So I've been known to lie...

But I read once that an actor is nothing but a liar with a good memory.

Judging by the 1 email per minute rate of response I'm getting from my mass email about the potential for a blogger gathering this summer, I think it's safe to say that you folks were just waiting for me to sack up and put on my kitten-herding uniform again.

So here's the deal - there will be a blogger gathering in Las Vegas the weekend of June 6-10. Rooms are up to you, because I'm not guaranteeing 75 nights on my credit card, but the IP will likely hook you up with a cheap rate.

There will almost certainly be a tournament that Saturday. It will very likely be later in the day than previous events, due to a competing event at our host site. Yeah, something about a Deep Stack Extravaganza tying up a bunch of tables.

Yep, that means I think we're gonna be back at the Venetian. That's pending confirmation, but it looks good so far. Other bits of festivities will be drawn up as time moves forward.

See you fuckers in 3 months.

Summertime

So I was poking around on usairways website and realized that I've passed the 25,000 mile mark for frequent flier miles. That means that if I time things perfectly, I can get a free ticket.

June 5-9 counts. As of today. Subject to change without notice as they probably keep all of two of those tickets available.

So anybody wanna get together and drink for a weekend in Vegas? Like I said before, I won't organize another big tournament, but I could be persuaded to organize some serious drinking.

You know how to contact me if you wanna go.

March Album of the Month - Lost Boy by Bleu Edmondson

As promised, here's the first in hopefully a series of album reviews from what I'm listening to lately.

Bleu Edmondson's Lost Boy is the best album I've heard so far this year, and has all the earmarks of being one of my lasting favorites for some time to come. I'd never heard of this guy before I heard his song "Finger on the Trigger" on XM-12 (which, by the way, if you don't have XM radio yet, it's worth the subscription price just to get Rogue Calls from 12-2 every workday). I immediately put the song name down on my list of stuff to download, and after giving it a couple of listens decided to pick up the whole album.

Edmundson is a writer. A real one. His songs evoke the desolate imagery of someone who's had his heart ripped out, stomped on, had mescal poured all over it, then set on fire in the desert and finally buried in a shallow grave somewhere a thousand miles from anywhere happy. But there's still a feeling of redemption in the album, like somebody who's been through the fire and come out tempered.

If you take a little of Robert Earl Keen's dust-blown Texas rhythms, mix in some of Bruce Springsteen's rock n' roll hooks, and then throw in the vibe of a good Otis story about heartache and soul-searching, you get Lost Boy.

My favorite song on the album is by far "Resurrection," because you just can't go wrong with lyrics like this -

Cheap perfume and cheaper whiskey
She winked at me when she said last call
And when the parking lot was empty
We made love in a bathroom stall
With "Jesus Is Love" written on the wall

That paints a picture as well as Darrell Scott or David Childers, but Edmondson has better rock n' roll jam than either of those boys, who also number among my favorite songwriters.

"Finger on the Trigger" is a ripping rocker of a story about a guy sitting in a parking lot just one step shy of blowing his brains out.

Cause I lost my job, my bills are getting bigger...
Crying baby, I'm bout to lose my mind
Hundred dollar habit, ain't got a penny...
Woman ran off with a friend of mine...
Can't keep a job... too fucked up...
DHS is bout to take my kids
Trying to get well, keep getting sicker...
Sitting in the parking lot, finger on the trigger.

The song takes you there, sitting on the cheap split vinyl of that poor bastard's 1978 Chevy Impala in a Huddle House parking lot in the middle of Buttfuck, Texas looking out over the flat expanse of dirt with nothing coming to you but another sunrise that promises another big pile of nothing. Edmundson's songs take you inside the heart and head of his protagonist, and let's you feel something with his songs, from the despair of "Finger on the Trigger" or "Another Morning After the Night Before" to the hope of "Resurrection."

"Another Morning After" is another track I really like, as it evokes to me the same feelings as Jason Boland's song "Proud Souls" (check him out, too). It's got a feeling like a modern-day "Sunday Morning Coming Down," and really just sounds like a hangover. I get a little bit of cottonmouth just listening to it.

It's not all horizon-gazing drinking songs, that's just where my tastes gravitate to. "American Saint" and "You call it Trouble" are old-fashioned rock songs, with catchy beats and good choruses. But for me, nothing beats the dirty grit of a bathroom fuck story or a good gut-wrenching get drunk and think about life song like "Another Morning After."

So that's what's in heavy rotation on my iPod for the month of March. Definitely one of the best albums I've picked up in the past couple of years, right up there with Reckless Kelly was Here and Cross Canadian Ragweed's Back to Tulsa: Live and Loud at Cain's Ballroom. Yeah, you should buy those, too.

I hate that crap

I just had to send an email to my niece telling her I won't be coming to Boston for her college graduation, so I'm sure she'll be disappointed. Next I'll be sending an email to a certain BALCO-labs-fueled poker blogger telling him I won't be joining him in Vegas to celebrate the advent of his oldness.

This fiscal responsibility thing sucks ass.

But these are the correct decisions long-term. My tax bill for 2007 is a little more than I expected, and the flight to Boston for 3 (me, Suzy and my sister) plus hotel is a little more than I can swing without piling up more shit on my credit cards right now. Ditto Vegas. And I've worked for the past couple months at trying to eliminate debt, so I can't allow myself to accumulate more debt for fun stuff right now.

Accumulating more debt for a heating system, new windows, a new stove and a new back door are all more or less necessities, especially considering that I think the $20K I'm looking at putting into new windows and a central heating and A/C system in the Casa de Falstaff will repay itself in cash within ten years. Yes, my heating situation in the winter is so bad that I think if I install windows and an A/C system I can likely see close to $2K a year in savings.

So the Falstaff party tour is on hold due to an impending sense of fiscal responsibility. Jebus, I sound like a Republican. Not one of the Rove/Bush Republicans, but a real one. I am becoming more fiscally conservative, because I've decided that I like money. A lot. And I like it more when I have more of it. So that's what I'm concentrating on right now, saving more money and taking care of things on the home front. Not to mention the craziness that is my business travel.

And by the way, I think Nashville may be the coolest town I've ever spent not nearly enough time in. I'm looking forward to my next trip up there, and it doesn't hurt that I've got a couple of great friends like Mr. & Mrs. Spaceman to hang with.

Summer Gathering?

So I've gotten several emails asking me for details about the summer blogger gathering, and the truth is, I don't have any. I had pretty much decided to retire from the blogger organizing gig after this past December, and I'm not even sure I'm going to make it to Vegas this summer. If I go out for the WSOP at all, which is pretty questionable at this point, it will be early in June, before my rehearsals for 12th Night get too absolutely ridiculous.

Also, the Venetian is unlikely to serve as a host for us in June, since they will be having their Deep Stack Extravaganza during the WSOP, and there aren't many other venues that are acceptable to us any more.

So I guess what I'm asking is - who wants to organize the summer blogger gathering? 'Cause I can't even promise attendance right now, much less organization. I will certainly try to attend, because I miss all you guys and gals, but work has kept me on the road a lot lately, and once I get a chance to decompress a little I want to spend some time hanging with the wife and riding my bike.

I would like to go out for a little while around June 7-9 and see everyone, and I'm happy to organize some loose activities (read as: this is where we'll get drunk tonight) if folks want to hang, but I'm not into setting up another private tournament. So lemme know if someone wants to take up the reins of herding the kittens and setting up a tourney, or if you guys just wanna get together and party and drink that first weekend of June.

Connections, and missing them

So the blogger most famously known as 130 lbs. of Fury is in the area, but due to family commitments (his, none of my family has been committed lately, no matter how deserving) we're not gonna be able to get together for food this time around. I try to fatten up the skinny bastard whenever he comes through, but so far, it's not taking.

And one of the main reasons I can't eat dinner with him Wednesday night, is because, social butterfly that I am, I already have plans for dinner in the next state over with my dear friends the Spacepeople. Spaceman and Mrs. Spaceman are going to be my congenial tour guides through some of Nashville's gastrointestinal delights as I prepare for my meeting the next morning. Hopefully they'll be gentle and I'll be sober by my 10 AM meeting.

Yeah, just a couple of days after I drive home from Tennessee, I'm driving even further into the state. The guy I need to meet was out of town last week when I was just a two-hour drive away, so I'm driving 7 hours to meet with him on this project. Yeah, it's that good a project, and he requested our company specifically from the manufacturer, so it's a given that I'm gonna make the drive.

Someday I'll get back to playing poker, but lately I've been playing with money, and today I got some great news. My mortgage called me and told me that the house was appraised at $40K more than we paid for it 9 years ago, and my refi is approved and will come in around $200 less per month than I'm paying now, even with switching from a 30 year note to a 15.

Yes, my interest rate was that bad.

Really, really bad.

So I might actually be able to refi for enough cash to be able to put central heating and air conditioning in this joint, and maybe, just maybe, if the stars all align properly and I hold my mouth just right, replace at least some of the windows as well. That would dramatically reduce our heating bill, as electric baseboard heaters are most kindly described as somewhat inefficient. So that possibility is on the horizon, and those home improvements would be very cool (and warm at appropriate times).

And the theatre thing is starting to kick back up. I start rehearsals tomorrow night for The Diary of Anne Frank at our local community theatre. I'm doing lights and Suzy is doing costumes, and she's way farther along than I am. But it also takes a longer time frame to costume a show than it does to design lights, so that's normal. I hang and focus Saturday, program the show Sunday morning, and we have first tech rehearsal Sunday night. I'm done with my part by opening night, which is nice, but it's a very different vibe than when I act or direct because I'm coming in at the end when all the other members of the team have had weeks of working together, and I'm in and out in a few days. But the check always clears, so I don't really have any gripes.

And before long we'll be having auditions for our summer shows. This year I'm directing Twelfth Night, and Chris is directing Richard III, both are among my favorite shows, so I'm looking forward to the summer.

And there's a new feature coming to PokerStage. I'm going to start reviewing albums I really like, and books I've recently read. Not just to boost links to my Amazon.com affiliate deal, but because I think there's enough people out there who like the same type of music and books that I do that there might be an audience.

SETC wrap

I've seen a lot of old friends, been to a couple of good workshops, played the role of the gadfly in a couple of meetings, and drank somewhere in the neighborhood of two dozen black raspberry martinis, provided by the kind staff at the Chattanoogan Hotel bar. I'm friggin' exhausted and have two receptions left tonight before my last board meeting and the six-hour drive home tomorrow. I thought I was going to have a nice break in my travels and at least a month of sleeping in my own bed, but now I find that I have an overnight to Nashville next week. Spaceman, call me, let's do dinner next Wednesday.

I'll have more later when I've had a little time to process everything.

It was 14 years ago...

That Cedric, Traci and I decided to pile in the Impala and drive down to Savannah, GA with no hotel reservation, no conference registration, only the barest idea of how to put together a resume, and absolutely no clue how to network. We were the only three from our college that had any interest in going to SETC, and we were only going because Blair said it was a good thing to attend and our costumer Jen said she was going.

So off we went to SETC for the first time, and that has made all the difference. Somewhere along getting lost in Savannah a couple of times, sharing a room with Cedric and Traci and sliding my half-assed resume under a dozen doors, I fell in love with this conference. I took a couple workshops, met a few people, and Jen introduced me to Bill Rackley, who gave me one of the most valuable pieces of advice I've ever had. He said "always have breakfast in the hotel, and always meet people at breakfast. They're off guard and you can make some real connections at breakfast." He's right, and I've made a ton of friends over breakfasts and lunches (and even more at the bar) at this conference over the years.

There are tons of great SETC memories for me, some of which really should never see the light of day for the safety of all of us involved. But there was a sing-along in the hotel lobby one year where none of us could remember the words to any song, there was the year I threw a margarita party in my room, then moved it to Walt's room after we were thrown out of mine, then to Amy's room after we were thrown out of Walt's. Imagine 20 drunks parading through the hotel with liquor, cups, three ice buckets and a blender in tow. That was us.

I met Barbizon at this conference my second trip to SETC, and by the time the next one rolle around, I worked here. This is my 15th consecutive trip to this conference, and there are a lot of faces that I see here every year, and no matter where the conference is held, it feels a little like coming home. It's good to be back, hangover and all.

By the way, if in Chattanooga, I recommend staying at the Chattanoogan, and drinking the Black Raspberry Martinis until the room spins.

Weekend Update

From the end of the weekend...

Played cards last night with the usual suspects. Jim the Knife hosted since Suzy asked that we not have the game here for a couple weeks so she can finish a few projects. I managed to double up on the evening, largely through no fault of my own. I picked up some big hands that hit and made a couple of bluffs that didn't get called. I did play a little tighter than usual, but having position on BG and Special K allowed me to collect the appropriate information preflop and get away from some hands that I likely would have played had I not seen their action before making my decision.

My profits too a dive at the end of the session when I made a stupid zero-sum move in O8. I'm blaming my move on the fact that it was late, but really, it's not like I haven't played much longer sessions before and not imploded on the end. I picked up 3457 rainbow in middle position, and everyone limped in. There's no point in raising preflop at that table in o8, because at least 2/3 of the players will call. So no one did. I flopped the world, A24, but there were 2 spades. BG checked to me, and I fired $3 into a $3 pot.

This is where my friends make it hard to tell them that I have a strong hand. Several of them are making decisions to call based on the size of the bet in real dollars, not in relation to the pot. Now $3 isn't a lot of money, but it's a pot-sized bet. That means nothing in this game. I knew this, and didn't really care if anyone folded or not, because in my head, I had at worst half this pot locked up, and was in decent shape to scoop if no spade comes.

Remember, I never claimed to be a good Omaha player. I have a slight edge over more than half the field in my home game, but if you think I'm actually any good at the game, you're more deluded than the 350-lb woman wearing the "You can't touch this" T-shirt.

Of course a spade does come on the turn, and I'm not happy, but I fire $10 into the pot to find out where I am. Note that this is now significantly less than a pot-sized bet, but because $10 is more real money, many people who called a pot-sized bet on the flop folded to a less than pot-sized bet on the turn.

I know, Jim. You call it gambling. But calling small pot-sized bets with bad hands (not that I know what you had in this hand) is a major leak in some people's game, and if they can get out of the habit of thinking in real dollar amounts and focus on the relationship between the bet and the amount of money in there, then they will lose the same amount of money, but more slowly.

I got two one caller in BG, who was on my immediate right. I figured him for the flush, but thought it quite possible that he didn't have the nut flush, since I'd seen him check-call with a mediocre flush for the high a few hands before, and hoped that maybe I could push him off the hand on the river.

River was a blank, BG checked, I fired $20, and he remarked "I was trying to be nice," and raised me $40. Because I'm not a good Omaha player, I wasn't smart enough to realize that he also could have flopped a wheel and he may have been check-calling because he thought we might be chopping the low.

Which we were. So because I'm not a good Omaha player (and helped by the fact that he checked on every street, but that's just good play against me, since I'm fairly aggressive and BG's been playing against me for a couple years now), I tossed in $40, only to see $10 of it come back when he table the nut flush and the nut low, quartering me.

It was a huge brain fart on my part, because several times over the course of the night I had remarked that someone was making a play that would only be called by a hand that beat them, and then I went ahead and did the same thing myself. Nice. Good thing I never claimed to be a good Omaha player. Or frankly, a very good poker player altogether. But I don't have to be a good poker player, I just have to be better than a couple of people at the table, and last night a couple of our boys were running very bad, so I took slight advantage. Slight. But profit is profit, and my streak of live game wins continues.

I know. But I'm intentionally writing about it now, months before I go play anything at any casino-level stakes again, so when I get crushed by the poker gods, it will be in my home game and for less money. So as long as the poker gods don't read blogs, my plan is safe.

On the road again...

Monday. Not yet, but Monday I head to Raleigh for the day, then cruise to Chattanooga on Tuesday by way of Nashville for SETC. SETC is the Southeastern Theatre Conference, one of the largest theatre gatherings in the country each year. Over 800 little actor types will audition for roles in dozens of summer-stock theatres, and dozens of college faculty are roaming the conference each day. There are also hundreds of high school kids auditioning for college scholarships and college kids auditioning for grad school. That leads to tons of high school teachers roaming around as well.

That means it's one of the most profitable shows each year for my company, as it's very cheap to exhibit at, and the return is pretty good. We typically find one or two projects each year, with a price tag of over $100K, which more than pays for the show. So it's a good business decision to be there.

And it always feels like home to me. I got my job largely because of connections I made at SETC a long time ago, and I'm not alone in our organization. There are people that I only ever see at the conference, people that have become great friends of mine over the years. It's probably my favorite show each year.

So why am I not more excited about it?

I've been asking myself that for weeks, and finally hit on a viable reason early this week. It's because I've been traveling so much lately. Now, I can't hold a candle to BG or Special K, or Pauly and Change100, or some of the real road warriors I know, but this year has had a ton of travel for me, compared to previous years.

One good barometer is my Marriott Rewards membership. I'm just a lowly Silver member, which means I stay more than 10 nights each year in a Marriott hotel. Last year my travel was at a all-time low, and it took me until December to book 10 nights in a Marriott hotel. That includes several nights booked for one of my out of town managers who was in Charlotte to meet with me.

It's March 1, and I've spent 7 nights in a Marriott, 2 in a Super 8, 1 in a Wingate, 4 in a Crown Plaza and 3 in the Imperial Palace, with 5 more hotel nights next week. I'm pretty sure that math works out to around double my total 2007 hotel nights by the end of the first week of March, 2008. So that's kinda put a damper on my typical excitement about SETC. Usually, it's my first real travel since the LDI trade show in the fall. This year, it's just another week sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. What I'm really looking forward to is the week after SETC, when my schedule can return to normal, I can get my diet back into some semblance of regularity, and it starts warming up enough down here to ride in the weekends or even after work for a little while.

My fitness has slipped quite a bit during the winter and I'm trying very hard to balance work, which has picked up enough that my entire team is remarking that it feels like a different place to work, my writing, which has also been pretty steadily busy so far this year (although the next couple of months looks pretty lean as we head into the Series), exercise, which has fallen off to an embarrassing degree, and family time, which will be non-existent until Suzy and I get done with Diary of Anne Frank the end of this month.

This is pretty much how everyone lives, but I've coasted for a while on work and now with some renewed energy I'm seeing my department really take off, which means more travel, which means more interaction with customers (which is the part of the job I'm really good at), but it also means adjustments in my schedule, which always take a while to get used to.

But here's a banner fucking headline for you. In February 2008 I experienced no significant death in my immediate family and spent no time sitting by anyone's hospital bed. That breaks a streak of amazingly bad Februarys that was 2 years deep. I just hope fate wasn't all confuddled by the Leap Year and it all goes to shite in March.