teaching actors to sing

Baz Luhrmann once gave an interview about ‘moulin rouge‘ where he said that he’d gotten professional actors for the roles, and then taught them to sing, thinking that it would be far easier than the reverse. i think that particular experiment worked out quite well, so i’m pondering today how best to apply this to my personal situation (which involves a continuous, though not quite as snappy, soundtrack). basically, i perhaps need to seek out an actor to teach him to sing, instead of continuing to audition whatever jugglers and clowns keep coming by.

what’s the first thing that i keep saying when people ask me what i like in a guy? “oh, i like ’em real nerdy.” hmmm. how ’bout, then, i cast a net for some nerds? here’s what i came up with, titled as “a shout-out to all the NIH geeks”:

it’s the truth guys, i’m all into science nerds. knowing the mechanics of the living world gives you a unique perspective on life, and it’s always fun to not have to explain those big words to someone. i’ll sympathize with you during the hell of grant writing season, whether it’s your own personal hell or just the hell of putting up with everyone in the lab being a cranky bastard. i’ll help you shout at the newspaper when we find out Bush has screwed the NIH budget yet again. i won’t give you crap over your big big brain or your big big student loan debt, because i’m packing both myself.

we’re both functional brainiacs: we’re independently-living people who can dress ourselves as the situation dictates, we can talk about regular stuff like music and movies, we go out in the world to see lights other than the overhead fluorescent tubes…in short, we can function in regular society like a ninja amongst the normals. this particular 30 year old SWF likes to cook like i mean it, go to a wine tasting or two on the weekends, and manages to leave work in the lab and not take much of anything seriously at home. how ’bout a health/science movie at the silver spring AFI theater or Shakespeare at the library of congress? (google each for the calendars…can’t post the URLs in here)

yes, it’s ok if you aren’t employed on campus, i’m a contractor myself. enginerds & physicists, you’re welcome to say hi, too.

it’s been up for only 3 hours, and i have 12 responses. wow. yes, 3 got immediately scrapped (as in, no, i’m not so interested in helping you cheat on your gf), but the rest? there’s some potential in there. and some resumes, too.