Sweeney Todd and some non killer barber things

I rarely get excited about a movie, but this year I was lucky to get excited about two, and have them both turn out well (the other was The Simpsons). I LOVE Sweeney, Tim Burton, and Johnny Depp, so I had pretty high expectations going in. So to spare a lengthy review, here's just a few things that stood out, without giving anything away...

Oh, and for people that might not know....A. it's a musical, 2. it's not for small children, III. it doesn't have a happy ending. Apparently there's been a lot of surprised people when it comes to that, like the woman in the theatre that immediately said "why is he singing?"...

-I was a little worried when I saw Sasha Baron Cohen in the opening credits, but he was fantastic as Pirelli.
-By the Sea was definitely the best song that translated to film. Just, wonderful, go see it.
-It wasn't like most movie versions of musicals where people pop out of nowhere to do dance numbers. Thank god.
-The only thing that bothered me was the cartoony looking blood/deaths. The blood looked like paint, and there was nothing realistic about how it spurted out everywhere. I got the point of it being so red and standing out, but it looked like paint.
-Alan Rickman. Awesome.
-Production design as a a whole. One of my favorite things about Tim Burton are the worlds that are so damn depressing and sad, but still make you smile.
-Johnny Depp can sing?! Yeah.

I'll probably be seeing it again when I'm back in NY, since it's strangely not playing at the bigger theatres with good sound around here.

Also saw I Am Legend. I liked it. I usually don't like futuristic/zombie/one guy in the whole thing movies, but this one was alright. Not go out of your way to see it good, but definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

What else, what else..... been doing a lot of thinking since back in the barren midwest. It's, eh, interesting. But I think good. More on that later...when I'm back home...

And Happy Festivus to all...

What the WTF?!

It's been a really good week. A total of 6 friends in town which led to awesome times with awesome people. So awesome, I'm not even going to write about it. One of those weeks that is so good that stories and photos can't do it justice. I'm glad I'm in NY though. Yeah, I've been teetering a lot lately about whether or not I want to stay here, but this week is definitely a point for staying. It's not perfect but it's pretty damn close. And yeah, idealistic me is still holding out hope for that one thing that could make it perfect. I'm very content with how things are right now though, and only see it getting better after the holidays.

Four more days till I get to stuff myself with wonderful Chicago food.....and see friends and family of course.

things that make me want to vomit these days

A. Clinton and Obama. I used to enjoy politics. Being in Chicago we had these two shoved down our throats much earlier than the rest of the country. It was enough to see Obama on the cover of both Chicago papers every day since he had a glimmer of a thought of running for president now every time I turn on the TV and see them I feel sick. Just from looking at TV and newspapers lately, you'd have no idea that Republicans even existed, not saying that they're all that wonderful either. I'm sick of Obama's "hope" and sick of Hillary not really answering any questions. When it comes to the Democrats, everyone else is a hell of a lot more interesting than these two, and can actually complete a thought without going on a tangent. And please, shut up about your health care plans until you come up with something that will actually work. There's what, 47 million people (including me in a couple months) without coverage? Hmm...how much cash are these two bringing in for campaign funds? Put your money to good use, not to the rest of us having to see your face everywhere we look. And the Republicans are so freaking dull, I don't really have anything to say about them. I'm open to being impressed any time. By anyone.

2. Mac vs PC commercials. First of all, neither is better, they're just different. It's an interface preference, and just because you use one it doesn't make you better than everyone that uses the other. Enter the dumb commercials. A few weeks ago we had the one mentioning all of Vista's flaws. Yeah, Vista is flawed, but so was OSX when it first came out. And if you really want me to buy a Mac, tell me what's so great about it instead of bashing Vista. I'm not buying Vista anyway because it does suck right now, but it doesn't mean I'm buying a Mac. The newest commercial claims that Vista runs faster on a Mac than a PC. Wait, I thought you just said Vista was horrible and we should all buy Macs to avoid it. Now you're saying we should put it on a Mac? And guess what, Macs and PCs are essentially the same thing. Same processor means that whatever you did to that Mac to make it run Vista fast, you could do to a PC. OSX also runs on a PC if you didn't know.

And don't even get me started on the iPhone... "I diverted air traffic with my iPhone because it's better and faster than actual air traffic control" SHUT UP! My phone doesn't crash every time there's an update. My phone actually has software available to be downloaded to it. My phone has instant messenger, not regular old SMS text messaging that's made to look like iChat. And I didn't have to pay $600 for it. Shit, I got started on the iPhone. Ok, next...

III. The annual winter freak out. I knew it happens every year in Chicago, but apparently it's a New York thing too. OK, you live in a city north of the Mason Dixon Line. It's December. IT'S GOING TO GET COLD AND IT'S GOING TO SNOW!!!!! We had the first few below freezing days this past week. Yeah, it was cold, but not stay in your house cold. It was start wearing a hat and scarf cold, but not wrap your face in said scarf and walk down the street like you're navigating an asteroid field. We had a real snowfall on Sunday. Like, an inch. Which would melt by 3 PM. Obviously this means Armageddon. As I walked to the train to go to work, there was a woman panicking because cars were parked in the snow route areas. Ok, that's for when we have 3 feet of snow which actually can become a problem, not the equivalent of it raining and water hanging out by the curb. Then people were calling to ask if a job was still happening because of the snow. Really, I think the limos that take the guys from JP Morgan can make it though the dust on the streets to get them to the event. This happens every year. It's going to get colder, and we're going to get more snow. So shut up. Move to Florida or Arizona if you don't like it.

****Fucking holidays. Yeah, Christmas is great. I love getting together with the fam and stuffing my face on yummy food and drowning myself in yummy wine. But seriously. The corner of Ditmars and 31st St. here in Astoria has speakers that blast horrid Christmas music all day and all night. Christmas music sucks. End of story. And it's not just Christmas either. Hanukkah started this week. I always thought it was shitty that Christmas overpowers Hanukkah. But now it's just as bad. I did a gig at the NYC Public Library. The big one on 5th Ave. Light up freakin' menorahs everywhere. Just as tacky as the light up snowman families you can get at the drug store. I'm not trying to be a scrooge, just relax. Every year by the time we actually get to the holidays I'm so damn sick of it I just want to stay home, except or course for the work Chrismakkah parties with free beer. It is very therapeutic every year though ending the holiday's with a get together with friends, where our favorite resident Jew gets plastered and yells "Fuck Christmas" while stumbling around with a bottle of fruit infused vodka. If it wasn't for the get together with my friends that are just as bitter as I am, I would never survive.

At least I have a fun weekend/week coming up to make me not so angry :-)

seriously?.....SERIOUSLY!

Thursday was my first day back to work after the thanksgiving holiday slump, and oh what a day it was. I know this is going to be long, but it's funny....well funny to someone that didn't have to go through it.

Gig is a straightforward event for Infinity to show their '08 prototypes at a trendy club. Whatever, do these all the time right? Holy crap. These events may be out of order. But it doesn't matter, it was FUBAR no matter how you look at it.

So we unload the truck fairly quickly, then just as quickly I realize there is NOTHING I can get started on. Power is coming from a generator which hasn't arrived yet. I'm lighting some cars that haven't arrived yet. Oh wait, I can build my truss....oops, they forgot corner blocks. After a couple hours of stalling and finding little stupid things to keep busy, we start getting some stuff. I got into about 37 (your girlfriend sucked 37 dicks?) arguments with the guy that wasn't in charge who was pretending to be in charge. I really wish he would stop telling me how to be an electrician. He wanted me to put our distro right next to the generator, and run all of this very heavy, very awkward, VERY hard to coil again socapex to the lights. I said screw that, I'll run a small bundle of feeder a hundred feet, then do lighter power cable to the lights. After lots of arguing, I went over his head and got me some feeder.

Generator arrives. Walk up to it with feeder. No cams. They said there would be cams. (Cams are what you plug feeder cable into to power a distro) "Oh well, you can just tie in right?" Great. Fine, my rate just went up for doing a tie in. :-) Not fine :-( See, when you tie in, you have bare copper on the end of a cable that you shove through a hole then tighten a bolt over. There are 5 of them. all of the holes should be vertical. One is horizontal. And it's in the middle. Half way through all this it starts raining. Great. Here's the end result.



HEY, they found two corner blocks. GREAT We can build one of the truss pieces. We decide to start with the step and repeat (the thing that people stand in front of to take photos). So we'll be able to get that up, get the lights focused. YAY. It looked like this. You can see best by looking at the ladder that the ground isn't even close to being level. Then notice the 400 pounds of sand on each side of the thing.



So the plan is we have these four cars to be lit from some truss as well as 4 light trees. Just as I'm at a point that I can start building trees, the police come, and start writing tickets for the cars.



Well this isn't right, cause they have permits for this event right?....WRONG! No permits for anything on the sidewalk or street which means we stop working. Ok, so 4 light trees gets cut to 2, we'll just push them against the building. We do that. "Oh, didn't you know that this door will be the entrance for tonight?" 2 trees is cut to 1. "Oh, and this door is the entrance to the club next door." No trees. As we're all discussing this permit thing, we hear some bad noises, then people yelling. Chris, the rigger was upstairs with the client hanging banners out the window. They both leaned out to talk to someone outside, and BAM, the window slams down on their heads. So hard that if there had only been one person there, we may have seen someone die, or at least be paralyzed. So now we have a rigger with a huge bump on his head, and a client with a gash and huge bump on her head/neck. Now all of this was apparently way too much for the other rigger to handle, which resulted in this...



Yeah, that's the feeder I mentioned before, with a pile of vomit on it. At this point I'm half in shock from all the stupidity, half in shock from the window thing (but at least I didn't puke), and generally not in a good mood. About anything will set me off. I notice that this creepy little Mexican man had walked by about 9 times within the last hour. He walks by again. Because of my not good mood, I decide to yell "Do you have a reason for walking around the block and gawking at us?!" And he says "Yes, women with tools on their belts are sexy." Great. Yeah. This happens A LOT. After we chased the creepy guy away, he notices this guy in a skirt standing in front of an art gallery. The guy in the skirt then procedes to whine and cry about how all these people keep looking at him. Well, don't wear a skirt and tights. This was the point where I started asking for whiskey and the crew chief started asking for a 2 gram line.



We finally got the next delivery with the remaining missing pieces, so they start to build the next truss piece. Same as the first, 10 foot uprights with a 10 foot cross piece to go over one of the cars. It will have all these banners on it and a couple of lights. Where the cross piece is going be there is one of those outdoor gas heaters hanging from an alcove, so we can't just build on the ground and stand it up. We build the two towers, and fight the cross piece behind the heater, almost severing the gas line and hurting a few people. After 20 minutes of fighting it and getting it up there, they cut all the crap that was supposed to be hung from it. So we almost burned the place down and nearly injured 5 people for this:



Yep, ONE light. To make it not so silly, and to compensate for the trees we lost, I threw a few more on it. Here's some of the end result. That car is pretty damn cool. There are 6 cameras on it and a screen on the dash that gives you an overhead view of the car with the views from the cameras blended together. I can't see a practical use for that, but when it comes to centering a car on a carpet for an event such as this, it's pretty helpful. By the end of it all, we had completely bypassed our Plan B, and made it all the way to Plan R. From passerbys I was offered cocaine 7 times, meth 3 times, weed 6 times, and 1 offer for a Puma watch.



The out was a whole different mess. When we got back for it, the event was no where close to being over. I wish I had a photo of what I'm about to describe. They told us to wait on the 3rd floor. We go up there, and it's practically a closet. So there are 8 of us sitting on top of piles of furniture next to a door to the roof that does not close. Did I mention that our dead case storage was on the roof? Not on a balcony outside, ON THE ROOF. The out sucked, a lot. And now it's time to go to another out. That will suck. A lot.

thanksgivings!

Whoa. What a week!

Wednesday: Trek to Paramus. After a more difficult than it should have been trip to IKEA, we now have an actual desk instead of a crappy, very small, folding table. Quality of life has greatly improved as a direct result of the desk. I'm sitting at it right now. We were going to end the day with a much needed dinner at Chili's, but thanks to NJ being messed up, we never actually found the Chili's...

Thursday: Jaime, Gary, Michael, CJ, and Andre (all dancer type friends) came to join us along with Ya Han who had been here all week while on break from U of I. Jaime and Gary made an AWESOME dinner, complete with awesome deserts and awesome homemade hard cider. Definitely one of the best holidays in a long time.

Friday: Food coma. Ate left over pumpkin pie all day. Jason and I came very close to beating Mario 3. We made a trek out to east Queens to find another Chili, this time with success.

Saturday: Desk organization, more Wii playing, laundry....generally productive. I also booked a plane ticket home for the xmas drama, I MEAN festivities....

Today had an excellent Sunday morning of coffee, friselles (see one of my very first posts on this blog), and ESPN NFL countdown. Heading out shortly to watch Da Bears and eat some wings. I really wish I had more days like this. Then again, there are a lot of things I wish I still had. But that aside, things are looking up.

Hey! whatsamattaYOU?

Last week while my friend Mike was in town, we were hanging around Union Square when Jason called to say I had to come home cause he was locked out, in shorts and no shoes. People often like to test their drag racing skills on 47th Street here in Astoria. In this instance, the guy went onto the sidewalk and rammed a neighbors fence. Then when he tried to get back on the street he rammed a street cleaning sign. Jason ran downstairs to get a plate number and call the cops....grabbed the phone, no keys. Oh yeah, our front door automatically locks. It's always bothered me how people drive around here, especially after seeing that this guy went apeshit in the spot that had the weather been warmer, about 8 of the neighbors would have been sitting in.

So all the morbidness of potentially crushed neighbors aside, I LOVE how crazy they are. Reminds me of my grandmother and all the ridiculous things the old greaseballs in Chicago do. When we got back out here, they were all STILL outside staring at the carnage, and discussing how disappointed they were in the NYPD for not immediately showing up to a hit-(a fence)-and-run where no one got hurt and no one got a plate number. Then one of them asked Jason what color the car was. "White." Then the old man yells "No, it was black, I tell ya it was black." Awesome. It's been 4 days. If my fence was destroyed, i would clean the mess, and do any quick necessary repairs until spring when I would get a new fence. No. Not these people. Everything is exactly where they found it, but duct taped to the driveway to preserve the "crime scene." It rained. They were out this morning repairing the tape/preservation job.

But then a drive to the laundromat and grocery store made me again cringe at the sight of the old people. I'm going to film what goes on in that parking lot. Words cannot do it justice.

circus punks and gypsy punks!

October ended with one last visit from my circus family. Cricket and Chelsea came down on Halloween to see the World/Inferno Friendship Society at a club in Brooklyn. The show started off interesting when the fire department showed up because the band was juggling fire on the roof. Once inside, we realized we were the oldest people there by about 10 years, so to cope with that we headed to a room upstairs to get severely f'ed up. Once the band came on, the younger crowd had thinned out. The band was GREAT, but I had to cut out early to get to work the next morning.

Thursday Mike came into town, and we had some drinks in midtown. Friday we wandered around lower Manhattan before having to head back to Astoria to help Jason who got locked out trying to get the plate number of a guy that drove onto the sidewalk and destroyed a neighbor's fence. We went to a local bar for a yummy dinner.

Saturday Mike and I wandered around Central Park and got dinner near Lincoln Center before heading to Terminal 5 for Gogol Bordello with Jason and Dan. Jason had a ticket snafu, but got there about half way through their set. They kicked ass, as usual, but played a surprisingly short set. Still worth it, of course. After the show, we all went to the Playwright for a beer and got some pizza.

It's Sunday, and I'm shitty. I'm very relieved that things will be calming down a bit, as all the fun is wearing on me. That coupled with my stupidface issue is making me exhausted. But I'm deciding to actually take some steps to get through that.

i'm choking on busy....and it is good

This is probably the last installment of fun circus adventure blogs for a while.....

I went up to Bridgeport for the weekend to visit the Blue show one more time. Strange town....went to 4 bars before I found one that served food and was open on the weekends when I got there. Yes, open on the weekends. Bridgeport is not the place to go if you just want a damn burger. I watched the show half from the seats and half from lighting FOH, running the Maxyzz for some of the show, and obnoxiously waving my trunk under the glow of littlelites one last time. After I went out to eat with Steve, Neal, Ben, and a couple circus fans/steve fans. Back at the train Steve, Neal and I had a six pack of Circus Boy (some of which ended up all over Neal's bed) and watched some TV. I have to admit I was a bit said knowing I won't get to hang out like that anymore. Even when the show is in NYC, I doubt I'll trek out to bufu Jersey where the train is parked. Sunday morning I hung out for preshow getting some juggling and a lot of goodbyes in before leaving town.

Let's see.....saw Dan in Real Life which was very good. Steve Carell is pretty awesome.

Tonight was a benefit for Parallel Exit, a physical theatre company. It was practically an Out of Orbit reunion, which was great. These folks have some pretty good material too, which you should all check out....all three of you that may have read this far.

So this week is full of boring corporate work, exciting low budget yet creative dance work, and Mike is coming to visit. YAY!....that means I have an excuse to not work for a few days, and Gogol Bordello is Saturday.

Oh yeah, that dance thing. It's coming up in a couple weeks. They're pretty good. More details and shameless plugs to follow.....

ew, and the clowns come to town

Alright. Seriously. What the HELL is with the current trend of grotesque PDA's on the subway lately? A hug, a kiss, holding hands...whatever. But I could compile a porn out of the things I've seen over the past few weeks. Yes, I could. Mainly from the day I was on a car with only two other people.....uh...yeah.....

Just sayin', not my idea of a good way to wake up to get on the train and see two fat people eating each other's faces off.

On a happier note, got to see Big Apple Circus last night, which was fan-freakin'-tastik! Ringling is in Bridgeport, so Steve, Neal, Ben, Cricket, Chelsea, Sergei...and a few others came down for the show. Ben used to tour with them, so we all got comps. The show was great, and took away all the bitterness for the circus that Ringling gave me. An actual good dog act, some kick ass acrobats, and some sexy juggling. After the show we went out to eat with Barry Lubin, who is Grandma in the show before taking the guys back to Grand Central. As we were leaving the Lincoln Center area, I saw Wynton Marsalis and almost wet myself. Hopefully I contracted some of his trumpet awesomeness and can get some chops back....

It's raining :-(

holy crap a day off!

I know it seems to be a growing trend, and I'm sorry, but I have to go on another work rant.

Yesterday I went to go break down the premiere party for American Gangster. The party was in a tent on 126th St, behind the Apollo. Things are going fine, everyone is working, the sides of the tent are gone so there's a nice breeze. Then this guy starts walking the outside of the tent asking for $10 in exchange for "a blues performance." He was rejected multiple times, then starts screaming "THIS IS BULLLLLLSHIT." We're like, WTF man, we're busy, go away. Then we find out he's pissed because the crew taking the tent down is not union, and he is apparently in "the union." He was never able to tell us which one, and I'm not aware of a party rental union. Our security guards start to try to get him to move along, but he just gets more and more pissed off. Then I hear "you're dealing with real gansta motha fuckin shit here, I pop a cap, no TWO caps in yo ass." That's the first time I heard someone use the phrase "pop a cap" seriously.

I also got to watch the head of the tent company give a guy on the street $50 to go dumpster diving for pallets. Awesome.

The rest of the day sucked. Hard.

So how bout them Rockies?!

screw you guys, i'm going home

Often my job leads to being sworn to secrecy, signing privacy forms, and even reciting a vow. I'm not lighting the building of a new military weapon or anything like that. It's car companies and financial companies and drug companies. Today I was threatened by a major car manufacturer after making a joke about telling people about their prototype for an '09 model. Holy shit guys....I'm a lighting designer. I could care less about new cool cars. Same with the financial companies. Don't they know we have no money, so can do nothing with their insider info?

It's time to get back into theatre......

a bittersweet weekend review

I never noticed how bad the circus train smells. I guess I just got so used to it, that I didn't notice that things probably still smelled after I left. When I unpacked my bag and got a whif of the sheets I brought, it was overpowering. It's not a good smell. At all. But oddly enough I didn't mind it. It triggers a few horrible, and a lot of wonderful memories.

As I said in my last post, I am surprised at how much I miss it after going back. It was probably the most fulfilling vacation I've ever taken, getting to pick up right where I left off with some of my closest friends from the show, and spending a lot of time with a few that I wasn't really that close to, but should have been.

Here's the highlight reel......
Thursday
-OMIGOD seeing everybody!
-Realizing I still have the whole show and rig memorized
-Being on headset with Georgia again, making fun of the post show concert
-Driving all over Boston looking for somewhere to buy beer...and failing
-Giving up, buying vodka from Cricket, and watching Clue with Steve and Neal

Friday
-Drove up to Salem with Steve and Neal for...
-Witch Museum....lame
-Witch Museum bookstore perusal which included discussing why a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank was in the section of witch books, and why this book was carried at all at a witch museum.
-Haunted House....LAAAAAME
-Salem is a pretty cool town, and as lame as the paid attractions were, the company made it a good day
-Spent the evening at Boston Beer Works attempting to try all of their delicious brews while watching the Red Sox game. Was joined after the show by Steve, Neal, Cricket, Checkers, Pyro Steve, Justin, Jason, AND DIMA AND SVETA. Dima coming out was awesome, and made me believe him when he said he missed me.
-Hung out at the train with Pyro Steve for a bit. I miss 92 car parties.
-Hit up Neal for his much promised hot cocoa, watching some Droopy

Saturday
-Walked about half of the Freedom Trail. Highlights being Bunker Hill and the USS Constitution. My historical activities have taken a back burner to everything else, and this made me realize why I love walking through old cities looking at old things and standing on ground where important battles were fought. Best historical experience since walking Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg
-Saving Steve's life from an angry audience member (I won't repeat what Steve did to be almost attacked, I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression about him, or me)
- Pool and baseball viewing with both Steves, Justin, Jason, and Sean.
-Hung with Super Steve at the train watching videos of the alley doing stupid things and looking at photos from the past couple of years

Well...back to reality.......which I guess is it's own form of circus lately...

i love the smell of elephant shit in the morning....

This blog is coming to you from the circus train. Super Steve came down to New York for a couple days, and yesterday we drove up to Boston where the show is.

I've never felt so strange about going back to something. I definitely missed it right after leaving, but being here again is making me miss it like crazy. It's been almost a year, and I feel like I never left. It was great to see everyone again, even the people that I never really cared if I saw again. I watched the show from FOH, realizing I still have the whole rig and all the cues memorized. Being on the train again is nice too....well, as "nice" as the train gets. After the show and some dinner I watched a movie with Steve and Neal. I am however staying in a room that is wayyyyyyy smaller than the one I lived in, so that's reminding me of how annoying this living situation is. Though I still miss not being more than 3 or 4 cars away from all of my friends and vestibule parties on train runs.

Still, this really is a second family; more than any other job, and even more than the people I spent hours and hours a day with in college. It's great to be back in this world again, even just for a couple days. No, I'm not going back. The one thing that is different is that most of my good friends are gone. The people that made this place livable, and a blast are what I really miss.

Well, it's time for more Boston exploration. And to go start taking pictures which is something I didn't do enough of while here.

AC006299

I feel like one of those women on Maury who stays in an abusive relationship because she "loves him."

I shouldn't have to say why. I can't say why. For the first time ever, I couldn't watch it happen. I turned it off. After watching every inning of every game possible all year, I turned it off. I just hope, for Ron Santo's sake, it's not another 99 years of this.......

"I get the f***ing Learning Channel but not TBS?!?!"

Well it's been a day and a half and so far New York has survived my father. I overheard him admit to someone on the phone that he likes it here, though he won't admit it to me. Yesterday's sightseeing extravaganza included Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island. Left all of us completely wiped, so we decided that the Fridays across the street from the hotel was a good dinner choice. Closed. Ug. The sign said "Visit our other location at 1 Penn Plaza." That's also across the street. But 1 Penn Plaza is pretty huge. Turns out there is a restaurant IN the train station. Good to know.

It's been fun though. Seeing my parents on a subway- hilarious. Dad tried to be nice to the dumbass that tried to make the yellow light and got stuck in the box by attempting to stop foot traffic across 8th Ave to let him through. This of course did not work. However all hell broke loose when pops realized the hotel's tv package did not include TBS, meaning no Cubs game, or any baseball game. Hopefully he's calmed down and didn't threaten too many hotel employees last night.

Speaking of the Cubs. WTF MATE?!?!?!?! They're red hot for the last two weeks, then decide to start to suck in GAME ONE of the playoffs. But being the true masochist that I am, I fought exhaustion and stayed up for the whole game. We made some really good defensive plays, but went back to the regular Cubbie trend of stranding at least one base runner every inning. sigh......

Eamus Catuli!

AC006198

"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it."

I feel very compelled to write something today. One reason makes me smile, the other reason makes me feel dirty.

OK, dirty first. While I was doing laundry today, they had Martha Stewart's show on. I can't staaaaaaand her. But she was talking all about how her friends tell her that you should blog when you feel inspired to share something. My blog entries have much to be desired in the inspiration department, I just like to vent. I guess that made me feel a little shallow....

Then I got an email from a coworker from Chicago complimenting me on something I've never been complimented on and something that is my favorite part about me. Anyone that has spent any quality time with me knows that my attention often gets drawn to strange things, or not strange things that most people aren't drawn to. I investigate everything. I take pictures of everything, and I think I'm pretty damn good at it. I've been mainly criticized for this. Not for being good at it; the feedback for that has been mostly great. But for being the one that embarrasses all her friends by pulling out a camera every 5 minutes. And for wanting to share them. I have hundreds and hundreds of photos of basically nothing from my days of train travel. Many people I would normally respect gave me comments such as "send us pics of something cool." What's cooler than something that 99.9999% of Americans will NEVER see, witness, or experience!??!?!?!!?!?!

It was all those quiet, peaceful, and completely untainted moments that make living in a place like Chicago, and moving to a place like NYC so much more enjoyable. I didn't fully appreciate Chicago until I left it for a life of 3 days a week in the middle of nowhere with no communication. When I got my fill, I came here. All those little odd things that most most New Yorkers just pass by every day are what makes living here so great. Since living here I've taken maybe 2 pictures of the skyline, and NO pictures of Times Square. And that's how it will stay. That's no fun. You can find that anywhere....TV, books, magazines. The true beauty of a place is in what isn't being shoved down your throat every day. It's in the odd things found at street fests and the strange performances in bus terminals and worn away signs on subway platforms and the hole in the wall (litterally) bar that will play your favorite sports team.

I'm going to keep taking pictures of everything. Photography is the one form of art that I am A. good at, and 2. haven't done professionally or part of an organized group/project. Yes, my work is out there, but that wasn't the intention. That's what keeps it so enjoyable. It hasn't become a chore, or a necessity. It's a release.

For those of you that I promised to send more touristy pictures, the photo of me spinning the NYU cube while drunk will probably be the last. I just started working on a collection of transit related photos, so that's what you can expect.

(Don't worry Jenny, I'll still take you to Times Square when you get here)

what a strange week...

i'm feeling kinda funny. last week i started working for a new company, which i will never work for again. it was the most unorganized, unsafe, and completely ridiculous call i've ever been a part of. the first day was beyond awful, but i went back for day 2 giving them the benefit of the doubt....i mean, nothing could be THAT bad again. it was. part of the show was tied in with jumper cables. i was scheduled to go back for a third day, but didn't, mainly for my own safety. no one called to find out where i was. no loss there.

the next few days were just weird. don't get me wrong, TONS of fun, but weird. did way too much drinking and such which at one point led to me buying a shirt with a drawing of a woman's midsection, and "good bush" written above it, then a drawing of george w with "bad bush" written above it.

totally wasting today, but i think i need a break.

Die Fashion Week, Die

I don't really know what to say, except, I HATE FASHION WEEK. These people live in a bubble, and it's sad. At one point I heard a fashion designer say "there is nothing more important happening in NYC today" referring to the show, then someone said "you know it's 9/11 right?" and his reply was something along the lines of how he doesn't like distractions like that.

The show was in a bank lobby, so we got to set it all up Monday night, do a tech rehearsal, then stash everything so the bank could open in the morning. Shitty, very shitty. Monday went OK, got done somewhere between 2 and 3 and shared a cab with a couple other people that live in Astoria. Then Tuesday happened....

"Lisa there's no power. I can't figure out why, but nothing has power." That's when I found this.

Can you see what's wrong? Yes, those are my tails, NOT CONNECTED TO ANYTHING. I thought it was bad the night before when the building electrician decided to start flipping breakers on while I was hooking up distros, then he decided to just undo the tie in. Brilliant. The rest of the evening was filled with so much ridiculousness that I don't even want to consider writing about it. The models kept stepping on the LED fixtures. We changed the color of the uplights about 37 times. The clothes were pretty hideous but of course the designer was treated like a god. It did definitely make me appreciate that I am not one of those people. I can think for myself and my life is not run by if I will be more stylish than the person next to me, which in the case of this event could have been the woman who's dress BARELY covered her chest.

The out took forever, and to make it even worse we were kicked out of a bar afterwards. Yep, the bartender shut off the lights, held the door open, and told us it was time to go. Bastard.

Tomorrow it's back to the fun....

customer service my ass

I know it's a stupid gripe, but nothing puts me in a bad mood more than trying to get a simple question answered by people who's job it is to answer simple questions. I'm having serious DVR withdrawl, so I called my cable company to double check that the office in Long Island City is the place to go to exchange boxes. Apparently in their bubble, people don't move. The concept of me living in New York, but having a Chicago area code is a mind blowing concept to them. They keep transfering me to a Chicago office (where this company doesn't even offer service) and I say "I need to know the nearest office location to Astoria, New York" and they go, "oh, well let's transfer you to a New York office" "What is you telephone number and how can I help you?"......"773........And I want to add a DVR to my account...and I live in New yo...."....."ok, I'll transfer you to that department"......."thank you for calling RCN in Chicago, how may I help you?".......

^&*#^#gJ&^#%!!^@*(#

That was the aneurysm that just exploded in my head. The nice lady in Pittsburg was able to help me out.

Great start to my day.....I need another pot of coffee; is it to early to Irish it up?....

are you ready for some football?

I have no idea how I'm awake and functioning this early. It's only 4 hours till the first kickoff. The phone calls haven't started yet, but that's a good thing about being an hour ahead of everyone else in the pool I guess. I just know that if we have to hear about Michael Vick all day, I might vomit. Not many people, including his teammates, liked him before we knew he killed dogs now all of a sudden everyone is "hopeful for his recovery" and crap. I say fuck him. Plus, Atlanta's new QB has been doing really well in the preseason, and the owners and coaches are very pleased. They don't really seem to miss Vick, so why is the media making this out to be like someone died? I just want to watch football, and have the commentators talk about what is actually going on down on the field, not what could be going on if this "horrible tragedy hadn't occured."

I got a text message last night that said "all waz no answer say hi to your boyfriend you suck and make me feel bad." Wow. I've never been wrong number texted before.

Big wins I need today are Dallas, Denver, Pittsburg, Philly, Washington, and New England (as dirty as that makes me feel). If you have black magic abilities or anything and can make them all win I promise I'll buy you a drink with my winnings.

BEAR DOWN

Only in Freakin' New York

So taking the CTA Green Line to work every day I saw some messed up crap. Lots of freaks, homeless men masturbating, obnoxious people, and plain old scary people. But I have to hand it to NYC, the ratio of "WFT?!?" to normal people is a lot lower. This has been a weekend of seeing some pretty funny shit.......

Saturday was a musical day. While heading to the upper west side to watch the Illini game we saw this

AND THIS.....

A mariachi band I understand. They're pretty common, though still amusing. But what the hell is that guy playing?! Yes, he is blowing into the keyboard. Should I mention now that he's blind? Our reactions were pretty much the same as the guy on the right.

The Illini lost. But it was close. It might have been our 3+ pitchers state at the time, but the subway ride home exposed us to the ugliest baby I have ever seen. Yes, there's a photo of that too, but again, due to the beer, it's kinda blurry...

Really, he was like 18 months old, and the kid's eyebrows were about as thick as my arm.

Sunday we decided to try the Shakespeare in the Park thing....which is ridiculous. The 8 PM show is free, but tickets are handed out at 1 PM.....our friend that is in the show suggested to get there at 10 AM, and of course we said "that's crap, we'll get there at noon." At noon the line was at least a half a mile long. People were camped out. We got in line anyway and had a street vendor lunch. Once the line started moving, this ex-hippie looking guy started riding by on a bicycle. He was holding a sign that said "Dracula 7734." He proceded to say "I'm an innocent man but I'm the real reason the World Trade Center exploded. Google this and you'll believe me. The government doesn't give you all the answers. We googled it, and only found a blog by a tourist that saw the same guy a couple months ago. While this is going on, there's a nice looking guy playing Beatles songs on the flute. It struck me as a little odd that he was very neatly dressed to go stand in the park and play music all day, but whatever. Then it happened. He tucked his flute under his arm, and started reading, no, YELLING POETRY!!!!.....

Really, that other blog we found also mentions the strange flautist. We didn't get tickets, but oh well, it was a learning experience. We saw Balls of Fury, which was great, then headed home, strange peopleless........HA...NO!.........

He was playing the keyboard and the dolls were dancing. Creepy. The other creepy thing I left out was the man on the subway with his 3 kids, and sweatpants boner. No, there is NOT a picture of that......

Today we're taking a drive down to one of the closer beaches on Long Island. Visit Jason's Blog to learn why this will be nothing short of an adventure....

weekend!

Friday: pretty good job interview at a the Tribeca PAC. The place seems like a mini Krannert, which I think will be on the good side. After I started scoping midtown for a happy hour. Jason found a place that ended up having a pretty good beer special and free food. Awesome.

Saturday: We got our asses kicked by navigating Queens again, then by our apartment. A lot of what we bought ended up not working. Oh well...to make the day better, the Cubs lost......

Sunday: Free dance in Battery Park. Most of it was good...didn't really care for the hour of Indian dances that all started to look the same after a while. But the closing act, Spinnin Ronin was really good. From there we went to a bar on the east side to watch the Cubs game....which they lost....but oh well.....

Today I got some work booked for later in the week which makes me feel a lot better.

it's starting to feel like home

yesterday was a mostly stressful day of being on the phone for hours trying to find work. it went well except for the fact that it's august and there is no work. i'll be fine for a few more weeks though.

last night i ventured back to the gael pub with jason and eventually dan. that's the bar where i watched the bears win the ncf championship in january. it wasn't as rowdy, but still a good time. plenty of chicago beer and chicago hot dogs...and the bears won :-)

anyway....things are proving to be pretty good, and only look to be getting better. i've had my doubts lately, but i think i made a good choice

holy crap i live in ny now

yeah....again it's been a while, but i've been busy, so hush.

my last week in chicago was definitely a strange one. not all in a bad way. that last weekend was pretty awesome. went to the cubby bear in wrigleyville to see les zeppelin. no, that's not a typo, LES zeppelin. a lesbian led zeppelin cover band. i thought they were pretty good. they were followed by an 80's cover band who's lead singer looked way too much like ron jeremy. that is when i learned that dancing in flip flops is a bad idea. when we realized we had way too much to drink it was time to go. we went to mcdonalds across the street. i don't really remember going in, but i remember eating a cheeseburger.

next day, no hangover. score! the fam and friends came over for swimming and grilling and jello shots. it was a pretty awesome day. just as the day was ending and everyone was going home, there was a loud noise and the sky turned orange. a power line across the street snapped and was now draped across a few garages. the police and fire trucks came, and finally one com ed guy showed up, and realized he couldn't fix anything. in true ep fashion, we all got more beer and sat on the sidewalk watching.

the next day i drove to ny. then i moved in. i don't really want to relive it all right now, but it's good.

"a fork stuck in the road"

Yeah. It's from that Green Day song. The one that comes on the radio every time my life changes in some way. It was my 8th grade graduation song. It was on the radio on the way to high school graduation and on the way to U of I for the first year. It was the song that was playing when my radio alarm clock went off on graduation day from U of I. It was on the radio on the way to the airport when I left for Ringling, and on my way home from my last load out with them. And again just this week, it came on the radio as Jason and I were on our way out to celebrate (this time not too early) our new apartment.

I know it sounds cheesy, but eh. Everything has been wonderful, so I would take it as a bad sign if the song didn't pop up.

A little more than 11 days to go. So far plans include a Cubs game, a tattoo, a backyard BBQ, and possibly a roller rink. Oh, and a lot of packing. I hate packing. Especially when it's to move in mid August. You'd think I would have learned by now, but oh well, at least our place comes with A/C.

The worst/best trip EVER

So day one sounded not so fun right?....it only became more interesting after that. I'm not going to go into details...but I'll give a run down.

Got on the wrong train twice
Got on the wrong highway
Was given a Jesus trading card by a mormon
Was complained to by an angry nun in a bus terminal at 1 am
Got lost driving around Brooklyn and ended up in some very shady areas
Saw the magazine guy from Office Space selling chocolate on the subway
Got to sit on a C train for 20 minutes not moving at 1 am
Traveled probably about 50 miles around the city in the pouring rain, soaking wet
Saw a "2 BR apartment" that was really a basement hallway with some bathrooms attached
Common phrases used were "make a fuck," "i'm sorry, i can't hear you, there's a fire," and "my shit's gonna get towed"
Accepted a pretty awesome apartment
Had said apartment taken away
Signed a lease on another apartment approximately 4 hours before my flight home

Oh there's so much more but I'll stop. Importantly, I have a place to live, and it's pretty damn cool. It's got a backyard, a dishwasher, and is in a really nice neighborhood.

20 days......

I heart NY

Well...once I actually GET there.

Yesterday was a LONG travel day. Everything was going great for a1:40 flight out of ohare. The plane is boarded, everyone is settled. Then the pilot comes on and says one of the breaks doesn't work, and it will take at least an hour to fix it, but there' s a flight leaving at 2:10 a couple of gates down. So everyone gets off the plane and it's a free for all to get to said gate. By the time I got there, the standby list had 39 people on it, so I just went back. We finally took off around 2:55. Should still have PLENTY of time to meet with Jason, drop my crap off, and get to Brooklyn.

"There is a car stuck in the tunnel." AHHHHHH. The bus ride took FOREVER. The bus I was on was supposed to go to Grand Central, but because of the giant hole in the street, was rerouted. Instead of just having an alternate stop, the driver starts taking requests. I got off as soon as this started happening.

Found Jason, got on the subway, and we were only 5 minutes late for our 8 PM appointment. The apartment was really nice, with awesome views. The neighborhood wasn't too hot though. Now I'm off for day #2, which will be SO much better without having to lug my crap around.

"Loving Chicago is like loving a woman with a broken nose" - Nelson Algren

Yeah so it's been a while. Not too much has happened. OK, I take that back, a lot has happened.

The last two weeks have made me realize how much I will really miss Chicago, and mainly my friends here. There have been a lot of good times lately, culminating with Lauren's graduation party yesterday where we all had way too many jello shots. I've also spent a lot of time re-exploring the city. Last week after work I spent the afternoon in Millennium Park, which was awesome. The Bean rules. But as much as I do love this city it is time for a change, so yes, I'm still going. But don't worry, if I know me, I'll be back sometime.

I had another major life change...........LASIK! OH MY GOD!!! AMAZING!!!! Well, the actual day of the procedure was the worst mental and physical torture I have ever experienced, but I am a huge wimp when it comes to my eyes. They loaded me up on Valium and Vicodin to get me through it. But now that it's over, it was TOTALLY worth it. After 12 years of contacts and 16 years of glasses, it is the most amazing feeling in the world to cut that step out of my morning and evening routine. My vision still isn't perfect, it will supposedly fluctuate for the next couple weeks, but It's good enough to drive and go back to work after 1 day, so that's fine by me.

Other than that, I'm in kind of a weird place. I'm still a little stressed about making sure I have enough work in NYC, though I'm sure it will be fine. I'm also a little stressed about the finding an apartment thing, though I'm making a trip out there next week for that. It means I have to miss the Jimmy Buffett concert, but there will be more chances for that. Then there's the other issue that I'm not at peace with yet. For the first time ever, I'm totally stuck. I have no idea what to do or what will happen. This makes no sense to most of you, so I'll stop here. Basically, I could always use a drink.

Well...time to attack that laundry pile that is taking over half of my bedroom.....

punk kids and new years resolutions part 2

Ok, so part 1 is on myspace, but you can't expect me to keep up two blogs can you?

There are still punk kids. Apparently the cool thing for 12 year olds to do in EP now is sit on lawns of people you don't know. At least 4 days a week I come home to find a circle of kids sitting on the lawn. Then they get pissed at me when I tell them to go away.

Ok, now the important stuff. I'm proud of myself. This was the first year I made a serious new years resolution, and now that the year is half over, I've actually kept up with it. I'm not trapped in a job, or anything else, and I'm moving. Logically, I haven't made the best choices, but I'm having a blast.

Saving Silverman is on. I love this movie. What's more perfect than a Jew that's in love with a nun that used to be in the circus along with the common theme of Neil Diamond? Nothing.

Wii Blog?

OK, not as cool sounding as the guy in the commercial....but you get the drift

I got a Wii. It's Wiigasmic. It's been a LOOOONG time since I've had a video game update. Specifically 1988 when I got my NES, which I still have. The Atari bit the dust a while ago though. I'm a Nintendo purist, so Xbox and Playstation aren't really options for me. This thing is great. They've finally caught up with graphics, and there is plenty of old school stuff like some 8bit levels of Mario. Plus, when the weather is shitty/I'm too lazy to go anywhere, I can get a workout with it. I broke a sweat boxing. And I haven't broken anything yet.

The move is getting closer, and I was just reminded of another reason I'm looking forward to it. I just got home from Fagans. I smell like an ashtray. I've never really had strong feelings on the smoking issue because I don't mind people smoking around me, but it will be nice to not have to immediately change clothes when getting home from a bar.

I think things are coming together. I'm not really sure what I mean by that, just how I feel.

And the Cubbies have won 7 in a row.

growing weary

I'm not in the mood for full paragraphs.....here's my week in list form.

-I got paid...FINALLY. But I'm going to continue living like I don't get paychecks to try to save money
-I think I'm getting sick. I was hoping the awesome immune system I built up on the circus would never go away, but maybe it is. But hey, a year without so much as a cold is pretty good.
-My dad and I are fighting a lot over this NYC thing. But I'm still going.
-My personal life is getting more and more frustrating. I need to worry about myself.
-The JUF, though a great cause, is a bit creepy and makes me uncomfortable.
-I can successfully juggle four balls now thanks to boring days at work
-The Cubs just won 2 in a row against the Sox.
-If you thought I could go one post without mentioning baseball, you were wrong.
-I can't wait to move. Let's have a party.
-I love Chicago in the summer
-I need to clean my bedroom. Badly.

A Cicada Chicago Weekend

Yeah, I know it's been a while, but I've been busy. And I have no need to defend myself further...

This is kind of becoming a tell the class what I did over the weekend thing...and this post is no different.

Thursday I went to the Cubs game with Rafael, which was a pretty awesome day. Lunch and pregame beers at Goose Island, followed by tons of fun sitting in the old people section at Wrigley (the 200s for anyone that's not familiar with the park.) The game was pretty good too, couple of lead changes, some really good plays, and they won. After we went to a bar in Ravenswood and met with Jack and his wife for dinner, and of course more beer.

Friday was a very interesting day at work. I was at the Mariott downtown to be the lighting rep for this show from another AVHQ office. My crew wasn't the brightest, so I ended up doing most of the work. One guy kept trying to plug lights into the male ends of cables, which made me snap and yell "not that there's anything wrong with it, but electricity is not gay." I think i just confused everyone.

Saturday I finally sat down and did some actual website work. It's up. www.lisasoverino.com. The bulk of it isn't there yet, as that will take me another week at least to organize, but you can look at my pretty color changing header. That night Lauren, Jenny and I headed up to the bar that Tony works at for some rockin' pizza and cheap drinks. There was woman who believes that aliens implanted a cell phone in her head. Interesting place. After we were all nice and toasted we headed back to EP, stopping for some vodka and munchies (really, it said munchies on the bag), and heading to Tony's to play some Wii. I want a Wii. It may have been because I was under the influence of more than one thing, but Wii is awesome.

And today was father's day, which means another dysfunctional family get together. Nothing too horrible happened, which is good I guess, but I am exhausted. Putting up with 8 screaming children in the 90 degree heat all day gets to me. The cicadas are starting to get really bad. Up until now they've only really been in the forest preserves, but they were all over today. Kept the kids pretty entertained though. Those damn bugs wouldn't bother me so much if they weren't so noisy. At one point we all had to yell to hear over them

Now I'm going to watch whatever movie from netflix has been sitting on my tv for the past 2 weeks and probably fall asleep within the first hour. I'm dogsitting for my sister, so Bella is curled up next to me. Won't be long before she takes over the entire bed.

hey chicago whadda ya say?....

...the cubs are gonna win today....

OK maybe not....

If you're someone that follows baseball, you know it's a difficult time to be a Cubs fan. Wait. It's usually a difficult time to be a Cubs fan. Anytime there are times of joy, they are crushed by ridiculous events. Even though they're not doing so well, I still watch every game. No, I don't know why I torture myself, and yes, I still have hope. I just realized one reason why I love watching this team so much. People like me are everywhere, and if they're not there, they will go there......YEAH!

Right now it's the 8th inning, and the Cubs are in Milwaukee. Now, I know that at every park you see fans with loyalties to the visiting team. But never in the numbers that Cubs fans come out. I've had the game on all evening, but I've been busy doing other things. All I really knew was that the Cubs are at the Brewers, and they are losing. No surprise. Normally when you watch a game, you can tell what's happening just by listening to the crowd. If the home team is winning, the crowd noise is very audible, if they are losing, it's pretty quiet. If the home team gets a hit, you hear the crowd erupt. If the away team gets a hit, you hear nothing. Not the case when the Cubs are in Milwaukee, or St. Louis, or really anywhere else. I love that when I have an away game on that I'm not really paying attention to, and I hear a bat crack, and the crowd erupt, I have to look up to see which team was batting. I sometimes forget. Soriano just had a base hit to drive in a run. I wasn't paying attention. I heard the crowd, and thought ' oh shit, now it's definitely over.' WRONG.

Well, it's the top of the 9th now, and the Cubbies are down by 2. Pie is up. I'm off to go watch

Well an interesting weekend has led to a quite productive day....

Friday Jenny and I decided to go to Denny's. Not the one that we had to wait for 2 hours to get food, but the one by the airport that is usually quite normal. It wasn't. I'll tell the story at a later time when I get the photos from Jenny. It's much funnier with a visual.

Saturday I did a whole lot of nothing. I worked for 38 minutes, which was pretty awesome. After that I just chilled at home watching replays of Pinella's first ejection as a cub. I was going to put the video up here, but apparently MLB made youtube take it down. It is on cubs.com though.

Sunday was my niece Samantha's 10th birthday/step-nephew Kyle's high school graduation party. Good food, good cake, and even a cicada prank. It was after about an hour of the cicada shenanigans that my right eye was in horrible pain. Time to go home. The rest of the day I spent sleeping. I got up around 10 and watched some TV.

Today I went to the eye doc. Have some infection. Yay for eye drops. Boo for not being able to wear contacts for a week. I felt kind of guilty about not going to work, so I did some of my own work. I FINALLY started to clean up after Out of Orbit. Got the gel put away, went through receipts...now I just have to update the paperwork.

I'll be spending the rest of this rainy day organizing life. Yeah, I know, I've been doing a lot of that lately, but as those of you that are close to me know, my life has been pretty fucking unorganized for the last few months.

either an ice cream headache or baby time...

...a stand up comedian's explanation for a certain face he makes. i laughed.

so does anyone besides the people i talk to every day, and know all this stuff anyway read this? really. i want to know.

my annoyed lisa list
-my employer owes me money. a lot of money. payroll sucks.
-the stack of receipts from my new york trip that need to be organized so i don't have to do it next year on april 14th
-this ridiculously hot weather makes me tired
-the stack of framed gel from out of orbit that i trip over at least once a day
-there's only one more episode of the riches this season
-i can't find my jump drive. and i need it.
-flying pig/high end tech support. i'm not going to elaborate cause it will just make me angry
-i've been having some very disturbing dreams about people i care very much about

my happy lisa list
-when i get my back paychecks, i won't be insanely poor anymore
-i have a roommate for nyc
-i get to leave this not so great living situation in a few months
-tonight is zambonies night
-the simpsons are on in 15 minutes
-there are people in nyc that want to hire me, and they pay a hell of a lot more than here
-i'm happy being single. very happy.

nap time.

now what?

Been home a whole week now, and I've actually been quite productive. No, I haven't gone back to work yet, but I have been doing things. I spent the better part of 3 days photoshopping Out of Orbit photos, so now they look really hot. I also caught up on the 2 weeks of missed tv....when I got back my DVR was 99% full. Whew. It was nice to be back at Zambonies to do the regular having a few too many and making an ass out of myself by singing and eventually losing my voice. Last night saw the Ultra Sonic Edukators in Lakeview. Pretty good show.

I spent most of the week figuring out what the hell I'm going to do with this whole life thing. I've been so wrapped up in Out of Orbit, that I never thought of life after it. I had a really good time in NYC and have always wanted to live there at some point. I figure now is better than any time to do that. Not surprisingly, I found that there are dozens of companies that I'm qualified to work for out there, and surprisingly, a lot of them responded to my emails very quickly. Around here it seems like you have to know someone to get good work, then again, this is Chicago...everything works that way. The pay all seems very reasonable and there are a lot more small design opportunities than there are here. I think I'm also getting more focused on what my goals actually are. I didn't get the huge job that I was hoping for, and I was actually pretty relieved. Yeah, it would have been good experience and paid really well, but aside from the travel not really something I want or need. Just as I was thinking about all these things, a potential roommate kind of appeared. I believe in fate, and the timing could not be any more perfect so if this works out, I'm going. I'm going to spend the summer working as much as possible, and spending as little as possible to try to make this easier. Of course baseball season always interferes with me trying to not spend money...but hey, I love my Cubbies. So if you go to a game with me, help me out and buy me a beer :-)

NYC vacation part B

Thursday May 17
So somewhere between waking up and eating pancakes I decided to not go home. I got some laundry done. I headed back to Hoboken and got another parking permit. The lady remembered Mick's name and address as soon as I walked up...kinda creepy. I got up to the apartment and spent some time organizing photos from the show, and bought a ticket to see the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The show was great, except for the obnoxious people sitting behind me. After the show I walked around the city for a while and headed back to Mick's.

Friday May 18
I headed into the city fairly early and went to the Museum of Modern Art. I wanted to see the Comic Abstractions exhibit, which was pretty awesome, and ended up spending a few hours in the museum. After I met Mick and a couple of his friends at a bar for happy hour. Dan made it right before the food we ordered came, and we chowed on wings. Dan and I headed down to Union Square to see BE. It was AWESOME. Kicked my ass. In a very good way. After we stopped by Dan's uncle and chatted about the show for a while before going back to Jersey.

Saturday May 19

I drove home. It took way too long. But I'm home.

NYC vacation part 1

Tuesday May 15
I slept in quite a bit and had a pretty relaxed morning. Got some laundry done and cleaned up most of my crap that was all over the house. Around lunchtime I headed down to Hoboken. Got some lunch and a parking permit then headed into Manhattan. Met some friends for an early drink then walked over to where Mick works. I picked the right Cubs/Mets game to go to. We got there near the end of batting practice and had a really good time at the game. Ramirez had a grand slam and the Cubbies won 10-1. After the score was 7-1 I got into it with a few bitter Mets fans while on a beer run. Most of them were just having fun, but a couple were actually assholes. After a long ride back in a packed train we got back to Mick's place and crashed.

Wednesday May 16
I got up around 9 and took my time getting moving. I headed into the city around 11 and met Dan at the Port Authority. Then we went back to the York to meet Chris for lunch. We hung out with him for a couple hours and headed back to Jersey. I got mostly packed up, as I would be leaving the next day. Dan and I went and saw Hot Fuzz. The movie was pretty good. After we had dinner in the mall that the movie theater was at and went bowling. Dan totally kicked my ass, but I fully blame the floor that caused me to fall on my face in the first frame. Oh well, still was a good time. We got back to the house pretty late and hung out for a while. I had thought about staying, but decided to not go through the trouble and head home the next day......

nerd and superhero in space part...eh...i lost count

Day 10, Sunday May 13th

Load OUUUUUUUUT! The show was packed. Which was awesome, except for the dumb woman that decided to sit with her obnoxious child on the step that the tripod with a video camera were on. After making Dan a bit mad the night before by making him laugh by mocking the timpani part in the 2001 theme, I decided to go a little further with my right as a technician to annoy the performers. Luckily Mike had a pair of bass drum mallets in his car, so I had some fun playing with those throughout the show. John didn't see it, because he purposely was not looking back. After the show we took some group photos and got to work. The out went fairly smooth. We recruited a couple of Dan's friends to help, and having 3 cars to get parked close to the theatre turned out to not be much of a problem. We made it out in time for whatever time our dinner reservation in Jersey was. Sunday evening was chill back at the house. We looked at show photos and laughed pretty hard at some certain things, watched Borat videos on youtube in the backyard, and stayed up way too late playing really bad Super Nintendo games.

Day 11, Monday May 14th
Dan got up stupid early to drive John to the airport. When he got back Josh and I got up and we headed back into the city. We went to IWeiss to return the star drop, then dropped Josh off in Chinatown to take the bus back home and Dan and I settled on lunch at Chipotle after driving/walking around forever. Then Dan dropped me off at Manhattan mall to pick up Mets/Cubs tix while he went to meet with Tara. I got my tickets and walked to where he was supposed to meet Tara, and he hadn't found her yet. We wandered around and finally called 411 to find the place. We found her, then headed back to Jersey. The rest of the day we just enjoyed relaxing. I caught up on the Sopranos wile Dan napped, then we had dinner and watched the Mets game. This gave Dan loads of enjoyment listening to his mother and myself cheering for different teams

all photoshop and no play makes lisa cranky

I haven't gone back to work yet, so that I can catch up on work. Sigh. Though I do really enjoy photo editing. If I ever get far enough down on my list of things to do and make a website, you can see some of it.....

OK, more recapping....

Day 8, Friday May 11
WE GOT TO SLEEP IN! Awesome. We had a chillish morning, and headed into the city mid afternoon to have a photo call. We didn't get started early enough so things were kind of rushed, but I got a ton of good shots. The show went well. The audience wasn't as responsive as the night before, but still a good show. Mick came to the show. I also met Christina's (friend of Tara's that helped with the choreography) boyfriend who is a fellow Chicagoan and Illini. We went to an OK bar after the show with the cast and crew and multiple friends.

Day 9, Saturday May 12
There was a children's show in the space in the morning, so we went in a bit early to changeover all of our stuff. We all got to talking about a crazy guy outside the building hiding behind a street sign in a really bad wig and mustache. Mike talked me into taking his picture, so we all went outside and laughed at the guy for a while. It turns out he was the director of the children's show, but was banned from the theatre for some reason, so bought a disguise and walkie talkie to check up on the show. (cough JT anyone?) Gautham who I met the night before was at the first show, and used my computer to mess with Ringling folk online before the show. We invited a day care of some sort to come in and watch the show...the kids loved it. The artistic director of the York also loved it, and talked with Dan and Josh about some things that can be worked on. We had a couple hours before the next show, so Dan and I went to a pretty good Japanese restaurant down the street. It was nice to have a relaxed meal for the first time all week. After the second show we went to a bar with some of Dan's friends from high school, then ended up back at the same bar with some of his friends from college.

my brain in space, part 3

I realized that my previous dates have been off. I'm finally caught up on sleep and am starting to realize such things that haven't really been that important lately....

Day 6, Wednesday May 9th
This was the day that I reverted to my normal tech week self. When things need to get done and they're not happening, I can be a bitch. But it gets things done. The cast finished their work, we did a Q2Q and a dress run. I finished cueing for the most part and touched up all the main parts of the show.

Day 7, Thursday May 10th OPENING
We planned on getting in the space around noon, but there ended up being a meeting in the theatre so we had to wait until our scheduled time of 1. This gave us all some time to go run errands and actually eat something before getting to work. We did a dress run and cleaned up the theatre. I wasn't feeling too good about things, because for the first time ever I wasn't scrambling to get things done before an opening. The free time scared me, but being able to relax before the show helped me enjoy it more. I felt it was a great opening. Not many kids in the audience, but the adults seemed to love it. Everything that was questionable at least to me throughout the week came together nicely. After the show the whole team (myself, Dan, John, Tara, Josh, Mike, Brandon, and Chris) headed to a local bar that Chris frequents to celebrate. We ran up quite a large tab but this was an occasion I didn't mind having to put up a bit more cash to cover. I even got a call from Tony asking why I wasn't at Zambonies. At this point I was far too buzzed to remember the whole conversation, just that it happened.

Clowns in Space Part 2

Day 4, Monday May 8th LOAD IN

It wasn't that bad. Exhausting and stressful as all load ins are, but overall it went pretty well. We got to the theatre a bit early to get all the props and things inside. We then met with Chris, the house electrician who ended up being a kick ass help to us all week. Getting the lights up took a little longer than I wanted, but we got everything done. Turns out clowns aren't bad focus monkeys. I was proud of myself that I only snapped and got a little mean once, but we have a really good group that ended up working very well together, and getting through all the problems. John almost killed Dan, a blacklight almost killed me and Dan, and Chris kept yelling "Christmas!" when he needed to curse. It was a fun day. Everyone left around 6, but Dan and I stayed a bit late to finish up a few things. We then went back to Jersey for, you guessed it, more working on props.

Day 5, Tuesday May 9th

Rehearsals rehearsals rehearsals. Didn't get NEARLY as much accomplished as we wanted to, but that's how it goes. There was a lot of figuring out music issues as well as blocking and other things that aren't addressed when it's been 3 months since the last rehearsal. It ended up being a not very technical rehearsal day, as there was too much other work to get done, but I managed to finish cueing most of the show and getting Josh all set at the sound board. Tuesday night was more of the same. I stayed up till I think 2 watching the Cubs game online, which they blew in the 15th inning. I wandered downstairs to find Dan STILL working on the UFO, and we were up for a while longer finishing that up.

It was these couple of days that it started to really set in how difficult it is to put a show together from nothing in such a short amount of time. I now spent 2 days in the theatre without meal break, or break of any kind. It's been a long time since I've had a gig like that, but I do kinda like it. Something about insane stress and pressure drives me. And this time since I had no one to keep me on my toes and make sure I was getting things done, it was especially fulfilling. I like being in charge. I also discovered the wonder of Jamba Juice. Awesome. No, really.

Clowns in Space, Part 1

OK, so I really wanted to keep up with this while working on Out of Orbit in NYC, but in reality, it was one of the busiest weeks I've ever experienced, and sleep and food took precedence over everything. Really, my parents thought I was dead at one point. So now I'll do my best to recap. There are a bunch of pictures of all the things I will talk about at my shutterfly site (lisasoverino.shutterfly.com). You'll have to ask me for the password.

Day 2, Saturday May 5th
After a hectic travel day, we all needed to sleep in a bit, though not much. We did a little work on props in the morning, then got ready to head into the city. Since my car had so much crap in it, we took two cars in. We got in, parked the other car, and Dan and John got cozy in the back with the gear for the rest of the ride to the theatre. Loading in should have been cake, but the elevator was broken, making it kind of a pain. We got everything in, double checked a few things, then headed down to Tribeca. There was a family street fest going on, so we took that opportunity to hand out as many flyers as possible to families. John and Dan performed 3 sizable sets that drew pretty big crowds while Josh and I handed out flyers. Then it was back to Jersey, a quick lunch at a diner, then back to the disaster area that was Dan's house to work on props.

Day 3, Sunday May 6th
More props more props more props. Dan and John went into Central Park to make another attempt to hand out flyers, but it wasn't as successful as Tribeca. Josh and I stayed in Jersey to get some shopping done and work on props. I also picked up a phone charger, which ended up not working, and some PVC tubing, that was completely useless. :-) Again we were all up pretty late finishing up all we could. I got most of the lighting things prepped, like framing gel and gobos and updating paperwork.

I'm tired of typing, so I'll write about the next couple of days tomorrow. I can smell fresh gravy on the stove...mmm....garlic.....

16 hours in a car with a clown, a smell, and no gas

Well today was Day 1 of the Out of Orbit experience. I feel like I've been hit by a truck, when in reality I was just almost hit by a truck.......

I drove out with John, one of the cast members who lives in Chicago. I told him I would pick him up at 3:30 this morning.....and I woke up at 3:25. Great start. He called about 10 minutes later asking where I was, while I was running through the house throwing crap out the front door to go in my car. Luckily I gassed up and packed most of the stuff the night before. We were on the highway by 4:15. Aw yeah.

The drive started GREAT. I drove till we ran out of gas, which was somewhere between Toledo and Cleveland, then John took over. We saw a bunch of people pulled over waving around a blow-up doll. The sun was shining, we had good tunes going, and we were flying east.

Then around Du Bois, PA, we start to get low on gas, and it's lunch time. We stopped at a Subway in the middle of a mecca of shopping and eats. There has to be gas too right. No. We didn't see any. My car was reading "10 miles to empty." John remembered that there was another exit very close to where we were, so we got back on 80. Turns out the next exit is 12 miles away. Luckily my car is idiot proof, and we had more than 10 miles.....

We get off, and there is NOTHING. Then I remember that we were using Streets and Trips with GPS on my laptop to keep track of where we were, and it has wonderful features such as finding food and gas stations for you. This proves that there is NO gas where we are, but if we had gone down the road in Du Bois another mile, we would have found some. So back on 80 in the wrong direction. I have to admit I was quite nervous. We killed the AC and the radio, and I took advantage of the downhill stretches in all attempts to conserve gas. We made it. I put 19.68 gallons in my 20 gallon tank. Aw yeah.

We took a Red Bull break about 80 miles later, and I topped off on gas. So now we're set right? 225 miles to destination, full tank of gas, clear interstate in front of us........

It took 35 minutes to cross the Delaware River. Not to get there, we spent 35 minutes on the bridge, averaging 4 mph for about 20 miles. We were hoping to see a really cool reason for the backup, like black bears fighting, a recently discovered dinosaur skeleton, or Jesus' return to earth. I mean, for this much ridiculous traffic it had to be HUGE.

We FINALLY make it into NJ, and both smell the worst smell we have ever smelled. It was like something died, something big died......imagine 5000 pounds of rotting sea food sitting in the sun.

Traffic cleared up after the smell.

Due to our delays, Dan went into Manhattan without us to take care of a few things. Then he got delayed. We got to his town (4 hours behind schedule), ate dinner, went grocery shopping, and he was still about an hour from being ready to leave. Oh, and his parents weren't home. Luckily we picked up some wireless internet in front of the house, so I caught up on a weeks worth of emails. His parents got back about an hour later, and I have never been so happy to get out of my car. So now we're in the house YAY. Still no Dan though.

Tomorrow we go unload the insane amount of gear that's in my car at the theater.

can i breathe yet?

A ridiculously long and busy weekend is finally over. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, I just have that been hit by a truck feeling. Friday I went to see my friend Tony in We Will Rock You, the musical based around the music of Queen. It really surprised me. I mean, I knew I would enjoy the music, cause, well c'mon. Queen. But the story really hit me. It takes place in the future when musical instruments are banned and being artistic or individual in any way is basically a felony. Of course multi track boy bands are the cause of this demise of art. Good stuff

Saturday was a benefit for a friend's cousin's school, and today saw a production of The Wizard of Oz that my friend Jay directed, and featured his brother Adam as the Cowardly Lion. The rest of the weekend was spent working on Out of Orbit in some way or another. My parents left for Florida Saturday morning, so I'm now able to work in peace. Very refreshing. I managed to move most of my projects outside to take advantage of the beautiful weekend. The wind kind of bit me in the ass when I started spray painting, but it was otherwise very enjoyable.

Two more days of work and I'm outta here. Whew.

i feel good!

Things are starting to shape up. I had a pretty good job interview last night. At least I think it went well, but maybe that's wishful thinking. Even if it doesn't work out, my backup job is sounding pretty damn good. More on both of those when I know more.....

I'm pretty glad to be moving on in the job area, cause yesterday proved that this AV stuff is wearing on me. I did a gig with the company I worked for a couple of years ago. It was nice to see some familiar faces, but the other people there were dumb as rocks. Actually dumb as one rock. Multiple rocks may be able to muster up some intelligence. It's easy work and good money, but highly unfulfilling. Time for something new.

Hmm...apparantly unfulfilling is not a word. Stupid spell check. I'm using it anyway.

Other than that I'm trying to work a little less this week and next to get ready for Out of Orbit.
Working on that has been up and down a lot lately, but I just worked out a down and it's starting to look good. I can't wait to get out there and actually do it

Oh what else....Red Sox swept the Yankees, and the Cubs are their normal selves but I love them anyway. The weather is nice and I have air in my bike tires and am dogsitting so I have a rollerblading partner.

it's really monday?

I worked most of the day yesterday, so it feels like Tuesday, maybe even a Thursday. I guess it doesn't really matter. Work was, well, work. I'm glad I wasn't on the show call, so I got to leave at 2 and make it home for the rest of the Cubs game. It was Jackie Robinson Day, and a lot of players wore #42. They even replayed the pregame events after the game so I didn't have to fully miss that.

Been kinda down lately. I'm trying to solidify job things for the next couple of years and it's really been wearing on me. To make it worse, my family won't leave me alone about it. I mention one thing to one person, then get 10 phone calls congratulating me on things that aren't even happening. I'm being considered for the lighting designer for an arena circus, and also may be on a theatrical tour later this year.

I'm also being completely suffocated in my living situation. There is virtually no privacy ever, and getting work done is a miracle. I'm very much looking forward to the weather getting warmer so I can spend more time not at home. Until then, I'll take a drink and a hug.

i heart baseball season

It's been a fun AND productive couple of days....

I experienced my first official baseball related disappointment of 2007 yesterday. A friend of Lauren's had extra tix, so we all called in to work/school and hopped on the Addison bus. The day started off with a random chick taking Lauren's picture on the bus. Made the rest of the ride very awkward. Our seats were in the 500s on the 3rd base line. For those of you that haven't been to Wrigley, that is prime location to take the 35 mph sw winds off Lake Michigan right in the face. It was FREEZING out there. We couldn't drink beer fast enough to stay warm. I normally don't mind freezing, BUT the Cubs looked worse than my 6th grade softball team. Soriano was blah, Izturis had 3 errors, and the bats were not pleasing. I however did get a kick out of the Miller billboard across Sheffield Av that read "99th time's the charm." I'm just glad I didn't have tickets for today...because this was the view from the field....

After the game we thought it was a good idea to see Blades of Glory...second time for me and Jenny. That movie is freakin' hilarious if you haven't seen it. We then came back to my place, ordered Chinese, and watched a Fish Called Wanda. Very random, but very fun.

I left work today around 1. It was snowing like mad, and right as I turned onto Higgins, my wipers stopped moving. That was the scariest 30 minutes of driving I've ever experienced. My car is now at the dealer and they have no idea what's wrong with it. Being carless I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening working on my light plot for Out of Orbit. Made some wicked awesome progress. Now it's time to park in front of the tv for a couple hours and free up some space on my DVR.

CTA: "On-Time, Clean, Safe & Friendly"

Hmm...actually it's none of those things. I love Chicago, and I love going to various places in Chicago, but it is a pain in the ass. I'm going down to Wrigleyville this evening. Options include car, train, bus.

Car: Parking is pretty non existent on a Friday night. The cheapest lot is around $20. And we want to drink. A lot. I can't take side streets home all the way from Clark and Addison.

Bus: Yeah, lets take the bus. It takes a little longer but it's pretty convenient. Oh wait no it's not. They stop running at 10:30 PM.

Train: Could take the Green line to the Red line. That would take like 2 hours though because we have a terrible rail system unless you happen to live in walking distance of a station and you are going to the loop. Did they really think that people would only want to travel east and west, not north and south? And even though the trains run till 1, we'd still be a couple of miles from home and the buses wouldn't be running.

The CTA is truly awful. I've never been on a train that's arrived on time. I've never gotten on a train less than 10 minutes after it was supposed to be there. At least half the trains I'm on stop for no apparent reason and sit there for at least 10 minutes. Yet they spent $100 million to implement new fare cards. Uh...I think the fare cards are the only thing I've never complained about. Oh and how about the advertising. They go all out. But where do they advertise? ON THE FREAKIN TRAINS AND BUSES. If I'm on the El, I don't need to read a poster telling me to ride the El.

AH. There. I'll put up a more amusing post tomorrow. Off to Wrigleyville....

you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater because then all you have is a wet, critically injured baby

I've got 9 job possibilities for the next 18 months. If anyone has any opinions on summer theater camps, cruise ships, non equity broadway tours, working in Australia and Europe, or circuses that take canned foods as admission, I'd love to hear them.

It's baseball season. Hope you're enjoying it as much as I am...especially the Cards being swept by the Mets part.

I also recommend Christopher Guest's most recent movie, For Your Consideration. It's similar to Waiting for Guffman, except instead Broadway hopes for a ridiculous musical, there are Oscar hopes for a ridiculous movie about a southern Jewish family celebrating Purim.

Nap time. Eamus Catuli!