I Wish I'd Said That (or at least written it)

I was looking online for a review of the opera that I'll be seeing tomorrow (Tosca) and came across this in the Boston Globe. The wording and visual it conjured made me happy all day.

...she had little sense of the fluidity of Puccini's phrasing, and her stage presence was tentative and awkward. Gestures and movement came a split-second late, oddly out of sync with the music and the drama: the physical version of a poorly dubbed film.

Edit: Friday, February 1.

I am no longer amused and for at least the next several hours, I will be referring to tonight's performance of Tosca as 'that stupid opera' . The city's fairly paralyzed by a snowstorm that's been raging for hours. We were even allowed to leave work at 1:30 pm.

I called the opera company and was told 'oh no, we never cancel a performance so hope you make it tonight!'. I was also told that it's too late to exchange tickets for another performance.

I hope we're the only ones there and at least get to go out drinking with the cast after so I can tell them in person what I got or didn't from their performances.

Blogger Can You Spare A Dime

What stays in Vegas is my money but at least the Elvis was free, two for the price of one actually. I'm still not sure why the tall one didn't answer to Bubs when I called, shy I guess.

Other than the fine meals, some good spins on the Wheel of Fortune and excellent company, Spamalot made me laugh hard and Le Reve kept me astonished and mesmerized.

Also astonishing were the hookers who propositioned me, the drunk lady who tried to explain to me her slot machine secrets while I was clearly many more credits up than she was, and the amount I was able to eat each day.

Now I need a vacation.

Of Meat And Men - An Audio Post

I can only spend so much time looking at the moon and trying to figure out how best to describe it (tonight it's a UHF sort of moon) so I've done an audio post on something that's been bothering me for a while now. You'll find it over there on my sidebar, press play on the GCast thingy.

With that, I'm off to Vegas, well, after a half day of work tomorrow but still! If I win big, I'll send for you all.

Day 15726

The moon seemed hampered by a scrim of cloud all done in matte, the subdued light not matching the cold urgency of my walk home.

After the warm embrace of evening had comforted me a while, I felt called to check on any progress the clouds or moon might have made.

Bare branched trees had etched a new layer onto the foreground of this strange January painting but looking out, I felt clarity might still be mine. Throwing open the door, ripples of heat rushed past performing a dance of bending light before disappearing, liberated. The moon glowed but awkwardly still.

I cannot think figure if the music for moments of odd light should sound warm, cold or not at all like music.

Passion of the Dale, Now With More Sans!

Über-talented Sans Pantaloons has been forging these outstanding graphics for some of his followers and after several of my patented smart aleck-y remarks, he came up with one for me.

Presents with presence? Yes please! Thanks Sans.

The King & I

Having recently worked up the courage to admit I was never that crazy about Elvis the Pelvis, I must clarify that I am not ignorant of his powers.

Hitching a ride on the Evil Genius train and his question about who would win a fight between Godzilla and Jesus and John Mutford's great literary compares, I must open a new debate in the war between good and gooder.

As I said at the time, what a pencil we have in Jesus! But just look at the high and mighty King up there on the pen!
I think I already know the outcome but I'd still pay to see the fight.

Seven Eleven

The ever engaging Doc at Social Zymurgy tagged me to give the old Seven Random or Weird Facts You Don't Know About Me meme a go. And away we go:

Some things you can't take back. I cheated on my true love many times but always came back begging for more sugar. Orange Kool Aid, you were always the one but trying to resist the exotic charms of Grape and Cherry on occasion was simply too much. I liked them all best frozen into ice cube trays.

Each night before I drift off, my inner monologue becomes so deafening that I have to listen to talk radio in order to get to sleep. Other people get to do the talking and I get to judge them instead of myself as I head off into shadow land.

Variety is the spice of life and this may explain why when I was younger, I thought Donny and Marie were much cooler than Elvis Presley. I might still think that. I did however always love Elvis Costello.

Even though I still work fairly hard at seeking the approval of my parents, I sometimes wish I'd had different ones or at least spent more time plotting.

Not thinking things through is my hallmark. I chose to wear a dark brown and possibly velour bow tie in my high school graduation photo.

Family is important to me and although I don't talk about them here, I have two beautiful children from a long defunct marriage. When I realized that I barely liked invading my own privacy to write, I decided to let them exist outside of this forum. My son will be 16 soon and my daughter is 14 going on 30.

As long as there's a moon in the sky, I still won't be able to see the man in it. I've never been able to pick out what I'm supposed to be seeing there.

Clocks and watches are very important to me although I rarely have anywhere I need to be. It makes me crazy if the ones in my house are off by even a minute.

Taking into account the blustery way I sometimes write about myself, I'm a pretty shy person. The rest? Acting!

Sometimes when I get nervous, I stick my fingers under my armpits and smell them like this. Okay, that's Mary Catherine Gallagher but I admire her for feeling free enough to do it.

Eleven.

Regrets, I've Had A Few

The talented Mr. JDC of The Wilwoods fame challenged me not only to talk about regrets but to be honest, a tall order because there's little I enjoy more telling big fat lies - honest!

The order was this:

You’ve just learned that tomorrow you will die at sunrise. Tell me the five things you regret and the five things you don’t.

I'm starting with a few things I don't regret.

1. Starting a blog. It's been a creative (sometimes) outlet and put me in touch with fascinating people who teach me more about them and myself with every read.

2. My last act at work before leaving for the holidays - deleting the phone messages I hadn't gotten to. The sense of abandonment and relief was delicious.

3. Moving to the big city. Leaving my small town provided me with a world of opportunity and the occasional motive.

4. Spending practically every cent I earn. If I end up dying with so much as a dime in my pocket, I'll be very upset.

5. Dying at sunrise. I hate to be kept waiting and if I knew my endtime would be sunset, I'd just be bitching and moaning all day; this way, it's up, maybe time for a coffee and a smoke and poof, I'm gone.

Thinking of things I do regret took a lot of time because they're legion.

1. Not applying myself more. This applies to most aspects of my life.

2. That I'm not better at the art of conversation. Actually that might be more a regret of people who get stuck talking to me.

3. Not writing more regularly (see #1).

4. The time I waste caring what other people think.

5. Throwing ice chunks at that kid in Grade 5. Correction - getting caught, he was a creep.

There are many more things I'm thankful for and also wish were different but those are for other times, other posts.

Thanks for the test JDC and for making my brain hurt.

Anyone else? Try it, you won't regret it.

McDale

Tomorrow at work, management will be away for some high falutin' meetings. In the event that something goes horribly wrong, they needed to put someone in charge for blaming purposes and I accepted the assignment with aplomb.

I sent a blanket email advising that for this important one day event, I wish to be addressed as McLovin.

I Dreamed I Had To Take A Test In A Dairy Queen On Another Planet

I can barely stand the excitement of my return to every day life. Having navigated my way through the first three working days of the year, I'd expected my brain to be ready for a whole new world (don't you dare close your eyes).

Before the holidays, I was speaking with a co-worker about having re-watched Twin Peaks and explained how I felt it was like watching a dream unfold. He told me his sister had loved the show but he could never follow what was going on, a complaint I reserve for describing everyday life.

Last night, I had the strangest dream. In it, I was talking with my co-worker when his sister came by. I remembered what he'd told me about her liking it and as we walked to nowhere in particular, I asked her if she wanted to borrow the dvds. She said yes but I could tell she was fairly uninterested in the offer. I woke up and was immediately struck by how fairly uninterested I was in the dream.

My analysis leads me to the conclusion that after an extended bout of living primarily on chocolates and my rock legend status of Guitar Hero 3, my subconscious is presenting me with a latter day Christmas gift and easing me slowly back into life.

Tonight, in a bid to make no sudden moves, the plan is to dream up a blog post that amuses at least one other person.

Year in Review 2007

That was quite a year wasn't it?