Sunday, January 4, 2009

Meet: Katy, Rachel, Haley, and Angelica

Name: Katy

Location: Portland, Oregon, home of the Blazers, son!

Household: Got some ‘rents, an older sister who’s little miss perfect and a little brother who’s a total screw up. So yeah, I’m the middle child.

Fav. Music: I like…John Butler Trio, The Shins (hometown!), Wilco, Iron & Wine, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, totally, Modest Mouse (kinda hometown!), moe. and more I just kinda don’t want to write anymore

Fav. Movies: Dazed and Confused is the best, Dark Crystal with Bowie junk all over the place, Fear and Loathing, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is sooo funny, Super Troopers, Empire Records, The Wall is trippy, BIG LEBOWSKI oh man, soooo funny

Fav. TV Show: Fraggle Rock!!!!

Fav. Sites: facebook.com. That took sooo much to admit.

Fav. Books: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, The Tipping Point, Most Hunter S. Thompson stuff, uhh, things with words and covers

Personal Note: How much do a pack of cigs cost in Mass? It's a lot, isn't it? Dammit.

Name: Rachel

Location: Waterbury, CT

Household: I’m the oldest of 4. My Dad and my mom split a while back, so my Mom works most of the day and I usually take care of things around the house.

Fav. Music: Aretha Franklin, anything Motown, Otis Redding, Sly & the Family Stone, The Beatles, Common, The Fugees, Lauryn Hill similar sounds. Gotta have soul, cause everything else around me is so friggin hectic.

Fav. Movies: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Crash, Babel, Brokeback Mountain, The Ice Storm, Garden State

Fav. TV Show: Law and Order SVU, some Oprah, I guess. I don’t watch TV that much.

Fav. Sites: Not a lot of time to do sit around on the internet. Myspace, I guess. I like checking out music on there sometimes.

Fav. Books: Only stuff I get to read in school, so Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, Things Fall Apart, Lord of the Flies

Personal Note: I can’t wait to let my hair down, unless it gets on the floor. Cause that’s disgusting.

Name: Haley

Location: Alliance, OH

Household: Yes

Fav. Music: Yes

Fav. Movies: Yes

Fav. TV Show: Yes

Fav. Sites: No

Fav. Books: No

Personal Note: No. Wait, yes: this is dumb. Hope it helps !!!!!

Name: Angelica

Location: Chevy Chase, MD

Household: I have two parents and a dog named Skippy. I didn’t name her, or else I wouldn’t have named her “Skippy.” Now she’s old and she limps. Terrible choice all around.

Fav. Music: All the classcis. Bananarama, The Beegees, Ace of Base. Y’know, the best of the best. Well, and the Rolling Stones. Mostly them.

Fav. Movies: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, The Godfather Part II, Sixteen Candles, Chaplin’s The Kid, not the Bruce Willis Disney crapfest, anything with The Three Stooges, nyuk nyuk

Fav. TV Show: my absolute favorite is probably I Love Lucy, then maybe The Odd Couple, theeennn Ducktails, woo-ooohhh!

Fav. Sites: wikipedia – anything and everything

Fav. Books: Mostly comics, like The Dark Knight Returns, Preacher, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Batman: Year One, and all the Sin City books. Well, almost all of them.

Personal Note: A fart by any other name smells just as bad. Isn’t that Shakespeare?

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!

Yeah, so it's 6:26 EST, but whatever. I'm going to be out celebrating the end of the awful 2008 and eagerly anticipating the start of 2009 (and the first rehearsal of Disorientation on the 5th, if only to play with a Wall-E mini robot) which should hopefully be a better year. Hope you all enjoy responsibly, and abide all laws, which probably neglects the "enjoy responsibly" part.

For the blog business, all character stuff will be done by the first rehearsal (and hopefully at a decent time on Sunday, but it's playoff time, so no guarantees). Then, hopefully, I'll be putting up some YouTube footage to bring this blog from straight 2D to perceived 3D (even though it's really still 2D) !

See you next year! omgomgomgomg NO I ONLY MEAN A FEW DAYS

lollerskatez

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Meet: Lauren, Eric, and Jen

Name: Lauren

Location: Rutherford, NJ

Household: Full? I have a mom and a dad, and they’re in my household, and an older brother who is engaged. But he doesn’t count because he’s out of the house, right?

Fav. Music: Adam Pascal (Rent! Eeeee!), Rufus Wainwright, Stephen Sondheim (named my car after him), some hip-hop, mostly for dancing purposes. More Broadway than I’d like to admit. Oh, and some mid-90s pop when no one is around. Don’t tell anyone about that.

Fav. Movies: Gidget, Les Miserables, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Zoolander, American Beauty, Paris Je T’Aime, Amelie and some others I can’t really think of right now. But they’re good, honest.

Fav. TV Show: Arrested Development, Dexter, Gossip Girl, Sex and the City (obvi)

Fav. Sites: I wish I was above it, but perezhilton. Where’s Paint? <-- DIVA

Fav. Books: Jane Eyre, The Diary of Adam and Eve, Running with Scissors, The Beach, The Little Prince, Said the Shotgun to the Head

Personal Note: I hope it’s a great year! Is that too impersonal?

Name: Eric

Location: Framingham, or as I call it “Smellsville.” Cause it smells like crap.

Household: I got one.

Fav. Music: Slayer, The Misfits, Sex Pistols, whatever’s on the laptops I find around town.

Fav. Movies: Mostly flicks where people got shot. Like Die Hard’s pretty awesome. Commando, man, Arnold kills a lotta folks. That’s awesome.

Fav. TV Show: The Wonder Years

Fav. Sites: Miami

Fav. Books: Fight Club. Like a how-to book.

Personal Note: There are only like 5 guys here right? And the rest are girls, right? They better both be yes or I’m leaving.

Name: Jen

Location: Boonton, NJ

Household: I have a mother who reminds me that I need to start a family and a father who reminds me to not have a family like the one we have.

Fav. Music: Postal Service, Bright Eyes, Bob Dylan’s earlier stuff, Muse if I’m feeling loud.

Fav. Movies: 12 Angry Men, Wall-E, Vertigo, a lot of classic stuff, really. A lot of movies that come out now are just waaay too intense (I’m looking at you, Michael Bay).

Fav. TV Show: The Simpsons are great, What Not To Wear is fun to laugh at other people who get ridiculed for wearing clashing outfits, Oprah (sadly)

Fav. Sites: cnn.com is my main news source. Foxnews.com when I really want to laugh.

Fav. Books: City Mouse, Country Mouse, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Communist Manifesto (have a crush on Stalin, so dreamy) I’m kidding about that last part.

Personal Note: I hope we can all get along and stay out of my room cause I need to do work.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

From The Notebook: A Study on Sarah

As I run through my notebook on this Christmas Eve eve and the third night of Chanukah (...right?), I have come to an odd conclusion that's both good and bad: most of what I wrote down ended up in the play. The good part is that "hey, it seems like a lot of my first ideas were good enough to stick around for the current draft!" The bad part is, "oh crap...there goes a lot of blog content." For the most part, the only things that were cut were far too sexually explicit lines from Vicky (specifically when she's with Will).

However, I have found some interesting little bits on the character of Sarah.

At first, Sarah (named Suzanne as a back-handed homage to my cousin of the same name) was just a character to tell the audience how time was moving on, specifically when she'd yell out her journal entries by which day it was, like an inmate in Shawshank. Clearly it would be an annoying roommate (as so many are) and would upset the main character (always Alison, always Elvis Costello influenced), but wouldn't be more than just a secondary character.

Eventually, the character blossomed into something bigger, and I think the impetus came with this selection which was cut from the play, mostly because it is far too close to Parker Posey's brilliant ad-lib in Dazed and Confused (1993). It comes roughly around page 34, as part of the reason Alison goes to go to Beth and ask for a new roommate. It was replaced with something more emotional and gave way to a bit more background on why Alison is so darn man hating. But first, there was:

Alison: hey, can you clean up your side of the room? (approx)
Sarah: Hey, can you clean the stupid off your face?
Alison: What?
Sarah: Didn't think so

Sarah goes back to writing her journal.

From that point forward, Sarah's part grew and grew if only because I loved writing her part. She even filled a hole later on when I had no one else for Will to talk to about the Alison situation, specifically after he tried to woo her and she tried to destroy his manhood. Who else but Alison's roommate, Sarah? My love for her grew further after I'd send the play out to a small cadre of friends and Sarah was almost universally loathed. Every time someone would say "oh I just wanted to STRANGLE that Sarah girl!" my heart would grow four times. And then a bell would ring, and Clarence would get a free venti skinny mocha. Wait. Backspaaaaaaace. Free venti skinny wings.

There should hopefully be a Christmas gift (read: post) up on the day, so check back, cause all I'll be doing is watching the NBA for about 11 straight hours. Thanks, Jesus !

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Meet: Hillary, Jolene, and Kris

Name: Hillary

Location: Manhattan, NY (Upper East Side on the corner of 89th and Lex if you would like specifics). If interested, I do accept visitors, but I would have to clear it with Leonard, the doorman, first.

Household: I have a nuclear family consisting of my mother, a lawyer, and my father, a lawyer. They work at competing firms, so things are always up for grabs at my house. I have an older brother who is finishing a semester abroad in Finland with like-minded students from Yale and a little sister who is executive president at the school the entire family attended, as only an 8th grader, again; like the rest of the family.

Fav. Music: I find listening to music purely for the purpose of entertainment to be self-indulgent and a general waste of time, as well as brain capacity. However, I will throw on some music in the background, specifically Mozart, Bach, and, if I’m feeling randy, some John Coltrain (only if mother is not at home).

Fav. Movies: I prefer the term “films,” as I do not watch movies. My preferences are for foreign films, such as À bout de soufflé (Breathless) (1960), La Régle du jeu (Rules of the Game) (1939), and Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) (1948). They both inform as well as entertain, and allow me to keep up on my knowledge of foreign tongues (French, Italian, Latin, etc.).

Fav. TV Show: Ha!

Fav. Sites: I do not know how many “sites” I traverse on a given day, but Google.com and Wikipedia.org I frequent most often, if I had to guess.

Fav. Books: Dante – The Inferno, John Milton – Paradise Lost, Shelley – Frankenstein (but only the 1818 text), Homer – The Iliad as well as The Odyssey, Machiavelli – The Prince, Hillary Clinton – It Takes A Village, Barack Obama – The Au…I’m sorry, I couldn’t finish that with a straight face, let alone type it.

Personal Note: I hope I’m challenged more here than at prep school, as I know Harvard Law will be difficult and I need to receive adequate training to prepare myself.


Name: Jolene

Location: Atlanta, Georgia, specifically beautiful Buckhead

Household: I live with my mom, as my Dad lives in a condo on the other side of Atlanta. I’ve got a little brother and he’s a pain in the ass. He came from my mom’s second marriage. That guy lives a few blocks away.

Fav. Music: T.I. is the best. Li’l John, Ne-Yo, Kanye, Li’l Wayne (wheezy!), and a local band down here, The Whigs, I’m pretty partial to.

Fav. Movies: I like some pretty random stuff, like ATL, Toy Story (even though it’s kinda gay), The Notebook, Dirty Dancing is my fav, prolly.

Fav. TV Show: I love love LOVE The Hills, Gossip Girl, Paris’ new BFF cuz the girls are sooooo dumb, um, that’s it I guess. OH! The Chappelle’s Show. That ish is mad phunnie.

Fav. Sites: I dunno I kinda click places.

Fav. Books: US Weekly, People. Those are books rite? lol I mean they look like books!

Personal Statement: I wanna have nights I can’t remember with the people I can’t forget.


Name: Kris

Location: Chicago

Household: Full of children, even though two of them are considered my parents

Fav. Music: Fiery Furnaces, Noah and the Whale, St. Vincent, Broken Social Scene, Feist, Nicole Atkins, Cansei Der Se Sexy, Of Montreal, Arctic Monkeys, Black Keys, Iron & Wine, Arcade Fire, The Shins, Pavement, Chromeo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sufjan Stevens, I’m From Barcelona, Fiona Apple, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, MGMT, Foals, The National, Justice, Ting Tings, Tapes and Tapes, Architecture in Helsinki, Chairlift, Los Campesinos, Ra Ra Riot, Sex Pistols, and the Ramones. I used to like Vampire Weekend, Interpol, I’m From Barcelona, and Brazilian Girls but I’m over them now.

Fav. Movies: A Clockwork Orange, Manhattan, High Fidelity, Fight Club, Rushmore, Life Aquatic, American Psycho, Boondock Saints, Chasing Amy, Almost Famous, Wet Hot, The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense

Fav. TV Show: clips from 120 Minutes on youtube, Simpsons, Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen (mostly), Frisky Dingo, Colbert, Attack of the Show, South Park

Fav. Sites: pitchforkmedia.com, allmusic.com, rollingstone (ha!), metacritic

Fav. Books: On The Road, Choke (Palahniuk), Slaughterhouse Five, Fahrenheit 451, Cather in the Rye

Personal Statement: ....

Monday, December 15, 2008

Awards Are Great (cause they're shinny)

Awards season is upon us. First the Golden Globes announce their nominees, and now Montclair State University releases their first-annual Theatre Night Awards. Congratulations are in order to both Park Ridge and Pascack Valley for Twelfth Night and Museum, respectively.

PR:
- Nyki Padula for Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy
- Outstanding Production of a Classical Work

PV:
- Liz Lehman for Graphic Design
- Merielle Lupfer for Achievement in Properties
- Tom Lupfer for Scenic Achievement
- Tom and Mer for Best Direction
- Outstanding Production of a Drama (ed. note: drama? really?)
- Best Ensemble Cast in a Production

All nominations can be found here. The awards ceremony will be held somewhere on MSU's campus (presumably) January 9 at 7 pm.


But this is a blog about Disorientation you say (no one says this) ! What does this have to do with that, Michael?

Well, theoretical person who doesn't exist, this means that there is some validation about the great work that PV is doing and furthers how excited I am to be doing this production with the school, as if that needed to be repeated. It's also a soapbox to congratulate folks I know and trumpet their achievements further. Oh, and it's filling you all in that the reading is the next afternoon and all of northern New Jersey theater will be in one room the night beforehand. So maybe we can get some butts in the seats while we revel in plaques. Hopefully there will be a few to pass around.

ps - new character Meet: up tomorrow, I promise

Saturday, December 13, 2008

ooohhh Musicals!! They have SINGING!

Well both High Schools I hold dear to my heart have unveiled their respective musicals, so I wanted to post a little congrats to both for some great musicals and really interesting choices. For Park Ridge, we've got Curtains and for Pascack Valley, Seussical. One has a Boston accent (that I'll be listening to closely) and the other has a trampoline. So clearly there is something for everyone.