Kevin's Blog Blather

Very cool sculpture

2012-01-15T09:57:00.002-07:00

very fun sculpture, especially for those of us who used to build cities with trains and cars...

(you may have to pause it and let it load. Really worth the five minutes. And the end credits has a camera mounted on one of the toy trains that takes you through the sculpture from a 'train's-eye view.')

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T08:59:00.001-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Carolyn's entire family - sisters, kids and their kids - are all meeting up here in Colorado for the Thanksgiving weekend. Wonderful fun will ensue. I am very much looking forward to the gathering and the catching up. The weather is predicted to be beautiful and there's a lot going on in the Denver area so everyone can choose from too much available to do.

The biggest news for us is that we move into our new house on Nov 30! I'll get pictures up once things settle a bit and our furniture is actually more or less in place. There's a lot to do as anyone who's bought a house and moved is aware. Things are moving pretty much according to our hope-for/wished-for schedule when we chose to move here. Even our short 6-month lease in our apartment worked out for the best. Right after we moved into this short-term apartment, the complex was bought by another company. We were told we wouldn't be able to renew our lease, which was fine by us since we never planned to. The benefit is that we told them we're leaving early and breaking the lease and, since the complex is basically kicking a lot of people out for renovations, they congratulated us and even thanked us because they could get to work a little earlier. Plus-plus, our dog pretty much destroyed the carpet and they said to forget about it since they're replacing it anyway! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the good luck continues.

So we'll be in our new house just after Thanksgiving and will be able to get it all set up for Christmas and have new friends and family over. Another hope realized.

Obama in Denver

2011-10-26T16:03:00.002-06:00

President Obama was in Denver today to raise some money and to give a short speech at the University of Colorado - Denver on new student loan plans he's pushing. Only students and staff of UC - Denver were able to attend plus one guest each. As Tucker attends there and Carolyn works for the school, more or less (her research institute is under the school's name), I was able to go, too. All of these pictures were taken by me.

I took about 30 pictures but they're all pretty much the same. You get the idea.

We were very close and the speech took place in a smallish gym, about the size of an old high school's gym. They limited the tickets to 4000. Denver got hit by a snowstorm (of course) and we waited in line for 90 minutes to get in with no cover from the storm other than our coats and hats. Everybody was searched the same as when you board a plane, so it took a little time.

This gives you an idea of how close I was.

In other news, Carolyn and I are making an offer on a house this week. Keep your fingers crossed for us, please. We'd like this one. We've discovered there is no perfect place (in our price range) but this one comes pretty close. Wish it were a little closer to downtown but it will cut Carolyn's work commute in half from what it is now. Again, that's if we get it.

My latest furniture moving gig - I mean acting gig - is up on Sunday. A good production of an American classic, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at The Denver Center. It's a little dated and you're stuck with three little kids in the lead roles. These kids did fine but, well, there's just no way to get anything other than 'cute' and 'spunky' out of little kids. I do respect that they went with the right age here, rather than getting older kids trying to play younger than they are, which is always a disaster. But who am I to talk? Those three kids were the leads and I was basically a furniture mover, a background 'townsperson' and an understudy. Paid well, though.

Getting to know Denver more and more. Lots to explore, like any new place. Best thing of all? The two of us being close to the boys.

2011-09-28T11:41:00.002-06:00

The latest from Colorado...

Carolyn started her newest job just this week and this one looks like a keeper. She's the executive assistant to the director of The Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, a brand-new facility doing research and providing assistance for better living for those with Down Syndrome. She really loves the job, the people, and the institute's mission.

I'm doing understudy work and holding up scenery at The Denver Center but it's a really great job (if I'm not stretching my acting chops much - well, at all) and I'm meeting a lot of fine people. The Denver Center's the big game in town so I feel lucky to have gotten in just after landing here.

We've begun looking for a house but will take our time because we want to do a lot of exploring and get to know the place a bit. There's a lot to see and learn and we want to do it right. Very exciting.

Gracie's one year old next week and is a ton of fun. She's not too much of a bother but we'll all be glad when we get a house with a yard again. I think living in an apartment is more trying on her than it is on us. Luckily, the apartment is located in a great spot, with lots of woods and creeks and animals to faux hunt.

Denver always seems to have a number of things going on, which is fun and a big change from what we're used to (that quiet, small town livin'). Last week Carolyn, Tuck and I went to the downtown Octoberfest and just had a wonderful time. And there are lots of sports and music venues here so there's always something to do (not to mention a lot of theater).

Life is good!

Wow - it's already September

2011-09-09T20:18:00.002-06:00

The latest from Denver:

Met up with Eric Van Tielen while he was in town with the national tour of LES MISERABLES. Great to see him doing so well. I understand the production is spectacular, a bit re-imagined, with projections and no rotating barricade. I'm fine with that. But I didn't see the play because, well, the cheapest seats available were $90. Theatre should be for everyone, not just the upwardly mobile. And $90 is too rich for me, sad to say.

Carolyn got a great new job just today! She'll be the exec secretary to the director for a foundation that works toward solving issues related to Downs Syndrome. It's a pretty big deal foundation, with Nobel Prize winners on the board and last year's fundraiser was headlined by Quincy Jones and Jaime Foxx. 'Q" is on the board of the foundation. I hope I get to rub shoulders with some of these folks at some point. Best of all, Carolyn feels like she'll be doing good in her small way. I agree.

I'm a few weeks into rehearsals for THE LIAR (understudy) and a couple of weeks into rehearsals for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (understudy and 'townsperson'). It's basically a 'take-the-money-and-run situation but it's at The Denver Center and it's top-notch so I'm glad to be involved. Hopefully some folks will watch some of my work and the understudy rehearsals and think of me now and then. They do auditions in the Spring and pretty much line up the contracts from there so I was lucky to get anything when I approached them in July.

THE LIAR is okay but rather long and tiresome (in my humble opinion). The actors are wonderful but the script is nothing to scream about. I'm not a big fan of David Ives, who translated this from the French by Corneille. It's in rhyming iambic pentameter and that's part of the problem. A lot is lost in this 'translation.' Too cute, too 'clever.' There are moments but it drags, particularly in the second act.

MOCKINGBIRD strikes me as a story that should have stayed only in its novel form. It is a brilliant book. The movie, as wonderful as it is, shifted the focus away from the kids onto Atticus and it's really the kids' story. So, in the end, the movie loses some of the story's power. The play waters it down even more. While the children probably have 60% of the load (and these kids are GOOD), the play still has to blaze through the story so that it's almost just plot points. A shame.

And I'm feeling more and more that this dated piece should stay in a museum. White folks have to stop patting themselves on the back after watching this story. They didn't really do that much. If anything, they dragged their feet for far too long and looked the other way most of that time. The more I watch it, the more I wish I could see another play based on Tom Robinson's wife's story, or see the play through HIS kids eyes. All the white people in the audience like to see a bit of Atticus in themselves and nod their heads at the injustice as it plays out and imagine that they'd have done things differently had they been there. Sorry, but I just don't buy that. That's simple psycho-comfort. I just don't think this play and story, at least in the film and especially the stage version, is relevant anymore. Yet another argument (in my mind) that 'classic' plays should be rarely seen and when they are put in a clear perspective. Theatre spins its wheels by resurrecting these old warhorses that, if they say anything, speak in the past. I don't believe there's a modern message in them anymore.

Another theatre in town just opened CLYBOURNE PARK, which won the Pulitzer last year. It deals with the families in RAISIN IN THE SUN both before and 10 years after the action in that play. Brilliant. This is what I like to see - a reevaluation of a classic for today's audiences. And the review today glowed. That's one I hope to see (plus, I can afford the tickets).

Okay - thoughts on a Friday night. Have a good weekend, all!

Deep Thoughts...

2011-08-03T14:02:00.002-06:00

"I hope some animal never bores a hole in my head and lays its eggs in my brain, because later you might think you're having a good idea but it's just eggs hatching." - Jack Handey

(keep that in mind reading the following 'ideas')

I haven't taken the time to write much for a long time. Most of that was to spare whatever innocent reader who might have visited/tripped upon this page from some personal rant. Venting anger feels good sometimes, but it's a pain for whoever has to bear the brunt of the blast.

Short catch-up: Carolyn and I are here in Denver and have quickly fallen hard for it. We wavered over Seattle or Denver and Denver won on two counts - weather and, far more importantly, our two boys live and work in Denver. I cannot tell you the pleasure it is to have them so close and to be able to do things with them at the drop of a hat. We see them all the time and while I always knew I missed them when we were cities apart, I have an even stronger appreciation for our literal closeness now that we're here.

We live in a very pretty, very prosperous area of Denver. We are right up against the front range and picturesque mountain towns are only minutes away. I have had some wonderful rides on my motorcycle through those winding roads. There are streams and wildlife right in our backyard, which is something for a suburban area. The dog loves it as much as we do. We haven't seen them yet, but all of our apartment neighbors ask us all the time if we've seen the elk(s) in the parking lot. That should give you some idea.

Carolyn is out on a job interview as I write this and, as for me, I've already signed with a commercial agent and landed work at the big-shot theater in town - The Denver Center. I sent my resume and headshot via email and less than two hours later they called with a 10-week contract. No audition. It's small parts and some understudying but it's a foot in the door and I couldn't have asked for much more. Plus, I'll be able to actually audition for the rest of their season. Some other good theaters in town, too, and there's been an uptick in theaters agreeing to Equity contracts, all good things.

It's a happy place. We've made it to a Rockies baseball game (very fun - how could it not be?) and have visited many new neighborhoods, restaurants and clubs. Often with the boys along.

So, rather than just relate events like a boring Christmas letter to family, I think I'll start using this space as it was probably meant to be used - for thoughts, mullings, current events, and the occasional report of a time well had.

The revived 'mellow' Kevin is back, happily attacking the theatre and commercial world as a full-time professional. As a friend back in Utah remarked recently, "it's 'original recipe' Kevin back with us.'

Yes. Yes it is.

We have landed in Denver

2011-07-08T08:36:00.002-06:00

Well, we're here. We moved from Utah to Denver, Colorado on July 2nd so we've been here not quite a week. It took a few days of settling in and we hit the job search with a vengeance next week.

We like it here very much. The people are friendly, our apartment complex is very nice and located near a ton of green space, creeks and dog parks. Denver is extremely dog friendly, which appeals to us, dog lovers that we are.

We're very close to the mountains and can drive up the road and be in them in less than 5 minutes. Lots of places to explore and things to do but priority one is JOBS. Just this morning came the terrible news that only 18,000 jobs were hired in June (to put that into perspective, a good year, which hasn't happened since 2008, is 400,000 new jobs per month to keep the economy just afloat). So, we have our work cut out for us.

BUT - we wouldn't change anything. Challenge is good. This was necessary for us and we feel positive and absolute about it. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I'll update as things happen.

didn't get it

2011-06-01T15:32:00.001-06:00

Got the call today that I did not get the job in Denver. It's okay. Paid poorly. Just an okay department.

But we're still moving to Denver and are excited about getting going. We're in good shape to do this and we're ready to go.

Keep the positive thoughts for us!

We'll know very soon...

2011-05-28T21:57:00.003-06:00

Had my interview (in Denver) this past week and will hear if I get the job right after Memorial Day.

But, either way, looks like we'll be going to Denver. Love the city and love our boys (who both live there). Kind of an obvious choice, really.

But I'll fill everything in sometime next week...

change is a-comin'

2011-05-06T07:07:00.002-06:00

Looks like we've sold our house (the due diligence date is today and we've heard nothing from the buyer to indicate they may back out). We need to be out in less than two weeks. Very exciting (and busy). We're tossing things out and giving things away like mad. We've accumulated a ton of stuff over the past 16 years or so living in this house. The boys will come back next weekend to a mostly empty house to spend one last weekend in the house they grew up in and then Carolyn and I move into a rental for a couple of months here in Cache Valley until we find a new house. Depending on upcoming interviews, it will either be in Denver or Seattle. We're hoping for Denver because it's a great job and the boys both live and work there. But Seattle is a wonderful Plan B.

Wish us luck!

Sundance almost finished for this year...

2011-04-15T17:28:00.003-06:00

The picture above is a rehearsal shot from one number from LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE. (that's Chita Rivera, fourth in from the right.)

The musical presented yesterday and was very well-received. 7 producers came here to see it from New York and it is slated to play for two months at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC in September and then move on to New York. All expect it to hit Broadway soon after that. It's really a unique and beautiful play, owing to the story and the Mexican music/folklore flavor. Everyone who has seen it loves it. Certainly some things will be adjusted but most of it is there.

The workshops are always amazing and this one is as much as others. Many new inventive and unique plays, some very traditionally structured, others not. One of the most powerful plays was from four artists here from Tanzania and about 90% in Ki-swahili and 10% in English. Yet you followed every moment and the Tanzanian performers were some of the most powerful actors I've ever seen.

A good, busy 3 weeks with just two days left. Everyone is tired but happy. On to new things. Big changes coming for me in a month or so. More when things solidify...

This is the view looking North from the rooftop deck of the Banff Springs Hotel. The Canadian Rockies are pretty spectacular, to say the least.

Banff

2011-04-04T11:51:00.002-06:00

Above is one of the 180-degree view out of the cafeteria here at The Banff Centre. I'm here working the Sundance Theatre Lab (my fifth time since 2003). Normally they're in July at the Sundance Resort but the resort is having renovations so we find ourselves here, in a pretty, snowy early April.

The Lab has 8 plays in development, like every year, for three weeks. At the end of the three weeks all are given a reading for the 90 members of the lab. It's a great week which begins on 4/12.

My project (I'm stage managing and narrating the stage directions) is a new musical of LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE. The band and music are incredible, all original and in a very Mexican-folklore flavor. Beautiful and lively. The book writer has been nominated for two Pulitzers (IN THE HEIGHTS and another non-musical), the director won a Tony for orchestration for LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA), the music director just finished music directing for BLOODY, BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, and the composer has won a number of Grammys, mostly but not all Latin Grammys. The entire cast of 12 have all been in a Broadway musical (or more than one) in the past two years. The star is Chita Rivera, a wonderful, warm person who doesn't have an arrogant 'star' bone in her body.

These workshops are fascinating for me - from watching Chita learn her music (she doesn't read music and learns it by ear and nails it within minutes) to the discussions surrounding the development of the story and music (many changes, as you might imagine), to the award-winning set designer playing with a model and elevations on the side (very rare for one of these events) to the astounding performers. It's as great as every other Sundance Lab I've been a part of and I fully expect this to do well, as the other productions through Sundance have done. This production is actually slated to play at The Arena Stage in September on its way to New York (they're shooting for Broadway). Oscar Eustis (artistic director of The Public in New York) and playwright Doug Wright show up in a few days to offer their input.

These three weeks are better than a couple of years in a class. Seriously. And to have done it five times...

above is the main street of Banff, Canada looking east on Sunday morning, 4/3

A view of main street looking the other direction (west).

Me at Banff Brewery. I asked to taste a beer or two and they brought me eight! This led to a nice Sunday afternoon nap, I can tell you.

More later as the next two weeks unfold...

A Gracie update

2011-03-11T12:33:00.003-07:00

This is Gracie at about 7 weeks, just after we got her.

This is Gracie two weeks ago, at about 22 weeks.

Gracie, like all pups, spends half her time sleeping and the other half going gonzo.

Gracie last night, sitting at attention on command for Carolyn. She graduated from her puppy class last Saturday and will take the 'intermediate' training class starting in a couple of weeks.

Gracie at about 24 weeks. She's under the knife as I write this, getting spayed, the poor thing. I hope the drugs are good!

We're nuts about her, obviously.

Nothing else to report, really. The house is up for sale and we've had some lookers. I head off to Banff with the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in a couple of weeks, which will be a ton of fun (and work). Then a reunion with some grad school friends in Chicago and a visit to family in St. Louis. After that, we move!

One more fun Egypt story...

2011-02-14T14:39:00.009-07:00

A McDonalds in Cairo.

a row of hooka bars near a Cairo bazarre (no alcohol, but very strong but smooth, flavored tobacco).

A street vendor selling all kinds of birds for peoples' grocery needs in Alexandria (chickens, ducks, turkeys, even pelicans).

the story...

We had an afternoon to kill in Alexandria, Egypt and decided to walk around the city near the port terminal where our ship was docked. Like I mentioned in the last entry, it is a modern city but had the air of one a bit older, from the 40s or 50s. There were little shops here and there but Alexandria isn't really that much of a tourist town so you actually can get a little lost in the city (we did) because there's no real pattern to the streets. They're the same ones that have been there for many, many centuries and they just go where they were built at the time. A real labyrinth.

We had some nice food and drink and turned one corner that was very busy. In a lot of Arab countries they have the equivalent to what we would call a bar. They look almost identical. But instead of alcohol (which Muslims don't drink), they were hooka bars. We turned this corner and there was this outdoor bar, with all these older men in the robes that most Egyptian men wear, the galabeya. They were around their hookas, smoking, and looking up at a television mounted on the wall. I turned to see what they were all so intently watching - it was a contest of women in bikinis mud wrestling.

Talk about a crash of images.

I should also mention that the more we walked, the more lost we got. It didn't help to learn that, like many cities around the world, the businesses, shops and restaurants close around 4 and reopen around 7 or 8. It's for people to have dinner with family and it's a practice that is as old as the cities are. We were lost and finally came across a middle-aged man who was standing outside his small jewelry store, locking it up. We asked him for directions back to the port entrance and he told us (mostly a pointed direction because the streets are small, curvy, mostly alleyways that no car could travel, and these streets have no reliable pattern). I guess we looked a little nervous because the area was a bit run down and it was getting dark. He then said to us, 'You do not have to worry. No one in this country will harm you or threaten you. You are very, very safe.'

We learned that we were - completely. We felt that way in every single country we went to. We stood out as obvious American tourists everywhere we went but I never once felt threatened or unsafe.

Thinking of the men watching the mud wrestling, we were once again reminded that as much as we Americans like to think of people from other cultures stuck in some earlier time, the modern world is very much a part of life all over the world. The internet being a major tool in the recent protests in Egypt underscores that. In every country we went to, the modern world was a huge part of their lives. In Vietnam, we went on a back-country bicycle ride through jungle villages along the Mekong River Delta. All of the homes are small, built of formed concrete, with open windows and no doors, letting the air through. It was stunning. There is nothing I have ever seen that can compare to it. And in every home that day, one after another, blaring out loud, was a television tuned in to Oprah Winfrey.

It's a small world. And it needn't be made out to be the big scary threat that some would have us believe. We would do well to think of the people in other countries as a whole lot more like us than different from us. Maybe we Americans are the ones with the issues...

gotta tell one more - - -

On our last day in Egypt, we flew from Luxor (central Egypt) to Cairo and took a 2-hour bus ride to Alexandria to board our ship. It was the end of a week in Egypt and the students on our bus were asking our guide some questions during the long ride. As a leader of the group, I was sitting with our guide, Omaima, and hearing all the questions and her answers.

One rather arrogant senior citizen 'life-long learner', challenged her on everything and it was truly insulting. She was the epitome of the 'arrogant American.' One of her questions to Omaima was if she really believed in the Islamic rule that if someone kills a member of your family, you have the right to kill someone in that person's family. Without hesitating, Omaima said, 'yes.' The arrogant American smirked triumphantly. Then Omaima said, 'but we don't have murders in Egypt. One reason we don't is people believe this rule to be correct.' It was flawless logic and something steeped in an ancient culture. And it was something too hard for this arrogant American to grasp. Omaima was basically saying that Egyptians revere life and don't take it. Period.

Later that day I got on the internet and looked up crime and murder rates for Egypt. To say there are no murders at all would be not quite true. But the numbers are astoundingly low, less than .3 murders per 100,000 people. The U.S. rate is around 10 per 100,000. So while we see almost 30,000 murdered each year here (and around 60,000 killed in gun-related deaths, including accidental and suicide), Egypt sees around 1000 murders a year. That's amazing.

Egypt has been ruled for 30 years by a despotic dictator who has abused his office (with a lot of help and assistance from the U.S.) and stolen billions of dollars from his people. But that is not Egypt. Egypt is an incredibly peaceful, smart, hopeful country. And a tremendously safe one.

Congrats to Egypt!

2011-02-12T08:00:00.004-07:00

(the four of us at the Temple of Hatshepsut (Egypt's only female pharoah), built around 1550 BC.)

All the news from Egypt the past two weeks has made me think of our time there a few years ago. We loved Egypt, finding the people to be generous, friendly, peaceful and hopeful. We spent the week with a few Egyptian locals as our guides and we felt we got a pretty good glimpse of life there.

We spent time in Alexadria (where our ship docked), then Cairo (two hours inland by car), and then Luxor (a two-hour flight from Cairo down the Nile to central Egypt). So we got a pretty good view and take on the country, for tourists. Cairo struck me as a modern city but one that looked like a bit of a throwback, to the 1940s/1950s. Part of that is the buildings, part of that the people and part of that (believe it or not) the cars. I heard a reporter on the radio say how all the car dealerships were empty of cars and that was a sign of trouble. If the reporter had actually done a little investigating and actually looked around a bit she would have noticed that 95% of the cars in Egypt are car models from the 40s and 50s. Big, old blocky things. The dry, hot Egyptian climate (Luxor averages 5 inches of rain for every 20 years) makes car bodies hold up forever. The majority of dealerships don't sell cars - they sell car engines, about the only thing in these cars that will wear out.

Another fascinating part of Cairo is the City of the Dead, an ancient cemetery where people actually have moved into tombs to live. They give tours (although we didn't take this tour but we did drive by a few times). Here's a link to some pictures...

A bazarre in Cairo at night. We had more fun than we can describe just roaming through these places.

Carolyn and Jeff riding a camel (with other students) to the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Egypt proved that a peaceful, non-violent revolution can happen. Many mentioned in the call-in shows that the real power is always with the people. Violence begets violence. Something we all need to remember. It'll be fascinating to watch the baby steps of the next few months.

my new favorite all-time commercial

2011-02-07T19:32:00.005-07:00

For those of you who may have missed it, and for those of you who only saw the 30-second version shown during the Super Bowl, here's the 60-second original. Best commercial in years...

(you'll need to click on the title of the commercial once it starts playing to go to the YouTube site for the full, widescreen version (and you should). I haven't figured out how to do that yet for blogspot...)

And here's a link to see a story about the little boy who plays Darth Vader. He's only just turned 6, had heart surgery at only 3 months, and has a pacemaker for his heart. But he's already done more professional television work than probably anybody I know or will ever know.

little Darth Vader guy

(and the little guy actually looks like the original Luke Skywalker - amazing)

An Evening With Stephen Sondheim

2011-02-02T08:10:00.004-07:00

I went to the Evening With Sondheim event last night at Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City. It was very low-key, with Sondheim sitting in a chair and his interviewer in an identical chair next to him. Simple questions and answers.

I read his FINISHING THE HAT, and saw SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM on Broadway last May, and listened to a number of interviews with him recently (there is a really fine free podcast called Downstage Center on The American Theatre Wing website. Great, great, hour-long interviews with famous and not-so-famous but very active theatre big-wigs). So it turns out I had heard or read all the stories and ideas multiple times. Only one story was new; in the late 60s/early 70s he kept his next-door neighbor Katherine Hepburn up late at night with his composing (he would sing out loud as he worked). She came over to complain barefoot and in a nightgown. She was rehearsing for the play COCO at the time and complained she couldn't sleep with all the noise he was making. He found out later that she used that as an excuse to bug out of rehearsal hours early even though he stopped composing late at night at her request.

But other than that - fascinating, but nothing new. The problem was that the interviewer was a retired local theatre critic. Well, I can't imagine a place where theatre criticism is so weak as in Salt Lake City. They don't have much to do and not much room is given to them in the paper. She asked him why he didn't like critics and he stuck by his guns and told her (they aren't learned people when it comes to theatre and only seem somewhat aware of just the most contemporary plays). He basically exposed that he was right at least when it came to her (in a nice, respectful way, but he did show her up). And because she was a critic she wouldn't let the subject go, which nobody really cared about but her, and too much time was wasted on that subject.

I would have loved for a real Sondheim aficionado to be up there asking questions. Better, if there had been two up there asking questions. We might have really gotten to the bone of what it is he does and how he does it. I was not all that interested in just anecdotes but that's all we got. In the end, the best stuff is in his book and he is very, very thorough so I'd recommend it. I'm looking forward to the second volume this fall.

The most embarrassing thing, though, was that the lecture was on the U of Utah's campus and they hauled out their student opera program to sing a couple of his songs. Now, if anybody had done any work at all they would have read a few times in FINISHING THE HAT that Sondheim doesn't care for opera at all. At least not the singers and opera performers, who he refers to as static, and that his music should never be done by opera singers. His songs are for actors. This amateur display more than proved his point. They sounded like they were in a bad church choir and every last one of them stood stock still, blankly staring to some place 100 yards away, and merely sang the song on pitch (mostly, but not always), loudly and in a boring, even rhythm. Ugh. At one point about 40 of them started singing INTO THE WOODS and marched around the stage like 2nd graders at school auditorium recital. Not kidding. Wish I was.

After that the interviewer said it was time for questions from the audience. There were about 3000 people there and I have to believe there were better questions than the four she chose to read. 'What is your favorite musical not written by you?' 'Is it hard to write music for so many different characters in a musical?' OMG! I had asked why he had written a book (with another coming) focused only on lyrics and nothing on his composing, which I find to be his more amazing artistic skill. I've never heard anybody ask that and I'm dying to know. But my question wasn't chosen.

I'm past idol worshipping so I really was hoping for something new and didn't get it. It was fun to see him and this won't stop me from hearing from others in same-style events, but I'm not so sure I'll get to see another genius like we did last night. Due to the weak interviewer, it was an opportunity missed.

Sondheim lecture

2011-01-28T14:22:00.002-07:00

Stephen Sondheim is doing a one-man presentation (with another person prompting questions) in Salt Lake on Tuesday night and I have my ticket. Glad I'll get to see him. I've been a fan for 25 years, longer when you consider his earliest, popular plays that used to see a lot of broadcast time on television when I was growing up (West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum).

I read the book above when it came out in November or so and look forward to the second volume (Look, I Made A Hat) which will cover from 1982 up till today. I wish he'd also put together a book on his music writing. These books touch on music, fortunately, but focus almost completely on lyric writing.

I also saw SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM on Broadway last May, which is a review of his career with film and audio clips of Sondheim (basically playing as the narrator and explaining the songs and their inspirations and trials) interspersed between songs. Guess I've been on a Sondheim kick the past year or so. My seat is in the third to last row in the balcony at Kingsbury Hall but there really isn't a bad seat in that place. I figure, as long as I can hear him, I'll be fine.

Only one other time did I ever get a ticket to see an icon do one of these one-person, in-person career retrospectives. I was in undergrad school in 1981 or 1982 and I got a ticket to see Cary Grant, who was in his 80s, do the same thing Sondheim is doing. Grant died the day before he was to appear in St. Louis.

I don't say that to send bad ju-ju Sondheim's way, of course! But these kinds of presentations are rare and I didn't want to miss it.

Report to follow the evening's presentation...

long time no write

2011-01-25T09:23:00.003-07:00

Big doggie, huh? That's Gracie at 16 weeks. She's about 30 pounds on the way to 70-75. She won't fit up on the bed in a short while. She's been great and of course we're crazy about her if you couldn't tell already. We're still amazed that she got the house-training down in a week when she was only 8 weeks old (and never a #2 mess!). We did the crate training and used bell-training (hanging a bell from the doorknob of the door she uses to go outside) and both have worked together to give us a very well-behaved dog. I have to get up to let her out all the time when she rings the bell, usually just to play or goof off outside, but I'll accept that compared to a dog that doesn't go outside when she 'should.'

We take her to obedience class for puppies once a week and that's been fun and useful. The tips we've learned in class have stopped her from nipping and playing tug-of-war with our pants legs. She's a retriever so she's 'mouthy' but she's also a smart breed so she learns quick. She's also got energy to burn so we go on lots of walks.

The job search is getting to the place where calls either will come or won't in the next four weeks or so. I figure my chances are decent at a couple of places so keep your fingers crossed for me. I've only applied to jobs that are located in places I want to live, which REALLY narrowed it down. Carolyn and I have decided that if none of these jobs happen then we're off to the Northwest to relocate there. So it's a giant win-win as far as we're concerned! I'm so excited at the prospect of moving to Seattle or Portland that part of me hopes I DON'T get an offer. Well, I'm only half-kidding. Seriously, we're excited about 2011.

This is a little late, but here's a wish that your 2011 is all you want it to be.

Gracie at 12 weeks

2010-12-29T08:23:00.002-07:00

She's a blast! She still bites a bit now and then but it's getting less and less. She should lose her baby teeth in the next month or so and the biting should really taper off (I'm told).

Nice Christmas - kind of quiet but with just the right amount of visits, friends and family. Great time. Hope yours was, too.

Holiday wishes!

2010-12-21T07:13:00.003-07:00

Gracie waiting for Santa

Hoping everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday and a prosperous New Year.

I really like this time of year

2010-12-06T18:56:00.003-07:00

The boys came home from Denver for the Thanksgiving weekend and it was wonderful. Life is grand. I'm so happy for their happiness, work, drive and rich, full lives. They make me proud every single day.

Those of you that might follow this blog know that we lost our family pet, Jesse, last August. She was just shy of 15 years old. So the boys knew her almost all of their lives. In the picture above is our newest edition, Gracie. She's 8 weeks in this picture. Another golden retriever, a breed we're pretty stuck on.

It was a great weekend. A fine Thanksgiving gathering with the boys and a couple of their friends, who are always welcome. The boys' friends have always been part of our family. (In case I didn't mention this before, the boys both live in Denver now, so a visit from them is a very special event.)

A picture of Jeff with Gracie, as she pulls on some of his dreadlocks.

Gracie at 9 weeks. She's growing like a weed!

Carolyn is enjoying the time she has with Gracie as a little thing. Too soon she'll be too big to cuddle with like this. But we love goldens and look forward to Gracie being a full-grown family member.

It was a great holiday weekend in November and December looks to be (somewhat) quiet, which will be welcome. The boys won't be coming back for Christmas so it'll be a cozy little weekend with Carolyn, me and Gracie. Some friends will surely figure into the mix.

I mentioned in the title that I like this time of year because (I think) we all take stock in what the past year threw our way. I have to say, I feel rejuvenated. I look in the mirror and see a rather old face staring back but I also see the essence of the 20-something that is still so much a part of me. I decided on a big life change, as you all know, and I am tremendously excited at the prospects in front of me. You all will be the first to know what the next stage will be. I am not only jazzed at the wide-open potential of the future, but also that I get to take this trip with the love of my life. Carolyn is - words can't express. She is everything to me. We are making this next step together and we're both excited. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Gracie in the snow

2010-11-30T15:29:00.001-07:00

Gracie is now home

2010-11-20T18:13:00.002-07:00

introducing...

2010-11-03T18:10:00.002-06:00

Gracie.

She's five weeks old today. We pick her up in another three to take her home. She's a golden retriever from a very reputable, nice Idaho potato/beet/seed corn farm who also breed goldens. All papers, shots, and good stuff taken care of.

We are VERY excited. I missed not having a loving dog underfoot. Now the fun begins (again).

Day Of The Dead

2010-11-02T18:22:00.002-06:00

Carolyn's Day Of The Dead altar.

She had a Spanish class a few years ago where they studied this holiday and all gave reports. She fell for it.

We are 100% atheists but we love to play and enjoy in the culturally fascinating. There's so much out there.

About 8 years ago we were in Crete for their Easter and it was a blast. Red is the color and eggs and chocolate are everywhere - even bunnies. The Easter Bunny is actually an ancient symbol. We're all ritualists. Too bad religions tend to ignore that fact.

Denver and Santa Fe

2010-10-03T16:51:00.005-06:00

Above is a rattlesnake & rabbit sausage. Kinda mild, actually. It's in a dried cherry something sauce.

Long time no write. The summer's been fun and easy and the fall looks to be the same, so far. Carolyn and I went to Denver for a couple of days to see the boys and then road-tripped down to New Mexico, stopping in Taos, Chimayo and Santa Fe. Great trip with, as seen above, great food.

We stayed in B&Bs the whole New Mexico part of the trip and all had these wonderful, charming fireplaces in the rooms. This was a first-time visit to New Mexico for both of us and we were truly enchanted by the Land of Enchantment. That's a very appropriate official state phrase.

This is the courtyard outside the B&B in Chimayo, an old hacienda. Our room was by the blue chair.

We ate like royalty and were never disappointed. And the weather cooperated, too. Beautiful fall scenery all around. Georgia O'Keefe country, the San Juan mountains - the whole ride was stunning.

The small New Mexico towns have tons of old and/or abandoned pickup trucks. This is one I tripped across on a little exploration walk around Chimayo.

The town square in Santa Fe. Not a very good picture, though. I was really taken with Santa Fe, at least the part we saw. Our B&B was right in the touristy area and we walked everywhere so we never ventured very far. Lots of great, expensive shops so the window-shopping was fun. We did manage to get a few unique and affordable treasures, too.

On the last day before driving back, we took a ride on the narrow-guage Cumbres & Toltec steam railroad. This rail line was built in the 1850s through silver mining territory. The train pulled 7 or 8 cars. We opted for the half-day ride, which still took up a good part of the day. We rarely saw much civilization so you got a real time-traveler feel on this thing.

This bridge is 140 feet high. A later bridge, on the part we didn't ride, was over 450 feet high.

The narrow gauge allowed the train to make tighter turns (and be built much cheaper) so I was able to take pictures of the front of the train we were riding as I stood in the open-air observation car farther back.

Since we took the train halfway and then returned, we had to switch trains. This is a picture of the train we rode on the first half of the ride, continuing on to the second half. We're returning and I took this picture from across the valley. But it gives you a bit of an idea of what the ride was like.

Some typical scenery from the first part of the ride. I took this across the valley.

Jesse the Wonder Dog

2010-08-12T21:32:00.002-06:00

Sad news for us today, friends. Our good ol' dog, Jesse, had to be put down tonight. She was 14 years 8 months old. The picture above was taken just one week ago.

She had a few problems. For the past 2 years she suffered from a paralyzed larynx. That made swallowing and breathing tough for her. The last six months or so she sounded like a steam train coming and going, huffing and puffing. She also had degeneration in her hips (her hind legs) and, as a result, her front legs became almost bulldog-like to compensate. She'd haul herself up with her front legs and work to get her hind legs off the floor. Once up, she was great. She even trotted a few feet now and then (did that just yesterday).

This afternoon I was starting to make dinner in the kitchen, which is a tile floor and has been a slippery difficulty for her for a while. She was struggling to get up as I was leaving the room. I told her to wait, that I'd be right back (which usually worked) but suddenly she started whelping and crying. In all of her 14 1/2 years, she never cried once. I don't have to tell you that it scared me. I tried to pick her up off the floor and she continued to cry and whelp. I noticed that her front left foreleg was limp so I laid her down on the living room floor and she shook like mad. Carolyn came out and laid down next to her to calm her and I called the vet. He said he'd stay late, we brought her in, had an x-ray and learned that she had broken that front left foreleg, trying to get up. The break was devastating, completely separated and split, and she must have been in excruciating pain. She never really showed anything, letting us hold her and pet her but it was clear we had to put her down. The doctor was very kind and we sat on the floor with her as she was given a sedative which knocked her out and then the injection that stopped her heart.

Speaking of hearts, Carolyn and mine are bit broken tonight but we know we had a lot more time with our dog than most people get. She was amazing as far as we're concerned. A real part of the family. A great personality, a sweet spirit, a loving friend and just a great dog all around. We knew this day was coming soon, as old as she was, but - well - you're never really quite prepared, I guess.

Carolyn and I are heading off to the mountains for the weekend. Jesse was supposed to go with us and, well, we were a bit worried about that, as lame and delicate as she was getting, but we decided we'd go anyway, meeting up with some other family on Carolyn's side. Timing.

Jess was just a great dog. We were nuts about her. No regrets. Lots of sadness tonight, though.

Denver visit

2010-07-01T10:23:00.002-06:00

Had a fine, ol' time in Denver, visiting the boys and some other relatives. Great food, great company.

Jeff and Tuck moved into an apartment just a week ago and are starting to settle. They live in Golden and seem to be as happy as clams (and just a little bit nervous, but that's natural).

Both of them, Jeff's girlfriend and Carolyn went to a Tool concert at Red Rocks on Tuesday and had a ball. I opted out and strolled around downtown Denver for the first time. Beautiful city. The weather was perfect. There's a fantastic bookstore in an old warehouse where I spent a good part of the evening. Most of the other places were nice restaurants and bars. I stopped in the Wynkoop Brewery for a beer and to watch a little baseball (the Rockies won). Wish the Rockies had been in town, that would have been the only thing better. Next time.

Tough to leave the boys, though. I'm guessing that'll be the norm every time we see them.

I could live like this - but I can't

2010-06-17T09:09:00.004-06:00

So, for the first time in - oh - 36 years, I'm completely unemployed. It's nice (since, at the moment, money isn't an issue. That won't last too long). I could get used to being idly comfortable.

The hard part is motivation. I need to kick myself into gear. This is such a lovely time of year here that I tend to want to just relax and enjoy it. Who wouldn't?

May kept me pretty busy with fun stuff. Immediately after handing in my resignation (one of the best decisions of my life) there were fun, diverting events that filled up the month. A trip to New York with Carolyn seeing old friends (with side-trips to St. Louis and Connecticut to see family), a family (Carolyn's side this time) reunion of about 30 folks in Logan that was just a blast, and we hosted about 6 at our house. And an early June hiking trip to Southern Utah for a week with a couple of hiking buddies that would make a trip to the dump a lot of fun. Zion, Bryce and Kolob canyons were this years itinerary.

I promise to visit this place more often and write thoughts and updates regularly. It's for me as much as anybody and I've missed it. Now some pictures...

Kolob Canyon

Bryce Canyon at sunrise.

Me near the east tunnel entrance to Zion Canyon

Chelsea district in New York City

Below is, of course, Time Square in NYC. We saw SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM with Euan Morton (USU guest artist) and THE ADDAMS FAMILY with Nathan Lane (and old friend Kevin Chamberlin playing Uncle Fester and another old friend in the ensemble). Lots of fun. Dinner with friends a couple of nights, beautiful weather. We need to do that more often.

Busy May

2010-05-24T10:10:00.006-06:00

Me, EVT and Carolyn just around the corner from the Lunt-Fontaine Theatre where Carolyn and I saw THE ADDAMS FAMILY musical. Eric and Brian, two USU grads living in New York City, met us after the show to catch up.

Brian (of BriTunes fame, among others) with me and Carolyn.

The trip East was just great. Wonderful times spent with family in St. Louis and Connecticut and fun, fun times in NYC visiting old friends and students.

We saw two shows, THE ADDAMS FAMILY musical and SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. We went to dinner with friends the other nights so we had two evenings to see shows. I picked these two shows because both were Broadway productions and I had friends in both. We saw SONDHEIM first, and enjoyed it. It's a review of his body of work with video interviews with Sondheim, some current for this production and some clips from interviews throughout his career. He reflected on his influences and his family life growing up and then through his career and the songs presented between clips reflected how those times and experiences influenced the writing of the songs. Sondheim fans, and I'm one, would love it. There were three stars and a 'chorus' of five, who also all had solos. Euan Morton, who visited USU for a workshop and who I worked with at Sundance, was the friend in this production. Vanessa Williams, Barbara Cook and Tom Wopat were the star performers. Vanessa Williams was very good, certainly with the vampish sex-bomb things she's known for, Barbara Cook was very good as the older company member. She sang songs usually give to some younger, even middle-aged actors and brought a new insight which I enjoyed. I could have done without Tom Wopat. He wasn't anywhere near up to the level of the rest. (Tom Wopat gained his fame as one of the brothers on THE DUKES OF HAZZARD tv show in the 70s and has been doing musical theatre of late.) This was done at Studio 54, now Roundabout Theatre Company, a very pretty, old proscenium theatre that sits I would guess around 1500. I have no idea how they made it into a disco in the 70s.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY was, basically, a very dumb show with a very dumb plot and very forgettable, simple songs. It stuns me even now to think that this was the best they could come up with. But the design was very fun and the cast was outstanding, mostly because of Nathan Lane as Gomez Addams. All the characters had terrible lines and dialogue but he made every single one of his hysterical. We laughed all the way through it. This was at a big theatre, The Lunt-Fontaine, that seats probably over 3000. So the stage was pretty big and the set was very fun. Bebe Neuwirth played Morticia and an old acting buddy from my St. Louis days in the 80s, Kevin Chamberlin, played Uncle Fester - and he's nominated for a Tony for his performance. Looking around I noticed that the people in the theatre were mostly my age and older. Clearly all had warm childhood memories of the old tv show, which this resembles more closely than the 90s films (which I love, by the way). I could go on with more specifics, but basically I can't see this show going anywhere else without Nathan Lane in the lead. Nobody else can pull off the lines the way he did. And he was right with it the whole time, staying true to the part of Gomez and not schlepping it up. I appreciated that. Bebe Neuwirth wasn't very good, sadly, but part of the problem is her role is terribly underwritten. She can't sing (she sounds like Kathryn Hepburn near the end of her life, with an almost octave-wide, slow vibrato that was just embarrassing). Applause to the musical numbers in the first act were enthusiastic, but only polite in the second act. The second act suffers from having to resolve all the goofy sit-com stuff they set up in the first act. But, in the end, it was fun to see Nathan Lane perform and we left with a real appreciation for just how good he is. His ability to make this bad show a lot of fun is amazing all in itself.

After we saw ADDAMS we met up with EVT and Brian outside the theatre and went around the corner to a small place to catch up. Both don't look any different (as those that know them can tell from the pictures above) and both are happy and thriving. So fun to see them.

A great trip. So much fun that it makes us itchy to do it again before too long.

We got home a week ago and then I moved Tuck to Denver (one day there, one day back) and then worked on the house for a day before we hosted 6 relatives from Carolyn's side for a family reunion and memorial. That kept us hopping all weekend, but it was fun from start to finish. Great family. I'm exhausted.

A report very soon on the latest career move...

But first - a blast from the past with Eric and Brian...

NYC

2010-05-07T19:08:00.002-06:00

Carolyn and I are heading to New York City tomorrow (well, first a stop in St. Louis and then a couple days with my brother and his family in Connecticut, but THEN New York). We'll be seeing ADDAMS FAMILY the musical and SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. Maybe something else as the whim hits us. I know the reviews for Addams Family have been bad but I know two people in the cast and it will probably be the only time I'll ever get to see Nathan Lane in a musical, so I'm still excited. Plus, the readers reviews in the NY Times are better than the reviews have been. I also know Euan Morton in SONDHEIM - I met him at Sundance one of my summers there and he came and did a workshop at school.

So I'll report when I return. Hopefully we'll meet up with Eric, Brian and Amy as well as some other NY friends. Pictures, too.

And I'll also tell ya'll about the latest career plans. Big changes...

you're gonna just love this...

2010-04-08T09:59:00.001-06:00

Some of you may know my penchant for toys, especially the unique, old and mechanical. But I'm drawn to all kinds of toy-ish stuff. When I lived in Kansas City there was a museum near where I lived that was full of toys and miniatures. The Miniature Museum. I hope it's still there.

But THIS was profiled in today's New York Times. The Call Of The Small. Take a look at all the pictures and then realize - they're all in miniature! The creator of these dollhouse rooms enjoys interior design, something she couldn't afford in a full-sized world.

Bright spot on a dull Thursday. Enjoy.

happy/sad day

2010-03-24T07:27:00.003-06:00

Our boys moved out this morning. Both Jeff and Tucker are moving to Denver. Jeff to be with his girlfriend and start a new life there and Tucker to finish his undergrad at UC - Denver and start HIS new life there. Both are excited beyond words. We're excited for them.

But as I walked down the stairs to the basement, which has been 'their' place for the past 12 years, after they drove off with their rental moving truck, I got a bit choked up. I had a bunch of flashbacks. I remember walking down those same stairs 16 years ago, when the basement was unfinished, and they invited me to play in the fort they built of out folding chairs, blankets and boxes. It was really elaborate and they were so proud of it. We played for a couple of hours in that thing. And then I walked back to their bedrooms downstairs... The last time those two rooms were this empty is when we moved them both in 12 years ago, after the basement was finished. I could see them in my mind's eye as they were then - Jeff was 12, Tuck was 8 - and how they were excited for this new moving adventure they were heading into at that time.

Man, the time just flew by.

I've been told by others who's kids have moved out that this feeling will pass quickly and I'm sure it will. It's a great positive for the boys and of course they're excited as they should be. New adventures for them. They've been chomping at the bit to get to the next stage of their lives.

And this is the first time for Carolyn and me that we're a childless couple. Most people start out that way. We've just arrived there. The boys have always been a part of our relationship, being 3 and 7 when I first showed up on the scene. I mean, of course we're not childless but we're no longer the boys' primary providers. They're independent now. So a new stage starts for Carolyn and me as well.

It's positive all the way around, of course. I'm sure this sadness will be very short. I'm going to miss them like mad, though.

Ah, life...

couple of videos...

2010-03-05T07:47:00.001-07:00

We open OUR TOWN next week. Here's a short CBS Sunday Morning TV show report on the play itself (not our production) that was done recently. We're one of the 4000...

And here's the very end of the production of SWEENEY TODD I directed last October...

top ten list

2010-01-20T18:14:00.002-07:00

I've always felt I have a couple of very witty and clever step-sons. We tripped across an old assignment that the younger step-son did in high school, when he was 15 or 16. The assignment in the creative writing class was to write a top-ten list like David Letterman's. His title was something like... THE TOP TEN REASONS ALCOHOL WAS INTEGRAL TO THE FOUNDING OF THE UNITED STATES.

10. Sober passersby could slip in beneficial ideas while being virtually unnoticed
9. The more you drink, the more you vote.
8. Rum proves the best inspiration for designing those stupid wigs.
7. One would only wear those wigs under those conditions.
6. If ideas clashed, they could be easily settled by playing a drinking game.
5. Inebriation often results in love and acceptance.
4. Free peanuts promote patriotism.
3. Drunken rants often led to crucial ideas still recognized today.
2. Everyone knows that bartenders are masterminds.
1. Heavy drinking resulted in fancier signatures.

Funny guy.

weekend travel

2010-01-13T08:33:00.002-07:00

I'm heading to St. Louis this weekend to visit my dad and my brothers and their families. I'll also catch up with some life-long friends as well as a reunion of my undergraduate classmates from St. Louis University. I graduated in 1983 (27 years ago this May! Time does fly.) and my friends haven't changed a bit. I saw most of them last March and we had such a great time that we're gathering again on Saturday. Note to recent and not-so-recent grads - it's never too late to renew old friendships, especially old school pals.

The only weird thing is that I'm going in January, the coldest time in St. Louis and also at a time when they are experiencing record cold spells. Cold in St. Louis is 10-times colder that cold in Utah. There's wind and humidity there. I much prefer visiting at warmer times of the year but any visit is worth it.

What's better than a cheeseball?...

2010-01-05T16:59:00.003-07:00

... a cheeseball shaped like a Snowman! (Carolyn's silly, witty charm strikes again.)

a blog with style...

2010-01-03T09:57:00.004-07:00

Now, here's a blog I discovered (too late) that puts most other blogs to shame, style-wise...

...and who knew George Washington had a dog named Sweet Lips??

good riddance 2009

2009-12-31T08:39:00.002-07:00

I think 2009 was ugly for just about everyone. Glad to see it end.

The holidays were quiet, more or less. The boys took off to spend the holiday in Denver about a week before Christmas so the house was absent the comings and goings of young men and their many friends at all hours. Oddly, I kind of missed it. Our place is the gathering spot for many of of our two boys' friends (when they're home). Don't miss the band practice in the basement, though. They're good, but they're loud. To their credit, when they do practice they try to do it when we're not around. But that ends now as Jeff moves out and to Denver. Tucker moves there after Spring semester. Big changes. (and I'll probably end up missing band practice, too.)

We had some fun, cozy evenings with friends. We hadn't seen them as much of late so there was a lot of catching up to do which made the evenings very pleasant and light. Lots of laughs. The new year starts with my visiting St. Louis for a quick holiday weekend and seeing family and old friends. That's always a good time. Although why I'm going in January... I have a small role in Pioneer's OUR TOWN, so that will be fun and the extra money is certainly welcome. Rehearses in Feb and plays in March. I'll direct one piece in Plan B Theatre's annual SLAM/BANNED event. This is a 24-hour play festival where the playwrights get a cast, a title, a simple set (shared by all six short plays) and a theme at 8 on a Friday night, turn in an original 10-minute play by 8 the next morning, actors learn the parts as directors direct and all original pieces are performed at 8 on Saturday night for a sold-out audience. Always a great time. I've acted a few times and written a piece once. This is my first time directing. The 'BANNED' part is the theme - they try to focus on issues that have been censored.

On a sadder note, Carolyn's mom died very early in the day on Christmas Eve. She was 83 and had suffered from dementia for about 6 years, none of which was at all easy but the last 3 were pure hell for her. No need to go into details but no one should have to live like that. So it's a blessing and a relief that her suffering is over. But at the same time, as a friend said, it's Carolyn's mom, the only one she'll ever have. We're relieved that her pain has ended but saddened by the reality of it all.

(change of subject)

So - charging off into 2010!

Here's wishing a great 2010 for all of you out there.

I'm a firm believer that stuff doesn't land in your lap. If you want change, set up the circumstances for that change to be possible. I'm feeling I've done that over the long haul and am excited at the possibility of new things this year. Wish me luck as I wish it for all of you.

Happy Holidays, friends

2009-12-22T09:36:00.003-07:00

We did our annual Santa Pub Crawl in Salt Lake City. About 150 this year, a good turnout. Carolyn met the Abominable Snowman outside one of the stops.

Jesse's not all that happy with the little Santa hat Tucker put on her. She had it off in 15 seconds.

Dancing at the last stop, The Green Pig, in Salt Lake City.

A quiet Christmas this year. Both boys are in Denver for the holidays and we're not going anywhere. Quiet and easy-going. Making plans for 2010 and I've got my hopes up.

Best to you and your loved ones and families and I'm glad we're friends.

Jeff graduates

2009-12-12T14:29:00.003-07:00

Tucker, 19, and a junior at the University of Utah. He's 'sporting' the tattoo he got out of a 50-cent vending machine at a local Mexican restaurant. It's one of those press-on-with-water types.

Jeff and a proud mama after the ceremony.

on his way to pick up his diploma. Jeff moves on to Denver in a few weeks to start the next phase of his life. Guess we'll be visiting Denver a lot. Looking forward to it.

the neat freak holiday present

2009-12-04T07:44:00.001-07:00

Nice picture

2009-11-20T08:33:00.002-07:00

It's connected to a sad story (a 32% hike in tuition for California public universities) but I really like the picture and the way the 'save the humanities' sign is so prominent. It was a peaceful protest, by the way.

Poor California. We're all hurting but they've been devastated by the recession. They have a state government that needs a super-majority to change the laws and that never happens and laws in place that make it hum when things are going well and crash when they aren't. That's simplifying, of course, but pretty much is the problem. When things are going good, California is awash in money. The tax system is set up that way. But they don't have a plan to fix things when the economy goes south. Guess they better figure it out fast.

SWEENEY update...

2009-10-24T04:22:00.002-06:00

No pictures yet. Been down with a nasty, nasty cold. Not quite the flu, but close to it.

Two nights down and both near sell-outs in the Morgan. This is a title that was a guarantee sell. So far so good.

The show is strong. Very powerful voices, with lots of music dept. students involved and a number of other majors showing up to join in. Over 120 auditioned (15+ hours , including callbacks). 40 in the cast.

One very good sign - standing in the back of the house I have yet to see the tell-tale glow of students texting on their cell phones. I've fought to not have students from the giant, useless Creative Arts classes forced to attend our productions because they don't want to be there. The entire theatre would glow green from all the students ignoring the shows and playing on their cell phones. Not for this show. None of the Creative Arts students are required to see it so the ones here want to be there. They're actually putting them away and not toying with them whatsoever. It's the new measure for a good university production.

SWEENEY TODD opens tonight

2009-10-22T15:37:00.002-06:00

No worries, this is a very good production. All around.

I'll post some pictures soon.

I am pretty speechless...

2009-10-01T10:58:00.002-06:00

This guy must make just about every musician out there want to throw in the towel...

BLUE DOOR

2009-09-27T18:23:00.004-06:00

Most of you who visit this site know that I've worked to receive funding for visiting artists and resident companies for the last nine years. The most recent guests left today, after a few short days and a performance of an new piece that was and is nothing short of beyond wonderful.

I first saw BLUE DOOR at the Sundance Theatre Lab in the summer of 2006. The play is by Tanya Barfield, about a 50-something African-American mathematics professor who has reached a point in his life where he is receding from the world, his family and his wife. He simply doesn't want to face up to the past his family and legacy means and to how it defines a large part of him in the present. When his wife decides she's had enough, she decides to leave and he has a night of insomnia and the memories of past male relatives hold conversations, arguments and tell past stories that Lewis, the math prof, has buried for years. He talks with his late brother, his late grandfather and his late great-grandfather (a slave) and also re-enacts moments he experienced with his father.

It's a stunning piece of work about what it is to struggle against your heritage and what you may sacrifice if you do so. The acting was superb and the playwright was here as well. We had a day of Q & A and the performance on Saturday.

The actors were Hubert Point-du Jour, a recent graduate of NYU's undergrad conservatory program and an absolutely spectacular talent. He landed the role of playing Lewis's relatives right out of school, his very first job, and it played at Seattle Rep (after premiering with a different cast at South Coast Rep). Lewis was played here by Joseph C. Phillips, best known as playing the husband of Lisa Bonet on THE COSBY SHOW. He's every bit as fine an actor (a graduate of NYU's grad acting program) and watching these two work back and forth was a master class in itself.

And, as I wrote, Tanya Barfield (the playwright of BLUE DOOR, a Julliard-trained playwright and now on Julliard's faculty) was here as well. When I was at Sundance with her, and saw the play for the first time at the end of the workshop, she was praised by the plays then-director, Marion McClinton, as picking up the torch for the dying August Wilson. At that time, August Wilson was dying of cancer and McClinton was one of his best friends, having directed the premieres of Wilson's final 4 plays of the 10-play cycle.

The play was performed, reading-style, in the new performance hall and, thanks to some friends in the community, a decent-sized audience attended. Decent also considering that the Homecoming football game was that night. It was the only night available for the three guests to visit and the visit had to happen before the second week in October. So, no choice. Still, I was, once again, disappointed in the very poor turn-out from the theatre majors and minors. I just don't get it. As many of you have written back to me, these visits by the professionals were some of the most memorable learning experiences you had with USU theatre. I try to impress the students about your experiences but I still struggle to get 15% to even show up for these things.

Well, it's also my last time doing it. The responsibility has been passed on to Adrianne for a few reasons, not the least of which are my tremendous disagreements with the interim department head. That, and my looking for a new position. I intend to promote and run a similar program where ever I end up.

Another neat thing: tomorrow and Tuesday I participate in a workshop run by Moises Kaufmann's Tectonic Theatre Company in Salt Lake, through the U of U. Kaufmann won't be there (too bad, I know him from Sundance) but one of the company members will run the workshop and introduce the participants to their 'capture' method of writing plays. I'll report soon after it finishes.

And thanks to Annette and Amanda for the kind words regarding the finished deck. Yes, Amanda, Carolyn and I have enjoyed the deck for the past two years at it crumbled under our feet. We weren't going to let that stop us from sitting outside on beautiful evenings (and there are a lot of them here, as you know). We'll keep it up with the new stuff. And my apologies to Annette, but I'll have to turn down the offer to help build a new deck at your place, whenever it starts to happen for you. If I never see another hammer or power screw-gun again... :)

Whew! The Deck is Done!!

2009-09-26T13:08:00.003-06:00

Took about 4 full weekends but it's finally finished. Messed up some of the flowers around the edges pulling off the old bad boards and putting on the new ones. Glad it's over but wished I didn't have to do it in the first place. I guess all repairs are like that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this stuff lasts as long as it's supposed to (25 years). The old ones fell apart in less than one year. Not that we'll be here that long...

Jess pretty much watched me/hung out with me the entire time. She's almost 14 now and sticks close by no matter where I go.

what's new?

2009-09-15T20:17:00.002-06:00

Not much, really. It's getting harder to post on this thing because everything is so routine at the moment.

I've got a few auditions coming up in Salt Lake for some theatre. Nothing screams out at me though. I hope to get cast in this or that but what I REALLY want to do is something new and powerful. Not a lot of 'old and powerful' anymore.

SWEENEY's going very well, very fine cast. Design looks good. Should be a fine production. Still 5 or more weeks away so it's too soon to really say much. Fun to do, though.

I'm getting my political jollies off on Facebook, posting stuff I trip across and pissing off the radical right while getting praise from the lefties. Not my intention, really. I find stuff that I think says something and throw it up and see if it sticks. People can agree or not, that's the fun of it. It usually turns into a decent dialogue, which is the point. Yay, dialogue! Now and then it falls into anger. Guess that's natural. Hope no one is offended as, again, that's not the point. I think it's also good to have somewhat of a pulse on what people are thinking. Lots of comments have shown me stuff that I otherwise wouldn't have seen/read/heard/understood. So it's all good, overall.

Other than that, a busy time. And fall is just around the corner. A lot of the aspen trees at the tops of the mountains are turning yellow. I always like that part of living out here.

Also, I'm just about done with the deck. This weekend should be it. That'll be nice to have behind me as well.

joining The Beatles bandwagon...

2009-09-10T07:11:00.001-06:00

What the hell - it seems like a celebration, so enjoy...

Audition marathon

2009-08-31T12:58:00.004-06:00

Auditions were held Friday and Saturday for SWEENEY TODD, performing late October in the Morgan at USU. Over 120 people signed up, about 105 showed up, and there was plenty of depth. Should be a good production from the wealth of talent present. Callbacks are tomorrow so no one really has been notified about casting yet.

The auditions on Friday lasted about 5 hours and the Saturday auditions lasted about 8 hours. Callbacks will take at least 2, maybe three. But the time went by very fast. Lots of students from outside in addition to the Theatre and Music students.

We start rehearsals on Sept 8 and open Oct 22, running two weekends. Student set design and student prop design. Full orchestra. Stay tuned.

(interim head wanted to cancel it. Glad we were able to change that. Politics has no place in theatre.)

the red-shirt curse

2009-08-08T09:52:00.002-06:00

empty nest

2009-08-07T09:30:00.004-06:00

The swallows have all left the nest. This picture was taken about a day before they all took off. There was so little room in that nest that I figure they just pushed each other out. One of the parent swallows would hover near the nest, almost daring them to jump out of the nest and take off. I was actually watching when the first one did take off and I was amazed at how well the bird flew that very first time. By the middle afternoon, all had taken off but one but later that night they were all back. The next day all four were gone. Hopefully we'll see another set back next year.

The only other news is that we turned in our gas-hog Isusu Rodeo for a new car through the Cash-For-Clunkers program. The Rodeo was 16 years old but only had 117,000 miles on it. Still, it kept having problems (expensive ones) and got about 15 miles to the gallon. Carolyn picked out a new Hyundai Sonata and is very pleased. It'll be weird having a car payment (haven't had one for a while and never had one this hefty) but we still think it was the right thing to do. We got a car that would normally be beyond our price range. In the end the rebates and the cash for clunker program knocked about $7000 off the cost of the car. Oh, and it's made in a plant in Montgomery, Alabama so it's at least assembled in the U.S. I'm not sure there are any cars made 100% here any more.

Enjoy August, everyone.

proud landlords...

2009-08-01T09:26:00.002-06:00

We have a family of swallows by our front window. The nest was made about 6 years ago and we had a family there that year. We never got rid of the mud-and-straw nest, hoping that the birds would return but they haven't until this year. Looking up the birds online we learned that it's either the same original bird couple or one of their offspring as these birds migrate and come back to their past nest. We figure it has to be one or the other because this nest is so tucked away and hidden.

It's been fun watching them grow. There were originally 5 chicks but one either fell out of the little nest or was pushed out. We found that one on the front porch one morning, only about a week old and no longer alive. The other four are now pretty big and we're guessing they'll be flying and gone some time this week.

The little chics are actually better looking now than at first when they looked like big, ugly mouths and nothing else. They have most of their feathers, I think, and are starting to flap around in the nest. The mom and dad (we've dubbed them Lucy and Desi because of all the noise they make) work constantly to feed them and there's actually a third adult swallow that's been helping out. We can't find any info on how common that might be or if the third bird is an offspring of the mated couple.

We learned the first time six years ago to put a piece of cardboard under the nest to catch all the droppings. The output of these four little birds is pretty amazing.

Picture of Carolyn working in the backyard with Jesse 'on guard.' She shadows us no matter where we are, inside or out.

and some final Chile pics...

2009-07-23T10:28:00.010-06:00

stray dogs in a city park.

One thing that was very prevalent were all the stray dogs in Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. They were everywhere. At first it was disconcerting because they were all sizes and you wondered if any were mean and of the mess they must make. But the people take care of all of them, clean up after them and feed them by leaving dog food out in the street for them. There were even little shops in the towns that sold only pet food and many people bought the food to put out on the streets for the strays. And they were never mean or barky. They just where. If you click on the picture above, you can see a stray sitting in the middle of the street.

Tuck and Carolyn on the steps of the Catholic University in Valparaiso, where Tuck took his Spanish classes, set up through the University of Utah.

A beach sculpture in Vina del Mar, a tribute to Michael Jackson. He was as big there as anywhere, I suppose, but it wasn't his music you heard in the bars. Much more contemporary stuff.

A little more US influence. A liquor store called The Godfather.

Tuck and some of his classmates found a little coffee shop in Vina del Mar (where he lived, he commuted 10-15 miles to Valparaiso for classes). This is the family that owns it, a mother and her daughter and son. Tuck brought Carolyn and me by on our last day in Vina del Mar and they fawned over him like he was one of theirs. This experience has really opened Tucker up, much more even than Semester At Sea a year-and-a-half ago (has it been that long already?). Tuck really grew by setting down at least a few roots and getting to know locals, something that wasn't possible on the round-the-world ship trip, where we'd only stay 5 or 6 days in each country and ran around like mad. Semester At Sea gave him the travel bug, though. He already has plans to do something along the same lines next summer.

And his brother Jeff is in Cancun, Mexico right now working as a bartender on a beach while he's also doing some research for water aquafiers in the region. He and his girlfriend are really enjoying an amazing summer. He wrote to us yesterday how they and a few others were on the beach protecting sea turtles as they were coming in to lay eggs on the beach (and bury them).

Picture above is Tucker talking with his host, Lena. Tuck took intensive Spanish classes through his program at the University of Utah, where he attends. He was in class 6 hours a day, five days a week and worked like a dog. All the work showed. He became extremely fluent.

Chile was never on my radar to visit until Tucker said he wanted to do this. Carolyn and I chipped in very little. Tucker saved up for the program with the two jobs he works in Salt Lake (while going to school) plus he applied for and received a scholarship which helped defray about 1/3 of the cost. Carolyn and I pretty much only shared the flight cost with him. So it was basically his doing. Carolyn suggested we cash in our frequent flyer miles to visit since we'd probably never again have a chance to go to Chile. Glad we did.

This is a picture of a few completos, the most popular restaurant food in Chile. It's the equivalent to a fast-food hamburger here. They're basically a hotdog on a bun smothered in guacamole and tons of mayonnaise. Man, but do they love their mayo in Chile. And, of course, you have to have it with a beer.

This is a clumsy shot from my chair in a little cafe we were in in Valparaiso. I really loved this place. It had jazz music records playing from a turntable, something you don't hear that much anymore.

A few people heard we were going to Chile and gave us some hints as to what to see and do. Like I said, we went on the cheap so we couldn't do a lot of things suggested. For example, it was winter and we could have skied in the Andes Mountains. Too expensive. In fact, Chile is not a cheap place to go even if you try to go cheap. We stayed in hostels and the cheapest we could find was $80 a night for all three of us. The others were over $140. If the three of us had a meal that wasn't a completo or some other cheap offering, the bill typically ran to $60 for all of us. The days of cheap travel, at least in this part of the country, are long gone.

Each hostel we stayed in had a tv and the majority of the stuff was American cable. Lots of drech. What they must think of us...

This is the seafood concoction that Carolyn ordered that is good for hangovers. She said it was delicious.

very old electric buses work some of the streets in Valparaiso.

Old guys playing cards in a reserved area of a city square park in Valparaiso.

I didn't take any pictures of Santiago because, frankly, I'm not so sure you could discern it from any other major modern city. It did not stand apart for me. Some cities do, like many in Europe and places like New York and San Francisco. Not Santiago. So I stopped carrying my camera, even though I enjoyed exploring the place. There just wasn't anything that caught my eye as exceptional or evocative. We enjoyed Santiago (and their metro is amazing), and walked quite a bit to explore and came away with a great appreciation of a very beautiful, clean, fairly well-to-do, giant city. But, oddly, there was nothing that said 'Chile' there.

I mentioned in my first Chile post about the coup in 1973 that brought Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile. Sadly, this was largely successful due to the involvement of the US CIA. You can read a wikipedia account of Pinochet here.

Pinochet was responsible for untold murders and political assassinations. We bought a small knitted scene portraying women harvesting oranges in a village orchard. The explanation that came with the artwork, called an Arpillera, states: 'The first arpilleras appeared very soon after the military coup of 1973, when Chile lost its longstanding democracy and were sewn by the mothers, wives and sisters of the 'disappeared' people during the dictatorship. In these arpilleras, they depicted the search for their loved ones as well as the other terrible ordeals of that time. These events have remained a recurring theme until today, reminding us that arpilleras have never been merely decorative works; each one is a piece of the lives of our people.'

Here's a picture of the one we bought...

And, finally, here's a picture of the small sculpture I bought (on the left) made by a local artist in Valparaiso of a typical building in the artists' section of that city. He had a number of sculptures, from these single dwellings, to whole street scenes that were huge. But it really captures the look of the places. Next to the sculpture is a 9x7 picture of Jeff and Tuck from the Semester At Sea trip in Fall of 2007.

More Chile pics...

2009-07-20T09:06:00.005-06:00

graffiti in Valparaiso's artist district

more graffiti in the artists' district. It was everywhere and all of it was fascinating. Since the buildings themselves were so colorful the graffiti seemed to fit right in.

There were a few parks we came across in Valparaiso and this was one of them. They rented little push-cars for the kids, all of them a bit different. This one is steered by the mother pushing behind. This park also had a lot of older men sitting at reserved tables playing cards.

a cemetery in Vina del Mar. It was near the hostel where we stayed. Fascinating place.

another view in the cemetery

typical streets in the hilly artists' section of Valparaiso

a view in the 'downtown' area of Valparaiso, near the water.

Homes in the artists' section of Valparaiso. The siding is all corrugated metal. Probably one reason why they paint it so many different colors.

a market near where Tucker went to classes. Upstairs were a number of seafood restaurants where he had many meals and we had lunch one day. Carolyn ordered a seafood dish called La Paila Marina which had tons of different things in it in a large bowl filled with broth. For days after, when Carolyn told people we met it was the tastiest dish she had tried, everyone said it was a great cure for a hangover. Everyone.

Chileans stay out late and start their days late. Coming home at 4 am is typical. They drink a lot but never get smashed. I never saw anyone who was obnoxious, never saw any trouble from anyone, we were always treated politely and with respect and always fairly. More than a few time I was about to pay too much for a cab or a purchase (having a hard time converting the currency) and vendors would always help me and refuse to be paid too much.

We were told that there were pickpockets in Santiago and to be careful. We were on the metro one day (state of the art, beautiful, amazingly efficient, smooth and quiet. It ran on tires rather than rails - I should have taken a picture). I had tucked my wallet in a zippered inner pocket of the rain jacket I was wearing. The train was very crowded, standing room only, and Tucker motioned for me to move because a guy was looking to pickpocket me. I looked up past Tucker (the pickpocket was behind me) and noticed a few people looking at the pickpocket and one man pulled out a walkie-talkie. He was clearly a plainclothes policeman hired by the Metro. We came to a stop and the pickpocket rushed out with this guy on his tail. My pockets had nothing in them anyway so I was a poor mark but I looked VERY american so I guess that was why the pickpocket was trying to rob me.

A typically incredibly steep staircase in Valparaiso.

Back from Chile

2009-07-19T15:54:00.002-06:00

A street in Valparaiso

We got back from our short trip to Chile today. Well worth it. We only saw one small part of it (Valparaiso, Vina del Mar and Santiago) but what we did see was very impressive. It hurts to remember that the US was largely responsible for the bloody coup back in '74. Don't even want to think about it. Chileans have every right to hate Americans for that but they don't seem to.

Tucker didn't want to come back after his two short months. His Spanish-speaking skills were incredibly impressive. He was our interpreter with everyone and he never tripped. He slid easily between Spanish and English the whole time and was too modest to realize just how good he got at it.

Tuck had a wonderful 'mama' to stay with. Most students stay with families but Tucker was picked to stay with a woman near 70 who lived on her own named Lena. She became his second 'mom' and it was cute as hell to see them interact. Tuck's a bit shy and Lena is a bit forceful so their conversations and her 'teaching moments' (which she took very seriously) were funny and touching at the same time.

'downtown' Valparaiso

Sunset in Vina del Mar

The houses on the hills rising from the Pacific Ocean in Valparaiso all look like this. We spent most of our time just exploring these streets, after taking a 'funicular' up the hill. A funicular is a cable car at an extreme angle that hauls you up and down the steepest areas. Valparaiso has twelve of them and they're sort of a tourist attraction now. All of them are near 100 years old.

Carolyn and Tucker on the beach at Vina del Mar

The weather was great - cool but never cold. Jacket weather. It was supposed to be the rainy season but we were never rained on. We stayed in hostels and hotels, explored the areas on foot, took the Metro subway in Santiago to explore downtown Santiago from the uptown hotel we were in, and shopped for trinkets, dropped into bars and cafes and just tried to get a feel for the place. We had a ball. The food is nothing to scream about but it always goes well with beer or wine. They also serve a Chilean drink called a pisco sour. It's like a margarita only a bit sweeter, not as tart.

I'll throw some more pictures up tomorrow. One of the things Valparaiso is known for other than funiculars is the fancy artist-created graffiti. I'll throw some of those up in the next post.

Now for a bath and bed.

Off to Chile

2009-07-09T12:41:00.003-06:00

Yep, you read that right. Carolyn and I take off tomorrow for Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile for a week. Our youngest, Tucker, has been taking an intensive Spanish class there for 8 weeks or so and we've cashed our frequent flyer miles to spend a week with him there once he's done. Hopefully his spanish will be good enough that he can translate for us.

Should be fun and I'll post pictures when we get back in about 10 days.

July 4th fun

2009-07-08T08:41:00.003-06:00

In front of friend's house watching the Logan Cruise-In (Carolyn on the left and me swillin' beer, natch).

Every 4th of July weekend Logan hosts a classic car/hot-rod show at the fairgrounds. It's pretty big for one of those. They even had 70s band Three Dog Night in concert this year (38 Special was the band last year, so you can see the crowd their trying to attract). On the last day of the Cruise-In the participants 'drag Main Street.' We have some friends in a very pretty Victorian house on Center Street that host a backyard party that evening where we go out front to the street to watch the cars go by (the enter on Center Street before going to Main so they all pass this house once) and then we head to the backyard again for food and drink and live music. It's a great 4th of July tradition.

Hope you all had fun last weekend.

Fun in 'Saint Jarge'

2009-07-02T11:16:00.003-06:00

Zion National Park

Zion National Park

Three good, old friends. Kevin (LA tv and movie actor), Monica (Equity production stage manager), and me holding camera at arm's length.

A friend of mine that I've known since grade school is the production stage manager at Tuacahn Theatre in Saint George, Utah. I went down there for a couple of days this past week to visit with her and another friend from our college days who also came in from LA to visit. We had a blast, staying up until 6 am each day! Of course, we never made it back to her apartment until after midnight because the Tuacahn shows don't even start until 8:30 due to the heat. Outdoor theatre, you see.

We saw ANNIE and FOOTLOOSE. I'm no great fan of the musical ANNIE. I saw it years ago on its first equity national tour and I enjoyed it, especially the children who were astounding on that tour. But the Tuacahn show was rather weak and the children, mostly untrained locals, were overall full of spirit but lacking skills both musically and dance-wise. I guess this is why ANNIE is a show that a lot of community theaters put on - it's easy to do if you can get the sets and costumes piled up. The choreography on ANNIE was beyond simple and I didn't look forward to seeing FOOTLOOSE the next night.

I was happily surprised. I had never seen the musical and have never seen the movie so the whole thing was new to me. It's a simple, even stupid, story-line but most musicals really are. The fun of the production and shows are the quality of the performances and FOOTLOOSE at Tuacahn had a great cast of extraordinary young dancer/singers. Some of the choreography knocked my socks off and some of it had me scratching my head but it was a really A-grade production over-all. I think the rest of the audience (on both nights, actually) agreed with me. ANNIE got polite applause at the end, FOOTLOOSE a well-deserved standing ovation. Standing ovations are too easily earned in Utah (people seem to stand up and clap if you scratch your ass here) so their NOT standing said something about ANNIE.

The theater seats 2000 and there were about 1200 each night. We were told these two nights were the lowest attendance they've had all summer. I'm guessing it was because of the run-up to the 4th of July weekend, with people having other plans that week.

Tuacahn is struggling to become truly professional. Right now they're a very good community theatre company (only 8 guest Equity contracts for the entire company) and with a little more effort they could move on to a really fine professional company but it will take a lot of focus and commitment. They'll be doing AIDA starting in late August through October.

My friends and I had a blast catching up otherwise. We talked and laughed all day each day and, like I said, late into the night. And we even managed to get to Zion National Park for a short while on Tuesday (pictured above).

We seem to revolve around pop icons...

2009-06-25T18:14:00.002-06:00

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett both died today and you would think a war was lost. There is nothing else on the news. I went to Facebook and that's all people are posting about.

It saddens me but not in the way you may think. There are two major wars the US is involved in going on right now, the green revolution in Iran who's citizens are fighting for their democratic future, problems of genocide in east Africa, unemployment world-wide, nuclear games being played by North Korea - but the only thing to get Americans moved is the death of a controversial pop singer and a model turned mediocre actress turned cancer educator.

Still, they both did die too young. And I was aware of both as a teenager and young man. There was no way you couldn't be aware of them. I never owned Farrah's famous poster (my parents would have never allowed such 'pornography' so I never even entertained the possibility of hanging one up) and I never owned a single Michael Jackson album but he was constantly on the radio and the television. I remember those days (the 70s and 80s) very warmly.

Michael and his brothers on Ed Sullivan in 1970. They're lip-sincing but still...

And Farrah with football star Joe Namath in a Noxema shaving cream commercial...

Father's Day is this Sunday

2009-06-17T09:51:00.003-06:00

As a public service, here is a list of 10 quotes on fathers by Shakespeare.

It is a wise father that knows his own child. Merchant of Venice: II, ii
Thou hast a careful father, child. Romeo and Juliet: III, v
You have a father able to maintain you. King Henry VI, part III: III, iii
To you your father should be as a god. A Midsummer Night's Dream: I, i
Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face. All's Well that Ends Well: I, ii
The world esteems thy father honorable. As You Like It: I.ii
He is thrice a villain that says such a father begot villains. As You Like It: I.i
For your father's remembrance, be at accord. As You Like It: I.i
Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. As You Like It: I.iii
Now attest that those whom you called fathers did beget you. Henry V: III.i

Not the most sentimental, perhaps but, hey, it comes across as literate. Feel free to use 'em.

ever more rain...

2009-06-11T08:20:00.003-06:00

If you click on the picture above, it'll show up in a new window much larger and you can get a better view of the Great Horned Owl that took shelter in the spruce tree in our neighbor's yard during a hail storm last week. He's about two feet tall sitting on that branch with a five foot wingspan (according to our birdwatcher's book - first time we had to look up this guy).

It's been raining here in northern Utah for 10 straight days and another week is forecast. The news last night said that Utah as a whole is already at 150% of average rainfall for the month of June and that was approximated on the 8th of June. Here in Smithfield we've been getting twice what the rest of the state has been getting. Very rare. The hailstorm wiped out most of our flowers and garden plants and it's been so wet that what wasn't damaged by the hail is drowning. Houses down the hill from us have flooded. Nobody has flood insurance, of course, because nobody saw this coming. Part of the problems were caused by the run-off from the new neighborhoods above us.

And it's cold.

Weird.

Pride Fest fun

2009-06-08T09:42:00.001-06:00

'Twas a little rainy at the start but the sun showed up and the day was great. The picture above is me (on the right) and Carolyn (on the left) holding the banner for the USU Allies organization at the Salt Lake City Pride Festival Parade this past Sunday (6/7). Big turn-out, as usual, and lots of friends to greet and wave to. A great cause and a great time.

Son #1 has his first gig...

2009-06-03T13:35:00.003-06:00

Our oldest, Jeff, and his band, Nadia Pero, have their first paying job at a bar in Salt Lake this Friday. Jeff's the one on the left in the poster above. I really wanted to go but we have guests from out of town that night. He has another job in a couple of weeks at Liquid Joe's, also in Salt Lake so we'll make it to that one.

Hard to peg his music. It's jazz influenced (think Sting), fusion hard rock. Very original. Well, yes, VERY original - all of their music is their own. Only three members, Jeff on lead guitar and a drummer and a bass player.

I'll be interested to see what an over-21 crowd thinks of his music. Up till now, it's been under 21.

About every 17 years or so...

2009-05-29T15:25:00.004-06:00

Tonight is Jay Leno's last night on The Tonight Show. Milestone, I guess. Sort of like remembering your life against the years your pets lived - 'that was when Rover was still around.'...

Can't say I was ever a fan. I used to be, when Leno was young and one of the hottest comics out there. He was huge in the 80s. But I'll always be a Letterman guy when it comes to late night tv. I never hang on long enough for Conan or the other guys (they come on around 11:40 mountain time). Too late for me. Sometimes I'd skip to Leno if one of Dave's guests were lame (which can happen, he's only human), or one of his bits is dragging on too long (again, only human) or it's a commercial. But it seems once he jumped behind the desk he lost his edge and his wit went with it.

But, it's a changing of the guard and this blog is nothing if not a study of all things trivial so I thought I'd make note of it today.

As a salute of sorts, here's an old clip of Leno on Letterman's show sometime in the 80's. I don't miss the neon Don Johnson jackets with the sleeves pushed up to the elbows. But it's a fun memory trip for those of you old enough to remember. For those of you not old enough, yeah, that's what Leno used to be like.

some last Olympic Natl. Park pics

2009-05-22T09:58:00.003-06:00

A great trip. Stunning hikes and good friends. Above is the Pacific coast looking north.

Many sights like this along the hikes.

Almost all of the paths, except for the 3-mile stretch we hiked along the ocean, were clear and smooth paths. Some were boardwalks to protect the rainforest floors. Trees were down all over the place due, we were told, to the high winds that blow them down.

One night we stopped in Port Angelis at a Red Lion Inn and noticed there was a convention at the hotel. A big banner said 'Welcome Esprit Convention.' One of my friends joked with the clerk that we were with Esprit, especially if it came with a discount. The clerk laughed and said the convention had ended the day before. I asked if it was some sort of craft fair or something because this was a sleepy little tree industry town. She laughed and said, 'no, it was a cross-dressers convention.' I'm actually sorry we missed that.

Some more Pacific Northwest pictures

2009-05-19T21:58:00.003-06:00

Marymere Falls in Olympic National Park. About 200 feet high.

Sitka spruce and Western Red Cedar trees. There be giants here.

Looking out from the Lodge at Crescent Lake.

Sol Doc Falls.
More giant Red Cedar trees.

It rained a bit, but nothing we couldn't handle. Lots of rainforest to walk through. We were fairly bundled up so never broke a sweat. It's very fairyland-like in these forests. Absolutely beautiful.

We stayed yesterday and tonight in the town of Forks, Washington - yes, the place where TWILIGHT was filmed. It's a tiny, tiny town but they are beyond proud of the fact that the movie was made here. Every store has TWILIGHT posters up and TWILIGHT specials. It's kinda cute. When I was checking in with my two buddies (we're all 50) the older guy checking us in asked if we were in town for 'the Twilight Tour.' He said that people are coming from all around the world to see where scenes from the movie were filmed. I cleared my throat a bit and said, no, actually we were here to hike the national forest which we were plunked down right in the middle of. Never was mistaken for a teeny-bop movie fan before. I guess age is nothing.

One more day of hikes and then back home. Such fun.

Hikin' in Washington

2009-05-18T22:22:00.002-06:00

The picture above is 500+ year old petroglyphs on the shoreline of Washington at about the farthest point west and north of the lower 48

This is the view of the Pacific as we walked out of the forest after a 3-mile hike before we started on another 3 miles south along the beach at low tide. More pictures soon.

We stopped at this little village to get some gas and soft drinks (really) and this was the view right across the street.

An old restored building in Port Townsend, Washington. A very charming small coastal town.
We went to the Pike Place Market in Seattle on Sunday. More pictures soon...

tripped across this...

2009-05-13T15:04:00.002-06:00

...and thought I'd share.

Even making a commercial this guy is brilliant. This 60-second spot is an acting class all in itself.

SOK III's first adventure

2009-05-13T10:24:00.003-06:00

Yes, it is SUMMER OF KEVIN (Trois) and my first goof-off adventure begins in a few days. I am going on a hiking vacation with two buddies from California. We will spend 4-5 days hiking around Olympic National Park near Seattle. I've never been but it looks stunning...

It's apparently as amazing as so many of our national parks but has a unique distinction in that it has three climate zones - ocean, mountain and rain forest. We're planning on visiting all three areas.

If there's internet access I'll report daily. If not, when I get back. It'll be cold and wet, I'm told, but we're up for it. Should be fun and these two friends are just great. We did a similar trip three years ago to Glacier National Park.

On Saturday I fly to Seattle and meet up with them where we'll spend a day or so checking out Pike's Place Market and the Rock and Roll Museum. Then off to the park. Back on Thursday.

Till then...

In celebration of the opening of the new film STAR TREK

2009-05-09T15:19:00.002-06:00

A classic from 1978...

and now a more modern re-interpretation of the same classic moment...

Looking forward to seeing the new STAR TREK movie.

Concert memories

2009-05-06T07:51:00.003-06:00

People on Facebook have been putting up lists of their favorite five concerts, which got me to thinking and reminiscing...

My very first concert was Uriah Heep in 1972. I was 13 or so and was going with a friend who's older siblings agreed to take us. I think the ticket price was around $5. Uriah Heep was a British rock band that was pretty big in the early 70s. I remember my 8th-grade friends being VERY impressed that I was going to a concert. These were in the days when concerts were pretty free-wheeling. People walked in openly with drinks, smoking was always allowed, and the place reeked of pot. Never a problem, as I recall. Fun stuff. I didn't drink or smoke or do the pot thing but it was fun to watch the others as much as the band.

I never went to a lot of concerts but, looking back, I guess I saw some pretty heavy hitters. The list includes (and pretty much in order as I remember)...

(70s)
Led Zepplin
Jethro Tull
Billy Joel (in the early 70s and again in the early 80s)
Styx (dragged to it kicking and screaming)
REO Speedwagon
Yes
Marshall Tucker Band (not a fan, but everyone was going)
Loggins and Messina
Jackson Browne
The Beach Boys
Dan Fogelberg

(80s)
Billy Joel (mentioned above)
Manhatten Transfer
(I start to mellow and get a little odd here - I blame it on the girls I was dating at the time)
Barry Manilow (I know! Not my fault)
Olivia Newton-John (I know, I KNOW! Again, not my fault - dragged by the same girl I was dating who insisted on the Manilow thing. Her fault, totally her fault)
James Taylor
lots of symphonies in the park in Kansas City (free, and SO much fun - picnics and wine and lots of friends)
Bonnie Raitt
Willie Nelson (I was doing a rehearsal for a big outdoor play - Jesus Christ Superstar, my first Equity job - and Willie did a concert midweek which we were all allowed to attend backstage).
Pink Floyd (another backstage experience. I had met a woman who happened to be the stewardess for the band's tour and she invited me. A week later I got a phone call to fly to Detroit {on her pass} to meet her at a party Prince was throwing at his home for Pink Floyd. I got the phone message on the old tape recording message machine at my house about 2 hours after the plane took off so I missed the party and never saw the girl again).

(90s)
Sting
Lyle Lovett
Elton John
Shawn Colvin (a few times)
A few Park City Folk and Blues Festivals
A few Salt Lake Jazz Festivals
One Snowbird Jazz Festival

I know there were more but my 51-year-old brain forgets these things.

I think I stopped going when concerts got so strangely expensive. In the 70s you could see major acts for between $8-$14. Now the cheapest seats for The Eagles is around $150. That'll buy a bunch of CDs so I've gone that route. I love live music but I've moved more to the small venue, unknown jazz types. Wish Utah had some of that. There's too little here. I'd also like to see some stuff at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake but the people I want to see always sell out before I think to check. I checked yesterday and the one I really wanted to see, Diana Krall, is sold out. Still, the prices make me think twice anymore. Maybe if I were rich...

that's one fast horse!

2009-05-04T07:19:00.001-06:00

I'm not much of a horse-racing fan but this overhead shot of MINE THAT BIRD winning the Kentucky Derby is really something to see. It's the last stretch and the horse just blows past almost the entire field from the back of the pack.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Graduation

2009-05-02T14:47:00.002-06:00

For those of you who visit here and have had Amber Rolfe as a classmate at USU - she graduated today.

It was just perfect. Probably 800 HASS (Humanities, Arts & Social Science) graduates were in the Spectrum (basketball arena), with their families and loved ones. One-by-one they came forward, had their name announced and received their diplomas. Dead last was Amber, who has been working on this degree for around 8 or 9 years. She danced and danced on the podium, refusing to move off on their time but only on her time. Then she skipped and danced back down the entire middle aisle to the cheering of the entire place.

A great ending for her time at USU and a great launch to whatever comes next.

Congrats, Amber!!

saw this on cnn...

2009-04-21T20:59:00.001-06:00

they seem pretty calm to me...

yet another reason to love Belgium...

2009-04-16T15:08:00.002-06:00

I love Belgium. It's still the top place I've ever visited. Love the country, love the people. After visiting I thought, 'I could be very comfortable here.' After seeing this video, I'm reminded a little bit why...

must-read book

2009-04-15T13:27:00.002-06:00

Okay, I rarely suggest a book that I haven't even finished yet but this time I am. I really enjoy Richard Russo's books. Previous ones are EMPIRE FALLS, STRAIGHT MAN and NOBODY'S FOOL among others. Those three books have some quirky and fun characters mixed with some serious moments. But the writing is always extraordinary.

This book doesn't have any of the comic elements. It is one of the most charming, interesting, heart-warming/heart-breaking, extremely well-written books I've ever come across. I wish I was in a book club so I could talk about it with others who have read it. And I'm only half-way through! It's one of those rare books that I'm afraid to finish because then the adventure and the revelations into these characters (and all of us) will be over.

It's in paperback now. Beyond terrific. 5 stars!

I'm in a movie (clip) frame of mind...

2009-04-08T20:16:00.004-06:00

I've been a bit nostalgic lately. Some of it is probably related to my recent trip back to St. Louis and seeing a bunch of my old college friends. Which leads me to this entry's clip...

CITY LIGHTS by Charlie Chaplin is one of my favorite all-time movies. I remember that I had never really seen a Charlie Chaplin movie all the way through by the time I was in college (undergrad, St. Louis University). A few of us in the Theatre Department had made friends with one of the professors in the Communications Department a floor below us in the old Xavier building. He had a huge store of movies on video tapes and this was when (strange as it sounds) video tapes were very new and people didn't own home tape machines. There was one in his department offices and he'd let us scrounge through his library and watch films down there. It was a ton of fun, very musty and old and -well - special. He saw me one day looking through the tapes and asked me what I wanted to see and, after some questions to him by me, he suggested that I might like CITY LIGHTS. I had never heard of it. It's long, almost three hours. But I sat and started watching and fell in love with it. The time flew by. It's still one of my all-time favorites (along with CINEMA PARADISO, but people who visit here have to know that).

I'm sort of ruining it for everyone here. I've included a clip of the last 7 minutes or so. I'm guessing you may never watch the whole thing but, believe me, at some point you should. It's a lesson in storytelling, composition, filmmaking and empathy.

A little back-story. Charlie's tramp character is living in a city and the beginning of the movie sets up a number of great bits that lets the Tramp navigate living in a city as a homeless person. Charming as hell. One day he's sitting on a bench on a busy intersection, near a very pretty blind flower girl. He watches her for a long time and, as he's watching, a very expensive limousine stops and a man gets out, slams the door shut, and walks away. Charlie is nearby and the blind flower girl mistakes him for the wealthy owner of the fancy car. Charlie plays along and, over the course of the movie works to help her out. There are side stories where he is befriended by a drunken millionaire who, when drunk, thinks Charlie is his best friend but, when sober, thinks he's a vagabond beggar and doesn't recognize him. Charlie tries to get a loan from him but it doesn't work. He wants the loan because he learns from visiting the blind girl at her home (and every time he visits he doesn't let on that he's poor and homeless - she still thinks he's the rich man from the limousine), he learns that her blindness is curable but she needs money for an operation. Charlie raises the money by a series of honest schemes, one of them being in a boxing match for prize money. Lots of laughs. Anyway, eventually he visits the girl and gives her all his money so she can have the operation.

The clip below is the end of the film. He's super poor and is arrested for vagrancy and sent to prison for a year. When he gets out he's strolling down the same street he used to walk, running into the same newsboys who always tormented him, when he runs into the blind girl, who can now see and has a very nice flower shop, set up by the extra money Charlie had given her. She kindly offers him a flower and, by touching his hands, realizes he's her benefactor and the 'rich' man she loves and has been looking and waiting for. Beautiful. The clip is only a taste, and it is the end of the film but it's still worth your while to see it someday.

I remember that when I saw this movie, sitting in the musty, old Communications Department film closet, when it was over and tears were streaming down my face - I knew for certain that I wanted to be in theatre. Big moment for me. Hope you enjoy...

y'all know how much I love CINEMA PARADISO...

2009-04-05T22:55:00.000-06:00

another music break - for the weekend

2009-04-03T16:03:00.002-06:00

The Ross Sisters, from 1944.

Things start to 'pick up' at around 1:50. Dancing like you've never seen. Roger, I expect no less from you the next time you're in a musical.

funny, funny stuff

2009-04-02T16:23:00.002-06:00

Watch Stephen Colbert get to the heart of that putz, Glenn Beck...

Check it out HERE.

music break!!

2009-03-31T16:45:00.002-06:00

My brother turned me on to this guy, Tommy Emmanuel. Hey John (of S P & T), looks like you got some practicin' tuh do...

St. Pat's in St. Lou

2009-03-18T11:03:00.003-06:00

The picture above was taken just before the end of the evening last Friday, at O'Connell's Pub in St. Louis. Seven or more others had left at this point and are not pictured. All attending were Theatre majors at St. Louis University from '81 - '83 (my years there).

What a blast! I hadn't seen ANY of these people in about 27 years! I was heading to St. Louis for the latter part of Spring Break week and had recently come back in contact with many of these old friends through Facebook. One friend who couldn't make it suggested a gathering and it grew from there.

On a sad note, one friend who intended to come died just one week before the gathering. So we also gathered to toast and remember great friend Russ, the one person in this group that I actually HAD kept contact with.

Of the 14 or so that showed, a few of us are still acting, about half are lawyers, a couple are doctors a few more in higher education (theatre or administration), and all are very successful professionals in their varied fields.

Probably the most amazing thing - the 27 years disappeared. It was as if we had been gathering like this every week for all that time. And, believe it or not, no one had really aged. It's true that the soul of the person is the revealed person. To me everybody looked the same and we all talked and joked as if we had stayed in touch the entire time. No one went off telling tales of the years in between but talked about right now. So for all you younger ones out there - have no worries. When you reach 50, your friends from now will be exactly the same. And that's a good thing.

Cinema Paradiso will forever make me cry

2009-03-07T20:23:00.001-07:00

Phil Hartman's SNL audition

2009-02-27T12:22:00.002-07:00

Fascinating.

I was just getting out of grad school at this time (1985). Near the end he gets help from John Lovitz who was already on the show that year. They were friends for a long time and Lovitz helped him land the audition even though they knew his work. Fun from an actor's perspective and just fun as a time-warp kinda thing.

He was 38 years old in this clip.

I liked this one...

2009-02-26T14:00:00.002-07:00

Actors From London were great, as usual

2009-02-23T14:43:00.002-07:00

The Actors From The London Stage group spent their last night at our place for dinner and an Oscars party. Tons of fun. The food was outstanding (Carolyn slaved for a couple of days, smiling all the way through - when does she NOT smile?).

Great friends Mark and Fran and Gary set up some clever ballots and all kept score of their right and wrong choices. In the end there was a tie between London actor Stephen and colleague Phebe. Stephen won by rolling dice against Phebe. His prize was the masterfully decorated crown, seen in the last picture, created by Gary.

The week was long and hard but so very worth it. Our students get more out of these visits by the London actors in one week - hell, in one class and watching them perform - than any trip offered around here. Every year a few of our students throw thousands down the toilet on a useless, non-academic trip that does nothing but pay a free trip for the leader. Waste of time and totally unethical.

Oscars in the basement.

Jesse got worn out.

The five actors from London in a final pose at the end of the night. Their production of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING was outstanding. This is the fifth group to have visited and all have been of the highest calibre.

London Actors are here

2009-02-17T13:14:00.003-07:00

ASSASSINS closed and it truly was a very, very good production. Best of all, the students had an absolutely fantastic time throughout the entire process. No one wanted it to close. That alone is a fine reflection on the group.

ACTORS FROM LONDON arrived last night and stay the week. This group of five, like the four previous tours, is full of outstanding, gracious, talented pro actors. I can't wait to see MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, this tour's offering. More updates as the week unfolds.

Thanks to all for the support mentioned here regarding the ongoing trying times in the department. I swear, with just a few changes this place could be absolutely outstanding. But we continue to be dragged down by small mindedness, pettiness, and less-than-amateur abilities from some. Some of the backstabbing, ugliness and just plain evil can really wear a person down. But the students continue to be positive, hungry and alive - just the best - and that makes up for all the ongoing issues caused by some non-students.

Good read...

2009-02-07T13:48:00.004-07:00

I've been enjoying an old book, recently discovered, called SUITE FRANCAISE by Irene Nemirosvski, The New York Times book review, a rave, is here.

I've always been fascinated with WWII novels and histories. Perhaps because as a boy we were constantly watching war movies that romanticized and sanitized the war. It seemed like such an extreme adventure and one that I (as a young kid) could see myself hiding within.

As I got older I saw the silly youthful romanticism for what it was and war for the horror it really is and always has been, but I'm still drawn to these kinds of stories.

Anyway, it's a very good book because of the excellent writing (excellent translation as well), the story (which is as much more about human nature than a plot), and the fact that the woman who wrote it was sent to a concentration camp in 1942 and died there in a few short months. So the tragedy and the reality of this story is stunningly real. The two stories in the book are related, as the linked review above will lay out, but neither occur in a concentration camp. The first story is during the beginning of the invasion of France by Germany and the second is in France during the occupation.

Highly recommended.

Unclench the fist...

2009-02-06T12:23:00.003-07:00

President Barack Obama:

'We can't delay, and we can't go back to the same, worn-out ideas that led us here in the first place. In the last few days we've seen proposals arise from some in Congress that you may not have read, but you'd be very familiar with, because you've been hearing them the last ten years -- maybe longer. They're rooted in the idea that tax cuts alone can solve all our problems, that government doesn't have a role to play, that half-measures and tinkering are somehow enough.
That we can afford to ignore our most fundamental economic challenges -- the crushing cost of health care, the inadequate state of so many of our schools, our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.'

'So let me be clear: Those ideas have been tested, and they have failed.
They have taken us from surpluses to an annual deficit of over a trillion dollars.
And they have brought our economy to a halt.
And that's precisely what the election we just had was all about.
The American people have rendered their judgment.
And now it is time to move forward, not back.
Now is the time for action. '

Tell 'em, Mr. President.

Busy February

2009-02-03T15:52:00.002-07:00

Lots of stuff coming up fast and furious...

We have the final week of rehearsals for ASSASSINS, which will be performing at the Caine Lyric Theatre in downtown Logan next week. It's going very well and all are looking forward to it getting underway.

One week later we host The Actors From The London Stage who will be performing MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING this year (cast pictured). This is the fifth visit by this company and the previous four have been beyond excellent. Again, all are looking forward to that.

Then we go into techs for the student-directed One Acts that go up the first week of March.

And THEN.... I get a break.

Interesting map

2009-01-29T09:57:00.003-07:00

'Greenhouse gas emissions (from energy), national equivalents'

Sobering. Yep, we need to act on this and fast.

I actually see us getting away from cars, certainly big cars (I'll miss my Buick), and more into mass transit and rail. It'll take a long time - big changes always do, of course - but it has to be done. I find it exciting and I hope it's done well and right. I doubt I'll live long enough to see the complete change but I feel certain there's no alternative. It'll be fun to see the innovative ideas that are put on the table.

nice picture...

2009-01-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

Everybody say, 'Aww...'

Name Change

2009-01-23T07:47:00.003-07:00

So, I changed the name of the blog. I set it up right before we left on our round-the-world trip with Semester At Sea in August, 2007 to chronicle the adventure. We got back a little over a year ago and have been plunked down in Northern Utah ever since. So 'Where In The World Is Kevin' didn't seem to ring so true anymore.

Welcome to the new (improved? ... nah) blog. Kevin's Blog Blather.

Amazing...

2009-01-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

This has been going around the internet lately...

Needle Sized Art
Very incredible story! Not only is this mans art cool but he got a ton of cash for it!

Ah, Keith Olbermann. - he who never forgets...

2009-01-18T12:03:00.003-07:00

Good ol' Keith. The constant burr under Bush's saddle. His show the other night listed, in his 'countdown', BUSH: 8 YEARS IN 8 MINUTES.

See it...

...or go here to see it and read along with the transcript.

Pretty damning stuff.

2009-01-17T14:46:00.001-07:00

Dave Letterman's final GREAT MOMENTS IN PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHES.

Comedy gold. Watch the kid in the background in the next-to-last clip. Priceless.