Two weeks ago, before flying to Vienna for a week of work, I saw the premiere of “The Eight: Reindeer Monologs” written by Jeff Goode and directed by my friend Vic Chaney. It’s a tiny production at the Exit Theatre. But it’s fantastically well acted and directed from a hilarious script involving Santa and his reindeer in an North Pole workshop sex scandal. If you read this before December 20, try to get tickets and go see it. You will not be disappointed.

A couple of days after I got back from Vienna, napping Wednesday afternoon from jet lag, Deb called to see if I’d join her and some friends for an evening of storytelling. It turned out to be this month’s installment of the Porch Light Storytelling Series whose theme was “all that glitters is not gold.” What a pleasure it was to sit with an audience of a few hundred San Franciscans listening to people get up and spend ten minutes telling touching, funny stories. The setting was the Verdi Club, which is this quaint old italian social hall which can be rented out for weddings and (apparently) storytelling events.

There’s a tiny stage like you used to have in your grammar school auditorium. The lighting is terrible. But the voices are clear. The stories are wonderful and the organizers Arlene and Beth make everyone feel even more at home than Ira Glass does his guests on This American Life. There were live musical interludes to keep the evening moving including a heartbreaking rendition of Christmas Time from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special by a duo called Willow Willow.

And last night I went to Caffe Triest in Berkeley to see my friend Sonia Caltvedt play with Brian Wood’s jazz band. Live music should be a part of everyone’s week. More pictures from that night are in the gallery…