I had to meet with the head of my division today. Been working on a special project for him. Having spent several weeks coordinating traffic counts and several long days doing data entry, our meeting reveals that we have completely different versions of what to analyze for the data - mine based on what all existing buildings in Calgary's downtown are doing, his based on... well... I hope somebody knows what his idea is based on because it sure as hell isn't me or anyone else living on this planet.
Why do the aliens get all the top positions? Why don't they get better fitting human suits?
Long story long, I have to do a bunch of refiguring (with the help of one of the junior grade aliens) to do all the data entry again with slightly different categories. By Monday.
No that's fine CrazyBossBeing, I didn't have plans for the future.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Thursday, March 16, 2006
The things we miss...
Today I dropped off presentation boards for an open house at Mount Royal College.
I found myself feeling a bit alien with my dolly load of collapsable easils (easels?) among all the bright young things wandering the halls. I miss being a student. I miss the classes and homework, I miss living life in neat little four month blocks.
I think it's a little sad to miss university - it was supposed to be preparing me for something more, something beyond itself - it claimed to be foreward looking. But I suppose nobody studying abstact math, philosophy, or creative writing can really be thought of as looking ahead.
I think it's a lot sad to miss university. We're just as free now as we ever were. And if we went back to school now we'd be that sad mature student in the corner - the one nobody really wants to talk to. Hey! I guess it wouldn't be that different!
I found myself feeling a bit alien with my dolly load of collapsable easils (easels?) among all the bright young things wandering the halls. I miss being a student. I miss the classes and homework, I miss living life in neat little four month blocks.
I think it's a little sad to miss university - it was supposed to be preparing me for something more, something beyond itself - it claimed to be foreward looking. But I suppose nobody studying abstact math, philosophy, or creative writing can really be thought of as looking ahead.
I think it's a lot sad to miss university. We're just as free now as we ever were. And if we went back to school now we'd be that sad mature student in the corner - the one nobody really wants to talk to. Hey! I guess it wouldn't be that different!
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Monday, March 13, 2006
A Tale of Two Theatre Companies
Like those weird muppet mystics in "The Dark Crystal", what now exists as two opposing theatre companies began as one unified entity.
[Use of literary reference: 1 point. Use of nerdy literary reference: -2 points. Current score: -1]
I was, at the time, a grad student at the University of Calgary on his second generation of friends. This batch had formed the Mind the Walrus Theatre Group out of the co-authors and some participants in a high school production, and had accumulated other like-minded individuals along the way. It's worth noting that "like-minded" in this context meant "interested in doing theatre, but not interested/good enough to be drama majors". The king of this world was Angry Dan, and I had been his friend for years - starting out as friends with his older brother in high school and after the brother moved to Vancouver, staying on with AD and his flock of friends.
And I wanted to be involved in their theatre company. I had played a bit part in a high school production of the Tempest, was in the process of rejecting my scientific past for airy-fairy philosophy and arts, and for this group it was the "in" thing. I wanted to be "in".
[Needless focus on personal issues: -2 points. Current score: -3]
My involvement in MTW productions: I played "the Trekkie" in the horror spoof "I Know What Urban Legend You Screamed Last Halloween" where I had one line and was then slain by the serial killers - directed by the girl who would go on to become Lady Rose. And I wrote some sketches for and performed bit parts in a sketch comedy revue done one night on campus. But I was generally kept to the outside by what my then post-teenaged-but-still-socially-awkward consciousness percieved as an unspoken conspiracy by the powers-that-were in MTW, most specifically my connection to the group: Angry Dan, to keep me from being "in".
[Cast as trekkie because he *owned* a trekkie outfit: -4 points. Teen angst from a grad student: -2 points. Current score: -9 points]
So I was mostly on the outside for the fights that dominated MTW politics. Casting fights. Directing fights. Who's-fault-was-the-shitty-publicity fights. And the worst - the how-come-Angry-Dan-gets-to-make-all-the-decisions-by-throwing-a-fit-if-anyone-disagrees fights. But behind the scenes I guess I was involved because the future Lady Rose left her then boyfriend (another MTW regular) for me as the result of a cast party, and I made an unpopular transition from the world of Angry Dan's friends to Lady Rose's circle of influence.
[Making drunken cast-party antics work (three years married and counting): +4 points. Current score: -5 points]
And despite a reasonably successful production at the Edmonton Fringe, the fights were becoming intolerable. This was, after all, supposed to be for fun. There were no drama majors here. So there was a council - an intervention? - a coup? - and Lady Rose, Bubbles the Terrifying, the Reverend Kevin Stefan, and SqueekyThleen (the captain's mate, now ex) hammered out an accord with Angry Dan and his band of yes-men: the show that was being rehearsed would go on, and that would be the end of it - moneys earned donated to the Pumphouse and hands dusted of the whole sorry affair. Four months later, two new theatre companies were forming and the feud was now a rivalry.
This time, I was in. This time my personal connection to the inner sanctum would work for me. Heck I was part of the inner sanctum. Not officially on the original exec, but at the founding meetings, writing scripts for consideration, applying my years of tech experience (working at a church, but still...) Satisfying.
[A little too pleased with himself: -1 point.]
In my corner: Hidden Insanity Theatre. (Name created by Kevin's wacky theatre company name-generation spreadsheet.)
In the other corner: Scorpio Theatre. (Name stolen from Simpson's episode)
In my corner: New works by a variety of authors (Rostock Rose included), interesting published scripts, sketch comedies, improv shows on campus.
In the other corner: New works by Angry Dan, old works by Angry Dan - as if remounted they would be better, freed of the unholy influences of Lady Rose and her ilk. Yes, it really was the Angry Dan show starring Angry Dan.
Time passes...
This last weekend marked the start of a "hiatus" for Hidden Insanity. (A crappy one since we're already planning a few events for next year.) Seemed like a good time to look back and see what we've accomplished.
Financially the company is strong - we borrowed money from ourselves to start things off - paid it all back - mounted an Alberta Fringe tour and have coasted along on the proceeds ever since. We've mastered the "pretty much breaking even" school of minimizing expenses and had a few big hits (like Romeo and Hamlet last year) that pump moneys back into the well.
We've grown in terms of the quality and maturity of our shows - broadened our range to include different kinds of comedy and dramatic theatre. Developed new works, found just the right scripts to use, and learned how to cast a stable show, market a show reasonably effectively in the arts-desert that is Calgary, and manage the many technical issues involved in producing live theatre. We even have a style: sharp, darkly comedic, but approachable by and entertaining for a general audience. Not mallety in message, not juevenille in depth.
We've had our problems - a string of producers being the most noticable, and the odd unfortunate choice in casting or choice of director. There is a show-that-shall-not-be-named in our past, a light-design I did on the fly on tech day when our ill-trained light designer walked the night before load-in, and a "no list" of people we just have learned better than to work with.
Major milestones - Successful tour with sketch comedy show to Athabasca, Edmonton, and Calgary fringes got mixed reviews (many shows do not even get mixed reviews) and decent attendance. General buzz about doing good work - people want to be involved in Hidden Insanity shows. Romeo and Hamlet, co-written by Kevin Stefan and myself won Outstanding Original Script at last years Calgary Amateur Theatre awards. (Yes, the awards are kind-of a political joke, but there were a couple other legitimate contenders and it was a kick-ass show.)
[Balanced review of history: +2 points. Tooting own horn: -1 point.]
And just this last weekend Lady Rose won Best Director for "Prisoner's Dilemma" at the Calgary Regional One-Act Festival.
At the same festival, Scorpio produced Angry Dan's "Jesus versus Superman" which was, to be blunt, pretty lame. It's rare for the two companies to be in such direct competition, and the occasion highlighted the great differences between the companies.
Scorpio has never stopped producing Angry Dan's plays. And Angry Dan has never stopped writing jeuvenille scripts. Just out of highschool these were witty, pop-culture laced fun. A few years later they were campy so-bad-its-good fun. Now they're just sad. And we still hear the stories of performances for five person audiences. And we've gone to the odd show and our group has been the majority of the crowd. They did do a cross Canadian fringe tour with a slapstick retelling of the Hercules myth, but even this year they're remounting shows from the MTW days - shows that made people queasy the first time around.
[Gossip on a blog: +4 points.]
I feel guilty when I think about it. I'm not a huge fan of winning. And they've got endurance - I must give them that. So they keep right on doing what I see as suffering. But I guess they must enjoy it at that.
[Uh-oh-here-comes-the-maudlin: -2 points.]
Are we really that different? Neither company is going professional. Neither company is changing the world, or even the Calgary art scene. Both have audiences composed largely of family, friends, and friends of friends. Both are just doing it because they have fun - because its a better hobby than watching TV five nights a week. We hold ourselves up against our own standards and are satisfied. Those standards just happen to be different.
[Down-right pathetic self-effacing: -5 points.]
But from my point of view - the festival this year had three grades of theatre (as RevKev puts it): Good, Salvagable, and Dire. We hit good despite a script we knew had flaws, but J.vs.S. was dire indeed. It was no homeless-lady-in-cocktail-dress-dances-behind-mute-motionless-business-man show. (My soul, give me back my soul.) But it was a play that couldn't muster a single interesting thing to say about either Jesus or Superman. Or a climax. Or a point.
Despite the pleading of the crowd, that boxer just won't go down. And the hits just keep on coming.
[Pretensious and bitchy wrap-up: -3 points.]
[Final tally: -11. (-10 to -15. Weasel-ey. Your blog is either too mean, or not mean enough. You probably wanted to be even more insulting, but chicked out because its a public forum. Suck it up princess - a little more fire and you'll earn your self a "blitch-slap".)]
[Use of literary reference: 1 point. Use of nerdy literary reference: -2 points. Current score: -1]
I was, at the time, a grad student at the University of Calgary on his second generation of friends. This batch had formed the Mind the Walrus Theatre Group out of the co-authors and some participants in a high school production, and had accumulated other like-minded individuals along the way. It's worth noting that "like-minded" in this context meant "interested in doing theatre, but not interested/good enough to be drama majors". The king of this world was Angry Dan, and I had been his friend for years - starting out as friends with his older brother in high school and after the brother moved to Vancouver, staying on with AD and his flock of friends.
And I wanted to be involved in their theatre company. I had played a bit part in a high school production of the Tempest, was in the process of rejecting my scientific past for airy-fairy philosophy and arts, and for this group it was the "in" thing. I wanted to be "in".
[Needless focus on personal issues: -2 points. Current score: -3]
My involvement in MTW productions: I played "the Trekkie" in the horror spoof "I Know What Urban Legend You Screamed Last Halloween" where I had one line and was then slain by the serial killers - directed by the girl who would go on to become Lady Rose. And I wrote some sketches for and performed bit parts in a sketch comedy revue done one night on campus. But I was generally kept to the outside by what my then post-teenaged-but-still-socially-awkward consciousness percieved as an unspoken conspiracy by the powers-that-were in MTW, most specifically my connection to the group: Angry Dan, to keep me from being "in".
[Cast as trekkie because he *owned* a trekkie outfit: -4 points. Teen angst from a grad student: -2 points. Current score: -9 points]
So I was mostly on the outside for the fights that dominated MTW politics. Casting fights. Directing fights. Who's-fault-was-the-shitty-publicity fights. And the worst - the how-come-Angry-Dan-gets-to-make-all-the-decisions-by-throwing-a-fit-if-anyone-disagrees fights. But behind the scenes I guess I was involved because the future Lady Rose left her then boyfriend (another MTW regular) for me as the result of a cast party, and I made an unpopular transition from the world of Angry Dan's friends to Lady Rose's circle of influence.
[Making drunken cast-party antics work (three years married and counting): +4 points. Current score: -5 points]
And despite a reasonably successful production at the Edmonton Fringe, the fights were becoming intolerable. This was, after all, supposed to be for fun. There were no drama majors here. So there was a council - an intervention? - a coup? - and Lady Rose, Bubbles the Terrifying, the Reverend Kevin Stefan, and SqueekyThleen (the captain's mate, now ex) hammered out an accord with Angry Dan and his band of yes-men: the show that was being rehearsed would go on, and that would be the end of it - moneys earned donated to the Pumphouse and hands dusted of the whole sorry affair. Four months later, two new theatre companies were forming and the feud was now a rivalry.
This time, I was in. This time my personal connection to the inner sanctum would work for me. Heck I was part of the inner sanctum. Not officially on the original exec, but at the founding meetings, writing scripts for consideration, applying my years of tech experience (working at a church, but still...) Satisfying.
[A little too pleased with himself: -1 point.]
In my corner: Hidden Insanity Theatre. (Name created by Kevin's wacky theatre company name-generation spreadsheet.)
In the other corner: Scorpio Theatre. (Name stolen from Simpson's episode)
In my corner: New works by a variety of authors (Rostock Rose included), interesting published scripts, sketch comedies, improv shows on campus.
In the other corner: New works by Angry Dan, old works by Angry Dan - as if remounted they would be better, freed of the unholy influences of Lady Rose and her ilk. Yes, it really was the Angry Dan show starring Angry Dan.
Time passes...
This last weekend marked the start of a "hiatus" for Hidden Insanity. (A crappy one since we're already planning a few events for next year.) Seemed like a good time to look back and see what we've accomplished.
Financially the company is strong - we borrowed money from ourselves to start things off - paid it all back - mounted an Alberta Fringe tour and have coasted along on the proceeds ever since. We've mastered the "pretty much breaking even" school of minimizing expenses and had a few big hits (like Romeo and Hamlet last year) that pump moneys back into the well.
We've grown in terms of the quality and maturity of our shows - broadened our range to include different kinds of comedy and dramatic theatre. Developed new works, found just the right scripts to use, and learned how to cast a stable show, market a show reasonably effectively in the arts-desert that is Calgary, and manage the many technical issues involved in producing live theatre. We even have a style: sharp, darkly comedic, but approachable by and entertaining for a general audience. Not mallety in message, not juevenille in depth.
We've had our problems - a string of producers being the most noticable, and the odd unfortunate choice in casting or choice of director. There is a show-that-shall-not-be-named in our past, a light-design I did on the fly on tech day when our ill-trained light designer walked the night before load-in, and a "no list" of people we just have learned better than to work with.
Major milestones - Successful tour with sketch comedy show to Athabasca, Edmonton, and Calgary fringes got mixed reviews (many shows do not even get mixed reviews) and decent attendance. General buzz about doing good work - people want to be involved in Hidden Insanity shows. Romeo and Hamlet, co-written by Kevin Stefan and myself won Outstanding Original Script at last years Calgary Amateur Theatre awards. (Yes, the awards are kind-of a political joke, but there were a couple other legitimate contenders and it was a kick-ass show.)
[Balanced review of history: +2 points. Tooting own horn: -1 point.]
And just this last weekend Lady Rose won Best Director for "Prisoner's Dilemma" at the Calgary Regional One-Act Festival.
At the same festival, Scorpio produced Angry Dan's "Jesus versus Superman" which was, to be blunt, pretty lame. It's rare for the two companies to be in such direct competition, and the occasion highlighted the great differences between the companies.
Scorpio has never stopped producing Angry Dan's plays. And Angry Dan has never stopped writing jeuvenille scripts. Just out of highschool these were witty, pop-culture laced fun. A few years later they were campy so-bad-its-good fun. Now they're just sad. And we still hear the stories of performances for five person audiences. And we've gone to the odd show and our group has been the majority of the crowd. They did do a cross Canadian fringe tour with a slapstick retelling of the Hercules myth, but even this year they're remounting shows from the MTW days - shows that made people queasy the first time around.
[Gossip on a blog: +4 points.]
I feel guilty when I think about it. I'm not a huge fan of winning. And they've got endurance - I must give them that. So they keep right on doing what I see as suffering. But I guess they must enjoy it at that.
[Uh-oh-here-comes-the-maudlin: -2 points.]
Are we really that different? Neither company is going professional. Neither company is changing the world, or even the Calgary art scene. Both have audiences composed largely of family, friends, and friends of friends. Both are just doing it because they have fun - because its a better hobby than watching TV five nights a week. We hold ourselves up against our own standards and are satisfied. Those standards just happen to be different.
[Down-right pathetic self-effacing: -5 points.]
But from my point of view - the festival this year had three grades of theatre (as RevKev puts it): Good, Salvagable, and Dire. We hit good despite a script we knew had flaws, but J.vs.S. was dire indeed. It was no homeless-lady-in-cocktail-dress-dances-behind-mute-motionless-business-man show. (My soul, give me back my soul.) But it was a play that couldn't muster a single interesting thing to say about either Jesus or Superman. Or a climax. Or a point.
Despite the pleading of the crowd, that boxer just won't go down. And the hits just keep on coming.
[Pretensious and bitchy wrap-up: -3 points.]
[Final tally: -11. (-10 to -15. Weasel-ey. Your blog is either too mean, or not mean enough. You probably wanted to be even more insulting, but chicked out because its a public forum. Suck it up princess - a little more fire and you'll earn your self a "blitch-slap".)]
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