Looking for love in all the wrong places

I apologize for the incredibly unoriginal title. I also apologize for breaking my rule and bringing POSSIBLE ANGST into this blog. I have discovered that I'm not actually very good at writing about my non-angsty passions (theater and teaching, for those that can't be bothered to read the sidebar), so I might as well pull out the stops and talk about romance. Or, more specifically, dating.

It turns out I absolutely suck at dating. I didn't know that in college: hell, for my college I was actually pretty good. In a school where boys outnumbered girls 3 to 1, I managed to have perfectly charming and attractive girlfriends for approximately 3 out of 4 years, and a few less serious encounters well worth remembering as well.

My search for love since moving to New York City has been less successful. I did okay the first year - fell hard for a girl in grad school and actually convinced her to date me for a while, but she had emotional and personal issues well beyond the scope of my abilities to heal, which, while oddly attractive to me, also made the relationship impossible.

For about 6 months after that, I was pretty much uninterested in girls. I went on one disastrous date with a friend who clearly wanted to stay firmly in the friend zone, but otherwise nada. Then I went on a few dates with a cute girl who pursued ME on Facebook (yes, Facebook). Though that ended up going nowhere, it did convince me that perhaps there was something to online dating.

So I joined eHarmony.com.

1 Year (and 300+ dollars) later, I had gone on two eHarmony dates, despite something like 500 "perfect personality matches" or whatever the hell they promise. One of the dates was with a girl who was adorable but not my type, who I ended up making out with anyway because she got me drunk. One was with a girl who I actually liked a good bit (a singer!) who ended up getting back together with her boyfriend like three days later. Oops!

OKCupid.com was my next stop, with the advantage of being free. Plus, it's matching system runs on sexy, sexy math!. I like this site a lot, and still browse it with some regularity, but it hasn't been all that successful for me either. I've gone on dates with 3 or 4 girls I met on the site, but only one of them was even remotely successful, and she was enough of a long-term failure that someday she may rate an Angsty Post all her own. But that's it. No true love.

I'm starting to think that maybe the internet isn't the best place to find love. The problem is that I am a product of my generation and literally don't know where else to turn when the internet fails me! It's not like I have "guts" or "charm" or any of those other qualities necessary to pick up girls at bars. More importantly, it's not like I can successfully vet a girl (is she smart? Can she write proper English? Will she hate me for liking "Gossip Girl"?) in such a situation either.

Where does one find love, really? What Google search, if any, will bring her to my side? This man, for one, wants to know.

Reviews: Dead Man's Cellphone and Forbidden Broadway

Dead Man's Cell Phone is the latest completely sold-out play at Playwright's Horizons, featuring the lovely and talented Mary Louise Parker as... a woman who answers a dead man's cell phone. Then keeps answering it. Apparently forever and for no comprehensible reason. This, naturally, leads her to some pretty strange adventures as she tries to comfort family members with outright lies.

Good things about this show include it's wit, style, sets, sound design, and acting. Bad things about this show include its lack of character development, nearly incomprehensible story, mixed metaphors and messages, and the general slight discomfort it inspires. At intermission, I texted my friend to say "I think I love this show." By the end of Act Two, that was no longer true. I certainly liked it, but the second act did not fulfill the potential of the first, opting instead to dabble in surreal mysticism and quasi-social commentary.

Forbidden Broadway: Rude Awakening is a rather dated version of this classic Broadway spoof show by now, having had its last major update 7 or 8 months ago. Many of the jokes fell a little flat, but the spoofs of Company (including a brilliant Raul parody called "Being Intense") and Spring Awakening were pretty hilarious. I'm glad that I saw it, but, well, it's Forbidden Broadway. Nothing surprised me.

What a week(end)

Chronicles of the week:

1) Sister was here! Yay! It was a nice prequel for when we'll be roomies in a few months.
2) Our school got evaluated for its School Qualitative Review. I had to go to lots of meetings and appear very impressive. I think it went well.
3) I decided to sing "Agony" from Into the Woods with the other math teacher in our school for our Spring Showcase (which has a Broadway theme)
4) I had my third voice lesson. Fun!
5) We saw The Seafarer. It was good, but strangely denies a review. I've tried.
6) The After Party on Friday was the best ever. Kristy Cates celebrated her birthday, many of our favorite patrons were there, and we didn't leave until the lights were on and they were counting the money. It was about 5:30.
7) I slept until 3:30 on Saturday, then watched two movies. Mmmm. Movies.
8) I completely failed to do any work today but did read two books.
9) There was some OMG DRAMA over at The Guilty Ones, which I was forced to do something about. Ridiculous but endearing. Much like high school students.

It is now 8:25 p.m. My sleep schedule is screwy enough that I'm actually contemplating going to bed right now and waking up at 3 a.m. to do work. Woo.

One New Voice Worth Hearing

Tonight was the latest version of Scott Alan's Monday Night New Voices (mentioned earlier in the blog, possibly more than once). The guest composer was Jeremy Schonfeld, and there were several singers.

Most of them were kind of eh. Forgettable. And while I liked Schonfeld's songs, none of them stuck with me very much - I'll give his CD a listen, but I don't promise to buy it.

The girl in the clip below, on the other hand, blew me away:
She started the night with a performance of "My Funny Valentine," which is one of my favorite songs. Awesomely enough, Aaron Lazar insisted that she sing it from the top of the piano, and in fact lifted her up there; she was clearly surprised at this, but went with it and took direction like a pro. But most importantly, she sang gloriously. Her voice is luscious and rich, as you can probably hear in the clip above, and worked so perfectly.

The girl's name is Addi McDaniel. She graduated from Penn State last year, same class as Natalie "She's everywhere!" Weiss. I think I may like Addi more, but what an impressive pair by any measure.

Review: The Adding Machine

Bleak music. Bleak sets. Bleak lighting. Bleak story. Bleak costumes.

Bleak, but brilliant, show.

Voice Lesson the Second

I had my second voice lesson today. I actually learned some stuff! I was a little worried, because the first one wasn't as productive as I hoped, but today was much better. Guess he was just getting to learn my voice and figure out what I needed work in.

Also, he somehow had me hitting high B's with comparatively little strain (also, comparatively little prettiness, but he assures me that will come later) which is cool. I don't think I've ever actually sung a high B (other than in falsetto or in a pop-music scream, like the beginning of "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night). So that's neat.

Getting better at something I enjoy doing is much fun. I think this "training" thing is going to be a good adventure.

Ohmigod you guys!

I stayed up way too late last night and the night before, and MUST go to bed, like, right now. But there's a primary on! And it's very exciting! Still, must sleep.

Right now, though? Check out that excitement! Perfectly dead heat in Texas, Clinton leading in Ohio, VT and RI split Obama/Clinton. It might be a good night for a Hillary fan after all. I hope so!

Catch you all on the flip side.

Edited Wednesday Morning, 8:40 a.m.: Woohoo! Go Hil!

Review: NEO with Adam Gwon and Timothy Huang

Tonight I went to a show at the York Theatre, a tiny little theatre underneath a church at 54th and Lex. The church is built with some very strange, memorable, ultra-modern architecture; it seemed like a place that might be famous for it for some reason.

Anyway, this show was the first in a series for "New, Emerging, Original Artist Songwriters," with two hour-ish shows. The first one, Reach the Sky - Songs by Adam Gwon, was the primary reason I wanted to go since, as I mentioned several posts ago, I really like his work. You can listen to several of his songs on his website, http://www.adamgwon.com - I especially love "Don't Wanna Be Here" and "I'll be Here" from his musical Ordinary Days.

From the first moment, I loved his show. He wrote and sang a new song explaining the process that led to the show, including a moment where he was intimidated by association with Larry O'Keefe. In the midst of the song, he introduced his performers: Jill Abramovitz (apparently of Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Jared Gertner (of the most recent Spelling Bee cast, or what I think of as MY cast), Michael Hunsaker (apparently involved in lots of previous Gwon readings), and Natalie Weiss (SHE'S EVERYWHERE). Then they proceeded to sing many other Gwon songs, most of them from Ordinary Days. I loved all of the performers except for Hunsaker, who mostly hovered on the edge of okay. Some of the songs didn't really work for Jared's vocal range, but his emotional range made up for it. Natalie (duh) and Jill were fierce, which was good, as both of my favorite Gwon songs are for girls, and they blew them away. Having seen Natalie so many times in such a short period of time, I find myself wondering about her expressiveness, though; I don't think I've ever seen her sing songs in anything but variations of the same character. That's not to say that she can't; I'd have to see her sing a song that's completely outside of her character comfort zone to judge, and that just hasn't happened yet.

Back to the subject: Ordinary Days is supposedly coming to the York Theatre sometime soon in a fully produced form, though I'm having a hard time finding any information about it. Keep an eye out - it seems like a nice story, and the music is very pleasant.

The second half of the show, Short Story Long - The Songs of Timothy Huang, left me more disappointed. The singers, pretty universally, were only okay. The songs had pretty words, but left no melodic impression. There were a couple of good moments, but generally I found myself nodding off a bit, and couldn't tell you much about any of the songs mere hours later. I will not be on the lookout for this composer - nothing in the show was offensive or bad, it just didn't strike me as all that good.

And now it is past my bedtime and I got no work done today. But, hey. Musical theater!

Review: Next to Normal and The After Party with Marty Thomas

So tonight, finally feeling noticeably less sick, I made it to a performance of Next To Normal at the Second Stage Theater. Now, I had heard buzz about this show ever since Anthony Rapp and several of the cast members from Spring Awakening were involved in workshops last year, but happily managed to avoid any real information about the plot: I knew it was a new rock musical, that Jennifer Damiano - the youngest member of SA's original cast - was in it, and that Charles Isherwood of the Times had been warm but not raving. I love going into musicals cold, ever since I saw Spring Awakening with no real expectations and had my mind and life completely reshaped.

Well, I wasn't reshaped, but I liked it very much. The show deals with some very "heavy" topics but, thankfully, manages to skirt the edge of cheesiness through most of the shows. There were a few moments, especially in the first act, where my eyes rolled at the repetitive lyrics, the predictable plot structures, or the overuse of power ballads; however, the catchy rock score, completely unpredictable plot twists, and sheer talent of the performers, led by Alice Ripley, meant that I was enjoying the show at intermission. Upon realizing that it was only 9:15, however, I was shocked: the first act felt much longer than 75 minutes, and seriously needs to be edited somehow to reduce its drag.

The second act was much better. The score became more complex and less one-note. The lyrics, though still occasionally repetitive, toyed with brilliance a few times. And the story grew much more interesting, with no silly songs about Costco (yes, the first act has a song about Costco) to ruin the flow. And I'm not 100% sure I understand the ending, but I still, somehow, liked it. Maybe because the last song was ridiculously catchy and feel-good, and who doesn't like it when a musical ends on a high note?

As far as performances: Jennifer Damiano's voice is mindblowing - I still can't believe that she's only 16 - and she seemed to be chanelling her character perfectly. Brian D'Arcy James is a pleasure to watch on stage, with a consistently beautiful tone. Aaron Tveit plays his character with exactly the right combination of charm and sinister seduction. Adam Chanler-Berat is occasionally annoying but usually adorable, and Asa Summers is hilarious. The show rides on Alice Ripley's performance as Diana, however, and I have mixed opinions. On the one hand, her emotional range was phenomenal; the audience had no problem reading her face as she sunk into depression, and watching her rebuild her life in the second act is both affirming and suspenseful. On the other hand, there were several moments, at least in this performance, where her voice failed to fit the music. When she was good, she was fierce, but there were definite moments of screechiness and brassiness that brought me out of the groove. I heard others in the audience commenting on it as well. It may simply have been a bad night for her vocally, however, as I haven't read anything but raves about her performance from others.

So it wasn't the best rock musical I've ever seen, and there is definite room for improvement. But with some streamlining of the lyrics, some carefully chosen cuts (like, say, the song about Costco), and some clarification of the less obvious metaphysical points, it could be a big hit. I hope this isn't the last I hear of the show.

The After Party with Marty Thomas
As per normal, after the show my best friend and I went to The After Party at the Laurie Beechman theater to hear some cabaret. We have been there often enough that we've begun making friends with the regulars and sat with a few of them. Unfortunately, the host Brandon Cutrell wasn't there tonight, but his replacement (whose first name was Ben, though I've forgotten his last) was pretty good: funny and a good singer. The special guest tonight was Marty Thomas of Xanadu, who I heard sing a couple of weeks ago. He was phenomenal, singing a few songs I didn't know but loved, followed by one of the funniest and most endearing versions of "Love You I Do" I've ever seen. He then the '80s ballad "Alone" with Alysha Umphress, much like in this Youtube video, only with live music instead of a terrible backing track. It was fantastic. We left after he sang, though, not feeling like a terribly late night.

A Strange Sickness

For the last two days, I have been afflicted with a strange sickness. And no, I do not mean my love for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, for such pure devotion could never be considered sick. No, for the last two days I have been stricken with a general wooziness, tempered with nausea, that reminds me of the effects of a hangover. Despite the fact that I have not had any alcohol since Sunday (admittedly, that was WAY more than I should have had, but I don't think it's still having an effect).

Anyway, the point is, I want it to go away. There are things I should be doing. For one thing, I should be at work. For another, if I'm not at work, I should be able to do productive things like grade papers and make lesson plans, but for some reason I can't concentrate on those things. And tonight I want to be able to enjoy seeing Next To Normal, which I believe will be my first new musical since Xanadu. Unless we're counting Speech and Debate, which is more a straight play with occasional music numbers.

I'm excited about it, as it will be the first I see in a spate of new rock musicals, including In The Heights (which I saw off-Broadway last year) and Passing Strange (which sounds intriguing indeed.) And possibly Saved!: The Musical, though I actually have no idea what the music will be like. Of course, I don't actually care, for two reasons: one, it's Saved!, one of my favorite movies in the universe, and two, it's Celia Keenan-Bolger, who has done no wrong that I've ever seen.

Wow. Tangent. Craziness.

Unwise Things

Here is a short list of advice based on unwise things I've done in the last few weeks. Perhaps I'll make this a running theme: I certainly do enough stupid shit to make it so.

• Gin and tonics and gimlets are all well and good, but should never serve an appetizer to Facebook messaging.
• Before you take an ambitious job, it helps to be sure you have some free time available to devote to it.
• The night before returning to your job after a week off is a BAD time to experiment with large amounts of Scotch whiskey.
• If you do decide to experiment with Scotch whiskey the night before returning to work, CALL IN. Or at least set your alarm.
• Singing the hardest song in your repertoire as loud as you can is not the best vocal warmup.

I hope that serves you well.

The Political Post

I call this the political post because I have no intention of posting my political opinion with any regularity here. This is a rare exception, I promise.

I am supporting Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary and general election for a variety of reasons, not least because her health care plan is the best. I will vote for Barack Obama in November if he is there, though I'm a little worried that he's too self-confident and will turn out to be ineffective at compromise or, worse, dangerous. The very thing that makes others like him so much - his charm, suave nature, ability to make you believe everything's going to be okay - are the things that worry me. But that's neither here nor there.

This post is about Hillary. Specifically, the terrible way that the press and the people have treated and talked about her throughout this election. I have been appalled, shamed, and disturbed at this campaign, specifically the sexism inherent in nearly every mention of Hillary in the media and even in my regular conversations.

It's hardly a fair comparison, but let's look at facebook for an easy example. Search "Barack Obama" in Facebook groups, and the majority of groups are supportive. That makes sense - he's done a great job of appealing to the young, modern liberals that are the majority of facebook's population. There are a few groups, however, that are opposed. These groups have titles like "Stop Barack Obama (One million strong and growing)," "Anti-Obama and damn proud of it," and "Against Barack Obama." Fairly neutral names that may show strength of opinion, but are certainly inoffensive.

Search Hillary Clinton, and the very first result is "Hillary Clinton has Gonorrhea." Just a few down, you have "Hillary Clinton: Stop running for President and make me a sandwich." A bit further: "Life's a bitch, why vote for one?" And those are just on the first page.

Okay, so these are mostly jokes. But what kind of world do we live in where jokes like this are okay, ignored, condoned, and laughed at? It makes me sad.

Anyway, all that to say: I watched SNL for maybe the first time in years last night, just luckily, so I got to see this clip live. And I love it.



This one is pretty funny too.

Musical theater composers who need to make it big

My latest ventures in internet surfing have taken a new turn. Until recently, my YouTube and MySpace clicking adventures were focused on performers, specifically, singers. I'd find a performance I liked, like this one of Cortney Wolfson singing "Blue Hair"

and I'd say "Wow, I sure like Cortney Wolfson, better add her to my list of performers to watch for." And I would.

But recently, I was at The After Party (one of my regular opportunities to hear new things), and there was this group of singers there led by this too-cool-for-school dude name of Joe Iconis. Joe Iconis, it turns out, is a composer. And his songs are awesome. In fact, they happen to include that "Blue Hair" song mentioned above.

Suddenly, my eyes were opened. I need to be on the watch for up-and-coming composers too! Seems obvious, but for some reason it didn't occur to me. But since it has, I've gone crazy.

Here are some composers I've discovered that are making really great musical theater. All of their songs are worth a listen or seven. Click the names to get web pages or MySpace pages. When included, the video files are examples of their music being performed.

Adam Gwon
This video, of the song "Don't Wanna Be Here" appears to have the same clip twice in a row. Weird. But it's good!


Jonathan Reid Gealt I discovered this extremely nice man because of the video below, sung by the incomparable new star Natalie Weiss. But I like the song even more than the performance.

Scott Alan A bit more successful than many of these others, he's released a CD and has a following for his monthly show "Monday Nights New Voices" at The Duplex in the Village. Again, though, I only discovered him through Natalie Weiss, because I wasn't paying enough attention.

Neil Bartram I'm having a hard time finding much of a web presence for this composer, but you can here one of his songs, "Mrs. Remington," on the Monday Nights, New Voices Myspace profile.

Deborah Abramson
I first met Deborah when she was working with "Spring Awakening," but I really love her songs. I especially like "Godel, Escher, Bach" perhaps because I love that book while recognizing its ridiculousness. I can't embed the only video I found of her work, you can find it here: Stephanie J. Block sings "Gotta Start Small"

Okay, I think that's enough for now. Especially since, so far as I know, nobody actually reads this blog yet! But if somebody does, and you have suggestions I should add, let me know!

Review: Come Back, Little Sheba

Come Back, Little Sheba, William Inge's play about a lonely wife, her alcoholic husband, and their free-spirited boarder, was first produced in 1950 and made into an Oscar-winning film in 1952. The new Broadway revival at the Biltmore features S. Epatha Merkerson in the starring role of Lola.

I've noticed a trend that the plays I have the most problems really connecting with are plays from the early to mid-twentieth century. Plays from this era have enough components of what I'll call "modern" theater that my brain enters that zone, but differ enough that I sometimes get thrown for a loop. The main example of this in Sheba is the final scene; specifically, that it exists at all. The scene before contained multiple spiraling climaxes, followed by a beautifully acted, subtle, ambivalent denoument that in twenty-first century play would have been the obvious place to end. However, being written, as it was, in the forties, William Inge apparently thought there should be more resolution. The last scene is hardly bad, but it is unnecessary and was in some ways less fulfilling than the ambivalent ending would have been, contradiction though that seems. In many smaller ways, too, the show seems forced, overly convenient. Too many things just happen to occur on the days the audience is tuned in to the family; it's as if, in many ways, the people lived in a vacuum before the play opens.

However, the weaknesses in the writing are more than overcome by the strengths. The husband and the boarder, who seem on the surface to share many of the traits of classically perfect TV characters of the fifties, have deep imperfections hiding just below their perfect facades. When their faults aline in just the right way, the disaster that unfolds is disturbing and powerful. It is only the wife Lola - lonely, confused, uncertain, boring, bored, and stuck completely in the past - that is honest with herself, the other characters, and the audience. She makes no attempt to hide or gloss over the pathetic nature of her life and by embracing it, makes it somehow graceful. Over and over I found myself cringing at the sad, pitiful life she lived, but by the end, I loved her and wept for her. S. Epatha Merkerson's performance is fantastic, and definitely worthy of a Tony nomination.

This show did not make me happy. It was dark, depressing, and imperfectly written and paced. I did, however, come out thinking about the characters and the play, analyzing and wondering, which is more than I can say for a lot of theater. For that reason, I'll say that it is worth the student rush price, if you have some free time. It's not a contender for best play of the year, or even best revival (I thought Pygmalion and The Homecoming were both superior), but it is a play worth seeing.

Why Teaching is Hard

You know, on the face of it teaching is not a bad job. It pays a fair middle-class wage for decent hours and a lot of vacation time, comes with great job security (at least in the unionized public schools), and is only high pressure if you actually care, which is not exactly a requirement. Plus, plenty of time after school and on weekends to make extra cash tutoring.

In fact, counter-intuitively, the teachers that have it the worst are the good teachers. The passionate, hard-working, caring teachers who come in every day with the goal of doing the best they can for their school, their students, and themselves.

Good teachers (and I'm including myself in this category for the moment) don't have short work days. I'm at school from 8:00-5:00 almost every day, and do grading and planning at night. We don't always have weekends, even - I plan for about 10 hours a day most Saturdays. Each work day is exhausting because we have to project energy, happiness, devotion, and strength to our students, even when we're not feeling any of it. And even after all our hard work and dedication, we can, and often do, still give a test that more than half of our students fail. And no matter how many times we tell ourselves it's not our fault, we did our best, we did good, there is always the idea hovering over our heads that we're not good enough, and, because we're not good enough, our students are suffering.

And that's the hardest part of teaching. Our mistakes barely impact us at all - our salary and lifestyles remain unchanged - but can affect our students for life. I think that's why most good teachers burn out. The responsibility is too great to handle.

What inspires a new blog? Free time!

The NYC public schools have been off this week, which has been truly wonderful. I think this mid-Winter break is one of the best things about the otherwise somewhat cracked academic calendar here - it's definitely a good time of year to sit back and chill for a while.

Feeling both frugal and uninspired, I made the decision to stay in New York this vacation, which was, I think, wise. Along with the obvious benefits, like not paying for a hotel or feeling pressure to do anything more taxing than play Xbox, I've also taken the opportunity to really enjoy the musical theater scene that I'm sometimes too stressed or tired to really take advantage of.

On Monday, I attended Scott Alan's Monday Nights New Voices cabaret show at The Duplex, which was absolutely amazing. Whitney Bashor is going to be the next Kelli O'Hara. Unfortunately, despite the fact that at least three of my musical theater hero(ine)s were there, I completely failed to build the nerve to speak with any of them.

On Tuesday, I went to this performance at The Ritz, even though it began at 11 p.m. Not something I could've done with school the next day. And it was fantastic, first time I got to see Natalie Weiss live, and Alysha Umphress was rocking extra hard too.

On Wednesday, I went to a screening of PBS' recording of last year's Company at the Laurie Beechman theater. Several of the cast members, the man who directed it for television, and the lady who did all the orchestrations were there, and it was a very festive atmosphere. Great fun.

On Thursday, I had a voice lesson. Which will probably happen again post-vacation, but I wouldn't have found the time to make the appointment without the vacation, so that's good.

And tomorrow (tonight?), I'm going to see Come Back, Little Sheba and then the After Party - which, to be fair, I attend almost every Friday night. But I'll be much more well-rested and participatory this time!

It's been a good week. Too bad it's almost over.

Polite Introductions

Ah, new blog smell. The fresh, clean feeling of a page as of yet unspoiled by rambling, pointless posts that alienate and confuse! How long will this one last? I have never had much success maintaining a blog in the past, but who knows, perhaps now that I am older and marginally less angsty, I'll be able to last a bit longer. (That's what she said.)

Now, the question you're probably asking yourself is whether this blog is worth your time. Whether, indeed, you should read it at all. The answer is almost certainly "no," but in case you don't entirely trust that, here are some topics that may or may not possibly get coverage in this blog, at some point or another in the future.

• The general absurdity of teenagers, from the perspective of a teacher in a poor, urban NYC high school
• The general absurdity of teenagers, from the perspective of an administrator on a message board for a popular Broadway show.
• The general absurdity of adults from both of the above perspectives, plus... others.
• Totally awesome YouTube videos, which will almost certainly relate to musical theater or cabaret, because that's what I watch on YouTube.
• The trials and tribulations of being a straight male musical theater fanatic.
• Reviews of shows, musicals and otherwise, and other performances. I go to the theater at least once a week, so this should be pretty regular.
• CAP 21. At least, when I do a thing there this summer. If the blog makes it to June.
• Books I read and enjoy

Unlike other blogs I may or may not have attempted in the past, I promise that this one will NOT contain

• Fanfiction of any sort.
• Angst. This will not devolve into my online diary. I promise. And if it does, point me back here, and I'll either delete the angst or edit this post to make you look crazy.

I may talk about other things. But the above is the plan.

David