michele

on the fateful night described below, i also had two other musical related dreams. one of them was a real nightmare and the other one was pleasant.

the nightmare was that we were filming with a whole bunch of extras and had asked all our old friends from high school and college to come and join us. they in turn invited additional old friends of their own and most all of them were flying in. i, for some reason, was in charge of all the arrangements and picking up everybody at the airport. laura handy had 7 extra friends coming and they were all flying in from different places around the country and their flights all got in at various times. i was trying desperately to make everyone get in at comparable times so i wouldn’t have to go to the airport so often, but it just wasn’t working and i was so frustrated.

the pleasant dream involved a bathtub. and some action. two things which did not happen simultaneously though, since i was in the bathtub wearing a bathing suit with my husband’s brother and then later was in bed with my husband. mmm bathtub dreams.

(i’m sliding in a little late here as i just made it home.)

so, the last time i was at musical filming (like 2 weeks ago) i had crazy ass nightmares about filming all night long. and in one of them birthday boy figured prominently. the script called for a character to walk away with a twinkle in thier eye. and you, gene, couldn’t figure out how to film this. i was trying desperately to explain the look and the backwards glance over the shoulder with a close up on the face concept to you, but it just wasn’t flying. finally i was like, “we’ll just add a twinkle in po-pro, ok?!”

why we had to have an actual twinkle for a metaphorical “look,” i don’t know.

my point here is that, even though you’re a whole quarter of a century now we can always edit some things out with po-pro. so when you get those wrinkles and grey hairs, have no fear. po-pro will help you if you fall and can’t get up. po pro will be your walker with tennis balls on. po pro will be your pee tube.

happy slightly late birthday!

cirque du soleil fired an acrobat in april of this year for being HIV positive. on thursday, nov 20th (today) there is a community protest going on outside the big top in the pac bell parking lot, current home of the alegria tour.

i went and saw alegria the other day with my free pass. like a get out of jail free card, only the circus. and, i have to say, that the circus does not pass muster. i take back every word of encouragement i have made to go see it. totally not worth the millions of dollars you have to spend on tickets and parking. liggity LAME. well, except for the music. i am a huge fan of the music. it is in my head constantly. i will hate it within another 2 weeks, i am sure. but the circus itself is kind of boring. there’s all this shit with clowns that just goes on much too long. and there’s this whole 10 minutes before the intermission that is a complete waste of space and makes no sense. stupid clowns. some of the acts are really good. like the russian bars, the trapeze artists, and the hula hoop bendy girl. hmm, and the trampoline people. but the juggler i saw kept dropping balls! and there’s just no storyline to follow. and the strong man is dumb. although, yes the fire dancer is both muscle-y goodness in a speedo and talented, the circus as a whole is not as entertaining as it could be.

i think this is because it’s one of the older shows and is suffering from its antiquity. because varekai which i saw last year was AMAZING. and it’s only like 2 or 3 years old, whereas alegria is like 10 years old. liggity old. (ha ha! i just re-read my varekai post. it’s awesome. ah, what a year can do.)

tonight while waiting for the tent to empty of people so i could go home, a boy in green/yellow track pants was experimenting with a hula hoop. velma, xandri, pretty girl whose name i don’t know, and i almost died because he was doing the whole hip-swivel-thrust hula hoop action and the boy had no underwear on! it was scandalous. i laughed so hard. and we all had to kind of turn our backs to him. except velma who just watched outright with no shame. xandri had to leave the tent and was frantically whispering into her walkie talkie in gloating glee.

also, i just realized today that i have to work on thanksgiving! now, sure i don’t eat most thanksgiving foods, and can no longer eat turkey, but still. liggity you know.

the two songs of “getting old…take your clothes off!” and “i am so hot in here, i’m gonna take my clothes off,” are currently getting a little mixed up in my head. but either way i think it’s a message. a message to you jason, to strip down and dirty to your birthday suit best. happy birthday! let’s be naughty! sorry!

so you’re like what? 24 now? i think you’re 24. if you’re not 24, well then….you should be. join the ranks. i mean really. get with the program.

how’s it feel to be potentially 24? good? kind of indiscriminate? 24 is a dumb year, i’ll tell you right now. i don’t have much left to go in mine and so i’m speaking from experience. soon though i’ll be able to rent a car without the pesky service charge, which i can then hold over you who is always renting cars and paying thru the nose.

jason you are a great friend. you always make me laugh and sometimes i get to visit you in jersey. there’s used book stores and family guys and some truly terrible movies. there’s watching you fling mac and cheese into bill’s tuba (TUBA) and watching you eat rice and peanut butter from the jar. there’s listening to you coo at kittens and listening to you expound on middle eastern literature with a map to back you up. we’ve been thru a lot, a lot and i love you. happy birthday!