January 30, 2004
Introductions
Greetings! This is Jere, your intrepid guest-blogger here at The Jon Blog. First, I wish to thank Jon for giving me this opportunity, especially since, the last time he did so, I managed to crash the entire site for weeks. I'm not kidding. I wish I was. :)
Word of warning: I haven't yet decided what I want my time here at The Jon Blog to be. I do not have a blog of my own and writing one is still a new to me. Although I do read quite a few blogs. Perhaps even yours. And I've met quite a few interesting people through their blogs, some of whom I am now lucky enough to call friends.
In case you were wondering, two of my favorites blogs are written by Mike and Jeff. I guess you might consider them to be my Blog-Mentors. I do not write as eloquently as they do. I am not as technically-savvy as they are. Please bear with me as I fumble through something they do very well. And please check them out if you are unfamiliar.
By way of introduction, I suppose that I should tell you a little something about myself. I am a 31 year old gay New York actor. I can pass for 25 still. Sometimes I lie about my age, although not as often as I once did. This peculiarity of mine began at an early age when I got tired of being a teenager and was, thus, 20 for two years. Remarkably, no one seemed to catch on, at least no one ever called me on it.
I am currently unemployed, both as an actor and as an office temp, the devil's work that I have been doing for the past five years or so to pay my bills. If anyone reading this has a job for an actor or an office temp or both, please get in touch. Or if you would just like to pay all or some of my bills for me, that would be fine too. Either way, I'd be happy to have you take me to dinner and discuss it.
I have recently returned to New York from two and half months in Chicago, where I was playing a variety of roles in a musical holiday parody called RUDOLPH THE RED HOSED REINDEER. You see, instead of being ostracized by the community for having a bright red nose, Rudolph is banished for being a cross-dresser. Uh-Huh. Among my roles were Sheldon Glick, the smarmy lawyer who tries to shut down the show early on in the evening, Gay GI Joe on the Island of Messed Up Toys (where I also understudied Trailer Trash Barbie), a miscellaneous reindeer with a thing for pointing the finger, and a punk rock bunny rabbit.
My crowning achievement in this production, however, was understudying (and going on 3 times for) the brilliant Ed Jones as The Abominable Drag Beast of the North. You have to imagine me dressed as Cher, huge hair, glittery platform shoes, and all. This image will be much funnier for those of you who actually know me. The rest of you will just have to trust me.
For those of you interested in such things, the cast album is available for purchase at the Hell in a Handbag Productions website. Buy one. In fact, buy two, they're small.
Anyway, the production was great fun and I wouldn't have missed doing it for all the world. Chicago is a great town, in addition to being a great musical. Who knew? And the people were so nice to me. Mostly. I love them all. Especially David Cerda, the author of RUDOLPH, who also played Gladys Dasher in the show, and who once gave me a note on my performance right in the middle of a song called "They'll Hate You If You're Different." I've never gotten a note from the author on stage in the middle of a performance. It's...interesting.
Where was I? Oh, yes, I was revealing personal information in the hopes of being liked by all of you.
I am single and have lousy luck with men. Usually, the men I fall for live in different parts of the country. In addition, guys have a strange tendancy to meet their next long-term boyfriends/partners just after having expressed interest in me. It's weird, let me tell you. If you are single, gay, male, AND live in New York City, and you might be interested in going on a date with me, please do drop a line.
Tomorrow I am flying to Florida to visit my parents at their condo in Stuart, just north of West Palm Beach. I am ecstatic to be fleeing the cold for a few days. My body doesn't really do cold weather. Last year, when winter seemed to stretch into June, I was nearly suicidal. Were I in any other business, I would have fled to warmer climes ages ago. There will be lots of sitting by the pool and reading Jane Austen. And lots of drinking margaritas. I will be sure to keep you all informed.
So that is me for now. We shall see how this blogging goes. Hopefully I won't crash the whole operation...again.
Thank You Ever So.
Her Momma Must Be So Proud
This has gotta rank high on this lady's list of accomplishments. Shit.
And on an unrelated yet also linky note, Ewwwwww!
The Time Has Come...
Well, it's almost come, but for anyone who's an M-F'er (That's Monday through Friday-er, not the other M-F'er, you sick bastards), you won't see me again for a few weeks. I leave town on Sunday night and I won't be back for three (count 'em, three!) weeks. Yay!
I'll still find something to say the next day or so, but please be nice to Jere in my absence.
In other news, don't you hate it when you can't fall asleep... especially when you know that you don't have a lot of time to sleep in the first place? Ugh. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll let me come home early from work. Then again, maybe I'll just sleep on the airplane on Sunday evening.
January 29, 2004
I'm Late! I'm Late!
So I misset my alarm clock last night when I went to bed - for 7pm instead of 7am... whooops! I was only an hour late to work, though, so it wasn't too bad. The 3 hour long staff meeting could have been a little shorter, though!
Anyhow, I am now going to knit. I have been working on a sock, and I have made it up to a point in the process called "turning the heel." I'm sure that most of you don't care less about this, but I am kind of excited. I mean, there's something strangely neat to me about the fact that I am making a sock.
Yes. I am a geek.
Thank you, thank you very much.
January 28, 2004
Tab-ow!
Well, thanks to Mike having a friend who had to go out of town at the last minute, I got to see Taboo last night at the Plymouth Theatre.
Jesus, why can't they ever have a decent show at the Plymouth? The only shows I remember seeing there are "Jekyll & Hyde," the terribly misguided production of "Bells are Ringing," "The Graduate," and now, "Taboo." [OK, on checking the Plymouth's history at ibdb.com, I forgot about "Long Day's Journey..." but I never saw "Thou Shalt Not." Actually, take a look at it - there were a lot of great things that debuted at the Plymouth!]
After the show, well, Mike and I chatted briefly about it before trudging home in the snow. Overall, I think we agreed on a lot of the issues of the show. He's written a much better review cum blog entry than I ever could about the show, so go read what he said, and yes, Mike was right when he described the part I liked the most.
I spent more time bitching about the lighting design than he did. Then again, unlike Mike, I studied lighting design in grad school and tend to overly focus on technical elements - especially during bad shows when you actually have time to watch for stuff like that. Plus, I think that Natasha Katz is a pretty overrated lighting designer. Her designs for "Aida" really lacked the subtlety that lighting should have. Jules and Peggy? Please help us out here... [And did you ever realize that Natasha spelled backwards is Ah Satan? I did... and accordingly had to name a my car-at-the-time Natasha.]
After our chat, in snowy Times Square, I was actually contemplating walking the whole way (30ish blocks), but decided that was not a good idea, so I took the good old F Train and walked home the 5 block from the station.
In other news, this is sad and funny at the same time.
January 27, 2004
The FedEx Man Can
So I got an envelope from FedEx. And yet, there's a story behind it.
You see, I was sitting here in my (cluttered) living room yesterday morning, and I heard the buzzer on my front door go off, but for only a fraction of a second. I figured that someone had been meaning to hit a different buzzer but their finger slipped on mine accidentally.
Only when I went downstairs, there was a FedEx door hanger saying that I had missed my delivery. Missed the delivery my ass! Learn how to ring a fucking doorbell.
So this morning, they came back to redeliver. While I was sleeping. And this morning's guy? Well, let's just say he KNEW how to ring a doorbell. It's ok, I needed to get up anyhow: I got my new passport yesterday, and today I have to take it to the consulate and apply for a visa.
Oh, what was in the FedEx, you ask? Plane tickets and a finalized itinerary for my trip. I leave Sunday. But don't worry, I can safely announce that the services of a talented guest blogger have been secured. Just in case anyone actually reads this blog.
The FedEx Man Can
So I got an envelope from FedEx. And yet, there's a story behind it.
You see, I was sitting here in my (cluttered) living room yesterday morning, and I heard the buzzer on my front door go off, but for only a fraction of a second. I figured that someone had been meaning to hit a different buzzer but their finger slipped on mine accidentally.
Only when I went downstairs, there was a FedEx door hanger saying that I had missed my delivery. Missed the delivery my ass! Learn how to ring a fucking doorbell.
So this morning, they came back to redeliver. While I was sleeping. And this morning's guy? Well, let's just say he KNEW how to ring a doorbell. It's ok, I needed to get up anyhow: I got my new passport yesterday, and today I have to take it to the consulate and apply for a visa.
Oh, what was in the FedEx, you ask? Plane tickets and a finalized itinerary for my trip. I leave Sunday. But don't worry, I can safely announce that the services of a talented guest blogger have been secured. Just in case anyone actually reads this blog.
January 25, 2004
Single and Paying for It
Check out Shari Motro's article from the Times' Op/Ed page. It's a very sane look at some of the economic issues involved in the whole marriage debate. I really like what she had to say.
January 24, 2004
January 22, 2004
Not Sure If This is a Good Thing
Turns out I have the same birthday (November 17) as Dr. Howard Dean. He's a few (23) years older than I am...
Yesterday's errands were productive: Paragon Sports, Old Navy (damn, that's not a lotta cash for a lotta clothes), Duane Reade (of course), and browsing a couple shoe stores, the Container Store, and Best Buy...
Yesterday's Broadway show was "Mamma Mia!" It's really not theatre... it's some sort of neo-entertainment that has nothing, as far as I can tell, in common with that wonderful art form associated with folks like Kander, Ebb, Rogers, Hart, Hammerstein, Gershwin, Porter, Coleman, Sondheim, et al...
And now I have to go to work.
January 21, 2004
Today
Today will be a day of errands.
Today will be a day of cleaning the toilet. Well, I already did that. And I added a couple new links to my side-bar, too.
Today will be a day of trying to figure out if the President actually said anything at all last night during his State of the Union Address. I have to confess I was amused that he spent so much time talking about performance-enhancing drugs in sports. That's a major crisis, for sure!
Today will be a day of seeing a Broadway show.
Today will hopefully be the day when my new passport shows up in my mailbox.
Today will be my third day in a row off from work. Tomorrow I will go back to work.
Tomorrow will suck.
January 20, 2004
Bet Ya Didn't See This Comin'...
So the reality TV craze has now hit the world of... yes, wait for it... gay porn.
Really.
No, really.
Something to Make You Laugh
A little girl goes to the barber shop with her father. She stands next to the barber chair, while her dad gets his hair cut, eating a snack cake.
The barber says to her, "Sweetheart, you're gonna get hair on your Twinkie."
She says, "Yes, I know, and I'm gonna get boobs too."
January 19, 2004
This Link's For You
Here is one of the scariest, weirdest, strangest things I have found recently (ever?) on the internet.
January 18, 2004
The Latte Conspiracy
So CNN has posted this article they "borrowed" from Fortune Magazine about how international price variations and currency exchange rates affect the price of a Starbucks latte. They also compare it to the cost of a Big Mac.
Note that in the hyperlink, it's categorized under funny money news.
Personally, I think it's anythinig but funny. I think it's rather scary how much money Starbucks is charging to toss a little espresso into a paper cup with some hot milk in it. And have you noticed that, on the larger sizes, they charge even more, even though it costs them less, as they use less milk because of how much ice is in there?
Whenever I buy a venti soy caramel macchiato at my local Starbucks, I cringe as I contemplate how much of the $4.93 I just spent is pure profit for Starbucks. I think it has to be a lot. At the same time, when I consider the price of a Big Mac, I have a hard time understanding how McDonald's could make that sandwich and actually make a profit. I guess theirs all comes from the fries and the soda?
January 17, 2004
January 16, 2004
Guess What This Entry Will Be About...
OK, it's fucking FREEZING. Yes, with a capital Z. Even in my apartment, where the heat is (sort of) on (I checked...) it's not even 60 degrees. I am dreading going to work, although getting a cab this morning should be a lot easier than it was last night when I was coming home (I ended up taking the bus) and I am also dreading that horrid moment which will arrive shortly: getting out of the shower.
One of my coldest memories was when I was probably 12 years old - maybe a little older than that; my childhood is mostly a haze of repression. I had a paper route, and one Saturday morning I went out to deliver papers in chilly, blustery, wintery Toledo, Ohio. It was the kind of morning where it was so cold that your nose started to run - but the cold froze the snot. And your fingers started to get frostbite even though you had mittens on over your gloves. Still, I felt OK in my Mighty Mac coat with my newspaper bag slung over my prepubescent shoulder.
But you can imagine my pleasure (and, actually, the emotion I feel welling up inside right now as I recall) that my father actually got into the car and drove my entire paper route until he found me (and, come to think of it, I'm not even sure he actually knew the route of the paper route - he may have just randomly driven the neighborhood until he found me) and drove me from house to house for the rest of the paper deliveries! It was, if memory serves, a lot colder that morning than it is in the City today. I think it was -17 before wind-chill...
Still, I have to tell you that when I was talking on the phone yesterday with a soon-to-be hotel guest from Phoenix, Arizona, I was actually coveting their forecast for once.
And this morning it is so cold as I am typing this that my fingers aren't even always getting the right keys. You can be sure that those chilly extremeties are not getting anywhere near another certain extremity. Too bad I never got into jerkin' off in the shower. I'm sure it's toasty warm in there...
January 14, 2004
It's Snowing, Men. Hallelujah!
I just had dinner at Asiate, the new restaurant on the 35th floor of the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the new AOL Time Warner Center, with astounding views of cute waiters and of Central Park in all its nighttime snowy glory. Dinner (think scallops; think wagyu beef, think French champagne and passionfruit souffle) was excellent (although the sticky rice ice cream was best left untouched that the "chocolate breadsticks" fit into the category of "crime against nature"), and our waiter (who mentioned a boyfriend!) was quite the cutie.
After dinner, I was waiting on West 60th Street for a taxi and the snow was coming down. And I noticed something I'm not sure I ever really had the opportunity to notice before. I'm not sure if it was a factor of the cold temperature or of the wool suit I was wearing (I was coatless, don't ask), but on my sleeve, I was actually able to make out the details of the "geometry" of several of the snowflakes. They really looked like those beautiful, crystalline forms that so often are described as snowflakes but you never see. They were based on hexagons, and they were, simply, gorgeous.
It's astonishing how even in the city, sometimes, you can find a new way to appreciate nature.
And it was a hell of a lot better than the stupid opossum the Times covered because it was such a slow news day.
January 13, 2004
Egotism
What does it say about a man (specifically, a man I saw and heard last night in the lobby of the hotel where I work), and more specifically, said man and his sexual ego, when the custom ringing sound on his cellphone is the theme from Ravel's "Bolero"?
January 12, 2004
At What Price, Judy?
So the Garland estate has really sold out.
Have you noticed the two prime-time TV commercials featuring our Judy? The M&M thing is ridiculous, and then there's another ad, for some restaurant or something, I'm blanking at the moment, which uses Judy singing "Get Happy!"
I, for one, am upset. Judy, I imagine, is rolling over in her grave.
*sigh*
January 09, 2004
January 08, 2004
Tony Pre-Preview
Well, the committtee announced today that "Little Shop" is a revival, even though it was never produced on Broadway before.
Now the question will be, what precedent will that give to "Assasins"? I think it would be quite strange for Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx to be nominated against Stephens Sondheim amd Schwartz. Thrilling for them, no doubt, but... strange. Probably good that "Little Shop" is ineligible, because throwing Menken and Ashman into that mix would just have been too much.
Still, it's a weird weird season we're in. And, for some reason, I have not yet mentioned the fact that I have been privy to two of the more "special" moments of the 2003 Fall theatre season.
1: I was AT the ill-fated performance of "The Violet Hour" where Jasmine Guy left at intermission. Dude, what kind of drugs was that girl on? She sucked. It was astonishing -- her understudy went on with, essentially, no rehearsal for the second act -- and was still better than Jasmine Guy had been in the first act.
2: I saw Mary Tyler Moore in "Rose's Dilemma." Obviously, MTM's dilemma was "How do I get out of this piece of crap?" It was really a terrible show. Neil Simon has really gone down the toilet.
I saw a bunch of other stuff, too, from "Avenue Q," of course, to the overblown, overdone, ridiculous production of "Little Shop," to the star vehicle aka train wreck that is "The Boy from Oz." I still need to hit "Never Gonna Dance" and "Wicked." It'll happen.
January 07, 2004
Speaking of Manhattan Living...
So the heat is back on.
A mouse found its way into the trap.
I made it to the camera shop and got lots of good stuff for my trip: a pair of binoculars, a zoom telephoto lens, a wide angle lens, a tripod, and some batteries and film. Yes, I shot digital in Thailand last summer, but I'm shooting film SLR on this trip. I want to be able to get the close zoom shots that the 500mm length on the telephoto will give me, and I hope the second lens will give me some great landscape shots. We'll see in about a month and a half...
And I went to see "Caroline, Or Change." Has anyone reading this seen it? If so, did you actually understand it? I thought it was beautiful and somehow haunting, but after it ended, I turned to the women sitting next to me (I went alone to the show, as per usual), and asked them if they understood it. No dice. So please, tell me please, what does it mean?
Manhattan Living
So the same old residential issues are presenting themselves again this year: heating and rodents.
Yes, the mice are back. I saw a few last night, and moved the mouse traps to the appropriate places. Hopefully, we'll have results sooner rather than later.
And my super still doesn't quite understand that when it's COLD outside is when the heat is supposed to be on. Remember all those unseasonably warm days recently? Well, the heat was on full blast then - to the extent that I had to turn on the AC -- because opening the window just didn't cut it.
But now today, it's 20 degrees outside -- and freaking cold in here.
Maybe the cold will scare off the mice.
In other news, I'm going to my first Off-Broadway show of 2004 this evening: Caroline, or Change. And I'm going to the camera store this afternoon to do some preparation for my spring vacation!
January 06, 2004
Speaking of Family Values
What kind of Jon Blog day would it be if I didn't bring you this, from the world of super-strange news?
Subvert Family Values!
Well, not exactly. I think family is a wonderful thing. What's terrible is that these staunch, close-minded conservative freaks have tried to give their conservative, religious, right-winged BS "Legitimacy" by invoking the "Family."
But there's a way we can subvert the Conservatives -- at least a little bit. Did you know that there's an online survey/poll being taken by the American Family Association about people's views on gay marriage/civil unions?
The AFA is an arch-conservative web presence which is no doubt affiliated with both the church and some arch-conservative lobbying organizations in Washington.
And the best news?
The current standing on their poll shows 59.5% in favor of gay marriage! Further 7.94% support civil unions. And the group they were going for -- those opposed, which you know they had assumed would account for 99% of those polled -- is only at 32.56%.
This is because a bunch of homos (yay!) and other liberal-minded (ie, enlightened) folk, have sent this petition around via email and blog and so forth.
So go vote for gay marriage!
Woo hoo!
