I’ve had several boxes of childhood, high school, and college memorabilia that I’ve lugged from apartment to apartment over the last 10-15 years. For the last couple of years they’ve been sitting in a small storage room in our building, and I finally decided that I didn’t need to carry all this crap around with me anymore. (It’s amazing what an impending move will do.) In my last move, I pared it down a bit, leaving three boxes. This afternoon, I spent a good 90 minutes digging through those three remaining boxes and paring it down to one box. I threw out a lot of crap. I had to adopt a cold, rational attitude to some of it — such as the 16-episode soap opera I wrote when I was 14. (Speaking of crap.) I felt sad, but it had to go.
One thing I came across was my program from the 1992 U.Va. production of “Cabaret,” starring Tina Fey as Sally Bowles.
I also came across a paper I wrote for a drama class about the production — in which I critiqued aspects of Tina Fey’s performance.
Back then, of course, I didn’t know that Tina Fey would become Tina Fey. Had I known, her performance in “Cabaret” would have been flawless.
(I adore Tina Fey, by the way, even though I’ve never met her.)
So what did you think of her performance?
I have about three bankers boxes of letter and other memorabilia. Well, maybe it’s six boxes. The stash gets smaller every time I move but not that small. I could never throw away anything I’d written. Hell, I couldn’t throw away anything you’d written. I would have taken that soap opera off your hands. (Come to think of it, I have a clip of a letter of yours printed in the Times in one of my boxes, so you’re already part of my collection.)