I'm not dead yet

Okay, I'm still alive, I just haven't been inspired to post. So here is a quick laundry list, some observations and a mildly amusing story from last night's charity event.

What I've been doing:

GBNY II - fun, fun, fun. A couple of my blogger crushes have been intensified by actually meeting the bloggers in question. Mark and Brian are the cutest couple, but you do not want to stand between them and Kenneth Cole sales items. Palochi is tall. Some bloggers can't hold their liquor.

Theater - Spamalot, Spamalot, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Avenue Q - celebrity sightings at WAVW: Pierce Brosnan, Mike Wallace, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, John Spence, Roger Rees. Best night of celebrity sightings yet, though I did see a lot of famous folk at The Play What I Wrote. Upcoming theater - Sweet Charity, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and something at the Irish Rep. I won all these tickets at my various charity events (I love silent auctions). If you're nice to me, I'll take you to some of them as my plus one.

By the way, while the overall quality of Avenue Q has gone down (in my humble opinion), due to the difficulty of keeping a show fresh after so many performances (especially with some of the cast members who've been in the show the entire time), Barrett Foa (who has replaced John Tartaglia) is pretty darn good and keeps the show enjoyable. He does a nice job with the characters he plays (Rod and Princeton) and stays true to the original portrayals of those characters, without just getting up there and doing a John Tartaglia impersonation. He's created his own versions of the characters and done it rather nicely.

That being said, he's also really, really, really easy on the eyes. I'm fairly sure that I'd give him rave reviews for reading the phone book as long as he did it with his shirt off. I jest, but the kid is talented. If you haven't seen Avenue Q in a while, you should go see it again.

Charity Events - I went to the Living Beyond Belief Butterfly Awards at B.B. King. I love this group. It's main purpose is to educate young people about AIDS prevention and awards those who help set up peer groups and AIDS prevention groups at local high schools. They're great. There were some celebrities there, including three of the cast of Tony and Tina's Wedding. They were pretty funny, to the point where I might actually go see the show (I'm not a big fan of interactive theater). There was an actor from the Putnam County Spelling Bee, John Tartaglia (formerly of Avenue Q and currently starring as that guy who used to be in Avenue Q), and someone else whose name and show I've forgotten. There were also reality TV "actors" from one of the MTV shows (Real World?) and Boy Meets Boy (or one of those type shows). Needless to say, I had no idea who they were, but the young folks seemed to like 'em.

Last night I went to the Live Out Loud event at the Chelsea Art Museum. Cherry Jones was the presenter and she rocked. In addition, I spotted Tom Dolby (of the Dolby Dolbys) whose book continues to get good press and great marketing, playwright David Drake whom I've had a crush on since college, Anthony Rapp, and a few people whom I didn't recognize, but judging by the way the cameras were flashing around them, they must have been famous. This is another great organization. They arrange panels of gay and lesbian artists, professionals, writers, athletes, you name it, to go to local high schools and meet with kids. They also give scholarships to kids who've been active in gay rights at their high schools. Five kids got scholarships last night and when I heard what all they'd done, it made me feel like a lazy slob. All in all a good time.

Oh, and I got lots of good swag at the charity events. Two Kenneth Cole bags, gift certificates, CDs, magazines, shirts. Woo hoo. Sadly, I don't need any of it and will likely give most of it away.

Apartment Hunting - This is slightly more fun than oral surgery. I'll be looking at another apartment today at lunch. So far, no luck. But I'm holding out hope. Just in case, does anyone have a really large refrigerator box? Maybe something in a split-level?

Writing - For some reason, now that I have little or no free time, I keep getting struck with inspiration. I'm working on a number of new plays, but since I'm staying up until 2 a.m. working on them, I'm being run ragged. It also seems, especially with the crap that James Dobson and his Pinnochio Bill Frist keep spewing, most of what I'm writing is agitprop drama. But then, writing is writing, so I shouldn't complain.

Work - Better than MAK.

So that's my life in a nutshell. Now let's see if I can keep up with this whole blog thing. And to give myself another thing to obsess about not doing, I've started a gay lit blog. I see it as a chance to write about what I've been reading lately (gay or not) and hopefully get some people to submit reviews of things they've read. If anyone is interested, let me know.

And here is my mildly amusing story from last night. Michael Musto was at the event. I've always thought it must kind of suck to be him because I'm sure he can't just go to a party and enjoy himself; he always has to be "Michael Musto of the Village Voice" and is always expected to be "on". Last night, he had a parade of people coming up to talk to him. Now maybe he enjoys it; I wouldn't, but then I tend to hate people. Anyway, he could barely get a sip of his drink or a bite of food without someone walking over to say hi.

The food at the party was a little on the scarce side. A few cater-waiters walking around with finger food, some breadsticks and wasabi peas strategically placed around the gallery, and some strawberries. The strawberries were tucked into the spaces between stacks of whole mangoes. Pretty presentation.

I guess Michael didn't want to nibble himself full. He grabbed one of the mangoes and just tore into it.

It was funny to see, a lot of guys in pretty, pretty clothes who looked like they hadn't eaten in ages nearly peeing themselves wanting to go over and talk to this kind of schlumpy guy sucking the pulp out of a mango.

Well, good for him. The mango looked really tasty.