Tuesday, July 22, 2008

real life entry

the dark knight was amazing. i saw it as soon as i could, and it was truly astonishing. this is one more drop of positive in a sea of nerds creaming themselves in pleasure, but it really was that good. it was thrilling and dark and intense and somehow uplifting. although it felt weird seeing it on a hot july day, i am glad it did, because watching that on a bleak february day would be too much to stand. it managed to make Batman Begins look like a fucking 'my little ponies' tv movie for crying out loud. i can't recommend it enough, you guys. it made me excited about film again!

i hope there weren't any substantive spoilers in that. i'm trying to avoid posting them, but it's hard when it's such a great film and all i want to do is talk about it. see it, and then we CAN talk about it.

walking back from the theatre, 'the only way' by mark erelli (as covered by ellis paul and vance gilbert) came up on my ipod and it was perfect. especially the following stanza (?):
But they circled wagons
They gathered round
As they bravely pulled our brothers
And our sisters from the ground
And I know
I owe them more
Than to be afraid

in obtaining that quote, i have found out that the version i have is a cover, and the original writer, mark erelli, went to bates college and might know kate spencer. i will have to ask her. 'oh hey kate, this singer songwriter i know from college... no i didn't go to school with him, he just did 1 or 2 shows every year on campus, and i have all his albums, and he's great; ellis paul? yeah well he and this other folk singer, vance gilbert covered this one song by this guy who i read about on the internet and found out he went to bates around the same time as you? uh. yeah. do you know him?'

note to self: imagining future awkward conversations is almost as bad as reliving conversations after they have happened and cursing yourself for every perceived awkward or potentially inappropriate moment.

bad data's show with 'thank you, robot' and 'we can't live in a cave' on friday was really fun. many thanks to the people who made it out. i enjoyed myself thoroughly. i teched the previous TYR hosted nights and it was so much fun, but it was great to be able to perform too. the whole night reaffirmed for me how much i need to put comedy generally, and writing and performing in the forefront of my efforts. i need to stop being a a lazy asshole. also, i had an awesome time at the bar afterward, which was much needed.

i tech'd a show on saturday, where it was roughly a billion degrees inside the theatre space. it managed to be a funny and thoroughly entertaining show nonetheless. my hat is off fat penguin and daystallion, two incredibly strong and talented independent improv teams for pulling that off. thanks to andrea and bridget in particular for being my 'lights helpers', hitting the lightswitch across the room to give the black out after the heat cause the entire lightboard and one of the A/Cs to blow a fuse. yay heat waves! i can't imagine what this city was this like in the summer before the subways were air conditioned.

my two rehearsals were both fun this weekend as well. amey goerlich is an awesomely perceptive coach. i started a new 501 class last night with zach woods. the first class was really great. it's a small class (13!) and it seems to be filled with really strong players for the most part. i am really psyched about learning from zach; his notes on scenes were spot on; no punches were pulled, but his advice was always well-thought out and constructive. and he was really emphasizing joining in the fun always, which is a major issue of mine right now. i feel compelled to be the straight man fairly often, and i am working on being more emotionally authentic in my performances; both of those things cause me to remove myself from the action of the scene and start commenting on it. i can start to keep my perspective while still joining in on the fun. TIMETOPUTTHATINACTION,MOTHAFUCKAS!

also, bridget (fat penguin) and seth (thank you, robot) are in my class and that makes me smile because i lurve them.

No comments: