Let there be music!

Aah, the joys of being able to irritate my colleagues with showtunes again. Decided to break the three-week music drought with the "Violet" cast recording (blind pick from the CDs I've been gloomily staring at for the last 21 days). We'll see what's to follow, but I'm leaning towards the Rush albums in preparation of catching 'em twice in August... The Lovely Wife(tm) is not so much of a prog-rock fan, so I've gotta get my Geddy fix at work ("Gotta get my Geddy?" Try saying that one five times fast...).

Natalie Douglas is reprising her Nina Simone show at Birdland... considering how much I loved it last time, I'm planning on being front and center for this one. August 9th at Birdland... Be there, and weep that no-talent idiots can make millions while one of the most amazing voices out there is still unknown.

Most exciting news of the day: I might be getting off the schedule-from-hell soon... one co-worker wants to work the Saturday midnights this rotation, and I might be up for a new position which works Monday-Friday (what a strange-looking work week... I haven't had Sundays off in about eight months). On the one hand, I'll miss getting all my shopping and shlepping done on Monday (no lines anywhere!), but it'll be nice trying to fit into the rest of humanity's schedule, particularly that of TLW(tm).

You say you want a resolution...

*sigh* nothing much happens when you can't see a show, I guess... the whole three weeks thing is certainly getting us down. Must be affecting the Mets, too...

Trying to take advantage of the show hiatus and straighten chez efrex out a little bit. This month's project is the living room, with furniture to get rid of and more to put in. This is, of course, shocking for those who know us, but we need more bookshelf space, and our poor secondhand jobbies just ain't up to the task. New Jersey, here we come!

At the same time, it's time to start ratcheting up the ol' weight loss program. I'm really and truly tired of my clothes not fitting me right, and there's just no excuse for not getting out and doing more. I don't think I'll be climbing for a little while (can't fit into my harness, not looking to drop a few hundred bucks on a new one, and I suspect that my joints would appreciate not being stressed to the snapping point) , but a quick run at the gym might not be amiss.

Congrats to The Lovely Wife(tm) for getting her first bingo in a Scrabble game against me. I still won (a bingo with EARSHOT, and my biggest non-bingo play to date,  75 points with EXACTA, managed to get me ahead to stay), but she's gonna be kicking my you-know-what pretty soon.

Oh, give a prayer for our friend M (tova rina bat sara), going through chemo for breast cancer. Get well soon.

Boy got Back (Problems)

Oof, oof, oof: threw out my back doing laundry yesterday, and am still feeling the aftershocks. Staggering in to work this morning through a monsoon was all kinds of not fun. One bright spot was my purchase yesterday of the dish rack to end all dish racks. When having more space to dry your dishes is a major highlight, you know life is getting pretty boring. Well, with the "three weeks" in full swing, whattaya expect? Missed Natalie Douglas's show at the Iridium, the new Cast Party at Birdland, and Assassins... yech!

NY Times magazine this week has a cover story on graphic novels. Not the best written piece, IMHO, and when you relegate Neil Gaiman and the "Sandman" phenomenon to a single sentence towards the end, you're not really keeping up with my interests. The most general point, that there's some really good things happening in the graphic novel genre, is one worth making, however. DC's Vertigo imprint alone has produced some excellent series. Now, if they'd hurry up with the new "Fables" trade paperback already: it's bad enough that I'm buying individual "Lucifer" comics, and let's get something straight: comics suck. Having to wait a month for ten pages of story sucks, paying for an equal number of pages of advertising for products I couldn't care less about sucks, having to take care of them so they don't completely fall apart on you sucks. If only Mike Carey and Bill Willingham weren't such !@#$$@ compelling writers.