After a harrowing ride from a cab driver I'm pretty sure was drunk or on something (he drove backwards down the freeway part of the trip), I arrived at the airport this morning and ran into an old college friend, Marit Dewhurst (who played the receptionist in The American Superhero Applies for a Job). She was on her way to Seattle, and we were catching up as she lined up to board her plane. I happened to notice the person lining up behind her, and I quickly whispered to Marit, "Do you know who that is standing behind you?!" She didn't, so I told her. And she said, loudly, "Sergeant who?"
" Sergeant Slaughter!" I said. I broke my practice of never approaching celebrities, and said hello to him and shook his hand, and told him I was a big fan. The line started to move then, and Marit kept asking, "wait, who is that?" so that was about it. Afterwards, a young couple came up to me to ask if that was the Sarge they'd seen, so I was a little glad I wasn't the only one to be caught up in the nostalgia of simpler days and better pro wrestling!
EDIT: you know, looking at that wikipedia page, I see we share a birthday and a home town. Coincidence?
Friday, August 17, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
"Three hundred people living out in West Virginia/have no idea of all these thoughts that lie within you"
She said: "I'm thinking flashbacks. I want to show my past in flashbacks, very romantic and exciting, like a soap opera, with the pink border and everything, so that by comparison people can see how bleak my present is and how I have no future. What do you think?"
To which I replied: "That sounds amazing."
While I was really thinking: "Oh my god. This is some serious you-just-found-out-there's-no-santa-and-your-baby-bunny
-has-to-eat-sand kind of business."
Yep. Beautifully told stories to make you feel terrible and fortunate all at the same time can only mean one thing: another theatre workshop at Fountain House! I've been running these for a while now, but Wednesday's was particularly good. We had some new folks who seemed especially talented and creative - and who brought especially sad stories. It's really weird sometimes to try and match their excitement about telling these things. "Oh, abandoned by your family in an abusive hospital, you say? Forty-some shock treatments? Sure, we can stage that." Still, I am always reminded that their ability to survive all this crap and then be willing to get up and talk about it makes them a lot braver than I think I'd be.
Man, bunnies do not like sand.
To which I replied: "That sounds amazing."
While I was really thinking: "Oh my god. This is some serious you-just-found-out-there's-no-santa-and-your-baby-bunny
-has-to-eat-sand kind of business."
Yep. Beautifully told stories to make you feel terrible and fortunate all at the same time can only mean one thing: another theatre workshop at Fountain House! I've been running these for a while now, but Wednesday's was particularly good. We had some new folks who seemed especially talented and creative - and who brought especially sad stories. It's really weird sometimes to try and match their excitement about telling these things. "Oh, abandoned by your family in an abusive hospital, you say? Forty-some shock treatments? Sure, we can stage that." Still, I am always reminded that their ability to survive all this crap and then be willing to get up and talk about it makes them a lot braver than I think I'd be.
Man, bunnies do not like sand.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
This might have been the best weekend ever, Or, I guess this means we're not getting back together? (bwahahaha, i kid, i kid!)
I can't even hope to accurately convey how much fun I had this weekend. Susie Harter got married! Her wedding was an adorable celebration of the pure, hopeful love that can only exist between two such wonderful and caring people, and was set against the backdrop of an idyllic, pastoral setting. I really could not be more happy for Susie and Josh!
The wedding was held at a summer camp/resort in upstate New York, and involved a weekend full of campfires, canoeing, hiking, delicious food, dancing, dancing, and dancing. I got to see some folks from college I hadn't seen in a long time, and I met some great new people, too! And, in keeping with my previous post about my friends, I was very pleased to find the guest list for this incredible couple's wedding included a neuroscience phD candidate, a very laid-back physicist who slows down single atoms in the hopes of creating the world's most accurate atomic clock, a man who not only runs health services outreach to HIV positive ex-cons, but also studies the best method for doing so, a gentleman who councils small businesses on environmental sustainability, and many, many other such inspiring folks - all of whom were, even more importantly, as sweet and sincere as can be.
The reception for the wedding was like none other I have been to. It was a fantastic dance party which culminated, very late in the night, in this hilarious and yet also really cool interpretive contact improv dance to "total eclipse of the heart," involving all of the remaining friends and family. Very strange, very funny. Then on to another campfire!
And, even though I got about an hour's worth of sleep all weekend, I still managed to keep things rolling through a very foggy-minded monday to go salsa dancing that night with the incomparable Margaret Conway (pictured here in resplendent hat)!
Tuesday night I was convinced into going to see Bonnie and Clyde at McCarren Park with some friends, but sooner or later I'm going to need some sleep!
P.S. Even though our fling lasted a very short time back in the day, it's still odd to have another ex who's married. This is what, four or five now? One has a baby, for crying out loud, and another's pregnant. Not too much pressure to move things along.
The wedding was held at a summer camp/resort in upstate New York, and involved a weekend full of campfires, canoeing, hiking, delicious food, dancing, dancing, and dancing. I got to see some folks from college I hadn't seen in a long time, and I met some great new people, too! And, in keeping with my previous post about my friends, I was very pleased to find the guest list for this incredible couple's wedding included a neuroscience phD candidate, a very laid-back physicist who slows down single atoms in the hopes of creating the world's most accurate atomic clock, a man who not only runs health services outreach to HIV positive ex-cons, but also studies the best method for doing so, a gentleman who councils small businesses on environmental sustainability, and many, many other such inspiring folks - all of whom were, even more importantly, as sweet and sincere as can be.
The reception for the wedding was like none other I have been to. It was a fantastic dance party which culminated, very late in the night, in this hilarious and yet also really cool interpretive contact improv dance to "total eclipse of the heart," involving all of the remaining friends and family. Very strange, very funny. Then on to another campfire!
And, even though I got about an hour's worth of sleep all weekend, I still managed to keep things rolling through a very foggy-minded monday to go salsa dancing that night with the incomparable Margaret Conway (pictured here in resplendent hat)!
Tuesday night I was convinced into going to see Bonnie and Clyde at McCarren Park with some friends, but sooner or later I'm going to need some sleep!
P.S. Even though our fling lasted a very short time back in the day, it's still odd to have another ex who's married. This is what, four or five now? One has a baby, for crying out loud, and another's pregnant. Not too much pressure to move things along.
Friday, August 10, 2007
This is the kind of world I want to live in
Last week there was a crazy huge dance party at the Brooklyn Museum for their First Saturday celebration. I haven't missed one of these in a while, and I'm glad that's the case, because they're always really fun. This week was a Pan-Carribean dance party held under the stars with yours truly and Marie the Swede, together with about 300 brooklynites dancing the night away. Tonight is "bollywood goes to brooklyn," an event which seems to have drawn its creative genesis from Symplex B's Gumnaam remixes.
And as if that wasn't enough joy in the world, behold! A giant LEGO man from the sea!
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Like the Supefriends, only more than seven, and no monkey
"Did you murder my father?"
Monica's father was killed in 1982 by poisonous chemicals he was exposed to while working at Hughes Research Laboratories. This is one of only ten or so facts she knew about her father prior to a roadtrip this summer. The destination? Finding out who her father was, and what actually happened to him.
Her tale is presented in "Reading the Water," a one-woman show that ran for only two nights this week at a small theatre space in Manhattan. The story is one of tremendous courage; a willingness to confront the past, and to, as one of her father's coworkers put it, "open up a very dark closet."
Monica's father was a hero, and she is so very much his child. When he wasn't working he was a volunteer search and rescue diver, renown for his ability to find anyone, even in the deepest darkest waters. After he became aware of his poisoning, he fought to protect those with whom he worked and tried to change the health conditions at Hughes. Monica has been a fighter, an unparalleled, whirling dervish of activism, someone who cares tremendously for the well being of others since long before she danced into my life.
I could not be more proud of Monica than I was after seeing her show. To confront all that she did, to ask the questions she asked...a young woman searching for her father:it's both tremendously inspiring and heartbreaking all at the same time. This is an old picture of Monica and I - a picture she titled, "a pair of sad scientists."
I think something that really struck me about her piece was that I realized that there was no doubt in me as to whether or not the Monica I know would take on such a difficult quest. There's a scene where she's boxing with the Hughes corporate goliath, and I realized that this was the Monica that had always been there, even in quiet moments, just under the surface.
This all got me thinking about the rest of my friends. A motley, eclectic, and, at times, degenerate bunch of folks though they may be, they are all insistent on change. None among them is so contented as to be inactive or cower away from the world. Be it to make better, more meaningful art, to change unjust laws or social conditions, to fight corruption or any other from a host of mildly Quixotic charges, my friends do not back down or shy away. Spotted, sure, our relationships have been, but there will always be a communion of passion and restlessness. And I love them for that.
Monica's father was killed in 1982 by poisonous chemicals he was exposed to while working at Hughes Research Laboratories. This is one of only ten or so facts she knew about her father prior to a roadtrip this summer. The destination? Finding out who her father was, and what actually happened to him.
Her tale is presented in "Reading the Water," a one-woman show that ran for only two nights this week at a small theatre space in Manhattan. The story is one of tremendous courage; a willingness to confront the past, and to, as one of her father's coworkers put it, "open up a very dark closet."
Monica's father was a hero, and she is so very much his child. When he wasn't working he was a volunteer search and rescue diver, renown for his ability to find anyone, even in the deepest darkest waters. After he became aware of his poisoning, he fought to protect those with whom he worked and tried to change the health conditions at Hughes. Monica has been a fighter, an unparalleled, whirling dervish of activism, someone who cares tremendously for the well being of others since long before she danced into my life.
I could not be more proud of Monica than I was after seeing her show. To confront all that she did, to ask the questions she asked...a young woman searching for her father:it's both tremendously inspiring and heartbreaking all at the same time. This is an old picture of Monica and I - a picture she titled, "a pair of sad scientists."
I think something that really struck me about her piece was that I realized that there was no doubt in me as to whether or not the Monica I know would take on such a difficult quest. There's a scene where she's boxing with the Hughes corporate goliath, and I realized that this was the Monica that had always been there, even in quiet moments, just under the surface.
This all got me thinking about the rest of my friends. A motley, eclectic, and, at times, degenerate bunch of folks though they may be, they are all insistent on change. None among them is so contented as to be inactive or cower away from the world. Be it to make better, more meaningful art, to change unjust laws or social conditions, to fight corruption or any other from a host of mildly Quixotic charges, my friends do not back down or shy away. Spotted, sure, our relationships have been, but there will always be a communion of passion and restlessness. And I love them for that.
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