Honeymoons and Hospitals

Ana is on her honeymoon this week - on a cruise in the carribean. So joan is sitting at her desk this week, which is supercool. Joan is looking for a permanent job, so if anyone knows of something fun and exciting in the field of whatever, let me know and i'll tell joan about it. She says she wants to be busy and surrounded by people all the time - maybe helping people, or selling things; wants to use her brain, but not have to take work home with her too much. Maybe some kind of job where she can learn something interesting once in a while. And no working for EVIL PEOPLE. That's singularly important.

Joan's a newlywed too - i know her from the outside world, but here she is working with us in the dayjob this week. Who knew?

Rehearsals are going well, CONSIDERING THAT ONE OF THE CAST MEMBERS HAS BEEN IN THE HOSPITAL ALL WEEK!!!! Christopher, who put together the happening that i did last spring, and who works at the day job with me, got a staph infection in his finger, and he's been in the hospital since sunday. Five days in the hospital for an infected finger, people! I guess this staph business is pretty complicated, and he's contracted a strain that is resistant to antibiotics (thank you biomed/pharmaceutical industries), so they have to hang on to him until they're sure it's under control. He's not in a lot of pain (partly because is is on a lot of drugs), although he says his finger looks gnarly as hell. Hopefully they'll release him this afternoon.

A votre sante, christophe!

Lower East Side Leah

Leah Siegel show last night at the living room on ludlow. An all cover-tunes, listener-suggestion-via-web site show. Very cool, if more casual than usual.

Some of the bitchen tuneage:

Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young

Heart of Glass - Blondie

a Ray LaMontagne song i don't know the title of but it was beautiful and heartbreaking and leah did it virtually perfectly.

War Pigs - Black Sabbath. That's right folks, she did a heavy metal anti-war anthem. That scored on so many levels!

I have to share one little anecdote - on my way to the subway after the gig, i overheard two women talking. Pretty cute, i'm guessing early twenties, one of them says to the other: "Yeah, he's sooo dumb, i can't hang out with him. But he's a model, you know? And i have to say, when he took his shirt off, and i touched him, i was SO EXCITED. It was like 'Oh! This is what a guy feels like.'"

I found that rather amusing.

Oh, here is the link to the Galapagos photos i mentioned yesterday. I don't think that the blog lets you just click on the link - i think you'll have to copy it and paste it into the address bar. Then plug in the password: it's 'scuba' Enjoy. They are really fantastic!

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2101686716&code=24355798&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite

Scuba Diving

I just got sent a bunch of photos from a friend who was diving in the galapagos last month - OH. MY. GOD. They are so stunning and beautiful, just truly awe-inspiring. So i may have no choice but to take a scuba diving class and figure out how to go to these corners of the world where nature is still in its fullest flower. Holy shit this stuff just looks amazing, on sea and on land. THIS is reaching out and grabbing life, and what is there if not that? Which of course makes the sender, whom i was already fairly interested in, now wildly attractive... but that's another story.

Weekend Update

Always kind of the more-or-less reliable part of SNL, right?

So the wedding reception was a wedding reception: catered food and booze and line dancing. Lisa, who is very hard to get out of her apartment AT ALL, for any reason other than work, was 45 minutes late, meaning that the already looooooong trip out to flushing was even longer. Helene was wearing pretty much exactly the same dress as the mother of the groom, which i thought was pretty funny.

Yesterday started with a quick breakfast before a noon rehearsal. It's taking me a while to get used to the downtown theater rehearsal vibe again. Nebulous start times, talk talk talk about whatever, whenever. I remember working like that and liking it, but over the last few years in grad school and regional theater i've gotten so used to being way stricter with time, and getting to the nuts and bolts pretty fast. I really like the director alot - what he says makes sense and gets results, plus he's cool and fun and easy to get along with - so that's a big plus. It's just a way of approaching the work i haven't been involved with lately.

Which brings up a point that's been gnawing on me since that day i wrote last week about not feeling the day job. I am pretty tired of the whole 'aspiring actor with an office gig' thing. For a few years prior to last spring ('05) i had been doing acting and teaching fairly exclusively. Never had any money, but i felt like i was doing was i am on this earth to do. Now i'm in the union but getting work less frequently - the day job means i don't struggle so much financially, but my life is out of synch. Either i have to make peace with this system of doing shows in indie theater while working office jobs and such (which, knowing myself, i don't really see happening) or find a way into fulfilling this calling i have.

That's where i'm at today.

Saturday Night's Alright for Weddings

That's right folks, ana's and carlos' wedding is this very night. I'll be rolling out of here in an hour or so.

I did meet with mjz the other night, which was fantastic. We haven't been nearly enough in touch lately: she's soooooo busy between work and school, and is very tied to spending time with her french bulldog, milton; plus i suspect she got miffed at certain comments i made back in the spring - not worth going into here, suffice it to say i pushed one of her buttons. By accident. But with any luck at all we're past that by now, and may be able to hang more on the regular. We have been confidants for each other for years, and i really value that about our friendship, and i missed her a lot over the last few months. On thursday we went out to viceroy (where we could sit on the sidewalk, and thus milton could join us) and had a fab dinner and drinks, and then back to her place for another bottle of wine. One thing that's pretty count-onable with the divine miss z is that when you see her, wine will be involved.

Last night was fantabulous - got out of work early for rosh hashana, and met up with sherin, hung out at the dog park in madison square, then had dinner and went to see 'the guys' at the flea. It the show they did back in the fall of 2001 after downtown had been traumatized, and involves a new york fire captain who lost 8 guys from his company on 9/11. This is the 5th anniversary production, and it's a good little piece. Then we went to nancy whisky, one of the bestest dives in the city, for a nightcap, and made it an early one for a friday - i was home by 11. Sheesh! So i watched a dvd of 'entourage' and took care of some emailing and crashed out.

Today has been lazy/productive. Got some chores done, not too many, went to the gym, made a great lunch and now i'm about to get ready for ana's wedding. Out in flushing. Gulp. Ah, it's not a bad trip, and i'm sure it'll be fun to hang with the peeps from the day job. And then tomorrow rehearsals start in earnest, which will be most stimulating...

Oh, and Shanah Tovah.

get born, keep warm

short pants romance.

Gorgeous early fall day today. The walk from the bus to the office was a beautiful blast of LIFE. I felt good, people looked good, people looked like they felt good - which is, by the way, the lion's share of attractivenss: if you act like you feel good and feel like you look good, people treat you that way. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that hotness is maybe 20% actual appearance and about 80% attitude. Apropos of nothing, that.

NOT feeling the dayjob thing one little bit. Putting together a group of alumni from my school to do readings, work on monologues, and just generally party together, and i wrote this to them. "Continue to spread the word like peanut butter over tasty tasty toast on a sunny autumn morning with a crisp chill in the air when the steam rising from your hot strong coffee is like apollo's breath infusing you with creative fire and the passion to rise above like a phoenix from the ashes of a degraded culture." Which i don't mind despite the mixed-up sketchy similes, thank you very much, but it betrays how NOT HERE i am feeling today. In case you're keeping score at home.

Tennis last night invigorating and fun. With rashmi this time, in north bergen, which is 50 times easier to get to than lincoln park, and no waiting - yay!
Rashmi had back problems toward the end, but hopefully she's ok. We went to baja for mexican food and margaritas after. Hella good evening.

And tonight i get to see MJZ! Unless of course she flakes, which is always altogether more than possible with her...

Modern Living

That's the title of the play i'm doing at La MaMa next month. We are now officially in rehearsal. First read-through happened yesterday. One person was missing due to a commercial shoot, a couple people were late for no good reason, but it's a good group and i'm looking forward to the process. Director seems very sharp, which is always a big fat plus, and i know that at least a couple of the actors have good game.

Three short one-acts by, about (more or less) and starring richard scheinmel, having to do with various types of connections (family, flight, drug, phone) and the stretches we go through to make them. Strangers on a plane move through the strain until they're less strange and then fall asleep in the clouds, dans les nuages for real and for true. And it is true so to speak but filtered on stage it takes a different light, a different frame. You'll be hearing more from me about this.

Poker last night in washington heights. Very fun, and fantastic of course to see aaron and shannon, j.p. and sherin. Pete was there too, and brendan who was there one time last spring, and i met a very cool woman named jackie... cleopatra on the west side. I missed those guys a lot, and hope to hang with them on the regular this fall.

Amazing Weekend and Magic 8pod

Got back from boston at about 9:30 last night, and found a parking space a block from my apartment. Just a cap on a fan-fucking-tastic weekend of old friends, bitchen parties, damn fine food and rock and roll. Already wrote about the pop fest, so to summarize the rest of the weekend:

rolled in on friday (instead of thursday night as planned because of extra-special stupid behavior committed by the tsunami at the dayjob, but that's another box of wine), hung with sue and steve, including a trip to the liquor store, natch, where we picked up a little sum'n sum'n to prep for the weekend to come - bottle of knob creek (yum), plymouth gin (yum), some tonic and seltzer, a 12er of 'rock art' beer, which i'd never had and which turned out to be pretty good, and a 12er of that smirnoff ice stuff that sue likes for some reason; also made a trip to trader joe's for partywise foodstuffs: spanikopita, pakoras, shrimp cocktail, dark chocolate-covered raisins, a pesto pizza, and some other stuff. Had martini happy hour with steve. Met up with beckett for the first time since august '05 at a very good mexican place with excellent margaritas, then headed out to the popfest for some awesome tuneage - may as well use this chance to give shoutouts to a couple more good bands: international pen pal (just caught the end of their set), temper (as a bonus, their keyboardist is supercute) and luxury (kinda overslick, but loaded with talent). Then back to the sue and steve crib for post gig party action, which is always a highlight of my time in boston - nothing like reconnecting with some of those best friends you don't get to see often enough.

Next day woke up not too bad off and went to a diner with beckett, then got to see her new place. It was a GORGEOUS DAY, by the way. Watched the sox club the yanks (small comfort) then went to the gig, which i wrote about before. Back to sue and steve's to hang with lindsay and mark.

Sunday molly and rudy came over and we all made brunch: big veggie and egg scramble, hash browns, bloody marys and baguette, scones and cinnamon rolls. The sox won again, and i hit the road back to the city. Even had a great phone talk with julie on the way back! Then i watched the sox beat the yanks for the third time in two days and fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow and didn't wake up until my alarm went off (which happens about three times a year). Very sweet.

SO, magic 8pod for today:

How will it be at work today?

'man gave names to all the animals' bob dylan. Hmmm. A whimsical take on one of adam's jobs, from bob's christian era. I'm taking this as a sign to have a sense of humor about the paper pushing and silly stuff.

Will i stay in new york for a while?

'another kind of green' john mayer. This one is pretty clear cut - about not chucking the good thing you have for the grass on the other side of the fence. i heart new york.

How will my new show at la mama go?

'Mahler's symphony #2' leonard bernstein conducting the new york philharmonic. AWESOME (and not in the cheesy sense) - this is mahler's 'resurrection' symphony, and i wrote a little about how i feel about bernstein a while ago. This is an excellent sign of things to come in terms of art and career. Tee hee!

What's up for My Own Worst Enemy? 'manipulation' the black angels. This is very cool too - an austin shoegazer band that is in the process of breaking through as i type this. They've just started to get serious attention in the last year or so, and although they sound nothing like MOWE, they definitely have some of the same influences (velvet underground, black rebel motorcycle club, brian jonestown massacre, etc.) And it pulses with latent passion. This is the magic 8pod declaring: my own worst enemy will rock the world.

Well. That was satisfying.

my own worst enemy

The title of this entry referring to a band, not a truism about my life (in this case, at least). A totally rockin' band in boston that played the new england pop fest this weekend. Ok, full disclosure, i do know the members of this band, and have seen their progression for a while: but these days their live show absolutely knocks it out of the box, and you should go see them and somehow get them to travel down to new york more often so we don't all have to zip up to boston to see them. Really good power pop songs with great hooks, driving into a punk energy as the set moves forward, fronted by a great couple of songwriter/guitarist/singers, described last night by one of the other musicians as 'an indie rock geek and joan jett in a prom dress.' I don't know how much sue looks like joan jett, but she is undoubtedly as hot as a match, and the whole band was on fire last night. Go to their page: myspace.com.mowe

Also most excellent last night was the silver lining, a neo psychedelic group with another rock-n-roll couple up front. Mamas and papas meet the monkees meet the fifth dimension meets the who. Seriously. And they make it work really well. Anna, their front woman with a big presence and a bigger voice, was under the weather last night but still brought it, and matt, who writes most of the songs, was on point.

This new england popfest is a very cool thing, in its third year. Long live rock.

Give My Regards to Broadway

Saw 'History Boys' last night - what a great show! SOOO worth it - go see it, and don't delay, as it's closing soon. Very good alan bennett script (natch), first rate acting, bitchen production, and for those of you whose tastes run that way, there are plenty of cute boys (jessica fell in love i think at least once or twice). Hector, the central teacher character played by richard griffiths, reminded me of my most influential high school teacher (well, not in every respect - but i don't want to give anything away here) someone very charismatic and larger than life, who infuses students with enthusiasm, and yet... there is a deep kind of sadness underneath.

Lots of talent on display on that broadhurst stage: funny as hell, moving, vibrant, fantastic 80s score for the transitions (on a very cool set). Very exciting to see this kind of work.

On thing i couldn't help thinking of was the leapfrog standing ovation that happened at 'kiki and herb' where i ultimately stood up so i could see what antics were happening during the post-encore curtain call (by my colleagues resolutely stayed in their seats rather than imply standing-ovation-level approval, and i don't blame them one bit), as opposed to the sprinkled here and there throughout the audience standers at 'history boys,' which was about 10 times more deserving of unfettered enthusiasm (and i liked kiki and herb quite a bit). It doesn't make sense to me, and i don't like it.

But don't let that temper the joy that comes from transcendent work, right over there in the capital of american commercial theater, big bad broadway. Here's to it.

Poser Night at the Sports Bar

On tuesday, i met abner at port authority for the trip to hoboken, followed by the trip to jersey city to hit some tennis. For those of you who don't know this, abner is my ex-girlfried/current good friend beth's current boyfriend. Some people consider it weird that he and i even get along, much less do things like play tennis together, but there it is, such is the nature of me. It was fun, though marred by crazy new jersey driving/direction madness, and then a really long wait for a court. Yes folks, that's right, i got to spend AN HOUR waiting for a court with my ex-girlfriend's boyfriend. Inevitably, the conversation turned to miss beth, which was, um, shall we say, a bit odd. Not too bad though, and we got to share some of those 'oh yeah, she's like that' moments and were able to laugh about it.
After we finished up we went back to the 'boken to hit a restaurant in my nabe for a bite and a drink. It was pretty late by then, so not every place was open, and we ended up, in sweats, tennis gear in hand, at the madison, which is half restaurant, half sports bar/meat market. Seems that it's 'poser night' there about five nights a week. People dressed up in their jersey finest (and DO NOT get me wrong, i am not anti-jersey and am most emphatically pro-hoboken, but there is something about this particular look: 'tight top, really tight pants or skirt, ozone-ripping hairstyle' for women, and 'modified-for-my-night-with-the-ladies business attire, shirt half open to reveal the gold crucifix, or the option of a conspicuously overpriced necktie'for men which does seem to flourish most enthusiastically beyond the bridges and tunnels) crammed into the place, with the mets game on six screens and music BLASTING around them. We squeezed past this scene to get to the much quieter dining room, for which we were underdressed as hell, but it was slow enough back there that nobody cared. On our way out, poser night was in even fuller bloom and i gotta say, i just don't get the appeal. Same deal with certain of the clubs in manhattan, by the way: unless there's a particular party going on, what's the point of going to places so noisy, so expensive, so crowded, without a band or even a dance floor? There'll be some hotties there, but how can you even enjoy them when you're all just yelling at each other? I mean, ok, i guess there is romance or at least sex to be found in places like this, but once again, i'm not seeing how it's worth it. Happy that this place is doing good business though, natch. And to be fair, they have good food and there are plenty of times when the atmosphere there is totally cool, and they've started a jazz brunch on the weekends that i want to check out.

Here endeth the lesson. 'History Boys' next time.

Busy busy busy...

...Mostly in a good way. The weekend was superpacked - Richard II at classic stage company on friday. Michael cumpsty in the title role: i've been a fan since i saw him in my first ever shakespeare in the park, "all's well that ends well," way back when i was first in town. SO good with language, and R2 is a play that gets kind of ignored these days - unfairly, in my opinion. So that was fun (better than his 'hamlet,' in the same space, if you ask me. He seemed to fit the room better this time.)

Then saturday i helped on the jersey side of the beth and peter move - my place is my own again! It's kind of weird still, but i'm definitely psyched, and i know they are psyched too. After loading up the truck i worked on the place for a while (it's going to take a while longer, but i can envision things sooo much better now) then paid a visit to the block party with elizabeth, a friend from the 'boken. Hoped to see soem people i know (a couple and their child), but they weren't there. Then e-beth and i went to chelsea for an art opening. Met up with frank and amanda, some of my best friends, and their kids - one of the artists is amanda's stepmom. It was good stuff, plus it was fun to be there for the frank and e-beth reunion: they went to high school together and haven't seen each other since. THEN, up to the helen hayes for the kiki and herb show. Very much fun, courtesy of a gal i met online. Can't quite figure out what's going on there. We have a good time when we see each other; then just when i think things are good she disappears; then just when i've written her off, she reappears. This has happened like three times. Kinda past caring at this point.

Sunday i went to the gym, did some errands, then headed up to inwood to see beth and pete's new place and watch the tennis finals. Did a couple loads of laundry and met a few of their new neighbors (there was a barbeque going on in the courtyard). Oh, and while i was there, i got a call that i have been cast in one of the shows i tried out for last week! So that's cool. It's at La MaMa on east 4th street. [I don't want to talk about my audition on friday. There has been a very weird trend for me lately where i nail the auditions i don't care so much about, and blow the ones i do. Odd kind of nervousness that isn't my typical trend, and i don't like it.] I'm psyched about the show i'm in, though. I'll write more about that as it progresses. And i had a pretty good audition (for a show i do care about) today; not as good as i'd like, but better that some of my recent experiences.

Yesterday of course was the 5th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. I can't say a whole lot about that that hasn't been said. Brought up lots of memories, and a lot of people were sharing theirs. Very moving, in (thankfully) a very different way from what we felt five years ago. However much i might disdain the president and his administration's opportunism in the face of such an event, let me add in the same breath that i love this country and this city and its people and their resilience and courage and heroism. I'm not going to use this as a political forum, at least not much, at least not yet. Tony kushner put it brilliantly and simply: 'the great work begins.'

Tonight i'm playing tennis with abner... Should be fun; we shall see.

The Compulsion to Create

Saw part of a very good documentary about leonard bernstein last night. Fascinating guy, so devoted to music, and to sharing it with the world, through performance, composition and conversation (especially in the form of his fantastic televised teaching). And that's the part that's really interesting me right now, and that i'm identifying with a lot - the compulsion to share with others. This can apply to any number of personal elements: art, love, money, talent, knowledge, religion, joy; and it can work for some negative reflections of these too (haven't you ever met someone who insists on sharing her pain, or who tries to get you to feel his hate for something or someone?) Also, there's usually some self-gratifying side to this generosity of spirit as well - approval, love, validation, status, something like that. But on the whole i think it's admirable, or anyway it's a trait of a lot of people i admire. Or maybe i'm just saying that because i feel a powerful compulsion to share myself: it's got to be one of the primal impulses that draw me to acting and teaching, and it's also evidenced in the way i try to turn people on to music i like, etc.

So, what to do with that? Keep finding better outlets for the kinds of sharing i really want to be involved in, and devoting myself to it in (hopefully) ever more effective ways. And while i'm at it, let go of the needy side of it as much as possible.

Ok, i tend not to talk about auditions and such for a couple reasons - 1) i don't want to jinx things, and 2) i don't want to get anyone's hopes up, including my own. Auditioning is enough of a roller coaster without having friends experiencing the ups and downs with me (not to mention asking me about them). But i'm going to see how it goes writing a little bit about them here for a while and see how that goes. Have some interesting ones coming up in the next few days: one for a new show going on downtown - i'm way too young for the roles, but hey, that's nothing new for me. Some really good people are working on it, and i think it would be fun (plus, as always, you never know who might end up seeing it). There are a couple biggish auditions tomorrow, and i may have to choose between them: one for an understudy gig with BIG CASH PRIZES, but again, age is a factor - i'm kind of too old AND too young for these jobs: too old to cover the 'young track' (mostly guys in their 20s) and too young to cover the 'old track' (guys in their 30s-60s), and the fact that this is a broadway gig means they'll have plenty of 'age-appropriate' people to choos from. The other show is at a smaller, but still very good, theater with a lot of roles i'm right for... gotta say i'm leaning toward that audition. There's also one for some roles i'm right for at a little theater out of town for hardly any money at all. Here's where i've got to check that 'impulse to share' a little bit, because while i've taken this kind of job in the past (plenty of times) i'm not sure it's the smartest thing career-wise or life-wise at this point. So i'm definitely not going to go to great lengths to hit that particular audition. Then i have one lined up for next week for a theater i worked at a long time ago - much of the artistic/production staff has changed over since i was there - that sort of falls in the middle: it's a very good theater, with great people (well, they were great when i was there before), that pays, well... it pays ok, not great. It's a production of Christmas Carol, which can be cheesy, but i actually love the story. Don't know what these guys' take on it will be. So it's the kind of job that probably won't exactly catapult my career forward, but i'd probably take it if offered. At the very least, it's a chance to reintroduce myself to them at the audition, which is certainly worth the effort.

Ok, that's that for now. Let me know if you want to go see shows, films or music!

Mondayish Tuesday

Fantastic weekend - very full but not frenetic. Speed of the city with touches of the beach (ok, a park near the river, but it felt beachy). Dada at MoMA, dinner in harlem, music upstate and downtown, good reading, good eating and drinking, happy birthday grandma, funny-as-hell sarah silverman video, even got some stuff done around the house.

Last night saw and heard jenny sheinman at joe's pub. Amazing! Really really good stuff, which is especially exciting when it's someone whose work i don't know that well. She had a septet, with drums, upright bass, piano, cornet, clarinet (doubling on bass clarinet), electric guitar, and jenny herself on violin. I didn't catch everyone's name (ok, lame, i know), except jason moran on keys and the incomperable don byron on winds. Both of them were so good - hell everyone in that band was frist rate. Almost all new original tunes, sultry, textured, pulsing, swinging, the musicians were in tight conversation with each other: hot, bold music making. Jenny was really generous with her band, though with these guys that had to feel pretty natural - they are all so damn good, and no one was hogging the solos. Joe's pub is a first rate venue, too - good sound, good atmosphere; overpriced, but that's kind of par for the course for good music in this city (though there are plenty of exceptions!) The plastic chairs are inscrutable, but that's no big deal.

Events like that really make me want to live a life in art, creating and working on performance events full time. I mean, i always want that, but sometimes that feeling bubbles up and boils over. Gotta nail the auditions this week, keep the other projects moving forward, and find more things to work on. Preferably things that pay well (ay, there's the rub...) As sunny would say, quoting firenza, 'just fucking do it!'

Post Feast: Happy Labor Day weekend!

Got back from the show pretty late of course. This blog is already in danger of becoming a dylan tribute site, so i will comment minimally on the show: it was fucking cool. I still wish he would share his words a little more generously, and i kind of understand the people who want him to pick up a guitar now and then (though as far as i'm concerned, if he wants to play the keyboard and let stu kimball and denny freeman do the strumming and the picking, who are we to argue?), but it was a damn good show. Lot of jamming, great arrangements, and he did 'visions of johanna,' which was a super treat.

Since i did get back late, i didn't get a totally early start yesterday. All that really meant is that i skipped the gym (and, well, i guess writing here, but i'm not looking at this as something i necessarily want to squeeze into my weekends). Got to alexis's place in harlem around 2, and we had the whole afternoon to prepare the dinner. Really good time, lots of work, but alexis is a good cooking partner. We talked about what she's doing in minneapolis, and about the dating we've done over the last several months (such as it is - neither of us has been doing much of it lately).

[Bejamin becker just took the third set from agassi - looking pretty grim for andre. But hey, in other news (and speaking of minneapolis) the twins are doing some damage to the yankees.]

Alexis is kind of wonderful; really fun doing this kind of thing with her. Wish she were around more - hope she finds her rhythm bouncing back and forth to the mini apple. The food was really good: the soup was fucking awesome; salad was delish; mushroom sauce didn't thicken quite right, but we tweaked it into a perfectly fine complement to some first rate ravioli; pork loin was on point, well attended by the roast veggies; the cakes may have been a wee overcooked, but were unbelievably good, notwithstanding.

Kind of like that word "notwithstanding." Doesn't it mean pretty much the same thing as "withstanding?" Sort of like "flammable" and "inflammable."

Met some very cool people, from all walks of life. Love to meet interesting new folks. Kind of funny to me that the straight guys were talking about a capella singing groups, and the gay guys were talking about projectile vomiting. That may have been a first, in my experience.

So today i had a bitchen workout at the gym, i'm hanging out to see the rest of this match, then it's out into this BEAUTIFUL day. Happy Labor Day weekend it is.

Ain't talkin', just walkin'

Up on the late side last night watching agassi slug his way through the baghdatis match. It was as close to boxing as any tennis i've seen in a while: circling, feinting and all that pain. We'll see how long andre can keep it up. I know everybody is hoping for a sampras-like swan song mixed with a connors-like resurrection. Couldn't happen to a better figure if it does happen. Plenty of drama in that career, on and off the court.

Meanwhile, i'm going to see the singing cowboy at a minor league ballpark in fishkill tonight. (Yes that's right, the town is named 'fishkill. Wonder what industry started that particular community?) The new cd is great, natch, and i got a bonus disc of one of his pay-radio shows devoted to a baseball theme, also most excellent. Rare tunes from way back in the vault - i didn't know that joe dimaggio and willie mays made records.

Big shake up at the village voice continues. A bunch of editors got canned yesterday, another sequel to the merger that happened last year, gotta be, right? They even fired christgau - and no matter what you think of his 'i defined the genre of rock criticism' attitude, you kind of have to admit he helped build that paper into what it is. Don't see how they can come out of this smelling like a rose. 'Course, i'm not inside.

Jayne houdyshell's play starts previews at playwrights horizons tonight! 'The pain and the itch,' comes here from steppenwolf, and it's a 'pay what you can' performance (tonight only). Almost makes me wish i weren't going to see dylan tonight.

The menu for tomorrow is almost, but not quite, worked out:

- garlic soup
- ravioli with wild mushroom sauce
- roast pork loin w/roasted veggies
- hearts-of-palm salad
- ... dessert is still the question mark. Alexis mentioned some kind of chocolate truffle cake, but that may be a little labor-intensive given the shortage of time. Whatever it's going to be, this evening looks, well... yum.

Happy labor day weekend.