So Much For That

So I've decided that I'm gonna kill someone if I don't have at least a little caffeine or sugar, and I'm allowing myself a tea break at Starbucks after work, and taking the opportunity to do a little writing as well.

I'm living dangerously, working on battery alone. It just drives me nuts when I can't find an outlet at one of these places, but I really don't have a lot of choice today; Starbucks is packed.

This is the same place where yesterday I had the dueling Australian triplets.

The battery thing can't upset me too much, since I can't really stay here very long... I need to get the hell home and pick up my laundry. I dropped it off yesterday and wasn't able to get it this morning, 'cuz I was helping Doug Rees to load his car and get on the road to Pittsburgh.

Doug's just landed a really cool gig as Scrooge in a world premiere Christopher Durang play at the City Theatre. Kudos and congratulations to Dougie! I know it's gonna be great, and he's gonna have wonderful time; he even gets to work directly with Durang for the first week. How cool is that?!?

Sitting here is reminding me that I'm so not alone in the world. The guy behind me is working on some sort of script, which I find hilarious; another reminder, as if I needed one, that everyone in New York is either a writer, an actor, or a filmmaker just busting their humps and waiting to be discovered.

The Upper East Side seems to me to be a little odd setting for a struggling writer, but then again, stranger things have happened. Today, when Doug and I were loading his truck, a security guard came to give us shit about blocking the driveway at his building. Once the guy realized were gonna keep someone stationed at the car while the other ran up and down to the apartment, and would be able to easily and quickly get out of the way of his boss if the guy showed up, he was a little more relaxed and chatted me up. I told him that Doug was an actor going out of town to do a job, and he told me that there were a couple of actors in the building; one woman who was a regular on Spin City and another guy who was a regular on General Hospital. I guess actors can live anywhere, right? 'Specially once they've found a little success.

The guy's attitude was funny to me, though. He wasn't very impressed, 'cuz he didn't recognize Doug. Unless your face is all over the TV, you're not really an actor, I guess! Ah, civilians, you gotta love 'em.

We're getting closer and closer to the release of a movie I've been waiting all year for: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. We already know what a geek I am, but the movie is still two months away, and already I'm salivating. I haven't even seen the stupid trailer yet! It keeps playing for all these movies I'm passing by as I'm seeing other movies!

The Lagemans and I are firming up our plans to see Punch-Drunk Love this Saturday. We're going to meet at Union Square and wander around for a while, then make our way to one of the showings of the movie.

I believe I've mentioned that I'm a little wary, as I'm not a very big Adam Sandler fan, but I'm hoping that my fears will be allayed in the same way my fears are often allayed by a Jim Carrey film: If he's got a good director to keep a tight reign, there's hope for a fine performance.

I'm hoping that's the case, since I think Paul Thomas Anderson is a genius, and I want to have his children. Actually I'd prefer that he had mine, but we can work that out between us, as long as our union is consummated.

I can just see me being arrested because someone reports me to the Stalker Police, and they haul me away. It's a bit of a tense time in America. And how about this sniper guy in Maryland and DC? Yet another fine example of the particular brand of crazy we have here in the United States. I actually don't doubt that this brand of crazy is available world-wide, but we have easier access to guns.

There was some e-mail wag quoted on Crossfire last night who said, "The liberals won't trust an American with a gun, but they'll trust Saddam with a nuke."

My response, of course, is, "Are you stupid?"

That's a totally specious remark, and the comparison is just beyond idiotic. I don't trust anybody with a nuke, and if you think it's so great that we have widespread access to guns, why the hell do we have the highest rate of gun deaths in the civilized world? As usual, the part that makes me angriest is the way this guy generalizes. Anyone who disagrees with him has to be reduced to a witticism. We can't have a reasoned debate; we have to get our witty quips reported over the airwaves... that's apparently what passes for debate in America.

I have to generalize: I hate stupid people who're impressed with how smart they are. Does this make me a bad person?