Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

Barrington Stage Co.: Eleanor

Harriet Harris

I’ll tell you a little secret. My wife and I were going to go to live theater this month. The Barrington Theatre’s main stage was to host Mark St. Germain’s play Eleanor. It would star Tony award-winning performer Harriet Harris. “The play, directed by Henry Stram, brings to life Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the most influential first ladies in American History. The play has two shows, September 4 and 5.”

We had gone to the Pittsfield, MA venue a few times in the past two years. The theatre would have had limited, socially distanced seating and a cast of one. It seemed that the proper protocols were in place. We bought our tickets. Then the live production of the one-act play was shut down by new decisions from the state of Massachusetts.

My wife got a call perhaps a month ago. Our choices were several. We could get a refund, accept credit for future productions, or donate the value of the tickets. But there was a fourth option. Eleanor would now be streamed for two nights. “The play [was] filmed without an audience… In-person ticket holders will automatically be sent a link to the 7:30 show; others interested in watching the performance can purchase tickets now for $15.”

The play’s the thing

“Eleanor brings to life Eleanor Roosevelt, the most influential First Lady the world has ever seen. From her ‘Ugly Duckling’ upbringing to her unorthodox marriage to Franklin, Eleanor puts her controversial life, loves and passions on the stage.” The play was written by Mark St. Germain, as a developmental piece, i.e., a work in progress.

We know quite a bit about the former First Lady from multiple trips to Hyde Park, going back to our respective childhoods, and our sojourn to her cottage at Val-Kill. She was the first Very Important Person to die in my recollection.

St. Germain captured Eleanor quite well, from the familiar – FDR’s ongoing relationship with Lucy Mercer – to representations of her presumed inner thoughts. It was interesting in that it is “modern-day,” almost certainly in the last four years. Yet she knows she’s been dead since 1962. The play was directed by Henry Stram, though there was very little action.

All the world’s a stage

Most of the action came from the facial expressions and voices of Broadway performer Harriet Harris. She won the 2002 Tony winner as the Best Featured Actress In A Musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie. She is very good in the role of Eleanor.

This was a reading. In the introduction, it was noted how previous workshopping had cut about 40 minutes from the piece. But Harris had learned much of the dialogue. The frequency of her reading suggests that the tweaks were greater in the earlier parts of the play.

The downsides of this production are the obvious ones. You don’t see the performer’s whole body. Did the audience laugh at that line, as we did? And staring at a screen for 95 minutes is just NOT exactly the theater experience we were hoping for. It was nevertheless a nice date night event, even if it was traveling to my wife’s office rather than driving to the Berkshires.

Crime per Ayn Rand, James Madison

“who knows what the law is to-day”

James MadisonI must admit I’ve never actually read Ayn Rand. The opinions of many who have either perused her books or watched the movies based on them were unimpressed.

Yet, a Quote A Day thing popped up in my email, and it made a certain amount of sense. Of course, I don’t know the context. “The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”

This seems to be a fairly accurate description of the laws of America, at different points in time, for a select population. For instance, the Black Codes of the Jim Crow era. Black people could be fined if they worked in any occupation other than farming or domestic servitude. There are LOTS of examples of this, such as the now-repealed Rockefeller drug laws.

Federalist 62

James Madison probably penned Federalist No. 62. It is largely about the nature of the House of Representatives versus the Senate. For instance why a Senator should be older than a member of the House.

But there is this one paragraph that just jumped out at me.

“The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessing of liberty itself.” In other words, one ought not to change the law frivolously.

“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read…” Has not the Congress, and undoubtedly state legislatures, regularly passed omnibus bills? They have provisions that almost no one had looked at. And they often have repercussions that were unforeseen or foreseen only by a devious player or two.

“…or so incoherent that they cannot be understood…” I was watching one of the Sunday morning news shows. The moderator said a particular bill meant X. An inept White House representative – let’s call him Larry K. – said it meant Y. The moderator said, “I’ve read the bill!” Larry mused that the MEANING of the bill was beyond what was actually on the paper. Ouch.

Consistency

“If they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow.” Some traffic speed traps are like that, suddenly changing the speed limit without proper signage.

“Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?” I was struck by something on Trevor Noah on July 15, 2020. Teen Jailed for Not Doing Homework. Where is such a law? The case was in Michigan, and was actually a judge’s ruling.

“In mid-May, a Michigan judge found a 15-year-old Black student guilty of ‘failure to submit any schoolwork and getting up for school,’ and sent her to juvenile detention.” She stayed for 78 days before “the Michigan Court of Appeals ordered the teen’s immediate release. The situation sparked “conversations around the school-to-prison pipeline and systemic racism. ”

Thus endeth the musings for today.

1980 music: boycotting the Moscow Olympics

Lennon and McCartney

One of the things I remember the most about 1980 was the Olympics, boycotted by the United States and its allies. It happened as a result of the Soviet Union’s incursion into Afghanistan the year before. So the world learned yet again how difficult invading Afghanistan really was.

Here are the songs from 1980 that hit #1 on the Billboard pop charts. Another One… plus songs by MJ, Lipps, and Babs all went platinum. The others, except for the last two on the list, all went gold.

Lady – Kenny Rogers. #1 for six weeks. #42 RB, #1 CW.

Call Me – Blondie. #1 for six weeks.

(Just Like) Starting Over – John Lennon. #1 for five weeks. After he died in December of that year, I found the sudden irony of this song very difficult to deal with. Still do, actually.

Upside Down– Diana Ross. #1 for four weeks pop and RB.

Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)– Pink Floyd. #1 for four weeks. When I was at FantaCo, I recall co-worker Mark and I came up with new, and bawdy, lyrics

Crazy Little Thing Called Love– Queen. #1 for four weeks.

Rock with You – Michael Jackson. #1 for four weeks. #1 for six weeks RB. From his best solo album.

Magic – Olivia Newton-John. #1 for four weeks. I’ve always loved the first two chords of this song.

Gotta move on

Funkytown– Lipps, Inc. #1 for four weeks. #2 for five weeks RB. It was kept out of the #1 RB slot by Let’s Get Serious – Jermaine Jackson (#9 pop), one of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs.

Another One Bites the Dust– Queen. #1 for three weeks. #2 for three weeks RB. Incidentally, it was kept out of the #1 RB slot by Funkin’ for Jamaica – Tom Browne, a song that didn’t rank on the Hot 100 pop chart!

Woman in Love -Barbra Streisand. #1 for three weeks. I picked this video because the compiler didn’t misspell her name.

Coming Up (Live at Glasgow) – Paul McCartney. #1 for three weeks. This helped inspire John Lennon to start recording again.

It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me – Billy Joel. #1 for two weeks. I recently read an article recently about how a lot of songs that namecheck “rock and roll” don’t really rock. This was example #1.

Do That To Me One More Time – The Captain and Tenille. #58 RB.

Please Don’t Go – K. C. and the Sunshine Band. I have no recollection of this song.

Sailing – Christopher Cross. He was going to be the “next big thing.”

9/11: when you don’t believe

memories

9-11-looking-back-looking-aheadTwo articles about 9/11:

An issue of the Now I Know newsletter was particularly fascinating. It was called When You Don’t Believe Your Past Self.

“Think back to a major moment in your life — something which you truly think you remember each and every detail about. Now, try to recall something mundane from that day, something unrelated to the main events of the moment. What you ate for breakfast, which shoes you were wearing, the weather, the day of the week, etc. Unless you have a savant-level recall, chances are your memory of that fact is, at best, a guess…

“But where is that line between ‘important stuff’ and ‘I think it was a Thursday and cloudy out? It turns out that, even on days we think are seared into our memories, those memories aren’t very reliable.

“Actually, it’s worse than that. If one leading study is any indicator, not only do our memories kind of suck, but we can’t really deal with that fact.

“For horrible reasons, most of who were alive on September 11, 2001, can remember a lot about where we were and what we were doing that morning… Plug in just most other dates in the last fifty years, though and that’s not the case. For memory researchers, 9/11 [was an] opportunity to run experiments that are hard to replicate.

“A year after the terrorist attacks, a group of researchers from asked more than 3,000 respondents… to write down their memories of 9/11 — where they were when they found out about the attacks, who they were with, etc. The research made the same requests of the same people a year later and then again in 2011, ten years after the attacks. And what they found… was that stories changed over time…”

eight forty-six

From 8:46 AM 9/11 to 8 minutes 46 seconds, 2020

“The attack on the World Trade Center led to responses that are not possible today. In France the headline of the newspaper Le Monde was ‘Nous sommes tous américains — We Are All Americans…’

“Nineteen years later the French may still remember but it is a different United States they see today. The eyes of the world are still upon us but what do they see now.

“1. They see a country which failed to manage the coronavirus, became the world leader in coronavirus deaths, declared victory, and moved on content to have 800-1,000 deaths a day forever.

“2. They see a country divided by racism preparing to refight the Second American Civil War.

“3. They see a country that has abandoned its world leadership position of its own free will.”

Census enumerators rock!

Since 1790

census2020-storyimageAs I’ve recently noted, I’m one of tens of thousands of temporary Census enumerators working during the past few months. I’ve learned quite a lot, actually. My wife said I just took the job so I’d have something to blog about. While that’s not technically true, the experience has gotten the brain working.

I’ve been working in Albany County so far. One of the things I have discovered is that I’ve gotten to really see houses I’d never actually looked at before. Some are only a mile or two from my home. Some blocks have a thematic design, while others have a crazy-quilt feel. And oddly, I love them all.

What I don’t love, because I’m getting old, are narrow and/or steep stairs. Or handrails that move. On the first day, I walked the route because most of the houses individually were within walking distance. But the collective toll is that my feet ached for hours.

The solution was to take the bicycle. It’s been great, especially when I have to go three blocks to that next cluster of houses. I’ve discovered putting my Census valise and bike lock in my backpack is the way to go. And while I might get a little wet when it rains, my Census material does not. And I can put the bike on the bus to get to those locations that are a bit farther away.

Packing for the day

There are several items I must carry, in addition to various forms. One is a mask. Because I’m paranoid about losing it, I often carry three or four. I need my badge.

The device we use to get our list of houses to visit is an iPhone. I’ve never owned one. But my current Android rather sucks. When I needed to reboot my iPhone, I was told to turn the volume up and down thrice and turn it off, then on; it worked! The stylus is also preferable to using my fingers. But then I read stories like this and say, maybe not.

They’ve stopped teaching civics

I’ve discovered that a number of people don’t know what the Census is. This is despite ad campaigns and local advocates. I just saw a CDTA bus flash, “Please fill out the Census.” It determines the number of members of the House of Representatives for each state, among many other things.

I have explained how we have counted nearly all the people in the country since 1790; it’s in the Constitution. And that the information is by law confidential, not to be shared with the police, IRS, FBI, CIA, ICE, even the USPS.

Can I get a proxy

One of the difficulties of doing the Census in September when Census Day is April 1 is that people move. After a number of failed attempts, we are required to try to find other people to provide information. Sometimes it’s the landlord or the real estate agent.

One of my friends worried that people might lie about their neighbors. It has been my experience that the neighbors are in the main reluctant to share, or simply do not know.

As for some of the folks who are still there, a reported four-in-ten who haven’t yet filled out the U.S. census say they wouldn’t answer the door for a census worker. And proxies are less reliable than getting data from the householder, of course.

It’s been an interesting sociological study. PLEASE encourage people to fill out the Census by paper or online or by phone or to open their doors to one of the many Census enumerators in their area.

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