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5 Reasons the Play Hamilton is a Big Deal.

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A Broadway Phenom

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s play, Hamilton, a musical based on founding father Alexander Hamilton, is a bonafide Broadway sensation. Sold out for the remainder of 2016 and the foreseeable future. Single seats sell for 3 to 10 times the ticket value (if you can find them).

Hamilton racked up more Tony nominations than any play in the history of Broadway. Hamilton was the biggest winner at the 2016 show. The buzz generated from word of mouth about this play seems limitless. Nearly all who see the almost three-hour play leave the theater converted into Hamilton zealots.

Some Questions To Ponder

  • So what’s the big deal with this play, anyway?
  • Why is Hamilton a must-see?

Three Reasons:

  • The Story. Based on Pulitzer-prize-winning author Ron Chernow’s 700 + page biography, Hamilton is not a story about kids skipping class to play rock and roll supporting a fraudulent teacher. That would be the “School of Rock” playing down the street. “Rock” is the latest re-swizzled movie-to-a-play from Andrew Lloyd Webber. Hamilton is entirely original. Miranda’s play is about a “founding father without a father” who enjoyed the company of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison and played a significant role in the formation of the American government and the economic system still in place today. It’s an unfamiliar yet essential story worth telling to an audience.
  • Smartness. At over 20K words, there is a lot to digest in Hamilton. You’ll hear ideas, personalities, family drama, and historical references peppered with relevance and humor through the songs. Listen carefully, and you can listen to hip-hop references to the Notorious B.I.G., DMX., and Big Pun. There are also storytelling homages to Harry Potter and wordplay that invokes Shakespeare. All this comes with the caveat if you’re smart enough to grasp them. I missed you so much. Later, reading up on the material, the complexity became more apparent. Nearly every line of Hamilton is thoughtful and intelligent. Every. Line. Then, with historical icons playing off against one another for over 30 years, there is a lot of ground to cover. But, get this, the time flies. You will be sad about how little time is left for this captivating theater piece.
  • Unconventional Telling.
    • Hip Hop. By winning Tony in 2008 for best musical, Miranda’s last play, “In the Heights,”  somewhat legitimized the hip-hop musical form. But, with Hamilton, hip-hop takes a giant leap to another level being both more refined and more accessible. The use of hip-hop is hardly a gimmick here. The street rhymes and rhythms are central to updating Hamilton’s story. With hip hop, it turns a dusty book off the shelf to become contemporary and hip.
    • Casting. The casting of non-whites into key roles is nothing new (see Voodoo McBeth by Orson Welles in 1936). Yet the cast of a racially diverse group of actors in the parts of Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton seems fresh and brilliant. It works. Hamilton ascends as a story while transcending time as the political themes of two hundred years ago reverberate with today.

Two More Reasons:

  • Classic Broadway. Miranda and his team are squarely rooted in the Broadway musical form as Hamilton references Sweeney Todd, South Pacific, Les Miserable, and many other Broadway plays. The Sondheim influence is there for those who see that type of thing. And there are great moments of theater throughout the play.
    • Hamilton’s entrance.
    • The “My Shot” ensemble show stopper.
    • King George’s recurring bits.
    • The “Immigrants, we get the job done!” A line that receives rousing ovations nightly.
    • Rap battles between Jefferson and Hamilton.
    • Great melodies that rival any on Broadway in the last ten years.
    • There is also a sizeable rotating stage that enables complex choreography.
    • First and foremost, Hamilton is a great night out at the theater. It’s worth going to the city to see. It is that particular play. It never loses sight of that target.
  • America’s Zeitgeist Moment. Look, I’m a zealot and entirely in the bag for this play. I also like musicals. Hamilton, however, is more than just another musical. It’s bigger than that. It’s become, with its premiering, the first song of a rough play at the White House for President Obama, a thing. Hamilton strikes a high-wire balance between audacity and self-conscious cleverness without ever being patronizing. Hamilton is a zeitgeist moment for the theater and a moment for America.

Conclusions

I am not sure that Hamilton will convert anyone to the Broadway musical form who doesn’t like Broadway. Singing and dancing are not for everyone – even when done this well. I would also caution that the ferocity of the lyrical delivery may be too much “work” for some – especially those unfamiliar with rap. I strongly urge getting comfortable with the soundtrack before seeing the show – this way, you’ll catch more.

So pick up the Questlove-produced, Grammy-winning, original cast soundtrack in advance of putting out big money for your tickets. Listen to the words. You can thank me later.

One Last Thing

What struck me most about Hamilton?

Hamilton, in the most straightforward undeniable way,  is an easy and thrilling work of genius. And it is indisputable.

Big word, genius.

And, yes, I know there is a whole team of people who make it so. But Miranda is something special. He is something new and singular. And yeah, minor footnote, Manuel did win the MacArthur “genius” award. There is that. So, by definition, Hamilton is a work of genius!

Don’t miss this original moment of pure inspiration.

Parenting – Let’s Stress Out Our Kid!

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Our son is an only child. Sorry, son. That’s just the way it worked out.

A challenge with being an only child is that the viewfinder is always focused on you for good or bad reasons. No breaks. Ever. The child may think they are getting a break when what is happening are the parents are resting up for another session of coaching and accountability. Sounds fun, right?

Wish for a Sibling

As a good friend pointed out, our son wishes he had a brother who didn’t do as well as he does. That would at least take some heat off him from time to time. A sibling might give him a break. Because, as much as I hate to admit it, we’re always turning up the heat on this kid. Grades, homework, and whatever else we think is important on a given day.

And this year, his junior year, the temperature is rising to 451 degrees, and it is getting freaking ridiculous and challenging science and math AP classes, ACTs, crew five days a week, driving, and all the talk and decision-making involved with his college decisions. A ton of pressure every day, not including our enlightened and manipulative questioning.

College Planning Racket

Like lemmings, we hired a “college planning” service without much forethought. Heck, “everyone else” does it around here, so why not us? Smart, right?

And, so now, here we are. For those who don’t know, the college planning center promises to help the kid “find the right college and develop a plan for getting accepted into it.” Sounds great, right? They don’t tell you that they are also creating a ton of extra work for your child. Pick a major, pick a job, pick a school, and make your school selections. And can you do that right now, Mr. Sixteen years old? And, while you’re at it, why not take more tests to understand your skills and interests better?

My favorite conversation thus far came we visited the center during our son’s first semester finals. The counselor said, “Let’s look ahead to your senior schedule. Now is not the time to take your foot off the gas! Maybe time for some junior college courses in addition to high school! And what do you plan to do for an internship this summer?” I could see my son’s head was about to explode.

Pause and ask, “What are we doing?”

At this point, I had to pause and ask myself, “what are we doing here?” After all, when I was 16, I did nothing of the sort. I was busy developing into what they called “strong junior college material!”  Deciding if I wanted to become an electrical engineer or computer scientist (the choices given to our son) was out of the question for me. And, stepping back, what 16-year-old is ready to make that critical decision? Yet, despite that, we are asking him to make those decisions here.

So, if I step back and ask myself, what is at play here? Why are we doing this? I’m not sure I’m going to like the answer. The answer is that we’re doing this more for us than for him. If he gets into a great college, it most certainly follows that we’re amazing parents.

Serendipity

But, when I think about college and our son’s future working life when held against the backdrop of my wife and my experience, I see that a bit of serendipity trumps planning. Serendipity is hard to prepare for, by definition. Let me illustrate what I am talking about with two genuine examples.

My wife went away as a declared dance major to Cal Poly. Her dream was to be a ballerina. After a semester, however,  she realized that was a big whoops. Not practical. No money there in ballet. So, she quickly changed her major to accounting. Many years later, she is a happy and prosperous forensic accountant. Not because of thoughtful planning but rather because of dumb luck.

Similarly, I got my first job out of college because the man who hired me did not speak good English. He thought I had attended Havard while participating in Harbor junior college. Big difference. Ten years with that company launched my sales career that continues today. Again, unplanned serendipity. Dumb luck.

The Lesson

So, what to do? What is the lesson?

It is the same lesson it always is. Let go. Stop trying to manipulate and control. Love your child as he is. They need love. Trust they’ll make the right decisions. Give them space and time. And I hope for a bit of luck along the way.

And if you go with the College Prep Service, do it for yourself, not for your child. After all, they have a youth to live.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

12 Things I’d Tell My Younger Self

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We have all heard the expression, “older and wiser!”
Indeed, wisdom often does come with age. The problem, however, is that the understanding was not there when we needed it back when we were young.

So, a great question I like to ask is, “knowing what I know now, what would I tell my younger self!”

Frankly, there are a bunch of things I’d say to myself. Too many, I’m afraid, to share here. I have made many mistakes.
So for this article, I have pared it down to twelve. I hope you can learn from some of my mistakes.

Twelve Things I’d Tell My Younger Self

  1. Find a passion and embrace it. Then get it out there to everyone. Develop it. Compete. Believe in your capacity to improve steadily. Don’t judge yourself on your current output, as it will improve dramatically over time. Plus, finding your way will be more comfortable as doors open for those with a genuine passion for what they do.
  2. Don’t take that critical inner voice too seriously (if you have one) because it will talk you out of “foolish” things (like following your passions) that are the best thing you could do for yourself. For many, that negative voice is always there, sowing the seeds of fear. Recognize it for what it is, then walk through it.
  3. Develop your Mantra, something to center you and get you focused. I like “do it now.” Use this mantra to calm you down, overwrite those critical thoughts, and keep going.
  4. If you find an influential mentor, thank the stars and take ALL of their advice. Otherwise, it’s not the advice you are seeking. It is your advice repackaged to look like someone else’s advice. Get all you can from those special people you run across and follow all their information.
  5. “Remember, don’t fool yourself – and you’re the easiest person to fool.” This quote mantras from Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman speaks for itself.
  6. Mantra your terms for success. Nothing worse than living someone else’s life. Create and raise your bar and never settle. It can be as easy to fail at something you don’t care about as something you do care about.
  7. Learn to love exercise and make it a daily necessity. Being fit is better than being fat. Being fit will help your career. One habit to develop – get a scale and weigh yourself every day. So much easier to lose two pounds than twenty (or more). It sneaks up on you.
  8. Take the lead on building relationships. You can never have too many friends. What’s the value of a lifetime friend? At work, strive to become “easy to work with.” Also, “like others first!” Champion others along the way. Stand up for them, and aid in their development when you can.
  9. Start saving money now – even if it’s not much – and keep saving. Learn to live below your means. You can’t have too much money. Moreover, when spending money, prioritize experiences and personal development above stuff. Finally, be discrete when buying property. You can have too much “stuff.” My rule, delay all more significant purchases for 30 days. If you still have to have it a month later, then, and only then, should you consider buying it.
  10. Don’t let go if you find a partner who sees eye to eye with you, whom you love, and who loves you back. Get on with it. Build a life together, then, if you can, a family. Make it work; you will if you want to. Parenting is genuinely challenging but also ineffably satisfying. Best of all, kids thrive in a loving home. A loving family can both inspire and support all your efforts.
  11. Develop a daily routine – habits will define you in the long run and give you the added value of peace of mind. Also, change the pattern from time to time. The best results in a gym happen when you rotate the exercises regularly.
  12. Finally, while it’s great to be passionate about work and life, it’s also vital to “calm the F down!” No one likes being with someone who is all jacked up about everything all the time. Remain calm, patient, and disciplined. Be friendly and kind. Don’t tell everyone everything. Then, almost everything will all work out!

In summary, life is short so get on with it. Don’t waste time. Sure, there are a million details to figure out, but you can do it. Just begin now, today!
Moreover, be on the lookout for users, losers, and trolls. They are out there, accurate, and will not help you. As they say, “stick with the winners. You will be a winner too!”
If you like what you read today, please like or share. Thank you!

Three Attitudes to Bring to Work on Monday

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The workplace, in my experience, boils down to focusing on two things: attitude and execution. Generally, these walk hand in hand. Having the right attitude can help you execute better. If you perform well, you’re succeeding at your job.
But what exactly is a great work attitude? Are there beliefs/actions that are transportable across different organizations and industries?
I think there are and would suggest striving to develop an attitude that incorporates these three ideas:

  • Be Easy to Work With.
  • Always be Positive – Solution-Oriented.
  • Talk like an Executive – use filters.

Be Easy to Work With

In a documentary about Michael Jackson, “This is It!” they asked him how he had been so successful. He said, without hesitation, “I work hard at being easy to work with!”
And it’s true, as much of Jackson’s success resulted from working with dozens of collaborators.
So, think about that! If MJ, with all his talent, can work at it, maybe so should you!
So on Monday, ask a few coworkers, “Be honest, am I easy to work with?” Then, follow up with, “What could I do that would make me easier to work with?”
Be ready to hear some answers you might not like. No one wants to hear “listen better,” “be more direct in communication,” or “be better prepared for meetings.” All things I’ve been told. But guess what? Because I now know what to focus on, I’ve gotten better at all of them.
The want to know what is holding you back from being easier to work with is the first step to being that worker. The same is valid for working with customers/clients.

Be Positive – Solution Oriented

Early in my career, I saw problems everywhere and thought it my job to communicate them wherever possible. It wasn’t.
Worse, I would bring up these problems without any potential solution. This, I learned, sounds whiny.
I also thought being intense and driven was the same as being positive. It isn’t. It’s draining and not much fun to be around.
I’ve found that adopting an attitude that overlooks the obvious problems (that everyone knows are there) while championing the good being done and the people that do them is the best attitude to have.
I also like sticking up for people who aren’t around to defend themselves. “Throwing someone under the bus” is bad business.
But, if I find a problem I can’t let go of, I make sure I have a potential solution to go with it when I bring it up.

Talk Like an Executive – Use Filters When Communicating

It boils down to always knowing your audience and being succinct when speaking up. That’s what great executives do. Being a loose (or rambling) cannon is not a good thing. Plus, being quiet can make you seem intelligent and thoughtful.
As Mark Twain said, “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.”
A filter I was taught to use in meetings was this one:

  • Does it need to be said?
  • Does it need to be told now?
  • Does it need to be said now by me?

This works well and keeps me surprisingly quiet most of the time. Plus, amazingly, most of what needs to be said gets said.

Conclusion

Having a great attitude is the table stake for success. The better your mood, the better your Mondays!

Parenting Lesson number 357 – The PSAT

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I thought I would share another parenting experience, where I was the bad guy, again, in the hope YOU can avoid it.

Standardized Tests

For many of us, we have academic hopes for our kids., The standardized tests (SAT & ACT) loom large in the requirements matrix to make it into most universities. Like many parents, we were a bit nervous about our son’s first brush with one of them, the PSAT.
This past fall, his high school offered the PSAT to all sophomores who wanted to take it. He did.
When asked how he thought he did after taking it, he said, “pretty good!”
Then we waited and waited.
Side note – despite being 2018, it still takes weeks to score and report multiple-choice tests.
Then finally, in came the results. Much to our surprise, the results were not what we expected. Our straight-A student, who typically tests in the 95th percentile, scored in the 40th!

Parental Maturity?

Here’s the sad parenting part of the story.
First, I told him these were poor results (as if he didn’t know, remember, he’s a straight-A student). In the basic lousy parenting form, I added the line teens love, “these results were well below our expectations!”
I then dug in, with a less-than-compassionate tone, “what the heck happened here? Did you even try?”
Then, I upped the stakes, “did you cheat and copy someone else?”
He looked befuddled and said he had no idea what went wrong. He only said, “They seemed like they were all trick questions, so I took my time and ended up not finishing every section!”
My wife dug deeper into the results. In one section, he got 7 out of 42 questions correct. 7 of 42!!!
More denials from my son. More consternation from his parents.
I then called one of my friends whose child is in college now, “you ever have this happen?”
“Not that bad, but those tests are super tricky. We enrolled our kid in a test prep class with a private tutor. It made a huge difference! It was only $5K!” 
Yikes!
That was two weeks ago.

The Plot Thickens

Then yesterday, an email from his High School with the subject line, “PSAT Re-take.”
I quote, because this is so hard to believe, “We are very sorry to inform you that we administered the October 11th version of the PSAT on October 25th, and therefore our scores have been invalidated. Furthermore, since the October 25th version of the PSAT answer key was used to grade our October 11th tests, these “for guidance only” scores may not be accurate.”
Don’t you love carefully crafted language? It looks like the district might have lawyered up.
It may not be accurate. I’m pretty sure they are entirely inaccurate if you used the wrong answer key. Fess up, educators! Fall on your sword!
At first, I was awash with relief. “Ah, that explains it!”
I immediately texted my son, “the PSAT results were corrupted; good news, you’re not an idiot; bad news, the school administrators, seem to be.”
Then, I reflected a bit. I knew my initial reaction to this whole situation wasn’t proper. Where was the love? Why, no compassion? How about some positive intent in the assessment of this awkward predicament?
The truth is not that it was there. Instead, there was fear.
Hence the accusatory tone.

The Lesson

When those results came in, I should have comforted my son with, “you know, you’re a smart kid, so either you had an off day, or something is up with the test. We’ll get through it, and you’ll be fine!”
Maybe next time, you can do that. That ship has sailed, and it is too late for me. I blew it.
As a friend told me, “Parenting is both the hardest and most rewarding thing you’ll do in your life.”
So true.

Big Speakers – The Circle of Life

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pacific stereoThe Background – Boom in Electronics

I grew up in a special time in a magical place.  The time was the early 1970’s. The place was Southern California. During that time, there was a once-in-a-lifetime confluence of musical talent and new musical technologies that created a boom in consumer electronics.  Before there was video, there were stereos. These audio systems, with the right components, were like porn for the ears. Exploiting this market in Southern California was Pacific Stereo, University Stereo, and perhaps most famously The Federated Group. These stores offered a wonderland of stacked boxes of imported components and listening rooms full of many large speakers. These were presented with financing (at 18%+) that could get you out the door with some super cool gear that could compliment your waterbed.

The Teen Dream

I remember spending hours in my teen years in these stores figuring out in advance exactly what clearly thought out combination of receiver, turntable, cartridge, and speakers would fit my budget and taste. I became familiar with terms like frequency response, wow and flutter, RMS, and active and passive woofers. These definitions loomed larger than the battles between Ahab and his Whale or Javert and Jean Valjean that I was learning about in high school. For this teen, the battles between Dual and Garrard, Pioneer and Sansui, and Shure and Pickering were the ones that mattered. This orientation was because without a stereo is was impossible to make the case that Jeff Beck was a better guitarist than Jimmy Page. Or, Stephen Stills better than Neil Young. They are.  Worse, without a stereo to crank, no one is going to come over to your house and bust out a doobie.

The Boy With a Mission

Plus, not having a killer stereo, at least in my teenage years, was the sign of a stone-cold loser.  So the need to buy cool components was all the motivation I needed to get my first job at 15 1/2 working at Palos Verdes Health Spa on Deep Valley Drive in Rolling Hills Estates. Incidentally, the fellow who got me this job was slightly older than me and already worked long enough to buy his stereo. He was clearly cooler than me. I could sense that the escape from loser-dom was just a few paychecks away.

Where to Buy?

Sleepy Palos Verdes only had one store that sold audio components, Mr. B’s music. B’s had a limited selection. What they had was mostly adult-oriented components that were out of my price range. So, as good as the Bose 801s sounded – I was never going to be able to afford them. I needed to look elsewhere. Fortunately, there was the Sunday Calendar section, literally full of “double-truck” ads for audio components. Alongside Robert Hillburn’s crappy music reviews were lavishly described audio component packages for people like me to lust after. The retailer looming largest at the time was The Federated Group. federated So after a few paychecks, my mom hauled me down to their biggest location on Pico Boulevard in West LA. There, while she waited in the car,  I haggled with some feather-haired polyester-wearing coke-spoon-around-his-neck stereo salesperson. I plopped down $400 cash for a Sansui 5050 receiver and Garrard turntable with the all-important Shure cartridge.  I then had mom stop at Rogers Sound Labs on Hawthorne on the way home. These were high-value speakers. I had bought into their whole manufacturer-direct-purchasing sales line. For only $199 I bought a pair of 12-inch three ways!

Music Nirvana

sansui-5050_17548 That was a big day in my life. I’ll never forget it. I had my stereo. In my mind I somehow instantly became cool. I redecorated my room. I started buying albums. The timing was fantastic as some of the best rock/pop music ever produced was about to come out.  I spent hours in my room listening, reading liner notes, and eventually busting out the guitar trying to learn to play those songs. After that, somewhere along the line, the bottom fell out of the audio business. CDs replaced albums.  The whole zeitgeist of music changed. Reading liner notes on a CD blows – even with a pair of readers. CDs, while they were sold to us as this great advance, in the end, sucked. CDs killed the whole music listening experience. Oh well, 20/20 hindsight. After CDs came the mp3 and then iTunes. Retailers like Circuit City and Good Guys – decent stores with great audio departments – eventually bankrupted leaving only Best Buy who didn’t even have an audio room! Audio like that was a memory. Good thing as the music had all turned to crap.  Big hooks with overwrought production and rap breaks replaced the sensitive singer-songwriter. No need to hear nuance, because it’s not about the music anymore. More dramatically what was happening was video was replacing audio. Small/hidden speakers became the norm. Surround sound receivers trumped stereo ones. Big screens with soundbars and in-wall satellites became more prevalent than high-quality components – even in the man cave. Tower and large bookshelf speakers became a thing of the past. Consequently, old stereo systems went in the garage, sold on Craigslist, or donated to the Salvation Army. While no one was looking, the business of appreciating musicality in music died. Ask any artist who is still touring, and they will tell you, whatever was once the “music industry,” except for a few superstar acts, is dead. 

Full Circle

Now, we come full circle.  Our 13-year-old son wanted a “music system” for his room.  After all, he’s 13. Cue “Circle of Life” from the Lion King.  And no, there won’t be a one speaker Sonus system here coming from daddy. Instead, I am fully going to go old school. I picked him up a sweet Kenwood receiver on Craigslist to go with the vintage speakers I had in the garage.  And what do you know, his iPod connects perfectly through the CD jack. Heck, maybe I’ll buy him a turntable. And guess what? He’s ecstatic! He can’t believe how good it sounds. He loves his new stereo. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll hear the music the way I did. There is a sad side note to this narrative. My stereo never helped become cool – that was a pure delusion – as I remain a dork.

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