mr. frank? happy memorial day.

memorial day is one of my favorite holidays for so many reasons.

1.) imprompteques. the technical definition of an imprompteque is an impromptu barbeque. (melissa hammans is the reigning queen of the imprompteque.) trust, you will always receive ample notice, but the relaxed feel of the gathering always gave you the impression of "oh, this ol thing/these people/this beautifully displayed spread including veggie/hummus/cheese tray/spin dip? i just threw this together. (cue: laughter, hair toss, and a wine refill.)" i probably just felt that way because of the casual nature of the gathering and the warmth with which i was always received. (love you, mah.)

1a.) there was one year when the memorial day cookout at 22-19 was wild. everyone was rip-roarin' retarded, and it was amazing. i remember one james jackson, jr. just leaving because there was nothing else he could do. it was at that time i found out i booked hong kong disneyland, and i'm pretty sure all i did was scream and throw my phone. i think the next year was slightly more tame. white wine spritzers were happening (minus the tequila chaser.) there was definitely a late night conversation equating pork rinds and the smell of pullout. i won't say any names because i'd rather walk a mile on mine own lips... i digress. where was i? yes.

2.) daydrinking. please give me a cold drink (or 8) while the sun is out. there's something so exciting/naughty about drinking when you could potentially be at work, an audition, or anything that involves "business hours". i swear the sun only intensifies the intoxication and raises the alcohol content of that bud light.

3.) grilled meats. i. love. a. grilled. meat!! chicken. hamburger. steak! sign me up for a little bit of everything. professionals will marinade their chicken breasts or pre-season their beef patties to make sure their meat is "working" before it hits the grill. since my kitchen is used for storage and recycling plastic bags and take-out boxes, i'm always the guy stopping off at the grocery store en route to the party to pick up a box of burgers, some nice kraft singles, and some soft burger buns (as opposed to the hard ones!) fear not. a few dashes of lawry's, cayenne, and lemon pepper, and that boxed burger patty will taste like delicately seasoned kobe beef after it's come off of the grill. (i assure you the case of bud light i've picked up with burgers have zero effect on the taste.)

4.) weather transition. memorial day marks the beginning of summer, regardless of the temperature. growing up, public pools opened memorial day. school was almost over. now that i'm an adult, it means it's the beginning of summer in nyc. the city will be less-crowded on the weekends because those with the means to do so will be heading anywhere from fire island to the hamptons to jersey shore to provincetown to where'er. the energy changes, i break out my jean cut-offs, and my skinnier comrades in arms bust out their tanks tops and low-cut blouses. win/win, if you ask me.

in closing, i hope you celebrate memorial day in the most festive and relaxing way you can think of. i'll be in rehearsal.

(james, melissa, and me. memorial day 2k8.)

inspiration

i came across this video of my friend, sam turner, KILLING this combination. laurie ann gibson would be proud.

starbucks fail

my friend, steph, loves starbucks. before work, after work, mid evening, whatever. she pops into a starbucks, places her order with the cashier, cashier takes her name, barista makes the order, steph gets her drink, she goes on her way. easy enough, right? hell no. her name always gets lost in translation somewhere. steph is not a difficult name. i'd bet a few sheckles that somewhere in the starbucks training manual is a chapter on how to royally eff up a customer's name, and "steph" is the textbook example. she's been called everything under the sun, and thanks to the modern convenience of a mobile upload, she shares her daily starbucks fails with the rest of us via the facebook. she's taken her misfortunes (and our daily entertainment) and turned it into a blog called "what's my name starbucks". i'm featured in this piece of work, and once i return to nyc and my cravings for venti sweetened iced green teas increase, i'm sure i'll have more contributions to her blog. i can't wait!

http://www.whatsmynamestarbucks.blogspot.com

happy mother's day.

israel is starting to shape up for me, thank God. thanks to an unexpected afternoon off of rehearsal last friday, i went with a few friends to rehovot for lunch. freedom? sunny skies? real food? hell to the yes, bobby. after an amazing lunch pre-fixe at a delicious restaurant followed by some delicious dessert, we went back to our lovely youth village to gear up for our excursion.

saturday morning, we headed to masada. stunning. beautiful. amazing. mountains. desert. sunshine. farmer's tan. all of these things happened while i got to experience something that was so much larger than myself. something that was so stunning that all i could so was take picture after picture after picture and try not get frustrated with my camera. my beautiful, black canon 1400sd powershot takes amazing pictures, but there was no one she would be able to capture all the beauty i saw. check out my photo album here. we left masada, had some average lunch at the israeli equivalent of a rest stop and proceeded on the dead sea. again, no words. lowest point of the earth. salt. stunning. don't drink the water. float. live. be.

back to my pretty little powershot: i love her. so much. taking photos this weekend reminded me how much i love traveling and taking pictures. it brings me such joy to capture these stunning, amazing images for the purpose of making memories, but maybe i can expose someone to an something they might not know exists. i'd love to get a nice big boy camera and work it out. stay tuned.

speaking of a stunning image, get into my (girl)friend nikka's blog: showgirl godzilla. she's beautiful and working it out. hope you enjoy it like it do.

shalom.

who are you foolin'

ANDRE LEON TALLEY, THE JIG IS UP!

im here.

i made it to israel in one piece. we have spotty internets, so i cant upload photos the way i would like. pray for my sanity.

peaches.

this is giving me life today. this is a performance of nina simone's "four women" from BET's black girls rock concert. get into kelly price, marsha ambrosius, jill scott, and ledisi.

little 5 realness

the little 500 is a legendary bicycle race that takes place on the beautiful campus of best college ever, Indiana University. (my opinion is not only biased, it's correct.) fraternities, sororities, campus groups, and non-university groups (called "cutters") form cycling teams and endure rigorous year-long training to compete in this bicycle race. the races are the backbone for parties, alumni reunions, day drinking, performances from your IU a cappella groups during the national anthem, day drinking, me skipping F250 one day my junior year to day drink before singing the national anthem house parties, barbecues, day drinking, and coincidentally, the performance week of the mainstage theatre's spring production. (imagine going to support your roommate and friends in sweeney todd. 8pm curtain + an 10am drinking calltime dont mix very well. trust me.)

some brilliant mastermind writer for the IDS (indiana daily student) designed this lovely, informative, and fucking hilarious venn diagram (who loves a venn diagram) about little 5 week. take a look. the shit is bananas!

http://larrybuch.com/little5/venndiagrams.html

bloggin' hiatus

sorry to have left you. i went on a light blogging hiatus, but i'm black in action with new adventures and tales.

i'm heading to israel in a week and a half to begin rehearsing a new show. during my six week stay, i'll be located in the village of ayanot which is very close to tel aviv. tel aviv looks stunning, and i've always wanted to travel to this part of the world! win/win, if you ask me. the best part of this adventure is that after the six week rehearsal period, i'll be returning to nyc to be performing off-broadway!! (work!) until april 26th, i'll be working (gotta make that money), seeing shows, and trying to spend time with my nearest and dearest.

dickhead

this is for anyone who knows or is a dickhead. all are affected.

http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2010/09/10

twosday

tuesday, we had a "we're not working so let's sensibly drink at southwest porch in bryant park". i brought my camera along and took a few photos.

marie and liz

kami graves, thanking justin timberlake for all he's done for us.
me and liz.
jim and bradley d. gale
liz, cool in blue.

monday.

monday we said goodbye to one of our greats. my little sister, bestie, and partner-in-crime, semhar, left for arena stage in washington, dc. thanks to arena stage, they're putting blacks on the frontier to tumble, brisse, and say "yee-haw" in their new production of "oklahoma." while we were sitting at lunch, whitney booked a christmas casino tour. woohoo! my showgirl is back in action. i just hope the booking spirit stays in the family for me and jason.

can you see all four of the blackberrys (blackberries?) on the table that were lighting the entire time? gotta love black-tivity. *blacktivity: alerts on your blackberry. i.e: texts, emails, voicemails, missed calls, etc. jason and sem (below) share a dramatic goodbye.

after a rather uneventful night at work, i met up with gerold, rory, and josh for a little monday night drinking. rory took time out of his busy broadway impact schedule to say hi to me, and took make sure gerold behaves himself.
i tried to keep my word to rory, but gerold is his own beast. we went to house of brews where he put on a mariah mega-mix and gave quite the performance. he threatened a tumbling pass in the bar, but he held off. here's a picture of me, gerold, and josh more then a few drinks deep. good times for a monday night.

doin some good in the hood.

monday night, there was a fund-raiser at bourbon street for the becco marathon team. we had a blast and raised close to $4000. check out some pictures from the event.

i. die.

i have to come clean: i die for "the rachel zoe project". rz. brad. rodger. chanel. the whole thing is amazing and ridiculous and bananas, and i can't get enough. there was a recent pictorial in harper's bazaar that featured ways to kill rachel zoe. with fashion. (thanks to mm for the hilarious link.)

tony time!!!

i love the tony awards! it's always fun to gather with friends, eat cleverly themed food, and get shit-faced watching the awards. i always enjoy watching the performances, seeing who won what, inevitably taking my friends' money because i always win the tony pool. congrats to all the tony nominees!! this is me holding my first tony (thanks to my friend, Gregory Jbara.) here's a complete list of the nominations.

britney: what it is right now!

this picture is why britney spears is the shit. she's still making money. she's still in the spotlight. she's still on your mind.

brit shot an ad for candie's footwear, but she asked to have the original and the re-touched photo published side by side. the retouching is minimal. a source says "britney is proud of her body - imperfections and all."

not bad, miss spears.

waiter realness

this gem came from my buddy, matt. his blog, The Fierce Life , is always a hit. this article from cnn.com explains the service industry. you'd think this would be common sense, but some people bring their "best manners" to dinner with them. read the article here.

geraldo.

gerold edward schroeder is one my nearest and dearest. he's hilarious, handsome, talented, and much smarter than you. his hair? fierce. his outfit? fierce. his vocal placement? beyond. who knows mariah better than anyone? him.

gerold loves showchoir more than most. some people like baseball, gerold loves showchoir, deal with it.

i got an email from gerold this morning, and all i could think as i was reading was, "this would make an excellent post on jermainia." see what you think:

ok so tomorrow is the biggest Show Choir competition of the year as well all know and as it turns out, its one of my best friends birthdays tomorrow so I have to go downtown and celebrate.

HOWEVER, I will be watching the showchoir live feed all day starting at 11AM because that is when the first large group goes. I haven't figured out yet to put the live feed from my computer to the apple tv to the actual tv but I think I'm gonna go to the apple store today and see if they can help me. Otherwise I'll just watch on my computer but hopefully the feed is good.

So if you are free and you want, stop by anytime between 11 and 8 and I'll be glued to the computer! Don't feel obligated if you are doing shit during the day, I mean its a saturday and its suppose to be gorgeous outside and people have shit to do.

BUT I have to say, I watched Clinton's opener on-line the other day after hearing rumers of them being "better than ever" and "unbeatable again" and they were literally better than ever. They are cleaner than any performing group currently performing (including broadway) and the choreography is beyond creative. They are working with currently 6 choreographers for their show and they all collaborate. INSANE. THis is high school!

On the OTHER hand, I watched John Burroughs opener on Youtube yesterday and it is of course EVERYTHING and completely different than Clinton's style. They all come out in these like see-through plastic cloaks with hoods and sing Mad World Adam Lambert style and being creepy and crazy into something else with some pop bitch BELTING her face off. Rory's response from across the room was, "Jesus, is that the same bitch!?" And he HATES show choir.

So I honestly can say that I do not know who will win. Burroughs beat them in 2009 and 2008 but the past two years have been Clinton's weakest (still AMAZING) shows ever and Clinton beat them in 2007 when they were on fire so its gonna be a throw down! I've heard this years Clinton show is compared to their 2004 year, which is considered the benchmark in showchoir along with John Burroughs from last year. AHHHHHH

ok I can't talk about it anymore.

and bring whoever you want I don't care and there are four dogs too just so you know. Jermaine you know you've been there. They are all small and cute and harmless. Three chihauaus and one medium size sweetheart. Only one of them is the devil and she's five pounds. I will put that bitch outside if she barks once during Clinton or Burroughs

have dessert at home.

when i'm waiting tables, i really have to pick and choose which table conversations i become a part of. i was trying to get a table's dessert order last night, and the mother (60+) asks me which is a creamier dessert, and i suggested the appropriate dessert, and the son (40ish) tells me that his mother likes cream. i come back to the table, then he tells me, in full detail, just exactly where she likes it. i make a disgusted face and leave. i come back to check on the table and drop the check, and the mother motions for me to come down closer to her, then pulls me by my tie and says

"i saw earlier. you shouldn't make a face at pussy. i know what you are."

oh really?!?

christmas

i know it's late, but merry christmas!! i had an excellent christmas dinner at kelly's. it was so delicious that it put is to sleep. sounds like the perfect dessert to me!