PERSONAL Another Weird Dream
I actually just awoke from this one, and it's too odd not to get down somewhere. The dream opened as me and someone else (some dude who I don't know) are crawling through the grass in dress clothes. I'm telling him about my experience hosting the Daytime Emmys in New York. (At the time, during the dream, it was the only reason that made sense why I had been to NYC before) I'm telling my "friend" that reading the prompter poorly at the Daytime Emmys ruined my career just as we're entering what feels like a small Chinese restaurant--even though the seating consists of one large table around which everyone sits. And as I'm telling him that awards shows aren't worth risking your career, I see that Jack Nicholson and his wife (is he actually married?) are sitting at this table, watching us enter. This apparently doesn't bother me but, rather, I look for confirmation from both of them--"The Daytime Emmys ruined my career, right? I mean, you've never heard of me"--and Nicholson shrugged his shoulders in consent. My friend and I then sat down on the near left corner of the table (from the door) and Nicholson was seated in the middle of the right side (the table was packed). The waitress (a white woman) then came in and apologized that no appetizers had been put on the table. Nicholson asked if "Those little anchovy pizzas" where going to be brought out... in an As-Good-As-It-Gets kind of tone. I then tried to ask the waitress nicely if she'd bring the appetizers out and she left. A few seconds later, one of the other patrons--a middle-aged female--had something big almost drop on her head. She was distraught and I went over to calm her and then looked up. I said "Stay here, I'm working on a theory." My theory was, apparently, that the object must have fallen from above (I'm smart). I ascended a staircase near the table and there was an entire room (set up like a living room... with a white leather couch, a white wooden coffee table, and a piano) overlooking the large table downstairs. In the room was the waitress... whom I roughly interrogated ("Why did you try to kill that woman?"... don't worry about tipping your cards, John. Moron). She didn't say anything but looked very nervous. I noticed she was clutching a pencil (#2) in her right hand so hard that she was white knuckling and then... she shot me. With the pencil. In my right shoulder. The noise was enough to make my friend come up from the table and see what happened. I felt relieved to see him, thinking he'd help... but instead he said "Mother, what have you done?" That's when I started pushing them both... roughing them up a bit (and trying to figure out how I was shot with a pencil). That's also when I woke up.
I normally don't remember dreams. But when I do, they come in groups... so I'll remember one night and then a night in a couple days, and so on. Since Rob and I have started actual production on our show (OPENS NEXT SUNDAY!!! THE 23RD!) I haven't written anything new. I suppose my brain is trying to get the creative out, since it's been used to writing something creative every week for the past year or more. Who knows?
Monday, July 17, 2006
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
PERSONAL Weird Dream Central
I had two weird dreams this morning. In the first dream, I started in a very basic looking room. I felt like it was a bedroom, even though the walls were bare and painted a cream color. I also got the feeling that it wasn't my bedroom, but some place I was sleeping while with my family... perhaps a guest bedroom of a relative. I knew I was running late, right away, but it took me a little bit to figure out for what. Then I realized that my family was at church, and I needed to go and visit my mother at church. Coincidentally, I'm not sure it's a church I've ever been to and, if I have, I think it might have been one of the churches I saw while in England. At any rate, I went to visit my mom and for some reason it was video poker night at church. Now I know that churches do Bingo... but video poker? And there were so many machines that everyone had one. I even saw three people bringing another machine into the chapel. I finally found my mom and she seemed very distant, preoccupied. For some reason, that didn't bother me... as the only thought in my head was whether or not I was going to get my own video poker machine because I was late.
The second weird dream was kind of more normal, even though it doesn't make sense to me. In it, I was working in advertising (or marketing, something I would hate) and I was working with a team of people. We were in the office, and I went outside for a breath of fresh air. That's when I ran into an old friend of mine that I haven't seen or talked to in over a year (and I got the feeling that I was no longer in Chicago). She and her friend (who is someone I didn't know) were headed to a Dave Matthews' Band concert. I don't even think my friend likes Dave Matthews. And then I said "Oh, Dave Matthews... I like him" and proceeded to start singing "Ants Marching," from the "Under the Table and Dreaming" album which I lent to someone I worked with (that's how long ago it was) and he never returned it. My friend looked bored, but her friend was captivated. I got through half of the song before my colleagues came out and told me to get back to work; and then my friend and her friend left.
I know these are short dreams, but they both happened after the alarm went off while I was hitting the snooze (which is something at which I'm an expert). Short sleep time equals short dreams!
I had two weird dreams this morning. In the first dream, I started in a very basic looking room. I felt like it was a bedroom, even though the walls were bare and painted a cream color. I also got the feeling that it wasn't my bedroom, but some place I was sleeping while with my family... perhaps a guest bedroom of a relative. I knew I was running late, right away, but it took me a little bit to figure out for what. Then I realized that my family was at church, and I needed to go and visit my mother at church. Coincidentally, I'm not sure it's a church I've ever been to and, if I have, I think it might have been one of the churches I saw while in England. At any rate, I went to visit my mom and for some reason it was video poker night at church. Now I know that churches do Bingo... but video poker? And there were so many machines that everyone had one. I even saw three people bringing another machine into the chapel. I finally found my mom and she seemed very distant, preoccupied. For some reason, that didn't bother me... as the only thought in my head was whether or not I was going to get my own video poker machine because I was late.
The second weird dream was kind of more normal, even though it doesn't make sense to me. In it, I was working in advertising (or marketing, something I would hate) and I was working with a team of people. We were in the office, and I went outside for a breath of fresh air. That's when I ran into an old friend of mine that I haven't seen or talked to in over a year (and I got the feeling that I was no longer in Chicago). She and her friend (who is someone I didn't know) were headed to a Dave Matthews' Band concert. I don't even think my friend likes Dave Matthews. And then I said "Oh, Dave Matthews... I like him" and proceeded to start singing "Ants Marching," from the "Under the Table and Dreaming" album which I lent to someone I worked with (that's how long ago it was) and he never returned it. My friend looked bored, but her friend was captivated. I got through half of the song before my colleagues came out and told me to get back to work; and then my friend and her friend left.
I know these are short dreams, but they both happened after the alarm went off while I was hitting the snooze (which is something at which I'm an expert). Short sleep time equals short dreams!
Monday, July 10, 2006
PERSONAL A Productive Weekend
I suppose the weekend really began Thursday night. It was the last show of our Skybox run for my Improvised show... and I think we went out with a bang. The show that was reviewed (and, thus that we improvised) was a play about a theatre group who thinks they're going to perform King Lear only to find out that they are instead doing a show based on the novel Moby Dick. I was probably one of the few people in the cast who had intimate carnal knowledge of both works (having been in Lear and read [most of] Moby Dick). I made my character, that evening, a loan from Joliet Prison who had played Gloucester in the Joliet production of Lear and who would gladly "perform hand-to-hand combat with real knives." When we were given Moby Dick, I made myself Starbuck (I would have been Queequag, but that role was actually assigned by the improviser who was playing the producer... so I had to think quickly). My favorite part of the evening was when the Producer character asked my character what I would like Starbuck to do in the play (the Producer was adapting it) to make me feel more comfortable. For some reason I said "I'd like to rape somebody and then stab someone's face off. With a harpoon!" In the immortal words of my friend Katy "It's the truth of what the character wanted at the time." So later in our show... when we performed the new Moby Dick show, I was able to rape and stab two of the space pirates (yes... space pirates). Nothing like saving your best for last.
On Friday, I had a rehearsal at Second City. My friend Rob and I have a show coming up the end of July and we're getting close to the crunch time. Friday night was the first time we did a couple scenes from memory and it went pretty well, actually. I'm just starting to realize, however, that a two-person show is far more work than I had even imagined. Especially considering that we're the writers and the producers... there is a lot of work to be done besides just running lines and rehearsing scenes, and I think Rob and I are a little behind where we should be at this point in the process. Oh well... July 23rd will come whether we're ready or not, and we might as well have the show as crisp and fast-paced as we can.
Saturday morning, Chelsey and I went apartment viewing. We actually made an appointment with the management company that owned my first apartment building in Chicago; that company (PPM for identification) has a few buildings in the Lakeview/Wrigleyville area that we were interested in seeing, and we viewed them Saturday. The man who showed us around was very nice and reminded me (in an odd way) of my PT Thad when I was at XSport. Granted, one is a personal trainer and the other is in apartment management, but their manner of speech, and approach to talking with new people was the same. We only saw one apartment that we liked, so we said that we'd be in touch after we saw a couple other places.
But we didn't view the other places Saturday afternoon because that was reserved for spending time in Gurnee at the mall. I know we just went there, but it didn't seem like we got an idea of what the Mills are like because we spent so much time watching movies the first time. So we wondered aimlessly around the mall for a while until Chelsey decided that she wanted a Nintendo DS. She has actually been thinking about getting this hand-held system for over a month (she fell in love with the New Super Mario game... which is sweet) and decided that this weekend was the perfect time to get one. So we headed to the Circuit City (which is in the mall, weird, huh?) and purchased the Nintendo DS, the new Super Mario, and a game called Brain Age (which supposedly trains your brain in minutes a day).
After splurging on video game hardware and software, we saw a movie: Pirates of the Caribean 2--Dead Man's Chest. I will not ruin this movie for anyone but let me say three things about it: 1) Johnny Depp's Captain Jack is one of the most original characters I've seen in years and he's still amazing; 1A) I hope you like the characters from the last movie, because there are far too many of them in this movie... As they keep recycling the same characters I'm left to wonder "how big is the world?" 2) Keira Knightley's character is still a moron, making me think this movie was writen by a man (there is a general lack of strong female characters--or female characters in general--in this movie. Even the strong character from the first movie, the one who wanted the Black Pearl to herself, is MIA in this movie); 3) The ending made me groan. That is all I will say about it... groan.
Sunday morning, Chelse and I went apartment searching again. This time, we went to a Lakeview property company and saw three of their buildings. Oddly enough, for me anyway, two of those buildings were right across the street from Jim's first Chicago apartment. The third place, just around the corner, is beautiful! We just had to take it. The price is right at the cusp of what we were willing to pay, but we get free satellite TV and free high-speed internet (which will probably save us around $100 a month here). There is no parking... so I'm going to have to decide whether I want to risk street parking (I'd need a permit and probably Illinois plates--and an Illinois license), or find a place nearby that rents parking per month. This is going to be a problem for me, but it's worth it. This building is beautiful, old and ornate on the outside, and the apartment has been refurbished--new floors, new ceiling fans, new stove, new microwave, new dishwasher (A DISHWASHER!!!), new showerhead, etc. It was honestly too good to pass up. Chelsey has expressed some remorse that we're leaving such a huge place and will be forced to cram all of our stuff in a smaller place... but I'm trying to be positive and reassure her that everything will fit, everything important that is (can you believe I'M the positive one? [Hint: No you can't])
Sunday afternoon and evening, we felt so relieved that all we wanted to do was sit around and play video games. We both had a try at Mario DS and Mario Golf for the Gamecube (which I picked up because Chelsey said she liked it)... and then I finally tried Resident Evil 4 (also for the Gamecube). I picked up a copy when it won billions of awards and then the price dropped to $20. The actual gameplay is amazing--the shooting engine is crisp (though hard) and the graphics are truly the most chilling thing ever put on a Gamecube. I actually haven't gotten that far, I keep getting my head chopped off with a chainsaw... but I'll keep at it. This game certainly saved the Resident Evil franchise... and will probably be what we see on the nextGen consoles when they release a new one. I can't wait.
I suppose the weekend really began Thursday night. It was the last show of our Skybox run for my Improvised show... and I think we went out with a bang. The show that was reviewed (and, thus that we improvised) was a play about a theatre group who thinks they're going to perform King Lear only to find out that they are instead doing a show based on the novel Moby Dick. I was probably one of the few people in the cast who had intimate carnal knowledge of both works (having been in Lear and read [most of] Moby Dick). I made my character, that evening, a loan from Joliet Prison who had played Gloucester in the Joliet production of Lear and who would gladly "perform hand-to-hand combat with real knives." When we were given Moby Dick, I made myself Starbuck (I would have been Queequag, but that role was actually assigned by the improviser who was playing the producer... so I had to think quickly). My favorite part of the evening was when the Producer character asked my character what I would like Starbuck to do in the play (the Producer was adapting it) to make me feel more comfortable. For some reason I said "I'd like to rape somebody and then stab someone's face off. With a harpoon!" In the immortal words of my friend Katy "It's the truth of what the character wanted at the time." So later in our show... when we performed the new Moby Dick show, I was able to rape and stab two of the space pirates (yes... space pirates). Nothing like saving your best for last.
On Friday, I had a rehearsal at Second City. My friend Rob and I have a show coming up the end of July and we're getting close to the crunch time. Friday night was the first time we did a couple scenes from memory and it went pretty well, actually. I'm just starting to realize, however, that a two-person show is far more work than I had even imagined. Especially considering that we're the writers and the producers... there is a lot of work to be done besides just running lines and rehearsing scenes, and I think Rob and I are a little behind where we should be at this point in the process. Oh well... July 23rd will come whether we're ready or not, and we might as well have the show as crisp and fast-paced as we can.
Saturday morning, Chelsey and I went apartment viewing. We actually made an appointment with the management company that owned my first apartment building in Chicago; that company (PPM for identification) has a few buildings in the Lakeview/Wrigleyville area that we were interested in seeing, and we viewed them Saturday. The man who showed us around was very nice and reminded me (in an odd way) of my PT Thad when I was at XSport. Granted, one is a personal trainer and the other is in apartment management, but their manner of speech, and approach to talking with new people was the same. We only saw one apartment that we liked, so we said that we'd be in touch after we saw a couple other places.
But we didn't view the other places Saturday afternoon because that was reserved for spending time in Gurnee at the mall. I know we just went there, but it didn't seem like we got an idea of what the Mills are like because we spent so much time watching movies the first time. So we wondered aimlessly around the mall for a while until Chelsey decided that she wanted a Nintendo DS. She has actually been thinking about getting this hand-held system for over a month (she fell in love with the New Super Mario game... which is sweet) and decided that this weekend was the perfect time to get one. So we headed to the Circuit City (which is in the mall, weird, huh?) and purchased the Nintendo DS, the new Super Mario, and a game called Brain Age (which supposedly trains your brain in minutes a day).
After splurging on video game hardware and software, we saw a movie: Pirates of the Caribean 2--Dead Man's Chest. I will not ruin this movie for anyone but let me say three things about it: 1) Johnny Depp's Captain Jack is one of the most original characters I've seen in years and he's still amazing; 1A) I hope you like the characters from the last movie, because there are far too many of them in this movie... As they keep recycling the same characters I'm left to wonder "how big is the world?" 2) Keira Knightley's character is still a moron, making me think this movie was writen by a man (there is a general lack of strong female characters--or female characters in general--in this movie. Even the strong character from the first movie, the one who wanted the Black Pearl to herself, is MIA in this movie); 3) The ending made me groan. That is all I will say about it... groan.
Sunday morning, Chelse and I went apartment searching again. This time, we went to a Lakeview property company and saw three of their buildings. Oddly enough, for me anyway, two of those buildings were right across the street from Jim's first Chicago apartment. The third place, just around the corner, is beautiful! We just had to take it. The price is right at the cusp of what we were willing to pay, but we get free satellite TV and free high-speed internet (which will probably save us around $100 a month here). There is no parking... so I'm going to have to decide whether I want to risk street parking (I'd need a permit and probably Illinois plates--and an Illinois license), or find a place nearby that rents parking per month. This is going to be a problem for me, but it's worth it. This building is beautiful, old and ornate on the outside, and the apartment has been refurbished--new floors, new ceiling fans, new stove, new microwave, new dishwasher (A DISHWASHER!!!), new showerhead, etc. It was honestly too good to pass up. Chelsey has expressed some remorse that we're leaving such a huge place and will be forced to cram all of our stuff in a smaller place... but I'm trying to be positive and reassure her that everything will fit, everything important that is (can you believe I'M the positive one? [Hint: No you can't])
Sunday afternoon and evening, we felt so relieved that all we wanted to do was sit around and play video games. We both had a try at Mario DS and Mario Golf for the Gamecube (which I picked up because Chelsey said she liked it)... and then I finally tried Resident Evil 4 (also for the Gamecube). I picked up a copy when it won billions of awards and then the price dropped to $20. The actual gameplay is amazing--the shooting engine is crisp (though hard) and the graphics are truly the most chilling thing ever put on a Gamecube. I actually haven't gotten that far, I keep getting my head chopped off with a chainsaw... but I'll keep at it. This game certainly saved the Resident Evil franchise... and will probably be what we see on the nextGen consoles when they release a new one. I can't wait.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
NATIONAL HOLIDAY Happy Independence From The British Day Everyone!
It's rare that Chelsey gets a day off during the week, so we wanted to make the most of this one. Yesterday we headed to Gurnee Mills (a huge half-outlet mall/half-mall mall) and spent the better part of Independence Day out there. We decided to see two films while there: Cars and Superman Returns. I liked both movies, even though they were quite different. Cars once again shows Pixar employs amazingly talented and funny writers and animators. At some points I was actually struck by how detailed the animation could be... even though the over-all feel of the movie was "cartoony," some of the animations of the cars, specifically the Portia, are amazingly realistic (i.e. headlights, logos, her whole backside [which, in one scene, they show the white 'backing up' lights when "Sally" goes in reverse... so cute and clever]). I guess that's a good way to describe Pixar films: where cute meets clever.
Superman Returns is a different story. Part-homage, part-new story, Superman Returns is a step in the right direction for the franchise. It seems like Hollywood has been more fascinated with Superman than any other super hero, and we've seen almost every angle of it: Superman love Lois/Lois loves Superman/Lex Luther is evil/Kryptonite can kill Superman/and Clark Kent is a bumbling goof (a good cover even if the glasses don't fool anyone). But, FINALLY, we see some actual movement forward in the franchise! In this movie, scientist found the remains of Superman's home planet and he has just gotten back from a five-year pilgrimage to his home planet of Krypton to see if there was anything left. When he "Returns" to Earth (the name of the movie!) he finds that Lois has a son and a fiancee named Richard (played by James Marsden, who seems destined to play the guy in Comic Book movies who has the girl [Lois or Jean Grey] even though the audience wants the other guy to get her [Supe or Wolverine]). It's almost a shame, then, that as the movie progresses, the plot breaks back down to it's root elements of Lois loving Superman and vice versa/Luther being evil/and Kryptonite being able to kill Superman. Routh actually plays a good Superman and Clark... and there were times when he was Clark that I swore I was Christopher Reeves (Routh's Clark is good). What is also very good about this movie are the special effects: they've added some sound to his flight... it sounds like a sonic boom when he flies faster; they really spent special attention to how his cape reacts to flight (I also like the new costume... it's more practical looking than previous Supermen--looks like something a person could actually fly in [if people could actually fly]); and I know for a fact that there were a few shots of Routh that were CG but looked pretty good--the last flight, for instance, I'm almost positive was CG even though they zoomed in on his face. Regardless, this was a serviceable movie for the franchise.
Can I just take the time, again, to contend that the James Bond series could learn a lot from the Batman franchise? Go back to his roots!!! Come on! I'm done.
Chelse and I had a great, and huge, meal at Max and Ermas for lunch... watched the two movies, then came back into Chicago and spent the night putting together (I kid you not) a Lego Batmobile. It's sweet. Maybe I'll even take a picture of it.... cause it's awesome. ROCK! INDEPENDENCE!
It's rare that Chelsey gets a day off during the week, so we wanted to make the most of this one. Yesterday we headed to Gurnee Mills (a huge half-outlet mall/half-mall mall) and spent the better part of Independence Day out there. We decided to see two films while there: Cars and Superman Returns. I liked both movies, even though they were quite different. Cars once again shows Pixar employs amazingly talented and funny writers and animators. At some points I was actually struck by how detailed the animation could be... even though the over-all feel of the movie was "cartoony," some of the animations of the cars, specifically the Portia, are amazingly realistic (i.e. headlights, logos, her whole backside [which, in one scene, they show the white 'backing up' lights when "Sally" goes in reverse... so cute and clever]). I guess that's a good way to describe Pixar films: where cute meets clever.
Superman Returns is a different story. Part-homage, part-new story, Superman Returns is a step in the right direction for the franchise. It seems like Hollywood has been more fascinated with Superman than any other super hero, and we've seen almost every angle of it: Superman love Lois/Lois loves Superman/Lex Luther is evil/Kryptonite can kill Superman/and Clark Kent is a bumbling goof (a good cover even if the glasses don't fool anyone). But, FINALLY, we see some actual movement forward in the franchise! In this movie, scientist found the remains of Superman's home planet and he has just gotten back from a five-year pilgrimage to his home planet of Krypton to see if there was anything left. When he "Returns" to Earth (the name of the movie!) he finds that Lois has a son and a fiancee named Richard (played by James Marsden, who seems destined to play the guy in Comic Book movies who has the girl [Lois or Jean Grey] even though the audience wants the other guy to get her [Supe or Wolverine]). It's almost a shame, then, that as the movie progresses, the plot breaks back down to it's root elements of Lois loving Superman and vice versa/Luther being evil/and Kryptonite being able to kill Superman. Routh actually plays a good Superman and Clark... and there were times when he was Clark that I swore I was Christopher Reeves (Routh's Clark is good). What is also very good about this movie are the special effects: they've added some sound to his flight... it sounds like a sonic boom when he flies faster; they really spent special attention to how his cape reacts to flight (I also like the new costume... it's more practical looking than previous Supermen--looks like something a person could actually fly in [if people could actually fly]); and I know for a fact that there were a few shots of Routh that were CG but looked pretty good--the last flight, for instance, I'm almost positive was CG even though they zoomed in on his face. Regardless, this was a serviceable movie for the franchise.
Can I just take the time, again, to contend that the James Bond series could learn a lot from the Batman franchise? Go back to his roots!!! Come on! I'm done.
Chelse and I had a great, and huge, meal at Max and Ermas for lunch... watched the two movies, then came back into Chicago and spent the night putting together (I kid you not) a Lego Batmobile. It's sweet. Maybe I'll even take a picture of it.... cause it's awesome. ROCK! INDEPENDENCE!
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