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I am a member of TRU (Theater Resources United), a group for theater producers and other professionals. I haven't taken much advantage of the classes and workshops they offer, but I have sat in on their annual combined auditions several times, once or twice with Duncan and once for Julie. That's the main draw for me, those auditions, and why I renew every year.

TRU sends out quite a few weekly emails, advertising their classes, etc. and many (if not all) are from one of the bigwigs, a guy named Bob Ost. His emails can sometimes have a weird tone, a little too pleading and whatnot. I wish I could cite examples, but just know that's a trend I've sensed--they sound slightly unprofessional and frankly kind of desperate sometimes.

Last week he sent out an email asking people to respond because they were "cleaning out their email list" or something like that. This sort of pinged me--if you're getting bounce-backs, just delete them. I forgot about it and didn't respond, so yesterday I get this email:

I recently sent an email to my entire directors list and asked everyone to email back to confirm receipt, and interest in the list. I never heard back from you, or perhaps I missed your email (I do this all manually - no techno-software to help right now). So if you want to remain on the list, email back to me. If you DON'T want occasional director emails, email back as well. And if you want to be removed entirely from all things TRU, let me know that as well (a merciful explanation of why would be appreciated).

I may also be doing a test through my Mailermailer email service to make sure I have everyone on this list also signed up as a director on THAT list. Eventually I would like to get rid of this one, and just depend on the Mailermailer list, but over a thousand people were subscribed before we started capturing their areas of interest (director, actor, etc.) I may be sending a director survey through that list, to gauge your interest in TRU programs.

Well, here's a test question: Did you get the recent TRU Update Valentine's Day issue? Are you actually signed up for the Mailermailer email service we use to mail to you?

Please be patient with me as I try to improve these lists, and do let me know whether to keep you on or remove you. There is no problem with keeping you on the list, even if you simply have idle curiosity as to what's happening now and then; but I'd like the list to be realistic.

I sent back a one-sentence reply:

Yes, please keep me on the mailing list.

And got THIS in reply:

Thanks Clara, but you haven't opened an email from TRU in seven months. Are we landing in spam? Check your spam folder for an email from Friday headed "Open up for a great big bouquet of TRU opportunities" - let's see if we can figure this out so I can get my mailings through to you in the future. Thanks!

We know each other through Maitely Weisman, don't we?

What. The. FUCK? Are we dating or something? Why the hell is he monitoring how often I open my emails--and why should that MATTER? My dues are paid up, that's what matters. Good God. What a passive aggressive pathetic, unprofessional little missive. "Thanks, but..." Ugh! Just ugh. I don't particularly want to quit but I am very creeped out being challenged about my level of involvement. Dude, I WORK as a director and an actor. That's why I don't have time to read your constant emails, or take part in your constant workshops, the salient info of which is in the TITLE of the email so I know right away whether I can or want to do it. Aren't we supposed to try to GET work? Isn't that one of the goals of this organization?

And I have no idea who Maitely Weisman is.

Current Mood: annoyed

I logged quite a bit of rehearsal time for Vagina Monologues this weekend and we're almost caught up. I've worked with nearly everyone except for two whom I'll see tomorrow, and I think it's going really well. We had an AMAZING rehearsal yesterday for the two-actor piece "My Vagina Was My Village" (about what Bosnian women experienced during the Yugoslav conflict). This was the second time I'd worked with these two women--the first time, last weekend, we talked about the language (there's a lot of poetry in this piece), the structure, the sensuality. All technical stuff. Yesterday we revisited it. The piece has two "sides," two voices--the first is a woman remembering all these beautiful good memories, "green forest," her boyfriend lying next to her in a meadow, that sort of thing. I worked with her on loosening up her body--I said this stuff is so sensual, you can express that physically, you don't have to just stand there. If you want to reach out or run your fingers up your arm, something like that, you can and should. And at one point she talks about singing and songs--the previous week I'd said you can sing this, if you like. So when she came back she sang through that stanza and then we decided to have her sing parts of it, rather than throughout the stanza. It sounded really, really cool, very organic.

The other piece is MUCH darker--very strong, difficult language about the terrible things she experienced. I had a hard time getting this actor to connect with what she was saying--she had a kind of monotonous reading (a lot of American actors sound like this, because our way of speaking is much less modulated than the Brits) and it was a little too "this bad thing happened and then THAT bad thing happened." Too pat. So I said I'm going to try an exercise with you--if you find it too cheesy, we'll do something else. She started again and I jumped very close to her and bellowed. I kept dancing around and yelling at her, random phrases and gestures that she wouldn't be expecting. And it WORKED--she was startled into actually connecting with the language and what she was saying. She was actually trembling afterwards but she loved it and wanted me to do it again. She also was connecting to what the other actress was saying when she did the singing bit--she found herself getting angry that this lovely innocence had been destroyed. So we did it again and about halfway through I stopped jumping at her because I was riveted to the floor. FANTASTIC reading. Just terrific.

I also had a soccer game and was injured AGAIN. I'm getting very tired of this. Maybe it's a winter thing? It is hard for me to warm up. Anyway I turned on my knee and hyperextended it and now it feels like it'll buckle at any time. Grrr! Not like! I honestly don't know if I'll be able to play this weekend--if I can't, I will make pan cookies or something like that. I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to be the mother of most of the rest of my team--I might as well act like a team mother! But we spanked the other team, 4-1--and their one goal was scored by US! (One of our defenders accidentally kicked it in.) BUT they were still a pretty good team--I think they were outshooting us. And one of our goals was a complete fluke--our goalie had the ball and kicked a big, long pass down the field. It bounced once in the end zone of the other team and the goalie misjudged it and it went over her head. I felt bad for her, that certainly sucks. Still, I'll take the goal ;)

Sorry to say that in the end, Michael Jackson was basically just a child molester to me who got away with it. One with enormous talent, one who'd had a terrible childhood, but yes, a child molester.

Whitney Houston? A goddess. WHAT a voice. That throbbing, rich, amazing sound. And she didn't even HAVE to sing, she was an incredibly successful young model as well. And then she went on to do acting...I loved her in The Bodyguard. She could do anything. SO, so sad.

This makes me ridiculously happy. I don't even LIKE McDonald's (unless I'm in Spain for nine months--I frequently indulged in a McChicken during my cruise ship contract) and I almost never go in there. But Shamrock Shakes! They make me happy because they taste good and they're about St. Patrick's Day!

Bart called me this morning--he has tickets for Merrily We Roll Along for this Saturday afternoon, but sadly I can't go with him. VERY sad, I love that show! What a fantastic, inventive score--I LOVE "Our Time" and the lead-in to the reprise of "The Hills of Tomorrow":

It is the obligation we have been given.
It is to NOT turn out the same.
It is to grow, to accomplish--
To change the world.

Bart told me that 1) his partner Walter knows Lonnie Price (the original Charlie Kringas) and 2) Lonnie Price was the obnoxious hotel heir in Dirty Dancing! "He said 'What does he have that I don't have?' And she said 'Two hotels.'"

I went to the doctor Tuesday and they referred me to a cardiologist. They didn't seem too worried, though--guess I'm not about to have a heart attack! The nurse was taking my information--I filled one of these out when I first started going there but I guess they were updating everyone's info. All the questions about cancer, thyroid, etc. I was like no, no, no. Heart disease? Oh yes. Ohhhhhhh yes--my father's side of the family is riddled with heart disease. My grandfather (heart attack, then later died of a coronary), my uncle (several heart attacks), my father (angioplasty), my brother had some kind of scare, a couple of my aunts. OH yes. So it's--weird to feel my heart beating, a little sobering.

I have put the Meetup soccer games on the back burner for now for a couple of reasons. No. 1), they're hard to get to, 2) the style of play is VERY intense. 3 30 minute games with NO substitutions is a lot for me--I'm just not in that kind of shape. But I want to be and I will--those games are something to work towards. So I researched and found another league, the New York Social Sports Club. The style of play is less intense (2-18 minute halves WITH substitutions) and they emphasize the social aspect quite a bit. The league sets up a relationship with a nearby bar and we're encouraged to hang out there after the game, we get discounts on pitchers, etc. In theory this is a cute idea. But this bar's set up kind of blows. Instead of hanging out on the bottom floor which has cute small bar tables and dim lighting, they open up the 2nd floor which has super-bright flourescent lights and tacky long plastic tables. And the discounted pitchers? For BUD. And BUD LITE. Guh-ross. Not worth the calories! Still though, the other people on the team are cool.

How adorbs are we! This was after our first game which we lost--but we won the next two. The kids on it are a fun group but they are KIDS--I am Grandma next to them! It is frustrating too that my skills haven't come back yet--I seem to have lost the ability to kick left-footed. I'm doing okay but have not scored a goal yet. We have practices on Saturdays but now that rehearsals for The Vagina Monologues have started, it's difficult for me to attend.

Yes, I'm directing The Vagina Monologues for TTC. We're nearly a week into rehearsals; it's going pretty well so far, although there has been DRAMMER. I can't talk about it, obviously. Let's just say doing a show with this many amateurs has its challenges!

I'm a little worried. For about a month or so, I've been noticing a weird symptom--a rapid heartbeat at odd times. I certainly drink a lot of caffeine, and that is one potential cause. Heart disease runs very strongly in the Green family--my grandfather, my father, both uncle and at least one aunt. And my brother had something going on as well. Gotta make an appointment to see the doctor--this is awkward because last year someone at my temp agency made a huge error.

They sent out notices to all of us that they were switching health care providers, but the notice was weirdly worded, very unclear, and they only sent us a notice by e-mail and not by regular mail. So a lot of people, myself included, did not opt in, and so I was without health care but didn't know it. I went merrily on my way and visited my PCP who wanted to check on my B12 levels, and sent me to a laboratory to get a blood test (or something). They also referred me to a bone doctor because I'd fallen in January and was still feeling pain. It wasn't until the visit to the bone doctor in March that I discovered that I had no health care. I raised the effing roof on the phone with the H/R department. Like WTF--HOW could you make this mistake?! I've been working here for years, OBVIOUSLY I don't want to opt out, and why would you leave such an important notification to E-MAIL? E-mail is not secure, people miss emails all the time, especially those that are sent to large numbers of people and get filtered!!! For such an important notice you need to require a response from people one way or the other, not just assume! Luckily--very luckily--they forced the new health care plan to accept me even though it wasn't open enrollment period. VERY lucky. But I was still dealing with random doctor bills coming back to me from those visits in the beginning of the year. All of these but one were eventually dealt with (my agency had the new health care provider cover them) but there's one still outstanding and I don't think it's been dealt with. This is almost a year now and it's something like $200. I don't know if ny doctor will want to see me if there's this dispute--I have no idea what's going on but...it's awkward. I noticed this past year (they switched health care providers AGAIN, this is my third in three years now!), they were much, MUCH more careful about making sure we all understood what was going on, and requiring us to either opt-in or opt-out.

But back to my heart. Ugh. If I have to start eating salads and vegetables I will not be happy.

Saturday evening:

Shift Driving for RightRides, a non-profit organization that gives free rides home on Friday/Saturday evenings to women and LGBTQ individuals.

Sunday morning:

Soccer game.

Sunday afternoon:

Auditions for The Vagina Monologues for TTC.

Sunday evening:

Apprising myself of the Giants game by popping into every bar I passed in Hoboken and the Village while on my way home.

Conclusion:

My yin and yang are well-balanced :)

I posted the below (at the bottom) last week on Facebook and even since then I continue to be aghast at what apparently happened. I saw a video of a crew member (I'm guessing it may have been the purser--for some reason pursers were always female on our ship*) addressing the passengers and telling them everything was fine and to go back to their cabins. She HAD to have thought she was telling the truth--who would risk that much (career, lives) knowing there's a camera on you? So that means the lines of communication had completely broken down--the chain of command had failed. Just unbelievable. When I was on the R2, we had CONSTANT safety drills and meetings. 3 per every cruise--for most of our contract that was every ten days (we started a new cruise every time we left Barcelona or Lisbon) but for the last 2 months that was every 5 days (we switched to a 5-day itinerary toward the end). The very first drill was the passenger drill, and we did it as soon as we left port the first day. Everybody on deck with your lifepreservers--all of us cast members were assigned posts where we had to stand and serve as a meeting place for groups of passengers. So they knew right away what the procedure was and (ideally) what to expect, and on cruises that originate in the US apparently they have the passenger drill before they even leave port. Then about midpoint through the itinerary the crew has their own safety drill when you're in your cabin (or doing whatever--it was during the day so we didn't have shows) and they ring the alarm in the crew quarters and you muster.

Jesus, this looks terrifying, like something out of an Irwin Allen flick. My brother was really into Irwin Allen movies and made me watch them as well--I have had a lifelong fear of tidal waves (literally, nightmares about them ever since I was a kid). I used to wonder if I hadn't died on the Titanic in a past life, because I was so fascinated by that disaster, but now it occurs to me I might just be emotionally scarred from having seen The Poseidon Adventure at the tender age of 6 or so!

And at some point during the cruise you also have your safety meeting--you are in a group with maybe 10-15 other crew members and the safety officer will go over various safety procedures that might be useful, or he might show you a video. Those meetings were very interesting--we learned all sorts of things like how to lower the lifeboats, and pilot the motorized rescue lifeboat. We also watched a very interesting video about the Estonia disaster, and about the 3 types of responses to emergencies (I can't seem to find an article online to jog my memory but what I remember is that most people deny what is going on, or assume someone else will tell them what to do. A small minority of people panic, and a small minority of people recognize what is happening and take appropriate steps--and those are the ones that survive and help others to survive). I liked these meetings because the more I learned, the more empowered I was--the safety officers tended to be very sexist and didn't want to teach me things like how to lower the lifeboats, saying I was too small and the Chinese laundry guys should learn instead. Well, the laundry guys were so exhausted they were sleeping standing up during the meetings! (I knew them because I was in charge of costumes so I used to drag the laundry down every week to them.) Dude, do you really want to trust lifesaving know-how to a bunch of poor guys who just want to go back to sleep? Why not trust it to someone who WANTS to know? I always thought I would have been a good safety officer (although, of course, my talents are much better suited for Captain!).

The Costa passengers had to save themselves, apparently--there is some footage of some of them forming a human chain to lower themselves over the hull of the ship down to the lifeboats. Just unbelievable.

The pictures of that enormous ship (it's MUCH, much bigger than our was--ours was mid-sized, about 600 passengers and some 350 crew members whereas I believe the Costa Concordia held 4000. Good Lord, I can't even imagine a ship that size!) are frankly disturbing. It looks like a dinosaur laid to earth--that must be incredibly creepy to see that every day for the people who live on that island. Jesus, what a mess. They're not going to be able to move that ship anytime soon, that's for sure.

With all that, it's kind of interesting revisiting those days--I loved hearing from Gillian and Holly again, and would LOVE an R2 reunion! 3 of us are right here in NYC and Mickey is down in Philly. And Rian, our SM, is in PA too, I think. I was SO, so over it by the time we signed off and couldn't wait to get away--I still hated a lot of the crap we had to deal with (skanky officers, sexually harassing cruise directors, sexually harassing crew members, cruise directors who ENABLED sexual harassment, the cheapcheapcheapness of Renaissance). But it wasn't all bad. Our cast fought but we were also super-close to each other and always banded together against outsiders. We laughed a LOT too--we each had our own unique sense of humor, Mickey in particular made me laugh a lot. Todd got in some great zingers as well--I remember when yet another "OMG someone on the senior staff is fucking with us AGAIN" crises developed. Mickey appraised us of the situation, we all vented and decided on how we were going to approach (typically mine was head on!) and, in conclusion, Mickey asked us all how we were doing. Todd said "well, fine actually--I'm always fine until Mickey or one of you reveals how we're actually being screwed. It's like I'm living in the Matrix [which had come out when we were in rehearsal]." I died laughing--we all did. And our second cruise director, Dave, was GREAT--he loved us and we loved him. His Assistant Cruise Director and the cruise staff person were also great--they knew how demoralized we were after Sexually Harassing Cruise Director had signed off, and they did a lot of stuff to boost morale. We had meetings every cruise where someone would win the Golden Camel (a camel for Morocco, one of the countries we visited) an award for whoever's stood out the most this cruise for whatever reason. I won it twice, which was cool. They also got ahold of some kind of fund and used it to throw Cruise Staff Only parties (which effectively meant all the entertainers--the Paramount Performers(us), the musicians, the Renaissance Duo (lounge performers) and the magician and his wife/assistant. We would buy sangria, tapas, the works. These were usually birthday parties but we had just for fun parties as well.

*During our "Bon Voyage" show, there was a section in the middle where they would introduce the senior officers and the band would play a little phrase of music to usher them on. Eg., the captain got the first phrase of "Anchors Aweigh." (After my roommate spied him him getting down with a huge-breasted woman on the dance floor up at the Sports Bar, we decided his music should be "bam chicka bam bam.") For the purser (we had 3 and each one was a woman)? The band played the first phrase of "Ain't She Sweet." VOMIT. That's the way to make sure she's taken seriously!

____________________________________________________________________________

From Facebook:

This cruise ship story is horrifying--how does a cruise ship go down in the MEDITERRANEAN?! Do you know how shallow that sea is? There's a reason western civilization started there--the sea is easily navigable and it's enclosed so you don't really get huge waves (unless, a la The Poseidon Adventure, there's an earthquake). You are never far from shore in the Med. They hit a reef that the captain claims was unmarked? Uh, GPS guys! And radar. Look into it and enter the 21st century. They must've had a lot of time (so close to shore, they couldn't have been going too fast)--at the worst, the passengers could've swum to shore. Apparently the passengers were told "just an electrical problem" AS THE SHIP WAS LISTING. So the passengers had to FORCE their way onto the lifeboats, which the crew members didn't want to deploy. It puts all those safety drills that Gillian Roth Myers, Amilcan Mickey Rodriguez Jr.Todd Wilson Tony Staub Holly Hylton Aly Reid and I had to attend when we performed on the R2 in a new light. I used to pester our safety officer to teach me how to lower the lifeboats--I never trusted those skanky officers! Several of them were far more interested in hitting on us than in doing their jobs!

Debi Heartley Betances Well said!!!
January 15 at 2:42pm ·

Amanda Brewer I agree...You like me probably sailed out of that port a few times eh Clara?
January 15 at 2:52pm ·

<input ... >
Clara Barton Green Amanda, our itinerary was along the western Med and the northwestern coast of Africa--Barcelona, the Balearic Islands, Almeria, Malaga, Gibraltar (you remember!), Tangiers, Casablanca, Cadiz and Lisbon.
January 15 at 2:58pm ·

Amanda Brewer I have a feeling that the skanky officers were spending far too much time with the Steiners as usual and not enough time thinking of the passengers safety!!
January 15 at 3:38pm ·

Rick Stutzel It was an ITALIAN ship. nuff said!
January 15 at 6:06pm ·

Hunter Kimble Well, I really can't blame them for trying to hit on you! =;^)
January 15 at 6:24pm ·

<input ... >
Clara Barton Green When they're married?! One of the safety officers offered to let a castmate of mine skip her safety exam if she agreed to have drinks with him--in his quarters! (To be fair, she had just signed off another ship in the same fleet a few months previously, so she knew what she was doing, but still...completely sketchy! This sort of thing happened ALL the time.)
January 15 at 7:31pm ·

Hunter Kimble YIKES! Yep, pretty icky behavior. (BTW my comment was intended as a back-handed compliment!)
January 15 at 7:44pm ·

<input ... >
Clara Barton Green Oh, I know! I wasn't offended at all, just trying to provide more context.
January 15 at 7:45pm ·

Hunter Kimble Whew! Now, ya wanna come up to my room to see my stamp collection?
January 15 at 7:49pm ·

Holly Hylton Oh my gosh!!! I MADE you go with me to have drinks with the skanky officer!!! I will never forget that! Thank god we sailed safely!
January 15 at 9:26pm ·

<input ... >
Clara Barton Green Holly, I had typed out more details and then thought....maaaaaybe let Holly tell more if she likes :) Yes, we BOTH went to the safety officer's quarters for drinks and he brought another dude so it was a very weird double date--on their part! On our part we were just trying to get the heck out of there with our honor intact! ;) But the whole business does NOT inspire confidence in the officers with whom we entrusted the safety of the ship. Ah, memories!
January 15 at 9:33pm ·

Holly Hylton Indeed. Ship life. Urrggh!
January 15 at 9:57pm ·

Chris Friend We were aboard a cruise ship in the Bahamas when I heard about this, scary!
Monday at 6:51am ·

Gillian Roth Myers you guys had drinks with the safety officer?!? Clara, you used to do an awesome impersonation of that guy. So funny...time for an R2 reunion.
Monday at 8:00am ·

<input ... >
Clara Barton Green Yes! I would love that!!! Y'all can come to NYC--Holly and I live here and Mickey is not too far away :) And I digitized all the rehearsal tapes I made--I can email them to you if you like! I actually played the opening of OSS for friends of mine a few weeks ago, complete with that chees-tastic choreography. "Broadway--AHHH. One singular sensation!" *snap, snap*

Hungry and very tired.

I'm meeting up with Lori later tonight to exchange Christmas gifts--I'd rather wait until Sunday or so but Kevin is taking down the tree tomorrow and it wouldn't be kosher, so to speak, to exchange Christmas gifts after January 6. Although I suppose we could call them Epiphany gifts? Hey, they do that in Spain. I am giving her some homemade peppermint bark and one of the holiday soaps I bought from Holly.

Speaking of Epiphany--Happy 12th Day of Christmas! Today kicks off the season of Epiphany which means you know what is coming up: Mardi Gras! Mark yo' calendars for February 21 and get ready to laissez les bons temps roulez! I think i'm going to have it back at my place this year--last year was convenient but not that many people showed up anyway (although I did get out the invitations late) and I just think it's probably easier. But looking forward to it! Hurricanes and jumbalaya and King Cake and The Big Easy playing in the background...

I used to hate January because it was so cold and crappy. Still not crazy about the dark and the weather but it's a nice change from December which was a little crazy this year. It's always that second and third week that kills me--my birthday is ALWAYS the same week as my work party and then someone's always visiting from out of town and there's a performance of Christmas Carol or something. Lots and lots of high-profile events that I can't miss. This year too I was working on a project for a friend of mine--she commissioned me to knit a Christmas stocking for her step-daughter. What made it tricky was that I didn't have a pattern--she wanted me to replicate a stocking knit by her granmother. With no pattern, I had to reverse-engineer it, which was actually kind of cool and fun. And I learned a couple of new skills, including the kitchener stitch which is a way to remove the seam from a sock so that it looks seamless. It's pretty cool and makes me want to knit some socks now! But I still (STILL!) have to finish up the purse I've been making for years now...almost done, I should finish it this week and then I just have to felt it.

Aaaaaand speaking of which...Drunken Knitting is coming up! Lori and I will decide on a date tonight and then we'll let y'all know. I want to do two dates this year, one in January and one in February. Ladies, sharpen your needles! (And rev your blenders for all those drinks :)

Since I've been having so much fun with softball (and spurred on by a FB ad pimping out an indoor soccer league at Chelsea Piers), I joined a Meetup group that plays soccer every week. They play at different locations all over the city but it seems the ones that meet my schedule best are in Long Island City at Queens West Sportsfield. I played my first game last Saturday--the format is 3 30 minute games, among four teams, played on a field that's about 3/4 the size of a full-size field. Generally speaking, the smaller the field, the more running. In a normal, regulation game, you can rest more because the ball can actually be away from you, whereas in indoor soccer, you are CONSTANTLY running. When they were assigning positions, I said sure, put me at wing (which is where I spent the majority of my soccer career). Oh my God. That 1st game was BRUTAL. Nonstop runningrunningrunning. I was in agony after the first game and I couldn't stop coughing. The second and third games went a little better. Or maybe my system was in so much shock, I just couldn't feel anything! As soon as I got home (which was difficult enough, my thighs kept buckling whenever I had to go up stairs) I drew the hottest bath I could stand and soaked as long as I could. This didn't stop me from spending the next two days pretty much on the couch anyway, but if I hadn't, I would've been literally bedridden.

But I gotta say, I didn't do too badly considering I haven't played for 15 years. I assisted on a couple of goals and got all up in the faces of a few of the guy players :) And I overheard a couple of admiring "hey, she's not too bad." I just love how brutally physical soccer is. They always pigeonhole me as some small player that's easily intimidated and I ALWAYS prove them wrong. Especially the big players :D Some of these players have amazing ball skills--it's like playing against Pele out there. Although as I said I played wing for most of my career, I was never an amazing ball handler--I was on the front line because I was very fast and had very quick reflexes, so I was able to score a lot. (And I did :) I was the lead scorer on my team--my coach used to call me Green, Green, the Scoring Machine. Isn't that adorbs?) Anyway until I get my wind back and can handle all that running, I need to upgrade my ball skills, maybe do some practicing out in Inwood Hill Park or something. I'm playing my next game tomorrow--hopefully I'll be slightly less physically devastated afterwards!

I was invited to the wedding of a family friend last May--couldn't go, so I sent my regrets and ordered them a gift. (And it wasn't cheap either, although that is only relevant in that the gift incurred a certain amount of sacrifice because I've known the groom literally all his life.) STILL haven't received a thank you note yet. Nor has Mom. It is annoying. People really need to learn about what is the correct thing to do--when someone makes the effort to pick out a gift and send it to you, it doesn't take that much time to write a quick note.

And Miss Manners backs me up here:

However, it is true that a wedding present may be sent within a year of the wedding, while no such leeway is allowed the recipients, who must send thanks immediately.

Oh Peppermint Bark, I wish I knew how to quit you...

BTW, if you have a Starbucks Card you can register it for rewards--and one of their rewards is a free coffee drink on your birthday! And as the postcard assures you "We'll make any drink you like." So I'm trying to decide if I want to get a disgusting huge calorie-laden venti Caramel Frappuccino or something more moderate. Decisions, decisions!

The Stevens Student Dramatic Society is performing a staged reading of my adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Since they're not using a specialty choir, they're using recordings of the music...but they didn't know some of the pieces so they called me to ask about them. I ended up just saying "I'll get you the pieces"--I didn't think this would take that long but I spent EIGHT HOURS yesterday listening to recording after recording, choosing the right ones and then editing some of them. I didn't even get to go to the gym! On the other hand I did get to hear all those glorious pieces again--and I gotta say, I know my music! I chose some great pieces for that show, pieces that aren't run into the ground every December, like "The Angel Gabriel" and "Tomorrow Shall be My Dancing Day." Still proud.

All about scrappy Pittsburgh and gorgeous Fallingwater. Read, comment, click, forward!

Jerry Sandusky re-arrested, re-bailed out by delusional (if not complicit) wife, re-interviewed. The trainwreck continues as he giggles, smiles at inappropriate times, avoids eye contact for long stretches, and steps in it AGAIN (go to 7:35) when revisiting his infamous "Am I sexually attracted...to young boys...?" moment in the Bob Costas interview. Good God, his lawyer must be shitting in his pants, although since Almendola fathered a child by his own underage client (and employee) when he himself was 49, he may not see anything wrong.

An interesting thing about this mess is how overwhelmingly public opinion is against him--pretty much everyone thinks he's guilty (as do I, needless to say). And yet Michael Jackson admitted to the same sorts of activities, and Michael Jackson also tried to pass himself off as a "big kid," who "just loved children." And yet he had a lot more defenders. Hmm. Funny, that. It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that he was a super-talented performer and actor. Noooo, people like that can do no wrong.

Like I always say, we're sooooo quick to condemn any hint of sexual impropriety--until it's one of our heroes. Note that the only people angry about Joe Paterno's ouster are Penn Staters.

New Cliopolitan entry, a quickie about Occupy movement. Read, comment, click, forward!

I watched Star Trek again last week and something occurred to me.

That opening sequence, when Kirk's father is trapped on the ship as the others are escaping and as his time is running out, he hears his son being born and is able to say "I love you so much--" one last time? Whether or not Abrams and the writer intended it, the sequence is an echo of 9/11. That is exactly what so many of the victims experienced.

The Lambeth Goosestep, all about the very first mashup (musical theater and history)! Read, comment, click, forward!

Still can't wrap my brain around this Penn State story. Good God, it's depressing--I just want to leap back in time and save these poor kids. I found out that the guy who did the actual raping--Sandusky*--set up a charity to help underprivileged kids, all so he could target more kids. It just gets more and more depressing and sad. And guess who gave this fucker an award in 2006 for his "philanthropy"? Rick Santorum. Who is calling the firing of Paterno "devastating". Glad we know where your priorities are, Senator FrothyMix. Getting kicked out because you did shit-all when little boys were being raped in the shower room by your assistant coach? DEVASTATING. Comparing homosexuality to bestialty? A-okay!

This is what happens when your "academic" community is really a jockocracy. Never have I been so glad I went to a woman's college. I love sports as much as anybody but you can't invest sports programs with that much money and power because this is the result. Paterno had more power than the President of the University, for God's sake. It's like in the book Friday Night Lights, when the football coach is paid more than the principal. That is messed-up. They made a good start firing Paterno and the president,** now they need to go after all the others who knew and never went to the police--never even called 9-1-1, for God's sake!

The best thing the university could do now is to voluntarily suspend its own football program for the next 5-10 years. But they're probably going to need the money it brings in since I have no doubt whatsoever they are going to get the shit sued out of them, and rightfully so. It's impossible for me not to believe the reason this was essentially ignored was to protect the brand.

*The guy is also an author, of books about football. The title of his first book? Touched. I couldn't make this up. Also, they just painted him out of a mural in the town where PSU is.

**Who is ALSO an author--of an academic treatise on, of all things, swinging.

Jesus, this Penn State story is unbelievable. What happened was terrible enough: how do you hear--HEAR--a child being raped and walk away, even if you do inform your boss later? And how, upon hearing of this, do you not move heaven and earth to get to the truth and do everything imaginable to protect the children going forward? I can't even imagine what these poor kids and their families are going through. Jesus Christ, this is sad.

But WTF is up with these students? Rioting? Are they fucking nuts? He's a FOOTBALL COACH. He fucked up and he and his boss are both paying the price. But he's just a football coach. Why are you more concerned with a football coach than for those poor kids--the ones he knew were being raped and did very little to help them?

Want to see some klassy Penn State rape apologists showing their asses on the internet?

Gothamist (all overwrought formatting in the original)

JacksBack72
Why does this 'horrific snowball' land on Paterno?! This man is and was an exemplary football coach for 45-years! He reported this terrible incident to the hierarchy at Penn- what else was he expected to do- become a one-man crusade against pedophilia?!?Paterno fired in disgrace?!? THAT is the true disgrace of PENN STATE! Yes- The University should do something. . . just not the WRONG thing!!

OKHNYC
He had a moral obligation once he saw that the University was covering up one of his coaches using his facilities to groom and rape little boys to notify the police. That you don't see this is stunning.

Michael
He had NO MORAL OBLIGATION to do anything more than he did. He is not the cops. He is not the GC of PSU. He is a coach! The school chose not to do anything. The WITNESS chose not to go to the cops outside of the campus cops. This was NOT paterno's duty, morally or legally.

JacksBack72
Coach Paterno DIDN'T SEE THIS INCIDENT. . . it was merely reported to him- and he passed this (uncorroborated) report on up the 'chain-of-command at Penn State which was/is the right thing to do! What does he know if it's true or not- and is being 'covered' up?!?! He's a football coach!

My friends, THIS is the rape culture, on full display. They deny a moral obligation to follow up accusations of CHILD RAPE. Why? because it interfered with their love of a fucking GAME. Like I've said before, people get all up in arms about predatory sexual behavior...until it involves one of their worthless heroes. Then they will find a way to denydenydeny and spin. Examples: Roman Polanski, Kobe Bryant, James Barbour, etc.

So we had two shows on Friday, at 8 and 11, and then the Saturday show at the Strand in Lakewood. Thanks to New Jersey Transit's stellar service, I got there much later than I intended to again. Some genius decided to rip up 14th Street which brought traffic going over the bridge to a complete halt. I finally got off as soon as we made it past the bridge, knowing I could scooter faster--much faster--than the bus was going. Everyone on the bus was pissed off about it.

But since I'd left even earlier on Friday, it could've been worse--I got there in enough time to have a more relaxed warm up session, and skank up even better! The 8pm show went well--Susan was there and loved it. She was talking about me to Kelly Anne, who plays Magenta, saying I was the hardest-working, most disciplined performer she knew. Kelly Anne was all "I know! She came up with a back story for her character! Who DOES that for Rocky Horror?"

I finally got used to the stage--it's still not ideal for tapping (can't hear the sounds at all) but I felt very comfortable on it, and stayed in the moment and just enjoyed it. LOVE my tap solo, I am sad not to be doing it any more!

The 11pm show went even better than the 8, and we had the biggest crowd for that one. Chris was still resistant to callbacks; at one point, he was talking about how he would race through that incredibly dense chunk of text where he is expositing about the transducer.

With callbacks, the dialogue should go:

Dr. Scott: This Sonic Transducer, it is I suppose, some kind of audio-vibratory, physio-molecular, transport device?

Brad: You mean...?

Audience: A VIBRATOR?

Dr. Scott: Yes Brad, it’s something we ourselves have been working on for quite some time. But it seems our friend here has found a means of perfecting it.

Audience: A PERFECT VIBRATOR?

Dr. Scott: A device which is capable of breaking down solid matter and then projecting it through space and who knows, perhaps even time itself!

Audience: A PERFECT, PORTABLE VIBRATOR?

Okay, properly done, this is hilarious. But Chris just raced through it, cutting off the callbacks. Dude, this is FUNNY. Have fun with the show. This is not Shakespeare, it's the Rocky Fucking Horror Show. There's no point to doing it without the callbacks! It almost makes me want to do another role (Columbia doesn't get much yelled at her) so I can roll with the punches. Certainly Jennifer (also a virgin, played Janet) never let it bother her!

We got out of the 11pm show at 1am. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long for the bus and a train, but still, I got home at close to 3 am. I dragged myself out of bed the next morning at 8:45--I had to be at Port Authority at 10:30, we were all going to catch the 11:00 bus to Lakewood. I tried to sleep on the bus but it made a LOT of stops and sleep was impossible. The snow started almost as soon as we left the city but didn't stick.

The Strand Theater is HUGE. I think the house holds a 1000 seats! Robert had mapped out an agenda which turned out to be over-ambitious. We were supposed to do a cue-to-cue from 2-3, then have a bit of a break, eat dinner, then do a runthrough, then relax before our performance. Oh no--we didn't finish the cue-to-cue until close to 5. Robert tried to call a full runthrough and he nearly had an actor mutiny--we were all starving by then. So we went through only the first act and then chilled backstage. At one point Kelly Anne and I were talking and she asked me what the plot of Twelfth Night was (it came up somehow, and I told her she was the right type to play Maria). We talked about that and other Shakespeare--she's done some straight theater but no classical, I don't think.

Check out our head mikes!

The audience at the Strand LOVED us. It was more than appreciation--they were grateful. At one point we had an emergency--during "There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)" the stage lights and music were cut and we were told to go backstage. A board member came backstage and told us that they'd had a slight emergency and were holding the show briefly. Then the board member started raving about how good we were, so professional and talented, the best they'd ever had...very nice to hear! She actually touched me on the shoulder in a very sincere gesture, this is what I mean about seeming grateful. Very sweet. The audience was raving about us at intermission as well, I had several photograph requests.

I was able to get out in enough time to catch the 10:30 bus back, which arrived much quicker than I antici------pated. 12! I was expecting 12:30 so yay for a whole half-hour! I crashed and have been crashing ever since--SEVERE sleep deprivation last week and have slept upwards of 11 hours a day the past few days. The cast has been sending gooey, mass "aw, you guys, I loved working with you so much!" emails and Kelly Anne is planning a cast party.

Last night went soooooo well. We had a nice big house--not full but the center section was packed and we had spillage on the side sections. It seemed loud to me (i.e., lots of callbacks) but Duncan said it was just a few people--him (of course) and 1-2 others. I wasn't fazed but then Columbia doesn't get that much yelled at her. Poor Chris (Eddie/Dr. Scott) was terribly spooked though--he went up on a lyric during the intro to "Eddie" and was muttering backstage "those fucking guys will NOT SHUT UP, I couldn't think, I just lost it!" I said to him gently "well...that's Rocky Horror. That's expected, you can't let it get to you." I mean, what did you expect? This isn't Lear! ♪ [singsong] I warned you virgins...I tried to set up a field trip to see the movie......[/singsong] ♫

Again, Steven's performance is just weird. He's a doll, I hate to dog him but he doesn't get it. He did this patented shoutback to the audience the first time someone yelled about his no-neck (for the virgins out there, the actor who played the narrator in the movie looks as though he lacks a neck--

--and audiences have riffed endlessly and hilariously on this topic. My favorite line last night--Narrator: "There are those who say that life is an illusion..." Audience: "Like your neck!" ). Steven stops and says in this yew-go-grrl voice "lissen, this is a LIVE show and I can HEAR you and I GOT a neck." Dude, it makes you sound as though you're taking it personally. You can't respond like that--you're essentially saying NO and you can't do that, If you respond, it has to be clever and build, you have to say YES. Kelly Anne (Magenta) and I were backstage for her change when we heard him do it last night, and she muttered to me "why does he do that? It isn't funny." Later on he had another laboriously unfunny bit when he commented about having to fetch a prop. Ugh, I just want to DIRECT him out of that.

Getting there was another NJT-sponsored fucking nightmare. Again with the lines going all the way down the hall and to the escalators, again with the regular 126 line going much faster than the Willow Ave spur. (We stood still, again, for 15 minutes.) When we got into the tunnel, we just inched through it. It's a miracle I didn't crash the scooter when I finally got off the bus, I was so pissed off. I got there at 7:40--you can imagine how that made me feel. Luckily Tatum preset what she could and, again, I raced through hair, makeup and costume, and the fastest dance warm up EVER. I must've looked like a rabbit backstage, rapidly batting my legs back and forth! They ended up holding for a bit because of the weather so in the end, all was well.

Duncan, Tesse and Chris were in the audience, as was a friend of mine from work It was so exciting having an audience finally, and they seemed to LOVE it! I even got applause on my tap solo! EEEEEEEHHHHH!!!! My very own applause! Am I a rock star or what?! The audience really seemed to enjoy themselves--at the risk of sounding cheesy, there was a lot of love out there, which is CRUCIAL for this show. If they don't come in wanting to have a good time, we're fucked 'cause Lord knows, the book is a joke!

Afterward some of us went out to get a quick drink--we went to the slightly-sketch-looking place on 8th St. that's a couple of blocks away from the theater. I walked in and said "oh, a honky-tonk!" It's rare to see them this far north!

Off to do two shows. "Touch-a Touch-a Touch-me" will be interesting tonight!

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