10th
& 11th July, 2008
New concerts announced!
Click HERE for details.
July autograph signing
event.
Click HERE for details.
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Photo by Dan Chapman ©2001
Stanyan Entertainment Group
A Thought for Today
If hope is all you’ve got, by all means
go for it.
TO BEGIN WITH
Great holiday, a short but very busy week and it looks to get even
busier.
THE EXPERIENCE
One of the questions I get asked a lot is whether or not I ever get
tired of meeting people and greeting fans. I mention this because it’s
that time again; all day this coming Friday and Saturday I’ll be signing
books and records and posing for photographs for The Hollywood
Collectors show at the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel & Convention
Center.
So, the fact that I’m willing to show up and ‘meet and greet’ pretty
much gives the answer. It’s not even a question of feeling that I owe it
to the public by making myself available –– after all, the reasoning
might go, if it wasn’t for the fans and those who follow my career; I
wouldn’t have much of a career to follow. Fair enough, but I go out of
my way to meet people at affairs like this and remain after concerts
until the last autograph is signed because I genuinely enjoy the
experience, not because I feel I have to. I’m leading a fun and
interesting life and I owe it to myself to explore all the possibilities
it affords.
I’ve always felt what happens after the show is almost as important as
the performance itself. As for personal appearances where a quick
handshake and a question or two is about all that’s involved I like that
too. It’s nice to know what people are thinking and you’d be surprised
how often someone from the past shows up to renew an old friendship or
acquaintance. I like to think I make new contacts and friends too. I
have never aspired to an insulated or isolated life and it might be a
tad late to do so now.
I might feel differently if all that has happened to me through the
years was caught by (or even in part resulted from} the glare of
paparazzi or looky-lou’s of any sort. When I was starting out there was
no such thing as constant press attention –– even if you were a Marilyn
Monroe or James Dean. Ms. Monroe and Mr. Dean have gotten far more
attention deceased than they did alive and kicking. I know, I was there.
PRESS & PUBLIC
I’ve always had a healthy respect for the press, they do their job and I
do mine. With some notable exceptions, I’ve been treated pretty fairly
by the The 4th Estate; when I had something to say I gave interviews and
when I didn’t want attention my need for privacy was almost always
respected.
Can members of the public, or fans –– well meaning or not, be mean?
Sure. When two people from different professions, persuasions or
whatever rub up against one another sparks are possible if not probable.
That’s part of life and being a member of the human race and it isn’t
confined to the celebrity / fan turf. The potential for behaving badly
is always out there, I ought to know because I do it myself sometimes.
Still, as we all know, it takes very little effort to be nice . . . so
much of the time most of us try our best to be on our best behavior.
Courtesy is contagious and the more we practice it the better chance we
have of it becoming a part of our daily demeanor. Going off the rails
doesn’t accomplish much and interrupts the drive to the destination,
whatever or wherever.
However, anyone expecting a mud slide or train wreck at an affair I’m
involved with might be better served hanging out in the path of Brittany
Spears or Hurricane Bertha.
See you at The Marriott.
-RM 7/9/2008
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Catch Rod McKuen live!
Click on the links below for details of
concerts and appearances.
ROD McKUEN
CONCERTS
ROD
McKUEN APPEARANCES
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THURSDAY 10 July
Nick Adams o
Arthur Ashe o
Saul Bellow o
David Brinkley o
John Calvin o
Carleton Carpenter o
Dan DeGaetini o
Magda Gabor o
John Gilbert o
Arlo Guthrie o
Fred Gwynne o
Jerry Herman o
Jean Kerr o
Jake LaMotta o
Evelyn Laye o
Sue Lyon o
Frederick Marryat o
Carl Orff o
Marcel Proust o
Mark Shera o
Jessica Simpson o
Noble Sissle o
Virginia Wade o
James A. Whistler o
Ian Whitcomb
FRIDAY
11 July
John Quincy Adams o
Giorgio Armani o
Lloyd Bochner o
Yul Brynner o
Frederick Buechner o
Nicolai Gedda o
Debbie Harry o
Lowell Haver o
Susan Seaforth Hayes o
Tab Hunter o
Mark Lester o
Jean-Francois Marmontel o
Thomas Mitchell o
Lisa Rinna o
Marie Serneholt o
Brett Somers o
Leon Spinks o
Suzanne Vega o
Harry Von Zell o
John Wanamaker o
Sela Ward o
E.B. White |
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Love has no hidden highways, as hope hasn't any padlocked doors.
Hypocrisy lurks everywhere, in religion, in
politics, around every corner. Don't give it an inch.
There is no such thing as an excess of
benevolence.
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SUMMER SEQUENCE |
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The river cuts a
gully every bit as deep within the mind as the one it opens in the
earth. Set your troubles by; let the water carry them and you to that
wide, friendly sea beyond imagination. But all is not imagined. The sun
is real and everywhere. Trials become truth. Goals turn round and round
until they spin into achievements.
And love? The firm, brown body running down the beach - then gone. The
soft, warm cheek that only angels dare bend to touch. The round moon
belly of a woman carrying the future just inside her skin. The people
old in years who commandeer a park bench, and beyond them the lovers -
always the lovers discovering frontiers of gold.
-from "Rod McKuen's Book of Days." 1981. |
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