He who lives without folly isn't as wise as he thinks.
Francois Rochfoucauld
*********************
Hello Frosty
*********************
The old conductor had retired and was moving back to his home in Europe. As he packed up to go he was going through his belongings, deciding what to take and what to leave behind. A young member of his staff was helping him.
The maestro was carefully turning the pages of an orchestra score when he asked his assistant what it was. The young man replied that it was the first symphony by some not too well known composer. Then he told the old man that he had conducted the world premier of the work many years ago.
"I did?"
"Yes sir."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes Maestro."
The conductor stared at the score, shook his head and said "I was a fool."
Who hasn't done things that left a record for all to see of our extreme silliness and incapacity to live a reasonable life. It is after all the exercise of putting the foot in the mouth and the egg on the face that teaches us fundamental things that perhaps we should have known but didn't at the time.
Like the maestro, I could give you a short list of plays I wish I hadn't done and performances I wish I hadn't given. But just to preserve my peace of mind, I won't. I will tell you this however. The quickest way to learn how someone's name is pronounced is to mispronounce it while announcing on the radio. Before you finish speaking the phone is ringing.
If we aren't careful our folly will be echoed years later by regrets. We can really mess up our lives with regrets. Regrets are like a sore toe that you keep stubbing, or wearing too tight clothes. or a leaky faucet that won't get fixed, or having doggy poop on your shoe.
Doing foolish things are payments we make for growing up and growing wise. The man or woman who leeds a squeaky clean life, with nary a folly to their names, who congratulate themselves for their prudence and circumspection are living on credit and sooner or later the piper will get the best dance out of them he can. The best thing is learn the lesson, remember it and then forget how you learned it. And pass the wisdom along. You just might save another egg.
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
***********************
Showing posts with label radio anouncing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label radio anouncing. Show all posts
Monday, June 4, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Carpe Diem
Catch, then, O catch the transient hour, improve the moment as it flies.
Saint Jerome
****************
Hello Ally
****************
I was born in 1939. That was known as the Post Depression Era. There were wealthy people of course. There are always wealthy people, most of whom know nothing at all about wealth. But for the average guy, facing the horrible memories and echoes of the depression, the most important thing was to have a job. It really didn't matter, in many cases, what the job was as long as it provided a living wage. I grew up with that ethic drummed into me. I shouldn't think about having a career. Get a job.
In my recent move I've uncovered many things that have been packed away for want of space. Now that I have some room I'm unpacking boxes and discovering what is inside them. One of the things I found is my original Social Security card. I never had it replaced because I haven't had to show it to anyone for many years. You might say it's a collectors item.
It reminded me of my first job, a stand up job running a machine that wrapped up to mail issues of the Port Chester Daily Item of Port Chester, New York. For an entire summer I stood at a table with a stack of brown wrappers in front of me each with a number on it. The numbers repersented the number of papers I had to wrap. I would slide them across the wrappers into a small forked arm of metal and step on a switch. The machine did the rest. I put the wrapped papers in a pile and later someone came by to collect them. I took a bus back and forth to work and at lunch break I had a burger at Scotty's Diner. Four years later I had my first professional acting job.
The theatre became my career, my profession and my job. But I got side tracked into a radio announcing job that was very good. Although a cornucopia of difficulties and tensions, radio can be a lucrative and satisfying endeavor, I made money, I was satisfied, I was self-satisfied, life was good, the future was rosy, I thought. I didn't have to worry about anything. I had a job.
I was the afternoon announcer. In the evenings, after dinner and a few drinks I would put myself to sleep watching aimless, inane television. I did that for seven years. SEVEN YEARS.
Today that is one of the greatest regrets of my life. What did I do with all that time I had given myself? Nothing. At about the same time as that was beginning to worry me I was growing dissatisfied with just broadcasting. Although for some announcers going on the air everyday was a thrill, for me the thrill was gone. Then I heard the Paul Simon song "One man's ceiling is another man's floor." It hit me that what I was doing was bumping my head on the ceiling. I had to move on. (What? And give up your job?)
I did, and went back into the theatre which kept me active and busy, challenged and involved with life up to it's full cup and running over. No regrets, except that I didn't do it sooner.
Now I write every day and paint often. I am busy, productive and reasonably happy, in spite of personal problems. I don't want to waste another moment of life, and I pass along the same advice to everyone.
There is a useless, pointless life to be lived drinking yourself silly every night or getting high on drugs and playing stupid games on a screen or in a bed. Life is the most important thing you have. Why waste it?
The present is what we have and what we always have, in fact it's all we have. It should be grasped, seized and improved on in every way possible. It doesn't matter what you do with the present moment as long as you don't waste it.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
************************
Saint Jerome
****************
Hello Ally
****************
I was born in 1939. That was known as the Post Depression Era. There were wealthy people of course. There are always wealthy people, most of whom know nothing at all about wealth. But for the average guy, facing the horrible memories and echoes of the depression, the most important thing was to have a job. It really didn't matter, in many cases, what the job was as long as it provided a living wage. I grew up with that ethic drummed into me. I shouldn't think about having a career. Get a job.
In my recent move I've uncovered many things that have been packed away for want of space. Now that I have some room I'm unpacking boxes and discovering what is inside them. One of the things I found is my original Social Security card. I never had it replaced because I haven't had to show it to anyone for many years. You might say it's a collectors item.
It reminded me of my first job, a stand up job running a machine that wrapped up to mail issues of the Port Chester Daily Item of Port Chester, New York. For an entire summer I stood at a table with a stack of brown wrappers in front of me each with a number on it. The numbers repersented the number of papers I had to wrap. I would slide them across the wrappers into a small forked arm of metal and step on a switch. The machine did the rest. I put the wrapped papers in a pile and later someone came by to collect them. I took a bus back and forth to work and at lunch break I had a burger at Scotty's Diner. Four years later I had my first professional acting job.
The theatre became my career, my profession and my job. But I got side tracked into a radio announcing job that was very good. Although a cornucopia of difficulties and tensions, radio can be a lucrative and satisfying endeavor, I made money, I was satisfied, I was self-satisfied, life was good, the future was rosy, I thought. I didn't have to worry about anything. I had a job.
I was the afternoon announcer. In the evenings, after dinner and a few drinks I would put myself to sleep watching aimless, inane television. I did that for seven years. SEVEN YEARS.
Today that is one of the greatest regrets of my life. What did I do with all that time I had given myself? Nothing. At about the same time as that was beginning to worry me I was growing dissatisfied with just broadcasting. Although for some announcers going on the air everyday was a thrill, for me the thrill was gone. Then I heard the Paul Simon song "One man's ceiling is another man's floor." It hit me that what I was doing was bumping my head on the ceiling. I had to move on. (What? And give up your job?)
I did, and went back into the theatre which kept me active and busy, challenged and involved with life up to it's full cup and running over. No regrets, except that I didn't do it sooner.
Now I write every day and paint often. I am busy, productive and reasonably happy, in spite of personal problems. I don't want to waste another moment of life, and I pass along the same advice to everyone.
There is a useless, pointless life to be lived drinking yourself silly every night or getting high on drugs and playing stupid games on a screen or in a bed. Life is the most important thing you have. Why waste it?
The present is what we have and what we always have, in fact it's all we have. It should be grasped, seized and improved on in every way possible. It doesn't matter what you do with the present moment as long as you don't waste it.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
************************
Monday, July 12, 2010
Tricks And Treats
Most people rust out due to lack of challenge. Few people rust out due to overuse.
Unknown
*****************
Don't look now but there's a rabbit in your hat.
The people who have been the best influence and inspiration to me in my life have been those who have kept going in spite of seemingly impossible problems.
I confess that in my early years I often sought the easy road, the soft job. For me sitting in a radio studio was easier than acting. Certainly broadcasting had its challenges and I admire the men and women I worked with in that industry who performed in it very well. Some of them were excellent. There were times when the pressure was fierce, when I didn't have enough music to fill out the time, or when I had to interview an impossible guest, or when I had to announce an outdoor concert in the pouring rain when no one was there but the orchestra.
Theatre on the other hand is filled with wall-to-wall problems. If a good systems engineer sat down to figure out how to run a theatre he would conclude that it couldn't be done. My theatre friends who are reading this are smiling.
So I left the relative comfort of the radio studio and went back to theatre because I knew the challenges and that they would be met somehow. In show business there are no rules and there is no such thing as giving up on a theatrical effect if it is needed for the production.
I love to watch a good magician. I don't try to figure out how he does it, I just enjoy seeing him do things that look impossible. A magician I know once pulled one of my own cigarettes out of my ear. That was amazing enough but even more scary was where he got it from since it was one of my own cigarettes and he didn't smoke. He must have filched it from my pocket without my knowing. I saw a magician crunch down and lock himself into a small box after which his assistant stuck a sword through all the sides and the top of the box. When she opened the box he was gone but it was filled with hens who came strutting out and around. That was great theatre because it was not only a great trick but it was also funny to see all those hens.
Sometimes magic happens in the theatre and people don't realize it. A character walks off stage and 30 seconds later comes back on in a different costume. The color of the walls change from scene to scene even though no scenery is moved. I did a play called "Greetings" in which the Christmas tree lights come on even though they aren't plugged in. Murders are committed and no one dies. The actor playing King Lear reaches the point of raging madness and completely recovers his sanity in time for the curtain call.
Amazing things happen, mountains get climbed, seas get crossed, planets get walked on, discoveries get made, problems get solved because people don't give up on them. To take up the great problem of life and work toward it's solution without giving up or giving in is what keeps the chrome shining.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
Sunday Puzzle Answer
1 correct answer and it comes from Val of the Blogspot Tigers.
One of these things is not like the other.
Which one and why?
1. baseball, soccer ball, football, tennis ball.
OK, that was the easy one, Now they get tricky.
2. grizzly koala black polar
the koala is not a bear
3. flute violin banjo harp
the flute has no strings
4. Washington Adams Franklin Jefferson
Franklin was never Presidnet
5. palm tomato peach zucchini
palm, all the rest are fruits
6. 2 4 6 8
6, the only one divisible by 3
7. New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York
New Mexico not one of the 13 colonies
8. tennis badminton ping pong volley ball
vollye ball requires no racket
9. Champlain Erie Michigan Superior
Champlain not one of the Great Lakes
To Val goes the grand prize of stainless steel eraser.
------------------------------------------
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
5 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
Unknown
*****************
Don't look now but there's a rabbit in your hat.
The people who have been the best influence and inspiration to me in my life have been those who have kept going in spite of seemingly impossible problems.
I confess that in my early years I often sought the easy road, the soft job. For me sitting in a radio studio was easier than acting. Certainly broadcasting had its challenges and I admire the men and women I worked with in that industry who performed in it very well. Some of them were excellent. There were times when the pressure was fierce, when I didn't have enough music to fill out the time, or when I had to interview an impossible guest, or when I had to announce an outdoor concert in the pouring rain when no one was there but the orchestra.
Theatre on the other hand is filled with wall-to-wall problems. If a good systems engineer sat down to figure out how to run a theatre he would conclude that it couldn't be done. My theatre friends who are reading this are smiling.
So I left the relative comfort of the radio studio and went back to theatre because I knew the challenges and that they would be met somehow. In show business there are no rules and there is no such thing as giving up on a theatrical effect if it is needed for the production.
I love to watch a good magician. I don't try to figure out how he does it, I just enjoy seeing him do things that look impossible. A magician I know once pulled one of my own cigarettes out of my ear. That was amazing enough but even more scary was where he got it from since it was one of my own cigarettes and he didn't smoke. He must have filched it from my pocket without my knowing. I saw a magician crunch down and lock himself into a small box after which his assistant stuck a sword through all the sides and the top of the box. When she opened the box he was gone but it was filled with hens who came strutting out and around. That was great theatre because it was not only a great trick but it was also funny to see all those hens.
Sometimes magic happens in the theatre and people don't realize it. A character walks off stage and 30 seconds later comes back on in a different costume. The color of the walls change from scene to scene even though no scenery is moved. I did a play called "Greetings" in which the Christmas tree lights come on even though they aren't plugged in. Murders are committed and no one dies. The actor playing King Lear reaches the point of raging madness and completely recovers his sanity in time for the curtain call.
Amazing things happen, mountains get climbed, seas get crossed, planets get walked on, discoveries get made, problems get solved because people don't give up on them. To take up the great problem of life and work toward it's solution without giving up or giving in is what keeps the chrome shining.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
Sunday Puzzle Answer
1 correct answer and it comes from Val of the Blogspot Tigers.
One of these things is not like the other.
Which one and why?
1. baseball, soccer ball, football, tennis ball.
OK, that was the easy one, Now they get tricky.
2. grizzly koala black polar
the koala is not a bear
3. flute violin banjo harp
the flute has no strings
4. Washington Adams Franklin Jefferson
Franklin was never Presidnet
5. palm tomato peach zucchini
palm, all the rest are fruits
6. 2 4 6 8
6, the only one divisible by 3
7. New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York
New Mexico not one of the 13 colonies
8. tennis badminton ping pong volley ball
vollye ball requires no racket
9. Champlain Erie Michigan Superior
Champlain not one of the Great Lakes
To Val goes the grand prize of stainless steel eraser.
------------------------------------------
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
5 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
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