Cultural phenomenon

I truly love the event that is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
I've been having similar conversations with many different people in the office and in my show:
"Are you reading it yet?"
"Did you buy it at midnight?"
"I'm re-reading Six first."
"I thought about that, but I couldn't wait."
"Well, my boyfriend's reading it now so I'll borrow it when he's done."
"My mom called to ask me if I've finished yet. She said now the she's read it she'll wait three weeks for it to settle and then read it again."
"Maybe after Seven I'll re-read Six and then Seven again."
"Me too."
"I'm re-reading Five after seeing the movie and then going through Six and Seven."
"Nice."
"I had a Potter party where we all read it aloud to each other."
"Do you want to see the movie a second time? Have you read Seven yet?"

And on and on and on.
How did Jo Rowling, as those who know her seem to call her, do it?
How did she bring together generations of people together with one book series?
My mom got me reading the books.
Obviously children are into them.
Men, women, old, young, everyone's got their hands on the orange hardcover.
Me and a colleague are both dressed in matching nurse's outfits before our show begins.
Hair conservatively back from our face, white shoes on, we also both have our nose in the familiar orange book backstage before we start. The sight of two fake nurses reading Harry Potter at the same time tickles me.
The whole event is amazing.

Slave to Apple

So I think I lost my iPod Nano.
Sucks.
Coulda left it at the gym.
They don't have it.
Can't find it in my apartment.
Maybe it's hiding.
But I think it's gone.

Then to make matters worse,
I was looking for it and cursing myself out
When I spilled beer on my eMac keyboard

And ruined it.

So now I had no iPod
And couldn't even use my computer.

BOLLOCKS!
As they say in the U.K.
CRAPOLA!
As I like to exclaim.

So I ventured to the Fifth Ave. Apple Store.
("If you're calling about store hours,
That's easy! We're always open!")

I got a new keyboard.
I thought about getting a new iPod,
But I thought it too impulsive.
Maybe I'll find mine.
Or maybe someone has an old one
They don't mind parting with.

Either way I felt like Steve Jobs' bitch.
The struggle, the conflict.
Keyboard AND iPod?
Or keyboard now and new iPod later?
Does Steve Jobs need a kidney?
'Cause I have two.

Keyboard in hand, I marveled once again
At the ability of someone roaming around the store
To check me out with a hand-held device.
My email was already in the database
To which to send my receipt.
The whole trip took five minutes.

Too easy.

Anyway, I'm happy to be able to post this
And I'm drinking another beer
But now it's nowhere near my new, white, pristine keyboard.
Now if only iPods were only 29 dollars too.

***7/25 UPDATE: So I broke down and bought a refurbished Nano from the Apple website.***

I Don't Do Much in the Show but Got Around to Readin' the Other Plays During Rehearsal

Characters:
Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Suzan Lori-Parks
Me

SLP and Me sit on a stoop in an urban town.

Me: Hey.
SLP: Hey yrself.

Me
Me
SLP
Me

SLP: You thinkin bout me?
Me: Yep.
SLP: I could tell.
Me: Yeah.

{Rest}

Me: We're doin' some of your plays.
SLP: Lotsa people are.
Me: Yeah.

SLP

SLP: How you findin it?
Me: How am I...uh...
SLP: Some of 'em a bit strange?
Me: I'm glad you said that.
SLP: Really.
Me: They're fun to do, though.
SLP: Sure.
Me: Would it play in Peoria, though?
SLP: Doesn't matter; you aint in Peoria.
Me: Good point.
SLP: Let Peoria worry about its own damn self.
Me: Okay.

Me
Me
Me

Me: I like to write too sometimes.
SLP: I knew you were gonna say that.
Me: Maybe I should write one play a day too.
SLP: Do it, girl.
Me: But that's a lot.
SLP: So.
Me: It looked like you were so gung ho at the beginning of the year, with lots of lines and scenes and simultaneous monologues, then they kinda got shorter and shorter. Our plays for Week 37 is all, like, a minute long on paper.

SLP

Me: Must be hard to find inspiration to write about something every single day for 365 days.

A red convertible with no driver appears before them.
SLP stands.

SLP: I gotta go.
Me: Cool.
SLP: I gotcha thinkin' though, didn't I?
Me: ___.
SLP: Yeah, gotcha thinkin'. Every now and then, that's all it takes.

SLP gets in the passenger seat of the car and it drives off.
Mark Twain approaches.
He sits next to Me.

End of play

365 Days/365 Plays - NYC
Week 37 with Temporary Theatre Company

Mmm, bloody

I was in the middle of a dream in the middle of the night.
In this dream, a colleague of mine was telling me a story
And I was trying to pay attention, but my back kept itching.
Soon, my own scratching woke me up.
Usually once my back is scratched all is well and I can return to slumber
But I kept scratching and scratching
And my heart sank with the familiar knowledge
That I'd probably been eaten alive
By some pesky mosquito.
When I heard a distant-but-close buzzing by my ear-plugged ear,
I knew.

I got out of bed.
It was 5:55 AM.
I walked to the bathroom.
I turned on the light to see
Not one,
Not two,
Not three,
But SEVEN mosquito bites.

One on my left hand by a knuckle.
Two on my back by my right shoulder blade.
One near my right armpit.
One on my right elbow.
One behind my right knee.
And one on my left...

...eyelid.

*sigh*

Now, unfortunately for me,
I'm no stranger to the bitten eyelid.
Really, you ask?
Really, I answer.
I have pictures of me at five years old
Visiting the Philippines
With a big ol' swollen eye.

In grammar school, I had a cluster of bites
Behind my knee
That looked so ominous
A classmate shrieked,
"What is that? Were you bitten by a dog?"
Embarrassing.

I don't only get bit.
The bites get big.
I'm kind of allergic.

I bathed in Off! and Calamine,
Iced and cold-compressed my eye,
And have dared to leave the house
One eye smaller than the other
Trying to hide in plain sight

Angry as hell
At a satiated and happy
Little bug from hell
Waiting for me to return home.

**UPDATE: The clarity of 24 hours has borne out the fact that one of the bites on my back is actually two bites right next to each other. So, the tally has gone up to eight. EIGHT bites in one fell swoop.**

**UPDATE #2: I found another one on my left upper arm. It may be newer than from the suck-fest described above, but now I'm walking around with NINE bites, people. Nine at once!**

Technology ROCKS!!!

In both the distant and recent past as an actress/singer who would have to procure sheet music for the purposes of auditions and who also doesn't play the piano or read music, getting a song in the key that best suits my individual voice would be a bit of a hassle. First, I either bought the music somewhere or borrowed it from someone and then photocopied them for myself. Then, my audition coach or someone would pencil onto the music the transposed chords right by the guitar chords, so that any accompanist would know to play those chords instead. Or, if I wanted to transpose the entire song altogether notes and all, I would have to find and pay someone to take my music, put it into their computer, change the key, and print me out the new sheet music. Even as recently as last month, I asked a friend of mine to go over some songs with me so I could pick one for some volunteer work I was doing. There was one torch song I really wanted to learn, but the key was too high for me, and my friend wasn't skilled at transposing on the spot. So, the song was taken out of rotation, which broke my heart.

Today I went to a new audition coach. We sang a few songs that I knew and moved onto an Elton John song that I didn't know. We sang it in different keys and different ways before deciding that a half-step down from the original key was best for me. I remember thinking, "Okay, how will this work? Do I borrow her huge Elton John book, make photocopies, give them back to her, and then figure out a way to transpose?"

Then she told me about online services such as MusicNotes.com. For an extremely nominal fee, I got on my computer, installed the online sheet-music viewer (which took, like, one minute), searched for my song by title, merely clicked onto the KEY I WANTED IT TRANSPOSED IN, paid, and printed out the transposed music.

IT TOOK TEN MINUTES.

Oh my GOD!!!!!!! My life is forever changed! There is no more middleman between you, the customer, and the sheet music you need in your key!!!!

I love the internet, and my printer.
I want to marry them.

Those who came before

I've blogged before about how common it is for me to channel surf and spot someone I know on television. I've been meeting and working with more than a few people this summer who are much newer to the business than I, and for better or worse, I have been feeling very elder statesman-like lately. However, it was a different feeling for me when I was watching TV last night and happened upon a rerun of M*A*S*H. Alan Alda's scene partner was an Asian man and their characters were trying to communicate with each other despite their language barriers. The actor was the ubiquitous presence known by one name: Mako.

I didn't know much about Mako in the late '90s when I had the good fortune of working with and getting to know both his daughters, who are also actresses. For a while, Mako was known to me as just their dad. I learned that he helped found the very first Asian American theater company in the country, East West Players, in 1965. He popped up in every modern movie that needed someone like him: Pearl Harbor, Memoirs of a Geisha. I remember going to see Seven Years in Tibet starring Brad Pitt, with Mako's daughter Mimosa after the film had been out for a long while because she felt guilty that she hadn't seen it yet, and we giggled a little whenever her dad was on screen (the more serious the speeches given to Brad Pitt, the "funnier"). Not until his death last summer of cancer, however, have I come to really appreciate his contributions to the expansion of Asians in Hollywood. He was a Broadway star, an Academy Award nominee, a television veteran, and for cryin' out loud, even a guest voice on Dexter's Laboratory and a "Rugrats" movie. You can't get any more varied and plugged-in than that. He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, something I just learned today in researching him for this post.

Watching him on M*A*S*H, I couldn't help but think about how Mako was only playing at not understanding Alan Alda, and how Asian American actors today still have to struggle with being hired more for putting on an accent than being an American character. But his 40-plus-year career and consistent visibility had certainly helped pave the way for today's B.D. Wongs and Sandra Ohs, and although I never met Mako, I bow down to his hard work and longevity.

Maybe I'll sleep better

Oh my goodness, I'm so happy about this. From New York One:

July 01, 2007

The first changes to the city's noise code in thirty years take effect today.

Under the new rules, noise jackets will be required on jackhammers, Mister Softee trucks will have to turn off their music when they're stopped to serve ice cream and dog owners could face $175 fines if their pets bark ten minutes straight or five minutes consecutively at night.

Bars and restaurants could also be fined if their music can be heard more than 15 feet away.