happy halloween }:-)  if you're dressing up, i want some pictures!  i already have wilson as brittany - he looks g00d - i love it ;-)  can't help but miss last year's halloween.

here's a weird little blurb from denver - since when did RENT ever have a comp policy at all? thanks mike :-)

hey, and don't forget about TLS on november 6th in LA - go here for more details. and here's the info for new york november 2nd and 3rd - check it out!  any of you new RENT fans that haven't seen TLS, go see it, it's our 'little brother' show and one that some of us have seen as much, or more, as RENT :-)  lots of us will be there!

and here's a random halloween joke (blame it on mike - i couldn't resist tho ;-)

i went to the show yesterday to finally see "almost famous" only to find that it wasn't playing there anymore.   argh.  so we saw "pay it forward" instead.  cool concept, but this was another one of those movies that i had heard absolutely nothing about the ending.   i must be living in a cave - does everyone *else* who hasn't seen it know the ending?  i'm seriously curious - email me.

TLS fans - i've uploaded a demo of a new song steve recorded for a new musical about God - the dude's gone into total rock mode, i love it :-)  warning: it's 4MB and if you can't play it from here, download it to your pc. 

kat's pictures from milwaukee are up - thanks kat :-)

and here's an article from edmonton - thanks karen c!

happy birthday adam & anthony (late, i know, but HBD anway!)

here's some reviews from denver - #¹ and #² and #³ - thanks mike, karen c., sarah and stacy :-P

and this is rather amusing - yasmin dressed in a 'price is right' costume, lol - thanks jimbo :-)

here's some things for you new yorkers to do :-)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The Sh-K-Boom Room is a new performance series celebrating the new generation of Broadway performers and composers.

November 16th -- Sh-K-Boom recording artists ADAM PASCAL (Rent, AIDA), SHERIE RENE SCOTT (AIDA) and ALICE RIPLEY (Rocky Horror, Side Show). Additional performers include:   Annie Golden (Full Monty); Sara Ramirez (Capeman); Michael McElroy (Rent); Brian D'Arcy James (Titanic); Paul Gordon with Jayne Patterson (composer and star of Jane Eyre); Greg Naughton (Blue Light Theatre Company); Bob Stillman (Dirty Blonde); Norbert Leo Butz (Rent); Mario Cantone (Crumble Zone); Jonathan Dokuchitz (Tommy) and Gavin De Graw.   Joining this stellar line-up will be several very special guests.

November 30th -- Anthony Rapp and Spring.

The Sh-K-Boom Room will take place at the Cutting Room (19 West 24th Street) at 11:00 pm

this info is from http://www.sh-k-boom.com

* * * * * * * * * * * *

here's a little blurb from denver, and an article - thanks mike :-)   and speaking of RENT stars, they could also have mentioned a few others - like anthony - karen c. just sent me his new CD and i *love* it. i can barely get past track 6 tho, it's so dickie & me.  and there's a ton of other rent alumni that have cd's out too - uh, can you say IDINA? chad? cary? moe? paul? laura (maya)? christian? jen?  and here's a blove article from milwaukee (thanks again, mike :-)

i got a message last week from one of dickie's co-facilitators at BA that donna has died.  those of you who were at dickie's BA memorial may remember her - she was also a group facilitator (trained by dickie) and one of those unfortunate enough to become completely drug resistant within only a few years.  i'm so sick of this fucking disease.  godspeed donna, i'm thinking of you. i know dickie was there to greet you.

i've reneged on my pledge to never buy actual seats for RENT ever again, i always wind up with a rush ticket (usually thanks to MANDY :-) and end up giving mine away or throwing them away.  but karen c. talked me into it, so we'll for sure be in costa mesa friday the 29th.  oy.

i was *supposed* to go to disneyland saturday with michael, ron, shannon, linda and dori (yes, that's ricky martin with her :-) but had to work.   i've written about dori before: she has AIDS and they discovered cancer in the last few months so she's been going thru chemo, but she managed to hang on and make it to see ricky and he was *wonderful* with her, they just about had to drag him away to talk to anyone else, and then he kept coming back to her. so she's in town, and dammit, i want to see her & linda & everyone.

here's an article from playbill about RENT amsterdam (yeah, i'm late).  sounds interesting, kinda like fire breathing mimi's we never got to see ;-)

and dude, i had no idea bennytour.com was listed on playbill.com.  buybroadway asked me once to join them but i declined (mostly due to my homepage: "i know why you're  rent fan. it's that whole sodomy thing isn't it?"  LOL!  i couldn't believe they asked if they'd actually *seen* that ;-)

these have been sitting around for awhile now - since august - thought i'd finally put them up. and speaking of bob stillman (we were, weren't we? :-), there will be a special presentation of TLS benefiting GLAAD on november 6th, at the el portal theatre, 5269 lankershim blvd, north hollywood, at 7:00pm.  tickets are $30.00 (including reception) and may be purchased through telecharge at 1.800.233.3123.  the new york cast with michele mais (as trisha) will be reunited for this special event.  spread the word!  for any additional information, call 323.938.4238. there's soon to be two similar NY events too, so yay!

stacy's iowa city pictures are up - thanks stacy :-)

and i can't for the life of me remember where this came from, but here's taye :-)

i even upated the guestbook cuz there was an entry in there that had me ROTFL (see the one from edward taussig).   pissy much? ;-) like, who *cares*?  it was a fucking email message passed around *everywhere*.

no more time, back to work.  got your pictures stacy - they'll be up soon :-)

i know things are pretty iffy right now, but i hope you have a good one anyway!

i posted this on the board but i'm going to post it here just in case it's not too late to send a message if you're interested:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I am working for the education department of RENT and we are looking for volunteers to help us with our Fall programs, in return for which you get to see the show for free on the education day.

The program dates for Fall are Thursday, Nov. 9 and Thursday, Dec. 7 and we need people from 7:45 a.m.- noon for the education workshops and then you are welcome to stay for the matinee that afternoon. Our volunteers help us wrangle the 1600 students who are there for the day, help backstage and some even help with the warm up on stage.

There will be an informational meeting on Monday Nov. 6th for those volunteering. 

We are also doing programs for Chicago (Wed. November 29th) and Annie Get Your Gun (Wed. December 6)if you are interested in those.

Please send me a message by noon on Friday if you are interested in participating!

THANKS!
Karen Currie
BgSlack@aol.com

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

here's a couple of reviews from milwaukee: #¹ and #² - i think they liked the show ;-) thanks mike & karen!

eileen's pictures from pittsburgh - wow, joshua looks like richard blake to me now, lol :-)

and two *cute* pictures of eileen's daughter, danielle, from schenectady.  thanks eileen :-)

i'm thinking of you shannon.

i'm upset sex in the city is over for now.  i like sopranos, but i'm not ready for SITC to be done yet (yeah, like this is the biggest tragedy in the world).  i'm loving reading the karen/lori/julie NY diary tho, it's way fun, it'll have to be my SITC for awhile :-)

oh man, and i signed up for a free trial of this software that crawls your site and tells you all the broken links - ack!  nine printed pages on the first go-round - i don't think i want to see anymore! (altho many of them were guestbook entries with now defunct site links so *those* i don't have to deal with at least), but a bunch of 'em were mine).  ack.  anyone want to take over bennytour.com?

P L E A S E    V O T E !  look at the issues, who stands for what, and understand what you're voting for this year, it's *really* important.

and now, back to hell. i mean work. no more sleep for weeks-on-end.

girls! - glad to hear you arrived safely in NY, all luggage intact! :-)

finally, *finally* i've got sara's schenectady pictures up - thanks sara!

this is kinda cool that he's in there - jonathan larson - thanks KC.

happy birthday mijo - *mwah* ;-)

and happy *belated* birthday to mr. andy senor - love ya babe! :-)

*and* happy rosh hasannah all (yes, i know i'm late)

there's a new pittsburgh article and some pittsburg reviews up - thanks mike and karen :-)

bye lori, karen and julie - see you in new york - i'll miss you - *lots*.

i stole this off kev's quotes page - don't quite know how or why i ended up there last night, but i like it kev :-) (and i miss *you* on sonic!)

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive and it's only by this meeting that a new world is born." ~unknown