Events

So, second performance of Ian W. Hill's Hamlet last night - not nearly so rocky, felt really good, very appreciative and fairly sizable house. Yay!


Came home to find the first review out. Not good. Oh, well.

I won't link to it until after the run, as I did with Martin Denton's on That's What We're Here For. I haven't actually read it in its entirety, but skimmed it fast down the screen to get the gist, catch the adjectives, and put it away. I don't want to see that right now. I can't deal with that. Maybe ever.

Berit read it in full, and gave some comment on it, as did a friend, who emailed to say that he thought the reviewer "sounds like he is mother f'n hellbent on pursuing a personal vendetta against you!" He's not, man, I know him slightly socially, I'm sure I disappointed him, I've already written my "thank you" letter to him.

(I've probably mentioned it before, but it's a good piece of advice, so I'll pass it on again - the one piece of personal advice Richard Foreman gave me when doing the ForemanFests was to ALWAYS write a personal thank-you note to EVERY reviewer who comes to see the show NO MATTER WHAT kind of review they write. Richard is very VERY sharp and canny about these things, and I've felt this has indeed helped me in keeping a good relationship with the press - they seem to remember my name, at least. Though I wonder what Richard's notes to John Simon - who really DID have a "personal vendetta" against Foreman for years - must have read like after a couple of decades . . .)

I don't feel so bad after Berit's rundown of the review, as his problems with the show were primarily conceptual, rather than regarding the rocky and unsteady performance, and, well, the concept stuff is the concept stuff. It's my show, and even at the rocky opening night, it still said what I wanted it to say the way I wanted to say it, so, yeah, if you aren't behind it, that's it for the show -- though the unsteadiness of the beginning of that performance in particular may have not been confident enough to "sell" the style of the show right away; we may have needed to hook 'em and drag 'em into this world better, right away.

So it goes. I've had bad reviews before, I'll have them again. Same with raves. The show is good, and the audience was fully with us last night, so I'm good. Two more performances, hopefully more. I love working with this company, and on this show, I want to keep it up as is possible.

But we have one more review coming, which, I fear, will be in the same boat as the one we just got. {sigh}


Anyone have any suggestions for getting stains out of brick? At our tech, some of our stage blood sprayed onto the brick wall of the theatre that gives it its name (normally, it would spray onto a piece of paper hanging there, but we didn't have that paper for tech). Afterwards, we tried cleaning it up with what we had around the theatre, but liquid hand soap and paper towels don't do well on rough brick. We came back a day later with stronger cleansers and brushes, and got most of it off after about 5 or 6 scrubbings, but there is still a very slight stain left there (this is not helped by the fact that the cleaning is making the brick around the stain much brighter and less dull).

This blood comes off anything, and out of clothing, like it was never there, so I'm surprised at how persistent it is on the brick (porous ceramics are rather different, indeed). I suppose, because we waited a day, thinking it would just sit there on the outside like so many other things we've had to clean up at The Brick recently (taffy, gum, clay), and of how it comes out of clothes after several days sitting there, that the time it spent there let the dyes sink in. A "foam cleaner" has been suggested. Any ideas?


Anyway, I should go and deal with other things today. It's my 39th birthday. I'm going to a general birthday backyard BBQ party that Daniel McKleinfeld and Maggie Cino run every year for the members of this group of friends with June birthdays - Maggie and Daniel in particular, but also Berit, and me, and a few others I think.

Last time I played a major classical role was 15 years ago this month, when I turned 24 while I was playing Marlowe's Faustus. Last night I saw someone from the group of friends that put that production on (though he wasn't involved) at The Brick to see another show, who I hadn't seen in about 12-14 years. He's trying to rustle up some of those old friends to come and see my show later this month, so, that would be a nice way of getting back in touch with them.


More soon. (oh, and sorry about no cats or random ten two weeks in a row -- too busy . . . oh, hell with it, I'll do a random ten as another entry right now . . .)

Friday Random Ten, Belated on Bloomsday Birthday

From the iPod, currently at 21,132 songs, and with almost no space left in it, so I can't add anything until Hamlet is over -- I have several sound beds for scenes of the show on here, so things like 15 minutes of wind (repeated several times) are taking up space.

I hope none of those sound effects come up now . . .


1. "Truck On (Tyke)" - T.Rex - History of T.Rex—The Singles Collection

Pure pop for then people.


2. "The Wedge" - Dick Dale - Rato's Nostalgia Collection 1

Also Pure, as well as Ur, as well as Surf.


3. "Exakt Neutral" - Stereo Total - Music Automatique

Too new to be New Wave, but the next best thing.


4. "Damnation's Cellar" - Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet - The Juliet Letters

Yup, I can imagine Berit's comment, if she were awake: AH! Yet another cheery song from Elvis! What person does he want dead in this one?" Um, all of them -- well, at least he wants the ones who already are to stay there.


5. "What in the World" - David Bowie - Low

iPod seems to be trying to cheer me up this morning with songs that make me feel happy-peppy. Thanks, iPod! Not really a happy song, this, but it makes me cheery.


6. "Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight" The Kinks - Kinda Kinks

Good, but could have been generated by the Kinks Pop Song Creator 2000.


7. "Hyena Stomp" - Jelly Roll Morton - Birth Of The Hot: The Classic Chicago "Red Hot Peppers" Sessions

Okay, the iPod is seriously trying to cheer me up, not only by playing Jelly Roll Morton, but by playing a happy one where he laughs through half of it.

I know it's random, but sometimes there seems to be a theme to what comes out. toddalcott has noted that sometimes his iPod gets drunk and sad and will play nothing but Leonard Cohen for hours unless he stops it.


8. "Un Grand Bond Pour L'Humanite" - Etienne Charry - 36 Erreurs

The aural equivalent of the happy parts of a Michel Gondry movie - appropriately, as Gondry used to play drums for Charry. More cheer, more cheer.


9. "Unchained" - Johnny Cash - American II: Unchained

Again, not actually happy, but makes my heart light. I acquired a GREAT DEAL of Cash recently, more than I'll ever need, and I'm getting rid of much of the sillier dross, but there's STILL so much good stuff to keep. We keep getting ones we've never heard before on random in the car and enjoying them. Damn, he was something.


10. "I Love You Mary Jane" - Cypress Hill/Sonic Youth - Judgment Night

An interesting rock/hip-hop collaboration. Nice, actually works.


and yes I said yes I will Yes

Am I Worthy?

Oh, one other brief thing . . .


. . . um, how do I say this . . .


. . . uh . . .


. . . okay, I have a MySpace page now, okay? Rather, Gemini CollisionWorks has one -- I've been told it's good for marketing and so forth, so I did the damned thing. I know it's like not so me or GCW, but there it is.


If you're actually interested in such things, here it is: http://www.myspace.com/geminicollisionworks.


The thing that has been fun, however, is finding old friends and getting back in touch with them. I organized my "Top 40" friends as the 40 or so people I've friended that I actually know in the real world, and I've arranged them chronologically by when I met them, which means I met the top 5 in, respectively, 1977, 1983, 1983, 1986, 1986. Those are some long-standing friends, really.


But I am amused by the phrasing on the "Pending Requests" page where you can look at the people you have requested to friend that have not yet agreed: "Currently awaiting approval from ---" It makes it sound like you want some kind of validation from them, which, depending on the person involved, can be a daunting idea.


For example, look at the userpic above. This is Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys and Rocket from the Tombs. That is his photo from his MySpace page.

I now have a listing that says "Currently awaiting approval from Cheetah Chrome."

I look at that phrase, and that photo, and I worry about whether Cheetah Chrome would, indeed, approve of me. He seems to be considering carefully . . .