THE RETURN OF THE CLARINET!

After more than 30 years of having abandoned it, I finally got another chance to play the clarinet thanks to a much welcome recent birthday gift.  But of course, it has been so long, I have to remember how to play the instrument, so I'm back to my beginner's days and dusting off those old clarinet courses, charts and tutorials. I'm back to square one with embouchure, fingering, tone and reed control.

Will I ever attain professional status?  Of course not! Will I become the next Benny Goodman? Never! 

But the point here is to just have fun and play to myself trying not to squeak much and flub as less as possible.  Music, maestro, please!

My first year trying to get some decent sound out of the instrument!

After much practice, I was proficient enough to get a gig on stage at a small dinner theater, playing

 "As Time Goes By" and "St. Louis Blues" in a musical show!

The day I got my new clarinet, 30 plus years after I had abandoned the instrument.

Back to the Clarinet Player Starter Kit!

Hopefully, this won't ever happen...but you never can tell!

YESTERDAY, LOVE WAS SUCH AN EASY GAME TO PLAY!

On tour in Guadalajara with actress Irlanda Mora and an unidentified girl, many, many, many years ago! We were appearing with a comedy play in a local night club and we were taping some promo footage for local TV channels to advertise the show. 

 This photo also proves I've met some women in my time! 

The New Stand-Up Comedy Rules?

Thank Heaven For All My Family and Friends!

To all my family and friends who sent me good wishes on my 70th birthday...

You all made my day a very memorable one!

Brush Up Your Shakespeare...

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2020!

Luckily for me, cartoon characters don't have to keep social distancing due to the COVID pandemic, and I can safely enjoy dancing on the chorus line with a bevy of beauties!

AL HIRSCHFELD

One of my most admired cartoonists has always been Al Hirschfeld.

His way of capturing likenesses and translating them into simple, flowing and dynamic lines is absolutely amazing and even poetic.

His caricatures are widely known and renowned, and almost every self-respecting cartoonist has learned part of his craft by studying Hirschfeld's renderings.

                                       

Yesterday, I paid a visit to the famed Algonquin Hotel located at 59, West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan and was greeted by some framed examples of Al Hirschfeld's artwork.

  

The story of the Algonquin Hotel is part of New York City's folklore and so is Mr. Hirschfeld.
Al Hirschfeld was born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 21, 1903 and died January 20, 2003 at the age of 99.           

In 1943, Hirschfeld married famous European actress Dolly Haas and they had one daughter, Nina, born in 1945. After her birth, Hirschfeld developed the habit of hiding her name, spelled in capital letters, on most every drawing he did thereafter. The number of NINAs concealed in every drawing was shown next to the artist's signature.  It quickly became a favorite pastime to try and find out the hidden NINAs in the cartoons.

The World of Entertainment Today...

I think this may be an age thing but it seems harder each year for me to find good entertainment...

FERNANDO LLERA - Mini-Biography

FERNANDO LLERA is a comic book artist, editorial cartoonist, illustrator, actor and writer from Mexico City.   He created his first comic strip, "MOBSTER NICK" in 1970. Six comic book issues of MOBSTER NICK were published by NOVARO under the Domingos Alegres banner in 1973-74.     From 1974 to 1992, he wrote and drew the Spanish language versions of "THE PINK PANTHER" and "BEEP BEEP, THE ROAD RUNNER" comic books for Western Publishing Company's Latin American licensees, Editorial Novaro and later Editorial VID.  He performed as a comedian at several local dinner theaters.  In 1985, he wrote and appeared in two comedy TV series. He's also a licensed radio announcer and from 1995 to 2007, he co-hosted a daily two hour radio talk show for Grupo Radio Centro, a large Mexican radio network.  He has illustrated several humor books and his cartoons have been published in several magazines. He published some editorial cartoons for Mexico's Reforma newspaper from 2004 until 2006. He has also appeared as an actor in Mexican films: HASTA MORIR ('Til Death - 1994) and BORRAR DE LA MEMORIA (2010). He was interviewed on-screen for a feature length documentary about the NOVARO era: NOVARO, THE MEXICAN COLOSSUS (2016). Since 2006, his editorial cartoons have been appearing regularly in Excelsior, a Mexican daily newspaper.