Recently in rent Category

OK, I said I was all settled with not being able to get a ticket and blah blah, and then I wrote my enabler (Anthony) and said, "Yeah, I forgot to get a ticket to the RENT thing, but I'm cool with that," and he writes back with, "You know, I can get you a ticket..." (Not discounted of course, this is still charity benefitting, but still *getting* of the ticket)... and I cave. I cave, I cave, I cave, that is the point. Mr Anthony Knows Everyone in the RENT World Rapp had to come along with his ticket offers and sweet casual friendly gesture stuff...he's an enabler. A pusher. He knew I couldn't resist. Best intentions, my foot.

The point - the point is that I'm going to the 10th Anniversary RENT Benefit concert tomorrow night on money I shouldn't have spent but for emotional reasons I cannot and will not ever outgrow or regret. And now Arjuna got a last minute flight and might be able to go too. It's a last minute amazement, as if there's one person in the world I need to do this with, it's him. So, fingers crossed.

I hope to see some of you there. :) A few people have asked, so: The answer is yes, I'm going, so please say hi.

It's up: the Official RENT podcast with my friend Joey and me talking about our time as RENTheads. (If you don't have iTunes go here.)

And if you download it before anyone notices, you'll get the raw version, in which they forgot to cut out our chatter, and backroom talking, and questions to the audio guy, and stuff we said that we thought wouldn't get into the show. LOLOL!

(So yes, I needn't have worried that they were going to cut the good stuff. They simply left everything else in too.)

After listening: I'm really happy I have this to share and save. It's so nice, and says so much about such a formative time - this will be a treasured file of mine. Ah. Thank you, RENT people.

I meant to mention this in this week's PotterCast, which we recorded yesterday (with some surprises), but forgot; I'll try to remember in ep 31. Anyway, sometime this week (I believe Friday), I and my longtime friend Joey will be on the Official RENT podcast, speaking for the original RENTheads who staked out the Nederlander theater 10 years ago.

I'm not sure if I'm the best spokesperson for them, though Joey certainly is; I came in later than a lot of them did, though early in comparison to most of the fans today, and a lot of my experience came from out-of-town rather than Broadway, though it certainly started in New York. Either way, Joey asked me to join him for this, and I was more than happy; my time as a big fan of RENT made up some of the most formative months of my life (in a way diametrically opposed to the way the Harry Potter fandom has - heh, my memoir will be called "OBSESSED! My life as a BIGASS FAN!"), and it was a treat to delve back into it.

Anyway, yeah. We met up with Robert Kahn of Newsday at a midtown theater, and sat down for a long talk about what it was like when it was new. I honestly cannot believe it's been 10 years. I'm hoping to write something more substantive, that says more about it, soon, as I've been meaning to do since the movie came out. I hope they keep most of what we discussed in the finished product (I have hope, since Anthony's - which is out now - is about 33 mins, and our whole interview went about 45), but if they don't I'll try and remember what I feel was most important that we said. There was one moment near the end that I would be completely shocked if it was kept in, but I felt it was one of the best parts. Eh, editing. :)

Anyway, we walked out of the interview, I felt, breathing contentedly. We've all changed so much in 10 years that we've gotten to that place where these things, embarrassing and formative as they might have been, are also really comfortable to discuss. I no longer mind looking back on a time when I was more foolish, less mature, searching for something - I also am very proud of that time and the friends I made, and how we used the times we all spent together to connect on the most human levels. So, while I wasn't sure how I'd feel about talking about those things when we went in, I came out feeling refreshed and as though I'd put a pin on an important experience, in the way that will make it easy to look back on it in the future. And those things contributed to the moment I hope they keep, and which I think they won't. But I'll share it after it comes out, and update here again when it's available.

In the meantime, rush over and listen to Anthony Rapp's, because as per usual with him, it is terrific and perceptive and open.

Alas, Emerson escaped with his shirt. Sorry girls.

I'm here for a few minutes, as I attempt to simultaneously pack up my room (new apt) and shower. It's been an extraordinary month full of an embarrassment of riches, and now I'm just looking forward to sleep, and family.

Not many of you HP people know this, but before I was a big Potterhead, I was a bigger RENThead. It's my first fandom, and it's responsible for a lot about who I am these days. Without it I'd probably be an introverted doctor in Poughkeepsie or something.

I have a lot more to say about that, but here's what I have time for: Last night I saw RENT for the second time. Absolutely the only thing that can better about that movie, for me, is seeing it with my family. Now I've seen it twice with friends, and even though they were two very special screenings, there's something so intense and intimate and personal about RENT that the experience is made whole when you're with those who make you whole. So, Steph, and Arjuna, I can't wait.

I'll have a lot more to say here soon. Last night was a brilliant culmination of 9 years of friendship, love, fun and discovery, with many of the people who made it so. I never expected to go to the RENT premiere, so when Anthony called two days ago and told me there was a ticket for me, there was suddenly a very large and obvious silence on my end of the phone line. But what made it truly wonderful wasn't the glitz or exclusivity, or any of it...it was that I was with friends (and family, as my sister used her feminine wiles to get into the party), laughing and smiling over a triumph of a film that is a triumph of a piece of art. There's no direct storyline to RENT, really - there's not a means to an end, it's not a driving force type of drama, you can't grab onto one thread and have it carry you through the piece. It's more fragmented than that, and by that very thing it's more whole. It's a gathering of people who tell a story they're not aware of - of life and ugliness and beauty and love. They live, and their lives tell the story without their permission. They just are, and that's the story, that's enough.

The movie is wonderful. Wonderful. It shows us how terrific it is to be human, even when being human seems like a raw deal. Go, and bring tissues. Celebrate it with your friends, with your family - with whoever makes being human special for you.