Wake Up! A Musical About Saving Mother Earth by Int'l Composer, Pianist, Writer Eric Allaman

Eric and wife Elizabeth Adrienne Clune live in the Sea Ranch and are friends and neighbors of Resilient Earth host and producer, Leigh Anne Lindsey. It is Eric's music that is used for the theme music and transitions for this podcast.

WAKE UP! THE MUSICAL - a production in the works by Eric and partner Bob Garrett - is a humorous, endearing, & inspiring environmental awareness story written for a younger audience. The neglect of our generation has put children today in this ecological emergency and is forcing them to correct our carelessness. This animated musical comedy presents Hope as a role model to inspire and empower young people to pursue a meaningful role in rescuing Mother Earth.

Eric has composed the scores for 45 films and over 600 TV episodes including: Duck Dynasty, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Mike Hammer Private Eye, Elvira’s Haunted Hills, Sherlock Holmes, Dante’s Cove and Legend to name a few. Eric has worked extensively in theater composing 4 musicals and 3 ballets including Camelot, Noah’s Ark, and The Sea Princess. Eric’s scores have been recorded with orchestras in Russia, Berlin, Serbia, Prague, and the Czech Republic.

During his career he has worked with talent like Jon Voight, Ridley Scott, David Fincher, Tom Cruise, Randy Jackson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kirsten Dunst, Larry the Cable Guy, Shia LaBeouf, Marcus Nispel, RC Matheson, Sam Shepherd, Cassandra Peterson, (Elvira) Jon Anderson of Yes, Stacy Keach, and Robert Mitchum.

Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study
Founded by Scott & Tree Mercer to document the occurrence, diversity, & behavior of marine mammals.

Planet Centric Media (non-profit)
Media for a Healthier Planet: Elevating The Interconnectedness of Life & Value of Natural Resources.

Sea Storm Studios, Inc.
An audio/visual production company in the Sea Ranch, CA (US)

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Resilient Earth Intro with voiceover and music
• 1:30 Guest intro - American Composer Eric Allaman writer Wake Up the Musical
• 2:47 Eric talks about himself being born in Missouri & musical start and where he grew up the climate then and why environmental awareness is so important to him
• 6:36 What compelled him and partner Bob Garrett to create this musical animation for both theater and film
• 13:12 Start of several musical pieces from the production are played and discussed

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;42;22
Speaker 1
Welcome to Resilient Earth Radio, where we host speakers from the United States and around the world to talk about critical issues facing our planet and the positive actions people are taking. We also let our listeners learn how they can get involved and make a difference. A focus of this podcast series are nature based economies that help rebalance Earth and raise awareness about the value of whales, elephants, mangroves, seagrass, the deep seas, waterways and forests.

00;00;42;24 - 00;01;11;03
Speaker 1
Our natural world. We address the effects of our own human caused climate change and what we can do about it. This awareness could lead to new laws, policies and procedures to help protect these valuable resources and encourage economies around them to replace the existing exploitation of oceans, forests and animals.

00;01;11;05 - 00;01;46;18
Speaker 1
The music for this show is Castle by the sea, from international composer Eric Allaman of the Sea Ranch in Sonoma County, California.

00;01;46;21 - 00;02;19;23
Speaker 1
And that was music from the international composer Eric Allaman. And he is my guest today on Resilient Earth Radio. And he is an American composer who has worked in film, television, theater and ballet. Eric. Scores have been performed and recorded with orchestras in Russia, such as Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Berlin, Belgrade, Serbia, Prague, Czech Republic and North Macedonia.

00;02;19;25 - 00;02;31;14
Speaker 1
He is now working on an even different production that's an animated musical called Wake Up! Good morning Eric, thanks for joining us today on Resilient Earth.

00;02;31;20 - 00;02;34;29
Speaker 2
Good morning, liane, and thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

00;02;34;29 - 00;02;47;13
Speaker 1
My neighbor, two in the sea ranch. Eric, you've lived in a lot of different places. You were born in Springfield, Missouri, but you've traveled all over the place and lived in Berlin, among other places.

00;02;47;20 - 00;03;08;17
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's been a journey. Like I think we all have through the course of our lives. But I was born in Springfield, Missouri, which made me a lifelong Saint Louis Cardinals fan. So I've been rapidly following that baseball team ever since. But then we my parents moved us to Chicago, Illinois, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mercer Island, Washington, and then we finally wound up in Dana Point, California, when I was about 11 or 12 years old.

00;03;08;19 - 00;03;28;20
Speaker 2
And, I started playing the piano when I was about seven. And I really got into music, and I eventually wound up going to school at UCLA, where I study music, theater and film. And my mother being Norwegian, I spent a lot of time in Europe, so that's what led me back to go live in Europe. And I moved to Paris when I was 23 and, to pursue my music.

00;03;28;20 - 00;03;48;07
Speaker 2
And eventually that journey led me into West Berlin at the time, where I started to get into electronic music and eventually started working with Tangerine Dream. And that's where I really got into film scoring, and that's sort of really where my career began. I lived there for three years in Berlin and then eventually came back to America, to Los Angeles, because so much of the work was being generated in Los Angeles.

00;03;48;07 - 00;04;10;18
Speaker 2
And that's what brought me back. And so I've worked in Hollywood for about three decades and moved up to the sea ranch just in mid 2018 to pursue my musical projects and my ballets, because I've also been very, very involved in theater, and it's one of my deep passions and so, I moved up here like so many people, as you know, LA, and move up here because it's, it's a pretty good place to live.

00;04;10;20 - 00;04;15;26
Speaker 1
It's a pretty good place to live. You and Elizabeth, your wife joined you on this journey?

00;04;15;29 - 00;04;34;28
Speaker 2
Yes. She did. We decided that we had to escape from LA because, you know, so many things that are affecting our lives. But. And this sounds weird because you don't think about it so much, but we really know it is climate change, even in Los Angeles, because I had grown up in Dana Point and we lived in Malibu for 27 years, and when I grew up and lived there, the summers were cool.

00;04;34;28 - 00;04;53;03
Speaker 2
And Southern California, where I remember skateboarding as a kid, you always needed a sweatshirt in the evenings because the overcast would come in or the fog, and it would be cool in the evenings in July and August. And it got to the point, though, that where you now need air conditioning throughout Southern California, even when you live on the beach, it's become that much hotter.

00;04;53;08 - 00;05;13;24
Speaker 2
So we just there was a lot of reasons, you know, and Malibu has is so prone to fires. And I knew that Keenan doing one of the big canyons was going to burn. Not that I'm a clairvoyant, but I just certainly had that suspicion. And we sold our house and moved out in April the 1st of 2018 and Malibu burned in November 9th of 2018.

00;05;13;24 - 00;05;34;15
Speaker 2
And, about 15 of our friends lost their homes in that fire. And, you know, we moved up here, as you know, and thinking we had found salvation up here. And of course, there's just as many fires, if not more, in Northern California. So the environment's been a huge concern of mine is I know it is yours. And that's been something that I've been actively involved in.

00;05;34;15 - 00;05;50;00
Speaker 2
I've been members throughout my life of Greenpeace and Heal the Bay and Surfrider Foundation, and I think we all need to do whatever we can to try to save our home. You know, we're not occupying Mars yet, like Musk says. So yeah.

00;05;50;02 - 00;05;56;03
Speaker 1
And just look at the devastation that the recent hurricanes have been wreaking here in the States.

00;05;56;08 - 00;05;56;22
Speaker 2
It's oh my.

00;05;56;22 - 00;06;01;18
Speaker 1
Gosh, the warmer waters just fueled that to a bigger storm.

00;06;01;23 - 00;06;21;13
Speaker 2
When I was a kid. I tell you, you know, I grew up surfing and I lived for that. And we hoped that the temperature of the ocean in Dana Point would maybe get to 68, 69 degrees in the summer. And that was really where it peaked out at. And, about five, six years ago, I was in San Clemente surfing, and the water temperature was 78 degrees at the San Clemente pier.

00;06;21;18 - 00;06;31;17
Speaker 2
Yeah, which is just about 78 miles south of Dana Point. And I mean, just astonishing the changes that we've seen over the last 30 or 40 years.

00;06;31;17 - 00;06;37;17
Speaker 1
Yeah, like in corals in Florida, you know, the devastation of the coral reefs, I know.

00;06;37;17 - 00;06;38;07
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00;06;38;10 - 00;06;58;00
Speaker 1
Why don't you tell us a bit about what got you down this path to do this particular musical for children, even though it's for everyone. It's really, you know, meant for a younger generation. What got you down this path, and who is the partner that joined you on that?

00;06;58;04 - 00;07;38;15
Speaker 2
Well, Bob Garrett's my partner on this project. He's a professor in San Diego of environmental sciences and biology, a very, very clever musician and lyricist. And what really motivated us, it's so ironic how life is cyclical. And here we are again. It was the 2016 election when Donald Trump won the election. And what what our concern was that it was clear to both of us that this is a man who's going to operate out of chaos, and that when most of his energies would be concerned about the geopolitical world or the economy or immigration or building his wall.

00;07;38;17 - 00;07;59;02
Speaker 2
I knew one thing for sure that he was going to definitely let up on the environmental standards and protection, and that he would allow development of, for example, the state parks, which he did, mining in state parks, timber that would start to resume in state parks, the mining in Prudhoe Bay for, silver and copper, you know, which threatened the I believe was the sockeye salmon up there.

00;07;59;04 - 00;08;19;10
Speaker 2
So we were immediately motivated. What can we do? You know, which is what I think we all have to ask a question to ourselves. What can we do? And I know that the environmental issues are so daunting that a lot of people think I can't do anything in this sort of turn off. But we decided, let's let us write a musical that's positive, that's funny, that's entertaining.

00;08;19;12 - 00;08;40;14
Speaker 2
But that really sort of zeroes in on what can any one person do. So we have a little girl in our show. Our show is called Wake Up and our little girl's name is Hope. And hope is catapulted into a, future through an accent in her bathroom. And she wakes up on the ground in this dystopian landscape of a desert.

00;08;40;21 - 00;09;00;08
Speaker 2
And before she knows what's going on, a little iPhone is hovering above her. And, the iPhone starts talking to her and says, my name is Chip. And she says, Chip. And she goes, yes, he goes, I'm your defense attorney, and we've got to rush off to court. She says, what are you talking about? He says, well, you've been accused of destroying the planet because you're the last remaining human.

00;09;00;10 - 00;09;32;06
Speaker 2
She's what? And so they're whisked off to, to court on this journey. And as they go off the court, they come across, Woody the last tree and while would the last drop of water. And she starts to see the absolute permutations exaggerated of what happened to climate change, she eventually gets to court. And of course, it's a rigged, hilarious sort of almost Three Stooges court where they just are using the court as a formality to convict her, and they plan on executing this little girl as the last human being that was representative of the destruction of the planet.

00;09;32;09 - 00;09;58;20
Speaker 2
But the things that show is very, very funny and it's very, very silly. And it really plays to all audience groups. It's certainly directed towards the youngest generation that they can get a sense that we are all collectively guilty in adding to the contamination of the planet, and that we have to figure out ways that we can make modifications in our lifestyles, that we can do something that will help the planet.

00;09;58;20 - 00;10;19;26
Speaker 2
And that really is there's something that we can all do, whether it's just if we talk to our children or we talk to our friends or we have discussions or whatever you do, there's something that we can all do. And so that was really our motivation was to write this play, musical, I should say original inception was to do it as an animated movie, which is what we wanted to do.

00;10;19;26 - 00;10;47;22
Speaker 2
And I've worked a lot in Germany since I used to live in Berlin and I speak German, and so I showed it to my publisher agent in Germany. That's Bettina Miga, who was with Colossus Theater for Large in Berlin, and she said, you know, I want to use this as a platform for a musical show in Germany. And because it's so important, and so we immediately had it translated into German and had a reading in Germany, it worked extremely well because this was basically at the end of 2019.

00;10;47;22 - 00;11;04;04
Speaker 2
And before we know it, you know, Covid hit. So really sort of put a, you know, the brakes on our production at that point, like it did for so many people in all careers. Then, Putin's war didn't help. Our situation is because that really created a lot of inflation in Europe with the cost of living and such.

00;11;04;04 - 00;11;28;20
Speaker 2
And so of course, live productions and theater sort of suffered because attendance was so poorly, supported that time. But like I said, we're past all that now. So now we're trying to regenerate. This is both a staged musical and it's a 90 minute animated movie, but we've also broken it up into an episodic series where each episode is 25 minutes long and there's four episodes.

00;11;28;26 - 00;11;47;03
Speaker 2
So it really plays in both formats, really well. We've written the scripts, we've had everything done. You can see you're scrolling through some of the artwork that we created for the show, because it's very positive. What I do want to mention, though, as you know, liane, was that a lot of people have made massive contributions to environmental awareness.

00;11;47;05 - 00;12;11;09
Speaker 2
You think about al Gore, who was doing this back in the 90s and early 2000. He made this very profound film, An Inconvenient Truth, part one and part two. Right, which were really, really important for us to start waking up to what was going on. Leonardo DiCaprio, of course, has been a huge soldier for this cause, and he had a very influential film Before the Storm, and then even Doctor Sylvia Earle, you know, she made this incredible movie that's out on Netflix.

00;12;11;09 - 00;12;46;01
Speaker 2
You know, Mission Blue. Her organization, Mission Blue is very profound in its work in the environment. So the all these collective people have done something so motivating and stunning for and awareness about the issues that are at hand. But what we wanted to do is we wanted something that was funny and amusing and silly, because I think that a lot of people turn off when they hear about the statistics and the decline and the horror of what we read about, like, you know, the oceans reaching 100 degrees outside of Florida last summer.

00;12;46;01 - 00;13;07;10
Speaker 2
You know, that's just unimaginable to me. And that's what's feeding these super hurricanes and the destruction of the coral reefs and so many things. So I think that we all have to figure out a way that we can make a contribution. So Bob and I thought our contribution would be make a comical musical that would bring awareness to families and particularly children.

00;13;07;12 - 00;13;12;10
Speaker 2
So that's my long winded spiel on why we said how we got that.

00;13;12;12 - 00;13;33;26
Speaker 1
We've got some music queued up too, and I just want to let everyone know again, we're talking with Eric Allman, an international composer, pianist, writer, and he has done theater, ballet, he has done all kinds of movies, such as with Tom Cruise and Jon Voight. We didn't even talk about that yet.

00;13;33;26 - 00;13;45;21
Speaker 2
Eric there. Yes. Just remember, everybody that you can go to wake up the musical.com to see the layout of the show, hear a lot of music on the videos and really read about it. So once again, wake up the musical.com.

00;13;45;27 - 00;13;56;25
Speaker 1
So wake up the musical.com. Now the first one I've got cued up and that's the one you were referring to earlier. My name is Chip. So describe this a little bit again before we play it okay.

00;13;56;25 - 00;14;16;18
Speaker 2
So the show opens up in San Clemente, California, and Hope is living with her parents. And we learn very quickly that the father is sort of doesn't believe in climate change, and the mother is very actively involved in climate change. And this all these thoughts are spinning in her heads, and she goes up to her bathroom to get ready, and she has an accident in the bathroom and she's knocked unconscious.

00;14;16;18 - 00;14;34;08
Speaker 2
And the next thing she knows, she wakes up in this dystopian future on a desert sort of floor. And as she's coming to, she hears this voice saying, wake up, wake up, Hope. And she looks up and it's an iPhone hovering above her. And iPhone says, my name is Chip and I'm your defense attorney. And so he introduces himself with this song.

00;14;34;11 - 00;14;41;28
Speaker 2
He says, you've been charged with destroying the planet, and I've got to whisk you off the court so you can go ahead and play the first song. That's how that sets up the musical.

00;14;41;28 - 00;14;45;06
Speaker 1
And there's an image of a face on that iPhone two.

00;14;45;09 - 00;14;51;28
Speaker 2
Yes, he has a face. He's a real little person. Chip. So he's very cute. You can see the artwork on the website. Yeah.

00;14;51;28 - 00;15;03;03
Speaker 1
So here we go with the song. We'll be right back.

00;15;03;06 - 00;15;05;05
Unknown
My name is Chip, your attorney.

00;15;05;05 - 00;15;24;12
Speaker 4
I guess I'm all you've got. This dark and fearful road your justice counts for not, I should be honest, hope about the task ahead. I'm not the sharpest lawyer in this jurisprudence. Said the allegations they will make are facts you can't deny.

00;15;24;20 - 00;15;42;06
Unknown
You polluted all your oceans. You put toxins in the sky. Your fingerprints are everywhere. They bounced your DNA. You were spotted at the crime scene. They've got you in every way. I don't know what to say. I've never been in court before.

00;15;42;06 - 00;16;01;24
Speaker 4
I don't know what to wear. I do not handle stress well. Well, you ought to say up here. I know this may not make much sense. Look at all the evidence once up to say in your defense, justice and your expense. I can't believe I'm standing with a real criminal.

00;16;01;26 - 00;16;19;16
Unknown
You don't seem like you've done something so despicable. Your fingerprints are everywhere. The monster DNA you spotted at the crime scene, all the odds are stacked way I don't know what to say. It's the crime. For what? You must pay a.

00;16;19;16 - 00;16;40;24
Speaker 4
Charge I must defend. I should have stayed awake in blessed. Or at least I could pretend yours was a world that I've never known. Deserts. That sand is the earth that I call home. Some say it once was so green and beautiful. There were lakes and streams.

00;16;40;24 - 00;17;08;06
Unknown
Flowers, trees began to flow. And this is what you left for us. How could you be so blind? And I take care of what you had, leaving this behind. Your fingerprints are everywhere. They put your DNA. You were spotted at the crime scene. They've got you in every way. Your fingerprints are everywhere. They match to DNA. You were spotted at the crime scene.

00;17;08;06 - 00;17;14;15
Unknown
All the answers knocked away. I don't know what to say now. I don't mean to burn.

00;17;14;18 - 00;17;20;02
Speaker 4
You or fill you with despair. Oh, that's between the two of us. We don't even.

00;17;20;02 - 00;17;28;15
Speaker 1
Have a prayer for. Wow, that's quite the song in such upbeat tone. Talk a little bit about that.

00;17;28;15 - 00;17;55;11
Speaker 2
Yes. That's, when we put together the music for this show, I used a lot of the singers in Los Angeles that are comedy singers, and we used several members of the cast of frozen that were working on the Disney film in production at planned. And so that song, it's, a very silly song, very funny lyrics written by Bob as Chip introduces himself as a very insecure iPhone with a learning disorder.

00;17;55;11 - 00;18;13;28
Speaker 2
So he has a hard time, you know, ironically, he's a smartphone with a learning disorder, and he is trying to get her to go to court. So she finally follows him and they begin the journey walking across to this courtroom, which leads us to our next song, which is where they meet Woody, the last surviving tree.

00;18;14;00 - 00;18;19;29
Speaker 1
It's an animated musical that Eric Solomon is working on, and there ain't nothing more.

00;18;20;02 - 00;18;25;26
Speaker 2
There ain't nothing more good natured than a tree. So Woody the tree sings a song when he meets Hope.

00;18;25;29 - 00;18;34;16
Speaker 1
All right, here we go. We'll be right back.

00;18;34;19 - 00;19;12;08
Speaker 5
You couldn't hear the brief if it weren't for I leave and the birds won't have no place to build a nest. Little kids won't learn to climb. Yeah, rum and Coke. Won't have no lime. What are you gonna lean on when you rest? There ain't nothing more good natured than a tree. They're dependable and loyal as can be.

00;19;12;11 - 00;19;18;29
Speaker 5
While money, wives and children often be.

00;19;19;01 - 00;19;25;01
Speaker 5
You'll always know where you can find your trees.

00;19;25;03 - 00;19;31;10
Unknown
You burn us down with fire. Use us. The brand, the National Enquirer.

00;19;31;13 - 00;20;16;23
Speaker 5
Even carve your initials in our bark. We tell you what's the season and your enemies for treason. Sorry for what we did to Joan of Arc. There ain't nothing more good natured than a tree. They're dependable and loyal as can be. While money, wives and children often be. You'll always know where you can find your tree. Cut a tree down.

00;20;16;23 - 00;20;29;12
Speaker 5
Build a cabin. Cut a tree down. Plant more corn. Cut a tree down for a highway. Cut a tree down to keep you warm. Cut a tree down.

00;20;29;12 - 00;20;36;24
Unknown
Cause it blocks your view crops. Too many believe every time you cut.

00;20;36;24 - 00;21;15;03
Speaker 5
A tree down. Mother nature green tree. It's hard for me to justify. Why you cut us down for double ply and flushes down the toilet to the sea. A tree you'll go out on a limb for you. It'll stop the rain and shade you two and give golfers a place where they can pay. Hell, Harry, nothing more good nature than a tree.

00;21;15;06 - 00;21;18;03
Unknown
They're dependable and loyal.

00;21;18;09 - 00;21;42;12
Speaker 5
As can be. While money, wives and children often need. You'll always know where you can find your tree. Yessiree. Oh, you always know where you can find your tree.

00;21;42;15 - 00;21;56;24
Speaker 1
That was. There ain't nothing more good natured than a tree. And I'm also sharing the website Wake Up the musical.com where you can actually not only see Woody the tree, but you can listen to that song and the other songs.

00;21;56;24 - 00;22;18;11
Speaker 2
So that song is another. The very amusing song as he sings about, he can't understand why people abuse trees and burn them down and cut them down for myriads of reasons. And of course this is making a huge impression and hope. She's never thought about these facts and everything and she feels very, very bad. And it's very touching.

00;22;18;11 - 00;22;40;02
Speaker 2
At the end of the song, Woody picks one of his last few leaves. He only has about 4 or 5. He's survived many fires and he's very burned up, but he gives her one of his leaves and says, please remember me. So she's very touched by this gesture as she continues her journey to the courtroom, and as they continue to walk along, they pass Woody, and then they come across a dried up lake and down in the bottom of the lake.

00;22;40;05 - 00;22;46;07
Speaker 2
The last little drop of water. It's crying, help me, help me! And it's Wawa, the last drop of water on Earth.

00;22;46;09 - 00;23;07;04
Speaker 1
That leads us into our next song. And then we're going to talk a bit about where you are in this whole process of producing this animated series. So we're going to do that right after we listen to this next song.

00;23;07;06 - 00;23;10;18
Unknown
I am while one night stand.

00;23;10;18 - 00;23;26;13
Speaker 4
No. Yeah. Two parts H and one part. Oh yeah. Life began with my first rap and I got it all will stop, won't stop.

00;23;26;13 - 00;23;32;00
Unknown
Planet Earth hits me I may cause the clouds I.

00;23;32;00 - 00;23;43;01
Speaker 4
May cause I c I p in the trees I pee in the rocks I, I am the ice cube who change your scotch.

00;23;43;04 - 00;23;48;24
Unknown
You think I'm nice? You say I'm cute instead.

00;23;48;24 - 00;23;56;04
Speaker 4
You wait until you pollute. It makes me toxic. Oh, yeah.

00;23;56;06 - 00;24;02;06
Unknown
Oh, I love I want spray, don't now.

00;24;02;07 - 00;24;27;28
Speaker 4
I just your garbage can. If you don't want to throw anything, toss in some phosphates and mercury. Hear my cries. Can you feel my day? It stings when I drop acid rain I never, I never ever wish.

00;24;28;05 - 00;24;34;11
Unknown
To harm my king I kill a fish to win.

00;24;34;11 - 00;24;41;18
Speaker 4
Filled with toxic waste. They close the beaches, shores and bass.

00;24;41;25 - 00;24;46;00
Unknown
And test you with rage. I wonder if.

00;24;46;08 - 00;24;55;28
Speaker 4
It is not too late to make up for all past mistakes. When all resources.

00;24;55;28 - 00;25;05;00
Unknown
Have been spent to clean up your environment. Call all your sons and.

00;25;05;04 - 00;25;12;10
Speaker 4
All of your daughters slaves of the land of precious waters, don't you? Thank you.

00;25;12;10 - 00;25;23;27
Unknown
I don't have to. I am my wife, your best friend. I hope we haven't reached the end.

00;25;24;00 - 00;25;33;06
Speaker 4
Some much work, so little time. How could you have been so polite?

00;25;33;09 - 00;25;46;20
Unknown
I am are one now to know your two part H and one part. Oh yeah. Life began with my first clap.

00;25;46;22 - 00;25;54;12
Speaker 4
When I got it all the stop change will stop life. You'll see.

00;25;54;14 - 00;26;04;05
Unknown
It. You will, it will stop. And then you, you.

00;26;04;08 - 00;26;24;23
Speaker 1
That is really cute and very appealing to the younger crowd. This is Eric Solomon with me today. International composer. And you got together with Bob, your partner, and talk about where you are now in this process of doing this and in the two different or three different concepts you've got for it.

00;26;24;25 - 00;26;50;22
Speaker 2
Okay. Yes. As I said earlier, what what we did is we initially wrote this as an animated musical. Wake up. We're looking for a producer and or a director to take this on and develop this as an animated musical. Simultaneously. I had shown it to my publisher agent, as I mentioned earlier in Berlin, Bettina Wires, who works for her company Gallus to answer for leg, and she wanted to develop it as a musical for the stage.

00;26;50;25 - 00;27;09;04
Speaker 2
And so that was translating the German. And we've had a very, very successful reading. And so she is currently trying to get a stage production of that in Germany. So we're sort of doing both of these simultaneous. We even toyed with the idea of doing this as a live action movie, because it's very daunting to do animated movies at this point in time.

00;27;09;04 - 00;27;30;01
Speaker 2
A lot of the bigger companies that people know from Pixar, Disney, they do all their productions in-house and they develop their production, so they don't really solicit outside productions. It's something that they will develop. So we have to go a little bit more grassroots in our ability to do this. Whether we go CGI, which we're looking at 25 to $30 million to do a low end CGI film.

00;27;30;05 - 00;27;46;18
Speaker 2
So we've also toyed with the idea of doing this as 2D animation, where we can probably do that. We've had budgets for between 4 to $6 million as a 2D animation, which is what a lot of us would know is more like the cartoons that we saw growing up, like Tom and Jerry or Bugs Bunny, for example, and that kind of a format.

00;27;46;20 - 00;28;07;14
Speaker 2
So we're in the stage where we are looking for producers to take us to the next level, whether that is as a staged musical or whether that is an animated film or even a live action film. The important thing is we feel that the message is so strong in the movie and it's so positive that we have to exhaust every avenue of possibility until we get this thing realized.

00;28;07;16 - 00;28;09;16
Speaker 1
And you're no stranger to film?

00;28;09;19 - 00;28;29;14
Speaker 2
Yeah, I worked in film for over 30 years as a composer. I did 45 movies and over 600 episodes of television just for people who don't know me. My first break was with Tangerine Dream when my partner and I wrote the music for legend, which was a Ridley Scott film which Tom cruise starred in. That was a very big film in the mid-eighties, and Tim Curry was in that movie.

00;28;29;14 - 00;28;54;25
Speaker 2
Tom Cruise and Mia Sara. And after that I started to do a lot of movies. I did, for example, Elvira's Haunted Hills with Cassandra Peterson, who plays Elvira. I did latter days, which is a really intriguing film that C.J. Cox did, which he wrote Sweet Home Alabama. I did a couple movies with Jon Voight, Jail, Family Ranch. I did a Larry Cable guy movie called Witness Protection with the director Charlie Carter.

00;28;54;26 - 00;29;17;23
Speaker 2
So I did a lot of different movies, but my career was really more based in TV, I should say. I've done an enormous amount of animation with a good friend of mine, Kevin O'Donnell. I did Robert Mitchum's last series, African Skies. I did High Tide with Rick Springfield. I did my camera private Eye with Stacy Keach. You know, I did Extreme Makeover Home Edition, which was a big hit on ABC for nine years.

00;29;17;27 - 00;29;34;26
Speaker 2
And then I also did Duck Dynasty, which followed that. So I worked a lot in television, a lot of animation. I did our friend Martin, which was a big animated film, which with Oprah Winfrey and John Travolta and Samuel Jackson about Martin Luther King. I worked all over the map as far as in in Hollywood, which is what a lot of people wind up doing.

00;29;34;26 - 00;29;56;09
Speaker 2
You never know where your career goes. So I wound up working all different sorts of formats. But right now I'm sort of much more concentrating on my ballets and my musicals, and particularly this project, because I feel it's so important that we get the word out that we get awareness. That is, I know you're doing your own part too, with your radio station and what you're trying to pioneer and get people to pay attention to.

00;29;56;10 - 00;30;21;20
Speaker 1
It's true. We started Resilient Earth Radio simply because a lot of people are, like you said, daunted by climate issues. And and we wanted to take the approach of, well, what are the positive things that people are doing around this planet? We had done an Ocean Life symposium a few years back, and Ralph Shami from the International Monetary Fund had come on to talk about.

00;30;21;22 - 00;30;55;05
Speaker 1
It's not all doom and gloom, and here are the ways that we can help. And he took a monetary look at how you value our natural resources so that we can protect them, because that's the built in climate balance are right there. You know, if you look at your whales or your mangroves or your elephants and definitely trees and more things like that, and that got us thinking along the lines of how they help with carbon sequestration, but also producing the oxygen that we breathe, the every second breath.

00;30;55;07 - 00;31;22;15
Speaker 1
And of course, you brought up Doctor Sylvia Earle earlier, and she is so inspirational. She goes down in those submersibles to study the deep, deep oceans and what makes up our oceans and how important they are for our ability to continue living on this planet. And when I went down to the International Ocean Film Festival in San Francisco, the first film I saw was one with her and Yo-Yo Ma.

00;31;22;18 - 00;31;53;21
Speaker 1
And here's this famous musician who's interviewing her. That was my first personally introduction to her. So many people know who she is. And then we were invited by a woman named Cora, who works with her at Mission Blue, and Cora had invited us to that Goldman Environmental Awards at San Francisco Opera House. And so we attended there and then to a private event, put on by Blue Frontier there that you attended with me down in Bolinas.

00;31;53;24 - 00;32;17;08
Speaker 1
And such a beautiful event where Doctor Earle came to this private event and talked at On the Bluff, looking out over the ocean. And she is so inspirational. I think it was on World Ocean Day where she just said, if there's any way you can be like ambassadors to spread this information, raise awareness, that's one of the best things you can do.

00;32;17;08 - 00;32;23;18
Speaker 1
So that's what we're doing with the radio show and podcast, what you're doing now with this animated musical.

00;32;23;20 - 00;32;41;13
Speaker 2
Thank you for doing what you're doing, liane. It is critical, and thank you for taking me to that event in Bolinas. It was very inspiring to me. Caro and and Doctor Sylvia Earle and the whole team of people down there and what they've been doing. And she is an amazing woman. Doctor Sylvia Earle, I recommend anybody to go to her website, Mission blue.org.

00;32;41;13 - 00;33;02;02
Speaker 2
I believe it is. Yes. But they have a movie on Netflix which is called Mission Blue, which is stunning to watch her life and what she's done, and she's been referred to as the Jane Goodall, I believe, of the oceans. Right? Yes, yes. She gave a speech that I would never forget. We were out in that bluff, a stunning house overlooking the ocean, and a bald eagle flew by as she was speaking.

00;33;02;02 - 00;33;30;27
Speaker 2
You know, never forget that. But, you know, she's somehow very, very positive, even though she has seen the devastation throughout her life as she I believe she's, you know, she's quite elderly and she has seen a lot, but she's she's a very positive force. And and Carolina was so who goes by Carla was so inspiring too. And very, very intelligent, sharp woman who's devoting her energies to conservation and awareness, which is, like I said, we all just need to team up and join hands and do what we can.

00;33;30;29 - 00;33;56;27
Speaker 1
And that was put on by the Blue Frontier campaign. David Hill Vogue is yeah, one of the founders. He is a journalist from way back and he's written many books. And the event was called Celebrate the Sea. And Natasha Benjamin is with him as an executive director of that organization. They're doing all kinds of good policy changes in Washington, D.C. they're protecting the land.

00;33;56;27 - 00;34;30;00
Speaker 1
They're in the Bay area, in Contra Costa County. They have so many projects going on, plus Rising Tide, a podcast that I brought in to Cuba, and we're now playing that podcast on Sundays at 11 a.m. and 11 p.m.. Catch it. It's a good one. And Natasha Benjamin is doing a film with Anna Blanco, whom you met there, and she's the executive director of the International Ocean Film Festival, and that's called sequoias of the sea.

00;34;30;06 - 00;34;53;11
Speaker 1
Talking about the devastation of our bull kelp along our north coast. And that was from a heat event called the blob. The heat blob that happened back in 2014. Part of it was a wasting disease of the starfish, and that was the major apex predator of the purple urchin and the purple urchin. Now I've just taken over that film.

00;34;53;11 - 00;35;00;02
Speaker 1
They are finishing up and hope to release it soon, but that sequoias of the sea, that we've done a show.

00;35;00;04 - 00;35;26;23
Speaker 2
I'm glad you brought that up, Leah, because as I said, when I grew up in Dana Point, I grew up surfing and, a place called Dana Strands and Salt Creek. And I would go out and as I started surfing, I was about 12, and the water was so clear back then. I mean, really, you know, when you were sitting out in the on the line, it up in the water, I remember it's not like Hawaii, but it was very clear where you could look down anywhere from 15 to 25ft and see the bottom, and we would go spearfishing in our spare time.

00;35;26;23 - 00;35;53;13
Speaker 2
And it was very rich with halibut and Caribbean and bonitas and, and there were a lot of fish and everything. And there were very thick kelp beds. And I took some surf trips up to Northern California and served in the Santa Cruz and San Simeon area. And of course, the kelp beds were so unbelievably thick back in those days, and it was very daunting when you're out surfing because it was very hard to paddle in the kelp beds to catch the waves, or when you were coming down some of the waves.

00;35;53;19 - 00;36;14;16
Speaker 2
The kelp bulbs would sometimes hit your skag and throw you off the board. So when I moved up to the Sea Ranch in 2018, I got up here and started surfing at Black Point, up at Point Arena, and my first observation is where's all the kelp? I couldn't believe there's no kelp. I mean, really no kelp compared to what it used to be like.

00;36;14;19 - 00;36;40;26
Speaker 2
And you know, it's those are the forests that are right off the coast that provide all the protection and nourishment for all the rockfish and the lobsters and crabs and everything that survive in that domain. And for surfers, it's very advantageous because it keeps the chopped down, you know, from the the predominant onshore northwest winds that are what blows from as every anybody who serves up her knows from spring through mid-late summer, it would help keep that shot down.

00;36;40;28 - 00;37;07;00
Speaker 2
There are no kelp beds anymore on the level that there should be. So the water up here blows out so quickly, which makes surfing net very attractive in this area and neck of the woods. And that's something that was really alarming to me. And it's like you said, that wasting disease that hit, the starfish that prey for probably on those purple sea urchins, that heat blob that you mentioned, I think it was in 2011 or 12 or whatever, 14 that killed off a lot.

00;37;07;06 - 00;37;19;14
Speaker 2
And, you know, we need to do restoration of the kelp beds. But of course, if the temperatures keep climbing, it's an arduous task to undertake. But we've got to figure this out. You know, it's very, very important.

00;37;19;17 - 00;37;44;16
Speaker 1
I talked to Sheila Simmons, who's the executive director of the new center for Marine Science up in Fort Bragg, and they, along with other organizations, are doing what they can to figure out a way to reduce the purple urchin population and reintroduce the bull kelp, and in a way, put it into environments where it will thrive and it won't die off.

00;37;44;16 - 00;38;09;21
Speaker 1
But they have ways of harvesting the purple urchin and making a commercial enterprise out of it, like is happening down by Santa Barbara, where they're helping to also replenish the abalone that disappeared. And they're reintroducing those in the ocean, but they're taking the purple urchin, they're fattening them up and so that restaurants can actually use them as a type of honey.

00;38;09;22 - 00;38;34;03
Speaker 1
So you can find it in Japanese restaurants. But even Harbor House up in Elk, the two Michelin starred chef up there, Matthew Kammerer, he's doing what he can to incorporate purple urchin into their whole menu. And he's also been working with Sheila Simmons and other people when they put on the Kelp Festival not long ago, back in the 80s, I was a abalone diver.

00;38;34;03 - 00;38;49;25
Speaker 1
I was a scuba diver, and I was all up and down this coast. I even spent a lot of time scuba diving through the kelp forests in Monterey. They were so beautiful. They were huge forests and they're just 96% gone.

00;38;50;01 - 00;39;07;15
Speaker 2
I know, you know, when I grew up spearfishing in Dana Point, we would go out to the kelp beds because that's where all the fish were. And I remember you would see occasional purple sea urchins, but they were not predominant. They were just they were like everything else. They just sort of blended it into the the natural environment that you were diving in and spearfishing.

00;39;07;22 - 00;39;27;22
Speaker 2
And when you come up to these areas now, it's like you say, you see areas where it's carpeted with those skies. There are very hearty animal that can atrophy to a degree where they can sort of become dormant and not have to eat for quite a long time. And they're almost like an insect in a way. They're just so they have survivability that are unbelievable and they're not easy to get rid of.

00;39;27;23 - 00;39;36;25
Speaker 2
You know, the sea otters were eliminated from this area almost 100 years ago, I believe. And so with that starfish that disappeared, there's no natural predators of those things.

00;39;37;02 - 00;39;54;28
Speaker 1
We are talking with Eric Altman today. He's an international composer, a pianist, a writer. You've worked in TV, you worked in film, you've worked in ballet, you've had a ballet down in Los Angeles that unfortunately I was unable to go to, and I really wanted to go with my friend Margie.

00;39;54;28 - 00;40;11;03
Speaker 2
It's Noah's arc, which is I've written three ballets, but Noah's Ark is really close to my heart, and we just did it at the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center with the Pacific Festival Ballet. My partner, Kim, is Sally, wrote it with me, and she was the artistic director, and she did all the choreography and she just just throws on a stunning show.

00;40;11;03 - 00;40;29;20
Speaker 2
I'm so sad that you and Margie weren't able to make that, that that was down there in May. But it was. It's a lovely show. They've done it about 4 or 5 times now ever since we premiered it in 2000. I believe it was 2010. And, I know I'm a big fan of ballet, so anyway, that's another one of my loves.

00;40;29;27 - 00;40;43;20
Speaker 1
And you've lived in so many different locations, especially Berlin and Paris, and now you're living right here in the Sea Ranch, and we're using your music for our Resilient Earth radio and podcast.

00;40;43;23 - 00;40;45;01
Speaker 2
And that's great.

00;40;45;01 - 00;40;51;25
Speaker 1
And it's Castle by the sea. I just want you to tell a little bit about that. Then we'll get back to the Wake Up the musical.

00;40;51;28 - 00;41;11;06
Speaker 2
Sure. That was my first ballet with Kim Bocelli. We did that back in 2007. It premiered at the same theater, the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center. It's actually the Fred Kavli Theater in Thousand Oaks, and it's a 2000 seat theater. And, I had never written a ballet before, but Kim had been producing ballet for decades, so she led me through that process.

00;41;11;06 - 00;41;30;04
Speaker 2
We went to Saint Petersburg, Russia, and recorded it there because, like so many, you know, live music is disappearing, as we know, across America, this this ballet company could not afford to have a real orchestra perform the score. So I wrote it for a 60 piece orchestra, but we recorded it in Russia and came back. It premiered in 2007.

00;41;30;06 - 00;41;51;11
Speaker 2
It's a little bit like the story of The Little Mermaid, and it follows that same sort of arc as the film. And The Castle by the sea is the piece I know that you're using a lot, which is the revelation of the castle, where the prince lives, who's looking for a princess you know, to marry. And it's a very uplifting, positive piece.

00;41;51;11 - 00;42;07;06
Speaker 2
And the show did very, very well and was very well attended. And that's what I told him. I said, we got to write another one of these now, because now I know what I'm doing. And that's what led us to do Noah's Ark. And then eventually we finished with the Camelot, which was our third ballet that premiered in 2019.

00;42;07;08 - 00;42;24;00
Speaker 2
They're pieces that are very dear to my heart. When I, as I said, I got to record, we recorded Noah's Ark at Moscow, at Mosfilm Studios in Moscow, and I recorded a couple of my films there. So I had gone to the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg, where, you know, you see really dance performed on the highest level.

00;42;24;00 - 00;42;28;29
Speaker 2
So I, I'm a huge fan of dancing and dance productions, and that's why I pursued that.

00;42;29;06 - 00;42;32;25
Speaker 1
And you have a wide range of music too, that you have produced.

00;42;32;26 - 00;42;55;07
Speaker 2
You have to as a working composer, you've got to do, I mean, I've written a lot of electronic dance music I've written. I mean, every genre you can think African Skies with Robert Mitchum was African music when I did my camera, Private Eye with Stacy Keach. That had to be cool. School jazz, you know? So, I've had when I did High Tide with Rick Springfield, that was retro surf music, sort of like Dick Dale, you know, in the safaris and the ventures.

00;42;55;07 - 00;43;15;02
Speaker 2
So you had to be versatile to work as a professional composer in Hollywood. I remember I signed with CAA and my agent, that's the first thing he said. He says, you are in the business of commerce, and the most versatile composers are the one that survive. So, I really had to, you know, learn by baptism. A baptism by fire experience of just jumping in.

00;43;15;02 - 00;43;35;27
Speaker 2
And I did a Kirsten Dunst movie called True Heart, which had to be a Native American score. So I had to study Native American music to create that film score. And that's that's really what you have to do as a working composer is fit the needs of the medium and what it needs and what it dictates with Wake Up, it's really me being able to do what I want to do is my style of music, right?

00;43;35;27 - 00;43;52;10
Speaker 2
You know, or with my ballets, I, I wanted to, write what is in my heart. You know, as a composer, I think when you work in Hollywood, you're one of the team. So you have to write the kind of music that fits the production. Not necessarily. What would be your personal style, but what best supports the needs of the product.

00;43;52;10 - 00;44;06;00
Speaker 2
So Wake Up is really Bob and me doing what we do best, which is our kind of music. That's what we, are most eager to see if we can find partners to help us exploit this, develop this product and get it out there.

00;44;06;01 - 00;44;30;24
Speaker 1
Well, that's a perfect progression. Back to playing some of the pieces that you have written and composed and produced, and they are on your website. Wake up the musical.com. I'm going to play another couple of musical pieces here. I'm and Lindsay, this is Resilient Earth Radio. Eric Altman is here with me today and I've got a couple of ones that we can choose from.

00;44;30;24 - 00;44;36;27
Speaker 1
Do you want to do the one about phytoplankton, or do you want to do the two worlds?

00;44;36;29 - 00;45;07;22
Speaker 2
You can do a bit of both if you want. Phytoplankton is a very funny Irish jig that is basically phytoplankton produce an enormous amount of the world's oxygen and he has an inferiority complex because he says, all the trees get all the glory for introducing off the oxygen. It actually produce more oxygen than the trees do. So he is brought up on the stand to testify against hope and human beings for contaminating the oceans to the point, and allowing so much carbon emissions in the world that the phytoplankton started to disappear from the food chain.

00;45;07;26 - 00;45;14;01
Speaker 2
So he sings a little funny Irish song about what he does and and the importance of phytoplankton.

00;45;14;07 - 00;45;19;28
Speaker 1
So we're going to play a little bit of that right now. We'll be right back and then we'll get into two worlds after that.

00;45;20;03 - 00;45;30;07
Speaker 5
My name is fight ten. I live in the sea. And why did you not take good care of me? I should be gone. And you'll be who's white? Who did this?

00;45;30;10 - 00;45;33;29
Speaker 4
Nobody knows. My name is white on TV.

00;45;34;04 - 00;45;41;27
Unknown
See? And why did you not take good care of me? I be gone and you'll be hosed. Why are you in this?

00;45;42;02 - 00;45;57;00
Speaker 1
Nobody knows. That's really cute. And being part of Irish myself, I love that jig. I'm sure Elizabeth does as well. That is cute.

00;45;57;02 - 00;46;14;24
Speaker 2
That's my good friend Anthony Cavallo singing. He won a Tony for the kiss of the Spider Woman on Broadway, and we're good buddies and he's very much a serious environmentalist himself. He actually saying the tree song to there ain't nothing more good natured than a tree. And he did an impersonation of phytoplankton for us. So we're very indebted to him for doing that.

00;46;14;24 - 00;46;19;15
Speaker 1
You've gotten some amazing people to help you with his music. You mentioned you have the voices.

00;46;19;15 - 00;46;39;06
Speaker 2
Everybody you realize as you went, you realize, I'm sure everybody cares about these issues. You know, and everybody contributes in whatever shape or form that they can. And so it's, you know, we all benefit by, like as I said, collaborating and creating this awareness and moving forward to reclaim our earth. And like you said, to bring acknowledgment to the good things that so many people are doing in the world.

00;46;39;06 - 00;46;46;22
Speaker 1
Right? We played earlier the song I Am Nova and was that one of the voices from frozen.

00;46;46;24 - 00;46;57;10
Speaker 2
That you were that was one of the singers from frozen, and also Daniel who sang My Name Is Chip, performed in frozen, and he was the one who sang the first song, My Name Is Chip.

00;46;57;13 - 00;47;09;10
Speaker 1
And Wake Up the musical icon. And again, Eric, you are working to get this finalized and produced and available in one of three different forms, is what it sounds like, right?

00;47;09;16 - 00;47;31;13
Speaker 2
The two parts were really pursuing or developing it as a stage musical, which is what's happening in Germany and or to be developed as an animated movie or animated episodic program. Like I said, it's a 90 minute animated movie. The stage plays the same thing. It's 90 minutes, but we've also broken it to 4 or 25 minute segments where it could be done as a episodic, which seems to be.

00;47;31;13 - 00;47;41;15
Speaker 2
As always, we know that most of the streaming platforms are interested in, you know, and Netflix or Prime. They all want multiple episodes. So we broke it into 4 or 25 minute episodes.

00;47;41;17 - 00;47;50;14
Speaker 1
All right. Well, we've got, couple of others that I wanted to play this next one, two worlds. Can you give us a lead up into this one?

00;47;50;16 - 00;48;18;20
Speaker 2
Okay. Well, at this point in the story, things are going horribly bad for Hope and Chip in the trial. The prosecuting attorney fate has brought in a number of very convincing witnesses against it. He brought in Sonny, the son. He brought in a phytoplankton. And the evidence is really escalating that she's clearly guilty. So there's a break in the trial, and Hope and Chip go outside to catch their breath.

00;48;18;20 - 00;48;41;19
Speaker 2
And she has this epiphany that she just wants to get back home. She's so scared of where this is going, and she can't believe that she's getting caught up in this. So they sing this duet about their two worlds. And as she's telling Chip about the beauty of her world, where she comes from, he would like to go there and he says, look, I don't know, is there any way if we can get out of this, you can take me to go back to where you live.

00;48;41;19 - 00;48;59;05
Speaker 2
It sounds so wonderful. Which is, of course, for us to acknowledge how beautiful our earth really still is. And so they sing this duet called Two Worlds, as they both are realizing that they have a lot in common, even though he's a cyber life form and she's, you know, carbon based life form. So that's what sets up this, this duet.

00;48;59;08 - 00;49;12;06
Speaker 1
All right, well, here we go.

00;49;12;08 - 00;49;25;06
Speaker 4
My world has suddenly turned dark, ominously stark. And I wonder what's happening to me.

00;49;25;08 - 00;49;30;09
Unknown
My world so intricately planned.

00;49;30;11 - 00;49;48;00
Speaker 4
Suddenly I've lost. And I wonder was I blind and could not see. Two worlds incredibly far apart. From so close together by strangers simply following.

00;49;48;00 - 00;49;53;17
Unknown
Their paths to play two worlds. Neither one.

00;49;53;17 - 00;49;54;24
Speaker 4
Of us ever.

00;49;54;24 - 00;50;10;29
Unknown
Knew. I need to find a way how to get back home. Your world so intimately lit. Suddenly turned.

00;50;10;29 - 00;50;13;26
Speaker 4
Dark. And you wonder.

00;50;13;29 - 00;50;22;03
Unknown
If you are the one to blame your world so romantically before it.

00;50;22;05 - 00;50;26;19
Speaker 4
Suddenly you're helpless and you wonder.

00;50;26;25 - 00;50;30;15
Unknown
If you ever find your way to.

00;50;30;15 - 00;50;39;23
Speaker 4
Worlds incredibly far apart. Brought so close together by strangers simply following.

00;50;39;23 - 00;51;30;01
Unknown
Their hearts to play two worlds neither one of us knew exist. Everything to risk. Nothing left to lose sight for. Is there anything more I can do on this list? You never heard me, I swear. Promise me you cannot leave me. Tell me that I will guide your work. If I can free you. My world, life on wheels in my hand.

00;51;30;03 - 00;52;15;04
Unknown
Has now turned into sand. The more I hold it, the more it does. Two worlds incredibly far apart. Brought so close together by strangers simply following their paths to play two worlds. Neither one of us ever knew. You need to take my life. Take it as your own. Please help me find my way back home. I'll help me find my way back home.

00;52;15;07 - 00;52;31;12
Unknown
Please help you find your way back up.

00;52;31;14 - 00;52;34;07
Speaker 1
That is so beautiful and rich, Eric.

00;52;34;07 - 00;52;56;08
Speaker 2
Yeah, that is a little bit more Disney esque, that duet, the way that song evolves, and it's a really big moment in the show because it's one of the most heartfelt songs, considering that so many of the songs are very comically oriented or very silly or very funny with the way they presented, that's much more a heartfelt moment where Hope realizes she desperately needs to rely on ship to try to win this case, or she's doomed.

00;52;56;09 - 00;53;03;00
Speaker 1
I'm just going to play one last one. Do you want to play? There ain't no justice or this is on me.

00;53;03;02 - 00;53;24;14
Speaker 2
Boy, if we want to end on a funny note, why don't you play? There ain't no justice. This is a very funny song. Because she's brought into court and Lady Justice is sings it. She's dirty and smudged and broken. Because we've learned through time that there is no justice. The courts are rigged. You can't win. It's the deepest pockets that always win it in trial suits and everything.

00;53;24;18 - 00;53;41;29
Speaker 2
So she comes in and basically says, there ain't no justice, little girl, and you're not going to get this court. So she sings this number of sort of a rousing gospel number as she comes into court, and they feel like this is the last chance for them to have some sense of justice, and she realizes they're not even going to get any justice.

00;53;41;29 - 00;53;46;08
Speaker 2
So it's a parody on the the court systems and law, in a comical way.

00;53;46;14 - 00;53;47;17
Speaker 1
Here we go.

00;53;47;20 - 00;53;52;17
Speaker 4
Did someone call for justice? Well, did you say.

00;53;52;17 - 00;54;02;18
Unknown
Justice? There ain't no justice. Come on now. Who you tried to fool. You want a fair trial?

00;54;02;20 - 00;54;04;29
Speaker 4
You got no prayer time.

00;54;05;01 - 00;54;17;27
Unknown
Ain't nobody care about you. Neither did you say justice? Justice! There ain't no justice. Justice! Come on now. Who you tried to be on earth.

00;54;17;29 - 00;54;22;11
Speaker 4
You want a fair shake? You made a mistake this day.

00;54;22;13 - 00;54;54;27
Unknown
Ain't nobody care about you. Time down. Now, listen, honey, why? You got money? That's the money, baby. You might stand it. Yeah. You pay a judge like Bernie made up who they. They just might. Not you. They didn't. You say justice. This ain't no justice. Justice. Come on now. Who you tryin to fool? Your heart. You wanna try magic?

00;54;55;00 - 00;55;01;14
Unknown
This time? The grand time. Ain't nobody cares about you. Oh.

00;55;01;16 - 00;55;02;04
Speaker 4
Did you.

00;55;02;04 - 00;55;09;13
Unknown
Say justice? You do. There ain't no justice.

00;55;09;16 - 00;55;12;20
Speaker 4
You justice.

00;55;12;23 - 00;55;19;11
Speaker 1
You have so many great songs and characters. How did you come up with all these songs and the characters?

00;55;19;16 - 00;55;38;03
Speaker 2
Well, Bob and I, as we laid out the song, you know, it's a coming of age story of hope. You know, where she's transported to the future. She's found by Chip. And as they walk through toward the courtroom, they come across various characters, like I mentioned with Woody the Tree or while we're the last drop of water. But then these different witnesses are brought into the trial.

00;55;38;06 - 00;55;58;03
Speaker 2
We just thought, what were the most important individuals to bring into the show? And Lady Justice wound up being one of them because this was going to trial. The trial was going to determine her fate. So as we worked through the show, we realized we wanted a tree. We wanted something that represented water. We even have a carbon dioxide.

00;55;58;07 - 00;56;19;06
Speaker 2
She's a Latin form of carbon dioxide, and she sings a song about how much she loves humans because they keep creating more of her, you know? And there's phytoplankton. We needed something to represent the seas, which, of course, Doctor Sylvia Earle is all about. And Caroline for. And we have three very, very funny supercomputers that are the judge's files reboot and a megabyte.

00;56;19;12 - 00;56;43;21
Speaker 2
And they're completely corrupt and they're very city. They're sort of like the Three Stooges. So we had so much fun writing this show because we just made it really as silly as possible. It's a show that really resonates with humor and it's entertaining, but in a way you come away realizing, wow, there's something about that that makes you think you know where it's as opposed to be just bombarded with all the negative news of of how bad things are getting.

00;56;43;23 - 00;57;17;01
Speaker 2
It's a different way that we wanted to highlight the issues and bring it to people's attention and hopefully be motivated to do something about it. You know, the youngest generation can't wait like we did, where we sort of blew it off. They have to hit the ground running. We knew this. They have to be a generation that just gets involved from the get go as teenagers, young kids, teenagers into their 20s, because the situation as we know is going to become irreversible at some point if we don't all start making the most massive efforts as possible.

00;57;17;01 - 00;57;36;09
Speaker 2
And I like I said, the 2016 election is what brought that into clarity for us. And that's why we decided we've got to do something. When Trump won that election, we have to do it. He's not going to do something about these issues. You know? So if you care about the environment, we have to take a stand and make the environment a priority.

00;57;36;12 - 00;57;55;29
Speaker 2
And somehow the environment has slipped into the back seat again. I've seen this happen throughout my life, certain elections. It becomes very important also, and it's no longer popular to talk about the environment. So that's why it's more important than ever. Your efforts, our efforts, everybody that we know. That's why it's a very passionate cause for us as I know it is with you.

00;57;55;29 - 00;58;01;13
Speaker 2
And and thank you for having us on, me and Bob, even though he's in absentia, you know.

00;58;01;13 - 00;58;07;05
Speaker 1
Yes, yes. And how can people get in touch with you to get involved with Wake Up the Musical?

00;58;07;11 - 00;58;36;26
Speaker 2
Please go to the website. Wake Up the musical.com. I also have a website, Eric all Amazon.com. You can email me from either of those two websites. The script is available for download if you're interested in at least reading the script, but you can read it as a 90 minute animated movie, or you can read it as for 25 minute episodic segments, like I said, Eric alterman.com or Wake Up the musical.com, you will be able to email me at either one of those sites and let us know if you have thoughts, interest, whatever you have, you never know.

00;58;36;26 - 00;58;51;08
Speaker 2
I worked in this business a long time, and it's magical how things come to fruition in Hollywood. And I know that that happens with all these creative things that we do. You just never know who generates something. It can come from the most unlikely sources.

00;58;51;08 - 00;59;01;27
Speaker 1
Exactly. That's Eric Solomon with all A's. I'm Lee and Lindsay. Thank you so much for listening today, Eric. Thank you for joining us. I really appreciate having you, my neighbor, and see, Raj.

00;59;01;29 - 00;59;03;27
Speaker 2
Thank you so much, Linda. We really appreciate it.

00;59;04;02 - 00;59;13;05
Speaker 1
We're going to go out on this is on me, the sesame.

00;59;13;07 - 01;00;16;19
Unknown
I am to play. The fox I feel as time draws near my head to say. What did I do to deserve nothing? Ignore I bliss. How could I do this when we knew our obligation was light. See within it.

01;00;16;19 - 01;00;22;03
Speaker 4
Starts the flame.

01;00;22;05 - 01;00;28;25
Unknown
And heals the pain. The hope.

01;00;28;28 - 01;00;34;03
Speaker 4
This man.

01;00;34;05 - 01;01;04;02
Unknown
I must I tell you, try to forgive me for what I've done. Up, up, up. Surrender to us. This.

01;01;04;05 - 01;01;06;20
Speaker 4
This is.

01;01;06;23 - 01;01;10;05
Unknown
Me.

01;01;10;07 - 01;01;22;03
Unknown
I don't tonight well, you know, pray.

01;01;22;05 - 01;01;34;05
Speaker 4
Or sing a song for true love.

01;01;34;07 - 01;01;57;12
Speaker 4
This is Sunday.