My First Day Coaching

When I blogged on Friday, I was expecting to do my first solo trapeze coaching session on Saturday. There were four people signed up: Steve, plus friends Lacey, Jaime, and Moet. This would have been perfect because it was small, populated by people who'd had a few classes and would know the language, and kind of be a trial run for future classes.

Then on Saturday morning, as I set out the crash pads and mats, my class of four became a class of nine. Yes, NINE!
Here's the thing... normally a class has one instructor per five people. Once you hit six, you add a second instructor. But the whole reason I was asked to coach solo was because every other coach was out of town-- all performing in shows. Plus, when it's five minutes before class starts there's no way to find someone to just show up. So suddenly, I had to fake it.
I'm pretty good at improv, and it helped that all but three people in the class had some experience, so if said, "Go climb the silks," they could do it without a problem. The one negative, however, is that when your friends are there you take advantage of them. That meant that Steve, Jaime and Lacey (above) got neglected. I worked with them three times during class (where I outfitted them in shirts I'd brought so they wouldn't hurt their armpits during a couple new moves) but not nearly as much as I would have liked.

I actually asked them all to hang out after class and gave them a bit more one-on-one time once the others had left so that it was worth their money. Because let's face it-- these aren't cheap classes, so I wanted people to feel like they got their money's worth.

But at the end of it all, everyone seemed to have a good time, and a bunch of people bought a series of classes. In fact, four are coming back Monday night (I'm co-teaching that night), so I guess people enjoyed themselves.

An upside for me, was that one of the new people in class was a yoga "flier" -- that is, someone who does partner balancing and massage with pressure and positioning body weight (or something like that). So after class when I was doing the extra training with Steve and the girls, Jennifer (the new girl) offered to fly me.

This was a crazy fun experience, having her balance my 175 pounds on her feet, spin me in circles, turn me upside down, and put me into a handstand on her hands.

It's strange, because when you're upside down it's tough to tell what's right and left, plus I'm used to being in control because I'm generally the strongest person in the room; I'd be the one holding someone else in the air. So having this one small woman holding me up was sensational, and after I felt totally high. I'm really hoping she sticks around for training, but also to become a part of our community.
The weekend also had a geggger (gay kegger party), Cirque School in the news and more. I'll add more tomorrow.

Fleetwood Mac Fun & Trapeze News

Last night's Fleetwood Mac concert at LA's Staples Center was amazing.

It was Steve's and my first time visiting LA Live since it opened (We've been to Staples before but not the new complex.) and it was quite a sight. Yes, touristy and crazy big, with the Nokia Center and countless restaurants blazing lights and blaring out noise, but it also features some great restaurants. Once it's complete it will be a huge boon to downtown LA. Of course, Steve and I were discussing the best off-times to come down to try out a restaurant so that we don't have to pay huge parking fees or deal with annoying drunks.

Anyway, the show. INSANE! Stevie was adorable and pitch-perfect, going for crystal clear notes that we don't always hear from her in concert. And I thought Lindsey's head was going to explode a couple times. I've always been impressed by his guitar playing but last night it was like he was on fire, the veins popping out of his neck as he riffed through countless songs. So impressive.

I'd always liked Fleetwood Mac but Steve's the person who got me into seeing their concerts, and last night as we drove home I was quite thankful for the experience.

IN CIRCUS NEWS...

I'm coaching my first solo class tomorrow!

Fortunately, it's a small beginning class that will have at least three friends (Steve included) so I've got that comfort zone going on. Friend Lacey-- pictured here hanging from me on the silks-- will be there (but I won't be hanging upside down and holding people tomorrow).

Whatever. I'm super excited.

I woke up around 5:30 this morning and my mind immediately started going over the warmups and stations that everyone will be on tomorrow. The group workouts are set up in a circuit training format, normally with two trapeze stations and two stretch stations, but numbers will make that a little bit difficult tomorrow. I hope to have some photos for Monday.

In Music News

Happy Birthday Kylie Minogue!
Steve and I can't wait to see you in October. I know you're just as excited. If you need a couple hunky trapeze performers/balancing partners, let us know and we'll have something ready by the time you get here.

Also happening today...
Tonight, Steve and I are seeing Fleetwood Mac at the Staples Center. We have great center seats. Not as great as when we sprung for expensive Stevie Nicks tickets at the Greek and Steve got to touch her, but close enough-- there's a recession, yo. (And by "we" springing for those earlier tickets, I mean Steve did. But whatever.)

Finally, if you want to see the news segment featuring mine and Steve's backs and wedding rings, here you go:

Repeal Prop 8 March, Celebs & Us On the News

Steve and I hit the protests in West Hollywood last night, which in this blog sounds like a party or must-see event, but the mood was a bit more somber than that. Still, lots of people turned out and the march took over the streets of West Hollywood and Hollywood as planned.
Writer Alonso Duralde and producer Doria Biddle (of the Frank DeCaro show on Sirius) posed here with Steve before the rally. A surprise twist was running into author Marc Acito who is in town from Portland, OR working on a new project. We happened to run into one another but plan to hook up before he leaves town again.Steve and I then posed with Jessica and Emily, two friends from trapeze class who came down in support of all their gay friends.

Also in attendance were Drew Barrymore (who spoke), Kathy Griffin and her gay-loving mom, Tabitha from Shear Genius and Tabitha's Salon Takeover, the Reichen, Lance Bass (who was not with Kathy Griffin or the Reichen when we saw him), Kelly Osbourne, and (we're told but we never saw her) Eliza Dushku. There were probably others out there but we missed them.

But guess who got caught on TV?

When we returned home, Steve randomly switched channels and here's what we saw on Fox 11 News as they talked about couples who had gotten married prior to the cut off.
Yep, those are our backs.
And that's my finger and ring on Steve's back (I can spot those little sausages glimmering with a bit of Cartier anywhere)! So did funny lady Amy Witry who called when she saw my hands and wanted to congratulate us on being "back famous."

Joking aside, it was a rough night but we're not done yet. The fight goes on.

Memorial Day Weekend -- on Hiatus

Steve and I had a great Memorial Day Weekend. We took care of the house, hiked, hung out with some friends who were in town (Mary from Seattle with her new fabulous short hair, and Catherine who I met while studying abroad in England years ago), and relaxed a lot.

But that's all there is to say right now. Tomorrow, Tuesday, the California Supreme Court comes back with their decision about Proposition 8. Tomorrow we'll find out if if other same-sex couples can marry, if same-sex couples can't marry but Steve and I are still wed, or if we're no longer married at all.

So right now neither of us wants to chat about our fabulous lives. We're just waiting for answers.

Go Twit Yourself

Everyone wants me to Twitter. Everyone at work, readers, and other random folk. Not my close friends -- very few of them even read this blog, so I doubt they'd follow my Twittling. But for those other people, they tend to be a bit stunned when they discover I don't Twit myself all day long.

"But you're so funny," this coworker said. "You could do all these great one-liners all the time."

Really?

Here's the thing: I write for a living, and a lot of what I write isn't entertaining so it exhausts me more than when I'm working on a script, article or book project. After all, I'm trying to make something pretty plain into something that you, the consumer, MUST want more than anything else. So when I do think of something to say on my blog or Facebook page, it's usually in relation to how much I hate my current writing project. And when I actually think of something that I think someone might find interesting that isn't hate related, I usually botch it in my race to type it out and get onto my next work project.

For example, this is what I wrote on Facebook yesterday: "RICHARD ANDREOLI: Nope, didn't feel the earthquake. I think I'm working to hard..."

(For those of you who don't get the mistake, I used the wrong "to" -- as in, I'm heading toward something, not doing something "too" much.)

I also feel pretty guilty when I don't read all my prerequisite blogs every day, so I can only imagine the guilt if I didn't follow everyone's Twitting. The cramps alone would make me want to Twit myself.

Chris Pine in the 'Hood, Circus Stuff, and Our Modeling Career

"I'm so glad I ran into you guys," said a former editor of mine. Steve and I were out at the Instinct magazine party in West Hollywood and ran into him. "I need some hot guys for the cover of our upcoming Gay Pride issue." I smiled, my ego swelling . Then he adds, without any malice or bitchiness because he honestly thinks I may be of help, "So if you have anyone in mind, let me know, okay?"

Nice.
In other news, the new Captain Kirk, Chris Pine, was in the neighborhood. My friend Perez Hilton (and by friend, I mean this guy I know who actually remembers my name) wrote that Chris Pine, was in our neighborhood.That now makes three of the Trek crew hanging out in the Silver Lake / Echo Park area.

Finally, my friends' show, Birdhouse Factory will be playing at the MATRIX: MIDLAND Festival 2009. The date is
Friday, June 5 at the Midland Center for the Arts. That's in Michigan, yo!

Here's the press release: "Roll right up and see how a woeful widget factory becomes a frolicsome fun house! The incomparable Cirque Mechanics fly, climb and contort their way through rotating gears, trampoline walls and aerial hoops. These twelve agile and inventive performers including veterans of the Cirque du Soleil, Moscow Circus, and other world-renowned companies - take an unlikely setting for a circus - a factory - and transform the "workers" into acrobats and the "mechanics" into circus props!"

Check out the commercial here:

Workin' for a Livin'

After leaving my 9-5 job yesterday I shot over to Burbank and the Warner Bros. lot. A friend is producing a reality show spec piece (basically shot a min episode of a potential show that they can take to studios and sell). This is one of those cases where some folks got together, tired of working on other people's projects, and called in every favor to produce a pretty amazing little mini episode and sizzle reel. I have to say (without revealing anything) that it's one of the best things I've seen in a long time.

Anyway, one of the favors was the sound mixing, which they got to do at a friend's office on the Warner lot.

The last studio I worked at was Warner. I love Warner because it's a working lot with city street sets that are used in commercials and shows all the time-- you feel like you're really in Hollywood. At the time I was working on Queen of the Damned and on the lot they were taping Friends, Gilmore Girls and West Wing , so it was never a shock to see people like Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt having lunch or walking around.

I'd also just started dating Steve, so everything about that time of my life was very exciting.

So last night was fun, cramped in a room with producers, helping them tweak the sound levels so that it heightens the story. And even though I got home late and was exhausted when the alarm went off this morning, I felt jazzed. Excited. Energized.

Then this morning I come into the office and go into the restroom to wash my hands. Someone is in the stall-- obviously using it for the proper purpose-- and he's on the phone talking to someone! Seriously?

PLOP, PLOP, "Yeah, I got the text. I'll be merging the files in a minute and..." blah, blah, blah.

Why don't you just say, "I'll merge the files as soon as I'm done crapping!"

Look, I basically like my job and I love all but one of the people I work with, and I still have writing projects in various states of development so I'm not normally depressed... but GOD that bugged the hell out of me.

I assume studio people also have this thing of talking on the phone while in the toilet, but at least you've got a shot of running into a celeb or hearing some kind of juicy gossip while it happens. At my job, it's all techy crap. Literally.

The Weekend... continued

Being the geeks that we are, Steve and I really wanted to see Star Trek this weekend (because there's nothing more fun than seeing a film like that with fans who are excited to see it).

We loved the movie, even the great coincidence of Kirk being stranded on a planet with Spock. Whatever. Of all the successful things they did with this reboot that could be forgiven.

By the way, in celeb sighting news, two Trek crew people live by us. John Cho who plays Hikaru Sulu works out at Steve's gym: Bodybuilders in Silver Lake. And Zachary Quinto, who really made the movie as Spock, lives in the 'hood as well. We've run into him while he was walking his dog on Sunset, and at our favorite Thai restaurant, Rambutan Thai.

On a side note, isn't it interesting that while the movie primarily focuses on Kirk's journey to becoming captain, the emotional arch of the film belongs to the emotionless Spock? Well done, writers.

As soon as the movie finished we shot home, grabbed some amazing guacamole Steve made (he's famous for it) and then flew across town to a barbecue hosted by our friend Rodney Alexander Griffis-- also known as Rodney, the official black friend of the Stephanie Miller Show. Stephanie's producer, Chris, took this lovely picture of me hugging Rodney who made absolutely delicious burgers.

Sunday we did our usual hike (no celebs this Sunday that we saw) but afterwards we hit local bar MJs for an afternoon beer bust. Steve and I do love the day drinking, ya see.

How drunk did we get? Well, Steve didn't. Me? I was tipsy enough to get everyone's names wrong, including Guncle Joe, who introduced his nephew (a hopeful Disney animator) to Steve a couple weeks back. I kept calling him Jim. Introduced him to all our friends as Jim.

He was gracious enough to let it go. I, however, felt like enough of an idiot that I needed to apologize on the blog. Sorry Jim. Joe. Whatever.

Finally, the night ended with a screening of the Rock of Love Bus reunion episode. Our friend worked on the show so we've been tuning in the whole season. Inside dirt? When the crazy black Canadian hooker goes after that drunk chick and hits her during the episode, she broke her nose. Classy.

Our Busy "Not Busy" Weekend

Steve and I were quite excited about having no plans this weekend because we could chill out, spend time together, and not stress... Yeah, that didn't work out. We had a fun weekend, but it wasn't as calm as we'd imagined.

Friday night started off easy enough. We had dinner at Reservoir, a new restaurant in Silver Lake not far from our house. The outdoor patio was full so we sat inside.

Everything at Reservoir feels simple but perfectly executed: soft, yellow lighting that calmly illuminates the space, giant windows along one wall so you see Silver Lake's beautiful hillsides, small tables where diners lean in to talk about the week's events, and a warm feeling throughout. The food is seasonal and lovely-- Steve has the skirt steak with faron and veggies while I had salmon with roasted potatoes. Yummy. Next time we hope to sit on the patio because in the warm summer nights it's going to be perfection.

Then Saturday hit and things got a bit crazy. It started with a trapeze class where Steve and I worked out with our friend Lacey (pictured here). Steve and I started taking classes together over a year ago, but he hurt his shoulder and didn't come back. However, now that some of his work friends suggested coming, he's been back into it.

The thing about Saturday's class was there were only three of us so the workout was really harsh. My muscles were aching, and I'm getting some more nasty bruises on me. It's time to hit the health store soon and buy a bunch of homeo-something-or-others for muscle fatigue and bruising.

On the plus side, when there are new people in class you tend to take more pictures, so here are a couple.

Steve likes this last one because he looks hot. I agree.

Okay, I'd write about everything else that happened (Including Star Trek screenings and calling Joe "Jim" while at a bar) but I need to start my work day. More tomorrow...

This is how tired I am...

I'm juggling a bunch of projects now-- both at work and in my personal writing life-- so a typical day like yesterday had me go to the gym at 6:30am, shoot to work, shoot to the circus school, shoot home where Steve (thankfully) made dinner and I scarfed it down in 15 minutes, then shoot out to a meeting with an artist friend whom I'm working with on a project.

By the time I get home, I'm beat. But I still have to pack lunch for the next day, pack my gym bag, spend maybe 5 minutes with Steve, etc.

Then this morning, after my Fags on Bags boxing class, I discovered something in the locker room: I forgot to pack a shirt. So the only thing I could wear to the office was a sweaty T. That meant I had to shoot to Ross Dress for Less (Why pay department store prices?), grab a shirt, run to the office and begin my day. Ironically, two people have complimented my shirt thus far.

Anyway, today was even busier because at 10am the presale tickets for Kylie Minogue at the Hollywood Bowl went on sale! So Steve was on one computer at his office, I'm at mine. He's using the fan club password, I'm using our Amex, and damned if we didn't get 4 box seats each, in the front. He's close to the stage, I'm further back but center. We have enough friends who will want to buy the extras so we're not stressed about the purchase.

Strange, isn't it? As exhausted as I was getting here this morning, knowing I had to buy a shirt and all that, I'm pretty pumped right now.

R.I.P Dom DeLuise

Dom DeLuise died, and between he and Bea Arthur's passing it's like two great comedy legends have left us. I was a huge fan of Dom's, mostly from seeing him in countless repeats of Cannonball Run when HBO first launched, but he also just seemed to have that skewed sensibility I always loved. When he was on TV, I tuned it.
I met Dom once through my friend Bernadette Bowman, who was a friend of the family. He was so gracious, funny, and full of energy. You'd think I'd been a friend of the family for years the way he welcomed me. I also met his sons Peter, Michael and David at various times, and worked with Michael once when Michael did a reading of a pilot I'd written. All three boys are funny, charming, and warm people; with only a passing knowledge, I still think of them as being reflections of their parents.

So Dom is gone and I'm a bit sad. But here, at least, is something to smile about: