Vote! Bloomington Press Photos

Press Photographer Cory Harbour took some great pictures of Vote! for Sunday's Indiana Daily Student follow-up article on the Bloomington production. View the entire album here.

Muffin and Company

Mark sings "Ambition"

Visit the Vote! website.

Vlogging Vote! - The Musical

Katherine Duffy, who was one of the cast members of Vote! Bloomington, has her own video blog. She produced a terrific three part video detailing the entire Bloomington Vote! experience, with lots of interviews with the cast and crew, plus creator Ryann Ferguson. She even chatted a bit with her humble director... me.

The first part is posted below, and here are the links to part two and three.

Katherine's Blog is pretty cool and it reminds me of my friend Andrew Keenan-Bolger's blog. Andrew is a young actor and he blogs about his many exciting performances. His blog on the Vote! NYC reading was seen by Eric Anderson, who after learning about the show, produced it in Bloomginton. Read that full story as told by Ken Davenport.

Vote! Opens Tonight

Vote!, the musical, opens tonight in Bloomington, Indiana. We've been workshopping the show here for over a month and we've learned so much from our terrific cast.

We've gotten some nice buzz, from a great article on Broadway World, to a nice write-up in The Indiana Daily Student.

Tickets can be purchased here. We've got a performance Friday & Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. I'll post some pictures from the production and begin blogging for real again when I return to NYC on Monday!

Dicktation

One of the best things on television last year was the Australian comedy series Summer Heights High. Chris Lilley created the series and plays three of the characters including Jonah Takalua, a kid who tags everything with Dicktation.

Last night Kevin and I were out on the Bloomington town celebrating his 24th birthday and I came across this graffiti in the bathroom of Upstairs, a local college bar. Cool to see Jonah's tag has made it all the way across the world to an Indiana straight bar.

Oscar Night

Yesterday, to catch up on Oscar-nominated movies, I went to see three - The Reader, Doubt, & Revolutionary Road. One of the great things about Bloomington is that movies only cost $5, so my entire day at the theater cost about as much as one NYC ticket.

I enjoyed all three of the films, but I truly LOVED The Reader. I feel sorta ready for this year's Oscars, but I never did get a chance to see Frost/Nixon. Other than that, I'm in pretty good shape.

Nate Silver (the statistician who called the 2008 election nearly perfectly) has Oscar Predictions based on a mathematical formula. I think he's right on everything, except Best Supporting Actress, which I think will go to Viola Davis in Doubt.

I'm looking forward to Mickey Rourke winning tonight. The Wrestler was AMAZING and one of my favorite films of the year. I would have nominated it for Best Picture and Director. I'd also have nominated Wall-E and The Dark Knight for Best Picture. Slumdog Millionaire was damn good, but paled in comparison to the similar City Of God. Now that's a fucking movie.

Follow My Twitter for Oscar Night Details!

Night Owl / Early Morning Odds & Ends

I'm back from flu land. My temperature is gone and I was finally able to do something outside the house besides rehearsal. I hung with my new friend Quinto, after my dinner at the IU-staple Mother Bears, and we watched the first three episodes of Rupal's new Logo Series Drag Race. It's a drag version of America's Next Top Model, that I sorta loved. It wouldn't work without Ru Paul, but with her it really works.

Rehearsal went great tonight, we're finally getting the chance to polish some of the dances. Today we worked on D-Gates, a song where Muffin (yes, Muffin) and Mike meet and fall for each other outside an airport. In this photo, Eric Anderson Jr. is at the piano, Aly Bloom is in front, and the two-Ms are Jen Saltiel and Justin Klein.

Vote in Bloomington tickets went on sale yesterday and we perform the weekend of March 6th-8th.

The News:

-- The NY Times has a major feature on the RENT California drama. Mr. Martin, the school's amazing drama instructor, describes in some detail his initial conversation with the bigot principal.

He said his principal, Fal Asrani, had objected to the show because of its treatment of “prostitution and homosexuality.” “When I heard that, I stopped her and looked her in the eye and said, ‘First, there is no prostitution in ‘Rent,’ and second, homosexuality is not wrong,’ ” Mr. Martin said. “She made no comment. It was the most demoralizing, disappointing moment in my career as a teacher.”

-- Kathleen Sebelius will make a great HHS Secretary. But, what is Howard Dean gonna do?

-- Obama has a 67% approval rating in the latest AP Poll. The Republicans in Congress are at 33%.

-- I agree with Andrew Sullivan, Obama should give Arnold a job when he leaves office. Arnold should become Obama's top Republican ally.

-- Republican Chairmen Michael Steele is out of his mind.

Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party’s principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

The RNC’s first black chairman will “surprise everyone” when updating the party’s image using the Internet and advertisements on radio, on television and in print, he told The Washington Times.

-- Al Franken will soon finally be a Senator. 59 Democrats. Obama will just need a single GOP vote to pass legislation.

10PM Odds & Ends

I'm starting to feel better, from whatever coldy allergy thing that I'm dealing with here in Bloomington. Someone told me yesterday that, "If you don't have allergies before you come to Bloomington, you'll have them after." Well, I had them before. So, I guess I have them doubly now.

-- NY Times - Is the conservative Supreme Court out to abolish the Exclusionary Rule?

-- Another liberal pushing for a return of The Fairness Doctrine. This is one dumb issue.

-- Bob Burnett makes a case for the separation of civil unions and religious marriage. No one has ever explained to me what business the state has issuing marriage licenses. Federal civil unions for all. Get married in your church.

-- Wild visualization of Walmart's growth.

-- Focus On The Family spent six-times as much money on Prop 8 as the Mormons.

Stop Kiss - A Play Review

This weekend I saw Indiana University's handsome production of Diana Son's Stop Kiss at The Wells-Metz Theatre.

The production itself was solid and featured a strikingly realistic set by Katie McDermott. One thing that isn't remotely realistic is Diana Son's dated, sitcomy script. The play was first produced in 1998 at The Public Theater, so being theater you have to subtract a decade to find it's real place in the zeitgeist. 1988 makes way more sense than 1998.

Each of the characters struck me as deeply unrealistic for different reasons. The two women, who fall for each other during the course of the play, are strong and intelligent, and it's completely unbelievable they would have such a struggle with their homosexual feelings. The lead, Callie, is a NYC traffic reporter and NYU graduate, living in Greenwich Village. We're supposed to believe that she is totally taken aback by her attraction to her friend? Unlikely.

Two other characters, an angry homophobic cop and a scared odd neighbor don't gel at all with the kind of people you'd meet in the West Village. The play's main event, a gay bashing on the corner of Bleecker and W. 11th Street, is a very rare occurrence and hardly one of the main struggles of urban life.

What makes this worth writing about? Stop Kiss paints an unfair portrait of life in New York City, while billing itself as a "contemporary look at urban life." It's hardly contemporary and certainly not realistic.

Odds & Ends

Last night was my first out on the town of Bloomington and I had a really good time. After we staged eight pages (two songs!) from Vote! in just over three hours, I went to a 21st birthday party and then hit a few frat bars with some new friends. We paid a late night visit to Uncle Elizabeth's, the town gay bar, which was totally empty except for a few scary guys with goatees playing pool.

The picture to the right is me drinking a $2 Peach Long Island Ice Tea. It's rather large and very tasty.

-- Entertainment Tonight ran a preview of Quentin Tarantino's new film Inglorious Bastards and it looks fantastic. The Dirty Dozen meets Kill Bill. See the video here. I can't wait.

-- A new Gallup poll shows that Iranians and Alabamians have the same level of religiosity. Frightening. Vermont, my second home, is the least religious state in America. No doubt I'm retiring to Burlington.

-- One of the craziest things that I've read in a while - "Anthony R. Stancl, is charged with setting up fake profiles on Facebook, the popular social networking site, to dupe 31 male classmates, some as young as 15, into sending him nude photographs of themselves over the last several months." Even MORE: "But, the authorities said, Mr. Stancl did not stop there. In addition, they said, he threatened to release the photos to the victims’ friends or even all of Eisenhower’s 850 students if the youths who had sent them to him did not agree to perform sexual acts he demanded. The tactic was successful, officials said. Mr. Stancl is accused of using it to sexually assault seven boys." How much longer before Facebook requires proof of indentity to sign up? I wouldn't be against it, as it would eliminate some of the weird spam request I receive.

-- We've got a stimulus package and it's got technology's fingerprints all over it.

-- Asshole-loser Norm Coleman has found himself seven new votes. When is this loser going away?

Odds & Ends

The first day of Vote! rehearsals in Bloomington was a blast. We've got a great cast up here (comprised mostly of IU students) and I think the show is gonna be lots of fun. I'll try and get some pictures for you all soon.

Lots of Odds & Ends today:

-- Gay City News has a great feature on gay marriage in New York, with lots from Majority Leader Malcolm Smith. Also, a little shout-out to yours truly for my article on Daniel Squadron. (Also, thanks to the NY Daily News for their link last week.)

-- We may finally be able to visit Cuba legally.

-- Christopher Hitchens on Zimbabwe.

-- I'm really fucking disappointed in Chris Brown. I thought more of him. Apparently Rihanna's injuries are "horrific."

-- Huge study out that appears to show that multivitamins may not work at all.

-- Looks like Connecticut voters are finally done with Joe Lieberman.

-- Shepard Fairey, Obama's Hope artist, is fighting back against those assholes at the AP.

-- How awesome is it that Obama called on The Huffington Post's White House correspondent last night? Welcome to the future.

-- Catholicism is back in the dark ages! You can now pay to get rid of sin again.

Odds & Ends

This morning was my first in Bloomington, sadly the local coffee shop doesn't have Wi-Fi, so I'm late blogging. Rehearsals start tonight for Vote! and I'm excited to finally meet finally meet the cast. Last night Eric Anderson, the producer, took me out to Mother Bear's Pizza near IU, it was fantastic and is ranked fourth in the nation by whoever ranks pizza places.

-- Norm Coleman is such an asshole. Not only is he trying to force a revote by continuing to legally challenge the election results, he lost to Comedian Al Franken, and running negative ads like there is still a campaign - now he's saying Jesus is on his side. On Friday, he gave an interview to conservative radio host Mike Gallager - Coleman said he starts every day with a prayer and that he knows “God wants me to serve.” God hates Al Franken.

-- John Glover, who comes from my hometown of Salisbury, MD, is joining the cast of Waiting for Godot on Broadway. Glover is replacing David Strathairn and joins the star-studded cast featuring Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, and John Goodman.

-- Atheists in London have bought ads on buses proclaiming, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." This has upset Christians so much, that they are buying their own ads that say, "Psalm 53: "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." The Christian group is apparently spending over $50,000 on the ads. I bet Jesus would rather see that 50k go to the poor instead of boosting the ego of David Larlham, the assistant general secretary of London's Trinitarian Bible Society, who payed for the ads. But, that 50k bought him a few quotes a paper, so finally his life may have some value.

-- The almost bankrupt New York Times published an article on how hard it is to live in NYC for less than $500,000 a year. Fuck you.

Early Morning Odds & Ends

I'm up early, getting ready to leave for my flight to Indiana to direct the musical Vote! I'm a little worried about making it through airline security with this orange plastic bag from a Halloween store full of colorful costumes, but I guess it doesn't make me look like a terrorist... just crazy.


Jeff, Kevin,& Me

--Last night Kevin and I went to see People I Slept With Who Never Called Me Back at Ars Nova. The show, written and performed by my friend Jeffery Self, was part of Ars Nova's Residency Encore series and was extremely funny. You missed this run, but Jeffery is one half of YouTube's VGL Gay Boys and blogs daily. So, keep up.

-- This women, a lesbian denied seeing her dying partner in a Florida hospital, is an example of why the gay movement needs to focus on federal civil unions asap. It's not enough to protect gays who live in liberal states. Federal unions are the only way to protect the rights of gays and lesbians in conservative states where there isn't a path to full marriage in the near future.

-- Human cloning is finally viable. "The research is the first step toward therapeutic cloning — making embryonic stem cells from a patient's own DNA capable of replacing diseased tissue, failing organs and even lost limbs. And, theoretically, the same technique could be used to produce a cloned person."

-- Cablevision's internet service continues to be less reliable than the 28.8 modem I used in 7th grade and even makes AT&T's cell service look acceptable by comparison.