October 9 – Day 33: Any Day That Starts with Buster Keaton Is a Good One


Now that we’re into the run of the show, I’m a weird limbo spot of feeling like I have days off even though I don’t really have them. Our official call time is 6:45, 30 minutes before curtain (and 7:15 still strikes me as an odd time for a curtain, but the people at 59E59 know what they’re doing …), but I like to arrive between 5:30 and 5:45. Regardless of any of this, I have my days free, so there’s time to do things, as long as it’s nothing too time-consuming or draining. (We don’t do a Wednesday matinee, so all my weekdays are free.)

Because of this, I’m fighting the temptation to stay up late and sleep late, trying to keep a “normal” schedule. I’m mostly failing, but at least feel guilty about it. With Pidge coming into town—and with our being crammed into one room—I’ll have to adjust my schedule more to hers. I mean, I would like to see her while she’s here … I tried turning in “early” Monday night, and it seemed to work. Knowing I had something to do on Tuesday helped.

That “something” was going to the movies. The Quad Cinema over on west 13th was showing The Great Buster, a new documentary by Peter Bogdanovich about Buster Keaton, and (not knowing if it would ever play back home) I wanted to see it. (I also wanted to see the accompanying programs of Bogdanovich and Keaton films, but they were almost all playing when we have performances.)

The Quad is an interesting theatre. It was, apparently, the first multi-screen theatre in Manhattan, and is still devoted to “art films.” (Coming up: series on Vincent Price and “Sapphic vampires.”) It was refurbished in the last few years, and is really a quite nice place to see a movie; the theatre I was in felt like a screening room. The theatres are small, but the seats are very comfortable (though the drink holders are awkwardly placed; at mid-leg level in back of the seat in front of me. I kicked my water bottle across my row) and the projection quality is excellent. The one drawback was that the box office was run by what seemed to be undertrained college kids. It wasn’t annoying; it was just slow. (Then again, I do have line karma.)

The film itself was wonderful. I was a little worried that it might have some misinformation or myths that have been debunked—and it had a high bar to clear after Kevin Brownlow and David Gill’s Buster Keaton: A Tough Act to Follow (that I was startled to see just now is more than 30 years old), but it’s really a loving tribute to Keaton by Bogdanovich (who narrates), who is a film historian himself and really wants to stick to the record. For those unfamiliar with Keaton’s work, it’s a great introduction and (I think) would really make people want to watch his films. I know I want to go back and look at the two-reelers, in particular. He refers to Roscoe Arbuckle as “Fatty” a bit too much, but if that’s my biggest complaint …

 See it if you can.

The movie let out and it was time to head for the theatre. It was a nice enough evening (in spite of the humidity) that I decided to walk up Madison for a change. As much as I like my walks up and down Park Avenue, Madison feels a little more New Yorky. Park is almost all office and apartment buildings once it gets north of Grand Central, whereas Madison is nice mixtures of storefronts and skyscrapers. The one drawback is that, with those storefronts come more pedestrians, so it can get a little clogged.

After a stop at Starbucks, I got to the theatre and kind of wished I’d gotten something to eat. I hadn’t had anything since breakfast (toast, as usual) and was a little hungry. Given the choice of working on an empty stomach or a full one, though, I was happy to take the former.

It was a good dressing room atmosphere. Everyone was reasonably rested from the day off, and we did the usual joking and discussing. The main thing that keeps getting to me, though, is how soon it’s time for places. I’m used to 6:30 being about an hour-and-a-half from showtime, and here, it’s just a few minutes from half-hour, and before I know it, it’s 7:00 and I really need to start focusing. (The corollary to this is that, even though the show’s running about 2:30, we’re still done before 10:00, so that’s good.)

The show itself went pretty well. As unfocused as I felt Sunday, I felt on top of things Tuesday. There were some usual first-day-after-the-break glitches (transpositions of parts of lines, dropped cues [I have one I’ve been missing, not knowing I’ve been missing it], and the cuckoo clock section got screwed up [not that anyone else would have noticed]), but overall it was a good show.

Afterward, I figured I’d take the 6 to Union Square, then walk and finally get some supper at Baker’s Pizza (where I haven’t been for a while), but on the way remembered Sauce, so I changed plans and went back there, this time starting with dessert (since I knew there was no way I could carry a pizza box and a cup of soft serve and not have a tragedy on the way home). (Did I mention that one of the reasons the place is called "Sauce" is that they include little ramekins of "grandma's sauce" that is simmering in a pot next to the slices to dip those slices into?) 

I got the slices, took off for home, and sat on the bed eating pizza while watching the end of the Yankees/Red Sox game (thankfully, the last of those for this season). I considered writing some, but decided to read some newspapers instead before getting to bed—as always, much later than I expected.

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