Real Americans

Haiku #206 - Real American: Gumby

Forgot your lunch or
need to clear a football field?
Gumby is your man.
from left: Gumby, Horsehead, 5ive (holding Gumby's lunch box)


Profession: security guard
Etymology of nickname: a supervisor who didn't want to remember his name
Professional triumph: running a guy off a football field during a rainstorm and getting invited to do security at NFL games
Random fact: loves comic books (Batman)

Haiku #57 - Real American (Pie)!

BEFORE (clockwise from left): mixed berry, pumpkin, pecan 
jogging with cousins
in preparation for an
assortment of pies


Last night I made a mess in my Aunt Lynn's kitchen as I made a mixed berry and a (required in my family at the holidays) pecan pie.  Aunt Lynn made a couple pumpkin pies this morning.  Luckily, I'm ready for them (as well as the turkey, which I sort of consider a formality), because my cousins Susie and Joel and I went jogging about an hour ago.  After dinner, I'll edit the songs Aunt Lynn and I recorded yesterday - some favorites for Grandma.  


Happy Thanksgiving!

Haiku #54 - Real American Home-Cookin'!

saved my appetite
'cause I know after the show
Greer's mom will feed us


Our last stop before the Thanksgiving layoff was Maryville, TN, where Greer, one of our female swings, grew up.  Greer's mom (who actually has a real name, Karen - though she said she goes by "Greer's mom" a lot) sent boxes of delicious homemade cookies to Clemson during tech week, and I was an instant fan.  She brought an entire meal to us at the hotel after the performance in Maryville, and Greer's family and the Heights cast hung out in the hotel conference room eating barbecue and salads and Kentucky Derby pie.  I could die happy.  I mean, that pie - like chocolate chip cookie dough in a pastry crust!  It's such a treat to have home-cooking when you're on the road.  


 Karen (2nd from right) with four well-fed members of the Heights band

Haiku #43 - Real American: Luis

we were running late
we would have starved but for the 
kindness of strangers


Some hotels are surrounded by walkable food options, or at least have a restaurant of some kind on site.  Other hotels, not so much.  Alex and Benjamin and I were running late one morning about a week ago when we were looking for breakfast.  Of course the hotel restaurant was closed, and the hotel itself was surrounded by a pedestrian-unfriendly moat of concrete and asphalt.  Luis, one of the managers, very kindly gave us a lift to a diner about a half-mile away, and waited while we got our food to go.  


"Are you Boricua?" Benjamin asked on the way back, seeing the Puerto Rican flag hanging from Luis' rearview mirror.  Oh yes, Boricua through and through.  We told him about our show, and how we hoped he could make it that night, since it's all about Latin culture, and full of music he could really get into.  Unfortunately, Luis had to work all day at the hotel, and then go to his second job at a club in the evening.  Kind of like seeing the story of In the Heights in real life - the guy this show most personifies couldn't come see us because he was working two jobs.  Hopefully he at least got to check out the music!

Haiku #28 - Real American: Ruth

let's all sing Gershwin
with Ruth on the eighty-eights
'til they kick us out
Kurt, Kat, & Ruth
Photo by Cherie B. Tay
Real American: Ruth
The Stanley Theater threw us a party last night after the show - a real party, complete with local brews, a chef preparing pasta (delicious - not helping me in my quest to be skinny on the road!), and a cocktail pianist named Ruth playing a square Sohmer piano.  

Ruth doesn't remember what year she was born (or so she said, when someone asked her if she was around when a particular 1920s song was popular).  She was playing stuff that always makes me feel like I was born 75 years too late.  Kurt and I made our way over to her to say hello at the beginning of the party, and at some point, he started requesting songs to sing.  We were joined by Christina, Nathaly, Benny, Gabe, Perry and a few other cast members, and in the end they finally turned the lights out so the cast (and keyboardists) of In the Heights would stop singing standards and let them go home.  

I hope, when I am of a certain age, that 20-somethings will sing Queen and Journey when I'm playing for their cast party. And Gershwin, eternal.  

Haiku #22, 23 - Real American: Cherie, ASM

REAL AMERICAN:
Meet Cherie B. Tay, our assistant stage manager, Texas/Singapore native, technology savant. 

Where do I begin.  Cherie possesses a level of talent and drive I can really only describe as stupid.  She is my massage hookup, because, in addition to her grueling itinerant-stage-manager schedule, Cherie has taken it upon herself to learn reflexology during this tour.  I made up this haiku for her the first time she used me as a guinea pig:

i wish i could purr
reflexology is nice
i will drool instead

I wrote her this, too -

signing is handy 
to talk to the ASM
from across the bus

- because she is also learning sign language using the videos from the ASL website.  She's teaching me, too.  Or trying.  So far, I speak sign language with an offensively thick accent: I keep saying "vaffanculo!" instead of "good", and when I'm trying to sign back "I don't understand" across the bus, it usually comes out as something like "HORSE! WANT! WHYYY!??!?"  Slowly but surely, however, I am learning to say such useful things as "I want cookie now!" and "Why, God, why today?"
Let's see, what else... she's working on her Spanish (a no-brainer on this bilingual tour), keeping a blog on her stage managing adventures, and acting as our unofficial tour photographer as well as posting on her daily photo project.  

She can also drink me under the table.  But that's not so stupid.  

Haiku #10 - Real American: Woody, The Vegan BBQ Master

At the theater
The vegan pitmaster feeds
Scores of carnivores

We had our first preview performance last night at Brooks Performing Arts center here in Clemson, SC. My friend from college days, Gregg, now heads the commercial music department in Spartanburg about an hour away, so he was able to be there. I had a little moment during the opening number when I realized that, while I've played these number hundreds of times for rehearsals, last night was my first time playing them with an audience.

Real America:
Today is the homecoming game at Clemson. It is now crystal clear how big a deal football and marching band are here in the South: this little college town, normally pop. 20,000, balloons to 100,000, mostly dressed in Clemson Tiger orange. We are marooned at the theater all day because of the parking and traffic situation, so the company and theater are feeding us.

Real American:
The theater is run by a guy named Woody, who makes a mean barbecue, and is, implausibly, vegan.

Haha, that's a good one, I laughed when he told me. I'd just tasted the pulled pork he brougt in for the crew. Ain't no way no vegan cooked pork like that. ...Awkward moment as I realized he wasn't joking. He's a self-described "friendly vegan" - vegan for health reasons, he does have a taste of his BBQ to make sure it's up to par. Woody has also been my hot water hookup - as long as his office door is open, I can feel free to use the electric kettle. This has improved morale during these long tech days, because I am MUCH nicer when I have tea access.