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April 28, 2005
Camenae
I just got off the phone with Circuit City's extended warranty folks who insist they're not going to fix my beloved Sony F707 because the lens assembly just coming off is "damage" (worse - I suspect that really it's improperly-tightened screws when they last had it for a cleaning to fix memory-card-reading problems). Boo. My poor baby.
So, to cheer myself up, here's some promo shots we (me & the F707) did earlier this month with the Camenae Theater Ensemble. They're going to use this one on an upcoming postcard:
Though I was partial to the ones we did with the construction equipment in the parking lot next door. These ladies are tough...
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:45 PM | Comments (0)
OK, I'm stumped
Nearly every statement in this sentence needs to have a parenthetical "I think" after it, but I'm looking for a documentary that was made in the mid-90s by a guy who was interning at a marketing firm and he brought his video camera with him to work every day and after awhile people started forgetting that he was filming and were just... honest. I've googled like crazy and I can't figure out the name of this film to even try and find a copy. Do you know?
Update: Nick graciously let me know that the name of the documentary is The Target Shoots First -- it was released in 2000 and seems to have had some success on the film festival circuit, and even had it's own website (now defunct), but I can't seem to find a copy anywhere (and I usually consider myself pretty good at looking for rare movies -- once I know their name). So now the question becomes, do you have a copy of The Target Shoots First that you'd sell or loan me?
Update 2: I found it.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:30 AM | Comments (7)
Cowboy Kickball
These guys make me question my team's commitment to kickball. I mean, sure we win (6-3 over the Burninators last night, taking us to 3-0 for the season) but we don't dress up like all the parts of a rodeo. (And I didn't even get a picture of the folks who were wearing child-size ride-a-ponys around their waists).
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
April 27, 2005
Well, that was fun
Last night we had our second of two relatively-intense rehearsals for Documentary South. In the course of just 6 hours, we got all the way through the different parts of this fairly complex form and performed three sped-up iterations of the complete thing. And now Ross is on his way back to North Carolina and Dan takes over rehearsals for the next nine weeks, during which (I assume) we'll be tackling each segment of the form in more detail.
Documentary South, I learned, because this is an evolution of a UCB Theatre form called Documentary. My understanding of the genealogy is that Billy Merritt at the UCBT developed a Harold-based, Mockumentary-inspired form, called it Documentary, and taught it as a class that became a performance piece. Direction of the performance group was taken over by Porter Mason for awhile, and then Porter moved to Chapel Hill and began teaching, among other things, the Documentary for Dirty South Improv. Then Ross White of DSI was going to teach a class the Documentary, but the class schedule meant that he would only have 4 classes instead of 6 or 8, only 2 hours a class instead of 3, and the students taking the class were of a great variety of improv experience levels. So he made some changes to the form that, in his words, "were meant to simply the form, but probably made it a lot more complex." Over the course of working with that class and then some subsequent classes and performance groups, the form evolved far enough away from the original form that everyone thought it deserved its own name.
And the cast, oh the cast. What a fun group.
Christopher Alvarado
Brad Dunn
Fuzzy Gerdes
Ryan Gilmour
Mike Higgins
Erica Reid
Ryan Stone
Kristen Studard
Sammy Tamimi
Some of these folks I know and some are new to me, but the only one I've worked with much at all is Erica, and while we've been doing our pseudo-vaudeville stuff lately, we haven't improvised together since A Day in the Life, which was three years ago. So, new people to play with and being directed (which I haven't had in a while) -- it's a fun new world of play before me. About the only thing that feels old hat is "a complicated form centered on an event" -- because that's what A Day in the Life and Eventé were both all about.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:57 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2005
Weekend round-up
When last I left you, I was on my way to record Superpunk's Phillip Mottaz say a grand total of 4 words to edit into my short intro film for the CIF mainstage. I got to Shiel Park just as Phillip was about to start teaching a sketch class for the festival, so I we gave those 12 young students a sneak peak at the super-professionalism of the Chicago comedy scene, as I pointed a video camera at Phillip's face and he tried to time his lines between the shouts of the warm-up taking place in the next classroom.
The editing went fine, though, and I got a couple of compliments on the film. Hopefully they were sincere.
Friday night I bounced back-and-forth between my DVD-player-button-pushing duties at the Athenaeum and shows at the Playground. Press play at 7:30, run to the Playground to perform with CCC at 8:00, run back to the Athenaeum to press play at 10:00, run back to the Playground for the closing night of Don't Spit the Water.
Saturday night I actually stuck around to see the Cast of Anchorman do an Armando with Bill Kurtis as the monologist before splitting for the Playground and the Belmont Burlesque Revue. Saturday afternoon, you will be as dismayed as I was to learn, the entire front lens assembly of my trusty Sony F707 just came off. Boo. So I took pictures, but it was with a Nikon D1 that I've had sitting around for awhile but hadn't really ever taken to, my F707 was so luverly. The two cameras feel very different to operate -- the F707 is light, and with the tiltable camera body, I tend to compose shots on the back screen; the D1 is heavy as all get out, and it's a true SLR, so every time you take a shot, you can hear and feel the mirror assembly getting out of the way of the lens. Very visceral.
Sunday night Erica and I went and auditioned for DSI's Documentary South. Despite (or because of?) my cold-ravaged voice, I was cast. Because of her talent and charm, Erica was, too. Yay, us. Much like FuzzyCo did when we produced Armando Diaz' Eventé, Ross White, the creator of the show, is in town for a few days and will be doing two intensive rehearsals with us tonight and tomorrow, after which the show will be in the hands of director Dan Telfer.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:47 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2005
Touchups
I've been running so hard this last week, my body has just given up. I'm coughing up bits of pancreas.
So, of course, instead of sleeping in, I'm off to record Phillip Mottaz, the narrator for my little CIF film, saying two lines. One politically-important name got misstated and another left out in the script - and besides the politics, I like accuracy. Three different people looked over the script and no one noticed the problems until it was on the big screen at the Athenaeum.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2005
Frozen, but winners
It's a little blurry, but I think you can see the victory in our eyes. Yes, kickball season has started again, and James Brown Celebrity Hottub Party is off to a great start with a win over Feets of Fury this week and one over the Kicktators last week. I think that's spelled 2-0.
I missed the game last week because of my book group, so I really felt I needed to go this week, even though I had missed half a day of work because I was sick. So I went to kickball and stood out in gale force winds for an hour and a half and, surprise!, I missed a whole day of work today because of my coughiness. Brainiac = me. (AND I'm kicking 000 for the season. Whee!)
And I don't know the whole story here, but Shaun and Tim asked Amber to customize their shirts and she showed up with these...
That's "Ahole" and "Cuz" spelled out in googly-eyes on the fronts of their shirts, which I guess are their nicknames, and, um... lace. Light blue and pink lace.
"I'd rip the lace off, but I think I know how much work went into attaching it to the shirt," Shaun said. And if that isn't the sweetest thing he's ever said, I'm not sure what it would be. (And if me posting that picture isn't the meanest thing I've ever done, it's probably in the top ten.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:48 AM | Comments (0)
Done done done
I'm waiting for another couple gigs to tranfer to the backup drive so I can go to sleep and not worry about the last few hours (and by extension, few months) of work going up in smoke via bad computer mojo while I sleep (it happens! don't think it doesn't).
Jonathan Pitts, producer of the Chicago Improv Festival came to me in January (mid-January, let's be clear -- I've only had 3 months, not 3 1/2) to talk about the intro video for the mainstage of this year's CIF. I did the one they used last year and it was a nice piece of eye candy, but it didn't really say anything (and yes, I did it at the very last minute). This year, Jonathan said, the goal for the whole festival was to not treat it as a surprise when April rolled around. (Which is exactly and precisely what I always do -- oh, Jonathan you can see my darkest secrets.) And the idea for the intro video was to use it to do a little education about the Compass Players -- the first modern improv ensemble -- on their 50th anniversary.
Well, yay, I said and left the Golden Apple scribbling in my little notebook ideas for different ways of combining historical footage and modern interviews and "Ken Burns" fades and so on and so forth. And I had plenty of time, right? Three months!
And I just finished. Which is an improvement on last year -- last year I was rendering video in the dressing room of the Athenaeum at 6:15 or so on opening night of the festival. Lookee me -- there's 16 hours until curtain!
I'll probably want to fiddle with parts of it tomorrow, but it's done enough that I could show it to 1000 people at the mainstage and not be embarassed. And there's a chance that the people watching might get a little bit (a tiny bit) of an education about who the Compass Players were and what they did that was so cool.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:21 AM | Comments (1)
NOT super scientific
Your Linguistic Profile: |
| 65% General American English |
| 20% Yankee |
| 5% Dixie |
| 5% Midwestern |
| 5% Upper Midwestern |
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:13 AM | Comments (1)
April 20, 2005
Food, food, foo
I am just having an excellent food week. Whee!
Last night I headed over to the Burger Joint. My friend Kyle (by the way, whose latest (first) article for Playboy magazine, Sound + Art, is now online on the Playboy.com website) told me about this place after one of his trips to the New York office. Hidden behind a curtain in the lobby of the swanky Le Parker Meridien is the entrance to Burger Joint. Coming out of the hushed elegance of the lobby, you duck through a door and suddenly you're in a loud, dimly-lit room. The decor is wood-paneling and painted brick and the air is thick with the smell of grilling burgers.
The menu is simple enough that I can list the whole thing here: burgers, cheeseburgers, fries, whole pickles, brownies, beer (one kind), pop, and milkshakes. I ordered a cheeseburger with the works, fries, and a vanilla milkshake. I was a little surprised, given the bare bones feel of the place, when they asked me how I wanted my burger cooked. But it made sense when I got it, because this was no thin burger -- it was thick and juicy. The fries were thin and crispy, like I like 'em, and I was impressed that the milkshake was pretty good despite being made in a blender instead of a Shake Master 3000. And, really, the cognitive dissonance of the whole experience can't be beat.
Burger Joint
inside the Le Parker Meridien
118 W 57th St
New York, NY
Today I made some treks for food. This morning I got a little lost trying to find a bagel place (Ess-a-bagel, I discovered -- not knowing it's name was one of the barriers to finding it) that I remembered was right around the corner from my friend Alex's place. I getting kinda tired, as I was lugging around both my bags, and starting to wonder if my memory of how good the bagels were at this place was really worth this journey over grabbing any of the millions of other bagels available in NYC and just getting to work. So I gave up and called Alex, who told me where it was. And then I got lost again. And then I found it.
So, was it worth it? Well, it was a good bagel with lox. But I'm not sure it was soooo much better than the ones around the corner from the hotel. Or maybe my tastebuds were just tired by then.
Ess-a-bagel
831 3rd Avenue
New York, NY
For lunch, I hiked down to Grand Central Station to visit the venerable Oyster Bar. On the way down I passed a street vendor who specialized in BBQ and then once in the Grand Central Market I saw a Brother Jimmy's, whose passing from Chicago I still lament (Anyone know where to get a dry rub BBQ in Chicago? Anyone? Anyone?). This one of the challenges that face a chowhound -- there's so much good food in the world that it's easy to get distracted on your way to your goal. But I was strong and made it to the Oyster Bar with an empty stomach.
The Oyster Bar opened the same year as the Grand Central Terminal itself (anyone? anyone? 1913.) and it looks like it has expanded over time to to fill more of its corner of the terminal. There are three seating areas: a sitdown area, a lunch counter-style area, and bar seating in front of the oyster prep area. I was there in the mid-afternoon, so there was plenty of seating and I sat at the bar.
The menu is huge, with a huge selection of not just oysters (but a couple dozen varieties of those) but other seafood and fish and different ways they could be prepared. Ptolemy, who had recommended the place, had recommended the clam chowder, so I ordered that. And then I thought I would stick with something that felt a little "safer" than raw oysters, but I didn't want to ignore the name of the place, so I got the fried oysters.
The clam chowder was thick and creamy and pretty good. After I was about halfway through the bowl, my server was walking by and saw my bowl. "Why didn't you say something!?" he exclaimed and threw some packets of oyster crackers on the counter. I put a handful of crackers in my soup and suddenly "pretty good" was transformed into "incredible". The crunchy, salty crackers were just what the maybe-a-little-too-thick-and-creamy soup needed.
The fried oysters and their accompanying french fries were alright, but they were, after all, fried oysters and fried frenches and after a while I was pretty full of grease and a little regretful, after hearing some comments around me, that I hadn't gotten a pan roast.
Oyster Bar
Grand Central Terminal
New York, NY
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:30 AM | Comments (1)
Bad news
Wow, I get most of my news from NPR and the Daily Show and sometimes I forget that the average media is as bad as they make fun of (the latter rather than the former).
I had the CBS Early Show on for a few minutes this morning and they were covering the story of a fatal school bus accident. They gave the statistic that out of 40,000 roadway fatalities last year, 6 were school bus riders. They showed a clip of a NTSB official commenting that busses are generally very safe because of their size and because of 30 years of safety design. They elaborated with stock footage of crash test dummies to demonstrate how those high padded seats form a safety "cage" around children. And then they went to the anchor who had an in-studio guest and the first words out of the anchor's mouth were "I was shocked to learn this morning that Virginia and most other states do not have mandatory seat belt laws for school busses."
Why?! Why are you shocked!? Did you listen to your own broadcast? It sounds to me like school busses are amazingly safe. 6 deaths out of 40,000? 30 years of safety design? But let's start some useless scare-mongering! Aggghhhh! [Throw hands up and switch the channel back to Comedy Central.]
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2005
25 bands you've seen live
I guess I've gone from "I never do these things" to "when's the next interesting one gonna come along?"
Copy this list, leave in the bands you've seen perform live. Delete the ones you haven't and add other ones you've seen until they total to 25. The asterisk means that these are bands that the previous person had on his/her list. Two asteriks mean the last 2 people that did this had this band on their list, etc...
(I have no stars because I share no bands with Sean.)
(in no particular order)
1. Midnight Oil
2. Icehouse
3. Moxy Früvous
4. Barenaked Ladies
5. 2 Skinnee J's
6. Ruth Buzzy
7. Mike Doughty
8. They Might Be Giants
9. Andrew Bird
10. Anna Ferman's Trigger Gospel
11. Robbie Fulks
12. Big Sandy and his Fly Rite Boys
13. Icemakers of the Revolution
14. Twopenny Hangover
15. Johnny Socko
16. Pearl Jam
17. Nirvana
18. Red Hot Chili Peppers
19. Mojo Nixon
20. Dread Zeppelin
21. The Vulgar Boatmen
22. Cub
23. Poi Dog Pondering
24. Man or Astroman?
25. The Mysteries of Life
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:11 PM | Comments (4)
Pizza!
Photo by Erica Reid
Erica took this on her trip to Houston earlier this month. Even more than my name, I love the exclamation point. This isn't pizza, it's "PIZZA!"
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:08 PM | Comments (1)
April 18, 2005
A very specialized night-life guide
originally posted on Metroblogging Chicago
Things to do in Chicago between 12:30 AM and 6:00 AM Monday morning:
Take a cab from Midway to your home. If you share the cab with my friend Starce you can discuss marketing or computers or Publishing Workflow Management Systems on the way.
Check your stack of mail to see if your girlfriend's birthday present (already late) has arrived.
Kiss your sleeping girlfriend.
Take dirty clothes out of your bag, put clean clothes in.
Sleep -- this is very popular in Chicago between these hours. Many people do nothing else on Monday mornings.
Wake up -- this is not very popular in Chicago. Or anywhere.
Kiss your sleeping girlfriend good-bye.
Take a cab from your home to O'Hare. If you ride in the cab by yourself you can fiddle with your phone so you don't fall asleep in the cab.
If you pass up the McDonald's between gates K & H, be warned that the Cinnabon down by K-15 is not open at 5 AM.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:22 PM | Comments (0)
Chicago Metblog: A very specialized night-life guide
posted on the Chicago Metblog: A very specialized night-life guide
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:20 PM | Comments (0)
Don't be distracted by the penguins
I want to give a shout out to all the folks who did our "Improv for Actors" workshop in Phoenix yesterday. I had a blast with you guys and that workshop really helped me solidify some ideas I have about my improv philosophies. And, since I'm never one to abandon an indescipherable catch phrase, you've likely given me the title of my next (first) book.
3:30 workshop folks, you rock, too. I'm still so JAZZED about everything in Phoenix.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:52 PM | Comments (0)
Road Food
Well, I was in Chicago for 5 and a half hours last night/this morning. I think it's the shortest period I've been in town since I moved there (if that makes sense). And as much as I love my city, if you only have 5 hours to be in Chicago, 1 to 6 AM Monday morning may not be your best bet. But it was worth it to see my sleepy girlfriend for a few minutes.
But I have bookended Chicago with meals at two of my favorite restaurants: Lo-Lo's and Men Kui Tei. And if that's not worth traveling 2,400 miles, I'm not sure what is.
Last year when I was in Phoenix for the Phoenix Improv Festival, one of the festival after-parties ended up at Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles. I'm not sure if the year's worth of raving I've done since had anything to do with it, but this year a visit to Lo-Lo's after the Friday shows was on the official festival schedule, with reservations and everything. I was told we were going to be sitting in a newly-built section of the restaurant, which made me worried that the essential nature of Lo-Lo's had changed. I was relieved when we got there that Lo-Lo's had certainly not moved from their dimly-lit industrial/residential neighborhood and that the new addition, while it did seat 20, was just as charmingly awkward as the rest of the house-turned-restaurant. Lo-Lo's has a fair variety of soul/southern food, but I stuck with the meal I've been craving for a year: pretty good fried chicken and one of the best waffles I've ever had.
Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles
10 West Yuma St
Phoenix, AZ 85003
602-340-1304
"Still closed on Mondays"
And here in New York, I had lunch at Men Kui Tei, a little noodle shop just down the street from work. I really need to get out and explore all the food possibilities available in NYC, but it's tough when there's such great noodles waiting just half a block away. Today I had the Char-Shu Ramen, which is the Shoyu Ramen (soy sauce flavored noodle soup) with extra slices of roast pork. The pork was tender and tasty, with just the right amount of fat, and I finished off every drop of the broth.
Men Kui Tei
60 West 56th St
New York, NY
212-757-1642
"We DO NOT accept any type of CREDIT CARD"
And on the way back to work I saw that Print on 56th has a big selection of English candy bars in their front display, so I got a Cadbury Dairy Milk Turkish for an afternoon snack. Not quite as good as a Big Turk (I prefer a higher Turkish Delight-to-chocolate ratio) but still delightful (no pun intended).
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:44 PM | Comments (1)
April 17, 2005
PIF Neutrino Thanks
I got a little flack in the comments on the last PIF entry for leaving someone out of my list of who participated in the Neutrino Video Project here at the Phoenix Improv Festival. So I thought I'd do a complete shout-out:
Actors
Tyler Barkley (Seattle Neutrino Project)
Ali Davis (Baby Wants Candy)
Jose Gonzalez (Galapagos, PIF)
Dan Izzo (Improv Inferno)
Trish Izzo (Improv Inferno)
Pam Man (Seattle Neutrino Project)
Matt Owens (Seattle Neutrino Project)
Ian Schempp (Seattle Neutrino Project)
Cameras
Fuzzy Gerdes (Chicago Neutrino Project)
Shaun Himmerick (Chicago Neutrino Project)
Michael Starcevich (Chicago Neutrino Project)
Runners
Jesse Parent (JoKyR and Jesster)
Joseph Kyle Rogan (JoKyR and Jesster)
Darin Webb (Apollo 12)
In the Booth
Greg Inda (Chicago Neutrino Project)
Mark Jordan (PIF)
Super thanks to each and every one, and to the Phoenix Improv Festival for making it possible.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
Tattoos
A couple of us went to a tattoo show this afternoon, but noone there had tattoos as cool as me (the alphabet) and Darin (pi to 20 places).
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:51 AM | Comments (1)
PIF
Hello from the party suite of the Phoenix Improv Festival. One of the great things about this festival is the hotel arrangements -- we're all in the same hotel and the festival has a suite with drinks and this computer and a poker table and snacks. The hotel management, I understand, did screw up on the reserved block of rooms, so there are non-festivalians on each side of the suite, so we have to play the "shush" game, where every few minutes as the volume of the room escalates as everyone tries to talk over everyone else, someone will notice that the volume has gotten a little extreme and start a "shhhhhh" that lowers the volume for 10 or 15 seconds.
We did Neutrino AND Bare tonight. The Neutrino Video Project went well -- it was all Chicago shooters (me and Shaun and Starcevich) and a combo cast of Chicago and Seattle and Jose from Phoenix and special guest sit-in Ali "True Porn Clerk Stories" Davis. (And Greg Inda came out from Chicago too, which made me super happy that I could just trust that the in-theater tech would be taken care of and I could run around with my team worry-free.)
It was a little odd to do a Bare show so soon after the NVP -- despite what I just said, I do kind of ramp up the stress for a NVP, jumping around all jittery before the show (there's sooo much that can go wrong technically in this show, especially in a new venue) and then the show is so tight and frantic, so I was pretty wiped after the show. But we did have a full show between the NVP and Bare (Joe Bill's Scramble and Baby Wants Candy) so Shaun and I were able to run back to the hotel to drop off our gear and grab a burger at the BK next door and chill out a little. And then I chugged a Pepsi and a Reeses' Peanut Butter Cup (just one) in the dressing room to get my energy back up right before we went on stage.
We were trying something kinda new tonight -- I won't bore you with our long-form meanderings, but we wanted to focus on a longer scene and it did end up that almost the whole thing took place at a single church service (from the excellent suggestion "the woman at church who sings too loudly") with a cast of about 10 characters. And Shaun got to punch Jesus.
OK, I should get off. I have to teach a workshop or two tomorrow before I fly back to Chicago for 5 hours and then fly off to New York. Busy week.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:38 AM | Comments (1)
April 15, 2005
PIF
Phoenix improv group Ferguson performing puppet improv at the PIF.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:43 PM | Comments (0)
PIF Plugging
Well, I'm going to be told to "turn off all electronic devices for landing" very shortly, but we'll see if I'm as fast a typist as Steev "Demon Fingers" Gadlin.
I'm on the plane to Phoenix for the Phoenix Improv Festival this weekend. I'll be doing two shows this weekend, both on Saturday, both at the same venue: The Playhouse on the Park Theater on 1850 N. Central Avenue.
Bare, of course, is my two-man improv show that I do with Shaun Himmerick. This will be the third time Shaun and I have been to the PIF, and we've all ready decided that after our experiment in boldness last year, we're going to do a light and crowd-pleasing batch of improv for Phoenix. Anyway, when we do our show at 11 pm, we'll still be coming down off the high of doing a Neutrino Video Project at 8 pm.
Shaun and I produce the Chicago version of the NVP (there are now casts in 4 cities, and I heard a rumor of a fifth the last time I was in NY) and when we found out that a number of the Seattle NVPers were going to be in Phoenix also, we proposed to the PIF organizers that we could put on a Neutrino Video Project. They accepted, and we started the fun work of organizing this very tech-heavy show between two different producers and in a third location (it's the little details -- I'm still not certain how far it is from where our tech booth will be to the projector -- did I bring enough cable?). But I am really excited that we'll be joined by the Izzos, who I haven't seen since they moved up to Ann Arbor to start their own improv venue, the Improv Inferno.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:31 PM | Comments (0)
Perhaps better left for tomorrow
In Phoenix for PIF. Composed longish post about same on plane, but ultimately defeated by elbow of Hefty McHeftsalot. Went out until 2:30 am (late, but do-able party time) but it is (body/Chicago-time) 4:30 am -- very late (plus drinks). Sleep now.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:19 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2005
Sometimes the Internet answers
A neat thing about our modern internety-webbly world, is that sometimes you can get little questions answered, little connections made. A couple of weeks ago Florida Cracker posted a picture of a giant carving of "Remember Duane Allman" on a roadside in Vicksburg, Mississpippi and wondered about the story behind it. Somehow, one of Erica's friends came across the post and left a comment that he knew part of the story, because he knew that Erica's dad was one of the "sculptors" of the carving. He passed the link along to Erica's family and now Erica's mom has added to the story. Maybe we can get Erica's dad to write up a complete account of the saga of Remember Duane Allman.
Update: Florida Cracker's update with a bigger picture
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:54 PM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2005
Happy Birthday Erica!
Hip hip, hooray! Whee! Ska-doo-ble! La la la! Happy Birthday!
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:45 AM | Comments (1)
April 11, 2005
Don't Spit the Photos
I finally brought my good camera to Don't Spit the Water and took a bunch of photos, which Steev has posted. This week featured the return of Cutie Bumblesnatch (aka Erica) who is with the show for the rest of the run (2 shows!) and then their CIF appearance the next week (same day of the week, different time). Pictured above, looking all sheepish (sorry) is Camenae Ensemble's Sara McGuire.
Posted by Fuzzy at 7:26 AM | Comments (0)
Where have all the cowboys gone?
And by "cowboys", of course, I mean "power adapters". I have (quick count on fingers) six identical Sony digital/video camera power adapters. One is with the camera that Adam Witt borrowed. Another is in Shaun's truck from when he borrowed the still camera. Somewhere in this house are four power adapters! I should be tripping over them. I should be saying "why can't I see anything else for all these power adapters!" But, instead, I'm going crazy trying to find just one.
Posted by Fuzzy at 7:20 AM | Comments (0)
April 8, 2005
Damn my head
So I miss a Koko show for the first time in months (stupid headache) and it turns out to be best improv show ever.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:19 PM | Comments (0)
Looking for early 90s anti-Halloween video
OK, my buddy Kyle is looking for a video that he saw on a local Christian channel (or cable access) in Chicago around 1992. It was an anti-Halloween film that included trick-or-treating children being kidnapped by Satanists. At the climax of the film, a cop (or priest) (or priest-cop) confronts the head Satanist and points a gun at him. "By the power of Satan, I command that gun not to fire," says the head Satanist. "By the power of Jesus, I command this gun to fire," says the cop-priest. And fire it does.
If you know this video or have any leads, let me know.
This doesn't help identify the video, but it's just funny: Kyle and his friends were drinking when they watched this on TV, so at the end of the movie, they called the local church number listed on-screen to argue with the Christians about the co-opting of pagan holidays. Kyle's friend who did the talking was Jewish enough (or drunk enough) that he couldn't remember when Christmas was.
"And further-more, Jesus was not born on December 20!" he crowed triumphantly.
"Exactly, sir," agreed the hotline volunteer.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)
April 5, 2005
Air holes are on page 47
This is the cover of the Uline shipping materials catalog -- thank goodness they're finally encouraging people to use foam when they ship puppies. I've received so many bruised puppies in the mail...
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:20 PM | Comments (0)
Chicago Metblog post: A good meal: Rudy's Taste
posted on the Chicago Metblog: A good meal: Rudy's Taste
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:16 AM | Comments (1)
A good meal: Rudy's Taste
originally posted on Metroblogging Chicago
Ever have the problem where the first thing you try at a restaurant is so great that you don't want to try anything else on the menu because it might be good, but maybe it won't be as great as that first thing? That's where I am with the jibarito at Rudy's Taste. The jibarito is a Puerto Rican sandwich with steak, pork (my choice), ham or chicken, lettuce, tomato, and American cheese and, and this is the kicker, instead of bread it's served on flattened, fried plantains. Soooo good.
I was sitting in Rudy's Taste this weekend, waiting for my takeout jibaritos and people eating in were getting served some great looking grilled things ("Rudy's Taste -- Guatemalan, Caribbean & Mexican Food, Grilled Specialties") but would they be as superior as a jibarito? I decided not to risk it. And the trying-something-else stakes are already high since Rudy's is not in my neighborhood at all and once I am down at Division and Ashland I'm giving up a chance to have one of my other favorite foods in Chicago, a steak burrito at La Pasadita (I like the one at 1140).
Rudy's Taste
1024 N Ashland
773-252-3666
Closed Wednesdays (that's bit me in the ass before)
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)
Kids
Yet another reason that trains are cooler than planes: when someone calls you from O'Hare and tells you they're "in Chicago" for a few hours, you'd have to trudge all the way out to Schaumburg and they have to come out of security and then their plane is boarding and, ugh, it's just never worth it. But this weekend my god-children (and their dad) had a one-hour layover at Union Station and I rolled in at the exact moment they got off their train and we had a delightful smoothie and chatted about how school is going and they got back on a train and I went to pick up some food on the way home. Done and done.
(And check out the hair! Are my godkids the cooliest or what?)
Posted by Fuzzy at 7:42 AM | Comments (0)
April 4, 2005
Standup
I spent part of my Saturday painting the trim in the front hallway (finally finishing an 11-month-old project) and listening to Mitch All Together in memory of Mitch Hedberg, who died last week. Boo, death, boo. (The Big Ticket and Music for Robots each have some Mitch mp3s. I especially like "Three Easy Payments".)
Unrelated, except that it's standup, I've been enjoying Patton Oswalt lately, in form of Feelin' Kinda Patton and his Comedy Central special, and discovered (via Warren Ellis, of all people) that the hour or so of Feelin' Kinda Patton was drawn from a 2-and-a-half hour set at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA. And that that complete set is available on 2 CDs, called 222. It's certainly not for everyone, it's rougher than the selected material, but I liked some of the stuff on 222 better than Feelin' Kinda Patton and I loved the flow of the whole concert.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)