Clogtown - The Richfield Sidewalk Poetry Celebration

What a beautiful morning we shared together in Richfield this past Saturday. The Richfield Arts Commission and Crossroads Panorama put on a celebration to honor the poets and poems that won the Sidewalk Poetry contest this year - and I was one of them! I hadn't planned on being in town to be able to attend, but then my Mom went into the hospital, and I'm still here ... so we made it the goal to be Mom's first outing after having her leg amputated two weeks before.

The day was already emotional for sure, because of all Mom has been through, and just having her be able to be there with me was already making me cry. I mentioned to the poet, Emily Gold, seated on the new Bandshell stage beside me that I was not sure how I was going to do reading my poem looking at my Mom sitting there in the front row in her wheelchair. Then, she told me that she was struggling also, as her poem was about her eight year old daughter who had passed away only two months ago. Whoa. The strength she had to do that ... was humbling and inspiring. There was a performance by the young ladies from the Crossroads Panorama theater group, and then it was time for the poetry reading. Space on the sidewalk limits the lines and characters you could use, so mercifully, the poems were all short as we listened under the blazing hot sun. Gold read her beautiful tribute to her daughter, Lizzie, right before me, so after crying over her poem, I had to get up and cry about my own - but we did it, and I felt so happy to look out and see Mom there, smiling away.

All of the poems were wonderful, and all of them exemplified how we feel about our hometown of Richfield - it's special. The one by Bo Mitchell about HIS Mom (who died five years ago) fully wrecked me, and warmed my (already boiling hot) heart that a man would be so vulnerable in sharing about what his Mother meant to THEIR Richfield family.

It was incredibly moving. It was also SO hot out, however, that tears could easily be mistaken for sweat. I pointed out before reading my poem that I live in Venice, where poetry is historically very celebrated. There are poetry walls at the beach. The Free Venice Beachhead paper's motto is "This paper is a poem." But I never really felt poetry was any big deal here when I was growing up in Richfield, so I was happy to see so many people out at 9:00 a.m. on a hot Saturday morning in celebration of poems!

The wonderful new Mayor of Richfield, Maria Regan Gonzalez, was there - in fact, she rode her bike there. Awesome. We took a photo together with Mom, and you can tell how happy we all are in the celebration of both beautiful poems, and the triumph of the human spirit that allowed Mom to be there. The poems this time will be installed in the sidewalks along 66th street - I'm hoping mine goes in by the Richfield Pool (as is mentioned in my poem as a kind of bribe). My first one is on Portland in front of the Fire Station and City Hall, and I told the crowd gathered that I'm going for a hat trick next year (as the celebration was adjacent to the Ice Arena). It's pretty cool to have something I wrote actually be set in stone/concrete.

Thank you to Richfield, for this delightful honor, and to everyone who cares about poems!

*Group Poet photo by Thomas Eder

Annie Live At The Hollywood Bowl!

Annie is one of the catchiest musicals of all time, and after attending the opening night of its three nights of performances at the Hollywood Bowl, I'm still humming "It's A Hard Knock Life" days later.

I brought my little 5 year old pal, Beckett, who is currently obsessed with the Annie oeuvre. Like has watched both cinematic versions a zillion times. Like starts his day with the original Broadway soundtrack BLASTING. Like humming and singing it all day and night long. There was no other choice for a companion to this event.

The stage was set on a beautiful Southern California full moon night, with a big red ANNIE set piece that doubled as an active set. It was an extra special night at the Bowl, as it was Beckett's first time there ever ... hopefully something he'll always remember. He was rapt from the National Anthem playing at the beginning to the last note of the finalé, and to every single thing in between. We were surrounded by an older crowd, who all got a kick out of every happy exclaim coming from this little fan boy.

"Oh, there's Miss Hannigan!", he shouted as Ana Gasteyer came on stage the first time, and drew cheers from everyone for her bawdy, boozy performance throughout. Equally crowd-pleasing was the little girl who played Molly (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), so tiny that every move she made was laughed with and applauded. But no one was a match for the canine star of the show - a scene-stealing rescue dog playing the part of Sandy. Every time this dog showed up on stage, the house came down. L.A. LOVES its dogs.

As much as this play is time-stamped in The Great Depression era, its little asides and commentaries apply just as much to the now. When Daddy Warbucks (a very capable David Alan Grier) says, "That's something I haven't heard since 1928." "What?" "Optimisim!" we can all feel that need now. Or "I know he's a Democrat, but he's a human being too," could easily be applied today to anyone who might still be supporting Trump these days as a Republican. (Gross.) When Steven Weber as F.D.R. says "This is STILL a free country!" ... you felt the collective sigh of relief that it might still be kind of true.

It was great to see diversity in the casting of this revival of Annie, from Grier as Daddy Warbucks to an actress in a wheelchair, Ali Stroker, playing "Star To Be" and belting out her parts with the best of them.

Annie was played by Kaylin Hedges, a great little performer, whose only lack was the curly, red hair classically worn by the character of Annie. It wasn't really missed, though, as the audience fell in love with Annie right along with Warbucks. Beckett interjected at this point that it would be nice for the Bowl to also do "Oliver" ... because that's the one with "Boy orphans". *Perhaps a note for Bowl programmers?

"You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile" was a show-stopper, and gave Gasteyer another laugh when it was over and she bellowed, "Do I hear happiness in here!?!" Yes - she absolutely did. From everyone in the Bowl audience. It was great.

Annie eludes the fake parents, inspires F.D.R. to create the New Deal, gets adopted by Daddy Warbucks, gets all the little orphans invited to his mansion for Christmas, and it all ends in a slam bang finish that had Beckett riveted ... and chattering about it all the way home well past his bedtime.

What a marvelous night of Broadway on the Bowl stage, in an evening that was truly fun for all ages. Anything you see at the Hollywood Bowl is always a special night, but some are more magical than others. With the wonder of a full moon (plus lunar eclipse!) and the wonder and amazement of childhood, this one was one for the memories. Thank you to the Bowl and to everyone who worked so hard to put on this unforgettable night of Annie ... and for reminding us that the sun will always come out tomorrow ... Come what may!

*Performance photographs courtesy of Craig T. Mathew and Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging.

My Girlfriend Is An Alien - Last Chance Weekend At Pacific Resident Theatre

The fantastic play My Girlfriend Is An Alien was up last night at the Pacific Resident Theatre, and finally got to see my next door neighbor, Ron Geren, in action. I'm so happy that we have this gem of a theater company right here in Venice, and am always surprised at how many locals have never attended a production there. That you can walk to. Why not break yourself in this weekend and catch this fun in the Co-Op side of PRT, as your last chance is this Sunday's matinee.

I like going in to plays and films not really knowing anything about them, so it unfolds as a surprise. I'm hesitant to even write anything about this play before it's over, because I'd like the same for you, but I also want you to know about it, and GO - so ...

The curtain speech is made by the lead character, Keith DeFacto (Keith Stevenson), who claims to also be its author (but it's really Neil McGowan, directed by Guillermo Clenfuegos), warning the audience not to let their expectations be too high. Keith is a nervous wreck with zero self-esteem, and he just wants some human connection. What he gets instead is an Alien named Carole (Carole Weyers), a co-worker at his office. They meet having lunch on a park bench, and Carole is very convincing as an extraterrestrial, though Keith just sees it as charming, telling her she's like a parrot walking into an office of blackbirds. She falls for it - as would I.

A review posted outside of the theater said that fans of Charlie Kaufman would like this play, and they're right. The fourth wall is constantly broken, the author is ambiguous, it's a play within a play, the sets are changed in front of you, it's sometimes hard to discern if they're actor Keith and Carole or real Keith and Carole, but really it's actor Keith and Carol the whole time ... get it? You will.

Keith and Carole court in real and dramatic life, with a lot of miscommunication and self-doubt on both parts. Like pretty much all relationships. Keith laments at one point that he's a plagiarist hack who only wrote a cheap rip off of Mork & Mindy - which isn't true at all, but it's funny. Ron (my neighbor Ron Geren!) bursts in to help change the set, a bundle of enthusiasm and peer pressure. You miss him when he's not on the stage, and I'm not being biased, just honest.

A scene stealing Doubt (a wonderful Michael Prichard) creeps in, in classic villain mode, top hat, twirling mustache, and all. We laughed just at him entering, and he only got better from there, even reading a review of the play aloud as it was happening (there's the Kaufman flair). Also great was the big dose of Reality (great Dan Cole) that slaps Keith in the face with life (also slapping us and the theater (a "Black, dusty fire code violation") in the face, but no offense taken).

One of my favorite speeches of the play was Keith recalling his first memory, of being warmed by a giant ball of comfort in the sky that he didn't understand, but that's what it felt like to him when he was with Carole. Ummm ... swoon. That pretty much does the trick after Government type agent Elspeth (Elspeth Weingarten) berates Keith, and Carole freaks out on him for being a fake, and Keith is back in there. That honesty and vulnerability (that you wish guys actually had), coupled with the Inspiration (Sophie Pollono) that emerges beautifully out of the darkness, is enough to show Keith that he really is good enough ...,for creating something great, for having friends, and most importantly, for love. Carole voices the truism that "We're all aliens to our own hearts", and that's ok.

Carole finally admits that she is an Alien, and that their main job is still "Breeding pugs, collecting royalties for David Bowie songs, and performing anal probes", but that maybe she really is human and flawed, and maybe KEITH was the Alien all along. This is found out through some "Improv" at the end that I don't want to ruin for you, much like the perfect ending that they find together - much like we all hope to.

I had no idea what to expect when I went into this creative, whimsical production, and I'm so glad, because the entire thing was a delightful surprise. One that I hope you get a chance to see during its Pacific Resident Theatre run, which ends this Sunday at the 3:00 p.m. matinee show. See everything at PRT for that matter ... it's always a joy.

My Girlfriend Is An Alien goes dark this Sunday, October 2nd. See it if you can!

*Photos courtesy Gabriella Gonzalez