Sweet Baby Jesus!

From Boston's Weekly Dig via The Consumerist

Things at which I would probably fail if given the opportunity

*Negotiating a Middle East peace deal
*Winning a Top Chef "Quickfire Challenge"
*Olympic Pole Vault competition
*Spelling Test
*Being an air traffic controler

hmmm... what else?

"Why go to Philledelphia if you can go somewhere else?"

Get thee to City Center.

Last night I saw the Encores! production of No, No Nanette.

So. Much. Fun.

I think this may be my favorite Encores! production thus far. It's the lightest, fluffiest, tap-dancin'-est little bit of silliness around. You have one more chance to see it before it's gone for good: a special Monday night benefit performance tomorrow night. Go.

What was that song...

...at the end of this week's Grey's Anatomy? We think it was Gladys Knight (with Pips?), but can't figure out what the song is. It would be a good ipod song.

Watch the episode ("The Becoming") free on-line here.

I'm rather pleased with myself...

Yesterday, in my two-hour window between the assisting gig and going to a design meeting, I built an entire quarter-inch scale scenic model -- from raw foam-core to complete model in two hours! Now, it's still a fairly rough model and all the furniture was stuff I already had, but, still, it was a hit at the meeting.

Well, I was impressed...

(Maybe I'll post the model photos when I take 'em.)

Yesterday I saw Cry-Baby. It was.. good. There has been a lot of negative buzz (and of course, there were the reviews), but I smiled a lot and occasionally laughed out loud. The choreography was clever and there was a lot of good design work going on (The portals on Scott Pask's colorful set canted this way and that and did cool tricks).

Much of it, though, especially the first act, felt generic and saccharine. Winking 50's campy pastiche just feels so... tired. It wasn't new when Zombie Prom did it 10 years ago.

That said, it was a good time. I'm glad I went; and I'd recommend it.

Is this for real?

I can't decide. Is this pure, raw adolescent angst, or is it a little perfect neo-Holden Caulfield fiction project.

Either way: brilliant.

I know the gay activist in me is supposed to be offended by this commercial, and I understand that there is a degree of homophobia in the humor. But I laugh out loud every time.

Now what am I going to do this week...

There are times when being a freelancer rocks (flexible hours, sleeping in, often working in my boxers), and times when it blows. Today it blows.

I had blocked out the whole week to work on a project with a great designer with whom I've worked before. Today I got an e-mail from her saying that there are contract problems with the show and I should stop work until that's resolved. Could be days or weeks. Who knows. It's not her fault; these things happen. But now I need to scare up work for the rest of the week fast.

Anyone need some scenery designed, like, tomorrow?

What have I written about on this blog that Google Ads thinks this is something my readership (both of 'em) would be interested in?

(screen cap from the sidebar)

Take me out to the ballgame

I want to go to a baseball game. Who wants to go with?

Honestly, I'm not a huge baseball fan. I find the sport too slow to actually watch on TV and I don't have any particularly strong ties to either local team. But I love the experience and excitement of seeing a game live. And I like hot dogs and beer.

Yankees or Mets? Either. Both.

This isn't like that time I was all "who wants to go to museums with me?" and then never did anything about it (that offer still stands, by the way), I'm serious. Someone propose some dates and lets make this happen.

Things I like today:

Chris Muller has started a cool little figure drawing blog, which I think is supposed to be for the students in his class at NYU, but it's got some great bits for anyone who likes to draw people. Check it out: Fig Drawing.

(full disclosure: I know Chris a little, but would recommend his site even if I didn't)

Today was a beautiful, sunny day and life is good. Tonight, as I was walking back to my apartment from the subway in the dusk, in this, my 18th month as a permanent New York resident, I thought to myself, "Hmmm.. this is kind of nice. I think just maybe I could live here after all."

One more addition

One of my favorite people and former classmates, Jessica, whose travels we followed in Around the world in 240 Days, has started a new blog: Imaginary Class. It's got writing projects, random thoughts, and recipes -- you know, blog stuff.

I've added the link in the sidebar... I'm going to keep the link to ATWI240D in the sidebar, too, even though she's not updating it any more. It's a pretty good read (skip to the part about walking across Spain).

Blogroll addition

I've added Stuff White People Like to the blogroll over in the side bar. Read it every day. It never fails to make me laugh.

...
Also, folks, are there other blogs of note -- maybe your blog -- that I should add to the list?