Blow winds and crack your cheeks!

I've invited Rugg to be an author on this blog. We'll leave it up for a while in case folks want to read the whole story of Shelley orgainzing the party for her dad.

Hope that the birthday guy gets his wish.

Michael

Arizona contingent

This is David and his kinder. Where did Jeanne get off to?

Thanks, too.. to Kevin Poore...

What a day!

And a good time was had by all!

Big surprise!!

We thought that the surprise had been compromised, but as Shelley brought Ken into the Studio Theater it was obvious that he truly did not know.

As the afternoon went on, tribute after tribute came from Pigs to his oldest pal, Vaughan Hitchcock. They went all through school together. In high school, Vaughan had a crush on a girl named Pat and asked Rugg to ask her out on his behalf. She accepted. Rugg chauffeured them in his dad's car on their first date. Pat and Vaughan celebrated their 55th anniversary this year!

Shelley's band, Shake and the Chantoosies played. Former students and long time faculty friends spoke. Herb Camburn brought renderings and photos of sets and costumes he'd designed for Ken over the years they'd worked together.

Ursula Voight came down from Mill Valley! I introduced them. They were married and amicably divorced. I think I saw a tear in Rugg's eye when she said that he was her best friend.

Ken Anderson arrived from Washington and gave a moving tribute to how Ken had changed his life!

Linda Woolverton told a wonderful story of being the single student in Ken's Junior Theatre Program. He's particularly proud of her. She came from New York City where she's been writing the script for Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND.. a version of which she worked on in the Junior Theatre thing at the age of thirteen!

The evening was capped by a performance by Shelley, Emily and Afsahne of Rugg's "In Search of the Heavenly Host" a wonderful obtuse and somewhat flowy Beckett inspired theatre piece.

Linda Paszkewicz and her husband, Mark, pitched in with the prep, as did Jose, Shelley's guy and his son, Zach.

Adam and David were in attendance. David brought Jeanne and his kinder.

Grace's decorations rocked! (I introduced them, too!)

We found room for a ton of food and got contributions to the Ken Rugg Scholarship Fund which was headed toward a thousand bucks. Everyone autographed the big old T shirt that I drew his furry face on. It looked great

The best part was that Rugg was truly surprised and graciously received much deserved praise over and over again, greeting former students and old friends for hours.

Shelly Rugg has been the true spirit of what became an event that we'll all remember with great joy.

Happy 75th, Rugg! Let's do it again in 2084!!! Thank you for being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time to change my life, too

love, michaelsheehan

Five hours to go

Well! Today is the BIG SURPRISE. Hope it doesn't kill the old boy!!

It's off to pick up the cakes and head to the Long Beach. There's a long list of speakers. It will be a great time for us all.

The rains are kicking up a little, but not enough to dampen the spirits of your friends, Ken, who love you so much that they've dedicated the day to celebrating The Rugg Diamond Jubilee!

To all who have been following these notes, hope you arrive safely and dry. Don't forget to autograph Ken's big old shirt!

I can recommend the St. Louis Ribs at The Elephant Bar, big time. That Bombay martini was Rugg's!!!

Good Time Chuck

Linda and I met Rugg at the Elephant Bar... after Google or some bad map program sent him on a wild goose chase.. to celebrate his big seven five. Linda brought an amazing basket of goodies with balloons. I brought a Trader Joe's bag. The ribs were great! Linda's salmon was pink! and Ken had some funky looking shrimpcicles. Linda got there first and made sure that we were in a quiet part of the restaurant, which was really wonderful for me. Movies were discussed. I need some help defending The Door in the Floor now and to convince Linda that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will probably take the Oscar for many reasons. Rugg probably won't see it as it falls into the realm of Titanic.

By the time you see this, Ken, we'll have surprised you and had a party that may surpass the great time we had last night. It surely was one of the best that the three of us have enjoyed.
Happy Birthday!

We connect!!

The magic of communication.. Ahh.. We settled on an Elephant Bar and a time!

It'll be fun to have dinner tonight with Rugg and the Hawk! We normally don't do presents, but this is a special birthday for Ken. We get to celebrate 'on the day' , lay some stuff on him and have ribs!

This is a photo of the T shirt that folks will autograph at the party on Saturday. It might be my Ground Hog Day shirt, too?

Happy Birthday, Rugg!!

Bring Frogs

Most of Rugg's students know about the tradition that blossomed during his directing days at Long Beach State. In the final performance of any given show, a frog would show up! He'll have the story. But.. Shelley reminded me and so this is a request for you to find frogs... Preferably, plastic or otherwise a froggie replica.. and bring them along on Saturday..

Here's another art piece I made a while ago.

Onward

How High is the Elephant Bar?

The deal is that The Hawk and I will meet Rugg for dinner tomorrow, his actual birthday, to celebrate. Issues regarding the place to meet have come up and as of this writing, I'm not sure if we are meeting in La Mirada or in Downey? We went to the LaMirada Elephant Bar last year. I thought that was what we'd decided on, but now am not so sure. The wonderfulness of dealing with these issues is that they don't leave us on autopilot. Thinking is a good thing.

I ordered Ken's cakes yesterday. One will have "Happy 75th Rugg!" on it. The other ... I had to carefully spell this one for the bakery person.. "Cognito Ergo Sum"

I'll figure out how to use the Nietzsche quotes on Saturday. Three days to go!

Hope that everyone gets assembled in the theater in time. The stuff over which we have no control will reveal itself on Saturday. The anticipation is pretty cool. Hopefully, we'll have that Collector's Editon DVD "Rugg: the first 75" for anyone who'd like to have one soon after the event.

A closeup of my balloon installation last September is attached for color.

Respectfully submitted....

Rugg and Hija

This looked like an old photo to me.. Nope.. It's in Ken's office on his netcam. Shelley sent it to me and is a good representation of the relationship that she and her dad have. I'm really proud of all the work she's done to make this celebration come together. Friends and family are coming from all over the place to make it happen.

We've modified our surprise plan thanks to Afsaneh, one of the triad in the Heavenly Host piece which, I think, will bat clean up in our tribute to Ken.

It'll be interesting to see how soon Rugg gets it that Saturday is all about him!

One Week to Go!

Shelley, Grace and I have been planning this celebration for Rugg for several weeks. Shelley is the honcho. I'm doing the cakes and today she suggested that the tradition of the casts of Ken's plays sneaking in Frog references into final performances was one that we might include next Saturday. I don't know if I can get frogs on the cakes, but if you have any frog stuff, bring it along next week.

Grace needs to get some attention and credit here. She is one of the the most supportive and loving people I've ever met. Ken's lucky to have her in his life. I'm pretty sure she feels the same way about him. Of course, I introduced them!!

Whatta Guy!

Today I received a little book in the mail from a performance artist in New York. Her name is Iris Rose. She's one of the most original artists I've ever known. In her little hand made book she recounts working with Rugg in the seventies with great detail and artistry. It brought tears to my eyes to know that there are literally hundreds of people who had the crazy experience of working with Ken.

This T shirt will be on hand on 1/24 for friends to autograph. I hope that it'll be a nice reminder of the day for Ken.

Ten days and counting.

Seven come Eleven Days!

Counting down to the party on 1/24 has us fine tuning this thing. Though some folks may be following this blog, I'm mostly keeping it for Rugg now. His Godot thing at the Electric Lodge last week was really a lot of fun. Seeing him having a good time is really fun. The Hawk and I will take him to dinner next week, keeping up the tradition that the two of them established many years ago.

Here's a photo that I took at the Max Ten event.

See you Saturday a week.

Three weeks to go

Tonight Grace, Shelley and I enjoyed a ton of Chinese food and finalized plans for Rugg's birthday bash.

Our hope is that everyone will arrive by 4PM so that we can briefly rehearse the 'Surprise!'

Shelley will let us know about the parking situation. There's parking right next to the theater, of course, but she isn't sure if parking will be for a fee or for free. If you can car pool from near the lot, that would be good. If you arrive late, be cool as you head into the theater in case Ken and Shelley are on their way into the back door. We enter through the front.

There will be a Guest Book for folks to sign and a big T shirt to autograph, too.

For those who want to make a contribution to the CSULB Fund, please write checks to them with a notation that it's for the Kenneth Rugg Scholarship Fund. There may be envelopes available at the party for those who want to participate.

Shelley will emcee the comments, so be prepared with five minutes or so if you want to tell a story. There was one note on the evite that suggested that some of the cast of the Three Little Pigs might do a scene or a song. You may pool your five minutes to do that if you get it together.

Remember that food and beverages are not allowed in the theater, but the lobby and the areas outside the theater itself are okay. We have only one liaison from the university, so help with clean up by just finding a trash can will be appreciated. It's really great that the Theatre Department has been so helpful. Hats off to them!

We'll all be in the theater itself when Shelley arrives with Ken at 4:30. The idea is that they will enter from backstage and we'll all be in the dark theater and when they hit the stage, the lights will come up and there we all will be. We have not rehearsed this!! If there are any techies reading this and might want to help with lights, leave a comment here, please.

Looking forward to seeing old friends and making some new ones.
Happy Birthday, Ruggala.