fuzzy math

My gramps and grams are in town which means two things:

1) I will be enjoying grandma's homemade cookies and jam very soon.

2) I will almost certainly have to take the dreaded duck tour I have thus far managed to avoid.

The outcome of these possibilities may be illustrated by the following equations:

c2 + j > dt (cookies squared plus jam is greater than duck tour)

dt+ ch = bfe (duck tour plus Cheers equals bleeding from eyes)

So. Let's hope I still have the gift of sight the next time you hear from me. At the very least I will have the gift of cookies.

nerds on stage

I bit of news: I've been cast in a play called "Professional Skepticism" by James Rasheed to go up at Bentley College in November. It's nice to have something consistent to work on again (my cats were getting way too much attention for a while there) and very nice to be paid for it.

The play takes place in a Big Five accounting firm in South Carolina and apparently I am the office hoochie. It's a nice little play that shows the dark underbelly of the world of accounting--I mean it, these people are conniving and mean. I'll never look at a guy who casually peppers his conversation with the word "fiscal" the same way again.

I like that it's in the same vein as Copenhagen and Arcadia--making an otherwise academic subject accessible to "artsy retards" like myself by giving dramatic life to the subject.

art project

I apologize for being a lazy blogger lately, but here's something that will give you hours of fun:

http://spstudio.elena.hosting-friends.de/spstudio.html

Just don't come crying to me when you've wasted an afternoon trying to create your very own South Park clone.

so I married a corpse...

I saw a preview showing of Corpse Bride yesterday and as always, Tim Burton has out done himself with delightful creepiness. Stop-motion puppetry is the perfect medium for a story that might otherwise be too gory or gross to enjoy. The characters are fantastic, the visuals gorgeous, and the story absolutely sweet.

I've always been a fan of Burton's dark, subversive sensibilities and his longtime muse Johnny Depp. And I'm glad they're getting the word out early with these advance viewings because the natural audience for this type of film (um... goth kids and Tim Burton fans) is pretty small. It's certainly not a kids movie(though 8 and up would be pretty safe), and I don't imagine the Constant Gardener crowd will be rushing off to get tickets.

So here's my plug: underneath its gruesome aesthetic, Corpse Bride is a smart, funny, touching love story.

I'll be in my trailer

Okay, no, I'm not being abused by my husband.

This is actually a shot of the stage make-up I used for a play I'm doing in Providence this weekend. I was really impressed with how it came out and wanted to share the creepiness with you.

Ugh. It's not pretty. And I'm sure my mom is having issues right now.

The show is a series of five minute plays and we're performing at 6pm in Tazza Cafe tomorrow night. Sorry, short notice for anyone who might come, but I figure Providence is a bit out of reach for most Bostonians.

On a completely unrelated note, earlier this week I got to "work with" one of my long-time acting crushes (if you consider "working with" standing in the background as an extra while said actor is 10 ft. away from you and never acknowledges your presence).

I was on the set of The Hill, formerly known as Brotherhood, which stars Ethan Embry of Can't Hardly Wait fame as well as quite a few other notable actors. I mention Embry only because a scant few years ago the chance to breath the same air as him could have only been surpassed by the opportunity to suck face with Christian Slater (whom my father always referred to as "Christian Slobber"--much to my chagrin).

Sorry, Thom, I'll stop talking about kissing other men now.

Anyway, I was on set all day (15 hours!) and I'm pretty sure I'm prominently featured in the background of one scene for about 15 seconds. Sweet! Fame, here I come.

stage bias

I went to my first opera last night, the American Repertory Theatre's Carmen. This is, in fact, the only opera I have any knowledge of--and that comes principally from a vague recollection of seeing the movie one rainy afternoon in my sixth-grade Music Appreciation Class (a room filled, by the way, with people too musically-challenged or uninterested to actually play an instrument--I fall into the former category).

If musicals are the hyperactive pep squad of my professional calling (with their glassy-eyed enthusiasm and teeth-baring smiles), then operas are the varsity cheerleaders (undeniably more skilled, but nonetheless creepy).

I just have a hard time wrapping my brain around the concept of people spontaneously bursting into song... especially FRENCH SONG.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy myself. Carmen is arguably the most well-known opera in the world, and I definitely found myself familiar with a surprising number of songs. And I was genuinely surprised by the acting--at least some of it.

The show's lead and title character--Christina Baldwin--was phenomenal, as well as her sister, Jennifer Baldwin Peden, who played innocent Michaela. Don Jose, Carmen's romantic interest, seemed more in love with his own pain than with Carmen, and the rest of the cast was rounded out with passionate, incredible singers.

Logically, I know that opera and musical theatre are kissing cousins of straight theatre (if anyone can come up with the final piece of my "pep squad/varsity cheer" analogy I will be forever grateful), and maybe it's because I was rejected from the fifth grade choir and I'm bitter towards anyone with a talent for singing, but I just don't foresee a time when I view "singing theatre" as anything but an amusing and silly endeavor.

Katrina

As the gravity of the situation in New Orleans becomes more apparent, lots of groups are reaching out to help. Moveon.org has set up an online tool for folks in the Southeast to offer emergency housing to hurricane victims who desperately need a bed and a roof. The aftermath of Katrina has created tens of thousands of newly homeless families, and there are not enough official shelters to meet the need.

You can post your offer of housing (a spare room, extra bed, even a decent couch) and search for available housing online here:

Hurricane Housing

From this morning's NYTimes, two Op-Eds regarding the hurricane's aftermath:

Can't-Do Politics

The Man Made Disaster