Whew

Another full dress rehearsal tonight, we were done before 10, but then had to strike the set, so 10:30. Tomorrow is off, thanks to the city council meeting in our space. I'm tempted to go just to see if there are enough people in the audience to justify a 300-seat theater.

Twinz

There are a pair of identical twins in the La Mancha cast. I did not know they were twins until a couple of days into rehearsals - they look more like sisters, I would have guessed a year apart. The first impression came from them being a dress size or two apart. But, as Yogi Bear says, "You can observe a lot just by watching", and my character in the play calls for me watching all the other characters a lot. The more I watch, the wider the separation has become. One appears more mature, more serious. The other is more energetic, sparky, adventurous. I'm always looking at people through my virtual camera lens, and the "younger" one keeps catching my eye with half a dozen photogenic looks, the "older" one not so much. They are both good people to have around, and in the show they play similar roles. They are obviously very close to reach other, but they are very different people, not trying to be clones of each other. I like that.

Back in the 70's, I used to folkdance at Reed College, and there were twins in that group, Katy and Hillary, who didn't even look like sisters, let alone identical twins. Both lovely people and talented dancers, but while I had a total crush on Hillary, Katy never attracted me that way. After I'd known them a while, they told me Katy had been in a near-fatal car accident, and the reconstructive surgery and trauma, and being out of circulation for a chunk of her school years had differentiated what had been clone-like twins.

A very Howeirdly Drink Tank

Drink Tank issue 169 is jam packed with photos by Yours Truly. One of my hall pix of svashtar and wolfen_dancer as Sweeney Todd & Mrs. Lovett graces the cover, and I see lady_leandra, kevin_standlee, jadecat9, didjiman, baronlaw, kproche, andyourbob among the victims subjects.

Too Darn Hot

It's still 80° outside, and warmer upstairs where this computer is. Put the heater away and dragged out the fan. Tomorrow's going to be no fun at all under the lights in the theater. I'm not looking forward to the Sunday matinées.

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Just watched most of La Môme, aka La Vie En Rose, the most boring film I have seen this year. I've never understood the appeal of Piaf's warbling alto, and was hoping that a movie which snagged a best actress Oscar for the role would help me see the light. Instead it made me wonder how she ever landed on an American stage more than once. To be fair, most of the blame goes to the most inept storyboarding I have ever seen in a professionally produced movie. I was probably 20 minutes from the end before I hit the eject button, but it was hard to tell with all the jumping around the story line did. Marion Cotillard appeared to be acting her little heart out, but for me the material was not Oscar quality. Pauline Burlet, who played the 10-year-old Edith was, I think, just as good.

Some day they will do a life of Judy Garland, hopefully without Liza in the leading role. The reason it hasn't happened yet is probably because it would require amazing acting. Piaf doesn't really ever change - she starts out as a street urchin, becomes a street urchin with a strong singing voice, then a drunk, elderly street urchin with a strong singing voice. Judy's life, on the other hand, was a roller coaster ride. 

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Did the laundry, updated my laptop to XP SP3. I was going to install Vista, but discovered the hard way that Moto's VPN doesn't work with Vista, so the laptop will be my work from home machine until Moto sees fit to give me a company laptop. I was supposed to have one by now - a month ago, actually. No problem, between the VPN and RDP, I can do everything on the laptop that I can do at work except see the video. Okay, seeing the video is 3/4 of my work, but I wouldn't have the bandwidth even with a company computer on my home network. Can't play 18 Mbps HD video on a 6Mbps link. SD might come through okay.

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CC26 photos are starting to pop up on the official sites, but so far I haven't seen one of me. I don't remember anyone taking a picture of me, come to think of it. I usually feel it when a camera is pointed at me.  There have been several surreptitious shots captured at rehearsals, for instance. I did my best to look the other way at the last minute. Our official head shots are now on the wall in the lobby, and mine looks pretty good. They all look pretty good. Ed does good work.

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Pandora sounds really good on my 5.1 speakers. But it's way too warm up here so I'll pull myself away Real Soon Now. Haven't had dinner yet.

Hummer Bummer

1. Where have the hummingbirds gone? The level in my feeder has not gone down in 2 months, despite refreshing the joy juice last weekend. Saw one at work this afternoon, but that was the only hummer in months.