Bad time to die...

It's getting so you can't even be buried in peace in this country, let alone rest in peace.

A few months ago, I first heard of the Westboro Baptist Church--you may have, also. They are a radical religious group that was picketing at a soldier's funeral, carrying signs that the people who shot the soldier were 'sent from God' and that God was punishing the United States for all our transgressions. (Their website is www.godhatesfags.com, if that gives you any indication of how insane these people are.) They actively picket memorial services for children slain by gang violence, soldiers killed in Iraq, and campuses with gay organizations, mis-quoting Scripture and handing out leaflets laden with typos. I could go on and on (indeed, I had made an entire post devoted to the anger I felt at these people), but I would rather not feed into the violence.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about a woman in the Carolinas who was on her way to Florida when she decided to stop in at a funeral home. She walked right into the funeral hall, started waving a wand and dancing around the deceased (some police reports called it a car antenna) and opened the casket. She laid her hands on the dead man, tapped him on the head with her 'wand', and then threw flowers from on top of the casket at the family before leaving. She was apprehended a few miles away and, when asked why she did it, responded that she "felt that it was the right thing to do at the time." If that isn't crazy enough, there's more--she didn't even know the family. She just stopped in to raise the dead, or send it on its way, or whatever she was doing, and then left. (Original story here and here.)

Just a couple of days ago, there was a similarly odd situation in Arkansas. Some woman from Texas wandered into a funeral carrying a can of beer. When the family asked her to leave the can, she refused. When they asked her to leave the premises, she scratched a man's face and then got into a fight with the man's mother, who allegedly kicked her in the chest. When the police showed up, the beerophile replied that "no backward country cop" was going to take her to jail. Apparently she was wrong about that, because she is now enjoying some time in a state-funded facility. (Original story can be found here.)

So, to all of you--my dear readers and friends: Please don't die right now. It's a mad, mad, world out there.

Clip of the Week...

From last year's NHL playoff series:



The quest for the cup begins tonight.

It is Risen--Rejoice!

Yesterday was the final day of the NHL regular season. It was a barnburner of a finish, with the last few slots in the playoffs determined in the last couple of games.

Now it's a feverish fight for this bad boy:



Here is the 'Season by the Numbers', from the NHL website:

0 -- Shorthanded goals allowed by the Philadelphia Flyers in the first 81 games of the season. When the Rangers' Brandon Dubinsky scored one Sunday, it prevented the Flyers from becoming only the second team in the last 46 years to play a full season without being scored on while playing with an extra man. The 1975-76 Montreal Canadiens, who went on to win the Stanley Cup, still hold that distinction. Philadelphia also led the NHL this season with 16 shorthanded goals.

1 -- Penalty shots taken in overtime this season. Boston goaltender Tim Thomas stopped Chicago's Patrick Sharp at 2:44 of OT on Nov. 12, 2008. The Bruins went on to win the game 2-1 in a shootout.

2 -- Overtime goals scored by Anaheim defenseman Scott Niedermayer while the teams were playing 3-on-3. There were only three 3-on-3 goals scored this season; Niedermayer had two of them; Calgary's Jarome Iginla had the other in regulation time on Jan. 21 at Columbus.

3 -- Tie-breaking goals scored by Detroit's Marian Hossa in the final 2:00 of regulation. No other player had more than one.

4 -- Consecutive 30-win seasons by New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. He's the first netminder in NHL history to win 30 or more games in each of his first four seasons.

5 -- Most power-play goals scored in a game -- both times against the Nashville Predators. Detroit was 5-for-6 on Feb. 18, while Minnesota went 5-for-11 on Nov. 28.

6 -- Games this season that were scoreless through 65 minutes and had to be decided in a shootout. No team won more than one; Dallas was the only team to lose twice -- goaltender Marty Turco had two games in which he was credited with a shutout but not a victory.

7 -- Shootout wins at home by the New York Rangers, part of their League-leading total of 10 victories in the breakaway competition (in 16 tries).

8 -- Game-tying goals scored in the final five seconds of regulation time. That includes three goals scored within the final one second -- by Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer (Nov. 21 at St. Louis), St. Louis' David Backes (Jan. 19 at Boston) and Washington's Alex Ovechkin (Nov. 15 at New Jersey). Only Backes' team won.

9 -- Road wins by the New York Islanders, who were the only team not to reach double figures in victories away from home. The Isles were 9-29-3; every other team had at least 12 victories on the road.

11 -- Tie-breaking goals scored in the final minute of regulation. Nine of the 11 were scored by the home team; Calgary's Todd Bertuzzi (Jan. 3 at Nashville) and Chicago's Dustin Byfuglien (April 11 at Detroit) were the only visiting players to get a game-winner in the final 60 seconds.

11 -- Wins by the Pittsburgh Penguins in games they trailed after two periods, the most in the League. No other team had more than eight; the Islanders were last with just one.

13 -- Rounds needed in the shootout between Vancouver and Anaheim on Oct. 31, 2008, the longest shootout of the season (no other game went more than eight). The teams went to a shootout after playing to a 6-6 tie through regulation; each team scored once in the first 12 rounds of the shootout before Vancouver defenseman Mattias Ohlund got the deciding goal in the 13th.

14 -- Most goals scored in a game this season. It happened twice -- with the Calgary Flames on the losing end both times. The Flames lost 8-6 at home to Tampa Bay on March 1, then were beaten by the same score at Toronto on March 14.

18 -- Games lost by the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime or shootouts, the most since the shootout was adopted for the 2005-06 season. Tampa Bay was 2-8 in games decided in the five-minute overtime and 3-10 in shootouts.

21 -- Games in which a team led by three or more goals and didn't win. Nineteen teams were unable to win after leading by three goals; two others (Carolina in a shootout on Dec. 11 and the New York Rangers in OT on Dec. 23) were unable to win after leading by four goals.

28 -- Shots on goal by Detroit in the first period against Calgary on March 12. The Wings scored twice on Miikka Kiprusoff while outshooting the Flames 28-4 in the opening 20 minutes. The Flames rallied for a 6-5 shootout victory. The Wings also had the second-highest one-period total, firing 27 shots against Nashville in the first period on Feb. 10.

31 -- Goals by Washington's Mike Green, the most by a defenseman since the Caps' Kevin Hatcher had 34 in 1992-93. Green became the eighth defenseman to reach the 30-goal mark (it's been done 17 times by those eight players) -- but the first to do so while playing fewer than 70 games. Green also set an NHL record for defensemen by scoring a goal in eight consecutive games from Jan. 27 to Feb. 14, breaking the 25-year-old mark set by Boston’s Mike O’Connell.

111 -- Goals allowed by the New York Islanders in the third period of their 82 games, the most by any team in any period this season. Colorado was next with 89 goals allowed in the third period; San Jose was the best in the NHL with 58. Not coincidentally, the Islanders finished last overall; the Sharks finished first.

528 -- Shots on goal by Washington's Alex Ovechkin, the second-highest single-season total in NHL history behind Phil Esposito's 550 for Boston in 1970-71. Ovechkin led the NHL with 56 goals and was second to Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin with 110 points.

799 -- Regular-season games played by Calgary's Olli Jokinen, who will make his playoff debut this week when the Flames play Chicago. No player has waited longer than Jokinen to make his playoff debut.

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY...

Well, I must say, with all the craziness going on in life, I had a pretty darn good weekend. (I hear you saying "about time" back there--shush, you.)

Saturday morning, I met with a friend who is writing a very exciting one-man show that he has asked me to direct. It is a challenge, very interesting, and what we in the Theatah call "important". (Meaning I think it is a story that needs to be told.) (Meaning I think people should hear it.) (Meaning I think people are ignorant, I suppose, which means I am judgmental and stuck up.) I am really excited, as I haven't had the chance/opportunity to direct in a long time, and we seem to be working together very well.

After a danish, a cappuccino, and a great discussion (see how artistic I am?), I left to pick up one of my best friends on the entire earth. We grabbed coffee and chatted about the show I'm in, which she saw last weekend. (Two coffee/danish/theater meetings in two hours? Wow, you really are artistic!) The great thing about Sandman's friendship is that she is a rare blend of artistic, opinionated, and honest, so the conversation was really good. I truly, deeply appreciate the comments and support of ALL my friends, but having someone who will tell you when your performance really sucked is a rare and valuable thing.

Afterward, we grabbed some lunch and shot a round at the local mini-golf establishment. Denise was at rehearsal for the show she is doing next, and after she was finished she joined us for another round. I won both games, but the second one only by one stroke. (I believe this was mainly due to the yellow golf ball I was given.) Denise went home, I stopped by the store to get Easter candy for Sunday's basket bacchanalia, and got a few things for the evening before dropping Sandman off at her mom's house (she lives in NYC now, and was in town for a visit). I dropped the candy off at my folks' house and went to the show.

Easter morning, I picked up the boys and we headed up to my parents' house. They have about 2 1/2 acres in the country (Windsor, CA), and it is a wonderful place to spend an Easter. (So wonderful, in fact, that the ex said 'It wouldn't be Easter if they didn't get to go to Grandma's.') We did a basket hunt (indoors) and an egg hunt (outdoors) and then had colored eggs and crudites for lunch. The kids played indoors and out for a few hours, I made a leek-artichoke-au gratin to go with my mom's ham, and we had dinner before coming back home. I went for a brief motorcycle ride (just to the gas station, but it feels so good to ride), then went for a walk with the kids and Denise and my dog and my pipe before tucking the kids in for the night.

Good lord, that was a long post. And a good one. :o)

More Blue Room press...

Okay, this should about do it. If you are tired of reading about the show, I think this is the last of it:

We had an article in The Bohemian, a local paper with some good coverage of the arts. It is by the same writer who did the radio piece, but the focus on the article is a little different. (Amazing what you can do, when you have more than two minutes. Although the article is then edited to fit, so his original words are often tweaked or left out.) Anyway, after all those parentheticals, here is the article.

There was also a piece in Theatre Bay Area Magazine. Apparently (thanks for the heads-up, Panda) we were in the "Editor's Pick" section, but I am not a member, so I don't have access to the article online. I *may* try to purchase a copy, but a transcript of that article would surely be plagiarism, wouldn't it? And I would *never* do something like that, would I?

Press for The Blue Room...

So, there has been quite a push in the press for my latest show in Santa Rosa. We have done some interviews and 'appearances' on local radio and for local print pieces. Two weeks ago we were on KSRO's morning show on Thursday, and on "Curtain Call" on KRCB on Friday. ("Curtain Call" is the performing arts talk show on the local PBS affiliate.) We did a long interview that is in a local paper this week, and are apparently the Editor's Pick in the current issue of Theater Bay Area (no links yet, sorry). And we were on another radio show this morning (KRSH--a short weekly piece called "Stage Fright").

There is another short piece on KRCB radio called "Second row, center". Yesterday's segment was on our show, as well. Here is a transcript, printed with permission of the author:

KRCB 91.1 FM – 4/8/09 at 6:35 and 8:35 a.m. – David Templeton

Times have certainly changed.

What was scandalous a century ago is not necessarily so today. As a demonstration of this, the 6th Street Playhouse, as part of this season’s daring Studio Theater series, has just opened a three-week run of David Hare’s "The Blue Room," based on a German script that was once called the filthiest play ever written.

Of course, that was 110 years ago, when playwright and author Arthur Schnitzler first penned Der Reigen. At that time, he knew the subject matter was far too scandalous to ever appear on an actual stage, so the play was only performed in private, by Schnitzler and his friends, in various German living rooms, and the script was distributed secretly among Schnitzler’s closest acquaintances. Two decades later, when he was finally persuaded to let the play open on a legitimate stage, Schnitzler’s original concerns were confirmed when the opening night show sparked a huge riot in the theater, and the writer was immediately arrested and branded a pornographer, charges that were later dismissed by a German court, but not before Schnitzler decided once and for all to withdraw the play from the public—in Germany. At the same time, the play was building a strong, appreciative following in Russia and Czechoslovakia, and most importantly in France, where the play appeared under the title La Ronde. Today, it’s hard to believe that Schnitzler’s original text, in which ten people bed-hop through a series of partner-swapping assignations, was ever the stuff of riots and obscenity trials. Ten year’s ago, when playwright David Hare wrote his own adaptation of Der Reinen—changing its title to ‘The Blue Room’—there were no public outcries, no riots in the lobby, except for the rowdy lines of people desperate to buy tickets to see Nicole Kidman—one of the London and Broadway production’s stars—in a much talked-about nude scene. Even the full-frontal cartwheels of her co-star Ian Glen weren’t seen as scandalous and obscene so much as just another reason to buy a ticket.

So, times have certainly changed.

And yet, it’s still a bold move for a theater company to tackle a play like ‘The Blue Room,’ as 6th Street Playhouse is doing right now. Under the direction of David Lear, actors David Yen and Denise Elia are playing out the ten-character daisy-chain of sexual encounters three times a weekend, and initial word is that Yen and Elia give brave, thoughtful performances in a show that, counter to the claims of those critics who saw the original Der Reigen, is not a play about sex so much as it is a play about human beings desperate to feel a connection with another person—no matter how tentative, shallow, or brief. 6th Street Playhouse is to be congratulated for scheduling a show that continues the all-important, age-old theatrical tradition of telling stories that just might cause riot, of one kind or another.

The Blue Room runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday through April 26 at the 6th Street Playhouse, that’s 52 W. 6th Street, in Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square. Showtimes are Friday and Saturday at 8:00, and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Tickets run from $14-$20. Call 707-523-4185 or visit 6th street playhouse.com—that’s with a numeral 6.

Listen again next Wednesday morning at 6:35 and 8:35 for more news about Bay Area Theater.

I’m David Templeton, Second Row Center, for KRCB

Clip of the week...

Okay, I know you've probably seen this already--it's on TV right now. But I can't seem to get enough of these little guys:



'specially when they're rocking out at about :45 or so. Always gets a smile outta me.