Lord of Everythings

Wow. Yesterday, Tim, Suzi, Sophie and I sat through all 7 hours of the extended versions of the first two LOTR films. Wow. I liked TT so much better once it had been extended. The theatrical release just left me feeling … empty and … robbed. But not the sweet DVD. Oh, sweet DVD. Oh. Drool.

My mom gets into town tomorrow morning!

Cleaning House

I’m really enjoying having a client to work with L.J. Now, I just need to really start customizing my page to make it sweet. Of course, there aren’t many people who view the original home page of my journal; I would imagine that like me, they read their friends page to keep in touch. So, mostly, this is for my friends who don’t have a LJ.

Anyway …

Seth Meyers played in Late Night with us last night. Had some great scenes with him. He’s a very nice guy — and it’s a relief that we both share the same outlook on group events and such. A few months ago, he came in for a camping/dunes trip (which was just awful). Last night we reflected on what was our shared “worst Boom day” ever: heading out to the “Lake” for “Camping Fun” with “Boom Friends” — an evening better described as time at the swamp, spent hanging out with bees.

And a shout out again to all who helped me make my journal more secure, by the way. Here’s a photo I took of Amsterdam — a little virtual thank you card.

Banning Anon Posts

How do I make feedback to this journal for friends-only? Jones, you’d said there was a way to make comments available to only those who had logged in; does that mean it’s only available for friends to read, as well? I want a way to ban posts but still allow everyone to read.

Pizza Royale 2003

The date: November 18th, 2003

The location: Boom Chicago

The event: Pizza Royale 2003

As many of my LA friends know, every year I import Chicago deep-dish pizzas from Lou Malnati’s for an Event. Firstly, I never celebrate my birthday. I hate birthdays. But as a compromise to those who need a party, I screen the film Battle Royale and everyone eats great pizza. This year was no exception. 16 cast and crew members joined me for deepdish at 11:00pm. The pizzas were flown on Dry Ice to New York City, and then picked up there by Suzi Barett and couriered to Amsterdam for consumption that night. We baked in Boom’s kitchen, and watched the film.

See, not a lot of Americans have seen BR. It was never officially imported by the US, probably due to Colombine.

But it’s such a good movie!

So, everyone enjoyed it, everyone got full, and then we went home. Success!

Here’s a shout out to anyone who’s ever been at a Pizza Royale! Three Years and Counting!

Witch Hunter Robin

Just finished another Anime Series tonight, called Witch Hunter Robin.

Since it was a generous gift of my friend Hein, I’d like to comment on it. (That was the agreement, after all).

Hmm. Well, as with most Anime I’ve watched lately, this one started out strong and then got a little muddled. Not terribly so, but … I wonder if I’m just growing impatient with eastern-style story telling. I know I’ll get nostolgic about the series in a few months (as I’ve done with .hack), but right now I just feel a little unfulfilled.

For example, (SPOILERS FOLLOW, ANIME FANS! STOP READING HERE!) the final showdowns between Zaizen and Robin and Amon; what was everyone’s motivation? Why was everyone in that room? Where did Factory’s security go? And why was everyone so suprised that the witches were dead? I thought it was made pretty clear much earlier that Factory wasn’t keeping them on Ice or anything.

The whole series was plagued by logic problems. And I wouldn’t have been so harsh on it if the style wasn’t so adult. A series posing as anime X-files can’t have the logic leaps of a kid’s series. But why were Craft Users hunting Witches in the first place?

It’s late and I’ve had a lot of tea, so I don’t know if I can articulate my dissatisfaction readily. I really, really really loved the atmosphere and the soundtrack. And thank god I watched it fansubbed — a higher quality level would have had me angry at all the CG backgrounds.

All in all, thanks Fub for the CDS!

Now, I’m on to X.

Gosh it sure is nice to have the Net

So, last night was a night off. I had a delightful dinner with Tim and then drinks with herr director Pep and owner Andrew. Came home, chatted with Josh — all’s well, it seems. Played video games all day, made invitations to Pizza Royale 3, and then tonight we had a full house for our two shows. So there’s not much to report. But…

There’s been several requests to see footage of Boom in action. This is taken with my Fuji Photo Camera (so it’s not exactly high quality — the camera takes stills, not video. It’s just a nice feature.), and I blended the footage together with XP pack-in, Windows Movie Maker.

Of course, there is no footage of me. Silly! I have to hold the camera! But you can get an idea of what we do at Boom (and the set, stage, etc) through this lovely little link.

It’s somewhere around 4MB.

This is Yo! The freestyle rapping game at Boom!

Oh, and to describe the game a little bit better: You interview a person sitting near the stage. Their name, their home, their job, etc. Then you rap about them. There’s really no … umm … safety net. And when I first started doing it, it scared the shit out of me. But now it’s not so bad. Jim is great at it!

Tour and People

The tour last night was fantastic. It started slow but ended very well, and afterwords I met some people in the lobby who had seen the show at Lowlands. Apparently I yo!ed to one of the guys there, and it was on MTV, and now he was a local celebrity. I can’t believe I was on MTV, rapping!! That’s the coolest thing in my whole life, after The Shanley Seven and being in this show. Awesome.

Now, I’m playing Mario Kart Double Dash! and Castlevania Aria Of Sorrow and all is well. I can’t wait to get my first online game (FFIX). I wonder if my friends at home had any idea how much of a dork I am, and how excited I get for New Graphics and such. I should rename this journal VelveteenLoser.

Sunday’s show … which I forgot to mention.

My life is shows.

This is the slogan which most appropriately describes my Boom reality. The days off are the exception that proves the rule; they are few and far between. Mind you, this isn’t a complaint — it’s just a catchphrase.

There are many shows that I don’t log in. Because there are too many to separate into entries. And I don’t know how to mention all of the shows. What’s the difference between today’s 6am show with Brendan or Sunday’s show to a Non Boomer?

Regardless, I’ll go into it. On Sunday, Dave … Grobet? came to Boom to teach us how to play comedy sportz style. I may be in the wrong to speak for everyone, but I got the sense that the workshop was insulting. Getting talked down to — the insinuation of what we didn’t know …. what am I trying to say …

Here:

None of the regular cast members are beginners, so why teach “Zip Zap Zop” to us? And why pay to fly Dave out to Amsterdam just to do that? I know plenty of teachers who are trying to push the boundaries of short form (JD Walsh, for example … though don’t tell him that I offered any praise to his tyranny) and Long Form (Chris Barnes is an experimental teacher who also sometimes falls short) but they’re not contacted to teach workshops. Even I taught last week, and I’m pretty sure I put more thought into what I was going to say before the workshop — and I wasn’t sent to Amsterdam for that single purpose. So what gives?

Much of the Boom experience is frustrating. The organization works like a multiple-headed-dragon that hates itself. Constantly biting its own interests (and surprising itself in the process). Corporate doesn’t talk to Artistic, and the Directors don’t always heed the concerns of the Actors. The same mistakes get made over and over again.

And then on Sunday we pay someone to tell us, “Your goal should be to get the most applause from the audience as an individual.” Are you kidding? My goals as a professional are to have a fantastic and balanced show, complementing my fellow Improvisers as well as having stand-out moments in character. I want to learn. In scenes, the last thing I’m thinking about it how to get a bigger laugh than my fellow player. I’m thinking, “What’s the game?” and “How can I heighten the way I see the other characters on stage?” How do I make this theater look good so that I have something to be proud of? That’s what I’m thinking during and in-between scenes.

While I’m in rant mode, here’s another thing that irks me. We have too many corporates to cast, so we’ve hired locals to represent our company. No offense to Ryan and Josh (the new actors), but I don’t want people to see the shows they perform in and think, “That’s what a Boom Chicago employee acts like.” They don’t represent the organization … only they do, because we’ve hired them without thinking too far into the future. I know many more gifted improvisers who might be willing to live in Amsterdam for 4 or 5 months and do the job that these two are doing, only do it well. And it’s demoralizing to dwell on it. Can’t help it, though. Here I am, at three in the morning, dwelling.

I’ve gotta get some sleep. Tomorrow, I’m off on Tour again. Again, as always, it’s great. But it could be religious.

One Thousand Person Show

Yesterday, Suzi and Tim and I went to Utrect for a C show, which was for an audience of more than 1000 students. We finished the set with Yo! (our freestyle rap set), and all was well. This was Tim’s first time Yo!ing and he did a fantastic job. There are easier ways to lose your virginity than ryhming to a thousand students … but he never cried once.

The rest of the afternoon the three of us walked around Utrect. That’s what’s great about going on Corporates with friends; after, you can hang out and enjoy the city or what-ev. I got Mario Party 4, as well as EA Sports’ Quidditch Game.

Now, here’s a question:

Quidditch is a made-up word that doesn’t mean anything. It’s not a combination of Quid and ditch, nor does it describe the sport in any way.

So why in Holland has Quidditch been renamed ZWERKBAL? What the hell is a Zwerk? Is it just because the combination of QUI isn’t very familiar to the Dutch? Or is it because it’s an offensive other-word?

The damn title screen still says Quidditch.

Justification

I feel like my life has become a justification of costumes. Last night was the Gonzo party, and I arrived in my Gothic Lolita piece from Cosmates Japan. Too bad the party sucked so much. I’ve spent the last few months oggling the flyers and getting excited about the classy atmosphere, the attention to design, the implied warehouse setting. But none of these are features of a Gonzo party.

Instead, Suzi and I went to the Amuse … and to our horror, arrived at a party that smelled like wet carboard and was so thick with fog effects that my lungs will be coated with oil until Christmas. And very few people were wearing costumes that had any love in them.

That’s the difference between Halloween and Generic Costume Party. At Halloween, people tend to put a little thought into what they want to wear — who their alter ego for the eve will be. But at the Gonzo party, it was just, as Suzi put it, “What can I put on tonight for this?”

Nevertheless, Brendan was in top form, and was very enjoyable to watch. He’s a swizzle stick that bends at all places. And he hosts a party well, too.

Ahem. Also, I can’t figure out how to publish more than one photo at a time for this journal. So, gone is last entries photo of Sof and I, and up is this picture of the Gonzo Party costumes of me and Suze.

Ahem, that is, if I could only figure out how to even publish a second file to the web. I have space on Chello, obviously … but no memory of how to create a tree for files, nor how to publish to the web without an FTP client … and Microsoft only wants to let me put one up there. Oh dear. Well, some other time.

HA HA! Update! Thanks for the FTP program, Fub! Here’s a pic of Suzi and I in the Shiny before the Gonzo Party!

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