The Satanic Box

Summer is almost gone and the mayhem just doesn’t seem to stop. Fortunately, I am from the future and can sort of handle it. The “Refugee Girls Revue” play I was in as part of the Fringe Festival ended on Saturday. It was a real blast to be a part of the magic. It’s only the second play I’ve ever done, but I am, like, seriously becoming a thespian or something. I even got some nice mentions on the Internet (where it really counts). It’s shameless and pathetic of me to mention them, I know, but why try to change now? I mean, we’re both here, right? Why don’t I just tell you? Here’s what the Internet critics totally said about me:

"There were some truly inspired performances, like the wacky Ruth Gamble who steals every scene she’s in, or Dave Hill who plays Token Male (the sole guy in the show) who takes on all the male role in the Refugee’s stories, yet manages with incredible precision, to milk every laugh out of his many small cameos."
-TheatreIsEasy.com

"I was also impressed by Lauren Van Kurin, who portrays a veritable menagerie of incidental adult characters with the manic ferocity of a female Jack Black, and Dave Hill, who, as the "Token Male" (his character name), is cleverly clueless as a half-dozen different impotent male characters."
-NYTheatre.com

The folks are gonna be proud, I can feel it. Anyway, hopefully I can get to do another play again soon. I really like showing up somewhere and doing the same thing every day and/or night- it gives me a sense of direction. Of course, I only mean this in the show business sense. I don’t want to show up at, like, a regular non-show business job or anything. I mean, sure, I’d be the best-dressed guy on the job and all, but other than that I’d be useless.

In other news, this past Friday I went to see my friend Gian do a reading at Barbes in Park Slope as part of the launch of the latest issue of the literary magazine "No Colony." It was there that Gian presented me with the Satanic box pictured at the top of this here blog entry. He got it from a witch in Sweden or something and naturally thought of me, what with my taste for the dark side and all. The witch said it would be good for me, but to be honest I’m a little worried about it. Don’t get me wrong- no one is crazier about Satan than me, but being an Irish Catholic guy underneath it all I’m slightly uncomfortable about having the Satanic box in my apartment, looking at me all the time and whatnot. And I know if I try to get rid of it it will just come back and hit me in the head while I’m getting up to pee in the middle of the night. File under: last thing I need. I guess I will just have to counter the increased forces of Satan in my apartment with some sort of goodness or something. Maybe I will put on a bake sale and use all the proceeds to dress up small dogs in naval uniforms or something. That ought to balance things out. That’s a win-win for everybody, even Satan. I’m just trying to do my part in this world.

In other news, above is a new video by my friend Chris Schneider, who is one of the greats. Watch it now or I’ll have a serious meltdown and become all the more vulnerable to whatever the Satanic box has in store for me. And speaking of incredible things to watch on the Internet, here is an interview I did for New York Magazine with the lovely and talented Martha Plimpton. It has everything.

In still other news, recently I stumbled into Kim’s Video on St. Mark’s Place after a few drinks in the neighborhood (getting drunk and buying DVDs is my “new thing”) and picked up a documentary about the ‘90’s Seattle rock band TAD, pictured above. As is usually the case after a night of drunken DVD shopping, I woke up the next day to discover the DVD on my desk and began to think more seriously about rehab. Don’t get me wrong- I really dig TAD. It’s just that I get so impulsive when I’m on the sauce I wonder if maybe I might try to reign it in a bit.

As it turns out, however, the TAD documentary is just as cool as I thought it might be when I was drunk and standing at the cash register at Kim’s. I always had a soft spot for the band and watching it kind of made me wish I had a time machine that would go back to the ‘90’s and see them rock out. There’s also a part of me that wouldn’t mind going back to live with my parents like I did back then. Anyway, below is a video for TAD’s great song “Leafy Incline.” Shit rocks. Do your part for rock by watching it right now.

Dave Hill