Dale's Journal

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Luckiest Customer
I must have the greatest baristas on the planet. They just gave me a Christmas present! I got a new mug with a bag of coffee, some chocolate-covered coffee beans, and ten gift tags that on the front say things like "Welcoming" and "Genuine" and "Considerate" and on the back have personal messages from different baristas.

I'm overwhelmed. My Starbucks is the best!

Current Music: In My Secret Life-Leonard Cohen-Ten New Songs

Escapist News Network
I have a short scene in ENN this week. I had a lot of fun shooting it, and Graham, Jeremy, and Paul were all great to work with. Thanks for the opportunity!

Current Music: Belshazzar's Feast: IX. "Then Sing Aloud to God Our Strength"-Andrew Davis, BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus & BBC Symphony Orchestra-Walton: Belshazzar's Feast - Vaughan Williams: Job

Dance Captain Stress
I'm a member of the chorus in a production of Pirates of Penzance that opened last weekend. This is fairly normal stuff for me; I like to perform. :)

One big difference between this show and others that I've done is that I'm the male dance captain. The way that it works is that the company hires a choreographer to create and teach us choreography for the show, and then the two dance captains (one for the women and one for the men) have to make sure that the members of the company learn it. I had to call and run some extra rehearsals, and a few times I even had to change the choreography.

For the most part this has been a solid learning experience and I feel like I've stretched myself in a good way that, until Sunday, wasn't too stressful.

We opened Saturday evening, and it wasn't perfect but we had a lot of energy and I think that we entertained people. Our second show was a Sunday matinee, so we showed up and prepared. The call for the cast was an hour and a half before curtain, so we had lots of time to do our makeup and get in our costumes and warm up and such.

At about fifteen minutes before curtain on Sunday, the stage manager came up to me and confirmed that I was the men's dance captain. I said that I was. He said that one of the men hadn't shown up and that I had to restage the show to work around his absence.

Okay.

So I scampered around and found out all the things Jim did in Act One (figuring I could fix Act Two during intermission), and had almost completely reworked the important bits of Act One by five minutes before curtain, at which point Jim walked in. So I was glad we didn't have to use my improvised fixes, but yikes!

Current Music: Strawberry Fields Forever-Jim Sturgess & Joe Anderson-Across The Universe OST

Dollhouse Pilot
Initial Reaction: I liked it. I'm looking forward to more.

Favourite Character: Boyd Langdon (Echo's handler)

Favourite Plot Element: Paul Ballard's Investigation

Least Favourite Element: The mismatched titles in the opening credits

So, any of you see it?

Sleep is Good
I lay down for a nap yesterday afternoon at about five and woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I guess I was sleepy. :)

Current Mood: rested
Current Music: Across the Universe-Kayler-Across the Universe - Kayler Guitarist Extraordinaire Plays the Beatles

Pirates of Penzance
Every ten years or so there's an open-audition production of Pirates of Penzance in Victoria. This is happening again in 2009. Auditions are on Friday, October 17, for men and Saturday, October 18, for women. You can book an audition time by calling Joy at 250-384-6707.

The music director is Goerge Corwin. The stage director is Chris Moss. The choreographer is Leah Moreau. That's all I've heard. I don't know who is producing or who is concert master or anything like that. The show is being put on by the Victoria Gilbert & Sullivan Society. I performed with them a couple years ago and had a lot of fun.

I think that the show will be at the end of March or beginning of April.

[I posted this to the victoria_bc community, then figured I might as well post it here, too.]

Doctor Horrible
I'm really enjoying watching Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's available until Sunday, so if you have time to watch a musical about a mad scientist out to rule the world then this might be for you.

Current Music: Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'-Michael Jackson-Thriller

Journey's End
Okay, the Doctor Who series finale was sappy and corny, but I had a lot of fun watching it. Here's hoping that the casting hints regarding the next series of Torchwood come true!

Seattle Lindy Exchange 2008
I'm pondering attending the Seattle Lindy Exchange this year. Any of you going to be there?

EDIT: I have been reminded that I have a commitment in Victoria keeping me here that weekend. Next year!

Current Music: Move-Miles Davis-Birth Of The Cool

MindMap
So I'm still not entirely sure how these things work, but I went and got myself a MindMap. Apparently I'm most like the people nearest the centre. Presumably since this is LJ-based it's working off interests listed rather than anything more complex, but I'm still surprised to see

tinfoilgrrl about as far away from me as it's possible to be.

( Click here to see! )

Current Music: Polythene Pam-The Beatles-Abbey Road

With Special Thanks to ME
Those brilliant folks at LoadingReadyRun have another brilliant video, this time all about this week's release of D&D 4th edition. It is worth your time.

Current Music: Because-The Beatles-Abbey Road

Dancing With Karen
Karen and I have been married for over eighteen years, but last night was the first time I ever took her dancing. I guess I'm just slow.

Current Music: Saved-The Commitments-Commitments

End of Show
Our run of "Patience" ended on a high note. I think that everyone really outdid themselves on closing night. Congratulations to the cast and producers on a great show! I was delighted to be part of the crew on this one. (Next time, however, I hope to be treading the boards again!)

Now to catch up on all the stuff I left languishing while concentrating on the theatre!

Current Music: Everybody Loves My Baby-Glenn Miller Orchestra-Moonlight Serenade

Patience
It's already the second of our three weekends of performances. The operetta is going well, and I'm learning a lot being a stage hand. It is nonetheless my earnest hope that next year I'll be back on stage; being in the crew is all very well but it's not where my heart is.

This weekend's two shows are at the Charlie White theatre in Sidney, and next weekend's two shows are at the McPherson in Victoria. You won't actually see me either time of course, no matter how hard you look. :) If you like Gilbert & Sullivan it's a good show, and worth your time and money.

Current Music: Sure Cure For The Blues-4 Jacks-Jump Jazz & Jive

Dancing in the Streets
I was heading out dancing on the weekend, and the cab driver was one who'd driven me before. (I dress fancy when I dance, so it's not surprising he found me memorable.)

He asked me how the dancing was going, and we talked about swing music, and then he started telling me about the best dancer he'd ever seen. Apparently, this guy could jump, land with his feet crossed, and then spin around. This in spite of the fact that he was old and fat.

So I mentioned that I could do that. The cab driver assured me that it was much harder than it sounded, and that he himself had spent hours in front of a mirror trying and failing to pull off this move. I told him I'd teach him to do it. He was dubious at first, but as I started explaining the individual elements he started to get excited.

By the time we arrived at the dance hall he was all psyched up. He pulled the cab over, got out, and asked for the demo. I showed him the move quickly once, then broke it down. Then I stood in front of him and had him practice the steps while watching me do them, and then I made him do it by himself. It wasn't smooth, but he did it. He was quite pleased, and got into his cab after declaring he'd go home and practice.

I can only wonder after the thoughts of the residents of the house we'd stopped at.

Current Music: Now's the Time-Charlie Parker Quartet-The Essential Charlie Parker

Happy Pedant's Saint Patrick's Day
Are you wearing green today? Normally Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, but when that falls during Holy Week the church moves the celebration to another day. The last time that this happened was in 1940, when Saint Patrick's Day was moved to April 3.

I'm going to wear green again on Monday anyway, just to avoid getting pinched.

Current Music: My Man-Dolly Cooper-Jump Jazz & Jive

Stage Directing
How does one go about learning to be a stage director? On the chance that my singing voice doesn't recover I've been pondering other options, and I realized that I have no idea how to go about even starting to learn stage direction.

Maybe I need to befriend a director and then volunteer to be his gopher at a show or two. That would at least give me more exposure to the process.

Anyone on my flist ever stage directed?

Current Music: Thirteen-Johnny Cash-American Recordings

Swing Dancing
I've been going out swing dancing the last several Friday evenings. As anyone who has danced with me can attest, I have two left feet. Nonetheless I'm persevering, and I think I've finally mastered the East Coast basic step. I've been taught the West Coast sugar push, but I've never successfully pulled it off. Maybe this week!

If you're in Victoria and want to try it out, we're at the Edelweiss Club every Friday evening. There's a lesson from 8:00 to 9:00, and then the dancing lasts until midnight. I usually wear black tie and top hat, but you can wear whatever you want. I just like to dress up. :)

Current Music: Suspicious Minds-Elvis Presley-The Number One Hits

Patience
Patience opens on Saturday, March 29. I'll be a stagehand, so if you actually see me on stage then that's probably not a good sign. :)

Rehearsals are accelerating, and my evenings are rapidly filling up. If there seems to be less Dale around for a while, now you know why!

Current Music: Canon alla Duodecima in Contrapunto alla Quinta-David Finckel & Philip Setzer-Bach: The Art of Fugue

Gary Gygax, R.I.P.
Gary Gygax, the original Dungeon Master, has passed away.

Rest in peace, Gary.

Current Mood: sad