urban earth mother

There's a problem with my commenting service so I have taken that off the blog for now

Not a happy weekend in Hollywood. Director Elia Kazan died on Sunday at the age of 94. He won a Tony for directing "J.B.," and Oscars for "Gentleman's Agreement" in 1948 and "On the Waterfront" in 1955. It was through Kazan's input while directing "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" that Tennesee Williams changed the ending to the play, which he conceds was much better than the original.

I heard this at co-op last night. Too sad. According to his family, among his last words were the sentiment, "I'd like to thank the Academy for my lifetime achievement award that I will eventually get." O'Connor won an Emmy for "The Colgate Comedy Hour" in 1954. He was 78.

George Plimpton died yesterday at the age of 76, cause unknown. This is turning into a sad day.

Robert Palmer, who most of my generation will know for his synthpop hits in the late 80s, and his natty suits, died from a heart attack today in Paris. He was 54.

I haven't heard from The Doc all day. Actually, I haven't heard from him since last night when I said I wasn't sure I would be up for a phone call. I have been so freaking busy at work, and am completely unprepared for my class, haven't cleaned yet to prepare for his visit and haven't had a chance to get out and exercise. And that's just a general rundown of the week, yesterday was even worse. But I did leave work on time and went home to have a hot bath (an attempt to lossen my shoulder which had seized up) and tried to get in touch with him to see if he wanted to talk. But to no avail. I could have just called him, but unless he knows I'm going to call, he never hears the phone. It just rings and rings. So now I think I've pissed him off, but can't even find out since he won't answer my emails (and I do know he's been in touch with other people today). Which is kind of why I'm blogging this, in the hopes that he'll read...

Other people seem to be more exited about The Doc's visit than am. It's not that I'm not looking forward to it, but I just don't seem to have it in me to be jumping up and down excited like some of the people I've told. My biggest focus right now is on meeting him at the airport. I'll be trying to do work and suddenly I think about seeing him coming through customs, running up, throwing my arms around him and kissing him. That thought makes me smile and I am unable to concentrate on anythinge else. So I guess you could say I'm excited in my own, quiet way.

The Doc is coming to visit. He booked his ticket on Friday and will be here in TWO WEEKS! In the time that we've been together, I've opened myself up to him more than I have to any other man I've dated. This may be a result of creating a relationship without constant physical proximity the way most people have. Because we are "together" throught email and things like the sobbing phone call of Friday night (period. mine, not the end of sentence kind), there is more of a need to reveal things to let the other know what is going on. But there is also a safety in this. I can sit at home and cry while I type an email and not have to explane why I'm crying (because I just AM, okay?) and can talk more about other things such as why I am looking forward to him visiting (aside fom the sex), or how my cramps used to be so bad when I was in high school that I would throw up. I can get this across in text without having to pause for the sobs which may have n...

Avast me hearties! Finally, there's a holliday we can all agree on. International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Basim from Malice in Leatherland read the review I did on the show with RobotZen and The Gasolines . Now it was not a flattering review, but what I didn't know was that it was their first show. Also, nowhere in the review did I mention what a good bass player he is, which is just stupidity on my part because I did notice it during their set and Steve from RobotZen even mentioned it after the show. So, while I still was not impressed with that performance, I will certainly give them another shot. Oh, and many thanks for the TAB, Basim!

So I went to the cattle call tonight. I auditioned for The Real Thing (Stoppard), Noises Off (Frayn), and Six Degrees of Separation (Guare). I had planned to do All's Well That Ends Well too, but had forgotten to sign up. I think I'll do that one later this week though along with The River , Ajax and Faust . If I'm feeling really ambitious, I'll do Hedwig too, but all I could get in that would be Hansel's mother or maybe Yitzhak (although I'd have to learn to play guitar for that). All in all, the auditions weren't that bad. The first one, The Real Thing went the best of all of them, but even then it was hard to tell since the only feedback is "That was great!" Yeah, well everybody said that last Spring too and I didn't get anything. But I know what to expect from it all now, so I think the disappointment will not be as bad if I don't even get a call back. And I've still got the acting class, which I want to be my main...

I have a cold sore under my nose. Dammit. I used to get them at the beginning of each semester for the first couple of years after I came back to school. I haven’t had this problem for ages, but today is the first day of the semester, and Thursday will be my first class at the graduate level and it appears my stress indicator is back. Oh, and it’s right in time for the week-long cattle call of auditions for this semester’s plays. Fuck. And speaking of auditions, I don’t even feel like going. I did the audition blitz last spring. A friend of mine I met in intro acting tried out for the advanced class (it’s by audition) and didn’t get in. So he was feeling low, but I talked him into going with me and auditioning for a bunch of things, just to “get back on the horse.” The weekend came and callbacks were posted, neither of us had been called back. Okay, that was fine, the theatre is notoriously incestuous and college theatre may be even more so. The next week cam and cast lis...

... for a company I haven't even ordered from. Joy of Propaganda has reduced their prices to £15.50, which is about $25. The were £18.50 before, which was just a bit much for me, especially given the £6 shipping cost to the US. But now I don't feel so bad about getting something (not that I would have felt "bad", until I looked at my bank balance that is). And my officemate wanted one too but was waffling. Now comes the hard part: which one do I get?

Satan says he'll wait out Sabres, play in Slovakia A friend sent me this yesterday. We still can't help giggling when reading his name, even though we know it's not pronounced that way. Oh, and they have a link to his stats too. I wish I was the sicko that gave him that stats ID. Sometimes it's good to be a DBA

Wait, sitcom stars aren't supposed to die . John Ritter, known to most as Jack from the 1970's sitcom 'Three's Company' (please people, as far as legacies go, just try to remember one other roll, please?), collapsed on the set of his show '8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.' He was rushed to the hospital where he died. Cause of death was a previously undetected heart problem.

Johnny Cash, the Man In Black, whose career spanned over 50 years, died last night due to complications from diabetes. He was 71.

My mom lost her job yesterday. They still have a couple three weeks to get things settled, but then the store will be closed. She knew it was coming, but that doesn't make it any easier. My dad called last night and apologized for having still not gotten me my graduation present because he hasn't worked since the middle of July. He was without a car for three weeks too, which is a bitch living out where he does. Both my parents have work in the arts, in various capacities (mom in retail/rental, dad self employed contract-type work). When the money stops flowing into the homes in our culture, the arts are one of the first things to go. I heard that in Argentina the performing arts is the only industry doing well. There people use the arts as solace and are willing to spend "extra" income on this form of entertainment (and they get more government funding too as it's seen as something important to society). Here people go for the passive entertainment o...

So it turns out the landlord is not coming tomorrow and will let us know when he's rescheduled the inspection. Whew! Not that this should be an excuse to slack (but it is), but I like having a little extra time to figure out what I'm doing with things. As part of tonight's cleaning, I emptied boxes I brought home from my old job when they laid me off. In January 2000 (I know, I know). I threw out lots of tchotchkies and things, but had some interesting things in gile folders, like early course work from when I started back in with my bachelor's and a real bummer of a piece I wrote when my boyfriend broke up with me in '96. No, I don't know why I had been keeping that at work either. So now I have two big empty boxes, into which I might store clothes. Although that would mean putting the boxes back where they were, which will just take up space. Edrie suggested a higher bed , but that would mean getting a totally new futon frame, and I'm just not...

I added a comments section to the blog. It's free stuff so I can't guarentee it will always be up, but hey, it's free!

Remind me again what "freedoms" the "terrorists" are supposed to hate. Is it the freedom to have all broadcasts mediated by giant corporations? Oh wait, maybe it is the freedom to have government agencies enter and search without a warrent . Now, wait, I think that one is barred by the constitution. Must be the former then.

Oh, it's shaping up to be another wonderful day at work. All of our servers are down, and while I could get external webpages when I first came in, after restarting my computer, in the hopes that maybe it was just me that couldn't get on to network drives, I can't get any web connection (I'm writing this off-line right now). We had troubles with our switch a few times in the last couple of weeks so I was hoping it was just that, but after trying one other machine in our department (again to be sure it wasn't just my jack) I went over to another part of the building on a different switch and found the same problem. Fortunately when I got back one of the server managers was in (I don't even have a key to the server room which makes restarting the fun on the few times I've had to do it) and he is working on it now. --- This just in: they shut them down on purpose (this apparently decided after I left last night and no one bothered to leave me a note). Bo...

My room is a pit. I haven't cleaned it in at least two years and it's at the point of zero floor-space. Oh, and the landlord is coming with MassPort people on Thursday to check our windows, which might get replaced to reduce the noise of living in a flight path (not that it bothered me the past five years.) So I need to clean, or at least shovel a path to the windows. I spent almost an hour today mucking out the room, folding clothes, piling up books, throwing out crap with ruthless abandon (why did I keep the cardboard inserts from panyhose packages? tell me). It's nowhere near done. I filled one giant bag and threw that out, but need to really get down to it tomorrow. I just can't face any more of it today. I know that two days is not going to get it really clean, but it will be a start. If I an resolve to spend one hour, once or twice a week working on the room and the closets (you don't even want to know about the closets), maybe I can get it some...

AAARRGGGH! So I come in to work today to our new intranet not being up yet. We told staff it would be up today (gee guys, we didn't say what time it would be up, did we?) and the dns transfer request didn't go in until late this morning. UGH. It did finally go at noon, but we've been finding issues (no, you're old bookmark is wrong; hmm, try restarting your machine; gee, you're right, we did forget to move that entire application). We also had a whole giganto section of the public site that I was supposed to transfer today, but had to wait for the web manager to show back up in the office before I could do anything. But that did finally get up without a hitch, so that was one good thing. The overall stress today has been making me want to hit the vending machine (not literally, although that migt be nice too), but I have managed to control myself. Barely

Okay, so it's only day one, but I think I might be in danger of being shot down by police for throtling the crap out of someone for eating a cookie in front of me. But maybe not. We gave out cookies today to people who came to our new intranet orientation and I was not tempted at all. Of course the cookies didn't actually look tasty, so that probably helped. In addition to charting all my food and stuff on the Weight Watchers online thingie (I'm doing the online version, not the meetings), I also have another blog for it. It's linked on the side (has been for some time, but I just deleted all the old stuff and started fresh). It's just one more way to keep me honest.

Singer and songwriter Warren Zevon dead at age 56 Ohmigod. I was not expecting this so soon.

I found out today in my Cantonese class that Anita Mui has cancer . It was on the front page of the paper my teacher gets, with a picture of her surrounded by lots of supporters. She's vowed to fight it and not give up. I hope it works.

Or at least makes the free paper that most people around here pick up because it's foisted on them at the T. Too cool! They have a box with a picture on page 20

For a short week, it's been really busy. Actually, for a normal-length work week it's been busy. The Doc is sending me cyber kisses and snuggles to keep me going, but I'm still wishing I could just have a day in bed. School starts up the week of the 15th. Students are already coming in and the square is getting lively. I'm taking my first graduate-level class (acting of all things) and will probably try out for some of the plays this semester too. I don't have the confidence I did in the spring when I auditioned (because I got nothing ) but I'll probably do it with a friend who is certain he'll get into at least one show. He does have the advantage though since he got in to Twelfth Night last spring and did a corking job.

Work has been kicking my ass. I woke up around 3:30 this morning fretting about all the stuff that needs to get done before we go live with out new intranet (okay, I think I actually woke because I had to pee, but I stayed awake worrying). I got one training out of the way today (sort of) and have three tomorrow. And today I was asked if we could move the big meeting for the staff introduction to it because some people can't go. Um, gee, we've already scheduled the dns change and it's only a matter of how it looks to staff since they don't have to do any modifications to it AND we've scheduled a 4 hour time-slot for drop-in sessions where they can learn how to click a fucking hyperlink, so I would say, um, NO! But I'm not bitter

Okay, so I've been slack on the Page of Death entries. Bob Hope died when I was in London and I wasn't blogging then. But I did have to mention that Charles Bronson died yesterday.

I got Edrie's blog to work without having all the links run off the side, but now I'm trying to design a new look. Having major issues with the green and orange, but wil wait to hear from her before doing anything drastic.