Democratic National Convention 2008: Obama’s Mile High Moment

Fulcrum Publishing, Colorado’s leading independent publisher -- and the wonderful publisher of my first book, Journalism Stories from the Real World -- has released Democratic National Convention 2008: Obama’s Mile High Moment, a celebration of the recent Democratic National Convention held in Denver. The book, done in cooperation with The Denver Post, features more than 100 color images captured during the convention by the Post’s award-winning photographers.

“This November, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.”
—Senator Ted Kennedy

For more information on Democratic National Convention 2008, please visit www.fulcrumbooks.com.

And let's pray that by this time next week he will be President-elect Obama!

Spoken Dreams

Thought you would enjoy this delightful essay by Ginger Lingo that appeared in Guideposts magazine.

More than anything I wanted a new bike. I dreamed about it every day while walking to school. My father was a pastor so we didn’t have much money. The only way I was going to get that bike was to earn my own money for it. So I worked hard, doing odd jobs like babysitting, weeding and raking leaves. I stashed every penny I earned from those jobs and my allowance in my piggy bank.

Then one day at Sunday school our teacher told us of a letter she had received from Chile about a boy who had hepatitis. His missionary parents said he was recovering, but his spirits were still low. “Can you think of anything that might cheer him up?” our teacher asked us.

“A new bike!” the whole class exclaimed eagerly, and we agreed we would raise the money.

All week long I agonized over what to do. My conscience could only come up with one answer—give up my savings for the boy in Chile. So I emptied out my piggy bank and brought every cent to Sunday school. It was the hardest thing I had ever done, and maybe that’s why it felt so right.

In college years later I found myself praying for something even harder than I had prayed for the bike—a man meant just for me. All my friends were dating. Why wasn’t I? Was God asking me to wait again?

At last I met someone named Steve. We had a lot in common. He went to the college where my father taught, and my roommate was engaged to his best friend. He was earnest, smart and hard-working. But I couldn’t help wondering, Is he really the one?

One evening our families got together for dinner, a chance for everybody to get to know each other better. Over dessert and coffee Steve’s mother talked about some of the places they had lived when they were missionaries. “Once when we were in Chile,” she said, “Steve got hepatitis. You know what cheered him up?”

Of course, I knew. He got a bike—my bike. And I got the husband I have been married to for 29 years.
 

From false self to true

"The shell must be cracked apart if what is in it is to come out, for if you want the kernel, you must break the shell."
-- Meister Eckhart

Seize the day

"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow."
-- James Dean

Rage and Glory: The Volatile Life and Career of George C. Scott

George C. Scott created some of the 20th century’s most memorable performances on stage and screen—the cunning prosecutor in “Anatomy of a Murder,” the manipulative gambler in “The Hustler,” the buffoonishly warmongering chief of staff in “Dr. Strangelove,” and, of course, the brilliant and rebellious Patton. He also played Willy Loman, Richard III, Mussolini, Scrooge, Fagin, and countless others. But his offstage life was as filled with drama and controversy as any of the lives he portrayed with such intensity.

He refused the Oscar for “Patton,” battled with TV networks to include realistic elements in his series “East Side/West Side,” invested (and lost) his own money on Broadway and in the scandalous film “The Savage Is Loose,” married five times (twice to Colleen Dewhurst) and had a tempestuous affair with Ava Gardner, traveled to Vietnam at the height of the war to write an article for Esquire, and weathered a damaging sexual harassment suit.

In the first complete biography of this actor, David Sheward documents Scott’s artistry as well as his roller-coaster career. Featuring interviews with numerous colleagues including Nathan Lane, Karl Malden, Piper Laurie, and Eva Marie Saint, as well as friends and family members, Rage and Glory pays tribute to one of our finest and fieriest actors.

David Sheward is the executive editor and theatre critic for Back Stage, the weekly publication for actors. He is also the author of It’s a Hit: The Back Stage Book of Longest-Running Broadway Shows and The Big Book of Show Business Awards, and he is a contributing correspondent on NY1’s program “On Stage.” Sheward lives in New York City.

Return

Living outside the garden
there is shame,
desire, dominance.
The curse of thorns and thistles --
seeking security in relationships and work --
leaves a dry taste of dust.

Ah, but there is a secret!
The cherubim are not posted
to keep you out -- only
to keep I out.

The essential you,
the you under the I,
is protected forever,
undefiled and undefilable.

You can return
for you never left.

-- Carolyn Goddard

A Body of Water

If you like your mysteries resolved at the end, skip this show. If you’re content with an edgy drama that keeps throwing you a curve ball and leaves you wondering, you’ll love Primary Stages’ New York premiere of A Body of Water by Lee Blessing. 

I don’t usually like mysteries, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The ensemble acting is excellent and director Maria Mileaf keeps the action popping.

The plot revolves around a middle-aged woman (Christine Lahti) and middle-aged man (Michael Cristofer) who wake one morning in a summer house and don’t know who they are or where they are. This device starts out funny as they try to figure out their identities and if they are married to each other. In attempting to answer the second question they decide to take peeks at each other naked to see if any physical element jogs their memories. Nothing does. (No nudity is shown; they open their bathrobes to one another with their backs to the audience.)

The tone shifts after they hear someone at the door. “Go see who it is,” the woman says. “I don’t even know who we are,” the man replies. But when it turns out to be a young woman (Laura Odeh) who may or may not be their daughter, the plot darkens. The mind-bending scenarios she suggests include the possibility that they murdered an 11-year-old child of theirs and even that one of them is really dead and the other is hallucinating the partner’s reality.

The play stirs up larger questions, mainly do we exist without our memories? The atmosphere is enhanced by Neil Patel’s set, a cozy living room surrounded by windows on three sides with views of water -- a body of water. The feeling of isolation is perfect for the haunting drama that unfolds.

A Body of Water plays for a limited run through Sunday, Nov. 16 at 59E59 Theaters. For tickets, call (212) 279-4200 or visit the company's web site at primarystages.org.

Lee Blessing is the author of such notable plays as the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize nominated A Walk in the Woods and Going to St. Ives, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award. In an interview for Primary Stages he had this to say about A Body of Water: “We can decide all we want that we have resolved the riddle of life and worked out what the meaning of life is, but we will never have any empirical evidence that we are correct. I think this play is a little more in the service of the concept that we’ll never know. We can presume a lot of things, but we never really know anything. So, this play takes that last phrase literally.”