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August 30, 2004
C'mon, do the Macarena
On Monday, Erica took me along as her date on the annual Goodman Theatre staff boat outing. I've been out on the lake on a sailboat, but never on one of these cruise boats -- it was the same kind of flat, open boats they use for the Chicago architecture cruises (and yes, the same kind of boat that just got Dave Matthews Band's tour bus sewage dumped on it -- which we joked about everytime we went under a bridge.) We just cruised around the lake inside the breakwater until it got dark and then went up and down the Chicago river once. Plenty of snacks and beer and jello shots(!). Oh, those jello shots were nasty.
At one point, Erica started doing the Macarena, as she is wont to do (not that the song was playing -- she's just like that). Her boss' boyfriend bet her $10 that she couldn't get "a bunch of people to do the Macarena."
"Easy. But how many is 'a bunch'?"
"Twenty-five."
"Twenty-five? That's a lot."
"Well, ten. But one of them has to be Matthew Modine."
Matthew Modine? Well, the first show in the Goodman's 2004/5 season is the world premiere of Arthur Miller's new play Finishing the Picture and a bunch of the all-star cast were along for the cruise: Scott Glenn, Linda Lavin (Alice!), Stacy Keach, Frances Fisher (Kate Winslet's mom in Titanic -- our friend Clint gave her a cigarette and then told us the story seven times that night -- "Frances Fisher bummed a smoke off of me!" "Yes, Clint."), and, yes, Matthew Modine.
Erica made a bee-line for Mr. Modine.
"Hi. Excuse me. I was just wondering if..."
"I'm not going to do the Macarena."
"OK, but it'll win me a bet and I'm poor."
"Umm... no."
In the end, Erica got about 12 people, none of whom was Matthew Modine, to do a full 'square' of the Macarena (again, not to the actual song). The challenger compromised and gave her $5 (which we blew on video games at ESPN Zone after the cruise).
I suppose Matthew Modine can't win. If he doesn't do the Macarena, he looks like a jerk. If he does the Macarena, there'd be a picture out there of him looking as dorky as we do:
photo by Jodi Brown
photo by Jodi Brown
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2004
lightpole
Why am I up at 3:00 am putting pictures of lightpoles on my website?
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:03 AM | Comments (0)
Wild Animus
A couple of weeks ago I read an item on Bookslut about a book publisher trying to promote a book by giving away copies of it to "intellectual mavericks" at music festivals and such. Today I ran into some guys I know* giving away copies of the book on State Street.
Here was our instant literary criticism as we were waiting for the train:
"Hmm... 'All proceeds from the sale of this book will be dedicated to the conservation of strategic wilderness lands in Alaska.'"
"Well, I like wild animals."
"Animus."
"Oh."
"A guy gets turned into a ram. And gets chased by wolves."
"Oh. Are we going to stop at home or go straight to the restaurant?"
We had each taken a copy, but somehow after dinner I ended up with everyone's copies here at home.
* I keep running into under-employed improvisors giving me things, especially since half the people I know seem to be working on the Ted promotional staff -- and the Ted promotional philosophy seems to be "give things away and people will want to fly on our airline".)
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:46 AM | Comments (0)
Christopher and Katie
Erica's brother and sister-in-law are in town for the weekend and we've been dragging them all over Chicago.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:19 AM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2004
Sparkly Wedding
This weekend I went out to the Cheney Mansion in Oak Park for the wedding of Rebecca Rine and Trey Stone. Yes, she plans on going by "Rine-Stone".
Erica was the maid of honor. Everyone is gazing off to the right because they're looking at the official photographer, Peter Grosz.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:20 PM | Comments (1)
August 20, 2004
Foreign press
"Hey Fuzzy," you say, "I'd love to spend my Friday afternoon reading reviews of shows you're vaguely related to, but aren't actually performing in."
OK, you, you've read my mind...
Washington Times article on the DC Neutrino Video Project: Movie in a Flash
Three Fest magazine reporters do a ride-along with Neutrino - The Instant Movie: Instant gratification (and Matt is a "a big smiley manic grizzly bear")
Fest magazine review of Neutrino - The Instant Movie
Fest magazine interview with Bob Wiltfong, with a nice picture of Bob making one of his funny faces (which he doesn't do in Anchor's Away at all): Have I got news for you
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2004
Neutrino Edinburgh mini-site
Neutrino has added a special Fringe Festival mini-site.
Also, Jen Nails, who is guesting with Neutrino in Edinburgh, got a 4-star review for her solo show Lylice.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:36 PM | Comments (0)
Underpass
Underpass, Ardmore between Broadway and Winthrop
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:02 AM
August 18, 2004
Fast Forward Film Fest: Start and Stop
This last weekend FuzzyCo participated in the Fast Forward Film Festival #15. Our topic was the pair of words "Start and Stop" (other groups got "Give and Take" and "Listen and Learn"). Also, everyone's movie had to include footage of Bob and Zach, two friends of the organizers. We came up with a short-and-sweet twist-in-the-end story of a glitchy robot. We included the footage of Bob and Zach as a fighting video game that the Robot and his girlfriend were playing.
The Robot (Jin Kim) and Guy in Intersection (Alex Farlow)
The Robot and Guy on Playground (Fuzzy Gerdes)
The Robot and The Robot's Girlfriend (Erica Reid)
The Robot and his Girlfriend play "Bob and Zach: The Video Game"
This was the lightest attended Fast Forward yet, with only 13 teams registered and, by my shakey estimate, only 9 or 10 teams submitting completed films. So, we were fairly optimistic about winning one of the three prizes this time.
We didn't.
The first place film deserved to win, but it rankled a little that one of the other winning films recycled their own footage from a Vidiocy entry. I don't think it's actually forbidden (the Fast Forward isn't very rule-bound), but it seems to go against the spirit of the Fast Forward.
Which is probably how we ended up in the street outside the showing shotgunning beers. Shaun didn't quite believe that I had shotgunned a beer with Alex at the Village Idiot in New York a couple weeks ago. Somehow the deal became that if I would shotgun one beer, Shaun would do two.
Some peer pressure and manhood-questioning later and we were on our way. Mmmm... MGD.
That's Shaun's dad looking on and laughing.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:06 PM | Comments (2)
August 17, 2004
Kurt from Neutrino answers the BBC's questions
Kurt from Neutrino answers the BBC's commedian questionnaire.
If the Edinburgh fairy could grant your wish, what would your wish for?
That lots of people come see our show! (But I'm sure that's every performer's wish.) My second wish would be that I could become friends with a real dragon who would give me a tour of Scotland and get people to some to see the show by breathing fire over the theatre like a spotlight. But it wouldn't be all touring and promotion with my friendly dragon - there'd also be the small moments I'd treasure like that one time he tried to light my cigarette and burnt my eyebrows off, or the time he told me that his dream was to be an airline attendant. Or just those moments over a cup of tea (his is a large bucket) where our silence speaks volumes. Oh friendly dragon, why won't you call?
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:57 PM
Neutrino is "shock of the new"
The Scotsman covers Neutrino's Instant Movie and another new-every-time show at the Edinburgh Fringe: Shows promise shock of the new
Putting on one show at the Fringe festival can be a torturous and costly experience.
But this year two companies are throwing caution to the wind and endeavouring to put on a new show for every single audience.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:52 PM | Comments (0)
August 13, 2004
Edinburgh photos
I've posted a gallery of photos from my week at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Neutrino helping perform their Instant Movie.
Posted by Fuzzy at 7:47 PM | Comments (1)
Another Neutrino in Edinburgh Review
ThreeWeeks in Edinburgh has this short review of The Instant Movie:
Neutrino: the Instant Movie
The advantage of improvisation is that in theory, you always get something new. This American comedy collective improvise films using objects belonging to the audience and volunteers as extras. The actors dash out and film scenes around the Gilded Balloon - outside, by the skateboarders, in the bar and, hilariously, in the toilets downstairs - while runners rush the tapes back to be shown minutes after they've been filmed. The resulting footage is brilliantly funny, made more so by the gawking bystanders. Of course, if they are what they say they are, each show will be completely different. The version I saw made me want to come back tomorrow and the day after that. Hell, and the day after that too.
Gilded Balloon Teviot, 6-30 Aug (not 17, 26), 8:45pm (9:45pm), prices vary, fpp 50
tw rating: 4/5
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2004
Give Paul Kamp the Finger
Paul Kamp is a Chicago musician -- he plays guitar in three different bands and bass in Ruth Buzzy and used to play with Busker Soundcheck. Of course, you can't make a living as a musician, so Paul fixes boats, too. Three weeks ago, a hatch closed on his left index finger. He lost most of the top of the finger. He will play again (this is a man I saw do a show with a theremin because he couldn't play his bass due to a broken arm) but it's going to take time and reconstructive surgery. To raise money for that surgery, a bunch of Paul's musical friends are getting together to "Give Paul Kamp the Finger".
Saturday, September 11th (eek!), 10 pm at Martyrs' (3855 N Lincoln). $15 donation at the door.
The line up so far includes:
Busker Soundcheck members Chris Klein & Dan Sopher with guest guitarists
Dugout
Dyslexic Apaches (reunion)
Gringo Starr
Led Zeppelin live experience
Ruth Buzzy
Snaklab All-Tsars
Texpert
Woolworthy
The Artist Formally Known As Vince
and as many guests and surprises as time will allow.
Every band will be playing a Busker Soundcheck song in their own style.
If you can't make the show and still want to help out, you can contact Dan Sopher at kksopher@earthlink.net.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:16 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2004
Going Home
It's 3:50 and I need to be up in 2 hours to catch my plane home, so for now I'll just say that it's been a blast.
And here's Bob Wiltfong's 5-star review from the Evening News.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:52 PM | Comments (0)
August 9, 2004
Oh, this is a review
I'm sorry -- the Scotsman piece I linked to yesterday was a feature. This is a review. A (cough, cough) four-star review.
It’s wild, wonderful stuff, transforming Teviot and its environs into a glorious arty playpen, criss-crossed with stories that shift between comedy, tragedy and voyeurism with nary a by-your-leave. If TV is a drug, it won’t be long before these young Americans have Edinburgh hooked.
(And here's the four-star review of Neutrino member Bob Wiltfong's one-man show.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:09 PM | Comments (2)
Hard times, people
Here's the hard life of a festival performer: I was going to go do some shopping today, but I was woken up this morning (using "morning" rather loosely -- it was actually noon) with the Scotsman review feature and the news, "we have a photo shoot at 1 pm. Get showered and let's go."
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:24 AM
Neutrino feature
The Scotsman ("Scotland's National Newspaper") has reviewed a feature on Neutrino (and Bob Wiltfong).
Certainly, from the smallest scraps of collected information, Neutrino manage to create something that while often being quite raw and off-the-cuff, seems scripted and thoroughly composed, consistently hilarious and, surprisingly, frequently moving.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:57 AM | Comments (0)
August 8, 2004
The days are just packed
So much to talk about... and I have to get to sleep. I'm about to fall over and I want to get up early tomorrow to go shopping. And get a copy of the Scotsman. We've heard that we're being reviewed. Whee!
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:19 PM
August 7, 2004
"It's an Instant Movie..."
"It's an Instant Movie. A new, improvised film every night."
I said that about 300 times today, handing out flyers on the Royal Mile. It's a madhouse of groups in costume handing out flyers, street performers performing on the street, and thousands of just plain folks trying to walk somewhere.
I need to go talk a shower and get ready for tonight. But members of Neutrino are keeping a blog over at Chortle...
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:44 AM
August 6, 2004
Happy run-into
I ran into Matt Donnelly at the Gilded Balloon office, which was fortunate because I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to find everyone (a poor way to arrive in a foreign country, I know).
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:03 AM
Fringe Posters
There are a lot of shows in the Fringe.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:56 AM
I'm in Scotland
I'm in Edinburgh! I'm tired and loopy! We're doing a show tonight!
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:12 AM
Ramblings from the Road
I'm on the plane to Edinburgh (Scotland!) (well, on the plane to Manchester, then on to Edinburgh) to do shows with Neutrino during their run at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest. Matthew Perry just kissed Bruce Willis' head in The Whole 10 Yards.
I decided the best way to avoid jet lag was to sleep the whole flight. So I drank a beer between gates M9 and M19 before I got on the flight and now a lil' bottle of white wine has got me a lil' tipsy.
I think I have less room on this flight than I did on the road-trip to New York last week. And, of course, that I'm sandwiched between two strangers, rather than up against my girlfriend.
-----
Fitful sleeping, and the end of Walking Tall (the new one with The Rock and Johnny Knoxville) and now I'm in Manchester airport, with a four hour layover until my next flight. They gave me a boarding pass in Chicago for this flight, but no one here seems to know which gate I'm supposed to be at. I'm not stressed -- I'm going to wait until an hour or so before the flight to start asking around again.
The clock in the corner of this laptop says "2:05 am" but I've already set my watch to local time (8:05 am) and I'm following my usual jet lag plan -- set all my clocks immediately to local time and just bull on through the day, ignoring my body's protests.
-----
Well, I was in the completely wrong place. Being in the right place is good for my impressions of Manchester Airport -- the waiting lounge is much nicer than gates 3A-3C waiting area. And I have some local currency and a juice now. Though, being in the wrong place was also good for me -- it was much quieter and it doesn't look like there are any outlets here. But the bathroom is much nicer up here. Life is about compromise and trade-offs, my friends.
Ack! I didn't even think to check until just now. There's wireless up here! I'm gonna email and post like crazy!
Ah crap. It's not free.
So, back to generalizing -- American airports want to get you to the gate as soon as possible, to get you on the plane as early as possible, to get the plane out on time. Manchester (I'm not going to generalize to other UK airports) seems to want to corral you in a central waiting lounge until 30 minutes before the flight is scheduled to depart. American airlines want to be putting you on the plane 30 minutes before departure. And just now my little sign has lit up to tell me to "Go to Gate."
Man, and the security. I had to show my boarding pass and have my picture taken to get into the lounge and then they checked it on the way out.
OK, I'm on the little Buddy-Holly-killer to go up to Edinburgh. Almost there!
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:59 AM | Comments (2)
Bugs!
Last night (well, two nights ago, but it feels like last night -- stupid time change) Erica and I grabbed some grinders from Spirtinis and went down to the lake to eat dinner. We were going to go sit on the rocks at the north end of Hollywood Beach (where we filmed Candyland a few weeks ago). When we got there, we noticed a few bugs on the rock we were going to sit on. Then we realized that it was a lot of bugs on the rock. Then we realized that it was a sea of bugs around every rock. Bug Madness!
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:54 AM | Comments (3)
August 4, 2004
Tesselation Tango
In a postscript to an email filled with computer woes (poor guy) my friend Scott Frankenberger noted that he and another friend, Linda Vanderkolk, had won a competition to design a mural for the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, California. If you're in Berkeley after September 2005, be sure to check it out. Until then you can check out their way-cool design.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:42 PM
Team #1
I signed FuzzyCo up for the Fast Forward Film Festival on Monday night and we were team #1, so I'm guessing there are still plenty of spots left.
Evidently this Fast Forward is going to incorporate the organizers' friends Zach and Bob from the East Coast. We're going to have Alex in from New York (and Shaun's dad from North Dakota) that weekend, too, so, not to pre-plan, but I have a feeling the FuzzyCo entry is going to be guest-star-a-riffic.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:23 PM
Myriad complaints
I've added my gripes about the lake path to a general gripefest that's going on right now on the Chicago MetBlog.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
August 3, 2004
Geese on the lake
Geese on Lake Michigan, near North Ave Beach, this morning
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:32 AM | Comments (2)
August 2, 2004
Testing Meme Propagation In Blogspace: Add Your Blog!
This posting is a community experiment started by Minding the Planet to see how a meme represented by a blog posting spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs are most influential in the propagation of memes. The original posting for this experiment is located at: Minding the Planet; results and commentary will appear there in the future.
Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate – the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.
The GUID for this experiment is: as098398298250swg9e98929872525389t9987898tq98wteqtgaq62010920352598gawstw98qwrt189849813907azq4
(this GUID enables anyone to easily search Google for all results of this experiment). Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post at Minding the Planet; Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.
INSTRUCTIONS
To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and fill out the info below, substituting your own information in your posting, where appropriate.
(Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers)
- I found this experiment at URL: http://www.seanbonner.com/blog/archives/000713.php
- I found it via “Newsreader Software” or “Browsing or Searching the Web” or “An E-Mail Message”: Newsreader Software - NetNewsWire
- I posted this experiment at URL: http://www.fuzzyco.com
- I posted this on date (day, month, year): 02 August 2004
- I posted this at time (24 hour time): 13:07:19
- My posting location is (city, state, country): Chicago, IL, USA
OPTIONAL SURVEY FIELDS (Replace the answers below with your own answers):
- My blog is hosted by: FuzzyCo
- My age is: 34
- My gender is: male
- My occupation is: monkey king
- I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: NetNewsWire
- I use the following software to post to my blog: Movable Type
- I have been blogging since (day, month, year): 30 October 2001
- My web browser is: Safari, Firefox
- My operating system is: Mac OS X
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:07 PM | Comments (1)
VanVactor for Commissioner
My friend Charlotte VanVactor is running for St. Louis County [Minnesota] Commissioner. May I humbly suggest that if you live in the first district that you Vote VanVactor.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:47 AM | Comments (2)
August 1, 2004
It's Sammy's story, but I'm online...
Sammy overheard one side of a cell phone conversation on the streets of New York:
"Yeah, I got the third callback for Blue Man Group. No, I haven't seen the show, I'm on my way there now."
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:00 AM
Old friends
This is something of an old-friends-weekend. Alex, who we're staying with, is a junior high and high school friend of Erica's. She hasn't seen him since high school, but they recently reconnected via the internet.
And at dinner I got to see my friend Robb, one of the Deadbeets and co-god parent of Emma. I haven't seen Robb in 2 years or so. He's keen.
Then we went and saw Avenue Q. Wow. I already have the soundtrack, so I thought I knew how good the show was. But the show was even more amazing than that. It's so funny and touching and vulgar and thought-provoking and puppet-filled. And, it turned out that tonight was their one-year anniversary of running on Broadway.
I made it back to the Del Close in time to catch Nailed Down (I wanted to see what they did with that form) while Alex and Erica took a stroll over to Chelsea.
And now we're back at Alex's, watching Kung Fu movies and packing up to leave New York early tomorrow morning.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:55 AM
KOKO
KOKO had their show at the Marathon Saturday afternoon. This was the first time all weekend I had actually been to the real Del Close Marathon. You know, the, umm, reason we came to this town. I got to see a show and a half before KOKO while they were warming, but they were both Chicago groups. It always feels a little weird to come halfway the country to see groups I can see down the street.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:28 AM
The end of the Idiot
After the shows, we headed over to The Village Idiot. It's one of Alex's favorite redneck bars and it's closing due to skyrocketing rents. Friday was the penultimate night for the bar. We drank our share of PBR and Southern Comfort shots.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:17 AM
The Sickest F***in' Stories I Ever Heard
photo by Erica Reid
After Neutrino, I stuck around at the PIT to be the bartender for The Sickest F***in' Stories I Ever Heard. The bartender is a position that the New York version of the show has added to be both an actual bartender and a commenter on the stories. This picture is completely staged because Erica forgot to take any pictures during the show.
From left to right, Zach Ward of DSI, Kallie(?) from North Carolina(?), Asaf Ronen of YesAnd.com, Mars Timms of Pimprov, me (standing), and Josh Cohen of The Josh and Tamra Show.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:02 AM | Comments (2)