I just heard back from the mechanic, my car is not fixable. woo hoo. Guess it is a good thing I am on vacation for the rest of the week.

This weekend has been all about Beatrix, our new English bulldog puppy.

We met Beatrix last weekend during our visit to the breeder's, and as is often the case, she picked us as much as we picked her. She was in the middle of the behavior spectrum -- not too aggressive, not too passive -- and once in my hands, decided curling up to nap was a good idea.

We spent the following week kicking names around and decided on Beatrix because it means "traveler," which is what she'll be; especially during her puppy stages she'll be coming with empheliath and I to our pet-friendly workplaces, so we can feed her and take her out when she needs it. She'll also probably be coming with us when we work faires.

Beatrix came home with us Saturday, and we spent the day just bonding with her. The only bad part of the day came when we put her in her crate for the night and were kept awake almost all night by her shrill, unhappy crying.

Sunday was a repeat of that, even though I'd rigged a little area for her outside the crate to wander. Apparently even that was too restrictive, but giving her free run of the bedroom (gated off to keep her in but not the cats out) solved the issue. She whimpered, but softly and not incessantly, and when that got old she slept in her crate of her own volition. Yay!

Housebreaking has been going mostly well...a few minor accidents here and there, but she is understanding the concept of going outside to do her business. She's also latching onto "come here," so I'm optimistic that she'll take to other basics (sit, stay, etc.) as readily.

Presented for your amusement, Beatrix trying to see up my nose while Pippen surveys her with suspicion and perhaps a touch of contempt.



The cats, by the way, have been okay with Beatrix. They only get skittish when Beatrix tries a little too hard to make friends, and that just provides us with the kind of entertainment that can only be derived from watching a three-pound puppy chase a 15-pound cat.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes today, they are really appreciated.

It looks like the world is trying to prove to me that 30 is going to be no different than 29. I called out sick yesterday. I had some flu symptoms and instead of going to work and making it worse or sending people into a panic I stayed home. I went in today and there is a new policy that they just put in place over the weekend that says you can not return to work without a doctors note.They sent me home, great, it's a part time job which means that they send you home with no pay until you go pay a doctor (because they don't give insurance) to say that you can go back to your crappy job that won't cover medical expenses. Fortunately, I have a weeks worth of vacation that I have to take anyway and tell them I am taking it this week. Next I get into my car, start to back out and I hear a popping sound. The steering wheel is now spinning freely and my car won't turn. Great. Just great.

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp11092009.shtml

If there are any problems with the comic or website, or if you have any questions, comments, or complaints you would like to address directly to Randy, please email him at choochoobear@gmail.com.

To those of you recently (I think about two or three) who pointed me in the direction of Slings & Arrows:

Man, thank you very much.

Yes, a posting, 2 weeks in a row!

Interred with their Bones. This is a "DaVinci Code" type adventure story, cenetered around Shakespeare. The quest s for a copy of Cardenio, a lost Shakespeare play. It also encompasses the "Who was Shakespeare" question, with some interesting ideas. I can recommend it. It also prompted me to reread Hamlet and As You Like It.

The Professional by Robert  Parker. This is the latest Spencer novel. Like most, it can be read in one sitting. As always, the dialogue is snappy. However, the ending was as subtle as a train wreck and was disappointing in it's obviousness.

I usually don't count audiobooks, but Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury) was terrific. Especially that JT Turner guy! I also downloaded The Power of Myth, by Joseph Campbell and the Complete Sonnets of Shakespeare

I asked the actress playing Inez in my production of No Exit to come up with her own arrangement for the song she sings. And she did. And it is amazing. And so a recording of it will be included in the pre show music. Because that's like, meta.

My cast is collecting rehearsal quotes. There is now a signal that they give the stage manager to take down things that I say. I wonder if these will be saved for posterity.

On that note, I overheard one of my cast members saying to another undergrad, "It's French Existentialism... but we're making it fun!"

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I think this was a fun read although I find myself less and less interested in science fiction and there are pieces of this that just didn't ground in my sense of reality. I still have not decided if I want to read the next in this series.

Well, the good news is that I'm a quarter of the way through! I'm still a bit ahead of schedule, and haven't yet experienced the "argh argh argh hate this what do I write now?!" feeling that usually hits. Maybe the fourth time's the charm?

The BAD news is that I'm a quarter of the way through, and the main character's just reached town. In LOTR terms, this is like the hobbits making it to Bree. This could turn out to be a 100,000 word story *easily*, especially if I keep getting distracted by the supporting characters like the dead first love (though her POV is so fun) and the sorta-villain werewolf I just orphaned (though the parallels that are there between her and her mentor, and Biff McStudlypants and the Main Character give me warm fuzzies)...which means it would be about 49,998 words more than I'm mentally prepared for.

Oy.

I find myself working on two concurrent pieces about the Byfar Hour -- one regarding the improvisational aspects of the pre-show (and that pizza!) and one in response to an interesting post by woodwardiocom regarding the levels of metafiction in the Byfar Hour and The Big Broadcast as a whole. There's a lot of questions to be answered, some of which I'm perfectly happy letting people answer for themselves, but there were other artistic goals which I think it necessary to explain.

Then there's the annotations I'm already making for the inevitable commentary track should our recordings turn out all right (no multi-track mixer on site meant either a single channel bootleg off the sound board or a omni recorder dangling on a boom off the balcony) and stuff. Beyond that I can't say anything more about release plans because there's a lot of things to iron out there and I don't wish to make any more presumptions about future merch. :P

There's also a surprise which I'm almost finished with for those on the PMRP current mailing list. It, uh, ties up a loose end or two (which we'd always meant to keep untied, mind you.) You'll see.

Now is the time when we also start planning for Red Shift's yearly Arisia show in January. Michael Simon is joining our writing team for reals yo, and I hope we'll start work on the story this week. Unfortunately the PMRP won't be part of First Night this year due to budgetary problems on their side. While that is a real shame considering we did so well for 'em last year, it gives us actual time this year to actually work on a Red Shift script rather than whip one up in a week and a half. The last time we had the luxury to really work out a script, it was for Havoc over Holowood and it turned out to be one of our best scripts yet. I'm looking forward to figuring out what we do this time around.

There's also the notion that Frank, Amelia, Lex, Jenny, Charley and the gang will return sometime next year, but those cards will be kept very close until I've finalized more details. No cryptic promises or teasing here, honest. I do think I've found a new character to write in, though.

I was supposed to catch up on Mad Men, Venture Bros, and hell even 30 Rock this weekend, but I kept typing and typing and typing and then dealing with the cat every 5 minutes which derailed my train of thought more than I'd care to admit, so I got very frustrated and not everything got done. But the Byfar yammering will come next, I'm sure.

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp11022009.shtml

If there are any problems with the comic or website, or if you have any questions, comments, or complaints you would like to address directly to Randy, please email him at choochoobear@gmail.com.

Here's what I've posted to Twitter over the past 24 hours:

• 22:05 Spent today watching all 5 original Planet of the Apes films. If my day's already shot due to hamthrax, why not make it a complete loss? #

The Dances of Vice Festival in New York returns on November 20-22, 2009 in a three-day nautical themed flight of fancy that will be held in several stunning historical locations and feature a number of 17th to 18th Century related amusements, including a presentation on 17th-19th Century European fencing styles, 18th Century ballroom dancing, live Baroque harpsichord and classical music, historical costume inspired fashion shows, and much more. Costume is mandatory to attend. Although the time period is later than the Rennaissance, I thought some of you might be interested :)

If you'd like to sail away with us this month, more information about the Dances of Vice Grand Shipwreck Ball can be found at www.dancesofvice.com

Call it a cliche, but I've developed a tradition over the past few years of commemorating November 5th by watching V for Vendetta. At first, it was for rather shallow 'Hey it's cool because it references Guy Fawkes and the 5th so of course we should watch it' reasons. However, I've come to realize that at some point it has come to serve as an indicator for my political feelings/fears/optimisms etc. at that point. Looking back, the film has left me with a different impression every year. Observe:

2006-2007: I know, lumping two years together kind of invalidates my something-different-every-year premise, but these years' viewings felt very similar given that there was a fairly consistent political climate. Humour me.

Anyway, from its UK release in 2006 until 2007, the film felt like a call to arms of sorts. Anyone who missed the parallels between the government depicted in the film and the some of the excesses of the Bush/Blair post-9/11 surveillance and fear-mongering administrations is either blind or lying. As a side note, it's for this reason that I look with great amusement on a few anti-Obama Administration tracts and you-tube vids that use the film for symbolism. So, it was for me and quite a few others a rallying cry for those who wanted to fight against the silliness that was going on around us.

2008: This was right around the time that Obama's victory in the election was all but certain. Consequently, watching the film inspired a degree of hope and optimism. I watched the film and could sit back and say to myself, 'We did it. It was a long fight, but we did it. V thou art avenged.'

2009: Which brings us to the present. While I can't say that the pendulum has swung completely the other way, It saddens me that some of that hope and optimism from last year has faded a bit. There's a taint in the air. It's becoming all too easy to see uncomfortable similarities between Norsefire and, say, Glenn Beck and his 9/12-ers, the Oath Keepers, the Tea Baggers (sorry, I still can't help but snigger a little when I say that) in the US, not to mention the BNP rising even a little bit out of fringeness and obscurity here in the UK. This year a bit of the call to arms came back; a call to realize that adversity was still present and gaining strength and that we still have a lot of work to do.

So yeah, V has become for me a sort of political litmus test. Happy belated 5th all. Join me in raising a glass to the last honest man to enter Parliament. Cheers.

There was once a young boy whose pedagogically solemn parents resolved to do everything in their power to prevent their child from developing supersticious fears. They banned fairy tales from the household and saw to it that witches, giants and other cannibalistic fiends were never once mentioned in the child's presence. All went according to plan until one night the parents awoke to the shrill cries of their son. Startled, they rushed to his bed only to learn that he was afraid of sleeping in the dark. They were even more startled after they asked the boy why he was afraid of sleeping in the dark, for the child's answer, punctuated by sobs, was: "There's a complex hiding under my bed."

--Lutz Röhrich, "Arguemente für und gegen das Märchen"

And this is from the recently published The South End News review of Lady:

"the tensions ... eventually explode in a riveting face-off enriched by fight director Meron Langsner’s crisp choreographing of the one-on-one fireworks between Dyson and Graham."

http://www.mysouthend.com/index.php?ch=arts&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=98735

Lady runs until the 21st at the Boston Center for the Arts.

Also: Dead Man's Cell Phone is going on until the 14th at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, The Case Against Vampirism will be part of Image Theater's "Keep Your Kids At Home" readings on the 14th in Lowell, No Exit is on the 23rd at Tufts, CLASSICS! continues to be on tour (I think they're in New Orleans right now), Masquerade and Partisans are set for Whistler Wednesdays in January and this year's Gi60 plays (including Culty-Mates (A Ritual)) have recently been posted to YouTube by the good folks at Screaming Media and Brooklyn College.

Silvia and I still need to set a date for the Fort Point reading of the libretto of The Marquis De Sade's Justine, but I believe that my companion piece for the poetry readings that it will be coupled with is already chosen.

Contracts for the publication and licensing of The Godot Variations are signed and sent. The estimated publication timeframe is the winter of 2010-2011. I probably won't have a whole lot to report on that front until then.

My dissertation continues in ongoing performances in my apartment and various academic libraries and coffee shops, sharing a double bill with new plays in development.

The Sacred
by Stephen Dunn


After the teacher asked if anyone had
a sacred place
and the students fidgeted and shrank

in their chairs, the most serious of them all
said it was his car,
being in it alone, his tape deck playing

things he'd chosen, and others knew the truth
had been spoken
and began speaking about their rooms,

their hiding places, but the car kept coming up,
the car in motion,
music filling it, and sometimes one other person

who understood the bright altar of the dashboard
and how far away
a car could take him from the need

to speak, or to answer, the key
in having a key
and putting it in, and going.

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp11012009.shtml

If there are any problems with the comic or website, or if you have any questions, comments, or complaints you would like to address directly to Randy, please email him at choochoobear@gmail.com.

so one other thing that i've been really getting into is making tiny hats. so much so, that i've already gotten some orders and been asked (and encouraged) by jillybelle to make them for sale at her shop. i'm not super keen on running a business, but i like being crafty....so this looks good to me.

welcome to the hatted hare!
(:3
i know, it's pretty dorky, but definitely me.

below is an example of the latest hat i made for kathy, who plans to wear it while at the dickens faire. (which i may be able to go to since i'll be out that way while it's running!)


for anyone interested in placing an order, email me at thehattedhare@gmail.com. right now my friends are getting good discounts since this is a pretty new thing for me. hats range in price from $25-50, depending on how detailed.

woot!