I put a new MP3 up. It's about a suicide bomber. I think my interest started with a photograph of one in the NYTIMES. That's how it usually starts for me. There was a study of what makes suicide bombers tick (not meant as a tasteless analogy either). Most of them are young, single, well educated, from good families, and many seem to fit the "shy, studious" personality profile. They don't normally "hate freedom" as W likes to say. As a matter of fact most of them love freedom and want it desperately-- they just hate the fact that their friends and families, their way of life and their homeland are being bulldozed down and bombed to bits by various foreign occupying powers. Not many of us would probably take to such treatment either. Muslim clerics, it is said, curse personal suicide but martyrdom for religion and nation is countenanced. Is this not even comparable to the inherent precepts upon which many of our own brave American soldiers may have been called and inspired to serve? This is not to excuse the brutality and human suffering and tragedy that are the results of terrorist suicide bombers. I just want to try and fathom why they do what they do. Suicide bombers are not usually "lone bad actors" -- their key is organization, not the individual. These people don't act alone, like the Unabomber, or Terry McVeigh. Well... if you are interested in a musical take on it, please have a listen - it's called "The Second Suicide Bomber". It's on my MySpace website. But don't tell the Department of Homeland Security. They'd probably call this bad acting too. 
He is now a prof in the NYU Cinema Studies department and evidently loves his new home. The 6th Orphan Film Symposium will be March 26-29, 2008 (that's 2008!). What is an "orphan film"? "Narrowly defined, it's a motion picture abandoned by its owner or caretaker. More generally, the term refers to all manner of films outside of the commercial mainstream: public domain materials, home movies, outtakes, unreleased films, industrial and educational movies, independent documentaries, ethnographic films, newsreels, censored material, underground works, experimental pieces, silent-era productions, stock footage, found footage, medical films, kinescopes, small- and unusual-gauge films, amateur productions, surveillance footage, test reels, government films, advertisements, sponsored films, student works, and sundry other ephemeral pieces of celluloid (or paper or glass or tape or . . . )." None other than Martin Scorcese had said "the Orphan Film Symposium has become and important gathering for people engaged in the preservation, study, and creative use of motion pictures. As president of the Film Foundation, I urge everyone to participate". FMI: www.nyu.edu/orphanfilms
Watch it right now on YouTube! -- with thanks to "hankmt" 
My OIL CITY alum Debra Monk is set to star, with David Hyde Pierce, in the new Kander and Ebb musical CURTAINS which is previewing now on Broadway. There's a nice profile of her in the NJ Star Ledger. "It would be nice to be able to stay in town for a year with a long-running show," says Debbie. "Because I don't know what that's like." Most of the two dozen Broadway and off-Broadway attractions the Tony and Obie Award-winning actress has graced over the last quarter-century were limited runs, either because they were part of subscription seasons -- like "The Time of the Cuckoo" at Lincoln Center Theater -- or simply sank, like "Thou Shalt Not," the musical composed by Harry Connick, Jr.
"The two I wrote actually worked better than all the other musicals I've been in," observes Monk, a co-author and original cast member of "Pump Boys and Dinettes" and "Oil City Symphony." Deb got an Emmy for her depiction of Katie Sipowicz on "NYPD Blue" and also portrays T.R. Knight's mom on "Grey's Anatomy". full article.
Johnnie Ray was a huge pop music star in the early '50's, that misunderstood yet fascinating fermenting time in American popular music. Ray was sort of a missing link -- the pop equivalent of Hank Williams and the true precursor of rock and roll, of Elvis and Patsy Cline and Jerry Lee Lewis and folks like that, except he wore a tuxedo. His idiosyncratic hyper-emotional performing style garnered him nicknames like "the Prince of Wails," "Mr. Emotion," and "The Nabob of Sob". There's a website devoted to him: johnnieray.com. I'm currently reading one of his biographies CRY--THE JOHNNIE RAY STORY by Jonny Whiteside. It's a real show business saga - a combination of the great American dream success story and its essentially lurid and soul-wrenching underpart. It's fascinating but not especially uplifting. Do you ever wonder that you are what you read?
Deejay Peter Fraissinet recently did a tribute to Tommy Thompson on the Salt Creek Show on WVBR-FM in Ithaca. A couple of Tommy's songs were featured as were songs of Keith Whitley, Kate Wolfe, Ira Louvin and Clarence White, among others. The Salt Creek Show has aired on WVBR since 1963. Their web is http://wvbr.com/salt.html
"It was a beautiful morning and Martha and the baby are both doing fine," Franklin reports." If you would like to see more pictures visit http://web.mac.com/franklingolden/iWeb/home/lily.html."
Congratulations all the way around!
They're throwing that word around again.
Those of us old enough to remember may recall the IMPEACH NIXON samplers back in l973. It seemed like a long shot. But look what happened.
On January 6th, over a thousand people gathered on San Francisco's Ocean Beach (in Nancy Pelosi's congressional district) to express themselves.
FMI: The Beach Impeach Project
Sad news came the other day. Amy Fauquet, sister of Joe Newberry, passed away Jan. 11th after a long illness. Joe and his sister's husband and son and other members of the family were with her at the time. She was pastor of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Springfield, Ohio.
I'm putting a link to this article from the NYTIMES 1/04/07 on my news page because it is the bravest and most provocative article I have read about health care in a long time: "What’s Making Us Sick Is an Epidemic of Diagnoses"
The Hedgerow production is directed by Penelope Reed, featuring Susan Wefel, Marilien Modendorff, Gabrielle Enriquez, Daniel Frost, Maggie Flynn, Helen Clark, Micki Sharpe, and Newton Buchanan. review on zwire: "A Delightful Revival of RADIO GALS"
The Humane Society of North Iowa is staging a charity performance of OIL CITY SYMPHONY, in Mason City, January 12th. "Oil City" is being described as a "fun, family" musical. And why not? It's being done with a 70's motif, and the on-line news article at globegazette.com states that "the period costumes and make-up add to the fun". It sounds like mirror ball all the way. I'm all for it. I saw SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER three times in 1977. The Humane Society of North Iowa began in the early 60's as the Pet Adoption Center (PAL) at the farm of Bill and Alice Blackmore, in Cerro Gordo County. The organization has had its share of challenges and woes over the years, including bureaucractic vagaries, bankruptcy, a ringworm outbreak, and the death of its major benefactor. However, the organization has survived it all, through a combination of pluck and dedication, and is still on its feet, celebrating its 20th anniversay this year. Sounds like a worthy cause to me and I hope they have a great and profitable time on the 12th.
I was musical director for the Salisbury production and will be m.d.-ing another production at the Cincinnati Playhouse, which opens May 10, 2007. At least two more productions of SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN HOMECOMING will occur in 2007, one at Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville, Tennessee in February, one at the Theatre in the Square in Marietta, Georgia in April, and productions at the Cape Fear Regional Theatre and the Flat Rock Playhouse in May.