And were they just waiting for me to Google myself?

Okay, this is strange.

I googled my name the other day (of course I did, we all do, it's lame but inevitable and I can say I was looking for reviews which I mostly was) and this page came up from the New York State Office of the State Comptroller, Office of Unclaimed Funds. And my name was on this chart along with address of the very first apartment I lived in when I moved to Manhattan in 1999. When you clicked on the link for my name it went to a form that I could fill out to "claim my account".

I have no idea what this is.

It says it was reported by "Bed Bath".

Does this mean they owe me something, or I owe them?

Anyone?

If I send in the form am I going to receive a huge bed bath and beyond bill with seven years of accrued interest? Or do they have a brita pitcher waiting for me, or a new futon cover or something?

High on Gratitude

I just sent the following gushy post to Ronnie at DC Theater Reviews for their fringe artist's blog, but I wouldn't blame him at all if he can't publish it because it's long-winded and rambly and self-absorbed.

I, on the other hand, revel in being long-winded and rambly and self-absorbed, so here goes:

****************************************************************************
Now That the (Saw)dust Has Settled

Wow, so, we’re done. The last five days were kind of a blur, exacerbated by the head cold I came down with on Sunday. Anything stupid I said or did in the past four days I’m blaming on the cold medicine. Or maybe it was the grand marnier shots. Or maybe it was the cold medicine mixed with the grand marnier shots. Anyway…

Let the world resound with a big old “I told you so”. That could come from any of the fringe festival folk to whom I said, “But do you really think DC can sustain such a big festival?” From the looks of it, it can and will. No one can explain the mechanics of “buzz” (actually I guess that guy who wrote the Tipping Point did, but I never read it) but to be on the positive end of this phenomenon was an incredible thing. I’ve worked on so many shows that failed to generate the audiences I’d hoped for – what a thrill to have every evening show over-sold out. I mean – someone posted an ad looking for tickets to LUNCH on Craigslist. Unbelievable.

It feels like it all happened so fast, yet in actuality Shawn and I have been working on LUNCH since January 2005 when it was staged as a ten-minute play at the Madcap Winter Carnival of New Plays. And for that I need to thank the first of several under-sung DC theater heroes: Shawn Helm and Chris Snipe. They are two of the most authentically nice people out there and Madcap deserves praise for providing opportunities for local directors, actors and writers like no other company can. See their fringe offering “Pretty Theft” at the Canadian Embassy – but be sure to buy your tickets ahead of time. Their photographer Isaac is also a gem, for taping our last performance and for never getting fed up with my numerous requests for LUNCH jpgs from the 2005 performance.

While sitting backstage at Winter Carnival, Shawn continued to write what would become the full length version of LUNCH. Once we had about 90 minutes or so, we had the opportunity to workshop it at the Kennedy Center through the assistance of the Kenan Foundation and under the guidance of the person who has been behind so many great things and people and opportunities that have come to DC – Gregg Henry. Gregg is a phenomenal human being, a talented director, a generous spirit and one of the greatest supporters of up-and-coming theater artists in this community. He introduced me to Shawn in the first place when Shawn was looking for a director for the Source production of Titus, the musical. I have so many things to thank him for. Words can’t express…

Thanks also to Damian for encouraging us to take part in the festival in the first place. The man had a vision. And he has pulled it off with flair. So many congratulations to him and Julianne and the rest of the fringe team. Thanks to Mrs. Henson – the DC Government worker who expedited the processing of our articles of incorporation. Thanks to Joseph for designing us a kick ass website on the fly. Thanks to Mark Wright for digging our chairs out of the rubble. Thanks to the guards at Pepco for letting us park the Uhaul in their driveway last night. Thanks to Caehlin for bringing some much needed business sense and professionalism to our operation. Thanks to DC Theater Reviews for their amazing coverage of the festival and to Trey for his entertaining and addictive fringe blog. Thanks to Amandia for being our brilliant and wonderful musical director again and again – despite the commute from Manassas and two and a half children. Thanks to Michael John for coming in last minute and making our fights safe and effective and entertaining. Thanks to Helen for corralling ten very spirited actors into dancing up a storm and for choreographing a table dance that brought down the house every night. Thanks to Katherine, our venue manager and Kelly, the Pepco Gallery representative for staying level headed and positive and for dealing with us (and by that I mean dealing with ME) every day for six days straight. Thanks to Lauren for stage managing a show that was probably much too ambitious for the circumstances. Thanks to Klyph for designing our lights and set on a shoestring and gathering props even though he hates props and for doing so many other things above and beyond the call of a designer. Thanks to everyone in the fringe and DC theater communities who took time out of their busy schedules to come and support us. Thanks to a phenomenal cast who surprised me in so many wonderful ways with their talent and spirit. Thanks to our band, who rock more than I could ever hope to rock myself, Jake, Nate, Andy and Bryant (Magic Box).

And finally, thanks to Shawn for writing a beautiful and funny and moving show that allows us all to relive our adolescent years from the other side – when we are older and (somewhat) wiser and hopefully have clearer skin.

I know I’m forgetting people. But I am a little high on gratitude right now. Or else that’s just the cold medicine…

Success

Okay kids. I guess this means we have really arrived.

Sniffle

I know that no one wants to hear about my head cold. But I'm a little preoccupied with it right now.

I hate getting sick, I hate getting sick, I hate getting sick.

It's not sick enough to stay home and escape from life, either. I will still try to be social at the show tonight, and helpful in some way, and then when we strike I will apparently be the one driving the truck with our platforms back to Virginia (a scary prospect in and of itself).

And then *poof*, as instantly as it all began, our CapFringe experience will be over.

Then I can start to see other people's shows.

We've played to capacity and then some for nearly every show. The cast feels like the rock stars that they deserve to feel like. We finally fixed some pacing issues last night. A few artistic director types from some of the bigger players in town have come by and played with us.

All in all, this has been an extremely successful jaunt. Fun too.

Except for the whole head cold thing...

Afternoon Update

I've taken two oscillococcinum and drunk two vitamin waters.

Which means in the past four hours I have consumed 500% of the RDA of vitamin C.

I still don't feel any better. The beach is looking less and less likely.

Maybe I just need to stay at home and sleep.

Immunity

The good news:
We sold out both of our evening shows this weekend and were a few tickets away from selling out our daytime shows. Tonight is sold out and I am betting tomorrow night will sell out as well. So, we can pay off the people we owe. Audiences seem to be having a good time, we are learning a lot about what works and what doesn't work that will help us out for the NY show, and I will say - the Fringe folk have pulled off an absolutely amazing feat (even if several of them will never speak to me again).

The bad news:
As much as I'd like to deny it, I'm a little bit sick. I thought I'd slept wrong Saturday night (spent on the futon) and that was why my neck ached all Sunday. But today I have that achy, icky, sore feeling in my bones and throat and have to concede that my body has done what it so often tends to do - it holds up for the time when I need all my resources, and the moment I have a break it falls apart. The bummer is I'd wanted to do fun stuff, see shows, relax, maybe go to visit B and W at the beach for a week before jumping fully into preparations for New York and now it looks like I will spend my week trying to get better.

Popping oscillococcinum as we speak...

And They're Off

We almost made it through a run.

Almost.

So much of yesterday was about dealing with sound issues. This should not come as a surprise. We are doing a rock musical in a small space. It’s all about the amplification and balance. The space is probably too small, the sound is probably too bright, but that’s what we have. I always have trouble listening to a show when it is amplified for the first time. Something is always lost when you mic actors. But in the context of the show, it’s necessary. So I adjust and I get over it.

All things considered, things went pretty well yesterday. I hope the actors feel that way as well.

My parents arrived as we were starting the stumble/run through. They had some interesting and helpful insights.

I then dragged them over to Avenue for our show’s gig at the opening night party. We got over there about ten minutes before we were supposed to go on, and it felt like a crowd decidedly not in the mood to listen to an acoustic set from a pop musical. The MC was my friend Josh, who is one of my favorite people in the entire world, and he assured me that he would get the audience in the mood by reciting some of his impromptu hipster poetry.

Skeptical as I am, Josh was successful, and a small and receptive audience gathered to listen to our several songs. I meanwhile accosted Josh and made him talk to me because he’s adorable and again, one of my favorite people in the world. My parents found us after parking the car and then they accosted Josh because they saw him in a reading in Poughkeepsie and meeting people they saw in plays makes them feel special.

Eventually we allowed Josh to escape to his MC duties as the Lunch set was finishing up. Trey was there, no doubt collecting fodder for his fabulous fringe blog, but I got too nervous to talk to him because I was afraid I would say something stupid or offensive or otherwise regrettable.

Damian was also present, looking lovely in seersucker. And I do mean that. Some people can pull it off.

Fringe on folks…

Life's Quirks

Hearing the first four bars of Ben Fold's The Luckiest can make me cry regardless of where I am, what I'm doing, who I'm with, and how I'm feeling.

There is a certain food smell that brings me back to a specific dining hall of the girl scout camp I went to when I was eleven. I can't remember the name of any of the campers, but I can picture that dining hall down to the last detail.

I can remember the lyrics of songs that I sang in shows when I was fourteen yet I can't remember the password for my online bank account.

Sometimes when I picture my parents in my head they look like they did twenty years ago. Other times they look like they did last week.

I can start every story I ever want to tell. I am able to finish only about 40% of them without making stuff up.

I often wish I could go back and have a conversation with my seventeen-year-old self.

I really used to do okay on six hours of sleep a night.

Learning How to Fringe

Trey's fringe blog (link above) is really excellent. It gives a really great sense of what the whole fringe experience is like. I hope that Damian and Julianne are hydrating. A lot.

My parents are coming into town tonight. I guess I'll take them to the nightclub where we're having the opening night fringe party. We get into the space at 2:30 today (g-d willing) so, we'll see...

Making an ImPRESSion

It's interesting navigating the press aspect to a fringe festival. You want to be supportive and encourage people to see lots of shows - not just the show you are working on. But you also worry when an article doesn't mention your particular show.

It's a bit of a schizophrenic feeling. Support the fringe... support my show... support the fringe... support my show.

We got a nice mention and picture in Wee Jane's column this morning.

In other press news - a belated thanks to Wonkette for the blog mention last week, and to Express for yesterday's quote.

Blind Fringe

We're getting there.

Almost.

I've been spoiled on these last several productions by having tons of time in the space.

When you are working with a Fringe Festival you get a few hours in the space.

It's a little scary.

We have body mics and a four piece band and costume changes and choreography and combat and I wonder how that is all going to work.

It is looking to be quite a week.

But the band sounds fabulous, I met with them Sunday. And everyone is giving heart and soul to this show. So...

We leap.

Afraid to Read the Headlines

I'm literally sick to my stomach about what is happening in the Middle East. I have a number of friends and colleagues with family in Israel. And the region seems to be headed towards self destruction. It's scary. Scarier for them than for me.

It all escalated so quickly.

After spending several months mentally in Lebanon, with some naive sense of "this is how it was then, things are better now" this is a vivid reminder that while conflicts may go into hibernation the sleep is never that deep.

I feel super indulgent for living in my fun little world of a pop musical right now. How do we live with that? I tell myself that people still need to laugh even if the world is destroying itself all around us. Theater has traditionally sprung from lands mired in conflict, oppression, and tragedy. It's a human response. Laugh because it is better than crying.

But it is really hard to ignore the feeling in the pit of my stomach that suggests that things are only going to get worse.

But What I Really Want to do is Produce...

For everyone out there longing to get their hands into the producing pot (and I know you're out there).

Come on. You really want that walk on role...
*******************************************************************************
Dear Friend:

Lunch will be served in one week.

As a friend of Bouncing Ball Theatrical Productions we want to first and foremost invite you to experience Lunch, a musical about love in the eighth grade. Lunch will be performed at Pepco's Edison Art Gallery from July 21-25 as part of the first annual Capital Fringe Festival. Written by Shawn Northrip and directed by *City Mouse* the brains behind Titus, the Musical and Cautionary Tales for Adults, Lunch follows members of Benjamin Franklin Middle School's eighth grade class from a lunch period a week before school lets out through to the super-climactic and very-dramatic eighth grade dinner dance.

Please show your support for the show by encouraging all of your friends to attend (and their friends, and their friends' friends).

But there's more.

You can further show your support by making a donation to the fledgling company that is producing Lunch, Bouncing Ball Theatrical Productions.

Bouncing Ball (founded by Northrip and *City Mouse* along with Business Manager Caehlin Bell) emerged in the spring of 2006 with the mission of providing the Washington, DC area with new music theater experiences by producing innovative works that challenge genre expectations while showcasing a new generation of music theater artists.

With that, we are introducing the Lunch Money Campaign:

Chocolate Milk ($5-39) - You get: Your name in the program!

Twinkies ($40-74) - You get: Your name in the Program and One Comp Ticket!

Tater Tots ($75-99) - You get: Your name in the Program, Two Comp Tickets, and an Autographed Lunch CD!

Chicken Nuggets ($100-$499) - You get: Your name in the program, Four Comp Tickets, and an Autographed Lunch CD

Sloppy Joes ($500 and over) - You get: Your name in the program, Four Comp Tickets, an Autographed Lunch CD, and a Walk-On Cameo in the Show!

Comp tickets are valid for any performance of Lunch. Comp space per performance is limited and will be made available on a first come, first serve basis.

Donate Three Ways:
1. Donate online: Send money with PayPal by selecting the PayPal button (says "Make a Donation" on the home page of the website) at www.bouncingballtheatre.com.

2. Donate by mail: Send a check made out to Bouncing Ball Theatrical Productions to 8866 Woodland Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

3. Donate in person: Give a check or cash to your favorite Lunch member.

We thank you for taking the time to consider contributing.

See you at Lunch!

Chocolate, Whole, 2% or Skim?

Tickets here.

Information here.

Podcast here.

IRS!

I know my posts have been lame and short lately. But maybe we are all better off when I don't ramble on for four plus paragraphs about some injustice in the world or about my early mid-life ennui, eh?

And with MB roaming the hills of Ireland I just don't feel like I know my audience anymore.

On the upside - we got out articles of incorporation. Thanks to Mrs. Hensen at the DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL LICENSING ADMINISTRATION CORPORATIONS DIVISION who sat on the phone with me while she sorted the mail, pulled our application, fixed our clerical error, expedited processing and then sent it downstairs so I could go pick it up. I then found my way through the maze of government buildings between 1st Street and North Capitol (which is a little bizarre - had I not been on this mission I would never have known this whole complex of concrete bureaucracy existed) and retrieved our certificate.

Now we just need our tax id #. The IRS was not nearly as friendly or helpful as the DC Government on the phone. I get to start hassling them today.

Has anyone ever called the IRS before? Did you know that every employee rattles off their employee number when they get on the phone to speak to you?

"This is Robert, IRS division shmatta shmatta, number 6157687. What can I do for you?" Very 1984. Slightly disconcerting.

I told Shawn and Caehlin about it and we decided that Shawn's next show should be IRS! The Musical.

I'm surprised it hasn't been done already.

Pixelate Me

I am cleaning off the hard drive of the computer at my day job (somehow I have managed to fill up my personal drive with too many jpgs and saved scripts) and I found a little computer generated picture that I'd made last year.

It's supposed to look like me.

Of course, the program had no option for including a middle-of-the-forehead vein, so for true accuracy you have to draw a little purple pulsing line that extends from somewhere between my eyebrows up to my hairline at about a 30 degree angle.

When I smile or get angry, it sort of jumps out at you.

There. Now you got it. Spitting image.

Get Your Ketchup Ready

Lunch will be served in 10 days, seven hours.


The tater tots are getting crispy.

Links and Small Business Legal Advice

Splitting my time between this project at the Kennedy Center and my own show really drained me. There is a knot in my shoulder right now the size of a cantaloupe.

Mmmm. Melons.

Shocking to think that we have only ten days before we open Lunch at the CapFringe Festival. Shocking, yes, and a little bit terrifying.

So many little stories to catch up on.

But right now I will direct you to the page where you CAN BUY TICKETS FOR LUNCH!!!!

Yes! Do it now. You will have fun at this show. I promise you. You will have fun, you will have fun, you will.

Also, check out our constantly evolving website. Its getting there, huh? See pictures from our benefit here.

So, right now our dilemma is that we mailed in our articles of incorporation about two weeks ago but we can't open up a bank account until we get them back signed by the DC Government. At least I think that's how it works. So, until that happens, we can't really solicit donations. And, well, we need friendly people who want to support the arts to support us if we want to put this show up. But we can't do that until we open a bank account.

See how it all comes full circle? See why I have a knot in my shoulder and an ulcer in the works?

Does anyone know how long the articles of incorporation take? Or how we can open up a bank account without them? Or at least a paypal account? Or how to make my shoulder stop hurting?

Where I Plan Your Social Life For You

Need something to do tomorrow afternoon? Come see a reading! Five short plays, five times the fun (scroll down to July 8). Plus they have free cookies and stuff.

And from the 20th-25th, you totally have a Lunch date. You can hear our podcast here. Click on the little headphones next to our name. The intro I wrote is way too long and I sound like I am so trying to make my voice teacher at school happy with my "stahhhnard amehhricaahn" that it makes me cringe, but it is worth getting through my lame babble to the actual scene. Fun stuff. I promise.

Independence Day

Hello, hello.

I am offline during the day for the next several days and the last thing I want to do when I get home at 11:00pm is write about my day, so, meh, bad blogger.

It also means blogging from my mac and I can't figure out how to put more than one link in a post (and those links only appear with the title) so it is all too much for my tired brain to handle.

I watched the fireworks with my cousin and the entire HPMelon family on the fourth. As I expected, the HPMelons are the most adorable family EVER and her kids are smarter than yours are. Trust me, they are. We heard Stevie Wonder a playin' and watched the fireworks a poppin' and it was much less crazy than I expected the downtown fireworks to be. We stayed close to the capitol, did not venture down to the mall, and it was totally worth the lack of hassle even if there was this one pesky tree...

I did, for a moment, get choked up watching the display, framing the Washington monument, all while the 1812 Overture was playing. It surprised me. I'd been so horrified by the news of the day about the soldier who had apparently raped and murdered an Iraqi girl and then killed her whole family that I thought every patriotic sentiment had died within me. I guess not. Because we are American too, not just people like that. We stand for something too. Damn it, we do.

I'm helping out on a workshop at the Kennedy Center right now which is an ambitious and interesting project (link above). Everyone involved is lovely and passionate about what they are doing, especially Mr. Pullman. I don't think I'm supposed to blog about it though so I won't.

And rehearsals for LUNCH are going well. More on that later. You all have to come see it. You do, you really do.

Remember When We Looked Things Up in Books?

All went well with the birthday weekend, and now it's over and done with and that's probably for the best.

I am not usually one to get caught up on age. I just happen to be working on a show right now where the average age of the cast is probably twenty-four or so. Maybe twenty-three. Because some of the actors are about twenty-eight. But then, some of them are twenty.

So things get said like, "Well the dorky guy (in the play) can be like, in the internet club".

Internet club?

Or one of the actresses tells me that her father is sending her photos of her from the eighth grade (which eventually will be used in the program) via email. And I say, "Oh, is he scanning them in and sending them to you?" and she says, "No, he took them on a digital camera. When I was in eighth grade. Six years ago."

Yeah. Umm. Right. Digital cameras in the eighth grade.

I do remember when I was about ten being at a state fair of some sort and having my picture taken by a computer and then printed out in big black and white dot matrix pixels. So, digital camera technology must have existed...

Here:
The Arrival of True Digital Cameras
The first true Digital Camera, that recorded images as a computerized file, was likely the Fuji DS-1P of 1988, which recorded to a 16MB internal memory card that used a battery to keep the data in memory. This camera was never marketed in the United States.

The first commercially available digital camera was the 1991 Kodak DCS-100, the beginning of a long line of professional SLR cameras by Kodak that were based in part on film bodies, often Nikons. It used a 1.3 megapixel sensor and was priced at $13,000.

The move to digital formats was helped by the formation of the first JPEG and MPEG standards in 1988, which allowed image and video files to be compressed for storage. The first consumer camera with an LCD display on the back was the Casio QV-10 in 1995, and the first camera to used compact flash was the Kodak DC-25 in 1996.

2003 saw the introduction of the Canon Digital Rebel, also known as the 300D, a 6 megapixel camera and the first DSLR priced under $1,000, and marketed to consumers.

(courtesy of wikipedia)

Being from Rochester, digital camera technology also marked the fall of Kodak. Fuji was a dirty word in my town.

In other news...

*I met Cory Booker when I lived in New York. This is a good story.

*I watched In Her Shoes on Saturday. It is indeed watchable but has plot holes the size of Texas. The timeline was all out of whack. Nobody sees the Cameron Diaz character for months when she disappears to Miami, and yet no one in the family seems to notice or register any level of concern? And Toni Collette and her sweet jewish lawyer man move from first date to engagement in like, two months time, which seems, well, unrealistic. I know. It's a movie. Shirley Maclaine however, is quite wonderful I think.

*I'm kitty sitting for Dorothy this week. Beatrice (the cat) was very confused to see a lump of human still in the bed at 8:30 am this morning. Her mama normally walks dogs (who are also away for the week) or runs long distances, very early in the morning. Her surrogate mama does nothing of the sort. They have lots of tv channels at their house which is an irresistible temptation since we don't really have tv in my house. It does suck you in. Last night I watched this and this.

Both made me a little bit queasy. It would be a very tough call to say which one was worse.

Happy, Happy

Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate on Friday. Thanks for the cake, the drinks, the tabouli and the babagannoush, the emotional support, the pretty shiny things to wear, the vitamin waters, the kind words, the laughs and the love.

I am so lucky to have such friends.

Here's to the year ahead.