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| (original illustration from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, drawn by John Tenniel.) |
wow, i can't believe the summer season is almost over!! i feel as if i fell down alice's rabbit hole....
dish asked me to assist with the southampton cultural center's summer production of 'working' - a musical based on the book by studs terkel (and of course, i said yes!). going into the production just a few weeks before opening and knowing nothing about the show was an interesting experience. the show is really a great cross-section of the everyday american life, but can seem a bit disjointed, as there's no through story line. it's just a series of vignettes, loosely strung together. but....there's something for everyone. including songs that GET STUCK IN YOUR HEAD FOR MONTHS. there were certainly some shining moments (along with some i wish i could forget) but attendance was unfortunately small. it was, however, fun to get back into the theater and work with dish. that man never ceases to amaze me, and every time i work with him i feel inspired.there have also been several trips into the city....
1) i got to see jen & anna b. when we met to see clay walker & other songwriters at joe's pub (amazing).
on that trip, i also made time for myself to go see 'catch me if you can' - the new musical (closing already?!) starring norbert leo butz, tom wopat & aaron tveit. it was AMAZING. if i could have afforded it, i would have seen it two or three more times!!!! the set was so unbelievably cool. it looks like something dish would have wanted to replicate if we were still doing theater at the college.... and the choreography was to DIE FOR. of course, it was done by jerry mitchell, and i pretty much love anything he choreographs.
2) con & i took the day off because my FAVORITE author james rollins was doing an event. we decided to make a day of it, wander around the city & eat at bobby flay's mesa grill before going WAY downtown to the event. it was, of course, hot, humid & then rainy. i wanted to go to the mesa grill because i had seen an episode of 'throwdown with bobby flay' which featured green chili cheeseburgers from the area of new mexico where i grew up - and i happened to see that his version of the burger was on their menu. it was delicious.....but not as delicious as the burgers at the owl bar & cafe in san antonio, nm!!
after lunch, we wandered further downtown - stopping off at a comic book store where con nerded out for a little while, and then the evolution store, where i let my inner science geek run wild..... purchase? gigantic porcupine quills that make AWESOME hairsticks!
we finally made it down to the mysterious bookshop on warren street, which is in the COOLEST neighborhood! if i were going to live in the city, i think it would have to be in an area like that - mostly because it's very chill - and, i would ABSOLUTELY be at that bookstore all the time! it's TINY, but they have amazing events. this event happened to be part of harpercollins thrillerfest, so there were about 20 authors there!!! it was PACKED, and it became quickly apparent that most people were there to see james rollins (let's just say i wasn't the only one clutching my copy of 'devil colony', sans dustjacket).
look closely at that picture. on the right hand side, do you see the person in the yellow shirt? the person facing the camera, speaking to the yellow-shirted person (dark blazer, grey shirt) is mr. rollins.....he was basically pinned against the bookshelves right in that spot from almost the moment he walked in. as crazy as it was in there, he seemed to take it all in stride - taking pictures with people, personalizing books, answering questions and telling short anecdotes. it was kind of awesome.
as you would expect, i follow @jamesrollins on twitter and on facebook. while he was on tour, mr. rollins was VERY active on both, creating event pages for every appearance, encouraging questions & conversation, posting appearance dates & times, etc. i marked that i'd be attending the nyc event, and posted how excited i was about it and, of course, posted event details on twitter & in my facebook status pretty frequently (you may have seen).
so....day of event....we finally get up to the front of the line, at which point i asked a stupid question & got an appropriately snarky response. so, i revised my question to something along the lines of "i'm a biology major, and i was fascinated by 'subterranean'. it was like an adventure through the what-ifs of evolution. where did those ideas come from?" (this was his first published thriller)
anyway....chit-chat, photos, etc....he asks if i would like my book personalized, (um. YES.) and asks what my name is. when i tell him & spell it out, he pauses, thinks for a second, and says...."baker?" as you can imagine, i almost passed out. i'm sure i babbled some ridiculous nonsense & got out of the way so the next person could have their time. con & i moved over across the room and i got a look at what had been written in my copy of 'devil colony'.........
-------it was totally worth dealing with the heat, humidity & rain. absolutely. 100%--------
3) later in the summer, jackie came down to visit & we went into the city again. we were able to get tickets to 'how to succeed in business without really trying' starring daniel radcliffe. my first choice was 'anything goes', but jackie offered to buy the tickets since i was pretty much broke - so i gave her first choice of shows.....and she's obsessed with daniel radliffe.....but it turned out to be a good choice! i haven't ever seen a production of 'how to succeed', and it was GREAT! jackie & i both walked out with the songs stuck in our heads. who knew the kid who played harry potter is good at singing AND dancing? not me.
**photo credit unknown. this was the show's promotional art**
while we were flipping through the playbill, we noticed an ad for the 'harry potter experience' at discovery times square, which advertised a discount on admission with our tickets from the show. so, of course, we headed over there to see how much admission was.....and since jackie is also obsessed with all things harry potter, she offered to also buy my ticket to get into the exhibit. ANOTHER good choice by jackie. while i am not a super-crazy-know-everything kind of harry potter fan, i did enjoy the books and the movies. and i REALLY enjoy the behind-the-scenes stuff. seeing the costumes & props used in the actual filming was pretty cool. the exhibit was HUGE & took us a while to walk through, and eventually dumped us into the inevitable gift shop.....which had a lot of cool stuff. a lot. jackie ended up with a few odds & ends, including a replica wand she got for her mom, and i walked out with a hat that says 'wizard'. it's amazing.
all this was sandwiched in between 'working' (see above) and 'of mice and men'.
(but i'll save that for next time......)
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