Home of the Soul Cookie

Speaking of Karyne’s performance, in our after-the-fact discussions (via email, of course), she mentioned that she was glad I’d come to the Friday show since there’d been some line flubs in Saturday’s penultimate performance.

That got me thinking, and I came up with a Top Ten list that I sent to her. It was a quick little thing, and I like how it came out, so I share it now with you.
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Friday night I went to see a co-worker perform as Maria (the lead) in “Sound of Music” at a theatre down in Foster City.

Well, calling Karyne a “co-worker” is a bit of a misnomer, thanks to the wonders of technology: Though we’ve carried on many a conversation and have joked around with each other, we’d never actually met face-to-face. Our interaction was rooted in email messages.

So when she mentioned that she was in the musical, I knew I had to make the time to go see her. And man, I am so glad I did!

Karyne was fantastic, a funny, natural, real Maria. Her sense of comedic timing was spot-on, and she was able to play some of her reactions very broadly in a way that was hilarious without being at all cringe-inducing. Take all that, and then add in a superb set of pipes and you begin to grasp just how well she nailed it all.

She really was the highlight of the show, and that would’ve been true even if I hadn’t been there to see her perform. Most of her fellow thespians were decent-to-good, with only one fellow that truly shouldn’t have been there. (No sense of rhythm; unpolished; wore his character like a rubber mask: stifling, uncomfortable, and devoid of any visible emotion save the one stamped into it.)

The kids they had playing the Von Trapp children were quite good, though I must confess I was distracted for the first few minutes they were on stage; I was trying to figure out why each of them had this strange little cowlick of hair over an ear. Turns out they were some sort of fancy-shmancy microphones and not hair at all.

After the show was over, I hung around outside to say hi and to tell her how much I’d enjoyed her performance.

The meeting went… um… awkwardly.

As it happens, she had a bunch of family members and out-of-town friends there, and given that I hadn’t told her ahead of time I was going to show up, she was caught off-guard by my popping up. That’s me, the accidental stalker.

But we’ve since made tentative plans to go do the face-to-face chat thing sometime soon, so yay! for that.

Dear Asshat,

I applaud your bold, living-on-the-edge decision to drive without any sort of automotive illumination with the conditions as thorougly foggy as they are.

And how clever of you to hang out in my blind spot like that! Your mother must be very proud.

I appreciate the sense of humor and good cheer you exhibited by not honking until after I’d realized you were in the way of my lane change and had moved back. Speeding up and giving me the one-fingered “Howdy!” were the perfect punctutations of your “goodwill ambassador” worldview.

I salute you, fellow motorist, and sincerely wish for you to get everything you have coming.

Yours very truly,
the driver of that white Altima

STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH: THE ABRIDGED SCRIPT^TM
By Rod Hilton

GENERAL GREVIOUS (coughing):
Are you serious? You’ve lost literally every single duel you’ve been a part of except for the one with Darth Maul. Hayden constantly mentions how many times he has saved you. What have you done in the entire prequel trilogy so far to prove that you’re actually a decent fighter?

EWAN MCGREGOR:
Hey, I sorta beat Jango Fett. So, what’s with the coughing, do droids get colds or something?

It’s like a set of snarky CliffsNotes-meets-MST3K for Revenge of the Sith.

By the way, it’s worth peeking at the Sith-related comic devul posted in the comments. Fits in nicely with the “abridged script,” tone-wise.

If there’s a Krispy Kreme near you, stop in today for a free doughnut as part of “Doughnut Day.”

Could there be a sweeter day of the year? On Friday, June 3rd, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. celebrates National Doughnut Day by offering customers a free doughnut of their choice in participating stores throughout the U.S.

There’s a National Doughnut Day, huh? Who knew?

National Doughnut Day was established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to raise much-needed funds during the Great Depression and to honor the work of World War I Salvation Army volunteers who prepared doughnuts for thousands of soldiers. National Doughnut Day is celebrated annually on the first Friday in June.

Mmmm… Doughnuts….