review on piercingmetal.com

Man, long time no update!

The ALLIES Concert went so so well. Our friends, family, and plenty of industry came out to support. Amongst them, Ken Pierce of Piercing Metal.com, who wrote an awesome review which you can check out here:

ALLIES Review

OTHER NEWS...

-Foxfire and I are continuing our work with ALLIES, and working on new collaborations and old ones as well. Which leads me to the following news item...

-There is also finally some movement on Peter Gabriel's US - I've just begun to set up for a private reading of the script in the spring, and should be meeting with Monsieur Lepage in April to discuss.

-I'm currently casting a reading (readings readings readings!) for America. Dates to follow.

-Just finished casting a video for my bread job at Orphmedia. This will be the first industrial script I've written, ever. And also the first non-youtube video I've completely production-managed. I'm proud of myself, cuz the team assembled is pretty killer.

-My life is one big MEETING, interspersed with hours of online research and web design.

it's just a jump to the left (and then five steps to the right)

I am tres tres fatigue.

Yesterday's 8 hour Rocky rehearsal didn't feel so hard at the time, but boy. After a 5 AM bus ride back to Manhattan, a script drop-off, a creative meeting with the guys at At Hand Theatre Co., and finally getting to my bread job at 1 PM...sitting here, I can feel rehearsal. Especially in my neck. Or maybe that's the weird position I slept in for part of the bus ride. Whatever it is. Time Warping and Hot Patootie-ing all day in spike heels will mess with you. But I'm pretty psyched about it nonetheless.

Tonight is the first informal readthrough of La Machine Infernale. The RTC staff plus a number of actors we don't typically work with (ok, Judy and Metro are 'old hat' I guess, but I love them so...), and Monsieur Jean Cocteau.

EQUUS was phenomenal. I was so excited about it, I bought a mug. Which they claimed was $15 dollars. The charge that showed up on my statement was $20. What the hell? Either way, it's a lot of money for a mug. But that beautiful EQUUS publicity photo is on it, so, oh well.

BOYS' LIFE was fun. Man & I sat right by Michael Grief, the designer, and their assistants, so we got to hear the little whispers of final dress notes throughout the show. It made me feel excellent that there are things that even Michael Grief has to whisper about on final dress.


This week, because I am blessed with awesome people being awesome and generous in my life, I will be seeing ROCK OF AGES (starring Constantine...!) on Thursday. Words cannot describe the joy...!

disturbia

Currently waiting for Verizon to come by the Bread Job and install new phone lines. They've got an hour and fifteen left in the designated window. I am not particularly optimistic. My experience with these guys and the demons over at Time Warner Cable is equally wretched.

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Aussie has been mentioning her interest in starting a monologue group up for actor-practice. I need to keep my chops in good working order as well, and I told her I would be psyched to hang out, tweak, critique and help shape one-minutes, two-minutes, Shakespeares, contemporaries, etc. once a week. We could work out of the Commune in Queens (where Aussie, PJ, Sessoms & Miss Kim all live), or all throw down about 5 bucks and rent a TR or Shetler space. I'm more in favor of the rental; rehearsals in a house tend to be distracting. Anyone interested?

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Man is sound board op for King of Shadows down at Theater for the New City. I went to the opening with Sessoms on Sunday. Besides the room being downright frosty, it was a decent experience. The sound design (done by the delightful M.L. Dogg) was actually my favorite part - in fact, the design of everything was gorgeous. The performances were a little, er, confusing to me - a lot of the show seemed muddled, and very disconnected. I kept wanting to yell "Talk like humans!," but I don't know if this was the fault of actors, director, or writer...or if it was done intentionally.


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The first "real" theatre work I ever did in NYC, I was 17. I had an internship at Chicago City Limits, and I was submitting my ten minute play "Spoons" to every address I could find. The very prolific Theatre Studio Inc. Playtime series picked it up. I was stoked.

I wound up doing a bunch of things at TSI around that time - acting in several other plays, doing a few different runs of "Spoons." It wasn't particularly glamorous, but it was a really great, friendly way to get broken in to the theatre scene. I haven't been back to TSI since 2003, when I performed as Sudi in a show my friend wrote called "Sudi's Day Comes." I hear they got a new space, revamped their programs (they're caled TheatreVision now), and I keep seeing their calls for directors in Backstage.

So...I bit the bullet, and sent an email saying whattup.

I recieved a response pretty quickly, and I gather I will be directing a...something?...for the Octoberfest Bar-ometrics Pressures Festival. Rock n roll.

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In Other News:

-Congrats to Daisy for booking Theatreworks Christmas Carol tour!! Daisy definitely has the biggest rack of any Tiny Tim ever. I am allowed to say this cuz we is BFF.

-Please come check out RTC's Bal Masqué, to raise funds for our 2009 season. We have some really wonderful performances planned and will be silent-auctioning off a lot of cool shtuff - framed, signed David Bowie artwork, an original '79 Rocky Horror poster, tix to NY City Ballet, baskets of alcohol...come!

-I don't know what to be for Halloween yet. This is not good!

money, baby

Ah, another long day at the office otherwise known at Times2, otherwise known as the Armpit of New York.

I actually don't find it particularly depressing anymore. And as I sit here, in my favorite pajamas, a brand new black Macbook charging by my feet, life in bleak ol' 2008 seems pretty ok. The LegaBlonde team got pretty deep today - the discussion in front of TKTS was economic crisis, gas prices, radical politics, conspiracy theory; big stuff! And yeah, shit SUCKS all over the place right now. All of my working artist or arts-related friends? You are mad lucky people. The most common topics of conversation nowadays seem to be:

1. taking on too many bread jobs
2. going in for unpaid student films
3. not getting called for anything
and, of course
4. how the fuck do I keep getting up in the morning for all of this?

How indeed!

It's New York (and I gotta stop watching movies about L.A. that make it seem like things might be more fun out there. L.A. is no place for a theatre girl!), and today, I got up for New York. To see my Dad's name on the marquee of the Nokia theatre, and to buy a ticket to see Equus by myself in a few months. Because even though I don't have the spare 80 bucks, I dug it up so I've got something to get up for on October 4th - a date with Peter Schaffer, horses and a play that's so good I could throw up. Say what you will about Harry Potter - I can't imagine how you could fuck that play up so much that I wouldn't love it. It's EQUUS.

Last night, Brother and I stood in the front door of a bar on 46th and watched Phelps & the rest of the American swim team take that final gold and break records. It was pretty awesome. The bar went nuts. It's not very often that I'm psyched to be American - I can probably count those moments on one hand. But yeah. Pretty psyched. Screamin' for some swimmin'.


New pretty Macbook is charged, and I have bread job dos to get up for in the morning. But I also have ALLIES, an At Hand reading, and a gangsta rap video to get up for as well. The newly established music video company has a name (Baby Bear Productions), and four more shoots to do...so look out for more of the gang in coming weeks. In the meantime, I leave you with the finished product of our initial efforts, for those who haven't already seen it twenty times over.

you walked me down 14th street

Summertime...

What the fuck is going on, dude?

I feel very disconnected from my life, man. Kinda floating above it, glancing at it, and giggling. Brother is over, listening to angry Eminem tracks (it's a nostalgic thing, I gather). I'm hangin out in a cowboy hat, from PJ's collection (he used to sell hats and soap for extra cash...), and anticipating an evening of Chinese food and Batman Begins. I am surrounded by a pile of incomplete work and emails.

We're producing a show at NP in August, that PJ is directing. The title being tossed around was "Will It Hurt?" but it strikes me as inappropriate (despite it being apropos of the content) and makes Sessoms think of anal sex, so at the moment, it's still without a name.

Ah, we've moved on to bluegrass. The original version of "Man of Constant Sorrow." Highly recommended.

Out and about in the village with Sessoms, Rye and eventually Boss proved highly successful, and soothed my soul. Going out and getting plastered is not the answer to life's problems, but it definitely helps on occasion. Especially when dancing, wicked DJs, ghetto mixes of Smirnoff and vitamin water, purple shirts and intrigue are involved.

Ah, we've moved onto the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Brother proves to be a mildly skitzophrenic DJ.

I did manage to snag a new bread job, thanks to my ever-generous friend Mr. John Gallagher, who helps me out more than I feel I deserve. (Oh no, Brother has returned to the living room with months-old dregs found in various drawers - "We don't have to scrape the bowl!" he declares gleefully) Other things on the ol' noggin':

-How to keep Jive in the country...what is life without a giddy blonde to take you out to watch soccer and speak Italian? What is life without long, bi-or-trilingual messages about lord-only-knows left on your voicemail?

-Rufus Wainwright's "14th Street" on a constant loop

-...occasionally interrupted by Pat Benatar wailing "We Belong"

-celebrity chefs

-the Grand Guignol and how to recreate 19th century blood effects

-Gas prices. If I'm assistant to the director on "Digger" and Ariel in the Tempest, I will, presumably, be driving. And thus, filling a gas tank. Blast!

-your mom...


xoxo

hot thing

I denied that it would happen to us. That syndrome the teachers warned us about and I saw happen to the class of 06 as the spread and scattered throughout New York and the world and tried getting their careers started. But here it is. The big, gaping yawn of WHAT NOW? We're all surviving, but when I look at it and take stock, I get kind of depressed.

Here I am. Temping and shooting student films in Texas. Sometimes all I want is to go back to New York on the spot, but other days, I never want to return to "reality."
Boss went to Europe. She wants to come home, she wants to stay, she's not sure what she wants.
Sessoms is stuck in NYC. She took the good job, and will be selling wedding dresses soon. And she's dreading it.
Daisy D. called me yesterday and for a half hour, she and I bemoaned our complete lack of artistic impulses.
Man doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. Again.
So what, is this just a trend hitting my particular group of friends?
Because it seems like several months after getting out of school, this happens to everybody.

So my question is, when the fuck does it end?
I'm tired of floundering. I'd like some solid answers and some success. Which means I can't afford NOT to have artistic impulses. Is it easier to take a real break or will it be impossible to pick up again from a dead stop?

Aaarrrrgh.

second morning

There's a thing I do that I think must be very specific to freelancers and people in the arts. It's called the Second Morning.

So you get up for the first time. You're running just barely on time to make a morning appointment for your Bread Job, an audition, a rehearsal, a something. The Something takes an hour or two, you finally eat something. You head home. Then, when you put your key in the door, the Second Morning begins. It's still very much daylight, and it's although it's 2 or 3 or 4 PM, the house is still in a state of 10 AM. You make coffee. Maybe you even get back in your pajamas. Take that shower you didn't have time to take when you breezed out for the First Morning. You check your email.

I love Second Mornings. I'm already on the go, so I'm more inspired to do all the personal work I have to do - theatre paperwork, character research and the like - but there's not that nasty time factor when there's a pressing outside world appointment impending. The outside world has been handled. Now all I have is a show to attend tonight, when the sun is down. The day is mine, and I can face the rest of it in sweatpants.

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The Playhouse time is fairly complete. I got a strange cameo role in the Final Plays - I'm the Madonna in a Pintauro short called "Fiat." I am slightly disappointed, but I think it might turn out to be a surprise. And I can't look a gift horse in the mouth here. I'm involved in three other productions that require my immediate attention, and I've totally neglected them in favor of being a Nei-Play slave. Now I've been given the time to work on these things. And get a real job. So, to add to the list I made months ago, 2007 shows now include:

#6: "Footloose" at Talent Unlimited High School
I will be: the costume designer

#7: Undetermined Real Theater Company Straight Play, starring Sessoms
I will be: the director/producer

and work for "Greece is the Word," (formerly known as "Untitled Greek Mythology Play") at Hunter Elementary, and the RTC production of "Hair" are in full swing.

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Mom & I are each other's primary collaborators. I usually have a second and a third floating around, and it seems the primaries in 2007 are definitely Sessoms and Swank. I got very lucky, because...they both kick major ass, for very different reasons. The things I have in development for 2008 and beyond seem so much more possible because of the two of them.

Last night, after our final Gary Ramsey presentation (oh thank heaven!), Swank, Sweetheart, Daisy & I met up with Sessoms at Blackstone's...in daylight, which was truly bizarre. The bar was full of suits, so we ate our food, drank our beer and headed up to my place. Boss & Metro are in Disneyworld, so it was a weird Maggie Moon-hosted party, and Swank became my co-host (I bought eggs to dye and halfway through our shared bottle of Hypnotiq, had a very difficult time figuring out how to hard-boil them, so he assisted). With Sessoms came the ever-mysterious Professor and another first year, Goldlist. Somewhere along the line, far into the alcohol, past the egg-dye, the SceneIt! and the altercation with my {gap-toothed lazy bitchass} next door neighbor, Sessoms & Professor are in the bathroom having one of their talks, Daisy & Sweetheart are thumbing through my Hippie book together, and Swank and I are dancing about. Goldlist exclaims, in frustration:

"This is just great. Here I am with the adorable redheads, the glam-rock biters, and the crazy drama couple. Great."

Later, when it was nothing but the biters hanging out, I spilled my life dream for Swank's perusal. He got a grin on his face that made me feel like a magician.


Today, I got a job at the Central Park Boathouse. Looks like Daisy, my old directorial pal Nikki, and me shall be hash slinging hostesses this summer. Unless something more lucrative comes along.

I'm imagining myself living in abundance...