I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

February 03, 2017 - 3:39 p.m.

Last Night Was The Pits

Sorry that this is an afternoon edition of Wise Madness. Who knows where the time goes? Sandy Denny didn't and neither do I. On a somewhat related note; it's really stupid but I got a kick at being on the same comment thread as Linda Thompson. It's not at all surprising that we have friends in common and it doesn't have any significance. As I said, it's stupid. I include things like that because everyone has these stupid feelings and it helps to know that. Of course, the only time that most people talk about it is when they don't realize it's stupid. Maybe everyone doesn't do it. Well I do and I am sure that I'm not the only one. I have had friends that have admitted it.

Last night I went to see, PITS! The Unauthorized Holes Musical written and directed by Noah Rauchwerk. You might know him as the cute talented half of The Lords of Liechtenstein. His brother Danly is the other half. You might know him as Dan but it's short of Danly. I found that out last night because Danly is also the name of the main character of the play. I refuse to believe that's a coincidence.

You might remember that I saw a previous production of the show at NYU. It has been revamped and is playing at a real theater, The Pit. The built the theater just for the musical just as Bayreuth was built for the Ring Cycle. There might be a few alternative facts in here. I'm still shaken by being reminded of the Bowling Green Massacre. I bet you know exactly where you were when you heard about that. I was on a date with Beyoncé

I went with Noah's family, Danly, his parents Michael and Star, and his sister Autumn. Danly ditched me to sit with his friends but I sat with the rest. It was a sellout, not an empty seat in the house.

I loved Pits the first time I saw it and it's even better now. It is better than shows on Broadway even with minimalist props. The story is from the Newberry Award Winning book Holes by Louis Sachar. The writing, directing, and choreography are sharp; it's filled with laughs from each of them. The fourth wall is often broken though not as much as in the last production. What's better are the new gags and the musical numbers. These guys can sing their pants off, some of them did. The songs are great, I hope there's a cast album. I think that's a bit pricy to produce so I wouldn't bet on it.

The show is going to continue to run. There's one more performance in February then four more in March. You can get your tickets here; PITS! The Unauthorized Holes Musical. I'm not going to exaggerate and say it's better than Hamilton but the tickets are less than 164th the price. Hamilton isn't 64 times as good and you don't have to wait till September to see Pits. You don't believe me? Lin-Manuel Miranda was in the audience and he agrees. He's a nice guy. He knows me from reading Wise Madness. We're buds now.

There was one big drawback to this performance, it was at 9:30 and we didn't get out till after 11:30. As the last bus back to City Island is at 11:50 there wasn't any chance of making that. Because of that I didn't rush. We were on 29th street near Seventh Ave. instead of walking over to Lexington Ave. and catching the I walked with Danly, Alec, and Danly's other friend that I've met multiple times whose name is totally escaping me (that's his actual name) to stop on 14th Street. They took the to Brooklyn. I just took it one stop to Union Square where I hoped to catch an express if it were still running. Instead I found that there were no uptown trains running on the Lexington line below 42nd Street. Argh. I had to take a yellow line train up to 59th and transfer. The came first and I hopped on. Argh. I forgot that the is now the new Second Ave. line It doesn't go to 59th I took it to 63rd and Lex and walked down to 59th. It's a free transfer. It's the same stop the would have taken me. I could have just taken that from 14th Street and gotten home much faster. I told Danly that I wouldn't get home till 2 AM. I was wrong. I made it back by 1:50. If I had done it right it could have easily been before 1:30.

Remember how I told you that Danly and Noah are the The Lords of Liechtenstein. That doesn't mean they are European nobility but Trump did call them and things got nasty. Trump said that he's not going to let Liechtenstein take advantage of us anymore. But that's another story and I wasn't there for that. For those of us not living in the alt-factiverse The Lords of Liechtenstein is one of my favorite bands. I love their music and I love Danly and Noah. Don't tell Danly I said that. They have a new album being released today, Downhill Ride to Joyland. I never even introduced them to Joy, I guess they know about her from my writing. Danly told me that he had a surprise for me. He wouldn't tell me what it was but he did say it wasn't a certain Singer-Songwriter who barely knows me, that I have a crush on. If she didn't know me at all I could tell you who It was. If it was someone I know well I wouldn't be writing about it. It was not Beyoncé; that ended years ago.

When I got there, he gave me a copy of the CD. That was not the surprise. I expected that as I can't make the album release parties today and tomorrow. You should go if you can. You can find the info on their website. This is the surprise.

The "CP" is for Clownie Pajamas. Danly has called me that since he saw the picture of me when I was two wearing what I called my clownie pajamas. I have been thanked on enough CDs that it's no longer exciting, just a nice feeling. But this time it was dedicated to me. That's still exciting. I have another confession to make. I was once disappointed that I wasn't thanked on a CD when I expected it and people I know were. I have never admitted that before. Sometimes honesty is embarrassing.

OK. Today I'm going to stay home and get some work done with the exception of a brief trip to the supermarket. I do have food for dinner. I was delighted to find two things I forgot in the freezer, drumsticks and hash browns. I'm not sure if I'll make the hash browns; it might be a good night for Shai-Hulud potatoes. They take a long time to make and need the oven just like the chicken. We'll see.


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please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile February 03, 2017
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