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An experiment: does pretending that people are reading what I write inspire me to finish projects? (Are we taking bets?) Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion! No, really, it's thrilling. I mean it.

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Victorian Lyric Opera Company Washington Savoyards Forgotten Opera Company
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Oct. 31st, 2006 @ 01:47 pm I don't know if I'm feeling quite myself...
Current Mood: unprecedented
...I've had a bizarrely productive couple of days and I'm starting to get worried that I've been taken over by a pod person. 'Cause, really, would I know? How would I tell?

But my startling productivity is yielding results: I've finally moved my old, broken TV and put the working one in its place (getting the old tv out of the apartment is the next step), thus freeing the piano bench, which the working tv used to be sitting on, to be put in its rightful spot, i.e., in front of the piano, and I even MADE A CUSHION FOR IT. That's right. I'm to the point where I'm STARTING AND FINISHING SEWING PROJECTS IN A COUPLE DAYS. WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO ME.

So I wanted to share the insanity with all of you.

I've also started work on a slipcover for the chair that has been without a slipcover for several years now, and I'm close to finished on a preliminary pattern for a Jem doll dress!

Seriously, it's more than a little scary.
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Oct. 26th, 2006 @ 04:55 pm Oh, for heaven's...
Current Mood: aggravated
And of course, shortly after the joy of turning on the heat for the first time comes the aggravation of the heat going out for the first time.

...I'm really appreciating the word "aggravation" at the moment. It has that "GRR" noise so conveniently placed in the middle. And it looks like "aargh" if you, you know, tilt your head and squint a bit. It sums up my emotions on so many levels.
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Oct. 17th, 2006 @ 12:22 pm Autumn: a time for new beginnings
Current Mood: neutral
Current Music: Daniel Pinkham - Christmas Cantata
Okay, so I know that autumn isn't the *proverbial* time for new beginnings, but come on, anyone who has gone through school has got to feel that there is some sort of "starting over" that happens about now, right? I'm sure it isn't just me.

(...I've debated what I want to say about my long absence from LJ-- people could certainly be forgiven for assuming that my cold had turned fatal in the end-- but have decided that, just as I was rather "meh" about posting during that time, so too am I "meh" about discussing it. Just one of those things. Moving on.)

New beginning #1: It's the start of the theater season! VLOC's done a fundraiser already, which was phenomenally successful by all accounts (and at which I apparently looked STUNNING... just saying :) ), and auditions for Ruddigore are coming up. I'm only a little sad because I'll probably have to wear the same bridesmaid's dress that I did in our last Ruddigore, 6 1/2 years ago.

Also, I've been spearheading our clean-out-the-costume-bay effort, which is going well but which, frankly, I hate doing. Having to get all those organizational details together is yucky, and then having to send out exhortational e-mails is yucky (I'm sure all of you reading this have had more than enough experience with my inability to send e-mails on a regular basis) and then actually going to the scene bay and sorting through moldy, rotting, spider-infested clothes is the yuckiest of all. (My first preference at this point would be to just take a blowtorch to the lot, but I'm told that's infeasible due to some city regulation or other. Whatever.) But we're at it again next weekend, anyway. Woo.

New beginning #2 (let's see if we can make this one end more happily): In the fall, my fingers really itch to pick up projects again! I'm having a great urge to knit, though nothing much has come of it yet (lack of focus on a particular project)... my skirt and jacket set, however, are looking like they might actually be finished soon! The jacket just needs buttons and for me to re-hem one of the sleeve linings, and the skirt, though I'm at the very beginning stages, ought to just fly together in comparison. So that ought to be done any day now. And although I'm not particularly excited to have that finished (I don't think I'll ever wear it, it's not really my taste, which of course is one of the main reasons I've been dragging my feet over it, it's cause I don't really LIKE it, next time I'm not letting my boss talk me into a fabric that she would wear over one that I would), having it done means that I can go on to other sewing things. First is probably a costume for [info]contralto2b, but then I start with the stuff that I really want... like re-lining my winter coat so that I can actually wear it on a regular basis, and doing the same to my fall jacket... and then it's doll clothes time. Now THAT I'm excited for. I am, in fact, almost finished with my catalogue of the Jem fashions, and am EXTREMELY happy with the effort. Whee!

New beginning #3: Fall television! ...This is probably really boring for most of you; I'll make it short. :) I'm becoming disenchanted with Studio 60 in a hurry. It's not grabbing me the way I hoped it would and I'm getting less and less patient while I wait for it to do so. Still, I'll probably keep watching, if only because I am totally enamored of its lead-in, Heroes. LOVE this show. And I think Masi Oka is my new Hollywood boyfriend. So great. ...Veronica Mars is, to me, getting a slow start this season... there are elements of greatness but it's been a little lukewarm so far. This does not, of course, change the fact that I will list Tuesday evenings as rehearsal conflicts so that I can stay home and watch it. :) Also, I've gotten hooked, a little late, on My Name is Earl. Genius. And on a related obsessed-with-tv note, I've finally gotten my boss to watch Firefly. BWA HA HA. It was only a matter of time. She really enjoyed it. Of course. Chalk another one up on the board. :)

New beginning #3.5: Other media! (Okay, maybe a stretch giving it its own point but the last one was getting long.) [info]dr_daly has introduced me to the books of mystery author Sarah Caudwell, and oh my god, they're great. I'd unhesitatingly recommend them to everyone reading this, but I guess I'm not sure that they're to everyone's taste (hard as it is for me to understand, not everyone shares my taste-- I don't know why, since I am so obviously RIGHT). ;) Okay, I guess that I hesitatingly recommend them, how's that. Ought to cover the bases.

On a more current-book-events topic, the question that is currently occupying my thoughts is this: is it terribly rude to go to a book signing and not buy a book at the store-- but to get the UK version of the same book signed? You see, Pratchett's latest (Wintersmith) is out, and he is in town for signings, but I buy all my Pratchetts direct from the UK. So far, the consensus is that it would indeed be rude at an independent store like Politics & Prose (where he is tonight) but not so much at the large chain Borders (where he is tomorrow). Which is good, 'cause I probably won't have my books by tonight, and did I also mention staying home on Tuesdays? So I'd be going tomorrow anyway. So I think it all works.

New beginning #4 (last one, I promise): Turning on the heat! Okay, this is sort of an odd one, but I can't deny that I get a certain sort of cozy feeling when I turn the heat in my apartment on for the first time. It makes me want to curl up with soup or hot chocolate and listen to Christmas music (see Current Music, above. The Muppets with John Denver have also gotten their share of air-time on my stereo lately). The drawback, of course, is that this feeling doesn't last very long and I will undoubtedly be quite sick of it by December, which will really be a shame with the coldest part of winter yet to go. But I have to say I'm quite enjoying it for the moment. :)

Yeah, all right, I hope that was a long enough post to make up for the two-month break. (If not? Too bad. :) ) See you all around...
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Aug. 19th, 2006 @ 10:05 am Because it's not really international travel unless you get sick afterwards.
Current Mood: unwell
I am reminded of a song that we used to sing in first grade:

Ah-CHOO, ah-CHOO,
I have a bad cold.
Ah-CHOO, ah-CHOO,
My tissue I hold
Right over my mouth
In case I SNEEEEEEZE...
Ah-CHOO, ah-CHOO,
I have a bad cold.


High poetry it ain't, but for some reason it really speaks to me just at the moment...
Bleargh.
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Aug. 17th, 2006 @ 07:09 pm I'm back!
Current Mood: sleepy

Have been for a couple days, in fact. (sheepish grin) (I've been using that sheepish grin a lot lately, haven't I)

Flying home was a bit of a thing, of course, they were letting people on the plane pretty much one at a time after patting them down.  I'm just glad that the restrictions were relaxed enough to let us have a small bag, which included electronics and books and such (though not ballpoint pens; no liquids includes ink).

I'm also very much still on UK time and kind of enjoying the novelty; I imagine that once I put my mind to it I'll catch up in a day or so but for now I'm kind of liking being up at weird and ungodly hours of the morning (i.e. 5:00. You know, I understand that some people get up at that time every day?!  Some kind of bizarre urban myth, I think).  It does mean that I'm getting awfully tired awfully early, though.  I'll be going to bed as soon as I finish this entry, in fact. (Actually, this is exactly why I don't understand those 5:00 risers.  How are they still awake and coherent at 9 PM?) 

So, yeah. Not much more to mention.  Sleepy now. Night-night.

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Aug. 12th, 2006 @ 04:47 pm Two more days!
Current Mood: mellow
It's odd to think that my time here is almost done.  It's one of the things I like about this type of vacation; I am essentially LIVING here for two weeks, not so much visiting or being a tourist.  I have work in the form of rehearsals, and schedule trips to shops or restaurants around that, and then socializing in the evening at the shows and the club.  It's easy to fall into the routine, and very strange to think that this routine is about to disappear entirely (until next August, anyway).

And speaking of work, a wonderful new development is that I am now getting paid for my accompanying here!  (Not the Savoynet accompanying, of course, that's all volunteer, but the official Festival stuff I'm doing now.)  It's coming just at a time when I could use it, too; my checking account is getting a little low and I haven't paid for accommodations yet.  I think I'll be eating grocery store sandwiches from here on out. :)  But even more fun than the getting paid part is the fact that I've once again put myself on the Festival radar.  I had managed to do it last year with the then-Festival Music Director, and I was quite happy about it.  Of course, when he didn't come back this year it was a little disappointing.  But it has all worked out in the end, hasn't it. :)

Other Festival news: in the time since I wrote my last entry, I saw that South Anglia Gondoliers.  It was great. The voices were fairly weak, but the acting and direction was good (well, not the chorus directing so much, goddamn diagonal lines all the time, but the dialogue direction/interpretation was awesome).  It was the first Gondoliers I've seen where the class distinction was so apparent.  Maybe this is just because I haven't seen one in England before, of course.  But the Duke of Plaza-Toro, though he seemed thoroughly ridiculous when onstage with only his family, still effortlessly glided circles around poor confused lower-class Marco and Giuseppe, who had been quite competent and effective when they were at their own social level.  And all of that without changing the way in which the characters were played in each scene.  It was terribly impressive and brought a new dimension to the show for me. 

After the show was the pot-luck Utopia-- the only place where Utopia featured in this year's Festival program, so I was quite looking forward to it.  Unfortunately, they had a hard time filling out the cast and they actually halted the cabaret after Act One!

!!!!!

Some sort of travesty, this is.

So some of my fellow disgruntled Savoynetters and I gathered around the piano (I played, no surprise) and gave a rousing rendition of the minstrel number, followed by the Flowers/twins quartet.

That'll show 'em.

And maybe they'll actually learn their lesson and schedule any Grand Duke/Utopia potlucks earlier in the Festival, when the majority of Savoynetters (a.k.a. hard-core G&S *NUTS* who know or can fill in for nearly any part you could wish for) are still around and eager to sing.  We could have cast Utopia several times over just out of our Ruddygore chorus, I think.

Tonight I'm seeing the professional Pirates, then possibly a Merrie England something-or-other tomorrow afternoon in the secondary theater, and then the Washingtonian-heavy Young Artistes Iolanthe tomorrow evening... and then I leave the next day!  I still can't believe it.

And if [info]cinnamonc is reading this by any chance, I hope you're feeling a LOT better and that I see you in Manchester on Monday!
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Aug. 10th, 2006 @ 05:03 pm Well... Thursday is *almost* Wednesday.
Current Mood: refreshed
Yesterday I was accompanying for a rehearsal (and they certainly did foist me off on the Young Artistes... I asked if there was anywhere else I could go instead, but apparently not.  Bleah) so didn't have the free time I had thought I would get.  In fact, it was almost as hectic as the day before had been!  And less filled with food, too, which was unfortunate.  

But I have all of today free and I have taken full advantage. Took a REALLY long shower and-- o marvellous!-- did all of my laundry as well.  I feel somewhat human again!  I also went back to bed after breakfast and slept until 1:00, which helped a lot.  The only blot on the morning was that my shower was so long that I ran out of hot water. :)

-------

Feeling sane and refreshed has its advantages, so I thought now would be a good time to write that coherent journal entry that I couldn't quite do last time.  First up, I imagine, is the Savoynet show itself:

I haven't seen it, of course; part of yesterday's hecticness (hecticity) meant that I couldn't park myself in the gift shop (also known as the Portakabin since it's no more nor less than a trailer) to watch the video.  Our accompanist has uploaded pictures, though, which can be seen here (rehearsals, Savoynet dinner, after-show cabaret) and here (final dress on the stage).  Gosh, I'm wearing a lot of blush, aren't I.  But they kept telling me to put more on! I'll have to watch the video to see how it really looked.

Audience reception was lukewarm, and I think I can understand why; I quite loved a lot of our principals' performances but in many cases I think a little too much care was taken to make them emotional and affecting and not enough care was taken to make them actually FUNNY.  Whatever else Ruddigore is, it is first and foremost a comedy. (I noticed during rehearsals this time around just how many of the dialogues can be put into the "one straight man plus one totally off-the-wall character" category.  They're quite hilarious if I picture Fry and Laurie or Monty Python doing them.  ...We didn't do them that way, of course.)  For example, the adjudicator really didn't seem to like our Mad Margaret (played by a really wonderful woman with whom [info]dr_daly and I ate breakfast every morning) because her character was not wild enough.  I'm not sure what percentage of the decision was the director's and what percentage the actress's, but I do know that it was a conscious choice to make Mad Margaret a genuinely sad (to the point of losing some touch with reality) character rather than an over-the-top caricature of theatrical madness.  And unfortunately, I do have to agree with the adjudicator on this one... the sad was certainly pathos-inducing but it wasn't so much funny.  And Mad Margaret is definitely supposed to be funny.  I mean, in her Act II dialogue with Despard, he's the straight man.  So I think we lost the audience to that factor, at least (and let me hasten to mention that Mad Margaret was far from the only example of this; she is just the one that comes to mind).  But if the audience wasn't engaged in the funny bits, how could we expect them to be interested in the dramatic ones.

I do however think we had plenty of excellent points.  The bridesmaids had some really nice choreography and, at least in my case, I managed to remember it all on the night. (Now, whether or not my shoe kept getting caught in the floorboards while performing it is a different matter. :) )  And I think there can be no denying that it was a visually STUNNING show. Much mention has been made of the sets and costumes (particularly those damn bridesmaids' spats on which I spent so much time :) ) and they were certainly gorgeous. Just stellar design.  And I think, mind I say I think, that the chorus sound was pretty darn good as well.  "Painted emblems" might have been slightly anemic (lots of long long notes and it's hard to carry them and crescendo all the way to the end) but [info]dr_daly has said that the madrigal sounded phenomenal, so hooray us. :)

Anyone who is interested, of course, is more than welcome to watch the video when I get home. :)

------

Let's see, other Buxton-y things: Saw a very good Patience last night, though I seem to be the only one who thinks so. (Well, actually, the adjudicator apparently agreed with me, though I ran out-- I was playing piano for the Young Ambassadors' cabaret after the show and was desperate for practice time-- and didn't actually hear the adjudication.  But it was certainly the most enjoyable evening I've spent here that wasn't a professional production.  And their company cabaret after the show was also stellar. Makes me want to sing Broadway.  Lots and lots of Broadway. :)

Tonight is Gondoliers, by a company which I don't remember at all but which everyone says is really good. I'm wondering if the reason I don't remember is that they did a Mikado last year.  I've come to the conclusion that Mikados here are mostly to be avoided at all costs. With the obvious exceptions of the Tokyo production and Opera Della Luna, they all feature the same blocking, much of which is taken directly from Gilbert, and the rest of which comes from years and years of D'Oyly Carte tradition.  The blocking may be done better or worse, but there is a distinct limit to how much interest I have in it-- not so much the jokes, which are still funny if done well, but really *really* the chorus blocking which mainly consists of standing in diagonal lines for very long stretches.  Like ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE ACT ONE FINALE.  YAWN.  So very few Mikados for me, thank you, and I'm pretty sure tonight's company was one of those offenders last year.  So it'll be interesting to see tonight's Gondoliers to see if the same treatment applies even though it's not one of the big three.

--------

I'm not sure yet how the whole airline turmoil is going to affect me.  (I am deeply grateful to our MD for posting the news to Savoynet, otherwise I never would have known about it!  I don't keep up with the news at the best of times, and in Buxton? Forget about it.)  I don't fly out until next Tuesday, so some of this may have sorted itself out by then, but I definitely think my only-bring-carry-on-luggage plan is pretty much shot.  So now I'm thinking of actually mailing some things home, which is a pain, but rather that than have them potentially lost (I'm changing planes at JFK.  Don't want to think about the probability of losing my luggage.  Quite high, I'd imagine).  And I'm sad that I might not be able to bring my MP3 player which was bought specifically for the airplane rides.  Oh well.  Better that than being blown into little bits, I suppose.

And on that cheery note: off to the theater!  I hope to update again on Saturday... maybe I'll be able to give an account of the Savoynet rehearsal experience at that time?  It's an idea.
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Aug. 7th, 2006 @ 07:07 pm All right, here I am
Current Mood: tired
I know that I did promise to update on a regular basis once I got here.  I KNOW, okay?  And I suppose it would be totally uncharitable to point out that anyone who actually knows me ought to know how unlikely that is...?  Yeah, thought so.

But I'm here now.  Updating. All right?

So, let's see what has it been like so far?  (Part of the reason that I haven't updated is that whenever I've found myself at a computer, I haven't been quite up to the normal 3-hour task of writing a sane, structured and readable entry.  I'm still not up to that now.  So I'm just gonna go stream-of-consciousness here and see where that lands me.  There's a strong possibility that it'll be somewhere that isn't on any map. Consider yourself warned.)

First off, of course, are the rehearsals.  They're generally quite fun, though I find I'm not as into them as I have been in previous years.  Even though I am playing the piano occasionally and am also helping with the costuming as well (I never want to see another spat as long as I live, thank you) (but a BIG THANK YOU to my boss for teaching me how to be useful in a costume room. They really appreciate it here.).  I still feel a little disconnected this year.  I'm not picking up the blocking or musical notes as fast 'cause I'm not as focused, but I don't quite know WHY I'm not as focused.  Maybe my four sleepless days of travel difficulties caused some permanent brain damage?  I'll have to take an IQ test when I get back.  :)

Yeah, another new thing with this year's festival is the phenomenon that I pretty much fall asleep as soon as the curtain goes up for the evening show!  I totally understood it the first night, 'cause that was the end of those four sleepless days (I wouldn't have even gone to the show had it not been my absolute FAVORITE company performing their only show in the Festival... and I did skip the potluck Princess Ida afterwards which I am still disappointed about).  But it's been pretty consistent, which is just odd.  Then again, even after I got that first post-travel sleep, I still haven't been sleeping a full 8, much less my preferred 10, hours.  So maybe it's understandable after all. It's just never happened before, is all.

I have seen some good shows, though, when I wasn't sleeping through them:  that very first Pinafore was great, the Tokyo Mikado was fascinating and well done even though it would have  been much better if I, you know, spoke Japanese.  I'll  be bringing the DVD of that one home.  Saw a lot of my friends in the Peak Opera Iolanthe, saw a pretty unbelievable Grand Duke (not unbelievable good or unbelievable bad, just generally totally UNBELIEVABLE) saw a pro Yeomen of the Guard that was so enjoyable since it was pros acting and singing it that I was almost able to overlook the fact that I hated the director's choices all the way through (the blocking was fine, I mean the interpretation, of course.  This was the ANGRIEST Yeomen that I've ever seen. Made it a little hard when they suddenly tried to switch to extremely sad.)  Skipped the Mikado yesterday, and am skipping the Youth Sorcerer today since I have little to no interest in either and AM PERFORMING TOMORROW YIKES so should get as much rest as I can. (Thus the fact that I now have several hours to spend on the computer.)

What else?  Oh, I'm sure lots of you are curious about the roommate situation. :)  Well, I haven't had to kill anyone ([info]dr_daly, myself, whichever) yet, though my fear of spending way too long talking and neglecting to get to sleep early is proving to be well-founded.  But there isn't a lot of drama; we're pretty compatible roommates on the whole. (Though I do definitely miss you, [info]aeonata! People have been asking about you.)

On a related topic, one of the Festival pianists apparently never showed up this year (no word on why) so I was thinking I might volunteer my services once Ruddygore is over... I'm only afraid that they'll shove me off onto playing for the Young Artistes Iolanthe!  My schedule matches up perfectly, after all.  But that really would be too much time spent with the Washingtonians, I think, and not enough time with the rest of the Festival.  So I might volunteer anyway and just say that I'll do anything EXCEPT that.

Oh, I don't know what else to write about.  The world is a Buxton-shaped blur at the moment.  I should really go back to the room and practice blocking and music, is what.  So I think I will.  And I will probably write on Wednesday after the show is over and I suddenly find myself without anything to do during the day. (Whoo-hoo!)  It's gonna be a good show too (oh, hey, I could write about that-- I REALLY like our Rose and our Despard (Ian, of course, so it's not really a surprise that he's excellent) and the rest of the cast is quite solid as well-- it ought to be very enjoyable.  Robert, our director/choreographer is very good as well, though I am annoyed that he has missed what I consider to be the point of Ruddigore (it is not a parody of melodramas so much as it is a SATIRE on the society that relishes melodrama) but then again, I have yet to see a Ruddigore that has gotten that point across.  I think it's a pretty unpopular opinion that I have there.  Except, of course, that I happen to be right. :) )

Anyway.  So the show should be good and I should go spend the evening making sure that my part in it contributes to the good.  I'm not even going to proof this (even though I'm sure much of it is poorly-written and incomprehensible); I'm just going to hit 'send' and go home.

After I surf the internet for a while, that is.

I've really missed it. :)

More on Wednesday!
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Aug. 1st, 2006 @ 05:23 pm Made it here then got caught in the whirlwind
Current Mood: busy

the whirlwind of rehearsals, that is.  This is more an apology for not posting than a post; right now I've got 10 minutes between rehearsal and dinner and then I'm going to the show tonight (and the cabaret afterwards) and then tomorrow I have much the same schedule... so who knows when I'll be able to post for real.

So for now, I'll just say that Buxton is, as always, GREAT and the whole airport thing seems like it happened MONTHS ago by now.  God, I love being here. :)

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Jul. 29th, 2006 @ 11:46 am Take two...
Current Mood: cynical
Well, I'm about to leave, with my new route going from National to Atlanta to Manchester, and the weather forecast is saying that DC will have rain this afternoon, Atlanta is having thunderstorms all through the day with heavy thunderstorms this afternoon, and Manchester, though the past week there was nice and sunny in a way that rarely happens in England, is today expected to start rain that will be continuing for the rest of the week.

Also checked on the FAA site, and of all the airports in America, the only one that is listed as a cautionary yellow dot on the map instead of a happy green dot is, of course, Atlanta.

I'm totally fucked, aren't I.
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Jul. 28th, 2006 @ 08:38 pm Jiggety-jig, and all that rot
Current Mood: wrathful
"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression 'as pretty as an airport.' "

There are many points upon which I am in distinct, possibly even decided, agreement with Douglas Adams, but never in my thirty years of life have I felt anything approaching the kinship and general fellow feeling that the above quotation brings forth in me at this moment.

What, one wonders, must have happened to the poor man that would make him decide to devote the entire first chapter of a novel to the jangling and uncomfortableness of the traveler's state of mind in such a place, which increases and increases until the author finally, in a move that I can only see as a sort of supreme catharsis, rains godly fire down upon Heathrow Terminal Two, reducing the whole to middling-to-large heaps of smoldering concrete?

...Perhaps, one muses, it was something vaguely like what happened to me today.

Unnecessary subclauses aside (but they're so veddy British!), I AM NOT IN A GOOD MOOD.  For starters, here I am, sitting in my apartment, instead of sitting on a plane on its way to Manchester.  This was not exactly the plan.  In fact, it's not anywhere in the vicinity of the neighborhood of even the plan's most distant relatives.

Wait, there I go getting all wordy again.

Let's tell this the short way: my flight was booked for a 3:59 departure.  I had an 8:30 connection in JFK.  Due to weather in New York, my first flight was delayed.  4:45 would still get me there in time to connect.  So would 5:45.  When they said "wings up at 8:30," however (and yes, that is an exact quote.  "Wings up." All righty), I knew I was in trouble.  I was already busy rebooking when they eventually cancelled the sucker. 

Unfortunately, they were unable to rebook me to get in on the day I was supposed to get in.  So one day late it is, and I get to try the whole damn thing again tomorrow.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.

Plus it has the added bonus of potentially stranding [info]dr_daly in Manchester without a guide and also without a clue as to my whereabouts, though with the very very kind aid of [info]cinnamonc (and this journal post) I hope that at least the second half of that will turn out not to be the case. (Trying to contact someone-- anyone-- with a phone that has only UK numbers in it and also has internet that only works in the UK is NOT going on my list of "favorite ways to spend my vacation.")

So, yeah, fun all around.

And now I've got to go do laundry since I'm wearing stuff that I have to wear again tomorrow (I plan my packing to within an inch of my life so that I don't have any checked baggage.  And I have never been as grateful for that as I was today.   I don't even want to KNOW where some of my fellow travelers' luggage went).  And also because I stripped my bed before I left and now I need to wash the sheets so that I, you know, have sheets.

So annoying.

This trip is gonna go great.
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Jul. 27th, 2006 @ 10:23 am A present
Current Mood: apologetic
I never did get to [info]aeonata's show on Sunday.  So I humbly offer this to her by way of apology.  And to everyone else, also, not by way of apology but rather by way of this being Fry and Laurie so who really needs more of a reason than that.

Fry and Laurie: Shakespeare Master Class

Next post will be from Buxton!

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Jul. 22nd, 2006 @ 05:42 pm OhmygodIleaveonFriday.
Current Mood: just a touch frantic, thanks
You know, I'm not ready for this trip yet. I have too many things left to do. But I'm setting aside part of today as my catch-up-with-correspondence day, and that includes posting here, so here goes, quick quick quick:

--Pirates? So INCREDIBLY disappointing. I have many many paragraphs to write about this movie, and I will be writing none of them at the moment (quick quick quick) so the overview is that I thought I would line up more with the geeks who loved it than the critics that hated it but that unfortunately turned out not to be the case. My shortest review of it is this: they needed to put Han Solo back in it.  Really, they did.

--On the other hand, Wordplay was an utter delight. LOVED that movie. And I totally agree with [info]dr_daly that it's one that absolutely requires a DVD viewing.  And it strengthens my desire to go to the crossword tournament, but it also makes me not want to go because now EVERYBODY will want to go and I'll seem like any other poser. Sigh. The troubles of a geek girl.  :)

--Rounding up the Movies section of this post, I saw Superman a second time with sister and brother-in-law and it got even better. Hurrah Bryan Singer! :)  Really hope to see Clerks II before I go but that's looking unlikely at the moment, darn it.

--And into the rest of the Arts section, I'm hoping to get to [info]aeonata's show tomorrow and I would also like to thank her publicly for showing me around the Eastern Market area before I had to go there today (to get costume pieces for Buxton).  Also, I don't know why I'd never heard of Backstage, Inc., before, but now I seriously want to buy that whole store out.  Gosh, it was cool.

--From Arts to Crafts: just finished the largest piece of origami I've ever done, a stellated rhombitruncated icosidodecahedron, 900 pieces of paper, 18" in diameter, for a friend's wedding.  I'll hopefully have pictures up once the wedding is over.

Aaaaannnnddd... I think that's all for now.  I'm sure some other stuff has happened in the last few weeks but what I couldn't tell you right now.  My brain is whirling too fast to actually think of anything.  Gotta go pack now.  Quick quick quick.  Thanks for listening.
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esme
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Jun. 30th, 2006 @ 08:48 pm movies, movies, movies.
Current Music: Bom badabuhbom... BOM BOM BOM. Bom badabuhbom... SUPERMAN!!!
Last week was Serenity, today was Superman Returns.



And next week is the big prize. Pirates of the Caribbean. And from all I've heard, it's a knockout. Drooling fandom, here I come. :)
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iharthdarth
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Jun. 21st, 2006 @ 10:11 pm Good heavens.
Current Mood: frantic
Someone remind me again when I chose to make a career as a travel agent?

Buxton planning is kicking my butt right now. Plus I'm a kind of travel-planning liaison for several other people. I SUCK at being a liaison. This is not a job for a chronic procrastinator. Sigh. SIGH.

Oh well.

I think the biggest problem is that I never really got a break after the show. Buxton was not even remotely urgent on Sunday, but on Monday it was suddenly the Trip That Loomed Ominously Overhead. Goddamn it, can't I just SLEEP for, like, a month first? That's all I ask. Really now.

But hey, I get to see Serenity on Friday. So I guess life doesn't suck quite as much as all that. (About which: hey, [info]zauditu!  Call me!)

(And introducing the new Firefly userpic (finally! I have a Firefly userpic!).  May I present a vaguely sinister Simon Tam, as the fish out of water who finds some inner strength.  And not all of that inner strength is NICE.)
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simon
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Jun. 19th, 2006 @ 08:10 pm Woo-hoo!
Current Mood: jubilant
Serenity on the big screen again.

And I've got tickets.

Life? So good.

I hope this happens every year. :)

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iharthdarth
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Jun. 18th, 2006 @ 02:59 am My piano-playing fingers are tired...
Current Mood: nearly asleep
...that was a kick-a$$ cast party. Hope tomorrow's is as good.

Bed now.
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rowlf
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Jun. 4th, 2006 @ 09:12 pm Week! Of! H-E-double L! What does that spell?!
Current Mood: tired
Oh, yeah, it's Hell Week all right.

In fact, I've been in a kind of Hell Week mode since LAST week. Worked five days in a row to get the costumes done which meant my only down time was Tues. and Wed. nights, during which I was so tired I pretty much spent them sleeping. Going to bed at 9 PM and still having trouble getting up by 9 AM. Yikes.

Dsgrapeson Stress Index: about 8/10.

And this is the BEGINNING of Hell Week.

...help...
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rowlf
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May. 25th, 2006 @ 08:58 pm Things are going well:
Current Mood: cheerful
1. Went to a baseball game last night (thanks, [info]dr_daly), and, in a very exciting miracle of miracles, the Nats won!  Certainly wasn't expecting THAT, of all things.  It is amazing how much cooler the game is live... but also amazing how much one misses. A player was taken out in the third due to a scratched cornea (eewww)? Who knew?

2. While loading up my mp3 player, I found my Act One CD of Iolanthe, which I had long given up for utterly and completely lost-- when I didn't find it during the move a year ago, I figured that was all she wrote.  Not so!  It was behind its own booklet the entire time.  So, okay, I feel fantastically stupid, but I don't care since I can now sing along to the Act One Finale in the shower again!  (No comment from those of you saying that that is also fantastically stupid. Bah to you, I say. Bah!) ;)

3. I have read reviews that say that X3 doesn't suck as much as everyone was expecting! Yay!

4. And, last but not least, the Firefly gospel has been spreading through the Ida cast.  And I wasn't even been the main instigator this time!  Though I did of course unhesitatingly offer unfailing support for the movement. :)  It's so very, very shiny.

ETA: 5. New userpic!
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rowlf
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May. 23rd, 2006 @ 05:20 pm Today is a good day.
Current Mood: happy
Item 1: Heat/AC is fixed! Hurrah! Hurrah especially since tonight is supposed to be a bit nippy, and now I can be warm! Whee!

Item 2: Got an mp3 player! VERY fun. It's a teeny tiny bottom-of-the-line kind of deal, since I don't really need more and although top-of-the-line would be cool it would also be fiercely expensive, which no thank you. But now I can spend countless hours on my computer arranging and rearranging files (I have already discovered that it tends to play files in alphabetical order. This is no good when you want to listen to a cast album start to finish.) and renaming and ripping and all sorts of randomly fun organizational stuff.

Item 3: I got to sleep in! For what feels like the first time in weeks. I think that this Item all by itself would probably merit the subject line. But add it to the other two, and oh yeah, today is SUCH a good day.
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esme
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