Boy, did it get sultry all of a sudden!

On 1 June, like flipping a switch, it was suddenly thick and hot, and yesterday it was the same until I was thinking that we're screwed until September, but then there was a torrential downpour last night, and now it's warm and lovely and not too humid just in time for the weekend.

Certainly the last thing that I expected!

So last night was my third rehearsal for The Boor Hug, and the first with Al, or it would have been had he showed up.

He called the director's machine to explain his extreme lostness, naming a street that he wasn't supposed to be on that is miles away from the one that he was supposed to be on, and had he rang the rehearsal space we could have explained where he should be, but he didn't so we couldn't.

The others, who don't know Al, were complaining that he must be a complete moron to have gotten it so wrong and not to have called the right number, but since I A, know him and B, would usually be the one to get lost and bring the wrong phone number, did not condemn him.

It would be the pot calling the kettle lost.

So, after arguing about movies for awhile, we gave up on him and read it again. I opened a magazine to read during the long stretches where I am not onstage, which is somewhat rude, but I just can't sit and listen to it again, particularly when the female director is reading in the male lead.

Everyone still laughs like drains at all of my lines, including me at times. I'm really going to have to get used to not laughing the twelfth time I do a certain bit. The first eleven I can hold it back, but it's just so silly that I can't help myself.

It really is one of those bring-down-the-house roles, and I don't even have to be particularly good for it to be so!

And afterwards, I say with no shame and my head held high, I went to see Gladiator again. Don't you judge me!

I love seeing something over and over (something that I want to see, that is, not Winnie the Pooh's Pooh Party or Barney's Big Stupid Adventure), because you can savour things and notice things and take pleasure in things in a way that you don't the first time around. And I don't mean Russell's upper arms. Okay, I don't only mean Russell's upper arms.

Of course, he was all blood and brawn and armpit hair and eyes dark green as pine needles and emotions roiling beneath the surface in a terribly attractive way, I'm not saying that he wasn't, but there was also Oliver Reed's powerful performance, reminding me why I had such a crush on him when I was a child (see Tommy and Oliver!), he always had this air of danger that hadn't lessened one bit with the passage of thirty years.

With repetition, I have really come to appreciate Djimon Hounsou's subtle and strong performance, (I really must catch Amistad one of these days), and of course there isn't anything like enough Richard Harris, and Derek Jacobi shows how much you can do with very little. And that big German doesn't have much actual acting to do, but what he does he does surprisingly well for a bodybuilder. He also has a sweetness to him that is quite engaging.

But mostly I listened to the accents. I mean, it's my thing, I can't help it, I just love appreciating good ones and tearing apart bad ones. And finding tiny flaws in the good ones as well. I heard Russell's natural Australian peep out just twice, so small that I never heard it before--once on the word "like", that "I" being a very typical Australian sound, coupled with that dark, curled "L", and the other one I have forgotten, but it was with that "L" again.

O yeah, amusingly, it was the word "Gladiator".

Connie Nielsen's accent is extremely good, though when I heard her for the first time I could tell that it wasn't natural--she is, of course, Danish, but I didn't know that the first time I heard her. This time through I would occasionally hear that Danish "S" and a couple of other things, but so fleeting that it really does take multiple listenings to identify.

Joaquin Phoenix, on the other hand, makes my ears bleed. It's almost unlistenable as far as I'm concerned--in fact, for him I only heard two good sounds, once was when he said "Always" and once "If you're very good," and they both were spot on, but five words out of a thousand isn't much of a of a ratio. I can't blame the dialect coach, though, as I have certainly taught my share of people who cannot learn. I'm sure that she's saying to people "You should have heard him before I taught him!"

Okay, what's the last film that you were obsessed with enough to see multiple times in the theatre and why?

Are they all going to be pop culture questions? Well, probably not, but those sure are the fun ones!

So, I have realized the problem with a forum--it's that people don't email you anymore, they just answer the forum question, which is certainly great, unless you, well, change your journal title!!

I mean, I realize that the front page doesn't look much different, and that this whole thing is probably a bigger deal to me than to anyone else, but:

C'mon guys, what do you think of the new name?

Today's horoscope:
Family and friends want to play with you today. Find activities everyone can enjoy. A blend of the familiar and new works well.

One year ago today:
"Well, I'm almost certain that he was planning on..."

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Last Updated Fri 3 June 12:55:09 2000