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The Gala Event
May 30, 2008 | permalink
I had dinner with the internets last night!
Okay, not with all the internets; just with some of my favorite people on the interntes. Curly, Jess, A Lover and a Fighter, Kelsi and I had dinner at Supper. It was, as expected, lots of fun. We laughed, we cried, we drank too much, and we offended the wait staff. Possibly. (We're not sure if the hostess heard the unfavorable comparison to Amy Winehouse or not, but , so we will go with yes, just in case).
The really great part about it, to my mind, was the fact that I was sitting there having dinner with these four fabulous people that I would not have ever met were it not for the internet. It wasn't so very long ago that one's social options were limited to schoolmates, co-workers, family, and maybe a group one degree removed from your immediate acquaintances. That's not really a lot of people (nor, I think, was that relatively close-knit group likely to have been terribly diverse... but that is another issue).
In any case, those times are past, and I was able to have dinner with a group of people that I am terribly fond of, from all over the country, whom I would have never crossed paths with in a less technological time.
Good job, internet....
Posted in Around New York & Blogging & Social Life(2) Comments
Laughing Cavalier
December 14, 2007 | permalink
I had quite an adventure last week.
I was in Miami on a job, and I went out to a late dinner with The Boss (who is the very model of a charming Englishman), The Cylon (one of the designers I work with, whom, as you may guess from my nickname, is literal-minded, has a big brain, and over-analyzes things), and Uncle Mike (a boisterous and gruff ex-roadie who now runs one of the companies that we often deal with). We were perusing the menu of a place with a bunch of outdoor tables (actually, it's Miami Beach... they all have outdoor tables), and a couple of women went by and made some comment to the effect that we should pass that place by. Uncle Mike goes after them and strikes up a conversation, in the hopes of securing a good recommendation for dinner from a couple of what he assumed were locals- both he and The Boss have a pretty discerning palette.
In his absence the rest of us decided that we were too hungry to go on looking, and got a table. Uncle Mike came back in a few minutes with the women in tow. They were, it turns out, not locals at all, they were just giving us a hard time. They were also completely trashed, really loud, and had invited themselves to dinner.
Gentle Readers, they spent the next two hours mercilessly hitting on me, much to the amusement of not only my dinner companions, but (as we later learned) of the people at the tables around us as well. I will not repeat the innuendo and double entendre that I was subjected to- but I am sure you can imagine the kind of things that a couple of drunk, trashy, 48ish year old women, one of whose husband was wandering the area in a rage looking for her, might say. Suffice it to say, it was more attention than I am used to getting. I am not exaggerating to say that if I wished (and believe me, I did not!), I could have taken at least one of them, if not both of them, back to my room for the remainder of the evening.
The Boss was so amused that he lost no opportunity to relate the story to the other people that we knew working on this gig. For days I was getting good natured teasing from even the producers, including the woman who is the top dog and, quite frankly, someone who I doubted had a sense of humor in the first place. And I have to admit that I do think the whole thing is funny, and I am getting a good smile out of it even now. Not to mention the amusement I feel to learn that I am, apparently, a cougar magnet.
Posted in Out of Town & Random & Social Life & Working(1) Comments
I've Seen the Sun Set the Sea on Fire
September 14, 2007 | permalink
Well that was a hell of a week.
Even now, only a day and a half after I closed the door on my last truck, it seems hazy and indistinct. That might have something to do with how little sleep there was to be had this season (not that I am complaining, mind you- I got less sleep than ever before, and I was getting off easy. There were shows where a lot less sleep was had than on mine), coupled with the large and then gigantic shows I did, back to back. So, yeah, it's all kind of a blur. But there was one notable highlight.
One night, backstage while the first of my events was going on, I had a very stereo-typically male conversation with The Sorta-Rican. Not stereo-typically male in its subject matter; we weren't talking about tits and ass. What I mean is, it was kind of an emotional conversation, but conducted with gigantic under-statement. It really struck me later how much was being left unsaid, though at the time there was never really a question about what we were talking about.
The gist of the spoken conversation was this: He is seriously considering leaving the business and doing something else, and he was saying that he didn't want me to feel like I was being left in a lurch (he is my number one guy, as they say). I assured him that this wasn't the case, and that I would be thrilled for him to find something that he liked better, and that was pretty much the end of it.
What was really going on though, was more like this: He was asking me if we were really and truly friends, or just work friends, and he wanted to know and be prepared if we were going to not see each other socially, because he doesn't really have a lot of people that he feels close too; he counts me as one of them, but if he's wrong, he wanted to know. He's not wrong- I count him as a brother, in every sense of the word, and I made sure that he knew that I loved and respected him and wasn't going to drop him like a hot potato. And all of that happened without any of it being said, and we both knew it.
The vast amount and great subtlety of information that can be contained within a superficially inane conversation between two people who know each other well is truly amazing, isn't it?
Posted in Fashion Week & Musings & Social Life & Working(2) Comments
You Can Do Magic
July 26, 2007 | permalink
I went to a magic show the other night. The Waistcoat Man has been studying the art of prestidigitation (and getting quite good, I might add), and had a bunch of tickets to the last New York show of a friend of his, Maritess: The Queen of Magic. The only catch was that anyone he brought had to drink their bar minimum, so as not to cut into her take. Which was a trial, Gentle Readers, but I persevered and drank my drinks. I'm tough like that.
It was a good time. I hadn't seen The Waistcoat Man in quite a while, and it was great to spend some time with him. The Director and The Laughing Girl were there too, as well as a few of The Waistcoat Man's friends from another circle that I didn't know.
The show was also pretty good, though I was sitting at a bad angle and could see some of the workings of the tricks. Maritess' banter was quite funny, and her slight of hand was very well done. The Laughing Girl mad a comment at one point that made me laugh loud enough for Maritess to hear, and since I caught her attention of course she made me come up on stage for one of the 'And now I need a volunteer' bits of the show. I got to be the 'sender' of psychic vibrations to another volunteer. He was able to tell, with his eyes closed, where she touched me. Three times in a row, even. Pretty impressive stuff.
I used to do a bit of the old slight of hand myself, many many years ago, but I lost interest at some point. I'm not really sure why, now. Not that it really matters. About all I can remember how to do now is pull a coin from behind someone's ear.
Posted in Around New York & Social Life(1) Comments
Constant Craving
June 26, 2007 | permalink
Saturday before last, we took The Sorta-Rican out of town for the day. I suppose it would be a bachelor party, except that there were none of those typical bachelor party things, like limos and strippers and blow.
No, instead we picked him up at 8am, bought some sandwiches and beer, drove upstate, and spent the rest of the day lazily drifting down the Delaware, basking in the sun. Occasionally one or another of us would jump in the water for a swim or a soak, but mostly we relaxed, drank beer, and talked shit. It was a truly glorious day for it, too.
Since we are on the subject (sort of), I have to say that I never really understood the stereotypical bachelor party mindset. I mean, parts of it, sure; who doesn't like to go out drinking with their friends? But strippers and lap dances? No, thank you. I'm probably going to have to turn in my man-card for this, but why on earth would anyone want to blow a bunch of money to see bored half naked women that you can't have? No thanks, I'd rather see my woman half naked and happy to be that way. And isn't the groom stressed out enough without being put in a position where he might feel guilty later? Like I said, I don't get it. Maybe I have it all wrong.
But I think I'm okay with that.
Posted in Social Life(2) Comments
Katie Eighty
June 25, 2007 | permalink
Yesterday I had the great honor of standing up for The Sorta-Rican as he got married. I have rarely seen two people so perfect for each other and so much in love as him and his new bride. It was a really great day for it, too... sunny and not too terribly hot- even for me, in the tuxedo. Family and friends all around, great food, good cheer. The DJ sort of sucked, but even that was pretty much overshadowed by how great everything else was.
I think The Sorta-Rican summed it up perfectly: 'I wasn't sure if being at my own wedding was going to be fun (on account of the pre-wedding stress; he was afraid that would just continue), but this fucking rocks! I don't want it to end!'
Posted in Social LifeRelentless Sun
April 10, 2007 | permalink
I think a lot about myself. I don't mean in a totally ego-centric 'enough about me, darling- what do you think of my dress?' kind of way; I mean that I spend a lot of time examining my thoughts and feelings, and actions and motivations, trying to figure out what makes me tick. Trying to understand what I want and what I am, and what I'm doing and why.
You would think at this stage in my life (being nearly thirty-five) that this would be clear to me. Maybe it should be, and I am hopelessly behind my peers in terms of self-awareness and understanding. Which is a notion that kind of depresses me, to be quite honest. But since I have no way of knowing, I suppose it is equally possible that no one ever really understands themselves as well as they would like. When I am feeling reasonable (and reasonably together), I think that both things are probably true; I should have more understanding of myself by now, but no matter how much I understand, there will always be something else. Perhaps complete understanding of oneself is unattainable, or nearly so; the quest what the Buddhists would call Nirvana, or the Shaolin concept of Enlightenment, for example, were both lifelong quests.
But on reflection, after trying to continue with this post, I think that perhaps I do understand myself more than the above passages would imply. I just don't like what I see.
I suppose that the basic problem I have, if I boil it down to its simplest components, is that what I think is my innate nature (which I obviously cannot change) is in direct conflict with the things that I was taught about the world when I was young (and we all know, I think, how hard those childhood lessons are to shake). And I don't know how to reconcile the two, and resolve the conflict.
If I had to describe my basic nature (the parts of it relevant to this discussion, at least), I would say that in my heart of hearts I was basically an honest and trusting person, who greatly desired to be close to people, and open with them, and all the things that entails- trust in others and faith in the future among them. Not a bad set of traits, I think. Except...
Except that anyone who knows me can tell you that I fall pretty short of this, in reality. Especially in the trust and faith and openness parts. These are things that, even though I have always yearned for, I didn't really know existed outside of fiction. If I had to sum up the lessons of my childhood, they would go something like this: Everyone is out to get you, if they can, so the less you give away the better; keep everything possible to yourself. And you can't count on anything that you have today being here tomorrow, so don't get attached to anyone or anything.
Pretty bleak, eh? Those ideas seem inescapable to me, and color everything I do. And I hate them. I wish I could say that nothing has ever happened in my later life that reinforced them, and that I have managed to escape them, but I can't. The first friend I had set me on fire. My favorite uncle molested me. My father is (as I have mentioned before) paranoid and pretty much crazy, and consistency and stability are things I never knew until I left the house to go to college. (I lived in something like 15 or 16 different places before I graduated high school- on one occasion, we came home from school on a Friday to find out we were packing to move on Saturday.) My mentor killed himself. And I won't even talk about my ex-wife.†
Sometimes it feels like a lot to bear, and my worst fear is that I will never overcome the circumstances of my upbringing. That I will be stuck in conflict, always yearning for things I will not allow myself to have. I don't want you to think I am sitting here feeling sorry for myself; I'm not. I have survived all these things, and I'm not a total basket case. I feel certain that I can get through anything that life throws at me, one way or another. I am a success in my chosen field, and even if I am suspicious of people in general and tend to hold myself back and be a tad anti-social, I do have people that I love and trust.
I guess I just wish it were easier. I would like to be able to let go of all the crap and be able to be open and expressive to the people I care about. I would love to be able to not think of the worst things that could happen, all the time. (Not feeling like a complete cynic would be quite nice, I think).
I suppose the only thing to do is to persevere. I haven't gotten this far by giving up, and I don't guess I will start now. But like I said: I wish it were easier.
† I don't want to give the impression that I am being all 'woe is me, I am a poor sad helpless victim' here... I'm not a saint, and I have certainly done some things I am not proud of. And there are of course people who I have trusted who were indeed worthy of it. I am only trying to illustrate my point with my own experiences. I hope that makes sense...
Posted in Family Matters & Growing Up & Musings & Social Life & The Past(0) Comments
Thirty Four is a Heptagonal Number
December 8, 2006 | permalink
Today is my birthday, Gentle Readers. It started off pretty well, too, with the Allied Forces bringing the Japanese Navy to its knees last night in a marathon game of Axis and Allies: Pacific, hosted by the Director and the Laughing Girl. They played the various parts of the British Empire (Australia and India and their respective outlying lands and islands), I played the United States, and Smacktalk (of course!) played the Japanese. He is a better strategist than the rest of us, and usually wins at this type of thing, but we really took it to him and he conceded defeat. Take that!
Did I mention lately that I am a huge dork? See above.
Posted in Social Life(4) Comments
These are the Times
November 2, 2006 | permalink
I met Jess last night. Like, in person. It was a good time- beer and wine were drunk, conversation was had, and tipsiness ensued. It was great to meet her- I've been reading blind cavefish for a couple of years pretty regularly, and I am a big fan, as goofy as that sounds. In fact, Jess' site is the very first one that I began reading on a regular basis, back when I started the first incarnation of this site.
You might find this hard to believe, Gentle Readers, but I'm not the most socially adept person you'll ever meet, and I don't meet a lot of new people; the new people I do meet are people who are working for me. Which isn't awful- They're great, and in truth nearly all of the people that I love best in this world are people that I have met on gigs. People like Turtalia and Waiscoatman and Smacktalk, people that I count as family. But this isn't a thing that most of us do forever; the flexible schedule and the good pay make it a temporary situation for most people, something to do until they achieve some other goal, and they move on. So the average age of my crews keeps dropping, and I find we have less and less in common. So hanging out with Jess, with whom I had things in common with and who was also not in the business, was awesome.
Posted in Around New York & Blogging & Social Life(1) Comments
...Cake
October 12, 2006 | permalink
Well, the wedding was great. The bride was radiant, the groom beaming, and their respective parents, family, and friends overjoyed to see them so happy. On top of everyone's happiness, it was a damn near perfect autumn day, and later the full moon rose over the water for a perfect evening.
Besides the wedding, it was nice to get out of the city and be upstate. The leaves are turning, and you can smell the woodsmoke on the air. I spent a little time up at my Mother's place, and did a little manual labor for her and Red. They're in the middle of raising the level of the backyard, because they are sick the stream that runs at the edge of their property flooding the yard every thaw. So I wheelbarrowed some dirt for them (they're on their 6th truckload) and stacked a bunch of wood up on the porch for the fireplace.
I wish I had a fireplace...
Posted in Out of Town & Social Life(2) Comments
Let Them Eat...
October 6, 2006 | permalink
Gentle Readers, I'm off for the hinterlands of Upstate New York, for the wedding of my sister The Star's very best friend, The Giggler, of the Wurts clan. It's bound to be a bit bittersweet, with the death of her brother The Writer just nine months past, but that aside it should be a blast. The Giggler is good people, and I'm thrilled to see her so happy.
Posted in Family Matters & Out of Town & Social Life(2) Comments
The Payback
September 25, 2006 | permalink
I'm sorry that I've been neglecting you, Gentle Readers. It's not that I don't love you; I do. And I've been trying to write. Really, I have. There must be a dozen half written posts in the drafts folder, all of them meadering, forced, and, quite franly, boring. So I publish nothing instead.
The problem is that I'm depressed. Not the crushingly debilitating depression of years past, but it's enough to be disruptive nonetheless. I have trouble motivating to get anything done, I don't want to really talk to anyone past 'Hey, how about those Mets,' and I haven't really wanted to see anyone really either. I've avoided nearly every social opportunity in the last several weeks†, mostly because the thought of trying to hold up my end of a conversation and be interesting and articulate is just so exhausting. There have been a couple of brighter days, and I've been social a couple of times and it was great. But mostly I make excuses and leave early, or else don't go at all.
Why? What terrible thing has befallen? I wish I could tell you.
Partly, I know, it's the post show blues that I get after any big project is complete. But there is more to it than just this. I think another part of it is that I have made huge strides lately, professionally, and I am anxious that there must be some kind of comparable disaster waiting in the wings. Because I wouldn't want to enjoy my success- that would just be too easy.
But there is more to it even than that. I'm not really sure what is going on. But I will keep you posted, Gentle Readers.
(2) Comments
I Got Lucky
June 1, 2006 | permalink
I went to Smoke, the jazz bar at 106th and Broadway last night. I was meeting a friend for a drink, and hadn't been anywhere near live music in way too long, and I thought, 'Hey, maybe there is something good going on at Smoke, we should go there.'
Gentle Readers, 'something good' is a gross understatement. The Jerry Weldon Trio was playing last night, and they were something else. I don't know how to describe it, except to say that they were awesome. They are playing again at Smoke on June 7th; I highly recommend heading up there.
Posted in Social Life(0) Comments
At the Zoo
May 1, 2006 | permalink
Yesterday was one of those days that did not go as planned, but still worked out great. I intended to meet a friend of mine and go to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Me and every other sucker in the city... The trains were crowded and crappy, and it took me two hours to get there, and once there it became clear that I would spend another hour and a half waiting in line. Not fun. Frustrated and grumpy, I headed back into Manhattan, where I ended up going to the Central Park Zoo. I hadn't been there in a long time, not since the beginning of my marriage when my (then) wife was working as a nanny, and I forgot what a great little place it is.
Have you ever been? There are seals and sea lions, penguins and puffins, snow monkeys, polar bears, and red pandas, to name a few. I took some pictures; you can see them here. While it's mostly geared for kids, it's still a great little oasis of nature in the city.
Posted in Social Life(1) Comments
The Warming of the Bar
March 19, 2006 | permalink
Well Gentle Readers, I threw my bar-warming party last night. I figured that I needed to make sure the thing worked, and would hold up under use... and I am happy to report that it passed with flying colors, withstanding the drunkeness of my dear friends quite nicely.
Posted in Social Life & The Home Front(0) Comments
Back in the Big Apple
March 8, 2006 | permalink
Well Gentle Readers, I'm back. Our trip to Chapel Hill was awesome. It was so great to get out of the city for a few days and spend the weekend with Surfer Grrl and Mountain Man. I saw them on Thanksgiving, but only for a few hours; before that, I hadn't seen them since they moved down there in May.
The trip down last Friday was pretty uneventful. Laughing Girl and The Director rented a car for all of us the day before, and we ('we' being Smacktalk and myself) met at their place at 9 and hit the road. Traffic was light and we made good time, listening to the iPods and chatting about whatever. I was a little nervous about Laughing Girl and Smacktalk rubbing each other the wrong way while we were cooped up in the car for 10 hours, but there was none of that. The one blight on the way down was our poor choice of lunch. We stopped just south of DC at the something or other Grill... it was one of those places where it's all the meat you can eat, brought to your table on a spit by a bored waitress. It didn't sit well with anyone.
The first night we were there, we went out to eat at a place in Brightleaf Square, which is an old tobacco mill and warehouses that have been renovated into an urban park. I would tell you which place, except that I cannot remember and didn't write it down... oops! After dinner, we headed back to the house for beer and hot toddies.
Saturday, after breakfast, we went for a hike in the woods around the Duke campus. I tried out the new wide angle lens on my camera, taking some big wide vistas as well as some extremely close up shots of moss and leaves. It took me a while to get the hang of it for the close up stuff, but I think by the end they were coming out pretty well. We had lunch at Foster's Market in Durham, which was so delicious that I bought one of their cookbooks. Sara Foster even autographed it for me! (I'm a geek, I know...) Dinner was at a pub in Durham, where we met up with Scully (another New York technician turned grad student) and fought rabid basketball fans for posession of our table. When they got too rowdy for our taste, we decided to continue the beer drinking back at the house. Which pretty much wrapped up the evening. Oh, except that I made bread for Sunday's breakfast.
Sunday I took the bread I made the night before and cooked up some French Toast for everyone. It was quite delicious, if I do say so myself. We had decided to spend the day getting some culture, so after breakfast we went to check out the Nasher Museum of Art, which had just opened on the Duke Campus. It was small; it only took us about an hour to see it all. But the collection was top notch, and quite varied. I think Side Steppin', the living sculpture outside, was my favorite. We whiled away the afternoon at the independent movie house in Chapel Hill watching Nightwatch. (Yes, again... Smacktalk and I had talked it up so much that everyone wanted to see it for themselves.) Surfer Grrl and I cooked dinner for everyone that night- baked catfish with mashed potatoes and broiled asparagus, and molten chocolate volcano cake for dessert. While we ate all that good food, we watched the Academy Awards and pretty much heckled everyone.
We spent the first part of Monday, our last day, wandering around Chapel Hill. It's a cute little college town; lots of little shops and pubs and public art. There was an awesome rare and used bookshop... I spent a lot of money there. Then we hit the Chapel Hill Botanical Gardens, which was pretty cool even though it was way too early in the season. I got to play some more with my wide angle lens, and there was an awesome oversized chess board upon which The Director and Smacktalk faced off. The last half of the day, we earned our keep by helping our hosts install a drainage system in their backyard. That's right- digging ditches, lining them with gravel, laying pipe- the whole shebang. Dinner was out, at Mama Dip's Country Kitchen. Truly delicious. After that, we spent the evening drinking beer and playing Scattergories, which if you don't know it is one of the finest games ever made for playing while you are drinking beer.
Monday we came back. The trip up was mostly uneventful, though tensions were running a little higher and there were a couple of dicey moments. And now I'm back.
Posted in Artistic Endeavors & Out of Town & Social Life(3) Comments
Let Fly The Mainsail
March 4, 2006 | permalink
Good morning, Gentle Readers! The updates have been sparse lately, I know, but this bear has been a busy boy. At the moment, I am in Chapel Hill, NC, visiting Surfer Grrl and her Mountain Man, and having a great time. I don't have the opportunity to give a full update at the moment (on the trip OR the rest of my life), but you will get all the details, I assure you.
Posted in Social Life(2) Comments
In Which I Give Myself a Reality Check
December 8, 2005 | permalink
I've been feeling lonely lately. My apartment feels big and empty, and I spend too much time alone. Quite often in the last weeks, as I head home on the train, I've found myself thinking about how much I miss going home to someone, and how nice it would be to have someone there to have dinner with, and talk to, and be lazy with. You know, all the stuff you get to do when you are seriously involved with someone.
Then I think, what am I, nuts? I'm a fuckin' mess. I can't be all involved with anyone for real. That would be a terrible thing to do to someone I liked that much.
Posted in Musings & Social Life & Women(0) Comments
In Which I See an Exhibit on Photography and the Occult
October 19, 2005 | permalink
Since I have had copious free time as of late, I have been making an effort to take advantage and actually do some of the things that I complain about having no opportunity to do when I am working. So today, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and saw The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult. From the Met's site:
A unique characteristic of photography has always been its ability to record the visible, material world with truth and accuracy. Interestingly, advocates of spiritism at the turn of the last century enlisted photography to provide manifest proof of the immaterial: emanations and auras; thoughts, hallucinations, and dreams; or the spirits of the deceased. Closer to the scientific revelations of the X-ray (discovered in 1896) than to the double-exposure parlor tricks of 1850s ghost photographs, the more than 120 stunning and surprising works in this exhibition reflect an attempt to reconcile the physical and spiritual worlds.
I enjoyed it a great deal; the photographs ranged from hokey and obviously faked to strange and bizzare, and from the descriptions I felt like I could see all kinds of motivations on the part of the mediums and photographers... some a desire for notoriety. Others trying to bilk a dollar out of the rubes. Some honestly believing, and others, I think, just wanting to.
Posted in Social Life(0) Comments
In Which I Implore You to Go to the Halloween Celebration at St. John's
October 17, 2005 | permalink
Check it out, Gentle Readers... one of the coolest events in all of New York is nearly upon us, and I think you should all go. Really.
This is the deal: On Friday, October 28th, the Cathedral of St John the Divine (Which, if you don't know, is the largest cathedral on this hemisphere of the planet, and the largest Gothic cathedral in the world- you should go sometime just for the architecture, if nothing else...) will host its annual Halloween Extravaganza and the Procession of Ghouls. For one night, it will be transformed into a dark, foggy, echo filled crypt, filled with creatures both whimsical and spectral. Then the lights will go out, and Lon Chaney's 1928 silent classic the Phantom of the Opera will begin. Awesome... And then after the film is the Procession of Ghouls, staged by the Obie Award winning creator of the New York Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, Ralph Lee.
More information is on the Cathedral's site here. And really, you should go...
Posted in Social Life(2) Comments
Yo Ho! and a Bottle of Rum
October 2, 2005 | permalink
Good morning, Gentle Readers. I have to tell you, I have had the best week that I think I have had in a long time. There was a little work, which is always good; but what's more, I was able to use my craptacular revelations of last week as a motivator to not be a loser all week. I went sailing on Smacktalk's boat, did some home type-stuff, got off my ass to see some people I havesn't seen in a while, and even dreamed up a photography project for myself (which I am very excited about). Once I have some of it done, you will read it here first! but for now, it will remain under wraps...
Posted in Artistic Endeavors & Musings & Social Life(1) Comments
The Last Gasp
September 4, 2005 | permalink
Friday night I had the last civilized evening that I will have for weeks, the last shred of social interaction that doesn't revolve around work. It was quite lovely; most of the usual suspects showed up. I think they all needed the break, too. Why? Because it's Fashion season again.
Fashion is usually a little nutty. I mean, you're dealing with people who are a little crazy, who are taking things that are absoloutely unimportant in the grand scheme of things very seriously. Think Zoolander, and you've got an image that is not that far off.
This year looks to be even nuttier than usual. My chief rival for Off Site jobs (that is, those that are not in the tents at Bryant Park) is not returning this season, and in the void gets to step little old me. So instead of the two or three shows by one or two designers that I have been doing, I have four shows by three designers and a big high profile party. I won't lie, Gentle Readers... I'm a little nervous.
Individually, each job is absoloutely not a problem. Two of them are quite big, but not at all outside the capabilities of me or my crew. The tricky part is managing the logistics of the whole operation. The gigs overlap, in a couple of instances quite a lot. It's going to be quite a challenge. I'm looking forward to it; as I mentioned, I've been bored, listless, and drifting since I got back to town. This will keep me occupied, for a couple of weeks, at least. After that? I need to get back into the swing of doing something besides work, or I am going to lose my mind...
Posted in Social Life(4) Comments
Smile Like You Mean It
July 18, 2005 | permalink
I'm back upstate... my trip to New York for the party was, sadly, far too brief. But it did drive a point home to me; New York City is where I belong... it is my home. Walking down 8th Avenue after my bus got in, I caught myself grinning like a fool, exhulting in the city's presence all around me. Not just the magnificence of the scale of it all, and the diversity, and the archetecture; but also the summer stink, the heat, the noise, the crowds... all of it. It was glorious, and I can't wait to be back full-time.
Waistcoat Man's party, which is of course why I went back in the first place, was a blast. Besides the usual things; food, drink and company, there were a few things for me personally that combined to make it so much fun. Firstly, I can't remember the last time I took off from work that I was already scheduled on to go to a social event. I've been a real loser the last couple of years in that way, using work as an excuse to avoid hanging out too much with the people that care about me... see, the less time I spend with them, the less likely they are to realize that I'm a bad man and they should just write me off... or something like that. It's ridiculous, and not succumbing to it was very liberating. In the same vein, taking time off for anything is not something I do very often. Rather than go to the party at the last minute and rush around to get there, I went to the city early. I took myself to dinner and a movie, and did a little shopping... again, liberating and relaxing. And then I hit the party.
I got there right at 9, which was the designated start time for the festivities, so I got a little time with the birthday boy without too many other people around, which is what I was hoping for. He broke out his new electric lap steel slide guitar and handed me his six string, and we did up a little Johnny Cash action... very nice. We stopped once the guests really started rolling in, but later in the evening there got to be a regular hootnanny going on.
The other thing about the party that was so great was the guest list. I knew most of them, at least a little, and of course some of them were practically family. There were quite a few that I hadn't seen in years; it was nice to catch up with everyone. But the thing that was really great was that
none of them were people that I had been working 80 hours a week with for the last three and half months* at the various festivals. That part of it was like having an itch that you didn't even know you had get scratched.
On top of all that, which is perfectly sufficient to qualify as an awesome evening, this bear also spent some time flirting and being flirted back to. She's a friend of Double Trouble's (Waistcoat Man's girl) from work. Cute, talkative, a sci-fi nut... I had a good time hanging out and chatting with her.
So, to sum up: Taking time off of work to hang out with the people you know and love- good; meeting new people, and in general not haning out with the people you see for 80+ hours a week- good; guitars and lap steels- good; flirty friends of friends- good.
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3,653 Days
July 15, 2005 | permalink
I have a poor sense of passing time; I always have. After a week or so, past events settle into a nebulous 'before' that seems like a few months ago. If I sit and think about it, I can work backwards in a chronological chain, this event coming after that, and that coming after the other, but I can't say, 'Oh yes! That was in the summer of 97,' like a lot of people I know seem to be able to do. It's not that I don't remember things clearly; I just don't have a good sense of how long ago they happened. So when I am reminded that a long span of time has passed, I am always taken by surprise.
Tomorrow night is Waistcoat Man's 40th birthday party. He's always been the old man of the gang (chronologically, at least... really I think he's still fifteen), but damn! 40... When did that happen? We met when I first moved to New York, a little over ten years ago. He was the older, worldly freelancer, and Smacktalk, Director and I were in slightly varied states of Raw Greenhornedness... me more than the others. I was a fresh-faced kid of 22, just out of school, all hippified with my overalls and long hair and so painfully shy that it took me months of working with them to have more than a purely passive role in the workplace banter. I was so intimidated by them. I would not have believed you for a moment if you had told me that I would come to feel that these people were my friends and peers. No- more than that... like my brothers.
It almost seems like that was someone else... yet at the same time, it feels like yesterday. I can hardly believe so much time has passed.
Posted in Social LifeI Hate Goodbyes
May 13, 2005 | permalink
I talked to Surfer Grrl tonight, her last night in the Big Apple. The truck is packed, the house empty, and she and her Mountain Man depart for points south in the morning. When I called, she was in Central Park with Turtalia and Laughing Girl; they were chatting and having some girl time while following Mountain Man and a couple of his friends around the park playing Frisbee Golf.
I thought that she was leaving today, and expected to catch her on the road. I'm glad I didn't. She sounded so happy and excited and relaxed... we had a really great little chat. I know I've said it before, but I don't think I can say it enough... I'm gonna miss that girl. For me, New York won't be the same without her.
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We'll Miss You!
April 28, 2005 | permalink
Surfer Grrl, one of my dearest friends and most valued of colleagues, is leaving the Big Apple behind next month to pursue her graduate degree at UNC. She is throwing herself a party on Saturday, and I leave for Charleston on Sunday, so that's it- Saturday is our last hurrah.
I met her in '99, while I was on staff at one of the larger not-for-profit theatres in the city. I was looking for a full time assistant, and my now ex-wife introduced us. I confess it was a rocky start- the crew was resentful that I had brought in an 'outsider' (nevermind that none of them wanted the job!), and as dumb luck would have it the first season was the most mentally and physically challenging three months I think I have ever had. she crumbled under the pressure, and I came really close to firing her. But we got past all the crap from that terrible place- instead of cutting her lose I turned her into my protégé, and made her into the best damn assistant a person could ask for- and I'm not the only one to say so. In fact, in some ways she has surpassed me, which is of course the greatest satisfaction any teacher could ask for.
In the last few years, our relationship has gone way deeper than what I enjoy with most of my co-workers; and this is in a business that by its very nature breeds close bonds. I can only describe it as fierce- I love her fiercely, I would do anything she asked, defend her to my last breath; and I have no doubt that she would do the same for me. I cannot begin to imagine how much I will miss her.
I put out a call a few days ago for pictures, to make a collage to give her to remember us by. Turtalia came over today and helped me put it all together. I came out great... I can't wait to see the look on her face.
Posted in Social Life
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