Proof

Because I don't want you think that I'm making any of this up, here's a picture of what I was awakened by at 8:36 a.m. (and yes, I'm a fool... I didn't fall asleep until 2 a.m.). These guys are working on the terrace above mine...

Looks like the shadow of the terminator falling across my window, doesn't it?

Oh, and I was wrong... I don't think they're using jack-hammers. It's some sort of pneumatic drill, but it's just as fucking loud. I'm dashing into the shower now to escape this hell-on-earth. I'm going to the bus station at around 2 p.m., but first I'm going to hang out in Central Park. If I don't, I may just throw myself off the fucking terrace. Y'all have a lovely day.

Jackhammers!

Well, I found out what those fucking cables were for. Yesterday morning, I awoke (at 8 a.m.) to the sound of someone jack-hammering the outside of my building. It's one thing to hear a jack-hammer from 15 stories above the street. It's quite another thing altogether to feel the vibrations and hear it through the walls when it's being done to your building.

After stumbling out of bed, I went sorting through some of the memos and mail that had been slipped under the door while the apartment had sat empty. This is what I found:

Century Management Services, Inc.

Memo

To: ALL SHAREHOLDERS IN THE A, B, H, AND G/A LINES
FROM: LEONARD DE LUCA, R.A.M., SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
Date: APRIL 4, 2001
Re: CONCRETE TERRACE REPAIRS AT INWOOD TOWER

Please be advised that a contractor will being installing a bridge along the front of the building on Tuesday, April 17, 2001.

Terrace repair work will comence on the A, B, H, and GA apartment llines on Wednesday, April 18th. The work hours will be from approximately 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. It is IMPERATIVE that shareholders in the A, B, H, and GA lines remove ALL ITEMS from their terraces. THIS INCLUDES THE REMOVAL OF ALL TERRACE CARPETING CURRENTLY IN PLACE. If you do not comply with this request, it should be noted that the contractor would not be responsible for any damages to items you did not remove from your terrace.

In addition, you MUST leave your windows CLOSED while work is going on. Please DO NOT use your air conditioner while work is on going. The contractor will seal your air conditioner during this time.

Please be advied that the railings are unstable. Therefore, all shareholders must refrain from using the terraces until the repair project is complete. You will be notified when you are once again permitted to use the terraces.

We do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

Needless to say, I pulled on a pair of pants and hauled ass to the terrace to remove the table and chairs, and all the pots-full of dead plants out there.

Boy, if I thought I was ready to go postal when the work crews were on the street, I had no IDEA what was in store for me with this terrace repair project. There are men with jack-hammers, or, more precisely, pneumatic drills, I guess, working on the apartment to the right and one floor up from mine, and I can feel the vibrations in my teeth.

Thankfully, tomorrow I'm heading out to Philadelphia to see the Pig Iron production of Anodyne. I've been promising Dito van Reigersberg that I'd come back to see it, so it works out. I'm eager to see Dito and all my other Philly friends once more. It's been too long since I've talked to him.

By the way, here's a shot I took of myself after getting back from seeing my friend Dan Stiker's company (The Beggar's Group) production of Do It! Look at the bags under those eyes! Can you tell I've gotten next to no sleep the last couple of days?!?

Do It! turned out to be really great. The Beggars Group adapted it from Jerry Ruben's book of the same name, and it tells the story of Ruben's activism during the 1960s. I'm not usually a big fan of avant garde theater... I often find it intentionally obtuse and superior when it usually doesn't deserve it's high opinion of itself. But I have to say that this group put collaborated and put together a really cool piece. It captures the time, offers some striking images, and tells a coherant but not obvious story - often there's so much going on that you have to work to follow it.

Well, I'm off to bed. I want to get a little decent sleep before the jack-hammering begins anew. Good tidings, webfriends!

Surprise!

Very interesting weekend, webfriends. I flew home to Pittsburgh on Saturday in anticipation of my parents' 51st anniversary dinner. Gavan had been feeling as unwell as I had been in the preceding week, so I decided to make my visit a surprise for him as well, hoping to cheer him up. I walked in the back door and found him in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher. He was surprised to say the least. And he got really skinny! He's been dieting and doing the SlimFast routine for the last couple of weeks, and it's finally beginning to show. The poor guy was starving, not having had his "sensible meal" for the day, so I treated him to dinner at La Tavola Italiano, our favorite restaurant.

So Saturday evening was nice. Sunday, Gavan and I just hung out. I think there's something bothering Gavan - maybe too much pressure at work between the office and being in Tommy - but being Gavan, he doesn't talk about the things that are bothering him. Least of all with me. Even when it's me that's the problem. Gavan tends to turn inward when he's upset, so I just have to wait until he's ready to talk about it.

Early Monday I had dinner with my pal Jeff Bergman, which was a LOT of fun. There's never enough time to spend in Jeff's company. Afterward I walked over to Duquesne University to pick up a copy of the script for The Seagull. That was an adventure! I walked from Pittsburgh's South Side, across the 10th Street Bridge and up the set of steps to The Bluff, the promontory on which the University sits. I'd thought I'd gotten into reasonable shape from two-months worth of hiking and biking all over Philadelphia, but apparently you use different muscles walking up stairs than you do walking on flat surfaces. I was a wreck by the time I got to the top of the Bluff. Then I spent a ½ hour wandering the campus, trying to find the building which houses Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre's offices. It all turned out in the end, and I survived. I'm (physically, mentally, and emotionally) stronger for it.

Monday night was the anniversary dinner, which was great. It was really nice to see my mom & dad, who looked very well, by the way. Five months in San Diego agreed with them. After the dinner, I went to my dear friend Patti Kelly's house. She had a couple of people over, including Ron Seibert & Cary Spear, who've been gracious enough to let me stay in their apartment here in NYC. That picture to the right is an awful shot of Patti & Cary that I had from way back when I was doing The Colonel Bird at the Playhouse in Pittsburgh. I'm guessing sometime in October of Y2K. It really doesn't do them justice. I was still trying to figure out how to use my camera without the flash (since I firmly believe that everyone looks better in natural light), but I hadn't, at that point - or this one for that matter, managed to get the swing of flashless photography. Doug Rees also came over to join us, and the five of us sat on Patti's upper deck and just chatted the evening away while enjoying the nice weather.

Today turned out to be a really, really weird day. Gavan got up and left for work without ever saying goodbye. I woke up, hurriedly packed, and jumped into Patti's car when she arrived to ferry me to the airport (thank you, Patti!!!).

You know how in the movies, people have premonitions about getting on a plane? They get really bad feelings, then get off the plane (or refuse to get on it in the first place), and then the plane crashes? Well, I had one of those feelings as I settled into my seat on the plane. Which is really weird, since I'm such a lover of flying. I think part of what made me nervous was that this mid-day flight to New York City from USAirways' hub in Pittsburgh was mostly empty. I was keenly aware of having read somewhere (and I may just be imagining this) that planes that crash are rarely full... as if people sort of have an intuitive knowledge of which ones to stay away from.

Well, I'm usually a rational person, and though I'm not one to discount six and seventh senses mostly because I think there are a lot of things in the world I don't understand and never will, I rationalized myself into staying on the plane. Clearly, since I'm sitting here writing this a full day later, the plane didn't crash - but that doesn't mean it wasn't one of the weirdest-ass flights I've ever taken.

It started off with an announcement from the cockpit telling us that we should expect turbulence climbing out of Pittsburgh and landing in New York, at La Guardia. In an effort, I think, to quickly get above the cloud cover and away from the turbulence, the pilot took our plane up at one of the sharpest angles at which I've ever flown. I couldn't have possibly been, but it felt like we were ascending at a 45° angle. And boy, was there turbulence. It didn't do much for my Final Destination feeling of doom.

But, oh, dear friends, it didn't end there. I happened to be seated in the second-to-the-last row of this mostly empty airplane - not too far from the lavatory, and soon after the plane took to the air, I began to smell this smell pervasive odor of , well, feces. I assumed that it was the lavatory emitting its foul odors at me, and I was just getting ready to ask the flight attendant if I could move further forward to an empty seat, she came staggering back and and paused near my seat, exhaling as though she'd just passed the length of the cabin holding her breath. She quickly apologized and then explained she had indeed been holding her breath because the man sitting two rows in front of me had soiled himself and was pretty much sitting in his own crap. The smell had enveloped the whole cabin. There was no escaping it.

And as if that weren't enough, we still had the landing at La Guardia to deal with. The landing wasn't so bad. It was the approach that sucked. While we were still about ten minutes out and descending toward the city, we hit turbulence again, this time dropping ten and twenty feet at a time. Once we got through that, the landing was actually pretty damn cool!

I had never actually flown into New York City before. I've always driven it. The plane's approach to La Guardia brought us in from the south west, and since I was sitting in the left side of the plane, I got the most amazing view of the Statue of Liberty, and then downtown and mid-town Manhattan from above. It's a really amazing and beautiful city from above, and from the air you get a real idea of just how many people are crowded onto the island of Manhattan. One by one, all the famous landmarks scrolled by below me; the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, Central Park - a vast island of green on the greater island of concrete. Northeast along the East River we flew, and the entirety of this magnificent city was laid out beneath me. I couldn't help but have a stupid grin on my face, all the while I silently berated myself for not hauling out my digital camera, which was nesting in my carry-on.

Eventually, we swung further east and looped around to approach the airport from the north. I've heard many people talk about the landings at La Guardia, but this was the first time I've experienced it for myself. I can't tell you how unnerving, exciting, and beautiful it was to descend over the water, watching it come closer and closer, thinking there's no way that the plane can make landfall before hitting the water, and then watching the runway appear under the aircraft at the last minute, seemingly only feet below the landing gear. I've never, ever been so grateful to get back onto land.

So that's my grand adventure in the air. I'm looking forward to being back in Manhattan and settling in for a while. My money is tight now, so I don't think I'm gonna be able to do any more trips to Pittsburgh before I go back for The Seagull.

On the night I got back, there was a beautiful light slanting across Manhattan at sunset, so I snapped a picture looking from my balcony toward mid-town. Click on the little thumbnail to the left and it'll open the much bigger version... You'll notice the cables dangling from the building near the balcony; I have no idea what they're for, but in the last couple of days, workmen have been setting up scaffolding and cables along the side of the building. Looks like some sorta big project is about to commence. I'll let you know once I figure it out.

That Old Black Magic...

Well, each day I feel a little better, but this thing is tenacious, and it's hanging on more aggressively than I like. Really all that's left is the sore throat and the earache, but my mouth and gums still feel like war-torn El Salvador.

Wait a minute... I think I'm dating myself... is El Salvador still war-torn?

Anyway, I'm feeling better. I guess.

One nice thing is that last night I got out and had dinner with Janet Dickinson. You remember Janet: She's Doug Rees' girlfriend, who was a wonderful and integral part of our Thanksgiving and New Year celebrations. We had a wonderful time. She cooked up some cheese tortellini and vodka sauce that was just wonderful, and then we sat down to watch a video-tape of Traffic. How, you're asking yourself, did we manage to get a video tape of Traffic? Well, it turns out that one of Janet's friends was a SAG awards nominator, and those folks are sent complimentary copies of films and performances under consideration. I can't remember if Traffic won anything this year (I haven't been paying attention to the awards season very much), but I can sure tell you it was a hell of a lot more award-worthy than Gladiator.

I had an interesting experience last night, though. It hasn't happened to me in a long time, but I got that old feeling of being alone in a room with other people. James, a friend of Janet's stopped by on his way home from a rehearsal and was chatting with us (coincidentally, James is working on a George M. Cohen play that I harassed Gavan about auditioning for lo these many months ago... James is playing Cohen - the role I tried to get Gavan to go up to NYC to audition for!). Anyway, James and Janet started doing a little catching up, as they hadn't seen each other in a while, and I sat there listening and realizing that they're part of a world (namely New York Musical Theater) of which I have absolutely no experience. And for some reason, in the middle of all this, I started feeling really lonely. It reminded me a lot of my days before therapy, where that same feeling would just wash over me in the middle of crowded parties. I must remain ever vigilant against the return of those days when I allowed myself to be so unhappy. At least for any length of time. Unhappiness, like happiness, is a part of life. It's when you wallow in it for too long that it's a problem. I think mostly it's that I miss Gavan and Buster and all my friends back in Pittsburgh. It's not that I don't have friends here, I just haven't been as aggressive as I might have been, with being sick and all, at reestablishing the contacts with friends in NYC, and not letting that homesickness take hold.

So the other day I posted a picture from my balcony at night, and a couple friends have written me to tell me that it was too dark and they couldn't make out much of anything. So here's the same view in daylight:

So you can see, web friends, that I'm pretty frickin' far up town. So far I don't mind it, but I have a feeling that after any extended time here, I'd begin to feel like my friend Morgan, who worked on Key West but lived several keys over. The commute got old quickly and he moved to Key West after a year. Depending on how things work out, I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happened to me.

And, my, but New York City is a fickle bitch. Sits there like a jewel in the crown, beckoning to you across miles and worlds, inviting you to come live there and take your stab at success, and then when you arrive, she promptly kicks you in the nuts and foils you at ever turn.

Actually, I don't really feel that way, but between being sick and what the city's construction crews have going on, I'm beginning to wonder!

As you know, I've been sick this week, and the tendency has been to want to stay in bed. Well, big shock, staying in bed during the day tends to make you insomniatic at night. And since I'm such a night person anyway, it didn't take a lot of encouragement for me to stay up 'til 3 or 4 a.m. several nights this week. There's only one problem: New York may be the city that never sleeps, but moreover, it's the city that Really Wakes Up Early. At, like, 7 a.m. all this week, a city work crew has been digging up the street in front of my building, jackhammers akimbo and noise aplenty. But that's okay, it's part of the world of living in the big city, right? And anyway, I'm notorious for being able to sleep through the discharge of thermonuclear weapons, and that damn jackhammer, since it is 15 stories below me, is kinda rhythmic and lulling, in it's own gritty, urban way.

Here's the problem, though. The work crew is digging up a city intersection through which much of the traffic coming up Fort George Hill has to pass, and it's slowing those people down. New Yorkers don't like to be slowed down any more than the natural traffic patterns of their fair city force them already. So, from those New Yorker's points of view, what's the only reasonable thing to do?

Honk their horns. A lot. From the moment the work starts to the moment it ends for the day. Right before I sat down to write this entry, I went out on the balcony and snapped a few shots of the proceedings. Click on 'em:

Now, imagine if you will, every one of those drivers in the pictures above laying on their horns out of frustration at how slow traffic is moving. Now imagine that happening like clockwork every three or four minutes from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Imagine on top of that having to listen to all this crap while you feel like crap.

It's no wonder people go postal.

Adventure

Wow. Has it really been nine days since I sat down to update you, friends? Yikes. Time flies when you're having fun, I suppose. Or when your life's in a whirlwind. As you know, I flew home to Pittsburgh on April 9th, and had a few days there to get myself together before venturing off to New York City for my long-awaited Audition Visit '01.

The week in Pittsburgh was great. It gave me the chance to catch up with many of my favorite people, including Amy Hartman, Toni Schlemmer, Denise Pullen, Doug Rees, and Marty Giles. Every last day was filled with lunch and dinner dates, topped, on Friday, by the chance to see Marty Giles in A Hole in the Dark at City Theatre. Afterwards, a large crowd went to Tuscany to celebrate Doug Rees' birthday. I wish I'd had the foresight to bring along the digital camera, but I forgot.

Anyway, the week went by quickly (so quickly, you note sarcastically, I'm sure, that I couldn't be bothered to update my online journal).

Saturday dawned bright and lovely, and after Gavan did a hurried commercial shoot for his upcoming production of Tommy, we loaded my bags and the dog in the car, and headed off to Amy Hartman's to drop Buster off. Once the dog was installed in his second home, we hit the road for The Big Apple.

Here, I'm afraid, is where my tale of woe begins. On the drive up to New York, I noticed that I was getting a headache. As the trip went on, the headache got worse. Eventually, we made it to New York, and Gavan decided that the neighborhood looked too suspicious for him to park his car in overnight, so he decided to turn around right there and make the trip back to Pittsburgh that night, rather than stay over and start fresh in the morning.

A little disappointed at that, I lugged my stuff into the apartment and collapsed on the bed. Remember that headache? I still had it when I woke up the next morning, and I discovered that my gums had somehow gotten very raw, the area under my tongue had swollen, and I had a sore throat on top of it all! Well, long story short, that all just kept getting worse until I finally got sensible and tracked down a doctor who could see me. As it turns out - I found out today, after suffering through this shit since Sunday - that it's a virus that I pretty much have to live through 'til it runs its course. Whoo hoo!

So needless to say, my first five days in the city haven't been all that thrilling - mostly a lot of bed rest and hanging out online. The one bright spot is that on Monday, I met up with my pal Dan Stiker (you may remember him from my last visit to New York) and we spent six hours wandering around Manhattan & Central Park. The day was glorious and the company wonderful. And again, I forgot the damn camera.

Last night I dragged my ass outta bed long enough to try to capture a shot of the view from my balcony. I've noticed that my camera isn't the greatest for capturing night-time shots (or maybe it's that I'm not the greatest photographer), but to get an idea of just how far uptown I am: Take a look at those four apartment towers sticking up in the middle of the picture. Just to the left of the one on the far left is a little tiny tower top? That's the Empire State Building. That's how far uptown I am.

Anyway, I saw my new doctor today and she told me pretty much what I suspected. The mouth/sore throat thing is a viral infection that I'm just gonna have to suffer through. Hopefully it'll be mostly gone by the time I leave on Saturday for Pittsburgh. Yes, you heard it right. I'm going back for my parents' anniversary dinner, and I managed to find an e-saver, so I have to fly out on Saturday and return on Tuesday.

That's it for now. Look for more philosophical ramblings when my brain's not fried by meanie viruses.

Bombshell

Wanna see something funny? A few days ago, I posted before and after shots of me with my hair in Einstein mode. As many of you know I've been bitching for weeks about wanting to cut off all my hair and get it colored back to something approaching my normal color.

Well, I over-reacted a bit... below are two photos that you've already seen, along with one I took when I got home from Premier Salon today. I took a big chance by getting a "fuck-the-possibility-of-on-camera-work" hair color treatment. I'm in love with it, so it frankly doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Of course, my ever-vociferous Constant Readers, I know that that won't stop you from sending e-mail to tell me what you think:

Me as a redhead, Einstein-head, and a blond guy. Note please, too, the weight loss induced by 2
months of walking and biking all over Philadelphia!

Winging West

Well, I'm on an airplane heading into Pittsburgh. We finished the run yesterday, doing our final performance at 7 p.m. The Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon shows were really great - attended by audiences who were clearly there to have a good time. In fact, since this last week was an extension week, most of the audiences were of that sort. The final audience was a very interesting one. I think Ben Lloyd, who played "Sagot" put it best, remarking that this audience seemed to him to be one of those that had heard the show was really good, and so was sitting back and making us prove it to them. Eventually, we did, and by the end of the show, they gave us a standing ovation - the very first audience to do so. There had been standers before, but never a whole audience. I'd never have thought that this would have been an audience of standers... I thought they were hating the whole experience!

Anyway, after the show we had a cast party - this one was hosted by the lovely Maggie Siff (who, as you know, played "Suzanne," "The Countess," and the "Female Admirer") and her boyfriend David Brick. We had a wonderful time. Everyone in the cast managed to make it there except for Charlie Antalowsky, who had other plans already. We all missed him a great deal.

Here's a picture of our host, David Brick... you may remember him from an earlier entry, being mauled by Dito van Reigersberg, who was also at the party. I believe I've mentioned before that David is the co-artistic director of Headlong Dance Theater. I enjoyed David's company a great deal in the few evenings we were able to share while I was in Philadelphia. He and Maggie were really great to me, and I'm incredibly grateful to have met them, and all their friends.

Since we're getting close to landing in Pittsburgh, and they're gonna make me shut off my laptop any moment, here's a couple of quick pictures from the party...

Youssef Kerkour, insisting on sharing his huge blemish with us...


One last shot of bonnie Kate Norris. Believe me when I tell you... none of us were drinking tea out of those cups...


Greg Wood and his delightful fiancee, Susie. And of course "Elvis" had to sneak into the picture.


My favorite shot of the evening. Since it was unlikely that I was getting the whole group together, I settled for smashing these poor folk together and snapping them. From left: Brian "Bulldog" Hurlburt, our biggest fan, Susie again, Greg Wood, Youssef "Giant Elvis" Kerkour, Dito van Reibersberg, Pete "I'll Take a Raincheck on the Fight with the Drunk Guy" Koenig - propmaster extraordinaire, Jen "Her Boyfriend's a Loser and Never Told Me Her Last Name When Introducing Us," her boyfriend and our sound board operator, Mark Berman, and the talented Kathy "What the Hell is That Call Again?" Koenig, our production stage manager.

One final note as the flight attendant looks at me sternly for still running my damn laptop: A big thank you to all my new friends in Philadelphia - both those who saw the show and those who worked with me on it, and the great folks that I met while I was there. It's a wonderful experience I'm never, ever going to forget.

Thanks again!

It's hard to believe, but the end is in sight. We're right on the edge of our final five-show weekend. The final stretch, as it were. I'm really sorry to see this one end, I gotta tell you. I'm anxious to get home and see Gavan and Buster, but boy am I gonna miss this gig. I can't emphasize how rare it is to reach the end of a run and be sorry to see it end.

By the way, here are a few more snapshots that I managed to get at Aaron Posner's cast party the other night. Props to that poor guy, by the way, who hosted a cast party knowing that he had a big meeting at 9 a.m. the next morning. Here's the man himself. Just in case I haven't put it in writing, his production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile was a real pleasure to be associated with. Aaron likes to tell the story that he's infamous in Philadelphia for taking a long time to cast a show, but he broke his own record on this one, taking nine months to get the cast in place. During several post-show discussions, he joked about how everyone in Philly hated him for that, but that he was so happy to have put together the cast he had. I have to tell you, that I could not be more pleased that he selected me to be a part of this very special experience. And I'm doubly excited that I wasn't the last one he cast! I think that distinction goes to Youssef, who plays "The Visitor." I think. Anyway, suffice it to say that it's been a wonderful introduction to the Philadelphia theater scene, and I can't be happier to have had the chance to meet Greg, Ian, Kate, Ben, Tony, Charlie, Maggie and Youssef.

Anyway, more photos:

Local Philadelphia actor Matt Pfeiffer - a friend of Aaron's, and in the picture next to his, Mrs. Karen Peakes, another fine local actress. Both were in shows while I was in Philly, but with rehearsals & all, I wasn't able to see them. From what I'm told, it was my loss. Big time.

And here we have both of my roommates entranced by the same man. The guy in the dark jacket is Ishmael (not sure if I'm spelling that one correctly). Ishmael is a friend of Youssef's and stayed with us. The picture to the right, of course, is Kate Norris somehow avoiding having a decent photo taken one more time. Sneaky woman.

One final photo: This is Jesse Bernstein, yet another local Philadelphia actor, and one who may be known to City Theatre regulars in Pittsburgh. He was in the production of The Chosen that Aaron directed there a few years ago. It was a wonderful show, and I made no bones about telling them both that. Jesse was was around our rehearsals occasionally, filling in when the assistant director couldn't be there to take down Aaron's notes for him. Apparently in addition to acting, he's a closet transcriptionist.

Dinner/Par-tay Part Deux

Last night I got to have dinner with my friends Ange & Gary. I've only gotten to see them a couple of times during my stay here in Philadelphia, but I'm at least grateful that I got to see them as much as I have. Gary came over and picked me up after the show, and we scurried back to their apartment in Northern Liberties for sumptuous meal prepared by the lovely Ange.

I managed to forget to haul out the digital camera to capture the experience, even though I'd brought it along for just that purpose. The damnable thing ended up in my coat pocket through dinner. I wish I would have captured their apartment for you... it's really quite nice. Not huge, but nicely organized, and featuring a really cool sleeping loft - one that's much bigger than the usual shelf-like ledge that landlords like to call a sleeping loft.

Anyway, after dinner, we piled into their car and headed over to Aaron Posner's house for a cast party. I expected it to be in full swing by the time I got there, but as it turns out, it was still a small, intimate gathering. Most of the cast had not yet arrived, so after introducing Gary and Ange around, we got down to the business of relaxing.

Here's a picture of Gary & Ange together, first of all. This photo is a little doctored, since I didn't have a picture where they both managed to get their eyes open. Gary's face comes courtesy of a photo I snapped right before this one. So if they look weird at all, it's totally my fault. Aren't they a cute couple? Ange was the wardrobe person at The City Theatre in Pittsburgh for many years, and Gary is a stand-up comedian. Now they're both biding time and saving money in Philly before making the move to New York. One of my big regrets is that I missed several opportunities to see Gary's routine when he was still in Pittsburgh, and now I'm gonna have to pay, like, $75 a ticket to see him when he's famous. Anyway, thanks for the dinner, guys!

This next one isn't the greatest picture in the world, but I had to go with what I got. This is one of my less disastrous attempts to get Kate Norris to sit still for a picture. That's her in the far left. In the foreground is a local Philadelphia actor named Matt Pfieffer, and to his right is, of course, Youssef Kerkour, my other roommate at actor housing. We're far enough along in the process that the honeymoon is over as far as the roommates goes, but I must say that I still love living with these guys. I'm going to miss them when it's all over. I wish the show could run another eight weeks, and believe me when I tell you, I don't always feel that way. In fact, I don't often feel that way. This has been a pretty rare experience. The entire cast has been universally wonderful - that rare combination of talent and kindness.

The party was cool in that it wasn't too loud - very low key. Mostly just folks wandering around, joining and leaving small group conversations. Nice music playing in the background but not distracting from what was going on.

It seems odd that we're in the last week of the show... and even weirder that I don't have anything lined up for quite a while. Just my time in New York City. This experience has been odd in that, even though we're in our last week, I'm not tired of doing this show yet. Coming to work every day has been a real joy, and the people I work with are incredibly talented. There are those rare occasions when I think some of us are too talented... actors who know how far they can push the envelope when being a little self-indulgent often do, just because they know they aren't going to get too self-indulgent, and sometimes it slips over. I heard that one night this week we added three minutes to the show on a night when we actually got less laughter. I have to admit to being a good one for that... I'm a big ol' ham at heart, I guess.

One last picture. Here's the first picture I think I've managed to snap of Ian and Karen Peakes when they were both in the same place. Ian, as you know, got rave reviews as "Picasso" in the play, and Karen is a local actress. She's the one who sold me my cool suede pimp hat - which I've yet to've snapped a photo of. I'm waiting 'til I get rid of the damn mustache and long Einstein hair. Aren't they a cute couple? They have the greatest stories about going to Scotland to get married. I was also lucky enough during the run to meet Ian's father John Peakes, who runs The BoarsHead Theater in Lansing. He gave me a great deal of grief over my desire to move to New York City... or, as he calls it, "New York Shitty." Ian claims he was kidding - I'm not so sure. Thankfully, I don't have stars in my eyes as far as the city is concerned. I don't doubt for a moment that it's a monster that will chew me a new asshole and spit me out, but the difference, for me, I think, is that I know that going in, and I'm prepared to deal with it. Peggy Sawyer, I ain't. (And if you got that reference, you get extra points).

Par-tay

What a weekend! I'm exhausted!

We did two shows on Saturday, and as if that wasn't enough to wear me out (that, and thinking ahead to the show on Sunday as well), I allowed Maggie Siff to drag me off to her friend Suli's 25th birthday party on Saturday night. Those of you who know me know that I'm not exactly great at large crowds of people I don't know (I'm almost as bad as Gavan on that score), so I allowed her to badger me into going with great trepidation.

Those of you who know me also know that I had, as you may have guessed, a great time. For once in my life I maintained a little discipline and managed not to drink too much, but it was a pretty high-energy affair (those 25 year-olds... whew!), so I was still pretty bushed for the matinee on Sunday - but I survived.

I took my digital camera with me and snapped some photos...

This is Maggie's friend Lee, singing a song she wrote in honor of Suli's transition to being a "Young Old Person."


That's Suli, taking in Lee's song... behind her there is Mike, one of her roommates.


Here's my new friend Dito van Reigersberg, who you've read about in past entries, I think. He's trying to be all serious here... I like the contrast of light & dark on either side of him.


Here's Dito molesting David Brick, Maggie's boyfriend. David is a founder/member of Headlong Dance Theater,
and Dito is one of the founders of Pig Iron Theatre Company - both of which are staples of the Philadelphia arts scene.


Dito snapped this one of me... have I mentioned that I can't wait to cut my hair and shave off this stupid mustache? BTW - I had to make this one black & white, 'cuz my face was all over red and splotchy... maybe I need to drink more and sleep less.


Here's a pic of director Aaron Posner, and my newest dear friend, Maggie Siff... I think I caught them off guard, hitting them with a camera flash in the dark. Aaron survived the experience pretty well, but the photo doesn't do justice to Maggie's beauty.


Dito & Lee doing the "We're Thinking Great Thoughts" pose.


One last picture of the gang. Some serious booty shaking going on.

So that was my Saturday night. The show the next afternoon went well, even though, like the fool that I am, I stayed up way too late reading Stephen King's latest, Dreamcatcher. Though not his best, I do have to say it's a pretty good read... good enough, I suppose, that it kept me riveted 'til 6 a.m. when I needed to do a matinee that day!

It's also my first experience of eBooks... I downloaded the book from amazon.com, along with the Microsoft Reader eBook software, and I've been staring relentlessly at my computer screen as I've been reading the past few days. I knew that my new 'puter has a pretty good screen, but I'm still surprised at how easy on the eyes the entire experience was. The fact that the size of the type is adjustable probably didn't hurt. So all in all, the ebook thing is pretty neat, but I don't think that actual bound literature is in any danger of extinction, as far as I'm concerned.

I forced myself to stop reading at 3 a.m. Monday morning, so I had anticipated a nice night's sleep (assuming, of course, that since I'm a lazy actor it's not unreasonable to sleep 'til 11 a.m. or even noon on my day off... can you tell I've never been a parent?), but Fate intervened in my silly plans. At 8:30 a.m., the house was rocked by the sound of shattering glass, and I mean a really big sound of shattering glass. I sat bolt upright in bed, thinking that every dish in every cabinet in the kitchen had just been dropped on the floor at one time. I flailed myself into my clothing and stumbled downstairs to find that the sliding glass door to the patio (which we'd reported as being broken several times) had slipped off it's track and fallen into the living room. Poor Kate Norris had made the mistake of taking off the security bar to go on the patio and have a cigarette, then deciding she needed to use the restroom first. After she got settled in the bathroom, the damn door just fell inward and shattered into a million pieces. Thankfully, no one was hurt. I tried to help Kate clean up some of the mess, but truthfully wasn't very effective with only five hours of sleep... I kinda wandered around in a daze picking up a couple shards, but beyond that, she got stuck with most of the work.. Later on in the day a handyman, presumably from the management company, came to cart the dead door away. Now the living room has a big sheet of plastic covering the door while they work on reparing it. The excitement never ends, my friends.

Monday night, on the other hand, was a lot of fun. Lee had an extra ticket to Michael Ogborn at the Lapin Agile, a cabaret that was being performed on our set on our off night, and invited me to join her and Dito. Michael is a native Philadelphian who now lives in New York, but who's been writing and composing lyrics for musicals (and authoring them, too, I gather) for years. The evening was a review of music Michael had written and composed for musicals over the years, and was being recorded for a CD. I know that Lee, and maybe Dito too, had worked with Michael in the past, and the audience was chock full of his friends and admirers. To be honest, I don't know what I was expecting, but I ended up having a really fabulous time, and even signed up for the mailing list to be notified when the CD is complete. The music was that great!

All in all, a wonderful, if busy weekend. Now I've got to turn my attention to getting myself ready to get the hell outta Dodge! I've got a lot of stuff to ship back to Pittsburgh, and I've got to be packed and out of Actor Housing Central by noon next Monday, as the cast of Cyrano, the Arden's next show, will be moving in then. So much to do, so little time left!!! Aaaarrrrggghhh!