A Strange Sickness

For the last two days, I have been afflicted with a strange sickness. And no, I do not mean my love for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, for such pure devotion could never be considered sick. No, for the last two days I have been stricken with a general wooziness, tempered with nausea, that reminds me of the effects of a hangover. Despite the fact that I have not had any alcohol since Sunday (admittedly, that was WAY more than I should have had, but I don't think it's still having an effect).

Anyway, the point is, I want it to go away. There are things I should be doing. For one thing, I should be at work. For another, if I'm not at work, I should be able to do productive things like grade papers and make lesson plans, but for some reason I can't concentrate on those things. And tonight I want to be able to enjoy seeing Next To Normal, which I believe will be my first new musical since Xanadu. Unless we're counting Speech and Debate, which is more a straight play with occasional music numbers.

I'm excited about it, as it will be the first I see in a spate of new rock musicals, including In The Heights (which I saw off-Broadway last year) and Passing Strange (which sounds intriguing indeed.) And possibly Saved!: The Musical, though I actually have no idea what the music will be like. Of course, I don't actually care, for two reasons: one, it's Saved!, one of my favorite movies in the universe, and two, it's Celia Keenan-Bolger, who has done no wrong that I've ever seen.

Wow. Tangent. Craziness.

Unwise Things

Here is a short list of advice based on unwise things I've done in the last few weeks. Perhaps I'll make this a running theme: I certainly do enough stupid shit to make it so.

• Gin and tonics and gimlets are all well and good, but should never serve an appetizer to Facebook messaging.
• Before you take an ambitious job, it helps to be sure you have some free time available to devote to it.
• The night before returning to your job after a week off is a BAD time to experiment with large amounts of Scotch whiskey.
• If you do decide to experiment with Scotch whiskey the night before returning to work, CALL IN. Or at least set your alarm.
• Singing the hardest song in your repertoire as loud as you can is not the best vocal warmup.

I hope that serves you well.

The Political Post

I call this the political post because I have no intention of posting my political opinion with any regularity here. This is a rare exception, I promise.

I am supporting Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary and general election for a variety of reasons, not least because her health care plan is the best. I will vote for Barack Obama in November if he is there, though I'm a little worried that he's too self-confident and will turn out to be ineffective at compromise or, worse, dangerous. The very thing that makes others like him so much - his charm, suave nature, ability to make you believe everything's going to be okay - are the things that worry me. But that's neither here nor there.

This post is about Hillary. Specifically, the terrible way that the press and the people have treated and talked about her throughout this election. I have been appalled, shamed, and disturbed at this campaign, specifically the sexism inherent in nearly every mention of Hillary in the media and even in my regular conversations.

It's hardly a fair comparison, but let's look at facebook for an easy example. Search "Barack Obama" in Facebook groups, and the majority of groups are supportive. That makes sense - he's done a great job of appealing to the young, modern liberals that are the majority of facebook's population. There are a few groups, however, that are opposed. These groups have titles like "Stop Barack Obama (One million strong and growing)," "Anti-Obama and damn proud of it," and "Against Barack Obama." Fairly neutral names that may show strength of opinion, but are certainly inoffensive.

Search Hillary Clinton, and the very first result is "Hillary Clinton has Gonorrhea." Just a few down, you have "Hillary Clinton: Stop running for President and make me a sandwich." A bit further: "Life's a bitch, why vote for one?" And those are just on the first page.

Okay, so these are mostly jokes. But what kind of world do we live in where jokes like this are okay, ignored, condoned, and laughed at? It makes me sad.

Anyway, all that to say: I watched SNL for maybe the first time in years last night, just luckily, so I got to see this clip live. And I love it.



This one is pretty funny too.

Musical theater composers who need to make it big

My latest ventures in internet surfing have taken a new turn. Until recently, my YouTube and MySpace clicking adventures were focused on performers, specifically, singers. I'd find a performance I liked, like this one of Cortney Wolfson singing "Blue Hair"

and I'd say "Wow, I sure like Cortney Wolfson, better add her to my list of performers to watch for." And I would.

But recently, I was at The After Party (one of my regular opportunities to hear new things), and there was this group of singers there led by this too-cool-for-school dude name of Joe Iconis. Joe Iconis, it turns out, is a composer. And his songs are awesome. In fact, they happen to include that "Blue Hair" song mentioned above.

Suddenly, my eyes were opened. I need to be on the watch for up-and-coming composers too! Seems obvious, but for some reason it didn't occur to me. But since it has, I've gone crazy.

Here are some composers I've discovered that are making really great musical theater. All of their songs are worth a listen or seven. Click the names to get web pages or MySpace pages. When included, the video files are examples of their music being performed.

Adam Gwon
This video, of the song "Don't Wanna Be Here" appears to have the same clip twice in a row. Weird. But it's good!


Jonathan Reid Gealt I discovered this extremely nice man because of the video below, sung by the incomparable new star Natalie Weiss. But I like the song even more than the performance.

Scott Alan A bit more successful than many of these others, he's released a CD and has a following for his monthly show "Monday Nights New Voices" at The Duplex in the Village. Again, though, I only discovered him through Natalie Weiss, because I wasn't paying enough attention.

Neil Bartram I'm having a hard time finding much of a web presence for this composer, but you can here one of his songs, "Mrs. Remington," on the Monday Nights, New Voices Myspace profile.

Deborah Abramson
I first met Deborah when she was working with "Spring Awakening," but I really love her songs. I especially like "Godel, Escher, Bach" perhaps because I love that book while recognizing its ridiculousness. I can't embed the only video I found of her work, you can find it here: Stephanie J. Block sings "Gotta Start Small"

Okay, I think that's enough for now. Especially since, so far as I know, nobody actually reads this blog yet! But if somebody does, and you have suggestions I should add, let me know!

Review: Come Back, Little Sheba

Come Back, Little Sheba, William Inge's play about a lonely wife, her alcoholic husband, and their free-spirited boarder, was first produced in 1950 and made into an Oscar-winning film in 1952. The new Broadway revival at the Biltmore features S. Epatha Merkerson in the starring role of Lola.

I've noticed a trend that the plays I have the most problems really connecting with are plays from the early to mid-twentieth century. Plays from this era have enough components of what I'll call "modern" theater that my brain enters that zone, but differ enough that I sometimes get thrown for a loop. The main example of this in Sheba is the final scene; specifically, that it exists at all. The scene before contained multiple spiraling climaxes, followed by a beautifully acted, subtle, ambivalent denoument that in twenty-first century play would have been the obvious place to end. However, being written, as it was, in the forties, William Inge apparently thought there should be more resolution. The last scene is hardly bad, but it is unnecessary and was in some ways less fulfilling than the ambivalent ending would have been, contradiction though that seems. In many smaller ways, too, the show seems forced, overly convenient. Too many things just happen to occur on the days the audience is tuned in to the family; it's as if, in many ways, the people lived in a vacuum before the play opens.

However, the weaknesses in the writing are more than overcome by the strengths. The husband and the boarder, who seem on the surface to share many of the traits of classically perfect TV characters of the fifties, have deep imperfections hiding just below their perfect facades. When their faults aline in just the right way, the disaster that unfolds is disturbing and powerful. It is only the wife Lola - lonely, confused, uncertain, boring, bored, and stuck completely in the past - that is honest with herself, the other characters, and the audience. She makes no attempt to hide or gloss over the pathetic nature of her life and by embracing it, makes it somehow graceful. Over and over I found myself cringing at the sad, pitiful life she lived, but by the end, I loved her and wept for her. S. Epatha Merkerson's performance is fantastic, and definitely worthy of a Tony nomination.

This show did not make me happy. It was dark, depressing, and imperfectly written and paced. I did, however, come out thinking about the characters and the play, analyzing and wondering, which is more than I can say for a lot of theater. For that reason, I'll say that it is worth the student rush price, if you have some free time. It's not a contender for best play of the year, or even best revival (I thought Pygmalion and The Homecoming were both superior), but it is a play worth seeing.

Why Teaching is Hard

You know, on the face of it teaching is not a bad job. It pays a fair middle-class wage for decent hours and a lot of vacation time, comes with great job security (at least in the unionized public schools), and is only high pressure if you actually care, which is not exactly a requirement. Plus, plenty of time after school and on weekends to make extra cash tutoring.

In fact, counter-intuitively, the teachers that have it the worst are the good teachers. The passionate, hard-working, caring teachers who come in every day with the goal of doing the best they can for their school, their students, and themselves.

Good teachers (and I'm including myself in this category for the moment) don't have short work days. I'm at school from 8:00-5:00 almost every day, and do grading and planning at night. We don't always have weekends, even - I plan for about 10 hours a day most Saturdays. Each work day is exhausting because we have to project energy, happiness, devotion, and strength to our students, even when we're not feeling any of it. And even after all our hard work and dedication, we can, and often do, still give a test that more than half of our students fail. And no matter how many times we tell ourselves it's not our fault, we did our best, we did good, there is always the idea hovering over our heads that we're not good enough, and, because we're not good enough, our students are suffering.

And that's the hardest part of teaching. Our mistakes barely impact us at all - our salary and lifestyles remain unchanged - but can affect our students for life. I think that's why most good teachers burn out. The responsibility is too great to handle.

What inspires a new blog? Free time!

The NYC public schools have been off this week, which has been truly wonderful. I think this mid-Winter break is one of the best things about the otherwise somewhat cracked academic calendar here - it's definitely a good time of year to sit back and chill for a while.

Feeling both frugal and uninspired, I made the decision to stay in New York this vacation, which was, I think, wise. Along with the obvious benefits, like not paying for a hotel or feeling pressure to do anything more taxing than play Xbox, I've also taken the opportunity to really enjoy the musical theater scene that I'm sometimes too stressed or tired to really take advantage of.

On Monday, I attended Scott Alan's Monday Nights New Voices cabaret show at The Duplex, which was absolutely amazing. Whitney Bashor is going to be the next Kelli O'Hara. Unfortunately, despite the fact that at least three of my musical theater hero(ine)s were there, I completely failed to build the nerve to speak with any of them.

On Tuesday, I went to this performance at The Ritz, even though it began at 11 p.m. Not something I could've done with school the next day. And it was fantastic, first time I got to see Natalie Weiss live, and Alysha Umphress was rocking extra hard too.

On Wednesday, I went to a screening of PBS' recording of last year's Company at the Laurie Beechman theater. Several of the cast members, the man who directed it for television, and the lady who did all the orchestrations were there, and it was a very festive atmosphere. Great fun.

On Thursday, I had a voice lesson. Which will probably happen again post-vacation, but I wouldn't have found the time to make the appointment without the vacation, so that's good.

And tomorrow (tonight?), I'm going to see Come Back, Little Sheba and then the After Party - which, to be fair, I attend almost every Friday night. But I'll be much more well-rested and participatory this time!

It's been a good week. Too bad it's almost over.

Polite Introductions

Ah, new blog smell. The fresh, clean feeling of a page as of yet unspoiled by rambling, pointless posts that alienate and confuse! How long will this one last? I have never had much success maintaining a blog in the past, but who knows, perhaps now that I am older and marginally less angsty, I'll be able to last a bit longer. (That's what she said.)

Now, the question you're probably asking yourself is whether this blog is worth your time. Whether, indeed, you should read it at all. The answer is almost certainly "no," but in case you don't entirely trust that, here are some topics that may or may not possibly get coverage in this blog, at some point or another in the future.

• The general absurdity of teenagers, from the perspective of a teacher in a poor, urban NYC high school
• The general absurdity of teenagers, from the perspective of an administrator on a message board for a popular Broadway show.
• The general absurdity of adults from both of the above perspectives, plus... others.
• Totally awesome YouTube videos, which will almost certainly relate to musical theater or cabaret, because that's what I watch on YouTube.
• The trials and tribulations of being a straight male musical theater fanatic.
• Reviews of shows, musicals and otherwise, and other performances. I go to the theater at least once a week, so this should be pretty regular.
• CAP 21. At least, when I do a thing there this summer. If the blog makes it to June.
• Books I read and enjoy

Unlike other blogs I may or may not have attempted in the past, I promise that this one will NOT contain

• Fanfiction of any sort.
• Angst. This will not devolve into my online diary. I promise. And if it does, point me back here, and I'll either delete the angst or edit this post to make you look crazy.

I may talk about other things. But the above is the plan.

David