Posts Tagged With: Boston stand-up Comedy

Day 1096: Trying hard to keep things real

If you try hard to keep things real by trying hard to read some lyrics I wrote down during 2015 (as I was trying hard to memorize them) …

IMG_8304

… you might see  the title of today’s post — “Trying hard to keep things real.”

Trying hard to keep things real when I try out for the TV show “The Voice” in February, I’ll be singing those lyrics, written by trying-hard-to-keep-things-real Todd Rundgren.

After trying hard to keep things real throughout 2015, I’ll be trying hard to keep things real in this new year of 2016.  Yes, I’m trying hard to keep things real  with that sole new year’s resolution.

How will you be trying hard to keep things real in 2016?

Last night, my son Aaron and I tried hard to keep things real by seeing a comedy show starring Mike Donovan, my favorite local Boston stand-up comic during the 1980s. I’m trying hard to keep things real now when I tell you that

  1. I haven’t seen Mike Donovan for about 30 years,
  2. Aaron — who tries hard to keep things real in his own stand-up comedy  —  and I resolved that we would see Mike Donovan perform live in 2015,
  3. Aaron and I made that resolution real at the very last minute, on New Year’s Eve,
  4. Mike Donovan was trying hard to keep things real last night in his stand-up routine and succeeded brilliantly, as always, and
  5. Mike told us, after his performance, that he was eager to talk to Aaron about stand-up comedy any time and that HE READS MY BLOG.

I am trying hard to believe, here and now, that Mike Donovan was keeping things real when he said that about my blog. In the meantime, here are all the other photos I took yesterday at work and afterwards, trying hard to keep things real:

IMG_8303

IMG_8305

IMG_8306

IMG_8309

IMG_8310

IMG_8322

IMG_8313

IMG_8314

IMG_8319

IMG_8323

IMG_8325

IMG_8324

After seeing Mike Donovan, Aaron and I were trying hard to keep things real as we drove from Dedham, Massachusetts, USA, to nearby Roslindale, where my boyfriend Michael was helping  his brother trying hard to keep things real by catering  a wedding party of over 300 people. On our way there, I was trying hard to keep things real by taking two more pictures:

IMG_8326

IMG_8328

Who do you think, in all those photos, is trying hardest to keep things real?

I don’t have to try hard to keep things real with gratitude, right now, for Aaron, Michael, Mike Donovan, Todd Rundgren, the Community Theater in Dedham, the Dedham Square Artist Guild, and every other person, place, and thing that helped me keep things real in today’s post. I am keeping things real when I especially thank you — of course! — for visiting here, today.


Keeping things real, here’s a YouTube video of Mike Donovan:

After trying hard to keep things real by searching YouTube clips of Mike Donovan, I found this one of Mike trying hard to keep it real (with Marc Maron) with a story about him, Tom Hanks, and the TV show “Bosom Buddies.”

 

Categories: blogging, personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: , , , , , | 44 Comments

Day 966: Call me lucky

Call Me Lucky is an amazing movie  — about the beloved, much-respected political humorist/children’s protection activist, Barry Crimmins — that I was lucky enough to see yesterday at the Somerville Theater, near Boston USA.


  

I hope  you are lucky enough to see this great film, which I believe is now available on iTunes.

You could call me lucky because:

  • my 17-year-old son Aaron — after spending lots of time with me recently in Edinburgh, Scotland — was still happy to spend the afternoon with me watching that funny, wrenching, illuminating and, ultimately, life-affirming film,
  • in the 1980s, I got to see Barry Crimmins and all the other great  Boston-based comedians who appear in Call Me Lucky, many times,
  • in the 1980s, when I performed my own stand-up routine at two Open Mic nights, one of those nights was the Boston-comedy-club debut of the director of Call Me Lucky, Bobcat Goldthwait,
  • I have seen and heard many wonderful films and performances at the Somerville theater over the years, including several shows by my guitar hero, Pat Metheny, and
  • like Barry Crimmins, I am passionate about my chosen work, to which I am returning, today, after a two-week vacation.

You might also call me lucky because yesterday I could see


with non-red eyes, all these other interesting and wondrous things around me:


  


  
  
  
Might you call any of those shots particularly lucky?

Call me lucky for so easily finding the trailer for Call Me Lucky, on lucky YouTube.

Are there any reasons why you might call yourself lucky, here and now?

Lucky and copious thanks to Barry Crimmins, to my son Aaron, to Bobcat Goldthwait, to stand-up comedians in Boston and elsewhere, to all the brave children’s protection advocates in the world, to the Somerville Theater, and to you — of course! — whom I am lucky enough to call “my reader,” today.

Categories: film review, gratitude, personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: , , , , | 25 Comments

Powered by WordPress.com.