After having a mostly public LJ, I have decided to make more and more of my posts friends only. You may request friendship from me. Some explanation of who you are would be helpful in determining whether you are someone genuinely interested in my LJ or if you are trying to gather information for a hit.

Thanks

Yes, this is yet another plug for the wonderful wonderous reprise of our production of The Tempest: A Celtic Musical. It is done for the Capital Fringe Festival, so even if you didn't know it to be an impossibly cool musical, it is made cool by association because of the Fringe Festival. There's singing, dancing, drinking and a vomitswallow. How many musicals offer you that?

It's a good show, it's Cap Fringe, easily the most interesting thing to do in DC in July, and it's a chance to catch what we do in a shiny black box theater with a bar, downtown.

Afterward we can all gather for debriefing and cocktails.

Saturday, July 11 @ 3:30 PM
Friday, July 17 @ 5:15 PM
Sunday, July 19 @ Noon
Saturday, July 25 @ 6:00 PM

The Warehouse Theater - Mainstage
1021 7th Street NW DC

http://shows.capfringe.org/shows/92-The-Rude-Mechanicals-The-Tempest--A-Musical.html
for tickets

Those of you who missed it the first time around, you now have no excuse. You must come see this show. (unless of course you have other plans, but if you can make it out, I'd rather like it)

I was not on the Metro during the crash, nor was lkell. Those who might have been, I'd like to hear from you to know you're ok. Seriously.

Creationism really DOES make sense once explained scientifically:

Spoilers under cut...fair warning:

( First Reaction )


( Second Reaction )



( Third Reaction )



( Final Analysis )

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go mutter to myself for the next nine months.

Today is my 5th wedding anniversary with lkell

We'll be celebrating at Jackies because it's our favorite restaurant in Silver Spring.

Happy Anniversary babe.

OK Republicans, honestly I do try to take you seriously as a party, but honestly, are you guys living in huts or something? This is just begging for ridicule. Is it your assertion that after we're all done giggling you can turn around and say "Look at how immature those liberals are turning the Boston Tea Party into a sophomoric joke while the country goes to seed!"

Yes, we are giggling like schoolchildren. It's hilarious. You just don't get it do you?

Supply side economics is a failure. Your hero Ronald Reagan's legacy is what we're all now soaking in. It is an utter failure and we're having to clean it up. Instead of whining about the fact that the government actually does have to collect taxes, why don't you instead go back to the drawing board and come up with an economic policy that doesn't put the economic resources of our country in the hands of a small group of greedy men who will gorge themselves on the carcass of our entire economy like an opportunistic virus.

Here's a hint. Look this guy up. He'd be a good place to start. I'm not saying he had all the answers, but he certainly had better answers than your hero Ronnie did. (Come to think of it, he didn't have any answers. He was just a mouthpiece for big business.)

And just stop trying to be clever. It makes you look like morons.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/04/07/us/AP-GayMarriage-Vermont.html?_r=1

Civil rights...what a concept! It's almost as if they form the foundation of our government.

The weekend started with me stopping off at The Woodside Deli to get a couple of our favorite sandwiches: The Cyrano De Bergerac and the Henry VIII. Crazy good sandwiches if not entirely healthy for one, and we'd both had rough weeks. Sometimes, you just need some corned beef and pastrami at the end of a work week.

Like everyone else, I watched the BSG finale. I am not going to go into specifics except to say that it was pretty much what I'd expected. What I loved about it is what I loved about the entire show. The focus was not on super terrific special effects (though they were awesome) but always on the characters. Was it perfect? Of course not. Nothing ever is. But, it was a great little show and I enjoyed watching it. Bit dubious of the upcoming Caprica only because I'm always dubious of spinoffs. We'll see I guess.

Dollhouse was also pretty rockin'. Again, I won't say much except that I was absolutely right! If you saw the episode, you probably know what I'm talking about. If you didn't, Hulu it. Seriously.

A few weeks back, cisic proposed a trip to Staunton Virginia to see some shows at the Blackfriar's Playhouse. Never having been, and having a free weekend, I jumped at the chance. There were a total of 4 of us going down: cisic, emma_elicit, sadcypress and of course myself. We set off around 7:45 in hopes of catching a tour of the playhouse since I had never been. Along the way we stopped in Harrisonburg for bagels and a quick hello to emma_elicit's parents.

The tour of the playhouse was actually quite boring not because the place isn't interesting but because the girl leading the tour really was. Having just driven after getting up so early in the morning (and admittedly not getting enough sleep because I stayed up to watch TV until 12 like a moron) the soft spoken non-inflected lecture almost put me into a coma. Fortunately we went to get some coffee afterward which served to revive me before the first show.



The first play was Henry VI part 1. I had never seen or read it (I'm woefully ignorant of Shakespeare's histories. Must rectify that) so it was a sort of double whammy. The style of production had been explained during the tour: The house lights remain up, and some of the seats are actually on the stage so that the actors can directly engage the audience. Another fun thing was that the actors come out before the show starts to sing and play music. The songs are in contemporary style and in most cases are rock and pop covers, though they do write their own stuff too if I'm not mistaken. I loved the play and the notables were the actress who played Joan and the guy who played Charles. The latter stole pretty much every single scene he was in.

The second play was The Blind Beggar of Alexandria which has not been performed, according to Blackfriars, in almost 400 years professionally. (At least they think that...they didn't say that definitively). This one was a sort of sociopathic comedy. The main character, Cleanthes, through disguises and trickery, manages to marry two women under two different guises and then seduces them both as the husband of the other. What for you ask? Fun apparently. Upon doing a little research, the printed script that the Blackfriars used was probably not the complete script that was written, but an abbreviated one or just one that was missing certain sections. This might account for some of the rather huge plot holes in the story.

After the play, we went out for drinks, meeting emma_elicit's friend Mollie with whom we stayed the night. I slept on the floor which was, well, less comfortable than a bed, but cheaper than a hotel room. The next morning, we went to a place called Kathy's for breakfast which had some bizarre mannequins in the dining room that I can't even begin to describe. Suffice it to say, it's the sort of thing you'll only see in a town like Staunton.

The third and final show was the Revenger's Tragedy which I'd read in high school but only remembered about half of. It was a fun production though I was somewhat saddened by the absence of blood. After Spanish Tragedy, I guess I've become somewhat more of a sicko when it comes to grotesque effects. Nonetheless, it was a fun show and a good one to end the weekend's festivities. Actually the real end of the weekend festivities was gelato.

I just got an e-mail from Michael and David telling me that auditions for the Gondoliers are next week. I guess I'll be finding out whether or not I still have a voice worth listening to for opera. I just hope they'll be ok with me auditioning with an aria in Italian. I just don't know much in English that is remotely operatic. Messiah, and some art songs. That's about it.

Natasha Richardson has died. The theatrical world has lost a major talent.

The similarity between the way she died and the way my Dad died is rather upsetting to me.

I got a text from lkell that there was a breaking news report that Natasha Richardson was brain dead following a ski accident.

Christ I hope that report is wrong.

UDATE:

The latest news reports are conflicting but they all suggest that she is in bad shape. A few have said that she is suffering from brain swelling, but I'm a bit dubious because they also moved her to a hospital in NY. Generally you don't want to move someone with brain swelling.

I guess we'll know in a few days. I wish I were optimistic about this. Poor woman. I feel for her family. I'm also having rather disturbing deja vu of my father's death.

Madoff pleads guilty and goes to jail in handcuffs


Cry me a river you thieving jerk!

Lost last night: WOW!

Owing to the fact that Tobey chewed up another remote recently, I decided to invest in a refurbished Harmony Universal remote to see if it was equal to all the hype.

Can I just say, holy crap! This thing is fantastic. I basically can now toss the 22 remotes I have on the downstairs coffee table. What I like the most about it is the fact that it is programmed for specific activities, using your computer to access codes for various devices. On the one hand, I can choose to watch TV which means I activate both the TV and the stereo (which is tuned to the video output of course) and with another I can activate the DVD player with the stereo also. I haven't found a way to program it for the Ipod docking station yet, but hopefully it's in there. That would be flippin' sweet too.

I'm now holding out for the next model that I can use to program my dogs to not bark every time the doorbell goes off.

Apparently ABC won't be renewing Life on Mars. However, the show will be given a definitive ending. I'm glad of this as I think this is the sort of show that is well suited to one season only. I think the original only lasted for two seasons (which I still need to see!) so it makes sense that this one only lasts for one.

Took the day off both because of the snow and because of being sick. Took a brief video of the dogs. Hard to keep Tallulah in camera frame, but there's some cute playing of the two of them in this.

I could hear it pretty clearly, but I doubt I'd be able to distinguish it from other sounds in a room. Even so, it's good to know that my hearing is not following the path of my fathers who had high frequency hearing loss.

Created by Train Horn