Eleanor Reicher shares stories with New York Philharmonic Associate Principal Percussion Daniel Druckman backstage Tuesday night at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Her uncle Saul Goodman was a legendary timpanist who trained Druckman and legions of other percussionists. (Courtesy Chris Lee)

The two strangers leafed through the scrapbook, their memories of a man in common flowing like the airy music that earlier filled the hall.

There they were, backstage at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall after Tuesday night’s Philharmonic Society of Orange County concert, my grandmother and the New York Philharmonic musician reminiscing over the late Saul Goodman.

Goodman was my 96-year-old grandmother’s “Uncle Solly,” but in the world of classical music, he was a giant among timpanists and played with the New York Phil for 46 years. He was also a teacher and mentor to a legion of successful percussionists like Daniel Druckman.

“Saul Goodman was a legend,” Druckman told other musicians backstage as they packed their instruments for their next performance in Los Angeles.

At one time, all of the Philharmonic percussionists trained with him, said Druckman, who was awarded the Saul Goodman Scholarship at Juilliard.

“Now it’s just me” — the last of a generation, he said.

–Mike Reicher, @mreicher, Daily Pilot

…Continue reading “A grandmother’s ties to the New York Philharmonic”

Along the way to finding that importance the players also discovered little smiles, pure joy and genuine love for the game.

The Edison Chargers helped produce that, as players from the freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams volunteered to coach and play with kids from the Challenger Division of the Huntington Beach Little League.

“Before we got here, I told them they are going to work with kids who have special needs,” Lambright said. “I try to teach them baseball through life lessons. Now they are out here and working with these kids. They are helping and providing encouragement. That’s what it’s all about.”

…Continue reading “Virgen’s View: Edison Chargers hit a home run”

Gentle, humble and delicate, Mom nevertheless taught her fifth-grade students with a quiet passion, fortitude and dignity that commanded respect. She could quiet a class of unruly 11-year-olds with a mere lift of her hand, and inspire them to dig deep to find their better selves.

Mom employed modern, progressive teaching methods long before they had a name. Differentiation? She figured that out decades ago. She believed fiercely in the intrinsic value of education, not for resume-building or future monetary rewards, but because of the richness of thoughts, ideas and purpose that an educated mind could achieve.

And Mom never gave up on a child. The bright, fidgety kids, the troubled souls and the underachievers — they all had a place in her classroom. She’d call them her darlings — or “Dahlings,” in her Brooklynese accent, as in “Dahlings, I need you to pay attention.” Miraculously, they did.

–Patrice Apodaca, Daily Pilot

…Continue reading “Column: Thank you, Mom”

Daily Pilot classical music columnist Bradley Zint, center, plays Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” on his French horn during a session of the Pacific Symphony’s "OC Can You Play With Us?" at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on Tuesday. (KEVIN CHANG)

One of those little things you don’t consider when first choosing an instrument is what it’s like to lug it around.

For the flutists and clarinetists, their small instruments can act as stowaways in standard-sized backpacks. Even the heavies — tubas, cellos, basses, harps and the like — well, those cases are blessed with wheels.

But a horn case? Being of odd shape and decent weight, it’s bothersome to carry.

I would know. I carried one many times throughout my 12-year horn career while en route to planes, trains or automobiles. On Tuesday night, I found myself carrying one again, from my car at the South Coast Plaza lot to the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

It was just as annoying as I remember.

I carried my horn case through the check-in process for OC Can You Play With Us? and into warm-up area in the Samueli Theater until I could carry it no more.

Down it went next to cellist Christopher McCarthy. The Cal State Long Beach graduate was one of the many musicians warming up before our 7 p.m. showing onstage.

–Bradley Zint, @BradleyZint, Daily Pilot

…Continue reading “Column: O.C., can you play? Yes, we can”

The ordinance basically tells parents that it’s wrong to serve kids alcohol — as if.

Following the state PTA resolution passed in 2009, the local action is somewhat ceremonial except for one thing: It reminds parents that alcohol causes everything from sexual assault to death.

That’s what the flier says. Actually, it lists quite a bit more deviant behavior.

“Surveys conducted by the school district and Mission Hospital have shown that alcohol use by young people is a serious problem in our city, contributing significantly to the incidence of adolescent crime, addiction, sexual assault, truancy, driving under the influence of alcohol, and motor vehicle crashes involving alcohol that cause injury and/or death,” it says.

When did we become so crotchety? We’re like the Grumpy Old Man on ”Saturday Night Live.”

“In my day … we didn’t have blueberry cosmos; we had moonshine, and it made your teeth rot and you died.”

Seriously, we need another resolution?

–David Hansen, Coastline Pilot

…Continue reading “Laguna columnist: Are we driving kids to drink?”

A still from the movie, "Boardroom." (Courtesy Ron Church)

There is no shortage of good films in the Action Sports series at the 2012 Newport Film Festival, which wraps up Thursday night, but there is one that is more than just a good film.

It’s a history lesson.

The documentary “Boardroom,” which will play at 5:45 p.m. Thursday at Triangle Square Cinemas in Costa Mesa, and its director, German native Markus Davids, wanted viewers to come away with a sense of appreciation for those who really kick-started the surfing industry as we know it today.

A press release for the film described it as thus:

“Before the growth of big corporations and surf culture, a handful of pioneers built wooden surfboards in their garages. Unknowingly, they would eventually come to develop a lifestyle popularized all over the world. This documentary is an exploration of the humble beginnings of surfboard manufacturing and how the passion of these creators has come to popularize the sport and lifestyle around the world.”

Davids said it simply was about time that somebody paid homage to those original board shapers, and he features many of them in the film.

“The main reason I made the film was because I wanted to see a movie like that,” Davids said. “I felt that there are so many surfing movies that are coming out and they’re very, for a lack of a better term, soft porn.”

–Joe Haakenson, Daily Pilot

…Continue reading “A cinematic ode to surfing’s pioneers”

Theater critic Tom Titus had this to say about the show:

“Director Gregory Cohen has assembled a worthy cast to enact this climactic melodrama, aided immensely by set designer Andrew Otero’s darkly moody scenic elements. Otero also fashioned the complex period costumes, giving the show a true Victorian look.”

And:

“Any stage production of a Sherlock Holmes adventure will rise or fall on the strength of its title character, and here the playhouse has an ace in its hole. Ryan Holihan, though a bit short in the tooth for the late-in-life sleuth, nevertheless succeeds admirably in interpreting this world-weary character whose still-razor-sharp deducing skills propel the action.”

IF YOU GO

What: “Sherlock Holmes — the Final Adventure”

Who: Huntington Beach Playhouse

Where: Huntington Beach Central Library Theater, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays until May 20

Cost: $18 to $20

Call: (714) 375-0696

For the full review, click here.

–@HBIndependent, Huntington Beach Independent

Righeimer spoke from Chicago about Costa Mesa’s pension obligations and the sizable bite it takes out of the city’s budget as the show’s commentators talked about the federal government’s response to unemployment in the recession.

One commentator said today’s public employee pension plans allow workers to retire to an island vacation.

“The point of it is you don’t want to kick them to the alley, but you don’t want to kick them to the beach,” Righeimer said. “They can’t go to the beach.”

—Joseph Serna, @JosephSerna, Daily Pilot

She seemed pleasantly surprised by the question, but responded that no, the politicians hadn’t come knocking. That’s the story for most teachers, who, the occasional state award or newspaper article aside, leave most of their legacy in the memories of former students.

Right now, though, a man who taught for three decades in Huntington Beach has become a national celebrity of sorts — and it had nothing to do with winning a prize or having a school named after him.

Rather, James Atteberry, a social studies teacher at Sowers Middle School during the 1970s, came to prominence after the Oregonian ran a story about one of his former students who apologized to him for a 39-year-old slight.

To summarize in brief: Larry Israelson, one of Atteberry’s top students, asked to be transferred out of his class in 1973 due to rumors that Atteberry was gay and that the teacher’s praise for Israelson was sexually motivated. The second part of the rumor was false, but the first was correct, although Atteberry, like many other gay teachers at the time, prudently stayed in the closet.

– Michael Miller, @MichaelMillerHB, Huntington Beach Independent

…Continue reading City Lights: An unlikely spotlight for teacher

Fresh strawberries sold at Peters Landing Farmers Market in Huntington Beach. (KEVIN CHANG)

To us, it seems that many dietary supplements are falling out of fashion in favor of real food.

For example, every day some new study says that multivitamins are no competition for a healthy diet. Some supplements even have a deleterious effect when taken in large doses.

We have been collecting bits and pieces of current information on what constitutes a healthy diet, and we want to share them with you.

Most people think that chicken is a healthy food, but here’s a dramatic piece of news: Arsenic, which is a carcinogen, has been found in chickens. How did it get there? The poultry industry uses it in feed to kill parasites.

This is not a problem with organic chicken. Everyone knows that organic is healthier and, in most cases, it is. However, organic doesn’t necessarily mean safe, because arsenic has recently been detected in organic baby food.

The new buzzwords are “anti-inflammatory,” “glycemic index,” “anti-oxidant” and “pro-biotic.”

–By Elle Harrow and Terry Markowitz, HB Independent

…Continue reading “All About Food: Our take on the healthy diet”