Unplugged

Showcase and I totally dorked out and watched the Tony Awards together last night, a tradition we've adhered to for more or less the last decade. We set the Tivo, loaded the bong, and I whipped up some bacon-wrapped turkey mignons with a spinach-mushroom saute on the side after I was bounced from a Full Tilt Bracelet race in 30th place of 242. Pauly and Hoyazo got to see me double up with The Hammer vs. AJo after a frisky pre-flop all in reraise. The 7 on the flop saved my ass and left my entire table scratching their heads and muttering to themselves. God bless implied tilt odds.

Our first Tonys together was all the way back in 1996, the year Rent came to Broadway. We were both theatre students at a prestigious midwestern private university at the time and I must have had over 300 Original Cast Albums in my collection. It helped me make friends quickly with the other theatre dorks in my dorm because I'd always have great, obscure audtition song suggestions for my peers as well as the corresponding disc to loan them. At least once a week, Showcase would come to my room and we'd have a full-blown musical theatre night, singing along with our favorite showtunes at full volume. We really were that ghey. And we are even gheyer ten years later.

I was disappointed that Patti LuPone didn't win her long-deserved second Tony for her performance in Sweeney Todd. Showcase was very happy for LaChanze (The Color Purple), however. She's one of those actors that has been around Broadway forever, as a swing, an understudy, a featured performer, but never really the star. Thank God she remembered to thank Oprah at the end of her speech. Had she forgotten, I'm sure she would have been struck by lightning on her way out of Radio City Music Hall.

I had an "eh" week at poker. One finish at the final three tables at the Full Tilt $9K Guaranteed, a crushing near-bubble finish in the Full Tilt $40K when QQ got floooshed by AJh, and my first limit hold'em final table in an $11 multi on Poker Stars where I finished 5th of 180. I also got deep in the Full Tilt 17K twice but no cash.

So as I said yesterday, as of tomorrow morning, I'll be unplugged until I return to Los Angeles from Tennessee on the 20th. I'd take my laptop along, but unfortunatley, the LCD is crapping out and I've been working with only 2/3 of a screen for the last couple of weeks. So it's a perfect time to send the thing back to Dell and get it fixed, seeing as I'll probably do little or no writing while I'm away. Those stories will have to wait until I get back to be told. If you're hungry for updates, check the Tao of Pauly and Coventry (Pauly's music blog).

Until next week, just pray this Hollywood blonde survives the South.