Clip of the week...

I don't know why I keep posting cat-related stuff. I don't even own a cat. But this guy's work is hilarious:



You should go see his other work.

Better than I could have asked...

So of course, I mentioned my reticence regarding the party. Reading back over it, I was much more worried about the flow of it all than I let on. One of my personal philosophies is "Hope for the best; be prepared for the worst." That way, you can adapt, you can adjust, and you can avoid the massive disappointment that comes from things Not Going Your Way. Which is tough for a semi-control freak like me.

But I have to say: Wow. What a great gathering. From about 6:45 until about 1:30, there was a constant buzz of conversation in the house. People were laughing, drinking, eating, talking...such wonderful energy. Theater folks talked with work folks, people from different theaters talked with one another, significant others talked with people they had never met before. It was everything you might want in a gathering like that. One crowd (the one that included my folks) left just as the late arrivals came. Another crowd left just as the post-theater crowd came (Rabbit Hole and True West both have friends of mine in them). It was like a super long game of some sort, and substitutions were coming in from the bench all night.

The evening closed with the last half dozen guests and I playing a game of Loaded Questions, one of my favorite boardgames of all time. Finally got to bed around 2am. What a wonderful night.

The house is already lukewarm, but nonetheless...

Tonight I am throwing a party at my "new" house. Evite made me pick a category, and the closest was "housewarming", but it is also a celebration of theater (the end of a fun run of The Wizard of Oz, and what will hopefully be a fun run of The Music Man), a welcome-to-the-family for my new(ish) dog, and a chance to get together with old friends. I have invited people from all walks of my life: former Starbucks folks from my time with that company, and my boss from the place I work at now; theater folks from Sonoma and Marin counties; old friends and family. In all, the evite list totalled in the nineties--I know some of those people will not show, it is more an excuse to get back in touch with them. But of that massive list, I already have over 30 positives. It should be an eclectic collection of people. That can either work really well (if they are networkers) or not so well (if they are not). For my fortieth birthday party, I threw a shindig at Ives park and cooked on the barbecue. A bunch of theater folk came to that, as well as some Starbucks folk, but they did not blend well--like oil and water, in fact. One group over here, one group over there, like an eighth grade dance. I am hoping against hope that this time they will actually mix together and it will be a fun event.

I have been busy all day preparing for this gathering, and folks will start arriving soon. Had to clean the place inside and out (not easy when you're just one guy in a 3BR home), and get "stuff" ready: food, drinks, set up conversation nooks and a bar, etc. Also bought a new little device I am eager to try out: it's a little mixer that makes everything from "blended" drinks to ice cream. It is not, however a blender--it has this huge frozen bucket-like part that you freeze, and then pour everything into it. It is so cold it freezes the stuff inside. Less mess, more variety...why not? And, the best part: it was on sale. (Look how much money I saved us, honey!)

Party starts at 6:00pm and goes until everyone leaves or we get shut down. Come by!

Go see this. Now...

...are you still here? Because WALL-E may just be the best movie I have seen in a decade. It was heartwarming, but not in a sappy way. It was visually stunning, but not in a cartoony or over-CG way (I have issues with studios that don't dirty up their images a little to make it look less digital). It addressed meaningful issues without bludgeoning you over the head with them. (Remember Fern Gully? ::shudder::) It made you think, made you happy, made you sit on the edge of your seat.

And, to tell you the truth, I didn't even realize it until I read some "professional" critic's preview later tonight, but there are no spoken words for the first twenty minutes. That, ladies and gentlemen, is storytelling. If you can keep an audience's attention riveted using just visual means for that long without them even knowing it...well, my hat is off all the way to the folks over at Pixar.

It is scary to me to think what the movies will be like in the next decade, once the giant thumb of Disney makes its presence felt more, but perhaps they will leave well enough alone and we will continue to get gems like this one out of the big P and not regurgitated swill like Pocahontas. But this digression is for another time, place and blog.

I don't like to recommend movies much, because I think getting someone's hopes up is a surefire way to doom their movie watching experience. But this one is a must-see.

New projects for old! New projects...

Last fall, Skate and I decided that we should start a theater company. Wipe that smirk off your face and know that we were shoved into it headfirst by Fate, or else neither of us would have ever stopped laughing long enough to actually try it. We were talking about the things we would love to do or see done theater-wise, and someone (I forget which of us--there was beer involved) said, 'we should just start our own theater company'. To which both of us laughed out loud.

See, for those of you who aren't in that crazy little industry, this is an incredibly common occurrence. It shakes out like this: some actors, fed up with their current group of folks because of artistic stagnation or personality conflict, decide They Can Do Better, and they start their own company. Things are usually fine for about a year, then they can either go one of two paths: they crash because of personality conflict or mismanagement, or they succeed and move up to the next tier in the food chain.

We figured, with her pending Master's degree in Arts Management and my experience managing teams, that we might be able to avoid that death knell. Her desire to do something worthwhile and inspiring, and my overactive manic-depressive imagination both seemed to lend themselves to the artistic side of the endeavor. And the stuff we wanted to do didn't fit with any of the local theater companies, so we didn't think ourselves too proud and conflictatory (new word for you there, W) in our dream, either.

We pulled the trigger, and here we are. Last night found us meeting with a group of actors from the area to discuss a crazy new project we are spearheading for the fall. I will keep you updated, but let me just say it was a great meeting, very insightful, very exciting, and I have the Utmost Confidence in the Mission. Stay tuned...

Ummm--WHAT?!? I...uh...

I spoke with my mom yesterday. I was trying to arrange a time when she could give me a ride from home to work so I could get the truck back to my local shop, and she said, 'your father and I would like to talk to you about the truck.' Now, I am an adult and have been out of their house for a long time, but that phrase still made me edgy. I'm thinking to myself, 'geez, I've been working like a Roman orchard slave on that thing, and they're going to criticize how I take care of it?'

So I carefully (and disguised my reflexive defensiveness)(ew, is that even a phrase?) answered 'what exactly do you want to talk about?' She mentioned that they were concerned that I was driving this thing around, it was an old truck, they wanted me to be safe, they didn't think I should dump any more money into it, etc. I have little in the way of finances--they know this. So I said (again, measuredly), 'what are you saying? are you talking about a new vehicle?'

Yes. They want to talk to me about getting something else. I go over there tonight to have dinner, and put Thing 1 and Thing 2 in the back/play room, and they basically give me a budget and tell me they are moving money around to help me out. I was stunned. My parents have been there for me in times of need, but they are not hand-out parents. We talked about possible makes & models (I had been researching a while ago just for kicks) and they basically said, 'get what you need. we aren't going to support something ridiculous.' I reminded them of what I have been driving for ten years, and they smiled and seemed to take comfort from it.

I still can't find the words. I am so grateful.

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that..."

So, in my last post about the ol' truck--do you know the ol' truck? Perhaps a brief introduction is necessary to get the whole story contextualized. Most of you are already acquainted with my ride, but for posterity's sake, and for the couple of you that might not know the Blue Meanie, I feel I should explain. It's a long digression, but the truck means a lot to me, and you should know its history:

When I moved back to northern California in '98, I needed a vehicle--it is impractical to have a car in NYC, so I sold my car when I moved there. I needed something quickly, and happened to mention it to Blender. He had his grandpa's old '86 Ford Ranger, and had just put money in it to fix the A/C. It wasn't a lot to look at, but it was in good running condition and he was offering it to me for very little money.

I have now had it nearly ten years. In that time, the other family vehicle has been:

+ a Chevy S-10 Blazer (had to buy a new engine, and it had a host of other problems, so we got rid of it)
+ a Buick something big (we used to call it the SS Cotati) that had recurring transmission problems
+ a late model Dodge minivan that I emptied my IRA to replace the engine in last summer

The Ranger, on the other hand, has required only minor work in that time--it's only failing grace has been its paint job (it has that mid-80's baby blue that flakes and rusts). It has helped me move three times, and others move countless times. It has been a constant and reliable friend for my entire second life in California. I have cared for it, many times by hand, and have gotten it 1100 miles short of 300K on the original engine.

Anyhoo, I mentioned in Sunday's post that I had done a bunch of work on it, and was going to let the TFI module fail ala 2001. (For those of you who aren't familiar with the reference, the HAL9000 computer in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey claims there is a failure in the AE-35 unit that keeps the ship in contact with Earth. The astronauts go EVA to remove and test it, but can find nothing wrong with it. The "solution" they come up with is to "replace the unit and let it fail" and then replace it with the redundant unit.)

Things played out for me pretty much as they did for the guys in the movie. I tried to start it yesterday, and it wouldn't start. So, I tinkered around and got the new unit in. I was awash with doubt right when I sat down to turn the key. I had been so confident that the TFI was the problem--what if...? Sure enough, I turned the key, and nothing.

Now I am going to have to figure out a way to get it to the shop so they can tell me nothing is wrong with it until the afternoon again. Argh.