On the Stage

So I rehearsed "Yesterday" last night and it was great. I have to admit, I really liked singing it and I think I sounded pretty good. The thing I'm most excited about though is how I'm presenting the song. It'll just be me, up on stage, down center on a stool with just a spotlight on me. I'm going to sit with one foot on a rung and the other on the ground and start singing. Then move to corners of the stage as I feel it in the song and then end at the "mmm's" on the stool again. I think it'll be pretty damn sweet and I'm excited for it now. I will try to get it recorded on MD, though I'm having troubles finding a way to get it onto the internet for people to hear. It's such a simple, pleasent introspective song and it sounds beautiful and I love it.

The men's chorus is going to sound good. The barbershop is going to sound "ok" but it wears out my voice and I don't want to do it. I"m feeling tired today already from yesterday singing my two solos a few times and the barbershop songs a few times each. The other solo I'm singing will be fine, but I'm not as excited for that as I am for Yesterday.

I need a voice instructor to work with me and get my voice to be stronger, as in able to sing for long periods of time without wearing out and tiring out. It sucks big time.


"Yesterday"


Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be,
There’s a shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she had to go I don’t know she wouldn’t say.
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Mm mm mm mm mm mm mm.

I can't tell you how hilarious this movie is. VERY quotable. I suggest it to anyone with a goofy sense of humor. I got reminded of it because Yoj said something about the colonel and I immediately thought of the quotes from that movie.

Stuart Mackenzie: Well, it's a well known fact, Sunny Jim, that there's a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, known as The Pentaveret, who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado, known as The Meadows.
Tony Giardino: So who's in this Pentaveret?
Stuart Mackenzie: The Queen, The Vatican, The Gettys, The Rothschilds, *and* Colonel Sanders before he went heads up. Oh, I hated the Colonel with is wee *beady* eye! And that smug look on his face, "Oh, you're gonna buy my chicken! Ohhhhh!"

Charlie Mackenzie: Dad, how can you hate "The Colonel"?
Stuart Mackenzie: Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes ya crave it fortnightly, smartass!


OOOH MAN, that's funny stuff. Go...rent it. Or let me know and I'll come over and bring it and we can watch it together!

Oh yeah, sorry...it's me, I didn't take a shower this morning! HA! :-) I kind of ran out of time with all that sleeping.

No, I don't really stink, but I just hate the feeling of not getting a morning shower. I know some people can handle it, and prefer showers at night, but NOT me...I hate it!

Derby Day
Fried Chicken
The Bluegrass State

What makes you itch? Have you ever wondered that? I know some are because something bit you, but the ones that it's not that then what is it? I'm sure there's some scientific explanation but I don't care to look it up.

So my phone interview is tomorrow at 11:30 am and it'll last about a half hour.

Apparently Kaia is under the weather and is being all crabby and cuddly...but I wouldn't know becaus she's there and I'm here :-(

This weekend is Story City Remembers little concert thing to celebratre Story City's Sesquecentennial.

I'm singing two solos: "On the Street Where You Live" from My Fair Lady and "Yesterday" by the Beatles. Also one song in a trio with my sister and our friend. The Music Man quartet is singing 2 of our songs and I'm in a Men's Chorus singing "Stouthearted Men" and "The Navy Hymn (Eternal Father)".

So that's my boring update, we'll see if anyone cares.

Kind of a the shell of a possible design for JSTT. I have about 3 or 4 other designs, but a couple are at home and one other one is here on my computer at work.

So frustrating. You know how writers get writer's block? Well, I have a creative block. I'm desiging some webpages just in my free time just for myself so I can have some designs if I need them and nothing is coming out.

I look at other web sites and I think, "Wow! Those are great. I like that. I wish I could do that." So then I go back to my blank page and just.sit.there.and.look. Nothing comes out. The only thing I can think of is some sites I just saw and though I may gleen some ideas here and there I'm certainly not going to copy them. But I can't think of anything original.

How do you get past writer/designer/creative blocks?

I, ok some people helped, moved a piano yesterday! We bought a $100 piano from some dude in Ames and we finally got to move it and get it into my house!! It looks so good there :-) I love having a piano.

My best friend tunes pianos, so he can come do it for me.

Veronica plays the piano and I sing...so it works out perfect :-) Hopefully soon Kaia will start taking piano lessons too, so she'll need to practice!

And I"m NOT letting her quit either. I quit the second I could and I've regretted it every day of my life. I hear it from so many people "I wish I wouldn't have quit" etc. I mean, JEEZ, if she really wants to quit then ok, but if I can just show her how important it will be to her when she gets older perhaps she'll listen to the old man and believe me. If she seems to be heading in the direction of loving music like the rest of her family.

Ok, I was just handed a bunch of stuff to do at work, so off I go!

By the way...I'm getting a phone interview for a web designer position here next week!! How exciting! :-D

...and it's kind of ok :-) I miss my daughter like CRAZY, but there's nothing I can do about that, so might as well enjoy some freedom :-D

I dropped the girls off at the airport in MNPLS/St Paul and my best friend and I went and met our other best friend and we spent from 1-7 together. It was great! We dont' get to see him much even though he only lived in St Paul. We rode the rollercoasters in the Mall of America and we went to Cold Stone (BEST ICE CREAM ON THE PLANET) and we saw his church where he is interim pastor.

Monday I went to work...dragged ass all day, I was tired...then went right over to the best friends house and we went golfing! It was weird not having to worry about someone at home and how I'm having fun while they're not. I golfed fairly well, good for only getting to go a half dozen times a year right now. This time was my third time out. He is usually busy everyday but Monday, so next Monday we're golfing again, then the Monday after then that Tuesday I leave to join the girls in Washington and be in/sing at my SIL's wedding.

She gave me the song I'm singing...I have NO idea what the song is, so I better get practicing!

Tonight I'm going home right after work to mow the much needed lawn. Then going to a movie (either Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, or Bewitched) then coming home to watch BB6!!! Then clean and pick up some. I want to impress the wife with the house, I hope, when she gets home. Plus I can't stand living in this damn house with boxes and shit all over anymore. I just don't know where to put any of the stuff, but I know I dont' want to throw it away!!! UGH, it SUCKS. But I do love the house still :-)

On a random weird note, last night I went to bed and left the door open, I KNOW I did because I thought about it and decided I'd leave it open so my cat would move in and out of the room since he likes to be around me. This morning I wake up and the door is CLOSED. Now, I know it was closed because when I opened it my cat came right in to rub my leg and tell me he's hungry...so what happened between when I went to bed and when I woke up? The door naturally swings open, so that's not it. The cat cannot close the door and stay on the outside, it's not possible.

It is possible last night I then decided to kick the cat out and close the door...but I just don't remember doing that...

Is it ok that I'm a guy and I don't like thongs?

Ok...let me rephrase, I don't like being able to see thongs on fully clothed women. What I mean by that is, when I see women, whether hot or not, and you can visibly see their thong through their pants...I think it's ugly. I think ANY underwear lines are ugly to see, but especially thongs.

Now, I don't mind thongs on unclothed women...but still then just barely. I don't like the idea of underwear shoved up someone's ass. Thongs just aren't that attractive to me. But then butts aren't either. I'm a boobs man.

Ok...so can I still be a man and not like thongs?

You know what's nice?

Little e-mails. Just friends checking up on you to see how you're doing. Knowing that they're thinking of me. It's one of life's great feelings, to know that you mean somethign to someone and that someone is thinking of you.

I don't get those kind of e-mails enough :-( But, I don't give them out enough either...but I feel like I do an adequate job of it!

E-mails and thoughts are nice :-)

Whew! Been a busy time at the new household here.

Cleaning away and unpacking for sure...that's a given. This weekend though, Kaia got a swing set and a sand and water table.

Putting the swing set together this past Sunday was THE WORST thing I have ever done!!! About quit 7 or 8 times. It was me and my mom and Veronica and sometimes my dad (he just had knee surgery so he couldn't do much!). The instructions were HORRIBLE and their hole drilling skills for the poles were even worse. Some of the screws weren't the right size (and YES we were using the right screws) and some of the pieces weren't fitting together. This is a short recap but basically it took about 8 hours and now it's all complete but one little footrest that wouldn't go together because the screw wasn't long enough.

We re-arranged our living room already, it's better like this now...for the most part.

We're FINALLY getting cable tv and Internet today, in fact, the Mediacom dude is there with V right now I just got off the phone with her.

My parents got a new washer and dryer and so we get their old ones and those are being installed in the house TODAY. Woohoo!!

Here's a perfect example of why I can't post recently...I've been trying to type this for about 30 minutes now and the phones keep ringing and I'm the only one here right now.

Still reeling from Chicago last weekend :-)

Lots more, I'm sure, but alas I must end it here.

The house is great though, except the phone wont work, and Kaia loves it and V loves it and I love it :-) And V and Kaia love that my cat is there (they really do!) V hated my cat when it was at my parents house, but she admitted to me last night that she really does like having Tazer Wazer there. His name is "Taz" but since I first got him I've called him Tazer Wazer and Kaia calls him Tazer Wazer and it's so cute :-)

Ok BYE!!

Oh..check out The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee it's been my new obsession musical for a couple months and I ABSOLUTELY love it :-D BYE!

SUNDAY

We got up about 9:30 am and got ready and got our stuff all ready to go put in our car. Have I mentioned parking in Chicago yet? It's insane! You can't park for free, that's a given, but it's expensive! They are all over the place too. Park here, Monthly Parking, Early bird specials! etc etc. Well we parked in the garage closest to our hotel. We took our stuff to the car and then headed out to find some breakfast and take some pictures.

We got to the baskin robbins/dunkin donuts that we had noticed early right by the theatre and it was closed for repairs :-( so we just headed to the Chicago theatre district for some pictures. We got lots of good pictures of The Oriental Theatre (where Wicked is) and Cadillac Theatre where Lion King is and some of the smaller theatres and some signs and all that. We stopped in the Oriental Theatre to see if the box office knew if Ana was calling out today or not...they did not, and were very rude about it. Then for lunch we stopped at Pot Bellys, which was good.

Then we headed out for a walk before the 2 pm showing of Wicked. We went to the Millenium Park, which was VERY cool. Good times and beautiful. Got some pictures there too.

Finally time to see Wicked again! In much anticipation we finally step into the lobby and...Kristy Cates will be on today for the role of Elphaba. Oh...my...

Seriously, I was SO happy to get to see Wicked twice and it was SO great and SO much fun. But HALF the reason we drove down to Chicago was to see Ana Gasteyer perform as Elphaba. The other half was just to see Wicked since we love the show so much and it's such a new show (the tour just started and this sit-down production in Chicago -- it won the 2004 Tony for best musical as well as 4 or 5 other Tonys). We were suppose to see Ana Gasteyer as Elphaba, I wanted to see that SO bad. I can't believe my luck! I get lucky, for probably the first time ever, and WIN something in 2 tickets in the front row of Wicked in Chicago! Then, the 2 times in one weekend we get to see Wicked the one person we waned to see calls out both shows. Man it's going to take a while for me to get over this. I mean, it's not like we can just drive down to Chicago again when we want to to catch Ana as Elphaba. Just bad luck I guess!

Then we head back to the parking garage and I can't find my parking ticket thing that we need to pay for our parking. So we go to the hotel and the desk clerk doesn't want to let us back into our room instead he says just take out hotel bill and he stamped it and said to take it to the desk at the parking garage and we can pay for it that way. Ok, sounds good.

So I do that and the guy is just a complete dickhole. I told him I lost the ticket and he asks me, I swear, 8 time if I REALLY lost it. "Is it not in your car? So, you lost your ticket? Are you sure you don't have your ticket somewhere? So you lost your ticket huh? You really don't know where it is?" etc etc. YES, YES I LOST MY GODDAMN TICKET. I'VE TOLD YOU 8 TIMES NOW I DON"T KNOW WHERE IT IS AND THE HOTEL DUDE SAID I COULD USE THIS BILL TO PAY FOR IT. "Well, you'll have to pay for the maximum amount because of your lost ticket...it's 31 dollars, are you sure you don't know where your ticket is? You're leaving now? Are you sure?" NO, I don't know where my ticket is, Yes, we're leaving now, FINE, I'll pay the money I don't give a shit anymore. The reason, I think, he was asking so much is because we're suppose to get a discount for parking there and staying at the hotel we stayed at, that's why he stamped it. He said it'd be fine to use that bill, apparently this dick at the parking garage doesn't think so, so I pay the $31 and go on my merry damn way.

We got out of Chicago and back on to the interstate without TOO much trouble, I was quite proud of myself. :-) Stopped for supper on the way home and got home at 12:30 am.

We rated this mini-vacation at a 7/10. 1 point off for the TINY hotel. 1 point off for traffic/getting lost/pissy Chicago people and 1 BIG point off for not getting to see Ana as Elphaba.

We DID have a good time and loved it! LOVED getting to see Wicked twice and SO close. Loved getting to see Little Shop and so close! Loved getting to see Chicago and just be out with the two of us for the first time ever. Theatre is grand, isn't it? :-)

Wow, just too much to type all of it out, but I'll do the best I can.

We ended up leaving at around 6:30 am on Saturday morning. Rolling into Illinois we all of a sudden ran into a bunch of tollways, non-stop in fact. Was everyone aware that Illinois makes you pay to use their damn interstate?! That sucks...we ended up paying $6-7 just to drive to Chicago.

We got to Chicago, following our directions to a T, at about 12:30-ish. Took the right exits and everything and here we were on Wacker St. The street the hotel is on. At about 1:30-ish we FINALLY FOUND OUR HOTEL. What an ordeal, let me tell you! I, through bad planning on my part, was out of gas, I had the damn gas light on while I'm driving around the friggin' heart of Chicago trying to find this hotel. Did you also know that there are NO gas stations in the immediate city area of Chicago? Don't people need gas there too? Why would you want to drive to the outskirts of Chicago just to get some damn gas. It sucked!! So, like I said, we FINALLY found our hotel after stopping to get some gas and we checked in and headed up to our room. HELLO, TINY ROOM ALERT. Good lord, this thing is like a glorified closet...good thing we're only staying one night.

We throw our stuff onto our bed and fly back down to the lobby. The bellhop dude flags us a taxi (it was pretty cool he let fly quite the whistle to get this taxi) and we got to the theatre at 1:58 pm to buy tickets to see Little Shop of Horrors that started at 2 pm. I get to the box office window and I say "Do you have any cheap restricted viewing seats toward the front?" He says "I have pit seats that are not restricted for $14.50" "I'LL TAKE THEM!" It turns out that means we are sitting in the THIRD row and only paid $29.50 total for both tickets.

What a good time, Little Shop was fun. It was good quality, just not the greatest thing ever, but it was good! We had an understudy for Audrey, that was ok, but I wanted to see Tari Kelly who was suppose to play Audrey, but that wasn't a big deal at all.

So the show is over at 4:15 pm-ish and we're off to our hotel again. We drop our Little Shop stuff off at our hotel room and head immediately back downstairs to get directions to where Wicked is playing. We are going to play lotto for Saturday night tickets (it's where you go put your name in a drawing and then 2 hours before the show they pull 10 names at 2 tickets a piece for the front row) We signed up for that at around 5 pm and then walked around a bit until 6 pm when we had to be back to see if we won lotto. So at about 5:50 we head back to Borders (where you sign up to be in lotto) and sit and wait for 6 pm. People start flooding in to play lotto and it ends up, I'd say, to be about 11-200 people with their names in this container to win tickets for Wicked. What it is, is if your name is drawn you then get 2 tickets to Wicked, in the front row, for $25 a piece. Well, MY NAME WAS THE THIRD NAME DRAWN! I WON!! How damn fortunate is that?! We wanted to win lotto for 2 reasons -- 1.) So we could see Wicked twice and 2.) So we could make sure we saw Ana Gasteyer perform as Elphaba in case she called out Sunday matinee which we have had tickets for for months.

So we head over to the theatre real quick to get the tickets and then headed back to the hotel to TRY and get some supper before we had to be back at 8 pm to see Wicked! We called room service and it was going to take 30 minutes for our food to arrive and so at 6:50 we said ok and ordered some pizza figuring it would be there at 7:20 and we could eat for 10-15 minutes and then take off to walk to the show. At 7:30 the food wasn't there yet and so I called down he said he could have it up to our room in 5 minutes I said no cancel my order because we have to go NOW. So we left...keep in mind we have had breakfast at 6:30am from McDonald's and THAT'S IT.

We got to the theatre and got in the lobby and...Ana Gasteyer has called out and her standby, Kristy Cates, will be performing tonight. AH! Ok, that's ok, she'll perform on Sunday then...probably just taking a night off since we heard people talking and we know she had performed Saturday matinee.

Still seeing Wicked! Still sitting front row! Still getting to see Kristy Cates who comes to this sit-down production from Broadway! Still excited!

Oh...oh my...the show was fantastic! So excited to see Wicke, it was all worth it, the show was AWESOME! :-) Everyone was sooo good, got to see Kristoffer Cusick play Fiyero and he was in RENT for one of the tours, so got to see a RENT alumni as well. Got to see Katie Reinders play Glinda, she was on Broadway in Good Vibrations (a flop musical!) and something else I forget, so she's good. The show was great, the actors were great, the singing was great! Bliss...pure bliss.

We get back to our hotel at 11:30 pm. We order some Chinese since that place was still open...it will be ready in 45 minutes...ok, we can do that. WE FALL ASLEEP. At 12:30 the door knocks, V gets up at gets the food, we...somehow in a deep comatose...eat our food and are out like a light again.

That was our Saturday!

I should probably get back to work...I'll sneak in a description of Sunday and get it onto my blogger here sometime today, but feel free to comment on Saturday if you'd like :-)

Going to try to go see Little Shop of Horrors while it's in Chicago as well! It is only playing through Sunday, so we're going to try and hit up a matinee of it on Saturday, or Saturday night if we can't get lotto tickets to Wicked. It is playing in the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University pictured here to the right.

We are also going to try and see Lion King while it's there in Chicago. It is running for quite a while so we have 2 shows on Saturday and 2 shows on Sunday to try and catch it. It is playing at Cadillac Palace Theatre which is here.

Then Wicked, which we ARE for sure going to once and try to go see Saturday night as well is playing at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre which is here.

All the theatres are so beautiful and all the shows are so good! We'd also like to hit up the Shedd Aquarium and also the Art Institute of Chicago

And then Saturday night we are staying at Club Quarters Chicago Wacker at Michigan

The greatest thing about all this is that all these theatres and all these attractions we're going to try to go to are all within walking distance from our hotel! I think we're going to have quite the weekend and I'm very pumped about it! We're getting up at 5 am tomorrow morning to start driving at 6 am to Chicago and we should get there around noon or 1 and the first extra show (Little Shop or Lion King) we're going to try to see would start their matinee at 2 pm so we'd better be prepared! Then we want to squeeze in the aquarium and art institute either saturday or Sunday after Wicked. Then Saturday evening is a slot open to try and see Wicked again playing the lotto system (put name in drawing for about 20 of the first couple row seats for $25) and if that doesn't work we'll shoot over to catch Little Shop or Lion King, depending on which one we didn't see for matinee! Then stay at the hotel that night (bow-chicak-bowwow) and then wake up, check out and go see Wicked. Maybe go see somethign else afterwards but more than likely head home since we wont be leaving the theatre till around 5:30 (after stopping at the stage door to meet and get autographs with the cast and especially meet Ana Gasteyer!)

Whew! Good thing I have Monday off.