this may be the entry i've been most looking forward to writing all tour. you'll see why in a few short minutes...
portland was a pretty sweet city. cool bar called veritable quandary on sw 1st and madison. went there wednesday night after the show, and the head carpenter, martin, ordered rabbit pate over toasted brioche. it looked super tasty and after i had a bite of his, i was sold. i instantly ordered my own - i've never had rabbit, but it looks as though i'll be having more as time goes by.
thursday night, dave romich and i went out for a night on the town (read: everyone else flaked on us). but we were determined to go hear mel brown. turns out he was the drummer for the temptations and diana ross back in the day and now has his own quintet that plays regularly in portland at jimmy mak's. that bar was probably a half-hour walk from the theatre, but it was totally worth it. we got there at about 11:10, and they ended their last set at around 11:30, but the 20 minutes of music we did hear were pretty sweet. there was no piano but instead, a hammond b-3 organ! i've only ever heard a hammond in a church, so it was quite intriguing to hear it used in a jazz setting. unfortunately, the bar closed at midnight, so we ended up on the hunt for another spot. downtown portland was pretty dead for a thursday night, but the bar next to our hotel was going strong until 2:30. as it turns out, paddy's has been voted the 8th-best irish bar in the country. well, we met some townies there that were quite hammered and quite vocal. their main topic of conversation centered around the likelihood of being able to do a line of blow off a stripper's asshole. yeah, real classy, portland.
friday's boot camp was only slightly less excruciating, only because we were in the pool. water aerobics still kicked my ass, although this time i had a better idea of what nikki would throw at us. now i could tell that nikki is an awesome personal trainer and that she is in great shape (her abs are perfect - they look as if they're painted on), but i really had no idea. i learned that she is a former national spokesperson for bally's! she used to be on several of their commercials and everything. no wonder she knows exactly what she's doing.
ok, on to the exciting part of the post. jeremy tchou (harvard '08) now lives in portland, and the two of us took a few classes together when i was a senior and he was a sophomore. he actually came to see the show twice (fri and sun nights), but the real fun happened after the show on friday. some of his co-workers had recommended a bar to him called dixie, but he had never been. so we checked it out - it was only a block or two north of voodoo doughnut. i instantly knew i would like the place as soon as we walked in and noticed several dozen bras dangling from the ceiling. wonder what those girls had to do to get those up there...? every few songs or so, the dj would announce that it was time for some girls to dance on the bar - either the professional bartenders or the drunk wanna-bes. well, the highlight of the night would come at around, oh, 1:30am - after i've already had a few. their huge tv screens cycled through the same series of ads - from thursday night being ladies night to future cinco de mayo specials. one of the frames advertised a hurricane katrina shot. both jeremy and i found that intriguing and walked over to the nearest bar to get a pair. chelsey tells us that she can't do two at a time. puzzled but not deterred, jeremy defers to me. chelsey says that i have to go down to the other end of the bar for the shot. and still brings two shot glasses, further adding to my confusion. now, the next string of events happened in a blur - had to have been 10 seconds or less. she jumps up on the bar, walks over to me, gets down on her knees, sits back on her legs and forcibly grabs my hands and puts them under her knees. my instant reaction is that i'm totally gonna get titties in the face. which would have been awesome. especially since she had nice ones and was showing them off. what happened next was even better than i had hoped. she takes my glasses off and hands them to jeremy.
chelsey: how're you feeling?
me: great!
chelsey: ever had this shot before?
me: nope.
chelsey: are you sensitive to pain?
me: no...
the instant i say no, the first shot goes directly into my face. water. and then before i knew what was going on, i had done a complete 180. she slapped THE FUCK out of me. the hardest i've probably been hit in my entire life. left ear ringing. completely spun around, since my hands were trapped under her. now, i've never cheated on a girlfriend before, but that slap felt like a "we've been married for 12 years, and i just walked in on you nailing my sister" kind of slap. i'm stunned senseless, when chelsey grabs my face and throws a shot of jager down my throat. ladies and gentlemen. the hurricane katrina shot. and i loved it. the shot cost 5 bucks, but i gave her 10. it gave me a rush that i've never ever experienced before. i totally understood the symbolism (water = flooding/drowning; bitch slap = the city of new orleans being slapped in the face by FEMA and the government), i got it. but boy, was i not expecting that. chelsey told us that all the dixie bartenders, who are female, are trained upon hire to perform that shot when asked. and here's the kicker - they slap the girls as hard as they do the guys. equal opportunity all around - gotta love it. needless to say, jeremy did not take the shot after seeing me get facially annihilated. i've had to tell this story multiple times to the cast and crew over the past few days. the best response i've gotten was probably from joy: "so if i slap you right now, will you give me 5 dollars?"
jeremy insisted that with us being former EPS [that's earth and planetary sciences, for all you non-harvardians out there] nerds (and he currently works as a wind energy consultant), i had to see the columbia river gorge. so i curtailed my drinking on saturday night (it was chauncey's bday - i had one drink, then left) in order to get up at 7, to meet jeremy at 8am to go see the natural wonders of oregon. during the drive east, jeremy tells me that portland has one of the highest suicide rates in the country. this absolutely befuddles me, because he follows that up by saying that there are the most breweries and strip clubs per capita in the city as well. hmmm, if i'm depressed because it's so cloudy and dreary, why not go grab a cold beer and see some bare-chested ladies? i know that would certainly cheer me up. although i wouldn't be depressed by the rain, i'd actually enjoy it - since i'm a weather nut and all. anyway, we saw multiple, breathtaking waterfalls up close and personal. i saw some of the world's largest sturgeon in an exhibit and hiked several miles up a mountain to see a picturesque view of the gorge, as the columbia river snaked its way east, separating washington and oregon. and all this along the same stretch of I-84, and all before lunch and a two-show day. on our way back into the city, we stopped by burgerville, which is apparently portland's equivalent of california's in-n-out. tasty cherry milkshake, yummy tillamook cheese on my burger, northwest-grown potatoes - great way to close out my week. monday was a long travel day - portland to layover in oakland to orange county - which could only mean one thing. that's right, M Monday! mimosa monday has been expanded to include any drink that starts with an m: margaritas, mojitos, martinis - those all fit! we totally had burritos and margaritas at a mexican grill in the portland airport at 10am. sweet. we're in costa mesa for the next two weeks before we get two weeks off...before three weeks in tokyo! fun times ahead for sure - seeing the boys back in nyc, cinco de mayo debauchery ahead, a trip to atlantic city in the works on the 7th, mom's day in dc, etc. our time off will be hard-earned though. we've got today (tuesday) off, since it took a while for the trucks to drive down from portland. that means we have a show next monday, resulting in 16 shows in 12 consecutive days - and i'm conducting the last 9. off to enjoy my only completely free day in the oc...
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
the great northwest
seattle was absolutely magnificent, a cooler city than i had wanted to give it credit for. we flew here on virgin, the last time i've been on a virgin flight since...i believe my march 2009 trip to vegas. absolutely love that airline. every airplane should have that nightclub atmosphere. interactive chat between seats, games to play - i'll stop, because i'm sure you've all flown virgin. anyway, spent the week at reckhow's. hanging with him and kemp peterson was sweet. felt like a mini-version of college. after 6 weeks in LA, being in seattle for only one seemed super quick. the eight shows were a blur, but michael, anabelle (his gf), kemp, kate, julia and marc (her bf) all came to our sunday night closer and really enjoyed themselves.
the beginning of my week there was bitter sweet. reckhow lotteried himself into some final four tickets a while back and was in indy with mugica to watch that classic butler/duke game. i truly wanted butler to win, but after conferring with kemp, it would have been better for us if duke had won. for those of you who haven't seen mike after a duke loss in a big game...it ain't pretty. they did a sweet job of showing me the town. michael lives in capitol hill, which was only about a 15-minute walk from the stage door of the paramount. cool, nifty little bars. amazing restaurants. if you don't know, i'm a sucker for salmon. went to brunch at glo's, right down the street from michael on olive way. amazing salmon benedict. followed that up with dinner on friday night at coastal kitchen, which was sporting a n'awlins theme. never had gator...until then. scrumptious gator andouille sausage, followed by a clam-laden jambalaya. follow that up saturday morning with the best french toast (caramelized banana brioche french toast, to be exact - ricotta cheese filling, super flaky, loaded with pecans and vanilla bean custard) i've had in my life at volunteer park cafe, and i may have had the best 24 hours of food ever. but nothing could top the shenanigans of saturday night.
if you remove my 0-3 record against yagan in beantown back in february, i haven't played beirut since going out on tour. i know - shocking. and apparently, michael is well on his way toward becoming a real adult. steady job at microsoft, girlfriend of 2+ years, doesn't drink much anymore, still holds up to his college nickname of "sir sleeps-a-lot"...and hell, he even owns a boat! well, much to the dismay of his seattle core of friends...who have heard numerous stories from myself and his other blockmates about his drunken college days...they don't see that michael anymore. which means they are ecstatic when "one of us" comes out to visit. if mugica, muthu, yagan, gartland, etc. - any of us knuckleheads ever rear our ugly heads in seattle, all shit goes to hell. i held up to my end of the bargain. saturday night beirut at his apartment. and beiristics were kept. beirut statistics, or beiristics, began our senior year over spring break on bald head island, nc. michael wrote a program that captures shooting percentage, last cups made and several other intricacies of the game. not only did michael and i win 14 consecutive games (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=38995055&id=2855), but i followed that up with 3 wins in trei-rut (one-on-one-on-one beirut) over kemp and reckhow. a career night for sure - looks like i found that right level of drunk and shook off the rust.
the three-hour bus ride down to portland on monday morning was highlighted by mimosa monday - which featured andre strawberry! =) i remember the days when naveen and i would pregame on a saturday night with individual bottles of andre. ah, college. portland is a mini-seattle - still cozy but not quite as large. oh, back to seattle for a hot second. driving along i-5, you can see both safeco and qwest fields just off the interstate. absolutely magnificent structures. wished i could have gone to a game at safeco, but the mariners were out of town the entire week. i have a not-so-hidden desire to go to a baseball game in every city i'm in during the tour, if the team is in town. ambitious? yes. but why not dream big? back to portland. syesha, our deena, sang the national anthem monday night at the thunder-blazers game, and a bunch of us got last-minute free tickets to go support her. the rose garden was absolutely electric, as the blazers erased an eight-point halftime deficit to defeat oklahoma city, 103-95. watching kd/durantula/kevin durant was truly amazing - he is a phenom and scored his 30 almost at will. tuesday night, went to candlelight on 5th and lincoln. one of bigg redd's boys was playing bass, and he invited us there for the night. pretty sweet band, highlighted by gretchen mitchell. as for the show yesterday, the portland band actually sounded quite good in the morning rehearsal. but like so many other bands before them, they proceeded to fold under the pressure of our opening night show. can't quite understand it. are they tired from playing all day? seems stupid, since they're professional musicians and have very likely played multiple hours in a day before. are they thrown off once the voices are added at night after only hearing the instruments in the morning? whatever it is, it sucks. but there is one positive. they're better than the band in seattle. ZING!
don't know if i've mentioned this here already. when i got this job, i was around 185 pounds. drinking a lot during the first couple months of tour ballooned me up to 199 on the monday we left columbus, ohio about two months ago. that was super scary for me, because i made a personal vow that i would never hit 200 again...after skyrocketing up to 243 at the end of my freshman year of college, losing 70 pounds in 6 months, gaining it all back over the next 3 years, then losing 65 pounds over the next 6 months. well, i straightened up in LA - drank less, ate better, hit the gym on my own accord. 6 weeks, 12 pounds gone bye-bye. so clearly, i know how to shave off the pounds on my own when i'm focused enough. well, the 187 became 190 after splurging in seattle with reckhow, but no big deal. well, i had hearing from everyone that nikki, one of the girls in our ensemble, how awesome she is. she's a personal trainer and runs get fit w/ nik. i know, super cute name. she does one-on-ones but is also known for her boot camp. where she beats you to within a breath of your life over the course of 90 minutes. who in his right mind would subject himself to that? well, after a bevy of gentle ribbing from her regular boot camp goers, and even nikki herself, i decided to surprise everyone this morning by showing up. dear god, i nearly died. if i had to run up that damn hill one more time...anyway. i celebrated by getting VD. no no, not a veneral disease. but instead, voodoo doughnut (btw, i stole that joke from a bumper sticker 'i got vd in portland' at the actual donut shop, lol). 24-hour place only a few blocks from my hotel (hotel fifty, which is very chic and new) that sells really unique doughnuts. toppings/ingredients include, to name a few: heath bar, cap'n crunch, bacon (yes, there's a bacon maple bar), fruit loops, all different kinds of icings, and they even have vegan options. there's even a $5.25 "cock 'n balls" that pretty much, uh, speaks for itself. well, i walked in after boot camp and immediately knew what i wanted. the "tex-ass." that's right. it was the largest glazed donut i've ever seen in my life. looked about the size of 6 krispy kremes. i mean, it was gargantuan. but yet, i stepped up to the plate and took the 80-second challenge. yep, if i could eat the whole damn thing in 80 seconds, it'd be free. mammoth fail. not only was it huge, but i was still out of breath from boot camp. i only got about half of it down but was proud of my effort. perhaps, i'll have to go to my second boot camp beatdown on friday morning to work it off...
the beginning of my week there was bitter sweet. reckhow lotteried himself into some final four tickets a while back and was in indy with mugica to watch that classic butler/duke game. i truly wanted butler to win, but after conferring with kemp, it would have been better for us if duke had won. for those of you who haven't seen mike after a duke loss in a big game...it ain't pretty. they did a sweet job of showing me the town. michael lives in capitol hill, which was only about a 15-minute walk from the stage door of the paramount. cool, nifty little bars. amazing restaurants. if you don't know, i'm a sucker for salmon. went to brunch at glo's, right down the street from michael on olive way. amazing salmon benedict. followed that up with dinner on friday night at coastal kitchen, which was sporting a n'awlins theme. never had gator...until then. scrumptious gator andouille sausage, followed by a clam-laden jambalaya. follow that up saturday morning with the best french toast (caramelized banana brioche french toast, to be exact - ricotta cheese filling, super flaky, loaded with pecans and vanilla bean custard) i've had in my life at volunteer park cafe, and i may have had the best 24 hours of food ever. but nothing could top the shenanigans of saturday night.
if you remove my 0-3 record against yagan in beantown back in february, i haven't played beirut since going out on tour. i know - shocking. and apparently, michael is well on his way toward becoming a real adult. steady job at microsoft, girlfriend of 2+ years, doesn't drink much anymore, still holds up to his college nickname of "sir sleeps-a-lot"...and hell, he even owns a boat! well, much to the dismay of his seattle core of friends...who have heard numerous stories from myself and his other blockmates about his drunken college days...they don't see that michael anymore. which means they are ecstatic when "one of us" comes out to visit. if mugica, muthu, yagan, gartland, etc. - any of us knuckleheads ever rear our ugly heads in seattle, all shit goes to hell. i held up to my end of the bargain. saturday night beirut at his apartment. and beiristics were kept. beirut statistics, or beiristics, began our senior year over spring break on bald head island, nc. michael wrote a program that captures shooting percentage, last cups made and several other intricacies of the game. not only did michael and i win 14 consecutive games (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=38995055&id=2855), but i followed that up with 3 wins in trei-rut (one-on-one-on-one beirut) over kemp and reckhow. a career night for sure - looks like i found that right level of drunk and shook off the rust.
the three-hour bus ride down to portland on monday morning was highlighted by mimosa monday - which featured andre strawberry! =) i remember the days when naveen and i would pregame on a saturday night with individual bottles of andre. ah, college. portland is a mini-seattle - still cozy but not quite as large. oh, back to seattle for a hot second. driving along i-5, you can see both safeco and qwest fields just off the interstate. absolutely magnificent structures. wished i could have gone to a game at safeco, but the mariners were out of town the entire week. i have a not-so-hidden desire to go to a baseball game in every city i'm in during the tour, if the team is in town. ambitious? yes. but why not dream big? back to portland. syesha, our deena, sang the national anthem monday night at the thunder-blazers game, and a bunch of us got last-minute free tickets to go support her. the rose garden was absolutely electric, as the blazers erased an eight-point halftime deficit to defeat oklahoma city, 103-95. watching kd/durantula/kevin durant was truly amazing - he is a phenom and scored his 30 almost at will. tuesday night, went to candlelight on 5th and lincoln. one of bigg redd's boys was playing bass, and he invited us there for the night. pretty sweet band, highlighted by gretchen mitchell. as for the show yesterday, the portland band actually sounded quite good in the morning rehearsal. but like so many other bands before them, they proceeded to fold under the pressure of our opening night show. can't quite understand it. are they tired from playing all day? seems stupid, since they're professional musicians and have very likely played multiple hours in a day before. are they thrown off once the voices are added at night after only hearing the instruments in the morning? whatever it is, it sucks. but there is one positive. they're better than the band in seattle. ZING!
don't know if i've mentioned this here already. when i got this job, i was around 185 pounds. drinking a lot during the first couple months of tour ballooned me up to 199 on the monday we left columbus, ohio about two months ago. that was super scary for me, because i made a personal vow that i would never hit 200 again...after skyrocketing up to 243 at the end of my freshman year of college, losing 70 pounds in 6 months, gaining it all back over the next 3 years, then losing 65 pounds over the next 6 months. well, i straightened up in LA - drank less, ate better, hit the gym on my own accord. 6 weeks, 12 pounds gone bye-bye. so clearly, i know how to shave off the pounds on my own when i'm focused enough. well, the 187 became 190 after splurging in seattle with reckhow, but no big deal. well, i had hearing from everyone that nikki, one of the girls in our ensemble, how awesome she is. she's a personal trainer and runs get fit w/ nik. i know, super cute name. she does one-on-ones but is also known for her boot camp. where she beats you to within a breath of your life over the course of 90 minutes. who in his right mind would subject himself to that? well, after a bevy of gentle ribbing from her regular boot camp goers, and even nikki herself, i decided to surprise everyone this morning by showing up. dear god, i nearly died. if i had to run up that damn hill one more time...anyway. i celebrated by getting VD. no no, not a veneral disease. but instead, voodoo doughnut (btw, i stole that joke from a bumper sticker 'i got vd in portland' at the actual donut shop, lol). 24-hour place only a few blocks from my hotel (hotel fifty, which is very chic and new) that sells really unique doughnuts. toppings/ingredients include, to name a few: heath bar, cap'n crunch, bacon (yes, there's a bacon maple bar), fruit loops, all different kinds of icings, and they even have vegan options. there's even a $5.25 "cock 'n balls" that pretty much, uh, speaks for itself. well, i walked in after boot camp and immediately knew what i wanted. the "tex-ass." that's right. it was the largest glazed donut i've ever seen in my life. looked about the size of 6 krispy kremes. i mean, it was gargantuan. but yet, i stepped up to the plate and took the 80-second challenge. yep, if i could eat the whole damn thing in 80 seconds, it'd be free. mammoth fail. not only was it huge, but i was still out of breath from boot camp. i only got about half of it down but was proud of my effort. perhaps, i'll have to go to my second boot camp beatdown on friday morning to work it off...
Friday, April 2, 2010
punto final
yes, it's our last week here in the city of angels. already, we've had macy gray and taye diggs in the audience this week. yeah...repeat after me. WOW. tonight, i conducted my last show in LA...and yes, in my new suit. felt great, got a ton of compliments from cast and crew alike...and i actually conducted one of my better shows (if i do say so myself). was it the suit? was it the new moustache i'm sporting?
only time will tell...
LA has been great, but i'm excited to move on to seattle. and for obvious reasons. to see reckhow (first name, michael - c'house' 06) and all the other harvard folk i know up in the great northwest. and also to leave behind the ridiculously consistent strain of sunny, 80-degree weather in exchange for mid-40s and drizzle. being a meteorologist, there is no way i could live in the southwest - way too much sunshine for my liking. it'll be good to see a nimbostratus cloud again in seattle. that flight'll be monday afternoon...i land in seattle at 4:35, which will be cutting it way too close to seeing tipoff of the title game at 6:20 pacific time. and if you ask "what title game?," i'll frickin' cut your head off. my weapon of choice?
don't ask.
as for tonight, it was the second consecutive thursday we went bowling. maybe this'll stick and become a routine for us. the lowest three scores of the night amongst the six of us (martin, romich, james, ian, trev and myself) were: 97 - alvin, game 2; 98 - romich, game 2; 99 - romich, game 1). not too shabby for 6 amateur bowlers. i will say that the top two scores of the night were 180 - james, game 2; and 176 - martin - game 2. yet another sweet duel to end the night, a la last week (james' 157 in game 2 coming perilously short of martin's 158 in game 1).
however, i have yet to mention my score in game 1. until now. yep, an even 150. the second-best bowl of my life. behind only this. flashback. march 2008. me and the harvard boys in vegas. sweet 16 weekend. graveyard shift off-strip at the gold coast. pitchers of cheap beer flowing like water. i bowled the game of my life. a 163. came within one pin of four consecutive strikes (anyone know what comes after a turkey?). the unreal thing about my 150 tonight was that it came only 2 beers in (i.e., sober), as opposed to my wasted 163. i guess i proved tonight that i can truly play in, uh, multiple states. =)
afternoon off friday, show friday night, two shows on saturday (while intently watching the final four semifinals via phone...and tv, when i'm not onstage - amber [one of the assistant stage managers]'s mom is graciously cooking us dinner {pasta salad, fried chicken, candied yams, etc.} in between shows, yummy), easter sunday matinee, yanks-sox 2010 opener sun evening, followed by leaving LA early monday afternoon. seattle, here i come...
only time will tell...
LA has been great, but i'm excited to move on to seattle. and for obvious reasons. to see reckhow (first name, michael - c'house' 06) and all the other harvard folk i know up in the great northwest. and also to leave behind the ridiculously consistent strain of sunny, 80-degree weather in exchange for mid-40s and drizzle. being a meteorologist, there is no way i could live in the southwest - way too much sunshine for my liking. it'll be good to see a nimbostratus cloud again in seattle. that flight'll be monday afternoon...i land in seattle at 4:35, which will be cutting it way too close to seeing tipoff of the title game at 6:20 pacific time. and if you ask "what title game?," i'll frickin' cut your head off. my weapon of choice?
don't ask.
as for tonight, it was the second consecutive thursday we went bowling. maybe this'll stick and become a routine for us. the lowest three scores of the night amongst the six of us (martin, romich, james, ian, trev and myself) were: 97 - alvin, game 2; 98 - romich, game 2; 99 - romich, game 1). not too shabby for 6 amateur bowlers. i will say that the top two scores of the night were 180 - james, game 2; and 176 - martin - game 2. yet another sweet duel to end the night, a la last week (james' 157 in game 2 coming perilously short of martin's 158 in game 1).
however, i have yet to mention my score in game 1. until now. yep, an even 150. the second-best bowl of my life. behind only this. flashback. march 2008. me and the harvard boys in vegas. sweet 16 weekend. graveyard shift off-strip at the gold coast. pitchers of cheap beer flowing like water. i bowled the game of my life. a 163. came within one pin of four consecutive strikes (anyone know what comes after a turkey?). the unreal thing about my 150 tonight was that it came only 2 beers in (i.e., sober), as opposed to my wasted 163. i guess i proved tonight that i can truly play in, uh, multiple states. =)
afternoon off friday, show friday night, two shows on saturday (while intently watching the final four semifinals via phone...and tv, when i'm not onstage - amber [one of the assistant stage managers]'s mom is graciously cooking us dinner {pasta salad, fried chicken, candied yams, etc.} in between shows, yummy), easter sunday matinee, yanks-sox 2010 opener sun evening, followed by leaving LA early monday afternoon. seattle, here i come...
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