Now I finally know why my Father told me there was no way he was letting me go to College in Boston when I wanted to apply to Boston U all those years ago….
Category Archives: New York
War On Christmas Spreads To Lincoln Tunnel : NPR
Interesting article from NPR….
This “War on Christmas” crap normally just makes me tired.
I’m of the “live and let live and go to whoever’s party is best today” school of thinking…Just stay in the moment, enjoy the season and don’t think about any of it too much..
And people really should know by now, it’s a waste of time and energy to argue about religion…
Holidays are time for traditions, and one of the biggest American traditions this time of year is arguing about religion.
Some years, a community is torn over a manger on the lawn in front of city hall or a missing menorah.
This year, the season’s biggest religious controversy is in an unlikely place: the Lincoln Tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York.
For the last three weeks, New Jersey commuters entering the tunnel have had to sit in traffic and contemplate the sight of a billboard with a picture of a nativity scene, a star and three wise men. Its message: “You know it’s a myth,” courtesy of a group called American Atheists.
Drivers can mull over this challenge for the few minutes of purgatory it takes to cross under the Hudson River. Once they make it through the tunnel into New York, however, they’ll encounter another billboard, this one from the Catholic League.
It’s the same nativity scene, but this time with a retort: “You know it’s real.”
Remembering John Lennon
I can’t believe it’s been 30 years ago today since John Lennon was killed.
I still remember being at college at Washington and Lee. I was on the phone with my friend Van at Randolph-Macon Women’s College when her roommate came rushing in to tell us he had been assassinated.
I can’t say I was a big Lennon fan, but I did – and still do- love “Imagine” and a lot of what John Lennon stood for….
But, I still can’t stand Yoko Ono’s “music”….
Here is a little tribute to John Lennon.
Filed under Entertainment, Media, Music, My Journey, New York
And Happy Birthday, Mary Martin
One of the great theatrical legends of the 20th Century…
Born December 1, 1913 in Texas….
The original Peter Pan and the original Nellie Forbush in “South Pacific”…
Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, Movies, New York, Television, Theatre
Soap Star Grant Aleksander Resumes Classes at W&L after 30 Years :: Washington and Lee University
Interesting article for the W&L and theatre friends. I didn’t realize he and multiple Tony Award Nominee Rob Ashford also went to my college, Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, VA about the same time I did….
While his fellow students at Washington and Lee University may not recognize him around campus, his fans would know Grant Aleksander immediately.
He is the actor who portrayed Phillip Spaulding on the daytime drama “Guiding Light” at different times between 1982 and 2009. He also appeared in television series and movies, including the 1986 movie “Tough Guys” with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Aleksander, 50, has now returned to W&L to complete his theater major 30 years after he left to pursue his acting career.
AND
Aleksander said he left W&L after his sophomore year to transfer to Tisch School of the Arts at New York University because he thought that he needed to go to a big theater school. “My assumption that I needed to be in New York because that was where the work was being done was correct,” he said. “But I was wrong to think that I needed to go to a big theater school. I learned an enormous amount about acting at W&L because I got to actually do it. I was in a lot of productions here and some of them were very difficult.”
“My time at W&L was really a pivotal time for me. I met the love of my life, who was a Lexington resident at the time, during a W&L production of Hamlet (he is married to attorney and former actress Sherry Ramsey) and we’re still happily together. I have nothing but wonderful memories of my time here. Now, it’s 30 years later and I’m surprised at how comfortable I feel back here in this environment. The school feels much as it did when I was here before, although there are some new buildings such as the sororities and the Lenfest Center.”
In addition to teaching acting classes, Aleksander is also assistant director to Mish for the Stephen Sondheim musical “Assassins” to be performed at the end of October in the Lenfest Center. Mish described “Assassins” as more of an acting piece than singing and dancing. “That’s one of the reasons I really enjoy working with Grant on this. Plus, we’re getting twice as much done in a shorter amount of time,” he said. “While I’m working with one group, he can take another group aside to work with them. And the students love him. They sort of know about his career but it doesn’t faze them and he doesn’t allow it to.”
Aleksander has also paved the way for a group of students to watch a rehearsal of the revival of “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” starring Daniel Radcliffe in New York City, courtesy of his friend and Tony award-winning choreographer Rob Ashford, who roomed with Grant at W&L .
via Soap Star Grant Aleksander Resumes Classes at W&L after 30 Years :: Washington and Lee University.
Chapter 37: Brooks Brothers Is My Tiffany’s | My Southern Gothic Life
I have a new post up on my other blog: http://www.mysoutherngothiclife.com. Here is an excerpt and a link to the full post:
A young friend of mine just saw “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” for the first time recently and it got me to thinking…
Holly Golightly, of course played by the one and only Audrey Hepburn, always goes to Tiffany’s when the “mean reds” hit or she needs to feel safe and secure. That’s how I feel about Brooks Brothers.
More: Chapter 37: Brooks Brothers Is My Tiffany’s | My Southern Gothic Life.
Filed under Danville, Entertainment, Movies, My Journey, New York, Social Commentary, Style
Koch Industries and Network of Republican Donors Plan Ahead – NYTimes.com
All those years ago, Hilary was right. There is a vast, right-wing conspiracy…
From the NY Times:
A secretive network of Republican donors is heading to Palm Springs for a long weekend in January, but it will not be to relax after a hard-fought election — it will be to plan for the next one.
Koch Industries, the longtime underwriter of libertarian causes from the Cato Institute in Washington to the ballot initiative that would suspend California’s landmark law capping greenhouse gases, is planning an invitation-only confidential meeting at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa to, as an invitation says, “develop strategies to counter the most severe threats facing our free society and outline a vision of how we can foster a renewal of American free enterprise and prosperity.”
The invitation, sent to potential new participants, offers a rare peek at the Koch network of the ultrawealthy and the politically well-connected, its far-reaching agenda to enlist ordinary Americans to its cause, and its desire for the utmost secrecy.
Koch Industries, a Wichita-based energy and manufacturing conglomerate run by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, operates a foundation that finances political advocacy groups, but tax law protects those groups from having to disclose much about what they do and who contributes.
With a personalized letter signed by Charles Koch, the invitation to the four-day Palm Springs meeting opens with a grand call to action: “If not us, who? If not now, when?”
The Koch network meets twice a year to plan and expand its efforts — as the letter says, “to review strategies for combating the multitude of public policies that threaten to destroy America as we know it.”
Those efforts, the letter makes clear, include countering “climate change alarmism and the move to socialized health care,” as well as “the regulatory assault on energy,” and making donations to higher education and philanthropic organizations to advance the Koch agenda.
MORE: Koch Industries and Network of Republican Donors Plan Ahead – NYTimes.com.
Filed under Health Care, History, New York, Politics, The Economy
“The Boys in the Band”
I have a love/hate relationship with “The Boys in the Band.”
I love it because it was one of the first Gay plays to be a hit in New York. It brought homosexuality out of the closet and onto the stage. It was a true cultural touchstone, coming out just a year or so after the Stonewall riots.
And it scared the hell out of me when I was a young, Gay man in the 1980’s.
It was hard to see past these stereotypes in Danville VA and figure out how they related to me and my life. But, it was one of the few visual examples of Gay life, of any kind, available to us.
Thank God, for “Will and Grace”….I can’t believe I’m saying that, but it was so much more positive than this…
I hate “The Boys in the Band” for all the self hatred it shows and all the negative sterotypes. It was of it’s time…
But it does truly show the way some of us were….
It’s honest. Scary, but honest.
And it’s a fair reminder of how the times were and how Gay men saw themselves then…It’s a snap shot in History.
And it should make us grateful for how far we’ve come since then…
And make us appreciate how much harder it was for those who came before us…
It’s gotten so much better…
Lost in the 21st Century 
Oscar-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh dies at 66
Jill Clayburgh was one of my favorite actresses. She was such a critical part of the 1970’s film scene with her signature role in “An Unmarried Woman”. I always thought she should have won the Oscar for that part…I will miss her. I was looking forward to many more years of her work…
via Oscar-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh dies at 66 – Yahoo! News.
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Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, Movies, New York, Social Commentary, Television, Theatre