THE SUMMER OF LOVE (PART II) PRELUDE (REVOLVER)
This should be about the extraordinary impact of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the iconic Beatles album that changed our musical world in the summer of 1967 and the Number 1 album of all time according to Rolling Stone magazine. But in retrospect, we probably should have seen the Beatles' breakthrough coming a year earlier with the release of two other albums, one a huge hit and the other not so much. Those other albums are now ranked # 2 and # 3 all time on the same
THE SUMMER OF LOVE at 50: (Part I-WEAR FLOWERS IN YOUR HAIR)
There was nothing quite like it. The Summer of Love wasn't just the summer of 1967. You could argue that the phenomenon began in January of that year in Golden Gate Park at San Francisco's "Human Be-In". To become a part of the revolution, hundreds of thousands of high-schoolers, college students, and young adults hitch-hiked or walked or piled into VW Micro buses (see below) and trekked to the Mecca of psychedelic bliss--San Francisco. In fact, that's where the word "psyche
ON THE ROAD (EPISODE 1)
This is the first in a series of places I've visited with family or friends or students over the years. It was my task back in the day (for a paltry sum of course) to drive to the East Orange Library during the summer months and screen films (literal 16mm films--not videotape or DVDs) and determine which would be interesting or provocative enough to show student groups during the next school year. I would write synopses and create questions for discussion and think up project
THE GREAT WHITE HOPE
To celebrate fifty years of theatre going, I am highlighting the backstory of some of my more memorable trips to Broadway or London over the years. Few productions had as much an impact on me as did the one on my return to the Alvin Theatre (where I saw my very first show It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman!--see prior entry). In April of 1969, my school (the legendary Syosset High School) sent a large group of us into NYC to see the much talked about
RICKY JAY
I grew up knowing one card trick. It's a good trick, and I've performed it for students over the years. But it's still only one trick. I say "performing" because the delivery of the trick is at least as much about the presentation as about the actual mechanics of the trick. I can't recall when I first saw Ricky Jay, but it couldn't have been any later than his appearance in the second season of SNL in January of 1977 (episode 12). Perhaps it was years earlier on Johnny Ca
MY LIFE IN THE MOVIES
No, I'm not talking about the two movie theatres I was asked to manage upon my college graduation. Those offers came from film distributor contacts I had made while I was my college paper's film critic for three years. No. I'm talking about working on two of the most memorable films ever made! (Granted, my contributions were relatively minor, but still...). Yes. I worked on the original Star Wars film. I admit, my place in the film's history wasn't flashy. I
1963
At my age it's easier to look back and identify key moments in my life. Emotion often obscures objectivity, but after half a century one can pinpoint this or that moment as integral to one's development. For me, 1963 was one of those transformative years. On July 29th, my father surprised my brother Stephen and me by taking us to a ballgame, the one and only time he would do so, I'm sure at the behest of my mother. We entered Yankee Stadium, the original stadium, and when we
THANKSGIVING TREAT
Couldn't resist the opportunity on this Thanksgiving to add Arlo Guthrie's immortal Alice's Restaurant Massacree to this blog. Played it for my students most of the years I've been teaching, though many view it as some sort of ancient artifact. Hard to believe that when Arthur Penn's film version of the song (There are more songs than you think that have been adapted into films! Future post.) was released in 1969 that students from Syosset High School piled into school buses
