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Music and Storytelling
May. 29th, 2019 02:37 pmCelebrity Death Watch: Leonard Bailey was the surgeon who transplanted a baboon heart into Baby Fae. Sammy Shore co-founded The Comedy Store. Judith Kerr wrote children’s books. Edmund Morris wrote biographies of Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Curtis Blake co-founded Friendly’s, which appears to be dying itself. Bart Starr played football for the Green Bay Packers. Tony Horwitz was a journalist and travel writer. Robert L. Bernstein succeeded Bennett Cerf as the president of Random House. He also founded Human Rights Watch.
Murray Gell-mann was a physicist and is particularly notable for having coined the word "quark." He also won a Nobel Prize and founded the Santa Fe Institute.
Bill Buckner played baseball, notably for my Boston Red Sox from 1984-1987 and 1990. He is, of course, mostly remembered for his error in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, letting a hit by Mookie Wilson go between his legs. The thing is, he had a great career as a hitter. And, though his error led to the loss of that game, there was still Game 7 to play, so it isn’t really fair to blame him for the loss of that World Series. He deserves to be remembered for the rest of his baseball career.
Music in Yiddish Film: Thursday night was the last JxJ event I went to – a presentation on Music in Yiddish Film, which was part lecture, part film clips, and part live music by members of the Metropolitan Klezmer Orchestra and Isle of Klezbos. There were clips from some familiar movies (the inevitable Yidl mitn Fidl and The Dybbuk, along with less familiar ones like Uncle Moshe. My favorite clips were from Amerikaner Shadkhn, in which the rich American matchmaker moves up to the Bronx and, in the process, changes his surname from Silver to Gold, and Der Vilner Balebesl (which has been given the rather unlikely English title of Overture to Glory)) about a cantor (played by Moishe Oysher) who suffers a family tragedy after taking on a career in the Warsaw Opera. The music was great, but the lecturer (who was also the drummer) gave more detail than she really needed to. Because it was at the AFI Silver Theatre all the way in darkest Maryland, I left after two and a half hours, which was before the program ended. Also, the person sitting next to me had his hearing aid turned up in a way that made it audibly buzz, which was physically painful to me. That’s the downside of pre-assigned seating.
Storytelling: Saturday night was the Better Said Than Done 8th anniversary show. It was really packed, largely because one person brought along 27 people. Overall, I thought it was a very good show, with an interesting mix of stories. I told my "Woman of Valor" story, which has to do with my failure to live up to the expectations of my mother. I came up with a new (improved!) ending, but I think the story still needs a bit of tweaking. Still, it went reasonably well.
Long Weekend: I had intended to get a lot done during the long weekend. I did clear out some things, but I also spent a lot of time catching up on napping. And I fed my minor addiction to watching British quiz shows on Youtube. Some day I will actually finish reading the Sunday Washington Post on Sunday, but this week wasn’t it. (And I am still not quite done, because I was also trying to catch up on magazine reading.)
Murray Gell-mann was a physicist and is particularly notable for having coined the word "quark." He also won a Nobel Prize and founded the Santa Fe Institute.
Bill Buckner played baseball, notably for my Boston Red Sox from 1984-1987 and 1990. He is, of course, mostly remembered for his error in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, letting a hit by Mookie Wilson go between his legs. The thing is, he had a great career as a hitter. And, though his error led to the loss of that game, there was still Game 7 to play, so it isn’t really fair to blame him for the loss of that World Series. He deserves to be remembered for the rest of his baseball career.
Music in Yiddish Film: Thursday night was the last JxJ event I went to – a presentation on Music in Yiddish Film, which was part lecture, part film clips, and part live music by members of the Metropolitan Klezmer Orchestra and Isle of Klezbos. There were clips from some familiar movies (the inevitable Yidl mitn Fidl and The Dybbuk, along with less familiar ones like Uncle Moshe. My favorite clips were from Amerikaner Shadkhn, in which the rich American matchmaker moves up to the Bronx and, in the process, changes his surname from Silver to Gold, and Der Vilner Balebesl (which has been given the rather unlikely English title of Overture to Glory)) about a cantor (played by Moishe Oysher) who suffers a family tragedy after taking on a career in the Warsaw Opera. The music was great, but the lecturer (who was also the drummer) gave more detail than she really needed to. Because it was at the AFI Silver Theatre all the way in darkest Maryland, I left after two and a half hours, which was before the program ended. Also, the person sitting next to me had his hearing aid turned up in a way that made it audibly buzz, which was physically painful to me. That’s the downside of pre-assigned seating.
Storytelling: Saturday night was the Better Said Than Done 8th anniversary show. It was really packed, largely because one person brought along 27 people. Overall, I thought it was a very good show, with an interesting mix of stories. I told my "Woman of Valor" story, which has to do with my failure to live up to the expectations of my mother. I came up with a new (improved!) ending, but I think the story still needs a bit of tweaking. Still, it went reasonably well.
Long Weekend: I had intended to get a lot done during the long weekend. I did clear out some things, but I also spent a lot of time catching up on napping. And I fed my minor addiction to watching British quiz shows on Youtube. Some day I will actually finish reading the Sunday Washington Post on Sunday, but this week wasn’t it. (And I am still not quite done, because I was also trying to catch up on magazine reading.)
