We conclude this week of 1950’s Tony Winners for Best Musical.
The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys’ band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to the naive Iowa townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band. But Harold is no musician and plans to skip town without giving any music lessons. Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps her younger brother overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to fall in love. Harold risks being caught to win her.
In 1957, the show became a hit on Broadway, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and running for 1,375 performances. The cast album won the first Grammy Award for “Best Original Cast Album” and spent 245 weeks on the Billboard charts. The show’s success led to revivals and a popular 1962 film adaptation and a 2003 television remake. It is frequently produced by both professional and amateur theater companies.
Redhead is a musical with music composed by Albert Hague and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, who with her brother, Herbert, along with Sidney Sheldon and David Shaw wrote the book/libretto. Set in London in the 1880s, around the time of Jack the Ripper, the musical is a murder mystery in the setting of a wax museum.
Productions and background[edit]
Herbert and Dorothy Fields wrote the musical, then titled The Works for Beatrice Lillie. When Sidney Sheldon joined the writing team, it was rewritten for Gwen Verdon, who just had two smash hits on Broadway (Damn Yankees and New Girl in Town). Verdon took the lead on the condition that Bob Fosse would be the director as well as choreographer, making this his debut as a director.[1]
Redhead opened on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers Theatre) on February 5, 1959, and closed on March 19, 1960, after 452 performances. Bob Fosse directed and choreographed. Production design was by Rouben Ter-Arutunian and lighting design was by Jean Rosenthal. The cast starred Verdon and Richard Kiley. The show won the Tony Award for Best Musical.
https://twitter.com/metaquest/status/596876186552127489/photo/1
https://twitter.com/BlkHistStudies/status/596816775372746752/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TheCauldron/status/596870369597923328
Luvvie’s recap is up
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A Few Good Women: Scandal Episode 421 Recap
Luvvie — May 8, 2015
When we left off on the last episode of Scandal, Liv had a gun to Russell’s head, wanting to find out what Operation Foxtail is. Let’s talk about it!
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2015/05/a-few-good-women-scandal-episode-421-recap.html
https://instagram.com/p/2b7Cu7tNGx/
https://twitter.com/EmilySpartz/status/596702246374547457/photo/1
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/596799509239353345
I just started Grace and Frankie on Netflix.
With Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sam Waterston, Martin Sheen.
They are two married couples, until one day, when the husbands announce, at a nice dinner, in a nice restaurant, that they are in love, have been for 20 years, and are going to be together and get married.
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Sadly, I can’t get into ‘comedic’ story lines such as these. A neighbor, a lovely woman we know, committed suicide after her husband of 19 years came out. Their young college age daughter killed herself 3 years later.
There are more sad stories of pain, betrayal, loss and irreversible trauma, than there are those where everyone ‘adjusts’ and happily move on with their lives.
I understand what you mean.
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/596816195816402944
‘Empire’ Breaking Barriers With Overseas Viewers
by Scott Roxborough 5/6/2015 7:00am PDT
A version of this story first appeared in the May 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
The Cosby Show was the first — and last — television series starring an African-American cast to become a worldwide hit. But the U.S. success of shows like Fox’s Empire, ABC’s Black-ish and How to Get Away With Murder, and, in the pay TV sphere, Starz’ Power and Survivor’s Remorse, is beginning to attract the attention of international broadcasters and is opening up the global market for more diverse primetime programming.
Succeeding on the global market is the last glass ceiling. Despite diverse casts on international ratings juggernauts like CSI: Miami, Grey’s Anatomy and NCIS, no series in the past 30 years with an African-American lead — much less an entirely black cast — has become a worldwide hit.
A Fox executive that first pitched Empire to global networks says if the show had had an all-white cast “it would have sold out immediately.” Starz executive vp worldwide distribution Gene George admits selling Power and Survivor’s Remorse — the latter a half-hour comedy about a basketball star from the ghetto made good — has been a struggle.
It’s been hard to get [international broadcasters] to think outside the box,” he admits.
But then the shows hit the U.S. airwaves and everything changed.
Empire’s phenomenal ratings — viewership increased week-over-week, every week, closing with a season high of nearly 17 million total viewers — convinced buyers to take another look.
“When it started to air — every week it grew and grew — many important clients of ours have contacted us to rethink what they were doing,” Marion Edwards, 20th Century Fox Television Distribution’s president of international TV, told THR in March.
Empire is now sold out in virtually every major territory worldwide. Big terrestrial broadcasters like Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1, Network Ten in Australia and France’s M6 — networks with market positions similar to Fox’s in the U.S. — have acquired the series. In the U.K., where U.S. shows of any kind have a hard time getting on major networks, it went to E4, Channel 4’s smaller digital pay TV outlet. Fox International Channels, which is a smaller pay TV player in most foreign territories, has picked up the show for multiple global markets including Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and South Africa.
Empire has even conquered Asia, a notoriously difficult market for U.S. shows, with deals for such key territories as China, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/empire-breaking-barriers-overseas-viewers-792010
GET DA PHUQ OUTTA HERE
………………………….
Jon Swaine ✔
@jonswaine
The six Freddie Gray cops threaten to sue @MarilynMosbyEsq & @MayorSRB unless they’re paid $75k+ damages. Letters: https://www.documentcloud.org/… …
I want to see them try. The nerve..
Get FUCK all the way out of here
Wow! Now they are threatening people too. GANG!! I can not believe their refusal to admit their actions contributed to the death of another human being. They are telling us the only ones allowed to get away with murder are cops and white people with money and rwnj friends. Justice, obviously isn’t blind,it sees and applies it’s justice on the basis of color.
https://instagram.com/p/2cAHuZNNAL/
Please watch this when you have a minute. (Ametia, SG2, Rikyrah, could you please embed it?)
It’s a fascinating talk and Q&A session at the bookstore Politics & Prose, given by Peter Slevin, author of the new book on FLOTUS. I haven’t read the book yet, but this was a pretty good overview of it by the author. The Q&A at the end is particularly interesting. There’s a brother who wants to know who gave the white guy the permission and the nerve to write about ‘a sistah’. Lol. It’s a pretty funny exchange. And there’s also some interesting questions from the entitled and the condescending – including those who want to know how hard FLOTUS will work to get Hillary elected. There’s also some who don’t like that the author obviously loves and respects FLOTUS more than he does Hil.
More importantly, I came away certain that the author has a seriously massive crush on FLOTUS. He even describes her as glorious.
Thanks, eliihass! Looking forward to watching & listening.
Please do Ametia, it was quite something. Interesting tidbits about FLOTUS’ uncle, aunt. And quite an insight and more than a few things that support why I and others – including this author, admire so much the strong, integrity-filled and marvelous woman we now call FLOTUS. It’s quite something to see and hear as he answers questions, how this author in doing his research for this book, came to a pretty good understanding of racism, the black experience pro- and post-civil rights, and just how phenomenal Mrs Obama really is. The character of the woman.
“Glorious”
sigh..
indeed, she is.
How do you fix this?
The young man was out cold, his jaw was broken, unsurprisingly.
I’m disassembling my office getting ready for a new engineered hardwood floor and paint. This room hasn’t been touched in 20 years, so it’s time, it really needs attention. I’ll be back in a week or ten days when I get my computer set up again. I don’t do mobile devices.
Happy Mother’s Day to everyone. I hope that I don’t explode from not being able to write comments for that long. See you soon.
Liza
Happy mothers day to you too Lisa! Please find a way to stay connected, you can’t be away for that long…
Thanks Liza! It’ll do you good to take a break too. WE WILL MISS YOU!
Happy Mother’s Day, Liza
https://instagram.com/p/2bJtISO2HU/
Thanks eliihass!
Thank you for embedding this…I thought it was funny and a good way to kick off mother’s day weekend!
LOL This is certainly NOT how it was with me, hubby or my 2 daughters!
You lucky girl!
How for-profit prisons have become the biggest lobby no one is talking about
Sen. Marco Rubio is one of the biggest beneficiaries.
By Michael Cohen
Several industries have become notorious for the millions they spend on influencing legislation and getting friendly candidates into office: Big Oil, Big Pharma and the gun lobby among them. But one has managed to quickly build influence with comparatively little scrutiny: Private prisons. The two largest for-profit prison companies in the United States – GEO andCorrections Corporation of America – and their associates have funneled more than $10 million to candidates since 1989 and have spent nearly $25 million on lobbying efforts. Meanwhile, these private companies have seen their revenue and market share soar. They now rake in a combined $3.3 billion in annual revenue and the private federal prison population more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, according to a report by the Justice Policy Institute. Private companies house nearly half of the nation’s immigrant detainees, compared to about 25 percent a decade ago, a Huffington Post report found. In total, there are now about 130 private prisons in the country with about 157,000 beds.
Marco Rubio is one of the best examples of the private prison industry’s growing political influence, a connection that deserves far more attention now that he’s officially launched a presidential bid. The U.S. senator has a history of close ties to the nation’s second-largest for-profit prison company, GEO Group, stretching back to his days as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. While Rubio was leading the House, GEO was awarded a state government contract for a $110 million prison soon after Rubio hired an economic consultant who had been a trustee for a GEO real estate trust. Over his career, Rubio has received nearly $40,000 in campaign donations from GEO, making him the Senate’s top career recipient of contributions from the company. (Rubio’s office did not respond to requests for comment.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/how-for-profit-prisons-have-become-the-biggest-lobby-no-one-is-talking-about/?postshare=4161431090171944
Barbara Bush is a huge investor too..
New thread up on AG Lynch’s presser!
If these cops on the front lines are the face of law enforcement, I sure hate to see their asses. JUST SAYIN.
Really???? Really???? I’m done!
People talk about “the tragic death of Freddie Gray” or “the tragic death of Walter Scott” etc… like they stepped in front of a moving train or fell into some quicksand.
https://twitter.com/ZandarVTS/status/596689086594813952
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO8AS5WUwD4
Xenophobia and fear of homegrown terrorism played a huge role. Anti-immigrant sentiments, especially with the rise of ISIS and the children of immigrant and muslim/middle eastern families joining ISIS, didn’t help.
Let’s hope David Cameron doesn’t go all out Tory now – he’s been a tad moderate, but wonder if pressure from his more rabid fellow Tories will move him further right.
Ten year old Maddox at 3:10: “I’m not going to hurt anybody or do anything bad.”
How do you change a cultural norm? THAT is what we have to work on. Why is a ten year old boy burdened with this? Why is an entire race of human beings living the USA right now burdened with this?
Yes; these young man can change everything, but being BLACK to try and appease white fears.
Where is AG Lynch’s conference being aired? I’m not seeing anything on the link.
If we’re going to investigate the police departments one at a time, then the DOJ will need to grow to the size of the Department of Defense.
I do understand why AG Lynch has to be optimistic and so forth. Everyone has to be that way in today’s world or the right wing corporate media will rip them to shreds.
I’m just frustrated.
I hear you, Liza. Please comment on the new thread just published too! Thank you.
I will agree that these DOJ investigations are a good thing. Certainly the DOJ’s Ferguson investigation documented the dire situation and laid the groundwork for reform. On this I agree.
But someone please tell me when we are going to start talking about how these police departments are going to get rid of the bad, sadistic, and/or racist cops who are killing and maiming black people, mostly black men. That’s really what I want to know right now.
Without ANY investigation, I would like to think we could all agree that these cops are violating the civil rights of black citizens. A young man is riding his bicycle, makes eye contact with a cop, and ends up with a broken neck, a severed spine, a crushed voice box, a week in the hospital, and then he’s dead. If ANY INTERPRETATION OF OUR CONSTITUTION allows this, then Congress better get to work right now on some constitutional amendments.
Everyone wants to dance around the truth, that people are being murdered by cops. Just tell me that these cops who have already killed and maimed will be prosecuted. And then tell me how we’re going to get rid of bad cops. Tell me how the CRISIS will be addressed and then talk about how the entire police department will be investigated.
ALL.OF.THIS.
Attorney General #LorettaLynch press conference happening now.
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/show/cbs-baltimore-live-video/
https://twitter.com/DemocratGuide/status/596529636848205824/photo/1
https://twitter.com/jasondhorowitz/status/596508473027915776
The results had absolutely nothing to do with either of them.
https://twitter.com/KateAurthur/status/596500511567646720
https://instagram.com/p/2Z5FWCDJTO/
Whooooo whoooo Lordy!
Congress, Obama do a delicate dance on Iran
05/08/15 08:00 AM—UPDATED 05/08/15 08:30 AM
By Steve Benen
After months of drama, heated debate, and unprecedented attempts at sabotage, yesterday’s Senate vote dealing with nuclear diplomacy with Iran lacked any real drama. There’s a delicate dance underway, and at least for now, the relevant players haven’t lost their footing.
NBC News’ Frank Thorp reported yesterday on the lopsided vote in the Senate.
The Senate voted to give lawmakers a chance to weigh in on any nuclear deal the White House seeks to hammer out with Iran – a measure that requires President Barack Obama submit any agreement struck between that nation and world powers to Congress.
The vote was 98-1 on a bill that would give Congress at least a month to review the details of an agreement. During the review, the president would be prevented from lifting congressionally imposed sanctions on Iran.
The final roll call on the 98-1 vote is online here. Note, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who tried to derail the bipartisan bill with poison-pill amendments, was the lone vote in opposition. A couple of months ago, the right-wing Arkansan led a group of 47 Senate Republicans, urging Iranian officials not to trust the United States. Yesterday, Cotton was reduced to a caucus of one.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/congress-obama-do-delicate-dance-iran
https://twitter.com/lisabKOIN/status/596484665021636608/photo/1
5 Foods That Taste Better in May Than They Will All Year
Alexandra Sifferlin @acsifferlin May 1, 2015
Never know what’s growing now? Let’s take it one season at a time, with the Foods That Taste Better Now Than They Will All Year.
Often we think Spring is the season of abundance, but that’s really not true. While there’s certainly some produce that tastes its best during in spring, summer produces the more abundant yields. While the month of May is still early for some fruits and veggies, it certainly kicks off the season.
“In the produce business, we all kind of wish every month was like May. It’s a time of intense change, and it marks the official start of the summer tree fruit season,” says James Parker, the associate coordinator for Whole Foods Market’s global perishables buying office. “We also see a tremendous increase in local and regional production throughout the U.S. Because it’s domestic season, the product doesn’t have to travel as far.” That means that not only will produce in the grocery store be better quality, but it will likely be a good price too.
Parker says that in May, produce quality is still “contingent on the whims of Mother Nature.” But we will start seeing lots of fruits and vegetables that were in poor supply in the Spring and Winter months. Here are five foods to add to your shopping list this month.
http://time.com/3842659/foods-in-season-farmers-market/
Bounce TV Unveils 2015-16 Programming Slate – Includes Its First-Ever Scripted Drama Series, ‘Saints & Sinners’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
May 7, 2015 at 4:21PM
Bounce TV today announced its original programming plans for the 2015-16 upfront season, which includes:
– Renewal its new hit comedy series “Mann & Wife” for a second season. Season one of Mann & Wife is airing now and has become the most watched original series in Bounce TV history to date.
– The network’s first-ever drama series, called “Saints & Sinners” (working title), whichScandal,” and will be set against the backdrop of a large southern church.
– A third season of the popular sitcom “Family Time.”
– Renewal of its stand-up comedy series “Off The Chain” for season four.
– And the addition of live boxing events via the new Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) series starting in July with “PBC The Next Round.”
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/bounce-tv-unveils-2015-16-programming-slate-includes-its-first-ever-scripted-drama-series-saints-sinners-20150507
More Black people on tv alert:
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FOX Gives Series Order to Morris Chestnut Investigative Medical Drama ‘Rosewood’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
May 7, 2015 at 10:15PM
In the meantime, here’s one that got a lot of you talking when the pilot was announced in February…
FOX has given a series order to the medical drama “Rosewood” which stars Morris Chestnut.
In it, Chestnut the title character, Rosewood – as in Dr. Beaumont Rosewood – a gifted, charismatic pathologist, and the best at what he does in all of Miami (FL), who owns one of the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art independent labs in the country, and finds the secrets in corpses that others usually miss. Despite being constantly surrounded by death, Rosewood is obsessed with life and savors every moment. His eternal optimism frustrates the cynical female detective he often works with (played by Jaina Lee Ortiz), but she can’t argue with the results that his unique perspective provides.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/fox-orders-morris-chestnut-investigative-medical-drama-pilot-to-series-20150507
Black people on tv alert:
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ABC Gives Series Order to Aunjanue Ellis FBI Drama-Thriller, ‘Quantico’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
May 7, 2015 at 10:39PM
Fresh off a critically-acclaimed starring performance in BET’s “The Book of Negroes” miniseries (now a Critics Choice nominee), Aunjanue Ellis stars in ABC’s drama-thriller “Quantico,” which hails from Josh Safran.
“Quantico” centers on a group of young FBI recruits, who battle their way through training at the Quantico base in Virginia. As the show intercuts between their hidden pasts and their present training, it also flashes forward to the near future, where one of the recruits will turn out to be a sleeper terrorist responsible for the most devastating terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
Ellis plays the female lead in the series – a character named Miranda, who is described as “an extremely professional and tough woman who is the director of Quantico and oversees the training of a new group of recruits. Honest to the point of being harsh at times, Miranda never allows her emotions to cloud her judgement, and is able to make difficult decisions – despite dealing with pressures at home. The character has fought hard to become the highest-ranking woman in the FBI, but there’s only so far she’s been able to go and that fuels her to push even further.”
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/abc-gives-series-order-to-aunjanue-ellis-fbi-drama-thriller-quantico-20150507
Big money politics runs amok with FEC in gridlock
Ellen Weintraub, commissioner with the Federal Election Commission, talks with Rachel Maddow about the partisan gridlock within the F.E.C. that prevents it from adequately policing political fundraising and spending, and why the situation isn’t hopeless.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/big-money-politics-rampant-amid-fec-gridlock-441831491975
uh huh
uh huh
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Investigation after white deputy shoots black homeowner
Associated Press
By BRUCE SMITH, Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Authorities are investigating the still-hazy circumstances surrounding the shooting of a black homeowner by a white sheriff’s deputy, and planned to meet with community leaders Friday to discuss what happened.
Two Charleston County Sheriff’s deputies encountered the homeowner at the rear of his mobile home in Hollywood, South Carolina, on Thursday as they were responding to a 911 call about a home invasion, Charleston County Sheriff’s Maj. Eric Watson said.
The man was either leaving or standing at the back door of the house and was armed. One of the two deputies shot him after he refused to drop his gun, Watson said.
In the ambulance, the man told police he had exchanged gunfire with two suspects who fled the home on bicycles. By Thursday afternoon, police had arrested one of them, identified as Thomas Zachary Brown, 22. Brown was charged with first-degree burglary and attempted murder in connection with the home invasion. Watson said as far as he knew, Brown had not been injured.
Online court records did not indicate whether Brown had an attorney, and an operator at the sheriff’s office said that information was not available.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/investigation-after-white-deputy-shoots-black-homeowner/ar-BBjpzEz?ocid=HPCDHP
Pacific Beach Club: Remnants of a dream
March 5, 2006
|
Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.
By THERESA WALKER / The Orange County Register
Noises in the clubhouse stirred night watchman A.H. Sneed around 6 a.m.
He had just ended his shift at the Pacific Beach Club and settled down with his wife in their sleeping quarters inside the adjoining bathhouse.
Sneed hurried out into the chill of the early dawn. The clubhouse was on fire.
Two men ran off toward parked cars. One sped down Coast Highway toward Newport Beach. The other headed in the opposite direction toward Huntington Beach.
The fire was small enough for a garden hose to extinguish. But with no running water on the beachfront property, Sneed could not put out the blaze. Within minutes, the clubhouse, bathhouse and dance pavilion were in flames.
The Pacific Beach Club, as described in a newspaper photo dated Jan. 21, 1926, burned down to smoking pilings and twisted steel three weeks before its grand opening.
The smoldering ashes were the remainder of a dream to build a resort where black people, restricted to two small areas of Los Angeles and Orange county coastline, could enjoy the sand and surf.
A mysterious loss
The brief life of the Pacific Beach Club 80 years ago is familiar to a few historians who have culled bits and pieces from old newspapers and county records.
That obscurity may change. Researchers at the Orange County Archives, part of the clerk-recorder’s office, are gathering more information. And a former Cal State Fullerton history professor will give a public talk this month on his research.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/-208017–.html
https://twitter.com/ks44/status/596481866967822336/photo/1
Damn that OBAMA!
U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in April; unemployment rate fell to 5.4
Economists had projected that the United States would add 230,000 jobs in April.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone!
Great week of classic musical theatre.
Good morning, Chicas and everyone!
Hi Ladies Check email please. Thanks!