jeeeeeez it took long enough!

Waiting for the 24 in my NYC shoes...

just a little skype'n with Istanbul

It's an Em!

and then I had to take a nap

Walking home from Union Square... It was really hot today, but the clouds were lovely.

The long way home

All Simlished out on BART from SFO. I am tired, tired, TIRED! But what a rad day : )

Please sir, I want some more

I wasn't going to have a Guinness til I got back to Dublin, but that's a few months away still...Have an hour to kill before seeing "Oliver!" at 6th Street so why not enjoy a healthy beverage before listening to loads of orphans sing about glorious food and a cranky old scoundrel forcing kids to pickpocket on the streets of London? "Oliver!" was my first community theater production with Santa Rosa Players way back in 1987... I was one of those pickpockets, burning a cork to make soot for my face before the show. The dirtier the better! Ahhh what an opening to my theatrical experiences. I'm feelin nostalgic. It's gonna be fun!

Best description of my voice EVER

A few years ago I booked a video game off of voice123 - Obscure 2. It was unlike any character I had played before : a horror game - a bunch of teenagers in a messed up situation being chased by monsters. I can still remember the director telling me that I was "being raped by claws!" Ahhhhh!!!
It was a cool session because they were in Amsterdam and I was in Sausalito. I couldn't see them, didn't know their reactions. It was really a trip! All I could hear was them laughing after I did a take. It was kind of hard to know if I was giving them what they really wanted, but it sure was memorable. Definitely one of the most intense and fun gigs I've ever had!
Anyway, I found this blog today with the most AWESOMEST description of my voice.

"The truly remarkable Nicki Rapp, disembodied voice of cuteness (veteran of games like the Sims, Psychonauts and various cartoon shows), who had us all in stitches with her contagious laughing. If you search for it, her laughter is featured prominently early on in Obscure 2: it won’t do justice to the actual experience of sharing a joke with her and then hearing her giggle, but it’s the best next thing!"
--From Jesse America's blog about directing the actors on the game.

"Disembodied voice of cuteness"

How cool is that?

Foggy California Street

I love foggy evenings.

In Memory of a Poet

Yesterday I went to a Memorial Service for a man who made a difference in so many people's lives with his amazing capacity for words.
Don Emblen was 90 years old when he passed away, but when I worked in the coffee shack at Pacific Market in Santa Rosa, I always thought he was a lot younger, and I wished he was my age because of what he shared with me and the whole world.
Yea, I had a little crush :)
He was a Navy man, an English teacher, a loving husband and father, and what I didn't know is that he played the accordion (so cool!) He was the Poet Laureate for Sonoma County, and the way he connected words was magical.
Don drove for Volunteer Wheels. I loved his blue Volvo! He came by at least once a week. We would chat a bit and then he would take his coffee to a distant table, smoke and write. I loved seeing him sitting down there, solitary - writing something wonderful about a moment in his mind.
One day he came and asked me, "What happens to your hair in the fog?"
He came back a few days later with this:

"Pedestrienne"

That girl with the carroty hair down her back
walking calmly up the street
may have drifted down from an autumn tree-
a maple or pistachio-
so natural she seems, so unaware;
her mass of curls, crimped tight by the cold,
flames in the foggy air and warms us all.

Through the years Don wrote me some wonderful poems. When I moved to NYC we became pen pals. I would send him little paintings and stories of what I'd experienced that day; he would send me his latest poem. I treasure these gifts, and feel so lucky to have known him.

Yesterday at the Memorial I was taken aback by my emotion. Today as I walk around my apartment and read the poems he wrote me, up on the walls, in journals... it is all flooding back.


Here are a few more:

"The Girl At The Coffee Kiosk"

Her unhesitating smile--
like stepping early
into the garden,
sparkling still with dew,
and a hummingbird
touching flower after flower,
then zooming up
for a mid-air pause
to look at the whole,
the shining, aromatic whole,
this morning in June.


"Nicki"

At first I thought I saw
a dance of butterflies--
a flock? a bunch? a gaggle? ...
no; a dance will do)--
delaying me on the road to business.
Then it was a fist of marigolds
nodding to a lilting sort of song
as fresh as rosebud scent,
a waft across my way.
It was, in fact, a smiling red-haired girl
reminding me of a garden path
I might have trod.




I feel so honored and blessed to have known him.


Don Emblen
October 5, 1918 - April 24, 2009

Summer is delicious

Mmm... Caprese & iced coffee for a late breakfast. Super yummy : )

Magners alert!

Oh Zeki's... on the few occasions I have sat in your "pubby atmosphere" I was surrounded by dongs. On a sunny afternoon in San Francisco, I stopped by for a Guinness. "We only have Guinness in a bottle"
Not for me...
I thought I would just ask... I always get a big fat NO...
"Do you have Magners?"
"Yes, in a bottle." (!!!!!!!)
OMG. so happy!!
So close to my apartment!
It was a perfect day to sit and enjoy a chilled Magners over a bit of ice...
caught up with my journal a bit and sat by a window, watching people climb up California Street to Nob Hill.

The sun was out (rare these days) and I got to drink a Magners in public!
Nice way to start the week.

the red ones are best

A rad treat, Fairytale of New York & my favorite seat on the bus.