Got home yesterday from Buffalo.
Luggage did not come home yesterday.
Luggage DID make it to my house today.

Seriously hoping that tomorrow the antibiotics will kick in, and I’ll feel better. (And stop COUGHING. My chest, stomach muscles and neck are killing me from coughing so much.) In general, I feel absolutely yucky.

Fully Committed closed in Williamston today. A great run, with a great final show. A Williamston Theatre first: We had a city-wide power blackout for about 45 seconds in the middle of Act I. That was exciting!

A good review, not raving but very positive, for The Mystery of Irma Vep.

Now I will be going to bed with some cough syrup, kleenex, a heating pad and a glass of water.

So…the doctor said “Treatment Failure”. 

That’s what he said I had suffered, when I went in a month ago for my sinus infection.  Yep.  I went back yesterday (well, I went to a nice friendly doctor this time: last time I went to the emergency room…where they were also nice, but didn’t do the job right.)

Soooo…it turns out that the antibiotics I got last month were not strong enough, nor was my prescription long enough, to cure my sinus infection, which is why I’m back to feeling like I’ve been run over by a couple of trains…and had the conductors get out, pour sand down my throat, stuff cotton all the way up my nose to my brain, pound me in the head with a ballpeen hammer, and punch me all over so that every muscle in my body aches.  And if I don’t stop coughing, I’m going to give myself a freaking neck injury. 

Yep…a party in my body, that’s what’s happening now! 

Sooooo…I’ve got bigger better faster antibiotics (we can rebuild him, we have the technology).  They’re as big as a house, and I have to take them for nearly two weeks.  This is due to the interesting nature of a sinus infection, as opposed to many other infections, which I learned about when the nice friendly doctor gave me a great impromptu lecture about the differences between them.  Informative AND entertaining!  (The phrase “Sinuses are just big holes in your skull and, if you let ’em, germs will just hide in there giving you the finger and making more germs!” was one of my favorites.

DESPITE ALL OF THAT…Opening Night of <i>The Mystery Of Irma Vep</i> went very well.  The cast did great work, and the staff and Artistic Director were happy, and the audience laughed and cheered and applauded.  So, great.  That’s done.  I’ll post review notices if they come out, but for now….

…it’s on to the next thing.  Which, for me, is bed.  Because…I’m exhausted, achey, and a little bit dizzy.  Have I mentioned that I’m sick?  *whine, moan, whine, moan*

*one more whine*

Last night we had a great preview performance – about 500 people, laughing uproariously.  Yay.  The actors are really getting into the swing of it and having fun.  You can find more info about the show at Studio Arena’s Website!

I feel like I’m getting sick again.  Noooooo.  I will be pounding the Emergen-C, juice and lozenges for the next couple of days, but my nose is running like a faucet and I feel a little feverish.  *headdesk*

Sooooo…Patrick Swayze and Melissa Gilbert are doing a  Little House On The Prairie musical.  Oh my…   the song titles are just FLYING through my head…  “It’s Locust Day!”, “Oh Noes, My Older Sister’s Gone Blind!”, “Pa’s Prayin’ Again!” and “Mama, Stop Sweepin’ That Damn Dirt Floor!”  Plus, Patrick Swayze’s contribution “Nobody Puts Laura In The Corner!” (which is accompanied by a dirty, dirty dance.)

We close <i>Fully Committed</i> at Williamston Theatre this Sunday.  It’s been a good run, Aral Gribble has done a wonderful job!  Our next show will open in Mid-April, and I’m looking forward to it very much.  

This is why we teach our kids how to dial 911:  A 6 year old hero!
THIS is why we teach our kids not to wander away from campsites:  a 12 year old who should know better than to do something this stupid.
AND THIS is why some people just should be removed from the planet:  How stupid do you have to be to let a toddler play with a gun?  Not just LET, but give it to her? !

Okay, letting go of the wanting-to-punch-stupid-people-who-deserve-it anger, onto better news:  Williamston Theatre’s box office is almost complete, our new moveable wall in the greenroom is done, and we’re getting an electrical upgrade soon.  Whoohooo!  

And now, I’m off to plow through a whole bunch of email and work that’s calling my name.  

Live Long and Prosper.

*So it’s snowy, blowy and windy and yucky here in Buffalo today. Off work today…Gonna do a little shopping, a little relaxing. I think there’s some JUSTICE LEAGUE DVD watching in my immediate future…and some napping.

*Our first weekend of previews went well. Learned a LOT at the first preview…like the fact that I’d pulled a lot of the fun out of Act I, so at intermission I was thoroughly disgusted with myself. Fortunately, Acts II and III (which are done together, we’ve combined them so there’s only one intermission) worked very well. The fun, silly, looseness and playfulness came across very well. So, at rehearsal on Saturday and Sunday, before those two previews, we put a bunch of the fun and drive back in Act I. That worked well, and both Sat and Sun night went very well. Audiences are laughing in Act I, but in II they really kick in with the belly laughs – and that’s good. The script is geared that way, and although I’d love people to start laughing at the top and never stop until they’ve fallen asleep in their beds that night, they don’t all work that way!

*The next few days will be spent doing a little rehearsing in the afternoon, followed by previews on Tue, Wed and Thu, with Opening Night on Friday. Yay!

*The pre-production for Music From A Sparkling Planet at Williamston Theatre is going well – I’m very excited for this project to get underway!

*So here’s an article that really, really pissed me off: Police handcuff and terrorize a 7 year old boy. If this was my kid, there’d be lawsuits and hell-raising like you’ve never seen. Unbelievable.

*In cheerier news, this is a link to a neat article all about the tech and backstage stuff on The Mystery Of Irma Vep. It came out yesterday in The Buffalo News. Neat! There’s a whole big time-line thing in the printed version that has a lot more stuff about me and my process/schedule with the designers, but it didn’t make it into the online version.       
Edited To Add:  Actually, an anonymous poster offered a link to that timeline thing!  Click Here!

*We are 14 days from Opening Day of Tiger Baseball!!!

The last few days have been crazy. Busy. The show is going well, but it’s long hours and I’m not sleeping well – as often happens when I’m about to get a show open.

I decided to use my Treo phone/organizer as an alarm clock last night, instead of the alarm by the bed.

The Treo has an amazingly loud ringer.
The Treo was set to use an amazingly annoying alarm sound; Reveille, being played loudly.
The Treo was almost flung against the wall hard this morning.

The sound has been changed.

This is fun! I really enjoy XKCD!

We are getting SO CLOSE to baseball season! Man, I can’t wait!

The Mystery of Irma Vep is shaping up well – we’re starting tech tomorrow, it’ll be busy! A 10 hour rehearsal Tuesday, 2 10-out-of-12 hour rehearsals in a row (Wednesday and Thursday), and first preview on Friday! A busy week. Studio Arena Theatre is proving to be a nice place to be as a Guest Director, everyone’s been very professional, polite, friendly and helpful!

Fully Committed is going well at Williamston Theatre – a couple more weeks, and we’ll close with what, so far, looks like it’ll be our most successful show yet. Yay!

I had to buy a new wallet. It got me thinking – Wallets are such a personal thing. And every guy I talk to about this says the same thing: “Oh, man, you can’t just have any old wallet! You gotta get the one that works for YOU.” It’s funny, I can get shoes and not worry too much beyond “do they hurt my feet or make me look silly?”, I can buy a belt and the only question is “Black or Brown?” But I can spend a couple of hours looking for the right wallet: Front pocket, bi-fold, money clip on the outside. Clear picture-i.d. window on the other side. Inside, slots for 8 to 12 cards.

What about you – what common, everyday thing in your do you take the most care in picking out?

I have to admit, I’m disappointed by the new Direct TV Commercials.

You know the ones, where they use footage from Back to The Future and Star Trek to pitch how great Direct TV is?

They’re right here:
This is Star Trek
This is Back To The Future

I HATE the fact that they took scenes from these movies, got the big star who was in the scene, and re-shot a few seconds to make it look like the character steps out of the scene and sells us on Direct TV.

I know, I know, nothing is sacred in the entertainment industry, it’s all about the money, blah blah blah…but come on! And YES, I understand they’re “FUN”, yes it was fun to see Captain Kirk on the bridge of the Enterprise…but I can see that when I watch the movie! (I am entertained by the fact that William Shatner said in an interview that they’d used computer graphics to slim him down and smooth out some wrinkles so he’d look like the Kirk in the movie, not pudgy, like William Shatner does now!)

So, that’s my complaint. I feel like a curmudgeon saying it, but too bad. I know, it’s just a movie! Still… I can’t help but feel like one little part of life that was dear to me has been taken away, peed on, and given back.

*grumps off, puts soapbox away, walks uphill 5 miles both ways*

Williamston Theatre is getting a Box Office!

We have a beautiful lobby, but our Box Office, up to this point, has been a nice table/countertop thing in the lobby. Construction has begun on our brand new Box Office inside the lobby! Thanks to Tim Fox, Christine Purchis, John Lepard, Emily Sutton-Smith and Steve Zynda, this baby is going to be awesome!

It’s still amazing to me that this little dream is coming true…bit by bit, this theatre has carved a small little space for itself, and is slowly making that space bigger and bigger.

Caramel Frappuccino

Creative and expressive, you tend to match your Frappuccino flavor to your mood. And a flavored syrup is always a must!

Well…okay. I guess I’d better order one of those, and see how it is!…I gotta be honest though – right now it’s freaking freezing in Buffalo, and I don’t want any coffee drink that’s not really, really hot!

It’s like a Science Fiction headline!

Scientists Study Earth’s Missing Crust!

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Canary Islands – British scientists have embarked on a mission to study a huge area on the Atlantic seabed where the Earth’s crust is mysteriously missing and instead is covered with dark green rock from deep inside the planet.

How awesome is that?! Click here to read the whole article.