Just a friendly reminder - the 5th Story Slam from MPR is tonight at the Bedlam Theater¹ in Minneapolis. It starts at 7:30pm, free parking² but the event will cost you $10 ($5 if you sign up to tell a story, $1back if you get there without your car)

This slam’s theme is Achilles’ Heel - what that means is up to you!
Bedlam Theater has a full bar and menu, and will be serving food³ and drink before, during and after the show.

What’s the Story Slam? From the MPR website about it: “The In The Loop “Story Slam” is a live event (and version of our show) based around the simple formula of great storytelling from anybody and everybody who wants to take a crack at it. The Smarts and I will be there as your guides through the evening, but mostly it’s about whatever stories our talented audience brings to the table.”

Still unsure? How about listening to the last Story Slam (With pictures by yours truly) or checking out the entire “In The Loop” archive.

So I hope you’ll join me, our host Jeff Horwich, and the venerable house band “The Smarts” for what aims to be a night of story tellings, laughter, food and drink!

1. Google Map to Bedlam Theater [↩]
2. And it’s a stone’s throw from light rail [↩]
3. Bedlam Theater’s “Be Social” Polish-Fusion Cuisine - It’s AWESOME! Try the Pieorogis [↩]

As an early Valentine’s Day present, Mishka surprised me with tickets to go see John Doyle’s production of Sweeney Todd this Sunday at the State Theater. After reading many reviews, from the Pioneer Press to the Star Tribune to the Rake, one thing seemed to be certain - if you know the story ahead of time, you’ll like it. Otherwise, you’ll be a tad confused. I’ve seen the story, both in a small production years ago and the movie that just came out. My thoughts on it?

Before I tell you, I’d like to point out one reason I love Minnesota. In Uptown, we just so happen to have a salon called Sweeney Todds. I kid you not - they even have a website¹

Anyway, after sitting through Doyle’s version² of Sweeney Todd (There are many variations - here’s an overview) I have to say I quite like it!

Granted, it took me about halfway through ACT 1 to get over the corruption that Tim Burton did, but after that, I went with the flow.
Sweeney Todd normally has a very ornate stage, with lots of props - the barber chair being the focus point of the whole thing. Not only was there no barber chair, there wasn’t much of a stage either - with a large shelf in the back, loaded with lots of items - some used as props, others lit up at certain points to help you understand what’s going on.

And that is sorely needed.

If you don’t know the story of Sweeney Todd beforehand, it would be fairly difficult to follow - upstairs is nothing more then a few steps up a ladder, the bakehouse is nothing more then a door in the backstage - but if you know it, it is quite a refreshing take on it. I felt that Mrs. Lovett didn’t really start shining until the second act, but Sweeney was excellent the whole way through.
Johanna and Anthony though, I thought were the weak spots. Johanna’s voice, while very beautiful, lacked that ‘virginal’ quality to it that the character is supposed to betray. And the young Anthony wasn’t very convincing considering he had a receding hairline!

But, to be fair, considering that the actors also played all the instruments throughout the play it was totally expected that they couldn’t exactly dialin all of the parts. It would be hard to find an expert Cello player that also sang as a soprano AND was 17 years old. So I commend them!

Overall, it was done quite well - I just had to get over the Burton corruption.

1. Remove the /site/home.html part to see a horrible entry page [↩]
2. Of Sondheim’s version [↩]

I have to admit, I’m really falling in love with google’s Docs and Spreadsheets. It allows me to work on multiple articles, concurrently, wherever I can get an internet connection. Right now, I’m working on 3 articles

• On Internet Personals - I’ve dated a lot of women I’ve met online, and this is all I’ve learned from it.
• On Temporary Friends - I used to drive a semi truck, and along the way you’d have temporary friends - people you would ride along with for 4-5 days, then never see again.
• Cell Phone Jamming - An article about the effects of drivinf whilst chatting and should we be allow to jam those signals under the umbrella of safety.
• A copy of my resume, which gets updated on the fly.
• Copies of various other writings which were deemed to be important.

I’m also keeping several spreadsheets with cost/part information for a few projects I’m working on. It’s an amazing product. Everyone, go use it. Now.

Other then that, there really isn’t much going on now, except for packing. I’ll be at the Guthrie this Saturday and next to volunteer my shifts, then I have the Fringe Festival coming up, of which my participation will be light due to the fact I’ll be moving for half of it.

And I want my new bed NOW, damn it.

As you can see from this picture, my new camera & lens is significantly larger then my previous one. And after only using the D200 for less then a week, I don’t know how I ever got along without it. Everything is designed to be able to access and change it quickly, in the dark, without moving my eyes from the viewfinder. It’s an absolute dream. I’m really looking forward to using it in next month’s “In The Loop“, since it’s going to (tentatively) be shot from a nearby homeless shelter - should lend to some interesting and powerful shots.

So, it seems like ever since I got the check, I’ve been spending roughly $500/day on.. I don’t really on what, exactly, but it’s been some quality stuff! An example of that quality stuff would be this pic of the tin of tea we purchased yesterday from Teavana. It’s a mix of 2 blends ; one is “Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls” and the other is “Roobios Tropica” - it smells (and tastes) simply amazing - I might just be going off coffee for awhile. I like it so much so that the same night I went and made a big order from Stash Tea - a coffee cup infuser and several hundred grams of fine tea - including Earl Grey (Learn about Earl Grey tea here!)!

Saturday was Bobstock, Mishka’s Father’s yearly celebration of the life and music of Bob Dylan. It was a great time with a lot of interesting people, made even more interesting since we brought the Wii along. So it was more like Celebrate the life and time of Bob Dylan…. and kick the crap out of each other in bowling & boxing. At least the kids had something to do!

During Bobstock I was talking to Mishka’s mother for a bit, she’s a wise over-achieving IT nerd like myself, and was lamenting to her about the current state of my life, how I’m at a crossroads and need to dedicate several years of college aside for my art and so on and so forth and she said “No you don’t, you simply need to get the information you’re missing”. That’s a simple statement, but damn it all, she’s right. So to help improve my photography, I’m trying to learn how to draw. On Sunday I picked up the book “How to Draw What You See” and a sketchpad and I seem to be picking it up. Though to be honest, my picture taking abilities have greatly increased, especially when you throw in the confidence boost that is carrying around a professional camera - it gives you more of that ‘I belong here’ cred that when combined with an NPPA badge affords you more access then you think you’d get. It’s a wonderful little secret I tend to exploit as much as possible!

I don’t know if I’ll ever photograph professionally, I have my writing and art to pursue in that vein, though I do think I’ll keep at it for the rest of my life.
Mishka graduates this year (For her second degree - overachiever like her mother) with her Interior Design degree. There’s a lot of places in the Twin Cities that she could go to, and I know she’ll do amazingly well - she’s found her niche, her calling, and it’ll net her cash. Hell, she completely amazes me with what she can accomplish in a day - like her new job, the first week, she’s already organizing events and talking to places to do co-op deals - she’ll go far. Hopefully, she’ll go far enough so that I can stop working IT full time some day and do it part time (Even though she says that even doing it part time, I’ll still make more money then her for a few more years hehe), then using the rest of it for writing, art, and photography. Hell, writing is already paying off.

I’m really starting to like how my life is panning out. I’m in love with a wonderful woman I’m sure I’ll marry (She doesn’t read the blog, and no one tip her off, eh, even though I think she knows), I’m contracting at a place the is paying me really well and where I really fit in, I’ve setup some personal goals for myself (save up money for a nice ring + wedding, then for a loft/house, then work on art skills), am working hard to broaden my abilities, and generally growing as a human being.

And sometimes, I wonder, if it is all thanks to a broken Maneki Neko.
A Maneki Neko, literally meaning ‘beckoning cat’, is a Japanese good luck symbol from the 1800s. It’s told that the cat holds one paw upwards, inviting money, good will, customers, etc into the owners world. I bought one. I had it on top of a CD tower for the longest time.

One night, the CD tower fell, probably due to the fault of Ebbie, my very real cat. And with it, the beckoning arm fell off as well. And after that, things started to happen.
Perhaps it was a sign that I no longer needed a lucky charm, I made my own. Maybe it was a sign from above telling me to get moving. Or maybe it is just a bad idea to put stuff on top of CD towers - either way, I’m doing better now.

Anyway, this post has taken me, literally, 4 hours to write - as I did it in between work assignments. And now I’ve totally lost my train of thought due to a little fire, so I’ll just end it here. Ciao!

Yesterday I had my training to become a volunteer usher at the Guthrie Theater. It was an hour and a half long, and mainly consisted of the history of the theater itself, as well as where the Wuertle Thrust and McGuire Proscenium got their names from. I also learned a new bit of stage-speak. “Bomb” - that’s what they call those little ramps the go down from the stage, where the actors run up from.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to working there, the shifts are only 2-3 hours long, and I get credit though for what I’m not entirely sure yet - perhaps a membership, but I’m doing it just for the experience. So if you’re ever at the Guthrie, maybe to catch Major Barbara, be sure to look for me

This Saturday marks the season open of the Mill City Farmer’s Market. I have never been to this particular one, but it looks like it will be very interesting - it was started last year by Brenda Langton, the same Brenda that owns Cafe Brenda. It starts at 8am, so I think we’ll head down there to pick up some stuff, then maybe check out the Mill City Museum.

You know I’ve had a major thing with wanting to live in the Rossmor building in St. Paul, but I find myself increasingly more in the West Bank area in Minneapolis. That’s where all the good theaters are, Southern, Theater in the Round, Mixed Blood, the U of M Rarig, Guthrie, Theater De La Jeune Lune, and that’s just off the top of my head. That’s also where my photog hang out West Photo is. It’s where some of my friends live. So why don’t I just friggin move there? Good question - think I’ll start looking soon, since my lease is up in July.

Also, just for shits and grins, I’m going to make a new set at my Flickr site, and in it put ever non-consumable purchase I make for the next year. Every CD, Book, camera accessory, car, country I buy, I’m going to take a picture of and place the date, place of purchase, and cost. Maybe it’ll open my eyes up at the end of the year when I see just how much I spend on *shit*.

By the way, even though he’s published by Sony, Mason Jennings is friggin awesome.

HOOOOOLY SHIT! I DID IT! I DID IT! I MADE IT INTO THE MINNESOTA FRINGE FESTIVAL THIS YEAR! MY NUMBER WAS CALLED! THEY HOLLERED OUT NINE!

And the woman next to me drew it. They said 9, and in a shocked state I said ‘Oh my god, I love you’. She said, ‘What?’, so I said it again - ‘Oh my god, I love you’.

Then I realized that she didn’t know who I was and explained WHY I loved her. She congratulated me and I headed out of there, shaking - so full of emotion. Called Mishka right away and let her know - and damn, she was just as excited as me.

I MADE IT! I MADE IT! I MADE IT!

Tomorrow is the MN Fringe Fest lottery. I’m #9. I’m one of 382 applicants for 150ish spots. I’m nervous and yet excited. Wish me luck, eh?