New and Improved

As you drive down Burbank Blvd., here in Burbank, there are signs on every lamp post which tell you that this is the "new and improved Burbank Blvd." It's been a year since we were last here and, I hate to tell you, but I am not sure what's new and/or improved about it!

We left just shortly after the crack of dawn this morning for the Sacramento airport.

I wandered around the airport while Walt got our boarding passes printed. I have always loved this innovative column of luggage that holds up the baggage claim area. I think there are three of them in all. Very clever on someone's part!

I was thrilled to discover that Sacramento has now gone all free wifi and has installed tables and benches for you to use with your computer, though I didn't. I had brought along a book on my iPod and just sat and listened to that until time to board the plane. (But I did send updates to Facebook via my cell phone and Twitter...love modern technology!)

The thing I like about Southwest is that they are more "colorful" than other airlines. One of the flight attendants had a pot belly and handlebar moustache (yes, it was a man!). The head attendant announced that her son had just become a film director and his first movie Scout Camp had just been released and we should all go see it -- or at least watch clips on YouTube. I felt duty bound to share that news with everyone else.

I did watch the film clip and probably won't see the film, but check it out for yourself, to make my flight attendant happy! His name is apparently Garrett Batty (I put that in in case he's googling himself).

We stopped for lunch at a Baja Fresh, then drove the long way out Burbank Blvd to our motel, where we stayed last year. Walt, who had read in an airplane magazine that naps are good for you, so he decided to take the article at its word.

We had a quick dinner at Denny's (where I decided that all foods come crispy, smothered, deep fried, or swimming in butter. Now they have a new thing called "pancake puppies," which are pancakes rolled in cinnamon and sugar with a maple dipping sauce. I ordered tilapia with mixed vegetables, and the tilapia came in a pool of butter (not that I minded, of course!) The choice of "sides" was corn, mashed potatoes, hash browns, French fries, onion rings, cinnamon apples (warm apple pie filling), corn and mixed vegetables. Very hard to eat healthy (not that I usually do!)

Then we drove up Sepulveda Blvd to the top, where the Skirball Center is located. This is our fourth year coming to see tapings of Says You (despite the fact that it's listed as the third year) and we know the drill now. We lined up at about 6:30 for the 7:30 show and we were among the first 25, but by the time we actually got into the theatre (after standing for half an hour butt to butt with everyone else), the seats were almost all taken. We had to sit in the next to last row behind a guy who had moved his seat out into the aisle, effectively blocking everyone behind him. I got to see half of the panel, and hear the other half!

While waiting for the show to start, we admired the ceiling, which reminded me of a badminton shuttlecock!

The show was, of course, lots of fun and I'm going to have to try to work up a song to "the lickpot's connected to the purlique..."

We talked a bit to Tony Kahn after the show and then came back here to the hotel. I spoke with Steve earlier this afternoon and made plans to meet him and Michael for breakfast tomorrow before we head back to Skirball for the second taping.

A nice way to spend a weekend!

Stuff 'n' Nonsense

I am sending no mushy Valentines to the Internet today. I had a bunch of corrections to make to Dr. G's two sites, one professional, one personal. The professional one was easy enough to make, though my god how many of those photos does one need to get the point across?

But the personal site was driving me bonkers. It wasn't the site, or the information he sent to me, but the dumb FTP connection, which kept giving me a message that it was locking me out, though I've logged into that site many times. I sent off an SOS to the provider (which is the one advantage of going with a local provider rather than ComCast or one of the bigger providers. Not only can I reach someone at the provider office, but he knows who I am when he hears from me).

I know he works late afternoon and into the evening rather than the 8-5 hours. Before I could hear back from him, I re-entered the password and it was the open sesame I needed. Whoopie! I sent a note to Rob, my provider rep, and he responded with "Yay!"

So I went to the HTM folder and started makng the change Dr G wanted made. This took about half an hour. When I went to upload them through the FTP program, it had locked me out again, and would not let me back in.

I tried doing what I did before, re-entering the password, but it steadfastly refused to let me in.

I went ahead and finished the edits, then logged completely out of the FTP program, logged back in again, re-entered the password and voila! I was in once again. I quickly uploaded the files and I think I have it all finished, except for what Dr. G is going to send me over the weekend.

We're taking off for Los Angeles tomorrow morning. This is our now-annual trip to So. California to see recording of four different episodes of the radio show, Says You. Ever since we went the first year and only went to one of the tapings (they tape 2 shows each on 2 nights), we have gone back and splurged on both day/night broadcasts.

Last year Walt found a great motel that was very near the Skirball Cultural Center, where the show is taped. It came with free wi fi and a Denny's on the property, so it was perfect for our needs. We've re-booked this time too. Ashley is going to be staying here and may or may not be bringing a foster dog. We won't know if we have a new foster dog until we get home Sunday night and see how many bodies are here!

Then, this apparently being "radio week," on next Thursday, the 19th, we are going down to UC Berkeley to watch a taping of the radio show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, with Char and some of her family. I'm not as big a fan of Wait, Wait as I am of Says You, but I know it's going to be a fun experience. That show is much more topical, so it doesn't last as well as Says You. You can listen to Says You several years after the particular show was broadcast and it's just as fresh as it was originally, but Wait Wait relies more on topical material.

I found these on the internet the other day and I'm wondering if anybody has any experience with them...or any thoughts about them. I'm thinking this would be just groovy for me to take with me to France/Italy in June, to save the worry about losing pictures. But I'm not sure about the availability of wi fi spots where we'll be. But it sure is a cool idea, I think!

The Concept Album

I'm missing Paul this week. The feature article I've been working on is about the upcoming Citizens Who Care show, an annual fund-raiser for an organization which provides support for the frail elderly and their family caregivers. Walt is on its board, coincidentally.

Each year they feature the music of a composer or lyricist (or both). This year is the first year that they are featuring the music of a performer, Frank Sinatra.

Sinatra was one of Paul's idols and, in fact, we attempted to get tickets for him to see Sinatra in Reno or Lake Tahoe as a birthday gift. As it turned out, it would have been Sinatra's last concert, but in the end he was ill and had to cancel, so Paul never did get to see him perform live, but he sure loved Sinatra and his music. I would love to be able to discuss this article with him -- and he would love to be working in the theatre for the concert, as he did many of those annual concerts.

I always thought of the photo on the left as Paul's Sinatra photo. He was the M.C. for his friend Kag's wedding.

The problem with putting together a show that features the music of Sinatra is that Sinatra recorded just about every popular song ever written during his 60+ year career.

Stephen Peithman, who writes and arranges the shows. decided to ignore the early years, and to start his story about the time Sinatra took control of his own career, around the time of From Here to Eternity, just after his divorce from Ava Gardner (the show only runs 2-3 hours, after all!)

He chose that start point because in 1955 he recorded the first "concept" album and invented a whole new genre of music in the process. The "concept" album was a collection of a bunch of songs around a central theme, and then hiring songwriters to write a couple of new songs to fill out the list. The title of the album generally was the title of one of the new songs. More often than not, the albums went to #1 on the charts.

Research for the article brought back a number of memories. One thing that I had forgotten...the first concept album, "In the Wee Small Hours" was one of the first 12" LPs. In these days we don't even remember when LPs were only 10". I had a whole bunch of them at one time and sold them all to Peach because I was trying to raise money to fly to Phoenix to see Sister Anne (I never did make the trip, and never bought my records back.)

I remember my father coming home with a 12" LP, all excited at the new technology that allowed more songs to be put on an album. He was excited about something called "high fidelity." (He died before CDs came on the market. He would have been amazed at the advances in sound quality!)

We had many of Sinatra's concept albums, including "In the Wee Small Hours." I probably still have them all. Some of the others included "Only the Lonely," all "she done me wrong" songs.

"Come Fly with Me" was all about other places ..."Around the World," "Isle of Capri," "On the Road to Mandaly," "April in Paris," "London by Night," "Blue Hawaii," etc.

"Come Dance with Me" is all dance music -- "I Could Have Danced All Night," "Cheek to Cheek," "Dancing in the Dark," "Same Old Song and Dance"... etc.

There were 16 in all that he recorded for Capital Records, and more that he recorded on his own Reprise Label. One that has been out of print for years was called "Watertown," described as "...conceived and co-written by The Four Seasons' house songwriter Bob Gaudio, and following the misery of a divorced father left stranded in a small town with his kids. Sinatra is in fine, morose voice, brightened just a little by the tastefully kitschy late-'60s contempo-pop arrangements."

Sinatra has more than 1000 recordings to his credit, including some lesser known works he did in Brasil with Antonio Carlos Jobim. Trying to trim that down to about 35 songs was a real challenge for Stephen. His first list, covering just the period of time after 1954, was more than 300 songs.

It's going to be interesting to see what made the final cut (I'm told "My Way" did).

I just wish Paul could be here for the show...

A Time We'll Treasure Thru the Years

This was a meme that was floating around Facebook, and that I did there, but I haven't done it here, so I thought I would give it a go (this version is more detailed).

The photo at the left is me at age 16-1/2, in my Sophomore year, I believe. (My senior photo, in cap and gown, was just stupid!)

Our uniforms were the white blouse, a green jacket and a green and white plaid pleated skirt.

Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!! (well, I don't know about that...)

IN YOUR SENIOR YEAR...

1. Did you date someone from your school?
That certainly would have raised lots of eyebrows--I went to an all girls school!

2. Did you marry someone from your high school?
See question #1

3. Did you car pool to school?
Nope--I commuted by cable car! (and the fare was only 15 cents). Actually I took the Hyde St. cable car down to Geary Street and transferred to the 38 Geary bus, which took me up the hill to school. For anyone who has been in San Francisco, the school was where the Catholic cathedral (St. Mary's) is now. Geary St. was only 2 lanes wide and the houses around it (which are now expensive high rise condo buildings) was part of a slum.

4. What kind of car did you have?
Car? Me? Surely you jest. I have never had my own car. I drove the family's car, when I needed to (it was a Chevy)

5. What kind of car do you have now?
We have a champagne colored Honda Accord (only one car; we share it)

6. It is Friday night...where are you NOW?
It's actually Wednesday night, but I am at home (if it were Friday night I'd be reviewing a play)

7. It is Friday night...where were you then?
God only knows. That was 50 years ago. Sometimes there was a party, but since we were scattered all over San Francisco, there really was no "getting together" regularly on any night of the week. If we got together to hang out, that was more likely to take place during the day on the weekend.

8. What kind of job did you have in high school?
Just babysitting.

9. What kind of job do you do now? For pay?
Theatre critic, very part time and not exactly lucrative.

10. Were you a party animal?
Definitely not--and I'm not now either.

11. Were you considered a flirt?
Nope. I'm the perennial wall flower

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I always sang in the choir, in high school and later when I was at Cal...and after that in church choirs.

13. Were you a nerd? Nah.

14. Did you get suspended or expelled? No. I was a good girl.

15. Can you sing the fight song? I don't remember a fight song. I remember a school song though. "For the school that we love we'll sing the praises, long and loud to all / united firm in pleasing words, which can no breaking know...." (It was a very sappy song!). I actually think there was a fight song and if someone starts me, I'm sure I could sing it--seems to me it was stolen from some well known college song.

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)?
Sister Anne, my typing teacher. We remained friends from high school until she died about 12 years ago. Our daughter was named after her (Jerilyn Anne).

17. Where did you sit during lunch?
I don't remember. Probably in the cafeteria.

18. What was your school's full name?
St. Vincent High School. After the big Cathedral on Van Ness Avenue burned down, they tore down our school, built the new cathedral monstrosity that has often been described as the agitator of a washing machine and built a new school to replace St. Vincent's. It merged with Sacred Heart (the boys' school two blocks away) and is now called "Cathedral High School." Oddly enough Ashley is a graduate of Cathedral High School, and her sisters go there now.

19. When did you graduate? 1960

20. What was your school mascot? I don't think we had one.

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
Probably. I loved high school--but I wouldn't want to have to go through all the "growing up" years from age 18 to 65 again..

22. Did you have fun at Prom? Jr/Sr Banquet
I had fun at my junior prom, but my boyfriend entered the seminary between my junior and senior years and I went to the senior prom (they called it the senior ball) with a neighbor and hated it. (I don't recall any Junior or Senior Banquet)

23. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with?
No, but we exchange Christmas cards. (I don't remember ever seeing my Senior Ball date after the dance was over!)

24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion?
The next will be the 50th, next year. We had the worst spirited class in the school history and I don't know that anybody would even come.

25. Do you still talk to people from school?
Talk, no. But I exchange cards (and occasional e-mails) with three other people--there were only 60 in my graduating class.

26. School Colors?
Green and Gold

27. What celebrities came from your high school?
To my knowledge, none.

28. Did you play a sport?
Nope. I was in every other activity possible, not not sports.

29. What was your favorite club?
Yearbook (I was the editor for 3 yrs--the sophomore editor, the junior editor and the Editor in Chief my senior year)

30. What class or teacher did you fear?
I was afraid of Sister Zoe (Senior homeroom) until she came to my defense in a very special way. Then I realized she was all bluster, but a real softie. There were teachers that I didn't like very much and I hated all of my math and science classes, but Sister Zoe was the only teacher I came close to actually being afraid of.

Cousins Day - February

In the morning, my mother was embarrassed to get rid of the evidence.

Actually, we joke about our drunken revals at Cousins Day, but it's not as bad as this picture would have you think. We had so many partial bottles of things left over after our special drinks for the past two years that we did inventory, consolidated what we could and threw away what had been used up.

But you have to admit that the sight of an almost 90 year old woman with an armload of empty booze bottles is pretty funny.

Except for the time I threw the cards at Peach after she'd won the third game, it was a fairly uneventful game. This morning I threatened to beat her with the contents of my coin bag...except there wasn't enough in it to make any impact.

Yes, third month in a row where Peach was the big winner. We all won something. I won two games, my mother won two, Kathy won one and Peach won four. The money-hog. But we had a great time and our sides were aching from laughter as we started talking about my mother ever being too unable to care for herself and moving in with me. At one point we had to threaten to make Peach drink vinegar.

This month I made something called a "black eye," which was vodka with blackberry brandy and lime juice.

Peach brought stuffed potato skins for hors d'oeuvres and Kathy made a delicious chicken/rice dish for dinner.

...and artichokes, of course. (artichokes are just an excuse to eat mayonnaise, you know!)

When dinner was finished, Peach suprised Kathy and me with a lovely Boston Cream Pie, since Kathy's birthday is this week and mine is next week.

Then were were more cards to be played, more talk to be talked, more laughs to be laughed, a bit of sleep, breakfast, cards, and back on the road to return home.

As always we came home in a cloud of camaraderie and looking forward to next month's Cousins Day!

The Art (and Frustration) of the Interview

I'm running in full tilt this month, it seems. I've already written one feature article about an upcoming production of the university's "The Winter's Tale," which featured an interview with the director, and then I went to rehearsal and interviewed several of the actors.

This week I'm writing a feature article about an upcoming fund-raising concert for Citizens Who Care, an advocacy group for the frail elderly. This is their 17th annual concert and this year it will feature the music of Frank Sinatra (previous shows have featured the likes of Rodgers and Hart, Harold Arlen, Oscar Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, etc.). This is the first year they are featuring the music of a recording artist rather than a composer and/or lyricist.

But all the people involved have been friends of ours forever.

The guy in the left in the hat is Bob Bowen, who cast our kids in the very first Davis Children's Nutcracker, when David was 5. He later hired first Jeri, and then Paul to be the manager of the Varsity Theatre here in town, so we have a long, long history together.

The lady in red is Gwyneth Bruch, who was the choreograher for the high school jazz choir when Paul, Tom and David were in it. The lady standing is Martha Dickman, who gave Paul voice lessons for a brief time when he was having some vocal problems at the start of the Lawsuit decade.

The guy in front on the right is Stephen Peithman, about whom I just did a feature article last month about the ending of his long-running radio show, "Musical Stages," and the start of his next radio show, "Connections" for the local public radio station.

I'm also doing interviews with the producer of a theatre company in Sacramento and with a guy who used to have a kids' show called "Captain Mitch" when our kids were watching kids' shows on television. He's 85 now and still acting, and starring in Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The interview with Captain Mitch will either fascinating or a real dud. You never know how these things are going to go.

When you're going to do an interview, you pray for someone like Steve Peithman, who speaks as if he's dictating the article for you. I interviewed David Gerrold a couple of years ago when the movie based on his bookThe Martian Child was about to be released and David is the same way. Say "tell me all about yourself" and all you have to do is type the resulting answer and your article is pretty much written. These are guys who know how to help a reporter.

Then there are people like Rinde Eckert, a brilliant actor / dancer / singer / jack of all trades who is so fascinating and such a brainiac that he hurls a library full of information at you. And he's just delightful to talk to. It's a bit more work to write an article because you have to sift through a mountain of information and bon mots to weed out the very best, but it's such fun and you learn so much in the process.

But occasionally you come across a person who makes you groan, as I have done this month. The interview went something like this:

When did you get involved in the project.
3 yrs ago. [silence]

How did they happen to find you?
Maybe xx recommended me. [silence]

What is it like working on this project?
Good. [silence]

It reminded me of a comment I heard made by San Francisco talk show host Ronn Owens (I think it was Owens), who was reminiscing about the thousands of people he had interviewed over the years and he mentioned that one of the members of The Kingston Trio (I believe it was Bob Shane, but I could be wrong) was THE worst interview ever. They had scheduled him for an hour interview and he sat there giving mono-syllabic answers to every question. It was apparently excruciating.

That's how I felt about this particular interview. Fortunately when I do a feature article, I try to include several people involved and so I had much more than just this one interview from which to draw...and I was even able to pick out a quote from this interview to incorporate into the article, though it wasn't without a lot of padding on my part to make it a bit more interesting than the answer was originally!

---

Cousin's day tomorrow
Next entry will be late

Bon Jour

Friday night was the first "getting to know you" gathering for the group of people who will be taking a 2-week tour through France and Italy in June. (For those who are interested in reading the itinerary, I posted it here.) I went to the dinner with Char and two of her daughters, Jenny and Tavie. We met her other daughter Dana and Dana's daughter Kimberly there. We'll all be traveling together, which is so cool, since Jeri grew up with Tavie, Dana and Jenny and I'm tickled that they'll have two weeks together.

I brought my Boeuf en Daube in the crock pot and deposited it in the kitchen, got myself a bit of wine and wrote out a name tag. I walked into the hall and the first person I encountered said "You're Bev! I've been reading your blog for years!" Her name was Sheri. She had Char had worked together for many years and even Char didn't realize she read my blog. She had been surprised when she contacted her about this trip, thinking Sheri might like to come with her daughter, when Sheri said "I know all about it--I read Bev's blog." What a delightful surprise, and a delightful lady whom I look forward to getting to know better through this whole trip process.

a kind of PS to this. I friended Sheri on Facebook today and she wrote, "I didn't get a chance to tell you the other night, but when I mentioned on my blog that I had signed up for the trip to Europe, a friend in Minnesota asked me if I was going on the same trip as you (she reads your blog, too). See, you really are famous!" Oh my! Hello, you in Minnesota, whoever you are!!

I sat with a couple of women I had not met before and we compared notes on how we happened to know about the trip. I explained that I knew Char. I thought everybody knew Char, but they had a blank look until I explained that she was Tavie's mother. Oh! That explained it. Tavie teaches with Jennifer, the woman who is organizing the trip and everybody knows Tavie. The torch has obviously been passed.

There was a slide show playing in a loop on the television. Beautiful photos of a trip Jennifer had organized with students last year. The organization hosting this trip is ACIS (American Council for International Studies), which is really for student groups, but Jennifer has previously taken a group of adults on the same trip. I noticed that a lot of the photos were of food, beautifully prepared dinners, fancy pastries, fruits and vegetables at a farmer's market, bins of spices, and a mouth-watering chocolate dessert that practically melted off the screen.

The two women and I talked about the pictures on the screen. Neither of them had been out of the country before. Our hostess, I learned later, is only going for one week and will leave at the end of the France portion because she's never been away from her house for longer than a week and doesn't want to be away from her little Maltese dog, Buddy for two weeks.

Another woman has been on all of Jennifer's student trips, so is a seasoned traveler with ACIS.

Dinner was served, and a sumptuous feast it was. We had all been charged with bringing something French. I had made the Boeuf en Daube (which was delicious, even if I do say so myself).

There was (from lower right and going around the table): some potato slices, quiche, brie baked en croute with cranberries, the OTHER Burgundy Beef, coq au vin, MY Burgundy beef in the tall crock pot, a salad with chicken in the middle of the table and another salad to the right of that. At the end, two people had brought chocolate mousse and they layered them in a cup, so we got the taste of both. Really yummy, all of it!

When we had finished, Jennifer, the tour organizer, got up and traced our route through France.

(taken with my cell phone)

Then she showed her own slide show and talked about the itinerary. We are staying mostly at 3-Star hotels, so we can be in the center of the towns in which we are staying. In Paris we are, she says, two blocks from the Paris Opera House. There is an optional gourmet dinner in Paris (that sounds so cosmopolitan) a 4-course meal at a place she describes as "like having dinner in Versailles." It ain't cheap, by a long shot, but we all decided that if we're going that far, what the hell. It's only money.

It's really very exciting, and a little daunting. I'm especially worried about the town of Eze (rhymes with "Fez") which is a medieval town which sits atop what looks like a very high, steep hill, access to which is on foot. I'm going to have to set the slant of my treadmill to much steeper if I'm to prepare for THAT little trek!

[I should point out that the question was asked about internet access in these various locations (which apparently we will have at some places, so it won't be 2 weeks without journal entries), and I was not the one to ask the question, Char was!]

We will be meeting again to go over the Italy part of the trip and I'm looking forward to that too. We were given lots of hand outs about the itinerary, what to pack, and what to watch for. I picked up two copies of everything...and naturally I have lost it all. I hope there will be more copies when I go to the second dinner.

This is the first real step on this journey. I came home and paid my bill in full, so I guess I'm all set to go now! I've signed up for a French podcast, joined Livemocha, which helps you learn new languages, and have a French game for my little Nintendo so I hope to at least start feeling comfortable in French again (I used to be a French major). However, I'm hoping there is someone like me for the Italian part of the trip!!! I think learning two languages between now and June is a bit unrealistic!