Crazyyyy

So Crazy, Just Like Me is over. It seems to me like I was just talking about the rehearsal process, and then all of a sudden I was hit with a wave of work - happy work, work that kept me busy and productive and really great artsy stuff, but so much that I took an internet vacation and stuck to zoning out when at a computer, mostly with Half-Life 2.

But. Here's a postmortum on Crazy: it was pretty much better than we could have ever anticipated. Technically speaking, it was a beautiful show, and the actors (including myself, I should toot my own horn sometimes) were fantastic. I was told it was better than the last version, which made me proud, and I genuinely think its true; it was a lot of hard work, but we all pulled our own weight, so I never was really worried it was going to be anything less of a sucess. We never had one of those "I can't believe it all came together somehow" - save the normal "I can't believe it all came together somehow" that all shows have... this one didn't seem as miraculous as some others I've worked on or have seen the processes of.

Good work, everyone. And now, I'm back to being online.. maybe. Who knows? First, I'm back to normal acting.

Love,

Ben

More Craziness

The trouble with the past couple of weeks? I've been way too busy for anything other than sleeping and eating, and the occasional video gaming (but even that's pretty rare, just ask my friends in Lord of the Rings Online). What have I been busy with? Well, that's easy, it's Crazy, Just Like Me, our revival of our production we did last year. It's going incredibly well, and we've had the great opportunity to film some backstage stuff; way more than we did for the last one. Plus, we're much better friends than we were the last time we put this up.

That and I've been lazy. And got a running stop sign ticket. That's fun.

So yes, nap time!

A Crazy Update

The first week of rehearsals for Crazy, Just Like Me, has been pretty fantastic. The read through was a little disappointing in terms of length of the script (my god, was it really 2 hours just to read?!) but actually sitting down and plugging away with the blocking of the first act was AMAZINGLY successful. In two days of rehearsing, we blocked the entire first act, and even had a musical rehearsal (of which I didn't participate in, but can only assume went well).

This cast is great, and working out the kinks from the last production is as easy as pie, and even evolving the good shit from the last production is great. I started this process in the beginning not wanting to change much - I liked how it was done the last time - but since we're in a bigger space, I wanted to use the entire venue, and try to have as few scene changes as possible. (So far, in the entire first act, we're up to 2, I predict 2 more in the second act (tailor scene and wedding). That reminds me, we need to get a trellis or something so they can walk through.

Anyway, these actors are really cool, and are responding very positively to my direction, even when it's something completely new from what they've tried before, the important thing is to play around with new things, exploring what these characters are going through from different angles. In a show that all of them have done before, the challenge is to find something new... and if it doesn't work, fuck! I quit. Or we can change it. (I'm taking my advice as well, trying to bring something different to the table. Yes, I'm in the show too.)

The next week we really kick it into high gear, and I plan on being off book for at least one of my scenes. Everyone else has the same amount of discipline, if not more so, but I know how awful it is to memorize lines... so good luck to us all.

Also, Stormfield is up! It's FUCKING BRILLIANT! Please check it out!

I was really looking for a name for our Glee Club...

So I found this http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/wikipedia-names-your-band/the_emo-band-name-generator and decided to try it out. Resulting in this:



I'm now addicted.

Documenting Stupidity

Hi friends.

Tonight (or rather last night, since it's now almost 3 am) I was pulled over by a cop, and was told I rolled through a stop sign. Not sure it was my fault, but in the end, I was the only person on the road... and well that cop wasn't an asshole.

In any case, I'm going to see how much it is, and if it's completely obscenely priced, THEN I'll try and fight it. I'm angry and said, especially because I'm a good guy. There are tons of horrible drivers out there, and me, the Good Guy, gets pulled over. Fuck. Well. If it's less than 200 bucks, I'll just do it and traffic school.

Fuck.

But I'll document it, because it's interesting in its horrible stupidness.

A day

One hour of pretty hard core exercise down, then a little bit of walking, then a nice healthy lunch. I am totally doing good today. I feel like I can do ANYTHING! Exercise really is the miracle drug. High on life. Sweet action.

Also, Legend of the Seeker is pretty good, if a little corny. But it's on the lines of Xena and Hercules, only a little darker... and I will accept this new direction this trusted fantasy guy is taking me. Even though Zedicus Zuul Zurander is a really stupid name. And wow, lightning on the sword? holy shit. This is getting weird.

Oh wow, in rambling stream of consciousness, google voice just sent me an email saying I have a new voicemail... and it's some dude talking about a laptop. Thought it was spam, but it turns out, it was an actual dude who called about a laptop and apparently this is the last number they had. This shit is pretty awesome.

Nothing much else to say. I hope to have a even more delicious dinner.

Wonderful walk with Monica this morning! She had a late meeting so we were able to walk into our small town and eat breakfast at the mediocre cafe I seem to like way too much. Oh, and hey my unemployment check came in.

Wish I was doing something more with this ton of time off... wish I really had the motivation to get into shape rather than just this halfassedly kinda thing, but when it comes to it, I really need more like a trainer to help me. Or at the very least a friend who is unemployed as well, and could go to the gym for 8 hours of a day. Well, maybe not that much. Don't think I'd be doing that much.

Smoke Detectoring

Should I wear shorts for the rest of the day or should I put on some pants? The temperature has dropped drastically, but I'm not really happy with the pants option. Not sure what I should do with this afternoon. No matter what, the worst I could be is cold, the best I could be is comfortable. I'm sticking with shorts.

This is my exciting news in my life lately. Also, the smoke detector is running low on batteries so it's being particularly annoying. Stupid safety and me having to go get some batteries. Sheesh.

AND I GOT MY NEW GLASSES! I'm super excited.

That's it.

Super Slow Internet

I'm convinced that no matter what internet is happening in this place, it will always be slow... at least this is consistently online... but no matter what, it's always dragging and awful. Even the surrounding wifi that I sometimes borrow around here is super incredibly sluggish.

Also, for some reason I really want to go to the Hollywood sign in LA. Like in all those movies where they're sitting around the sign. Can you do that? Is that possible? Or is that just a movie thing?

Also I want to go to Hawaii.

Also, I gained 2 pounds. Fuck.

Coupla Days

Has it been a while? Yeah, it happens, and a lack of events in my life have been keeping me from really writing anything else. Wildcat's been going well, and aside from some line flubs tonight, (and most every other nights) things have been smooth. Well, I'm always great, but those OTHER actors, well.. we can't all be a Ben.

Rocked out an audition tonight; trotted out a new song "Change in Me" - it turned out to be pretty amazing, and it impressed the audition people enough to have them read me for the three shows they're doing later this year.

wow, had to rewrite a bunch of these sentences - syntax is off in my tired state.

Saw Star Trek, Wolverine. Both were entertaining movies, Star Trek amazed my face off with it's awesomeness. Seriously, it's a wonderful new twist on the series that comes from people who really want the franchise to succeed. Thought nothing could pull back after Enterprise. Man, I might go see it again, and I don't really see movies twice in theatres anymore.

Okay, a pee and a tooth brush (hopefully not at the same time) and a bedtime for me.