Alaska! Here I cold...

So with the sun shining so bright in Los Angeles, it only makes sense in Kristina Wong logic land that I go to Alaska for two weeks to do shows in Anchorage and Homer (where I'll meet the guy you see above from the Homer, AK website). The sun comes up for like 10 seconds a day this time of year, so pretty much it will be like a two week long evening in 17 degree weather. We shall see if my sanity survives. I'm popping Vitamin D pills and staring into sun lamps every chance I get.

(Insert Palin joke here.)

My packing method is me throwing underpants and long johns on the dining table and then going into my office to email people. I may die with what scant wardrobe I have with me. I seem to not own any sweaters. I don't think I have owned a sweater since my teenage years in San Francisco.

I'll be up at whatever time it will be Alaska time (7am?) to watch the inauguration January 20. I'm a little Obama'd out to tell you the truth. It's kind of like, I feel like I've been romanced by this President Elect for the last few months, and after January 20 come the realities of boring sexless married life and making serious adult decisions.

Apparently there are a few gay bars in Anchorage, and I'm all up on that. Are there go-go boys in Alaskan gay bars? What do they dance in? I'm also interested in seeing what a church service in Alaska is like, especially those ones where they start talking in tongues out of nowhere. I hear there are churches every three feet. Do they let you become the mayor if you stamp your church card enough times? How does this other planet named Alaska work?

I'm currently trying to pack and finish writing this monster grant before I leave. I also have to clean my place for my subletter. It looks like I'll be in New York City for a couple weeks after Alaska (where the weather is.... warmer?) and I'm getting a little bit of anxiety about being away for four weeks. When I first started touring like crazy a few years ago, I'd cry when I was at the airport. It was just so hellish and I was a horrible traveler. Props would break because they were so poorly packed, I'd bring too much weight with me. I'm better now, but I get anxiety about being away from home, and then I get anxiety when I'm home and not doing the show as I've been since my show closed in Santa Monica.

Oh Kristina Wong, you'll never win.

Aside from my recent rant about Zipcar, I've been admittedly quiet on the blog front. I found myself in the last month and a half becoming an "update addict" on Facebook. So instead of blogging, I was finding myself spitting out fractions of life updates in 180 character miniature broadcasts. Then eagerly awaiting someone to comment on them, to validate my moment of living. It was a lot of energy to spit out into the universe. And then, no time left to blog more complete and developed thoughts.

I actually decided two weeks ago to detox off of the Facebook updates and went a whole week without sending those tiny transmissions into cyberspace. It was time to live, rather than report on living. It was so freeing. I rediscovered the life I had been neglecting. And found myself harnessing my creating energy back to my work again. And I think that is going to be the theme for 2009.

My friend Wes and I were on AIM saying that in this economy, every seems to be much more focused on what matters. I know I'm working really hard to just keep working as much as possible.

A few weeks ago I was watching paternity test results on Maury Povich and all the commercials were for trade schools where you could study to be a "surgical technician assistant something or other" (ie glorified scalpel cleaner). I lay up in bed wondering what else I'd want to do with my life. If I had to transition to "a real job" what would it be? There's certainly a lot I'm capable of doing-- marketing, teaching, grant writing, event producing, administration... but when it comes down to it, I'm blessed to be doing the work that really believe in and I love to do. And I don't want to stop doing it unless I'm dragged kicked and pulled away from it and people are dying.

So it just means, I have to keep working harder. Stay the course. And stay focused no matter how much people try to scare me about the economy. Fear is a horrible motivator and I don't ever want it to be mine.

I really want to generate more work this year now that Cuckoo's Nest seems like it's pretty much finished. I spent the last few weeks pulling up my bootstraps and psyching myself up for new projects.

Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: The Concert Film is in post production. My director and editor Mike Closson lives with his wife by the beach and I went for a walk with her after taking a look at the footage. It's been so chaotic over here I've not had a moment to do some beach walking. We saw tiger sharks in the water! Can you believe it? There is actually marine life in the Santa Monica beach! It was a great short break and what makes Los Angeles/ global warming great. Tanning weather in January.

The footage from the concert film looks really great. My first starring role in a feature film-- and I wrote it! Ha! I guess that's the way things work around here. There was this really depressing article about Sundancein the Times today. Too many films, not enough money to buy them all. Which leaves me wondering how such a thing as a concert film for a solo show of a relatively unknown solo performer will ever find a home.

Don't know if our concert film will be the multi-milliion dollar blockbuster that CLERKS was, but it's a wonderful archive of a show that I'm extremely proud of. And I know if anything, distribution or not, it will definitely open a lot of doors. I'm not sure what those doors will look like in this economy. But I am grateful that I am working right now, and I intend to keep working, and I'm not leaving this dream any time soon.