In Memoriam

 August 31, 2022, will mark the one year anniversary of my little brother's transition from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant.  I should probably state that I have another little brother through my father, but the one who passed away is the one with whom I shared a womb and upbringing.  And in that upbringing, we cultivated our roles of big sister and little brother.

I've created this memorial reel.  It will get better over the years:  I hope to clean up the pictures and not have so many dupes, maybe make the transitions between songs a bit better.  But words can't express what it's like to lose a younger sibling, so I'm just sharing some pics of him with some music that is significant to me when I think of him.  I've done my best with the attributions, but if tech doesn't like them, you can see the names of the songs.  They are 

Lion's version of "If I would have known;

"If I Would Have Known" by Kyle Hume; and the one and only

"I Shall Wear A Crown" by Yolanda Deberry, and First Church "The City."

I should end this post on a positive note, and I believe he's doing better in Eternity than his last few months on Earth in Chronos Time.  I still can't process the fact that I was at his funeral and not the other way around.

Oh, well.  In one of these years, I'll make a happier reel celebrating him.  This is where I am right now.

Be Blessed, Saints!  Be Blessed!!!

My thoughts on "TAKE ME OUT"

Today I was privileged to attend the Richard Greenberg play “Take Me Out.”  Other than the Radio City Christmas Show (which isn’t Broadway proper), I don’t usually do Broadway unless the ticket is comped, I’m treated,  or it’s something I’ve really wanted to see.  In 40 years living in NYC, I may have paid to see Avenue Q; Starlight Express; Fela; maybe the 2^nd time I saw Lion King, and that’s about it. My tastes and pocketbook generally tend towards Off or Off-Off-Broadway rather than Broadway proper.

 ANYway, I was privileged to attend "Take Me Out." The primary reason I went was the leaked nude photos of Jesse Williams, but it was a delightful experience and I’m so glad I went. Phones had to be turned off and put into locked pouches, so I wrote my observations.  Here they are, in the order in which they popped into my head:

 

1.  My seat was on the 6^th row, and it was a small theatre.  The people in the first row could reach out and touch the stage; my 6^th row seat felt like it was about a car length away from the stage.
2.   From before they let us in, through lights down, I was locking eyes and smiling with every black female I saw.  Also noted the number of older white people (normal theater crowd; I wonder if the leaks impacted their attendance at all) and the number of single males of all demographics in attendance.
3.  They made a big deal out of it, but I was not impressed with the security measures to keep you from taking pictures.  They did partner with this group called Yondr to lock up your phones, and they said there was a camera facing the audience to detect people trying to take pictures, but anybody who’s reasonably technical and who doesn’t mind sexually violating the cast members (no pun intended) could do it.  PLUS, even though they said they would not accept phone tix, that you HAD to print them, folks showed up with tix on their phones, so they scanned them and then made them turn the phones off and lock them up.  They also said no large bags, but one woman had just come to the theater directly from the airport and she had a carryon rolling bag.  They went through it, but they let her in.  Again, I think it’s sexual exploitation to film naked people without their consent, EVEN IF they’re naked on a Broadway stage, but if someone were intent on doing it, it didn’t seem to me that it would have been that hard.
4.  SMH.  The theatre is down the block from Virgil’s and the parking garage is across the street from a BonChon.  I was supposed to have gone to Orchard Street to check this black-owned vegan ice cream joint, but that’s gonna have to wait another day.  Thought I’d check out Virgil’s because Dinosaur has kinda turned me off with their high prices and small portions (plus Stephen doesn’t work there any more); Virgil’s was just as bad.  Stuff is high.
5.  While in the theater, I thought it was kind of nice not having the phone.  I had to force myself to write which is slower than texting, but preferable to making a FB post for every random thought I have.
6. Speaking of random thoughts:  if you weigh over 300 or so, and you have a seat that’s NOT on the aisle, maybe try coming to the venue early so a whole row of people doesn’t have to move.  OTOH, even though I wasn’t on the row with the large late people, because I know I like to book aisle seats, I should maybe wait til I see a lot of folk seated before I sit down.  The cool thing about going to events solo is when I do it at the last minute and find two seats on the aisle, if I take the aisle seat, there’s often a good chance the other one will remain empty! I thought that until 2:08 today…
7.  Before I went to the theater, I made a post where I worried that maybe Jesse Williams would have been distressed by all the publicity and there would have been an understudy for today’s show.  Y’all, my stomach literally flipped when I sat down, opened my Playbill, and there was an insert saying the role of DAVEY BATTLE would be played by Ryan Broussard.  I had to actually read through the Playbill til I found the credits and saw that Jesse Williams was playing a character by the name of Darren Lemming (Broussard was also the understudy for Darren Lemming).  The takeaway for me is that I have to stop with those negative projections.  At this point, it was about 1:56, 1:57, and all seats in my row were filled except the one beside me and at the other end of the row where there was also a single woman on the end and an empty seat beside her.
8. Writing before the play started, I noted that I probably was not close enough to get hit with the water from the shower scenes, but wold probably be able to smell the soap (and sure enough, when the players were putting on lotion and/or liniment, I could smell it!  Or at least, I thought I could…)  At this point it was exactly 2:00, and though I had not seen the lights blink yet, thought I would put my writing away.
9. At 2:03, the seat beside me was taken.  Another black female.  Very pleasant, though we both had a purpose and it wasn’t chatting up strangers.
10.  Intermission was at exactly 3 pm.   I don’t know if it was the excitement, the sprinklings of full-frontal nudity here and there, or the locked electronics, but I found myself much more engaged in this show than in most Broadway plays. 
11. The second act began with a half dozen nude men on stage in a shower scene.  They were white, Latinx, Asian, and ... no disrespect to his white side, but I’m comfortable calling Jesse Williams a black man.  I heard a clip where Charlemagne tha god stated that Jesse’s appendage had to be a prosthesis.  I ain’t no expert, but I inspected as much as I could, since I saw a lot more than I had expected to see – just about ALL these fellas were blessed, so I found myself looking to see if prostheses were used.  It’s technically possible, I guess, but they all looked natural to me.  By the time of this scene, though, you were actually as interested in the character development as in their anatomy.
12. This was probably more fun than going to the gym or being at the pool.  Jesse Williams’ body is as impressive as his eyes, but his acting talent overshadows it all.  There are scenes in which the only thing you see is a tear or ten rolling down his face.  And I have never watched “Modern Family,” but if I can see more of Jesse Tyler Ferguson, then I will do that.  He was A-MAY-ZING!!!
13. Finally, if you like baseball, sports, NYC culture, NYC Sports culture, all in an LGBTQI-celebrating environment, then you’ll enjoy this play.  And if you enjoy well-developed human bodies (all male in this case), you will also enjoy this play.  I came home and immediately started searching 2^nd Stage.  Had I been able to find an available front row seat  on a date when I’m in town, I would gladly have purchased it.  Unfortunately, the theater is quickly selling out:  there are only a handful of Orchestra level seats left for the whole season (ends on 6.11); on one day I saw half of the mezzanine level was empty, but there are precious few orchestra seats left, and none closer than where I sat today, which was Row F.  It was a delightful experience, I’m glad I went, and I am not above being a groupie and going to stand outside the rear exit doors for one showing.  Probably won’t, but it’s a thought…
14. Haven’t said anything about the content of the play.  It’s a coming out story:  Jesse Williams is this star athlete, a biracial guy who’s never known want and whose embrace of the privilege bestowed upon him always lives somewhere between simple facts and self-serving vanity.  But such a strong character is necessary, since the play essentially chronicles the reactions of everyone around him; the resulting messy drama is the play.  As we get through that messy drama, though, we do it with wit and wisdom and incredible views into the world of professional athletes as well as members of the LGBTQ family.  With or without nudity, if I had a chance to sit in the first 5 rows, I would see it again in a heartbeat!!!