Friday, August 12, 2005

Oh there I am!

There are a million things on my mind (par for the course). But all that I'm capable of actually putting into words right now is a three-week catch up to Seen 'n Heard in New York.

The last week of July

Feeling staid and boring thanks to the lack of funds, sleep and stability in my recent life, I make a self-promise to get out this week and do whatever I want, emotional and spiritual fatigue be damned.

1 - I visit a friend and see her thousand million trillion pictures of her three-month jaunt through South America. Wonderful stuff. They have glaciers. And brightly painted houses. And interesting hats. And glaciers. Because my friend has a computer that's run by a mouse on a wheel, we loaded the glyphs onto my G-4. So if you're nice, maybe I'll post some of them here.

2 - I caught Edmar Castaneda at 55 Bar on Tuesday night. At 10:00 pm. Who does a fucking show at 10 on a weeknight?!! Well, most anybody who's in the jazz scene. I first heard about Edmar from Joe, and he was everything Joe cracked him up to be. He's as tall as his harp and he played with a drummer and a trombonist (whom I warmed up to as he warmed up). But Edmar didn't really need them. His harp played it all - it was drums, acoustic guitar, bass and even, at times, steel drums. Oh and it was a HARP! At the time, he was to have a cd out in a month; it's probably out now. Catch him before his shows get too expensive and crowded.

3 - I saw two apartments this week; one in Astoria and the other on Roosevelt Island. Both were roommate situations, which I had hoped to avoid after my last fiasco in Woodside. But they were great deals for the space and I still haven't been able to clean up my credit record enough for landlords to trust me with a lease solo (at least, not without signing over my first-born -- fucking Citibank). That's a long story best saved for, like, oh, never. But I ended up putting down a deposit on the apartment in Astoria - mostly because I liked the roommate better. What's not to like? She's from Colombia and takes month-long trips to India.

4 - I saw an off-off-Broadway, workshop production of a musical about the life of Charles and Diana, directed by a friend of mine. It was included as part of a festival of new works. It had potentional. But all I could think, as I was squeezing my way through the festival crowd was "Thank God I'm no longer an actor." I thought the same thing during the show and especially after, when I was talking to my friend who still had to break down the set and would be up well into the morning doing it. Thank Fucking GOD I'm no longer an actor!

5 - In between concerts, plays and apartment hunting, I had dinner out every night this week and caught up with friends. Some old, some new. Of note was dinner with a friend who's been having his short plays featured in a monthly cabaret. If you get the chance and you like sex, check it out.

First week of August

Well, all that traipsing around and getting to bed late every night took its toll and the beginning of the week found me sick. Of course, a new project at my job which required overtime didn't help either. Sometime during my fogged up state, I got a call notifying me that my transfer to CUNY School of Law got accepted. School starts the last week of August which was, at the time I was notified, oh, three weeks away. By the time I started feeling better, around Wednesday, I had too much to do to even think of taking a look around New York. But I did hear something.

1 - As I'm leaving the Starbucks closet, I overhear a guy on his cellphone say, "I'm assuming that they date their fathers before they marry them." I throw him a look that says, What??!!!! He notices, laughs and assures me that, "It's all legit, I swear."

Second week of August

Finished that monster project at work, scrambled to get all my documents in to CUNY for registration (and to figure out my damn class schedule!); have been surfing CraigsList dreaming of furniture for my new place (into which I'll be moving during the second week of classes - NICE!). I've had no room in my head for anything but TV. I have fallen in love with Ghost Hunters, Kathy Griffin's Life on the D-List, Hooking Up, and, of course, the final few episodes of Six Feet Under. Oh, and one night, during a bout of insomnia, I saw In the Cut, which boasts the most erotic sex scene I've seen in a Looooooong time. It was between Meg Ryan and Mark Ruffalo, and yes, I saw her boobies.

So, the end of this week finds me at a friend's country house in Saugherties, NY. I'm going up today, after work, after therapy, after I sign over a check for my tuition to CUNY. There will be more TV and probably a bit of reading. But there will also be silence. And in that silence, I hope to regain my voice. Patience grasshopper.

5 comments:

j-roc said...

Glad you dug Edmar.

Am I still allowed to comment on your blog even though you've taken a (doomed-to-fail) vow of silence on mine?

xo

J

Belle Ambrose - said...

Oh Joe, you know I just can't let it go.

Comment all you want.

Anonymous said...

Busy! Congrats on the law school thing, good luck with the new apartment, &c.

"In the Cut," eh? I found it ... sweaty. As in, the movie conveyed the same sense of constant oppressive heat as "Do the Right Thing." Not my pinnacle of eroticism, but MMV, obviously.

Despite its impressive cast and solid performances, I found it less interesting than it wanted to be and perhaps could have been. In the end, I saw it as basically just another genre film. But then, there's nothing wrong with a good, well-made genre film.

Belle Ambrose - said...

Yeah, In the Cut wasn't the greatest film; I found it interesting for purely movie nerd reasons - it was something different from director Jane Campion (see The Piano) and certainly something different for Meg Ryan. It's the first time I've seen Ryan stretch out of her girl-next-door role where she was actually allowed to be good. But the film's beginning gave me a headache with all the "edgy" jump cuts; I would have turned it off had it continued any further than it had. Because it's Jane Campion, I trust that she used the cuts to unsettle the viewer - as part of telling the story - but thank God that they settled down enough when the story picked up, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to follow it. You know, all the stupid things that someone just interested in being entertained wouldn't care about. And in the end, it WAS just an interesting looking genre film - sorta Campion's version of Ang's Incredible Hulk. Can't beat it when you have insomnia. What was most interesting to me was, where the hell had this film been before? I was watching it on HBO and don't recall ever hearing about it before, or seeing it advertised for either indy or mainstream release. With all the big names in it, I would have thought for sure there would have been some budget for publicity. But, I don't recall ever knowing anything about it before. Was it a straight to video release?

Anonymous said...

I didn't see it in the theater, but I seem to remember some publicity for it. [shrug]