Thats one fucking awesome day…

So Saturday, (Yesterday technically) was one fucking awesome day.

i’ve had it on my schedule to see Rent on Saturday for quite some time. The friend I originally was planning on going with got sick and I grabbed a replacement, Eric, at the last minute. We had brunch at First Watch to start our day off then we went about going north to Cleveland.

On the way we wanted to find a Starbucks so enjoying the new geeky abilities that I can do with my laptop I connected to the internet from the car via Bluetooth and my Sprint PCS cell phone. It was one of those “WOW!” moments. Its odd being in the position to be continually wowed by technology when you’re a geek, but its really really cool to be able to have all these devices connect wirelessly to each other and just work. (Okay I got kicked off once, its not perfect, but right now this bluetooth net connection is at about the level that your modem connection was at back in 1997 or so, a bit flaky but good enough.)

After we got Eric awoken with Starbucks coffee and a McDonald’s hamburger he and I had quite an interesting discussion about work and were we’re going. (Hey, Eric and I discuss work all the time… Just like my dad and I used to discuss work all the time… What can I say I enjoy talking business, I practically get horny reading the finance pages….)

We got into Cleveland, wandered around the warehouse district into Griffon Gallery, an art gallery. I’ll admit the art wasn’t quite my taste, well done stuff, but just not something that would fit into my style. Oddly enough there was an old friendly cat sitting on the table in his bed, who enjoyed being pet. The coolest part of the visit was walking to Tom, the curator and family. He pulled us some nice strings and got us a reservation at XO, a really classy modern steakhouse where Eric and I both ate fish. (Go figure.)

If you’re in Cleveland, go and visit the Griffon Gallery its at 1370 West Ninth Street, its a great little place.

Then up next was Rent, the main course, and the impetus for the trip. This was my fifth time seeing Rent and it was definitely much better than the last two productions. The sound was together, and there were no batteries dying on the wireless microphones. My only gripe is that the show started promptly on time, and low and behold the house staff kept seating people for at least 10 minutes.. it was annoying and well poor house/stage management.

I’m still amazed how many new things I found in the show, and how moved I am by the show. There is all this cool dialogue that supports the music much better, and very effective staging that enforces the show. For example, Gordon, the outcast from the LifeSupport group, he’s off on the other side of the stage, on his own, reenforcing his isolation from the group and their philosophy.

Oh, and I got a Rent t-shirt, its about time, I only saw Rent for the first time back in 1997.. Better late than never, but I have to remember the message on the shirt, “No Day But Today”, a fucking awesome today.