And How!

John and I worked all weekend on "Weiblich Ist?" Our little dance film - six minutes long. The image is the logo for our new little production company. I think it will have my voice saying "And How!" like the little girl in the old Shake and Bake commercials. I wish the company actually brought in money to pay for these films, but I guess we can't have everything.

It's great to work on little pieces with my husband. It's unbelievable how quickly he cuts together all of the pieces to make a cohesive whole. We have a montage in the middle of the piece that seemed to fall together by itself, but I know it took his honed skills to make it happen. We make a good team.

Brecht opens on Thursday. Tomorrow is a cue-to-cue, and I worry that we aren't ready. The kids actually had a pretty good run on Friday, but we are still missing some props and some of these changes are still pretty rough, and I know the five in the ensemble are really stressing about their cabaret songs, though they shouldn't. I'm really impressed with how those came together. We have this amazing, mop-headed piano player who talks each of the kids through their music and suddenly they have this instant cohesion with the music.

I didn't really work on anything pertaining to Brecht Project this weekend. I needed a respite. Actually, that's a lie. I went to Nordstrom Rack yesterday to look for the infamous thirties-esque shirts for my two main characters. I think I found something, but it wasn't a picnic. There was a tour group from Arizona shopping there - not to mention that Mission Valley is a heinous place to be on the weekend anyway. Nordstrom's was packed and I stood in line for what seemed like hours, shifting from foot to foot with my arms laden with bad looking shirts in colors I would never dream of wearing, while college kids from Arizona yelled into their cell phones all around me.

Anyway, I laid off the rest of the weekend and John and I spent time at the editing trailer, drinking copious amounts of coffee and laughing a lot. We also ate a late breakfast at Brian's American Eatery (Brian's Big Gay Eatery, as some people call it), watched "Zelig" and "Shadow of a Doubt" last night, and actually read books that didn't pertain to our work. "Zelig" was actually extremely funny. I never realized how well Woody Allen and Mia Farrow fit into the '20's era. Mia Farrow especially; she looked amazing as the demure pschyanalyst. The whole film is pretty genius. Woody Allen slipped himself into real footage from the time period way before "Forrest Gump" came out, and I think he did a much better job of it. There's one moment when he's trying to get Mia's attention from the podium where Hitler is giving a speech that is seamless and hysterical.

I also got started on both stage works for my concert. It was great to see Molly and Kim again, as we struggled through remembering "They'll Devour Me Too." It always amazes me how we can't talk through old choreography, but put the music on and we just start doing the steps. Our muscles have an incredible memory. The hard part will be trying to change some of the choreography and retraining our muscles to understand it. Muscle memory doesn't often like change.

A Job Here...A Job There

This is the iffy black box that I am tyring to present "The Brecht Project" in at Canyon Crest Academy. The kids and I step inside this hole for several hours every afternoon. They work hard, the kids, but putting this show up by myself has not been an easy task. Right now I'm trying to put together costumes. We don't have the money to truly go period, so we are trying to hint at the 30's while pulling things off the rack at AmVets and Salvation Army. The piece has also become a pretty prop heavy show. I didn't start off thinking that it would be, but as these kids keep working and suggesting, I find that every day we are continuously adding things to enhance. My poor A.D., who will unknowingly be in charge of preset, has her work cut out for her.

Yesterday was our last rehearsal without our amazing piano player. He's fifteen or sixteen years old and can pound out anything you ask for. I call the piano man "the heart of the piece" in the script, and he has proved himself to be just that. I'm excited to see what happens as we slowly get the set and costumes together. We open in a week.

I also just finished a video shoot for a little piece called "Weiblich Ist?" I wrote it and John and I shot it and John will edit it. The premise of the piece is a woman who is trying desperately to dress like her true self. She goes from a full ball gown to a full tuxedo and everything in between. Ultimately, she walks out the door in jeans and a t-shirt. KInd of like me.

We shot it in one day. It was a long, long day. I ended up exhausted and needed a day to decompress the next morning, but I think we were all satisfied with what we got. My friend, Cynthia, came along and helped me get dressed and undressed throughout the day. I love sets where we all get along - where we laugh constantly. I think there were only two or three times where there was any tension at all.

The piece premieres on December 17th at my concert, ". . .In Time" at the Arts & Entertainment Center in North Park. I'm shooting a little video in Budapest in a couple of weeks too. The Brecht piece goes up next week at Canyon Crest. These kids are pretty fantastic. I wish all of this work didn't wear me out the way it does.

Party at Keturah's House

John and I had our San Diego wedding reception over the weekend. There were about sixty people (7 or 8 of them rugrats) running around our little apartment, eating food I made and gulping down the Guinness. John included. I was over-ambitious with the menu. I was trying to make as much Irish pub food as I could muster, but around 6:15, people started piling in the door and I was there, standing helpless and spatula-clad by the stove, trying to fry camembert while everyone was hugging me and handing me wine and champagne. I hated being torn between finishing my menu and greeting my guests, so I finally popped the Shepherd's Pie in the oven and walked into the living room to mingle.

I had one little girl who kept sending me presents through my mail shoot, a couple of kids who were addicted to the Dubliner cheese I'd put out, and a whole group of people in the front room who make me smile constantly. It was great for us to be surrounded by so many people we care about. I stress myself out too much about throwing parties when it's really all about sharing a drink with friends.

John's coworkers delivered a couple of beautiful toasts to us, and John's friends in Los Angeles had an incredible bouquet of lilies delivered. It's nice to be appreciated and loved.

So, we had that nice weekend and now we're both in the middle of project after project after project. I've got high school kids working on Brecht, a dance video we're shooting this weekend and we're still looking for a full-length freestanding mirror and the rights to the music, a trip to Hungary coming up and cats who can't seem to do anything but make messes wherever we look.

Life is constant. I guess I just wish I could have a couple of days without anything now...the grass is always greener. If I wasn't working I'd be chomping at the bit to get a project started.

By the way, that's John downing his Guinness. Thank god for the small moments of joy we get spiked with every day.

Bad Memories

This news about a plane crash just broke on CNN.

Apparently a small aircraft crashed into a residential high rise on the Upper East Side in New York. No one knows where the airplane came from; it wasn't being tracked. There's very little information about what happened or is happening thus far.

Smaller scale or not, it brings up bad memories from several years ago. That immediate feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.

I have too many friends in New York.

Random Bits on Columbus Day

Today I left the house to run errands and quickly realized three things: the bank isn't open so I can't deposit any checks, the post office isn't open so I can't overnight a package to my brother, and everyone who works at the bank and post office plus a ton of other people who work god knows where are at the party store shopping for Halloween costumes. Sometimes my timing can be really off. With most of errands unaccomplishable on a bank holiday, and my nerves shot after trying to buy party napkins and plastic champagne glasses while being surrounded by fake cobwebs and screaming witches, I retired to Borders Books for a tea and a glance through the magazines that people had left on my table.

Transitioning back into reality after a vacation is tougher than I remembered. I haven't truly vacationed in so long. I come back into the country only to realize that Republican senators have been making advances on under age boys and Asian despots are testing their nuclear abilities and our country's still being run by a moron...that was nice to forget for a little bit actually. I also just read today that the Army is only meeting its recruitment quota right now because they've lowered their aptitude standards for entrants. Perhaps they think if their grunts are stupid enough, they won't realize what a shit-hole they're stepping into as they step off the planes in the Middle East.

Anyway...I actually went to Borders to pick up a German newspaper to use with my actors this afternoon. I thought Borders used to have this huge wall filled with papers from all over the place and now I couldn't find a single newspaper in the entire store. What happened to that? I couldn't find an Audition News or a Backstage West either. 'Twas very frustrating and I was left reading Real Simple and Esquire, a discordant grouping of magazines sitting on my little table.

I had my first rehearsal for "The Brecht Project" this afternoon. I have a great group of students in this piece. The theater, however, was completely empty save a golf cart when I walked in the door. I had no idea how to proceed with no chairs and tables or ANYTHING to double as a prop or set piece. There weren't even rehearsal cubes. It's crazy to start so completely from scratch; I haven't worked on something that required this type of dealings in quite some time. Opera is so different in its ability to provide immediately. I'm hoping by the end of the week we'll have a good group of stuff to deal with and move around so the kids can start understanding the rhythm of the piece.

My cat has decided he hates the litter box again. John and I don't exactly know what to do. We've moved the litter box to a new location (the one he seems to prefer right now) to see if it is a locational problem, but if it isn't then we're sort of stuck. I love Lucius to death, but he seems to everything he can to make our lives difficult. He sits on his purple pillow on the couch with those big eyes and little white puffy face and I can't help but fall all over myself to help him out, then he walks in his room and poops on the floor. Impossible.

I guess that's it for now. Things are falling back into the swing. Someone asked me the other day if I felt any different now that I'm married and I really don't. It just seems like us, the way we're supposed to be. We grilled tonight and ate dinner together like we always do and the day-to-day stuff continues in this fashion. I love every minute of it.

The pic is of the two of us on the Doolin Pier, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. The sea was wild that day, the wind cold and blustery. The waves were taller than we were. It was a glorious time to be out on the edge of the world.

And Two Small Tidbits from Cashel, Ireland

And, because I can't resist, here are a couple of my favorite shots from Ireland. We took about 400 pictures over there so I'm just beginning to sort them out, but the Rock of Cashel and the nearby Bru Boru Cultural Center in Cashel, County Tipperary was one of my favorite spots. This first shot is of John lounging on a bench just outside of the Rock of Cashel, a huge 13th Century ruin on top of a giant hill. I think there may even be a hint of a smile on his face.

This shot is of John's favorite statue outside of the Bru Boru Cultural Center that he's named "The Blissed-Out Dancers." They looked so happy and limber that I decided to join in for a snapshot. I wish my legs were that long.

I promise not to bore with too many more of these. I'll be setting up a Flickr account soon and you can leaf through at your leisure.

More ranting and musing soon.

Scenes From a Wedding

We're Back! It's been two wonderful weeks in Chicago and Ireland and here I am, back at home and ready to start up again with life.

Much more to come, but here are a few snaps from the wedding taken by John's sister, Patricia. My brother took professional shots, which will be up soon.

The first couple are during the ceremony. We were praying so hard that the rain would stay away through the vows, and our concentrated thought worked. We had a dramatic background for pictures and it started into a torrential downpour the moment we entered the restaurant!




Elsa, my adorable niece, got ahold of my bouquet. She is quite the ham. Takes after her aunt. This is the first full family photo we've had in six years. It was quite a gift for my parents to make that happen.