The subtitle for this post might also be ‘shameless name-dropping’.

I learned an interesting lesson recently about name-dropping: I dropped the name of my nephew-in-law Mark Schneider to someone recently; Mark is a well-established theater director, educator, and an amazing creative – and comedic – thinker. I mentioned my name-drop to Mark, he was gracious (maybe even delighted) to have had his name dropped!

Of course for every one of my classmates who went on to become well-known, there were dozens of others who didn’t go on to fame and/or fortune. But it still seems right to celebrate ones whose ‘planets’ aligned in a particular way to make them known to lots of folks. Many of them are also (in my view) making the world a better place.

I’m reading a book by director Jon Chu, ‘Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen’. It’s a well-written book about his life’s journey. I’m still in the first portion of the book: he’s describing his childhood years and his early days at USC.

Jon’s journey reflects an alignment of the planets that eventually put him where he is now, a renowned film director: his own particular physical and mental make-up; his family tree: parents, siblings, extended family; his friends; the area he grew-up in (Silicon Valley – he describes how that shaped his course); his schools, teachers, & school-mates; of course his interests in creativity, in art and ultimately in making movies.

Jon Chu’s description of his childhood reminds me of a grade-school classmate, David Weiss.

David was one of my best grade-school friends: he was funny, energetic, out-going, smart & irreverent, a boon companion. David dreamed up all sorts of creative and zany capers; we did productions together – many included elements of vaudeville (David was interested a lot of things like that, which were way beyond his years) and often featured bawdy humor. One skit, ‘Cigarettes and Whisky, and Wild, Wild, Women’ stands out in memory. (If memory serves me, that one was 5th grade! What did we know about any of those topics?!)

As an aside: one of David’s older siblings, Scott Weiss, is director of the Ojai Pops Orchestra; he and I crossed paths decades after I’d hung out with him as a kid, with David and his other siblings.

Like Jon Chu, David eventually went on to fame and hopefully fortune (in lead roles with Rug Rats and other well-known projects); like Jon, David also had an interesting family dynamic & history. David’s family also experienced significant adversity, and some amount of prejudice: Jon is of course Asian, and his family experienced significant prejudice; David is Jewish; the area in Ventura we lived in was quite WASPy, David was my only Jewish friend. Although David didn’t complain or mention much to me, I’m sure significant cultural difference he must have experienced, was an element of his growing up. Jon’s descriptions of his early experiences of being in front of an audience, creating something that he could present to an audience, something they could enjoy: those stories reminded me very much of David.

When I was working on my degree at UCLA, I had a few teachers and classmates whom I had the good fortune to to watch go on to varying degrees of fame; some are also making the world a better place.

• I recently attended a concert at SF Jazz by pianist Gloria Cheng. She’s had music written for her by many renowned composers, she’s worked with conductors who are household names. I also had the good luck to see her play at the Ojai Music Festival. Her playing is supernatural and beautiful (it’s often startling as well). Back when she was a grad student at UCLA we hung out a bit with mutual friends and classmate; I car-pooled with her and some other pals; which makes me feel just a bit like a celeb now – by association.
• I was lucky to have film-composer James Horner as one of my teachers’ assistants (TA’s). During those early days he hadn’t gotten up high on everyone’s radar yet, but he would do eventually with Titanic and other huge projects. (Sadly he died in a plane crash almost exactly ten years ago, June 22 2015.) As a TA he was down-to-earth and humble (e.g., he wore Birkenstocks, his girlfriend brought him lunch). Our class topics weren’t specifically re: writing film scores; but he worked some of that topic in: it was way over all of our heads (at least mine), but was interesting and exciting.
• Composer Jake Heggie was a fellow undergrad music-major, a bit younger than me; I was leaving (and transitioning into technical jobs at UCLA) just as he was starting. He became known by many of us at that time when he married pianist Johanna Harris, who was his teacher and mine. Later in life he went on to became known on his own merits (and hard work) as a composer, e.g., the opera Dead Man Walking. After recently watching a production of his ‘Before it All Goes Dark’ at the Presidio Theater I reached out to him, and discovered he lives in San Francisco (Noe Valley).
• David Silverman was a dorm-mate at Hedrick Hall (he lived down the hall). He was an animation major. He had many interests, including music: he was a tuba-player, he spent a great deal of time in the Schoenberg Hall music library. He went on to fame – and almost certainly fortune – as a producer in The Simpsons.
• In the spirit of saving best for last: I recently re-connected with a good friend from those Hedrick Hall dorm days, Gilbert (Gil) Carmona. He was a few years further along than I was (he transferred after a couple of years, at another college); he was significantly wiser (and a little bit older) to my view. Gil was an undergrad Psychology major back then; after grad school, he went on to leadership roles in areas of direct help to humanity (e.g., Assistant Dean of USC School of Social Work, CEO of American Addiction Centers, and other roles). I put him squarely in the ‘making the world a better place’ category; am happy and proud to have hung out with him, back before his planets aligned just-so, to help place him where he is now.