| Auditions for piratey goodness |
[Mar. 22nd, 2009|09:17 pm] |
The official word will go out in the next 24 hours, but here it is, "semi-officially", 'cos y'all are my peeps:
The Pastimes auditions for 2009, including the New England Pirate Faire, will take place on Sunday April 5, 10 AM to 5 PM, at The Gloucester House, 63 Rogers Street, Gloucester MA.
There may be a second date scheduled for later in April, but this is what's officially scheduled thus far. It thankfully doesn't conflict with CTRF's auditions. It does conflict with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mjolnir_babe's housewares sale, but I expect that with a little bit of planning, anyone who wants to hit both will be able to. |
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| Tuesday, and ache-free! |
[Feb. 10th, 2009|07:46 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  busy | ] |
So, the first weekend of the Seminars went very, very well, and so far I've only received a few formal charges of torture. *G* Yeah, I'll admit that yesterday I had the odd spot of stiffness and/or achiness. I put that down to being old and out-of-shape, rather than the amount of work I did; that certainly paled in comparison to the effort the students put in!
Saturday: We had a slightly smaller group than we'd anticipated, as a variety of individual circumstances forced a handful of people to either reschedule or cancel. Ah, c'est la vie. The group which was present was the kind of group I like to have: a variety of experience levels, and every one of them game to try everything. The first part of the Barehand class went at a swift pace, getting the experienced students warmed up and bringing the new folks up to speed, and the mass brawl finale was a lot of fun... I'm thinking of making that an occasional rehearsal exercise in future shows that require a lot of mass combat. :^)
The afternoon Broadsword class also pushed forward even more rapidly than we'd hoped; the inexperienced folks hung in there despite the physical and mental strain, and the veterans kept their form and execution clean... which kept encouraging us to push further. Next year I'm going to prep an extra two hours' worth of material, just in case!
After class, a handful of us repaired to sairisse and bosfan24's place for an evening of beer, homemade chili (mmmm, spicy!) & cornbread, and kung fu movies. It was then that the lot of us, all unwitting, were exposed to Shaolin Drunkard... a film so brutally bizarre that none of us may ever sleep quite so soundly ever again. Imagine Lidsville, as directed by David Lynch, filtered through a vat of absinthe, and you'll kinda begin to get the idea...
Sunday: The medieval mixed-weapons session went fantastically well! Cliff & I had expected that we'd be spending most of our time running from one station to the next, dealing with techincal issues. Quite the opposite: other than clarifying a few weapon-traffic questions here and there, we got to let the students get inside the weapons with minimal stop & start, and to concentrate on finer points of technique. Things went well enough, in fact, that we were able to open up the end of the session to a variant on free-play, which we hadn't thought we'd get to do; I think we'll be using this format regularly in the future.
Intensive rapier was just that, and impressively everyone hung with it right from the beginning. We'd been prepared to split the class to accomodate varying skill levels, but that thankfully turned out to be unnecessary; "thankfully" because it meant that we got to push forward at a faster clip and get into the more advanced stuff. Tiring as I know the class was for the students, I wished we could have gone on for another couple of hours, and starting working two-blade fighting into the mix! I was, however, reminded yet again that when "leading by example" in such matters as holding stance for extended periods, I ought to warm up better... :^p
Already looking forward to next weekend, when we'll do it all again with a new group of people! Well, almost all of it... I'm not sitting down to "Shaolin Drunkard" again voluntarily for a very long time... |
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| Fight Seminars begin this weekend! |
[Feb. 3rd, 2009|01:22 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  fighty! | ] |
(Crossposted all ovah)
The 2009 Midwinter Stage Combat Seminars are almost upon us! For those folks who're already on board for all the steel-slinging goodness, I'm looking forward to seeing you in a few days. For those who're still waiting to sign up, time is growing short. The first sessions are this coming weekend, and classes are getting full!
The link below leads to the original announcement, which has the course listings, schedule, and sign-up information. Class availability is current as of today, and will be updated throughout the scheduled seminars. Note that any session listed as "Full" is not accepting any additional students at this time.
Click here to jump to the schedule and signup info!
Hope to see you there! |
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| Especially for sairisse |
[Jan. 29th, 2009|04:46 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  Bacon! | ] |
Bacon fever. Catch it!
This thing is called the Bacon Explosion. I think it kills vegetables just by being in the same building with them... |
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| Running off to join the Sturgis Circus! |
[Jan. 28th, 2009|04:05 pm] |
I'm not a gearhead by any measure, and I've never driven a motorcycle in my life.
But this is pretty frakkin' cool. In a biker-meets-acrobat sort of way.
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| Spore! |
[Jan. 19th, 2009|02:17 pm] |
As you can see, I've been on a slightly silly mythology kick lately. Gawd, that game amuses me... :^) |
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| Happy Birthday, mutefuzzybard! |
[Jan. 13th, 2009|10:03 am] |
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Have a great one! Yes, yes indeedy... |
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| Fight Seminar Announcement (at long last!) |
[Jan. 8th, 2009|03:22 pm] |
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(cross-posted out the wazoo)
It’s a new year, filled with renewed hope and promise! So why not start it off right, with a bit of friendly mayhem? Yes, The 2009 Midwinter Stage Combat Seminars are officially on! Once again, the fearless fight directors of Pastimes Productions, Clifford Allen and myself, will be teaching a series of stage combat classes, covering performance, technique, and some of the most popular weapons forms. Come shake off the winter rust, hone your skills, and pick up some new ones! Our 6th anniversary Open Sessions will feature our signature integrated approach to the craft, encompassing performance aspects as well as weapons technique. We’re also happy to announce the return of last year’s popular Master Classes: advanced and demanding sessions designed for the experienced performer. Oh, and this year…. we’re taking requests! Read on..! ( Make with the clicky ) |
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| So, last night was a good night |
[Jan. 7th, 2009|10:09 am] |
The Pros:
* Got to spend an evening in the company of the lovely pjainey, which was wonderful; pamlin and I have been missing our Jane Time.
* Said evening was spent eating and drinking at The Independent, our favorite local watering hole.
* We were joined by coscaram for the festivities, which meant that he & I were able to scheme and plot regarding finalizing the midwinter Fight Seminars... the official word about those will be coming out very, very soon!
* We stayed until the place had just about closed around us.
The Cons:
* None to speak of, really.
Like I said, a good night. :^) |
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| Happy Birthday, tianaran! |
[Dec. 29th, 2008|10:04 am] |
Eat cake!!
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| Happy Boxing Day! |
[Dec. 26th, 2008|08:36 am] |
Well, the lousy national and global situations be damned, this has been one of the best Christmases in a while for yours truly! After our plans to travel to Pennsylvania last week were scuttled by the big snowstorms, I instead used the days off I'd planned for recovery to finish up my shopping, both for gifts and the necessary supplies for the inevitable baking-fest that always accompanies the holidays. I think I've spent more time in grocery stores over the past month than I have in my own home.
I also managed to catch up with the family, all of whom has managed to sneak into Boston between blizzards. Christmas Eve day, I took my nephew (six) and niece (three) to the Children's Museum in Boston, both to give them a fun outing and to grant my brother and sister-in-law a few hours of blessed peace. I expected to be run utterly ragged by the pair of them, but between the last-minute addition of my mother as backup and my own inner child unexpectedly resurfacing, I managed to keep up pretty darn well. Afterwards we pit-stopped briefly back at my place, where I utterly impressed my nephew by demonstrating how to crack a bullwhip (he's big into Indiana Jones right now). The Wife soon joined us from a post-work shopping trip of her own, and we trundled out to meet up with the rest of the family for a home-cooked Carolina-style Rib Fest, courtesy of my brother's mastery of kitchen-fu. I can easily see a Christmas Eve dinner of cornbread, slaw, mac & cheese, ranch beans and a huge rack of sweet, spicy, greasy ribs becoming an Isaacson family tradition from now on..!
Christmas morning simply rocked. We got up early-ish, The Wife whipped up our customary holiday breakfast of fresh monkeybread, and with "A Christmas Story" nattering in the background we dug into our pressies. The Wife went way overboard and showered me with some beautifully phat lewts, including an iPod Nano (yes, I'm a Luddite no more! I too will be one of those people you talk to for 30 seconds before realizing that they're wearing earbuds and haven't heard a damn thing you've said!), the expansion pack for Spore (currently my favorite PC game), and a freakin' Burberry raincoat (usually incredibly expensive! The Wife scored an amazing deal somehow... she has powers...) with a new hat to go with. Sweet!! We also had far too much fun with the new laser pointer toy we got for the cats... oh, the confusion on their little feline faces...
Christmas dinner was at my cousins' house in Framingham: a gathering filled with relatives, wine, childish energy, ham, gifts, massive portions of dessert, and a 90+ pound black Lab/Rottweiler mix named Morgan who just loooooooves pamlin. We stayed a bit late, and managed to get home just before midnight: tired, laden with goodies, and very happy.
Today, the plan is to hit the post office to pick up a package and T.J.'s to get some bar chocolate to make hand-dipped candies with, then head out to the final family gathering of the holiday (my maternal grandmother will be holding court at a Chinese feast). And then... we have movies to watch, books to read, and a full weekend of sweet relaxation in which to do so... glorious. |
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| While waiting for the blizzard to unleash its fury |
[Dec. 19th, 2008|07:55 am] |
I thought I'd share this. Many of you have seen it already of course, but for those who might not have yet had the pleasure..
Beaker's "Ode to Joy"
Now, off to drop off The Wife at work, do a bit more holiday shopping, and see whether or not Logan shuts down entirely before mid-afternoon... |
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| Thanksgiving weekend in review, the fast edition |
[Dec. 1st, 2008|09:30 am] |
Wednesday: Took the day off to run errands and do prep work for the feast. Was driven to - but fortunately not past - the point of indiscriminate homicide by the high percentage of fools and incompetents who had apparently been given cars and tasked with harassing me all along my route. *G* That aside, though, I managed to both get everything we needed and keep my visiting mom-in-law reasonably entertained.
Thursday: The great event, in which various of my relatives descended upon us for an hours-long bacchinalia of turkey et al. Ali, our lovely roomie, also invited her brother and a friend to the fetivities, so we were about a dozen all told. The Wife led the charge in the cooking department, so everything of course turned out fabulously (the gravy and the stuffing were especially delish). We also had splurged on a proper probe-style thermometer, rather than relying on the little plastic pop-o-matic, so the turkey was actually cooked properly (this was a thrill for me; my family has a bit of a history of dry-as-dust poultry). For our first time hosting the family Thanksgiving, everything went very well (a few dodged bullets aside; ask me about The Clog sometime). And we have leftovers... oh Lordy, do we...
Friday: Most of our guests still with us. They went of to do touristy stuff, The Wife went to work, and I spent a good portion of the day bagging leaves in the yard, and putting the house back into some semblance of order. Y'know, like I do.
Saturday: Loafiness. Mum-in-law headed for home; other guests remained to do more touristy stuffs.
Sunday: Dodged out late morning to do a not-half-bad armored gig at a private home down in Middleborough, then returned home to finish my hosting duties and get everyone packed safely off. Missed the annual Paul B-day Fest as a result, unfortunately, but that was the only real down note in what otherwise had turned out to be quite a good long weekend. Went to bed early.
Monday: Up early to move 30 bags of rain-sodden leaves to the curb for pickup. I'm a wee bit stiff as a result... my back troubles, let me show you them. And now I'm at work, trying to remember exactly what it is that I do here all day. ;^D |
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| Voted! |
[Nov. 4th, 2008|10:26 am] |
Electoral participation: I has it.
If you've voted already, good on ya! If not, get going, time is ticking away! |
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| The week, it ended. |
[Oct. 27th, 2008|01:30 pm] |
Long weekend, but one most excellent.
Thursday: Work, and the arrival of the fantabulous melebeth, who camped on our couch for the weekend. This gave the cats a new person to sleep on, which always makes them happy.
Friday: More work, then meeting up with Dr. E., coscaram, Ali & John over at Kennedy's for drinks and snacks. An incompetent hostess prevented us from getting a proper dinner, alas, but we availed ourselves of nearby bagel sandwiches and continued unfazed to our goal: the Orphuem, where Great Big Sea was in the house. This made the third time I've caught them live, and each successive show has gotten better. They played a nice mix of songs from the new album and older stuff, along with a few unexpected twists (example: they started their 2nd encore with Led Zep's "Gallows Pole", which was very cool). One of the best aspects of the show, really, was seeing how much these guys enjoy playing together; it's that sort of thing which makes me wish I hadn't inherited solidly un-musical genes... *G*
Saturday: Up at 4:00 AM to drive out to Waltham and meet up with prowler1971, who drove us not-quite to New York for a daylong gig. Said gig entailed my doing three performances of "the Tragidiots" with bad_gustav, and light announcement duties the rest of the day. It was a bit tougher than I'd expected, mostly due to very windy conditions and the constant threat of rain, but the audiences were fun and willing to play. Also got to meet a few other cool acts; the Aerial Angels were very nice people, and did some impressive stuff under less-than-ideal circumstances. We were packed up and on the road by 6:30, which got me home just about 10:00, where pamlin took care of me until I collapsed.
Sunday: Slept in (7:30, which is sleeping in for me), made a bit of breakfast, played a bit of Spore, then bade melebeth farewell and spent the remainder of the afternoon re-staining the porch railings (which was sorely needed). Ali and The Wife returned with groceries which were rapidly transformed into dinner; shortly thereafter, consciousness was transformed into Dreamland.
Today: At work, blogging between projects. You? |
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