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FEBRUARY

February 19, 2002 — 9 Days Until My Birthday!

So I realized that it’s been quite some time since I wrote a ledger (the
beginning of the year!?! can you believe it?), so I specifically skipped
seeing a show tonight so that I’d have plenty of time to catch everyone up,
since it’s exhausting trying to it one-by-one.

I put the most important information first, right in the subject. You all
get a REMINDER this year, that my 23rd BIRTHDAY is on 2/28/02. That’s 9
days left to SEND your gifts/ e-cards! =) I REALLY feel like I’m getting
old… more on birthday celebrations later. If you’re in the area, you
should come to my PARTY on 3/1, convienently located on the weekend for
those with actual class or work on Fridays… (who’s that?)

Also in this ledger, I’ve decided to go back to listing NAMES of FRIENDS b/c
apparently lots of people just search for their names and read those
sections intently.

So let the LONG LEDGER begin…

TRIP TO BOSTON

Wow… I haven’t written since my trip to Boston. So I went to Boston for
2.5 weeks… and I’m NEVER leaving NYC again for that long! I had severe
withdrawal pains.

First I went to ERIC’s! I got to play with his wonderful kitten, Snickers,
who kept me coming all night while Eric went to bed. I’ve decided that as
soon as I move into an apartment that allows them, that I want to GET A
CAT… this is also contingent on having 2 rooms, so I can have one for the
cat and one for all my valuable, breakable stuff. But sometime in the next
few years, I’d love a cat, but only if it’s exactly like Snickers.

We saw A Beautiful Mind that weekend. Good movie. Over break I went MOVIE
crazy and saw: Harry (2nd time w/ RACHEL), Lord of the Rings (w/ MATT,
ANDREA and RACHEL), Vanilla Sky (w/ DAVE and TANGO), The Royal Tannenbaums
(w/ JEN, LAURA and TANGO), A Beautiful Mind (w/ ERIC), Orange County (w/
SETH, SAMIDH, and AMRITA), Gosford Park (w/ NABEELA and AARON) and finally
Monster Ball (w/ KRISTINE and RONA).

Then we went SKIING! Which was really funny except for the waking up at 5am
part. That was weird day shifting myself, but I stayed up til 3am the next
night and was back on my normal schedule in no time. I ended up in a TREE
at some point. I don’t know how, but I wasn’t touching the ground at all.
That was the highlight of the trip! I mostly went down the easy slopes (the
green circle ones!)…

Then I went to stay at SAMIDH’s! The first night we went out to dinner and
had steak! Yum… staying at SAMIDH’s was WONDERFUl b/c he and I had the
same schedule and went to bed around 7am after talking, and slept until 2pm.
And we watched digital cable together! And IMed each other from 2 different
computers… quite the fun time. I managed to see MELISSA, MONICA and
AMRITA that week too.

The second week I stayed at AARON’s and DAWN was kind enough to lend me her
extra laptop! I hung out on 2e which I must say was QUITE weird since I had
spent 4 years there, but no longer lived there since I now live in a COOL city.

I had lunch w/ my FAVORITE MIT professor, Prof Harris on Monday. Then saw
YAMINI, AMITHA and JAMES at their place where we watched must see tv for old
ties. My proudest feat was managing to have lunch w/ JOSEPHA who had
slipped through the cracks of the world… but I found her, and she looks
GOOD and very happy. Then I had dinner w/ KEVIN and watched some Sex and
the City til his boyfriend kicked me out… (grrrrr) Then Wednesday, I saw
REBECCA and had dinner w/ her, then NABEELA and went to the movies, then
SHERRI came over and I beat her in chess repeatedly! Thursday I saw NIKI
and we went ot the galleria like we used to. I watched Friends w/ MELINDA
for old times sake, then went to AARON’s movie marathon w/ DAWN and SAMIDH
was there too and then came back to Aaron’s.

Friday started the MYSTERY hunt where BRANDY deserted our team. But it was
a pleasure to see all my other mystery hunt buddies (including YAN-YAN and
DAVID who are on this list, and of course DAN who will be mentioned much
later on in this e-mail). We didn’t do so hot in the hunt this year, BUT
there was a PUZZLE NAMED AFTER ME!!!! It was all about SONDHEIM and I
solved it in 20 minutes. So that was the highlight of the hunt w/ was
monopoly themed this year (web.mit.edu/puzzle/www).

I promptly returned to NYC after the hunt, and haven’t left since!

THIS TERM

MY NEW ROOMMATE

Yes, I have a new roommate. His name is Steve. He’s really friendly and
VERY easy going, and it’s been GREAT! When all my friends leave, he’s still
here to watch tv and movies! And he goes to bed AFTER me (as in after 5am),
and just sits at his computer all the time, and he doesn’t mind noise at
all, so it’s the perfect arrangement. And he sings sporatically too, mostly
80’s, but I like 80’s. The fun times are when we both have music on. Quite
an interesting combination! he also tends to go visiting friends one
weekend a month, so that’s a nice break, too.

MY CLASSES

I only have class TUES and WED, so I have FIVE DAY WEEKENDS!!!! This is the
best schedule I have EVER had in my life, and I highly recommend it.
Although I must say my 5 day weekends are sooooo jampacked, that they go
incredibly quickly. I guess when you’re seeing 4 shows a week and hanging
out incessantly that tends to happen.

I’m taking: Java Music Systems which is so much easier than 6.170, let me
tell you. It’s nice to be using Java again after 2 years, and we’re using
it to create music… I’ll send webpages out when I actually compose stuff
using the java tools. My next class is Digital Audio Processing II which is
a continuation of this really awful class I had to take last term with many
stupid, mundane book report like assignments. Wednesdays I start with the
Evolution of Technology which is my elective. IT sounded interesting, but
it really isn’t and is just a lot of reading, but I’m takin it p/f, so I
just sort of skim through it. My final class is Advanced Musical Acoustics
which I’m REALLY enjoying, but that’s a lot of reading too.

So bascially I have a lot of READING this term, although I have FIVE day
weekends to do it in. But of course, I never do anything til Monday night,
which is why I finished all my work for the week early so I could spend the
remainder of the night writing this… and I’m not even close to being done!

VOCAL LESSONS

In addition to still having my piano job ($10/ hour for going around
checking pianos), I also play for voice lessons for $15/ half hour. That’s
very good $$ and helps pay for shows. One of the people I play for is
actually GIVING me lessons in exchange for me playing for his, so I’m
actually working on singing better and hopefully I’ll improve such that I
can get into shows in NYC somewhere…

SHOWS

We’re tentatively going to do a MUSICAL REVUE on APRIL 19th and 20th. I
want it to be a show about decisions and such b/c I’m having a lot of
decision coming up in the near future. And I think that’d be a really cute
theme. We’re theoretically having AUDITIONS really soon and hopefully we
can pull it together fairly quickly.

My word will also probably be featured in a SHOWCASE OF NEW MUSICAL THEATER
COMPOSERS on April 5th and 6th. I will not be there on the 6th, however,
since I’m seeing KRISTIN CHENOWETH at the state theatre from the front pit
row…

Other than that, I’m still in the Men’s Choir, which is really fun, and
we’ll have a concert at some point, hopefully…

SETH AS A SOCIAL BUTTERFLY

I have increased the amount of friends I have this term! In addition to
JEN, JEN, TANGO and LAURA and KRISTINE, JULIA, NEAL and RONA, and NANCY and
MEREDITH, and CRAIG I have added KRISTED (Tango’s new roommate), ANDREW,
ANNE and RORI, JESSY and JAMIE, and of course STEVE!

I have been busy almost NONstop this term, including watching LAURA’s movie
picks (sometimes good like Brewster McCloud and Dark City and sometimes
horrid like many foreign films), watching MUPPET show eps with JEN, going to
a WONDERFUL TABOO (ah, those were the days, huh, beast alums?) PARTY at
JESSY’s and JAMIE’s (where my team won, of course), going out for NANCY’s
birthday, weekly SEX AND THE CITY viewings (I CAN’T BELIEVE BIG LEFT NYC),
and going out w/ all my grad friends for VALENTINE’s day (I got all the
girls roses and then had one leftover, so I gave it to this cute little girl
walking down the street w/ her parents b/c she looked like she wanted one…).

GROWING UP CD

*******the GROWING UP cd, the revue of my songs from last term, is
FINISHED!!! If you would like a copy let me know. I’d need you to pay for
the blank and for postage. It actually came out fairly well!**********

IN THE FUTURE

BIRTHDAY!!!!!*****

I am turning 23 in just 9 days now!!! I feel like I’m getting incredibly
old. I’m going to see the new Jason Robert Brown musical, the Last 5 Years
on my bday from the front row!

That FRIDAY, 3/1, we’re all going out to dinner in LITTLE ITALY, then to a
comedy show (free from my dorm, we can even bring a few friends), then PARTY
at my place!!!!!!!

Saturday, I intend to do 2 shows w/ my theater friends who probably can’t
come Friday night.

IF YOU’RE IN THE AREA, LET ME KNOW! I’m going to send official invitations
for the evening at some point, but everyone in the whole world is of course
invited.

FRANKENSTEIN: The MUSICAL

Actually titled The Modern Prometheus. Scribby and I have completed THREE
songs from the show now, and it’s shaping up to be quite a masterpiece if I
do say so myself… and I do! That will hopefully be finished eventually.

I intend to do a workshop production of PANDORA’S CHILDREN, my 2nd musical
written w/ JAMES this summer. Speaking of which:

THIS SUMMER

I applied to be a GRADUATE ASSISTANT for HOUSING which means i’d have FREE
housing this summer AND next year, as well as free food and a stipend in
exchange for a lot of grunge work. Sounds like a fair trade to me esp since
I’d be guaranteed a single that way!

If I get it, hopefully I can do it this summer, and then I’d definitely stay
in NYC, although I’ll porbably stay regardless and maybe take a class or 2,
do PAndora and HOPEFULLY find an INTERNSHIP one of these days. (it’s on the
list after the ledger and the passport… which reminds me)

I’M GOING TO LONDON

SPRING BREAK!!!!!! Dan IMed me and was like “do you wanna go to London in
March?” and I said “sure if we go on my break” so we’re going for 5 days (he
can’t get out of classes more than a few times).

I’m quite excited!!! And that’s why getting a passport is very far up on my
list of things to do. But I can’t get one until 2 weeks before b/c I wanna
just get it that day I go, so I’ll have to wait til it’s an emergency one.
BUt that’s only another 12 days to wait anyway. B/c usually it’d take 6 and
then they’d mail it to you, and I pay the same rush fees anyway.

I’m planning on seeing as many shows as I can while also seeing all the big
touristy spots, and hopefully having the bestest break EVER!

But I will be in EB for a few days BEFORE I go, so if you’re still living in
NJ, let me know if you want to get together sometime from the 9th until the
13th durin the afternoon. ATUL BETTER SEE ME.

TRIP TO DC

I’m going down to DC the weekend of JUNE 14th-16th to see 3/6 SONDHEIM shows
at the SONDHEIMfest at the Kennedy Center. It’s going to be AMAZING!!!!
And I can’t wait. The other 3 play every weekend in August, BUT if I’m a GA
I’d have to be here ALL month for training. So I need to hold off on that,
but it’s already sold out, so yeah, I’m just seeing the first set! But I
haven’t been to DC in ages, so we (JEN’s coming!) have about half a day for
SIGHTSEEING and maybe if I have a flexible job over the summer, we can
extend the weekend either to Thursday or MOnday or both.

I’ll probably also take a trip to BOSTON again this summer at some ponit for
just a weekend, and I might take a trip to CHICAGO b/c KRISTINE and RONA are
DESERTING me and moving there. Also, NIKI might move there, too, so I’d
have lots of people to see there, even though I usually don’t like
travelling that far west. And frankly, after the London trip, I may not
feel like going on another plane for SOME time…

BERNADETTE’s COMING BACK TO BWAY

In APril 2003 in GYPSY and I’m going to go see her at least TWICE. That
should conclude it for the future section and should segue completely nicely
into the THEATRE section…….

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: THEATER!!!!!

Phew… here’s the list and a few sentences on every show I’ve seen in the
last 2 months for those of you who live vicariously through me:

DANCE OF DEATH: I caught this show w/ Craig pre-boston trip. It was ok.
Kind of slow. IAN MCKELLAN was GREAT and very nice though.

AN ALMOST HOLY PICTURE: KEVIN BACON was very nice. The play was ok. Too
seriously for me. And I don’t really like so much god (yech) talk.

BEA ARTHUR: ON BWAY: Eh… the show was ok. Bea did NOT sign. And that
does NOT make me happy, or make me tell anyone to see her show. I’m hoping
Elaine Stritch’ll sign when I try to get rush tix Wed night…

MONSTER: An off-bway play revisioning Frankenstein. Saw it b/c well, I’m
writing a musical version of it. But the play was really bad. REALLY bad.
The highlight was that 3 of the orig cast of RENT were there b/c it’s the
same director. You know it’s a bad show when the highlight’s in the audience…

RENT: I saw RENT for the 3rd time… I went on a MONDAY night when there was
HARDLy anyone there, and I still BARELY won the lottery. I was DEAD last.
DEAD LAST. And I think everyone who was there ended up winning anyway.
Talk about bad lottery luck!

OCCUPANT: I saw ANNE BANCROFT in the new Albee play off-bway. She was very
good and very nice and signed. I MET MEL BROOKS!!!!!!!!! But he would NOT
sign, which is NOT nice. But I told him I wanted to be like him when I grew
up and he said I’d “have to lose a few inches!” And I SHOOK HIS HAND!! And
told him I loved him in EVERything esp Mad About YOu which I watch every
night at 4am…

CARNIVAL: This was a really cute concert version and I FINALLY met BRIAN
STOKES MITCHELL after eons of trying and missing him or getting his
understudy. The girl from the Princess Diaries (ANNE HATHAWAY) was in it
too, and she was very good.

DAPHNE RUBIN-VEGA in concert: went to Joe’s Pub. SHe did OUT TONIGHT and
DOUBLE FEATURE which made us all very happy! Her own music was pretty good.
She’s really fun to watch and was INCREDIBLY nice after the show!
INCREDIBLY nice…

OUR TOWN: My friend MELISSA was in town and REALLY wanted to see it. It
was a REALLY good production even though I still don’t really care for the
play. But the proudction was AMAZING and very enjoyable. And Thorton
Wilder’s NEPHEW was there and gave a talk about him after the show and such.
(that night I felt like a REAL NEW YORKER– seeing an off-off bway play on a
Monday night!)

BETTY BUCKLEY in concert: So Betty did a whole ONE bway song and that
REALLY annoyed me. But I was FRONT row and she kept smiling at me, so it
wasn’t all bad…

MAMMA MIA: time 2! but this time I didn’t have any understudies! we went
for NANCY’s bday and it was REALLY fun even if the show is mostly fluff…
at least there are some good belting moments.

PRODUCERS: time 2! thanks to DAVE for waking up at 5am and being online by
6:45!! SUCH a great show! ENTIRE orig cast still! And we could see better
from SRO than the balcony. Poor NATHAN is REALLY losing his voice though…
poor guy. I told MATTHEW to congratulate SARAH for her Emmy and for the
handwritten postcard she sent me, but he probably didn’t tell her…

SUNRIZE: THE MUSICAL: I REVIEWED this show and it will be in the PAPER
FRIDAY (Culture Shock) so get a COPy if you’re in town, or read it online if
you’re not! It was a cute evening about the diva Sunrize Highway (played by
a man who wrote the show)’s rise to fame and she went through her life w/
many songs from musicals w/ hilariously adjusted words

———–

CONCLUSION

Phew!!!! I’ve done it! That only took 1.5 hours to catch you all up.
PLEASE WRITE BACK SOON! I hope everyone’s having as much of a fun and BUSY
year as I am!

Have a wonderful week!!!!

Always–
Seth

APRIL

April 4, 2002 — All About London and MORE!!!

First, I want to say how amazingly loved I feel by so many people e-mailing
me and IMing and calling me and all being like “Where’s the ledger about
London?” It makes me feel really special to know you guys enjoy these
ledgers as much as enjoy writing them. So here, w/o much ado is the London
Ledger! (There will of course be plenty of other details after that section…)

****LONDON****

Yes, I got my passport okay! I know we were all worried, but going the day
before was fine. I picked it right on my way to the airport the following
day! And then I spent hours at Newark waiting and waiting… I made it
through the ticket line AND the security clearance in under 10 minutes!

THE AIRPORT

So first up was waiting for Dan to arrive from Boston. He was supposed to
either take the plane that got in at 5:20 or 6:20. Our flight left at
7:45… BUT the 5:20 was delayed to 6:40 and the 6:20 to 7:40! And I had NO
idea if he made the earlier one or not!!

So 6:45 rolls around and the first plane FINALLY starts to unload, and he’s
not there… and I’M FREAKING b/c the other one won’t unload until after my
flight from London is supposed to depart, and he’s still not there… and
there are all these passengers… and then the pilot comes off… and I’m
still freaking and then virtually the LAST one off the plane is DAN… And I
JUMPED up and down to his chagrin and was so happy that I dind’t have to
figure out what to do if he had missed that flight!

So then we didn’t have much time since our plane was already boarding, so we
mosied on across the terminal to where our flight was boarding, and we got
on (niether of us were searched at all!)… and then it was a LONG flight,
but they give you this VIDEO screen and a free BLINDFOLD and EARPLUGS!

And I had started the 2nd part of LORD OF THE RINGS on the PATH ride over
and then the bus ride and the wait in the airport and then on the flight…
incidentally I FINISHED IT on the way back, and now all I have to do is read
the last part this SUMMER when I FINALLY have free time! (More on this
summer later…)

So can I just say I HATE planes? My ears STILL haven’t recovered from all
the pressure changes, and it’s been 3 weeks! And going up and coming down
is just really scary, but it was ok… we made it to LONDON in one piece!!!

THE FIRST DAY

I tried to take a nap on the plane, but it was too early, and we got off and
it was 8am London time, but only 3am at home, so I was pretty much still
awake, but oh would I crash by the end of staying up for almost 30 hours…

Our first stop was to pick up a subway pass for the week and a ticket to
London from the airport. The TRAINS were SO like Harry Potter!!! In fact,
the ENTIRE time I was there I felt like I was IN HARRY POTTER!! And my,
British people LOOK and TALK so funny… it’s almost like NYC, but not as
cool, and it sort of reminded me of Boston a lot, which implies lameness…

But it was SOOOooo crowded! More so than NYC… and that’s saying a LOT!
The subways were SOOOooo far underground… my busted my knees from all the
stairs, and they STILL hurt weeks later (with my ears). But the cool thing
about the Underground is that it TELLS you when the next train is coming…
the uncool thing is that it’s not air conditioned…

Although it was FREEZING the entire time there. And almost RAINED
NONSTOP… the first day was the WORST… I was convinced I was in some
twisted evil land… wind everywhere… rain nonstop!!!

Our first stop was KISS ME KATE to get rush tix! The concession tickets are
for students and senior citizens and are about the same price as in nyc, but
the seats are SOOOOO much better! We sat in row J of the orchestra!

Before the show we ran to GREENWICH b/c Dan wanted to go to the National
Maritime Museum… that was cute… we also went to the PRIMERIDIAN, so I
was in 2 time zones at once… pretty cool stuff, don’t you think?

Kiss Me Kate was great, although the british cast was DEFINITELY much worse
than in nyc. They had NO energy! The 4 leads were american though and they
were really good. After the show I got all their autographs, but only met 3
of them… I had flown ALL the way to meet MARIN and I saw her FINALLY in
that row since I had her understudy here and I’m waiting for her to come out
and they told me she was getting a haircut and not coming out between shows
esp b/c of the weather… and I was soooo upset and explained how I came ALL
that way just to see her and came straight there (and I still had all my
luggage!) and BRENT BARRETT the male lead, TOOK my 3 cds and my playbill
backstage and had her sign while she was gettinga haircut! TALK ABOUT NICE!!!!!

Some other thoughts on British theater: it starts ON TIME! It’s so
weird… like even a little early. The times AREN’t the same AT ALL for
different shows… some are at 7:15, some 7:30, some 7:45… and the DAYS
aren’t even consistent! Talk about FRUSTRATING! And they serve ICE CREAM
at intermission… now that’s nice… Ben & Jerry’s, yum… and it helps
keep you awake when you’re jetlagged…

So after KMK, we went to our hotel, which was on the Queensway subway stop.
It was quaint actually… smallish, but nice. And we got all 5 channels
that Britain offers!

We left virtually right away though to go see My One and Only. It was eh…
and I kept dozing b/c I was very sleep deprived by that point, so I really
don’t remember too much about it.

Then we promptly went to sleep.

DAY 2

We woke up late, around 11ish after 12 whole hours of sleep! And I promptly
ran to get tickets for a night show (so, yeah, being in London is virtually
the same as nyc in that way, except it’s easier to get tix the day of…
unless you want to see Jonathan Pryce in My Fair Lady b/c that’s completely
sold out for ages… tis not fair!)…

Then I went to the GLOBE THEATRE, being a Shakespeare fan… I was IN the
Globe!!!! (the restoration of course) It was like being IN Shakespeare in
Love!!! The highlight of all these museum things is that they ALL have
student prices so it was quite affordable! Or more so than it would’ve been
at least… Anyway, I enjoyed that museum and finding out facts about
Shakespeare, etc, and listening to recordings of famous stars in his shows…

I went from there to the Clink Prison Museum, just b/c I kind of went passed
it seeing the original site where the Globe was. That was ok… kind of
lame… just like any prison museum, really, but I took pictures of the
torture stuff just so I felt I got my couple of pounds worth.

Then I took a picture of LONDON BRIDGE which certainly has NOT FALLEN DOWN,
so I don’t know where THAT song came from.

The next stop of the day was the THEATRE MUSEUM where they had an exhibit on
PAUL ROBESON and also some other cool stuff. That was a quick in and out…

Then I went to QUINCY MARKET aka COVERT GARDEN. I REALLY felt back in
Boston at that point… except they had STRING quartets playing instead of
rappers… but otherwise it was the spitting image! I went to a NY cafe
feeling homesick, and I must say the food in London tastes SO different…
even a lemonade is actually a SPRITE… and the snapple lemonade tastes
SOOoooooooo bitter…

I then walked around LEICESTER SQUARE for awhile then saw THE MYSTERIES
which was billed as a musical, but really was a bible retelling by South
Africans that was in 4 different languages and had really nice singing and
dancing, but that didn’t make it less bibly… and I had trouble staying
awake AGAIN which was a little disheartening. BUt the ice cream at
intermission helped!

Afterwards I ran back to the hotel and pooped out although I managed to
write all my postcards before then miraculously and got addicted to some
british soap type show!

DAY THREE

I woke up by alarm at 9:15 determined to not waste the day. I mailed my
postcards while Dan was in the shower (I went first for the only day of the
trip); we ran to get our theatre tickets for BLOOD BROTHERS at 4, then I went
to the TOWER OF LONDON!!!

I managed to see EVERY nook and cranny of that tower and the crown jewels,
etc… it was kind of cool, and it was actually NICE out for the first half
of that day for the first and last time.

I then saw the SHERLOCK HOLMES museum which was kind of lame, but it was
still sort of cool b/c I used to be a fan of those books…

Then I went to see BIG BEN and all the buildings around there and took lots
of nice pictures of them, just so I’d have them, etc…

Then I saw BLOOD BROTHERS which was just WONDERFUL to see the original
production of it still going in London!!!! That show’s a little
melodramatic but I still love it and FINALLY I was able to stay AWAKE during
a show…

Then afterwards we had awful pizza (yech!) and saw Humble Boy which was the
“best play” according to the awards they give out, etc… and that was cute,
sort of like Proof… and it had funny moments, but it was late and I had
trouble staying awake, I admit it…

Of course we went to bed again (really early for me since it was like 7 or
8pm nyc time every night!)…

DAY FOUR– SUNDAY (the day off)

Sunday there weren’t any shows, so it was a slower day. I actually spent
this day w/ Dan (the only day we were together the entire one). We went to
the JEWISH MUSEUM which was cool, than to REGENT PARK which is actually
nicer than Central Park in some ways. All the paths are Sooooooo
symmetrical, it’s so cute!

We had lunch w/ his friend, Matt, who went to Columbia law w/ Dan… then we
went to the HANDEL museum (so I could tell prof HARRIS that!) and that was
really cool b/c we were IN the ROOM where he COMPOSED the messiah… and we
saw how he lived, etc…

We then saw “Bully” which is an American movie that KEVIN had recommended.
I really enjoyed it actually, and it was doubly worth it for the
non-sensical British commercials they showed before it! REALLY wacky and
made NO sense at all, I was dying w/ laughter… the weirdest thingi s we
PICKED our seats before we got in, like it was a REAL show…

Again we went to bed early out of exhaustion for the last day…

DAY FIVE, aka the FINAL DAY

I got out early enough to finish my site seeing! We dropped our bags off at
the station, and then before taking the HAGWORTS express– I mean Heathrow
express (complete with a VIDEO w/ the weather and the NEWS– Amtrak should
have one!), I had a few hours to kill…

So I went to see the CHANGING of the GUARD but it was CANCELLED b/c of the
RAIN and that was just UNFAIR!!!! But I saw BUCKINGHAM PALACE at least…
and ran around in the rain trying to enjoy my last day, but getting drenched.

I managed to see SAMUEL JOHNSON’s house for Mr. Moran even though I haven’t
talked to him inawhile… that was a maze to find, but it was cool to go…

Then I saw CHARLES DICKENS’ house, which was cooler b/c I really like him
and I took a picture of his busy.

Then I went to the BRITISH MUSEUM and saw EVERYthing there as fast as
possible just to say YES I went there when SAMIDh asked (and he DID ask…)

And then it was an uneventful plane ride home where I managed to finish the
Lord of the Rings, book 2 and read most of this really boring book for class
by the time we got back to my aprt.

Then I had to stay up even LATER, answering IM questions and trying to
finish my homework due tuesday.

I think after a week or so, I was back to normal… =)

PRELONDON BREAK IN EB

Yes, so I went to EB for a little bit before London. That was quite
uneventful. I went to the EBHS production of Guys & DOlls, lamented our high
school shows w/ ATUL who was SO nice to come w/ me when Dave wouldn’t come
back from Boston for it… and SCRIBBY bailed…

We then went to DAN’s house b/c Dan was in NYC that weekend and wanted to
know what I was doing Saturdya and I said I’ll be in EB and he came, too…
and MATT was there, too, and that was a nice fun guy only night!

Sunday I actually just RELAXED at home ALL day, and that was nice… I
called people on my cell since I wasn’t going to be using minutes in London
(since the phone doesn’t wokr there) and it was nice to have ONE day like that.

MONDAY I to my GRANDPARENTS for dinner, which is always nice to have good
food and watch Jeopardy… and then I was back in NYC at night, so I guess
that’s about it for break…

CLASSES

So yeah, I’ve been REALLY stressed with classes. I haven’t slept much this
week, but I’m writing this ledger ANYWAY b/c you DESERVE it!

I have 3 major projects:

The first is in Acoustics. I’m doing an experiment on pitch perception.
Basically I’m going to test musical and non-musical friends and see if there
are correlations in wehther they can identify how many pithces are playing,
what kind of instrument is playing, etc. It’ll be pretty cool actually, I
think…

The second is in Java Music Systems. I’m going to write a piece with synth
instruments I design through Java… and it’s going to be part
algorithmically generated by the computer itself. I’ll send out mp3s when
it’s done a month from now! (Assumign I start it ever…)

My third project is in my yucky class Digital Audio Processing II. It’s
going to be a 20 page paper on Synthesis or something like that b/c I find
it kind of interesting…

My last class just has really AWFUL books to read and maybe a final essay to
write, we’ll see…

THE HIGHLIGHTs of THIS week class were doing my ETHEL MERMAN impersonation
for a presentation on bway sound design and doing my MISS PIGGY one when the
acoustics teacher wanted to demonstrate just how LOUD the human voice could
be (“I believe Seth can give a good demonstration of this,” said he.)

I LOVE my 5 day weekends, but they’re SOooooooo busy, and the two days I
have classes are sooooo draining, and I have work due until April 30th, but
after that I’m DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about early……

SUMMER

That segues nicely into the summer. I will be STAYING in NYC this summer!!!
I have secured an INTERNSHIP at a recording studio… it’s actually a ONE
man studio, so it’s just like I’m kind of helping him out. I have to PAY
for the CREDIT though which is really stupid, but whatever.

For income, I’m going to try to get gigs playing piano. I’m going to get to
play for a lot of voice lessons b/c hardly anyone is here for the summer and
those that are taking lessons will have limited options and the TEACHERS all
LOVE me, so they’ll recomomend me.

I wanna start playing in PIANO bars and I want to develop my own CABARET
act, so I’mg oing to look into those. I’m going to make BUSINESS CARDS
soon, too, so that I can start handing them out and being like if you need a
pianist, etc at all the shows I see.

I also hope to do a workshop of PANDORA’s CHILDREN this summer as well as
manage to get it RECORDED so we can start mailing it places, etc. I do have
Cameron Mackintosh’s address after all… and a friend who interns for the
Weisslers!

Other than that, I’ll probably keep my aprt now as a SINGLE this summer,
but we’re looking for multiple BEDROOM apartments, and all my friends might
MOVE in together for the summer and next year!!!!! So we’ll see. That’d be
REALLY amazing though, and I’d love it if that would happen!!!!

NEXT YEAR

Not too much to say about next year at this point. I’m going to be in 4
classes in the fall, and then probably just one and a THESIS in the
spring… and I’m really worried about the thesis….. and finding a job,
but we’ll worry about all that NEXT year, right? That’s what the NEXT is for?

(OOOOOH, Max and 99 just said I LOVE YOu for the first time on this Get
Smart on tvland!!!!!!!!)

PERFORMANCES THIS TERM

Before I forget, if you’re in the NYC area:

APRIL 5th and 6th a song from PANDORA will be performed in a New Musical
Theatre Workshop here.

APRIL 20th is my REVUE!!! It’s really goign well. I’m doing my usual 2
numbers at the piano, and the rest of the cast is SUPERB… that’s at 8pm
and free and in the education blg at 35 w4th on the 8th floor in 879…

And finally May 1st, the MEN’S CHOIR and I are doing a concert which should
be quite good, as well.

NJ!!!

I’ll be in NJ Saturday to see KRISTIN CHENOWETH in concert!!! If you’re
free SATURDAY afternoon and in EB call me at HOME!!

TELEVISION

I still keep up w/ the same shows, but the new addition is SIX FEET UNDER!
This show is SOoooooo amazing! Just COMPLETELY amazing and we have our
weekly viewings… it’s the only HOUR where I don’t talk! Well almost… I
talk less during SEX AND THE CITY but it’s not on again til the summer!!!
But I miss it sooooo much!

Friends is still sort of funny. I like Leap of Faith, the new show after
it. And I like Andy Richter’s new show after that 70’s sohw… SCRUBS comes
back NEXT week so I’m VERY excited b/c that’s STILL the funniest one of all
of them!! And ENTERPRISE has been great…

Only 7 more XFILES before I can stop having to watch it!!!!!!

I caught the OSCARS (except for the hour break we took for 6 ft under) and I
must say it was AWFUL this year!!!!! Just awful. And the SONGS were ALL
crap… and it was SOOOOOOOO long… you know theY CUT the TONYs off after 2
hours. It’s just completely ridiculous. RIDICULOUS!!!!! But I do LOVE
Whoopi…

SETH STILL AS A SOCIAL BUTTERFLY

Yeah, so I do keep myself fairly busy social-wise, I admit it. Never a free
day… My next free date isn’t until MAY actually… but if you wanna visit
this SUMMER, it’s still fairly open (for now!).

SAMIDh came to visit LAST weekend and it was UTTERLY smashing! We had the
BESTEST time! And we had a BOGGLE party SATURDAY night and I won EVERY
SINGLE ROUND!! Now THAT was really fun!!!!!!!!

And we saw ET and he told me every time something had been changed since
he’s seen it like 20,000 times… and we saw two shows for free (show
section is almost here…)

And we were going to go to a jewish deli since he’s never been but it was
PASSOVER and it was CLOSED! Talk about the irony… or whatever the right
word for that is…

I even went to an EASTER dinner this year at KRISTINE’s! It was nice to eat
food cooked by the AMAZING CHEF JULIA!!!!!

Other than that, it’s normally watch tv and watch movies, etc… RORI
brought over the bootleg of the bway version of ROCKY the other day!

Speaking of Rocky, Rori plays Magenta at the Village version of Rocky, and
is trying to talk me into performing there as Frank… so that could
foreseeably happen this summer as well…

Also this summer Scribby and I will write more of our FRANKENSTEIN musical,
and I will continue to work on a little piece about my life…

APRIL FOOLS!!!!!!!!!

I did REALLY well this YEAR! I got a WHOLE bunch of people with my standard
AFTER DINNER MINTS!!!!!!!!!!

And I went on an IM frenzy of constantly spurting out lies and almost
EVERYone fell for at least something… although some were VERY determined
not to fall, and I commend them.

I send out a mini-ledger to a bunch of people saying I was going to go back
to SUMMER THEATER this summer and a whole bunch of my NYU and EB friends
believed it, but the MIT ones didn’t care and were like “LAME JOKE!” And
AMANDA didn’t like it either, but it WORKED on my SISTER and QUITE a few
others including most of my new friends, who weren’t sitting at their
computers waiting for a gag right after midnight on 4/1…

=)

Some of the good ones on IM were about my EXPLODING TOILET, my NEWLY SHAVED
HEAD, certain BROADWAY rumors I was spreading, etc…

THE THEATER SECTION

Yes, so you can tell we’re coming to the end of the ledger when I get to the
theatre section. I’ve been REALLY busy, and I’ve already been through the
shows I saw in LONDON, so this’ll be a little shorter than usual, but I do
have some news to report, so look for the CAPS for CELEBS:

THE PUPPETERY OF THE PENIS: 2 guys, naked on stage, making genital
orgami… typical NY show! VERY funny once you get over the initial “I
can’t believe I’m watching this” shock…

FOUR: REALLY good play at the MTC, mostly about sex, but I won’t go into
details to keep this ledger PG…

METAMORPHESES: A REMARKABLE play… probably going to win best play this
year. It was a colleciton of Orvid’s tales and it all took place in a POOL
and I got wet since I had the rush seats or “pool seats”… highly recommended.

THE LAST FIVE YEARS: Jason Robert Brown’s new 2 person msuical about his
failed marriage. I really enjoyed it although it’s not the most amazing
thing in the world. I actually ewnt for my bday! (I HAD A GREAT PARTY FOR
MY BDAY TOO!!!!) I met JASON and he was really nice and actually plays piano
for the show himself!

CYMBELINE: Shakespeare at its best! I actually saw it for free thanks to
my wonderful friend NANCY– I did data entry for the Lucille Lortel
foundation and got 2 comps to the show…

TAPE: off-bway show about drugs and rape and such… very well done

THE CRUCIBLE: REALLY good production of the play… it was LONG but didn’t
seem it. LIAM NEESON would only sign ONCE and was really mean about it,
too. He’s now on the BAD DIVA list.

THE GOAT: the new Albee play w/ BILL PULLMAN who’s REALLY nice… it’s about
a man who has an affair w/ a goat. I actually really enjoyed it since I’m a
big Albee fan…

ONE MO’ TIME: revival of this cute but not great musical that is basically
just a lot of old vaudeville style songs thrown together. I saw this w/
RACHEL actually when SHE visited!

MELANCHOLY BABY: Hamlet: the musical… but in PARODY form… there were
DEFINITELY high points, and it was really funny… during Ophelia’s crazy
scene she burst into “papa can you hear me”… how could you NOT enjoy it?

GOLDEN BOY: saw this w/ DAVE when he visited. It was at Encores which puts
on concerts of old shows that never get revived. CARLSON from the FRESH
PRINCE was in it and he was very nice…

THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS: I really liked this new musical. I MET MARVIN
HAMLISCH and JOHN LITHGOW!!!!!!!!!!! Very exciting. And I really highly
recommend this show even though the Times doesn’t.

MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL: review in the paper on FRIDAy… saw it for free w/
Samidh… would’ve REALLY liked it better if I was a menopausal woman…

FORTUNE’S FOOL: rather dull play based on a russian one… saw it for free
thanks to nyu’s ticket central.

and no more theatre for me until 4/12 it’s looking like… but i am seeing
KRISTIN saturday night!

CONCLUSIONS

Phew……….. This took THREE HOURS TO WRITE. Which is MUCH longer than
usual… I hope it was worth the wait… I feel really caught up and REALLY
tired, so I think I’m going to crash really soon. I apologize to those
people who I ahven’t written abck to yet from a few days ago. I’m quite far
behind and will catch up tomorrow after I’ve finally gotten some sleep.

I HOPE EVERYONE’S DOING WELL!!!!!

I can’t BELIEVE it’s already April… only another month until it’s finally
SUMMER!

WRITE BACK SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Always–
Seth

MAY

May 15, 2002 — Summer Has Arrived!!!

Yes, it’s that time of the month again… SETH LEDGER TIME! (insert trumpet
fanfares) It’s summer! Yes! SUMMER! It was a long, stressful few weeks,
but I’ve survived to tell you all about them:

TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR COHEN

I want to dedicate this ledger to the memory of Prof Cohen, who I randomly
just ofund out passed away a few weeks ago. I had many a class with him and
he taught me a lot about composing music. He encouraged me to write for
musical theater, and always laughed at my jokes!

NYU CLASSES

I made it through all my classes! I did lovely final projects… I tested
all my friends for my acoustics projects and found out that my tricks all
worked. I wrote a great algorithmic composition using our java music
programs (http://homepages.nyu.edu/~sbh227/project.html). I completed a
stupid, pointless take home final. And finally I wrote an 18 page paper on
synthesis (completely with 4 pages worth of pictures!) Still no grades up
yet, but I assume they’ll pop up in the near future.

NEXT term, I have off only Tuesdays and Fridays. I will REALLY miss my 5
day weekends, but it was inevitable not to have classes on Thursday and
Monday b/c those are my 2 required ones.

I met w/ my advisor today, and I’m all set for GRADUATION in MAY 2003!
(What I’m doing after that, or what I’m doing for my thesis, I still have NO
clue… PhD programs anyone? j/k… really… I think…)

PAST PERFORMANCES

My last show, Life Choices, went REALLy well. We had a completely SOLD out
house with not an empty seat! And everyone seemed to have a really good
time. I did 2 numbers, “I Chose Right” and “Two Ladies” and they stole the
show! Unfortunately, our family video camera chose this show to poop out on
and stop working, so there is no recording. =( But it will live in the
memories of those who came!

The Men’s Choir did 3 concerts in a row the first week of May. It was
exhausting, but fun! There’s nothing like singing w/ a group of men… it
really drives the audience wild! I will be continuing in the group for the
next year, too…

TV UPDATE

I am proud to report that I have almost completed the seasons for the 12
shows I watch compulsively without missing a single episode. We still have
the FINAL XFILES to watch as well as most season finales. I still endorse
SCRUBS as the funniest half hour on tv. Although SEX AND THE CITY is new
again in JULY!!! Sarah’s PREGNANT, so they’re only doing 8 eps… =(

Other than my regularly scheduled programs, I still watch the MUPPET SHOW w/
my friend Jen, and it’s still the best half hour EVER made for tv… =)

GRADUATING FRIENDS

I dedicate this section to all of my friends who are graduating! CONGRATS!!
Special good wishes go to my NYU buddies Kristine and Rona who are DESERTING
me by moving to a lesser city named Chicago… =(

I LOVE THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

I still take out 10 cds at a time and burn them… I now have EVERY KANDER
AND EBB musical on cd!! And soon I’ll have EVERY musical EVER made on CD…
muhahahahaha! There is no stopping me!! =)

*THIS SUMMER*

Yes, it’s finally summer. What am I up to? Glad you asked! First up, I
have my SUMMER INTERNSHIP. This is a FOR CREDIT internship, so actually I
PAID to work for this guy. His website is: www.millrosemusic.com . His
studio is all the way up at 75th St so I talked him into getting me a
MONTHLY subway pass!! However, he’s just goin to get me one, so I’m going
to buy the other one. So I’ll be up for many SUBWAY adventures!

I’m going to be learning all about recording this summer. I’m probably
going to do mostly database work and organizing, but hopefully I’ll learn a
little about the recording process.

Also, I’m looking into playing at PIANO BARS. I’m going to start giving my
BUSINESS CARDS around, as soon as Corinne makes them for me!

I will be doing a CABARET act w/ my friend Laura this summer at DON’T TELL
MAMA’s. More details on that later. I’ve actually just begun to get into
the cabaret scene and am looking to do a few cabaret acts as often as possible.

I will also be MAINTENIZING the pianos still for 3 hours/ week, which is
only $30/ week. And I will continue to play for VOICE LESSONS b/c most of
the pianists have come home for the summer so I can take over all their
studnets… muhahaha.

I will also be finishing the LORD OF THE RINGS finally this summer.

I’m looking into getting TRIVIAL PURSUITS produced off-off bway in the near
future, and am looking into doing a workshop of PANDORA’s CHILDREN here at
NYU… (if I don’t collasp from running everything myself)

I’m going to see EPISODE TWO tomorrow at 12:01, the first showing in the NYC
area for the public… Even though I don’t thikn it’ll be good, I still feel
it is my duty as a nerd to go to the very first showing.

I’m going to SCAN pictures and completely UPDATE my webpage THURSDAY
afternoon, so check it afterwards…

I’m seeing CONAN again on 8/7! If you’re in the area and wanna come, lemme
know.

My SOCIAL LIFE this summer is ALREADY filling up. I’m going to have people
visiting through June it looks like, as well as me going away at least one
weekend a month.

TRIPS

I will be in NJ for MEMORIAL DAY weekend. Probably starting 5/24 until 5/27
or 28. (I’ll be back in NYC by the 28th the latest b/c the Stars in the
Alley concert is 5/29!)

I will be in DC for FLAG DAY weekend. Probably that Thurs night, 6/13 until
6/16. I will be going to the SONDHEIMFEST where I will see 2 of my all time
FAVORITE shows, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park w/ George as well as
Company. If you’re in the DC area, lemme know, so I can try to schedule you in.

I will be in BOSTON for INDEPENDENCE DAY weekend. Probably starting 7/3
until 7/7. If you’re in the Boston area around then, lemme know so I can
see y’all if possible!

MOVING

I have to move TWICE. I’m moving UPstairs for the summer on SUNDAY. My new
address is Apt 6S, instead of 5S. This FALL I’m moving to the 11th St
dorm– it’s GORGEOUS and I’ll have my OWN ROOM!!!! (in a 3 person suite)
This summer I’ll have my own BIG room, and it’s goin to be smashing. So I
have only 4 more days ever living w/ a roommate! Although I will miss
Steve, he will still be able to come over all the time, and then our IM
conversations will be less like “how’s your side of the room doing?” =)

It’s annoying that they are kicking us out of this apt for the summer
especially because it’s going to be a fortune switching the phone line and
cable service twice, but I’m going to try to get reimbursed for that by
seeing the Dean of Student Life or something.

THEATER

Yes, it’s time for the most waited for section- the theater one!!

TONYS

I will be having my annual TONY’s party on 6/2. Anyone is welcome to come
into NYC to watch the biggest and best awards show of the year! I’m going
to finish up seeing the broadway season this weekend (after Saturday I can
say that I’VE SEEN EVERY SHOW CURRENTLY ON BWAY)… and then shortly
there-after I will attempt to predict the Tony winners. If you would like a
copy of my predictions, lemme know. Also lemme know if you want more
detailed reviews since these will just be tidbits.

REVIEWS

Since the last ledger I sent (4/4) I have seen the following shows:

I met ALAN MENKEN at the showcase for new works I had a song in… that was
very exciting.

I saw KRISTIN CHENOWETH in CONCERT at the State Theater in new Brunswick
from the FRONT ROW w/ my sister. She was FABULOUS!!!! She told me I was
the BEST audience member!!!!! She’s sooo sweet!!! I gave her a copy of a
picture of us… so now she, Karen AND Donna have them!!! (I have the other
ocpy and they’re all signed and will soon be scanned for my webpage)

ABRIDGED SHAKESPEARE: This show is closing this weekend, but was really
fun. They do all of Shakespeares works in just a few hours. I got to sit
in the front row and it was a blast!

BLUE SURGE: This off-bway play w/ RACHEL MINER was PHENOMINAL. We really
enjoyed it.

THE ELEPHANT MAN: really BORING revival. Barely could stay awake.

HELEN: Kinda boring, but I LOVE DONNA MURPHY and I met PHYLICIA RASHAD (the
mommy from the cosby show) and that was exciting.

THE SMELL OF THE KILL: Pretty funny comedy about 3 housewives murdering
their husbands. Got free tix (phew!) which is good b/c it was only 70
minutes and otherwise I would’ve felt gipped.

MISTER: AWFUL off-off bway musical starring ANTHONY RAPP who was great, but
really underused.

THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE: really good time, but the score was tempid and
dull at times. overall very enjoyable though.

MORNINGS AT SEVEN: cute revival w/ a lot of stars. I met JULIE HAGERTY.
Also, I got CHRISTOPHER LLOYD’s autograph b/c Tony winner, Elizabeth Franz,
took my playbill, had him sign it and then mailed it to me since he sneaks
out the front b/c he’s shy…

TOPDOG/ UNDERDOG: didn’t really care for the Pulitzer Prize winning drama.
It was ok and enjoyable and overall worked nicely, but for some reason I
found it a tad dull.

THE MAN WHO HAD ALL THE LUCK: My friend CRAIG reappeared from the black
hole called medical school and we saw Arther MILLER’s first play. It was
really GOOD and CHRIS O’DONNELL was really nice.

THE PAJAMA GAME: Caught this at ENCORES w/ KAREN ZIEMBA and she was just
lovely… and BRENT BARRETT remembered me from when he got Marin’s autograph
for me in LONDON… also MARK LINN-BAKER from Perfect Strangers was in it…

PRIVATES LIVES: Kind of funny but a little slow revival w/ the guy who
played SNAPE in the Harry Potter movie!!!!!! (YAY HARRY POTTER!)

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE: Thrilling revival of this play off-off bway (right
around the corner) best $15 I’ve spent in awhile. The play was much BETTER
than the movie which is saying a lot since the movie was great.

INTO THE WOODS: The revival was better than the original in staging,
choreography, set, costumes, lights, everything except the CAST which was
subpar and couldn’t hope to compare w/ the original. THe only real star of
the show was LAURA BENANTI who completely out shone VANESSA WILLIAMS (who at
least signs autographs!).

THE MYSTERY OF CHARLES DICKENS: Basically a 2 hour book report (to coin
Marla’s term). It was interesting to learn about Dickens, but it’s
obviously too intellectual for Americans. Quite a nice addition to having
seen the actual HOUSE he LIVED in when I was in LONDON…

RENT: Yeah, I saw it for the 4th time w/ RORI for her bday. Quite enjoyable
as usual. The funniest moment was when the homeless lady screwed up the
line and instead of covering just sort of scatted!!! (I’ll have to do it
for y’all in person…)

I’m seeing SWEET SMELL again tomorrow if we can get tix and OKLAHOMA Friday
and hopefully the GRADUATE Sat assuming it’s sold out and they have sro and
they sitll have sro by the time we get there.

CONCLUSIONS

Well that’s about all the time we have today on the Muppet Show. I’d like
to thank our special guest star, me, myself and I, for spending this time
connecting to his friends.

I’m around NYC ALL summer, so y’all should come visit if you get a chance!
I have no intention of ever leaving for more than a weekend ever again…

=)

Always–
Seth

JUNE

June 4, 2002 — I Went to the TONYS!!!!!

Yes, you read the subject right! I was at the TONY AWARDS last SUNDAY
night. You could see me THREE times on tv!!!!! I was a SEAT FILLER like
KRAMER in that SEINFELD ep so I went for FREE!!!!!!!! Read on, MacDuff…

THE TONYS

I ended up sitting in Harry Connick Jr’s agent’s seat for most of the show
b/c she left w/ him after he sang in the opening number!!! I LOVE SORE
LOSERS!!!!!!!! They let us have their seats!

It was the most amazing experience of my ENTIRE life being a seat filler.
The MOST amazing EVER!!!!!!!!

I was actually FRONT ROW CENTER for the OPENING number which I thought was
AMAZING!!! And BERNADETTE was RIGHT there… and she sang in TWO portions!
TWO!!!

Oh, and it was really fun watching everyone get up and socialize during
commercial breaks and then they said “30 seconds left” and everyone ran to
their seats and the head seat fillers got extra people to fill… very
exciting commercial breaks!!

I was ON CAMERA for the FEATURED ACTOR in a PLAY nominee shots for anyone
who cares to look. I was sitting RIGHT behind Brian Murray and right next
to Stephen Tobolowsky’s wife. So you can see me for BOTH of those
nomination pans… I’m the guy w/ the goatee smiling REALLY hard and
thinking “OH MY GOD I’M AT THE TONY’s in the FOURTH row on TV!!!!!” =)

We weren’t supposed to get autographs during the show but afterwards, I kind
of couldn’t stop myself… here’s the full list of autographs: Andrea
Martin, Cynthia Nixon, Kristen Davis, Frank Langella, Katie Finneran, Gina
Gershon and Ralph Fiennes!!!!!!!!!!!!

To recap, it was the MOST amazing thing I have EVER done and I’m going to do
it EVERy year until I’m actually NOMINATED!!!!!!

MY INTERNSHIP

In other amazingly fabulous news, I really am enjoying my intership. Top
TEN things that are great about my internship:

10. I get to set my own hours. Just as long as I do 150 hours for the
summer, it’s all fine.

9. I came in 5 minutes late todtay and he told me that he didn’t care if I
was 15 or 20 minutes late, and not to worry about it. And leaving early’s
cool w/ him, too! (Incidentally, I was late b/c part of my EARPLUG got
STUCK in my ear and I couldn’t get it out… but the doctor in the urgent
care place did w/ tweezers though it did take a while…)

8. I came in today and he didn’t have enough work for me to do yet b/c the
software he ordered for me to do grungework on doesn’t come until tomorrow
so I went for only 2 hours, but he put down I was there for 5!

7. He gives me free cds of stuff he’s recorded or has got in the mail and
doesn’t work…

6. He’s getting me a subway pass for a month.

5. He gives me free food- a BANANA today!

4. He’s giving me a ticket for this show he did the music for.

AND NOW THE BIG 3!!!

3. He’s going to give me CAREER GOALS and give me advice on trying to make
it as an artist in NYC!

2. LARRY O’KEEFE the composer of BAT BOY is coming in in 2 weeks to record
an entire SHOW and I’m goin to HELP them out in the process!!!!

and finally:

1. He’s letting me RECORD a DEMO CD this summer for FREE!!!!!!!!!!

THE REST OF THE SUMMER

Yeah, so I’m done really doing too much besides my internship. But really
I’m going to READ a lot (finally finished the LORD of the RINGS!!) and I’m
going to hopefully WRITE a lot (with quite a few new musical projects in the
working) and I’ve been BURNING lots of cds from the public library and I’d
really like to play at PIANO BARS and do a CABARET act.

I’m maintenizing the pianos for 3 hours/ week, so at least that’s some $$…

Other than that I’m going to see lots and lots o’ friends and just chill.

I’m goin to DC from 6/13-6/16 and staying w/ the wonderful Monsieur Matt!
I’m going to the SONDHEIM FESTIVAL to see SWEENEY TODD, SUNDAY IN THE PARK
W/ GEORGE and COMPANY!!!!! I can’t wait!!!!!!!

I’ll be in BOSTON for JULY FOURTH weekend!!

I’m in NYC the rest of them though, so feel freet o visit!

TELEVISION

I am proud to say with SIX FEET UNDER’s season finale, that I have managed
to see EVERY episode of all of my favorite shows this year!!! This summer I
can’t WAIT for SEX AND THE CITY to return (7/21) and told 2 of the stars
so!!!! (I’ve met 3/4 of them now!!!!!)

SUMMER SO FAR

I MOVED into my SUMMER apartment w/o any to do!! Neal helped me move and we
were in the new apartment within TWO HOURS. I have a SINGLE for the summer
and it’s HUGE!!!!! Next fall I have a single in a 3 person suite but it’s
really tiny… The place is really ncie so you should VISIT!!!!! Like KEVIN!!

Kevin visisted this past weekend and we had a MARVELOUS time! We got in 3
shows for under $30 (in total!) and we wrote a dashing new song. Kevin’s
actually coming to COLUMBIA next year, so I can see him all the time.

I am toying w/ the idea of APPLYING to COLUMBIA for a DFA (doctor of fine
arts). They accept 4/50 people and PAY for them, so I figure since they
already have most of my stuff from the last tim I applied, it couldn’t hurt
to apply again. If I get in it’s fate telling me I should go there and if
not, theN I guess I’ll be forced to get a real job…

I went to NJ for a weekend. It was SOOo boring, so I’m really glad I’m not
going back although I will miss SUMMER THEATER (that’s for you Mr. Nemser)
b/c it was such a part of my life for 12 years (and I’ve been having a lot
of dreams about it and about Elliott running around trying to run it w/o
me…) but I do promise to at least attend ONE show. I saw INSOMNIA while
in NJ and it was actually REALLY good. So I recommend it. I went to ALI
and JAMES’ wedding too… it was really a nice event! VERY good food,
too… =) Other than that I saw ATUL and DAVE and ANDREA and AVIVA (who
gave me miss piggy posters for my bday! YAY!) and AMY (who gave me an EGO
SONG mix tape!) so it wasn’t so incredibly dull, but I did have enough down
time to read the ENTIRE 3rd book of TLOTR…

THEATER

Finally, the theater section is here to catch you up on which celebrities
I’ve me this month.

OKLAHOMA: This was a quaint revival. Didn’t really love it, but didn’t
hate it. It was WAY too long. Very happy it didn’t win very many tonys.
Couldn’t stay after for autographs b/c it was boring, but I’ll make it back
one of these days…

THE KING OF ROME: This was the sequel to Merchant of Venice which I just
ended up seeing on a whim after walking all the way from 45th st to passed
1st…

RENT TALK: I saw ANTHONY RAPP and DAPHNE RUBIN-VEGA and MICHAEL GRIEF talk
about RENT. IT was really interesting and I now know the cut song “Wall…Door”

UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL: This off-bway show was rEALLY good. It was about
this guy who found a library book due from years and years ago from the
Wandering Jew…

WILLIAM FINN TALK: I saw WILLIAM FINN talk about his life and his works and
it was AMAZING and he signed FOUR cds for me and is just such a CHARACTER!!

42nd ST: Saw it for the THIRD time and FINALLY saw CHRISTINE EBERSOL right
before she LEFT. Still dont’ think she deserved the tony.

CIRCLE: Off-off=bway play about a circle of people sleeping w/ each other…
really funny and really well done.

JACK KEROUVAC: LAST CALL: free show about the writer Jack but didn’t really
get it… Kevin kinda got it more, but we still found it boring and were
mostly watching the live flies zoom around the stage.

BOYS AND GIRLS: Really cute play about 2 couples, one gay and one lesbian
and them trying to raise a child. I met LEONARD NIMOY in the AUDIENCE!!!!
yes SPOCK!!!! I MET SPOCK AND GOT HIS AUTOGRAPH!!!!!

I LOVE MY WIFE: revival of a really so-so Cy Coleman musical playing at this
new theater group that is mostly nyu grads trying to make it. I told them
I’d love ot md for them at some opint, so we’ll ese…

And then Sunday was the TONYS, and that’s it b/c I was in NJ for quite some
time.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, I am having the BEST summer EVER and I think in a few more
days the EUPHORIA of seeing the TONYS will die, but I still have my 3
sondheim shows in DC and seeing BERNADETTE live in concert again!!!!!

I hope everyone’s doing well. PLEASE WRITE BACK! I have plenty of time to
respond this summer… =)

Always–
Seth

JULY

July 9, 2002 — Summer Madness, Part 1

As I start this ledger, Larry O’Keefe (Bat Boy) is recording the score
to his new musical, Sarah Plain and Tall in the other room. My job
today is to answer the phones, turn on and off the a/c (it has to be
off when recording b/c it makes noise), print out music/ orchestra
parts (bringing back bad memories of orchestrating and printing
and reprinting TP parts (remember Dawn?)), taping parts, etc. In
fact you can’t tell, but I just paused to answer a phone call from
Larry’s lyricist/ wife and put more paper into the printer…

My ledger cheat sheet is at home so I’m going to have to wing the
start, but have no fear by the time it’s sent out much, much later
tonight, I will have triple checked to make sure I have gotten
everything that’s been happening this summer into this note!

Hello to anyone from Summer Theatre! My sister has orders to
print out a copy or two and circulate them around to all those
people who have been pestering her “where is Seth?” She shall
have 2 versions, the rated pg-13 one and the rated g one. I leave it
up to her what she deems inappropriate for youngens. For it’s
hard enough for me to keep these ledgers rated less than R, and
even harder keeping them from being nc-17. (I’ll have to send
Elliott his personal rated xxx one…)

****SUNDAY, AUGUST 18th, 5PM at Don’t Tell Mama’s is my
professional NYC CABARET debut. PLEASE come if you can make
it into NYC at all (more on this later)****

INTERNSHIP

So it seems to make logical sense (is there any other kind?
Actually there is common sense, but I don’t have much of that) to
start by talking about my internship since that is the major activity I
have this summer. I am required to do an internship for my
Masters program at NYU (music technology for those of you way
behind in Seth life) so rather than worry about doing 150 hours of
labor during the term, I figured it’d be better to do it over the
summer. Besides, it gives me an excuse to stay in NYC, and I get
withdrawal after being gone just a few days, let alone a whole
summer.

I’m interning at Millrose Music (www.millrosemusic.com) which is
this one guy’s studio. He’s really cool, as I’ve said before, and
gave me a subway pass, and gives me food, etc. I’ve been doing
mostly database stuff. I transferred his 1000 person mailing list
into his palm. I also did a mailing, and organized his cds. The
most exciting was transferring his old DAT tapes to MP3s.

Basically I come in Mon-Wed, 1-6 through the end of July. I will
then be making a demo of my newest project, Meaningless Sex
(so much for rated g), more on that later in the ledger, I’d assume.

The best part of the internship is the CONNECTIONS. As well as
being buddies w/ Larry (who just came in to take some of the
music copies which I organized (much like I used to organize
Summer Theatre music…) and SETH RUDETSKY. Which moves
us onto the next section finally.

SECOND INTERNSHIP HELPING SETH R

Who is Seth Rudetsky? Those of you who have never lived in NYC
will not have heard of him. But everyone familiar w/ the business
will have. Seth is exactly 13 years older than me (same bday,
same name) and is very much me but in a decade. There are
some differences of course (he’s not a composer, per se, but I
can’t conduct, so it evens out), but basically he’s really cool.

He has a broadway talk show every THURSDAY at don’t tell
mama’s called Seth’s Chatterbox. Basically each week some
mildy famous broadway star comes and he interviews them and
shows old clips or they perform. The guy he had helping him has
moved up to interning for Cameron Mackintosh, so now *I’m*
doing it.

It basically consists of setting up the tv for clips, the stereo for cd
clips, and the video camera which I use to record the shows. So I
get in for free every week, and make connections at the same time.
I actually get introduced to the guests as a PERSON not a FAN.

So far Stephen deRosa and Karrie O’Malley (Baker/ Baker’s wife in
Into the Woods revival) came in as well as Dick Scanlan (lyricist/
co-book for Thorougly Modern Millie) and Harriet Harris (tony
winner for Millie).

The other plus of working w/ Seth is that he’s already a renowned
pianist. He has promised (although it hasn’t happened yet, but I’ll
keep pestering him) to give out my number to people looking for a
pianist. (That’s my one regret of the summer, not playing piano for
anyone– I had called Chicago City Limits since Elliott knew people
there, but they said they’d get back to me, and it’s been 2 weeks… I
swear I’m going to start playing in PIANO BARS as soon as I get
my act together and start finding them… SOON, really…)

Anyway, other than that, Seth ran a big DREAMGIRLS concert last
year that some of you in touch w/ bway news and such will have
heard of. This year he’s doing a big FUNNY GIRL concert which
such names as AUDRA MCDONALD, KRISTIN CHENOWETH,
JANE KRABOWSKI, MEGAN MULLANY, etc. And GUESS who’s
going to be getting him COFFEE and taking NOTES for him during
REHEARSALS???

So I’m VERY excited about that. That’s 9/23, and I’m going to go to
all the rehearsals and I think my name will even be in the playbill
as his assistant…

Also, Seth plays for bway pits and I’m REALLY hoping he can get
me into subbing one at some point… I’ll just keep pestering. Oh,
and I offered to revamp his webpage (yay mit degree which has
nothing to do w/ it but everyone thinks so) so that earns me
brownie points. (I might actually revamp Millrose’s page too…)

But that’s not all of my exciting news, amazingly…

CABARET DEBUT

Working for Seth at Don’t Tell Mama’s, I was able to meet people
there. Apparently, having your own cabaret show at Don’t Tell
Mama’s isn’t so hard. You just book the room! That’s how easy it
is. It’s $60, but you just pay them out of the cover you charge, and if
enough people come, it pays for itself.

So, EVERYONE HAS TO COME. AUGUST 18th, at 5PM at Don’t
Tell Mama’s on 46th St (b/t 8th and 9th). We’re just having a $5
cover (so we need 12 people to come to pay our fee) and there’s
as usual a 2 drink minimum that the club keeps the profits from.
(You can just get ORANGE JUICE if you’re under 21.)

I’m embarking on my cabaret debut with my fellow diva and good
friend RORI NOGEE. The show is called TWO SINGULAR
SENSATIONS and is going to be a mini-plot contained in our doing
some of our favorite broadway hits. There are going to be quite a
few pleasant surprises as well, and if it goes as swell as we think
it will, we’ll probably keep the act and do it again in October and/ or
December.

I am VERY, VERY excited about doing a cabaret act. Cabaret acts
can be ANYthing you want and you have complete artistic control
and it’s SUPPOSED to be just about YOU the STAR, so it’s really
right up my alley, and you can assume I will be doing at least one
cabaret act every year for the rest of my life.

**COME TO MY CABARET DEBUT**

FRINGE FESTIVAL

But Seth, you say, whatever are you going to do with yourself when
your internship ends in July. Please, oh please, come visit in
August! But alas, I can’t. I have signed up to volunteer for the 2002
Fringe Festival: www.fringenyc.org

What is the Fringe? Well you’ve obviously heard of Sundance. The
Fringe is analogous for shows. There are ALL kinds of musicals
and revues and plays and performance arts that defy description.
There are about 150 shows to see in just 2 weeks!!!

I am now on the STAFF at Fringe Central. It is my job to schedule
in VOLUNTEERS and make sure they come, etc. If you volunteer
for an hour, you get to see a show for free (they are normally $12
each). If you volunteer for 4 hours, you get 4 free shows! And
there’s a show for EVERYone! Just check on the webpage.

The festival is from the 9th-25th. If you’re interested in
volunteering, you just have to go to one of the 4 training sessions,
and then you can work as many hours as you want after that to
start earning free shows.

July 9, 2002 — Summer Madness, Part 2

AFTER THE FALL IS OVER (who got that?)

Gosh, who can think that far? I almost forgot to mention that I’m
applying to the BMI workshop (if I can get my act together by the
Aug 1st deadline (also my mom’s bday)) which is this famous
song writers workshop geared towards helping bway bound
composers (ie me).

I have to do a THESIS next spring, and I hve NO idea what I’m
going to do. But that’s for next spring, right?

I’m still considering applying to Columbia for a doctorate in music
composition. Now, I don’t really know if I need one, but I feel like
I’m not done growing as a composer and I think going to Columbia
will somehow help me out somehow. And then I could make
more connections, and bum around NYC for another 4 or 5 years
w/o having to work.

They let 4/50 people into the program and pay for them. So all I
need to be is one of those 4. I think I’m going to e-mail the head of
the dept and meet w/ him at some point this summer to see what
the programs like and whether or not it’ll help me, be worth it, etc.

Other than that I might actually have to get a real job at some point,
but I will continue to put that off as long as possible so I can focus
on my career and hopefully once the career starts, I won’t ever
have to have a real job! (Yes I live in a dream world type bubble
thing, I admit it. But hey, Larry O’Keefe one of the most promising
up and coming composers is leaning over me talking on the
phone about his newest show and making changes and stuff just
like Scribby and I make changes when we’re talking about our
show! So really, anything can happen.)

MONO

This gets a tiny section b/c it’s just too funny. I apparently had
mono. I was really tired for a few weeks (YAMINI and AMITHA will
remember since they BOTH visited when I was just so exhausted
all the time even though I was sleeping lots). I had appointments
with my allerghist (I found out I’m allergic to TREES and DUST)
and she had me get some routine blook work (yech).

It turns out I had mono and got over it very quickly. So that’s why I
was so tired for about 2 weeks (there’s a nice excuse for not
getting around to getting things done).

Some people (can get a thrill knitting sweaters) are out of
commission for MONTHS but I didn’t even know I HAD it b/c I was
still functioning normally. I was just really tired…

So the moral of the story is I have a great immune system! The
best ever. I haven’t been sick in years and when I get sick, I don’t
even know! 🙂

SOCIAL LIFE

I continue to be booked almost every night with plans. Since my
realization that I’ve seen everything on Broadway right now, I’ve
decided to cut back a little on shows (having no income also helps
w/ that decision). And besides, friends are more important than
seeing random off-off bway shows.

I have been hanging out with friends nonstop for months, and
there is rarely a night w/o them! And when there is, there’s always
IM, so I haven’t been bored one bit. I generally have night plans,
then after night plans. On weekends I’ve had people staying with
me almost nonstop.

I’ve actually seen a few MOVIES as breaks from shows. I saw
LILO and STITCH opening night w/ Tango and we REALLY
enjoyed it. I mean it was very contrived, but you expect that from
Disney. And although I REALLY miss having REAL musical disney
movies at LEAST this one had some Hawaiin music and actually
had some singing.

This is NO substitute for the old movies, however. Certainly no
Snow White or (the best one) Beauty & the Beast. But it was
enjoyable and cute.

I also saw The Importance of Being Earnest movie and REALLY
liked it. It was almost exactly the play just with a few scene
changes and such, and was really enjoyable. And the trick ending
(which I called) was also very clever (as if I had thought of it
myself…)

We went out to Webster Hall for my friend Nitza’s bday a few
Fridays ago. It was fun to go out clubbing, but I definitely can’t do it
all the time. I mean $15 for a CLUB? That’s the price of an
off-bway show! I found out abotu this nice bar, Bowery where you
can just knid of relax and not drink when Becca (Welsher) visited a
few weekends ago. So we go there occasionally. I actually took
AMRITA there when SHE visited. (that was also the night my
TOILET exploded… but NEAL helped clean it up!)

I much prefer just seeing what’s on CABLE since I pay so much for
it and generally have been trying to tape lots of good movies (I
have HEDWIG on tape now! And now I have EVERY MUPPET
MOVIE on tape! And SHREK too, which is a movie I really like…)
since I have more free time than during the year. Also, there isn’t
any tv to tape so there’s no conflict of having to reset it up to tape
standard channels, etc.

Speaking of tv, SEX and the CITY SEASON 5 begins on 7/21 and I
CANNOT WAIT!!!!! It’ll finally FEEL like summer.

THEATRE

You’ll find this hard to believe but I have only seen ONE Broadway
show since the last ledger. But since I’ve seen EVERYthing
playing, I guess that makes sense. Although I still haven’t seen th
Graduate… but I don’t really want to. FOUR shows OPEN in JULY,
so that’s one a week to catch. Then I have to go see CHICAGO
again in AUGUST b/c AMY SPANGER and also the guy from SIX
FEET UNDER (her husband) are in it and I really love them both
and haven’t seen the show in like 5 years anyway. Then is the
FRINGE when I’ll be seeing as many shows as humanly possible
in those 2.5 weeks. So it’s understandable that I’ve taken a little
time off.

Anyway, here’s where I’ve been:

Broadway Under the Stars: This was a free concert they did at the
beginning of the summer. It was WONDERFUL and CROWDED —
10,000 people went. I managed to meet Jane Krakowski and
Lillias White for the first time! I also FINALLY MET MARIN MAZZIE
and FINALLY got a PICTURE with her! The other stars I had met
before but include Jason Danieley, Katie Finneran (who
remembered me from the tonys since I was sitting close to her),
LaChanze, Linda Eder (same song in Boston last weekend) and
finally my good pal who remembers me now every time, Donna
Murphy!

Thunder Knocking on the Door: This is a new off-bway musical
which was enjoyable but really long and definitely not great. The
people in it are great though including Leslie Uggams who won a
tony YEARS ago…

Fool for Love: This was one of my “I need to see a show tonight”
nights where I ran out around 7:30 to go see something. It’s a very
long running off-off-bway play by Samuel Shepphard which was
kinda disturbing. I had trouble staying awake through this (and
Thunder the night before) so this marks the beginning of my bout
w/ mono although I was quite awake for all of the Sondheim
shows…

Sweeney Todd: This was our first show in DC. It’s my 2nd favorite
show ever and it was the first time I saw it live. We were the ONLY
audience to get Christine Baranski’s understudy (poop) but she
was very good. She messed up at one point in the harder song to
keep straight (“a little priest”) and the ENTIRE audience of
sondheimphiles GASPED but she recovered and we gave her lots
and lots of applause. Brian was very good as usual although he’s
not a bass…

Company: I really just don’t like the ending of this show. The
score is wonderful though and ALICE RIPLEY totally stole this
show.

Sunday in the Park…: My FAVORITE show EVER and I REALLY
loved it and was BAWLING through the ENTIRE show. Was upset
at Raul for not comign out afterwards, but I’ll forgive him eventually.

BERNADETTE PETERS at RADIO CITY!!: I was tired up until I took
a nap before this, then I was back to my ENERGETIC self (phew
and it felt good). I LOVE BERnADETTE! Rori, his sis and I went
and sat FRONT ROW (of the 4th tier) and it was just great. She did
all Rodgers and Hammerstein stuff though (it got old by the end of
hte month) but she’s still wonderful. She was lamenting how the
ROCKETTES were busy that night, but was like “eh, bu they’re all
taller than me anyway” so then all of a sudden the BERNADETTE
PETER SIZE ROCKETTES came out and did a number!! I was
adorable. Bernadette had like 4 costumes and was her
impeccable, loveable self.

Free to be, You and Me: for MEREDITH’s bday we went to see this
show. It was very pricy- $35 for ONE show? And it wasn’t really
that great but DAPHNE was great and is really nice and she gave
me her E-MAIL address so I wrote her and she wrote me BACK! I
was CONSIDERING putting her on my ledger list, but decided that
might be a little much considering she’s a celeb and I’m not one
yet…

Carpetbagger’s Children: This play was GREAT. I really enjoyed
it. JEAN STAPLETON from ALL IN THE FAMILY was in it and she
was very, very good and very nice afterwards, too.

Rhapsody in Seth: This was Seth R’s enjoyable one man show. I
of course had to go since I work for him, but we REALLY did enjoy
it and it’s funny how similar we are in some ways.

Something Good (Free salute to Richard Rodgers): Jen and I
woke up REALLY early Friday morning 6/28 and went to get online
for the free concert at noon (I believe we were there by 10:15). We
managed to sneak into the “vip” section since there were a few
seats open so we had an amazing view. This concert was
wonderful. They REALLY had an all star cast and I met ALL of the
following some for the first time (some the 40th): Patrick Wilson,
Justin Bohon, Louise Pitre, John Bucchino, Howard McGillin, John
Cullum, Laura Benanti, Lea Salonga (!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY MET LEA!!!
She SIGNED my MISS SAIGON cd!!!!!), Billy Stritch, Mary Testa,
Marin Mazzie, Stephen Flaherty and Barbara Cook (who sang 2
songs and got a HUGE standing ovation after BOTH).

Mostly Sondheim: After seeing Barbara Cook on Fri, I was VERY
excited to see her one woman show on Monday night. I went w/
KATHY aka SPAD (I’ll get used to calling her Kathy at some point?)
and we had a lovely dinner first and then I took her to meet Barbara
and that was her first time waiting for a celeb. Barbara was
exceedingly nice and there’s a reason she’s still around. (For
those of you who don’t realize it, she was the ORIGINAL MARIAN in
the Music Man in the 50s and also she was in She Loves Me, etc)

George Gershwin Alone: This is the last show I’ve seen this
month. It was in Boston as those of you who actually made it
through this entire thing and read it (anyone?) would know. It was
really enjoyable and I learned alot about Gershwin and found a lot
of similarities there. I wrote a Gerswhin inspired song after but
still haven’t written lyrics. It’s really nice though. My first jazzy
venture.

Anyway, that’s it. Probably the lightest month ever, but I’ve been
busy with other things, you see. There are 4 new bway shows in
July (Boys from Syracuse, Hairspray, I’m not Rappaport and
Frankie & Johnny) and I intend to see one a week. I also still have
to get to 12th Night in the park before the Fringe begins. And then
the Fringe will be the best few weeks ever!

CONCLUSIONS

Did you make it this far? Talk about getting a day out of the way.
It’s 4pm now. That’s 3 hours I’ve sepnt mostly writing which is a
new record. And I’ve even temporarily skipped writing the theatre
section for now b/c that requires me to look up my website and
figure out waht I’ve seen, when and when the last ledger was,
although I think it was right after Tony’s, so I have to think back to
that point in my life, etc, but I will in a second.

***Yeah, so its 5 now and I think I’m done adding sections and
revising them. And I now have an hour left of just browsing the
web. So write back so tomorrow I’ll have something to do for 5
hours!

I won’t have time to send this until my plans for the night are over,
so even though you get this around 3am, it was really written from
1-5pm… ;)***

Anyway, I hope everyone’s having a wonderful summer. I really do
intend to make it to at least one summer theatre show. Summer
theatre alums, let me know your schedules and maybe we can
have some sort of reunion day.

Looking at my schedule, this weekend I’m in Long Island at Rori’s
working on our show and taking publicity shots, and the last
weekend of Summer Theatre I’m booked w/ the Fringe. But that
leaves 3 possible weekends. I’ll keep my sister posted on my
pending weekend excursion to EB. For she’ll have to pick me up at
the bus station after all since she uses the third car now.

Also, I was considering joining the summer theatre troupe for their
annual excursion to nyc, but I just found out the show is Oklahoma and
that’s perhaps my least favorite show on Broadway right now. But maybe if
you’re all lucky, I’ll try to stop by McDonalds to say hi…

Please WRITE BACK and tell me how you’re DOING. My address
is listed at the bottom as well as my snail mail address in case
anyone doesn’t have email.

It looks like I’ll be e-mailing people nonstop for the rest of the week
while doing my mundane assistant-type tasks. Just as long as I
get an advanced copy of this cd, I’ll be very happy.

So WRITE me BACK and I’ll email you from here TOMORROW!

And do come visit in July if you can b/c it’s my free-est month of the
year.

My fondest and warmest regards from the center of the universe
and the greatest city in the galaxy,

Always–
Seth

AUGUST

August 7, 2002 — Where Have All the Summers Goooooone?

It is my hope that this ledger ends up the shortest ledger to make up for
the longest one that went out last month! This will mostly be me
adverstising what’s going on in AUGUST, so read on, my friends… and lend
me your eyes…

CABARETS

There’s my CABARET debut as a PERFORMER, and one as a pianist/ MD… I ran
into Cemocan in Times Sq (where I run into everyone! can’t seem to stop
running into people I know from EBHS or MIT…), and then his pianist
dropped out, so I’m doing his cabaret and he’s doing my demo (scroll down
for info on that)

I STRONGLY recommend making RESERVATIONS if you plan to come (which you do!):

TWO SINGULAR SENSATIONS
a battle of the egos through Broadway showtunes

starring: Seth Bisen-Hersh and Rori Nogee

Sunday, August 18th at 5pm
$5 cover charge/ 2 drink minimum (cash only).
All ages welcome!
DON’T TELL MAMA
343 W46th St
For reservations (suggested) call: 212-757-0788

http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/callbd.htm

http://www.donttellmama.com/august2002.shtml

—

THE VILLIANS OF BROADWAY

starring: Cemocan Yesil
with Musical Director/ Pianist Seth Bisen-Hersh

Wednesday, August 14th at 7pm
$12 Cover/ $10 Food & Drink Minimum
(pre-show dining will apply to your minimum)
Danny’s Skylight Room Cabaret
346 W46th St
Reservations: 212-265-8133

—

FRINGE FESTIVAL

I am mad, wicked, frenzily busy with the Fringe Festival right now:
http://www.fringenyc.org This is the BIGGEST international THEATRE festival
in the world, and I am now in charge of ALL the volunteers (so far 200, but
we need 1000!). If you want to volunteer, LET ME KNOW!

I received my STAFF ALL ACCESS pass today, and am REALLY excited b/c I get
to see ALL the AMAZING shows for free, and basically my schedule starting
this weekend is: wake up, see shows, e-mail volunteers, see more shows,
update volunteer book every night after midnight and shows are done, sleep.
Except for rehearsals for my 2 cabarets and breaks for Sex and the City, of
course.

SEX AND THE CITY

3/8 episodes have AIRED already!?!?! I am completely in love w/ this show
still and mourn the fact that there are only 5 weeks of new episodes to
go… So you know where I am every Sunday 9-9:30 without fail… 😉 I’m
TAPING this season for anyone who might be missing it.

MEANINGLESS SEX DEMO

The demo for my newest show, which is by far the best thing I’ve ever
written to date, is going very well. ERIC and CEMOCAN came in on Monday and
we recorded 3/4 songs. RORI is coming in on Friday for the last one, and
then I just have to mix them, and it’s DONE!!

Lemme know if you WANT a COPY! I’ll have the 4 songs available in mp3 for
massive spreading soon.

The plan is to finish the show ASAP and then do a workshop at Don’t Tell
Mama’s in early February, then get it in the FRINGE 2003.

Through the Fringe, I’ve already met a PRODUCER and a DIRECTOR, so it looks
like this project will be my NYC premiere as a serious, professional
composer!!!!

NEW APARTMENT

I have MOVED (almost- competing on Friday, the longest day imaginable:
fringe opening at 10am (ah), recording 12:30-2, moving, then time to start
seeing shows).

Same phone number. Same cable modem. Same cell phone.

It’s a REALLY nice 2 bedroom where I’m moving in w/ my new friend JAY who I
met through craigslist.org (thanks Crystal!). My bedroom is 110 sq ft,
which is smaller than my first East Campus room, but it’s a wonderful shape
and somehow I fit everything PERFECTLy in there like I was MEANT to be
there. I still have to put stuff on the walls, but I did manage to put a
few things up already including my MISS PIGGY action figure!
HIIIIIII-YYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I had to get a bed from Sam’s Club and I got a desk from my basement at home
(2 file cabinets and a piece of corkwood) and I brought up my wheely chair,
and the room looks like home already! 🙂

It’s $1200 + 1/2 util/ mo but that’s not so bad considering it’s in the
MIDDLE of the EAST VILLAGE, the COOLEST place on EARTH!!!

We’re having a big HOUSE WARMING (aka how many people can we stuff in here)
PARTY on SEPTEMBER 1st! (conviently, we’ll take a 30 minute party break for
Sex and the City at 9)

INTERNSHIP

My internship is OVER, and my “boss” offered to hire me whenever he needed
assistant like duties again– $20/ hour! Also, I might update his webpage
for the same rate… sounds good to me…

SETH’s CHATTERBOX

All’s the same there. I meet CELEBRITIES every week, and they’re all very
nice (esp Alan Campbell and Lauren Kennedy– SOooooo nice!) and they have no
trouble remembering my name b/c it’s the same as Seth! I’m hoping
eventually I’ll find someone to use me as a pianist. It’ll happen, it’ll
happen. Still very excited about helping Seth w/ the FUNNY GIRL concert w/
KRISTIN and AUDRA and DONNA and LILLIAS and JANE and MEGAN and BEBE……….

NYTHEATRE.COM

I wrote a review of City of Dreams at:
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/mitf_reviews.htm

I’ll be reviewing TWO shows in the FRINGE: The Boob Movie and Him & Her.
So keep reading nytheatre for reviews of all the fringe shows!!

CONAN

I’m seeing CONAN for the THIRD time TOMORROW night! So don’t forget to
watch him at 12:35!!!!

NEW CELL PHONE

We’ve joined a FAMILY plan!!! I got a NEW cell that now plays SEND in the
CLOWNS when it rings!!! And I have 3 way calling! And GAMES… and Aol
IMer on my PHONE!!

So if I don’t have your number, give it to me and I can call you on weekends.

REGISTERING

After the Fringe ends on the 25th, I go directly to being Dr. Sadoff’s
assistant and REGISTERING students for all PIANO lessons and classes at the
Education building. I’m doin that 12-3 the week of the 26th, but I’m free
after 3 every day for now! (Book me soon before it’s too late!)

FALL TERM

I have class only WEDNESDAY– 11am-10:15, 5 classes in a ROW but then I’ll
have SIX DAY WEEKENDS!!!!!!! So it’ll be worth it. I hope. Classes:
Electronic Music Synthesis, Digitally Controlled Systems, Composing for
Musical Theatre, Choral Arts Society, and Advanced Computer Music Composition.

BMI WORKSHOP

I applied for the Musical Theatre writing workshop, and will hear back in a
few weeks. This is the workshop that started the career of ALAN MENKEN/
HOWARD ASHMAN (little shop, Beauty and the Beast, the Little Mermaid) and ED
KLEBAN (Chorus Line) and STEPHEN FLAHERTY/ LYNN AHRENS (Once on this Island,
Seussical, Ragtime), so I’m hoping it’ll help start my career too!!!

PIANO BARS

I swear I will call the numbers I found soon.

COLUMBIA PHD

Still toying w/ this idea. I’d get a full ride if I somehow managed to get
in, but then I’d have to leave my beloved East Village…

WEEKEND IN NJ

I spent the last weekend of July in NJ. It was weird being at SUMMER
THEATRE again. I spent most of the time helping Nancy stay sane. Can’t
believe she’s still there! It’s nice to be a celebrity for a day, although
I must say the camp seemed virtually deserted this year, and that was kind
of sad. Elliott still hasn’t changed and put me to work putting make up on
kids right away! Other than that I went to my uncle’s bday dinner at my
grandparents, hung out w/ Dave, Atul & Eric Saturday, and then ran back to
NYC Sunday b/c I just have too much to do here to ever leave!!

THEATER

Last, but not least here’s what I’ve seen. It’s not much b/c I’m VERY busy
and haven’t had time! But I will be seeing a MILLION shows in the FRINGE
starting Friday… 3-5 shows a day… oh yeah!!

12th Night (Central Park): Nothing like a FREE night w/ Shakespeare in the
Park. Pretty good show– FINALLY met KRISTEN JOHNSON, who’s REALLY tall.
JULIA STILES is very nice.

Sarah: Plain and Tall: The MOST amazing show EVER, also FREE, written by
none other than my good friend Larry who was in the studio for a week
recording the instrumental music for the show.

House of Trash: This was a cute off-off-bway musical about white trash
(Scribby had this idea once- sorry it’s been done!) Really funny and lots
of republican bashing! (The best kind of bashing there is!!)

House: Unfortunately, Garden was sold out, but I did catch House and really
enjoyed it. (These 2 shows go on simultaneously… it’s quite clever.)

City of Dreams: This is the show I reviewed for nytheatre.com w/ ALISON
FRASER who went out the backdoor 🙁 Read THAT review to see what I thought.

Comedy of Errors: This was a WONDERFUL production of this Shakespeare
classic– very well done, and very funny.

The Boys from Syracuse: The musical version of Comedy of Errors. Sadly the
production wasn’t wonderful, but we did enjoy it over all.

Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune: WONDERFUL play w/ EDIE FALCO &
STANLEY TUCCI that I saw for FREE thanks to the wonderful MARLA who got me
in via the usher mafia! (JOEL the announcer from CONAN was in the audience,
and I talked to him for like 5 minutes after the show. Very nice guy.)

CONCLUSIONS

This has been the BEST summer EVER!! I do hope I managed to keep this very
short (at least it’s only one e-mail this time). If you want to see me in
August, it’ll have to be at one of my CABARETS or at a FRINGE show!!! Miss
you all! Hope everyone’s having s’wonderful summers, as well…

🙂

Always–
Seth

SEPTEMBER

September 12, 2002 — As Leaves Fall…

Where to start? Where to start? Yes, I know it’s not where you start, it’s
where you finish, but I have a lot to report before I get to the finish… I
wanted to send this out a week ago, but I’m glad I haven’t been bogged down
w/ term yet b/c there is TOO much catching up to do. I’m going to start
with the PRESENT, then catch you all up on the PAST month (the BEST month of
my LIFE, ie I’m going to be famous soon month) and then jump into the
FUTURE… all the way to the year 2000!!!

THE PRESENT

First announcement is that I did a MAJOR update to my WEBPAGE, so GO CHECK
IT OUT! I added ANOTHER 18 pictures, 3 resumes, and… my ENTIRE demo cd
for my new musical, MEANINGLESS SEX. I will say that the lyrics are only
rated G in “the one for me”, so if you’re offended by dirty lyrics, don’t
listen to the other 3. More on the show later!! (it’s going to be in the
FRINGE2003, but really I’ll get to that in an hour or so…)

The second announcement is I was w/o cable and ethernet for 2 days, and I
barely survived. There was a power outage in a building Time Warner doesn’t
own, and they had major trouble getting into it apparently. But thankfully
everything’s back to normal today, right in time for this ledger!

CLASSES

Well it seems the best place to start this ledger is to talk about my
classes since that’s what marks the beginning of the term. I have done the
impossible. I am down from TWO days of classes, to just ONE day! YES, only
ONE day of class. WEDNESDAY! Which is why I’m in a particularly good MOOD
tonight b/c it’s the beginning of my SIX DAY WEEKENDS!!!

I have class 11am-10:15pm, and it’s quite draining, but afterwards all I
want to do is PARRRRrrrrrrrrrrrtaaaaaaay!!!

My classes are fairly easy this term. In fact in terms of workload they’re
really easy. Just 8 homework assignments, 2 tests, and 3 major projects!
Which is nothing compared to last term… and REALLY nothing compared to MIT
where I’d have 8 homework assignments every week!!

My classes are: ELECTRONIC MUSIC SYNTHESIS where I get to play w/ really
old synths and stuff. DIGITALLY CONTROLLED SYSTEMS where I get to play w/
lots of different programming tools. and ADVANCED COMPUTER MUSIC
COMPOSITION where I get to do this huge project (no homeworks!) w/ this
powerful program, Kyma. My other classes are CHORAL ARTS, b/c I need
performance credit. It’s actually nice being in a choir again. Concert is
12/11. And finally, I’m taking PRIVATE COMPOSITION LESSONS, which is 2
credits of graduate study, and basically means for a half hour a week, I get
to bring someone my musical and have him critique/ nitpick it so it’s perfect.

EXTRA ACTIVITIES

I’m still doing MEN’s CHOIR this term, as well as my SONGWRITERS’ CLUB which
I totally love and has helped me improve my lyrics SOOoo much. And I was
asked by one of the PLAYERS’s board tonight if I might possibly be
interested in playing piano for their show this fall if they do a musical,
and I would TOTALLY love to if they do!

Speaking of playing, I’m still MAINTENIZING PIANOS, so I have income again.
I’m awaiting hearing back from students about playing for their VOICE
LESSONS. So far, I’m just playing for 1, but I asssssssssume at least a few
others will reappear at some point and ask me to. I’m COMPLETELY free
Monday and Tuesdays, so I’m hoping to play for as many lessons as I can find
clients for those days.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

I will catch you all up on last month soon, but I figure I should start with
what I’m doing this fall. Thanks to RACHEL, I saw an ADVERTISEMENT on
playbill for a needed pianist. I e-mailed the guy, and now I’m playing for
a show in the CHIP DEFFAA INVITATIONAL FESTIVAL:
http://www.chashama.org/deffaa_sked_byshows.htm

The show is called Ryan Davis’ Rising Stars (RYAN, you are SO vain! He’s
one of the virgin ledger receivers this month…quite a few of them
actually) and it’s going to be OCTOBER 2-4, 5-7:30 at 111 West 42nd Street.
Auditions are 9/25, 2-6 if any of you high school/ college aged people want
to try out! Basically it’s a star search type cabaret thing where a panel
of semi-big broadway celebrities pick the winner of our new showcase of talent.

I’m totally going to make TONS of connections! (Gosh, and I haven’t even
talked about my fringe ones… that’s in the PAST (when your mother was w/
child) section…)

ALSO, we’re doing a benefit called a Night with Stars (??) tentatively on
12/1 for some soon tbd charity. Last year’s had some big stars. This year
Ryan’s already talking about having JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL and ANTHONY RAPP
and hopefully I’ll be able to bring in some more celebs, too. IMAGINE, in
December *I* will be playing PIANO for HEDWIG and MARK COHEN!!!!!

Other than that, I just did CEMOCAN’s cd (he was on mine) and I’m doing his
cabaret act which got POSTPONED. It’s going to be SUNDAY 10/6, 8:45 at
Danny’s Skylight Room. More info available soon. It’s the Villains of
Broadway one, and I’m playing for it and doing a number, so I’m looking
forward to that.

RORI and I are doing TWO SINGULAR SENSATIONS again in NOVEMBER sometime, so
I’ll of course keep you updated. More on how that went in the past section.

BIG CONCERTS

I’m going to the big FUNNY GIRL concert w/ an INSANE amount of Broadway
stars. I had offered to help Seth w/ rehearsals, as you’ll remember, but
sadly he doesn’t require my help. He said maybe the week of, though, so I’m
keeping my fingers crossed that he’ll need some extra help. Regardless, he
PROMISED to get me a COMP ticket to the show!!!

I’m going to the big MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG REUNION concert the week after
that by USHERING although Lonny Price hasn’t contacted me about that yet, so
I might have to call again…

Those are my new exciting nights in September! (23 and 30)

My exciting nights in October are seeing KRISTIN CHENOWETH and then MARIN
MAZZIE in concert at Lincoln Center… 😉

REVIEWS

I am writing reviews, not only for NYU’s paper (with my friend MEREDITH as
editor now, I get to write ALL the time!), but also NYTHEATRE.COM my
favorite theatre site!!!

I wrote 3 reviews during the Fringe (more on the Fringe in a bit, I promise)
and just did one for the Chip Deffaa. I’m doing another one on the 20th…

http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/fringe2002.htm
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/danny.htm

Thus, I’ve been seeing as MANY shows for FREE as humanly possible, which has
been a relief on my budget.

BIG PARTIES!!!

We through a HUGE house warming/ sex and the city season finale (I taped the
ENTIRE WONDERFUL SEASON!!!!!!)/ cd release/ semester starting party last
SUNDAY!!! I LOVE my new apartment!!! I love my new roommate JAY! We have
the bestest times ever. We through the most ULTIMATE party! 35 people were
SQUASHED into this apt and it was the best PARTY of the CENTURY! 🙂

My next mini-party will be for the EMMYs on the 22nd. The next MAJOR party
will be for Jay’s birthday late October. Then probably a graduation party
for my friends. Then of course my annual NEW YEAR’S EVE party!!

NEW MUPPET VIDEOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They have RELEASED the MUPPET SHOW videos in STORES, and I just HAD to buy
them b/c the first 2 came out and they were only $10 each. So I have 6
UNCUT episodes of the muppet show on tape!!!!!

And Kermit’s Swamp Years was just on STARZ and I taped that as well! 🙂

I know some of you are as excited as I am… really… Incidentally I ran
into HARVEY FIERSTEIN at Tower when I was buying them and I made him laugh
w/ my enthusiam for them… 😉 (more on HAIRSPRAY in a bit)

WEEK BEFORE CLASSES/ FIRST WEEK OF CLASSES

Well, I’m kind of going backwards through time, but figured I should briefly
talk about my relaxing weeks pre-term and post-Fringe before I delve into
the best summer of my life.

First exciting thing is that NIKI and SAMIDH FINALLY came back from being
out of the country, so they’re both (THANKFULLY) back on IMER all the time,
as well as reachable by phone! I don’t know how I lived a month w/o contact
w/ 2 of my closest confidantes and friends and 2 of the coolest people in
the whole wide world!!!!

**Incidentally, we joined a family plan, so I now have UNLIMITED WEEKENDS
MINUTES, so SEND me your PHONE number if I don’t have it, and I’ll CALL you
on the weekends for FREE!!**

Also that week, I took advantage of the free time to chill w/ my homies,
Jens & T as I like to call them nowadays. (jen, jen and tango) I figure I
should see them all before they get all busy and crazed with theses (it’s
just UNFAIR that most of my friends graduate in December, when I do in May…)

I have to mention ELISSA b/c she stopped by that week just for a bit to see
my new place. She even brought her mom and brother, too, straight from
dinner… It was a pleasure to see her even for so brief a time.

I spent the week before classes REGISTERING students for PIANO LESSONS b/c
the person who does that went on vacation and since I’m Dr. Sadoff (piano
professor)’s asst, I filled in and made $150 for sitting in a room and
seeing about 4 people a day that week. I even made TWO NEW FRIENDS, who are
NOW on the LEDGER list! (You lucky people!) (btw, if you can name all the
musical quotes in this ledger, you’ll get extra bonus stars. What you’ll do
w/ them, I don’t know though…)

I also went to NJ for 4 hours for ROSH HASHANA and came back with OODLES of
food, which I’m slowly getting through. Happy new Year, btw…

And finally, I managed to go up to COLUMBIA and see FIVE of my friends there
in ONE NIGHT. Yes ONE NIGHT! It’s quite thrilling that KEVIN lives there
now, so we can hang out ALL the time!!

THE PAST

So that’s about where I am now. Unfortunately, so much happened this summer
that I feel I need to catch you up. As quickly as possible, I promise… 😉

CABARET

My cabaret debut was a HUGE SMASHING SUCCESS!! Rori and I had the TIMES of
our LIVES and 50 people came!!! That’s just an AMAZING turnout, so I
personally thank any and ALL of you who came to make that day even
specialler. (Yes I know that’s not a real word. Sue Me, sue me, what can
you do me?)

STEPHEN SONDHEIM had requested an audio tape of the show, so I specially had
one made for him, and so I’ll have a response from him in about a week b/c
he writes back very fast (although he probably won’t have listened to it by
then…) and he also got a demo cd of Meaningless Sex.

Btw, New York, New York is on and I haven’t seen it in AGES– gotta love
Liza Minelli.

MILLROSE MUSIC

As I said last time, my internship was great! I finished my DEMO cd (up on
my webpage!) last week and it sounds AMAZING. Just AMAZING. Thanks to
ERIC, CEMOCAN and RORI for being on it! It’s just AMAZING…

Also, I’m going to be doing some part-time work for Peter and he’s actually
PAYING me now, which is quite a nice thing and quite a relief to have some
more income.

SETHS CHATTERBOX

I continue to enjoy going to Seth’s (every Thursday, so tomorrow!) and every
guest gets a BUSINESS CARD from me and a free cd now, too. Lucky Kerri
Butler gets a free demo cd tomorrow!

THE AMAZING FRINGE FESTIVAL

Gosh. It was just the most amazing month of my life. What can I say? I
met people who are exactly like me. I met people who have the same dreams
and goals in life as me. For the first time ever, I felt like I belonged.
Like there was a place for me in this society. That I’m not the only crazy
person out there.

Being on that staff has changed my life. I met at least 500 people through
the Fringe. I basically was in charge of scheduling and e-mailing all the
box office volunteers. For 183 shows with 6 performances each that’s almost
1,000 slots I helped fill. I also sent daily updates, which were kind of
like mini-ledgers, and always managed to rhyme something in them.

I became a CELEBRITY. My volunteers would ASK for me and if they managed to
meet me, couldn’t speak out of awe. Now, you’ll think I’m exaggerating, but
you can even ask DAN the biggest fan of popping my bubble, and he’ll
corroborate this tale. (I actually roped him into being on staff, as well!)

And this isn’t it. By the long run at all.

I made FRIENDS. Friends for life. Friends who are NOW on this ledger list,
who I KNOW will be friends w/ in 50 years when we’re all still in NYC and
have finally made it on Broadway.

And most importantly, I made CONNECTIONS. LOADS of them. I gave out over
100 business cards to PROFESSIONALS. Even some celebrities. If there was a
Broadway star in the audience or in the show, they got a card. I gave a
card to ALL the musical directors and composers this year, as well. The
most amazing story was PAUL SCOTT GORDON who wrote Him & Her said he’d write
me a piano part to play in the show if it got picked up Off-bway!!! (So
keep your fingers crossed…)

I managed to see 43 performances of 42 shows (saw my favorite one, Him & Her
twice). All for free being on STAFF. In fact, I was the STAFF member who
saw the MOST shows!

Between shows, e-mailing and then hanging out after hours at the Present
Company (headquarters for the fringe) I was basically non-stop busy from the
9th through the 25th.

By the time the fringe began, I had finished 5 songs from MEANINGLESS SEX.
I am now up to 9. I didn’t actually write during the Fringe, but I met:

1. A director. My good friend Andrew, who is the inspiration for the third
character in show.

2. A producer. This was actually through the playbill online thing but it
happened during this time. This is Ryan, who I’m doing a bunch of things
for. His boyfriend does PUBLICITY and POSTCARDS and stuff, so we even have
THAT already.

3. A BROADWAY STAR. Yes, you read this right. I was unable to breathe or
type or do anything that day, as some will remember. Ah, I remember it
well. I saw BROOKE SUNNY MORIBER, the most amazing Broadway belter, in the
audience one night and my life will never be the same. It turns out she was
in a show this year which I saw, and when I told her about my show, she said
she’d be very interested in doing it.

4. Backers. Ok, yeah, these are mostly friends I had before, but one of my
online friends’ father is interested in investing too! (Gotta LOVE AOL
sometimes…)

5. A set designer. Ok, yeah, DAVE did Trivial Pursuits too, but we
discussed it during Fringe…

🙂

Anyway, the point is, my MUSICAL is going to be PRODUCED in NEXT year’s
FRINGE FESTIVAL. (Assuming we get in, which we’re pretty sure will happen
given the quality of the show and the fact that it really fits the fringe’s
objectives)

MY SHOW IS GOING TO BE THE NEXT URINETOWN. If all goes as planned, TWO
years from now I will have an OFF BROADWAY musical.

Yes, I know this is supremely optimistic, but given the reception I’ve
received from my demo cd so far, I think it’s realistic. And with the added
help of having a professional look at my work first, and the fact that I
have the songwriters’ club again, and the fact that everything I write
evolves and becomes better than the last thing and the fact that I’m very,
very determined and charismatic and intelligent and actually have
connections……..

So yeah, the plan is to do a workshop of the show next APRIL at my favorite
cabaret spot, Don’t Tell Mama, and then perfect it for the FRINGE itself,
then go CRAZY with industry comps…

In other AMAZING coincidental FRINGE news, I also met this guy who is
working on a LIVE action MUPPET musical. He’s talking to JIM HENSON’s
LAWYERS right now about producing LIVE muppets, ie You’re a Good Man Charlie
Brown style. It’s mostly already written material, but he needs someone to
write a few NEW songs as well as ARRANGE the old ones as well as MUSICALLY
DIRECT, so who else is as obsessed w/ MUPPETS as me, hm? HE IS!

So assuming he can get the RIGHTS, which I deem a SUPREME longshot, but it
might actually happen, I’ll be doing TWO SHOWS in next year’s FRINGE. (And
I thought I was busy THIS year…) (IRONICALLY, I can apparently only write
for G rated shows or R rated shows (it can’t be X from just words alone, can
it?))

Guess who’s career is starting to blossom?

THE FUTURE

Well I intend to finish writing MEANINGLESS SEX by 2003. I’m averaging a
song a week (but not this week, I hit a creative block once a month. I have
my creative peak when there’s a full moon according to SAMIDH…), so at
that rate, it’s definitely achievable. Hopefully my book writer CARRIE will
be able to finish the book by then, but REALLY we have until APRIL’s
workshop to perfect it after the initial draft. And THEN we perfect it even
MORE.

Writing is about REVISION and then more REVISION. Shows don’t get written
overnight, after all.

I’m really looking into playing at PIANO BARS soon, I swear! I’ve just been
really busy. I think it’d be a lots of fun and good $$ though, so I intend
to call as soon as my time commitments for the term are more clear.

I’m still STRONGLY considering a PHD. I’m looking at COLUMBIA, but am
hoping that there’s another option in NYC somewhere. I’m going to check if
NYU, Manhattan School of Music, Julliard, etc would have PAID PHD programs
just in case I don’t get into Columbia.

A PHD would give me the flexibility to still have summers off for the FRINGE
as well as give me a definite career path in academia. It’s my theory that
by the time I’m done w/ a PhD my dept in NYU would be willing to expand to
have another permanent faculty… and then I could live in my former
residence at cheap NYU professor rates…

Worse case, is I might have to get a JOB, but I hope not b/c I’m far
too busy trying to build a career to have commitments 9-5 every day. (How
drab and boring to work 40 hour work weeks…) But alas, my rent’s
expensive, so if I have no way to get more student loans, that might be my
only course… sadly… but that’s MONTHS away.

I have to write a THESIS next term, and I have NO idea WHATSOEVER what I’m
doing it on. Next term is VERY light though. Just the thesis, composition
lessons (if they go well this term) and choir, and then GRADUATION.

Where does the time go?

THEATRE

At last we have come to the penultimate section of this ledger. Not a
moment too soon b/c it’s 20 to 4, and that’s my bedtime. So let’s make this
quick… Let’s see where the last ledger left off.

I’M NOT RAPPAPORT– right as the Fringe began, I was handed free tickets to
see JUDD HIRSCH and BEN VEREEN and I’m glad I caught it b/c it’s already
closed. It was quite a good show.

FRINGE SHOWS– I saw the following 43 FRINGE SHOWS. I’m not going to give
you comments on them b/c that would take FOREVER. I’d refer you to my
FRINGE article for the NYU paper, but I don’t think it’s online yet,
unfortunately:
Die Like a Lady, Spanked, Him & Her, Beat, Last Call, Boob Movie, Four
Quarters, The Overcoat, We’re From the Fifties, Sopranos, Confessions of
an Art School Model, Marginal Saints, A Night of Shitty Theatre, The Joys
of Sex: the Musical, Project C: Is this a Dream?, Pillow Scars, The Last
Nickel, Consumer Behavior, Jump, Second Amendment Club, Resa
Fantastik Mystik, The Bizarro Bologna Show, It’s a Detective Agency,
Stalking Christopher Walken, Him & Her (again), All American Boy, Love in
Pieces, Sin Agog, Sticky Rice Queen, Jezebel the Just, Sherlock Holmes and
the Secret of Making Whoopee, The Time Cycle, Not Herself Lately,
Starfuckers, The Dentist or Things You Put in your Mouth, Five Frozen
Embryos/ Sleepers, Centralia, Star, It’s All About Me, Panichorea, Patty
Red Pants, Two, & Piano Punk (PHEW)

CABARET: My first venturing back to the theatre was to USHER for Cabaret w/
my new friend ADAM. Unfortunately JOHN STAMOS was OUT (yes, I saw Alan
Cumming’s understudy, too, years ago), but the show was still good.

ROBBER BRIDEGROOM: A cute revival of an old musical that’s never done. It
was FUN and they totally didn’t have a pianist, so I gave them my card for
their next show… 😉

HAIRSPRAY: What a WONDERFUL show. Miraculously they gave the FRINGE a
handful of comps and I of course managed to get one!! Penny Marshall was in
the audience and wouldn’t sign, so BOYCOTT her movies. BAD DIVA!!!!

DANNY AND SYLVIA: This review’s online. This is the show I reviewed in the
Chip Deffaa for Martin.

And that’s it! Mostly fringe stuff obviously. This weekend I’m seeing Lynn
& Steve’s newest (if they have rush) A Man of No Importance, and the
off-bway play Endpapers. Then I’m going to start seeing ALL of the new
BROADWAY shows as they open up… And of course BROADWAY on BROADWAY Sunday…

It’s going to be a GREAT season!!!! 🙂

CONCLUSIONS

Well it seems we’ve come to the end of yet another Seth Ledger. And not a
moment too soon. I’m going to plotz. Liza’s singing the big title song of
the movie as it reaches its conclusion as well. There is not a single buddy
on the buddy list up besides me. Not even RONOJOY or JAMES who are
frequently up later than me.

I hope everyone is having a WONDERFUL September. PLEASE WRITE BACK and
catch me up on your lives, for I hate to fall behind in the fall… falling
in fall again, what am I to do, can’t help it….

I will hopefully talk to you all soon!!

Always–
Seth

NOVEMBER

November 11, 2002 — The Novelty of November

You know it’s been ages since you sent a ledger when you have people
actually requesting one! So I’ll start off by apologizing. The first week
of October I was busy doing shows, which all went well, but I was too pooped
to write that week or the week after. Then I believe that’s about when my
stomach virus hit, when I was stuck in bed for 4 days nonstop, and actually
ended up losing even MORE weight to the point where I really don’t weigh
ANYthing anymore. And then I guess I got wrapped up in my social life and
shows and such, and then I was FINALLY going to write on Tuesday, but the
overwhelming upset and depression I felt as I watched CNN made me unable to
write anything but a scathing political poem, now available on my WEBPAGE…

I’ll warn you that this ledger will probably be mostly a theatre one b/c
that’s what I’ve been up to mostly. I have managed to either work a show by
reviewing, ushering or work benefits by giving out wine and getting comps
through connections to the point where it pains me to have to ever pay for a
show, which I reluctantly do at most once a week now. But I’ll save
detailed theatre stuff for the end as always!

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

TWO SINGULAR SENSATIONS
a battle of the egos through Broadway showtunes

starring: Seth Bisen-Hersh and Rori Nogee

Saturday, November 23rd at 3:30pm
$6 cover charge/ 2 drink minimum (cash only).
All ages welcome!
DON’T TELL MAMA
343 W46th St
For reservations (STRONGLY suggested) call: 212-757-0788

We had a BLAST last time, and it’s going to be even better this time b/c we
won’t be as nervous. Come if you can. Other than that I have other
mini-things, like chorus concerts and such that I sent to everyone who lives
in NYC, but won’t bother to send to everyone throughout the country. But
lemme know if you’re interested. This is the BIG show to see though!

I’m also in theory going to be doing a few other cabarets in the near
future. One w/ my friend and comedian, Adam and a few others that will be
mostly humorous stuff, one w/ my friend Marla that’ll be a well crafted show
probably celebrity story themed. And I’m even toying w/ the idea of doing a
solo cabaret in the spring.

JOBS

I’ve been doing occasional freelance work for Peter, the guy I interned w/
last summer. I also signed up to be a proofreader for Sony Classical, which
pays $25 for going over cd booklets before they go to print, so we’ll see
about that. And I just got offered $300 + travel expenses to go to
Scrawnee, PA for 2 days next weekend to play piano on tape for a show. So I
think I’m going to do it, especially b/c I get a free night in a RESORT, and
that’s kind of hard to turn down. (I’ll be in NJ already anyway for
CORINNE’s WEDDING so I figure a few days out of NYC will be ok… I hope?)

LINKS TO REVIEWS

While I’m advertisting myself and such, here are a bunch of links to reviews
I’ve written. I also did a puzzle for On/ Off magazine in exchange for
comps to Dance of the Vampires but that hasn’t happened yet. In addition to
shows for nytheatre I now to CDs too, so I got 20 free cds in the mail so
far!!!!

http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/chekhov.htm
http://www.botz.com/nytheatre/briefs.htm
http://www.botz.com/nytheatre/jolson.htm
http://www.botz.com/nytheatre/coolers.htm
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/cd_shop.htm

CLASSES

My having class ALL day ONE day on WEDNESDAY has been a SUCCESS! Even
though it’s quite the long day, having SIX day weekends is a PLEASURE. In
fact I get more done in my breaks on Wednesday than any other day b/c I’m
motivated and on campus and such. And then I can relax for 6 days.

I got to make this really cool piece using the Bucla– this really really
old synthesizer we have here. It was really fun to play with and I think
I’m going to use it for my extended final project as well. That’s for
Electronic Music Synthesis, which turned out to be a pretty not so bad class.

For Digitally Controlled Systems I’m going to use MSP, a software for sound
synthesis to write an algorithmic composition. I’m big on algorihms and
then shaping them in dramatic ways.

And for Advanced Computer Music Composition I’m going to do a piece based on
the “All the World’s a Stage” speech from Shakespeare. I have to use this
really buggy program that the professor adores though, which is really a pain.

The biggest pain is that all 3 classes require I do my projects in studio
b/c I don’t have a mac. My next computer will be a mac.

Choral Arts Society has been fun. It’s kind of nice being in a choir again
after all these years. I was in choir at MIT for 2 terms, if you recall,
for my music degree and those are fond memories. So it’s nice to relive my
youth.

My final class is my private composition lessons. We’ve been working
nonstop on the songs from my new musical, which is still in that unsure
stage of where it’s heading and what it wants to be. I’m hoping within the
next few weeks we figure out what it wants to be so it can be it, and so
that I can stop rewriting songs.

Songwriting is not easy. It is not easy at all. It’s an extremely time
consuming task, and it’s too easy to fall in love and become attached to
your baby, such that when people tear apart every line, it’s not a fun
process. But I am very determined to make this show the most amazing thing
ever written and the most amazing show in next year’s Fringe Festival.

TV

I watched the Charles in Charge marathon tonight on Nick at Nite for a bit.
It really makes me feel old that shows I watched in my childhood are popping
up. I remember when my mom used to say she saw the Mary Tyler Moore show
when it was new and thinking “wow, that’s amazing” and now I’m watching
Charles and Cosby and Cheers and Family Ties and thinking the same exact thing.

Other than that, my favorite show of the week is probably Enterprise. It is
amazing that they can keep Star Trek so fresh and new after all these years.
The show is wonderfully crafted, and is turning into my 2nd favorite Star
Trek series ever which is saying a lot b/c I was a really big fan of DS9…
Steve comes over every Wednesday and we watch and are unable to predict the
ending, which is a GREAT sign of a great show.

Other than that, Curb Your Enthusiasm is my HBO show of the month, but it’s
ending sadly next week. It’s an extremely hilarious show, and has the wit
that Seinfeld once had in the beginning when of course Larry wrote it…

Simpsons and Malcolm are FINALLY new again, and I’m proud to say they have
both been quite good this season so far even if it has only been 2 episodes.
It’s really nice to have Sunday night tv again b/c it’s a great night for
people to come over and hang out and just relax.

And the NBC shows I watch remain the same, Just Shoot Me, Frasier, Friends
and SCRUBS, which is by far the funniest half hour of the week.

I also still try to watch that 70’s show but it’s on opposite Just Shoot Me,
so I’ve had to resort to having someone else tape it since I’m always at
Songwriters Club then Men’s Choir on Tuesday nights.

MOVIES

I saw DAS EXPERIMENT since the last ledger. Very good movie. Yay free
previews! And I saw ONE HOUR PHOTO which I really liked even if it was
creepy– love Robin Williams still! And IGBY GOES DOWN which I mostly
enjoyed even though it wasn’t totally fabu.

I saw SPIRITED AWAY the other day, which in an anime from Japan and I LOVED
it and SUSAN EGAN does a voice!!!

And I’m seeing HARRY POTTER opening night on FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then Lord of the Rings and the new STAR TREK movie will complete my year of
movie seeing…

TERM OVERALL

It’s been a very relaxing term. I haven’t really had much work to do, and
the 6 day weekend has been the best idea I’ve had in a long time. The show
is going well, and is writing itself. I’ve been really prolific and I get
exponentially better at writing songs, everyone involved has agreed about
that. I adore my apartment even if it is way too expensive, and even if I
may not be able to afford it next year.

Also, I finally feel like I have enough friends in my life that I have stuff
to do enough of the time without having to rely too heavily on any single
one. I’ve seen an unprecendented number of shows for free, as well.

I’ve actually seriously never been this happy before in my life, and it’s
kind of weird, but cool.

FUTURE UNKNOWN

Yes I have no clue what to do next year. In fact, I have no clue what to do
for my thesis next term. In absolute fact, I have no idea what I’m doing
for NEW YEARs and that’s even sooner!

If you have any ideas please let me know.

I’m very iffy about phd programs. I’ve heard mixed things. I’m very
trepidatious about applying especially b/c usually I would’ve applied
everywhere in August, and it’s already November.

I hear there are many grants for struggling composers. I was considering
applying for a bunch of those and living on subsistence for a little bit
until the fate of my musical is known. for if it succeeds, I may never have
to work 9-5 ever (keep your fingers crossed!)

The other sad option is to find a job, but I would have to take off all of
August, so it’s silly to start before September, which means the logical
thing to do is to go on vacations in June/ July. And I’m thinking of going
to CHICAGO in June b/c SONDHEIM’s new musical premieres then and I have to
see Kristine and Rona b/c I miss them too too much! And I really wanna go
to Paris at some point… maybe in July.

But really, I have no clue what I’m doing in the future. I was hoping a
connection would pan out and I’d get a job playing in a broadway pit or
something, but the likelihood of that isn’t so high, even though Seth plays
in pits all the time but he doesn’t want to share the wealth I’m sure…

THEATER

And finally, we’ve come to the theatre. This started out a small ledger,
but after listing everything I’ve seen for the last 2 months, it might get a
little long… 😉 I’ll try to keep it brief though b/c I’m hoping to send
this out before 4.

A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE — oh gosh, I saw this show on 9/12. that’s how
behind I am. it was wonderful and I loved it. it’s by the creative team of
ragtime and is just beautiful.

ENDPAPERS — cute play if somewhat long about the publishing business, long
closed by now.

BROADWAY ON BRAODWAY — VERY lame this year. They kept having errors and
stuff and we were where we usually were and instead of moving us up like the
usually do, they didn’t let us and that pissed me off to no end, to the
point where I mightn’t go next year.

STRAIGHT MAN’S GUIDE TO MUSICAL THEATRE — I reviewed this one (for the nyu
paper) which was a revue by LARRY O’KEEFE who I know from Peter’s last
summer. Itw as just magical!

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD — a mediocre revue of Stephen Schwartz songs which I
reviewed for nytheatre, check the archives if you’re interested.

BROADWAY FLEAMARKET — I had the MOST amazing experience helping Seth by
MANNING his booth at the fleamarket. While selling videos I made some NEW
friends and gave celebrities directions. It was really amazing and I raised
$600 for charity!

**FUNNY GIRL BENEFIT CONCERT** — to thank me for helping out at his
chatterbox, Seth gave me 2 tix (lucky Jamie gets to come w/ me to big events
b/c she’s the one w/ the mini-disc recorder…) to see the amazing Funny
Girl concert w/ so many famous people… and THEN I got to go to the AFTER
party and really this was just the best night of my LIFE partying w/ bway
stars and I had too many apple martinis (read one), but it was still a blast
and I have pictures!!

CABARET — I ushered for Cabaret again, this time to see RAUL who’s
wonderful! Again w/ my new ushering bud Adam, and also w/ Aida, one of my
beloved Fringe Friends for Life, and Tina my new Muppet watching friend from
the Songwriter’s Club.

JOLSON AND CO — Reviewed this show and it’s linked on top b/c it’s still
playing! As long as it plays, my review will stay online! I really enjoyed
it, too.

GOGA — this is an improv group I reviewd for nyu. It was ok.

DRAMA DEPARTMENT BENEFIT — This is one of those life closing a door and
opening up a big window stories. I was supposed to usher for the big
Merrily We Roll Along concert, but that fell through b/c Musical theatre
works SUCKS. I was really upset, but my friend Adam was helping out Drama
Dept with a benefit and talent show including Jennifer Holiday, so I called
him and served WINE for a few hours, saw a free concert, cleaned up and then
got tix to their ENTIRE season for FREE… 🙂

LITTLE HAM — This show was so much cuter off-off bway and my review for nyu
says that. But we still enjoyed it overall.

THE DARK KALAMAZOO — This was the one woman show Drama Dept was doing this
fall. It was a story about a black girl’s trip to Africa in an all white
group, and her inability to fit in with them or the natives. Very touching.

ALBERT AND ALICE — Oh this show was AWFUL. Just awful. And I reviewed it.
It’s in the archives of nytheatre.

THE BURLESQUE PROJECT — First of the Drama Dept reading series which I went
to for free. Very enjoyable revue from the 20’s.

HOLLYWOOD ARMS — the first bway show I had seen in awhile acutally. MET
CAROL BURNETT and that was REALLY cool! She wrote the show, and was there.
It was an ok show. It had moments. But meeting Carol was GREAT. Samidh
was here that weekend, so we had a really good time.

**KRISTIN CHENOWETH — Saw the wonderful, fabulous Kristin again — 3rd row
center and she remembered me from our conversation at the Funny Girl party
among other things. She’s just the most amazing performer and she did all
this new stuff, and it was just amazing.

WATER COOLERS — This review is still linked b/c it’s still playing, too!
They gave us FREE drinks, so Anne and I got pretty drunk… yay being press…

WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS — Drama Dept reading of an old play by J.M.Barrie
who of course wrote Peter Pan… very enjoyable starring Matthew Broderick!
NO pregnant Sarah in the audience though.

MARIN MAZZIE & JASON DANIELEY — My favorite bway married couple did an
evening of duets together, and it was just really fun and really enjoyable.

THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE — Ushered for this show again before it closed, with
of course Adam, and also Jamie and Jessy. It’s cute, but not great.

MONDO DRAMA — Another DD show. Met Caroline Rhea!

THE PUMPKIN PIE SHOW — RAN to review this after Mondo Drama. Quite a nice
sprint, actually we didn’t even have to rush. I reviewed it for nytheatre.
I had reviewed their last show for NYU last year, and my REVIEW was IN the
PRESS kit. That was the most AMAZING thing ever!

THE BANDWAGON — really enjoyable revue from the 30s w/ lots of bway stars,
again for free at DD.

ADAM’s COMEDY SHOW — my friend Adam was at a comedy bar, so we went to see
him and he’s just hilarious!

BURNING BLUE — Ushering with Adam (of course) for this play w/ CHAD LOWE
about gays in the military.

JASON ROBERT BROWN in Concert — or as I call him Jason. He was at the
Funny Girl party too! And LAUREN KENNEDY was there, and I e-mail her ever
since she was at Seths. She’s in Les Mis now and invited me to come see it,
so even though I’ve seen the show too many times I’ll probably go again for her.

STOP LOOK LISTEN — reviewed this old musical which was ok, and then went to
a WONDERFUL TABOO party!

JACKIE HOFFMAN — she’s SOOOOo funny! gosh. She’s in hairspray now but I
met her at Seth’s so I went to support her and she’s just the most hilarious
person in the world. She has so many offensive songs– I LOVE it.

GIMME A BREAK BENEFIT — Another WINE serving event, where not only did I
get free connections, free wine to take home, but a free concert that was
just PHENOMINAL. Almost 4 hours long, all these semi-famous bway stars
talked about their big breaks and sang a song about it. It was just a
remarkable evening.

MINNIE’s BOYS — Ah, dressed as Miss Piggy for Halloween, I went and
ushered for this old show about the Marx Brothers. Met Larry Grossman, the
composer. Very nice guy. Ushered w/ Anne, not Adam, this time…

AMOUR — I am SO glad that I managed to see this show before it closed. It
was GREAT. Just great. And cute, and too small to run on broadway. I was
waiting to find a way to get comps, but I’m glad I splurged for student rush
b/c it was just adorable. We were TAPED for the lincoln center copy!

AUDRA MCDONALD at CARNEGIE HALL — Ah, Audra is just wonderful. Just
wonderful. Waited at the stage door but it was freezing and we found out
she was going to a big fancy dinner and wouldn’t be out for hours, so we
left her a sweet note, but she hasn’t written back yet 🙁

NEW MONDAY SERIES — this is a WONDERFUl series where they present new
composers with at least one frontliner of a famous one. They each do 4 new
songs they’re working on currently. I went the week WILLIAM FINN was there,
and I reviewed it, and that’s one of the above links. I talked to the guy
who runs it and he loves me now and I’ll hopefully be IN the series in the
spring!

JULIA SWEENEY — I saw Julia’s new comic monologue show and it was really
enjoyable and she was really nice! Eric was in town for that.

DEBBIE DOES DALLAS: the musical — phew, this was last night, so I’m caught
up. Tina and I ushed for it, and it was cute, but not great. Definitely
very funny and enjoyable though.

I’m still WAITING for my Dance of the Vampire comps from on/off, and I’m
hoping that happens. And Les Mis comps from lauren. And I’m seeing FLOWER
DRUM SONG for free by reviewing it for NYU on 12/3. Other than that, I
realize I’m a little behind in the bway season, but I have this think agst
paying anymore, so I just see whatever I deem mandatory before it closes if
I can’t manage to get comps…

It’s been a really good few months of theatre though!!

CONCLUSIONS

Well life is swell. It’s kind of not as busy as it used to be, which is
kind of good for writing, but I do miss the hectic-ness. But it’s not like
I have a free day for the rest of the year, so there’s something to be said
for that. And with 3 major projects and a slew of mini-performances coming
up, I should have ample stuff to do.

I’m going to be in NJ for thanksgiving– ANNUAL Saturday night PARTY turning
into us going to a bar. I’ll be around starting Wednesday night, so lemme
know if you’re around/ free. I foresee being in NJ for most of the week of
xmas. Kevin might come, too since he doesn’t have anything to do and that’d
be tres fun. Then to Eric’s for a weekend for skiing, and probably Boston
for the mystery hunt.

Anyway, I hope you’re all doing well! Please do write back b/c I feel so
out of touch!! 🙂

Always–
Seth