Happy Fu Year

Time to make the donuts...

Not writing a lot lately, here, am I?

Enjoying time off. Travelling. Holidays. Seeing friends and family. Soon enough, though, it will be "time to make the donuts..."

For those of you who would seem confused and not get the reference when someone says "time to get the donuts" (donuts, not doughnuts in this case)... Well, you won't know who this guy is. According to fark.com, Michael Vale will not be embalmed but instead filled with jelly and sprinkled with powdered sugar for a memorial service. Rest in peace, Donut man.

I only just realized this is the second entry in a row that mentions someone recently passed. Let's not go for the trifecta.

"Lane, I was wondering if you would mind if I asked out Beth..."

Holidays happy. Don eat too much. Write like 70s era Hulk now, apparently.

As a bit of salty to go with the holiday sweetness, we have lost a great one - an unsung one that you may not know by name. Unless you're Amish, however, or have been in a coma since the early 1970s, you've seen the great character work of Vincent Schiavelli.

Watchman

It's been almost a week since I finished AICN's filmgeek-revered "Butt-Numb-A-Thon" in Austin, Texas. Only now am I able to sit down and put "pen to paper" about it. 13,000 apply to go, a little over 200 are invited. This year, I was one of the lucky few. Lots of free stuff, great film-loving people, and best of all... more great, unexpected film than you can shake several sticks at. They don't tell you, going into the Butt-Numb-A-Thon, what you're going to see... you pays your money and you takes your chance from 12 noon Saturday to 12 noon Sunday. 24 hours of movies, without stopping for more than five times for fifteen minutes each. I, for one, left very happy. Here's a quick(?) rundown:

To begin with, there was a video greeting from the jungles of Mexico in which Mel Gibson introduced the world premiere of his APOCALYPTO trailer. It's an ambitious project that looks phenomenally challenging and epic; a story about pre-Aztec cilivization that's fascinated people for generations. Go Mel. Maybe people will shut up about THE PASSION after this. For a while.

The first full film was THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME with Fay Wray, featuring many of the players from the original KING KONG. To get us in the mood for what was coming...

Following that was a presentation by RAY HARRYHAUSEN PRESENTS about their upcoming Edger Allen Poe shorts, which look really well-done and should provide a lot of stop-motion goodness in a few months when the first are completed.

Next was the debut of a teaser for a concept of a resurrection of another Merian Cooper project - the one he never finished but that Ray Harryhausen and Harry from AICN are looking to complete.. that's WAR EAGLES.

Then came what we were all waiting for - keep in mind there were several days until KING KONG would be unleashed to the rest of you. Peter Jackson sent us a video intro apologizing for being unable to attend, and made up for it by offering us a showing of KONG. Now, let me say that I expected nothing from this film.

I thought, "eh, King Kong, big monkey, take it or leave it."

Sorry, but I did.

Then I saw it. This is the film I've... you've... we've all been waiting for, for a long time. It's passionate, heartfelt, exciting, joyous, meaningful, and it's a multi-million dollar Hollywood epic. When, oh when do directors honestly care this much about their subjects? If only every film that got made were made by someone who so obviously loved every moment. If you don't see KONG, right away, you are cheating yourself out of something good. It beats the hype... well, what could beat THIS hype... but it does work magic on you. I saw NARNIA last night and...well, more to come on that.

The next thing to flicker onscreen was a Betty Boop cartoon, PARADE OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS. It turned out to be a brilliant segue from KONG to the next feature, FOOTLIGHT PARADE from 1933. Like KONG, set in NYC in 1933. This, however, was a Busby Berekley Musical. James Cagney was the coolest man on earth, and Ruby Keeler never got the work she deserved. This was a great film I enjoyed far more than I expected to.

Next was a MASTERS OF HORROR entry, there were two of these. The first, SICK GIRL, was directed by Lucky McKee and starred Angela Bettis - two things that saved it from being what it may've been (and the later MOH entry was). Just another old-fashioned Lesbian sci-horror piece with bugs and larval infestation, you know, like you used to get on CBS near Christmas.

I can't say enough about the next feature, SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE - a Korean film I knew nothing about going in. I expected something wholly different. For anyone who has ever felt a twinge of hurt when you hear a story about a terrible, hurtful crime against a child and longs in the dark places in your heart for true justice; this film will lead you to that place, through it, and to the other side. You should see this - it's a marvelous exploration.

Next... THE PROFESSIONALS - I had it in my notes what time it was by this point, but I've lost them. I do remember I took my first caffeine pill at this point. THE PROFESSIONALS is one of the great Westerns, I was told, but I was not ready for a Western at this point. It took a short while for it to suck me in completely, but any movie that has Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster AND has the balls to offer up a VERY convincing Jack Palance as a Mexican revolutionary, well.. you have to watch. Actually a prescient film about the nature of revolution.

Then came DISTRICT 13. I saw the DVD for this in stores in Monaco, and all I knew was that it was a Luc Besson film and that it had apparently been huge in France. That was enough to disinterest me. However, it's an amazing action film without any wire-fu or Hong Kong... fuey.... It'll be released in the US sometime in 2006. I have to recommend it, even though it was made by the French.

The next couple of items were somewhat for the vanity of AICN - there was a teaser trailer for what will likely be an awesome 80s style horror flick 2GETHER 4EVER, and then the only missed note of the whole thing... another MASTERS OF HORROR feature, this time directed by John Carpenter, called CIGARETTE BURNS. It was co-written by one of the site's major contributors, and he's a great intelligent guy... but this piece does not represent him well. If you happen to catch it on Showtime this week, I'd like to know if maybe I was just tired. It was around 3 or so by this point, if I remember right.

However tired I was, I was shocked to my senses by the clip Eli Roth brought us from his upcoming film HOSTEL, he was watching the clip for the first time as well. This film, produced by Quentin Tarantino, looks to be very, intensely disturbing and grotesque. I'm so glad movies are scary again, beyond the cheap something-suddenly-jumps-out-and-some-loud-sound-cue-happens trend of the 90s. I don't know if I'll be able to stomach this one, however. I may spend a lot of time out getting popcorn. We saw about 25 seconds of it.

At this point, around 4 or 5, it was time for THE DESCENT - a British horror film that will be released in 2006 sometime by Lions Gate. Intense. There are moments in this film that require nothing beyond the reality of spelunking gone a little wrong to pull you to the edge of terror. It begins terrifying in its plausability. Then it ratchets it up, about 2/3 of the way in, by... well, I'm sure the ad campaign will spoil this. I hate modern media for that. I wish you could see this film as I did, knowing very little going in.

At this point, we're at our most tired. The audience is barely holding together, wanting to know what we'll see as our big finale. So what do they throw on next? STUNT ROCK! Harry shows this trailer every year and everyone laughs at it, as we did many amazingly hilarious old trailers this year, but no one ever thought they'd see the "genius" of the whole film. This film is utterly fabulous in a tragic, "what if some cross between Styx and Spinal Tap were a real band and were friends with a stuntman and decided to make a movie about that with no other plot" way... If you really want to make a room full of people who have stayed up all night watching movies writhe in wretched, blissful agony... make them watch STUNT ROCK.

Then ... DRUM. It's the sequel to the "blaxploitation masterpiece" MANDINGO. Now, watching this, of course it's racist and wholly ridiculous in many ways, but all the people who were saying "oh my god it's so wrong" and such... Well, watching this I felt nothing particularly racist beyond the inherent truth of what it portrayed. Yeah, they use the "n-word" a lot and treat the blacks horribly, breed them like cattle and make them do everything a human shouldn't do. What do you think slavery was really like? Probably a lot like that. Also, Warren Oates is a riot in thie film and delivers what might well be one of the great, understated b-film comic performances of all time. He delivers one line that, if you see this film, you'll be saying to friends an awful lot. This film, unfortunately, isn't generally intentionally funny... but is much funnier than many films that attempt to be.

Time came for the last film. Harry meandered on and on, teasing us with what it might be. V FOR VENDETTA, it turned out to be. We had the only copy of the film in the world airlifted to us and handcuffed to a Warner Brothers rep. The film doesn't open until March, and when it does... well, before I get into that...

Right before they started the final feature we saw what I now know to be a rare cartoon starring Donald Duck, DIE FUEHRER'S FACE. Watching a brownshirted Donald Duck "heil Hitler" 31 times in this anti-Nazi propaganda piece made me think I had finally passed through tired to delirium... but no, it's real. Do yourself a favor and find that and EDUCATION FOR DEATH and remind yourself of our past.

V FOR VENDETTA. I'm just going to agree with other remarks I've read from BNAT attendees and say I was not at all prepared for V FOR VENDETTA. I thought it would be awful, I thought it would be a far cry from the work of the brilliant Alan Moore (who wrote the book it is based on)... but... This is a film with the power to change things. When it is released it will be, I have no doubt, reviled by many in the media. Especially the far right. There will be attempts to discredit it. Anyone who sees it will be that much more affected by it, should that happen. This is the "uncompromised vision" you're always promised but never get when adaptations are made. Alan Moore is a great writer whose work has always been all but destroyed when adapted to film - LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN being probably the absolute worst one - so its only natural that after so many misses Mr. Moore has written off the idea of his work onscreen. Mr. Moore, this film nails it home. Harry Knowles himeself said it best: "This thing doesn't give two shakes of a pecker what the modern world is going to think. THEY NAILED IT!... They finally fucking nailed ALAN MOORE! ...When this film opens - this will be a political molotov cocktail. ...A vastly important and a brilliant film."

Not a bad way to leave it.

So now... onward to Christmas.

Finally, some video

For the first time, I can finally offer some video work on the site. It's a primitive way to offer, it, true, but for those of you who are here for professional reasons, it'll make a huge difference.

Now also permanently linked via the sidebar, a video demo.

Click here to watch the video.

Rentilation

I was going to say something about my experiences seeing RENT. Then I read what my friend Jason had written on his blog about it, and I thought I'd share it instead. Our initial RENT experiences differ, quite a bit, other than that we were both greatly affected by it... but the end result of the phenomenon is the same. Please, check out:

Feels Too Damn Much Like 1996 When the Rent-head Babies Cry

Travels

UPDATED... I redid the travel page. After seeing it in the light of day it needed some work. Much better now.

In response to .. a lot of stuff... see the sidebar for the permanent page addition... for those of you who are extra-lazy, here's the link without having to go that far...

A Scattered Photo-Essay on Europe And Its Environs As Seen By D.E. Winsor, Esq.

I NEED PHOTOS!!!

Now that I'm back, it brings to harsher light the reality of my hard drive crash back in March. See, I'm on a whole new machine now. I have lots of photos of the past six to eight months, but I have very very little that survived or was appropriately backed up before then. I might have some on a cd somewhere, but I don't know. Anyway, if any of you have photos of shows we've done, fun stuff, anything, PLEASE send it along. My history in photos is very vague at this point.

Back in the USSA

I'm back. Have been for a while.

It's been crazy.

Not much time right now, but I only just noticed how terribly out of date the scrolling infobar up top is. It'll all be changed. Soon, young Skywalker....

I will honestly blog more soon. In the meantime, if anyone knows a good place where I can park a video... host it for use on this site... let me know.

All the best,
D

GPS

On channel 3 on our onboard TV system is an info channel that cycles from heading / wind / speed information to weather information to a gps map of whereever on Earth we are.

Yesterday, as I woke, a tiny sliver of the Eastern shore of the US appeared on the screen for the first time. Delaware and Virginia were the first things to appear.

This morning, the eastern half of Florida was visible. Now you can see the whole peninsula, plus some more. You can see pieces of Kentucky, Tennessee, and other states; soon we'll be seeing the US with our EYES.

Everyone on staff/crew are in a tizzy because apparently a ship's first visit to the US in a long while is met with much hassle and perturbation by the US authorities ... coast guard inspections, customs, immigration, etc.

We get off the ship earlier than expected, though - they had to cancel the Key West overnight, and as we were to disembark the second morning we'll have to get off the ship in the evening of the 22nd after our show. They'll put us up in a hotel and we'll fly home as planned on Wednesday morning.

Yay.

More Rocco?

Today, we returned to Casablanca. It was the first real adventure of this journey, and I think it will likely be the last barring unforseen at-sea incidents.

Today we went to the bazaar.

Kusadasi - remember how I said Kusadasi was insane? Well, we went back there a few times and I spent more money and haggled more and... well, the crazy pull-and-tug-myfriendmyfriendthisway-ness of Kusadasi is like 100 years of societal evolution beyond the Casablanca Grand Casbah.

From the moment we stepped off of the shuttle bus which even the heartiest travelers among us were suspect would be a terrorist target, we were hustled, to the end as we left McDonald's (the only place we could find cold drinks and water we would trust) and a little boy was trying to sell me gum...

It's like Arabian Nights but set in one of the not-so-nice parts of Mexico, plus amazing amazing amazing Arabian/Moorish/African artifacts and crafts. It was exhausting, but certainly an education into some views on America.

More to come on this. I've got a final performance of the "pop" show to do.

I WASn´t ATTACKED BY PIRATES

It is entirely untrue that I was attacked by pirates on the ship this week.

That was another ship, in a part of the world quite low on my list of must-sees. In fact, everyone I know who wants to see that part of the world only wants to see it because they´ve seen everything else and want to make a tidy clean sweep.

Anyway, no pirate attack here. So far.

I was talking about the danger of pirates when I first got on board and everyone thought I was insane, that it was a joke. Wel, actually, it WAS, but... when you´re in the South Seas or off SOMALIA for the luvvagawd... there could be pirates.

Now the latest media fear-mongering is about how vulnerable cruise ships are. God, I hate the media climate in the US. Whatever your feelings on the man himself are, I recommend reading John Stossel´s book "Give Me A Break." You´ll undoubtedly find a lot you agree with, and a lot you don´t. It relates to that climate of fear idea.

Malaga today, Casablanca tomorrow. A whole other continent.

Retracing steps

Today I'm in Monaco, in Monte Carlo, for the final time this voyage. From here on it's an exact reverse of my first journey aboard the Voyager, except that Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay have been replaced by Captain Knute Hansen and Staff Captain Fausto Mazza.

Tomorrow and the day after we hit two of my favorite places, Barcelona and Malaga. Being that I have picked up far less Spanish on this contract than I have Russian, French, or Italian I don't know why I find these places so wonderful, but I do. Perhaps because they were my first mainland European ports. Either way, once we pass Malaga...

It's Morocco. Casablanca, then Agadir. Then Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, then Funchal, Madeira. Then SEVEN DAYS AT SEA. Woof.

That puts us in Ft. Lauderdale on November 21 for an encounter with the US Coast Guard and immigration authorities that will by all accounts be arduous. Any ship that's been out of the US for 6 months can apparently expect an exhaustive examination and inspection. As long as I have time to ship some stuff home, I'll be happy. Then we sail to Key West, and on the morning of November 23 I leave the Voyager behind and head for home. I have so many gifts from the trip, most of which I shipped home from Spain, and have yet to arrive. I can't wait to distribute them.
Once I get home I have some stuff waiting for me as well, in addition to something great I just got the news about... click here and check in the 150's.

I have missed everyone and everything in the US. I will be going mad with the ability to enjoy things I never really cared about before, I think I will have to work very hard not to gain a lot of weight.

Anyway, life is good. Many of you will be getting calls from me once I'm back in cellphone range to catch up at length. I'm VERY excited to return home.

As long as this doesn't happen to us, I'll see everyone soon.

Trojans, Cousteau, and Cretins

Yesterday, we hit out final "new" port of this journey. I haven't seen a couple of the places we'll port at between here and home, but the ship has been there since I joined up. I was just busy with installing the shows for a couple of the early ports.

The port yesterday? Herkalion, Crete. Are people from Crete called Cretins?

I bought something lovely for my parents there - they're remodeling the house. I can't say what it is, but between this and the couple of other things I've picked up I can say I've contributed.

Last night was our crew halloween party, and of course the entire cast was elaborately dressed for the occassion. It took a lot of crew mess mini-cereal boxes to create my cereal box replica of trojan warrior armor and helmet, but that was me.

Present on our ship and somehow at the crew party: Jean-Michelle Cousteau.

Yup. That Cousteau. He's on for a while now.

19 days.

Spam, Christine Andreas, Turkey, Greece, and Onion

Okay, I really appreciate those people who comment on my site.

Love it. Most people send e-mail instead, and that's more than fine - I love hearing from people I miss. I especially love to hear from people I don't hear from often enough, who out of the blue will read some of my ramblings and send me a note. Comments are great, e-mail is great, whichever.

Thing is...

Has anyone else noticed, on their sites or looking at my comments, that the spammers, the spam-icists... they are now even sending blog-comment spam? Is that really the best use of our resources and technology?

Anyway, I forgot to mention last entry the great experiences I had last cruise with Christine Andreas and her "partner in life and in music" Martin Silvestri (who wrote the musical Johnny Guitar, amongst other things). It was a great pleasure to share our stage with such talented, gracious people. I even got a copy of charts for a song Martin wrote, which they perform together, called "Cover Me," which appears on one of Christines CDs. Thanks for being so lovely, both of you!

Today we are back in Rhodes and wow do I wish I had not left the old walled city. Venturing out here into the new city... yeah, stick to the historical areas. It is maybe the only place Ive been where Ill say for reasons other than life and limb that it is better to stay in the touristy areas.

THIS is funny.

Godspeed, Voyager

As I was once again walking up the beautiful winding street leading up from the piers to the silghtly less than 150 steps up to the center of Sorrento, Italy, I overheard someone else say...

"We have one more cruise, after this, then we start the crossing..."

And I realized it is true. In less than a month I will say farewell to the ship and cast, I'll head home.

We have all discussed this, at some points, that we'll be sad to depart from everyone but not so sad that it will not be an overjoyous moment when we're finally free to see family, friends, and home again.

So many little things I need to do... go to a big ENGLISH LANGUAGE bookstore... eat at about fifty different restaurants... see movie upon movie...

Today Sorrento, then a few days mor this cruise hitting Kusadasi and Greece and whatnot again. We've only one new place left to see - Crete. That'll be something. Kusadasi is great.

Then a cruise - the "one more" - winding a week from Athens to Monte Carlo. Then about five days in the Med, a few stops in Africa, and we cross the Atlantic back to Ft. Lauderdale.

We don't leave the ship then - two days later in Key West.

I remember getting on the ship and looking to the old cast thinking "they all seem so very ready to leave, to get out of here... I hope we aren't that way."

You know, it has nothing to do with being happy or sad or bitter or content. It has everything to do with wanting to be home and with friends and family and familiar things. Travel is brilliant, lovely, and I hope to continue.

Everyone needs a break, though.

I bought my laptop, by the way. An amazing deal at Tiger Direct on a Gateway 7426GX.

It will await my return...

Looking for laptops

Hey... the headshots have been chosen, and I chose three - one of which wasn't even posted as a choice. By the way, based on your choices I've come to the conclusion some of you are opium fiends.

Right now I am shopping for a newer, better laptop... and for what I'm looking to spend, I need some help. I have found a few options but I'm convinced I can do better.

I want at least:
100GB hard drive
1G Ram
DVD+/-RW optical drive
wireless, obviously
2GHz+ Processor

Beyond that, I don't know. I've found some options but please let me know if you have any good leads. This is my reward to myself for finishing this contract, which happens in such a tiny bit over a month...

Headshots!

Hey... if you´d be so kind as to help me choose my new headshots, head over to

http://donshots.blogspot.com

and let me know what you think.

In the meantime, here´s a picture you can laugh at.

Apple Tea and Levi's

I'm sitting here wearing my Levi's I picked up for what the shop guy called "very small price" in Kusadasi a few weeks ago.

I'd already planned on buying jeans there, so when I saw a display obviously intended to bait passersby into the shop promising "10 Calvin Klein boxer briefs for 10 Euro (the Euro symbol is not on this keyboard)"... I took the lure.

I bought my 10 pair, and instantly they began to hard-sell me on everything else in the shop. I told them I wanted some jeans, and they offered me several designer pair... for far more than I'd pay in the US. I told them this, and they asked how much I would pay. Of course, as we all know, even the best pair of jeans in the USA would never sell for more than $20.

Right?

Anyway, we tried clothes on and they brought us hot apple tea, which was amazing.

I discussed Elvis with the old Turkish man who apparently owned the place. He'd been to the USA only once, 20 years ago, but he'd seen Graceland.

"You go to Elvis palace?"

Yes, I have been to Elvis palace.

When a pair of jeans didn't fit, they took them to be tailored - no charge. More tea.

You don't get that kind of treatment at the mall. Not for what I paid in Turkey, at least.

Bruce Campbell and shoes

Ah... coffee. I will miss European coffee, but my kidneys will probably be happy to have the time to recover. Unless they´ve grown so accustomed to the constant intake that they can no longer function without it...

Today... Ah, mail-order. You get the weeks of anticipation and the joy of gifts, even self-purchased gifts.

Thus the Porsche-related doldrums were recently shaken by the long-awaited arrival of the new Bruce Campbell book, ¨Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way¨ and by my custom-made Nikes from nikeid.com.

Now, the book was fine. Short, and fluffy. Not actually fluffy, I didn´t, you know, have the urge to pet it, but "fluffy" in terms of content.

The shoes, though... well I have to say I thought it would be a ridiculous extravagance to order custom Nikes, but they´re no more expensive than regular Nikes and they turned out to be amazing. They´re so much better than I thought they´d turn out. To look at them it is as though Nike really makes a model called the ¨Nike Baritone", but I have the only pair.

We have found a lot of great stuff to do in both Ibiza and Mallorca, especially Mallorca. If nothing else, you can bake in the sun.

For someone my size I recommend about 350 degrees for an hour, baste, turn, then another half hour. Slice into sections, serves 12.

We´re all really starting to feel the "home-stretch" vibe, perhaps prematurely. 48 days left as I sit here at an Internet room in Ibiza.

Coming soon: I just had new headshots taken, at an old castle in Mallorca. I might post some here to help me decide between them.

"Sea, Sick" OR... "When You Lean Sickly O'er The Side, The Sound You Make Is 'Porsche'."

I am sick.

You know that sick you get, the one your body stores up in reserve until it thinks you have "time" to be sick? That's the sick I have now.

Why is my body so misinformed? Because as offa few days ago, we began a roughly one-month-long charter for the Porsche company. They paid upward of $20 million altogether, half for the use of the ship and facilities half for their own equipment and festivities. They'll be taking five or six groups through in the next month, cruising each for two days in Palma de Mallorca and two in Ibiza. And so we don't get to go to Venice, Istanbul, or many other truly interesting places... but essentially to the Daytona Beach and Galveston Island of the Mediterranean. Harsh? Perhaps. But gimma a break, I'm sick.

They're unveiling two new vehicles to their worldwide affiliates and the media during this time. I've seen the cars, and they're, well, cars. Yay Porsche. If someone gave me one for free I wouldn't complain, and maybe I'll come out of this with some free swag. We're not performing as usual, in fact we're doing f#*$-all for this entire month... save for three numbers from our pop show once per five-day cruise.

You can't complain about that - not much work - but I miss home and the fact that our ORIGINAL return date creeps nearer and nearer makes me wish they'd just sent us home for the duration of this Porscheit. They sent 40% of the crew home.

They've also revoked everyone's above decks dining privileges for the duration, which means money must be spent on food unless you can stomach the swill they throw at you in the mess. Ugh. We'll all be investing in peanut butter. The biggest plus about this ship (other than the money) was the food.

So I'm under the influence of a massive dose of Spanish Psuedoephedrine and this candy-looking and -flavored block of Ibuprofen, plus some over-the-counter Finnish Zyrtec for good measure. I went into the Farmacia today and asked for Sudafed, por favor. The Farmaciaistador shook his head "Non. Decongestiencia..." and handed me a clinical looking package. I struggled to locate the active ingredient and dosage. I ... well, I'm not going to tell you by how many times these little red pellets beat sudafed in their medicinal content, but I assure you these should be a controlled substance. Five Euro and fifty, over the counter.

Counting down now... 58 days until I'm done.

Yay.

Myfrennmyfrennmyfrenn

"Listen,listen,listen,myfrennmyfrenn.This is good price. What is your last price? BEST price. You tell me BEST price."

"Well, I could really only pay... as I said... 40 US. At most."

"My friend. I pay 40 for materials. These are Nike Shox. You cannot...you are not tourist. You are crew. Tourist...Belgians, Americans... like you, but tourist... they come here pay one hundred euro. I give you special price, because you go back to ship, you tell friends, you let them know I give you deal."

"You paid 40 for the materials?"

"Yes, I pay 40."

"You made these Nike Shox?"

"I make... These not plastic shoes. These real shoes. Outside, in bazzar, you get plastic shoes. You want, you have, you pay 40. Maybe 20. These no fake."

"But you make them."

"My frennnnnnnn. [taking my hand to shake] Come on. What is best price?"

"40. Really. I was only going to pay $25."

"$25! These are Nike Shox!"

"I don't need Nike Shox. I'm buying them because I need good trainers and they're cheap."

"No cheap! Cheap price, $80. I give you better, I tell you $60. What is final price. BEST price."

"40."

There was a LOT of that during my day in Kusadasi. The amazing thing is, while you can buy a lot of cheap imitations, you can also buy a lot of cheap REAL stuff... the stuff cranked out by the same factories that make the real stuff that throw out a couple thousand extra for their friends in the bazaar. I got the shoes for $42, by the way. It was the worst bargaining I did all day... but I was just warming up. Many gifts were bought this day... so much amazing local stuff to see and so many amazing artists.

Then on to Rhodes, then Santorini, then at midnight last night into Piraeus, the port of Athens. We just left there, it's about 9:20 am. Mainly we were dropping all passengers and a ot of crew off to begin our one month Porsche charter. A month in Malljorca and Ibiza toting various groups of Porsche people around, with no regular duties and not a lot to do at all.

Yawn.

By the way, in case I didn't already mention this, Naples Italy should pretty much be off your list of "places to visit in the Med" or... really places to visit if you're near Naples.

Anyway, I've been up most of the night, so I'm going to go get ready for boat drill and an all day nap.

Good night.

Kusadasi

This is going to be the best travel entry yet.

Unfortunately I have 35 seconds of internet time left... more to come.

Mmm Turkey

Cote d'Azur, Amalfi, and whatnot.

Today I enjoyed another great lunch at Cafe Ciao in Sorrento. It didn't approach my earlier experience there, which is logged in my sense memory a the most amazing meal I've ever had.

Yesterday was perhaps the dullest, most pretentious port I've ever been bored by. Beautiful, yes, but no more so than many less "chi-chi" destinations we've sailed to. Poltu Quato, Sardegna. Don't bother.

Before that, it was a day in Pisa. You'd think the Pizza there would be better, but we were short on time and had to eat reheated kiosk pizzas from a cart in the shadow of the leaning tower... an experience, but not a culinary one. We were all making fun of the fact that absolutely every one of the hundreds upon hundreds of people around were taking some kind of picture from a distance that made it look like they were holding up the tower. We, of course, would never do such a preposterously cliche thing.

It wasn't five minutes before we all had several pictures of ourselves doing the preposterously cliche thing.

Went back to Marseilles before that, which... well, see earlier writings on how Northern Spain and Southern France are while Souuthern Spain and Northern France are .

Of course, Nothern France IS still France.

Has a two Starbucks in one day fix in Barcelona. When I first arrived in Europe, I would've naively said to my new self "You're in Europe and you're going to Starbucks? Gad, man! How pedestrian!"

And then the current me would punch the other me in the face and take his lunch money to buy another frappucino.

Italy, though. Italy will do just fine. The food alone will keep me happy. Did I mention I tried Andalusian coffee in ... um... Cadiz, I think? Wow.

I have local coffee everywhere I go. You're welcome, kidneys.

For those of you who read this and I have either not responded to an e-mail or just not written you... or worse, if I haven't heard from YOU in a bit... Again I put out the call to help me feel a little less disconnected from home. Walt, for example, I don't have your cell # or any IMs here, so e-mail me again!!!

Anyway, must dash. Working on video demos and teaching myself advanced d-video editing.

Send me stuff

Hey!

There are some changes in the wind I'll mention later... for now, here's the address to use to send me things before I leave the ship... At least, until mid-October...

Don Winsor, Entertainment Dept.
Radisson Seven Seas Voyager
Leisure SeaMaster / Aigue Marine
24 Avenue de Fontvielle
BP 639
98013 Monaco Cedex

Absinthe

I will just say for the record I am tired of foreign keyboards, no two seem the same.

Our internet and phone service on the ship are down. That is why I havent called.

Since Dover, I think. Maybe longer. Not much time to write now but a few things:

Last night I had real Abisnthe for the first time here in Bordeaux. More on that later.

Dusty: write me, damn it.

Eh... Better go.

Deutschland

Here in Germanz, the "y" kez is where the y should be.

it makes it verz difficult to tzpe a verz quicklz.

Photos, as promised.

Photos, as promised. Above, a triumphant American stands before the most well-known Russian icon which, until the day this photo was taken, he always assumed was the Kremlin. It's not, by the way; "The" Kremlin is actually a walled complex adjoining Red Square, which this cathedral, St. Basil's, stands next to. Other interesting facts: "Kremlin" is a generic word like "castle" and refers to any walled fortress. Red Square was not called "red" because it is red or because of communist ties: the old Russian word for beautiful was very near the Russian word for red... "krasivy" vs. "krasiny"... and thus confusion...

This is a few months old. There is a bar in Malaga, Spain, down some random alley, named this. I thought of my roommates in Naples last year at the sight of this.

This museum stands next to Kiek In De Kok tower in Tallinn, Estonia. I should've expected what I got, I guess.

You have one guess where this photo was taken.

Finally, in this random smattering of photos from the past months... a photo of the first few people who arrived at my birthday party. As I think I blogged before, we were at the La Strada Italian restauarant in St. Petersburg, Russia. I have photos of the explosive cake and many more people in red noses and party hats. Many more photos to come. Today we hit Riga, Latvia, which to my surprise has nothing to do with Dr. Doom. Last night I sang loungy tunes at an ill-conceived "James Bond" party night in one of the lounges.

As we tend to say around here, "That's not six-star."

Paka, Moy Krasivy Baltika

I don't have Russian characters on this keyboard (nor do you likely have them in your computer) so I phentically spelled that.

Anyway, today we sailed from Stockholm for the last time. We are now beginning our final assault on the Baltic region aboard the M/S RSSC Seven Seas Voyager.

A ten day cruise.

I'll be saying Das Vydania to Vlad and Katya, who sold me many many DVDs in St Petersburg.

I'll be saying goodbye to the Coca-Cola Plaza in Tallinn, which may well be the best English-language movie theatre in Europe and is paradise in many ways. There is a pub in it, an ice cream bar in it, a bar in it, the concessions are so cheap you wouldn't believe me, the screens are huge. Admission is only 55 Estonian Krooni. That's about 5 bucks.

I already said goodbye to Hel...sinki. It was fine. From now on, if I'm feeling generally fine but not too great one way or the other - just pleasant - I'll say I'm Helsinki.

A few days ago we hit Visby for the last time - we won't hit either Fin- or Got- Lands on this cruise. If you think you've ever seen a good Ren Faire you needed to see the Medieval Festival I ran into last week. Those of you who know me will guess that I nearly birthed a cow at the sights and sounds of a place celebrating battles that actually happened there and forged swords, built Bows, made crafts, and poured Mjod (mead) they'd made with the knowledge passed down from people that actually did this stuff. This was no corporate ... anyway, this was amazing.

I was noticing all the entries I said I'd yet to make... It's crazy, there's so much.

Now we're leaving the Baltic, maybe I'll have more energy. Hitting these same ports over and again has been a bit draining.

Oh yeah - you know, I could really stand to hear from some of you - Sometimes out here I feel a little removed from my life. Drop me a note.

More to tell, but I will have to do that later. our internet connection is at best unreliable.


Have I

No time!

Argh!

In a world...

Coming attractions often start with that deep, gruff voice saying just those words... and this entry is a trailer of sorts, mainly being written for myself to remind what blog topics I've meant to but not had time to hit in the past couple of months. Here's a preview of some upcoming entries:

Unona - The "black market" in St. Petersburg (a little outside, actually) which sells electronics, DVDs, and really any damned thing you want for... what they can get for it. Gypsy kids will knife you there, too.

Brent Spiner's family - I spent a week on the ship visiting with Brent Spiner's mother and stepfather. They were amazingly nice, gracious people and I was trying to maintain my level of geeked-out. I did a little too well, I think, and didn't spend enough time chatting with them.

Crazy Shuttle Driver - One of our crew shuttle drivers, now fired I think, carried a kitchen knife and would take small, unexplained detours and make unscheduled stops when few people were in the shuttle. This is a good one.

English movie theatres in Tallinn

Replacement dancers / ridiculous rehearsal schedules - We lost a dancer! The rehearsals for his replacement are necessary. Other than that, would you believe we run our shows during the day EVERY TIME we do the show? It's beginning to make things a little stale.

Shipping issues or, Russia is still very crooked.

Wishing I were somehow home again Vs. $$$ - What I wouldn't give to be back home again, near friends. The only thing that keeps me on the ship most days? Money.

Lost in Stockholm / Lost in Copenhagen - two separate entries I think about adventures I had getting lost for hours in these cities. Well, really it depends on your definition of "lost"... not all who wander are.

Ship food - Food above deck three = excellent. Food at or below deck three = often INEDIBLE.

Photos coming for many of these. I have to figure a good way to get photos on here more easily. Always at a different internet place, always a different computer.

Bah.

Anyway, friends, family, I miss you. I return to the US in just about 85 days.

Entries on the above yet to come...

No Questions

The previous entry heading is in Russian script, thus I'm discovering most computers will not display it except as "??? ?? ????". I'm still not telling what it says. I typed a nice, long birthday related entry while I was sitting at an internet terminal yesterday in St Petersburg.

My time ran out as I was "publishing" and apparently the entry didn't make it through.

To summarize:

1) The birthday party thrown for me last year on my 30th will likely never be topped, that's a simple fact.

2) Threw my own party this year, off the ship in this Italian restaurant I like in St Petersburg. They offered kids parties with entertainment very cheaply. They set up the party but wouldn't let me book the performers (clowns, trained animals, and a magician for 1300 rubles ($40-45)) once they knew it was for adults. Even when we tried to bribe them. Still, the party was a bunch of silly childish fun with good Russian beer and a Russian approximation of Italian food. "La Strada" the place is called. Remind me to write more about this.

3) The firework placed in the center of my cake was, we all agreed, probably illegal for ANY use in the Unitd States. There is a video of me trying not to get my face too close to the roman candle like, sparking, Class C explosive at the center of my tasty birthday treat...

4) My cake, at the behest of my friend Brad, was to read "Happy Birthday Brother Skillet"... don't ask. The Russian who decorated wrote "Happy Birthday Brother Skihet" so that's my name for the next week or so I think.

Anyway, I have to run, I'm using the infernally slow internet onboard right now.

BY THE WAY - John Dalton - I got your music in St. Petersburg!!! It was obviously looseleaf paper and was clearly labeled music, so I guess the very crooked mail system here decided there was nothing of value to resell within. Thus it only took over a month to arrive. THANK YOU SO MUCH and I have a little something for you in return. As to birthday gifts and stuff people have asked about, it hasn't arrived. If you sent it to Copenhagen, it will; in fact it takes very little time it seems. St. Petersburg, well, someone on the black market will enjoy themselves a great deal.

Adriana- I am waiting for the big screen for Charlie and the Choclate Factory. I bought it on DVD but the transfer is AWFUL, which is very, very rare for these "questionable" DVDs here. It's on the level of one of those DVDs of a new movie you buy on the street in NYC. When you buy them here, they're usually indistinguishable in many way from a commercial DVD.

Later all...

??? ?? ???

I haven't posted here in a while for several reasons.

I haven't had a lot of time, and the ship's onboard internet is so painfully slow that it isn't worth the effort.

We've only been to the same few ports over and again since ... well, for over a month now, and there's not a lot new to report of sights seen of trips taken.

Stockholm, Helsinki, three days in St. Petersburg, Tallin, Visby, Copenhagen... then reverse that. That makes for convenience in getting mail, but not from St. Petersburg where apparently a few birthday gifts are now in the hands of the black market.

The same black market where I obtained my personal birthday gift of a... well, I honestly can't say what it is but it facilitates the viewing of any DVD in the world, and the playing of any of the abundance of $3 Playstation 2 games the sell here. There's a big black market, for electronics primarily, called "Unona"... that's ????? in Russian. I'm learning to read ... to be able to pronounce... Russian text.

This is odd because ... I probably already blogged this, but so many of the signs form English words when you finally do sound them out, you wonder why they're in Russian at all.

What else? I had a copy of the new Harry Potter waiting for me at this great bookshop in Copenhagen... they're called "bogers" they're, no lie... but I finished the... "bog" and... if any of you have read it, well, damn. I got to the end and thought about what the next book will have to be and how many children will be distraught upon reading this one. Wow.

Also, we found an amazing, huge, English language movie theatre in Tallinn and finally caught Batman Begins and War of the Worlds. I guess there's quite the longing for the familiar, the taste of home, lately. Batman Begins blew me away. Even with the Estonian and Russian subtitles.

Today I bought "Bewitched" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" on DVD to watch in the next few days. I've also been picking up a lot of souvenirs for gifts when I return. . . Russian militaria and etcetera. The things they have here, and the inexpensive nature of the place... I'll miss it.

There are many stories to tell or immigration, customs, taxis, gypsies, gypsy children, and other such things but... another time.

I'm a little homesick lately if you can't tell. Might have to do with my approaching birthday, four days hence... but it also might be that I'm midway through the cruise.

I promise to blog more often. I'm just a lump lately, missing kith and kin.

Address issues

Anyone who's sent me something in St. Petersburg, any of you who've asekd if I got your stuff... I didn't. Except for one thing, so far.

Turns out they're in the habit of holding anything and everything randomly in "customs" and you may or may not ever see it. Thank you black market, I both give and I take from you it seems.

Anyway, for future and speedier mail, until late July it's cheaper, very safe, and very efficient to send to:

Donald Winsor - crew #929
Radisson Seven Seas Voyager
c/o Maersk Broker
Esplenaden 50
DK-1098 Copenhagen, Demark

My birthday is coming soon... ;)

Bear Spit

Today, I had to wash bear slobber from my hands.

Yesterday I obtained a slimline PS2 with a crazy Russian modchip frmo the St. Petersburg Blackmarket, along with a boatload of games. For my birthday. From me.

As for you, you have my address, here on the blog.

P means R, N backwards means I

It's impossible to interpret Russian without a significant initial gorunding in how to even pronounce which letters make which sounds. Walking around in Russia, though there is a good deal of spotty Westernization, feels truly and absolutely foreign like nowhere else thus far.

Taxi drivers in Russia will be an entire post of its own soon. Suffice to say that for example yesterday our zealous cabbie wanted to get moving so badly at one point he got out of the cab, went to the car in front of us, and starting accosting that driver. Later the traffic wasn't moving on the street, so he pulled halfway onto the curb, putting two wheels on the sidewalk, and shot ahead that way. Then he pulled entirely onto the sidewalk.

Our "Fabulous Places" welcome aboard show (doesn't even the TITLE make you itch?) is together now, the process eased by our director and musical director, tw men we were all happy to see again even if it was for this. We're also working up four openers, which only a cruel and foolish tyrant would make us use much.

The days dreading this rehearsal and installation process were much worse than the process itself. All the black market DVDs I'm collecting certainly ease the pain. ;)

Anyway, tomorrow back to Hel... sinki. I refuse to say that any other way.

"What are you doing today?"

"Going to Hel..."

"So you're..."

"...sinki."

Ho-hum.

A little monotony, a little down. The Baltic season is off and running with a charter full of people who couldn't care less about anything the ship has to offer that isn't the casino or the restaurants.

Our routine is being broken by the rehearsals for and installation of a welcome aboard show that is, frankly, the EPITOME of the stereotypical idea of a cheeseball cruise ship show... which our regular shows are not. It's not a good thing. Bah.

Anyway, I'm a little down, a little homesick, and that just makes me realize again that I've technically got no home at present - gave up my apartment some time ago 'cause I'm always on the road. Hrmph. Anyway, I could use some good cheer from home!

One month + one day = my birthday thirty + one.

More details, less time...

Amsterdam was exactly what you think it will be.

Quick note: The idea of being on a ship like this is that you have what amounts to (maybe) several hours to experience each city; you truncate the experience and drink in what you can in short bursts. Now, though, we're hitting these cities many times over and again. In St. Petersburg especially we have many, many overnights and altogether I'll be there for 29 days.

So... Amsterdam. We all wanted to see Anne Frank's house. If any of you have seen the Mr. Show episode about Anne Frank's house, you'll sympathize with the immense guilt I felt siltently giggling at the memory while confronted with the astounding reality of that monument. It's so ... well, it's EXACTLY what I imagined it would be. Profoundly affecting and ...thankfully, mostly uncommercialized.

Then we walked out to find the Red Light district. We didn't enjoy the city to its fullest, as the ship tends to give "random" tests for such things.

The Red Light district is... a stark contrast to the Anne Frank house. One unexpected thing about Amsterdam was the fact that it is the only city we've visited that has many, many "Gay and Lesbian Tourist Information" kiosks about town; there's a big ... well, I don't know what it is but it's called the "Homomonument"... and these things are not, as some of you may think, in the Red Light District. However, the only English language comic book store I've yet found (or had yet found until TODAY) IS in the Red Light District.

Copenhagen was very rainy but has 7-11s, which don't make their coffee cups to US standards and heats their coffee so hot that, if the cup collapses and it spills on your hand while you're holding a bunch of stuff you can't just "drop"... it will in fact raise blisters. Also, Copenhagen... well, to be fair it rained ALL DAY. I loved it, though, and can't wait to see it in the sun.

Talinn was maybe the second biggest surprise of this trip. I never in my life have thought, "You know, I should go to Estonia."

You should go to Talinn. It's this fascinating place that has many, many buildings and structures still standing from the medieval origin of the place next to a great mall and modern convenience; winding streets of fascinating history. This place was occupied by the Nazis AND then part of the Soviet Union; the breath of freedom here now is palpable. I can't wait to spend more time there.

St. PEtersburg, however, while I did love it and am glad to have so much time to be there, does NOT feel a palpable breath of freedom. It's like ... well, if this means anything to you, it's very much what you might call "Soviet" in its feeling. There are certainly exceptions and it offers a lot to the modern traveller... but travelers without visas are not allowed to disembark without escort. Luckily, those of us on the crew have special "seamen's books" which allow us to get around that. The passengers have to stick with tours. We went to the markets, took local busses about town, absorbed local color, tried not to get robbed, were abandoned in the cab by one of our cab drivers downa back alley as he went in this beat up door because "there's a little problem, you no mine I take five minute."

He comes back, says "Spasiva" (Thank You) and proceeds on our way. I was sure we were kidnapped or worse.

A guest who DID have a visa was accosted by Gypsies. You know, in the US if I heard that I'd have thought it a joke. Gypsies? No, really. They're around, and they're dangerous.

Pickpockets in Europe are VERY common, FYI; lots of signs warning about it in particular around the Church of the Spilled Blood and the market nearby. That is, I should note, my second favorite building I've ever seen, next to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

I bought a lot of Russian DVDs of questionable origin and will soon be visiting a legendary electronics market which tends to shade toward the dark side.

Today was Stockholm, and while I was only off the ship for a few hours I discovered A LOT of things to see and do and a wonderful English Language comic / sci fi book / dvd shop. An amazing place really. I'll put the link up here at some point.

...Where was I?

...In the past days I've been to Rostock and Warnemunde Germany... Amsterdam, The Netherlands... Copenhagen, Denmark... Tallinn, Estonia... St. Petersburg, Russia... and today, Stockholm, Sweden.

I have been swamped with things to do and the onboard internet has been insanely slow; so slow that even checking e-mail requires something more than a half-hour commitment.

I will go back at some point and read what the last place I wrote was; I don't remember right now.

It's been insane, and Russia is amazing, but... well, more on this later. I have to go enjoy watching DVDs of films that haven't been released yet and I'd miss anyway being on the ship. Thank you, black market.

These pictures are awful, and not the first I intended to send, but all I had with me on my PSP memory stick. More to come. This is me in Rome at the ruins near the Colosseum. Yesterday? Amsterdam. Tomorrow? Copenhagen. Day after that? Berlin. This is a GREAT week. In OTHER news, this morning I had breakfast with the man in created (or was founder of the company that created and sued Atari) vector graphics, and also DRAGON'S LAIR and such famous games. So, more pictures to come, and ... well, life is good.  

This is me, having coffee in Marseilles. I have coffee at some local place in every city.  

This is a picture from our first night on the ship, sailing away from Ft. Lauderdale on April 23.. I only just figured out which computer here has this software making it possible for me to send photos, so more and better photos are coming.
 

The world is officially too small.

I just discovered that I'm on the ship with at least three other people who've performed at the Crown Uptown.

Of course, it's a small world of working performers, and I wasn't surprised to find that one of the dancers in the cast had worked there; I learned that in rehearsal.

The others are not performers on the ship - well, the "social hostess" is a performer, but not for the few weeks she's moonlighting in that gig here on the ship. Our Tour Manager also worked there, and that's not remotely performing.

ODD.

Anyway, those of you who responded to my call for music - THANK YOU.

Those of you who are pestering me for photos, I'll get to it, soon, I promise. I don't have the ability to put my own computer online here, so it's a little tricky (and slow.)

That's it. Must dash to lose the tuxedo and get ready for the show.

All I Really Need Is The Music (Keep The Mirror)

I have a request for some of you...

I have had an opportunity pop up, but I need to lay hands on some music. It's primarily music I already have, but these particular pieces are in storage or otherwise not accessible. These also don't exist in anyone's onboard stashes.

So, if there's any way anyone out there has any or all of these and can mail me copies of sheet music arrangements, I'd be in your debt...

Stars
Bring Him Home

I, Don Quixote

If I Loved You

People Will Say We're In Love

Try To Remember

ANY up-tempo baritone numbers you can think of that aren't terriible... and how many are there?

Help in this matter is greatly appreciated. I'll gladly repay postage if you let me know you're sending it.

Thanks!

Address...

Okay, read back a few posts and you'll see me pointing out how nice it would be to get stuff from home.

Especially considering my birthday is coming up, not too soon but soon enough that with international shipping and all, well...

We don't have one fixed address here, but we'll be hitting St. Petersburg a LOT in the next few months. If you use this address, things will probably get to me.

Donald Winsor - CREW / ENTERTAINER
RSSC VOYAGER
c/o Inflot Worldwide St. Petersburg
142 / 16 'B' Obvodny Canal Quay
198020 St. Petersburg Russia

There you have it.

[Insert clever heading relating spellings of "Elvis" and "Seville"]

So, irony.

I have stuided and performed Shakespeare. I have sung the classics of the American songbook all over the US, many of the great roles of musical theatre. You see where I'm going there...

There is one thing I never thought I'd have cause to say in my performing life.

"In Europe, they love my Elvis."

They must, because this quick Elvis show I threw together a couple of weeks ago is... well, I'm doing it twice this coming cruise. It's nothing, just 5-6 songs in a set. I offered to do it when something was needed one night; now it's a staple. I think I should learn some new songs though.

Tonight we will do the classical show (during which I sing things like "Couplets de Escamillo" and "Largo Al Factorum" amongst others) and I will immediately leave to do my Elvis set in another location. It's particularly cool tonight because we have a British TV show onboard, "Live Your Dream" or something, and they've brought someone whose dream is to sing with a big band in a big venue. He'll sing a song as part of the set, and they'll be taping the whole thing for the episode. We gave the guy a sit-down "advice session" on camera yesterday, and he's quite nice. It'll be on ITV for those who know what that is. I do not.

Kara (the alto) does another section of this "dance party" night, and we're both wondering why on earth we're doing the same show twice in one cruise. Well, ours is not to wonder why...

My cabaret went over quite well. It's obscure baritone musical theatre stuff I like, so it's not a "big" show, but it worked for the people who came and was well publicized so they knew what they were getting into.

I'm still processing my reaction to STAR WARS - it felt like an ending to something more than just those films. The hit of music we're all familiar with as the end credits began to roll took me by surprise. Well, my reaction took me by surprise. I loved the film - vast improvements, less attempt to make it "light", and such... but at the end there was... well, my reaction... it was like someone in a little room somewhere closed the volume they'd been working on or reading for ages, wiped their hands, and said "well, that's done."

I heard a suggestion that it felt like childhood was now over.

Pshaw, I say pshaw! to that.

So in the course of one cruise, this cruise, things I will sing include:

I've Got A Little List
Largo Al Factorum
Crocodile Rock
Some Enchanted Evening
Master of the House
The Jet Song
Blue Suede Shoes
If I Can't Love Her
Big Girls Don't Cry
I Am The Very Model
You May Be Right
It's Now or Never
La Ci Darem La Mano
Jailhouse Rock... and many more.


I don't think there's much more I could ask in the way of variety.

O Better Far To Live And Die

Several ports since last post, only a couple of new ones. Went to Cannes the day after the festival, though that may well have been before I last wrote (I don't re-read, and I don't plan to until the journey is done) and that was... a walk.

Went to Maljorca. St. Tropez. Barcelona again, Livorno again (still no trip to Pisa for various reasons), Sorrento again, and so on. Yesterday we docked in Monte Carlo (again) for our first overnight of since we've been on and there was in fact one screen in one theatre showing English language films and so...

FINALLY...

I saw Star Wars Episode III. Very pleased. It had French subtitles, which was often funny and a little distracting, but ... I think M. Lucas wrote himself out of a hole with this one. I have many thoughts I'd love to expand on to those of you who've written since you've seen it, so write again, I'll answer this time. ;)

Several of us had made plans to see it in Monte Carlo when we discovered it was going to be there. Sometime late in the night on the night before, something went terribly wrong with the power distribution on the ship. We apparently drifted for about an hour an a half and were doing about 9 knots at best for several hours. It looked like we weren't going to arive until about 10:30pm; meaning we'd miss the film. AGAIN. I was not happy. Luckily, our engineers fixed the problem in several hours and got the engines going again... and the air conditioning. Living below decks without AC is NOT fun, I've discovered.

Bought a suit in Civitavecchia (port of Rome) a few days ago; we were going to take the train into Rome but the scheduling seemed a hassle and we didn't want to be stressed. So I bought a suit, and a pizza, and a monkey butler named "Sushi" who ... okay, I didn't get a monkey butler. That's my greatest regret.

I tried to send pictures yesterday, but the files were too big and our internet connection is too unreliable. I'll shirnk them or send them from a cafe shoreside.

Coming up: A sea day...

Malaga, again...

Lisbon... (NOT pronounced "liz-bee-ahn", I'm told by a native)

More later. Hopefully I'll remember to tell you about our guest entertainers Kenny and Byron.

Roman roamin'; Pizza not Pisa

Where have I been lately?

I could show you, but... well, I have hundreds of photos, but no great way to put them on here site yet. VERY soon.

The day before yesterday, we hit ROME. Civitaveccia, to be precise, but that's the "Port City" of Rome. An hour+ away by train, but there's no way I was going to miss Rome. And wouldn't you know it, one of our training classes (there are a LOT of them the first time you work on a ship) was scheduled smack in the middle of the day. Thus I found my way to our somewhat frightening Croatian safety officer's office to ask to be switched to an alternate day. I found someone to trade days with me, and off to Rome I went, accompanied by a few others from the entertainment department.

There is far too much to see in Rome in a day. Wasn't built in a day, can't be seen in a day. It would take me a day just the "Angels and Demons / Da Vinci Code" walking tour that we fell into on our own about halfway through the day.

What is there to see in Rome? Based on MY day, the ancient ruins beat all. The Colosseum. The 4 euro (that's a little > $5) bottles of Gatorade, 2.50 Euro Diet Cokes. The Vatican-can. The Oompa Loompas which guard the Pope. Didn't see the Pope or the Popemobile, nor the Popecopter, the Popecycle. Was not able to identify the entrance to the Popecave. There were plenty of statues in which to hide the button which reveals the poles which lead to the cave, though. Here's a poll: Which Pope did you like better, Michael Keaton or Adam West?

Anyway, Rome also had Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, The amazing White Palace, and the Eternal Flame the Bangles sang about. No, really. And... such an amazingly difficult system of winding streets that even with a map it was difficult to find where we were at some points. If all roads lead to Rome, where do the roads IN Rome lead? Apparently they try to lead to themselves, which explains why ... well, by the time civic planning reached America, the system of laying things out in a grid had been worked out. Thank God.

Yesterday was Livorno again, or as we call it, "Li-BORE-no."

Livorno is a great place to catch a train to somewhere else.

It's an easy ride to Pisa, and Florence. We attempted to go to Pisa yesterday but the train schedule was all screwed up so we just went for pizza in Livorno instead. I was all set to have a catchy, hugely original entry title like "Pizza in Pisa" but alas, just kinda nasty pizza from one of the very few places not closed on a Sunday in Livorno.

I'm sure no one has EVER used that Pisa line, especially on postcards depicting "the leaning tower of .... PIZZA? OH that's whacky. The kids'll love it, Martha. .50 Euro? How much is that?"

This will I'm sure be an entry for later, but being in Europe and seeing other Americans behave in certain ways, you want to tell someone "I'm not with them. I am also American and we really aren't all like that."

Then you go and harass Frenchmen with talk of "where is the monkey?"

Today... Cannes. The day AFTER the festival ends. Bah!

By the way, I could really use some long-distance b-day cheer this year, and it takes a really long time for anything to get to us through the port agents. It may seem pathetic, but I could use cool stuff from America for my birthday. I'll be including the port agent address for St. Petersburg soon, because I seriously think it'd be a good idea to allow like thee weeks to a month.

If you help me out, I may bring you back something from Europea...?!?!?! Or not.

My luggage was ALREADY overweight.

Must run now.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize European.

The most amusing thing I've done lately is carried around a small monkey in my bag and been using the useless French I've been learning (in part thanks to my multi-language Eddie Izzard DVDs, thank you Eddie Izzard for being educational as well as funny) to ask waiters (forgive my spelling):

Me: "Ou e les sange?"

Them: "Eh?"

Me: "[repeating] Where is the monkey?"

Them: [uncomprehending]

Me: "Le sange e sur le table."

Other variations include:

"Ou e le festival?"

"[I don't know]"

"Le festival dans mon pantolons."

That's my particular favorite. I'm probably hated in France, which is really only fair.

Why am I amusing myself this way? We've been repeating a lot of ports. I'm not sure if we'd been to Florence yet by the time I posted last, but last time we went to Livorno we took the train to Florence. I love the city, for many reasons, though not to the extent that I enjoyed Malaga. I don't know why, but I loved Malaga.

In Florence we saw stuff, and I bought something that, at this point, is perhaps the best bargain in the history of bargains. I'm having it checked again at the next port with an accreditted... checker of such things. Hint: Something I bought on the street that should've been fake, I was sure WAS fake, but apparently isn't according to the jewelers I've taken it to.

Hmm.

Anyway, the only new port we've hit since last I wrote is Sete, which was... eh. Nothing remarkable. They call it the "Venice of France" which is sort of ... well, I mustn't say anything more or I'll be even more hated in France.

Next time, perhaps: A story about strong body odor in the places where you buy deodorant. NOT a helpful sales tool.

Europe, etc.

Okay, I haven't been able to post in a few days.

Since Valencia, we've hit Barcelona, Marseilles, Monte Carlo, Portofino (once before and again today), Livorno (twice), Civitavecchia (port of Rome), and Sorrento. I think that's it.

Barcelona is an amazing, amazing city. As many of you know one of my goals for this entire excursion was to find a really beautiful piece for my sword collection, and really you can't do better than handcrafted Spanish steel fresh from Toledo. This is a post all by itself, but suffice to say I negotiated a hell of a deal down from 278 Euros (check your conversion rates) down to $225US simply on the basis that the dealer thought the guy who was with me was going to buy a lot. He didn't. But I have an amazing, beautiful Spanish rapier that will have a place of honor in my house for the rest of my life.

Barcelona, though... Los Rambles, the Gaudi architecture, the Sagrada Familia... the latter being perhaps the single most amazing and unbelievably beautiful man-made structure I've ever seen.

We've opened all the shows, now, so life is beginning to settle into whatever semblance of routine there can be on a ship with this kind of itinerary. I've met all kinds of great passengers, and that's a real saving grace.

Short blurbs for the rest of these places, as we'll return to most of them later.

Marseilles - Beautiful. French. Let that inform you in whatever way you choose.

Monte Carlo - Tiny, steep. Gorgeous. Preparing for the Grand Prix. Let me pause here and say I could put "GREAT FOOD" by any of these places in this entry and not be
saying half of what I could.

Portofino - Really cute little port with a lot of hiking to see a ... Brown Castle. The Splendido. The Cathedral of St. George (who fought the dragon). Smaller than you'd believe.

Livorno - by itself not amazing, but close to Pisa and Florence by train. We went to Florence yesterday - The Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, off the street Rolex knock-off, David, Goliath... okay, not Goliath. Oh Davey.

Civ. (port of Rome) - Didn't get off the ship, couldn't, will next several times. Wanted t make sure I had a full day in Rome, and wouldn't have been able to this time.

Sorrento - hmm...Sorrento is set high of these cliffs right by the ocean. It's amazing to see from the ship. I wouldn't have chosen it as my target if I were a 15th century pirate or raider. Too much climbing. However, as tourists, we somehow are suckered right into having to climb these immense stairways and paths up form the docks to the city itself. Made better by Cafe Ciao, where the owner made us feel like family. Huge, fat family who apparently have no control over their appetites and require contstant shoveling of various kinds of experimental foods he's trying our. Go to Cafe Ciao if you're ever in Sorrento.

So that's it for now. Today it's more Portofino, and it'll be a little while until there are new places, so for now it's getting to know those places I've already seen. More to come!

Malaga and Valencia (Spain)

Yesterday I stepped onto European soil for the first time... well, the continent itself. Madeira is technically part of Portugal, I guess.

Still... well, I can't imagine a better first day. Malaga, if you know as little about it as I did, was an amazing and exciting surprise. So many winding streets, so much history, so much to see and do...

An ancient theatre. A Moorish palace and proper still-standing castle. The Picasso museum. The old Toreador arena.

The beauty of the city itself, and the day we all had (even while having to return to the ship for rehearsal between trips into the city) was... well, I spent some money, drank some amazing coffees, and enjoyed the company of (several members of) my wonderful cast.

Today is Valencia, and we didn't port until 2, and I'm back now and not all that unhappy to BE back. It was okay, and there is a lot to see here, but not like Malaga. Malaga I will one day return to on my own. Valencia ... well, if the ship stops there again I'll probably see it again.

Things I have now: A Bullfighter hat, a ceramic tile impression of Picasso's "Don Quixote"... and a Spanish language Star Wars promo magazine.

Casablanca, Morocco

Photos will be figured out sometime soon, but right now it's an issue.

Today we made port in Casablanca, Morocco.

We only had two hours to take it in, and once we stepped off the ship (as per usual ALREADY) we were immediately accosted by hordes of screaming taxi drivers looking to score big with rich tourists.

"No tour, TAXI," we had to keep explaining.

Finally we were joined by three other ship/castmates and made a deal that for $20 US each we could be driven around for our entire time in this old Mercedes limo... the pictures will eventually make clear that descripitions denotative correctness and connotative deception.... and see all we could see.

We went to the huge mosque... beautiful, awe inspiring. We saw many gorgeous and curious things... the desparity between the third world nature of the area and the VERY wealthy areas not far away.

We drove through an outdoor market, sputtering non-emission controlled fumes into the cabin as much as the outdoors. Our driver pointed to the right... at a booth...

"See that? Those leaves? Mint. Minty. Minty."

"Mint?" someone asked.

"Yes, for mint tea. You know 'tea'?"

"Yes, we know tea," a Brit explained.

"Yes! Tea. Morrocco... mint tea."

Of course, that ...famous Morrocan mint tea. He continued:

"Whiskey Morrocco? You know?"

We didn't know.

"Ahhhh... Whiskey Morrocco... [laughter]."

It was the kind of laughter where everyone joins in somewhat reluctantly even though you don't know what's funny other than the laughter of the original laugher.

At one point we were at a point where we wanted to take some photos and two of the guys took a smoke break. He inquired if we smoked anything but tobacco, and was meant with a resounding "No" thanks at least to the random and highly strict drug screenings we're subject to if not the purity of our souls.

"Well, if you change minds, Morrocco is... good place. [repeat laughter]."

Driving, more driving, Saudi palaces and mosques, McDonald's with arabic logos, and then an unexpected turn down a deep winding bush-hidden trail.

Where are we going???

We came to a small lake hidden from... well, anything, with a beautiful glass and marble building. "NOW you drink Whiskey Morocco."

"No," says we, "No whiskey Morrocco, we have to go back to the ship. to WORK."

He was undeterred. One of us had to follow him into the building and convince him no native beverages for us. (For one thing, we know better than to dirnk anything made with local water ANYWHERE... but we didn't mention THAT.)

He was considerably less jovial upon his return to the car. We drove on in mainly silence, thinking we were returning to the ship. Suddenly, the car stalled, in the middle of the insane street. (You haven't seen crazy city driving until you've been to Morrocco.)

Our car died. We were stranded in we-didn't-know-where Casablanca and had to be back on the ship in less than an hour.

We waited as he phoned his boss, we waited as several men came in aid. We were circled by some people several times. We stood to the side of the street and waited. All in all, about half an hour. Finally, his boss shows up in another Mercedes with a gallon of gas... yup. Out of gas.

He puts it in, the car sputters again, and we ride on in even WORSE fumes.

"This... this is house of King!"

"NO! Ship. Take us to the ship."

"This is golf, you know golf? You no want stop?"

"No! No more stops! JUST SHIP. ONLY SHIP."

Driving on in quiet, we get to the ship and I've never been so glad to see it.

And we've only just begun.

Pictures to come.

Funchal, Madeira

Yesterday was our first port, in Funchal, Madeira. I was going to post photos here but realized I don't have the software to do that here... time to talk to the onboard computer dude.

Today? Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. Then to Morocco, tomorrow, in Agadir.

Latitude

Right now, we are about 850 miles or so from our first port of Funchal, Madiera in the Canary Islands. I don't know if that's nautical miles or land miles.

Anyway, rehearsals in this truncated install period (usually three weeks, only one for us) have been crazy but certainly very considerate of our time and the other demands put on us(safety meetings / training)while we're learning to be on the boat.

Phone and internet time are at premium... in every sense of the word. Luckily, the crew internet cafe is usually not packed and I'm able to take a few minutes to get online.

Like now.

Pictures soon, maybe. The costume people are amazing and the costumes are some of the best-looking I've ever worn.

It's very odd to be so out of the usual loop in every way - no cell phone in my life has made a big difference. That and the removal from "life" while out here is very interesting and isolating in a way that I'm not sure about yet.

More later...

I'm Sailing Away

Wel, not actually "sailing", as the Voyager uses a high-tech "dolphin pod" propulsion system which will allow us to remain silent and undetected as we run missile drills off your largest cities while listening to your "Rock and Roll"... then to Cuba, for...

Actually, I imagine the RSSC Voyager has little in common with the Red October.

Last night we gave our "presentation" for the honchos from the office, had a nice gathering at the producer's lovely home. This morning we all loaded our luggage onto a rental truck to be delivered to the ship, and tomorrow morning we will travel to Ft. Lauderdale to board. Then it's hell week - installing all three shows in a week, performing our first one on Friday.

Within 36 hours, I will no longer be in the U.S.A., so please hold my mail and write down all my messages.

Next blog will likely be from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Write or call today to say Bon Voyage!

"...set an open course for the virgin sea"

So goes that familiar line... except there's no real virgin sea left, is there? It's all pretty well travelled. "Set an open course for that whore sea" isn't as inviting an image, so I think Mr. DeYoung was wise to be kind in his appraisal of oceanic virginity.

What was I posting about? I don't remember... oh yeah.

We're all tired and ready to be on the ship. We're going to have a "hell week" of rehearsing in the middle of the night and trying to tech out all three shows at once, not to mention lifeboat drill training and such things in the daytime... so by the time we reach the Canary Islands we'll be so dizzy we won't realize where we are until Casablanca.

Today is a great example of how tired we are... from the start of the day no one had anything to give, and while we have had days like that in the past it usually improves. Now, not so much. We started at 0% and got to say 25%. Who deserves a break today? Well, deserves? Not so much... needs? Yes. And we had a day off YESTERDAY.

BTW, I'm typing this post on my computer. It came back to me, but I did in fact lose EVERYTHING so anyone who has any copies of photos or recordings or things I've written... please send. Contact me. I gotta get back to rehearsal now.

Sometime soon I'll tell you all about the great people I'm working with.

Crash Assistance

I leave the United States in a week and one day.

Finally I blog, and I'm sorry it's been so long, but...

I could use some help.

See, my computer died. My hard drive committed suicide. I had just bought a pocket drive to back up all my important data and hadn't done it yet.

Thus, I have lost all my music, recordings of myself and others; all my photos; all my writing; all my... you get the idea. My computer has been fixed and is on its way back to me, but if anyone out there has photos or recordings or anything I've ever sent you, I will be forever in your debt if you could send them along. Contact me and I'll let you know the best way - connections will be slow and downloads all but impossible, I'll wager, while on the ship. On CD is probably best.

This SUCKS.

If you can help me out, that'd be great. I had all this great video software as well, the CDs of which I of course packed and put into storage while away. Mainly it's all the photos I'll miss most. Help?

On the boat as of next Saturday.

Lizards, Space Travel, Bizet, and Elton John

...all these things have been part of my life in the past couple of weeks. My brain is full. There have a beena staggering number of beautiful days which I've noticed during our occassional 10-minute breaks, and we've still managed to have a lot of fun, but there's no question this is a lot of work. Somehow my fellow singers have managed to make it seem like not quite so much, though. It's really a good group.

Of course, now that I've said that on my blog something will go horribly wrong, some terrible secret will be revealed, and... yeah. Jinxing it all, I am, by saying this publicly.

Did I mention my computer blew up? It's at the computer hospital now, and my biggest hope is that it won't develop a case of amnesia whilst there. I need it to remember a lot of things which only it knows.

Yesterday my 7-year old self was made quite happy by a visit to the Kennedy Space Center. My adult self was floored by the price of admission to same.

My (cough) year-old current being is wearing a shirt that says "NASA" on the front and "I Need My Space" on the back.

Indeed.

A different climate

Little more than one week ago I was wearing at least a jacket each day as I went about my business in Colorado.

It seems after a week that I've been here in Florida for a month; we've already put together one of our three shows and yesterday had a day off at the beach. It's a really great group of people, I'm quite happy about that.

About 25 days or so until we're on the ship.

Hope everyone is well.. thanks for writing if you did, and why the hell haven't you if not?

Later - D

It's the last midnight

I have been in this room for many, many nights after many, many performances of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. This is the last night I'll spend in the room, before one show tomorrow, an 11 hour drive through the night into the early morning, a little sleep, putting stuff into storage, and a flight on Tuesday to join the already rehearsing Voyager cast in Florida.

Thank goodness for the five dark days we had in early February or I'd have not had any significant time off since... since... I don't know when. January 2004. I'm not complaining, someone just pointed that out to me.

Anyway, I want to express my gratitude and thanks to the cast and crew of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST for a long and successful run. You will be in my thoughts, and I will not forget you nor some of the strangeness we encountered together.

What kinds of strangeness, you may ask... well, think on this:
In this run, including understudies who went on...
I played Beast to 2 Belles, plus another in a rehearsal.
I also played Beast to 2 Gastons.
I played Gaston to 2 Beasts.
I played Gaston to 3 different LeFous. 2 different D'Arques.
I had about ...seriously, I think 9 silly girls in different combinations.
We had ... how many different Madame Bouches? Four, maybe five?
3 Mrs. Potts.
3 Babettes.
That's not to mention a myriad of ensemble switcheroos that were constantly in flux.
Those are just numbers off of the top of my head.

And yet, we managed, we always managed. I'm knocking on wood like crazy because we DO still have one left.

Vegas pics

I put up a separate blog to share the Vegas pics I have with the other guys who went. Check it out if you like.

Don't worry, it's SFW.

Click here!

Rolling with the punches...

I have to tell you, there have been several times when I've been about to post my plans for the near future.

There some jobs lined up, then personal stuff that took priority, then other jobs that fit around those, then a couple of other things...

I was waiting for everything to settle and then post it all...

Then, last week, while I was in Vegas on Monday morning I got a call about a great gig I've nearly done two or three times before.

It was a bit of a tough decision, because I'd have to find a way to work around the personal stuff I'd already moved heaven and earth to accomodate. It seems it will all be able to work, though, and so...

When we close here on Sunday afternoon, I'll drive straight to Kansas. Leaving here at 4:30pm mountain time, arriving at my parents' house at about that time in the a.m. central time. A couple of hours of sleep, then a day with the fam, a night's rest, then a flight to Florida to begin rehearsals to join the RSSC Voyager as it travels to... the Canary Islands, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, England, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands. I'll be on the ship starting in late April, heading across the Atlantic to the Canary Islands. I'll be onboard until late October. It's quite the gig, certainly not your typical cruiseship entertainment, and some of it will in fact be quite challenging. I'll be able to put away some money and will get to travel to some AMAZING places.

So, wish me luck and bon voyage... there will be a lot of photos and blog updates during the cruise, I guarantee.

My challenge now? Finalizing a Christmas gig before I leave the country.

By the way, to the MANY of you who helped me with a recent project, in January, if I haven't already been back in touch... thanks very much. Things are good.

Building suspense...

Tomorrow... BIG news ... ...

From tonight's archival shoot... so there will probably be a better version later. 

Gonna Set My Soul, Gonna Set My Soul On Fire

This coming week, we have Monday-Wednesday off, and a few of us are heading to Las Vegas. It's only a (relatively) short drive away, and it's insanely cheap, so why not?

Not Vega$, like the old Robert Urich series, or VEGAS, like it was for Frank, Dean, and Sammy... No, not that pit of debauchery, that wretched hive of scum and villainy...

But Las Vegas, where they now have a monorail like Disney World.

News to come soon...

By the way, comments are new and improved adn finally EASY - you no longer have to log in or have a blogger account of your own to comment. Just click, post, and there you go.

John Raitt, 88

John Raitt,one of the most powerful and influential forces in the history of musical theatre, passed away today. He was father to Bonnie Raitt, who bested her father's popular fame as a musician in her own right, and often performed in concert with her dad. He was singing in great voice well into his eighties.

The original and iconic Billy Bigeow now stands before "The Highest Judge of All."

Maybe We Can

... and I think we just might.

Sweaty Latex

Get your minds out of the gutter! I'm referring of course to the facial appliances I wore today in my first performance as the titular Beast in Beauty and the Tramp. Er, Beast.

Barring unforseen circumstances, and due to scheduling that would make sense to you if I explained it but I won't, after tonight I will not only have played both The Beast and Gaston, but both in the same day. Tonight is my farewell to this run as Gaston and tomorrow I leave for UPTA very early in the morning. As of next Saturday, after the theatre gets remodeled and we re-open, I'm The Beast for the rest of the run.

I felt very good about it, my only regret being I was a little too involved to see much of our new Gaston, Josh. I had the benefit of having been in this show since November, so I pretty much know the whole thing backward and forward - Josh went into the show much like I did, with four days of maybe a little rehearsal here or there.

Congrats to him and thanks to my wonderful dressers, crew, and cast (especially our Belle, Rochelle!) for helping me not be killed by moving scenery and know what hand to put in which sleeve when. Couldn't have done it without any of you.

Yay.

Double Secret Probation

Leaving for UPTA on Sunday morning... going on as the Beast for the first time tomorrow afternoon... and fighting a bit of a cold that has been being traded back and forth amongst the cast for over a month.

This morning I read that we've lost two greats: John Vernon and Ossie Davis. Do their memories a favor and dust off a few copies of their work this weekend.

For Mr. Vernon, try "Animal House" or "The Outlaw Josey Wales"

For Mr. Davis, check out ...well, the man spoke at the funerals of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. There's a lot to look at. Speaking for myself, I'll be watching "Bubba Ho-Tep"

You saw it here first ... from this morning's program cover shoot, my point-and-shoot camera got a glimpse of what the new BEAUTY AND THE BEAST program cover will look like. The real thing will have some digital stuff added, dark castle/garden stuff I'm told. I'll put a scan of the finished product up when it comes out.  

LeFou Deux

Yesterday, during "Gaston" I was doing some business upstage right with the silly girls and David (who elsewhere in the show is M'sieur D'Arque) when...

Well, soon after this David and I head downstage to do the "mug dance" with RJ (LeFou) between us. David and I were right next to each other.

My immediate thought: RJ is gone... is he hurt? Surely he's not hurt too badly, we'd have stopped... I'm sure he'll be back before the 'Gaston reprise', when we're ALONE on stage. He'll be back.

He'll be back.

David covered LeFou's sung line at the end of "Gaston"... but RJ will be back...

He's not back, and...now I'm alone on stage. I did the reprise alone.

RJ had blown out his knee, the second time he's had the same injury... apparently he'd done it before while he was in CATS.

David and I fudged our way through "Maison Des Lunes" without a LeFou and after that a teenage kid from the ensemble stepped in. He did his best to get through the evening show, and though he's technically been the understudy for the role since day one, he's never had any rehearsal. He pulled through, though.

RJ is out until at least Thursday - hopefully he'll be okay.

Brilliant Things

Recent good things, in no particular order...

1) If you've a chance, read 30 DAYS OF NIGHT. It's a brilliant vampire movie, perhaps the best I've never seen (because no one has made it yet)... It's a graphic novel I read today over coffee at BORDERS. I also read Sean Astin's book THERE AND BACK AGAIN:AN ACTOR'S TALE, and... well, definitely read 30 DAYS OF NIGHT.

2) FAMILY GUY returns with new episodes on: May 1, 2005. AMERICAN DAD, Seth M's other show, debuts after the Super Bowl. I understand that's a tournament of some kind built around the sale of expensive advertising airtime.

3) Looking forward to seeing some of you who've e-mailed about UPTA in Memphis (see previous entry) !!! Graceland Sunday evening?

4) Work is good.

UPTA plans

Doing UPTA prep this past two or three days, printing resumes on headshots, readying a mailing, and such.

In case anyone is wondering I'm #933, Monday, probably early afternoon. Flying in Sunday, leaving Tuesday morning.

Who else is going?