So Much to Talk About, So Little to Say.  I haven't posted in a long time for several reasons.  As part of my comedy writing exercises, I've been journaling every morning even before I get out of bed, so many of the therapeutic benefits I previously got from the blog have transferred to the journaling. In trying to come up with material for the comedy act, I have been forced to look inside myself for issues, quirks and things that bug me.  This has brought up waaay more emotional stuff than I ever expected, and just acknowledging some of this stuff is very difficult.   Then, after acknowledging it, I have to think of something funny about it. Don't kid yourself, comedy is hard! I think I'm coming up with some decent stuff, though, and while it isn't gushing out of me like a fountain, I'm coming up with one or two decent ideas a day.  I am slowly organizing and cataloging it, and hope to be able to run some stuff by friends in a day or two.  I also have been dealing with another relationship disaster which is almost an exact repeat of something that went on two months ago.  Again, I failed to follow my true desires, let my ego do too much of my thinking, assumed way too much, and basically made a botch of things again.  This time I think I got the lesson, or at least some of it.  I am AGAIN refocusing, really making an effort to let go of some things that I mistakenly thought I had already let go, and vowing this: to only invest emotional energy in those things and desires that truly make me happy and fulfilled.   
 
Social Notes.  Some of the entertaining things I've done lately:
Saturday night at Elena Gallegos Open Space. This was about two weeks ago, and sounds about as fun as a root canal, but turned into a remarkably pleasant evening. The singles group went up there to have a light picnic dinner, and afterwards we listened to a great woodwind quintet called the Worldwind Quintet.  They played a lot of offbeat pieces and were quite fun and informal.  Afterwards, we had a very pleasant walk out to the wildlife viewing area.  Something tells me that this whole area isn't as well known as it should be.  Very beautiful and relaxing out there. 
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.  It ain't high art, but it is one of the silliest and funniest movies I've seen in an awfully long time.  This often surreal, sometimes Monty Python like goof-fest is a pure joy.  It captures a by-gone era of TV news anyone over 40 is familiar with, and features Will Ferrell's break out performance.  A classic lovable moron if ever there was one.  Great cameos from the likes of Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Vince Vaughan, Tim Robbins, and Fred Willard. Very funny and highly recommended.
Big Fish. Finally saw this on DVD and enjoyed it immensely.  This tale of a man trying to mend a strained relationship with his story telling father is touching, funny, often surreal and sometimes just weird, but certainly different.  It's probably Tim Burton's most normal movie, but that doesn't mean it actually is normal. Recommended for those looking for something unusual.  Also, this might hold the record for number of British actors doing Southern dialects, but that's okay.
The Santa Fe Opera: Agrippina.  I cleaned up real good last Saturday, put on a tie and went with a group of friends from church to see this obscure Handel opera.  Haven't been to the opera in over ten years, so I was really looking forward to this.  We did the whole thing, the fancy tailgating dinner complete with tablecloths, flowers in vases, plenty of wine, and the works. About an hour before the opera, the clouds came up and the rains started, slowly.  By showtime, the thunder in the distance was spectacular (the opera is covered, but open air on the sides). It got very cold and Sue and I were glad we brought a blanket.  The opera itself was a delightful comic opera, with the usual slamming doors, conniving and plot twists and turns.  It was set in Roman times and dealt with Agrippina's attempts to place her son Nero on the Roman throne. Oddly, the costumes were a bizarre mix of time periods and the set design was innovative, but minimal.  The singing, performances, music, plot and comedy were all fantastic and though the middle act dragged a bit, it was a wonderful experience. We finally made it back to Albuquerque at 2:00 am.  I did all this on only about 3 hours sleep this previous evening. I was actually in a good mood the next day too!Thanks Sheryl, for organizing all this. 
Friends, planes, and rain. I went to pick Sue up from the airport last Friday, and man, did I get an adventure. Sue was coming back from doing her research in Venezuela, and I was supposed to get her at 5:40 pm.  I thought "no big, deal I'll leave at 5:00, allowing for extra heavy rush hour traffic, should get there right on time." Wrongo, monkey boy. It rained heavily at about 4:30, but usually the rain evaporates almost immediately around here. Not this time. Heavy rains shut down the railroad at Broadway, so I went down 2nd street to Gibson.  Rains had washed away a lot of the construction on Gibson, and caused mud and potholes.  Gibson was closed from about the freeway to Yale. So, I backtracked to Cesar Chavez, and decided to go up Yale to the airport. So did everyone else in town.  It took me 30 minutes to get from Cesar Chavez to Gibson!  By this time it was 6:20!  An hour and 20 minutes to get to the airport.  I figured by this time, Sue had taken a taxi home.  Luckily, I walked in the baggage claim area, and there she was waiting at the carousel.  We went to eat some Mexican food, she filled me in on her trip and I vented about my personal relationship problems.  She helped me to process the situation, and I felt much better. Thanks Sue, for being a great friend.
 

What's So Dang Funny? Still immersed in molding myself for stand up comedy stardom. I've been reading three different books on the subject, with Judy Carter's The Stand-Up Comedy Book and The Comedy Bibleproviding the best guidance so far. I'm working on things like topics and attitudes. Still no actual jokes or routines yet. I went out last night to O'Neill's Uptown to check out their weekly Open Mike comedy show. Sadly there seemed to be more comics there than patrons, but it was an eye-opener. There were 8 comics, two who were fantastic, two who were good and the rest were pretty weak. Starting off the night was Alpine Bob, who is celebrating his 25th year of performing comedy in the Duke City. Bob walked among the patrons, and told jokes face to face without a mike rather than taking the stage. I found this very refreshing, and he had a couple good ones about Alzhiemer's disease. The two best comics were Dana Golberg and a very young kid who went by the name Rusty Rhymes. Dana was a lesbian comedian who really had her attitude, stage presence and acting out abilities honed to perfection. She had some really funny and original stuff, especially what it was like for a lesbian to shop at Chick's Harley Davidson. Turns out she's reasonably famous and has her own talk show! Rusty was a very young guy sort of doing a spit-take on Eminem, as a white rapper without a clue. He definitely had the comedy "look" and had his attitude and persona nailed. Very clever and totally original. I would seek both of these people out again. As for the others, most were strictly amateur, but that's okay. They all share the same dream as mine, and I will be up there someday soon, honing my act. I was good to be able to analyze the acts and get an idea of what people were doing both right and wrong. I was surprised to learn that last night was the third anniversary of the Monday night open mike at O'Neill's! I plan on coming to this event often and getting to know some of these folks. A very educational and inspiring experience.

My Grandma on Crack. The disappointing normalness of the Indigo Girls show was shattered to pieces by the utter unreality of Saturday evening's entertainment. I went with Karen, Barbara and Wendy to the Sizzlin' Summerfest "Country Night" show at Civic Plaza featuring Karen's dreamboat, Syd Masters and the Swing Riders, Lynn Anderson of "Rose Garden" fame and cowboy singer and Taos resident Michael Martin Murphey.
The show started well, with Syd and the Swing Riders singing about 5-6 of their best originals, then Lynn Anderson came out and my brain started to melt! Lynn, who the All Music Guide claims is only 57, but looks 77, has a speaking voice and a laugh that makes Phyllis Diller sound like Dame Judy Dench. She was loud, obnoxious, and possibly drunk. She was trying waaaay too hard to be funny and personable, and she talked way too much about her life in Albuquerque (she lives here now) and the "good old days." She roamed about the stage, constantly lifting up her dress to show off her legs, which were patently unspectacular, and frequently pinched various Swing Rider bottoms. She sang mostly bad sixties pop songs backed by Syd and the Swing Riders, and screwed up the lyrics of her big hit "Rose Garden." She even dragged three guys on stage to line dance with her. This bit was marginally entertaining. The whole experience was generally pathetic. The best part was how Syd seemed to force a big ol' goofy grin on his face through the whole debacle, obviously just thinking of his paycheck! The experience was so painful, Barbara and I got up and walked around the perimeter for awhile to avoid fainting from the horror of it all. It was definitely like watching your grandma on crack.
The second most annoying thing about the evening was the announcer, who was obviously some Parks and rec flunky who volunteered for the job. He came up between acts to plug other city events and had the habit of injecting false enthusiasm into everything by elongating all the words at the end of a sentence. After everything he kept repeating Well, ALLRIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGHTTTT! This got under my skin at the second go 'round and it lodged itself in my brain so deeply, I heard it in my sleep.
Finally Michael Martin Murphey took the stage and things were almost normal. I liked when he said there were only two types of music; country and western, and he divided the show between the two types. For my money he could have spent more time on the western, but he did sing a few favorites. He managed a cheap comment about John Kerry, and gave a short lecture on the right to keep and bear arms and defend one's property. The political comments were unnecessary and unfortunate, but musically he was excellent, and his band was very, very good. The show ended with "Wildfire" and an encore, but we decided to skip the final song and hop back on the park and ride bus as it was getting late. Oh, City officials, the park and ride deal was great, thank you!

So this is the isle of Lesbos, huh? What do you gals do for fun around here on a Friday night? Apparently, they all go to the last Friday's Indigo Girls concert at the zoo. The crowd was about 70% women, with maybe 75% of them possibly of the Sapphic persuasion. This is an estimate made based on the bad haircuts, painters pants and the amount of female to female touching and rubbing going on. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you. The show was sold out, and there was the usual waiting forever in long lines to get in the place, but it was an amazingly mellow and pleasant affair. Must have been the difference between all the estrogen vs. the Latino testosterone of the Los Lonely Boys show. Yes, there was much alcohol consumption, but not as much excess, and no fights or disputes.
As for the show it was okay to good. There was an unannounced opening act, Skip or Stu or Stan somebody, who came out and angrily strummed his guitar and sang far too serious folk songs. I did recognize one song from hearing it on KBAC, so he must have been somewhat famous. The Girls were good, but I had the same complaint Karen did: either due to poor diction or poor mike-ing, you couldn't make out what they said or sang at least half the time. Also, most of the Girls songs had a "same-ness" about them, even though I really like that general sound.

Soul with a Capital "S". I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Myself, I had a truly spectacular one. I really wanted a holiday filled with barbecue, music and fireworks, and I got all my wishes!
Sheryl and I made a mad dash up to a trailer park on the outskirts of Santa Fe to pop into a little barbecue party held by some friends of Sheryl's sister and brother-in-law. Great food, good folks, but we kinda had to wolf it down, as the party started at 6:30, and we had to be back in Albuquerque at 8 pm for the Tower of Power concert at Sandia Casino. For those that don't know Santa Fe and Albuquerque are about 45 minutes apart.
I didn't really want to leave all the delicious food so quickly, but I reluctantly did, and pretty much ignored the speed limit to get back to Albuquerque on time. We picked up the tickets at the box office before we left for Santa Fe, and got to hear a bit of the sound check, and we liked it so much, we did not want to miss a second of the show.
We got there just in the nick of time, to hear one of my favorite ToP songs, Soul with a Capital "S". That's what this group is all about. Formed 36 years ago and still featuring 3 original members, the 10 piece band is one of the greatest in R & B history. Everyone has heard about the ToP horn section, and they did not disappoint. The current lead singer, Larry Braggs, puts all previous ToP singers to shame. Charismatic, energetic and with great range and emotional power, this guy was phenomenal. Sheryl and I started dancing about 4 songs into the show, and stayed on our feet still the end, save a couple of breaks to recharge our batteries. That lady can dance, high heels and all! I missed ToP's visit last year, and I am so glad I caught them this year.
Don't miss them if they come back again! Sheryl was not familiar with them, save for hearing a best of album I gave her, and she loved the show, and said she wouldn't question my musical opinions after this. Thanks, ToP for living up to the hype!
Oh, there was also a great fireworks show after the concert. Only one quibble about Sandia Casino: They wouldn't let Sheryl bring her water bottle into the amphitheatre. Obviously so she'd have to buy some of their $4 water. When we tried to, we were told that all the cash registers were down and they couldn't conduct business. Way to foster good feelings, Sandia.
Comics and Comic Books. Just like last year, I'm totally addicted to that cheesy reality show Last Comic Standing. Tonight's episode was great. They had to do an old fashioned Friar's roast, and Rich Little Norm Crosby and Phyllis Diller were the judges. The cro-mangnon comic Jay London was the roastee and, in a twist, the winner of the roast judging didn't get immunity from a stand-up challenge, Jay did. The bald black guy Alonzo was great in the roast. Ant, the conniving gay guy, set everyone against Gary Gulman, the tall good looking straight guy, and Gary chose to challenge Ant, sort of as revenge for the conniving and for getting Todd Glass booted off last week. Well, hooray,
Ant lost! Ant claimed he wasn't the mastermind of the alliance after he left. How stupid is all this? Why do I care? Well, it is very stupid, but it gives some insight into the comic personality, and I also get to study what separates the good comics from the bad. My favorite comics so far are Jay London, John Heffron and Alonzo Bodden. Jay is in a class by himself, maybe even a species by himself.
As for the comic books, I saw both Spiderman 2 and Hellboy this weekend. Spiderman was great, but the sequel is clearly the greatest superhero movie ever made. It captured beautifully all the melodrama and moral and emotional complexities that made the original comic books so impactful on my life. Also, Doc Ock is the best of all Spidey villains, and Alfred Molina was terrific in the role. Roger Ebert called the film the Gone with the Wind of superhero flicks, and I couldn't agree more. See it now! Even if you hate superhero movies, you will like it. Hellboy on the other hand, was colorful, clever and funny, and had a great performance by Ron Perlman, but had no real emotional depth, certainly compared to S2. It just kinda left me cold.