BLITHE IN SPIRIT

Another week in the Big City. Construction and Cranes, Tourists and Trains.
We took a trip on the Staten Island Ferry to meet up with a fellow i bought a monitor from on Craig's list. It was like a scene out of a Hitchcock film. All that was missing was the Bernard Hermann score.
That was a while ago and I haven't left the city except for a trip to Costco in LIC this morning with my good friend Alan Rosenberg who has a car.
Costco is losing its charm for me but there are certain things I like there. The array of meats and fish are always priced well I think.
My favorite thing is the large jar of Artichoke hearts. However trying to open that mother would give Schwarzenneger in his pumped prime a run for his money!
Lord..But once it is opened ..Great tasting stuff!
I sang and read for CAMELOT this week and also for a role on ALL MY CHILDREN.
SO at least my audition skills are being honed.
I always have a good time and am always complimented BUT don't always get hired!
GRRRrrrr!!
We saw the first preview of BLITHE SPIRIT at the Shubert Theatre on 44th St. this Thursday.
It was a rough performance as this was their first audience. Lines were fumbled and mumbled and timing was jerky now and again. But it will be a terrific entertainment once things smooth out!
Noel Coward needs that ease of playing and the wonderful lines have to just fall out of the mouth sometimes as an afterthought.
Rupert Everett was on his game and he and Jayne Atkinson were the engine of the play. Once Gorgeous Christine Ebersole came on it was hard to take your eyes from her. She is a wonderful performer and a better actress than we realize because she makes it all interesting and easy. Angela Lansbury was the nutsy Mde Arcati and she was full of her quirky, mesmerizing and dare i say,hauntingly fascinating comic bits.
She got a hand every time she exited the stage.
There was added flavor between scenes. There were projections like title cards form Silent Films telling you : ACT TWO Scene Two / The English Drawing Room Late Afternoon etcc.
But pumped into the theatre was the beautiful sound of Christine Ebersole singing ala Gertrude Lawrence ina 1930's style many of Noel Coward's famous songs.
I'LL SEE YOU AGAIN SOMEDAY I'LL FIND YOU (which I believe is from PRIVATE LIVES) and about 4 or 5 others.
A lovely touch and appropriate for the 1930's period of the play.
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It is now 9:20 PM and we are awaiting the onslaught of a snow storm predicted yesterday on the weather channel.
New Yorkers are always on Alert..and the snowfall that sticks is never enough to really halt much progress. It either melts on the sidewalks immediately or turns to slush by the morning if it falls at night.
It is ultimately a bother with Lakes forming at corners but certainly not the Monster they always predict. On Long Island it is usually worse and I recall it being a wonderland of fun when I was a kid in Hicksville.
I know it is not a popular thing but I love the snow. Here's the Catch 22 .I hate the cold.
SO if it would snow and be about 70 degrees I would be very pleased.
Nonetheless we are awaiting the outcome.
Have been trying to catch up on the Movies I didn't see Pre-Oscars.
I have yet to see SLUMDOG...GRAND TORINO...REVOLUTIONARY ROAD , FROST/NXON..DEFIANCE and some others. I rented the DVD of MILK and was blown away by the Heart in that film and the force and total commitment of Sean Penn and all those involved in the acting company. I also felt I was reliving the period as I had Just gotten my first Broadway show ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY in 1978. And Harvey Milk took his Oath of Office on my 33rd Birthday that year! WOW TIME MARCHES ON huh?
Loved the film and wonder where the SPIRIT of OUTRAGE and DEFIANCE to the ABUSIVE elements in are society has gone?
Just the other day a hate crime was reported and the perpetrators were eventually apprehended :
Two young men killed because they were thought to be Gay but weren't. This is what we are breeding in this country. A Franchise to murder those we THINK are different?
JESUS!!
I marched in protest parades, lent my voice, money and energies to what I could in the cause of Civil Rights and Liberties when I felt I had to do something.
I did what I could in a life that leave me little time for more than a pursuit of the next job in hope that when I look back on it all I can say.."Hey I actually had a creative Career in there."
But even inside the realm and sanctuary of the theatre there is prejudice and manipulation and abuse of powers on all levels. Ego's reign and money is sometimes more important than even the better actor being hired or fired.
I am glad to say I learned a great deal in that realm and am still absorbing.
The MILK movie brought a lot of that personal struggle and outrage home. I wept after it was over. Almost more for the loss of that Outrage and SPIRIT that was so abundantly alive.
Our people's Spirit need to be more than a BLITHE one.
Somehow we must find the embers that are still alive and get them enlightened once more.
Obama is being stressed and tested more than anyone I have ever seen in that high office. He seems to be bending to the will of the Corporate arm of the Democrats and I fear he won't be able to do the main things that need to be done. Like a National Healthcare and actually securing the rights and finances of the less fortunate along with revamping our public education and creating good paying and necessary jobs and get back industry.
Bush has left the turd in the toilet and now that Obama has to flush it out the GOP Criticizes How that is being done.
In essence they are doing their same/game plan : MAKE A VICTIM then BLAME THE VICTIM!
But this time, even with the ultra support of the obviously Right Wing Media, the Public is not as easily fooled.
It is disgusting to watch TV and see and hear, 95% of the time, ALL REPUBLICANS. Criticizing and Scoffing and Whining about Obama and the Stimulus. But do we really hear anything that is gonna help WE THE PEOPLE..Nope..Only that the TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH have to stay!
OH COME ON!
I am so repulsed by the Obvious and thinly disguised attempts to discredit and to stonewall the CHANGE we Voted for.
I say to OBAMA go for it. Be a bit of a Bitch Dictator as W was..only this time make it work for the Correct reasons. UNDO the policies of that toxic worm and his slithering ninnies of Yes Men and the evil Women who bolstered their rotten ways.
Don't let the Corporate block of the Party tilt the scales and make you Bush Light.
You gave the bipartisan bit the ole College try ..Now go for a single minded touchdown.
WE are behind you and will stand with you.
You said ...........; "YES WE CAN!"
I say..or rather, WE say ; "YES YOU CAN!"

Ok I ranted Forgive me..
Went to Target, Daffy's, Marshall's, and Burlington Coat Factory in Brooklyn on Atlantic Ave today..NO REAL BARGAINS and Prices seem to be high and steady for the most part.
HEY there is a major Recession and we need BARGAINS..real ones.
AND WOULD SOMEONE TELL ME WHY DETERGENT IS NOW MORE EXPENSIVE THAN VINTAGE WINES!?
What is that about!
$20 for a plastic bottle of TIDE at Target! huh?
When the Gas Prices went through the roof Prices of goods went up in tandem.
The Price of Gas has gone DOWN and Prices of goods have stayed UP!WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE..
Where is our
SPIRIT!!
Gotta go watch a DISNEY cartoon and get some Reality back!

Stay Warm
XXX
Keybored