Message Board Celebrity Of The Day (Part I) - papalovesmambo- Page 147

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:45pm

I know, Dame, go figure. But I had biz friends in Studio City, Encino, and a best friend, now dead, who'd been given a place -- literally given a house -- in Van Nuys. The valley was cheap in 89. It was a mistake, the locale. But life is full of them. I'd heard the Galleria is gone. It was dyin' back then.

[DAME]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:48pm

Auggie;
I live in Studio City. It has become were all the gay and below the belt studio people with money go to live and buy houses. My property has quadrupled in value. You would not believe the turn around in the valley. I remember when the galleria was dying. Creepy mall with dinky movie theaters all the way at the end of the food court in the 3rd floor. Yuck. You did know that "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" was based on that mall?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:51pm

Gotta think, Boobs.

I'd always wanted to meet Tennessee Williams. I was in New Orleans in March of this past year -- yes, 05 -- and met a waiter there who'd been a hustler in his youth, and spent a harrowing, funny, life-changing night with 10 Williams. Oddly enough, it was such a rich story, it felt like I'd been there. In light of what's happened in NOLA since then, and realizing that waiter has been displaced, the evening is particularly poignant. A recent memory that has strong connections to time, place, death, loss.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:59pm

Speaking of Williams... I spent a great deal of last year obsessed with the political posts here, chasing the inexhaustable font of info Pal Joey hither and yon.

But my favorite time of last year at BW was during the Season of Williams Disappointment on B'way, when there was some damned good discussion here about the srengths, weaknesses, ambitions and failures of both MENAGERIE and STREETCAR on Broadway. Many posters here really rose to that ocasion, and the debate was at times of a very, very high order.

[DG]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:22pm

Auggie - I STILL will talk about those shows!

What coming this season has caught your interest?

[NYadgal]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:23pm

Congratulations, Auggie! I hope you're enjoying your day!

Add me to the list of people who admire and respect your posts and presence on BWW. Thanks for your wonderful answers to all of these questions.

Those STREETCAR and MENAGERIE threads were wonderful... Thanks for bringing back the memory of them.

Updated On: 2/9/06 at 01:23 PM

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:23pm

A guy who directed a one act play I was in, was living with Tennessee Williams. I forget for how long, but he's the one who found him dead. His name was John, I think (I have a bad memory) . He's written about in some articles and/or books about Williams. I think some blame John for Tennessee's death.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:28pm

congrats, august.

on the current national political scene, name the politician whose ideas and vision for the nation is most in line with your own.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:31pm

I'm fascinated, dumbfounded, startled, and mea culpa-offering that a playwright I have bitterly, nastily trounced on here for being post-RECKLESS ... reckless ... Lindsay-A., has gone and written an Ibsen play, a domestic drama devoid of neo-absurdist trappings and flourishes. I suppose there's a multitude of lessons in that -- not the one NY Magazine opines (that RABBIT HOLE is really "a screenplay" ) ... about pigeonholing people. We'll soon be in the Woody Allen INTERIORS backlash dynamic, you know, "I liked him when he just wrote ...funny."

(By the way: My problems with pre RABBIT Abbaire is not that it isn't kitchen sink, it's that far too much of it seemed strategically calculated to hold us emotionally at arms length.)

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:39pm

I dunno if there really is one, Papa. Daily, there are several I feel are overlooked, or stepped on, as we scurry to pick up the train of La Clinton without getting new mud on it ... I'll start with someone I don't always (fully) agree with, but whose career is respectable, and respectful, in my eyes: Diane Feinstein. Of the Dems who Disappoint Us (on my side of the aisle, not yours Papa), I think she's consistenty measured, thoughtful, reasonable far more than many colleages, devoid of hysterics and grandstanding tactics. I still remember her ascendency, during the Milk/Moscone tragedy, and think she's been stronger than many. In the "Who's Our First Geena Davis" debate, she's more Presidential than any other woman. And even Davis isn't Davis, as that show is on hiatus.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 2:16pm

Chase, me, Charlie! Chase me! Thanks for the compliment, but my political posts are frequently hot-headed and somewhat intemperate, whereas yours are always measured and intelligent.

Theater or politics: about which are you more passionate?

What three theatrical events of the past do you wish you had witnessed firsthand?

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 2:25pm

Ahhh Auggie....one of the few posters whose posts I try to make sure to read. Congratulations!

[mominator]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 2:38pm

Congrats to Auggie! Have a grand day in the spotlight.
Question 1, Who do you admire? Please name as many as you want.
Question 2, What is your favorite B-way song and why?
Question 3, How did you find BWW?

Auggie, I think you may have missed my questions since I posted them not long after Namo picked you.. So if you please I am feeling quite snoopy today!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 2:43pm

"So if you please I am feeling quite snoopy today!"

Mom today, wondering why Auggie hasn't answered her querstions yet.

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 2:48pm

What are the last five books you've read and would you recommend them to others?

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 2:49pm

Auggie, I have always admired and loved your posts and your dry humor. Congratulations.

So, what are your vices?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 2:51pm

Mom, I think I answered yours earlier, but if not, I'll try again.

I feel like that old man in Anne Tyler's BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS, the 100 year old Poppie who stood around the kitchen, babbling on his birthday. I'm not 100, and it's not my b'day, otherwise...

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 2:59pm

Since Christmas, I've read a few books already discussed her in lavish detail, for which I was late to the party (the Didion, the Proulx "Wyoming Stories," The Fonda autobiography).

I just yesterday finished the brand new biography of Hattie McDaniel, which was riveting. My mother was Georgian (I was born in Atlanta), and I grew up with the cult of GWTW all around me--taken to the film at 7, in downtown Washington,DC, and scared sh--tless by lots of it.

This book is revelatory about aspects of the Mitchell book and film that I wasn't as up on, including the huge vocal backlash against the novel at publication (NAACP and others), and McDaniel, pre and post Oscar. The book lands on a view of early civil rights activism that is too often ignored. Many people forget how strong it was in the 30s. The variety of responses to McDaniel taking the role of Mammy, changing it subtly (warmer, more humane) and more strategically (takes no prisoners in terms of white characters, and doesn't allow Rhett's sexual boundry busting to go unnoticed), and then being touted or tarred for it, are fascinating.

Updated On: 2/9/06 at 02:59 PM

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 3:07pm

congrats auggie27!

[BSoBW3]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 3:15pm

Mazel Tov, Auggie!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 3:23pm

PS: I was taken to the RE-release of GONE WITH THE WIND when I was 7. Probably the first big one, before it was redone in wide screen in the 60s. I wasn't anywhere near here in '39.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 3:24pm

Auggie a celebri-tay? Neat!!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 3:32pm

MEfan, a big vice -- since 2003 -- has been straining to find just the right bon mots to post here. You know, wanting to be funny, to be noticed. Not ignored, in the Glenn Close FATAL ATTRACTION sense. A loathsome addiction at this pt in my life. But I've said it several times, several ways: Sometimes, this board is high school all over again, the posts grafitti scrawled in the bathroom stall to keep up the public profile of utter cool.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 3:41pm

Auggie - Did you read Joan Didion's book?

And for the record, you really a are a smarty pants. What is your educational background? Generally of course.

[mominator]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 3:44pm

PJ that was so cute, Auggie if you did I am so sorry. I'll go back and recheck.

(I was wondering if somebody would post a Snoopy!!)