Here's my first attempt at a Rock Music Review.  I hope you, my gentle readers, like it!

HollowWater, Penrhyn-Coch, CGN, UK

Again, the folks of the British Isles are showing us, here in the Colonies, what the future holds in Progressive Rock music with their band, Hollow Water of Aberystwyth in Wales.  A two men combo band comprised Alan Cookson on keyboards and Huw Roberts on guitar.    Switch on and give an ear to the efforts of Alan's keyboards and Huw's guitar.  Two talented and dedicated musicians, giving us here in America, a fine collection of a rarely assembled musical composition.  These men bring new meaning to the phase, Multi-tasking!

Fusion Bands can be problematic.  Too much of one thing and not enough of the other.  No problem here with the music of Hollow Water.  In the capable hands of Alan and Huw, we have a delightful array of rock and jazz and electronic music that can quench any particular taste in new music!  

From their wonderfully arranged jazz piece, A New Idea That Won't Get Finished, we have a symphony that keeps you guessing to the scale of what these two can achieve.  A happy, poppy tune that makes you tap your toes and smile.  A wonderful collection of old established rhythm funneled and rethought to provide a driving groove for today's audiences.

Wrong Place Wrong Time is another prime example of Old meeting New, starting with a lick that sounds straight off a Broadway musical, it soon flows quickly into an exciting display of techno beats that completes a picture of an urban night life with all it's possibilities.  

The wonderfully Sour and Sweet reminds us that this band can do more than just provide club music.  Starting with a gentle, almost cerebral tone, it then climbs up to a chancy, edgy rhythm that dares it's listener to follow it's theme.  A tough and twisted piece.

Guanco, clearly shows that Alan and Huw are on a solid Rock and Roll grounding.  Driving, moving piece.  One can almost see Alan and Huw stomping the floor hard when putting this song down for all to hear.

It's becoming harder and harder for new musicians to catch an audience.  Today's music industry has a strong hold on the avenues of exposure for progressive music to be heard.  Do yourself an favor, and if you have any value of new visions seen by other artists - than go to Hollow Water's website ( HollowWater ) and give a listen to this exciting and challenging new band.

My next staged reading!  Thank you, Lisa for writing this!  Stephan Scheck will be Galileo, Lisa Dabrowski will be his daughter, Maria, Bill Funke will be giving the details of Galileo's discoveries and myself will be serving as the Narrator.  Here's Lisa's notice on the event.

"Galileo Reading Performance" - Saturday, October 10th, 1:30PM! I'll be portraying Galileo's daughter, Sister Maria Celeste. The staged reading will take place during the 37th Annual Custer Observatory Astronomy Jamboree, held Friday thru Sunday, October 9th - 11th, 2015! Every year Custer Observatory, in Southold, NY, hosts a weekend of astronomy lectures, stargazing, and friendship. 2015 marks the 37th year of this fun and exciting weekend of lectures, demonstrations, friends, food, music, and of course stargazing! It is a weekend for families, those new to astronomy, as well as seasoned stargazers. A weekend not to missed! For more info, visitwww.custerobservatory.org 

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My vote for the most over-rated movie of all time.

 I grew up in a little suburban town, ten miles west of Detroit, called Berkley, and we had a great movie theater there.  It was named after our town, of course. The Berkley Movie theater was one of those cinemas that would show movies at a discount.  These were movies that had been out long after their initiate releases.  I remember as a boy, seeing Jaws, the original blockbuster summer movie, when it was closer to the fall than that summer.  It was still pretty scary to see it ,even though the chance of being eaten by a great white was long over, due to the closing of Michigan's beaches.  ( Not that the Great Lakes are known for their fresh water sharks... )

The Berkley theater was only two blocks from where I lived, so I could go with my parents and friends almost anytime I wanted to, to see what was there.  Because of this, I saw a LOT of movies, and developed a bit of a critical eye.  I have great memories of arguing with my friends, in the school cafeteria, over what was good and what was bad about this or that movie.   I still cherish the memory of one friend, who once threw butter at me for daring to say that The Return of the Jedi was weak.

So, in keeping with this tread and at the risk of repeating my unfortunate habit of having Land O Lakes hurled at my head, I now offer my choice for most over-rated movie of all time!

 Citizen Kane.  A RKO Radio Picture.  Directed by Orson Welles.  Written by Herman J. Mankiewicz.

I'll never understand why this movie is so revered by so many film critics as being the greatest movie of all time.  Why, there is such an interest in the life and death of an arrogant, adulterous, capitalist pig like Charles Foster Kane?  There's nothing about this guy that I like or find intriguing.  There are a few moments that offer some good moments for me - The sequence of watching Kane's marriage at it's chatty, happy beginning to it's dreadfully silent demise, all around a breakfast table, is good.  It rings of truth and pain.  The whole opera affair with Kane's mistress is fun.  I like the long shot of showing how enormously high the theater is that Kane has built for his new wife, only to be given a sour look on the faces of workmen stationed at the top of the theater arch, when they hear her singing for the first time.  That's top notch film-work.  But to me, for every positive thing about Kane, there are at least, three or four things I can't get around.

One, it's too dark.  I can barely make out who's talking to whom, in most of the scenes.

Two, it's hard to hear!  I don't know what Welles was doing when he directed this thing or what he was hoping to achieve, but people are constantly over-lapping on each other whenever they're speaking and it's a terrible distraction to what's going on in the scene.

Three, the whole idea that " Rosebud " is Kane's lost childhood seem anti-climax to me, because for the whole film, all we see is Kane acting like a child for the most part!  He throws wild parties at work. He's constantly carrying on with a variety of different women at all times of his life. He bores easily and is always looking for distraction,  He never has a truly revealing " one to one " moment with anyone in the film.  He never admits mistakes.  He pushes his friends to their breaking point.  His taste is crass ( one look at his grand mansion shows that readily. )  Most of the time, I was waiting to see someone to really take him to task for his behavior.  No one does.  The closest thing to that is the cutting theater review by Kane's friend and theater critic, played by Joseph Cotton, on Kane's 2nd wife, the deaf-toned Susan played by Dorothy Comingore.   To me, " Rosebud " was pretty much meaningless when the focal character spends most of his adult life trying to extend his childhood for as long as he can.

Four, there's a common American belief buried in the myths of men like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Ben Franklin, that from poverty will come the fortitude of greatness when the impoverished child reaches adulthood.  It's a strange, almost neurotic idea that a poor childhood is better than a rich one, for a child experiencing acute want will grow to become a man driven to succeed.  It can be true, and it does lend itself the stuff of good drama, but to say that Kane's being taken for his poor boyhood to a more lavished lifestyle would only produce a twisted, morally - bankrupt individual is utter nonsense.

Bill Clinton, while he was still in office, did a interview with the famed film critic, Roger Ebert.  They discussed their mutual love of cinema.  During the interview, President Clinton expressed his concern for the movie Fight Club, which had just been released that year.  He was worried that this movie might be giving a wrong message to the generation of young men highlighted in this film.  He thought the idea that men would brutally fight with each other as a way to find their lost masculinity, due to the supposed realization that there was no great war to fight or economic depression to define them, was wrong.  He mentioned there were many causes true and right to fight for; the struggle against poverty, social inequality, urban renewal.  These are causes for men to do, both physically and mentally, that could readily service as their test of prowess.  I felt the same way about Citizen Kane.  I couldn't help but wonder why with all his wealth, resources, and education he could not find some measure of happiness, or some worthy task to challenge him?  He was socially conscience.  It's clearly shown in the scene where Kane writes his promise to his reading public that he would direct his newspaper to address any civil concerns or dangers.  He pledges himself and his paper to moral justice and to the pursuit of truth.  It's a scene that shows great promise,but very soon after this, Kane is tossing away any chance to act on this.  Then to try to assert this is due to an unhappy childhood bought on by wealth?  It comes off like a cheat to me.

There have been movies about unwanted wealth.  The comedy Arthur, immediately comes to mind.  Here it's clearly shown that despite all the perks brought on for Arthur due to his riches,  he is unhappy.  But instead of following in the same path as Kane and his narcissism, Arthur does reach out.  He's charming and self-effacing.  He's concerned for others.  He has his faults but unlike Kane, we cheer for Arthur when he rises to meet his challenges with his particular quirky sense of humor.

I think that's what I find most depressing about Kane.  It has almost no sense of humor.  Kane is a boor and bore.  He carries on like no one is around.  He thinks he's being funny, when he really is just being cruel.  I can't relate to him or care about him.  If there had been one moment in Kane's life where he really had to deal with life on it's harsh terms, like a death of a child, or real financial strife, maybe I could have muster up some pity or interest, but in the end.  I was really glad he was dead.

( The Theater of my Childhood - The Berkley Theater. )

My martial arts addiction.

Yes, I admit it freely; I'm a martial arts junkie.  I have been since 1980.  Even before then, I was dibbling in the martial arts, but it really wasn't until college that I made Budo/Wushu, a real part of my life.  Rarely does a day past where I don't do some kind of training.  Whether it's something as simple as doing a couple of basic punches and kicks, to complex drilling like Naihanchi kata or the sword techniques of Fiore Dei Liberi.  I'm always trying something.

I've had the opportunity to study quite a few different systems in my past 30 years of training, and I've had a chance to study under some wonderful masters.  It was one of the benefits of having lived in a great martial arts city like Chicago.  Primarily though, my focus centers on five different styles.

Those are:

Karate ( Tang Soo Do, Shotokan, Kenpo, Shorin Ryu. )

Bujuikan Ninpo

Serrada Escrima.

Kung Fu ( Wing Chun, Shuai Chiao, Tai Chi, Northern Shaolin, Hsing - I. )

Historical European Martial Arts.

I don't have  a teacher currently.  Most of my training now is self-training, with occasional sparring matches with some friends of mine out my way here in Southold.  I'd like to teach somewhere and I'm currently looking for a spot to do just that.  The problem I've run into is there's a general lack of interest in martial arts ( especially Traditional ) in both the North and South Forks of Long Island.  So, I've been forced to practice mostly on my own.

It hasn't been all bad, though.  Self - work leads to self - discovery.  Many of the theories and concepts of the various different arts that I've studied have become clearer to me now through my struggle to master the basics of those arts.  I'm not where I would like to be, but at least, I'm trying.

And maybe, that's the point.  It's not the end of the journey, but the journey itself.  It's highs and it's lows.  The constant self - critiquing.  The massive effort to train when it is the absolute last thing you want to do.  The people you meet along the way, who make your life all the more worthwhile for meeting them.  The examples they entail for you.  The lessons that they teach.

I may not be the whole man I would like to be.  I'm still struggling financially.  I'm still struggling with finding steady work and my efforts as a writer and actor have not always come to meet my expectations and this is hard to admit, but I'm still trying.  I'm still sending out my resume, like I'm still practicing my reverse punch.  Moment by moment.  Every day.

Keep training, people.

Fitness for the actor.

Someone once asked me what was the one piece of advice given to me as a beginning actor, that I wish I had taken more to heart.   I didn't have an immediate answer at that moment, but I certainly do now and that would be on making fitness, especially running,  a major feature in your life.

In my last 3 independent movie roles, I've had to run like the dickens at some point during the shooting of them.  I mean, really sprint!  The last time was in a comedy called Fire Island. ( https://www.facebook.com/Fire-Island-541008672698431/timeline/ If you want to see further about this film! )  I had to run off a broad walk down a flight of steps onto a sandy beach then down into the water.  Doesn't sound like much, but try doing that for over 10 takes!  I was sweating bullets by the end of the shot.  I hung in there though, because I didn't want to look foolish in front of the two actors ( both, half my age, mind you, ) that I was doing the shot with. I was seriously winded, though, and pretty wiped out next day as well.

After that, I promised myself, that would never happen again and decided to devote, at least, two days per week to jogging. I've been a bit uneven with that promise.  Sometimes I could do two days.  Other weeks, it's just been one.  Lately, though, I've been more consistent and have stepped it up to 3 days a week for jogging.

For awhile, it was mostly just a distance of about a mile, to about a mile and half most days, but now I've developed my running distance to 3 or 5 miles at a time.

My point about this is that I've come to realize that acting is one of those professions that regularly calls on you to exceed your physical limitations.  At any given moment, you might very well be asked to run up a hill, or slide down a fire escape, or pretend to get hit from behind and have to fall down a flight of stairs.  All of these I've been ask to do at one time or another.

One story that has always stay with me about just this sort of thing, was related in an interview with British actor, Michael York of the Austin Powers movies and Logan's Run fame.  He was telling about the time while he was filming the Four Musketeers movie, he and his fellow actors, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay, Richard Chamberlain and Roy Kinnear had to run up a steep hill during a battle sequence.  It was supposed to take, at most, about 10 minutes to shoot.  Unfortunately, because of problems that always occur on any outdoor movie set, it took much longer.  Constantly, they had to stop and re-start the shoot due to either misfiring of the cannons featured in the sequence, or clouds that would past by and block the sunlight needed for the shot or just technical malfunctions of the cameras.  It finally took over five hours to get this one shot!  York reckoned that he and his fellow Musketeers had sprinted about 10 miles, maybe more, in that time frame.  Sprinted!  At the time, York was still in his 20's and in decent physical condition to be able to handle the stress of all that running, but Oliver Reed was pushing 50 and had a well - known drinking problem.  Also, Roy Kinnear, while being a brilliant comic actor, was always a man who suffered with obesity.  York expressed how they were all drenched in sweat and feared that both Reed and Kinnear might be endanger of having a heart attack, both at the same time!

Thankfully, Kinnear and Reed pulled through to be able to finish that day's sequence, but York learned an important lesson about how demanding the career of an actor can be on one's physical self. He always made a point to stay in the best shape as he possible could, just in case, he might have to do something that strenuous again.

The irony of this, for me, at least; is while I knew this story and was effected by it - it took having to go through the exact same thing that York and Reed and Kinnear did that day - for me to make any real effort to get back into shape.  It stuck me that day on the set of Fire Island, that I was not coming through this rigor of constant running like Michael York did, but instead, I was huffing and puffing like Oliver Reed and Roy Kinnear combined!

Lesson learned.

My thanks to a wonderful cast!

There is nothing more pleasing than giving a great show!  My Murder Mystery play at the Mount Sinai Yacht Club went off great!  Better than I could ever hope.  I can't begin to express the feeling of gratitude that bloomed in my heart when the two men who had organized the event, told me how thankful they were that my show and its cast did such a glorious job that night.  It was better than they had ever expected!

To me, 90% of any good show is usually how good your cast is and I couldn't have gotten a better collection of actors than the group I had on last Saturday.  My thanks, to  Susan Trojanoski Hedges, Stephan Scheck, Richard Gardini, Rebecca Edana and Phil Reichert.  You all rocked out some top-flight comedy.

Another thank you to the staff there at Mount Sinai Yacht Club.  Hard-working group.

It's only been a recent thing for me to start writing and performing my own work.  I am my own worst critic, even to the point of holding back on submitting my efforts to various different theaters. It is a constant struggle with me to believe that I might just have something new and original to offer. There are so many people out there with greater skills and talents than myself.  I often get overwhelmed.

What sees me through these times is when I see the light that goes on in the eyes of the audience and to hear that laughter clear across a crowded floor;.  Thanks again to my cast.  You make the hours at the Notepad all the worthwhile.

The first step.

My latest attempt in joining the 21 century.  I'm starting my own blog!  My main focuses on this site is to inform you, my gentle reader, of my upcoming writing and theater ventures.  One, in particular, that is coming up for me - this weekend, is at the majestic Mount Sinai Yacht Club ( http://www.msyc.org/ ) in Mount Sinai, NY.  I'll be performing with a wonderful cast of local actors ( Susan Trojanoski Hedges, Stephan Scheck, Richard Gardini, Rebecca Edana and Phil Reichert. )  It will be a Murder Mystery play called Murder Most Foul in Mount Sinai.  It's an original piece written by myself, and it will be at 7 pm, Sat. Sept. 19th.  We're expecting a big crowd.  Should be fun for all!  I think tickets are still available, so if interested in joining the merriment - please call ( 631 ) 473-2993 for reservations.

I also have two staged readings coming up.  One will be at the Custer Institute and Observatory.
http://www.custerobservatory.org/  I will be performing another original work called The Trial of Galileo.  It will be on Sat. Oct 10th at 1:30 pm.  It will be telling the life story of the renowned scientist and philosopher,  Galileo Galilei.  I will be telling tale of his beginning as a young boy in Florence, Italy to becoming the leading inventor and thinker of his generation, only to run afoul of the Vatican and to spend the rest of his life under house arrest.  Phil Reichert will be playing Galileo and Lisa Dabrowski will be playing his daughter, Maria and I will be narrating the play for the audience.

The third performance I have scheduled for this year, will be my staged reading play, John and Abigail Adams: A Love Story at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Stony Brook, NY.
http://www.uufsb.org/. Sunday, Nov. 22 at 2 pm.  Again, Phil Reichert, Lisa Dabrowski and myself will be telling the romance and life-journey of two of American's most famous couple,  John Adams and Abigail Adams.  John  spent much of his life in service to his country. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress, an officially appointed diplomat (who served as a commissioner in France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, and minister to the Court of St. James), and President of the United States.  Abigail Adams did not have a formal education, but proved to be an extremely resourceful partner to John Adams.

 While he was away on numerous political assignments, she raised their children, managed their farm, and stayed abreast of current events during one of the country's most turbulent times.

John Adams and Abigail Smith Adams  exchanged over 1,100 letters, beginning during their courtship in 1762 and continuing throughout John's political career (until 1801). These warm and informative letters include John's descriptions of the Continental Congress and his impressions of Europe while he served in various diplomatic roles, as well as Abigail's updates about their family, farm, and news of the Revolution's impact on the Boston area.