A Perfect Rhyne

A lyric I just overheard on iTunes Radio's "Original Broadway Cast" station:

I feel like the sun is shining 

Like every song is rhyming

Every song, I suppose, except that one?

Jim Henson: The Biography

I finished Jim Henson: The Biography this morning, and highly recommend it. Author Brian Jay Jones has done a superlative job of researching and writing about Henson's life, and there are many fascinating things to be learned in the book. I was especially surprised and pleased with the many insightful quotes from Richard Hunt, who died only two years after Jim. Jones was able to draw from an unpublished interview Hunt gave in his final years.

It's sobering to realize that of the early Muppets crew, only Frank Oz is still alive. Jane Henson, Jerry Juhl, Jerry Nelson, Don Sahlin — all gone. It's wonderful that Jones was able to interview Henson and Nelson for the book; it was written "just in the nick of time", so to speak.

Jones quotes most, but not all, of Jocelyn Stevenson's beautiful words from her speech at the London memorial service for Jim, which were published in It's Not Easy Being Green, and Other Things to Consider.
Here's the rest of that quote:

He changed our lives. He changed the world. And we'll continue his work, because that's how inspiration operates. People die, but inspiration lives and grows. Inspired by his gentleness, we'll fill the world with gentleness. Inspired by his vision, we'll fill the world with vision. Inspired by his chicken imitation, we'll fill the world with laughter.

Thanks, Jocelyn. Thanks, Brian. And thanks, Jim.

My Favorite YouTube Video

'nuff said.

Forbidden?

I have a bunch of videotapes of old theatrical performances I've done. I've transferred most of them to DVD. But the existence of such recordings is problematic...There aren't really supposed to be recordings of theatrical productions, except (I believe) those made strictly for the theatre's own archival purposes. There are all sorts of problems with union rules and copyright restrictions.Yet for a while there, it seemed that every show I did was videotaped, and the cast was offered copies.

Then there's the problem of sharing them with others...because after all it's not just your performance you're sharing, it's everyone else's too. And it might have been a bad night for them, or they might just rather forget about the whole thing. So I've pretty much refrained from posting anything online.

I made an exception though with Forbidden Broadway, since there are lots of solo numbers in there, and I could post chunks of my own performance without anyone else's being included.

So...here that is.

Scrambled Abbreviations

I love animating Laurie Keller's work. I've done two of her books for Weston Woods, plus a video for Ralph's World that utilized her characters, plus the book trailer for her latest Arnie the Doughnut book.

I also love rewarding an audience for sitting through a film's credits. So I took a hilarious bit from the endpapers of The Scrambled States of America Talent Show and animated it underneath that Weston Woods film's credits. Here's the sequence, shorn of the credits:

Harper Lee Ever After

Probably the best present I ever got my wife was a personalized, autographed copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, signed by Harper Lee herself. It's the 35th Anniversary edition, and there are a lot of autographed copies of that edition going around. People now seem to be asking a minimum of $600 for one.

First, I do believe these copies to be authentic. Why are there so many? Here's why:

Back in early 1998 I noticed a lot of copies appearing on eBay, usually for around $150. I contacted one seller, asking where they got it, and why there were so many. They kindly explained that two bookstores in Monroeville AL, Beeland's and Magnolia Cottage, were selling them. Harper Lee was spending a lot of time in Monroeville caring for her sick sister, and she had agreed to come in to the stores periodically and sign copies of the book for people to order.

I contacted Beeland's, confirmed this story, and was shocked when they said they were selling them for (if I remember correctly) $21, only $3 more than the cover price of the book. I asked for one, personalized for my wife, and sure enough it arrived promptly.

So, either two bookstores in Harper Lee's own hometown were running a wide but very low profit scam, or it's real. The signature certainly looks authentic, compared to those I can find on the Internet.

But this apparently didn't last long. Laura and I visited Beeland's on our "babymoon" in 2000, and they said that when Harper Lee got word of copies being sold on eBay for exorbitant prices, she quit signing them. So I got very lucky with the timing, I suppose.

The inscription, in blue pen, says:

Merry Christmas, Laura!
Harper Lee
1998

Tick-Tock Sick/The Countryside

It's not really known why Jim Henson recorded two songs and released a single in 1960. But here it is!