I am at once humbled and intimidated to have someone’s else body part inside of my own body, in this case the endothelial layer of my right cornea.

Humbled, because I know that this could only have been harvested from someone who died. I don’t really dwell on who it is or how they died, and unlike other organs for which one has to wait for the right person to die at the right time, cornea’s are stored in an eye bank and generally more readily available. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the donation and the opportunity to see clearly through someone’s else eyes.

The intimidation comes from the fact that, for the rest of my life, I will have to take eye drops to prevent the rejection of my new corneal layer. Our bodies do not like foreign matter introduce in them, and your immune system naturally fights anything it considers an invader, in this case my new corneal layer. So I must take Prednisolone (a corticosteroid drug which is both an anti-inflammatory and immunosuppresant) for the rest of my life. Currently I must use it four times a day, but I am told that evengtually I will be able to taper down to one drop a day, which I am looking forward to after reading the side effects of Prednisolone.

All in all, I am really looking forward to that happy time a couple of months from now when my improved right eye and my somewhat less impaired left eye get themselves fully in step so I can have prescription glasses for the first time in my life!

I’m hoping to see a golf ball again!

Learn more about DSEK.

Learn more about eye banks.

49 shows as of January 8th, 2012 (15 in London; 34 in NYC)

The Last Pirouette (The Closing of BETMNY) – New York City – January 6th – 9th, 2012:
Friday, January 6th, Evening – Julian; Cameron; Tade as Tall Boy -  (Fan Appreciation Event in the afternoon!)
***Saturday, January 7th, Matinee – Rent
Saturday January 7th, Evening  – Joseph; Cameron; Julian as Tall Boy
Sunday, January 8th, Matinee – Joseph, Peter, Julian, Tade; Jack & Cameron; All Billys played Tall Boy – Final Performance of BETMNY!! (Met Joshua Denyer – OZ Billy – at stage door!)

Uncle Dave’s Stealth Vacation – New York City – October 17th – 24th, 2011:
Tuesday, October 18th – Giuseppe Bausilio; Jack; Joseph Harrington as Tall Boy
Wednesday, October 19th, Matinee (no evening show today) – Peter M; Cameron; Myles as Tall Boy
***Thursday, October 20th – Jersey Boys
Friday, October 21st- Myles; Cameron; Tade as Tall Boy (he was still in training so not playing Billy yet)
Saturday, October 22nd, Matinee – Giuseppe; Jack; Joseph as Tall Boy
Saturday, October 22nd, Evening – Joseph; Cameron; Peter as Tall Boy
45 Sunday, October 23rd, Matinee – Peter; Jack; Myles as Tall Boy; Laura Marie as Mrs. W.
46 Sunday, October 23rd, Evening – Myles; Cameron; Giuseppe as Very Tall Boy; Laura Marie as Mrs. W.

Uncle Dave’s Liberation Celebration – New York City – April 11th – 18th, 2011:
****Tuesday, April 12th – Wicked
Wednesday, April 13th, Matinee – Joseph Harrington, Cameron Clifford
****Wednesday, April 13th, Evening – How to Succeed in Business…
Thursday, April 14th – Alex Ko, Neil Caffrey (fans gave a going away party for Tessa Netting prior to tonight’s show)
****Friday, April 15th – Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Saturday, April 16th, Matinee – Jacob Clemente, Neil Caffrey (dinner between shows with Thommie Retter and other fans)
Saturday, April 16th, Evening – Joseph Harrington, Cameron Clifford
****Sunday, April 17th, Matinee – The Book of Mormon
Sunday, April 17th, Evening – Peter Mazurowski, Cameron Clifford
(Ben Cook was Tall Boy for all shows this week)

Uncle Dave’s Third Annual Birthday Billython – New York City – October 5th – 10th, 2010:
Tuesday, October 5th – Alex Ko, Gabriel Rush
Wednesday, October 6th, Matinee (no evening show today) – Jacob Clemente, Neil Caffrey (my first chair drop in Dream Ballet; he had 5; turns out he had the wrong chair)
Thursday, October 7th (my 58th birthday) – Dayton Tavares, Gabriel Rush
Friday, October 8th  – Peter Mazurowski/Alex Ko, Neil Caffrey (Peter was replaced by Alex for Act II) (Billy Elliot Adult Workshop before show with Thommie Retter, Greg Jbara, Tessa Netting, David Alvarez & Kiril Kulish)
Saturday, October 9th, Matinee – Alex Ko, Gabriel Rush (dinner between shows with Thommie Retter and other fans)
Saturday, October 9th, Evening – Jacob Clemente, Neil Caffrey
Sunday, October 10th, Matinee – Dayton Tavares, Gabriel Rush (dinner between shows with Thommie Retter and Bobz; met Rarmian Newton at stage door)
Sunday, October 10th, Evening – Peter Mazurowski, Neil Caffrey

Friends in Defiance: The 5th Anniversary Adventure – London – May 7th – 13th, 2010:
Friday, May 7th – Tom Holland & Joe Massey – Tom’s acting was stunning; maybe the best acted BETM I have ever seen; great Electricity but he slipped on his opening tumbling run.
Saturday, May 8th, Matinee – Rhys and Jake Pratt – Good show, Rhys still new. Jake very funny.
Saturday, May 8th, Evening – Dean-Charles & Joe Massey
Monday, May 10th – Rhys and Connor Kelly; David Bardlsey as Dad – Connor is great Michael and liked David B’s dad as well.
Tuesday, May 11th – Tom and Joe – Tom’s Electricity was even better; another great show.
Wednesday, May 12th – Dean-Charles and Connor
Thursday, May 13th, Matinee – Ollie and Connor – Ollie was exceptional, best Angry Dance
Thursday, May 13th, Evening – Rhys and Jake, nice solid show

Uncle Dave’s Second Annual Birthday Billython – New York City – October 3rd – 8th, 2009:
Sat Night – Kiril (last show), Keean as Michael, Jacob as Tall Boy
Sun Mat – Trent, Trevor as Michael, Jacob as Tall Boy (Haydn’s last night)
Tues Night – Alex Ko, Keean, Jacob – debut for Alex Ko and Kate Hennig
Wed Mat – Trent, Keean, Jacob – sucky show
Wed Night – Alex, Trevor, Jacob – Awesome Show!
Tommy B. was injured again!!

Uncle Dave’s Memorial Weekend Big Apple Adventure & Billython – New York City – May 20th – 25th 2009:
**David A. x 2, Kiril x 2, Tanner x 1, Trent x 1; David B. x 6, Frank x 0 , Tommy B. x 0 ; **first NYC Billy (Frank was out of town or injured, and Tommy B was injured)

Uncle Dave’s Birthday Billython – London – October 7th – 11th, 2008:
*Tanner x 3, Tom x 2, Fox x 2; Shaun x 2, Lewis x 4, Jonty x 1; *first Billy

Billy Totals (18 boys seen, though Tade was only for 1/4 show):
Alex Ko x 5.5
Peter Mazurowski x 4.5 + .25 (BETMNY Final Show)
Joseph Harrington x 4 + .25 (BETMNY Final Show)
Tanner x 4
Ton H. x 4
Jacob Clemente x 3
Trent x 3
Kiril x 3
Rhys x 3
David A. x 2
Dean-Charles x 2
Fox x 2
Dayton Tavares x 2
Giuseppe x 2
Myles x 2
Julian x 1 + .25 (BETMNY Final Show)
Oliver G. x 1
Tade x .25 (BETMNY Final Show)
Tommy B x 0

Michael Totals (13 boys seen):
Cameron Clifford x 9 + .5 (BETMNY Final Show)
David B. x 6
Neil Caffery x 6
Lewis x 4
Gabriel Rush x 4
Jack x 3 + .5 (BETMNY Final Show)
Keean x 3
Joe x 3
Conner Kelly x 3
Jake x 2
Trevor B. x 2
Shaun M. x 2
Jonty x 1
Frank x 0

A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer. She says she’s going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000. The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce. The car is parked on the street in front of the bank; she has the title, and everything checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan. The bank’s president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the blonde for using a $250,000 Rolls as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then drives the Rolls into the bank’s underground garage and parks it there. Two weeks later, the blonde returns and repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says, “Miss, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely; but we are a little puzzled. We checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is – why would you bother to borrow $5,000?” The blond replies…..”Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?”

1- I’d kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
2- Borrow money from pessimists – they don’t expect it back.
3- Half the people you know are below average.
4- 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name
5- 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
6- A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
7- A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
8- If you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain.
9- All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.
10- The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
11- I almost had a psychic girlfriend, but she left me before we met.
12- OK, so what’s the speed of dark?
13- How do you tell when you’re out of invisible ink?
14- If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
15- Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
16- When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
17- Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy .
18- Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.
19- I intend to live forever; so far, so good
20- If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
21- Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.
22- What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
23- My mechanic told me, “I couldn’t repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.”
24- Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
25- If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
26- A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
27- Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.
28- The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
29- To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
30- The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
31- The sooner you fall behind, the more time you’ll have to catch up.
32- The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.
33- Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don’t have film.
34 – If your car could travel at the speed of light, would your headlights work

Matinee: Peter, Jack & Myles as Tall Boy; Laura Marie as Mrs. W.

Evening: Myles, Cameron & Giuseppe as VERZY Tall Boy; Laura Marie as Mrs. W.

You can imagine my joy when I saw someone else coming in for Mrs. W. Laura Marie did a great job, quite honestly better than Emily. Her performance makes more sense, and she doesn’t just throw away the lines. You can actually hear all of them for a change. Just everything about her performance was fun to watch.

General observations:

In the matinee show, Peter threw his jacket so far at the beginning of Angry Dance it ended up hanging from the railing of the first box.

I realize now that the reason Big Davey sings “It’s not unusual…” at the beginning of act two is to give the audience more time to settle in. It is a fun change.

Again, I mention that the suitcase packing scene is so much more fun, with each Billy doing his own thing. Myles grabs all the clothes and throws them at dad, who throws some of them back. And I like Tony giving Billy the finger, but it is weird that sometimes he pulls it out of his pocket and sometimes he doesn’t.

Myles flubbed a line in The Letter Sunday night. He recovered well; the average viewer would not have noticed.

Sunday, October 23rd & Monday, October 24th, 2011

So Sunday was another fine day in NYC. My last breakfast at Junior’s and then met up with Tom (tomtorfan) and Dido for lunch at, of all places, Junior’s. Then Billy matinee followed by a nice dinner at Patzeria Family & ?? with Tom, Trevor (who wason his way back to school) and Thommie Retter. Followed by the evening show an then back tot he RCA to pack.

Now I am at JFK awaiting my flight.

Thanks to all who made this a great trip:

Hugsy2k
Thommie
Trevor
Taylor
Amy
Carey
Tom
Dido

And now, back to reality!

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Nice weather today. Gonna make this fast.

Met Trev and Linda for lunch at LePainQuntabaga or something like that. Really good whatever it was.

Then went to the Billy matinee and met up with Tom from Toronto, who joined Linda and I for dinner at Saigon 48.

Another Billy and then back to the Firetrap Hotel.

Will try to think of more, but it was a pretty boring day.

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 – Matinee: Giuseppe; Jack; Joseph as Tall Boy

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 – Evening: Joseph; Cameron; Peter as Tall Boy

Well, not much more to review. Still like all the changes; still like Emily less and less.

Noticing things that might or might not have  been there before. One of them in particular is at the very beginning, right after everyone is cheering about being on strike, Leslie (I think) goes over to Tall Boy (who is Kevin in that scene) and kind of pushes him back behind the little counter and says something like “You need to hide form your dad” or “Don’t let your dad see you”, which Kevin ignores.

Giuseppe fell out of the final spin in Electricity, and Joseph seemed really tired, especially in Act II.

That’s about it, kiddies!

Friday, October 21st, 2011 – Myles, Cameron, Tade as Tall boy

So, I need to approach this delicately. If one has seen a lot of BETMs and a fair number of Billys, it is natural to concede that some boys are better than others. So, if I had been a first-timer at BETM, I would have been pleased with Myles. And I think he is a pretty strong dancer – his Angry Dance was really good. But he is not a great actor. He is just a little too much in some places, trying a little too hard, and a bit shouty in some places as well. Though as the show progressed, he did seem to get better.

The show itself continues to please me. The changes make it seem so fresh and new.

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Friday, October 21st, 2011

Nice weather today.

A couple of observations about New York City and me.

1) There is a Starbucks and a Duane Reade pharmacy on every block except the one you are on when you need one. Then they are nowhere to be found. Seriously, I am amazed that the little town I live in can not support one Starbucks, and in NYC there truly is one about every 10th of a mile.

2) I have no concept of time and distance. I vaguely recalled it being quite a hike from my hotel to Macy’s the one time I made the trip about a year ago. So I made the trip this time and realized it is, at worst, a pleasant 15 minute walk. No worth it, by the way, unless you truly do want something from Macy’s. Oh, there are THREE Starbucks in Macy’s!!

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