Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Wednesday, February 11th

Into another month already, and it's nearly half over. The time does fly by these days and I'm starting to understand 'September Song' more and more. Most of the past week or so was devoted either to various work crises (brought about by the economic crash causing stresses on the finances of the University) or getting the 2009 version of 'Politically Incorrect Cabaret' off the ground.

PIC is pretty good this year. It's a well balanced show with a lot of talent involved and we managed to get it up and running with only five rehearsals so there was less backstage hystrionics than there had been in the past. We've got a couple of other gigs set up for the next few months around the state. Diane is working on getting us booked into New Orleans which would be a lot of fun, but no luck so far. My big number is 'Turn Back O Man' as an ode to global warming. I have a stuffed white bear that Tommy tricked out Kabuki style and Deborah and I pull it apart at the end of the number with spurts of streamer blood. The audience isn't sure what to think. (It's based on a Brecht skit from around World War I). We've got a Palin number, a Hilary number, an Obama number and some local poltics including a major gospel piece about Birmingham's mayor who is pretty incomprehensible to rational adults.

The work stuff is all the usual yelling and screaming by the powers that be about money. They do this every couple of years. They will eventually figure out that academic clinics and private practice clinics are not the same animal and quiet down again. We're in a pretty good position as we support a lot of other programs with our admissions and chronically ill patients. My trump card, however, is that I take care of many of the powers that be's mothers, or more importantly, their mothers in law.

This next weekend is about the taxes and finances and trying to rob peter to pay paul for the next couple of semesters so Tommy can finish his education. I am not looking forward to it.