A New Year's Resolution

Keeping up with blogging is hard. Harder than I thought it would be. It certainly gives me new respect (as if I needed it) for writers. I mean the real deal writers, the ones who do it for a living. I know very few writers who love what they do. That includes Howard. I don’t think he loved to write. He loved to create, for sure. He loved plays and movies and songs and had ideas for good ones. But did he love putting a blank piece of paper into the typewriter? My guess is probably not.

I also guess that he probably loved editing. Which, besides the circles under our eyes and lots of genes, is something we have in common. Editing is the art of cutting, shaping and getting to the heart of the matter. That’s something Howard knew well.

He also knew not to put a song in a show just because he liked the song. He knew to leave the audience wanting more (lots of people know this, just fewer and fewer do it). He knew that less is more and that it’s better to have one finely tuned lyric than a lot of almost-great ones.

Like Howard, I don’t really want to write anything – or edit it – unless I think it’s worthwhile. But those who know about such things tell me that to keep you guys coming back to this site, I have to keep blogging and posting on Facebook and Instagram and whatever else great new Social Media App will doubtless come along tomorrow or the next day.

Let’s prove them wrong.

I started this site because I wanted to make sure that Howard’s contributions to theater and film would be remembered. I didn’t want him lost in the noise we all make. But I do no one any favors if I’m just adding to the noise.

I will continue writing and posting and checking out all that Social Media has to offer. But I’m going to try to be more judicious. Which means you may not see as much stuff from Howardashman.com but what you see will have some meat. At least I hope it will.

Please bear with me as I refine and rethink what we’re doing here. Please post your thoughts on this page and on Feed Me. The Feed Me page is always open and I love that you use it and keep it fresh. We have some stalwarts but invite your friends to post, too. That’s what it’s for.

There are some great projects coming up, including a possible revival of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. A director, one of New York theater’s bright young things, is interested in mounting a revival of Little Shop and there’s even some talk about a revival of Smile. One day soon, I hope to have some Aria For A Cow animation to show you, too.

As these things become something more than a twinkle in our agent’s eye, I promise to let you know.