Good Time Chuck

Linda and I met Rugg at the Elephant Bar... after Google or some bad map program sent him on a wild goose chase.. to celebrate his big seven five. Linda brought an amazing basket of goodies with balloons. I brought a Trader Joe's bag. The ribs were great! Linda's salmon was pink! and Ken had some funky looking shrimpcicles. Linda got there first and made sure that we were in a quiet part of the restaurant, which was really wonderful for me. Movies were discussed. I need some help defending The Door in the Floor now and to convince Linda that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will probably take the Oscar for many reasons. Rugg probably won't see it as it falls into the realm of Titanic.

By the time you see this, Ken, we'll have surprised you and had a party that may surpass the great time we had last night. It surely was one of the best that the three of us have enjoyed.
Happy Birthday!

We connect!!

The magic of communication.. Ahh.. We settled on an Elephant Bar and a time!

It'll be fun to have dinner tonight with Rugg and the Hawk! We normally don't do presents, but this is a special birthday for Ken. We get to celebrate 'on the day' , lay some stuff on him and have ribs!

This is a photo of the T shirt that folks will autograph at the party on Saturday. It might be my Ground Hog Day shirt, too?

Happy Birthday, Rugg!!

Bring Frogs

Most of Rugg's students know about the tradition that blossomed during his directing days at Long Beach State. In the final performance of any given show, a frog would show up! He'll have the story. But.. Shelley reminded me and so this is a request for you to find frogs... Preferably, plastic or otherwise a froggie replica.. and bring them along on Saturday..

Here's another art piece I made a while ago.

Onward

How High is the Elephant Bar?

The deal is that The Hawk and I will meet Rugg for dinner tomorrow, his actual birthday, to celebrate. Issues regarding the place to meet have come up and as of this writing, I'm not sure if we are meeting in La Mirada or in Downey? We went to the LaMirada Elephant Bar last year. I thought that was what we'd decided on, but now am not so sure. The wonderfulness of dealing with these issues is that they don't leave us on autopilot. Thinking is a good thing.

I ordered Ken's cakes yesterday. One will have "Happy 75th Rugg!" on it. The other ... I had to carefully spell this one for the bakery person.. "Cognito Ergo Sum"

I'll figure out how to use the Nietzsche quotes on Saturday. Three days to go!

Hope that everyone gets assembled in the theater in time. The stuff over which we have no control will reveal itself on Saturday. The anticipation is pretty cool. Hopefully, we'll have that Collector's Editon DVD "Rugg: the first 75" for anyone who'd like to have one soon after the event.

A closeup of my balloon installation last September is attached for color.

Respectfully submitted....

Rugg and Hija

This looked like an old photo to me.. Nope.. It's in Ken's office on his netcam. Shelley sent it to me and is a good representation of the relationship that she and her dad have. I'm really proud of all the work she's done to make this celebration come together. Friends and family are coming from all over the place to make it happen.

We've modified our surprise plan thanks to Afsaneh, one of the triad in the Heavenly Host piece which, I think, will bat clean up in our tribute to Ken.

It'll be interesting to see how soon Rugg gets it that Saturday is all about him!

One Week to Go!

Shelley, Grace and I have been planning this celebration for Rugg for several weeks. Shelley is the honcho. I'm doing the cakes and today she suggested that the tradition of the casts of Ken's plays sneaking in Frog references into final performances was one that we might include next Saturday. I don't know if I can get frogs on the cakes, but if you have any frog stuff, bring it along next week.

Grace needs to get some attention and credit here. She is one of the the most supportive and loving people I've ever met. Ken's lucky to have her in his life. I'm pretty sure she feels the same way about him. Of course, I introduced them!!

Whatta Guy!

Today I received a little book in the mail from a performance artist in New York. Her name is Iris Rose. She's one of the most original artists I've ever known. In her little hand made book she recounts working with Rugg in the seventies with great detail and artistry. It brought tears to my eyes to know that there are literally hundreds of people who had the crazy experience of working with Ken.

This T shirt will be on hand on 1/24 for friends to autograph. I hope that it'll be a nice reminder of the day for Ken.

Ten days and counting.