Feel the Burn

Rehearsal was cancelled today, which leaves me with a day unexpectedly open to do with whatever I will. It's honestly a bit disappointing, because I look forward to rehearsals, but at the same time, my body could use the day off. Since The Prometheus Myth is going to require a lot of physical strength and stamina from its actors, we've started devoting a half hour of rehearsal to something called FIT training (FIT supposedly stands for something other than "fitness" but nobody seems to know what), which is a cycle of low-impact aerobic exercises designed to firm muscles and build stamina. We've did our first bit of FIT training on Thursday, and I have not been so sore since I took a step aerobics class in high school. Truly, I never realized how out of shape I am. So I'm glad to be getting back into shape. And I'm also glad I don't have to do it today, because Thursday kicked my ass from there to Sunday.

A Good Week for Artwork...

One of the cool things about my hobby is that, since I'm making something that people want, I can periodically trade a bottle for something else. I recently ran a batch of absinthe and sent a bottle to Sam and Terry. In trade, Sam offered these:



I love them. Sid Wangmeister, incidentally, was the porn name I took for myself in college when I was writing the as-yet unmade existentialist porn, Coital Solution (the tag line of which was "Show Me How to Make Mayonaise, Baby"). Sid was the comic relief for the film. He owned a kosher deli and would make suggestive jokes about pickles. Perhaps you see why this film was never made.

On Tuesday, I also received this. I didn't get this for barter, but the money I spent on it helped my friend Ursula take a trip to Costa Rica for some very good causes. So everyone wins.

I think I'll spend my day off buying some hanging brads and searching my apartment for wall space.

Radio Free Xsnania

I realize I've been running on silent for the past couple of weeks, and for that, I'm sorry. There's a couple of reasons for this. One is that rehearsing for The Prometheus Myth and trying to write Strange Dreams... has kept me busier than I naively expected it to. It's not so much that I have no time to write here, it's just that the time I do have I spend either sleeping or catching up with people I really love, so I just haven't had any impetus to write.

Strange Dreams... is coming along nicely. It's hard to say if it's exactly where I thought it would be at this point, since I really didn't have any idea how to begin crafting this piece when we began, but my friend Shiny and I are writing stories and sharing them, and those stories are engendering other stories, which in turn bear other stories, and so forth. In short, the basic idea of the show, that we create our world through telling each other stories, is proving truer than I'd ever imagined.

The Prometheus Myth is also coming along nicely. In fact, fuck that, it's easily the most interesting and amazing piece of theatre I've gotten to work on in a long, long time. We had our one person leave the show already (there's always one in a show like this) and have spent the last two weeks working intensively with a Lacoc (sp?) movement teacher to learn to move as a group, create still but dynamic scenes, etc. It's been a little like military training, except the movements have been a lot more flowy. But the basic elements--not standing out from the group, being in the scene without dominating the scene, using all senses to make yourself aware of both the space around you and the people in it--is very military. I love it.

Last Saturday, our head puppeteer introduced us to Zeus, a six-foot bunraku puppet with a fully articulated face and hand. It's amazing. I got to play. And we get to do this until May.

The other big reason I haven't written is that in my off time, I've been really sick with some kind of creeping nasty cold that's kept me up coughing all night. It's slowly subsiding, and I've been resting a lot and drinking plenty of tea and sleeping at seven every night, but it's still lingering. Even as we speak, I'm drawing up a hot bath for myself to hopefully suck some of this cold feeling out of me and loosen my lungs a bit. Then an early bed time for me, I'm afraid.

Stupid disease.

To bury the hatchet...

This comment appeared in response to my ICM post of a few months back, and since that post is way far back in time, in the interest of presenting both sides of the argument, I thought I'd bump it up to the front:
I've been living in an ICM property for a few years and have had nothing but a great experience with these guys. While I have had a few maintenance issues during that time they have always responded promptly to my requests. When my fridge broke I had a new one in 3 days. The one time my hot water went out they had someone by to fix it that same day. I have recommended a few friends to ICM as well and they have all been very happy with their apartments.

I've heard other people have good experiences with ICM, but I just didn't. In my experience with them, they rarely made repairs in good time (when I left my apartment, the gaping hole in the close floor that they continually said they'd repair was still there) and their mode of doing business was at best unprofessional (they never once returned a phone call from me to let me know it was received or to tell me when their workmen would be over), at worst bullying and rude.

To their credit, however, after I moved out, they returned my entire deposit with interest, which is more than any other landlord has done. Their business manager even called me to apologize that they had misplaced the SASE I had sent and to tell me the check was on its way. Had the rest of my dealings with them been so professional and polite, I would probably still be in my apartment with them.

For Actors

I got this e-mail from my friend Braden last night:

Hello actors. I hope this message finds you all gainfully employed.

My name is Braden LuBell, and I am an experienced acting teacher and monologue coach, with a degree in acting and directing from Emerson College. I have worked professionally as both an actor and a director, as well as spending last year as the casting director for a new theater company in Philadelphia. After many extremely successful experiences in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, I am attempting to begin teaching and coaching again, here in Chicago.

I have worked with a large spectrum of age groups (adolescent to middle aged), and actors of all levels of experience (novice to professional). I can work with you on pieces you already have in your repertoire, or I can help you find new monologues to work on as well. I am thorough, I love what I do, and I will always remind you how to have FUN with your work - too often forgotten about in the stress of trying to be an actor. You can always trust I will not send you off without making sure you are at your absolute best.

I am charging a mere $15.00 an hour for my services. This is an embarrassingly low rate, I know, but I am hoping the price’s lack of intimidation will entice people to at least give me a go-around. Of course, should anyone request it of me, I can provide enthusiastic recommendations from former students, many of whom are professionally working actors today.

I will come to you, or if you are not comfortable with that, we can arrange for an inexpensive rehearsal space. No commitment required; you can work with me once for an important audition, or we can set up a weekly appointment. Again, it’s a mere $15.00, so there’s nothing to lose. ( …Except $15.00.)
If you have any questions at all, or you would be interested in setting up a session, feel free to email me at :

http://by101fd.bay101.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=d38e8d0312268d23c7cd005df3529d9dc1e0951f4f824bd0e4aebb9c08968ef4&mailto=1&to=bradenlubell@hotmail.com&msg=6491A36F-8A34-4DB6-A3B1-2645ABC31969&start=0&len=4671&src=&type=x

Best of luck with all your endeavors, and I hope to hear from you soon.

All good thoughts,

Braden

I can vouch for Braden's skill. He directed Sue's show for the SF Fringe Fest, and it was excellent. So if anyone needs a monologue coach for auditions, go to him.