Weird dream I had that I just can't figure out

So last night, I have this seriously crazy dream that ran through my mind all day and I can't shake it.

I look like I did when I was about 16. My mom and I are at the church that was down the street from our house in Mobile for a Christmas party. The church is no longer there, neither is the neighborhood. We walk in, the pastor tells each of us to look around and find a gift we like and it's ours. I find an Axe Bass, just like the one Gene Simmons had for sale in Musicland/Sam Goody and Media Play back in the early 2000s...

WHICH BTW I still want for some unexplained reason...I pick it up, sing and play (on bass guitar) Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors. I turn around Gene Simmons is standing behind me crying and not looking like Gene Simmons, he looks like a cross between Donna Summer and a troll doll but I was the only one that knew who it was. He was also eating a Vienna Fingers cookie.

We leave the church, and I'm in the car with Terry. We drive to Publix and I begin to look for a buttercream cake by tasting each one of them instead of reading the labels and they all seemed to have whipped icing. The phone rang and woke me up before I got to the last cake.

Any ideas what my dream was really about?

195 Miles: Rubberneckin' aka How I Got To New York In A Stolen Car

You know the feeling you get when you look over at the car next to you and realize that you are driving next to a cop? This is the very same feeling I felt on the drive from Baltimore, Maryland all the way into New York City. For three and a half hours, my head was like Linda Blair's during a scene in The Exorcist. Stretch, Turn and Crane were all verbs that best describe my actions from the shoulders up. With every tollbooth, state line, weighing station and speed trap we passed, my paranoia built until we got to New York City. The fact that we weren't stopped between Atlanta and New York was a miracle to say the least.

Andy and I weren't exactly a match made in heaven and we weren't exactly Bonnie and Clyde, in fact, we didn't like each other after the first two hours north of Atlanta. We had only two things in common that kept us from killing each other: We both wanted to get to New York ASAP and we were constantly horny. His reason for our trip to New York was not clear to me until we ran out of cash and gas in Baltimore.

The Kroger on Ponce de Leon in Atlanta

Forty eight hours prior to arriving in Baltimore, we met. Before we left Atlanta, Andy stocked the backseat with chips, sodas, beef jerky, potted meat, Vienna sausages, crackers and candy from the nasty Kroger on Ponce. We fueled up and were on our way. Every few hours, we switched places, usually with enough time for a quicky. This was the first time I'd ever driven and honestly I didn't know what was worse trying to get used to the weird feeling of pushing the gas pedal at a consistent level or trying coordinate myself with cruise control. I had no license or ID so if I got caught driving, who knew what would have happened.

The longest stop between Atlanta and Baltimore was when we stopped to see Andy's family in Thomasville, North Carolina. He apparently told his grandmother that the car was mine and we needed to get a fuel pump to get up back to New York, where my family lived. It's amazing how car $75 got us. I can honestly say that there is nothing worth going back to Thomasville for, the memory of seeing the "Big Chair" was enough for me.

The Big Chair in Thomasville, NC

The Maryland Penitentiary

The trip was really uneventful until we got to Baltimore, ran out of gas a block away from the Maryland Penitentiary. I guess by now, you are wondering why he was going to New York. As we sat in the car, in a city neither of us had been, in a neighborhood we had no clue about, he admits the reason he is going to New York. The truth was, he saw New York City as his escape, sanctuary and a new start. We met on a Sunday afternoon. He was living in a Motel 6, working as a server at a Denny's and was fresh off the bus from Arizona. That morning, he'd wandered into a car dealership with a checkbook and the over zealous salesman exchanged a white convertible 1991 Chrysler Le Baron for a check that he couldn't verify funds on. Our trip to Kroger, paid on the very same closed bank account. Keep in mind, this was 1992 and there was no internet back then. Customer service lines for banks were open during traditional banking hours so verifying bank records on Sundays was not an option.

A 1991 Chrysler Le Baron, just like the one were in.

We sat in the car with the windows cracked, trying to figure out how to raise enough cash to get us to New York City. We really had no clue what we would do in New York once we got there but we would worry about that when the time came. It was around 10 am, we knew we could find gay bars. How was the Baltimore hustling scene? I couldn't try and hook up during daytime hours, cops were everywhere. He recommended newspaper machines. I was NOT going to empty a newspaper machine and pose as a paperboy, especially just before noon on a Tuesday. He explained that the change bank in a paper machine is easy to break into and we could steal the money. I was NOT a thief and I was not popping locks for quarters. Then it hit me. How many checks are left? He had two books of the worthless checks. We were both greasy and scraggly from travel and sex. We needed showers and he needed to shave for my idea to work.

Sheraton Inner Harbor

We walked toward downtown, to the Sheraton Inner Harbor, walked in as if we belonged and found the pool. I had used hotel pool facilities for months in Atlanta so much that I knew that security was lax in Sheraton hotels. We used the showers located in the pool and gym area. Shampoo, conditioner, soap, towels, lotion, razors, shaving cream and sometimes after shave were usually a part of those facilities and the Sheraton didn't disappoint. We were clean and looking presentable. From a payphone in the lobby of the Sheraton, we called Marriott reservations. We made reservations for two nights at the Marriott Inner Harbor which was about a half mile away. The cost of each night was about $99 plus taxes adn we would pay upon check in.

Marriott Inner Harbor

We walked into the lobby of the The Marriott Inner Harbor with his rubber checks and reservation number. The clerks at the front desk were quite busy but nothing that filled the hotel to capacity. He wrote a check to cover the cost of both nights plus they allowed him to write $50 over for cash. We had gas money!!!! We walked a mile and a half to the 7-11 we saw close to were we had left the car. We bought a small gas can, filled it with unleaded and meandered to the car in hopes that we didn't have to shlep back to the station for another can to get the car started. We pour the can of fuel into the car, making sure we get every drop in. We threw the can in the trunk, jump in the car, say a little prayer or something like a prayer, turn the key and the engine comes to life. A buck thirty of gas in a seven dollar gas can got us started and back to the 7-11 for a fill up on Marriott's dime. We weren't done, we drove back to the Marriott, realized they charge for parking in their own lot and decided to park somewhere else that was free. We stayed the night and ordered pizza from a delivery place dumb enough to take out of state checks. That night we slept more comfortably since we left Atlanta a few nights before. We had enough fuel to get use from Baltimore to New York but what about extras such as tolls? No problem, the last part of my plan was even more lucrative than just a quick $50 for a fill up. The next morning we woke up, showered and I went down to a payphone I noticed that was out of sight of the front desk. I called the hotel, asked for Andrew Wilder's room and talked to him for a couple of minutes. When I hung up, I headed back to the room and waited a few minutes. We proceeded downstairs and to the front desk. A family emergency, we needed to check out. Andy signed the paperwork and the man behind the desk handed him $119 in cash for the unused night. We powerwalked to the car and got the hell out of Baltimore.

The view of New York and the George Washington Bridge from the New Jersey side.

Three and a half hours of paranoid rubbernecking was almost over. We were on the George Washington Bridge, I could see the view of the biggest city I had ever seen and it was indescribable. We arrived in New York City, took NY 9A to 44th Street to see my first glimpse of the Majestic Theatre, the home of The Phantom of the Opera. It was a sureal moment for sure. This was the first and last time I had driven a vehicle. It seemed as if I spent more time driving than Andy on the stretch between Atlanta and Baltimore. He navigated and drove through the streets of Thomasville, NC and Washington, DC. I refused to move from the passenger seat after Baltimore. Little did Andy know, I had more back up plans than he could ever imagine. The plan, if we were stopped before we arrived in New York City was I would tell the police that he kidnapped me and used me for sex. My next scenario, if we made it without incident, would be how I would ultimately ditch him which only took a week to pull of but with a slight hitch...

The Majestic Theatre on 44th Street

Chess: The Original Broadway Cast Recording

My original exposure to the Tim Rice, Björn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson musical called "Chess" was pretty much like everyone else that listened to pop music of the 1980's, Murray Head's hit single One Night In Bangkok. That song got serious airplay on both radio and MTV. During my time in New York in 1992, I befriended many aspiring actors and it seemed that every tenor I knew had a similar repertoire of "audition" songs, each including The Music of the Night and a song called Anthem. I had never heard the song Anthem and my curiosity got the best of me, I asked someone about it and he played and sang along to Tommy Korberg's rendition on the original concept album. He made a copy of his cassette on a Realistic blank tape from Radio Shack for me, which my Panasonic branded "walkman" ate within a few days, I hated those damn Radio Shack cassettes since the 80's.

Rather than ask him for another copy, I headed the Sam Goody in A&S Plaza to buy my own copy. Sam Goody wasn't my favorite record store, Tower was, but something about the pink glow of neon made it an appealing store for me to shop in...Yes I'm a complex weirdo.

I loved A&S Plaza because it was on the same location as the famed "Gimbels" and it was a 13 floor shopping mall that took about 10 minutes to get to the top no matter if you took the escalator or elevator. It's now called Manhattan Mall and the shops are only on the first few floors.

So, I'm standing in Sam Goody, staring at the wall of cassettes in the cast recording/soundtrack section. I see two recordings of Chess, one with a white cover and the other with a black cover.

I wasn't sure which recording I had previously had so I took a stab in the dark and bought the Original Broadway Cast recording. Knowing it was the same show I didn't think there really could be much of a difference. The moment I popped it into my walkman and pushed play, I noticed differences including the Sound of Music-like opening called "Merano" was replaced with a suspenseful and brooding overture entitled "Prologue" followed by the story of Chess. The voices were MUCH more theatrical than the black album also but being a fan of musical theatre, nothing that would displace my overall listening enjoyment.

It's impossible to not compare the black and white albums, as each have their own strengths and weaknesses. The Original Broadway Cast Recording is not exactly a disappointment but I was disappointed I had chosen the wrong recording by mistake. A few days later, I went back to Sam Goody to purchase the black cover recording.

During the time I was in NYC, I spent many of the daytime hours hanging out in Central Park. I found that sleeping in the park while "laying out in the sun" was less obvious than trying to sleep on a park bench on the mornings when a trick would kick me out of his apartment because he had to go to work or was tired with my "expensive" company. With my sunglasses and headphones on, I would fall asleep on my huge beach towel, listening to show music. This was until it got cold and as my tan lightened, the bags under my eyes darkened. Since I had the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Chess, I might as well listen to it and enjoy it. As I mentioned, the voices were theatrical and less pop as the black album. The black album contained a mix of musical theater actors that were also pop singers in their own rights whereas the Broadway cast recording were all actors. Being that this was a cast recording made to preserve the original Broadway production, accents were utilized by some of the actors, mainly the actors portraying the Hungarian and Russian characters. If you are listening to the songs on this recording as one would a pop album, this would be distracting. The fact they use accents for the characters is helpful as it keeps the differences between the actors distinct. Judy Kuhn's Florence is drastically different than the portrayal of Florence by Elaine Paige. Elaine's voice is "pretty" and more of a pop voice where as Judy's is 100% theatre. The age difference between Elaine and Judy are obvious also. With this production, the role of Florence got a new song with Someone Else's Story. Judy Kuhn certainly shines and belts this out to her fullest potential. Since this production, the song has occasionally been shifted over to the character of Svetlana. I have an issue with many cast recordings in regards to following storylines between the musical pieces but this recording's storyline is obvious. There's no reason to read the synopsis to follow what's supposed to be going on throughout the show as it follows the happenings very well.

There are a few negatives with this recording. The orchestrations are simplified and not as lush, many numbers that contained heavy use of bass and guitars on the black album were now synthesized. Many of the tempos have been tampered with also, not for the better. One Night In Bangkok, the most famous song of the show, has been sped up and it's tempo sounds incredibly rushed. Philip Casnoff's voice also comes across as too condescending and cocky throughout the scene, yes the character is cocky but this is a song that was already iconic by this point and re-inventing it's interpretation was not a necessity. Had the producers released this version of One Night In Bangkok as a single, it would have most likely bombed. On the other end of the scale, the voice of Svetlana, sang by Marcia Mitzman is possibly the best of everyone featured on this recording, it's a shame that she's only heard on only a few of the musical numbers.

With all that said, would I buy this recording again? Yes and No. I now own it on CD because of the fact that I am a fan of the show as a whole and I am a completest. The recording I most recommend to anyone curious about Chess is the 1994 Gothenburg Concert entitled Chess In Concert featuring Anders Glenmark, Tommy Korberg and Karin Glenmark. If you are interested in purchasing the other two recordings of Chess I mention, please use the following links.

   

My Obsession With The Phantom of the Opera: The Beginning

If you've ever met me, no doubt you would know that The Phantom of the Opera has been one of my obsessions since my teenage years. What most don't know is how my obsession began. While most fans have shared their story of how they were fans of the old films, the Gaston Leroux book or were introduced to the cast album through a family member, mine was  a little bit different. I was a flea market junkie when I was a kid and the booths that appealed to me the most were the ones that had records, tapes and CD's. I can't remember the exact age or the but I do remember it was before my parents split up so it must have been around 1989 or 1990 when found a royal blue cassette holder with a slightly cracked cover containing a dozen tapes for $2.50.

A cassette holder similar to mine in a lighter blue.

I actually bought the lot for one tape in particular, Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth. Laugh if you must but to this day, I think Debbie's voice is amazing and her tunes are infectious. As for the rest of the cassettes, I had no idea what most of the others were even after I listened to them. There were a couple of Reader's Digest compilations featuring instrumental versions of old country songs that sounded a lot like the music played in the Delchamps grocery stores back in the late 70s and early 80s and a few classical tapes, or at least what I considered classical, including one without a cover called The Premiere Collection The Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber. I didn't know who this Andrew Lloyd Webber was but I popped the tape into my not so state of the art Emerson stereo's single cassette player, rewound the tape from it's half listened position and hit play.

By this time in my life, my musical taste didn't stray far from top 40 pop and my collection of Madonna's albums. As for musicals, I didn't know much regarding show music other than what I'd heard from The Sound of Music film and my elementary school music teacher's attempt to broaden her student's musical minds by playing selected tunes from Rupert Holmes' The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

When I hit the play button on my, not so state of the art, Emerson stereo with a single cassette player, turntable and AM/FM tuner, I had no idea that the very first track called The Phantom of the Opera by Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley, would make an impact on my life. From the second I heard the organ play the famous chords, I knew I LOVED this Andrew Lloyd Webber guy. Due to the fact that the cover was missing, I didn't realize the songs were drawn from musicals. Yeah, I was a little dense but the songs were great and aside from one or two, I could have seen them played on the radio at one time or another.

When I left home at the age of 16, I ended up in Columbus, Georgia for a few weeks with a music major named Lee who just so happen to love musicals. I'm not sure where he is now but in recent years, he was the musical director of a major symphony orchestra in the northeast. During the two weeks that I stayed with him, he taught me to appreciate genres other than pop music, show music in particular. He played the violin and one night, after a few glasses of wine, he decided to show me one of the most difficult things he could play. If you own the Original London Cast Recording of The Phantom of the Opera, cue up disc two and track up to the graveyard violin solo before Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again. While the violin solo was not played by Lee on the recording, he played along and to my ears, he actually sounded better than what was recorded.

As impressed as I was, I was intrigued by what the other tunes from The Phantom of the Opera were like. Lee switched the cassette to tape one and started it from the beginning. From the time I heard "SOLD" I was entranced. Within the first two minutes, the Overture erupted from the speakers with the chords that I knew from the song on the tape I'd bought at the flea market several years back. A few minutes later, the song I knew from that cassette began to play, while slightly different the baseline and chords on the organ were unmistakable and the sounds coming from the speakers were even better than the version on the flea market tape. I was obsessed and knew I HAD to see the show featured on the tapes. It seemed so magical just listening to what was playing out on the recording, I could only imagine what the actual show was like. When I left Columbus for Atlanta, I "accidentally" took Lee's The Phantom of the Opera cassette tapes along with me.

 

I spent about a little over a month in Atlanta, always with my Walkman and a couple of tapes including my ill gotten Phantom tapes in my fanny pack. This was a time when fanny packs were an acceptable part of fashion in addition to being a practical way of carrying stuff around. I listened to those two cassettes on a loop and I thought no one could sing this better than these people. I wanted to see this show and I couldn't wait for the day that travel to New York and see Sarah Brightman, Michael Crawford and Steve Barton in the roles they sang on the recording. Keep in mind, I was pretty new to the genre of musicals and didn't realize that original stars don't traditionally stay in shows for long and thought the show was specifically written for them and they would be in it until it closed. 

The day that I met Andrew Wilder, he asked what I'm doing in midtown, "Trying to get to New York" I said jokingly. He told me, "OK, Let's Go!" Here's the kicker, that actually did happen, we acquired a white convertible Chrysler LeBaron and drove north and eventually landed in New York within a couple of days. We were a little slow and several things happened on the way. The details of that journey will be in my book. When we arrived in New York City, I demanded that he drive to 44th Street because I wanted to see the Majestic Theatre up close and in person. When we arrived a few feet from the theatre, I got out of the car and inspected every photo in front of the theater and to my surprise, I saw no mention of Sarah, Michael or Steve. What I saw were generic show photos as well as some photos of Karen Culliver, Mark Jacoby and Hugh Panaro. Who were THESE people and why were they there? A few weeks later I found out exactly who they were.

Andrew was more interested in other ventures and I was all over the place from Greenwich Village on up to Central Park throughout the day. So much to do in New York and when you are young and hot, like I was, it was easy to make friends wherever you went. Eventually, Andrew and I parted ways though his business ventures occasionally overlapped mine. Shortly after meeting and moving in temporarily with my friend Al, he decided to surprise me with tickets to see Phantom my very first time. I was SO excited but  also so very tired because I'd spent the entire night before out with my friend Sergio at an after hours club which didn't close until 8 am. The tickets Al had bought were for the 2pm matinee so I had no time for a nap. Once I fall asleep in a bed, I am usually out for at least ten hours and I was not going to mess up and miss the show I had been itching to see since the beginning of the summer. Once Al and I were in our seats, which I sort of remember being orchestra section seats M5 and M7, I was excited yet at the same time disappointed that Sarah, Michael and Steve weren't going to be singing.

When the show began, I was in awe of everything, not just with the music, scenery, costumes or the Chandelier but the fact there was more musical content and also some slight lyric changes than featured on the recording I had obsessed over. By the time Karen and Mark set out on their journey across the lake in the boat, I'd forgotten the voices of Sarah and Michael and was actually enjoying Karen, Mark and Hugh even more. The first act was so very beautiful and there were a lot of tears throughout. Once we got to the second act, I remember how colorful and lavish the Masquerade scene was but shortly thereafter, exhaustion had got the best of me. The violin solo Lee play played for me in his dining room played and as, Karen Culliver sang the intro to Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, I drifted to sleep. I woke up just as Karen began to sing midway through The Point of No Return. What did I miss? I had to use use my imagination for what I missed until I saw it again, fully rested. By the end of the show Al had treated me to, I was in tears. I witnessed something that wasn't just one dimensional as listening to a tape and for the first time, this was something that didn't Madonna that I found myself fully immersed in and totally in love with.

Karen Culliver, Mark Jacoby, Hugh Panaro & Karen Culliver

A few days later, I wanted to see the show again and realized I could get the student ticket prices at $15 and even though I wasn't a student, I told the person at the box office I lost my student ID and they didn't seem to care as long as I had the cash. The scenes I slept through the first time were even better than I imagined and I LOVED that Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again didn't just end on a low note as heard on the Original London Cast, it ended with a high note. Well Done Karen Culliver!!! A few days later, I wanted to see it AGAIN and I made sure that once again I was fully rested for this show and I was just as excited as before until I noticed Karen Culliver was off for the night and someone named LuAnn Aronson would be Christine. I was disappointed the star wasn't there but I spent $15 I couldn't get back and thought I'd stay just to see the boat scene then leave. By the time LuAnn sang the Think of Me cadenza and she and Mark made their journey across the lake in the boat, I didn't leave. LuAnn's acting, a bit different from Karen, was just as amazing.

LuAnn Aronson

Those cheap tickets became a habit, just as someone would turn on their television to watch an episode of their favorite sitcom, I was presenting my ticket at the doors of the Majestic and usually just a little before the show so I could scope out empty single seats near adults that were closer to the stage. I figured out, most adults came in pairs and if a single seat was empty, it was either a no show or just didn't get sold. I also thought that an usher would presume I was with the adults next to me and not check my ticket to see if I am in the correct seat or send me up to the section I paid for. I loved seeing both Karen and LuAnn as Christine. Mark and Hugh were amazing also and were at every performance I had seen so far. By the time I had seen the show twenty or so times I'd not seen anyone else play the role of Christine other than Karen and LuAnn and it seemed anyone listed on the cast list as an understudy in a main role never seemed to happen, that is to say not until the night a piece of paper fell out of my Playbill that read "At Tonight's Performance, the role of Christine Daae usually played by Karen Culliver will be played by Raissa Katona. What? Neither of my stars were in the building? Who is this Raissa?

Raissa Katona

This was the same feeling I got the night I first saw LuAnn Aronson performing in place of Karen Culliver. I was disappointed until the part Miss Katona sang "when you are far away and free" during "Think of Me" and my disappointment transformed into surprise. I was shocked that the part of Christine, as difficult as it was, could be played by more than a couple of ladies. Thus, my obsession, not with the Phantom, but with Christine, was born. I've made it no secret that I feel the ladies that play Christine are the true stars of the show. The Phantom's stage time is a fraction of Christine's and she is required to sing a wider more difficult range all while wearing heavy dresses. I have joked to some of the ladies that have played the part that I privately call the show Christine of the Opera. After seeing Karen, LuAnn and Raissa, I began to make it a point when I see the show a few times at a time to try catch more than just the principle Christine and at times hope that an understudy will be on that night. As of today, I have seen 24 different actresses play the role. I have my favorites though I will say that I loved each Christine for different reasons, whether it was the timber of their voice, the way they chose to play a certain scene on up to the strength of their cadenza during Think of Me. I've heard some people grumble about seeing an understudy before the show but over the years I have found that understudies sometimes have an extra special something within their performance that you don't see with someone who's job is to do it like clockwork. Don't think that just because they aren't the one listed as "the star" that they aren't capable of being a star for the night or in the blink of an eye take over full time. You will still hear the high C during Think of Me (though a couple I've seen hit a B flat) and the high E at the end of the title song, though pre-recorded, is as high as it's ever been. Today's understudies are tomorrow's stars...Rebecca Luker was the original Broadway Christine understudy and many other productions later now considered Broadway Royalty. ;-)

Since the days I obtained the cassette of The Premiere Collection and my ill gotten copy of the Original London Cast, I have collected every officially released recordings as well as a lot of promos and solo albums and listen to them all frequently.

So when asked how my obsession began, in short, it tracked back to hearing the Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley single version of the title son. Incidentally, during the time that I lived in New York, though I didn't object to seeing a matinee, I discovered this was the only Broadway show that I preferred to see at night. There's something about the cover of night that made the show more magical than seeing it during a daytime performance, at least for me it did and still does. Possibly, as it is in the lyrics, night time sharpens and heightens each sensation. ;-)