Battery of OA

[GreenLanternMD]

Can't Help But Smile

Life is being nice to me.

I'm not even bothered by the fact that I completely missed the Bingo Jam tonight... I'll just catch the next one.

Tonight was our 4th and Final (for now) "7 Minutes in Heaven". Elastic Theater went on 2nd in the line-up, which is a break from our usual pattern of going on last... but it was cool. It did indeed turn out to be more efficient for us to set up before the house openned and do a quick strike as the next act was coming on.

After our set, I hung around outside for about 15 minutes, sipping water and catching my breath. We turn the AC off during these shows because it blows around our curtains and our props... thus making a 7 minute puppet show hot and sweaty work for us.

After about three more acts, I worked my way into the small theater and sat on the floor down front. A few sets later, a sofa seat openned up and I grabbed it. As I was settling in, a tall slender woman walked up to me and said, "I think you dropped this," as she handed me a slip of paper and headed out of the show. I won't go into detail as to the contents of the note... except to say that my ego has been inflated for the past several hours and this will likely not be our last interaction. :up:

(To be honest, I did share the note with Tommy, Stacey, Michelle and Jose... because who passes an opportunity to grab praise from your friends?)

There is more to this story... but that is for another day.

I hung around and had a beer... followed by many Diet Cokes... I'm ubber paranoid about being pulled over for DUI. I drove home drunk once and didn't realize it until I litteraly stumbled out of the vehicle when I got home. The luck and irony of it all was the fact that I was actually waved through a DUI check-point that night. Anyway, I'm still up on the caffiene and it's coming up on 4 AM. :loopy:

Don't care. I was sexy tonight.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

It's the 4th of July and I Still Have My Pants On

I'm surprised to see everyone on the net today. I guess the random day off in the middle of the week is a little disorienting. It is a bit silly to have the DAY of July 4th be the day off, when everything important happens at night. If businesses were smart, the would make July 5th the national holiday and allow people to recover... or better yet, make it law to begin the holiday at 12 noon on the 4th and continue it through to 8AM July 6th. It's things like that which prevent me from being President... that and the fact that I don't give a shit about the rest of the country. Should Bill Binder be elected in 2012, however, I will gladly serve as his chief of staff.

I'm taking a very experimental approach to the CrYT camp this year. It makes sense considering the leap Paul is taking in having a 1/2 puppet curriculum. I did a lot of ice breaker games yesterday, but also devoted a significant amount of time to brainstorming for our play. I don't have a lot of time to waste on this so I needed to dive into it right away. Some of the kids are really imaginative, and I want to honor their ideas as much as possible; at the same time, I want to rein it in when we need to. Just because it's a summer camp doesn't mean our final product has to look like a summer camp.

Stacey called me in around 6 to compair notes on our first day experiences. Sounds like she did okay, but there were a few minor issues. Luckily, Paul was around to help deal with it, so I think we'll be fine. Stacey also told me a little more about the young (19) college grad who is helping her out in the afternoon. Here is a dramatic recreation based on what I learned from our phone call:

Stacey: So, do you have any experience with puppets?
Intern: No... actually, I hate them.
:bleagh:
Stacey: Okay... do you know anything about improv?
Intern: Yeah... I really hate improv, too.
:loopy:

[and scene!]

Since I wasn't a first hand observer, I can't attribute direct quotes, but you get the idea.

I heared this and thought, "Hmmm... Paul really matched us up well, huh?"

Oh well... perhaps a mind shall be openned this month.

Elastic Theater has a lot of stuff coming up, as do Apollo 12 and The Remainders. I can't remember being this active outside of school. It's both awesome and scary. Be careful what you wish for, right?

I won't go into what we talked about in Remainders last night. I just go on to say we're all very passionate and sometimes it's hard to agree on some things. But, good things are happening.

I going up to Mom and Dad's shortly. We get to sit out back and watch the town of Cave Creek blow shit up.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

Trouble

Paul calls me around 6 today and askes me to tell Stacey that he wants her to do two hours instead of three each day. The reason? Noah is too much of a distraction.

I'm caught in the middle of all of this. I'm not there in the afternoon, so I really don't know if things are working or not. People will say stuff to Paul who will relay stuff to me which I end up repeating to Stacey, who may (like today) have another side to her story.

I was feeling fine about everything when I left camp this afternoon. We got stuff accomplished and we made use of our time. Stacey arrived when I needed her there and was ready to dive into her activities. There was a problem with Janelle taking the scripts home over night (this forced Stacey to go to Plan B) but she did have a Plan B and told me as much when I left... so I didn't worry.

I really want this all to work. These kids can learn a lot from Stacey; but Noah is her #1 priority, and that's how it should be. He's going to be there no matter what. I've observed a number of 2-year-olds in recent years. Noah is one of the best behaved. I guess today wasn't his better days.

I really think the biggest issue is the fact that we are communicating through intermediaries. For one thing, I have 0 communication with Janelle. I litterally only know her by reading her resume once. I have never met her, spoken to her, e-mailed her... I've asked people to relay information to her, but I have never had anyone relay any info from her directly to me. I only have a vague idea what she does with her part of the day. In theory, I may never see this person until the last day of camp. Right now, that scares me.

As for Paul... He's a good guy with great intentions. I think we have the common flaw of always wanting to be diplomatic. I wonder if he's a Libra... Anyway, it almost sounds as if he has been assurring Stacey that she had Danielle and Janelle to essentially watch Noah while she was teaching; and Danielle and Janelle want to do anything but babysit.

Danielle wasn't even there today. She and Paul are having Daughter/Father issues, which is impacting her particiaption. I haven't had a problem with her when she has been ther in the morning, but I guess she feels underused with Stacey in the afternoon.

I hope I can make this work.

GRRRRR!!!!

 

[GreenLanternMD]

Crisis Overted

There were a lot of long discussions today... some I participated in, some I did not. The really important one involved Me, Paul and Stacey all at the same time. Had this been our first discussion, I think we could have saved time on the others.

Everything seems fine now. Stacey is going to keep all three hours for her curriculum (which frankly, I prefer), Janelle is going to come in at 1:30 and help Stacey keep an eye on Noah, and I will hang around between 12:30 and 1:30 to make sure Stacey is good to go.

I feel better now. I couldn't sleep last night because I knew Paul was upset, which resulted in Stacey being upset... and I'm in the middle of it all which made me REALLY upset...

But, we worked it out.

*************************************************

Elastic Theater was one of the many opening acts for Quintron and Miss Pussy Cat last night. Awesome experience. And they're awesome people. I wish I could have stayed for the whole thing, but I was exhausted and couldn't keep myself there past 11, knowing that I had to be at camp by 7:30 (also carrying the emotional issues discussed above).

Tonight we're at The Firehouse and tomorrow we're at *Four White Walls (*both Elastic Theater and Apollo 12). I joked last night that we should have got tour T-Shirts for Elastic Theater.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

The Elastic Theater: Situation Tour 06!!!

...That's what's going on our T-Shirts. Too bad Amy C. is traveling the world with a sexy man right now... otherwise, Stacey could talk her into some free screening. :up:

A couple things I didn't mention from the Thursday night show.
1) We were set up in what turned into a mosh pit, which resulted in Ryan from Father's Day slamming into our puppet stage and breaking it. Good thing Tommy was handy enough to put it all back together yesterday.

2) Q & Miss P (as I've decided to call them in my mind) dug our puppet shows. Huge compliment to us.

Right now I'm in hyper-creative-procrastinator mode. It's when I have a deadline and something brilliant to do, but I'm so overloaded with good ideas that I can't focus long enough to spew them out.

My earlier goal was to be done with a draft of the script by sometime this afternoon so that I could go to the UPS store and get them printed off for free. Looks like I may end up finishing it tomorrow and going to kinko's.

I am excited about this play, though. I was a little concerned about it becoming a chore, but then I remembered this play I saw at ASU ten years ago called "Crop Circles." The writer and director came up with this device where three scenes would happen in the same location simultaneously, then it would shift around and repeat a couple of times. It was also at ASU when a number of professors said, "Hacks borrow, geniuses steal." I'm going to be a genius with this play.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

Zone

I'm in that weird tired but not really sleepy zone. It's both restless and unproductive.

The back-to-back performances of Elastic Theater and Apollo 12 were fun but suffocated by heat and drenched in sweat. I had about two pints of water in me, all of which secreated through my pours [sp?].

I'm home now. Not sure what to do. I have a Sonic hamburger in my belly, cafiene in my brain, a task or two ahead of me in the next 20+ hours... not sure if sleep is next on the agenda or if I need to do something else to unwind.

Hmmmmmm...

 

[GreenLanternMD]

We Have a Script!

The first draft of "Scenes from a Park" is done. I said I'd have it ready in a week, and I delivered.

I'll give the kids their scripts tomorrow. It's not the best piece of writing, but I think it will more than fulfill it's purpose in the next two weeks. One forseeable challenge: There's one student who was not present on Friday, and she may or may not come back. The current version of the script is without her character. I believe I can easily add her in if I need to (that's the beauty of an original script). If she doesn't come back, then it's less work for us... but is she does, I think everyone will be a little happier.

Just need to have enough activities going tomorrow. I know the play will not take the entire time.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

The Right Stuff

The Remainders will be playing at 10AM on Sunday Aug 27th. in the Tornonto International Improv Festival. This means I don't have to rush to get there early on Friday Aug. 25th. Perhaps I could just skip one or two classes instead of an entire day. That would be so much easier for me.

Apollo 12 show on Wednesday... following the first appearance of "The Tommies" (Tommy Cannon, Tomme~ Shaeffer and Ashley "Tommie" Neugent).

Double-Header show at Paramount on Friday - Elastic Theater and The Remainders.


And here's the big tease...

NKOTB 2.0... it could happen.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

No Turning Back...

I've just spent $1,000.00 on plane tickets for two separate trips... one for Toronto, the other for Austin. I've committed now. This move also requires that I miss two consecutive Fridays at work. Couldn't be helped. Booking Friday flights was impossible.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

Tommy, Can You Hear Me? Tommie, Can You See Me? Tome, Can You Feel Me... ?

Last night was delightful. I'm surprised I forgot to blog.

Prior to Apollo 12, we were treated to the world debute of "The Tommies." Tommy C., Tommy S. and Ashley "Tommie" N. Three improvisors who like to be called Tommy, who happen to live in Phoenix, all at the top of their game. It was sweet.

Our show was a mass of fun. It was the kind of show that makes be proud to be a part of Apollo 12. When we're playing together like that, we just enjoy each other so much. Nobody worries about the technical aspects of the scene, there's no thought given to any kind of show format, and we don't care if we're "following the rules." Can you tell I've been reading Napiar's book recently? Are we doing good improv? Yes. How do I know? Because #1: The audience is having a great time, and #2(the reason I do this) We're having as much fun, if not more fun, than the audience. In fact, I think the audience's pleasure comes from our joy. If we play in a bad mood, and we stay in a bad mood, the audience can still have a good time but they'll miss out on something.

******************************************************

Earlier yesterday, Stacey called with some camp issues... actually, one issue. We have many good kids working with us, but there is one who has a hard time doing what he's told. We talked about it, and I advised Stacey to contact his mother, etc. Paul was also brought into the loop. Apparantly, he anticipated something like this and wanted to make sure we documented everything. He did indicate early on that there was a cryptic conversation with the mother before camp started regarding this potential issue, but we both hoped it wouldn't escallate this far.

He seemed a little more on the ball today, but I have no idea how he was after I left. I think Stacey's activities, which require a lot of self dicipline and personal accountability, are a little more challenging then what I usually do (which usually involves everyone doing everything together). Was he better today? I don't know. It's about 20 to 6, and I have yet to get an unhappy phone call, so I'll hope for the best.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

What Happened Yesterday???

July 14, 2006 is now a blur to me. My memories of that 24 hour span are spotty at best. There was so much constant activity from rise to rest that I really didn't have a moment to stop and take personal inventory.

After a full morning of rehearsals at camp, I asked Stacey if it was okay with her for me to duck out at 12:30 istead of sticking around until 1:15 like I had earlier in the week (I was there until after 1:30 on Thursday, so my hours evened out). She was fine, so I took off. It was a good thing I did, as I had several errands to run in the following hour and a half. I got home around 2, and my dad arrived there about ten minutes later to help me with some household maintainance. I wasn't sure he had time to be there, so it was unexpected, but we managed to get one thing done. Meanwhile, there are e-mails and phone calls bouncing every which way to try and get people down to CG by-way-of Bill's place... it was messy.

By the time I got to CG, it was 6:45. I had very little time to get photos taken, set-up microphones, help with the puppet stage, etc. I was performing in both shows last night, so I really had no time to stop and take care of myself.

Again, the night is a blur. The Elastic Theater show flew by and I was rushing to change and get set for The Remainders. Having just done a show minutes earlier, and since I played prominantly in last months CG performance, I really wanted to take more of a minor role last night. Somehow, I ended jumping into a majority of the scenes. Not sure if that helped or hindered. I do have some memory of feeling stuck and guilty and wanting a way out in some places.

Are we growing too fast? Are we able to keep up?

I heard some people talking about Toronto and whether or not they're going. It seems like the majority of those on the trip will be in "the car" while I will be flying. Not sure of who else is taking the jet route. I sometimes feel like there's a bit of a split between those who are driving and those who are flying out. Yes, it would be a great bonding experience if we'd all take the two-week road trip that takes us to Toronto and Austin, but not everyone has the luxury of doing that... and while I know it's not intentional, I think some people feel a sense of guilt when they're not able to make a trip... I know I do. I've chosen to go to Austin and Toronto... any other improv related trips in 2006 will have to happen without me. That's just the reality of my life.

I know it seems like I'm complaining, and I don't want it to seem that way. I'm not unhappy with any of the groups I play with. It does feel overwhelming at times, and while there's sometimes a temptation to take a break I have this fear of missing out if I'm gone for too long.

We've talked about having parties at my parents' house in Carefree. We almost had it planned, but it was effectively cancelled since we couldn't secure a weekend with 100% availability. Well, I'll probably do it anyway. I just won't call it anything official. Just invite people up... say "Hey, come up if you're willing to make the drive."

Well, I need to get up there before they leave, make sure there isn't any new information.

End of spewing.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

Busy-Busy-BEEEeee/ Busy-Busy-BEEEeee

I've had little down time the past two days. A lot happens with camp, even when I only work "half a day."

I put the kids through hell this morning. During the first two hours of camp, I had them rehearsing this 20 minute play... but if they made any significant mistakes (i.e. missing an important cue, breaking character, or making it obvious that a line was missed) they would have to stop and start all over from the top. Not a popular exercise, but effective. The bigger mistakes were not repeated. The timing improved and the play is getting tighter. Still a number of "actor" things like saying lines too fast, not facing the audience and volume we need to work on... but, they're doing well considering the play didn't even exist two and half weeks ago.

Had to buy a couple small props before heading to Apollo 12 tonight. I had time to grab some dinner at Whattaburger (get the BBQ Cheddar while you can :up: ). After belching out all of the immediate gas, I decided to call up someone with whom I have been trying to arrange a date for some time (see earlier entry regard July 1 Soul Invictus show). As has been our ritual, I left a voice mail cassually inviting her to call back at her convenience. To my surprise, she returned my call immediately. After a few moments of chit chat, we agreed to meet up tomorrow. Hopefully, the stuff I have to do at my parents' house won't keep me for too long.

As Bill mentioned at the end of the evening, Apollo 12 is in a good place. We can get together and work out with some fun scenes, have a good time, and not get too physiphical at the end. We're strong enough as a group that we can relax and play.

Darn! I'm not tired enough to sleep yet.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

Post 333!!! Make A Wish!!!

It's 2PM and it still feels like early in the morning. Awesome.

Put in a long day at camp... a long final day. With about three hours off in the middle to grab a meal and get cleaned up for the show, I started the day at 7:30AM and it all finished up around 8PM. I think it went very well, but started out with a little more stress then was needed.

Paul was stressing out about hours and budget and was asking me to verify how long Stacey had planned to be there that day. Somehow, he thought he could trim her hours on the last day... something that seems less and less logical the more I think about it. This all turned into ugly phone tag with me in the middle... eventually, I was offering to work the evening show for free like we did last year. Eventually, Paul gave in and I think Stacey got paid for her time (I hope so). At the very least, she got the time she needed with the kids.

In one of these relays of phone calls, Stacey said that she didn't think she wanted to do this next year. As much as she loved working with this group of kids, the fights with Paul were just not worth it. I'm sorry she feels that way. I know all of the kids loved her and what she brought to the camp. Every one of them talked about how blown away they were by being able to build their own puppet and put on their own show. I even overheard one girl ask Stacey if she was coming back next year. I'm not sure how Stacey answered. I know this: If Paul could garuntee Stacey's return, then he'll have a lot of repeat business next year and word-of-mouth will give him the attendance he wants. If he can't get her back, however, there are going to be a lot of disappointed kids.

I'm on the fence as to whether or not I want to return myself. My loyalty to Stacey is a lot more important to me than my loyalty to Paul; and it saddens me that they found themselves in conflicts like this. I predict a lot of ass kissing to both of us in the next year.

I should als mention that I had to run to my school a couple of times to borrow equipement. Not a big deal, it just up my stress a little. I only wish I had remembered that the microphone chords are not included with the wireless systems... otherwise, I would have done it in one trip.

After leaving the camp, I had people up at my parents' house in Carefree. It was a great deal of fun. I really needed a night like that. Midnight swimming, lots of beer, and Jose and Misshell trying to convince me to hide drugs and dead hookers in my parents' bed. I did end up with a little bit of a hang over, but I think I'm fine now. Like I said, it's after 2 and it feels like 9 or 10 in the morning. The power went out at the house around 11am I think. Greg notice right away when his sleep apnia machine stopped running. I'll be seeing most of those people in about an hour because The Remainders have a show tonight. It's like the party hasn't really ended.

:loopy:

 

[GreenLanternMD]

July 22 @ CG

Everyone seems pretty pleased with Saturday night's show, which makes me happy.

I was so tired from Friday that all of the energy I could muster for the entire day of Saturday was invested in the show. It's a good thing I had nothing else to do that day.

I almost destroyed the show in my sloppiness. I still had some fluid in my ears from Friday night's midnight swim, so I really didn't hear the suggestion. It took me half the openning number to realize it was "Hillbillies in Disneyland" and not "Little Buildings in Disneyland". This is why it's good to have seven other people on stage a the top.

I wasn't expecting to be in as many scenes as I was; but the show was set in Disneyland so hell yeah I was jumping in.

After the show, Ken's better half came back and said that someone of some importance commented that our show was misadvertised as improv. From what I could gather, his view of what improv was supposed to be was what Second City used to do when they would create instant sketches to be worked into future shows. I think he was expecting us to huddle at the side of the stage and plan out our "bits" and "roles" before each scene rather than jumping in with both feet and listening to each other, MAKING IT UP AS WE WENT RATHER THAN PLANNING IT OUT!!!

I took the "early car" home with Ashley and Jeff, so I have no idea if anyone spoke with this gentleman after the show. I'm hoping Ken and/or Bill had a moment with him. Not a "take him outside and bite his head off" moment, but a diplomatic discussion of the diversity and evolution of the art form.

Looking forward to seeing everyone tonight.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

Mixed Feelings

Practice was productive tonight; working on harmonies and such.

Greg started an on-line dialogue RE: Plot, triggered by notes from last week's show indicating that we sometimes get "too plotty."

Greg made the point that we shouldn't abandon plot for character, but rather create strong characters that can be supported and revealed through plot. Another point he raised was this: improvised shows comparable to My Dinner with Andre would be, "...great improv shows. For Galapagos, or for Apollo 12. Not for The Remainders. Because we do musicals." To which I argued this:

"Your initial argument about the necessity of plot in a “Remainders” show is that we need the plot because we are doing a musical. This is sometimes but not always true. Let us consider that there are multiple forms that fall under the umbrella of musical theater. The form we have been studying most is the musical play, typically associated with Steven Sondheim and Rodgers and Hammerstein. These are definitely plot dependant, so I’ll come back to them. There is also the opera, which is music from start to finish, 95% of the character interaction is song while 5% or less can be called dialogue (or resessitive). Then there’s the Gilbert and Sullivan form known as the operetta, which rides the middle ground of play and opera. Finally, there’s the musical review in which there is little or no plot but rather a common theme connecting the characters and their vignettes (example: “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown”)...

(A lot of bullshit about Cole Porter and The Wizard of Oz...)

...So, the bottom line is IF we have a plot, it doesn’t have to be complicated."

A lot of people chimed in with a lot of valid points. I expect we'll get in dept with this in near future weeks.

There is another issue on my mind. I may have mentioned earlier that I was questioning whether or not I should continue my relationship with Creative Youth Theatre. While my first hand experiences with Paul Stout have been worthwhile, I can't help but to be angered by his treatment of Stacey. It's hard when someone you're working for throws a one-sided argument at you and says, "I'm not being unreasonable, am I?" Then I'm instructed to deliver his demands to Stacey... and when I deliver such news, I have a hard time making it sound reasonable. The thing I'm pissed about is that I offered to waive a part of MY pay in order to accomodate his budget issue... but he took it out of Stacey's pay instead. The reality is that Stacey probably put in more work on the camp, will likely inspire potential repeat business, and is the least likely to return because she recieved poor treatment from the employer. I, on the other hand, am treated like I walk on water. Why? Paul's missing the big picture here. The kids LIKE me. They LOVE Stacey. If they believe she's coming back, she'll sign up (and I hate to say this, but I think Paul is trying to sell the camp that way without getting a commitment from either one of us). As soon as they realize she's not returning, there goes his repeat business.

I'm worried about how the camp will turn out next year if I choose to return. I can almost gauruntee the theater will lose money... and Paul will take it out on the "other teacher" again. I'm starting to see a patern emerge. He'll keep me around for consistancy, but he got rid of Ric (who had more skills and experience than me) for reasons that were unclear... I think Paul was unhappy with out Ric's production of Sleepy Hollow turned out. Now, he'll probably lose Stacey and never admit to anyone why.

His number was on my caller ID tonight, but no message. Not sure I want to take his call right now.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

We Bring the Magic... The Location is Not Important

Bill asked that we hold Apollo 12 practice somewhere other than his home tonight for undisclosed reasons. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's temporary.

We went to Stacey's house instead. The last time we did this was just after PIF 5, and we did very little... and none of it had much to do with improv.

We decided early on that tonight would be differant, and it was. Things were not encouraging in the early hour, however. I arrived early, having little else to do this time of year. Shane arrived shortly after 7, and left minutes later saying he wasn't feeling well. This left Stacey and myself... Again, we decided we would be productive. We agreed that as soon as a third person arrived, we would do something improv related (we need that third person because an omnicient and expert third eye is needed, with or without feedback).

Tommy and friend to all Arturo arrived around 8. We got started with a warm-up which wrapped up as Jon arrived. Arturo couldn't stay, but with Jon there we had four players... more than enough to do scene exercises. We improvised a variety of scenes for an hour and felt good about our work. The scene with Tommy as a cat burgular with OCD was particularly memorable. I had a scene with Stacey where I was a Tennessee Williams character which she endowed as a 9-year-old. Lovely.

We have a Trunk Space show tomorrow. No openning act is scheduled. Those present have decided to do an Apollo 12 Double-Header (unless we are informed otherwise by JRC tomorrow). I know at least three of us will be there. It shall be quite a show.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

Improv Wins Again!!!

Tommy, Stacey and I did an Apollo 12 Double Header.

The first half was a fun-filled montage of scenes... none that I could imagine doing with anyone other than the two people I played with tonight. Awesome.

Part 2 was a change of pace. We decided shortly before returning to devote the entire second half to spontaneous anecdotes. What a treat for the people in the room. :up:

Yes there were only three of us. For this particular show at this particular moment in time, it was the perfect ensemble.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

MySpace Experiment and a Small Gathering

It was mentioned a week ago that there are about 3000 Casa Grande residents on MySpace. The Remainders are on MySpace. I have access to the back end of our MySpace page. So the experiment began.

Doing a "browse" of MySpace users (ages 18-45) within the same zip code as the Paramount Theater, I found that there were indeed about 2800 users (I ignored those without pictures because they usually only log on once and never come back). Over the past week, I have been sending out "Friend Requests" to as many of these people as I can. So far, about 1400 requests have gone out with over 250 accepting. I know I won't be able to hit all of them, but I'll get as many as I can by the end of the week. If the current stats hold true, we could have about 500 Casa Grande residents on our MySpace page. That's 500 people who live near the Paramount who can be instantly informed of an upcoming show... FOR FREE!!!

Will it work? We'll see on Aug. 18th.

As reported by Shane, a number of our players in The Remainders are either recovering from or still trying to return from DCM. One who is stuck in Jersey happens to be Bill. I presume that some of the no-shows for tonight informed Bill via e-mail... who could not reply or inform anyone else since he did not have access to his e-mail... in New Jersey. Ken, Jeff and myself had an intensive vocal workout with Shane. It was time well spent, working on finding our back-up "orchestration" potential. I believe we'll get into it even more when more of us are there next week. Most of us should be there since we're going to LA for TWO shows next weekend.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!

GOD DAMNED MYSPACE!!!

That is all.

 

[GreenLanternMD]

Current Mood of Apollo 12

Recent practices and performances have demonstrated that we're all compitant as improvisors and function well as a group... when we're in a group. The past couple of weeks, though, have shown noticeably small attendance among our company. This is nothing new and it usually goes in phases, but I'd say we're due for another day of bonding (ie bowling, lazer tag, etc.).

A couple of things coming up may do the trick. There was some brainstorming about apollo-12.com last night and how we could make our web site more than just a typical info page. One idea was to record commentaries for bad movies available on DVD, and make them down-loadable for those who wish to hear us make our editorial remarks as they watch films like MI:3 or Failiure to Launch. I for one am looking forward to this.

We also have Austin's OOB Festival/Mini-Golf Tourniment at the end of the month. Only for from A12 went last year and (to hear them talk) they were the surprise of the festival. More of us are going this time. I'm excited. It comes on the heels of The Remainders in Toronto... I have to miss a day from work two weeks in a row, but I've bought the plane tickets so there's no stopping me now.

For the past week, I've been trying to "Add Friends" to the Remainders MySpace page. At last look, there were 440 total, so that's about 320 or so who are people who live in Casa Grande. I've decided to stop for now, even though there may be a few hundred still untapped. Someone else may go back in and finish it, but it may be easier said than done. We'll see. I'm hoping the adding MySpacers will equal increased attendance at our Paramount shows.