AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

[10 Tuesday] Bands!

This picture has nothing to do with today's 10 for Tuesday topic. I just love my little boy.

So, this week's 10 for Tuesday is 10 Bands or Individuals you've seen in concert.

1. It's hard to beat this one for awesomeness. When I was in college, someone was selling an extra ticket and I got to see Pink Floyd at Foxboro Stadium (when it was still called Foxboro). I was 12th row center stage. My ticket was under $50, and someone I knew had a ticket for later in the series and was in nosebleed seats. It was awesome.

2. I've seen Rush in concert in Providence. This was one of those situations where I had an internet friend who liked many of the same things I did. So, we would get together and play too many games of Mortal Kombat and go to concerts like Rush. That was nosebleed seats for me.

3. Weird Al. In Lowell. Any concert where it is aOK to get up, sing along, and dance your fool heart out is wonderful!

4. Marillion at the Somerville Theater. This is one of those weird situations where you've listened to the music but have no idea what the musicians look like. I almost left after the opening act, because I didn't know it was the opening act. Whoops! I did stick around, and got to listen to many wonderful songs.

5. Lollapalooza 1996. Once again a group of friend went to Lollapalooza, and I got to go too. The only groups I really knew at this were Metallica and Soundgarden. On the day we went, I also listened to Ben Folds Five and Psychotica. It was super hot, and I was sort of gothed out in a black body suit with fishnet mesh shoulders. Needless to say, I got a fishnet mesh sunburn that faded out and lasted all summer long.

6. Dream Theater and Blink Crotch. Dream Theater was at the Bank of America Pavillion and had two opening bands. One of those bands involved the lead singer standing with his legs straddling the blinking light from the drum kit. The opening bands were mostly forgettable (the other opening band had a lead singer who looked kind of like Bruce Banner).

7. Distant Worlds. Chocobo music and other Final Fantasy music. It was pretty awesome!

8. Carmen in Concert. One of my friends was in the chorus for this, so I saw it when the MIT group put it on a gazillion years ago.

9. Tiffany. I saw this with one of my friends at the Fleet Center (or whatever they were calling it at the time.. you know, where the Bruins play). It was shortly after I had knee surgery, so I was either just off crutches or was still on crutches with an air cast thingie. I was afraid that if I fell down that I would roll all the way down to the bottom. Splat!

Beyond that, I have been part of a lot of musical theater and now choirs (UU Church of Lexington right now). So, I have done concerts. The most recent one was this past weekend at the local farmer's market, where we sang to support Faith Feeds. 

Singing with the church is awesome, because they do Music Sundays. Music was always one of my favorite things about church from when I went when I was a little kid, so being part of such a musical congregation is wonderful! This past Sunday we sang Kokomo and the Famine Song in addition to the more traditional spirituals and hymns.

If you add musicals I've seen, the list gets a lot longer. I've seen Les Mis, Into the Woods, Miss Saigon, Moving Out, and a few others. I've also seen a few plays and operas on the Boston Common. But frankly, I haven't seen a concert since seeing Dream Theater a few years ago. It's just not something I do on a regular basis.

The very model of a [insert anything here]

 

Yeah, I'm politically active, but I'm not posting this because of politics. I'm posting this because of Gilbert and Sullivan. Are there any other spoofs of this song that you love out there? This one based on XKCD is pretty awesome too!

Into the Woods

Last night after work I headed to MIT to see the MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players production of Into the Woods in the Kresge Little Theater. It's up for 5 more performances, so if you are local it is well worth it to go.

This performance was a bit more traditional, reminiscent of the Broadway production with Bernadette Peters that I grew up loving. I loved their version of the birds for Cinderella. It was much less cheesy than fake stuffed birds on essentially a giant mobile. On the other hand, the cow needs some WD40 for the wheels.

The vocalists were amazing. I had heard many of them before, but a number of them were new to the group though they were vocalists in a number of different productions around the United States. Emily Lydic had a strong Cinderella, in what was the girliest, most "innocent" role I have yet heard her in. It was great hearing Bridgette Hayes get to use more of her full vocal range as the Witch, given that the last production I had been in with her was Sweeny Todd where she was Lucy.

In previous productions, usually Cinderella's mother and Jack's mother are not the most vocally strong of the group, but the MIT production has strong caliber singers in even the more secondary roles.

And no discussion of Into the Woods is complete without talking about the Baker's Wife. I love Joanna Gleason and her version of the role will always have a warm place in my heart. Her Baker's Wife was full of humor that was mostly understated and centered in her facial expressions. Jessica Taylor, playing the role, brings strong vocals and humor in the body language. She had a wonderful Justify the Beans.

Outside the singing, the set was amazing. Brie (who also played the Grandmother and the Giant) is an amazing set designer and works with a great group of people. I took pictures of the set, but my iPad wasn't too happy about the low lighting at the end of the show and they are fuzzy.

So, if you are in the Boston-Camberville area, I highly recommend going to this show. It is a great value with tickets topping out at $15 for members of the general public (cheaper if you are a student or a member of the MIT community).

a bit of bad news

I've been obsessively checking my email for the past couple of days to see if I heard back from the prod staff about my audition. I knew it was a long shot, because it is a very popular show with pretty much no chorus to speak of, but I was hoping.

This morning I got the note that I did not make it into the production (but, guys, I was willing to be the cow!).

On the other hand, now I don't have to feel guilty about trying out for Pirates in the fall!

Strike!

Last night was the last show of our run immediately followed by strike. I pushed scaff, used dex tools, guarded people's stuff, carried stuff, and used power drills to take down the set.

I am at the 99% level of my show sweater. I only have ends to weave in, which is pretty good. Today, however, is completely a recovery day. I slept for about 8 hours and took a 2-hour nap. I expect that tomorrow morning I will be finishing up the ends.

I'm trying to decide what I'm doing next. I have a sweater in progress I came across that I started way over a year ago (I fell down when I got to the sleeves). If not that project, I have plenty of stuff in the UFO list.

Also, my laptop is currently at the doctor's for some repairs. I have fingers crossed for an affordable fix.

still not dead

Just doing a show, and if you are local you should come!

The poster was done by Susan, one of the member of the women's chorus (and an alto, which is extra terrific).

It felt like it was so far away, but opening day is Friday! Prod week is eating my soul (or the small swatch of knitting I keep where my soul was reportedly located), and tonight is Cue to Cue. I love seeing the show come together from the disparate pieces into something cohesive and entertaining.

[10 Tuesday] on Thursday...

I'm stupid levels of competitive, so I've been doing this week's wisdom quest for Fitocracy in a way that seems to be eroding any actual wisdom I have. I want to get at least my share of the 20,000 points the group is accumulating, and that means heavy working out, lots of weight lifting (group weights of 100,000 pounds), tons of DDR, other dance or martial arts, and smaller exercises that I haven't tried yet like box jumps and burpees.

So, this weekend started off right. I did some awesome things.

1. Played in 2 D&D games. One of my characters leveled and has picked up her prestige class. The other character went from celebrating beer o'clock during a festival to having horrifying crap happen and now has an insanity point. Yippee!

2. Wove in ends. I finished weaving in all of the ends for the blanket on Friday. Now, I've been concentrating on Fitocracy so much that I haven't taken the time to block the remaining squares. Hopefully I'll get to that this weekend.

3. Biked from home to MIT and did the first "jogging" I've done in months. I'm slow and really out of shape and run much better on the treadmill.

4. Started a red scarf for the red scarf project. It is 100% baby llama in a wonderfully warm red. It is a staggered rib pattern and it will probably take 4 balls of yarn.

5. Made butternut squash linguine. This mostly resulted in the pasta having an orange color. I do not think there was enough squash in the pasta to do much to affect the flavor. It was still good. I need to make ravioli, because I made filling but did not turn any of the pasta dough into raviolis.

6. Washed Victor with both deskunking shampoo and a mix of hydrogen peroxide, water, dawn dish detergent and baking soda. Of course, I think he went back to the area where the spraying happened, because the smell isn't gone and I still have to figure out how to get it out of furniture.

7. Read a book. More like reread a book (for the umpteenth time). A passing comment has me back at the Tamora Pierce books.

8. Went to the knitters brunch and talked with a number of new people and a few regulars including a woman with the most gorgeous embroidery (she uses a water soluable fabric marker to draw out her pattern and goes from there. It is awesome).

9. Raked. My husband and I have started our annual combat the frisking leaves that fall all over the lawn. In 50 minutes, we didn't even get a third of the back yard done. Sometimes I think we have too much yard. Mostly when we are in the middle of yard work projects like this.

10. Sang. The poor people on the train have been early morning captives of my rehearsing strategy. Thankfully the train is loud and most people wear headphones. Otherwise, I'm sure someone would complain about hearing With heart and with voice over and over and over again. I did figure out how easy it was to make a playlist for my iPod on the fly, so now I'm just listening to songs that involve the men's chorus.

Randomly, theater is dangerous. When I did Sweeney Todd, some people were hurt on the slide for the barber's chair. This time around I am trying to see how much bruising I can get in a single blocking session. My record appears to be this:

We avoided cat cow during yoga yesterday, so I wouldn't need to be on the knee.

Apparently my knee is no longer used to kneeling. Stupid knee. Of course, I bruise really easily so it isn't the only bruise I have. Just the biggest.

finding a masculine side

Sorcerer is the second show where I will be a "guy" singing tenor in the chorus. With Pirates, my costume included a loose piratical shirt, sash, black pants, and boots. I also had a fake moustache to help encourage the illusion that I was a guy. I wore the tightest compression style sports bra I had.

This time around I'm trying a different approach. I'm considering binding, though I should practice before the dress rehearsals, so I can get an idea of how comfortable it is and how (if) it affects my singing. I'm also back to the gym. I'm doing weight lifting and running again, trying to trim down and to increase muscle strength in my upper body. I know that as a woman I am unlikely to have the hormonal balance that makes guys more likely to have the full inverted triangle when they work out, but I figured I could give it a shot. At worst I don't look anything more like a guy, but I am stronger. There really isn't a lose situation here.

Unfortunately, in my 1.5 years away from consistent working out, I have lost a lot of the strength, flexibility and speed gains I had made at the time. Yesterday I did my first run in a while, a PEB 1.5 mile test run (scores for 35-39 females). Suffice to say that if I had been actually tested, I would not have passed. I get to do this again on Friday and see if I can make a better effort. I miss the days when I had a sub 9 minute mile.

Fitocracy has been helping out in that regard. The point/leveling system and the extra rewards for trying new exercises has been a boon to encouraging me at the gym. Instead of just hopping on an exercise bike or elliptical, I am using free weights, including barbells and researching tutorials for things like deadlifts and pendlay rows. Heck, I'm even doing the 100 pushups thing, though I'm currently in the land of knee pushups. I'm not sure that I'm getting additional definition yet, but I feel like my muscles are changing. Also, I should use gloves. My left hand has a large blister from yesterday's free weight workout.

The only problem with exercise actually is that I haven't figured out how to knit and weight lift at the same time. Heck, I can barely jog and knit at the same time (though I haven't tried that since the disaster with the hippopotamasusus socks).

pass me the demon juice

It feels like forever since I posted. I've been busy.

I auditioned for The Sorcerer. I requested that they make me a man (with blond hair and a tan...), and voila I am a member of the Men's Chorus (Tenor 1).

We had a sing through on Monday, which proved that this was not music I had listened to incessantly.

We had rehearsal on Wednesday where the tenors rocked (no, tenors are not conceited) as we learned a good amount of the music including the song that implies that love potions are made of distilled essences from demons and hags. WTF. I know Gilbert was a man with issues, but if you ever wanted some additional evidence that he didn't think much of love, marriage or, well, people. Here, have a Sorcerer.

I also have picked up Music Studio Lite (if I really love it, then I will upgrade to the full version), which lets me plunk out my notes on the piano, so I can practice.

My sweater for Camp Loopy (project 3 baby!) needs to be done tonight. Thankfully I do not have any rehearsal and barely have to show functionality tonight. I have 8 buttons left to sew on. I also have grosgrain ribbon, but I haven't decided if I really want to add it yet. I was going to bring the sweater to knitting on Saturday and ask for advice then. So, expect pictures tonight of a finished cardigan. It isn't bad for a month of work at all.

a new favorite

 

It makes me giggle and it is stupidly catchy. I was wondering if it was too ironic if I forwarding this video to any of my friends and relatives.