Bosch Glitch 9: Final Judgment II
Opening Day/Night
The Manhattan Broadway Hotel is a hovel in the garment district. But it is a hovel with a bed and a locking door. You pay up front. It looks like it was put together from spare parts thrown out from a dozen different no-tell-motels between 1970 and 1990. Oh, there's hookers turning tricks. There's college students smoking pot. But it's safe(ish), and close to trains.
And most importantly, it is next door to Go Go Curry. I became hooked on Japanese curry in Tokyo, when I accidentally stumbled into the only place in the Tsukiji Fish Market that didn't sell fish. It was horrible looking brown stuff over rice, with some shredded cabbage. And it is the food of the gods. I discovered Go Go Curry years ago when staying at Manhattan Broadway for the price. It's the only Japanese curry shop in New York. It was filled with Japanese folks, so I figured what the hell... and it is World Class. So good in fact, that I specifically choose that hotel so that I can easily get curry. But it doesn't open early enough for breakfast (which is nuts, because it's totally breakfast food in Japan. Sad. )
I turn the other direction and slam into a line stretching down the block, leading into a little place on the other side of the hotel. All Chinese folks in this line, and I'm not in Chinatown, so another good sign, so I get in line to see what's up. It's a Chinese bakery of sorts, with a notice that it's too new to have a rating by the health department. But the line is crazy. But the health department. But the line. Oh snap pork buns I'm staying in line. I get to the counter fast, which is good because it's freezing.
YES? A pork bun please. WHAT ELSE? Um, I can't see what else there is (he sort of wipes the steam from the window so I can sort of kind of see). Um, the cabbage? CABBAGE? That's not cabbage? MAI FUN! Oh, I meant mai fun please. OK, TWO-THIRTY. Huh? TWO DOLLARS THIRTY CENTS.
Hm. Don't judge, don't judge. No worries. I squeeze in and sit down. A little chili sauce aaaaaaand pork bun. OH DEAR GOD IT'S GLORIOUS. It's like eating a cloud that's been stuffed with braised pork shoulder. Best I've ever had. Mai fun was pretty good too, not oily, very simple. There was no health issue, either. Other than the fact that my intestines were very upset at the surprise onset of a huge ball of gluten. Totally worth it, though.
On to the theater. Still no coffee yet. MUD Coffee is across the street from La Mama, thank God.
I load all the changes onto the computers. The ancient 17-inch MacBook Pro with no battery running Jaguar is relegated to the single projection on the rear screen of the Pig-Nun. Q-Lab won't run on Jaguar, so my first logical plan was to update it to Lion and then get Q-Lab running on it. Then I realized... now the rear screen is only a single cue... and that's why Powerpoint exists. Actually I had to use the original version of Keynote, because version of Powerpoint on it was so old that the only fade duration controls were Slow, Medium, and Fast, and slow wasn't slow enough. Still, it got the job done nicely. Powerpoint. I’m not proud, just get it done.
We still stumbled over the cues on the front screen in the last rehearsal—we'd been making changes every single time, we never had a nailed down run through of the projections. Even in the dress rehearsal we had to stop and make changes to transition duration, minute on-screen geometry. We knew it was over when I had to declare "the choice now is to accept this sequence as it is or drop it from the show." And we were done. Four hour break for the actors to rest, then curtain.
Then the text came from Jen: my flight home was cancelled. Snow coming.