On Monday, April 14th, I drove out to Amherst, MA from  where I reside, in a city just outside of Boston, for a sing-a-long viewing of the film West Side Story.  Although it took a bit longer to get out to Amherst than I predicted, it was well worth the drive out there, with pretty scenery on the way out there.

Getting there just a little bit before 7:00 p. m., when the movie was due to start, I parked at a meter in the center of town near the common and took the short walk to the Amherst cinema, where the film was to be shown.  The cinema was a pleasant place, with several cinemas, and West Side Story was shown in the biggest one of them.  The theatre was mostly filled up, so I took a seat in the middle of the theatre, where I had a decent view.  The screen was a regular movie theatre screen, which was slightly curved, so that the film didn’t have a totally flat look to it.  

The Town starts out the exact same way, with Claire, the good-looking bank manager, being forced to open the vault and hand over the money at gunpoint by Doug MacRay and his men while they were wearing skull masks and ninja outfits, the assistant manager gets butt-rifled to death by Jem, Claire is taken hostage, blindfolded, abducted and then let go, she and Doug meet “by chance’ in a laundromat, they begin dating, etc.  

Hi, everybody!

I’m here to say that I attended all three of the performances of the recent Boston Symphony Orchestra/West Side Story (HD film) concert, and the performances were absolutely fabulous! Since I’d always wanted to see the film West Side Story on Valentine’s Day, I finally got my wish! (The BSO/West Side Story concert performances took place on 2/14/-2/15, at 8:00 p. m., and on Sunday, 2/16, at 3:00 p. m. Friday and Sunday, the weather was okay, but on Saturday night, I braved the Boston area snowstorm, trekked over to the MBTA subway stop nearest to where I live, and took public transportation to the meeting place of 14 other people. We all took a bus over to Symphony Hall together, and had a wonderful evening out, and one couple who’d come with us was kind enough to drive me home afterwards.

On Sunday afternoon (yesterday), I took an absolutely packed MBTA (Mass. Bay Transit Authority) train to the Symphony stop, near Boston Symphony Hall, and met my friends there. We had a fun-packed afternoon, and we went our own separate ways. Even more heartening, one of the two women who attended yesterday afternoon’s performance of the BSO/West Side Story concert called me up this morning specially to thank me for having invited them to come along to the concert with me, and I told her that I was glad that they were both able to make it and come with me, and that it had been a wonderful afternoon.

West Side Story is a fantastic movie to begin with, but having a famous live orchestra play a live rendition of an already-brilliant musical score, while the singing and dialogues in the film were kept intact, brought this great, golden oldie but keeper of a classic film to a whole new level. Through great creativeness via modern technology, a great feat was accomplished; melding a live orchestral rendition to Bernstein’s musical score with the singing and dialogue of a beautifully dynamic movie.

Since I had seats that had me and my friends/classmates looking directly at the center of the stage, I was able to watch the movie while eyeing the orchestra players and the conductor at the same time. The conductor was especially interesting to watch; he seemed totally into what he was conducting, and to enjoy himself, nonetheless. Although looking at it from the back of the orchestral tier of Symphony Hall gave a good viewing, sitting on a balcony of Symphony Hall, especially with a movie such as West Side Story, which, imho, is better viewed from the balcony of any movie theatre, to begin with, presented a view where one could look slightly downward, thus getting a better view of the stage and to not have people’s heads directly in the viewer’s way, enabling the viewer to really take in both the movie and the live orchestra at the same time. (Btw, the film was a HD digitally-restored, cleaned up, remastered and reprinted version of the film West Side Story, so it was even more beautiful!)

The orchestra added its own perks to an already-great and brilliant musical score, and all of the characters seemed to be brought even further up into the heavens, if one gets the drift. Had the screen been at least 2 or 3 feet longer on each end, however, it would’ve added more to an already great restoration of a great movie, and to the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s live rendition of this great movie musical score. It was well worth braving unpredictable public transportation, not to mention the stormy weather on Saturday night, in order to get there. All three performances were pretty much sold out, with the exception of a small minority of people who’d probably bought tickets and couldn’t make it, for whatever reason.

This was an even better performance than at Tanglewood, and it was well worth going to.

Tags:

1961 film, leonard bernstein

Hi, everybody:

Ralph Nader has a very informative and thoughtful article on the  newly-passed ACA (Affordable Care Act), or “Obamacare” as many people call it.  Imho, it provides an excellent perspective as to why Canada’s Single Payer Healthcare system (although not perfect) is far better than the ACA, or the United States’ Healthcare system, generally.

Here’s the link:

http://www.counterpunch.org/20…

Any thoughts?  I welcome feedback after posting this link, which you all might find interesting.

Hi, everybody:

I got home last evening from a weekend out in Western Massachusetts, in the Berkshires, where I attended a fabulously spectacular Boston Symphony Orchestra/West Side  Story concert, at Tanglewood.  The Boston Symphony orchestra played a fantastic live rendition of the musical score to the film West Side Story, which added a new dimension to an already-great classic movie, of which a beautifully restored, digital, HD, reprinted, cleaned up and remastered version was shown, along with the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s live rendition of the musical score.  Word had it that there were at least 20, 000 people in all at Tanglewood last night.  I did know that this particular concert sold out, big time, despite at least a couple of lawn benches being added on.  

Since I had a ticket for a seat inside the shed at Tanglewood, and had ordered a bag-lunch/dinner to go, way in advance,  everything was great, and I didn’t have to worry about anything.   This fabulous evening, however, on my part, was preceded by sort of a (mis)adventure;  the unexpected break-down of my car, at a service plaza 26 miles from Tanglewood.  At the advice of the guy behind the counter, I called the State Police, after being given their number, and they, in turn gave me the number of a towing company to call, known as Red’s Towing, who I called immediately.  3/4 of an hour later, a young guy driving a flatbed tow truck came to the plaza where I was, after having told them where I was.  The young man who was driving the tow truck asked me where I was going and what I was going to see, so I told him.  Aftter calling afew places and finding them closed, he called a Munro Car repair place not far from the place where I’d stayed last night after the Tanglewood concert, and towed my now-dead car, and gave me a ride to the place where I was staying.

It was a great concert, and exuberant crowd, and much applause took place after each WSS number, leading me to believe that there were a great many New Yorkers in this audience.  Boston audiences, btw, enjoy West Side Story just as much as New Yorkers, despite being a bit more reserved, so that’s okay.  

The movie/concert was 2.5 hours long, and ended at about 11:00 that night.  What a way to spend a Saturday night;  seeing one’s favorite movie and hearing a live rendition of the musical score played by a famous Orchestra (i. e. the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to boot!)! Everything was crowded, traffic was high, and, having had to take a taxi to the concert due to my not having a car,  it was all very well that I didn’t have my car that night.  So, I hoofed it partway back to the inn where I was staying for the night, and, believe it or not, when I asked a cop how far it was to where I was staying and answered that I had a least 3-4 miles to go before reaching my  overnight destination, he gave me a ride the rest of the way.

It had been a fabulous night.

Getting back home to Boston the next day was far more ardous;  I called afew towing companies and afew car-rental places.  Unfortunately, no car rental places, especially nearby were open, and none of the Berkshires area towing companies would tow all the way from Lenox, MA, to Boston, MA.  I finally got a towing and a ride back to Boston with the towing guy, after a 4 hour wait, as opposed to a 2.5 hour wait as had been predicted earlier.   It was a very good crowd, and word had it that there were 20, 000 people there.  Not surprisingly, this concert sold out, big time, despite the addition of afew lawn benches.  I was glad to have been able to attend the special Boston Symphony Orchestra/West Side Story concert out at Tanglewood that I’d so been looking forward to after having bought my ticket and made my room reservation back in late January of this year!

Please note:  This thread is cross-posted over at Docudharma.com

Hey, everybody:

There’s a very nascent, albeit a very dangerous anti-vaccine movement that’s going through the United States right now;  the so-called “link” between vaccines and autism, created by the long discredited Dr. Andrew Wakefield (who lost his license to practice medicine due to the fraudulence of the movement he created, and well he should have!.), and the former nude model, Jenny McCarthy, who clearly knows nothing about anything (including medicine and science), except to tout her figure in public, if one gets the drift.  

What I find rather scary about it is the fact that the anti-Vaccine people, very much like the anti-abortion/anti-choice (supposedly) Pro-Life people, prey upon people’s fears and ignorance,  and, like the Pro-Life people who want abortions outlawed altogether here in the United States, want childhood immunizations/vaccines outlawed, due to their (supposed ) link to autism.  

Truthfully, other more trustworthy people have found that to not be the case.  More and more research has revealed autism  or ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), as it’s now called, to be a biologically-based, neurological developmental disorder (not a mental illness!), that takes hold while the person is in utero, during fetal development, well before the person afflicted with it comes into this world.  

My siblings and I were vaccinated against polio, pertussis, tetanus and diphtheria, for example, when we were young kids, and we all turned out fine.  What’s really scary is that the anti-vaccine people wouldn’t mind seeing the United States turn into a real third-world country, where tons of children either end up dying or being permanently disabled by such deadly diseases.  

I had measles and mumps (the diseases themselves), when I was a preteen, before the vaccines came out, was in bed for a week, (I had mumps on both sides at once, which hurt like hell, but I turned out fine), and the measles in 5th grade, both of which I developed an immunity to.  However, even these illnesses are more harmful today than they were, due to changes in the world and the environment, and the fact that so many parents are now refusing to vaccinate their kids because of their fear of autism, which they know nothing about, is really quite scary.

Even level-headed people are jumping on the band-wagon, which is even scarier.  

The following link is here:  Read it and weep…or gnash your teeth.  It’s rather scary, imho.

http://vactruth.com/2013/07/04…

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the 1960’s (I was a teenager back then, and I attended a rather large public high school in suburban Boston, MA during those years.  The 1960’s, imho, were a mixed bag;  It was a wonderful time to grow up, especially being a teenager, and the music was really great back then.  The fact that I missed out on dancing to that music due to my social isolation from the other kids bothered me a great deal back then, even though my doctors and my parents pointedly told me (albeit correctly) that I was too emotionally immature to go out with boys.  Yet my lack of emotional maturity also precluded my getting involved in the high-flown, lofty, noble causes of the day;  the Civil Rights Movement (although I was a bit young for that–I was only in Junior High school at the time), the student revolts and the anti-war movement against our involvement in Indo-China, and a whole host of other things that were happening at the time.  

I would frequently cry to my family about my social aridity and isolation, and they’d alternate between being very consoling and having this sort of a “well, it’s your own fault–you have to change.’ attitude, the latter of which I didn’t like.  I look back on it now, and I realize that I never knew what would happen when I got older, and my parents constantly worried about my future, due to my poor grades and poor social skills (although they considered the latter secondary, because I think they probably thought that becoming involved in the various movements back then would help me realize that there are other people in this world who had it tougher, and that I’d become not so turned onto myself all the time.

Yet, I’m discovering a lot of other things about myself, also;  I didn’t really give a shit about academics and getting top grades.  (I basically got a C Average, with afew B’s and even some D’s along the way!)  The only reason that I worked at all was to keep afloat so that I wouldn’t end up graduating with the class below me, something I didn’t want for at least two reasons:

A)  Since I was born early in the year, I was already one of the oldest kids in my grade, and I didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb any more than I already did.

B)  The class below mine was a much more hostile, nasty bunch of kids (that particular class had a bad, bad reputation  for that!), and I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle it.  

As much as I love listening to the music that was played back in the 1960’s, many of the older songs now bring tears to my eyes, partly out of the sweetness of them, and partly due to the fact that, crazy as this sounds, make me tear up due to what I didn’t have back then and what I missed:  Having more of a social life, and more friends.  

The other night, I found the full movie of “The 60’s” on youtube and decided to watch all of it.  It took awhile, but I began to recognize it as a movie that i’d seen on TV a number of years before.  Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Hey folks:

Here is another example of what the United States Government, even under the Obama Administration, has wrought in terms of havoc to another country and its people.  Read the following link and weep/gnash your teeth:

Rare Reporting Reveals Afghan Civilians Terrorized by US Drones

by Jacob Chamberlain, Common Dreams

Published on Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism recently reported that 1 in 4 missiles in Afghan airstrikes are now fired by drone, in addition to the other forms of bombardment that have caused unspeakable harm to Afghan civilians.

The impact of the US drone war on civilians living in the villages below was explored in a report last year by researchers at Stanford and New York University – called Living Under Drones (pdf)-which found that civilians in Pakistan were being “terrorized” by the drones. In addition, the report concluded the program was ultimately “counterproductive” when it came to addressing international law, security, and human rights.

Following the release of that report, Clive Stafford Smith, from the human rights group Reprieve, remarked: “An entire region is being terrorized by the constant threat of death from the skies. Their way of life is collapsing: kids are too terrified to go to school, adults are afraid to attend weddings, funerals, business meetings, or anything that involves gathering in groups.”