small world.

Sunday, I had breakfast with the ’91 group, spent the remainder of the day hanging out with Roy until I had to go to the airport and then flew off to Chicago.

The LA leg of my tour has been very successful on many levels. It has been relaxing and refreshing, informative and enlightening and it is always great to see and share good times with old friends. For all these friendships, I am truly blessed. It is also particularly rewarding to see so many students excel in the very tough fields of the arts.



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