Gangway Broadway

      Hollywood. This was the city where stars were born and stories came to life on the big-screen, and where the streets were “paved with gold.” At least, that is what I thought in 1998 when my family traveled to Hollywood to watch The Lion King (the musical) performed on-stage. I’ll never know how my Aunts were able to afford the $80 dollar tickets to the show—a gift for which I am still grateful—but they saved enough to pay for seven seats. They were impressed by any show that won a Tony award, and The Lion King had received special attention at the awards that same year. At ten years old, the significance of a Tony award mattered little to me. I was just happy to see my favorite movie since elementary school done on Broadway.

            Watching my favorite movie on Broadway in Hollywood, the land of old movie stars, was a dream come true. I expected the long drive it took to reach Hollywood from Anza thinking as every mile flew past that we were closer and closer to the El Dorado of California. In my imagination the city would radiate majesty and beauty. What I did not expect was the lack of all this—the aged buildings that stood several stories high and seemed to lean on each other for support, or the faded hue to the sidewalks and store fronts. Hollywood was the first city filled with very tall buildings I had ever seen, but my amazement with that did not lessen my disappointment. The general atmosphere of Hollywood felt tired and worn, like it wanted nothing more than to rest after years of reigning from its pedestal of glory. Even the stars on the walk of fame looked dusty, as if spiders and their webs would take up residence there if the occasional visitor did not walk over the names (I was looking for Kermit the Frog, by the way).

            I watched a woman, who resembled the bird lady from Mary Poppins in her knitted stocking cap and bulky trench coat, save an injured pigeon. That was interesting.

            After our stroll down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, my family came to the Pantages Theater, where the Lion King would take place. We brought out our tickets and handed them to a well-dressed man at the entrance. Entering the main lobby of the Pantages Theater was similar to entering an enormous ballroom. Stripped of the carpet, I thought it could very well be the same ballroom from Beauty and the Beast. I did not have much time to consider the giant chandelier hanging from the ceiling, or to wonder what movie that reminded me of because before I knew it, my mother grabbed my hand and led me into the auditorium, commenting that the show would start soon.

            The main auditorium was pitch-black save for two sets of lights on either side of each aisle, and with some difficulty we found our seats. I was towards the end of the row, beside the aisle, and our row was halfway into the wave of velvety red seats in the room. Then came that natural period of commotion, with everyone’s voices bouncing off the walls—and I shivered because it was chilly.

            Finally, all the guests found their seats and quieted down as an actress came on stage, carrying a large walking stick. She was portraying the wise monkey Rafiki, and when she cried out the first line in “Circle of Life,” there was an explosion of lights over and around the stage. I’ll never forget how the room filled with warmth, or how I suddenly felt lost in the show. Lines of actors dressed in elaborate animal costumes came down the aisles. A papier-mâché bird with a long neck swooped overhead, and I could reach out and touch the elephants stomping past. The music, the lights, the actors,  and my growing sense of wonder combined into pure delight and an  unforgettable experience.

            My earlier disappointment faded right then, and never came back. The Broadway show restored my happiness by letting me glimpse Hollywood as it really was today. It may have seemed faded and decrepit on the outside, but inside was where the city truly shone. Peeling my eyes from the stage and glancing at my family—my Aunts, parents, and older brother—I wondered if they shared my sentiment, and from their wide-eyed expressions, I believe they did. 

Double Vision

An interesting (and true) story:

A man walked into the DMV to apply for his driver’s license, but first he needed to overcome one important hurdle: his vision test. The person administering this exam got a shock when the man pulled out two pairs of glasses and overlapped them. “I bought these glasses at the Goodwill,” he explained. “When I put the lenses together, I can see.”

He failed the test.

“Those weren’t the right ones.” He protested, chucking the first two pairs of glasses onto the ground. And then the man took two more glasses from the stash he apparently had in his pocket and tried again.

He failed the test.

Needless to say, all his attempts to pass the vision test using glass from the Goodwill ended the same way—and eventually he stormed from the DMV with an empty pocket and DMV employees musing over his strategy.    

Some Poetry

A Lost Sole*

I remember…

I went to the beach,

When the tide was high,

And the reeds caught at my calves.

The sand squeezed between my toes,

And invited me to play a game

Of lasting memory.

It’s been ten years since that day,

When I gave my sole to the beach—

I hope it remembers me.

*Also Published in Oh, Cat 2010.

A Brief Recommended Book List for Writers

There are countless reading lists out there for beginning or professional writers, each of which offers helpful selections. Here is one such list with reasons included:

• Diane Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference (Seventh Edition)
• The Hacker reference guides are well known for compiling all the information needed to properly format your citations and is a necessity for skilled writers, as well as college students. It gives thorough explanations for tackling MLA and APA—along with sample essays.
• This edition also happens to be the one that shows the changes recently made for formatting Works Cited pages (such as the rule to italicize book titles, rather than underline them).
• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Seventh Edition) from the Modern Language Association of America.
• This handbook is another reference guide for proper citations and more like the Hacker guide, but this one comes right from MLA.
• It goes into better detail on formatting the margins for papers and gives great tips or sources on how to do better research on any topic.
• William Zinsser’s On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
• Unlike the first two choices on this list, On Writing Well contains straightforward prose and discussions aimed exclusively towards serious writers. He gives advice on, well, nonfiction—and many genres within that category.
• His book has sections dealing with each phase in the writing process, from getting started to making revisions. Zinsser pushes for writers to be concise and avoid clutter in their work (a commendable quality). 

That’s all for now.

From one Scribe calling across the internet plains

“Cities and Thrones and Powers,

      Stand in Time’s eye,

Almost as long as flowers,

     Which daily die:

But, as new buds put forth,

    To glad new men,

Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth,

   The Cities rise again.”

                                  --Puck of Pook’s Hill, Rudyard Kipling

Writers must write, as flowers must bloom—and each talent or gift needs careful attention to grow strong. I am a young woman determined to blossom into something grand, and every writer has a starting point. This site will be dedicated to writing, but if all goes well, it’ll also include much more than that.

Here are a few hopes I have for this blog: 

1.     To exhibit writings (mine and any willing visitors’) for critiques.

2.     To provide helpful information on getting our creative work published, and to note decent literary magazines or publishers.

3.     To form a writer’s circle.

4.     To grow as a person and writer.

Please enjoy a career under construction.