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.

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.

(Posted from my Facebook account.)

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.

This is from something that happened a few days ago, it was a pretty regular day of school. Thursdays usually are. Feeling a little out of it I head off to the subway on my own. Now you don’t know my school, but the subway really is just down this little street from us, 7 minutes. It’s a weird, basically dead end street and every afternoon it fills with teenagers all over the road walking to the subway. (Then we all nicely jay-walk across a perpindicular street, 50 feet short of the cross walk and enter the mini-mall which guards the entrance of the subway)

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.

How do I jump back into the swing of things?

Something has been wrong with me, something has been holding me back. I haven’t touched my site, I haven’t touched my art. I’ve had ideas for comics, but I don’t write them down. Or even try to draw them out. This fact used to worry me, and as days would go by I would feel bad about not updating my comic. I haven’t even really touched my photos on Flickr, and there are stories there. I wrote a blog entry in the back of one of my notebooks at school. I wanted to talk about Otakon, and what happened in Baltimore. But I feel if I write about things that happened so long ago I’m only doing it to fill in those gaps.

But the point is there HAS been a gap, and I don’t really feel the need to talk about the filler. I want to get back into the swing of this. I want to write blog posts, I want to draw comics, and I want them to be about what’s going on NOW. So will I finish the iPod comics? Probably not. There was a joke there, in which the guy there told me to cheat Apple by trying to paint the water indicator. I found it funny at the time, but is it funny to me now? No, I mean, the warranty on that iPod expired already. In basic terms, my website, my content, mine mine mine.

But, for clarity, and if I ever decide that this post is stupid and I do want to one day talk about anything cool that I did, I give you this list!

- Exploring King Eddie, and discovering the higher parts of Toronto.

- Going off with a group to Woodstock to explore an abandonded refinery, church, and a police station. (… Not because we were caught, it was abandonded too.)

- Otakon! 3 days in Baltimore, one day spent in Philadelphia because of a delay. Basically my first time on a plane.

- Starting school! Getting some pretty cool classes on my schedule, and one that is pretty much ridiculous.I want to show what my life drawing class is all about.

- Hobo dens! I keep finding old buildings downtown, smell funny, full of garbage, probably not safe to venture too far into them.

- Kind of being in an Improv Everywhere experiment? We came pretty late to the Mp3 Expirment Toronto. No worries though, since I’m joined Improv in Toronto. (Even trying to build them a site, oh irony.)

- Exploring a factory in the Junction. (Oh, I haven’t even posted the few good photos I took.) Very, very cool, and could have been caught by a pretty lazy security guard.

- I started, and stopped, playing DnD. Further dwelling into geek-hood.

- Theatre work. Something I’m sure to talk about more and more, as I’m in a program at The Canadian Stage Company now. As well as lighting crew at my school. (So far, so awesome.)

- I’m sure I had a bunch of little rants prepared to blog about, but if I’m not angry enough to remember them anymore… Well… Whatever, right?

I think I’ve been a big fan of lists lately. What about the future?

- More talk about The Canadian Stage Company youth program! Can you tell I’m super excited for this?

- It’s getting colder, does this mean staying in more and making art? A return of my freezing room most likely.

- Halloween! I think the holiday has pretty much worn me out, but I’m sure I’ll find some people to entertain me. I do have to beat my previous pumpkin though. Maybe a robot this year? And of course, I need to find something ridiculous to wear.

- I’m sure I can get some comics down on paper. Lets go back to the world of pens and pencils for a bit.

After that, I figure I see what the future holds. I’m keeping an eye on you, Mr. Website, don’t worry.

A new site! Well, the same site. But different. It will be different. Once I figure out what goes where and how everything fits together. Moving your site isn’t exactly simple.

But hey, it’s here. Some major changes going down in the next little bit. Site is going to be a little dodgy for a bit. Sorry for the mess, it’ll be all fixed eventually.

Welcome.