Where the HELL have I been?

WELL LET'S TAKE A LOOK SHALL WE?

REHERSALS- DIDO & AENEAS, VMT SEPTEMBER 2007

A first for VMT! A short Baroque opera composed in 1690 by Henry Purcell based upon Virgil's Aneid. Our musical director, Lana Poklad turned producer for the show, investing much of her time and own money to make sure this show is a success. We open with a gala on October 14th and run only four more performances thereafter. After 8 weeks of trying to train my voice to sound something more diva than broadway showgal, I am looking forward to taking a rest and having a great time brooding over what show to audition for next.

Golden Gate Renisance Faire- Golden Gate Park, San Francisco Sept 2007

Here's my gal Laura P (I dressed her!) and friend Jen L who was part of the Court of Mary Queen of Scots (m'lady made her costume head to toe!) I admire Jen greatly for having the enthusiasim and passion for costuming and period garb that inspires me to perchance learn to sew! No pictures of my costume. I was face first in the grass. Too much mead!

Dad's 60th Birthday iPod Cake

August 2007 was pretty busy. Made my first fondant covered cake in ode to my Pops turning 60 on August 3rd! He has always been a dedicated Apple/Mac fella so I thought it would be cool to make him an iPod cake complete with ear buds! The fondant was something else to work with and credit is due to Laura P, who saved me with the laying out and cutting out of fondant pieces, which dry out really quickly if you're not careful! Given that it was my first attempt, I think it turned out relatively well and the edible glitter for the fondant was something else!

I highly recommend Cake Art in San Rafael, CA. http://http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3710685035 (Sorry gang, no website, yet!)

Not only did they have a wonderful selection of pans, homemade cake mix, buttercream frosting and readied fondant, they also had every imaginable cake topper, stands and boxes for transporting and the mother and daughter team were professional and very helpful. If I am not mistaken, they also offer classes in cake decorating.

My da was really impressed that I took the time to make the cake myself and I had a blast doing it.

Vallejo Music Theater's Fundraiser- Riverboat Gambling Night August 2007

(L) That's me in the top hat at as "Madame M." at VMT's Riverboat Gamblin' Night in partnership with Vallejo Suburban Kiwanis. Loved posing with my *respectable* can-can lassies. Raised $5,000 for the what is hoped to be the new theater at 823 Marin Street. A great time was had by those in attendance. We even had the witty and insightful Samuel Clemmins AKA Mark Twain (R) "on board" to share his insights as to the downfalls of men.

Sound Of Music -Vallejo Music Theater Summer 2007 Show

(Center) as Fraulien Schweiger AKA Crazy Bowing Gal (center) in Vallejo Music Theater's Summer Production of the Sound of Music in July. I loved going on stage every night after the Third Place Contestents at the Festival - The Trio from the Sangerbaun of (HAIR) bagen. (At Top Left to Right- Sarah Z., Laura P. and Renee O.)

This is another costuming first put together by me ala Thrift Town for $6.00!


Also rocked the house as part of the "Nun Chorus" as evidenced by my pals Majia C. (center) and Nancy G. (left). Sometime ask me to share the story about Mother Abbess...

NOT IN MY BACKYARD!

OK this was funny at our Second Annual Cast Party for the Sound of Music Company and Crew.
Funny at first but then I freaked along with Maija, Cenzo's mom ala. (http://www.cenzosmom.com/)

Kids do not try this ever unless there are at least 40 adults standing around drinking beer and you do it on the grass!

Shanties, some ale and a pence to my name, which is more than I had when I came!

The First Annual Northern California Pirate Fest held in Vallejo was amazing in that so many people arrived to our shores with unbelievable costumes! We had our fill on land to be sure and my scoundral of the seven seas was called out as rake-ish and the devil did smile!

Say ARRRGHHHH!

I could not resist putting up more pics! I took a ton!

AVAST! ARGH! YAR!

Yep 1st Annual No. California Pirate Fest is coming to my town 6/16-17. Best of all is it is FREE!

Me and my mateys from Sound of Music are going to pilage and plunder like it was 1720! Working on the names of our troupe. I am liking the sound of Booty Call, but then again, who wouldn't? I really get into events where costuming plays a big part. I am just not capable of waiting around for 10/31 each year!

So YAR, YAR! Ebay here I come!

How LOW can you GO?

+
=

Throat hurts. Not in a good way. I had to show off at call-backs and go as low as I could on scales and now I am cast as an Alto2 and I can't hit the notes! I am gonna be Sister Mary Super Flat and Off-Key and that kind of SISTER ain't good!

Thankfully, my more musically trained and melodic other half purchased a digital recorder for me and after tonight's rehersal I got to hear just how low that E really is and just how horribly I tried to hit it. So now it's practice for three weeks until I sound like Kathleen Turner in those corny Fancy Feast ads or think of: a woman hopped up on Sudafed; Megan Cavagnah as Marla Hooch singing It HAD TO BE YOUUUUU in A League of Their Own and mix that up with your average Tenderloin cross dressin-street walker and you will about have what range I am supposed to sing in.

Hey Von Trapp; got a light big boy?

I keep imagining that any nun that sings that low was a prison guard in a former life. Not a big stretch really. When your good to mama...Jesus is good to you?

How DO you solve a problem like Maria?

Made it! Who would have thunk-it?

Bye bye Fiddler on the Roof 2006 and HELLO Summer Theater with VMT 2007. For my audition I rocked the house with Mein Heir from Cabaret and I got the kudos of some of our more, classically trained Ziegfeld gals and did a pretty darn good reading for Frau Schmidt (housekeeper) Austrian/German accent and all.

However, it appears that I am at that wonderful age for limited middle of the road-gal-roles. Too old to play a 20-something and too young to play anything over 40. Which means I get to wear a habit and "fill out" the nun chorus. Now, I had a speaking role, albeit, a short one and I had about a minute solo last year so ask me if I am bitter at all and watch the drama soar! I realized something this weekend at rehersal, which is now that I am back doing theater, I really need to put myself out there. I am not talking head shots, etc.. but I want to be involved in perhaps a more meatier role.

For now, I will have to settle for Sister Shaken, not stirred.

Some shots from a land not so far away..

Springtime in Navarro, CA
A little bit of France in
Mendocino...
Ain't this the truth...



The door at Navarro Vineyards.

If you ever get a chance to
see the light set over the Pacific
Ocean it reminds you that we are
all too human in contrast to the beauty
and the spectacle that is life.

A little place called Elk...

I want this T-Shirt!

How many times can a girl cry in one night?

Please, do yourself a favor and pick up Neil Young Live at Massey Hall 1971. Not only is the remastered recording so unbelievably rich in sound, the songs have so much more feeling being performed when they were in their initial stages. I waited for an album this phenomenal for years. I am in love with how beautiful and touching Neil's music can be and cried several times in one night. Thank you Neil for sharing with us your most precious gift and pulling this one out of the dust.

Did those girls say VAGINA?

O.K. In the WTF File Special Edition is my nomination for Cross River and John Jay High School Principal Richard Leprine. While I can understand the need to protect your rear-end and the potential lawsuits you think may be filed with your school from three honor students using the very clinical word vagina in a mixed audience of underage "children" at a LITERARY EVENT, let us be honest about your motive. To say that you were punishing these three girls for disobeying you is really a scapegoat. What is it about the word you find offensive that you had to instruct these young ladies to mark the word as verboten or hence "consequences?" Was it also omitted from the program of the event so that no recognition was given to Eve Ensler's original work? What kind of message is that? From the sounds of parents calling you screaming censorship, I say you took a toss in dog poo.

I salute Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson for being both courageous in the face of blatant overstepping of authority and for believing in their hearts that vaginae are worth the trouble.

You're a funny lady..

Watched Blazing Saddles tonight just so I could see this one scene! Who knew that the woman who would become Lili von Shtupp obtained a degree in speech therapy! Bless you Madeline Kahn. We need more funny ladies like you. She'miles!

Feelin' Groovy

Let the sunshine...let the sunshine in... I walked over 2 miles today up and around the City (SF) taking pictures, hitting SFMOMA for the Picasso exhibit (a must see!) and taking paths I have never ventured around. Stopped off at VinoVenue a kind of strange trip at first, (you buy a tasting card and go to these kiosks where the tasting pour is automated and the wine dipensed from the bottle via temp regulated argon dispensers! Met a gal who held 10 different bars of chocolate at the bar and was introduced to Vosges' Naga Bar. Indian curry, coconut flake and milk chocolate. Brilliant! Really was relaxed until I remembered last ferry out 7:30 and with the Chinese New Year Parade, I knew I had to hightail it back to the "ho".

I want to get a-way... I want to fly a-way..yeah..YEAH

Well it looks like all the talk of friends getting away has gotten to me. I cannot wait until October for Mexico and the desire to run away is very present.

So far it is looking like a short trip at the end of March to our favorite spot in Elk, California (near Mendocino) at the Sandpiper House Inn. (Yes, I know. Nothing like spelling it out. It is a house and also an inn.)

In 2002, we had the best homemade breakfast of Bourbon Chocolate Waffles (I know, may sound kind of "yuck", but they were fabu!) made lovingly by owner Althea which she rightly served with very thick and very yummy bacon along side my kind of standing-spoon coffee. They also treated us to the most incredible wine and cheese host with local wines from neighboring vineyards in Navarro and Philo - hence the names of the kittens we picked up there on that same first trip!

Going to the sea clears my my mind and invigorates me so completely that I feel I have taken the most wonderfully long journey. A rest well needed indeed considering my last couple of posts.

Here's to the sea!

I aim to please...

More Hard Gay you say? Can't get enough of that crazy-leather-clad, borderline character from Japan? Well here you are fans...

She's BALD, Jerry, BALD...

I loved that episode of Seinfeld. It's my two-cents on the no-news, hairless hootchie-mama that is Britney. Why, God, does SHE get to have kids?

Ode to Art Grrls Everywhere

She wears knee-socks

the un-mates that I will leave to suffer in silence

on her, look sweet

She sews and

cuts
and places holes in all the right places

Everything works out when you can front a Bettie Page, a Pageboy, a Bob, or a Shag

She runs down alleys

She rides mopeds

She struts - chin out She knows what lies behind a wink

or a tear

All she needs is a canvas

You're Sick...Sick I Tell You!

Well damn. I saw it coming. Working late again. No lunch. Pushing the limits of just how many times I can say, "Sure. No problem" without loosing my cool and now I am home launching my own brand of lung-butter. Partly my own damn fault though. After two years off the ciggies, I was feeling fine and nary a inkling of a cold or flu ran past me. Although the desire to smoke was always there. I really did enjoy the act of it because it usually involved a bar, friends who also drank and smoke and a joke or two in between. A lot of pent up stress was worked out in this way and in this most seductive environment. Overall, however, I despised the actual ashtray smelly all over hobo feeling it left me with. So I quit. Sometimes the occasional one here and there to remind me of why I quit would happen. But under duress, I have a tendency to be self-destructive and so I began lighting up just in time for the new year!

At first, I said it would be one a day. Just after work and preferably with a cocktail in hand. Just to relax. Ah, and there the lie began. It is too much sometimes to be so familiar with an act and think somehow you are not really, actually, going to become addicted. So amazing to be in my head and actually looking at the cigarette butts piling up and believing whole-heartidly this one in my hand is the last one. Even now, I am devising ways of how to somehow stick to the one cigarette rule despite the last 72 hours of my own impression of Bill the Cat.

I have very supportive friends and in truth, I could be less lazy with the mind and begin a healthier approach to relaxation. But where do I start?

Anyone know where I can find a jukebox, some oxygen and a joke telling little person name Madge?

This town is BARELY big enough for another Queen.

Laura be a dear love and fetch me my champie. I do love a good Queen.

Here are some early morning snapshots of the Queen Mary 2 off the deck of my sunrise cruise on the working gals QM2- the MV Chug-A-Lug. Caught a glimpse of her after just giving berth to Pier 27 and boy was she tired! A lot of noise about town on just how long she had to wait for the tide to recede so her most welcomed 115,000 ton royal badass could clear the Golden Gate Bridge.

So long Queenie. Thanks for reminding us in SF that size does matter.