A bunch of things I've been meaning to note:

• I forgot to mention this in the last post. Planning and rehearsing this show went really smoothly - or at least as smooth as it could have gone. Especially compared to our cursed Fall Show, where everything that could go wrong did. Even when my parents tried to videotape the show, the tape was all garbled and corrupt. But anyway...this show was a lot of fun to do.
• Kimya Dawson of Moldy Peaches and Juno soundtrack fame will be performing at the Vaudville Mews in Des Moines on April 17. Tickets are available here and are reasonably cheap - about $12.
• The radio show This American Life will be holding a live show in West Des Moines - sort of. On May 1, TAL will broadcast a live show in high definition video and surround sound to hundreds of movie theaters around the nation, and Century at Jordan Creek is one of them. I'm not sure how it'll all work, but I typically love the show and this sounds kind of neat. Info is available here. (Note: as I post this, the link is down for some reason.)

I'm tired, feel accomplished, and I have a residue of tears and mime white coating my face. Which means...

Spring Nite o' Mime 2008

Reflection

Opening: The theme, of course, was communism/Soviet Russia - something Rob and Kari have continously pushed for over the past few years. It almost became a sort of joke: "What's our theme?" "Communist Russia!" "No, Rob."

Now I ask: why were we so quick to shoot this theme down? I loved it. My second favorite opening/closing ever - with my first show (zombies) in front.

Mr. No Depth Perception: Mine. I believe I came up with this while I was bored and working in Barnes and Noble. I shared it on whim - I was doubtful this one would make it in. Props to Kyle and Michael for adding their own touches here and there.

Jack The Ripper: Also mine. This was a "Boom, Checkmate" - a skit made up at a meeting with no preperation beforehand. The music is a prominate song from Dexter - I heard it and decided it fit way too well.

E=MC2: That should be a "squared" sign, but I can't figure it out. It's too late for me to be messing with keyboard shortcuts.

Anyway, this was Rob's. I loved how he first presented this skit to us: a skit with minimal lighting cues and no chairs. That's always really appealing to me.

A Progressive Mime: Honestly, I'm not sure who was responsible for coming up with the idea, but I've got no reservations saying Jordan took it and made it his own.

Titanium Tim: Mary's. A lovely bit of morbidity. Not to mention some really catchy music.

The Operation: Mine. Another "Boom, Checkmate." I had to record the "buzzing" sound on my own and couldn't find a copy of the board game Operation. (Seriously: is this game just a myth? I talked to 20 people and only one person had a copy, and the buzzer didn't even work.) I instead used a Taboo buzzer. This buzzer rattled around in my backpack all week long, entertaining me with random buzzes as I'd walk. In some cases, it provided long, drawn out buzzes when I'd set my bag down in a silent classroom.

But anyway...great work by the techies here.

The Game of Life: Sara's - her first skit into a show. And what a skit to start with.

The Charmer: Mary's. I specifically remember her sharing this skit when we had mime bonding at our lakehouse. All skits should be shared around a campfire. It certainly worked for the Midnight Society.

(That last sentence was just for my fellow Generation Y-ers with access to Nickelodeon. You know. Back in the day.)

Fear of...Quickies: Also Mary's. It was a lot of fun to do this one.

For One More Day: Mine. "Marsh Madness" from my first show played a part in inspiring this one - a skit that looks like it's serious at first, but goes in a different direction.

Fallout: Also mine. I had been pitching this one since my second spring show - and here it is. Great work by Jake and Margaret here - not to mention fantastic work by our lighting director, Kyle.

Monsieur Emphysema: Rob's. I loved this one. So much goofiness. And the music was fantastic. Special thanks to all audience members who mispronounced "Monsieur" phonetically.

The Invisible Man: The last Jordan/Mary/Thomas collaboration for the BD. And perhaps the weirdest. Once again, great work by the techies. Their timing was what sold this skit.

Run On: Mary's. She's been pitching this one for a while, and it was fantastic to finally see it in a show. There were a few significant changes between the original version and this version, but of course they were all for the better.

Something odd the techies noticed: "Run On" and "Fallout", though both thought of long before IHSSA 07-08, are thematically similar to "Bound" and "and God wept at Nagasaki."

Mimeories

I ♥ You: Written by Luke for Fall Show 2006 - my favorite show. Why was it my favorite show? Skits like this one.

Love Potion #8: Kari's, also from Fall Show 06. I reprise my role as a dog who will probably be raped.

Same Direction: Tyler's, and - you guessed it - from Fall 06. We got into a bit of a debate while choosing this skit for Mimeories: was it this or "War" from Spring 06? Who knows, though. You could see "War" again.

Storybook: Let me let you in on a little secret: I hate helping to write Storybook. Performing it is a lot of fun, don't get me wrong - but if I were to make a list of "Favorite Things To Do When Planning a Mime Show", writing Storybook would be down there with "sleep deprivation".

Maybe it's because there's not as much room to play around as with a regular skit, or maybe it's the balancing act between "edgy" and "getting screwed by administration", but I've never liked Storybook.

But I was pleased by the crowd's reaction to this one. A few people told me this was their favorite storybook ever. And my favorite part about all of this? Our performance during the Spring Show was our third ever time running through Storybook.

Closing: Babies kill the seniors, giant BD comes down. I kind of wish I hadn't been awkwardly lying on the ground for this one - I would have loved to have seen this moment from the audience's point of view. But I suppose that's what camcorders are for.

And speaking of babies and seniors: congratulations to the Baker's Dozen's new president and vice president, Sara Ryan and Jinny Han respectively.

So that's it. It's been 896 days since three guys came screaming into my room and (in so many words, I guess) told me I had just joined the best group Valley High School has to offer.

There's no way I can articulate what I'm thinking and feeling after this show into a blog post written at 1 in the morning. I doubt I could properly articulate these thoughts and feelings into even a series of blog posts.

But I can say this: the Baker's Dozen has done so much for me. It has changed me as a person, it's taught me so much about the writing/directing/performing process - hell, it's even given me an excuse to dress up like Mario for a day. It's also enabled me to talk to people I never would have known - not to mention bond further with those I know well.

I would like to thank the Baker's Dozen for all of this. I'd also like to thank the following groups and people, in no particular order:

(By the way: please take no offense if you deserve to be on this list and you aren't. It is very late and I am very tired.)

• During a week in which I'm surrounded by mimes, mime techies, and talk about mimes mimes mimes, it's great for my sanity to talk to a few people who have little to nothing to do with The Baker's Dozen. Which is why I'd like to thank my friends at Central Campus - specifically, Josh Johnson, Allison Fayard, Brianna Nelson,  Cassie Mayrose and Pauline Altman.
• Stacey Hansen, Derek Claussen, and Joe Van Haecke have taught me nearly everything I know about theatre, mime and improvisation. As a result, they've been major influences on my writing, directing and performing style, and have likely subconsciously shaped portions of this show, whether they know that or not.
• My parents for understanding (sometimes) and supporting the Baker's Dozen - and yes, Mom and Dad, I'd be a little weirded out too if my son ever started wearing a leotard, tights and lipstick. That is, if he didn't have a valid reason.
• Our fans for coming to our shows, filling the auditorium and making general ruckus about the show. Without you, The Baker's Dozen would be something very different.
• It's been said that when a director best does their job, they are unnoticable. And that's true about our techies, too - when the lights, set and sound perfectly compliment what's going on onstage, the technicalities are the last things on the audience's mind. Which is why I'd like to give a big thank you to The Baker's Dozen Tech, especially our departing seniors - Kyle Hurst, Amanda Pichler, Caitlin Hostetter, Emily Adams, and Dylan Efobi.
• You might have noticed there's a name missing from the BD Tech seniors above. I just wanted to give special recognition to our stage manager. She also acts as a kind of a bridge between a skit being on paper and on stage - she organizes all of the lighting and sound cues you see and here in a BD show. She also puts up with a lot of bullshit from a lot of us - me especially. Thanks to Emily Dengle for efficiently and responsibly performing an unjustly thankless job.
• Something I've always loved about BD shows is how it sets an example; it shows high school kids can make something great in a short amount of time when they set their minds to it. But from time to time we need a grownup - and this is where Ted VanDeventer comes in. Ted, a former mime, helps clean-up skits and generally oversees the entire show. And of course, from time to time we act like the teenagers we are, and this is where Ted comes into play to keep us from accidentally blowing up the auditorium. Why does he do this? For the love of it. And I respect that immensely.
• Finally, I'd like to thank our former president and vice-president, Mary Moritz and Jordan LaVine respectively. I have been with these two since day one of my time in the BD - and, stranger still, we were very close friends before our time as mimes. We collaborate on skits and decisions, we balance each other out, we entertain each other - but most importantly, they are my closest and most dear friends. We gave all we could to The Baker's Dozen, and in return, The Baker's Dozen cemented our bond only further.

And that was my time in The Baker's Dozen. Funny how almost 900 days can just fly by.

I've got this these countdown calendars on my computer. One is for the mime show. It says: "1 day, 8 hours and 36 minutes." I absolutely can't get over how close that is.

Just a reminder...

SPRING NITE O' MIME

THURSDAY (tomorrow!) at 7:30 PM

VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM

FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE!

I should be doing homework and mime show stuff - and that's what I was doing, until I was introduced to Aardman Studios' Purple and Brown.

The link above is to a 17 minute long collection of every Purple and Brown short made. It's endlessly entertaining. Just don't watch it if you plan to accomplish something in the next 20 minutes.

Happy Easter. I am spending my Easter finishing up last minute homework, spending time with my family, and realizing how unprepared I really am for this coming week.

Here are two brilliant articles from The Onion: first, brilliant topical satire. Secondly, an article that is simultaneously sweet, hilarious, tragic and disturbing.

From the "Local News" and "Well, This Sucks" department: this year's Iowa Fringe Festival has been called off due to royalty disputes.

Back home again.

The cruise was a lot of fun, but I thought the best parts were when we stopped at our ports of call (Grand Cayman and Jamaica). And those stops were all too short - so rather than go on a cruise again, I'd probably prefer to just visit one of those places.

Yesterday I felt like I was swaying back and forth even though I was off the boat.

Five days.

So as it turns out, it doesn't cost a riddiculous amount of money for internet access on this ship, and I felt like writing a post. However, the computer and keyboard sucks. One post ought to be enough.

Anyway, the cruise ship is a lot of fun. There are a lot of opportunities on this ship - especially the opportunity to play games.

I just lost the game.

But I digress. There's an entire room on the upper deck where you can just play board games. You can go rock climbing, play basketball, play ping-pong, or a game called "Determine from What Room Your Fellow Guests are Loudly Having Sex." That last game you've got to play by force. At 7 AM. I didn't like this game very much.

It also leads to a game called "Speculate Which of Your Fellow Guests Were Loudly Having Sex As You Walk By Random People Not Long After Getting Up." Again, by force, but this time by your subconcious. Or at least my subconcious. (I've yet to play the follow up game to that one - "Upon Determining Which Guests It Was, Give Condecending Glares Upon Walking By.")

Luckily their is a plus side to all of this: I had the opportunity to mutter "Those fucking people" and mean it two ways.

Posting will likely be sparse to non-existent over the next few weeks.

Tomorrow I leave on a cruise for the Caribbean - specifically, Jamaica and Grand Cayman. I'm sure the ship has computer access, but I wouldn't doubt if you've got to pay some riddiculous fee per minute to use them.

And then the week after that is what we call Hell Week - the week in which we basically make the mime show. Don't expect anything until after that.

Oh yeah. In case you didn't know...

SPRING NITE O' MIME

Thursday, March 27 at 7:30 PM

Valley High School Auditorium

FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE

Please come to the show. It'll be a lot of fun as always. It's also my last one.

Have a fantastic spring break.

There are problems in these times. But things might get better if we could all learn a thing or two from our good friend the walrus.

Along the lines of Garfield Minus Garfield, which Jordan linked to a few days back, here's The Wonder Years Minus Narration.

So if you aren't familiar: Wilco is a band that started in the mid-90s. They began as a fairly standard alt-country band, and over time grew to explore styles ranging from avant-garde to Americana to alternative music to straight up pop-rock. Their most recent album, Sky Blue Sky, is more mellow and straightforward than their previous albums.

That all being said, Wilco might be the best band in America. They're innovative, great musicians, and most of all, write fantastic songs.

Wilco performed at the Val-Air Ballroom in West Des Moines yesterday. It was the best concert I've ever attended. The band's been rehearsing their entire back-catalog and the effort shows. Songs sound just as good, if not better, than their studio recordings. This band can take an introspective headphone song to the stage and make it rock.

Jeff Tweedy, the band's frontman, has a fantastic voice. Throughout the show he kept apologizing - "Sorry, guys. My voice isn't sounding so pretty right now." The crowd wouldn't have any of it, though. All he got back were yells of "You sound fantastic!" and "You sound very pretty!" (That last one was me.) Anyway, if that was Jeff Tweedy on a bad night...well, I can't imagine what Jeff Tweedy on a good night sounds like.

On Wilco's website, you could request songs for them to add to their set - and a good chunk of the show was devoted to audience requests. "And thanks to the requests," Tweedy said, "the first chunk of the show is going to be kind of introspective. Can you dig that? But later on, the show's going to pick up with the straightforward songs. So once you start getting buzzed...if you've got alcohol - or whatever you're doing - you'll be able to fully enjoy the forthcoming songs." I belive that's how he described the upbeat songs. Forthcoming. As opposed to introspective.

It was a weird crowd - and I mean that in a good way. You had your high school kids, your twenty-somethings, hipsters, guys that looked like they could be my uncle...a great crowd for people watching.

And most of all: the band sounded great. I can't stress that enough. Major kudos to the roadies for letting the band sound as awesome as they could.

I am not sure how to end this post, so I'll leave with this: have you ever started a slow-clap that ushers the band to the stage? It's pretty neat.

Alright. Wilco show? Absolutely fantastic.

Details to come.

I'm writing this blog post in TextEdit right now. The Blogger servers seem to be down.

The mime show is in 18 days.

I visited Chicago over Thursday night into Friday to check out DePaul. And I really like it. It looks like there's fantastic opportunities available - not just from the college, but from the area too. The weather sucked. But that's Chicago in the winter for you.

I'm holding off on submitting my acceptance of their acceptance for a couple of weeks in case I have some mind-boggling revelation that makes me go "No! Not DePaul! Turn away!"

Roughly 12 hours were spent sitting in a car. I saw a lot of signs that said "Road workers - give them a brake", which reminded me of when I saw those signs as a five year old. And as a reading five year old, I took everything very literally. "You can do that?" I would think in the car.

And finally: come June, iPhone and iPod Touch users will be able to download applications made by independent developers. This is awesome stuff. It truly turns the two devices into pocket-sized computers. As the price goes down in the next few years, it'll be more and more difficult to justify not wanting to purchase one.

For a very long time, the archives link on the right-hand bar has been broken. That changes today. You've now got access to six years of blogging - that's a little over 1,000 posts.

I found browsing through the archives to be interesting at the very least. Posts written in sixth grade are very different from those in twelfth.

I watched 28 Weeks Later today. It's the sequel to 28 Days Later. (Basic gist of Days: a disease made in a London laboratory is accidentally released to the wild thanks to naive environmentalists. It's a zombie movie, except zombies move very quickly, and infection only takes a matter of seconds to kick in.)

Where Days took place 28 days after the outbreak, Weeks takes place - surprise, surprise - 28 weeks afterwards. American troops and former residents are settling into Britain in an effort to clean up and repopulate the area. The troops are under the impression that all infected persons have died of starvation. And then - surprise again - all hell breaks loose. The film follows two children who may be genetically resistant to the virus as they try to escape troops following a procedure that amounts to "if it moves, open fire."

As the film progresses, it becomes more and more difficult to suspend our disbelief. The circumstances of the outbreak are so well established in 28 Days Later that suspending disbelief is no trouble at all; however, in 28 Weeks Later, I had a hard time following the logic of the troops. At one point the protagonists manage to get a car running and try to drive out of the city - and troops open fire! On a vehicle? Perhaps zombies can drive and we weren't told. Similar moments abound.

28 Weeks Later still has its moments - there are some fun "jump scares", attempts at character development, and fantastic shots of a deserted London (though none as chilling as Weeks' precursor). And though the ending seems anticlimactic as things wrap up, the film's final shot (an eerie, wordless cliffhanger) makes a sequel (28 Months Later?) seem very necessary.

Verdict: if you like horror films/zombie movies, you'll at least tolerate 28 Weeks Later. If you liked 28 Days Later, you'll like this movie too...just not as much. 

And if you haven't seen 28 Days Later - well, check it out first.

XKCD is a great webcomic. But today it spoke to me on a very personal level.

I saw Stillwell's mime show last night. It was the best show of theirs I'd ever seen. Fun stuff.

And speaking of mime shows: the skit list has been made. I can't talk about any details (do I really have to tell you that?) but I can say that this show's list just looks like a lot of fun.

March is here. And that's very good. The snow is melting and I was getting hot wearing a coat.