Andrei Kirilenko and his Mom

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you . . .

On Friday we went to a beautiful, funny, documentary called Young@Heart. It's about a group of senior citizens, average age 81, who are members of the Young at Heart Chorus. It isn't a typical chorus (not your Grandma's chorus?), they sing unexpected songs from bands like Sonic Youth, The Clash, and Coldplay. The film documents their rehearsals for a show in their hometown and in the process you get to know the members - their humor and sorrow. I hadn't cried that hard in a while. It's really lovely and full of hope in the midst of some heartbreaking events. I highly recommend it.

Fancy

This afternoon I have been immersed in the Twelfth Night text. I was tranferring a call to the President of the company I work for and instead of saying, "I have Benita for you", I said, "I have Benita for Thee". It just came out as naturally as anything. Is my boss now going to expect me to only address him by thee, thou and thine? Crap. Maybe I'll just start answering all the phone calls using my best made-up Shakespearean verbiage.

Speedy Claxton

It is the long afternoon stretch at work right now so in an effort to keep my eyes open I've been taking some quizes. This one made me chuckle, because anyone who knows me, or at least anyone who has walked anywhere with me, knows that I have a super hard time slowing down. I don't consciously try to walk fast, but that is just the constant mode I'm in, it's very difficult for me to walk slowly. I know I must just seem rude when I am walking out front of a group, but my slow walk still tends to be faster than most people's normal pace. All I can figure is that I started walking fast as a kid to compensate for my short legs. The first time I visited New York City I felt so at home, finally I was surrounded by speedy walkers. I have had it pointed out to me that I do other activities at a frenetic pace as well: washing dishes, cleaning, speaking, typing. So, good job, quiz, at gettin' it right.

Your Superpower Should Be Super Speed

You're quick witted and fast to act. You're mind works at warp speed. From your perspective, everyone else is living in slow motion. You get so much done, people have accused you of not sleeping. Definitely not a couch potato, you feel a bit crazy if you're not busy doing something. Why you would be a good superhero: You're be the first on the scene... and likely to finish the job before anyone else shows up Your biggest problem as a superhero: Being bored by everyone else. Including other superheroes!

What Should Your Superpower Be?

More Costumes

Here are a few older photos of various costumes we created and modeled in front of our SLC apartment door.

For a fantasy theme "prom", Elf and Hobbit:


Margot and Richie Tenenbaum, I even had the little wooden finger, it was rad:


Lisa and Millhouse:

Represent

The older I get the more I appreciate my German heritage. When I was younger I would sometimes wish that I was English or Scottish with my own family tartan, but now I enjoy the dierndels, umlauts and abendbrot. I still think Germans are strange, but now I embrace the fact that my blood runs with that strange blood. My father is as German as it gets. He didn't come to America until he was 40 or so years old, so his accent stayed strong. My Mother is American, but her father was Austrian and her mother's side is Swiss and she served a mission in Germany - so it's all Germanic for me. My German (language) is, however, dreadful now, I think. I took classes in school and grew up around it, but I know my grammar is crap. I really want to either take classes again or get some books and get my German up to speed. Again, when I was younger I wanted to learn Italian, so I took a night class (way over my head) or I wanted to learn French (listened to French tapes), but I love the German language now, it's not as romantic as those other languages, but it's funny and I find myself using more odd little German phrases as I go along. I love "du alte junge" - it's so weird, it just means "you old young", hmm doesn't really translate, but I guess that's what's funny, it's doesn't make sense, but I like using it as a term of endearment.
I started thinking about this today as I listened to Dieter F. Uchtdorf. It's really great to have a German representin' in the first presidency of the LDS church. He's super cool and my affection for him is instantaneous as I listen to his accent and hear him speak about flying (my dad also loves planes). I guess it's just nice to have a member of the Master Race in charge - Deutschland Deutschland uber alles - just kidding.
I married into an English family, which is great, though, because I am an anglophile but Heidi Roslein Klein will live on forever.
Alles gute. Tschus.

Graffiti 2nd Edition

Here is my second installment of Pictures of Walls :

Better than I even remembered

well, duh

I took this little Austen quiz and of course I am the Emma Thompson character(see earlier blog about me looking like her).

Take the Quiz here!

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

Wow.

If you are a Democrat like me, be prepared to have your vote swayed . . .
My mouth remained open in shock for the length of this video:

EHS

I just got a message today about my high school 10 year reunion coming up. So weird. I'm getting old! I don't really see myself going to a reunion, I wasn't exactly a social butterfly in high school, I had my group of "drama" friends, but wasn't a pep rallyin', assembly goin', dance lovin' student. But, who knows - I would imagine a reunion would be rich in awkwardness, which could be the stuff of some good stories later on. But, to not sound too harsh, I hope the class of '98 is doing well - it's good to see people happy and healthy and also weird to see that most of them have if not one kid, a few kids. There's a blog for the class of '98 and for those who might be checking this blog, here's the run down of my current life.
After high school I attended The University of Utah. I graduated from the Actor Training Program - which I loved. I met my husband in that program - he was a year ahead of me. After I graduated we moved to Los Angeles (where he is originally from) and we live in Burbank. My husband is an actor/writer and I work as a receptionist right now, while trying to keep my hand in acting and writing as well. We don't have children, yet, I still feel like a kid myself, sometimes. As my family is still in Utah, I visit fairly regularly. I am coming up to Salt Lake City this Summer to do Twelfth Night with Salt Lake Shakespeare company - it opens July 31st in the Babcock theatre, if you're interested.
I've seen former High School people here and there, but the only people from the East High world that I am still close with are Liz Singley(now Perkins, she's great), Carter Williams, and if you remember Darci Hansen (now Cook) from Bryant Jr.High & Freshman year at East. So there are my updates. By the way, weird to see our building made famous or rather infamous in the High School Musical movie. I'm still sad they tore down the old East High building, with the burned out stairwells and swimming pool rumors.
East take state? Yeah,I guess.

Mash-Up

Ladies and Gentleman, The Meatles . . . The Beankees

Anthony Minghella

I was very saddened today to find out that writer, director, producer Anthony Minghella died at the far too young age of 54. I am a big fan of his, he was enormously talented. My favorite movie, as I've mentioned before, is Truly Madly Deeply which Minghella wrote and which marked his directorial debut. It stands to me as one of the most beautiful, sweet, funny, emotional films of all time. Of course, Minghella went on to create many more films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley, The English Patient and Cold Mountain. I was always excited to see what Anthony Minghella was going to do next, his was a name I looked for and knew that quality work would accompany that name. Sad.

David Sedaris

This is from a few years ago, but it was so funny. If you haven't read any David Sedaris, I would highly recommend it - I was trying to think which of his books is my favorite, but that is hard, I read Me Talk Pretty One Day first and it was a nice entry into his world.

Amy Sedaris

I just think Amy Sedaris is so fun, especially on Letterman - they're a great little duo - this is their most recent interview:

Music I Like, by Coldplay

This is random, but these are two videos from when Coldplay was on Austin City Limits. It was great. The first is with Michael Stipe - I could only find the video with two songs - but I really wanted to get Nightswimmming (at 4 minutes)because as Chris Martin says, "this is the best song ever written" - it's just rad. The second video is one of my favorite Coldplay songs Till Kingdom Come with Ring of Fire, love it.

Sold to the little girl in the red and white dress

And the trip down memory lane continues . . .
These are Kimberly dolls. I realize this is really only fun to look at for me and my sisters, but this is my blog, so there ya have it.
My sister,Alex, had the closed mouth Kimberly with so many outfits, a couple of which are shown and I had the teethy smile Kimberly - they were rad, still have them somewhere:







Once when Alex was mad at us she locked herself in the bathroom and Elizabeth, my other sister, took her Kimberly doll and stuck its hand underneath the bathroom door and spoke as Kimberly to beg Alex to come out - it worked, Alex opened the door with tears in her eyes over Kimberly's empassioned plea.

Elizabeth, had the Mandy doll shown below. She had a little blue cloak for her and one time Elizabeth acted out the story The Little Match Girl with this doll and had Alex and I weeping. Man, we were suckers.

Sea Wees

This set was mine:

This set was my sister, Alex's:

Kidd Video

Oh, man, I had forgotten about this show. I do get sentimental about my childhood, so when I see something like this again it blows my mind - there are so many details of my life I forget, it seems like it was a thousand years ago that I was getting up Saturday mornings to watch a collection of bizarre tv shows like this one.

da da duh-da-dum (opening to New York, New York song)

This last week Whit and I went to New York City. We went on a bit of a whim and I'm so glad we did. It was a fantastic trip. We saw five shows, ate at some great joints, saw some new areas of NYC that I'd never been to, did some shopping, went to a couple of museums, laughed, walked, subwayed, shivered. Whit already wrote a good blog about the trip, so check out the Big Whoop show if you'd like, but I'll give my highlights:

Shopping: 5th Avenue, NBA store- got a Nash headband and Suns tatts, FAO Schwartz, Macy's - I got a pair of boots that were originally $90 for $20, love it.

Museums: Saw the Bodies Exhibit where you see all parts of the human body preserved and displayed, crazy, interesting, coolest part: seeing all the stages of a fetus, weirdest part: the preserved belly buttons and hairy buttholes.
Metropolitan Museum of Art - saw some different exhibits than on a previous visit there, the modern area was radical, such a vast museum - I always think of the children's book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, about kids who secretly live at the museum.

Eating: so many places to eat in this city, it blows my mind. Our favorite place was Max Brenner-Chocolate by the Bald Man - it specializes, obviously, in chocolate. We got this Thick Italian Hot Chocolate, which was truly the best treat ever. You can get it in dark, milk or white chocolate - we tried all three, I personally liked the milk - but I'm a milk kinda gal. They also had chocolate soup, a warm chocolate cake, on and on, amazing chocolate.
Crif Dogs - I'm not necessarily a huge hot dog person, but man these were good. I got one called the Tsunami which is a bacon-wrapped hot dog with pineapple chunks, terriyaki sauce and green onions, on the second visit got the Chihuahua with avacado and sour cream over a bacon-wrapped dog. Man, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.
The Eatery - fancy, little pre-theatre restaurant, had their meat loaf and sweet potato, corn and pear empanadas. yum.
Various bakeries: cupcakes a plenty.

Theatre: Our commercial/musical choice was Lion King, Whit had actually seen it some years ago, but he wanted me to see it and it was fun. I actually started crying at the beginning, the African style singing and the beautifully crafted animals for some reason just punched me in the gut.
August:Osage County - Steppenwolf production, pretty good, pretty interesting, some nice performances
The Seafarer - Irish, so great, loved it.

Rock N Roll - Stoppard, dense, political, Rufus Sewell was fun - met him afterwards, super nice.
The Homecoming - Pinter, interesting, the reason we started talking about going to NYC, our friend, Jim, is an understudy in the show, he was the best - he showed us around backstage and set up an introduction to one of my favorite actors, James Frain. James brought us into his dressing room where we chated for a good 15 - 20 minutes before the show. I've never experienced having flushed cheecks for such a continuous stretch. He couldn't have been kinder, more gracious, more funny, sweet, giving, hotter than he was. He told us to see him again after the show, so we talked again for a minute afterwards and took the following picture.



We stayed in Brooklyn with our friends Amanda and Jim (aka Creighton James) - they were great to us. Their apartment is above a pizza place so while showering in the morning you could smell the pizza, I'd start my day off being hungry for a slice.
I love the fast pace of the city, it's nice to be surrounded by people who are walking my pace, brisk.
I love the subway system, it's so nice to be able to take a subway anywhere you want to go and not to worry about driving or parking, just hop on the train and go. I actually feel like I can find my way around NYC after one week better than I can around LA after almost 3 years, oh well, someday I'll learn the freeway system better.
It was a fantastic trip - Whit and I had a lot of fun together. It is nice being married to someone with the same interests as me, someone who doesn't mind going to five plays in six days, someone who will wander through China town to get to the vegan bakery I wanted to try.
I was also very inspired by the visit and seeing all that theatre, it kicked me back into a pro-active mode, I want to create, I want to act, I want to work and I can't just sit around waiting for something to happen, I've got to get out there and make it happen. Just because I work an 8-5 job right now doesn't mean I can't use my time in and out of work towards my craft. So there.
In summary, trips are fun. New York City is rad.
Thank you.