01 November 2015
Island Life 1 November 2015
01/11/15 07:53
We did the first full read through for The Sound of Murder on Monday. As we were driving up island, Heather commented on the full moon that was just coming over the horizon. It was beautiful, and it set the stage for the whole week: Bizarre. You could really tell that it was a full moon because we kept running into weird things.
The read through and recording of the play went very well. On Tuesday I finished editing the recording and sent it out to the cast. Having an actual recording to practice with helps tremendously when you’re learning your lines. That night Marsha was watching the first game of the World Series, but she had to leave to go to water aerobics. I decided to go to bed because I was still tired from staying up the night before.
I guess at this point a bit of background is in order. Last summer I had been planning to submit a play to the One Act Festival that Echo Players hosts in November. I had written a nice comedy. In July I got together with Mike, who I had performed with in Ethan Claymore, to do a read through of the play for timing and to work out any bugs. But in the end I just couldn’t get everything together so I ended up not submitting it.
On Tuesday, a bit before 9:00 pm I got a call from Mike in his role as The President of Echo Players. It seems that one of the groups in the festival dropped out at the last minute so they had a hole in the schedule. He had suggested my play to the board and they loved the idea. This Friday we’re going to be reading it off of the scripts, kinda like a radio play rather than a full staging. It’ll be sort of a warm up for Merry Christmas George Bailey, the Christmas play they’re doing. I have another actor lined up to perform with me and we’re meeting this week to rehearse a few times. But the big news was I get to do my play, it’s so surreal still.
I stayed up to tell Marsha the good news when she got home from water aerobics. She was very happy for me. Then as she was going to bed she wondered who won the game. She was shocked to find they were still playing. Fourteen innings, nearly a record for World Series play. I didn’t get to sleep till after ten that night.
So that’s how the weird full moon week started.
Wednesday morning I woke up late and got ready for work. I noticed that Imoto was acting friendlier than usual. Meowing more. Rubbing up against me. Running off and then coming back. When I got to the kitchen she ran over to something on the floor. I went over and kneeled down to see what it was. I looked closely and discovered that it was the remains of a huge spider. Imoto had hunted it down and killed it during the night. “OK” I thought, “This is good. Finally a cat that will earn its keep.” As the week went on we found several other spiders that Imoto had dispatched. Now I have mixed feelings about this. It’s great that Imoto is taking such a proactive stance. On the other hand I’m not too happy to find all of the spiders we apparently had (have?) in the house.
Then on Thursday at work we were experimenting with a computer controlled system. For some reason when the computer boots up all the fans come on at full speed. After 15 to 20 seconds they slow down and the noise goes away. The result is that the computer sounds uncannily like an old style air raid siren. So several of us were there when we restarted the system for the umpteenth time. My boss commented “Look out, we’re going to get bombed by the Germans.”
To which I quipped, “Isn’t that what they call Oktoberfest?”
On Friday we picked up some beer for the weekend. As per usual we got a 12 pack of an assortment of flavours, this time from Rickard’s. In it were four bottles of Rickard’s Red, four bottles of Rickard’s Blonde, and four bottles of Rickard’s Lederhosen. What? I mean Blonde is good and I know what Red is. In a previous pack I even got to try White and Dark and they weren’t bad. But what’s Lederhosen beer? At first I thought it would taste like socks. But then I realized that Lederhosen were sweaty leather short pants.
That’s not really any better.
This was the same day I discovered something odd. Up here they have Beer Advent Calendars. Is this a thing in the US? I never heard of them before and they seem so, so,… Canadian. Twenty four bottles to open throughout December. Quick call Bob and Doug McKenzie. I have to admit though, there have been some Christmases that I could have use a case of beer, just on Christmas Day.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/beer-advent-calendar-season-is-almost-here-but-options-fewer-1.3291663
Saturday morning I woke up to the BBC World Service doing a story on the 40th anniversary of the release of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. For people our age this was a landmark song. The story started with a medley of cover versions of the song. “Oh, great”, I thought, “Here comes Taylor Swift and the Bee Gees singing the bismillah’s and Mamma Mia’s and such.” But no this was the World Service. They played versions in (I think) Chinese, Japanese, Farsi, Hindi and a couple others that I couldn’t identify. I listened to them with some amusement. Then they played the final cut, a recording in German. I was laughing out loud at the music because German totally changes the feel of the song. Then, when they got to the “No, No, No, No, No” line I totally lost it. A group of Germans yelling “Nein Nein Nein Nein Nein” at some guy brought up completely the wrong image.
Later Saturday we were watching one of the House Hunter shows. This time they were looking for beachfront property in Florida. Now, I’m not familiar with the geography of Florida but I swear I heard the Agent say “I’m going to take them to a really nice area, Cape Sand Blast.” Cape Sand Blast? That sounds about as appealing as Port Asbestos, Ontario, or Boring, Oregon. It just doesn’t make me thing of nice pleasant retirement spot. I mean, if I lived in Cape Sand Blast I think I’d really rather not leave my car or anything else I cared about outside. It just doesn’t sound like somewhere I’d want to wander on the beach or sunbathe. Something just doesn’t seem right.
And that wrapped up a really weird full moon week.
Thought for the week: It is usually a bad idea to end a sentence with a preposition.
However, you will get in more trouble if you habitually end a sentence with a proposition.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: See, Lederhosen. And yes as it turns out that’s what it tastes like. Also here’s the moon on Tuesday. It’s all the moon’s fault.
The read through and recording of the play went very well. On Tuesday I finished editing the recording and sent it out to the cast. Having an actual recording to practice with helps tremendously when you’re learning your lines. That night Marsha was watching the first game of the World Series, but she had to leave to go to water aerobics. I decided to go to bed because I was still tired from staying up the night before.
I guess at this point a bit of background is in order. Last summer I had been planning to submit a play to the One Act Festival that Echo Players hosts in November. I had written a nice comedy. In July I got together with Mike, who I had performed with in Ethan Claymore, to do a read through of the play for timing and to work out any bugs. But in the end I just couldn’t get everything together so I ended up not submitting it.
On Tuesday, a bit before 9:00 pm I got a call from Mike in his role as The President of Echo Players. It seems that one of the groups in the festival dropped out at the last minute so they had a hole in the schedule. He had suggested my play to the board and they loved the idea. This Friday we’re going to be reading it off of the scripts, kinda like a radio play rather than a full staging. It’ll be sort of a warm up for Merry Christmas George Bailey, the Christmas play they’re doing. I have another actor lined up to perform with me and we’re meeting this week to rehearse a few times. But the big news was I get to do my play, it’s so surreal still.
I stayed up to tell Marsha the good news when she got home from water aerobics. She was very happy for me. Then as she was going to bed she wondered who won the game. She was shocked to find they were still playing. Fourteen innings, nearly a record for World Series play. I didn’t get to sleep till after ten that night.
So that’s how the weird full moon week started.
Wednesday morning I woke up late and got ready for work. I noticed that Imoto was acting friendlier than usual. Meowing more. Rubbing up against me. Running off and then coming back. When I got to the kitchen she ran over to something on the floor. I went over and kneeled down to see what it was. I looked closely and discovered that it was the remains of a huge spider. Imoto had hunted it down and killed it during the night. “OK” I thought, “This is good. Finally a cat that will earn its keep.” As the week went on we found several other spiders that Imoto had dispatched. Now I have mixed feelings about this. It’s great that Imoto is taking such a proactive stance. On the other hand I’m not too happy to find all of the spiders we apparently had (have?) in the house.
Then on Thursday at work we were experimenting with a computer controlled system. For some reason when the computer boots up all the fans come on at full speed. After 15 to 20 seconds they slow down and the noise goes away. The result is that the computer sounds uncannily like an old style air raid siren. So several of us were there when we restarted the system for the umpteenth time. My boss commented “Look out, we’re going to get bombed by the Germans.”
To which I quipped, “Isn’t that what they call Oktoberfest?”
On Friday we picked up some beer for the weekend. As per usual we got a 12 pack of an assortment of flavours, this time from Rickard’s. In it were four bottles of Rickard’s Red, four bottles of Rickard’s Blonde, and four bottles of Rickard’s Lederhosen. What? I mean Blonde is good and I know what Red is. In a previous pack I even got to try White and Dark and they weren’t bad. But what’s Lederhosen beer? At first I thought it would taste like socks. But then I realized that Lederhosen were sweaty leather short pants.
That’s not really any better.
This was the same day I discovered something odd. Up here they have Beer Advent Calendars. Is this a thing in the US? I never heard of them before and they seem so, so,… Canadian. Twenty four bottles to open throughout December. Quick call Bob and Doug McKenzie. I have to admit though, there have been some Christmases that I could have use a case of beer, just on Christmas Day.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/beer-advent-calendar-season-is-almost-here-but-options-fewer-1.3291663
Saturday morning I woke up to the BBC World Service doing a story on the 40th anniversary of the release of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. For people our age this was a landmark song. The story started with a medley of cover versions of the song. “Oh, great”, I thought, “Here comes Taylor Swift and the Bee Gees singing the bismillah’s and Mamma Mia’s and such.” But no this was the World Service. They played versions in (I think) Chinese, Japanese, Farsi, Hindi and a couple others that I couldn’t identify. I listened to them with some amusement. Then they played the final cut, a recording in German. I was laughing out loud at the music because German totally changes the feel of the song. Then, when they got to the “No, No, No, No, No” line I totally lost it. A group of Germans yelling “Nein Nein Nein Nein Nein” at some guy brought up completely the wrong image.
Later Saturday we were watching one of the House Hunter shows. This time they were looking for beachfront property in Florida. Now, I’m not familiar with the geography of Florida but I swear I heard the Agent say “I’m going to take them to a really nice area, Cape Sand Blast.” Cape Sand Blast? That sounds about as appealing as Port Asbestos, Ontario, or Boring, Oregon. It just doesn’t make me thing of nice pleasant retirement spot. I mean, if I lived in Cape Sand Blast I think I’d really rather not leave my car or anything else I cared about outside. It just doesn’t sound like somewhere I’d want to wander on the beach or sunbathe. Something just doesn’t seem right.
And that wrapped up a really weird full moon week.
Thought for the week: It is usually a bad idea to end a sentence with a preposition.
However, you will get in more trouble if you habitually end a sentence with a proposition.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: See, Lederhosen. And yes as it turns out that’s what it tastes like. Also here’s the moon on Tuesday. It’s all the moon’s fault.