Okay, hellish is a bit of an overstatement, but today was just a hard one at work, owing mostly, I think, to the fact that my damn biorythyms are down! In truth, I think it had more to do with the fact that I had a very active and fun weekend and got very little sleep, but like most people, I'm loathe to blame my troubles on myself, so I'm going with the biorythyms excuse!
Saturday morning, I hauled ass out of bed and went to meet Kevin & Kirsten Lageman for a day at the Affordable Art Fair. We spent the day wandering around Pier 12 (was it Pier 12? I think I've got that number wrong) looking at all these wonderful pieces of art, most of which were far out of my price range. The rule at the Affordable Art Fair, by the way, is that the art had to cost less than $5000 per piece. Granted, there were plenty that were under $500, but most of the stuff that appealed to me hovered in the $1000 - $3000 range. Like I said... a little beyond my means.
The Lagemans, however, managed to find a couple of really inexpensive pieces by this wonderful, funny cartoonist from California (I'm not even going to try to remember how to spell her last name), so they managed to begin their quest to fill up their walls with art they like.
After the fair, we went to Putanesca on 9th Avenue for lunch - Doug and Ken Bolden and I had gone there on 9/11, and I've been there a couple of other times with Doug, so it was nice to be able to share it with Kevin & Kirsten. They seemed to enjoy it pretty well, which is nice - we're spreading the word!
Putanesca supplied our first celebrity sighting of the weekend. As we were sitting there munching our pasta, Kevin Bacon walked past outside.
After lunch, we wandered down to the theater district, planning to see Maggie Siff in ...And a Nightingale Sang.... She had e-mailed a bunch of us about her first NYU show, so I'd invited the Lagemans along for the ride. Unfortunately, I'm the world's biggest jackass, and, thinking I'd remember where the theater was, left the house without writing the address down. Who knew there were multiple Shubert theaters in New York?!?
Well, we couldn't find the theater (my bad, Mags. I'll see that show somehow!), we decided to go see Ghost Ship, the new horror movie with Gabriel Byrne and Juliana Marguiles. I have only this to say: It should have been titled Ghost Shit. I felt so badly for these actors; but then I thought: "Hell, they got paid, they had fun, they worked with friends, what do they care if the movie sucks snot?!?" I'll settle for blaming the screenwriter for ever putting fingers to keyboard.
After the movie, I returned home and crashed, but not before staying up too late to watch one of my purchases from the day - my new Spider-Man DVD! Even after repeated viewings, I still love that movie.
So, I was up early Sunday to get on queue with Kevin to buy rush tickets for Burn This at the Union Square Theater. We ponied up at 10 a.m. and waiting until the box office opened at 1 p.m. for a chance at $30 tickets. On the right, you can see Kevin during one of the breaks he took to call Kirsten and check up on her. Dude, married people who are still in love are so cute and so sickening!
Anyway, after we got our tickets, we wandered up to The Mayrose diner, to which I'd hoped to introduce Kevin; alas, it was packed. So instead, we went to The Heartland Brewery on Union Square. Great food! And good beer, too.
I think Kevin and I had pretty much the same reaction to Burn This - that being that the performances were simply amazing, but the show was just waaaay too long. I tend to blame the director for something like this; it's his job to protect that actor - no matter how famous or willful or misled or whatever that actor is - from himself and his own self-indulgences. As I said to Kevin - it's hard to bring something emotionally to a screeching halt and make the audience go "whoa" when the entire thing is a screeching halt.
That having been said, Edward Norton and Catherine Keener (I kinda suspect that I'm spelling her name wrong: I do it every time) were simply amazing to watch, even from the last row of the mezzanine.
I have to say that it's seeing good actors do good theater that makes me wonder if I've made the right choice. If I've done the right thing in taking time off and going back to a full-time job. I know that I'm likely gonna have the chance again someday, but God, I'd like to be doing that kind of work! Thank God I had the Aristocrats experience to go out on. It really doesn't get much better than those moments on stage, and I'm grateful I had them.
Anyway, after the show, as we were leaving and discussing the play, I looked down at the departing crowd and who did I see? Tobey Maguire! With red hair, of all things. I wonder what he's doing now that requires red hair? It's a good thing I didn't have my newly-purchased Spider-Man DVD with me, or I'd have been a total crazy fan and asked him to sign it. Gah! Tourists.
And as I was adjusting to the fact that I was watching Tobey Maguire talk on his cell phone and he was actually watching me back (don't worry, I don't have any delusions - Kevin and I were the only ones on the stairs at this point, and if you're a celebrity trying not to make eye contact with the throng in which you're trapped, what do you do? Look up, babe), I suddenly heard someone yelling, "Hey, Schulzie!"
It was Moira Mulroney - you know, Dermot Mulroney's sister, with whom I stayed in Philadelphia while I was doing Pavilion? Freaky! It turns out she was up to see Catherine Keener (who's Dermot's wife). What an incredibly small world this is.
Have I mentioned lately how much I love living in New York?
No comments:
Post a Comment