Return to the centre of the universe!

I am in Toronto. Wheeeee!

Okay, their website says nothing so I am planning to be at the Victory on Friday around 6pm. If I don't see you before then, or if I do and you aren't sick of me, stop by :-)

Merry Ho Ho

I am currently in the other nation's capital so normal posts will resume in the new year.
For those of you in Toronto, I'm hoping of course to see you all individually, but if that doesn't happen, I'm planning on going to The Victory on Friday, January 1 at around say 6 or 7pm. I'm assuming they will be open that night...I should look into it. Anyway, I'll look that up somehow but put that in your calendars if you haven't had enough of me during the week...
Merry Christmas all y'all.

This made me really happy

As seen outside a coffee shop in Eastern Market this afternoon...

Snowballs in DC

You may have heard of the snowball fight at 14th and U, 2 blocks from me. I actually wish I'd heard about it while it was still on. It sounds like it was just some spontaneous fun for a bunch of people (around 200 ) who really never get to see much snow. That is until a snowball hit the car of an off-duty police officer. He then got out of his car with his gun drawn. He was in his personal vehicle and not in uniform. So of course someone calls in that there's a guy on the street with a gun and more police show up (the station is just next door to me). So yeah, it was all fun until the stupid DC cop behaved like a moron. Really, only in America would this happen...

Winter in Dupont Circle

16 inches fell in DC by 7pm tonight...

There and back again...

It was actually very beautiful out. Not at all cold and the snow falling constantly but not in an aggressive way. If you had snow tires I don't think driving would even be a problem. The metro was slow, but honestly not much worse than it is on a normal weekend. Anyway, made it out to Alison's and ate a lot. Her parents had the party catered (with waiters in tuxedos...) and had expected over 100 guests. About 30 made it - not bad considering. It seems to be a DC thing, catered parties in private homes (it is a different way of life here for sure). They served (among other things..) these butternut squash quesadillas - yummy!!!

In the "my life in DC is weird" vein, one of the other guests at this party was a former Toronto Argonaut. Nice guy - played with them in the 1999 - 2002 period. But seriously small world and I do wonder why this sort of thing happens to me all the time here...

Metro closing...

So with 10 inches on the ground in DC, the metro is closing the above ground stations at 1pm - so no Old Town party for me this evening. I should still be able to get to Alison's as that stretch is all underground - and it's not actually cold out, just snowing, so I see it as a bit of an adventure. Plus she has more food there than I do here since I've been using stuff up in preparation for being away. :-) And I bet I'd whip all these guys at a snowball fight!

Everything is shut down - the non-Smithsonian Museums, some entire banking chains. I guess getting in from the suburbs would be next to impossible. Though you'll be happy to hear that many of the malls remain open. There was a run on them last night from what I understand - the anticipated storm driving people out after work. You wouldn't think that this country is still deep in a recession...

Still snowing...

DC declared a "snow state of emergency" this morning. Virginia did it last night before it had even started to snow. Apparently this is so they can tow your car if you are parked on a snow route (otherwise they might be violating someone's civil liberties by requesting that you move your car! Americans are weird). I'm impressed that it's still actively snowing out though...

I am still planning to attempt at least one of the Christmas parties today. Alison is just in Cleveland Park, so 3 or 4 metro stops away (all underground stops too). Tonight's shindig in Old Town is more questionable... I'm assuming at some point the metro will get stuck and stop moving in which case Alison's family has tonnes of space or it is conceivably walking distance, less likely to want to camp out at the VP of Theatre Programming's place..

Storm of the Century!

Well that's what they are saying DC is in for - up to 20 inches of snow between now and Sunday morning. This apparently would be the most snowfall for a December in DC since 1932 and if it happens, is actually a significant amount of snow for a place with no snow removal budget left.

Everyone here was freaking out about it all afternoon. All flights for tomorrow had been cancelled by 4pm this afternoon (that would be before any snow actually hit). It started around 9pm and there is accumulation on cars and things now. So it's a real snowfall anyway. Apparently the fact that this storm is coming up at us from the south makes it bad. Something to do with the ocean temperatures being cold.

I'm hoping that all the craziness will be cleared up by Monday morning when I'm due to fly out. Also I'm really hoping Eastern Market will be open on Sunday when I was planning to pick up the last of my Christmas shopping - if not I'll have to move to plan B, which involves coming up with a plan B rather quickly...

Parties, parties, parties

Today was the KC's Christmas party. I was actually very impressed with it - it was a middle of the afternoon affair but it had catered food (not much veggie but still), an open bar (hic!) and a 12+ piece brass band playing - they were awesome. They were actually playing the concert on the Millennium Stage tonight so it was a bit of a two for one deal. Anyway, people actually sang along and danced. It was good fun.

Tonight we had our very merry Fellow Xmas gathering along with our Secret Slightly Over-Weight Jolly Seasonal Character gift exchange - also lots of fun. I got Joel, our new program coordinator, and so made him a "how to be Canadian" kit complete with maple fudge, Canada flag and pin and other assorted Canadiana. He's from Michigan so basically wants to be Canadian anyway (who doesn't!). Oh, I also made him an official "fan" page on Facebook, which he took in the spirit that it was intended :-)

Last night I went to see Young Frankenstein (same tour that will be in Toronto in March). I have to admit that I'm not really a Mel Brooks fan. I found this to basically have the same characters of The Producers, without such good songs. So I didn't love it. However, "the people" did (standing ovation) so hopefully it will sell well - sales have been slow. And I have to admit that even I laughed out loud at a number of occasions..

I can't believe tomorrow is my last work day before I fly home - lots still to do and coordinate. And oh yeah, at some point I have to pack! Ack! Saturday I have two more Christmas parties - crazy considering how few people I know in this city. One of them is back in Old Town, about 3 blocks from where I used to live - naturally! But that's okay, one night of commuting is better than five nights a week.

Entries may be sporadic over the holidays, please bare with me!

Official Fellows Honors Picture

As promised. Some of us are missing as this was a bit impromptu. However here we are at table 42...

More maple

I'm not sure what it is about DC that has made me want to bake things that I've never baked before. You will remember the runny buttertarts of Canadian Thanksgiving. This week I've been attempting maple fudge - to be Canadian - for our fellows Christmas gathering on Thursday.

Wisely I did a test run last night to allow myself room for error. Once again, the recipe did not set! Argh. So after consulting the Christensen-Torrs of Oakville who are much finer bakers than I could ever be, I tried again this evening. Success! I bought a thermometer on my way home and it made all the difference. Last night I think I had it boiling about 10 degrees to low and that clearly was enough to prevent whatever reaction needed to happen from happening. It is cooling now, but it certainly looks like fudge and the batter tasted like fudge so I think we're a go. Yay me!

Night of 200 Tubas

The much anticipated all Tuba Christmas Concert was held today on Millennium Stage. And yes, that was just as awesome as it sounds. I'm not sure how you come up with the idea of inviting EVERYONE who plays tuba to all come and play it at the same time, but it's a tradition around these parts. Video and photographic evidence attached. I should specify that this was taken at the rehearsal this afternoon, so don't judge too harshly - there was such enthusiasm. And it doesn't really do how loud it was justice. This is from 3 levels above.

Downtown grocery shopping is expensive...No wonder there are line ups out the door for the Trader Joe's near work...

Slugs

Washington tidbit #578

Slugs is the term that is used for this very grassroots system they have here for commuters coming in from Virginia (forgive me if I've already spoken about slugs...it's raining and gloomy here today so my brain is not fully functioning. Sluggish! I think I may have as Donna at work picks up Slugs every day...)

There are huge park 'n' ride lots in the Virginian suburbs. There are buses that pick up from these lots and head into several main transfer terminals (Pentagon, Rosslyn etc) however I'm told that these buses can take up to an hour and half to drop you at a metro station. Because of this, the Slug system emerged. A Slug is a person who needs a ride. Slugs will form lines depending on where they want to be dropped off (there are no signs or anything, the slugs all just know...). Drivers will pick up a certain number of Slugs and drop them off at one point in DC. No money is exchanged, the benefit to the driver is that they get to use the HOV lanes and therefore get in to town faster.

But there are rules. In fact there are websites devoted to the Slug rules. A Slug does not have to accept a ride and can wave a car off and get in the next one. Slugs are not to touch the radio. Slugs are not to speak unless the driver initiates conversation. And on and on. I admire it on one hand as it seems to be so efficient, but on the other, it's all a bit weird.

Holidays...

It occurs to me that I should mention when I'll be in Canada over the holiday weeks. This way hopefully I won't forget to tell anyone...

Ottawa - Dec. 21 to 26

Toronto - Dec. 27 to Jan 2

and then back to Ottawa for one night, flying out on the 3rd.

I'm a bit in denial that this is coming up so quickly and with Honors and the move am wishing I'd bought myself a bit more time to get organized. However, I'm sure it will all get sorted out. I have a low key weekend planned so maybe I'll begin to feel more on top of things shortly...

Random Fellow moment

Last night at the bar after the advocacy event, Damion, on of my fellow fellows was interviewed by a French TV news crew. This was very odd. Damion is the most sincere and earnest of our group - and a DC native so it seemed most fitting that they spoke to him. Their first question? Has Obama being President changed the night life in the DC area? Now that is cutting edge journalism. They were speaking English with very thick French accents so I was having to translate a bit so that everyone was understood. It does seem to be the sort of surreal thing that keeps happening to us on our bizarre journey...

Nights of arts advocacy

It seems the nights I'm not at performances I'm at DC arts networking and advocacy events. Last two nights in a row. What's interesting is that it seems that the idea of arts advocacy is very much in its infancy here. A similar event in Toronto would be packed or at least decently attended, in DC the fellows are often half the room.

Last night the event was to raise awareness of the arts budget cuts at the DC city council level. DC city politics are strange because ultimately Congress can overturn any decision that they make. I wonder why anyone bothers under these conditions. Seriously. There is very little support for an active arts movement here, I'm sure partly because the population is so transient and so much of the art comes from out of town - I don't know how large the live-in arts community here really is. Anyway, the event was at an art gallery - small, independent type so that was cool and a sharp contrast to the Smithsonian level galleries I've been frequenting since landing here. It was attended mostly by visual artists which makes sense, but there was a tiny turn out. The most fun of the night was going for dinner at a soul food restaurant across the street. It was just a very relaxing time.

Tonight's event was at a jazz club two blocks from my new apartment (fabulous! - I'm actually in a total jazz hood here I think there are half a dozen jazz clubs within 3 blocks of me). I'm not even sure what the point of the night was (the event itself was terribly organized - 40 minutes of speeches and a room laid out in such a way that it was impossible to "mingle" and yet the organizers kept trying to get people to stand up and mingle - not possible when the room is packed with tables and the servers can't even get by). However, I met the woman who does the jazz programming for the Smithsonian. Who knew they did jazz programming? Well I sort of did as there is a summer concert series in one of the sculpture gardens, but apparently there is a whole Smithsonian Jazz Ensemble. The woman was very cool (as you'd imagine) and for the first time I took someone's card who I'd be interested in talking more to. The Smithsonian used to do a whole range of performing arts and in fact, the KC model was based on what the Smithsonian did. After the KC opened, the Smithsonian stopped doing most of its live programming but the jazz somehow survived.

Anyway, it feels like it's been a long week, which I guess with the whole moving and Honors it really has. One more day and then I'll get to my groceries...

Honors pics

Yes here are some pictures - finally I know! They took an "official" fellows shot too which I'll put up once I get a copy of it.

Top is my Honors ID :-). Middle is the Grand Foyer from the balcony of the Eisenhower Theatre. 1800 people for dinner after the ceremony - something like 150 tables. And then me, at Table 42 :-) And for the observant amongst you, yes this is the same dress I wore to the Lion King opening, thus making it worth the ridiculous amount of money I spent on it at the time! It has now been in the same room as the President...

Am very tired and my go to be ridiculously early tonight. Have been unpacking and am settling in to the new place. I have too much stuff.

I walked to work this morning and it only took half an hour - this is actually a little faster than it will take me on the metro. Very exciting.

Anyway, I know you all don't care about that and want to hear more Honors stories.

For act two I was moved around a bit and for one segment was in a very prime location which will likely end up on the television broadcast. So if you are watching on December 29 on CBS, during the speech by Stephen Schwarzman (our chairman) and Aretha Franklin, I'm sitting dead centre of the orchestra about...ten rows back. People watching backstage said I was on the monitors which means I was taped. Of course I may end up edited out (shameful!) but we'll see. It's hard looking interested and engaged for extended periods of time.

For act one I had a terrific view of the Presidential box with the Obamas, Joe Biden and the Honorees. I was just below them, slightly to house right, two rows in front of the balcony overhang. When they first all came in, I was surprised that I actually felt chills seeing Bruce Springsteen next to Michelle Obama. It was really quite a remarkable experience.

Michelle was in purple and so was I! Look at me being all trendy. I had a pink wrap on though all the better to be spotted on TV :-)

We started our new rotations today. And of course because bureaucracy runs slowly, I had no computer. Apparently a computer had been requested, but IT believed that there was a computer at my work station and so did nothing. When being told that there wasn't one, they didn't believe it, but didn't come look until 2pm either. Supposedly I'll have one tomorrow. I left at 4 and went to Target.

Quick recap

Am just now home for the Honors extravaganza - it ran long so dinner was served at midnight - weeee!! Anyway, pretty remarkable event. I was a seat filler for the ceremony itself. In act one I sat next to jazz musician Christian McBride's wife while he played in the Dave Brubeck (apologies for spelling, it's 2am...) tribute (amazing by the way). His wife was lovely. When I explained to her that I was there to fill in for her husband she took me literally and talked to me throughout like we were old friends. To her left was the head of national counter terrorism. Yup, top guy looking for terrorists. I told him that in a movie he'd be played by Harrison Ford. He asked me if I meant young Harrison. I said yes, but I hadn't meant it! He actually was remarkably young for such a demanding job.

Celebs spotted up close: JON STEWART (yay!!!), Melissa Etheridge, Meryl Streep, Sharon Stone, Christian McBride (when he returned to his seat - jazz celeb), Herbie Hancock among others.

Best moment of the night, during the Bruce Springsteen tribute, seeing President Obama groove away while Melissa Etheridge played. He looks so tired, I think he could use a night off.

Bruce Springsteen is hot - something I'd never noticed before. Must now try to go see him in concert....

Good night, more tomorrow...

Honors here we come

I've moved!!! yay! Officially a resident of the District. Haven't unpacked, though made the bed. Hair = check

Nails = check

Now must hope the dress still fits and that I can find the appropriate undergarments to wear...and must leave in an hour. Wish me luck...

And so the crazy begins!

First I apologize to everyone who called me today that I could not speak with or have not called back. And it seemed that everyone I know called me! (which is lovely - but it's Honors weekend people! did you not read the last few posts?)

Adding to the crazy of Honors today was SNOW. Yes, it snowed in DC. I think a couple of inches in total, though none of it has lasted. It started this morning as I was on my way in to work and it sure did make people cranky. It was that pretty fluffy snow which in Canada we'd all just look out the window and say "awww pretty" and then go about our business. Here people can't drive and things shut down. Now it's just raining which is worse in my mind.

Today's major event was the Chairman's luncheon for the Honorees. Lots of big wigs in attendance. As well as all the Honorees of course- except Bruce Springsteen, not sure where he was. Anyway, so I got my first sighting of Robert De Niro and Dave Brubeck. I've met Mel Brooks of course because of The Producers in Toronto, and the fifth honoree, Grace Bumbry I'm sure is a lovely woman, but really no one is there looking for her autograph if you catch my drift.

Carol Burnett was at lunch as well as a couple of the folk from Criminal Minds (don't know their actual names). Senators and Congressmen were everywhere. I gave Michael York directions which was pretty much the hi-light of my afternoon.

The other big news this weekend is that tonight is my last night in Virginia. Tomorrow I officially live in the District. Yay!! It's very cool. I picked up my keys this afternoon and took a few bags over there tonight to ease the move in the morning. It's only a cab ride, but I thought if I didn't have to lug 4 cases all at once, that would be best. The place is bigger than I remember and my new roommate still seems very sweet. My own bathroom has a small tub - I had thought it was just a shower stall so this is really amazing news. Anyway, I'm feeling very positive about the change and all that it will bring. Tomorrow will be a crazy day, but will definitely be worth it.

Hmmm...this is my first posting from work and the site is coming up all funky, so I hope the end result is normal...
Honors madness has begun so I may not be able to post again until Monday - please be patient! That and the move makes for one very busy weekend.
I have very little to do actually - much less busy than I had anticipated. Tomorrow I'm at the Honorees luncheon - probably at a table in a different room from them! (but that's okay) and Sunday itself I don't have to be around until about 5pm. I'm a seat filler for the awards show itself, which means I'm likely to be on camera at some point as I sit next to a presenter's wife - bit stressful really, but should be fun. We have also just found out that we will be seated for the dinner afterwards as well - which is very unexpected. And kinda cool.
Preparations have already begun with areas of the building off limits and the front plaza being powerwashed. I have my Honors badge! (I took a picture, will post it next week :-) )
And I am very glad I don't drive in as the list of restrictions on the parking garage this weekend was about 3 pages long. The sniffer dogs will be in full force. However, the gift store remains open, so if Robert De Niro wants to pop in and buy a KC mug, he'll be able to do so....

Next rotations

So Monday, yes the day after the Honors, we start in our new rotations. As I may have mentioned, I'll be in marketing for half a rotation and then switching to theatre programming for the remainder. I met with the theatre boys here (yes, three of them, all boys) and think that all is going to be just fine. My supervisor John is worried that I'll be bored because it's all work I've done before, but as I said to him, I've not done it for the KC. And it's going to be busy, busy, busy as I'll be working on our McNally 3 play festival so lots of actors and creative types stressing about the place. Love it.

Marketing typically only gets two fellows per rotation and I am a bit of an add on because of my weird situation. So I won't actually be sitting in the marketing department (no room), I will actually take up residence in the theatre department right away but do marketing work - this is actually on an entirely different floor, but okay by me.

There is really very poor communication between departments - which I suppose is not unusual for large organizations. So John calls me today and asks when my marketing rotation starts (and therefore when I'll be joining them downstairs). "Monday", I say. "Hmmmm. There might be a logistical problem with that", he says. "Oh?" "Yes, that's where Max (VP of theatre programming) likes to put the Christmas tree. Looks like you are going to kill Christmas, I hope you're okay with that..." Imagine this completely deadpan.

I love it already. My plan tomorrow is to show up with some sort of Christmas tree thing (perhaps a hat if I can find one...) and present it to Max in order to save Christmas.

A typical Tuesday

Today was a very bizarre day. I ended up at three events, none of which I was attending when the day started.

In the afternoon I went to the dress rehearsal for our next TYA show Teddy Roosevelt and the Ghostly Mistletoe. A significant portion of our children's programming seems to focus on tales about presidents. The stories are fiction, but they give little educational tidbits throughout - helpful for me, because I know very little about American Presidents. This one was about the President not wanting a Christmas tree but his kids trying to persuade him to get one. It was quite cute, with some fun slap-stick bits which I'm sure the kids in particular would enjoy, but I didn't find the writing overly strong.

I then attended a panel discussion with four of the actors from August Osage County. Why did I do this??? I was kicking myself about 2 minutes in. Actors, when given the opportunity to speak in public, talk about themselves. Endlessly. And they aren't very interesting or articulate (with rare exceptions of course). This was mind-numbing. My Toronto friends will be pleased to know that they loved the audiences in TO (though they slammed the Canon Theatre itself - which is hard to fault them for...). One of the actresses kept saying "hilar", because of course saying the full word "hilarious" is just too much work. How many ways can I say annoying??Anyway, in addition the event was poorly moderated and so the hour felt much, much longer.

And lastly I went to a lecture by these folk:

http://www.nysocialdiary.com/node/281959

It was on:

“A World of Trouble: The White House & the Middle East--from the Cold War to the War on Terror”

I felt a bit like there should have been a secret handshake or something to get in. It was a room full of retired journalists and high up Capitol Hill folk (who I'm sure I should likely have recognized). It was interesting, but far too broad a topic to be covered in an hour and the speaker basically summed it all up with "it's complicated", which wasn't really anything we didn't know going in. It was like a DC lefty version of some of the political groups some of my Canadian relatives have been known to attend :-) It was that high functioning, retired but still engaged demographic. It was however, a pleasant change from talking about arts management in these troubled economic times! Which is what I spend all day talking about and debating...

Decidedly Uninspired

I'm only posting so that Katherine will not give me a hard time. :-)

The weekend was very low key for around here - yesterday I was decidedly domestic: Trader Joe's, laundry, packing and catching up on some TV on Hulu. I was supposed to go to a movie out in Maryland, but Maryland is far from here and when you get there...you are in Maryland, so I bailed. Bailing also allowed me to have a wonderful skype date with friends in Toronto. So wonderful to see and hear you!

Today I went to the matinee of August Osage County. I saw it on Broadway and didn't love it but I thought I'd give it a second chance (since it's free and all). This is the same tour that just left Toronto FYI. Well, still didn't love it. I still feel most of act one doesn't need to be there and the thing could be a good hour shorter (this is not asking that much since it is 3 1/2 hours long!). I think I liked it even less than I did on Broadway as there was some atrocious acting - a couple of stand-outs as well of course - however this seems to be the theme of theatre in DC.

Anyway, I'm not sure exactly what this week will bring. Next Sunday night is Honors and next Sunday morning I move - so that's all very exciting. The lead up so far feels calm, but I'm not sure if it's calm-before-the-storm calm or just regular calm. So I enter the week slightly apprehensive!

It's a Ghetto Watergate Christmas

Yes it is 1974 and this is the best they could do...

The 600

I feel perhaps I've been remiss lately in not talking about the time I spend in bars. It's what the people do here!

The 600 is the bar that is physically closest to the KC without actually being in the KC. It is in the Watergate building on street level and if you were to dine at the 600 it would be remarkably expensive. Especially considering that the food isn't very good and the service generally speaking worse. However, because of it's proximity to work, we go there a couple of times a week (hey, if you are seeing shows at the rate I'm seeing them currently you'd need a drink too!). And if I've only learned two things in my time in theatre, then i thought they should be good ones. The first, as I believe I've covered here before, is to be nice to your box office staff, the second, is to be nice to, and get to know, your bartender and if it's somewhere you ever want to go again, try and tip well. I find that DC folk tip badly so the latter isn't too hard to do, even on what I'm making now.

So there are several regular bartenders at the 600 - Matt and Andre are the only two to deal with though and if they aren't working, you might as well just leave. I achieved a milestone this week in the bartender/patron relationship: I have reached free drink status. A few of us had been in there on Monday briefly after work (in light of the rotation debacle - which has now all been sorted out fortunately). Neither were working - as it's the dark night at the KC, the 600 is dead dead dead. Anyway, the service was beyond awful - and I mentioned to Matt on Wednesday when we were in there before the Nutcracker how relieved I was to see him. I ordered the usual happy hour red wine (swill as I like to refer to it because it's pretty awful) and he said that he had something better for me to try and low and behold, a free round of really yummy wine!

Tonight, before the NSO Pops concert (Marvin Hamlisch conducting the music from the Music Man - lovely) I paid only happy hour swill price for what I was pretty sure was the yummy wine. Far more drinkable. My work here is done.

Football

I would be remiss if I did not speak about football on American Thanksgiving. It's everywhere.

I was told, when I asked a real live American why Thanksgiving was on a Thursday, that FDR tried to move it but that would have interrupted the football schedule so there was great protest and hence nothing changed. America is weird. And actually the whole Thursday thing comes from Lincoln, but my friend didn't know why.

I could also go to Target at 5am tomorrow if I wanted to (I'm not). Also weird. Some stores are opening at 3. Crazy.

Will write more tomorrow but am at my FFFs place tonight on her funky french keyboard!!!
Happy Thanksgiving all y'all.

Another week, another stat holiday

Yes indeed tomorrow is American Thanksgiving so that would be two randomly placed mid-week stat holidays for this month. I'm going in to work on Friday but I think it will be a fairly deserted place - I just didn't see the point in using a vacation day when I wasn't going anywhere. And this way I can slack. And maybe even wear jeans to work (imagine!). For tomorrow, one of my fellow fellows has invited the stray fellows for dinner at her parents' home so I think that should be quite lovely. I am really still baffled by why Thanksgiving is such a big deal here. I mean people hugged me before leaving today (now I am very huggable of course :-) but still).

Tonight I saw the Pennsylvania Ballet version of The Nutcracker. It was Ballanchine's choreography which I thought somehow would make it more interesting. It didn't. Not really anyway. I mean it was very pretty (lovely snow - Alistair would have liked the snow) and the music was gorgeous of course, but I just find the dance itself a bit...random. And dull. Act one is more dull, act two more random. So I suppose the randomness is at least somewhat interesting to watch. I apologize to all the ballet lovers out there, it's just not my cup of tea.

However, I felt I should take advantage of the opportunity since it was there to be had.

Goodnight y'all.

OH, I said "uh huh" today instead of thank you the way Americans do!!! Ack!!

Work was pretty dire today. Everyone is all stressy about Honors (which is only 10 days away). The big thing currently is seating. Who sits where for the show and where for the dinner etc etc etc. For those of you who worked on it with me, picture the Lion King opening night seating times about 12 with two Presidents thrown in for extra fun (as yes, it is believed that President Clinton will be attending with his wife the Secretary of State...so that's two Presidents in one room). This happened once before when Bush Senior attended with Bush Junior, but it wasn't quite so politically charged as you can imagine. And of course everyone and their next door neighbour want to be here this year with the Obamas. I think I'll end up seeing it from the parking lot we are that over-booked currently...

All the Fellows are in a twitter because we got our rotation assignments yesterday and many people are not happy. We'll see how it all comes out eventually but there are major rumblings. I actually did pretty well and got what I asked for more or less. I had requested to do a theatre programming rotation around our McNally festival which is happening in the spring. Because of the weird timing though, this meant that I had to fudge dates as it doesn't work with the rotation schedule. So the plan for me is to go next to marketing but only for half a rotation when I will then go to theatre and stay there for the duration. I absolutely love our VP of marketing so am quite pleased to get to work with him a bit more but am also pleased to not to have to do a full rotation in marketing. We do some interesting stuff, so there is much to learn, it's just not an area I want to focus in long term.

As for the others, I think some really poor decisions were made and I think that there needs to be an explanation given for them. Hopefully this will be forthcoming. Ultimately, I think the structure of the program needs an overall - and I've said as much to the program manager. However, that won't happen this year for sure. Hoping for a less tense tomorrow and that calmer winds will prevail heading in to the holiday on Thursday....

One of the places we discovered this weekend was a different and far superior, sculpture garden. I believe there is jazz in the summer at this one. It is part of the Hirshorn Museum (I think I'm spelling that wrong...) which is part of the Smithsonian. It's just on the other side of the Mall - really just across the street from the other one. This garden is full of Rodin and Henry Moore and just really beautiful and peaceful work. It's a place I hope to visit again and where you could go just to sit for a while and be...

We also had gelato

It was yummy. And next door to a Lululemon store...

Le Weekend Canadianne!

Visiting the Obamas

My first two Canadian visitors! Yay! :-) of course I stayed with them in their hotel, rather than them staying with me. Full weekend where I tried to play tour guide and not get us horribly lost in a city where I'm still finding my feet. (stupid diagonal streets...)

It's funny because it didn't feel unusual that they were here at all - we were just hanging out at a restaurant having some drinks. It was all completely normal. My two besties and me hangin' out. (It's so weird that I live here.)

I wish I'd taken my lap top to the hotel and could have commented on the fly (my iTouch was not really cooperating with the hotel WiFi) because now it's all a blur. We did Georgetown and Eastern Market and some monuments and some sculpture and shopping. A little jazz at the Kennedy Center to show the place off a bit. Food and drink was the full range from DC Coast which was named DC's "best seafood restaurant" (and it was really good - not that I had seafood mind you, but really unbelievably good kale of all things) to finally going to Ben's Chili Bowl, the DC institution loved by Bill Cosby. We sat at the counter and ate chili half smokes (again not me!) and veggie chili fries (me) and watched the complete crazy-calm as they served dozens and dozens of people - they just kept streaming in.

This was just before the crowning evening of the weekend at the Elliott Brood concert. There was a lot of Canadian in our weekend as we also went to the Edward Burtynsky photography exhibit Oil at the Corcoran Gallery (fantastic - a real hi-light for me I have to say).

Elliott Brood is a Toronto band who is a favorite of ours. I think I've seen them 10 times or so in concert. It was amazing seeing them in this tiny dive bar on a dive street in NW DC with only a handful of others who knew their music. And I know I'm a big loser for being so excited by this but I admit it freely, a truly memorable moment for me of my whole time here is that we spoke to one of them after the show. Never could have done that in Toronto now they are playing to 2000+. So yes, call me a crazy groupie or whatever but it made me giddy.

A lovely full weekend :-) I'm sure I'll have more on it as this week goes on...

First visitors in town! Next post will be on Monday! :-)

The wrong side of the tracks

There are worse parts of the city than where I was this evening, but I'm not running to go find them.

Tonight I went with two FFs to an event at a gorgeous new(ish anyway) theatre in a really not so good neighbourhood. Interesting for me to experience this on many levels. The theatre was more or less walking distance from a metro stop (a metro stop where you could see the Capitol from - I mention this for geographical context) but my friend said he wouldn't walk it (and he's a decent sized black man) so that means you don't walk it. We took a bus - the bus had a hole in its roof. An actual hole. The third fellow and I were the only two white people on the bus. These are things I have not experienced before in an urban centre. Why don't the people traveling to this area get a non-broken bus? (that is a rhetorical question, for the record) The bus was actually highly entertaining (though over-crowded) as there was constant lively banter between the passengers and the driver and amongst themselves. I felt completely comfortable, it's just odd to become aware of things like colour and economics. DC is very segregated. There are good areas which are more mixed and poorer areas as well, but for the most part the really poor neighbourhoods are entirely black or entirely latino. It's really disheartening.

The theatre was on a stretch of road where everything was boarded up except the dance studios attached to the theatre and a Popeye's Chicken across the road. This is of course how gentrification starts. The theatre could afford this neighbourhood, and some day people will want to go to dinner there before seeing a show and so a restaurant will open etc etc etc (I'm not sure how long this facility has been here though the dance studios apparently opened 15 years ago). This theatre was really beautiful and I hope they make a go of it. I fear this neighbourhood has a ways to go before you could really even consider it "in transition".

(I took a cab back to the metro Dad FYI...)

I curse my discovery of peanut butter filled pretzels. Damn you Trader Joe's!!!!

Safeway

Washington tidbit #324

As you may know, Safeway is a grocery chain here in the US. They are all over DC and somehow or other each particular Safeway has a nickname. And these nicknames seem to be universal - it's not just KC people referring to them this way, but it's in common usage. So for instance, there is one in Capitol Hill, near a place I almost rented but I thought the neighbourhood needed to transition a little more before I would be comfortable living there. That Safeway used to be called the UnSafeway. Now it has been upgraded to the Not So Safeway. The Safeway in my new neighbourhood you will be relieved to hear is called the Communist Safeway as it is in the gay village. Gay = Communist in this country I guess.

Go figure.

The one I think is funniest is the Safeway that is on the ground floor of the Watergate building. This is called the Ghetto Safeway. The Watergate itself you would think of as a glamourous sort of place - and maybe the condos are - but the mall part of the complex really doesn't look like it's been touched since Nixon last visited. The Safeway is in fact very ghetto. (for geographical reference the Watergate is right next to the KC so we spend a fair bit of time over there). I imagine the owners of the million dollar condos above the store would not appreciate the cleverness of it all....

Another night of Awesome

Tonight's awesome was brought to you by Marvin Hamlisch. Marvin Hamlisch is the current Pops conductor at the NSO but is better known for composing such gems as A Chorus Line. He's won Tony's and Emmy's and Academy Awards (and a Pulitzer so he's no slouch). He wrote the score for A Spy Who Loved Me (Bond movie!), The Way We Were, Sophie's Choice, Ordinary People and the list goes on and on. Basically any vaguely cheesy movie theme or love ballad from the 70s, he probably wrote it.

I think I've discovered what the KC does well, or at least what I like best. It's this whole Explore the Arts series - educational yet entertaining evenings aimed at adults (edutainment!). Tonight was an interview with Marvin with performances by three Broadway stars singing some of his greatest hits. Top moments however were when he took up the piano himself. First was to show how you write a song. He just started playing and making up lyrics based on a suggestion from the audience - song writing improv! The man was accepted in to Juilliard at the age of six. No kidding. And the last moment of the evening was when he played the overture for A Chorus Line which actually never made it in to the musical. They decided that since the play starts with an audition, that it structurally didn't make sense to have any music before the first scene. So hearing this overture which is never performed was really quite something. The whole evening was just extremely well put together - and well, awesome. It does remind me of how much a love musicals. I love musicals and I am not ashamed!!

Today was spent at a coffee shop in Eastern Market doing finance homework. Yes, we get homework from our finance class - which would be fine if I felt the class was focusing on what we need to know. We've spent weeks on the minutia of accounting -T accounts and the like - whereas I would argue that a one or two week overview covering basic terms and what we should look out for is actually what we need. We need to be able to speak intelligently to an accountant or finance person, not become one (which this won't do anyway). I think the class structure will be changing after our Christmas break as things have been alluded to but not actually expressed out loud. We shall see...

However, it was not a bad way to spend the afternoon - 20c here again (mid-November, I seriously could get used to that), with some people watching thrown in between problems.

Lang Lang

Last night I went to see the NSO special presentation with Lang Lang, the piano virtuoso. After being told it was unlikely that we'd get in, we ended up with fabulous seats on audience left so we had a perfect view of Lang Lang playing. He plays a bit like a caricature of someone playing the piano - arms and hair flaying around the place. Apparently he's not like this at all in rehearsal so it's just part of his stage persona. He's young so gets away with it (though it was funny hearing some in the audience comment on how he wasn't wearing a tie with his tuxedo jacket. Shocking! and cool looking FYI) If you'd like to get as sense, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b85hn8rJvgw

(sorry I can't get the link to "embed" here...will have to figure that out...)

I have to admit that 3 of the 4 pieces of the evening left me cold. The NSO played two on their own and they were their usual lack luster efforts. The first piece with Lang Lang, Beethoven's Piano Concerto no.1 in C major, sounded like they'd never played it together before. Now, this is not a piece of music that I'm familiar with but it did not sound like the piano was meant to be played with the rest of the orchestra - when of course it is. The couple of orchestra people I was with (who did know the music) agreed with me.

Fortunately the evening was entirely worth it for the last piece, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto no.3 in C major, which was brilliant and exciting and had the audience on its feet at the end. It was truly breathtaking playing. I would love to see him play again with a somewhat less...regimented orchestra. The NSO never quite feels to me like they love what they are doing...

A brush with Cate

Had my first up close and personal encounter with Ms Blanchett tonight. :-)

I basically walked into her (I know, this will not shock most of you!) at stage door. Not realizing who it was I looked up and said "oh excuse me" quickly followed by "oh, hi". Very articulate. She said hi back. She is very tiny but tall. I'm sure we will be BFFs now!

A beautiful Sunday

Okay, these posts are now out of order and I should have written this one first but oh well.

We had an absolutely stunning weekend here so I and a couple of fellows opted to see the outdoor offerings of the Smithsonian - the Botanical Gardens and the Outdoor Sculpture Gardens. Both were lovely and will be stunning in the spring. I've included a few snap shots for you. And yes, those are flowers blooming OUTDOORS in November. Not so hard to take really.

The first shot is for my Little Shop peeps - I found the original Audrey in the Smithsonian Botanical Gardens!

One thing that is pretty neat about DC is that you randomly happen upon interesting things all the time. I was waiting outside a metro stop for the other fellows to arrive, and discovered the US Navy Memorial (above). It is fittingly partly a fountain and just there, peaceful and unassuming. It is wonderful to make little discoveries like that.

apologies!

We have been experiencing internet issues here in Old Town which seem to be resolved - fingers crossed. Many exciting things happening - most important on my mind is that I'm moving. Yay!

So this happens early December and I will officially become a resident of the District. So if you were planning on mailing me something, please wait until I am safely housed in my new venue. I will forward that address to however would like it.

We had Veterans' Day off yesterday, as I am a federal employee of sorts don't you know (almost as good as working for the CBC...). I went to Arlington Cemetery in the morning with a fellow fellow and had a lovely walk - albeit in the rain. It's a very beautiful place and I will try and go back on a better weather day...

I hadn't realized that the President would be there - I should have of course, but didn't think about it. So we missed the window where we could have gotten to the wreath laying ceremony, but his motorcade did pass us (see above - he is in one of these cars!) so that's nearly as good. My first near brush with the Obamas. I would just like to note that I think it's awful that people are protesting outside the school where his two daughters are going. They are just children and are not responsible for their fathers decisions - the good ones nor the bad ones. People are awful.

I had a very full Sunday and Monday (today included a group sales event for the Mary Poppins tour which arrives at the KC next summer - I got an umbrella!!) and a very moving play reading this evening. However, it's late and I'm tired so more details to follow.

I will leave you with one story from our finance class this morning. We were discussing depreciation and writing off bad debt/damaged inventory etc. Our Russian fellow often tells stories in finance about Russian accounting. Today's was (please picture the appropriate Russian accent):

In Russia(pause) we would buy the carpet (pause), say we used it (pause), say we bought it again the next year, but just use the same carpet over and over.

It's the Garth Drabinsky school of accounting!

Hmmmm, I'm thinking this is losing something in translation when written down, so you may just have to trust me that it's funny. I'll do it for you next time I see you.

Seeing George Washington

It was a perfect fall day today so I changed my original plan of an art exhibit downtown and decided to walk to the other side of Old Town to visit the George Washington Masonic Temple. As you can see above, it is quite a beautiful building. I arrived just as a tour was starting so I joined in. I know very little about the freemasons and I kept thinking that my dad and brother would have gotten a lot more out of this tour than I did. The building was built as a memorial to George Washington who was very prominent in the Alexandria chapter of the freemasons. GW is really big in Alexandria, well in DC too - go figure. There are chairs he sat on, mugs he used, papers he wrote, all over the place.

I asked the very young tour guide (who himself was a mason) if there really were aliens in the basement. This is why Hollywood is filled with Canadian comedians. Americans have no sense of humour. My talents were wasted.

We didn't get to see any of the building that they actually use, but still it was quite a grand structure. I did find it funny that the guide kept stressing how the freemasons were not the same as the knights templar and that was all just pop culture mumbo jumbo, meanwhile, he referred to some rituals and practices that the masons follow that were directly taken from the knights templar. There was also a painting of some important person from the original knights who had sacrificed himself for his beliefs that was in their chapel. But no, the two groups aren't related at all. If he says so...

I asked about women in the masons and he said oh yes, yes they can join. Not the actual group of course but their own one run by women and called something else - and then only if they have a relative (male) who is a mason. Now I'm not saying that women should have to be allowed to join the masons, but if they aren't, just be honest about it.

We did get to go up to the observation level at the top of the tower. The temple sits on top of a hill and so has a wonderful view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately the fall here is not like at home so the colours are quite muted and not the golden yellows and brilliant reds of autumn in Ontario....

Some of the mason brotherhood have very funny hats.

A Streetcar Named Desire

I wonder what it means when I say I think the definitive production of Tennessee Williams' classic piece has been created by an Australian theatre company. Paid for by Americans, but not created by them.

I have only seen two productions of Streetcar before last night. Most recently in Toronto by Soulpepper (a good 10 years ago), in an absolutely horrific self-indulgent version. So perhaps my sample is not large. But what I do know is that too often people play up the obvious. Stanley tries to be Marlon Brando. Stella is just a one dimensional victim. Not so in the Sydney Theatre Co. production.

Cate Blanchett is divine as Blanche. She seems so easy on stage somehow. So at home there. There isn't a false or artificial moment in her work. It's interesting, in her talk earlier in the week, she mentioned accents and the discussion they had had surrounding the southern accents in this piece. She spoke about the rhythms in Williams' writing and how without the accents the dialogue did not flow as he intended it to. The all Australian acting company's accents were of course flawless. But it is the rhythm of this production that they got exactly right. Nothing is forced, every moment is honest. The design is perfect. Dingy enough but allows for some clever staging. Mostly muted colours with a couple of noted exceptions in the costumes.

The other actors kept pace with Cate too. Especially I felt the Stella. Robin McLeavy, an Australian actress with no international credits, plays Stella with many levels and great empathy. She isn't a victim here - she's made choices, maybe not great ones, but she doesn't regret them and that's a take on the character that I'd not seen before. Stanley is complex. You don't like him at all but he's charismatic and has got that thing that some of those bastard guys have (and takes his shirt off a LOT which is just fine).

The play runs 3 hours 15 minutes but it honestly flew by. I'd go see it again if I could get a ticket.

There have been many Cate sightings now around the building - I have yet to have my first one. I think I should take up smoking as it seems to be the smokers who see her up on the terrace sneaking a ciggy. I do have to admit I've been entering and leaving through the Eisenhower stage door more than normal :-)

As seen on 14th Street....

With helpful tips for what you could need an over-sized pink bunny for. Please note the Obama ornament in the first photo...

Theatrical Highs and Lows

High: Cate Blanchett in conversation. "Theatre at its best is a dangerous and impolite medium".

I cannot wait to see her in Streetcar this Thursday night.

Low: The Worst Play Ever Written, the musical (actual title The Adding Machine). Surprisingly well directed for such a piece of crap.

yoga

Many of you know that I coordinated yoga classes one lunch time a week at Canstage. Well the KC has something similar where a class is held on the balcony lobby of the Opera every Monday. Neat space for yoga with chandeliers, high ceilings and red carpet and remarkably private considering it's open to the Grand Foyer.

I went to class today for the first time and I have to say that I miss Jayme (my old teacher) and class! This class was really geared at the people in our dance department (it is coordinated through them) so it is a very advanced class. That shouldn't matter for yoga really as you can adjust and modify your own practice and go at your own pace. Except this teacher doesn't demonstrate the poses, she only says the names and she wasn't always using a name that I knew or remembered (fish pose? I don't know if I'd every done fish pose...). If you had never taken a yoga class, you would be completely lost in this one. I didn't like that - I like yoga classes that really welcome all levels of experience where there is lots of room to work towards improving yourself without feeling self-conscious (this again is Jayme's influence!)

This teacher also used some weird terminology like "Sun Salutes" instead of "salutations". It made me feel like I was in the military. It was an ashtanga class, so much faster than I am accustomed to with the vinyasas (spelling?) in between poses, which I just don't like (that's partly laziness I admit). So it was fast and confusing until I figured out what pose she meant and not the easiest environment for me to focus on the exercise. Also quite exhausting

- especially for mid day on a Monday. Not sure how often I'll go. It felt good to get some exercise in a structured way but I need to look elsewhere. There is a studio down the street from me which I really should check out at least for a weekend class.

Thank god for an extra hour this weekend. I packed too many things in last week and reached today feeling a tad burned out.

Friday night I ventured to Maryland for the first (and perhaps last!) time to see some modern dance. The dance was not good and the journey was far. Blah. We did however pass a string of excellent strip mall dining establishments - Pollo Primo 2, Don Pollo and my favorite where I wish we'd had time to stop - Pollo Wow! (yes, the restaurant had an ! in its title). Pollo is chicken for my non-Spanish speaking friends and I think Pollo Wow! has a lot of promise.

Saturday night I went to the final preview of the new Woolly Mammoth show (for those of you perhaps not involved in theatre - Hallowe'en is a great night to see a play for free or cheap since no one buys tickets and it is typically a very slow night - this was free). It was an interesting piece and certainly the best theatre I've seen in DC so far. The piece, called Full Circle, takes place in multiple locations around their building (very funky building). It was sort of about the fall of the Berlin Wall except that it wasn't really. It was never actually sinister and was quite stylized in how it was presented - inspired by Caucasian Chalk Circle. It felt a bit likely something we would have seen in Toronto in the 90s, but I think for this town, a noble effort. And very neat to see the space and the different things they did with it. It would be wonderful if when the Theatre Centre's renovations are complete, the building could be as versatile as this one.

Today, I went to a fellows brunch out in Eastern Market. Really nice to see people in such a relaxed and normal setting. I think we are all craving something in our life to be normal. As neat and interesting as everything is, it's exhausting having everything new and different all the time (and still). It's nice to find moments that remind us of how we used to live.

Diplomatic differences

Today I got my first invite to something at the Canadian Embassy. Granted it was a group invite likely sent out to 20,000 people, but I'll take it. The event even sounds fun - it's to mark the start of the 100 day countdown before the Vancouver Olympics. Cool, right? Not so much. It's at 8am on a Wednesday. ???? That can't even coincide with anything happening in Vancouver since that would be 5am there. So actually this event screams lame. So I sent it to my FFF and said, "lame". She sent me back her most recent invite from the French Embassy. A champagne tasting next Saturday night.

Yes, this accurately illustrates the differences between our nations.

The only plus side for the Canadians, at least our event was free - champagne tasting $125.

A Knight in Harman Hall

Let me tell you how this came about. Yesterday I was supposed to have back to back meetings all afternoon. One by one they were canceled (this happens with great regularity in DEVO for whatever reason). I was crabby, crabby, crabby already and having my time wasted made me crabbier. So I decided to surf the internet and not do anything else productive. But of course I didn't want to mindlessly surf the net, this is the Kennedy Center after all, so I was reading the Washington Post (radical I know). What does the Post have, but an interview with Ian McKellen. Why? Because he's in town and doing a one night benefit for the Shakespeare Theatre Company - tonight. Wow.

Okay, google the event and discover that tickets are going for upwards of $500. That's a bit steep on a fellow's salary, but they were still available...and good seats in the centre orchestra were still available so I think to myself hmmmm this event isn't selling. Next I do what any good theatre practitioner would do in my position when in a city with no connections - you flirt with the box office staff. I'm not ashamed, you would have done the same thing.

I am offered, after being put on hold a couple of times and talking about Church Street in Toronto for awhile - this was a pretty lengthy conversation but I was on a mission- $40 standing room tickets. Done, I say, I'll take two. (a fellow fellow came along). We get to the theatre not knowing exactly what their version of standing room would be - I did ask and was told I'd be fine. I figured as long as there was something to lean on. He also said my last name should be awesome (I said it was my middle name) (seriously, this was our conversation...) So what's standing room? Front row of the balcony on the centre aisle. Seriously - AWESOME.

So Joe in the box office of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, thank you.

Okay, so Ian basically chatted and performed monologues and read his favorite poems for 90 minutes (he too was awesome - awesomeness all round!). Favourite moments - he did his preacher speech from Cold Comfort Farm "there is no butter in Hell!" - he did a soliloquy from Hamlet and dried in the middle and asked if anyone remembered the next bit and someone did. It wasn't an unknown passage certainly, but I didn't remember the next line - Michael and my mother would have but it was none the less impressive for dude in the balcony to call it out so clearly. He told how he and other actors saved the original site of the Rose Theatre in London from being bulldozed by developers (Dames Judi and Peggy sat on lawn chairs and told them to "go away" - awesome). To prove he could make anything sound amazing he recited Help by the Beatles so it sounded like the most beautiful thing you've ever heard, and the Beaufort Wind Scale - my favourites 7 through 9:

7 Near Gale        Whole trees in motion;                    inconvenience felt when walking against the wind.

8  Gale             Breaks twigs off trees; 

          
generally impedes progress.

9 Severe Gale      Slight structural damage occurs                   (chimney-pots and slates removed).

Tee hee - generally impedes progress :-)  

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more to reflect on him in the coming days, but for now once more into the breach. 

Just an artsy shot of Fellows in the rain leaving the Drag Queens. I don't know, I just like it...

I learned today that I have an international readership. Thank you for checking in, I will try to be entertaining... (so much pressure!)

The event du jour was a reception at the residence of the Indian Ambassador. A gorgeous "home" as you can imagine. It was about the size of the Canadian Governor General's house so not exactly cramped for space. In 2011, the KC will be doing a festival focused on India (currently being called the Festival of India. Not the most catchy title but descriptive) and so today was the second event where we dipped our toe into the world of Indian corporations and business people to put out feelers for financing. Lots and lots of small talk. I sometimes think that they bring a Fellow to an event like this so that the staff don't have to do so much talking. I did a lot of talking.

There is the old saying about how Canada is a mosaic and the US a melting pot, and this is very, very true. Having worked with Indian dance companies in Canada, and loving Bollywood movies, (and just being generally aware of the rest of the world) I have a decent idea of Indian culture - certainly the Westernized versions of it anyway - and I am finding that some of my co-workers are just less aware of how other cultures work. I do think when people immigrate to the States they really feel they need to blend in and everyone else feels they should too.

Oh, the food at this reception was amazing. I would have eaten much more if I hadn't been working. I wish they'd given us doggie bags...

Drag Racing Queens

A DC tradition. Those drag queens can move pretty fast!! It was dark and pouring with rain so I apologize for the video quality, but I think you'll find it entertaining none the less :-)

17th Street was absolutely packed and there were Queens from the Washington Monument (I took a picture but it came out looking like she was a member of the KKK, which is really not the right affect at all), to all sorts of Broadway tributes to various evil Disney Queens. Amazing.

Mark Twain deets

Okay as much as I just want to write about the Drag Queen High Heel Race that I went to tonight, I will finish my recap of last night's Mark Twain Prize night. We actually had to work for our supper this time, and manned the registration table for guests attending the preshow dinner. I had the Rs and the Ss - which meant I handed Jean Kennedy Smith her ticket for the evening. Yes, my first brush with an actual Kennedy. Crazy.

Secret Service were all over the place and yet not at all in your face. Mrs Obama was there (which I didn't know until after the fact) but there wasn't any special pomp for her - the focus was kept on Bill. There was an amazing transition in the two hours of the show where the dining room was completely converted and redesigned for the after-party into a jazz club sort of feel. More amazing still was watching the crew set up an entire band with microphones and monitors on stage in four minutes during a clip of Bill Cosby's work. Though it was a crew of 12, but still really smooth and clean set-up. (and I know that kind of makes me a production geek for pointing that out before much of anything else)

The event was great. Now I have to admit I've never watched the TV broadcast so I have nothing to compare this evening to but the KC folk seemed to think it was the best one ever (remember next Wednesday on PBS - if you want to try and spot me, I was sitting in a box on the orchestra level across the hall from the Cosby box - so essentially I will never be on camera!)

It did remind me how very funny Bill Cosby is. It was also good to remember the groundbreaking work he did over many, many decades, slowly chipping away and securing rights for black people in America (from black comedians being able to perform in nightclubs to having his own tv series). He strikes me as quite an amazing man.

I did not get to meet him sadly. At the after party I had brushes with Malcolm Jamal Warner (his son on the Cosby Show), Dick Gregory and Steven Wright, but I think most of the other performers from the evening slipped out pretty quickly.

Anyway, good gala! Honors (Honours) is next December 6...

Another week, another gala

I know you were getting worried that I would cease attending galas on a regular basis, but fret not! Tonight was the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. (ahem humour) This year it was awarded to Bill Cosby. Apparently we tried to give it to him 3 times previously, but he kept refusing. I'm not sure why he decided to accept it this year but he did.

I'm bagged so I'll write more about the event tomorrow. As there is no photographic evidence (from me anyway - we were told that any staff taking pictures would be fired. Which actually I approve of really) I will post this video to remind you of just how funny Mr. Bill Cosby is. Watch it, it will make you feel good. Trust me.

The awards will be aired on PBS next Wednesday, November 4 I believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSvGdfOfLFw

First, an apology. Many of you may not have known that I snuck in to Toronto this weekend and for that I'm sorry. Others knew but I didn't get a chance to see. It was a barely 48 hour visit and it was planned and timed to military precision. I went really to go to the closing night of Rock 'n' Roll - the last show that I worked on for Canstage. It just didn't seem right for it to go up and for me not to have seen it. And after 7 weeks stateside, I needed a little taste of home. The show was really good I thought (if I do say so myself), some amazing performances and beautiful design. It's Stoppard so it's heady and wordy and dense, but I think worth the mental effort- you can still catch it in Edmonton if you are so inclined :-) I feel very much like my four years with Canadian Stage can now be closed and tied off and properly put away. Though the night reinforced how I miss my peeps there for sure - they are good eggs. So much heart and talent on and off that stage on Saturday. And I have to thank Louise for the brilliant seats - wow :-)

I discovered a new admiration for Michael Jackson's abilities as a dancer. I'd always known intellectually that he was exceptional but one doesn't quite appreciate this until one tries to dance one of his "simple" routines. Yup, I took a Thriller dance class. Who knew being a zombie was so difficult?? Much fun though and I'm now ready for the next time there is a call to break the Guinness Book of World Records record for the most people dancing Thriller! This I'm sure will prove to be a useful skill.

Otherwise the weekend was full of food and drink and hugs and I wish I could have bottled it and brought it back to DC with me. My world is so much better with all of you in it.

Gladstone room

Welcome to the Teen Dream room which was mine on Saturday night. I won the room in an online auction for the Theatre Centre in the spring and so my brief trip to TO was the perfect opportunity to use it. Please note the horses and unicorns interspersed with Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon and Tom Cruise. Oh the 80s.

I could have spent many days in that room - though of course having my own washroom is enough to fill me with joy these days. The Gladstone is perhaps a touch too uber-cool for me, but I did love my little mini retreat for the night.

A motley crew

Many of you will recognize some of these no good theatre types, freshly tossed out of the Jersey Giant at closing time. They filled my heart on Saturday night.

High of 26 C today...oh what to wear what to wear....

Much Ado

Tonight I went to the dress rehearsal of the Folger Shakespeare Theatre's production of Much Ado About Nothing. I sort of liked it despite itself, which may be an odd thing to say.

Generally it wasn't very good. However, first let's talk about the building and neighbourhood we were in. The Folger Theatre is in the Folger Shakespeare Library, which is just about a block south of the Capitol Building. It's a beautiful pseudo art deco looking building on the outside, and inside the library (well the one exhibit hall I saw) and the theatre are made in an Elizabethan-esque style. Which actually means the theatre has terrible sight lines and huge blocky pilers throughout the balcony - it's an awful design truthfully. I'm sure it looked very artistic an authentic in the architectural drawings.

The library houses the largest Shakespeare collection in the world (that's their claim anyway) and I did see a first folio of Romeo and Juliet which is pretty cool I have to say. They have an electronic version next to the real thing so you can scroll through the book on the computer page by page if you wanted. It's a bit contrived really but neat I suppose. (somebody rich paid for this to happen, so I should be more complimentary of their financial efforts, but honestly I just thought it was weird)

This part of Capitol South is neat. It's really formed by the interns and others who work in all the Senate and Capitol buildings which expand through five blocks or so in every direction. The buildings are beautiful in that American federal building sort of way. Large and impressive and well lit. There were police or road blockades on every corner so I'm thinking it's likely one of the safer neighbourhoods to be in!

We had dinner at the Good Stuff Eatery which was opened by someone from Iron Chef or Hell's Kitchen or one of those Food Network programs. It was pretty darn delish. I had an absolutely amazing chocolate milkshake (and salad was my main course in case anyone is calorie counting!). Anyway, back to the theatre...

I found it very strange to be at a dress rehearsal I wasn't working and to be the person sitting in the balcony. I'm thinking the talent pool in DC is pretty shallow as once again, this cast was mediocre overall with three standouts of quality. The direction was god awful. Blocking (a basic) was poor. I would say 90% of the balcony was obstructed view - now some of this would have been unavoidable in this space, but you do not have to have major scenes happening in the far upstage corner under an overhang. Just saying. They played for laughs, many of them couldn't handle the language and added this whole Caribbean reggae thing but then didn't make any effort to have it make sense to the story. Anyway, despite all this, I kind of enjoyed it. Or maybe I was just enjoying my evening...who knows.

Oh, the Clintons were in the building today. There was a memorial service for a woman who had worked for Jimmy Carter and so it was like the Democratic convention in the foyer. I was greeted by a K9 unit of sniffer dogs when I entered through the stage door. Yup. But at least I know I passed a certain level of security clearance! Just another day at the office; me, the secret service and the dogs...

Eastern Market

Yes, these are blowfish. I don't think they're local.

Eastern Market is very much like you'd expect - a covered traditional farmers' market, similar but much smaller than St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. I bought some veggies, and sweet potato gnocchi and apple cider - it was chilly here today, though it finally stopped raining. Lots and lots of meat for sale, which I guess isn't surprising, over half the stalls were butchers or fishmongers. This city loves meat.

There usually is a large flea market across the street, but I guess the weather and end of season kept most of those vendors away. Still lots of things to look at and endless things one could have bought but showed great restraint in not (like they had a Hallowe'en version of the black and white cookie - black and orange of course. So tempting, but then I remembered that I don't really like the black and white cookie). Fun excursion to the south side for a Sunday morning.

Target

It is no secret that I love Target. I went to Target briefly today in fact. Last week I was at a meeting with the KC's Target rep and his boss. Target gives a lot of money to the arts across America, which is cool, and they are all about funding programs to make things free or cheap so families can attend. Target funds KC's Millennium Stage performances which are free and happen 365 days a year - yes, every day of the year (they are the ones that happen just below my office). Anyway, they were thrilled when I told the true story of my going on a girls road trip to Buffalo and telling the border guard when asked what we wanted to do in the States, "go to Target, and oh could you tell us how to get there". I think this made their day, the idea that carloads of women from Toronto travel 2 hours by car to visit Target. I asked if they could just hurry up and take over Zellers...

Apparently I love George Ballanchine. Who knew? I can now see why there are these crazy devoted Ballanchine nutcases who travel the world to see different ballet companies perform his works. Not that I'm likely to do that but I am so so excited that I'll have about five opportunities this year to see different companies with his work in their repertoire. The KC is crazy about Ballanchine or rather more likely Michael Kaiser is probably crazy about Ballanchine. The work is just so alive and vibrant and not...boring. (like I find a lot of ballet...)

The lecture today was also in our jazz club and it was the first time I was in that venue. Note to self: must ask Miss Tracey which jazz performers I should see this season - and the venue was so cute and done up like a proper jazz club, but in the middle of the Kennedy Center. Actually on Friday I met our jazz programmer who seemed really friendly and cool (I was lost and came upon his desk and he actually got up and took me to were I was trying to find. Classy, yes? I thought it was very sweet.) And yes, I'm still on occasion getting lost in the building. It's that big and rabbit warren-esque people, I usually have a pretty great sense of direction!!

Did I tell you the story how I got locked between two doors one weekend? It was pretty funny in retrospect but unnerving at the time. On the weekends all these additional doors lock themselves and some of the require real keys (which I don't have) rather than the pass cards or keypads (which I do). Anyway, that's what emergency exits are for....

PS. Still raining....