Excuses

What else have I been doing?

Hungry Hungry Hipsters, the newest Improv Asylum Mainstage show is up and running. Which means, thankfully, the intense weeks of  multiple- late-night rehearsals are over. Our official Grand Opening Night will be Thursday July 29th, if you want to swing by to toast with us. Otherwise, I really do recommend coming out to see the show at some point this summer, especially if you have never come down, or haven't in a while. 

You probably didn't know I was hunting for a new roommate, but I was. David has moved out, which means no more day trips to Ikea.* Joining us in August is Tucker, who I already made sit and watch all of the 1972 movie Cabaret with me and Laura Clark one night when he had just come over to drop off his security check. Afterwards he said he was impressed with the movie's structure and cinematography. And we talked about 1920s Berlin culture. That's how I know this is going to be a devastatingly wonderful match.

In my spare time, instead of writing I have to admit to you I have been spending a lot of time on my back porch or down by the Charles River, reading. Just finished Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. Since that marks the 3rd or 4th nonfiction book I have read in a row I've started in on Lamb by Christopher Moore  to shake things up a bit. 

Annnd of course, I am still working 36 + hours a week as a nurse during the daytime and loving every minute of it. 

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* If this blog weren't so classy I'd put in a sad -face emoticon here, not to let you know I am sad, but in order to acknowledge that the sentence itself is ridiculous.

Slacking Update

My brother messaged me to remind me that I'm "slacking" on my blog.

So: A quick update in two parts.

Callbacks for Gorefest VIII were tonight. Incredible turnout. Having not seen most of the original auditions I went in blind and was not disappointed. During deliberations over beer and snacks at Tavern in the Square adjectives like "delightful," and  "a pure joy to watch" were not thrown around lightly, but were used  frequently, nevertheless. After the restaurant started to shut down Steve, Don and I had nearly finalized our list. Hard decisions all around, and some super close calls. Still need to make some adjustments, but the casting will be made public by the end of this week I bet.

I posted last year about how much I love this song. Sejal, the choreographer for Gorefest used it tonight in auditions and reminded me of how freaking amazing it is. The link on the old post is expired, so here it is again for your steam punk zombie pleasure:



PS. I cheated and back timed this post. I was still at Tavern discussing auditions at 11:59pm.

Havin a Summah Playlist

 Recently, local comedian Kevin Harrington told me I needed to watch this clip on Funny or Die because of the Jaws reference in it. Now he frequently asks me if I've bought my summah gum.

Well, I don't have summer gum. Why? Because I hate gum.
 I know it's summer because my go-to ipod playlist changes. *

I recently added Mirando a las Muchachas by Mexican Institute of Sound,  I Am Not a Robot by Marina and The Diamonds, and He Lives in You, from The Lion King London cast recording.
Like everyone else, I find new favorites every season that will forever and ever remind me of what I was doing this summer, who I was doing it with, and where we all were.

 But some songs will ALWAYS be on the playlist, no matter what else changes.

My Summer Playlist Standards

Lazy Bones, Soul Coughing
Lido, Boz Scraggs
Into the Mystic, Van Morrison
Corazone Espinado, Carlos Santana
Could You Be Loved, Bob Marley
Suzanne, Leonard Cohen
Real Love, Mike Doughty
Don't Go (Giving Your Love Away) , Sonia Dada
Hush, Afroman
Treetop Flyer, Stephen Stills
Jungle Drum, Emiliana Torrini
Surf's Up, Brian Wilson
Everybody I Love You, CSN&Y


BONUS: Summer Night Playlists should  include the following:
Milky Way Tonight, Crosby and Nash
Summer in the City, Regina Spektor


Any recommendations for a must-adds this summer?

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* And because I switch to my summer lip gloss, duh. (Blistex Fruit Smoothies (variety pack) spf 15 $2.99 at CVS)

or is this how you know you're a nurse?

Walking down the hallway, it's only 8:30am but I'm already well into my day- stretched out, warmed up,  caffeinated, and halfway through a medication pass. But I'm hungry.

"Hey!" The man coming toward me yells. He is in a group of people who are all laughing at a joke. He's leaning towards the woman next to him, and she is looking at him adoringly, but he has inturrupted the moment by addressing me.

He points at me, "I had a great bowel movement! Thank you!"

"Awesome!"

And I mean it.

The Way Life Should Be

Just a bit of a break from my London stories, as I am vacationing in Vacationland itself this weekend.

I'm at the beautiful  home of my friend Ted's parents. To my left is an open window through which I can hear birds waking up the bugs. Directly in front of me is a large picture window, and from there I can see the ocean.

Being able to see the ocean makes me feel as if everything is right in my world.

London: people * places * [things]

...specifically, things you can't  or don't get back home, because that's part of the fun of traveling, right?

As I sit here, to my left is an empty gold wrapper. That wrapper belonged to nothing else but a Cadbury Crunchie bar.

My love affair with Crunchies began when I was in grade school, performing at Irish Step Dancing competitions around Massachusetts. One thing that every feis had in common was a smattering of items for sale, from ghillies to tara brooches, from custom made dresses to fancy bags to carry them in. And then there was UK candy.

Naturally when I was reunited with Crunchies in London last week I was delighted. 

"Of course," John said when I asked if I could stop at one of the tiny shops at Heathrow to stock up on my way home.

I grinned. 

Tonight, sitting in my small, hot Cambridge apartment letting the chocolate melt off the honeycomb in my mouth before I chomp into the bar it's like I'm ten years old again. I'm sitting on a folding metal chair in the back room of an east coast town hall, the smell of Aquanet mingling with the fresh leather smell of my ghillies, waiting for my mother to take the curlers out of my hair so I can pin my number card to the front of my dress and dance.

Thank you, London, for that. 

Another fun example (one of many)?

At a bar/club called Barrio Central in SoHo, John drank a beer from Cuba. 

That's certainly not happening over here any time soon. Silly me, I stuck to rum and cokes.

London: people * [places] * things

So many of the places I visited in London deserve their own entry, and will most likely get them.
Some deserve their own entry and won't get one and I can only hope my memory of them lives on anyway.
Places are never just places though are they? They're really just about people and things only you add in smells and sounds and room tone.

On our first day in London we hopped on and off the Big Bus Tour, so we had eyeballed most of the prominent sights in the city by 6pm. We had photographed Big Ben, gawked at Westminster Abbey, meandered around Picadilly Circus, stood on London Bridge, and wondered at the lions in Trafalgar Square.*  It had been a while since we ate at Costa that morning, we tried to find a decent pub. The World Cup was on and we were near London Bridge. The odds were against us, but we prevailed.
We settled on dinner at a pub called Mudlark.  It was situated just far enough from the London Dungeon that we couldn't hear any touristy screams, but near enough that on our way there I got my photo taken with two blood-stained actors wandering the streets. (Score!)

At the pub John tried the fish and chips, and I ate delicious steamed veggies with my fingers while I drank a Fosters.**  I took a photo at the table because I couldn't get over how casually we were drinking in the shadow of a medieval church.
As we were leaving, a football game was picking up between some of the young men drinking their beers on the street outside the pub. Two men rode by on bicycles. Big Ben chimed.

Oh, London.

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* Later we would return there and witness a celebration that broke out when England beat Slovenia.
  This involved shirtless men standing in the middle of the fountain in Trafalgar Square waving flags and screaming while people danced and screamed at the base of the fountain and tourists like us circled the scene wondering why soccer is so popular everywhere else in the world.
** Which meant I was hungry again about an hour later. Brilliant.