Whirlwind of a Weekend

Hot damn I had a good time this past weekend. So much so that it ended on a Monday. I do believe I need more hours in a day to play, sleep, and then share all.

Friday was great as Genie and I went to see a show at Improv Olympic, Opening Night. She's now taking classes there and I plan on seeing as many shows as I can with her as possible. I live for the improv. Always need more. There's more to learn, more to enjoy, more to play. And they were F-ing brilliant! The hardest thing about improv is describing a show you've seen. There's just no way to capture what you've seen. Just trust me when I say brilliant.

Saturday Genie and I went to a Vegan Cupcake Thingamabob. THEY WERE GOOD!

That is a dark chocolate peanut butter cupcake. You best believe I ordered two. That was my dinner. I'm proud to admit it.

I followed that up by seeing a movie called Big in Bollywood, where fellow UCLA alum Matt McCroskey was one of the filmmakers. It was premiered at the Indian Film Festival. The documentary was fantastic, and they won Audience Favorite! Here are the guys doing a little Q &A after the screening.

It's a little grainy, sure, but you get the idea. I was there! I saw the magic!

Sunday I went to The Gentle Barn for the first time. The Gentle Barn rescues abused animals from all sorts of places. And when I hear their stories, I find I want to be vegan more than I ever thought possible. By the way, you can go on Sundays for $5, hug the animals, and eat world class vegan cupcakes and pizza. *drool* That pizza was absolutely amazing! Enjoy these pics.

Goodness me that's a whole lotta pics.

And last but not least, I saw The Vagina Monologues performed by a wonderful group of women over at the Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble in Santa Monica. I've read the book/script before, but never watched it performed. It's truly wonderful. You may turn your nose up at it, "oh it's been done before." But still there are people who haven't seen it, haven't performed it. Still people who might not understand what it's all about it. So go see it, read it, and learn. It's wonderful to see such good work performed by your friends.

You can find The Gentle Barn and LATEnsemble on Twitter: @gentlebarn and @latensemble Great people doing great work.

God of Carnage is a Must See

On Wednesday, Trina and I had the privilege to go see the opening night of God of Carnage.

I always love seeing shows in a big "professional space." There's an extra sense of magic, I think it's because there's a bigger budget involved. It feels more grown up. I'm not trashing the "little theater", 'cuz that's where my heart is at. Anyway - the extra sense of fun this time around was due to it being opening night! Ooh! Lots of people in the house! Even some celebrities! It was even rumored that Brangelina were there. But we didn't see them. I think my fave sighting was Sandra Oh.

I was going to show you the fabulous pictures I had taken with my phone before they told me no pictures were allowed. But it seems none of them came out. Well, except for this awesome, awesome one---->


I do love my R2D2 phone, but the self portraits still need work. Droid 2s don't seem to be that convenient for such a task.

Anyhoo, let me tell you about the play! GO SEE IT! It's twisted! It's hilarious! It is fucking fantastic. You start out with two couples facing the problem of their children fighting. They meet in one family's home. You start to think you're going to watch a "living room" drama. But  nooooo. It descends into total chaos. No character is perfect, and you don't care. In fact, you want to see them explode, and they all do. James Gandolfini, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels are just wonderful, but no one explodes the way Marcia Gay Harden does.

Originally, it's a French play written by Yasmina Reza, it was adapted by Christopher Hampton, (best known for Dangerous Liaisons), and the script just kills. There are some fantastic one liners as we learn about the couples, their marriages, and their views on child rearing. It was on Broadway, and we in Los Angeles have been lucky enough to watch the original cast play on stage. I tell ya, even from the nosebleeds, it was a joy to watch them work.

At the end of the night, as Trina and I were waiting to watch the crowd thin out, I spotted some LA Theater friends. After exchanging pleasantries, we were asked if we wanted to do an interview. I, amazingly enough, said yes. There was a camera with a bright light, and Corwin with a mic, and myself stumbling over my words.  As I was telling my mom today, I'm not comfortable in front of a camera as myself. As someone else, yes, me? No. When I get my hands on it, so will you. You will enjoy a good laugh.


I highly recommend that if you can see God of Carnage, you best do it. I wish I could go back and get closer seats. Och, it was so good. You can buy tix from the link above, and it's playing until May 29th. If you're in the LA area, you will be thrilled to see it. If not, no worries: there's a film coming out with Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly, and Christoph Waltz. Looks like it's slated to come out in 2012. I can't wait, hope it lives up to the play.


And there's my mini review. I hope it was enjoyable.