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
A COLLOQUY ON MUSIC PART IV (FEATURING DOUGIE FRESH AND CHUNKY STYLE)
DF: Okay. Okay. These headlines are getting out of hand! TTB: That's what lots of hip hop songs look like on the charts. Plenty of secondary artists. No real names! DF: Whatever. Why do we have two new people in this discussion? TTB: Well, Dougie Fresh is bringing his encyclopedic knowledge of the popular song to the discussion and Chunky Style (not his real name) is updating us on the latest in rap stylings. DF: Well, let's go! Mr. Fresh...? Take it away. FRESH: I like
JAMES EARL JONES AND FRIENDS
As I mentioned in my last entry, when I was fairly young in my teaching career I took the initiative to see if I could replicate my experience with Broadway actors for my own students nearly twenty years later. What inspired me was the performance by James Earl Jones in August Wilson's wonderful play Fences, a play which copped both a TONY and a Pulitzer in 1987. Fences is one of ten plays written by Wilson that are collectively known as The Pittsburgh Cycle. They deal prima
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
A COLLOQUY ON MUSIC WITH D. FELTZ, PHYFE DOUG, AND THICK TEE BONE PART III
DF: Well, it's time to look at the development of the modern song. TTB: This sounds tiresome. DF: No, actually I think you'll enjoy it. ...
A COLLOQUY ON MUSIC WITH D. FELTZ, PHYFE DOUG, AND THICK TEE BONE PART II
TTB: When we last left off, we had just finished watching "My Shot", a number from the groundbreaking musical that has been packing them in on Broadway in unprecedented fashion--Hamilton. What did you think? DF: Creative song I guess. Nothing you can actually sing though. Lots of catchy rhyming or quasi-rhyming. I assume all those guys have wonderful singing voices, but there is nothing in the song that would allow them to demonstrate their vocal talents. They just repeat
A COLLOQUY ON MUSIC WITH D. FELTZ, PHYFE DOUG, AND THICK TEE BONE PART I
DF: I've been under attack lately for my lukewarm response to the theatrical mega-hit Hamilton. I have praised it to the hilt for its creativity, the skill of its cast, and the impact it has had on young theatre-goers. That its tickets on the secondary market run into the thousands of dollars doesn't bother me as much as the doubling of the ticket prices on the primary market, but that's just me. I "get" supply and demand. If a show is hot I understand that you can get an ex
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
GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY
Yup. It was fifty years ago, on March 17th, 1966--St. Patrick's Day--that I saw my first Broadway show! Why would I remember it? Easy. I was already approaching my teen years and I had never seen a show. My parents hadn't taken me to one. In fact, they never would. I was listening to WABC-AM radio (770 on your dial--radios actually had dials then), the station virtually all kids kept their ears to during the heyday of the Beatles and the Stones, when I heard one of an e
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
