On the Sixteenth DaY of TIZmas

On the Sixteenth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

16 more things I have in common with my dog (because it's surprising to even ME)


We can grieve a long time

We don't like change

Packing bums us out

We are averse to brushing our teeth at times but we do realize the necessity

We like to kiss people

Treats are the BEST

We sleep either spread eagle or curled in a ball

We have the same tangly hair

We probably have the same amount of white hair

Our butts are adorbs

We sometimes sleep without closing our eyes fully (freaks peeps out)

We do not agree with frigid weather

We both dig massages

No, rain. NO!!!

Napping in the sun is a necessity

Decent instincts regarding people and their intentions

On the Fifteenth DaY of TiZmas

On the Fifteenth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

Fifteen things I have in common with my dog BaXter - 

We both have brown eyes

We like to circle when we poop

Red is our color

Norah Jones soothes us

We have a lot of energy

And then we have none

We're snuggle bunnies

We both love to love

We both love to be loved

We both hate to be controlled

Sensitive paws

We strike if cornered

We are really happy to see our people

But then sometimes we don't know what to say except "how are you how are you how are you"

We're better off together

On the Fourteenth DaY of TiZmas

On the Fourteenth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

I played poker last night.

I don't play poker.

I was the big winner.

This has happened three other times in my life.

It's quite rude of me.

What I've learned is every group thinks they play standard poker hands.

None of these groups over the course of my lifetime have played the same hands.

Last night I got a full house.

Last night I got 4 of a kind.

I almost bagged a half hour in because I had lost my initial investment.

I doubled my investment.

I slowed the game down tremendously because I asked tons and tons of questions.

The first time (or first in a long time) I play any kind of game I have beginner's luck.

And then I spend decades getting into my head and chasing the tail of the dragon.

On the Thirteenth DaY of TiZmas

On the Thirteenth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

Today is Poppy's birthday.

He would have been 93.

He only made it to 81.

I miss him a lot.

Especially when I watch "Meet Me in St. Louis."

Maybe because I identify so ridiculously strongly with Tootie.

Yup. THAT'S sad.

It may be my favorite Christmas movie.

Close second is "A Christmas Story."

I recently called myself an adorable cockroach.

My left shoulder goes in and out of the socket on a whim.

I didn't know I was hypermobile until I was 50.

I didn't hear the word hypermobile until I was 50.

On the Twelfth DaY of TiZmas

On the Twelfth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

YUP. I DRANK LAST NIGHT. My that was loud.

I am enamored with my friends who are politically active.

I believe that at this point if you are not active then you are passively part of the problem.

I think that apathy could be the death of us.

BaXter likes to sit on my legs.

He is like a 12 pound hot water bottle.

He relaxes the spasms in my thighs from the statins.

I do close to a half hour's worth of physiotherapy exercises a day.

I eat cleanly six days a week.

One day a week I let the shit fly...INTO MY MOUTH.

I lost five pounds in the four days after #DonTheCon 's election.

On me, fight or flight looks good.

On the 11th DaY of TiZmas

On the 11th DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

I rarely drink anymore.

I drank tonight.

I have a hicky on my cheek.

I will laugh if it remains there forever and ever.

I wear it proudly.

I got a value bucket of wine.

You know you like your new friends when you plan on staying an hour and leave four later.

I've never met a more remarkable group of singers more ready to share their germs.

I do not have my requisite two Advil to get me through tomorrow.

Canada has some nice homegrown white wine.

I like to do housework when I've been drinking.

On the Tenth DaY of TiZmas

On the Tenth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

I am by nature a very trusting person.

Some may call me naive.

I am also almost terrifyingly gullible.

Add to that sincere in a really warped way.

Once my trust is lost it is very difficult to regain it.

When I am angry I become remarkably polite.

I went off my statins recently.

It was wild and wooly how clear my thought processes became.

I had to go back on the statins.

I'm a little goofy already.

On the Ninth DaY of TiZmas

On the Ninth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

I've just watched WAG THE DOG.

It's not funny this time.

Anything is possible right now. Anything.

I'm watching people unexpectedly embracing bullying, whether they realize it or not.

I am watching history, both recent and distant, being rewritten by many.

I lived in Russia for a month and a half in the early auts.

I love the people of Russia.

I have no interest in being in bed with the Russian government.

They were terrifying then and they are terrifying now.

On the Eighth DaY of TiZmas

On the Eighth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

BaX and I have morning songs.

They are moronic.

Perhaps we should call them MORONing songs.

"The name on everybody's lips is gonna be BaXie."

"Where's that dog with the bugle, my little love, and why did I ever buy him those damn long pants..." I sing this because he looks like he's wearing shorts from behind.

"Hellooooo BaXie. Well, Helloooooo BaXie."

The scat section of "House of Blue Lights" as performed by Yale's SOBs is what I sing as I pull boogers from his eyes.

"BaXter Tisdale, I am in love with you and every step you take."

On the Seventh DaY of TiZmas

On the Seventh DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

Yesterday was my first day of rehearsal for SOUSATZKA.

I sat on the news of this musical for months and months and months.

It strangely makes it that much sweeter that it has started.

Many new and many old and many loved friends all jumbled together in a room of joy.

I love the verbal acuity and the hearts and souls of my bosses.

I love the story.

I love my life.

On the Sixth DaY of TiZmas

On the Sixth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

A lot of people helped me with my stresses before I left for Toronto

After I bagged up all my bed clothes and cleaned madly in the middle of the night because my bed looked like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Insect Kingdom, I learned I did NOT have bed bugs...it was quite obviously just The End of Days...in my bed.

The Apple Genius Bar should perhaps be renamed.  I really only dealt with one genius and that's because he was a social genius as well...and that's because he took the time to freaking help me and quietly explain how I just had to deal with my craptastic phone for another day if I would just suck it up and do as he told me.

The next day's genius was my anti-social genius who got a very bad rating...not only because he tried to fob me off with a new battery instead of the new phone I was promised, but because he gave me the new phone and essentially said, "good luck." I almost called him on almost elder abuse. He did not help with my stresses but I ended up getting them out on him a bit and I got a new phone. SCORE!

Really no one can help me with #DontheCon.  He is an asshat. What I do love is my community trying to thwart him every step of the way.

The people with whom I needed to be in touch never really got in touch.  And that just seems to happen when I'm leaving town for years and years. But a nice lady at AT&T explained to me how to WIFI call and that will save me tons of money.  Thanks AT&T lady. A+ for you.

On the Fifth DaY of TiZmas

On the Fifth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

I had a bunch of stressors before I left for Toronto

I thought I had bed bugs

My iPhone became a very pretty paperweight

We have a President-Elect who is an asshat

I could not reach people whom I needed to reach.

On The Fourth DaY of TiZmas

On the Fourth DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

I'm in Toronto

I love Toronto

I love this show

I love my colleagues

On the Third Day of TiZmas

On the Third DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

I was bullied terribly as a child and early teen.

I might have deserved it.

I was (and remain) weird.

On the Second DaY of TiZmas

On the Second DaY of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

I cannot STAND a bully.

This bears repeating--I cannot STAND a bully.

On the First Day of TiZmas

On the First Day of TiZmas, TiZ reveals to you...

This is the first time I've allowed politics on my Facebook feed.

Happy Thanksgiving and Collateral Beauty Thought

A friend gave this to me the night before the election. It took me two weeks to read...

YOU WERE MADE FOR THIS

By Clarissa Pinkola Estes

My friends, do not lose heart.  We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

You are right in your assessments.  The luster and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind.

Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance regardless.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or untended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails.

We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn't you say you were a believer? Didn't you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn't you ask for grace? Don't you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm things that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not  given to us to know which acts, or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second or hundredth gale.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire, To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these--to be fierce and to show mercy towards others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.

There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: 

When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt.  But that is not what great ships are built for.

###############################

#CollateralBeauty Happy Thanksgiving

THE SWEETEST THING

I came upon a young man today at around 6 pm, quite close to my home on Fort Tryon Park.  He was a little under his car and I thought in my granny way, "Oh no! Car troubles? Maybe I can help that nice young man."

And then I saw that he had a mat.  And I thought in my Judgina Navritilova way, "Very well prepared.  Good on you, young man."

And then I saw that his shoes were off.  And I thought in my Tizzy way, "What the what?"

The "what" was he was praying--a Muslim praying.

Engaging in the Maghrib prayer...a little early which is allowed if there are some time issues.  Which there would be if you're driving through the city looking for a safe place to pray.  

Or he could be from another tradition. From what I understand, if he's Sunni, he's there for a loooooong time.

No matter...it was lovely and it was peaceful and I was honored he felt my little Russian, Jewish, Dominican, canine hood felt safe.

I almost went to fetch him water.  I did mainline 4 seasons of "Homeland" in 2 1/2 weeks.  I know how this is done.

And then I saw a bottle by his side.

JN repeated, "Very well prepared.  Good on you, young man."


PS Now I know where east is.

BIO 101 (and I don't mean dissecting a frog)

For the newbie to theater world, actors always have to submit a biography for a Playbill when they do a skit.  When you're in the ensemble (or for readings and such) it is 50 words max.  For me, 25 years of career in 50 words? In a word...well...there is no word. But there are 50. Wow!

I'm doing a reading this week.  Lovely piece called MARRY HARRY at the York.  Really sweet and off. This is the bio I whipped together this morning. Again, 25 years in 50 words.

Christianne Tisdale – Broadway/West End: Original Cast Les Miserables (25^th Anniversary), On a Clear Day, Titanic (1^st Nat’l), Triumph of Love and One Touch of Venus; Belle in Beauty and the Beast. TV/Film: “30 Rock”; “Law and Order, CI”; “Wallflowers” (producer); “A Tale of Cinderella.” Published author. IG @baxandthecity. www.ChristianneTisdale.com

You now know I've done some shizz. It's the important stuff...or at least the stuff that the cogniscenti would find important.  And it's almost written in code. Thus, you don't know that I eventually got the role of Madam T in Les Shiz for a short period of time. Or that my mom died during rehearsals for Clear Day. Or that I was fired from one of these skits (ssshhhhh).  Or that Kristen Wiig was my scene and improv partner on "30 Rock." Or that I almost passed out making yellow tutus for a "Wallflowers" shoot because ours were lost in China somewhere.  

The yummy stuff. The bone and sinew. The breath. The life.

You might get that my stupid ass delicious delightful dog is important to me. But that's it.

And then I thought to meself, "Meself, what would happen if you bio-ed what you really wanted? What if you biograph-ed what was true?"

Honestly, why does an audience need to know what I've done before? Shouldn't they just get lost in what I'm doing in the moment? If there is a need for judgment, shouldn't the gavel come down on the crimes against acting I've just committed as opposed to the "good works" I've done before? Or petty crimes?

This is what an honest 50 word bio would look like for me.

Christianne Tisdale thinks she can act. And sing. She knows she can't dance, don't ask her. Unsure how she got into this, she's sticking with it 'til she's the last actor standing. TiZ has done some really good stuff. And some really bad stuff. Let's hope this is the former.

Yes?

PS  I've had the same agents for 25 years. Only agents I've ever known. They are Harden-Curtis and I love them very much. Hell will have to freeze over before we consciously uncouple.

PPS Champagne is delicious.

CREATE

Don't curate.






I'm baaaaaaack