…even if I’m feeling that I am. My life has degenerated into the late-semester drudgery of not owning any of my own time. Except (as always) when I’m directly involved with students, I’m either stuck in retrograde or busting my butt on trying to discover a hidden pathway to an unforeseeable future. Meanwhile, my present slides by, virtually unnoticed.
My ‘high points’ have become things like taking down the show in Evanston yesterday, and in so doing, getting to take Lake Shore Drive in to work from there, instead of I-90. My simple pleasure in the change of view quickly smacked me in the face, as I realized just how freakin’ pathetic that was. Hell, last week, it was playing with a cute puppy who visited work…I’m just grasping at anything outside the grinding, relentless, stagnant routine.
So, it’s good to get news from Friends Who Have Lives; it’s even better when good people get the recognition they deserve. Rich Orloff’s off-off Broadway play has been getting rave reviews during its short initial run. Funny As A Crutch is actually nine short plays about disability, and the five actor cast, who play multiple roles, are all talented disabled folk.
Here are some of those reviews: The NY Times, Back Stage, and my favorite at NYTheatre.com.
Rich’s decision to write these plays may explain why, in all the residencies I’ve had over the years, he is the one and only playwright (or screenwriter or librettist) who has ever asked me to participate in a reading of one of his works. I loved doing it, and that play was so offbeat, poignant and kick-ass funny that if I were anywhere near Manhattan, I’d be in this audience in a heartbeat. If you’re there, go! But do it quickly; the play closes on November 23.
And, Doug Stapleton got a lovely review in F magazine for The Leaf and the Page. It’s rare for curators to get reviewed (unless they’re getting trashed) instead of the individual artworks, so this much-deserved bit of recognition is especially appreciated by this ‘curatee’.
Even I got an unexpected mention in a recent article about the Jaffe Collection, which I suppose isn’t bad when the collection contains 12,000 books. It was very nice, but not enough to shake me out of my current funk. Maybe I need to check into getting a full-spectrum lamp, a new bottle of aged single malt, my own new puppy, a winning lottery ticket, or maybe an effective kick in the butt…but that can only come from someone who I don’t want to kick first.
Melissa Jay Craig's Blahg 
ay! my computer just ate my last comment. it went something like this: i feel you on the feeling, but you’ll never be, never have been, and aren’t pathetic. you are simply surviving, and given what’s on your plate, that itself disqualifies you from pathetic-dom!
Like Aimee said, you’re not pathetic. Duh.
Those of us who are qualify as Friends Who Have Lives (and I’d like to think I’m one) still have our own issues — this week, mine have devolved to “juggling chainsaws to get an artist-run gallery and studio centre off the ground” and “trying to figure out how to explain the differences between ‘caring about the mental health of an ex-spouse’ and ‘stalking’ to someone who can’t tell the difference”.
Puppies do a seriously fine job to alleviate problems like that, particularly really cute ones like yours. The English Bull Terrier breeder friend of ours in the Great White North, who sent her pregnant bitch to Montana, will be bringing eight little tiny puppies back through town next week, and I can hardly wait.
I remember their dad when he was that age: he fit in the palm of my hand, barely having his eyes open when he exhibited proper pack behaviour with a hu-man for the first time (lick under chin and whimper). With me.
He still thinks he’s just a little tiny pup, even though he weighs 85 pounds, likes to sit on my lap, and gives me head-butts.
A good single-malt is up there in the “warm and fuzzy department” too, but it can’t lick you silly, sit on your foot, or plant itself outside the bedroom door and snore…. 😉
wish we could afford to buy Enchanted World and live there with all our friends.
i have a small puppy in the freezer you can have.
are you famous yet?
A “mention” in the article about the Jaffe collection? I believe it said, “Particularly striking…”