This isn’t kind of message that people generally write around New Years, but 2008 has been a great challenge and 2009, despite the hope born out of the election of Barack Obama, could be every bit as tough. I don’t generally veer into political issues in public forums and never here in this place generally dedicated to Little House on the Prairie and wholesome family entertainment.

This will be my first-ever post about politics and violence. Sadly, I find myself astonished and outraged by the negative reaction to Israel’s decision to defend itself against rocket attacks launched a week ago by the Palestinian terror organization, Hamas. 

In all the hand wringing protests at Israeli consulates and embassys there is much outrage that Israel would dare defend itself and little or no acknowledgement that Hamas began this round of hostilities by firing rockets into Israel thereby ending a six-month-old cease fire.  Palestinian defenders around the globe make charges of non-proportional responses to Palestinian attacks…as if unaimed rockets designed to kill people at random are hospitality gifts that Israel should accept with gratitude.

Israel should hit Hamas and their Palestinian supporters with overwhelming force, with all respect to the inevitable Palestinian casualties, until the Hamas rocket attacks end and meaningful peace negotiations begin. If the Palestinian people are so appalled by Israeli air strikes let them vent their displeasure to Hamas.  If enough Palestinian people openly opposed Hamas terrorists they wouldn’t be able to function in populated areas where civilians live and work, but they obviously support or at very least tolerate Hamas’ political and military goals so they should not be surprised to experience the full deadly brunt of Israel’s military capability.

I am 52 years old and there has never been a time in my life when Israel’s right to exist hasn’t been rejected in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world. It’s appalling. Until that fundamental issue is resolved violence will certainly continue.  I am not religious person…but I am totally sympathetic to Israel’s desire to exist and mystified by people and organizations who blame Israel for defending itself while seeking sympathy from the world as they terrorize and kill Israeli citizens and destroy their country. We can only hope that Palestinian leaders emerge who can marshall support for the overwhelming advantages of peace rather than the tragic disadvantages of religious extremism. 

I welcome your thoughts and comments…

Happy New Year.

Dean

Merry Christmas one and all.  All the best in 2009.

I just wanted to take a moment to say Happy Thanksgiving to the readers of this blog. I really appreciate your support and thoughtful comments concerning my creative efforts…most particularly regarding LIttle House on the Prairie.  Its been lots of fun to this point and there are going to be more fun projects coming in the future.

Thanks, Dean

Hi all…

According to my manufacturer in Minneapolis the first batch of our revised DVD will be shipped to the Wilder Homestead tomorrow for delivery early next week. The Wilder Homestead will be able to begin fulfilling DVD orders at that time.  I thank all of you for your patience and look forward to hearing that you are receiving your DVDs and enjoying them.

The wait is almost over…

Dean

I wrote on this blog the other day that we  were re-manufacturing the Almanzo Wilder DVDs because they had been delivered to the Wilder Homestead in late September with a flaw…a small flaw…an inadvertent  flaw, but none the less a flaw that I didn’t want  buyers of the DVD to see.

We only discovered the flaw on October 1 after 150 DVDs were either sold in person or purchased for delivery  during the final days of the Homestead’s annual season at the end of September.  Some were shipped before we discovered the  flaw…but most were not.

We made a decision at that time to stop further shipping and recall all the Homestead’s remaining 850 discs for repair. The process has taken longer than expected and has caused some frustrations among individuals who either purchased the DVD in advance or who want to purchase it  now.  

I asked The Wilder Homestead to not reveal the flaw, but rather  to simply promise delivery as soon as possible.  After I revealed the flaw myself the other day, the Wilder Homestead has been overwhelmed with  calls and emails seeking clarification on purchase and delivery.  We ask for your patience and understanding.  None of this is the  fault of the Wilder Homestead. The DVDs are coming. They  are beautiful and I know you will enjoy them.

As soon as the new discs are  available I will communicate with you on this blog. The good news is that Almanzo’s wonderful story  is timeless and will never go out of date.  I can say with all sincerity that the repairs we’ve made, while causing some delays in delivery, will truly enhance your long term enjoyment of ALMANZO WILDER: LIFE BEFORE LAURA.

Thank you for your support of our program and the Wilder Homestead. 

This weekend Katherine and I traveled to Minneapolis to see the LHOP musical twice at the magnificent Guthrie Theater. We were knocked out.  The show builds its plot around the premise that Laura is a willful “wild child” who embraces self sacrifice and learns the important lesson that love and connectedness is the source of life’s greatest happiness and freedom.

It was great to see my Laura on stage as Caroline. While Melissa is a newcomer to the musical theater she came through huge, creating the show’s seminal emotional moment in the closing measures of “Wild Child”. There were tears all around. My old West Side Story buddy, Steve Blanchard as “Pa”, captured the wandering spirit of Charles and sang beautifully as the leader of the Ingalls family. But the show belongs to Laura, Mary, Nellie Oleson, and Almanzo…with very strong support from a very spunky and funny Carrie. The character focus of the musical is just as Laura Ingalls Wilder intended it…on the children. The show’s most memorable song — I’ll Be Your Eyes — is sung by Laura and Mary after Mary goes blind.  Its terrific. 

As in the series, the tension between Laura and Nellie in the musical is pivotal and its set up very effectively as the Ingalls girls prepare to enter school for the first time. Nellie is a worthy antagonist…funny and self absorbed but ultimately resigned when Laura and Almanzo become husband and wife.

Ah yes…Almanzo. At the Guthrie Kevin Massey plays Almanzo with a quiet confidence and focus that is heroic and compelling. His songs reveal his character in a way that Little House readers will love.  The dynamic between the Laura and Almanzo absolutely works and that’s why the show pays off in such a satisfying way in the end.

Those who saw it know…those who haven’t will definitely want to beginning in the summer of 2009. All comments are most welcome.

Dean

Our long awaited DVD is now out for review to a number of Little House bloggers and other relevant organizations who will hopefully view the program favorably. It’s a bit disconcerting to put your work in other people’s hands for criticism but there is no other way to be in the game. At some point all creative people have to be willing to share their efforts with others or its just private dabbling. 

On a related matter, our first release of the program had an undetected problem, which is now being fixed. Unfortunately we’ve had to pull back all the manufactured discs that had been delivered to Burke, NY in order to make the fix.  This has caused a delay in shipment of purchased discs, but I couldn’t have something go out to viewers that wasn’t the best I could make it. People who have ordered the DVD should expect to receive it within the next 14 days.  Thanks for your patience.   Dean

In advance of our ALMANZO WILDER: Life Before Laura release later this month I’ve uploaded our release trailer to YouTube. We’re really happy with the show and I hope you’ll take a look at it and let me know what you think. See the trailer at my channel, DeanBLegacy, on YouTube starting Wednesday.

Thanks,

Dean

With less than a month to go before we release ALMANZO WILDER: LIFE BEFORE LAURA, at the Wilder Homestead in Burke, NY, the editorial is going really well.  In addition to the beautiful images of the Wilder farm and some fun re-creations from sections of the Farmer Boy book, one of the things we think viewers will enjoy the most is the way historic photos and illustrations from Farmer Boy have been rebuilt and animated in order to give them an all new look.  The choice to animate photos and illustrations became very appealing to us given that these images are not only few, but also very well known to those who love the books and legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder. We realized if we could offer a new way to look at well known images that we could bring new attention and interest to what those images show.  

Next week our composer comes in to look at the documentary and decides where we’re going to put music.  Unlike all the LHOP bonus content we’ve made for NBC and Imavision, in this program we will not have access to the beautiful themes composed by David Rose for the series…so we’re going to create an original score to provide the emotional under pinnings that will support our story.  

I’ll keep you informed.

Dean

When I first started working on Little House there was no debate or doubt…the name of the character was pronounced Ala”MON”zo. Years later, when I began to connect with the Little House book community I was told in no uncertain terms that the name was pronounced Al”MAN”zo.  For whatever reason I decided to cede to the book community because they were so certain and I decided that it wasn’t fun to be continually corrected.    But yesterday I had an interesting conversation with Noel Silverman, the attorney for the Wilder Heritage Trust located in NYC.  As we were speaking about ALMANZO WILDER: LIFE BEFORE LAURA he asked me about my pronunciation of the name. I explained myself as above and they he said something that blew me away and confirmed that maybe…just maybe we got it right on the series after all. Roger McBride, the adopted grandson of Rose Wilder Lane…the man who inherited the book rights from Rose and eventually sold the TV/Film right to Ed Friendly…told his attorney, Noel Silverman, that the name was Al”MON”zo and was certain of it because that’s the way Al”MON”zo’s daughter, Rose —  pronounced the name. If his daughter pronounced his name Al”MON”zo that’s definitive.  I was shocked and really gratified.That being said, there is great certainty in the book community that the name is Al”MAN”zo.  Can anyone provide proof that Al”MAN”zo is factually accurate? If your proof is stronger or more credible than Al”MON”zo’s daughter I’ll be anxious to hear.  While I’ve spelled the name differently to illustrate the pronunciation, there is no debate that the name is spelled AlMANzo.  At least we can count on the spelling. Dean