2009: End of the Aughts

Well, another year has marched on by. Let’s take a look at what happened for me in 2009... I saw some great concerts with some heavyweight Broadway talents: Kristin Chenoweth, Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone! Also got to see some great operas, including Salome and Ghosts of Versailles at OTSL, plus a world premiere musical: Abe—which turned out to be quite entertaining (despite all the hype of its camp value). Got the opportunity to go to Italy (next year) with my church choir peeps. Best of all, I worked a LOT this year. My favorite gig? Merry Widow, because who wouldn’t love to sing German operetta in German??? Was great to work with Tim Ocel twice: first with Don Pasquale and secondly with Amahl and the Night Visitors—for which I got my first legit newspaper review. And as much as we had to say about O Pioneers!—for better or worse—there is something to be said about doing a new work and creating the first characterization of a role…and being heard on the radio for it wasn’t too shabby, neither!

Can you believe we’re about done with another decade?!? Remember how about 10 years ago this time, lots of people were freaking that computers were going to send us back to the stone age? Crazy that it’s been that long. Looking back, there were many highlights to the years of the Aughts—the decade of my twenties. Here’s a list of some highlights of each year:

2000 – The Pirates of Penzance | attending President Clinton’s speech in Quincy

2001 – spending Spring Break in cold Chicago | having the best. summer. job. EVER: MUNY Usher

2002 – Amos in Chicago | turning 21 | experiencing real-life sitcom living in Senior House with Mark, John and all those wacky guest stars (you know who you are!)

2003 – going on Franciscan Pilgrimage to Italy

2004 – conducting Gypsy | graduating from QU | becoming Uncle Phil to little William

2005 – having least stressful (and laziest) summer in recent memory

2006 – earning my Masters from WashU | seeing Voigt in Salome

2007 – birth of my niece, Grace | performing The Magic Flute | seeing Christine Brewer in Die Frau ohne Schatten…then missing the bus!

2008 – serving as Best Man at John and Hilda’s wedding | experiencing and obsessing over the Election

2009 – making Radio Broadcast Debut | singing quite often (and in this economy, that’s a blessing!)

Hope you have an enjoyable (and safe) New Year’s Eve. I’ll be enjoying a friend’s cabaret concert in midtown, then ringing in the new year in South City. Happy 2010!

Post-Christmas report

Christmas came and went. I found the actual day to be rather anti-climactic. It seems that as I get older, the actual day is not nearly as exciting as the events, gigs and get-togethers that build up to it. Maybe I’ve been emotionally numbed by the rotten December I’ve had. I really don’t know.

Christmas Day and its surrounding times weren’t all bad. I have plenty of happier things to dwell upon:

• Christmas Eve service at Union Avenue; singing “O Holy Night”
• The party at Scott & Anthony’s place
• Giving Snuggies™ to the niece & nephew and getting one from my sister
• Taking Mom to see Up in the Air; enjoying the film more for all the St. Louis landmarks than for the actual plot
• Splurging on an iPod (more on that later)
• Going to see NINE at the Tivoli (worth seeing for Marion Cotillard and Fergie alone!!!)
• Returning an age-inappropriate book to exchange it for the Kathy Griffin memoir on audiobook
• Cookies...nummy cookies...
• Calling my Uncle in DC and discovering that I’m not the only schmuck having a rotten December

Yes, folks, as you read earlier, I splurged and got myself an iPod to replace the one stolen earlier this month. It’s the black iPod nano 5^th generation. I’m very satisfied to have all the portable music I want in ONE place rather than lugging a CD wallet around with me. Aside from the obvious daily uses, this new iPod has all kinds of new bells-n-whistles. I dig the FM tuner…it lets me enjoy 99.1 more often. Love the cover-flow feature. The video feature looks pretty cool, but I don’t know if I’ll use it much though.

The funniest new feature on this iPod hands down is the VoiceOver technology—chiefly designed for the iPod shuffle, but available on all new incarnations. Basically, you can prompt the iPod to speak the song title and artist of whatever you’re currently listening to. The default synthesized voice is a woman speaking English. However, if you have a song in a foreign language, the VoiceOver technology attempts (emphasis on attempts) to detect the language and assign the appropriate synthesized voice. My album of Salome (an opera in German) prompts a deep-voiced male German-speaker—but for only the first two tracks!!! For some odd reason, all following tracks go back to the default English-speaker…and she has some AWFUL German diction ;) I’ve also noticed that for another unexplainable reason, one of the titles on my Porgy & Bess highlights album (“My Man’s Gone Now”) is read by the iPod’s Italian synthesized voice!! Very random. Very funny.

Ok, that’s all I got for now. Will definitely post a year-end retrospective on Thursday. Can’t believe we’re about to exit the Aughts!

Finding that holiday spirit

So, I’m much better after that last entry. It’s been rough not to let the whole car burglary get to me. Things are back to normal, save for the lack of an iPod. I have yet to figure out when I’m going to replace that, but the important things I need (restored heat controls; repaired door lock) and wanted (car radio) have been taken care of. Now, if I can only stop having recurring dreams where I come to my car and discover it burglarized again, that would be great…

AMAHL

After the incident, I tried my best to focus on Amahl, which was a great gig. The Page doesn’t get to sing much at all, but when working with Tim Ocel, I never once felt that the role was peripheral. Aside from the obvious tasks and prop wrangling (Tim referred to me as “the Suzuki of this show”), the Page can become such a cardboard character. What Tim and I worked on was to make him protective towards the Kings—which also transforms him into a pretentious dolt—and suspicious of Amahl and his Mother, for he was once poor as they and knows what poverty can do to otherwise good people. (I couldn’t help thinking about Javert in Les Misérables saying “I was born with scum like you; I am from the gutter too!”) Aside from creating the character, I was grateful to work with and get to know all the singers involved.

We gave a special matinee performance the Thursday before opening night for local area school groups. They seemed to love the show, and the volunteers on hand noted how un-restless and un-distracted they seemed to be. That gave us some great motivation to give even better public performances. The show got a wonderfully positive review from Sarah Bryan Miller…and I got my first-ever mention from her:

“Phil Touchette, as the Page, did a subtle but notable job of acting; his expression upon entering the hut was priceless.”

Zowie! Honestly, I am admittedly annoyed when her writing is unreasonable, and a positive review won’t necessarily change that stance, but I am nonetheless appreciative of the mention.

CHRISTMAS

My Christmas spirit has been quite low this year. Money has been tight, and though I know that gift-giving does not make or break Christmas, I feel awful that I cannot be as plentiful towards those I love. Nevertheless, I’ve been able to scrounge up some gifts—including some child-size Snuggies™ for my Nephew (Toy Story characters) and Niece (Disney® princesses). I also feel a little better now that my Charlie Brown-esque Christmas Tree is up, lit and decorated.

On Christmas Eve, I will go to Freeburg to have a Spaghetti dinner with Mom and the Grandparents. Then, I’ll head over to Union Avenue Church for their Christmas Eve service. It’s hands-down my favorite service of the year—such a peaceful and simple way to end four weeks of Advent.

On Christmas Day, I’ll have brunch at my Sister’s place followed by some gift exchanging. (Can’t wait to see the reaction to the Snuggies™!) Later, we’ll go to a gathering with my Brother-in-law’s family. To cap off the day, I plan to take Mom out to the movies. I really hope she wants to see NINE.

Merry Christmas!

Violated

Was at Union Avenue Church for an opera rehearsal from 6-9pm tonight, where at the end of rehearsal, we got word that six cars (mine included) were broken into and burglarized. I went into the lot, and the people on the scene told me that my car didn't look like it had been bothered as there were no broken windows. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that my car radio was ripped out and my radio-faceplate and iPod (concealed from view, like you do) were missing. The police looked at my lock and noticed it had been popped or jimmied with...thus no need for breaking the windows. At least my steering-wheel club was functional...they ain't stealing this mofo again, even if it is 10 years old and a money pit.

I'm livid. Shaky-irrational livid...and it's been over three hours since.

Turns out that no security was present on the lot because of cutbacks. Glorious.

I get it. The CWE area isn't the safest, and life is unpredictable...but really? I sometimes debate whether working/leisuring there is worth it if I have to be prepared for this SHIT every three or four years. And what happened to me is unmistakably mild.

I have absolutely no Christmas spirit right now. Don't even know if I can now enjoy working on Amahl--an otherwise genuinely joyous experience. F*#@!