King of Wishful Thinking

So this blog got a shout out during class today! The picture in this post was used for Mac's lecture-theory thing that she loves to do. Good job, blog!

Basically, the picture represents what we know and not know. The written stuff is what we know, while the empty spaces on the board hold the details that we should explore. Cool stuff, eh?

Speaking of cool stuff, my favorite artist/musician/actor/whatever as of late, Matt Doyle, used an awesome site called Kickstarter to help start up his first EP album! Honestly, I'm extremely excited! I love all the music that he makes, and frankly, I'm getting tired of ripping his concert clips from Youtube to put into my iPod! He made a goal of raising $8,500 and he met this on the first day! There's still 29 more days to go to raise more money, and I've already chipped in. The guy deserves it, so good on him! I hope everything works out well for the fellow! He's got a very remarkable backstory as well, and you can check out his blog here or donate to the project here.

That's enough advertising for one post! On another note, today finished up what was the first week of rehearsal for The Scottish Play. Tons of fun! Swords, songs, witches, oh my! No one has had a limb cut off yet, but seriously, it's looking pretty cool so far!

Butoh

I love the stuff that's being done with the witches! It's some kind of Japanese thing called 'butoh' and its absolutely creepy, especially after today's showing of it! It's some creepy exorcist shit. That, or it looks like a bad case of arthritis. Too good!

Caro and I also wielded our weapons, and its absolutely hilarious watching her work with one! Calling it her 'third leg', watching her use it sometimes is sort of like watching a newborn baby fawn struggling to stand up! Hahaha, just kidding, but someone really needs to get her a shorter weapon!

Of course, Stage Wife and I should get rid of any awkwardness so we can do better for our affectionate scenes, but I'm sure we'll do fine! Hell, we should just stop avoiding it altogether, 'cause then it's way easier for Blueboy and Caro to point fun at it! Maybe we should have Ross and Banquo make out?

Awkward

Improv was quite successful today, in my opinion! The warm-up worked fairly well, and a lot of people were involved. The 'One Voice' game was absolutely brilliant, though! Though poor Sky got lost after a bit, his opening question to our five-headed Jedi made me laugh like a madman. Practically, he asked the question in broken Yoda English, and I totally was not expecting it! It was brilliant! All the other games were very successful as well! I hope all those new folks come back, cause they were great! And I will probably never do any kind of high-pitched primal scream ever again.

I must start memorizing my lines, but I must make sure that I don't end up being insane from overexerting myself! I don't want to end up being like Gary Busey. Never. No Gary Busey for me.

How repulsive.

Festivities and What Not

So my ability to create anything has been deflating for weeks now. Not good. Not good.

I'm a person who takes pride in creativity. Hey, I used to create some wicked projects a few years ago, back when teachers didn't care what a project looked like - as long as it answered their questions. Let me go over some of the memorable creations of those glory days (not really):

• 4' x 4' x 3.5' replica of what I imagined Frankenstein's castle looked like. I used enough hot glue and cardboard to make myself a friggin' house.
• Social Studies 5-piece pyramid thing. I completely forgot what the project was about, but it was a group project that sorta came together. Wonder if Mr. Capitals-of-South-Dakota-and-Alaska still has it?
• Stealing flowers from my mother's flower arrangements and painting them to add to a double sided mailbox. It was for a story about a gossip-loving old woman who loved to garden.
• Amputienne and I's tech theatre project. Spent a good weekend creating models of every theatre light I can remember.
• Grade 8 Religion project, where I pretty much bitched about Burma for thirty minutes.
• The Iron Chef competition in Grade 9 Home Economics! Our group totally raped. The secret ingredient was lemon. Our menu included tomato and herb salad with lemon dressing and supremes, lemon and dill salmon en papillote, and lemon meringue pie. Not bad for a rag tag bunch of kids!

Okay, so those aren't really creative, per se, but they were much more different than what some other folks offered.

Or I was just a fucked up kid. 

Well, whatever the case, I can't spark up that part of my brain again! Some of it is coming back, but only after I watch some kind of creative program or I find an awesome piece of art work. Hopefully this isn't permanent!

On another note, I have this urge to watch Battlestar Galactica. Not the original series, but the 're-imagined- one. Why, you ask? I have always been a sucker for any show/film with a female president/leader. For example, I got into watching 24 after I watched some episodes from season 7, where Allison Taylor was president. There was also that TV show, Commander in Chief, which I could not always catch on television due to my forgetful mind. In BSG's case, this is the president:

Just to garner a response from my Scottish Play stage wife, I shall say this:

Laura Roslin? Honestly? I would.

I will let you interpret that in whatever way you like! ;)

The actress' name is Mary McDonnell. She was also in one of my personal favorite films, Independence Day. Hmm, I guess I'm just a natural fan of sci-fi. That, or I'm still screwed up in the head.

On a less retarded note, my family's famous annual Gathering-of-Thanks is tomorrow. And it's also my parents' twentieth anniversary! We tend to have an over-abundance of food, and this year is no exception. Tons of folks are coming over, so we're practically preparing a whole farm yard of animals for this feast. My house becomes a horror house for someone watching their food intake, so Scottish Play stage wife, STAY AWAY!

Thanksgiving is pretty much the only time of the year where I tell my PETA-loving self to shove it, for I turn into a savage Neanderthal that will eat anything that I see. We have the usual trinity of turkey, roast beef, and ham, along with some epic sides. Of course, there will be the staple cultural dishes to whet the appetites of our guests, and I'm sure that they will be bringing their own food. Oh! And the desserts! By everything that's good and holy, a perfect dessert will make me purr like a walrus, like those croissants that Mac brought in for our class yesterday! Did anyone catch where she bought them from?

Woop woooo wooo wooop.....

My mouth is watering as a type this. Well, at least I hope it's from typing this up. I hope it's not some kind of salivary disorder. That would be very unfortunate.

I miss my old convection oven. I made a perfect roast in that thing, but we don't have one in this house! Sad face! Convection makes baking and roasting so enjoyable! The roast that I made this one time was like eating a piece of heaven - if heaven was a delicious cow and if eating angels was legal. But thanks to the "SEE-EYE-EH", this ain't happening.


Well, that wraps up this post. Thanks for listening to my random rabbling!

And enjoy your Day of Providing Thanks!

(Unless you're in America. You'll have to wait until November. Or you can celebrate two Thanksgivings. Double the mega-caloric intake!)

Hence, Sky, Hence!

So the cast has finished the reading for The Scottish Play!

Some ups and downs, but it was very enjoyable and exciting, at the very least!

Firstly, I finally got to do my favorite scene in the entire play: the banquet and Banquo's ghost. Suffice it to say, I may have went a little overboard with the "HENCE HORRIBLE SHADOW, UNREAL MOCKERY, HENCE" shenanigans, but I felt that it suited the event! Heck, it was even met with some gigglesI actually thought I was having Mel Gibson moment, the only difference being that the woman that I was screaming at wasn't recording it. If that were the case, that would be highly unfortunate for me.

I noticed that I go into a semi-fetal position when I'm in the zone whilst I act. While I was roaring Shakespearean terms at the ghost of Banquo, I continued to hunch over until my knees had practically fused with my diaphragm. If the scene went on longer, I'm sure I would have metamorphosized into an actual fetus. No, seriously, I would have shed most of my 17 years of life and turned into a fetus.

I finally got to do that scene with Sky (Elmo) that I was really looking forward to! My happiness with the situation can be expressed as thus:

The scene in question is an exchange between Macbeth and a messenger, who has come to inform him that a very unnatural event is occurring. Macbeth becomes very angry and distraught, and some of this is pushed towards the messenger.

Now, for many of you who are not familiar with him, Sky is probably one of the sweetest kids ever. Ever. Tons of people thought I was a crazy paedophile when I would pretty much praise the fella, but now, they've fallen for his bewitchment as well! Honestly, I would not be surprised if Sky was actually some kind of uber-powerful sorcerer. Anyways, his voice is the big reason for all of this! It's very unique, to say the least. It's high (almost cartoonish), slow, and confident with a very peculiar accent that no one can put their finger on. He told me that he's French, Irish, Mohawk, and probably 4 other races, which explains the accent.

Anyways, our scene turned out to be very enjoyable! We absolutely contrasted each other, but I think it worked great! It's a good thing that I took the opportunity to get to know him a little bit, so at least there's some connection. We were walking down the hallway after, and he said (in the same, high voice) that he was spooked by some of the dialogue that we had! He is simply too awesome!

Oh, and the day before, there was a line in the play where "Beelzebub" is mentioned. Suddenly, he and Blueboy started to sing the corresponding part of "Bohemian Rhapsody". I was awestruck. His sheer awesomeness is unrivaled.

Blueboy even said that he almost burst with joy.

I also received some very positive and awesome comments from a certain person, which made me a very happy individual! So for that, thanks!

My excitement cannot be contained! In fact, I took to storing this 'excitement' in giant space stations, but some Imperials stole my station, called it a "Death Star", and used my 'excitement' to destroy planets. Not good. Not good.

Of Banquets and Banquo

So it was quite an exciting and interesting "Meet the Cast" session today!

First off, Mac apparently believes that Best Friend (who plays a female Banquo in the play, by the way) and I have major 'sexual tension.' We absolutely believe its from the fact that we are best friends of the opposite gender, which seems to be an enigma of a concept that few can comprehend! It makes as much sense as the following:

"You're like the coffee without the omelet."

Mac could just be a hormone-driven sex-beast preying on poor and innocent children, such as myself, after all. Such undesirables do not benefit the clean and mature environment that I flourish in! There are other roles for these libido-loving leeches of innocence!

Anyways, I'm just kidding! I'm probably so corrupt and toxic that I could work for BP, but that's for another day. Best Friend and I both found it pretty hilarious that Mac thinks like that!

On a related note, the stage veterans of this play were given newcomers to 'adopt', in a mentor-like capacity, I suppose. As a veteran with some previous experience, I was given three 'children' to 'adopt'. I wanted to adopt some ethnic babies, but frickin' Madonna and Angelina Jolie got all the coloured kids.

Anyways,  the three children I got seem pretty cool (and I already think one of them is absolutely awesome). Two of them are people I'm not familiar with, and they don't seem like the loud type (unlike myself). I've got to make sure that they are comfortable in the environment, especially considering the fact that it's dominated by people like Seyton/Satan and Medic! Those two are catalysts of chaos! Once they've settled down, I'm sure they can be very social towards everyone. The third fella, who I'll call Elmo due to his awesome/unique voice and his love of puppetry, is awesome! I met him during club day, and his personality is very engaging and cool. I can't wait to work with him, and he doesn't seem like a shy person!

Of course, I'll make sure to give them the most help in the acting department; with lines and actions and such. I'm there at every rehearsal, so I'll see them all anyways. I've heard I do very well in that department, according to Lady Duff.

In the words and actions of Blueboy: "I'm so excited!!!"

Cramps and Curses

So as you can see from my previous post, I am in a production of Macbeth. What you may or may not know that a superstitious stigma is attached to performing Macbeth.


"The Curse of the Scottish Play" explores the idea that Shakespeare used actual lines from an actual incantation from actual witches in one of the scenes of Macbeth (I couldn't put in another 'actual' in there). Then, some real witches who watched the play we're pretty ticked off by the use of the incantation, so they put a curse on the play, where uttering it's name in a theatre or making direct references to its characters will bring bad luck. The only witch alive is Joan Rivers, but she seems to have forgotten this section of her mischievous past.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, since auditioning for the play, I've been stricken with some minor annoyances:

• The day after the audition, I felt sick during the later hours of school. I thought I had caught a cold, but it was actually from a cookie that I ate during Period II. This is why I don't like to eat sugar in the mornings, especially on school days!
• The day that the cast list went up, remnants of a previous week's cold had reared it's ugly head. The mucus factories in my body exploded as my allergies came to haunt me once again.
• The next day, I was ready to get up from bed, but I felt that a pillow (which somehow made its way to my feet) had been barely hanging on the edge. I tried to pull it up with my left foot, but I accidentally gave myself a terrible cramp in my calf.
• The day after that, the same pillow was teasing me once again. Remembering my previous experience, I used my right foot this time, only to receive that same cramp once again. This one was worse, and as of this posting, some of the cramping is still there. Sigh.

Hopefully, nothing else bad happens. I don't want all those leaves in the theatre to burn it down, or have a giant lizard tear apart our building. This is why I need a Garchomp:

I know. I'm obsessed.

 I'll start to carry my charm around, just to make sure I've got some luck on my side.

That, or I need to find a rabbit and rip it's feet off with my teeth.

That's how you do it, right?

I will surprise your castle.

Sorry, Sideshow Mel.

Blueboy, you may know what the title of this post is referring to! If not, you will soon!

So, the cast list for my school's production of Macbeth went up today. I got a pretty fair role. It's the one that Homer was playing in the above picture.

If you're not familiar with The Simpsons, then:

1. Shame on you.
2. I got the role of Macbeth, since you may not have inferred it from that image.
3. Shame on you.

And the casting is very exciting! A lot of new names! Some of the roles were reversed in terms of gender (Banquo, for example)! Oh, and female Banquo's son, Fleance, and I are ethnically-similar! Time to break out an episode of Maury.

Now begins the best part of the entire process: basically everything leading up the shows! Be it designing, rehearsing, reading, eating, long days, etc., it's all absolutely awesome! In the case of this play, I happen to have a large workload, so I'll be present in every rehearsal. All the more fun, but I'll need to make sure to STOP PROCRASTINATING about my work in other subjects. I don't want to get frazzled!

I'm way too excited for this. I'm already working on key monologues and soliloquies. My insanity has also led me to re-read the entire play, picturing everyone in their roles. This is probably very stupid of me, as we aren't necessarily following the confines of the play. Oh, and for some reason, I lose my terrible habit of rushing words when I speak in ye olde English, so this stuff works!

Now, I also need to put some of my time and attention to improv, which is set to start next week! The same day that the 'Meet the Cast' of the play occurs! This will be a good year for my artsy-fartsy side, which has already practically pushed aside my aspirations for a medical career!

On a side note, I asked my mother (whose name is Cynthia) if I could borrow her Garchomp. She nonchalantly said "Okay." I will ignore any sarcasm and I will go by my belief that she either has a Garchomp or is the real Cynthia, champion of Sinnoh. Either one will suffice.