Steppin' Out

Last night was the first time in 4 years that I've had the guts to step into a dance studio.

For those that don't know, I was actually a dance major in college. I was a student at the Modern Dance department at the University of Utah, which is actually a fairly prominent contemporary program amoung the public universities. I loved every minute of being in dance, and have really missed it!

But right after college I made a series of choices that lead me down a path that I really thought would never lead back to dancing. I started taking jobs that had nothing to do the arts. I convinced myself that it wasn't a "real" career path. I justified quitting by getting down on what talent I did have. I drank like a fish, played with a series of drugs, and lost/gained over 100 pounds. Needless to say, my lifestyle over the last four years hadn't been "dancer-friendly'...

I've often said that moving to New York City quite literally saved my life. And I stick to that statement even more tightly now. I've had lots of motivation here to change my life's course...

I've taken up a passion for cooking that has helped me lose all that excess weight. (Well, almost all. It's still a work in process.)

I keep an active gym membership and use it 5 times per week.

I've joined competitive sports leagues that additionally keep me active at least one night per week (not to mention the INCREDIBLE people I've met through said leagues)

I see world-class theatrical productions that have inspired me to rediscover that creative urge that's been buried so deep in insecurity that I nearly forgot it existed!

And last night, I added one more thing to the list. That's right ya'll, I went back into the dance studio!

I can't even explain how I felt about it... Trepidacious? Anxious? Self-Conscious? Excited? How about all of the above!

The class was a contemporary class at Broadway Dance Center by Brice Mousset. It took about 15 minutes into the warm-ups before my body realized what was happening... "What the f*#?! Oooh ya! I remember this now!"

The choreography we learned was hella fun, if not really hard on my ex-dancer body!

It was this...

To this...

Spin into this...

Fall and then jump right back up into this!

It was like CRAZY FUN! And today???

I'm like this...

But it's ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT. Thanks, Brice! (If you want to see a little bit of what Brice is like, start this video at 3:45 -- it's a basic 16-count but you can get a general idea of how he moves :-)

And now I know that I can still do it, which is the best part of all. There's no more doubt or reason to be scared. I may not be as good as I was before, but I certainly can work back up to it! Am I going to jump back into it full-time like I was before? No.

Am I going to keep taking classes, if only for the sheer enjoyment of movement and a kick-ass workout?

Absolutely.

I Think I'm In Love

You know those homeless people that you just walk on by while they play guitars or sitars or flutes or pipes or what-not...

Sometimes you drop a little change.

Sometimes you just keep on keepin-on.

And sometimes, if you're the unbelievably talented JASON MRAZ, you stop and use whatever they're doing to write a new song on the spot.

Un.Be.Lievable.

Split Series - Jason Mraz - It's a lovely day
Uploaded by lablogotheque

Puppy Love

Quick shout-out to my girl Whit and her new baby boy, Newman Eugene!

And while I would normally chastize a friend for doing the whole photo-shoot thing with their babies cuz it's totally Jonbenet Ramsey and a little sick... I think in this case, I'll let it slide.

This baby has "model" written all over him!

Hey There, Old Friend ;-)

So, I was looking at this blog and ya'll, it's gotten STALE. It's been a long minute since I've posted anything. And the last thing I posted was B.O.R.I.N.G.

So ya, sorry about that. Most of my online time has been going here, here, or here...

And the truth is I haven't been doing much of anything worth too much interest. Unlike my boy-geniuses (genii?) that can turn random mishappenings and entertainment slights into full blown stories, I do not have that talent.

Le sigh.

You know what I do have?

Severe. Boredom.

I'll try to be better ya'll. There's a lot going on in my life and I should be able to write about it. I just have to refind that motivation that seems to come and go in my life!

Like a crush -- crushes come and go in my life real fast...

But I digress. And I will try to get better. I swear. In the meantime, I highly recommend the links all entered above...

Spend your time like me :-)

ShowMo stuff...

I'm totally unmotivated today.

Shocking, I know.

So to curb my boredom, I thought I'd do some ShowMo gossiping.

This fall, the theme park that is Broadway will welcome it's next big cartoon-to-stage adaptation, "Shrek".

I do not like these very much. "Beauty and the Beast" was alright. "The Little Mermaid" was painful to sit through. So "Shrek" naturally makes me a little nervous.

Except that the cast of this show is unbelievable. Brian d'Arcy James, Sutton Foster, and John Tartaglia -- um, okay! Sign me up! There's been a lot of speculation to how literal the design of this show was going to be, and based on a promo photo on USA Today it looks pretty literal...

One week from today, August 19, another new musical begins previews on Broadway -- "A Tale of Two Cities". Don't really know all that much about it except that it's based on the classic Dicken's tale. And a friend of mine is a swing in the production. Which kinda makes me feel bad that I don't know more about it.

You can catch a video of one of their vocal rehearsals here.

"Spring Awakening" is getting a new male lead -- Hunter Parrish from the Showtime series, "WEEDS"

I'm always a little leary of these TV folk that step in to headline shows. Especially a show like "Spring Awakening" where you really just can't call in your performance. It's an emotionally demanding show!

I think Hunter will be great though... Check out this video of him during a vocal rehearsal with the cast!

Alright, onward and upward.

Is it Friday yet?

Since my Outlook doesn't want to work...

My Outlook at work this morning was freaking out, so I took a moment to see what was going on in the theater world. First stop - BroadwayWorld.com!

This weekend was the opening of the hugely talked about and much anticipated Concert Staging of "Les Miserables" at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The cast is pretty much brilliant. It's like someone got to pick their fantasy cast and then some producer was like "Um, okay! Let's do that!"

Brian Stokes Mitchell as Javert?

John Lloyd Young as Marius?

LEA MICHELE as EPONINE?!?

I need a producer to say that to me.

There are some snippets of their rehearsals and what not on broadwayworld if you're interested. In this link, you get a little taste of the truly amazing Lea Michele's solo in "One Day More" -- gave me chills!

In other news…

Spent the weekend out on Long Island with some girlfriends for a little birthday celebration. Had an absolutely FANTASTIC time. I haven't laughed that much in a long while, so it was definitely needed.

I also got to get to know a lot of the girls much better, and I'm SO happy about that. You are all fabulous!

There are a bunch of photos from the weekend on my Facebook -- feel free to go check them out!

If you can't get to Facebook, here's a few to give you just a small sampling...

Another Season Passed...

Last night was the Finale of So You Think You Can Dance (Dance Dance Dance) Last week the Final Four were announced, and I was more than a little surprised -- I thought for sure that Chelsea Hightower was going to be up there! But America apparently thought differently. The Final Four ended up being Twitch, Katee, Courtney, and Joshua.


With Chelsea out of the competition, I had it all called out and was so sure that my girl, Katee Shean, was a shoe in as the winner of Season 4.

She rocked it out all over the place! Looking back at her performances, there isn't a single one that I didn't really like. In fact, two of my top five performances of the season featured her!


This gem from the brilliance that is Mia Michaels:


And in this unbelievable pas de deux:


Which B T Dubbs is the first time they've done anything like this on the show. She and Will ROCKED IT OUT. Well, they rocked it out in a very beautiful, peaceful, ballet-ish way. You know what I mean.


If you're wondering, just for the record, my other favorite routines were Chelsea and Mark "Bleeding Love", Chelsea and Mark's first contemporary in the white wedding dress, and Twitch and Kerrington's Mia Michael's routine with the bed to John Mayer.


So there we are, getting the results and I am so sure that Katee has it!


But... No.


America instead picked this.


Look, Joshua is talented, but the kid's annoying and I kinda just wanted to punch him in his braces all season long. He wasn't ever upfront about his training. He was always trying to present himself as a "street dancer" and yet I'm pretty sure there was a photo op of him at a ballet bar at, I don't know, age 6! Boo. Boo, I say.


How is it that with this show, America ALWAYS gets it wrong?


Remember when they picked freaking BENJI over TRAVIS???


Hell No.


I hope next season we can get it right.

Another Gay Sport Night

Is it sad that the most fun I've had in a while happened while playing a children's game???

You remember Dodgeball, right?

You throw balls at each other, attempt to dodge the ones headed your direction, and try to catch one or two if you can....

I mean, you have to remember being in second grade - walking in two single-file lines through the elementary school halls to the gymnasium where the teachers would give you balls and actually encourage you to knock the shizz out of each other... Yeah, that dodgeball.

So it turns out that, as an adult, it's a hella good time!

Last night, Big Apple Dodgeball had an open play for people interested in joining. So Beaux, Brian and I went to try our hand at the sport. I am pleased to report that we had an awesome time!
The guys in the league were all super-friendly and even the more competitive ones were still not out of control about it. It was obvious that everyone was really there just to have a great time. No muss. No fuss.

The only kinda downer part of the night -- Brian mis-caught a ball and sprained his finger. I was laughing really hard when it happened, but he seriously thought it was broken... I'm sure it's not broken. That would suck. I'd hate for him to look like this...

I get really giggly when things start to get competitive. I'm not the "yell and scream at your teammates" type. I'm the "I can't believe I'm letting people throw balls at me -- it's hiLARious!" type. And in dodgeball (unlike another gay sport league that I shall not name here as I most likely will be playing another season) it's totally ok to be like that!

Campy. Good. Fun.

Loves it.

Oh, and the best part about Gay Dodgeball???

Flip Cup!

The Baby Blog

I don't know if ya'll remember, but a while back I posted a blog about a secret that I couldn't share. Well I believe that all parties are now informed... so I can talk about it.

My sister is pregnant! Woohoo!

My sister and bro-in-law had been trying for a while. Jack (the firstborn) was a total surprise. They figured "hey, we didn't even try... it should be no problem!" Well it ended up taking a little longer than expected. So about 9 weeks ago my sister said to me "I'm a freaking idiot right now. I must be pregnant..." I didn't actually know that clumsiness and/or ditsiness was a side affect of pregnancy. But apparently -- it is!

So now she's at 12 weeks. Here's the pic of my new little niece/nephew (we won't know for sure for another 8 weeks)

In other baby news, my dear friends Michelle and Jason gave birth to twins on Monday. Jack Bennett and Katherine Sabine, born Monday August 4th at 2:30 pm at 5 1/2 pounds and 4 1/2 pounds respectively.

Michelle and Jason are huge fans of LOST... I think it's cute that they have thier own little Jack and Kate now :)

The Move to the Digital Suburbs

As I mentioned previously, I am super in love with my new computer, who I have decided to call Shakwandaleesha -- in honor of another fast-talking black girl from my past.

Yes, my computer is a fast-talking black girl. She's fierce.

ANYWAY...

So I'm online now after work hours, which has led me to Facebook. Now, I was very much anti-facebook. That's just how I am: something "fabulous" comes along, like a new reality tv show or a boy with a perfect smile and amazing body, and I want nothing to do with it/him. I'm just leary of anything being "Must See" or "Must Love" -- I don't take orders well.

Then I spend some time with said show or said boy, and end up finding these completely amazing things about them. Things that are wonderfully imperfect, like Tyra Banks on ANTM or CrazyFlags that said boy doesn't always allow himself to wave... But I digress...

Facebook -- the short version of this story goes like this: I gave in, and now I love it.

What's funny about this? Apparently it was inevitable...

Because I'm white.

BFF passed on this article and I just couldn't help but share! Thanks, Bri! My favorite part of the article:

For a brief period of time, MySpace was the site where everyone kept their profile and managed their friendships. But soon, the service began to attract fake profiles, the wrong kind of white people, and struggling musicians. In real world terms, these three developments would be equivalent to a check cashing store, a TGIFridays, and a housing project. All which strike fear in the hearts of white people.
White people were nervous but had nowhere else to go. Then Facebook came along and offered advanced privacy settings, closed networks, and a clean interface. In respective real world terms, these features are analogous to an apartment or house with a security system/doorman, an alumni dinner, and a homeowners association that protects the aesthetics of the neighborhood. In spite of these advances, some white people still clung to their old MySpace accounts. That was until they learned that Facebook started, like so many things beloved by white people, at Harvard.

I know it's a little bit non-PC, but I think it's brilliant :-)

A few other choice things on the list of Stuff White People Like:

#88 - Having Gay Friends
#51 - Living by the Water
#36 - Breakfast Places
#19 - Traveling

And my favorite, #1 - Coffee!

It's funny, cuz it's TRUE!

If It Looks and Sounds Like a Hate Crime...

...it most certainly is a hate crime.

My sister just sent me an article reviewing a situation that happened with an old acquaintance of mine back in Salt Lake City.

Let me give you the short version:

A well-known drag queen in SLC was attacked in his own home at 6:00 AM. Beaten nearly to death, the thugs sliced his throat with a glass shard, dragged him out to the street, and bashed his head so badly that he has permanently lost all hearing in his right ear.

But Why, Spence???

His next door neighbors were at the tail end of an all-night drunken "July 3rd" Party (I actually wasn't aware the 3rd was a holiday, but whatever) and two of the children from the house went missing (because all of the adults had been getting BLASTED in the driveway since 9:00 PM the night before). The mother went looking for the kids and found them next door. She retrieved her children and left.

10 minutes later five men broke into the house by kicking in doors and bashing in windows, and the end result was the police pulling five men off of two nearly-dead gay men.

The incredibly ridiculous part?

That drag queen I mentioned? The one who is now deaf?

He's the only one in jail, on charges of attempted kidnapping and burglary. Those five men? Those beasts on the delayed attack? No charges. Nothing.

That shiz just ain't right, ya'll...

I know a lot of people think New York City is scary. But I have never NEVER feared for my life here, or worried about being gay-bashed. I feel way safer here than I would in Salt Lake...

New Toy!

Huzzah! It has been far too long since I've had one, and I've been waiting to get one for what seems like forever...

Last night -- I finally got it!

That's right, my new MacBook!

For all of you who seem to know more about Mac's then the rest of the world... Yes. I got the black one.

Last night after work my friend Todd met me down at the Apple Store in SoHo. It's true that the 5th Avenue store is totally closer, but Todd knows me well enough that he advised against it.

Crowds make me angry.

So we got to the store and talked about budget and what not. He was all too excited to dive in and spend my money -- and for that I am truly grateful! When we finally had a specialist start helping us, he had all of these questions, which were worded in ComputerSpeak... which I don't speak. Normally when conversation turns to technology, I'm more like this. But my lovely Todd stood just behind our Specialists peripheral view and very subtly would give me the answers to the questions I was pretending to understand. Brills! And it saved Lord knows how much money!
All in all I was at the store for maybe 35 minutes. Got home and had very little time before I needed to be back downtown for my buddy David's bday bash. That time was enough to get the computer up and running, and sign up for Facebook.

That's right. I gave in.

So anyway, that's my story. I'm totally in love with my new little computer!

And go find me on Facebook! I have no idea how that works but I'm assuming you do... ;-)

Hope ya'll have a great weekend!