Bonum Verbum

It's odd. It seems like every late-winter for the past three or four years, I've found myself in spiritual darkness: depressed, struggling to hope, struggling to trust, susceptable to the curl-up-in-your-room-and-don't-come-out coping strategies. Sometimes it's because of personal struggles, sometimes because of things happening around me . . . but it always comes to a fore during Lent. I keep the Season, so to speak, but never in a very distinctive way, so I'm wondering why Satan seems to enjoy knocking little-old-foot-soldier-me out of commission anyway. Darnit, I really don't see myself as that much of a threat, especially these days.

Is it just 'cause he's bitter?

Anyway - while curled up on my bed the other day, crying my eyes out, I lit upon this verse, which I had never read before and which I proceeded to write large upon my forearm and memorise:

Rejoice not over me, o mine enemy,
When I fall, I shall rise;
Though I sit in darkness,
The LORD will be a Light to me. Micah 7:8

A goodly life-verse for those of us prone to darker melancholies. Late-winter will wane. Spring IS coming, and with it . . . RESURRECTION!!!

Ah, the Joys of Tech Week

So, 12 Angry Men opens tomorrow, and I am one of it's official Light Techs.

Which basically means I show up, sweep the stage, mop the stage, channel-check (push a series of buttons that cycle through the different light-chanells and pretend to know what I'm doing), then sit with an important-looking head-set on in the Tech Cave and push a button 34 times over our two-hour show :-)

There have been no ladders involved, so, I'm happy (though I did get to push my boss around on one while he balaced thirty-feet above my head, focusing lights). I did get a piece of wooden-riser embedded in my thumb, which I've been wearing around like a badge of honor for a few days.

There are sooo many things I know now that I wish I'd used back in my ET days!! How to adjust a source-4. How to put together a cue-script. How to organize and call cues. What the function of a Stage-Manager actually is (in ET, the Director actually did most of the things that a Stage Manager handles in professional theater. Think of all the work I could've delegated if I'd only known!!).

I love theater. Wish it paid ;-)

Fly, little Eaglet!

Saturday was my brother's official Eagle Scout Court of Honor. He "graduated" to Eagle with five other guys, all from his troop, which makes @ 10-12 scouts from Troop 140 that have made Eagle in the last few years (to put that in perspective: only 2% of Boy Scouts ever reach Eagle rank, so, for those 12, 588 young men didn't make it).

There was something so good, so decent and . . . healthy about the whole thing. Before the "pinning" ceremony, the other Troop 140 scouts - the little guys who haven't even made Life Scout yet - gathered onstage and went through this thing where they all read from a card about the significance of the Scout Oath (a Scout is brave, reverent, clean, obedient, etc.). Then each of the new Eagles came up and honored both of their parents and a mentor with a special pin, before they themselves received their new neckercheifs and Eagle badges. Each of these guys had to finish a substantial community service project in order to gain their rank, which they must organize, fund-raise for, and execute with the help of their troop - so, not only did they finish their own projects, they also had to help out on several other Eagle projects in the mean time. We watched slideshow after slideshow of these six guys organizing charity food-pantries, regrouting grimy women's-shelter showers, pouring cement, re-planting gardens, as well as other boy stuff like climbing mountains, filming backyard war-movies, throwing tomahawks and setting things on fire :-)

I really hope the things they learned will stay with them, that they'll remember them when it counts. Watching the ceremony gave me just a teensy little ray of hope for the future of mankind. Hurrah for the Boy Scouts, long may they be gender-segregated!

Academic Bureucracy Strikes Again (and/or "Bad Times at LBCC - Everybody Start Panicking")

So, two of my favorite classes just got cut b/c of budget contraints. No more Theater Management or Stage Lighting. :-( Which means I need to find another 3 unit class to take. Should I go for the practical, and take a Microsoft Office class? Or something more fun and take Intro to Film?

I shouldn't despair too much: I'm still planning on crewing for the shows this semester, no matter what. So, I'll keep you updated on the ladder situation :-)

Ladders (or lack of) and Sword-Wrist

So, yes, focusing a stage-light is not that complicated, but it does involve techie things like knobs and wrenches and knowing which way is left. Luckily, stage-light-pipes lower down to the stage, so no ladders were involved today. They will be next week, I'm told. Oh dear.

In other knews: rapiers are hard on the wrist. We practiced flourishes in Stage-Fighting yesterday for an hour. I'm sure I looked like D'Artagnan's incompetant little sister most of the time. Oh well. Here's to ET stage-fights and not knowing what your doing!!

With a Shake of the Head

So, Random (African-American) Stranger walked up to me in the library:

RAAS: May I tell you something?

Me: Hmmm?

RAAS: You are so beautiful.

Me: [blank stare/dazed smile]

RAAS: Are you part black?

Me: [blanker stare/more dazed smile/shake of the head] I don't know.

RAAS: Do you know why I ask that?

Me: No.

RAAS: [Makes complimentary but innappropriate comment about certain "attributes" that I have that my "white sisters," er, lack] . . . If you have Jenny Craig's telephone number lying around you need to tear it up and throw it in the trash!!"

Then Random African-American Stranger disappears as quickly as he came [note: this guy had to have been in his thirties or forties, at least].

I'm not making this up.

I don't know whether to feel complimented or horrified . . .

Happy First Day of the Obamera!

The great thing about our new president: you can do so many interesting things with his last name. So many helpful vowels. No, I won't be writing any adoring sonnets any time soon.

So, yeah, woke up this morning all excited, but Santobama Claus hadn't come in the night: no hundred dollar bill under my pillow. So much for Change ;-P

Anyway, trying out blogspot for a little while (yet another refugee from Xangadom - oh well). We'll see how it works, and if I ever even show up with 15 theater-related credits at good ole' LBCC. Thursday we're getting up on ladders in Stage-Lighting class.

I'll be sure to tell you if I'm still alive afterward ;-P