Around Two Weeks

So, yes, it's less than two weeks until we open Spacemen from Space and just about two weeks until we open Devils. And it's all coming together. Still a lot to do, but the time appears to be there. There will be some serious unpleasant crunch time for Berit and I at the end, probably, but . . . well, it happens.

Spacemen looks to be as funny as I intended, actually probably funnier. At least I'm not nervous about audiences just sitting there confused at it. It is definitely the silliest thing I've ever done, and I mean that in a very good way. Devils is looking fairly epic, but all the pieces we've worked are stitching together OK.

We have most of the set up, and it's big and odd, but I like it a lot. There were more sightline problems than I thought there'd be from the platforms, and I have had to, and will continue to, restage bits to be seen properly, but thus far everything's been improved by the changes, so good on us.

Today, I'm taking time away from the set to work out some more things at home -- more scheduling, lighting plans, so forth -- so I can have a mostly quiet day before the rehearsals tonight and all day Saturday and Sunday. Monday I go in to deal with set and lights, Tuesday I work on my performances all day (I have a big part in Devils and a teeny one in Spacemen), Wednesday is for sound design work, Thursday and Friday for cleanup on any and all of the above. Plus costumes for Devils. By that point, we start trying to run through the shows with as much tech/costumes etc. as possible.

We'll see if this plan actually works and happens . . .

Got an interesting little press mention for Devils on the Time Out New York site HERE (less than an hour after I sent them the press release!). I'm glad for it, though it's kind of exactly what I feared would happen when I put the warning in the press release -- "This play contains nudity, sexuality, extreme violence and torture, among other potentially disturbing elements. Not for children or people of sensitive natures." -- that it would be seen as a coy, "come-hither" publicity angle rather than what it is, an honest warning (considering the number of actors who didn't want to come near the play, even for great parts, for these reasons, I did think I should warn the audience). I mean, I certainly want asses in the seats, but I would rather not those asses be leaving en masse when stuff starts going down midway through Act Two, at the end of Act Two, or a little ways into Act Three (depending on whether their hangup is shit, blasphemy, or torture). Well, maybe at the end of Act Two would be okay . . . there is an intermission there after all.

Yeah, pretty much as I figured going in, if Spacemen is the silliest thing I've ever done, Devils is the heaviest. Though it's not without its own humor. Thankfully, or it'd be unbearable.

Meanwhile, back in the iPod, there's still an immense playlist of songs I have in there that apparently have never been played (quite a few of them, however, are upgrades - new masters or better copies - of songs I've had in there for years and heard many times). So here's a weekly Random Ten from that playlist of 2,903 songs:

1. "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited" - The Move - Shazam
2. "Ballad In Which Macheath Begs All Men For Forgiveness" - Raul Julia - The Threepenny Opera
3. "Is It Love?" - T.Rex - History of T.Rex—The Singles Collection
4. "Bye Bye Baby" - Ronnie Spector & Joey Ramone - She Talks To Rainbows
5. "Eki Attar" - Huun-Huur-Tu - The Orphan's Lament
6. "Organ Blues" - T.Rex - A Beard Of Stars
7. "Drift Away" - The Rolling Stones - Clean Cuts - Vol. 1
8. "Cry Cry Cry" - Pere Ubu - Worlds In Collision
9. "Ballade de Melody Nelson" - Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson
10. "If He'd Love Me" - Nancy Sinatra - Boots

Ah, shoot. Just one short of finding all of the exact recordings I'm listening to on YouTube . . . after the more obscure Threepenny and Tuvan throat singing tracks (let alone the Rolling Stones bootleg cover), I thought I was home free. Didn't know a fairly common Pere Ubu track would break the run.

And here's the playlist of all the above (with alternate Ubu track) and a bonus track:

Just looked and discovered I hadn't posted any cat pictures for a while, so here's a bunch of recent ones. First, Hooker in front of our Beatles Rock Band drum kit, matching it nicely.

Hooker & Moni on the windowsill, Moni having a nice stretch:

Hooker playing with a wedding gift (that was for them, not us) that has been very popular of recent with him (Moni had a brief interest in it when it first appeared, mainly in turning it over and gnawing on the base, but then she got more interested in the box it came in):

And again, on the windowsill, sharing a happy nap:

Okay, back to the combo of rest and work (more restful work?).