Disney

Alright, Messr.

We'll do this thing.

Though I really don't know enough about disney to be good at this.

So if you readers out there in wonderland have better suggestions: do it.

Hero/Villian/Sidekick:

Hero: Bernard from The Rescuers/Rescuers down Under
Villian: Monstro from Pinochio
Sidekick: Bagheera from The Jungle Book




Runners up: Beast for Hero, Professor Emelius Immediately Browne for Hero (Bedknobs and Broomsticks), The Cobras from Riki-Tiki-Tavi for Villian, Li Shan from Mulan for Sidekick.

What do we say?


UPDATE: Riki-tiki-tavi. Totally not a disney movie. However, it was narrated by Orson Wells. So, you indignant m-fs, I'm keeping it. You're lucky I didn't pull out Bartok the bat for Sidekick...but I knew how that would sting. So I didn't.

Hearts and kisses.

Sleep now?

Very quick thoughts before I go to sleep:

I've never actually been cold before. I mean, I was chilly, once or twice, and sometime in late 2004 I may have been nippy. Cold, though? Like, actually in the bones, where it doesn't go away? New. I was convinced I had been "very cold" in the past---but I think the Chicago winter winds put a whole new meaning to the words. Or rather, 6 hours outside in the winds does.

It's only November.

Uh oh.

Also: dried tortelini is fast becoming an obsession, tofu is still just as good as it was when Dan first showed me how to scramble it, and I'm very sad to have missed the Battlestar tv/movie that just came out. Will have to track that down somewhere.

I kind of want to work at a Ren Faire this summer? Did I just say that out loud? But seriously, why not? I'm a good enough actor-combatant/choreographer, and musician to boot. Plus, I'll be needing a job right around that time.

Hmmmmm......

Hyde Park tommorow. Hooray!

Visitors

Katy and Sean are here!
Always nice to have visitors. A nice night out yesterday (hooray for Mac's), eggs and turkey this morning (much to the protestations of my stomach), and now, who knows?

Still working on getting the house cleaned post-thanksgiving, but fortunately, I have today and tomorrow. Maybe I'll do some work post-Bailiwick tonight? Or maybe I'll just get to sleep early, and get up early tomorrow.

Also, more music on monday! Hooray! Totally the icing on the "life-cake", to coin a new...well, nevermind. Kind of sounds like something you'd eat in a Zelda game or somesuch.

Frankly, I need to just end this post. So--I think I'll use that little trick that Anthony uses, and I've admired for so long (or since he started his blog), where he writes a long sentence and then ends it with his name as the signature, though it's usually more elegant than this, but that's ok, because that's Wiry's style, and this is

The Project


(That almost worked. We'll try again later.)

Aftermath

Alright, Thanksgiving over and done for. Kept my promise to Mother: that I wouldn't sit in the apartment, alone, eating a turkey sandwich. Kept promise to friends: you (probably) won't get salmonella. Kept promise to self: would have fun.

Actually, I'm not positive noone got salmonella. However, since I havn't gotten any angry phone calls/visits from paramedics, I figure we're in the clear.

Now, I need to somehow muster the drive to get up and clean the house, do dishes, and get some laundry done, along with showering, before K. Cosse and Sean come. I did run already today, and catch up with a bit of "corespondance", so it hasn't been totally slothful.

Oh wait, yes it has.

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

Warm up, lil' bird!

So I'm a little doubtful on this whole "defrost in the sink" thing.

Like...the turkey is really going to thaw? Sitting there in the sink?

It's just a lot of turkey...and it's cold in my apartment.

Lesson #1 learned during first solo Thanksgiving----buy turkey several days in advance, thaw in fridge.

Holy shit we're so grown up.

============

EDIT: 4:31 PM
Turkey is in the oven, has been cooking for a while. Hooray! The neck was still totally frozen, but the meat seemed thawed. I decided not to "stuff" the turkey---put a few onions/carrots/celery in to improve taste, but not stuffing. Mostly because the stuffing wasn't quite ready at the point when the turkey was, and because there was still a bit of frozen-ness in the middle of the turkey, so I wanted to be able to cook it longer if I needed to.

People will be here soon, all is going well. This feels a little bit like the old all-nighter posts during school. Which I almost accidentaly pulled last night, by the way. Turkey rolls + Eva. Both of which I finished, both of which were absolutely delicious though a little ugly, each in their own ways.

Turkey, Torture, and Tepid Water

Jeezy-creezy, Evangelion throws you for a loop. Nearing the end, and it's just getting crazier. I get along with very few Anime--but this might be one of them. I blame most of my fear on an early exposure to "Lain: Serial Experiment" in much too large quantities...but anyway.

Also, I'm cooking thanksgiving dinner! Starting tonight, getting up early and lounging around the house all day, while cooking turkey/etc.

There will be interludes of music, possibly movies (if I can figure out a place to rent them), dancing, and maybe even laundry.

Life is going very well otherwise. Lots of rain today, first time canvasing in really incliment weather(other than the cold), which was...interesting. On the plus side, we got coffee.

Also, I have the first of the two holy seasonal beverages: a big jug of apple cider sitting in the fridge. Will have to restrain myself and open it tommorow. Can't wait for Eggnog season afterwards (probably starting in December).


Cheers all!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Creatures of Culture

Continuing in my expolrations of the Chicago cultural scene, I attended what I can only term a "salon" last night. Not a place where my hair would be put into new, exotic stylings (though I do need a haircut), nor a dusty, western alehouse (I guess that's a saloon, but it always confused me), no, this was the full out French Enlightenment style gathering of artists to read works, then drink wine and talk about said pieces of writing.

I got an email from a friend a few days ago, letting me know about it--she's in London, and as such wouldn't be there, but thought it would be a fun thing. So I put on a sport coat, hopped on the Damen bus, and went up to this woman's house way up north. It was a mix of writers, actors, and miscelaneous arts-types, mostly 30's and 40's. Once the host figured out who I was, and why I was there, she introduced me all around, was very, very kind, and generally helped me get to know people. Heard some really good writing, met some very nice people, and had a grand old time. It didn't occur to me the ballsy-ness of the whole thing until my host looked at me and said: "So, you came up here, alone, not knowing anyone?" I guess I had figured no-one would know anyone, rather than it being a lot of these woman's friends hanging out in her living room. Also, I wasn't expecting to be the only youngster. I'm ok with it though.

The saga of the night was not over, however. By the time the night was over, I realized the Damen bus, which had served me so well in getting me up there, had stopped running. So! I walked to Ashland, thinking I would simply take that bus straight down to Div/Mil/Ash. Unfortunatly, as we were at the _far_ end of the Damen line, it turned out the Ashland bus didn't run anywhere near there. So, I simply started walking on Ashland towards the city, figuring I would either eventually reach home or find a bus. After about two miles, I hit a bus stop, waited for a bit, and got on the good old #9. In that time, I had the chance to call and catch up with Mr. Proctor, which hadn't happened in a long, long time. So, time well spent---plus, I got some good exercise.

Well, I should go get ready to head off to work.
Hope all is well!
Best,

-J

Exhausted

For one of the first times here in Chicago, I'm waking up exhausted, just wanting to go back to sleep. DIdn't rest quite enough during the weekend. I guess that's what the week is for, right?

Things that make this morning awesome: I recieved a package from Paul Woodruff, containing copies of his new translations of Sophocles, with signatures and "best wishes" written on the inside. That feels kinda cool. Also, Paul is basically the coolest/kindest guy I've met.

Also, I'm going to a new works/poetry reading tonight, I think at somebodies house. I don't know anyone connected to it, but I'm going to wear a sweater and a scarf and experience new art. So: if I come back to you all sipping lattes, wearing a berret, and "jiving and grooving" to the guy with the upright bass...this was the beginning. Feel free to just beat the hell out of me to return me to my senses. At least I shaved off my goatee already.

Get with it, cats,

J

Action

Once every two or three days on the street, I get called a "terrorist", or am told GreenPeace is "too violent," or something of the sort.
I understand on a certain level what people mean: I mean, we are extreme, in some situations. A lot gets blamed on us, or misrepresented as us, or in many cases, people here that "an enviromentalist" did something, so they blame GreenPeace. Never mind that we have "peace" in our name, or that we are -completely- nonviolent, or that our action missions are ussualy "witnessing" for the enviroment.

But man, sometimes, I just want to go..."We're violent? Buddy, we're the milk-water enviromentalist...have you seen ELF? Or Sea Sheperd?"

So let's share these: two more great Youtube clips. The first is the GreenPeace video---done to the New Radicals song "You get what you give". And then...well, then there's Sea Sheperd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JniWdP0MO7s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqDOOX_5J0Y

Because I guess if "You get what you give" is perfect for GreenPeace, "We're never gonna survive unless we get a little bit crazy" is dead on for Sea Sheperd. I mean, our folks climb boats and chain themselves to harpoons...they buy old icebreaking ships and run them into illegal whaling vessals. Goddamn.


Finally---I guess you can probably tell, I'm feeling pretty good about my job right now. I mean, I watch that video, and think...hell, I work for them. How cool is that?

Have a good night, all.

-J

#1 thing on the internet, ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKw2gWn7wyE&NR=1

Seriously.

Yelling at Crosswalks

New funniest thing I've noticed about the Chicago streets?

The Crossing Guards.

You see, in Chicago, they have crossing guards for the buisness people down in the loop(downtown area of Chicago). They direct traffic, tell people when to cross, etc. So these aren't after-school, little kid safety people---these are for adults.

Man. They are nuts.

I really do think they recruit them from the most vociferous of the homeless people---that's ussually who I think it is when they first show up. I'm getting ready to dodge or change corners from the ranting guy, then I realized they've got a badge and a city uniform on.

It's crazy. They just scream random things at people.

Anyway, that's my thought for the day.

God's in his Heaven/All's Right with the World

May or may not have been watching a bit of Evangelion recently. It's kinda fun.

Worked all day yesterday, so there isn't much new news from then.
Settling in to a nice morning routine of something athletic, a bit of yoga (thank you Bacchae folk---its so nice to be in that habit again. Feels good!)--some lunch, soon a trip to Trader Joe's to get my food supply for the week, then some breadmaking and...who knows? I may try to hit a coffeeshop to get me to do some work on the play---too many things to distract me around the house, I think.

Other big news? I have a new job, starting in January. I'll be going back part time to Kenyon for the semester, working as an assistant instructor to President Nugent for the "Classical Theater" course. So I'll basically be commuting to Gambier every other week--8 days in Ohio, 6 in Illinois, rinse and repeat. I couldn't be more excited: I'll get to start learning about teaching, be able to take in the beautiful country air while still spending a lot of time in the city, and on top of all that, both have time to see Dad more, time to visit friends who are living elsewhere in Ohio, and a fair amount of time in seclusion to get working on the new project. I don't think I could have taken the job if I had to move completely back to Gambier---not ready to leave Chicago yet, I just started getting my bearings here! However, since I'll still stay here, I think I'll be able to manage it.

Basically, this is going to start testing whether I can deal with the roving life of a freelance director. Kind of goes along with that earlier post about the freedom of this part of life: its neat to be able to just...you know, take this kind of opportunity.

Lets see how it goes!

<3,
Jeff

We all want to hold in the everlasting gaze...

Whew--long weekend. Not even close to over yet (hooray for monday off!)

Work saturday night went a lot later than I expected, but was fine---I've gotten pretty efficient at getting up and out of the box office, which is nice. Last night we had a wonderful little gathering: just a bunch of people relaxing around the house, talking, carousing, and generally having a good time. Plus, its really nice to wake up the morning after a party, look around, and not see a total war zone (RE: B2. Remember those disasters? Worth it though---best parties I ever went to/threw). Finally got to see Cori, and sat in the kitchen late at night singing with Eliza and Hannah.

I think I always want my kitchen to be somewhere people get together and sing. That just feels right. Not to attatch some kind of over-dramatic quality to it (we were litteraly just sitting at the table, trading snatches of song back and forth), but it got back to something I want to have in my life---communal enjoyment of music, sharing through stories/songs/etc.

Friday was the other side of the celebratory genre---first office party. Which involved, eventually, Mag mile and the serenading of buisness men and women by caterwauling folks late at night. We then went and "helped" some guys shoot a skateboard video. I think we were, in the final tally, fairly unhelpful. I kind of want to see the movie, though.

Also continued my streak of having tourists take pictures of/with me while I'm out canvassing.

Two different total strangers commented on liking my hair in the last two days---one guy said it "had crazy flow"---and he was apparently a downtown real estate guy. Another girl on the bus made kissy lips at me and said it was "sexy". It's getting longer, but not too long--I'm going to have to stop myself from becoming a total degenerate hippy---it happens a bit more every day.

Well, that's the news from this side of the world.

Getting the Worm (bird metaphor, not tequila)

I do love this "sleeping-enough-that-I-can-get-up-early-without-suffering" thing. Gives me time to reflect, read, stretch, cook, or whatever it is I need to do. Tommorow, I'll probably be able to get a bit of laundry done before work. Today, I'm going to settle for cooking some tortelini for lunch and writing in the old blog.

One thing I absolutely cannot wait for is the smoking ban in bars. My whole room smells like smoke now, mostly due to a coat I was wearing in a bar. Totally gross. Need to do some major airing out and finish my laundry...then, we'll have to find a new strategy for going to smoky bars. Choosing very washable coats, or something. Eww.

Took a suprising run last night. By which I mean, I was suprised that I took it. I was hanging out doing laundry, and threw on an old sweatshirt over my tshirt to go throw stuff in the dryer, and when I got outside, said...hmm, it's a nice brisk night--and I look kinda like Rocky--I should go for a run. So I did. It was all very impromptu, but I'm happy to say, Wicker Park is a nice place to run at night.

Also, our laundry room/basement is just about the creepiest place in the world. Aside from the KC Dance studio at night. Or the Caples elevator at any time.

Can you tell I've been reading the Alumni Mag article about "Haunted Kenyon?"

Good Day

Closed Bud's Cafe today. OO-RAH!
Short week at GreenPeace---we get Monday off (full pay), which makes the world go round, frankly. We start working earlier, so we're out earlier, which is also always good. GP party friday night, housewarming party saturday, all in all, it should be good.

Tonight is laundry, workin' out, and maybe a bit of writing. Lets see how that goes!

EDIT: Also, "Jet City Woman" by Queensryche is one of the better songs this side of "stairway". Just sayin. Nate, are you a Queensryche fan? I feel like you should be. Bob, definitely.

Prince songs, and what they do to a night

Ran into my boss, some coworkers, etc, leaving the train station. This turned into 4+ hours of burgers and beer at a local bar. I do enjoy my job sometimes.

What else did I want to write about? I'm not really sure. I think I may try to make a more concentrated effort to get hooked up with the Lookingglass theatre starting in January---could be a lot of fun.

Theatrical stuff, by the way, is going well. I think once I get through the Mahabhrata once, I'll send out some feelers for a bit more source material---maybe "All Quiet on the Western Front"? I havn't read that for a while, and remember really loving it---but I might need to find some more "poetic-al" works, just because it fits a bit better with my other materials.

Also, I think I want to look through the Bavadha Ghita, just because I feel like my work with the Mahabharata has affected me in so many little ways---would be interested to see how it goes.

I'll remember the other stuff soon, I'm sure. Maybe tommorow morning or something.

Ugh--staff meeting at 9:30. Gotta be up early. Then last day of Bud's Cafe, and a bit of relaxing---must do some laundry.

G'night all!

Things I think are nifty:

http://www.mangiaretheatre.com/


Like, really.

Maybe sometime soon?

Blessings on our meal

Was told to burn in hell today. Was suprisingly unfazed.

Also, I became the first person possibly in the world to grill tempeh and sausage together. It feels good to have exotic meats again, and also to get some tempeh---I looooooove that stuff. Stir fry will be made, and enjoyed.

Putting some music on my computer---re-discovering the joy that was early HS metal--- Black Sabbath, Fear Factory, Iced Earth, Queensryche, and more. Good times. Later treats such as Rush, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and more will also appear.

The thing that has been getting to me about canvasing? It's the people who lie to me. I really don't mind if you say "No", or "I'm not interested", or even "I'm in a hurry"---but saying "I'm a member" or "I already filled that out/did that already" just bugs me. I mean---you clearly havn't, because that's not what we're out here doing. We really can tell when someone is a member--so telling us you are when you aren't doesn't help.

Whew, that bit of kvetching aside. I still have my love for humanity intact--a guy _literally_ grabbed me by the arm today, dragged me with him accross the street, held on, and thanked me for being out there---so it's not all bad. Plus, there are new jobs on the horizon, so I can deal with this for a while more.

Bud's Cafe (the senior citizen show) closes on wednesday. Which will mean I won't have to work saturdays for a while...hooray!

Do you know what it's like?

A nice weekend. Saturday was work, a quiet dinner, a couple of beers in a relaxed bar, and then the NeverEnding Story---which was suprisingly moderate, compared to how I viewed it as a child. Not bad---but just---difficult? That was sort of nice as well---just makes you wonder what was going on when the folks were making it. Sunday was brunch at Earwax with Hannah (+ 2 Indie Cred!), bread making, dishwashing, a viewing of "Zanna, Don't" and a shopping trip to TJ's. I got Tempeh!

Very excited about that. Also, I got confirmation that the Indian Buffet that I've been wanting to go to is actually good food. Very, very excited about that.

Daylight savings time means I've got forever until I need to be in at work, so I can really just relax this morning. Lunch is made, breakfast is had, working out is completed. I think I may just end this post prematurely (or maybe right on time---I don't have much else to write down right now), get my shower, and go explore the neighborhood for an hour or so.

That sounds kind of nice. Here we go!

Take care all. See you soon---

Places that are cold

Fun Haloween!

I saw, in order of apperance:

A) A guy in a batman shirt who looked like a slightly hispanic Christian Bale (yes, I will now claim that I canvassed Bruce Wayne);
B) My first street fight (complete with a whole lot of cops)
C) The move "30 Days of Night"

They were Amusing, Slightly frightening, and Suprisngly entertaining in the order listed.

Bruce Wayne was a nice guy. The fight was kinda scary, but the police were all over the place in..well, in not too long. It was just two guys, but it got pretty intense---just fists, no guns/knives/etc, which was what I got a little scared of when it started.
Josh Hartnet was fine, but really got shown up by the bad-mf russian lead vampire, who was huge, and somewhat frightening. Also, the guy in the bar through most of his apperances makes the movie worth seeing, mostly because of the contrasts of his wanna-be insane posturing/trying to scare the other folks, followed by his interactions with said Russian vampire.

At least I think he was Russian. My theory is that they all came across from asia back when there was an ice-bridge (you know, the good old days), which explains the weird language and obviously mixed Euro-asiatic ethnicities. Some pretty intense fight choreography, some wholly unessecary gore, and some neat cinemtography. Also, the conception of vampires was pulled off: not Bella Lugosi, or Anne Rice, but more a big pack of wolves out hunting. Except they were smart. I wonder if they creators watched Jurrasic Park a few times before shooting the movie. Unfortunatly (or fortunatly?) while it was "Boo!" scary, there was no lasting fear---but that might be just because I'm not in Alaska, and thus not really in danger of being stuck in a small snowed-in Alaskan town in the winter with Vampires.

Anyway, more very soon.