PUGGY'S HILL

So we're walking home from the subway on Broadway (after the SFWA Reception, a.k.a. "Mill'n'Swill," at Planet Hollywood in Times Square - say no more! followed by drinks & many refills of the bread basket at Cafe Un, Deux, Trois), and cute young woman with a leather headband (whom I recognized from the subway platform at Times Sq.) runs up alongside us, saying, "Excuse me, madam, excuse me - Could I take your picture for my Fashion Blog?" So we stand on the sidewalk in front of Gourmet Garage and get our photos took, me in my long red boiled wool coat from Paris, Delia in her black velvet, arm in arm . . . . She asked if we were from here, and said she was from Mexico City. And ran off to join her friends.

I'll never find that fashion blog. But I'll cherish the moment.

Has it really been 5 days since I last posted? I guess so!

I have not been idle. I have been . . . rehearsing!

Here is the building on 72nd St where we have to rent rehearsal space because another group is using Vital's stage to rehearse another show: ( 72nd St )

It is on the 4th floor. There is no elevator. The highly-trained dancers probably don't even notice.

Here is choreographer Dax rehearsing the glorious Queen of Sheba (and yes, that's me in the mirror taking the picture):

( Dax & Sheba )

And here are all the Demons in full cry:



We did get back into Vital on Saturday afternoon, and ran the whole show. I did not trip making my entrance down the rather steep stairs of the center aisle. I remembered most of my lines. I still have no cape. But one is promised. I took many more photos . . . but clearly I just have to figure out how to put them all up on some photo serving device with captions for you, rather than painstakingly copying them shot by shot (and hiding them so they don't take up the whole page). Must do that soon. There are plenty more.

Today Dax taught the called-back actors some dance numbers. Here's photos! (More to come - I'm thinking of doing a whole "Klezmer Nutcracker: The Process" spread on my blog....)

Actors warming up in the Lobby( pic 1 )
Everyone's a Demon!( pic 2 )
Dax teaches Peacock moves( pic 3 )

We heard a few more readings, and are currently agonizing choices - well, Linda is. I'm staying out of it; I know my place. And I've had a chance to give my input.

Biking home through Riverside Park, I heard someone calling, "Hey, Ellen, how'd it go? Did you cast your show?"

I turned and saw our neighbors, a hugely nice Orthodox family with a little boy that live in our building. Apparently Delia had been talking with them on her way to meet me at the theater. I got off my bike, and walked with them the rest of the way back to our building, talking of this & that; then Delia (who'd stopped at Zabar's for a gift for the folks we're staying at in Amsterdam) caught up with us, and we got the mail.

Part of the fun of being back in NYC is being struck from time to time by the strange, curious or delightful sights that are a random part of living here. Since the last time I lived here (with the long Boston hiatus in between), I have learned just how transitory the everyday is, here in this great city. The New York I first lived (and wrote Swordspoint) in will not come again - and here I thought it was permanent. Resolved not to make the same mistake twice, I have harness the newly-discovered power of my cell phone camera to seize the moments that pass me on the street.

( Here's one. )