monick's married!

monick in nyc from september 2005

before we continue with the broadway bares photos, i'd be remiss if i did not acknowledge that my good friend monick got married last weekend in spain to her longtime beau, peter.  i'm very sad that i couldn't be there but also extremely excited for them both as they embark on this new stage of life together.

you can check out all the details of her engagement, her weddings (both of them) and, one assumes, her honeymoon on her blog over at hipgirlz.blogspot.com.

congrats to monick and peter!

bares '07 - frustracia

leslie kritzer as frustracia

mocca art fest '07

robbi, rich and matthew

rich and robbi

robbi and matthew

robbi and rich

me, matthew, rich and robbi

on wednesday, my friend rich (the long-haired one pictured above) tips me off via e-mail to the museum of comic and cartoon art's annual art fest at the puck building this coming weekend.  he casually mentions that "a couple of friends of [his] will have a booth there."  being a comics geek myself, i figure why not check it out?

so, saturday morning, i bring joe with me to the convention.  we look around the first floor exhibition halls, talk with a few artists, grab some free stuff, and make a few purchases.  i look at the program and see a name i recognize.  i say to joe, "i wonder if this is the same guy i knew in college."

lo and behold, my friends and former classmates robbi and matthew have a booth on the seventh floor selling the fabulous and fascinating illustrated stories that they publish under their imprint, idiots' books.  apparently, rich has forgotten that he and i actually have other friends in common besides sue.  no biggie — turns out to be a nice surprise for everyone involved.  they give joe and me a few of their books and i promise to bring a couple of my (old) comics for them the next day.

this morning, after joe flies off to nebraska for another edta conference, i head back to the puck building for another visit to the idiots' books booth and for the bill sienkiewicz sketch and signing session at 4:00 pm.  unfortunately, sienkiewicz is a no-show — standing in line for an hour = not fun! — but rich is hanging out with us at the convention today, too, and his awesomeness makes everything better.

some things i bought (besides robbi and matthew's stuff) which are pretty good:

• "sourpuss" and "disco maxx" by katie skelly


• "knights of the shroud" by matt bayne


• "life meter" by various artists

also, a couple pics from 1994 to prove i knew matthew way back when:

matthew with his guitar

matthew and kenny

bares '07 - intern mike

bares '07 - red light joe

sitting next to joe in the vip section of the house at roseland.

house of bernarda alba

photo by bruce johnson

last night, i met up with my friend rich to see our friend and former classmate sue (pictured above, far right) in the national asian american theater company's production of the house of bernarda alba.  sue was fabulous as amelia — she always shines, IMNSHO — and was accompanied by great performances from ching valdes-aran as bernarda and carmen m. herlihy as martirio.  props to the chorus and to the set and lighting designers, too — some beautiful work there.

at dinner, we spy victor garber sitting at a table with a bunch of boys (in town for pride, we assume).  later on in the conversation, the topic of american state capitals comes up, and we have a hell of a time remembering what the capital of iowa is.  (answer: des moines.)

some pics of the performance are available from broadwayworld.com.

bares '07 - pre-dress

sat in on the dress rehearsal for broadway bares 2007 yesterday, courtesy of my sweetie.  i'll be posting a pic a day (mondays, wednesdays and fridays, that is) for the next week or so.

more updates soon!

undesirable elements

(l to r) - joseph o. legaspi, kelly zen-yie tsai, pauline park,
raj thakkar, zohra saed and moana niumeitolu

photo by adam nadel

went to the asia society tonight to see undesirable elements, a theater project presenting the histories of a diverse group of asian americans artists, performers and activists.  i was, i admit, surprisingly moved and — dare i say it? — inspired by these peoples' stories.  i know, sounds corny — but i walked in with a bias against "asian american theater" (i have issues with that term) and am now reconsidering my attitude.

big congrats to my friend sara (not pictured) who co-wrote and co-directed this piece.  awesome job!

tony awards

photos by sara krulwich
© 2007 the new york times company

photo by anita and steve shevett
© tony award productions 2007

not much to say about the tony awards this year.  joe and i crammed them in after we got home from watching the sopranos finale at carol's place. 

i guess david hyde pierce's and julie white's wins were nice surprises, but spring awakening's near-sweep was fairly predictable, considering all the hype. 

still, we were slightly taken aback by bill t. jones' win — not that he isn't a great choreographer, but we don't think that's necessarily evident with this show.  during the broadcast's spring awakening performance, we wondered aloud, "really?  this won best choreography???"

ah, well.  i was a little sad that legally blonde wasn't up for and didn't win much.  i'll be seeing laura bell bundy as elle woods in a couple weeks — can't wait!

sopranos finale

photo © 2007 home box office.  all rights reserved.

brilliant.  just brilliant.

i actually called the ending — joe and carol can actually vouch for me — though i was still taken by surprise by the how, if not the what. 

as meadow had just finished parking, i blurted out, "they're just going to end it right here."  two seconds later, the screen went black.  no one in room knew what was going on, and someone even said, "jason, what did you do?"  then the credits began to roll.

there's already a firestorm of criticism which i'm sure will continue for the next few days (if not weeks).  imho, people will be irate not because the show ended particularly badly but because, after the masterful build-up of tension, no one expected the cut to black and silence that followed. 

if david chase had cut straight to the credits with "don't stop believing" still playing underneath, i think the furor would not be nearly as intense.  we'll see if any of the haters come around.

tammi & mandy's b-day

fabulous tammi (photo by ultraclay)

gorgeous mandy (photo by ultraclay)

jazzy jan and j. diddy (photo by digitaltammi)

like joe and me, my friends and former co-workers tammi and mandy have back-to-back birthdays, which we celebrated last night on the roof of the hotel gansevoort.  the drinks and sushi were a bit over-priced, but we looked fabulous and had a lot of fun.  our other friend and former comedy alum, january, was also there, taking pics and showing us photos from her trip to costa rica.

love love love these girls.

more photos from ultraclay and digitaltammi.