all neuroses, all the time

i have the day off, and so i took the little transport thingy into town and i am now thinking about going to the movies. but what to see? "goldmember" has had horrible reviews, and "perdition" seems too hardcore for me today. "minority report" would be nice, i guess. and i don't care about "mib2" after all, surprisingly. maybe i won't do a damn thing but walk over to the dairy queen and have a cone. who knows?

really nothing to report. "my fair lady" opened last night, and the costumes, if i may say so myself, are faboo. we copied the "ascot" dress to a "t"- cecil beaton would be proud, or turning over in his grave at the very thieving nature of our design. i mean, it's exact. but the audience gasped when she walked out on stage, she was just that lovely. so, mission accomplished.

yep, that's all i got.

oh! i'm adding a new link!

and sadly, a trip to boston may now be out of the question... more on this later. i'll call you ron.
posted by bruce at 3:12 PM

so this is what i'm going to do, i think:

i'm going to call my credit card company and tell them, no, beg them, to up my limit so that i don't have to pinch pennies like a freak when i bust out of here for my trip up north to see certain area bloggers, among others, (and maybe him if he comes down to beantown).

then i'm going to rent a car and drive to boston the day after i get out of here.

then i'm going to hang with ron "playa" ying ying in the comfort of his newly wallpaper-bordered guest room. then at some point we will go see the woo's at their country chalet and shoot b.b. guns at the squirrels. then i'll somehow get to nyc and look up you manhattanite bloggers and see what sort of trouble we can all get up to.

i will also go to a museum or two. or three.

then i will figure out how to get home, on no money. as i will have spent it all on drinks and broadway plays.

and then i will come home and kiss my dog and my husband. prolly my husband first (who, by the way, came up to visit me last weekend as a surprise: he whisked me away to the westin in pittsburgh and showed me the sights. i'd like to say we screwed like rabbits, but alas. all that sight-seeing wears a girl out. he did, however, get a b.j. within 10 minutes of being here. should i have told you that?).

anyway: "godspell," on the strength of a marvelous cast and great conductor, is a great success. lots of church groups, and lots of hollering and praising jesus. i actually got misty at one point, but then i know how the whole sad story ends. ho hum.

but for fun, give a jewish friend the evil eye, like i did. mutter something threatening under your breath, all the while shaking your head slowly with a your eyes squinted clint eastwood style in a look of huge and horrible "blame."

i'm kidding!

hee hee hee.
posted by bruce at 10:32 PM

let's say that last week's foray into self pity didn't happen. let's pick up, however briefly, where we left off.

since last we spoke, "footloose" has come and gone, and i stand by my assessment of the show itself: it sucks. feel free to argue, i'm right. you know i am.

"chicago" opened, and that was a ball-buster, as i co-designed the costumes and it was a real challenge. i've never designed for dancers, and had not thought about how things should fit them, and now fit them, and how much leg to show (it's always more, more, more: dancers usually have such great bodies they don't care about showing stuff, and boy did we show stuff), how much tits to fake, etc. etc.

those girls were hot. i mean, hot. i gave them the same sort of twenties slip dress, but cut the hems way above the knees in different ways to mix them up. some were asymetrical (sic), some were straight and fringey, some cut high on the hips and formed points at the front and back. all of them were hot. lots of tits and ass, and once we wigged them in their bobs and clara bow curls and did the kohl rimmed eyes, well, it made my homo heart proud. fishnets, t-strap pumps, etc. it was faboo.

the boys were in tux pants and wife beaters, with suspenders and arm garters and a red rose in the ribbon of their bowler hats. very fosse. and oh, the underwear. those girls wore a lot of period underwear. well, the crowd naturally loved it, and while once again i was not mentioned by name in the review (which was glowing, and is not online. i checked.), the costumes were, calling the show a "lingerie lover's dream." well. it was.

and the cast were fab. such cute boys, and the leads were a dream to work with; one of the women was actually in the "fosse" dvd, and she could not have been more easy to dress and work with. i mean, we cut her opening number dress up to her coochie, you know? and she didn't balk at all, just stepped in and worked it. really, everyone was great. not so much my co-designer. we are too egocentric to do this again, and while i love him as a person and a fellow designer, the experience brought out some sides of us that were not to pleasant to each other. thankfully i went right back to work managing after chicago opened and didn't have to do two jobs at once. which was hard.

what else.

"jekyll and hyde" has come and gone by now as well, and it was a good show too. i hated the music until i saw this production, as i thought the cd was just so... er... cheesy. well. put the music to the stage action and it really takes off, and while i should know this about musicals in general, i forget that as the songs are telling a story it is better to follow the story rather than just hear a song and pass judgement. that said, i hate "this is the moment," which sounds like it was written for every AIDS benefit or gay parade ever held. i mean, i just despise that song. it's another " i am what i am," just without the gay subtext. or maybe not, you decide.

anyway, "godspell," one of my least favorite musicals of all time, opens tonight. i don't know why i hate it so. maybe because it has nothing to say. oh, sure: "love jesus and each other." but really. it's like "chorus line": at one time pretty relevant and culturally significant, today just hoary and quaint. and who wants to remember the jesus freak seventies, when the burnt out woodstockers suddenly and inexplicably turned to christ and started baking sprouted bread and writing songs like "one tin soldier" or that "jesus is just alright with me" blood sweat and tears song? ugh. ack.

anyway, i'll see it and change my mind of course. the bonus here is that the cast of our production is a bunch of homos, so that certainly puts a slant on things. well, it'll keep my attention anyway.

hey, i missed you guys, really! send me some email! leave a comment!

i know i've made half you guys stop reading, what with the scarce postings lately, but just remember i'm thinking of you regardless. just too swamped to let you know.

and aldo, i'll get them in the mail!

xoxo
me




posted by bruce at 7:18 PM

Half of what I say is meaningless
But I say it just to reach you, Julia.

whenever i am feeling a little homesick, or out-of-sorts, or blue, i almost always hear the beatles playing in my head, providing a bittersweet soundtrack to my sadness or longing.

Julia, Julia, oceanchild, calls me
So I sing a song of love, Julia
Julia, seashell eyes, windy smile, calls me
So I sing a song of love, Julia.

when i was a kid my mother gave me all of her albums from the '60's, and the "white album" was one of them, as was "abbey road" and "magical mystery tour."

Her hair of floating sky is shimmering, glimmering
In the sun

john lennon wrote "julia" for his mother who died when he was young.

Julia, Julia, morning moon, touch me
So I sing a song of love, Julia.

right now i miss my mother, and father, and boyfriend, and dog. you don't know how much. you can't imagine.

When I cannot speak my heart
I can only speak my mind, Julia.

what does my future hold? do i stay in this business and try and bang out a living? do i move to the east coast? west coast? i want that sort of money, i have to go where the money and work is. can i keep a family together, if i'm out on tour?

Julia, sleeping sand, silent cloud, touch me
So I sing a song of love, Julia.

i'm fixated on my twenties. i had so much fun, and was so likeable and active. i was also in a rut, and i never did anything career-minded, and i never wanted more than i had, and it was enough for me to dodge the bill collectors and stay drunk or stoned and always out with friends. always out.

Hum hum hum hum...calls me
So I sing a song of love, Julia, Julia, Julia.

where do i go from here?!!! what the fuck do i do?!!!


posted by bruce at 1:09 AM

oh my god, i've been such a horrible parent, and my poor little brucehoax has been abandoned like a dickensian orphan child...

well, i'm back, albeit briefly.

smoky joe's, which closed on sunday, was a great big wonderful and horrible experience: freaky actresses, self-important actors, bruised egos, you know, the usual. but it's over. there were moments of real comedy, though: the dressers swooping down on the big actress after her last number to claim the swanky multi-tiered rhinestone necklace and earring combo, as she had "jokingly" warned us that she would "slip it in her bag," or how about that time that a girdle went missing and an actress "blew out" her zipper, exposing her ass for all to see, in the middle of her big number?

ah, theater.

well: now the show that is opening tonight is the stage adaptation of the movie "footloose," about the big-city kid who moves to the sticks and gets all the stuffy townspeople to heal and forgive after an old but tragic accident, and all through the power of dance! wow!
yes, it's pretty wretched; not the actual production, but the play itself. not well written. the music, besides the hits that you know like "let's hear it for the boy," "holding out for a hero," "footloose," and "almost paradise," is pretty gawd-awful in that cringe-making "workshop musical" sort of way. ah well. i'm hard to please. i heard the music for stephen sondheim's "assassins" for the first time last week and got all swoony, so you can see the sort of heaviness i prefer in my song and dance shows. pitch black and unsentimental, that's how i like it.

um.

sorry i've been away, but i'm fucking busy, in a good way. i'm really enjoying myself, and i'd do this in a heartbeat again next summer. of course, i'm barely halfway there and it's not horrific and hard yet. but still.

garsh, i'm tired. i'm skipping the opening of the show tonight so i can go to the cast party at the local gay club and better meet the performers. i mean, you certainly get to know the guys pretty well with your tape measure shoved up under their nut sac, but i'd like to talk to them a tad too... tomorrow we are going to pittsburgh, which is surprisingly pretty and fun by the way, so that we can pick up a bunch of stuff for our next musical (which i happen to be co-designing), "chicago." yep, the one on broadway that bebe neuwirth keeps coming back to do. well. we are doing it not so "90's s&m" like the broadway version, but more slinky and minimal and deco geometric with high-hemmed satin slip dresses and tastefully well-placed rhinestones and feathers. that's the kind of designer i am, i'd be a horrible person to have make a drag queen's dresses: i always stop before it gets to be too much.

speaking of, i should tell you what the drag shows are like here in morgantown. or maybe you can guess.

xoxo
pj
posted by bruce at 6:09 PM