A LITTLE MORE MARCH

Nothing makes me realize how little I have to say these days than coming over here to post something.  I'm just working on so many projects I can't really discuss at the moment, so maybe that's why I feel tongue-tied all around.  Or maybe I'm tired of talking about myself -- I don't even feel like complaining about AT&T, and believe me, I could do some complaining!  Or maybe it's Facebook.

But I do have some pictures!

March 21:

We bought flowers for our leading ladies at Living Room Musicals, but Velma left hers behind.  We are still enjoying them!



March 22:

Over at the 365project, where all these shots are posted, this is the least popular photo I have ever taken.  Which is probably emblematic of my life for these two weeks.  I have a script due on Friday, and I need fuel to keep going and finish it.



March 23:

And sometimes when one is stuck in the mode of I'm-writing-don't-talk-to-me-I'm-not-leaving-the-house, one relies on leftovers.  Here we have leftover turkey sandwiches and leftover lemon pepper pasta.  And that's the best I can do today.



March 24:

The entire film school at USC used to fit in this footprint.  Which is very hard to believe, given that this space is about the size of the courtyard in the new film school buildings.  (This pic was taken from the third floor of one of the three (so far) buildings of the school.)



March 25:

I don't mind it when phone companies build fake palm trees or fake pine trees to camouflage cell phone towers.  But a giant concrete pineapple?  Really?



March 26: 

Even though I'm still writing, I started cooking again.  Here, the back-engineered burger from "My Father's Office" in Santa Monica.  One of the best burgers in all of L.A., but we can't take our kids there because it's a bar, no one under 21 admitted.  Burger is topped with Gruyere and blue cheese, and with a mixture of onions, Worcestershire, vinegar, sugar, ketchup, bacon, and liquid smoke.  Yum.



March 27:

Time to upgrade the phones.  And though the iPhone 4 sounded tempting, that $49 deal from AT&T on the iPhone 3GS sounded pretty good, too.  So off we went to the AT&T store -- only to learn that they are either liars or utterly incompetent.  I had called two months ago to confirm which lines of ours were ready for upgrades -- and they gave me completely wrong information (and that wrong info, by the way, kept me paying for lines we're not using).  And, by the way, AT&T has blatantly lied to us before ("You don't want to go to Verizon, because AT&T is buying Verizon, it was just announced.")

When we talked to the manager of the AT&T store, he was more concerned about whether we appreciated the fact that he was trying to help us than with actually helping us.  ("I don't feel appreciated right now."  Seriously.)  After about half an hour of their total inability to straighten things out or to figure out why we were given absolutely wrong information earlier, we looked at each other and said, "Verizon?" 

So AT&T lost a longtime customer.  Here we are at the Apple Store with our new iPhone 4.  And we already had to call Verizon customer service (to change the number we were assigned).  They were a pleasure to deal with.



March 28:

The first official day of spring break.  What more does one need than a Wii, a controller, and a couch?



More to come... We finish a script Friday and head to the mountains Sunday....

MORE MARCH

Okay, some more pics while I think of something poignant or trenchant to say....

March 17:

The last week or so before Living Room Musicals is filled with laying down last minute music tracks, making last minute script corrections.... and writing down the music cues.  Saturday we did CHICAGO, so last week I spent hours and hours counting music out by the measure to make sure I knew were all the cues were.  Here's my script open to the trickiest song to cue:  "Cell Block Tango."



March 18: 

Friday we went to the Harvard-Westlake Film Festival.  Cory insisted it was being held at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.  No, I insisted.  It must be at one of the smaller, more modern theaters behind the Dome.  And then we walked into the Dome, and Cory got to say "I told you so."  The festival was terrific -- incredible work by high school filmmakers from all over California.  By the time we left, Cory was already making his plans to enter next year.



March 19:

We don't videotape Living Room Musicals.  We don't record it.  It's a one-time-only experience, shared only by the people in the room.  We don't photograph it, either.  But Sabrina grabbed my iPhone and snapped a few photos after we were done.  Here, a happy "Velma Kelly," triumphant and relieved after a wonderful performance.



March 20:

I showed this picture to Lee, and he said, "I didn't know your iPhone could take black and white photos."  It can't.  This is a color photo.  Taken from the door of the café at church in the middle of the weekend's rainstorm.



...More to come!

LIVING ROOM MUSICALS: CHICAGO

A couple of years ago, as Lee and I were watching Cory's middle school production of Fiddler on the Roof, we bemoaned the fact that once you're out of high school, unless you're a professional, you never get to be part of a musical again.

Why does it have to be that way, we wondered.  What if... what if we could invite a bunch of people over to our living room and just, you know, put on a musical?

Last night, we celebrated (that's the right word) our third Living Room Musical with a raucous and terrific performance of Chicago.  No audience -- everyone there plays a part.  No rehearsal -- just the script and music a couple of weeks in advance.  Talk about flying without a net!

Amateurs and professionals alike.  Writers and actors, students and teachers, teenagers and adults....  An amazing amount of talent and skill and preparation.  And one phenomenal performance -- Joel McCrary as Amos Hart singing "Mister Cellophane" -- that I felt incredibly privileged to witness.

I just run the music and cue the performers, so I get to see the whole thing.  It's such a treat!  I love seeing the joy of everyone there as they conquer their stage fright and fear of being underprepared and come through the other side in triumph.  As one participant posted on Facebook today, it was more fun than should be allowed.

A special night, indeed.  We're already thinking about the next one (probably early fall)... Will it be West Side Story?  Into the Woods?  Spamalot?....  Stay tuned...

MARCHING ALONG

We're just past halfway through March, so here are the photos from the month....

March 1:

What's not to love about a happy kitty? 



March 2:

May 21.  Would that be before or after Cory's fencing team awards ceremony?  I'm just trying to plan.  Although perhaps I'll write this one in pencil.



March 3:

So there I am at the Nordstrom Rack, and they're having a major designer sale.  Stella McCartney, Valentino, Armani black label.  And I see a pair of jeans.  Not even worth looking at, of course.  Short curvy girls like me can't wear high end designer jeans.  I'm not talking True Religion, 7 for All Mankind -- I'm talking the $300+ jeans.  But here's a pair, marked down to $60... and it sure looks like it'll fit.  It does.  Not only does it fit, it fits perfectly -- no hemming needed, no gap in the back of the waistline.  I love them.  My favorite pair of jeans ever.  Ever.



March 4:

Two pairs of ankle boots, one pair of 4" wedge sandals, and a pair of cute combat boots for Sabrina.  All in all, a good day.



March 5:

Our friend Lauri's daughter was born at 30 weeks, at only 3.2 pounds, due to a version of pre-eclampsia that could have/would have killed both mom and baby.  And yet here we are, before little Lily's due date even, throwing a shower for mom and daughter, safely home from the hospital.  Great rejoicing was shared by all.  (And great food, by the way.)



March 6: 

Our dear friend Jack, who stood up for us in our wedding, has the same birthday party every year.  We gather to watch Casablanca, toast with "Here's Looking at You, Kid," and eat spice cake.  Some things never change, and we like that.



March 7:

"What do you mean, there's school in the morning?!"



March 8:

For about five more minutes, I'll still be taller than Sabrina.  Well, maybe a little longer than that as long as I don't ever take these shoes off.



March 9:

Aztec chicken.  No idea why it's called that.  Chicken dredged in flour, chili powder and thyme, cooked in orange juice.  And I'm taking a picture of it because I had an all-writing day and didn't do anything worth taking a picture of.



March 10:

One of my classes at USC is held in the conference room of another department.  We were warned in no uncertain terms that there was to be no eating in this room.  None, you hear me?  None.  If any of us try to bring food in, the threshold guardians of the department stop us and remind us:  No food!... And then one day we walk in, and a veritable feast is spread out across the conference table.  Um.....  And even now, every week, there's an assortment of eating implements.....  I'm sure there's an alternative explanation.



March 11:

We have a fairly new family tradition of going out to dinner every Friday.  Sometimes we're lucky enough to meet neighbors for dinner... Here, our friends Greg and Kathy (their daughters are just off screen).  Great friends and chicken piccata.  Works for me.



March 12:

Is it really spring until the first Girl Scout cookie? 



March 13:

Arlene was Sabrina's nanny, and now here she is with her own baby!  And Sabrina's old enough to babysit baby Avery, if only Arlene and her husband Ocean didn't live in Seattle.  What a treat to get to see them!



March 14:

I hate the transition to Daylight Savings Time.  But if this is what I see in the morning, maybe I can live with it...



March 15: 

Yes, this is the worst possible picture.  We were stuck in the back of the auditorium for Sabrina's choir competition with no seats, no angle to take the photo, my iPhone did that weird thing it does when trying to photograph from (relative) darkness into light, and I jiggled the phone when I took the photo.  But to top it off, somehow it uploaded upside down.  So I imported into iPhoto, flipped it -- and it still imported upside down.  Whatever.  (Sabrina's choir won the competition.)



March 16:

My new favorite photo of Sabrina.  And not just because she has a new haircut.  Where did she get those cheekbones, anyway?



Okay, that gets us through the Ides of March plus a day.  More soon!

WHAT PI SOUNDS LIKE

Okay, so yesterday was Pi Day (3.14), not today.  But the guy who created it also posted it a few days off (early, in his case), so I feel okay.

This is a very inventive look at the number π.  At one point, Sabrina memorized pi to 100 decimals (I don't know why), but this composer only takes it to 30 decimal places.  He matches the numbers to musical notes -- well, click on the link and let him explain it.  It's just lovely, and so creative.

CATCHING UP

Oops.  We had lunch with some long-time friends yesterday, and she mentioned how much she was enjoying my blog again, and I thought -- "My blog?  When was the last time I updated my blog?"

And of course the answer was, too long ago. 

I should have updated more recently.  I should have weighed in on the Oscars at least -- predictions, the show itself, our party food...  But I didn't.  My apologies.

Maybe it's just that I don't really feel the world needs my opinion on every book I read, every movie I see, etc.  Or maybe it's that I already spend so much time at my computer.  Maybe it's Facebook.   Maybe I just don't have much to say at the moment...

Okay, let's try again.  I can at least update some pictures.  Here's the rest of February, for now.  I promise to think about something more interesting to say in the meantime!

February 20:

A spectacular view from Bel Air Pres.  Snow everywhere.  I realized later, what I really should have taken the picture of was all the people with their phones out, taking pictures of the snow.



February 21: 

Cory and I were at Target when he noticed someone had left a shopping list in our cart.  But an unusual shopping list.  In Russian (mostly).  Former linguist that I am, I had a lot of fun trying to decipher it, based on my knowledge that Cyrillic letters are largely based on the Greek alphabet.  I was very happy to decode the word "deodorant," for instance.  I'd love for someone who really speaks Russian to tell me if this shopping list is really in Russian, or is a transliteration of English words into Cyrillic script, or is a sort of "Spanglish" ("Russklish?") mixture of the two languages.



February 22: 

I glory in cold weather.  I keep the windows open when it's in the 50s, and walk around without a jacket in the 60s.  So when I dig out my fuzzy warm socks and wear them around the house, it's really cold.



February 23: 

There are a lot of people out there these days taking pictures of food.  I am not one of those who photographs the meal at the restaurant before I eat it (mostly because I rarely go to restaurants where the food is all that).  But sometimes I spend a day home writing and the most interesting thing that happens all day is dinner.  This was one of those days.  I proudly present my potato soup.



February 24:

Look, I like my son as much as anyone else does.  Probably more.  But even I have to wonder if it's really worth it for all these colleges to kill so many trees to recruit him.  Especially when he's only a sophomore.



February 25:

The young man who refuses to wear a jacket to school (sounds like his mom) looks like he's freezing to death as he gets on the bus for Winter Camp.  Good thing I made him pack his second ski jacket, his beanie, his dad's balaclava, his snowboarding gloves, and his scarf.  He used them all.



February 26:

Extreme excitement all over L.A. today.  Snow in Glendale!  Snow in Burbank!  Snow in West LA!  Snow in Montrose!.... Us?  We only got hail.



February 27:

Lee suddenly turned into a crafts maven right before our Oscar party, making all sorts of creative labels for the food.  This was by far my favorite:  In honor of Toy Story 3, he turned a six-pack of Bud Light into Buzz LightBeer.  (Yes, we kept one of the empty bottles.)



February 28:

They played "Braveheart" at Winter Camp.  How do you play "Braveheart"?  You divide into two teams of guys, each at one end of a hallway.  You shout "Freedom!" and charge straight at each other, then claw, shove, wrestle, push, kick, crawl and climb over the other team to get to the other end of the hallway.  Then you do it again.  Astonishingly, the guys can get a bit scratched up playing "Braveheart," as Cory did here....  I say "the guys" because the girls don't play "Braveheart."  They're too smart.