On the 8th of this very month, as I strolled on Broadway on my way to visit Nadya of Bali, my girlfriend (a word that actually applies, since we both have the spirit of teenagers) I saw that Steely Dan was to appear that very night, at the Beacon theatre, next to her hotel.
Understand that loving music though I do, and having had wonderful relationships with gifted and generous musicians throughout my life, including Rosemary Clooney at her peak and Leonard Bernstein at his Tanglewood teaching handsomest, I have not been to a rock concert since my husband was alive, and I was really young. I mean, really young, with my husband's then good friend Alan Sachs a TV executive, married to the darling young Vicky, the daughter of Faye Wray, once carried off by King Kong. It was a glorious night, as we stood in the aisles of whatever California theatre it was when they had rock concerts wherever they were-- I'd rather be unsure than inaccurate-- and cheered and, as we still did then, swayed. Everyone was so joyful, and Vicky and Alan were going to be in love forever, and Don and I were without fears.
Vicky became a psychotherapist, long divorced from Alan who I lost complete track of, Don is long gone, dead, a word I still have trouble writing, very young. But Steely Dan is still (and for the last time, they are saying at the Beacon where he's doing a number of nights) past cool and a balm to the ears and (I do believe) the soul. I felt I had not missed all the years I haven't listened to enough music having been personally betrayed by Frank Loesser, a dark privilege, lifted by Yip Harburg, a radiant one, coming within inches of having Frank Sinatra record one of my songs, then deciding to record no more, and my generally not liking what has happened to alleged music in recent years.
Ah, but Steely Dan! A theatre filled with people on their feet, lifting arms, moving in ways I will not attempt to describe, except to say how alive they were, many of them in their eighties. One woman there with either her very young lover or a grandson. It made me really happy, and thinking I ought to go back to writing songs. Music stays music, no matter what is happening on Broadway.
Then yesterday my darling retrieved friend Acacia, having resuscitated herself at AOL, invited me to-- what would you call it? a gathering? A promotional interview as part of a promotional series they are doing online to further undermine print? Whatever it was, I was really THERE, as it featured, live, Dan Rather, the subject of the film, as he fell from glory, having told TRUTH, the name of the film, Robert Redford, playing him, and Cate Blanchett who can play anything, and probably will before she is done, or as my mother would be the first to correct me, "finished," since "done" Mom would say, is "cooked," something I suspect Cate Blanchett will never be. It was so Present, so dazzling, that I was unable to ask questions, even though I had one that burns in me still, and that is WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN? By that I don't mean simply or complicatedly this strange, corrupted, confused time, where the probably least horrible of the Bushes still looks to maybe have a weak and distant shot at what appeared to be almost a throne, passed on to the idiot-- I was there for that, having sat out the-after-earthquake in San Francisco with Ann Richards, just before they destroyed her in Texas- but what's going to happen to this used-to-be-great country?
Well, the good news anyway is that the movie is probably going to be wonderful. Robert Redford, who takes time to collect himself before answering a question, then is as thoughtful and smart as he is talented and still powerfully handsome, although smaller, I have to say, surprised, than I would have imagined, Cate Blanchett as wryly witty as she is gifted, and even more beautiful, and Dan Rather, thoughtful and all these years later amazingly not pissed, which I am for him, -- as he always was, selflessly informative. It was a true charge. Beyond uplifting. Fine also were the moderator, a journalist, and the writer of the movie whose names I can't remember as I have gotten to the place in life when names elude me. And probably I'm jealous I didn't write it.
Dame Maggie Smith too ill to meet the Duchess of Cambridge
www.express.co.uk › Showbiz & TV › Celebrity News
Mar 12, 2015 - Dame Maggie Smith, one of the biggest stars of the show, had to pull out from the meet and greet with the 33-year-old royal due to illness.
Daily Express
Dame Maggie Smith too ill to meet the Duchess of Cambridge
www.express.co.uk › Showbiz & TV › Celebrity News
Mar 12, 2015 - Dame Maggie Smith, one of the biggest stars of the show, had to pull out from the meet and greet with the 33-year-old royal due to illness.
Daily Express
