"I have always relied on the kindness of strangers....." I believe this is the line uttered by Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire." Kindness. So maybe I'd don't rely on it, like Blanche, but the little kindnesses in the world can definitely perk up my day for hours. I was thinking about this the other day when I was looking for a parking spot at Berkeley Bowl and a woman pointed out a spot that was kind of hidden by crates and forklifts. If you're a BB shopper, you'll appreciate what a big deal this was. Or the 6th grade boy who reached the door to the office at school just behind me, so I opened it for him, just to have him say...no....go ahead and wait like a gentleman for me to pass through. But I hit the mecca of kindness last night....and it happened to be at the ball game. Ry sang the National Anthem at the Giants game last night. (To see it, and more photos, click on the Ry and Si Blog link at right). We bought the tickets offered, at $15 each, which were here:

No problem.....we can check out the bay, right? But of course, I wanted to get video of the boys on the field when they sang, so I talked my way down to getting close enough for a good shot. Fortunately, I made the mistake of putting my video camera on top of the visitor dugout in order to stabilize the camera, at which point the usher came to let me know that wasn't okay, which brought me to the attention of the gentleman in front of me, who graciously told the usher lady that the four seats I was galavanting around happened to be his, and they weren't being used, and we could in fact have them, and pow! here are the tickets....have fun! Huh? What just happened here? Are we really sitting HERE?:

Yeah, baby....that's right....3rd row, 1st base line, right next to the dugout. That is my actual photo....no zoom. And you know what these seats come with......Field Club level services: food brought right to your seat....or walk in through the tunnel to the nice food concessions....no mucking around with the unwashed masses up on the concourse. Of course, we had already partaken of Garlic Fries and Clam Chowder Bread Bowl prior to this....but we did our best to stuff as much food in our faces as was possible, and as is apropos to the full ballpark experience. Sadly, Ry is NOT a Giants fan (when they sang at the A's, they got to meet a player, so has switched allegiances.....we're working on it....) so I kind of had to keep his inappropriate cheering for the Rockies under wraps. To further my streak of random acts of kindness bestowed upon me.....I went up searching for a hot chocolate and Bailey's to the concourse (okay...so I didn't want to pay the exhorbitant price for it to be brought to me) and a guy says...."hey - you dropped something!" and proceeded to pick it up and rush it over to me - it being my wad of moola with a $10 bill wrapping the outside.

Who does that?

Giants fans apparently.

It's a good week.

Save the date(s)! Ry and Si have been cast in their first musical play. It's called Queenie Pie and it's being staged at the Oakland Metro Operahouse, May 9-25. They are chorus kids and have 6 songs. The whole production is very cool.

Backstory: This is Duke Ellington's last large-scale work and only opera, which he wrote as a tribute to Madame C. J. Walker. The daughter of slaves, Madame Walker invented a hair straightener and discovered the virtues of mail order and door-to-door sales, thereby allowing her clients to buy cosmetics and hair products without leaving their homes. For this innovation she became the first female African-American millionairess.

Queenie Pie, the story of a Harlem beauty queen, was originally commissioned by Public Television for the WNET Opera program and designed to be an hour-long work, with Ellington as narrator. The idea for the work was not new, Ellington had begun the opera several times, in varying versions, since the 1940’s. Even after the telecast fell through, Ellington continued to work on the piece until his death in 1974. He left the work unfinished.

Oakland Opera’s Skye Atman began a researching quest into the origins of Queenie Pie, which eventually lead to a compilation score based on versions found among the Ellington papers at the University of California, Irvine and the Smithsonian Institute. The Oakland Opera assembled an expert team to finish the orchestration and create a version of the Duke's unfinished opera much like it might have appeared on television in the 1960’s.

The score for this is amazing. There are some songs with 7 part harmonies (huh?). He was the "Duke", after all, and the jazz arrangements are phenomenal. So how did these two become Harlem street kids? Well, Ry found out about the audition from the school music teacher and jumped on it....brought home the info, etc. Si, is interested in anything Ry does, so we thought...sure....let them audition...it'll be a great experience. We worked up different song treatments for them of chorus songs they knew already...with a musical theatre edge, of course. These are kids who are used to standing there with their hands to their sides and singing. They didn't believe me when I showed them some "Broadway" hand movements to show emphasis, etc. So thank you to You Tube, once again, where I could show them I wasn't crazy. They were ready.....they had significantly loosened up....so off we went. Well guess what? They never even got to sing their songs. The audition consisted of teaching them one of the songs from the score to see how they could sing and how they could pick up the music. When I saw the process I started to get worried. This is all they've done since they were two....listen to music directors and then do exactly what they were supposed to do - in key, on pitch, and in tempo. This was supposed to just be for the experience. They weren't supposed to make it in. We really don't need to add this to our plate, do we? Ah well. They'll actually be singing and dancing and moving around all at the same time.....can't wait. There is an awesome orchestra and I think it's going to be a really fun show. This is not a kid's show. That doesn't mean it's inappropriate for kids.....but if you want to bring the kids, just be aware that there are only 5 or 6 scenes with kids it it. Very cool ones.