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Jack Kerouac March 12, 1922
Posted by Tony on 12 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Lowell poet Jack Kerouac was born 88 years ago today, March 12, 1922. Below are two fascinating videos of Kerouac.
In this video Kerouac is shown playing pool Lowell’s Pawtucketville Social Club in 1967.
In this video Kerouac is being interview by Fernanda Pivano. Jack appears to be in a “not so coherent” state. Its sad.
Governor Patrick: Lead Communities to Health Insurance Savings by Marjorie Arons-Barron
Posted by Tony on 11 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Marjorie Arons-Barron writes about the high cost of health insurance and its effect on Massachusetts communities in this entry cross posted from her own blog.
Governor Patrick is said to be planning a visit to Newton this Saturday. His campaign will be giving out bumper stickers and signing up supporters. Here’s what I hope he talks about: the cost of health insurance to cover city workers. It’s a case study in what ails local communities these days.
Newton faces an $11 million deficit. Eighty percent of the cost of running the city goes for payroll and benefits. A solid chunk of those benefits covers health insurance. Recent town hall meetings in all eight wards showed that taxpayers want something done about the costs of that health insurance.
For one thing, the city shouldn’t be paying over 80 percent of the premiums, leaving the city workers to pay a token amount. It doesn’t happen in the private sector, and it’s not fair for taxpayers struggling to pay their own premiums to face a tax increase to cover workers who enjoy greater benefits than their own. Refusing to do better at sharing premium costs will eventually mean laying off some of those very workers, whose services are essential to the city.
Increasing the employee contribution is just one possible solution. Ending the bar to cities and towns’ joining the state’s Group Insurance Commission should be a no-brainer. A recent study by The Boston Foundation found that the handful of communities that have joined the GIC have enjoyed significant savings. If Boston joined the GIC, it could save an estimated 16-17 percent on health premiums.
Unfortunately, when the state allowed local communities to join the GIC, it required that 70 percent of local unions had to approve. And, viewing their benefits as something they had bargained for, they refused to agree to join the GIC. The only solution now seems to be for state law to be changed to lower (or dare we wish it) eliminate that 70 percent approval requirement.
So, Governor Patrick, you’ve already responsibly taken on public sector unions on the issues of civilian flaggers and the excesses of the Quinn bill. Public employee health insurance is “where the rubber hits the road.” You’ve been a stand-up guy on some of the toughest issues facing our state - education, ethics, transportation and pension reform – all hot button issues. This is the big one for cities and towns and their hard-pressed residents. Tell the people of Newton on Saturday what you’re going to do on this issue. The great recession and shrinking local revenues made it impossible to fulfill your 2006 campaign promise to lower local property taxes, but , by leading a reluctant legislature into the light on this, you could help lower the rate of property tax growth.
Courthouse Molding being Cast
Posted by Tony on 11 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Yesterday workers set up scaffolding on the exterior of the Lowell Superior Courthouse. This work is actually the first step of the installation of an elevator on the Elm Street side of the building. Contractors plan to attach the elevator to the side entrance of the building by the parking lot. The structure will be brick and include several windows for design purposes. Through most of yesterday morning skilled workers used the scaffolding pictured below to access the unique moldings that surround two exterior windows. They painted a latex like substance on the molding. Since the courthouse’s first and second floor window adornments are different workers cast each. These casts will be used to replicated molding that will be installed over the new elevator’s windows.
Oscar Night by Jack Neary
Posted by Tony on 09 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Local Playwright Jack Neary writes about Oscar Night in this entry cross posted from his own blog, Captain Show Biz.
A few random thoughts after watching the Oscars last night…
How did I ever watch this show before DVRs? Commercials and uninteresting (to me) awards are skimmed over effortlessly, or with only the effort it takes to depress one’s thumb on the appropriate button on the remote. As long as you’re able to hold off watching for a couple of hours, you can then watch the whole thing in 90 minutes or less. That dance sequence, for example, in my house, lasted twelve seconds.
What happened to Farrah Fawcett in the We Are The Dead section? Didn’t she pass this year? Yeah, she did. About four minutes before MJ. She made movies. Where was she in the tribute?
What was George Clooney so pissed off about? The first couple of shots of him were funny, because it appeared as if his gloominess was jocular. Then, after about the twentieth shot of old George frowning, it became troublesome. We don’t want George to be unhappy! This was his opportunity to be Nicholson (and where was he???). George, knowing he was gonna lose the Best Actor award to Jeff Bridges, could have yucked it up, totally relaxed, all night. But, nope…he just sat there seemingly annoyed. I’m worried. I hope everything is all right. Maybe he has too much MONEY!
Mo’Nique, who provided us with the most harrowingly brilliant performance of the year, fooled everybody by coming up with a dignified, contained, brief acceptance speech. Good for you, Mo!
Jeff Bridges, on the other hand, acted as if he’d just shown up at the affair by accident. I just don’t understand why a lot of American actors (not the Brits–they’re always prepared!) are so casual about the time they’re given accepting these things. It’s one thing to be loose as a goose, Dude. But, come on–review a few Tom Hanks speeches and be prepared! Like Sandy! Bullock was totally in control and terrific in her acceptance speech, even when she almost lost it when she was thanking her mother. And Waltz, too, was great accepting. Jeff! You let us down!
Now, tell me this…before she went out there, did Streisand find one of the Price Waterhouse guys and demand to know the winner of the Best Director award before announcing it? Or did she just have the cojones to go out there and practically give it to Kathryn Bigelow BEFORE she even revealed the winner? Would have been damned uncomfortable if she had opened the envelope and it said, “James Cameron.” Fortunately, it worked out. Until Kathryn’s speech. She, like Jeff, was overwhelmed and unfocused. Hate that. Her ex-husband was kind of obnoxious when he accepted for TITANIC, but I don’t think he bumbled about as she did.
Really thought Steve and Alec were superb. Nice material, well-delivered. Some guy in the Herald today dumped all over them and said that the show should have been hosted by Neil Patrick Harris and Ben Stiller. That kind of criticism shows a decided lack of awareness of what show business and comedy is about.
Tina Fey and Robert Downey, Jr. Hysterical. I’m sure Fey wrote that bit. Is she or is she not at the top of her game? God, they were funny.
I didn’t expect that Taylor guy to be so poised. Of course, out there as he was with poor, frightened Kristen Stewart, it was pretty easy to look poised.
I know Meryl’s been nominated a million times, but how about Randy Newman? I think he’s been nominated every year since Walt Disney died.
I’m still worrying about Clooney. Has anybody called him today?
Sandra Bullock needs a big, big sandwich. Man, did she look skinny. But sharp. SHARP!
Not a big HURT LOCKER fan. More of a fan of INGLORIOUS BASTERDS and UP IN THE AIR.
Looking For More “Best Pictures”
Posted by Tony on 08 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Since I signed up for Netflix I pay attention to this stuff…here is the official trailer for this year’s best picture “The Hurt Locker”…
Truthfully, I am movie illiterate…so I’m looking for recommendations, especially good lesser known movies. Fire away in the comment section if you have any.
Me, Shirley Feeney and The Big Ragu by Jack Neary
Posted by Tony on 07 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Local Playwright Jack Neary writes about working with Cindy Williams and Eddie Mekka in this entry cross posted from his own blog, Captain Show Biz
Last year at this time I was in Auburn Hills, Michigan, or, as I like to refer to it, the Frozen Tundra, directing my play KONG’S NIGHT OUT at the Meadow Brook Theatre. (Actually, it wasn’t that cold. Unless you consider 6 below cold.)
I was invited out there to direct the play and I was very excited because the great folks at Meadow Brook had arranged for TV’s Cindy Williams–Shirley of LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY–to star in the show. And, what’s more, Cindy talked her old friend and former TV co-star, Eddie Mekka (”The Big Ragu” on L&S) to perform in the show as well. It would be my first time directing TV stars, and I was a little anxious about it. Excited, but anxious.
Plus, Christos Savalas, son of TV’s KOJAK, Telly Savalas, was going to play the gangster “Little Willie” in the show, and Kady Zadora, daughter of Pia Zadora, was going to play “Daisy,” the innocent from Buffalo who gets mixed up in all kinds of jams.
KONG’S NIGHT OUT is a showbiz comedy about what I thought might have happened in the room NEXT TO the room where King Kong whisks Faye Wray out of the bedroom in the classic 1933 film. Folks have described it as a farce, and, yes, there are many doors slamming often in the play, but I think of it more as a screwball comedy. In any case, it requires comedians who know what they’re doing out there. Cindy and Eddie certainly filled that bill, as did the rest of the cast.
Christos, however, had never set foot onstage in a play before. And he was acting in a very important part. He turned out to be the nicest young man in the history of show business and worked mightily to learn the set-ups and deliveries of all the jokes, and the dialect of the character, and he was terrific. Kady had had some experience and her “Daisy” was funny and charming.
Cindy and Eddie were a revelation.
First of all, Cindy is very reserved and quiet offstage. She shows up at rehearsal and finds her little corner and opens her script and goes to work. Eddie’s a little more gregarious, but no less diligent about getting the job done. Time and again, as I’d be working with some of the other actors in the rehearsal room, I’d see Cindy and Eddie off on their own in another part of the room, going over and over a piece of business or dialogue to make sure it was honed to perfection. What a pleasure to watch professionals taking their artistic responsibility so seriously. And the work paid off.
When it came time to stage Cindy’s entrance, I managed to set it up so that she would enter alone and have a moment to be seen by the audience. I assumed there’d be entrance applause. And there would have been. Except Cindy, very rightly, determined that it was not appropriate at that moment in the play for it to stop cold. So we worked the scene without a pause and, though the audience always tried to start applauding when she entered, it was never a full reaction, because Cindy just kept going!
Eddie Mekka is a dancer and a gymnast, and his producer character, Sig Higginbottom, in this production, ended up doing all kinds of stage flips and dives and pratfalls. I never anticipated that for the character, but all the bits worked beautifully.
When it came time to stage the curtain call, I had Cindy bowing last. She demurred, letting me know that the final bow should be taken by the actor playing her son, and she was right–but we ended up with Cindy bowing last anyway. Sometimes you just have to go with tradition and with what the audience expects.
The show ran for four weeks. I had to leave after the first weekend, but I continued to get reports that all was well. I’m still in touch with Cindy and Eddie and, in fact, I’ve just written a play I hope they’ll do some day.
Just wanted to let you know what Shirley and The Big Ragu have been up to.
The Arts in Boston: One Hit, One Miss by Marjorie Arons-Barron
Posted by Tony on 07 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Marjorie Arons-Barron writes about the reopening of the Paramount Theater in Boston and the American Repertory Theater’s production of “Paradise Lost” in this entry cross posted from her own blog.
The Hit. For anyone who grew up in Boston, yesterday’s reopening of the Paramount Theatre on Washington Street downtown was both a trip down memory lane and an open door to an exciting future. The theater opened in 1932 but decrepitude forced its closing in 1976. Emerson College has taken it over, invested a fortune (more than$90 million) into restoring it, and immeasurably enhanced that area. The art deco style is drop-dead gorgeous; the sparkling lights on the marquee, a wondrous beckoning.
To celebrate the opening, the Celebrity Series of Boston hosted elegant and versatile Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester, a German cabaret music presentation that – after some initial difficulty with the microphone - provided 80 minutes of pure enjoyment. The music was all from the late 1920’s and 1930’s and captured the beauty, humor, satire and complexity of relationships during the time of the Weimar Republic, with Cole Porter and other American composers thrown in.
Unfortunately, the Palast Orchester was a one-day event. But keep your eye on the Paramount Theatre and its promise of excitement in the performing arts for Emerson students and the community at large.
The Miss. An email from the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge urged the recipient to “spread the word about ‘Paradise Lost.’ So here goes. Clifford Odets’ 1935 play was written about a family’s struggle during the Great Depression. There is obvious meaning for people today in exploring the despair wrought by economic turmoil, evictions, bank indifference, mental illness, suicide, hopelessness, turning toward crime and opposition to capitalism.
But the production at A.R.T. is nothing less than directorial malfeasance. The problem is much more than the awkward and distracting integration of video shots of the acting projected in real time on the backdrop, criticized by Louise Kennedy in the Boston Globe.
Director Daniel Fish has the actors declaiming their lines in a most unnatural way, perhaps intended to create a sense of their alienation from one another but certainly alienating the audience, removing the intimacy of the characters’ interactions, and dragging out the performance at least half an hour longer than anyone could stand it.
It’s set in an anachronistic no man’s land, with cell phones, princess phones, WWI references, and characters wearing AIG, Mickey Mouse, Enron and Kerry-Edwards T shirts. Would that the avant garde pretensions were avoided and the Odets play were done as a period piece with a modern message. This production is like root canal! Avoid it at all costs.
Remember, the A.R.T. emailed urged that people spread the word about Paradise Lost! Consider it done.
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Casino Gambling for Massachusetts is a Crapshoot! by Marjorie Arons-Barron
Posted by Tony on 06 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Marjorie Arons-Barron weighs in on the gambling discussion in Massachusetts in this entry cross post from her own blog.
Two little letters say it all about one’s perspective on Speaker Robert DeLeo’s proposal to site two resort casinos and slot machines at four racetracks in Massachusetts. He and other supporters speak of gaming (a harmless family entertainment akin to bingo night or Radio City Music Hall); opponents preserve the b and the l and speak of gambling, with all the social costs that gambling entails.
DeLeo makes a compelling case, noting that, while the unemployment rate in Massachusetts is 9.4 percent plus the “no longer counted,” the unemployment in union halls is between 30 percent and 50 percent. He says that, with 65 unemployed people for every job opening, creating a whole new sector is a legitimate plan. DeLeo concedes that casino jobs are not high-wage jobs; he calls them “value-added jobs” to help with the “blue collar depression.” Unfortunately, he is not ready to say how many jobs his gam(bl)ing proposal will generate. Nor will he say just yet what revenues, both from licensing and other taxes, the casinos will produce.
DeLeo says he is aware of the social costs, such as gam(bl)ing addiction. But some of the revenues generated would go to gam(bl)ing addiction programs. Why not just avoid creating new addicts in the first place? Other revenues would go to Massachusetts manufacturers, who need capital improvements, and to community colleges and voke ed schools for job training.
What hasn’t been discussed of late is how much casino gam(bl)ing would cut into lottery spending and, in the end, cut state aid to local cities and towns. When Governor Bill Weld was negotiating with the Wampanoags for a western Massachusetts casino and 2800 slot machines at the racetracks, the projected cut in lottery revenues was some 12 percent.
Much of the research supporting casinos has been funded by the industry. On the other side, there’s a huge amount of research on the negative effects of gambling on retailing, restaurants and other entertainment. (Check out United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts.) State police in Connecticut years ago told me of a marked increase in so-called quality-of-life crimes, like check kiting and prostitution. The conflicting evidence makes one’s head spin like a roulette wheel!
My reservations about casinos are not a matter of morals. I just don’t want to be sold a bill of goods. I want hard data (beyond the anecdotal sighting of cars with Massachusetts license plates at Foxwoods) on what the net costs and benefits are likely to be. And we all need to be aware of who’s going to pay the price if gam(bl)ing expansion cannibalizes other people and businesses in the Commonwealth. Once the decision is made, the die is cast.
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Marjorie Arons-Barron weighs in on the gambling discussion in Massachusetts in this entry cross post from her own blog.
NPS Predicts Cherry Tree Blossoming
Posted by Marie on 04 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Culture, Federal, History, Uncategorized
Cherry Blossoms
Spring must be coming! The National Park Service has gone out on a limb and predicted the time-frame for the 98th annual blossoming of the nearly 3,750 cherry trees around the Tidal Basin in Washington DC. The iconic blossoming marks the advent of Spring and the burgeoning numbers of tourists in D.C. - especially those groups of school kids on their class trips and school vacation week family outings. Planning to catch the Cherry Blossom Festival? Call your Congressman/person to get tickets for tours of the Capitol, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the National Portrait Gallery while you are there. It’s probably too late to get tickets to the White House for March or April as those are scarce and need a few months notice!
From the AP story:
The National Park Service is hinting at when spring will arrive in Washington.
National Park Service Chief Horticulturalist Rob DeFeo announced Thursday that the cherry blossoms will be in bloom from March 31 through April 11. He is predicting the peak bloom period will be April 3 through 8.
The 2010 festival is scheduled to run from March 27 to April 11.
This year marks the 98th anniversary of Japan’s gift of the cherry blossom trees to the nation’s capital.
DeFeo says minor damage from the heavy snow last month won’t affect the trees. He says a few branches broke off, but it was nothing major. He says arborists have been mitigating damage from storms and visitors for years.
Presidential Reunion
Posted by Tony on 04 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Opie, I mean Ron Howard produced this video for Funny or Die. In it Barack Obama is visited by past presidents and given advice on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
BTW, he’ll always be Opie to me and Aint Bee.
