Month: January 2010

J.D.Salinger, 1919-2010
The Daily News

1 So…J.D. Salinger walks into a bar…

2 Let’s face it. Salinger is the reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye, but much of his other stuff was depressingly difficult to consume.

3 To many, the book was probably just one in a line of hundreds of books.

4 To me, that book is responsible for my entire life.

5 Allow me please, to explain.

6 As a kid, I was an avid reader. I would read ANYTHING I could get my hands on, and spend hours with books, magazines, sports pages, comic books, science magz, and even the more sophisticated articles in Playboy.

7 Haha!

8 Oh, granny, puh-LEEEEZE. Do me a fat favor.

9 Anywho, I LOVED reading everything and nothing. Didn’t matter,and it doesn’t matter.

10 Comic books in particular I found absolutely creative, innovative, and wondeful.

11 AnywayZ…

12 School reading always bored me. While I understood the importance of guys like Thoreau and Emerson, I would often look out the classroom windows hoping for some nice clouds to drift by so I could hitch a ride to a lofty daydream.

13 My tenth grade teacher, the immortal Sharon Jackson, brought wonderful books to us all the time. It was just my sophomore year, she didn’t.

14 I had already moved swiftly through the English thing, so in my sophomore year, I was placed in a junior English class, which would be the modern equivalent to English 3.

15 THAT literature bored me to death. I absolutely hated The Scarlet Letter, and when my Mrs. Jackson brought Walden, I wanted to run screaming to the mountains.

16 I remember trying to read Walden at a time when EVERYBODY loved it, and I still thought it was b-o-r-i-n-g. I just thought it self-indulgent and a real snore. Meanwhile, everybody raved about it all around me, because it was such a cool concept: Ah, simplicity!

17 Ah, get a life, green man.

18 Well, for the record, I now appreciate Thoreau, and I appreciate that Emerson is now one of my favorite writers ever, but at that time, I wanted never to pick up another book to read.

19 Amazing.

20 AnywayZ, one fine day, Mrs. Jackson brought in The Catcher in the Rye, and I simply rolled my eyes. “Not ANOTHER one,” I thought.

21 She brought a chair to the middle of the class, and said, “This is a story about a boy who is having trouble trying to deal with all the phony people around him, and with his own struggles in dealing with being young.”

22 Words to that effect.

23 The shades came down, and all I wanted to do was to either go home and shoot some buckets, or go to the drug store and buy a coupla DC’s.

24 She continued. “I am going to read only the first couple of paragraphs, and then I’m going to allow you time to read the first chapter,” she said.

25 Oh, brother…

25 Well, the first chapter began thus:

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They’re quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They’re nice and all – I’m not saying that – but they’re also touchy as hell. Besides, I’m not going to tell you my whole goddamn autobiography or anything. I’ll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out and take it easy.”

26 That one passage did more to turn me into a raving reading maniac than everything I had read up ’til that point, an anything I have subsequently read.

27 Sidebar: the italics on the Salinger quote, by the way,ended at the last quotation mark. Neither Mozilla nor MSN would honor my font requests, so I guess item 26 shall remain in italics forevermore, even though it is my own words.

28 So it goes.

29 Back to it: AnywayZ, my point was that Cather in the Rye inspired me like no other.

30 Up to that point, I had separated my own reading from the reading that was school assignments and homework.

31 I tore through Catcher in the Rye as though it were the Sanskrit. I read it, re-read it, and absolutely fell in love with all literature at that very moment in my young, frabjous mind.

32 To this minute I don’t know why, except to say that it spoke to me, and became one of my favorite books ever.

33 I read other things by him, but they seemed even more depressing. I wasn’t interested in any of that, if you want to know the truth.

34 So to Mr. Salinger, thank you for your masterpiece. I do think it appeals to guys more than it does ladies, but in my life, it reached my very soul.

35 Amazing.

36 Moving on, Part 1: Ah, I thank all of you who wrote me emails about yesterday’s DN. I would also like to thank my wonderful friend and confidante Shawna Fleming for contributing her spirit and soul to the memories.

37 If I may, she sent me another email with a special tribute to the girls who delivered the goods in Three Minutes to Midnight. Here is the email, and I know Shawna would love for the girls to read this, so here it is, with LOTS of love:

I love remembering this show (i.e., “Three Minutes to Midnight”)! The music was a blast and a half to sing, play, and choreograph; your skits and vignettes were inspired (and hilarious); and I was continually blown away by the spirit, talent, and exuberant goofiness of our kids. The Girls’ Ensemble made the girl group sets (with songs like “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “One Fine Day,” “Dancin’ in the Streets,” and “Goin’ to the Chapel”) a joy to put together and perform; and Chris, Nelson, et al on “The End of the World as We Know It” (as the rest of the cast tore frantically across stage in escalating state of panic) rocked the house as it seldom had been rocked before. The show was inspired fun from beginning to end–kind of a miracle really, when you consider how little time we had to get it together.

Thanks for the memories,

Shawna

38 Ah, Shawna, if I may, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb publicly to declare you the miracle that lived in all of our hearts the entire time we worked together. I LOVED watching the girls bringing it the other night when watching the video, and can anything ever be more fun than “Dancin’ in the Streets” with Evelyn bringing the soul?

39 Calling out around the world are you ready for a brand new beat?

40 Just fun, pure and simple.

41 Sometimes it’s the simple things, to be sure.

42 Running theme on the DN, and certainly to anyone who knows me.

43 So thank you, Mr. Salinger, for without you, I may never have pushed to go to college, and to move on to direct all those wonderful Shows, and maybe never have enjoyed all the beautiful lives that came to me as a result.

44 I feel blessed to have met so MANY amazing friends through teaching, and I cherish all the students, teachers, and staff who have brought so much love to me over the years. It is nice to see that they made the same impact on you as well.

45 Moving on, Part the Second: On behalf of Shawna, Ponch, and myself, I just want to say that it has been a pleasure and an honor to have been part of all of your lives, and I’m happy to know that there may still be more memories to be had in the coming years. We all cherish your love and friendship through the years. And thanks J.D. for the inspiration.

46 Live life.

47 Love life.

48 Peace.

a chaplin 1 silents picture projected on large flat in first yb show Silents

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

The Daily News

1 All apologies for yesterday’s DN that went out to the DN peeps. I had FINALLY finished ALL grading of papers, and was exhausted. Fell asleep and then awakened in a rather dreary state, filled with Nepenthe and Theraflu, some concoction.

2 So the DN was written in a dream, and a lousy dream at that!

3 I did rewrite it for Facebook, but really! I read what went out in disbelief. I just wanted to hit the deadline, and wasn’t sure I’d get to it in the morning.

4 Ah, so it goes, so it goes.

5 Moving on, Part 1: Ah, vell.

6 I got this email the other day from me old friend and confidante Shawna Fleming. It is re. the Dn about The Show, and Three Minutes to Midnight. I don’t think Shawna would mind my sharing it one bit, so here it is, in its entirety:

As much as I enjoyed doing “The Show,” I think I liked “Three Minutes to Midnight” even more, in part because it was something you had to throw together quickly after we got word we wouldn’t be permitted to put on a production of “Grease.” It was fun and zany and full of great music. I had relatives from out of town come to that show, and they were stunned at how talented our kids were, acting one minute, singing and/or playing an instrument the next; they even liked our “girl group” choreography, most of which was created by the girls themselves.

You “made magic” year after year.

Shawna

6 Hmmm. How about THAT one, Three Minutes ppl? I thought that Show had such a hectic time frame that it remains somewhat a blur, but what lovely music! It was so much fun!

7 And for the record, I never made a moment of magic, at least I don’t think so. I was just a grunt. We had AMAZING students year in and year out who worked hard and who believed they could do it. That particular group sang and danced and played instruments, and had it all!

8 And that Show led us all to an amazing appreciation for the history of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and of all the original artists, many of whom were black groups whose music was given to white artists so that mainstream America would buy in. What a sad thing, and yet, it led to the eventual blending of many different styles of music that would come together as Rock ‘n’ Roll.

9    It also gave me, at least, an appreciation for the great Buddy Holly.

10   Thanks, Shawna, for the nice words. It’s been a long time, my goodly friend. A lot of people will love having heard from you!

11   Moving on, Part 2: I got home last night exhausted, as always, from having gotten ALL my work done, finally, from the first semester. Yesterday was a conquest, when I handed back something like six reams of paper to the students. True, some had already been handed back previously, but the past two months saw an absolute deluge in papers and projects.

12   That coupled with trying to get to hospitals to see ailing relatives, writing new lesson plans, preparing for the holidays, and going through normal life stresses actually inundated me with some of the most stress I’ve ever encountered. Beginning on New Year’s Eve, I found my Dad has bone cancer. Within two weeks, Helene’s uncle became severely sick, and sadly passed away. I began sleeping less and less, but still kept up with my trips to the gym, but would get home late, and conk out.

13   At one point, I had spent almost an entire day with my sisters at the San Francisco VA hospital worrying about my Dad. I actually brought papers to grade, and spent most of the day in the cafeteria grading papers. I also had the normal issues that we all deal with on a daily basis, things that seem SO important, but that when measured against reality, become mere piffle.

14   So yesterday became something of a triumph over all of it. My classes enjoyed reading and studying all about Greek literature, and the second half of the period gathering all the papers and projects on which they had worked so diligently. While they enjoyed reading one another’s magazines and stories, I played an audio of the music from Zorba the Greek, and shouts of “Opa!” rang through the classes.

15   The groups shared their work, their stories, and their friendships. As corny as it may sound, the classes bonded, friendships became closer, and I sat smiling over all of it. I had left vocabulary sentences of myriad pastel colors all over my whiteboard, and the room filled with mirth and laughter of friendships, many of which started in the Cathedral.

16   Lovely, lovely day of teaching. Lovely, lovely profession. Lovely, lovely students!

17   Of course now it is almost midnight, and I’m sort of wondering where to go from here. One class has finished a unit on Antigone, and the other is almost completely done with The Odyssey. I played some songs from Grease the other day once again, including the very wonderful “We Go Together”, which brought back memories not only of Three Minutes to Midnight, but of a little jewel of a Show called Songs We’ve Heard, a Show featuring so many of my ’05′ers, as well as some beautiful students on either side of that year.

18 Three Minutes to Midnight was originally supposed to be Grease!, by the way. Theatre people know that traditionally, Grease! was a show with a somewhat mediocre script, a reasonably lousy theme (nice girl turns into slut), and a sort of tepid send-up to Rock ‘n’ Roll’s early days, but that was also a HUGE moneymaker. The challenge with doing Grease! was always obtaining the rights to do it.

19   Most musicals required simply writing the company that handles their royalties and then signing a few papers. Grease! traditionally was unavailable, and it finally came available somewhere around 1997. Ponch called those guys, and we had a sort of verbal okay to go ahead with our production, so we jumped on it early, and worked on a few scenes and numbers.

20   Sadly, a little more than a month in on our rehearsals, we received word that some semi-professional company was doing the production in our area, and our bid to do it was turned down. I had to bring the cast together at a rehearsal and let them know that the Show was no longer available, that their parts were over, and that the production was not going to happen.

21   This mirrored what happened to my own high school production of Tommy, by the Who, in my senior year in high school. Our director had written the handlers of The Who, requesting permission to stage a production of the famous rock-opera by The Who. We began working on the Show, writing our own script, assembling a large cast that had the whole school watching, and even bringing in a rock band complete with a french horn!

22    Around two months in, our director gathered us in a circle at center stage and told us we couldn’t do the Show.

23    In both cases, the students asked if they could do it under a different title. Our director thought about it, and we all went to his apartment that night to chill and talk about it. I suggested that we simply re-name the Show The Amazing Journey, after one of the songs from Tommy. Someone else offered Our Amazing Journey, so that there was less chance of lawsuits for doing the Show.

24    We wound up doing our own interpretation and version of Tommy. At that time, no Broadway production had even been written. It wasn’t until years later that Broadway finally turned its lights on that rock opera, and with the help of Pete Townshend, the mastermind guitarist/rocker behind The Who, brought it to Broadway.

25    Likewise, our cast of Grease! was not to be left out. Personally, I was ready to just can the Show, give a few hugs, and move into summer without all the stress of mounting a huge production.

26    The students we had at the time were clearly among the best groups in the history of our department, many of whom could not only act and sing, but who could also play various instruments. Drama, band, and choir all had people in the production, so it was tough thinking of letting all those talented students down.

27    I remember Shawna coming into the Performing Arts office and pleading with me to keep a Show for this wonderful group, and the words that really hit me were, “Failure is not an option.” I looked at her, and said, “You’re right.”

28     That night I went to the library, grabbed every book I could on the history of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and studied ’til I couldn’t see. I then began writing the script, because we needed one. I read about how white artists became famous for the music of black artists, and of music that came directly our of the blues, and of jazz. I also read of the times, about the Cold War, and about the entire attitude of a younger generation that felt that we could all be annihilated in a second, so let’s live and rock!

29    I read about how people in the 50′s literally bought bomb shelters for their houses in the event of a nuclear holocaust, and that there was a world clock, whose second hand kept creeping to midnight. It began at something like ten minutes to midnight, midnight being the end of the world as we know it.

30    When America and Russia began threatening one another, the nuclear clock moved its hands swiftly towards midnight, moving at one point to three minutes to midnight. I thought of that as the title of the play, and began writing.

31    Within two days, I had written the entire script, interspersing almost twenty-five to thirty famous songs from the 50′s into the Show, and featuring virtually everybody singing, dancing, and playing instruments. The Show had the girls working on many famous girl group songs, and the boys doing classic 50′s rock.

32    It began with strange sounds, the cast walking on stage wearing 3-D glasses, which gained popularity back then, and the screen coming down with a picture of an atomic blast, complete with mushroom cloud looming large above everybody. It had strange music playing, a toy piano version of Buddy Holly’s “Every Day” and the original news report of the airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens playing softly in the background, the “day the music died.”

33    Within seconds, the screen went up, and Chris Ramirez shouted, “Hello, BABY!” and within seconds the stage exploded into Chantilly Lace! Ponytails, poodle skirts, jeans, and slicked hair came on from offstage, and the Show was underway!

34    It was a fun Show, with LOTS of fun music, and a whimsical script.

35    That Show gave way to the scenes from Grease! that we subsequently did in both Songs We’ve Heard, and in 2006, My Favorite Things.

36     It’s a little bit funny how the memories of students from all three productions now have memories of songs from a Show we never really did!

37     I was reminded of all of this just yesterday when I played the song “We Go Together” in my classes, and watched as my students danced and hugged during class. They totally enjoyed doing the unit on Greece.

38     In front of my room, dead center above my whiteboard, I have a sign posted in a sort of Greek font.

39     It says simply, “Greece is the word.”

40     To me, it’s still all one big Show.

41     That’s it for today. Good times, good times. Still good times!

42      Hope this brought a smile.

43       Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

The Daily News
1   So…at one point in the day, I began deliberately fanning myself with my fingers.

2    I looked as feminine as I could, and then asked my class this: ” Is this gesture gender case-sensitive?”

3    Because HONESTLY dude, I did it for about a billionth of a second yesterday, and was accused by my students of doing a feminine gesture.

4     If I may, I did it deliberately to stir their empty heads.

5     At one point, I dropped my hands and asked if the fanning of the face was some sort feminine gesture. I again brought them back up to my face and began flittering.

6     I was eager and ready to call on my most brilliant!

7     No answer.

8     ”Men don’t seem to do this; women do. Just an observation. Like, you don’t see a tight situation in a Raider game, and then look to the Raider’s bench and see a buncha players going like this (fans his face with flitting fingers once more).
9      They gave a bit of a chuckle at that one.

10    Anyway, just an observation. I tried writing it in last night’s DN but got too tired, and mailed off a half-piece. I had been grading some class magazines earlier in the evening, and awakened long enough to write a DN, but not a very good one. WAY too tired and half-asleep.

11    Yeesh.

12    Moving on, Part the First: I REALLY wanted to intersperse stupid things we do on a daily basis with other things.

13 Well, like frinstance: Have you ever been in such a hurry that you stand up to finish off something you were working on on the computer?

14    It’s funny, because yesterday I was doing something or other on the computer, and the bell was about to ring.

15     I wanted to finish something up fast and then talk to my students, so I stood partially up, and leaned over the computer.

16     In the very middle of that, it dawned on me that I could have remained chill, and finished doing whatever important thing I was doing on the computer without standing up!

17    I interrupted my lesson to point that out to my students. I demonstrated. “Here I am, typing something everso important.

18    “I notice that the bell is about to ring, so I STAND to finish up whatever it is I’m typing.”

19     I took a brief survey to see how many of THEM had done this. Huge show of hands.

20     “How much time did you really save?” I pondered.

21     I then demonstrated the actual physical standing-up, with myself saying aloud, “OMG! The BELL is about to ring!” (stands up at the computer and continues hammering away) THINK of the TIME I’ll save!”

22     Haha, little life’s moments man, I tellya. I could just as easily have finished off that last sentence, kicked back, and then saved it, or launched it, or whatevuh!

23    Sometimes, boy, lemme tellya.

24    Whew.

25     Had a HUGE deadline today. I wanted to hand back like EVERYTHING from the entire first semester, so I knuckled down and got it done last night.

26    Cheapens the DN just a bit, but SURELY made my life free of EVERYTHING for the first time since school started.

27     Wow.

28     It’s been pretty hectic, and at long, long last, I have finally turned the corner on all the stress and deadlines that have been all over me this semester.

29    It’ll be a rather calm day today, and I might even be able to hear a bird sing.

30    Still, somehow I managed to do it. The deadlines and stresses matched last years, and then some, but I’m finally caught up with virtually everything.

31    I’m glad, because I started to worry a bit about what all these deadlines and stress were doing to my personal health.

32    Fortunately, I’ve continued a pretty steady regimen of working out, so it hasn’t been so tough.

33     Plus dude.

34     You can’t hurt steel. Sorry about the REALLY lousy earlier version of the DN; I was just exhausted.

35    This is more normal, yes?

36     Hope you have a lovely Wednesday.

37     Peace y’all. Love you!

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington
The Daily News

1   A few years ago, my good friend and confidant Rob Rainey and I fell into a conversation about the good ol’ days.

2 We had talked about good times when we were kids. After a lot of fun reminiscing, I looked him in the eye and said, “Hey Robbie! You’re livin’ in the past, man!”

3   With his usual twinkle in the eye, he gazed amazingly my way and said this:

4   “What’s so great about the present?”

5    Immortal words, to be sure.

6    Rob’s words rained on me last night when I returned home from an hour at the gym.

7    When I got home, I saw that everyone was goin’ places, so I decided to relax and pull out an old show and pop it into the video recorder thingy.

8    I popped in a Show that the Workshop did years ago called simply The Show. What a fun night! I’ve been a tad down the past coupla weeks, what with grades due, old people getting ill, another buncha stresses, and thought it was time to hitch a ride to an old Show.

9     At first, it took a few minutes to adjust to the way videos could distort and not quite catch what was going on.

10    As my eyes adjusted to the raw VHS video, I began to zone in.

11    Soon, I saw the immortal song “Homework” from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

12    Within seconds this Old Hat walked through a portal into a glorious past. I didn’t dare remove my Old Hat, but took a seat on my couch, and watched the fun!

13    The Show was when Ponticelli, Fleming, and myself knew we weren’t too much longer for the YB Performing Arts Department.

14    The Show came from an idea we had while drinking a few too many BV’s at Henry’s Hi-Life one fine eve, not so long ago as you might think.

15    The idea was to take songs from all the musicals we ever did at YB and turn them into a cohesive Show, and to call it simply, The Show, the idea being that we had done so many that they all seem like one big Show after a while.

16    To this day I think the concept is a wonderful one. From the beginning, as one Show would end, we would put it to bed, and then begin ideas, schedules, and auditions for the next Show, which really felt like it was all one big Show, spanning years! It connected the past with the present, and quite certainly with the future, which to be sure, is today.

17    AnywayZZZ, sounded good by our third cab, and so we whooped out a napkin and began thinking of the order of songs.

18    The first song was unquestionably “Team” from Charlie Brown. We knew that this group was special, so a song with Peanuts characters singing about the importance of the word “team” in any endeavor. The lyrics repeated this theme: “There is no team, like the best team, and it’s our team, right here! We will SHOW you, we’re the best team, in the very little league this year…”

19   After that, the Show took off. The first act included such memorable numbers as “Homework!” from Charlie Brown, “Coffee Break” from How to Succeed”, “A Secretary is Not a Toy” from How to Succeed, and several others. The second act brought several tunes from Guys and Dolls, not the least of which was the amazing “Sue Me” with Chris Ramirez and Christine Choi bringin’ it. Following that were some splendid tunes from Little Shop of Horrors, including “Little Shop of Horrors”, “Dentist”, and “Feed Me” from Little Shop of Horrors. Somewhere in there Nelsa Alexandre sang a lovely version of “Over the Rainbow” from the Wizard of Oz.

20 Naturally, we included the gratuitous Godspell set, which included Prepare Ye, Day by Day, All Good Gifts, Bless the Lord, and Day by Day. Several people from the original Godspell we did WAY back were in attendance, and I believe I introduced Diana Manzanilla and Lupe Jimenez to Evelyn Huyhn and Christine Choi, the original singers to the newer ones.

21   AnywayZ, after “Dentist”, Fina Pengosro, who just wrote me two days ago, did a flute seque of “Somewhere That’s Green” to the song “Aquarius” from Hair. Matt De Leon of Facebook fame sang that song as beautifully as anything ever, and for his performance, he won the American Musical Theater High School Honors Award for Best Actor, and that was from San Francisco all the way to Gilroy!

20   A lotta fun, but the best was yet to come. Matt also sang the title song “Hair” and absolutley clobbered the audience, and the entire universe, for that matter!

21   We did the AMAZING 3500 from Hair, a montage that must simply be seen to be believed! People moved backwards, forwards, upside down, and all over the place. No rules! It totally worked!

22   We finished with “Crazy for the Red, White and Blue”, “Good Morning, Starshine” featuring the beautiful Bree Martinez, and took it home with “Let the Sunshine In” featuring Mappy Michael Mapalla on the mic.

23   The song was a powerful plea for peace in the world, and seemed last night to be as relevant a song as I’ve ever heard.

24    So…what’s so great about the present again?

25    We’re all still here, baby!

26    AnywayZZZ, the grand skunkman Kevin Lambert hopped on the keyboards after all that, and played the Peanuts piano music you always hear, and the entire cast changed back to Peanuts characters, sloppily assembling themselves as though they were going to listen to character notes, but SO colorful and cute, and then the first notes of “Happiness is..” chimed in.

27   The cast of the Show put arms around one another and sang the anthem to friendship and love, and I found myself enjoying and drinking in every single moment last night.

28    Afterwards, <we’re back to home, last nigth> I went into my backyard for a second, just to enjoy the night. I looked up and thought to myself, “Thank you God, for making such a nice night possible for me to share!” I looked up and thought of how cool it would be if it rained, and then shot another thought up to Heaven: “Well, I guess I can’t possibly make it rain…”

29   Within seconds, rain started to fall from the heavens, all over my face and stuff. I smiled, looked over at these wind chimes that I SWEAR my Mom rings, and smiled. There was little wind, but I thought, “Well Mom, can you make the wind chime ring?”

30   Again, within seconds, the wind chimes started in. Day by Day… ; )

31    Oh, you Newtonians, do desist!

32     For the record, I thanked Mom, and not Newton.

33     Thanks for listening; it was a hoot last night.

34      I later snapped the Show Three Minutes to Midnight in there. In the middle the that performance, someone stopped to ask, “Who WRITES this stuff?”

35     “Heidi” came the answer.

36      Indeed.

37      Just thought I’d share another Workshop memory. Loved it!

38      Hope you enjoyed today’s DN as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you!

39      Oh, dear Lord, three things I pray.

40       Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington
The Daily News
1 So…last night I got this awesome email from the immortal Rachael Valdez telling me that she hasn’t been able to access her emails. Rachael is getting married this coming July, and asked that I sing at the wedding, which is WAY cool!

2   But she ALSO wrote that she had wanted the song “Happiness is…” from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown to be recited at the wedding.

3    What makes it fun is that she was that she NEVER got Friday’s DN, which FEATURED You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown!
4   What makes it even MORE fun is that I found this old, dusty book about synchronicity yesterday morning, and was reading tons about Carl Jung, and how these things are possibly a true part of the machinery of the Universe.

5   Metaphorically speaking. <—-Godpail peeps! Great line from da Show!

6   AnywayZ…

7   Caitlin walked into the room, and I was all excited about the amazing coincidence, because I’ve had LOTS of others in the past few days.

8    I excitedly told Caitlin, “Caitlin!!!! You remember Rachael, Jenny’s older sister? Well, she’s getting married, and her internet was down. I get to SING at her wedding! Well anywayZZZ, she got home the other night, hadn’t yet read the DN from Frideeee, and had been thinking about having ‘Happiness is…’ recited at her wedding.

9    “When she clicked on her Internet, she saw that the entire DN revolved around ‘Happiness is…’ “

10    Caitlin looked at me as if I had twelve heads.

11   “OH!” I chimed in. “I’m READING a book about synchronicity!”

12    Her reply?

13    “What are the ODDS?”

14    Haha.

15    Caitlin, you laid that one down with a trowel!

16    Yeesh, lovin’ it!

17    Thanks for a great day d000d!!!! = )

18     Moving on, Part the First: I have REALLY tried to stay away from the Jay Leno-Conan-Letterman stuff. It really doesn’t interest me, even though I always had some sort of late-night dude out there.

19     I’m going to alienate about every young person out there, but seriously? Conan to me was self-deprecating, and used cheap shots at crass to get laughs. I never liked the guy, and thought he was pretty untalented compared to others of his ilk.

20     Leno rocked, was amazing, and I was really bummed when he moved to earlier in the evening. His entire new show sucks, and his hair is ridiculous. In the past six months, Conan has kicked Leno’s ass.

21     Personally?

22     My favorite after-hours show is Craig Ferguson, who is hilarious, talented, quick witted, and light on his feet. I LOVE Ferguson, whose talent puts Conan in the minor leagues.

23    That being said, I do think that Conan is getting screwed. It’s easy to say he has talent and all, but really? I personally don’t think he could attract a national crowd. But once NBC decided that Conan was the man, they should have had every amazing writer and talented people see to it that he succeed.

24     I never saw that. I just saw that entire television empire slowly deteriorate. I couldn’t stand the “new” Leno. He looked pathetic. And I couldn’t really see Conan doing it like Johnny Carson, of the Ages.

25    So consequently, Conan, and his entire entourage of people depending on a salary, had been surgically removed, and almost forced out. On that one, I support Conan, because he has been true to the station, and worked wonderfully hard. I may not find him as amusing as everyone else, but he deserved WAY more respect than NBC gave him.

26   So it goes, so it goes.

27   Meanwhile, I while I didn’t like the rain, we needed it. There is STILL wonderful white snow on the tiptops of our hills here in Sannozay.

28    We have more rain to day. Welcome it; run out on wet lawns and spin! Open your mouths and drink the sweetness of Heaven.

29    I’ll stand on the sidelines laughing at your happy ass!

30     Welp, enough fun for one Monday. Make someone smile, as always!

31     Love you!

32     Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington
The Daily News
Happiness is being alone every now and then.. and happiness is walking hand-in-hand…
Happiness is morning and evening, daytime and nighttime too!
And happiness is anyone, and anything at all that’s loved by you!
1 Ah, the beautiful thing about the DN is its absolute randomness!
2 That song, from the venerable musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, brings with it such joy and mirth dating back to when I was but a wee youthling.
3   For the record, I have taken to following me old mate Merlin’s advice, and have taken to youthening. Right now I’m 891 years old, and getting younger by the minute detail. Attention to detail, always the essence of art.
4 AnywayZ, I’m a tremendous fan of the musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, because it brings a trifecta of thoughts when I listen to the lovely music.
5   For one thing, it was my first EVER musical, with the gracious and illustrious Paula Kim on piano, and the immortal Skinny Vinnie from West Vagineee (ha!) on percussion.
6    It had SO many wonderful workshop immortals that I’m almost holding off naming them for fear of forgetting someone.
7    But I’ll reach back and try: Sandy Luna was Lucy. Perfect, even though the REAL Sandy is alive and well in esseff! Love you girl! And we had Nhat Doan as the very white Linus, who did wonderfully.
8    Nhat is now “Nil” but I have no idea where he has gone since we last talked about a charitable benefit so many years ago.
9    And the very wonderful Luis Banuelos, and my great friend Bonnie! To this day, yo!
10   Ah, let us bring together the amazing meeting of Paula Kim and Sandy Luna. Paula was not a drama girl, but a graceful and eloquent straight-A student, if I may, “back in the day”.
11   She had incredible skills on piano, lovely, like pure love.
12   In our first version of Charlie Brown, I remember bringing Paula into the Theatre to play our piano, and she made the angels cry. I immediately hired her as our accompaniest for Charlie Brown. She would sit at that piano and make the music that would make the angels cry.
13   In the middle of our rehearsals, Sandy came into the Theatre. I called her over, excited at the amazing prowess of Paula. Paula was class, culture, the whole nine yards. Sandy was class, culture, but also one of the purest, most down-to-Earth students ever.
14   One fine day, I walked into the Theatre only to find Paula making the piano sing, as she always did. We had a rehearsal that afternoon, and I was excited that we had some awesome piano for a piano-centered Show.
15   I stood dumbfounded at Paula’s talent when Sandy walked in with a group of friends. Sandy ALWAYS played a delightful leadership role in the Workshop, and she was all smiles that fine day.
16   AnywayZ, as Paula continued to play, I called Sandy over to the piano, and enthusiastically said, “Sandy! Listen to this!”
17   Sandy walked over to the piano, leaned on the piano proper, and fell into a mezmerized state. When Paula finally lifted her fingers, I looked to the heroic Sandy Moon for a response.
18   The Theatre fell silent.
19    Eyes focused on Sandy, awaiting the response.
20    With absolute impeccable timing, Sandy looked up and said…
21    “The BITCH can PLAY!” Everyone broke into laughter and smiles.
22    Amazingly, my first musical ALSO brought us Vinnie Richardson, one of the most rhythmical and soulful drummers I had ever met. Any rock band I ever played in became instantly better with Vinnie on the skins.
23   I brought Vinnie in to listen to Paula, and he just faded. She was THAT good.
24   Within seconds, I had my orchestra for Charlie Brown. From there, we fell in love with the Show.
25    One day, while looking through catalogues for various musicals, I had seen pictures of the original professional set from the Show’s opening in Washington D.C., and realized it was the same set I had seen when the Show had traveled to Ghirardelli Square in esseff. They had a sort of coffehouse theatre, and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown came to be a huge hit in the Bay Area.
26   When I had done shows at Mills High School in Millbrae, California, I had also been a substitute teacher in the San Mateo Union High School District. While substituting, I was called one day to San Mateo High School to substitute for the drama director, Roy Casstevens, who had played Schroeder in the esseff production of Charlie Brown.
27    I later became marginal friends with Roy, so when I saw the pics of the ORIGINAL Washington D.C. set, I came to realize that it was the same exact set that had traveled to San Francisco.
28    The next time I ran into Roy, I asked if he knew where the set was. The set consisted of larger-than-life building blocks in primary colours.
29    He said, “Well, actually, WE (San Mateo High School) have the set in our storage here at the school, because WE did the Show a few years ago.”
30     I said, “Roy, is it possible for my school to rent the original set from the production?”
31     He said, “Yes! Just give me a day’s notice, and then rent a U-Haul. I’ll have a crew load it for you, and you’ll be on your way!”
32     Needless to say I was ecstatic, and we secured the set and brought it directly to the YB Theatre!
33     I also brought some November leaves to give the feel of childhood to the audience.
34     We brought in the lovely Loretta Rezos to sing, and a kid named Brian to play Snoopy, although I don’t remember Brian’s last name. He came over to my house with a pair of tap shoes, and practiced in the same living room that is under my feet as I construct these words.
35    Well I KNOW I’m forgetting someone, but it’s late, and if you wish to admonish me, do so on my Facebook account.
36    Meanwhile, I just wanted to give a bit of history of one of my fondest Shows.
37    Years later, I brought YGMCB back in a Show we called simply, “The Show”. We had Richard Lambert cast as Charlie Brown, and a cast as good as any in the history of the Workshop doing such grand tunes as “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”, “Team”, “Book Report”, “Suppertime!”, and of course, the immortal “Happiness is…” complete with Kevin Lambert on piano, and Fina Pengosro on flute, one of the most amazing and wonderful teams in the history of the Workshop. Fina’s flute slinked through that Show so beautifully that I can never again listen to any of those tunes without thinking of her slitheringly beautiful music.
38    There’s so MUCH more, and somewhere in some Public Storage place I still have pictures of one of the most magical Shows in the history of the Workshop!
39     If you have any memories of either Show, be sure to throw some comments to everybody who lived through either one.
40    Dear Pen Pal…
41    Just another dose of YB Drama Workshop memories from the guy who was lucky enough to have lived through all of them, and to have worked with SO many talented people, many of whom still perform in venues all over the world.
41    Thank all of YOU for those precious memories.
42    And as of last year, I met with Vinnie and me old friend and confidant Geoff for a night of Italian food and laughs, served with much spice!
43    Well, hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
44    Happiness is…ah, why bother? Here are the wonderful lyrics!

CHARLIE BROWN:
(Spoken)
I’m so happy. That little red-headed girl dropped her pencil.
It has teeth marks all over it. She nibbles her pencil.
She’s human! It hasn’t been such a bad day after all!

(Sung)
HAPPINESS IS FINDING A PENCIL.

SNOOPY:
PIZZA WITH SAUSAGE

LINUS:
TELLING THE TIME.

SCHROEDER:
HAPPINESS IS LEARNING TO WHISTLE.

LINUS:
TYING YOUR SHOE FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME.

SALLY:
HAPPINESS IS PLAYING THE DRUM IN YOUR OWN SCHOOL BAND.

CHARLIE BROWN:
AND HAPPINESS IS WALKING HAND IN HAND.
HAPPINESS IS TWO KINDS OF ICE CREAM.

LUCY:
KNOWING A SECRET.

SCHROEDER:
CLIMBING A TREE.

CHARLIE BROWN:
HAPPINESS IS FIVE DIFFERENT CRAYONS.

SCHROEDER:
CATCHING A FIREFLY.
SETTING HIM FREE.

CHARLIE BROWN:
HAPPINESS IS BEING ALONE EVERY NOW AND THEN.

ALL:
AND HAPPINESS IS COMING HOME AGAIN.

CHARLIE BROWN:
HAPPINESS IS MORNING AND EVENING,
DAY TIME AND NIGHT TIME TOO.
FOR HAPPINESS IS ANYONE AND ANYTHING AT ALL
THAT’S LOVED BY YOU.

LINUS:
HAPPINESS IS HAVING A SISTER.

LUCY:
SHARING A SANDWICH.

LUCY AND LINUS:
GETTING ALONG.

ALL:
HAPPINESS IS SINGING TOGETHER WHEN DAY IS THROUGH,
AND HAPPINESS IS THOSE WHO SING WITH YOU.
HAPPINESS IS MORNING AND EVENING,
DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME TOO.

CHARLIE BROWN:
FOR HAPPINESS IS ANYONE AND ANYTHING AT ALL
THAT’S LOVED BY YOU.

Have a happy and safe weekend everyone!

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

Tornado warning briefly issued for Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties

Holy S#!T are you SERIOUS???

By Shanna McCord – Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted: 01/20/2010 02:18:06 PM PST

Updated: 01/20/2010 02:40:10 PM PST

A tornado warning was briefly in effect for Santa Cruz County from 2:07 to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The warning was prompted by Doppler radar indicating a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado moving northeast at 35 mph.

The storm could produce quarter-size hail, forecasters said.

The safest place to be during a tornado is in a basement or under a workbench or other piece of sturdy furniture. If no basement is available, seek shelter on the lowest floor of the building in an interior hallway or room such as a closet. Use blankets or pillow to cover your body and stay away from windows.

Event:	Tornado Warning
Alert:	THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR… SANTA CLARA COUNTY IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA… THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF MORGAN HILL… SANTA CRUZ COUNTY IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA… * UNTIL 230 PM PST * AT 202 PM PST…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO MOVING NORTHEAST AT 35 MPH. THIS STORM MAY PRODUCE QUARTER SIZE HAIL.
Instructions:	THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE DURING A TORNADO IS IN A BASEMENT. GET UNDER A WORKBENCH OR OTHER PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE. IF NO BASEMENT IS AVAILABLE…SEEK SHELTER ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF THE BUILDING IN AN INTERIOR HALLWAY OR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET. USE BLANKETS OR PILLOWS TO COVER YOUR BODY AND ALWAYS STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS. IF IN MOBILE HOMES OR VEHICLES…EVACUATE THEM AND GET INSIDE A SUBSTANTIAL SHELTER. IF NO SHELTER IS AVAILABLE…LIE FLAT IN THE NEAREST DITCH OR OTHER LOW SPOT AND COVER YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS.

The Daily News

1 The strange thing about the tornado warning was that I was just sorta finishing up grading papers and goofin’ off on Facebook when everyone started writing about flood and tornado warnings in Santa Clara County.

2 I looked out the window of the Cathedral and saw little evidence of either, but something MUST have been up.

3 I just ignored it all and continued multi-tasking. I talked with people on Facebook and found many concerned with the floods and the tornadoes and all. I again looked out the window and saw little going on in any of those areas.

4 I turned on the radio because I do like to know what’s going on around me, and found that there was indeed a tornado warning in Santa Clara County, but just a small window of time.

5 On the way home, however, I looked right behind my house and saw a cloud formation dropping down behind my house like a huge cloudy wedge, and it REALLY scared me. It looked like a tornado forming, but the practical side of me figured it was just fancy from all the news stories.

6 Still…

7 The news JUST said “Brace yourself!” but they said another storm will slam into us today, but in our own area, it should be okay, and Friday things are supposed to settle a bit. The area south of Monterey will get hit pretty hard, however.

8 The news just posted “Last in the System”. We’ll get hit with lots o’ rain today, but everything is supposed to calm by Frideeee.

9 I didn’t think today’s DN would be a weather report, but I guess it is. Expect rain and wet today is all, but it doesn’t seem to be anywhere near the intensity of yesterday’s strange forecasts.

10 I tried talking to several people all at once, but as always, I should stay WAY away from any sorta chat. I’ve been anti-chat since I got my first IM years ago. I totally get how others can deal with it, but I can’t see myself trying to keep track of talking to ten people at once. I’ve probably chatted maybe three or four times since getting my Facebook, and each time I get all mixed up and end up wondering why I ever bother.

11 It’s funny, our own idiocies. That is one of my worst, along with always managing to be in the wrong lane. If there is a freeway entrance on the left, I’m sure to be in the right lane.

12 Like, consistently. It’s funny those little idiosynchs we have in our lives. At least I’m happy to admit it. I may swear off “chat” for the rest of my life! = ) <–goofy smiley dude.

13 Yeesh.

14 Moving on, Part One: Yesterday I talked about my early days directing. The poetry of the rain brought that on, because Our Town is a pretty soulful and poetic play, but I wound up talking about my very first Show, and its use of interesting special effects. I’ll come back to Our Town, and even to some other memories of other shows. It was enjoyable going down Memory Lane and bringing some of those special days to you.

15 I always thought of writing some memoirs of the days in the immortal YB Theatre, but figured I’d be the only one who would really care, but it occurs to me that LOTS of people worked on LOTS of Shows over the years, and I’m thinking that every now and again I’ll give my own thoughts and memories to the masses.

16 If nothing else, it’s a fun thing to think of each Show, because every single Show brings so many amazing stories and memories, and each performance night would be different.

17 I think it will make for some fun reading, but if it were all the DN did, then it would be pretty one-dimensional. What makes the DN fun is that like everything in my life, it talks about everything and nothing, and it has no real destination; it just lives, and loves living life, and lives life, and it loves life.

18 Live life. Love life. Simple words.

19 Amazing how many people rush all around avoiding simplicity.

20 Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

—John Lennon, Beautiful Boy

21 Truer words, truer words.

22 Moving on, Part the Second: I think I’ve finally turned the corner on the mountains of paperwork I’ve been suffering for the past two months. The challenge of working in a successful school is that the almost ALL my students do their homework, every single night. It’s wonderful in so many ways, but it is still a tedious process that takes untold extra hours to maintain. We teachers might get summers off and all the rest, but make no mistake: we still balance those hours with long work weeks during the school year.

23 At least those of us who actually take the time and effort to read the reams of papers we assign, which I do. I just thought I’d say a quick word on behalf of teachers out there who work really hard. To be good at this job takes tons of work, passion, and devotion. Doing it and loving it is truly the secret!

24 I LOVE teaching, and probably always will. It is one of the most rewarding jobs on the planet, and one of the toughest. The true way to be a good teacher is to look like it’s the easiest job in the world. I mean, come on. You just talk for a living, right?

25 Haha!

26 Of course.

27 You also meet amazing people, many of whom become lifelong inspirations. Many who read the DN have inspired me over the years. Inspiration is a two-way street, and it has been an absolute pleasure to have worked with SO many talented and amazing people over the years.

28 This Old Brown Shoe salutes all of you, and thanks YOU for being inspirational and significant. Great classes, FUN Shows, and moments that nobody will ever take away!

29 Oops, goin’ deep again. I’d probably better bow out gracefully before a tear hits my computer, causing it to go up in smoke.

30 Poof. The fighter still remains.

31 Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

Ah, Yet Another Cheshire Moon!!!

The Daily News
I’m Starting to Like Them.

1   “Over there on Main Street the rain looked like curtains being blown along…“
                                                                                    The Stage Manager. Our Town, Act Two

2    If someone came up to me and asked me what my favorite production of all time was, I’d have to put Our Town up there with the best of them.

3    I KNOW, I KNOW!

4    Sorry second Godspell, and sorry first Midsummer, but you have some competition. It begins with my very first show, when I first got called up to the “bigs” lol!

5    I had graduated college and like, most college graduates, had NO idea what to do with my newly-earned diploma, or with my life, really. I simply knew that I had the best five years of my life, and suddenly was expected to get some sorta AMAZING career.

6    Let’s just see if being young lines up: You go to college for <fill-in-the-blank> years, and when you finally get yer grandiose degree, including post grad stuff, you STILL have NO idea as to what to do with yourself. Along with that, while you enjoyed yourself, studied yourself into oblivion, and had the greatest moments ever, the economy suddenly goes south.

7    But the pressure’s on. You’ve been an academic winner either all your life, or fo sho, for yer college life.

8    And suddenly, Mother Destiny steps in and throws crowbars and curves right before you, and you take some sorta road. You have NO idea what that road is, but it is clearly marked. Recent college grads, take note.

9   Well, here’s what happened to me:

10  I had no idea what the heck to do. ; ) <—-sideways cool winky d00d.

11  Once again, take heed: Be careful about what you pretend to be, because you are what you pretend to be. –Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

12  Well, I pretended to be a teacher, because that’s all I knew in life. School doesn’t really train you for anything else, when you really think about it. It prepares you for a lot, but you’re still going to classes, taking notes, taking midterms, and all the rest. It’s still academia. Trust me, the world of work is totally different.

13   I had spent 17 years in public schools, got a degree, and was asked to go into some WEIRD working world and be the best that I could be.

14   Huh? English majors in particular spent four years of college pondering.

15   I decided to become a teacher long before that, however. I taught drama for a few weeks at my middle school (then junior high) and directed a play with kids from 6th to 9th grade. That play is another story entirely, but right in the midst of it, our master teacher’s my favorite fiance crashed and burned in one of the many wars they have for us. She couldn’t direct from there, so it fell on myself and my friend to do all the work.

16    The play needed my friend Charlie and me to step it up and direct. We did a dandy job, even though on opening night our lead kid got so nervous that we had to hide a spittoon behind offstage so that if he NEEDED to heave, he had the support of the entire tech crew.

17   AnywayZ, that was truly my first show, and we had to give people their money back because we never could launch because the poor kid had the ultimate butterlies.

18   It was my vedddy first attempt at directing little guys, and it was publicly a monumental failure, but to our company, we crossed arms and sent prayers out through handshakes. This was the very first of the passing of the handshakes, Workshop historians.Then each time the curtain would open, the kid would swirl, and then run offstage to heave. We finally placed the spittoon behind the couch, because hey, the show must go on, right? Wrong…poor kid. We had a party afterwards anyway, and he made it through.

19   I eventually got a gig directing plays at a local high school in Millbrae. It was my own high school’s rival school, but in my senior year, had produced a production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying that to this day remains my favorite high school show EVER.

20   My friend John and I saw opening night, and then PURCHASED tickets for the remainder of the run. In me own history, only my production of Godspell ever had an audience that followed the show each night. Godspell remains close to tied with Our Town, but the difference is that Our Town I directed in my own hometown. The first Midsummer remains among the elite because of…well, everything! The sparkles, the glitter, the Company, and the love, Richard Lambert and the horse…

21 Our Town followed my very first REAL production, which was Woody Allen’s Don’t Drink the Water at Mills High School, in Millbrae, the selfsame place that had produced the venerable How to Succeed. In fact, I was nothing more than a college grad with all the medals, and had applied as a substitue in the San Mateo Union High School District.

22 On my resume, I had written under hobbies, “drama”. They called me up and said that the director, Allen Knight, was on sabbatical, and that they were holding “auditions” for director. They saw that I had “drama” listed on my resume, along with baseball, journalism, creative writing, music, and Spanish dancing. The principal asked me if he thought I could direct a show, and I said, “Oh, HELLLLYEAH!” He liked my swagger, my confidence, and my tendency to be a sucker, and hired me.

23   I was given the keys to the Mills High auditorium, and walked across campus, looked at the keys, and realized they were to the same auditorium that had staged How to Succeed. On entering, I saw pitch darkness. I moved to the stage right area, where I found some dimmers. I pulled up the first dimmer and the cyc turned deep blue! Jazzy, sexy, and lovely! I was young, and played around with the dimmers. I brought up enough light to find an old ice-cream parlour chair, and placed it utterly at center stage.I had the keys to a very magical castle!

24   I had figured that somewhere there MUST be a light aimed to that area. The blue cyc began to tantalize me, like a fine wine, or a walk through an art gallery in Carmel. I swooned, and finally found a dimmer that I slowly brought up, illuminating that single chair. It was a jazz show, this old rickety ice-cream parlour chair with this amazing blue cyc behind it. I was hooked. I owned this stuff!

25   Be careful what you pretend to be, because you are what you pretend to be…

25   I thought of all sorts of things that delightful day. I thought, “No matter what Show I choose, this is the beginning. And I will one day do a show called simply, The Chair. It shall have a chair onstage as the audience enters, a blue cyc, and jazz music. When the music fades, sound effects like birds or like the sounds of a sunny day shall follow, and then the lights will come up to a Monty Python scene about a guy with a top hat on a bicycle, carrying a bird cage to a pet store proprietor, with the spot hitting him in the audience as his bicycle makes its way to the proprietor.

26   His “want” is that he wants to return the parrot, because it is dead. The proprietor, of course, believes the parrot is just resting, and “pining for the fiords…” Classic Python scene.

27    You get the idea. It was not my FIRST show, but my sort of secondary show while we would work on the first one. The Chair was going to be done as a show that would help to feed starving people in the world, through the Red Cross, or whatever other charitable cause we could think of.

28   These are my first days as a young director.

29    Well, eventually I did my very first show, which used cherry bombs, Sinatra music, and a cast to beat the band. We got standing ovations, even though I had to fight and claw with cast and crew the whole way. I was young, but bullish and confident.I worked morning, noon and night on that production, and turned a reluctant cast and crew into sheer perfection. We had a beautiful chandlier beaming rainbow rays at center stage!

30    The following year, people had said that Don’t Drink was only successful because I had used all of Mr. Knight’s well-trained acting machine. I thought that was boushit, and that I had successfully fought the entire company and won them over to my new approach to theatre, which was to experiment (using cherry bombs instead of phony explosions brought to me in an audition sequence in which I probably turned down Hewlett, Packard, AND the entire Apple corporation) and make it a workshop atmosphere.

31   We had an explosion scene in Don’t Drink. I insisted that if a bomb goes off backstage, the audience oughta have exclamation points shooting out of every area of their bodies. I literally held auditions, and at least sixteen geeks came up with all manner of explosion.

32    This one guy, Bilby was his name, watched and yawned as geek after geek presented low-budget explosions, and all failed.

33     I looked at Bilby. He was a toe-headed guy who ran sound for school activities, but who also had that little bit of the devil that exists only in guys like that. I said, “0kay, what is YOUR explosion, sir?”

34    Bilby looked at me with a sly smile, reached into his slithered and too ample pockets, and produced two cherry bombs. Cherry bombs, for the layperson, are little balls of gunpowder rolled to resemble cherries, but that were supposed to be as explosive as a quarter sitck of dynamite. They were fifty times louder than firecrackers, and their fuses burned under water. I was dutifully impressed with Bilby.

35   I asked him what his plan was. He said, “Do you have a hose?”

36   Within minutes, we had a large garbage can, filled with water. Bilby put the cherry bomb on the end of a shovel, and then lit it. When it burned to the quick, he swiftly turned the shovel downward to the garbage can. The bomb plopped into the water and amazingly stayed lit!

37    Within seconds, I had the greatest effect I’ve EVER used in a show.

38    KA-BLOOOOOOOM!!!!!! Water gushed up, smoke filled the backstage area, and nuts and bolts that were rusted suddenly came alive and began dancing!

39    I instantly hired Bilby as my first FX guy ever!

40    He was a junior, and each night, Act One of Don’t Drink would lag a bit due to the challenges of exposition, which is the setting up of a good drama.

41    But at the end of the act, a bomb comes through a window, and the Woody Allen character grabs it, snuffs it out, and the it sits on a sofa until the scene moves to the conclusion.

42    After many issues are resolved, he says something like, “Well, I guess we’re all safe. I guess we don’t need to worry about THIS anymore…” at which time he hurls the Warner Bros-style “bomb” out the window. We used a firecracker fuse to get the sparks rollin’

43    After a perfectly timed delay, Bilby had the crew light the barrel bomb backstage, and then dump it into the water.

44    KA-BLOOOOOM!!! I say! The entire audience had a heart attack, and intermisssion included, on my command, DOUBLE caffeine in the coffee! Haha, my very first show, and I used explosions and then drugged the audience so that they went ballistic before the show was over.

45    Well, this started out as a salute to Our Town, but that just may need to wait for another day.

46    Memoirs. Ah, indeed!

47    Moving On, Part the First: The Miss Vietnamese Northern California Intercollegiate Pageant on Saturday saw our own Trinh Le AND Tu Ngo chosen as the top ten best! And Trinh was not only in the top five, but was one of the last two standing at the very end! It was exciting and wonderful, and Sparky and I hooted and hollered for our illustrious YB alumna!!!! Congrats to both Trinh and Tu for looking absolutely beautiful! A quick side note: during the evening gown presentation, both girls came out together!!! How cool is THAT? Anyway, you both are former Drama Workshop actresses, and you BOTH took NorCal by storm. Congrats, lovely ladies! You both TOTALLY rocked! Look at our our beautiful contestants! No wonder they took NorCal by storm!!!

Tu Ngo and Trinh Le at Miss Vietnam
NorCal Intercollegiate Pageant Saturday night
at SJSU Morris Daley Auditorium!

47    Well, that’s it for a fun DN!

48    More to come!

49    Peace, and once more, congratulations to our beautiful princesses!

50    Peaceout!

~H~



www.bharrington.com
Support the Miss Vietnam of Northern California
Pageant! Info in today’s DN!

The Daily News

1 First, thanks to everybody who emailed me about the Haiti Relief efforts! Looks to me like a LOT of people have already stepped up to assist with the cause. Well done.

2   Keep contributing, any way you can. The easiest way is simply to text “Haiti” to 90999. The Red Cross has already received millions that way. I’ve not seen the likes of this in many years. They ask for ten bucks, but most of us could probably release WAY more, so let’s just collectively do that. I’ll just leave that reminder and then move on here.

3   Moving on, Part the First: Still buzzing from the visit by Kenny Ponticelli the other day. With everything going on the past few weeks, it was a refreshing breath of fresh air.

4   We haven’t gone out for some ridiculous mischief, or even a good night out at Henry’s Hi-Life in about a hundred years.

Ponch caught chillin’ with the wimminz at this summer’s boch
tourney in Tahoe.

5   How fun! Good to see you again, my brudduh!

6    Moving on, Part the Second: I finally pulled myself off the gathering of the grades, and all the time-consuming hours it takes, making my way to my school’s website so I could check emails.

7    While all 50 messages jumped at me like exploding butterflies, only one grabbed my attention.

8    It came from our assistant principal, who just wanted us to know that our grades are not due ’til NEXT Thursday. Yippee!

9    Wow.

10  I thought they were due tomorrow. Since I have almost got that enormous task completely done already, I realized that I had a sunny afternoon to enjoy. That usually translates to a trip to Capitola, or Carmel, or even Pho 08 on Tully.

11   I decided to call me old friend and confidante Tracy Wolcott, one of the veddy best, and a perfect complement to my goofy day with Kenny the P of the size-three knee the other day.

12   Well, we weren’t able to hook up, but had a brief, delightful conversation about everything and nothing, and in two days running, I was able to touch base with some AWESOME friends. Everybody should be so lucky. If there were a Hall of Fame for teachers, those two would be inducted on the first ballot.

13    You reach a point in your career when you know that you are in the presence of great motivators, and epic, caring teachers.

14     I don’t know if you’ve had the pleasure, but Ponch and Wolcott are definitely already in that hall.

15     In two consecutive days, I was in communication with two amazing friends, beyond belief.

16     They are like, pimp.

17     I mean that in the cool sense.

18     Anyway, sometimes life just shines on us. When we are with great friends, we may begin to notice the air, the sky, the hills, and the beauty that surrounds us.

19      So to me goodly friends, thanks for being such a grand part of me life.

20      Moving on, Part the Third: I would be remiss in my duty if I didn’t let all of you know that two of our YB graduates, Trinh Le and Tu Ngo are running for Miss Vietnam of Northern California Intercollegiate. Trinh is currently attending UC Berkeley, and Tu San Jose State University, and we should all be WAY proud both of them!

21     The pageant proper is Saturday night, January 16 at the Morris Daley Auditorium at San Jose State University, from 6-10 p.m. Tickets are $15 general and $20 at the door. Tickets locally are available from Coffee Lovers at 1855 Aborn Rd. San Jose, CA (right by Bally’s!), or at Pho 08, 1954 Tully Road, San Jose, CA. Tu’s parents own Pho 08, and I’ve had many nice bowls of pho there in the past three years. Best Place for pho in San Jose! Go there, enjoy a delightful lunch, buy tix, and enjoy the pageant!

22     You could support both our local girls by going to the website below and voting for Miss Photogenic. You can vote for each, so everybody from the DN is encouraged to give our girls your support! Take five seconds and do this for them! Here’s the link:

http://www.missvietnamnorcal.com/

23     I hope to be there, and would love to see many of you there as well. The event is designed to inspire young Vietnamese women to grow and to inspire others, as well as to support various causes. Please go and support our beautiful contestants!

24     Once again, I find myself proud of our YB graduates!

25      And to all the contestants, everybody wins in an effort this pronounced! To the all the girls: go out and delight the crowds, because we all know how much work and stress you’ve gone through! The time has come for you all to come together and bring your beauty and intelligence to the rest of the world. We are all proud of you!

26    Whew! Oh, and don’t forget to bring safety pins backstage. You’ll save someone’s life lol!

27    Love it.

28     Y’all have a beautiful weekend, contribute to the Red Cross, support the pageant, and give support to our YB girls! We are SO proud of them! Hope to see you there!

29     Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington
Life is a Song Worth Singing…

The Daily News
1    So…Teddy Pendergrass walks into a bar…

2 One of the sweetest voices in history.

3    Ah, so it goes, so it goes.

4      In the midst of everything, greatness fades, and then disappears.

5      So long, old friend. Heaven has gained yet another great one.

6      Huge sighs.
7      Moving on, Part the First: The earthquake in Haiti really hit me yesterday, partially because I’m always sort of affected by such things, and partially because of the overwhelming amount of people it has struck. Almost 3 million people need assistance right now, so it is on a much larger scale than anything we’ve seen in recent years.
8    I realize that we can’t help everyone, nor focus on every cause there is, but these stories really got to me, perhaps because I was one of the last people to hear about it.
9    Anyway, I’ve spent a career encouraging people to give to various causes, and I just thought I’d step it up on this one. Yesterday morning I posted some info on Facebook. It isn’t always easy to find places to contribute early in a disaster, as many stories are just breaking and we often receive conflicting reports.
10  Ironically, early is when they need to get hospitals on the water, nurses and doctors on the ground, communications, and information on the air. It is pretty convoluted, but getting anything out there early is essential. My Facebook has some early stuff, and the easiest way to help right now is to donate money.
11  While I saw this yesterday morning, I picked a coupla websites that were moving pretty swiftly and providing good links. Thankfully me old friend and confidante Sheryll Marmito Silva commented with some great links, perhaps the best of which is this: Simply send a $10 donation by texting “Haiti” to 90999. The donation will appear on your next phone bill. Easy.
12   My feeling from listening to the reports is that they need money, and that the devastation is beyond any “normal” disaster.
13    I put this out there quite often during disasters because a lot of people read the DN, and if each could simply communicate simple ways of helping to a lot of others, then we’ve all shared in helping make the world a bit better, and in helping people who are experiencing things we can’t even begin to fathom.
14    So I usually just put it out there. I don’t criticize those who don’t respond, nor do I make judgments. I simply like to get word out in a concise means, and to provide simple ways each of us can contribute.
15    Thanks, if you’ve never contributed before, try this once. Donate more than $10 if you can stretch it. Heck, donate a hundred if you have it! You spend that on impulse buys and parties. People do need the help, so this is just a means of getting people who normally don’t go the extra step to go the extra step.
16    Thanks.
17     Moving on, Part the Second: Whoops. Nothing like grading deadlines to bring on the classic insomnia that hits every six weeks. Grading papers and data entering can get pretty tedious on the old cranium. Yesterday I had a nice long afternoon, and was able to grade three complete classes AND spend an hour at the gym. Nice, but once it hits around 7 p.m. I am ready to conk out, which I did.
18     Moving on, Part the Third: So yesterday I had to take a break from all this grading and walk to the English office with our Department Co-Chair, Nicole Hermatz. The sky cleared, and the sun came down on us as we broke away from the finals, the grading, and the indoors. The sweetness of the sky smiled down on us. The air felt great as we mosied along.
19    On the way to the English office, I looked ahead, and thought I saw Ringo Starr walking towards me.
20    Turns out it was me old friend and confidant Ken Ponticelli, lookin’ fer trouble.
21     Ha!
22     He looked like a castaway from a Beatles’ movie, or perhaps a stowaway from one of the Pirates’ movies. Your choice.
23     Ah, it gave me a hearty laugh, and we spent some well-earned time together talkin’ it along about everything and nothing, and hoisting a few laughs along the way.
24     I brought him over to The Cathedral, my name for my room at the Chill-on-the Hill and we were able to catch up a bit.
25     Is there anything nicer than when a best friend shows up and says hello? It was utterly GREAT to see the guy, so we’ll probably be getting ourselves into some malicious mischief sometime in the next few weeks.
26    Welp, it’s moving on 1:30 a.m. I already have at least four hours of sleep done, so I think it would be good for me to bow out right now, and wish you all a grand day. This week moved pretty swiftly, so enjoy the nice weather before we get drenched.
27    We certainly could use some rain, but I did so enjoy the sun and the nice weather yesterday. Brought smiles and laughs, two things that work well with lasting friendships.
28    Contact a good ol’ friend today. It’ll make your day. Donate to the Haitian disaster relief. It’s easy, and you’ll feel great.
29    Y’all have a grand day, make someone’s day, and it’ll be the best day of the year.
30    Find it in your heart.
31     Peace.
~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.94aae335470e233f6cf911df43181aa0/?vgnextoid=15c0c5a210826210VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD

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Month: January 2010

Tornado warning briefly issued for Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties

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