I am a moron
Put new jeans in the dryer
First sin of laundry
Put new jeans in the dryer
First sin of laundry
Hope everyone's enjoying a good Saturday night. And that their clothes fit.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Sliding into 2010
I've been meaning to blog for awhile - it's been weeks since the last post and it's a habit that must be inforced or it will shrivel and die - but good excuses kept coming up. Christmas travel, New Years, nothing good to say, and then I didn't want to jump over John's last post. Then, this morning, Wil Wheaton wrote a great nostalgia post and it got me fired up to get back into the blog.
When I say the last month has been hectic I don't mean your annual Dec. 25th until the New Year Blitz. I mean all out social warfare - pegging one holiday party against the next for who will recieve our energy and time. Scheduling in naps to ensure that we can meet our militaristic-like celebration obligations.
I wont bore you with the itinerary - but I can tell you that we ended up in Hartford for the New Year to celebrate the nuptials of Ben and Jen Steinhurts; long time friends and a long time couple. I probably spent over 100 hours crafting Jen's wedding dress in 2009 and so was so happy and beautiful. I believe the final count was Dar: 5, Jen 7 (times we cried that day).
We ended 2009 with a champagne toast and entered 2010 watching fireworks peak over the industrial park on the eastern side of I-91; John holding me up I was so exhausted. We decided to stay an extra night in Hartford to get some more sleep and have the happy couple to ourselves.
But the fun doesn't stop just because it's January. On the 5th I celebrated the successful funding of my Kickstarter campaign and announced the name of my novel: Venture Book 1 in the Orla Series.
Yup. It's a series. Because I enjoy the feeling of overwhelming myself with the need to produce.
John's headed back to school to plan his 2nd semester as Professor McCullough (duh duh duh!).
I think later this week we'll take a look back at 2009 and gaze forward into the fog of the future... 2010! (I realize that everyone else did this last week... but we had some unexpected events that prevented it.)
When I say the last month has been hectic I don't mean your annual Dec. 25th until the New Year Blitz. I mean all out social warfare - pegging one holiday party against the next for who will recieve our energy and time. Scheduling in naps to ensure that we can meet our militaristic-like celebration obligations.
I wont bore you with the itinerary - but I can tell you that we ended up in Hartford for the New Year to celebrate the nuptials of Ben and Jen Steinhurts; long time friends and a long time couple. I probably spent over 100 hours crafting Jen's wedding dress in 2009 and so was so happy and beautiful. I believe the final count was Dar: 5, Jen 7 (times we cried that day).We ended 2009 with a champagne toast and entered 2010 watching fireworks peak over the industrial park on the eastern side of I-91; John holding me up I was so exhausted. We decided to stay an extra night in Hartford to get some more sleep and have the happy couple to ourselves.
But the fun doesn't stop just because it's January. On the 5th I celebrated the successful funding of my Kickstarter campaign and announced the name of my novel: Venture Book 1 in the Orla Series.
Yup. It's a series. Because I enjoy the feeling of overwhelming myself with the need to produce.
John's headed back to school to plan his 2nd semester as Professor McCullough (duh duh duh!).
I think later this week we'll take a look back at 2009 and gaze forward into the fog of the future... 2010! (I realize that everyone else did this last week... but we had some unexpected events that prevented it.)
Thursday, January 7, 2010
We just saw blind.ness tonight (har har) and while I wouldn't say it was good, it was definitely well done. I heard of the show through a friend, and became interested mainly because the show claimed to integrate 'multi-media' elements with the performance. That's something we hope to do at CityTech, so I thought I'd check it out and see what other people in the field were doing with all of this new-fangled technology these days.
The show made use of effects ranging from a bank of video screens to processing and manipulating the voices of the actors to simple "object tied to string" tricks, and they were all well-executed. None of the effects seemed particularly interactive, though. Even though they were well-done, technologically the show was not much different from any other show using a modern sound system or video playback.
The theater itself was another matter entirely. I am a technical director by training, so when I go to see a play I notice things about the venue and the technology. When I walked into the theater, alarm bells started going off in my head.
First, the seating bank was assembled from modular components and the seats didn't all match - a dead giveaway that the structure warranted further inspection. The whole thing looked thrown together at the last minute. The stairs were too steep, wobbly, and narrow. The whole bank of seats would wiggle if a single person adjusted their position in their chair. Where we sat, there was a gap between the platforms and the wall with no railing. Scrap materials were dumped unceremoniously under the seats, and the seating bank was blocking the only visible fire extinguisher in the room. The room had only one accessible fire exit. The other fire exit was blocked by the scenery, but the exit sign was still visible. In the event of an emergency, a patron attempting to find their way out would certainly trip and fall trying to get to follow that exit sign. The one railing on the seating bank was unpainted and looked like a strong breeze would topple it.
Disgraceful.
There is room for reasonable people to disagree about the artistic merits of the piece, but such blatant disregard for the comfort, safety and general well-being of the audience should not be tolerated. The audience areas should be the FIRST priority of the producing organization, not the last.
The show made use of effects ranging from a bank of video screens to processing and manipulating the voices of the actors to simple "object tied to string" tricks, and they were all well-executed. None of the effects seemed particularly interactive, though. Even though they were well-done, technologically the show was not much different from any other show using a modern sound system or video playback.
The theater itself was another matter entirely. I am a technical director by training, so when I go to see a play I notice things about the venue and the technology. When I walked into the theater, alarm bells started going off in my head.
First, the seating bank was assembled from modular components and the seats didn't all match - a dead giveaway that the structure warranted further inspection. The whole thing looked thrown together at the last minute. The stairs were too steep, wobbly, and narrow. The whole bank of seats would wiggle if a single person adjusted their position in their chair. Where we sat, there was a gap between the platforms and the wall with no railing. Scrap materials were dumped unceremoniously under the seats, and the seating bank was blocking the only visible fire extinguisher in the room. The room had only one accessible fire exit. The other fire exit was blocked by the scenery, but the exit sign was still visible. In the event of an emergency, a patron attempting to find their way out would certainly trip and fall trying to get to follow that exit sign. The one railing on the seating bank was unpainted and looked like a strong breeze would topple it.
Disgraceful.
There is room for reasonable people to disagree about the artistic merits of the piece, but such blatant disregard for the comfort, safety and general well-being of the audience should not be tolerated. The audience areas should be the FIRST priority of the producing organization, not the last.
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