Wasn't that a time?
Very good documentary on The Weavers. https://youtu.be/-KfjvVohAWM?si=e8QCxxabRlHuU5vj
Posts
About my 2017 reading at Vineyard Place
This is an odd addition to my professional resume. From one point of view, it might be called a waste of time, reading to a small (30 ish) audience not particularly interested in literature, there mostly out of curiosity. But I knew this going in. I schdeduled this without regard to the audience, a present to myself on my birthday. And in this regard, I came through with flying colors. My energy is high, the selections perfect, my comments relevant. This, in fact, is probably as good a literary reading as I am capable of giving. Whatever else it is, it's an accurate representation of my writing and career. https://youtu.be/ZBTn1ulBvTU?si=a-vROqQ7Wbj436yI
Here comes Artie Rainbow!
This is a comic short film about my younger brother that I created from 15 years of home movies. In the summer of 1966, staying in my parents Medford home while they were back east, I decided to keep busy by organizing Dad's home movies. That's when I discovered that my brother was a born ham. When he saw a camera, he ran toward it or otherwise became the focus of the shot. Stringing clips together for family entertainment was a no-brainer. (10 minutes) https://youtu.be/ahXfhUSLNvI?sHerei=d_f7YckFInwVxiLu Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
Snoops, a short audio play
Produced from a playscript with Typecast Artificial Intelligence (using characters Ron, Jack, Emma). Website at typecast.ai Snoops (8 minutes) https://youtu.be/xyNRt6f95DM?si=xCBBdJFguXX9J5CE Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
Ralph Stanley's "O Death"
Man, talk about sending a chill down your spine! https://youtu.be/2xmRWj7gJEU?si=ZFn_JxwQpwGabjzyf Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
My Signature Scrapple
What I called my "signature scrapple recipe" was posted on my Writing Life II blog on October 25, 2012, the day before my birthday. This is not a recipe for authentic scrapple but for "a poor man's clone" that I developed from a love of scrapple and frustration at its rare availability on the west coast. Moreover, this recipe is neither difficult nor time consuming. Making authentic scrapple is both, as I learned in graduate school. I had a friend who lived in the country outside of Eugene and raised chickens and a few pigs. He had taken to heart my frequent laments that the west coast had yet to embrace scrapple as a staple, or even as a luxury item for that matter. Before Oregon, I had lived in New Jersey, Virginia and Texas, where stores often carried several brands of scrapple, it was so commonplace. In the west, at best, you might find it frozen or fresh in the deli of an enlightened cook. One day, I told my friend, I must learn to make my own scrapple. So...
Are "the golden years" a scam?
Folks keep living longer, and companies that cater to independent and assisted living seniors grow in kind. When we considered independent living in retirement after Harriet's heart attack, I was overwhelmed by how many facilities there were in the Portland area. We ended up touring 38 places (free lunch!) before making a choice. All of these places have a similar message in a style that ranges from enthusiastic to exaggeration to hype. At the Vineyard Place website you can read, " We are completely dedicated to making sure you or your loved one have fun, exciting days and nights full of life!" Your golden years await you! You find pop culture embracing the same rosy view, especially in music. Here's Kenny Rogers singing about how wonderful it is to grow old together: https://youtu.be/8LXKm1CJ998?si=dnhUBrTjYTw6jTCD But there are dissenters. Harvard math professor Tom Lehrer, whom I consider the best satirist since Jonathan Swift, brings his dark and politically i...
Appreciating Dorothy Parker
Who was Dorothy Parker? Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker Quotes: https://youtu.be/FPwQnVQ-B-4?si=eleB2uI-aHCnEe7q A Dorothy Parker documentary https://youtu.be/pWcFCFZFB50?si=T3MsO3nwWXac-RmG Enough Rope (verse), audiobook https://youtu.be/AkgkuwM55qI?si=jdj4pMmkYIWND2_X Movie, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle https://youtu.be/NNFbG9eOfcg?si=aglO-WGPxIf3y2y5 You might as well live by Charles Deemer, readers theater www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/Parker.htm Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
Readings of two extraordinary short stories
The Moon in its flight by Gilbert Sorrentino https://youtu.be/zkGdsHpqT_s?si=HQqN3s0cPIkriD55 Going for a beer by Robert Coover https://youtu.be/75KPZY9ftV0?si=LLb7YSdYvnqWNfA5 Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
Songs of a Russian Gypsy
Is any other music more passionate than this? Theodore Bikel does a good job of making the case. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kFFbWKqdYUqZlPGpAFQ-02MJUuUD-SQBY&si=F4UBxcTcRduH98Oz Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
Celebrities read immortal poems
https://youtu.be/o1W7VK6Yo4s?si=2LiCftX1QopL0reM A gem of an audiobook. Save link https://cdlivhw.blogspot.com/2024/04/celebrities-read-classic-poems.html Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
In our living and in our dying
Why is the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder so lasting and so important and so profound? (7 mins) https://youtu.be/qhnHgz-nw2Y?si=BCALuTwQCPmveYHm You won't find a better production than this one from Broadway, 2003, with Paul Newman playing the stage manager. https://youtu.be/irIfcI8NYB4?si=CML1KEytg3vHFSwP Save link and watch later. https://cdlivhw.blogspot.com/2024/04/in-our-living-and-in-our-dying.html Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
Four playwrights, four extraordinary plays
I've been fortunate to see live productions of each of the plays below. To my sensibilty, plays don't get any better than this. The Physicists by Friedrick Durrenmatt https://youtu.be/biPiQgkCkQQ?si=wJY9VUm7aaRChnQJ Sizwe Bonzi is Dead by Athol Fugard https://youtu.be/93a2xx5e-Gw?si=PxybbLqmyA6BFNWo Betrayal by Harold Pinter https://youtu.be/0KJ59uV-hOY?si=_WEzlCc_0O0ordzg BBC radio, Betrayal https://youtu.be/ppVoib4e7ao?si=1aROce90NJsF8H_S Our Town by Thorton Wilder (with Paul Newman as the Stage Manager) https://youtu.be/gc1o9cGQ9_Q?si=6TkIKJsqJsAHPZfdi Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
My favorite folksinger: Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Today my favorite musical genres are jazz, classical, folk, in that order. The only time I listened to pop was as a teenager, loving doowop. But in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, my favorite music was folk. I performed folk music myself and always had my guitar at hand. At parties, at dinners, I arrived with guitar and sang for my supper. I first heard Elliott in the Army. I subscribed to the folk magazine Sing Out and responded to an ad for his first American album, Elliott sings Woody Guthrie. Playing the album, I became an immediate fan, an increasingly obsessive one. Elliott was ahead of the curve, peaking before folk music became popular in America. He went to England and made a reputation there. With the sixties new interest in folk, he returned to America. By the time I got out of the Army, Elliott was making regular appearances at the Ash Grove, a So Cal folk club. I was always in the audience. Why do I like Elliott so much? His performances blow me away. Here he covers a ...
The playwright arrives
Chateau de Mort, Pittock Mansion, 1986. Commissioned. My first hyperdrama. About the adventures of bringing a new dramatic form to the Pittock Mansion. From Oregon Magazine: "Watch out, mama, hyperdrama's gonna mess with your Pittock Mansion!" www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/watchout.htm An introduction to hyperdrama (video) https://youtu.be/H9pYzjzKrvc?si=HlEbWYMqFcnGtlFe Hyperdrama archive www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/hdrama.htm Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
My comic short film, SUNSET HEARTS
A dating service for seniors. Opening by Andy Rooney is priceless. In the early days, YouTube only accepted small files, so a short film like this had to be submitted in parts. Part one ... https://youtu.be/_FESX4k6L4E?si=q4YhdGgSm1OKmk0k Part two ... https://youtu.be/GQaGGnKM5Eo?si=YPwK8ujIW8FZoyew Part three ... https://youtu.be/r_1Q3nl7UXE?si=4a7X4bATOKrcsVvI Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
Ralph Stanley's "O Death"
Man, talk about sending a chill down your spine! https://youtu.be/2xmRWj7gJEU?si=ZFn_JxwQpwGabjzyf Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
Woody Guthrie's "Dirty Overalls"
Dirty Overalls: https://youtu.be/erBy_oZTbfg?si=_VbzBMCYS-FCETzp In 1979 I received a grant to tour and perform my one-man appreciation of the songs and stories of Woody Guthrie. The show became so popular I was able to renew the grant several times. After putting the show to rest for several years, I decided to resurrect it but with a second musician. I chose my friend, the late Jim Wylie. We had no grant but booked it easily from the show's past success. We kept it alive for a few more years. Here is the entire show: http://www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/Audio.htm Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com
Harriet's art
Here is an article about Harriet's art career, which she began after teaching at Clark College for 25 years. At the end of the article is a link to her online gallery, which has a cool slide show. She hasn't painted since her heart attack in 2014. Touch or click link, select Open. http://northwestjewishartists.blogspot.com/2010/10/harriet-kaufman-levi-mixed-media.html Back to top cdlivhw.blogspot.com