BoyGirlBlogBlog

The ultimate post

2005-06-15T14:44:00.000-05:00

Well, it's good to see that after only a few months of posting, we've reached that blogging milestone: the "sorry we haven't been blogging, our lives have become overwhelming" post.

Truth is? Blogging to the BoyGirlBoyGirl blog is not the first thing I think of every morning. Truth is, first thing I think of is, "Wow. Another day still alive."

Which is more than Terri Schiavo thought for the last decade of her "life." I just listened to Randi Rhodes play a complilation of the liars and self important fucks who used her as a pawn to promote their self serving agendas. It was amazing. And sad. And infuriating.

Rhodes then launched into a passionate diatribe shaming them. It was galvanizing radio.

Hear it here once its been archived:

http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/randirhodes/archives_index.php

Lonely, but not alone

2005-05-24T12:45:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since anyone's posted to this blog. My apologies, teenage girl fan base. We're all fantastically too busy, I'm afraid.

Mrs. Karp has just recently brought a new life into the world and Baby Teddy seems to be selfishly commandeering all her attention. Children can be so cruel.

Mrs. Shaw is teaching and getting ready for grad school next year.

Mr. Kodeski is in the early stages of birthing his next one-man show "And Some Can Remember Something of Some Such Thing" (opens July 22 as part of Live Bait Theater's Fillet of Solo Festival -- details later).

Et moi? I just closed a re-mount of "Of Diamonds and Diplomats," my very first play (written in 1995 when I was still in grade school). It was presented at the Field Museum as part of their exhibit "Jacqueline Kennedy: the White House Years," a supposed incredible display of Jackie's sartorial flair. I say "supposedly" because I never got around to seeing the exhibit myself. Well, it only ran for six months!

At any rate, BoyGirlBoyGirl is rallying the forces for yet another show (our third), entitled "Britney's Man Dances for his Supper," a delightful and somewhat bitter take on fame, tattoo removal, and stage nudity as inspired by a Kevin Federline interview in the January 2005 issue of DETAILS magazine. We open on August 19th for 2 shows only. Many more details later.

Back to the sugar cane fields now. Love.

It's like meat but it's not meat!

2005-01-21T11:16:00.000-06:00

Ah, Spam. It comes in so many forms. This one came in what looked to my (somewhat) educated eye as Polish. So, I just had to put the message through the translator at http://www.poltran.com - and below you'll find what it spit out. I've replaced words not recognized by the poltran computer with +++.

It's so mysterious! It's almost beautiful. I don't know what it is that appeals.

It's probably infected my Windows machine here at work with some kind of spyware thingamabob. All the eating and waves of eating pages make me a bit wary...

Coma cure about +++ and sugar from known and water it two but on +++.
It +++ be be as has selenium +++ but but for +++ if you are dodged and +++ as with +++. +++ cork and they ate chill in it forest him dock +++. On priest +++ be +++and +++ but it passs page military guilty for +++ but for house as result eat eat +++ because love about you expensive dear child cure fate it +++ it cure fate +++ and on on m too it +++ when condition on its his with hat +++ and pages +++. Roof spoils for house under chapels in without self-service store +++.

Pages pages tomb +++ and from +++ but with pages +++. But +++ as about difficulty pages it that priest +++ I and fear and river priest +++. Has on pages him well goods +++ and it +++ but with for on +++. From their dr. +++. With on +++. But I eat for pages won pages too +++. State but as +++but for +++ and scythe from pages+++ Remus +++ and they love with and slug as to two minutes about ex eat pages sound add +++ but as I eat from pages +++ Mart. Because with on +++. I eat +++. Pages +++ but that rather my mile +++. But you eat as this wave on it under over +++.

SpongeBob SexPanic

2005-01-21T08:40:00.000-06:00

US conservative groups are up in arms over a music video featuring children's TV heroes such as the cheerful cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. Focus on the Family and other groups say the video - a remake of the Sister Sledge hit, We Are Family - is a vehicle for pro-gay propaganda.

The video's makers plan to mail it to US schools in the spring to promote tolerance and diversity. They say the attack is based on a misunderstanding. The video also features children's favourites like Bob the Builder, along with characters from Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.

But James Dobson, founder of right-wing Christian group Focus on the Family, singled out SpongeBob at a black-tie dinner in Washington in the run-up to President Bush's inauguration, the New York Times said.

SpongeBob - who appears on the children's cable channel Nickelodeon - is seen as an icon for adult gay men in the US, apparently because he regularly holds hands with his sidekick Patrick. His creators deny that he is gay, but he is not the first such character to cause controversy. In 1999, conservatives claimed handbag-carrying Teletubby Tinky Winky, an import from the UK, was a bad role-model.

Nile Rodgers, who wrote the song and is founder of the We Are Family Foundation (WAFF) which released the new video, says it is intended to help teach children the values of co-operation and unity. "We believe that this is the essential first step to loving thy neighbour," he said. "And the fun and exciting format makes it a lesson that's easy for children to learn."

But conservatives say it sees the video as a cunning attempt to promote homosexuality. They point to the fact that the WAFF is linked to a pledge being promoted by some liberal groups which includes a recognition of tolerance of sexual identity. "We see the video as an insidious means by which the organisation is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids," Paul Batura, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, told the New York Times.

Mr. Rodgers said the groups may have confused his foundation with an unrelated organisation with a similar name that supports gay youth. WAFF spokesman Mark Barondeso told the newspaper that anyone who thought the video promoted homosexuality "needs to visit their doctor and get their medication increased".

Is this what it costs for a DELETE key?

2005-01-13T11:50:00.000-06:00

I had gotten used to the fact that my delete key had snapped off my iBook G-3 a long time ago. It didn't bother me all that much. But, I figured, "Hey, I've paid for this Apple Care program. I should use it." So, I stopped in at the Genius Bar and arranged to have it repaired. When it had been replaced the Genius asked me if I had Apple Care on the machine. I said I did.

Little did I know that the Apple Care had recently expired and could no longer be covered under the program. The machine is more than three years old, after all. This was explained patiently to me by the genius and I expressed again, "Little did I know!" I think he thought I knew more than I was letting on and let me know by the cold stone-face he was now giving me as he decided to let me have the new keyboard and his time and effort for nothing. I didn't, but there was no convincing him otherwise.

On the way back to the office I stopped in at one of those ubiquitous Loop lunch locations that have sprung up everywhere - The Corner Bakery in this case - and bought myself a chicken sandwich. It was made fresh to order because that's one of the things they do.

I ate it and continued on with my day.

Now, I'd already been feeling somewhat under the weather that day. I thought that maybe I was coming down with a cold. And as the day progressed I felt progressively worse. Worse and worse. I left the office early and several times on the train ride home thought I might perhaps be better off getting off the train early so as to yak into a convenient trash can. I was experiencing that peculiar metallic salivating that one gets just before hurling one's guts.

Four more stops. Three more stops. Two more stops.... I continually kept reassuring myself that I wasn't going to hurl. One more stop...

I made it home. Felt relatively okay for an hour or so - just sort of punky and tired. Then, slowly, began to feel decidedly worse. In waves. Nauseating undulating waves.

The sofa was at sea. I pulled an afghan over me and drifted somewhere just above consciousness.

I was torn between a desire to exorcise the contents of my agitated digestive tract and the knowledge of what that would entail. Painful spasms. Uncontrollable gagging. The possibility of hot sulfuric puke acid blasting through my sinuses. The stink of it all.

Edward was solicitous on arriving home but of little help. It wasn't his fault. Nothing could be done at this point except to ride out the storm within.

The minutes ticked by and at roughly 9:15 p.m. the evil devil spawn within demanded to be born.

Painful spasms. Uncontrollable gagging. Hot sulfuric puke acid blasting through my sinuses.

I was surprised, really, at how little had up-chucked and was considering the tattered bits of arugula and red pepper still floating amid the yellowish scum when I delivered again.

Painful spasms. Uncontrollable gagging.

Back to the sofa with teeth chattering chills and a deep seated knowledge that that which had not been expelled would most certainly be snaking its poisonous way through deeper recesses.

Loose kangaroo captured in Wisconsin

2005-01-12T10:52:00.000-06:00

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A kangaroo that went on a walkabout of frigid Wisconsin just might settle down in the Midwest after all.
The red-haired marsupial, now known as "Roo," was captured in a snowstorm outside of Dodgeville last week. Sheriff's deputies cornered the 150-pound critter in a barn after receiving calls for days from shocked residents who had seen it.
Kangaroos can be purchased for about $1,000 or more in the United States, but no one has reported him missing.
Roo remains under quarantine at the Henry Vilas Zoo, and if no one claims it, zoo officials plan to introduce it to their other kangaroos to see if they get along.
But if things don't work out, Margaret Suter said she has room at her home near Madison, where she already keeps six kangaroos and a wallaby.
"I worried for that kangaroo. It lost its caregiver," Suter said. "And if you own one of these animals, you shouldn't turn your back on it."
Suter's kangaroos have a variety of stories -- she took in one that was wounded and had one of his arms amputated. Another, named Skippy, is a blind 1-year-old female with her very own special quarters.
She got Captain, her first, about eight years ago and learned the animal's habits and requirements as she went along. Her kangaroos eat oats and special pellets, as well as snacks of fresh fruit.
"They can seem just like big teddy bears," she said. "They're beautiful animals and I just love them."

"They attacked the children!!!"

2005-01-12T10:48:00.000-06:00

In a city where a massive flock of crows has pestered local residents for years, officials are now fighting back with a hazing program aimed at disrupting the birds' sleeping habits and driving them into the countryside. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Fish and Wildlife Services and the state Department of Environmental Conservation started harassing the crows Monday and will continue through the week. Teams of scientists spread across Auburn, using hand-held lasers, pyrotechnics and amplified crow distress calls. "They are beautiful creatures, and we don't want to hurt them. We just want them out of our downtown," said Mayor Timothy Lattimore. "We wish them well _ just somewhere else." The invasion began about 15 years ago when more than 50,000 crows started wintering in this small upstate city 20 miles west of Syracuse _ outnumbering the human population of 28,574. Residents complain the crows are a noisy nuisance that soil the city with feces and drive off other songbirds. The birds settle in the city to sleep at night after spending the day foraging for food in the countryside. Three years ago, local businessman Tom Lennox organized an informal crow hunt. The event has grown rapidly. Last year, the two-day contest in February attracted 208 hunters, some from as far away as Kentucky and Arizona. The hunters killed 1,061 birds. Crow season runs from Sept. 1 to March 31, but crows can only be hunted Friday through Monday, a legal quirk that dates to the federal 1918 International Migratory Bird Act. The hunt, though, has ruffled some feathers. Some residents think Auburn's bounty of birds is something to crow about and that the city should celebrate its avian neighbors with a festival or other promotion. Before they started, the scientists came up with a crow count of 63,800 birds _ give or take a few hundred. Auburn's roost is unique compared to others in the state because the crows roost throughout the city rather than in one location, said Richard Chipman, New York director of USDA wildlife services. Similar non-lethal hazing programs have been undertaken in Utica, Troy and Albany, which have roosts ranging in size from 6,000 to 25,000, he said. Lattimore said because of the size of the Auburn roost, there is no guarantee the heckling methods will work. If they don't, the city may have to consider more drastic steps, such as using a helicopter to herd them somewhere else, the mayor said. The aim of the project is to break the large flock into smaller, more manageable flocks and drive them out of downtown into less populated areas, Chipman said. It is hoped the program will show a measurable difference by week's end, but it is likely the hazing will have to be a yearly effort, he said. In the past 20 years, crow populations have exploded in suburban areas around the country, causing officials to investigate new control and management methods. On the Web: Crow Busters: http://www.crowbusters.com Cayuga County Crows Unlimited: http://cccrowsunlimited.com

Adventures in geography (Narita, Japan)

2004-12-22T11:43:00.000-06:00

Kanji
Originally uploaded by boygirlboygirl.

You take your seat at the sushi bar. Behind a glass countertop stands a tall, young chef who looks like he's been waiting all day just to make your maki. You point to a picture and nod. Who needs Japanese lessons?

The tall, young chef prepares a beautiful strip of smoked eel and lays it across the countertop: no plate, no napkin, just right across the glass.

It looks sanitary enough; that's not what worries you. What worries you is transporting your smoked eel from countertop to plate, something for which you must employ chopsticks, your natural enemy. You check to see how the locals manage it, but you are the only one sitting at the bar. There's no control group in this experiment.

You stare at your smoked eel for what seems like hours. You are very hungry, but being mistaken for a barbarian paralyzes you.

Adventures in geography (Monument Valley, Arizona)

2004-12-19T15:09:00.000-06:00

Shadows, Arizona
Originally uploaded by boygirlboygirl.

It is a breathtakingly beautiful morning and the Navajo guide is tottering with drink. You regret your decision to follow him into the high desert for glimpses at rocks that were once possibly dinosaur feces.

He offers to sing you a traditional song. Before you say no, he launches into a multi-versed epic that goes on for about ten minutes after your indifference has turned into discomfort.

You are not interested in buying his blankets, so you hand him twenty dollars and quickly head back to your car.

Peter Pan dream

2004-12-17T11:47:00.000-06:00

Fueled, no doubt, by a huge platter of Dak Bulgogi…

David and I were watching a 1930's MGM musical version of Peter Pan. At the end of the movie, the entire cast (even the actor that played Capt. Hook) joined a huge choir of rosy-cheeked children dressed in pale blue shirts. They faced the camera and sang the movie's "big number." It was a song entitled "A Dream Is A Wish That You Sleep In."

12 Million Bees Killed in Truck Accident

2004-12-17T10:54:00.000-06:00

End of the road for 12m bees

A truck carrying 12 million bees hit a wall on a Nevada highway ramp, dumping its load shortly before the evening rush hour. The truck was carrying 480 bee colonies, each with 25,000 insects, from Las Vegas, Nevada, to California to pollinate the state's almond crop, when it struck the wall on Wednesday.

The collision spilled the bees and gallons of honey and forced police to close the highway ramp for four hours.

The authorities summoned beekeepers to help but decided capturing the bees alive would take too much time and money. Firefighters doused them with water to kill them.

"We're talking millions of bees," said Don Grogan, the owner of Sedona Honey in Las Vegas, who was helping with the clean-up. "It breaks my heart."

----

This reminds me. But I can't recall the exact moments - where we were going or why.

We were on the highway. Driving.

We noticed two semi-trucks driving ahead covered in netting. They were hauling bees. Millions of bees.

It was an arrestingly beautiful sight, really.

Corporate Christmas cornucopia

2004-12-15T16:07:00.000-06:00

cashew
Originally uploaded by boygirlboygirl.

So I tried the fancy cashews today.

Apparently, for some, "fancy" can be understood to mean "extra salt."

Elephants raid tapioca truck (from scotsman.com)

2004-12-14T13:15:00.000-06:00

Wild elephants in Thailand stumbled upon a feast when they found a tapioca delivery truck with a flat tyre. The driver, Somkuan Sirisat, said he had gone for help to repair the tyre last night – and when he returned, he found five or six elephants surrounding his truck and devouring its contents.

“I was too afraid to go toward the truck,” Somkuan told television station ITV.

Army rangers were sent to the scene, said one of their officers. A policeman and the ranger said the elephants found their windfall in the Ta Takiab district of Chachoengsao province, 56 miles east of Bangkok. ITV showed the elephants milling around the truck, one of them holding in its trunk a tarpaulin it had apparently removed from the truck. The elephants left the scene after eating their fill.

The footage showed signs in the area warning drivers to “beware of wild elephants foraging on the road at night”.

So sleepy....

2004-12-14T10:51:00.000-06:00

Filled with very weird dreams -

All about peace and love and understanding, oddly enough.

Dreamt I'd been nasty to this rather cute t-shirt and boxers wearing pup whose silver spoon upbringing I hated. Then I spent the rest of the dream trying to express to him that I am basically a loving person who just wants everyone to eventually get along by talking calmly and cooly and understanding each other's insecurities.

Then there was a bunch of schoolkids all being taught to love one another and to embrace each other's otherness. They then sang some crappy choral "We Are the World" kind of thing - and it was in my grandmother's house. She was most pleased. And since she's been dead for 20 odd years, I was pleased to see her too.

And finally I was taking part in some Canadian annual awards show that promoted the embracing of love and understanding and being kind and loving one another and peace and joy and all that. Peggy Fleming was there with her formally estranged partner and since this was their first public performance together since reconciling, the audience went wild for them - even though they could really only just barely skate. They hobbled mostly. And it wasn't because there wasn't any ice.

I was just about to do my bit (not sure what it was, really) when they announced that Ann Coulter would be appearing. I thought that was weird and everyone was I guess too polite to say anything (how Canadian!) - and I couldn't help myself so asked, "Why??" It was explained to me that in the spirit of embracing everyone's otherness, it wouldn't be fair to exclude Coulter. She came, smugly, onto the stage with another guy and I spat, "Cunt!" and she smirked and said, "Original. Nice." I knew it wasn't exactly original, but, fuck her!

She got to her spot on the stage and while Peggy Fleming and I had gotten rounds of applause, Coulter got none - she harrumphed and smirked and laughed and said she wasn't surprised considering the audience demographic. I continued to call her variously a 'cunt,' a 'stupid cunt,' a 'lying cunt,' etc. She continued to laugh it off and a small contingent in the audience began to cheer and egg her on. I suddenly noticed that her escort was Hermann Goering or another infamous Nazi and she told the audience, laughing, "It's all about death people! Death for everyone! Embrace death!"

Adventures in geography (London, England)

2004-12-13T19:21:00.000-06:00

You overhear two American girls chatting as they wander wide-eyed through the British Museum.

One remarks to the other, "Can you imagine having all this stuff?"

It is not the glories of human achievement that have dropped their teenage jaws. It is the glimpse into a fantasy of accumulation.

Adventures in geography (Paris, France)

2004-12-09T23:07:00.000-06:00

The waiter is young and built like a soccer player. Each time he reaches across the table to refill your glass, you fight back the impulse to lick his forearm.

He has a nice head of hair, too: black and thick and wavy. It’s the kind of hair bald people fantasize about growing with miracle cures.

He smiles a lot and flirts shamelessly as he takes your order. You can’t tell if he is sincerely interested in becoming your first French lover, or just trying to sell more wine.

Ficchi finito

2004-11-21T19:33:00.000-06:00

ccall
Originally uploaded by boygirlboygirl.

"The Fine Art of Italian Cooking," BGBG's sophomore effort, has now come and gone. I'm happy to report that we're all still speaking to each other and that a third show is now under consideration, the dates and subject matter to be determined.

Many thanks to our lovely hosts, Curious Theater Branch, and the lovely audience members who laughed at our jokes and applauded when the lights came down. We couldn't have done it without you. Well… we could have done it without you, but it would have been a very unrewarding experience.

What I was trying to say last night

2004-11-10T13:45:00.000-06:00

"In situations where organization is lacking, the most organized person always steps in to fill the void. This is because the most organized person is the only one who recognizes that the void exists."

Last time I said this, I said it much funnier and much more concisely. Should have written it down then.

Girl scares off dingo (from today's Herald Sun)

2004-11-09T13:30:00.000-06:00

Brave five-year-old Georgia Corke stood between an intruding dingo and her 14-week-old sister in a Kingfisher Bay Resort room on Fraser Island last week.

The native dog has been identified and will be destroyed after the incident, said to be the first of its kind at the resort. Mother Belinda Corke said the dingo entered the family's room on Friday morning and approached Scarlett, who was asleep on a bed. Georgia then positioned herself between her sister and the dingo and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"She was very brave," she said.

Mrs Corke, who was in the bathroom, said when she rushed into the room she faced a mother's worse nightmare.

"I must admit the first thing I thought of was Azaria Chamberlain," she said. "Even if it couldn't have taken her away, it could have quite easily dragged her off the bed on to the hard floor."

Georgia's father, David, managed to shoo the native dog out of the room.

Back home at Indooroopilly, Georgia said her she did not think twice before she put herself in between her sister and the dingo.

"I just yelled out 'dingo' when Mummy and Daddy were in the bathroom," she said.

Kingfisher Bay spokeswoman Kaye Bishop said she was surprised the dingo had entered the room.

"We haven't had a report of one going into a room before -- this is something new for us," she said.

Mrs Bishop said guests at the resort would be advised to keep their doors closed.

Tourist misses the point (from today's Herald Sun)

2004-11-08T13:51:00.000-06:00

A holiday ended in agony when an elephant bit off an Australian man's finger outside a bar in Thailand.

Still in pain, Greg Black yesterday said he could still manage to see the funny side of the incident. "I was outside the bar when a man came by with a young elephant . . . and I paid 20 baht (40 cents) to feed it," he said.

"I felt this, like, sucking and shredding of my finger. I was standing on my toes as it lifted me up."

He said as he pulled his hand from the animal's mouth he saw his right little finger had been shredded.

"Blood was everywhere, women were screaming . . . it was pandemonium."

NPR is not in danger

2004-11-08T10:24:00.000-06:00

Every so often, today for example, I receive a cut and pasted e-mail plea from one of my friends to sign a petition to save NPR. You know the one.

Nina Tottenberg reports on Morning Edition that the if the Supreme Court supports Congressional budget cutting - NPR will cease to exist.

This petition has been circulating since 1997! You gotta love the tenaciousness of this thing. I mean, even these days, people don't believe The Beaver was killed in Viet Nam or that Life Cereal Mikey died from eating Pop-Rocks.... or do they??

But, you know what is true? The Walt Disney Company made three separate day care centers remove cartoon characters painted on their walls. Aren't corporations just great?

It should be noted here that this post is in no way a reflection of any kind on the person who last sent me the petition. She'll make me feel guilty for mentioning it here though. Of course, isn't that feeling of guilt really more about me than about her? Aren't all guilty feelings self perpetuated?

Mrs. Shaw as Anne Boleyn

2004-11-07T14:50:00.000-06:00

Mrs. Shaw as Anne Boleyn
Originally uploaded by boygirlboygirl.

She was a latch-key child.

The coming plague years

2004-11-07T09:43:00.000-06:00

As a gay man (yes, teenage girl fan base, it's true!), I've got political activism kind of easy. We live in a society where pretty much any expression of sexuality outside the missionary position for procreative purposes only (MPFPPO) is politicized. So anything I do openly and unapologetically is a big, ol' middle finger salute to 59,000,000 idiots who think that despite the growing deficit, the trashing of the environment, and -- oh yes -- THE UNNECESSARY CARNAGE IN IRAQ, George W. Asshole is the right person to lead our country. The stage gives me a forum for this salute. I, of course, mean this figuratively, not literally -- I don't do that kind of a show. No one would buy tickets for that.

For this reason, I believe the best we can do (and I don't just mean "we gay men," I mean "we sexual outlaws") is to keep on keeping on. Make art, assert our identities, let the world know that we are not demons, that we are not child molesters, that we have values that don't include war or the suppression of women's choice to determine what happens to their bodies, (cue patriotic music) that we love this country and that we love the world surrounding it just as well (maybe even more so right now).

Incidentally, my favorite new phrase is "sex panic." I can't remember if I picked it up from Foucault, Paglia, Naomi Wolf, or Colt Magazine (probably *not* Naomi Wolf). Sex panic is when people fear that allowing for variations on MPFPPO will lead to marauding bands of leather-clad top daddies roving the prairies, butt-fucking everything in sight. That is not reality, people, that's a porn film scenario. Like all porn film scenarios, it is a fantasy (my fantasy, at any rate). But it's reason enough for some very naive people to hate sexual outlaws and legislate against them.

Next time you hear Republicans and their loyal slaves refer to "values" or "family values" or "morality," just replace those words with the words "sex panic." You'll soon understand how people who say they value the lives of the unborn can simultaneously support a bloody, needless war.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to give my boyfriend a handjob.

Edwardo

a panicked response

2004-11-04T19:08:00.000-06:00

Tonight, I looked up the word "agitprop."
I tried to.
I couldn't find it in my webster's seventh collegiate.
I need a new dictionary.
I need a whole new page.

Thursday, October 30, 1952

2004-10-30T16:56:00.000-05:00

Carolyn Horne 2018
Originally uploaded by boygirlboygirl.

Dear Diary,
Today when I woke up, you could hardly see across the street. No, not fog, smoke! Later I learned that this little town is in a bit of danger… from forest fire. The fires are very extensive and are located six miles south of here. Ironically, the wind is quite prevailent, a south wind, but if the wind changes, our town could quite easily be endangered, since we are surrounded by low mountains thickly forested. From what I hear, it has happened before. Hot Springs was almost completely destroyed several years ago. At any rate, we are taking all precaution. It's a frightening thought.

A walk on the mild side

2004-10-27T21:10:00.000-05:00

David had to be at his office early this morning, so he and I did something we rarely ever do: we woke up, got dressed, and left the house at the same time. It was shortly after dawn and the sky was crammed with pink cirrus. The air was chilly and damp and smelled of wet asphalt. The sidewalks were covered with fallen red and yellow leaves. October has always been one of my favorite months.

I often forget the simple pleasures of sharing simple pleasures with your boyfriend. As we walked to the Rockwell station, I thought about how long we've been together. I thought about our new (since August) home. I thought about being grown-ups and living the lives that are, if not exactly what we want them to be, then at least something we've made for ourselves. I thought about how lucky I was to have David at my side.

On the Brown Line, we sat next to each other glumly and just stared out into space like we always do. There's nothing romantic about the CTA.

girl blog

2004-10-27T15:36:00.000-05:00

Last night I dreamt I was at a greek familie's outdoor barbeque and the old ya ya was about to roast a small donkey who was halfway dead and burned all over. I wanted to save him or at least put him out of his misery, he was suffering terribly, and the ya ya insisted that he needed to be cooked slowly while alive to be his most delicious. I don't know what this means, and I used to know what all my dreams meant, or at least I'd analyze them to death. Who is that donkey and how can I save him?

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again

2004-10-25T23:23:00.000-05:00

Hello and welcome to BoyGirlBlogBlog, the official blog of BoyGirlBoyGirl, Chicago's (perhaps the world's) only solo performance ensemble.

Back in May of 2004, David Kodeski, Stephanie Shaw, Susan McLaughlin Karp, and yours truly (solo theater performers all) finally got off our collective duffs and put together the show we had talked about putting together for what seemed like ages. The result was "The New, More Thrilling Secrets" at Live Bait Theater and we couldn't have been more pleased with the response.

The four of us have been close friends for years (allright, I will admit I'm a bit more than a friend to Mr. Kodeski) as well as admirers of each other's solo performance work. One summer night in 2002, we had a few too many margaritas at El Tipico (Foster and Wolcott -- tell them Edwardo sent you!) and hit upon the brilliant idea that if we each contributed 15 minutes of work to single evening in the theater -- voila! -- we could write a whole show in only a fraction of the time. We would receive all the benefits of being theater artists and still have time to blow our children's noses or veg out in front of the TV.

That's how "The New, More Thrilling Secrets" got started. And it is this same "esprit du corps" that inspires our next project "The Fine Art of Italian Cooking" this November 19th and 20th at the Curious Theater Branch. (Check out www.curioustheaterbranch.com for more info.)

But enough about the show, this blog is for those random thoughts and links, those stray production meeting one-liners that would seem utterly random out of context, those things that never make it to the stage of one of our shows either for reasons of brevity or taste or cohesion.

Enjoy,
Edwardo