What's for Dinner?

Not Meat Loaf again!!! Fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show will recognize that line as the introduction of Meat Loaf as Eddie, coming out of the freezer in order to sing Hot Patootie. People who are not fans of Rocky Horror now know 2 things about the movie they didn't know before, namely Meat Loaf comes out of a freezer as Eddie to sing Hot Patootie, and his intro line shouted by the audience is What's for dinner? Not Meat Loaf again! Think of me as a wandering educator.

Now, fans/not fans of the movie may be saying to themselves, "Thank you Andrew for reminding/informing me of such a lovely and integral scene from this movie I love so/never really cared about. But WHY?" The answer is simple. I just watched last weeks episode of House online, and lo and behold, who do they have as the major sick guy? Meat Loaf! I don't know why I always get a smile whenever  see him acting. Perhaps it's because of the fact I know that was always the career he preferred and had wanted to truly pursue. Perhaps it's because of the fact that I'm always pleasantly surprised someone gives him the opportunity. Maybe it's because of the fact every time I see him, I realize he's not at all bad. He was actually quite good in this episode as a man dying of heart failure who seems to improve as his wife starts getting sicker. There's even a moment in the show where he decides he will allow a risky transplant procedure so he can die on the table and give his wife his liver. I half-expected (and was happy they didn't) an "I would Do Anything for Love" reference. And his character's name was Eddie! How cool is that? These are the things that entertain me. What can I say? I'm a man of simple pleasures.

That was a pleasant surprise to help end an otherwise stressful day. We got to the Hancock Center in Boston and unloaded the truck--completely, since Levitt had to go drop off the new truck and get the old truck which was now repaired before the show started. That meant she wasn't going to be around for setup. This was no problem since she's really more trouble than she's worth, when you boil it all down. She informed a bunch of us of this situation before we left this morning as we were standing outside the hotel. It is very important, gentle readers, that you all remember that the one person NOT in this group was Bob. Why? Because she informed all of us that Bob would be the one running setup and would lead the raising of the proscenium since he had done everything with it before. Remember, Bob was not in this group. She then went to the van. As we were going through setup, we all realized it was going very slowly, mostly because Bob moves very slowly and methodically. But he seemed to be avoiding the proscenium raise, and that needed to be done before Flo could go out and start house managing, since she was needed to help in Levitt's place. So we informed Bob he needed to raise the proscenium, which surprised him, because he though Levitt was coming back to do it. Why? Because she had never told him anything about doing it. But facts were facts, and we raised it, which turned out to be a problem, since Bob had never done certain pre-raise duties, like tying off the ropes which hold the scrims in place, which meant they both unrolled as we raised it. All of this put us way behind, and I kicked myself for not having informed Bob of what Levitt had told us in front of the hotel that morning. I had assumed she would have told HIM during the drive to the venue. Once again, I overestimated her competence, and it bit me in the ass. I have to stop doing that. 

Well, thanks to all that, and the fact that Bob really never deals with placing the deck in the correct place--meaning we had to readjust after we got the proscenium up--by the time Levitt came back, which was around 9:30 (10:30 show remember) we weren't anywhere near ready for the house to open at 9:45. She comes in and immediately demands to know why the set isn't up. Bob informs her he didn't know he was supposed to get everything done in her absence, since he would have informed HER that there were things he didn't know how to do and could she show him, and he would have moved with more alacrity had he known she wouldn't be back in time. She claimed to have told him A WEEK AGO. When I tried to jump to his defense I was dismissed by a raised hand and a snort. I decided to go about my business instead of putting a boot through her face. Another instance of nothing ever being her fault. She felt it necessary to tell me about unloading the truck completely this morning, even though we had discussed it three days ago, but she tells Bob something a week ago and it doesn't rate a reminder? Sh never told him, period. Bob would've remembered having that conversation, since the prospect of doing it all by himself would've worried him. But she can never be at fault. I am so tired of working with people dumber than I am.

Thankfully, we were able to get the show up near on time--and we went late only because 300 kids showed up at the last minute. But it was all for naught, as far as I'm concerned, since the over 1000 kids were about as responsive as an old man's reflexes. Yep, oil painting city. Plus Pat was seeing the show. Lovely. The ironic thing is that the show actually felt like one of our better performances. Too bad the audience didn't agree, or at least sound like they agreed. Well, you can't win 'em all. Levitt came up after the show and told me to let her know if I'm interested in the fall tour. I am so happy that tomorrow I will be able to go to her and say no. Ahhhhhhh. Sweet freedom. Especially since I just heard that we will be doing another reading of the math show in May 8th AFTER our performance that day. Lovely! And you know what's even better? It's not going to be of a rewrite, it's going to be the same damn script! HOW THE HELL can these people be successful? It's ludicrous! This show needs a rewrite, and they're going to just listen to the same bad stuff all over again? It's horrible! SOmeone shoot me! Better yet, shoot them! I am so tired of this. Even if I hadn't already made up my mind not to come back in the fall, this did it. I can't deal with this kid of dumb anymore. I know, I know, dumb is everywhere, but this kind of dumb is rare and needs a very specific set of circumstances to flourish, and I would like to remove myself from those circumstances.

Anyway, that's all there is from today. It was an otherwise easy day, and we got to Springfield, MA with no incident. Tomorrow is another day, and I can only hope it's one that doesn't result in me wanting to put my fist through someone's spleen.