Friday Cat Blogging

Awoke once again this morning to the disturbing sound (and smell) of kitty Hooker having another epileptic fit. Right underneath the bed, so he was playing a drum solo on the slats below me. He got himself out from under there halfway, so I could see him when I looked over the edge of the bed. As usual, Moni was standing a foot away from him, staring at him, confused.


Every time it happens, it seems to be smaller, though. Less floppity-flopping around this time, and it was just about an hour ago, and he's now sitting at the end of the bed here, cleaning himself off and looking fairly normal (though it's obvious he doesn't have all of his sight back yet, but he can distinguish between light and dark). He was up and walking around less than ten minutes after -- it used to take him at least an hour to be able to move his legs again. So, he's calm and resting now, and I cleaned up the drool and piss on him and the floor. Yup, now he's just lying there making his strange, wheezy, grunty purrs. I keep leaning over and moving his eyelids to blink so his eyes aren't damaged or something (oh, hmmmn -- he's blinder than I thought -- he's not responding to a finger poking at his eye -- well, it'll wear off).


And now, happier times, here's a picture of Hooker and Moni in a former favorite cuddle place, our prop wheelchair:

Friday Random Ten

So, having dealt with Spazmo the Kat -- he seems to be fine now -- some time to sit back and deal with email business for Temptation while listening to some music.



So, what comes up . . ?



1. "C'est Magnifique" -- Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra -- Ultra-Lounge 10: A Bachelor in Paris
2. "Bongo" -- Slim Galliard -- Laughing in Rhythm #2: Groove Juice Special
3. "Del Dan's Tree Farm" -- Primus -- Tales from the Punchbowl
4. "Here 'Tis" -- The Yardbirds -- Having a Rave Up
5. "She's a Heartbreaker" -- Gene Pitney -- Best of Gene Pitney
6. "Heela" -- John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey -- Dance Hall at Louse Point
7. "And I Love Him" -- Esther Phillips -- Atlantic Rhythm and Blues vol 5 - 1961-1965
8. "But You'll Never Do It Babe" -- The Boots -- Nuggets II
9. "Une Histoire de Plage" -- Brigitte Bardot -- Bubble Gum
10. "Dr. Evil" -- They Might Be Giants -- The Spy Who Shagged Me


A good group of songs, and the transitions between the first five were beautiful.


Oh my. A song has come up in the headphones that I haven't heard before -- I've been, um, finding albums online that look interesting and copping them, then just having the songs come up randomly in the playlist, discovering them. Just got a song from Psychedelia: Rare Blooms from the English Summer of Love -- "Scream in the Ears" by Bill Fay. Woah. Okay, now listened to it five times in a row, on the sixth. Jesus. Can't tell whose side the song is on . . . it's sung from the point of view of a "straight" guy at a "hip" party, probably there against his will (his "wife's in the bedroom with everyone else" but he "don't want to play"). He turns down some sherry, finishes his cigarette, doesn't want another beer, tells anyone asking him his name to get lost, he doesn't want to hear any more stupid jokes, is tired of the sounds of everyone screaming around him, and just keeps saying to himself, sarcastically "What a great party this is . . " And that's it. There's something about a suicide in the last verse, and he seems to be telling someone that he knows it wasn't really a suicide, it was the other person's fault (but here his words are unclear in a combination of slurred diction, accent, and, possibly, British slang unfamiliar to me).

It sounds like a bit of a response to Dylan from the viewpoint of Mr. Jones . . . but is the song on his side or not? He's uncool, but amongst a bunch of poseurs. Who's worse? There's a piano that sounds like a sad, less direct version of the "Thin Man" driving force, and a distant organ, the sound of 3 am haze, drugs and alcohol wearing off, confusion, weariness -- but so straight, so uncool -- the sound of British pop studio musicians, 1967, instead of Dylan, Bloomfield, Kooper et al, 1965. Fay tries to sound like Dylan at times, but comes off petulant rather than vicious, and yet, somehow, conveys that he is right. The poseurs are wrong, not for any of their actions, but because in their desire to out-"hip" each other, they've cut themselves off from any kind of human feeling (a serious version of David Bowie's jokey, silly "Join the Gang" from the same year). A stunning recording. Three minutes, twenty-three seconds. Three verses, no real "chorus." Containing so much.


Okay, damn I'm late -- gotta drive into Manhattan and up to Medicine Show -- Daniel Kleinfeld's making a short video for Bryan Enk's compilation project (10 short horror pieces by 10 directors) and I'm lighting for him. His piece is mostly still images with one moving camera shot, and today we're doing the stills -- I don't know entirely what they entail, but he asked me to help. Lighting the 180-degree dolly shot next week will be more of a challenge. I'm also supposed to be one of the 10 directors making a piece for Bryan, and I'm not sure if I can pull it off in time. Maybe next week.


Later today, an update on the past week in Temptation rehearsals, and, I guess, a Fall Preview from me of all the shows I'd like to go see in the next few months, but will never be able to afford tickets for.

Fall Theatre Preview

Oh, boy . . .


Well, today is Fall Preview Day in the theatre blogs, and I come to it completely unprepared, as it seems I have absolutely no idea of what's going on, being too wrapped up in my own damn work most of the time, without the price of a ticket for even a $10 show, as every spare dime I have goes into whatever show of my own I'm dealing with (though, yes, occasionally Berit and I do spring for a show, usually when it's by one of our friends who, a) we feel obligated to see, and, b) we are pretty damned sure is going to be great -- last night we went and saw Eric Davis' solo performance as Red Bastard in the Clown Festival at The Brick, which fit both (a) and (b), and was indeed terrific).


However, I have now got to see everyone else's Fall Preview posts, and as a result am completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of shows that I would like to see and won't be able to as I can't afford it (and this isn't even in the most part due to high ticket prices; I just have fallen into a life that allows me to mainly work on my own shows and not have to do much else, the flip side of this is that while I don't have to do very much that I don't want to do, I can't do very much of what I would like to do).


So, for those looking in here who don't get to all the theatre blogs, here's some links to what the other NYC theatre bloggers are looking forward to:


Isaac Butler - Parabasis
Mark Armstrong - Mr. Excitement News
Matt Johnston - Theatre Conversation and Political Frustration
James Comtois - Jamespeak
Adam Szymkowicz - Blog of a Playwright
George Hunka - Superfluities
Joshua James - The Daily Dojo
Matthew Freeman - On Theatre and Politics


and from L.A.:
Kyle Wilson - Frank's Wild Lunch


and from Buffalo:
Tom Loughlin - A Poor Player



The first thing, apart from what I'd like to go see that I'm not connected with in any way, is to note that I won't be seeing much of anything because I have a show of my own, Temptation, opening in The Havel Festival. It plays at The Brick in Williamsburg from November 2 to 26, produced by my company, Gemini CollisionWorks. I'm proud of where the show is going, and the Festival in general looks to be quite good and quite special (I'm on the artistic board of the producing company for the Fest, UTC#61).


So, HAVEL FESTIVAL!


With that promo out of the way, what would I see if I could? Well, since I learned about most of these from other people, who have written about them at the links above, here's a list, with links to companies/spaces.


1) The Tooth of Crime by Sam Shepard
2) Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw
3) The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard
4) In Public by George Hunka
5) Hell House by Les Freres Corbusier
6) Adrift in Macao by Christopher Durang and Peter Melnick
7)Wake Up Mr. Sleepy! Your Unconscious Mind Is Dead! by Richard Foreman
8) Hamlet by The Wooster Group
9) The Death of Griffin Hunter by Kirk Wood Bromley (not written about by anyone else -- coming to The Brick early next year! -- revival/rewriting of a modern verse tragedy originally done in 1999)


Tom Loughlin, linked above, noting how many of us NYC bloggers are in an unfortunate financial state not enabling to see very many shows, has offered to go in on half of a ticket for anything we choose (to a certain point). I'm not comfortable with the idea, but I may get over the discomfort to ask him about it so I can see Tooth of Crime (dear god, I just checked the listings closer, and a good friend of mine from NYU, Jenne Vath, is playing Becky! Neat!).


Okay, I need food and Advil -- splitting headache. Maybe later I'll get to this past week, the great rehearsals for Temptation, the lousy breakdown of my van, the lousy and yet somehow great news about my brother in Iraq, various and sundry other items of miniscule to major note . . .