NOBODY ASKED ME BUT......
1) Last Sunday’s “Lives” in the NY Times Magazine section struck a chord since most of them don’t—to me.
2) How about a survey? Harry Chapin’s compositions compared to later (or even those of that time) writers. All things are subjective, obviously. Feel free to comment.
3) PBS gives us “Live At Lincoln Center” and the networks give us re-runs of Law & Order, Law and Order SVU , Law & Order CI. Are there any of these shows that have overstayed the time they were good that I have left out? Please do not say “Homicide”—would that quality writing and acting were still with us.
4) Is it not interesting how different critics have different takes on the same production? The Big C on Showtime---one says the writing is awful and the cast is good and the other says the cast is not good (save Laura Linney) and the writing brilliant---best to stick to your own thoughts as with most things. You don’t get paid and they do which should tell us something.
5) The John Lindsay exhibit at the Museum of The City of NY is a marvel and closes in a bit over a month---not to be missed. An underrated and misunderstood mayor who still believed ---then—that doing the right thing was the right thing to do. I have one item that I think should be his crowning glory---any one have a thought on that?
6) Radio is not what it was so many moons ago when there were dramas and one or two hours devoted to “children’s” programming. What is really left now---Garrison Keilor (PRI), WNYC week-end programming (albeit too many repeats of Studio 360 ad nauseum), and WFDU with eclectic and free-wheeling programming.
7) That was a wonderful Live at Lincoln Center ---but, still, seeing a show “live” at the theater is still better.
8) For the first time, after all these years, I found something in South Pacific that did not ring true---just one thing that Hammerstein put into the book that made no sense at all----it has to do with Emile DeBeque and his secret and dangerous mission.
9) If you are a “big fish in a little pond” it is best not get a swelled head because you just might bump it into the sides of the pool.
10) Shakespeare was so far ahead of his time in the field of Urology and gets so little credit for it. Recall the famous soliloquy in Hamlet==”To Pee or not to Pee---that is the question. Whether tis better to suffer the slings and cramps of continence or to relieve oneself”.