lostokyo.com

Ok, 2 questions for you.

1) If/when an actor’s strike happens, do actors want to book their next parts before the strike or do they want to wait until the strike is over? This is research for something I’m working on and any help is greatly appreciated.

2) How do you make Benny Goodman sound whiter? You put him in a Disney musical review, that’s how. (See, that was more of a rhetorical question, but it was fun to ask anyway.) Last Friday, the family and I set out to visit Tokyo’s DisneySea. Of course it was a great day at the park and we were blessed with fine weather, but being with my wife’s parents, we did the slower route. Instead of going on all the crazy rides, we instead went to the shows and parades, something I almost never do. A change of pace is always nice right? Well, this change of pace caused me to realize that you CAN make Benny Goodman sound whiter. I never thought this was possible until that moment. The one thing about the show which was interesting was that they found someone who can not only play the drums, tap dance, but is under 5 feet tall. Yes, Mickey Mouse played the drums and then tap danced all to Goodman’s ‘Sing, Sing, Sing.’ However, Mickey Mouse aside, the overall problem was when the dancers came out in sparkly bedazzled outfits, dancing and singing their way to whiteness. It was at that moment that any and all respect that I had left for Goodman went out the window. I guess it’s not really his fault, but come on, he was pretty white sounding to start with. There are so many other great swing/big band songs to choose from, why, oh why, did they pick the whitest and overplayed? Ah, but this is Disney, so why even bother trying to figure it out. If only they allowed guns, I would’ve felt like I was back in Singapore. Nevertheless, the wind never picked up, the weather was fine, and the snacks were plentiful, so all in all, it was a pretty good day at the park.