The Seven Year Itch

Playing Richard Sherman in "The Seven Year Itch"

I had the lead in the first show of Novato Theater Company's 2007-2008 season: "The Seven Year Itch." If you're not familiar with the movie, (made famous by the famous image of Marilyn Monroe with her skirt blowing in the breeze of a subway grate) it's about a New York City family man, Richard Sherman, and set in the early 1950s. His family travels north for the summer, leaving him alone to work in the city over the summer. He bounces off the walls of his apartment in boredom, and no time at all he drops all of his good habits: taking up smoking, drinking and is tempted by the actress that sublets the apartment upstairs. It's typical of 1950s screwball comedies, very out-of-date in our times with its old fashioned look at societal mores.

It's hard to talk to that younger generation...

This was by far the biggest part I've ever had. For the entire length of the show I was onstage, a lot of it all by myself, where my character would talk to himself for pages and pages (75 pages of memorized dialogue - I have no idea how I managed it!) The critics mostly welcomed our efforts and we had good sized audiences for our weekends. Lots of fun performing in this part, which veered from subtlety to super-broad physical comedy. I was fairly beaten up by the end of the show, with giant collections of bruises to demonstrate my dedication to my art. My art consisting primarily of details like falling backwards off a piano bench to get a laugh out of the audience...

Richard in a fantasy about his wife, just before she plugs him with the pistol in the bowl.

Daydreams don't always work out perfectly for Richard

Lots more pictures from the production here.

The House Makeover Continues

We haven't had an opportunity to do a whole lot of work on the house this summer. It's mostly been small details that we've been picking up on the odd weekends. Even squeaky doors, sticky windows and the like can be time consumers, even if no one but you knows the work's been done. We've contented ourselves with the occasional finished door threshold, quieting noisy fans, installing new vents and finally hanging some things on the walls. We did, however, finally manage to start on the outside of the house and hired a professional painter to paint the exterior. Of course, there's no contractor visit that doesn't warrant more construction work, so I tore off some really bad exterior trim and replaced it with new redwood. (Which was promptly painted over, sniff) Chalk it up to my continuing obsession to not use crummy materials or something. That wound up being a fairly large full day project.

When I stopped working to take a phone call from Cathy, I sat down for a moment. As I spoke to her, I noticed a spot of dirt on my shoulder from the corner of my eye. I hung up the phone and turned to brush it off - then I finally noticed that the spot had a pair of blinking eyes, was breathing and staring at me. I walked the spot (I called him Herman, in honor of a turtle from a science fiction novel I just finished) back to the front yard and let him go in our now empty front bed. He and his relatives spend a lot of time hanging out in the sun on our front sidewalk. I think I disturbed the all day tanning salon when I started coming home for lunch and walking through the prime spot.

Herman, Ride-Hopping Lizard

We also spent a weekend removing the last of the "haunted house" landscaping. The front beds are now a blank slate ready for some work, which Cathy is spending plenty of time thinking about. One of these days, I anticipate she'll be done thinking and we'll be off to a nursery to pick up some green things to stick in the ground. More projects still in the offing for the months ahead: got to finish the floor of the main bathroom, tiling and installing a threshold. I finally got my first table saw as well (Hoo-yah!) so I've now got a strong reason to finally hook up the dust vacuum system to the tools in the garage. Everything else remaining is still under negotiation! :)

New paint. Old house.

The Road To Now - Part 2

At the base of the Half Dome just before the ascent.
The tiny dots near the top left are people at the top of the cable climb.

Before moving forward, I've got to take a step back. I almost forgot to mention one of the more interesting things we did shortly after arriving here in CA. In October of our first year, Cathy and I joined two of my buddies from work for our first trip to Yosemite National Park. We camped for two nights and hiked to the top of the Half Dome, the more accessible sister to El Capitan. Of course, by accessible, I mean climbable without equipment. It's still a little challenge to tackle a day hike, it's slightly over seven miles each way, but that's combined with a 4800 foot ascent. The last bit is a somewhat punishing climb up a very steep granite face with the assistance of some steel cables. By that point, the air's getting thin so it's slow going. It was a great time of year to go - the last weekend before the cables were removed from the final ascent for the winter. It was a pretty chilly day, but with the sun shining we wound up pulling off our sweaters any time we weren't in the shade. Perfect weather for hiking. We started out at sunrise and made it back down a little before dusk. It took an amazing amount of exertion to get up and down. (Plus Cathy and I are both about 10 years older than the guys we were with - boo hoo) I managed to hurt my foot by taking a bad step on the way up and was really hurting by the time we made it down. That turned into a limp for the next week or so. Still, after a few months went by, we were all talking about how we wanted to do it again.

Cathy at the top

Heading Down the side of the Dome on the cable climb.
My friend Andy is just in front of us. Check out the tiny little people at the bottom!

Got a little close to the local critters

So, back to proper continuity! As we rolled through 2006, I started branching out in my performing. I was cast in my first show with the Ross Valley Players, one of the older established companies in the area. The show was Over My Dead Body, a satirical murder mystery that turns the Agatha Christie genre on its head and features a devilishly complicated Rube Goldberg style murder setup at the climax of Act 1 that would occasionally fail - keeping things challenging for the cast. I played the bad guy Simon Vale, a modern mystery writer who moonlighted as the "Baker Street Bludgeoner" and was revealed in the show's denouement. The best parts of this show for me were getting to do a bit of physical comedy and a nice plummy English accent. Definitely a challenge since all but two of us in the cast actually were English!

Simon Vale takes control and starts "monologuing."


The cast of Over My Dead Body on closing weekend.


In the dressing room - "Jolly" John Nolan holds court!

Cathy and I were regulars at the giant Lucasfilm Halloween party each year. We always came up with the finest costumes one could create in a single day and a trip to Goodwill.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

We also connected with family. Ironically, Cathy's only extended family in this country is her cousin, who lives with his family just an hour away in San Jose

Cathy's cousin Peter and his daughter Adriana, on her first communion day.

Toward the end of the year, I was again cast by RVP, this time in a lead - as Andrew Rally, in I Hate Hamlet. I play a bad tv actor who winds up in a production of Hamlet at NY's Shakespeare in the Park as a result of stunt casting. While Andrew wants to get out, the ghost of John Barrymore arrives with other plans. The two characters spend the show sparring - mostly verbally, but occasionally with champagne bottles and sabers. A very enjoyable show and I had my first opportunity to work with a very talented local veteran, Norman Hall, who played Barrymore. As the lead - the straight man in this show, it was a big adjustment to having to spend most of my energy onstage setting up other people to get the laughs! I also had to change my look a little bit for the part - I grew my hair out, had it straightened and also colored to get rid of the gray.

Tricked out in my Hamlet rig, with Mistyanne, who played my girlfriend.

We lost our cat Term in 2006 as well. His health started to decline very suddenly and he just started to seemingly age out of nowhere. The vet couldn't figure out what was wrong with him but also pointed out that he didn't seem to be suffering at all, so after a time we decided to discontinue the expensive tests that were being run on him (before they became Very Expensive) and let him live out his days. He stuck with us for quite a few months, with his world shrinking a little more all the time. By the end, he was living in our bedroom and would let me just hold him in my lap in the mornings. He came along with us from our condo to our new house on one of our work days (July 4) in his bed, and left us during the afternoon.

My mom came for a visit to CA with her best friend, AJ in the fall while "Hamlet" was in rehearsals. She was only able to see a little bit of one of one of my scenes when she accompanied me to a rehearsal one night, but I was glad of it. This was the last time she got to see me perform and also her last trip before her final illness. This set off a long period of flying back and forth to Philadelphia for me. At first, it seemed like she was going to be gone quickly and we scheduled to have our family Christmas early in December.

Cathy and my brother Dennis at Christmas

We had a really lovely time together, but as it turned out, we were blessed to have our mom around for a while longer than expected - hence my many trips back and forth. While it was difficult dealing with a protracted illness, it also let us let our mom go slowly and prepare ourselves for it. Even with all that, I think there are always some things that get left unsaid and questions that don't get asked. I'm not going to digress too much and eulogize my mom here, but I'll let something Cathy said wrap it up. We traveled one last time for the funeral, and after the viewing, we went out for coffee with my siblings and their kids. As we all sat together late in the night, reminiscing, laughing and talking about things we felt a lot closer than we had in a long time, maybe ever. Cathy pointed out that it would probably make my mom happier than anything else to see that.

At our Christmas gathering - my last picture with my mom.

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Since wrapping up South Pacific I had avoided performing in any musicals, so that I could focus on my vocal studies without being distracted. During the early part of 2007, I decided to get "back to it" and got cast in Beauty and the Beast with Independent Actors of Marin. I played Lumiere and found out what it was like to perform through a river of sweat. I wore a very heavy constricting costume, complete with "candles" on my hands that had to be held at my head level for almost the entire show. I wasn't sure how I was going to manage, but somehow got it figured out by the show! The amusing part for me was that during my big solo number "Be Our Guest," I frequently caught those "Rocky" style sprays of sweat coming off my face and neck as I whirled around the stage. I'm sure that was enjoyable for the people around me as well.

Lumiere, Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts in the castle.

"Be Our Guest"
...I know, but you try kicking that high while wearing super-tight stirrup pants...

Things at work were heating up for me at the same time as well - I started work on Transformers during the spring of 2006 and we were approaching the finish line in the spring of 2007 - all working very long hours and weekends. Because of many demands pulling me all over the place, I took another break from performing to get through the big push. After finishing on Transformers, I also resigned my position with ILM, taking an offer from a new company, Image Movers Digital to come on board as an animation lead. The company was started by Robert Zemeckis and his producing partners and funded by Walt Disney to produce digital features in the same vein as he'd been producing and directing for the past few years (Polar Express, Monster House, Beowulf.) It was a tough step to take, the first time I'd left a job for a reason other that dissatisfaction. There were many factors, but certainly one of the large ones were that I was starting to get frazzled again by having to commute to work (45 minutes or more each way, usually in a car) My new job site is 4 (count 'em!) minutes from home and I'm just plain happy about that. The new company is a really great place to be, nice and very talented people, run by artists, and just full of enthusiasm. It feels good to be on the ground floor of a new thing.

My office mate Andrea on my last day.

Saying goodbye to some regulars at ILM.

I'm also happy to mention Cathy's got a new pastime/hobby. She started bowling with a league - ironically, mostly with people I used to work with at ILM! Anyway, she's got a whole circle of friends that she's out with quite a lot. They bowl on Thursday nights - normally a rehearsal night for me, and frequently on weekends too. She won her very own custom cherry scented 12 pound ball in a tournament and bowled a 199 just a couple of weeks ago. By the way, the ball stays under wraps when it's at home. That sucker stinks up the house. Makes everything smell like Kool-Aid. She's off to a tournament in Reno in a few weeks - the same one featured in the movie Kingpin.

With the crazy amount of traveling I was doing around the end of the year, we actually stayed out west for the holiday break, with a quick jaunt to Las Vegas, and the highlight - a road trip to Red Rock National Park and the Hoover Dam.

Day after Christmas at Hoover Dam

Cathy at Hoover Dam

We're still continuing to roam around the Bay area, checking out new things and figuring out favorites - usually when we have houseguests to drive us into it! One of our favorite wineries up in Sonoma county is Viansa, which makes Italian varietals and some of our favorite reds. We've also been to many of the local islands, which were all military bases at one time or another - a favorite is Angel Island, just across from the northern end of SF. It's accessible via a ferry from Tiburon and has a loop road around the circumference - great for walking or biking and a killer view of the SF skyline. We also like hiking the headlands of Marin, down at the south end of the county. Very mysterious and silent when the fog rolls in off the water, which is quite frequently.

The vinyards at Viansa, in Sonoma County

Viansa. A little fancy for the tourists, but still makes good wine.

On the beach at Angel Island

Cathy, on a meandering trail into the fog.

Summer 07 - Hiking the hill above our house

This year, we made another trip to Mexico - Puerto Vallarta this time, not too much to tell there, but an interesting destination in the summer. Normally, we'd try to travel during a cooler time of year, but needed to take the trip while I was between jobs. Not so bad, the weather was overcast much of the week - owing to it being Mexico's rainy season, but we didn't get any rain - just some long breaks from the sun, which was a good thing. Even without the sun, the 93% humidity reminded us that it was summer. We spent lots of time in the pool and in the ocean, ate some good food, took one really sweaty trip into town to shop the outdoor markets and a canopy tour into the rain forest, which was a hoot. We crisscrossed through the trees and across a river gorge on zip lines, as high as 20 stories up.

Launching over the abyss. "Smile like a fool. Thank you."

That brings things pretty much up to date. We get frequent houseguests here, who take advantage of our spare bedroom and use our place as a base to explore the area, sometimes with us, sometimes on their own. No complaints from us, of course, living in an interesting destination guarantees that we get to see people from time to time!

The Road To Now - Part 1

It's almost hard to believe that it's been more than three years since Cat and I decided to head west. When we made the decision, it was because we believed it was time for a life change. Events seem to have borne that out, coming full circle for me in some ways, then changing around again. We 'got out of Dodge' pretty quickly, or at least I did. When I flew to CA in January 2004 to interview with ILM, I wasn't quite ready for the idea that they'd ask for me to get here two weeks later. I was able to stall things until the first of February, but it was all pretty quick. I packed what I could, finished all the little construction projects around the house (advice: don't put that stuff off - we asked ourselves why on earth we waited so long, having gotten the house to where we liked it just in time to move out!) hit the road, and promptly missed my plane to CA. The next couple of trips back and forth really tested my patience for the TSA at Newark airport and their "travel delay" service.

I shortly found myself living in a not-so-nice hotel on the outskirts of San Rafael, commuting a scant three miles to work. Having traded in my hour-and-a-half each way commute, I was feeling pretty giddy. First order of business was finding a place for Cathy and I to live. I started apartment hunting over lunchtime and on the weekends. I wouldn't have my truck for a while so I was getting around in a rental car, and I've got to say that having the gps navigator in the car was the about the best thing someone can have when apartment hunting. When Cathy came for a visit in late February, I had a few places lined up and we decided on a townhouse in Sausalito, on the edge of the Marin headlands. Almost completely ideal, it had year round very moderate temperatures, a quiet neighborhood and a killer view where you could see the "steam train" of fog rolling across the bay, Alcatraz island, the Tiburon peninsula and the Sausalito houseboat marina. Unfortunately, there was also highway 101 cutting right across the hill below the place. On my first night in the empty apartment on a borrowed air mattress (lighting by Ikea) I completely cleared the bed, thinking that there was a military invasion in the living room. Turns out that the sound of cops using their p.a. systems to address speeders they'd pulled off at the Sausalito exit carried right up the hill, as if by magic. The occasional intrusion of the fuzz and the constant sounds of traffic white noise became background to life over the next couple years. I finally got a box of stuff from back east and I was off and running in the new place.


After two months had gone by, I travelled back east to help Cathy with the big move out of our house. New Jersey seemed pretty dismal after winter in CA. We finished packing everything, including Term the cat, dropped our cars off for shipping and said final goodbyes. Term started the big travel day howling in his carrier (specially airplane sized to fit under the seat) which caused us some alarm, wondering if we were about to be hated by a plane full of people. No need to worry. Since we couldn't send Term through the xray in his carrier, I had to carry him through by hand. He got one look at more people than he'd ever seen in his life and promptly shut up for the next 3 weeks. Not an exaggeration. Thanks to another insanely long wait in that security line, though, we got bumped off another flight (with the plane still visible through the window) Term demonstrated that cats are much better travel companions than dogs, at least in some respects, as he managed to "hold his water" for the next 10 or so hours. After his usual tense break-in period in our new place he settled in and embraced two regular perches, on the wall by our steps where he could look out over the balcony, and also in my basement study where he could keep an eye on the wildlife.

On the buzzard perch

Keeping tabs on the neighbors

ILM at Kerner Blvd in San Rafael was a really enjoyable experience for me. I got to jump in and experience the tail end of the culture of the "old days" before the company hit its PSW (post-Star Wars) era. I met a couple of my personal heroes and gained some new ones. The first movie, as an animation lead, was "Son of the Mask" Not an especially impressive first outing, but lots of fun. I dodged the downsizing bullet by making a move into the digital matte department to work for several months on the last Star Wars movie. Probably this time, more than any, felt like "making a movie" as opposed to "going to work!" There's still a little of that old school effects magic in matte painting. I can't post the shots, because of contractual issues, but the 2 big ones are the establishing shots for the Coruscant Opera, which is a big spherical building on the end of a long "arm." Shot 1 is a wide shot showing the entertainment district, shot 2 shows Annakin running up a long staircase into the building. After that brief time (3 shots! 6+ months!) I was back to the animation department for most of my time. All of my ILM work is listed in my IMDB profile. After Cathy had been here for a few months, we decided that it was time for her to go back to work. She hit the streets looking for a job, even working through some temp agencies. After a few weeks, she found employment with an advertising agency called Chrisad. Their business is establishing marketing plans for dental practices and putting together direct mailings (You may have gotten one of their cards, it features local images and flowers, apparently a big plus in marketing) She started out handling accounts receivable for them and has since become a supervisor, and comes home with lots of stories about tangling with dentist "characters" on the telephone.

Skywalker Ranch Main House on the fourth of July


They let me play with the Oscars

Cathy by Lake Ewok

Cathy and I visit a buddy at Pixar on a Saturday afternoon

Cathy and I got involved with local theater quickly after we arrived here. I responded to an email from a co-worker about purchasing tickets to a local production of "The Secret Garden." Within a week or so, my status changed from spectator to light board operator, then to scenic painter. After a bit more time passed, it wound up landing on Stage Manager. Enter Simon Eves (my co-worker) and the San Anselmo Town Players into our life. A lovely bunch of people with a theater workshop with an open involvement policy - for better and for worse! Anyone who wants to participate can. After auditions, anyone that hasn't been cast into a named role is welcomed into the ensemble. Lots of fun to participate, very much a sense of "let's put on a show!" I'm sorry to say that Simon and his lovely family have since relocated back to their native England and the Town Players have since ceased to exist. But while it was around, I got my feet re-wet in doing some performing, dooming myself forever.

After a little time off from theater, while I was in a big push at work, I returned to stage manage for a production of Pippin. After this, I decided to audition for Carousel. I was cast as bad guy Jigger Craigin. It's tough to break old habits, because I also agreed to take on the set design and poster design for the production. A very large load to carry, but I was having a ball. The director asked me to make myself look a little less clean cut for the role, so I grew out my hair and a full beard. Toward the end of production, someone took this photo of me and I decided I looked olllld. The day after we wrapped, I had my hair cut and shaved off the beard and also the goatee I'd worn for the past 10 years or so. Cathy couldn't stop staring for a while. It definitely gave me a younger looking face.

That Jigger Craigin look.

Carousel graduation scene

Carousel wharf

After Carousel wrapped up, we took a trip up north to Bodega Bay, home of Hitchcock's "The Birds." Lots of fun, it also demonstrated that it's not always warm in in Northern California in the summertime! A bit later, we discovered that it's surprisingly difficult to get to the Caribbean from the west coast, so we made our first trip to Mexico, travelling with my sister and brother-in-law, Kim and Troy. We stayed in Tulum, just at the lower reach of the Mayan Riviera. Troy rented a car so we had some mobility. We also had some unbelievable humidity, but a great time with the beach and exploring local ruins and the town.

The cliffs at Bodega Bay

Long way down at the cliffs at Bodega Bay

Cathy and I at the ruins in Tulum, Mexico. And why did we leave the pool, again?

I auditioned for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and was cast as Judah, which meant I got to sing "Benjamin Calypso" We performed the show outdoors under the stars in San Anselmo Park. It was super lowbrow but tons of fun. (but then, that describes every production of Joseph, doesn't it?) After this, I pursued and won the lead in South Pacific, playing Emile DeBeque (man, why don't they write proper baritone leads any more?) This was a huge role for me, with a lot of singing - including two major solo numbers: "Some Enchanted Evening" and "This Nearly Was Mine." My partner on stage, Carri, is an incredibly accomplished singer so I was more than a little worried about going toe-to-toe. Fortunately, she introduced me to her voice teacher, Peter Maleitzke. We hit it off and I'm still studying with him. Fortunately, South Pacific had a very long rehearsal period and I was able to work with him for 2 months before we opened. I'm happy to say I was able to surprise a lot of people (including myself!)

South Pacific publicity photo

Rehearsal "This Nearly Was Mine"

"Some Enchanted Evening" Reprise

Dancing with Nellie - "I'm in Love With A Wonderful Guy" reprise

My voice teacher Peter and his dog Bella, who usually hangs around during lessons

Singing in a group lesson

Our explorations took us to Lake Tahoe with friends for a weekend. Excellent weekend away, just eating, sleeping, a little time in the casinos and some more time in the hot tub! The elevation was a difficult adjustment. I tried to go running and found myself sucking wind only a few hundred yards into my run. We also made the first ever trip to Hawaii for both of us, choosing to visit Lanaii, formerly the Dole Pineapple plantation. Since Dole moved its business out of the US, Lanaii has become very quiet. It's mostly residential, has one sleepy little town and 3 hotels. We got used to riding into town for our meals. Things were so quiet that the server would usually chat with us (and on one occasion joined us) We rented a jeep one day and went exploring. We were there during the rainy season, so we didn't get to see everything we wanted to - we were warned that if we tried for certain destinations, we'd likely get bogged down and would be paying for the extraction ourselves.

Cathy in Hawaii

With friends Alison, Cathy, Carol and Simon at Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe

It was also toward the end of 2005 that we started to think about buying a house. This is always an adventure in Marin county, as the high personal incomes and limited availability have conspired to make the market very expensive. Everything that fell into what we were thinking sounded like a 'comfortable bracket' was generally falling down, had some kind of mortal wound, was out in the sticks, or was an ideal size for our cat Term (if he didn't bring room mates.) The insane early-oughts housing market wasn't helping. In the two years that we waited to purchase, the median value in the county shot up by $200K. Insane. After a 5 month search, 4 rejected offers, and a place that we backed out of during escrow - the overall tilt of the house didn't please us too much - we finally found a place that had been sitting on the market for a couple of months. It's a good solid house, but after serving as a rental for 15 years, it was suffering from a charm deficit. Some spirited wrangling with the owners followed, and as of mid-June, we had ourselves a house. We rolled up our sleeves and tore into it. Naturally, a killer heat wave rolled into town at about the same time. When we'd leave the house at night and head back to Sausalito, the temperature rolling back by 20 degrees as we drove, we questioned what we'd got ourselves into. Houses up here in temperate Northern California are not built quite as tight as we were accustomed to back east and air conditioning is definitely not ubiquitous. Nevertheless, we completed renovations that included recarpeting, replacing and refinishing hardwood floors, new base mouldings, laying new ceramic tile, a bathroom vanity, windows and a complete repainting.

The new house

Yes, it's as hot as it looks replacing a floor in the family room

That's all for this installment. In the next one, I'll bring things up to date by filling in 2006-2007, which includes my last days at ILM, mountain climbing, bigger and bigger acting jobs, a return to parts south and more travels around the bay area.