Julia Morgan

Tonight I got comps to see Narnia.  What a wonderfully charming little show!  Loved the costumes, the set, the staging, the lighting - the characters were great and the fights were AWESOME... :) 

....

I took my first Bay Area acting class in one of the Julia Morgan Center studios -- a room with a soft wood floor and windows full of natural light looking out into the redwoods....

I love re-discovering a beautiful place. 

Cyclone

I ended up at an underground warehouse show tonight where I got to see Joan Jeanrenaud play.... AMAZING!!!! 

Perfect sound, a raised stage, cafe tables with tablecloths and flowers, a bar and a sound booth, stairs leading to platforms and to rafters, paper umbrellas, a latter hanging from the ceiling hanging lights, heat lamps, old signs, projections on the wall, great musicians and great people.

The Bay Area never ceases to surprise me.

Age 6

A curly haired little boy with glasses and a toy train - corduroy pants, a polo shirt, and a knit sweater.

Another little boy with a buzz cut and a baseball cap - starter jacket, warm up pants, and a bouncy ball. 

A rainy Sunday afternoon in a laundromat...

"Hi! Nathaniel!  Hi - do you remember me?"

"Ummm... "

"Do you remember me?  I was in the class with you..."

"Ummm...hmm, I don't know...?  Which class?"

The boy in the baseball cap's dad interrupted and politely said to the boy with the curly hair, "I remember you."  Turned to his son and said, "Nathaniel, he was in the class with Miss..." 

The conversation trailed off as my dryer stopped.  My clothes were still wet, so I dropped a few more quarters into the machine.  Another 15 minutes to wait.  I tuned back in as the boy with the curly hair was quietly returning to sit with his dad...

A few moments later, the boy with the baseball cap approached the boy with the curly hair.

"Oohhhh, I remember you."  He said grinning with recognition, as the bouncy ball slipped from his hand and the boys began to play.

The boy in the baseball cap's dad approached, and the dads began to chat.  They seemed to have a nice conversation, but soon their laundry was finished and it was time for the baseball capped boy and his dad to head home.

The boy with the baseball cap looked at the boy with the curly hair and threw himself at him with a giant embrace saying, "Byeeee!"  The curly haired boy didn't seem to know what to do.  As the boy in the baseball cap and his dad walked out the door, the curly haired boy turned to his dad looking confused and kind of giddy.  The curly haired boy's dad sort of shrugged/smiled, looked up ... and caught me smiling too. 

:)

Cubby

"Being an artist doesn't take much, just everything you got.  Which means, of course, that as the process is giving you life, it is also bringing you closer to death.  But it's no big deal.  They are one and the same and cannot be avoided or denied.  So, when I totally embrace this process, this life/death, and abandon myself to it, I transcend all this gibberish and hang out with the gods.  It seems to me that that is worth the price of admission."  - Hubert Selby Jr.

The summer I learned to play chess

I would wake up at 3pm, take a shower, work until sometime after 10, head to the club, dance until 2am, go to the Mexican guys' house, watch them play chess until sunrise... and then I would go home to my hole-of-an-apartment and sleep... until 3pm.

I met the Mexican guys when I was a waitress at the Greeley Country Club. Miguel, Dino, Mike...? I can't remember all of their names... but one of them accidentally shot Carlos in the leg one night... Carlos was on crutches for months...

There was a busboy at the country club who would sing me songs... "I just wanna fly..." Chad Timkovich? I'll never forget him, his songs, or his blue eyes following me across the dining room...

If I wasn't playing chess, working, sleeping, dancing, or dreaming - I was writing... in my journal or on my walls... in the wee hours of the morning...listening to the silence that only resonates just before dawn...

...

GAMH and things

After the Valentine's Day show, and the complete absolute madness around my birthday show before that, and DECEMBER before that... wait, now I've lost my train of thought...

...

Oh right - basically, after about 2 and a half months of complete insanity, I have no set travel or show plans in the immediate future and have actually been able to relax.

This is what I've been doing with my time:

Christopher Titus's The Neverlution at Marine's Memorial Theatre
Tron, the movie
Hip hop class
Audition (I didn't get the part)
Prince at Oracle
SFMOMA
DAI Fight workshop
Oscar night
What We're Up Against at the Magic Theatre
YBCA: YOU kick-off
The Glass Menagerie at Town Hall Theatre
Jessica's birthday / Total B.S.
Jesus Christ Superstar sing through at Ashby Stage
Devotchka at The Great American Music Hall

...and some lovely dinners with Matt, Jess, and Wilder, Sky and Dan, Maureen, Sara, Jen, Michael, Josh, Joan, Shannon, Anna... a nice afternoon visit with Sarah, David, and Zoey, lunch with Gabriella, and one awesome night of foosball w/ Andre and Jen.

*sigh*

The jasmine is blooming outside of my apartment and things are good. :)

In a bar in Colorado Springs, Matt looks at me and says something like, "I'm still going to San Francisco, you commin'"?

A little over 10 years later, Matt's still playing music and I'm still taking pictures. :)

I miss Colorado so much sometimes. The weather. The space between houses. The dreams that seem to just float around in the thin air...

Random wall of awesome

...or, fence, rather. 

Laundromat infatuation

I was sitting on a folding table reading a sign that said, "Do not sit or eat on the folding tables!!" - when he walked in... 

He was of medium height with light brown messy hair, a green t-shirt, and jeans just saggy enough to show off his skull and crossbone boxers...

I was sitting a little too close, given the laundromat was empty and I was sitting on the folding table right next to his dryers - which happened to be right next to mine.

He brushed past me, barely acknowledging my presence while I watched him out of the corner of my eye. 

He ignored me...and I began to notice that some of his clothes seemed a little too flowery...  "He must have a girlfriend", I thought - and his lack of acknowledgment made it seem like either I was, in fact, invisible... or maybe he was just that good of a boyfriend...making him all the more attractive...

After packing up about three loads of laundry, his girlfriend arrived to find me sitting a little too close.  She gave me the once over for sitting next to (what she didn't realize was) my laundry.  I wanted to tell her that she had nothing to worry about. 

...and, that I couldn't believe there were cute men out there who were willing to do their girlfriend's laundry... !!

:)

Prince !!!

Wow, what an amazing concert!!!! 

I remember discovering Prince in the 4th grade at a sleep over.  We danced all night to Let's Go Crazy in our pajamas... 

Prince is an incredible performer, musician - and a really sexy man! Last night he had Shelia E on stage and did three encores before we left the stadium. AMAZING!! The only song he didn't play that I really wanted to hear was 7... "all 7 and we'll watch them fall..."

<3

Crisis?

There are moments in life that have a way of shaping everything.

Identity, existential... midlife?

"First you have to give up, first you have to *know*... not fear... *know*... that someday you're gonna die."

Backstage

Take 2.

Three nights of one acts about love for Valentine's Day. Rey decided to cast teenagers in some of the roles, so no strip tease or girls running around in their underwear this year.

Fed and I did Boozy again, and me and this other guy did a new piece Rey wrote one morning three weeks before we opened. It required a New York/Jersey accent from me...which, according to Michael, I managed to pull off.

I thought last year's show was stronger overall, but this year's show was... cuter?

"The way to my heart is through the stage."

Theater is my weak spot. It doesn't matter who you are or what you're going to see, I generally won't discriminate based on genre, venue, or company (in all senses of the word). Because of this, I have seen some amazing productions I never would've found on my own.

On my worst "date" ever, I saw a really fantastic show. The same guy texted me today to invite me out to another show. We had the worst date ever, so of course I had to turn him down... but, it was really hard for me to not write him back to ask what show...

Pocket full of pennies

(Slightly edited from an old LiveJournal entry / 2.17.07)

I wanted to get the best cake he'd ever have...

I drove to the Ferry Building and decided to park on the street instead of paying to park in a lot. Street parking wasn't far, and it was a gorgeous day, so it seemed like a good idea until I realized that I might not have enough change for the parking meter. I parked and dug through my wallet to find a few dimes and a bunch of pennies. The dimes wouldn't buy me enough time so I looked around to see if there was a place nearby where I could change the pennies.

There was a lady parked in the car behind mine talking on her cell phone. I waited for her to finish her conversation, and then knocked on her window. I had been standing there for a good 30 seconds but apparently she hadn't noticed me so, when I knocked, I scared her half to death. She rolled down her window to tell me that.

I had 21 pennies and wanted to see if I could trade them for dimes, so I held them out and asked if she could help. She was sure she could and started looking through her wallet. I noticed she had a bunch of quarters and realized later that I should've asked her to trade a dollar for her quarters - but I wasn't thinking at the time and I really wanted to get rid of my pennies. She handed me two dimes and, as I went to hand her the pennies, she smiled and told me to keep them. I thanked her, paid the meter, and started walking toward the Ferry Building.

It was a beautiful day, so I brought my walk to a stroll and tried to take in some of the atmosphere. People were jogging and sitting by the Bay eating lunch. The sun was shining bright. I was on the look out for a homeless person so I could give away my pennies, but there wasn't one to be found.

When I got to the Ferry Building, I went straight to the cake shop. It was busy - living up to its reputation of being the-best-cake-he'd-ever-have. The girls who worked there had tiny voices and seemed very delicate, but were strangely vicious behind the counter. "Who's next?! Do you know what you want?? Alright, then who was here next?!" I was in a swarm of sweet hungry men and women. I wanted to ask questions, but apparently there was no time. The cakes were on display and looked amazing, but they were all made for 6 - 8 people and I only wanted to feed two. There were beautiful cupcakes that I knew were just as amazing so, when it came my turn, I decided to go with the cupcakes instead. I made my choice quickly and headed to the cash register. The girl who was helping me never looked me in the eye. She seemed to look at where my head might be if I was 5 inches taller, all the while maintaining her delicate, vicious smile. It was bizarre - but I took my perfect cupcakes in their perfect little pink box and headed back into the sunshine with just enough time to stroll back to my car before the meter would run out.

Back outside, I saw a guy sit down on one of the concrete benches by the Bay. He was wearing blue jeans, a hat, a backpack, and just one too many layers for such a nice day. He looked like he might be a student if he was a little younger and cleaner. I had barely noticed him when he noticed me and called out. "Hey, pretty lady! Hey!"... I kept walking. He said, "Hey! You! ...yeah, YOU. Wait just a minute, I want to talk to you." I said I was heading back to work, but he insisted. He said he saw me walking to the building earlier, and now he saw me walking back and I'm such a pretty lady and he wanted to just say hi. I thought of my pennies and said, "Oh! Do you want some change?" He said, "What? No, I don't want your change! I just wanted to say hello and tell you my name." Then, as he told me his name and asked if I had a boyfriend, I started to feel really embarrassed for asking him if he wanted my change. I told him I had a boyfriend, and he said, "Well, if you see me around, you just say 'Hi Cherry' (his name). That's all I want." I said, "Hi Cherry." We stood awkward in the sun for a minute, and then I walked back to my car with the best [cup]cakes he'd ever have, and my pocket still full of pennies.