I am a former actor. Some of my less charitable critics would describe me as a washed-up has-been hack dinner theater, I prefer to frame a more positive, pointing out that I made live on stage, while raising a family in a kid-friendly place to be called "New York" or "Los Angeles". Of course, I played a lot of crap-assembly for the role of barely enough money to get shoes on kids' feet ... But there are always at least a couple-dozen guys who would love to trade places with me. I saw them at every audition.
I knew that I'd "arrived" when I stopped to meet those guys at the auditions, because I got a pretty good voice to throw some directors before the auditions were held. Wow. I really felt like a pro when I got those calls. And, you could say, I was really.
I have several large land leading roles, and unquestionably my favorite is Harold Hill - "Music Man". Harold is a fast-talking, smooth salesman. The actor playing him (I) is a fast-singing, smooth actor. A perfect match! I will not retell the story, but basically, "Professor" Harold Hill is a scam was the train ride from small town to small town, saying it wants to form a boy band in every city, but actually only looking to sell high-priced musical instruments for the boys' gullible parents. As soon as the instruments (and expensive uniforms) arrived, he was on the next train out of town. Did anyone ever learned to play the tuba is the least of his concerns.
Ah, credit.
the story of "Music Man" is set in middle America in 1912 - an interesting time in the United States. During this period of our history, two forces that are slowly to effect a major change in the nation is still in its infancy: progressivism and credit
.As I reflect on my experience of playing Music Man, I'm reminded that I was fascinated as a young person by a man of real life Music. very-first thing I bought on credit is a collection of books - collected works of Martin Luther. But the other thing, and not long after, he was a piano. I probably can not afford not to buy, and I eventually paid off both (years later than I'd planned), I definitely can not afford the
.I was all of twenty-one years when the Music Man has appeared in a small town where I worked as a wet-behind-ears-editor of the local weekly newspaper. I do not remember his name. His manner is engaging, even kindly, and you liked him immediately. His pitch was simple and effective. "I wonder if you could help me out, young man," he said. "See that piano out there?" He pointed to a pickup truck parked on the street in front of my office, where he looks quite new spinet was placed in the truck bed. "I drove a few hundred miles to deliver that thing, but dang if they do not give me wrong piano. I can haul it back, but it's gonna cost me a ton to do, and I'm just a one-man bidness." (See In a small town country folk often pronounce the word "work" as "bidness.") "So I asked around," Music Man, "he said," and people around here tell me that you're a music man in town. "
I've lived in all four months, and yes, I was a singer in the parade of summer festivals. I guess I was just a singer in the parade - the parade do not lend themselves to singing, but the city fathers have talked me into it. They heard I'd dabbled in musical theater, I guess, and this was before my career really took off on stage (if you could tell it was ever done ).
I wanted a piano.
"Well, I do not think I can afford it, " I said.
"We will make sure that you can. Work out a payment plan ."
"I'd have to check with my wife." (I'd been married to one woman is about six months .)
: "Oh, she'll love it. I even heard it sung better'n you." (This was true .)
"I can barely play the piano ."
"Not what I heard. Listen to the song you're a writer! Or, at least, could be ...."
"I can not sight-read music ."
"And you're never gonna learn, my friend, unless the practice ."
"Well, OK, but my credit ..."
"Dang it, boy, do I have to get this piano from the sun! I'm not gonna quibble with you about your credit, you need a job, you're real well-thought of in the city, hell - that's enough good for me !"
I stood there in silence for a minute.
"Everybody says that you are responsible beyond your years. I mean, look, you're a newspaper editor in this city ."
More silence.
"I believe you, my friend. This piano needs a good home, and very quickly ."
had a sale. And I had a piano. We sat in my office and drew up the paperwork, which is all about ten minutes. Then he drove the piano down the street to my apartment (I was walking behind him), and I helped him to move in
You can probably guess the rest of the story. My credit was not bad - it's mostly non-existent at that time. I'd paid my payments (both) at the time of collection of Luther, then, the loan was not a computerized industry today. But when the Music Man got back to his bank in another small town, of course, did not love my loan request. They are "approved" at a much higher interest rate than normal practice, I was naively unaware of. And for months I struggled to pay rent, buy gas, keep food on the table, take care of my pregnant wife, and make payments on the books and the piano did not really need.
I learned two valuable lessons from the Music Man. First, a good salesman can sell anything at any time (that piano-in-the-truck trick really works). Secondly, people should not buy things I can not afford.
I want our government here in the U.S. to learn that the last hour. If it were not for people buying things they can not afford - houses, mostly suppressed unholy alliance of government and the mortgage industry, as if they were kindly old men with an excellent mortgage out in pickup trucks - the global economy would not be in the mess is in today. Community Reinvestment Act, the nefarious activities of Congress and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the biggest shot of free market economy (the most common life for millions of people) in human history.
Wake up, America. economy is a "dead man walking", and things are going to get much worse before they get better. Are you ready? Do you have your own source of income in order to protect themselves from the day you lose your job? Do you have a plan to protect your family from hyperinflation and the collapse of our money? Are you aware of the global conspiracy against the wealth, and what you can do about it? It is still not too late. If you get clever now, may well be one of the few who profit greatly informed by the entry of financial disaster. Remember: The more wealthy people were created during the Great Depression than at any previous time in history
.America, as a nation, need to stop buying the piano from the back of a truck. We are drowning in debt. And our government must cut spending, get out of the way markets, and reduce the debt now. Grand collectivist schemes, such as those put forth liberals currently ruling our nation simply does not work ... Even if they are so easy to sell as the brightest instruments offered by most smooth-talking Music Man.
before you buy, make sure you can pay ... I Play
Michael D. Hume, M.Š.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar