Blogging in Spots

This is one of those moments when I have a lot of little thoughts in my head but not enough of any one to make a good blog entry.

I am still pissed off over news I heard yesterday about a cruel, tasteless and insensitive stunt pulled off by a local radio station here in NYC. One of the primary reasons I have stopped listening to commercial radio is because of the extreme assholes that now work there and the indefensible idiocy they do on the radio that just offends and annoys me.

For at least four days last week, the morning radio, so-called personality Miss Jones, on �Hot 97� (WQHT-FM) played the �Tsunami Song,� mocking the tragic disaster that struck Southeast Asia and the east coast of Africa, killing 150,000 people. Set to the tune of �We Are the World� it made fun of people drowning, children becoming orphaned and used derogatory comments to describe Asians and Africans. Members of the New York City Council are already calling for the station to be fined by the FCC (I filed a complaint last night) and although the station has issued an apology, that simply isn�t enough. The deejay, the program director and the station manager should all be fired. You can�t play something four days in a row and not be held accountable for your actions all the way up the line. And this isn�t the first time this station has engaged in tasteless acts.

But now talk about your misplaced anger; the conservative, homophobic nut jobs that got all up in arms over SpongeBob SquarePants got their facts all wrong while also nitpicking over nothing at all.

�Gem of the Ocean� the brilliant play by August Wilson, starring Phylicia Rashad, is scheduled to close on Feb. 6. If you haven�t seen it, run over to the Walter Kerr Theater and do so. I�m eager to see Billy Porter�s upcoming one man show �Ghetto Superstar� opening Feb. 10. Anybody want to go with me? Also on my list is �McReele,� the world premiere of Stephen Belber’s play about an exonerated ex-prisoner who runs in a local senate election. Anthony Mackie stars in this Roundabout Theatre production.

Last week I finally got around to seeing �The Producers� on Broadway. Yeah, I know, it�s only been running since 2001, and Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are long gone (twice no less), but it�s still a funny show. I was a big fan of the original movie and already have the cast album, and the video of the making of the cast album (can you tell I�m a theatre queen), but I really wanted to see what Richard Kind and Alan Ruck (both formerly of Spin City) could do in the lead roles. They don�t disappoint.

For similar reasons, I am tempted to go see Harvey Fierstein as Tevye in �Fiddler on the Roof.� Multiple Tony Award winner Fierstein, has been known for playing clearly gay roles, but in this one he taps the other part of his identity, his Jewishness. He�s getting decent reviews and to some, is better in the lead than British actor Alfred Molina, who opened the revival last year.

I was saddened at the news of Johnny Carson�s passing, but thought Monday night�s tribute by Jay Leno was touching. All those old clips brought back childhood memories. In this world of 500 cable channels, people nowadays can�t even imagine what life was like with just CBS, NBC and ABC. Johnny ruled late night television from 1962-1992�30 years (!)�something unheard of and never again to be duplicated. As a little kid, if I saw his show come on, that usually meant I was up waaay past my bedtime, which might have gotten me a beating. But I did anyway. Grown-ups sitting around telling witty anecdotes about their oh-so interesting celebrity lives. And smoking cigarettes right on the air too! It was all so adult.

Today�s New York Times has an interesting piece about his impact on New York City. The show was originally broadcast from here until he up and moved it to Burbank, California. I remember how that symbolized a downward shift in the importance of New York as a center of television production back then. It would be decades before this city really recovered.

Enough pop culture. Work is real slow right now. Our funders have us confused about the direction of my program because they themselves are confused. So we sit and wait.

School is going well. Still maintaining good grades in the cooking part, with a quiz this weekend. In management, we had a champagne tasting last Thursday and a beer tasting this coming Thursday. I practice harm reduction, not abstinence.

February 14, Valentine�s Day is coming. Yawn.