Spring Fling

So sue me, it's getting longer and longer between posts. Alas, the tasks and toils of this thing we call LIFE have gotten to me and keep me otherwise occupied, which is not always a bad thing, nor, however, is it always a good thing. In either case, I'm here now for you, and what a day (!) we had, am I right?

The weather was gorgeous ... what I like to call coat-less, pant-less weather. That's right. I wore short pants and short-sleeved shirts today. It was lovely. I opened the windows in the apartment and a breeze flowed through. I was scheduled only one day at work this week, and the majority of auditions are finishing up for the summer season these weeks, so things are winding down. I was finally able to sleep in today, and I did -- until noon. I had lunch, cleaned my room, went to an audition, came back, cleaned some more, went to rehearsal, came back, cleaned some more and now I'm writing about it for you.

It's what they call spring cleaning. I wish I could call it a spring fling rather than clean, but you know how things go. I put on my iPod playlist called "Public," which is the one I use when I'm somewhere someone says, "hey Beedow, play your iPod for us." It contains generally acceptable music in the public lexicon of musicology, and actually is perfect for a warm breezy day. It reminds me of our drives in the van last year on the road -- a little Mayasiahu or however the heck one spells that.

Horns are blaring outside, people yelling, and it's a fantastic soundscape.

I'm excited this week -- at the possibilities unfolding in the future. I've got a couple great things in the works and others are just waiting to bust at the seams, all of which would make me happy and could keep me employed theatrically through a year from now, so cross your fingers. Surprises, seals, stories and songs are swell, so some say.

Guns on the Street

So... I've given up on the story here, at least for a while. The whole point of writing them was to have a soapbox on which to write about the insane presence of armed police officers in Times Square last week. I don't know, maybe they're always there, but usually avoid the area like the PLAGUE!!!!!! and don't know what happens there daily. In any case, twice last week I had to walk through and past the clusters of cops with big guns, dogs, and the like. WHAT?

What sort of country are we living in? Do we really need that? Were they just protecting me that day? From harmless bums on the street? Or was it because they were concerned Iran might decide to bomb us? And if so, what good were their guns going to be? Hrmph. Either was, I was put-off by them.

Have a safe week.

Our Story 2

He was moving briskly in what is perhaps the busiest intersection in the world, or maybe just one of the most famous, or more likely, he just made those ideas up because he wanted to feel more important that he already was. Well, not that he was very important in the first place, but, well, you get the idea.

He felt like he had grown old in this place, this juncture of time and space, and didn't want to accept the fear that his time might be coming to an end. "Watch out jerkface!" a foreign cabbie hollered at him just in the nick of time--our hero managed to twist his body into a sideways horseshoe and not get struck by the yellow vehicle.

"Who uses the term jerkface?" our hero pondered, this time a few steps back from the path on oncoming traffic.

Our Story Begins... 1

He rolled over to the familiar sound of the alarm clock stutter and grumbled before squeezing all the buttons to make it stop and pounding his head into the pillow for eight more minutes.

Then, more beeping, this time more arresting than the last. "But, it's still dark," he thought. Usually by the time the buzzer went off, rays of light were pouring through the shades. He purposely left them open before falling asleep so the sunlght would help wake him up. Not that it ever did. But today, it certainly didn't.

At six thirty, he [our hero] finally fell out of bed and showered. There was no time for much else, as today was the day he planned to get out of the house earlier than usual. Today was the day he was going to take over the world singlehandedly, and noone was going to stop him.

Of course, as these things do happen, he was inevitably stopped almost immmediately upon arrival. The doors were locked and there was already a line of hero-wannabes waiting. By the time he made it inside and signed his name to the two all-important lists of his choosing, he was number seven (on one) and eleven (on the other).

A short train ride away, hundreds more were doing the same thing at other buildings and on other lists, but how was our hero to know? He thought it best to do it his way, like Burger King or Robert Frost, and wasn't ashamed of it either. In fact, he smiled that familiar smirk of his and wondered if he would ever be as famous as either one. He figured probably not and kept walking.

Busy

Good thing I stopped this blogging bananza. Since I've stopped, I would have been failing anyway I've been so busy these past few days, and I see no sign of it letting up on the horizon either. Luckily, I have a couple hours in the middle of my day today to come home and put my feet up.

Problem is, I've been sitting here for five minutes now and can't think of a blasted thing to say. Tomorrow afternoon and evening look free for now, so I'll plan to fill you in on something newsworthy then. Until then, I'll just say there's some sort of sore in my mouth on the right cheek behind my back teeth. And gosh it hurts.

$ob $tory

What's the deal with money? Everything is so expensive nowadays.

I begrudgingly went to my audition this morning for a theatre I've been told never to work for, and they didn't even give me a callback. BAM! Ridiculous. So, I then meandered through the city trying to decide what to do next. I ended up spending about $80 in the next few hours, on simple necessities.

Stamps
Oh brother. Remember when first class stamps used to be like $23 cents? Sheesh. I bought two books of postcard stamps today because I just ordered some postcards with my picture on them to send out to casting people to remind them who I am, right? Well, it now costs $0.24 to send a postcard. That's almost a quarter! Are you kidding me? It's insanity. And don't try to send out a headshot to anyone or it'll cost you upwards of sixty cents -- $0.63 to be exact. And for cripes sake, I send out a bunch of them every week. No wonder I don't have any money. And, I had to stand in line for about twenty minutes to spend $22 on postage.

Vitamins
I went to replenish my supply of multivitamins, supplements and the like at GNC, using my member card. Now, thank goodness I have that, because I saved just under ten dollars today because of it. However, is it really fair to charge me thirty bucks for 180 vitamins? Of which, of course, I have to take two a day. So that's 30 bucks to get me through 90 days... which turns out to be $0.33 repeating each day for multivitamins. Oh brother.

Groceries
Come off it! There is no way I should have to spend over thirty dollars on orange juice, tomatoes, bread, mac&cheese, soup, apples, oranges, bread, cheese and turkey. For crying out loud! I just need to survive here. But, $35 later, the kind man who didn't speak my language (which is FINE! ... for today at least) just didn't have enough smile to make it worth it.

Finale Ultimo
What makes the whole tragedy sad, though, is the simple notion that I CAN'T AFFORD ALL OF THIS. I'm an actor. Which means my days are full of auditions. Which means my nights are full of rehearsals. Which means there is no time for a real job. Which means I can't make any money. Which means the jobs I do have a few and far between. Which means I now am beginning to realize why they came up with the whole starving artist mentality. I guess I'll just have to stop buying things, stop auditioning, get a job in a cubicle somewhere, begin hating my life and then be able to buy things again which won't make me happy anyway because I'm stuck in corporate America doing something I don't want to be doing next to fifty other people who feel the same way and are just spending their time updating their myspace profile on the boss's dime....

Love and peace. Beedow.

Limp as a Puppet and Simply Fantastic

I feel twitchy and bitchy and manic ... but alive / I feel wicked and wacky and mello ... / Partly Jane Fonda and partly Jane Austen, but alive! That's the thing! Alive!

First off, name that musical and who sang the song originally.

Secondly, it is so refreshing and freeing to not even think about this blog or dream about it or worry about it or whatever. I feel free (oh, what a word, oh, what a word!) and alive! So, let me fill you in on my week.

I saw an ambulance trying to get down the avenue, and wowza! what a terrible time it had. You'd think people would be empathetic enough to get out of the way of an ambulance. But no. Instead, watch them cut and dart in front of it, take long turns in its path, and otherwise try to block it just so said car can make the light or get to the liquor store before it closes. Come on! Get out of the way of your friendly, caring neighborhood emergency vehicles.

The New York lottery is over 275 million dollars this week. Two friends and I purchased tickets and agreed to give each other $500,000 each if any of us win. That's kind. What I couldn't do with $500k. Jeepers.

I saw the final dress rehearsal of Terrence McNally's SOME MEN last night off-Broadway. Despite the nudity, I enjoyed the production immensely. I think McNally brought up an array of valid arguments and points, and presented them to us without shoving them down our throat like another playwright may have. I recommend it.

My roommate has hooked me on LOST. Now, I realize a lot of people are hooked, and have been for three seasons now... as long as I've been wowing about GREY'S. But, for whatever reason, I never got involved until now. Let me say, all of you who were blinded as I was and haven't yet joined the ranks of those who adore this show, go to your nearest neighborhood video store and purchase seasons one and two on digital-video-disc and watch them all as fast as you can. Of course, I'm only halfway through season one, but it is just DYNAMITE. I'm loving it and actually think about it while I'm away all day... can't wait to get home and pop in another DVD.

Lastly, there was a brilliant ad in this week's Village Voice for a bar offering BORAT giveaways. Made me laugh. Check it out, it's in the bottom right hand corner of the right page... don't know the page number though.

Have a lovely weekend. I'll check in soon.