soup kitchen

sticks and stones will break my bones,
but i always will be true, and when
your mama is dead and gone,
i’ll sing this lullabye just for you,
and what becomes of all the little boys,
who never comb their hair,
well they’re lined up all around the block,
on the nickel over there.

so you better bring a bucket,
there is a hole in the pail,
and if you don’t get my letter,
then you’ll know that i’m in jail,
and what becomes of all the little boys,
who never say their prayers,
well they’re sleepin’ like a baby,
on the nickel over there.

and if you chew tobacco, and wish upon a star,
well you’ll find out where the scarecrows sit,
just like punchlines between the cars,
and i know a place where a royal flush,
can never beat a pair, and even thomas jefferson,
is on the nickel over there.

so ring around the rosie, you’re sleepin’ in the rain,
and you’re always late for supper,
and man you let me down again,
i thought i heard a mockingbird, roosevelt knows where,
you can skip the light, with grady tuck,
on the nickel over there.

so what becomes of all the little boys,
who run away from home,
well the world just keeps gettin’ bigger,
once you get out on your own,
so here’s to all the little boys,
the sandman takes you where,
you’ll be sleepin’ with a pillowman,
on the nickel over there.

so let’s climb up through that button hole,
and we’ll fall right up the stairs,
and i’ll show you where the short dogs grow,
on the nickel over there.

“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! ”

That’s the stuff.

One more thing.

If you are downtown, see me and the loonies in this play.

I’m playing Billy.  These shows are more than a notch on a back-stage flat before curtain-call; it’s a task to hang the play upside down and rattle out the bullshit.

Remind me to tell you about meeting the real Billy Bibbit 17 years ago.

Last month we wrapped This Is Hamlet.  It should be available later in the year.

May 12, 2009
Chloe Veltman

The anti-globalization movement has made inroads into making many of us change the way we shop and feed ourselves. People — at least those that can afford it — are trying to buy groceries that are locally grown or even growing the food they eat themselves and eschewing big chain stores for small, neighborhood businesses. Restaurants pride themselves on letting customers know that their beef came from the ranch 20 miles away and their asparagus was brought in fresh this morning from the farmer’s market across the street.

Theatre has always been an intensely local medium. It’s perhaps the most indigenous of all art forms, happening as it does in real-time and space and demanding that people actually get off their butts to experience the work.

In most cases, shoe string budgets necessitate the casting of local actors and production team members. Local casting isn’t just about keeping budgets down though. Because of the close, collaborative nature of theatre, productions and companies spring up as a result of intimate relationships that grow organically between groups of people who share their world views and creative ideas frequently over pints in the pub down the road. They’re not only cut from the same cloth but they also physically occupy the same civic space.

The two biggest companies in the Bay Area — American Conservatory Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre — usually buck this trend by casting at least a few of the actors in most of their shows from out of town. This policy (and I think the word “policy” is appropriate here even if it’s an unofficial strategy on the part of these companies’ leaders) doesn’t make much sense to me, even if it does look good on a press release and promotes “diversity.”

Even in hard fiscal times such as the ones we’re in now, Berkeley Rep and ACT regularly look to New York and other big cities for talent. This can’t be a good idea financially. But money isn’t the biggest issue.

The crux of the matter as far as I’m concerned is this: If there are great actors in town — and the Bay Area is stuffed with great actors — why bother looking further afield?

In shows I’ve experienced at ACT and Berkeley Rep over the years, the locals frequently outshine the imports. Take Berkeley Rep’s current fantastic production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore, for instance. The cast is good all-round, but the most memorable performance of the evening goes to Bay Area actor James Carpenter’s turn as the decrepit old drunkard Donny (pictured above with fellow cast member Adam Farabee). Surely local actors could have been found to play all of the roles?

There’s certainly a case to be made for exposing Bay Area audiences to new faces. But with so many wonderful performers living and working right under our noses, we should make the most of our region’s talent both on stage and as part of the production team.

Happy Birthday!
Captain of the Castle.
Lord of the Manor.
King of the Treehouse.
Best friend and bro,

Papa Alparone!

My main man, Lance, has been hired by examiner.com to write about the SF Theatre scene.  He said I’d be rich and famous if he published an Artist Profile about me.  How could I say no?

New Bob album being released on 28 April 2009.
Here’s what he says about it:

“I like the mood of those records - the intensity. The sound is uncluttered. There’s power and suspense. The whole vibration feels like it could be coming from inside your mind. It’s alive. It’s right there. Kind of sticks in your head like a toothache”

“I think we milked it all we could on that last record and then some. We squeezed the cow dry. All the Modern Times songs were written and performed in the widest range possible so they had a little bit of everything. These new songs have more of a romantic edge… These songs don’t need to cover the same ground. The songs on Modern Times songs brought my repertoire up to date, and the light was directed in a certain way. You have to have somebody in mind as an audience otherwise there’s no point.”

“I see that my audience now doesn’t particular care what period the songs are from. They feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. Images don’t hang anybody up… Like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up…  if there are shadows and flowers and swampy ledges in a composition, that’s what they are in their essence. There’s no mystification. That’s one way I can explain it… All those things are what they are. Or pieces of what they are. It’s the way you move them around that makes it work.”

Excerpts from Bob Dylan Talks About His New Record with Bill Flanagan

Every time Dylan records an album, it’s like we’ve landed on another planet.  When he released Time Out Of Mind, I was putting candle wax in my hair and kissing the prettiest girls I could get my lips on.  Love and Theft was the third tower that dropped on September 11th.  Modern Times fell into my lap when I’d hit a Self Portrait of my own (”What is this shit?”.)  Let’s hope Together Through Life doesn’t end up being another gift under the Misery Tree.  The signs point to NO.