Freedom ain't free, y'all

Last night Irina took me to an "Archi" party where I was fortunate enough to bask in the glow of some the finest and most creative pre-professionals I have had the pleasure of meeting since arriving in Houston in June of '02. I met two guys with words for names like me, though both had alternative spellings: Justus & Skye ... in the first case the result of born-again Christian parents, in the second case probably hippies though I didn't get a chance to find out. I did however see an amazing sight: Anton Sinkewich, who audited my Spanish class at Rice last fall, was using a rolled-up towel to split and flick puffy Chee-toes as they were pitched to him by Skye.

I also met two guys, Pablo & Darío, who are recent arrivals in Houston from Spain (by way of Tokyo in the case of Pablo), and a girl named Mary who says she feels old at 24. I was glad for the candor ... it made me feel better about my own thinly veiled worries on age. I'm all about emotional honesty these days, especially when it comes from other people. At the party, I also met Eric, who has developed a popular method for clapping with one hand. It looks like a prayer for carpal tunnel, but I'll take it over the hand-on-wrist clap of my home-state senator Bill Frist at the State of the Union.

Note: Speaking of stupid human tricks, I still involuntarily cough into the crook of my elbow, even though I think it looks dumb and is not likely to be sparing anyone any germs they won't come into contact with anyway.

Other good news from last night: I got a call from my brother Wilson in Austin, who managed to track down a Peruvian woman with an Andean music radio show. She says her grandmother is from Tacna and that she can help us find 1890s Tacna waltzs for "La señorita de Tacna," the Vargas Llosa play that "Gente de Teatro" is reprising the first weekend of April. I'm hoping my brother can play in the show, though I still have to convince the director (& my Rice CSL colleague) Marcela Salas to go for it.

Tonight I'll be playing with the brand spankin' new improv group "The Leash" at the Texas Improv Festival (see http://www.texasimprov.com/shows/). We had our very first performance Wednesday at Helios, opening up for Mac Antigua (my improv teacher) and his troup "Ivan." The show felt like it had feet to stand on and so I was relieved. This was my first time acting since high school, though I'm happy to say my teammates have a lot more experience than me and are really wonderful about supporting me on stage.

I've been getting more and more interested in long-form improv since I spent the month of July living with my friend Zack (who's in a troupe in D.C.'s W.I.T.) I took (really well-led) classes with Mac last fall that opened my eyes up to the possibilities of being present in the moment and connecting yourself deeply to others' emotions. It think the experiences I had in class made me think a lot about my own personal life ... and sent me through quite a few emotional ups-and-downs ... but I'm so glad I got into it. When I was in Washington, I used to roll my eyes at Zack & company sometimes because it just seemed improv had become a philosophy or a religion to them, but I'm starting to see its power.

New wedding announcement- My old friend from Haverford Nina VanderHoeven who I was really really close to for about one year and haven't seen hardly at all since, though we still correspond. There's just something about these West Coast people that I love, though I never get out to see them. (I've never even been west except San Francisco last October.) But I'd love to go to Seattle for the wedding in July if time/money permits, and I know I still owe a visit to Miles Starkenburg in Reno or Spokane. And I'd like to get back to Stephan Ellner's beautiful-if-exorbitantly-expensive corner of the world in Mountain View. I'm just such an East guy ... pale of skin, soft of body, & comfortable in small apartments and cozy spaces ... & somewhere in-between a mellow Southerner and a tough-as-nails Northeasterner. I've loved living in Houston, but for whatever reason it hasn't messed with that core mix. I think becoming Texan is either all-or-none, and after some consideration I've chosen none (for now).

Well, laundry's up and we're scheduled to rehearse at the Alley downtown in a little while ...

P.S. The title of this maiden posting refers to my current "free" status of being young & relatively unattached ... a total myth, but one I don't mind cultivating in my own head.