I'm giving in to the surveys...

Another survey from jen & michelle. how can I resist my actors?

1.You have 10 bucks and need to buy snacks at a gas station what do you get?
Fig newtons, root beer & a lottery ticket

2. If you had to be reincarnated as some sort of sea dwelling creature, what would u be?
Blue whale. No contest.

3. Who's your favorite redhead?
My girlfriend.

4. What do you order when you're at a waffle house?
If its truly a waffle house (like the awesome Canadian Waffle House that used to be at Broadway & 82nd St. and NOT pancake house), then I'd get the cornbread waffles. Heavely.

5. Last book you read?
"Fifty Degrees Below" by Kim Stanley Robinson

6. Have you made out with anyone on your friend's list?
Um, duh.

7. What's your lucky number?
12

8. Describe the last time you were injured.
Rough and tumble cuddling with the gf - we bonked heads.

9. Of all your friends, with whom would you want to be stuck in the jungle?
All the stage managers and 1st & 2nd AD's. They are prepared for EVERYTHING.

10. Are there any odd things that make you feel uncomfortable?
goldfish that swim upside down, the toilet paper roll hung the wrong way, doctors offices

12. What is the wallpaper on your cell phone?
default

13. Soda?
root beer

14. Flavor of pudding?
flavor = chocolate, type = non-dairy

15. What type of shirt are you wearing?
PJ top.

16. Prescription medication?
Too many, but less than before.

17. Name two things you did last night?
bought cookies at the Union Square Green Market, attended a screenplay reading with friends

18. $100 bank error in your favor, what do you buy?
I'd feel too guilty to use it, knowing it'd be corrected against me eventually and then out $100 bucks...

19. How many people on your list do you know in real life?
most

20. What are you listening to right now?
my cat sniffling

21. Most recent movie you've watched in a theater?
Lady in the Water (for free at the DGA)

22. If you could invent one thing, what would it be?
World Peace

23. Name a boss you had the hots for:
Haven't had the pleasure, yet.

24. What's your favorite town?
Always NYC, but St. Petersburgh is a close 2nd.

25. Favorite kind of cake?
Cup

26. What's the first word that comes to mind right now?
hoo hoo

27. When was the last time you saw your mom in person?
2 weeks ago

28. Who got you to join MySpace?
Maggie Burkle

29. What did you have for dinner LAST NIGHT?
Salad

30. How long have you been at your current job?
too long/not long enough

31. Is Tom on your friends list?
yes. can I dump him?

32. What's the last thing you said out loud?
'night, hon.

33. Look to your left, what do you see?
Amsterdam Avenue.

34. Who is the last person who spent $100 on you?
my parents

35. Who's your least-favorite tennis player?
Ivan Lendl

36. Favorite sport?
women's basketball

37. What's the last piece of clothing you bought?
swank shorts for my trip to LA

Under The Pink Carpet

And the press never ends... Back at our beloved Drunken Pussycat, Henrietta Hudson's alter ego in "The D Word," some cast and I sat down to chat about our little film that could to Robin Cloud of "Under The Pink Carpet," a cable access show like the gay "Entertainment Tonight." It's been nearly 2 years since we shot in HH, but it still feels like home. The nicest part about it all was hearing my actresses (yes, I use the possesive), Mellyss'ah Mavour and Victoria Soyer, talk about how wonderful they felt about the experience of shooting our little show. Like I said then, and I'll always believe: no matter what crap went down on set that day, I always went to bed with a smile on my face - knowing how lucky I was to be making MY movie with cool people. May I always carry that joy.

PS - notice that "212" shirt? That's my way of saying "I'm a New Yorker, dammit!" and why I made fun of LA...

Terrorists Suck; Liberty Rules

I'm a die-hard NY Liberty fan.

I keep going to games even though they do things like lose by 33 points to Indiana this week. I cheer like a maniac in my season subscription seats. I throw away my $10 Nalgene water bottle after standing in line for nearly 10 minutes to get through security at Madison Square Garden.

Wait. I did what?

Yeah, I trashed my favorite H2O bottle filled with my own home-Britta-filtered water, just so I could get in the door to watch my beloved 2nd-to-last place team in their 2nd-to-last game of the season. It used to be that security would confiscate bottles of soda and water at the door for 2 obnoxious reasons: 1. So that you'd be forced to buy liquid refreshment at insanely inflated prices from their concession stands inside and 2. To prevent the nasty bottle-cap-throwing incidents of Men's games, whereby irrate fans would toss trash onto the court. When you buy a bottle of water inside MSG, they take the cap off and hand you the bottle. Annoying to say the least. So, when they took my Nalgene bottle off of me at the gate this evening, thanks to the most recent terrorist plot in the news, it was more of a test than I'd imagined it to be. Many penny-pinching patrons like myself, when presented with the choice of their sodas or the game, chose to turn around with their pop in hand. As if the attendence at Liberty games wasn't dismal enough due to their abysmal record...!

As a person with a history of Kidney stones, I carry and chug water at all times. It is nearly impossible to separate me from my water bottle. I was so pissed-off that, parched, I refused to buy a beverage through the first half. But then my thirst got the best of me, and I plunked down $4 for a Dasani Water with no cap. Bastards! It was at that moment I swore that the Liberty were going to win this game, dammit.

And they did, in a nail-biter. With the game tied at 62, the ball in NY's possession, Barb Farris sunk the winning basket with 1.7 seconds to go. A thrilling victory, made possible, in part, by angry loyal fans willing them victory as compensation for lost goods. And with this win my bumbling lovable team became the third-to-last team in the Eastern Conference. We still got some pride, you know.

Idiot Proof Pets

WARNING: Technical and potentially boring post ahead!

I'm trying to idiot-proof my apartment for whomever has the pleasure of living here while I'm in LA. This is most difficult and important when it comes to my pets. My poor turle Esmerelda, who started life as a tiny drop of a reptile in a dixie cup on a Chinatown street corner (now nearly 8"), has graduated to ever-larger tanks until 2 years ago, when she took a step backward in habitat size as I moved to a small studio apartment sublet. She went from 55 rectangular gallons to 46 hexagonal gallons. For those uninitiated into aquarium geometry, the bigger a tank gets, the longer it gets, generally speaking. So, she was used to length. The hex tank gave her great depth - even standing on her tippy toes, her nose barely reached the surface. This is how I discovered that my turtle loves to dive, not just swim, but lurch into the water and splash around happily. Since the 55 gallon tank went away with my apartment renovations, Esmerelda's been stuck in tall but cramped quarters ever since. That will all change in the coming weeks.

After exhaustive research and comparison shopping (and selling off lots of old computer and electronic equipment on Craigs List in order to fund this endeavor), I settled on an All-Glass Aquarium 65 gallon tank and stand. Problem is, that's not a popular size and only 2 places on the East Coast carry it - and I was in no mood to drive out to Pittsburgh; but Copiague, Long Island? That I can handle with a ZipCar; and so I made the trek to Pets Warehouse today.

I also took the initative and designed a new ramp/basking platform for her, having it manufactured to spec at Canal Plastics, fittingly, just blocks from her original purchase in Chinatown. Picked that up today, too. Thank G-d plexi-glass is cheap!

The final technical hurdle in this habitat project is a new idiot-proof filtration system. Right now I'm using a powerful cannister filter (Fluval 304), but the priming sucks, and it's a huge pain in the ass to clean. So, emboldened by examples set by industrious and clever fellow-red-eared-slider owners, I decided to try an externally hung bio-wheel type filter - retrofitted to eliminate (or at least decrease) the waterfall effect which is bound to happen in a turtle tank. For the aquatic turtle uninitiated: Aquatic turtles need plenty of H2O to swim in and a dry refuge under full-spectrum UVA/UVB lighting and heat to dry out their shells, too. This means that the tank isn't filled all the way to the top. So, if you've got water pouring like a waterfall out of a filter, it'll have farther to fall in a turtle tank, thus splashing and making an awful racket and mess. The real virtue of this filter? It takes standard cartridges. So, whatever pet-sitter is tending Esmerelda in my stead can just pull out the old dirty cartridges and stick new clean ones in. That's it. Simple, huh? Of course there will be the occassional addition of water and the daily feeding, but that's pretty easy. Oh, and I got a timer, so the lights will go on and off automatically.

All of this will take another week+ to assemble and run before actually placing Esmerelda into her new playground. I can't wait. Neither can she - the new unassembled kit sits across from her current tank, so she swims up next it and stares intently through the glass.

As for my the rest of my menagerie, I've been looking into automated cat feeders & waterers and the ultimate in feline care: the self-flushing litter box. They have similar products to handle my fish as well (the feeding, not the pooping)...

I'll be passing on my hex tank on to my niece and her new smaller turtle Harry (named after Harry Potter, of course). And we'll convert Harry's current tank into a fish tank for my other niece, reusing the hood/filter combo I have from a past aquarium. My nephew already has 2 fish and 2 frogs set-up in his room, so he's good to go, pet-wise.

So, I feel virtuous in simplifying the care and nurturing of my pets and the recycling of used materials to care for my family's critters. If only I could simplify my actual pets... They're just affection whores, especailly the turtle, believe it or not. I guess we all are in this household. That'll be one of the hardest parts about LA - no pets to come home to, missing them all and our routines and cuddles. And missing the biggest cuddle of all: my girlfriend's arms.