LOCAL NEWS John Johnson's Funeral Today on Chicago's Southside
From Bill Clinton, to Mayor Daley, to Barack Obama, to the Revs Ferrakhan and Jesse Jackson, big names are meeting today on Chicago's southside for Mr. John H. Johnson's funeral. The founder of both Ebony and Jet magazines, it is said he gave the United States the first "positive window" into the black culture. I must admit, this story is a little lost on me... but I know enough to respect Mr. Johnson. His was a self-made empire, growing up poor and having to borrow $500 for the first publication, but eventually becoming the first African-American on Forbes' list of the 400 Richest Americans. I think the most amazing part of Johnson's story (at least to me anyway) is that he started Ebony magazine in 1945 (Jet in 1951). I can't even imagine how different the culture was back then. And to push forward throughout all the racism and, ahh, I don't even know... but I can imagine how hard it was for him to keep Ebony and Jet going through those years. John H. Johnson, obviously, was a real pioneer in the civil rights movement.
THEATRE Wanna Know How to Piss Me Off?
Not know your lines. It's that simple. Without going too much into details, there is a member of my current cast who twice called for "line" last night during our run-through. We're two rehearsals from our opening performance! and he's calling for lines?! See, this is where I draw the line, because it's not like we don't know how to IMPROVISE! We're at the Second City! MAKE SOMETHING UP! Seriously... when he's getting close to a line I know that he doesn't know, I watch this guy tighten up like a sphincter. It LOOKS like he's trying to remember the line but, in my head I know that he's just waiting for someone to bail him out. Drives me NUTS!
While in a bout of rage, I told Chelsey that I'm NOT helping this guy out if he phuks up on stage... this isn't college, we're as close to professionals as you can get. If he messes up, I'm going to make sure everyone knows that he doesn't know his lines before I bail him out. Call me a dick if you want, but come on... know your lines! Show some respect for the work and put some effort into it.
Speaking of effort, my director has a new idea for the show. Since the show centers around children (for the most part, that is), he thought it would be a good idea for us to play children's games during our transitions. While I think it's an interesting idea on paper (or just as the idea itself), I don't know that it's practical. I mean, we (as a "cast") are having trouble remembering lines... we're now going to remember which children's game to play after which scene? Please. Besides... just being a jerk myself, I have three scenes off in a row... I want to be able to go backstage and chill out, relax, drink some water, not pay attention. But, if I have to do all the transitions... I can't do that. That's just me being selfish. But I am worried about mush-brain over there remembering what we're doing. I'm too old to hold other actor's hands during a show... I'm not going to make sure this guy knows what's going on. *sigh*
VIDEO GAMES I'm the Lamest Person I Know
And here's why. Over the past weekend, I've been semi-obsessed with Yu-Gi-Oh! Dawn of Destiny for the XBox. The graphics are terrible, considering that the game consists ONLY of the actual card battles themselves. But the game has 1,017 cards that you can "unlock" and use... and you only start off with a deck containing about 50 cards. At 3 or 5 cards at a time after you win a match, it takes one a VERY long time to obtain cards. I've played it for HOURS and I'm only up to about 190 cards. What solidified my lame-ness is the fact that I called Chelsey and excitedly expounded on the awesomeness of my deck. The worst thing about this is that I'll probably have to buy it because I'll want to play it for a while more and I'll never get Madden 2006 if I keep the Yugioh game. *shrug* I've mused to MC Dubs as to my attraction to this lame-o TV show/card game... and how my need to categorize and collect have lead me to my enjoyment of this game. And, brief sidenote, God bless Laura for feeding my obsession back in the day. She laughed at me--but not to my face--and let me have my weird obsession. Thanks LJ.
PERSONAL Insomnia
Over the past four or five days, I've been horrifically unable to sleep. One of the nights (Friday night, I think), I didn't sleep at all. I'm not sure why I can't sleep... I'm not necessarily thinking about anything--my brain just doesn't feel tired at night. And then I spend all day with my brain feeling foggy (because of the lack of sleep)... and when I get to the night my brain clears and thinks it's time to do stuff. My body disagrees. So I've been in a bad cycle for a few days... and it's so difficult to get off the bad cycle when you're in it. Gosh! I've felt like I was back in college for the past half week... except I think I got more sleep in college.