We saw the new Public Theatre production of HAIR: THE AMERICAN TRIBAL LOVE-ROCK MUSICAL, Book and lyrics by GEROME RAGNI & JAMES RADO, Music by GALT MACDERMOT Directed by DIANE PAULUS in the Delacourt Theatre in Central Park this past week, while it is still in previews. It is scheduled to run through August 31.

The audiences was full of excitement and anticipation as we arrived on the beautiful, clear evening. The producer introduced the play with a brief history of the times, and a critic’s nasty (are we surprised) comments about the original production 40 years ago. He correctly drew parallels between those time and now, especially the the unpopular wars in Nam and Iraq, and the excruciating contrast of young people feeling empowered to oppose the war and speak out as compared to the general apathy today. It’s so very quiet when there is no draft and no daily photos of the war streaming into homes.

This show captures and reminded us of many of the the extreme contrasts and conflicts of the sixties, the pleasures and the pains, the freshness and the stupidities.

I am especially glad that they did not try to “update” or “adapt” the production for today. The book, music and spirit are still great.

The cast does a great job, full of beautiful energy, great voices, the band is great,  and at the end, many of the audience, us included, climbed on stage to dance with the cast for a reprise of Let the Sun Shine In.

Let’s do what we can to have “the sun shine in” for the November election.

Note for sixties grads: There is a special line for tickets for those older than 65. Check the Public Theatre website above for details. See, you managed to survive it all and now you do not have to sit on the grass for tickets if you don’t want to.

Professor Ofer Tchernichovski of The City College of New York very graciously extended an invitation to visit his research lab in the quixotically suffering science building on campus. His research involves the study of birdsong. Ofer met us outside of the building on a lovely summer day and led us to the lab.

The lab itself is a wonderful expression of human creativity and imagination. The lab  studies the song of Zebra Finches. They breed in normal cages and the lab has refitted large picnic coolers into sound isolated environments, each with controlled light and fresh air to be used for specific studies and analysis. Each of these sound insulated coolers also has sound recording instruments installed inside. Stacks of these refitted coolers fill a large room. Hundreds of birds are in this room but they can just barely be heard. Each sound they make is electronically recorded and analyzed.  In an adjacent room, stacks of computers are used to save and analyze the data from the finch’s song. 

The purpose of this research is to understand the origins of human speech and the biological basis of speech.

Ofer played the a Veery song for us at very slow speed and it was a lovely melody in a major key. At normal speed it was a sweet chirp. Ofer told us about the work of David Rothenberg, author of Why Birds Sing: A Journey Into the Mystery of Bird Song. On David Rothenberg’s site, you can listen to the wonderful slowed down bird song.

Later I walked the around the campus and recalled my student days at CCNY and stood at the spot where thousands of students gathered to protest the invasion of Cambodia and to stop all classes in protest of our governments policies and actions.

But today, in spite of an unpopular war, the trashing of our constitution by the administration in Washington, despite the use of terrible torture that even our military opposes, now there were students just walking and birds singing in the sunshine of a lovely summer’s day…and a sign in front of Shepard Hall warning these very same students not to play frisbee or other sports on the lawns, supposedly for their safety.

 Red Tail Hawk on Shepard Hall of CCNY

We drove 90 miles west from Manahattan to Nazareth, Pa in to visit the CF Martin Guitar Factory. Our mission was to pick up the custom made guitar which was made for one in our group, meet the people who used their considerable skills to create the guitar, and to take the tour of the factory. If you are a musician, especially a guitarist, you know why this is a type of pilgrimage and  you would appreciate how this is an extremely exciting event. We had waited eight months for the guitar to created. Over 60 skilled craftspeople worked on it. Only about 30 custom made guitars are produced by Martin each year, and about 200 regular instruments each week.

We were greeted by Dan, the wirey and warm and charming head of the custom department and he took us through the large building which is divided into sections and cubby work stations, into the section of the factory devoted to custom production. 

Dan put the case on the table and our guitarist opened and saw his new instrument for the first time. Love, love at first sight and love, love at first play. A new instrument actually improves with time which is amazing to consider since this guitar has such a rich tone and is so responsive. The guitarist’s signature and date of birth are in-laid on the head and neck of his new guitar.

Then we took the tour of the factory. We started at the beginning, we passed the many different woods which are used in guitar making, ready to be cut , shaped and glued, and finished into an instrument. We passed through all of the different stages of the process.

The most moving aspect were the workers. The majority seemed to be women, although there were plenty of men as well. All focused on the particular skill. Making bridges, shaving interior braces, bending the pieces for the sides, assembling and gluing pieces, gluing in the carefully cut slivers of Mother-of-Pearl for decoration, sanding, finishing, etc.  Some looked up for a moment as we passed and smiled. The last people in the process test the guitars by playing them. This is their job…to play guitars all day…it is considered the best of all of the jobs. The factory is one of the two largest employers in Nazareth and some families have worked for generation at this factory.

Photos of famous guitarists holding their Martin’s line the factory walls, and the tour ends at a display of guitars that visitors may play and try out.

The factory building has a museum on the history of guitar making and the history of Martin guitars. There is also a shop selling lots of Martin paraphanalia but no guitars which are only sold through dealers and not directly from the factory. 

It is wonderful to see that skill and craft still exist, and that such a wonderful pleasure-giving instrument is made of a precious natural material, wood. The Martin factory believes that many woods used in guitar making will not be available in just a few years and they are developing instruments made of composite materials…

The Martin Guitar and the Martin Guitar Factory are an American treasure.