Picasso at the Lapin Agile

I have been busy this last week. Our play opened last Thursday and we have been very much in rehearsals. So far it has gone well--lots of laughs, no major goof-ups. One night a gel (colored filter in a metal frame) fell off one of the lights and landed a couple of feet from one of the actors. He just looked over at it, said, "Hmph" and went on with his lines. The show must go on.

The photo is of some of the cast. The characters are, from left to right, Picasso, Schmendiman, Suzanne, Einstein, and Sagot. The set for this turned out fabulous, especially a five foot square copy of Les Demoiselles D'Avignon that was painted by an art teacher here. She did an amazing job and the cast sometimes just stands in front of it gawking. I will try to get a decent picture this week. We close on Saturday. Yesterday (Saturday 29th) one of the people in the audience was a cousin of Steve Martin (who wrote the play). He lives in Big Flat City south of us, had never seen the play, and decided to come up for the show. That was kind of cool.

The play has a lot of laughs, some immediate, some what the play itself refers to as "icebox laughs"--when you don't get the joke until an hour later when you are standing in front of the icebox. It has some poignant moments, too, when the actors are discussing art. The script reveals Martin's love for great artwork.

I am looking forward to four free nights before our next performance. If you are in Fake Cow Town this weekend, make plans to see the show.

The snacks worked!

At the suggestion of Mindy, I set out some peanut butter AND tortilla chips on the deck to see if the Mindybird would be attracted to it. Then I sat with my camera on a tripod and waited. And waited. And waited. Good thing I brought along a couple of crossword puzzles. Then it happened--the Mindybird flew to the railing and eyed the snacks. She looked me over carefully then dropped to the deck floor. I was able to get this photo before she snatched a chip and took off. Amiable little critter, but kind of shy.

Quit flittin' around!

The Mindybird has been out and about, but of course, when I see her, I don't have my camera at hand. I will try putting out some croissant pieces, maybe with a nice raspberry jam, and have my camera ready. Be patient--this could take a while. By the way, she is very colorful and flies extremely fast.

New sighting

Well, I didn't expect the birdhouse to attract a resident so quickly. Looks like we have a Mindybird living on the north side.

Mystified

Something odd occurred this last week. I posted a notice about SpookyRach and Jonboy. That's not the odd part. What was strange to me was the fact that several people commented on that posting who have never ever commented on my blogsite before. So that appears to mean that there are more-or-less regular readers of this blog who never comment. OK, just this one time, would everyone who reads this leave a comment, even if it is just to say "Hi"? And if there is something that would engage you more in my postings, let me know. (We used to play games here, but it has been a while.)


Here's the latest project: a multi-room birdhouse. Cat kept placing pages torn from magazines in spots where I would find them, pages with pictures of birdhouses. Doesn't take me long to get the hint--only several months. So I built this six-room house with a screen floor (for easier cleaning). At first I used old license plates for the roof, but that looked pretty tacky. The final material was left over from a kiddie swimming pool at least 40 years old.


I dug a hole, poured in concrete, and plumbed the pole yesterday. All that left was mounting the birdhouse this afternoon. We will see if the birds like it. I tried to keep it out of range of the squirrels.

Here's another project. On Tuesday of last week I was asked to be in a play ("Picasso at the Lapin Agile" by Steve Martin) here at the university in Fake Cow Town. The role is that of a French art dealer during the beginning of the twentieth century. How could I say "no"? The play opens the last weekend of THIS MONTH, however, so there's a lot of work ahead. By the way, we are still looking for an actor to play the part of Elvis, so if you know of anyone . . .

Doing better, it seems

Rachel and Jon's dad seems to be on the mend. Check out Rachel's blogsite for a commentary. She's funny even in a crisis.

Prayers for fellow bloggers

Most of you know SpookyRach and Jonboy; well, heck, ALL of you know her. Rachel and Jon's mother is so severely crippled that their father must devote a considerable number of hours a day caring for her. Well, he has just been diagnosed with heart trouble and will need bypass surgery immediately. So not only do Rachel and Jon need to be concerned about their father's wellbeing, but about their mom while he is not at home to take care of her. If you are the praying sort, please pray for Alvin and Cathy as well as Rachel and Jon and their families. Thanks.