Color Purple.

I had a sweet beginning for my 12 Days. I went to the Ahmanson Theatre downtown to see Oprah Winfrey Presents; The Color Purple. I went with Lindsay and her man Josh, and Jenny Martinez whom I had not seen in eight months. Jenny is this latina spitfire who I used to work with who went all corporate on us and was swept away in expense accounts, clients and hot young boys. Lindsay is my partner in crime at work currently. She works like a man, can talk like a man and makes me go to yoga even when I don't want to. Josh is from my home state and besmitten with Lindsay. It was a nice circle of something old (me), something new (first 12 Day Of 40), something borrowed (time away), and something blue (Purple). Yes Perique, the wedding metaphor is an homage to your pending nuptials in ten days. I'm performing her ceremony. She asked me to do this even before she had her groom. She's a planner. Perique is my emergency contact out here on the Left Coast. My family is back east and if I need someone to claim the body, boom, she became an instant cousin. This is a popular trend in Italian households, the creation of as many cousins as the neighborhood allows. It's very funny to me how you can cultivate family wherever you are and insulate yourself against Life's harsh times by caring. I'm pretty lucky with the people in my life. They always pop up at the right times.

Jenny and I had dinner pre-show while Josh and Linz made their way thru LA traffic. You may as well be machetying your way through a rain forest when your traverse rush hour traffic to get downtown from Venice. Nuff said. They arrived frazzled and we arrived buzzed, a great combo. The show was fairly well full with Opraheads abounding. There were so many people in touch with their Spirit I wasn't sure when the stage lights went up or if the crowd was 'having a moment'. The show was an awkwardly staged version of a tremendous film. I watched this movie for the first time back in '95 with LM in a snowed-in, freezingly cold Auburn, NY. She was appalled that I hadn't seen the movie and made me watch it. She also fed me ravioli, red wine and bruchetta so the carb coma I was in made the viewing difficult (the movie is long). When I would knod off (Grampa) she would yell/beat me. I've never forgotten such surly hospitality with such an important message. I LOVE THIS MOVIE. The key elements of the show were captured and staged, but I can't help but think that the stage directions were conceived under far too many Starbuck products. So many gratuitous set changes, so little time. Plenty of story to overmind the frenetic activities, so much so that many nuances got lost. But every time I would get hypercritical of it a beautiful song and witty lyrics brought me to my gay knees. I'm a sucker in a musical. As was Linz, tears at the end of Act 2.

The show is entertaining and I hope many people get to see it. So many key moments reared their head in the performances. Linz had not seen the movie so as we would coach her through the moments, she fell even more in love with it. See LM, I'm paying it back. The woman who played Celie has a a show stopping number at the end that I was soooo not ready for and could barely keep in my seat. "I'm Here" will move you to the far side of your chair when you see it. You'd have to be in a concrete cell not to feel this. She took the tiles off the ceilings. The dancing was great. The eye candy was great. The flow was awkward and the lighting odd. The sound was inconstant but when I would get obnoxious, another amazing moment would take me down. Damn crafty, that Oprah. Good show, see it.

Something from my past came back to haunt me tonite. This movie- made- play made me pretty happy. Full circle of a sorts. LM brought the movie to me. She recently fell back in my life. I needed to stretch my spasming legs at intermission and ran into Steve from my old Improv group. I'd been haunting him last year to get coffee but he was always suffering from LAFlake disorder. A fact I let him know clearly. Great to see him anyway. And the fact that going downtown to the Music Centre in all of it's twinkly light, water fountain, big banner atmosphere made me remember the good times with J when we would do this. Life moves forward, and we can always look over our shoulder to see where we've been. The view sometimes, is awesome.

The road to 40 is going to be marked in nostalgia and promise and I can't wait to live it. Be advised that my contribution to society this month is not just avid theater going. I will be taking the Notary Public exam on the 31st and pray to post to you that I've passed and will be not only a most reverend holy man, an actor, waiter, improv artist, gardener, caterer, hyphenate but also a respected citizen with a stamp to prove it, and legal documents, natch.

Peaceout.