Steve Hauk's Blog
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Sep.03.2009
Jeffrey Whitmore knew there was a dance version of his award-winning, 53-word short story ``Bedtime Story'' out there somewhere. He just lost track of it.
He finally traced it via the internet to Montreal, where dancers in 2004 retitled it ``Revolver Tango.''
Since Montreal is the world's second...
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4 comments
Aug.27.2009
When I heard Ted Kennedy had died, I immediately thought of Philip J. Schlessinger, a professor of political science I had eons ago at Los Angeles City College.
I was able to track him today via the University of Southern California Alumni News, the Winter 2001 issue. There, it said, Schlessinger...
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2 comments
Jul.30.2009
OK, "Elvis" is a little British kid, and he recently posted on YouTube that he can't make himself read Of Mice and Men. Class assignment. He's really heartfelt about not liking reading at all.
Check out what he has to say:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ku0ITm_MgU
You're back? Traumatic, right? ...
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14 comments
Jul.13.2009
About 1915. Late morning. Salinas, California. Three children _ same actors who were Susanna, Judith and Hamnet in Scene Two at Stratford_ standing beneath a window, calling ``John! John!'' No response. The boy _ Herb _ throws a pebble at the window. A large, gawky boy in a flannel shirt and jeans...
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Jun.19.2009
Ray Bradbury, according to the NY Times (see story address below), is, at age 90, trying to come to the rescue of the Ventura County (California) Public Library. I'm glad someone of his renown has taken up the cause of libraries.
Bradbury engaged in a discussion and then screening of ``The...
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5 comments
Jun.15.2009
Though it's been more than four months, I just discovered playwright Robert Anderson died earlier this year. I'm sorry about that _ that he died and that I missed it. American society probably owes him a debt, especially kids who are a little bit different, and he opened the way for a lot of...
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May.31.2009
I thought of Herriman the other day while reading an Associated Press story that ``multiracial Americans have become the fastest-growing demographic group.''
Herriman was born in New Orleans in 1880. He has been described as of Creole African-American ancestry. He was multiracial and the creator of...
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10 comments
May.10.2009
The city editor was about five-three, but tough as nails. I handed him the first draft of a story about people who had done bad things to other people, with bribery a given and murder a possibility.
``Are you sure about this?'' he said.
``Still checking, but yes.''
``Okay.'' He paused, then handed...
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19 comments
Apr.23.2009
The cub reporter asked Steinbeck over the telephone if he could interview him. It was 1948, and Bob Sparks was writing for the Monterey Peninsula College (California) student newspaper, El Yanqui.
``I'd like that, son,'' said Steinbeck, who had recently come from New York to the family's Pacific...
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7 comments
Apr.17.2009
I turned to another channel the other night and it turned my stomach. I thought we were done seeing this for a while after the November election and then after president was inaugurated.
But here we go again. The hatemongers couldn't restrain themselves.
The national cable channel was covering a ``...
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2 comments
Apr.08.2009
Samuel Beckett was fascinated by Cezanne.
He was obsessed by art and visited galleries constantly.
Makes sense in a way.
Most of his plays suggest landscapes.
Barren landscapes.
A scraggily tree, interesting to the characters because they might hang themselves from it
Mounds of dirt and sand...
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2 comments
Mar.22.2009
``...the spirit of profound anarchy ... is at the root of all poetry'' _ Antonin Artaud.
I came across recently, in a thrift store, a paperback copy of Italian playwright Dario Fo's ``We Can't Pay? We Won't Pay!'' with a forward by his wife, the actress and activist Franca Rame.
Fo, now in his...
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2 comments
Mar.09.2009
. . . recalled Peter Barnes chuckling to himself, oh, many decades ago, as he wrote away freehanded at a library table in the British Museum reading room, creating what would become the West End hit play ``The Ruling Class.''
Barnes wrote in the library because he was close to books that aided in...
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4 comments
Mar.03.2009
Why aren't there films and plays and books about him, his name on everyone's lips, and kids, especially black kids, wanting to grow up to be like him, that sort of thing.
Because, really, he was black and handsome as Sidney Poitier (click image to enlarge), and wrote fine novels like ``The...
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10 comments
Feb.12.2009
He comes across often as having been hedonistic if not depraved, not to disocunt his brillance and very on observation about everyone's fifteen minutes of fame, so it might come as a surprise that Warhol might be a good guy.
Or, at least, someone capable of good deeds.
This is a fine time for the...
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2 comments
About Steve
Born and raised in St. Louis. In fourth grade at Mary Queen of Peace, a Catholic school in the suburb of Webster Groves, a Mrs. Vanderbrook gave me a 5 (equivalent to an A in public schools) in English; made me feel good about myself. Wrestled at Kirkwood...
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Causes Steve Hauk Supports
City of Pacific Grove Public Library, Pacific Grove, California; Animal Friends Rescue Project, Pacific Grove; Animal Welfare Information and Assistance,...