and an article on justin johnston - joining us soon (it's really long, 3 pages).  trippy, but here's an article on him i put up back in october '99.

lori, karen & julie: nooooooooooooooooooooo.  yay for you, but noooooooooooo!  well, i guess i'll always have a place to crash in NYC, yes?  heh :-)

i have to agree with KC on this - as much as we hate CATS, this is a cool thing.

this one's for you mandy ;-)

and from misty on one of the lists: "Joshua Kobak and Matt Caplan are performing their own solo material at THE GYPSY in Tulsa this Saturday, September 2nd at 11:30pm.  The Gypsy is 4 blocks north of the Tulsa Performing Arts Center at 303 N Cincinnati Ave".

list people: for goddsakes, cary's name is spelled just like that - CARY - not carry, not carrie (she was that telekinetic chick, remember?) or whatever else idiotic thing you come up with.  jeez. have you never seen a playbill or a cast list (constantly posted on the board), or this site or siteforrent or countless other sites about him? ... it's so amusing to see someone flame someone *else* about this and then spell it wrong themselves - LOL! :-)

hi freud, hi heater, hi bobby, hi joi, hi lisa, hi T.  happy to see sonic crankin' it out again :-)

random note: spellcheck suggests i change kobak to kodak, caplan to chaplain, and mandy to mangy or manly, lol :-)

and i see another boots board has sprung up, i've added it to the "links & stuff" and the FAQ.

on to stockholm :-)

i seldom get around to reading the other boards, but if this show in dublin was for real, i would LOVE to have seen it, LOL!  and kevin, with all that cheese talk, you belong on sonic ;-)

here's the first article out of tulsa - i *love* this.  it's really long but well worth reading - it captures so much of what i've been thru and dealt with this past year with dickie.  they talk about the late 80's and early 90's, but the problems they talk aout are still ongoing today - believe me, i've been there.  so go to the benefit if you can, not just to see the cast but to help out this organization, it means *alot*.

from ant (yes, rapp) at anthonyrapp.com:

"Hi everybody --

I've never written to you all on this board before, sort of out of respect for this being your space, but it started to feel wrong to me that I'd never been in touch with you all in this way.

I just wanted to say that I am continually floored and touched by all of the support and encouragement you've shown me. Show biz is not always the friendliest of environments, and to know that I have loyal and interested fans in the face of that means more to me than I can say. Thank you for that.

I know you all know that Brian is no longer running the website, but what you may not know is that I'm going to be taking it over, with my friend Kelly as the able and clever and sweet webmistress. It's going to be snazzy and fun, and will have downloadable audio and video files, and schedules of where I'll be performing with my band and/or making visits to schools and/or working on new acting projects. I will make regular updates, for the first time. I'm pretty excited about it.

I don't know how many of you are still lingering around this board; I know it's been pretty inactive lately. But I wanted to connect with whoever's still out there.

I also wanted to let you know that my cd is almost finished, and it will be out and available via my website, or on Amazon, or at a gig, as well as in stores in the Pacific Northwest (we're working on getting more distribution) by the end of September. Some of you have asked what kind of music I'm making, and I'm calling it "alternapop." I don't know if any of you were at the mini-gig I did at Wilson's in April, but that was a good indication of the kind of stuff I'm doing. Some of the songs are a little noisier than others, but they all have (hopefully) catchy melodies. This whole project has been an absolute dream come true, and I'm thrilled that it's finally about to be released. I eagerly await your feedback and thoughts.

Anyway, enough self-promotion. Again, I thank you for your support.

Take care --

Anthony"

some of the NY cast of 'rocky horror' - can daph be any cuter? :-)

i like this review - thanks mike & karen :-)

and ugh, rich won!  actually, i'm just really, really glad it wasn't sue :-)

and another short blurb from san antonio.

megs' toronto pictures are up - thanks megs :-)

oh JEEZ, i'm sitting here listening to friday nite's leno rerun - he's out on the street talking to a TEACHER (no offense tracey).  jay: "so... what party are you?"...   her: "i'm a democrat"... jay: "so who are you voting for?"... her: "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"...  jay: "who's running?"...  her: "uhhhhhhhhhhhhh, i dunno".  GAWD!  and the next one:  jay: "who's the father of our country?".... her: "um, God?"  JEEZ, c'mon people!  the future of this country depends on the vote of many of you.   educate yourselves and get out there and vote.  i can't remember if i've said it here or not but IMHO bush is an empty suit, i can barely stand to listen to him.   i'm going to quote a message from freud here because i can't say it any better than this:

"How can any sane person, with even the tiniest concern for human rights and equality, not vote for Al Gore?

Some of the subjects he mentioned in his speech that Bush wouldn't go near with gloves and a ten foot pole:

HIV/AIDS
hate crimes legislation
Mathew Sheppard
Employment Non-Descrimination Act
Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
making sure Roe v. Wade is never overturned

Once again, I implore any of you with time to get involved with this campaign.  Alot of you probably have Democratic HQ's nearby that can use help.  If you can't do that, at least know the issues and educate your friends and family.  Our futures depend on it."

i put up a bunch of new tourdates - i think some of you will be real happy with some of these dates.  if anyone has info on south bend, let me know, that one was sketchy.

i think this is one of the best reviews of RENT i've ever read.   and here's another from houston (thanks karen c :-)

and a couple of new articles from san antonio - "rentheads pay homage" and "RENT strikes chord worldwide"

shannon, what can i say.  i'm sorry, i know she means the world to you.  i'm here for anything you need, you know that.  and i do mean anything.

welcome (almost) home lindsey!

and happy birthday tinal.   gawd - 19!  ack!

megs, your toronto pics will be up soon now that i've got it figured out!

lori & blue - thank you SO MUCH for your help today - talk to you later on in the day/nite :-)

and finally, some SLC info - thanks karen!

here's a couple of articles from houston & san antonio.

another play of jess's called "sometimes a fire" will have a staged reading at northeastern U. in boston, mass. on tuesday, august 22nd at noon.  remember jess, our then 17 y/o who wrote "least of kingdoms"? (to which we all flew out to  denver to see).  i'd love to see/hear this one.

happy birthday sherri! :-)

just something i saw on broadwaysbiggesthits:

"RENT" 1999 German Cast Epic (EPC 494669 2)

'"Rent" is not a favorite of mine. It's just too rock oriented for this traditional musical theater lover. Although foreign cast recordings often sound identical to Broadway versions, occasionally foreign cast recordings take a different and welcome slant. In the German "Rent" (Epic EPC 494669 2), the album sounds much better than the Broadway cast. The noise level is a bit lower, the pounding orchestration is a bit tamer, and it's easier to hear and enjoy Jonathan Larson's musical compositions. "Rent's" story, "La Boheme" transferred to the seedy New York's drug scene, is well known so it's easy to follow the show in German. The singing and music sound great. Even "Seasons of Love," which opens the second act, is soft, tender, and quite touching here. If the pounding rock beat of "Rent" appeals to you, skip the German version but if the Broadway version is a bit overbearing for you, this cast album is a nice alternative.'

and i agree with blue - what are these questions on the board about jesse & daph being bennycast standbys. gawd.

oh!  got lion king tickets for september 30th - yay!  moe as nala, what a trip :-)

and yes, st. paul, again...

i still have pictures to put up but fuck, i had 356 pages at work today (problems with varying internet/intranet/legacy systems) and i'm tired.  zzzzzzzzzzzz.

more honolulu articles and reviews (thanks to karen c.)

and stacy's pictures from toronto are up (thanks stacy :-)

more pictures to put up, but i just can't right now.

i do, however, want to direct you to dori & ricky - i've talked a little bit about her here before. she's a teenager, she has AIDS, she has cancer, we didn't think she'd make it to this concert.  she not only made it, linda got her backstage passes and the guy spent so much time with her - i have a whole new respect for you, dude.

and oh yeah, RENT is at the heritage in saginaw.