The Daily News

1  So...Coretta Scott King walks into a bar...

2  So...Wendy Wasserstein walks into a bar...

3  She was only 55. Wasserstein was a playwright worth mention, one of the great spokesperson for, as the Merc News' Karen D'Souza said, "single women trying to strike a balance between independence and loneliness in a man's world." Her most famous plays are The Heidi Chronicles (1988), and The Sisters Rosensweig (1993). In addition, Wasserstein wrote the screenplay to the 1998 film The Object of My Affection.

3  Sad times.

4  Services for Mr. Rocha's dad, Paz Salinas Rocha, Sr. will be today at 11 a.m. at Oak Hill's Chapel of Roses, 300 Curtner Ave. San Jose. Donations may be made in his memory to Hospice of the Valley, 1150 S. Bascom Ave. suite 7A, San Jose, CA 95128-3509.

5  For those of you involved in the show, I won't be at school today as I will be attending services. I will, however, be back for rehearsal for the musical.

6  Moving on: Be sure that you tell people that I will be here later; a lot of kids thought we had NO rehearsal yesterday, an easy thing when we move from the Theatre to my classroom to rehearse. 

7  This was a bit of a hit, because we got off to three straight great rehearsals in a row. I haven't had a Show begin THAT huge since 1990's Godspell, which had singers and dancers and people with stars in their eyes from the first day!!!! Sound familiar?

8  So we'll just look at yesterday's dip as just a little bump in the road. Amazingly, the group that stayed was able to have a VERY successful rehearsal, working all the backing vocals to Summer Nights, the she-bops and all.

9 We spent almost an hour and a half just getting the "down-doobie-do-dooobie-doobie-doobie do doobie down's" figured out. On Songs We've Heard, we had to figure out how to sing We Go Together with all the "like rama lama lama, kadinga kadinga dong's", or "doo wop she-waddy-waddy-dippity dipty do's".

10  So the fun continues!

11  A musical is just an amazing achievement: everything needs much more attention to detail than say, FANTASTICS entrances, because you are working on well over twenty some-odd songs, all of which need singing, dancing, costumes, and all the rest, and it goes on LIVE!

12  I began casting people in parts last night, and I'm casting from the people who are the most dedicated FIRST. And so far, it's awesome! Also, I brought in some Godpsell tunes, including a possible reprise of All Good Gifts, but I'm ALSO considering a REALLY fun song called We Beseech Thee, and a glorious song called On the Willows. I hope to do those live, as well as he rockers Rent, from Rent, and I want to attempt the song My Favorite Things from the Sound of Music as a Dave Brubeck-sounding jazz piece, also live. And if possible, making the song Footloose not only live, but with a hip-hop feel, although when I talked with my daughter Caitlin, she felt Footloose would work as a swing dance piece!

13  So these guys just need to realize the importance of being there, and of being dedicated.

14  I think we have that this time!

15  The rehearsals will continue TODAY after school in room P-61, so be sure if you are in that you don't take a Spring Musical for granted! I don't offer this sort of package every year, so cast members, realize what I have offered. I realize what you have to offer, so let's get right back into it!!!

16  Come and meet those dancin' feet!!!

17  More to come...

18  Peace.

 

~H~

 

 

 

The Daily News

Hello Myspacers.

This is Tom. Because I now have 38,471,517 friends, I can't possibly have all of you over for my Lonelyguy TET Celebration, which takes place at Myplace next Wednesday; that's WAY too many shoes on my porch, for one thing. So the next best thing I can do is delete 28,225, 867 people from Myspace by next Wednesday, so at least we could make porch room for you to get through the door, and the subsequent shoe funk in front of my house will have fallen close to zero. So the first 10,245,650 people to re-post this will remain on myspace. The rest of you are screwed. You out. So you better get crackin'.

Popularity, they say, comes at a price.

Tom

 

The Daily News

1  So...Chris Penn walks into a bar.

2  I wasn't so sure I needed to tell people THAT one, but anyway, he did.

3  Yesterday's audition turned into a rehearsal, and also one of the best rehearsals of my entire directing career! We talked of love, of soul, of the silence between the notes, but then we did a bunch of things that just ROCKED!

4  I don't know that I could put it all down right here, so I might just wait, but let's just say it was a LOT of fun! We did a roller coaster, and Summer Nights, but with some soul at the end, the venerable Coffee Break from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and accidentally ended with Tomorrow from Annie, when I accidentally pushed the wrong track on the CD player!

5  As we were leaving, I put on Footloose, which is ALSO now a Broadway show! Instantly, every goofball in the place began dancing goofy, so it was fun. At one point, Chantra began mouthing a rap beat in the middle of it, and it instantly looked like a hip-hop song!

6  This is going to be a LOT of fun!

7  We continue on today with a little more, because I need to see who can sing, who can harmonize, and who will work with the songs.

8  But make no mistake: we already have people getting slight injuries, and falling the wrong way, and there's a ton of physical acting, of which I'm famous, at least in my own frabjous mind. By next Wednesday, we ought really to have a few minor scrapes and cuts, and maybe six or seven broken bones.

9  That's why we have a cast party.

10  <thud.>

11  Ha! M'bad, m'bad, m'bad.

12  I saw that little cartoon ballon pop up over your head saying, "SOOOOO stupid!"

13   You see, because "cast party..." ah, nevermind!

14   In short, we're having some fun, in a year that's been short of fun!

15  What a great jump start to the Spring!

16  Anyway, we'll just keep it short today; this has been a VERY fun, but very hectic week.

17  I'll look back on this week as a turnaround for the entire year though. I haven't seen the Theatre this lively in years, and it don't it feel good!

18  So enjoy the weekend; don't forget your umbrellas.

19  And let's just keep the good times rollin'!

20  Cast party. Yeesh. This guy. SO dumb!

20  Peace.

~H~

 

 

The Daily News

AMAZING!

1  Yesterday we had over FORTY people at auditions, and the Theatre rocked like we know it can!!! We started to have auditions, but before you knew it, we began singing, choreographing, laughing, and the place just jumped alive almost instantly!!!

2  I went in, set things up perhaps better than ever, giving each student folders with the songs in them as they entered.

3  And that was okay. I played Summer Nights from Grease as the kids came in. Last year, we had I think six kids in all show up for auditions for this same exact show.

4  And yesterday, I don' t know WHAT happened, but when the Theatre door opened for this miracle, they came in in bunches, and every time I looked back, I saw more kids flooding in! It was HUGE, and fun!!!

5  With a crowd THAT big, I painted my face and took charge immediately. I got everybody up, put the girls on stage and the guys in the seats, all standing and moving, the entire time. We did Summer Nights from Grease, and I used the microphone to prompt and keep people in character. They responded like pros!

6  This group just came in immediately as a team, and we just had a blast!!! The number we are doing above is Coffee Break, from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

7  And with FORTY cast members, we can now do songs we of which we previously could have only dreamed. Looks like we can get some larger numbers in now, such as Circle of Life from The Lion King, or There is Nothing Like a Dame from South Pacific!

8  The excitement went everywhere around the Theatre, flying past the spot booth, in and out the back doors, and finally, it came to full motion on the stage, where we staged not one, but TWO songs already. All we have to do now is learn the words!!! Haha!!

9  And the thing about it is that we have another day today. As I write this, I have the musical version of Can You Feel the Love Tonight playing in the background. It just is the perfect song right now. It's as though it's telling me that the miracle has finally arrived...

10  Auditions continue TODAY after school! I'm guessing that a LOT of kids are humming those songs from yesterday, and might even bring in still more!

11  I'm going to cut off the DN for the day then, not because I've nothing to say, but because I write it at night, and I really want to give like I gave yesterday every day!!! I need rest, because for the first time all year, I'm pumped up and ready for a LOT of fun and madness!!! And don't it feel GOOD!!!

12  This was THE most successful first day of auditions possibly in the history of the Workshop!!! And EVERYBODY cooperated, stayed, sang, got into character, and helped me stage things, all BEFORE we even gave out parts!

13  It's incredible, and it has SUCCESS written in huge letters all around it.

14  I hope everybody who was here yesterday is ready to go out there and take it home today!

15  I LOVED everything yesterday.

16  Haha!!! And right now, I Just Can't Wait to be King is bumping me along with the night as I compose these words, just SO awesome of a day!!!

17  We have arrived!!!!

18  There is a whole lot of warm, wonderful feelings going on around and through the Theatre these days!!!

19  Let's just fly into this and give it a bash!

20  It feels great to be laughing and singing again!

21  Enjoy your day; we have auditions after school today as well.

22  I'm on a field trip, and then I just can't wait to get back!!!

23  Peace, y'all!!!!

 
Cheshire moon...

ya gotta love it!

~H~

 

 

 

The Daily News

1   Though this be madness, yet there is method in't...

2  Suddenly, we're back in business.

3  I assembled FOUR really fun opening numbers for the Show, and I want to tell the world what they are, but I think it's more fun if we just keep it a surprise!

4  If you are trying out, come to the Theatre TODAY after school. I'm expecting a pretty good turnout; I've had kids coming into my room and inquiring about it all day. That's usually a sign that lots of people are interested!

5  Those of you worried about it, fear not! You will be singing as a GROUP, and I've chosen some really fun songs, so that after the auditions, you will be singing all night.

6  Auditions.

7  It's REAL again around here.

8  And it just keeps getting better! I got home last night after preparing the audition packets, and found EIGHT more CD's of music!!!! Stuff from Disney, INCLUDING Lion King, Broadway Hits, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, and a few others.

9  The troupes are gathered, and say what you will, it's an early Spring! And we will perform on the weekend of Easter, which means a LOT of people will be in town to be able to enjoy and celebrate with us!

10  Something's comin'...

11 That's a song from West Side Story. Something's Comin'...

12  We can begin right where we left off.

13  With love. Always, with love. That's the Theatre.

14  The excitement of auditions, the beginning of a Show, the continuance of the continuance of the continuance...

15  Because, you see, though this be madness, yet...

16  In the Spring of 1997, we put on a Show called, quite simply, The Show.

17  Because the Shows always live, always come back, always remind us of who we are. And they are the same Show, in the long run...a concept that will make sense soon enough...

18  And today is the dawn of a completely new Show, and yet...

19  It is a continuance of a continuance...

20  And on and on, and they all take on a much deeper meaning as each year sifts away, so swiftly that we barely have time to realize the importance as it is happening, until we measure it in love. This will occur to you later in this piece.

21  So..wow. A musical...to our new Company...here are some pics of our last Musical! The baton has been passed...may these wonderful pictures lift your spirits and prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet. The time has come for you, our new Company, to take the baton, and to bring still more magic to those who passed it to you...and to your own talented and amazing group, and to a new closing night.  After all, in the end, it's all one Show...and it continues...enjoy this! Enjoy the joy and simplicity of friendships and warm memories; 
they will take on tremendous meaning with each passing year, with each sunset, with each midnight, with each cup of coffee...

       Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes...

             How do you measure, measure a year...

      In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee, in inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife...how about love?

   measured in love...

seasons of love.

break-a-leg today.

you are now part of this.

Peace.

 

~h~

 

 

The Daily News 

 

1  My room is utterly abuzz with talk of the Spring Musical.

2  We tried to do a musical last year, but for some reason, nobody seemed interested.

3  I really want this to work. I don't offer to do musicals very often, and when I do, I get really ready for a great ride.

4  The last musical we did was Songs We've Heard,and that was quite a while ago. We've been musical-less for quite some time, and it was refreshing listening to all the songs and chosing our newest memories. Songs We've Heard was a sweet memory, and a lot of fun. 

5  We are in our fifth day of planning. There's a LOT involved, not the least of which was clearing the boards for the dates, getting the songs gathered, making audition posters, packets, and all the rest.

6  On Saturday, I got together with Peter, Vivien, and Nhat, and we just sat in the Theatre listening to five CD's of Broadway shows, and compared what we had with my mom's list.

7  It was just a beautiful afternoon in the Theatre; the stage was lit like a coffeehouse, mic and guitar, blue stool with Van Gogh flowers, and we sat in the audience under the glow of the houselights, listening to the different Broadway songs and playing a mightily fierce game of Monopoly, the World's Longest Game.

8  It was just perfect. We added a rule called immunity, in which if you have say, a Baltic, you give it to the guy who has Meditterenean in return for immunity from his Monopoly.

9  It's a GREAT new rule, if you've never played that way before. It took them a while to catch on, but I just bought one Monopoly. At first, my money ran all the way down to a dollar, but soon enough, I just kept running around the board freely, because I was immune to all their Monopolies. They all kept eating each other alive, and I at one point got back up to over $7000!!!

10  Eventually, they got into serious collusion, and it all evened out, but it was really a fun way to chose music!

11 We were able to listen to five CD's of Broadway hits, and got a LOT of work out of the way.

12  Yesterday a few students came into the room and heard some wonderful songs that we had already chosen, and we got out our fliers, and the kids posted them all over the school!

13  So we begin Wednesday and Thursday after school in the Theatre. I can't wait to see how it goes. You never know.

14  I do know that we have a great new group just coming off a successful run of Once Upon a Time, and are just pretty eager to get out there and do it again.

15  So I can't wait! This sounds like it should be a lot of fun, and hopefully not too tough to do.

16  And just hearing the whole building singing and dancing once more brings some much-needed joy to all our hearts.

17  So we're all getting ready to rumble!

18  On a sadder note, I found out yesterday that Mr. Rocha was absent because his father passed away yesterday morning. I don't know too much else, but you might keep Mr. Rocha and his family in your thoughts and prayers today.

19  Peace.

 

~H~

 

 

 

 

The Daily News

1  So...Tony Franciosa walks into a bar...

2  He was married to the late Shelly Winters, who passed away on January 14.

3  Well, both were members of the Actor's Studio, and both are now in that great Show in the sky.

4  Quite a bar, quite a bar...

5  Did I wake up and hear that Kobe Bryant scored 81 points yesterday? Are the Steelers and the Seahawks REALLY the two best teams in football? Makes the head swim!

6  And we now move on...

7  Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings...

8  Auditions for our Spring Musical go up Wednesday and Thursday after school in the Theatre. It's going to be called My Favorite Things, and it's going to be a musical revue of my favorite musical numbers, but really, it's going to be my mom's favorite songs from musicals.

9  My mom first introduced me to theatre when I was a kid, and always had wonderful music playing in our living room. We had fun singing and listening to all the greats, and I recently decided to ask her what HER favorite songs were.

10  She's bedridden, and so I thought she might get a kick out of choosing the best musical numbers of all time. What she doesn't know is that I want to put a show together, record it, and give it to her as a birthday present in May!

11  So I called and asked her what her favorite songs were, and to e-mail me a list.

12 She responded immediately with a list that she sent to me via snail mail, and I LOVED it! Her list was quite impressive, with songs coming from such grand shows as Bye, Bye Birdie, Cabaret, Camelot, Chicago <her words: "My favorite all time show!", Fiddler, Finian's Rainbow, Godspell, Guys and Dolls, Gypsy, Hair, Hello, Dolly!, The Lion King, Mame, Music Man, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, Rent, Showboat, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Tommy, and West Side Story.

13  Noticeably missing are shows by Sondheim, as well as by Andrew Lloyd Webber, but still, an impressive list, to be sure!

14  Her liner notes to me were fun! Of Carousel, she said, "What a downer!"

Cats: "Is this that Webber guy?"

Finian's: "Nuff said~" <I was in Finian's Rainbow when I was a Senior, so needless to say,  we love it!> 

Godspell's Day by Day:"Laura Diaz <a friend> sang that song to death--"

Oliver: "Read the book when I was 10-- ho-hum.."

Phantom of the Opera: "Webber again! Saw the movie when I was a kid. Didn't like it."

Rent: "Wish I was 20 again! I think I'd like this!"

West Side Story: "Story sounds familiar..."

and finally, a note tagged on at the end of her list:

"Buddy, I know this is more than you wanted, but I just had to show off my memory!!!!
Without a computer!"

15  So this one goes out to mom.

16  Peace.

 

 

~H~

 

The Daily News

1   So...Wilson Pickett walks into a bar...

2  Yesterday during 4th period, a student stole my cell phone.

3  I had plugged it in to charge it, right in front of my desk, and I guess I just took my eyes off it for a second and it vanished. Poof. Gone.

4  M'bad, I guess.

5  Every time some student steals from me, I just shake my head and say to myself, "M'bad." I say this because I'm a big boy, and I should know better than to be that careless, and I have likened it to a guy accidentally leaving his plate of cheese in front of a mouse hole.

6  We have mice. It's sad, but true.

7   Well, to me it is just a phone, a thing, and it meant nothing, really. Just another day.

8   Moving on: A bunch of us took off yesterday right after lunch and headed to the Ano Nuevo State Reserve, a magical section of coast located perhaps 25 miles north of Santa Cruz.

9  We were doing this with some of the fundraising monies that ATFNL has raised this year with some of their events. ATFNL keeps growing, and is becoming one of the most successful clubs on campus.

10  They sold coupon books, and put together an awesome haunted house earlier in the year, but more than that, this club has taken the lead in the entire district in dealing with the very real concerns of substance abuse, alcohol, tobacco challenges, and has recently expanded to offer professional and semi-professional guidance in family issues, relationship counseling, and basically how to live a happier, healthier life.

11  They are the largest group in the district, and are the  strongest and best. Besides that, they have a LOT of fun! They took first place for Club entries at this year's Christmas in the Park downtown, and this club continues to grow, prosper, and have a great time.

12  Yesterday bonded that group. We went on a tour of an area of the coast that is like no other, and we learned of its history, and the miracle of its once-considered extinct elephant seals, magnificent creatures, alive and well in this mystical area of the coast that exists on some very unique wetlands, rich with history of the Ohlone Indians, and of magnificent land formations.

13  We felt we were walking in an area that is millions of years old.

14  We later went to McDonald's, where of course, Michelon and I began speaking of the Baloney Indians, and it went downhill from there.

15  Smiles everywhere, and a new dawn for a club I'll be running next year.

16  It put the vermin who took my cell, and everything else that's been bottled up all year into a bottle was sent forcibly into the sea.

17  Sometimes you just need an epiphany.

18  Yesterday was it.

19  Thank you, ATFNL.

20  You have officially arrived.

21   You'll excuse me, gentlemen. Your business is politics,
        mine is running a saloon.
                                     Humphrey Bogart, as Ric Blaine
                                          Casablanca (1942)

21   You can't hurt steel.

23    Peace. 

 

~H~

 

 

The Daily News

1  Every time I think I have the beat on this year, I'm all over the place, like Mr. Chau.

2  Yesterday, I was all set to get home and watch the grass grow, when I was whisked to an ATFNL meeting, which I wound up really enjoying.

3  Suddenly, it's almost Spring. I mean, you wouldn't KNOW it with the weather and all, but make no mistake, it is the Spring semester. Ya listening, Seniors?

4  And this is always the time that it's a bit of a calm before the storm. It's looking like we will be having musical auditions some time next week, and lots of things on the horizon. In many ways, it's a time of relaxation and meditation.

5  I enjoy the calm this time of the year. It's like the hectic holidays have passed, finals are done, and there's this small, gentle window of peace before it all goes zany again.

6  So I'm going to sit in the lotus position and enjoy the feng shui of my classroom. I can't figure it out, but for some reason, that room is just comfortably wonderful and such a nice place to enjoy. The furniture is old and funky, the curtain is plywood, the desk is still that funky old green one I've had forever, but somehow it all makes sense. I can become one with goofiness and fun every time I go in there.

7  Peace 61. Great place.

8  Even that funky smell. It just smells of good times, laughter, friends, and lovers. It has the energy that has run the west end of the school for years. Lots of laughs have roared through that room and ended up echoing over the whole city and on into the hills.

9  Lots of singing, painting, dancing, eating, pizzas and egg rolls, birthdays, surprises, and joy have made Peace 61 a new classic.

10  And we continue the joy and laughter into this year, when it became the makeup room for the haunted house, and the place to go when you just need peace.

11  So yeah, I think I'm going to go in there cross-legged and become one with the Creator of the Universe, and thank whoever that is with all my heart.

12  It's great to be back, and I mean that.

13  I'm ready to take on the moon and the stars and the sun.

14  Instant karma.

15  Peace, and pizza.

~h~

 

The Daily News

1  I think I'm in love with Rachel McAdams.

2  Okay, that got your attention. Actually, I'm not the least bit interested in Rachel McAdams, and I'll thank her to stop her incessant phone calls to my new cell.

3  You just shouldn't give out your number, or so they say. Well, live and learn.

4  Anyway, Wedding Crashers seems to be the DVD to check out this past week.

5  For once, I went mainstream and watched it, not because I wanted to go mainstream, but because years ago, when I was in college, I had an idea for a screenplay in which two broke college guys buy some nice clothes and decide to crash weddings.

6  I SWEAR to you. But the plot had nothing to do with the guys going to weddings to score women. It was more along the lines of them going to weddings to fill their pockets with food, and to steal beer kegs and champagne, and to attempt to live a rich life without ever having to work. I'd STILL like to see that one!

7  So amid all my semester grading, and being ass-over-elbows in papers, staples, paper clips, and ridiculous disdain for anything even remotely resembling thought, I got a chance to watch a movie.

6  Well, it was okay, because I put my throbbing head into procrastination mode, and in the course of it, I saw a reasonably entertaining movie! Hooray for me! Well, a pretty okay movie. I guess there were just certain things I liked about it.

7  For one thing, Christopher Walken remains one of my favorite actors. But Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn tore it up, and I just laughed. Great comedic timing, and GREAT chemistry.

8  And then there was Rachel McAdams. My! What a lovely actress, and what a perfect ingenue.

9  And I loved this one line. She asked Wilson to define true love, and he said this:

True love is your soul's recognition of
it's counterpoint in another.

10  I put on the director's comments on the DVD and just couldn't remember that line, so while that played behind me, I hopped online and looked for that quote, because I enjoy listening to director's notes. Can't imagine why. But I didn't want to stop it, skip back, and all of that. The computer is a pretty handy dandy little resource.

11  In no time, I found the quote, and the second I found it, and the second I wrote it down, I heard the director, David Dobkin, say, "It's a little bit funny..."

12  I just stopped, looked up,  gave a shoulder chuckle, you know, how you do, and returned to whatever it was I was doing.

13  It was fun though, because I noticed a lot of the directorial touches and stuff, and he would say, "Yeah, we were trying to do this here..." and I was proud to have noticed all that stuff when I watched.

14  Anyway, I don't want this to sound like some boring blog, so I think I'll put another picture up in here:

15  Shameless.

16  I love "up in here".

17  Kids always say that now. "It's cold up in here."

18  We've become bland.

19  Well, I think I'll tuck this guy away for the day. Craig Ferguson just came on again, and he's talking about a space probe, and outer space, and something about Uranus, so I gotta leave you now.

20  Enjoy the day, and welome back the DN with open arms. It's really just a nice friend.

22  Sometimes it can be your best friend.

23  Peace. Good times. Nice to have you back.

 

~H~