Tabishland

It's under contstruction folks, but give it a looksee. Suggestions? Complaints? Unresolved issues from 25 years ago?

http://tabish.chesapeakeshakespeare.com/index.htm

-Ian

(Picture of me working on the site enjoying a refreshing beverage)

To respond to Liza's comments on one of the posts:

1. Yes, you can remove your own comments - just click the little trash can next to them. They aren't completely erased until I delete them, but they disappear from the blog.

Posts on the main page can only be deleted by me - so if you slip up let me know and I'll remove it ( or actually, if you just correct it and repost it , I'll go in and take out the first incorrect one. )

2. The identity of willie is unknown, as he/she is not a registered blogger on this site (in which case I would know because I would have been the one to invite them here). Remember, anyone anywhere can post comments on the site (Roseann.... we're waiting.....)

I like this photo. A nice TABleau, if you will. And without any Lean-ins. Eric has that gravitas for which he was justly famous, Janine's motherly concern looks real, Gene and JuliAnne look like they're straight out of "To Kill a Mockingbird", GD looks very period with his saloonkeeper armband. And the pump ACTUALLY WORKS. Pretty good for a HS. But is that Ian drawing focus from Jennie and Kim by looking at Boz?

Click here to see another blog that some of us have been contributing to- http://pumliconni.blogspot.com/

Nell- tell Emily she can't read it.

Does "TAB" in the contributors list mean DRT is amongst us?
(excited whispering and giggling in the background)

The photos from 06/17/06 have been thinned - dupes removed, some semblance of a sequence, new snotty comments and two animated gifs.

Sorry for the delay - I actually had to work this week. What's up with that?

Tabapalooza photos are here. Thanks to Liza for putting together the text material from the show.

No snide captions yet and the photos are in a pretty random order. I'll get back to it. Ian has a great new portal for all things Tabish, but I haven't linked to it yet. I have a metric buttload of stuff from Ginger - lots of PVP and other non-IAHS related stuff. I'll try and get to it on Sunday but no promises.

Follow the link in the title.

Since the Blogger King appears to be taking a nap, I thought I would briefly share something: summer nights. I saw the first firefly this evening, and as with every summer, I thought of Indiana. For some reason, from early childhood through early adulthood, summer nights in Indiana were compelling, joyful, and full of adventure. My big regret last week-end (besides not having enough time to speak with enough of you) was not being able to drive around, maybe try to find Pleasant Valley Playhouse, scare ourselves in a cemetery (I don't know WHEN that got to be a passtime, but it sure was - talk about bored teen-agers!) Anyway....summertime. Loved it. Miss it with you guys.

"Kim Contrucci handled the difficult role of Maria with a sophistication above that of a high school actress."
But she later takes a bullet for another actor: "...the urge to gallop returned at the most inappropriate moments."
"Ted Hurd...provided much of the comedy element...and helped rescue the show from several weak moments."
"Nell Hoffman...stood out clearly among the seven children."
"This same dynamic strength filled the small but dominating form fof Nazi Storm trooper Tim Weiner." (No small parts, blah,blah,blah...or a screamed bad accent always gets noticed.)
"...an enormous amount of praise is deserved by the technical crew..." (See Joe, the techies get credit, mostly for the brilliant special FX of the edelweiss covered alpine boulder/slide projector thingie that Kim had to sing to.)

I am so grateful to Kim for having created/ enabled/constructed / developed Tabishmania. She did a tremendous amount of cajoling, flattering and insisting in order to get this thing done. What a great job she did leading this for Dave and for all of us.

I remain in awe of her for her beauty, presence and talent. It's because of this (like 30 years ago) I sometimes forget to express to her directly how much I admire her and her effortsand how much affection I have for her. .

Join me in expressing your appreciation to her with a song lyric that expresses your feelings. I'll start with the Queen song "Dragon Attack" Please feel free to add your own.

"She don't take no prisoners
Gonna give me the business
Got a dragon on my back
It's a dragon attack
Get down
I said so
Hey hey
All right "

Ian

A rare example of his insightful, concise directing style and testament to his artistic vision. Signed! And evidence that the grumpiness is urban legend: he uses the magic word at the start of the sentence. Had to bid against "italianstallion" and "genebert" to get the damn thing and they ran the price up to $1.47.

Photographic proof that I was actually on stage with the Obiwanabish (he's stage R, me stage L). But get this: he's playing Grumio and I'm playing Gremio in "Taming of". Roles that had ACTUALLY been done the year before by Jeff Magee and Kurt Stedje at the fabled PVP and Hunt Club. Whoa. And if one does a Gru/emio vowel switch in their names, it comes out Juff Maguu and Kert Studju. Omigod, you see the pattern, don't you? I think Ian may be in jeopardy.....

Lots of really good schmacting-- as Joe would say-- going on in these photos. Tough call on Most Dramatic, but I think Kim's ability to act even with a paper mache rock and Eric's blocking to show off his butt, give them the edge. Credit to GD for the David Cassidy look and to Jennie for the pre-Princess Leia danish muffin hairstyle. And I think the judges had a soft spot for the Pesceyne kid and Jim Fetterman.

Ted receives the coveted Stage Crew Varsity "I" from a very sartorial MISTER Tabish (houndstooth polyester!). Al Scerbo and the jocks look on with unmitigated envy.

Scene: midtown Manhattan
Time: November, 2005

Kim: Tabish is retiring this year, wanna go back to see him?
Eric: Sure, whatever. Hey, Weiner, I have Mealy's # in my cell phone; let's call and annoy him.
Kim: No seriously, let's meet in Indiana and throw a small party for him.
Tim: OK, whatever. Why don't you work out the details Kim and get back to us. Eric, why would you have his cell # in your address book?

8 months later...

Kim: Hey kids, we're gonna put on a show! We can build a stage in Noker's bar(n). My mom can make a curtain, Anne can direct, Ian can star, Jeff can do the music and Joe can be the tech guy. We'll rehearse at Nell's and Carol and Liza will do the PR. It'll be swell. And if we raise enough money, we might even be able to buy some colored paint for the set!

The photo from the Gazette. Interesting that it ran at the bottom of the obiturary page. Notice how Dr. McWeinery snuck into the background. Mr T (I pity the fool who uses his downstage hand!) looks a bit scared by the giant Stedje photo. Mr. Jenkins is definitely checking out Mrs. Andersen. And yes, Nell, what were you thinking?

Here we all are, ca. 1978. We all wore flowers in our hair--mine's pinned in the back. What a night we had!

The heartfelt sincerity of Tabapolooza '06, compels me to come clean about the infamous "cricket cage" incident. (By way of disclosure, several years ago I confessed my sin to Friar Tabish.)

Truly, it was an inspired peice of stagecraft, carefully calculated to steal the scene from GD and Nell. Admittedly, it usurped MISTER Tabish's directorial and creative perogative and now, as an adult, I can understand why he did not appreciate it's comic brilliance. (Power trip thing of his.)

My image was of a slightly lost character who gets himself into a small but embarassing situation. Sort of like the village idiot with a boogie stuck on his finger who is trying to no avail to get it off. Funny in a crude sort of way. And I was trying to amuse Lisa and myself during some boring plot exposition part of the play.

Anyway, and in spite of my privledged position as IHS royalty, I too, was taken aback at the ferocity with which MISTER Tabish contested my artistic choice. In fact, like the terrified 10th graders watching off stage, I was scared speechless. To the extent that I even pretended like the cage was actually stuck in a ploy for mercy and sympathy. It did in fact cause Him to flinch, briefly, as perhaps he tried to imagine explaining to a lawyer or school board review committee why he had jeopardized a student and cut short his future career as a surgeon.

Before he could discover the truth, I mananged to "suddenly" free my hand. But then had to endure the pedantic scolding about props that now counts as another important life lesson for so many of us.

The observation that this moment remains vivid 28 years later and has reached somewhat mythological status tells me he probably should have let me keep it in the play. Oh well. Genius is often ahead of its time.

(I have to comment on how charmingly Lisa is giggling-- one of her endearing qualities and favorite memories of her-- as I stand there with such a stupid smirk on my adolescent slab of face.)

The link explains the connection. But where is Nell?

I'm going through withdrawal. What is the Tabishland equivalent of methadone?

I mean, for a friend, my friend wants to know.

Tabapalooza was last night and a huge success. Dave was completely surprised and perhaps for the first time ever, speechless - hard to believe but it's true.

The events in a nutshell:

Friday night was the PrePreParty at the home of Stanley and Janine Lazor. They have a beautiful home with a view of Indiana and the surrounding woods that can't be described. It was a fun night of renewing friendships and in some cases (i.e. moi) meeting people for the first time. The talking and eating went on late - I left around 12:30 am and apparently the Heather's stayed until close to 2 am. I'd like to offer our thanks to Stanley, Janine's husband, for being so gracious - he's a very funny, low key man and the perfect foil for our Ms. Dropcho.

Saturday afternoon was the PreParty at the home of Don and Nell Coleman. People came and went all afternoon, kids and parents swam in the pool, Sendrac spouses bonded while trying to remember who was who, and much food was again consumed. Don proved to be another low key and funny guy leaving me to wonder just what it is that draws these patient good men to crazy girls like the former Sendracian Women. That's perhaps a study better left to another writer (Dr. McWeinery??) A special thanks Elizabeth and Emily, Nell's charming daughters, who kindly watched the pool and the kids so the parents could focus on visiting. Nell's son Sean seems to be the smartest of that family as he kept a very low profile and got the heck out of there as soon as he was allowed. And Elizabeth, your mom will be spending much less time on the computer so she won't forget to pick you up again.

Saturday night was the main event. I'm not the person to write about it in detail, but I know many of you who couldn't make it are anxious to know how things went. Hopefully others will be posting with details about the various moments so I'll give the general overview. Dave and Irene arrived and through a clever ruse involving half of Indiana and most of the citizens of Chautauqua, Dave was surprised and thrilled. He spent the evening catching up with everyone and watching himself being made fun of in a 45 minute entertainment extravaganza. The party room was fantastic and not enough thanks can be given to Dave Noker for his Herculean efforts in making the room setup and service during the evening seamless and smooth .

I know a number of folks took photos - I'd appreciate if you'd contact me to arrange for me to get copies. I looked briefly at the video shot and while a lot of it is too dark to make out what is going on, a number of the key moments - like the entertainment section - are watchable so I'll be editing that down and putting on a DVD. I'd like to include as much visual info as I can, so most of the website images will be put into slide shows on the DVD as well as people's photos from the event. I can't say when it will happen but hopefully soon (assuming I get photos from the last two days hint-hint). I'll let everyone know when it's ready and send out copies to all who are interested, esp. those of you who couldn't make it.

My profound thanks to everyone involved - I am truly touched by everyone's kindness and dedication to making this night happen. Whether you sent a bio to Liza, gave your house over for invasion, posted a memory to the blog, wrote something for the entertainment, sent a picture for the website, or just wrote to say you couldn't come but wished you could - it all added up to an amazing tribute to an amazing man. It couldn't have been a better night.

We're holding fast at #4 and #6 in the "Dave Tabish" google-thon. It's going to be tough to unseat that darn atheists.com from the number one slot. I guess there are more atheists than Dave Tabish disciples on the web, or at least more atheists who are not also Dave Tabish disciples on the web. But obviously we are funnier.

Thanks to all the first time blog posters - it's so lovely to hear from you.
I'll get the promised scary page up later today on the Sendracs site. Look for it after lunch.

What's the interest level in a Tabish reality show, where under The Man's guidance, aspring thespians audition, rehearse and then perform some play for a panel of sleezy Hollywood talent agents to see who gets a small speaking role in the next Steven Segal action flick? The gimmick is that they have to share a trailer in Blairsville while the cameras record their interactions over the rehearsal period. Should it be open to the public or just former Sendranians? What play?

Sherry can you help us with the pitch and then the production stuff if it gets the green light?

Seriously, if it weren’t for the dynamo Mr. Tabish’s bullying , meanness, intimidation, stubbornness, god-like teacher-ego, ISAIDNO!attitude… whatever!…Excruciatingly Shy Janine seriously would NEVER have taken a high school theatre class, would NEVER have appeared on stage, would NEVER have met or socially associated with anyone who called themselves Sendracians?, would NEVER have majored in theatre in college against her father’s wishes, would NEVER have enjoyed a professional theatre career, would NEVER have become a teacher who now in her fourteenth year, teaches thousands of dramatic type students just like her once-self to take risks and to always strive for more in all of their serious and not so serious dramatic endeavors inside and outside of the classroom and on the stage. (And a whole lot more.)

It all started in eleventh grade when some kind of guidance office mess-up (and she did consider it a SERIOUS, DISASTEROUS, LIFE THREATENING mess-up at the time) scheduled her for an acting class as one of her English classes. (Does anyone remember when IAHS students could select their area of English study???) Reportedly, she took her drop slip to the infamous TabishGod where she expected him to happily sign off his okay on the dotted line. (She was much more interested in the cool class that covered the Existentialism of Dr. Seuss’s poetry than in an acting class. Seriously.) Much to her dismay and then to her raging disbelief, he, Mr. TabishGod, REFUSED to let her drop the class!!!!! Needless to say she was furious, and used every arsenal at her disposal.(Which at that time amounted to about two things…whining (serious whining) and sulking, really award winning dramatic sulking, to get him to just sign the ridiculous drop slip. If anyone remembers, this was the era in public education when students would NOT complain to the office and especially NOT to their parents about this obviously serious violation of some kind of civil rights code…THAT would have made the problem nine million times worse and probably would have caused a SERIOUS grounding for Janine for the rest of the school year if not for her life time for being so disrespectful to an elder AND to a teacher.(A double oh-no))
He, Mr. Tabish, even more stubbornly held his NO! ground and refused to put Shy Janine out of her painfully obvious misery…with a smile on his face.
So…here she was, horribly STUCK in an acting class with REAL actors who felt no embarrassment at doing strange, weird stretches and unbelievably odd exercises at the beginning of each class, with no way out. She was bound and determined to ruin it for everyone. ( Back to a reminder of public education at that time, students didn’t really have the chutzpah to ruin class for the other students or for what they imagined to be their hated teacher.) She silently, but painfully, endured the class as best she could.

One day, a Miss Gerlach, tapped Shy Janine on the shoulder and said that she had been hearing from Mr. Tabish himself, some wonderful things about her work in his acting class. Janine thought, (but of course wouldn’t say out loud to a TEACHER), “Are you kidding me? I hate that class, and I hate that man who thinks he can ruin my life, and I hate all those overly dramatic Sendracians, who probably are the ones who are smoking in the back and getting us all in trouble and are ruining our high school, and I know I’m STUCK there for a WHOLE LIFETIME of a semester and everything, but if you think I’m going to show up in front of you and the entire universe after school ON MY OWN TIME and make a fool out of myself to audition…well, you’ve just got another thing coming. HUMMMMMPH.”
She must have really said something else out loud like, “WHAT? Me???” because she did go to that audition somehow…and was cast as Mrs. Gibbs… and then went on to act in a few more plays and sign up for every single English class that Mr. Tabish taught. She quit marching band for him, which she loved (weren’t there like nine days of rehearsals every week?), lost her “other friends”, whom she loved, because they didn’t understand, even defied her father, whom she really loved and respected, because she had been given that little taste of theatre and she was desperately hungry for more…
All because of a little man in polyester slacks whom had strange ideas about the first five minutes of every class, whom she still can only call MISTER Tabish, took a notice of her, and invited (well, technically, forced) her to take a risk.

That risk has guided and greatly fulfilled my entire life.
From my heart, thank you so much Mister Tabish.

I visited Indiana last summer with my daughter (11 then) to show her where I grew up. We rolled by the high school, the junior high, along Philadelphia Street, past the Putt and Gallanar homes, and out to my boyhood home in Shadowood Village. I had not been back in over a decade and through many mixed emotions I realized you really can never go back. No matter how hard you try and no matter how hard you want to, nothing and no one will be the same as it was for the moments and years you were there. YOU are not even the same and you can never return to that. And I'm not talking about the added pounds, hair loss, or any cosmetic surgury. Mentally, we were all at different stages and we were maturing at different rates into who we are today.

So as I drove around Indiana last July, I tried to recall the wind blowing through my hair as I would ride my ten-speed into town along Warren Road; tried to recall swimming out at the bridge across Two Lick Creek reservoir; tried to recall softball games on a makeshift diamond at the corner of Warren and Barclay Roads; tried to recall the shows I worked on as a Sendracs member; tried to recall a simpler time for me before I grew up and life got much more complicated.

But as we left Indiana, I couldn't help but feel things have worked out well for me. I am pretty darn happy here in Morgantown with many close friends. The trip made me appreciate all the more what is right here in front of me right now, and how sometimes you have to leave to remember what you had in the first place.

For those that return to Indiana this weekend, I hope you all enjoy the trip back in time. Laugh it up, enjoy the company, and needle Dave Tabish on entering retirement.

Dave Tabish's prom picture. Posted on the Sendracs site. Follow the link.

Today the Sendracs Website moved up one slot to #6 on the "Google Dave Tabish" race and Tabishland rose a whopping 11 slots up to #9. Keep up the good work - remember we want the one true Dave Tabish in top slot by Friday.

Also, there are a lot of lurkers on this site, not to name any names (Carol, Jennie, Roseann, Scott, Chip, Kurt, Janine) . Come on in , the water's fine. As incentive, if any one of you posts something in the next 12 hours, I'll open up the webpage I've been holding back on - a page so terrifying it will make you scream for bloody murder.

The gauntlet is down.

PS. Comments on this post don't count - it has to be an original post. Here's some topics if you're coming up blank:

• The funniest thing I ever saw Ian do
  
• 10 things that make me think of Dave Tabish
  
• The sneakiest thing I ever got away with on-stage
  
• My favorite thing about Ginger Hulbert [ed. Ginger, you already know my answer...]
  
• If Eric Jenkins was a food it would be....
  
• The Grapes of Brunos: top non-IAHS sendracs hangouts
  
• One Hit Wonders - people who only did one IAHS show and got a big part
  
• What if? - plays that should have been done and who would be cast in them
  
• Chip Salerno: The nicest man in Show Business (and when I say business, you know I mean the Industry)
  
• Other than Thurber, top ten things that should have been painted brown
  

PPS. Anyone use the spell check yet? It wants to make Tabish "tabbies" .

I'm sorry, I had to do it. Joe keeps talking about how many hits Tabishland is getting, and as a result, Tabishland is moving up in Google. Well, here is one of the big problems that plagues me in life: I can't be Googled. I went from the most unusual name in the world, which gets NO hits because I stopped using it in 1986, to one of the most common names in the world (Kim Andersen = 186,000 hits. Kimberly Andersen, the name I use as often, is better, but I'm still mixed in with the lady at the massage center and a multitude of others). You only start to get anywhere if you add +"New Jersey" or +"East Brunswick," but who has time for that? It's not that I've done that much, but I want my 15 minutes of fame! Thank you for indulging me.

A few new things over at the Kim Alter (which is sort of turning into the Anne K-M alter I notice. We may have to settle this with a brawl in the alley outside the Coney). We've got Nell's photos of the memory blocks (aka "the tombstones") on their own page and lots of new pictures spread around, especially in 1978-80 (some from Dr. W , some from Roseann and a bunch from the AKM collection, hence the competition for Dame Kim). A couple of new photos of THE MAN himself.

The Photo site comes up #7 and this blog comes up #20 if you google "Dave Tabish". Hope Dave doesn't Google himself. We've had hits from Japan, South America and Canada - probably random but who knows the true reach of Dr. T's influence. My goal by Saturday is to unseat the pretender David Tabish, the "family values" crusader/insurance salesman from Utah, with the One True Dave Tabish at the top of all Googles for "DaveTabish".

Keep the blog traffic high.

One of the most astounding things in my memory were the Stage Crew dinners in which Dave and Irene welcomed us into their home and Irene cooked dinner for the Stage Crew. I was used to my Mom's cookin- who- although a wonderful woman with many great talents, has never been much of a cook (read: terrible- I was 125 lbs in High School for a reason). I have a distict memory of Irene's delicious french onion soup. I remember being very flattered about being invited to their home (the second floor of a house off of, maybe 5th street?). Looking back, it was such a wonderfully generous thing. I mean, could you imagine?

What an extraordinary thing to do.

Also, how many of you remember applying to Stage Crew? That was really an elite thing that of which I felt very privileged to be a part.

Anybody else have any memories of that?

Given the resurgence in nicknames (see link), it may be time to come clean and catharse and get things off our backs. Nicknames, as demonstrated by the great GWB, are a subtle way the elite (the Most Popular clique/the Heathers) maintain their power. Being, of course, sensitive to (last) names, I empathize with the downtrodden and am left wondering: The Bone? Bin? LB? Mealy/Mili/Mealey/Meely? Shay? etc. Anyone care to get on the record for this? And god forbid me from asking this, what was Joe's? and Ian's? And while were at it, this might be a good place to catalogue all of MISTER Tabish's aliases and their backstories, if you dare.

As I enjoy Liza's PLAYBILL (still evolving as I write) I continue to look for The daDave Code patterns. Certainly there is the DT birthdate of 6/6/66 & the multiplicity of plays he directed with titles with "M" words or references to small rodents in them & his name, which is almost an anagram for the guano of a small (flying) rodent. But the striking phenomenon is, of course, how many people he taught who have gone on to fantastic careers in The Arts. Is this just a epi-phenomenon of the late 70s/early 80s, like the association of KC and the Sunshine Band and the Steeler's dynasty or is it real?

Well, if you look at the biographies of everyone listed, there is a broader trend-- in fact, an across the board(s) trend, if you will-- of good lives and good works that transcends easy classification. It's not a simple Arts and Sciences dichotomy. So while the acclaimed artists in the group can probably recognize their hard-learned skill at the Tabish Lean-in in their adult careers (and honor the mentor behind that), the rest of us have to explain the impact he had on us. And so I don't think it's really about the artistic brilliance of the Lean-in. It's really about the precision and enthusiasm with which the Lean-in was performed, be it by future pharmacists, future city managers, or future global economists.

And so I give the guy credit. He stuck with a bunch of overly clever, hormonally-screwed up, misfit adolescents and impressed upon them: dedication and discipline and professionalism and caring about what you do and taking pride in it. They don't show this kind of thing much on Jerry Springer anymore. Not bad for a small town HS drama teacher. (And sometimes it was even fun.)

Tim sent the final issue of the 1978 High Arrow, which has a section devoted to senior memories of past theater productions. The scan looked like the south side of a horse heading north, so its content is transfered to a PDF you can download from the main Sendracs/Tabish page. Also included a couple of other relevant Sendrac mentions from the same issue. If for some reason you don't have a PDF reader on your computer, you can get Adobe Reader free here.

40 new images over on the Sendracs site. Another 80 in the can waiting for time to post them. I think there is something new for every year but 1980-81 and 2005-06.

Dr. McWeinery sent a pile of stuff that, well...if I'd been drinking a Coke it would have come out my nose.... including the Holy Grail of Sendrac-dom: photos of Thurber Carnival!! I'll try and get those out asap but Miranda is in her first play tomorrow - she's Frontier Wife in JOHNNY APPLESEED. Three lines (two are group exclaimations). Following in the minor character/chorus footsteps of her Dad.

Let me know if the pages start taking too long to load - they are easily broken apart into smaller chunks.

Since Tim is taking a break from us to do some doctoring, I'll do the introductions. You'll notice there are two new links on the left. They will take you to new blog pages devoted to memories, photos, and tributes for our friends Gene Haldeman and Lisa Davis. You will need an invite to post there, just like here, so email me. Sorry for the inconvenience but it's the best way to keep them spam free and, well, reverent. Think of them as online memory books. Our lives are all richer for having spent time with Gene and Lisa - if you're inclined, share those memories with each other.

While we're spending hours upon hours mocking each other to no end - here's an email I got last weekend from Roseann Rife, Class of 1980

I am in Hong Kong! Things are going well but really hectic. Tomorrow is June 4, the 17th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre so it has been really busy and we will work all day tomorrow as well. Hong Kong is I think the one place in the world where there is still a commemoration each year with @40,000 people still showing up. It is terribly heartening and sad at the same time. And send special vibes for no rain! 8 hours in the park in a downpour is not my idea of a spiritual event!

Roseann's cool.

I'm not sure who was on the receiving end of a recent Nell email about how unique the Tabapalooza event is in the scheme of reunions. Since I deleted the email - I know: delete tweiner/never (ever) delete Nell - let me restate it by relating a recent conversation from my livingroom.

"Darth Maul could kick Mr. Incredible's ass Daddy!"
"No way buddy! Mr. Incredible rules!"

....No wait... it was after that.

My brother-in-law was in for the weekend with a high school friend of his and they were recalling the glory days with C.E. (that would be my wife and life partner for those who don't know - I like to call her "my first wife" but she gets really pissed at me). As they discussed different folks from their High School, someone posed this question:
"Why don't they have reunions with more than one graduating class? A lot of the people we hung out with weren't in our year and they're the folks I really want to see again."

I realized that's sort of what we're doing. Getting together the folks who hung out in the same corner classroom in the butt end of IAHS. And this blog is the virtual version.

So... Nice to see you all again. Glad to be reassured there was a good reason I liked you all in High School.

Ok, you all have to help me out here. I was walking down the street yesterday evening and a large bird was flying low over my head. I thought it was a strange sight, maybe a heron... or an albatross, had that weird pouch under the beak. Very strange.

Then I remembered...something...about albatrosses and Gene...? What was that about...? Albatrosses on a stick or something? Does anyone remember this?

Ian believes Gene might have become a Buddist.
Don't Buddists believe in reincarnation? Gene wouldn't come back as an albatross, would he. I mean, not if he could help it...?

Because Ian twisted my virtual arm, I'm here to report a couple of memories that will probably strike a chord with maybe 1 or 2 people in the '78-'79 period. If you were around before that, this will be meaningless...but that's probably fair because some of us don't get what the heck the classes of '78 and '77 are talking about. (For example, during an earlier e-mail flurry, I had to look up "weed" in the dictionary, and using context clues did not help me determine which meaning was intended.)

Anyway, youn's are getting in my head because last night I had a dream that Ian, Gene, and I were singing "We're the whales of the chorus"-- in immaculate three-part barbershop-style harmony--and I remembered the words. Something that hasn't happened since about the fall of 1978.

Which reminds me of a time later that year that I did not remember the words. Recently, when I wasn't even looking, I happened to find a little blue paper star on which the following was carefully written: "1979 Senior Sendracs Awards...Keep Smiling and Maybe They Won't Notice Award." This refers to my most glorious moment in high school, when, standing on a bench in cowboy garb, mouth open, mind blank, drenched in a worried sweat, I listened to the orchestra play my song, "Kansas City," as I waited helplessly for the male chorus to save my butt with its refrain, "They've gone about as fur as they c'n go." During rehearsals, Dave had taken me aside and quietly said, "Nice work, Jeff." It was a shock, so I think he must have jinxed me. I'm sure that finally taught him not to go around constantly complimenting everyone on their performances.

How many of you remember experiences at the Pleasant Valley Playhouse? For those of you that don't know, it was a little community theater outside Blairsville. A college buddy of Dave's ran the place and so Dave/Tab/Tabish/Mr. Tabish/Dr.Tabish/Tabbalammadingdong worked there and many of us followed him down there - mostly to hear him use swear words and call him by his first name. So many of us did a stint down there. I remember Kim and Ted and Tim, Stedje, Jeff Magee, Noker, Anne, Ginger (my first experience with Shakespeare was a production of Taming of the Shrew starring Ginger and Tim), Lisa Davis, Janine... who am I forgetting? I think it closed about 81 or so.

I remember seeing the Tabmeister give a particularly good performance as Big Daddy in Cat on A Hot Tin Roof. It seemed like such a long journey- 20 minutes in the car (less than the time it takes me to take my six year old daughter to ballet these days).

Sendracs
Okay, we all know that Sendracs stands for "Senior Dramatics Club". Does anyone remember us going around calling ourselves "Sendranians"?

For those who missed the original genesis of this idea ( and I know when I see tweiner on an email I reach for the DELETE key instinctively), here is his original, visionary proposal:

"Here's another dumb idea, or as Eric the politician would say, "a vision thing": I've been hearing alot about this "innernet" thing and was wondering if it's gotten to Indiana yet. If so, perhaps we could build a sort of on-line party-line, a w-e-b-l-o-g or "blog", if I might coin a phrase. Maybe call it Tablog or Tabtriblog or A Virtual Room For Chuckles. A gathering place in the ether for all of Tablish's acolytes or at least where I, probably alone, can post and read my clever, witty but ultimately sophomoric emails.

Might even be a place where the little big man himself would drop by for a posting in a spot perhaps called "Dave's Quiet Corner" or "A Space To Call My Own".
The Tabish Wisdom so sorely missing in today's celeb-driven, go-go world: how to build an English manor house or an Okinawan village out of cardboard, masking tape and spackled latex, Schmime: Man's Greatest Artform or updates of his copyright infringement trail with UPS: who invented "brown". Could hint at favorite DT recipes: Nipcheez and a smoke, selecting un undervalued bordeaux for pizzaburgers, etc.

It would be a democratic, open source, sort of global electronic village. Our own little slap at al Queda; SENDRACS part on the War on Terror. Cool, huh? Very freeform, so it could include discussions about the Tao of Noker, Jeff Magee on the ethnomusicology of class songs: Styx v. Supertramp, Eric on municipal sewage planning as the epitome of civic management: ,or reflections of a Swedish junior transfer: how he mastered ESL and became one of the most popular kids in HS overnight and dated all the girls. It could be a place for memoirs: "KC, Class of 1980 Dreamgirl" or Zambotti's thoughts on motherhood.

For those of us that sold out to The Man in order to pay the rent, we could use the site to live vicariously through our inspired but starving classmates who kept the faith Tabish instilled in all of us and who still seek the Holy Grail of Theatre (with an "re"). They could "Tablog", if you will, about the tribulations of directing a hip-hop Troilus and Cressida set in a Baltimore ghetto, of the celebrity whirlwind of costarring with Dave Chappelle as an insect voice-over, why sound design is always more important than prop design, who has the better schmime program, NC School of the Arts or UNC-G or how the omnipresent yellow sofa on the SENDRACS set remains a stabilizing metaphor for the tumult of their creative lives.

And seriously, it would be a nice place to gather remembrances of Lisa Davis and Gene Haldeman.

Not being very good with this "innernet" thing, I leave it to some techno gear head like Joe Pino (such a nice boy) or a cashed out computer startup zillionaire like Kim to figure out the details (I'm the idea guy, right.) Maybe tack it on to the KmContucci.com website Joe ostensibly created to honor Tabish. If it doesn't work out it's OK, but I'd be sorry for all those lost and confused artsy IAHS teens (sound familiar) who AS WE SPEAK are searching for the clear, or perhaps more muddy brown, legacy embodied in that little ball of energy I still affectionately call Mister Tabish. Or to paraphrase the junior senator from NY: it takes a small forgotten town in the coal hollers of western PA.... So, whoa kids, let's CONCENTRATE. And dream. And if we dream hard enough the impossible may possibly become less impossible and possibly even possible."

Onward.

Joe,

Such a mensch you are for making the website-- but the plural of "goy" is "goyim" NOT "goys."

Liza
Yiddish-Italian-Asian

ps-- blogging means just writing stuff to write, yes?

I swore I would never blog and here I am blogging.
Joe, did you set the post display to brown on purpose?

New images on the pages - some Dave pics on a new page, some new stuff for 1978 and 1979 and pages for the years after 1980 in case we get some content. From the private collections for Mr. Gallanar, Ms. Hoffman-Coleman and Ms. Sibolboro-Mezzacappa.

Hello, hello, does this thing work? I'm really new at this. Joe, I really like your picture on your profile. It's just as I remembered you.

Apparently I can post too. I was telling Ian that we should closely check the 3rd show every year to see who directed. Apparently the bearded one needed a break and extra time to get the musical in line--at least that was the trend in 77,78,79, etc.

Thanks for getting this blog going, Joe. We can really use it. It'll be my new favorite thing!

Welcome to Tabishland - sort of like Disneyland but everything is painted brown and the only rides aren't fun: they're rewarding. This will be a group blog eventually and as soon as I figure blogging out, we can probably move the so-called "Kim Contrucci alter" here (hey, for the record I wasn't the only person who crushed on Kim - Ian, Chip, Eric, Gene, Francis, John, Scotty, Kevin- and I can only guess at the pre-1979 folks but I have some hunches). First on the agenda is making this a group blog. Back in a few.