So, I managed to get out of bed yesterday long enough to check my email and make a to-do list that, of course, remains unfulfilled. Today is much of the same, though I managed to get up before noon. Sounds like a life of leisure, no? Well, I'm making up for some serious lost sleep! Actually, I'm feeling low today, listening to an old Ben Folds Five cd and looking for my next gig. Sigh. I'm missing the war. Not the war with Iraq. BFF fans will understand the reference. Oh, why do I still take it so hard when I don't get what I want? Sometimes it's hard to be a pisces....
What I should feel is bad about forgetting my cousin's birthday! It was a couple days ago, but I still have his birthday card sitting on my coffee table. Sorry, Mike. I hope that you had a good one.
I picked up the jaquard socks again. I may have the first one finished today or tomorrow. Hard to say. They look excellent, so I have the satisfaction of making a beautiful product, at least. I'm not terribly motivated towards knitting now.

There remains only a single weekend in the run of the show. There is a certain tristesse to the end of a production, but the last day is one of the best days on a project. There will be people that I miss, of course, and those that I hope to retain as friends once everything is finished. It's hard to predict how our cast will scatter. In any case, I've decided to burn a compilation cd of the music that I've played during sound check (aka the time when everyone sits around in the house and watches intense darts matches onstage). I got some very clever blank cds that are made to look like vinyl, with a fake label and groove, etc. I understand that it is a gimmick, but I still fell for it.

My long awaited order from Amazon.com arrived today. I'm listening to the Badly Drawn Boy cd as I write. The unfortunate thing is that the delivery man tried to slam the storm door on the package and broke the closer mechanism on the door. My mother is understandably upset, as the closer has an impossible bend in it and must be replaced.

I watched the Oscars with Lewis last night. I was shocked by the number of underdog winners. Adrien Brody was the only first-time nominee in his category, so his win was a bit of an upset. As was the best song award to Eminem. They usually give the award to the worst piece of schmaltz nominated. The biggest shock of the evening was the best director award for Roman Polanski. Given his legal/political situation, he seemed a quite unlikely winner. As for the ceremony itself, it seemed poorly produced, lagging in spots and featuring bad follow spot work in the number from Chicago. I missed the glitz of past ceremonies, with the hours of pre-show and red carpet. The idea of scaling back the ceremony because of the current military engagement is ridiculous. Don't people need escapism more during times of war and economic depression?

I have tomorrow completely unplanned. Perhaps I will begin my new book, though I feel that I should finish the one I am currently reading out of duty. I'm rereading one of my old favorites, Song of the Lark by Willa Cather. It's a carefully written story of a young swedish woman outgrowing her small frontier town and following her talents to Chicago. Cather shows great understanding in the character's struggles and growth in her artistic pursuits. That is perhaps not the best description of the book. Let's just say that it isn't as lugubrious as the novel of hers that I was made to read in high school. If you are interested in the bildungsroman, this is a nice example of that form.

The hat that I made for Lewis turned out too small. And I can't stand to tear out an entire project. I tried it on myself after weaving the ends in and discovered that it was *tight*. Sure enough, I had a gauge error: 4.5 stitches to the inch instead of 4. Maybe Lewis and I know someone with a small head to give the hat to. I dunno. I think that my natural gauge has tightened up again. When I first started knitting, my gauge was insanely tight, but it had relaxed a bit over the past year.
A few words about work:
I talked to the director on the phone today. I was a bit disappointed that he'd decided against having a group talk with the cast about inconsistencies in performance. I had a list. Instead, he opted to call them all individually. I don't know how effective that tack will be, but I've decided that my summer camp approach to stage management must come to an end. I've decided to give line notes again on Thursday, which I haven't done since we went into tech. It shows. I am concerned about the erratic performances, since all audiences deserve to see a quality show, regardless of number, night, etc. Several of the actors came to theatre later in life, so they didn't get the usual lectures in this vein in school. Argh. It's funny having to think about work after watching Waiting for Guffman last night. I'll go on a pure professionalism kick for a couple of days, post some notices backstage, give copious line notes, then slip back into the old routine. This company is just too casual.

I went and redeemed the Amazon.com gift certificate that my cousin sent me. He's a pretty cool person. I was a bit indecisive, so it took a while. I finally settled on Devil in the White City, a novel about a serial killer in Chicago during the Columbian Exposition. During the fair, there was a whole cluster of buildings along the lake shore, in the museum campus area. The Field Museum is the only surviving structure. I also ordered the new-ish album from Badly Drawn Boy. I'm a bit of a cd junkie at the moment.

I have no plans for today, which is a bit odd after a solid week of work and social engagements. I think that I'll knit and watch tv, maybe burn a couple of cds or minidiscs. I'm making a rolled brim hat for Lewis out of a spare skein of Noro Kureyon. I've knit about four inches so far. I also had the itch to make another hat out of the Schaefer Miss Priss left over from the hat that I gave to Matt on tour. Luckily, I have only one set of #8 dps, so I can't double up! That is a sure-fire method to ensure you don't finish any of your projects.

Wow. I went to my blog and found that the ad banner was actually related to the content of the site and not something that bothers me. I suppose if it really bothered me, I could shell out the cash to have the banner removed. If I were going to spend money on this site, I'd get the image hosting upgrade or the audioblog option. Alas, none of these things will come to pass in the near future.

My birthday has come and gone, leaving presents and a slight weariness. I've had a week of birthday, which was strangely tiring. Still, no complaints. It's good to be appreciated and get cake and presents. I took a cake to the show on Saturday, to celebrate. One of the actresses and I share a birthday. It was lovely. Joseph danced for us and had a discussion about kabuki, dance preservation, and the use of chorus in greek drama.

The weather has been quite condusive to good moods, though my uncle told me that it will be back in the forties again soon. Sad. Still, I can stay inside and listen to all my birthday cds and watch my new dvd of Waiting for Guffman. The dvd features more scene in the musical that weren't in the theatrical release. One of the actors told me that Christopher Guest has a new movie coming out soon, lampooning the folk music movement. I think that there was a small write-up of it in this month's Vanity Fair.

My grandmother gave me the Verve Remixed cd, which is highly excellent. I think I'll take it to work to play during sound check. I have to maintain my reputation of good taste. Or at least eclectic taste. I'm thinking of burning a mix cd of different things that I've played during sound check to give to the actors at closing. I like this group. It's strange to think that we only have two weeks left on the production.

My grandfather's sock is to the heel flap on the first sock. I haven't been motivated to knit during the show lately. The pattern in the yarn is quite beautiful, a vast improvement over the dk weight socks that I gave him last year. My knitting has improved since then. I also have to play knitting fairy for Lewis, who is just learning to knit. He's making a scarf. A scarf that needs to be ripped out again and restarted. Maybe this is the parallel to Penelope's weaving that isn't in the play.

I've been thinking of renaming this blog. A couple of weeks ago, I was explaining the whole project to one of the actors. Back when I was toying with the idea of a paper version. I explained the origin of the title, Reciprocity Failure. It's a technical term from photography, referring to the non linear response of film to light in longer exposures. Any metered exposure at a second or above must be doubled to compensate for diminished chemical response. Kind of dry, huh? Then I pondered the other meaning of respirocity failure in my life and wondered if the title wasn't a bit of a curse. But what else would I call it? My old favorite, Love for Three Oranges, sounds like a site for a starving hooker. Something to ponder.

I haven't blogged in ages. Since before my show opened. I was aware of this, in a little shame spiral over the fact, and tried to put together a paper version of Reciprocity Failure. That also withered on the vine, like all those minidiscs I meant to send Willie. So sorry.
Well, my show is open now. Has been for a few weeks. It's a bit routine, which is nice, but the actors still find ways to run off the tracks. That is often the case with live theatre. The production got a Jeff recommendation, which is a big deal. We may or may not be nominated for Jeff citations at the end of the season.
So I was riding high over the Jeff rec when three really crappy things happened to me, all in one day: I didn't get a job that I really wanted, I tore a large gash in the bottom of my foot (and still have no idea how, but there was plenty of blood), and my mother's cat pissed on my walkman. This is one of the few good things that I will say about Sony: it still works. I wiped it off and gave it a liberal spraying of Lysol. I told one of the actors in the cast this tale of woe and he merely said, "well, it's good to get it all over with in one day". A good attitude to take, I think. I'd taken it as one of the many reversals the universe metes out, but that may be piscean thinking. In any case, my foot healed and I got over not getting the job. And I've finally used the minidisc player (because the cat would never pee on cheap electronics) after weeks of aversion.
I finished knitting the green mountain spinnery sweater, most of it done in the booth during slow scenes. I haven't blocked it yet, which I should do, since I plan to make a second one out of All Seasons Cotton. It's important to establish the proper fit of the garment before starting on a second one from the same pattern. So, while I procrastinate on that, I am knitting socks. I finally finished the brown striped ones that I started while I was on tour, and knit one k3p1 ribbed sock in a gorgeous Koigu colorway. Koigu is very fine. Too fine, perhaps, for mindless theatre knitting. My current project is a pair of Jawoll jacquard socks for my grandfather's upcoming birthday. The lovely sisters at Arcadia Knitting helped me pick out the yarn. They have excellent taste. I think it's good to be back in a sock mode. They're more portable a project and people always seem impressed with the apparent complexity of the project.
My birthday is tomorrow. I'm having a week of birthday, because of all the crazy schedules involved. I celebrated it yesterday over lunch with my maternal grandparents. I'll celebrate it tomorrow-sort of-with my mother, then on Saturday with the cast. One of the actresses and I share a birthday, which seems an odd coincidence given how small the group is. And I have a TBA gathering with my Johnson relatives. I told my grandmother that I am fairly inflexible about moving my birthday celebration this year, due to my work schedule. I have only three nights off a week, and I need some rest after four nights of running the show. I begin these arrangements happily every year, then slowly fill with dread. It's such a pain in the ass dealing with large groups.
My mother mysteriously bought Margaret Cho's concert album, Notorious C.H.O. This is an unusual choice for her, but I doubt she knew how graphic the material was when she purchased it. Graphic makes it sound bad, which it's not. It's just something that I don't want to listen to with my mom, or imagine my mom listening to.
I'm looking for another gig, for after this one closes. I sent the Goodman an email, which was very promptly answered, but I am not holding my breath. And I think I may have blown my chance with Steppenwolf, but it's worth giving them a follow up call to my unanswered email. I am not as persistent as I perhaps should be, but I'm afraid of being pushy or desperate. And I can be both.