on grrr

so i get a call from the sheriff yesterday morning saying that he came across what he thought would be a good photo opp. while cruising around, he happened across 8 bald eagles snacking on the remains of a deer. now this is cool, not so much for the deer being eaten, but because, c'mon.. 8 bald eagles in one place. awesome?!

so i took a cruise down to where he saw them and, by the time i got there, there were only two left. good enough, i thought. don't think i've even seen two in one place before. however, i may have closed my car door a little too loudly and they flew off into a tree in the distance. damn.

i'll be heading back toward that direction today, so i'll try to swing by again and see if they're still around. apparently they've been there the last couple days, so maybe there's a little bit of deer left to pick at.

went to a lion's club meeting last night. one of the foreign exchange students in sutton, jesse from new zealand (i've yet to ask him about 'flight of the conchords' but it's only a matter of time), presented a new zealand lion's club flag to the members because his dad is a lion there. kinda neat. we were also serenaded by the all-girls sutton show-choir. i think there was more of them performing than people they were performing for. which might have made it a little weird for them. they sounded good, though. they've got some good voices.

[sidenote: at lions club meetings.. when they take role call.. or have a vote.. they respond with a 'grrr.' which is kinda lame, but also pretty sweet.]

had bowling last night. cian returned from a broken hand that has kept him out for the past almost two months and still kicked my ass. i beat my average, though, so i pulled my weight.

minden tonight for girls conference basketball. evenings off are hard to come by. which is fine except when you have laundry and other around-the-house things to do. ah, well.

on hitting the "becaaame"

a quick les mis update:

i've been in rehearsing the last three days so towards the end of it last night, some notes got tough to hit. however, my 'empty chairs at empty tables' is actually sounding pretty good.

last night i worked with the guys playing enjolras and valjean, piecing together some of the scenes we're all in. and jason's (valjean) 'bring him home' sounds fantastic. so at least there will be a few songs that will be solid.

enjolras, on the other hand, i feel needs to change a bit. right now he's singing mid-high range. not saying it sounds bad, because it sounds alright, just a little too pretty for the character. he's supposed to be the leader of student revolutionaries, firing them up to fight. he should have a powerful, low voice. it just doesn't sound right singing a battle cry in near falsetto. it should sound like this. (the guy in the sweet vest who starts around 25 seconds.)

but who am i to judge. maybe this will all get sorted out when we hit the stage and start developing the actual plot and characters.

for now, a steady diet of oj, water and lozenges. so i can hit that damn "becaaame."

on ....

*frustrated sigh*

my mood just took a divebomb.

i had spent the better of the last at least hour-and-a-half writing and when i go to save it, it just disappears.

was really happy with what i had written, too.

no use in trying to re-do it right now.

....

fuck.

on two advils and some coffee

if this were still college.. i would not be getting out of bed until after 11 o'clock..

then i'd make the short trip to the couches of woodale and watch a terrible hbo movie, preferably an ernest one..

i would not be waking up at 7:30 and dragging myself to work..

an amber bock hangover feels similar to a franzia one. just slightly downplayed..

here's hoping two advils and some coffee can get me back to an even keel.

it might be worth it if i actually bowled well last night..

on "when the moral kicks in"

thanks to gleeson, i've discovered dirpy.com

dirpy.com allows you to convert videos from youtube into mp3 files to download. brilliant. and, with discovering this, i've also been able to check out some new music as recommended by friends. which is great, since i'm out of the loop of good music out here (maybe that wolf should come back.) and this place has awful music taste. if it isn't anybody-could-write-this, nostalgic-small-town-living country, it's the terrible bands like nickelback, shinedown, three days grace, breaking benjamin.. etc. only thing they've got going is the classic rock, which, let's be honest, who doesn't.

i was talking to an older guy at maury's one night about classic rock and some of the concerts he went to when he was younger, feeling incredibly jealous. guy even had a zz-top tattoo on his left arm. then he absolutely slaughtered my view of his music taste saying that he now listens to nickelback. really?! no, seriously.. really?! i'll never understand it.

anyway, though, this site has sparked some good music my way. i've been listening to the avett brothers (a little behind the eight ball with them, but better late than never) and, thanks too deloose, discovered a phenomenal right-now song. seven plus minutes of missing-friends-and-good-times-because-of-separation-and-gradually-falling-into-adult-life glory. lcd soundsystem - all my friends. examples of some great lyrics scattered throughout:

"it's the memory of our betters
that are keeping us on our feet.

you spent the first five years trying to get with the plan,
and the next five years trying to be with your friends again."


"it comes apart
the way it does in bad films
except in parts
when the moral kicks in"


"and if I'm sewn into submission
i can still come home to this."


"if i could see all my friends tonight."

so that's that.

had another rehearsal last night and have now, almost, at least played/sung through most of the songs i'm in. i'm fairly confident with the ones i'm now familiar with, having played them over and over, but unfortunately, the cd i'm borrowing doesn't have all of the songs on it. so it's pretty obvious when i rehearse which ones i haven't heard, as i'm like "can i hear it once first?" or "yeah.. i'm gonna have to work on that one." maybe i'll dirpy all the songs i'm missing.

on ten o'clock news face-time

of course when i start writing again, the internet decides to stop working at my house. so i'm at the office saying, 'hold tight. he's not done yet.'

who got some face time on the ten o'clock news last night? this guy. as part of the previously mentioned murder mysteries i've been taking part in, we performed last night at the hastings museum. prior to this, i have been doing the same show all three times. scott has a number of different shows from like a christmas in london, an american idol theme, clue, which is what i have been doing, and a whole lot more. for this show, however, the museum wanted a new show, one to actually relate to the museum. so scott wrote the script, incorporating some historical facts about the museum's creation and some of the big names in hastings at that time. we had the car ride to hastings to learn the script and create a faint background for our characters, mine being the artist who painted a majority of the exhibit displays.

so, in that sense, it was tough. since it's all thinking on the spot, without time to discuss between characters any mutual story lines, a lot of the questions tables asked led to "oh but he said.." or "that's not what she said.." fortunately, it really doesn't matter a whole terrible lot what you say most of the time aside from the clues you give. which is good considering some of the questions they ask.

last night's performance was fun, though. everybody was into it, which makes it a much more enjoyable time for them and us. as for the news.. khas tv came to do a story on the performance and i was shown briefly in the b-roll.

and this afternoon, the les mis company meets again for rehearsal. i've been playing the crap out of the soundtrack in my car to get familiar with the pieces i'll be singing. it's sinking in more. i'm excited about it. might pop in the 10th anniversary dvd i'm borrowing when i get home to see how much more ass michael ball kicks as marius than i can expect to.

on wolves who like music

last night i had a dream where i went to let budders inside, but there was a wolf just a few feet behind him. fearing that the wolf would try to run inside if i opened the door for budders, i stood there with the door cracked slightly.

i tried to sneak the door open wide enough for just budders to shimmy through the opening, but saw that, upon noticing a slightly wider gap leading to the inside, the wolf flinched toward the house. i knew he would make a run for it if i opened the door any more. so i just kind of stood there trying to figure out what to do.

the wolf then asked me if he could come inside. yes, he spoke, and asked if he could come hang out. i see how little red riding hood was fooled by the big, bad wolf, for he spoke well and with only seemingly good intentions. but i was hesitant. he was a wolf. who knows what he'd do if i allowed him entrance to my house.

he then, further, asked if he could come inside so that we could listen to some music. he said he had some good music he wanted me to hear. while listening to good music with a wolf might be kind of cool, i still would have been listening to music with a wolf. and little red riding hood taught me that no matter how complimentary or friendly a wolf may seem, he's still a wolf.

sensing that i was not going to allow him inside my house, the wolf said goodbye and walked away. as he left, and i'm not sure what music listening contraption could do this, he played a song loudly at his departure. and it registered as one of my brother's songs, though i can't think of which one. and i thought: wolves know my brother's music? and i thought: damn. maybe he did just want to listen to music.

on performing

and on the (however many days has it been since my last entry) he rose!

i'm back.

for how long? only time will tell. for those of you who have already formed a "how many days before this current stretch of blogging ends" betting pool, put me down for 23.

i wanted to resurrect this for a few reasons:
a) it will allow me to write something besides clay county news stories on a (somewhat) consistent basis. something that i have been wanting to do for a while, but have failed miserably at.
b) have been told to resume posting updates by the few who, apparently, did keep tabs.
c) my life is, actually, kind of interesting, and, therefore, worth sharing with those who wish to be shared with.
and, most catalytically, d) i have been cast in the sutton community theater/sutton public schools production of 'les miserables,' giving me something to write about.

on that note..

prior to december, the only sort of performing that i had done in a long time was either a) on guitar hero/rock band, b) singing 'picture' by kid rock and sheryl crow with kate for allison, or c) for budders.
however, this past couple of months has presented new performance venues for me. (not saying that i have anything in particular to perform, but that when opportunities to have a little bit of fun here in town that don't involve closing down maury's [the bar] or watching tv on the internet at home, it's a welcome change.)

let me back up (i may have to do this a lot, considering much of what has happened lately in my life here has not been documented. i have myself to blame.) scott, who is the state farm agent in town, approached me about potentially taking part in these dinner theater murder mysteries that he does throughout the area, hearing that it may be something i'd be interested in. thank you, scott. yes, that sounds awesome, actually. so i performed in back-to-back shows one friday and saturday (probably november-decemberish) and returned to action for a performance in lincoln last night. i like it, and, as long as i have no conflicts, will try to go whenever i'm needed. because, as i say, it's a heck of a lot better than staying in by myself for the night or finding myself at maury's for four-five days out of the week, which has happened more often that you'd think. and again, it's another experience. something different, something new.

along those lines, scott is also directing 'les miserables' this spring, in conjunction with the school. i thought: something to keep me busy, something different, something to get me back to the theater days of old. i'm in. this post is getting long, so i won't go into the whole audition process (that can actually be its own post.) so... yadda yadda yadda.. i'm marius.

as marius, i am a) the love interest in the play, b) the love interest of two high school actresses in the play and c) required to sing nine-ish songs, plus ensemble pieces. i've got my work cut out for me. (and more on the whole love-triangle-with-two-high-school-girls thing as the rehearsals develop. this could prove to be an entertaining storyline.)

so i'll be singing 'les mis' songs in and out of rehearsals until the shows on april 29, 30 and may 1. and trying, all that time, to find a falsetto that sounds (somewhat) natural. good luck, right?

check back, folks. these developments promise to be worth reporting on.