Hysterical butterflies.

My GOD, it's fucking cold outside! I almost didn't make it out of bed this morning. I huddled under the covers for at least half an hour after my alarm went off (why was it set so early to begin with?), and then the thought of showering was sickly hilarious, and I could hear my joints screaming as I sat in front of the heater. Oh, god. I don't do well with heat, but....I've never lived in a freezing room before. (Except for the time in high school when my room was so ungodly cold and we couldn't figure out why...until someone realized that the top half of my storm window was slightly open. A family of geniuses.)

Anyway, I'm working today, which is EXCELLENT. I've been going completely nuts for the past few days. I'm worried about work and money, as usual. I hate having to worry about that. I feel like I'm on edge all the time...will I be able to pay rent? Won't I? I volunteered for this lifestyle....but that doesn't mean I have to like it. (Whatever.)

So, Broadway is shuddering back into life after the strike. The shows that were supposed to open are finally opening, and I imagine things'll be back to total normality before long.

The Farnsworth Invention opened last night, and here are some things from the NY Times:

"With billionaire parents now producing bar mitzvah celebrations and sweet-16 parties as if they were major motion pictures, it’s only a matter of time before this spare-no-expense approach is applied to their kids’ school projects. Imagine that Mr. Hedge Fund, with money to burn and many favors to call in, imports a crack combination of writer, director and actors to put across Junior’s oral report with envy-making, A-worthy flair. The resulting effort might well be something like “The Farnsworth Invention,” the new play by Aaron Sorkin that had its strike-delayed opening last night at the Music Box Theater. This information-crammed, surface-skimming biodrama about the creators of television suggests nothing so much as a classroom presentation on a seven-figure budget."

Damn, Ben Brantley! This man can write a zinger like no one else alive today. But you know....I sort of agree. The kind of facile nature of the show was what bugged me the most about it, and I think he's right- that it's more like a report- albeit an earnestly presented one- than a drama.
This is big: "Having made a great success in television, Mr. Sorkin knows its pitfalls and limitations inside out. But it’s hard to avoid the impression that, for all its high-reaching ambitions, “The Farnsworth Invention” often shares the glibness and reductionism of which mainstream television is regularly accused."

Yikes.

The view from the office where I'm working (near Union Square) is amazing. I can't really see it from my desk, of course...but it's beautiful from the bathroom. ;) Much like in CFA! I can see the Williamsburg Bridge, which is kind of fun.

Tonight, I'm going to a Yelp Elite event--- oooooh, so fancy. It's of course turning into more of a headache than something fun...but we'll see what happens. Supposedly, there'll be free drinks. Disaster. After that, there will potentially be latkes and singing at my apartment. I hope. I need something to warm that place up.

Finally, the title of this silly post refers to what was going on at my temp agency this morning-- the funny receptionist who shares a name with one of my good friends (always good for a double-take) was bouncing off the walls about some butterflies that he had ordered online. Excuse me-- some caterpillars. Not butterflies yet. He ordered five for the office and five for his sister/niece in Syracuse (yes!), but was realizing that no one was going to be in the office to receive them, and that they might freeze or something. There was also much discussion of releasing the butterflies into the wild, in order to brighten someone's day....this idea was met with a lot of disapproval from a girl waiting to work, who said "If you let them out...they're going to...end...pretty quickly."

Anyway, I told gchatting friends and friend Thom suggested that the sentence "The receptionist was slightly hysterical about some butterflies he had ordered online" might make a good kick-off for a writing exercise. If only my BUSTI kids had looked at life that way.

To end- Justin Knudsen makes me laugh:

me: and what is this business about crispin glover suing zemeckis? why did he do that?the guy is nuts

Justin: i dont know i kind of what to sue him too though for perpetrating The Polar Express
me: oh god yeah
Justin: did you see it? the hobo looks like tom waits. but its Tom Hanks. and the magic hobo doesnt actually do anything, even though he's the only cool thing about it. my sister rented it and made the family watch it. disaster. a trainwreck, if you will.

Quuuuuuiiiick conclusions often lead the best of us astray;
The wisest move in life is just to wait!
Otherwise your galloping emotions run away
Like horses at the gate!

The above lyrics from The Mystery of Edwin Drood won’t stop repeating in my brain. Hmm.

So, what’s new today? I’m back on reception at the same place I was yesterday. A lot is going on. A lot I can’t talk about. I’m a loner, Dottie. A rebel. No, really—I don’t know how I feel about writing stuff about work in here until I maybe figure out some more privacy settings or something. I know you’re waiting with bated breath.

Last night, I went to see ‘The Farnsworth Invention,’ because Jess works for the producers and had a bunch of comps. I sat with Mikey and Jess in the mezz- beautiful seats that would probably cost around eighty dollars. Good lord. It’s a new play—I think it was workshopped at least at La Jolla before coming here. It’s by Aaron Sorkin, Mr. West Wing, and stars Hank Azaria. Let me say first off that Hank Azaria sounded like Moe from the Simpsons the whole time. I’m aware of the fact that he does Moe’s voice. It was funny.

The play is about two guys—Philo T. Farnsworth and David Sarnoff, who are each crucial in the invention, development and explosion of the television and radio, respectively. It starts out with Sarnoff talking right to us, narrating about Farnsworth’s life. And then Farnsworth does the same for Sarnoff—and we see them bounce back and forth, each telling the other’s story, until finally they converge…in reality and fantasy.

I was disappointed at the conventional tack the show took after the beginning moments. The narrative device returned time and time again, but it framed really standard, we’re-doing-a-scene now….made “edgier” by sharp transitions accompanied by drastic light switches and a really far-ranging use of the enormous stage. The cast was ABSOLUTELY HUGE, and I really think that the play could benefit from a downsizing—this is just my snotty, uninformed opinion. For example—there were all these characters that we see once and then never again. I like when there are a million characters and I like it when an actor plays a ton of them, but there were so many actors that the effect was totally, in my mind, diminished. At curtain call, I said to Jess “I feel like I didn’t even see half of those people during the show.”

Also, the interplay between fantasy and reality wasn’t explored enough for my tastes. Farnsworth and Sarnoff have a meeting in the last scene of the play that Sarnoff tells us (after the fact) never really happened—I was into that. I wanted more stuff like that to be going on—the whole thing felt like a two-pronged biopic resisting the urge to be a riff on the possibly-connected lives of guys. I wish it had been the other way around—I wish I had been left craving MORE facts. As it was, the facts flew so thick and fast that half the time, I couldn’t even absorb them. But what was I expecting? I never watched The West Wing, but I know how he operates. That sneaky devil.
Hank Azaria, Moe-aside, was good, Jimmi Simpson as Farnswroth was super. Blanketly, the women kind of sucked. I don’t know why. The costumes were lavish, the set was utilitarian (though a little dangerous-looking sometimes). Michael Mulheren was in it, playing a judge at one point (which is funny because he sometimes plays a judge on L&O), and playing Ernst Alexanderson at one point (the word Schenectady happened TWICE in the show!!). Jim Ortlieb, who had a recurring role as Ben’s mean science prof on Felicity, was also in the show. I like him a lot.

All in all, it was an up-and-down thing. I had a nice time, but it wasn’t great. And I’m an expert, so you should listen to me. It was a great TIME, and the theatre is beautiful. I’ll be interested to see what the “real” reviewers think.

Also, Joanna Gleason was there. So that was cool.