Way down on the Suwanee Ribber....

Here I sit, in a hotel in Suwanee, GA (another hotel I have been in before, I might add. It's kind of terrifying that I'm recognizing these places....) after a nice long drive from Winston-Salem this afternoon, which itself followed a show. A show, I might add (well, not MIGHT, since I just did add, but it's a writing convention. Although that's not true either because there are no other writers here, so it can't really be a convention. But that's another kettle of fish. Now fish! But that's another story...) which was at a theatre we had performed at last tour. I remembered it once we pulled in, and one of the crew guys actually remembered me. "I remember you," he said, which proves I'm telling the truth. "You're the only one I remember from last time." "I'm the only one who was here last time," I said, which seemed to explain it rather well. "Y'all seem a lot happier this time," he said. Now there's a man with a talent for understatement. We ARE a lot happier this time around. Some of the cast heard our exchange, and the rest of the cast was informed of it at lunch, because that's the kind of stuff we talk about. I tried to explain to the cast just what the situation was last fall when we were in Winston-Salem, but to be honest, they really couldn't grasp it. And despite my copious talent with words, I find it difficult to express to people who weren't there the depth and breadth of the antipathy some of us held for others of us and vice-versa. When you're in a group of people where everyone is perfectly happy to speak to each other, it's hard to get them to believe it's possible to want to do nothing but never hear the voice of the person next to you in the van. I mean, they kind of get it because Levitt drives us all crazy, but they have trouble grasping how systemic the disgust was. And you know what? I'm glad. I am very glad that we haven't split up into our tiny little mini-cliques in this group. And I know the main reason that happened in he last cast was because of a couple of certain people who wanted to split themselves off and the way that whole feeling kind of poisoned the whole experience. But I am glad that somehow that hasn't happened here yet. This job is hard enough without all that other shit. I do wish that the other two from the Triumvirate were here on the tour, not so much because I don't like the people here, but because I wish the two of them could experience being on this tour without that cancer running through everything. 

The show was ok. It wasn't quite as great as the rest of them have been this week, but the kids (all 800) seemed to be into it, and I was relatively happy with how the show went. I think it was a little slow, but that might have just been because it was Friday and we had a 300 mile drive staring us in the face. And I wasn't happy with my Tell-Tale performance. But to be honest, I'll probably not be happy with my Tell-Tale performance more than I am happy with it this whole run. I found some new stuff the last few shows that I'm trying to set, and it just didn't gel as well as I wanted today, but whatever I think, the audience seems into it, so I can't be ALL bad. I will admit I am having a really good time doing the show. Thank goodness for that, since it is way too damn long to hate it. I look back and realize just how long I've been on the road, and it's amazing, because it simultaneously feels like I've been on the road for years and yet feels like it was just yesterday I was with the last cast. I am definitely looking forward to living somewhere other than a suitcase. But even that is a strange dichotomy, because there's a lot about touring that I either a) enjoy or b) don't mind all that much. And I have a hard time having a HUGE problem with anything that gives me a lot of guaranteed work. Maybe that's the problem--and by problem, I mean the reason behind why my career isn't further along. I'm too practical. I go where the work and the money is, ignoring for the most part doing things for the pure artistry of it which, at least in Chicago, it seems, is the only way to get anyone to pay attention to you. I mean, I moved to Chicago and decided right off the bat not to work for anyone who wouldn't pay me, even though I knew no-one and had no connections in the second-largest theatre market in the US. Now, there was a good reason for that--I had no job and no money and a wife that would've kicked my ass (most deservedly) if I had come back and said, "Hey, it's no money, but it's so artistically fulfilling!" But I didn't think about finding a regular job and doing free theatre with artistic merit in order to build any kind of reputation. I said screw that, I've been working for 7 years and I deserve to be paid. So I took a kid's theatre tour and headed off to New England. (Whoa--deja vu!) I like the idea of making a living doing this work. I like the idea of not having to have a regular job all the time to make ends meet. I prefer being able to point to paid bills that were paid by theatre work than being an "artist" and having to wait tables. So maybe that's going to consign me to never really being successful, and I'll have cut my nose off to spite my face. I don't know. I mean, I've done cheap theatre--made money, but not enough to cover any expenses because I figured I'd get seen and that might help me move forward, but I look at calls for stuff done at theatres that get great reputations and see that they don't pay anything and I know that if I tried to work for them, I might get some recognition, but I feel like that's a lot of pretentiousness in some way. Especially small theatres that have been around for a long time. I mean, I understand when you first tart out you can't necessarily pay people, but if you've been around for 20-odd years, then you know what, you should've figured it out. I mean hell, I worked for a startup theatre company that insists on paying its actors. It's not a hell of a lot, but it's something, and they haven't been around for FIVE years, much less 20. I mean, hell, what's your priority? I know none of us get into this business to make money, but I don't see why it's impossible to be "artistic" and have an eye on paying the people who help you create that art. I don't know. I'm rambling. And I obviously need my own theatre. Not that anyone's going to give me one anytime soon. And that's probably for the best, because I really won't have much time to commit to it after I get elected President in 2012. Vote for Pond--He doesn't know Art, but he Knows what YOU like!

So here's a little offshoot. Those of you who know me (which as we all know, is all of you. If not, WELCOME stranger, are you registered to vote?) know that I have a great affinity for the music of Meat Loaf. Well, recently, I finally bought up the remaining Meat Loaf Cds I didn't have, including his latest, Bat Out of Hell III--The Monster is Loose. Well, I've listened to it, and I have to say something amazing. I really like the CD (that's not the amazing part) but there's a very obvious disconnect between the songs written by longtime collaborator Jim Steinman (who wrote all the music on the original Bat out of Hell album) and the songs written by others. Now, I also own Bat Out of Hell II--Back Into Hell, and I love it. And most of those songs (if not all of them--I don't have with me, so I don't know for sure) were written by Steinman. But on Bat III, the Steinman songs sound jarringly...well...archaic. I mean, I appreciate the fact I get to hear "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" sung by Meat Loaf instead of Celene Dion (Yak) and the song In the Land of the Pigs, The Butcher Is King is fun, but the rest of his songs sound out of date, and really only like rehashed stuff from his earlier albums, which is a shame, because on Bat II they sound fresh and still full of the wit and screw you attitude I liked on the original Bat. The other people writing seem to have a better handle on what Meat Loaf is able to do and they challenge him more than the Steinman stuff does. I don't know--maybe collaborating with Andrew Lloyd Webber on Whistle Down the Wind sucked all the creativity out of Steinman. (If you haven't heard the cast album to that show, do yourself a favor and don't) And Meat's voice is still amazing, especially when you consider how old he is and how long he's been tearing his voice up, but I've seen video of him live doing the new stuff and even live he's still ripping off the rafters, so I strongly recommend Bat III, as well as Welcome to the Neighborhood and Couldn't Have Said it Better. I'm telling ya. They're damn fine CDs. End of music criticism.

So tomorrow  drive the truck from Suwanee, GA to BAton Rouge, LA. Schneider will be in the truck with me, since apparently you can, for a fee, go to the DMV website and print out a paper license. So at least he can drive now. It's going to be a long drive, but it does mean that we get a whole day off in Baton Rouge, which is a city I haven't been to. I'm looking forward to it. I do love Louisiana, but I am pissed that thanks to Dallas, our show in New Orleans got cancelled. If there's any group that needs to hit New Orleans, it's us! Grr.... Just another reason for me to hate Dallas. Like I NEED a reason. Like anyone does.