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Saturday afternoon my comedy buddy Emily Maya Mills and I were docents for her Uncle Eames' art experience, Kymaerica 101. We were representatives from the Museum of Benches, in town for the dedication of the Kulver Glade plaque.

In the evening, Steve and I took in the movie "Jaws" over at the Barrett-Gray compound. They have some kind of schmancy movie projector thingy, and a very big, bare wall in the living room. It's like going to the drive-in. In fact, on a side table next to us, was one of the many surround-sound speakers. It was a bastard stepchild speaker, though, and would only kick in periodically. When it did, it created that tinny sound that would come from an old metal speaker balanced on your rolled down window, completing the drive-in experience. For a second I thought we would have to make out and miss the second half of the movie, but the steak, wine and cackle of Paul Hungerford brought me right back to the living room.

Steve and I are getting ready for the Big Day. It's coming up in just a couple of weeks, so the other day we went and bought our wedding bands. The jewelry district (and the rest of downtown) is not very far from our house. Located on 6th around Hill and Broadway, it is quite the site to behold. Booth after booth of vendors hawking all kinds of very pretty baubles. We almost ended up with giant rainbow/horsehead/horseshoe Bling Rings, but went with the traditional bands after all.

Clifton's Famous Cafeteria was just down the block, so we decided to go there for lunch. We had never been, and we could check another spot off the LA Bizzaro list.

There is a reason it is featured in LA Bizzaro.

It was like stepping back into another era, and not quite in a good way. Clifton's is a theme restaurant. It's decorated like a redwood forest, circa 1933. Not with hobos, but with a gentle, dark style, sort of WPA Work Project, beautiful in a time before Disney. A grizzly bear is fishing, an owl in a tree. The most remarkable thing to me, was that it was all DUST FREE. There is a lot of rough surfaces, and you would think this joint would just be greasy and dust clogged. Everything was immaculately well kept. The animatronic raccoon coming out of a rain barrel had seen better days, but he was well mended and clean.

The median age of the clientele is 78. There was a very spry 95 year old woman in line in front of us. We know this, because she crowed her age out to anyone who would listen. The food was very, very bland. JUST GET A DESSERT AND A DRINK. We blew off this advice, and learned our lesson. Not that the food was bad, but really, just get one of the lovely slices of pie. I enjoyed some jello with fruit.

Ultimately, it was more creepy than good. The old folks milling about were enjoying each other's company, but it had a very depressing air hanging over it. Steve kept commenting on the smell. Like a hospital and nursing home. I think it was the smell of the steam. And the spectre of death.

The place is huge- many, many dining rooms, and I have a hard time believing that there is a time of day when they are actually crowded. It can't possibly hang in there for too many more years. The client base is dying out.

I'm glad we went, but from now on, only Philippe's is my default downtown old-timey meal choice.

A shout out to Jeff for the Jim Ladd update. I don't have 95.5 on the car pre-set because I hate Mark and Brian, but I will cruise back over. I'm glad Jim is still on the air. I took a look at his photos, too. He's no Kris Kristofferson, but he's WAY closer to that than 400 lb bald guy. More of a Neil Young guy...

The NPR story did talk about how Jack is called different things around the country, with variations on format. I'm jusr surprised and appalled at how well they nailed me. I WOULD love to hear Loverboy followed by Talking Heads followed by the Ramones followed by something from the Breakfast Club soundtrack, thank you very much! And no commercials for what seems like a 1/2hour? Great!

I used to actually have a CD player in my car. It was Steve's old one. It lasted about a year before it was stolen while the car was parked in the parking garage under our old apartment. I'm proud of the fact that re-installed my factory radio myself. I had just tossed it in the trunk and never had gotten around to throwing it away.

I also used to have AC in the car, as well. That seems to be the thing that just never gets fixed. My friend Kassie drives her grandmother's old Buick with the bumper sticker "Don't Laugh, It's Paid For!" on it. It always cracks me up. She looks like she should be driving a little Cabriolet, but she's keeping it real.

The sky today looks exactly like the opening credits of The Simpsons. That is always a beautiful sky to see.

We have a fairly new radio station here in LA called Jack FM. I'm appalled at myself for how much I like it. Because they are new, they don't have too many commercials yet, which makes it even better. It replaced one of the AOR stations that had a DJ I liked named Jim Ladd. He sounded like one of those older hippie rock guys, the kind who look like Kris Kristofferson with the silver jewlery and the rugged smile. If he actually looked like that, with his smooth radio voice, he would be Jim Ladd, star of stage and screen. I'm sure he's a 400 pound bald guy. Now an unemployed 400 pound bald guy

What made me wonder about Jim, was a NPR news story that Jack had eaten the oldies station in NYC, the home of Cousin Brucie. Cousin Brucie had been on the air forever, and I'm sure just neded a nudge toward the door to retirement, but it still seems like a sad way to go. Pushed out on a Friday by a new format. Supposedly, the program directors all stayed at the stations or whatever, but as much as I like the music, it truly feels like a "programmed from one studio somewhere" kind of station. No local commercials gives it that feel, I think.

Finished!!!! : )

My last day was Tuesday. We went down to the Glass Church on Thrusday for opening night. The Big Reverend spoke beforehand at the VIP reception, and he really is quite an impressive speaker. One of the warnings we did gleen from his speech was that we should read the program carefully before the show so we would know what was going on.

Hmmmm. I shouldn't have to have cliff notes for a show, the show should tell the whole story.

He was absolutely right. I had no idea what was going on the entire first act. Gramps and Kid rattle off exposition as fast as they can, all the while supposedly relaxing in a rowboat. A rowboat suspended about the audience on wires, slowly moving across the stage space. Behind them on GIGANTIC screens, there is a whole lotta primitive computer graphic animation going on. At some point, they exit the boat and walk around. More stuff on the screens, and now the added elements of dancers on the stage, a Greek Chorus of singers and a dozen aerilists swirling over head. And there is music. And then the puppets parade across the stage. More dancers, aerilists and the computer graphics. More singing, more swirling. The goes on for about a hour and a half.

I think the story is this: Kid believes in Science, Gramps believes in "The Presence." Gramps begins to tell the story. In the beginning there was nothing, then there was something, then planets and the universe, then earth. Earth is nothing. Then it is dark and scary, then plants come, then fish, birds, dinosaurs and the rest of the animals. There are angels. Lucifer is an angel, but he falls to earth. So do a bunch of others. Adam comes from Heaven, then Eve. They live in a great place with a lot of animals and dancers. They have sex.

Now, that story sounds pretty interesting. But somehow, the director manages to mangle this up so badly that it is almost impossible to decifer, let alone sit through. They are very proud of breaking new theatrical ground, "mixing elements never seen before together on one stage" but it is a garbled mess. There is so much going on at all times, all with the same intensity, that the audience doesn't know where to look. This is not helpful when the dialog itself is a mess, because you are looking for visual clues to help follow the story.

Our puppets looked great, and were a highlight of the first act. They have already managed to break a bunch of them, which I saw coming a mile away. All the ones that were over-built by the mechanical team, broken. They couldn't possibly build it with simple pulleys and ropes, nope, it had to be motors and belts. Now, they are just big dollies on sticks. My stuff looked great, thank you very much, and any of the technology I brought to the table (fossfoam, tyvek) is holding up great and looking swell.

The second act is a whole different story. These are the scenes I saw last week in rehearsal. I couldn't always hear or understand the dialog, but the staging told it all. It looked great, sounded great, and should just be the entire show. This section was actually directed by the chorographer. It shows. there is pacing, acting and drama. There are no aerilists, which is odd, because they were all over the first half.

Lucifer is a bad ass, and rules the earth. Adam and Eve are still hanging out with the animals and the dancers and getting it on. Lucifer tempts Eve with a big snake. She goes for it, and then everything sucks. It goes from lovely and green to the set of "Waiting for Godot" complete with barren stage with one lone, dead tree. Many lonely sad people start mill about, dressed like druids. They are sad. Then they contemplate The Presence, and realize it's going to be okay, things pick up, they dance around, and disappear en masse under a big blue round cloth and out the upstage back entrance, leaving the cloth on the stage to become the lake for Gramps and Kid. Kid decides that Gramps is okay. Gramps never acknowledges that Kid might have a point, too. The End.

Don't forget to buy merchandise on the way out to your car!

Went to a Hipcooks cooking class last night, down at the Brewery Arts Complex here in LA. It was great fun. We learned how to make all sorts of Tapas and Sangria. All the ingredients were from Trader Joe's, and super easy to make. It was a delightful evening, and Hipcooks lives up to the hype.

Still. Not. Finished.



Have started another little job out of house-last before the Big Day, or else I will be wearing nothing but shoes. Dress is still a pile of fabric and a dream. Making more costumes for kitty cats. This time the client is Target- for one of their giant montage ads. Kitties in spa robes and turbans, I think they are with Tidy Cat in the commercial.

Saw Team America on Saturday. So funny! So funny on so many levels, but I particularly enjoyed the music, "Montage" and "America, Fuck Yeah!" really cracked me up.

Went and worked down at the church last night, and I'm sorry to say that this thing will be a big, fat, giant hit. Best Church Pagent Ever. Not Art, not Theater, no redeeming artistic value at all, but 12 million dollars of schmaltzy crapola performed by good-looking, fresh scrubbed young people with state of the art sound, lights, and sets. The answer to the age old question of "if you polished a big stinking turd hard enough would it shine as brightly as a diamond?"is Yes. You CAN just throw money at it!!

There was an article in the NY Times a few weeks ago about huge budget high school theater, and this is the next step. This is the next face of profitable American theater. And by profitable, I mean the kind of jobs that keep the techies employed. You thought you couldn't stoop any lower than amusement parks and cruise ships to put food on the table, well, here it comes.

I bet that within three years, they will put together a touring company of this show, that can go into the mega-churches around the country, and another company that will set down in Branson and run forever.