Anyone remember this Heart song from the late 80s/early 90s? A woman picks up a stranger, has one magical night of love, then leaves? Then he finds out later she seduced him because her husband is sterile and she wanted a child.
I was listening to it on the radio just now and I think it’s the first time I’ve heard her parting words clearly:
“I am the flower
You are the seed
We walked in a garden
And planted a tree.”

I realize it’s metaphorical, but that makes no sense whatsoever.

I just finished my article on last night’s tiering-system workshop.

Try as I might, I could not convince myself that I was justified in using “Tiers of a clown” as the story title.

A few years ago, I bought a Klutz Book of Knots to teach myself basic knot-tying. I’m now familiar with square knots, bowlines, the clove hitch, the half hitch and a couple of others.

I have yet to use any knot in daily life other than on my shoes. Which I already knew.

So my question for today is: Are knots no longer necessary for the average person? Have Velcro, duct tape and assorted forms of clips and grips replaced them in our lives? If you don’t sail, ride a horse or camp in a tent, is there any need for a knowledge of knots in your life?

For the record, I don’t regret learning them–it’s far from the first useless skill I’ve taught myself–and I’m fascinated by them physically, the way a simple twist in a bit of string can suddenly render it immovable. I’m just wondering whether they’re still practical.

Opening night for Twelfth Night (for paying audiences, not students) went wonderfully last night. The cast was full of energy, our performances were good, I had friends in the audience and the audience was sooo responsive, picking up on some of the dirty Shakespearian jokes the students missed. I feel great! Also exhausted, but great.

Although the box office is saying tickets are sold out, there were empty seats last night, so don’t give up on trying to buy tickets at the door. Not that I’m hinting or anything.

Theater rocks!

The first of the two student-night performances was last night (hence my absence from City Council meeting and any possibility of liveblogging it). And it went great. The audience laughed, the cast was full of energy, our costumes look fabulous (though I have discovered that wearing garters pinches like crazy) and the audience responded well to our soliloquys. I can’t wait for tonight’s show (I think I have a couple of friends coming, which will make it even more fun).

So I googled myself recently (oh, come on, like I’m the only one who does that to themselves!) and noticed, along with all the hits about me (mostly linked to my writing of course), the usual array of mixed names such as “and that included Colin Fraser, Sherman said.” In 10 pages of google, I found four references of that sort.

Is that a lot? Fairly typical? Does anyone know the statistics? I suppose it in part depends on having, as I’ve often been told, two last names—I doubt it would happen so often if my first name was Reggie or Walter.

The dinner theater I work with Act4Murder did a show last night for a business convention/training session/retreat holding a dinner at Brennan’s. Went wonderfully. Paula, our talented writer/director, had help from the organizer working in a number of jokes about the business and the people at the retreat (on the lines of “Well, John Smith said I need to lose weight.”) which got a hysterical response from most of the audience. Having lovely women in the cast and a 90 percent male crowd didn’t hurt either.

And since dinner comes as part of our pay, we got to eat at Brennans after everything was finished. Great food, and way more expensive than I could normally afford.

I love theater.

Started rehearsals this week at OWC for this year’s Shakespeare show. The show is Twelfth Night, a romantic comedy concerning Viola, a shipwrecked girl who disguises herself as a boy; Orsinio, whom she’s in love with even though he thinks of her as a guy (in fact, “he’s” Orsinio’s trusted right hand man); Olivia, who falls for the handsome young “boy” wooing her on behalf of Orsinio; and Malvolio, Olivia’s competent but pompous, top-lofty steward, the part I play. Olivia’s sponging relative and his friends, annoyed by my nagging them, decide to convince me Olivia has fallen for me, leading to my humiliation and painful comeuppance.

It’s a wonderful role, and I found myself getting a feel for it (kind of a British butler with a poker up his butt) very quickly. Learning lines will take longer: Normally I just sight-read the script over and over, but I found out when performing Merry Wives of Windsor in 2006 that I need to hear my cue lines to learn Shakespeare, so this time, I used my camera to record me saying the cues, then downloaded them to my laptop where I could listen to them.

Rehearsals and performance (in March) will suck up time and energy like a giant sponge, but it’ll be so worth it.

After two weeks with a dead laptop battery, I received my replacement yesterday.

Knowing I can sit for four hours in Starbucks or Barnes & Noble and write without worrying about a plug is a great feeling. Well worth the $135 it cost.

Voice is much stronger, and my dinner theater wrapped up for the month last night. By Christmas dinner, I anticipate being fully vocal again.
Very busy week otherwise. Next week’s Wednesday paper will come out on Christmas day instead, so we had to get the writing for both papers done today. Phew!
Bring on the weekend!