Spider Man Throws Arachne Under The Bus...Will It Reverse The Curse?

Not to make light of injury, but one might think that this play is cursed by some evil Spider-Goddess. This mess has gone on too long already, and the latest (4th? -I've lost count) postponement of it's official opening was announced before this latest (4th? -I've lost count) injury on the set, during "previews."

By MARK KENNEDY AP Drama Writer/With MyFoxNY.com Staff Reports

NEW YORK - Is this the curse of the Spider-Woman? T.V. Carpio stepped in to replace another actress injured in Broadway's troubled "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark." She has now herself been sidelined after an accident.

Producers of the $65 million musical said Tuesday that Carpio was hurt last week during an onstage battle scene. She plays an evil spider woman called Arachne and will be out of the show for the next two weeks.

It's worth noting that the latest rework of the play supposedly gets rid of the Arachne character altogether. The character was used as a narrator, and was a mouthpiece for the (now replaced) director Julie Taymoor, saying such lines as "I am the only true artist here." Sheesh! Good riddance!

Husk Reunion Party Part II

Another great image from "Huskapalooza!"

"Husk" Reunion Party!

Looking forward to seeing more old friends at the next one!

Living In The Past: 1/2 Of The Class Of 1979

I lifted this from a friend's FB page, because I haven't seen it for so long. That's me, fourth from the left in the front row. Most of my friends congregated in the back, but I knew this would be my only shot in the yearbook, so I stayed in the front.

As you can see, it's only half of what was a two-page spread in the yearbook. My apologies to the half of my classmates who I didn't get to show.

SweetLeaf and LEAVBERT: ADAM LAMBERT show at the St. Georges Theater!

It was a beautiful old theater, and we had a wonderful time! One of the girls in the row behind us was nice enough to take our picture. Anna wanted me to wear a tophat, similar to Adam's, and a leather vest with 2 foot long fringes! I suspect that she collaborated with her "fasionista" daughter to have these items "available" for me to wear...

SweetLeaf Agrees: Sir Monte Rocks!

We had such a great time at the Adam Lambert concert on Staten Island! I took this pic of Anna (SweetLeaf) with Monte Pittman, Adam's Musical Director, and Lead Guitarist! Yo, this guy ROCKS! I got to shake his hand, and tell him that, after taking the pic! COOL!

LEAVBERT! Partying in Staten Island!

Partying at the Adam Lambert concert!

RIP ANDY KESSLER: MAKING UP ON CHRISTMAS DAY!

As a kid, I had all kinds of "falling outs" with my two best friends, as they did between the two of them, with me siding with one or the other. This photo is of one excellent Christmas day, where a year-long grudge was buried. I had been the one on the outside, with Andy and Starsky both shunning me, for the most part. Our mothers helped set this up, and it was all good!

Starsky recently sent me this photo, and it's almost a year since Andy died of a wasp sting, so I am posting this as a tribute to my friend. I miss you, Andy, and will always remember you!

From Coney Island to Central Park! Starsky & Hutch, Havin' Fun!

Starsky and Hutch, at Coney Island and Central Park! The whole city was our beat, and we had fun all over it!

WERE WE COMIC BOOK FANS, OR LITTLE MONSTERS?

Riding the D train back from Coney Island, and after visiting the comic book store on 57th, near Columbus Circle! This was "fun in NYC" in the '70's! I drew both of our shirts, and I had authentic Korean War era patches on my jacket, from my Uncle Bill Dignes!

RULE AND REVOLUTION: Where Are We Now?

I caught the last hour of Rush today, and listened to him talk about this article from The American Spectator. It's worth sharing, though I haven't finished reading it yet.

America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution, by Angelo M. Codevilla

ADAM LAMBERT ROCKED NASHVILLE!

So, Adam Lambert got GREAT reviews after playing Nashville! Randy Travis must be eating his words! Here's a selection of the reviews:

USA TODAY

Tune In Music City

CMT.com

Indyposted

Softpedia

Adam played in the Ryman Auditorium, where Johnny Cash has played, and which also currently hosts the Grand Ole Opry, while it's original home undergoes restoration. As the reviews show, he blew the roof off of the place! I'll post the videos soon, but you can find them at Adamofficial, if you look hard enough!

The Night I Kept Billy Preston From My Friend's Girl: A "Main St. Cafe Story"

It was a big night, at The Main St. Cafe. Billy Preston was playing, and we were hoping for a "sold out" show. Unfortunately, we didn't have the money to advertise the show in Newsday, when they solicited us. So, instead of a glowing write-up about the upcoming show, they published a story titled "Billy Preston's Back-Let Him Be" on page 92. It was five paragraphs, or so, about his career, highlighting his pending "child-molestation" charges in California. The last paragraph said "he's playing at The Main St. Cafe this week." Thanks, Newsday.

I was already working as a bartender at Clarke's in Freeport by this time, and going to "my club" after my day shift, a few days a week. I have to mention this, because Bernie, a 92 year-old regular customer of mine there, is the one who showed me the article, a few days before the show. He was impressed that I had such a big star playing at my club. I told him that I was a big fan of Preston's work, almost all of my life, and was looking forward to seeing him in person. I have to note Bernie's class, knowledge, and wisdom. Knowing people like him was one of the biggest rewards of working at Clarke's.

The "big night" turned out to be "not so big," for the business, but about fifty to seventy-five people got to see an amazing show. He played a "Beatles tribute" set, and had the whole crowd singing along. He played my favorite two instrumental songs, "Space Race" and "Outta Space," as well as his better-known hits "Will It Go Round?" and "Nothin' From Nothin'" Because it was such a small turnout, I got to watch most of the show. It was awesome!

He was more reclusive than most of the talent we booked, and went right back to his bus, after the show. Neither John (my partner in the club) nor I got to take a photo with him, as we did with Dave Mason and Rick Derringer. We sent him a plate of hot wings, and he signed a B&W publicity photo for us (which I hope John still has, because I don't). Something funny happened around that time.

While we were trying to get into Preston's bus for a pic, he saw my friend's girlfriend, who I'll call "D," with us. D was decked out in a sexy bright red dress, and was totally HOT! Her boyfriend couldn't be there, and he asked me to "keep an eye on her," which I was glad to do (lol). Mr. Preston let D onto the bus, but she said "only if Chris can come with me!" So they let me on the bus, and I got to meet him. He said "good wings," and I said "blah blah blah, I'm a fan since I was blah blah..." Then his manager came along and said I have to leave the bus, and I graciously complied.

D started to follow me off the bus, but someone asked her to stay. She said "Chris, what should I do?" At this point, we went back and forth, with me outside the bus, not even able to see her. She decided to come with me back into the club. Less than five minutes later, Preston's manager showed up at our table, inviting D back to the "hotel" with Mr. Preston. She was clearly tempted, and I knew it. After letting her string this guy along for a few minutes, I said "D, let's get out of here. Let me take you somewhere." She didn't even blink an eye; she just got up, and left with me.

I took her to a nearby little local bar, owned by a former bartender from Clarke's, coincidentally. We told everyone how great the show was, and where Billy Preston was staying, if they wanted to meet him (My club booked his hotel). I don't know if any of those fans actually went there, but we had a laugh about the whole situation! I dutifully filled my friend in, that his GF was "a good girl" against amazing odds, at least that night.

This all happened in '92, and I've long been out of touch with both of them, but I know they didn't stay together. Billy Preston has passed away, as has my old customer Bernie, since then. That's why I'm collecting the Main Street Stories, as best as I can. This is a funny look at the ups and downs of life in those years, from my perspective. There's a lot to tell, and I hope to get input from friends I am still in touch with to help balance it (John, among others). I already have a photo gallery from The Main St. Cafe on Gather, linked here. Yeah, that's "D," in the "flagged" photo. As I said, there are many stories to tell, from those days. There's sad posts, too.

Stay tuned for more "MAIN STREET STORIES," in addition to my TALES FROM THE VENDOME, LEAV IN THE USMC, FREEPORT, and 1980:PERMANENT WAVES chapters. Most of these only have one post thus far, so I'll try to churn out at least one "old story" a week, this year. This one was fun and easy, but alot of them are a little scarier. I'm hoping the stories are an enjoyable read, even if they make you cringe! LOL! Here's to the new year!

Adam Lambert Loves His Fans!

Adam totally looks like Elvis, in this photo by Jasmine!

Adam went out of his way to greet all of the fans that showed up at CBS Early Morning show, after planning for the ABC show for weeks. He's a class act, in my book.

LEAV in the USMC: My Favorite "Gunny"

In the USMC, I fixed FM radios. I was an intermediate ("I") level avionics technician, meaning I fixed the electronics, after the "O" level techs took it out of the aircraft. I forget whether "O" stood for organizational, or operational level, but hey, it was 25 years ago! I worked in a "shop" from 4:30PM-Midnight, for most of my years there. During this time, I had several supervisors, but one stood head and shoulders above the rest.

"Gunny" (Gunnery Seargent) Keenan, as I'll call him here, was the only boss that motivated me to feel good about an otherwise humdrum job. As a 22 yr. old, recently busted lance corporal, I had little to motivate me, in the last year of my "time," so this was no small feat.

A few things need to be explained: the radios we were working on were Vietnam-era, and this was '84. The warrantees on them expired in '70. We had drawers full of replacement circuit boards, and we did basic troubleshooting. The day-shift had a shop across the hall, that could repair the boards, but no-one was there on the night shift, so we wouldn't bother trying to "troubleshoot" the cicuit card. We'd just chuck 'em

One day Gunny Keenan took me aside, and we had a conversation. He brought out the parts manual, and we looked up the price of the circuit boards. They were over $3,000 each. They were very "old-style," with huge resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transistors, which were easy to remove with a soldering iron. I only had some basic classes in this, and wasn't "certified" to do it. I had cross-trained in the micro-comp shop, so I knew how to do it. I also knew that these circuit cards had about $15 worth of electronics on them, that one could buy at Radio Shack.

He gave me my first lecture on civic responsibility in the bureaucracy, explaining that our tax dollars were paying for every one of these parts, and it would be helpful to everyone, myself included, if I could pitch in to try replacing fewer circuit boards. He said "Leavitt, could I ask you to try fixing some of these circuit boards on the night shift, instead of throwing them at each other?"

I replied "But I'm not certified." He said, "skip the paperwork. I'll give you the keys to the mini-comp shop, if you need to use it." Gunny Keenan had appealed to me in a very personal way. As an established "rule breaker," I loved the idea of doing something good, and still breaking rules and regulations. He "got" me, in a way that was rare in my military experience.

He also used me as a motivational tool for others. When he gave his Friday informal "speech" to the troops one week, he singled me out. He said when he was a young enlisted man, he used to carry a stone around, just to get himself noticed. Some thought he was crazy, but since he was good at his job, it just got him noticed by the senior officers in his command. He then compared himself to me, saying "everyone from the Colonel on down knows when Leavitt takes a piss!"

I lost my Corporal stripes before I got a chance to put them on, because of a positive urinalysis. I had recently returned from the Naval Drug Rehab Center at Miramar Air Base, where "Top Gun" was filmed, and was on six months of weekly urinalysis surveillance when he gave that speech. Everyone laughed at that line, but I appreciated it as a secret acknowledgement of the resposibility he had given me. He gave me good pro-con ratings, as well.

One of the reasons that I would never re-enlist was what the USMC bureaucracy did to Gunny Keenan. The only manager that could get Chris Leavitt, among many others, to be more productive, and save taxpayer dollars, was getting screwed around because of his weight! Gunny Keenan was not very fat, but he was getting "by-the-booked" by the system. His ability to perform his job had no bearing on this. It was strictly because he was literally five pounds over the "guideline" weight.

When I saw a man of his age (he was a little younger then than I am now), and of his position destroyed, by being "forced out" before he wants to leave the USMC, I knew that it was no life for me. If the good guys get screwed with too, what would change for me, after being a "screw-up?" I wasn't exactly ready to be a "good guy," anyway, at that point in my life. However, I can honestly say Gunny Keenan made a lasting impression, 25 years later.

Semper Fidelis

BUFFY LOVES DADDY: Kisses!

In my first days with Buffy, she gave me a little scratch on my nose. I didn't freak out, and she's been giving me kisses there ever since. She loves the daddy-cat.

"Forts" and "Dirt Bombs:" From Central Park to Roosevelt Hospital!

"Central park was my back yard," I often tell my suburban-raised friends. It wasn't, technically, but I spent so much of my youth there, that I looked at it as if it was my own property. This is a story of the "forts" and "dirt-bomb" fights that were waged at the Adventure Playground, just inside the wall at Central Park West and 69th street. The playground was on the "high ground," with the land sloping downward from it's fence to the black wall that was the park's boundary with the city. The vegetation was mostly forsythia, which blossomed yellow for a few weeks every spring, and some small trees.

We used to squeeze through one particular spot in the playground fence (or just walk around, for the bigger kids), and build forts in the ground. With the slope of the land, we could put up a couple of pieces of wood, and make a shelter. There was occasionally a NYC park worker on duty at the playground, who would chase off dope-sniffers and the like, that might be hanging out in our fort. Sometimes, we chased them out on our own (what screwball wouldn't run from a bunch of kids taunting him?).

Our favorite game was throwing "dirt bombs" at each other, with one group inside the playground fence, and the other in the "fort." The kids at the fence had different dirt than we had on the slope. They had topsoil, with sand tracked into it from the playground, which didn't make good dirt bombs. We had the clay layer exposed, and we just made our fort bigger as we dug into the clay to make bombs. For a time, the playground kids started throwing clumps of grass, with big "dirt bomb" bottoms, but there wasn't enough grass around the edge of the playground for that to last long.

This was an interesting tactical challenge we had set up. The kids in the playground had the higher ground, but had no protection other than the widely-spaced iron bars of the playground. Because we were throwing uphill, they had time to dodge our "bombs." They also were limited to making wet "sandballs," if the fountain was working. Most of the dry "topsoil" dirt bombs used to break up well before reaching us through the vegetation. I fought from the playground side a few times, but I was usually in the fort. Everyone wanted to be in the fort. I used to dream about camping out there overnight, but then I remembered the aforementioned "screwballs" would outnumber me, not vice versa. This was in the mid 1970's.

I suppose that it was inevitable, but one of the kids in the playground decided that he didn't want to bother making a dirt bomb. He just picked up a big rock, and hurled it towards the fort. I chose that moment to stand up, ready to throw a good, sturdy dirt bomb, and saw it coming, just before it smashed me in the eyebrow. I went down, and started screaming "he threw a f**king rock!"

It took a minute or two, but the other kids stopped the "fight," and came over to help me. We climbed over the black stone wall, to Central Park West, and hailed a cab, who took me to Roosevelt Hospital, free of charge. I was bleeding profusely, but with the support of a group of friends, everything turned out fine (I don't remember any adults, other than the cab driver, being involved). The fact is that I was a "frequent flyer" at Roosevelt Hospital, when it came to head wounds. I think that the doctor remembered me, and calmed me down by saying it was "routine" for me.

Eventually, I outgrew playing in "the fort," and I'm sure that the NYC Parks Department has erased any trace of it, but Adventure Playground is still there, just North of the Tavern on the Green restaurant. Did I ever mention that I broke into their attic, and used to steal the "night lights" from their premises, and used them as "heat lamps" in my bedroom? Well, that's another story! Stay tuned for more "Tales From the Vendome."

Andy Kessler Will Live On: Tales From the Vendome

One of my oldest friends, Andy Kessler, died on Monday, Aug. 11th, 2009. I've mentioned Andy in a previous "Tales From The Vendome" post (link), using the pseudonym "Lenny." We weren't in touch, so I didn't want to use his real name, in a post with a blunt social/political message. After reading about his life after we lost touch, I don't think he'd mind me using his real name. The stories I have to tell about him date to before he started skateboarding, and cover a wide range of "life-lessons," from my point of view.

He was one of my two childhood "best friends," along with "Starsky," who shall remain anonymous. The three of us were like the little kid "urchins" of 71st to 73rd streets, from CPW to B'Way, in Manhattan. That was our "turf." Andy and Starsky lived on 71st, and I lived on 73rd, and Central Park was our back yard. We were crazy kids in the '70's, and that's what the "Vendome" stories are all about (link). I wish he had read them, and we had gotten in touch again...

Read about Andy's life, after we parted ways, at the following links (New York Magazine has the best photo):

NYC skateboard advocate Andy Kessler dies
United Press International
12 (UPI) -- Andy Kessler, one of the big names in the US skateboarding scene, died of an apparent wasp sting on Long Island this week, police said. ...
Legendary Skateboarder Andy Kessler Dies At 49NBC New York
SKATEBOARD KING DEAD AFTER STINGNew York Post
Legendary Skateboarder Andy Kessler Has DiedNew York Magazine

He was pretty intense, which brought out a similar quality from me. This explains our frequent fights, as well as our close friendship. My prayers and condolences go out to his sister Jodi, and all his family and friends who loved him. Andy was like family to me, and I loved him more often than I hated him. We would have great reunions, usually arranged by our mothers, after a few months of one of our "falling outs." The worst one for me was when Starsky and Andy "froze" me out of the group!

I saw Andy a few times in the early '80's, working at his father's florist shop in Penn. Station, after they closed their 72nd St. store. I wish I had stayed in touch with him, but after moving to LI, I joined the Marines, and got even further "out of touch" from old friends. I'm proud that he left his mark on New York City, but not surprised. He "channeled" his passion for skateboarding, and got results.

Good work, Andy. The world is diminished by your passing, my friend. I'll miss you.

Put Crack Dealers in Charge of Nuclear Negotiations

"I'm not leavin' without the rocks. I paid for that sh*t."

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