Too Many Links

Life seems to have smashed itself all up into a jumble yet again. Not much time to breathe but I promise you I am not complaining.

The long of title and complex of structure References To Salvador Dali Make Me Hot is off and running. It's not an easy play. It is a beautiful play. It's a fun group of actors and others -- a great mix-up of people I've worked with before (only one, actually), people I've known and always wanted to work with (several), and several newbie's who I am very much enjoying getting to know.

The Rorschach blog has fun facts, updates, and behind the scenes photos of the whole down-and-dirty process. Check it out. (There's even a mention of you guys, mom and dad!)

My parents were in town again this weekend. They got to see the opening of DARWIN and the first read of DALI. The weekend was a blur but enjoyable (I hope?) and we had an extremely satisfying meal at Dukem after a long a frustrating wait with a hostess who had seemed to have invented her own system of taking names for a seating order.

Today I'm catching up on "Story-of-the-Day's".

Did you know that the electric slide is copyrighted? The man who invented it had made it his life mission to preserve the integrity of his dance. And come on, I mean--who could blame him?

There is a new edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin coming out, annotated by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Hollis Robbins of Harvard University. NPR hosted an interesting discussion about the book and about how the derogatory implications of "Uncle Tom" came to be. They keep coming back to this question of who has actually read Uncle Tom's Cabin. Have you read it?

Oddly enough, I have. It was on the curriculum for a not-very-good Women's Studies class I took at Michigan. We read a variety of female writers, including a slave narrative, Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Jewelle Gomez book... maybe we were examining race as well. I don't remember. There was one male in the class and I ended up dating him briefly. Joel. He was the poet who brought me free frozen yogurt from Mrs. Field's Cookies. Anyway, my recollection of the book was that it read as schmaltzy and sentimental, but at the same time was unquestionably progressive considering the time.

In other news:
Ira Glass is totally cute. No one ever told me that. He is also married and lives in Chicago, but cute nonetheless.

We're reading Jeanette Winterson's WEIGHT for book club. It is blessedly short and much less dense than some of her other books. It's good for me right now.

In my down time, I've made it my mission to memorize the words to Regina Spektor's Radio Song. That way if someone ever turns to me and says, "This life thing--I just don't get it!?" I can turn to them and without missing a beat respond, "This is how it works. You're young until you're not. You love until you don't. You try until you can't. You laugh until you cry. You cry until you laugh. And everyone must breathe until their dying breath."

And they'll be all like, "Citymouse! You are so wise! And smart and astute! But what happens when I am just feeling so down on myself and my life and thinking I just can't go on anymore?"

And then I'll say--firmly but kindly--"No, this is how it works. You peer inside yourself. You take the things you like and try to love the things you took. And then you take that love you made and stick it into someone else's heart, pumping someone else's blood, and walking arm in arm you hope it don't get harmed, but even if it does you'll just do it all again.

And maybe, eventually, I will listen to that advice myself. I know, right?

I was jazzed to find Hannah's blog. Gwen and Deb also have kick-ass blogs. I need to update my links. All in due time.

I am also a little bit addicted to the blog that the interns at Humana are keeping. Last year they had an actor and a playwright blogging for the festival, but this is much more fun. And while reading that I happened upon this interview with Blue Man Wes Day. Wes was a classmate of mine. There are now three Blue Men (four?) from his year at school. He is a megastar, indeed.

Also, this is super cool, from the folks over at the Voice.