Anni-Ming and her best friend, Suchi, took their American Girl dolls out for a night on the town capped by a dinner of -- Chinese food, of course!

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
Last night I took my dear friend, Iggy to the New York City Opera! It was a special night, "Opera For All," and all tickets for this performance of Madame Butterfly were $25.00. I’d originally bought the tickets for Anni-Ming and me, since she is the one who introduced me to opera, but she’s off at choir camp this weekend, so Iggy got to come along. It was an opera that I didn’t know, like most operas, since I’m a newcomer to the form, but WOW, was it fantastic. They had a video segment before each act, interviewing the singers, director, designers, with lots of backstage footage, and a little discussion of what was about to occur in the upcoming act. That made the whole experience much more accessible. But the opera itself, the beauty of the stage pictures, the music and the singers made it a real event to remember.

FEELING LOOPY
And I had another adventure this week. I’d been talking with an actor from the show, Bill Timoney about his work looping films. I’d gotten to do just one project as a "looper" many years ago and really liked it, so I asked him to keep me in mind if any further opportunities presented themselves. Lo and Behold, I got a call on Tues. with an offer to work on the new Truman Capote film, currently titled "Every Word is True." Most people don’t know what looping is. After a film is finished shooting, many hours are spet in a sound studio correcting the sound of the actor’s voices, but also adding all the sound effects, doors closing, footsteps on gravel, the ticking of a clock, and all of these sounds are recreated in the studio. Then there are extra voices to be added, if the main characters are walking down a crowded street, the background people have to be speaking, so we create all that conversation. They show us the footage, assign us a person on the screen, and we watch their lips and create dialogue to match the motion of their mouths. I got to be a woman who tips over her glass of champagne at the very fashionable New York nightclub, El Moroco, a waitress in a burger joint, a guest at a cocktail party at Diana Vreeland’s house, an ornery secretary to the DA in Kansas, a couple sitting on a bench in a park in Brooklyn, and the voice of a woman, bound and gagged before she’s murdered. That last one was pretty tough as the screen images were so terrifying. But what an adventure I had and yes, it brought some real happiness! So get on out there and have some adventures, you won’t regret it!