no excuses

but, really, there are some good excuses why i haven't posted in far too long. my woes with electronics seem never ending - but isn't that the way with em? so, as people may or may not know - i lost my lil' sony camera back in Boston, circa last october. i've been making do with photos from my camera since then, but my search for a new photo taking device started promptly and i'm happy to say i'll be purchasing the Canon S5 camera this upcoming friday! i'm quite excited about it and have already purchased a camera bag and accesories!

anywho, my computer is the next victim - my laptop has lived a long and glorious life and i fear the end is near. the screen has started to black out and some applications don't like like they oughta ... with help from my good friend, Eli and his "radio shack in a bag" i'm able to use my comp, vie my magnavox TV screen, which ..... works, though it's annoying, and certainly compromises the mobility of said laptop. it does buy me time, though, and i'll still be getting the camera and back to taking wonderful photos and making more stop motion movies, which is really quite fun.

again, i aplogize for the lack of posts, there are several great stories, involving characters with names such as Terrell, Heather, Kevin, Boone and events such as birthday pies, appalachian hiking and phillipino karaoke. no joke :)

please be patient.

a semi- normal christmas

so, i ended up going with shawn and mona, over to their friends' debbie and petes' house. eli and i , that is.
shawn warned us that it'd be rather boring : "it's just gonna be some people sitting around, watching movies, and they've got kids - so, we're just waiting for santa to come around"

well, that just sounded fantastic to us. back at the train, we had the next day off, it was christmas, and it was one of the dancers birthdays - all this means, loud, crazy party at the train. now, for the past few weeks and off nights, it seems people have chosen to gather right outside of 90 car (car 190 - i.e. the car i live on)

after work, we were all pretty beat, and i was looking forward to a nce quiet night og blog writing, movie watching and chess playing ( quick plug here for GAMEKNOT it's my new addiction and i invite ANYONE reading this to play a game or two, it's an online chess site, and it's awesome, and they don't pay me)

anywho, i know such a quiet evening would NOT be had given the afore mentioned factors, so this normal evening sounded perfect.



check this place out! there's a chirstmas tree, wood floors, a tv set, and best of all .. COUCHES! the kids were hayley and ethan and were very charming as they were all excited about ol st. nick's arrival- hayley organized a plate of cookies with a generous variety of pastry and a glass ready for milk. the glass was decorated in greek images - a "greece" glass, in case santa hadn't been to greece yet, of course. like i said, charming. they reminded me of some former piano students of mine so i was very entertained and pleased with the evening.

mona is, perhaps, the most complimentary of this here blog, and i truly appreciate her readership. everytime she visits shawn she mentions a recent post, and how much she enjoys it - that's cool and feel good to hear since i have such an incredible ego that needs stroking quite often. at the house i told her i just posted a new one (the last one) and she rushed to grab a computer ( about a 10 on the ol ego-stroke-a-meter) i thought this a perfect oppurtunity for a little slice of carnia history.



this is a photo of mona (the bloggee) taken by me (the blogger) of her reading the blog, while being told by the blogger (me) that this photo would then be used to blog said moment, THUS the pun of mona seeing a photo of herself doing what she is doing at the very INSTANT of reading these very lines, while reading text descirbing what she's doing both NOW and THEN, but with the then and now boundries being crossed as she is temproally disected while remaining consciencely where she is now ... is complete.

so, to recap - christmas:good
house : awesome
kids : great
shawn : great photo subject/satisfactory chess player
lists : convenient
company : perfect
pictures : funny

so this is christmas?

tomorrow is christmas eve and it certainly doesn't feel like it. we've got rehearsals tomorrow. we've been doing full run throughs of the entire show for the past couple of days. more and more im past feeling like this is work and simply accepting it as what there is to do with my day. there is simply nothing else that exist - i believe "enveloped" is the proper word. the past few days have also seen the entire cast and crew be at the building no less then 12 hours each day. methinks i'm going batty from all the craziness - check THESE bags out!


what IS refreshing is knowing that none of the time is wasted - there really just IS this much that goes into this show, and everyone is being very professional about things from my vantage. i'm surprised that people are as focused as they are given the long days - it's inspiring, really.

amidst all of this i have felt tinges of unsettlement as the holiday comes upon us and here i am in an almost surreal world - far away from the family routes through San Antonio, familiar food, and comfy couches. i've got some mac n cheese, and my iPod and gifts to mail.

Mona is visiting - Mona is Shawn's girlfriend - they are from Cincinnati

this is Shawn, Mona is not pictured. they've got friends down here from what i understand, and they've rented a house nearby. "all are welcome" so says Shawn, so maybe i'll spend my day with them - they Are nice folk.

after all these long days though, all i'm thinking is how i need to do laundry and clean my room - and sleep!

doors

so, there are 2 kinds of folk here on the train ... from what i can tell anyway.

the hallways are very narrow, see VIDEO below, if ya haven't already, for a good idea of the inside of the cars.

anywho, 2 kinds of folks : those who hang out with their door closed, and those who keep them open. you're walking down the cars and through the vestibules, and you might see folks on their laptops, or making a meal -

watching TV, or on the phone. when you're walking through a car with all the doors closed it feels deserted. there's really no way of knowing if anyone's even home -

unless there's a lot of noise of course. no porch light that would be on, no car in the driveway, no window to catch a glimpse through - complete, uninterrupted and ABSOLUTE privacy.

it's pretty easy to keep to yourself out here - VERY easy, and VERY to yourself.

it's easy to get things done without anyone bothering you, and it's easy to be up to no good without anyone to answer to.

there are interesting people here indeed - and many interesting ways to becomes one of these interesting people - i just hope i can stay nice and plain

so tired - i'm starting to feel better, i've been a little sick. finally got a chance to get some groceries - was in DIRE need of laundry detergent, but now i'm glad to report that i've cleaned myself up!

had to stay late a couple of the past few nights and program and i think i'm just about done.
which is a huge relief - now, it's just re writes and edits, but i'm at least caught up to the show, and everything seems to be in working order. the keyboards Have been giving me alittle grief as they've been freezing up perodically, but i hope it's nothing to worry about and that ic an figure out a way to lighten their respective memory loads.

heading to sleep now - happy sleepings to you all

tired

so - i'm losing track of days here - we're getting one day off a week, but it's not regular. and i think if it weren't for union rules they'd work us every day! it feels like winter quarters is never going to end and there are all these people there everyday, but no fruits

until today - we had the first run through of act I. over the past few days, the band has been staggering our lunch so we can do sound checks while the floor is empty.



there's a great deal of scheduling for the performers to get their floor time to rehearse and block their own acts. of course there's a lot of space and several preformers so there are always acts getting their stuff ready.




it's not all toiling and brick making though - there have been 2 nights of note - Gag Night and Act Night

Gag Night is where the clowns presented what they've been working on - different acts to be or not to be the the show. there were solo and duet acts mostly and one 4 man act that was great. it was great to see the clowns in their element doing something fresh. everyone's been doing the same show for 2 years now - so there's definately that excitement here in WQ despite the long days...

12 clown gags in all, and i believe 6 were accepted.

last night was act night and was most of our first peeks at the new acts. you'd think with all this circus people flipping and jumping everywhere we'd have seen SOME of these acts by now ... but we, the band, are locked up in this back room playing this new music almost as quickly as it gets written and printed in yet aNOther cave of a room with all the orchestraters, composers, and copyist in it. if i'm not there, i'm off at my keyboards programming them and revising and re-organizing samples and loops and patches orders.... it's tedious, but fun ... but ... tedious



so ... right .. act night .... it was nice to just sit back and enjoy a show of sorts and they laid it out as best as could be done - it was dubbed "The Greatest Act Night on Earth" (for a more detailed expounding of Ringling's protocol concerning standards of greatness please click here

the acts are shaping up to be classic circus, and i couldn't be happier

there's a trapeze act! and several handbalancing and contortion act!

we had neither of these things this past tour.

the new tiger act looks great - more tigers and the tamer is a charmismatic guy with great presence

we've also recently at least run acts I & II so there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel - mostly we're just trying to stay focused and get sleep where we can.

...and back

now, i'm done with home as quickly as i started ... ?

i'm here in florida along with what seems like the entire Ringling family. this is as close to home base as the circus comes to. we'll be here until the new year - HQ is the florida State Fairgroiunds in Tampa Bay and it's where the new edition of the show is being put together. from acts to costumes to lighting design and music - it all gets put together HERE.

it's quite a a sight - this army of people putting together this massive ... thing! the clowns are are one side of the arena practicing - stilt walkers stretching - dancers have mirrors set up on the other side practcing their moves - we're set up in a back room rehearsing all the new music as it gets printed out and sent to us from the guys writing it in yet aNother part of the complex.

it's very fast paced - we work 6 days a week from 9-6 - and things get done.

This whole ordeal is called "Winter Quarters" a funny name considering we're in florida where it is now 72 degrees and it's 7PM! not quite the winter wonderland. not that it was any cooler in San Antonio - but there is little around to let us know that it's December, much less that Christmas is close by. My world right now is COMPLETELY Circus!! i'm at the train or at the fairgrounds - no malls playing Xmas tunes - no walking around downtown with tinsel and bell ringing santas - nuthin. it could be JULY for all i know!

we're getting 1 day of off a week and it's long days at the stategrounds ... Ryan (keys II) and I spend most of the time and extra time (lunch and after/before work) programming the keyboards for the show. it's a tedious process, which is fun - just a little repetitive sometimes and i find myself pretty tired at the end of the day ...

i'm taking pictures on my camera phone to put up soon. in case you missed it - i think i lost my camera somewhere in boston - possiby the North End.