Friday, September 23, 2022

Family and a Sense of Place

 

With the “relative” safe COVID travel easing, we ventured once again, six weeks later, by returning to New York City, this time for ten days and then, finally, after three long years, to our former life as boaters in Connecticut for a week.  There we were reunited with the boat we lived on each summer since I retired, mostly at the same dock in Norwalk, the ‘Swept Away’ (now Captained by our son, Jonathan, and his wife/first mate, Tracie).  Our other son Chris and his significant other Megan were able to meet up with all of us at the end of that week.  To be with our four “kids” was the highlight of our trip. 

 

The flight to NYC went flawlessly, thank you Jet Blue, and there was an orderly line to get cabs when we arrived at the gleaming new LGA terminal.  For the following ten days we enjoyed living like the Upper-West-Siders we once were, staying at Jon and Tracie’s apartment overlooking the Hudson River (while they vacationed on the boat).  Ironically one can see part of the West Side Highway from their windows, which I drove each morning in 1970 commuting from our little rent controlled apartment on West 63rd Street, to where I worked at a new publishing job in Westport, CT, not moving there until a year later.  It was a more civilized drive in those days.  I became the President of that company and was there for the rest of my working life.  I feel deep roots in Manhattan and Southwest Connecticut.  Florida has its merits but the verdant hills of Connecticut and Manhattan’s macadam still call out.

 

Jon and Tracie’s apartment also fronts Riverside Park which on some mornings I walked, especially enticed by a visit to the pier which juts out into the Hudson River and sitting on a bench where I could marvel at the 360 degree skyline.  Manhattan was literally a breath of fresh air, in the 70s, low humidity, a nice breeze.  The juxtaposition of the old West Side Highway and the new gleaming condos reaching for the sky, and the George Washington Bridge to the north in the distance and New Jersey to the west made for expansive viewing, dazzling in the light. 

 

 

 

 

Manhattan people-watching is still so much fun.  I was lucky to photograph a man and his dog enjoying that fresh morning air on the pier, and later, walking with Ann on Central Park West, the sweet mother and daughter strolling in lock step, Mom transporting her child’s roller skates. 

 

 

Or an elderly woman feeding Manhattan's requisite pigeons at Riverside Park in the morning. 



From a cab I saw a flight attendant who noted I was taking photos and stopped to pose as she crossed the street.  My pleasure!

 

Not allowing grass to grow under our feet our first full night we were thrilled to catch our favorite jazz pianist at Birdland, Emmet Cohen.  In addition to his steadfast drummer, Kyle Poole, and a guest bassist, he was joined by Bruce Harris on the trumpet, and Ruben Fox on the sax. 

 

We had a front row table, directly facing Harris, probably one of the leading trumpet performers, but the young Aussie, Ruben Fox did some other-worldly riffs, to such an extent that Harris and I made eye contact, acknowledging what Fox was doing, both wondering, how the heck?  Cohen meanwhile was smiling at his crew and doing his usual virtuosity on the ivories.  We were able to chat briefly with him afterwards, “old” fans that we are, in both sense of the word.  


Another night we were able to see Sondheim’s Into The Woods.


 

There were so many new cast members that it felt like an opening night.  When the curtains opened and the cast came out to perform the “Into the Woods” Prologue, the audience jumped up to a boisterous standing ovation which DID NOT STOP to the point that the performers began to look uncomfortable.  It was a mutual audience/performer love fest all night.  What a high bar for them to clear, but, clear it they did. 

 

Among the almost entirely new cast were several well known performers including Stephanie J. Block, and Sebastian Arcelus of Madam Secretary fame.  But to me it’s Sondheim’s glorious music and lyrics which makes this show a true work of art.  A thunderous wave of ovations concluded the show.  We exited to 8th Avenue and it became a battle to even move among the throngs of humanity in the light rain forcing us to walk blocks and blocks to get a cab or an Uber.  It was some distance until the aggressive crowd filtered out that we finally were able to hail a cab in the rain.  This may be our swan song for an evening Broadway performance.  But never say never!

 

Another theatre event I was looking forward to, not for the faint of heart, is The Butcher Boy downtown at the Irish Rep., a very dark coming of age, absurdist production, a musical no less, based on Patrick McCabe’s contemporary piece of literature.  The book, lyrics, and music are by Asher Muldoon, only 19 years old attending Princeton University.  He has been compared to a young Sondheim, and some of the lyrics and music had a Sondheim quality to it.  Imagine if Sondheim’s Saturday Night was performed as intended when he wrote it in 1954.  I felt that seeing a work by this young artist was a must, sort of getting in at the ground floor.  This piece of theatre, like Sweeny Todd, progressed to a very dark place.  But dark places are where we now live in the world.  Bravo to Mr. Muldoon and the cast!

 

Part of our days and nights were centered on some of the great restaurants of NY but my favorite was the old NYC diners, Greek owned, mostly booths.  There is a sense of comfort being part of that scene and the food is darn good.  That is yet another essential ingredient of the UWS which makes it unique, a village within a great city. 

 

But then of course there were the “finer” restaurants, including this one recommended by our son, a great UWS French restaurant, Cafe Luxembourg.   With a staff like this, how could it go wrong?

 

 

 

Most of the NYC time was spent walking the UWS, visiting its markets (call outs to Fairway, Citarella Gourmet, and of course Zabar’s) and then days at some of our favorite museums.

 

The Jewish Museum was new to us, but it had an exhibit everyone is raving about, NY 1962-64, exactly matching three of our formative years as New Yorkers!  It’s a collection of all art forms of the period, including photographs and artifacts, arranged chronologically, sometimes day by day or weekly. 

 

 

The New York Historical Society -- which we make a point to visit anytime we are in NYC -- showcased The Art of Winold Reiss: An Immigrant Modernist whose book designs captured my imagination. 

 

 

 

Their special exhibit Confronting Hate 1937-52, is a terrifying harbinger of our present times. 

 

 

 

 

The NY Historical Society also has its affiliated restaurant which we love, an oasis within an oasis, Storico.

 

 

I enjoyed the replica of the oval office the the NY Historical Society has created, and I felt very comfortable running the country from there.

 

 

Another beautiful day was spent at the JP Morgan Library Museum which features the Gilded Age magnificence of its interior and the breath taking library of JP Morgan.

 

 

 

The highlight of that visit was seeing their extraordinary collection One Hundred Years of James Joyce’s Ulysses with priceless Joyce documents and artifacts.

 

 

The Morgan gardens were also open, revealing the original entrance to the mansion.

 

 

Then to cap off our wonderful ten day stay in the City, we returned to Dizzy’s Jazz Club at Columbus Circle, for a tribute to Duke Ellington.  Three wonderful singers performed all of his iconic pieces, backed up by the bass, piano, sax and drums.  This Lincoln Center supported venue is unique overlooking Central Park.  It is where we first discovered Emmet Cohen four years ago when he was relatively unknown, just coming up in the jazz world at the age of 28.

 

 

The following Monday we closed up Jon and Tracie’s apartment and headed up to Connecticut for another week.  All I wanted to do at that point was to enjoy our old boat, see family, read and relax, and meet up with a few of our old boating friends we haven’t seen since Covid.  It was strange walking down the dock to our old boat, our summer home for 20 years.  The cool CT breeze and the lovely sunset made it seem like no time at all had gone by.

 

 

 

So many of our boating friends have either moved away or passed away.  Those three Covid years have certainly taken a toll on the health of others that remain.  It was nice to see them but a painful reminder of aging.

 

The following weekend our small but close family was able to get together, the first time since Covid.

 

Jonathan prepared the boat for a cruise to our beloved Crow Island where we spent so much time during our boating years.  Add to that time those at the dock during our retirement years, and cruising to ports as far as Nantucket, with extended stays in Block Island, we figure we have lived on a boat for a total of about eight years.  We miss the waters of the Long Island Sound. 

 

 

So although Jon fired up the starboard engine, the port engine failed to turn over.  The fuel pump failed.  Always something in boating.  By the time the replacement part arrived, we were there with our family for the last day, but just being at the dock was sufficient, beautifully soul-satisfying.

 

We then flew home, just beating a thunderstorm out of Westchester Airport.  How many times remain for such trips?  We wonder, and hope.









 

 

 

Friday, August 19, 2022

More Terminal Velocity

 

Tim Kreider’s, “Terminal Lucidity” taps into the relief many people first felt when Biden was elected but goes on to analyze the converging forces that could (probably?) result in the complete despoliation our democracy.  Trumpism acted as an accelerator, and since Kreider’s essay was written, let’s add increased tensions with China, Polio being added to the mix of Covid and Monkeypox, the FBI “Gestapo raid” on enchanted Mar-a-Lago, Liz Cheney being punished by WY, as well as the rise of “Foxy” deep-thinking media ladies Sarah Palin and Kari Lake.  Oh, let’s not forget recession or inflation (the Market cannot decide which), raging forest fires or floods or a water crisis here and in Europe, or to quote directly from Kreider: “It rained on the ice cap of Greenland for the first time in recorded history, and a chunk of Antarctica the size of Manhattan fell into the sea.  I’m probably forgetting something. Any one of these crises would take fortitude to contemplate; together, they amount to a demoralizing apocalyptic combo: impossible to ignore, impossible to face.”

 

Kreider notes that Democracy is the exception rather than the rule in human history, and its fragility must be guarded.  However, Trump’s influence on the American Zeitgeist did not end with his term as President. Conservative judges were appointed to the Supreme Court as well as at local levels, and state legislatures continue to Gerrymander and appoint obedient Electors to participate in the outmoded Electoral College. His toxicity will be felt long after he is gone.

 

We feel helpless in the face of the multiplicity of these crises.  As Kreider amusingly says: “writing your elected representative feels as effective as writing to Santa, and protest as potent a ritual as sacrificing a goat.”  And to think our threat comes from within, not from a foreign adversary, makes it more terrifying.

 

Liz Cheney’s defeat is highly symbolic as she stood for principle over Party.  Of course she was taken to the proverbial woodshed in a highly partisan State, but it shows the glaring weakness of our political system which the Trumpublicans (and let’s face it, there is no longer a Republican Party) are successfully exploiting.  To think that a State like WY which has a population not much more than Borough of Staten Island can have two senators and such disproportionate representation (along with many other States like ND, SD) is part of the weak link, not to mention the Electoral College and now the Supreme Court as well. (Perhaps States in which the buffalo roam should be demoted to territories?)

 

The Trumpublicans have already vowed swift retribution “when” they take control of both the House and Senate, punishing the opposition, having Hearings to look into the J6 Hearings, Hunter Biden’s laptop, Hillary’s Emails, the FBI (which the Republicans used to love), and who knows, human trafficking out of Washington pizza parlors, UFO’s, etc.

 

Anecdotally, someone I know has a young adult granddaughter who does not seem to be concerned about what is happening.  (She feels that she will be taken care of like she has all her life.)  And perhaps that is my greatest concern: those who will inherit the earth complacently think the “bad guys” will be negated by “goodness” as in some nice neat morality play (the macro version of a “good guy with a gun” protecting us from an active shooter in a school or mall). Kreider prophetically concludes his essay with “Once all the grownups are gone, it forces you to realize that you’re the grownups now.  You’re the ones in charge. And what happens next is up to you.”

Sidewalk of our Times

 


Thursday, August 4, 2022

Sondheim in Memoriam

 




He was a cultural deity, the leading musical artist of our age, always on the cutting edge of American theater, the consummate artist, his lyrics totally integrated with his music.  If Bob Dylan is deserving of the Pulitzer, seems to me that Sondheim is as well.  Although a “musical theatre” figure, he is far more, a poet whose lyrics captured the urbanity of modern life and chronicled human relations in dramas within a musical structure.  His musicals have as much in common with opera as they do with Broadway theatre (although Sondheim himself did not generally enjoy opera). 

 

If you look at one’s life as a piece of music, there may be a few long measures preceded by a rest notation.  Covid not only led to sickness and death, but also took large blocks of our lives away, experiences we can never recover.  It’s like a musical piece where, suddenly, the rest notation is unnaturally prolonged, taking up space where there should be music.  The older one is, the more that horridly mismanaged illness is a percentage of one’s remaining life.

 

Thus the pandemic marked the loss of experiences, such as the one I wrote about involving the reimagined production of Sondheim’s Company and our 50th Wedding Anniversary.


Although we missed that moment, we had hoped there would be another, and then the following year Sondheim passed away.  After his death I learned about the letters he wrote to others, even selflessly responding to strangers like me who revered him.

 

He had an extensive exchange of letters with Robert Osborne who for so many years was the face of Turner Classic Movies.  Watching the classic movies on TCM is just about the only TV I truly enjoy.

 

Sondheim also had an intense interest in such films, particularly those of the thirties, such as ones starring Joe E. Brown, and a host of other stars from that era.  Where in the world did he find the time to watch all of these?  I think of him, steeped in nostalgia and pastiche.  He once said something along the lines that if he was on a trip and a customs officer asked him where he’s from, he’d reply, “the past.”  He wrote to Osborne, a kindred soul, formed a mutual admiration society, and obviously Osborne kept him well supplied in tapes of films mostly from that era.

 

I’ve been able to collect ten of those letters.  Eighty-five were auctioned off in London in 2018 so my collection represents only a portion of their exchanges.  I framed the ones I collected and they now grace our hallway with other Sondheim memorabilia.  I’ve transcribed the contents of the ones I have below for future Sondheim scholars. 

 

They are fascinating, such as the September 5, 2006 letter in which he says “As for Angie's interview, do you by any chance have an unedited audiotape of it? I'd love to hear what she said.”   That must have been Osborne’s interview of Angela Lansbury who originated the role of the mad meat pie maker Mrs. Lovett in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and was in Sondheim’s early short-lived musical Anyone Can Whistle (1964).  Lansbury said Sweeney Todd was a huge success for her and that the show was a benchmark for Sondheim and “finally, down the road, that is the [Broadway] role” for which she’ll be remembered. (Watching that interview reminds me of the gift Osborne had, such a gentle, probing ability to get the best from an interview.)

 

The one dated Jan. 3, 2008 was on the eve of the financial (and ultimately political) crisis, and Sondheim concludes it with “Meanwhile, Happy New Year to all of us, please God” – something we were all feeling at the time.

 

Or the July 28, 2010 letter, the only one not signed “Steve,” which he signs “Affectionately Yours, Merle” obviously an in-joke, and not seeing what preceded it I’m guessing it was a reference to Merle Oberon.

 

The June 27, 2011 letter requests that Osborne send the tape of "London Can Take It;" as he wanted “Jeff to understand what went on during wartime there,” presumably Jeff being his husband-to-be at the time, Jeffrey Romley.  Or, the last Sondheim – Osborne letter I have dated June 12, 2012 requesting “Act One,” a 1963 film based on Moss Hart’s autobiography.  As he explains “James Lapine has been trying to track a copy down because he's writing a play based on the book.”  The play premiered on Broadway in 2014 to good reviews.

 

There are so many interesting references in these letters, so I’ll let these transcriptions do the talking themselves:

 

                                                                                August 31, 1998

 

Dear Bob –

 

Thanks so much.  What can I do for you?

 

                                                                                Steve  S.

 

*****

 

December 18, 2003

 

Dear Bob -

 

What I do with TCM is tape the movies and watch them days, weeks or even months later. I don't remember which Gordon Douglas, but it was in the midst of the Gordon Douglas festival a few months back.  I didn't mean to keep you awake nights when I brought this whole thing up -- my apologies.

 

You got me on "Whispering Streets.” If it's part of the TCM catalogue, make a copy for me. (I'm only up to the C's at the moment, but compiling as I go along.) And as far as Madelon Claudet and Rachel Cade go, what about Harold Diddlebock?

 

Meanwhile, have a Christmas worthy of Ann Harding and George Raft, or even Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly.

 

Best,

 

                                                                                Steve

 

*****

 

September 5, 2006

 

Dear Bob –

 

Thanks, as always, for your generosity. I can't believe the number of movies that Joan Blondell made. It seems she made one out of every two movies that were released before 1940. As for Angie's interview,

do you by any chance have an unedited audiotape of it? I'd love to hear what she said.

 

Does your visit to Telluride have anything to do with Bill Pence's resignation? When I was there so was Ted Turner.

 

Surely, these can't be coincidences..

 

That was a joke,

                                                                                Steve

 

P.S. Is "Down on Ami-Ami-Oni-Oni Isle" from "The Hurricane"? I suspect not.

                                                                                SS

 

*****

 

January 3, 2008

 

Dear Bob –

 

Thanks for the DVD. One of the things I love about the series films is that people like Audrey Totter and Dennis O'Keefe show up in them in tiny roles.

 

Meanwhile, Happy New Year to all of us, please God.

 

Gratefully,

as ever,

 

                                                                                Steve

 

*****

 

January 5, 2010

 

Dear Bob

For the thousandth time, thank you so much! When are you coming to our fair city next? Give me a little notice, and we'll have an in-depth conversation about Rondo Hatton.

 

Meanwhile, Happy New Year.

 

                                                                                Steve

 

*****

 

July 28, 2010

 

Dear Bob -

 

The new recorder didn't arrive in time, so please add the following to your list: "Eleven Men and a Girl"; "Top Speed"; "Broadminded"; "Going Wild"; Local Boy Makes Good"; "Sit Tight"; & Day Bike Rider"; "Bright Lights.”

 

I don't expect these till 2012 at the earliest.

 

                                                                                Affectionately Yours,

                                                                                                Merle

 

*****

 

June 27, 2011

 

Dear Bob -

 

Thanks so much, as always, for dredging up the movies. By all means, keep them coming if you can. I'm particularly grateful for "London Can Take It;" as I want Jeff to understand what went on during wartime there.

 

I'd like to add four more titles to the lengthy list:

“The Man with Two Faces," "Innocence," "Gates of Heaven" and "Trouble the Water."

 

What can I do for you in return? Since you're getting some evenings off, perhaps when you're in New York you'd like to come to dinner and we'll talk about Johnny Sheffield. Seriously, just let me know.

 

As always,

 

                                                                                Steve

 

*****

 

August 2, 2011

 

Dear Bob

 

The usual request: I screwed up trying to tape "On with the Show' and "Going wild," so please add them to your list.

 

You're looking more chipper than ever - maybe it was anticipating your vacation. If you spend any of it in New York, give me a call and we can have a drink at least.

 

                                                                                Steve

 

*****

 

September 8, 2011

 

Dear Bob -

 

Just to ruin your vacation, would you add the following four movies to the list of Things My VHS Machine Screwed Up: "Crooner," "Guele d'Amour," "Virtue," "No More Orchids"?

 

As always,

 

                                                                                Steve

 

*****

 

June 12, 2012

 

Dear Bob -

 

Is "Act One" in the Turner Classic Movies library? It's a Warner Bros. picture, so I thought I'd ask. James Lapine has been trying to track a copy down because he's writing a play based on the book. Can you help him out?

 

Hope you're thriving -- you certainly seem to be, in your public appearances.

 

Best,

 

                                                                                Steve

 

 

Alongside these letters is a framed Sondheim-signed sheet music of “Anyone Can Whistle”.  It reads “For Bob   Forte’” and as he dates it 10/5/91, well before TCM, perhaps this not dedicated to Osborne.  So when I play that piece I do so Forte’!

 

 

The opposite wall is devoted to Company Playbills surrounding a cast-signed New York Philharmonic poster of the 2013 production of Company which included such luminaries as Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Neil Patrick Harris, and Patti LuPone, among others. (Yes, Colbert and Cryer who we don’t think of in the context of musical theater do credible work in this production which was aired by PBS that year.)

 

We’ve made that hallway in our home a memorial to him. Thus, “Not a day goes by / Not a single day / …you're somewhere a part of my life.”

 

‘Sunday’ from Sunday in the Park with George is one of his masterpieces.  I include a brief video of my playing it as I often do with him in mind.  There will never be another Sondheim.