Neil de Grasse Tyson at Rice's 100th Commencement

This past week, Rice graduated it's 100th class,  wrapping up a year's worth of Centennial celebrations. And Rice couldn't ask for a more fitting speaker to bring it all home than astro-physicist badass, Neil de Grasse Tyson. Not only did his wife graduate from Rice (Baker!) but he embodies Rice's marriage to NASA and the American spirit of exploration, commitment to the future, and to the great unknown. 

I don't feel like I live in that America. But I'm glad Tyson is around to remind us to keep pursuing the unknown, the spirit of innovation, of advancing, and of defining the universe-- and thus, the universal. That our pursuit of these things is tied to so many other important aspects of our perspective.

I often miss my time at Rice, and what it represents. But this was one of the most stinging. 

Congrats, class of 2013!

Music Monday - Natalie Maines Sings Jeff Buckley

On Natalie Maines' newest album, Mother, one of the highlights is her cover of "Lover, You Should Have Come Over." One of my favorite songs from youth, reinterpreted by another one of my favorite singers from youth. Natalie and Jeff's vocals share a similar flesh-searing quality. They've always cut through the meat, straight to the bone. 

This album is a prime example of that. Ben Harper has a lot to do with what works about this album too. It's no wonder she got hooked up with Harper, who, despite his successes as a vocalist, etc etc will first and forever be known as an amazing pedal-steel player. (Like my dad! And Natalie Maines's dad, Lloyd-- one of the best EVER.)

I'm not sure I realized initially how many covers would be on her new album. But I'm loving it all so far. You too can stream the whole album as part of NPR's First Listen. The album goes on sale May 7th.

Happy Monday!

My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder...

Buckley was meant to be sung in a church in Texas by Natalie Maines.

Here's my other fave.

Happy 100th Birthday, Rice University!

Today, I am wishing a wonderful Centennial Celebration to my beloved alma mater, Rice University. We are a small, strange, and lovely place. I hope we will always fight to keep it that way. We are a small, strange, and lovely group of people; filled with wild, brilliant, silly thoughts. 

I had a hard and lesson-filled four years there.  I remember the joy of winning the world series, jumping in Gillis's pool (no longer the president's house. They've filled the pool in now) and the more than one occasion I sat locked in my car out in the parking lot, staring up at the stadium and crying. They were an intense four years. Sometimes it just felt good to cry it out. In many ways, I think I made the absolute most of them. In other ways, I wish I'd worked a lot harder. 

But out of all my decisions, in my whole life, no decision (or the lead up to it) has had more impact on my life than choosing Rice. It is the fulcrum on which the everything else pivots: my career, my friends, the way I interact with the people I keep in my life. 

I haven't always agreed with the direction our current president has taken the school, but I insist that there exists an inherent Rice-ness at the soul of those swampy acres that no ambitious professional academic administrator could squash. Try all you like, but I think you'll never make Rice like Duke or Columbia or Harvard. And I'm glad for that fact. I always think of the West Wing: Let Bartlet Be Bartlet. 

Let Rice Be Rice. 

I wish I could be there to celebrate homecoming with everyone, but I am sending all my love and thanks to a place I love so dearly. Happy Birthday, Rice. Gurrrrl, you look good for 100. Go Owls. 

Houston Treasures - The Rothko Chapel

Mark Rothko (and the play Red, which I saw on Broadway several years ago and is now playing in Los Angeles) was pretty much my gateway into appreciating the more visual arts. Obviously, I've always had an artistic bent, but paintings, sculptures, installations... their ability to move me was always lacking. Until I saw this play. Perhaps because it came in the package of an artform that utterly moves me, for the first time, I was able to experience paintings like I never had before. 

No joke, one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen in on stage, was just two men prepping a canvas while an old record played. It was like a dance. 

The timing couldn't have been better. When I think about all I might have seen without appreciating living in Europe... In two years, I saw the Prado, The Louvre, The Musee D'Orsay, The Rodin, The Vatican and... well... ALL the London and Edinburgh art museums. I easily could have breezed through them... or worse, skipped them entirely.

Which is what I did the entire four years I lived in Houston. I never went to the Menil Collection. Or saw any of the other amazing art there. I'm especially sad I've yet to see the Rothko Chapel. One of the world's first truly ecumenical centers, all are welcome to practice in the space in whatever way they choose. The place itself is a piece of art. Man, I would have loved to see Houston in the 60's.  

The documentary done on the chapel has been remastered and is now available for the first time on DVD from microcinema.com. Check it out! Hope you're having a great Saturday. 

Passage fans Rejoice! The Twelve has a release date

For over two long years now (I read the galleys of The Passage in January before it came out) I have eagerly awaited the sequel to my college writing mentor's hit book, the first in a triology. Despite my incessant efforts to charm, bribe and/or blackmail any advance material out of him, (I mean, as if all the babysitting of his precious children I did in my youth wasn't enough, not to mention the hilarious jokes I told during class, I was going to trade him some Season 2 of Downton Abbey before it came out in the US, so I think I had the goods.) I have yet to read this mysterious and certainly gripping, The Twelve. 

Well, it turns our the wait is almost over! Sort of. At least we have a release date and that date is October 16, 2012! Dude, that's like another seven months. I can't wait that long. Luckily, there's a new excerpt coming out in this week's Entertainment Weekly with the hottie Jon Hamm on the cover, so check that out. Word on the street from the man himself is that the excerpt features my favorite character, Alicia. Boom.

And here's a plea to my pals working at Random House: Anyone who gets me the galleys of The Twelve will get Season 3 of Downton express from me to you a full year in advance of the US release date. It could be the start of a beautiful friendship. Just think about it. And check out The Twelve. There is possibly no living human who has had a bigger impact on my constant, repeated, occasionally ridiculous-seeming choice to persist in being a writer. Thank you, JCC/What the eff did you get me into?

My College Roomie Won a Grammy!

Man, I had better get my ass in gear! You may have seen when I posted this. I could not be more proud of my lovely, quirky, snoring first Rice room mate. I was fortunate enough to see Sasha's performance as Kitty Oppenheimer in Dr. Atomic. It was inspiring and beautiful. Just like Sasha is every day. Couldn't happen to a nicer person. You go, Sasha! 


Also, Happy Birthday to another beautiful and talented red-headed songstress, Autumn Hurlbert!! 


And since it's Tuesday, don't forget to check out my SMASH recap over on BroadwaySpotted!

Cannon Lewis - So Pretty

Winter doldrums make me want to buy things. When the view is bleak and ugly outside, I just want to decorate everything around me. Last year, I did my Top 25 favorite things of winter. I'm not sure I've been allowed off my money leash long enough this year to partake in enough for a Top 25 list. Maybe I can pull something together by mid February. 

Anyhow, one thing that will definitely be on there is Cannon Lewis jewelry. I've been on an accessories kick lately. I think it started with my amazing Christmas watch gift and grew from there. In any case, I love her stones peaking out from delicate gold leaves. I love her sense of details and especially context. Like that necklace which is serving as a bookmark in the middle of Mansfield Park. (Yes, I can play nerd games like that.)

Check her out. I love supporting Texans. 

All photos from the artist's website. 

Welcome Baby Nathan!

Dear Baby Nathan,


It's probably been a really intense 24 hours for you, huh? Well, just in case you're already on the internet (I hear babies have a really serious affinity for touch screens these days) it's your aunt Ryann here to tell you a few things. 


1. You have an unbelievably cool mom. She will make you feel at ease all your life. I know this for a fact because she's been making it cool for me to be myself for 20 years now. 
2. Even though I'm far away, I feel like I already know you. I felt the same way about your brother. 
3. You came at such an interesting time. I really & truly feel like you're a good omen. And a sign of excellent things to come. 
4. Going back to your mom, just pay attention to how good she looks up there...right after having given birth to you. I'm telling you, girlfriend has a gift. 
5. Know that whenever I am blue, or feel bad about myself, about the world we live in-- whenever I feel like certain things are futile, or...what is point of anything?... I remind myself how you exist. I remind myself of the way friendships echo off each other and result in.... you. 


One day, we will meet and I will be really weird and probably really loud. You'll think I am your weird Aunt Ryann, but I won't mind and I will tell you the story that started with a blind date neither of your parents really wanted to go on and a text message to my pink phone the next day: "I heart Joel." 


In the meantime, here's the lullaby I'd sing you if I were in Texas. It's the song I'd sing to my own kids. So tonight, it's for you. I wish I was there, but James Taylor does an okay job too. 

Your first look at our Houston Production

Wish you could have seen VOTE! in Houston? If so, here's your first look at a taste of what our audiences got. I filmed these during our final tech, the night before we had our first audience. It was cool, too, because it was also the first time I had even seen these numbers. I'm going to blame this fact for my maniacal laughing at the end of "Ambition" when I almost dropped the camera. 

All I ever wanted for that number was a nerd army emerging from lockers...and boy did I ever get it. And I don't really have words for "Hands of a Surgeon." Federal Reserve Solid Gold Dancers? Yes, please. Ms. Fowler is the reason why I was voted Teacher's Pet, class of 2000 Green Valley High School. And it warmed my little suck-up heart to show Ms. Fowler this number the last time I dropped in on her at good old GVHS. 

Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better.

Post title sponsored by Samuel Beckett. Someone close to my thoughts these days as I write a character based on him and play with different ways to open my novel, one of which I'll send off to Jake Polley later this afternoon. I feel you, Sammy. In a book that takes place both in the 1930s and the 2000s where would you rather start? Now or then? Hmmmm..... 


At least it's Friday. And in case you need something to distract you until the weekend officially starts, check out these Friday links:


- Tune into STAR radio tomorrow at 5PM Scotland time to catch me talking about VOTE!, Nicholas & Alexandra and other projects on Standing Ovation. We'll also play songs from both shows! (Non-UK'ers, you can stream online.)


- My beloved Willy's Pub is in financial trouble. I think we were always in financial trouble, but I know I would cry (and I'm sure I wouldn't be alone) if the Rice pub where I misspent my youth had to close down. PS- If it does close, I want my all-team signed Chris Kolkhorst jersey back. 


- Great NYT article about insane bureaucratic visa restrictions that are keeping great artists from working (for free!) in the United Kingdom. I feel your pain, fellow artists trying to work internationally. Oye. 

- This cat-fight between the richest man in musical theatre and the real-life peeps who live at Downton Abbey, I mean, Highclere Castle, gave me a chuckle. (I apologize in advance for linking you to the Daily Mail.)

Queen of the Mist

When I was in college, I rustled up the email address of my favorite musical theatre writer, Michael John LaChiusa. We became pen-pals of a sort. At the time, it was the most encouraging thing that had ever happened to me.  I had directed a production of Hello Again (still one of my favorite shows, and sort of a life-changing experience for me) and I was kind of in awe of everything about MJLaC's style. That way he steers from storytelling and comedy into something really heartbreaking, or desperate-- taking you somewhere totally unexpected-- that place has been my aim from the first day I started writing songs. Mistress of the Senator, Tom, Little Fish, Coffee, oh, Coffee. 


And now, he has a new show with Transport Group, starring the amazing Mary Testa, Queen of the Mist. Me and Steven's superpal and eternal VOTE! stagemanager extraordinaire, Theresa, has been working on the show. Needless to say, I'm pretty jealous. I'd kill just to seeeee the show, let alone be working on the production-- telling the tale of Annie Edson Taylor, who in 1901, at the age of 63 went over the Niagara Falls in a barrel. And lived. Best of luck to the production, which kicks off this month. 

Memories from an unbelievable weekend

Steven and I will be enjoying a post-show debriefing brunch this morning before I fly back to Vegas today. I'm hoping for bottomless mimosas and some good laughs reliving the highlights. It's rare that theatre is truly thrilling and I didn't expect to ever be truly thrilled by our own show, especially since I've seen it sooooo many times. But every time I think of some of those numbers-- Hands of a Surgeon, Ambition, Diva Prez, the whole end of the show-- and remember how I felt, the audience response...man, I'm thinking... let's go on tour! 


Can't wait to see what happens next. For now, it's all about my phd work. A week from today, I'll have my first meeting with all my advisors. Let's delve into Skye, mental illness, creative cruelty and copyright battles! WOO!

There's a lot to be thankful for today

Feeling pretty exhausted, but there's a lot to be really joyful about these days. Our sold out run. The joy I felt from each and every bright face of those baby birdies in the show (they started to CRY during the closing number...and you know that made me cry). In the last 24 hours, I've enjoyed Moet Chandon and and a filet mignon and wonderful company. I had a beef brisket sandwich on jalapeno bread with St Arnold Root Beer. And Dill pickles. I had creamy jalapeno dip at Chuys. I watched Bill Mahr. Downton Abbey and Maggie Smith won Emmy's. The Second series started tonight. 


- I was compared to a honey badger by my writing partner
- The world is giving star Jeremy Jordan his fair amount of spotlight
- SO much lovely coverage of VOTE!
- The movie Drive inspires Schu Schu to blog again
- You can buy the Downton cast album!

And almost as soon as it starts, it comes to an end

Hard to believe today is the last day of this amazing production. We have two last shows today, at 1:30 and 7:30 PM. This has been an experience like no other and to quote Ms Fowler, any hard work is worth doing for the children. When I think of all the glowy people who have come into my life because of this show, I can scarcely breathe. 


Last night, we had a sold out house and an amazing audience. It's the kind of thing you wish you could live everyday. Which is why it's all the more important to keep reminding yourself to soak it up. All the time. Like the man Ferris said, "Life moves pretty fast sometimes. If you don't stop and take a look around, you could miss it." 


Well I'm taking this last day with the cherubs, the hard-working folks at TUTS, my family and friends, and most especially the person I get to share this great ride with, my show husband, who for some reason still likes working with me after ten years, who almost always reads my mind and who I wouldn't trade for any TONY, Oscar or Emmy in the world. That was a run on sentence. And I don't care. Hope to see you at the Hobby Center for some of this business. 

Opening Night Lolz

It's opening night! If you were one of the lucky peeps to get tickets before we sold out, see you at the Hobby Center. Everyone else, get your tix now before both of tomorrow's performances sell out! www.tuts.com/vote


In the mean time, I leave you with this. I love hanging out with teenagers. 

Rice Day at Vote!

Tonight only, Rice Alums and students can get $20 tix to our show. Some of the best and most formative (especially as a writer!) days were spent at Rice and I'm really excited and proud to share it with my fellow owls tonight. Please come on down to the Hobby Center! Based on what I saw last night, there's no way you'll be disappointed. I have three words for you: solid. gold. dancers. 


Also, the baby birdies are clearly excited and my pal Liam has been making cute little blogs. Here's the one he made last night. Hope to see you tonight, everyone!

Houston Bound

Back to Houston for the first time in over five years. Other than friends and, ya know, seeing VOTE! all I can really think about Houston is food. I just want to eat at all my old favorite restaurants. I think it's going to be a big weekend for Mexican and Thai Food and Barbecue. Oh my god, I gotta stop thinking about Ninfa's and Nit Noi and Kolaches and Demeris and oh wow, I gotta go to sleep. While I fly, enjoy this vid of the baby birdies on ABC in Houston! 


UK'ers, hope they don't block this! Also, UK'ers, anyone wanna tell me if the new VOTE! cast album is actually available for purchase on UK itunes?


Also, talked to the one and only real live Ms Fowler via email today. An inspiration as always. Thanking Green Valley High School and Rice this week for my education.  

Houston Cast Album on itunes!

Hey guys, you can now buy the cast album produced by all the Houston folks on itunes. Those kids are cute! Cool features: Two songs you've never heard before 1. Diva President 2. Be Aggressive. You can also buy the physical CD or a production t-shirt in the TUTS store. Enjoy!

Monday Links

Houston Houston Houston. Can't stop thinking about Houston. Can't stop thinking about how fast this fall is going to go by. How much stuff is going on and hoping I'm going to pull it all off. Basically, this is what I say every fall. I'm living in about eight worlds. Wish me luck. Here are some of those worlds. 


- Rice folks, there's a special performance of VOTE! just for you!
- Very much on my mind, an interesting article about addiction
- I'd like this Catcher in the Rye iphone case if it didn't cost like $40!
- New cute blog alert
- The elusive big idea
- Julian Fellowes chats with the NYTimes. Julian Fellowes!! New season of Downton!
- We've talked a lot about art that addressed 9/11 in my program. But what about this new Amy Waldman novel The Submission?
- Child's eye view of NYC
- Don't you hurt my Scotland, Hurricane Katia

One Week! And why I'm so jealous of Steven

Because Steven is already there with the baby birdies as we speak! And he got to watch a run through. Jeal-ous. The show opens a week from today you guys and I have the feeling I'm going to be as proud as I've ever been of our show. Houstonians, former Rice classmates, and anyone else who will listen, I implore you to come see the show. Chances are, this is what I'll ask you to come to instead of any wedding or child being born type situation, so I hope you'll understand and come check it out!