Media Babe #2

A year ago, my colleague Jeff and I were interviewed for Capital Public Radio's "Insight," a program about local "stuff."  The host, Beth Ruyak, was interviewing us about the 2016 season of Music Circus.  

It was a fun segment and she said she enjoyed it and would like to have us back again sometime.  Today was that day and we were there to talk about the 2017 season of Music Circus, so it was handy that we had just seen Beauty and the Beast, the season opener, the night before.

As before, we were ushered into the green room, where I was given an enormous cup of coffee and they brought in gluten-free peanut butter brownies (way too sweet) and granola bars and told us to just ask if we wanted anything else.

There was another interviewee there, a writer named Raheem F. Hosseini, there to talk about his late mother's decision, after years of fighting and suffering to choose to end her life, shortly after assisted suicide became legal in California...and the difficulties they had finding someone who would help her, even though it was legal.  He was a very nice, positive, upbeat guy, and his interview was prompted by a wonderful article he wrote for Sacramento News and Review.

The walls of the green room (which was really grey) were lined with posters, many of them autographed, by people whom Beth had interviewed over the years.

I was amused to see the collection of toys on the coffee table, things for people to do with themselves while waiting for their segments.

(Last year I signed that guest book with "omigod you guys" because we were about to see Legally Blonde.  I didn't sign it this year because I couldn't think of anything clever.  It wasn't until I got home that I realized I should have written "Thank you for letting us be your guest."  Owell)

The show is an hour long and each segment is scheduled for 15 minutes. The first interview was a telephone interview with a guy in Washington, DC taking about the latest congressional elections and then comparisons between Senator Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris; then Raheem; then us; and finally a jazz band from Sacramento State College.

While Raheem was in the interview room, the band came in and the young men spent a lot of time playing with each of the toys on the coffee table, concentrating on trying to work the puzzle that was that little box next to the guest book.  I don't think they ever figured it out.

Our segment seemed to end almost as soon as it began.  Beth played two recordings that Jeff had made for his own radio show later this week.  Then I talked about how comfortable the theater is and how blessed we are to have air conditioning.  Jeff went through the remaining shows in the season.  We both talked about the new projection system that Music Circus has just installed.  Beth asked how I felt about young children seeing the show, and would it be too scary for them.  I thought that 4+ year olds (under 4 can't come) would be fine; Jeff disagreed and cautioned to know your child before bringing them.

And then it was over.  Beth said that she'd have us back to talk about fall "movies" (she misspoke) and by the time we got to the car, Walt had texted "fall MOVIES" ?  Beth took a picture of Jeff and me, and I took a picture of her.  Her schedule was too crammed today to do the picture of the 3 of us we did last year.

It was painless, I don't feel I did as good a job as I did last year, but I enjoyed the experience and whether she has us back this fall or not until next summer, I'd love to do it again.

I'll keep at it until I get it right!  (Though I just listened to the recording and it didn't sound all that bad)

Media Babe

Beth Ruyak, host of Capital Public Radio's program, "Insight" since 2012, has worked as a reporter, anchor, producer, and writer.  She hosted daytime television, magazine shows, special events and live coverage.  Among the highlights of her career: sideline reporting from 5 Olympic Games and Super Bowl XXV, traversing Europe for 3 Tour de France bicycle races (becoming the first woman television journalist to cover the event), co-hosting "The Home Show," and guest co-hosting "Good Morning America." Her news, sports and health reporting have earned Emmy awards and opportunities to interview, learn from and tell stories about people all over the world.

And Beth Ruyak wanted to interview me.  

Well, technically speaking my colleague Jeff Hudson, who has his own show on Cap Public Radio, had suggested Beth might do a segment about the new season of Music Circus with both himself and me as the interviewees.

But it sounds better to say that Beth Ruyak wanted to interview me.

Jeff picked me up at 8 a.m. and we drove in to Sacramento, where we sat in the green room awaiting our turn to be interviewed.  I was calm, cool, collected.  We were going to discuss something I knew something about.  No need to be nervous.

But the longer we waited--and we had about 45 minutes to wait--the more butterflies began to open their wings in my abdomen.  Beth came in and introduced herself to me (she knew Jeff, of course)

Stacey Powell, the author of the book "The Finance Gym Action Plan for a Better Life with Money: Don’t just know better. Do better" came in.  She was on the segment before ours, talking about a touring program she is doing to publicize her newly-printed book.  She was a very nice lady.

Talking with her helped corral the butterflies, though they threatened to flutter about again after she was called for her segment.

I signed the guest book.  I looked back on all the other signatures over the months and tried to be clever.  I just wrote "Omigod, you guys" and signed my name.  Cryptic, but to the point, and on topic!

Eventually they led us to the interview room and sat us close to our big microphones.  Beth had said she would hand me the first question, which was about whether I go to Music Circus much.  Easy--every show for the past 16 years (when I started getting critic tickets; before that it was too expensive!)

She played some sound clips Jeff had made last night, including the ubiquitous "Omigod, you guys".  She asked me something and I gave her an answer she didn't expect -- telling her about a member of the original cast coming out of retirement for one last production.  She was quite surprised when I told her it was Chico, the Chihuahua.

(If you'd like to see an interview with Chico and his handler--and it's worth it--you can check it out here.

I don't remember what else we talked about, but if you're interested, you can hear the interview here.  The time flew by, even for Beth, who said she never went over time, but was shocked to realize that our time was up.

 

After the show, she said she liked the camaraderie Jeff and I had together and would like to do another spot with us, when something comes up to discuss.  It would be fun to do it again.

Jeff drove me home by way of his house, where he got a bag of Satsuma plums from his back yard for me.  They are delicious and that was my lunch today!

Jeri and I were supposed to do a FaceTime with my mother, but the time got mixed up and in the end, we decided to reschedule for next week.  I have to face the fact that my mother no longer has "bad memory days."  Bad memory is every day.  For once, I had something "exciting" to tell her.  I told her about my interview and she seemed to be following, but when I mentioned that the weather was cold when we left the radio station, she said "what were you doing at a radio station."  When I said I was there for an interview and she asked why I hadn't told her anything about it.  Sigh.

Theater of the Mind

"I'm off to make a fool of myself," I called upstairs to Walt as I started to go out to the car.

Not surprisingly, he came downstairs to find out what I meant.

In truth, I had already started making a fool of myself five minutes before when I answered the phone and heard a guy named Bill Buchanan asking me if I was still planning to come to his radio station for an interview today.  I had completely forgotten about it and was sitting here blythly working on a project on my computer, while Bill and my colleague Jeff Hudson, were sitting across town waiting for me.

As for recording the show: will 1:30 p.m. Saturday, July 13, work? We should be done by 2:45 or 3.  I will send questions in advance. They'll address the growth of live theater in Davis, how you assess the health and future of live theater in Davis, any trends you see, perhaps some of your experiences as a local theater critic, and so on....

...he had written to me on July 4.  I wrote "interview" on this date on my calendar but even though I saw it there, it never processed in my brain that I was supposed to go to an interview this afternoon. I have obviously been spending too much time at Covell Gardens!

I was intimidated about being on a program with Jeff, who has been a reporter since he learned to read, I think, and who knows everything about everything, knows everybody, and I'm sure can recite every Shakespeare play by heart.  He attends every Shakespeare festival within driving distance and can't seem to understand why I don't jump at the chance to see a new Shakespeare production, just for the fun of it.   (By the same token, he also can't understand how I can bear to review yet another musical theater production.)

I knew that I know a lot about Davis theater.  We have been involved on some level since about 1974, I think, when I inadvertently auditioned for the Davis Comic Opera Co. (one of my most embarrassing moments...I thought I was there to talk about helping with publicity, and ended up singing a song I was ill-prepared to sing and couldn't sing anyway!)  Over the years we have watched theater groups coming and going and at one point, everybody in the family was involved at some level with at least one or two theater groups.  There was a period of time when I was doing publicity for every theater group in town.

But I think I got off on the wrong foot in the interview when he asked why theater is growing in Davis...and I said that I don't think it is.  I think there has always been theater and I think that the new theaters opening up in the last couple of years are just a continuation of a trend that has been going on, for me, over the past 40 years.  Jeff, however, who has not lived here as long, was able to answer Bill's question to his satisfaction.

It was interesting to listen to the two of us.  I was coming at this as a faux critic (with zero credentials), who loves musical theater, who is very supportive of community theater, and who hates Shakespeare.  Jeff was coming at it as a "real" critic and seasoned newsman, who doesn't really like musical theater, who doesn't really review much local community theater, who is impressed by equity performers and equity plays, and who loves Shakespeare...and who knows everything.

It will be interesting to hear how it sounds when it airs (I will post a link).

I do think I held my own, though, even answering the very difficult question, for me, "the potential playgoer just wants to know if the show is good enough to be worth the time and cost.  When you think a show is weak, how do you convey that message to your readers, in the context of a community theater review."

He had no idea what a difficult question that was for me to answer on the air (though I gave him a complete answer after the interview was over, an answer I won't repeat here for the same reason I wouldn't answer it on the air!)

It was really fun, though, to choose one show that I had seen in the last few years that really stood out for me.  I can't remember which one Jeff chose, but it might have been a Shakespeare.  For me, it was the recent Davis Musical Theater production of Chicago, hands down the. best. production. I had ever seen at that theater, and truly the production that stood out head and shoulders above most of the local theater productions I have seen in the last few years.

Fortunately he didn't ask for the worst show I had seen.   I would have been hard pressed to choose from among a couple of very weird university shows.

The chat we had after the show ended was MUCH more fun and probably would have made a more interesting show, since we all threw caution to the wind and let it all hang out.  Turns out Bill has two daughters, both interested in show business (one has graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and wants to be a classical singer).   I gave him a little history of our kids in show biz and he remembers Lawsuit and asked if my son's name was Ned.  That was kind of cool.

I hope I didn't really make a fool of myself, though I may cringe a lot when I hear the show in a week or so!  I hope not.

Says You x3, Up with a Twist

How do you soften the realization that it is the 13th anniversary of your youngest child's death? And that you are spending the afternoon at a memorial service for your children's beloved teacher?

You concentrate on remembering the day before, of course, and the third day of taping of Says You shows.

On Sunday morning I woke up having finally had a full night of sleep, knowing that Lester was safe at home in Boston, and that I had plenty of time to get to San Francisco for the final day of taping Says You shows.

Char was going to attend this taping session with me and I made arrangements to meet her at the Lafayette BART station. We decided to go in to the City early because it was also the day of the running of the Bay to Breakers race and lord only knows what traffic would be like. It actually wasn't bad at all, since the race had been run earlier in the morning. It was parking that was impossible (I told Char they need to hang a sign on the Bay Bridge that San Francisco is closed because all the parking is taken!)

We drove out to Presentation and got there about an hour and a half early. And there was no parking. I wondered where all the rest of the people who would be coming over the next hour were going to park. Char and I took the very last spot within a multi-block area and we walked to the theatre. We were early, of course (actually we were the first people in the audience to arrive) and the two USF girls who were ushers found us chairs so we could sit in the hall while the day's musical group practiced behind the theatre's closed doors.

There is always some local music group which plays for Says You shows. The first night it was a kind of bluegrass/folk sounding group; the second night it was a woodwind quintet. So who knew what the music would be for this taping. But then I heard someone singing "Sempre Libre" from La Traviata and figured they were going with vocal music this time, since San Francisco is such a big opera town. I was enjoying the music and laughing at myself because there I was in the old Lamplighters theatre and could have sworn that the person singing was the Lamplighters' own Jane Hammett, whom I first met when she did Something's Afoot back in 1984, I laughed that I was so out of touch with opera that all sopranos must sound alike to me.

We waited a long time until the house was opened, went to our seats, smack dab in the middle of the theatre and waited for the show to start. Soon, Assoc. Producer Zack Moore came out on stage to tell us the show was about to start and to introduce the day's musical group -- THE LAMPLIGHTERS! Well, six Lamplighters, four of whom were friends of mine! What fun! What a terrific surprise. I sent a quick text message to Walt and settled in to watch the show.

Musical Director Baker Peeples was at the piano, so he doesn't show in this photo, but yes it WAS Jane Hammett (left) I had heard, as well as Rick Williams, Jonathan Spencer and two newer women I don't know (so don't remember their names).

They treated the audience to a good sampling of G&S at their various moments in the show, including the ubiquitous "Three Little Maids" and the Matter-Matter trio from Ruddygore (which really impressed the audience with its rapid-fire patter). Host Richard Sher was in 7th heaven, stating that he had long wanted to have Gilbert & Sullivan as part of the show. (Whether he really meant it or not, who cares--it was a great line!)

(Jane didn't sing La Traviata, but she did sing "Poor Wand'ring One.")

This was, needless to say, my favorite of the 3 days of tapings -- the marriage of two of the best parts of my entertainment life.

At intermission Char and I went outside to get a breath of fresh air, when Jonathan walked by the door of the theatre and saw me standing by the door to the theatre. I waved and he came out, followed by the other three people who were as surprised to see me there as I was to see them there.

When we left the theatre after the show there was a large group of people gathered outside on the sidewalk. I decided that these were folks who were waiting for someone in their party to go the mile or two away where the car had been stashed and come to pick them up.

On the way to our car we passed a woman in a shocking yellow sparkly cheerleader outfit and later a guy with bunny ears and another guy in some outlandish costume. We figured these were Bay to Breakers stragglers.

[Being in San Francisco on the day of the race, a thought occurred to me that I had never considered before. One of the things about the race is that many people run in the nude (and the city just suspends the laws about public nudity for the day). But...where do they put their clothes? They are running from one side of San Francisco all the way to the other side. And when they get to the end of the race they are 12 km from where they started. And they have no clothes. They certainly don't take BART nude. I don't imagine they hop a bus or a cable car nude. So where do they put the clothes? Inquiring minds want to know. Perhaps a nude runner will read this and let me know.]

In any event, the Sunday taping was the best of the three days, even though by the end of the weekend I had driven around 500 miles and had a minor auto accident on Saturday night. It was all worth it! I just wish Walt had been there with me to enjoy it.

Close, but No Cigars

We said our goodbyes to Gizmo today before taking the two puppies up to Petco. Ashley said she had a "very good" application for Giz, in a home with two other dogs and she thought it would work out well.

At 3:30, we went back to Petco to pick up Scooby (I was not optimistic about his finding a home today) and discovered that Gizmo had not, in fact, been adopted. The family fell in love with some other puppy and so instead of coming home with only one dog, we brought them both back home again.

Gizmo is ripe for finding a home. Her fur has grown out finally and she's become a real cutie. She loves everybody, is a great cuddler.

We're going to need someone a bit more patient for Scooby, who is still skittish, and slow to warm up. He's OK of you let him come to you, but if you try to approach him, he runs away. He will finally let Walt pet him, if he's in my lap, but if Walt tries to force friendship, he ducks and runs. Heck, even I don't try to lean down and pet him. He's just too scared for that.

So it's one more week without homes for my babies. Maybe we'll have better luck this coming week. In the meantime, the little four-footed family seems happy to be back together again.

---

Doing this 65x365 project has memories swirling around in my mind like never before. I decided when I started it that I was NOT going to include people who appear in this journal regularly. So you won't see the Cousins day folk, or Char, or Peggy, or Steve or my family...at least not now. I'm up to posting day #22 (which is definitely an interesting entry!), but I've actually written over 60 entries, just waiting to be posted.

Some people doing this project have grouped their entries into grammar school friends, high school friends, work friends, etc., or other arbitrary group labels. I'm trying to do exactly the opposite. I am trying to mix it up a lot so that you may find someone I knew in grammar school sandwiched in between someone I know today and someone I never really knew, but encountered.

The one thing that surprised me is how many well known people I've met in my life. It's really kind of humbling, in fact. This list isn't just of people I know well (I certainly hope not when I added #22!), but of people I have encountered in one way or another, whether intimately or casually, or just barely. The criterion I set was that it had to be someone with whom I had at least a face-to-face encounter and who left an impression on me. I think you'll see that #22 definitely fits that description.

But when you start mentally checking off people who know and other people you know because of those people, it takes your mind in strange directions and can have surprisingly pleasant results.

I had added a performer I met once to the list and then started thinking about performers in whose presence I have been. That led me back to a taping of The Don Sherwood television show back in the 1950s, sometime (but I never officially "met" Sherwood, so he doesn't go on the list).

That led to checking to see if there was anything on the internet about Don Sherwood and that led to this treasure trove. Those of you who did not live in San Francisco missed out on a lot. Don Sherwood billed himself as "the world's greatest disc jockey." He would not only become the biggest radio star in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years, but would also be the highest paid radio personality in America. His popularity was so great (he had a 25 percent share in his time slot--one in four people were tuned to Sherwood!) that when he left the station, they paid him NOT to work for any other radio station.

But as with most creative geniuses, he had his share of problems, in spades. He was a heavy drinker and he died too early of lung cancer, hooked up to an oxygen tank, and still chain smoking.

I was a young impressionable grammar school kid when I first became a fan of Don Sherwood and I attended Catholic School, so I was really into the power of prayer and offering things up for the betterment of the world.

My mother and I attended the aforementioned taping of the short-lived television show that Sherwood did and he was obviously drunk. And getting drunker as the show progressed. He had a bottle hidden under his desk.

I decided I was going to "save Don Sherwood."

I went away to Lake Tahoe for a couple of weeks with a couple for whom I did babysitting. The thing I longed for each day was the arrival of the mail, but when the mail came, no matter how much I was longing to read the letter(s), I put off reading them until night and offered up my pain and suffering of having to wait a few hours to read my mail in honor of Sherwood quitting drinking. Instead of reading the mail, I would pray for Sherwood.

Amazingly, within a couple of weeks after I returned from Tahoe, Sherwood decided to stop drinking. I don't know how I knew that. I don't know if he mentioned it on his show, or if he went into rehab or what, but all I know is that I was convinced my prayers had "saved" him.

(Of course it didn't last and he was drinking again very soon...but it would be nice to think that all of my sacrifice amounted to something after all!)