oh
my
God

Rufus Wainwright is sent from heaven. The man's voice is a cello. His pitch is so accurate I could die. His arrangements are so lush they make me crumble. And holy crap, can he play a piano. I need to see him 57 million more times. I am simply awestruck.

One of the cooler parts of the concert was the audience, actually; very respectful, waited that perfect moment after each song's final chord decayed significantly to start applauding, didn't yell or hoot during quiet poignant moments... just really wonderful. If I ever become famous, I don't wanna be any more famous than Rufus is right now. It seems perfect.

He does, however, make Christopher Lowell look like a lumberjack. But that's part of his charm, no doubt!

The Strand Theater in Lakewood is a really terrific venue; beautiful, clean, comfy, and it still has a very "townie" feel to it. The Lakewood Ladies Auxilliary was selling 50/50s and cookies in the lobby, and the coatcheck lady seemed confused when we tipped her a buck.

Attending the show were my Barn Theater pals Ken, Brian and Bill, and also my other friend Brian (DeRiancho). It was Brian's birthday, and he said seeing Rufus made this the best birthday he's ever had. The show was that good.

For kicks, Brian brought along his 1987 high school yearbook which I had started to sign that summer and never finished, so he thought it would be fun to have me finish it up 17 years later.   17 years.   That's the amount of time it takes a newborn to get its driver's license in the state of NJ. It's amazing to me that I have known someone that long... which then of course makes me think about how I've known Liz since 1979, which is 25 years. Good heavens!

Anyhoo, I started to re-sign Brian's yearbook, and I decided to leave it incomplete-- I signed it off with "I'll write more in 2021."   And the cool thing is, I know I will.