2002-12-16 10:15 a.m.
I believe my throat hurts

I've never been a big believer in positive meditations, affirmations, etc. I give my mom grief when I go over to her place and see little index cards with Stuart Smalleyisms ("I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me!") tacked up around the mirror in her bedroom.

Then I remember opening night of "The Man Who Came to Dinner."

Kaufman and Hart's huge-cast play � perfect for any high school drama coach, as Kaufman's plays typically have a cast of twenty to thirty � was the first time I was ever onstage, and I was the title character, an aging theater critic and radio lecturer who breaks his hip on the way up the steps to have dinner with a Midwestern family he despises (PR purposes).

To say I was freaking out backstage opening night was being charitable. I knew the play backwards and forwards, I had my dad's big green robe pulled tight around my dress shirt and khakis. The beard my mom had fashioned out of fake hair and spirit gum and grey spray looked perfect. But still, as any first-time actor would, I couldn't settle down and relax into everything.

So I sang (quietly) backstage. That it was R.E.M. would surprise no one, but every time I've heard these lyrics since � like I did this morning on the train � I smile and want to roll around the stage in my wheelchair again.

Trust in your calling, make sure your calling's true
Think of others, the others think of you
Silly rule golden words make practice, practice makes perfect,
Perfect is a fault, and fault lines change

I believe my humor's wearing thin
And change is what I believe in

More karaoke this weekend. Here's the set list:

What's So Funny 'bout Peace, Love, and Understandin' (Elvis Costello)
Punk Rock Girl (Dead Milkmen)
Add It Up (Violent Femmes)
Groove is in the Heart (Dee-Lite, w/Tabi...not much of a duet, as I was going to do the Q-Tip part, and the lyrics didn't come up for that...grr.)
One More Minute (Weird Al)
Love Shack (of freakin' course)

Add It Up is my new favorite...I yelled myself hoarse on some parts, but the whole bar was jumpin' on that one, even a dive like Timboo's.

Karaoke is the new bacchanalia.