Ranting Details

My Rough Attempt at a "Best Of 2007" List

All I heard for months before I turned twenty-one was that it was going to be “the best year of my life.”  I assumed this meant champagne would rain from the sky, the name of the company would be changed to “Matthew Murphy’s ABT” and I would publish somewhere around eight or nine novels (preceded by an award winning series of short stories, of course) in between winning a few Oscars.  Four months into 2007, it became clear that the words predicting the year’s triumphant bragging rights were but a cruel joke. 

2007 goes down as the most difficult year of my life (or as Homer Simpson would say “The most difficult year of your life…so far”).  Emotional and physical tests were fired at me as gruesomely as paint ball guns shot at close range; there’s no denying that my wounds splattered across the surface for all to see.  It was a year where I had no choice but to call out for help from whoever would listen. 

Writing a post to close up such a tumultuous year is all but impossible.  There is no pleasant way to wrap up dynamite that exploded already.  The different challenges I faced throughout 2007 have taught me more about myself, and the world around me, than the twenty years preceding it.  In that sense it has been a spectacular year;  spectacularly frightening in every way.

(Superfluous Pom shot.)

I’ve always had a tendency for vices in the form of arts and entertainment, but never have I been more dependent on the happiness that different art forms create than in the past twelve months.  There were days, months even, where my best friends were the singers who floated out of my speakers.  Characters on TV personified my problems, and opened up emotions in myself that I kept bottled up.  Paintings created fifty years ago peered out from books and whispered that they understood my emotions.  Art found a way of impacting me like never before. 

One of the most disappointing parts about being ill for so long is that it hasn’t allowed me to get out and see as much theater, or museums, as I would have liked in 2007.  The only portion of this list that I feel to be definitive in any way, is the list of best albums.  I immersed myself in music during my illness, and the albums that follow create the soundtrack of my so called “Epstein” life.

(Chocolate Covered (Oddly Leafy) Strawberries: The Cure-All Food.)

(Michael Lowney and Nick McCarvel: The (Slightly  Creepy) Cure-All Friends.)

A difficult repercussion of music playing such an important role in my year, is that many of the albums that I fell in love with are forever associated with my struggle.  Certain songs come on and suck me back into the mindset I existed in when I first discovered them.  Many of these albums made my year, but several of them are ruined for me because of their place in the library of my illness. 

While there may be worse years to come, I can’t help but hope that I’m coming out of a particularly dark spot in my life.  For everyone who has stood by me in the past year, thank you.  I can’t imagine how monotonous this blog must have become at times.  For everyone that toasts health on New Years Eve, say it and mean it.  You never know how quickly health, or life itself, can be taken away.  Cherish it while you have it. 

Here is a look back on what helped make this difficult year great…even in the smallest ways.   I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR EVERYONE ELSE'S ADDITIONS! 

(Voice your opinion.  Raise your (on-line) hand.)

ALBUMS:
1.    M.I.A-Kala
2.    Arcade Fire- Neon Bible
3.    Nicole Atkins- Neptune City
4.    Radiohead-In Rainbows
5.    St Vincent-Marry Me
6.    LCD Soundsystem- Sound of Silver
7.    Rilo Kiley- Under the Blacklight
8.    Sara Bareilles- Little Voice
9.    Alicia Keys-As I Am
10.    Amy Winehouse-Back to Black
11.    Kevin Drew-Spirit If...
12.  Feist- The Reminder
13.    Mark Ronson- Version

THEATER/ DANCE/ CONCERTS:

1.    Company-Broadway Revival
2.    Nederlands Dance Theater
3.    Eurydice
4.    Xanadu (#1) - With Michelle Dorrance.  Nothing beats the first time. 
5.    M.I.A. at Terminal 5
6.    Alessandra Ferri’s  Farewell
7.    Xanadu (#4)- With Marcelo Gomes.   During the strike, which brought the performance to volcanic levels.
8.    Decadance at Cedar lake
9.    Audra McDonald in “110 in the Shade”
10.    Xanadu (#2)- With David Hallberg and Nick McCarvel.  A pleasure to share with my two best friends. 
11.    West Side Story 50th Anniversary at Gypsy of the Year

MOVIES:
1.    The Lives of Others (technically released in US in February 2007)
2.    Ratatouille
3.    No Country for Old Men
4.    Knocked Up
5.    Once
6.    Hairspray
7.    La Vie En Rose
8.    Superbad
9.   Juno
10. Lars and the Real Girl

(Expected to be on the list once they make it to the end of the cinematic earth Montana: Atonement, Sweeney Todd, There Will Be Blood, The Savages, I’m Not There)

BOOKS:
1.    The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand
2. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle- Haruki Murakami
3.    The Corrections- Jonathan Franzen
4.    Will in the World- Stephen Greenblatt
5.    Under the Banner of Heaven
Runner Up:  Harry Potter #7

TV:
1.    Friday Night Lights
2.    30 Rock
3.    Pushing Daisies
4.    The Office
5.    Wednesday Night Trifecta- America’s Next Top Model, Gossip Girl, Project Runway.  (The perfect diversion during Eppy-sodes.)

TOP TEN EVENTS IN MY LIFE THIS YEAR:
1.   Spending the summer with Nick McCarvel in New York
2.    Paris
3.    My first published article
4.    Dancing Mercutio w/ Boca Ballet Theatre
5.    The Musee D’Orsey
6.    Performing “The Green Table” In Europe
7.    The release that my first break down, five months into being sick, brought.
8.    Discovering I love photography
9.    Turning 21 At Gay 90’s in Minneapolis
10.   BIP/BONing

COMING (oh, so) SOON!

The day the world has waited for is almost here.  No, not world peace...RANTING DETAILS SHIRTS!   Santa had so many requests for "Ranting Wear" that he wasn't able to fill this year, but 2008 is an entirely different beast.  Available in a variety of colors and styles, "Ranting Wear" is already the hottest clothing label of 2008.  SPREAD THE RANT!  On sale in a few weeks! 


AND THAT'S JUST THE BEGINNING!!!!  STAY TUNED! 

You Know You're In Montana When...

You know you're in Montana when you decide to waste your time in Target trying on cowboy hats.  Then you look around and realize that you fit in more when you are joking around than when you are dressed as your normal self.

(Another satisfied customer shopping for some...Billy Ray Cyrus?)

Picture(s) of the Day: 12/29/07

I'm working on getting my end of year list together, but in the meantime...here are some photos from our annual Christmas Eve dinner at the Bugbee's beautiful apartment.  Every year since I was nine, we have donned our gay apparel (gay as in happy...duh) and fa-la-la-ed our way to a Christmas Eve feast.  Twas the night before Christmas....oh, wait...different story.

(A Christmas feast awaits the hungry families.)

(This photo PERFECTLY sums up how I feel when Epstein Barr takes over me.  No matter how interested I am in the conversation, my mind just goes blank and my body's fatigue takes over.  Good job Carson for capturing the magic sickness wave!)

(Papa candle man.)

(Spirited conversation at the dinner table...)

(That can't keep Mica (Mazie, our dog's, sister) entertained.)

(The night was winding down, and I was getting anxious for Santa's arrival.)

(But that couldn't stop us from indulging in a little last minute photo shoot.)

(And it couldn't stop me from creeping outside to capture a few pictures of Carson.)

(Here she is with the Mama Murphy.  We're like the Berenstain Bears.)

(Only instead of wearing polka dots...)

(We vogue.  Or in Carson's case...give ourselves creepy face-lifts.)

(But just like those pesky cubs, we try to please our parents by getting one shot where we aren't acting like idiots.  Are we twins?  I mean, honestly...)

Road Trip It

One of the most extraordinary things about visiting Montana is the vast, open scenery that meets the eye.  Even though I've spent a huge amount of my life here, I never tire of the big sky, and mountains that loom over Missoula.  The scenery surrounding the valley of Missoula is like a quaint hill compared to what covers the hundreds of miles throughout the state.  On Sunday afternoon I had the opportunity to take a road trip with my friends Patrick, Leah and Michael to Helena (the state capitol) for the night.

When I bought my camera a few months ago, I anticipated my arrival to Montana for the chance to photograph some of the luscious scenery.  Snow capped mountains, clouds the size of East Coast states, and more cows than New York has rats (okay, not quite), were just a few of the reasons I packed my camera in my backpack for the two hour trip.  As bad pop music blasted,  my finger ignited the shutter while I poked my head in every direction, attempting to capture a frame of the beauty that is Montana. 

Our  timing for the trip couldn't have been more perfect.  We wound through the final pass just as the sun was setting in the late afternoon.  I finally have a camera that can capture beautiful shots, even while the car is zooming through the mountains, so I took advantage of the rare opportunity to capture a Montana sunset.  There was some gorgeous back-lighting, which proved difficult to photograph, but I think I got some exciting shots.

(I see a moo cow named Caroline!  Moo-moo, moo-moo.)

(So many different types of clouds.   Here we have a marble slab cloud.)

(Here we have the rare cotton-candy-tornado cloud.)

(This, somehow, is typical in Montana.)

The events got even more exciting once we reached Helena.  Leah's brother (Decemberists lead singer Colin Meloy) wasn't able to join the family for game night, but her sister Meile Meloy (a famous writer) and Meile's husband Ian (a writer for The Simpsons for the past twelve years) were there to compete in a heated game of running Pictionary.  It was more physical activity than I've endured in the past four months, and I seem to have survived rather well.

(Michael shows off his new emo haircut and it's many styling possibilities.)

(While I sit and wonder what "The Man Store" sells.  Not boyfriends.  Razors?  Condoms?  Bean-o?)

Before I knew it, it was time to travel back to Montana for Christmas Eve festivities.  I managed to snap a few more shots before the trip was up.  This is just the beginning...

(Playing with the passing scenery.)

(Where's Heath or Jake?)

(A rather un-wintery portion of landscape.)

 

Open House It

(Mama Linda prepares for the holiday party.)

Holiday season is the time of year that brings out the traditions, the emotions, and the fights in all of us.  Classic holiday films have put everyone’s most disastrous (or memorable…or disastrously memorable) holiday experiences on celluloid.  Between 24 hour marathons of A Christmas Story, my personal favorite Christmas Vacation, and more recent classics like Home for the Holidays, Love, Actually, and The Family Stone, there’s a holiday film out there to fit whatever mood you’re in.  Sandwiched between those holiday classics, I have a few other holiday traditions.  One (a Christmas Eve celebration) has been going on since I was nine, while another (our family’s holiday party) currently celebrated its second annual appearance. 

Saturday night, mere days after Carson and I arrived in Missoula, my family organized what my mother called and Open House Party.  When I first heard those words, I thought we were selling the house, but I was quickly informed that it’s a popular term for a party where anyone and everyone is invited to stop by. 

(Seeing as I am challenged in the cooking department, I was responsible for organizing cookies...and being party photog.)

(Battle of the sass.  She wins every time.)

(The man who played Santa my entire youth prepares some food while the ghost of Santa looms in the background.)

One of the more difficult things for me over the past eight months has been draining social interaction.  Needless to say, I looked at the Saturday party as my Mount Everest.  In addition to some of my closest friends, the guest list was slated to include everyone from middle school friends, to old dance partners, neighbors, strippers, and my favorite dancing man of all time, Sir Andrew. 

(Ballerina vase holds some Tootsie's.)

(Bald Ballerino holds some Andrew.)

I put on my best hosting outfit (poodle skirt and leopard pumps, of course) and prepared myself for an evening that I feared I wouldn’t be able to enjoy.  As soon as the incredible catered food arrived, I knew that at least my belly would be delighting in something even if my brain couldn’t handle the overload.  Any fears I had were dashed away once the parade of old, but familiar, faces waltzed through the door. 

Being one of four hosts required that I mingled around the party like a snowflake drifting slowly to the ground (drifting towards fatigue, rather than slamming into the ground).  Coats and shoes were checked, music was pumping, and most importantly, Santa was ready for dressing. 

Upon arrival in Missoula I discovered a new “art installation” in our dining room.  My parents, ever the avant-garde artists, created a dress form Santa complete with a head made out of a light explosion.  The only requirement for entry to the party was that everyone brought something (anything) to pin to Santa.  By the end of the night, the punch bowl was drained, the dog was puking, and Santa had turned into a Promiscuous Republican with a small pair of nuts.  (See below.)  Needless to say, it was a smashing success.

(Pre-party Santa.)

(Pre-party tree: before the broken ornaments.)

(Anya and Jes get a laugh on the couch.  These lovely and talented ladies recently finished a dance film with my father.  I'll be choreographing on them a bit while I'm here.)

(Party vortex.)

(Santa's illuminated head before it was attacked by...)

(Party debauchery.)

(Santa packs a condom in the brim of his hat.  Gotta be protected for those all night flights around the world.)

(Rudy Claus.)

(The finished product, complete with dangling nuts at the bottom of the frame.)

(Santa spills onto the floor.)

 

Lazy Post of the Day: I Want A Christmas Tree

Everyone's favorite Seattlitte Nicholas has delivered a dose of holiday cheer  to Ranting Details!  Anyone familiar with the Britney Spears disaster song "Piece of Me," will recognize the tune, but who knew that Nick had such songwriting skills inside of him?!   He and his roommate Lauren spent lots of (possibly ridiculous amounts of) time reworking the lyrics to Spears' latest single and even choreographed some dance moves to go along with the festivities.  In need of a holiday laugh?  Look no further than Nick's committed performance of "I Want A Christmas Tree," which just may beat out Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" on the pop charts this season. 

The Blogging Apocalypse

(The blogging apocalypse has arrived, as my computer sputters and clings to life here in Montana.  I've known my computer was going to die for a bit of time now, so I took the necessary precautions to back everything up just in time.  Between that, a crazy holiday party (featuring Santa Guilliani above), and a road trip to Helena this afternoon, I'm taking a few days off from blogging.  Of course I say that and I'll probably be back with four posts tomorrow.  Until then...)

Picture(s) of the Day: 12/22/07

I spent a lot of time in Times Square the week leading up to my departure.  While it's possibly the most despised neighborhood in New York, I find that I have a new love for it with my camera attached to my face.  Instead of running through the tourists like a convict escaped from prison, I waddled along with them and stopped to admire the neon glow emanating from the billboards.  Here are a few shots that I ended up with. 

(Just another day walking down the street.)

(I find filmmaking to be one of the most fascinating things to witness.  This man doesn't seem to share the same opinion as the crew sets up for a shot.)

Just Play It Cool Boy

A few days ago, while I fought through snot and emotions leading up to my departure to the arctic, I got a phone call from my friend Michelle Dorrance with a very special offer.  Last month Michelle became a full time member of "Stomp," and Tuesday afternoon she was merging with my favorite show Rock 'n' Roll "Xanadu" for the 19th Annual Gypsy of the Year Competition.  After months of fundraising for Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids, all the shows gather together each year to put on an afternoon of skits, musical numbers, and over dramatic lyrical dances, all in the name of this incredible cause. 

I've always watched these events from afar, through photos and accounts of other theater goers on websites, but despite my cold I was ecstatic at the opportunity to sit in the audience.  The proceedings were hosted by none other than "Xanadu"'s reining goddesses Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman, who were hindered by the addition of Bob Sagat.  The ladies elicited a barrage of laughter from the audience (mostly industry insiders) while Sagat proceeded to bring things down with his low-brow, and quite frankly, unfunny comedy schtick. 

Regardless of Danny Tanner's hindrance of the hosting duties, they were not the reason anyone was there.  Several shows (notably "Mamma Mia," "The Ritz," "Legally Blonde," and "The Color Purple") pulled out hilarious (and in the case of "Purple," dramatic) musical numbers spoofing various events in the theater world.  Despite their efforts, nothing could even come close to touching the main attraction of the afternoon: a reunion of the surviving members of the original Broadway company of "West Side Story." 

Only a day earlier, I had discussed the brilliance of this show with friends of mine, and suddenly there I was watching theater history.  To say that it was chill inducing, emotional, mesmerizing, touching, or mind-blowing are all vast understatements.  Being the sneaky blogger that I am (and seeing as everyone else around me with cameras noticed that this was an event not to go undocumented) I filmed the "West Side" sequence in its entirety.

Chita Rivera continues to amaze me.  The amount of energy and passion she brings to her sections rivals that of the dancers surrounding her who must be almost 50 years younger.  (A fun tidbit: the dancer standing directly to Rivera's left during the Mambo section is her daughter.) 

Before the show I had the chance to go backstage with Michelle.  We waded through a sea of jazz-pants wearing, vocalizing, splitting, and twirling dancers before arriving at none other than Annie Golden.  For those of you not aware of Golden, she's a fantastic singer who was discovered at CBGB's in the 70's before going on to star in "Hair," "The Full Monty," and most currently as an understudy in "Xanadu."  In addition to those wonderful credits, she did a TV show with my dad years ago while we lived in L.A.

(LOVE IT.)

Michelle introduced me to her, and I had a vague recollection of my dad's association with her, so I figured I would give it a try.  The moment I mentioned my father's name, her eyes lit up and she launched into a recollection of his "big beautiful curly hair," and the fact that he was "moving his family to somewhere like Montana."  My jaw dropped to the floor as she continued to get a kick out of the bizarre connection.   She's such a vivid character and a warm presence that I wanted to spend more time around.  In addition to her glorious singing voice (she starts off the "Stompadu" video below) she speaks in a kewpie doll meets 10-packs of cigarettes rasp that is endearing.  While  I can't quite explain the reasoning behind the Stomp/Xanadu merger, I'm not complaining.  Check it out for yourself below.