Well, dear readers, let me cut to the chase. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, let me, BK, cut to the damn chase. As I was walking back to my car after seeing a show last night, I passed by a completely odd sight – a storefront filled to the brim with people and smoke. I couldn’t believe my eyes that in this day and age there would be a place that looked like that. I had to stop in my tracks and then I saw it was a Vapor Parlor. Go in there and you can vape. Yes, we have, apparently, a new verb called vaping. This bunch of yahoo idiot hipsters were smoking e-cigarettes or vapor, but it looked like a poker parlor with a cloud of smoke hanging there like so much death. So, this is a new fad that’s been growing over the past year. My already boggled mind was boggled anew and two-fold. I should have taken a photograph of it to post here but I was so shocked by it that I just finally moved on. I mean, forty or fifty people in close proximity smoking VAPOR. The devolution of our world continues apace. Note to people in close proximity vaping – I cannot tell you how inane you look and are. I do hope we have no vapers here, and I wouldn’t even mind if people did that in the privacy of their homes – but a Vapor PARLOR? Those people have a screw loose, sorry to say it. End of vaping rant. This will give you an idea of what I saw.
Yesterday was a completely odd day. I don’t know why, really, but it just seemed damn odd. I ended up getting about eight hours of sleep, but I’m so bored of falling asleep around two and waking up an hour later and then not falling asleep until three hours later. Hopefully this phase will pass. Maybe if I vaped before bedtime that would help. Once up, I did stuff on the computer, we’re within one person of being cast, chose some more songs, picked up no packages, put gasoline in the motor car, didn’t drop books off (the helper will do that on Tuesday), and then just relaxed until it was time to go sup.
Last night, three friends and I supped at the Eclectic Café. I had the pasta Bolognese – I must tell you the portion gets smaller and smaller and this was more like an appetizer than a meal – it filled me up, but for eighteen bucks you want the works. I also had one roll, a small Caesar salad and some berries for dessert – and that’s all I ate for the entire day, so that wasn’t too too bad. After that, we all moseyed on over to the El Portal Theater – two of my friends went to see the small theater production of Sweeney Todd that’s playing, and my other friend and I went to see a show called 13, directed by my friend Barry Pearl. I am predisposed to like anything with kids who give their all, and this was no exception. There were some very talented kids on that stage, one of whom was really good and who I’m sure I’ll bring to Kritzerland. So, that part of the evening was fun for me. Not so much fun for me was the show itself. I had such a different idea as to what it was going to be – you know, a show called 13 about thirteen-year-olds – I thought we’d learn about all thirteen characters and what they go through. Instead we are given a standard issue plot about a Jewish lad who’s about to have his Bar Mitzvah, and whose parents are recently divorced and who’s moved to a small town and has to deal with all the new kids there. For me, that’s cliché land, and you really focus on only a handful of characters. I found the score repetitious, and the whole thing felt very slight to me. Again, for me, it was obvious why this didn’t succeed on Broadway. It’s not easy to write in a kid’s voice, especially when you’re trying to be “current.” The problem with “current” is that it ain’t current five minutes later. It’s tricky stuff – I happen to love writing young people in my books, for example, but I always strive to BE a kid as I’m writing the kid. For the Sami show, I spent MANY meals listening to her rhythm and cadence and listening to her answers to my very pointed questions. That’s how I developed the voice of that character, plus I always put a lot of the kid-like me in every kid I write. But, that’s just me. Barry did a nice job of moving things along and getting good performances from the kids.
There were lots of friends and family in attendance, naturally, with all the usual hooting and hollering that goes with that territory. It was a fun night out and I saw lots of folks I knew. And then I passed that heinous (heinous, do you hear me) Vapor Parlor and my head practically came off.
Today, the helper is coming to pick up some stuff, then we have a work session with Sami and our musical director, Alby Potts. That should take about an hour, then I’ll eat something and relax.
This week is all meetings and meals, seeing several shows, and doing my book signing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a work session, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we – and do tell me your thoughts on the vaping craze, and since it is Mother’s Day, how about all you mothers out there in the dark (you know who you are) having a wonderful day and tell us nice stories about your various and sundried mums.