December 2, 2004
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The Daily News
1 So the Giants get a closer, and Jason Giambi has just made sure that Barry Balco will get his day in court. Say it ain’t so…
2 Anniversaries: I had to love the picture on page 2A in yesterday’s Merc News. It was a picture of Godzilla, holding a plaque on Hollywood Boulevard. He finally received a star on the Walk of Fame, and the picture is just priceless. Stupid, but priceless, especially on a slow news day.
3 Hollywood Access, or one of those dumb shows I sleep through, had another anniversary party: the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney’s very awesome Mary Poppins. Both Julie Anrews, the actress who played Mary Poppins, and Dick Van Dyke, who played Burt, were there.
4 Now when I was but a wee lad, I thought Mary Poppins was the greatest children’s movie ever made. It was totally theatrical, and one of my earliest set designs had me, at age 9, attempting to figure out how to do the “I Love to Laugh” scene. I recall having had some weird idea of nailing the furniture to the ceiling or something; it made sense to the mind of a nine-year old.
5 I always wanted Mary Poppins to hit Broadway and become a stage show, because I loved the music, the carnival atmosphere intermingled with the whole London mist. I wanted to see it staged.
6 Well, somewhere “back in the day”, I remember Great America had this revue of shows, and since I’m not a big rollercoaster guy, I wandered in, and was dazzled by the set, which had rooftops of London, complete with smoke coming up from chimneys. They pulled off the immortal Step in Time number, and I finally had at least a part of my dream! Just awesome!
7 In my very early days of teaching, I recall with a great deal of fondness standing on our stage with two students, and singing Chim Chim Cheree at one of our early Winter Concerts. I recall my wrist hurting, because the song was all barre chords. My good ol’ Yamaha, the same one that is backstage right now, accompanied, and it worked beautifully as a Christmas song, simply magical.
8 And I remember two years ago, again on our very stage, Chloe singing Feed the Birds in a show we did called Songs We’ve Heard. I chose the song immediately because I thought it was one of the most beautiful songs I’d ever heard. We later found that it was Walt Disney’s favorite song, and once a year on his birthday, it would be sung to him by Richard Sherman, who wrote the tune with his brother, Robert. After Disney passed away, Sherman would still sing the song from his piano on ”Uncle Walt’s” birthday each year, and each year, he would choke back a tear as he sang.
9 Good times, good times. That’s what my daughter, Caitlin always says. Incidentally, while we were in rehearsal for Songs, Caitlin pulled out her flute at home and learned Feed the Birds, so we had fun working on that song, just for no other reason than simply to bond.
10 Caitlin also helped Thuy learn flute on that show, and those are the moments I just savor. When Thuy finally nailed the flute solo on All Good Gifts, from Godspell, my heart just took off.
11 Once upon a time…
12 I just never quite know where this thing is going to go, but boy, get me thinking about things like Mary Poppins, and I turn into a total nance, and I don’t mean that in a bad way…
13 Sorry. Little Thugs joke.
14 This year…I swear…just so little time…
15 Gottago.
16 Peace.
