"And the world keeps spinning round and round and my heart keeps beat to the speed of sound, I was lost until I heard that distant sound and I found my way"

Today I am in Cali. Specifically at this moment I am in Lakewood at my younger brother Jason's home. I arrived in Palm Springs yesterday and my stepmom picked me up from the airport and drove me to her house in Long Beach. I have to admit that I was a little nervous when Mari (my stepmom) picked me up. I haven't seen her in 14 years and Dad died just 6 months ago. She is looking a little thin and stressed but she is still the same woman that I knew before, abso-fucking nuts. She and a friend named Vicki (my Dad and Mari were always with new "friends") picked me up in Palm Springs and Mari immediately got lost. I suggested that we pull over to a shell station and ask for directions. We eventually did and we were off. I was feeling tense until I mentioned that I had just returned from Europe and while there I smoked some great weed in Amsterdam and bam...Mari asks Vicki to roll a joint. So after the joint, all was good. We stopped at Jack in the Box and I was fine.

I have to go to breakfast now so more later...

Right now I am sitting next to my friend Paul H. at an internet cafe in Amsterdam. He is looking up a cheap fare to NYC and I am writing this entry. I only left my friend Kevin an hour ago. Kevin and I flew in together from Vienna. Last night was Kevin's last performance as a member of our touring company. He is a good guy and I hope the best for his career and future.

Paul H and I haven't seen each other in 5 years. I look great. He looks ok. Just kidding. He is greyer and a little wrinkly around the eyes but in that suave european handsome way, not your beat up by life so you want to die way. I am thicker...okay...fatter. My hairline isn't where it was before and my skin isn't as imperfect. Ah life.

He and I don't have any plans for this trip. I hope to just relax and take in the vibe of the city. I love Amsterdam. I love the Dutch. I find them to be reasonable and I love the fashion here. It looks like every man has been made over by the "Fab 5." I love it!

Despite Paul's prescence, I still miss home. I haven't seen my friend Paul S in over a month and I miss talking to my best friend Dan nearly nightly. Oh well, there will be time for that later. Right now, I need to get Paul away from that computer station and we need to hit the streets.

As I am still in Austria, there will continue to be a "z" for "y" substitution and vice-versa.

Todaz is mz last daz in Vienna. I can't saz that I am disappointed. I am getting antsz here. I don't speak the language (although mz accent is improving everzdaz) and I just can't be a tourist much longer. I also can't have Austrians looking at me so snidelz and with discontent. Zou see ladies and gentlemen, some Austrians are quite racist. Even more so than I expected. I have heard the sneer, "negger" and "schwarze" more than once, danke shöen.

Tomorrow I depart for Amsterdam. I will meet up there with an old friend from London, Paul. Paul is an actor and we met when I did the West End production of Showboat. Paul was not working as an actor then but as George Griyyard's dresser. We hit it off immediatelz and I haven't seen him since I left England in 1998. I reallz look forward to seeing him.

I will also attend a performance at Amsterdam's Boom Chicago. I know some people there and I look forward to seeing their new show.

It is wet and snowz todaz. Mz show opened last night and it seems as if all went well. The audience was a verz cultured, well read, jet set crowd or at least the ones that attended the opening partz were that waz. An excellent time was had bz all and we have 8 more performances to go including tonight.

Currentlz, I am in the BigNet Cafe. I need to leave so I can studz more sights. Of course with the weather being so fussz todaz, I maz just have to wait until tomorrow. NOOOOO waz, who am I fooling. I am mz waz to Bethoven's house. See za later.

This is a copz of the email I sent to mz friends. Incidentallz, the z for y substition is on purpose. The kezboards here are a bit different and I'm still jet lagged. So here is the letter to friends.
patchy (et al)

ok...i'm here. i hate the keyboards here, they have extra vowels and some of the letters are different locations then i am used to.

Vienna is cold and damp and snowy. the languauge is easier then i thought it would be but i still don't speak it well. most people speak english but some roll their eyes at you when u don't even attempt to speak their language.

the city is very beautiful and very old. so far, i have seen mozart's house, parliment, the town hall and St. Stephens which is pretty impressive. i hope to see a few more statues, as well as bethoven and freud's homes.

The food is so good and so rich. i love it. the coffee is delicious and the chocolates are....WOW!

we had a preview performance last night (wednesdaz) and it went very well. I was surprised at the things the audience responded to favorably or unfavorably. In a city known for its famous music, they seemed to jump out of their seats at the music in our show (can u believe it? just silly comic songs). we did have trouble with some of our scene change music and pre show music. they have very strict copyright laws here concerning music. u have to pay artists for their music even if u use only 10 seconds of it.

i am still trying to catch up on sleep. this morning i awoke at 5 am local time. vienna is 7 hours ahead of chicago so u do the math. i just have not gotten my body to accept that i am on a different schedule.

I was also able to book a trip to amsterdam using my American Airlines miles. 20,000 miles for a ticket. which still leaves me plenty of miles.

that is enough for now. i will write again later.

pip

Tonight I have to perform two shows at the Black Orchid Theatre in Piper's Alley. I never really enjoy these performances although I always love being paid. I find the venue to be a hinderance to comedy. The space is so large yet the room is still set up caberet style. Everyone sits at tables with their drinks and nachos prepared to laugh but they seem sooooo far away.

I don't have much to say today. I saw The Triplets of Belleville last night. It was great. I loved it. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Hoon n. (Austrialian in origin) meaning procurer or pimp. v. meaning to procure or to pimp.

I had a great New Years Eve. I hope everyone did. I went to a party at a fairly well known stage director's home. It was a lot of fun. I drank too much wine and spouted out inappropriate racist things that caused the air to become still but I enjoyed myself none the less.

We played games and berated each other for our tastes (or lack of) in movies, television and music. (RANT ALERT!!) I'm sorry, I don't care how good the OC is supposed to be, I'm not watching it. The last thing this mid-30's, gay, black, lower incomed, midwestern man is concerned with is life in the OC. No further discussion. Unless I can laugh at rich, privileged white kids -- I'm not interested.

I spent most of the afternoon and an early part of the evening watching the entire 6 hours of the recent HBO prodution of Angels in America. Wow. It is hard to imagine that something could be so good. I loved it. I have one of the shortest attentions spans ever but I couldn't stop watching it even as we creeped into the 4th and 5th hours. Of course I took an intermission so I could order a pizza but again....wow, what a show.

Speaking of shows, only a few more days until I leave for Vienna. I can't wait. I'm starting to think about it more and more. The most important thing I will need is black hair care proucts. I may also need to buy some "protection" and "supplies" since I don't know how to say lube in German. Maybe I won't even need that stuff but that's crazy talk. I still have so much to do -- what am I doing journaling when I need to go out and find just the right guidebook and pronunciation guide. I need to get a manicure (that will be Monday before I leave). I think I'll paint my toenails. Yeah, I'm going out of the country.