The boy has returned to school. We are on our own again. Summer has drawn, in its way, to a close. Still plenty of summer lovin' fun to be done.
This week has been arduous, however. The move was exhausting, surprisingly so, and took an extra day. I had a near migraine event on Monday night, which was held at bay not only by late night ibuprofen, but also Dramamine. I'm thinking that is a missing ingredient, one which not only quelled by impending nausea, but also knocked me out.
But I have also had the runs, since last week. I have no explanation for this, except perhaps for some kind of bug? Lack of yogurt consumption? Really, I forget how I have been enjoying yogurt for breakfast for the past year or so. I think going a couple days off messes with my system.
Let's see what happens now that we are home and having a regular breakfast diet.
Distance: .1 miles
Duration: 29:31
Pace: 9:31
So, anyway, I am off my game. Last weekend was punishing, and I am still in recovery, and trying not to worry too much about it. But it would be nice to, you know, get back to exercising.
So, where did this come from? Why did I make this, twelve years ago? Some sort of opportunity, or application. Anyway, it holds up. And it is inspirational -- to me. Cool!
Last year the New Yorker wrote a piece on Under Armour, an upstart player arriving late to an already saturated sporting goods market. Like most successful businesses, they have been able to create a need where none previously existed. In this case they made big, athletic men feel like they had to wear extremely tight, stretchy fabric - what previously would have been seen as dancewear.
Without intending to, I have developed a brand loyalty. Every piece I wear is UA, except the handkerchief on my head. Shirt, shorts, socks and now even the shoes. Recently I saw a short I wanted on eBay, but it was a compression shirt. I guess I knew in theory what one of those was like but I was not prepared for what I actually received.
The thing is like a man-bra, or a torso girdle. I have very little to work with in the chest and abdomen, and yet this silly shirt pushes everything into place, it's hilarious. I won't be mistaken for Steve Rogers but at least I look less like Stan Lee.
Temperature: 75° Distance: 3.36 miles Avg Pace: 7.44 Climate: overcast and sweaty
The pain in my right thigh remains. Semimembranosus? Semitendenosus? It starts around the quadratus femoris, but it runs a bit down the leg. Sometimes better, sometimes worse, but always present when I run.
Perhaps some compression pants.
Weight: 156.5 lbs. From goal: -3.5
What's On Daddy's iPhone? One Life Stand - Hot Chip
Following yesterday morning's run, I walked all the way back downtown for the final performance. I feel as though, in the past few days, I have gotten worse at standing up for myself and not better. A guy at a juice bar misunderstood me and made me a juice instead of smoothie ... and I let him. Then something in this juice seriously disagreed with me and I began to have ... digestion problems. Like, a half-hour before the show. It's not a show I want to do with the sh*ts.
I'm sorry, what is the show anyone wants to do with the sh*ts? Maybe Jean Genet's The Sh*ts. In any case, once the performance started, in spite of my exhaustion, dehydration, and physical distress, everything went according to plan. There were 14 people in the audience, not that I expect any different on a Saturday at 2 PM, and the response was as warm this day as for any other performance.
In general, more than in general, by large, the audiences were engaged and interested, and they laughed. It was enjoyable presenting this show.
My first partner from GLTF, Mariah came into town to catch the show, and she and her husband Bruce and I went to get me a plate of pasta after the show. It has been years and years since I have had the chance to catch up with her.
Then I found out my camera is dead. Sigh. The pictures I have taken are fine, but it won't take any new ones. Hmn.
And so I was on my own to decide how to spend this last night in New York before heading home today. The plan was to cram as many shows into one evening as possible, but I was demoralized by the first one I saw. More an AEA workshop production than anything else, I was stunned by the amount of people who attended this one-act, which included polished acting, clever dialogue, the potential for conflict, or horror, or revelation, but instead just ended abruptly at 50 minutes. I only attended this show because I knew it was short and it fit into the schedule, by the description I was not expecting much. But I did get caught up in the story so it was even more distressing when it ended with not a bang but with that whisshing sound that came out of the air mattress as I put it away this morning.
So instead of seeing another show, I needed company so I called Kelly and she watched me eat a burger (A REALLY GOOD BURGER) at the Tavern on Jane (hey - check out the first photo on the website, that is exactly where we sat!) Mariah told me she was going to see a show today, one written by an old colleague, PEACE WARRIORS. A bit of kitchen sink, the tangled lives of progressive, academic Jews.
By then it was past midnight, and in spite of my better judgement, I decided to say farewell to Kelly and Sam and make my way to FringeCENTRAL. It was "international night" and Owen and Mark both said they would be there, and so they were. I got to say a proper good-bye to a number of people - I was charmed that Charlie gave me a shout-out from the stage during the show, I think they were saluting the people who didn't just come to drink at 11 PM but actually stayed to be engaged in the variety show.
SPEAKING OF WHICH, you may FINALLY enjoy the podcast from last Saturday night's VPR. I have not listened to them yet, but I am assuming you will find Mark Storen performing Stab U in the first half and my performance in the second half ... which for some reason is not yet online. Not that I could use it to promote my show now, anyway.
I felt a definite sense of sadness that I had no reason to hand any of the people I ran into last night postcards for ATYD. In fact, I didn't have any, I made a point of taken the packet of cards I still had - maybe 50 cards - and putting them in the trash. I do not need them. I have some archive copies at home, and I successfully managed to distribute almost 2,500 cards. At four different fringe festivals, I have never divested myself of nearly that number. I did everything one (or one person with a friend) possibly could.
We pack up today, bid a fond farewell to Allison, the Venue Director from God, and then over to Brooklyn for a picnic with Eva Dean before hitting the road. Hopefully we will be home shortly after dark.
Considering the state in which we pulled into the city, yesterday was a pretty full, successful day. After running to the space and back Harris, Max and I walked - on Park Avenue - almost the entire way back up the avenue, more leisurely this time, with a stroller. Just another couple out for a walk with their three year-old. We met Liz for lunch and I headed out for FringeTEASERS.
Josh & Kelly phoned to say they, and the event's MC, were having great difficulty finding the space, it was tucked into a playground/b-ball court betwixt 6th Ave and Greenwich. By the time I got there I got to meet said MC Eva Dean and helped her and her assistant schlep a great, big fiberglass ball up the street.
The event itself was great fun, we got to see short pieces from a number of shows I would like to create the opportunity to see. However, it did seem as though we were only performing for each other, Fringe performers only.
Some acts did their piece and headed out, we chose to stay and see all the performances - which led Eva to ask me to fill in for someone who had not arrived. I had the distinct feeling the assembled were thinking, "oh no not him again" but then again, they were all seated in the sun under 80 degree heat. I kept using a microphone that didn't actually work. I felt kind of wonky and unsure. No surprise there.
Leah caught up with us and the four of us had Chinese before heading to the CSV Cultural and Educational Center to see EGG FARM. A two-man, evil clown show (complete with bowlers) EF is about some post-apocalyptic time when humanity's only hope is gene-splicing themselves to the last-living chicken. Very Fringy! Lots of songs and great movement pieces. And I know evil clown shows.
Josh hung around to watch THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS while Leah showed me around the Bowery until it was time for the VARIETY POWER HOUR. It was a little weird at first, the guy at the door (I think he worked for Tanqueray, not for the Fringe, I can't be sure) was confused when we and some drag queens arrived at 10.30. The show didn't start until eleven. But we'd been asked to arrive early. And the MC couldn't be found. Eventually he let us in anyway, and Leah and I tried to discuss how I was going to possibly be funny in an interview session, if the need arose.
Unfortunately, we both got bogged down in a deep, introspective treatise about my show and what it means. Interesting. Meaningful. Not funny.
When the doors opened - still no MC, apparently - we were told we could move to the lunge one flight down, which is where the free gin was, and sandwiches. Folks started arriving, networking, passing out postcards, having a good time. I still didn't understand where the act was going to be - or how they were going to record it for a podcast.
Then they announced the show was about the begin - downstairs. Another downstairs! A sub-basement! Cool!
The show was great fun. I am, I hate to admit this, not much of a late-night person anymore. And I had gotten scant rest the night before, and run six miles, and blah blah blah, I hoped I would hold out. I was delighted to find it was a real high-intensity and hilarious evening.
The regular MC, Charlie, was held up on a train for an hour. His surrogates made an excellent substitute while he was away ... the show was not just a selection of five minute performances, but brief interviews promoting the shows, and some energetic, semi-improvised party games for which, as they say, you had to be there. (Seen at right: Bollywood Dance Number.)
I went last, which was nerve-rattling as I was under the impression that of all the pieces mine was the lowest-keyest and least outrageous ... well, except for the urination and implied bestiality. I am interested to hear how the podcast turns out, I felt like every interview question they asked I said "I dunno," first, and then they restated the question so I had the chance to think of something clever.
Which was very nice, when you think about it.
Spring St. Station, 6 Train, in bed by 2.30 am. I (Heart) NY.
Knee flared up a little yesterday, decided to sleep in.
This is the route I will (perhaps, I hope) be taking on Saturday morning. Only 3.1 miles from Harris' place to the performance space! Not that I need to be at the performance space at, say, 10 AM on Saturday, but it's, you know ... kinda cool. The idea of it.
No, sorry, no, not me. Big, gay 16th President, come on, get with the program. I really want to see that show, too, but I am not sure if I am going to get in on my Fringe discount, there's just too much hype.
I am thrilled, however, that reviews are finding their way onto these pages dedicated to individual productions, the support means a great deal, and who knows, maybe people reads those things.
Last day at work today, tomorrow at noon Josh, Kelly and I depart for points East.
The key to a successful Fringe show is (here it comes) buzz. Which is to say, people are talking about your show. Not necessarily in a good way, a bad way could be good way, better to be talked about than not, if you follow me. I do find the idea of everyone talking about your show, but they are all saying, "Don't see this show, it's really difficult to sit through and a waste of your time" as defending the no such thing as bad publicity trope, but some truly believe this to be the case.
I digress.
You can't create buzz by buying advertising. Well, I mean, you can, you just can't be caught doing it. No one wants to be told something is cool, they want to discover it themselves, through other people they think are cool, who tell them this is so. Or read about it first, perhaps in a major publication, on NPR or on the Internet.
I have no advertising budget to speak of. I used a service to distribute press releases to media outlets, and postcards to likely FringeNYC ticket buyers. Other than that, I will use whatever least-expensive path I can to getting the word out, hopefully a good word. Waiting until the show opens is too late to create "buzz" (wait, do they still say "buzz" I was using that term in 2003 and then it was very old) because I have five performances in four consecutive days. I need to let people know I am there, very fast. Like, now. Fringe starts in a week, my show in 12 days.
Bad news! ATYD did not make the cut for the half-dozen shows mentioned briefly in the sidebar in this week's Sunday Times. Rats. Not surprising, it was a six out of 200 shot. Those profiled admittedly stand out from the crowd, and in some cases featured artists familiar to the writer of the article. What did I expect?
Good news! I will hit the ground running (hahahahaha) when I arrive in NYC, participating in an outdoor event on Saturday, 8/15 called FringeTEASERS (at the PS41 Playground at Greenwich and Charles Street) where productions put on five minutes from their show al fresco and hand out surprises to what we hope will be a crowd.
Also, I just got word that I will be a guest at the FringeCLUB VARIETY POWER HOUR that night at 11 PM. Not only do I get to do a short bit, and be interviewed for the live studio audience, it will be recorded and featured on the VPH Podcast.
In addition, I (or willing surrogates) will no doubt visit those shows profiled in NYT to hand out postcards to the departing audience. Also, Harris make an excellent suggestion - the ING NYC Half-Marathon is Saturday. I need to roll out early and hand out cards to participants and loved ones.
Anyone will other good ideas are strongly encouraged to make them. Really. I mean, now.
Listening to: PODRUNNER Classic - Chasing the Horizon (135 BPM)
Distance: 3.25 miles Temperature: 80ยบ Weather: hot! Weight: 157.5 lbs.
It appears we will be having some summer weather after all. I headed out with the remnants of last night's dinner party settled into that space just above my left eye. Every step, every time my foot touched the pavement, it throbbed.
For a while. I thought about the show, about New York, about the arts camp, about work, about the birthday party this afternoon. And it faded. It went awake. There is a ghost of it now, to which I must say a tearless good-bye.
PUSHING BACK AGAINST DEATH Hansen takes one-man show to NYC by way of CPT by Michael Gill, Cleveland Scene
The last time Cleveland playwright and actor David Hansen took a one-man show to the New York Fringe Festival in 2004, it was with his autobiographical tale about the stillbirth of his son, I Hate This.
Several people suggested at the time — much to Hansen's irritation — that he consider a more uplifting sequel about his daughter. Eventually he did, and that's what he's taking back to the Big Apple for Fringe Fest 2009. The new play — And Then You Die: How I Ran a Marathon in 26.2 Years — takes up an ecosystem of subject matter having to do with middle age, fatherhood and mortality. He's booked for five performances in four days, starting August 19, at the Robert Moss Theatre. To get it in shape for the Fringe Fest stage, he's doing a trial run at Cleveland Public Theatre's Parish Hall this weekend. Alison Garrigan directs. (more)
Listening to: PODRUNNER Classic - Mad Dash (162 BPM)
Almost stayed in bed this morning. Lying there, thinking, "hey, this is good, I could stay here." Only it wasn't, my head kept running around. Camp. Reports. Lines for the show. I got up, again, glad I did. This is not always so, sometimes my head tells me it is a mistake, I need more rest. Maybe tomorrow. A Friday sleep-in. Something I can look forward to.
Kelly and Ali have given me Friday night off so they can turn the Parish Hall into ... well, into a theater instead of a parish hall. I could have wept. I could have done a dance. It was an honor I thought not of. That's just the time I need to get everything straight in my head.
Running at 5 AM (or 5:20, whenever I truly get out) has become like Groundhog's Day. Sprinklers on Compton. That little Jewish walker-lady (she's a walker, she doesn't have "a walker") who I wave to headed up Taylor. The couple from two doors down, holding hands, holding thermoses, heading for the bus to the Clinic. It's all in the timing. This is why I love running in the summer.
How bizarre. Just like five years ago, a major part of my preparation for the NY Fringe is taking a vacation. This is one is a little special, my folks are having their 50th wedding anniversary (it was in May, ackshodry) and my brothers, their wives and kids are all taking a big boat for Bermuda.
And why not? The promo is in place, Kelly (SM) & Sabrina (ACR) are tag-teaming the technical elements of the production, Josh has completed the new trailer and designed and published the postcard (which I am schlepping to NYC to drop before we disembark) and I have a paperback murder mystery. Time to put my feet up. And take laps around the deck of a really large boat.
Comfort Inn in Mercer, PA. Wow. No wonder Trent is so bitter.
Josh has designed an AWESOME Retro-80s Runner's T-shirt design to celebrate sending ATYD to FringeNYC - and to generate some desperately needed income. Click on any of the designs there to take you to the CafePress shop to order yours now!
(For your information - we do get to keep quite a nice portion of the payment for each shirt.)
In early 2008 Leah turned me onto The Bowery Boys podcast, and I have just been loving it. My knowledge of history is not as deep as say, my father's is, but I do prefer non-fiction to fiction, in general.
Hmn. As if the majority of my produced work doesn't reflect that.
Check out the link to the NY Marathon podcast, it's easy to listen to, fun and informative.
Listening to: PODRUNNER Classic - One Tribe (130 BPM)
Sometimes my glasses strap really drills my glasses into the bridge of my nose. Damn.
Distance: 3.25 miles Temperature: 65ยบ Weather: light rain - rain is good! Weight: 152 lbs.
Finally made good on answering those three questions for nytheatre.com ... with a little help from my astonishing awesome wife.
1. What is your show about and what can audiences expect when they see it?
The show is about what goes through a man's mind as he runs the NYC Marathon, so it blends the experience of the race with people and events that, circuitously, brought him there. The protagonist is a cartoonist and illustrator who never thought of himself as an athlete. Beginning with his first running experience at age 12, he considers girls, hopes, girls, dreams, girls, professional frustrations, divorce, and other vagaries of becoming an adult. By the time he reaches the end and his waiting family, he (hopefully) knows the difference between the finish line and what it takes to get there.
Audiences can expect to travel the 5 boroughs, as well as the city of Cleveland, on foot, and to see simulated acts of smoking, vomiting, urinating and dancing. And they will see me naked (not simulated).
2. Why is your show pertinent to today’s times and/or why should your show be the choice for audiences to see?
It's more universal than pertinent. It is about having doubts and fears but doing things anyway. It's about triumph over adversity without being, you know, preachy or arrogant.
3. Why did you choose to present this show? I tend to write about major events in my life, but to skew them in odd ways. Training for a marathon is just too f-ing hard to let go to waste, and it was something I never thought I would be able to do. To take that and create a solo piece about running in all five boroughs - and make it funny and interesting - was an exciting challenge. Plus it is sort of a love letter to New York, and my daughter.
Spent pre-dawn writing, editing the script. It was a little frustrating, I don't seem to have any progression to my drafts, every copy (on paper, on my computer) has more recent edits that others do not. I intended to get the finished performance version down before I forgot it, I do have them on video but I didn't want to watch myself on t.v. this morning.
There were also places where I knew I needed to cut, even if I hadn't performed that way in January.
Original word count: 12,535
Last pre-performance word count: 11,446
Present word count: 11,245
Two hundred words is not much, but it's a good start.
Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 63ยบ
Weather: rain
Weight: 153 lbs. 1974 Playlist Killer Queen - Queen Lady Marmalade - LaBelle Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo - Rick Derringer Doctor Who Theme - BBC Radiophonic Workshop Verb: That's What's Happening - Zachary Sanders Promised Land - Elvis Presley Waterloo - ABBA Aguas De Marco - Elรญs Regina & Antonio Carlos Jobim You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Still putting together the application materials ... they must be postmarked by Friday (May 15.) Kelly has the unenviable responsibility of trying to second guess where we may eventually have our show produced, and create priorities for what we would most want to be provided vs. what we can provide ourselves.
Will I get to run circles around the audience? Probably not - is that as important as having a venue which provides its own projection system? No, not even close. But these things need to be decided upon, recorded and sent in.
New (to me) this year are marketing "Speed Dates" where their people help us brush up our promo mats before we submit them. Now THAT'S extremely generous, helpful and a step up from previous experiences with any festivals.
People in town get face-to-face encounters, the rest of us get "virtual" dates online. I sent in my pre-existing blurb, the one I used for CPT:
What races through a man's mind as he runs for his life? Hit the road in this comic and revealing solo piece about a cartoonist's pursuit of the finish line in the Big Race - dashing through relationships, hurdling over heartbreak, and making his way through the Five Boroughs in a record quarter of a century...and time is running out.
I wasn't expecting to hear back so fast, but I did within the hour, and not only did I get reassurance that we'd have our date after this weekend's live interviews are over, this blurb already got a once over, pointing up repetition (runs for his life vs. time is running out) info that will already be incorporated into the listing as part of its classification (i.e., solo performance, comedy) and gave me this:
What races through a man's mind? Hit the road with cartoonist (ENTER CHARACTER NAME HERE) in pursuit of the finish line - dashing through relationships, hurdling over heartbreak, and making his way through the Five Boroughs in a record quarter of a century...and time is running out.
Bad news ... my cat died. He was an 18 year-old cat, he had been struggling with failing kidneys for what seems like ages now. He's soiled carpets, spent evenings yowling me awake ... but this weekend he truly took a turn. He stopped eating or drinking entirely, wasn't using the cat box (or any other part of the house) and he was getting very wobbly. Last night the wife and I took turn sitting up with him.
My wife stayed home today to work and look after the kitty. We held him non-stop for the better part of the past two days, finally she just let him sit outside in the sun. He liked that. He always wanted to be an outdoor cat. I wish I had let him be one.
We took him to the vet at the end of the workday today. It was a testament to his illness that being there didn't send him entirely around the bend. I was afraid the doctor would suggest interventions, which I would feel cruel refusing - knowing full well that interventions would make the boy miserable beyond belief - but the doctor said his body was shutting down. We "put him to sleep."
I am surprised at how much I cried, and how I did not want to leave him. Honestly, I think there was alot more going on there than one dead cat.
I got that boy when I was only 22 years old. I've buried an infant since then. The Great Speaker for the Bereaved, but I still don't get it and I'm terrified. I'm afraid of my own demise, but the death of those around me has me far more scared. 2004 Playlist Call On Me (Eric Prydz vs Retarded Funk Mix) - Eric Prydz Broken Glass - The Crystal Method Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand Rocket Ride (160 BPM) - Felix da Housecat Air - Owls Future Sighting - I Am The World Trade Center Beware - Punjabi MC ft. Jay-Z
Distance: 3.25 miles Temperature: 57ยบ Weight: 154.5 lbs.
My first partner from GLTF, Mariah came into town to catch the show, and she and her husband Bruce and I went to get me a plate of pasta after the show. It has been years and years since I have had the chance to catch up with her.
