I can't stop watching this

I watched literally 15 different versions of this song on youtube today. This is by far my favorite.

Also please watch the Alison Crowe one. Gorgeous. I want the music in her key so I can sing it myself. Just in my apartment...to Louis or whatever.

Love you, Jack. Always makes me think of you. :)

Hike and Bake on a Snow Day

So today was a "Level Three Snow Emergency" here in Cincinnati. This means you're not allowed to drive on the streets, and you can be arrested if you do, unless you have clearance. Bert only decided at the last minute to cancel rehearsal. There was no way I was going to make it up that hill to Mount Adams, I had told him the only way I could come would be if someone could come get me. I think 5 of 6 of us said that, so he finally caved. The whole city is shut down, Goldstein, do you really think that Little Medea takes priority?

So I finally got out of bed this morning (OK, afternoon...technically I got up and got back into my bed several times but I was awake for good since 8:30, there was just a lot of time sitting in my bed watching news and movies with my laptop in my lap), and decided I was going to make a cake. Hadn't done it in a while, it was time. I found what looked like a great recipe...committed the ingredients to memory, wrapped myself up and headed out into the great white drifts.

There is something truly delightful about walking in really deep snow in waterproof boots. I felt like I was about to fall down the entire mile up the street, and I couldn't help but laugh the whole time. It reminded me of middle school ski trips and those couple of blizzards we had in Greensboro when Angie and I were little. Loved it.

I must say, my friends who hang out on the streets surrounding the Sketchy Kroger 24 hours a day made an impressive showing for the severity of the weather today. They're even more reliable than the US Postal Service; nothing stops them. In fact, they were even friendlier than usual. Several more than ever before took it upon themselves to speak to me...one even asked if I wanted a ride in his truck (I politely declined). Then I was walking behind one dude when I had almost reached Kroger, and I think he heard me directly behind him, thought I was someone else, and he turned around really quickly, thrusted his head at me with a menacing look. Then he saw that the person following him was not another tough guy on the street but, rather, a tiny red abominable snow-white-woman. He laughed and apologized.

I got back to the apartment, and made the cake. I admit it was not what I expected. I always like to try making new things...it was a pretty basic chocolate cake with pudding in it, but the recipe asked for two 3.5 oz packages of pudding mix, I used 1 and 2/3 3 oz. packages b/c that was what I had the milk for, and in the end, there was WAY too much pudding. The end result was sort of a baked pudding...spongy texture, kind of like the cake part of the Lava Cake at Sweet Tomatoes, but not even as good as that. And it's really dark brown, and just not pretty...how can I put it? Now I understand the confusion at Lauren's roommate Melissa's school: that smear on the boys' bathroom wall...it could be something truly terrible, or it might just be chocolate. (No one will get close enough to conduct the necessary inspection.)

Ah well, only about $5.00 of my Kroger gift card spent, and the adventure was worth it. Oh--TJ and I took a couple of pictures of the snow (see aforementioned reference to red abominable snow-woman).

At least the roads are clearing up; hopefully I can venture out in a vehicle tonight (there have been whisperings of cheese fries and Blue Moon at TGI Fridays in Hyde Park) or at least tomorrow morning. They're gonna be in trouble if I can't get to Knox for the 9:15 service tomorrow; the song I'm singing 3/4 of as a solo may sound a little spare. Maybe I'll just leave at 7AM and walk.

It's actually been kind of nice sitting around in my PJ pants all day, and the snow is really beautiful to watch out the windows. I thought earlier about making a Snow-bama with the dark snow outside the front of our building, but I was afraid of offending several neighbors.

This is actually from days ago...

...but it was important to post.
And maybe it will kick-start me into blogging regularly again.

ME: So, I got rejected from the Ultimate Fighting Champion poster-girl promotion* up in Columbus this weekend.
(*note to readers: the specs asked for "young hot girls with great bodies," and 'talent' was asked to provide their own fishnet stockings and tall black high-heeled boots, miniskirts and cut-off tank tops would be provided. I'd never respect myself in the morning, but it was 11 hours @ $28/hour.)
Lauren: oh yeah?
ME: Yeah, not hot enough. Story of my life.
Lauren: No, actually I prayed you wouldn't get it. It was Jesus.

And even more appropriate to my personal Valentine's Day...

Josh Ritter sings Springsteen's "The River."

...and I'll be in the Super 8 in Wheeling, West Virginia, working on my thesis and waiting to hear from theatre companies. sigh.

I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with a wonderful guy...

Well I AM. And I'm not ashamed to say it out loud. Just in time for Valentine's Day, too.

Josh RItter - The Temptation of Adam - El Rey Theatre

Nothing makes any sense here...

I have complained way too much about this show and this tour, the, er, experience that it's been so far, I don't have the negative energy left to expend in doing it again. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. This is the view from backstage of our shows @ the Playhouse yesterday--the neon rainbow acid trip called The Phantom Tollbooth:


And some shots of what doing this show with an inconsistent and unpredictable schedule, a set that risks our lives (Actually, it doesn't anymore--thank you, CPIP Scene Shop Geniuses!), 90-minute notes sessions and photo calls for a 60-minute children's show, and discussions so in-depth that we have all wondered if Olga, Masha, and Irina will ever make it to Dictionopolis, have done to its actors:And I know you've been waiting for it...the full experience (with pom pom hat and gold pimp glasses) will be posted later, but here is the Spelling Bee Costume in corral mode. Oh, and words spelled so far: "family," "transportation," "tyrannosaurus rex" (almost missed it, it took me about five tries but I finally got it), "stink," and "curiosity" (both shows on Sat, it's the default word if the kids don't yell out something good and the Playhouse kids were not exactly responsive, plus several of them were older and Aaron didn't trust my ability to spell a middle school level word). Liz Helitzer keeps encouraging me to go on stage in only the bee--no pants, no underwear, and the Spelling Bee could teach those kiddies to spell words like labia majora. Somehow, I don't think it would go over with the grades 1-3 set.

I must add that I do enjoy the show itself, and the people with whom I'm sharing the ride. I joke about wishing I'd taken my Equity card back in December and blowing this popstand, but I don't mean it. Just one more due to pay, you know? I'll keep payin' 'em as long as is necessary, I just hope that there won't be too many more productions where the most rehearsed scene (at least 4 full hours of rehearsal time) is a 2-minute one dominated by actors tottering around in beanbag chair fat suits.

funny from the road today...

...if by "the road," I mean it was actually Gilbert Avenue, a mile from the scene shop. We were on our way back to our cars from our performance at St. Mary's today, so technically it was part of the touring day, and it made me laugh really loudly for about two minutes straight, which doesn't often happen when I'm not on a phone call from Daytona at midnight.

ME: Is he married?
Amy: No...
ME: Oh goodness, I bet he's really lonely, he seems to have the Playhouse and I guess photography and that's about it.
Amy: Yeah, I asked Jamie if he was actually interested in men or women, she said she thought women but she wasn't sure.
ME: Oh, that never occurred to me, actually, but he's not totally unattractive, and he seems nice enough...poor guy...
Amy: I know, I mean he's definitely super dorky but I'm sure there's some equally dorky man-slash-woman who would be really happy with him.
ME: Maybe that's it, that's what he's looking for--literally, a man-slash-woman.
Amy: Yeah, maybe that's the problem--
ME: I mean the supply is really thin, it must be tough--
Amy: --Yeah, it's a real seller's market for those folks.

In other news, I finally finished watching Manhattan. Some absolutely fantastic actors in it, as Allen is wont to get, and some great lines, and of course I LOVE the musical theatre score, though Woody apparently hated the movie and was often ashamed of it. In Central Park on a horse-drawn carriage (a clichéd situation, but it is chosen by the child in question), Woody's character Issac says the following to his 17-year-old girlfriend:

You know what you are? You're God's answer to Job, y'know? You would have ended all argument between them. I mean, He would have pointed to you and said, "Y'know, I do a lot of terrible things, but I can still make one of these." You know? And then Job would have said, "Eh. Yeah, well, you win."

Of course I don't normally support a squirrelly 42-year-old man seeing a 17-year-old girl, and it's always really hard for me to watch the little guy make out with anyone, but that might just win me over. Though I'd prefer him to be taller. And with more hair. Darker and curlier, while we're at it. But most importantly, if the lesson learned in the end is "not everyone gets corrupted... you have to have a little faith in people," and Woody Allen, the Cynic's Savior, believes it, then so do I.