Viva Las Vegas?

Okay, time to make a confession. I have a little bit of a crush on Las Vegas. Strange? Very. Vegas is a dirty city (literally and figuratively), stands for nearly every morally reprehensible practice on earth, and it is terribly and completely fake. Everything is garish and overdone. Things like the Eiffel Tower and Empire State Building are more tacky than interesting and let's not forget the giant, ugly pyramid and the MGM Lion.

Why do I like Vegas? I don't know. I don't gamble, smoke, drink, or have illicit sexual relations with strangers . . . why should I like Vegas? I enjoy walking around on the Strip and I love the mosaics in the Bellagio. I adore the Bellagio fountains. They are definitely my favorite part of the entire city. Freemont Street is great. I love the lights of Vegas. Even though most of the lighted signs aren't particularly beautiful, they make the Strip is full of light . . . which is an interesting juxtaposition of ideas when compared to what goes on there.

I suppose the main reason I like Vegas is because I only have good memories of it. I've spent time there with family, friends, and have always enjoyed myself.

Anyway, I went there for Thanksgiving to see my brother and his family. It was great. I love my brother very much and his son, Caleb, is pretty much the most adorable baby I've ever met. They'll be in Astoria at the beginning of January you'd like to meet him.

Tennessee

I have decided that I absolutely love Tennessee Williams. Before I get rotten fruit thrown at me, I will admit that The Rose Tattoo was VERY long and mostly boring. It wasn't his best work.

I have loved Cat On A Hot Tin Roof from the first time I saw the film and have loved reading it several times since then. There are so many plays that I am longing to read! Sweet Bird Of Youth and Suddenly, Last Summer to name a couple. I love the style in which Tennessee Williams writes---I understand why actors and directors don't like his detailed script notes, but I simply can't get enough . . . it reads so well. I love how he envisions and portrays an entire world in his plays and not just the speech of the characters.

I am writing a paper on his Orpheus Descending which I just read for the purpose of the rough draft of this paper. I love it. It's creepy how much I love it, considering the subject matter and the ending. I suppose it is similar to my thing with the Sunset Boulevard musical. Beautiful tragedy.

I also adore his name. Tennessee.

While we're on the topic, I shall take this time to publicly declare my stage name to be Tuesday. Jessi and I had a conversation about this a while ago, and it was determined that should I ever make it to New York, my name will be Tuesday. Feel free to address me as so.

oklahoma self portrait

Oklahoma! has mostly been consuming my life . . . (this sounds mildly similar to the beginning of my last post) . . . and I've been trying to balance it with schoolwork. I have been moderately successful, I think. My dramatic literature professor asked for a digital copy of one of my papers to use as an example, so that's good news. I saw Dear Frankie last night for my film class and really enjoyed it. I wrote a pretty stellar response to it for class---so I'm feeling good about that. I said the prayer in German class today (in German, obviously) and my professor said my pronunciation was right on. So, things school-wise are going well . . . until all my research papers hit the forefront.

Today, we had a lovely set/painting tech meeting for Oklahoma! for which EVERYONE came. It's been insane to try to organize our schedules for meetings and today we had one on the fly. The director, lighting designer, costume designer, technical director, and stage manager all made it. Well, and the scenic designer and scenic painter came too. (And, she was glad to be missing the last half hour of her acting class to be there.) Anyway, I have been working on a mock-up this week of what the set will be painted like and we looked at it underneath some theatrical lighting. Everyone liked it. Hallelujah! I'm very glad for that. I think the happiness I feel from success at work is a sure sign of workaholism.