2004-01-13 - 3:16 p.m.

Dudes, Spalding Gray is missing. One of the great solo performers of our time is totally MIA.

This is not cool.

For those of you who don't know, Spalding Gray is a classic "Hey, it's that guy!" to quote Fametracker. In other words, you probably know the face, just not the name. He is also a writer and performer of a series of monologues about his life, parts of which are no doubt fictionalized. He rose to prominence with a filmed version of his monologue, Swimming to Cambodia, which concerned his experiences during the filming of The Killing Fields, a movie about the takeover of Cambodia by Pol Pot. If you have not seen this movie, go rent it, because even though it's just one guy talking for an hour and a half, it manages to be extremely funny and deeply moving. His later filmed pieces have included Monster in a Box (about writing a novel and the death of his mother by suicide) and Gray's Anatomy (about certain medical problems), and you can find CD versions or transcripts of It's a Slippery Slope (in which Spalding cheats on his girlfriend and gets a family in the process) and Morning Noon and Night (about the family he got). I've seen all but Morning Noon and Night, and all are beautiful.

I'm hoping he is found in tact. Then we can have a monologue entitled "The Reports of My Death have Been Greatly Exaggerated."

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