tgif again?

now in indianapolis, staying at a courtyard marriott where there is no food around...except for the friday's next door.  takes us back to our time in costa mesa, where we ate at friday's every night.  deja vu all over again.  almost went to the colts game against the texans a couple of days ago, but tickets were a bit pricey (i mean, even the cheapest nosebleed tickets left were $57).  and i didn't feel like paying $200 for a decent seat.  instead, trevor and i watched it where.  yep, at friday's, where the waiters went bonkers for every colts tackle.

here in indy for the week, week 4 of 8 consecutive one-weekers.  in other words, we do eight shows a week (one on tues-fri, two on sat, two on sun...plus orchestra rehearsal every tuesday and additional cast rehearsal as the stage manager and myself, as acting musical director, see fit) before getting on a bus or plane on monday to travel to the next city.  won't have a true day off for two months.  and our cheap-ass company is trying to dodge having to pay the musicians overtime, even when our union requires that we get paid for not having complete days off (no show, no travel).  come on, we all know that a day spent in an airport is not a day off.  more like a pain in the ass.  complete and utter bullshit that they don't want to pay us properly.  it's not our fault that the schedule is what it is.

anyway, after san fran, we had two weeks off in nyc.  it was sweet to be back in the city for a while to see friends for a bit.  lots of settlers of catan, a bit of beirut, even a gentleman's club night with doug, eric and mac.  then a week in atlanta.  we played the fox and stayed at the georgian terrace right across the street.  i sadly didn't have the time to see all the friends i've got in atlanta (especially laura z!), but it was nice to catch up with steve and jana, who came to the show, and tara and marcus, who i hadn't seen in forever.  if you're in atlanta and haven't been to rusan's, then you're missing out.  the fox is a truly magnificent theater, but i've been told that the one in detroit (our final stop on tour) is even more impressive.  week 2 was in miami.  in fact, starting with miami, the rest of the cities on the tour are places i've never been.  glorious weather, and the week featured 3 highlights.  drb, the democratic republic of beer, was a bar right across the street from the stage door.  500 beers from which to choose, and they had a lager-infused potato salad that was to die for.  went there 4 nights, had the potato salad each night.  and chatting up lisa, the really cute bartender, didn't hurt either.  also went to a preseason heat game against the bobcats.  it was lebron's first game back after he tweaked his hammie.  he was sensational - i mean, i could look up his stat line, but just trust me, he was spot on that night.  the heat rested their starters, and the backups promptly gave up the lead and lost the game, but who cared?  lebron was back in good health, and the fans left with good spirits for the upcoming regular season.  and wow, the beach was spectacular.  romich finally convinced me to rent a bike for the first time all tour, and we rode out to the beach together.  about a 40-minute ride from the bike shop, and it was the best fifteen bucks i've spent in a while.  picturesque blue water, breathtaking mansions, and i saw for a moment why people live and party it up on miami beach.  then, i remembered andrew.  oh right, hurricanes hit florida.  but wet willie's on 8th and ocean was pretty sweet, and the eye candy was to die for.  then on to nashville.  stayed with my harvard buddy, matt (or should i say garthew?) '06 who is in his second year at vandy med school.  got along well with his roomies (especially ben and scott) and met quite a few of his friends, especially at their big halloween bash at their house saturday night.  how i would kill to have a house with 4 roomies for only 3k a month.  too bad i'm going back to nyc after this tour and will never experience that.  nashville downtown is dead, if you don't know where to go.  but if you're around 5th and broadway, near the predators' home of bridgestone arena, or in printer's alley (naked karaoke, what?!?), you're in good hands.  there always seems to be live music - in nearly all bars, on every corner.  it truly was a shame that there were better players in the bars at 2am than there were in the pit for our show.  some awesome halloween costumes included a dude dressed as beerpong (big solo cup with a ping pong ball resting on its edge), and big spoon/little spoon, which speaks for itself.  big props to matt for putting me up.  even though we each had our respective crazy schedules, he saw our sunday matinee (he also watched me play in los angeles) and did what he could to be social, including picking me up from the airport after our wildest travel day in quite some time (from miami, we bussed to fort lauderdale, only to be delayed because of a faulty plane, before flying around storms to get to charlotte, switch planes, and then fly to nashville - gotta love 12-hour travel days).  we went to mcdougal's and had amazing, messy chicken sandwiches, as well as cafe coco for brunch, which had a killer drink called the banana dream.  since we went sunday morning before the show, it seemed apropos.  but the best way to end our week in nashville was with a cast halloween party.  the unofficial theme was to dress as another member of the company.  so i went as sam - blonde wig, black shirt, red tie, fairly simple.  i could list other amazing transformations that involve people you don't know, but let's not.  suffice it to say that people put a surprising amount of energy into their costumes and with great success.

can't believe i wrote this short of an entry that encompassed five weeks.  nice job, alvin.