hue part 3

still in hue, our flight to hanoi is delayed due to 'weather.' this is amazing to me since as far as i can discern, the only weather hue sees is rain.

last night we had dinner in an ancient house, hosted by a grandson of one of the senior advisors to the last emperor. he gave us a bit of a tour- think intricate woodwork stained black, and ornate carvings everywhere, even in the ceiling beams! he demonstrated the ceremonial weapons (huge halberds and my favorite, a spear with a carving of a fist on the end), and showed us how his grandfather smoked opium. (hint: with his head on the lap of his most beautiful concubine, puffing from a beautiful hand-carved elephant tusk.)

we're taking advantage of the extra time and leaving in a few minutes to go check out a tomb.

no more diaper pants, hanoi will be our last city and totally cycling-free. i'm fine with that. it's been great, but my butt is sore and i'm really sick of being soggy! i don't know if i'll ever get the mildew smell out of my suitcase.

it's really been fantastic so far. this country is filled with warm, gracious, sensitive, subtle people.

hue part 2

more biking, more fobidden palaces, temples, and pagodas, and lots lots more wet. the days are becoming blurs of mist and mud, clay and clouds. but it's still invigorating! i will look forward to the next DRY day, though!

we rode along six-foot wide roads through paddies, jungles, and towns today. on this road, the villages feel like wild west towns- all the buildings alongside each other facing 'main street,' and instead of horses, ... hondas. the motorbike is definitely the pack mule here, and the flip flop is the cowboy boot.

i cut my ride a few kilometers early when my pal tony (he's a music lawyer) capsized in a fairly large pool of mud and sliced his hands open on the gravel. we've actually had quite a few spills on this trip- biking is a dangerous business!

lunch today was on a riverboat which was pretty fun- it was bright red with giant dragons adorning the front. as i dipped my shrimp rolls in the dish of fish sauce on the white tablecloth and surveyed the jungly riverbanks, i realized i was puttering down the river under wildly different circumstances than my countrymen who visited here all those 30 or 40 years ago.

the vietnamese, for their part, have no problem discussing that ancient history, but it's certainly not their first association when they see americans. they've had more wars in the past hundred years than i can count, and our conflict here is just one chapter.

time to head out into the rain again for more cocktails and food.

Hue

just a brief note now, and hopefully deeper thoughts tomorrow. have to hurry and change for mandatory Group Cocktails.

 

the road from hoi an through da nang and most of the way to Hue (hway) was very interesting. don't remember if i mentioned this in an earlier entry, but over 75% of viet nam's population is under 29. on top of that, there is a LOT of growth- we saw an enormous high-end resort with both hotels and residences under construction along a neglected beautiful beach outside of da nang. the waves were perfect for surfing, and not a soul out there. da nang in general is growing like gangbusters- viet nam is going through some huge changes!

 

more riding in sodden clothes through non-stop mist and mud. truly, i think we'd get the same reactions from the locals if we were all santa-claus-lookalikes in drag with beehive hairdos. if you ride towards the end of the line, people have already gathered outside their homes to gawk at the first, and they're positively celebratory when you roll by. huge, toothy smiles from all around, and they're thrilled when you say hello back! the only people who don't smile and wave are men over 50, and only a small percentage of them. a couple kids so far have yelled to me "hello! what your name!" and i responded "barack obama!" and both times they gasped then laughed and squealed.

 

we toured the forbidden city of the imperial city this afternoon. took many pictures. hue used to be the capital of viet nam. we saw pictures of the boy emperor circa 1925- a feat since no one was supposed to be allowed to look at his face! back then, the crime was beheading. today, it costs a several thousand dong (a few dollars) to walk around the secret city like you own the place.

 

dad's been here before. very cool and kind of strange to know, considering our wildly different circumstances. shoot, gotta go! thanks for the fun notes and emails!

how white is your rice (hoi an)

the city of hoi an is my favorite yet. it may be the tourist trap of viet nam, but i love the bustling market, the tailor shops everywhere, and the combination of westerners and vietnamese that want to be near westerners (either to make money off them, or, rare as it is here, to be more like them).

yesterday was long long long, between the boat, the van, the plane, and 30 km of cycling in the rain. that was all before lunch! i also wandered the neverending market, toured a chinese temple to the water goddess, visited a house that has been in the same family for EIGHT generations, and got measured and picked out fabric for my new three piece suit.

last night we ate at mango mango, a popular restaurant on the river, with overly-flavorful food and overly-strong drinks.

this morning we had an incredible vietnamese cooking class. we made (and ate) incredible summer rolls, winter rolls, scallion pancakes, jicama-banana leaf salad, and the most delectable spiced chicken i've had in a very long time. we learned that bean sprouts are good for virility, and that, even though the vietnamese have come to admit brown rice is better for you, they still judge a meal's value by how white the rice is.

afterwards i stopped in a barbershop and had the most comprehensive face and head shave ever. he even shaved and cleaned my ears!

most of the group is out riding for the afternoon- i'm taking it off, to do more shopping, have a fitting for my suit, pick up laundry, and generally take a breather.

as much fun as i'm having, i'm definitely homesick!

pitch black morning

only a couple minutes to report before we leave on a loooong day's worth of adventure.

 

we had no trouble getting up in the blackness of 4:45 AM this morning- we chose to sleep on the open second floor of our private bungalow, which seemed like a good idea at the time. we nestled on the daybed in our 'fort,' which consisted of many large pillows and a cascading mosquito net. there was a gentle breeze and the sound of surf. as the night wore on, the wind began to howl, and things crashed about. strange birds landed ON our railing and cawed in loud, eerily human voices.

 

it's pitch black still now, at 5:23 AM, and we've successfully showered outside, picking our way over these amazing black slugs with narrow red racing stripes, and packed our things. we'll hike to the beach in a minute to take a boat to the mainland, then a van to the airport, then a 30km ride to lunch, followed by more van transfers and riding. we'll apparently still have time for a walking tour of hoi an before dinner.

 

my personal butler (i'm not kidding) just informed me that the boat is ready, so i'm off! happy holidays to everyone!

christmas day on ninh van bay

this is ridiculous.

i'm sitting in the 'library' at the six senses hideaway on the coast. the library is a deck made of weathered wood, with a high thatched roof, and the no walls. i'm looking out on the bay, surf is crashing in and there are several vietnamese fishing boats crawling in the water.

six senses is on a small island- we arrived by boat. there is a short beach (in front of every cabana, just beyond the personal plunge pool) and the island quickly inclines in a glorious cluster of trees and rocks. to make the view even better, this portion of the beach (the kilometer or so that the resort covers) is concave, so to both sides you can see the cliffs and trees rising up and reaching out over the water.

it's rained just about non-stop since we arrived yesterday afternoon, which i beautiful in its own right, but we are definitely mourning for the beauty we know we'd experience in this green place if the sun were out. the puddly gravel walkways and wooden deck pathways are littered with large snails and slugs. the high winds rattle the wood and canvas of our cabana, make the thick nautical rope whine pleasantly, and render our rain ponchos ineffective!

last night we had dinner in the restaurant, at one long table. the room is a much larger version of this library, with a tremendously high thatched roof, and wet, powerful wind threatened our napkins and gave the whole affair sort of an urgent feel. as we dined on course after course, troupes of young, heavily made-up and thoroughly sequinned vietnamese girls performed a series of dances in unison, divided in the middle by a 'fashion show.'

yesterday's ride was incredible. another rainy day, i abandoned my rain coat early (it was very hot) and succumbed to the wet. when it wasn't raining, our bikes still plowed through mist and steam and ground-level clouds, and ripped up puddles of thick mud. i had a solid racing stripe of brown dirt when i was done, from the back of my head to my bum, thanks to the kickback of my rear tire.

here was the vietnam that i had imagined. we perimetered miles of rice paddies, in various states of harvest. during the first part of the ride, the shoots were so green they were fluorescent. just like the pictures, workers in conical hats patiently picked their way through the ten-inch water. other paddies were muddy and devastated, post-harvest, and workers slogged around with hoes, churning the mud.

we cut through lots of villages, where we were often received with giggly 'hello!'s, mostly from kids. i'd always return the hello full-voiced and with a big sloppy grin, and kids and adults alike would descend into peals of laughter. we're a heck of a parade, with our neon clothes and big fancy bikes and western faces.

the houses in these villages vary greatly in style and value. many are narrow concrete construction with colorful fronts and bare gray sides, as if they were supposed to be nestled in a crowded city block- but they stand alone in a field! many houses are combination residence/ convenience store, and all seem to have a front room with no front wall. most have large outdoor living areas, cantinas of a sort, with simple sheet metal roofs to keep the rain off. the small, brightly-colored plastic kiddy chairs (such as mom and i have purchased from the grocery store for my niece anahita) are ubiquitous- they are EVERYWHERE. almost as common as motorbikes! in fact, the preferred sitting and hanging out apparatus around here seems to be kiddy chairs and motorbikes- only beat out by the tireless squatting on the haunches that the vietnamese do so well. the floor is never too far away, and even the elderly pop up and down with alacrity.

as we turned one corner, an open-front house was blasting "feliz navidad.' it was still ringing in my ears as we broke from the jungle and penetrated yet another rice paddy, this one ringed with a low green mountain swathed in impossibly-low-hanging clouds.

it's christmas and i am on an island, off the coast of vietnam. it's achingly beautiful, and wonderful to be with my sweetheart, but, as the surf crashes and the rain pours down around me, it's also throbbingly far from family and home.

da lat pt. 3

my muscles are burning. today's ride was as predicted, amazing, but also downright grueling. i'm not used to cycling at all, let alone these long, long inclines!

 

we stopped today at a flower farm that's completely enclosed by greenhouse-like netting. rows and rows of colorful flowers of different types awaited harvest. a guy sat on a cinderblock in front of a HUGE heap of picked flowers, and with lightning-quickness, wrapped each head in plastic, then tossed it to the side in piles sorted by color, without looking.

 

we cruised up and down many hills today that were covered in tall pine trees! there were a couple of spots, if you excused one or two plants, that could easily pass for washington state. the pines aren't native- they were introduced by the french. the sky was huge and brilliantly blue, and we often had sweeping views of rolling farmland, carved into tiny plots. all day it was very cool, with a healthy breeze. the wind picked up a couple times, only when we were going up hill, and only directly into our faces!

 

we ate lunch on another covered patio today, this time at the home of a man who was busy preparing for his eldest daughter's wedding the next day! we watched as the bride and groom created a stage, and a huge truck delivering plastic chairs arrived. he is expecting 500 guests tomorrow, yet he was excited to have us as guests for lunch.

 

the hills killed today; this trip is either going to whip me into shape or destroy me.

 

we're going to a local market soon, and tonight we dine at the hotel.

da lat pt. 2

830 AM here tuesday the 23rd. in the business centre of the sofitel da lat palace and preparing to set out for today's bicycle journey in half an hour.

 

we're doing 40km or so today, which is not so much for many cyclists, but it's plenty for me! this is hilly country. we're biking in and out from the hotel today, and staying again in da lat. the next day we head to the coast.

 

last night we met the GM of the hotel, a congenial new zealander, who told us a little of the history of da lat, which they call 'le petit paris.' it's a beautiful and mountainous area, that has suffered very little from any of vietnam's series of wars and military conflicts because it just isn't a strategically advantageous location. we took the vans to one of the hundred or so french villas that was constructed here. this one is owned by the hotel and earmarked as the lodging for the GM, but he hasn't moved in. we feasted on vietnamese barbecue and other treats. i stuffed my face with venison skewers, prawns, and fried rice. there was a sous chef at a little station that was identical to any omelette-maker you've seen in hotel buffets. but he was making scallion pancakes to order! it was tasty.

 

we were konked out before ten, and of course we woke up pormptly at 430 AM. that schedule works out ok- the vietnamese are very early risers, and, in da lat, 8pm feels like midnight. (saigon less so)

 

i saw a couple neat pictures of dad's wedding! i'm taking pictures here, but i can't post any until i find the right slot on one of these cpus.

 

thanks for reading! merry xmas!

 

 

da lat

okay, i'm having a ball.

 

last night monica and i joined her parents for an amazing many-course vietnamese meal at a restaurant called mandarin. everything was wonderful about the place- the incredible food, the wine, the over-the-top attentive service. the ONLY thing i would change is i would stick to just a piano player and fire the violinist who played a very scratchy and off-key "killing me softly."

 

we slept like rocks. like boulders. except for one point in the middle of the night when i heard a WHUMP! and then a whimper. i turned on the lights and discovered that monica had fallen out of the bed! she's going to KILL me for blogging this. but seriously, it was hilarious, probably the cutest thing i've ever seen, and she was totally unscathed. it took me several minutes to go back to sleep, because i wondered if it was possible that dad was getting married at that very moment, and i imagined myself in santa fe for a while.

 

we got up at 4:25 AM, showered, packed, and went downstairs for breakfast. we met the rest of our group, which is 12 or so fun, happy-go-lucky people. we ate with victor, who coincidentally is friends with monica's make-up artist on the tv show, and he is a DP himself, operating the camera these days for the new 90210. the first movie he shot was 'lean on me,' and he told wonderful stories about morgan freeman.

 

we hopped in a bus, and plowed through the sea of motorbikes to the airport. we took an hour-long flight to da lat. the airport is tiny, and we congregated on the lawns in front to apply sunblock to each other and learn our bicycles.

 

then we rode. and seriously, it was amazing. we pumped our way up hills, and tore down them, sharing the road with motorbikes and vans (far less than in saigon!). we passed through villages and coffee plantations, jungly hills, and open fields. in most places the air was thick and fecund, with the smell of manure and cloying humidity. but once my body was warm and moving and sweaty and smelly, i surrendered to the heat and the aroma, and it was rather easy to get used to!

 

as we covered ground, we spread out in a major way. we have four guides, two vietnamese, one united statesian, and one italian. they took the head and the rear. we also have four vans at our service, carrying our luggage, and us if we ever feel like stopping, which is a dirty temptation! the vans race ahead and park at forks in the road, and the genial drivers stand in the middle of the path and, in a funny semaphore mime show, point the direction in which we should aim our helmets.

 

we stopped and saw an INCREDIBLE waterfall, a roaring 60 or so feet wide. monica and i were the bravest and clambered down the cliff and across slippery rocks to get a view from the bottom. then we hiked up a hill and sat on the steps of a beautiful buddhist dragon temple. we weren't allowed in, due to the highly scandalous nature of our outfits- i'm telling you, we are sex machines in our skin-tight bike shorts with diaper padding.

 

after another 9 kilometers or so of riding, we marched down a long driveway of packed red clay and found ourself at a silk factory. it was so neat to see the silk balls and the looms and the dyeing, and the awesome machines powered by generators that turned iron wheels and moved belts around. my backpack was in a van, and i had no cash on me, and i was devastated to lose the chance to buy some of the handmade silk scarves and clothes they had out front. they were dirt cheap.

 

we ate at an outdoor coffee shop- basically plastic patio furniture in the shade of a tree, in front of a one-room building. a woman from the village had been conscripted to prepare a feast for us, and it was phenomenal- sticky rice and spring rolls and green beans and cabbage and a sweet noodle soup with little vegetables in it that i couldn't recognize- they were a cross between white beans, small onions, and tiny potatoes. afterwards i had the best iced coffee i ever tasted. that's when the guide pointed out that we were sitting under a coffee tree.

 

we rode another 8 km and then took a van the final few km up a steep mountain. a few intrepid riders attempted the slope, which the guides said is the most challenging optional part of the entire trip. monica's dad tried, and he may still be out there as far as i know!

 

now we are in the sofitel da lat, and i just took an amazing bath. this has been an incredible experience, and it's only just beginning!

ho chi minh city

it's the middle of the afternoon sunday the 21st here at the park hyatt saigon in ho chi minh city.

 

the flight from hong kong to vietnam was easy and uneventful. arrival was easy as well, a cursory look at our passports, then our luggage was among the first to pop out. customs consisted of us handing off our declarations forms and manhandling all our bags on and off one of those big x-ray machines.

 

leaving the airport, we were funneled down a red carpet of sorts, surrounded by a throng of three or four hundred people attentively watching the exit. it was a disconcerting moment, as we were simultaneously hit by the thick, damp hot, and the steady gaze of all those people. for a few hundred people, they were eerily quiet. a young woman had a sign that said "Monica Raymund and guest" (something i think i might see on lists for a long time to come) and i quickly made contact.

 

we waited by the curb and i felt my body instantly kick-start the sweat production. we hopped into a jeep and were whisked away into the thick of the city.

 

we asked the young lady her name and she said something beautiful, but the closest i could repeat it was to clumsily say "Now?" She humbly nodded, and received "Now" as an acceptable mangling of her name.

 

Now told us that 10 million people live in Ho Chi Minh City, and I think we saw most of them on the way to the hotel. One of my imaginary mental images of China is a sea of people on bicycles. I now have a real Vietnam image to accompany it: Motorbikes. Everywhere. They clogged every part of the roads, and most of the sidewalks. Cars were outnumbered twenty to one, and it was the motorbikes that dominated the road- cars had to lurch deferentially around and follow their patterns. People of every shape and size were on these motorbikes, mostly in singles and pairs, but we also saw threes and fours. They weave in and out of each other, amazingly close, often tapping each other with their feet, or rubbing elbows as they pass. Hands braced against our car and people shoved off as if changing direction in a lap pool.

 

Every two hundred yards or so there were motorbike dealers, and long rows of pristine bikes lined the sidewalk- they were hard to differentiate from the regular sidewalk, where hoards of bikes were parked- people sitting on them like lounge chairs, puffing cigarettes, or strapping huge bulbous bags of produce to the back.

 

The dusty streets we drove were clogged with shops, of every shape and size. I noticed, like Egypt, there were lots of makeshift (perhaps impromptu) tea cafe's outside- i saw grown men sitting in brightly-colored little plastic kiddy chairs in alleyways.

 

Many stores were festooned with Christmas displays, including a shop whose title earned a guilty laugh from Monica and I: "SHOP MY DUNG." One sporting wear store had hung a life-sized Santa, sleigh, and reindeer precariously from their awning.

 

I wished I could stop and watch a group of men on the sidewalk in front of a hobby store, as they smoked cigarettes and tinkered with a five-foot long model airplane- i don't know my planes, but it was an early-style of plane, the ones that are shaped like a plus sign, and painted red and white.

 

It was a fun, short introduction to this city and this country. The hotel itself is very nice, and Monica and I have showered and changed and eaten a complimentary lunch at the hotel Sunday buffet, which is inexplicably comprised completely of Italian cuisine.

 

Now it's naptime, and we wait for Monica's folks to come in this evening. Dinner tonight, and tomorrow at 5 AM we head onto a PLANE again, this time to officially start the planned bicycle journey.

 

Thinking about my family in Santa Fe! I hope everyone is having a ball, and Dad's wedding goes off without a hitch. Wait a minute. I hope it goes off with one very successful hitch!

hong kong

i think there must be just one architect in the whole world who does airports. each airport i've experienced, all over the planet, could easily be just another terminal in the same complex. they all have the plastic walls, and the atria, and the same variations on people-moving technology, from moving walkways to trams to little carpet-crunching cars.

 

here in hong kong, in the lounge, which feels like it's on the other side of the golf course from the lounge at LAX. except at this one, one side is a floor-to-ceiling picture window, a football field long, that looks out at the tarmac and some sort of mist-enshrouded mountain or big bluff.

 

it's nearly 8 am sunday here, and i'm not sure what time it is in new york, but i think it's yesterday afternoon. our flight to ho chih minh city leaves in an hour.

 

business class cathay pacific was comfortable enough to completely negate most of the negative things about long flights. for all my awake hours on the fifteen-hour flight, i happily watched movies and tv, read my book, and stuffed my face, all with my feet up. i actually slept, although fitfully, for 6 and a half hours or so. monica slept like a baby. at the end of the day, it's still not a bed, and i wasn't able to escape the pounding headache and stiff neck that comes from passing out on a plane, but that's a small consideration. it was nice! and it was the first plane that i can remember taking that has stairs on it. i flew on the second floor!

 

i just took a shower in the 'shower wing' and donned my stinky clothes again. i'm psyched to get the last leg over with, and start to learn about vietnam.

 

lounge

so airports have secrets, and those secrets are hidden from view, down unmarked white corridors, or up deceptively mundane elevators.

 

they're called lounges and they're insane! monica and i are in the cathay pacific business class lounge at the Los Angeles airport right now and i feel like i'm at a sweet country club. the buffet is rockin', with curry puffs and mini pizzas and cucumber sandwiches with no crusts. they have a fridge, filled with beer and soda, and you can just TAKE one! or even two! there's a huge bar, and TVs, and showers, and the bathroom has bowl-shaped urinals and smells like flowers.

 

i would totally come to the airport, and go through security, just to hang out here. except you have to have a ticket.

 

so far vietnam is awesome!

it's starting...

i may still be in the states, but my incredible vietnam adventure has begun. last night, late, i flew into LA on a never-ending virgin american flight. because we had 150 mph headwinds, we had to stop in las vegas to refuel. i watched the adam sandler movie 'you don't mess with the zohan' and half of 'get smart' and read my book and thought, "this is what it's like to be a cultured traveler."

it's great to be here with monica, and now we run around doing last minute things before taking a 10pm flight to vietnam.

i'll be thinking about my dad this weekend, during my endless series of planes (we even kick off our vietnam tour on another plane), as he ties the knot in santa fe. i'll also be thinking about him on the tour, since he's the member of my family who has been to vietnam before me. 

i plan to keep updating this and posting pictures during the trip, if possible. so, more soon!

Putin to be the new Apatow

Fun Variety story about new developments in the Russian film industry.

Posted: Mon., Dec. 15, 2008, 9:53am PT

Putin takes charge of local film industry

Politician to chair Russian cinema council

By NICK HOLDSWORTH

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is taking personal charge of progress in the development of the country's film industry as chairman of the government council on the progress of domestic cinematography, unveiled Monday.

Putin will "personally supervise" government initiatives to support the film industry, according to the Russian federal press service.

The new body -- which emerged following a meeting of film industry chiefs chaired by Putin at St. Petersburg's Russian World Studios in early October -- will coordinate the work of government bodies, film industry professionals and companies.

The council will not allocate funding but will look at ways to improve efficiency of state support for production, distribution and promotion of Russian films domestically and internationally.

Supporting the introduction of "innovative cinema technologies" and measures to maintain a market share for Russian films on domestic release will also be part of the brief, the government press service said.

At October's meeting of cinema chiefs in St. Petersburg -- held to commemorate 100 years of Russian film -- Putin noted the "potential of cinema to be a major educational tool and valuable point of reference for society."

He said including the development of the domestic film industry in a long-term government plan of social and economic development was essential.

Russian reaction to the new council was muted.

One experienced Russian film industryite told Daily Variety, "As usual, nothing good will come of it."

downs and ups

i've been feeling a bit down lately- it happens fairly cyclically for me. it's easy to think that happiness is just right around the corner, once i find that dream teaching job, or once i'm reunited with my love in LA. it's always easy to think that some future goal will make you happy. but i've always thought looking at life that way is sort of an excuse to be miserable- there's always some potential 'better' over the horizon- will it make you happy? the best way to live, i think, is to find a way to be happy every day. no matter what's going on. and i really try to do that. but sometimes, i can lose perspective.

is there anything so selfish as feeling depressed?

it's pretty fantastic timing that i leave on friday for a ten-day bike tour of vietnam. if i can't get my head on right and stop feeling sorry for myself during an opportunity like that, i'm a lost cause!

talking with my old friend johnnie newman about feeling down, and feeling un-creative recently, he hit me with the response below. i wanted to share it, because he's always been one to put things as he sees them, without regard for it being pretty or pleasing. his poetry is that he actually means the strange things he says. and it really did make me feel a lot better.

"I know what you mean, bigneil -- and what hits me right now as I write this is that I think it's good to be down sometimes and creatively dead. the fires can't be raging always. those moments where you feel you've got nothing to do or say, no forums to immediately express yourself in, no juice left, no mojo, no electricity.... those are the times where you are receiving MOST of the things you'll be expressing later. especially an artist as sensitive and insightful as you. so just ride this out. don't force anything. write a great character for yourself to play. or don't. come out here and we'll improv. you're going to be fine. you're storing experience right now. get hurt. feel uninspired. worry a little. it's okay. just don't have a heart attack. and when you audition for things or go on interviews just be yourself, let the joy and sorrow shine in you, let it all hum together in a calm display of raw humanity. we're all a bit fu@!ed right now. it's great. the world needs story tellers more than ever. show everyone what it means to be a man. you don't even have to try."

promo for monica's show!

link below for a fun promo for 'lie to me!'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmO3b-kpSf4&feature=channel

tradizzle video

I made a video of our version of "Tradizzle" at BTP (a hip-hop rendition of Tradition from Fiddler on the Roof) to thank Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bill Sherman for giving us their consent and sharing the music with us. It's up on youtube now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOixGILVBuw

strangers fallout and clips!

it seems a lot of my 'strangers' fears are being substantiated.

the link below navigates to a review below of the movie, from my favorite english-language moscow newspaper, which i read religiously while i studied there. it seems the movie has changed a lot from what we originally shot, and from what our director told us of his vision. the reviews look to be pretty bad across the board!

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/arts/2008/06/06/372385.htm

i'm also a little pissed off to see the lack of creativity in the way they ripped off the design of the main 'strangers' poster from a 2004 jim caviezel movie.

here are some clips of the movie. after watching one, you can navigate to the others. i haven't watched all of them, and none of them with sound yet, since i'm at work. i don't know whether they are PG or R, fyi.

www.viddler.com/explore/Lockdock/videos/3/

 i still find all of this fun! and i'll still enjoy watching the DVD, if they ever send it to us.

Strangers premieres in Russia

This is a note from my friend Jenya (second from left), who was our friend and translator during our Russian movie adventure. He attended the premiere of our movie, and this is what he had to say:

Dear friends,

 

I just needed to wait a few days after the premier before writing to you about it. I had to collect my thoughts and emotions.

 

Right now all I can say is that the whole event was splendid except one thing - your absence. The premier itself was held in one of the best movie theaters in Moscow called "October" (Scarlett has been there already during the opening night of "Montana"). Our beloved Natasha has done a really extraordinary job. As Yuri's main assistant she had to arrange, gather, solve and organize everything! Last month for her was as tough as the shooting period one year ago. And of course she succeeded. That was definitely the best premier I've ever visited.

 

Friends that I met in "October", former colleagues, Russian actors, cameramen, costume designers, make-up artists - and all of them were asking where are American actors. Journalists and TV reporters - searching for you with their cameras and microphones. Guests and viewers - twisting their heads round to find Tom, Jane, miss Stone, Mike and Bill...

 

However, that night we met all of you. On that giant screen. Watching, empathizing, smiling... Me, Natasha and Irina, our editing girl - synchronously uttering your lines that we know by heart, pronouncing soundless phrases like "Don't be afraid, it's not gonna hurt", "Come in...", "But be aware - there's no vacancies!", "What's wrong with you?!" and so on...

 

Right now "Strangers" is one of the most talked about movies in Russia and a part of the top-three popular subjects in Russian blogs. "This is just the beginning..." (c) Mike

 

Mark, Scarlett, Neil, Kathleen, Jeff, Linda, Victor, thank you for everything. We miss you all!

Jenya

virus

my lifeblood, my electronic crutch, my other girlfriend, call it what you will, you'd be right. and today, my laptop is sick. it has the most blatant malware/virus that i have ever contracted on my home computer. luckily, it doesn't seem to be destroying my hard drive or the like, knock wood, but it has turned my pc into a handy and efficient purveyor of bizarre and garbled marketing messages. it very well could be stealing my identity. the most obvious and incriminating things it does is automatically hijack all google searches, and redirect away from any website that deals with spyware or antivirus software or advice. 

imagine if you had a terrible flu, and one of the symptoms was that you'd swerve away the second you approached a hospital or clinic!

i'm taking it in to professionals ($$$) tonight, and it'll be awfully lonely this week without it! 

quality time

everyone says long distance relationships are supposed to be really hard. well, I don't see why! I've been spending LOTS of quality time with monica lately... really, it's just like normal... here is a picture of us on our last date. i'm feeling good... <bursts into tears>

a theatre near you

monica just tipped me off on a hot new item: in the heights and lin-manuel are headed for the silver screen! what an AWESOME new development in the ongoing saga of that incredible show. (to read about my long love affair and former involvement with heights, check this blog's archives) can't wait to follow what happens. wepa!

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/123119.html

monica's show is officially scheduled

fox announced their midseason line-up, and monica's show, lie to me, will appear on wednesdays, after american idol! see release below.

LIE TO ME, the compelling new drama from the producers of 24, debuts Wednesday, Jan. 21 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) after AMERICAN IDOL and stars Tim Roth ("The Incredible Hulk," "Reservoir Dogs") as DR. CAL LIGHTMAN, the world's leading deception expert who studies facial expressions and involuntary body language to discover not only if someone is lying, but why. When someone shrugs one shoulder, rotates a hand or raises the lower lip, Lightman knows he's lying. Based on the real-life scientific discoveries of Paul Ekman, the series follows Lightman and his team of deception experts as they assist law enforcement and government agencies to expose the truth behind the lies.

Big Neil Newsletter Scoops All Major Networks

The Big Neil Newsletter Online will now project the winner of the presidential election. We project that Barack Obama has won the presidency. SCOOP!

french dread

my friend arthur, the cutting-edge French theatre director that helmed the productions of Abigail's Party and Julius Caesar that I was in, emailed a group of us today with his across-the-pond thoughts on our election tonight. i think it's fun:

 

hi friends of america !!!
you know that in France we are used to see things from our point of view, or that we take our desires for reality. 8 years ago, we went to bed happy to know that Al Gore was elected. The next morning, surprise, it was Bush. 4 years ago, we slept relieved that Kerry was your new president. Too bad. F... jetlag. Tonight, i'll go to bed dreaming of Mc cain and Palin, to avoid another hangover tomorrow! I 'm sure that you must experience right now an incredible moment, and if i could, i would take a plane tonight to share the crazy night and the crazy days that will (let's hope) follow. Instants of grace. I'm envious :-)
My bet is also that Carla Bruni will probably dump soon Sarkosy and chase Obama. Antoher good news.
I think of you, share your excitment and hopes, and send you all my love,
arthur

suffrage device

i just voted! it took all of fifteen minutes, from my apartment and back again. even though it was so fast, the buzz there was that the turnout was at least twice the size of previous elections.

what a strange machine awaits you behind that curtain! not a machine.... a contraption.

jungle gem

fun pic from the orchard courtesy of cousin laura- clockwise from bottom right that's her, the adorable cousin kate, the also-adorable main squeeze monica, the highly masculine cousin charlie, his pal greg, and yours truly in the center.

great adventure

only a moment before i pass out from exhaustion to say it's easy to be a kid again: just steal your girlfriend on her last day in town, put some cash inside a ziploc bag and into a zippable pocket, rent a car, and drive to six flags for the day.

it was the last day of the season today, and a mite cold, but monica and i were undeterred as we scampered all over the park from one roller coaster to another. the rides were great, but our bodies feel the toll- bracing yourself at 80 mph all day and routinely freezing your face off in high loop-de-loop winds will tax you.

but it was FUN!

still blogging, after alllll these years...

(sung to the tune of a little paul simon number)

life is fantastic- monica's home from LA for the weekend. this morning we went to bernardsville, nj and had brunch with cousin laura and pete and their awesome kids (who i want to call second cousins but are actually first cousins once removed but maybe i'll just say cousins) charlie and kate, plus charlie's pal greg. it's beautiful in suburban nj today, with changing leaves and lots of rolling hills and multi-acre homes. the coles represented in the brunch field with a highly-big-neil-worthy spread: pancakes (in many polka-dotted permutations), bacon, cinnamon rolls, quiche, blueberries and OJ. and perfect hostess laura apologized that there wasn't more.

after brunch we went to an apple orchard and wandered a couple miles of tree rows, looking for hidden apples on trees that had been massively plundered already. the fields were beautiful, the air cool and clear, with the intoxicating and rich smell of decaying apples. apples lay in the hundreds at our feet, inedible, with gorgeous untouched halves facing the sun. a kick revealed the horror-movie-worthy other halves, rotting away in the mud. we hit the very corners of the huge orchards, finding treasure troves, untouched branches with grape-like clusters of heavy apples, and our special tools (a cross between a lacrosse stick and a pronged mediæval torture weapon) snagging some large perfect tens at the upper reaches. before we knew it, we were muscling back three large baskets filled with red delicious and winesap apples, more than we can eat any time soon!

back on the upper west side and monica is in the bedroom clearing out her closet for me to ship to her in LA. as she shoots the first season of her show, she'll stay in a sublet, and to our minds, her being in LA is still 'temporary.' but i have a weird and ominous feeling that she may never leave the west coast again. i hope i'm wrong, but there are worse places to be tethered to, and i'd be happy to move out there next year and join her.

tonight we're going to see her best friend laura-leigh in 'boys' life' off-broadway at the second stage theatre in midtown. it's a classic (and sort of sexist) 80s play about getting laid and it stars jason biggs (from the american pie movies).

i'm actually enjoying working regularly these days at niche media, fact-checking for various magazines. it's nice to have money coming in. i'm still auditioning here and there. monday i interview the ceo of the new jersey nets for gotham magazine. that'll be fun, although i know very little about professional basketball, and i'll have to be careful not to expose my ignorance in the article!

monica on entertainment tonight

following is a youtube link to a spot on entertainment tonight about "Lie to Me."

monica is about 1:45 into the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io6oo3kFFuA

--
neil patrick stewart
917.434.2348

neil's poster

best movie poster ever:

http://www.kinopoisk.ru/picture/831893/

--
neil patrick stewart
917.434.2348

typo

the strangers website in english is actually at www.chuzhiemovie.com, not chuziemovie.com. sorry!

strangers in english

there is a (barely) english version of the Strangers movie website up now, at www.chuziemovie.com.

i'm contacting them to see if they want me to help fix the rampant typographical errors, although i realize that they may be part of the charm!

biting the bullet

after a very sobering review of my financial situation (LOTS of college loan debt) and a long talk with monica (she is more supportive than a sports bra) i've decided to apply for teaching positions at universities and top-tier private high schools nation-wide.

it's been fun researching the job openings available and imagining myself at all these different schools. i've put together a curriculum vitae that i think is very impressive and competitive except for that minor issue of never having taught at a university level before. i have a couple of powerful letters of recommendation from nancy houfek (the head of voice and speech at a.r.t.) and thomas kail (my dear friend and director of in the heights on broadway) and more coming from debbie mcwaters (founder/artistic director of btp), ron piretti (head of acting at BTP, fight director for in the heights, and professor at marymount manhattan college), and ann reinking (nuff said).

i love teaching, and i think i would/will have a ball doing it year-round. i have lost no love for acting (although maybe a little for the acting 'industry') and plan to pursue it, professionally or not, wherever i wind up, for the rest of my life.

the bottom line is: i have a terrific amount of expenses, and no forseeable way to make ends meet in new york as an actor. i am lucky to have an avenue that i love and can pursue which can put me in the position to make a salary. now i have to be lucky enough to be offered a job!

if i don't find a good match, i will remain in new york, attempt to defer my loans further, continue to pursue acting, and apply for teaching jobs as they become available.

it's scary to think about beginning a new arm of my wonky career path, but also fun. we'll see what happens!

in the heights opening

on sunday morning monica and i made our way back to new york (with help from cousin laura!) in order to attend the opening night festivities for 'In the Heights' on broadway.

anybody who's reading this knows what 'in the heights' means to me- i saw lin's hastily created one-act version at wesleyan during my senior year. i got my hands on a copy of the soundtrack from that production. after tommy, anthony, john, and i had created back house productions the following year, johnny and i tried to impress upon anthony and tommy how talented lin is, and made the case that we should definitely try to 'do something' with him once he graduated from wesleyan himself. finally, i put the cd in tommy's hands and encouraged him to listen to it.

6 years later, 'in the heights,' directed by tommy, written by and starring lin, opened on broadway to great fanfare. the intervening time was YEARS of hard work, workshop after workshop, presentation after presentation, auditions, rehearsals, phone calls, cheaply created wine and cheese spreads to make potential investors feel at home, and for tommy and lin, countless, innumerable hours of poring over the script or a keyboard, abject devotion to continuing the show's evolution.

in the early years, i was there as a co-director, tommy and i teaming up to make the workshops productive, to direct actors. but there were too many cooks in the kitchen, and tommy's vision was much more long-sighted than mine- he has a talent for taking the difficult steps (such as cutting songs and plot-lines entire, no matter their popularity) and focusing on the paths that will take a project ultimately to a better place. for the next couple of years i was happy just to act as a minor producer, a supporter really, doing whatever i could to make the workshops happen, to help tommy and lin and bill (our orchestrator) in their process. i listened to new rap lyrics and said 'heck yeah!' or hauled huge bundles of bottled water from staples to the theatre, or threw my shoe (which was our tradition) after a performer nailed a solo. back in those days, we didn't even have a drummer, so i would do my best to tap out latin beats on the baseboard in the corner of the theatre while lin worked out a rap-narration transition. i read stage directions at the readings, and fulfilled what were then minor roles (sonny in the bodega, who is now the funniest part of the show, hands-down, thanks to robin de jesus), and clapped harder than anyone when the presentation was over.

eventually, i backed off entirely, the show was moving forward, and i certainly was not going to be in its way. my role had really morphed into 'fan,' and there was no specific job appropriate for me as i continued my own personal pursuits.

but i didn't feel any less like a proud papa on sunday night, and i don't regret ANYthing about my trajectory with the show. i was there to help it get started, and that makes me as proud as i am about anything in my life. and i sat there in the house and watched as several people i love dearly had their dreams come true. and, the show is incredible.

we got into new york in the early afternoon and i learned that the start time for the show was 6:30! i originally thought i wouldn't be able to make the opening, due to my current run of 'julius caesar.' but we inexplicably had no shows that sunday, and i called tommy about a week and a half out to see if there was still room for me. a seat at a broadway opening is a coveted item, and i was fully prepared to be denied. but they had one earmarked for me, always had, and hadn't released it yet. but they only had one, not another for monica. she was, however, invited to the party afterwards at chelsea piers. well, at about four, a call from tommy confirms the cancellation of a friend of his, and that there's an extra ticket for monica if she wants.

we were delighted, but immediately went into emergency mode. we would need to meet anthony for dinner before the show, and then would be going right to the party after the show, which meant less than an hour to prepare for the evening. no problem for me, but, you don't expect a fabulous and gorgeous woman like monica to go to the latin event of the year on an hour's notice. we were like a well-oiled machine- she did her hair and make-up, we picked up some fake diamonds around the corner, and borrowed some shoes from her mom's place down the street. did i say shoes? i mean hot wine-colored cole haan peep-toe pumps. i learn something every day.

the crowds at the show were insane. i don't know why, but it felt twice as crowded as a typical sold-out show, which i know is impossible. maybe it was the fabulous outfits and all the industry networking that slowed everything down. we had to rendezvous with people at the hotel edison across the street just to find each other. (the hotel ed became an indispensable intermission getaway too- we never would have relieved our bladders if we'd stayed in the theatre!)

the show: nuts. each character got two minutes of applause on their entrance. they just had to stand there, frozen in a moment, and wait for the cheering to subside. the energy was incredible. it was, for many, a broadway debut, and all had loved ones in the audience. showstopper after showstopper and people went hoarse from screaming.

at the end, after more copious applause, and tears, lin invited the production team onstage, designers, choreographer, etc... and tommy. my hands stung from clapping so hard.

afterwards, we missed the free shuttles to chelsea piers, so we took cabs. inside was a twenty-piece latin salsa band, open bars everywhere you look, and smorgasbords of latin foods. there had to be close to 2000 at the party. it was impossible to find anyone, and, after a couple rounds of food and drink, monica and i were about to leave when we finally found the pocket that had tommy and his family, and lin, and a steady stream of admireres demanding hugs and photographs.

lin gave me a huge hug. he grabbed onto my arm and said, "i'm gonna hold on to you for a while, i don't know who half these people are." it was clearly overwhelming. he couldn't get more than two sentences out to anyone before someone new was tapping him on the shoulder. i managed to get a bread pudding in his hands, cause i was worried he wasn't getting a chance to eat anything! i turned my back for a moment, and he had been whisked away again. later i found out that he'd solved his problem of too much hand-shaking-not-enough-fun-having by holding court on the dance floor. if you wanted to congratulate him, you had to do it in time with some serious salsa hot-stepping!

monica and i eventually made our way home, and although it was freezing in new york by the water, i was warmed by two things: 1. the little hot chocolates they were handing out at the exit, and 2. the words i remembered lin saying into my ear as we hugged:

"this is all because of you, you know that, right?"

even though it's not necessarily true (talents like lin and tommy would and will shine, with our without my intervention), it was music to my heart.

in the heights

during this entire caesar process, a part of my heart has been in new york, with so many of my friends, rehearsing and opening the BROADWAY show, 'in the heights!'

8 or so years ago, johnny mailer and i watched a one-act performance of 'in the heights' at wesleyan, written by lin-manuel miranda. he was a KID at the time. a prodigy, yes, but a kid! after we started back house in new york, we invited him to come workshop the show with us, and he accepted. tommy kail, who started the company with me, really identified with the project and dedicated his considerable brain to the effort. what followed were years of readings, presentations, and workshops, 30+ new songs, most gone shortly after they came, and a whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears from many people to keep the train going forward.

fast forward to today, it's in previews on broadway, opening officially next month. it's unreal. tommy is the director, lin, of course, is still the composer and now the star, and so many more of my friends are involved intimately in the show- in the cast, or doing arrangements, etc... i am no longer officially involved (not for about 3 years now), but my heart and tear ducts are as twisted up in that beautiful play as anything else in my life.

'yahoo! broadway' has two really fun short documentaries about the show now. you can see a lot of tommy and lin, and hear some music from the show. it's so exciting, i can't get over it.

www.broadway.yahoo.com, follow links for 'in the heights.'

sea of screens

the show's going great- still have the general ratio of two people who love the play to one who didn't like it or "doesn't get it."

our director left today, so it will be interesting to see if the play changes now that everyone knows he's not watching.

next week i'm looking forward to a ten AM student matinee! yay, audience of kids! we had a high school group filling half the house earlier this week and our stage manager said the view from the booth was breathtaking: a sea of cell phone screens as they text-messaged away during the show! i love it.

there are some fun pics of the production up at amrep.org/caesar.

review

there's a HUGE review in the boston globe today- finds the production pretty but that it overshadows the text itself- but more exciting to me (because i like simple pleasures) is the series of pictures- including one of the conspirators converging on caesar, including yours truly.

if this link doesn't work, search the terms "boston globe" "julius caesar" and "wrath" in google.

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2008/02/15/the_wrath_pack?p1=email_to_a_friend

opened!

the show opened last night and boy are my arms tired. it's been a long, wacky month+ of rehearsals and it will be an equally long and wacky run of performances. the show is three hours and change, but it is terribly fun to do.

there's been some fun press about the show so far, and there are some pics up on the website, amrep.org/caesar. if you search 'boston globe' and 'julius caesar' you can read a fairly tame teaser article about the show. i'm looking forward to reviews, because if they are anything like the audience response, they will be widely mixed.

fake public service announcement

in tonight's post we harken back to the spring of '07.

i'll grant that my last production while studying at a.r.t., killing game, was a bit of a mess, thanks to some seriously out of control class drama that went down. (hey, it IS called drama school.)

the best thing about the production was the fake public service announcements that a few classmates and i made with the sound designer. they played in the house as people arrived to watch the play.

below find a link to the announcements: the one to listen to is the fully compiled psa, at the top of the list, labeled "psa 052907." it is a little repetitive, as it was meant to be heard in bursts, between smatches of conversation, etc... as people arrived in the theatre. in fact, it looped three times before our show.

i voice all the guys, and it is a little long, but play it as background while you check your email or something, and i think you will slowly find yourself more than a little disquieted! i think it's lots of fun.

http://www.blaseur.com/killgame/

action

the past two weeks have been awesome- a whirlwind of all-day rehearsals, and superquick 1.5 day trips to new york.

after almost three weeks of table work, we sat down to the table to start another long day, when jim, who plays brutus, said: "arthur, i'm not sitting at this table and reading any more. we can keep reading, but i'm going to stand up." arthur's face was inscrutable for a moment, and then, in his thick french accent, said: "okay. we have a run-thru."

now, a run-thru is what you typically do after blocking each scene in the show. you work on the pieces, then you put them all together. when you go see a play, you are watching a run-thru. what arthur proposed was to skip everything that typically goes in the middle of the process. three weeks at the table reading, and now, hey, let's put on a show.

long story short, it was awesome, albeit messy, weird, and funny-looking. we had a blast, and out of the sheer shock of trying to act out a whole play on the fly for the first time, we came up with a lot of fun stuff that remains in the show now. we've spent the time since then working on scenes individually, and running the show in parts and wholes.

it's great fun to do. during the show i get some great little monologues, plus i get to perform a dance, to murder an emperor, smear my hands in his blood, kill myself, and after dying, help another guy kill himself too. i get to wear a skinny 60's suit, smoke a cigarette, and scream at the top of my lungs. and all the who's of the who in cambridge will come to see it. and the best part of it all: i'm getting paid for this!

(pic is of me in rehearsal waiting for my next scene.)

strangers website

the russian version of the 'strangers' website is up- not super helpful to people who don't read cyrillic, but still fun to check out. once you click on the title page, if you click on the word 'foto' (in russian it looks like POTO), there are some fun pics from the set.

http://www.chuzhiemovie.ru/

spring is early

in the middle of the second week of rehearsals for julius caesar, and it's going great. we're still sitting at tables, and on our fourth pass through the script. we keep discovering new things, and we're making serious headway towards developing an understanding of the complex world of our production. but it's getting harder and harder to sit at that table for hours upon hours per day! i don't know if it's the old theatre chairs from the seventies, or the windowless basement room, or the pasty fluorescent lights, but i'm getting more and more restless sitting there. i'm fully engaged in the work at hand, but my butt cries for some walking around, or at least an ergonomic chair!

the director told us at the beginning that the table work is the most important, and that his style is to keep actors at the table until they're chomping at the bit to get on their feet- the idea being that there will be an energy and excitement and a literal speed to staging things since we'll be so excited to be rid of the table. i think his technique is working!

i did have a costume fitting, which was fun. i'm gonna have a pretty sweet skinny black suit, and possibly some thick black-rimmed glasses. i'd love to get the glasses, because that's a real gift for character development. i've started wearing a suit jacket in rehearsals, even at the table, just to get a feel for speaking shakespeare in one. it makes a difference, even if it is a very small one.

cambridge has been unseasonably warm the last few days, which i've thoroughly enjoyed, but has definitely made the atmosphere outside weird. it's odd that i can pull off flip-flops in january! in some corners and parking lots there are still huge melting chunks of dirty snow!

cambridge is cold

just finished my third day of rehearsals here in cambridge for JULIUS CAESAR. it's been amazing so far- i just pinch myself in rehearsal to see if i'm dreaming- it's an cast, and amazing director, an amazing theatre, and of course shakespeare's play is pretty good, too! i'm tremendously lucky to be here.

 

that being said, it is COLD. the day before yesterday i got lost trying to find a castmate's apartment and when i finally got inside, everyone lauged at the icicles in my mustache. seriously. icicles in my mustache. it's colder here than it was in moscow!

 

plus, i'll have to get internet installed by Comcast if i want it in my apartment here. i am sitting in kinko's now, breathing a sigh of relief, having gone nearly three days without internet. clearly it's an addiction.

 

in a few minutes i go to my first costume fitting, then i will go home to do more homework on this play. shakespeare is demanding!

 

more soon.