Going for it

So this afternoon I let myself get talked into auditioning tonight for a show at Theatre Cedar Rapids that I knew virtually nothing about. And after a quick read-through of the Wikipedia synopsis and an obligatory shot of the theater’s gorgeous façade, I went in to give the least-prepared audition of my extremely short non-musical career. I couldn’t fall back on my graceful port de bras or my mad tapping skillz to mask my woeful uncertainties about my plain-old acting skills, so I just dove in and did whatever occurred to me to do in my cold readings ... and I left feeling pretty confident that at the very least I got in some solid auditioning practice. And I’ll know in 12 hours if I got anything more than just practice.

#WeirdStuffICollectOnMyPhone

Cedar Rapids public radio has distressingly meager music offerings on a Saturday afternoon:

88.3: A meandery improvisational jazz combo featuring a dyspeptic saxophone, a trumpeter who has recently discovered how to triple-tongue relentlessly for 36 relentless measures relentlessly, a keyboardist who’s clearly terrified to improvise beyond a dotted-quarter/eighth/dotted-quarter/eighth rhythm, and more dyspeptic saxophone to mask the trumpeter’s tongue-surgery screams

91.7: That one opera where heartbreaking circumstances propel a bunch of people with vibratos tall enough to drive a truck through into a labyrinth of unrequited love, totally plausible misunderstandings, a silly song sung by a person in a ridiculous hat, a fully staged ballet that acts as an Artful Metaphor for people who need to have plot points re-explained to them by waifish women in tulle and high (or low, depending on the contextual emotional-continuum level of anguish) hair buns, atonal recitative that it a totally productive replacement for Earnest Dialogue, three totally plausible deaths, and an emotionally triumphant High C Of Self Actualization

90.9: WHAT THE HELL IS THAT HILLBILLY-ASS NOISE YOU’RE PLAYING?

Fortunately, I now have the Amazon Music app on my phone so I can dig that beat, stomp my feet, dig be-bop and never stop down in Birdland whenever the need arises. Yes, indeed I do.

Looks like someone had a rough night of arabesqueing dans le rue

I can relate to rough nights. This is the second time I’ve had to get up to pee. But I’m checking my phone with only one eye open so I’m still technically at least half asleep, dans le lit.