Category: The Archive

I have three things to say about it:

1) The cast kicked ass. They were incredibly talented and worked super hard, and on the 8th and 9th they put on amazingly energetic performances.

2) The recording engineer, who shall remain anonymous so that he does not get any extra traffic to his crappy website, sucked balls. I could have done a better job with a tape recorder.

3) Never, never, never look at the audience during a performance.

Rob Seitelman found us an opportunity to get into a larger venue on the 8th and 9th, and I have decided to take it. Paradise Lost will be at the Bank St. Theater at 155 Bank St. in Manhattan.. The times will be the same: July 8th and 9th, 7:30 PM both nights.

Should anyone want to join us at Westside Dance Theater on July 8th or 9th, you can reserve tickets by emailling me at this address:

pltickets@niaterra.com

Please include the night you'd like to attend and how many tickets you'd like to reserve. It would be better to email me sooner rather than later, as it is entirely possible we will fill up the house.

More than 110 very talented people came to audition for Paradise Lost yesterday, and we called back 35 men and 55 women. (On the off chance that any of them happens upon my web page, I want to thank everyone that came out to sing for us. Y'all blew me away.)

First round of callbacks is today...

Hop and I arrived in Los Angeles yesterday, and she cleared Immigration and Customs without a hitch. I hope everyone in my community will join me in welcoming my fiance to the United States. We will be back in Maine on June 5th, and in New York together on the 23rd.

The Gunner's Dream (Waters)

Floating down through the clouds
Memories come rushing up to meet me now.
In the space between the heavens
and in the corner of some foreign field
I had a dream.
I had a dream.
Good-bye Max.
Good-bye Ma.
After the service when you're walking slowly to the car
And the silver in her hair shines in the cold November air
You hear the tolling bell
And touch the silk in your lapel
And as the tear drops rise to meet the comfort of the band
You take her frail hand
And hold on to the dream.
A place to stay
"Oi! A real one ..."
Enough to eat
Somewhere old heroes shuffle safely down the street
Where you can speak out loud
About your doubts and fears
And what's more no-one ever disappears
You never hear their standard issue kicking in your door.
You can relax on both sides of the tracks
And maniacs don't blow holes in bandsmen by remote control
And everyone has recourse to the law
And no-one kills the children anymore.
And no one kills the children anymore.

Night after night
Going round and round my brain
His dream is driving me insane.
In the corner of some foreign field
The gunner sleeps tonight.
What's done is done.
We cannot just write off his final scene.
Take heed of his dream.
Take heed.

We will be producing two concert-style readings of Paradise Lost in Manhattan on July 8th and 9th. The venue is the Westside Dance Theater, 357 W. 36th St. Curtain goes up at 7:30 PM both nights; the show runs about three hours.

My fiance will be arriving in LA on or about June 1st. We are planning to spend a few days out there introducing her to my mother's family before we return to Maine.

Yesterday, Hop received notification that she would be issued a K1 visa to enter the United States. She will be issued the visa on Monday.

This is, of course, very exciting news for me, especially coming after eight months of slogging through the immigration machinery. We still have yet to work out the details of her trip here, but it will be within the next month or two.

Hop is currently in Ho Chi Minh City. This afternoon (very early in the morning for those of us in the USA) she will submit the documents required by the consulate to overcome the denial of her visa application. It is possible, though, I think, unlikely, that the consulate could issue the visa the same day, if the documents are sufficient to convince them that she is eligible.

Wish us luck...

Update: The consulate received her documents and told her to go home and wait for them to mail her a new interview date.