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June 30, 2006
DSTW, The Challenge
Two FuzzyCo-related shows this holiday weekend:
Tomorrow night (Saturday, July 1) is the one-year anniversary of Don't Spit the Water's open run at the Playground. As one of the original cast, Erica will be performing as Cutie Bumblesnatch and I'll be the guest comic... doing something... that I haven't quite worked out yet... I hope Steve doesn't read this.
Sunday night (July 2), we're finally going to get to see the movies we wrote and shot for Split Pillow's The Challenge. All of the films will be shown at 8 PM at the Lake Shore Theater.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:13 PM | Comments (1)
Book #43: River of Time
Whenever there's a book I should be reading, no matter how much I might enjoy that book, I'll usually pick up something else. There's a book I should be reading right now, so I picked this collection of David Brin stories that I'd already read off the shelf. Except, it turns out I hadn't read them before, just the first story, so whenever I had previously picked it up off the shelf, I'd look at the first story and go, "oh, I guess I've read these before," and put it back. (I have a terrible memory for short story collections. In runs in the family -- my mother can read Agatha Christie books over and over because she forgets who did it.)
Anyway, River of Time is a collection of some of David Brin's earlier short stories. There's a few clever ideas here, but I find his novels a lot meatier.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:38 PM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2006
Jake
Here's my nephew Jake out for Cowgirl Sue's Teddy Bear Picnic at Children's Day Art Park (photo by Kelly West for the Austin American-Statesman.) Heidi corrects the text: "And, just in case you think you missed something, no Luke is not 10 months old! I told the reporter 10 weeks, although that's not right either. [Luke is 11 weeks old.] At least I got Jake's age right! He's not 4 until Saturday."
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
June 28, 2006
Pointing the camera out the window
Driving down Clark through Wrigleyville on Saturday after midnight, I was stopped at the light at Addison, looked out the window and there was the Neutrino Project's own Josh Chamberlin, nonchalanting against a payphone in the McD's parking lot. What to do but wave, then pull my camera out of my bag and snap a shot.
Six blocks later, I'm waiting at the light at Belmont and there's Don't Spit the Water's own Scot Goodhart. So, yeah, gotta get a shot of that.
Chicago's such a small town.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:20 PM | Comments (1)
June 26, 2006
Well, now we're NEVER gonna get paid
It looks like the Three Penny Cinema has closed for good, which takes our chances of getting paid for the Neutrino Project shows we did there back in 2003 from so-incredibly-slim-it's-not-worth-thinking-about to none.
We probably shouldn't have let them get away with breaking our contract the way we did, but even back then it seemed pretty clear to Shaun and I that even taking them to court and winning wouldn't really increase our chances of getting any actual cash -- blood from a stone and all that.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:13 PM | Comments (1)
Book #42: World's Worst
And speaking of improv games, back in the old National Velveeta days, one of my favorite improv games was World's Worst, so I'm sure that's part of why I snapped up Mark Frauenfelder's The World's Worst : A Guide to the Most Disgusting, Hideous, Inept, and Dangerous People, Places, and Things on Earth. I breezed through it in a train ride and I've throw it into the bathroom for other's browsing pleasure.
Mark also recommends good things at Mad Professor.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:07 PM | Comments (0)
CCC Theater
After months and months of schedule conflicts, I finally got the chance to go out to the Chicago Comedy Company Theater in the Streets of Woodfield Mall and perform with them. I had a bit of a stomach thing on Saturday, so I didn't anything all day, so I may have been a bit loopy when I got out to the theater, but I had a great time. I know they've poured a ton of money into the place and they really have a nice space out there. I got to do the show with Steve and Mardy and it was fun to just hit a bunch of improv games.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:55 PM | Comments (1)
Book #41: My Life in Heavy Metal
Around the time I was reading Candyfreak, Steve Almond was rather publicly quitting his job as an adjunct professor at Boston College. So when I saw that he was selling signed copies of his books on his website, I figured, heck, dude could use $15 and so I ordered a copy of My Life in Heavy Metal.
So, it's short stories. Huh. I think I had been a) confusing it in my head with Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City, which is a memoir and b) I think I read a few too many hyper-modern, very abstract, the-house-fell-in-love-with-a-rock-and-they-had-a-baby-who-was-an-Idea short stories a while back, because it's been quite some time since I read a modern lit short story.
Anyhoo, the stories in My Life in Heavy Metal are nothing like those house-rock-Idea ones. They're all very real. Mostly slices of the lives of people in relationships slowly going wrong. Which makes me sad for Steve Almond that he writes so knowingly about them, but happy for me that I could read these well-crafted stories.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:37 PM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2006
Fowler Family
In this week's Time Out Chicago, there's a photo of the Fowler Family Radio Hour. Yeah, I took that photo. [Brush imaginary dust off label.] Yeah, I'm a big shot photog. Someday I'll be a big enough shot to get a photo credit.
And hey, have I mentioned that you can hire me to come to your show and have me take pictures, instead of waiting for me to randomly wander in and take some great shots that will be suitable for publication in our cities finest journals of entertainment? Well, you can.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:40 PM | Comments (1)
fleur
The house next door to ours is empty. The yard is a mess (not that ours is a show garden or anything) and big orange city notices about things being turned off keep showing up on the front door. If we owned our place, I'd be concerned. But look -- pretty flower!
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:05 PM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2006
Book #40: Light
After reading all that young adult fiction, I figured it was time for a grown-up book. Light by M. John Harrison is very grown-up. It's a science-fiction novel set simultaneously in the present and 400 years in future, and rather more full of sex and violence than I was expecting. But really, the thing about this book is how dense it is, how full of language. I had to read many paragraphs a few times, not to make sure I understood them, but rather to make sure I had gotten all the juice out of it.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:11 PM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2006
Books #38 and 39: Magic or Madness
Why do I do this to myself? I know how I feel about trilogies, but I read Justine Larbalestier's Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons even though I knew that Magic's Child won't be out until 2007. 2007! That's forever!
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:49 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2006
Darby Lane
My friend Matt, from the NY Neutrino, is touring the country with a hotel promo gig and he and the other improvisors on the same gig are trying to do improv shows in all their tour cities. I helped get them hooked up with a show at The Playground on Saturday night. They did a mini Armando and I did the monologue for them. Erica got some photos.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:23 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2006
Book #37: A More Perfect Union
Hana Schank's A More Perfect Union: How I Survived the Happiest Day of My Life was recommended on some blog or another (I forget) and I decided that a quick read about someone else's wedding problems was just what I needed six weeks out from my own.
I really connected with Ms. Schank at the beginning of the book, as she sets out to have a wedding that's not "different" (e.g. the hot air balloon wedding or the oft-maligned Klingon wedding) but isn't necessarily the same as every other wedding, either -- because that's the path we're trying to tread as well. As the book went on, I became a little frustrated that she seemed to do an awful lot of research about how arbitrary most wedding customs are* only to turn around and acquiesce to many of those traditions. But then, I'm a little hesitant to criticize since a) she's a real person and not a character and b) I'm sure it would be a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Hana Schank will be in town this week, at The Midwestern Ladies Auxiliary Love Revue, June 22, 7-9 at The Hideout (1354 W Wabansia). FuzzyCo friend and work-neighbor Claire Zulkey hosts. It's at the same time as our Chicago Metblogs 2nd Birthday Party, which is a shame because Emily Flake and Wendy McClure will also be there.
* Ask for my All Our Traditions Were Invented by the Victorians(tm) Rant next time we're at a bar.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:23 PM | Comments (2)
June 14, 2006
Book #36: Hairstyles of the Damned
My co-worker Jason saw that I was reading The Boy Detective Fails and so loaned me Hairstyles of the Damned.
Hey, that Joe Meno can write. Hairstyles is a year in the life of a high school kid, Halloween 1990 - Halloween 1991. He's a misfit, at the bottom of the social ladder, and music is very important to him. Am I on repeat here?
And in the same way that you might be spooked by odd shadows or strange noises if you watch too many horror movies, I was finding that reading all these high-school-kids-not-fitting-in books was making me nervously reexamine my high school memories to see if I had really been as well-adjusted as I think I was. (I mean, I was a dork, but a relatively happy dork.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:12 PM | Comments (2)
June 12, 2006
Full Moon Jam
Our yoga instructor Mark (pictured above) invited us out to this full moon jam thing -- it turns out he's in SPUNN with KC, who I did FemmeTV with. And yeah, when we got there it turned out we knew tons of people. Chicago is such a small town.
Anyway, there was fire-dancing and I kinda went crazy with long-exposure shots. It was pretty neat that the swinging fire balls would act like a strobe -- you can see two distinct faces on Mark up there and KC is dancing with herself.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:08 PM | Comments (1)
June 11, 2006
Don't Spit
Pretty Lady with a Moustache and Man with One Gorilla Hand (and Timekeeper Willis) -- Photo by Noah Ginex
The show went pretty well. The house was a little light. At first I was a little nervous, and then I wasn't, and then I was, and then I wasn't and then the show was over. Erica commented afterwards that hosting you really notice all the moments when there's silence. I had noticed those moments, too, and really felt the need to fill them with chatter. Steve, Erica pointed out, seizes those moments and throws them back at the audience by just pausing and staring, which sounds weird, but if you've seen him, Sasha can really pull off. Next time (if there ever is a next time) I'd like to try playing with that kind of patience.
Anyway, lots and lots of spits, with more volume and spitting-on-other-people than I I've seen before. Especially good considering two of the comedians were trying out brand-new characters tonight.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:48 AM | Comments (0)
June 9, 2006
Don't Spit the Gerdes and Reid
Steve is going out of town for the weekend and has trusted us, us!, with the reins of Don't Spit the Water, the crazy live game show. It's quite an honor and we'll try not to destroy in one night (one Saturday night at 10:30 at the Playground) what it's taken 2 years to build.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:44 PM | Comments (2)
Book #35: I'm Not the New Me
Why am I so hideously behind the times in my Chicago-based-hip-cool reading? I mean, I'm Not the New Me came out a year ago and I just got around to reading it.
Wendy McClure's new book is The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan which consists of hideous 1974 Weight Watchers recipe cards and her humorous commentary. The book comes from her online collection of the same.
I'm Not the New Me is a memoir, inspired by and derived from her blog Pound. Pound is about, sometimes, McClure's weight loss and body issues, but also about the other things in her life, too. And the book is that, too.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:05 AM | Comments (0)
June 8, 2006
Missives from Africa
Erica's brother Christopher and his wife Katie are in Africa for a month and they've left me the keys to their blogs so I can post their emails. There are two so far, from Wednesday and today.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)
Book #34: Midnighters #3: Blue Noon
I think maybe I read too much Scott Westerfeld too fast, like the way I love a DQ Peanut Buster Parfait, but eating a whole one always makes me sick. Midnighters #3: Blue Noon was very good, but the moment I turned the last page I felt like I had to burp. Is that weird?
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:37 AM | Comments (2)
June 7, 2006
Lookee that
I promise I'm not going to spend all summer showing you pictures of me holding a GPS, but lookee that Moving Avg and Max Speed! Early in the trip this guy passed me and I decided to use him as a pacer and, hey, it worked. It does bring up some questions, I suppose. But watch me zip!
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:16 PM | Comments (0)
June 6, 2006
Book #33: Midnighters #2: Touching Darkness
One hundred and fifty-seven days (43%) into the year, my thirty-third book of fifty (66%) is Midnighters #2: Touching Darkness. Author Scott Westerfeld is celebrating 10 years of freelancing. Numbers, numbers.
Did I actually say what the Midnighters are about? I did not.
In the small town of Bixby, Oklahoma there is an extra hour between midnight and 12:01 AM when the whole town is frozen, except for several young people with extraordinary powers. Oh, and except for the old, evil things that live in the dark. You, know, them.
Westerfeld does a lot of stuff really well, but two things stand out to me in these books: action sequences and strange powers as a metaphor for adolescence (cf Buffy). Between all the Westerfeld I've been reading lately and King Dork, I'm feeling really good about how non-incredibly-traumatic my own nerdy high school years were.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:25 AM | Comments (1)
June 5, 2006
The Dunes
We're pretty heavy into the wedding planning, but our friends Dana and Bilal, who are pretty hard-core into some wedding planning themselves, managed to entice us out the city and off to the Michigan Dunes for the day. It was astonishingly relaxing. We did a quick loop of the dunes and then just sat on the beach for a few hours, chatting, reading, and flying a $3 kite I bought at the park convenience store.
Peectures here.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:21 PM | Comments (0)
June 3, 2006
Book #32: Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour
Well, I'm on a serious Scott Westerfeld kick. Though, as are half the people I know, it seems -- I borrowed the three Midnighters books from my soon-to-be-in-laws and the third book immediately went off to Kyle. So I read Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour today. I'm really glad I have the second book on hand as it is, again, the first book in a trilogy that really just feels like 1/3 of a larger book.
Posted by Fuzzy at 8:37 PM | Comments (1)
June 2, 2006
Book #31: King Dork
Michael Schaub of Bookslut has been going on and on about King Dork by Frank Portman so I picked it up, and gosh, he's right. It's an awesome book.
I'd didn't realize until I was half-way into the book that Frank Portman is Dr. Frank from the Mr. T Experience. Which means there's also a song King Dork and you can download it from here.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:10 PM | Comments (1)
June 1, 2006
Visit Asheville
The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority (aka Asheville [NC]: any way you like it) is holding a contest to design their new TV ad. The prize is $1,000 and a trip (to Asheville, of course). I'm sure they're expecting to get a lot of submissions like this one by "Paul E." But Steve Delahoyde and his film-making partner Waki submitted this and this and this and this and this.
I'd go anywhere that squirrel told me to go.
(Via Adam Witt)
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)