On Saturday, May 17, we saw the East West Players (EWP) production of the musical Pippin.  It currently has performances that run through June 22 (originally June 8 but it was extended) at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Little Tokyo near Downtown L.A.  Our cousin, Marc, is the musical director.  Pippin, with book by Roger O. Hirson and original musical and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, was originally staged on Broadway in the 1970's.  More recently, Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Wicked.  For this EWP production of Pippin, Director Tim Dang, Marc, and the choreographers and designers sought to give it a more contemporary, edgy, and urban approach.  Pippin is a fictional account of the eldest son of Charlemagne.  It’s more of a fantasy than a history and it contains “play within a play” and fourth wall-blurring elements.

The contemporary approach is evident right from the beginning.  The set looks like a dark alley with connected and elevated platforms above and a backdrop on which images are projected establish the scenes.  The “orchestra” consists of Marc as conductor and on keyboards, DJ LinoType as DJ, and Vince Reyes on Guitar.  The DJ is clearly visible on an elevated platform to the left of the stage (facing it).  Marc is behind and further to the left of the DJ.  I couldn’t see him for most of the performance, though my wife said she could see his hands conducting during some of the solo numbers.  Before the show starts a voice welcomes the audience and requests that we turn off all cell phones.  We thought this voice may be Marc’s.

The show starts with a welcoming and well choreographed number.  We meet the “Leading Player”, a kind of character-narrator similar to Che in Evita and the emcee in Cabaret.  However, unlike them, the Leading Player interacts with the characters of the story and he seems to have his own agenda.  The remaining players consist of seven named characters and seven unnamed members of the dance crew.  Most are introduced in the longer Act I.  The action progresses steadily with the character Pippin as the main focus.  Despite his top billing, the Leading Player is not the main player.  Pippin fills that role.

The costumes vary from contemporary dress to cultural to original.  Most of the female characters’ costumes consist of colorful wigs and outfits that complement their ample bosoms.  Some of the male characters’ costumes showcase their enviable physiques above the waist so there’s something for everyone.

The production makes use of technology with its ever-changing projected backdrops.  The program and articles about the musical made reference to Anime, but they don’t actually show many cartoons and only a few of the images looked to me like Anime characters.  They also use other types of modern technology that I won’t divulge here.  The projections effectively establish the scene.  They remove the need for elaborate props and set changes and there are very few of these.

The choreography is very impressive and is obviously updated from the 70’s.  It makes use of many styles including Hip Hop and martial arts.  It also gets very sensual for some numbers.

The story itself alternates between serious and humorous, sometimes confusing the observer as to its intent.  Most musicals I’ve seen were either very serious with a few humorous segments (e.g. West Side Story with the humorous part being the song “Gee, Officer Krupke” or Les Misérables with Thenardier providing the humor) or not so serious (e.g. Anything Goes, Curtains).  Pippin has some very humorous lines spoken by characters that take themselves overly seriously.  It also seems like it’s trying to convey a serious moral or message while cracking jokes all along the way.  The overall effect is a somewhat tepid and uneven mix that failed to draw me in at times.  The fourth wall violations add to the confusion, though some are very clever.  It’s like the story itself doesn’t know what it wants to be.  Perhaps this is intentional.  Another interesting aspect is that Pippen consists of two acts and Act I is nearly twice as long as Act II.  This imbalance caused the final resolution to seem less-than-fulfilling to me.  This, again, may be intentional.

Whatever the production’s faults, they don’t belong to the performers.  They act and sing well, conveying their characters thoughts and emotions and they can get quite complex, especially for Pippin.  The actors travel seamlessly between the story’s humor and seriousness and the minor characters make the most of their lines to establish their presence.  I felt convinced along with Pippin by the others’ manipulation, happy in his awkward excitement, and I shared his disappointment.

By far the most engaging the most engaging character is the female one played by male actor, Gedde Watanabe of 16 Candles fame.  Don’t worry, his costume is traditional and doesn’t showcase his “bust” like the other female characters’ costumes.  But his hilarious manner, lines, and singing captivate the audience.  The laughs just keep coming one after another.

What really defines the production is the music arranged by Marc.  It is much more that the contemporary Hip Hop mentioned in the reviews and the 1970’s Rock of the original score.  It also includes electronic, dance club, carnival-type, atmospheric, and industrial-sounding music.  This list is far from comprehensive.  The music doesn’t just fit or complement the scenes but it defines them and sets their tone.  There are times when the music seems to contrast with the action on stage but it still works.  It also fits well with the singing.  The songs are from the original first performed in the 70’s but, with Marc’s arranging, they don’t sound like 70’s relics.  He hasn’t just updated them but redefined them as unique works of art that would stand on their own in any era.  I was impressed with the vast variety of sounds in the music.  Marc conceded to me afterward that much of it was pre-recorded.  He was been working on it since last November and he had to refine much of it during rehearsals to fit the singing, choreography, and the scenes.  He described to me how this was a lot of work but still worth it in the end.  I could hear that the work definitely wasn’t wasted.  The music had its own presence but it never clashed with the action or the mood.  It never seemed too contemporary or too dated and its variety kept all the scenes fresh.  The music reflected Pippin’s journey from one new adventure to another.  I could almost view the production most appropriately as an extended music video of Marc’s arrangements.  To quote it, this could be the show’s “corner of the sky.”

Check it out.  Tickets and more info are available at www.eastwestplayers.org.

We went to Briganti for dinner on Saturday, May 3, 2008 to celebrate “Parents’ Day” with my in-laws. We celebrated Mother’s Day since my sister-in-law would be out of town on the actual Mother’s Day and we celebrated Father’s day since our parents (my in-laws) would be out of town on the actual Father’s day. Briganti is on Mission Street just east of Fair Oaks Ave.

We arrived just before our reservation time of 5:30 pm and the restaurant wasn’t very crowded, a situation that would change completely within a half-hour. They seated us at a table in a kind of outdoor alleyway with a roof. It gave the place the feel of dining al fresco without being directly under the sun. The “walls” were the red brick exterior walls of the restaurant and the adjacent building and there was a bar at the back of the “alley.” The restaurant also had a fully indoor section. Our table was actually two smaller tables pushed together. Unfortunately the tables weren’t quite even and we had to be careful with the placement of our glasses. They took our drink orders and served us a small basket of bread and a small plate with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. There were two types of bread in the basket: long pieces of thin pita-like bread and smaller, thicker pieces of another kind. I only had the thin bread and it was pretty good.

They took our orders for entrees and first served mom her zucchini soup. Later all our entrees came at the same time. I had the Spaghetti Vongole or spaghetti with clams. The spaghetti was in the middle of the plate and the small claims in their open shells surrounded it. I had to shell all the claims and mix them into the spaghetti. This wasn’t too hard since the pasta was cooked al dente and therefore wasn’t sticky and it was also tossed with oil. Despite not being as colorful as the dishes with tomato sauce, the spaghetti had a lot of flavor. It tasted like they tossed it with the clams’ juices, some white wine, garlic, pepper, oil, and parsley. The claims were cooked but not the least bit chewy. The dish was surprising filling. It did not seem like a lot of food. My wife had the Risotto Contadino that consisted of rice with sausage, asparagus, and other vegetables. She didn’t like that the rice was cooked only to al dente but otherwise she liked it.

As I mentioned, the restaurant got very crowded. It’s a good thing with made a reservation. Our servers weren’t very responsive in refilling our drinks. Perhaps this was because the restaurant automatically charged us a 18% gratuity. Restaurants don’t usually do that for parties of six.

The menu stated that they had “house desserts” but didn’t state what they were. We settled the bill and walked around to find an ice cream place or other place to have dessert. We didn’t find anything open and after returning to the house we had some bananas and dark chocolate peanut butter from Peanut Butter Company. Overall, it was a good Parents’ Day.

Bless Me, Ultima was selected for the One Book One Campus campaign at Cal State L.A. The campaign encouraged all students to read the book between March 15 and April 19. During that time, the campus also sponsored activities related to the book such as lectures and discussions. I heard about it late in the campaign and wasn't able to partake of the activities. I didn't want to participate until I had finished the book and I didn't finish until after the campaign ended.

Bless Me, Ultima is categorized as a book for "young adults" and it was in the Young Adult section of the Covina Public Library where I checked it out. It is told in the first person by a child protagonist, Antonio Marez, and spans his life from age 6 to age 8. His prospective is one of childlike innocence that would probably appeal to younger readers. However, the book contains intense situations and complicated themes that appeal to us readers that are no longer "young adults." When I saw that it was under "young adult" I thought it would be somewhat sanitized, perhaps a bit sugar-coated and optimistic. For the first third of the book it seems this way. But then the book gets more intense. The situations are no longer so "black and white." "Real life" intrudes into Antonio's "perfect" world.

The book starts out as if it could be a true story, a semi-fictional memoir of the author's childhood. Antonio lives in rural New Mexico during the1940's around the time World War II is ending. Ultima, a curandera or healer from their past comes to live with Antonio and his family. Their life seems idyllic in their house on the llano or plains across the river from the town of Guadalupe. But their life changes as "reality" crosses the river to their home. Evil threatens the family. Antonio also starts going to school that is all in English. He and his family speak Spanish at home and the book features some dialogue in Spanish. One third of the way through the book, elements of fantasy start to appear. They are a combination of American Indian legends and superstition. Antonio also has vivid dreams that reflect the fantasy, intensity, and tragedy in his waking life. The fantastic elements blend seamlessly into the story's realism. They also have their own logic and developed theory with plausible evidence that make them seem even more real. This use of "Magic Realism" grew popular among Latin American authors during the '60's and '70's. Rudolfo Anaya is a Mexican-American author originally from Pasturas, New Mexico, a town mentioned in Bless Me, Ultima.

Antonio seems to be the perfect child. He is obedient, respectful of his elders, and he does well in school despite being an English learner. His friends at school are a rowdy, tough bunch. The few times he misbehaves usually result from peer pressure and he rarely gets caught. However, the internal thoughts that Antonio shares with the reader reveal a very conflicted and confused child. He grapples with his parents having different ideas for his future. Most of his struggles are with religion. His parents, especially his mother, are devout Catholics yet he learns of Pagan beliefs that seem equally valid. He can't understand how the Christian God can justify the terrible things that happen. He also experiences the changes of growing up. As an adult, I had forgotten how much children grow up between the ages of 6 and 8. These are pivotal ages. They start school and if they're Catholic they receive their first communion. They start to feel the pressure of parental expectations. Most children today are probably more sheltered from tragedy than Antonio (though children in poor neighborhoods probably suffer more tragedy and hardship), but that doesn't mean they don't struggle. Today's world is more complex, faster-paced, and the expectations are different. After reading books about childhood such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Angela's Ashes, it might be interesting to read about the experience of a present-day child. I may have to wait until the authors grow up to write about it and by then it would no longer be "present day." Perhaps I could find a book about someone's childhood that occurred at the same times as mine, or I could get real ambitious and write about my childhood.

Bless Me, Ultima is not a happy book, though the part about the Christmas play is laugh-out-loud funny. The book creates a vivid child's world that has the multi-layered complexity to appeal to adults of all ages.

On Saturday, May 10, 2008 we went to El Gallo Pinto for lunch to celebrate getting our Economic Stimulus Payment. We figured we could use some of it to help stimulate the economy of our hometown. I had read about El Gallo Pinto the day before in the San Gabriel Tribune in the column titled Dining on a Budget. It said they served authentic Nicaraguan cuisine. This sounded intriguing. I’ve enjoyed every Latin American food I’ve had and I didn’t recall trying Nicaraguan food.

El Gallo Pinto is located in a strip mall on the southwest corner of Azusa Avenue and Gladstone Street in Azusa. It’s at the south end of the strip mall behind another building making it hard to find. But it’s well worth looking for it. Luckily it was open at 11 am, though we were to only ones there. It’s a small restaurant with most of the tables having one booth bench on one side and two dining chairs on the other. The sign above the front door stated that they serve both Nicaraguan and Mexican food. The server/hostess greeted us in Spanish and she spoke Spanish to us the entire time she served us after first stating she didn’t speak English. I was able to understand most of what she said and order for us. My minor in Spanish from Willamette U. came in handy. My wife said, “Wow, this place is hard core (Latin American).” We sat in a corner booth where some paintings, masks, and small sculptures of Nicaraguan art were placed on the walls and shelves. I knew the paintings were Nicaraguan because they were signed “Imaculada, Nicaragua ’96”. There were these three similar masks with different expression on them: one looked surprised, another happy, and another goofy. On the wall near us there was also a map of Nicaragua with its states or provinces in different colors.

The server gave us our menus that consisted of two pages, one with all the Nicaraguan foods and the other with all the Mexican Food. Each page had all the foods in English and Spanish. The menus also had the Nicaraguan national anthem on the back in Spanish only. We focused on the Nicaraguan foods. There was a list of meat entrees such as beef or pork brochetas, Indian beef, mincemeat, and beef tongue. Each meat entrée came with a choice of sides: gallo pinto, salad, tortillas or fried plantains. Gallo pinto, for which the restaurant is named, is the traditional Nicaraguan dish of rice and beans mixed together. There was a list of a la cart items such as Nacatamal (Nicaraguan tamale), fried plantains (served madura (ripe) or verde (green), and fried cheese. We didn’t examine the Mexican items much but we noticed there were many Mexican desserts such as Flan, bunuelos (fritters of yucca, dough, and cheese), sweet corn tamales, guirilas (sweet corn tortillas), and sopa boracha (rum cake). The desserts were priced at only $2-3 each that’s far less than most sit-down restaurants charge for desserts. My wife thought she might like to try the rum cake since one of our coworkers makes it and has offered to bring it to office functions, though she hasn’t been able to get the boss’s permission.

The server took our orders and I figured it would be a while before we got our food since the review in the paper said the food takes a while to come. But it didn’t take long for the server to bring us our a la cart items. My wife ordered the fried cheese and I ordered the fried plantains served madura. The fried cheese looked like a large slab of tofu and my wife enjoyed it. The plantains were sweet, soft, and crunchy on the edges. We were also served a small slaw salad that tasted like it had vinegar or pickle juice on it. There was also a small bowl of garlic or onions that I didn’t get a chance to try. We were less than halfway through our a la cart items when the server brought us our entrees. My wife ordered the chicken in sauce or pollo caldillo or something like that. It consisted of chicken drumsticks and other dark meat in a red sauce with green pepper, and olives. It came with a side of gallo pinto, and some fried plantains (madura). She said everything was delicious and the chicken was cooked perfectly. I had the Nacatamal or Nicaraguan tamale that was served on top of the green plantain leaves in which in had been wrapped. It was larger and wider than a Mexican tamale. Mixed in the cornmeal masa were chancho (pork), small slices of potato, rice, raisins, olives, red pepper, onion, and some red spices. It was delicious and filling but not too much food.

We asked the server what desserts they had and the server said, “flan y bunuelos.” We asked if we could have the sopa boracha and she said she would check. She came back and said we could and I ordered it for my wife. It was a white-yellow cake with a brown exterior with raisins and smothered in a rum sauce. My wife actually didn’t like the strong taste of the rum and I ate most of it. I also felt the rum taste was too strong. But the other foods we had more than made up for the dessert. While we were eating, more people came to the restaurant. One couple ordered some food take-out. A man came up and ask us if we were enjoying everything. We guessed that he might be the owner or manager of El Gallo Pinto. We paid our bill and as we left the parking lot at the strip mall was getting very crowded.

I’m glad there are some great restaurants in Azusa such as El Gallo Pinto where we can spend our Economic Stimulus payment and help the local economy.