Author Archives: dannyashkenasi

About dannyashkenasi

I'm a composer with over 40 years experience creating music theater. I'm also an actor, writer, director, producer, teacher and general enthusiast for the arts.

HOOVER DAM, MEMORIAL BRIDGE and a CACTUS GARDEN

Posted on September 14, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

Featuring Another Theme-tastic Music Quiz Approaching the Hoover Dam on a day trip from Las Vegas, you first get these views of Lake Mead, the body of water the Hoover Dam created. This is the first view … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged 59th Street bridge, 59th Street Bridge Song, Adele, Alan Parson Project, Arizona, Barry Bostwick, Blondie, Bridge of Khazad-Dum, Bridge Over Troubled Water, cactus, cactus garden, cactus pear, Carl Anderson, chocolate factory, Dammit Janet, Damn Girl, Damned for all Time, Damned if I do, Debbie Harry, Diamond Bridge, Ethel M, golden barrel, heights, Henderson, Hoover Dam, Howard Shore, Jesus Christ Superstar, Judas, Justin Timberlake, Lake Mead, Lord of the Rings, Manhattan to Queens, Memorial Bridge, Nevada, photography, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Simon and Garfunkel, solar array, Susan Sarandon, Water Under the Bridge | 1 Comment

The Staten Island September 11th Memorial

Posted on September 11, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

This year at this date, I would like to share photos I took earlier this summer at the Staten Island September 11th Memorial, just across the water from Manhattan’s financial district, and the new World Trade Center. The memorial … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Musicabilia, Notes in the News | Tagged 9/11, concert, memorial, photography, September 11, Staten Island, The Song of Job 9:11 | Leave a comment

LAS VEGAS STRIP TEASE

Posted on September 9, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

Ah, Las Vegas… They say what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. And that may be true, or it may just be a somewhat devilish advertising slogan. But these photos of Vegas, or more specifically, the famed Vegas Strip … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged aria, Bellagio, Berlin Wall, Bliss Dance, Caesar's Palace, casinos, Chihuly, circle of hell, Circus Circus, Cirque du Soleil, Coca cola, Conservatory Garden, Cosmopolitan, Donny & Marie, Excalibur, Fountain, Fremont, gambling, Golden Nugget, Hooters, Ka, Las Vegas, Luxor, Main Street Station, Marco Cochrane, MGM Grand, New York New York, o, Paris, photography, Shrine Of Four-Faced Brahma, Strip, The Mirage, Venetian, Volcano, wedding chapel, Zumanity | Leave a comment

Sunset in the Trailer Park

Posted on August 28, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

Just a little amuse bouche of photo and music quiz in between larger courses of Two-fisted Touristing Ed and I stayed a few days in an airbnb 20 miles south of the Grand Canyon (major photo blog post to … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Melodies Linger On, Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged A Single Man, Arizona, beTwixt beTween & beTWAIN, Christmastime in the Trailer Park, Don Henley, Ed Elder, Fiddler on the Roof, Kate Bush, Mississippi, musical, photography, Sunrise Sunset, sunset, Sunset Grill, Sunset on the River, Tom Ford, Trailer Park, Y'All | Leave a comment

DEATH VALLEY

Posted on August 21, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

A Day in Death Valley Intense Heat and Awe-Inspiring Desert Beauty Our first stop in Death Valley, after driving two hours west from Las Vegas, was Zabriskie Point. A million years of volcanic emissions, lake-bed sediments, seismic activity, … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged Artist's Drive, Artist's Palette, Badwater Basin, borax, crystalized salts, Dante's View, Death Valley, Devil's Cornfield, Devil's Golf Course, dragonfly, Dry Waterfall, Furnace Creek, Golden Canyon, Mesquite, Natural Bridge, salt creek, salt flats, sand dunes, Stovepipe Wells, Zabriskie Point | 1 Comment

VALLEY OF FIRE

Posted on August 19, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

East of Las Vegas. West of Lake Mead. North of the Hoover Dam. A Day in Valley of Fire State Park. We start our tour of the Valley of Fire in and amongst the Beehives, wonderfully fabulous red rock formations, … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Melodies Linger On, Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged ABBA, Beehives, Big Horn Sheep, chuckwalla, erosion, Fire Canyon, Geography, Kisses of Fire, lizard, Mouse's Tank, Nevada, petrified log, petroglyphs, photography, Red Rock, Star Trek:TNG, State Park, Valley of Fire, White Domes | Leave a comment

RED ROCK CANYON

Posted on August 12, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

A Scenic Drive West of Las Vegas Ed and I flew into Las Vegas last weekend. It’ll be our base for a week (more on that later) as we plan a tour of the Great American West, or as … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged cactus, Calico, Canyon, geology, hand print, heart, humming bird, Las Vegas, Nevada, peace sign, petroglyph, Red Canyon National Conservation Area, Red Rock, rocks, sandstone, sculpture, smiley face, Sphinx, stone, White Rock | Leave a comment

TELL-TALE RINGTONE

Posted on August 6, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

Dial M for Macabre Todd Maki, the sound engineer on our short film “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” surprised me this morning with an email with no subject heading and merely “just for fun” written in the body … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, Poe Musicabres | Tagged Edgar Allan Poe, macabre, musicabre, ringtone, short film, sound, The Tell-Tale Heart, Todd Maki | Leave a comment

SKY MUSIC PUZZLE

Posted on July 30, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

Some views out the window on our flight home from Wisconsin will accompany this music quiz (as ever the answers are tucked within the tags below). Sky Music Query #1: Who sings this song called “Big Sky”? … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Melodies Linger On | Tagged A Piece of Sky, Across the Universe, Adele, Annie Lennox, Barbra Streisand, Beecake, Big Sky, Billy Boyd, Blue Sky Paradise, Bono, Brian D'Arcy James, Cirque de Soleil, Cirque du Soleil, Cloud Atlas, Cloudbusting, Clouds, Donald Sutherland, ELO, Elton John, Eye in the Sky, Giants in the Sky, Helen Mirren, Into the Woods, Jake Shears, Julie Taymor, Kate Bush, Love, Lucy in the Sky with Diamons, Madonna, Merry, Meteorological Mix, Mr. Blue Sky, Once, photography, Pink Floyd, Ray of Light, Scissor Sisters, sky, Sky Fits Heaven, Skyfall, The Alan Parsons Project, The Beatles, The Dark Side of the Moon, Yentl, Zach Sobiech | Leave a comment

The Sound of Recovery Music

Posted on July 21, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

Not your childhood van Trapps… The same friend who treated us to the SCA benefit performance “Snow White and the Seven Hos” invited us to see that show’s impresario Michael Roth’s latest romp “The Sound of Recovery Music”. Once … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Live! On Stage | Tagged 12 steps, AA, addition, drag, Gay, LGBTQ, Maria, Michael Roth, parody, promises, Recovery, SCA, Seven Hos, Snow White, sobriety, The Sound of Music, triggering | Leave a comment

Oh How I Love Our Japanese Red Maple In The Sunshine

Posted on July 13, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

Includes the “Red” music quiz All answers, as ever here at Notes from a Composer, are tucked inside the tags below. Red Music Query #1: We all remember Prince’s “Purple Rain”. Which pop/rock legend sings “Red … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Melodies Linger On | Tagged Andra Day, Blondie, Contact in Red Square, Emeric Pressburger, Fellowship of the Ring, Hans Christian Anderson, Hobbits, If You Don't Know Me By Now, Japanese maple, John Corigliano, Kate Bush, leaves, Michael Powell, nature, Peter Gabriel, photography, RED, Red Flag, Red Rain, Simply Red, The Lord of the Rings, The Red Shoes, The Red Violin | Leave a comment

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor

Posted on July 5, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Notes in the News | Tagged Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Border, children, concentration camp, cruelty, detention, Emma Lazarus, Exile, Give Me Your Tired, Immigration, inspector general, Lady Liberty, migrant, Statue of Liberty, The New Colossus, Trump | 1 Comment

50TH PRIDE NYC

Posted on July 1, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

11 Hours of Pride NYC – Watching and Marching – a Photo Diary 11:30am – Ed and I perched ourselves at 17th Street and 5th avenue to await the start of the 50th NYC Pride march … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News | Tagged 50th, anniversary, Bears, Big Apple Corps, Bill de Blasio, bisexual, cartwheels, Chirlane McCray, drag queens, Dykes with Bikes, Empire State Building, Flatiron, Gay Liberation Front, Gay Rights, LGBTQ, March, New York City, Pence, photography, Pose, Pride, puppets, Quaker, Rainbow, Sage, Stilt walkers, Stonewall, Trevor Project, Trump, World Trade Center | 1 Comment

WALLPAPER FROM HELL – Tell-Tale Shoot Diary #5

Posted on June 25, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

Spoiler alert! This post may give away some Tell-Tale movie musicabre design secrets! Why suddenly a spoiler alert? I have been blabbing about the main plot points of “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” in several posts already, why … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, Poe Musicabres | Tagged cameo, Edgar Allan Poe, Harry Walker, hell, Hitchcock, Ja'rel Ivory, Jason Chua, musicabre, Nicholas Callais, set design, short film, The Tell-Tale Heart, wallpaper | 1 Comment

PRIDE MONTH DAILY MOVIE PLAYLIST

Posted on June 18, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

And so the daily LGBTQ movie shout out commences: Call that blog post by its name here. That Queer Movie blog post is its own country here.

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup | Tagged 3, Alison Bechdel, Andrew Haigh, Ang Lee, Big Eden, Booksmart, Bound, Brokeback Mountain, Call Me By Your Name, Carol, Cinema, Cloud Atlas, Gay, Gentleman Jack, Go Fish, God's Own Country, Guys and Balls, In the Family, Jane Austen, LGBTQ, Looking, Moonlight, movies, Paris 05:59: Theo and Hugo, Parting Glances, Playlist, Pose, Pride, Pride Month, Queer as Folk, Rebecca Cantrell, Rocketman, Sam Smith, Sense8, Short Bus, The Broken Hearts Club, The Cakemaker, The Celluloid Closet, The Handmaiden, The Happy Prince, The L Word, The Wedding Banquet, Three of Hearts, threesome, Tom Tykwer, Touch of Pink, TV, Walk on Water, Warchowski, Weekend | Leave a comment

TIGER LILIES MUSIC QUIZ

Posted on June 13, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

Lily Song Query 1: Who is the classic Hollywood star here singing about Lily Marlene? (As ever with these quizzes, the answers can be found tucked in the tags below) Tiger Song Query 1: Name the boxing movie that … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Melodies Linger On | Tagged Alexandre Desplat, Ang Lee, Carnival, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Deathly Hallows Part 2, Eye of the Tiger, flowers, Harry Potter, Kate Bush, Life of Pi, Lily, Lily Allen, Lily James, Lily Marlene, Mamma Mia - Here We Go Again", Marlene Dietrich, Mychael Danna, Nathalie Merchant, photography, Rocky 3, Tan Dun, The Red Shoes, tiger, tiger lily | Leave a comment

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