tape should be sticky

I have decided that this removable double sided tape is a failure as a tape because it DOESN'T FRIGGIN STICK. That's the whole purpose of tape!!! I'm retaping all the stuff I already taped with different tape because the pictures keep falling off.

Domino sucks, don't watch it.

I dreamed I was working in a theater, again. I looked up on stage and they had a bunch of side pipes running upstage downstage in the wings, and they were packed with ianeros. (Cyc lights) Usually, you use them in a single row to light the cyc. Here, there were probably 40 of them, just packed in up there, and some were somehow up on end. I recall asking someone if those lamps burned out faster, because I was told that they aren't designed to go up on end, it makes the lamp filaments burn out. They said no, but they were a pain to hang that way. I said it's much easier if two people do it. As usual, I was trying to find my way around the place, and I was trying to go from backstage to out in the house. I saw a way I thought I could go, but as I walked toward it the ceiling got lower and lower and the part I thought I could go through was only 8" tall. I turned around and found another way, but then I had to crawl over the light board and sound board operators, because they were both crammed in the SR aisle right by the orchestra pit.

Back in reality, I'm still getting through the portfolio. Friday night I was up until 4am working on it, just because I was on a roll and not feeling sleepy. Yesterday I was going to print resumes, but the computer at Kinko's didn't want to see the file on the CD, so I'll have to go back. I also bought more foam core. Hoo boy, that stuff is expensive. And I now have quite a bit of it.

Ow! damn, that's cute

The cute here is so intense that if you are not careful, it will cause physical damage. Reader beware:

http://www.cuteoverload.com/

If you are ever feeling sad and need the cute to fix it, this is your site.

for example:

The end is in sight...

This is what I've been working on all week. Well, most of it. My smaller portfolio is not in the picture, and I've been working on it too. It contains almost all the pictures shown below, and a quite a few more. But generally speaking, this is a good sample of all the shows I've done in the past 3 years.

click for very big


Starting on the top left, we have: Killer Joe, Tape, a sampling of dance, Measure for Measure, and Good. The next row has Crumbs From the Table of Joy, Dialogues des Carmelites, and The Trial.

It, uh, looks like a lot more in real life. :) I still have a few things to reprint, or print for the first time, but I'm ALMOST done printing pictures. I may yet escape ink poisoning.

I've been busy. Yesterday I printed more pictures and worked on my portfolio a bunch. I also worked on my dress, and went to a theatre department thing. At the thing, the 3rd year actors did a thing, then all the graduating people had their names read off and were given a t-shirt and certificate. I was the only lighting person there. Victor showed up later. Another anticlimax. I don't know what it is about ending this whole grad school business that is just so damned anticlimactic.

so many movies...

Our DVD player died. Therefore, I am in the mood to watch movies. Bah! Today I went up to school for this reception, and accidentally got trapped for three hours. There was some nice food to eat, then came the talking. When I finally escaped, I had to get back home, pick up my portfolio stuff, and go back to meet Victor to talk about the stuff. By the time I got home it was 8. Not quite what I'd planned to do with my afternoon. Donald and I watched Scrubs, and have been on the couch ever since.

We're looking at flight and hotel information for our upcoming NYC trip. Prices are daunting. And the prices we're looking at don't include eating or doing anything. But it will be okay, this is our honeymoon and we're going to have fun, dammit. We will go to Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it will be neat. :D

finally getting something done

After moping around and not getting anything much done for two days, I'm being productive. Pretty much all day, in fact. I spent the morning figuring out the layout for my Trial pictures, and getting everything arranged into photoshop files so I could just print them right out. Then I got a bunch of other stuff ready to print out as well.

After lunch, I went to pick up my sandals, which now have brand spankin' new soles. It cost $45, which is a lot less than a whole new pair of birks would cost. I get the added bonus of not having to break them in all over again. I dropped them off Tuesday, so the shoe repair guy was super speedy. After that I went to the grocery store, then back home to put everything away. Then I headed right over here to print pictures, which I've been doing for about an hour and a half now.

The only problem with the printing is that only one out of the three printers actually works. I looked at the manual to see if I could figure it out. I think one of them needs a print head cleaned, but I have no tools to do that. The other one looked like the only problem was that the black ink was low, so I switched cartridges with the print head one. That didn't work, the colors are wrong, so maybe a cyan cartridge is messed up. I wasted 4 sheets of paper on that stupid printer. Now I'm printing on one printer only. It's slooow, but still worth it because the print quality is excellent.

Now I'm just waiting for the last few pictures to print. I'm ready to go home now. Very hungry.

another dream

I dreamed last night that I was working on a show (gee, that's new) and it was about 5 minutes until curtain for a preview. I decided to say hi to my grandparents on the way over to the theater, because they were right across the street. I went in to say hi to my grandpa, and he was working on a project involving a countertop. I told him I was going to say hi to grandma, and went to find her in the basement.

The basement was much larger than any real basement, and I saw a figure at the end. I went over to her, but it wasn't grandma, it was a small woman who smiled, but didn't say anything. I talked to her for a minute, and touched her shoulder, then she went around a corner and disappeared. I realized that she was a ghost, specifically the ghost of Sarah Grace, who was my great great great great great grandmother. (In the dream anyway.) I tried to get her to come back but no luck.

I went upstairs and had just about given up on finding grandma, when I saw a lump under the covers at the foot of the bed. I pulled back the covers and there she was, she'd been hiding, but she was Gray Kitty. Apparently, my grandma is an animagus. And, then I was late for the preview.

smooothie

Yesterday I made a very tasty smoothie. I lack motivation to make food in general, but when it's hot out I get worse. Yesterday managed to hit all temperatures, and in the afternoon it was damn hot. Now that I have some smoothie, I don't need to think about food, just take it out of the fridge and eat it.

Smoothie goodness:

1/2 package soft tofu (it's good for you)
1 cup strawberry cheesecake yogurt (I'd have put more, but there was only one.)
1 small cup of cherry flavored applesauce (It's waay too sweet to actually eat alone)
small amount frozen mixed berries
a lot of frozen strawberries

This made about 5 yogurt cups full. It turns out too thick to drink, but is good to eat with a spoon. If I wanted to actually drink it, I'd add juice. I add the tofu because it's good for me, and I generally don't eat enough things that are good for me. The bland tofu taste is overpowered by hell of strawberries. One very useful tip is to put the liquidy stuff in first, before the frozen stuff, so the blender doesn't jam up. I tried it, and it really works.

My smoothies have lots of strawberries because I have a huge bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer. Gererally, I figure all things fruity are good. I once put berry popsicles in, minus the stick of course. Yogurt makes the whole thing sweeter too. The applesauce is something I just thought of last night, but I really like it.

So, instead of working on my portfolio, I was thinking about smoothies. My procrastination knows no bounds!!

Now that I'm back I've had many things to do. Right after I got home, we went for a dress fitting. It went fine, and I have no doubt that I'll have a dress to wear. I've basically just been running around for the past few days. The caterer made some food for us to taste, I went to the grocery store, and I helped make food for easter, since my mom has a cold. Without Grandpa, the whole time it felt like everybody wasn't there yet, but it was a nice time. Tomorrow I'll be hanging lights all day, butI wish I wasn't because I have a lot of errands to do.

I'm home. :)

insert clever title here

Yesterday was one of the most boring days off ever. I knew going home from rehearsal Sunday night that it would be boring, and my crankiness began. I was "home" by 8:30 Sunday, which is awesome, being that rehersal was scheduled until midnight. The problem is that I don't really have anything to do or anywhere to go here. So I sat in my room, watched some TV and went to bed early.

On Monday, I had to get up early of all things to go in to the theater so the Set Designer could oversee some notes. It was either that or sit in hotel room all day. So I went, and was annoyed at the unreliable connection they have there for several hours. About noon I decided to walk and get myself some lunch. I took my time, being in no hurry. When I got back I played a little Rollercoaster tycoon. Then we went back to the hotel and I took a nap until about dinnertime, since I was all tired out from... well, nothing.

After dinner we finally did something, and went to listen to some more live music for an hour or 2, and the Sound Designer joined us. I was glad I took my earplugs, because it was loud. Since I couldn't hear much of anything over the music with or withour earplugs, that was the perfect time for the 2 of them to have a conversation about how much they get paid for stuff like this. Talk about valuable information to a student like me. I think I got the gist of it, but why couldn't they have that chat when I could actually hear??

I'm glad to be coming home soon.

I'm very disappointed in you guys that aren't posting. Don't you know you're supposed to entertain me while I'm out of town? :D

Do your damn job already

I'm getting annnoyed at the electrics crew here. Pretty much every day we find some light that isn't working. It's been the same light more than once. Is there a reason you haven't fixed it yet? Any when we say we'll be in at 11, why are we the first ones here? Shouldn't you be in before that, to turn things on and get stuff ready? Or maybe fix stuff for good so we don't have to keep taking the same damn note? Obviously I'm spoiled by SMJ's efficency. Rargh!

Things get interesting

The fiddle player's dad is sick, so he hasn't been here at all yet. I think he'll be in on Tuesday. The musical director (Danny) has been filling in for him. We had a meet and greet the other day, where Danny aked if anyone had a violin. Everyone laughed, then he said no seriously, does anybody have one? The other guy took his with him so they needed one. So Danny's been playing the part of Leon, which is pretty familar to him since he used to play that part about 10 years ago.

A couple days ago, The lead started to get sick. He was starting to lose his voice last night, so Danny sang for him, while still playing fiddle for the other guy, and the lead continued to play the guitar part. Today's reheasal added costumes, so it started off with Danny wearing the other guys' Leon costume, which happened to fit pretty well. After a bit of rehearsal, it was apparent that the lead's voice is pretty much gone, so they sent him to the doctor. Now, the musical director is standing in for him and playing the guitar, while nobody is playing the fiddle, so the steel guitar player is picking up the fiddle parts, on the steel guitar. How convoluted is that?

you shoot the fish, we're in Texas, remember.

Yesterday we came in to do some notes, and get started on tech. It rained, so it was even more humid that usual. I'm used to humidity, but in Missouri it comes with heat. Then you go inside somewhere and it's cold, but dry-ish. Here, you go inside and it's cold and humid, which is really weird.

We walked to dinner yesterday. The sound designer picked a seafood place close by that was more expensive than I'd have liked, but I ordered from the appetizer menu. The menu said cajun chicken strips, but they turned out to be completely normal chicken strips, and the fries were nothing special, and my side of broccoli was really tough. So I ended up full, but unsatisfied. The SD ordered a mixed seafood skewer thing over dirty rice, and proceeded to not eat a single roasted vegetable. He just left them. What a waste.

The day ended early, at 9, so Don and I went in search of live blues music. We tried a place called Deep Ellum Blues first. The guy there was okay, but extremely loud, and all the songs sounded basically the same. It was still early, so we went off to another place Hole in the Wall. They weren't kidding with the name, but the music was really good. There was even a drunk girl who dragged random guys up to dance with her. She ran into the wall a few times, but didn't fall down once!

edit: Don and I were discussing using laptops for warmth. I said that a cat works pretty well. He suggested that the theater should provide some cats, along with the blankets. Hee hee!

Thanks to Denise for cuteness

Dallas day 2

Focus started at 9. The process isn't as well organized here as I would have liked. It started out fine, but by the end of the day was really dragging. They had more than enough crew, so I had very little to do. As I sat there, I got colder and colder, until the board op turned me on to the blankets they provide. Apparently, the theater gets so cold that they provide blankets. Why don't they just change the temperature? It seems that their AC system is so old and wonky that if they they to change the temperature more than 1 degree in half an hour, the system breaks. I was told that it wasn't that bad today, but by the end I was using my laptop for warmth again. Cold as it was, it was still humid enough that the paper on my notepad was getting wavy, and my hair is curlier than normal.

Speaking of wacky-ass theater, here are some pictures:







As you can see, the house is semicircular. The catwalks are very curved, and the innermost ring circles all the way around the stage, I think. The theater is that excellent red color that everyone gets rid of when they remodel, only they can't here, because it's historic. I need to take some more pictures, because the backstage is really weird, and there are odd diagonal stairways and such.

I took a little walk around outside at lunch, to enjoy the nice weather and honestly, just warm up some. The theater is in a park area, next to the aptly named Turtle Creek. There was a lot of trash floating in it in places, but it was still pretty. I didn't get that close to it, but from my vantage point, I saw 11-12 turtles without trying hard, as well as a big fish and some birds. Full of trash it may be, but the turtles don't seem to mind. They were enjoying the sun as much as I was.





I'm finishing my day sitting at my laptop, watching Mythbusters. Earlier I watched ballroom dancing. Later, I'll read and go to bed. Exciting, no? Also, it seems that my room will either be humid, or cold. Which will I choose?? Tune in tomorro- ah, even I don't care about that one. :D

I'm in Texas

Well, I'm in Dallas. The flight was fine, and I'm settled in to my (awfully nice) hotel room. The LD and I went over to the theater this afternoon to have a look at things. The theater is really weird. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, to give you an idea, and it's chock full of odd shapes. The theater itself has a really low ceiling, so the angle for lighting is a lot flatter than would be ideal. The stage itself is pretty small, and the back wall is actually curved. I will take pictures to share soon.

After that we bought some groceries and went back to the hotel. It's a Residence Inn by Mariott, and it's really suite. Haw haw, but seriously folks, it's plenty spacious. One of my first thoughts was, if this was an apartment in New York, how much would it cost? A lot, no doubt. It has an entire kitchennette, so it's set up nicely for long term stays. Tonight I made myelf a cup of tea, watched the History Channel, and used my laptop. Tomorrow focus is at 9am.

Here's a poorly stitched together composite pic of my room: (click for big)

Sitting through another tech here. The weird thing about this one is that I'm not in the house, we're all actually on the stage. In another Fine Production from Barry F. K, the audience is on the stage, and the whole thing is behind the curtain for act one. Act two is said to take place in the normal configuration, but I don't think we'll be getting to it tonight, so I won't be seeing it until I watch a performance when I get back from Dallas. I'm mainly entertaining myself with the internet, while using my laptop as a heater to keep me warm. The fellow student that I'm assisting isn't very well organized but I've certainly seen worse.

Awesomeness of the day: A local liquor store has Strongbow! Donald went and got me some when I was in rehearsal yesterday, but I haven't gotten to try it yet, since last night I had to get to bed. Perhaps tonight.

After going to bed in a crappy mood, I had some very weird dreams. At one point, I needed to get across a big field that I knew had monsters in it, but I thought I saw a path so I went for it. I got through, to the road on the other side, but there was a monster there too. I threw some fireballs at it, but it killed me anyway, so I reloaded, because I wisely saved before entering the field.

At another point, I was in a place with a bunch of people from school, and I had the impression that we'd just finished doing a big project or something like that. It came out that J and R had been sleeping together secretly. (This is completely ludicrious in reality, for so many reasons.) Both of them also have significant others, who didn't seem all that bothered. Another J was filling out a form and writing on it "sleeping with each other." It was very odd. Also odd was that the building we were in had a bunch of weird areas you could climb to up ladders, then sit in a chair once you got up there.

Later I was in a checkout line with some food, when I realized that the person in front of me was Kevin, but I hadn't recognized him earlier. Then, since nobody was checking my lunch out, I checked myself out. I used the scanner and the credit card thing and everything. The clerk came back and was very flustered, because it seemed that I'd done it wrong. Well, I figured that's why they have a clerk.

Somewhere in the dreams there were also houses, and Japanese food.

This day didn't turn out very well either

I spent the early part of the day setting up some crappy lights for the Quixotic event tomorrow. It was pretty sad, but crappy lighting is better than no lighting. I got some help from J, who was annoying me thoroughly by 3. In her constant chattering, she said that the Person of Some Importance was very pleased with her work for the Harry remount. She also said that he said something about if there was another situation like that with a remount that he'd like her to do it. She also said that something was mentioned about her possibly designing something for the Rep in the new stage. All of this speculation is likely untrue, but it makes me furious. I was supposed to do Harry. She only got to do it because I pulled out because of scheduling with another show, which I also pulled out from. That isn't the point. I just want some of the opportuntities. I want something for myself. I want fucking good jobs. I want to work at the Rep. I was hoping to have a position there next year, but SMJ said that he's been told they don't plan to hire any new people next year. I'm feeling very disappointed and unhappy right now. I don't want to spend the rest of this weekend in a tech, I don't want to spend all monday loading in dance, I don't want to go out of town, I don't want to do ANYTHING. Fuck it. I'm going to bed.