Had a fantastic time last night. Paula, Jason and I went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which was, as expected, gorgeous and wonderful. Charlie Kaufman: man, I want to go worship at his feet. So wonderful and lovely and complex. All that, plus Mark Ruffalo in tighty-whities. A damn fine film. If I gave movies stars, this would get all of them.

In the lobby, Paula saw an ad for Soul Plane, which got her very upset that her people, instead of making beautiful artistic films like ESotSM, are instead making meretriciously popular trifles like that. Jason and I started listing all the artistic movies with black themes we could think of- The Color Purple (nearly 20 years ago!!!), Eve's Bayou (which no one went to see despite a swanky and seductive Samuel L. Jackson), How Stella got her Chute Packed Groove Back (which was vaguely popular), and then we got stuck. I put in a vote for Brown Sugar and The Wood, and then couldn't remember the name of Love Jones (which Chandra and I liked so much at the time, I mentioned it in Eskimo). Jason suggested the Friday series. I suggested that he didn't understand the words that were coming out of Paula's mouth.
Jason also suggested to Paula that if she wants good, thought-provoking Black movies made, she should write one herself. I would do it, but I'm busy representing for my own people (i.e. the homeaux), nor do I feel myself qualified to write to the Black experience, being so pale I'm translucent.

We started walking to Marie's Crisis, and on the way saw The Container Store. An entire store of containers. We could barely contain our excitement.

Jason wasn't feeling well, and he got a ginger ale to settle his stomach- at first he thought his stomach might have been unsettled by the jerky camera work (oh yeah, Sara- you might want to avoid ESotSM till it comes out on video- it can be somewhat vertiginous), but he was still belly-aching afterward, and when the ginger ale didn't ameliorate his tummy, he went home, and Paula and I continued on to Marie's Crisis.

Catherine and Tesse were sitting upstairs, since it was mega-crowded in the downstairs. They invited us to sit with them, and we had a very nice time. Titanic was on the TV behind us, but we pretty much ignored it, except to note the presence of Kate Winslet (who's also in ESotSM), and, later, my boyfriend Danny Nucci.
I gave Catherine and Tesse the new business cards I made (which have my new phone number on them); Catherine wanted to add me as a Friendster friend. A few minutes later, I remembered that we are already Friendster friends, and have been for some time. Tesse asked how to pronounce my last name.
David and Michael showed up a little later, and gave Paula a present for Jason- a membership card for the Straight Guys who Like Show Tunes club. Good stuff.

 Michael: 	All those composers with three names..  Jason Robert 
		Brown, Michael John LaChiusa... 

 Me: 		Lee Harvey Oswald!

Tesse again exhorted me to memorialize the evening, since she was drunk and probably wouldn't remember much.
Paula (who married a Jew) and Catherine (who is converting to Judaism), had much to talk about. Paula was also very impressed by Catherine's Seurat tat, and made everyone swoon with the story of Jason's proposal.
Catherine offered to "hook you up, no, I don't mean 'hook up', you know, I mean introduce" me to her friend who is a skinny Irish cop*. Rock on! Dates are good.
The "Cell Block Tango" began. As is traditional at Marie's, everyone sings the chorus, and one person does each of the monologues. I saw Catherine whisper in Paula's ear, and suddenly Paula launched flawlessly into the Ezekiel Young story! She was brilliant. She gave it a lot of attitude, especially on the "Single, my ass!".
Tesse did Velma's part, and when she got to "I come back, open the door, and there's Veronica and Charlie doing Number Seventeen...", Catherine shouted out "The flip-flop?", which launched Tesse into giggles for the rest of the song.
A man was passing out roses to people. Paula and I eventually ended up with roses behind our ears for the rest of the night.
Catherine and Tesse left, just as we'd ordered some new drinks, so Paula and I stayed through "What I Did for Love" and "Aquarius" (which someone requested- I got to do the harmony on that).
Paula introduced herself to Biff, who suddenly realized when he heard my name why I looked familiar- he's read my journal (presumably from links on Catherine's site). Wow- I'm notorious.
Paula and I stumbled to the PATH and caught a cab to our homes. I fell into bed, and slept like a log till 11.

* 2 out of three ain't bad- ordinarily I prefer my men with a little bit of meat on them; but then lately I've noticed I've begun to appreciate the skinny guys as well, so who knows? It's an interesting paradigm shift in my sexual tastes, much like a year or so ago, when I started to enjoy the blonds again. I just shouldn't take "what I like" for granted, I guess. There's always surprises.