WARNING!

Reading this blog has made people want to kill themselves, so if you are easily depressed, perhaps you should find something more uplifting to do, like watch a Holocaust documentary or read a Cormac McCarthy novel.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

one down five to go

how is it that weekends can still feel different, even though you're not working and not actually taking a break? it's like my body actually knew today was saturday and acted accordingly. learned behaviour? years of conditioning? or something more mystical? i know not.

opening night went well. couldn't have asked for better weather - a nearly perfect summer night. good crowd too - a bit unresponsive at first, but they were totally in it by act v, which is when bottom shines anyway. so great to have an audience reacting - jazzes our performance. not a perfect performance, but an excellent opening night. elizabeth and krystal came to show (on krystal's birthday!) which was a pleasant surprise. they enjoyed the show and we talked quite a bit afterwards. tonight amelia and brian are supposed to be there and brent will be here on sunday, along with julie and emma. always good to have friends in the audience, even if you don't know they're there.

the only downside - my voice is shot. all my liquidating and resting went right out the window once the play started. i tried to take it easy, let the mike do the work, but i'm not used to doing that and i tend to fall into my "acting zone," letting the physical stuff go on automatic pilot so i can concentrate on the character/lines. may have to work on that. don't anticipate completely losing my voice, but don't want to risk it, either.

quick plug: if you're ever in sharonville, check out the blue goose. great food, great atmosphere, and they fixed the separate checks issue from last summer, which means the cast is there a lot. their burgers are amazing and their salads would make elaine benes proud.

no major plans for the day - gina needs me to run her to get her oil changed. but beyond that and a nap, i've got nothing before the show. much better timing last night - an hour before seems doable. and God was kind enough to send arby's coupons in the mail, so i had dinner last night for $2.39. if anyone gets the reach magazine and doesn't use the arby's coupons, 'twould be great if you could save them for me and pass them along. i, like many actors, am a bit superstitious, so 'twould like to keep a certain routine going until i have a bad performance, then i'll shake it up. so could be a lot of arby's in my future. not that i'm complaining....

ok, need to go put my costume in the dryer. i should go mow the lawn but don't want to. of course, that means i won't get to it until tuesday at the earliest. so much for my plans of getting all this housework done before the weekend....
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Tunes: def leppard - rock of ages

Friday, August 04, 2006

i know, i'm going to bed, leave me alone

just got back from ally's going away soiree at the grill formerly known as hamburger mary's. sad to see her go, though she did meet the one requirement for friends that move away - going somewhere i might want to visit someday. went after our truncated final dress for midsummer. lovely time for a rain storm. and always right before the play within a play. ah well, probably good for my voice i didn't have to do it. it's a bit on the puny side at the moment - nothing worrisome, just haven't been kind to it this week. personally, tonight's rehearsal was infinitely better than last night's suckfest. wow. amazing what lack of sleep will do to your ability to focus and remember your lines. we are so ready for this show. we had a bit of an audience tonight, which helped a lot because we've kind of forgotten where the funny bits are. good to have that feedback.

the nap this afternoon helped my performance tonight, but not sure it's going to do much for my going to bed tonight. i was good at mary's and drank only water and have avoided caffeine all day. just need to keep doing that for the run of the show.

please, come see it. it's free (donations accepted, of course) and it's fun to see shakespeare outside.

ok, enough begging.

my trip to half price was only partially successful. i didn't find anything to read, but i did pick up one of my favorite emma thompson movies - dead again - for $5. score! also picked up the book of questions to help when i get stuck for journal entries. and i've been thinking perhaps i might go through the book and post my answers to the questions. ideally, it's best to do this in a groups setting, so if you're feeling game (not gamey - that would be me after the play), feel free to play along. won't do it every day and it won't be the only thing i do, but hopefully it might help me be a bit more consistent.

we shall see.

amusing moment from wednesday night's daily show - i guess an arabic interpreter was discharged from the army under the "don't ask/don't tell" policy. his superiors received some anonymous e-mails, so they questioned him. the two questions they asked? do you have any gay acquaintances? and - wait for it - have you done any community theater?

looks like i won't be enlisting any time soon....

bedtime. we open in nineteen hours. woohoo!
Æ

Tunes: indigo girls - closer to fine

Thursday, August 03, 2006

friends in the news

DIY Alternative Energy starring Angie and Andy Ferrell (and written by Steven Carter-Novotni)

Local Medical Professionals Find Joy in Making Music starring Jason Seavolt and Kevin Patrick

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Wednesday, August 02, 2006

mistakes were made

mistake #1: eating at the goose at 10:00pm
mistake #2: drinking copious amounts of iced tea
mistake #3: getting sucked into someone's blog
mistake #4: listening to music as i tried to fall asleep
mistake #5: not finding a way to cool off

all this lead to me not sleeping until around 4:00AM

no prayers today.

need to go eat lunch, but don't know what/where. time to do some grocery shopping but my head's not in it at the moment and i'll just end up buying a bunch of stuff i won't actually be able to use to fix meals (but those doritos looked so tasty - and they were BOGO free).

this day is going to be oh so unproductive, i can tell.

methinks jalepenos is calling my name.

seems the van in a van trip has hit a speedbump - tickets are sold out for the first couple of weeks. doing it over thanksgiving would be best for me - otherwise, with the goofy schedule this year, i may not be able to swing it - trimester doesn't end until december 1 this year. weird.

ahh! i don't want to think about that yet. i still have a couple of weeks....

i need a book to read during the show. geisha is too big to take with me and i would hate to get sweat and makeup on it since it's a borrowed book. see, if i go to jalepenos, i can walk over to half price and i can find myself something. but what? nothing on my radar at the moment. i'll take suggestions, though won't do me a lot of good immediately. but i'll definitely keep them for future reference.

i can feel summer slipping through my fingers. day two of august and i've done...nothing. with plans to do nothing. nothing is good sometimes but not as good as something or anything even. well not anything - that could get me in trouble.

and i've confused myself. stupid lack of sleep.
Æ

Tunes: ac/dc - back in black

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

what? two in one day?

didn't get home from dress in time to catch my daily dose of the daily show/colbert report, so i'll be taping it to watch it tomorrow morning. which means i have time to do another post and, more surprisingly, a desire to post.

too bad it is about nothing of significance.

here's a quick update of my media indulgences so far this summer, in no particular order:

books
  • ragtime - doctorow - B+
  • jpod - coupland (second reading) - A-
  • will in the world - greenblatt - A
  • possession - byatt - A+
  • perfume - suskind - A
  • real sex - winner - B
  • more ready than you realize - mcclaren - B
movies
  • xmen 3 - C-
  • superman returns - C-
  • pirates of the carribean - A
  • clerks ii (twice already) - A
  • the break up - D+
  • a scanner darkly - A-
  • nacho libre - B-
music (sorry, no ratings, i like 'em all. and all but rhett comes courtesy of e-music)
  • big star - #1 record/radio city
  • gary hoey - the best of gary hoey
  • tremolo - love is the greatest revenge
  • rhett miller - the instigator
  • josh ritter - the animal years
  • neko case - fox confessor brings the flood
  • patty griffin - a kiss in time
took a break in compiling this list to talk to anne, who i haven't talked to in forever. great to catch up with her - she has a marvelous gift and i always feel more loved and appreciated after talking to her. thank you God for weaving her life into mine.

ok, morning prayers are in - eek - six hours. must go to sleep. if i can.
Æ

Tunes: chagall guevara - treasure of the broken land

deceive, inveigle, obfuscate

seriously, what happened to july? i turned around and *poof* it was gone, with nothing to show for it. hmmmm. i know i did stuff. rehearsal mostly. and sweating. lots of sweating. and over the last couple of days, i've spent too much time playing this. my high score is 1171.4

no use trying to catch up. be painful for all involved. so we press on.

i suppose i should come clean. i've rediscovered something over the past couple of weeks, a part of who i am as a person i've kept suppressed for close to 17 years. i buried it because i was ashamed. i buried it because it didn't fit with the image on wanted to portray. i buried it because i hate mockery. but last tuesday, the grave was officially shaken open and out came my secret:

hello. my name is thurman. and i'm a metalhead wannabe.

now i can't lay claim to being an actual metalhead - my taste in metal skews farther toward the hairband side than the speedmetal side (think: more def leppard, less slayer). and i've never really run with the right crowd for it - blame it on my nazarene upbringing and the fact that most metal lyrics leave much to be desired. sorry, just never been a big fan of the apocalypse and rarely feel the need to curse God. i tried the hair in high school (oy, are those pictures i wish would disappear), but it was the 80s and everyone's hair was big.

but man, do i love a good riff and a screaming guitar solo.

been spending the last week listening to all the metal in my collection, which, despite my lengthy denial, is still pretty hefty (over 600 songs). never really gave it up completely - i mean, my obsession with king's x has kept me at least superficially connected. and i can't help but smile every time i hear boston or def leppard or guns and roses reminding me of glorious summer nights back in high school. this is as much a part of me as my more "mature" choices in music, and, because of their role in shaping who i have ultimately become, maybe even more.

i actually began a post about how i became a metalhead wannabe, but scrapped it because i couldn't figure out where to go next. maybe i'll work on it again.

90 degrees at the moment, which means it will be another sweat-filled rehearsal. i pity my fellow actors. last night was rough - heat muddled my brain and i had trouble with lines i've never struggled with before. will be better tonight. a bit scary to think we go up on friday. but it looks to be a great show. oh, and if i happened to send you an e-mail, be aware that the matinees on sunday are at 6:00PM, not 4:00PM. silly me.

and while i'm making large scale announcements, did i loan my almost famous: the bootleg cut to anyone out there? mine has turned up missing and i can't for the life of me remember who i loaned it to. i don't need it back, i just want to know where it is.

spoke briefly with aaron yesterday - i had been a bit in limbo over what was happening as far as our birthing process. a couple of the churches look to begin tonight. and i wasn't sure the one i was to lead even existed any more. but i'm feeling better about it now and am looking forward to seeing where God leads us. still a bit trepidatious, but i don't believe that's terribly unusual in situations like this. a little anxiousness and pain is involved in any birth - only there's no drugs for this one (unless slurpees count...).

ok, time to relax and clear my head for tonight. here's hoping august is more post-filled than july was.
Æ


Tunes: king's x - we are finding who we are