My Obsessive-Compulsive Tendencies Find a New Venue

Anyone who's ever watched a movie, TV show, live theater, or spent anytime with me in any setting knows that I have a little issue with needing to name every actor I recgonize and list everything he/she has ever been in or how I saw them at the La Jolla Playhouse in "The Glass Menagerie" when I was 12. It's a habit I inhereited from my parents always pointing out actors they recognized from being subscribers to The Guthrie Theatre in Minnesota in the '80's. I've always had this issue. In sixth grade, my peers actually barred the words "La Jolla Playhouse" from our conversations.

well, working in theatre, and living New York only exacerbated the problem. Now it wasn't just a matter of shouting out everytime I saw Bonnie Hunt or Henry Thomas in a movie preview, it's needing to give my history of working around Ty Burrell or Bob Saget and what they said and how Niegel knows them too, etc. It's bee wierd having this problem out in Seattle where no one has a context for what I'm talking about. I'm trying to deal with the issue, but also recognize that it's just part of how I engage/interact with what I see and the world I live in.

But something that had never happened occured the other day. My roomate Carrie and I were writing a EVITE and I looked at the Herbal Essences Internet Ad Banner and suddenly recognized the guy dressed as Cupid. It was Todd Buonapone, a regular understudy/performer at Spelling Bee on Broadway. I've logged in many hours watching him perform a variety of the guy characters, and here he was on the webpage as a shampoo ad/contest logo. I told Niegel and his reaction gave voice to my thoughts "Wait! Internet ads aren't real people. they're stock photography!"

it does seem like people on internet pictures are not actors. Secrets out. They are. And now there's a whole new realm for me to give ancestral filmographies and personal biographies of everyone single person I recognize on the InterWeb. I apologize to everyone for the annoyance this will cause, but frankly, I'm a little excited. Let the irrepressible name dropping continue!