Everything I need to know about being a lady, I learned from Patrick Swayze

Ah, the Swayze. That mysterious unicorn that graced the earth with his presence for a short while to be the ultimate example of masculinity AND femininity. Mr "Pain Don't Hurt" Dalton and Miss "I'm stripping you of your princess points" Vida Boheme. The only person I believe my bf would potentially leave me for, if it were possible.

Is it time to forgive Napoleon Dynamite?

Somewhere around the 200th "Vote For Pedro" Hot Topic shirt and 300th conversation that ended with someone kicking the ground and exclaiming "Gaaahhhhd", we all came to the same conclusion... we could no longer stand that little independent hit, Napoleon Dynamite. And so, for the past several years, we've put it out of our heads and replaced it with a dozen other obnoxious sleeper hits.

But now the question is, has enough time passed that we can forgive NP all it's transgressions and appreciate the finer qualities? Okay, Jon Heder's performance can still grate enough cheese to feed an entire Olive Garden lunch crowd. And the dialogue is still more quirky than Zooey Deschanel and Diablo Cody combined. That being said, I can still appreciate most of the supporting cast and the overall design - it's very deliberate and serves the film very well.

Plus, I have to admit - my favorite character, Uncle Rico, still holds up. And the actor who portrays him, Jon Gries, is one of those great character actors that you may recognize as the werewolf from The Monster Squad

Right before we find out that werewolves do indeed have nards.

or as Lazlo from one of the best movies ever, Real Genius,

He's smart, and he'll let you borrow his pajamas.

 as well as a billion other projects. He's just one of a those actors who consistently work and are occasionally recognized, but remain nameless to the general public.

I suppose that I am positing this question of re-examining Napoleon Dynamite purely for old Uncle Rico. And let's face it: we all know that a couple of generations from now, some kids will discover this film and love it in an ironic way and shower it with that special love that only exists after being hit by a wave of glorious nostalgia, and it will be worshiped by audiences who never had to sit on a train surrounded by teenagers who proceeded to quote the same five lines from the film over and over AND OVER again while you sat there in the summer heat waiting for drunk and sweaty Cubs fans to get off the red line already.

So let's reclaim this sucker. Let's reclaim it without quoting it constantly, without dressing up as one of the characters for Halloween, without buying silk screened tshirts featuring our favorite character. Reclaim it quietly, friends. Not for Napoleon. But for Uncle Rico and the rest of the cast who didn't make us want to put our heads through a wall and for that art team that must have spent countless hours trying to find new ways to put red, orange and blue together.

Reclaim it quietly.

Subtle grace and dignity.

Get all up in my business (or - What I've been up to)

Here it is - my morning off, after a weekend of performances and 12 hour rehearsal days... and yet I  have been up cleaning since about 7am. I am not sure what is more freakish - that I am awake after so little sleep, or that I am cleaning. Shudder.

Since I do have a date with my bed, I am keeping this short and sweet and to the point.

I have one more week of Alice left at the BCT. It has been an interesting and fun run, and a beautiful show to boot - I liked everyone I worked with, and that is always a blessing in the theatre world.

I also open Singing In The Rain this Thursday. If you wanna know what's up, then you really ought to get your sweet can down to the RMTC Cabaret theatre and check it out (ticket info here). I seriously sit offstage in all my Lina furs and sparkle watching the tap numbers with a big idiot grin on my face. No foolin'.

Photo from last weekend's umbrella/ticket giveaway in Railroad Park

If you want updates of both, including photos and promotional videos (and of course, random status updates and things I find on the interweb that I deem important*), please friend me on facebook and follow me on twitter!



*cat videos, mostly

For the starving artist

Starving for a little respect, artist buddies? Are you feeling like you're being pigeonholed into a group classified by some as lazy, self absorbed and totally disposable? Yeah, me too. It doesn't help when people are trying to cut out the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities because they are "frivolous".
It truly is a shame when people have no clue how much of their life, their choices, their work, their faith, etc etc etc has been influenced by the art they have been exposed to in their lives.

Glitter, Sketch Pads and Self Promotion

It is always so glorious to see actual comedians host this show- it brings about a feel of classic SNL, the one long  before they were doing their best to make prepubescent star-tarts funny.
 Plus, it's fucking Zach Galifianakis. Please watch before they take the video down (or go here, where the video should stay up longer)


 Lastly, I have created a public twitter account to correspond to my blog. I know, it's a little much- but I promise to only post funny things, music things and more funny things.

Why I'm staying Red

Back in 2007, I started a lie that has become harder and harder to shake- that I was a red head.
By lie, I mean I bleached the shit out of my hair and then dyed it over and over and over again. Since then I've had periods of letting it go back to it's natural brown, once every woman and their mother/aunt/sister/niece/trixie best friend who saw this or this and thought "Damn it, I wanna be a red head too!".
And while those young, sexypants ladies are all good reasons to want to capture the natural lustiness of a true ginger, I've attached my reasons to a few different women.
Women that I idolize, that I adore and that one day I hope allow me to gain entrance into their glorious society of talented divas, via my (fake) hair color.*

Sunday Funday

PBR in the fridge, bean dip in the oven, Jessica on the couch with time to kill.
You're welcome.

 

 

Let's get this week on the road.

*I forgot to add- let's all thank NPR music for the Tiny Desk Concert series, or we would miss awesome new bands like this one .