| Bid! Bid! Bid! |
[16 Apr 2009|10:43am] |
Hi all,
I haven't been around much, here or in person, and I'm going to continue to be a ghost for the next couple of weeks. I got really sick this week (sore throat, fever), so I need to recover from that, but the main reason is that our annual gala at work is on Monday, April 27, and I'm going to be working a lot in preparation for that. (And then I'll need to recover from THAT. So April is pretty much a wash at this point.)
Speaking of the gala... part of the way we fundraise for my theater in association with the gala is by holding an online auction. I know people aren't feeling that wealthy right now, but there's lots of fantastic items, and some of them haven't even been bid on yet, so they're a steal. So check it out - there's theater tickets with backstage meetings with actors, sports events, drinks and dinners with celebrities, trips, museum tours, some great baked goods, consultations with designers, even a photo session for your pet. (I personally think that taking a trapeze lesson with Jonathan Groff, star of Spring Awakening and last summer's version of Hair, and a truly nice guy, is one of our best items. And I can vouch that all of the baked goods - from the winners of the annual PH Bakeoff - are excellent and so worth it.) There's several items not limited to NYC, so you can bid from anyhere. There's even two nights at a fancy Boston hotel and two round-trip tickets on the Limoliner bus between NYC to Boston on for all of you who often go between those cities.
There are still lots of items going for under $100. So while I rarely push personal causes here, since this is something where everyone can benefit - check it out!
Bidding ends April 23. Bidding for about half the items will end online that day; the other half will continue bidding in the room at our gala on April 27, but you can enter an absentee bid to keep competing.
Here's a link to the auction:
www.playwrightshorizons.cmarket.com
And here's a link to a Time Out article about the auction that summarizes some of the best items:
http://www3.timeoutny.com/newyork/upstaged/2009/04/jonathan-groff-is-a-swinger-and-other-misleading-promises/
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| Questions #2 and #3 |
[09 Mar 2009|03:17pm] |
It's still Question Month!
Do you think anyone else from HS turned out to be "one of us?"
Oh, I totally do, but I don't think I could point out one or two specific people. We hung out with people who prided themselves on being different in some way, and I'd bet that a few (more) of those radio station and/or theater people have at least dabbled in bdsm in private, if not become a part of the public scene. However, I tend to be a bit naive about these things, and probably would be shocked - the way I was the day I ran into you at a TES meeting on Bond Street! - if I ever ran into any of them in a scene setting. (I admit, I wondered briefly if this question was less of an innocent question and more of a "Do you know what I know?" question. You'd know more about it than I would, I'm sure!)
When did you first realize how badly you want me?
Well I did say to ask me anything.... Let's just say it was longer ago than you probably think. :)
March is still question month! So ask me anything, either here or <url=http://redhead-sue.livejournal.com/159214.html>here</url>(where I think I've now screened comments, but feel free to ask anonymously if you want).
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| Question month! |
[06 Mar 2009|10:25am] |
Question #1: If you were a shoe...what type of shoe would you be and why? Bonus question...what outfit would be worn with you?
The perfect question coming from you, and I barely know you!
I think I would be a black mary-jane pump. Comfortable and practical, but also cute and a little sexy.
The outfit (while I know the logical choice is the classic schoolgirl outfit, that's not really who I am) would go along the same lines - casual skirt (denim maybe?), nice short-sleeved top that hugs my curves just a bit. Again - comfortable, but cute and sexy.
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| March is question month! (But you knew that already) |
[05 Mar 2009|02:26pm] |
I know I've been pretty quiet about posting lately, and that I'm also behind on finishing the "say five things and I'll comment on them" meme I asked people to do for me, but... so it is. I've been busy, at work and elsewhere, and while that's mostly good (I got to spend two fantastic days last weekend catching up with friends I hadn't seen in a while and just talking and having great conversations), it has me behind on my LJ-ing. I skimmed a few days back, and I'm glad I did as I read some great news from friends, but I might have missed a few things.
Anyway...
March is question month! (Not to mention my birthday month!) So - ask me anything here, and I'll answer it in a post. I hope people will ask things, although I'm a bit behind on my own asking as well. It'll get me posting. And - I like to talk about myself. Who doesn't?
So, ask away. Personal things, things you've been curious about, random questions you're asking anyone else. Whatever.
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| Oscar meme |
[26 Feb 2009|12:59pm] |
Behind the cut.
( Read more... )
I see a bunch of movies I should really catch sometime in here. Also some surprises - Four Weddings and a Funeral was up for Best Picture? I don't remember that at all. And a few movies in the 80s I haven't even heard of, like The Dresser. I'm also surprised that I seem to have an aversion to foreign films, even British/Irish/Scottish, which makes up a lot of the ones I missed in the last 10 years. Also of note - in the last ten years, I've only missed four Oscar movies. I think that makes me a little crazy, but whatever. :)
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| Tonight at TES! |
[19 Feb 2009|02:56pm] |
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If you're in the area, come on out to TES tonight! It's my and August's first meeting as the new Co-Facilitators of the Relationships SIG, and we're really excited about it. The topic is "The Intersection of Love, Sex and SM" with panelists Lolita Wolf, Soulhuntre, Lexi and Jason. With this fantastic group, we're sure to get a great discussion going on the topic.
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| 'Tis the Season |
[18 Dec 2008|11:47am] |
I don’t have a lot of money for donations right now, although there are many groups I would like to support. I was feeling bad that I was cutting back on my usual year-end donations, but then I realized that I’m actually giving in a few ways this season, all of which cost nothing or near-nothing. I thought I’d post them here in case anyone else was looking for ideas of how to give without spending:
For the sixth year, I’m organizing the annual food drive at work. All of the food goes to City Harvest, which distributes it to 600 food banks and community organizations throughout the city. Last year, our staff donated 150 pounds of food. I’m aiming to equal or beat that goal this year, but donations have been slow. (I’m good at nagging, though. :) Since people can bring in food right from their pantries, it doesn't have to cost anything, although just $10 at a grocery store can bring in a lot of food.
http://www.cityharvest.org/home.aspx?catid=1&pg=18
I donated two old coats to the New York Cares Coat Drive this morning. It was really easy, there was a box in front of the Jamba Juice in Port Authority on my way to work.
http://www.nycares.org/volunteer/annual_events/coat_drive/index.php
I saw a piece on one of the network morning shows the other day about a little boy whose life was saved with a bone marrow transplant from a donor who was a stranger – she had added her information to the national registry years before. I realized how many people must be ill and desperately waiting for a match, and how relatively easy it could be to help save a life. So I signed up for the registry. Okay, this one cost a little – it costs $52 to order the testing kit they send you in the mail. (You swab the inside of your cheek and send it back.)
http://www.marrow.org/index.html>National Bone Marrow Registry
I’m planning to give blood as part of the Big Apple Blood Drive next week, if I can. (I often get turned away for slightly low iron levels.)
https://drm.nybloodcenter.org/publicscheduler/Welcome.aspx
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| just a little note |
[10 Dec 2008|03:18pm] |
At the end of movie reviews in the New York Times, the article always lists the rating of the movie, usually with some notes about why the movie received that rating (i.e. "some nudity," or "profanity" or something.) Every now and then, the writer uses that space to make a little commentary on the rating or the film itself. I particularly enjoyed this one today:
“Wendy and Lucy” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has some swearing, a little drug use and a brief implication of violence, but no nudity, sex or murder. The rating seems to reflect, above all, an impulse to protect children from learning that people are lonely and that life can be hard.
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| Giving thanks |
[27 Nov 2008|07:26pm] |
Most years at this time, I do a post about what I'm thankful for. This usually involves a mushy listing which includes: Jason, my family, my great job, my great friends, my freedom, my fantastic scene community, my health, my ability to live in the best city in the world. And this year I just want to say: I am grateful and so thankful to be so boringly happy that the list hasn't really changed from year to year much lately. I remain in love and loving my committed-yet-open relationship, I have kept so many good friends in my life in so many different ways, I continue to enjoy the scene in different ways each year and to explore new things and parts of myself, I continue to have an amazing, fun and supportive family, I am still in relatively excellent health, I still love my sometimes-frustrating-but-nearly-always-rewarding job, and I will always find this city endlessly fascinating and open to adventure. Two people I know who were/are sick with cancer are doing very well, I've gotten to see two long-distance friends recently, I've seen good movies and good theater, I've enjoyed great meals and laughed a lot. Things are good, really good. I've had dark times in my past, and I'm just so glad to be in the midst of this happy, thriving period. I know it won't always be like this - I know I'll have to deal with loss again, and there will be other bad times - so I really want to take a moment to be thankful for the simple fact that my list hasn't changed much in recent years.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
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| Duh |
[24 Nov 2008|02:57pm] |
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My workplace just put a stricter/more extensive firewall onto our system. (And to the computer experts on my list: if those words don't all sound right, that's because I have no idea about these things like technology. So basically they put something onto our computers that restricts what websites we can visit.) So I can't get to things like the TES website anymore from work, but that's okay - I really shouldn't have been doing that from work, anyway. But they've gone a little too far - a coworker of mine tried to go to the website for a bar and grill to make reservations, and was blocked by the "alcohol/tobacco" prohibition. So we did a little checking, and we can't get to any sites that have anything to do with wine - including, say, the websites of the vineyard that donates wine to us. Seeing as how we often do special events and both order wine and research potential donors/sponsors (like Brooklyn Brewery, for example), this is pretty ridiculous. Time to email the IT folks and get them to lift some of the restrictions.
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| Election Day |
[04 Nov 2008|11:46am] |
Last Saturday, Bravo was running a season 1 West Wing marathon. It totally got me fired up to vote. :)
I was thinking about a mini-rant about how I hate when everyone posts/emails/tells me to vote, but I looked back at my Election Day 2004 post, and it had a similar rant, so you're all spared. (It also had a complaint about how I don't have to show ID to vote, which I was also complaining about this morning. Man, am I predictable.)
Voting was fairly easy. The old women running the place were a bit confused, but we were in and out in 30 minutes. It helped that we knew our election district, sparing us an additional line to wait on to find out. And it helped that both of our last names started with A - L; in our district, the M-Z line was out the door, but A-L was pretty short.
Whenever I vote, I can't help but think of the fact that women in this country have had the right to vote for less than 100 years. That I'm able to vote because people fought for that right. That it even took a fight for my voice to be recognized as equal infuriates me; but that people took up that fight and won it inspires me.
Today I voted for someone whose ancestors also had to fight to be recognized as equal, not to mention free. I am full of hope. I feel similar to when I voted at age 18 in my first election in 1992, for Bill Clinton. And now that I'm older and wiser, my hope is tempered with trepidation. I don't want to be disappointed. Not just in the election results, but in the next administration. But I'm still full of hope.
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| To run or not to run |
[12 Aug 2008|01:10pm] |
Tonight is Meet the Candidates night at TES. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I think it’s important to go and hear the people who are running for the board speak, hear their plans and opinions and thoughts. On the other hand, I am disappointed with the choices we have. And for that, I have no one to complain to but myself.
( Read more... )
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| Happy Birthday! |
[05 Aug 2008|01:08pm] |
Happy Birthday to my husband, friend, partner, top, dominant, love of my live, and all around good and fun guy, Jason. :)
Jason, you've made my life so happy and wonderful that I've run out of words to tell you so. In the next year, may your hard work pay off, and may you be as happy as you've made me. I love you and I'm so proud of you.
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| decisions, decisions, part II |
[11 Jul 2008|01:57pm] |
I think I decided what I'm going to do about the Chicago trip. The result is complicated, but the simple answer is that I'm going to go, and combine it with some days off (which I wanted to take sometime in August, anyway) before and after, so it doesn't feel so much like go-go-go-norest.
One thing resolved.
And of course, another, bigger, decision just came along.
Not sure yet what I'm going to do. Let the process begin.
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| book meme |
[10 Jul 2008|02:09pm] |
This book meme is going around. I've seen it before, but I don't think I've done it. The original heading (starting with "Someone") is below, but I find it a little confusing. (Like what is "The Big Read"?) As I originally heard it, some national book organization (i.e. "someone") put together a list of the top 100 books that people own, but have not read. But I could be off on that, or that could be a different list. Anyway, since I just finished lunch and don't really want to go work on my corporate proposal just yet, here's my book meme.
"Someone" reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed. It's not the Big Read though -- they don't publish books, and they've only featured these books so far. In any event...
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you started but did not finish.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog
1. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
3. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
5. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
6. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
8. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
10. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
13. His Dark Materials (trilogy) - Philip Pullman
14. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
15. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
18. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
19. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
21. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
22. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
23. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
24. Animal Farm - George Orwell
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
26. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
27. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
28. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
29. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
30. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
31. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
32. Complete Works of Shakespeare (Have I read every single one? Not sure. But between my theater and english majors in college, I bet I came close.)
33. Ulysses - James Joyce
34. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
35. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
36. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
37. The Bible
38. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
39. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
40. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
41. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
42. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
45. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
46. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
47. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
48. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
49. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
50. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
51. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
52. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
53. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
54. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
55. Middlemarch - George Eliot
56. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
57. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
58. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
59. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
60. Emma - Jane Austen
61. Persuasion - Jane Austen
62. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
63. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
64. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
65. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
66. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
67. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
68. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
69. Atonement - Ian McEwan
70. Dune - Frank Herbert
71. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
72. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
73. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
74. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
75. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
76. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
77. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
78. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
79. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
80. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
81. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
82. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
83. Dracula - Bram Stoker
84. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
85. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
86. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
87. Germinal - Emile Zola
88. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
89. Possession - A.S. Byatt
90. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
91. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
92. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
93. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
94. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
95. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
96. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
97. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
98. Watership Down – Richard Adams
99. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
100. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
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| commencement |
[06 Jun 2008|12:44pm] |
The guy from Xerox who spoke at my college graduation left nearly no impression on me, except that he tried to appeal to us by putting part of his speech into the format of a Top Ten list.
This, on the other hand, is a brilliant graduation speech. Well worth reading - JK Rowling speaking to the 2008 Harvard graduating class:
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/06.05/99-rowlingspeech.html
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| I will not go to school today, said little Peggy Ann McKay... |
[31 Mar 2008|12:06pm] |
Bonus points to anyone who recognize where the title of this post comes from.
Anyway, I'm sick. I tried to ignore it in good ol "If you ignore it, it will go away" fashion, but alas, that didnt' work. The little cough that started on Friday afternoon whenever I tried to laugh turned into a cough that made my throat sore on Saturday and a cough that made my voice go away on Sunday. Today it's a sniffle/sore throat/cough that has me home from work. And high on Robitussin. Good stuff, but it definitely creates that "medicine head" feeling. But anything that stops me from choking repeatedly is a good thing.
I suppose it's an okay time to get sick. The only after-work plan I had to cancel was my trainer appointment tonight. (Didn't have his email, so I had to call him - poor guy could barely hear me, that's how little voice I have.) I have two family events next weekend - nephew's birthday party and stepbrother's fiance's wedding shower - and I'd like to go to both. So unlike many of my past colds, I would like this one to go away quickly, please. Thank you.
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| Things we're leaving behind |
[18 Mar 2008|04:02pm] |
I thought this article, in the Washington Post, was really interesting - about things that used to be common, but which are becoming obsolete:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/12/AR2008031202907.html
And here's the list that accompanied the article (it's long - cut to save your friends list). It's amazing how many of these brought back sense memories for me - the clack of my mom's manual typewriter, the smell of mimeograph paper, the clean line of dots on the side of the old green-and-white striped printer paper, the joy of a mix tape crafted just for me (each song in a very carefully selected order), my cute first mini-boom box (it was a teal color) with a dual tape deck, the smooth flow the dial of our old, heavy rotary phone in the den of the house I grew up in, my first wooden tennis racket, my mom folding down the corners of pages in catalogues to remind herself of the items she wants (she still does this, actually), my dad meeting us at the gate when we returned from a spring break trip to Florida to see the grandparents, paper sharpener shavings falling on the classroom floor...
( Read more... )
Hey, at least I'll always have my appendix scar to remind myself of the good ol' days...
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| Question #6! |
[07 Mar 2008|02:59pm] |
What do you like most about...your place of employment...What makes them a good organization?
This is a fun question to answer, because I really like my job (most of the time). I think what I like most is the environment. Everyone here is committed to what we do. Everyone here is a theater lover, in one form or another. The people are nice, fun, and passionate, and that's what makes for a really great work environment. And because the management and board realize that we’re not working for much (although we get decent salaries for non-profit and good benefits), they make it so it’s a fun place to work with lots of social occasions throughout the year. For example, we have an annual bakeoff, which we invite one of our season actors to come help judge, and which is hosted by our Marketing Director and Casting Director, who put on little skits as the judging goes on. Opening nights here aren't really glitzy affairs - they're almost more for the staff, cast and production team than anyone else. Each summer, one of our board members hosts the entire staff (plus actors, writers, etc.) at her home for a day – a weekday, meaning they close the office for this. It’s the kind of place where you can say, “I need to leave an hour early” and it’s no big deal, no questions asked – we’re trusted and respected.
As for what makes it a good organization, the first thing that came to my mind is commitment to our mission. A lot of theaters get a little iffy about their missions, especially after being around for 30 years or so. (Like one NYC theater that talks about being committed to new work, but often does revivals, or another that is supposed to do revivals of work that didn’t get a lot of attention the first time around, but does a lot of new work premieres.) We are committed to contemporary writers and their new work. Period. We've never produced a revival or done Shakespeare. We produce new work by American writers, both emerging and established. And that sounds like grant proposal-speak, but working here day in and day out, I get to see it in action. I see it in the way we have a dramaturg (as opposed to a theatrical director) as our Artistic Director, in the way our Literary staff works with the writers on readings that REALLY serve the writer's development process, and in the way our season gets planned. It’s really inspiring, and I think most of our writers absolutely love their experience here. (One of our season writers, who we’re producing next, has pretty much been hanging around here all season. He just seems to like it here.) Also, I think this theater is willing to take a risk now and then. Our work can be a bit stodgy – we’ve had our share of seasons full of old, male writers – but this season we’re doing four female writers and ALL emerging writers. And it’s paying off. That’s really cool.
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