September 30, 2021 – davidbruceblog #2

Autumn Moons — Annette Rochelle Aben

Harvest bushels of food
Hunt for that which you’ll keep
Frost lulls the earth to sleep
Lunar power
©2021 Annette Rochelle Aben
Autumn Moons — Annette Rochelle Aben

My Poem ‘Wayland’ now in Ink Drinkers Magazine — The Cheesesellers Wife

I’m very happy to announce that my poem, Wayland, is now published in the fourth issue of Ink Drinkers Magazine. The magazine was born in June 2020, when the editor found out that the term ‘ink drinker’ is the French version of ‘bookworm’ and thought ‘hey that could be a good name for a litmag’. […]
My Poem ‘Wayland’ now in Ink Drinkers Magazine — The Cheesesellers Wife

David Bruce: The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Money, Nudity, Politics, Practical Jokes

Money

• A man once tried to borrow £5 from Irish playwright Brendan Behan, but Mr. Behan declined to give him the money. The man angrily said that he remembered a time when Mr. Behan had not had even a farthing to his name. Mr. Behan replied, “That may be, but you don’t remember it half as well as me.”

• Brendan Behan, a notorious Irish playwright and alcoholic, once asked the Bishop of Knaresborough, “What’s your f**king business, Mac?” The Bishop replied, “Not as profitable as yours, I’m afraid.” Mr. Behan appreciated the reply, and he shook the Bishop’s hand.

Nudity

• A production of Bohème in Hamburg involved nudity. A young woman playing Euphémie, Schaunard’s girlfriend, appeared completely nude to model for a picture and donned clothing only when Rodolfo worried that she might catch cold. At a dress rehearsal, things went fine until the nude actress appeared and the members of the orchestra tried to play their instruments in strange positions so they could turn around and look at the nude actress. Of course, this caused havoc with the music. The conductor, Nello Santi, solved this problem by asking the nude actress if she would walk to the end of the stage for a few moments so the members of the orchestra could look at her. She didn’t mind, the members of the orchestra got a good look, and then the rest of the rehearsal proceeded smoothly.

• In 2001, actor Anthony Flanagan revealed his naughty bits in a scene in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s A Russian in the Woods. He says, “It happened right at the end of the play. My character was centre stage, and he was made to drop his trousers so the soldiers could see if he was circumcised. So I spent what felt like three hours — although it was probably about two or three minutes — with my trousers down.” The other actors were professionals about it — during rehearsals. However, when the play was acted in front of a real audience, they sometimes made the scene drag on much longer than it should have — especially when the audience included Mr. Flanagan’s mother.

Politics

• While serving in Parliament at a time when a man named John Robinson was Secretary of the Treasury, playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan once said that a certain man was corrupting politicians so he could buy their votes. When asked to name the man, Mr. Sheridan replied, “Sir, I shall not name the person. It is an unpleasant and invidious thing to do. But don’t suppose that I abstain because there is any difficulty in naming him. I could do that, sir, as easily as you could say ‘Jack Robinson.’”

• The famous English actor David Garrick was asked to run for election to Parliament, but he replied, “I prefer to play the part of a great man on the stage than the part of a fool in Parliament.”

Practical Jokes

• When he was a young man acting in England, Jerome K. Jerome played a practical joke on his friends when they came to see him in a play in which his role was very brief and unremarkable. First, he informed his friends that since he was now a master of makeup and of changing his voice, they would find it difficult to tell who he was on stage. He also told his friends that he had taken a stage name — but the name he gave them was that of an old actor in his troupe who specialized in playing old men. He then hinted to his friends that in the play his character would be concerned about long-lost children. Finally, he bought a cane similar to that used by the old-man character in the play, and he made sure that his friends saw it. The joke worked. Mr. Jerome’s friends thought that the old actor was he, and they applauded the old actor’s every move.

***

The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy

The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy The Paperback

The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Kindle

The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Apple

The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Barnes and Noble

The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Kobo

The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PDF

Music Recommendation: The Bo Derek’s — “In My Teens”

BRUCE’S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC

Music: “In My Teens”

Album: BIGGER FUCKIN’ FAMILY PARTY (2LP)

Artist: The Bo Derek’s

Artist Location: GA, Spain and Vigo, Spain

Record Company: Family Spree Recordings

Record Company Location: Spain

Band Motto: Old School R’n’R

Info:

“The Bo Derek’s, sex symbols of rock’n’roll from as rías baixas, are the result of joining Oscar Avendaño (Total Sinister, The Professionals) with the Martín Brothers -Jorge Lorre and Rufus el Guarro- (Los Wavy Gravies, The Allnight Workers), bass and drums respectively, to give way to its most pub-rock side: rock’n’roll in Spanish to have fun, drink and dance.” — Google Translate (But Not Well)

In this 20-track album, 20 bands cover each other’s songs. For example, The Bo Derek’s cover Heatwaves’ “In My Teens,” and Heatwave covers Lestrade’s “Propos coquins [Naughty Words].”

Bigger Fuckin ‘Family Party – 20 Family Spree bands cover another 20 Family Spree bands

“Well yes, friends! This double LP is exactly that: 20 bands from the label that have had the luxury of doing a cover of other friendly bands also in the Family Spree catalog.

“And why crazy like this? We can say that the experience of confinement, with all its shadows, also had the occasional light and among these, surely the most notable, was the spirit of overcoming the boredom that was imposed among the members of the bands of the label through wasap, where various follies were raised among which the confinement themes crystallized (the ‘We’re the worst’ or better known as ‘There is no rock’n’roll I stay at home’ and the ‘For the rock’n gambling dens ‘roll’), with their respective horny videos and which were finally pressed into a single on vinyl.” — Google Translate (But Not Well)