November 12, 2010

Real Housewives Stuntcasting

I never in a million years thought that I would watch any of the Real Housewives shows on Bravo. Seriously, they aren't real housewives, which I understand is the irony of the show but who cares? There's no way that this type of reality television reflects directly on my life. This is not an example of art holding mirror up to society.

But I heard that this season Kim Richards is on the show. Forget Escape from Witch Mountain. I remember her as the little girl from Nanny and the Professor which also starred Juliette Mills. I also remember her from Hello Larry starring McLean Stevenson which I loved but survives in my memory longer than it was on the air.  I even remember the theme song.

Anyway, so I started watching Real Housewives of Bevery Hills yesterday. Other interesting women on the show are Camille Grammer and Adrienne Maloof who is partial owner of lots of stuff with her family inlcuding the Palms in Las Vegas and a basketball team. There are other people on the show but they aren't as interesting as these three women.

One thing I noticed immediately is that everybody is pretty much hating on Kim Richards. Kim Richards is shy and has trouble making friends and relies heavily on her family for support. Apparently these traits make her weak in the eyes of the other women on the show. I find her as down to earth as a grownup child star could be and she is still inredibly likeable.

My hope for the show is that Kim Richards stands up to the overpowering women on the show and finds a happy way to connect with these people she's been thrown into the sharkpit with. And I hope her sister Kyle eases up on her. It's clear she is jealous of her sister's success and compensates by bullying Kim around.

The other woman who I find fascinating but in a creepy way is Camille Grammer. She is pretty. I'll give her that but she's one of those pretty, dumb blonds that plays up her sex appeal while simultaneously demanding respect for her "brain" which I think has divided into two orbs and gravitated into her bust. She says she wants to come out from under Kelsea's shadow but I can't think of what shadow she could fit under. She's got a pretty big ego but not a lot of substance.

To the producers of the show I would like to say that your stunt casting of Kim Richards worked on me. I'm 43. I remember her from my childhood and I still care what happens to her. Glad to see her back on television and looking so great.

September 04, 2010

The Garden

Some of you may be wondering (although it's doubtful) what is happening with our garden.

Jon and I have been working hard at making sure there are no weeds, no morning glory and no unwanted insects. Sometimes, it seems futile because Mother Nature seems to have an endless supply of all of the above. We've been trying to resuscitate the lawn both front and back. The front lawn looks much better, the back looks awful. In the back, the grass was exposed to too much sun and not enough water. There is one small patch shaded by the neighbor's invasive mimosa tree that is thriving but the rest is brown and dried out. What little green there is comes from the amazingly healthy crab grass which doesn't need anything but dirt and sun to grow. It doesn't seem to matter how much crab grass we pull or whether or not we pull it from the root, crab grass thrives in our backyard.

In terms of flowers, the geraniums and the marigolds seem to be thriving. The red hot pokers and crocosmia we planted are just not coming in. The grape hyacinth bulbs which made sweet little flowers in the spring, sent up new leaves but no new flowers. The day lilies produced 8 flowers total from 3 of 10 bulbs we planted in the spring. I planted something called Gomphrena in the front which is thriving and shows no sign of slowing down.

Our herbs and vegetables - well - those are doing okay. The tomato plants look terrible and sickly, but are still making fruits. The 4 hot pepper plants are making more hot peppers than I can handle and I'm giving them away. The 3 surviving bell peppers plants of the 4 I planted, are not producing copious amounts of peppers like I hoped. I've collected two so far. The other three I'm leaving on the vine to see how big and/or sweet they get.

My arugula was attacked by some strange green worm and I no longer want to eat it. It's not growing as well as it was mid-summer. The basil plants are amazing. We could eat pesto every day if we wanted. My peppermint plants produce obscene amounts of mint. I have so much now, I'll probably have to throw it away. The swiss chard is interesting. If you wait too long, the leaves start to rust, but if you pick the leaves to early, they don't have as much flavor. But the plants have been steadily sending up leaves all summer. The thyme and parsely are delightful. The herbs are doing so well, that two weeks ago, I added cilantro, oregano and rosemary to the garden. The plants are not growing as rapidly as I hoped but in a month or so - we'll see.

The last item worth mentioning is the red cabbage. The red cabbage is growing slowly but surely. It's cool. Every day, the plant seems to curl tighter and tighter into a ball. I can't wait to see how the heads turn out.

August 21, 2010

Back at the Edison - yet again

Another Saturday. Another big fat full day of theater. I'm  still working at the Longacre. The show is still good and I continue to enjoy La Cage Aux Folles the more I watch it.

My break was sort of exciting for actor spotting. When I walked into the Edison Cafe, the first person I saw was someone who was originally in 39 Steps, but isn't in the show anymore and wouldn't you know it? I have no idea at all what his name is. I can only describe him as good looking with a rubbery face that he uses to make people laugh really hard.

At another table were sitting two cast members from The Addams Family, Jackie Hoffman, who plays Grandma and Kevin Chamberlain who plays Uncle Fester. Both are tremendous performers and sadly in the case of Kevin Chamberlain - very true. I can't believe how heavy he has gotten. He was never a svelte performer but he has really gotten too big to be considered healthy.  Jackie Hoffman, in my humble opinion, gives the best performance in the Addams Family. Somehow, she manages to get laughs with the most ridiculous bits of dialogue. But then again she's an amazing, amazing perform. She also knows how to contort her face into a million hilarious but never unflattering positions.

She was funny in Hairspray, funnier in Xanadu and now the funniest performer at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater.

You get the idea,

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pull that many shifts for next week - just one to be exact - so my big work rush seems finished for now. I've been pretty lucky the last few weeks. I plan on going to the various theater chains and applying for work as an usher. The work schedule would be similar but there would be more work simply because there are more usher positions per theater other than stagehand positions.

Carrie Pilby

Congratulations on the re-release of Carrie Pilby as a Harlequin Teen Romance. I am very proud of the author and hope she has much success!!!

August 18, 2010

A New Play, A New Book

It's Wednesday, early evening, and I am resuming my blogging duties in the lobby of the Edison Hotel. "Good Morning" from Singing in the Rain is playing over the loudspeaker. Now that I'm listening to the song a little more closely, I think it is Judy Garland's version from some movie she was in with Mickey Rooney. There are two adorable old ladies sitting on the couch across from me. They have generic mid-western accents and they are discussing something intimately, but I can't quite make out what they are discussing.

I just had a beautiful lunch next door at the Edison Cafe, cheeseburger with fries to be exact. I used my tip money from last night to pay for it.

This week I am working at La Cage Aux Folles at the Longacre Theater. The show is entertaining but long. So long, in fact, that I was able to read Around The World In 80 Days in its entirety in the time the cast performed two different shows. This is the second book I've read by Jules Verne, the first being Journey to the Center of the Earth. Jules Verne was the best travel writer ever.  I honestly believed that in order to write these books, Verne travelled to Iceland or made a trip around the world in 80 days.  Jon and I went to Iceland because of Verne's writing. I was totally obsessed with seeing Iceland for myself.

Now, you can be rest assured, I would like to take a world tour. I don't think Jon and I will be buying elephants anytime soon but I think a trip around the world is achievable. In the book, the trip cost Phileas Fogg 20,000 pounds. We could definitely do the trip for less. And in a shorter amount of time. We could start in England and make our way through India, China and Japan. But I would want to linger a bit in the South Pacific.

Anyway, the next book I would like to read by Verne is From The Earth to The Moon.

About two weeks ago, I read three other classic works. Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Time Machine.

I have a friend who actually had the discipline to read a book a week for at least a year. I'm not sure if she's still doing it, but I find that really admirable. When I read, I read obsessively for a small amount of time and then I don't read again for a while. I have to pace myself, otherwise I'm not able to retain what I've read.

So that's what's up with me with regard to what I'm reading and where I'm working this week.

August 14, 2010

Other places

So. I've discovered various places where you can latch on to the internet. Right now I'm sitting in the lobby of the Edison Hotel. Whenever I run out of places to go or things to do between shows on Saturdays, I reliably run to the Edison Hotel. It was going smoothly up until 3 seconds ago when an enormous Scottish man sat next to me on my comfy couch. When he sat down, his whole body created a big pull and now I am sitting at a slight angle. Of course, now that there is an open couch his wife and he are absolutely not moving. .  .

so I moved. I guess they prefer to sit across from each other. I can understand that. It is easier to have a conversation that way. Carmen Miranda is playing over the sound system. People are quietly or not so quietly discussing their vacation adventures. The lobby is surrounded by great faux art deco murals.

Another place I discovered you can pick up an internet signal is the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel, by the bar.

The Edison is great for me because it's across the street from In The Heights, which is where I am working today.

Me and My Netbook

I bought myself a netbook in May. The idea behind buying it - motivating myself to write. Did it work? At first it did, but then I started to get distracted by the Internet. In almost every place I take my netbook, I have found a way to connect to the Internet.

But now, at this moment, I am blogging in a public place (that isn't the Internet cafe) for the only the second time since Thursday night.

Still exciting. The idea that I can access the Internet someplace like McDonald's. The only drawback? Other people. There is a Russian family sittting at the table next to me. They are speaking in only Russian and I don't know if you've ever hear Russian. It's just a cool sounding language. If they were speaking anything other than Russian I would probably be annoyed.

I brought the netbook with me on our trip to Turkey in May. Jon and I went to Istanbul and Goreme. And you know, I completely forgot I have a blog. It never once occurred to me write about our trip the entire time we were there. We had a good time there. Istanbul was pretty amazing. I posted some of the pictures to my Facebook page but I really should take the time to post them on Flickr.

I also brought the netbook on our trip to Lake George and Cortland. Perhaps if I had blogged about our trip to the Corning Glass museum, I wouldn't have accidentally erased every single photo from that trip. Has that ever happened to you? After we got home from that trip, we went to the beach where my mother took several extremely unflattering photos. I went to erase them and instead of erasing one at a time, I selected the ERASE ALL option.

I regret losing the photos from the Corning museum. Some of the art was very inspiring and I am determined now to find a glass making class. Surely, in all of New York City, I will be able to find one.

August 13, 2010

Just Another Day

This entry is being written for the purpose of keeping me true to my word. I don't have much to say. It's been so long I forgot how to report on my life. But I'll tell you this.

Jon and I did the laundry together. I hate doing it so much, that I need him there as a crutch in order to get it done. He's really supportive and I totally appreciate that.

How much do you hate doing laundry?

Also, we did have a bit of bad news on this Friday the 13th. Con Edison taped a disconnection notice to our front door. It wasn't because we are not paying our bills. It's some kind of oversight by our landlord. I contacted our landlord and made her aware of the situation. But that was a little bit stressful. Naturally, we have an opportunity to pay the outstanding bill ourself if we need to. And it is absolutely 100% legal for us to deduct that from our rent.

So either way, we won't lose our lights but still. Ack.

August 12, 2010

In The Heights

Yes. The Gen X Misanthrope still exists. I've been completely distracted by Facebook. Posting on Facebook takes away the urgency that used to propel to write here. But I have to get out of that habit. I must start posting here again.

I still work my Broadway job. Earlier this year, in the snowiest part of the winter, I worked at a full-time job for a month. It was a decent job except I hated working during the day. I couldn't adjust. Four years of working a mostly night schedule has retrained my brain.

I found it difficult to get anything done. Strangely, I work the same hours in my current job but because it's at night, I'm able to get personal tasks done during the day. But turn that schedule upside down and I don't want to do anything. It's harder to get things done after a day of work as opposed to the other way around.

This week I'm working at In The Heights. There have been several cast changes since I worked here last. The lead is now being played by Corbin Bleu. Apparently, he is very popular because of the High School Musical trilogy. I never heard of him. But if you are a teenager or younger he is hot stuff.

Right now, I am sitting in the lobby of the Richard Rodgers theater and cast is performing "96,000", where the characters sing about what they would do if they won $96,000 in the lottery. It's the best number from Act I.

I just got my schedule for next week. La Cage Aux Folles at the Longacre. If you haven't seen that one yet, you should really make an effort. It's a lot of fun. And Kelsea Grammar is amazing.

January 20, 2010

Jaws of Steel

I went to the dentist on the 11th for my biannual cleaning and checkup. My teeth are sensitive and sometimes cleanings can be painful. This time, I took four generic acetominophens before hand. Add a new hygienist with the magic touch. The cleaning wasn't so bad.

I told her that my jaw has been clicking lately, so she told me to wait and talk to the dentist. The clicking, it turns out, is related to my clenching. I clench my teeth when I sleep.

The dentist informed me that I am the Arnold Schwarzenegger of jaw clenchers because of my pronounced jaw muscles which he pointed out gave me a masculine appearance. He suggested I get a bite protector. And to reduce the size of my jaw, he suggested Botox. For this, I would have to pay $1000 because he would have to use one vile vial.

The insurance will most likely pay for the bite protector. Using that, my muscles will shrink in time.

Can you imagine? Botox?

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

January 10, 2010

The Bartender Who Likes Reading

Last week, I was working my theater job, reading a book during Act I. A young bartender came up to me and asked me what I was reading. It just so happens that I was reading Hell Is Other Parents. I described it to him briefly and then he told me that he only recently acquired the ability to read a book through to the end. He's been reading non-stop for the last year.

He explained to me that about a year ago he had himself tested for ADD. He was prescribed a medication and for the first time in his life he could enjoy reading.

His inability to read well caused him to drop out of high school. Now in his early 30's he is earning his GED. He has a good friend working with him on math and he's been taking practice tests so he can be ready for the his big exam in April.

I was so interested in speaking with him, I kept asking him questions - about his family; about his life - and he answered every one. Sadly our conversation had to end because Act I was almost finished. He had to set up his bar and I had to stand by my headset console.

January 09, 2010

Should I or Shouldn't I

Things are happening around me again. For a long time they weren't, hence the incredibly large spaces of times between posts.

The question remains, should I or shouldn't I revive this blog? I wrote about myself for a long time, so long that I got tired of writing about myself.

That feeling hasn't exactly worn off, but I do feel a growing need to share again.

What do you think?