This is Urinetown!

So. I haven't posted for quite a while. I've been busy. But Urinetown opens tomorrow night, so here's a quick catch-up.

I feel good about the performance. Our newbie tech guy made some nasty mistakes during dress tonight, but we have tech, makeup, and costumes on top of our lines, songs, and blocking, and it's all fitting together well. I finally have a lock on my F-sharp. Props have been assembled. Our Incompetent Freshmen Set Crew from Hell is turning into a genuine set crew under the guidance of our graduated stage manager. The songs sound great. We open tomorrow night.

Now for the bad: I dislocated my left knee this afternoon. Basically, I was trying to perform a partial split style (jazz split?), and my utter lack of flexibility decided to punish me for it. It was quite painful, as dislocations are wont to be, but momentary and thus far from incapacitating. T, however, apparently still has guilt from when I badly dislocated my right knee two years ago and asked if he ought to call the paramedics ("no need"), considered fetching crutches ("really, it's not that bad"), and tried to convince me to deliver all my lines and songs during the dress rehearsal while sitting in the audience ("Over my dead body!"). I probably sound like the stereotypical wanna-be-tough guy right now--"it's just a sprain"--but seriously, I had full motion back nearly immediately. Worse has happened, and in this very cast, too--two days ago Vince (our lead) had to get staples from a chair falling on his head. T is also insanely superstitious about saying Macbeth--which, for the record, I had not--but that's another issue.

Back to the good. Presentations of our second art projects in Humanitas are coming up, and this time I'm ahead of schedule. This time the assignment was a representation of the relation between the One (read: god) and the Many. Mine's basically a mass game of hide-and-seek with blindfolds and no chance of success, as I (acting as the One) in this activity will not be there to be found. Zeus and Art liked the idea when I bounced it off of them.

Time to turn in. *hums "Snuff That Girl" on way to bed*

Movie day

Spent the early afternoon watching Othello with Kenneth Brannaugh as Iago. Spent the mid-to-late afternoon in Berkeley watching Legend with the Playreaders crowd. Sure, it's an 80s fantasy movie with dated special effects, cheesy dialogue, and a young Tom Cruise without pants, but it still has its charms. Spent the evening watching When Harry Met Sally.

Depending on who you ask I look like either Hamlet (wearing all soft black) or Hitler (hair).

I feel tired unusually early. Better turn in.

Happy Valentine's Day indeed!

I just got a letter from St. John's Santa Fe: I'm in!!! You were right, Lantern! *dances*

More demotivation

It's not fair

Full tuition scholarship, $5,000 each year, $1,000 each year for housing, and $2,500 for international study. All offered by...University of Texas. *headdesk*

Why is it that the colleges I like the least are the ones that want me the most!?

Blood, sweat, and sharpie

Making good progress on my Humanitas project. In case I haven't mentioned it before, the assignment was a representation of God/the one/pure form. Mine is my attempt to wrap my head around eternality, although I wish I'd come up with a less labor-intensive concept than a transparent rotating timeline. The frame is 90% constructed, and I just finished the last of the timeline images (but I'd better get high marks in the concept department, as technically it's looking rather shoddy. Sharpie on acrylic is apparently the only way to get free-standing (after Epoxy), see-through images, and such a medium leaves very little room for precision or erasing). Tomorrow morning should give me enough time to attach all my images to the timeline base. Monday I bring the timeline back to school and attach the tapers. Tuesday I finish the axis of rotation and put the timeline on. Wednesday I install the timeline into the frame and secure the final crossbeam. Thursday I present (so says the schedule, but in reality we're running behind). That parenthetical note theoretically gives me the long weekend to do any extra work, but once I Epoxy the images I'll hit the end of what I can do at home, seeing as the frame is too big and spindly to transport with ease.

Dun, dun, dun, dunn-da dun, dunn-da dun...

Are the Peruvian police's fashion designers feeling a bit...evil today?

Shotgun Players

March through April I have volunteered to assist the Omnipotent Softy (and Lantern the AD) as a stage hand for the Stotgun Players' production of Mrs. Warren' Profession, and the first public reading was this evening. All I knew about it previously was that it was a Shaw play, but my previous experiences with Shaw (Man & Superman and Heartbreak House) were both enjoyable. This too is shaping up to be a good play. As an aside, the last couple of pages gave me some Lear 1.4 flashbacks. OS will see me back at tech week in a little over a month.

Urinetown rehearsals are also going well; we've finally gotten into Act II. That blasted F-sharp at the end of Mister Cladwell continues to vex me. Hopefully I can get in some work on it a choral rehearsal tomorrow and my voice lesson on Wednesday. While waiting around during scenes that don't need me I learned that we have a crowbar and what must be a flail (the one-handed 1d8+Str kind) lying around. The crowbar I can understand, as it was found on a shelf with other tools. The flail not so much. Some social complications I thought were gone are still apparently present. They will be resolved shortly. I have forgotten how to tie a noose. That will also be resolved shorty. Those two promises are unrelated.

Occidental says that T's letter of recommendation doesn't count because he's a drama teacher. Good thing my Shakespeare teacher wrote an ambush letter; I'd better make sure it was sent out.

It's late. Sleep...

Minor business

This malaise is finally on its way out.

I decided to move my cell phone to a new location. I spend more time out of my room than in, and I'm sick of having to sprint across the house when I hear a faint, old-fashioned ringing noise.