Wicked

As I wrote recently, I had the good fortune to go and see the musical "Wicked" at the San Diego Civic theatre. I was excited to find out that the actress playing the wicked witch was Julia Murney, who I know from her work on the cast recording of another excellent show.

The show itself was terrific, but the added bonus of seeing an actress who I knew of and respected just made it that much more memorable.

And what is the downside to seeing an actress that I know off as a lead? Her solo cd that was on sale looked mighty appealing, and when I saw that it had "A Case of You," I knew that I had to have it. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but let's hope that that was fifteen bucks well spent.

Also, I cried like four times. Looks like AC's getting tired again, huh?

Oh..I am nearly all the way moved into my new apartment. I have just a few things at the old place that I still need to move, and then I will need to finish scrubbing the floors and scraping the walls clean. My family came down over the weekend and helped me both with moving and cleaning, although I suspect that they were generally disgusted at the manner to which I had become accustomed to living.

Oh well. It was great to see them, and I'm really thankful that I have a loving family who will drive five hours to help out their no-goodnik, blog-writing son.

Little Brown Dress

A lady, in an effort to combat commercialism, made a pact with herself to wear just one dress every day for a whole year. According to the pictures, she could wear different accessories, but she had to wear the dress as the main piece of clothing every day.

This is pretty cool.

EDIT: Technically, going from July 7 to July 7 is 366 days, which is one day longer than the average year, but I won't hold that against her. I'll just smugly mention it here because I am smug and I can therefore do nothing but be smug.

Tomorrow

My dad and my brother are coming down tonight to help me move tomorrow to beautiful La Jolla.

As most of tomorrow will be spent moving, I suspect that I will be unable to post. With this in mind, I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend.

Now, back to work for me!

A Community

The interesting thing about Godspell rehearsals is that the cast is starting to become a community. By that, I mean, that we are all starting to like and respect each other not just as actors, but as people.

Last night, we all met for dinner an hour before rehearsal. As we were eating, the director asked us a series of questions to help us get to better know one another. The questions were sometimes serious, but generally were along the lines of, "Would you rather lick all the bug remnants off of the grill of an eighteen wheeler after a cross country drive or suck on a frozen piece of dog poop for thirty seconds?"

The last question he posed was "Where do you see yourself in ten years?" This of course made everyone thoughtful, and was actually a very good note to end on, because it gave each of us a little glimpse into one another's souls.

It may just be a false understanding, but I think we all know each other a little better today than we did yesterday, and while I can't possibly have all of these people as good friends, it is good to know that they all seem to be pretty good people, and that my own investment in this group and theatre is well worth my time and effort not just for the show produced, but for the relationships developed.

This show and this whole experience are gonna rock.

Ken Jennings

Some of us remember a couple of years back when a young man from Utah by the name of Ken Jennings went on a wild knowledge spree by appearing on Jeopardy! more times than anyone else ever had. He went on to win around two and half million bucks from the game show.

However, recently on his blog (everybody has one now, don't they? I wonder if the Pope has one...that'd be cool) he went and blasted the show, and by blasted the show I mean that he kinda made fun of it a little.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes:

"...that...electric blue everywhere in your decor. Was that hip in 1984? Why do you want your show to remind me of my TV screen when there’s no tape in the VCR? "

"Finally, Alex. I know, I know, the old folks love him. Nobody knows he died in that fiery truck crash a few years back and was immediately replaced with the Trebektron 4000 (I see your engineers still can’t get the mustache right, by the way.)," and

"You know how Trebek likes to read foreign words in these thick, strained accents, thinking he’s being muy auténtico? He should continue to do this, but instead of delivering them himself, he needs to have a little ventriloquist’s dummy with a sombrero to pipe in with those words. (The sombrero can be switched with a beret for French words.)"

You can check out the post for yourselves here.

A Couple of Things

First, let it be known that I am approaching my 200th post. In honor of this, I have decided to give away some free schwag.

So, to the first person who comments on my 200th post, I will be giving a free, one of a kind, analyst catalyst t-shirt for your, probably, sleeping comfort. All I will need from you is your size and address.

I will not be announcing which post is my 200th, however, so y'all can either count 'em up, or else just comment madly until I say that one of you has won.

Second, for those of you who didn't see it in the comments yesterday, my friend thany posted a link to something that she had received from her friend Amy.

This link is terrific. This link will take you to a place in which all of the great questions of existence are answered; well, at least the ones that have to do with the question, "What if David Hasselhoff made a heavily visually edited music video about what it's like to be high?"

The answer to that question is right here.

An Open Letter to David Hasselhoff

Dear David,

It is being reported that you are set to star in a new musical based on your life. Tentatively and appropriately titled, "David Hasselhoff - The Musical," the show is set to open in Australia before it moves to the U.S.

First, why open it in Australia? Would it not make more sense to open it in Germany? I understand that you have a huge following there.

Second, will this musical feature songs that all of us are dying to hear? I know that I couldn't resist going if the show had songs like, "Don't Hassle the 'Hoff," and "Don't Touch Me, I'm the 'Hoff, D*** It!"

Third, who decided that of all the sad words of tongue or pen, that this in particular needed to be set to music? Why? Who exactly is sitting out there thinking, "You know what? I want, nay, need to know more about David Hasselhoff, and while I could peruse the vast library of information about him online, I would much prefer to see it in a three hour musicalization of his life, which would include a fifteen minute intermission so that I could calm down from all the 'Hoff-ness.' If there were a David Hasselhoff musical, I could die happy right now."

No one is thinking that, Mr. Hoff! Nor will anyone likely ever think that.

Except maybe the Germans. You're huge there.

David, I apologize if I have hurt your feelings by this post. If I have, I suggest running in slow motion down a beach, as that seems to have calmed you down in the past.

Love, your German fan,
AC

Again with the New Templates...

Although this template is maybe a little too "myspacey," I like it a bunch. Plus, it gives me the opportunity to have two columns, as opposed to my last one that just gave me one.

The biggest reason I wanted more than one column is because I wanted to add some more links. I will be adding these over the next couple of days.

Blah blah blah design nonsense blah blah blah.

Let me know what you think about the new design.

Snoopy!!!

To anyone who is reading this in the San Diego area, seats for tonight's showing of Snoopy!!! will be free for friends of the cast.

If you want, come on down to Coronado and pack the place out!

On Sainthood

I have received some bad press due to my saint picture appearing to be naked. In order to promote benevolence and whatnot, I have been clothed.

The Patron Saint

I have decided that I am going to become a large part of the Catholic faith, and this is why.

I believe that every time that I have gone to a Padres game, the Padres have lost. This has occurred multiple times. If you're like my friend Red Riding Hood, you would claim that I just don't go to enough games, and while that may or may not be true, I prefer to think about it in terms of the nearly miraculous ways the Padres manage to lose when I go see them.

Take yesterday's game for example. The Padres were leading 5-4 in the top of the ninth. All that they had to do was to get three outs, and the game was theirs. They even brought in their best closing pitcher, Trevor Hoffman, for the task. Even with all of this in their favor, the Phillies got two runs, and went on to win the game.

I declare this to be at least my third miracle. I would like to submit myself for canonization to the Catholic church as the patron saint for all teams that are not the Padres (which is kinda funny in and of itself as the Padres have the most "religious" name in baseball).

You may use this as my icon:

Why I Love My Job

Since I normally write about the opposite of the above subject line, I thought that I'd mix it up here a little bit and write about why I like my job.

This morning, my boss sent out an email stating that he had two Padres tickets for this afternoon's game that were thirteen or so rows behind home plate which he needed to get rid of. I instant messaged him, and the gf and I received the prize.

Ah flex hours, how do I love thee!

Plus, the Padres are playing the Phillies, which likely means that the Padres will win, as the Phillies are playing like a piano player with broken fingers. With any luck, the Padres will sweep the series, and I will have great seats to scope it out.

A Study in Contrasts

While the rehearsal process for Snoopy!!! had its occasional uncomfortable moments and flaws, the rehearsal process for Godspell is just a wonderful, wonderful experience.

Every person in Godspell is amazingly talented, and while this is also the case for Snoopy!!!, when you consider that Godspell has fifty people or so in its cast, it is all the more amazing.

Every time I go to rehearsal, I am left in awe of how well these people can sing and dance. While I am also a part of the dancing, the directors have wisely opted to stick me in the back of the stage where wandering eyes are less likely to see my robotic motions.

Both shows are wonderful, and I am terrifically blessed to be a part of them.

One thing worth noting, though, is that I am probably the fourth oldest person in the cast for Godspell, and I'm twenty four. That leaves forty-six people younger than me. One of the two women in the cast jokes with me that we are the grandparents of the show.

However, even with the age difference, though it is relatively small, everyone in the cast is really nice to me. As I left last night after rehearsal, no fewer than three people said "Good night, AC!" This is because I'm pompous, and I insist that they call me by my blogging alias.

I don't even know some of these people's names. I'm going to have to work on that. However, with the joy that this show is, this effort won't be a chore.

Work Email

I received an email on Friday that had this as a subject line:

"CANCELED" Annual Electric Shut Down

Canceled? Is that anything like cancelled? Or is this some new word that I must add to my lexicon?

Now, while I do pride myself on being a pretty good speller, I am not the best at spelling. The gf will often tell me about how I misspelled a word in a blog entry. But I cannot imagine sending an email to everyone in the company with a misspelled word.

I bet whoever the anonymous sender was that sent that email is kicking himself now, especially after he reads this delightfully witty and sardonic blog post. He's probably like, "Oh, that AC is so droll! If only I could spell better!"

Bathroom Update

As you may recall from this post, the bathroom on my floor at work stinks to high heaven. It stinks so badly, that for all I know, there are sliced up decomposing dead bodies shoved into the drain in the floor. It stinks so badly, that given the choice between the bathroom and a sharp poke into the eyeball, many people would have to seriously consider the options before making a decision. It stinks worse than than Tucker Max, who has got to be in a dead heat with Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden in the race for worst people on the planet.

So, you can imagine my surprise when nature called this morning, and when I answered, thinking that I would be overcome with a deluge of smells that would make a person with no gag reflex fall to the floor in a puddle of his or her own stomach juices, I found the area to have a sweet smell.

At first, I figured that someone had been in there who had been wearing a lot of cologne. However, as the sweet smell became more and more intense, I knew that somebody had somehow managed to de-funkify the bathroom. As the tears rolled down my face, either from the joy or the chemicals, and the Hallelujah chorus rang out in my mind, I thought to myself, what a wonderful world.

It really is the little things that life is all about.

Arrested Development

According to this website that I've never heard of or been to before and so, therefore, is the most reputable of sources, there are plans to bring Arrested Development to the big screen.

Oh man, I can't wait for that to happen. That show was so hilarious. I can't believe that it got cancelled.

An Open Letter to the Men Doing Road Work on Washington

Dear sirs,

It is with the deepest regret that I must inform you of something that I would think would be very obvious, but is apparently not.

Most people go to work between seven and nine in the morning. When you close down lanes on a road that everybody in El Cajon takes to go to work during that time period, you make us miserable. I suspect that at least eight out of ten of us would like to inflict bodily harm upon you because in addition to the injury of not being rich enough to not have to work, you are adding the insult of making our commute even more of a grind.

Why do you insist on working between these hours? Why not work earlier in the morning when fewer people are driving? It would even be cooler than when you are working in that the sun wouldn't be out yet.

I know that we all have bills to pay, and I appreciate that you are trying to make the street drivable. But why are you doing it between seven and nine?

If I ever find out where you live, I am going to park my car perpendicular to your driveway so that you cannot get out and go to work. I will claim that I am being paid for this, and I will tell you to take an alternate, longer route. When the shoe is on the other foot, we will see how you respond.

With love and devotion,
AC

I'm Not Scared to Fly, I'm Not that Naive

I got to go see Superman Returns on Monday night. I found it thoroughly entertaining, and I was riveted right out of my seat.

But then I started to wonder why it is that superheroes are such popular topics for entertainment. There are at least three franchises currently going with superheros being the central theme (Superman, Batman, Spiderman), and it seems that the ones that do just all right are the ones that are too peculiar for the average person (The Incredible Hulk and Hellboy) or just poorly made (Catwoman and Spawn).

But then I began to think about what it is about someone greater and unlike us that draws us in and demands our attention. Is it the spandex? Heaven knows I, much like the nutty professor, wish that I could wear spandex, all spandex.

However, I think what connects with us about superheroes is the fact that in a world where everything has been seen and done before (and most of us are cynical about it), the idea that someone or something is greater than us is an entirely foreign, and therefore engrossing, concept. Further, many of us have lives that are messed up in one way or another, and so the idea of perfection in anything, is an idea that leaves us spellbound.

In my mind, the fact that Superman Returns had such a strong opening weekend is a testament to the fact that we are looking for perfection, even if it comes from a man in blue tights.

We all want to have something to believe in. We all want to take the leap and fly.

The Secret Lives of Bloggers

As I was walking back to work from lunch, something occurred to me. I began to wonder about how many other people that I'm passing as I'm walking have their own blogs. Surely, at least one other person has one, due to the current popularity of the medium.

But then I wondered what the blogs would be about. Personal finance? Movies? Adult video reviews? I started to wonder whether or not I would want to read what they would write.

I then wondered, when I got back to my desk, how many other people were sitting at their desks dreaming about different lives, and then sharing those dreams via the internet.

I wonder how many bloggers are actually telling the truth with what they write.

It's an interesting thing, blogging is. All of the power of the written word, with no responsibilities or retribution.

Also, unrelatedly, today 7-11 stores give away free Slurpees. Everybody head on over and take them up on their free offer!

Fantasy Baseball

I enjoy watching sports. I am riveted by just about any football game or basketball game, and I'm getting closer to that level of excitement with soccer and baseball.

Baseball has a soft spot in my heart because it was the first sport that I played as a little kid. Unfortunately, at the apex of my liking baseball, the players all went on strike for more money, which I, even as a little kid, thought was ridiculous as many of them were getting paid millions of dollars a year.

However, living in San Diego, I have come to enjoy baseball again. The Padres don't have a lot of money because they don't perform consistantly well, and so no one's salary is more than a million or two a year. In fact, some of the best players are getting paid considerably less than that.

Having said all of that, when I had the opportunity to sign up for a fantasy baseball league earlier this year, I jumped on the opportunity. I thought that this would be a good opportunity to learn more about the game as well as be somewhat competitive in the process.

Boy was I wrong.

Every day I spend time looking at scores and seeing how players are doing, and every week I find myself getting more and more behind in the rankings.

As a side note, the fantasy league that I'm in matches the teams up head to head in a cumulative score of ten categories, with five having to do with batting and five having to do with pitching. So, if you get better statistics in all of the categories (i.e. more home runs and a better ERA) you would get ten points for wins and zero points for losses. If you do better than your opponent in nine categories, you get a score of nine wins and one loss, and so on.

Let's take last week for example. I was ranked 14th out of 15, and I was matched up against the 15th place team. I was excited to be matched up against the last place team. I thought that this would be a good week for me to make up some lost ground. I thought that this was my chance to really advance after to abysmally for the last couple of weeks.

I think that you all alreaedy know where I'm going with this. Last week, I finished with one win, eight losses, and one tie. To reitterate, I got blown away by the last place team. This put me in a distant last place in the league.

And to make it worse, I'm playing against a group of theatre people, who I assumed wouldn't be doing this well.

I guess that's what preconceived notions get you.

Lay's Death May Set Skilling Free

WASHINGTON -- Kenneth Lay's sudden death could prove to be an unexpected legal bequest to Jeffrey Skilling, his co-defendant in the landmark Enron Corp. fraud case.

Mr. Skilling's legal team will almost certainly invoke Mr. Lay's demise to try to reverse his own fraud and conspiracy conviction or demand a retrial, legal experts said yesterday.
That's because Mr. Lay's death Wednesday of an apparent heart attack effectively voids the entire case against the Enron founder, including the guilty verdict.

Mr. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive officer who is appealing his own conviction, could now argue that much of the evidence against him stems from a case that no longer exists, argued lawyer Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor and white collar crime specialist.

Here's the link.

Is this crazy or what? It's like anyone can go ahead and steal however much they want, and then get away with it.

How Offensive Would This Be?

I'm thinking about re-writing the musical Oklahoma, but renaming it Utah and having it be about the Church of Latter Day Saints early history.

This would include such songs as, "Oh, What a Beautiful Mormon," "Salt Lake City," and "I'm Just a Prophet Who Cain't Say No."

What do you think? How ticked off would people be?

The Juice

The floor that I work on has a fridge full of drinks that one can purloin for free throughout the day. The only cost is the walk over there, which has actually been a deciding factor against the trip on at least one occasion for yours truly, because I am just that lazy.

This fridge used to have juice, but for the past several months there has been a veritable cold liquified fruit famine on the land of the eighth floor, which leaves us with only sodas or water. We also have a little coffee nook that we can get coffee from, but sometimes you just want something cold, dangit!

So, I walked over to the fridge a few minutes ago in hopes of getting some water to quench my thirst. Sadly, there is often a big rush on water in the mornings (I assume most of the people I work with grew up in a desert, and so the water disappearing quickly is a case of nurture versus nature. I imagine it goes like this: "Guys! There's water in the fridge! We'll never be thirsty again! Let's take all of it! Give some to the camels!"), and such was the case this morning.

This left:
A) Coke,
B) Pepsi,
C) Diet Coke,
D) Diet Pepsi, and
E) A Thirsty AC.

Let me just tell you, you haven't really faced an existential struggle until you stand at the office fridge trying to figure out which of the above sodas is the most "breakfasty."

I eventually opted for Diet Pepsi, but the first two cans that I grabbed were filthy on top, as if someone in the kitchen who stocks the fridge on 8 had said, "I'll stock their fridge, but I'm going to crush these cans of Diet Pepsi in the dirt first, so that they will have to ingest the dirt in order to drink it. This will make up for the inequality of our salaries. Viva la revolucion!" So, just for the taste of it, I had to go with my number two choice, Diet Coke.

Let me say that drinking Diet Coke at ten in the morning really makes you feel like a man; specifically, it makes you feel like a man who drinks Diet Coke at ten in the morning.

North Korea

Just for the record, we attacked Iraq because we believed that they had weapons of mass destruction and we thought that they were an immediate threat. We found none, and we're still there, three years later.

So how can North Korea think that it can show the world that it has weapons of mass destruction, and not think that the crap is going to hit the fan? Although, the fact that they apparently have nuclear capabilities and have threatened to use them if anybody ever attacks them might give us pause before we shuffle off this mortal coil.

What we don't realize is that we're back living in the fear of the nineteen fifties. I wouldn't be surprised if they started telling school children to hide underneath their desks should a terrorist attack occur.

Here's to hoping I make it to thirty.

HSBC

I recently opened up an online savings account with HSBC.

Does anyone else utilize an online savings account? The gf has one with Capital One, and I have heard that ING Direct also offers amazing service and interest rates.

As one who is not necessarily intuned to saving (to put it lightly), I'm just curious how popular this particular method of saving is with people.

This is kind of a random post, I know.

Acting...Genius!

So Snoopy opened over the weekend to varied responses. For opening night and the Sunday Matinee, the audiences were pretty responsive, which is a nice thing for the actor as it gives us something to work with.

On Saturday night, however, the audience was as unresponsive as a sleeping catatonic monkey. This led the cast to work harder and harder, but it was to no avail. The cast just got more and more discouraged until we just wanted to go home.

However, the final stake in the heart occurred during the last song.

The song expresses a beautiful sentiment, and is a nice, albeit very slow, way to end the show. The basic premise is that if one person believes you, then there's bound to be second person out there who can believe in you, and then a third, and so on. Basically, it just counts up the number of people who believe in you.

For this song, I sing the first verse by myself. So I started out singing:

If just one person believes in you,
Deep enough, and strong enough,
Believes, in you,
Hard enough and long enough...

And this is where the confusion set in. The first four lines are essentially the same in every verse of the song, but the last two lines get changed, and for whatever reason, I have the hardest time remembering the end of each verse. So, sometimes I'll start singing the wrong lyrics, but then I'll realize what I've done and fix it before I get the whole song off track.

Unfortunately, on Saturday night, I was particularly sweaty. I was so sweaty, I started to think, "Man, I'm sweaty. I've got to figure out some way to dry myself off before I sing this sweet song because I'm sure that it is distracting to the audience." And so when it got to be time to sing about how two people believe in you, I finished the verse like this:

There's bound to be some
Other person who believes in
Making it a threesome,
Making it three.

At which point, I thought, "Oh man! How did I manage to forget the number two? How did I graduate from college and still apparently not understand that two comes after one?"

I was later told that apparently the whole cast's eyes got really big at that point, as they were all wondering how they could fix the monster that I had created.

The band was the one who ended up saving the day, however, as they just skipped ahead and went to the music that went along with those words, and we just finished the song.

In a final analysis, the audience was probably tuned out anyways, so it probably wasn't really noticable, but I'd like to think that I can do better than that. Talk about embarassing.

What a spectacular way to end an already discouraging show.