Are you there world? It's me, Friday.

Home in Hoboken after a long week, and a good long night of moviegoing at the Tribeca Film Festival, listening to some Caroline Shaw and sinking into not-unpleasant exhaustion.

Saw a program of documentary shorts - fantastic, love this fest if for no other reason (and there are other reasons) than that I get a chance to see things like this instead of just making a stray comment while watching some awards show that "we ought to go see things like that."

Then hustled over to another theater and watched Adult World, which was fun and funny as hell (and I'm not one to give an automatic nod to the latest member of the Roberts Dynasty).

Tomorrow is an appointment in the morning, followed by I hope another film or two, followed by a performance of East Side Stories.  Sunday is a breakfast/rehearsal date, then more movies, then another show.  And then a week of work, auditions, rehearsal, and performances.  Nobody ever said a weekend had to be restful.

Big Week

It was a big week.

A big project at the dayjob took a lot of my time and energy in January (along with one or the other of us being sick for what felt like the whole month).  When that project/event ended, I was able with a short transition period to get back into my normal rhythm.  Last week sort of took that to another level.

Mike Daisey at Joe's Pub on Monday night.  Mike's taken some stupid amounts of heat over the last year or so.  I've written about him here before and probably will again, but I haven't devoted any real space to the NPR/This American Life controversy.  You probably know all about that, and if you don't there is plenty to read and listen to out there about it.  What I'll say on the subject is that Mike did a hell of a job drawing attention to what's going on in tech manufacturing (and tech reporting) and created a brilliant show in the process.  Or vice versa.  And while I'm not going to get behind the whole "it's all true" thing, I do maintain that a playwright is not the same thing as a journalist, even a playwright whose stock in trade is distant travel, immersive research, and real world goings-on with real world stakes.

I've already gone on more about this than I wanted to, but I'll wrap up today's discussion of this subject by asking straight out something Daisey touched on obliquely last Monday: how closely have you looked at the workings of the tech industry, and what have you done to affect labor conditions in China?  [Oh, and take a few minutes to imagine turning off all your 'connected' devices one day a week.  What would that take?  How much prep would you need to do?  Just asking.]

More to come...

Equinoctial

Happy First Day of Spring, everybody!

So far, I've been celebrating by not even leaving the apartment, but that just seems wrong, so I'll shift gears soon. but first I wanted to say I hope you all had a good winter (as uncooperative as the weather tended to be) and that you're in good health (no small wish in this era of earthquakes and tsunamis and wars and floods).

This week was a full one, with networking and socializing on Monday, a kind of a night off on Tuesday, Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met on Wednesday (great! It's part of the HD broadcasts too, so you can catch it at a theater near you...), The Motherf**ker with the Hat on Thursday (which evening included dinner with a couple of my good friends who had somehow managed not to be in the same room with Cory until now), the Premier of the Mel & El webisodes at Ars Nova on Friday (featuring yours truly as a Mean Man, according to the credits; my bitchy gay character was rechristened by Kevin and Carl as one of the Mean Girls. I'll take the career boost.) and the Martha Graham Dance Company at Jazz at Lincoln Center last night (featuring the company of out-of-town guests from both Virginia and Italia)

Whew!

How do we do it? The secret is to sacrifice cleanliness.

Anyway, it's clearly time to change over the wallpaper photo on my phone from the snow-covered branches outside our window to something more printemps. I'll try to grab something this afternoon.

Zooming By

Time is kind of whizzing along. Not necessarily a bad thing - it's just the way life is, especially when I'm in a show (Two more weeks! I am steadfast in my attempt to prove that there is no such thing as a small part...) and the dayjob is off-the-hook busy.

On the other hand, I get more than a little miffed at myself when I realize that I have missed pretty amazing things like the Undead Jazzfest without even registering that it was happening until it already happened. Many slaps on my wrist! Much mortification of my flesh with a barbed lash!

Sigh...

In other news, here's an article about Charlie Sheen's work release program. While I'm the first to assert that theater does in fact serve the community, it strikes me as rather odd that a celebrity can beat his wife and be sentenced to... regional theater. There is humor in this, of a bleak sort. It has been mentioned that this simply reflects his individual skill set; it certainly can be interpreted as adding value to the theater company and its education program (though by the same token there are those whose eyebrows are raised at the notion of being assigned to teach children as part of release for domestic abuse); and the case has been made that it's not all that different from, say, a lawyer doing pro-bono work as a condition of a plea agreement. Discuss.

Counting and Recounting

So much has been going on, I haven't had time to process it, much less blog about it. Last week was a frenzy of performances and rehearsals, thanks in large part to gifts and/or knowing people involved with the shows But here's some kind of stab at catching up.

Monday I was treated to a benefit for Elevator Repair Service, an amazing theater company that does really creative work. Looking forward to seeing Gatz, their production of The Great Gatsby which involves reading the entire novel live and on stage. The benefit was great - actors reading from Great American Books. Frankie Faison was fab reading from Moby Dick, and Frances McDormand was brilliant reading from The Age of Innocence. Rad sound design too.

Wednesday I went to Sondheim on Sondheim at Studio 54. Very much fun - I actually didn't know much about the show before I went. If you have an interest in Stephen Sondheim (and I'm guessing you do) it's worth paying a visit.

Thursday... well, Thursday was omigod omiGOD territory. That was the night of the Chris Knox Benefit at Le Poisson Rouge. Now it's true that not too many people know about Chris Knox, who had a stroke about a year ago, and I actually only know a little of his stuff myself (though I now am on a mission to dive much deeper into his work) but I know a good lineup when I see one: Yo La Tengo, Jeff Mangum, Kyp Malone, Claudia Gonson, Portastatic, The Clean (and various solo projects attendant thereto) Dimmer, and a bunch of others joined up to put together a marathon set of awesomeness, with the proceeds going straight to Chris in New Zealand.

"Wait a minute," some of you are saying. "Who was that between YLT and Kyp Malone? Jeff Mangum was playing that show???"

But then again, most of the people who would know to do that double take would also have known that he was there last week.

And while I'm tempted to wax rhapsodic about Neutral Milk Hotel and other earth-shaking events from the history of music, suffice it for now to say that Mangum's set was unlike anything I've ever seen or heard. (More heard than seen, since he sat down to perform, which meant that unless you were right up front, or very tall, you didn't get to see very much.) 700 people bursting into an earsplitting ovation followed by pindrop silence followed by reverential humming and sprinkled with tears born from some mixture of joy, awe and reverence.

Remember what you learned in high school? How music and theater began as part of religious ceremonies in ancient civilizations? This was a religious experience.

And then about half the audience left when Jeff finished his set. Whatever. More room for the rest of us.

Ira pre-emptively made fun of bloggers from the stage that night, and I guess I'm worthy of his scorn today (though it may bear mentioning that his band's website is a little bloggy itself, and they have a myspace page too.) The show as a whole was outstanding. Yo La Tengo lent itself (as a whole or in parts) to various projects, and their own set was brilliant, of course; the Clean was FANTASTIC; and we left spent but better for it.

More to come, but for now I'll leave you with one of my favorite photos of the beautiful Lena Horne, who is singing with angels.

What a Week

Basketball, Health Care Reform passage, signage, re-writage and re-passage, Show-going (South Pacific shoutout), Rehearsal, Photo Shoot, Audition Line-up and Prep, SAG paperwork, Doctor, Dayjob dayjob dayjob, Family, Birthdays, Lost, Music, Reading & Writing, Gym, Cooking, Friends, more Basketball and not enough sleep.

Hello weekend.

Behind the Times

Once again I've been a slacker blogger. The good news is that that's because I've been doing a lot of things that keep me sufficiently busy that I don't have as much time to write about the things I've been doing. Hopefully this week I'll have time to post about the show I'm in, maybe one or two of the shows I've seen, the beach, my bro-in-law's visit, the McCarren Pool Party...

Yeah, probably not all of that. There are a ton of photos though - I'll be sure to post some.

Meanwhile, here is an abbreviated bit of sports-related Magic 8-Pod. It's outdated - played it back when the Olympics had just gotten going, so we'll see how it fared vis a vis the way things turned out...

How will Michael Phelps do? Welcome - The Who, from "Tommy"

As in - welcome to the top of the heap, Mike. Where no one has gone before. Nicely done.

What's the deal with these pre-pubescent Chinese gymnasts? The Greatest Romance Ever Sold - Prince, from "Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic."

This was the remix/b-side version of that song, with Eve doing a come-hither-type rap. Hmm, not sure what to make of this one. I mean, we could imagine the U.S. team and the Chinese team:

Finally face 2 face
Checkin' each other up and down

But then, being a Prince song, it goes places that... um, no. Maybe we're better off just thinking of it as a comment on the Selling of the Olympic Dream, or the Selling of Capitalism to the East. Or something.

How are the Red Sox going to do in the Post Manny Era? Absolutely Free, The Mothers of Invention, from "We're Only in It for The Money."

Hehehe. This works on a few levels - the Sox can now be free from the media circus of Manny (as fun as it was and is) and be free to concentrate on Baseball. And - the title of this brilliant album may shed some light on Manny's Mysterious Motivation for wanting so badly to be traded.

OH! This leads me to a current, live-as-I-blog 8-Pod opportunity:

Now how 'bout catching the Rays, guys? Dark Chocolate - Dan Bern, from "Smartie Mine"

Hmm. This is cryptic enough. Dan loves him some Dark Chocolate in this song (don't we all?) Promises offered, unrealized and met with unyielding loyalty anyway (Sox fans know well about that):

Who'd believe that you once saved my life
When you're split in so many pieces?

Of course it gets sensual (this is a song about chocolate, people, what did you expect?) And then it resolves (over-obviously?) focusing on the bittersweet aspect of the title/subject.

Great. Being a Red Sox fan with post season hopes is a bittersweet experience. How original.

Just take it pitch by pitch, guys. Those Rays have to crumble eventually. Don't they?

T-Day: The Next Generation

Ok, life has been crazy busy. Dayjob stuff is just nutty. Personal stuff keeps happening. Acting stuff in the works as well (of course, once I got cast in a show and my dayjob explodes, that's when about five different theaters want to see me all at once).

However, I made time for a trip to New England in the midst of it all. Had plans to visit the Cathedral on Lansdowne that could not be put off.


And then, a trip to the Berkshires to see Sue & Kevin and the newest addition to the T-Day contingent. Ladies and Gentlemen: Max Killam.

He has a superhero name; he has a superhuman smile. Moi, I'm happy he's around.

So, here are a couple photos of the proud parents, including one particular guy's first-ever Father's Day.


I don't know. I'm no expert, but I gotta think that's better than a necktie.

catching up

Yes, yes, I know, I haven't posted here for a while. I've been busy! Doing many things of interest, including getting cast in a production of Twelfth Night that's going up in August. Details to come later; for now suffice it to say that it's one of my fave plays, and I'm looking forward to the experience.

Also, I've finally entered the world of digital photography. It's been a long time since I've been behind a camera in any kind of serious way, and I have essentially no experience with digital, so look forward to a learning curve. But in theory this will be a really good outlet for the visual side of me, and ought to add a dimension to this blog as well.


Nothing terribly special about this one - just your basic "there's the Empire State Building in the distance beyond a bustling park in Hoboken on Memorial Day."


Kids playing in the fountain on the edge of said park. Tough place to fill your watergun, but I'm guessing he made it work.



From a performance piece on the East River the day before. This rates its own post, which I'll try to put together soon. For now, I won't mention her name (or publish your comments if you do) because I don't want to identify with paparazzi or trigger any blog alerts, but I don't think it's out of line to point out that one of the Famous and Beautiful is giving our Spiney Starfish the eye...

Crazy '08s

There is so much to write about! Shows I've seen, things I've been doing, reading, listening to, etc., the Writers' strike (why is no one talking about boycotting Leno, O'Brien, Stewart or Colbert? Need to look at that...), the caucuses and primaries and on and on.

But I'm wracked with busy-ness. Wracked, I tells ye, wracked!

So it will have to wait a while. Still, know that I'm happy, healthy and loving life.

Congrats to the people who jumped into the word game. (it was a hit at Daniel's birthday party last weekend, too!) Anyone else wanting in (who didn't already cheat and look it up on the interweb) lemme know.

ugh

Yesterevening over dinner, i was explaining (with a dash of brag) to a friend my "i'll sleep when i'm dead" approach to things. Then went to see 'scarcity' at the atlantic (good moments/bad moments), watched colbert and did some stuff at home on the photo project, and finally went to bed.

And this morning my body said "Um... no you don't. Sleep when you're dead, eh? I think you'll be going to sleep right NOW. Well, no, let's make you throw up for about ten minutes first."

Smallscale hubris, i suppose.

So that's what's happening today. I'm feeling a bit better; pacing myself, because i still want to see M.I.A. tonight.

rocktober/soxtober

Things are going pretty full tilt these days. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Got back from a weekend in Williamstown less than an hour ago. Went there to visit with Sue & Kevin, and have Kevin take some photos to use as headshots. That means I'll be looking a bit self absorbed for the next couple weeks, poring over image after image of... myself. And quite possibly asking you to do the same.

Also went to see/hear Matt Munisteri and Brock Mumford at MoCA, performing the songs of Willard Robison. Excellent show: first rate musicians performing really good songs from the 20s and 30s, most of which were unfamiliar to me. Saw the end of the Sox game at the Mohawk afterwards. We're starting to call Eric Gagne, "Gag Me." He has to click in soon, or we'll have to arrange it so that he doesn't pitch in tight situations.

More shooting today, then tour of the open studios in North Adams - such good artists out there! Finally dinner at Mezze with Sue & Kevin. Mmmmmm...

On the drive home I saw something I have never seen before. It was pretty gnarly, so if you're squeamish, you may want to skip to the next paragraph. A deer had been hit by a car, and was lying in the middle of the road. Nasty and sad, but the big deal was this particular deer was being torn apart by a BEAR! Ok, it was dark; it might not have been a bear - but it was being eaten by something. Something way bigger than a raccoon, folks. I had to swerve out of the lane to avoid hitting them. If it wasn't a bear, I don't know what it was.

Now I'm watching game 3 in the NLCS: the Rockies are on fire. Holy moly, what momentum. They have to burn out soon.

Don't they??

Quick run-down of the upcoming week:

• Tomorrow - meeting after work; hopefully will catch the Personal Space Theatrics benefit performance at the Duplex later in the evening
• Tuesday - 'Spain' at the Lucille Lortel
• Wednesday - currently open! We'll see what comes up
  
• Thursday - M.I.A. at Terminal 5
  
• Friday - drive to New Paltz to hang with Frank & Amanda & family
• Saturday - birthday party in New Paltz, then catch Yo La Tengo with Frank in Woodstock

Yes, I will be engaged in a full work week as well. So I must to bed

Art as it happens...

Saturday, among other things, I went to MoMA to see the Richard Serra exhibition. Very impressive - spread throughout three separate spaces in (and out of) the museum, one devoted to his early work, one to "Related Curves" from the '90s and one to new work. The pieces ranged from pretty big to really large-scale, and I found the best ones irresistible. Giant curves, stunning in their balance and proportion, beautiful from within and without... amazing. Lori has me thinking it might be worth getting a membership just so I can return there at will for the season.

Well, ok, probably not.

But when I compare that temptation with all the other reasons, yeah, I might sign up for MoMA. For instance, another exhibition going on was Dan Perjovschi, and it was rad too! Check out this viddy. It does no justice to the piece, but it does make me kind of wish I'd known about the event of him creating it live at the museum.

There are a few other things I'd like to write about, but things are CRAZY BUSY as we're getting ready to head out to Bonnaroo! Very scintillating... ;)

Memorial Day Rundown

Once again, a big weekend. Here's the rundown:

Friday Night:

- Went to jackson heights to meet jon & kir's new baby boy! Had a great time with those guys and beckett, read a story to joseph and met dean for the first time.
- Jon & i went to brooklyn to check out the club WWIX will be playing in late june - wouldn't you know it's matchless, where we saw easy anthems (and creaky boards) last weekend. Jqln met us out there - always a plus.

Saturday:

- Bit of a sleep in, but not too late. Way too much to do for that.
- Went to the gym for regular/non-yoga workout for the first time in a while
- Installed air conditioner for the summer.
- Picked up tim (dear friend and colleague writing a book about the living theater) at newark airport, caught up with him over a bite at home in air-conditioned comfort
- While tim met with other colleagues, went to elysian park to read a bit.
- Into NYC for a bit of dinner theater featuring a friend.
- Up to the heights for a birthday party. Not only that, a toga party. Leslie's friend's roommate was turning 19, and togas were the order of the evening, though not everyone wore them. Moi, no sheet, but i certainly appreciated some of the toga creativity - and a polish couple there made a remarkable drink from an herbal-infused vodka called 'zubrowka' that tastes like apple pie!

Sunday:

- Brunch with tim at amanda's - yum!
- Some baseball on TV. (Remember people, every loss for the yankees is a victory for civilization.)
- Into town to meet lori at a park by the river. On my way up 9th ave. in my finest faux boston/irish catholic outfit (red sox cap, notre dame t-shirt), i stepped into a bar briefly, not for a drink, but just to watch derek jeter strike out in the bottom of the 9th with two outs, a runner on third and the yanks down by one. Tee hee!
- Good conversation with lori at the park. Watched one of those gigantic cruise ships pull out. Were all those cops and heavily-armed soldiers there because of the ship, or for fleet week?
- Changed clothes at lori's place, then met tim to see 'beyond glory.' This show was excellent - stephen lang one-man show about medal-of-honor winners. Seriously good; deserves its own entry - maybe another time.
- Cheesesteak and beer after the show, then back to the 'boken.

Monday:

- Woke up early for some inscrutable reason. The good news was that i caught a reading of howard zinn's voices from 'a people's history of the united states' with a bunch of good actors on democracy now!
- Bagels with tim, which he couldn't eat because of a visceral reaction to cornmeal (he gets really sick if he eats it.) Yet another reason i hardly ever go to the shitty bagel place across the street - who bakes bagels on a pan with cornmeal???
- Took tim back to the newark airport so he could fly back to indy.
- The day that was supposed to be all rainy turned out very nice, so, back to elysian park for some sun and reading.
- Into NYC to see adrienne shelley's 'waitress;' not necessarily the kind of movie i'd normally gravitate toward, but because of adrienne (you read all about that here - and everywhere else - last november) i could not miss it. And it was good, if unexpectedly sentimental and hollywood for such an indie gal.
- Back to hoboken for a quick shower/bite/change before heading back into town for melissa errico at birdland. Shit, she's good. So relaxed and comfortable, and what a voice. Plus beautiful, radiant, funny, charismatic - who could ever like a girl like that? Damn patrick mcenroe...
- Nightcap with leslie.

There it is.

Whew!