Hooray for Hollywood...and CalJas

It's not that I never get to the heart of the Big Orange. Earlier this summer I attended the Leonard Bernstein 100th birthday concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Last summer I revisited Olvera Street after an absence of approximately four decades, and, also, for the very first time explored Universal Studios.

But the last time I set foot in Hollywood's oldest watering hole, Musso and Frank, I'd been tramping

Snuggling with Frank at Musso and Frank Grill

through the haunts of legendary detective Philip Marlowe on a Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles tour...and it had been 1979.  That afternoon I'd indulged in one of the dry martinis this bar is noted for. Yesterday, because Frank and I had a big evening ahead, we simply sipped a couple of Allagash White ales, served in elegant iced glasses, and shared a hot pastrami and rye and a Caesar salad, lavishly garnished with succulent anchovies. Scrumptious. We also demolished a few hunks of the Grill's famous sourdough bread. If I return, I'd simply make a meal of that bread alone and a couple of the veggie appetizers. And maybe try another martini, though they're no longer priced at $.60, as advertised on the menu posted next to the Gentleman's room.

Sinatra and Bacall

 I'd scrutinized the other patrons as we walked in through the back entry. (Tip: be certain to use the validated parking in the rear lot, accessible off adjacent N. Cherokee Ave.) Out of luck, alas, no stars to be seen. This steakhouse, with its roasts, chops, and made-to-order classics (Welsh rarebit, calves liver, flannel cakes), used to be a favorite drinking and dining sport for writers,
such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway and the aforementioned Chandler, as well as celebrities from the movie industry. The only stars we spied, though, were on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Just outside Musso's I leaned down and patted the one commemorating the actor once known as America's greatest living tragedian.

As we strolled down Hollywood Boulevard I nattered on to Frank about how I once paraded down it, tossing my baton as I did one-handed walkovers....it had been the Santa Claus Lane procession in 1949 when my majorette troupe, the Carpenterettes, had proceeded the Cadillac convertible carrying Grand Master Bob Hope. (Here's my story about that particular evening: http://atouchoftarragon.blogspot.com/2014/03/razzle-dazzle.html)

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From l-r, Tull, Babad, Hughes, Boatman, Young

Then as guests of the president of CalJas, Dale Boatman, we arrived at The Magic Castle, another Hollywood landmark. I'd only been there once before when a school chum of my son's, Todd Robbins, had been a featured magician.
This time, we were there not to see magic, but to hear it at a jazz concert in The Inner Circle. Our host, Dale, an accomplished jazz singer with flawless phrasing, long has been devoted to promoting this American music form in Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange Counties. Frank and I joined CalJas three years ago. We frequently attend local house concerts, but decided to fight the freeway traffic to get to Hollywood in the afternoon in order to catch the CalJas All-Stars' 25th performance at this venue. 

Becky Hughes at The Magic Castle

The Magic Castle lived up to its name. Even Invisible Irma, the ghost who plays the piano in The Music Bar, knocked out a great music hall version of Paul McCartney's "Your Mother Should Know," my request from the Beatles'  album "Magical Mystery Tour."

As we'd anticipated, the CalJas All Stars rocked the room. Dale, Becky and up-and-coming star Lia Booth, warbled, scatted and crooned. The four musicians all have worked with every famous name in the music business. There wasn't a number last night that wasn't worth the long commute from Orange County. Two particularly fascinating pieces included Luther Hughes' stunning bass solo on "My Romance," and Dave Tull's hilarious parody, "Every Other Day I Have the Blues."

Frank and I sit entranced at a recent CalJas concert in Westminster

For more about Luther Hughes' music company, Primrose Lane (where every day's a holiday), check out his website: http://primroselanemusic.com/index.html


If you, like me, love all that jazz....consider joining CalJas. Find out more about the California Jazz Arts Society here: http://www.caljas.org/   

.And for more about Musso and Frank and The Magic Castle:

http://mussoandfrank.com/history/
http://www.magiccastle.com/

Hall of Fame, Magic Castle

Different but Divine

Edited by Charles D. Brockett and Heather Toseteson

What does joy mean to you? In this new book from Wising Up Press, which releases August 15, 43 authors explore how joy surprised us. My story, "Different but Divine," relates how Dr. Frank Stern and I realized we had more similarities to build a bond with, than we did differences. This seemed unlikely when we first met.

The Table of Contents of this stunning anthology concludes with this quotation by George Bernard Shaw. I read this to Frank this morning, and he agrees that Shaw's words capture the philosophies that have guided each of our lives:

Sketch by Harry  Furniss

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

"I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

"I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."-- G.B. Shaw, Man and Superman


Here are the opening paragraphs from my story, which concludes the chapter on Community:

DIFFERENT BUT DIVINE

In Jewish history there are no coincidences.” – Elie Wiesel

 “I don’t expect you to become Jewish,” Frank said. “I’m only asking you to stay your own curious and open-minded self and come to a synagogue with me for Sabbath.”

My mouth dropped open. “But they’ll be speaking Hebrew,” I sputtered. “I don’t know a word of that language. I won’t have any idea what’s going on.”

He laughed and patted my hand. “It’s easy. It’s a Reform temple, so the sermon will be in English. Do what everybody else does. If I stand up, you stand up. When somebody says something to you, repeat what they say back to them. Works every time.”

Easy for him to say. After all, my new boyfriend was a retired university professor who’d taught the history of Judaism. “Four thousand years in fourteen weeks,” he’d quipped of his introductory course.

Though I harbored serious doubts, I agreed to go. During my childhood in rural Oregon, I’d won a New Testament for faithful Sunday School attendance at a tiny Friends Church. The Quaker philosophy stuck with me. I’ve always relied on my “Inner Light” to help me distinguish between good and evil, and to reassure me of the infinite love of God.

Friends Church, Scotts Mills, OR

In adulthood, my church-going mainly has been limited to weddings and funerals. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I’d dropped in on a few services here and there: A Harvest Festival at the “Scots” St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Belize City; a nondenominational Easter observance at the Episcopal Cathedral in Santo Domingo; even a Christmas Eve candlelight ceremony at Immaculate Conception in Victoria, Seychelles.

xxx

Frank at Church of the Foothills

Want to read more? You can order copies of this anthology here: http://www.universaltable.org/bookstore.html or

Here's the table of contents, should you want to browse:
http://www.universaltable.org/images/Surprised_by_Joy-_Table_of_Contents,_Intro.pdf

Sharing our visions of Community

We're Singing our September Song

Boston Harbor

I've been around the world in a plane...again and again. Mongolia? Check. Guyana? Check? Uzbekistan? Check. Samoa? Check.

But I've never set foot outside Logan Airport in Boston. I've never gazed at Niagara Falls. I've not visited the Maritime Museum with its Titanic exhibits in Halifax nor paid homage to childhood idols Jackie Robinson and Christy Mathewson at the Baseball Hall of Fame. I've explored our southern neighbor, Mexico, from Baja to the Yucatan, from Chiapas to Chapala, by train, car and bus. But I've never wandered anywhere in our neighbor to the north, Canada, outside of British Columbia.

Child's Shoes from Titanic

Not too late. My beau, Frank Stern, and I have been poring over the AAA Tour books, the Road Scholar itinerary and the ports of call on the Celebrity Summit cruise from Cape Liberty to Halifax, and we've rolled three vacations into one.

Bar Harbor

1) The cruise leaves Port Liberty, in Bayonne, N.J.,  on Sunday, Sept. 9. We'll have three days to explore NYC from our hotel by Newark airport. We plan to take subway and buses to get around. And then the cruise goes to Boston, Portland, MN, Bar Harbor, two days in Quebec City, Saquenay, Sidney, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and back to Cape Liberty.

Saratoga Springs

(2) We take a cab from Cape Liberty on Sunday, Sept. 23, to Hilton Garden Inn on Staten Island and spend the day and night there. Maybe explore a little of Staten Island. The next morning we pick our car rental up from next to the hotel and head for leg two, our Fall Foliage drive through upper New York State. We drive to Albany and spend two nights. We will go to Saratoga Springs and visit the National Museum of Racing.

Then we continue from Albany to Syracuse, with a stop at Cooperstown to tour the Baseball Hall of Fame. Finally we drive from Syracuse to Ottawa and have a day or two to explore before joining the Road Scholar tour in Ottawa on Sunday, Sept. 30.

Niagara-on-the-Lake

(3) The Road Scholar trip includes two nights in Ottawa, with tours of the Ottawa Museum of History and Rideau Hall, and then on to Kingston for two nights with Arthur Child Museum, 1000 Islands, Boldt Castle, and then on to Toronto for two nights, with Picton, McCaully Park, wine tasting, St. Lawrence Market, Elgin Wintergarden Theater, and then on to Niagara-on-the-Lake for two nights, with the Shaw Festival where we see either "Oh, What a Lovely War" or "The Hound of the Baskervilles." On Canadian Thanksgiving, we tour Niagara Falls with a boat cruise on The Maid of the Mist. Finally, we'll be transported to the Buffalo airport for our return flight home, via O'Hare.

Two countries...dozens of  "At Long Last" items to check off my Lifetime To-Do List.

Ottawa, Canada