a coupla my favorites

so, here are a couple of the people who live in my county...or who used to.  An entirely new blog could be written about the eccentrics who live there....guys who wear long gowns and ride skateboards through town,long bearded and yelling "Mahalo" like some Waikiki Messiah(good band name,I think).  In ols school Mill Valley,before the the bad money element rolled in, we were taught to be respectful of the eccentrics,of the men who told you we were being taken over by aliens,sticking out their tongues and teaching people how to taste the metallic mind contaminent in the air...respectuful of the artists who spelled out a giant grilled cheese sandwich with slices of velveeta.  Respectful of the retarde man who wansered downtown telling everyone to have a nice day.  We even knew his name...George Grant.

           In one of my last blogs I wrote about the musicians who live in our area....One that I forgot about was Elvin Bishop.  Now frankly I am not the biggest Elvin Bishop fan,and know he was a blues player who had one cross over hit,"fooled around and fell in love",which was the ballad of my senior prom...really,the one slow dance the band knew....played it twice.  Well Elvin Bishop is a local guitar player.  One night I was at a high school music project,and Elvin Bishop sat in....with freshmen....and they all just acted like he was anybody.  Some guy said "Hey man, wow these kids don't even know he's fucking Elvin Bishop"   >  I wanted to yell"Fooled around and Fell,Elvin...take me back to the prom..".

Oh,and we had this other musical icon named Chuck Day.

Chuck Day played the local bar scene in Fairfax...And we have a pretty good bar scene.  We have five bars in two blocks.   And everybody here plays music.  You know how in l.a. all your waiters are actors....here your auto repairman fronts the local blues band.   Your waitress sings for big brother and the holding company...seriously.

Well Chuck Day died,and  the whole music scene went from bar to bar,ala new orleans,musicians singing,and bands playing.  I popped in to 19 Broadway to hear a band,and I saw a guy I once worked with,,,

"Hey Man?"

"Hey Joe"

"Chuck was the best"

"(trying not to imply I am there for the band)  Oh,for sure,Man"

"I loved Chuck,Man.   Quite a history"

"yeah...history"

So,I tried to find out the history.  Ok,remember that Johnny Rivers song "Secret Agent Man" .  Chuck Day created that riff.  Even if you haven't ever heard the song,you've heard the riff.

Chuck Day played guitar on "California Dreaming" and was the second guitarist with the Mama's and The Papas.

Chuck Day fathered Cass Eliotts baby.

Chuck Day lived in Fairfax...wait,what?  Let's go back...

what?

ChuckDay was Mama's baby daddy?

That is pretty frickin cool.

For me,that is the pop cultural element....not even the "who did who" but the fact that who got done in a time and a place of vitality and incredible exploration.  And in someways our county is probably jammed packed with that kind of info.

I was sittin next to a guy in my local brewpub.  He was talking about the reunion of the summer of love,how he did some acid there and it was ok.  I said "Do alot of acid in the 60"s?".  "Oh, i was probably responsible for a million hits".

Ok...a million hits.

I've done acid three times...and sometimes my little finget turns into a snake...Not really...

   a million hits.

Well,turns out he made it and sold it.  Now I have already told you that in Marin County you can't seem freaked out by any of this.

"Yeah,I made and sold acid"

"(HOLY SHIT!!!!!!) Oh,wow.  Really?"

"yeah..I served my time"

"(WHAT THE F....)Really?(I hear someone calling me over here)

"  Yeah,I was in jail""  Yeah,man.  Stick it to the man"  .  Nope. didn't say that.

Buttey Lewis

My friend Monica tells me that Huey Lewis lives in Montana and was in the broadway production of chicago...

ok.

The zombiest place on earth

ok,so what is it with the whole zombie thing.  Is it that we have become zombie like,with our Ipods and computers...that we are one step from George Romero Land...George Romero made Zombies really popular with night of the living dead.....I just have to stop for a moment and divert on how weird disneyland is.  I mean,it's a park named after a guy.  Well,what about Romeroland.  I mean George Romero has a following like Disney did.   Romeroland might fly.  Zombies of The Caribbean ,The Zombie Mansion....Peter Zombie...Zombie Mouse.  If I keep playing this game I will realize that substituting Zombie for things might lead to confusion.  I realized that when naming Zombie Mouse, so I guess his wife would be Minnie Zombie,and they could hyphenate their names  Minnie Zombie-Mouse and Zombie Zombie-Mouse...but what about their pet Pluto and friend Goofy.  They both would just be named Zombie.  

This reminds me of the time that my friends and I were sleeping over at Scott Weiss's house, and we substituted part of a t.v. series with the word "ass".  Oh the things teenagers do, except that I am not sure we were still in high school.  So Voyage to the bottom of the sea became Voyage to the bottom of the ass...  and Then The Dick Van Ass Show, Dragass (or assnet)...and then the coplication arose when Steve wanted to do Bonanza and all he  said was "Ass".

And problems arise when  naming rides....do Splash Mountain and Space Mountain become both Zombie Mountains...or I was thinking Splash Zombie and Zombie Mountain.  Maybe you could ride a car shaped like a zombie on Splash Zombie.

and Maybe instead of Mickey ears, you would have Zombie Zombie Mouse ears that are rotted on the edge,with a piece of exposed brain in the back.   Hey,this is really taking shape.  Maybe I can use some of my bailout money to greenlight this baby.

and since the newest disney thing is shooting things ala carnival style video games,toy story style, I think Pixar should do a Zombie Story ride where you can shoot them,and they collapse.  Zombie Potato Head,Zombie Slinky Dog.  Buzz Zombieyear and the cowboy, Zombie.

I am not going to transfigure Jessie the Cowgirl,because frankly,she's my favorite...I have had a crush on her for awhile now.  So she would just be the scream queen who runs partially clothed through the ride....like in the movies of ...Rob Zombie.

Huey Lewis and The News

I live in Marin County. To other people I say San Francisco....it is just easier. I had a roomate in college that was under the impression that Mill Valley was a farm town. Mill Valley. Well,he was from Beverly Hills,so maybe to him Dubai is a farm country. Marin County is home to many stars. It isn't l.a. where my friends kids get bullied by Tommy Lee and Pam Anderson's son....but it does have it's share of celebs....of course,many of them are old rockers,really old rockers. When we moved into our house somebody told us that Janis Joplin had hung out at our house. On our first party,when adults were hitting the walls literally,I began to believe that maybe Janis's spirit hadn't left...either that or the evils of teaching take its toll. Turns out Joplin lived in Larkspur....but her drummer, Dave Getz,is our neighbor. I taught his daughter.he seemed ok.

This has become an actor haven. Fucking Sean Penn lives around here. I love him as an actor,partially because I see what a reclusive miscreant he can be. His wife, Robin,came into a bagel store where I frequent. She seemed ok.

I saw Jerry Garcia once. Bonnie Raitt was having coffee. No better sighting has taken place than George Lucas who is a local,who has a fairly modest home up from us,and loves Marin because he can blend in. The trick to living in expensive paradise that we pretend to afford is that if any mega-celeb walks by you can fall apart privately,but you aint some housewife from Toledo who falls apart at the mention of sylvester stallone when he is mentioned at universal studios. She was next to me,and she was like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally....but see,I was raised in Marin,so I can be "a chiller".

so george lucas walks into our local mexican restaurant,and is waiting for a table. It's Marin,so we all pretend he isn't important,and he likes it that way. Nobody steps up and says "I am your father, George" or " Wow,George...I think the dialogue in part 2 is wildly overated". He is just waiting for a table, MIles says "Wow,I wonder how he became a filmmaker. " and I,breaking the cardinal rule, said "why don't you ask him?"....and he bounded off...'don't mention jar-jar" I say.

I keep my head focused on the appetizer platter saying to Erika "I mean,he's a kid. He's not asking for some rare script to be autographed,or a picture to be taken"...and I expect him to come back several seconds later...and he doesn't come back...I look up from the taquitos to see my savvy ten year old chatting with George Lucas...then he comes back.

"What did he say"

"Well,he did short movies when he was young...and he went to film school at usc...(insert George info here)."

Hey,I don't care how bad his dialogue is...and how many nerdy jabba the hut fanatics he has spawned....George Lucas is allright with me.

Now, another Marin County dynasty is an alumni of my high school. Hugh Craig. You weren't alive in Marin County or the 80's and not exposed to Hugh and his tam high alumni friends. Huey Lewis and the News. I loved them...I once saw them at the OAKLAND COLISEUM. THe

crowd was nuts. They booed the opening act...a mexican based accordian rock band....The lead singer said "Oh,you don't know real music"...and considering the band was Los Lobos,one of the great longstanding bands,he was actually right. HUeY CAME DOWN IN A HUGE CABLE CAR TO THE STRAINS OF HEART OF ROCK AND ROLL. SF's premier cable car bell ringer came played a bell solo to heart of rock and roll. It was amazing.

But Los Lobos has become the worlds most respected band of musicians and Huey...well I haven't seen him in years. Occasionally he would come into where I got coffee in the morning,looking like he was still living that rockstar life without really having much fire behind him. Huey and he News played our county fair two years ago. Gone the way of kc and the sunshine band and Peter Frampton.(Ok,for the storytelling element I will ignore the fact that Los Lobos has played there too)...Fame is fleeting.

but wealth can still be made. Huey and the news play corporate gigs for like Apple at 150,000 dollars a pop. They can play at the bankruptcy parties.

now lets finish up by playing the PANDORA game. Pandora is internet radio that you type in an artist and then it creates a radio station based on the characteristics of your artist. I just typed in Huey Lewis...and this is who I have heard while writing this piece

huey lewis

reo speedwagon(keep on loving you.eeeeeeek)

Huey Lewis

zz top(what?)

Kenny Loggins(footloose...see blog called bloggins and messina)

winwood

phil collins

billy joel

huey

men at work(I"m sure they are playing at a county fair in australia somewhere)

journey(I saw the lead singer drunk one day at the cantina...now bought by carlos santana...whose father was a mariachi there)

j geils.

GOD,HUEY WAS A LOSER!!!!!!!!!!

is this the end of Zombie Shakespeare.

Yes, it is.

hollywood high

First scene...disney cruise, july...Second day on the boat my son wants to go to the swimming pool on the ninthe deck...We wander up,and realize that the water slide dumps into a quarter inch of water. He does that once,and we wander over to the bigger pool....to find it packed...and the forty foot screen is playing Disney's cultural phenom High School Musical. You haven't lived until you have seen two hundred kids splashing to "Stick to the Status Quo"...

Scene 2......Disney Cruise,Miles is at the kids club,and E and I are wandering the huge ship. Wewalk by the theatre(First run movies....because we own them all) and we see they are playing Camp Rock...Camp Rock starring the Jonas Brothers...We sit and watch it,and I realize that it is High School Musical at camp. Suddenly a plan takes place. I am gonna write a high school musical satire.

a satire of the squeaky clean disney image...no drugs,no sex, an alternative teen universe

So I just realized that I had already posted this, whereas usually I keep drafting. But hey, it's all experimental anyway. So, I take this concept to the typewriter..a computer actually, and I start to work it. I have 15 kids and a director, My ex student Lexie Papedo. I could blog about her for days. She's that cool. And so I write. Yes, I sit at the computer and I start to get the whole thing going.

Now, writing for me these days is a series of stops and starts. I can get going enthusiastically and then just fizzle(see 12 blogs and then none, for instance) but things start to move pretty fast. I look at HSM with that parodic(should be a word) eye and I am given all kinds of possibilities. I see big hats at the beginning, I want to create some absurd sport for the stud to play...it becomes badminton. and the songs start to flow. I want the show to stand on it's own, so I am going to write a few anthems that we will repeat. I always want songs to get stuck in peoples heads. It has always been that way with my shows. I always think I would be a good jingle writer. I bang out the first 16 pages...and then we get to work.

From a producer's standpoint this is box office poison. 15 kids don't bring in a lot of revenue, and we ,welcome to the world at the end of the Bush Admin, are hurting big time. But the show is gonna be fun, right?

We get the rest of the script nailed down and then we just work. 6 dance numbers,12 musical numbers in all. Lexie, Choreographer/actor Lily Housh and I just chipping away.

And the show is ready to open. Kids don't know all their lines quite, but we are getting there. Lexie and I are sure we will have 35 non laughing people. Our theatre opens and we go people start coming in....130 people later, we start. Great house for a tuesday night....and people love it. The strangest part of it is the show kinda takes a life of it's own. It is not a rip job on High School Musical, but rather a really funny high school of it's own....People who loved HSM loved it, people who Hated HSM<...loved it.

And I realize that the world of high school musical, somewhat sanitized, is not a bad place to dwell. The world of musicals brings people to a happy place. It represents an optomistic view that we maybe need at this moment in time.

And the small crowds? We sold out two nights of four.

another run through the ipod

connectivity is a skill.  

I enjoy listening to the ipod and trying to figure out why the music 

is there.

PAPERBACK WRITER THE BEATLES.....There is not a beatles song that exists that I don't remember when I first heard it.  Usually ti was my brother's room.  I love this tune.  If I had the rights to create a Beatles Musical this would be one of the opening numbers.  God, then I would have to have some young writer named Jude

the impression that i get the mighty mighty bosstones.

I had never heard this until two years ago when I downloaded a ska thing.  This is one of my favorite tunes.  Never had to knock on wood and I"m glad I haven't yet cause I am sure it isnt good,  That's the impression that I get.

LIKE A ROLLING STONE....BOB DYLAN,

I used to think dylan was just weird for the sake of being weird....And then I saw the scorcese doc NO DIRECTION HOME...and I realized what an amazing artist he is...chameleonic, ever bucking the trend,never one to get on a bandwagon,a pulse for so many years.

I realized how genius he was when trying to write Dylanesque songs for my Dylan Doppleganger, Levi Poe, in the rock club musical Aurora Blue.  And Like a rolling stone was one of his first forays into electric music,a journey that led him to many controversies and triumphs.  The besy story of this tune is that the famous organ part was created by Al Kooper,on the spot.  He had never played organ before.

KU'U HOME O KEAUKANI    NA LEO

The royal Grove is the greatest hotel in Waikiki.  Family owned by the Fongs, the small pink hotel lies two minutes from the beach...Nothing fancy,this is where locals stay...On wednesday nights they have a jam session in the sitting room.  Lots of beautiful voiced hawaiian men sitting around singing songs of their youth.  This song reminds me so much of the vibe of The Royal Grove...old school,non touristy hawaii.   A place where one woman came for a week and stayed for three months....and where the desk clerk came for a month and stayed for 20 years.

SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT TORI AMOS

One of my most profound tv watching experiences came one day when I was watching MTV and they had a new video...a work by a woman named tori amos called silent all these years.  Here was a perfect example of some profound song that I had never heard...and she in her electric,oddly appealing glory(I have a thing for noses).  And it was a profound song...one that dictated me to write a play called outside the castle.  This is a cover of Nirvana.  I love covers.

LOVE ME DO THE BEATLES...Ok, so the beatles phenom......There is this book called twilight,and it has caused crazy girls to pass out and whatever.  One of my students said..It's no different than the beatles.....Ok,you tell me where Twilight will be in forty five years...Just saying.Just saying