This man is suing Apple because listening to his iPod too loudly may be causing hearing loss.

In other news, I will be suing the makers of sharp sticks because I was caught completely off-guard when jamming one into my eye caused me to lose my vision.

•People who don’t return phone calls are becoming a particular peeve of mine.

•From kradical, I see that the Henson company is making a Dark Crystal 2. Cool.

•The Daddy Daughter dance is coming up this weekend. I love this thing! It’s so fun to take Maggie!

•Prince has a new album coming out. Excellent. Yes, I’m a rabid, rabid Prince fan. New album, 3121, will be released next month. AND he’ll be doing the new single this weekend on Saturday Night Live.

•Um, can someone please write me more warm comedies set in Michigan? Thanks.

•Max and I had a great time at Toys-R-Us on Tuesday night. He had a gift certificate and a little money saved up, and I agreed to take him shopping to buy a GameBoy game. We took all of the games that he “Liked, but wasn’t sure about” and made a line of them on the shelf. Then, one-by-one, he eliminated them and narrowed it down to…Scooby Doo: Unmasked! Yes, yes, curb your excitement, you’ll all get turns.

•Unless a deal is struck with another network, Arrested Development may be finished next week. On Friday, February 10th, Fox will air a 2 hour “Season Finale”. They’re calling it a season finale, but they’ve cancelled production on the show. Right now, the shows producer/creator is in negotiations with Showtime. Let’s hope they make a deal!

•Today at the Williamston Theatre we did a tour for a group of Red Hat Ladies. They were very sweet, and it was fun to sit and chat with them for about 30 minutes about why we were starting the theatre, and what we were hoping to do with it. Later in the day we got a couple more donation checks in the mail, and laid out a very solid, ambitious but do-able plan for the next 12 months or so.

•Jeanne and I went out for drinks and dessert tonight with some friends. The Common Grill in Chelsea, MI has one of the most amazing desserts on the planet. If you’re around, try the Warm Chocolate Fallen Cake. Lord, it’s good.

•So, at a bullfight in Mexico City this week, a bull leapt into the crowd and injured a bunch of people. “Little Bird”, the half-ton beast with the pointy horns, jumped into the expensive seats and started knocking rich people around until a bullfighter entered the stands and stabbed him to death with his sword. I just need to point out that this is one reason why my spectator sport of choice is baseball, and I get the cheap seats.

Things to remember:

6) The success of perseverance.

-Marshall Field

So our first performance in the building went very well.

The Staged Reading of Annie Martin’s new untitled comedy was very well received, which was very exciting.

Also, and possibly even more exciting, was the fact that we performed it in front of a packed house.
Packed to the rafters.
Packed to the rafters in a “Holy shit we don’t have enough chairs and have to get office furniture down here!” kinda way!
Packed to the rafters in a “Folks, we’ll get started in just a couple of minutes, because we still have people coming in and we’re borrowing chairs from down the street to seat everyone!” kinda way!

Our first audience in our new building. And we literally had standing room only.

So, that was pretty awesome.

Overwhelming. Humbling. Encouraging.

And freaking awesome.

The first player of this game starts with the topic of “5 Guilty Pleasures” and people who get tagged need to write an LJ entry about 5 Guilty Pleasures as well as state this rule clearly. In the end you need to choose 5 people to be tagged and list their names.

oldstancher tagged me as one of his five people! Cool.

SO. I will happily list 5 guilty pleasures in which I indulge. However, instead of tagging 5 people and making them do it, I’m simply going to encourage anyone out there who reads this to do it! If you like, feel free to post your list as a comment here on Tony101, where life is a big circus! (Today, anyway!)

My 5 Guilty Pleasures

We have our first performance in the new building this Saturday.

It’s a Staged Reading of a new (currently untitled) play by Annie Martin, a wonderful writer who lives in Michigan.

Tonight we had our first rehearsal. Great actors. Great energy. Great vibe in the room. It was great.

And I had a moment.

We’re really doing this.

We were in our building. Rehearsing a piece. A new play. A new play that was going to have an audience on Saturday.

We’re really doing this!

Now, is the building what it should be yet? No.
Are we doing a full play yet? No. A staged reading is just that – scripts in hand, very basic staging, minimal blocking, no props.
Are we making a bunch of money yet? No.
Do we have 125 people a night, 5 nights a week, pounding at our door to get in yet? No.

But these things will come.
Oh, they will come.

Because we’re really doing this.

The very wonderful gift that I was given today

Tomorrow’s my birthday. We’ve got a big dinner planned, with family and guests and stuff.

Maggie, though, wanted to do something for me from her and Max without everyone around. So today, in the late afternoon, she called me on my cell phone at work and asked when I was coming home, because they had set up a ‘surprise’.

When I got home, the curtains were drawn, and the lights were off, and there was a note on the door that said “Don’t turn on the lights!”

I went in, and heard “Come find us!”

I crept into the darkened room, finding the kids hidden on the couch under some pillows. They jumped up, and Max yelled “Happy Not-Birthday, Dad!” as they turned on the lights.

When the lights came on, I found that the room had been transformed into a Birthday Carnival! All for me!

Maggie turned on the Kim Possible CD she’d selected for the Carnival music, and as it rocked the house they showed me the awesome card they’d made me, and the carnival games they’d created!

Maggie had taken the whole thing VERY seriously, and had done her research in a book entitled Great Stuff – 100 Fun Projects For Kids. She worked for two days to put all this together! Both kids were the carnies in charge of 3 games each, and Jeanne and I played them all. (Then, of course, WE played the carnies and the kids got to play the games!)

So all night long we played Toss The Dog A Bone,

Make them laugh, make them cry, and hack to laughter. What do people go to the theatre for? An emotional exercise. . . . I am a servant of the people. I have never forgotten that.
-Mary Pickford

So, my son Max has a good friend at school. Her name is Faith. He’s 5, so he occasionally pronounces it Thaif. He told us the other day that he was embarassed, because she said she was going to tell him a secret, but when he leaned in, she kissed his cheek! It’s very sweet. And this week, he came home with a note. From Faith. Written by Faith’s Mom. “Here is Faith’s mom’s cell phone number. So Max can call Faith any time.”

You know what this means, right?

My son picked up his first phone number!! YES! Awww, yeeeeeahHH!!! Who’s a proud dad?!
Saturday night we’re going to the bar and I’ll teach him the “Brief smile and glance away embarassed to be caught gazing at someone so lovely” move!

And in other news, please go and have a try at this. It’s addictive, and funny, with a touch of disturbing thrown in for fun. My best is 928 feet. See how YOU do!

Captain Kirk’s Kidney Stone has been sold for $25,000.00.

Dammit, why can’t I be rich?!