Poker twice in two nights

First with aaron, j.p., sherin and brendan at my place on friday night. Fun, natch; such cool people - won a little bit during dealers choice, but was first out in the hold 'em tournament. D'oh!

Then last night with brandon and jason (not his brother jason, but jason from north carolina shakespeare, etc.) We'd been out catching mcclain at dive 96 - met with maria and a bunch of her friends (birds of a feather and all) - and at the end of the last set we wanted to continue the night, and rather than walk up to smoke in the rain to see if some jazz guys were blowing a late-night jam, we chose to hit brandon's place in inwood for poker till about 5 this morning. Not the highest quality poker, i must say; we were pretty tired by the end. But i won a couple bucks and it was GREAT hanging with my boy - hadn't seen him in a long time. Speaking of great, that's pretty much how things are going for b: married crystal this summer; big triumphs in atlanta, including starring in his own 6-actor cutting of 'othello,' to raves; and, oh yeah, his job in new york? That'd be prelude to a kiss on b-way. Couldn't happen to a better, kinder, more talented guy.

Does shine a light on the audition stage i'm going through. This is definitely the hard part of the job of being an actor, for me at least. Not that the prep, rehearsals and performances are necessarily easy. They can be really hard at times, although like most trades it's usually a matter of learning how to do certain things and then just putting in the work and doing them. Which can be said about the audition/self-promotion process too, i suppose. But i find those processes harder, or maybe just harder to enjoy. Or maybe those two things are the same.

And in other news, i've been thinking about open source a bit lately.

Also, and somewhat along the same lines, i wanted to make clear that i'm not against podcasts - on the contrary. In fact, here's one from somerville called cindycast in the alt/folk/acoustic vein i've been listening to a little bit lately. Nothing life-changing maybe, but kinda fun; some familiar names, some new ones.

Talk Radio...

Coming to b-way, with liev schreiber in the eric bogosian role. Bogosian is on dave rothenberg's show on wbai right now as i type this. Nomi and i are going to see it on feb. 15th - wanna come with?

Bogosian rocks, natch. And i've got to say i'm thankful that rothenberg is still doing his thing: i mean it can be a little slow at times, and he's always shilling for something but nobody else out there plays the tunes he plays, or speaks with his knowledge and experience. Where have you gone, bob fass? Oh yeah, you're now two thousand people making podcasts.

Just saw this on overheard in new york:

Starbucks: Where Six of One is Not a Half-Dozen of the Other
Employee: Ma'am, can I help you?
Woman: I'd like a half dozen of your chocolate chip cookies.
Employee: We only sell them, like, 1, 2, 3...
Woman to friend: Is she serious?
Friend: She'll take 6.

--Starbucks, Rockefeller Center Concourse

Now why would people not like that fine establishment?

Yes, i remember 'Webster'

And 'the facts of life' and ronald reagan and alex p. keaton. And yes i remember reo speedwagon, loverboy and the soundtrack to 'rocky iv.' I'm not pretending it was a decade of unalloyed brilliance; i'm just saying some of what went on was pretty rad.

Ok, magic 8pod - what's your take on the 80s? Greed by Fugazi. Well, that couldn't have been more perfect, could it?

If you haven't seen it, check out Fugazi's Instrument. It's netflixable, i think, and totally worth your time.

Since the 8pod is so right on today - what is this dream job of mine going to look like? Goodbye (finale) from WIlliam Finn's Elegies Beautiful celebration of magnificent lives - 'the living was the prize; the ending's not the story' To which i would add:
'Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable.'

Maybe not exactly what i was looking for, but there it is.

The 80s

Which people have been dissing lately - as in: 'all the music from the 80s sucked!' To which i reply, curtly:

the replacements
r.e.m.
prince
u2
husker du
fugazi
the police
talking heads
joe jackson
elvis costello
modern english

This list goes on and on, people. And that's assuming that you don't have a taste for the cheese factor represented so brilliantly by this particular decade (and really, who doesn't appreciate it at least a little. You're telling my that tommy tutone's 867-5309 doesn't make you smile at all? Cyndi lauper doesn't impress you at all???

Even hall and fucking oates had some good songs, if you can get past 'maneater'.

margins and fringes

Many signs lately pointing to outsider living; people on the margins (bearing in mind, as always, that the "margin" means both the edge of the print and the space on the outside of that edge); life on the grid/net/web and off; human interaction vis a vis digital networking, revolutionaries (people, communities, ideas); and buddha-like, the illusion/interconnectedness of all.

Small sample of examples:

children of men
wallace shawn's 'the fever'
happy sunshine kung fu flower
pete townshend's 'lifehouse'
jesus, kidnapped
days of war, nights of love

And while i'm on the subject (or near it), i like the sound of bill moyers for president. No, this does not mean i suddenly believe in the presidency as a platform for real good human development, i'm just saying that hillary is a bad joke and that moyers has that tendency to speak the truth that pisses off so many of the right people.

The Fever

Just got back from watching Wallace Shawn's The Fever at the acorn on theater row. Very intense, and worth going to, imho. Privilege, responsibility, closing yourself off to what goes into everything that is part of your life (or opening yourself to it), turning the lights on the audience literally and figuratively. Making you think about how you spend the time you have in this life.

And in case you want a little more evidence that texas is, um, in need of attention:

DALLAS - In a case that has renewed questions about the quality of Texas justice, a man who spent 10 years behind bars for the rape of a boy has become the 12th person in Dallas County to be cleared by DNA evidence.

That is more DNA exonerations than in all of California, and more than in Florida, too. In fact, Dallas County alone has more such cases than all but three states — a situation one Texas lawmaker calls an "international embarrassment."

Hmm, ya think?

No direction home / houseguests

Ok, it's been a while since i've given a shoutout to the guy who wrote the song this blog is named after.

Yesterday i started re-watching 'no direction home,' the scorcese movie about dylan. SO good. Great intro to bob if you don't know him, and full of layers if you do.

Speaking of dylan movies, has anyone out there seen 'renaldo and clara'? What do you think? It appears not to be netflixable...

Meanwhile, after one whole day of not hosting someone, another houseguest is arriving tonight. Looking forward to it though. Besides just the desire to visit new york, she's also scouting out potential theater spaces for a clown show she plans to do maybe this fall.

Auditioned this morning; at least two more tomorrow. I can feel a dream job around the corner... can't tell yet if it will be in town or not, but it's coming soon and it's going to be really really good.

Why can't i put url links in this blog??? Is it a safari thing?

party post partem

The end-of-the-holidays gathering happened this saturday - much work, building up to much fun. Good group of folks, from many near-perennial faves to first-timers to a greater-than-usual number of people i'd never met.

Great additions to the panoply of snowflakes - this year with hipster haiku inscriptions. Kelly was in town for the party and some auditioning; stayed with me from friday until a couple hours ago. Great having him around, as it was bitchen having a number of the xmas carolers in for the party. The menu was roanoke-themed (you won't hear that often), mostly culled from the fab cookbook secret santa martha gave me. And i was rather proud of the giganto playlist i put together - provoked some dancing, and just general revelry.

Oh - one of yana's projects for 007 is to legalize dancing in new york - dare say they won't ever be as hip as critical mass, but they look even more fun. Here's a pic of yana & friends with one of our more reasonable men in blue.



And check them out

metropolisinmotion

linguine + martini

What was for dinner last night - didn't even think about the rhyme, thanks for pointing it out, sherin. Much fun!

Check this out: jqln

It may be the raddest blog i've seen. If i grow up to be as smart as jqln, i'll be downright dangerous...

make way for the 007

That's what this year shall henceforth be called: 007.

The new james bond movie isn't bad, btw.

Preparations for the party are in full vigor - the menu is set, more or less; the decor is up in its random glory, the playlist has been created, the shopping list has been made. Tick tock until... clap your hands, say a salty salute, the club is open.

My cable tv
just went out. The bill is paid,
as far as i know

That's my haiku entry for today. E-beth gave me a book of hipster haiku by siobhan adcock for xmas - very funny stuff. She definitely wins the prize for best gifts of books given to me this year: what with the fauxetry, the bigfoot memoir and the kandinsky coloring book, it's hands down, not even close. Thanx!

I'll close with a good example of siobhan's hipster haiku:

Your puffy ski vest
has lift tickets on it. But
mine's from junior high

In with the new

2007 has begun in fine fashion: the fantastic boston party weekend, with the attendant music trading - picked up the new sonic youth and cat power 'greatest' collection, both first rate, and culled a whole bunch of 80s nostalgiatunes of varying quality (who knew that the fixx made such bitchen records?! Or that modern english was so experimental?) And of course i hooked up steve & sue as well - neko case, lady sovereign, etc.

One quick word on music sharing: i do it guiltlessly and often. Guiltless because i continue to spend a ridiculous percentage of my disposable income on music, and tend to share with people who do the same, paying particular attention to directing funds toward the independent artists who need it most. And i ask ye, is leah siegel better or worse off for the fact that now a couple more serious music fans in boston have access to some of her songs?

Now i'm back in the city for the foreseeable (with the exception of some audition trips), and making my unemployment work for me. Filed with the dept. of labor; hopefully checks will be showing up soon. Auditions have begun, and i have a new monologue i'm psyched about. I've sent the party invite out to all and sundry (let me know if you didn't get it) and have begun to prep. Have a reading set up for tomorrow night that i'm way psyched for (for a playwrighting workshop, not open to public, unfortunately), and a rehearsal for it tonight. And what should be a very nice weekend is just around the corner...

Happy New Year

Haven't written in a while - caught up in moving back to new york and getting things going back there: auditions, reclaiming the crib, getting with old friends and connecting with new ones.

But right now i'm in boston (ok, waltham, at the home of sue and steve, chilling in on a new year's morning in the wake of their predictably awesome party of last night, the LAST night of last year. Happy 2007 music lovers...

Oh magic 8pod, what will 2007 be like? 'I grew up in Arkansas,' by Good Ol' Country Railroad. Huh? This is a fun enough song, though i should admit i don't even know where i got it (probably from steve, actually; they do have a boston connection). Trucks and drunks and fights with imaginary enemies and stealing alligators out of refrigerators... Why not start the new year with a strong dose of surreal? But maybe stay out of arkansas for a while.