Destination Unknown

The Old Homestead

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:07:39 -0600

I'm visiting the town I graduated high school in, Springfield, Missouri. The place has changed, as is to be expected after being gone for several years, but not that much. Still home of Bass Pro Shops and the Assemblies of God and - it is reported - cashew chicken.

And yet, coming home seems like it should be momentous, but it's really not.

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Restaurant: Queen of Sheba, Oklahoma City, OK

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:39:33 -0600

Big thanks to Queen of Fractal Beauty for being our gracious host in Oklahoma City tonight and introducing Strix and I to Queen of Sheba, a terrific Ethiopian restaurant. Ethiopian is a type of cuisine that you can't get just anywhere, and Strix and I hadn't had any of it since our last visit to the D.C. area seven years ago. For those of you who haven't had it, it's a lot like Indian food in the preparation and seasoning, and it's served with a spongy bread that's used to eat the food in lieu of utensils. The bread is really good, and is a big part of what makes it special, as is the honey wine called tej.

The service was a little spotty, but the food was great, and of course so was the company!

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Life QotW: Work It Out

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:18:38 -0600

How do you stay in shape?

Several ways, most notably my skeletal system, followed by the presence of skin, and on a more minute scale, the surface membrane tension of my cells.

No Bones About It

An artist's rendition of what I would look like without a skeleton. Okay, you got me, that's what I look like now.

I'm in Albuquerque for the night. Night.

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Travel Love and Hate

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:32:12 -0600

Strix and I are busy packing. We're heading out of town tomorrow evening to visit family in Missouri and so Strix can attend her graduation at Missouri State. I both love and hate long drives and vacations.

I love:

the road
eating at new restaurants
sleeping in a room where someone else will change the sheets, etc.
seeing family and friends
sleeping in
quality time with Strix

I hate:

knowing that every day I'm away from work, my in-box is getting that much deeper
knowing that we are choosing a cross-country road trip when the gas prices are higher than they've ever been
leaving my two cats at home with a stranger watching them for us
the weight I will gain from all of the eating out we're going to do

Okay, more love items than hate items, so I guess I'll go out on a limb and say it's a good thing.

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Movie: Brick

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:59:19 -0600

Brick

This is an outstanding movie. The dialogue is quick, crisp, and intelligent, and is thoroughly rooted in the film noire, hardboiled-detective tradition. The fact that it's set in a high school seems to be incidental at first, and I thought that with a few change it could have been cast with adults in the 40's.

As the story continues and the viewer has buy-in, more and more humor is also included, contrasting the seriousness of the topics and the dialogue with how seriously the characters take themselves.

This is one I need to own.

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Movie: Soylent Green

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:23:40 -0600

Soylent Green

Overacting, really bad stage fighting, and laughable costumes (like anything made in 1973), but you gotta love it. I borrowed this from a friend because I hadn't seen it in years and Strix had never seen it. Watching it again makes me want to read the book it was (loosely) based on, Make Room Make Room, by Harry Harrison.

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Move: Backdraft

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:13:54 -0600

Backdraft

Stina had never seen this, so we got it from Netflix a while back, and I'm just now getting around to blogging it. It came out in '91, and I saw it probably not to long after it first came out. It stands the test of time, and while I think it's fairly weak on plot, the characters make up for what's lacking. The special effects are still amazing, even after all these years. I mean, who doesn't like watching fire?

Okay, just me? I guess I'm a pyro at heart.

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The Foreigner: Technical Problems

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:05:35 -0600

The Foreigner has a scene in it where a guy in a Ku Klux Klan costume has to "melt" into the floor. This is done by lowering him into the floor through a trap door while his sheets stay above. The stage of the theater where TEA performs doesn't have a trap door.

Other than building a platform on the stage and thus raising the performance area another four feet or so, does anyone have any ideas of what we could do instead?

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Playbill Committee

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:04:43 -0600

The theater group I've been involved in is now having weekly script readings to pick its shows for the 2009-2010 season. Yes, they pick them out a year and a half ahead. They do this because they operate partly off of a grant from Conoco-Phillips, and they have to have their shows planned before the grant application deadline, which is in June.

Basically, we all get together, pick parts, and read through a play that one of the members recommended. Tonight we read A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller. It's hard to say how a man who was having sex with Marilyn Monroe could write something so depressing. Depressing as it is, however, it's a good play. We'll see if it makes the final list.

Next week, we're reading The Foreigner. I recommended it. The play is almost overdone, but it hasn't played here for about ten years, and it's screamingly funny.

And, on a completely unrelated note...

Please...

Duck Duck Goose

Don't leave personally owned geese.

Seriously.

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The Show Went On

nobody@vox.com(Paxton) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:42:18 -0600

Last night was closing night. Here's one of the articles that came out opening weekend. I'm not sure how long the link will be good.

There was a review Saturday that said we had them "rolling in the aisles." :->

Something I found surprising was the difference in audiences. The first two nights were great. The Sunday matinee I thought someone needed to go out into the audience and check their pulses. The next weekend, Friday was our best show yet, with about 260 people in the audience and an outstanding response to each joke, then last night, closing night, we were back to performing for a room full of crash test dummies. Go figure.

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