The Colors of the Wind

(Someday this picture is gonna be worth a lot of money!)

Okay, I was trying to make use a Stephen Schwartz lyric to make sense of my night!

"The Colors of the Wind" is from Disney's Pocahontas -- and the wind blew me to into the Barnes and Nobel in at The Americana in Glendale at 9:00 pm (that was corny, but I tried) -- and there was Stephen Schwartz and author Carol de Giere signing books for with about eight people left in line.

Thank goodness I had some cash, so I grabbed the last book, Defying Gravity and ran downstairs to pay for it. Back upstairs and there were only two guys in front of me... thank goodness I still had battery left in my cell phone because they were taking pictures!

I know they (and the B/N staff) were happy I was the end of the line so I kept it short -- introduced myself as the weird combination of bookwriter/composer at ANMT, I told him I thought he was great and told Carol she kept up a great website, Musical Schwartz. After they both signed my book, Carol clarified that I was bookwriter of MUSICALS and I said yes -- and I thought it would've been great to chat for awhile but it was late so I got out of their way...

I couldn't keep the sh*t-eating grin off my face though -- I'm not one to NOT appreciate a "God shot" when one kicks me in the face! This week I was told that "all I was was a blogger" -- that I wasn't doing really doing anything else... but guess what? I was actually going to the bookstore to work on the outline for Sailors and Nurses again, after a long hiatus away from it.

If meeting Stephen Schwartz wasn't a sign to BEGIN AGAIN, I don't know what is!

And away we go...

Whew!

What a whirlwind week! D. came into town to see Ricardo debut at the MBar in the ANMT Performers Workshop Cabaret... I worked the door before the show, and then had a terrific time inside. You done good, Rick -- I'm so proud and excited to see marching through to your dreams! And you're getting quite good!

The night before I'd just seen Wicked for third time -- always a lot of fun. (Ran into Matt C, who was there with his mom... that was cool -- so sorry to hear later he'd broken up with my girlfriend:( I'd planned to watch it this time from a writing point of view -- but that lasted about 3 minutes until I got into the story again. New Elphaba for me, but quite an experienced Galinda... (M.H.) who, IMHO really has milked it -- in a good way, got the funniest laughs ever, but in a bad way, taken so much liberty that you can't hear her whispers and gasps if you've never seen the show before... it really got annoying after awhile. Whatever happened to KEEP IT SIMPLE? I don't want to "see" the performing in shows... I want to see CHARACTERS. Last night D. and Jeffrey and Alan came to see the show at my theatre, where the director was brought in to "tame" an out-of-control actress... yeah, people do take pacing and professionalism seriously!

I've practically slept all day and now it's off to the theatre again -- they've increased my hours now to stay into intermission, and I'm happy to do it -- it's good to feel wanted and needed.

And as always great to be around my "high school" gang again... I get so much strength and support and laughs... the next time we're all together I'll be on the hot seat for my recital! :)

New Cain

It's been two weeks since we delivered our final draft and lots of things have happened since then... I'll catch up with it all later. (Going to a Tony Awards party and still debating whether or not I should slave over a hot stove and fry some lumpia...)

Went to my first rehearsal with and am so pleased to have met our new Cain, Brent Schindele. How did we luck out to get ANOTHER fantastic singer/actor -- the gods must be with us.

He's a whole different energy than Christopher Carothers, which didn't take long to get used to at all. But it does show me how DIFFERENT a role can be depending on the performer. I don't know if we would've written it any different if we'd seen Brent first -- he's quite the energetic one and very funny... Christopher was more "sensitive" and has a sweet quality to his singing -- but sadly, Christopher also never got a fully-realized script to work from.

Anyhoo, I'm quite pleased -- more than pleased -- with how the whole show is going. Michele Spears, our director is TERRIFIC, and gets that our play can handle all the "BIGNESS" (yes, it's that broad of a play... who knew?).

I was given a Christmas present last night of seeing the show "Wicked" again in Hollywood -- right after this fab rehearsal -- mind you, and I was in HEAVEN. I told Lu that I've never been so happy in my life -- I'VE FINALLY FOUND SOMETHING I LOVE, UNEQUIVOCALLY! It's such a relief -- and yes, such bliss.

I am so looking forward to this next week and sharing it with my friends and family... and I'm already brewing about my next project (after the recital, of course!). Brew, brew...

P.S. I'm not gonna fry lumpia -- I'll bring purple (ube) ice cream instead. Trying to stay stress-free!

Bungled Booty Calls

This week has been a bit OFF. Still recovering from parental visit, I guess... you think I'd be over that by now... I'm finding I get a bit nuts when I've had an emotional rollercoaster weekend/week, and I can be reactive and reckless to try to get back to the normality of my life...

And yes, that's call(s) -- plural.

First one shouldn't have happened -- am I still such an idiot to think I'd could meet a "nice fella" by instant message? ("Yes, Madley, you are.") I know better... folks are lookin' to hook up when they're online like that, which is one of the reasons I usually don't have my Buddy List on (or is it so all my past digressions don't find me anymore?! Be honest here.)

So I'm on yakking with a friend about Mad Hot Ballroom (go see it, I've seen it twice this week -- great belly laughs! -- and this rumba scene is my favorite in the entire film) on the rare IM night... and some little bugger is just charming online. Obviously has done this many a time before, but I'll play.

Well, got on the phone after 15 minutes of flirty typing... ends up he's "only" ten years younger than me, and quite intelligent. But when you start playing "I'll tell you a secret" games on the phone... come on now, you know where this is going.

And I went. What a sorry, uncomfortable time this was. I'll never forget it -- for as wonderful T. was in NYC (my Cinderella in the City week), this smooth-talkin' fellow was just WRONG. I berated myself at the time the same as I'm doing now... wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

No MORE newbies like that. I end up disliking myself to no end, and that doesn't fit my life anymore.

===

M. is someone I met online six years ago -- back when IMing was new and... well, it felt better anyway. We actually talked for a long while, and met up with the intention of maybe dating for real. No such luck ;)

I used to call him my f*ck buddy, but after a little pressing on that phrase (as in I really enjoy his company and no, I don't want to share), it seems so disrespectful. (Is there something kinda off about that sentence?... hm...) And "friends with benefits" sounds cloying... so now, he's just my friend, M., that I see on occassion.

So the next evening I'm on IM with the same friend talking about Mad Hot Ballroom AGAIN and now the fabulous musical WICKED that Jeffrey took me to see (THANK YOU, THANK YOU, JEFFREY! Nothing like bawling my eyes out in the first three minutes because I love musicals so much!), and M. and I chat for a few minutes. He then says good night because he has to meet a client at 9:00. Night.

Two minutes later he's back on saying a pretty personal phrase that means somethin' special to the two of us and ka-boom, it's late but I'm going to be there in 30 minutes.

45 minutes later, I'm still in my car and I realizing M. wasn't out walking the dog. I try knocking again and get a "who is it?" I say me, and he's half dead.

"Were we supposed to meet tonight?"

Um, yeah... that's what your IM said and I confirmed. Ends up he really went to sleep and someone else must've hacked into his IM. I don't know how (I never know how), but some schmuck/schmuckette must have been laughing to high heaven because he and I really crossed paths.

Poor M. felt bad I'd driven the 21.6 miles over there, but it wasn't his fault (and no, I wasn't gonna stay). And now we have other IM addresses to use as well as a really good code we made verbally to assure that never happens again. Take THAT, stalker!

Or I guess we could use the phone too.

Bottom line... thank god the week's over.

"She's GREEN!"

I'm Elphaba from Wicked! (Can't wait, Jeffrey, 6/29 I haven't forgotten :)

Actually I'm just in a piss-ass mood today. Hopefully better tomorrow... want to go to astrology class badly, just to connect with people again. Too much on the computer lately... and "feeling too much" to blog.

Steak and Green Beans

I usually HATE Sunday/Monday holiday nights... those in my head should be/are usually spent with family and well, for today, I don't have one of my own yet.

I wasn't sure I had a dinner date with a friend, then I got really busy on the computer... but heck, I wasn't gonna feel sorry for myself.

Broiled a steak marinaded w/ soy sauce, salt/pepper and orange juice (YUM!), green beans with a little butte, and a tiny little baguette. And I actually sat down and ate it, listening to my favorite Wicked soundtrack. Yes, I coulda passed on the little piece of bread/carb — it would have been a beautiful Overeaters Anonymous H.O.W. meal... but oh, poor me, I'm not on it anymore! HAHAH Only thing really missing was the steamed rice to soak up all the sauce...

Ben and Jerry's Phish Food later, when the tummy empties. Got some writing to do... take care of myself tonight...

No take it back. I'm feeling Wicked. Mean ugly, Wicked. I guess I'm angry, hurt... I'm sure I'll write about it someday or it'll be the good punchline of a joke. Not now.