Free day in Portland

September 30th, 2009

I met Hilary in the lobby of the hotel at about 10:30am. I had taken a walk around the block and had ducked into Columbia sportswear when she called and I popped up the block back to the hotel. We went to breakfast at a small dine in what I think she called “the pearl” neighborhood.

Then we took a trip up the Columbia river Gorge. We drove along and the weather was more or less threatening. It rained quite heavily and broke through sunny as often. We stopped at a beautiful lookout with an odd structure that had been built as the vanguard of a large resort that never materialized.

We then drove further and saw some amazing waterfalls. Jane and I had taken this same drive many years earlier when we were there with Cunningham but I was enjoying the day so much that I didn’t mention this.

We ended up in Hood River. After walking around a bit we found Rebecca Stenn’s brother Ben’s restaurant Celilio, named after some beautiful fall in the Columbia that disappeared when an power damn was built downstream. We chatted a bit and he walked us through his menu. We then chatted about some of the better restaurants in Portland and then he showed us his kitchen.

From there we drove up to Mt. Hood from the east, basically the backside from Portland. We drove along and it started to snow. We drove to the Timberline Hotel on the slopes of Mt. Hood. We arrived in bright sunshine. We walked around and checked out the 1930’s structure and marveled at it’s massive timber structure. We sat in front of a large window looking upon the peak of the mountain and just chatted for less than half an hour. As talked clouds moved in and obscured the mountain. Snow was swirling thickly.

When we left the parking lot was covered in more than an inch of snow. We got in to Hilary’s 1984 Westfalia camper and started down the hill. In very short order the van started to slide alarmingly. We stopped, gathered our composure and tried again. Again it got a little too sideways and we stopped up short. Hilary decided we had to put chains on the tires. We did so and were soon creeping down the mountain quite assuredly.

When we were clear of the snow line we took the chains off and sped into town.

When we got there we had a drink with Ana, Misha and Tei and then went off to dinner with the addition of Tom. We went to a fine old time seafood restaurant called Jake’s. Tei, Hilary, Misha and I shared oysters as an appetizer. Later I had an entry that I can’t remember and isn’t on their daily menu online, although I just had it.

It was a fine time. We all went home to the restaurant and I’m now trying to get myself into bed.

So nice to see Hilary.

Harris Theater – Chicago

September 26th, 2009

We have been here in Chicago for a couple of days. Our first performance is Friday night. Normally we’d be doing the tech on Thursday night but Misha has a fund raiser of some sort that evening. So we are pushing to do the tech on Thursday afternoon. We’re doing that by focusing to day on the normal pre-hang day. It’s just 5pm now and Leo has finished focus. So tomorrow is going to be a breeze.

Harris Theater – Chicago

September 26th, 2009

We had a very easy day of load in. The stage is clean, well equiped and the crew is very good. So things were quite easy.

First performance day in Chicago

September 26th, 2009

I had  a slow day. I woke up quite late. I had breakfast/lunch. A soup and sandwich. Then I went to the Art Institute. I wanted to just pop in for an hour or so but when I learned that it was $18 to get in I thought that I should go when I could give it more time. So I just walked around a bit and then headed for the theater.

The home office had sent me a bit of paper work for me to take care of. The show went off without a hitch except that the top of “years later” has a bit of a clip in it that we just can’t get rid of.

After I went to dinner with Sandra, Leo and Jeremy. We went to a Mexican restaurant of a famous TV chef called Topolobampo. We actually wanted to go into the Fonteral Grill the less pricey companion restaurant. But there wasn’t a table available so we went for the top.

We were greeted by the waiter with “Hello, my name is Paco I’m going to be your guide on an extraordinary culinary experience.” Of course later I devised the perfect response “Are you ready for an extraordinary ass-hole customer experience?”

The food was very inventive and beautiful and I’m glad we went there. I had a slow cooked pork that was amazing.

Hilary suggested that we go there I’m glad to be able to report that we made it. I wouldn’t have gone if Sandra hadn’t been into it.

Tech day, Harris Theater

September 25th, 2009

We had a very casual day. We went in at 8am and finished all the technical preparations. I was a bit annoyed at Jeremy because he came in quite late and didn’t seem to be nervous. In the end everything worked out so until the first performance I’m feeling OK.

Jeremy and I went to Lincoln Park and had dinner at an OK pasta place. We then went and had a beer. The trains roared overhead and I made some recordings for Jane.

We went home and Jeremy went to bed and I went out to the Elephant and Castle and met up with some advertizing girls.

We went off to a gay bar. It was OK.

Then I went home.

Day off in Chicago

September 23rd, 2009

I woke at 1:30pm! I a haven’t slept that late in a very long time. I had gone to bed at 12:30 at the earliest. I guess it is not surprising given the change in hours and lack of sleep I had traveling from Hawai’i. On that time scheme I woke at 8:30am. Not bad for me.

I wandered the streets for several hours inside the loop. Not very impressed with what I found. It was very commercial and with very few small businesses.

I finally found a small bar

Latvian National Theater

August 3rd, 2009

Here we are in Riga with Misha. The show is pretty straight forward: Valse Fantasie, a little sweet choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, Solo for Two, or rather a small segment of the piece by Mats Ek featuring his wife, Ana Laguna, Years Later, a total redux of a piece we toured a couple of years ago and finally “Place” by Mats Ek.

The theate was renovated in about 1997. It is generally modern but has had a lot of wear. The backstage areas are rather unkempt and extremely dusty. We’ve been fighting a battle to keep the stage clean, one that will only be won after many days in the theater.

The production manager for the Opera is a very friendly woman named Dace. There was some doubt as to her gender until I got off the plane. Her english is excellent and she comes to New Y

Humid

August 3rd, 2009

Jane and I have been working about an hour each day on the house. It usually turns into an hour and a half or two hours. But today I have been moving at a snail’s pace due to the pea soup we’re living in today.

I was able to make a plan for a couple of new book cases for her little room. Jane would be totally happy to line all the walls of all the rooms with book cases. I keep telling her that not having too many books, or too many of anything is a much more reasonable way to live. She thinks I’m just being mean. Her parents are academics, classics professors, and they lave fewer books in their house than we have. there is not a book that we can throw away.

So I’m throw a bit of a bone to Jane by building her these small shelves. they won’t take up valuable living space but they might ecroach on the her work space a bit.

I haven’t workd as hard as I would have liked today. I have a very nice little to do program for the phone and it’s telling me exactly what I have to do. I just can’t seem to get on with it. I think I’ll dig through my email one more time. Maybe look at photos of naked women.

Second show day in Milan

June 17th, 2009

This was my second time in Milan. The first time was when I was doing a show with Cunningham in a nearby city. I can’t even remember the name. We must have had a free day or arrived early because I took the train into Milan and walked around a bit. My impression this time is much the same as the first time. I don’t find the architecture very interest, it’s bustling (I suppose) but not very exciting.

I went to a big shopping street called Buenos Aires and walked the whole length up and down. I bought a simple hair trimmer and some clothes at a Celio. this is my second Celio shopping trip of this tour.

I have to call 15 minutes for the the show, I won’t be back today.

One Down

May 3rd, 2009

10 to go on this Spring 2009 tour with Misha. Riga was a very pleasent surprise. The theater was a bit worse for wear and not the most organized backstage I’ve ever seen. But the people were hard working and very friendly. The worst part was having to do an “open dress” on the first set up day. I worked overnight the night before in order to get the pre-hang done. When we arrived in the morning it was an all day sprint to get focus and the rest of set-up done so that we could do an hour of tech and just jump into the rehearsal. It was done in an open fashion and miraculously ended up being not embarrassing.

A couple nights later we experienced the unsavory side of Riga’s old town.