It’s Me Again (Part 24)

October 4

I’m making a bingo card of all the places in Florida my book [Wrecker] gets banned. ~ Carl Hiaasen

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. ~ Joseph Conrad

This is a further consideration of things that happened in the past. ~ Me

[My photo of the originally-named Sears Tower under construction in February 1973 as shot from the John Hancock Center in Chicago. Well, I think it’s cool . . . ]

One of the delights known to age, and beyond the grasp of youth, is that of Not Going. ~ J. B. Priestley

August 17 – The Soiree

I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being. ~ Oscar Wilde

[The annual fund raiser for the theatre . . . ]

It might seem that being a genius is a golden ticket to a life of glamorous soirees with the intellectual elite, champagne flute in hand, arm candy at your side, surrounded by a throng of smiling sycophants. But you might be confusing this scene with the lifestyle of a diplomat. ~ Andre De Guillaume

[The Super rang for champagne which was handed to her through the plant wall . . . ]

Life is a theatre set in which there are but few practicable entrances. ~ Victor Hugo

[Three members of the theatre board, a photobomber not meaning to, and one trying to duck under the paparazzo lens . . . ]

I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability. ~ Oscar Wilde

[A point was being made . . . ]

Of course we all come to the theatre with baggage. The baggage of our daily lives, the baggage of our problems, the baggage of our tragedies, the baggage of being tired. It doesn’t matter what age you are. But if our hearts get opened and released — well that is what theatre can do, and does sometimes, and everyone is thankful when that happens. ~ Vanessa Redgrave

[Why yes, it is a big par-tay . . . ]

From the start it has been the theatre’s business to entertain people … it needs no other passport than fun. ~ Bertolt Brecht

I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theatre is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture. ~ Sir Laurence Olivier

[The new patio is a stellar performer for such events . . . ]

When life gives you lemons, squirt someone in the eye. ~ Cathy Guisewite

[The entertainment was provided by Noah Sonie, an unbelievable magician . . . ]

For me, the most exciting thing is to create good magic that’s entertaining for an audience, and it would be lovely if a magician was fooled as well. ~ Ricky Jay

I think the theatre is as essential to civilization as safe, pure water. ~ Vanessa Redgrave

[The old lodge in the background from the days when this was a resort . . . ]

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome. ~ Isaac Asimov

[Noah covered here by event photographer, Cassy Bender . . . ]

The theatre is so endlessly fascinating because it’s so accidental. It’s so much like life. ~ Arthur Miller

[Mesmerized . . . ]

When I was growing up I always wanted to be someone. Now I realize I should have been more specific. ~ Lily Tomlin

[Mesmerized, part 2 . . . ]

The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation. ~ Stella Adler

[Just walking around, creating angles . . . ]

Don’t waste so much time thinking about how much you weigh. There is no more mind-numbing, boring, idiotic, self-destructive diversion from the fun of living. ~ Meryl Streep

[For the evening’s wining and dining . . . ]

Do things that make you happy within the confines of the legal system. ~ Ellen DeGeneres

Theatre is a series of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster. ~ Tom Stoppard

[The cabins from the old resort . . . ]

Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place. ~ Martha Graham

[Taking it all in . . . ]

Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter. ~ Ansel Adams

[Wrapping up the mesmerization part of the show . . . ]

There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes. ~  Abraham Lincoln

[Cassy enjoying her job . . . ]

People say money is not the key to happiness, but I have always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made. ~ Joan Rivers

[Moving into the tent area, this is Sidney Imsande, the theatre’s operations manager . . . ]

Speak the truth, but leave immediately after. ~ Slovenian proverb

[Sidney announces things past, things current, and things future . . . ]

The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it’s taken place. ~ George Bernard Shaw

[And, apparently, things funny . . . ]

Humor is a rubber sword – it allows you to make a point without drawing blood. ~ Mary Hirsch

I have no desire to spend every night of the next few months at balls and soirees or drowning in tea with morning callers. ~ Sarah M. Eden

[Sidney hands off to the theatre’s executive director, Nicole Mulder . . . ]

When you come into the theater, you have to be willing to say, “We’re all here to undergo a communion, to find out what the hell is going on in this world.” If you’re not willing to say that, what you get is entertainment instead of art, and poor entertainment at that. ~ David Mamet

[The list of what was, what is, and what will be . . . ]

Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Speech is power. Speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Go to heaven for the climate, hell for the company. ~ Mark Twain

[Guests who allowed us to share their table . . . ]

My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best. ~ Winston S. Churchill

[Other table guests of similar kindnesses . . . ]

Follow your passion, stay true to yourself, never follow someone else’s path unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path then by all means you should follow that. ~ Ellen DeGeneres

[Meanwhile, Nicole continues . . . ]

Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it. ~ David Lee Roth

[Time to raise money with auctioneer Glen Fladeboe and theatre board member Phil Eidsvold . . . ]

There is no such thing as fun for the whole family. ~ Jerry Seinfeld

Look your audience straight in the eyes, and begin to talk as if every one of them owed you money. ~ Dale Carnegie

I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. ~ Dr. Seuss

[The assembled masses bid to have local artist Lyssa Lovejoy paint a subject of their request . . . ]

When genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot. ~ D. H. Lawrence

[Lyssa also often hosted the Wednesday fine dining group at the golf club . . . ]

Your smile is a messenger of your goodwill. ~ Dale Carnegie

Everybody wants to save the earth. No one wants to help mom do the dishes. ~ P.J. O’Rourke

[The McGranes, mom and daughter Tessa, who was a multi-sport athlete for the Alexandria Cardinals . . . ]

I hate housework. You make the beds, you wash the dishes and six months later you have to start all over again. ~ Joan Rivers

[I occasionally sat with Mom McGrane to cheer on her daughters, Mia and Tessa . . . ]

One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. ~ Jack Kerouac

[Theatre board member Deb Trumm about to be bamboozled by Noah . . . ]

Magic is the only honest profession. A magician promises to deceive you and he does. ~ Karl Germain

 I knew I was going to be famous later in life. ~ Sharon Jones

[“Didn’t I give you a fifty?”]

All the things I like to do are either immoral, illegal, or fattening. ~ Alexander Woollcott

[Fan Ken Howell regales the audience on the pleasures of local theatre . . . ]

Be wise, because the world needs wisdom. If you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would. ~ Neil Gaiman

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence — then success is sure. ~ Mark Twain

The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public. ~ George Jessel

There are two types of speakers: Those who get nervous and those who are liars. ~ Mark Twain

[Theatre board member Michael Tisserand with further regalement . . . ]

Eloquence is the essential thing in a speech, not information. ~ Mark Twain

The truth is, this being errand boy to one hundred and fifty thousand people tires me so by night I am ready for bed instead of soirees. ~ Rutherford B. Hayes

[They’re wearing their name tags, thus losing anonymity . . . ]

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true. ~ James Branch Cabell

[But nonetheless patron saints of theatre . . . ]

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it. ~ W. C. Fields

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

[Saying goodnight to the theatre . . . ]

How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? ~ Dr. Seuss

Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night. ~ William Blake

My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends – it gives a lovely light! ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

[Art by Lyssa Lovejoy . . . ]

You have to smile, if you expect anybody to smile back. ~ Jonathan Evison

[Lyssa accompanying her art . . . ]

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light. ~ Dylan Thomas

August 22

A child’s learning is a function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher. ~ James S. Coleman

[Graduates of the Alexandria class of ’65 with their much more distinguished spouses dining at Pike & Pint . . . ]

Middle age is when your old classmates are so grey and wrinkled and bald they don’t recognize you. ~ Bennett Cerf

I loved school so much that most of my classmates considered me a dork. ~ Natalie Portman

August 23

I remember when I was younger, and in school, our teachers showed us films of plastic in the ocean, starving polar bears and so on. I cried through all the movies. My classmates were concerned when they watched the film, but when it stopped, they started thinking about other things. I couldn’t do that. Those pictures were stuck in my head. ~ Greta Thunberg

[The next day (see August 22) at Bradley’s, who couldn’t attend the previous day’s festivities for health reasons . . . ]

August 24

Almost 50 years old now, some 30 years after graduation, I look at my Caltech classmates and conclude that math whizzes do not take over the world. ~ Sandra Tsing Loh

[Tom and Pam came up from Austin, Texas, the day Austin’s streak of 100-degree days ended at 47 – it was only 99 that day. Unfortunately for them, the heat index in Alex that day was 106! Say what? We had a nice visit before they left for Texas with the remaining family household items. . . ]

I actually went to law school with Jim Comey. We were in the same class, and he was respected by our classmates just like he was respected by the agents that he supervised. ~ Amy Klobuchar

[Wondering how they could go back to Texas on a beautiful Minnesota morning like this?]

All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination. ~ Earl Nightingale

Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien

August 25

There is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and useful for life in later years than some good memory, especially a memory connected with childhood, with home. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

[A tour of Victoria Heights, the neighborhood from whence I grew from a small child to a version of a larger person . . . ]

Somewhere slightly before or after the close of our second decade, we reach a momentous milestone–childhood’s end. We have left a safe place and can’t go home again. We have moved into a world where life isn’t fair, where life is rarely what it should be. ~ Judith Viorst

The home is the laboratory of our lives, and what we learn there largely determines what we do when we leave there. ~ Thomas S. Monson

People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home. ~ Dagobert D. Runes

[Our home then; now it has a “Private Property” sign next to the front door. (Duh?) . . . ]

I cannot see it any other way. All of my fundamental principles that were instilled in me in my home, from my childhood, are still with me. ~ Hakeem Olajuwon

It was the most magical fun childhood. We had grape arbours and we would make jam with my mom. My dad would go to work and he’d come home. He’d clean out stalls and fix split-row fences. ~ Taylor Swift

[Was our ball field back in the day . . . ]

You can go other places, all right – you can live on the other side of the world, but you can’t ever leave home. ~ Sue Monk Kidd

[New construction trending toward the longtime public landing . . . ]

August 26

Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts. ~ James Beard

[If it’s Saturday morning, it’s the doughnut run to Roer’s Bakery. At the last stoplight on the south end of downtown (3rd and Broadway), the skeleton of a large apartment/condo (The Rune) rises to soon be a new city landmark . . . ]

I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it. ~ Mae West

I’m a one-man band! ~ Jose Feliciano

[Another afternoon with Jeff James at Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

I didn’t love Jim Morrison. There was something very reptilian about him. And I didn’t care for his singing, but his band! The Doors were fantastic. ~ Linda Ronstadt

Lean your body forward slightly to support the guitar against your chest, for the poetry of the music should resound in your heart. ~ Andres Segovia

I’m not a big fan of lead vocalists, people who sing but don’t play. I never wanted to be in a band where the guy who was up front just sang. ~ Eric Clapton

August 27

Now that I’m coming out with my own record people can see I’m a solo artist. ~ John Legend

[Another afternoon with Anthony Miltich at Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

I discovered that it was a lonely world being a solo artist. Then I started working with another solo artist, Rod Stewart, and he used to tell me how lonely he was! ~ Andy Taylor

I knew I didn’t want to make a country record just because that’s not really what I would have ever made as a solo artist. ~ Natalie Maines

I sing and play the guitar, and I’m a walking, talking bacterial infection. ~ Kurt Cobain

I’ve always wanted to smash a guitar over someone’s head. You just can’t do that with a piano. ~ Elton John

I never studied anything, really. I didn’t study the drums. I joined bands and made all the mistakes onstage. ~ Ringo Starr

[And later that same day at Theatre L’Homme Dieu . . . ]

Sometimes you lie in bed at night and you don’t have a single thing to worry about. That always worries me! ~ Charlie Brown

[The Super and the Tenor hanging out on the TLHD patio awaiting Vintage Cruise . . . ]

When I was growing up and listening to bands like the Dave Clark Five, the groove was what initially got me going. I really like that funky, heavy groove. ~ Eddie Van Halen

A lot of rock bands are truly a legend in their own minds. ~ David Lee Roth

We’ve been gone five years and the best they could come up with was boy bands? ~ Jon Bon Jovi

TLHD: We’re bringing in the big Alomere stage for a beautiful outdoor experience! The smooth & soulful music of the 70s and 80s, performed by some of MN’s great artists. “This is it” This is our final performance of the 2023 Season. We will also have season finale specials on our fine wines, beer, and merch.

Public speaking is very easy. ~ Dan Quayle

[Nicole Mulder made the pre-concert announcements . . . ]

Before every show, we get into a circle, hold hands, and someone makes a speech. Most bands are too cool for that. ~ Flea

So it was out of necessity that Blackheart was born. I think it’s great that now, 25 years later, we’re not only putting out our own music, but are able to put out music by other bands. That’s really exciting for us. ~ John Jett

Rock ‘n’ roll accepted me and paid me, even though I loved the big bands… I went that way because I wanted a home of my own. I had a family. I had to raise them. Let’s don’t leave out the economics. No way. ~ Chuck Berry

[Heads in the crowd . . . ]

The signing of the Sex Pistols was a turning point for Virgin. It put the company on the map and, over the years, attracted bands such as Genesis, the Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, and Janet Jackson. It also attracted Culture Club, who were ground-breaking. ~ Richard Branson

[It was hot! Damn hot! Fans displayed normal herd instinct by heading for shade on a hot, sunny day . . . ]

Some bands today have the experience of really working together and honing their craft. And other bands are very much like, ‘I just got a guitar for Christmas, let’s start a band.’ And you can hear the difference. ~ Robbie Robertson

Rock n’ roll was one thing, and then they chopped off the ‘roll’ and called it ‘rock,’ which became a sort of umbrella term for anything with a guitar in it. Like hair bands. How could we possibly believe that? It’s just gotten downright silly, to the point where now it’s sort of become like professional wrestling. ~ Tom Petty

If you started in New York you were dealing with the biggest guys in the world. You’re dealing with Charlie Parker and all the big bands and everything. We got more experience working in Seattle. ~ Quincy Jones

I played in garage bands and rock and roll bands when I was in junior high and high school and saw some of the great talents of all time in the local area where I lived. ~ David Cassidy

[“This Is It” featuring Jack Cassidy (2nd from right with an Alexandria connection) . . . ]

There is a definite sound with all-girl bands, a good rudimentary sound, and that’s what’s cool and punk about all-girl bands that you still find, largely – it’s really kind of primal. ~ Nancy Wilson

Big companies are like marching bands. Even if half the band is playing random notes, it still sounds kind of like music. The concealment of failure is built into them. ~ Douglas Coupland

If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you’re a one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

If you have to tell people you are powerful, it means you aren’t. ~ Margaret Thatcher

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. ~ Ray Bradbury

Up Next: Same kind of old stuff . . .