July 31, 2008

What was to be casual out-patient surgery for skin tags yesterday wasn’t so casual. I bled profusely at the clinic, and the bleeding didn’t stop the rest of the day. The doctors blamed the two aspirins I had taken for my hangover. The pants I wore to rehearsal were caked with blood, though, thank God, they are black and nobody knew. The towel I use to soften my writing chair was stained with dark blood. They join the gray pants I wore to the clinic in the washer, in hope that the stains will come out. The underwear is past help and is now a rather horrifying dust rag.

Despite a certain wooziness from blood loss, I enjoyed rehearsal last night. First time that has happened. I will spend most of my evenings for the next four weeks–eight weeks, counting Faustus– staring at a darkening sky, watching the bats, the moths, the first pale stars glimmer over Montford Park. It could be a lot worse.

I think our AYLI will be boring because it will be mechanical, efficient, devoid of discovery. We are not good enough to present an archival production, one at once classical and superb. Our hope was playfulness or innovation, and I don’t see that. The contrived playfulness reads as a theatrical trick poorly implemented. This is mostly the director’s fault, though certainly any one of us could surprise her with something fresh and new–or outright defy her with something radically askew. I don’t think that’s going to happen. But, it is well enough, and until the audience speaks, we are sure of nothing.

The heat persists. The cats find cool places on the floor and flop on their backs, so their furry bellies are open to what breeze there is. First waterlily– again, gold–in the backyard tank. The native hibiscus blooms for the first time this season, a dark scarlet Nativity Star.

Devin and Arielle sent me a beautiful calligraphic version of my wedding poem, mounted on the double swan print from the Victoria & Albert. The box carried their new return address in Mineola, NY, sad and hopeful at once.

A little brown rabbit nibbles in my garden. When I watch, he nibbles but weeds and grass. Even if he fed on the flowers I would welcome my wild friend. I think the cats think he is another cat. He is much bigger than when I first spotted him this spring. He is my excuse for doing nothing about the tangle of vegetation on the front slope.


July 30, 2008

Received proofs for the postcard for my show at the Pump.

Chall is playing banjo for AYLI, so got to hang out with him for a while. Don’t ask me why there ARE banjos in AYLI. Repaired to the Usual after rehearsal, adding DJ to the mix. Devin and Arielle were having a going-away party, and I got to see many people I miss, or will miss soon. They remarked of their wedding pictures that I was "photogenic." First time I heard that. Had two drinks and woke with a roaring headache–must be the dehydration of summer.