BRKIG:

MDNA + yrs = ++$

The BOSS + yrs = +$

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There, major news outlets. You can all go back to your People mags and Cheezburgerz now.

one question

If he could say: something so sad just happened. and if I could say: not now- can’t now.

and then wait an hour and twenty eight minutes, couldn’t that hour and twenty eight minutes stretch and grow so that

as I lie old and taking my last everythings, couldn’t you lean down and whisper in my ear, “now. the world is ending and aching. altogether now. you and everyone.” ?

Everyone altogether at once is the way I would prefer it. One light. Bright.

I also edited the promotional video! Check it out: Beats for Boobs promo 2012

The night was a big hit (we raised lots of money for local cancer services) and I had a ton of fun emceeing.

Already looking forward to next year.

You’re on stage, delivering your lines but at the same time you are aware of your location in space. Is your face visible? Are you in your light? Can your voice be heard? Those are the most basic technical thoughts and all the secondary ones involving spatial relationships to other actors and set, as well as costumes and props can basically be fudged. (Unless you are in the middle of a carefully choreographed fight or dance).

Likewise, you are doing all kinds of “acting.” Some people might harbor the belief that beyond technical work, theater acting and film acting are the same. Not so! I shout. In the theater you are working with a live audience, your scene happens and there are no re-dos. You are listening and responding in real time, with no chance to go back and “get it again.” So, while little technical bits float around in the brain, you are also listening and responding, verbally and nonverbally to the words and action on stage (don’t worry, I’ll get to the sexy part soon). Acting, in other words, keeps the brain quite occupied.

That’s part of the relief of art, and for me, acting. Your day, your rent payment, your laundry and your work dissipate into the ether. They must, or else acting would be completely impossible. The challenge and richness of a scene and fellow actors gets me most of the way there and the additional adrenaline of a live audience helps cut that cord completely.

But, it’s always a little bit tougher when my mom sees a show. She’s seen almost every show I’ve ever done. She flew to Chicago once to see me perform. She visited LA to see me in a college production of Lysistrata and and has endured the most wonderfully unique fringe theater since my return to Seattle.

Death/Sex :Election, just happens to be a quirky, fun, sexy set of short shows by local writers and it is great fun. I have the great privilege to work in a piece that Wayne Rawley wrote: “Sex Life” . And, in this tightly written play, (excuse the foreshadowy pun / everything-becomes-a-sex-joke-when-think-about-this show) I am Deborah, a young women who begs/demands/seduces/blackmails a guy into having sex with her.

Let’s be clear: sex is not had on stage. There is low level nakedness (bra). However, there are vocabulary words that, well, let’s just say I don’t use these words in my daily life. Except as exclamations, sometimes, some of them. It is a show about two people and about sex. And my mom is seeing it.

It’s natural to imagine the experience of the show from your mom’s perspective when you know she is in the audience. Additionally, I suffering from the performers complex of feeling as though I am on stage most of the time and so I am quite practiced at self monitoring. I can picture what she is seeing. And, tonight, she will see me blush (as I have been doing throughout the run of the show, not out of character and completely beyond my control), and she will hear me say words such as, “pussy”, “anal” and “dick.” There are no cats and no guys named Richard in the show.

So! Wish me luck! Maybe I will be able to convince myself that she’s missed it and I will be able to not hear her gasping with surprise or laughing uncomfortably (or genuinely) as I stalk around the stage this evening. Either way, it is definitely an additional challenge. But she really wanted to see it. So, here. we. go.

This process is just as reassuring and as nerve wracking as it has been since the early techs of high school. Lights are hung and focused. Sound is added. All of a sudden it is bright out there, and you have a song that cues your entrance. It all becomes real and you realize, once again, that this is all really going to happen. (“God, why God, did I sign up for this?!” is a thought that crosses most actors’ minds during Tech. – an equally extreme thought, as the first laughs tinker in from the stage manager, sitting in the audience is: “God I love doing this.”)

Tech week consumes your thoughts: as you drift off to sleep you think, “am I really going to be wearing a wig?” As you bike to work, you wonder, “will the stage really be painted before we open?” Ah the wonders  and horrors of new and strange props, cut and added lines and mustaches that keep falling off.

Highlights of this particular tech: managing to feel sexy while saying the dirty dirty lines that brilliant local playwright, Wayne Rawley crafted. lowlight: last play, mustache failure. I completely lost it. Was laughing uncontrollably, as myself (not acting!), on stage. Sean (the director) had attempted to write a note but only got so far as: “Colleen.” Yeah. Note taken.

But, there is a saying: bad dress, great open. Let’s hope so!

Ok, maybe not, but you might have a bartender (or 3) who does and, if not, then you’ve at least seen Cheers?

Well, having a sushi chef who knows your name is pretty stellar. It’s a way to get treated like family, make good conversation and eat the best of the best, away from home.

A former boyfriend and I had been going to Hana Sushi ( meaning “flower”) once a month for about 5 months when we earned our masu! Masu are those square, wooden boxes that people drink sake out of and that you sometimes see stacked above the bar (sometimes with peoples’ names scrawled all over them). Those boxes, you think, are staged. Or, “what do you have to do to get one of those?” As it turns out, all you have to do is sit up front, appreciate the fantastic luck of eating like a king, and keep coming back. I recommend that you find yourself a sushi place with your own masu- Hana or elsewhere. 

Experiencing sushi as it was meant to be experienced means letting your sushi chef (in this case, the fabulously talented Yoshi) pick your meal for you (this is called “omakase” – the equivalent of “Chef’s choice”). Our first meal involved a fair amount of sake, quite a bit of conversation with Yoshi and a ton of fantastic food. That meal was the second time I had sea urchin (and certainly the 1st time I enjoyed it), the first time I enjoyed the sweet raw shrimp (and its following fried head) and the first time I’d compared two differently raised salmons (wild versus farm-raised) of the same breed (think: advanced cheese tasting in France).

I was raised on traditional, euro-influenced food. I remember the first time I had sushi (in high school) and until about 4 years ago, I was an eel-roll kind of girl. But, slowly, the wonders of nigiri (along with the “is this sustainable?” guilt) have become apparent. The escolar! the white tuna! The sea bass! Oh dear.

Hana doesn’t have a website (! I know!) but they do have a normal little location and phone number: 219 Broadway E
(between John St & Olive Way)
Seattle, WA 98102  - 206-328-1187

Visit them and you won’t be disappointed. Saunter right up to the sushi bar and ask Yoshi for whatever is good today.

Melancholia, the new film by super intense director, Las Von Trier, came out about 2 weeks ago. I watched it immediately w/ my fancy friend, Keita, who gets On-Demand movies the day they come out in theaters (don’t ask me!).

Anyway! The movie itself is aptly named. Well done, Von Trier. (He added the “Von” when he was in art school. Just like that. Makes me think about a few power moves I could make…). Aptly named indeed. This movie is DAMN melancholic. I mean, woah. If you have depressive tendencies, you might not want to see this movie. On the other hand…

This film is VERY arty, stressful and beautiful all at the same time. A few more things that might help you to decide whether or not you should see it:

• it is scored (this could be a thumbs up or a thumbs down- personal choice)
• Kirsten Dunst is in it, so if you think Kirsten Dunst is the hottest thing to ever walk the earth then you should probably see it (she won best actress at Cannes for this role, so yeah, she does show her boobs).
• the topic of the world ending is somewhat titillating
• Will Smith never appears and  never saves the day
• not a spoiler: the first 7 minutes are dialogue-free.

You basically know what is going to happen all along…. and when it does finally (FINALLY) happen I was ready for the whole thing to end. Unlike the NPR review in which the reporter wishes that Melancholia would never end. Me, not so much.

Throughout much of the film I spent a lot of time trying to force my knitted brows to relax. The stress creases (I prefer that phrase to ‘wrinkles’) I developed while watching this movie may never fade. It was an anxiety-ridden piece and Keita and I were both totally wiped out by the end of it. Thank god I had Kathleen’s copy of Earth Girls Are Easy with me.

This little gem, circa 1988, stars Ginna Davis, Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans. If you’ve never seen it, or haven’t seen it in a while or *just saw Melancholia* see it! STAT.

Here’s why: Earth Girls are Easy is like some 80s, pop culture, LA pre-mix of Melancholia. ”What?!” you say.

• In the opening sequence of both movies, erie music accompanies a shot of planets, drifting through outer space.
• (once the 7 minutes sans dialogue has ended in M), the opening scenes in both movies are of a girl in a wedding dress.
• Ginna Davis makes a joke, when her finance sees the dress, about bad luck. So EGAE is a little more blatantly ominous than M. But, yes! That’s right! Both couples are disconnected. The marriage celebrations approach…  A plague upon both your houses!

The kicker, Julien Temple (director, EGAE), gets done in the first 23 minutes what it takes Lars Von Trier the entire film to accomplish: something finally collides with the earth.

Of course. That’s the point of Melancholia. But, in Earth Girls Are Easy, you are treated to the slapstick comedy of Jim, Damon and Jeff, pretending to be aliens, learning how to breakdance, (yes! an 80s breakdancing scene!) learning how to play the piano and pick up chicks. There’s even a (gasp) moment when Ginna Davis looks through a telescope and if you’ve just seen Melancholia, you will have developed a real thing about telescopes.

My advice: set aside a solid 4 hours, prepare mild sedatives if deemed necessary and sit back and enjoy.

I was pretty excited for my cheesey grits, kale and poached eggs

Since I have returned home with the cold that everyone was fighting when I left Seattle. And since I am moving from Ballard to Capitol Hill this week, it will be a struggle to post about my recent trip to NYC. But, I did photo doc the food well via Twitter, so if you wanna check out the pics immediately to the right of this post, please do!

This one is in a little spot called Egg- our last breakfast in Brooklyn. It was incredibly tasty. Also tried the sausage (a huge side serving- nicely spiced) and the french toast- which was a soft brioche. Of course, being a grits girl who rarely gets them, I had to order and def had to upgrade to cheesy! Hello! It was vacation!

The eggs were perfectly poached and the kale was fresh, and had a great texture/ flavor. As per a yelp review, we had the french press coffee- which is locally roasted and is good stuff.

If you find yourself in Brooklyn, get to Egg for a b-fast, but be prepared for a little wait if you arrive after about 10:30 – since that’s when the world actually starts to wake up in NYC.