Slacking, again...

It's Thursday night and I'm just now "getting around" to writing this. There are quotes because I've been thinking about writing all week, just haven't actually put fingertips to keys...

Life has been pretty nice to me in the last week or so. My Billy Elliot audition went pretty well, not my best but most definitely better than the Shrek audition. I sang the reprise of "Where's the Girl" from The Scarlet Pimpernel, one of my all-time favorite musicals. It's the perfect audition song because it's a perfect 32-bar song that has clear points of entry for a tight 16-bar cut, or even the dreaded 8-bar cut. I got a late start that day because I was just feeling kind of lazy even though I was incredibly excited to go to this audition. According to everything I read, the audition was supposed to start at 10 AM for men, so I arrived promptly at 10 AM--even though I usually like to arrive early. Upon arrival, I discovered the audition time had been moved to 2 PM. So, I marched in and signed the Non-Equity list and quickly made my way to the Times Square area.

Since I had a whole morning ahead of me, I decided to make the most of it. Thankfully I brought a book with me: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. My friend Christina gave me this book to read last fall, yet I never got around to it--pretty common theme in my life, huh? But on that particular day, I dove in head first. The story is really great with characters that are interesting, but not too "dark and twisty", and a plot that moves at a great pace. The basic idea is that this old guy named Jacob is realizing he's getting really old and when a new addition to his table in the cafeteria at his nursing home announces that he use to carry water for the elephants in a circus, Jacob calls him a liar. The rest of the novel unfolds with Jacob recounting the events leading up to his stumbling upon a circus and becoming its veterinarian. I was surprised how detailed some very illicit scenes were written, but it made sense since the narrator of the story was also the main character. Overall, I highly recommend this book. Next on my list is Ian McEwan's Atonement which was released as a movie a couple years ago. Loved the movie, I'll probably love the book more.

Anyway, after I had sat for a few hours reading, I made my way back down to Chelsea for my audition. When I got there, about 120 other guys had arrived and were waiting for the proceedings to start. After all the Equity actors had been given there spots in line and their audition cards, we all just sat and waited for a couple hours. Around 4, the monitor told us there was only one more group to be taken in, then he would ask about the possibility for Non-Equity to be seen. Luckily, these casting directors were feeling gracious and let us all sing! After I sang, one of the directors asked where Pickerington was. I told him, and he responded by telling me he was from Mount Vernon, so we had a little Ohio moment. YEAH! Still haven't heard anything from that audition... I'm not counting my chickens and neither should you.

That night, I made my way over to the Palace Theatre and tried my hand at getting front row lottery tickets to see the current revival of West Side Story. Apparently, that Thursday was not my night. However, last night was! I sat front row center and saw Karen Olivo perform as Anita. She is without a doubt the biggest highlight of this show which actually has a lot of very good performers. Josefina Scaglione (Maria) does a fantastic job and plays Maria a little more grown-up than I've seen in other performers and it made her more human, I think. I've always felt that Maria's big moment at the end of the story comes out of nowhere: all of the sudden she's a woman on the edge, when all around her before is hatred and violence. Ms. Scaglione gives us a hint of intelligence about her Maria and I found the character to actually be appealing and interesting. Her counterpart as Tony, Matt Cavenaugh, has a very lovely lyric voice, but it's very small. In most scenes, I spaced out when he sang because there wasn't much oomph behind it. Most annoyingly, he made this Fosse-esque posed during his highest note in "Maria" that almost made me burst out in laughing. Luckily for him (and the audience), I was too bored to actually react... The dancing was fantastic and I really enjoyed it. It's always nice to see a classic redone in some fashion, but this didn't stray too far from what is expected.

Tuesday night I saw an advance screening of Flashforward, the new "sprawling" drama on ABC. It's actually pretty good. The premise is great: everyone in the world loses conciousness for two minutes and 17 seconds at the same time. When they all come to, they found out what happens when we all stop functioning. During those moments, they also see a flash of their future six months from now. So people like what they see, others are haunted by their imminent destiny. The acting needs some improvement: I expected more from you Joseph Fiennes. The script isn't terrible, but it could use some wising up. What really got me was how the director was apparently TRYING to make this show as dramatic as possible, particular during the sequences when they're showing the devastation from everyone passing out. Overall, I really think you should all watch it. It's on ABC, Thursdays at 8. If you missed it tonight, there is an encore presentation of it tomorrow night at 8--set your DVR. I miss DVR...

As of today, I've officially lived longer at my current residence than I did at the sublet in August. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Before I know it, I'll be packing up to fly home for Christmas--maybe Thanksgiving. I can't decide if I want to be back home for Thanksgiving, or spend my first Thanksgiving as a New Yorker in New York. Help me decide. I've posted a new poll on the right-hand side of the page. Here's what I'm thinking: I am going home for Christmas, being there for Thanksgiving will be so soon, so why not just wait another month? I've already proven to myself that a month in NYC flies by. Additionally, I just thinking my first time being home should be Christmas. Maybe I'm just wanting my arrival back home to be more dramatic--that sounds more like me, right?

Anyway, let me know what you think. I've heard that some of you are having trouble commenting on here. I don't really know what you tell you about that. For all I know you just click comment and then type what you want to say. Maybe you need to have a gmail account or something. Not sure. I'll look into it more. I would like to hear from more of you, though. I've caught up with a couple people, but there's still a lot of you out there that I haven't heard from at all since I moved out here (cough*Sean*cough).

In other news, I'd like to give a big shout out to my dad. He's currently on the road as he recently started a new job as a trucker! The little I've gotten to talk to him he sounds so happy, which makes me happy. Best of luck, Dad! Hope you're having the time of your life! (Aww, Patrick Swayze...RIP)

Happy Adventures!