So, Then This Happened

AS you might have surmised, the R.E.M. breakup remained on the forefront of my mind for much of the day. When I first got word, I shared the news with the people around me at work, and one guy said "Well, they are pretty... seasoned."

I stifled an outburst and mentioned that the Rolling Stones have a lot more 'seasoning' and they still entertain a crowd once in a while. The co-worker then said something to the effect of "In my opinion, the Rolling Stones should have pulled a Seinfeld years ago." Meaning that they would have been better off quitting at the top of their game (as R.E.M. appears to be trying to do) rather than dragging on.

Ok. Perhaps. I grant the possibility.

But that didn't really mitigate my mental breakdown when, a while later, another guy from the office came by and asked how I was doing. I said, "Well, R.E.M. broke up, so I'm a little shaken about that."

His response: "R.E.M.?! Man, that is past time! They were the 90s! I was all about them back then though. (singing) Jeremy's spoken..."

I have some regret that I was not able to restrain myself from grabbing my head in my hands and saying "Urggmmphhh! THAT'S PEARL JAM!!!" I was able to restrain myself from literally shouting that exclamation, but just barely.

When I told Cory this tale, she asked "Did that vein in your forehead bulge out?"

Yes. Yes, I believe it did.

I have, very clearly, lived too long.

That said, for today's listening list, I am through Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, and am now almost at the end of Lifes Rich Pageant. It's going to be like this for a while.

Back from Boca

I had to go dark for a while because of that trip I made for the dayjob.  Did I mention this?  It went just fine - quite well actually, as these things go - but it was exhausting, and frustrating at times, and I'm glad to be back.  Really glad.  No photos from that trip, natch, but soon I should be able to post an image or two from our day trip to New Paltz last weekend.

Meanwhile, it is AMAZING this weekend in New York.  I've been relaxing and handling some errands, going out with Cory; went to see the Neos last night, and we even met with a couple friends afterwards.  But mostly relaxing.  Baaaad and boring blog material, but good for me, and kind of necessary.

Steel Pier

No time for a real post, but I want to put in just a couple images. The dayjob brought me to Atlantic City this week, and I had a little time the first day I was there to hit the Boardwalk (via a Jitney bus that passed by a bunch of streets I know from playing Monopoly growing up)



unattended snack shack with the steel pier amusement park on the horizon




wonderwheel in fading dusk

Recyclerant

Ok, time for just a wee rant on the way the dayjob handles recycling. Not in any grand industrial fashion (I don't have the info on how that gets handled), just good ol' office-style recylcling: paper, bottles and cans, that sort of thing.

It's pretty much an open secret that the cleaning crew dumps the 'paper recycling' at the desks and the 'all round garbage' into the same bag, which then heads, presumably, to the truck to the barge to the landfill. My fellow cubicle-dwellers bitch about this from time to time, but I'm inclined to do a little finger-pointing of my own here: these same people can't manage to separate the 'garbage' from the bottles and the cans in the kitchen recycling bins (the contents of which, I allow myself to hope, actually find their way to recycling facilities). Came from lunch to see the food bags in which my peeps had got their lunch delivery tossed in the recycle bin (which even required lifting the lid that has the little bottle-sized holes in it.)

One especially self-righteous Greeny is among the offenders, which is extra-special annoying because he has a tendency to go off about how tiny his carbon footprint is (may not be the only tiny thing about him). This is the same guy who is pissed about the company's intention to phase out bottled water in favor of using filtered water from a cooler: "What do they expect us to do? Fill a cup? Then we're wasting cups?!" Um, dude, maybe re-use one of the 14,000 bottles you've gone through already. "Oh, so I'm saving old bottles, that are going to fall apart?" Well, I guess they will fall apart eventually, but... yeah. Maybe even wash them once in a while if you can live with the shame. Or, if they're really too flimsy for you, how 'bout one of those hard plastic Nalg*ne things: we've got those with one of our brand logos on the side, for fuck's sake. "What about when there's a conference? Do we get bottles of water for that? Or are we supposed to have our vendors go into the kitchen and fill up a paper cup?" I guess you're right, bro. Some people are too important to drink water from the same cooler as the rest of us. Sorry to have made you step down from the high horse (that somehow fits in your hybrid car) to have this conversation. Go back to Star*ucks, and whatever you do, don't bring your own mug.

Stupid thing to get upset about? Wouldn't be the first.

Ok - the company pays very good lipservice to environmental concerns, and is of the 'continuous improvement' school. They/we claim to be Greenifying at the industrial level, and maybe it's the case. They/we claim to have safe, fair labor practices, which is certainly true here in the States; I haven't been to the plants in Malaysia to check on them. And yes, yes, alright - I get the irony in the fact that I am perfectly happy to cash the paychecks this job provides. But it drives me a little bit nuts to wonder: if we suck so much at the easy stuff, how can we ever possibly tackle the hard stuff?

See, this is what happens when I am at my desk waaaaay too late on a Friday.

Maybe next week I'll write a few words about some of those 'improvements' that corporate has come up with...

worst ... blogger... ever!

This may be what my loyal readers (both of you) are calling me.

It's true, I've been inattentive to the needs of Love Minus Zero these days. Life happens and all. Explanations? Not too many persuasive ones, really. The dayjob has been busier than usual (yadda yadda yadda). The audition roller coaster has been really fast and steep the last few weeks - the very few of you who know the deal know why I don't write about that stuff here (or even talk about it except with people on the inside. I mean, people in the biz, not those pesky voices in my head.) My personal life has been, you know, personal.

One big thing on the horizon is that my parents are visiting. Some of you will have received this, but for the amusement of those of you who haven't, here's a semi-mass email I sent out to some of my friends and colleagues in Nuevo York:

Hope all are doing well and enjoying this beautiful slice of time between summer and fall!

Ok, this is one of the weirder appeals you'll receive from me...

My parents are visiting new york next month.

"What?!" you say, "mick's parents are actually going to be in new york?"

It's true. For the second time in the many years i've lived here, mom and dad are facing down their fears of the big city and staying with me for a long weekend, october 4-7. And a big weekend it is: my dad turns 60 on october 5; and as if that weren't enough, the folks will celebrate their 40th anniversary on the 21st. Exciting, huh?

SO - we want to do some special stuff. And they get to decide what that means.

One thing it means is playoff baseball. This excites me muchly, but alas, my entry in the mets lottery was not selected for the divisional series. (Don't despair, lottery advocates - i'm still potentially eligible for the league championship and world serieses, but that doesn't help with the birthday/anniversary visit effort.) Stub hub and other legalized scalpers do offer these tix, which is probably what i'll end up doing, but i wanted to see if any of you out there have access to corpo-tix or anything like that. I'm not looking for a freebie or a discount, though i will admit that i'd like to avoid scalpers.

I know, i know, it's a long shot.

Special fun new york thing number two is broadway's Wicked.

"But mick," you say, "why would they want to spend all that money to sit near the back of a 2,000-seat theater, to see a show that is touring all over the country, and will probably continue to tour for years?"

I don't know, people. They're my parents - leave me alone.

But then, while you're leaving me alone, can you check and see if the CFO of your company is friends with the nederlanders, or stephen schwartz is your cousin, or your boyfriend is the house manager or something like that. Again, not looking for freebies, but if i'm gonna spend $100+ a ticket, i would prefer to get good seats.

See - told you it was going to be a weird appeal.

And even if you have no contacts in the world of major league baseball or broadway, please contact me so that we can be in the same room at the same time sometime soon! There are beverages to be shared and conversations to be had...

oxox
cheers,
mick

To update this situation - a couple people came through on the Wicked tix. But they are silly expensive, and i think what we're going to do is try the $25 'lottery,' (you get a number, and if they pick it you can buy seats down front for $25) and if we win that, great, and if not they'll see the show on one of its innumerable tours.

Still on the hunt for Mets playoff tix (and at this point, the Mets are in a serious fight for a place in the playoffs in the first place). There's a side story there having to do with StubHub, but for now suffice it to say - AVOID STUBHUB! Shout it from the rooftops folks, they are evil, horrible people who should be professionally boycotted and socially shunned.

Ahem. I'm ok. I'll write down that story another day maybe.

Playlist for Pleasure

Ok, in contrast to the entry about Minneapolis, let me share some random radness.

Had my iPod on shuffle this morning on the way in to work, and it was one of those days where the tunes just landed pretty much perfectly. Helped the mood, fit the reading i was doing, and just kind of clicked.

I'll resist my temptation to comment on it, and just list the playlist as it came up.

...on the bus:

• The Shins - Mine's Not a High Horse
• The Dears - Hate Then Love
• The Smithereens - Alone at Midnight
• Ani DiFranco - Independence Day

...down to the train:

• Ani DiFranco (again - huh) - Make Them Apologize
• Miles Davis & Gil Evans - The Meaning of the Blues
• Franz Ferdinand - Cheating on You
• Sarah Vaughan - I Could Write a Book
• Son Volt - Afterglow 61

...up to the street

• Fleetwood Mac - What Makes You Think You're the One
• Mosquitos - Rainsong
• R.E.M. - Swan Swan H
• Galaxie 500 - Spook

So there that was.

Simpsons Movie Madness!

Ok, so yesterday was kind of bipolar. One of those "just bust throught the workday shit and cut through the humidity so you can get to the good stuff" situations. Have to say, however, i had a few good things happen at work, including having some cheap movie passes delivered (a perq of the job), a very yummy sandwich for lunch, a truly energizing IM chat, and some good gear from a sample sale (another perq!) - see on paper it doesn't look bad; just trust me, there was some silly nonsense that got thrown in the blender with the 90% humidity to make some hot and sticky cream-of-malaise soup.

It was all leading up to the midnight premier of The Simpsons Movie, so on my way from work, i walked by the theater where we'd be seeing the film to pick up the tickets. No dice - big jennifer lopez event happening which drew an impenetrable crowd. Got to Riposo for happy hour & appies, and as sherin & i settled in it was like a mist of pino bianco on a cool breeze cleansed the whole evening. The prosciutto-wrapped grilled asparagus and mushroom-and-goat cheese flatbread didn't hurt, either.

We attempted and failed to do errands in an over-crowded Times Square (well, that time of day, is there any other kind of Times Square?) but got ice cream and coffee on the way, so all was still swimming nicely. Saw Grey Gardens, which, well, if you haven't seen it and you can score tickets for this weekend you should, 'cause it's damn good and it closes on Sunday and i don't think Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson are apt to do it again.

Then it was back to 42nd Street for the movie, the attendant crowd and excitement. So much fun! All those wacky maniacs silly enough to hit a midnight movie on a school night for the sake of the best satirical expression of our time. I mean the movie itself was good, and funny, if perhaps not quite as loaded up with guest stars and plot points as i thought it would be, but it built to a great peak, with typical Homeric conflicts leading to a massive environmental collapse by way of hilarious gags; and as they established a Mr. Burns-fueled energy crisis and the family made its break for their cinematic promised land... the theater went black.

I thought: "Genius! Leave it to The Simpsons to orchestrate a moment of true, whole art gesamtkunstwerk into a simple piece of PG-13! A momentary flash of brilliant darkness reflecting the nuclear power issue and the other environmental concerns established in this simple cartoon!"

Um... no. That would be me giving them waaaaaaaaay too much credit. It was just a regular old-fashioned blackout, and they couldn't fix it, and we didn't get to see the rest of the movie.

D'oh!

I mean, they gave us vouchers to see it again whenever we want, and whatever suspense there was about getting home at 3 or 4 in the morning was resolved. Just, like i said, the day was a little bipolar.



Oh - and here's the Simpsons character i put together for myself :) You can do the same thing if you click on the movie link i put up top. Send me a copy so i can see your creation!

Family Health

My poor little niece annie has been ill for the last week or so. It's nothing serious, but she has only had formula, no solid food at all, and is just kind of down in the dumps. Check out this photo:



So beautiful, and kind of breaks your heart just a little. How 'bout that tongue hanging out thing?

Get well soon, kiddo. I've got your photo hanging above the desk at my dayjob.

Oh, and speaking of that... my dad passed a kidney stone last week. Ouch. I mean OOOOOOUUUUCCCCCHHH!!!!!!!! Seriously. And then, as sometimes happens to men about 60, he developed shingles. Yup, he sure did. Guess it's one of those things that can happen if you've ever had chicken pox. The virus can just pop up, especially in times of stress. Like the stress of, say, passing a kidney stone. Not contagious, unless you've never had chicken pox or been immunized against them. Which means he can't go near annie :(
And i bet she could use her grandpa about now (though she might be a little freaked out by his shingleface.)

Why i'm just finding out about this today is another question...

And back to the subject of dayjobs - remember that law firm that fired me three days before christmas, as i was wrapping up 'xmas carol' in virginia, right before i was supposed to go back to work? Guess who emailed to ask if i want to temp for the president of the company for a couple weeks next month?

Dickwads.

Kissing Gertrude Stein

A little rushed, as three things are happening at once.

I've become involved in a performance piece (it can't properly be called a 'play) that's happening at luna stage in montclair this weekend. It's called the picasso project and it's a theatrical exploration/presentation of picasso painting, sculpture and writing. A lot of it is very movement/physically oriented, based on picasso's work, and the text is taken from a play pablo wrote called 'desire.' There is a little gertrude stein text as well; here's an excerpt of that:

Shutters shut and
shutters and so shutters shut and shutters and so and so
shutters and so shutters shut
and so shutters shut and shutters and so. And so shutters
shut and so and also.

The picasso text has more verbal variety, but is very very free associative and non-linear. VERY hard to memorize.

It's challenging work, and i'm doing a bunch of day job stuff too, as well as a project with beth and arianne, and, of course, auditioning. SO that's one of the reasons you haven't seen much on this blog lately.

Speaking of which, i've got to go meet with a potential office boss. I just threw up a little in my mouth.