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Sorry for the long delay in writing. I’ve been distracted by trying, not very successfully, to get caught up on stuff at home. I’ve also been getting ready for an upcoming storytelling show (live only and sold out, so I’ll spare you the shameless self promotion this time).


Celebrity Death Watch: Edwin Wilson was a theatre critic, primarily for the Wall Street Journal. Denny Laine co0founded both the Moody Blues and Wings. David Ellenson was a Reform rabbi, who headed Hebrew Union College for several years. Jacqueline Mesmaeker was a Belgian artist who worked in plastic, which is, indeed, a messy medium. Richard Kerr was a songwriter whose work was performed by singers such as Dionne Warwick and Barry Manilow (e.g. “Mandy.) Mort Engelbert was the advance man for Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign and Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Andre Braugher was a television actor, best known for appearing in Homicide: Life on the Streets ad Brooklyn Nine-Nine. William G. Connolly co-authored The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. Lee Redmond held the world record for longest fingernails on both hands (roughly 30 inches). Bob Johnson was a member of Steeleye Span. Colin Burgess was the original drummer for AC/DC. Amp Fiddler was a member of Parliament/Funkadelic. Irwin Cohen was the real estate developer responsible for Chelsea Market in New York. Ryan Minor played baseball for the Baltimore Orioles and started in place of Cal Ripken, Jr., breaking Ripken’s 2632 game streak. Ruth Seymour managed KCRW, a PBS station in Santa Monica, California and was responsible for, among other things, a lot of Jewish programming. Richard Bowes was a science fiction writer. Herbert Kohl was a co-founder of Kohl’s Department stores and owned the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team. Herman Raucher wrote Summer of ’42. Maurice Hines was an actor, dancer, and choreographer. Cindy Morgan was an actress, best known for appearing in Tron and Caddyshack. Tom Wilkinson was an actor, best known for appearing in The Full Monty and Michael Clayton. Shecky Greene was a comedian, who performed in Las Vegas for many years. Cale Yarborough was a stock car driver. Tall Ross played rhythm guitar for Funkadelic. Bridget Dobson was a soap opera writer.

Frank Ryan was a football player for several teams, including the Redskins, and also earned a Ph.D. in mathematics and became an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University during his playing career. Jack O’Connell wrote noir crime fiction. Avi Zamir headed the Mossad from 1968 through 1974. Joseph Lelyveld was a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, who was the executive editor of the New York Times from 1994 to 2001. Sarah Rice was an actress who originated the role of Johanna in Sweeney Todd. Joan Acocella was a dance critic for The New Yorker. Edward Jay Epstein was an investigative journalist and political science professor who wrote about conspiracy theories. Terry Bisson and Howard Waldrop were science fiction writers. Bill Hayes sang “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” and became a soap opera actor. Jo-El Sonnier performed Cajun music. Tom Shales wrote about television for the Washington Post. Joyce Randolph played Trixie on The Honeymooners. Laurie Johnson wrote television and film music. Mary Weiss was the lead singer for the Shangri-Las, most famous for the song “Leader of the Pack.” Norman Jewison directed numerous movies, including In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof. and Moonstruck. Frank Farian was behind Milli Vanilli and Boney M. Carl Andre was a minimalist sculptor.

Norman Lear was a television producer. All in the Family was revolutionary for its treatment of controversial topics and Lear followed it with other important TV shows such as Maude and The Jeffersons.

Ryan O’Neal was an actor, who starred in such movies as Love Story, Barry Lyndon, and Paper Moon.

Dan Greenberg was a humor writer, best known for How to Be a Jewish Mother, a book my mother thought was very funny. He was also Nora Ephron’s first husband.

Robert Solow was an economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1987, He scored me 21 ghoul pool points.

Tom Smothers was a comedian and musician, who performed with his brother, Dick. My family had all of their records and we watched their TV show regularly. He also performed as Yo-yo Man.

Niklaus Wirth was a computer scientist who won the Turing Award in 1984 and, among other things, created the Pascal computer language. There’s a funny story about him involving how people pronounced his name. He was Swiss and his compatriots pronounced his name “Nik-lous Virt” while Americans tended to say “Nickles Worth.” As he said, the Swiss called him by name and the Americans called him by value.

Glynis Johns was an actress whose roles included the mother in Mary Poppins and Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, winning a Tony for the latter. Stephen Sondheim wrote the song “A Little Night Music” specifically to accommodate her limited vocal range.

David Soul was an actor, probably best known for playing Hutch in Starsky & Hutch. But I remember him better from Here Come the Brides which we always use to run home to watch because of Bobby Sherman. Ah, the crushes of a 10 year old girl!

Bud Harrelson was a shortstop for the Mets for the Mets from 1965 through 1977. He was my mother’s favorite baseball player. He later became a coach and manager and part owner of the Long Island Ducks. He was my first ghoul pool score of 2024, earning me 18 points.

Peter Schickele was best known to most people as the “discoverer” of P. D. Q. Bach, though he did write serious compositions under his own name. He brought a lot of people to classical music with his humor and I have fond memories of listening to such pieces as “Eine Kleine Nichtmusic” and “The 1712 Overture.”

Charles Osgood was a television news anchor and radio commentator. He also wrote a couple of books of light verse on news subjects and I have fond memories of both Nothing Could Be Finer Than a Crisis That is Minor in the Morning and There’s Nothing That I Wouldn’t Do If You Would Be My POSSLQ. He was also known for his tag line, “See you on the radio.”

Melanie was a singer, known for such songs as “Brand New Key” and “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain.”

Jimy Williams managed the Boston Red Sox from 1997 through 2001.

Non-celebrity Death Watch: Mark Baird was a former colleague. We worked closely together for a couple of years and had a running inside joke regarding his desire to go to Belize and mine to go to Mozambique. He was a nice guy, very devoted to his daughters, and a pleasure to be around. He died suddenly of a blood clot, possibly related to recent hip replacement surgery. (I’m also biased because he once called me a national asset.)

Linda Goodman was a storyteller. I got to know her fairly well when we were both on the board of the Virginia Storytelling Alliance at the same time. Her death was no surprise, as she’d been dealing with Parkinson’s disease and dementia for a while, but it is still sad.

Non-human Death Watch: The Jewish Center of Island Park (now the South Shore Jewish Center) was the synagogue I grew up in. My father was active in the Men’s Club, headed the building committee when they added an extension / social hall / ballroom, and edited the newsletter for several years. My grandfather was the cantor for High Holiday services for many years. The shul has been dying for several years, largely due to demographic shifts and exacerbated by Hurricane Sandy. So they’re now seeking to sell the building. I’m buying the memorial plaques for my grandparents and my father.

I know I’m supposed to view all synagogues in the Diaspora as temporary, but it’s still sad. I have a lot of memories from there. Sigh.


Obit Poems: I never got around to writing these up to enter them in the Invitational, largely because I decided they weren’t good enough to be worth entering. But I can inflict them on you.

Tom Terrific was not a reliever
The ’69 Mets left it to Seaver

Al Jaffee always drew the Fold-In
Now, alas, he’s just a moldin’

Normal Busy Life: I went to a Chavurah brunch on New Year’s Day. I’ve had meetings for several of my usual activities, e.g. a couple of genealogy related things, a Grimm Keepers discussion of “The Little Red Hen” (a particularly weird story), planning for some storytelling events, crafts groups, book clubs (which I’m now up to three of), playing board games on-line, a Travelers’ Century Club meeting, etc.

No wonder I keep falling behind!

Important Local News: Oakton High School, which is just up the street from my house, won Metallica’s Marching Band Competition. There are various groups from the school who put on fund raising car washes and I would definitely stop if they were doing one.

Weather: We got about 4 inches of snow on January 15th and another 5 on January 19. There were also several insanely cold days. And then we had a couple of days in the 60’s and it even got up to 72 on Friday. Fortunately,it looks like normal weather for the near future. That is, lows in the low 30’s and high in the mid-40’s.

National Gallery of Art: I leveraged off having an event to go to in the city last Monday night to go to see a couple of museum exhibits during the day on Monday. My friend, Jane, met me for lunch at Teaism and part of the museumage. Because we were running early, we had time to check out the 19th century French art first, which included pieces by several impressionists and post-impressionists, including Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, and Gauguin.

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We managed to kill enough time there to rush through some coffee before going on the docent tour of their current exhibit of photos by Dorothea Lange. The docent talked some about Lange’s life and then talked in depth about some of the photos. Because she had time to discuss only a few of them, I think I need to go back and spend three or so hours looking at all of them.

This one, of a stenographer, struck me for the repairs to the woman’s stockings.

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The most heartbreaking photo, in my opinion, was this one of a store that had been owned by Japanese-Americans. Note that I’d once had a boss who spent part of his childhood at one of the relocation camps that are such a shameful part of American history.

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Jane was museumed out at that point, so she left, while I went over to the East Building to see the Mark Rothko on Paper exhibit. I’d gained a much greater appreciation for Rothko when I went to the museum dedicated to him in Daugavpils, Latvia nearly five years ago. I do, however, prefer his earlier works, such as “Undersea Cabaret.”

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I always think the more familiar style of his paintings would make great designs for rugs.

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Since I was there, I also looked at some of the rest of the modern art in the East Building. That included this wonderful case of pies by Claes Oldenburg.

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“The Flag is Bleeding” is part of Faith Ringgold’s The American People Series. She remains one of my favorite artists.

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No Accident: The primary reason I’d gone into the city was to go to a screening of a documentary titled “No Accident,” about the lawsuit against the August 2017 Charlottesville rioters. It was in the Congressional auditorium at the Capitol.

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There were three senators who introduced the film - Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, and Cory Booker. I thought that Senator Kaine spoke particularly well.

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As for the documentary, I found it very interesting. Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan and Karen Dunn led a team that successfully proved that the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville was planned. It was chilling - and, of course, the most frightening part is that most of the groups involved are still out there. By the way, Kaplan also represented E, Jean Carroll in her defamation lawsuits against Donald Trump.

Other Stuff: I still have to write about - a theatre outing and a Loser Party, (including a good recipe) - but I want to get this posted now because I have to leave the house early in the morning.
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Grounded: I went to see the opera, Grounded, at the Kennedy Center on Saturday night. The story involves a female F-16 fighter pilot who gets pregnant as a result of an affair with a rancher while on leave in Wyoming. She takes 8 years off, but returns to the Air Force and is shunted into being a drone pilot. She resents that at first, but she finds herself liking the job, which also lets her go home to her family every night. Then, she’s assigned a mission that may hit too close to home…

I thought this was effective, for the most part, though I had some qualms about the second act. Jeanine Tesori’s score was at its best when capturing the excitement of the battles - especially for the F-16 pilots. The staging, which used projections on LED screens also added a lot of excitement. And Emily D’Angelo was excellent in the starring role.

Overall, I thought this was worth seeing. The Washington National Opera production was the world premiere and it will be at the Metropolitan Opera in New York next season.

I should also note that I find Tesori to be one of the more interesting composers working nowadays. She’s done a lot of both opera and musical theatre and some of her material bridges the two genres. I first became aware of her via Caroline or Change and I also really liked both Fun Home and Kimberly Akimbo. It’s good to see a woman being so successful in those worlds.

Brunch of Losers: On Sunday, there was a Loser Brunch at Aditi, an Indian restaurant in Alexandria. It’s not a particularly convenient location for me, but their buffet is pretty good (especially a spicy okra, potato, and spinach dish) and there was plenty of good conversation. I really should get myself back into actually entering the Invitational. but I’ve just had too much else going on. I’ll have to think about it for next year’s list of goals.

Crones and Tomes: Monday night was this book club’s monthly meeting. We discussed State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, which I enjoyed reading. I loved tidbits like a description of a crested bird which noted that you could clean a pickle jar with that bird’s head. However, I did find the ending rather implausible. Also, I think I have to go to an opera in Manaus, Brazil.

Manassas Errand Running: I’d made an appointment to get my car serviced on Tuesday morning. It’s always kind of a pain in the neck scheduling service so, alas, this made me miss the pro-Israel rally on the National Mall. Anyway, I got the anti-theft software update done, as well as routine service. But they annoyed me by sending me way too many appointment reminders - several by email, at least 3 by text, and a phone call.

Anyway, I treated myself to breakfast at IHOP before the appointment. And, I took advantage of being out that way to stop at McKay’s Used Books, where I got rid of 33 books and came home with 14 new (to me) ones.

FlyerTalk Dinner: Wednesday night was a FlyerTalk dinner at Lost Dog Cafe in Dunn Loring. Once we got seated away from the area where the extremely loud karaoke was going on, it was fine. I satisfied a craving for spaghetti, as well as having a decent IPA. But, of course, the real point of going to things like this is the conversation, including discussions of last minute travel and great bargains (including mistake fares) we have found in the past.

Medicare: I called the Social Security office again. And this time the person I talked to told me that the person who called me to take the application just sat on it and hasn’t done anything - since September 22nd. So the person I talked to last time, who told me I should have the medicare card “any day now” was also lying to me.

This person said she was messaging my local office and marking it urgent. She also gave me a direct line to my local office and told me to call them if I haven’t heard anything in a week, so I have some hope. But this has been extremely stressful and annoying. My last resort will be trying to get some help from my congresscritter’s office.

Poetry and Punchlines: Last night (Friday), I went to a poetry reading downtown that was organized by Light a magazine of light verse. I knew most of the people reading from the Loser community. There was a reception with time for mingling and light snacks (e.g. cheese and crackers, little sandwiches, strawberries, and cookies) as well as drinks (including wine) beforehand. The readings started with Gene Weingarten reading several “pokes,” i.e. jokes in the form of poems. Among the Losers who read were Duncan Stevens with a selection of limericks among other things, Mark Raffman (who included his song parody about Putin, “If I Only Had Ukraine”), Claudia Gary (who had a lovely song parody to the tune of “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane” about the pandas’ departure from the National Zoo), and Melissa Balmain, with pieces from her two books, The Witch Demands a Retraction and Satan Talks to His Therapist. The other “official” reader was J.D. Smith (who I hadn’t met before). There were also four open mike readers, one of whom had a wonderful piece about chemotherapy. Overall, it was a fun evening.

Obit Poems

Feb. 4th, 2019 03:54 pm
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I have a lot of other stuff to write about, but I have a last minute document review I need to get through at work. So here is a quick entry with the obit poems I submitted to the Style Invitational, none which received ink, alas.

Abra Cadaver
Richard Jay Potash
Known to the world
As dear Ricky Jay
Sleight of hand master
Supersensational
But now he’s laid cards down
As he’s passed away.


Dorcas Reilly cooked some green beans
With French-fried onions, mushroom soup
Thanksgiving tables ever since then
Have been graced with Reilly’s goop.


John Bindernagel sought an apeman
known as Sasquatch, Bigfoot, too
Found some tracks but never caught one
Died with empty cryptozoo.
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Celebrity Death Watch: John Bindernagel was a cryptozoologist, who researched Bigfoot. Stansfield Turner directed the CIA in the late 1970’s. Peter Mayle wrote about living in Provence. John Barton cofounded the Royal Shakespeare Company. Dorothy Malone was an actress, best known for Peyton Place. Jim Rodford played Bass for Argent, The Kinks, and the Zombies. Naomi Parker Fraley was the inspiration for Rosie the Riveter. John Coleman cofounded The Weather Channel. Paul Bocuse popularized nouvelle cuisine. Connie Sawyer was an actress, who continued working in film comedies into her 100s. Ursula K. LeGuin was a science fiction writer. Lari White was a country singer. John Morris was a film composer. Isaiah Zeldin founded the Stephen S. Wise Temple, a major Reform synagogue in Los Angeles. Jerry Butler was a porn actor who was married for several years to Lisa Loring, known for playing Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family. Rick McKay made documentaries about Broadway. Mark Salling was an actor on Glee. Victor Sidel cofounded Physicians for Social Responsibility and was active in opposing nuclear warfare. Nicholas von Hoffman was a journalist, whose career included writing a column for the Washington Post. Dennis Edwards sang with The Temptations.


Hugh Masekela was a South African jazz trumpeter and one of the finest musicians anywhere. His song "Bring Him Back Home," considered an anthem to free Nelson Mandela, is probably his best known. He played a wide variety of music, collaborating with people ranging from Herb Alpert to Paul Simon. It was a privilege to have heard his music.

Mort Walker was a cartoonist, known for Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois. He also had a major influence on Hallmark Cards.

Ingvar Kamprad founded Ikea. I can’t count how many people have been joking about assembling his coffin.

Louis Zorich was an actor who was best known for his role on Mad About You. Among other roles, he played the Russian Constable in the film version of Fiddler on the Roof, played Mr. Maraczek in one of the revivals of She Loves Me, and recorded selections from the novel Moby Dick for Folkways Records. He was also married to Olympia Dukakis.


Obit Poems: What all of the above-mentioned have in common is that they weren’t on my ghoul pool list. I checked and didn’t score last year until February 6th, so I am not particularly disheartened. And only 6 out of the 20 players have scored so far this year.

But, speaking of competitions, I entered several obit poems in the Washington Post Style Invitational and none of them inked. That doesn’t mean, of course, that I can’t inflict them on you. I think the best of these is the one for J. Geils, but it does assume a familiarity with "Love Stinks."

Clifford Irving wrote a bio
Claimed to be of Howard Hughes
Now his bio is completed -
Cliff’s real bio, not fake news.

G is for Grafton, the mystery writer
Exploring the crime world, from A to Y
Too bad she never finished the alphabet
Instead of for Zero, her Z’s for good-bye.

Polish-born diplomat
Zbiggy Brzezinski
Advised Jimmy Carter
Committed no crimes.
Still he was hated
By doggerel poets
For having a surname
Permitting no rhymes.

And so it goes
To J. Geils goodbye
This thing they call death
It’s gonna make you cry
Death stinks, yeah yeah
(Death stinks)
Death stinks, yeah yeah

Three Shakers lived at Sabbathday Lake -
Frances Carr was one of those few.
Their practice of complete chastity
Means that there’s now only two.


Restaurant Week Dinner at Cedar: I went out to dinner at Cedar to take advantage of restaurant week. It started out with four people, but one cancelled and another no-showed (and still hasn’t gotten back to me, so I hope he’s okay). I felt slightly guilty about two of us occupying a four-top, but so it goes. Anyway, I had a smoked salmon appetizer, which was quite good. My main course was elk and pheasant sausages, which were tasty. The accompanying vegetables were, however, too salty. For dessert, I chose the chocolate mousse. That was fine, but their coffee was not very good. Still, overall, the food was good enough that I’d go there again. It appears that they have a pre-theatre menu, which could be convenient.

Unscheduled Time: Last weekend was unscheduled. Well, other than a friend coming over to get some things she’d been storing at my place. I did get some household things done, but I am still very far behind. I didn’t go out during the week, but I am still nowhere near caught up. And it doesn’t look like I will have another free weekend until at least May.

Month of Letters: Of course, I have inevitably made myself busier by taking on another project. The Month of Letters is something I’ve done before and involves writing an actual physical letter every postal day of February. That is, one doesn’t have to do weekends or Presidents’ Day. I’m mentioning it here because there may be somebody who is interested in seeing if my handwriting is really as bad as I claim it is. (Actually, I do aim for both legibility and wit in these.) If so, you can send me a message with your address and I’ll add you to my list.

My paternal grandfather was a shoemaker. Shouldn’t that make me entitled to have elves?
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Celebrity Death Watch: Maurice Bluestein modernized the wind-chill index. Edie Windsor was an activist who played a major role in overturning the Defense of Marriage Act. J. P. Donleavy was a novelist, whose works included Fairy Tale of New York. Frank Vincent was an actor who sort of specialized in playing gangsters. Grant Hart was one of the founders of Husker Du. Harry Dean Stanton was a character actor who was in too many movies to attempt to single out a few to mention. Paul E. Gray was the president of MIT from 1980 to 1990.

Pete Domenici was a senator who represented New Mexico for many years. In general, I disagreed with his positions on environmental issues. He also got into trouble for reports about having fathered an illegitimate child and supposedly had pretty awful phone manners. However, he was a strong supporter of treating mental illness the same as physical illness.

Book Club: Book Club was on Wednesday. We had a pretty good discussion about Commonwealth by Ann Patchett. I like the central question at the heart of the novel, which is who should tell another’s story. But the reason I am mentioning this is that part of the novel involves one of the characters having an affair with a writer she admires. I made a comment to the effect of, "if Neil Gaiman showed up on my doorstep…" and was shocked that two of the people present were entirely unfamiliar with him. (I explained him as a writer of humorous fantasy with floppy hair and a British accent.) It also turned out that there were several people who had never read "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Philistines!

Christine Lavin: Friday night I went to see Christine Lavin at Jammin’ Java, one of my favorite local venues, not least for its proximity to home. Doug Mishkin opened for her and was thoroughly delightful, getting everybody singing his song "Woody’s Children." As for Christine, she was as funny as ever, with a mixture of old and new material. Many of her songs tell stories, e.g. one that described a dinner with a famous person with atrocious table manners. (I won’t reveal who it was, so you can have the joy of the surprise at the end.) During intermission, she taught members of the audience how to do some elaborate napkin folds. (I, alas, was in line for the facilities, so missed out on the lesson, though I saw the results.) All in all, it was a thoroughly delightful evening of folk song and laughter.

Loser Brunch: There were several things I could have done this weekend, but it had been a while since I’d been to brunch with the Style Invitational Losers and Devotees, i.e. fans of the Washington Post’s humor contest. This brunch was at Brion’s Grill in Fairfax, so reasonably convenient. The buffet was just okay, losing points from me for not having any fruit beyond a bowl of mixed melon. On the plus side, they did have cooked to order omelets. And they had French toast donuts, something I had never experienced before. This sort of thing is all about people, in my opinion, so I don’t really care much about the food. The conversation was lively and it was a good way to get out of the house for a couple of hours.
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
This was kind of a blah day. I did, at least, catch up on sleep and get through some of the paper that is threatening to eat my living room (and starting to migrate into the bedroom). But I had planned to get out and do a volksmarch, instead of lollygagging in bed all morning. Oh, well, there is tomorrow.

The December issue of The Atlantic has an article dissing Dylan Thomas and, in particular, claiming that Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is overrated. Bah! It is, admittedly, a poem with some odd and difficult choices of words. But it also has the sheer brilliance of the line "Curse bless me now with your fierce tears I pray." That is a line worth dancing in a green bay for if ever a line of poetry was.
fauxklore: (storyteller doll)
This is the more general catch-up entry. Yeah, I know.

Celebrity Death Watch: Bob Hoskins was an actor. So was Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., who people of my generation will associate with The FBI. I want, however, to highlight Al Feldstein, the editor of MAD, a magazine that was a significant influence on my childhood. My father bought it, allegedly for my brother and me, but we noticed that the fold-in was always done by the time we got it. I understand that there is a game of 43-man squamish going on right now in his memory.

Yiddish Poetry Game: I like Yiddish (though I speak little of it) and like poetry, so I thought this special event put on by the Jewish Study Center would be fun. And it was. The idea is that everyone got two cards with poetry cues and two cards with Yiddish words (with English definitions). You matched a word to a cue and offered that up as something for people to use as a rule in writing a poem. For example, my combination led to "an acrostic on the word shtetl." Then everybody had time to write a poem using at least three of the rules. The results were interesting and I could definitely see playing this again. (Note that one can, of course, play the poetry game just in English.)

Business Trip: After getting back from Northlands, I had to leave for a business trip to Los Angeles early the next morning. There was the obligatory jog across ORD when my first flight was delayed and I had less than 15 minutes to make my connection. But things worked out okay. The design review I was there for was successful for the most part, but exhausting. The highlight of the trip was getting to see an aircraft assembly line, which had nothing to do with the actual purpose of being there. But, I suppose, it’s a lot tougher to show off software development.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival: I always swear I will not spend money at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which is the largest fiber festival in the Eastern United States. (Think of it as a cross between a county fair and the world’s largest yarn store.) And, inevitably, there is irresistible temptation. In this case, it was the Tsock Tsarina Shark Week sock kit. It will be challenging, given my history with sock knitting, otherwise known as failing to complete a pair of socks . But some day I will master these.

Rose Valley Storytelling House Concert: After leaving the sheep and alpaca and rabbits (oh, my!), I drove to Philadelphia to go to a storytelling house concert at the home of Megan Hicks and Jack Abgott. It was an excellent evening. Kitty Hailey told amusing stories about her experiences as a private investigator. Robin Bady did an excerpt from her anti-bullying story, "Every Day is Basil Houpis Day," which left me wanting to hear the rest of the story. And Tom Stamp performed a mix of unusual literary stories. There was a great mix of types of material and the audience was responsive and engaged (and mingled well before the show, during intermission, and afterwards). It was definitely worth dealing with I-95. (Note, however, that I stayed up that way overnight. I’m not quite crazy enough to drive up and back the same day.)

Three Penny Opera: I drove back from Philadelphia on Sunday morning so I could see Three Penny Opera at Signature Theatre in the afternoon. Setting the story in the present day was an interesting decision – and not entirely effective, in my opinion. For example, having people snapping cell phone photos of Macheath on the gallows is mildly amusing but doesn’t really add to anything. The performances were more effective. Nastascia Diaz was excellent as Jenny. I also want to note Erin Driscoll as Polly Peachum. I was less enthralled by Mitchell Jarvis as Macheath, though I suspect that has more to do with the character’s inherent smarminess than with his performance per se. All in all, I’d say the production is not entirely successful, but I am not sure anybody could do this show in an entirely satisfying way.

Michael Reno Harrell: Storyteller and folk musician Michael Reno Harrell was passing through town last night and Ellouise Schoettler was offering a house concert featuring him. There was a small group, so it ended up being a "sit around the kitchen table and swap stories" type of evening instead. That was still a good time.

A Brief Note on Why Women Should Run Everything: I had a meeting today. It ran from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with no break. Only a man would schedule things that way.
fauxklore: (theatre)
This is mostly the theatre-going part of my catching up. But, first, a couple of other items.

Baseball: The Nationals had a mid-season deal to get tickets for three games (one each n July, August and September) and a cap for about $45. So I braved the Fourth of July tourist crowds and went into the city to see them play the Giants. The game was an exciting one, with the Nats winning 9-4. I had some issues, however, with my seat, as it was right behind one of the protective pieces of plexiglass, leading to annoying reflections blocking my view at times.

Celebrity Death Watch: There are lots of celebrity deaths to report. Doris Sams played baseball in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which inspired the movie A League of Their Own. There may be no crying at baseball, but there is at funerals.

Nora Ephron wrote amusingly bitchy feminist essays, along with some movies. I didn’t always agree with her, but her work was usually interesting.

Lonesome George was the last Pinta tortoise, so his death also means the extinction of his sub-species. I saw him when I went to the Galapagos. He looked sad, but I think tortoises inherently look sad.

Andy Griffith was, of course, most famous for his TV performances as the sheriff of Mayberry. I once went to Mt. Airy, North Carolina (his home town) and ate lunch at a diner that had dishes named after the characters from his show. By the way, unlike most tourists, my interest in the town had to do with two of its other residents. It was also where Chang and Eng Bunker, the Siamese twins, settled.

The celebrity death I most want to highlight was that of Richard Adler. With Jerry Ross (who died at a young age of pneumonia), he co-wrote The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. Anybody who knows me at all, knows why the latter is among my favorite Broadway musicals. (Note that the Red Sox are playing four games against the Source of All Evil in the Universe this weekend.)

First You Dream: Speaking of musicals, I saw First You Dream at The Kennedy Center a couple of weeks ago. This is a revue of Kander & Ebb songs, without any particular narrative and with very little dialogue. It was enjoyable, largely because of some excellent performances, notably by Matthew Scott and Heidi Blickenstaff. I particularly want to note Scott’s performance of the Hungarian bit from “Cell Block Tango.”

There is some incongruity, however, as the songs are taken out of context. For example, I suspect that most of the audience had no idea that “Go Back Home” (from The Scottsboro Boys) is sung in the musical by a teenager who has been sentenced to death for a rape he didn’t commit. Similarly, the selections from Kiss of the Spider Woman gave no indication that they are sung by a political prisoner.

Still, the songs are enjoyable in and of themselves and I admit to having particularly liked a few unfamiliar songs I don’t actually know the context of. Some highlights include “Ring Them Bells” from Liza with a Z, “Military Men” from Over and Over and “I Miss the Music” from Curtains. (Okay, I do know the context of the latter – and I also know that the show was completed by John Kander after Fred Ebb died, making it particularly poignant.) The greatest show-stopper was “Boom Ditty Boom” from 70, Girls, 70), which was an incredible showcase for Karma Camp’s choreography. I really need to be more familiar with this show, since the description I’ve read of it sounds quite entertaining. (And I also like the song “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup,” which is from it.)

I will also admit to disliking the title song and feeling hit over the head with its message, but that was a minor flaw in an otherwise enjoyable evening.

The History of Invulnerability: All I knew about this play at Theatre J was that it had to do with Superman creator Jerry Siegel and how he (and artist Joe Shuster) were pretty much screwed over by Harry Donenfeld and National Allied Publications. There’s actually a lot more to David Bar Katz’s play, including a provocative Holocaust story, involving a young boy in Auschwitz-Birkenau whose smuggled comic books leave him fantasizing about Superman rescuing him. The structure is a conversation between Superman and his creator, which also brings in Siegel’s estrangement from his real-life son. Is Superman Siegel’s true son, a god, or a golem?

Given the complexity of the play – and the shocking moments in it – I am loathe to write a lot of details about what happens. I will say that I found myself saying, “wow” out loud at the end of the first act and having more mixed reactions when the play ended. Those reactions were both entirely due to the Holocaust sub-plot.

All in all, I’ll recommend it for what it has to say about creativity and the response to being a powerless outsider. I can also commend the performances, especially by David Deblinger as Siegel. But be aware that this is a dark and disturbing piece, not a light romp through the comics.

The Music Man: Finally, I saw The Music Man at Arena Stage on Tuesday night. I had a bit of frustration with the box office as I had bought the ticket via Goldstar and the guy at Will Call initially gave me a balcony ticket for The Normal Heart instead and I had to actually argue with them (showing my receipt) to get what I had paid for.

Anyway, there aren’t any real surprises in this production. It’s familiar material, intended to balance the season budget with a sure-fire blockbuster. Kate Baldwin is excellent as Marian the librarian and Burke Moses is a competent Harold Hill. I do have two complaints about the production. The first is the modernization of the costumes, which is an annoying anachronism. (Marian wearing trousers? No.) My bigger issue is having left out the overture. It is bad enough that so many musicals are written without overtures nowadays. Why delete them from shows that are intended to have them? Especially since they are often a good way to get the laggards in the audience to shut up.

The most thrilling moment in the production, by the way, came at the end of the curtain calls, when the doors opened and an actual marching band came in, playing “76 Trombones.”. They do not, apparently, do this every night. I heard that the band in question was from New Jersey and in town for the Fourth of July parade the next day.

Note to self: check Nationals schedule before going to Arena Stage, as the ballpark is one stop away from the theatre. It’s bad enough that I have to deal with metro crowding when I go to ballgames. But that is the subject of another rant.

A Very Brief Transit Rant: The Washington Post has a transit columnist called Dr. Gridlock. His repeated advice to people who complain about Metro annoyances is to tell them just to drive. That’s like criticizing people who want to improve public schools by telling them to send their kids to private school.

My biggest complaint, by the way, is about riders who won’t let people off before they board the trains. Hence, this haiku:

Basic courtesy
Is all too rare among those
Who ride on metro.
fauxklore: (Default)
I have, again, been too busy doing things to write about them. So here is one of those random catch-up entries.

Celebrity Death Watch: George Lindsey played Goober Pyle. Bob Stewart created several game shows, including The Price is Right and Password. Carroll Shelby designed cars. Carlos Fuentes was a Mexican novelist. Maurice Sendak wrote children's books, but was not responsible for the song "Wild Thing." And Vidal Sassoon gave me the best haircut I ever got. (Okay, it was at a salon bearing his name, not by him personally, but still ...)

Federal Acquisiton Regulations: Skimming a document led me to find a couple of items that amuse me. Did you kjnow that printed contracts have to be on double sided recycled paper with 30% post consumer fiber content? And that live animals are exempt from rules on place of manufacture?

My Workplace is Not Like Yours: I saw a sign in a women's room in the Pentagon that read, "Are you a modern woman with a past?" It turned out to be an ad for the Pentagon chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Speaking of Work: One of my colleagues referred to people performing an independent review of a program as performing "seagull engineering." That is, they fly in, poop all over everything, and fly out.

Cultural Literacy: In a meeting last week, I made a reference to the deacon's one-hoss shay. Nobody else knew what I was talking about. When I rule the world, all children will be exposed to great American poetry.

Upcoming topics: Things on my list to write about include the science festival, 5 plays, 4 movies, 2 concerts, my trip to London, dating, and amigurumi activism.
fauxklore: (Default)
I will, eventually, write about my weekend excursion to Raleigh, but for now here are two items inspired by the season:

1) Cherries are such lovely trees
But the pollen makes me sneeze.

2) Cherry tree, very pretty
With its blossoms pink and white
But with blooming cherry flowers
Comes the yearly tourist blight.

(Yes, I plan to keep my day job.)

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