Random Ten in the Midst

In the midst of one of those wait-until-you-have-to-rush times as Berit and I prepare for regular running of Tanya Khordoc and Barry Weil's Secrets History Remembered at The Brick - Berit's running lights and sound, I'm running powerpoint/video. Berit's a lot more busy right now as she's sewing some costumes for it as well. Rehearsal tomorrow, tech begins Sunday for a coupel of days. The show looks to be great.

I went and saw a so-so show last night as part of my New York Innovative Theatre Awards judging responsibilities - can't say which, of course. More of an annoying show -- most of it not bad, not good, kinda average, with scattered moments of both incredible beauty/brilliance and incredible clumsiness/obviousness. Which makes it hard to judge many of the elements on a scale of 1-100, as I had to. I'd like to try and remember and be kind just to those fine moments of the show, but . . . it doesn't work that way. The two lead actors were excellent and had incredible chemistry, so I did well by them, I think.

Berit looks to have been up most of the night working, and has left a note for me to wake her up at noon, so I guess she still has a lot of work to do (I see an unfinished Red Bull in the fridge). I'm waiting for word from Barry and Tanya about going and buying them a monitor for the show, and just beginning to prepare for the show I'm directing in The Baby Jesus One-Act Festival. I'm doing a play by Marc Spitz that is very very funny (of course) and involves obscure music geekery (double of course) called "Marshmallow World," and to say anything more than that would be spoilerrific.

And speaking of obscure music geekery, my 80GB iPod now has 20,876 songs in it and is down to 10MB left in it - maybe 2 songs worth of storage. Every morning I cut more unnecessary stuff from it, and then add more "necessary" stuff. Here's 10 of what seems necessary, randomly, this morning:

1. "A Drunk in My Past" - X - More Fun In The New World
2. "Song X" - Sand in the Face - Sand In The Face
3. "I'll Give It Five" - Janice Nicholls - Beat of the Pops 07
4. "Best Days" - The Svengalis
5. "I'm Paying Taxes, What Am I Buying" - Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s - James Brown's Funky People (part 2)
6. "King Ink" - The Birthday Party - Prayers on Fire
7. "Beautiful" - Elvis Costello - House M.D. soundtrack
8. "Oh My Soul" - Johnny Otis - Let's Live It Up
9. "Get It Together" - James Brown - Star Time
10. "I Want to Wake Up" - Pet Shop Boys - Actually

I've been organizing things for The Brick with these companies going in and out, but I've been avoiding the place maybe more than I should this past week - I needed a little more time away between the clowns and Secrets, I think, than I was getting. I didn't see the Pig Iron show there last weekend, and I still don't know if I'm going to see The Debate Society's show there tonight or tomorrow. I should.

Actor-collaborator Walter Brandes ribbed me a bit when he came to see Bryan Enk's The Crow: Final, about my lighting that show and simultaneously working on the Clown Fest and directing Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, saying that he knew I couldn't actually take the rest of the year off from theatre and rest as I said I would (I guess I said it here, or maybe personally to Walter) after August. I actually had seen these varied gigs as a "rest" and "taking some time off" after the whammy of Ian W. Hill's Hamlet and the four August shows. A collection of amuses-bouche prior to digging into a big meal in 2008. However, too many of these little morsels can fill the stomach and ruin the appetite. So, some rest. Take it easy. More big things in 2008.