I dig your little laugh and I'm lovin' your quick wit - I even love it when you're faking it

Friday already ?? Blog??

Holy crap, so the iPhone can partially be blamed for totally destroying my blog-ethic lately but only partially. The rest I blame on our kids.

The boys (all of them, the teenager in the basement and the twins sharing a room) got white noise machines this week to help shield them from noise that would wake any of them too early, nice little devices that have a few sounds to choose from and you can leave on all night at a nice, mellow volume to try and help them all get the sleep they need - which is great and actually seems to be working pretty well. Here's the problem: the twins so far love the sound on theirs labeled "Heartbeat", which is exactly what you'd think it is, the sound of a thumping heart.

I don't know or care if it reminds them of being in the womb or just the steady, if not a little slow, rhythm just lulls them to sleep. So far all I know is their bedroom is right upstairs from my office and after bedtime when I usually try to get a little time on the computer there's the clear sound of a thumping heartbeat coming out of the ceiling. And I haven't even hidden a body in the walls of that room yet!

So sitting down to write anything but a desperate murder confession has been difficult.

Outside of that the big, looming thing that is eating up all my attention, despite how I try to ignore it is the Renaissance Festival - which I haven't been doing any of the normal teaching and work for earlier in the year which gets me ready and arrives just as my work travel season also ramps up so I'm less prepared than normal and it's going to suck a little bit more than usual in the real-world-impact dept.

I don't write about the Festival much in the off-season and actually try to put it away most of the year for my own sanity (and the sake of my marriage) but this year feels like I'm starting cold - not ready in any way. I'm sure as soon as the costume is on and the makeup hits my eyeball the old familiar energy will be back.

there's no arguing with the fact that it's nerdy as hell - it is.
But there's also no place or performance or audience like it in many ways (many of them have to do with the really extreme level of nerdiness, but getting past that for a moment if possible) but as a performer I love the show for all the unique moving parts that go into any given Festival day and the experience and emotional level of connection with the audience that you can only find there.

Just as a space - an enclosed street theater - it's difficult to replicate what you have there as a performer. In most street theater (having never been a busker but speaking as someone that had to spend a good deal of time on the subject) you find yourself performing for people that wander by looking for something else and going somewhere else, you are a distraction even if you're an entertaining one. At the Festival the theater is still 'street' but it is now the destination instead of the distraction.
The entertainment can be stupid (says the guy that will spend at least a couple hours a day trying to hit another grown man in the groin with increasinly heavy or dangerous projectiles. this is NOT "high art"), it can be sublime and beautiful (especially when little kids are involved - they aren't a bunch of judgemental, cynical, mocking jerkwads like the rest of us and actually believe in magic and all these crazy things they see. The looks on their faces alone would get me out there) and you can push it as far as you want as a performer and it's all between you and the people right in front of you. That's pretty great.

As an audience the place is crazy - yes there are insane geeks that really think they are descended from magical creatures (yes...there are) and people that want to live out some kind of fantasy (of being dangerous, or adventurous, or sexy) and lots of other really great examples of how looney people are. But the audience there loves the show like no other audience loves a show.
You will never find a Guthrie-goer that loves the Guthrie this way (sure some of it may come from a mental illness - that doesn't make the love they have for it any less endearing or scary) or anyone at the Brave New Workshop that got up at 4am to drive for several hours to stand in the rain to be the first one in the door EVERY DAY of the run of a show.
Yes, some of them are nuts. Yes, many of them are comic gold and really easy to mock.
But they might also be the best audience anywhere.

So as much as it's going to suck for the next few weeks and no matter how tired and beat up I get because of it, there are few things I look forward to as much all year than being out in the crowd in the sun and the dirt and trying like hell to leave it all onstage.

Condolences should be sent to my family, who get the wrecked remains at the end of the weekend and who may or may not understand but have to put up with the fact that I do.
Starting to feel it a little more now....

a city full of people and my favorite is that waitress...

monday morning recap - 

holy crap, that was a little crazy, now it's time to catch up a little and get back to business.

Wednesday - my wonderful wife's birthday:  

the boys and I tried to make everything perfect for mom for her birthday, they spent Tuesday night saying they were going to sleep in the next day so she could rest on her birthday and I spent time trying to find a second to sneak out to pick up her gift. 

We did have a very nice dinner and a quiet evening out before the madness that was....

Thursday - the twins' birthday:

Our little miracle kids turned five on Thursday and I still cannot grasp that they are almost kindergartners.  That seems like saying they're almost centaurs at this point.  Can't be.

They are so excited to be five and because they're crazy geniuses they were looking forward to 'growing up' more than presents and parties.  They do everything they can independently now and will take any opportunity to tell you that they're five now and can do it themselves.  They have been looking forward to chores and all the exciting benefits that taking one small step closer to adulthood had to offer.  Also....toys.

Their birthday was a mad dash toward the party and most of it spent racing the weather.

I got up early, finished digging my trench for the new garden as the bouncy castle arrived, the boys bounced until they were exhausted, we ran to play mini-golf at the science museum before the rain and picked up snacks and birthday cake on the way home to decorate.  whew.

then, of course, just before party time the rain rolled in.  The bouncy castle was unplugged and deflated to keep it from tearing loose in the wind and the guests took over the house instead.  No plan B but it was all very fun.

At the "end" of the party we decided that the rain had lightened up enough and plugged the muddy bouncy castle back in and let the kids in to play.  Everyone got completely soaked and dirty, hence the manufactured "end" to the party.  Your kids are sugared up, covered in mud and completely wiped out.  Now go home.  You're welcome.

My boys are five.  that is crazy.

Friday - the Chicago trip:

got up early in the still-birthday-decorated house and prepped to hit the road to Chicago for the Chicago Improv Festival.  Got underway early and made the trip in good time, rolling up to the Playground Theater about 10 minutes before my tech rehearsal thanks to my genius plan to arrive on the Kennedy Expressway right in the middle of Friday rush hour.  Anyway.

Loaded in, killed time, saw some great sets.  Jill was terrific, of course.

Went to the Annoyance Theater for the Friday party and saw lots of people that I wanted to catch up with but, since it was a festival party, couldn't because it's a little bit looney.  Still a great time.  Got to talk to Pitts, Jon from Dirty Water, Jesse Parent and a few others I hadn't seen in a long time. About halfway through the night I realized I don't enjoy the weird social aspect of social time also being work time that comes with now being a festival producer. I'll have plenty of time to worry about our festival starting today and it was nice to be at someone else's festival on their work time and just hang out and be social.  Ah.

Saturday - Chicago continues:

HUGE was invited to perform Saturday night so the day was spent connecting and hanging out with Mike and Joe (Jill was busy being everywhere, as she does for festivals) and fighting off the insane heat and crushing humidity of Chicago.  Had some good food, hung out in the Clark/Belmont area for the day, ate pizza with Mike's family and new nephew and then made our way to the space to wait to go on for the 12-20 people that showed up for HUGE.  The big drawback to being invited to perform on a Saturday at a festival (which feels like a really sweet time slot and a big compliment, I'm not complaining about that) is that you're also up against the mainstage Saturday night entertainment - which in Chicago means people from MadTv and the Colbert Report performing at the Lakeshore Theater down the street from you at the same time.  I remembered this as we paced in the Playground waiting to go on and hoping there would be people there watching.

Our set was fun.  Improv sets aren't worth belaboring in hindsight or funny to read about so I'll leave it at that.  i had fun (even though I have a giant bruise the size grapefruit that I picked up mid-set) and the energy was groovy and silly and we had a good time.  On top of that I think it was "good improv" so in all the ways that matter I think our set was a success.

Afterward we had some good Thai food and exhaustion set in.  The old men of HUGE ended up skipping the big CIF party and turning in for the night.  I know.  We know how to party.

Caught a good amount of sleep before...

Sunday - the trip home:

Woke up early on a couch and headed for Dunkin Donuts, collected Jill and hit the expressway.  Then realized our mistake, backtracked and hit the expressway again headed toward home.  There's not much to say about the drive from Chicago to Minneapolis beyond the fact that Jill and I had more time to sit and talk about future plans than we ever do so some emails were sent from the road and things were hammered out more clearly and in general I couldn't wait to get home to Minneapolis, see my kids and my wife and get back to the task of putting up our festival and planning for our theater.  

the biggest thing I miss about going out to other cities, as well as one of things I make sure to tell other performers that plan on coming to Minneapolis about is our audiences.  I think our improv audiences are the best anywhere and not only are they going to enjoy the hell out of what we're bringing to the stage in 17 short days but I know everyone that comes here to perform is going to have one hell of a time as well.  Building a place for that to happen all the time, that's fun to work toward.  More on that tomorrow when I can start thinking again.

for now I'm at the office working toward.....something else.

Waiting for the webcast of the WWDC keynote to unveil all sorts of techno-goodness for me to lust after, even though it'll mostly by iPhone stuff I already know about and I'm already sold on the iPhone so much that I'm trying to save up for buying out of my plan and getting one.  It is the rare device that I really want, not because the impossible-to-satisfy modern man's problem of needing to have the latest and fastest gadget.  I just really want to get my hands on an iPhone to centralize some of my communication and take one more device out of the ridiculous arsenal of devices I have to use on a daily basis.  As I sit at a desk with 3 computers, 1 iPod and 4 phones on it that seems to make only too much sense, with or without the expected Slingbox features they're adding..... 

on other fronts - the teenager is out of school for the summer, living at grandma's house and has a mohawk.  he's really rebelling now.  I'm glad he's doing better, I have my doubts he's doing as well as his grandmother believes (but she's a grandmother and has a probably normal level of difficulty with the concept that her grandson is lying to her) but happy he's doing better.  We're moving his room to the basement where all teenager boys dwell and I'm getting an office out of the deal.  

too much for one blog.  More easily digestible tomorrow.

Overwhelming Millions Every Day....

Tuesday has no memory blog - 

Did my patriotic duty yesterday by sitting outside and eating food that was cooked outside despite the weather being too cold to really want to do either but people died for my right to BBQ and BBQ we did.  

The day was actually full to the top with wholesome goodness - we took the boys out to play 18 holes of mini golf and then came home to park ourselves in front of their new obsession "Pinball Hall of Fame" on the Wii.  This game was made by Williams Entertainment - makers of such fine pinball tables as Pinbot, Funhouse and Taxi and features precise digital reproductions of the arcade pinball games and plays in a way that is amazingly like playing real pinball.

In short - it is a game made just for my wife and our whole house is now hooked on Wii Pinball.

There are worse ways to spend your evening than a 4-person, 6-table pinball tournament (during which the kids made up names for our teams: "the Sorcerers" versus "the Pinball Wizards" seem to convey their feelings that this game is, in fact, fucking magic) before (and after) heading out to eat freshly grilled food in the cold gusts of wind.

everything else is getting crazy close so an official day off was a nice thing to have.

My wonderful wife's birthday is now far too close, followed the very next day (which sucks for her birthday) by the twins' golden birthday and the day after that by my departure for the Chicago Improv Festival to represent with HUGE and run tech for Drum Machine.  Which of those things I am most excited and/or tense about changes from moment to moment and even seeing all of them in one blog reminds me that I've got lots to do.

I'm sure my boss wouldn't mind if I did some "work" since I'm back in the office as well.