Debate Drinking Game


Drink One Sip If:
Anyone says "terrorism"
Anyone says "Halliburton"
Anyone says "flip flop"
Anyone says "Saddam Hussein"
Anyone blames "the media"
Anyone mentions their own military service
Anyone says "September 11"
One candidate interrupts another candidate


Drink Two Sips If:
Bush says "cut and run"
Kerry says "W stands for wrong"
If either candidate talks past their time limit
Kerry brings up Bush's "Mission Accomplished" moment
Bush mentions Crawford, TX
Anyone looks at the wrong camera
Anyone whips out "evidence"
Anyone says "Osama bin Laden"
Anyone mentions blogs
Anyone invokes the hurricane sympathy vote
Anyone mentions "North Korea"
Kerry mentions Bush wants to reinstate the draft
Every time you see anyone wearing the yellow "LiveSTRONG" bracelet


Finish Your Glass If:
Anyone in the audience gets dragged out of the auditorium
Anyone in the audience gets off an unscripted question
Bush mispronounces any word or name
Anyone says "Osama bin Hidin'"
Anyone uses a sports metaphor
Anyone attempts to speak Spanish to pander to Latinos


Do a Shot If:
Bush mentions the deficit
Bush accuses Kerry of being "French on terrorism"
Kerry accuses Bush of being a pansy for avoiding Vietnam
Bush admits he made a mistake ("miscalculation" counts)
Ralph Nader shows up insisting on airtime


Finish the Bottle If:
Anyone challenges anyone to a dual
The moderator rips off his mask to reveal his true identity is Karl Rove

DAMN SCI FI CHANNEL!

yesterday it was buck rogers. . . today it's battlestar galatica! hours and hour of kinda lame but nostalgic tv. i hope i can break the trance soon so i can get showered and perhaps a little productive today.

I'm BOUND!

ok, not to a chair with scratchy ropes or anything. . . but in a hardcover!


yes, this is my mfa thesis. . . i went to look it up in the kent library, since i hadn't seen it yet. the library search engine said it was available, so i went to the right set of stacks and sound some of my friends' theses. . . . but not mine. now, i did have these fantasies that i wold find it with pages torn and large red marker drawn through it and all that, but since i couldn't find it, i started to believe that maybe it had been used as kindling. i searched the restocking shelves on several floors. . . nothing. finally i resorted to the special collections/ archives. since the thesis was a kent state thesis the school had to keep a special copy in their archives. . . this copy could never leave the library. i had to fill out paperwork, leave all writing utensils except a pencil behind, and i had to be very sneaky in taking the picture. .. .of my OWN damn thesis.

anyway, it all worked out, none of the pages were torn out or edited away. . .at least on this copy!

i did make it to kent, and spent some time with anyone i could get a hold of. . . though, my camera didn't come out as often then. but i spent time with j, chaela, emily, and sarah. what did i visit? well, there was mike's place. . . and the x-wing!


and i did stop by the school, but no one was really around. . . a good thing i think, but i did visit a special spot. . . a couple of bathrooms that i always found rather entertaining.

back on the road, and on my way to kent. i saw a number of these, but getting a snapshot off wasn't easy. . .
i call it gay truck love. . .


and then some political ranting spray painting on the back of a truck. . .

so, i had planned on stopping early on in tennessee and spending the night in a hotel before heading into abingdon and seeing the barter crew. . . . but then i remembered that i hadn't talked to a friend of mine from just inside tennessee in a LONG time. . . so i called her and left her an urgent message that she needed to get back to me TODAY TODAY TODAY!. . . and she did. . . so instead of resting i pressed on into johnson city tennessee to rachel's! it was great getting to catch up and hang out with her, though i think i maybe kept her up past her bedtime, since she had work as a 9 to 5-er. . . .

i then went out to the barter crew and got to visit a bunch of people i hadn't seen in a couple of years. here's rachel and stephan shortly after we finished a goodie basket for those poor souls stuck in tech all day. . .


then a couple evenings sitting over at stephan and teresa's with some old friends and some new people i just met. . .





they have a really cute place. . . decorated and painted, and even using different set pieces from different shows. . . and i spent the night there, teresa got me all set up and even had a 'chad blanket' for me. . . one of those wonderful afgans that chad made in his crocheting days.



it was so nice seeing some of the old crew. and there have been some big changes to some of the spaces i used to spend a lot of time in. it was so bizarre, i spent so much time there. . . and yet, i couldn't remember where one radio shack in that town was. . . i usually pride myself on knowing where all the radio shacks are. . . and at one time i did know, but not so much any more.

as i left santa fe, on the first leg of my trip, i had a nice sunset in my rear view mirror. .

and just as an absolute check that i was on my way and going the right direction. . .

did you know that the sci-fi channel was running a short marathon of buck rogers of the 25 century this morning? neither did i! good thing i scanned the channels before getting up to do anything productive this morning! whew. . . .travesty averted.

ok, so there's a lot to come and a lot for me to work on, pictures to crop and change size and such. but i should be able to work on it shortly, just maybe not tonight. i was able to remove my things from storage in ohio this weekend with the help of my gracious parents. . yipee! now i just gotta go through my belongings and sort and such. hope you all are well.

ever wonder what type of job you might have had during the medival period?

i was a 'white knight'. . .. whatever that means

medival jobs

ok, a quick pic from the david byrne concert. . .




jon, the lighting director actually had me and lesley taking these shots from the booth. i can't exactly say that i'm a big fan. . . but the audience seemed to LOVE him, and he did put on a really great show. . . on the side is the tosco strings performing with him.

and he blogged about the concert in his tour journal at. . .

byrne's journal

two more days and i leave for a cross country road trip! and a vacation of sorts. can't wait. i've got lists of things to bring and i'm kinda making headway on getting a moving van for myself. . . damn they are stupid expensive!

lesley, the last of the electricians (other than myself) left this morning. it was really great having her around for the past week. between the two of us, we know enough of the system hear to really make it run smoothly. which reminds me, i'll have some pictures in a little bit. and now, the electrics office is empty. . . . this was the oddest of years. . . so high was my expectation for the end of summer, and i got my wish. . . it seemed to come so quickly. . . then i wished it hadn't.

well. . . in the last week, a lot was accomplished. lesley and i put on the concerts for lyle lovett, david byrne, and margret cho. we did a strike of the light hang in the roof. . . .i had a 25 pound light fall on my hand which was already sitting on a steel pipe. .. granted it fell from about a foot and a half above my hand. . . but it's still pretty swollen and sore. . . but NO BRUISE! nothing for people to gawk at and tell immediately that i was hit. no. . . just a really fat knuckle.

we also went out and saw 'hero'.. . . EXCELLENT film. . . may have to see it again sometime :) dad? interested in a little kung fu while i'm home?

i took her to see zozobra for her first time. . . they really seemed to prolong the burning of old man gloom this year. i had a better view of the fire dance which was pretty good, but after a while, you just want to see the massive puppet fire up! and it was really loud. . . kinda lame. . . but the fireworks were fantastic. . . and the actual burning was good too. . . . just too loud and a little too long.

i tried to get a costumed pet parade in over the weekend (as in see it, not participate in), but who knew it would be one of the largest attended bits of the fiesta. . . NO PARKING ANYWHERE, so i abandonned it and went home to fall asleep while watching some family guy. . . i love that show.

yeah. . . i'm way tired. but really looking forward to some books on tape. . . and listening to whatever the hell i want from my collection thanks to my new ipod! HA! and looking forward to seeing some people, and lots of land fly by.

then. . . after vacation, there's a routine to slip into. . . books to read, perhaps a tv show or two to get caught up in, three day weekends to bask in, a workout to revisit. . . and the baking company on the weekends to check my email. . . . ahhh, sounds nice. can't wait. .. but not there just yet. first, virginia, ohio, and ny!

a quick look at margret cho from my followspot perch . . .

the difference between night and day. . .

this would be a good way to describe the past two evenings for me. the first started on monday. . . the day lyle lovett was playing at the santa fe opera. my boss had left all the pertenant information with me, and lesley and i being the only electricians really left had planned on coming in and doing all the necessary work like pulling and preping color, patching the correct channels and then getting to focus with the lighting guy. well. . . all did not go as smoothly. first of lesley was about an hour late. .. and the lighting guy, 'jack' came in pitching a fit to the technical director. i was pulling color in the shop when paul, the technical director asked if i was ready to deal with this guy, being that he was fuming at the ears. i said sure. . . i actually have dealt with these types of guys before, but i did feel slightly unprepared, only in that i didn't do all the prep work that my boss had taken care of. so i met jack. . . . this is close to how our first conversation went. . .

after a goodmorning or two. .

jack: so, i really don't see my lights

me: well, your lights are there, chris has made the translation between your needs and our plot

jack: where are they?

me: in the coves (i'm pointing up)

jack: i see lights up there, but they won't work, and where's my color?

me: we;re dropping color as part of focus, we can't leave it in all night due to the wind.

jack: i don't see how this is going to work.

me: well, when my board op gets here and patches the show, she'd very quick, you and i can take a look together.

jack; ok

so i went down and continued to pull color. . . then jack had another cow.

jack; i just don't see how these lights are gonna work, is it too late to look at a different venue or rent something?

me: our rig is rather surprising, i think you should wait until you see it.

jack: when's chris getting here?

me: he's left for the season

jack: oh so he left you to deal with all this. so he wouldn't have to deal with these problems.

me: no, i'm sure that he left things in such a way that i can handle them competantly.

jack: fine

i continue to prep different things and lesley finally arrives and shortly into her patching jack throws his third fit. .

jack: these won't do how am i supposed to hit the band down here. . .

me: well in the agreement you weren't supposed to cross plaster line, so it will be more difficult to hit anything downstage of that. . . but he can hit a little down there.

jack: is the board op here?

me: yes and she's working, so in a little while we can send turn on some lights and do a rough focus so you can see how it will work.

jack: well what is supposed to hit here. . . (now the frustrating point here is that i have a translation of numbers in front of me that lesley is making clear, but for the time being he just needs to have me turn things on so while she's working i start calling for random numbers)

jack: well how is this supposed to reach anything. . . .

me: we can move it down the pipe or yoke it out and focus it there. . .

more numbers and stuff. . and i'm getting really frustrated.

me: how about you give us another ten minutes for lesley to complete the patch and i will go up and focus things so you can see them. ( i did know that there were a few more notes to do before hand but getting him to stop blowing steam was more important)

jack: fine. . . you finish and i won't react just yet.

WON"T REACT! WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ALL FUCKING MORNING ASSHOLE! -ok, i didn't really get to say that, execpt downstairs with lesley when i relayed the story. ARGGGGGGGG

paul kept checking in with me. . . i assured him that jack would be just fine, he just didn't know it yet. i have a lot of faith in our rig, in the paperwork that chris created, and my and lesley's abilities.

however, jack was really frazzling me. and about that time, dave and charlie (two of my other bosses who were supposed to have left) walked in and caught wind of what was going on. finally i conceeded to let them get me through the rough part of focus. . . lesley on board and me talking down jack adn dave and charlie in the roof focusing. suddenly, lights were focused exactly where jack needed them and in the correct color. . . . and after getting through the rough patch me and another crew member took over for dave and charlie. . . and without a break or notification that we were actually going through a complete focus call. . . . that's exactly what we did. we then completed some notes on stage and we were done WAY before necessary. sadly jack rolled his eyes often at the focus since they were instruments he wasn't used to. . . to which i say, SUCK IT UP! this is a fucking opera house, not some shitty rock and roll rig!

anyway, the rest of the lovett crew couldn't stop thanking and complimenting me and lesley. . . how fast and efficient we were, and how we were able to make jack happy, though he himself never thanked. . . or APOLOGIZED to us. . . .

and all night and the next day it was praise from the lovett crew and our own technical director. ahhhhhhh. . . . *sigh*

now i don't know which is supposed to be bad and good. . . night or day, but the next morning was such a wonderous relief. lesley and i actually decided to come in early and put all the color in the lights and make sure the channel numbers were all right before the crew for david byrne's tour even got there. we were tired and sore, but we wanted to avoid another battle with a stupid lighting director. however, jon, the lighting guy for david byrne was a complete 180. after several morning pleasantries. . . we explained where we were in our process, and he seemed stunned at our 'overpreparedness.' he then said that we should take care of anything else on our agenda while he set up the stage stuff. we look bewildered. our purpose was to be there and help him set up. . . and he seemed glad for it, and for having true electricians on his call. maybe that was parrt of the problem. . . jack assumed that we would be stupid non electricians who couldn't handle the demands of a rig a third the size that we are normally used to working with. . . ASS!

lesley and i helped set up the deck and jon broke us till after lunch, when we would focus. . . . a real schedule. . . unbelievable! lesley stayed on the board and worked with jon while i and two other crew members focused. jon was quick, and pleasant, and knew exactly what he needed. . . and was impressed at our quickness. . . "wow, it's like having a crew of 35 up there.". . .. the other guy was a poor focuser. . . he could never tell when the light was on him and he was very bad at giving directions.

we finished the focus and jon and lesley programmed. . . and the show went fantastically. . . and again, lesley and i were surrounded with praise from both the tour crew and our technical director who was so pleased that we kept the tours happy.

i have to say. . . .even with the ASS encounter. . . i drove home each night, really tired, kinda sore. . . but with a huge smile on my face. both lesley and i worked really hard. . . . and we totally pulled it off and made it look easy. . . . made it look cool to be an electrician. . . . all ninja style or whatever. . .. our kung-fu rocked! so 'the difference between night and day' can also describe the difference in how i felt. . . these past two nights as opposed to the past summer. even when i, personally was doing good work and getting flattery on it from designers and co-workers. . . . i went home knowing that overall. . the electrics crew was nothing to be envious of. . . . . and just me and lesley working on these touring shows totally obliterated that. so sad that this past crew has no idea what it's like to feel how i and lesley felt the past couple of days. . .and how i've felt in the past when on a good crew. god it felt good.

:)

hope everyone is well.

so, i haven't known the exact date or even the day of the week for about the past week and a half. i just know the days according to what is happening onstage. . . . for instance, 'simone closing day', 'strike day', 'moscow ballet load in day'. . . . i knew it was closing in on september, but it kinda snuck past me. . . and i sort missed my mom's birthday---and usually i'm pretty good at getting a call out at the very least. . . as it so happened i was returning their call when dad reminded me, and i looked at my watch and realized all the important first of the month things that were staring me in the face. arg. . . ..

so yeah, moscow ballet, although it's a czech company and the two leads are from st. petersburg. . . the company is VERY poorly organized, and i don't think they have an understanding of what it means to produce a show in 4 days. . . .the little things that are needed to make things run smoothly, like scenery that is already chosen, and not picked out of stock on the 2nd night of 3 rehearsal nights. . . and that's is just the tip of the iceberg. . . . . but i won't bore you all.

the staff of the lighting/electrics department all took monday off together after the strike day- sunday. . . . we all went shopping together and bought enough food for 2 cookouts, though we thought we would get through it all on monday. . . turns out we have a limit! ribs, grilled asparagus, grilled veggies, grilled chicken on a beer can, brisket, grilled pineapple, mashed sweet potatoes, apple pie, cheesecake. . . . . and there's still salmon, grilled portabello mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, carnivore smores, and grilled potatoes left to make and consume. but it was a lovely day off. . . a partial celebration for the completion of the season, and a partial party to celebrate the departure of our crew. such an odd lot. . . a group of people whom, if i knew outside of work, i would probably get along with exceedingly well. . . but in this situation. . . well, i've rarely been driven this crazy ever.

i remember, several years ago, when going through a rough patch, i was on the phone with fehd. . . one of my prized mentors. he asked this question, 'are you a lifer?'. . .. meaning, would i stay in theatre my whole life. it never occured to me to do anything else. and since then, there have been times when i've thought that maybe something else would be easier, more lucrative, less stressful. . . . but i know, within myself. . . that this is one of the few things that makes sense in my life. even when i've gone without sleep, food, laundry, relaxation. . . . when i'm in the midst of all this, mid-process, and during performance. . . i feel so balanced in a way. my getting out of bed has real purpose. so many of my friends are no longer in theatre. . . and even in my worst days of grad school, i never thought i'd leave theatre, i just knew i didn't want the be at THAT theatre. and this summer, the slightest inkling crept into my mind. . . . . maybe NOT this. . . .maybe something, anything less frustrating. i blamed the crew for this. . . . for this second guessing, and misalignment in my balance. i think i try to work hard, and always take pride in what i do. . . . and i just don't know why this kids were here. thier lack of stamina, pride, awareness, tenacity, focus, drive,. . . and most of all CONSISTANCY. . . was completely infuriating. . . and i found it offensive. . . personally. really. . . why should i bother to work so hard when they are able to work at the same establishment and just coast through?

. . . anyway, yeah, it was a rough summer. and now i'm bothered by something else a great mentor (kevin gallagher) told me. . . after listening to another classmate complain about their crew, i raved about mine. . . and kevin told me that i had good crews in part because of my own work ethic. i lead by example. and i have had GREAT crews. . . . with an occasional dud. . . but nothing like this. does that then mean that i carry some of the blame for this season going so poorly? had i tried to block my feelings a little more, and sucked it up. . . would the crew have done better? i fixed anything physical that they broke or couldn't repair themselves. . . . i actually worked really hard, and long hours. . . . is their a way i could've adjusted my attitude? half way through i lowered my expectations. . . and that way i was less disappointed. . . but not less bitter. i don't know. . . . and i'm not sure where i'm going with this. . . .

season over. guess i'll move on. . .but not from theatre. . . there were little sparks during the summer. . . enough to keep me going i suppose. one of the designers personally thanked me during an 'end of the evening' meeting for completing a set of lanterns that were thrown into the show last minute. . . but ended up being really well liked by the entire production team. and a few choice moments backstage when, during this one particular aria. . . the voice of the counter tenor just brought me to tears. . . i had no idea what he was singing about. . . but the pure emotion in his voice shook me, and i remembered that this whole thing is so much bigger than my problems. it has the power to really move people.

yeah. . . . enough of that for now. still got work to do. and soon enough i'll be working in the scene shop again, on a fairly regular schedule. . . with weekends, movie nights, predetermined laundry nights, premade lunches, and a workout routine. ahhhh. . . . can't wait.