Set Designer's Day, the Press, and Treasure Hunting

Always nice when a day starts with a photo of one of your shows on the cover of the Dallas Morning News' weekend Guide: a close-up of actress Molly Franco, who plays Anne Frank.  (Beautifully plays.)  So far both The Diary of Anne Frank and The Frequency of Death! are getting good reviews... and with those, a few nice mentions for their sets.  (I'll take "pretty spectacular" when I can get it.)  Deeper into the Guide is a nice shot of Frequency under "Hot Show of the Week."

(You can read DMN's online review of The Diary of Anne Frank  HERE.  And HERE's their review of The Frequency of Death.)

But no time to reread for me.  I need to hop into the car to make the visit with the scenic painter on The Secrets of a Soccer Mom that was supposed to happen yesterday.  It's even colder this morning!  Poor painter.

After that, a shopping trip to that favorite source for discount fabric, The Golden d'Or (which translates as "The Golden Golden").  It's having its annual HUGE SALE.  I'll see what treasure I can dig up!

Pirate treasure painting by, I believe, Howard Pyle, public domain

Later tonight is a run-through of Collapse at Kitchen Dog, followed by a really late production meeting.  So much for Friday Date Night, huh?

New Car!

The Honda Element in a cool dark red.  Rubber mats (love those), fold-away seats, a boxy good-haulin' sorta vehicle.  Perfect theater set designer car.

I feel excited!

...but poor.  Not even gonna calculate how many shows I need to design to pay this new baby off.

The Work Car

My once faithful old companion of a car is getting... unreliable.  So I'm looking at new rides.  Something bare-bones, cheap, but capable of hauling LOTS - everything from armchairs to deer heads to bags of leaves.  I'm leaning toward the Honda Element... mostly because its shoe box on wheels styling, fold-away seats, and rubber floor mats seem perfect for my needs.  (Easier to sweep leaves off rubber than carpet!)

I hate car shopping.  It's especially un-fun right now because the salesmen are especially hungry.  There's a definite feeling of Baby-needs-new-shoes urgency to some of them that makes me uncomfortable.

Tomorrow's the big Tire Kicking Day.