Noel Coward's "Hay Fever"

If you read Antelope Freeway, you know that my primary choice for a night out is live music. The only real exposure I've had to regional theatre has been "Waiting For Guffman."

So when we saw the Concord Players' production of Noel Coward's 1925 play "Hay Fever" last night in Concord, we were pleasantly surprised by the highly-professional production of this witty and charming play.

Considering the lack of resources available to regional theatre -- especially in the current economy -- it's a wonder that a local group can mount a production at such a high level.

The direction by Mickey Coburn, the ensemble acting, and Tracy Wall's gorgeous costumes enabled us to time-travel back to Noel Coward's wonderful vision of a unique family weekend in the English countryside in the 1920s.

It's astonishing how great dialogue, delivered by fine actors, is timeless.

It only runs through November 22 -- don't miss it if you're in the Boston area!

Visions of Johanna

Well I'll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that's not unusual
It's just that the moon is full
And you happened to call
(From "Diamonds and Rust" by Joan Baez)

We recently saw Joan Baez in concert at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston.

The concert was on the Sunday night before Election Day -- which made Election Day the day after tomorrow, which is the title of her new album and of the title track, a fine Tom Waits song that Joan performed midway through her concert.

Stephen Holden captures the essence of Joan's voice and style at this point on her journey in his review of her concert last month at Town Hall in New York:

"With many of her high notes gone, Ms. Baez’s bread and butter is now her middle range. This is the section of her voice that embodies motherhood more completely than any other folk singer does. You want to rest your head on her lap and be soothed by the sound of the cosmic lullaby emanating from within. Her comforting embrace promises shelter from the storm in a corner of the world where peace and common sense prevail."

Elsewhere on The Freeway, I've written about how much I had looked forward to this concert, and we were thrilled to see her again, especially in her Barack Obama tee shirt, from our seats in the front row. It was wonderful to re-establish the connection with her.

This cover of an overlooked Bob Dylan song (from Martin Scorcese's "No Direction Home") has become one of her signature songs, and is pretty representative of Joan today (and yes, she did goof on Dylan at the concert, too):

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America.

In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis.

As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind.

Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."

(From The Onion)

Happy Birthday, Joni!


As Jim Fusilli writes in the Wall Street Journal, "Joni Mitchell turns 65 years old on Friday. As a milestone, reaching that age doesn't mean what it once did, but any opportunity to celebrate Ms. Mitchell and her work is worth seizing."

"Gifted and fearless, she remains among the finest singer-songwriters of the rock era, a title that doesn't quite accommodate the breadth of music and the audacity of her career."

"As David Crosby told me when I called him last week, 'In a hundred years, when they ask who was the greatest songwriter of the era, it's got to be her or Dylan. I think it's her. And she's a better musician than Bob.'"

While I might disagree with David Crosby's choice of who was number one, Joni Mitchell is one of the greatest artists of her (and my) generation.

One of my most precious musical memories is having seen her Boston concert debut (with James Taylor).

I still get chills thinking about the music that night.

Au Revoir, Sarah


"NEW PARIS, Pa. — Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska was swiftly working the rope line Friday at an apple orchard in southwestern Pennsylvania when she met a supporter who brought her to an abrupt stop.

Amber Brown, 23, held a poster that read: “I have Down syndrome and I’m voting for you. I’m a fighter too!”

Seeing Ms. Brown, Ms. Palin wrapped her in a tight hug.

“I love that poster,” she said. “You’re a fighter and you’re beautiful.”

Then Ms. Palin hugged her again. Before climbing back on her campaign bus, she circled back to Ms. Brown and hugged her a third time."

No matter how you feel about her politics and her values, she is not going to go away anytime soon -- unless she chooses to do so.

Anyone with her ability to connect viscerally with so many people on a national stage would find it difficult -- if not impossible -- to walk away from all the opportunities that will come her way.

It will be most interesting to see what choices she makes about her future as a public person outside of Alaska. This excerpt from today's New York Times account of her return to Alaska contains a glimpse into what might be her future:

"Last week, after Senator Ted Stevens was convicted on federal charges that he failed to disclose gifts and free home renovations he received, Ms. Palin joined Mr. McCain and other top Republicans in calling for him to resign. Yet while Ms. Palin lost her bid for the vice presidency, Mr. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, holds a narrow lead in his bid for a seventh full term.

Asked Wednesday whether she still believed that Mr. Stevens should resign, Ms. Palin was circumspect, saying only that the people of Alaska "just spoke" on the issue at the ballot box and that "they want him as their senator." She said Mr. Stevens should decide "what happens next." (Mr. Stevens could still be forced to step down, and Ms. Palin is widely viewed as a potential candidate for his seat if he does.)"

Sour Grapes

"While Americans eagerly vote[ed] for the next president, here’s a sobering reminder: As of Tuesday, George W. Bush still has 77 days left in the White House — and he’s not wasting a minute."

As this New York Times editorial points out so well, now is no time for the press and the media to take their eyes off the ball.

Take a deep breath for a day or two, and get right back to covering the final days of the Cheney/Bush Administration.

(And what is that reflected in the Vice President's sunglasses?)

56,255,927

There is much to celebrate today!

But the number above is the number of Americans who voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin yesterday.

It's important that we not lose sight of this number as, together, we navigate our way through the weeks and months ahead.

We truly need to celebrate Americs's diversity -- in all of its dimensions.

Men Being Sheep


On this last weekend before Election Day 2008, it's worth noting that men have been showing up in large numbers at McCain rallies featuring Sarah Palin.

I don't think McCain, Obama or Biden (or Hilary Clinton, for that matter) ever had so many guys in the front row at one of their rallies. It has looked (and sounded, according to reports) at times like Saturday night at the Bada Bing.

So if "White Men" really were a major target for the Republican strategists, the Palin choice seems to have been an inspired one. Whether the sheep vote -- and in what numbers -- is another thing altogether.

(Reuters photo from a rally in Pennsylvania in October)

Second Star To The Right


Those of you who know me are probably aware that we are quite fond of Walt Disney World, and of the Disney character that best represents its spirit and magic: Tinker Bell.

My interest goes well beyond the vacations we’ve taken there over the years, and the cruises we’ll be taking – next month on the Disney Wonder and, later, on the Disney Magic.

As a frequent Disney Guest, I’m always amazed at how each Cast Member lives out and exceeds the company’s core values and mission statement. It’s no wonder there is usually a waiting list for courses on customer service and leadership offered by the Disney Institute, and why some of the most successful companies and organizations in the world send their employees there to learn "The Disney Way."

I’ve also become interested in the history of Walt Disney World, especially after taking the “Backstage Magic” tour last year. We were even more impressed by the operational excellence that Guests never see unless they get behind (and, yes, under) the scenes during one of these tours.

Mad Men Again


The Second season of "Mad Men" is over, and I can’t believe how fast the thirteen weeks went by. I’m grateful that AMC has been making the episodes available for free OnDemand (even in HD) because there are some of them I need to watch again – particularly the ones that deal with Don’s three-week California odyssey.

For those of us who came of age during the late 1950s and early 1960s, there is a way to connect with some aspect of almost every one of the major characters in “Mad Men” - especially the women --as they began to encounter a lot of turbulence on a flight that up until about 1962 had been pretty smooth.

Season Two’s final episode accurately captures the impact the Cuban Missile Crisis had on everyone in 1962, especially those who had been scared to death as school kids in the 1950s, practicing “Duck and Cover” in their classrooms.

In case you weren’t around then and wonder why everyone at Sterling Cooper seemed so spooked by those sixteen days in October 1962, think back to the way you felt on 9/11/01 and how things never felt as secure from that point on. Then you’ll have a sense of what it was like.

I don’t think series creator Matthew Weiner will skip ahead two years again (as he did after Season One) for Season Three, because 1963 truly represents the end of the 1950s, and contains the event that rattled us even more – the assassination of John Kennedy.

Is Ugly The New Beautiful?


"When a woman once told Winston Churchill he was drunk, he is said to have replied: “And you, madam, are ugly. But I shall be sober tomorrow, whereas you will still be ugly.”

There’s a lot of hopeful media lately about how ugly is now the new beautiful.

The hit television series “Ugly Betty” is frequently cited as proof that it’s now okay for girls to be ugly in America.

But as an article in the New York Times points out, “…the show’s star, America Ferrara, is universally considered attractive. She makes a Cinderella transformation from a frizzy-haired character with braces and too-tight clothing into a conventional Hollywood beauty whenever she appears on a red carpet or magazine cover.”

“Shrek” is coming to Broadway and no doubt will be hugely successful; ads for the Broadway production are being marketed behind a “Be Ugly” theme.

But, “some critics have labeled the “Be Ugly” campaign as a marketing ploy, and they argue that the show [Ugly Betty] has done little to increase acceptance of the homely."

"On the contrary, American society continues to move aggressively in the opposite direction, critics say, placing an ever-higher importance on beauty.”

Red Sex Blue Sex

The “sexual début” of an evangelical girl typically occurs just after she turns sixteen. Photograph by Mary Ellen Mark.

"Social liberals in the country’s “blue states” tend to support sex education and are not particularly troubled by the idea that many teen-agers have sex before marriage, but would regard a teen-age daughter’s pregnancy as devastating news. And the social conservatives in “red states” generally advocate abstinence-only education and denounce sex before marriage, but are relatively unruffled if a teen-ager becomes pregnant, as long as she doesn’t choose to have an abortion."

The quote is from a recent New Yorker article looking in greater detail at the reaction of many delegates at the Republican Convention to the news that Bristol Palin was pregnant.

Sun Studio


I'm really glad that Graceland was last on my list of things to see during my recent visit to Memphis, because after visiting Sun Studio there was no reason for me to go.

I mean no disrespect to hard-core Elvis Presley fans, several of whom I spoke with during my recent visit to Bluff City. I understand that you have to go to Graceland if you want to immerse yourself in all the costumes and the country opulence (and decadence) that most people think of when they think of Elvis.

When I think of Elvis, I think of the three years or so after he arrived in Memphis from Tupelo, went to work as a truck driver for Crown Electric, and began churning out a raw blend of country and soul that sounded like nothing anyone had heard before. He recorded it at Sun Studio for Sam Phillips at the same time Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash were doing the same.

At Sun Studio, you stand in the same recording studio they all used, right next to the original speakers and recording equipment; for hardcore rock and roll fans, it is overwhelming.

When I was fourteen , the adult world hated Elvis for exposing us white kids to black music, but after Sam Phillips sold Elvis’s contract to RCA for $35,000 and Colonel Parker got hold of him and made him into a Hollywood star so that he would be acceptable to mainstream America, I lost interest in him and in his music.

Morgan Freeman recently opened a restaurant and blues club just off Beale Street in Memphis called "Ground Zero." I didn't get a chance to check out the music or the food, but it sure looks a cool place, and the name is perfect for its location at the epicenter of the blues in America. The music had better be good because that's a lot to live up to, especially with BB King's club just around the corner.

But for me, Sun Studio is the real Ground Zero in Memphis.

It's where Rock and Roll was born.

I was pleased to see that it has been designated a National Historic Landmark, but it’s really too bad that Memphis couldn’t have beaten out Cleveland as the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because that's where it really belongs.

Lorraine Motel

I didn't expect to be so moved by our recent visit to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis TN.

The walk through the Museum itself reminded me of several things I had forgotten about the history of the civil rights struggle in America, and the exhibits inside the Museum were outstanding

But it was the exhibits outside the Museum that really got to me.

You get off the trolley on South Main Street, walk down some steps through a little park, and when you realize you’re standing right in front of the Lorraine Motel -- exactly as it was in 1968 -- you’re hit by the full impact of Martin Luther King's assassination , and it takes your breath away.

Then you walk across the street, through a tunnel and into the actual rooming house from which James Earl Ray fired the shot. The room that Ray occupied, and the open second-floor bathroom window from which the shot was fired, are also exactly as they were in 1968.

It was truly chilling to stand in the bathroom of that rooming house, looking out the window that gave Ray a clear shot across the street, to the balcony just outside room 306.

The exhibits that document Ray’s journey after the assassination and prior to his capture reinforce the theory that he was well financed, and could not have acted alone.

It is a blessing that the motel and rooming house were saved from demolition so that they can provide a living history component to the Museum.

If you’re ever in Memphis, be sure to make this your first stop, ahead of Graceland .