I’m stage managing the school show and so far it’s been about going to rehearsals and marking down exits and entrances. Not a big deal. The real game started on Friday with figuring out all the technical bits to the show.

While all day Friday was a HECTIC tech day. (All day in the theatre, hanging microphones, hanging lights, running out of cable, chasing around the school for power chords, falling off a ladder, and lots of taping… Not to mention dress rehearsal, setting all the lighting cues, and figuring out all the audio cues.)

Saturday was crazy though.

Had to go in and as quickly as possible fix the hanging microphones, all 4 of them. This involves lowering the pipes by hand and fixing their lengths. I had a crappy morning and dropped 2 of the mics while removing them, and while raising up a pipe I snapped one of the microphone cables.  On with the show! We were doing a complete run through, with lighting and audio cues. Lighting had written down and done all their cues on Friday, but for saturday I had to call the lighting cues. What this meant was copying down the cues from the other binder, while calling them, while following the show, while reading the script, while calling audio cues. I got yelled at very early on because I kept messing up the curtain call. (It really was a bad morning…) The people I have backstage are new and are confused by the house lights, and by the curtain. They’re new to the game, but that was the most frustrating part of my day. The curtain and houselights are the first thing we do, they have to be done right.

Thankfully I’m blessed with an amazing lighting guy, he’s seen the show maybe 3 times now? But he has good instincts. I was freaking out over all the new lighting cues. (There are A LOT, and they’re all pretty specific.) My audio guys left me alone during this, and are pretty much set for their cues, thank god.

I also have an awesome other-stage-manager who kept track of all the lighting for me because I know jack about lighting cues. But she won’t be there for when we do the actual show since she’s doing another show and I’m going to freak out without her.

Today is my break, and I’m going to relax. Tomorrow is another hectic day. 8:30 call for a tech dress rehearsal, and then we’re actually putting on a show for some kids from another highschool!

I’m freaking out, but I think I can do this… It’s been completely overwhelming and I still feel a little thrown into this position, but it’s been the greatest thing I’ve ever done. Given me a whole new look at theatre and spending full days just plain WORKING on something like this gives me the greatest buzz. I’m really, really thinking of going into this at a college/university level. (I kind of even want to do what our tech teacher does, and go back and teach this to a bunch of bratty highschoolers…) Highschool theatre and professional theatre are two really different worlds. We’ll see how it goes.

Rehearsal was long today, and I had a headache + stomach ache all the way through it. My dad was busy and couldn’t come grab me so I got home around 8?

This week and next week are going to be very tiring. Maybe that once a day comic thing will utterly fail. A comic every few days? I’ll try. Hey, I even colored this one. (Though it’s also kind of a cop-out…) Funny things can’t happen every day.

The majority of the time I cannot recite jokes. Funny stories? Mostly hopless. It’s awkward, I try, it ends mostly like this and lots of awkward silences. I can be really awkward.

But I try, and maybe one day I’ll get better at it or give up entirely. I need to learn that I can be funny, but not like this. Ever.

Here’s to trying! Cheers!

It’s really the principle of the matter, usually they go “We got Pepsi, that alright?”. She did not. .v. Otherwise it was a nice day out, and not QUITE so chilly, and there was a sunset.

Trying to do more comics, one a day? Or a couple a week? The more I draw these the more I’ll improve. Even if they’re dumb I’ll think of something. (Or I can just draw out the 10 or so ideas I have floating around…)

Let’s see how far I get!

That’s a birds eye view of the majority of my room. (There’s a desk and an old tv chilling on the left side of my room.) Yes, most of the squiggles are actually something.

Also sunlight wakes me up pretty well. I can’t sleep in a room with any lights unless I’m passed out. This helps me in the mornings when I have school, not so much when I want to sleep in.

And… Two comics in two days? Wow.

My school is putting on the musical Anything Goes! We built a classic looking set, and spent a few days priming and painting it.

I’m stage managing it (That’s an entire post on it’s own.) but I’ll never let go of being a tech crew kid. Man, do I love painting. The smell, the sounds, the finished product! I love the teamwork involved and the common goal we’re working towards. Also, man, does it look great painted. We’re not quite done, just need to fix a few little drips here and there. Not to mention dressing the set… This is going to be awesome. I’m really proud of us! It was a long night, and I’m ready for a good sleep.

Here’s the set:

Anything Goes set!

What you’re looking at is the front of a ocean liner. The floor has been painted along with everything else. (It makes ALL the difference.) It’s two stories with 7 doors along the front. The two panels on the left and right side on the lower level open up to reveal two rooms. (Two more doors!) The set build took a few days, as did the painting. Not the most creative set we’ve done, but definitely an immense build! (Also, check out our super awesome HD projector mounted on the cat walk.)(Top, center.) The show is coming up and it’s finally all coming together. I’ll talk more about the show in a blag post sometime. It’s been a big thing in my life.

Edit: I made the content frame of my site wider to support wide comics. It’s very… White right now, but that might change? We’ll see. I just LOVE that the 2nd panel looks like it’s going “LOOK THE PAGE IS WIDER OH MY GOD!” (In fact…)

As well… While my gallery is lacking, I added a nice touch with a banner for my photographs. I also added one in the sidebar. Just having some fun.

Technically not a comic but I wanted to show off something I did today while sick. (Here’s JUST the diagram.)

My dad did promise to build me a desk to my specifications if I drew it out for him, so I did, in Illustrator. I also kind of love making diagrams, so sue me.

Enjoy, or don’t. See ya.

If you’ve managed to talk to me in the past 2 months you’ll realize I’ve been a bit busy. I’ve been meaning to go see a couple movies I wanted to see. March break happened and I saw 3 in one week. (Also caught up on a few other things, but entertainment comes first.)

Starting with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:
I was feeling restless one night and just decided to go for it. I went to go see it alone, which I sometimes enjoy because I don’t need somebody whispering “did you see that?” That and for some reason nobody really wanted to see this with me that badly. Worried I would be in for almost 3 hours of boredom, I walked to the theater. And yet, I was not disappointed in the slightest. I didn’t notice it’s length, as it kept me with it the entire time. I laughed, I even cried a little. It was a great story to be told, and it was told very well. I was bothered by a few things here and there, but it really is my favorite of the 3 movies I saw this week. It’s about life, and hardships and an extraordinary man and the people he effects. Does this sound like Forrest Gump? Because I keep hearing it being thrown around as if they are the same thing. In one sense, similar things do happen to both men. But it’s so much more than that. Benjamin Button is not primarily a comedy, nor is it about people. It’s more so just about life and how we go through it. I was left very stunned at the end, wondering about my own existence. This put me through to the credits were I saw just how many people it took to make a movie this good. The filming was great, the writing had it’s witty moments, and the time period was so believable it pulled me right in. (It helps that 1920’s through to the 1970’s is a time period I love to look at.) Definitely not a movie I should have seen alone, it definitely had it’s “need to be comforted” moments.

It was a decision between Slumdog and Watchmen, after reading some reviews for Slumdog I felt they had taken away from the book. So we went and saw The Watchmen.

Wow, great opening, okay you guys have me hooked, what else can you show me? I like that we’re jumping in to this world right now, only showing us a bit of back story. I don’t mind that, it cuts out a lot of prattle. But… Not really. I didn’t care for Rorschach’s long winded husky voiced monologues, it all too much reminded me of the not-too-good-itself, The Spirit. (But, it worked there.) I tuned out and tuned back in during the action. Which is all this film said to me. It’s a movie for you, the viewer. The viewer who wants fight scenes, and long sex scenes, and a very miserable world with no hope of being saved. So the world is lied to. Okay? That… What? Is humanity really that far down in the dumps? Er. I don’t know guys. Granted I haven’t read the book, and don’t intend to. But as somebody who hasn’t this movie didn’t say a lot to me except some really good cinematic moments, some good costume work, and a few witty jokes here and there.
Otherwise? Some acting here and there was really iffy, some very weak, weak scenes, and all together it felt like they were trying to push the limits of gore and darkness. Also words, too many words. I don’t care for all that rambling in the slightest. Manhattan’s CG was great, but the cat has to go. Next action flick comes around, I’m saving my money.

Slumdog Millionaire.
I actually didn’t know what this movie was about for a while when it came out. Everybody was talking about it and I was drowning it all out. Eventually I looked it up and it seemed pretty cool, but I never got around to seeing it. Eventually it got very hyped up and it dulled my desire. Coming back from Quebec this past weekend, I decided to read the book. It reminded me of Life of Pi, and not just because it starred an Indian boy. It’s a very good book, the characters are great, and it casts a more realistic view of India than the movie does. I’m very disappointed in the movie, and this happened as soon as I started reading reviews and realized all the character’s names have been changed, and their relationships completely different. I thought maybe the review was bad, the movie was loved by lots of people, it might be really good. It was the shortest of the 3 movies I watched this weekend, and I got really bored during it. I can’t believe how horribly different it is, and how completely hollywood-ized it was made to be. It wasn’t bad, it was just… Disappointing. The big things are there, but it’s the little things that made it a very good book. A book that could have been made into a movie, it wasn’t long. I came out of the theater and I said “I wish I hadn’t read the book, I might have been able to watch that movie without disliking it.”

I’m sorry Slumdog, I just can’t see why everybody was going nuts over you. You seem so very ordinary to me. And yet you seem so wrong to me. If you want a good story, that says a lot, go read the book. Realize what a fake world the movie has put you in.

So, this actually happened. I cut myself and later realized that if I lost my thumb, why, everything would be lost. This is also an actual conversation that lighting crew had with our lighting crew teacher. We were discussing the thumb and how it was the chicken wing of the humans. If you were starving you would not be able to tell the difference. To abolish lighting crew she told us: If you don’t have thumbs, you can’t be on lighting crew.  .v.

Sorry Thumbless Joe.

Side note: Could this drawing be any worse?

There’s also a small park that runs through the residential area, that once used to be a river. It’s just a small path snaking through the neighborhood that is now used by the smokers. So it’s not uncommon to see them hanging out on the road near one of the entrances. Also uncommon is the amount of them. But this time was weird, and I walk behind a few guys chucking snowballs at a kid up ahead.

Their target? Wilson. Who is this Wilson? Frankly I don’t really know him, I’ve seen him around the school a few times. (My highschool is pretty large, granted.) I only learn his name later, but what’s plain to see is that Wilson does not know English pretty well.  I don’t know many people who like having a gang of guys chucking snowballs at you, so Wilson turns around and says a hearty “Fuck you!”. This sends them into fits of laughter, what’s meant to be tough only comes out as “Fu-ah-k  Yew!”.

He’s pissed now, his limit has been pushed. They tell him to come over here and say it to their face, so he does.  A meek cry from the two guys walking beside him. “Wilson, don’t…” So there they are, face to face. Wilson vs. Twenty. There’s a group of girls walking past telling each other not to look, and there’s people everywhere. His friends turning their backs as I scream at them to go defend him! Who else will? Well, nobody. I screamed, I asked what the fuck was wrong with them, and then for whatever reason I turned around. I guess I listened to those girls, and just in time to miss whatever made the loudest “thwack” noise possible. There’s Wilson, in the snow, getting his stomach kicked in, almost his face. There’s the unknown attacker, getting pulled off by his group of twenty. They’re proud of themselves, proud they pulled him off before it got really bad, right?

In the most movie-esque scene ever I could swear a single tear rolled down my cheek, and I took a step forward, and I walked over, but somehow I was pulled right into discussion with my friends who were nearby. Carried by the conversation I found myself all the way at the subway. This is were I excused myself ran off to calm down.

What is this bystander syndrome that we can’t beat? I felt so ridiculously small at that point. Like a small and stupid girl I ran to the closest friends and then cried about how I did not do anything. I defend myself by asking myself “well, what could have I done?” Step between two angry males? Defend a guy who’s not asking to be defended? Wouldn’t that make the situation worse? Should I have taken my camera, shot some pictures, get them to the right place? I don’t even know. Is this one of those things that just happens, and we have to keep walking?

I got into a fight in middleschool, my first and last. Eva the tomboy vs the group of guys who would not leave her alone. I don’t even remember his name anymore, but he threw a tennis ball at my head and that was the last straw. I launched at him, his friends grabbing his iPod, the others cheering him on. To be honest, I lost. Four years of Judo down the drain, not even a low shot in the balls. A can of pop all over me, a nice wad of spit in my face, and that was the end of that. I didn’t get in trouble, and was told to be picked up from school for a while. I think one of his friends later told me he was sorry, or something. I think my brother went and found him, and cut up his bike. I think I got a lot of attention for being a victim. I think it was a really stupid thing to do.

Taught me that I’m just not as tough as I had built myself up to be. I still do it, out of habit. I don’t know why.