Five Things You Need To Know About Playing Drums On A Broadway Show

If you are at all interested in finding work as a musician playing drums on a Broadway musical, I can certainly give a few tips. I’ve been fortunate to have played in several over the past 20 years and I’ve learned a  little from each one I’ve been in. Each of the shows I’ve done…

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Single Fatherhood in New York City

In 2012, I was contacted by a graduate student who was looking for stories about single fathers. I think she found me from an old blog I used to have. It’s so interesting to listen to this recording eight years later. Very little has changed with my relationship to my kids as well as my…

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Why new Temptations play is NOT a ‘jukebox musical’

“People always say I make musicals for people who hate musicals and there is some truth to that.” – Des McAnuff True indeed! I never liked musicals. I think way too many of them are corny. I once saw a musical where a singer was at a train station , waiting on her train to…

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Listening to Meshuggah gets me in the mood to play showtunes

It’s been a while since I’ve played a Wednesday matinee. Well, in order to properly prepare myself for the rigors of a Broadway musical, I listen to Meshuggah. It puts me in the mood for showtunes. Actually, I had to BLAST their new album in my earphones because I have to ride the subway…it is…

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David Byrne: Will Work for Inspiration

Excerpt: Some folks believe that hardship breeds artistic creativity. I don’t buy it. One can put up with poverty for a while when one is young, but it will inevitably wear a person down. I don’t romanticize the bad old days. I find the drop in crime over the last couple of decades refreshing. Manhattan…

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#Manspreading

An excerpt from this article by Cathy Young, a regular contributor to Reason magazine and Real Clear Politics: http://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/manspreading-but-women-hog-subway-space-too-cathy-young-1.9776186 As we enter 2015, the latest feminist crusade seems to come straight from the life-imitates-satire department. It has everything one could want in a caricature of feminism: petty grievances, gleeful male-bashing, egregious double standards. And it…

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