Too hip. Gotta go.

Brad Renfro is dead.

RENT is closing.



What is happening to the nineties?! I don't like this at all.



In what is becoming a pattern, I spent the evening in Astoria last night. After having lunch with Katy in Williamsburg, I met Erin by NYU, and we snuck into Tisch ("I'm so sorry! I just don't have my ID with me!") to deliver a present to her friend, went shopping (ridiculous, as usual), and headed back to her apartment to kill some time by....watching Brokeback Mountain. I'm not sure what possessed us to this, and we had very bad attitudes about the proceedings. we mainly spent the time yelling "BOOBS!" and asking each other questions like "Do we get to see any penis in this movie?" Stupid.

Later, I met up with Misters Cowart and Klein at a bar and proceeded to drink a fair amount. It was great to see them and catch up...they're certainly wilder outside the theatre than they are in in. Were were joined eventually by three of their friends, all guys. As Lauren would say- sausagefest. (Motif to this post? Christ.) I stayed out late and had a wonderful time. Then it was back to Erin's the watch SVU (terrifying) and The Simpsons and to terrorize the cat.

Today's greatest hits include shopping at Trader Joe's, buying an amazing t-shirt with a picture of a phrenology head on it, and wandering around Williamsburg muttering to myself, as I am wont to do.


And I turn to the Stray Cats to keep me going.


Oh! This is intersting-- Jane called me this morning to tell me that a weird package came to the house, missing $1.62 in postage, which contained....MY WALLET! The missing one! Weird, right? The return address is something like "Brooklyn Undeliverable Property" and/or the post office. I don't get it. My bank cards are missing (but of course they were canceled immediately), but it seems like most if not all of my other stuff is in there- including my Girl Scouts of America Lifetime Membership card (phew!) AND my student ID. Which I am overjoyed about.

Who ran the iron horse?

PANDER-A DOT COM

I had forgotten how awesome pandora.com is. Product placement. Good.

I went to Union Hall last night with Rinnz to see Meowskers. We caught the last few minutes of Quintus' set, and they were really pretty awesome. They play with Meowskers all the time, but I had never heard them until now. I chatted with the singer after the set...he asked me about theremins (it makes me sound a LOT cooler to leave that statement out of context, so that's just what I'm going to do). Meowskers sounded great. Ben was there. (Ben, do you read this? I think Clam and Thom are my only readers. I'm not worried.) So that was a little awkward. Though we had a nice conversation about the impending release of Sweeney Todd....Ben had good perspective on just how much this movie means to me.

After, I went to Nitzi's and we watched some super old-school Felicity. The pilot is so nineties, it's unbelievable. And of course that means it's so enjoyable.

The Lower East Side sing was PACKED today- at least 30 people! Wonderful. Lots of new faces. Aldo was sick and couldn't go, so I was in charge of setting up the lights and stuff. (Someone asked me if I was a "technician." Why didn't I say yes?) Made me feel important. I had a chance to catch up on a lot of gossip with Lauren, which is always good. We sang "Schenectady," and my standard homesick musings found listeners in the newbies.

I've been reading scripts all night. A lot of what I've been reading takes place in a car...which makes me think about my own car opus, The Civil Wargasm. And I've been thinking about The Civil Wargasm a lot lately, for many reasons-- not the least of which being the fact that I found the perfect guy to play Robert Lee Hodge. He was in the MUDasMAN shows. He just moved to California. But when he's back....oh BOY. I better rewrite the damn thing before then. I gave the script as it is now to this actor and he thought it was funny. Good. Who wants to play Tony?

But this writing thing.... I feel so stupid about it sometimes. I mean, I tell a bajillion people, random people that I meet wherever, that I'm "an actor, yeah...and actor and a writer." And god knows I'm not doing any acting (though Common Thread asked me to be in their new show-- I haven't given them an answer yet), and I don't know when I will....so I always have these dreams that something will just click within me and that I'll be able to drop all the affectations ("Why don't I write on a typewriter? I can only use felt-tip pens!") and actually WORK, work HARD, and just write and get stuff done. And it doesn't matter if it's crap, because as Ed Wood tells us, when you rewrite a script, it just gets better and better...but I have to write the crap first so that then I can make it better. And I have so many ideas, or at least I used to, or at least I think I used to.....but when I sit down at the computer it's all I do to number the pages without giving up on myself.

Ugh.

I just want to listen to Rhapsody in Blue all day.

Walk this way!

So, a few different things of interest this morning. I'm writing to you from a cushy (knock wood) receptionist job somewhere on Sixth Avenue. There's a big impressive fountain in the plaza out front, and the building is a bajillion stories high....but I'm on the fourth floor and consuquently it looks like eternal evening in here. Thanks, skyscrapers. (This is not necessarily one of the items of interest. There are as follows....)

1) YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN GETS SLAMMED! Okay, not slammed, but...it's far, far from a rave in the NY Times. I don't know why, and I didn't even realize this until I read the review last night, but I sort of *wanted* this show to not be good. I mean, I did. The ticket price thing, the fact that I love the movie SO much and think it is perfect, the fact that I really like Mel Brooks but think maybe this movie-to-musical thing has gone on long enough... All of that. Plus, I hate Megan Mullally. Come on. Here are some highlights from the NY Times...starting with the headline:

"Who Put the Trance in Transylvania?"

Bahhhhhhhhhhhh! Ok. Also:

"It also surely has...the largest percentage of gags per scene. Some of those gags, many of which are lifted from the movie, are pretty funny. (O.K., let's be honest: I laughed exactly three times.) There are some enjoyable musical routines. (All right, my count is 2 out of nearly 20.)"

Damn, Ben Brantley. You know how to wound.

Here, from the post, is a seriously stupid sentence:

"It also has a great comic lead in Roger Bart as that virginal Dr. Fronkensteen being transported to the dark side of the moon."

"Great"? We're talking about a guy who is playing a part the TRULY great Gene Wilder originated. Let's not get overly-lovey, please. And virginal? And that spelling? I just don't get it.

Whooo....I was on a major roll of pretension there, but I checked myself before it could get truly bone-crushing. Next time, I'll just let it go.

Also, this: "Well, I understand from the press release that "$25 orchestra seats will be available at most performances." At that price the show would be a bargain, even if the seats are in the orchestra pit. You would even have money left over for a soda during intermission." Really? I mean...I'll go for $25 bucks.

2) So, last week, I worked at an ad agency. One of the guys that also worked there (real job, though, unlike me) is the writer and producer of a cool internet show called The 'Burg, which pokes fun at those loveable hipsters residing in...my neighborhood. Check it out: http://www.theburg.tv If you like dogs, watch the 2nd ep, "myspace." There is a funny funny gag involving a pug.

3) I'm currently stage managing a show! I am a very bad stage manager, take no initiative, and mostly spend my time eating while being on book, which is always a recipe for disaster. It's actually two different shows that go in rep- each show being made of two pieces. One evening is called Circle (it's in the round), and the other is Square (you can guess), and it's a mix of new short plays and collaboratively-created pieces. The people are nice and it's good to be doing something, even if I am a zombie most of the time. On the off chance that a) anyone is reading this mess, and b) said theoretical person should want to come see the show, go to http://www.smarttix.com and search for "mud as man" and it should come up. Or just ask me about it.

Sayonara for now.