i was invited to play cricket today. what the fuck? why wouldn't i
give it a shot?

I began the day by dropping my laundry off at a fluff/fold type place.
the flat has a washer. no dryer. i guess that's common. that sure
doesn't make sense. perhaps it shall be 'splained to me.

walked 2.5 miles past leith to the cricket field. it was a lovely walk
made nicer by the fact that it was just around noon and the weather
was a delight. google maps was perfect with all the turns and that, my
friends, is fucking amazing.

cricket. as a batter, you have to protect the wicket from being hit by
the ball. as a member of the other team, you're trying to hit the
wicket with the ball and knock the two little things off the top.

that's the game. well, as much as baseball is hitting the ball and
running around the bases to get to home plate. everyone has their
stupid games and baseball and cricket are just as stupid as each
other. it's a game. what the fuck, right?

it was "aussies against england". I was, of course, put on the aussie
team. mickey d., a comic here who organazized the match, is such a
sweet guy. i think i'm going to his shoe tonight, by the way.

so, i'm on their team. they put me in the position you'd put the
american who's never played cricket, right?

there are no gloves. except for the "catcher". and that little fucking
ball is hard. that is one hard little ball. christ.

it was like softball. long stretches of nothing followed by brief
flurries of activities. some of the guys were REALLY serious about it
and others were there to have fun. Leon was on the English team, of
course.

The guy from Irishman, Scotsman & Englishman (i don't remember the
exact title, but it was a week before i realised he all three guys on
the poster and that, apparently, isn't rare..) got up to "bowl" after
several others had. you trade off, i think. or at least we were. on
his first bowl, he hit the wicket. instant hero. we'd made one other
out. kieran, who was a flatmate last year, made an astounding play,
also, by tossing the ball behind him without seeing and hitting the
wicket. it was, well, wicked.

i had to get going but they decided it would be fun to have the american bowl.

once i got the hang of throwing a ball with a straight arm, i did
okay. not too many hits.

then. i got a wicket. i hit it right in the center. hero. i got a
wicket. apparently, i rule.

then i caught a taxi, where i found someone's phone. i called the last
number and it was the guy's daughter. i ended up leaving the phone at
the box office.

went to do the show. wished we hadn't. just lackluster show. quiet
audience. started off poorly. we had to work a lot. to our credit, we
didn't give up, but it was just a tough fucking show. i'm sure we're
doing something wrong. or not. maybe we're just spoiled. i mean,
afterwards, people are all smiles and chatty and they drop shit in the
box and are very happy. but it sure was quiet.

who knows? 12 more shows. that's what i do know. that's a lot. that's
fun. that is a pantsload of shows. if you're doing a play in l.a.,
that's nearly a full run.

after last night's shower i have proclaimed that i am now officially a
big fat fuck. it's so annoying. i have a big fat gut and i'm saggy
everywhere.

it's so depressing.

can't stop eating crap. blech.

hi. i'm a big, fat, fuck.

saw jeremy lyon's shoe yesterday. holy shit. i remember from last year
seeing it and feeling so dirty afterwards. it's very similar this
time. you just feel sick. it's so very artaud. man, it's gleeful
ugliness. that character could be so pat and obvious, but he makes it
soooo damned good. man.

went to andrew maxwell's shoe at 8. they tell me he hit big this year
on a tv show. he is so comfortable on stage. so solid and present.
learned about not letting phones and people going to the bathroom bug
me. he has something to do, so bullshit like a phone isn't going to
interrupt it.

he does do a great thing with sound, though. the trachtenbergs are
above him and they had some words because the sound was too loud. they
had been keepign it down, but the volume has raised over the past few
days, so whenever they'reheard in maxwell's venue, he has the sound
guy play this loud explosion to fuck wtih the trachtenbergs. really
funny. cheap. but funny.

so anyway... he is great with wonderful insights about the world.
there's some lefty stuff that bugs me and some of the info is wrong.
but it works okay and didn't ruin the show for me.

hung out with him and some other folks afterwards and that was nice.
he told stories about an old timer here in the u.k. and that was
wonderful.

today, i did a guy from the observer talked to me about the
aristocrats and i tried to sound intelligent. we shall see. there is,
as there should be, quite a bit of excitement about it.

very fucking cool.

i wish our show went better today. i'd feel happier.

at least the weather is warm.

rock on.

¶ 11:09 AM