and speaking of mikey, he ran into a friend in new york :-)

the first review and an interesting article from charlotte are in - thanks mike, bobby & karen c. :-)

TLS Denver has been extended to the end of august!  w00!  i want to GO BACK!

i went and saw "blair witch" again today - i love this movie.  mandy! please come with me and amber, we promise we'll hold your hand and take care of you, and we can go in the daytime if you want! lol :-)

craig, sherri, adam, staci, ben & shannon were all there and about 40 others friends from around the country, it was GREAT! :-)

i wanted to post quickly this morning so you can go grab this stuff if you want it.  i'll put it up here later so you can get it here but in case the newspaper takes it down before i get around to it, the Charlotte Observer has a bunch of RENT wallpaper up for grabs.  go get it :-)

today's the cast thingy at borders in charlotte: 

12noon to 1:00pm at Borders Bookstore, at Morrocroft Village, 3900 Colony Road.

also:  'Rent' cast's cabaret benefits AIDS fight august 2nd.

It's really nothing new that a Broadway touring show coming to town is going to do an AIDS benefit. The Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS project has brought Charlotte showcases by the casts of "Cats," "Jesus Christ, Superstar" and "Les Miserables."

But it will indeed be something special when the cast of "Rent" does its benefit cabaret performance for the Metrolina AIDS Project, Aug. 2 at the Great Aunt Stella Center.

That's because unlike those other fine shows, "Rent" itself is a musical about people who are HIV positive.

A touring company of "Rent," Jonathan Larson's rock musical remake of "La Boheme," opens here Tuesday and runs through Aug. 8. The show runs eight performances a week Tuesday through Sunday.

Mondays are the cast's only days off. But because AIDS is so important to them, they're going to pitch in and work Aug. 2, exchanging their show costumes for street clothes and stepping to the mike to sing for a cause.

The event starts at 6 p.m. with a reception where ticket-holders can mingle with the cast. At 7 p.m., the cast will take to the stage of the Stella Center and the audience to their seats for the cabaret show. And there will be an auction of "Rent" paraphernalia.

The beneficiary, MAP, is the Charlotte area's leading nonprofit organization serving HIV positive men and women. Last year, MAP served 761 people with HIV and reached another 10,000 people through prevention and education initiatives.

Tickets are $35 for reception and show; $25 for show only. For more details, call 333-1435, Ext. 17.

i'm slowly wading thru mail... :-)

jimbo sent another postcard from his extended summer vacation, he's having fun :-)

here's another article from charlotte - thanks mike!

and look!  AWWWWW!  this is from a couple months ago outside les miz (in england). i miss him!

see y'all next week! (well, *see* some of you tomorrow in denver :-)

go see "the blair witch project".  loved it.

7/17/99

hope you have a great one! :-)

charlotte (from siteforrent): "Monday, August 2nd   Come see the Benny cast of RENT give a cabaret performance at the Great Aunt Stella Center benefitting the Metrolina AIDS project. Tickets for the show, at 7pm, are $25. For an exclusive reception with the cast, from 6-7pm, tickets are limited and can be purchased with a show ticket for $35. Call MAP for tickets at 333-1435 x17"

so i went and saw "eyes wide shut" yesterday. anyone else seen it yet? can you say "let's show nicole's body as much as absolutely possible?" it was interesting, freaky-weird of course.  tomorrow karen c. and i go see "blair witch project" - yay!

5 days to TLS and denver - w00 :-) sherri, craig, staci, ben, adam, michael & everyone - can't wait to see you!

TLS got a great review in omaha wednesday and last nite cory (omaha's gideon) was sick and steve went on for him.  cool!  oh.  not cool cory was sick, you know what i mean ;-)

sombody posted this on the board but in case you missed it:  "Wilson Cruz, an alumnus of the cult-fave series "My So-Called Life," has RSVP'd as a semiregular on Fox's "Party of Five" next season. Cruz's credits include a memorable guest shot as a transvestite prostitute on Fox's "Ally McBeal" and roles in the indie pics "Johns" and "All of Me." He'll be seen alongside James Spader this year in MGM's actioner "Supernova."  guess they forgot he was in two RENT casts including broadway. oy.

i did NOT have a good day yesterday.

my pc power supply died.

i rushed out to buy another one and install it.  didn't work.

then i rushed to get to a fucking LUNCH meeting in another building that was cancelled and nobody told me.

drove thru mcdonalds to get some fast food and the girl was a total BITCH.

the building door hit my toe rushing back into my building and it bled all over inside my shoe.

sat down to eat only to discover the BITCH didn't give me a straw.

the sauce in my cheeseburger plopped out in a big mess on my pants.

i went to fryes and bought another power supply.

hooked it up and then the os couldn't find my hard drive anymore.

messed around with that for another hour.

FINALLY got everything working some time after 10pm.

the GOOD news now tho is:  i'm officially on vacation until august 2nd.  w00! :-)

heather headley, adam & sheri scott in "aida" :-)

and speaking of adam, here's a "where are they now" article. interesting... (mandy, you'll like this).

buffy: "drink me". i loved the show. can sorta understand why they waited to show it, but don't you think last week they should have showed the directly preceeding episode?  anyway. bye angel {sigh}.

hmmm.  i feel like i should fill up this space.  want to play with tinky winky?  you can blame or thank mary for that, depending on your frame of mind :-)

"pigs" was cute and had the wackiest costumes i've ever seen.  decks of cards, professions (hard to explain - but wacky! :-)

from siteforrent: wednesday, july 21st, 11pm:  come see the cast of Rent perform as part of a benefit for Broadway Cares, Equity Fights AIDS at the cosmopolitan restaurant & nightclub at 54 canal street, boston. tickets are $20 and are available at the door. more details coming soon (thanks karen c :-)

here's a cute picture of christian & lesley from boston.

mark your calendars, this is an historic event: i'm HOT.  yes, you heard it right - it's HOT here.  oy :-)

more randomness - look amber! you too can be a complete idiot! ;-)

and amber sent me this: the new group LEN has a song on their cd called 'beautiful day' with these lyrics.   HAHAHAHAHA!

party people in the place
i'd like to tell you a tale
about a high powered girl, her name is gail
she's a funky fresh girlie,
she ain't stale...

mike a. - i'm getting all your vacation postcards - thanks! :-)

TLS BALTIMORE! - we just found out about this one!  september 9th - october 17th at the axis theatre - thursdays - saturdays at 8pm and sundays at 2pm. tickets are general admission and cost $12 on thursday & sunday and $14 on friday & saturday. box office: 410-243-5237. DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW if you can get there! 

TLS OMAHA opens this week:

and don't forget the TLS DALLAS fundraiser!

purple #4
orange #10
red #20
green #13
pink #2

email me!

charlotte:  friday, july 30th the benny cast of RENT will make an appearance at borders books.  they will answer questions and sign autographs... details coming soon (from siteforrent - thanks karen c. since i never check siteforrent :-)

5 more work days and then i'm on vacation for two weeks.  yay!

and another one about greg, a new cast member (thanks katerin).

some more of clover's boston pictures are up.

ok,this is important :-)  are any of you playing the star wars game?  i have all pieces except one in each color.   here's what i need (and we split the winnings 50/50 if you've got one of these!)

purple #4
orange #10
red #20
green #13
pink #2

email me if you have one of them!

i'm moving bennytour.com to a new host this week so things may get "erratic" for a few days. the board will still be up and functioning properly, but the site might not for a little while.  bookmark the board in case you can't get to it from here.

TLS in denver in 3 weeks - i can't wait! :-)

so i screwed up yesterday - mary's pictures were from grand rapids, not boston. oops :-)  but here are some of clover's pictures from the boston booksigning - thanks clover!

and you were right sherri - the san francisco "limited run" was a marketing ploy. as of yesterday:  "The hit musical "Rent" will play an open-ended engagement in San Francisco. The Pulitzer Prize and Tony award-winning production by the late Jonathan Larson's musical is at the Golden Gate Theatre, Taylor Street at Market. It was originally scheduled to close Sept. 5th."

mary's pictures from boston (wh00ps) grand rapids are up - thanks mary :-)

TLS OMAHA!  this is a really short run, get there and see it if you're anywhere close!

GO! :-)

and don't forget the upcoming benefit that's being held to get TLS up and running in dallas!

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY CHARMI!

more randomness :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMBO!   love you much and hope you're enjoying your MONTH off!

and HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY MAX!   i guess we're even huh? ;-)  hope you had a great day!

last nite we went to the cinegrill to see jim bailey as judy garland (my first entertainment night out in a month - yay!)   this guy is incredible - you remember that this is jim baily for about 5 minutes - after that - you are watching judy garland. he sings all her songs and tells all these little incidental stories and stuff - it's marvelous :-).  he does streisand too and now i really want to see that!

i posted this on the board, but another new tour date is long beach in march 2000.  right in my backyard :-)  thanks for that info katie!