The Alchemist

So, after my scuba dive, my afternoon looked like this:

• 1:30 pm: Sitting in the Madame Walker Theatre in Indianapolis… waiting. The song “Wishes” is playing along with recorded bird calls. Interesting.
• 2:00 pm: Still waiting. “Wishes” has played probably 10 times in a closed loop and the birds are still calling.
• 2:30 pm: Sigh. “Wishes” (the only song in the loop!) has now played countless times and is, along with the birds, growing louder along with the noise of the crowd in the theatre. I’m reminded of various horror films…
• 3:00 pm: The noise (er… music and birds) has risen to a near deafening level and it’s pretty much all I can do to stop myself from muttering: “Please start. Please start. Please start.” over and over. Oh, merciful heaven, the noise is stopping! The show is about to start!

So, finally the curtain rises on the YMCA dance recital extravaganza featuring: Amy, Delenn, and Damara on stage together for the first time ever! Ok, not exactly featuring, but since they are the only ones that I’m interested in seeing there on stage, it might as well be!

Now Amy, of course, has a long history of dance instruction and has performed in many a recital onstage, but for Delenn and Damara this is their first. So it was fun watching Amy and the kids do their thing on stage. Admittedly, I’m not much for ballet, but then again, it really wasn’t much of a ballet - so that worked out well for me! In fact, Amy’s dance didn’t even resemble ballet as it was an upbeat kind of hip-hop thing. She wore a silver sequined dress that (she said) made her look like a giant disco ball. Personally, I know better so I have no comment. In any case, they had a neat little dance with a pretty cool move in the middle where all the adults made a circle and lifted the smaller girls on their interlocked arms while rotating the circle around. Speaking of disco balls… er… never mind.

Delenn was part of the “star dancers.” They did a dance to “When You Wish Upon a Star.” It was cute. The funny thing was at the end of the dance, Delenn got caught up in trying to see into the audience (complete with her hands shading her eyes from the glare of the spots) and completely missed that the rest of the group had already left the stage! One of the adults came back and hauled her offstage. And judging from the laughter in the audience, this was definitely one of the funnier moments of the show.

Damara’s group danced to “Butterfly Kisses.” Of course, with little kids her age, anything they do is cute… but you add in the song and it’s forlorn sort of lyrics and you have the makings of a bit of a sniffle-inducer. I didn’t actually succumb, but it was quite cute and I did even take a moment for reflection to wonder about the kinds of experiences that the girls have in store for me as they progress through their lives. It will be interesting, exhilarating… and trying, no doubt.

Well, it’s now about 4:30. But, truth is, despite my complaining it was worth the wait and the time spent. After all, this kind of thing only happens once… and then it is gone.

It’s official! I’ve now added a couple of specialties to my PADI Rescue Diver certification: Dry Suit and Nitrox. For those of you who don’t know what a dry suit is: It is unlike a Wet Suit in that your body literally stays dry as it traps air inside the suit instead of letting water against your skin. The upshot is that you can dive in much colder water (including even diving under ice). And, if you’re curious what Nitrox is: It merely means breathing an Oxygen / Nitrogen mix that is generally richer in Oxygen than standard air. Usually 32% or 36% oxygen as opposed to 20.9% in natural air. What does that mean to me? Increased no-decompression limits and shorter surface intervals. Or, in short: More dive time!

Last night was a big bash for Moongate, and it was an unqualified success! Literally at the last minute, we got all our build-out and decorations up and complete for the party (including the nearly 8′ tall moongate that I built and hung as our centerpiece). We also catered the party ourselves… so that added to the “excitement” of the final few hours before the party. And… all this was happening as a part of the Stutz Building’s annual “Artists Studio Tour” - a big artists party in the building! Wow, what a night. It was very fun, very cool, and I hope to have some pictures up soon!

Time compression is not good for the stress hormones, but sometimes things just go that way. I received a script this morning, reviewed it, memorized it as best I could without interfering with my morning at work, signed with an agent, and performed the scene for a audition tape. It was way over the top melodrama, too. Not the easiest thing for me. I like to portray reality rather than go over the top like that… but I think I did alright. Well, after all, I did play Snoopy in “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown”… and that was over the top. Sigh. Well, at least now I can relax… until the next audition! And hopefully I’ll be blogging about my first commercial booking soon!

A trailer for Serenity is now available and it looks great! Serenity is the latest creation from Joss Whedon: creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and one of the best sci fi TV series ever: Firefly — which provided the original story upon which this movie is based. This is truly my most anticipated movie of the year! More than Hichhiker’s Guide. More than Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Yeah, that much.

So seriously, if this trailer intrigues you at all go buy the Firefly series. You will not be disappointed, and it will give you something to watch while you wait for Serenity to be released to the theatres on September 30.

Having been a die-hard fan of MacGyver in the 80’s (which made me a life-long Richard Dean Anderson fan), this kind of thing still strikes me as really cool: Here’s an article on how to start a fire with little more than a can of coke and a chocolate bar. Give it a try… but let’s keep it outside, mkay?

From CNN:

In 80 clinical trials, Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King’s College London University, monitored the IQ of workers throughout the day.

He found the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points — the equivalent to missing a whole night’s sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.

Wilson said the IQ drop was even more significant in the men who took part in the tests.

Hulk not like email. Email make brain hurt. Hulk smash puny computer!

You must read this article from Business Week. Yup, as they say, “Blogs Will Change Your Business.” And after reading this, you will understand why.

Ok, this is far too cool to not mention. I’ve not exactly been a fan of Nine Inch Nails, but that just means my opinion of Trent Reznor and his band has just gone up nearly infinitely. Trent has just released one of their new songs (”The Hand That Feeds”) as a GarageBand project downloadable here for free. (Well, yeah, you have to register, sorry.)

Anyway, I’ll forgive you for not understanding what that means as most readers don’t (yet) own a Mac (though you should) and, thus, can’t possibly have GarageBand (though you should), but imagine that you can take this song, play individual tracks, replace tracks, remix the tracks, even rearrange the whole thing. Image what it’s like to be their producer. Imagine what you could learn about professional song arrangements just by studying the track arrangement. Imagine replacing Trent’s voice with your own rendition. Or take out the bass guitar so you can practice along with the song. The possibilities are endless…

Anyway. I salute NIN! You guys really rock. Thanks, Trent. Lead the way!

…I imagine I’d probably look a lot like this:

(If you’re feeling left out, you too can use the South Park Studio to make your own South Park character…)