Happy St. Patrick's Day! I wore my "Go Luck Yourself" shirt to work and nobody noticed, muahahahah. I got all the mailing done all morning, finished another tedious list in the afternoon, had lunch with Rachel, and was otherwise left alone workwise. Yaaaaaaaaaay. Various people have graffitied Giant Org in protest recently, so that's fun (I say this sarcastically).

Tonight I went to see "Art," the play by Yasmina Reza that Robert and Cameron are in. Notes on this play: as far as I have ever heard about the show, it's "three guys fighting about a painting," and sounded rather pretentious, and between fighting and pretentious, I would not have voluntarily seen this otherwise. Also I note that Cameron has been hating it and it's not very funny and has a lot of lines and whatnot (to paraphrase her later, she can rattle off a Shakespeare monologue, but when you have a lot of overlapping lines...she also said that Christi jumped ahead in the show and she had to fudge that a bit).

Well, it was a lot better than I expected, actually. I6's 90 minutes and as previously noted, they only got one guy (Robert) to do it and then apparently asked two ladies, which I guess the playwright is okay with because according to the Internet there was a three women version in Pakistan or something, but they can't change the names of the characters, so they still have dude names. (And at one point, they are referring to "man of our time," didn't change that in the gendering, I guess?)

Before I get into the show itself, I note that Bridget was there, said hi, said she wants to audition for TnT, huzzah, I said. I saw Janene and sat with her in the back. She'd also been working on the show/keeping people on book, asked how things were going (me: work is still awful, not in anything right now, looking forward to shows later), asked if she was going to do TnT this time and she said no, because improv and dealing with the audience freaks her out. She wants to get back into acting but says her schedule's too busy. She also mentioned that Scott had vaguely mentioned going on Friday and I was all OH NO HE'S NOT, HE GOT REHEARSAL ON FRIDAYS--did not say "That's why I came on a Friday because I know I won't see him at this." She also said that Scott...I'm not sure if this was him considering auditioning or if they offered him a part, but he decided to do other things. "You'll know the part he would have gotten, the pushy one," she said. I felt very awkward whenever he came up in conversation.

I also note that the director was giving me somewhat of deju vu in reminding me of Scott--tall, has a beard like he used to, similar voice, etc. This turned out to be Andrew, former owner of the Palms before the pandemic. I can't say I've ever gotten to know him very well and obviously I haven't seen him in years (I don't think he reminded me of Scott back then), but then was all "oh yeah, I vaguely remember he directs or something." Anyway, looks like he did a good job on that.

On to discussing the play: it's about three friends--usually French guys in France. Cameron was playing Serge. Serge is the artsy one of the bunch and has just spent 20k in francs ("about $70k today" was in the program) on a giant white painting with three lines through it. This thing was huge and Cameron had to haul it off and onstage throughout the show (me to Janene: "Does she haul that thing a lot?" Oh yes) I asked about how they made the painting afterwards and Cameron said Andrew painted it and it's covered with resin, for reasons that will become clear later. Serge thinks it has colors within the painting, claims s/he wouldn't have bought it if it was all white, really likes it.

Marc (this is the one Scott would have been cast as, played by Christi, who I don't really know, vaguely talked to after the show but not a lot) fucking hates this painting, thinks it's ridiculous, thinks the price is ridiculous, it's white, and is OPENLY OFFENDED that Serge thought this thing was so great as to buy it. Like Marc is deeply wounded and pissy and "how could I like this person who likes THIS STUPID PAINTING, and what does that say about me/our friendship?!" about it.

Sneaking off for a judgment call, Marc goes to their third friend, Yves (Robert). Yves is "the guy in the middle," the umpire. Usually more of a clownish guy (according to Marc), Yves has started a new job in paper sales and is counting down to his wedding and juggling stepparent drama and kinda freaking the shit out. Robert did this 2.5 page monologue about the wedding and the stepparents and whether or not to put them on the imitation, imitating Jewish mothers, and it was fucking brilliant. (I asked Janene if he rehearsed this around the house and she said, "he did it in the shower, with the yelling, I told him the neighbors could hear that." I said my neighbors either hear singing or crying from me, but hey, at least no sex noises.) Yves privately seems to think the painting is kinda dumb--"how much would you have paid for it?" "Jack shit."--but privately is all "well, whatever makes Serge happy." When confronted with said painting, Yves says "yes, yes, yes, yes, yes" while looking at it rapturously a lot, and tries to talk nice about it .

Anyway, after awhile, they all get together to presumably head out for dinner and movies and KABOOMBAH happens because Marc can't take this whole stupid painting thing, and calls Yves out for hedging about it, and Serge is all "So, you know how I said you and Paula were perfect together? Well, I find her beyond reprehensible for (a) saying you can cure Ehlers-Danlos with homeopathy and (b) I can't stand how she waves away cigarette smoke." And Marc is all YOU TAKE THAT BACK and Yves is all OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP FIGHTING OVER THIS and at one point they're playing tug of war on Serge's scarf (I was surprised they ddin't knock over the liquor bottle, Cameron was all so far, so good on that) and Yves ends up injured behind the couch and yelling, and the friendships nearly break up, and Yves is all, but what about my wedding in two weeks, you're supposed to be there?

In the end, Serge asks to borrow a felt tip pen from Yves (mentioned at the beginning, Chekhov's Pen, lol), hands it to Marc, and lets Marc draw on the painting. Marc draws a skier based on the lines in the painting. They make up/agree to have a trial run again, and then are shown cleaning off the painting together. (Serge privately admits to knowing that pen would come off paint, but doesn't admit this to Marc.) They have resolved their shit. The end.

(I admit that the whole "this has broken our friendship" thing reminded me of Scott again, sigh...I started thinking all this fucking stupid drama was starting to sound like a play. I did go on to Janene later about playwriting a few 10 minutes and not having an ending for the one in which you project a white guy hologram to say what you mean. She said, "yeah, my co-director is a guy and people don't listen when I say things, but they listen when he says the same thing.")

Also, it was funnier that I expected, albeit Janene and I were usually the only ones laughing at stuff. There were maybe 18 people in the audience for this one, I guess we were the only ones laughing. It's not like, a joke a minute, but it has moments. Cameron was all, "Yeah, I forgot it was funny until people were actually there," and yes, once again she knew I was there from the laugh. I guess she considers it a feature, not a bug. We had a fun hangout after the show discussing things.

Hot goss from Winters theater: (a) They are doing Much Ado this summer (August), Rodney is directing. I'd be excited over Much Ado, but Rodney is the one guy over here who would NEVER cast me even in a bit part, so...sigh. Hah, Scott should do it because Rodney would so cast him and Cameron as B&B, they're like his dream couple. (Good, go do Much Ado and get out of my hair, sir.) (b) They are bringing back Miracle Worker--only 3 years late! Cameron will be in it again in November, needs to relearn the lines again. I assume they'll be recasting those who have moved. I tried asking if Jesse will be back, didn't hear on that one. (c) I asked how they got the community center back and Cameron made vague jokes about voodoo dolls and blood sacrifices and "don't ask" and "we don't have it for every show." I asked where TnT is going to rehearse and she said "no idea." (d) People returning to TnT: Cameron, Robert, Brian, Nancy. Yay to get people back! I miss my Winters family!

Janene also expressed interest in karaoke again, I told her where it's going on these days and with who, how Ashley is doing, suggested we all meet at Green River on Mondays for dinner/karaoke before rehearsals and/or to let me know if she wants to go. I sorta doubt it, but hey, the invite has been extended. She misses the gang too. She brought up Scott again and I said oh, he's quit karaoke entirely, says it's too loud, says he'd only go if Matt was there because Matt's a sound engineer and Jim isn't and he's being a fucking snob about it. (And also he has rehearsal, Janene said. Well, that too.) Yes, I think I did actually say "fucking snob" about it. But he is. It's a trait I've always disliked about him.

Anyway, the conversation morphed--she and I were hanging around while Robert and Cameron cleaned up and then those of us remaining all hit the adjacent bar to the Buckhorn for a drink--about people not coming to your shows and I said yeah, my mom doesn't always show, and she said something about someone she knows in my hometown that she wanted to come to a show and they wouldn't do it because "too tired," , and I said yeah, Scott pulled that on me on Christmas Carol and...."He and I are not good."

I wanted to get into more of it, but didn't get much time to explain because Robert came out. I attempted to say he said/did something to REALLY piss me off and she asked if it was mendable and I said something like I don't know, maybe not, and that "he thinks about himself." That's as far as it got before others were around, alas. I have seriously felt the urge to spill about all of this to someone who knows him to get a better judgment call. God knows I've blabbed to people who don't, but it'd help to get a perspective from Robert or Sarah or Janene or somebody, but so far the opportunity just hasn't really happened beyond me spitting out the occasional bit here or there and then other shit happens.

Anyway, we went out to a very loud bar with very loud people, attempted to talk about art and weird art and Dali and art involving bodily functions, then finished our drinks, hit our limits on the noise, and went back home. Cameron thanked me for coming, actually gave me some hugs, said she'd write back later, loved the long letter.

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