Thursday, November 29, 2007

Shit I would mildly like to have because I have no wants this holiday season (well, okay, I do want a few):

iPhone or other multimedia phone: http://www.apple.com/ and elsewheres… verizon has a good package too, but iPhone is on the top of my list. http://www.wired.com/ has good reviews of phones.

The complete Bone collection: http://www.amazon.com/Bone-One-Jeff-Smith/dp/188896314X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196358685&sr=8-1

Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke (and/or other novels by her, she’s good): http://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Strange-Mr-Norrell-Novel/dp/B000ENWIJO/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196358805&sr=1-1

Any of the UK (but would gladly accept US editions, the bigger paperback versions) editions of Neil Gaiman’s work, the first 7 are the ones with the covers I enjoy: http://amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_/203-7359482-1146338?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Neil+Gaiman

An XBox360 with Mass Effect (it’s a game) and Rock Band (that’s a game too).

A class or two bought at Voicetrax: http://www.voiceover-training.com/

A subscription to Wired.

A subscription to New Scientist.

A good (photo?) printer. To print out my headshots.

A new job in the field that I’m interested in.

A Grad School away from Marin. (This is really the only thing I truly want.)

Music Lessons – singing and instrumental (accordion, guitar, ukulele, along those lines).

To be in a good play that is produced professionally.

All said, not quite a humble list, but I’m not greedy for these things, they’re just fun stuff that would definitely be a fun addition to my life. Especially the classes!

What do you want for the holidays?

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Ish

Ish is standing next to my desk.

Ish sometimes gets stuck in a conversation that he doesn't know how to end. He's Indian (dot not the feather) and I think he revels in the fact that he speaks English very well. Sorry, "very well" is the correct way of putting it.

Ish also stands very closely. It must be a difference in personal space.

Ish has a cool name.

Ish needs to go away now.

Supa




I have also been playing an obscene amount of Super Mario Galaxy lately. Trust me on this one, it's an amazing game. Definetly a wonderful successor to 64 and Sunshine, and still in the great silly world that is Mario. I'll give a full review after Bowzer stops killing me.

Although I've started wondering. How many years has it been since Mario has actually unclogged a drain? I'm sure getting the princess is well and good, but all those years of trade school and apprenticeship are totally going to waste.

The Labours of Liqueur

I went to my mom's house last night, and when I walked in the door, I found my stepdad amazingly drunk. This wasn't a simple, "hi-ho, I'm really drunk Ben, but I'm charming!" this was a, "hi-ho I think I'm so charming but I'm really just loud and am annoying you and your mother so that you don't get to talk or rest or eat or anything and I will just be talking really loudly even though I'm very tired so now I'm falling over oh look I'm on the ground now how funny is that I made a loud noise when I did it and now I'm trying to get up but it's not working and I'm still talking so loudly."
I noticed that almost an entire bottle of gin (Bombay Sapphire) was gone. Hey, I was going to drink that.

I have no problems with people drinking. I drink, you drink (unless you don't), and we enjoy it. It sometimes helps me relax from the day: work, performances, grandparents - and can be a truly enjoyable experience. However, I think Tim does it simply because he wants to get drunk. I've known a few people like this in the past, and could always ignore them, but of course it's always different when it's right next to you, when it's happening to someone you (mildly) care about. I don't think I'll ever understand why he drinks to get so stupid drunk. He pretty much has a cushy existance. He gets a TON of acting work, he is being almost fully supported by a woman who loves him and who won't leave him, and plus he gets to drink! Awesome! Oh wait, the drinking part's the bad thing.
----

Drew's show is sloshing along. Did an almost run through last night, starting an hour late, and ending by doing just the songs from act 2 and my one scene. Pretty songs. Pretty long songs. Long songs.
It's going to sound beautifully, be very silly, and look like someone pooped on a tiny version of the set and used that as blocking and scene design. That is the true problem with a labour of love: everyone is putting their entire hearts into the project and happily leaving their brains in a box at the door, so as not to get messy. My scenes are fun, but make little sense at times due to the almost random nature addition of my character to the play. It's going to be a good show, just not wonderful. But that is the nature of new works. Maybe someday it will be an amazing thing.

Just not next week.
---

Fun stuff:

The Onion's new Atlas. It's quite informative.


Best show on television! Is it sad that I'm more excited about that than the show I'm in or seeing my family this winter?

And I drew a cat

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Viva...?

*blinks at the daylight*

Hello there. I am back from Vegas. So much fun. For a place that evolved from lawlessness in the middle of a desert, I never felt safer. What an odd place, hundreds of miles of nothing, and then a big neon dumbass sprawling city that everyone across the world comes to pour money into. It's like a giant offering to some old god that people forgot, but the tradition lives on.

Gambled a little, ate a lot, sang a lot, then had horrible stomache problems a lot. It was an epic weekend to be had by all. And I had a sick day when I came back, spent on the toilet! Woohoo!

The highlight of the whole time (aside from winning money, which I did, and I am still very happy) was seeing Tom and being with him for his 50th birthday. He's an excellent person, and I am glad that I talk to him more often now. All of his brothers came out too, and we had a birthday dinner here, but not here, where my mom and I thought it was; we sat in Liberace's old bar, wondering where they were for a half an hour. I wouldn't know to recommend it for the food, but the drinks were tasty and made the evening go a lot more smoothly. I wonder why I never drank before? Everything's so simple: Talking to people, eating, vomiting, gambling, driving, sitting in a jail cell - what a wonderful magic drug it is.

But the dinner was lovely, and 2 hours later it was out of my body again, so I didn't even cheat with the high fatty foods! Huzzah for stomach viruses. Or whatever I have. Makes me feel special in a queasy way.

The next night my mom and I went and saw Penn and Teller (mostly because Neil Gaiman said it was cool) . That was the kind of show that really makes me enjoy the performing world. There were no frills and everything was very intelligent - they don't play to the lowest common denominator; they both trust that the audience is smart and can understand the topics they're talking about. No wonder they've been performing successfully for over 30 years, the last five in Vegas; it was a truly spectacular performance. They even had a jazz duo before the show. I could go on and on.

Of course, thinking about how they've been a team for 30 years and thinking about when they started their act, it made me want more of a drive towards a goal. Obviously the two of them have had to been driven, and it makes me think that this is the time of my life to start something big. It may not be comedy magic (most likely won't, actually), it may not even be acting, but I want to get out there and do something so that later in life I won't be thinking how much time I wasted sitting around in marin county making blog posts at work. I mean, who does that? Oh wait.

It was a wonderful trip, I'm definetly going to go back soon.

In other news, I just turned in my 401k plan. Way overdue. That's my contingency plan: if I don't become a huge success, at least I'll have some investments and other boring shit that everyone else deals with in their lives. It happens to the best of us. I'm just hoping that something better will come along. Either that or I'll live as a hermit, a druid, living of the plains and the fields and I'll make my house out of branches and whimsy.

I need another vacation.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Eating a Granola Bar

Just transferred all the posts over to my new blog which has yet to be designed. For now it's just an inverse thing of this site. But with theatre reviews. The ones that were up here. Remember?

I am always amazed by the joys of working here. One would think that working for artists would be different. I suppose it is, different than, oh say working for something evil. And yet, the pettiness and bitterness that flows within me is almost a constant. I have to fight to not become something that I hate. So that's why I must come up with little games to amuse me all day. Then, of course, I realize that that is the very thing that everyone else does to get through their day.

I wouldn't mind at all if there was something more along the lines of work at work, but the majority of my day I am reading the same websites over and over - convienently located at the right side of the page - and hiding them as quickly as possible when someone walks by. Lately though, there's less hiding, and more people noticing my (not so) secret obsessions with things that are marketed towards me, famous author's blogs, and other very random things.

On top of that, I do think that my neck is starting to get a horrible pain. I think it's answering telephones all day.

And through the magic of the paragraph break I am now 20 minutes later after someone came by my desk asking for where the Beaver File is. So I, trying not to titter reply:

"What?"

"The Beaver File."

"I really don't know what you're talking about."

"I meant FileMaker file. I have no idea why I said Beaver."