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News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks

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February 28, 2024

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Jeff Smith

Jeff Smith is a Reader contributor. See staff page for published articles.

Joe vs The Volcano, The Musical, at Lamb's Players

Or the curse of CFS.
— June 26, 2012 10:17 a.m.

Ripples from Walden Pond

That's correct. There's even a play, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee called *The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail* - and they jazz him up to mythical proportions. Also, Walden Pond wasn't five clicks beyond nowhere. It was just one mile from Ralph Waldo and wife Lydian Emerson's house. Many say that Henry David took full advantage of Lydian's excellent cooking - especially on chill winter's eves. There's "Thoreau" and Thurr-ow - the legend and the person. Best to read *Walden*, "Civil Disobedience," and the others and thorow the legend back into the pond.
— May 4, 2012 10:50 a.m.

Lucille's Ashes

So they took the law into their own hands and hung him. And because they were prominent members of the govt. this somehow made it RIGHT? I think I've figured something out. The discussion began by comparing apples with crayons. It sounds like you didn't see Cygnet's production and base your points on the Broadway version - which was slanted hard in favor of Frank's innocence. The Cygnet version un-slanted things, even added doubts about Frank. I praised the show because it did away with simplistic melodrama - shining good here, smarmy evil over there - on which so much theater is based. I wish you could have seen Cygnet's, instead of assuming that it followed the Broadway version in every regard. The case you make makes me want to learn much more about the "affair." On a personal note: I've been researching and writing about San Diego's vigilantes (1912, same era) for the last six months. I've studied Cygnet's multiple-perspective approach to find ways of understanding the impulse.
— May 3, 2012 10:43 a.m.

Lucille's Ashes

I'm buying a lot of what you say. The generality's way too sweeping (and the Cygnet production cuts against it by making Frank more complex than the script suggests, possibly even culpable). So why can't you say Frank was just a factory boss and not a "Jewish factory boss" and why not just a white man trying to frame a black man (instead of a "White Jew" - in capital letters)? Why add these inflamatory words if you're arguing against that attitude? And what about the lynching? Wasn't there even smidge of anti-semitism in it, or was that just good clean vigilante fun?
— April 29, 2012 11:06 a.m.

Lucille's Ashes

Whatreallyhappened. I'm no expert on the case and will follow your suggestions - read Oney and check out the website. The point I made elsewhere was about the acting at Cygnet. Too often productions try to sweep uncomfortable subject matter under the rug. They cartoon it, or the actors will indicate to the audience that they aren't the villain they're portraying. They won't "go there." At Cygnet each actor honored his/her character's point of view, even defended it. The musical slants the case for Frank, but Cygnet's actors don't. This is rare and noteworthy.
— April 28, 2012 10:44 a.m.

Big Heart and Kitchen

The Big Kitchen would make for one hell of a TV comedy series. Set it back in the early 80s and people it with the women who worked and hung out there and went on to become some of America's funniest and most talented. Not just Whoopi, but also Kathy Najimy, Maureen "Mo" Gaffney, Sherri Glazer, Robyn Samuels, and more, more, more. They were young, they were exploring the women's issues that would define their generation (and remain pertinent today), and they were FUNNY. Then add their ever-present Guardian Angel, Judy the Total Beauty on Duty - and vwa-lah!
— April 26, 2012 10:47 a.m.

Ripples from Walden Pond

Thanks Twister. But the best thing I did as a teacher was hand out a carefully chosen reading list. The books did the teaching.
— April 18, 2012 11:04 a.m.

Stage Directions

Twister the issue's many-sided, and all make key points. The play has always been there. The change, in the last 30 or so years (and even before) has been the role of the director - and how much input the director should have. There are directors I run to see regardless of what they're doing: Robert Woodruff, Anne Bogart, Scott Feldsher. They put their stamp on a story *and* tell it at the same time. What Sam did with *Working* was brilliant. He took a musical that had failed, rethought it, cast it with an all-star team of local actors, and made it shine. I can still hear Biff Wiff singing "Brother Trucker" and Julie Anne Simeone's waitress asking her customers "aren't you good enough to be waited on by me?" Sam turned a salvage job into art. Yet at no point were you aware of Sam's directorial presence, of his stamp. Everything he did - and the cast, choreography, etc. - served the story. That was in 1982, I think. That same year my brother, Michael, wrote a play called *Over Night*. It was about people who work in other people's dreams. And about a yet to be born child hoping to choose his parents. Michael showed it to one of the theaters in Minneapolis, where he lived. They loved it. Did a staged reading that blew people away. At that reading Michael saw what actors can do with a script. He was astonished at how they fleshed out his words and created moments and business he'd only half thought out. He felt the thrill of collaboration. And when the theater said it would mount a full production, he was ecstatic. The director said the play needed just a few changes. By the time the show opened, Michael didn't recognize his work at all. The director took over - and took so much credit that the theater still owns the rights to the play. The production failed. The critic for the *Minneapolis Star* (the late Mike Steele, one of the best who ever did the job) said the play had great ideas was swamped by a director strutting his stuff.
— April 9, 2012 10:57 a.m.

A Great Escape, Part Four

Thank you Prosperina. Izac knew horror. As a congressman he was part of the original delegation sent to the concentration camps after the war.
— April 2, 2012 10:31 a.m.

A Great Escape, Part Four

Thanks Fred Thirteen tried to escape. Three made it (the other was Lt. Puryear). The others, Izac says, were "probably recaptured." If so, they got solitary confinement for two or three weeks. If they made it back alive. In their accounts, Izac and Willis don't mention the Russians who created the diversion - except to thank them. Just a guess: they were relocated the following day, so maybe nothing? Or... The movie *The Great Escape* is based on Izac's story. Three escape, and the Germans round up 50 prisoners and shoot them.
— March 30, 2012 10:09 a.m.

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Food & Drink Beverage News Booze News Drinks All Around Feast! San Diego Beer Tin Fork

Movies Big Screen Movie Archives Movie Reviews Movies@Home

Happenings Fishing Report Outdoors Reader Travel Roam-O-Rama Surf Diego Theater Your Week

Music Blurt Classical Music The Gonzo Report Live Five Musician Interviews Of Note Upcoming Shows

Comics Famous Former Neighbors Obermeyer Overheard in San Diego

Archives Reader by issue date Today’s stories All of the latest stories

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

See all neighborhoods

February 28, 2024

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