PERSONAL THEATRE Opening Night With The Peanut Gallery
So my show (which runs until September 22nd, when I'll be forced to perform at 10:30 PM then hit the road after the show to be in BR for Ken's wedding weekend that next morning) opened this past Thursday night. We opened, surprisingly, to a fully packed house. I wasn't necessarily surprised that we were a full house because of anything besides the day and time during which we perform: Thursday night at 10:30? How many people are going to come out to see a sketch comedy show? Apparently enough to fill up the fabulously full-of-character Skybox (read: small and dank). The show went well, thank you very much... even though the second scene took the audience completely out of the show (it took the next two scenes to get everyone "back"). Like I had mentioned before, I had no idea how well or not well we'd be received since the cast and writers had our own little inside jokes, which kept us laughing throughout the rehearsals. I think, however, that the crowd enjoyed the show. For any questions you may have about the show, please contact my girlfriend c/o me... and she'll tell you that she's incredibly supportive. She won't tell you that, because she's modest, but I'll tell you right now that she's incredibly supportive... because she is.
PERSONAL FOOTBALL "Ouch" And Other Things Overheard As The Packers Got Trounced By The Hated Patriots
Notice the two headlines in both this section and the last. When stories overlap, I don't know what to do... so I'm giving you both headline tags. When I feel confident that you'll read a "football" headline without the "personal" tag, I'll drop the "personal" one.
Regardless, I went to see the Packers/Patriots game last Friday night with my dad. The Packer's defense was terrible. Absolutely horrible. I spent much of the first half hoping Tom Brady's knees would spontaneously explode (I even said my wish out loud and my dad thought that was pretty funny). The game was terrible until the second half when it started raining on us, HARD. At that point, we put on our rain jackets... and the crowd thinned out (the crowd did NOT leave. Packers fans don't leave the stadium! They were all inside, getting beers and brats [which I found out when I went in to get fried cheese curds]. I love Wisconsin). The only people left in the stands were the psycho fans who would stay in the stands in a preseason game in the rain... the atmosphere was electric (which was dangerous with the rain!). My dad and I ended up having a lot of fun in the rain... too bad we got slaughtered by that team-which-must-not-be-named.
My outrageous, based-on-little-factual-evidence prediction: Well, before the Lions/Rams game this past Monday night, I was very much prepared to say that Detroit would surpass the Packers this season in the NFC North (which, because of how poor the Pack play this season, would be Favre's last). But it looks like the Lions suck too. Now what? Well, Minnesota should easily win the division... but we've been saying that for years and Minnesota always chokes (because they SUCK!). After Minnesota, the rest of the division is literally up for grabs. So we might very well see the rest of the division line up as such: Green Bay, Detroit, Chicago. *shakes head* Those three teams are horrible.
FOOTBALL Cut Day OR "I Hate Y'all"
As Wide Receiver Peerless Price received (pun intended) word that he was going to be cut by the Falcons, he responded with "I hate y'all" as he left Falcons camp. Football rosters had to be cut to 65 yesterday (August 30th), and there are some surprising and interesting names on the cut list. As I mentioned, Price (who had one huge season in 2002 for Buffalo before Atlanta traded for him) made the unfortunate list of cuts. Also on the list, the equally disappointing WR Peter Warrick. When he left Florida State, they were saying Warrick was the greatest FSU Wide Receiver ever... but Cincinnati had a way of suppressing talent in the late 90s, and Warrick never really made the splash he was supposed to.
Some other interesting cuts: Bears QB Chad Hutchinson, goes from starter to cut in less than two weeks; Buccaneers RB Charlie Garner, leaves the Raiders, is replaced by a rookie in Tampa, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him on a roster come opening day; Broncos RB Maurice Clarett and DT Luther Ellis... Clarett went from first-round shoe-in to third round and cut in the same span of two years that Ellis went from Lions starter to cut--in '97 we were talking about Ellis the star defensive lineman, what happened?; Lions QB Timmy Chang, apparently is a product of the Hawaii throw-on-every-down system; Packers LB Hannibal Navies and G Matt O'Dwyer, Navies was a starter at LB for the Pack last season and O'Dwyer was talked about as having a clear path to a starting job at Guard; Texans TE Billy Miller, in 2002 his 51 catches were off the hook for a tight end... now his phone is what's off the hook; Jags WR Troy Edwards, who I always felt was horribly underrated... he's scrapy enough to be given consideration elsewhere (Eagles?); Dolphins QB Brock Berlin and RB Kay-Jay Harris, I never thought Berlin was any good with the Miami Hurricanes and I don't expect him to make a come-back in the NFL, but Harris was a star at West Virginia last season... he might find his way onto a team this year or next; Patriots QB Rohan Davey and KR Chad Morton, I bet no one even knew Morton was a Patriot because he wasn't one for long, but Davey has been Brady's back-up since Brady was good enough to need a back-up... did Davey miss his chance somewhere along the way?; Redskins WR Darnerien McCants, who made fantasy footballers cheer in 2003 with 6 touchdowns out of nowhere and has since gone back to nowhere.
Look for some of these players to make other rosters (or practice squads) before all is said and done.
PERSONAL Cable Shut-Off
As you probably all know by now, my cable was shut off this weekend. I've been scrambling to catch up with the news (and my emails) for the past day. Hurricane Katrina seems to be dominating the airwaves... even on sports channels. Speaking of sports, the US Open tennis tournament started and Andy Roddick is already out. Huh... surprise! So what I have been doing without cable or internet access. Let's find out...
VIDEO GAMES No Cable = Perfect Time To Catch Up On Video Games
Just when you thought it was safe to read this page again, I go and play NCAA Football 06 for like two days straight. What have I learned? I LOVE the new "Race for the Heisman" mode... as it allows me to play the games without all the recruiting and scheduling and personnel non-sense that usually takes me hours to complete. Don't get me wrong, I still love having total control of the team (and I'd still like to be able to change the players' numbers and equipment)... I just feel like I've never gotten the hang of recruiting players, and I agonize over who to recruit and how much, etc. Honestly, the off-season in previous NCAA Football games has taken me about half the time it takes to play all the games of the regular season... I spend HOURS trying to get everything just right. But, with the new Heisman mode, I was able to play two seasons in pretty much two days. This, I hope, will eventually allow me to import my player (a #42 RB for Notre Dame... can't change the numbers, see?) into Madden's new Superstar Mode, which is basically the same thing. I'm hoping that the Superstar mode will also allow me to get back to the business of just playing the games. Again, don't get me wrong, I love lots of customizable features, I just get bogged down by them sometimes when all I want to do is play the game. "Hello! You play to win the game!"... thank you Coach Edwards.
BOOKS No Cable = Perfect Time To Catch Up On Reading
Without cable I've also been able to catch up on some reading. MCW lovingly let me borrow two of her books--Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Da Vinci Code--and they couldn't be more polar opposite. First of all, let me say that I've already finished the Guide. It's whopping 216 pages took me all of a couple afternoons. Secondly, I'm only currently 33 pages into the Da Vinci Code so everything I'm saying about it is based on very little empirical evidence and could, therefore, be way off base. But this is what I mean by saying that they're complete opposite books: The Hitchhiker's Guide is a character exploration book. It's plot is hidden, yet simple... (revolving around the destruction of the Earth) and the reader simply becomes lost in the world Adams creates. We forgive Adams for not having much of a classical plot because the characters are so amazing. Adams gives such a sense of size and vastness to his story that you DO, actually, feel like it's some kind of Guidebook to something as large as a Galaxy. Everything in the book feels like it's part of a larger, almost infinitely connected story that would take far too long to tell. Being done with the book is like eating one Reese's Peanut Butter Cup... and you say "huh... I hope there's another one of those, because that was good."
The Da Vinci Code, however, is simply a dressed up plot. I care very little (read: not at all) about the characters, as I am treated to such dull exposition as "pain is good," which Brown feels he needs to repeat three times on a page so that the reader will understand his character and his character's motivations. Don't get me wrong, the book reads like such a factual text-book that one cannot help but feel that everything in it is a factual account of actual events (which is amazing in its own way), but I have a feeling that I will be most interested in what happens as opposed to who it's happening to. One reads this book not to understand human characters, but to unravel a very REAL feeling mystery. "A real-live mystery!" his readers say. With narrative faux pas such as telling us what the character knows to be behind him (when Langdon heads towards the Louvre) without the character actually looking in that direction, made me roll my eyes and want to gag just a little bit. Speaking of, all the French (and similar "heady" text [read: big words]) brings me out of the story just a little bit... and I wouldn't blame readers of Brown to feel like he's a genius simply because they don't understand what he's getting at half the time. You're a smart guy who knows what he's talking about... we get it! I'm hoping that, as the pages progress and he stops feeling the need for his horrible exposition, the book will pick up. Seeing as it's obviously a plot-driven book... I can't see how it won't pick up speed as it goes along, the characters swept away by the waves upon waves of plot. When Stephan King talks about books that hit you over the head with the hammer of plot, The Da Vinci Code will be one of the first books about which I think. I'm not saying that plot driven books are bad... but I'm just saying that, after I finish this book, I already know I won't be waiting for the sequel (unlike The Hitchhiker's Guide). See how they're about as different as you can get?
NATIONAL NEWS Without Cable, Guess Who Didn't Know About Hurricane Katrina
Ah... this guy *points to self*. It's surprising to me that, without cable or internet access, I had absolutely no idea what was going on around the nation or the globe. When I "came to" yesterday, I was aghast by the devastation that New Orleans (and Mississippi) is facing. Looking at the video from N.O., I can't believe how traumatic the flooding would be, as some of you know my "thing" about "drowning" and "water" in "general." I see that they had people inside the Superdome in NO to get out of the weather... and it must have been the most people in that building since Super Bowl XXXI. Zing! The Saints suck and this tragedy will either emphasize how much they suck, or will pull them together so much that they're the surprise team of the league. Regardless of my personal jabs at New Orleans football, lots of people in the area have been traumatically effected by the Hurricane.
Speaking of, and in the "how can this guy's life get worse" file, it seems as though Brett Favre's childhood house was destroyed by flood waters thanks to Hurricane Katrina--causing his mother and grandmother to hide in the attic Monday night while the waters filled the house in about 10 minutes. Favre, actually, has called this the toughest time during his pro career which, if you know Favre's story, is really hard to believe. He's actually on Fox News (gasp!) right now talking about his family. For some reason, Fox News is letting him talk and talk (live from Green Bay)... and I was unaware that his wife and children live down in Mississippi as well. His whole family is down there in the damaged area... and he said that his wife told him yesterday that they had a loaf of bread left to eat. That's all. I find it surprising that someone with power, money, and influence could have it so hard... but that just shows my ignorance. Everyone is effected equally when "nature strikes" (sorry... too much Fox). Favre talked about how he's been trying to figure out a way to get down there to help them, but there are no airports he could land in, no stores he could buy supplies in, no electricity he could store food with... I've rarely seen him seem more helpless. He's talked about driving a truck full of supplies down to Mississippi after the Titans game tomorrow night, but he might as well just skip the game and go help if he thinks he can. It's preseason, and it's not more important than his family. And that made me think... what if it was a regular season game? And the answer would be simple... it's still worth skipping the game to help. His consecutive games streak, the season, the team... it all wouldn't matter to me. Such is Favre's personal connection with the fans... and the fans love of him, that we wouldn't be upset if he missed a game, we'd be asking how we can help him. I guess there are more important things in life than football... even in Wisconsin.
PERSONAL Let's Call This Box Home For Six More Months
After viewing other apartments, talking with a few apartment type people, and talking to my parents about my possibilities, it was mutually decided that I would simply stay put in my apartment for six more months until I'm done with the Second City Conservatory. So, anyone who wants to know my new address... it's my old address. Until about March-ish, when I hope to have a job and a plan for what to do once I'm done with the Conservatory. Or else I'll end up poor and in Detroit...
NATIONAL NEWS Way To Go D Town! You're Now The Nation's Poorest Big City
According to this article out of Detroit, over one-third of Detroit residents are now living at or below the federal poverty line. Take THAT, Cleveland! The article also says that Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. The Michigan Democratic party has used these numbers to ask the Republican-controlled Legislature to take Dem. Gov. Granholm's recommendation to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.15. While I love the democrats, they're wrong here. I've actually got some experience with this. With unemployment rates so high, raising the minimum wage doesn't help people without jobs, it hurts them. The people who are without job are sitting on some money which is worth less if the minimum wage is raised. Think Time Value of Money... or some other accounting term I've long-since forgotten. Regardless, raising the minimum wage is not an intelligent way to tackle unemployment... even if it might be a short-term fix for poverty. Why not a long-term fix? Because, my dear ones, if everyone is getting more money, the poverty line will be raised, and these people will still be below that line. *shrug* Hard to wrap ones mind around how to fix problems this big... but congrats to Detroit, you scary, crappy city.