I'm Not Alone in Liking Bugsy Malone!

On Saturday, 07/26/08, I was delighted by the production of "Bugsy Malone, Jr.", performed by kids, ranging from 8 to 16 yrs. old, in the NORD/Crescent City Lights Youth Theater. I thought I was going to see something close to an elementary school play, put together just before the end of a school year, with flubbed lines, froggy voices, and the inevitable stagefright and forgotten lines. The acting was very good, as was the singing. The group numbers were bouncy, and reminded me of big Broadway productions. And, the greatest thing was that I could understand the words! No garbled lines, no trailing off at the end of sentences, and no pockets where kids were just mouthing the words! These kids seemed to be having the best time up there on stage!

The same could be said for the kids in the audience; they were mesmerized! No fidgeting. No whining. My 3-yr. old grandson sat in the front row, with his eyes moving from character to character, mouth open in awe.

My sister and I were invited to the performance by her friend, the mother of two of the actors. We plan to go again, so that others in our family will get the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful play If you can, please catch one of the performances (see link above). You're in for a treat!

WWOZ Radio

I'm taking a break from organizing the myriad of bottles and jars in my cooking sauce collection. My son's girlfriend is threathening to do a fridge intervention, so I decided that this is my project for today. Anyway, I'm breaking - you see, you can do that when you're retired - because a friend of mine just called and told me to put my radio on WWOZ (a New Orleans jazz and heritage station). The "Tuesday New Orleans Music Show", with Tom Morgan, is broadcasting. Ross O'Keefe is sitting in for Tom. I just heard a set of "Summertime" (Presevation Hall Jazz Band), "Fever" and "I'm Gonna Put Some Hurt on You" (Alvin Robinson), and "Where Ya At" (Dr. John). IMHO, there is nothing like New Orleans music! For that matter, there's nothing like our music, food, history, people ... "sigh"...I could go on and on. As a matter of fact, I think I will ... in a future blog.

In the next set, I heard a great tune that reminded me of swinging out, but I didn't catch the title of the song. So, I just called the station, talked to Ross, and asked him for the name of the song. He told me it was "Wear Your Black Dress" (Willie Egan). Well, it wasn't that song, but that also was a great swingout song. I thought that was nice of Ross to take the time to give me the info, so I decided to look him up, and found an interview. I decided to do a test to find out if he would say how great the city is, so I listened to his interview, and he did! I also liked the way he described WWOZ as "...the musical heartbeat of the Crescent City" How poetic is that! Most people try to describe the food or the music or the people. Ross' statement sums it up nicely, "Whenever you leave the city, you start to miss what makes it special". So true!

You can hear Ross' entire interview at:
http://videos.nola.com/nola/2008/04/wwoz_show_host_interview_ross.html