Happy Christmas, baby!

Chitown for a brief three days. It's the longest I've ever gone without the city. Spent furtive nights with friends, and leisurely days at home playing cards.

Clara took my camera the next morning to document the madness. I'm so frightened by her all around artistic sense. She's good at anything she does. creepy.

http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com

It's all the rage for stage managers at the opera. Fantastic.

Stupid Work

It's awful. I start working on a show, and I completely abandon this little blog. Yes, I'm back in Seattle, and yes, I've started working on a new production. Fledermaus. I've done this opera something like 15 times. It's kinda creepy, as is doing this opera with my friend Chris in the role of Falke, as he was the first time I did it over 10 years ago in college. See, it finally comes full circle. Go to theatre school, dream with your friends about what it'll be like working together in the big houses, grow up, see them years later, and find out what 10 years of non-for-profit arts does to them. Kinda makes me giggle. Actually, we haven't stopped giggling yet. This show is just silly bit after silly bit, and with the cast that we have, it makes me feel like I'm in an episode of Wagner's twilight zone. I mean, really, when you've got the world's best Siegfried with the world's best Brunhilde, it just gets ridiculous after a while (insert opera geek joke here).
In other news, I've begun shopping for my next home. The littlest condo in the world just won't fit big strong Shawn and his cat, so it's time to look for something that has....gasp.....a bedroom and doesn't have a pet clause. See, that way my current dream of a house, a dog, and a ford falcon will come true. I suppose most may dream of a little picket fence, but I want the falcon, damn it. Oh, and I'll get it. I saw a falling down duplex last week for the bargin price of $424,000 and then saw a slew of condos that just plain don't have the magic of Olympus Manor. It's tough living in a city where people are willing to mortgage out their first born for a home. I guess it's really no different than any other big city. Stupid cities and their desirability.

The smoking ban

is absolutely chapping my ass. I haven't been a city mid-turnover, but it'll occur this week Wednesday. Last day to smoke in public places. We went out Saturday night to whoop it up and smoke as much as possible.

4,000 miles later.....

I return home.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
My little home is so beautiful. It was amazing to walk in. What was not so amazing was the cold. It's the first snap of winter I've really had (unless you count the one day of snow in Denver). Coming out of sunny Las Vegas, driving 17 hours, and arriving in COLD was a bit hard. But I'll take it!
Last round of photos from the trip.
Tagebuch accompanied by a Budweiser somewhere in Arizona. There were these crazy Burros that ran all over the town. Odd.
On route 66.
Protege was so great throughout the trip. Who knew such a little car could be so fantastic.
Poker night at Karen's house. It was a little chilly that night in SoCal.
The fire was blazing, chips were flying, and I finally learned how to play poker. Until 4am.
Karen Read. Best friend since October 26th,1988. And she makes great babies!

Road Trip take two

Carmen. She is done. The road, oh, how it calls....


The Protege is doin' great. Look at her, sitting there so patiently. Awaiting the 2000 miles she's about to receive.

Introducing Jacque. A lesser known species of mule deer.....a moose deer. He's standing in for Marvin who's currently advising my mother on a daily basis on her impending move to Seattle.
See, Mom? It's the map of scenic biways....
Shawn and I have this problem.
We keep having to take the pictures of us by ourselves.
They keep turning out kinda silly. That is, till the Germans descended upon the Grand Canyon and demanded our camera to take a decent photo.
Yippy. One photo where we don't look slightly retarded.
And, so it's done. I'm back in La la land. Shawn goes back to Seattle tomorrow, and then I follow next week.....

Dog Walking

And so, slowly, I reclaim my little life

Carmen is almost open. So almost open that I got to take a walk in City Park with the dogs yesterday.
I'd love to show you the photos, but for the past week or so this blogger site has been very picky about letting me post photos.
So....I'll keep trying and soon you'll get to see the magic that is City Park.

Tra la la la la

I don't think Stephen Wadsworth has any idea how deep his influence is in opera companies around the country. It seems to permeate everything we do. I wasn't even the one to bring the rubber chicken. I swear! I was walking outside of the symphony the other day and they have these speakers out back for the crew to hear where the show's at.....I heard the last page of RHEINGOLD and realized just how much I missed that opera. And, in a very strange way, how much I missed the summer.

And Carmen rolls on....Stormy makes a good pirate, but she and Franchesca brought cheerleading outfits for Halloween, so sadly, we'll not see her as a swashbuckling ASM anytime soon.
Tim Buck, Master Carp, is in town doing the load in. It was his last night in town and many hijinx ensued. We had a few drinks....
Then went for a carriage ride in the city. It was chilly, we were all snuggled under the blankets, and our horse's name was Storm. Ha ha ha!
The driver took us to all the clubbing streets in town. It was a very nice juxtaposition. Wandering around town at the speed of a horse with techno blasting from all the clubs around us.
It was such a delightful evening.....and then Tim had to go back to Seattle.

How horrendously lax have I been? Oh, it can only mean one thing. Opera. Lots of it. It's true, I haven't been able to photograph anything lately. It's not that there's nothing to snap, it's that I'm suddenly shy pulling the camera out at all opportunities with people I don't know as well. So I photograph the city. The cafes. The bookstores.

This is my new dinner-coffee-if it's not raining-spot. It's a big ol' bookstore called the tattered cover. Very nice.

She can't be mad at me for photographing her. This is Foxy. Park and George's pooch. She lives in the big old rambling Victorian I'm staying in. I get to walk her whenever I want. She's exactly the dog I'd get if I could. It's funny, because I've had a ridiculous amount of dog fever lately. I have no idea where this is coming from, but I'm convinced that before this year's out (2006), I'll have a new place to live, a '60 Ford Falcon, and a little Foxy of my own. Who knows where the hell I come up with this stuff.

In other new, Carmen is going well, all things considered. Getting to finally meet and work with Rupert has been an absolute delight. One could get addicted to having folks like him around. Tim Buck, Master Carp of Seattle Opera, is here with us loading in the set. He's such a good man...makes me miss home all the more....

End o the first week

The end of my first week in Denver is good. This company and their policies just make me giggle, as we only have the first cast Carmen for one day before tech, the second cast Carmen for two and a half days before tech, and a Don Jose who comes two days before tech. Not to mention a director who comes and goes and an AD who's never done the show. Oh, and we only have 8 days to stage the double cast show before tech. The whole thing just gets sillier with each phone call. But the people are great, the city is so beautiful, and the weather finally makes me smile.
All in all, a decent beginning to what will surely be a strange ride of an opera. Oh, and it's a brand new opera house with all the problems that'll cause....Ugh.

The snow is gone, and Denver is once again a beautiful place. It's turned out to be a good, fall week. The opera is coming along, even if we just lost a tenor, and things are slowly taking shape. The company is good- I'm really starting to enjoy it.

My little coffee shop. It''s so nice and empty here; the have free wi-fi, too! Yippy! Oh, and they let me smoke, which as you all know, is necessary. I come here way too often, but it's a good spot to hang out in.

Stormy Edwards. She's kickin' butt and taking names. Thankfully, we seem to have gelled again right off the bat.

Franchesca. Great ASM, good friend of Stormys....

That's all for Denver photos so far. I'm so lame, have barely taken out the camera. I'll do better!

Holy Crap

Denver is so frickin' cold and it's SNOWING. The last time I saw snow was over the holidays at home in Chicago. There, it was cute and nostalgic. Here, it's depressing and annoying. I had to buy a scraper for my car and now am out hunting for warm insoles for my little shoes. I completely forgot how difficult it is to get crap done when everything is WET and COLD. I've turned into such a west coast baby!

End of the Road

Our last full day...we spent the whole of it driving around the Colorado Rockies hitting any strange site that struck our fancy. Little car did very well on the hills, but the road aptly named "Oh my God" road scared the heck out of me. It was a lovely day, all told, but the end of the road came too soon. 1,887 miles later we arrived in Denver, checked into our hotel, and toasted our last glass of wine. Great trip, all things told, and I can't wait to do it again.