Does it count as completely unprofessional if I occasionally gawk at my place of employment? I subbed for a day at Sesame Street and my little child-of-the-eighties heart was pattering like it was Christmas. It was a pick-up shoot for an Elmo DVD, just a couple producers sitting around discussing how Elmo best serves the emotional needs of children. Not the most exciting work on the planet but I got to sit on the steps where they sing the intro song ("sunny days, chasing the clouds a-way..."). Yup, I still remember the words. What of it? Snuffleupagus was hanging from the grid in one corner of the room and Big Bird's nest was shoved backstage with a mess of other props. The puppets were stowed in a rolling case painted with a mural of the set peopled with tiny Jim Hensons. The nostalgia was overwhelming, which is weird considering that as a child I was identifying with a glorified bathmat possessing Ping-Pong eyeballs. Entertainment can be so surreal.

Other news: Saw SubUrbia (trite... so trite... so cloyingly cliche...) and The Pain and the Itch which burned up the Steppenwolf in Chicago for good reason. A play poking fun at white bleeding heart liberals attended solely by... white bleeding heart liberals. Including me. I exhibit all those alarming characteristics - quoting PBS specials and New York Times articles, owning plenty of nice things but vehemently denying my materialism, appreciating the sanitized world of post-Giuliani New York. Ugh. I feel dirty inside.